http://connect2utah.com/content/news/story?cid=60292
Mark Shurtleff's Statement
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Statement Regarding the Suspension of Senate Campaign
Today, I am announcing the suspension of my campaign for the U.S. Senate. This announcement comes with sorrow because I do want to serve my country, and I do believe both bpolitical parties have put this nation in grave danger by spending so foolishly that our children and grandchildren will have a difficult time recovering.
I have chosen to take pause because my daughter's health is very fragile. She is struggling with emotional issues and has recently been placed in a treatment center. Her recovery depends on the focus and energy we give her as parents over the next several months. In the time since I announced my candidacy for the U.S. Senate, she has started experiencing severe mental health problems and is now in a treatment center. M'liss and I have been told by her doctors that we will be needed in numerous counseling sessions to give our daughter a chance of recovery.
Many of you know that I had a serious motorcycle accident a few years ago, and I would have lost my leg if I had not paused and taken the time to receive medical treatment to take care of it. I am not willing to lose my daughter, so I am suspending my campaign to care for her and my family. Most folks understand physical illness; it is my hope that people will learn how serious and dangerous mental illness can be.
I want to thank the thousands of supporters who have been by my side thus far. I ask for your prayers for my family and specifically my daughter. We don't think our trials are any harder than rest of the world's, but right now, we could use a little extra help.
To the citizens of Utah, rest assured, I will continue to do everything I can as Attorney General to protect you against identity theft, internet predators and anyone who tries to bring harm to the children and families of this great state.
Sincerely,
Mark Shurtleff
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Canada: Time to get rid of the long-gun registry?
http://www.canada.com/news/registry+boondoggle+should/2182916/story.html
It's a good time for the federal gun registry to die.
After 11 years of low-calibre crime-fighting-- shooting blanks at bad guys, backfiring financially or taking aim at all the wrong targets--the billion-dollar boondoggle uncovered in 2002 by the auditor general will likely be placed on the de-registration block Wednesday afternoon.
The magic number to send the gun registry kill bill off for committee scrutiny and sober Senate thought is 10 opposition MPs.
Under intense pressure from an attack ad campaign against MPs in ridings the Conservatives don't hold where local opposition to the registry is strong, at least five Liberals and six New Democrats will likely be spooked enough to vote with the government or abstain on Manitoba MP Candice Hoeppner's private member's bill.
Unless the two opposition party leaders successfully plead for unity at caucus meetings Wednesday morning, that count should stick, lifting the bill over its highest hurdle and putting it on track to unplug the registry and shred its records.
The beauty of using the private-member process is how it allows the Conservatives to scrap a registry they've demonized for a decade without tarnishing their law-and-order credentials.
As a free vote, the bill's passage will allow Prime Minister Stephen Harper to tell police organizations and urban voters who support the registry that a three-party, um, coalition of MPs actually put it out of its misery, not government ideology. That's optics-only, of course. The Conservatives have tried three times to legislate the firearms registry into oblivion, only to watch the bills die. The private member bill route at least offers them some political cover.
The premise behind registering long guns (handguns will remain subject to a registration requirement which began in 1934) was always suspect. The greater the owner's propensity for illegal gun activity, the less likely they'd be to register their weapon.
"We do have a problem in Canada with gun crime, but it's handguns mixed with drugs and gangs," says Hoeppner. "It's not the lawabiding long gun owners."
The better approach, Hoeppner argues, would be to track those who are prohibited from owning firearms, most of them living without any form of weapons surveillance, and leave hunters and sport shooters subject only to obtaining a licence when they purchase unrestricted firearms.
It's the right move, but it doesn't mean they'll be shuttering any time soon that unmarked brown box of an office building that houses registry computers in Miramichi, N.B.
Opposition MPs supporting the move could get cold feet when the final roll is called or the Liberalcontrolled Senate could footdrag the bill until the next election kills it yet again. But that would really prolong the inevitable. Despite the 7.3-million firearms on file now, the vast majority being hunting rifles or unmodified shotguns, the registry has become outdated and thus unreliable after three years of reporting amnesties.
Besides, it just doesn't seem to work.
While proponents point to the falling crime rate as proof it has merit, serious crime rates are falling much faster in the United States where the right to bear arms is constitutionally guaranteed.
Police have warped its merits by recently showcasing a weapon seizure and wrongly boasting their haul was helped by the registry. They also exaggerate law enforcement reliance on the registry by insisting police access it about 5,000 times a day, knowing full well every search of the Canadian Police Information Centre for any reason generates an automatic search of the firearms registry.
There's lingering political sensitivity to axing the registry.
Harper, for example, has promised to preserve the 290 Miramichi and Ottawa headquarters jobs at risk from the closure.
How?Why? The last thing this bloated, deficit-ridden government needs to do is preserve employees for eliminated jobs, particularly ones of dubious merit.
