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BLUE DOGS FOR CHANGE -- (House of Representatives - February 14, 2006)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, it is indeed always an honor to have an opportunity to speak on the floor of the House of Representatives.
And tonight I join with fellow members of the Blue Dog Coalition. The Blue Dogs, as you know, is a group of moderate to conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives, a group that has taken positions on many issues over the years, and a particular issue which the Blue Dogs have a solid reputation on is that of promoting fiscal responsibility for this country.
And that message is needed now more than ever, and the Blue Dogs are going to continue to speak out in terms of what we think is the right thing to do for this country and particularly for future generations in this country.
You know, I just had a new addition to my family about a month ago, had a little boy born into my family. And the day he was born, he already owed over $27,000 to the United States of America. Because if you take our national debt and divide it over our whole population, that is about how it calculates out.
And that little boy entered this world with that kind of debt hanging on him not having had anything to do with that debt. He was not around when the money was spent, was not involved in the decision-making that created that debt. And I find it appalling that we allow this to continue to take place and grow in terms of a problem.
I see this as a moral obligation we have to future generations, and for me personally I see it in my own new son. What is disturbing is the trend that we are on right now, because there are going to be times when the economy is good and times when the economy is bad, and sometimes revenues are going to be up and sometimes revenues are going to be down.
And there may be times when a deficit occurs for valid reasons. But when you are in a deficit situation, what you want to do is you want to have a plan for working your way out of that debt. The concern I have is that we do not see that plan on the horizon. What we see instead is an ever-increasing amount of debt over time.
Let us put it into context. From 1789 until the year 2000, the total debt that was incurred by this country was $5.63 trillion. But by 2010, the total national debt will have increased to just under $11 trillion. So we will have doubled the 211 years' worth of debt in just 10 years.
You do not need to get out your calculator to figure out that that is not a good trend, and it is increasing at way too fast a rate. So now more than ever it is time for us to stand up in a statesman-like way and make the decisions that are going to be tough decisions if we are ever going to get a handle on being fiscally responsible.
That is what we are here to talk about tonight as the Blue Dog Coalition. I have been joined by some of my colleagues from the Blue Dog Coalition. I am honored to be associated with all of them.
Mr. Speaker, I am happy to call on them at this time, and I would like to first recognize my colleague from the great State of Tennessee (Mr. Tanner).
Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
I have been here before with the Blue Dogs because it is about the only opportunity we have to discuss what we all believe, as Mr. Matheson said, a trend line that is leading us to a financial Armageddon. There is no other way that one can look at it.
I have been talking about and writing about the fact that our country is currently borrowing more money faster than any previous political leadership in the history of the United States.
To give you some idea, and I wish I were making some of this up, but if anyone cares to go to the Web site of the public Treasury, www.publicdebt.treas.gov, you can see for yourselves there what I am about to talk about.
What happened in this country, basically, is two things: one is we embarked on an economic plan for America in June of 2001 that assumed various things that would happen in the future. In so doing, the outlook was for a $5 trillion surplus over the next 10 years.
We all know what happened on 9/11 in the year 2000, some 2 1/2 months after this economic plan was adopted. The economic plan has not changed, but everything else in the world has.
So what we did was we reduced revenue in 2001, and we have increased spending; and we have not gone back and tried to adjust for this new world that we live in.
So what is so disturbing about this is since 2001 the debt held by non-governmental agencies has increased by $1.4 trillion. Now, if that were not bad enough, you know how much of it we borrowed from foreigners? Almost 90 percent: $1.16 trillion has been borrowed from foreigners, primarily Asia, China and Japan, who together own over $1 trillion worth of IOUs from Mr. Matheson's little boy and others, me, everybody else in this country that is a citizen.
So what we are trying to alert the American people to is that this country has a broken economic game plan, and we do not like the remedies that are being prescribed for this deal by the current administration and the current Congress.
Now, I said the other night, half jesting, it is so bad now and getting worse by the second, I am going to tell you in a minute how much we are borrowing every second, that if China attack Taiwan, we would have to borrow the money from China to defend Taiwan. I say that tongue in cheek; but if you look at where we are, we do not have the money, and we do not have the ability to seemingly right this ship of state.
Now what are the consequences? There are consequences to actions. What are the consequences of this unprecedented borrowing that has taken place here in the last 48 to 60 months? Unless one is able to repeal the laws of arithmetic, interest rates must go higher. Every reputable economist says that. What does higher interest rates mean? Well, it means more finance charges on every American's credit card. It means cars and homes cost more. All of the things that we buy on time will cost more. And it crowds out private investment that creates new jobs in this country, because the interest rates cripple one's ability to invest in new plants, new equipment, modernization, all of those things.
That is the consequence of a willful and deliberate plunge into debt that is taking place here in Washington, DC. It eventually will mean higher taxes.
Did you know that $16 out of every $100 that comes to Washington now goes not for health and education and troops, it goes to pay interest? Now, this inability of the government to invest is going to catch up with us.
There are three things, basically, American families, my friend the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moore) says, three things, basically, that American families live by: one is live within your means; second is pay your debts; and the third is invest in the future. In other words, save money for your kids' college education or for your retirement or something.
Your government is not doing any of the three. We are not living within our means, deficit spending every year for the last 4. We are not paying our bills; we are borrowing the money. We are borrowing the money to fight the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and giving the soldiers who return home the bill with interest.
If that is not immoral, I do not know what is. These guys and women, too, are giving their lives sometimes, their legs, their arms, everything else. And what do they get from us? They get a bill when they get back with interest for what they did for this country.
And the other consequence of this is what our friend from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) said earlier tonight. We are having to zero out the drug task forces in this country that are the front line to try to keep our young people from getting hooked on these drugs like methamphetamine and so forth that will rob not only them of their future but will rob this country of their ability to contribute to a free and strong land.
The other thing is, when we continue to do this, we degrade the tax base so that more and more money that comes here is not available for any investment by the government in infrastructure or human capital.
What do I mean by that? I mean infrastructure, that only the government can do, whether it is dams, roads, bridges, airports, all of the things that allow private enterprise to move in and around the infrastructure and create jobs and create opportunities for our citizens. That is not being done because there is no money for it. It is going to pay interest on the national debt.
And when we do not do that, just go to any country on the face of the Earth that has no infrastructure and see how many people are doing pretty well. Nobody is, because there is nothing for private enterprise and entrepreneurship to build to.
The other thing we are not doing is investing in human capital. If this country is going to remain strong and free, the citizenry of this country must have a good education and must have good health care.
