What they did was to strip her of all the delegates that she lawfully won in Florida and Michigan, and then just gave Obama half of them. That is the only thing that put him across the finish line and saved his candidacy from her invincible charge. So why would the party of change do this to their foremost female politician?

I suspect that the DNC was in great fear of a massive backlash from black voters more than that of Senator Clinton’s supporters. Just do the math for yourself. 90% of all black voters are believed to be voting for Obama. Since there are about 25 million registered black voters in America, Obama will enjoy a 22.5 million vote lead against Senator McCain before the first precinct even opens on November 4.

Senator Clinton only received 18 million votes from her supporters. Had she of won the nomination the DNC was afraid that those 22.5 million black voters would have sat out the election or worse, vote for Senator McCain out of retribution.

However on the other side of this political sword, Senator Clinton’s supporters can be more easily swayed into supporting Obama as long as she urges them to do so. Yet how could they guarantee that Senator Clinton would support this inexperienced candidate who has spent more time running for President than he has spent representing Illinois in the U.S. Senate? In fact, why would she want him to win at all after having her delegates plundered by the DNC?

What we have witnessed is that Senator Hillary Clinton was extorted by her own party into submission and, actually forced into giving Obama her "support". You see, Senator Clinton has around $20 million in campaign debt that was supposed to be repaid through her capitulation. I think that is why when she appeared at the podium during the Democrat Convention she was wearing an orange colored pantsuit.

Perhaps Senator Clinton wore an orange suit as a way of subliminally signaling to America that she is a prisoner to her own Party. Rather than having D.O.C. printed on her back in bold black letters, DNC was invisibly etched there in her mind. Now for her surrender, she will be forced to stay in her political prison and live out a term of four to eight years. The duration of her term is predicated only by whether Obama wins or loses the election.

In 2012 Senator Clinton will be 65 years old. Of course her running for President by then is solely based on whether Obama wins or loses this year. If he should win then Senator Clinton will be forced to serve out her eight year term and wait until 2016 before she can run for the Presidency. And yes, she will be 69 years old in 2016.

It is one thing to run this year at the age of 61, but at 69 she will be attacked by her Democrat opponents on age issues just as Senator McCain is being assailed this year. I personally feel that these repugnant attacks on Senator McCain’s age is as revolting as those of attacking one’s gender and race for political gain. Yet that is the true nature of the DNC and it’s never ending hypocrisy.

So you ladies of America who have given your cherished vote for Senator Clinton; the proverbial ball is in your court. You can go ahead and follow lockstep to vote for Obama just as the DNC bigwigs know you will. Or, you can hop over to the Republican side and help Senator McCain beat Obama back until 2012. Then he will have to actually beat Senator Clinton in order to win the Democrat candidacy rather then have it handed to him.

If you help Obama now then you’ll pretty much guarantee that Senator Clinton will have to wait until 2016 before she can try to run again. I have a couple of favorable alternatives for you 18 million voters that just may prove more palpable to you than voting for the man who benefited from Senator Clinton’s stolen candidacy.

The first is for you to vote for Senator McCain and his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. As stated earlier, Senator McCain is 72 years old and the primary Democrat attack against him is his age. My father-in-law is 78 and he plays four rounds of golf a week…without using a golf cart. Like Senator McCain, he’s as sharp as a razor and you quickly understand that trying to use his age against him is complete folly. The other DNC attack is that they believe Senator McCain will only be a one term President. I will address this later.

The second morsel as an alternative is Governor Sarah Palin as the Vice-President. She is an incredibly strong woman who has a solid proven record of being a die-hard no-nonsense corruption buster. Her history is that of one who always does exactly what she says she will do. The final proof to this is the number of corrupt politicians that she has laid waste to from both parties. In fact, she gives little regard to party affiliation when she uncovers corruption. That is a change you can believe in.

Even with such a strong record Governor Palin is now being attacked by those same Democrat henchmen who burglarized Senator Clinton’s delegates. Within ten minutes of her announced candidacy the Obama campaign started claiming that she’s too inexperienced to be, "a heartbeat away from the Presidency". Again, the hypocrisy of the DNC ignores the fact that Obama has zero experience on an executive level. At least Governor Palin has chaired the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, been the two-term Mayor of Wasilla, and the Governor of Alaska. In comparison, Obama has never run anything other political campaigns.

Still the DNC is confident that with Senator Clinton’s coerced endorsement most of her 18 million supporters will blindly join the Obama crusade. It’s such a shame that she is being forced to feint her support for a man who President Clinton aptly said, "has the political instinct of a Chicago thug". Not only are they holding the aforementioned $20 million ransom over her head but they also have her political future safely shackled as well. If she doesn’t reign in her husband and support Obama, then her future in the DNC is toast.

So there you have it, you 18 million Senator Clinton supporters. You can play by the rules as dictated by those Democrat elites who are using strong armed tactics to make Senator Clinton push Obama or you can cross over and vote to make sure this never happens to another woman again. By crossing over to the light, you can make certain that Senator Clinton lives again to run in 2012.

Better still is if the rumors about McCain only wanting to be a one-term President are true, then there is a potential for a truly historic American event in 2012. That would be that Senator Hillary Clinton could very well be running against Vice-President Sarah Palin for President of the United States in four years. Think about it and remember this, a vote for Senator McCain is a vote to free Hillary for 2012.

John DeJong is the lead creative designer for NotMeUSA. He has been writing humorous advertisements for over twenty-five years. All of the funny t-shirts, prescription pill bottles, and gag spray bottles were created by him. You can view these by visiting www.notmeusa.com.

Article Source: Why Should Hillary Clinton Voters Support John McCain?

The questions used in each examination focus on logic and analytical reasoning, and PATI searches for those with competence in logical thinking and the ability to reason a problem through, rather than candidates that take a knee-jerk reaction to difficult situations. What police departments are looking for are police officers that are able to use their initiative without having to continually seek help with the situations they come across, and the ability to progress quickly through the ranks to a position of authority and responsibility.

There are too many trainee law enforcement officers that can handle the simple situations, but when asked to think a problem through logically are unable to do so; they frequently make the wrong decisions, creating situations that others have to sort out later.

There are many instances where these key skills are necessary in a police officer during the course of their duties. Domestic violence cases, for example, can present a particularly difficult situation for a law enforcement officer to handle. When faced with a wife displaying facial injuries and a husband with a deep cut to his head, three screaming children and the child protective service unavailable for some hours, what do you do?

Who is guilty of the assault and who had reacted in self-defense. What happens to the children? Should anybody be arrested, and if so, then whom? This kind of situation is not unusual, and requires logical and analytical thinking to come to the correct decision. Your response will determine how well you will handle yourself in such day to day situations as a police officer.

New Police Exam Formats are trying to Weed out Candidates that are NOT Good Decision Makers

Decisions are not always easy to make, but good police officers are able to make them. A law enforcement officer should be able to make the right call without having to continually seek the advice of their supervisor. Some officers can pass normal question and answer exams, and anybody can pass a multiple choice test, but when faced with an ordinary problem that requires rational thorough processes to resolve, many fold and are unable to handle them properly.

The police force does not need people that can answer simple exam questions, but law enforcement officers that can think through a problem and come up with the correct solution every time. Police officers on the job rarely come across situations requiring academic knowledge, but every day face problems that have to be solved in practical ways. It is the problem solvers and those that can put their knowledge to practical use that the police force wants: officers that can react quickly to a situation and find the right solution.

That is why PATI questions are included in the tests and examinations of so many police departments. These "Brain Buster" tests are designed to make you think, analyze, apply logic, and come up with a reasoned solution to problems that police officers come across every day. So how do you learn to become a problem solver like that? Is it possible to learn, or is it a skill that some people are born with?

What you are able to be taught, and to learn, are certain rules that you can apply to problems. If you enjoy problem solving such as puzzles and riddles, than you should find this fairly easy. There are strategies that can be learned, and applied to specific situations. Apply the rules, and the solutions should follow on logically.

If You are a Problem Solver you’ll Do Well on the Entrance Exam and be an Effective Police Officer

When you are getting ready for the Police Officer Entrance Exam, you should be preparing mentally for these kinds of problems. Be aware that they might be asked, so that they don’t come as surprise and panic you. There are more than just intelligence and memory of facts involved here, but a knowledge of the rules and the right strategies to use. Not all exams will include PATI type questions, but you should be prepared in case they do, because that would give you a head start over the other candidates.

If you improve your reasoning and logical thinking abilities while applying rules and strategies to logic questions, you will find police exams easier to pass, and so improve your career prospects within the police force.

Summary:

The Police Analytical Thinking Inventory (PATI) test is being increasingly used by police departments to seek out those police officers that show initiative in logical and analytical thinking. There are strategies that can be learned to enable you to handle such tests and situations, and so improve your performance both in exams and as a working police officer.