Maine voters reject gay-marriage law...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gay_marriage_maine
PORTLAND, Maine – Cecelia Burnett and Ann Swanson had already set their wedding date. When they joined about 1,000 other gay marriage supporters for an election night party in a Holiday Inn ballroom, they hoped to celebrate the vote that would make it possible.
Instead, they went home at midnight, dejected and near tears after a failed bid to make Maine the first state to approve same-sex marriage at the ballot box.
"I'm ready to start crying," said Burnett, a 58-year-old massage therapist, walking out of the ballroom with Swanson at her side. "I don't understand what the fear is, why people are so afraid of this change.
"It hurts. It hurts personally," she said. "It's a personal rejection of us and our relationship, and I don't understand what the fear is."
With 87 percent of precincts reporting, gay-marriage foes had 53 percent of the vote in a referendum that asked Maine voters whether they wanted to repeal a law allowing same-sex marriage that had passed the Legislature and was signed by Democratic Gov. John Baldacci.
"The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across the nation," said Frank Schubert, the chief organizer for Stand for Marriage Maine, which lobbied for the repeal.
For the gay rights movement, which has gained a foothold in New England, it was a stinging defeat. Gay marriage has now lost in every state — 31 in all — in which it has been put to a popular vote. Gay-rights activists had hoped to buck that trend in Maine, framing same-sex marriage as a matter of equality for all families in a campaign that used 8,000 volunteers to get out the message.
Five states have legalized gay marriage — Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut — but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote.
Portland resident Sarah Holman said she was torn, but decided — despite her conservative upbringing — to vote in favor of letting gays marry.
"They love and they have the right to love. And we can't tell somebody how to love," said Holman, 26.
While the gay marriage opponents claimed victory, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for No on 1/Protect Maine Equality, held off conceding until early Wednesday, when he issued a statement vowing to continue to press the issue.
The fight for marriage equality will continue, he told supporters at the Holiday Inn ballroom, where a buffet table included a three-tiered wedding cake — with two grooms standing side by side, two brides standing side by side and the inscription: "We all do!"
"We're not short-timers. We're here for the long haul and whether it's just all night and into the morning, or it's next week or next month or next year. We will be here. We'll be here fighting. We'll be working. We will regroup."
For Burnett and Swanson, the July 10 wedding date — and a reception cruise on Casco Bay — is off.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Ford reports a nearly $1 billion profit
http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/02/news/companies/ford_results/?postversion=2009110211
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Ford Motor reported a surprise profit for
the third quarter Monday, helped by a bump in sales from the Cash for
Clunkers program, a reduced cost structure and problems at its U.S.
rivals.
The company also announced plans late Monday to raise $3 billion in
order to further boost its balance sheet.
The only major U.S. automaker not to file for bankruptcy this year
earned $997 million, or 29 cents a share, compared to a loss of $161
million, or 7 cents a share on that basis a year earlier.
Excluding special items, Ford reported a profit of $873 million, or 26
cents a share, in the period. Analysts had been forecasting a loss of
12 cents a share for the quarter on this basis. Ford said it was the
first pre-tax operating profit since the start of 2008.
In a separate announcement, Ford said it will issue $1 billion in
common stock and $2 billion of debt that will be convertible to common
shares. The company said it will start issuing them beginning next
month. The automaker also said it hopes to extend the maturity of its
revolving credit facility by two years to 2013.
"We expect the moves will enhance Ford's automotive liquidity and over
time reduce the company's debt burden, providing an additional cushion
given the still uncertain state of the economy," said Ford President
and CEO Alan Mulally in a statement.
The company said cost cutting during the past year and an improved
outlook for sales leads it to believe Ford will be "solidly
profitable" in 2011, excluding special items.
That's the most bullish outlook Ford has offered investors since it
started losing money in 2005. The company had previously said it was
looking for break-even or better results that year.
Turning the corner. The guidance raised hopes that the company may
have turned the corner on nearly five years of losses for its key
North American auto operations.
"Our third quarter results clearly show that Ford is making tremendous
progress despite the prolonged slump in the global economy," said
Mulally.
The company said it lowered its structural costs by $1 billion
compared to a year earlier, with about half of that improvement coming
in North America.
While Ford did not need federal assistance or a bankruptcy
reorganization as rivals General Motors and Chrysler did, it was able
to win concessions from its unions that resulted in a $300 million
structural cost reduction. Ford also said it paid about $200 million
less for materials and commodities in the quarter.
Ford still faces some potential problems in the near term. In a vote
announced Monday afternoon, the United Auto Workers union rank and
file rejected additional contract concessions sought by Ford
management, including a freeze on entry level wages.
And Ford said it expects sharp declines in European sales in the next
year partly because an even larger Cash for Clunkers there this year
will steal demand from future months.
