Justus For All

I know that I don’t have a ton of readers these days, mostly due to my negligence in posting frequently, but for those that I have, I would be interested in the answer to the following questions:

What level of deficit spending do you think is appropriate?  (Some, very little, none, or negative in order to pay down the debt are fine, or if you have some sort of formula you think should be applied that is fine too)

What economic and fiscal effects do you believe would result fromadopting your prefered policy and why?

I won’t be arguing with anyone comments on this post, and I would prefer that on this post you simply answer the question and not respond to anyone else.  I may write more on this later, for now though this is just an informal survey about what the people who come here think on this topic.

Saying that you don’t know or don’t care is perfectly valid too.

The Associated Press
The first results from an election recount under way show President Robert Mugabe’s party has won an additional parliamentary seat, state media reported Wednesday.

Election officials began recounting ballots in 23 districts over the weekend, most of them won by the opposition. The recount could prove pivotal for the ruling party, which lost control of parliament by a handful of seats for the first time ever.

The state-run Herald newspaper also suggested Wednesday that a government of national unity led by Mugabe could end Zimbabwe’s deepening political and economic crisis — a departure from its regular stance of accusing the opposition of manipulating the vote.

While I hope that Zimbabwe’s crisis can be ended without bloodshed and Mugabe will gracefully exit, I don’t think that is going to happen.  I think we are either going to witness the horror of a civil war, or the even worse horror of Mugabe’s continued rule.

One good thing is that the international community is working together fairly well to keep additional weapons out of the hands of the Mugabe regime.

I predict that Hillary wins by about 10 points and that it won’t change anything in the race.

WSJ.com

Over the past 15 months, we have proved that we can win this war. We stand now at the moment of truth. Victory – and a democracy in the Arab world – is within our grasp. But it could yet slip away if our leaders remain transfixed by the war we almost lost, rather than focusing on the war we are winning today.

Read the whole thing.

Money doesn’t grow on trees, but gasoline might

Researchers have made a breakthrough in the development of “green gasoline,” a liquid identical to standard gasoline yet created from sustainable biomass sources like switchgrass and poplar trees.Reporting in the cover article of the April 7, 2008 issue of Chemistry & Sustainability, Energy & Materials (ChemSusChem), chemical engineer and National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awardee George Huber of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) and his graduate students Torren Carlson and Tushar Vispute announced the first direct conversion of plant cellulose into gasoline components.

In the same issue, James Dumesic and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison announce an integrated process for creating chemical components of jet fuel using a green gasoline approach. While Dumesic’s group had previously demonstrated the production of jet-fuel components using separate steps, their current work shows that the steps can be integrated and run sequentially, without complex separation and purification processes between reactors.

While it may be five to 10 years before green gasoline arrives at the pump or finds its way into a fighter jet, these breakthroughs have bypassed significant hurdles to bringing green gasoline biofuels to market.

Cool stuff.  Ethanol, particularly ethanol from corn, is a really dumb idea, but biofuels that are made from other plants have a lot of potential.

Reuters

Iran has started to install 6,000 advanced centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, an expansion of nuclear work the West fears is aimed at building bombs.Diplomats in Vienna told Reuters last week that Tehran was installing advanced enrichment centrifuges at the underground Natanz facility, accelerating activity that could give Iran the means to make atom bombs in the future if it chose to.

The only use for an enrichment facility of this magnituge is to make weapons grade uranium.  Lets be clear on that from the outset.

I  understand that doing what is necessary to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear capability is perilous.   It will cost blood and treasure and is an extremely undesirable thing to have to do.  Not stopping Iran though will, I believe, result in situations that will cost even more blood and treasure.  We don’t have a lot of time to act, and this choice will have lasting effects.

New York Times

Mr. McCain, now the presumptive Republican nominee, has staked his candidacy on the promise that American troops can bring stability to Iraq. What he almost never says is that one of them is his own son, who spent seven months patrolling Anbar Province and learned of his father’s New Hampshire victory in January while he was digging a stuck military vehicle out of the mud.In his 71 years, Mr. McCain has confronted war as a pilot, a prisoner and a United States senator, but never before as a father. His son’s departure for Iraq brought him the same worry that every military parent feels, friends say, while the young marine’s experiences there have given him a sustained grunt’s-eye view of the action and private confirmation for his argument that United States strategy in Iraq is working.

I wasn’t aware that Senator McCain had a son who is serving in Iraq.  It speaks very well of McCain that his son is serving, and also that he hasn’t tried to use that fact politically.

I still have some differences with the Senator, but he is certainly a very admirable man whose sacrifices for are nation, both past and present, are a very compelling argument for his candidacy.

(via Instapundit)

Avaaz.org - The World in Action

It takes about 30 seconds to show what side you are on.

Pajamas Media » Blog Archive » An Open Letter to Senator Obama from Lionel Chetwynd
From the conclusion:

That is the teaching opportunity I hoped you would evoke: not explaining Wright’s outrage to me, but explaining his outrageousness to him. That’s how we’ll reach the postracial era: by no longer justifying ourselves with what was, instead speaking to what now exists. Not deny the past, but recognize that’s what it is: past.

You say you are devoted to Reverend Wright because he brought you to Christ. I can only imagine how powerful a relationship that forges. But, my imperfect understanding of the Christian Faith tells me you can do him an equally magnificent service: You can help bring him back to Christ. Show him redemption and salvation lie not in the satisfaction of doing little dances in a pulpit while you slander good and decent people. Teach him that great leadership and Christian love abjures the very filth – and I pick that word deliberately – that he spews on an apparently regular basis. After all, Senator, you know our government did not invent the HIV virus to kill African-Americans. You know, Senator, this is not the United States of KKK America. You know the truth of 9/11. At least you should. Both you and Michelle have benefited mightily from the new spirit that has come to America in the last two generations. I thought you were part of that. I thought you were post-racial.

But in your silence, in your justifications, in your facile instruction to contextualize, you seem just a more presentable version of those dreary self-promoters, Sharpton, Jackson, Bakewell and the rest. Surely this is not you. Please, Senator, be brave. Lead. From a position of honesty where context is our daily reality, not drawn from bitter memories, no matter how justified they once might have been. Deny Jeremiah Wright your comfort of “context”. Be Presidential. To all Americans.

The whole thing is well worth reading.

BBC NEWS

The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday’s bombardment of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.Gen David Petraeus told the BBC he thought Tehran had trained, equipped and funded insurgents who fired the barrage of mortars and rockets.

He said Iran was adding what he described as “lethal accelerants” to a very combustible mix.

There has as yet been no response from Iran to the accusations.

Interesting.