Obama: Aliens Aren’t A Problem …

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IN THE U.S.A.

Major employers of illegal immigrants have included:

Wal-Mart – In 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle a federal investigation that found hundreds of illegal immigrants were hired by Wal-Mart’s cleaning contractors.

In December 2006, in the largest such crackdown in American history, U.S. federal immigration authorities raided Swift & Co. meat-processing plants in six U.S. states, arresting about 1,300 illegal immigrant employees.

Tyson Foods – This company has also been accused of actively importing illegal labor for its chicken packing plants; however, the jury acquitted the company after evidence was presented that Tyson went beyond mandated government requirements in demanding .

Gebbers Farms – In December 2009, US immigration authorities forced this Brewster, Washington farm known for its fruit orchards to fire more than 500 undocumented workers, mostly immigrants from Mexico. Some were working with false social security cards and other false identification.

Raw Number / Percent change 2000 to 2006
1. Mexico – 6,570,000 / 69%
2. El Savador – 510,000 / 9%
3. Guatemala – 430,000 / 8%
4. Philippines – 280,000 / 4%
5. Honduras – 280,000 / 5%
6. India – 270,000 / 5%

An ABC News Poll indicates that most respondents (67%) believe the United States is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from coming into the country and, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll most Americans believe that US immigration policy needs either fundamental changes (41%) or to be completely rebuilt (49%).

The illegal immigrant population of the United States in 2008 was estimated by the Center for Immigration Studies to be about 11 million people. [Source: Wikipedia]

Projection 2060
Census Bureau data findings show that the current level of net immigration (1.25 million a year) will add 105 million to the nation’s population by 2060. [Center for Immigration Studies]

2011 Ford Explorer Vehicle Tour

The 2011 Ford Explorer has been described as “buff”. The new Ford face has a 3-bar grill, thin chrome, and beautiful head lamps. Observe, it even says “Explorer” in the the lamps. The look is enhanced by the head lamps. What the customer really wants in a new vehicle is -  looks and capability. Ford’s overall theme is simplicity.

Although the styling is gorgeous, aerodynamics also delivers a better fuel economy. Aerodynamics translates into better gas mileage for the driver.

The 2011 Ford Explorer tows 5,000 lbs. Buyers will find a back-up, reverse camera, also known as rear camera, and trailer sway mitigation technology (TSM) to make less of a chore for delivering the goods.

Under the hood is the standard 3.5-litre Ti-VCT, which gives you 290 engine HP. It delivers best in fuel economy. If you prefer jaw-dropping economy Ford kept you in mind. An optional four-cylinder engine is also offered, which is a 2-litre I-4. Yes, that’s correct, a four-cylinder under the hood of an Explorer, which provides you 30% improvement over the standard engine.

Customer safety awareness always plays into development and sales of today’s vehicles. Safety is a must for the driver. The bumper beam is made of Boron  which is high-strained steel. The intent of doing that is, it’s stronger and stiffer than regular steel.

An industry first, Ford uses rear inflatable safety belts. The idea is to distribute the load of the seatbelt, keeping in mind the impact of a child, or an elderly person.

Looking into the obviously well-crafted interior one will notice the Sony entertainment system. The MyFord Touch technology allows drivers to personalize many aspects of the in-car experience, including home screen, technology settings and convenience features.

It has beautiful displays which exudes technology. Voice control can be used, through toggled switches, or pushing on the systems. You have climate, navigation, radio, and phone. Ford Motor Company hopes to dazzle customers with the use of technology in this new well designed Explorer.

Press Freedom In Venezuela Is Under Attack

Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of Globovision TV, has fled Venezuela because of persecution by President Hugo Chavez. Globovision has been heavily criticized by Chavez and his government before, accusing the channel of manipulating information.

Zuloaga and one of his sons had warrants issued against them in June. Security police forces in Venezuela could not find him. After going into hiding for weeks, Zuloaga showed up in Washington, D.C.

He has presented his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The president of Globovision is challenging the president of Venezuela to prove the crimes that he is being charged of.

Guillermo Zuloaga has criticized Chavez harshly, saying that Venezuela is a country that the gross domestic product has been declining steadily for several years now (ABC.es). About 30% of the population of the country live on less than $2 per day.

The economy is largely based on petroleum.