We are robbing ourselves of the ability to invest in education and health care because of this ever-growing burden of debt and interest that takes away from the tax base of the taxes we all pay. There has never been, if one reads history, there has never been a country that is strong and free with an unhealthy, uneducated population. It is not possible.
And yet as this trend line continues, as Mr. Matheson said, this is exactly where we are headed. Now, again, you can go to the Treasury Web site and see what I am talking about.
Last year, the deficit was $319 billion. To put that into something that hopefully we can all understand, that is $26 billion a month, $886 million a day, $36 million an hour. By the time we finish this hour, this Blue Dog hour, we will have borrowed another $36 million. It is $615,000 a minute, and $10,200 a second.
That is how much money we are borrowing. Last year, the fiscal year 2005, the net interest last year we paid was $184 billion. Do you know how much interest checks are? That is $15 billion a month in interest, $511 million a day in interest, $21 million an hour in interest, $354,000 a minute in interest, and $5,900 a second that we are paying in interest because of this growing debt.
I was trying to put this in some kind of context; I guess this is about the best I can do. If you have $1,000 bills, $1,000 bills, and you stack them like that, to get to a million dollars, it will be about a foot high. To get to a billion dollars, $1,000 bills stacked like that, it is as high as the Empire State Building. And a trillion dollars is 1,000 bills, 1,000 times the height of the Empire State Building.
It is staggering. It is the most unaccountable, irresponsible activity that I know any political leadership in the history of this country has engaged in knowingly, willfully, and deliberately. And it is going on tonight, and it will go on when this budget is presented on the floor here. Because there is no accountability.
We do not have any hearings particularly on holding people accountable. You have heard a lot about that. Well, the Blue Dogs have tried to do a couple of things. The first thing we did, or tried to do, to fix it was to reinstitute PAYGO rules. That is something every American family does. If you decide you want to spend some money, you either have got to raise the money to pay for it or you have got to cut the budget somewhere else that is of a lesser priority and fund it that way.
PAYGO rules were allowed to expire. The majority will not let them come back here, and that is one of the reasons that we keep digging deeper. The other thing we have recommended, or tried to recommend actually, is that in addition to the PAYGO rules, and we are going to do this, we are going to unveil an accountability plan, the Blue Dogs are, that is going through every Federal agency, the IG reports, to pick out the programs that are ineffective, duplicitous, or otherwise do not work and cut them. And we will have that coming out. We are working on it right now.
The lack of accountability here, the lack of responsibility here, cannot go on; and the American people need to really pay some attention to this. We have a birth tax of $27,000. That is hideous. It is not right. And this generation has got to bear most of the blame. My generation has to bear most of the blame because we are simply not doing the three things that American families do every day, and that is live within our means, pay your debts and invest in the future.
If we do not change this, Mr. Speaker, then I fear more tonight for my country's future than I ever have in the 60 years I have been on this earth.
Mr. MATHESON. I appreciate those comments from my Blue Dog colleague, Mr. Tanner. He is one of the leaders of the Blue Dogs, and he has been a real voice of reason in Congress. I appreciate him taking the time tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize my Blue Dog colleague from the State of Georgia, Mr. Barrow.
Mr. BARROW. Mr. Speaker, I want to address an issue that is important to all the families that I represent; and it is just being abandoned in this 2007 budget proposal submitted to Congress. I am talking about support for our local police officers and law enforcement agencies, men and women on the frontlines of homeland security, protecting our communities and patrolling our neighborhoods.
Large cities in my district like Savannah are dealing with a rise in violent crime. At the same time, many of our smaller rural communities in Southeast Georgia and all around the country are fighting an epidemic of meth labs. Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to let drugs and violent crime continue to go up in this country. For more than 14 years, homicide was on the decline in this country. That changed last year. According to the latest figures from the FBI, homicide rose by 2.1 percent in the first 6 months of 2005, the first increase since 1991. That is unacceptable, and these cuts in this budget are unacceptable.
The COPS program, cut by $376 million. During the '90s, we figured out what works in reducing crime. More police officers on the streets makes them safer and reduces crime. The COPS program helps our community hire, train, retain and equip our police officers. But this budget cuts this program by 78 percent.
The Byrne Justice Grant Program, completely eliminated. Byrne JAG grants help State and local law enforcement agencies identify and break up regional drug syndicates. This budget completely eliminates that program. Why would anyone want to do that?
If you think that a rise in violent crime is an issue that Congress should ignore, then this budget is for you. If you think we ought to be cutting back on the tools we give our police officers to keep our neighborhoods safe, then this budget is for you.
In the short time since the President dropped this budget, I have discussed this budget with sheriffs and police chiefs all across my district; and the verdict is unanimous. These budget cuts are hurting and not helping local law enforcement. We need to do more, not less, for our police officers.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the proposed budget cuts to the COPS program and to oppose the complete elimination of the Byrne JAG grants. Our local police deserve all the tools that we can give them to protect our families. We need to give them more help, not less.
Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, I think what you heard here, Mr. Tanner
first alluded to it and then Mr. Barrow gave a more elaborate description of proposed reductions in local law enforcement funding, and that is the example of the squeeze that is on. The deficits that we are incurring and the increased interest costs, and, by the way, interest expenses are one of the fastest growing components of the Federal budget today. And with that increased interest cuts you are squeezing other programs.
Some of these programs mean a lot. Local law enforcement grants are something that I think most people in Congress think are a good idea. And the notion that we have a budget presented to Congress that zeros that out is something that is not going to be received well here, I would think. But, again, it is a reflection of the pressures that these increasing deficits are putting on the situation; and that is why it is just another example of why it is so important we try to get a handle on this program.
I now recognize my colleague from Florida, Mr. Boyd.
Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend and colleague, Mr. Matheson from Utah, who is our distinguished leader of the Blue Dogs, a group, Mr. Speaker, that I am very proud to be a member of. I joined when I first came to Congress in January of 1997, and I am proud of the work that they do in trying to bring to the attention of the country and of the Congress the importance of the economic model and making sure that the government meets its obligations to the community and is willing to pay for those obligations.
Mr. Speaker, we live in the greatest country on the face of the Earth. I like to tell my constituents back home when I speak to Kiwanis Clubs or civic clubs that we have 5 percent of the world's population. That is about one of every 20 people in the world live in America. And we control 25 percent of the world's wealth.
We got into that position in a relatively short period of time. It is less than 230 years this year we have been a Nation, and we have done it by creating an economic model that is unsurpassed in the world.