Still, Mulally told investors that the company remains hopeful it
could be profitable in 2010, not just by 2011, and that the longer
time frame in the new guidance is a way of being cautious.
"The reason we couched it that way is we're just not sure about the
strength of the recovery," Mulally said. Ford will detail further
guidance on 2010 profits when it reports fourth-quarter results in
January.
Digesting the details. Results in North America were helped by much
stronger sales than a year earlier, particularly in the United States,
where the company was one of the prime beneficiaries of the Cash for
Clunkers program that gave buyers up to $4,500 if they traded in a gas
guzzler for a more fuel efficient vehicle.
Even without the Cash for Clunkers program, which lifted the whole
industry out of the doldrums, Ford made gains on many of its rivals
during the quarter.
During the quarter, Ford's U.S. market share rose by 2.2 percentage
points to 14.6%. Ford benefited from steep market share declines at GM
and Chrysler in the wake of their bankruptcies, but it also posted
bigger market share gains than Japanese rivals such as Toyota Motor
(TM) and Honda Motor (HMC).
Shares of Ford (F, Fortune 500) gained more than 8% Monday.
The company reported overall revenue of $30.9 billion in the quarter,
down $800 million from the same period a year ago due to a decrease in
revenue at its Ford Credit unit.
0:00 /2:59Better days ahead for autos
Ford said that global auto sales rose $100 million from the third
quarter of 2008, to $27.9 billion. It sold 1.23 million vehicles
worldwide, up 5% from a year earlier, and its average net pricing also
improved along with its sales volume. Auto revenue in North America
soared by $2.9 billion, or 27%, to $13.7 billion.
Ford also said it made money on its auto operations, and that it
reported positive cash flow of $1.3 billion from its auto businesses.
The company had been burning through significant amounts of cash every
quarter since the second quarter of 2007 as it suffered from years of
ongoing losses.
"While we still face a challenging road ahead, our [company]
transformation plan is working and our underlying business continues
to grow stronger," Mulally added.
Ford's automotive unit earned $446 million in the quarter, compared to
a loss of $2.9 billion in the year-earlier period, as the company's
core auto operations in North America returned to profitability for
the first time since the first half of 2005. To top of page
Monday, November 2, 2009
Follow the Money...Gore & Global Warming
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/business/energy-environment/03gore.html
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a
winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an
energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where Mr. Gore
is a partner.
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The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to
make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Mr. Gore's firm,
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley's top venture
capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships
with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called smart meters
in homes and businesses.
Mr. Gore and his partners decided to back the company, and in
gratitude Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner
Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers.
The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy
Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. Of the total,
more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has
contracts. Kleiner Perkins and its partners, including Mr. Gore, could
recoup their investment many times over in coming years.
Silver Spring Networks is a foot soldier in the global green energy
revolution Mr. Gore hopes to lead. Few people have been as vocal about
the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the
world produces and consumes energy. And few have put as much money
behind their advocacy as Mr. Gore and are as well positioned to profit
from this green transformation, if and when it comes.
Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming
skeptics, say Mr. Gore is poised to become the world's first "carbon
billionaire," profiteering from government policies he supports that
would direct billions of dollars to the business ventures he has
invested in.
Representative Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, asserted at
a hearing this year that Mr. Gore stood to benefit personally from the
energy and climate policies he was urging Congress to adopt.
Mr. Gore says that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is.
"Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business
in this country?" Mr. Gore said. "I am proud of it. I am proud of it."
In an e-mail message this week, he said his investment activities were
consistent with his public advocacy over decades.
"I have advocated policies to promote renewable energy and accelerate
reductions in global warming pollution for decades, including all of
the time I was in public service," Mr. Gore wrote. "As a private
citizen, I have continued to advocate the same policies. Even though
the vast majority of my business career has been in areas that do not
involve renewable energy or global warming pollution reductions, I
absolutely believe in investing in ways that are consistent with my
values and beliefs. I encourage others to invest in the same way."
Mr. Gore has invested a significant portion of the tens of millions of
dollars he has earned since leaving government in 2001 in a broad
array of environmentally friendly energy and technology business
ventures, like carbon trading markets, solar cells and waterless
urinals.
He has also given away millions more to finance the nonprofit he
founded, the Alliance for Climate Protection, and to another group,
the Climate Project, which trains people to present the slide show
that was the basis of his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
Royalties from his new book on climate change, "Our Choice," printed
on 100 percent recycled paper, will go to the alliance, an aide said.
Other public figures, like Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Robert F. Kennedy
Jr., who have vocally supported government financing of energy-saving
technologies, have investments in alternative energy ventures. Some
scientists and policy advocates also promote energy policies that
personally enrich them.
As a private citizen, Mr. Gore does not have to disclose his income or
assets, as he did in his years in Congress and the White House. When
he left government in early 2001, he listed assets of less than $2
million, including homes in suburban Washington and in Tennessee.
