Santorum campaigns in Lenexa, KS Mar. 7 (Eric Gay/AP)
Rick Santorum has won the Republican presidential caucuses in Kansas.
Santorum captured an overwhelming 51 percent--although that constituted only about 15,300 people-- of the vote. Mitt Romney took second with 21 percent, followed by Newt Gingrich with 14 percent and Ron Paul with 12.5 percent. Those results mean Santorum stands to gain a substantial number of Kansas' 40 delegates.
Santorum made clear he had to win Kansas in order to remain competitive in the race for his party's presidential nomination.
"We have to do well here in Kansas," Santorum said this week in Lenexa, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. "No, we have to win here in Kansas, and win big."
In the 2008 Republican primary, Mike Huckabee carried Kansas with 60 percent of the vote. John McCain received 23.5 percent, Paul received 11 percent and Romney, who had already dropped out of the race, received 3 percent.
Romney and Gingrich largely skipped Kansas in favor of states voting next week. Gingrich canceled an all-day swing Friday in Kansas to campaign in Mississippi and Alabama, where voters head to the polls Tuesday. Romney also didn't focus on the state, although he did win an endorsement from Bob Dole, the former Kansas senator and presidential candidate, in December.
Romney also carried Wyoming's county conventions Saturday, winning six additional delegates. Santorum won three Wyoming delegates and Paul received one. (One additional Wyoming delegate remained uncommitted, and another remained to be decided.)
Romney began the weekend in the lead with 339 delegates, compared to 107 for Gingrich, 95 for Santorum, and 22 for Ron Paul, according to the Republican National Committee. The RNC totals do not reflect any wins in contests where delegates are not bound to the winning candidates.
Update 9:10 p.m. ET:Story updated to include vote results from Wyoming and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
CHEYENNE — State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.
House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.
The task force would look at the feasibility of:
Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.
The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. David Miller, R-Riverton, has said he doesn’t anticipate any major crises hitting America anytime soon. But with the national debt exceeding $15 trillion and protest movements growing around the country, Miller said Wyoming — which has a comparatively good economy and sound state finances — needs to make sure it’s protected should any unexpected emergency hit the U.S.
Several House members spoke in favor of the legislation, saying there was no harm in preparing for the worst.
“I don’t think there’s anyone in this room today what would come up here and say that this country is in good shape, that the world is stable and in good shape — because that is clearly not the case,” state Rep. Lorraine Quarberg, R-Thermopolis, said. “To put your head in the sand and think that nothing bad’s going to happen, and that we have no obligation to the citizens of the state of Wyoming to at least have the discussion, is not healthy.”
Wyoming’s Department of Homeland Security already has a statewide crisis management plan, but it doesn’t cover what the state should do in the event of an extreme nationwide political or economic collapse. In recent years, lawmakers in at least six states have introduced legislation to create a state currency, all unsuccessfully.
The task force would include state lawmakers, the director of the Wyoming Department of Homeland Security, the Wyoming attorney general and the Wyoming National Guard’s adjutant general, among others.
The bill must pass two more House votes before it would head to the Senate for consideration. The original bill appropriated $32,000 for the task force, though the Joint Appropriations Committee slashed that number in half earlier this week.
University of Wyoming political science professor Jim King said the potential for a complete unraveling of the U.S. government and economy is “astronomically remote” in the foreseeable future.
But King noted that the federal government set up a Continuity of Government Commission in 2002, of which former U.S. Sen. Al Simpson, R-Wyo., was co-chairman. However, King said he didn’t know of any states that had established a similar board.
Media mocks Wyoming for preparation & 'Doomsday Bill'
Glenn Beck praised the actions of a politician from Wyoming who is bringing something the media has dubbed the 'Doomsday Bill' to the table. Glenn is calling this perhaps one of the most responsible pieces of legislation because it calls for Wyoming to prepare for not only catastrophic natural disasters and terrorist attacks - but also in the event of a financial meltdown. Not surprisingly, the media mocked the bill. Glenn has the audio and reaction.
An important step was taken yesterday in Wyoming toward restoring the constitutionally protected right of Americans to keep and bear arms, as that state became the second in less than a year to enact legislation affirming the right of its citizens to carry a concealed firearm without a special government-issued license. Following adoption in the state Senate, the vote of the House in the Wyoming legislature approved the bill by a vote of 48–8 several weeks ago, and Gov. Matt Mead (photo, left) signed it into law on March 3.
