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Image via WikipediaData from the Department of Energy and other agencies show that the average poor family, as defined by Census officials:
● Lives in a home that is in good repair, not crowded, and equipped with air conditioning, clothes washer and dryer, and cable or satellite TV service.
● Prepares meals in a kitchen with a refrigerator, coffee maker and microwave as well as oven and stove.
● Enjoys two color TVs, a DVD player, VCR and — if children are there — an Xbox, PlayStation, or other video game system.
● Had enough money in the past year to meet essential needs, including adequate food and medical care.No mention of "savings". My African friends would be astonished to learn that their highest economic aspirations would make them poor according to American standards. I remember some guy once said that anyone who has two pairs of shoes is not poor. One pair, or no pair -- that's poor.
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Image via WikipediaMichigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said today he will appeal a court ruling that overturned the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which bans the use of race and gender preferences in college admissions and government hiring and contracting.Failure to discriminate based on race and gender is a huge no-no in Obama's America.
"MCRI embodies the fundamental premise of what America is all about: equal opportunity under the law," Schuette said in a statement. "Entrance to our great universities must be based upon merit, and I will continue the fight for equality, fairness and rule of law."
A federal appeals court today overturned Proposal 2, saying the voter-approved measure harms minorities and is unconstitutional.Unconstitutional. Wow. Democracy swept aside by a court ruling. And, since it is based on the "unconstitutionality" of treating people equally, I guess we can say "discrimination is forever".
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Image via WikipediaFour months after her name was the first to surface as just one of Mr. Gray’s questionable political hires, Ms. Whiting appeared at an oversight hearing before the Government Operations Committee on Monday and claimed she denied her felony conviction on a March 18, 2010, application for the Mendelson job because she thought a 10-year grace period for disclosing prior felonies had expired.
She entered a guilty plea to federal wire-fraud charges on July 3, 2001, according to a federal court transcript - less than nine years before signing and completing the form, which clearly states: “I understand that a false statement on any part of my application may be grounds for not hiring me, or for firing me after I begin work. I understand that the making of a false statement on this form is punishable by criminal penalties.”
Accompanied by her attorney, A. Scott Bolden, Ms. Whiting testified under oath that she disclosed her conviction on a Jan. 13 job application. A document submitted by the Gray administration to the oversight committee indicates a prior felony along with a typed entry that reads: “Will explain in person.”
However, that application is unsigned and undated, despite a bolded section that reads “YOU MUST SIGN THIS APPLICATION.” Mr. Bolden claimed that his client instead signed and dated a residency form attached to the Jan. 13 job application thinking it was sufficient.
Council member David A. Catania noted that Ms. Whiting signed the correct page of her 2010 application for Mr. Mendelson’s office - though she also made a false statement at that time. He shot down her explanation that she “felt both statements were accurate” because she was approaching the 10-year mark from the date of her conviction. He pointed out that the more recent form purports to provide the truthful answer while the older form clearly provided a false statement.So, I have, and have not committed a felony.
Before her federal conviction in 2001, for which she was sentenced to 22 months in prison, Ms. Whiting was charged multiple times with fraud, forgery, passing bad checks and theft, according to Maryland court records. In 1994, she pleaded guilty to theft and was placed on home detention and probation. In all, courts have ordered her to pay back more than $150,000 in diverted funds over the years, state and federal records show.I'm betting the mayor who gave this gal a $65K/year political hire gig is also a Democrat.
Image via WikipediaBut when a group of 2,000 elderly British cruise ship passengers docked at Los Angeles for a short stop-off during a five-star cruise around America it was, in the words of one of them, more like arriving at Guantanamo Bay....
Although they had already been given advance clearance for multiple entries to the country during their trip, all 2,000 passengers were made to go through full security checks in a process which took seven hours to complete.
The fingerprints of both hands were taken as well as retina scans and a detailed check of the passport as well as questioning as to their background.
