There shoudl be a special recognition for the dedication he held for Russia.

Russia will remain deprived of vision and a future with promise if their leaders continue to be killed before they even have a chance to bring new ideas.

New ideas doesn't mean the elimination of culture or government. New ideas bring better economies. A future vision is important. It is very important to young minds that hold their country in high esteem.

If Mr. Nemtsov was killed to cause instability, then his murderers were wrong. Mr. Nemtsov SERVED Russia. I imagine he would sit with friends in conversation and talk politics, but, the reality is that no matter who is leading a nation, it is the nation that provides the impetus to change. A political leader can only hope the people find their vision as important as the country's future. One man cannot change a country alone.

It is difficult to see Russia go through the loss of another hero, another man dedicated to a new vision for the people of Russia. The people of Russia deserve their political leaders and still today there are those that want to take the lives of men and women prepared to be a leader.

Moscow's murder rate is 4.6 per 100,000. It is lower than Caracas, Mexico City, Bogata, New York City and Tibilisi. I can't imagine a crime other than a targeted murder was committed. I am sure he was not a reckless man without regard for his safety. This was an assassination. Please stop hating each other so intensely.

March 1, 2015
By Reuters

MOSCOW: Opposition supporters (click here) will march through Moscow on Sunday in memory of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov, whose murder has increased concern about Russia's future among opponents of President Vladimir Putin.
Thousands of people laid flowers and lit candles on Saturday on a bridge near the Kremlin where the opposition politician and former deputy prime minister was shot dead late on Friday.

National investigators who answer to Putin say they are pursuing several lines of inquiry, including the possibility that Nemtsov, a Jew, was killed by radical Islamists or that the opposition killed him to blacken the president's name...      

It would seem that Russia's politics hasn't matured from "If you can't jail them, then kill them."

He deserves a state funeral. He was deeply involved in politics in Russia and served the country well under Former President Boris Yeltsin.

Deepest sympathy to his family, friends and political peers. 

St. Petersburg was once the capital of Russia, it appear recognizing Moscow and Red Square was a gigantic mistake. The people opposing the royal rulers of Russia aren't any more safe, perhaps another revolution is in order.

This is out of New Zealand. What is believed an American company is selling financial investments without registering with New Zealand.

February 27, 2015
By Hamish Fletcher

...The company, (click here) Eco Investments Group, regularly advertises in New Zealand newspapers offering guarantees and high-return investments for small amount up front.
The FMA warns anyone dealing with them to exercise extreme caution before obtaining any financial services, or buying a financial products.
The company is not registered or licensed to offer financial services in this country.
Eco Investments Group operates two websites, one claims to be run out Lamont, California and the other in North Carolina.
One said returns are guaranteed in 14 days....

New Zealand, an ally to the USA, should not be having this type of problem with a USA company. There should be no problem with New Zealand approaching the USA government about their concerns and have a resolve to the issue. Why is New Zealand's interest in this reaching out to citizens because the New Zealand government cannot make a course correction with this company. This should be an automatic reason for New Zealand and the USA to have a conversation to protect an ally and it's people.

Don't hand me, "This is why we need TPP." This has nothing to do with TPP, this is about an ally and our best interest in having successful and productive relations with another country.  

I can't find a "Eco Investment Group" in California or North Carolina. It appears to be complete fraud, the question is from where in the world? I don't appreciate the USA being used as a method of fraud.

How many faux companies may be feeding money to militias in the world? 

I think the one week extension for the Department of Homeland Security is genius. 

I can't believe passing important laws is this difficult. This is a democracy. This stuff is suppose to be easy and straight forward. This is suppose to be one of the most invisible issues to politics. This is national security. This is suppose to be boring and mundane. How did this happen to this country? This is ridiculous. There is nothing radical about funding national security priorities. The Democrats don't even carry on about military funding like this.

What the heck is at the base of this? 