The right to carry a concealed firearm without a special license issued by the state is often referred to as “constitutional carry.” Wyoming is now the fourth state in the Union that recognizes constitutional carry, joining Alaska, Arizona, and Vermont. Prior to Wyoming’s action, Arizona was the most recent state to adopt constitutional carry; Governor Jan Brewer signed the legislation in April of last year, and it went into effect a few months later, on July 29.
It appears that the trend toward “constitutional carry” is likely to continue, with several states weighing adoption of measures similar to that which became law today in Wyoming. An article from the Associate Press declares that “Similar bills are pending in states including Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Utah. A bill has been introduced in Kentucky but hasn’t advanced while another was introduced for discussion in Idaho.”
In the aftermath of the Tucson tragedy, organizations opposed to Second Amendment-defined rights attempted to exploit the deaths and injuries that occurred when Jared Loughner allegedly attempted to murder Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) However, the fumbling efforts of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik to politicize the tragedy appears to have backfired on the gun control lobby: rather than scaring the populace into surrendering more of their rights for the illusion of security, January 2011 gun sales surged 9.7 percent over the same month the previous year—an increase which builds on a trend in gun purchases since November 2008.
Undoubtedly, there are several factors are behind the movement at this time to restore more of the constitutionally recognized right to keep and bear arms to the people of the United States. Economics and a greater perceived need to be responsible for one’s own defense are among those factors. In the words of the AP article:
The push to expand permit-free carry of concealed guns is coming from people demanding the freedom to protect themselves in tough economic times without the requirement to pay for state permits, National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said.
“It’s an organic movement,” Arulanandam said. “I think certainly we are leading the charge — I’m not hiding behind it. A lot of this is organic in the sense that it comes from people realizing that when something bad happens, it’s up to them to defend themselves and their loved ones. And when something bad happens, instant responders are better than ‘first responders.’”
Another factor in the push to expand the right of self-defense in the direction of the liberty enumerated in the Bill of Rights is the sense that many Americans have that their liberties have been steadily eroded for many years. The same concerns that animated Tea Party activists and other constitutional conservatives are active in the movement for constitutional carry. People who neglect the exercise of their constitutional rights may soon find those rights have been usurped by the State. First in Arizona and now in Wyoming, the people are pushing back.
And “NO”, it is not global warming, climate change caused by man… as the progressives would have you believe!!
Is the world's largest super-volcano set to erupt for the first time in 600,000 years, wiping out two-thirds of the U.S.?
The super-volcano beneath Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming has been rising at a record rate since 2004
It would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful than the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980.
Spewing lava far into the sky, a cloud of plant-killing ash would fan out and dump a layer 10ft deep up to 1,000 miles away.
Two-thirds of the U.S. could become uninhabitable as toxic air sweeps through it, grounding thousands of flights and forcing millions to leave their homes.
On the verge of a catastrophe? Yellowstone National Park's caldera has erupted three times in the last 2.1million years and scientists monitoring it say we could be in for another eruption
This is the nightmare that scientists are predicting could happen if the world’s largest super-volcano erupts for the first time in 600,000 years, as it could do in the near future.
Yellowstone National Park’s caldera has erupted three times in the last 2.1million years and researchers monitoring it say we could be in for another eruption.
They said that the super-volcano underneath the Wyoming park has been rising at a record rate since 2004 - its floor has gone up three inches per year for the last three years alone, the fastest rate since records began in 1923.
But hampered by a lack of data they have stopped short of an all-out warning and they are unable to put a date on when the next disaster might take place.
When the eruption finally happens it will dwarf the effect of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which erupted in April last year, causing travel chaos around the world.
The University of Utah's Bob Smith, an expert in Yellowstone's volcanism told National Geographic: ‘It's an extraordinary uplift, because it covers such a large area and the rates are so high.
‘At the beginning we were concerned it could be leading up to an eruption.’
Area of outstanding natural beauty: The Yellowstone caldera (circled in red) in Wyoming is the world's largest super-volcano
Scorched earth: An artist's interpretation of how the Midway Basin in the park might look after an eruption
But he added: ‘Once we saw the magma was at a depth of ten kilometres, we weren't so concerned.
‘If it had been at depths of two or three kilometre we'd have been a lot more concerned.’
Robert B. Smith, professor of geophysics at the University of Utah, who has led a recent study into the volcano, added: ‘Our best evidence is that the crustal magma chamber is filling with molten rock.
‘But we have no idea how long this process goes on before there either is an eruption or the inflow of molten rock stops and the caldera deflates again’.