Don Cirillo a 25 year veteran of law enforcement has helped many law enforcement candidates score high on their Police Exam. You can learn how you can get better scores on your police exam and become a police officer at (http://www.police-exam.info). It includes test questions, interview strategies, and much more — everything you need to get the job! Reach Don at support@cfiweb.com

Article Source: Why Your Police Exams are Getting Harder to Pass: the Logical Reasons!

And I smiled and realized that it was a wonderful old dream that my mother had embraced as well as Ronald Reagan. And she born a Catholic. Well, the depression did come to an end, a war helped that, and then the world began to grow up, smarten up, open borders and put down their guns and see if free speech and open border trade could help us all exchange our swords for plows.

Or computer chips, anything productive that makes the world go round better each spin of the productivity wheel, or inventive aha from some Gates of a wide mind.And speaking of |Gates, we notice how brave Europe is making it’s much greater and braver version of our small three ring circus called NAFTA, Europe is now a revitalized twenty six ring circus with many also on board but still a passport please, but so many new applications to amaze the most far sited.

So Europe will likely soon be discussing an autobahn from Rome to Casablanca to Cairo and then back up around the Baltics and through Berlin to Paris and London and all. Meanwhile, a frightened Uncle Sam builds his walls. Surely, George you have had Nancy Reagan say to you tear down that wall against science.

And I do not think Ronnie feels that southern wall, or the northern as you make us feel, is all that likely to have the neighbors as close to you as you might. Fear breeds many petty little actions until they spiral you down into half the man you were. But to take your nation down that spiral was to end with Herbert Hoover.

George Herbert Hooper Bush, stop, drop and roll. Then turn and walk, slow like, back the route you came in. Just as your daddy had to do after the last Voodoo Economist, so will the next after you. Because W., no one can voodoo like you do. Who do? You do, curious George. With your finger in the socket, you light up the room. Brilliant, in it’s way, I suppose.

But America hangs by it’s polls once again, between fair play behavior and this all again. We shall see, said the blind man, clean up after the elephant, once again. Donkey Serenede.

Derek Dashwood loves the combining of science into the humanities to measure politics and power and bliss. American Legends,One With Your Name On It

Article Source: American Antiques, Reagan, NAFTA, – The Bigger The Better

The whole world is in need of petroleum products for fueling economic and industrial growth. But the production and supply of petroleum products is confined to and controlled by a handful of countries. The chief oil producing countries in the world include Russia, Nigeria, Venezuela, Indonesia, and Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait.

The economies of a majority of the Gulf countries depend solely on oil. Oil riches are what propel other industries and sectors in these countries. The 1973 oil crisis is the result of these countries deciding to "teach a lesson" to other countries who supported Israel, the eternal rival of the Arab countries, during the Yom Kippur war in 1973.

The decade of 1970s started with relationship between Arab countries and the United States of America becoming tenser than ever. Arab countries were selling crude oil for a very cheap price, but in turn getting other things at very high prices. Their dissatisfaction and other political developments paved the way for the creation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The organization was intended to safeguard the interests of the member countries, individually and collectively. The countries were mulling over an increase in the sales price of crude oil to the Western countries.

About that time the Yom Kippur war between Israel and Arab countries broke out in 1973. In the beginning Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. Then other Arab countries joined with their Arab allies. But Israel had the support of the United States and other Western countries. The Israeli military was one of the strongest in the world and their weaponry was highly sophisticated. On the other hand, the military of the Arab countries was very weak. As a result, Israel was able to win the war. The Arab countries, scorned by the defeat, decided to cut the oil supply to the United States and other countries that had helped Israel.

Till that time, the consumption of petroleum products had been rising at an annual rate of 5% in the United States. Suddenly the supply of crude oil was stopped in 1973. The price increased and a crisis loomed. The government started negotiating with the Arab countries and alternate mechanisms were sought. At that time, the Cold War was raging at its full intensity. So, buying oil from Russia, the major non-Arab oil producing country, was out of question.

At the peak of the crisis, the price of oil had increased four times its value before the crisis. But in 1974, the United States government managed to strike a deal with the Gulf countries on this regard and supply of crude oil resumed, which saved the Western world from a severe energy crisis.

John Smith is a professional oil and gas landman actively working in the State of Texas. John is also an avid blogger with multiple websites including Landman Blog.

Article Source: Historical Oil Prices: The 1973 Oil Crisis

In the 1990′s Bill and Hillary Clinton spoke about health care reform but did little. Since being elected in 2000, George Bush has been an outspoken critic of universal care and a major supporter of the high margin health care industry. Under the guise of quality of care, the Republicans have steadfastly maintained that any universal care would result in reduced quality of care.

Although John McCain has yet to specifically spell out his policies on health care reform, it is doubtful that it will contain a universal coverage component. Unless McCain can somehow manage to fool folks like the Bush administration has done, he will lose on this issue. And if he loses on this issue, he will lose the November election.

The health care system is broken and everyone knows it except the Republicans. A system that tries to deny coverage as standard business procedure and rates physician productivity by dollars billed simply cannot be tweaked. It must be replaced.

The dichotomy of America and the two political parties have created this gridlock. The Republicans focus on big corporations and the affluent or upwardly affluent. The Democrats focus on the disenfranchised, poor and compassionate. The problem with this political model is that it leaves out the fat middle and in this case the fat voting middle.

Both parties have clearly abandoned the working person and the small business owner. The one issue that is killing incentive and discouraging small business is the escalating cost of health care and the decline in coverage. Neither employer nor employee is winning this battle and ultimately society at large will lose by not realizing this huge economic potential. The current health care system is draining the United States dry.

What both parties fail to acknowledge is that government does not create jobs; all government can do is help develop the optimal conditions for business to develop and generate employment. When too many obstacles and barriers are forced in the way, potential businesses never develop.

Employee wage and contract increases are offset by employee health care insurance "contributions". When workers see little room for advancement and improvement they become less interested and productive. Employers see a tenuous future if they see a future at all.

In our house we have two Democrats and one Republican. All of us are somewhat centrist not tending toward any extreme. Sometimes the two Democrats vote with the Republican though not usually vice versa.

In the California primary we had two votes for Obama and one for McCain. As it turns out we did pretty well and it looks like our respective candidates will become the nominees. It is important to mention that California has closed primaries so you can only vote for your registered party. In the general election there are no restrictions.

Fast forward to November, 2008. Obama beats McCain by a narrow margin largely by picking up middle class white votes. The exit polls show universal health care as the reason the middle and working class voted for Obama. It comes down to the pocketbook and what the Republicans don’t seem to understand is just how big a pocketbook issue universal health care is.

Universal health care is long overdue and America knows it. There is no credibility left with attempts to reform the current system. With all due respect Mr. McCain you need to come up with a universal care plan or hope you can pull lots of rabbits out of hats.

Oh, and by the way, in the new household poll; unless McCain comes up with universal care, it’s 3-0 Obama.

Jack Deal is the owner of Jack D. Deal Business Consulting. Related articlesmay be found at http://www.jddeal.com/blog/culture_and_society and http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com

Article Source: National Health Care Reform Will Determine the Next President of the United States

Of course, the woman who has initiated the most discussion about this balance is Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, 44-year old Governor Sarah Palin. Palin has been combining a political career with motherhood for the past 16 years. Now with five children, her candidacy brings to the forefront the continuing struggles of working mothers.

Those struggles are not just internal but also for acceptance with society as a whole – and women in particular. Sarah Palin symbolizes different things to different women. To some she is the ultimate ceiling breaker, the first woman on a Republican Vice-Presidential ticket. In her acceptance speech at the convention, Palin said of her place on the Republican ticket it proved that, "Every woman can walk through every door of opportunity." She was poised and comfortable – a natural – as she stepped into the spotlight of history, a woman showing her toughness, yet with a smile. At the same time, she positioned herself as a typical mother acknowledging, "Our family has the same ups and downs as others."

But, just as a double standard is often applied to them, not all women themselves agree that she is the right choice. For these, she embodies the ultimate contradiction between family values and personal ambition. They wonder out loud if she can adequately mother her children while carrying on the national responsibilities required of a Vice-President. But is this argument anti-feminist? Interestingly, due to Governor Palin’s political beliefs, the rhetoric comes more from liberals – traditionally feminists – than from conservatives.

The position on women’s rights and opportunities seems to have flipped as far as this issue is concerned. Some of the most liberal feminists contend that Sarah Palin should not be on the ticket whereas conservatives declare she can balance her family responsibilities along with one of the most important jobs in the federal executive branch.

These kinds of questions have not been raised when a father of five takes on enormous challenges in his work life, even today when fathers are more involved in the daily lives of their children. Is this a double standard or justified by the reality of family needs? Do women face unique pulls when they become wives and mothers?

