Monday, May 31, 2010

Presidents That Have Missed Arlington Memorial

There are more:

-President Obama in 2010.
-President Bush in 2007.
-President H.W. Bush in 1992.
-President Reagan in 1983.

Contributing source: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20006346-503544.html

Friday, May 28, 2010

Hurricane Season On The Horizon

According to weather experts this hurricane season is going to be a very busy one. This can make the recovery effort on the Gulf Coast even more difficult to accomplish than it already has been. If a hurricane were to hit now it would essentially scoop up a lot of the oil that has spilled into the Gulf and send it away, and predicting where that 'away' will be is going to be even more difficult than cleaning it up.

It is kind of back and forth whether or not the spilled oil could slow a potential storm off the coast or if it would actually make a hurricane even more massive than it would be in the first place. President Obama is to be visiting the oil spill and monitor how the ongoing effort is proceeding before heading back to Chicago that night, hopefully when he sees the site for himself he can be better prepared for the future weather that is forecasted to hit.

The Gulf Coast isn't the only one at risk if a hurricane were to hit, in Haiti there is roughly 1.5 million displaced people that will be severly at risk after a devestating earthquake hit there this past January. If a hurricane were to hit the already struggling portion of the Dominican Republic the end result could be catastrophic.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Terrorism Attack Attempts At An All Time High

The Department of Homeland Security is warning the United States that attempted terror attacks are at an all time high on domestic ground. They recently released a four-page report highlighting the 'Evolving Threats to the Homeland' in which they say the increasing number and pace of attacks suggests that terrorist cells are focusing more on smaller operations that garner a higher chance of success rather than larger scale attacks that they have attempted in the past. This all comes in light of the recent Times Square bomb plot in which an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was being delivered by vehicle, which is actually a Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) but news is lazy anymore.

The entire report can be read here thanks to CBS News.

BP Oil Spill - Who's Fault Is It?

Well, this started off well, didn't it? Apparently on April 20th, a blast killed 11 BP workers and released a massive flow of oil into the Gulf, and so far it has been a finger-pointing game. The government pointing their mighty finger of political power at BP, and BP? Taking the blame, well, they should, it is their fault afterall. But that isn't what gets me, no, I'm not concerned that BP is the fall-guy of the oil spill. I'm more concerned with the governments lack of response.

So I began to read on this issue a bit, and came across this blog entry at WashingtonPost.com which goes into pretty good detail as to what the government is doing, and, well, what they cannot do at this time. As that article explains, the government really couldn't do any more than what BP is already doing.

They have already had some remote vehicles get tangled, which only resulted in an even longer operation and if anything hindered the attempt to cull the situation.

The government has also already started to review a plan to place sand berms up to keep sensitive wetland protected, but as the blog above said 'it would take months to execute.'

What do I think? This country is angry, for multiple reasons, and quite a few of them pretty good reasons. However, we need to analyze a situation before we jump down the governments throat and claim them for the fault, we really can't have a 'jump first, check later' attitude at this point in time. We have to be more selective on what we jump on, and how we jump on it, throwing brash insults towards our government isn't going to fix anything.

More to come, I used to love my country.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Job? Where?

Sure, there are a ton of places to go looking for a job. Monster.com is a well-known one, Job.com, stuff like that. But where is the employment at? The unemployment rate is at an all-time high, 9.5% according to Google public data, 9.9% according to http://www.dol.gov/. That is terrible, don't you think? Well, the job market is different I guess, they want experience...right? Depends on the job really, but most jobs will take a less experienced worker because they can get away with paying them less for the same work a college grad would do for twice the rate. This is where the job market is killing itself, I think anyway.

Let me explain; if we have two people of the same age, same ability, but one went to a prestigious college and the other a junior college, obviously the one that went to a prestigious college is going to ask for more money, the junior college grad less. Practical really, I'm sure they both have loans that they need to pay off but I'm also sure that the prestigious college student has far more to pay than his junior college rival which would explain why they would ask for a higher salary. However, when it comes down to money coming in and money coming out a business has to look at it from a different point of view, money spent versus money made. If they are spending more money for someone who has a better education, they are out more money in the long-run than if they just spend less money for someone with less education but enough to do the job.

This is where sites like Monster.com can come in handy, allowing someone to put up their own resume, credentials, and asking pay, while prospective employers look at each one and decide on their own who to hire. Monster.com is a pretty good site, you can put your resume up for companies to view, apply for jobs with relative ease, and it probably works really well, but I found it to be difficult to navigate even with their current Beta. Job.com was easier for me to navigate and had a lot of search options to tick off so you didn't have to type in your own but you could if you wanted, applying for the job is relatively easy just like it was Monster, just click and apply. Both also have a number of articles filled with tips for marketing yourself and all around finding a job.

However, that isn't always enough, sometimes you have to actually head out and talk to the people face to face to inquire about the job. Even with these tools, jobs are still dying, along with the economy.

Which brings us to the government, remember that bailout plan? The one that pretty much tossed dirt into the hole we crawled into? Yes, that one, the one that still today I don't know why we even bothered to try it out. Money makes the world go 'round, and it sinks countries even deeper into the ground. The idea was to get the banks out of debt, banks that probably could have managed to get themselves out of debt alone, but we are a 'instant gratification' culture these days and no one wants to wait for results. So the government through billions of dollars at debt, and even today this concept still escapes me, you essentially threw imaginary money into debt, money we didn't have, still don't have, and I'm not all that convinced we will ever see again.

This was a key area of the presidential candidates for the 2008 presidential campaign, remember? Each of them told us how they were going to get us out of debt? How they were going to end the war in Iraq, even close Guantanamo Bay...well, it seems they had the right idea but were entirely too poor in their execution. The debt rose, Guantanamo is still open, and we are still in Iraq, and on top of it, we threw money we didn't have at all of it. Which would actually explain why nothing was done, little can be done with monopoly money.

More to come, I used to love my country.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Background checks and when they are handy!

Nobody really likes court, especially if you are sitting in the defense chair. So why not go in prepared, right? Well, this is where background checks come in handy, such as those provided by http://www.intelius.com/ or http://www.criminalbackgroundrecords.com/ these are helpful when you are going into a courtroom to defend yourself. Why? Simple, you already know what parts of your criminal history they are going to attack and you have the information available to defend yourself. These really only come in handy if you haven't kept records yourself, which I highly recommend keeping for as long as you possibly can.

Although, if you are like me, you don't make an awful lot of money. In which case it is usually simple to contact the court in the county where the charge occured and get the information that way (costs vary). However programs like Intelius or criminal background checks usually have everything without having to go through multiple courts in possibly multiple counties or even states. Always go to court prepared, know your charges, know your rights, and always try to retain an attorney.
 
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