Joining the throng of car makers dedicated to help ease the world’s dependence on fossil fuels is DaimlerChrysler, the largest truck manufacturer in the world. At the National Biodiesel Board Annual Conference, Deb Morrissett, the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the said company, persuades the growing biodiesel industry to carry on their commitment to develop a natural standard for B20 as car makers are focusing their attention on developing and producing vehicles that will use run on alternative fuels.

The challenge to create a national specification for biodiesel is issued by Morrissett while stating that doing so would speed up the adoption of biodiesel. He further added that doing so would also help in the harnessing and directing the diverse research and investment efforts put into the development of such alternative fuel. He said that biodiesel should have a national fuel specification just like other fuels. “I’m looking forward to the time when anyone can fuel up with B20, but we’re not there yet,” he also added.

Morrissett also encouraged the industry to stay tuned for the company is intending to build on their diesel engine leadership for the coming future. They would do this with help from their partners like Cummins. As a sign of the company’s dedication to produce vehicles that will run on more environment friendly fuel, they have unveiled their Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 vehicles which come equipped with a 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine. This engine can run on B5 and B20 biodiesel. The said vehicles will become available in the market in March this year. The two trucks already meet emission standards that will be implemented in 2010 and this simply shows the company’s dedication to make their trucks not only to be high performance vehicles but are also safe just like EBC brake pads.

The company’s dedication to lessen the dependence on fossil fuel does not end in their use of efficient and clean diesel engines but they are also one of the car manufacturers which are developing the use of alternative fuels on their vehicles. A concrete example of this is the usage of B5 fuel of their Jeep Liberty and Jeep Grand Cherokee models. Both vehicles are approved for regular use of the B5 biodiesel fuel. Furthermore, their 2007 Dodge Ram can run on B20 biodiesel fuel and can be used for commercial, government, and military fleets.

Their support for the alternative fuel industry does not end there either. The company is planning to develop and produce cars that would be equipped with efficient gasoline engines, hybrid cars, flex-fuel vehicles which can run on gasoline as well as alternative fuel like bio-ethanol, electric vehicles and a test fleet of more than 100 fuel cell powered vehicles.

Their commitment to produce flexi-fuel vehicles will see them producing 250,000 units of the said vehicle which can run on E85 fuel – a fuel that is a mixture of gasoline and bio-ethanol. The 85 in the E85 stands for the percentage of bio-ethanol in the fuel which means that the E85 is 85 percent bio-ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The flexi-fuel vehicles that DaimlerChrysler will produce can also run on conventional gasoline efficiently. The company aims to double the production of their FFV fleet to 500,000 units in 2008.

During the conference, Loren Beard, manager of Fuel Legislation, Regulation and Policy, along with Scott Schramm, Manager of Regulatory and Technical Affairs, also tackled engine warranty issues, OEM experience with alternative fuels and how to deal with new regulations. The National Biodiesel Board Conference was held last February 5 in San Antonio, Texas.

Anthony Fontanelle
http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/daimlerchryslers-commitment-to-alternative-fuels-outlined-102162.html

Texas legislator proposes $500 to stop abortions
- A Texas legislator has proposed that pregnant women considering abortion be offered $500 not to end their pregnancies.
Republican State Sen. Dan Patrick, who also is a conservative radio talk show host, said on Friday the money might convince the women to go ahead and have babies, then give them up for adoption.
He said during a legislative conference in New Braunfels, 45 miles south of Austin, there were 75,000 abortions in Texas last year.
"If this incentive would give pause and change the mind of 5 percent of those woman, that’s 3,000 lives. That’s almost as many people as we’ve lost in Iraq," Patrick said.
Patrick has filed legislation to make the payment state law, but the legislature has not yet voted on it.
His proposal calls for giving any woman going to an abortion clinic the $500 option, to be paid no more than 30 days after the baby is born and given up for adoption.
Critics say the proposal would violate Texas and
federal laws against buying babies, which Patrick rejected as "the typical ridiculous criticism."

Heather Paffe, political director of Planned Parenthood of Texas, said Patrick’s proposal "is very cynical and insulting to women and their families."

"It’s insulting to think women would make that kind of decision so easily," she said
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070324/od_nm/texas_abortion1_dc;_ylt=Ai8bf.xytkCDhY_r9ZEgjo7tiBIF
It’s not $500 to keep it after they give birth, it’s $500 when the put the child up for adoption.