In the slums of Venezuela, Chavez and his revolution is losing support. The nation has one of the worst murder rates in the world, 31.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.

Chavez has warned Globovision that it could be stripped of its broadcast frequency and could be convicted by a criminal prosecution.

In August of 2009, the pro-Chávez party (UPV) attacked the headquarters of Globovisión. They fired tear gas into the building. No one was charged.

Earlier this year: Washington, D.C., March 25, 2010 – IACHR REPUDIATES ARREST OF GUILLERMO ZULOAGA IN VENEZUELA …

America’s Longest War Will Continue

While watching the television program Meet The Press, I had one of those reflective moments about why the United States is still in Afghanistan. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Ca) made a sobering comment on a nationwide television program. “The debate we are having now is one we should have had nine years ago.”  Then she told host David Gregory:

Rep. Lee: I question this policy. I think more members of Congress are beginning. And this is not just liberal and progressive members. These are many members who you never would have believed would have begun to question this. The American People are war weary. This is an endless war and they want it to come to an end.

Previously, President Obama had said repeatedly that there will be no deadline on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Now there is a divided outlook over the withdrawal date in Afghanistan – July of 2011. Technically, that only means that they will begin to scale down in 2011.

“We didn’t say we’d be switching off the lights and closing the door behind us,” Obama said. “We said we’d begin a transition phase that would allow the Afghan government to take more and more responsibility.”

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001 as a response to the 9/11 attacks. Almost nine years later and it’s hard to get a grasp on the military objective. The question remains, why are we still there in Afghanistan? On June 7, 2010, this day marked the 104th month in Afghanistan, making it the longest war in the history of the United States.

The majority of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan was not a mistake, but most are in agreement that the war is going very badly. In November of 2009, 66% of Americans believed that things were going bad in Afghanistan. International public opinion reflects the same attitude – that the United States should leave Afghanistan.

Then I just happened to stumble across a very interesting article in the New York Times -  U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan. The article says: “Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni Province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large of those of Bolivia, which now has the world’s largest known lithium reserves.”

The Pentagon claims there are billions of dollars worth of copper, lithium, iron and gold reserves in Afghanistan. Is this the Pentagon’s way of handling public management? Is the Obama administration just buying more time?  Recent geologic surveys have indicated Ghazni may have one of the world’s richest deposits of lithium. The total value of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth may exceed $1 trillion.

Was the war in Afghanistan a big mistake? Will the U.S. stay in Afghanistan?

Perhaps the United States has been heavily  involved in the >> TAPI project. War on Terror or Oil Conspiracy?

The New York Times Ranks as Top Online Newspaper

A recent report by comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) showed that more than 123 million Americans visited newspaper sites in May, representing 57 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience, as the New York Times Brand led the category with more than 32 million visitors and 719 million pages viewed during the month.

“The average visitor viewed 22 pages of content on the New York Times, also leading the top ten. Tribune Newspapers ranked second in terms of audience with 24.8 million visitors, followed by Advance Internet (18.1 million visitors) and USA Today Sites (16.8 million visitors).”

“comScore research conducted last year for the Online Publishers Association showed that visitors who are exposed to display ads on news sites are more likely than average to visit the advertiser website, are heavier online buyers and tend to have higher household income. Online news publishers are also leading the way in the use of newer display ad formats, which are aiming to create a richer, more engaging experience for consumers.”

NEWSPAPER GROUPS

1. New York Times Company – Company websites list.
2. Tribune Company – Tribune 365 online audience.
3. Advance Internet – Affiliated newspaper list and media kit.
4. USA Today – Gannett Publishing Segment Online.
5. WashingtonPost – The Washington Post Company Business Properties.
6. McClatchy Corporation – Daily newspapers.
7. MediaNews Group – The newspaper list.
8. Mortimer B. Zuckerman - Owns New York Daily News, US News and World Report, Boston Properties, and Atlantic Monthly.
9. Hearst Corporation – Hearst Corporation brands.
10. News Corporation – Newspapers and information services.

House Votes Down Repeal ObamaCare 230-187

On June 15, 2010, House of Representatives took a vote to repeal the ObamaCare mandate – a mandate that would require all individuals to purchase health insurance. The final results for Roll 362 – Noes 230, Ayes 187. Republicans shot the first fire against ObamaCare, and lost this battle.