What voters need today is not a criticism of her personal story but a discussion of the real policy differences between Sarah Palin and the other candidates. Tina Fey’s impersonation of her on Saturday Night Live brought more viewers to that show than have tuned in for many years. With Fey as Governor Palin and Amy Poehler as Senator Hillary Clinton, the sketch featured the women joining together to attack sexism in the election, even as they demonstrated the dissimilarity in political beliefs and positions.

Sandwiched Boomer women are looking for role models today as they juggle career and family – and wondering what direction the fight for women’s rights will take now and in the future. Governor Palin, a different kind of 21st century feminist, has shown that she is willing to get into the trenches and join the fight for herself, her party and her sex. Let’s judge her credentials on their merits not on her status as a woman.

(c) 2008, Her Mentor Center

Rosemary Lichtman, Ph.D. is co-founder of http://www.HerMentorCenter.com, a website for midlife women and http://www.NourishingRelationships.Blogspot.com, a Blog for the Sandwich Generation. She is co-author of a forthcoming book about Baby Boomers and family relationships. She offers a free newsletter, Stepping Stones, through the website.

Article Source: Is Governor Sarah Palin a Unique 21st Century Feminist?

When I first read this magnificent document, it was on the first page of the American History book I received for my entry into the American school system in my Grade twelve year. We had just moved down from Canada, and it was my first day of school. I did well in all my classes and felt the American education system was aiming low for that year level, so I received almost all A grades, which I did not accomplish in Canada.

But, as always, History was my favorite subject, and I would usually top the class in any History class. But when this happened in my American History class that Christmas in Santa Ana, California, it caused the teacher to embarrass the class, and me, by asking how many years I had actually studied American History. I had to admit, that actually, this was the first year.

And I stopped his lecture to the class of nice Americans I was trying to make friends with, by groaning after he had said what is the matter with you people? You have studied this since grade one and this Canadian comes down and beats you. He asked me how I managed the only A in the class, and I caused laughter when I said I really enjoyed the Book, so I read it several times.

I had inadvertently imprinted the information, as we all can do if we repeat an action and enjoy it. We moved back to Canada but in my soul are the fine words of my great heroes Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln. Which brings to my point about how a deep wise soul such as Lincoln could show such humility and door opening at just the right moment. And his letter that I later studied at university in Canada shows that.

It was only half a year after Lincoln had written a brilliant letter of discipline to a losing general who when drunk claimed he should be the dictator, and who soon resigned after his next defeat. Now, Lincoln was able to write a victory letter of thanks to General Grant in the west. Grant had presented the North with a wonderful birthday party by taking Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.

Lincoln could have written the usual congratulatory blather that Grant was his man, keep up the great efforts, knew you had it figured out. Not Abraham Lincoln. He wrote a short half page letter that said to my Dear General, I do not recall that we have met, and gave his grateful acknowledgment for the most inestimable service you have done the country.

And next is when the emotional genius of Lincoln shows quickly. He turns to the series of decisions Grant had made and the direction he took to the fortress hilltop with cannons that controlled the Mississippi. Lincoln admitted that he fear Grant might be making a mistake, rather than linking forces with General Banks first.

Lincoln ends that short letter with an amazing statement, which he did not need to admit. But he said that I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong. Yours, A. Lincoln. And what he had done was cause communication to be able to flow so freely between this winning General and his President.

And,when you think of it, that admission of error by Lincoln gave Grant much freedom. Now, if he did loose a battle, he would feel inclined to send off a quick letter to Lincoln, that he wished to acknowledge that this time the President had been right and he had been wrong. And they could have planned the next battle together.

Lincoln knew he had a diamond of a leader in Grant, no lump of coal. Some of that could work wonders today. Coming soon, one way or the other. The worst is almost over, some sideways bumps as always ahead. But some horse sense from the end that passes the gate post first, is coming to a nation near us soon. What an expensive roller coaster ride some unwise elephants love to take us on, vault door empty, bills due to China. Ah, well, they surely have our interests first? Even in Athens, Greek antiques such as Socrates understood good debts from bad.

Derek Dashwood loves the combining of science into the humanities to measure politics and power, and how near and yet far were are from the ideals of http://www.greekantiqueshop.com Greek Democratic Heritage Antiques

Article Source: Greek Antique Democracy, Modern Healing Power – A Lincoln Could Help Again

That’s why I would like to propose my very simple two-point plan on how to stimulate the economy. My plan will fix the economy and give the US citizens total control of the spending.

First, let’s provide 20 million people vouchers for $10,000 each that are redeemable towards the purchase of a new car at any US car dealership. It does not matter if it is "foreign" made or not. Most knowledgeable people understand that it does not matter if it is a Ford or Toyota. If you buy a Toyota at a Toyota dealer in the US, you save jobs at that dealership, jobs at all the suppliers for that dealer, jobs at the manufacturing plants, jobs at the parts distributors, and so on. You also provide tax revenue that your state governments desperately need. This would cost $200B ($10,000 X 20M = $200B) and would flow through the entire economy, putting America back to work. If it turns out it helps Japan, Korea and UK auto makers too, then great. We need their economies to succeed as well. Of course, we have to determine exactly who gets these vouchers. I would choose the 20 million people who had the lowest 2008 earnings according to their tax returns. It also would mean only tax paying, US citizens would be eligible. The IRS should be able to have this list ready in an afternoon.

Second, let’s provide 20 million heads of household a voucher or tax rebate of $25,000 toward the purchase of a new home. For some inexplicable reason, this was drastically changed at the last minute in the current plan. Instead of handing this money to financial institutions to mismanage, let it flow to them through the actual purchase of homes. This will stimulate the financial sectors, the construction industry, the retailers who sell products to home builders and home owners, the service industries that support home owners, and countless others. This would cost $500B ($25,000 X 20M = $500B) and would flow through the entire economy putting America back to work. Similar to the new car plan, I would choose the 20 million head of households who had the lowest earnings according to their tax returns. Again, it means only tax paying, US citizens would be eligible.

Of course Democrats and Republicans will have to debate this, turn it into a 500 page document with lots of favors and pork in it. Or maybe not! If the citizens rise up and tell them we won’t take it anymore, maybe, just maybe, we can get a simple measure passed that is a huge step in fixing our (and the World’s) economy. Once we start buying cars and homes, everything else will take care of itself. Even foreclosures will start to take care of themselves as the housing market begins growing again. Besides, the previous bailout plans were designed to help stabilize the banks right?

Andy West is a writer for Arnie Kuenn. He is president of Phoenix based Vertical Measures a link building and website marketing company (VerticalMeasures.com). These are his personal opinions.

Article Source: Power To The People: The Citizens Stimulus Plan

Our president had put us in so many different things that we are so spread out too thin. The war that he put us in is still going, and it is still costing us millions or even trillions of dollars a year. We cannot afford to spend this outrageous amount. Then he is telling us that we need to bail out all of these big companies. Where is all this money going to come from? To tell you something, I don’t really think that he is all that upset about the whole thing because he will be out at election time.

But whoever does get voted into office will have one hell of a time trying to fix this country. If you vote for McCain you are really voting to keep a president like the one we have now. He says that we will keep the war in Iraq going until we have done all that we can. I think that we are finished over there, and our boys need to come home. The government that is over there needs to start running their own country. Obama might be new at this, but maybe this is what we need. Someone that isn’t going to be easily won over and that won’t be worked like a puppet on a string.

The working or middle class of people have been hit the hardest. They can’t seem to make ends meet. Older people that have no kids at home have to work longer because the wages are so bad in some areas that they can’t find jobs that will make them enough money to be able to save for their retirement. Families that have children, I don’t know what they are going to do!

If our government really wants to help this economy get back on its feet it should start by coming to all the states and really start looking for companies that will come to those states with new jobs. I could go on for hours on this because it has really put a fire in my soul.

Aydan Corkern is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like water damage restoration and miami water damage restoration.

Article Source: Is Our Country Going Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire?

Politically, too, Cyprus has seen a new level of stability; after 34 years of division and political tension, Turkish Cypriot president Mehmet Ali Talat and Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias have now set up weekly meetings with the aim of solid reunification plans being realised by the end of the year. In fact commentators are marking out the two leaders as the first pairing in Cyprus to believe genuinely and actually in reunification of the island.

Certainly, the island can flourish. Its landscape is beautiful and fertile, and it has a rich cultural heritage; it lays in the Mediterranean and was part of the ancient Kingdom of Phoenicia, so that it springs from the same roots as the great cultural nations of Greece – and as a result of the Roman appropriation of ancient Greek thinking – modern Italy.