If a woman would go ahead with accepting $500 to carry a child to term that she doesn’t want, its going to cost a whole lot more to the state to take care of the baby once its born and even if its given up for adoption, the costs of investigation of the adoptive parents, the court costs, and paperwork are far in excess of that. Even if you charge the adoptive parents for costs, you won’t recover the money the state must lay out for an abandoned child.
If the $500 will make her change her mind, well, that assumes she had no reason in the first place, so either she is an amoral idiot, or too stupid to know anything more than getting her hands on $500 for drugs, and babies damaged by drugs or alcohol aren’t readily adopted so that means a lifelong dependency on the state for them. Costing us much more than a $250 abortion.
It may or may not be against Texas law, but it does call into question the idea that any and all life must be sacrosanct. Fetal alcohol syndrome and ancephaly (born without parts of their brains or parts of the skull)and the additional horrors that can be inflicted on the innocent infant afflicted by an uncaring mother, will only end up costing and costing and costing as we try to take care of the infants that will only grow in size not ability or intelligence.
As with so much of the anti-abortion movement, there is little discussion of what happens when that innocent is severely defective and the effects that will have on our already stressed health care system, in their world all babies and pink and white and ready for desperate new families, like some sort of good-fairy-stork. In their world its all good, in the real world its not.

CNN reports on the fireball that fell during a marathon in Austin, Texas.
Sparks were still coming from it at tree level, so I would guess that it hit the ground!

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1. What was the chief goal of the Compromise of 1850?
(Points: 3)
to resolve Texas’s statehood issues

to preserve the Union

to improve the economy in both the North and the South

to preserve the balance between slave states and free states

2. What theory promoted by Stephen Douglas would allow the people of a territory to allow or forbid slavery? (Points: 3)
Legislative options
Popular sovereignty
Territorial rights
Northwest Ordinance

3. What legislation attempted to satisfy the southern demand to maintain a balance in the Senate between free states and slave states?
(Points: 3)
Kansas-Nebraska Act

Fugitive Slave Act

Citizens Choice Act of 1854

Nebraska Compromise

4. What political party was formed by uniting several northern antislavery coalitions? (Points: 3)
Whig
Democrat
Know-Nothing
Republican

5. Who did not believe slavery should be abolished? (Points: 3)
Stephen Douglas
Frederick Douglass
William Lloyd Garrison
John Brown

6. Which group describes the elements of the Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case?

(Points: 3)
Group A

Group B

7. What helped bring Abraham Lincoln to national prominence? (Points: 3)
his debates with Stephen Douglas
the Dred Scott decision
his willingness to campaign for James Buchanan
his efforts to abolish slavery

8. What was not an element of Abraham Lincoln’s platform in 1860?
(Points: 3)
stopping the spread of slavery

building a transcontinental railroad

passing a homestead act for western settlement

reducing tariffs on foreign goods

9. What was one reason South Carolina gave for its decision to secede? (Points: 3)
to avoid paying federal taxes
to uphold the rights of property owners
to break its contract with the federal government
to form its own military

10. What were Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, and Oregon part of during the Civil War? (Points: 3)
Union states
border states
organized territories
Confederate states

11. Which border state’s loyalty to the Union was critical to keeping Washington, D.C. from being surrounded by the Confederacy?
(Points: 3)
Kentucky

Maryland

West Virginia

Delaware

12. Which is accurate in regard to the North’s and the South’s strengths at the beginning of the Civil War?
(Points: 3)
The North’s well-established government gave it a distinct advantage.

The South produced the vast majority of food crops in the United States.

The North had numerous experienced military officers to lead its army.

The South’s superior railroads gave it a distinct advantage.

13. Which was not a strength of the North at the beginning of the Civil War? (Points: 3)
ability to manufacture firearms
a standing army
miles of railroad tracks
several military colleges

14. Who were George McClellan, Winfield Scott, and John Pope?
(Points: 3)
Confederate military leaders

military leaders from border states

Union military leaders

military leaders from organized territories

15. What was the result of the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, on April 12, 1861?
(Points: 3)
President Lincoln and President Davis held a series of talks to avert war and settle the issues.

The Civil War began and President Lincoln called up militia to help put down the rebellion.

The Union forces repelled the attack.

The Civil War began and President Davis sent troops to Richmond.

16. What had Abraham Lincoln expected before the First Battle of Bull Run? (Points: 3)
The South could easily be defeated.
He would have to recruit many more soldiers.
Slaves would rebel and join the Northern forces.
The Union could continue with both free states and slave states.

17. What strategy could the North implement as a result of victories at Hampton Roads, Shiloh, and New Orleans?
(Points: 3)
controlling Southern trade routes

holding leaders hostage to exchange for weapons

breaking up the Confederacy by getting Virginia and Louisiana to rejoin the Union

forcing Jefferson Davis to begin a series of peace talks with Abraham Lincoln

18. What happened when newer, more accurate weapons were used against close-order formations at Antietam?
(Points: 3)
The South won and moved north to Gettysburg.