Minority Speaker Pelosi has remarkable resilience with all this. I don't know where we would be without her. She has a path forward for every emergency. "The Rock." Rep. Nancy "The Rock" Pelosi. 

What are these statements from Chuck Todd about "...now the Republicans are going to be stuck with full funding?" That is a bizarre statement. There is no doubt the USA has to fund national security. The problem with the Republicans is they are stuck on 'hate' regarding a resolve to immigration. 

The last thing the USA needs is more inflammatory statements about our national security. 

Stenography.

There is no reasoning through an issue with the press. These are two separate issues for the USA. The Senate is functioning better the House when it comes to immigration. The Senate passed a bill. At least it was a way forward for the country, but, the House is stuck in hate regarding immigration. Even children are a focus of hateful speech when it comes to immigration. There is no other word, hate. The press is allowing hate to exist in a political dialogue that is completely dysfunctional to the national security of the USA. 

The question before the country is about funding national security. The OTHER question before the country is how do we adequately address Immigration Reform. The immigration system in the USA is not broken, it is completely dysfunctional AND a threat to our country in regard to new members of our society that came here legally AND the international reputation of the USA when it comes to compassion and problem solving.

There are ways of solving the Undocumented issues, but, all the Republicans can see is THE FENCE on the southern border. The fence isn't going to be any more successful than a lack of the fence. The reason people are coming to our southern border is because the USA has been a really lousy neighbor to the north. Really lousy neighbor.

The USA should be assisting Mexico to STABILIZE their country. I can't believe the level of negligence of the USA to the problems of the Mexican people. They are living in hell everyday because of drugs and corruption. The USA has to resolve their problems and find a way to allow function to return to it's government. There are young people missing from their families because a mayor and his wife didn't LIKE THEM. And the USA is ignoring all of it. 

People from South American and Central America came to our southern border because they would die otherwise. These people were children. There is a lot wrong with the relationships the USA has with it's hemispheric neighbors. And the answer the USA press has is to use inflammatory language to our national security and the immigration problems that causes compromise to our country EVERY DAY. EVERY DAY.

Thank you Majority Leader McConnell for putting forward a bill that would pass. I wish the US House were functional, but, they are terrible. I don't think they care about the country at all. I hope Senator McConnell has a good weekend, thank you again. 

And thank you, Harry. You're the best.

I don't believe that was a snowball. Not that there wasn't snow in DC, but, it's not dripping. Senator Inhofe would have had an assistant walk outside and carry it through a warm building to the Senate floor.

I don't think it is a snowball. It more looks like an iceball that could have been formed in a freezer.

A frozen ball of water is not the same thing as a snowball. If the snowball were to be in his hand, given the dense water content of the snow, it would be melting quickly.

Why wouldn't Senator Inhofe want the iceball melting on the Senate floor?

CPAC?

Every Democrat with aspirations into the Presidency in 2016 or otherwise needs to listen closely to Senator Rand Paul. He has the attention of the young adults considering themselves Independents.

Governor Of New Jersey Chris Christi is absolutely correct. If the Republicans voting in their primaries actually want someone who will govern, he has a real shot at the nomination. If I were Christi, I would not count on it though. The RNC is mired in their own problems and they will never crawl out of it. Governor Christi needs to consider a run for the US House after his years as Governor. He needs to have a federal influence to provide him a stage and federal vote to carry his message.

Jeb Bush is an empty suit, no different than Romney. The RNC will nominate him because he is next in line, not the best qualified candidate. Romney carried 23% through most of the primary season for the nomination in 2012, Bush will be the same way.

For those that believe the USA needs a conversation to bring back American soldiers on the ground in the Middle East...

...I'd like to remind the war mongers we have been through all this before. The kidnappings, the beheadings and the dysfunctional Iraqi military units. We have been though this over and over and over again in the Middle East. There is absolutely no reason to repeat the same mistake.