Americans remain extremely divided on the healthcare reform bill. A recent Gallup survey shows that 50% of Americans are in favor of a repeal. That means at least half of the people are not in favor of the bill. Senior citizens especially are against the new law.

And there’s the constitutionality of the bill. The Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS) filed a lawsuit three days after the bill (“The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”) was signed. AAPS  just happens to be the same force that denied HillaryCare in 1994.  Doctors actually support AAPS  and that support is growing.

Even Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has alluded that healthcare legislation could appear before the Supreme Court in years to come. “Every word in a bill is subject for an argument in court,” Breyer said. “You have passed a law with 2,400 pages. It probably has a lot of words. And I would predict, as a test of my theory, that three or four years from today, no one is going to ask us again why we have so few cases.”

The AAPS (Source: ObamaCare: Not What the Doctor Ordered Andrew L. Schlafly, Esq.) includes a special claim that is lacking from most other suits: the individual mandate forcing people to buy insurance is an unconstitutional “taking” of property from one person (a patient) to give to another (the insurance company).

The real contest will take place in the the 2010 midterm elections, which are held on Nov. 2. There are 34 seats up for election in the Senate, while all 435 seats in the House are up for election. Thirty-six out of fifty governor seats are up for grabs.

Healthcare could be a major issue in the November elections. Political experts predict that 2010 could be a difficult year for President Obama. The economy could be a factor. The current Obama Job Approval rating is 45%.

The current approval rating of Congress is 20% and ranks among the lowest Gallup has measured in a midterm election year. The national mood is anti-incumbent. Anti-incumbency happens when people are disappointed. This could spell trouble for Obama in November.

Here Are Your Webby Winners

NEWS
1. Webby Award Winner: The New York Times
2. People’s Voice Winner: BBC News

SOCIAL NETWORKING
1. Webby Award Winner: Twitter
2. People’s Voice Winner: Twitter

MAGAZINE
1. Webby Award Winner: NewYorker.com
2. People’s Voice Winner: National Geographic

RADIO/PODCASTS
1. Webby Award Winner: TED.com
2. People’s Voice Winner: NPR

TELEVISION
1. Webby Award Winner: Colbert Nation
2. People’s Voice Winner: Colbert Nation

BEST COPY/WRITING
1. Webby Award Winner: NewYorker.com
2. People’s Voice Winner: The New York Times

BLOG-BUSINESS
1. Webby Award Winner: Mashable
2. People’s Voice Winner: Mashable

MUSIC
1. Webby Award Winner: Pandora
2. People’s Voice Winner: Pandora

EDUCATION
1. Webby Award Winner: We Choose The Moon
2. People’s Voice Winner: We Choose The Moon

MOVIE AND FILM
1. Webby Award Winner: Mubi
2. People’s Voice Winner: District 9

WEIRD
1. Webby Award Winner: Selleck Waterfall Sandwich
2. People’s Voice Winner: FAIL Blog

CELEBRITY/FAN
1. Webby Award Winner: Jim Carrey
2. People’s Voice Winner: Jim Carrey

CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
1. Webby Award Winner: Philips Cinema 21:9
2. People’s Voice Winner: Engadget.com

GAMES-RELATED
1. Webby Award Winner: TheBeatlesRockBand.com
2. People’s Voice Winner: Game Informer

POLITICS
1. Webby Award Winner: FactCheck.org
2. People’s Voice Winner: FatcCheck.org

TRAVEL
1. Webby Award Winner: I wanna go there
2. People’s Voice Winner: Lonely Planet

SCIENCE
1. Webby Award Winner: Mind Lab
2. People’s Voice Winner: NASA Global Climate Change

LIFESTYLE
1. Webby Award Winner: All About Birds
2. People’s Voice Winner: Epicurious.com

HUMOR
1. Webby Award Winner: The Onion
2. People’s Voice Winner: The Onion

BLOG-POLITICAL
1. Webby Award Winner: Truthdig
2. People’s Voice Winner: The Huffington Post

Source: The Webby Awards

Aerial View Of BP Spill In The Sea

                                      BP Slick Burn at The Source.mov

Pilot Tom Hutchings and Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen fly to the BP Oil Spill and report the damage. More coverage from SouthWings and The Locust Fork News-Journal.  To view  Hurricane Creekkeeper ‘s User Profile click here.

