@ the Beach

STORM COLLAGE

2009-11-14T14:35:00.003-05:00

VENTNOR BEACH TODAY

Not much left of the AISPP dune system south of the brand new Ventnor Pier. No big loss here as much of what was left of it was already heavily eroded anyway. Very little damage of any kind from this storm, at least along the beach. The usual flooding along the back bays. The pols of course are in full panic mode like this was a major disaster. They'll use it though to do as they do, which is primarily weasel money from the Gov't for more sand and to make themselves look like their doing something. All in all the BIG Nor'easter was a non-event!

BEACH REPORT

2009-11-14T08:43:00.007-05:00

AC PRESS Pic. today of Harvey Cedars Beach Erosion
It's all about the BIG NOV. Nor'easter. It's finally ( sigh) moving out to sea as I write this. It's definitely one for the record books and without a doubt the worst storm of this decade so far. My guess is were in for a fall and winter of these storms as they usually run in a pattern. I can remember falls and winters where we literally had over 20 of these storms in a row, one almost every week. As we know a moderately powerful El Nino is happening in the Pacific this year and it's definitely influencing events in the Atlantic. As is the case in El Nino yrs. the Atlantic Hurricane season was somewhat curtailed with a fewer then normal number of Hurricanes and tropical storms. However, were seeing instead an increase in other types of storms as big Pacific systems move across the country.

A storm update is at the title link.

TINY TIM's Revisionist History MEDIA TOUR continues..

In other beach news. Ex. Ventnor mayor Tiny Timothy Kreischer unable to get over his recent electoral thumping ( he came in 6th in a field of 6 last yr.) continues to do his version of a local history tour, complete with radio interviews on his favorite hard rt. wing nut local radio show ( Don Hurley ) and in the local fish wrappers the AC Press and the Downbeach Current. Of course history according to Tim has little to do with actual history and tons to do with Tim trying to rehabilitate himself politically. It must have really hurt to have come in last after being mayor for over 14 yrs. OUCH! Get over it Tim you still have a wonderful full time job at Harrahs and plenty of clueless friends. Life's good dude, move on , maybe even go fishing.

HEIGHT OF THE DUNE..blah blah blah

2009-11-13T12:56:00.002-05:00

Below is a re-print of a letter to the editor published to day in the AC PRESS from Ventnor's EX-Mayor Tim Kreischer.

When I was mayor of Ventnor, I was able to negotiate with the Department of Environmental Protection to relocate a dune constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers. It was relocated from in front of the Boardwalk to behind the 'walk and closer to the sea wall. This may be the only time a municipality was able to alter a dune. It was accomplished as a result of a reasonable DEP commissioner, Bradley Campbell, some tough negotiating and providing the DEP a rational basis (public safety) to modify their policies.

I would like to provide a rational basis for the DEP to allow Atlantic City to trim the dunes down to their original height as constructed by the Army Corps.

The height of a dune is based on the value of the property the dune protects. Well, the Sands Casino Hotel is now an empty dirt lot, the Tropicana Casino and Resort's value has fallen from nearly $1 billion to $250 million, and at The Pier Shops at Caesars, the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort and Resorts Atlantic City, the owners and finance companies are fighting not over control, but who will be stuck with the properties. There is no question that property values have fallen drastically since the dunes were constructed. This should be a strong basis for lowering the dune, as it is not protecting property that is as valuable as before.

Times are tough in Atlantic City. Visitors, dollars and jobs are being siphoned off by our competitors. The competition can't compete with our ocean and beach views from the Boardwalk. We need to accentuate our advantages and not hide them.

TIM KREISCHER

Ventnor

TINY EX-MAYOR TIM & THE TRUTH

First of all the so called Height of the AISPP's dunes are not calculated according to the evaluation of anything other then the Army and NJDEP's wet dreams, so that's total B.S. In fact almost everything this lying blow hard has been spewing all over town lately is nothing but his own self-serving phony re-constructions of secret meetings he held with his political pals @ the NJDEP back in spring 2004. The Ex-Mayor is still so upset that he's no longer Ventnor's leader for life he's decided to create this fantasy about how he single handily negotiated the tear down of those 20 blocks of the AISPP dunes in May of 2004. It's all a bunch of crap that he's made up folks. The truth is nobody will ever know exactly went on in those secret meetings because he and his co-conspirators in the NJDEP made damn sure those meetings weren't held under the auspices of NJ's so called "Sunshine Law." Kreischer and the NJDEP made sure only 3 people attended these meetings , so since NO transcripts exist of them we have Kreischer out here telling us he's some kind of great negotiator, as if many of us don't know that's nonsense.

THE FACTS:

What we do know is that Tim and the boyz were political allies of the NJDEP and also that Tim and the Commission had never signed the AISPP Project agreement back in 2003 even after he ran a special election in fall 2002 supposedly giving the voters in Ventnor the say over whether to join or not. That turned out to be BS as well. As I've explained here on more then one occasion that election was NEVER about allowing the voters to say yes or no to the "Dunes Project." It was only about rescinding a law that the local anti-dune group D.U.N.E. had collected thousands of petitions to have made into law allowing such an election. Tim hated this law but signed it after the 2001 9/11 attacks and then after it appeared America would survive he reversed his pledge not to run an election and he ran one to rescind this law! The Public though was hoodwinked into thinking the election was really a public referendum on the Dunes Project. D.U.N.E. lost that election & the public I'm sure thought that Tim and the boyz signed the Army/NJDEP 50 yr. Project agreement. NEVER happened. So, in spring 2004 when that Dune washed away Tim and his pals had LOL a negotiation with Bradley Campbell ( the then head of NJDEP) and I'd loved to have been a fly on the wall in those meetings. Remember, Tim and the boyz haven't agreed to join yet and they owed NJ 800K! Nobody knew any of this and you can imagine the shit storm that would have happened had the full details of this deception been made public. The AC press ever Tim, the NJDEP and Dune Projects in general's dutiful ally even played along and turned Tim into a local folk hero making it appear as though he was standing 4 sq. for Ventnor against the evil NJDEP. What a load of crapola! Tim was more or less holding the 800K and the unsigned contract over Bradley's head and threatening who knows what? Plus, at the same time these guys were using all of this as an excuse to weasel even more cash from the taxpayers in an elaborate revenge & extortion scenario involving their scapegoat for all of this MARGATE! This little conspiracy was carried out once again @ considerable taxpayer expense to the pt. where Stevens Institute of NJ produced detailed engineering drawings of the new mid-Island groin planned for Ventnor's Swarthmore ave. This entire kabuki dance was played out daily in the AC Press back in 2005-06 and 07 and Tim and his pals were threatening to build this monster right up till the 2008 election. As we now know Tim and his gang loved political revenge and even we are told celebrated defeats of enemies with all kinds of bizarre and sometimes violent rituals.

In summary, Kreischer had better STFU about this whole tawdry affair or eventually even the slow to pick up on the truth local print media is going to start asking him real questions and who knows maybe they'll even start asking others about this incident? Oh, and as for X-Mayor Tim's sudden conversion over the importance and centrality of "THE VIEW" for the local economy. To late Tim you and your stupid arrogant pals have already done enough damage. That your so clueless that you think you can now lecture the rest of us on this topic is really actually no surprise.

Posted in Letters on Friday, November 13, 2009 2:10 am

2009-11-12T20:33:00.002-05:00

GALE WARNING!!

Major Nor'easter blowing as I write this ! 50+ kt. winds are blowing with huge surf and back bay flooding! This is the first major NE I remember since the early 90's. We've already had a couple good sized Northeaster this fall with major beach erosion. If Ventnor's lucky a good sized section of the southern end of the AISPP project dune will wash away in this storm. Maybe, someone in Ventnor will finally realize the steps placed on the ocean facing sections of the boardwalk back in 2003/4 during the AISPP start should have been removed yrs. ago. Eventually, these steps are going to be washed away. This is a slow moving storm that like the 91' Halloween storm has been built from the remnants of a Hurricane ( IDA) and like that storm it's been blocked by a stationary high pressure zone over Maine. Coastal NJ is getting a real pounding at this hr.!!

MORE ON THE HEALTH CARE FRONT

2009-11-12T13:16:00.001-05:00

The Corporate Empire Strikes Back: Corporate Dems Seek "Alternative" To Public Option. Again.

by Hunter

Thu Nov 12, 2009 at 11:10:03 AM EST

The Corporate Empire Strikes Back: Corporate Dems Seek "Alternative" To Public Option. Again.