 Pentagon Requests More Troops; Interview With Anna Quindlen (click here)

This is from the transcripts of CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown in April of 2004, more that a year after the "W"rongful invasion into Iraq. I'd like the media to remember the years of George Walker Bush was hell in this country and it was hell for more reason than the Iraq War. There were report cards that were spawned to bring the message that regardless of what the administration was saying they were lying. There were all kind of coping within the media itself in order to survive those horrible years.

Violence in Iraq Continues Despite Shakey Ceasefire (click here)

This was nearly ten years ago and I am confident if the press back in the day recalls their practice, it was oppressive and controlled and creative in order to get a message out to the American public and voter. 

It is the same old song. Enough already.

Aired April 12, 2004 - 22:00 ET
By CNN NEWSNIGHT with AARON BROWN

...In less than two weeks, (click here) American forces have taken more casualties than during any period since the invasion a year ago and things look almost as bad for thousands of contractors, American and otherwise, now the target of shadowy kidnappers, in all the makings of a dangerous and uncertain month and it is barely half begun.So, as it has so many times before, the program and the whip begin in Baghdad. CNN's Jim Clancy has the watch this morning. We'll join him shortly.We also are at the Pentagon where the concern is for thousands of American troops not coming home, as well as the shortcomings of their Iraqi counterparts. Jamie McIntyre has that angle on the story, Jamie the headline.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, with the failure of one Iraqi Army battalion to report for battle and the poor performance of other units, the Pentagon is moving to stiffen their resolve and, at the same time, bolster its own troop levels in Iraq too -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jamie, back to you shortly. More fireworks expected in the 9/11 hearings. CNN's David Ensor with a preview for us tonight and a headline -- David.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, the witnesses tomorrow will be the leadership, law enforcement leadership of the Bush administration and of the previous Clinton administration and they'll be some very tough questions about how the FBI failed to connect the dots before 9/11. The commission is also now trying to get another presidential daily brief made public. This one was a briefing to President Clinton back in 1998 -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, David, check back with you shortly, back with all of you.Also ahead on the program tonight the story of Thomas Hamill, an American contractor who went to Iraq to make ends meet back home and who is now a hostage of forces unknown....

This is interesting. Despite all the testing of missles and nuclar explosions it has no nuclear weapon capacity.

January 26, 2015
By Korea Herald

North Korea (click here) does not appear to have miniaturized nuclear warheads to fit on its ballistic missiles despite having advanced its technology to "a considerable level," Seoul's defense ministry said Thursday.
  
Officials and experts from South Korea and the United States have said the communist country is believed to have the technology to build nuclear-tipped missiles, though Pyongyang has yet to demonstrate the miniaturization capability.
  
"Despite its significant technology level, we don't think the North is capable of making such nuclear weapons," ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said at a regular press briefing....

It also explains a few things as to why North Korea carries out muscle flexing and wrestling with power struggles in national waters and islands.

Touching on an analysis by U.S. expert Joel Wit that Pyongyang is currently believed to have 10-16 nuclear weapons -- six to eight of them based on plutonium and four to eight based on weapons-grade uranium, Kim said it is "simply a presumption without any evidence."...

Evidnetly, sanctions haven't meant much.

Panama stopped a North Korean ship in 2013 caught smuggling arms from Cuba and seized the cargo - like this Soviet-era SS-4 medium range nuclear capable ballistic missile - after a stand-off with the North Korean crew in which the captain tried to slit his own throat.

February 26, 2015
UNITED NATIONS — A North Korean (click here) shipping company that famously tried to hide fighter jets under a cargo of sugar later sought to evade U.N. sanctions by renaming most of its vessels, a new report says.
The effort by Pyongyang-headquartered Ocean Maritime Management Company, Ltd. is detailed in the report by a panel of experts that monitors sanctions on North Korea. The report, obtained by The Associated Press, makes clear the challenge of keeping banned arms and luxury goods from a nuclear-armed country with a history of using front companies to duck detection.
The U.N. Security Council holds consultations Thursday on the report, which also says North Korea's government persists with its nuclear and missile programs in defiance of council resolutions.
North Korea's mission to the U.N. did not respond to a request for comment....