That economic model really to me, when you break it down, does one thing. It always strives to expand the middle class and move as many people as you can out of the bottom rung and into the middle class where they can be productive members of our society. In the process, you narrow the gap between the very rich and the very poor; and that served us well over the years.
I remember talking to my parents when I got old enough to register to vote and asked them about why they happened to be registered Democrats. And they said, well, they thought that, coming out of the Depression in the 1920s and 1930s, that the Democratic party under the leadership of Franklin Delano Roosevelt really laid the groundwork for making this country the greatest economic and military machine on the face of the Earth.
Expand the middle class, Mr. Speaker, to expand the middle class you have to have a well-educated and healthy population, and those are functions that our government has to be involved in. We have to be providing a good educational system for our children. We have to ensure, if we are going to stay competitive in the world, Mr. Speaker, that each generation is better educated than the previous generation. You have to have a good health retirement system. You have to have a good income retirement system.
Prior to the implementation of Social Security and Medicare in this country, if you reached the age of retirement, age 65 in America, there was a great chance, over a 50 percent chance, that you would be below the poverty level. Less than 10 percent of our folks today live below the poverty level because of this great economic model that we have created which strives to expand the middle class. Social Security and Medicare were important components of that.
Why do I talk about the expansion of the middle class and the economic model? This government has a budget which talks about how it funds its community responsibilities, community obligations, and that budget proposal was just presented by the administration to Congress in the last couple of weeks. And that budget proposal for the coming fiscal year which starts on October 1 proposes to spend $2.47 trillion.
Let me say that again. It proposes to spend $2.47 trillion. But its collections to pay for that $2.47 trillion amount to $2.15 trillion. That is a budget deficit of approximately $318 billion. That is after we spend all of the Social Security surplus masking the much larger deficit.
But the problems do not stop there. The budget does not even address the costs of the war effort in the Middle East, in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the coming year. It does not address some other issues which we know as a Congress and a Nation that we have to address, such as the alternative minimum tax exploration and some other tax issues like that.
So what we have before us as a Congress presented by the administration is a budget that really is not a very useful document for us to start with.
Mr. Speaker, my wife and I own a farm, a family farm that has been in my family for over 175 years. And it is not always easy on the farm. It is a small business.
And this past week at home I spent a good part of the week doing a budget.
Why do I do a budget? I do my budget to take to my creditors so they can provide us the funds we need to run our little small business. I spent a good many days on that budget and did the very best I could to present to my creditors just as accurate a picture as possible of what I thought the revenues would be and the expenses would be for the coming year. That is honesty in budgeting. And out there in the country our constituents have to do it in running their own homes. They do it in running their own businesses, and they certainly have to do it in running their own local governments and school boards.
We certainly could expect that the Federal Government could be honest in presenting this budget to the American people. So I would hope, Mr. Speaker, and I would ask my colleagues to join in as we have this discussion about accountability and honesty in budgeting, that we can as a Congress be a little more honest with the American people about what the cost of some of these programs are that we are involved in and how we are going to pay for them.
I do know something for a fact, Mr. Speaker, that you cannot increase spending, cut taxes and cut the deficit all in one lick. The math does not does not work. I learned that in grade school. It is a simple mathematical calculation. You cannot increase spending, cut taxes, and decrease the deficit. It just cannot be done, and that is what evidently this budget pretends to do.
So I hope as we so have this discussion for the next 30 minutes or so that we can delve into some of these issues and have a little straight talk. Let us shoot straight with the American people about what the budget issues are.
Mr. MATHESON. I appreciate those comments. I do think people should expect an honest budget. I think we all know we are going to have troops in Iraq during the next fiscal year; and the fact that this budget does not list a dollar to fund that, in and of itself, tells you that this budget is not an accurate reflection of the expenses that this government is going to face in the next year.
That is not being honest. That is not being straight with people. We know we are going to incur that expense. We ought to acknowledge we are going to incur that expense, and we do not do it, and I think that is something the Blue Dogs feel real strongly about in terms of having honesty and integrity in the budgeting process and the budget numbers.
Part and parcel of that is that we ought to have planning for contingencies. I suspect when Mr. Boyd was developing the budget for the family farm, for his business, that he had a line item in there called contingency, because you know that something else is going to come up. You do not know what it is going to be. You do not know when it is going to be. It could be weather related. It could be something that you cannot even anticipate, but you know there is going to be an expense that comes up that you cannot identify today but it is going to happen. You cannot estimate with absolute accuracy down to the dollar what it is going to be, but you know there is going to be something.
And based on your experience and based on your judgement you guesstimate what it is going to be. And when you go to your bank, if they are helping you finance it, they want you to do that, and they are going to work with you to make sure that is a good estimate of what a contingency might be. We do not do that in the Federal Government, but I am sure you do that when you are planning your own budget.
Mr. BOYD. Absolutely we do do that. I think most people who run a small business understand that. Most folks who run local governments understand that. But there is something else in this budget that we are looking at that we received from the administration in the last few days that really belies any thought of sensibility.
A couple of examples: the veterans medical portion of the budget, we know those are issues that we have to deal with and we have not dealt with very well in the past. In that budget that we were presented are significant fees, increases in copayments that the veterans will have to pay. The Congress has rejected that soundly over all the years that I have been here. So I would not expect that the Congress would increase the fees on the veterans; but yet that is in the President's proposal that he sent up.
Student loans cut significantly. I do not think Congress is likely to cut student loans. I certainly hope they are not, but that is in the budget. Those are the kinds of things that we ought to be honest with the American people about, what the costs are, and how are we going to raise the money to make sure those costs are paid for.
Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Tanner).
Mr. TANNER. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about accountability again. Another consequence of what we have done in the last 48 to 60 months with this unprecedented borrowing has not only degraded tax money coming here that could have been used for foster children, the poorest, most neglected and abused citizens in our society, but what we are doing is we are not fulfilling the congressional role in the scheme of things in this country.
We do not have any hearings about accountability. I saw on television the other night on one of the shows bundles of money that they were handing out in Iraq. They played football with them, and they asked the guy, well, where is the audit for that. He said it is nonexistent. We do not know where the money has gone.
We see Katrina. We see in Hope, Arkansas, 12,000 house trailers sinking in the mud at the Hope airport. That is total incompetence.
What is really disturbing is the Government Accountability Office reports that 16 out of 23 Federal agencies cannot produce an audit. What we want to do, if we are allowed the opportunity to do so, we want to get every one of those Inspector Generals in here and make them tell us what they did with the money. The Congress does not even ask, now what you did with the money that we appropriated to you to the executive branch. We have got basically a one-party government here. They do not ask them; and if they did ask them, they could not tell them.
