President's Weekly Address: Tragedy at Fort Hood

From the White House web site:

The President condemns the "despicable" attacks at Fort Hood, honoring those who were killed and injured. He also commends those who stood up to help and console those affected: "even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America."

This was a terrible tragedy, yet as the President said we did see the worst and the best of our people as it seems we always do. Even as one person was trying to take so many lives there were others who were working to stop him and help the wounded in any way they could. That's the America I know and love, color, race, sex, nor any differences means nothing, we are all American's and we all are in need and we work together to help each other... That's what the Republican's seem to forget.

Here is the President.



Sorry I am late posting this, Mom had surgery on her shoulder yesterday and she is in a lot of pain.. it's been hard on all of us dealing with it and her.. She is very resistant to calling the doctor and getting any other help.. but I think that is the next step. Prayers and thoughts would be most welcome.

President's Weekly Address: Milestones on the Economy and the Recovery Act

From the White House web site:

While there is nothing to celebrate until job numbers turn around, the President cites the recent dramatic turnaround in gross domestic product as a sign of better things to come. He also applauds the fact that the Recovery Act has now created or saved more than a million jobs.

I can attest to the fact there are jobs being created. When I traveled not only did I see the wind farms being built there were roads being rebuilt but there are buildings and houses being built everywhere between my home and Chicago.. That's 500 miles of rebuilding. My uncle and I talked that the entire state of Illinois was under construction. Iowa was almost that bad.

One of the things that I found was really neat about Iowa.. all of the rest areas in Iowa had wireless internet in them. Yep, Iowa is getting to the modern era a lot faster than some of our other more forward states...lol.

Just 15 miles from me, they built a new Target Store.. and there is another one only 9 miles from it.. So don't tell me we are in too bad a shape if they can do that. Not to mention the fact the intersection where the store is, has a Home Depot, Wal-Mart and more restaurants than you can count. There is so much traffic there they have had to rebuild it into a 4 lane street and are now redoing it again and making it into a 6 lane because it is so busy. This is a new street that wasn't even a through street 10 years ago, it was just a by way to get to the hospital. Now it is a major street and has grown into a through-way almost.

So contrary to what the media would have people to believe, there is growth in our economy in places. There has been very little slow down here in Missouri that I have seen. The construction has gone on all the time, roads were built, new stores were opened and people still shopped every day.

But, enough.. you want to hear the president.. so here he is....

Wind Energy, The Quiet Approach to Global Warming

Wind energy has been here for years. Most people don't realize this. There have been wind farms in California since 1985.

The state of California has the most right now, producing 2,096 MW with Texas ranking second at 1,293 MW. Other states with sizable wind plants include Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Wind plants are now operating in many regions of the country. For state-by-state totals of installed wind capacity, as well as information on wind projects in individual states, visit the AWEA Web site and click on Wind Projects. It is located under the Resources Tab.

(One megawatt of wind capacity is enough to supply 240 to 300 average American homes. Thus, the 2,096 MW installed in California is enough to supply 500,000 to 620,000 average households.)

That is quite a staggering amount I think.. Why is anyone fighting this? Why would you not want to help get this going more and more.. Yet people are.

When I was traveling to Chicago with my uncle we noticed some trucks carrying parts of Wind turbines and towers to a location in Illinois.. On our first trip, there was only one tower up that we could see. In the 3 weeks or so that separated our trips, they put up 6. We met trucks carrying the parts for at least 4 more heading in that direction on the way back home on our last trip.

According to the AWEA website, best I can determine the site we saw is building 67 units to produce 100.5 MW and should be operational this year. As I said, this is a quiet approach. There is no fanfare for any of this.

When we were still on our way home, we stopped at a rest area just inside the state line of Missouri and I went inside the Visitor's Center just to see what they had and to pick up new maps and such.. Well I also found some very interesting information about Wind Farms.. Right here in my back yard so to speak.