The Yellowstone Caldera is one of nature’s most awesome creations and sits atop North America’s largest volcanic field.
Its name means ‘cooking pot’ or ‘cauldron’ and it is formed when land collapses following a volcanic explosion.
In Yellowstone, some 400 miles beneath the Earth’s surface is a magma ‘hotspot’ which rises to 30 miles underground before spreading out over an area of 300 miles across.
Atop this, but still beneath the surface, sits the slumbering volcano.
July 22, 1980: Mount St Helens in Washington erupts. A Yellowstone caldera eruption would explode with a force a thousand times more powerful
Scientists monitoring it believe that a swelling magma reservoir six miles underground may be causing the recent uplifts.
They have also been keeping an eye on a ‘pancake-shaped blob’ of molten rock he size of Los Angeles which was pressed into the volcano some time ago.
But due the extreme conditions it has been hard to work out what exactly is going on down below, leading researchers unable to say with certainty what will happen - or when.
Since the most recent blast 640,000 years ago there have been around 30 smaller eruptions, the most recent of which was 70,000 years ago.
They filled the caldera with ash and lava and made the flat landscape that draws thousands of tourists to Yellowstone National Park every year.
‘Clearly some deep source of magma feeds Yellowstone, and since Yellowstone has erupted in the recent geological past, we know that there is magma at shallower depths too,’ said Dan Dzurisin, a Yellowstone expert with the U.S. Geological Survey at Cascades Volcano Observatory in Washington State.
‘There has to be magma in the crust, or we wouldn't have all the hydrothermal activity that we have.
‘There is so much heat coming out of Yellowstone right now that if it wasn't being reheated by magma, the whole system would have gone stone cold since the time of the last eruption 70,000 years ago.’
But the World, the ambitiously-constructed archipelago of islands shaped like the countries of the globe, is sinking back into the sea, according to evidence cited before a property tribunal.
The islands were intended to be developed with tailor-made hotel complexes and luxury villas, and sold to millionaires. They are off the coast of Dubai and accessible by yacht or motor boat.
Now their sands are eroding and the navigational channels between them are silting up, the British lawyer for a company bringing a case against the state-run developer, Nakheel, has told judges.
"The islands are gradually falling back into the sea," Richard Wilmot-Smith QC, for Penguin Marine, said. The evidence showed "erosion and deterioration of The World islands", he added.
With all but one of the islands still uninhabited – Greenland – and that one a showpiece owned by the ruler of Dubai, most of the development plans have been brought to a crashing halt by the financial crisis.
Nakheel, the developer, was part of Dubai World, the state-owned conglomerate that had to be bailed out of debts put at around $25 billion at the end of 2009. The Dubai World Tribunal was set up to hear cases arising out of the restructuring and separation of the companies involved.
The low-lying islands represent a vague shape out to sea when viewed from Dubai's beaches, but are visible by satellite or from the top of the city's Burg Khalifa, the world's tallest building, which opened to the public last year.
According to the company, 70 per cent of the World's 300 islands have been sold. Nakheel is also behind Dubai's famous Palm-shaped offshore developments. Villas in the only one near completion, Palm Jumeirah, were given to or bought by footballers including David Beckham and Michael Owen.
Though few celebrity buyers were found for The World, it was rumoured – or joked – that Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie had considered Ethiopia.
Many investors who did buy the islands proved unwilling or unable to finance further work when Dubai's property prices halved in the space of a year.
Some were hit by troubles elsewhere – the owner of the company which bought Ireland for £24 million, John O'Dolan, committed suicide, while the man who bought Britain for £43 million, Safi Qurashi, is serving seven years in jail in Dubai after being accused of bouncing cheques.
The dispute being heard by the property tribunal involves Penguin Marine, the company which bought the rights to provide boat travel to the islands.
With little business, it is trying to exit the contract, which involves paying an annual fee of just under £1 million to Nakheel.
Nahkeel say they will cash an advanced payment guarantee worth just over £1 million if that happens.
Penguin claim that work on the islands has "effectively stopped". Mr Wilmot-Smith described the project as "dead".
Graham Lovett, for Nakheel, said the project was not dead but admitted it was "in a coma".
"This is a ten-year project which has slowed down," he said. "This is a project which will be completed."
He said Penguin would make money eventually. "That's the price Penguin makes to stay in the game," he said. "They have the potential to earn millions."
The tribunal found for Nakheel on Thursday, saying it would give full reasoning later.
A spokesman for Nakheel insisted the islands were not sinking. "Our periodical monitoring survey over the past three years didn't observe any substantial erosion that requires sand nourishment," a statement said.