This is outrageous. There is not a businessperson in America who would go to their comptroller and say here is an item of $20,000, what is that for? I could not tell you; I do not know. Nobody will put up with that, and yet the American people are putting up with it in this town every day.
We just borrowed another $18 million, by the way, since we have been talking.
Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, I know this accountability issue is one that we are all very concerned about. I saw some reports today that in the FEMA response to the Katrina and Rita disasters and other storms of 2005, which were dreadful and particularly dreadful for the people on the gulf coast, but one of the tools they used to help the folks was a $2,000 credit card that FEMA passed out. I read some reports today that many of those, maybe as many as 30 or 40 percent of those credit cards, were received with fraudulent Social Security information; and, also, the expenses on some of those cards were for some very unreasonable items like tattoos and massages and things that we would not think that necessarily the taxpayer ought to be paying for.
So we do need oversight, and one of the things that I am hopeful for is the majority party in this body had an election here a week or so ago, and there is a new majority leader on the Republican side here. It is my hope and I am sure the hope of the Blue Dogs that we can work with him in a way that we have not been able to work with the leaders in the past to try to address some of these issues, because this issue of one-party rule and lack of oversight into the administration's activities is costing the American people greatly. I think it is time that we addressed it and try to do something about it.
Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, I think that really centers on a fundamental issue about the way our Constitution was set up. This is not supposed to be driven by party when it comes to oversight.
When they wrote up our Constitution, they created the three branches of government. We all learn this in grade school. It is called the checks and balances. There is an institutional role for the legislative branch to play. We legislate but we also keep an eye on the executive branch and on the judicial branch, and we do that through oversight. We are supposed to be asking questions. It is all what makes the government accountable. It is pursuing good government. It is not looking for a scandal or anything like that. This is just basically making the trains run on time, ask the right questions.
We know that is not happening right now, and so you mentioned 16 out of 22 major agencies cannot even give you a clean audit of their books. The government cannot tell you where they spent $24.5 billion in the last fiscal year. That is enough to fund the entire Department of Justice, and we do not know where the money is, and Congress is not asking the questions.
It should not be a party issue. We all ought to be asking these questions; and I know the Blue Dogs, as much as anybody in this Congress, are ready to work with anybody because it is an America-first issue, not a Democrat or Republican issue. It is about putting this country in the right position and doing the right thing.
So this issue of accountability and oversight that my two colleagues have been talking about rings real true with me in terms of what the Framers of the Constitution asked us to do. That is our role here. We took an oath to uphold that Constitution. My concern is the non-oversight. I hope we do take action. I hope this conversation helps spur some action in this body, because it is the right thing to do.
Mr. TANNER. Certainly it is the right thing to do.
We take money involuntarily away from people in the form of taxation and appropriate it to the executive branch and then do not even ask them what they did with it. If we ask them, they could not tell us. That is outrageous, and the American people ought not to put up with it, and I hope they will not for too much longer.
Let me say one other thing about the consequences of these deficits. We have raised the debt ceiling, and we are going to have to raise it again either this month or next month. It will be the fourth time we have raised the debt ceiling in 4 years, and the consequences of this, not only are we degrading the tax base because we are diverting more and more to interest, but 90 percent of these interest checks are now being sent overseas, not even staying in this country.
When one is dependent upon foreign interests that do not see the world as we do for their finances, that creates a vulnerability, a financial vulnerability, for our economy, number one; but, two, I think it is a national security issue.
If one reads history, as we all do from time to time, one will see that there are two things that a country cannot survive if they allow themselves to get into that situation. One is for a country to remain strong and free it must have the inherent ability to feed and clothe its citizens, agriculture. If one is dependent upon a foreign source for one's food supply, one is necessarily at risk when that supply chain is interrupted. We know that. You read history.
The second is economics. When one is dependent upon someone else for their funding, any interruption in that supply will sink that country economically.
Someone in the administration testified that it was naive to think that China, which holds $300 billion worth of our paper now, Red China, they say it would be naive to think that the Chinese would do anything to hurt their economic short-term interests. I think it would be naive to think they would not. That would be the cheapest war they ever fought against the United States.
My dad told me one time, I tell you something, Son, he said, It is easier to foreclose a man's house than it is to shoot your way in the front door. When we are dependent upon China and China can say to us, U.S., back off, whether we are demanding that they conform to trade standards, we know what the trade imbalance is with China, or whether or not they make a move on Taiwan and we say you cannot do that, they are getting themselves in a position to say, U.S., stay out of it, or we are going to roll Wall Street and we can do it.
That is the financial vulnerability that puts this country in grave jeopardy. If we lose control of our own economic self-interests, we have lost part of our freedom; and this mortgaging of our country to anybody on Earth that will let us have money on the cheap, 90 percent of last year's deficit was financed from offshore. When we allow that to happen, we are playing Russian roulette, so to speak, because anytime they want to, when they get a critical mass, they can really put the squeeze on us, and there is not a thing on Earth we can do about it.
Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, you can foresee a situation that would put us in a dependent situation with agriculture and funding like we are with oil. For instance, I think 60 percent or so of our oil consumption in this country comes from another part of the world. Many of those people, like you said earlier, do not necessarily have our best interests at heart. So we have it within our own ability to stay out of that situation with the economics, and we really need to get this turned around and stop this deficit spending to the tune of 400 or $500 billion a year. If we do not, then we can foresee a situation down the road where it could be an economic wreck here.
Mr. TANNER. The other thing that the supporters of this economic plan for our country say, well, do not worry about it; as a percentage of the gross domestic product, it is not historically too high. Well, when it was higher was World War II, and we did deficit spend and we borrowed a lot of money; but you know who bought the debt then? Americans, the war bonds, the savings bonds. They are not buying it today. They do not have the money to buy it because the middle class you talked about earlier is shrinking, not growing. It is shrinking. So we are not even financing our own debt.
I had a fellow call me on the phone the other day and said, I am afraid we have gone from the greatest generation to the greediest generation, and if our forefathers had borrowed money like we have seen in the last 48 to 60 months, at this pace, I guarantee you we would not have the standard of living that we have enjoyed in this country up to now. You said it pretty well awhile ago when you said this country was built with investment in infrastructure and human capital, and we are robbing ourselves of the ability to do that.
We do not have the drug task forces. If there is anything on Earth we need to do in this country it is to try to alert the young people to the dangers of that, and the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) spoke, I thought, very eloquently about that. It is zeroed out.