We have the 1st 100% Wind Powered Community here in Missouri. Yes, you read that correctly.. Missouri, red neck capitol of the world.. has the FIRST TOTALLY WIND POWERED COMMUNITY IN THE WORLD. Simply Amazing to Me, that no one has really made a big deal out of this.

The Loess Hills Wind Farm was named for the soil contained within the hills they are built upon. Four wind turbines (Suzion S-64's) are located on agricultural lands within the city limits of Rock Port, MO. Each turbine can produce 1.25 megawatts (MW) of electricity and sits atop a 250 foot steel tower. Wind speeds of only 9 miles per hour are needed to begin power and maximum power is reached at 14 mph.

These turbines are connected directly into the city's high voltage lines. Rock Port uses about 13 million Kilowatt hours (KwH) each year. The prediction is that Loess Hills Wind Farm will produce 16 million KwH each year. The excess not used by local homes and businesses will then be moved to transmission lines and purchased by the Missouri Joint Municipal Utilities for use in other areas of the state. This makes Rock Port, Missouri the first community in America capable of meeting its entire annual electricity demands from wind power!

Not far from this location, is another wind farm, called of all things.. the Cow Branch Wind Farm...lol Construction on this one began in 2007 and it consists of 24 Suzion S88s it spans about 7,000 acres, and involves 35 landowners. Each turbine has a capacity of 2.1 MW for a total of 50.4 MW. That is enough clean energy for 30,000 homes. Not only that but Atchison County will enjoy an increase in its tax base due the to wind farm and all the new jobs building the towers and maintaining them, and the power lines.

I am excited about this.. I think we all should be. Wind energy is plentiful and it is cheap to generate. The initial cost of building the towers and the blades are the main thing. Most of the power lines are already in existence. So it is just a matter of tying into them.

There is so much information out there it is hard to know what to include. There is also a lot of misinformation. Talk of how noisy they are, how terrible they are for birds, how much of a eyesore they are.. and so on and so on.


As for the bird kills.. They have studied this and have found the number is very low. Avian studies have been carried out at many wind farm sites. They show
that bird kills per megawatt (MW) average one to six per year or less, with
the exception of a single 3-turbine plant in Tennessee that has recorded 11
per MW per year. These include sites passed by millions of migrating birds
each year. At a few sites, no kills have been found at all.
A reasonable, conservative estimate is that of every 10,000 human-related
bird deaths in the U.S. today, wind plants cause less than one. The
National Academy of Sciences estimated in 2006 that wind energy is
responsible for less than 0.003% of (3 of every 100,000) bird deaths
caused by human (and feline) activities.


As for noise.. There is just too much information for me to type it all out. But there is basically no noise to be heard. You can access it at this link if you want to read all the details. But it says they have tested it, and even had a police officer go out and test it because someone complain, and the leaves rustling in the wind were louder than the wind turbines.. LOL

As for the eyesore part of it.. I guess that's for everyone to decide on their own. Most of these are out of the way, it is not like they are in the middle of a high traffic area, or in urban areas with lots of fancy stores and traffic, most are in rural areas, mountain areas and such as that.

The ones in Illinois I saw, were on farms miles from any major city and probably 5 miles or so from the interstate.

The ones here in Missouri I have written about.. Very small community, 1395 at the last census. So as you see, these are very small areas and not large cities, so again, I guess it is what you would say, the eye of the beholder... But to me they aren't that bad to look at. Besides at 250 feet tall.. how much are you going to be looking at...lol

Check out the web site and see what is being done in your state. You may be surprised. There are very few states which are not building wind farms.. and of course the states that aren't are the usual Utah and the other conservative Southern states mostly.. and just a couple of others.

I was blown away by the number of wind farms that have been built across the country quietly and without fanfare. I guess this is why no one has really pushed much about it. They want it done quietly so it can be done and the wing nuts won't be alarmed... lol

Well, lets get it done then.. it creates jobs, it helps the environment, it helps the tax base and it helps all of us because it helps lower the cost of our electricity. Sounds like a win win to me.