Indeed its importance to ancient Greece is paramount; the island of Cyprus is in Greek myth the home of the love goddess Aphrodite, and it is said that it was on the banks of the island that she first emerged from the Mediterranean, merging the beauty of the land with the beauty of the sea, in the literal meaning of her name – ‘foam born’ – and her choice of Cyprus as home.

It has been her seat ever since, and the myth, even though it is a myth, shows just how beautiful the Phoenician Greeks though the island; Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty and lust, so pleasing that it was said that a man would only need look at her to fall irrevocably in love with her, became synonymous with the island, even to the extent that she was sometimes known as Kypris, after the island. Indeed she was referred by Homer, the great composer of the first great works of western literature, the Iliad and the Odyssey, as ‘the Cypriote’.

Not for the first time, the metaphorical and the fantastical reflect the actual, and over its many years as the mythical home of the goddess, it has been seen as one of the most beautiful and striking landscapes in Europe.

Indeed it was that beauty which brought investors back to the island in recent years, and it was that beauty which formed the basis for the North Cyprus Property Boom. Cyprus is certainly not barren, and it never has been; what held people off was the political situation. With that easing, and with reunification looking almost certain, that will change.

With the island reunited, political tension will no longer steer people away from the beauty of the island, and it can dominate, as it once did, so that the true face of the island can flourish. Then Aphrodite can return home, and take up her throne on the fertile island.

Chris Woolfrey writes for a number of websites, including http://www.whiterocksbafra.com, where he is the resident expert on Cypriot history.

Article Source: Laying the Foundations For Cyprus – The Mythical Origins of the Island

Little wonder that Hollywood has celebrated many a box office hit with films based on tales from historical England! Just think of Brave Heart,Elizabeth, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves and more recently The Other Boleyn Girl, just a handful off the top of my head. That is without even mentioning all of the wonderful BBC television costume dramas. All of the evidence you need is right there for you to see how exciting and fun history can be.

I remember back in my school days, historical themselves now, I had a love for history but wanted to live it, experience it, fill my senses with it, not sit in a stuffy classroom reading boring text books and learning dates and time lines parrot fashion. So secretly, do not tell anyone will you, I used to skip school and go on my own adventures around historical England.

There were so many wonderful places nearby that I could visit, castles, cathedrals, stately homes and museums where I could touch and feel the past and picture myself back in times of old. Rochester in Kent was on my doorstep and there I could saunter down the same high street that Charles Dickens walked down, roam around the Norman castle and marvel at one of the oldest cathedrals in the country.

That is what I call learning about history.

Just take a look around you own neighborhood, I bet you will be surprised at the wealth of history on your own doorstep. Next time you are out take a look up at some of the buildings around you, often the lower parts of them have been renovated into shops or offices but the higher up you look you will be amazed at what you will see. The oldest parts are normally still intact showing the architecture of the time of building and more often than not there will be a date embossed giving you the precise age.

Go on, try it. I guarantee you will discover historical England for yourself and of course you will meet lots of new friends as you bump into them whilst walking and gazing upwards, I know I do.

Today historical England is so much more accessible with so many wonderful heritage sites, living museums and theme parks. Especially during the summer months when the country is littered with festivals, pageants, shows and displays. All so much better than that classroom I was made to endure, or so they thought!

If you have a hidden passion for history, let it out and enjoy it, learn from it, have fun with it and pass it on to your friends and family.

Steve has a passion for English history and he has set up his web site to share his passion with you. He gives a simple introduction and some personal views on historical England from which you can enjoy and learn about the history of England, London and much, much more at www.historicalengland.org

Article Source: Historical England a Hollywood Blockbuster

All of us have a pretty good idea of the succession of events that got us to this place. But how did it really happen? How could such a thing blindside the best minds of the financial world? And, who is really to blame? Is the very notion of holding anyone accountable outdated? Such are the questions on all our minds today.

I believe it was not a freak occurrence; it was not an unforeseeable consequence of a perfect storm of global factors which just happened to converge at one single time.

On the contrary, beneath the surface of this crisis lies a set of dynamics concealed from public view that made it not so much happenstance as the inevitable and predictable outcome of a sinister choreography I prefer to call the game.

In reality, this game has been around for millennia. It rises and falls with the fluctuations of circumstance. Like the phoenix, out of the ashes of one game comes another, different in form, but remarkably identical in substance. A deeper examination of the latest incarnation, the consumption bubble which led to the collapse on Wall Street, reveals the necessary clues to how this hidden game is played out right before our eyes.

First, we know what goes up must come down, so it is no surprise that the enormous bubble created by the sales-driven economy would burst. Nonetheless, when it did, its brutal reality of chaos and carnage shocked every last one of us.

How that bubble grew is simple, really. Over the last several decades myriad products were foisted upon the public who drifted into a buying trance. As needs gave way to wants, specific wants gave way to addicts buying for the sake of buying. Consumption became rapacious, driven by slick advertising and enabled by easy credit. A population of shopaholics became so habituated to shopping that even when the money ran out last fall, penniless people carrying maxed out credit cards filled the malls coast-to-coast.

Because humans are driven by emotion and not reason, effective salesmen know that more can be achieved by a manipulative appeal to our emotional weaknesses than by the most cogent, brilliant argument. Being a master manipulator then, is their goal.

Manipulation is the art of managing impressions. It stands to reason then that through the process of natural selection those who are the most talented at impression management rise to the top of the organizational hierarchy. These are the players.

Manipulative players are born, not made. Their art requires a degree of congruence in presentation that is simply not sustainable for those who are not naturally inclined to manipulate. The defining element in the character profile of a player is narcissism. But they are not merely narcissistic; they are narcissists to their very core.

The narcissist is a predator. Their motivation is power, status, and instant gratification. Lacking conscience, they exist without barriers; they hold no regard for the law or any social norm. They execute their plans without question to the methods and means they employ to achieve their goals.

Despite being supremely self-serving, players, like wolves, form a type of tribe, or pack. They share a common worldview and instinctively draw to one another, seeking each other out in the crowd. Once this tribe gains control of an environment, all others are barred from the upper ranks and so the game begins.

A contra-selection takes place wherein the best and the brightest are pushed aside to make way for the players and their loyal followers. Since excellence is the natural enemy of mediocrity, and people of excellence have a conscious, it stands to reason that over time the players exclusively occupy the upper ranks. Their challenge then is to create a game which looks fair and open on the surface, but whose outcome is fully predetermined. No matter what the role of the dice, players come out on top.

How do they do this? Hypnosis!
I am not talking about the kind you see practiced by mentalists and stage magicians, no, players are much more covert. They disguise their game far better and are far more successful than mere actors.

The game itself is in reality nothing more than a trance induced by the players and is only sustained by our collective belief in the fabricated reality we are duped into believing. Once we wake up, it evaporates and in very short order becomes a vague and distant memory; the way we shake off a nightmare when we rise in the morning.

John Berling Hardy is author of the e-book “Have We Been Played?- The Hidden Game Revealed.” The insights contained in this series give you the Edge. To find out more about the carefully guarded secret shared by all those who enjoy power and prestige visit Have We Been Played.com.

Article Source: The Economic Crisis: How We Were Played!

The objective of the exercise, Barack, is to permanently place more disposable income in consumers’ wallets while providing incentives for employers to hire more workers. There are three areas where the impact of reforms would be beneficial to all, irrespective of political sentiment. Social Security reform would benefit the most people, most quickly. Next on the list, Hillary, would be elimination of income taxes (federal, state, and local) on: (a) all forms of retirement income, and then, (b) all forms of investment income. Third, and particularly important for job creation, John, would be the elimination of all income taxes and nuisance fees on businesses.

Who wants to be President?

Social Security will be the easiest to implement quickly while producing unprecedented increases in disposable income, business cost reductions, and job growth. Here’s a rough outline of a brainstorming plan. Throw out the politics and focus on the program— phase one deadline, January 1,2010.

Change Social Security funding to a mandatory, private program, for all employed persons, and add a voluntary program for those who are not employed. All employees would contribute to deferred fixed annuities, purchased from new divisions of qualified financial institutions. Existing Social Security credits would be the initial deposit to the contracts for all participants under age 60.

Employer matching contributions would be eliminated and participant contributions would be cut to a mandatory 3% of total compensation (including deferred comp, stock options, etc.). Both changes would be phased into the system by participant age group over a five-year period, youngest first. The five age groups would be 13-year periods starting at zero to thirteen (obviously for voluntary accounts) and ending with ages fifty-two through sixty-five.

Phase one would involve qualifying providers, assignment of workers, issuance of contracts, elimination of employer matching contributions, and elimination of income taxes on social security payments. Employers would be required to appoint at least one person to coordinate the transition.

Contributions to the annuity contracts would begin upon issue; the Social Security Administration (SSA) would have five years to move credits to participants, starting with the youngest group, and would be responsible for shortfalls to retirees for five years.