We are eating the seed corn, so to speak, with regard to our investing in the future. I go back to three things every American family does: live within your means, pay your debts, and invest in the future, whether it is for your retirement, kid's college education or something. Leave the place better than when you found it.
This is the first time I can remember when people who are in power of this government are knowingly, willfully, and deliberately leaving this country worse off than they found it financially.
Mr. BOYD. Mr. Speaker, I think you said it very well. We do have a tendency here to be very selfish, this generation, unlike the Greatest Generation, which came out of World War II and paved the way for us to be a great country.
But the Blue Dogs have a plan. We have a plan that talks about some very basic principles that would put this country back on sound footing in terms of its budgeting for its government and funding its priorities, and would the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson) care to share those points with us?
Mr. MATHESON. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to do that, and I think I would put it in the following context. This is not easy to balance this budget. It is going to require a lot of really tough choices, tough political choices.
What the Blue Dogs have decided is we need to put in a structure for this institution and for the White House, for the President and Congress to work within a structure that is going to guide us on the path of fiscal responsibility because without that structure it is just too easy to deficit spend.
That is what has been going on around here. It will take some tough choices. We do not deny that at all. We are ready to work with people, but it will have to be all of us working together to take on those tough choices.
So what the Blue Dogs have done is they have tried to establish a 12-point proposal to set up a structure that addresses some of the issues we have talked about here tonight. For instance, I talked about contingency planning when my colleague, Mr. Boyd, plans his family business budget, which we called one of our 12 points for a rainy day fund, or the Federal Government plans for things that you cannot articulate at the start of the year.
Thirty-five States in this country have rainy day funds. Apparently, we thought that was not appropriate for the United States of America, but we know every year something happens. Natural disasters may happen. We do not know what it is going to be, but we know we ought to plan. That is one of our 12 points.
We talked about accountability earlier, the fact that you can't get a clean audit from most agencies. One of our 12 points is, you know what, any Federal agency that cannot give us a clean audit and properly balance their books, we freeze their budget at the previous year's level. They are stuck. That has some real teeth in it, and that is going to motivate that agency to do the right thing and give you a clean budget.
Another point of the Blue Dog 12-point plan is going to be acquiring a balanced budget amendment for the Constitution. Now this will be appropriately written with exceptions for times of war and natural disaster. But I think that is something we need. As I said earlier, we need a structure. We need something to force Congress and the White House to move toward a balanced budget, and that balanced budget amendment in our Constitution is a key component of making that happen.
Another part of the 12-point plan is something called pay-as-you-go. Now, we throw these terms out a lot. People may not know what that means, but it is a pretty basic concept. That means if you have got something new, a new program you want to spend money on, guess what, you have to pay for it. You can do it by taking money away from a another program or raising revenues.
Same thing if you reduce revenues someplace, you have got to pay for it by cutting spending or raising revenues someplace else. It is something that every family deals with in their household budget, what every business deals with. It is a responsible way to look at things.
This isn't a new idea. This is something that the Congress was working with before. In fact, these rules were in place from 1990 until 2002. Then they expired, and while the Blue Dogs have advocated putting the pay-as-you-go rules back in place, we can't get a vote out here on the floor of the House to do that.
Because as I said earlier, in the short term, it is a lot easier to govern if you do not have to make the tough decisions and you would rather deficit spend. But if we put those rules back in place, it is going to force people to make the tough decisions.
As an aside, I might add, Alan Greenspan who just retired after 18 years as head of the Federal Reserve, and he has such a great reputation in terms of his economic model, he made a rather prophetic statement back in 2001. This is just when we finished a couple of years of surplus. He was testifying before Congress.
He said, ``With today's euphoria surrounding the surpluses, it is not difficult to imagine the hard-earned fiscal restraint developed in recent years rapidly dissipating. We need to resist those policies that would readily resurrect the deficits of the past and the fiscal imbalances that followed in their wake.''
He sure was right, because by November of 2005 he came back before Congress, and in testimony he said, ``Our budget position is unlikely to improve substantially further until we restore constraints similar to the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, which were allowed to lapse in 2002.'' That was the pay-as-you-go provision that existed before.
So we have proof. We have a track record that shows that these rules worked. Without these rules, we have seen us spin into tremendous fiscal imbalance. It is another one of the Blue Dog points. There are 12 points. I thankfully may not go through all 12 of the points tonight, but I wanted to highlight some of the ones that we have talked about tonight, and ones that I think anyone in this country, regardless of political party understands, and they know it is the right thing to do.
I encourage, again, any colleague in the House of Representatives should know the Blue Dogs want to engage them on this issue.
If these 12 points that we have come up with aren't the perfect solution, and somebody has a better idea, we welcome the chance to have a dialogue with them. Because these are not easy issues, and we have got to work together to work this one out. But I think the 12-point plan represents a thoughtful process and a good start for setting up a structure that will force this institution to put us back on the path to fiscal responsibility, and so we can avoid increasing, and I will close with coming back to the comments I started with.
That is not increasing the problem of that birth tax, that we called it, that was employed on the son I had just 3 1/2 weeks ago, that my wife had actually, my new son, came into this world owing $27,000. That is not right, it is not fair, and we have got to do something to make sure we do not grow that anymore.
Mr. TANNER. Now you have got a part of another $36 million that we have borrowed since we started talking, and 90 percent of that is coming to us from overseas.
Mr. MATHESON. I appreciate my Blue Dog colleagues joining me tonight. This is an issue we feel strongly about, and we are sincere when we ask our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to work with us on this because we think it so important to the future of this country.


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RColorBrewer: ColorBrewer Palettes. Provides color schemes for maps (and other graphics) designed by Cynthia Brewer as described at http://colorbrewer2.org
Keywords for this software
References in zbMATH (referenced in 6 articles )
Showing results 1 to 6 of 6.
- Baumer, Benjamin S.; Kaplan, Daniel T.; Horton, Nicholas J.: Modern data science with R (2017)
- Braun, W. John; Murdoch, Duncan J.: A first course in statistical programming with R. (2016)
- Heiberger, Richard M.; Holland, Burt: Statistical analysis and data display. An intermediate course with examples in R (2015)
- Murrell, Paul: R graphics (2011)
- Murrell, Paul: R graphics. (2006)
- Ruschhaupt, Markus; Huber, Wolfgang; Poustka, Annemarie; Mansmann, Ulrich: A compendium to ensure computational reproducibility in high-dimensional classification tasks (2004)

subset: commoncrawl


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Someone in the Keys Is Torturing Pelicans
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It began December 6 when a boat captain discovered a pelican on Summerland Key that was all but sure to starve. Someone had cut two six-inch lacerations in the bird, which exposed the creature's trachea and prevented it from swallowing food. Since that gruesome find, at least ten other birds have been discovered with their pouches slashed in a similar manner.