Yesterday we learned:

Even as Senate Majority Leader Reid seeks votes for a healthcare bill with a public option that states can opt-out of, Reid has allowed Sen. Thomas Carper, D-Del., to work on what one aide called a "Plan B" if Reid cannot line up 60 votes for cloture.

The "Plan B" Carper has come up with is not a co-op, and not a trigger, but a co-op trigger. A co-op that wouldn't even happen unless it was triggered. Which it wouldn't be, because "triggers" are the legislative equivalent of sternly worded letters; they don't happen. That's the brilliant plan being dreamed up because not only is the public option too controversial, not only is an option with opt-out controversial, not only are the ineffective and nonsensical "co-ops" too controversial, and not only was a trigger itself much too scary, but the only thing Carper and some other Dems think would be milquetoast enough for the Senate to stomach would be a trigger that does nothing attached to a co-op that will do nothing.

Ahem.

Sen. ranking, percentage corporate PAC money raised in relation to individual contributions (viafivethirtyeight.com.)

So, let me get this straight: we've got Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), of all people, coming up with an "alternative" to the currently proposed opt-out public option. We're going to be listening to the earnest proposals from Tom Carper, the senator from the great state of corporate-magic-fairyland Delaware, a state that seems at this point only to exist in order to allow America's largest corporations to circumvent the corporate laws and taxes of other states.

Tom Carper, who is the number one recipient of corporate cash vs. individual contributions of allDemocrats in the Senate, with about 44 percent of every one of his campaign dollars coming from corporate PACs -- a feat that required him out-grubbing all four of the other top corporate go-to Democrats on that list, Blanche Lincoln, Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson and Max Baucus, all of whom have already gone to great and much-publicized lengths to make sure that any bill passed by the Senate is as much of a cash cow for private insurance companies as possible, and who have become regular fixtures in the attempt to gut, water down, or carve away anything that might be the slightest bit inconvenient for those companies.

That Tom Carper.

With all due respect -- which is to say, next to zero -- you have got to be kidding me. After months of knock-down, drag-out bullshit from the most mealymouthed, weak-kneed, PAC-funded, cowardly, out of touch, let-them-eat-cakeish, preemptively-surrendering, fake-bipartisaney corporate-humping voter-dodging cash-grubbing incompetents of the Senate, they've left it to the top Democratic Sen. GimmeCash McCorporatePants of all to come up with one more last-ditch effort to make sure nothing, absolutely nothing of substance might remain in this bill that would stand in the way of insurance companies continuing to gouge both Americans and the government for every last penny they've got.

While all the while ensuring that the number of uninsured Americans stay high (unless we're willing to simply funnel government cash, with few strings attached, to the very insurance companies causing the problems), and that heath care costs will continue to be irrational and unsustainable. You know, as long as they don't reach some future imaginary level of too irrational, or too unsustainable, like most of us think we reached decades ago but which the Senate still can't quite be persuaded that they should give a shit about.

You know, seriously -- we all know that a sizable chunk of Democrats in the Senate don't want to fix America's healthcare problem. We all know perfectly well that they consider it a threat to their corporate cash, and that in the end they don't give a flying damn about fixing anything about the fiasco that passes for healthcare in this country, so long as they can do some bare, pissant substanceless nothing that can allow them to write up a nice victory message on their next voter pamphlet and get the hell on with their day.

But by far the thing that is most infuriating is that the Democrats don't even try to hide it very much. This whole time the biggest political hurdle to healthcare reform hasn't been the Republicans -- a dead party that nobody expects to support or have ideas about or even understand anything, since they're too busy locked in an internal masturbatory struggle to see who can paint the most pleasingly scary conspiracy theories and alternate realities with which to titillate the dumbest of the dumb, back home -- no, the hurdle has been this phalanx of ten or so absolutely whorish corporate Dems, leaders who have never found a damn thing on any issue, anywhere worth doing unless it either weakens the government against the corporations they represent or funnel cash by the billions to those self-same companies.

Every bill they support seems hand-tailored by lobbyists. Every position they take can be guessed not by applying moronic ideological labels like "conservative" or "liberal" or "Blue Dog" or whatever, but by just looking at what legislative choice would put more cash into the pockets of whatever company has hired the most lobbyists.

Every fucking name that has come up as being "against" the public option has been one of these unwaveringly corporate whore-Dems. Every damn time. What possible sense it makes to have all of the top corporate cash-sucking Dems in positions of supposedly "watchdogging" the corporations that feed them -- well, it's not an irrational act or a conspiracy, it's just a natural product of our Fine Upstanding Senate Traditions, and of our own Democrats, like the Republicans, very much wanting to be as crooked and corrupt and corporatist and money-grubbing as their voters will possibly let them squeak by with being, and presuming that as long as they're slightly less corrupted, slightly lesscrooked than the worst of the other party, they'll be fine, what the hell -- serve the drinks and pass the bills.

A very large chunk of our greatest-deliberative-body Democrats don't want to pass healthcare reform, they want to kill it. Our leadership, frankly, doesn't seem to give a rat's ass either way, and all parties involved think we have the intelligence of doorstops, but I think what we would all really, really like most of all, in this ongoing and thoroughly asinine "debate", is if this vaunted national leadership of ours would quit trying to blow smoke up our ass and tell us we're hickory-smoked.

Fine, we get it, senators: you're corporate whores, money-grubbing professional campaigners who don't have the slightest interest in actually solving this problem. You seek any avenue to avoid the obvious, most cost-effective option, the one that will insure the most people and do the most to control costs, itself a mealy compromise offered to avoid plans that would work even better -- but which none of the offending companies offering up their opinions and lobbyists for this debate would possibly tolerate.

But good God, could the Dems at least do us the decency of putting up a person or two "negotiating" for this legislation who isn't among the top single-digit cash-grabbers from the very industries they're supposed to be policing?

HISTORIC STORM BATTERS EAST COAST!

2009-11-12T08:33:00.004-05:00

Batten down the hatches as the old sailors used to say! The Mid-Atlantic and North east coast is getting battered by a long duration Nor'easter with many of the same features as the so called Perfect storm of Halloween 1991. Tidal surges over 8 ft. are expected and possible extreme back bay flooding on many barrier Islands and beaches. If you live near the bay move your car now! Severe beach erosion will also be happening as the storm will persist through to Sat.

We can also expect local officials to simultaneously ask for millions in Fed. relief to buy more sand and in the next breathe claims by these same people that THEY saved us with beach Replenishment. ( these windy claims and requests just go along with these storms anymore.)

READ more about this developing storm @ the title link!!

NO H1N1 Vaccine? Wall St. has it though.

2009-11-11T20:18:00.002-05:00

Can't get an H1N1 ( Swine flu shot?) Maybe it's because Wall st. has all the vaccine? Read @ the title link all about this latest Wall st. outrage.

AC PRESS - DUNE ARTICLE

2009-11-09T02:10:00.000-05:00

TYPICAL AC PRESS DUNE ARTICLE

@ the title link is an article that headlined yesterday's AC Press. It's only interesting because of how it's so almost totally one sided. The Press never allows any other view on this topic but the official State and Army view and this article is no different. I was however surprised to hear that the Boardwalk Merchant group has hired Prof. Stuart Farrell from Stockton as a consultant. Don't these folks know that Farrell is totally for Dunes a 100 f. high? I bet he's loving how ignorant these chumps are. Eventually the Merchants are going to come to realize you cannot glad hand these pricks. The NJDEP and The Army don't give a damn about the boardwalk or AC.

WHY HE VOTED NO!

2009-11-08T13:48:00.002-05:00

Published on Sunday, November 8, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Why I Voted NO

by Dennis Kucinich

We have been led to believe that we must make our health care choices only within the current structure of a predatory, for-profit insurance system which makes money not providing health care. We cannot fault the insurance companies for being what they are. But we can fault legislation in which the government incentivizes the perpetuation, indeed the strengthening, of the for-profit health insurance industry, the very source of the problem. When health insurance companies deny care or raise premiums, co-pays and deductibles they are simply trying to make a profit. That is our system.