Under the new system, there would be no penalties for early retirement, but tax free annuity payments would begin at age sixty-five whether or not the person continued to work. Participants could voluntarily establish retirement accounts for non-working spouses and children, and could elect to deduct an additional 1% of salary for each account. A new Federal Administration for Social Security (ASS) will select, qualify, and monitor provider companies and their investment portfolios to assure that only high quality, income-generating securities are used to fund benefits.

Companies showing a surplus would be able to invest up to 25% of the surplus in stocks that qualify for the Investment Grade Value Stock Index (IGVSI). Only fixed life annuities would be available, but there would be 50% of cash value, family-only, death benefits up until the time of retirement. After age 65, the death benefit would be reduced 10% per year for four years. There would be no loans, withdrawal privileges, etc.

The ASS would be represented on provider company boards, would monitor annual audits of firm financial statements, and would supervise the selection of all non-company directors (60% of the board). Each provider company would be encouraged to use non-market value portfolio assessment techniques, such as The Working Capital Model, to monitor income portfolios. Retiree associations would also be represented on company boards of directors, and board member compensation would be capped at a reasonable number, plus 45% of ASS related expenses.

Annuity providers would be assigned a fair share of the huge Social Security Retirement Income Account (SSRIA) participant pool; every dollar contributed would be invested. All providers would use the same mortality tables and base interest rate guarantees in their calculations and would be precluded from any form of advertising. Companies would be required to focus 100% of their efforts on the SSRIA.

Annuity providers would be allowed a .5% investment management fee so long as the Annuity Investment Portfolio generated no less than the 3.5% income level needed to fund a guaranteed 3% contractual cash value growth rate. 50% of any excess realized income would be added to retirement accounts in the form of dividends.

The remaining 50% would be apportioned between three separately managed accounts for: retirement benefit support contingencies (20%), universal health care and disability benefits for annuitants (50%), and post retirement death benefits (10%). Half of the remaining 20% would become "surplus". The balance would accrue equally to the employees of the insurance company— the mailroom staff receiving the same dollar amount as the CEO.

These changes would produce: a whole new sub-industry of jobs, increase disposable income, reduce the Federal budget deficit, provide universal retirement benefit eligibility, stabilize the market for plain vanilla corporate and government debt securities, reduce corporate expenses and product price levels, and subsidize health care for senior citizens. Annuity providers would have significant incentives to minimize costs, but their investment portfolios would be closely supervised to prevent excessive risk.

Politicians at all levels just love for us to hate big business, and have no compunctions about taxing and regulating employers in every manner imaginable. The impact is higher prices, lower job creation rates, and the need to move many operations to lower cost environments. Many small businesses simply refuse to hire additional employees. Regulatory procedures and company defense measures add billions to the costs of goods and services.

Social Security benefits are grossly inadequate yet we continue to tax all forms of retirement benefits. Politicians ignore the simple solutions to these problems and none seem to care about Social Security reform. It’s just too big an issue to be so shockingly ignored, but the last politician with any courage— well, I can’t remember who that was either.

Steve Selengut Sanco Services Value Stock Index Author: “The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read” and “A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy”.

Article Source: Investment Politics: Jobs, The Economy, and Social Security

Besides that, Majorca, or Mallorca as many people call it, is an island that beckons travelers and then induces them to stay. The island groups, whose immediate neighbors include the islands of Menorca and Ibiza, have been drawing tourists and vacationers since the 1960s. It has, and continues, to promise ports of call for ocean liners, as well as major airports located near Palma de Mallorca, is destination for those seeking a glimpse into a rich history that still exists on the island despite its popularity with travelers. A blend of ancient and modern lives side by side, and visitors and residents can enjoy the history found in the 14th century Gothic cathedral near Palma, while those seeking a little more life may find plenty of excitement on streets filled with shops, taxis and beaches calling their names.

British expatriates living in Spain, and the Islands of Majorca and Menorca especially, are finding true homes away from home in the southern climes as they attempt to reclaim little bits of calm amid growing populations, political machinations and the good old rat race. Nearly one million Britains have made their desires known that they will be moving to southern destinations this year alone, for extended vacations or permanently, and the growing number of those Britains who have registered to vote in Spain has risen by about 20 percent every year.

The trend toward expatriates becoming more involved with their new local governments and politics is also growing. Not only are Britains moving toward southern destinations, but other countrymen as well, including Romanians and immigrants from South America, Morocco and the Guineas. Spain seems to be the new frontier for many weary inhabitants of the crowded towns and cities of not only Great Britain and Europe, but for those on the other side of the globe as well. While this trend bodes well for the Spanish economy, no one yet knows what sort of impact the influx of expatriates will do for Spain’s political destiny.

Today, in 2007, nearly one million former British citizens call Spain their new home, and nearly a quarter of those are eligible to vote in Spanish elections. While they are allowed to vote on national issues, they are still curtailed from voting in local or regional elections, but that may change in the near future as more immigrants arrive on the sun-soaked sands of islands like Majorca, where British voting trends have decided the results of some elections already.

The San Fulgencio area, located in the Alicante province of Spain, currently heads the lead in foreigners calling Spain home now, with three quarters of them being British. Majorca and Menorca continue to be the most popular destinations for many Britains looking for new homes, new horizons and new destinies, and only time will tell what this means overall for Spaniards.

A guide for the island of Menorca is available at http://www.yourmenorca.net , and for Majorca at http://www.yourmajorca.net

Article Source: A Friendly British Invasion

Incredibly, even Karl Rove approves of Obama’s economic team!

Barack Obama made another wise choice in keeping Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, to provide a measure of continuity for fighting our two wars. He also persuaded Marine General James Jones to take the post of National Security Adviser.

Obama seems to have absorbed one of the arguments Hillary Clinton’s campaign made against him; that "it takes experience to make change happen". He will begin his Presidency by surrounding himself with intelligent and politically adept people who have a demonstrated ability to get things done. In this present crisis, America needs its best and brightest. The fact that he is building a team of qualified, strongly opinionated pragmatists says "he can handle disagreement and in fact welcomes it". Obama has been self-assured enough to appoint as Secretary of State, his previous rival, Hillary Clinton, who more than demonstrated her own toughness by giving the president-elect a running battle last spring.

Barack Obama has been reading Doris Kearns Godwin’s book "Team of rivals" which, by his own description is "a spectacular book on leadership, showing how Lincoln crafted a diverse group of people who wanted to mess with him, but still they were competent". In the formation of his Cabinet, Obama is following the model provided by Abraham Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents, demonstrating a profound change from George Bush, who generally preferred "Yes men," to considerations of competence. In this, Barack Obama is demonstrating a greatness of spirit that America sorely needs. When he says "buck stops here," I believe he means it.

A few have expressed concern that Obama is relying too much on veterans of President Clinton’s administration. Does that necessarily make it like traveling back to the (Clintonite) future? The fact is, where else could Barack Obama find "tested experts" that share his ideology? Certainly, not many in the Bush administration! Some hold the romantic notion that ordinary smarties, with mere academic qualifications untested in the rough world of politics, should come to Washington, roll up their sleeves and clean house! With so many problems to solve, "learning on the job" would cost this country too much.

The genius of America is that once every 30 years or so, it’s been able to come up with a great President just about the time we really need one. So far, we’ve been lucky. Barack Obama is showing some signs, now, that maybe we got lucky again. God knows we need it!

Coddie Adwar

Coddie Adwar writes exclusively for THE COYOTE REPORT, a POLITICAL NEWS BLOG, the home of “GOOD RIDDANCE BUSH, THE END OF AN ERROR” bumper stickers. and “W GOT HIS WAR” e-book written by Charles Edmund Coyote Get a FREE CHAPTER on how the Bush administration let OSAMA BIN LADEN escape from Tora Bora

Article Source: The Obama Cabinet – What Obama's Choices Say About Him

Born August 4, 1961 to Kenyan-born Barack Obama Snr., and Kansas-raised Ann Dunham, Obama’s early life centred on an upbringing with his mother in Hawaii before relocating to Indonesia following Dunham’s second marriage to Lolo Soetoro. Eventually returning to New York, Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983, majoring in political science with a specialisation in international relations.

A move to Chicago and the appointment as a community organiser with a local church saw Obama begin working in the public domain, a role that included the establishment of job training and tutoring programmes. A return to education and the gaining of a Harvard law degree was soon followed by the appointment as a civil rights lawyer in Chicago and the role of a tutor of constitutional law. It was also around this time that, as a summer associate of the Sidley & Austin law firm, he would meet and become involved with Michelle Robinson, the two eventually marrying in October 1992. The couple have two daughters.