What do you think?

President's Weekly Address: Working with Small Business to Drive Recovery

From the White House web site:

The President restates his commitment to small business as key to economic recovery -- from the Recovery Act to Financial Stability to Health Reform -- and pledges more to come.

In this week’s address, President Barack Obama spoke of how important small businesses are to the economy and described the steps his administration is taking to support them. Health insurance reform will allow small business to purchase insurance for their employees through exchanges, which will increase the quality of coverage while lowering the costs, and reform will provide tax credits to those businesses. To free up credit, the President called on Congress to increase the size of various SBA loans, and he announced that the administration will be making more credit available to the small local and community banks that many small businesses depend on.

The President is doing more every day to help create and save jobs through small businesses, big businesses and much more. This is just one part of it. With the Climate Change bill, or ACES as it is also called this could also help with jobs, if only we could get our Congress to do something about it and pass it.

I will have more on the Wind Energy in the next couple of days. I have some interesting things I found that I want to share about it.. and I was surprised to learn I had wind farms right here in my back yard so to speak.. But now, here is the President.

Craig Crawford Puts the Obama vs Fox into Perspective

Craig Crawford gives a little bit of historical perspective to the White House vs. Fox "war" that everyone seems to be talking about.

I don't agree with him that it is a bad idea, however, but I do know it has happened many times before.. it seems most people have forgotten that. I have never considered Fox a news organization and refuse to call them such.. so I understand exactly where the President and his staff are coming from.

But here is a Craig's take on it.. I always enjoy his unique perspective.

President's Weekly Address: Taking the Insurance Companies on Down the Stretch

From the White House web site:

As the health insurance reform debate enters into its final stages in Congress, the President denounces the desperate and deceptive last-ditch efforts of the health insurance companies to derail it.

I have seen first hand this week how much the health care system needs reformed. Even with my great insurance.. Medicare.. and all it covers and the Part D coverage I have, I still have to jump through hoops to get my meds covered and to be able to afford them.

I have a condition called Restless Leg. Yes it is real. I know some people don't believe in it.. but I have been tested and when your legs move 176 times in an hour, you have a problem. Because of the movement, I don't sleep well and I don't rest when I do sleep. The doctor tried me on some medicine to see if it would help, and I took the sample starter pack she gave me and it worked very well.

She then ordered them from the pharmacy and when I went to pick it up, it was denied by my insurance company. If I wanted this it would cost me $106.80 a month. Because my doctor hadn't called the insurance company and gotten a pre-authorization.

This is why we need reform. So things like this don't happen anymore. So an insurance office worker who doesn't know me from adam can't sit in an office somewhere reading a book and say I can't have the medicine that will help me, instead of my doctor, who knows what I need.

I know there are hundreds of stories just like this and worse.. but I just wanted to share my story with you today.

Now, here is the President. I hope the video plays a little better for you.. it was a little shaky for me..

President Obama Addresses the Human Rights Campaign Dinner

President Obama gives a rousing speech to a core group of supporters who have been thinking they were forgotten by him. He renewed his commitment to them and updated them on all the progress he has made on different things.

This speech is in 3 parts and is worth the 30 minutes or so it takes to listen to it. He was very warmly received and his speech was applauded many times. He reaffirmed his commitment to END DADT and stated forcefully that he would end it.

Listen to the President as he speaks and you will feel good about his commitments.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Again, as I said, he was very well received and I think the stories of the support of the LGBT community leaving him is overdone.. oh there may be some moving away.. but isn't that the way it always is.. For the most part this was a very receptive crowd and he got several standing O's and lots of applause.

I fully support the repeal of DADT, DOMA and all the other archaic laws on the books. No one has the right to tell anyone who they can love, who they can marry or what they can do with their body. I firmly believe that.

Let's get the government out of our lives, and back into the business of taking care of the welfare of the people as a whole.. instead of nosing into individual lives and bodies.