Clearly, the insurance companies are the problem, not the solution. They are driving up the cost of health care. Because their massive bureaucracy avoids paying bills so effectively, they force hospitals and doctors to hire their own bureaucracy to fight the insurance companies to avoid getting stuck with an unfair share of the bills. The result is that since 1970, the number of physicians has increased by less than 200% while the number of administrators has increased by 3000%. It is no wonder that 31 cents of every health care dollar goes to administrative costs, not toward providing care. Even those with insurance are at risk. The single biggest cause of bankruptcies in the U.S. is health insurance policies that do not cover you when you get sick.

But instead of working toward the elimination of for-profit insurance, H.R. 3962 would put the government in the role of accelerating the privatization of health care. In H.R. 3962, the government is requiring at least 21 million Americans to buy private health insurance from the very industry that causes costs to be so high, which will result in at least $70 billion in new annual revenue, much of which is coming from taxpayers. This inevitably will lead to even more costs, more subsidies, and higher profits for insurance companies - a bailout under a blue cross.

By incurring only a new requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, a weakened public option, and a few other important but limited concessions, the health insurance companies are getting quite a deal. The Center for American Progress' blog, Think Progress, states, 'since the President signaled that he is backing away from the public option, health insurance stocks have been on the rise.' Similarly, healthcare stocks rallied when Senator Max Baucus introduced a bill without a public option. Bloomberg reports that Curtis Lane, a prominent health industry investor, predicted a few weeks ago that 'money will start flowing in again' to health insurance stocks after passage of the legislation. Investors.com last month reported that pharmacy benefit managers share prices are hitting all-time highs, with the only industry worry that the Administration would reverse its decision not to negotiate Medicare Part D drug prices, leaving in place a Bush Administration policy.

During the debate, when the interests of insurance companies would have been effectively challenged, that challenge was turned back. The 'robust public option' which would have offered a modicum of competition to a monopolistic industry was whittled down from an initial potential enrollment of 129 million Americans to 6 million. An amendment which would have protected the rights of states to pursue single-payer health care was stripped from the bill at the request of the Administration. Looking ahead, we cringe at the prospect of even greater favors for insurance companies.

Recent rises in unemployment indicate a widening separation between the finance economy and the real economy. The finance economy considers the health of Wall Street, rising corporate profits, and banks' hoarding of cash, much of it from taxpayers, as sign of an economic recovery. However in the real economy - in which most Americans live - the recession is not over. Rising unemployment, business failures, bankruptcies and foreclosures are still hammering Main Street.

This health care bill continues the redistribution of wealth to Wall Street at the expense of America's manufacturing and service economies which suffer from costs other countries do not have to bear, especially the cost of health care. America continues to stand out among all industrialized nations for its privatized health care system. As a result, we are less competitive in steel, automotive, aerospace and shipping while other countries subsidize their exports in these areas through socializing the cost of health care.

Notwithstanding the fate of H.R. 3962, America will someday come to recognize the broad social and economic benefits of a not-for-profit, single-payer health care system, which is good for the American people and good for America's businesses, with of course the notable exceptions being insurance and pharmaceuticals.

MY VIEW:

Sadly, I have to concur with Rep. Kucinich. The first rule of Medicine is "DO NO HARM " and this bill doesn't pass that muster even remotely. The Dems. had a historic opportunity to do the right thing here and instead they allowed their worst instincts to prevail on this issue and the result IMO is going to backfire on them and us. Allowing the same Monopoly Health Corps causing the problem ( over priced lousy Health Care) to essentially write these reforms has predictably ended up in what could be accurately called a SHIT TACO of a bill. Even worse is that this awful twisted piece of CRAPOLA is going to just get even worse as it passes through the next part of the Congressional gut the Senate and then even worse when it's merged in the Congressional colon and is from their shit onto Obama's desk.

WASTED YR. / WASTED Political Capital

Why did they waste a yr. of their time on this if they had no intention of doing anything more then spending trillions of our tax dollars on subsidies for some of the worst monopolies ( The health Care Mafia and Big Pharma) in America today? It's really an insult to our collective intelligence to call this whole effort even remotely REFORM. Personally, I hope this thing dies in the Senate and never sees the light of day. As bad as our present system is this IMO only will make things far worse for the great majority of Americans.

REFORM WAS NEVER ALL THAT HARD

All Obama and Congress had to do here was roll the 40 mil + people without Health Ins. into Medicaid or Medicare fund these programs adequately and be done with it. Instead, they caved to the Health mafia lobbies and the result is this (sic) Historic mess.

BEACH REPORT

2009-11-07T14:36:00.003-05:00

Nationally

The GOPERS took two State Governorships back from the Dems. Virgina and NJ. The Dems. won a GOP house seat in NY that hasn't been Dem. since before the Civil War. NYC Mayor Bloomberg spent millions and barely eked out a victory for a 3rd term as Mayor. Incumbents had a very bad day.

STATEwide

Election day has come and passed and NJ has a new Gov. elect Christopher Christie ( obviously not Jewish or Muslim right). The new Gov. has his work cut out for him. NJ has 10% unemployment and the highest tax burden in the country. I read today he's already warned the Democratic controlled Assembly and Senate that he will veto any attempts to raise taxes on anything. We'll see how long that pledge holds up. The State of NJ is facing an 8 billion dollar deficit this coming fiscal yr. He'd have to lay of half the State employees and shut down most State projects and programs to balance the budget. My guess like his GOPER predecessors he'll borrow the $$ and more. He'll lower taxes and also pay for this by borrowing. In recent yrs. the GOPER anthem is tax cuts for the wealthy and credit card bills for everyone else to have to pay off after he's out of office. Then what happens is people elect another Dem. and repeat this cycle, rinse wash and dry etc. Sooner or later were going to need to break the hold of these two parties.

Mayor Langford easily won election in AC. No surprise here. AC city Gov't is a social welfare agency where a few hundred people soak up the enormous tax bounty of the casinos and still manage to have to raise taxes on everyone else.

DOWNBEACH

The new Doggie Park in Margate is open and they're already talking about allowing Ventnor residents to use it.

OBAMA -1st yr. in Review

2009-11-06T12:28:00.004-05:00

@ the title link is a well written summary and review of Obama's 1st yr. in office. Sadly, I pretty much concur with the authors opinions.

WATERWATCH INT'L NOMINATED FOR MEDAL

2009-11-05T03:43:00.001-05:00

The Explorers Club of NYC has recently nominated Waterwatch International, based in Somers Point, and the Atlantic County Utilities Authority, based in Egg Harbor Township, for The Explorers Club Medal for their participation in the Amazon Watershed Contamination Project of 2008.

On July 24, 2008, Canadian Expedition Leader, Samuel Stime, assisted by Bjorn Stime and Maroy Correa Estenos, traveled from the Peruvian headwaters of the Amazon River, covering 1000 km by loaded touring bicycles and continued their journey via an 8 meter rowboat traveling down 4,500 km of the Amazon River to complete their journey in Belem, Brazil on November 12, 2008.

The purpose of this self-funded expedition was to test and monitor the waters of the entire length of the Amazon River, including its tributaries and confluences, and points of municipal and industrial outflows.

The goal of this nearly 4-month long expedition was to gather baseline water quality information and establish the first water pollution analysis of the entire river and its tributaries for the purpose of increasing awareness of the value of one the planet's most important sources of fresh water.

The plan of the expedition was to share this information with the governments of Peru, Brazil and Colombia in order to establish legislation to protect this water resource as well as to encourage permanent water monitoring stations long the river.

In conjunction with this, the expedition which carried The Explorers Club Flag, worked closely with the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment as well as the Institute of Natual Resources and the Peruvian Institute of Amazon Research as well as several other organizations in Brazil and Peru to accomplish their goals.

Guided by the not-for-profit US based international volunteer water monitoring organization, Water Watch International, which was founded by Explorers Club member, Captain Joel S. Fogel, the expedition accumlated water samples using a mobile laboratory (8 meter rowboat) and transmitted their information via satellite phone and computer to Water Watch International and their New Jersey State certified laboratories at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority for analyzation and tabulation.

Upon completion of the expedition, Scientific Advisor, Captain Fogel, then arranged for meetings with the expedition members and the heads of the ACUA laboratories to review their results and findings for recommendations.

After nearly 4 months and 5,500 km (about 3,500 miles) of travel...mostly by rowboat along the Amazon River, Canadian Explorer, Samuel Stime, and his associate, Peruvian Vetenarian, Maroy Correa, finished their epic journey in the Fall of 2008 .