The North won and quickly followed Lee’s troops into Virginia.

Both sides suffered huge losses.

It looks like you really need to find out your self if you need this much help. Seriously 18 ?’s are you that helpless.

TURNING MUSLIM IN TEXAS- PEOPLE REVERTING TO ISLAM IN TEXAS

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WAKE UP CALL: TEXAS GOV. BACK RESOLUTION AFFIRMING SOVEREIGNTY
http://drudgereport.com/flashtx.htm

"It also designates that all compulsory federal legislation … that requires states to pass legislation or lose federal funding, be prohibited or repealed."

In other words, "Gimme your money, suckah, and respect my sovereignty".

There isn’t much about Texas I support or respect. It’s unfortunate I have family there. If it wants sovereignty than I guess it needs to stand on it’s own. That includes it’s battle with the illegal immigrants.

Do you live in Houston and want to invest in a business Houston Texas? If so, discover Go Mobile new $50 UNLIMITED plan and consider the Go Mobile Wireless Dealer opportunity. Check out the website www.gomobiledirect.com today! Distributed by Tubemogul.

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how many people out there believe that texas could secede if it wanted to regardless of legislation. please comment tactfully

If liberty, the right to live under a government by choice, the desire for proper government are the tenets that bond several states together in a voluntary compact, then the ability of a state to voluntarily leave that union is sacrosanct.

Sadly, by 1865 we were no longer a voluntary union of states but a forced union of victor and vanquished.

Given that this Union of States was begun as a voluntary union of 13 independent states, Texas is not unique.

The Union was formed by the voluntary agreement of the States; and these, in uniting together, have not forfeited their Nationality, nor have they been reduced to the condition of one and the same people. If one of the States chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right of doing so … – Alex de Tocqueville, Democracy In America

The error is in the assumption that the General Government is a party to the constitutional compact. The States … formed the compact, acting as sovereign and independent communities. – John C. Calhoun

The procedure of secession was to have an election for delegates to a state convention, to meet in convention, and to adopt ordinances of secession. This was done in accord with the Southern understanding of what would be in keeping with the United States Constitution. It had, after all, been ratified by the states acting through conventions. Could they not "un-ratify" it – secede from the Union – in the same fashion? – Clarence Carson, A Basic History Of The United States

If [the Declaration of Independence] justifies the secession from the British empire of 3,000,000 of colonists in 1776, we do not see why it would not justify the secession of 5,000,000 of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861. – New York Tribune, December 17, 1860

The principle, on which the war was waged by the North, was simply this: That men may rightfully be compelled to submit to, and support, a government that they do not want; and that resistance, on their part, makes them traitors and criminals. No principle, that is possible to be named, can be more self-evidently false than this; or more self-evidently fatal to all political freedom. Yet it triumphed in the field, and is now assumed to be established. If it really be established, the number of slaves, instead of having been diminished by the war, has been greatly increased; for a man, thus subjected to a government that he does not want, is a slave. – Lysander Spooner

Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would do it all over again. – Jefferson Davis

The “Lost Cause” Jefferson alluded to in this statement was not as popularly believed, the preservation of slavery; it was the right of a state to be free of tyrannical government. A government that indeed proved its tyranny by use of armed force.

I saw in States’ rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy…. Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo. -Lord Acton, in a letter to Robert E Lee right after the war

Health Insurance premiums are out of control! The trend of higher costs and lower benefits is on the rise. Florida Health Insurance web suggests using an insurance professional to find the best available rates for your individual, small business, or self employed health insurance.

Voted the number one insurance portal by Florida consumers, Florida Health Insurance Web, reports nearly three million Floridians without health insurance in Florida. Thats nearly a quarter of the states population. That in mind medical bankruptcy is up – the leading cause of bankruptcy today.

Every Floridian without health insurance coverage is just one illness away from financial ruin. Florida Health Insurance Web, www.FloridaHealthInsuranceWeb.com, advises consulting an online source such as its service, before choosing any health insurance policy.

In the past, applying for health insurance had been an eye opening experience for many.

The difficulty obtaining affordable health insurance rates in the sunshine state has always been hard, but now it has reached epic proportions. Florida residents may experience any number of insurance-related problems, including claim denials, sky-high premiums, cancellations, or refusals to grant or renew their policies. Florida’s Governor Crist vows to fix the problem and bring affordable insurance to all Florida’s residents. Democrats are pushing a health-care-reform legislation during the current legislative session. They are sponsoring a bill that would ask voters in 2008 to insert a guarantee in the constitution that all children in Florida would have access to health insurance by July, 2010.