During his time at Harvard, Obama would become the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, the prestigious journal of legal scholarship that was first published in 1887. The publicity of his appointment led to the offer to write a book on race relations, a work that would eventually turn into a personal memoir entitled ‘Dreams from My Father’ in 1995. (Obama’s second book, ‘The Audacity of Hope’ was released in 2006 and presents more of a personal manifesto for his presidential campaign.)

As the advocacy work and interest involving Obama grew, the decision was taken to run for the Illinois State Senate in 1996, a position he held for eight years. His resignation from the role only came in November 2004 after his election to the US Senate, a result boosted in no small measure by the lauded keynote address given at the 2004 Democratic Convention.

Since appointment to the Senate, Obama has focused strongly on policies that seek to have the widest possible reach of impact, and also restore faith and transparency in the offices of the US government. With the support of heavily-experienced and high-level advisers, the success of Obama’s time in the Senate garnered great media attention and prompted the consideration to run for the Democratic nomination for the US Presidency.

This move was announced before the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, and has been followed by vociferous support for the withdrawal of US presence in Iraq, the providing of universal health care and the increase of energy independence. Each of the three policies has been prominent in the presidential primary campaign against fellow Democrat Hillary Clinton, and now the presidential campaign against Republican John McCain.

The history of Barack Obama has certainly shaped him into the charismatic politician we see before us today. But will the charming and determined Senator achieve the goal of becoming president of the United States of America? It certainly appears that he is the current forerunner, but as we have seen with the Bush administration, when it comes to presidential elections, anything can happen.

Max Clarke is a copywriter for holiday services company, Holiday Extras

Article Source: An Introduction to Obama

Barack Obama lists the topic of Internet safety for our children and families as one of importance in his technology issues section of his official website, while John McCain states, Children are our most valuable asset in his protecting kids from internet pornography and sexual predators section of his official website. So why are none of them discussing Internet safety and education issues, the increase in Internet crimes against kids’, and media literacy efforts on the 2008 campaign trail?

It is safe to say that the motto, Educate Not Regulate, could create lasting, concrete results when it comes to Internet safety and media literacy. For example, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed by Congress in 1998 in an effort to restrict minors’ access to adult-oriented websites. Now 10 years later, it was recently struck down again by a lower court. Just think about all the money that has been spent litigating this case that instead could have been spent on media literacy and online safety awareness campaigns that would have reached children and families around the world.

Education is a vital part in online child protection efforts. In fact, parental control tools that incorporate education as a key component in product offerings, such as the Children’s Educational Network’s kid safe browsers. They are making big statements in the Internet safety world.

For parents, combating the problem of unwanted online media exposure means they must rely on a mix of technological controls, informal household media rules, and, most importantly, education and media literacy efforts. Pioneers and experts in the Internet safety field, such as CEN Founder/CEO Greg Writer, use a compelling metaphor to explain why education is the most important tool on which parents and policymakers should rely:

Internet safety when thought of in the form of fences around pools, pool alarms, and locks can help protect children from drowning in swimming pools. However, teaching a child to swim and when to avoid pools or other bodies of water, not simply focusing on what is only in our own backyard, is a far safer approach than relying on locks, fences, and alarms to prevent him or her from drowning. Locks, fences and alarms provide substantial benefit. But parents cannot rely exclusively on those devices to keep their children safe from drowning. Furthermore, teaching a child to swim and to exercise good judgment has relevance far a single swimming pool.

Regrettably, we often fail to teach our children how to swim in the new media waters. To rectify this situation, a serious media literacy agenda is needed in America. Government should push media literacy efforts at every level of the education process and they should be talking about it during every phase of their election process. And those efforts should be accompanied by widespread public awareness campaigns to better inform parents about the parental control tools, rating systems, online safety tips, and other media control methods at their disposal.

A good example of an effective awareness campaign is one that began in the early 1980s, when the National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) developed its popular "McGruff the Crime Dog" campaign to assist law enforcement agencies seeking to deter crime or build awareness about criminal activities. The McGruff campaign, which included the "Take a Bite Out of Crime" motto, offers publications and teaching materials on a variety of topics; programs that can be implemented in communities and schools, local, regional, and national training programs; public service announcements broadcast nationwide starring McGruff the Crime Dog; and support for a national coalition of crime prevention practitioners.

The NCPC reports that "now 25 years after McGruff’s first TV appearance, more than 75 percent of children recognize McGruff and over 4,000 law enforcement agencies own a McGruff suit. CEN is now partnering with NCPC and launching the "McGruff Takes a Bite Out of Internet Crime" via the McGruff Parental Control Browser using CEN Technology.

This same type of effort, as listed above for the McGruff original campaign, needs to be emulated on the Internet safety front. Government officials should seek to incorporate these examples, using Private Label Browsers with their image, as McGruff has done with CEN, if they want to construct a seriousl public awareness campaign about parental controls and online child protection efforts.

If policymakers want to encourage more widespread awareness and adoption of parental control tools and online child safety methods, they will need to expand their current efforts considerably and look at a bill introduced by Rep. Melissa Bean (D-IL) entitled the "Safeguarding America’s Families by Enhancing and Reorganizing New and Efficient Technologies Act of 2006," or "SAFER NET" Act (H.R. 1008). The measure seeks to better coordinate and expand online safety education and efforts at the federal level by creating a new Office of Internet Safety and Public Awareness at the Federal Trade Commission that is explicitly responsible for improving public awareness and education about Internet safety.

If the legislation she introduced were ever implemented, the new FTC Office of Internet Safety and Public Awareness could co-create plans and materials for other lawmakers and communities. Officials from that office, along with experts such as Greg Writer who can speak out from personal experience and share the importance of the educational aspect of CEN’s technology, might be available to assist lawmakers or even accompany them on speaking tours to discuss parental controls and online child safety.

I say someone needs to light a fire under these candidates and get them talking about an issue they say, except on the campaign trail so far, is important to them.

Greg Writer is the Founder/CEO of Children’s Educational Network, a software company dedicated to empowering parents with tools and information to keep kids safe online. You can get free parental control software at http://www.childrenseducationalnetwork.com

Article Source: Hillary & Barack Sweeping Kids Safety Under the Political Rug?

Grants are not always given to charities or similar organizations. It can also be given to art institutions such as a museum of any kind, small businesses and individuals that will fulfill some task that the government is unable to achieve without the help of a local party.
There are over 900 grant programs offered by the 26 Federal grant-making agencies. These programs fall into 21 categories:

* Agriculture
* Arts
* Business and Commerce
* Community Development
* Consumer Protection
* Disaster Prevention and Relief
* Education Regional Development
* Employment, Labor, and Training
* Energy
* Environmental Quality
* Food and Nutrition
* Health
* Housing
* Humanities
* Information and Statistics
* Law, Justice, and Legal Services
* Natural Resources
* Science and Technology
* Social Services and Income Security
* Transportation

A lot of small organizations ranging from one to a couple of folks benefit from these government grant programs. Most of them where given a boost by the Obama Administration when the stimulus package that was originally meant to bailout the big financial institutions finally became law this past February. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced in March 7 that $44 billion in stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will be available to states in the next 30 to 45 days.

The first round of funding will help avert hundreds of thousands of estimated teacher layoffs in schools and school districts while driving crucial education improvements, reforms, and results for students. Later on this year we will start reading in the news about new grant programs the Government is creating with the intention of delivering on the promise of getting America out of the current crisis.

If You want to learn how to Get your Check at http://www.governmentstimulusbailout.com.

Article Source: The Benefits Of Government Grants

But college administrators dislike rankings. I understand some of the reasons why; it’s almost impossible to compare dissimilar schools and the formulas and methodologies are considered non-scholarly by academics. College presidents have said that peer assessment means little when their peers base their judgments on the past perceptions of their schools.

This year, according to U.S. News and World Report, a record low 51 percent of college presidents completed their reputational survey in which they rank their peer institutions. Eight years ago, more than two-thirds completed it. This peer assessment represents 25 percent of a school’s overall ranking. I could guess that the rankings would be less valid as more schools refuse to share information, as well as reliable statistics with the magazine.

However, you can’t keep a good journalistic team down. U.S. News and World Report has been collecting and compiling this information for 24 years. Data collection and compilation for these rankings have been refined nine times, partly in response to institutional concerns. They have plenty of incentive; the America’s Best Colleges issue and print guide are hot selling magazines. They would not be hot-sellers if they didn’t try to be ahead of the curve and become more statistically valid.

Like it or not, these rankings are not going away. Not as long as colleges advertise high rankings as if they’re a "good housekeeping seal" of approval. All educational institutions K-12, colleges and universities are operating in an era where parents and policy makers desire greater accountability and more statistical measures. Even if U.S. News quit publishing America’s Best Colleges, another source would step up in its place. College and university presidents should consider themselves fortunate if Congress does not support that source.

