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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Post-Palin Alaska has largest debt burden in US

By Raw Story
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 -- 3:12 pm

Sarah Palin has long sold herself as a fiscal conservative, arguing against the Democrats' health overhaul on the grounds that the nation simply can't afford it.

But when the former vice presidential candidate resigned as governor of Alaska in the summer of 2009, she left the state with a 70 percent debt-to-GDP ratio -- the highest state debt burden in the United States.

That's according to data compiled by the Washington Independent's Megan Carpentier, who notes that Alaska has a debt burden similar to "that of Jordan and Palin?s favorite health care resource, Canada, and a higher ratio than Ghana, Cote d?Ivoire, India, the Philippines or Uruguay."

By comparison, crisis-stricken California has a debt ratio of less than 40 percent. All the more confounding about Alaska's debt is the fact that it is an oil-producing region with a small population to share in that wealth. Oil-rich Alberta, Canada, for example, collects no sales tax and still managed to retire its debt entirely in 2004.

While Alaska's massive debt burden can't be blamed entirely on Palin's two-and-a-half-year stint as governor, she did face similar debt problems while mayor of Wasilla, and those appear to be of her own making.

Wasilla's municipal debt went from around $1 million when she came in to office, to around $22 million when she left, mostly as a result of the construction of a sports arena and public works projects championed by Palin.

While Alaska's debt load is high by the standards of US states, it's worth noting some nations have considerably higher debt loads. Japan, for example, is carrying a debt load of more than 190 percent of GDP; Greece, recently hit by a debt crisis, has a 108 percent debt-to-GDP ratio.

The debt load for the US federal government clocked in at around 53 percent in 2009; the debt is expected to increase to 68.5 percent by 2014.

[MillyMc]

^ i def want to read more about alaska. its an interesting place. lots of white trash. uneducated. menial jobs. so def not governors fault the money isnt coming in bc you cant make money without producing......but def her fault for talking like everyone gets free money, pays little taxes, and it is all bc of tax cuts and good conservative fiscal values. the money came from oil revenues that benefited everyone as the result of the hard work from a few. and were some of them just a lump payment for selling away future assets? like states blowing their tobacco settlement money?

too bad the liberal media didnt call her on that bullshit and somehow unemployment and health care is socialist but oil revenues arent. frustrating the blinders people put on.

^^^ They have a cash cow waiting to be capitalized on.

Guided spelunking tours of Palin's vag. Once you get past the smell those cavernous depths are a wonder to behold!

Airline considers fee for lavatory use


(CNN) -- Fresh on the heels of one budget airline announcing that it will ask passengers to pay extra to bring carry-on bags on board, another is considering charging them for using the lavatory.

Ryanair, which is based in Dublin, Ireland, and bills itself as "Europe's first and largest low fares airline," is mulling a plan that would require travelers to pay either 1 euro or 1 British pound (about $1.33 or $1.52) for using the bathroom on flights lasting one hour or less.

The plan, titled "Ryanair Cost Saving Proposal," was published in the airline's inflight magazine.

The carrier said it is working with Boeing to develop a coin-operated door release so that when nature calls, passengers would need to deposit the change before being able to use the facilities.

As part of the plan, the airline is also considering removing two of the three lavatories on some of its planes so it could squeeze in up to six extra seats. The move would help reduce fares by at least 5 percent, Ryanair said.

It's not the first time the airline has broached the subject of a toilet fee. CEO Michael O'Leary told the BBC in February 2009 that he was considering the charge.

Meanwhile, Ryanair announced Tuesday that it's raising its checked luggage fee from 15 euros to 20 euros per bag for the peak vacation months of July and August.

"Ryanair is determined to incentivise passengers to travel light this summer," spokesman Stephen McNamara said in a statement. The airline urged its passengers to avoid the fees by bringing carry-on bags only.

Ryanair is already well-known for its fees and is up-front about them on its Web site, which details charges for everything from online check-in to traveling with infants. Customers haven't balked; in fact, Ryanair's passenger traffic grew 13 percent last month compared to the same time last year, the airline reported.

Low-cost carriers have embraced the concept of a la carte pricing, or keeping base fares at rock bottom levels while charging passengers for any extra services.

On Tuesday, Florida-based Spirit Airlines announced that it will charge its customers $20 to $45 for items they place in the overhead bins.

Lunch-Only Beer Policy Prompts Strike
Carlsberg Brewery Tightens Rules On Workplace Drinking

POSTED: Thursday, April 8, 2010
UPDATED: 7:41 am CDT April 9, 2010

COPENHAGEN -- Scores of Carlsberg workers walked off their jobs in protest Thursday after the Danish brewer tightened laid-back rules on workplace drinking and removed beer coolers from work sites, a company spokesman said.