At the WuJo: Coping: Tearing Apart the World, Part I
Welcome to the WuJo! This is where we take apart fact and theory so we can re-weave it into a closer approximation of objective reality than might otherwise be had by simply accepting all the ideas floating around in the netosphere unchallenged.
The facts we line up this morning are these:
We identified a 'band' of earthquake activity roughly described by a trans-equatorial orbit which covers a great deal of the earth's recent quakes, including the recent 7.4 in Pakistan, the strange activity in the Gulf Aden, the increased activity down around Indonesia, and so forth. Not that we ascribe earthquake activity to anything orbiting, and it may all just be the appearance, but the trans-equatorial track is there (goes over China, too before swinging south again) if one looks at the data. (Maps in Peoplenomics #489A under "Shaky New Year, Redux.)
Also in that report, we touched on the great African Rift which is threatening to fly open which would cause all kinds of problems, not the least of which would be steam if the Gulf of Aden were to start pouring into the widening rift. This morning's headline that ought to bring the possibility more to front-of-mind is found at Before It's News under the headline "Violent Seismic Activity Tearing Africa in Two."
Next (like this isn't enough?) we had the stories about the Tampa Airport runway renumbering project. See "North Pole shifting causes RIA to renumber runways." Admittedly, this is "oldish" news, but we're weaving all this into a new mat at here at the WuJo, so hang in there.
Next, we pause for an objective bit of science. The following is an animated .GIF file, borrowed from Wikipedia:
What's interesting about this particular animated .GIF file? Well, it shows us something extremely pertinent to our discussion of earth changes. I assume you know that there are isogonic lines of force that run from the magnetic north pole to the south? Think of these as "the lines a compass align themselves to when pointing north. Remember: Local North is not always the same as True North. This .GIF file shows that the zero line for the North American declination (the variance from True North measured by a magnet is where lately? We see a huge variation in Magnetic North up through the 1600's, but check out where that line is today? Right off the east coast of Florida.
And THAT is where things start to get precisely UGLY. Because the location of the zero offset from True North isogonic line seems to run either very close to - or right at - where the government is about to shut down the Global Positioning System (GPS) for unspecified testing. And we quote from the Jan 19, 2011 Notices to Airmen Advisory right off the FAA's Flight Safety webiste as follows:
The Department of Defense will conduct GPS tests on January 20th through February 22nd, 2011. During testing, the GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable.
A. Location: Centered at 304906N/0802811W or the location know as 105.25 degrees and 52.1 NM from the SSI VOR.
B. Dates and times: GPS testing is scheduled on January 20th through February 11th, 2011 from 0000-0245 UTC daily and February 15th through February 22nd, 2011 from 0000-0245 UTC daily. These tests may not be concurrent so pilots are advised to check NOTAMS frequently for possible changes prior to operating in the area.
C. Duration: Several test events will be conducted and will be active for 45 minutes followed by 15 minutes of off time.
D. During testing, GPS will be unreliable and may be unavailable with in a circle with a radius of 370NM and centered at 304906N/0802811W or the location known as 105.25 degrees and 52.1 NM from the SSI VOR at FL400; decreasing in area with a decrease in altitude to a circle with a radius of 325NM at FL250; a circle with a radius of 260NM at 10,000FT MSL and a circle with a radius of 215NM at 4,000FT AGL.
E. Pilots are highly recommended to report anomalies during testing to the appropriate ARTCC to assist in the determination of the extent of GPS degradation during tests.
And the map area? As I said, suspiciously like it's close to the zero magnetic deviation line in the magnetic lines of force animation above:
Now, even all this would not have gotten my attention under most cases, except for this email purporting to be from a reader who...well...a few things redacted for privacy concerns, but you'll get the idea:
"George:
I have debated with myself most of the day about sending you the following, but NASA knows what is going on and Hubby works for [redacted] and he says something is "fixing" to happen, much sooner than later. So here goes.
Sorry to be contributing to your overcrowded in-box two days in a row but I feel I should warn you that Hubby told me this morning we should be making preparations to leave for our safe house in the Wyoming mountains. This means submitting resignations that become effective at the end of the day! We live in a condominium so we will just lock the door and drive away, more than likely never to return. Our Chevy Suburban with 4x4 drive, dual gas tanks, off-road tires, heavy duty winch, souped up engine designed for pulling a RV,etc., etc. was purchased with just this scenario in mind. We are both licensed SEL pilots but do not trust our beloved [aircraft type] as Hubby says winds are going to play a huge factor in what is coming. Best to stay out of the air and off the water. And besides, we want our reliable new Suburban with us at all times from now on as it is much more practical for what is ahead.
