Saturday, March 29, 2008

St. Mary's Wilderness Fire: 65% contained...

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The Fire over in St. Mary's Wilderness is now listed as 65% contained and covering over 4,045 acres as per the
Incident Information System

Update: Now Reported 100% contained...
Photos of Fire Damage to the area

This has turned out to be a great informative website and a great addition to the info section of the "Favorites" location on the computer...
Several people who have said they are involved in the efforts of fighting this fire have left comments to the prior post and are very welcomed...


Thursday, March 27, 2008

Global temp going up??!!... No, just somebody burning trash next to the sensor...

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"As we've reported, the locations of some of these land-based stations are suspect. One in Forest Grove, Ore., stands just 10 feet from an air-conditioning exhaust vent. Another in Roseburg, Ore., is on a rooftop near an air-conditioning unit. In Tahoe, Calif., one is near a drum where trash is burned."


This was the ending of a very good article in the Investors Business Daily today that describes the data coming out of the 3,000 advanced automated ocean buoys that were deployed back in 2003 as compared to some of the above "Trusty" temp sensors.



These new ocean buoys are incredible in the way they work and provide very accurate information:


"The new buoys, known as Argos, drift along the oceans at a depth of about 6,000 feet constantly monitoring the temperature, salinity and speed of ocean currents. Every 10 days or so a bladder inflates, bringing to the surface readings taken at various depths. Once on the surface, they transmit their readings to satellites that retransmit them to land-based." computers.



Unfortunately for the Global Warm-mongers, these new accurate sensors are not reporting the high warming temperature readings that they expected would back up their dire global warming claims...



"The Argos buoys have disappointed the global warm-mongers in that they have failed to detect any signs of imminent climate change. As Dr. Josh Willis, who works for NASA in its Jet Propulsion Laboratory, noted in an interview with National Public Radio, "there has been a very slight cooling" over the buoys' five years of observation, but that drop was "not anything really significant." Certainly not enough to shut down the Gulf Stream.
Climate-change promoters also are perplexed by the observations of NASA's eight weather satellites. In contrast to some 7,000 land-based stations, they take more than 300,000 temperature readings daily over the surface of the Earth. In 30 years of operation, the satellites have recorded a warming trend of just 0.14C — well within the range of normal variations."






While living in the Florida Keys and working on a sportfishing boat, I had the opportunity to work with a Captain that has fished the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico for more then 30 years. We would often check the local NOAA buoys for surface and water temp, wind direction, wind speed, and barometric pressure.

Even with this scientific data available, it was interesting to watch a veteran Captain who can look at the actual conditions on the water, look up into the sky, tell you there is an upper level low, and what fish you will not catch that day!

Military losses, 1980 through 2006... Facts you don't always hear of...




This was sent to me by a friend and it is a report published by Congressional Research Service showing actual data that shows "The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2006:"

Note the information on demographics and think back on several media and Democratic Party members who claimed that it is a vast majority of minorities who are serving and dying in the present war on terrorism...

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These are some rather eye-opening facts.Since the start of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, the sacrifice has been enormous. In the time period from the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 through today, we have lost over 3,000 military personnel to enemy action and accidents. As tragic as the loss of any member of the US Armed Forces is, consider the following statistics: The annual fatalities of military members while actively serving in the armed forces from 1980 through 2006:


1980 .......... 2,392 (Carter Year)
1981 .......... 2,380 (Reagan Year)
1984 .......... 1,999 (Reagan Year)
1988 .......... 1,819 (Reagan Year)
1989 .......... 1,636 (George HW Year)
1990 ......... 1,508 (George HW Year)
1991 .......... 1,787 (George HW Year)
1992 .......... 1,293 (George HW Year)
1993 .......... 1,213 (Clinton Year)
1994 .......... 1,075 (Clinton Year)
1995 .......... 2,465 (Clinton Year)
1996 .......... 2,318 (Clinton Year) Clinton years (1993-2000): 14,000 deaths
1997 ............. 817 (Clinton Year)
1998 .......... 2,252 (Clinton Year)
1999 .......... 1,984 (Clinton Year)
2000 .......... 1,983 (Clinton Year)
2001 ............ 890 (George W Year)
2002 .......... 1,007 (George W Year)
2003 .......... 1,410 (George W Year)
2004 .......... 1,887 (George W Year) George W years (2001-2006): 7,033 deaths
2005 ............. 919 (George W Year)
2006.............. 920 (George W Year)