This project, which was recognized by the National Geographic Society and had the support of the Peruvian government, has served as a pilot in the establishment of permanent water monitoring stations along the Amazon. The expedition has also established a benchmark of water quality from the headwaters the Amazon River in Peru to the Atlantic Ocean.

This is the 13th expedition in a series of international water monitoring explorations in which WATERWATCH INTERNATIONAL (www.waterwatchinternational.org) has supported, assisted and participated with the goal of mapping the world's water quality in remote regions of the planet.

Some of the other scientific water monitoring expeditions include:

East Coast of the United States by kayak from NY to Flordia (1970)

Nile River (1971); the Colorado River by kayak (1972)

Omo River in Africa by raft / Explorers Club Flag expedition (1973)

Maroni River in South America by canoe / Explorers Club Flag expedition (1985)

Yangtze River in China by kayak and raft / Explorers Club Flag expedition (1987)

West Coast of the U.S. by kayak from Seattle to San Diego (1990)

Mississippi River of the U.S. by kayak from St. Paul to New Orleans (1991)

Anarctica Rivers /University of Delaware Expedition / Explorers Club Flag expedition(1996)

Volga River in Russia Zebra Mussel Study with the Academy of Arts and Sciences / Explorers Club Flag expedition (1999)

Yukon River in Canada by canoe with U.S. Geodetic Survey / Explorers Club Flag expedition (2002)

Highland lakes of Mongolia / dive exploration / Explorers Club Flag expedition (2004)

Miami to Maine Ocean Awareness by outrigger canoe (2006) www.miami2maine.com .

Through the efforts of Mr. Stime and Captain Fogel, the results of this expedition have included plans for permanent water monitoring stations along the Amazon River, legislation to protect the tributaries of the Amazon in Colomia, Peru and Brazil and the establishment of several student-based organizations which will cooperate with the South American governments to accomplish their goals of protection and awareness.

Last December, the National Geographic Society voted the Amazon Water Quality Analysis as their "Adventure of the Year" (see NGS article December-January 2008/2009 for details) and presented the expedition with honors and a dinner at their headquarters in Washington, DC.

The New Jersey state certified laboratory at the Atlantic County Utilities Authority (www.acua.com), a leading national environmental agency based in Southern New Jersey, assisted in analyzing the results of this survey has they have in past Waterwatch International scientific explorations around the world.

What made this expedition unique was the degree of high tech coordination and communication which was used to locate the explorers and exchange information.

Satellite phones, GPS locators, computers and Google Earth were all utilized to exchange information, upload sampling data and track the entire expedition with suggestions on current flow, weather conditions and possible problems being communicated as the explorers were tracked via satellite and GPS.

Scientific advisor for the 2008 Amazon Water Monitoring Expedition and founder of WATERWATCH International, Captain Joel S. Fogel, was awarded "Explorer of the Year" from the Philadelphia Chapter in 2004 for his continuous work in the environment and his support of the goals of exploration for The Explorers Club.

Founded in New York City in 1904, The Explorers Club promotes the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences. The Club's members have been responsible for an illustrious series of famous firsts: First to the North Pole, first to the South Pole, first to the summit of Mount Everest, first to the deepest point in the ocean, first to the surface of the moon—all accomplished by our members.

The Explorers Club Medal, the highest honor that can be bestowed by the Club, is awarded for extraordinary contributions directly in the field of exploration, scientific research, or to the welfare of humanity.

Previous recipients include: Polar explorer, Admiral Robert E. Peary; Oceanographer, Dr. Auguste Piccard; U.S. President Herbert Hoover; National Geographic Society Founder, Gilbert Grosvenor; Radio commentator Lowell Thomas (Lawrence of Arabia); Primate Researcher, Dr. Jane Goodall; Lunar stronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren; and Everest explorer, Sir Edmund Hillary.

Nomination sponsored by:

Peter Hess, former Board of Directors, The Explorers Club
Doug Soroka, President, The Explorers Club (Philadelphia Chapter)
Jason Schoonover, member of The Explorers Club (Canadian Chapter)

For More Information or Photos, Contact: 609 214 3967

CHRISTIE WINS!

2009-11-04T08:45:00.004-05:00

Chris Christie NJ Gov. 2009

What a difference a yr. makes. The GOP won BIG in NJ and Va. yesterday picking up both states Governorships and in the process smacking President Obama on both cheeks. I think the message is clear in both these elections. If your going to run on the message of HOPE and CHANGE raise people's expectations and then give endless speeches all yr. raising them further, you'd had better deliver. Instead, IMO Obama did just the opposite for almost all the major issues these last 10 mos. He talked the talk but he didn't walk the walk .

RUN LEFT GOVERN CENTER RIGHT?

Democrats continue to run from the LEFT and then govern from the center right and then they are surprised when their own base stays home. That's what happened yesterday especially IMO in Va. and somewhat in NJ.

CORZINE

In NJ it was a bit more complicated. Corzine was seen as the rich guy from Goldman Sachs ( AKA Men with Sacks of GOLD) who essentially did little to stop the economic slide into oblivion the last 2 yrs. This wasn't his fault but Wall St. was @ the center of this crash and he is widely seen as the man from Goldman by many. This perception plus his lackluster leadership style hurt him.

TAXES in NJ in the GREAT RECESSION

Add to this in NJ the unrelenting rise in taxes at every level in a time when NO jobs are being created and people are being crushed by rising energy, food and healthcare costs. Then even worse, contrast this with the ever rising pay and benefits being lavished on Gov't employees at all levels in NJ and you have public disgust and anger. Yesterday, that anger was directed squarely at John Corzine.

CHRISTIE & the Future

The BIG ? now is how the GOP and Chris Christie interpret their victory? If they see it as a mandate to govern from the hard right that's one thing, if they see it as a narrow win and an opportunity to try and govern rationally thats another. Considering the hold of the radical (Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, FOX faction) on the GOP these days, I think he's going to bear hard right. In any event he has to deal with a Democratic party dominated legislature so if he tries to govern from the FOX Universe he's going to just mire the State in political gridlock for four yrs. Maybe, that's what the electorate really wants? Who knows?

HEALTHCARE REFORM MORPHS INTO HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY BAILOUT?

2009-11-04T02:51:00.001-05:00

Slowly, painfully we are nearing the end of the endless Kabuki dance once known as Healthcare Reform. @ the title link is an excellent analysis of just where this dance has taken us and where it's probably going to end up. Read on if you dare.

FROM GEEK TO GUIDO !!

2009-11-03T11:16:00.000-05:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

2009-10-31T17:33:00.005-04:00

Ghost riders @ Sunset!!

It's my favorite Holiday of the year. Halloween is the only day of the year we acknowledge the dark side of life because the rest of the year we spend running away from it at flank speed. Take it from one who knows it's better to stop running because you cannot out run it. Just try to enjoy every moment the Good Lord gives you above ground.

NJ DEP MEETS WITH AC & LOCAL COMMITTEE

2009-10-31T12:07:00.004-04:00

THE VIEW THAT NO LONGER ATTRACTS

@ the title link is a story about a meeting held this past week by the NJDEP with AC officials and the local Boardwalk Committee to discuss the DUNE heights in AC..

The Sacred DUNES

The DEP isn't going to allow these people to touch the sacred dune, instead they keep putting forth a stupid idea to put viewing decks off the boardwalk. This is as bogus an idea as it gets. The truth is these decks already exist in areas of the boardwalk now and are used by a few people. My guess is the gutless City officials will go for this non-solution and just want to make this protest go away. The people who run the AC Gov't have more important things to do like meetings and benefits raises and thinking of ways to sue the city for huge settlements after they leave. They could care less if the town is dying on the vine.

The NJDEP

The Boardwalk Merchants will get NOWHERE with the NJDEP take it from one who knows. The NJDEP is a huge wasteful nasty bureaucracy that does little more then bully people all over NJ, it's primary purpose to protect the environment has been replaced by careerism and it's endless meetings and meetings about meetings, then coffee breaks and and maybe a helicopter ride to another meeting. Time for another raise!

MARGATE PLANNING BOARD SAYS NO COMMENTS GO AWAY!!

2009-10-30T14:58:00.003-04:00

PLANNING BOARD TELLS GOLF PROTESTERS TO STFU !!