Passengers claim that the extra checks were carried out in “revenge” for what had been a minor spat over allegedly overzealous security.
They complain that they were “herded like animals” and made to stand for hours in temperatures up to 80F with no food or water or access to lavatories.
Some are said to have passed out in the heat while others were left confused and bewildered.
When one lady asked in desperation whether she could use a bathroom, one immigration official is said to have replied: “Do it over the side, we won’t mind.”Precisely because US Immigration officials have the authority to act the way they did, the original passengers should not have "acted out". Just keep your thoughts to yourself. Meanwhile, California's illegal immigrants, you know, the ones that don't bother to stand in line for seven hours, get most-favored-alien treatment.
Image via WikipediaTarget Corp. has announced the first 105 locations that it will take over from Zellers when it begins opening stores in Canada in early 2013.
“This is just the first wave,” Target Canada president Tony Fisher told media in a presentation in Chicago Thursday.
The list includes properties in 10 provinces; 13 in Alberta, 15 in British Columbia, five in Manitoba, one in New Brunswick, two in Newfoundland and Labrador, two in Nova Scotia, 45 in Ontario, one in PEI, 19 in Quebec, and two in Saskatchewan.Hey, this means the Zellars store in Charlottetown (PEI) is going to become a Target. Good news for Islanders! We're also getting one here in North York (Toronto) at the Centerpoint Mall. That's good!
Image via WikipediaThe constant conflicts in the Texas region in the mid 19th century eventually led to the Mexican-American War, which began in 1846 and ended in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Due to the treaty Mexico lost more than 960,000 square miles (about 2,500,000 km²) of land, 55%[7] of its national territory, including what is today California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada and parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma in addition, all disputes over Texas and the disputed territory between Rio Grande and Rio Nueces were abandoned. Five years later the Gadsden Purchase completed the creation of the current United States – Mexico border. These purchases left approximately 300,000 people living in the once disputed lands, many of whom were Mexican nationals. Following the establishment of the current border a number of towns sprang up along this boundary and many of the Mexican citizens were given free land in the northern regions of Mexico in exchange for returning and repopulating the area.[8] -- WikiSuch an act would be a demonstration of good faith on the part of the United States and would win the admiration of the world. Give conquered lands back? Sure. You go first.
Image via Wikipedia“You wanna test how damn serious I am about leaving this world, screw with my check that pays for this apartment and food. Try it. See how serious I am. I don’t care,” the California man said. “I have no problem killing myself. Take away the last thing keeping me here, and see what happens. Next time you see me on the news, it will be me in a body bag.”Waaaa! Waaaa! Waaaaaa! You know what? I think he's bluffing.
Image by roberthuffstutter via FlickrThe U.S. border with Canada, even though it sees far fewer detentions and arrests every year, is a "more significant threat" to American security than the Mexican border, a senior Homeland Security official said Tuesday.
"In terms of the terrorist threat, it's commonly accepted that [it's] the more significant threat, because of... people who can enter Canada then and come across our bridges into the United States," Alan Bersin, head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington.
Bersin was responding to questioning from Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who demanded to know why the southern U.S. border, with about 445,000 arrests and detentions annually, isn't considered far more sensitive than the northern boundary, which saw 6,000 arrests and detentions last year.Let's do the cultural equivalence math on this one. Four hundred and forty-five thousand minus six thousand, yikes! This means 439,000 persons must have slipped through the Canadian border into the US undetected!!!
Police on Tuesday detained 513 undocumented migrants from Latin America and Asia who were crammed into two trucks bound for the United States, prosecutors in southeast Mexico said.
The migrants, from Latin America, Japan, China, India and Nepal, "were traveling in inhuman conditions" in the southeastern state of Chiapas, near the Guatemalan border, the local attorney general's office said in a statement.Yikes again!! This means there were 513 Timbit-popping Canadians who entered the US illegally and were not caught. Is the northern border porous or what?!
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