Most recently, two were discovered last night near Summerland and Cudjoe keys. The suffering animals underwent emergency surgery last night at South Dade Animal Hospital. Although those two birds will reportedly be fine after six weeks of rehabilitation, five others have died so far from these attacks.
"It's disturbing to me, being a human, to think that somebody would go to this extreme to hurt these guys," Dr. Don Harris, who performed surgery on the birds, told Local 10 yesterday.
Because the cuts are definitely malicious and appear to be designed so the birds cannot hold fish, it seems as if an angry fisherman might be behind them. But if the birds were merely perceived as a threat to someone's fishing operation, there would be no need to torture the birds before killing them. More likely, then, is that the person behind the pelican attacks is simply a very sick individual. Notably, animal cruelty is also part of the Macdonald triad -- or a set of three behaviors that are said to be predictive of violent or homicidal serial offenses in the future.
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This isn't the first time South Florida has a seen an animal serial killer. In the spring of 2009, almost 33 cats were killed in Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay. The now-21-year-old man who was accused of the crimes has since had his charges dropped, and he unsuccessfully sued Miami-Dade, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a veterinarian for tarnishing his name. Presumably, the perpetrator of those crimes is still on the loose.
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- Steven Mills
- 2 years ago
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2 Saskatchewan is blessed with so many advantages. Our abundant natural resources. Our pristine environment. Our tremendous quality of life. And our greatest advantage of all Saskatchewan people. oday, Saskatchewan s economy is leading the nation in growth, our population continues to hit new record highs, and our job market is strong. All of this together adds up to he Saskatchewan Advantage. While other governments are running large deficits, adding to their debt load and being forced to cut services, he Saskatchewan Advantage means our government is able to lower taxes, reduce debt, and improve public services. he udget is a common sense plan that builds on he Saskatchewan Advantage and continues the positive momentum Saskatchewan people have created.
3 ower axes Saskatchewan family of four earning $50,000 will save $2,447 in income taxes this year. ower Income axes for Individuals and Families he udget reduced income taxes for individuals and families by increasing the basic personal and spousal exemptions by $1,000 each, and by increasing the exemption for dependent children by $500 per child. As a result: A family of four will pay no income tax on their first $45,550 of earned income, the highest income threshold in Canada An individual taxpayer will pay no income tax on his or her first $17,580 of earned income As a result of all the tax changes introduced since 2007, a family of four earning $50,000 will save $2,447 in income taxes this year Over 110,000 Saskatchewan residents will pay no provincial income tax at all as a result of tax reductions since 2007 otal tax cuts and enhanced benefits since 2007 amount to $420 million in 2011 ower income taxes for individuals and families. hat s he Saskatchewan Advantage. ower axes for Small usiness udget cuts the small business tax rate by more than half, from 4.5 per cent to 2 per cent the third lowest tax rate in the country. his puts Saskatchewan businesses in a much more competitive position and encourages them to expand their businesses and hire new employees. ower taxes for businesses. ower taxes: 7 6 Strengthening our economy and 5 making life more affordable. 4 Improved 2 quality of life: e simplified the tax structure by applying consistent W mill rates across the province. Increased support for 1health, education, housing and0families. his year in udget, we are implementing the second phase of education property tax reductions: Property tax relief in will amount to $55.6 million Farmers will see their education property tax reduced by about 80 per cent Homeowners will see their education property tax reduced by about 29 per cent usinesses will see their education property tax reduced by about 17 per cent, including this year s reduction on the middle tier of the commercial mill rate from to he province s share of the total cost of education has now risen from a low of about 40 per cent in the 1990s to about 65 per cent today, while the taxpayers share has fallen from a high of about 60 per cent to about 35 per cent today verall, this represents the largest property tax O reduction in Saskatchewan history. ower property taxes for homeowners, farmers and businesses. hat s he Saskatchewan Advantage. he New Saskatchewan An Economic eader in Canada. Debt Reduction 8 wo years ago, our government began the task of reducing the onerous burden of the education portion of property tax. ower Property axes for Homeowners, Farmers and usinesses he Saskatchewan Advantage udget delivers: ower debt & balanced budgets: Debt reduction now totals over $3 billion since ower taxes, better public services and less debt... owering the Debt (since 2007) 7 udget will pay down debt by another $325 million, bringing Saskatchewan s government general debt level to $3.81 billion, the lowest level since ince 2007, the Saskatchewan government has paid S down more than $3 billion in debt. oday, the province s debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) ratio is one of the lowest in the country. $6.8 illion 6 5 $ illions he New Saskatchewan ower taxes make life more affordable. 4 $3.8 illion 3 2 y reducing our debt, we are able to lower the amount of interest costs we pay each year, ensuring that Saskatchewan sees an advantage over most other provinces Since 2007, Saskatchewan has reduced the Provincial debt by $3 billion. While other Canadian provinces debt load and interest payments are on the rise, Saskatchewan is paying down debt and lowering interest costs Real Economic Growth Rate Among Provinces 2011 Average of private sector forecasts as of March 16,
4 he New Saskatchewan he est Place to ive. improving Our Quality of ife Saskatchewan s economy is leading the nation and our population is growing at its fastest rate in over 50 years. At a time when other governments are running large deficits and cutting services, our growing economy and population means that we can lower taxes, reduce debt, improve public services and balance our budget. udget makes important investments in front-line services to support families and improve health, educational and social outcomes. We are putting Patients First $250 million more in operating funding for Regional Health Authorities (RHAs) which will fund: - More surgeries to shorten wait times - An enhanced kidney and bone marrow transplant program - Increased colorectal screening - Enhanced treatments for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) - Programming for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) - A new emergency helicopter air ambulance service Increased support of 11.5 per cent for the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency will fund: - more chemotherapy treatments - more mammograms - doubling bone marrow transplants We are further supporting diagnostics with an extra $5.2 million which will provide for: - 4,950 more MRI patients - 12,850 more C patients a health care system that puts patients first. hat s he Saskatchewan Advantage. We are investing in Students $20.8 million more to universities to hold tuition increases to three per cent $3 million to establish a Saskatchewan Scholarship Fund $36.4 million increase for school operating expenses $2 million for immigration services and English as an Additional anguage training $6.1 million in planning dollars for nine new school