Since then, his net worth has skyrocketed, helped by timely
investments in Apple and Google, profits from books and his movie, and
scores of speeches for which he can be paid more than $100,000,
although he often speaks at no charge.
He is a founder of Generation Investment Management, based in London
and run by David Blood, a former head of Goldman Sachs Asset
Management (the firm was quickly dubbed Blood and Gore). Mr. Gore
earns a partner's salary at Kleiner Perkins. He has substantial
personal finances invested at both firms, officials of the companies
said.
He also serves as an adviser to high-profile technology companies
including Apple and Google, relationships that have paid him handsome
dividends over the last eight years.
Mr. Gore's spokeswoman would not give a figure for his current net
worth, but the scale of his wealth is evident in a single investment
of $35 million in Capricorn Investment Group, a private equity fund
started by his friend Jeffrey Skoll, the first president of eBay.
Ion Yadigaroglu, a co-founder of Capricorn, said that Mr. Gore does
not sit on the fund's investment committee, but obviously agrees with
the partners' strategy of putting long-term money into promising
ventures in energy, technology and health care around the globe.
"Aspirationally," said Mr. Yadigaroglu, who holds a doctorate from
Stanford in astrophysics, "we're trying to make more money than others
doing the same thing and do it in a way that is superior in ethics and
impacts."
Mr. Gore has said he invested in partnerships and funds that try to
identify and support companies that are advancing cutting-edge green
technologies and are paving the way toward a low-carbon economy.
He has a stake in the world's pre-eminent carbon credit trading market
and in an array of companies in bio-fuels, sustainable fish farming,
electric vehicles and solar power.
Capricorn holds a major stake in Falcon Waterfree Technologies, the
world's leading maker of waterless urinals. Generation has holdings in
Ausra, a solar energy company based in California, and Camco, a
British firm that develops carbon dioxide emissions reduction
projects. Kleiner Perkins has a green ventures fund with nearly $1
billion invested in renewable energy and efficiency concerns.
Mr. Gore also has substantial interests in technology, media and
biotechnology ventures that have no direct tie to his environmental
advocacy, an aide said.
Mr. Gore is not a lobbyist, and he has never asked Congress or the
administration for an earmark or policy decision that would directly
benefit one of his investments. But he has been a tireless advocate
for policies that would move the country away from the use of coal and
oil, and he has begun a $300 million campaign to end the use of fossil
fuels in electricity production in 10 years.
But Marc Morano, a climate change skeptic who until recently was a top
aide to Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, said that
what he saw as Mr. Gore's alarmism and occasional exaggerations
distorted the debate and also served his personal financial interests.
Mr. Gore has testified numerous times in support of legislation to
address climate change and to revamp the nation's energy policies.
He appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in April to
support an energy and climate change bill that was intended to reduce
global warming emissions through a cap-and-trade program for major
polluting industries.
Mr. Gore, who shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his climate
advocacy, is generally received on Capitol Hill as something of an
oracle, at least by Democrats.
But at the hearing in April, he was challenged by Ms. Blackburn, who
echoed some of the criticism of Mr. Gore that has swirled in
conservative blogs and radio talk shows. She noted that Mr. Gore is a
partner at Kleiner Perkins, which has hundreds of millions of dollars
invested in firms that could benefit from any legislation that limits
carbon dioxide emissions.
"I believe that the transition to a green economy is good for our
economy and good for all of us, and I have invested in it," Mr. Gore
said, adding that he had put "every penny" he has made from his
investments into the Alliance for Climate Protection.
"And, Congresswoman," he added, "if you believe that the reason I have
been working on this issue for 30 years is because of greed, you don't
know me."
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Hillary: 'We tax everything that moves and doesn't move'... ...
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/print.asp?page=2009\10\30\story_30-10-2009_pg1_1
Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan: Hillary Clinton
* US taxes everything, and 'that's not what we see in Pakistan'
* Pakistan must start planning for challenges posed by population growth
* US secretary of state meets COAS
LAHORE: The leadership of Al Qaeda is in Pakistan, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday.
"I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where
they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to," she added.
"Maybe that's the case; maybe they're not gettable. I don't know... As
far as we know, they are in Pakistan," Clinton told senior Pakistani
newspaper editors in Lahore, AFP reported. "The percentage of taxes on
GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world... We (the United
States) tax everything that moves and doesn't move, and that's not
what we see in Pakistan," she said.
"You do have 180 million people. Your population is projected to be
about 300 million. And I don't know what you're going to do with that
kind of challenge, unless you start planning right now," she said.
"If we are going to have a mature partnership where we work together"
then "there are issues that not just the United States but others have
with your government and with your military security establishment".
Separately, Clinton also met army chief General Ashfaq Kayani and
exchanged views on a host of security-related issues. afp/sajjad malik
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