The NY-23 house seat is of such insignificance that the White House sent Vice President Joe Biden into the fray to try to drum up support for the Democrat. Republican stars Sarah Palin and Fred Thompson have already been on the Hoffman bandwagon, and the Republican Party establishment -- chagrined from its previous endorsement of Scozzofava has suddenly come to life with an ad supporting Hoffman.
The NY-23 seat might be "insignificant" -- and if Hoffman wins the Oldstream Media will treat it as such -- but it is a victory for conservatives all over the country in knocking out a liberal dressed in moderates clothing in Dede Scozzafava.
In 2001 when Vice President Gore became a private citizen for the first time in his adult life, he had a declared net worth of less than $2 million. Now, after eight years of pushing the hoax of manmade global warming, he is worth hundreds of millions and if Cap and Trade legislation is passed through congress into law, he stands to make billions.
Gore claims that he is simply putting him money where his mouth is, but several of the high profile investments that he has made have almost immediately received lucrative government contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- turning a tidy profit on his investments.
The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts.
But the real cash cow for the former VP, who is not by the way, a registered lobbyist in Washington -- although he is often seen in discussions with congressmen -- will be Carbon Credit Trading. As luck would have it, Gore is the owner and CEO of the largest carbon credit trading company in the world -- and has a significant stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange -- the stock exchange of carbon credits where billionaires will be made selling air.
It is significant to remember that Cap and Trade was first introduced as a concept by the now defunct Enron Corporation -- which made trader news in the early 2000s for its defrauding of investors and employees of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Tried in Europe, Cap and Trade does nothing whatsoever to reduce greenhouse emissions, but it does heavily tax certain companies while enriching others, drives up costs of business and loses jobs. Cap and Trade has wrecked the economies of any nation that tried it.
The Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group are about to set several of their branch banks up as separate entities, and then to sell the off. The moves come about at the demand of the European Commission to allay concerns about competition after the British government bailed out the two giant banks.
RBS is expected to sell branches in England and Wales, and its Churchill and Direct Line insurance businesses.
Lloyds is likely to offload its Cheltenham & Gloucester branches.
"This will be a big day for British banking, the latest chapter in the bailout saga," said BBC economic correspondent Hugh Pym.
It is not entirely clear how banks being forced to sell off assets to appease government is a good thing, but the BBC approves.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com columns “One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson