Decline of Empire

“Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of. We have trade missions back and forth. We — we do — it’s very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America,
where — where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.”- Governor & Genius Sarah Palin on CBS News


The Real End of Empire?- Two wars draining the coffers and now this financial meltdown accompanied with the largest bank failure in history, Washington Mutual. The President cannot even direct & control his own party’s House Republicans. Despair is at the door as we witness the near end of Empire. The President just uttered a whole 6-7 sentences in an attempt to calm the markets, beyond surreal. Folks the time has come to roll up the carpets as we are through being the world’s dominant player. In a mere 8 years all has been squandered. The Republican mantra that government is “not the answer” has now been fully manifested. The only possible silver lining is now all attention needs to be paid on domestic policy and infrastructure; this will allow the US to suspend our dominance on sovereign nations throughout the world.

Less Baggage- Wal-Mart Stores, Inc today committed to reduce its global plastic shopping bag waste by an average of 33 percent per store by 2013. This is expected to eliminate more than 135 million pounds of plastic waste globally. To help reach this goal, Wal-Mart will reduce the number of bags given out by its stores, encourage the use of reusable bags and give customers the ability to continue recycling plastic shopping bags. The announcement was made at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.
"By reducing the number of plastic bags our customers use, increasing the availability and affordability of reusable bags and providing recycling solutions, we think we can eliminate plastic waste equivalent to 9 billion plastic bags per year from our existing stores alone," said Matt Kistler, senior vice president for sustainability of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. "If we can encourage consumers to change their behavior, just one bag at a time, we believe real progress can be made toward our goal of creating zero waste."
Wal-Mart's comprehensive bag reduction strategy is being developed in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). This goal could have far-reaching environmental and economic benefits. It is estimated that roughly 60-80 percent of all marine debris is plastic. Reducing plastic shopping bag waste could also help reduce government expenditures. For example, the state of California spends approximately $25 million per year to discard plastic bags into landfills. (PR Newswire)