The warehouse and production workers in Denmark are rebelling against the company's new alcohol policy, which allows them to drink beer only during lunch hours in the canteen. Previously, they could help themselves to beer throughout the day, from coolers placed around the work sites.

The only restriction was "that you could not be drunk at work. It was up to each and everyone to be responsible," company spokesman Jens Bekke said.

Carlsberg had mulled a stricter drinking policy for years and finally decided to impose the new rules on April 1, prompting protests from the staff.

Bekke said around 800 workers went on strike Wednesday and around 250 walked off their jobs Thursday, resulting in interruptions to beer transports in and around Copenhagen.

Carlsberg's truck drivers joined the strike in sympathy -- even though they are exempt from the new rules, Bekke said. The truck drivers are permitted to bring three beers from the canteen because they often don't have time to have lunch there.

The trucks have alcohol ignition locks preventing the drivers from driving drunk, he added.

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Polish President Lech Kaczynski dies in plane crash



President Lech Kaczynski and scores of other senior Polish figures have been killed in a plane crash in Russia.

Polish and Russian officials said no-one survived after the plane apparently hit trees as it approached Smolensk airport in thick fog.

Russian media reports said the pilots ignored advice from air traffic control to divert to another airport.

Poland's army chief, central bank governor, MPs and leading historians were among more than 80 passengers.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the crash was the most tragic event of the country's post-World War II history.

The Polish delegation was flying in from Warsaw to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre of thousands of Poles by Soviet forces during WWII.

The BBC's Adam Easton, in Warsaw, says the crash is a catastrophe for the Polish people.

He says Prime Minister Tusk was reportedly in tears when he was told.

After an emergency meeting of ministers, Mr Tusk, who runs the day-to-day business of government, said a week of national mourning had been declared with two minutes of silence on Sunday at midday.

Mr Tusk added: "The Polish state must function and will function".

He later travelled to the crash site where he was to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday evening.

A government spokesman said that according to the constitution there would be an early presidential election, and the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, would be acting president.

In Warsaw, people gathered outside the presidential palace to lay flowers and light candles.

"I'm all broken up... it cannot be expressed in words," Ewa Robaczewska told Reuters news agency.

Pilot error?

The Russian emergencies ministry told Itar-Tass news agency the plane crashed at 1056 Moscow time (0656 GMT) as it was coming in to land.

Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufiev told Russian TV that no-one had survived.

"According to preliminary reports, it got caught up in the tops of trees, fell to the ground and broke up into pieces," he said. "There are no survivors in that crash."

Polish TV worker Slawomir Wisniewski said he had seen the crash from his hotel near the airport.

"I saw through the fog, the aeroplane flying very low with the left wing pointing to the ground," he said.

"I heard something being broken and then that thudding sound. Two flashes of fire next to each other."

Russian media carried claims that the plane's crew were at fault for the crash.

"Flight controllers... suggested that the plane be forwarded to Minsk but as far as we know the crew took an independent decision to land the plane in Smolensk," Smolensk regional government spokesman Andrei Yevseyenkov told Russian TV.

Russian officials said 97 people were killed in the crash, including eight crew.

Polish officials said that 89 people had been scheduled to fly in the delegation to the Katyn commemoration, but one person missed the flight.

Mr Putin said he would personally oversee the investigation into the crash and that the bodies of the victims would be taken to Moscow for identification.

Russia would observe a day of mourning on Monday, the prime minister said.

Russia's Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu said both of the plane's flight information recorders had been found and were being examined.

Controversial figure

The president was flying in a Tupolev 154, a Soviet-designed plane that was more than 20 years old.

Our correspondent says there had been calls for Polish leaders to upgrade their planes.

Mr Kaczynski himself had suffered scares while using the plane in late 2008, when problems with the aircraft's steering mechanism delayed his departure from Mongolia.

"Any flight brings with it a certain risk, but a very serious risk attaches to the responsibilities of a president, because it is necessary to fly constantly," he was quoted as saying at the time.

But the head of Russia's Aviakor aviation maintenance company told Russian TV the plane was airworthy, after his plant fully overhauled it in December.

As well as the president and his wife, Maria, a number of senior officials were on the passenger list.

They included the army chief of staff Gen Franciszek Gagor, central bank governor Slawomir Skrzypek and deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

World leaders including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered their condolences to Poland.

Mr Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw, a former prime minister and now head of the main opposition party, was said to be "devastated", an aide told AFP news agency.

Lech Kaczynski, who had fewer powers than the prime minister but had a significant say in foreign policy, was a controversial figure in Polish politics.