If you are confused when you look at these figures, so was I.Do these figures mean that the loss from the two latest conflicts in the Middle East are LESS than the loss of military personnel during Mr. Clinton's presidency; when America wasn't even involved in a war? And, I was even more confused; when I read that in 1980, during the reign of President (Nobel Peace Prize winner) Jimmy Carter, there were 2,392 US military fatalities!

These figures indicate that many members of our Media and our Politicians will pick and choose. They present only those 'facts' which support their agenda-driven reporting. Why do so many of them march in lock-step to twist the truth? Where do so many of them get their marching-orders for their agenda?

The latest census, of Americans, shows the following distribution of American citizens, by Race:

European descent .......................... 69.12%
Hispanic ......................................... 12.5%
Black ............................................. 12.3%
Asian .............................................. 3.7%
Native American ............................. 1.0%
Other .............................................. 2.6%

Now... here are the fatalities by Race; over the past three years in Iraqi Freedom:

European descent (white) .............74.31%
Hispanic .................................... 10.74%
Black .......................................... 9.67%
Asian .......................................... 1.81%
Native American .......................... 1.09%
Other ........................................... 0.33%

The point here is that our mainstream media continues to spin these figures (for liberal political gain). Nothing more...its all about politics and the libs are famous for turning American against American for a vote.

(These statistics are published by Congressional Research Service, and they may be confirmed by anyone at: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf )

Now ask yourself two questions:'Why does the mainstream Print and TV Media never print statistics like these?' and...'Why do the mainstream media hate the (world wide) web as much as they do?'Ensure you do your homework before you place your vote.
*** An Anonymous person has commented and pointed out that the above stats comes from just one of the tables provided in the report and readers should look at the entire report to determine combat related stats as compared to non-combat totals. Additional info can be found in the comment section for the reader to determine on their own. Not everything passed around in e-mail is 100% accurate and readers should determine accuracy for themselves.***

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

St. Mary's Wilderness Fire ~Day Two~

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Welcome to those coming over from the Hiking Upward website…

Local Newspaper coverage 28 March 2008

NewsVirginian out of Waynesboro

NewsLeader out of Staunton

Most recent post to RightsideVA...


Took a ride over to St. Mary’s Wilderness to check on the status of the fire after reading the following article in the NewsVirginian newspaper out of Waynesboro, VA.



The fire has flared up a bit with 15-18kt winds blowing out of the Southwest and little chance of rain in the forecast. Since this fire is in the “Wilderness” section of the park the firefighters are limited in their tactics available to fight the fire as described in the NewsVirginian article:




"Adding to the difficulty is the fact that you can’t use mechanized equipment inside of a wilderness area to fight a fire, it has to all be done by hand," he said.







This is the turnoff road that heads back towards the dirt road and parking area at the trailhead of the St. Mary's Trail...












I proceeded down the road leading to the parking area at the trailhead of the St. Mary’s trail and found that the road and section of the park has been closed at this time. The fire seems to have started in the Little Spy Mountain area and is spreading North towards the St. Mary’s Trail. Had the opportunity to talk with a member of the “Augusta Hot Shots” who advised me that the fire has moved close to the St. Mary’s trail and it appears in the photos that I took it is now in that area.