George, it appears the smelly stuff is not to far away from the whirling giant blades at this point. Hubby left this (see below) on my desktop this morning with a message simply stating "time to hit the road". I talked to him again a little while ago and asked if he was still serious about this and he said he was writing out his resignation as he was talking to me, but probably won't matter one way or the other. He says it is getting somewhat tense around the [ redacted] office. He doesn't know if the following article is to blame or everything the powers have been struggling to conceal - the truth about coming earth changes, the economy, and everything else - is about to be revealed. Regardless, his intuition tells him to be in the mountains just in case. He is a big believer in following "hunches" as I am.
Something is definitely going on and all of a sudden - out of the blue, clear sky - as the George Strait song goes, we are about to take the first step in trying to survive whatever the hell is about to hit us. We will be leaving [date] for Wyoming and probably will drive straight through, taking turns napping and driving. In a perverse kind of way, this is becoming exciting....besides we love Wyoming just as we do Texas.
Note: ( I toyed with this for awhile). The state of Texas is not a safe place to be George, not even the Davis mountains according to Hubby or that is where we would be headed because we love it out there. The further away from the ocean the better he says. God be with you and yours.
Now, whether this letter is a clear warning or is just a reader sending a "something to freak out George's monkey-mind" ought to be clear soon enough. But remember our local "earthquake sensitive" sees stuff ahead, too.
But just remember that one of the apparent 'rules' by which the PTB seem to operate is that there is some kind of advance disclosure 'law' governing how they behave; It may also be a management-level tenant of the rewritten version of Christianity (Origin is what some Stargate fans call it [another example of hiding truth in plain sight?]) that came out of the First Council of Nicaea...but that's a too-long-and-too-weird-for-here discussion...although the aware might see how Isis followers might have woven a certain mother-figure into the early church dogma...(no emails on this, please; ankhs for asking - or is that a censor?).
One more morsel from my recent research forays into religion and magnetism? Is the Egyptian 'the Djed'** (the second most common magical implement in ancient magick/craft work) a linguistic leak close to 'the Jedi'? Now think about the extremely intelligent fellow who produced Star Wars we were just talking about a minute ago...Intentional clues, hidden in plain sight....your guess is as good as mine, of course...still...
** From Steve Preston's "A Closer Look at Ancient History, Book 6, page 257 "Don't believe for a moment that Egyptians just made up this unusual artifact. In ancient Sumeria we can find the same item drawn and etched on walls." And from page 261: "The Djed somehow made the user able to ride in the 'levitating god-star'".
Thus, it's not a huge stretch for me to tentatively figure that someone wielding this Djed thing would be a what? A Jedi maybe?
---
Back to point: Just from the old newsman's "news nose knows news" if I were making bets, I'd wager the Defense Department tests are to update software on the GPS constellation in order to do "testing" is one hell of an oddly timed event.
What? Tampa gets renumbered, a local sunrise is "off", Africa is tearing apart and Tony Ring's quake data has shown a major increase in what over the past six months?
I'm not certain what's going on, but if I were guessing, I'd bet there's some fancy new code going up on the birds to adjust carrier phase tracking of the GPS units so that few people on the ground notice differences in time (earth rotational spin) and location drift which might be noticed using differential GPS or wide area augmentation system-enhanced aviation models.
Cool thing bout GPS is people have come to rely on it to a very large extent. So if you're planning to do any flying in the Southeast USA in the NOTAM period, might want to at least be aware that the airplane you're on might not be making a GPS (WAAS) IFR approach - might be back on the dual VOR's.
Oh, one more thing (I'll mutter in my best imitation of Peter Falk acting his Colombo role: "There's just one last thing, mothers me, ma'mn...").
OK, enough of this weirdness. I think I'll go watch the painting of the tape - just one more day to get past options expiration and then next week. Which might not be pretty...more tomorrow for Peoplenomics.com subscribers...
Santorum campaigns in Lenexa, KS Mar. 7 (Eric Gay/AP)
An important step was taken yesterday in Wyoming toward restoring the constitutionally protected right of Americans to keep and bear arms, as that state became the second in less than a year to enact legislation affirming the right of its citizens to carry a concealed firearm without a special government-issued license. Following adoption in the state Senate, the vote of the House in the Wyoming legislature approved the bill by 