capital projects $2.9 million for programming to improve educational outcomes for Aboriginal students $2.6 million to develop 40 more Prekindergarten programs, providing space for up to 640 youngsters $4.4 million for Adult asic Education better education for children and post-secondary students. We are investing in Children udget responds to the Child Welfare Review with a co-ordinated approach across government. From a total Child Welfare budget of $217.5 million, we will provide $6.7 million to: Increase payments to First Nations for fostering children on-reserve Enhance intensive family supports Add up to 30 additional child protection workers Contract COs to provide home assessments and supervise visitation of parents and children Enhance the successful Family Finders program to connect First Nations children with First Nations foster homes more support for children and families. hat s he Saskatchewan Advantage. We are investing in Communities and Infrastructure $216.8 million in municipal revenue sharing a $49.4 million increase from last year as we complete our commitment to a long-term, stable funding formula based on the PS $285 million for highways, and $129 million to repair and rebuild bridges and roads $134.1 million for municipal infrastructure, with $70.3 million allocated to federal-provincial infrastructure projects, including funding extended under the federal stimulus programs infrastructure that meets the needs of a growing province. We are investing in Public Safety $13.2 million more for policing services, including: $7.6 million for the provincial policing service $5.2 million to complete the government s promise to hire 120 police officers over four years $7 million to begin construction of a 32-cell addition to Pine Grove Correctional Centre $250,000 to continue development of the Western Gang Database safer communities. hat s he Saskatchewan Advantage. We are investing in Rural Saskatchewan $321 million to fully fund the cost of farm stabilization programs Record Crop Insurance coverage $55.6 million to complete the Education Property ax reductions which will cut education tax on farmland by 80 per cent A vibrant, growing farm sector and rural economy. We are investing in Innovation $18.2 million for agricultural research and development, including $1.25 million for agricultural biotechnology research $18.1 million, an increase of $1.5 million for research capacity at the Saskatchewan Research Council $2.6 million for, or up to $5.2 million on an annual basis for the Renewable Diesel Program to produce up to 40 million litres of biodiesel per year $2.6 million in operating funding for the Canadian ight Source synchrotron support for innovation and a knowledge-based economy. We are investing in Affordable Housing Up to $1.5 million in up-front provincial incentives to apartment builders to offset the cost of education property tax on as many as 650 new units per year Support for Municipal Affordable Home Ownership programs that provide homeowners with grants for home purchases More affordable housing for Saskatchewan families.
5 ower taxes Improved quality of life ower debt eading the way with balanced budgets. o learn more about the Saskatchewan Advantage udget, visit
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text:
My form is sending an array of IDs to my create function. FireBug shows this as:
listids[] 5cb76bb2fc5f08c71d1c7793b56232,a746b21b1941ef9d43854ff2e784ea23
No matter what I try, I keep getting a 400 error with Invalid ListIds.
If I hardcode it like the following it's ok:
'ListIDs' => array('5cb76bb2fc5f08c71d1c7793b56232','a746b21b1941ef9d43854ff2e784ea23'),
But none of the following work. Please help!?
'ListIDs' => array($postData['listids']); // won't work as it's an array inside an array
'ListIDs' => array(json_encode($postData['listids']));
'ListIDs' => array(implode(",", $postData['listids']));
I've tried putting my id's in quotes:
$this->listids->addMultiOption ( "'" . $list->ListID . "'", $list->Name);
Firebug now shows:
listids[] 'a746b21b1941ef9d43854ff2e784e74c','5cb76bb2fc5f08c71d1c7793b56be882'
I'm then imploding them:
$lists = implode(",", $postData['listids']);
But the following still doesn't work: 'ListIDs' => array($lists),
Worked it out. More a PHP/Zend issue than anything else - am my ineptitude of course...
$listString = $postData['listids'][0];
$lists = explode(",", $listString );
'ListIDs' => $lists


text:
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text:
Pool Parking 3D game
A fun 3D parking game to your car and examine your parking skills by parking the car in the slot given and collect the coins placedalong the road. Avoid obstacles on your your health bar. rn
Pool Parking 3D, play free Car Racing games, related games and updates online. Added on
Author: flashgamessubmission 19
Here are some more related games in Car Racing category. Also you can jump to other category using box above.
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text: Although I hate to say this, I HAVE QUITE A FEW CONCERNS with AC3. First of all, the seasonal changes. We know the seasons will change with the storyline, and fog and rain will change naturally, but what about after the main story? Will there still be seasonal changes? Also, in a new video on Youtube (Inside Assassin's Creed III), Alex Hutchinson said there will be over 30 hours of gameplay and 2 1/2 hours of cutscenes, which is a lot if you think about it. But think more, this is the biggest game in AC history, and they have to include Desmond gameplay if his story is gonna end in this game. The game will span 30 years of Connor's life and Desmond's story will develop and end. How are they gonna fit all that gameplay into 30 hours? I mean come on they have to make it real good and not rush it. Another is that the game takes place from 1753 to 1783, before, during, and after the American Revolution, but it ended in 1783. Is it gonna take place only months or days or weeks after? One final concern is the Frontier. It will be 1.5x bigger than Rome in ACB, but if you think about it, Rome isn't really that big, so what difference does 1.5x make? How are they gonna fit mountains, forests, lakes, rivers, cliffs, etc into one small map? What do you guys think?


text:
Attribution Theory "It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame"
Attribution theory is a concept involved in sports psychology that investigates what people attribute their successes and failures to. Tiger Woods for example would attribute a tournament win to his ability, determination and mental toughness whereas a new gym member who has lead a very sedentary lifestyle and has very low self confidence might see any success they achieve as being lucky. By understanding how your clients attribute their success or failure, you can influence their thinking and emotions to ensure they continue to strive for their goals. Attribution theory can also help you to understand the consequences of both success and failure for you and your client.
Locus of Control
Attribution theory looks at two areas: The Locus of Control and the Outcome.
Locus of control is broken in to two components and refers to how much individuals believe their result is due to an internal or external factor. An internal factor is an aspect that is within your control (e.g. Effort), whereas an external factor is an aspect outside of your control (the weather, someone else).
Outcome refers to the final result of the task; success and failure. When a client succeeds they can attribute it to either an internal or external locus of control. What they attribute their success to can alter the emotions that they feel and exhibit. When a client loses 5kg and attributes it to hard work and dedication on their part they will feel proud, have more confidence in their ability to achieve their long term goals and be satisfied with their gym experience. This will lead to increased adherence to their exercise programme and are more likely to renew their gym membership.