One association, The National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) launched their own Web-based tool called U-CAN, which stands for University and College Accountability Network. U-CAN is a nationwide effort to provide consumer information to parents and students, including financial statistics, about privately supported institutions.

NAICU claims that U-CAN is not a reaction to published rankings; according to public content on their site, U-CAN was created in response to public demand for comparable, concise, relevant, and easily accessible information. But I scrolled down and noticed that NAICU acknowledges that if "consumers, Congress, and the administration decide that the information on U-CAN is self-serving and of little value, the likely alternative is new federal reporting mandates."

So, NAICU is behaving much like a business association of firms in the same industry; let’s try to regulate ourselves before the government steps in. U-CAN is NAICU’s attempt at self-regulation. As someone who has been in the education site business, I was curious to see how U-CAN worked. I played with U-CAN, much like a parent or student would.

Here’s what I liked about U-CAN:

+ It’s free and there’s no need to register. If I were a student, I do not become part of a junk-mail database to schools that are of no interest to me.

+ Navigation is clear and simple—if your heart is already set on a very small number of private schools.

+ U-CAN has statistics that I cannot find in other published sources, specifically the tuition history, four-year and five-year graduation rates, diversity indices, student indebtedness, a price breakdown for tuition and fees, average net tuition charge (after grants in aid), residence life and direct access to campus safety information.

Some of this information is available on other sites, but not as easily searchable; in the case of U.S. News, you have to pay a fee for premium access to obtain more detail beyond the top schools on their lists.

U-CAN is comprehensive, and makes it an admirable effort; it is considerable work to secure cooperation from so many schools (approximately 450, as I write this piece), let alone organize the data in a user-friendly format.

U-CAN is useful, but less than perfect, for considering private colleges.

The first problem is unmemorable domain names. The host association uses a dot-edu in its web address instead of a dot-com, dot-net or dot-org; that’s an unusual practice because the sponsor is a not-for-profit association, not an academic institution. The domain for the U-CAN site is http://ucan-network.org. This surprised me when I typed ucan dot-org and got nowhere. They cannot use ucan dot-org; that domain belongs to the Utility Consumer’s Action Network.

So, my first suggestion to NAICU is to buy U-CAN dot-org, dot-com and dot-net before someone else does—or find a new name.

Two other problems come from searches. You cannot return to a list of search results if you want to look at more than one school in a state. For instance, I selected New Jersey and got a list of independent schools in the Garden State. After I finished viewing the complete profile of one school, I could not return to my list. I had to do the same search again. In addition, I could not do a search across schools in more than one state.

The search problems can make U-CAN quite cumbersome and, by comparison, they make the U.S. News print and online guides seem more user-friendly, if I want to compare schools.

That leads me to another suggestion: develop a print version of U-CAN that groups the schools by state and type of school using the available statistics. A print version of U-CAN confronts a major advantage of other guides—they’re also books—parents and guidance counselors are more techno-phobic than high school students. The most difficult statistic to format in tables is probably tuition history. U-CAN lists tuition charges for each of the past five years; that can be converted into an average tuition increase.

U-CAN is an excellent site, if you have already whittled down your choices to a small number of private schools. It’s better designed to be your last stop for information gathering—after you’ve bought the U.S. News guide, read student school reviews and done your campus visits—instead of your first.

Stuart Nachbar has been involved with education politics, policy and technology as a student, urban planner, government affairs manager, software executive, and now as author of The Sex Ed Chronicles. Visit his blog, Educated Quest

Article Source: Colleges Make Web-Based Response To College Rankings

1. "If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what’s said against me won’t amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

2. "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

3. "In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."

4. "Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

5. "The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity."

6. "A house divided against itself cannot stand."

7. "Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose – and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

8. "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

9. "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

10. "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

11. "Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."

12. "Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible."

13. "If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will."

14. "I want it said of me by those who knew me best, that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."

What a great man. If only there were more in the world like him. Let these 14 Abraham Lincoln quotes remind us of who he was, what he stood for and who we are, as a nation, because of him.

For more famous quotes, check out the popular Famous-Quotes-And-Quotations.com, a website that specializes in ‘Top 10′ lists of quotations in dozens of categories. http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/

Article Source: 14 Abraham Lincoln Quotes to Celebrate His Birth

The majority of Americans now think that climate change is a problem and that global warming is real. But there still is not a sense of urgency. Every year the US emits CO2 that equals the equivalent weight of 1.2 billion elephants (2 trillion pounds using average size elephants). It is time to stop ignoring 1.2 billion elephants in the room. It is time to implement a plan that will adopt renewable energies at a pace to stabilize the environment from CO2 pollution and then, hopefully, start to reduce the amount of pollution we must derive this plan with an eye to how long our reserves of fossil fuels will last. Once we derive this plan we then can look at future generations and inform them "Here is the plan".

The development of modern civilization has been dependent on both the availability and the advancement of energy. We have witnessed a progression from animal and steam power to the internal combustion engine and electricity generation and to the harnessing of alternative sources of energy. Because of our reliance on energy sources, it is also important to understand the impact of energy use on the environment. All aspects of energy, the way it is produced, distributed, and consumed, can affect local, regional, and global environments through land use and degradation, air pollution and global climate change via greenhouse gas emissions. Over the foreseeable future, it is very likely that fossil fuels will remain our largest source of energy. However, fossil fuels are finite resources and there is concern not only about both domestic supply and U.S. reliance on foreign supplies but, also, with the increasing cost of these fuels.

The research on the longevity of fossil fuels is an exciting adventure in itself. I will touch on some of the theories before I conclude this series of articles. Given the slack of a decade or two, the best summation of the longevity of fossil fuels is presented in "Wikipedia, Fossil fuel: Years of production left in the ground with the most optimistic reserve estimates (Oil & Gas Journal, World Oil)".

Oil: = 45 years Gas: = 72 years Coal: = 252 years

With the slack of plus or minus 10 years, most projections are consistent with the Wikipedia numbers. . The popular Hubert peak theory projects that for any given geographical area, from an individual oil-producing region to the planet as a whole, the rate of petroleum oil production tend to follow a bell-shaped curve. "Olduvai revisited 2008" from The Oil Drum blog is an amazing study. This theory was first laid out by Richard Duncan in1989 when he observed that world energy per capita had been declining for a decade. The Olduvai waveform for oil starts in 1950 which is consistent with the Wikipedia projections that the waveform will be completed by 2053.

The energy consumption of a nation is proportional to its Gross National Product (GNP).i.e. (The higher the GNP of a nation, then the higher its consumption.).To maintain our accustomed standard of living, we require the amount of energy that we are burning now to maintain our lifestyles. With the depletion of fossil fuels this will require renewable fuels to fill in the gap.

How do we hammer this information into a plan? A roadmap needs to be derived that utilizes the adoption of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass energies into our energy consumptions needs. Technologies such as stuffing CO2 into caves should not be adopted until they are proven. A plan that incorporates renewable energies with fossils fuels usage would be more realistic for our country to follow.

How do we proceed?

We must continue tax incentives for the renewable energy sectors to incubate their growth. Our House of Representatives in Congress has passed a bill to renew the energy tax incentives that are due to expire December 31, 2008. President Bush threatens to veto this bill because it taxes the Oil Industry $19 billion dollars from multi-billion dollar profits. The president’s premise is that the oil companies require these profits to continue exploration of new oil. Politics aside, we desperately need to find new sources of renewable energy.

We need to demand that our local and national leaders produce renewable energy action plans. There are pockets of leadership like Arizona and California. This leadership needs to be at a national level to be successful for the USA. Once this is accomplished we will be well on our way for future generations.

I have a BS and MS in Metallurgical Engineering. Thirty six years spent in the development of semiconductors. Business experience in start up business plan. Currently, an oyster farmer and interested in helping the environment by deploying solar energy. Visit my Blog, http://environmentalhelp.typepad.com/ for continued information on renewable energy E Mail: p_calhoun@bellsouth.net

Article Source: What is the Outlook for the Availability of Fossil Fuels?

Why any Democrat should be concerned is obvious. They’re the current majority party and they’re in control of Congress and the White House. Off year elections are normally bad for the party in the White House, but Tuesday’s election results point to something big next year.

In Virginia, a state Obama carried by five percent, the Republican candidate for Governor wins by eighteen percent – a twenty-three point swing.

In deep blue New Jersey, a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by two to one; where the Democrat incumbent outspent the Republican by three to one; where Obama himself won by fifteen points and made multiple campaign stops, the Republican wins by four points – a nineteen point swing.

And in moderate Maine, voters supported a referendum to overturn a recently passed gay marriage law, the thirty-first state in a row to affirm its support for traditional marriage.

It’s enough to give Democrats night sweats from now until next November.