He had advocated a right-wing Catholic agenda, opposed rapid free-market reforms and favoured retaining social welfare programmes.



SENIOR FIGURES KILLED

National leader:
President Lech Kaczynski and wife Maria
Other politicians:
Wladyslaw Stasiak chief of the president's chancellery; Aleksander Szczyglo chief of the National Security Office; Slawomir Skrzypek National Bank of Poland chairman;
Jerzy Szmajdzinski deputy speaker of the lower house; Andrzej Kremer Foreign Ministry's undersecretary of state; Stanislaw Komorowski deputy minister of national defence; Przemyslaw Gosiewski Law and Justice party deputy chair;
Military chief:
Franciszek Gagor chief of the General Staff
Cultural figures:
Andrzej Przewoznik head of Poland's Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites; Tomasz Merta chief historical conservator

Source: TVP1, Warsaw

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'Phallic' art sparks row ahead of Pope's Malta visit



The mayor of a town in Malta has called for a "phallic" sculpture displayed close to the main airport to be removed ahead of the Pope's visit this weekend.

Mayor John Schembri described the art work as "vulgar" and "embarrassing", saying it should go "as a sign of respect" for Pope Benedict XVI.

Colonna Mediterranea was created by artist Paul Vella Critien and has been on show in the town of Luqa since 2006.

Mr Critien responded by calling his critics "ignorant" and "uneducated".

Pope Benedict's route through Malta will involve passing by the roundabout at the entrance to Luqa, where the monument stands.

"The object... is not the most fitting way in which to greet the Pope, especially by what is considered to be the most Catholic country in the world," Mr Schembri was quoted by the Times of Malta as saying.

He told the newspaper that the council would again appeal to the government to order the removal of the column.

Mr Critien said his creation was not a phallic symbol but a modern representation of a symbol dating back to ancient Egypt.

He said the Pope "would look at it as a work of art. [He] is not the man in the street".

The government has said it has no plans to remove the sculpture.

Somali stations air animal noises to protest extremists' music ban

(CNN) -- Roars, growls and galloping hooves replaced music Tuesday on some of Mogadishu's radio stations in a protest of a ban on music imposed by Islamic extremists.

Radio Shabelle, along with the stations Tusmo and Hornafrik, were responding to threats from Muslim militant groups that believe music is un-Islamic and want it prohibited.

Mogadishu's 14 private radio stations stopped playing music Tuesday after Hizbul al-Islam, an Islamic extremist group, issued a 10-day ultimatum. The threat was backed by the main militant group al-Shabaab, which has been linked to al Qaeda.

A statement from the National Union of Somali Journalists said several stations received calls, warning them that there would be consequences if they failed to comply with the ban within 10 days.

But the three stations decided to broadcast the noises instead of music. Radio Shabelle announcers could be heard speaking on air, backed by the sounds of hooves, ocean waves, gunfire -- even the roars and growls of big cats.

A radio station director, who could not be identified because of safety concerns, said the stations were unhappy about the ban but were forced to comply "because of fear for our lives."

A Somali journalist, who also asked not to be identified, said there is widespread fear that this marks the beginning of a wider plot by extremists to silence independent media. He fears that female journalists may become the the next target.

Hizbul al-Islam is one of many rebel groups operating in the country. The group has a complicated relationship with al-Shabaab; between them, the two groups control much of Mogadishu, and several radio stations are in neighborhoods under their control.

Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991. Islamic militant groups are fighting the government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law, or Sharia.

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Vatican links homosexuality to pedophilia, causes outrage

The Vatican's second highest authority has linked pedophilia to homosexuality rather than celibacy, provoking anger among gay rights activists.

Catholic Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone dismissed priests' celibacy vows as a reason for the sex scandals plaguing the church, citing the views of psychologists and psychiatrists to back up his claim.

"Many psychologists, many psychiatrists have demonstrated that there is no relationship between celibacy and pedophilia but many others have demonstrated, I was told recently, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and pedophilia," he told a news conference in Chilean capital Santiago.

"That is true. I have the documents of the psychologists. That is the problem."

During his visit to Chile, the Vatican official also maintained the church had never got in the way of investigations into pedophilia by priests, following accusations that even Pope Benedict XVI himself impeded enquiries.

Demonstrators took to Santiago's Catholic University of Chile after Bertone made his comments, wielding banners denouncing the remarks.

The cardinal has also been accused of clumsily trying to shift attention away from priests' growing list of sex crimes to focus on homosexuality instead.

Britain turns into no fly zone due to volcanic ash cloud
British airspace has been turned into a no-fly zone as all flights from and to the UK were suspended due to a massive volcanic ash cloud caused by an eruption in Iceland.