With this area being closed I decided to take a ride up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to view the fire there but the Parkway has been closed north of Rt. 56 at this time. I was advised that St. Mary’s Wilderness and trail will very much likely be closed thru the weekend and into next week. Information on the area and fire status can be found at the Glenwood \ Pedlar Ranger District site here. Status of the fire has not been added to the active fire list yet but should appear soon.





Without being able to hike the Wilderness area I decided to head over the Parkway and into Montebello for a hike up to Spy Rock Mountain. This is not part of the above mentioned Little Spy Mountain but is located off of the Appalachian Trail and a nice hike. With the holiday week there were several groups headed to Spy Rock and the trail was busy… It was interesting to see the above sign at the Montebello Fish Hatchery with a "Moderate" warning but the soil is wet at this time...








I hope to try again next week to get to the actual fire zone and get some photos and info to post…

The NewsVirginian Newspaper has added the following Slide-show of the fire to their website...

Shenandoah Valley Wind Farm...

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Todays Daily News Record has an article on potential plans to develop a Wind Farm on selected peaks along the Shenandoah Valley...

"A renewable energy firm hopes to build 130 wind turbines on Shenandoah Mountain in the George Washington National Forest, including sections of Rockingham and Shenandoah counties and Hardy County, W.Va."

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

St. Mary's Wilderness Fire...

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While driving home today a large visible smoke column was visible from route 81 all the way North to Verona, VA. Followed the smoke over to the St. Mary's Wilderness area just North of Vesuvious. Fire department personnel had the road down to the parking area closed off and numerous fire trucks were along Rt. 608..



It appeared that the fire was mostly South of St. Mary's Falls and at the peak of one mountain. It was also located South of the Mine Bank Trail which intersects with the St. Marys trail and loop. This area of St. Marys had numerous Iron ore mines back in the early 30's to 40's. I have hiked this area numerous times and will try to get back there again soon to see the extent of the damage...

Update: Headed out the door now to hike the area and get a better idea of where the damage is. The NewsVirginian newspaper out of Waynesboro has the following info in today's copy...






Additional information and up dates here and here...





Sunday, March 23, 2008

Candidacy for Chairman of Augusta County Republican Committee...

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During this past weekend I announced my candidacy and intention to run for the Chairman position of the Augusta County Republican Committee which I am presently the District Chairman of the South River district.

During my time as district chairman of South River I had the opportunity to work on numerous Republican campaigns and other campaign projects such as local parades and setup\operation of the Republican booth at the Augusta County Fair. This provided the opportunity to meet and talk with the many local Republican residents of Augusta County.

It was also during this time that I became involved with the inner workings of the Augusta County Republican Committee and worked on numerous projects with Vice-Chair Lynn Mitchell. This in effect provided me with communication and insight to ongoing projects and tactics used by this committee.

During my tenure in this area I have seen and participated in several successful projects to promote and support conservative republican principles and candidates within the 6th district. Unfortunately in the last year or so I have seen the present leadership of the local party turn towards divisive actions and tactics especially since the Sayre\Hanger republican primary. I had conversations with both Senator Hanger and Scott Sayre during their campaigns and told them both that I believe primaries within the party are beneficial for they promote the discussion of issues and ideas. This results in better informed and engaged voters selecting the better candidate for a stronger party.

Unfortunately during this same republican primary I saw several people within the local party elect and resort to negative campaign techniques and tactics to attack the opposing candidate. It was and still is no secret that I supported Scott Sayre in the primary and feel he is a strong conservative and asset to the republican party. Initially I was a member of the “Bloggers for Sayre” site and presented several blog posts supporting Sayre in his efforts. I also ceased contributing to this blog once numerous members started to use “negative campaigning” tactics towards the other republican candidate, Senator Hanger, and I feel these tactics are not beneficial to the party.

Since the republican primary in June 2007, there has been a clear divide within the local republican party and once again it is being played out in the local media to the delight of many from the other side of the political fence in the area. This division is not healthy for the party with a major presidential election coming in November, and needs to be resolved.