In God We Trust

Cameron Says:

25 May 2008 at 8:47 am.

Energy fears looming, new survivalists prepare

By SAMANTHA GROSS, Associated Press Writer Posted Sat May 24, 2008 11:12am PDT

BUSKIRK, N.Y. - A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald’s, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world’s oil supply. Now, she’s preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

“I was panic-stricken,” the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. “Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible.”

Convinced the planet’s oil supply is dwindling and the world’s economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn’t prepare.

The exact number of people taking such steps is impossible to determine, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the movement has been gaining momentum in the last few years.

http://green.yahoo.com/news/ap/20080524/ap_on_re_us/environmental_survivalists.html

Matt Says:

25 May 2008 at 1:26 pm.

Reading this article almost convinces that Mitt will get the nod. I hadn’t been thinking he would because of how much McCain hated him but now I’m thinking McCain might not be the total idiot I was afraid he was. He has got to be hearing from people about how incredible Mitt is about putting together and running a great campaign with deep pockets. McCain doesn’t seem capable of making this work without him.

Some Republicans sense disorder in McCain campaign

WASHINGTON: John McCain’s presidential campaign is in a troubled stretch even before his formal nomination, hindered by resignations of staff members, a lagging effort to build a national campaign organization and questions over whether he has taken full advantage of Democratic turmoil to present a case for his candidacy, some Republicans say.

In interviews, some party leaders said they were worried about signs of disorder in his campaign and about whether the focus in the last several weeks on the prominent role of lobbyists in McCain’s inner circle might undercut the heart of his general election message: that he is reformer taking on special interests in Washington.

“The core image of John McCain is as a reformer in Washington, and the more dominant the story is about the lobbying teams around him, the more you put that into question,” said Terry Nelson, who was McCain’s campaign manager until he was forced out last year. “If the Obama campaign can truly change him from being seen as a reformer to just being another Washington politician, it could be very damaging over the course of the campaign.”

Some leaders of state Republican party organizations said they were apprehensive about the unusual organization that McCain had set up: The campaign has been broken into 10 semi-autonomous regions, with each having power over such things as buying television advertising and the candidate’s schedule, decisions normally left to headquarters.

More than that, they said, McCain organizationally still seems far behind where President George W. Bush was in his re-election campaign in 2004. Several Republican Party leaders said they were worried the McCain campaign was losing an opportunity as they waited for approval to open offices and set up telephone banks.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/25/america/campaign.php

Jesse Says:

25 May 2008 at 1:55 pm.

I bet you Mormons are getting sick of having the FLDS pegged as Mormons.

‘No justification’ for raid on Texas Mormon ranch

Child welfare officials in Texas have received scathing criticism of their decision to remove more than 450 children from the compound of a polygamous Mormon group in early April, and ordered them returned to their parents.

For the mothers and fathers, however, the sudden reversal in what had already become the biggest child custody case in the history of the United States, offered grounds for unexpected hope. “I just feel like I’m coming back to life,” said Nancy Dockstader, whose five children were among those seized last month during the raid on the sect’s Yearning for Zion ranch in the tiny town of Eldorado in the west of the state. “We can be a family again. It’s just unreal.”

Seven weeks ago, officials from the state’s Family and Protective Services department, accompanied by armed police, raided the ranch and began escorting bewildered mothers and children to waiting buses.

Now, however, the entire case presented by the department contending that the children were in imminent danger of sexual abuse appears to be unravelling. The state yesterday said it was planning to file an appeal of its own to the Texas Supreme Court to reverse Thursday’s ruling.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/no-justification-for-raid-on-texas-mormon-ranch-833590.html