All the elaborate scenarios are fiction. They are estimations and nothing more. There is no solid proof of the North Korean nuclear capacity. All this is only possible if North Korea has a perfect world scenario.

February 25, 2015
By Shannon Tiezzi

A new research project (click here) warns that North Korea’s nuclear stockpile could grow from roughly 10-16 nuclear weapons at the end of 2014 to 100 by the year 2020.The North Korea Nuclear Futures Project, a joint collaboration between the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and National Defense University, aims to predict possible futures for North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs over the next five years...

...The project (click here) provided three scenarios for the growth of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs over the next five years. Under the “minimal growth, minimal modernization” scenario – a best care scenario for concerned observers – North Korea conducts no further nuclear or missile tests and its technology progresses slowly. Even under this scenario, North Korea is expected to roughly double its stockpile of available nuclear weapons, from 10 to 20....

The IAEA has assessed the potential of a working nuclear reactor, not the capacity of missiles.


VIENNA – The U.N. nuclear watchdog (click here) said it has seen releases of steam and water indicating that North Korea may be operating a reactor, in the latest update on a plant that experts say could make plutonium for atomic bombs.
North Korea announced in April of last year that it would revive its aged 5-megawatt research reactor at the Yongbyon nuclear complex, saying it was seeking a deterrent capacity.

North Korea has no nukes. It has nuclear reactors that it is allowed to have on the non-proliferation treaty. This is from the Japan Times which has an interest in the truth about such capacity.

The isolated and poverty-stricken state defends its nuclear program as a “treasured sword” to counter what it sees as U.S.-led hostility....

Senator Booker is moving foward with his ambitious agenda.

US Senator Thad Cochran is on the Senate Floor with Senator Booker to recall past injustices of African Americans. He states today African Americans are important to most walks of life and contribute to the country to make it greater than it ever has been.

Senate Resolution 84 "Celebrating Black History Month."

Other cosponsors include (click here): Sens. Kelly Ayotte R-N.H., Richard Burr R-N.C., Ben Cardin D-Md., Chris Coons D-Del., Richard Durbin D-Ill., Dianne Feinstein D-Calif., Johnny Isakson R-Ga., Jeff Merkley D-Ore., Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska, Chris Murphy D-Conn., Patty Murray D-Wash., Rand Paul R-Ky., Rob Portman R-Ohio, Debbie Stabenow D-Mich., and Thom Tillis R-N.C.

February 25, 2015
 

Washington, DC – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., (click here) released the following statement after traveling to the White House this afternoon to participate in a bipartisan meeting on criminal justice reform efforts with Members of Congress, the President, and the Vice President:

“This afternoon, I met with President Obama, Vice President Biden, and several members of Congress to discuss the urgent need to reform our broken criminal justice system. I was encouraged to hear the President call for significant criminal justice reform legislation in our meeting. There is growing momentum from both the left and the right for enacting common sense reforms that would save taxpayer money and make our communities safer, and I am encouraged that President Obama brought together a bipartisan group of leaders to discuss this important cause."
“If we are truly going to fix our broken criminal justice system, end the over-incarceration of people who commit non-violent offenses, and bring justice back to our justice system, we must be bold and enact comprehensive reforms that address all aspects of this problem. I’m optimistic about the prospects of reform in the weeks and months ahead.”

President Obama said a great deal about Executive Orders vs Legislation, but...

...it was to make clearer the fact no matter what occurs in his office it is best to get legislation passed to make all his directives permanent.  President Obama's words aren't going to wash in court either. The law is the law. Nice try though, eloquent or not.

He stated, "Constitutionally I cannot change the law on my own." 