Tens of thousands of passengers have been left stranded as hundreds of flights were cancelled and airports shut down throughout the day.

Eurostar has been inundated with people trying to make alternative travel plans.
All flights were suspended from midday to 6pm on Thursday and British Airways cancelled all its flights until 6am on Friday.

Ryanair also cancelled its flights to and from Britain and warned of cancellations and delays tomorrow.

By lunch-time, most airports had started to empty as passengers decided not to start their journeys or went home soon as they found out what was happening.

The Eyjafjallaj?kull volcano continue to erupt and is still spewing ash into the atmosphere which is gradually tracking south actross Scandinavia, Britain, France and Belgium.

The Met Office said it was constantly monitoring the ash cloud but that the north westerly winds were due to continue, pushing the plume of particles further south.


The volcanic ash is likely to result in some spectacular sunsets - send your pictures to www.telegraph.co.uk/mypics
Oslo airport has closed and flights to and from other parts of northern Europe have also been disrupted.

Forecasters believe the ash could take a number of days to disperse, although it is not known how long disruption to air space will last.

Volcanic ash, which consists of the pulverised rock and glass created by the eruptions, can jam aircraft machinery if a plane flies through the plume, shutting down the engines.

Ash can also be sucked into the cabin itself, contaminating the passengers' environment as well as damaging the plane's electronic systems.

The disruption could go on for some time," said Dr Steve Bond, lecturer in aircraft operations at City University London. "It depends on how long the eruption goes on for and weather conditions.

"When there was an eruption over Java in 1982 an aircraft ran into difficulties 19 days after a British Airways plane had problems.

"There is a risk of engine failure because of the ash. The problem with aircraft radar is that it is designed to pick up clouds of moisture and it won't detect ash.

"This is why you have to take precautions and keep aircraft out of the area.

"Even if in a best case scenario it clears after one day, there will still be disruption because aircraft will be in the wrong place and crew will be in the wrong place. There will also be a backlog of passengers to clear."

Meanwhile British Airways said passengers whose flights had been cancelled because of the ash could rebook at a another date or claim a refund.

Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen airports are closed until further notice and passengers are advised not to travel to the terminals.

A spokeswoman for easyJet, which has cancelled dozens of flights at Luton and Scottish airports, said: "Following the eruption of a volcano in Iceland yesterday, an ash plume has entered UK and Scandinavian airspace overnight.

"As a result NATS have closed parts of UK airspace and this is causing significant disruption to all airlines due to operate flights to and from the UK today.

"EasyJet passengers are advised to check the website before they leave for the airport for any disruption information."

Heathrow's second biggest scheduled airline, bmi, has cancelled all flights between London and Scotland until later today. It said: "We recommend that customers whose journey is not essential book for an alternate date. Customers who have booked and are still intending to travel should consult the flight status page for the latest information."

Matt Dobson, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "The concern is that as well as the eruption, the jet stream passing through Iceland is passing in a south easterly direction, which will bring ash to the north of Scotland and Denmark and Norway. But it is impossible to say how much ash will come down.

"It could be a threat in these areas from now until tomorrow or Friday."

A spokesman from Nats said: "The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre has issued a forecast that the ash cloud from the volcanic eruption in Iceland will track over Europe tonight.

"NATS is working with Eurocontrol and our colleagues in Europe's other air navigation service providers to take the appropriate action to ensure safety in accordance with international aviation policy."

Weather forecasters said the ash plume could drift over British airspace during the night, causing significant disruption to services.

The movement of the plume, which has been drifting eastwards, is being monitored by both the Met Office and NATS, the air traffic control service.

There have been a number of incidents where aircraft have reported damage from ash, including one involving a British Airways Boeing 747 in June 1982.

The aircraft ran into difficulties after the eruption of a volcano at Galunggung, Indonesia. Ash jammed all four engines briefly, and the aircraft plummeted 24,000 feet before they could be restarted.

Because of the threat to aviation, a global early warning system, known as the International Airways Volcano Watch, has been established. Iceland is considered as particularly vulnerable to volcanic disruption.

Authorities there yesterday evacuated 800 residents from around the Eyjafjallajokull glacier as water gushed down the mountainside and rivers rose by up to 10 feet (3 meters).

The Eyjafjallaj?kull volcano erupted for the first time in 200 years on March 20, in a dramatic display that sent fountains of lava spewing into the air.

The first eruption did not trigger any major flooding, as was initially feared, because the active vents were in a mainly ice-free part of the volcano.

But Tuesday's eruption came from a different vent beneath a 650-ft (200m) thick block of ice, unleashing a torrent of glacial meltwater.