Last nite @ the Margate Planning board meeting a local group had hoped to voice it's objections to the controversial Pirate themed Mini-Golf course slatted to open in 2010 at the old Sun bank property on Frontenac and Ventnor ave. In a 4 to 3 vote the Board decided that no public comments would be allowed. So much for free speech. Read more about it @ the title link to an AC Press story about this event.

50Yr. + Resident speaks up

As a local resident that has lived in this same neighborhood as the planned course for over 50 yrs, a Mini-Golf course at that location is frankly beyond stupid. Actually, It's hard to even come up with another business that is as out of character for this location then a outdoor summer only Pirated themed Golf course. Contrary to what's been said by the Commission and the planning board about other entertainment venues having once existed in this area of the town NONE of them were outdoor carny style businesses. This kind of business belongs down in the Barbary coast area of town where the last mini-golf course once existed till very recently, or better yet in Ocean City or Wildwood. I'd say AC but drunken gamblers aren't great at mini-golf.

AVALON & SEA ISLE TO GO IT ALONE

2009-10-28T02:02:00.000-04:00

Eroded dune area on AVALON

I've been reporting on and writing about Beach Replenishment projects now for yrs. but this is truly a unique story, @ the title link read a AC press story about what Avalon and Sea Isle's public officials are about to do. I'll give you all a hint in regards to what this story is about. STUPIDITY and FEAR.

THE DESCENT OF AMERICA

2009-10-27T01:53:00.000-04:00

Welcome to 2025

American Preeminence Is Disappearing Fifteen Years Early

by Michael T. Klare

Memo to the CIA: You may not be prepared for time-travel, but welcome to 2025 anyway! Your rooms may be a little small, your ability to demand better accommodations may have gone out the window, and the amenities may not be to your taste, but get used to it. It's going to be your reality from now on.

Okay, now for the serious version of the above: In November 2008, the National Intelligence Council (NIC), an affiliate of the Central Intelligence Agency, issued the latest in a series of futuristic publications intended to guide the incoming Obama administration. Peering into its analytic crystal ball in a report entitled Global Trends 2025, it predicted that America's global preeminence would gradually disappear over the next 15 years -- in conjunction with the rise of new global powerhouses, especially China and India. The report examined many facets of the future strategic environment, but its most startling, and news-making, finding concerned the projected long-term erosion of American dominance and the emergence of new global competitors. "Although the United States is likely to remain the single most powerful actor [in 2025]," it stated definitively, the country's "relative strength -- even in the military realm -- will decline and U.S. leverage will become more constrained."

That, of course, was then; this -- some 11 months into the future -- is now and how things have changed. Futuristic predictions will just have to catch up to the fast-shifting realities of the present moment. Although published after the onset of the global economic meltdown was underway, the report was written before the crisis reached its full proportions and so emphasized that the decline of American power would be gradual, extending over the assessment's 15-year time horizon. But the economic crisis and attendant events have radically upset that timetable. As a result of the mammoth economic losses suffered by the United States over the past year and China's stunning economic recovery, the global power shift the report predicted has accelerated. For all practical purposes, 2025 is here already.

Many of the broad, down-the-road predictions made in Global Trends 2025 have, in fact, already come to pass. Brazil, Russia, India, and China -- collectively known as the BRIC countries -- are already playing far more assertive roles in global economic affairs, as the report predicted would happen in perhaps a decade or so. At the same time, the dominant global role once monopolized by the United States with a helping hand from the major Western industrial powers -- collectively known as the Group of 7 (G-7) -- has already faded away at a remarkable pace. Countries that once looked to the United States for guidance on major international issues are ignoring Washington's counsel and instead creating their own autonomous policy networks. The United States is becoming less inclined to deploy its military forces abroad as rival powers increase their own capabilities and non-state actors rely on "asymmetrical" means of attack to overcome the U.S. advantage in conventional firepower.

No one seems to be saying this out loud -- yet -- but let's put it bluntly: less than a year into the 15-year span of Global Trends 2025, the days of America's unquestioned global dominance have come to an end. It may take a decade or two (or three) before historians will be able to look back and say with assurance, "That was the moment when the United States ceased to be the planet's preeminent power and was forced to behave like another major player in a world of many competing great powers." The indications of this great transition, however, are there for those who care to look.

Six Way Stations on the Road to Ordinary Nationhood

Here is my list of six recent developments that indicate we are entering "2025" today. All six were in the news in the last few weeks, even if never collected in a single place. They (and other events like them) represent a pattern: the shape, in fact, of a new age in formation.

1. At the global economic summit in Pittsburgh on September 24th and 25th, the leaders of the major industrial powers, the G-7 (G-8 if you include Russia) agreed to turn over responsibility for oversight of the world economy to a larger, more inclusive Group of 20 (G-20), adding in China, India, Brazil, Turkey, and other developing nations. Although doubts have been raised about the ability of this larger group to exercise effective global leadership, there is no doubt that the move itself signaled a shift in the locus of world economic power from the West to the global East and South -- and with this shift, a seismic decline in America's economic preeminence has been registered.

"The G-20's true significance is not in the passing of a baton from the G-7/G-8 but from the G-1, the U.S.," Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University wrote in the Financial Times. "Even during the 33 years of the G-7 economic forum, the U.S. called the important economic shots." Declining American leadership over these last decades was obscured by the collapse of the Soviet Union and an early American lead in information technology, Sachs also noted, but there is now no mistaking the shifting of economic power from the United States to China and other rising economic dynamos.

2. According to news reports, America's economic rivals are conducting secret (and not-so-secret) meetings to explore a diminished role for the U.S. dollar -- fast losing its value -- in international trade. Until now, the use of the dollar as the international medium of exchange has given the United States a significant economic advantage: it can simply print dollars to meet its international obligations while other nations must convert their own currencies into dollars, often incurring significant added costs. Now, however, many major trading countries -- among them China, Russia, Japan, Brazil, and the Persian Gulf oil countries -- are considering the use of the Euro, or a "basket" of currencies, as a new medium of exchange. If adopted, such a plan would accelerate the dollar's precipitous fall in value and further erode American clout in international economic affairs.

One such discussion reportedly took place this summer at a summit meeting of the BRIC countries. Just a concept a year ago, when the very idea of BRIC was concocted by the chief economist at Goldman Sachs, the BRIC consortium became a flesh-and-blood reality this June when the leaders of the four countries held an inaugural meetingin Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The very fact that Brazil, Russia, India, and China chose to meet as a group was considered significant, as they jointly possess about 43% of the world's population and are expected to account for 33% of the world's gross domestic product by 2030 -- about as much as the United States and Western Europe will claim at that time. Although the BRIC leaders decided not to form a permanent body like the G-7 at this stage, they didagree to coordinate efforts to develop alternatives to the dollar and to reform the International Monetary Fund in such a way as to give non-Western countries a greater voice.

3. On the diplomatic front, Washington has been rebuffed by both Russia and China in its drive to line up support for increased international pressure on Iran to cease its nuclear enrichment program. One month after President Obama cancelled plans to deploy an anti-ballistic missile system in Eastern Europe in an apparent bid to secure Russian backing for a tougher stance toward Tehran, top Russian leaders are clearly indicating that they have no intention of endorsing strong new sanctions on Iran. "Threats, sanctions, and threats of pressure in the current situation, we are convinced, would be counterproductive," declared the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, following a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Moscow on October 13th. The following day, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that the threat of sanctions was "premature." Given the political risks Obama took in canceling the missile program -- a step widely condemned by Republicans in Washington -- Moscow's quick dismissal of U.S. pleas for cooperation on the Iranian enrichment matter can only be interpreted as a further sign of waning American influence.

4. Exactly the same inference can be drawn from a high-level meeting in Beijing on October 15th between Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and Iran's first vice president, Mohammed Reza Rahimi. "The Sino-Iran relationship has witnessed rapid development as the two countries' leaders have had frequent exchanges, and cooperation in trade and energy has widened and deepened," Wen said at the Great Hall of the People. Coming at a time when the United States is engaged in a vigorous diplomatic drive to persuade China and Russia, among others, to reduce their trade ties with Iran as a prelude to toughened sanctions, the Chinese statement can only be considered a pointed rebuff of Washington.

