This week’s exercise in Party Management (what can we give these disparate folks to do, so they will feel important?), no doubt cooked up by some PR firm on K Street in DC, was to have mini tea bag parties around the country.  The real picture, if you ignored Fox TV : groups of 10-100 people, average age 67 (Fox, this is your demographic), whining in the rain about taxes.

IF someone had been at each event, asking: “Do you make less than a quarter of a million dollars in income per year?”, I can guarantee you that almost all of them would have said, Yes.

And then, with their No New Taxes signs on their shoulders, the interviewer could have asked the final question: do you realize that, under Obama’s budget, you will have a tax reduction?  Boy, that would have spoiled their party.

Is this current crisis an IQ test?  Of course it is: life is an IQ test.  Is it Darwinian?  You bet: life is Darwinian (unless you live in Louisiana, which just voted to put Creationism on school curricula).  Will some lose, and some win?  Absolutely.

The days of Karl, and his antics, are really over.  In fact, the Pentagon’s propaganda office was taken apart by the Obama people this week.  Now, the message of the nation will again come from the White House, and the State Department, and not from the Pentagon. 

Staging goofy tea bag parties against tax increases that the people in the crowds would not be paying?  Was it the ghost of Karl? 

Had to be. 

It certainly was not for the benefit of: the town, the county, the state, the country, the world.  Did it benefit the party?  On the face, the answer would be Yes.  But, a day later, when they all realize that they actually were not paying higher taxes?  Will they have that moment?  Are they smart enough? 

That’s the next test.  Who will they be more angry with, since anger is the currency of the current party hacks?  With the party hacks?  Or with Obama, who didn’t raise their taxes after all?

I’m afraid the answer, again, will be (b).

Transonic Combustion, Inc.  http://www.tscombustion.com/about.html

Transonic Combustion, Inc. is a research & development phase company focused on developing a suite of technologies which is projected to enable conventional automotive engines to run at ultra-high efficiency on gasoline and on bio-renewable flex fuels. The Company was founded by an inventor/entrepreneur with patents in fuel cells, batteries, electronics and computer/communications architecture. The startup management team has a track record of establishing strategic partnerships with automotive, computer and wireless communications companies. The Company is financially backed by some of America’s leading venture capital firms including Venrock, as lead investor.

R&D operations are located in Camarillo, CA at the Northwest edge of Los Angeles. The area still has a rural-suburban feel, but with easy access to all of LA’s resources. At 7 miles from the ocean, it maintains a temperate climate year-round.

What is the FiReStarters program?

We have selected 10 businesses – top startups or businesses with new startup technology – for world promotion, based on nominations by trusted strategic investment SNS Members, as part of this pioneering program at FiRe 2007. These are businesses which we, and those businesses who nominated them, believe will change our world in a positive way. FiReStater companies and other details are listed at http://www.futureinreview.com/firestarters.php

In keeping with the FiRe 2008 focus of “Rapid Response” to the climate crisis, EcoVerdance has been selected as this year’s pioneer FiRe Spotlight Company.

What Is EcoVerdance? http://www.ecoverdance.com

EcoVerdance: (noun) – an ideal state of harmony between the environment and humanity, achieved through atmospheric carbon balance and agricultural advancement. Founded in October 2007, EcoVerdance Inc. is at the center of an alliance of environmentally minded corporations and individuals committed to cleaning the Earth’s atmosphere and ending world hunger. EcoVerdance’s primary method of carbon-dioxide reduction involves the purchase and donation of Accele-Gro-M, a plant fertilizer growth enhancer created by Accelegrow Technologies Inc. (www.accelegrow.com) for application in developing countries, especially those that suffer drought conditions, with the help of nongovernmental / charitable organizations. In addition to cleaning the atmosphere and thus creating carbon credits, the increased crop yields provide nourishment and economic benefits for indigenous people. Initial concentration is on eastern and southern African countries.

More details are at:

http://www.futurinereview.com , http://www.globalsolar.com

http://www.tekkeon.com , http://www.led-z.com

vlingo Corp. – http://www.vilingo.com

vlingo Corp. delivers a voice-powered interface for mobile phones. Leveraging a new technology called adaptive “Hierarchical Language Models” (HLMs), vlingo’s approach allows carriers and mobile application providers to quickly and inexpensively voice-enable any application – without custom engineering or in-house speech expertise. Unlike conventional voice recognition technologies that require individual purpose-built applications and rely on constrained grammars and scripted interactions, vlingo’s open approach eliminates a costly and intensive manual effort and scales to tasks as broad as open mobile search. As a result, consumers get quick, easy, and accurate access to mobile applications, which translates into new revenue streams.

What is the FiReStarters program?

We have selected 10 businesses – top startups or businesses with new startup technology – for world promotion, based on nominations by trusted strategic investment SNS Members, as part of this pioneering program at FiRe 2007. These are businesses which we, and those businesses who nominated them, believe will change our world in a positive way. FiReStater companies and other details are listed at http://www.futureinreview.com/firestarters.php