At a recent insurance conference in Orlando, one Florida health insurance agent, Margaret

Margolas explained the process, “Before issuing a health insurance policy in Florida, insurance companies offering individual health insurance policies evaluate certain information about you to determine how likely you are to have a claim.” This is called “underwriting.”

She spoke to hundreds of business owners about health care for the uninsured and individual company’s role in delivering that health care. Margolas said, “Individuals looking for health insurance usually cannot find policies to cover past health problems.” How does someone with a pre-existing condition get coverage? Hiring a health insurance professional “consultant” may help. These consultants usually work at no cost to consumers; their fees are paid by the health care provider.

For any health policy, a company might consider age, occupation, current health status and medical history. They can also look at lifestyle, and habits to see what type of health risks a person may have. If individual risk factors indicate that a claim is likely, the company may charge more for the policy or even worse, refuse coverage.

Before applying for an individual health insurance policy, lorida Health Insurance Web advises talking to a qualified health insurance consultant for advice on which policy to choose.

Most individual health insurance companies in Florida have certain clauses regarding risk factors and pre-existing conditions. Limits on risk and “pre-existing conditions” are a standard part of most health plans. These limits ensure that benefits are paid only for conditions that occur naturally and only after your health coverage becomes effective. Paying only for approved services and covered conditions helps control healthcare costs and prevent possible insurance abuse.

The legal aspect of all this is “failure to disclose pre-existing conditions could jeopardize future claims” or invalidate the policy. Individual health insurance companies may completely exclude coverage for pre-existing conditions by attaching an “exclusion rider” to the policy.

If an applicant lists their pre-existing conditions on the application and the company issues coverage without attaching an exclusion rider, the company must begin covering the pre-existing conditions when the policy’s pre-existing waiting period expires. Pre-existing condition waiting periods can be a maximum of two years on individual policies. Exclusion riders can be in-force indefinitely.

In Florida, and in other states like Texas, if a person moves from a group, government, or church health plan to an individual health insurance policy, they will not be subject to a new pre-existing condition waiting periods if they had 18 months of prior coverage, with no more than 63 days lapse in coverage.

What else can someone do to get individual health plans? Corporations are able to purchase health insurance that cover pre-existing conditions for their employees so many CPA’s recommend using S-corporations status instead of individual. Simply create an S-Corp online from a state like Nevada or Delaware, ($350) and then apply for insurance under the corporation.

Buying insurance without an S-Corp means more limitations to your policy; chances are the end result will be some sort of “Cash for Services” Plan, a PPO, or HMO plan. These plans are the most typical.

Margolas says, “One word of advice when it comes to applying for an individual health insurance policy: applicants should be forthcoming and honestly answer all questions about medical conditions. Withholding information about an illness or medication is bad, the health insurance company may deny subsequent claims.”

Ask questions, especially if the wording of the policy is difficult. Be sure about specifics of the health insurance coverage. Don’t be afraid to ask for clarification about policy details. For more help, have a Florida health insurance consultant give you an explanation. Try to get answers in writing.

If a person loses health insurance coverage from their job, they may opt to continue coverage with insurance called COBRA. COBRA stands for (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act). COBRA is a law that makes it mandatory for an employer to provide the option of retaining membership in their health insurance plan. However applicants will have to pay the entire monthly premium part which was paid by the company earlier. Most people are surprised at the high cost of the COBRA premium; which may run up to 500$ a month.

If none of the above ways to reduce insurance costs work,

then the only way is to go for standard individual health insurance policy. As mentioned earlier they are usually costly, but online websites can help Floridian’s weed through the mounds of policies and select the best price and coverage available.

About Florida Health Insurance Web Florida Health Insurance Web is an online source of health insurance agents and insurance carriers covering individuals in the state of Florida. Individuals can get insurance quotes, search rates online by city, read current insurance news and events.

Health Insurance In Florida Needs Change.

Morgan Q. Moran
http://www.articlesbase.com/insurance-articles/health-insurance-in-florida-is-out-of-control-128479.html

Passed into law by the Governor, it will go into effect October 1. Montana has vowed to sue the Fed if they attempt to shut down any Montana-based manufacturer, and arrest any Federal agent who attempts to enforce Federal law that is more restrictive than Montana’s law. When it comes to a head, will the Fed finally realize they have no overstepped their authority with the States, or will they ignore Montana’s sovereignty and try to enforce Federal regulation where it is not authorized?

How soon before Texas and other States pass similar legislation, and at what point will the Fed acquiesce, or force civil war?

I’m lovin that a state has finally drawn a line in the sand and said, "Federal control stops here."