5. From Washington's point of view, efforts to secure international support for the allied war effort in Afghanistan have also met with a strikingly disappointing response. In what can only be considered a trivial and begrudging vote of support for the U.S.-led war effort, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced on October 14th that Britain would add more troops to the British contingent in that country -- but only 500 more, and only if other European nations increase their own military involvement, something he undoubtedly knows is highly unlikely. So far, this tiny, provisional contingent represents the sum total of additional troops the Obama administration has been able to pry out of America's European allies, despite a sustained diplomatic drive to bolster the combined NATO force in Afghanistan. In other words, even America's most loyal and obsequious ally in Europe no longer appears willing to carry the burden for what is widely seen as yet another costly and debilitating American military adventure in the Greater Middle East.

6. Finally, in a move of striking symbolic significance, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) passed over Chicago (as well as Madrid and Tokyo) to pick Rio de Janeiro to be the host of the 2016 summer Olympics, the first time a South American nation was selected for the honor. Until the Olympic vote took place, Chicago was considered a strong contender, especially since former Chicago resident Barack Obama personally appeared in Copenhagen to lobby the IOC. Nonetheless, in a development that shocked the world, Chicago not only lost out, but was the city eliminated in the very first round of voting.

"Brazil went from a second-class country to a first-class country, and today we began to receive the respect we deserve," said Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at a victory celebration in Copenhagen after the vote. "I could die now and it already would have been worth it." Few said so, but in the course of the Olympic decision-making process the U.S. was summarily and pointedly demoted from sole superpower to instant also-ran, a symbolic moment on a planet entering a new age.

On Being an Ordinary Country

These are only a few examples of recent developments which indicate, to this author, that the day of America's global preeminence has already come to an end, years before the American intelligence community expected. It's increasingly clear that other powers -- even our closest allies -- are increasingly pursuing independent foreign policies, no matter what pressure Washington tries to bring to bear.

Of course, none of this means that, for some time to come, the U.S. won't retain the world's largest economy and, in terms of sheer destructiveness, its most potent military force. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the strategic environment in which American leaders must make critical decisions, when it comes to the nation's vital national interests, has changed dramatically since the onset of the global economic crisis.

Even more important, President Obama and his senior advisers are, it seems, reluctantly beginning to reshape U.S. foreign policy with the new global reality in mind. This appears evident, for example, in the administration's decision to revisit U.S. strategy on Afghanistan.

It was only in March, after all, that the president embraced a new counterinsurgency-oriented strategy in that country, involving a buildup of U.S. boots on the ground and a commitment to protracted efforts to win hearts and minds in Afghan villages where the Taliban was resurgent. It was on this basis that he fired the incumbent Afghan War commander, General David D. McKiernan, replacing him with General Stanley A. McChrystal, considered a more vigorous proponent of counterinsurgency. When, however, McChrystal presented Obama with the price tag for the implementation of this strategy -- 40,000 to 80,000 additional troops (over and above the 20,000-odd extra troops only recently committed to the fight) -- many in the president's inner circle evidently blanched.

Not only will such a large deployment cost the U.S. treasury hundreds of billions of dollars it can ill afford, but the strains it is likely to place on the Army and Marine Corps are likely to be little short of unbearable after years of multiple tours and stress in Iraq. This price would be more tolerable, of course, if America's allies would take up more of the burden, but they are ever less willing to do so.

Undoubtedly, the leaders of Russia and China are not entirely unhappy to see the United States exhaust its financial and military resources in Afghanistan. Under these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Vice President Joe Biden, among others, iscalling for a new turn in U.S. policy, foregoing a counterinsurgency approach and opting instead for a less costly "counter-terrorism" strategy aimed, in part, at crushing Al Qaeda in Pakistan -- using drone aircraft and Special Forces, rather than large numbers of U.S. troops (while leaving troop levels in Afghanistan relatively unchanged).

It is too early to predict how the president's review of U.S. strategy in Afghanistan will play out, but the fact that he did not immediately embrace the McChrystal plan and has allowed Biden such free rein to argue his case suggests that he may be coming to recognize the folly of expanding America's military commitments abroad at a time when its global preeminence is waning.

One senses Obama's caution in other recent moves. Although he continues to insist that the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran is impermissible and that the use of force to prevent this remains an option, he has clearly moved to minimize the likelihood that this option -- which would also be plagued by recalcitrant "allies" -- will ever be employed.

On the other side of the coin, he has given fresh life to American diplomacy, seeking improved ties with Moscow and approving renewed diplomatic contact with such previously pariah states as Burma, Sudan, and Syria. This, too, reflects a reality of our changing world: that the holier-than-thou, bullying stance adopted by the Bush administration toward these and other countries for almost eight years rarely achieved anything. Think of it as an implicit acknowledgement that the U.S. is now descending from its status as the globe's "sole superpower" to that of an ordinary country. This, after all, is what ordinary countries do; they engage other countries in diplomatic discourse, whether they like their current governments or not.

So, welcome to the world of 2025. It doesn't look like the world of our recent past, when the United States stood head and shoulders above all other nations in stature, and it doesn't comport well with Washington's fantasies of global power since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. But it is reality.

For many Americans, the loss of that preeminence may be a source of discomfort, or even despair. On the other hand, don't forget the advantages to being an ordinary country like any other country: Nobody expects Canada, or France, or Italy to send another 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, on top of the 68,000 already there and the 120,000 still in Iraq. Nor does anyone expect those countries to spend $925 billion in taxpayer money to do so -- the current estimated cost of both wars, according to theNational Priorities Project.

The question remains: How much longer will Washington feel that Americans can afford to subsidize a global role that includes garrisoning much of the planet and fighting distant wars in the name of global security, when the American economy is losing so much ground to its competitors? This is the dilemma President Obama and his advisers must confront in the altered world of 2025.

Michael T. Klare is a professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College and author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy(Owl Books). A documentary film version of his previous book, Blood and Oil, is available from the Media Education Foundation at Bloodandoilmovie.com.

WHOSE TO BLAME GAME STARTS IN AC

2009-10-24T12:13:00.003-04:00

AC Boardwalk - BLVD of BROKEN DREAMS & FALSE HOPE?

Headlines of the AC Press on Fri. Oct. 23rd REVEL CEO: "AC Future depends on Cooperation", next day's headlines "AC Split on whether casinos, city work together." Once again the new REVEL Ceo blames the city and it's inhabitants and leadership for AC's shabby appearance and bad reputation and warns of a bleak future if WE don't get our act together. More lectures from the Executive offices where they are still obviously smoking something other then cigarettes. It really galls many of us "locals" to be endlessly told it's OUR fault that 30+ yrs. after Casino gaming AC STILL looks like a shithole. Let me ask these same people, who has had the $$ and the power these last 30 yrs. to effect change here?

WHOSE TO BLAME REALLY?

Who really is to blame for the devastating decline of almost all of the Resorts "other" businesses? The sad truth is this, the Cashinos are largely to blame and next in line is their partners in crime the political class and their bureauratic fellow travelers. To blame what's left of the small business community and the workers of the area is just more bullying and ego games by the wealthy and the powerful. Today in America this is just how the game is being played @ all levels. We now reward failure at the top and punish it ceaselessly at the bottom and the middle. It's ok in AC if 30 yrs after Casinos came here promising a barrel full of benefits and a bright future that all that is now fading away almost as fast as the artifical beaches the Army promised would cure beach erosion. The sad truth is every possible bad decision that could be made in this town has been made and that the same cast of characters are still simultaneously trying to have it both ways. On the one hand, I read some of these klowns trying to say everything in AC is great by saying all we have to do is just look at Cordish's Corp mall ala Baltimore's inner harbor style redevelopment. On the other hand REVEL's CEO is whining daily because he's stuck with Pacific ave as a path to his palace of misfortune and he doesn't like it. The truth is that AC is a friggin mess if your in the wrong place and it's a small gold mine if your in the right place. Everyone is fighting for his or her little job, business etc. It's the GOPER dream of a war of every person against every other person. (AKA divide and conquer )

COOPERATION?

Cooperation, Chairmen Desanctis of REVEL says is the answer, by cooperation he naturally means everyone should do what he says of course. Here's Mr. DeSanctis' problem in a nutshell, this guy has to pay back billions in loans and probably also will have to open REVEL in the middle of the GREAT DEPRESSION 2 and he's looking at trying to do this in a town that's in shambles after 30 yrs. of mis-management at every level, with vicious competition and political corruption to boot. My call on DeSantics , he won't last a yr. after REVEL opens. So what? He's just another in a very long line of carpetbagging BIG CORP. pirates that will blame the rest of us and move on to some other BIG Corp. job somewhere else. AC has been the victim of generations of these creatures. That's at the bottom of why AC is the Blvd. of broken dreams today.