Dependence On Oil Is Proving To Be Costly

We read the news or heard about it on television. News about the tragic oil spill that recently happened in the Gulf of Mexico, just off the Louisiana coast. That day on April 22, 2010, revealed to us that the United States and the world can no longer ignore the unsafe practices of offshore oil drilling.

Even for a society that is based on consumer sentiments, the environmental effect of an oil spill of this proportion is catastrophic from any point of view. Is the Oil Spill of 2010 a wake-up call for all of us?

As they say, history is doomed to repeat itself. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was headed for Long Beach, California. While en route this tanker hit a reef in Prince William Sound and dumped approximately 250,000 barrels of oil into U.S. waters (Wikipedia).

The ship was carrying 54 million gallons of oil; 10 million gallons were spilled into the Prince William Sound. The consequences of this disaster are still felt today. Lives were wrecked, homes lost, and the accident caused many divorces.

But there might possibly be a difference between the two disasters. The Exxon Valdez had a limited supply of oil that it carried. With the oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, the supply of oil is much harder to measure. The exact amount is not known.

The price to pay for the latest spill is going to be immense. BP is spending $10 million a day on clean-up (Reuters). The image of BP could suffer even greater damage. With the media at our fingertips, the public is more aware than ever of the potential damage (The New York Times).

Let us also remember those 11 grieving families that lost a loved one in this tragedy. Those 11 men paid the ultimate price, with their lives. The names: Aaron Dale Burkeen, Adam Weise, Jason Anderson, Karl Kleppinger Jr., Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto, Donald Clark, Stephen Curtis, Blair Manuel, Gordon Jones, and Roy Wyatt Kemp.

Unquestionably, we live more luxuriously than our predecessors ever dreamed of. But, the price to pay for this luxury is invariably more costly than we care to admit. Will the Gulf Oil Spill of 2010 change our decadent ways?

The Plame Affair Is A CIA Leak Story

“Plamegate” or the “Plame Affair“, refers as to what happened to Valerie Plame Wilson, a former U.S. CIA Operations officer, and wife of Joe Wilson. Joseph Charles Wilson IV is a former Ambassador for the U.S.

Apparently Valerie Elise Plame Wilson was a target of former Bush administration officials. Her career as a spy was abruptly ended because her professional identity was leaked to the press. This was probably a payback for her husband’s criticism of the Iraq war.

The Valerie Plame story runs like a complicated spy novel. According to an MSNBC story, White House advisor Karl Rove had talked with Robert Novak about Joe Wilson’s wife being a CIA agent. Rove also told Time reporter Matt Cooper that Valerie was the wife of Joe Wilson.

The disclosure was made on July 14, 2003, in a newspaper column entitled Mission To Niger (Washington Post).

“Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction.”

The report also stated that Joe Wilson had been sent by the CIA to Africa, to determine if Iraq had bought uranium yellowcake from Niger. Bush had previously accused Saddam Hussein of purchasing yellowcake from Niger, and this was the basis for the invasion in Iraq.

The famous 16 words. On Jan. 28, 2003, during the State of the Union Address, George W. Bush said: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently bought significant quantities of uranium from Niger.”

Joe Wilson also published an article in the New York Times (July 6, 2003), entitled What I Didn’t Find In Africa.

Wilson concludes: “Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq’s nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.”

Joseph Wilson has a memoir called: The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife’s CIA Identity: A Diplomat’s Memoir.

It appears that Rove testified that Lewis “Scooter” Libby had told him about Valerie Plame being a CIA agent. And it seems quite possible that Vice President Dick Cheney had told Libby about Valerie Plame.

Whatever occurred, Scooter Libby was the fall guy for the crime. Libby was tried and indicted, and is now considered a convicted felon. Vice President Cheney was outraged that President Bush did not pardon Libby before leaving his presidency. The article entitled Ex-VP Dick Cheney outraged President Bush didn’t grant ‘Scooter’ Libby full pardon was published in the NY Daily News on Feb. 16, 2009.

Valerie Plame Wilson has a memoir called: Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House.

A film called Fair Game is is scheduled for a 2010 release starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.