But why should the Republican leadership be concerned? Because many of them have been (or continue to be) completely tone deaf to the sentiments of the party’s base. Many of them either "don’t get it", or would rather minimize what’s driving this train.

It’s been said that, given a choice between a Democrat and a fake Democrat, people will usually opt for the Democrat.

A false choice is no choice at all. A lesson taught with enough clarity in New York’s 23rd congressional district election that even the national GOP leadership should understand.

A false choice is exactly what RINO Republican Scozzafava proved herself to be when, after withdrawing, she endorsed the Democrat. In the process she did perform an invaluable service for conservatives by proving what they have said about such Republicans for years.

The race also serves as a graphic demonstration of just how small the Republican coalition is without those crazy conservatives that elite Republicans spend so much time trying to denigrate and minimize.

On the day of her withdrawal, the latest poll put Scozzafava in 3rd place with barely twenty percent of the vote.

Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman ran as a principled Reagan conservative…and was promptly rejected by the insiders in the NY GOP and the national Republicans n Washington in favor of a pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, pro-government, pro-bailout, tax and spend RINO. And they wasted over a million dollars in Republican donor’s contributions in the process.

So much for those guys being experts on how to win a campaign, or being reliable when it comes to using their positions within the party to advance the conservative cause.

Grassroots Republicans have taken notice. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 73% of Republicans nationwide think that the congressional GOP has lost touch with their base. In other words they’ve been paying attention.

What makes the leadership’s support for such "Republican" candidates even more insidious is, when they do manage to win, they usually end up cooperating with the Pelosi’s of the world and giving the Democrats the fig leaf of bi-partisanship for their big government agenda…thus making the GOP the co-conspirator of this agenda in the minds of voters and making it more difficult for other Republicans to credibly campaign against it.

That’s why Democrats are so concerned with finding a few Republicans to hop on board with bailouts and Obamacare, and spend so much of their time accusing the GOP of being the "party of no" when they currently have the votes to enact their agenda all by their lonesome.

They don’t want the blame all to themselves. Our strategy should always be to let them have it.

The fact is that thanks to Obama voters are growing more conservative but, thanks to past GOP leadership, they’ve yet to grow more Republican. This comes down to principles…or more precisely a lack thereof.

The voters have spoken. The Democrats probably won’t listen. But the Republican leadership should.

Drew McKissick is a political strategist and former member of the Republican National Committee with over twenty years of experience in grassroots politics. He writes a regular column providing analysis and commentary on current events. His website is available at http://www.DrewMcKissick.com . You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/DrewMcKissick

Article Source: Election dissection: Be afraid, be very afraid

This will continue until corruption is ripped from our United States government. It will continue until all politicians enter rehab to kick their nasty addiction to the most dangerous drug of all: absolute power. It will continue until powerful unknowns stop waiting for everyone directly involved to simply pass away, leaving no one to prosecute. It will continue until these people stop putting decades of distance between that tragic day, and allow us Americans in on intelligence that could possibly bring an end to the mystery shrouding Kennedy’s death. The Kennedy assassination was bigger than the whole of America – bigger than the world will ever know. But Kennedy’s death was miniscule compared to the underlying reasons for his assassination.

The United States of America is a well-oiled machine. Massive! Superior! But every machine has its defects. Technicians are trained to eliminate these problems and keep the machine running. One of the biggest defects in the American machine is patriotism. Not the kind of patriotism where silly Americans wave the flag and scream, "I’m proud to be an American!" I’m talking about true patriotism – the kind where Americans are willing to look below the surface. Look at those who will stop at nothing to control our government and the world. Look through the shroud that cloaks our America. Stop at nothing to allow the citizens therein to view our America and its processes with clarity. That, my friends, is true patriotism.

Every machine produces waste. In the case of our country, the waste produced is most often the blood of our citizens. The technicians refer to this waste as collateral damage.

That’s just the way it is!
That’s the way it’s always been!
That’s the way it will always be!
That’s the American way!

In these pettifogging times where the democratic/republican process seemingly hovers above the masses of American society, remember one thing: in truth lies the most complex of enigmas.

In an age of uncertainty from within a society governed; a secretively, seemingly unreliable government for which the United States was founded, breaths unnoticeable corruption from alleyways never meant to be walked upon by you or I! With two words stamped unto highly secured documents at unprecedented levels of our massive government, TOP SECRET, locks you and I, pawns, out of a world for which our deaths mean nothing in the succession of the objectives therein…

American democracy was founded of the people, by the people, and for the people, but that’s what you’re conditioned to believe America! With man being unquestionably fallible, the questioning of mans every action by other men is deathly pertinent. Therefore, if you’re asking the questions of man in this day of unquestionable corruption. Corruption collectively orchestrated at the highest of levels, then I advise you to equip yourselves with one very important tool: a shovel; for you are sure to be repeatedly buried in shit.

Pragmatic author A.K. Kuykendall has a passion for writing conspiracy, espionage, horror, and suspense literature that blends the concepts of fact and fiction. For more information on his projects, visit The Writer of Books or, to email the author directly for Q&A on this article, write to breakingthrough@thewriterofbooks.com.

Article Source: President John F. Kennedy: Breaking Through the Shroud of an Untimely Demise

Sending our young men and women to far away places that put them in harms way is a tragedy in itself. Many of them leave the shores of our country to defend our freedom or give other people theirs and they never get to come back home to enjoy what they went to fight for. It is truly the ultimate sacrifice.

Many times our troops have been sent to places where they are really only peace keepers and sometimes their lives are less at risk than others. Then are times when they are sent to countries, most recently Iraq, where they are under fire immediately and put in danger from the very beginning. This just comes with the territory of being a United States soldier. Everyone knows when they enlist in any branch of our military that there is always a possibility of being deployed somewhere that they could be placed in jeopardy.

For every parent who has a son or daughter in the military, the thought of having a war break out somewhere is terrifying for them. Even though they realize in their mind that it is the duty of those in the military to respond when called to a war or crisis somewhere else, that knowledge and belief will do very little to appease their hearts when it comes to facing the fact that their son or daughter might never come back home.

Then there are the wives, husbands, and children of all our soldiers to consider. They probably suffer the most besides the soldiers themselves. The daily agony of wondering whether or not that loved one is safe and still alive or not has to be heart wrenching to say the least. Being respectful to these soldiers and their families is so important whether we agree with the reasons that they are deployed to any particular place or not. They deserve to be recognized and appreciated immensely for the duties they perform and the sacrifices that they make no matter what our personal opinions are about why they happen to be where they are.

Rachel Yoshida is a writer of many topics, visit some of her sites, like Water Damage Restoration and Houston Water Damage Restoration.

Article Source: A History Of American Troops Under Fire

First of all – take the time to observe. True it is a luxury that you may not have. If at all possible watch the workplace and its players. What are the organizations key core values? Is the basic viewpoint one of long term thinking or only of the short term “what is the bottom line?” Type of decision making? Especially pay attention to the decision making and thought process patterns of upper management and owner’s.
This is what may count and prevail in the end, not the pattern of your direct supervisor or co – workers?

Is the “corporate culture” one of innovation and risk taking or is it an older died in the wool type where the basic viewpoint and standing is to any issues and challenges is the answer “You do not have to tell me ….. I have been in this business for 10, 20, 30 …. Years”.

In order to win, or least stay in the game, you need proper tools. Where is your firm or industry headed? Evaluate winners in both your firm and the industry as model. Acquire those skills and credentials. Take courses and extra training – even at your own expense if the firm will not spring for the funds. You will be ahead at the end of the process. First of all the banyuk with the degree or diploma on the wall “Must know more “when it comes to an argument or discussion. If there is a position to be filled for advancement, it often comes down to one determining factor of which candidate has more. Bingo guess that get the promotion – is now at a higher level of command and authority or who has left those specific office politics and problem individuals behind? Lastly if things get downright foolish you are in a much better position to either look for other employment or at the least threaten to leave unless the office politics and foolishness cool down.

No matter what most people say – in the end , if you live long enough , it all comes down to money . Profitability of the firm or organization is where it’s at. Troublemakers have a way of doing themselves in. Be an efficient effective employee who brings the firm profit. This may be in terms of production on the factory floor, sales in a sales organization, or case load in terms of service or governmental organizations. Don’t make waves. Lay low. Don’t cause trouble.

Your results will speak for themselves, although it never hurts to be able to communicate your virtues and results. If communication is not your forte, then join a toastmasters club or similar training program to improve your communication skills.

In the end problems in life, and office politics tend to work themselves out. In the end you are what you are and You are not what you are not. Time seems to take care of all problems. Things have a way of working themselves out in life and in the workplace.

Alberta Job Shop Fire Your Supervisor Winnipeg Manitoba Job Bank

Article Source: Surviving Office Politics – Keeping Your Job And Income