THE STREETS ARE PAVED WITH GOLD!

Today Pacific ave is lined with GOLD...GOLD shops that is mining the desperate dead dreams of gamblers that are down to selling their wedding rings and jewelery for one more chance @ the wheel of fortune. That about sums up the whole town, except of course if you work for AC then it's endless pay and benefits isn't it? That's another pathetic part of this story to be told in another rant, for another time.

Nor'Easters Battered Coast Beaches

2009-10-21T09:34:00.002-04:00

Bethany Beach, Del.

Views like this were to be seen up and down the east Coast after last weeks back to back Nor'easters. The Media loves these pictures but doesn't show you where most of the real property damage occurs in these storms, which is on the backsides ( baysides) of these beaches and barrier islands. The reason they don't is the beach pics. are always more dramatic. The truth however is almost NO property damage occured on the beach side. The places with beach projects of course use this fact to taut their projects, again the truth is places without these projects didn't suffer any damage either. Margate is a perfect example of this. Yes, some sea water got in the street ends , but that was about it.

PRIORITIES?

The pols and managers of these beach projects are trying to justify this enormous waste of precious tax dollars @ a time when unemployment nears 10% and people are losing their homes and health behind the REAL tsunami being generated on Wall st. Our pols have their priorites backassward. Our local Congress critter Don Franscio Lobiondo doesn't think we have a Health Care crisis and would rather not discuss it, but he loves talking about the "stoopid" wasteful beach projects and he's the nations leading adovocate of them in Congress. The Don must enjoy the lack of View in Northern Ventnor 's boardwalk and the destructive lack of View in AC. The Don is protecting whom other then his pals in the Army Corp and the coastal engineering firms that depend on his ignorance? Oh, but the Don can sure shake a good hand.
The bottom line in all of this is simple, as long as we elect people like Lobiondo that go to Congress and work day and night against our own self interest we ( the voters) deserve what we get. ( expansive sand castles)

Click on the title link for an article about the storm etc. in a newspaper on the Del Marva. You'll get the typical broiler plate no surprises.

THE ACORN FIASCO!

2009-10-18T15:35:00.000-04:00

The ACORN Standard

by Jeremy Scahill

The nonpartisan Project on Government Oversight and Reform recently revealed that the top 100 government contractors made nearly $300 billion from federal contracts in 2007 alone. Since 1995 these same contractors have been involved with 676 cases of "misconduct" and paid $26 billion in fines to settle cases stemming from fraud, waste or abuse. Fines and other penalties, it seems, are simply the stunningly small price of doing government business.

Take the case of the top three war contractors, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman. These companies have engaged in 108 instances of misconduct since 1995 and have paid fines or settlements totaling nearly $3 billion. In 2007 they won some $77 billion in federal contracts. Or consider pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which in September paid $2.3 billion to settle a slew of criminal and civil cases, including Medicaid fraud. According to the Justice Department, this was "the largest healthcare fraud settlement" in its history. Yet Pfizer made more than $40 billion in profits last year and won $73 million in federal contracts in 2007; it continues to do robust business with the government. Not bad for a "corporate felon."

Unfortunately, neither Pfizer nor the largest US military contractors are targets of significant Congressional action. Instead it's ACORN, a community organization that trains and advocates for poor and working-class Americans. Over the past fifteen years, ACORN has received just $53 million in federal funds, much of it for low-income housing. Despite--or perhaps because of--its efforts to empower some 500,000 member families, ACORN was the subject of a sting video produced by a right-wing activist that featured a fake pimp and prostitute seeking tax advice. The group swiftly fired the handful of employees who were entrapped, but that didn't put an end to the storm. Fox News aired the video repeatedly, and right-wing astroturf operative Rick Berman set up a Rotten ACORN website. The campaign was wildly successful. In mid-September all but seventy-five House Democrats and seven senators voted with their Republican colleagues to bar the group from receiving federal funds.

ACORN, like all organizations receiving federal dollars, should be subject to Congressional scrutiny. But ACORN was clearly singled out for political reasons. Those Democrats who voted for the "defund ACORN" bill should be required to explain their reasoning to their constituents, particularly when so few of them have taken substantive actions to apply the ACORN standard to corporate criminals with real rap sheets.

A small but growing number of lawmakers are fighting to confront out-of-control corporations. Here are three legislative initiatives that stand out:

HR 3679. Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota introduced her own ACORN Act--the Against Corporations Organizing to Rip off the Nation Act--which seeks to deny federal funds to "corporations or companies guilty of certain felony convictions." Pfizer is singled out, but the act could be applied to other corporations too. "Why are companies that break the law as a business strategy allowed to receive taxpayer funds?" asks McCollum. "A government contract is a privilege, not a right. If a company commits a felony against the people of the United States, then that privilege must end." Significantly, Wisconsin Representative David Obey, chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has signed on as a co-sponsor. Obey also voted to defund ACORN.
In the Senate, Bernie Sanders put forward an amendment to the current defense authorization bill (HR3326 S. AMDT. 2617) that calls on the defense secretary to conduct a wide-ranging study of the money the government pays to contractors that have been indicted, settled charges or been fined by any federal agency, as well as those that have been convicted of fraud. It also calls for recommendations on how to penalize contractors that are "repeatedly" involved with fraud. "Virtually every major defense contractor in this country has, for a period of many years, been engaged in systemic, illegal and fraudulent behavior while receiving hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money," says Sanders. While Sanders is just calling for a "study," the spirit of his amendment could be the basis for legislation that targets corporate criminals receiving federal dollars.
Several Congressional offices say they are weighing the possibility of introducing legislation that would apply the ACORN standard to companies like Blackwater, whose operatives will stand trial next year on manslaughter charges stemming from killing Iraqi civilians; or KBR, which is being investigated in connection with the electrocution deaths of US soldiers and contractors in Iraq. Representative Jan Schakowsky says she is considering reintroducing a version of her 2007 Stop Outsourcing Security Act, which sought to ban the use of Blackwater and other mercenary companies from performing armed activities on the federal payroll. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a co-sponsor in the Senate, now oversees the work of Blackwater and other armed State Department contractors, increasingly employed in Afghanistan.

Florida Representative Alan Grayson is spearheading calls for fraudulent military contractors to be defunded under the anti-ACORN legislation. He points to Halliburton's misconduct and its "extreme and gross negligence...putting in showers in Iraq that end up electrocuting soldiers, and feeding them poisoned water." The federal funding ACORN has received over the past twenty years, Grayson says, "is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq."

Jeremy Scahill is the author of the New York Times bestseller Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army. He is currently a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellow at the Nation Institute.

BEACH REPORT:

2009-10-17T02:43:00.001-04:00

GOLF ANYONE?

This past Thurs. I attended the Margate City Commission meeting along with approx. 150 other full and part-time residents and visitors of Margate. The issue front and center @ the meeting was the proposal to allow a miniature golf course on the old Sun bank property @ the corner of Frontenac and Ventnor ave. smack dab in the middle of one of the town's two main shopping districts. The Commissioners it seemed were all for the Project. I'd say 99% of the crowd was against it and dozens rose to vocally protest it. The problem for those attending from what I heard was, that for all practical purposes it's already a done deal. What really amazed me was that the planning board not only approved this Project with very little public comment and input, but also approved a parking variance for the 28 parking spots required for this spot. Parking in Margate in the summer is already a contentious issue and parking in that area of town is IMO already beyond what the existing businesses need @ the present time.

Chances are were going to see this Project next summer and if it's any indication of how this Commission and the rest of the City Gov't views the town's future I think we might have a developing problem. Stay tuned for the City Commission's next controversial approval a Maximum Security Prison next to the Senior Pavilion and the Library ( only kidding ;)

AC PRESS ENDORSES NOBODY FOR THE MAYORAL RACE

In what very well be a 1st the AC Press refused to endorse any of the candidates running for the Mayor's office in AC. It basically said, that in the their editorial opinion NONE of the present candidates were qualified for the job. That even included the present sitting Mayor, Mayor Langford.