If that same client who lost 5kg attributed this result to luck or another external factor such as their personal trainer, they will feel thankful and show gratitude towards their trainer. Unfortunately they will still lack self belief and will still be expecting to fail at some point.
Looking at the other side of the coin, in failure clients follow the same process and attribute it to either an internal factor or an external one. We'll take the same example of a client wanting to lose 5kg but after 8 weeks they have only achieved a weight loss of 2kg. They blame themselves. They feel guilty, that they're incompetent and that no matter what they do they won't achieve their goals. Alternatively if that client attributed their failure to an external force, such as their personal trainer who promised results, they will be surprised that it didn't happen and could even feel anger that it didn't occur.
The Fitness Environment
So when applying attribution theory to a fitness environment you can see that a client's emotions are strongly influenced not only by success or failure, but also by what the client believes was the cause.
Straight away you can see how important it is to ensure your client achieves their goals. While that's a fairly simple and obvious observation, you only have to look at the emotions that come with failure; guilt, shame, incompetence, and depression to see the damage that can be done.
If a client doesn't achieve their goals and they decide that an external factor such as their trainer is to blame again you can see the damage that can be done to your reputation and business. So your client's failure has ramifications for all involved.
If a client succeeds you can see pride, satisfaction, and improvements in confidence that will help drive them to keep exercising. If they attribute it to an external factor such as their trainer they will most likely stick with you and spread the word.
A note of warning here, no matter how good it feels for them to attribute their success to you, if you really want to make a difference to them, you need to make sure they attribute their success to themselves. This is particularly important if they have low self esteem and confidence levels due to years of trying and failing to achieve their goals.
Strategies to implement
So now I know what Attribution theory is how do I use it?
1. Internal Attribution Statements
Continually motivate and encourage your client using statements that link their training to internal factors and explain why they have achieved. These are statements that tell them they are achieving their goals because they are putting the work in.
Examples: You really work hard in our sessions.
You are really sticking to the nutritional plan we devised.
2. Give feedback when they do things right
Continue to give feedback when clients are doing well. When instructing exercise many fitness professionals only communicate the negatives (technique correction) and go silent when the client is performing the exercise correctly.
Example: Your form looks really good on that exercise.
3. Try to link their efforts with success.
If a client has achieved their goals, emphasise the fact that it was of their own doing even when they believe you had a big hand in it or it was luck.
4. Attribute failure to external causes where necessary.
If a client fails, emphasise the external factors at work.
Work commitments caused the client to miss a few sessions so you need to make sure that the client is aware of this, discuss any planning issues and identify an intervention strategy or back up plan if this occurs again in the future.
This can really only apply to situtations where there really were external factors at play otherwise clients won't take responsibility for the internal control they have.
If internal factors are the reason for failure, remain positive and implement strategies to overcome these factors.
A lack of effort could be due to being tired from previous sessions therefore the trainer needs to adjust the FITT principles or implement more effective support and monitoring activities to pick up on this problem earlier.
Attribution theory shows us two main things. 1) Making sure our clients are successful is vital. 2) We need to make sure our client takes ownership of their success. While it's a great boost to the ego if they believe that you played a big role in their success, the true benefits come from making sure that the client attributes their success to themselves.


text:
Along the Morteratsch Glacier to Boval Alpine Hostel
Morteratsch Station - Chamanna Boval SAC - Morteratsch Station
Route Details | Details about this tour | Ratings for this Tour (0) | Tours in the Vicinity
Along the Morteratsch Glacier to Boval Alpine Hostel
Morteratsch Station - Chamanna Boval SAC - Morteratsch Station
If you are vacationing in the St.Moritz or Pontresina areas of Graubünden and would like a hiking challenge that doesn't require you to be a rock climber, this fairly simple (though not necessarily easy) hike parallel to the Morteratsch Glacier allows you to experience the might and majesty of nature just below the stately Bernina Massif.
The route starts at the Morteratsch train station (Request Stop if you are coming by train) and follows the glacier moraine in a steady ascent with a continual view into the valley and on top of the glacier, as well as views of the Pers Glacier which flows onto the Morteratsch Glacier from the East. The summits of Piz Bernina and Piz Palü are always in your sights. A steeper and more difficult section of rocks with high steps and cable rails for support starts about 30 minutes before the destination of the Swiss Alpine Club's Chamanna Boval where you can get refreshments and enjoy the stunning views before returning along the same trail.
For a bit of variety, about ¾ of the way back a side trail descends into the valley from where you could double back to the base of the Glacier's tongue (30 mins.), or return to the station along the valley bottom (15 mins.). Along the way are information boards showing the shrinking progress of the glacier over the years. (The glacier has retreated 2 km in the past 120 years, that's an average of about 16 m per year).
Quick-Links about this Tour


text:
Kristyn Green
Pretty Cool Too
Upon graduating from high school, Walter (Eric Fagundes) receives a cell phone that could solve all his problems: It comes with a personal genie that can control anyone, including Walter's protective parents, pesky brother and sexy neighbors. With such incredible powers at his disposal, Walter sets out to make his wildest dreams come true in this sequel to the 2001 comedy Pretty Cool. Rolfe Kanefsky writes and directs.


text:
Dream Tree by ThoranWatch
©2004-2017 Thoran
30 sec exposure
no editing other than contrast
no editing other than contrast
Very nice pic i love the way the top frames the picture
wow thats great!... i really love it.. its so surreal... i love the combination of natural elemnets and made made elements... great job framing this... the clarity is out stading... everythign works so well... the clouds in the background... the light sources... this would make a good print i think...
thanks alot for your comment, as for the print, maybe ... i might set up a print account once i have more photos
omg, that is weird....nice though....
thats the whole idea
Yes and you did an awesome job. I really like it, the more I look at it the more I Like it too.
The garish colors from the contrast give it an otherworldly look, as if from a light coming from everywhere.


text:
Can you further explain what is considered evidence and give me some examples please? Is a written statement by a witness considered evidence? I was charged with battery; the officer said he seen blood on my hand (which I assume is hearsay) BUT he did not take any pictures of me. All I can think of that is against me is the witness's written statement, police officer's observation of blood on my hand and injury to victim's face (not sure if there were pictures of his face taken). I did not have a lawyer so I got shafted hard.
Police officer's testimony about observations = evidence.
Witnesses statements are hearsay but are admissible unless someone objects.
Wow that is rather surprising, is this applicable in all States as evidence? That is kind of outrageous if you ask me, for all I know they could be corrupted and lying about anything to help the court get a conviction (which means both the officer and court profit from the conviction in some way). So just because the officer had experience and training, his testimony is "golden"?