THE BANKS - AN IDEA

2009-10-16T01:38:00.001-04:00

Published on Thursday, October 15, 2009 by YES! Magazine

Reviving the Local Economy With Publicly Owned Banks

State and local leaders are considering creating publicly owned banks that can funnel credit to where it is needed most: directly into the local economy.

by Ellen Brown

The credit crunch is getting worse on Main Street, despite a Wall Street bailout now in the trillions of dollars. The Federal Reserve's charts show that "base money" is rapidly expanding—meaning coins, paper money, and commercial banks' reserves with the central bank. But the money isn't getting where it needs to go to stimulate economic growth: into the bank accounts of American businesses and consumers. The Fed has been pumping out money to the banks, and their reserves have been growing at unprecedented rates, but the money supply in the real economy has been declining.

According to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, writing last month in the UK Telegraph, U.S. bank credit and M3 (the broadest measure of the money supply) contracted over the summer at rates comparable to the onset of the Great Depression. In the summer quarter, U.S. bank loans fell at an annual pace of almost 14 percent. "There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s," said Professor Tim Congdon of International Monetary Research. "The rapid destruction of money balances is madness."

Chartered banks are allowed to create credit on their books equal to many times their deposit base, but lately they haven't been doing it. In more normal times, one dollar in base money has been fanned by the banks into $8.50 in loans. Today, one dollar in base money produces only one dollar in loans. Although the Fed has been frantically pushing cash into the banks, it can't make them lend to consumers.

This is not because the banks are trying to be difficult. If they had prudent loans on which to turn a profit and the capital base to do it, they no doubt would. But their books have been choked with toxic assets, destroying their capital positions; and the "shadow lenders" who once took subprime loans off their books have gotten wise to the scam and gone away. Bankers who know the endangered state of their own books don't trust each other, so money is tight all around. And the Fed has already dropped interest rates as low as they can go, so it has no more leverage with which to entice borrowers.

Local Government to the Rescue?

The Fed may have played all its cards, but state and local governments still hold a few aces. Some local politicians are looking into the feasibility of opening their own publicly-owned banks, providing them with their own credit machines. A new publicly owned bank would have a clean set of books, untainted by the Wall Street addiction to gambling in complex derivatives; and its profits would go back to the local government and community, rather than being siphoned off in exorbitant salaries, bonuses, and dividends. A publicly-owned bank could funnel credit where it is needed most, directly into the local economy.

One legislator who is considering a publicly-owned bank is Bruno Barreiro, County Commissioner for Miami-Dade County in Florida. In a September 23 article titled "Capital Sources: Recession Steers Banks Away from Business as Usual", The Daily Business Review reported that Miami-Dade is planning to conduct a feasibility study proposing alternatives for becoming its own depository. Said the journal:

"Barreiro notes that throughout the year, a portion of the county's $7.5 billion operating budget is deposited with outside financial institutions in return for an interest rate. However, he feels that given the instability of many banks, the county might be better off going into such a business on its own."

Brian Bandell, writing in The South Florida Business Journal on September 11, reported that Barreiro is concerned that bank accounts are insured by the FDIC for only up to $250,000. The county often has over $50 million in a single account. If the county were to open its own depository institution, it could safeguard against these losses.

However, said Bandell, Barreiro is not proposing to allow the institution to make loans. Rather, the state's money would be invested conservatively in Treasury bonds. The problem with that approach, said Miami banking analyst Kenneth Thomas, is that it would be a challenge to get good interest rates for the county's deposits without making loans. "There's a reason most other municipalities aren't doing it," he said.

In stopping short of making loans, the county could be missing a major business opportunity. The average interest rate on U.S. government bonds is currently 3.35 percent. If the funds in Miami-Dade's operating budget were deposited in the county's own bank, the money could serve as a reserve fund to support at least nine times that sum in loans. Assuming an average interest rate of 5 percent on these loans, the county could increase its revenues by over 1,000 percent (earning 45 percent interest instead of 3.35 percent). [A fuller explanation and references are available here.]

Maximizing the Potential of a Publicly-owned Bank

Economist Farid Khavari, a Democratic candidate for governor of Florida in 2010, is proposing a Bank of the State of Florida (BSF) that would take full advantage of the potential of a bank charter. It would not only act as a depository for the state's funds but would actually make loans to Floridians at much lower interest rates than they are getting now. Among other benefits, the BSF could open up frozen credit markets, save homeowners many thousands of dollars in payments, produce major revenues for the state, and allow the state's own debts to be refinanced at much lower rates. All those benefits are possible, says Khavari, because of the "fractional reserve" banking system used by all banks when they make loans. As he explained in a July 29 article in Reuters:

"Using the fractional reserve regulations that govern all banks, we can earn billions per year for Florida's treasury, while saving thousands of dollars per year for Florida homeowners...For $100 in deposits, a bank can create $900 in new money by making loans. So, the BSF can pay 6% for CDs, and make mortgage loans at 2 percent. For $6 per year in interest paid out, the BSF can earn $18 by lending $900 at 2 percent for mortgages.

"The BSF can be started at no cost to taxpayers, and will be a permanent engine driving Florida's economy. We can refinance state and local projects at 3 percent, saving taxpayers billions and balancing state and local budgets without higher taxes."

The state would earn $15,000 per $100,000 of mortgage, at a cost of about $1,700; the homeowner would save $88,000 in interest and pay for the home 15 years sooner. "Our bank will save people about seven years of their pay over the course of 30 years, just on interest costs," Khavari said. "We should work to support ourselves and our families, not the banks...What we have now...makes everyone work for a few greedy fat cats."

Earlier Models

This sort of healthy public competition for the private banking monopoly has earlier precedents, going back to the colony of Pennsylvania in Benjamin Franklin's day. Before Pennsylvania founded its own bank, the province was having difficulty attracting settlers, because there was a shortage of money with which to conduct trade. The settlers could get credit only by borrowing from British bankers at a hefty 8% interest, and even those loans were hard to come by. The provincial government then got the bright idea of printing its own paper money and lending it to the farmers at 5% interest. When credit became cheaper and more freely available, the local economy flourished.

The only state that owns its own bank today is North Dakota. North Dakota is also one of only two states (along with Montana) on track to meet their budgets by 2010. It currently has the lowest unemployment rate in the country and the largest budget surplus it has ever had, tallying in at $1.3 billion. Why this cold and isolated farming state should be doing so well when other states are teetering on bankruptcy has been the subject of several TV commentaries, including a spoof by Conan O'Brien on NBC's Tonight Show, which attributed it to theft from tourists by local farmers. But North Dakota's real secret seems to be that it has escaped the Wall Street credit debacle. The state has generated its own credit through its own publicly-owned bank for nearly a century.

The Bank of North Dakota (BND) was founded in 1919, when a political party called the Non Partisan League succeeded in uniting farmers suffering from an earlier credit crisis. The BND's website states that the bank was originally formed to create additional competition in the credit industry, while providing a local source of capital for state investment and development. The BND avoids opposition from other banks by partnering with them in loan projects. According to the bank's website:

"The primary deposit base of the BND is the State of North Dakota. All state funds and funds of state institutions are deposited with the bank as required by law...Use of the banks' earnings are at the discretion of the state legislature. As an agent of the state it can make subsidized loans to spur development...[It] underwrites municipal bonds for all of the political units in the state, and has been one of the leading banks in the nation in the number of student loans issued. The bank also serves as the state's ‘Mini Fed'...As a result of the banks' services, it enjoys widespread support among the public and the independent banking community."

Bringing the Model Current

The private banking system is in systemic failure, and the public is waking up to the fact. We have been fleeced by Wall Street; banks are not providing loans; and our savings are no longer secure. The publicly owned Bank of North Dakota has provided an alternative model that has worked remarkably well for nearly a century.

The BND has been around for so long, however, that skeptics can write off the state's remarkable success to other factors. A modern-day public bank that quickly turned its flagging local economy around could set a precedent that was irrefutable. If Florida were to establish a successful public banking model, it could blaze a trail out of the economic wilderness for local governments everywhere.

Ellen Brown wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Ellen developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In Web of Debt, her latest book, she turns those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and "the money trust." She shows how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. Her eleven books includeForbidden Medicine, Nature's Pharmacy (co-authored with Dr. Lynne Walker), and The Key to Ultimate Health: Non-toxic Dentistry (co-authored with Dr. Richard Hansen). Her websites are www.webofdebt.com and www.ellenbrown.com.

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