Correct. But, that doesn't mean he can't write an Executive Order for deferred action. 

What it does mean is that Congress needs to get off their duffs and pass immigration reform before the Executive Order expires. 

The President then went on to say, "I just changed the law." Amazing, an Executive Order will do that. 

The Republicans are cherry picking statements to serve their own purpose. Evidently, they haven't bothered to listen to his statements yesterday evening where it stated the same thing. The Executive Order changes the law now, but, it takes Congress to write legislation to permanently change the law.

Oil is in a death spiral.

February 26, 2015

By Reuters

 

Ample global supply (click here) and increasing U.S. commercial inventories weighed on U.S. crude prices on Thursday after expectations for better demand going forward lifted prices a day earlier, traders and analysts said.
U.S. crude settled 5.5 percent lower, or $2.82, at $48.17 a barrel, following a more than 3 percent gain in the previous session.
Brent losses were tempered by expectations for improving global demand and geopolitical concerns about energy supplies from Libya and Russia.
Benchmark Brent crude fell $1.60 to $60 a barrel, after hitting a session peak of $62.63. On Wednesday, Brent surged 5 percent....

There was speculation with the first drop in oil prices that in order to keep their heads above water, struggling oil suppliers would sell more and more in order to remain in business. Well, here it is. When oil is suppose to be rebounding because the major suppliers, such as ExxonMobile, have cut back production, the glut persists coming from the USA. 

Eventually, these marginal suppliers will be unable to stay viable, so this is all a money grab by management before they are able to sustain their operations. 

There is Ad Hoc rule making in the US House to pass illegitimate legislation.

The problem is abortion among those under 18 and can find counseling for high risk young people in their schools. The rule with self executing abortion language removes any presentation of alternatives, even adoption from any student.

Having a rule in the government at any level that REMOVES LANGUAGE is unconstitutional. 

This rule would covetly work within legislation to remove language AFTER THE FACT when it is passed. So, Congresspersons would be reading a bill and voting on it without knowing what it would say after it was passed. 

The House Rule undercuts the US Constitution and places any and all legislative processes are compromised. I told ya, this is a bloodless coup. It can't be denied now. The was entered at the last minute to the rules committee and passed without debate.

The word abortion currently attached to the House Rule simply sets a precedent for expansion of that scope. 

The rule also crosses all boundaries of federal government. It is carried from the House to the Senate into the Executive Branch.

It is a coup. I'm convinced with this.

Let's get a few thing straight about mental health.

- Twenty percent of the adults age 0-64 in Texas are in poverty. 

- Twenty-four percent of all Texans are uninsured.

When a high school teacher says anyone is a killer and their was nothing wrong with their mind, that is not expert opinion.

It is difficult to be an adult with an undiagnosed mental health problem, but, they persist anyway because they have a life to live.

It is not unusual for young adults who have undiagnosed mental health problems to enter the military. They are usually found out there and placed on disability.

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) (click here) is the most common co-occurring disorder in people with schizophrenia. Both biological factors and psychosocial factors are thought to contribute to this co-occurrence. Schizophrenia patients with AUD are more likely to have social, legal, and
medical problems, compared with other people with schizophrenia. AUD also complicates the course and treatment of schizophrenia. 

By Robert E. Drake, Ph.D., and Kim T. Mueser, Ph.D. 

It is NOT unusual for an undiagnosed adult with schizophrenia to SELF - MEDICATE with alcohol, drugs or both and develop a dependency that sustains past diagnosis.

When the media has no idea of what they are talking about they provide misinformation to the public.

All of this should have come out in the Texas murder trial whereby one soldier killed two others for no apparent reason, but, it didn't and it speaks to the lack of a complete defense of the Defendant. 

Schizophrenics are not allowed to own or operate a gun in the USA. That is by law. I suppose background checks weren't done before entering the firing range, huh? 

It is a mistake to republish Hitler's words.

Europe has a sincere problem with right wing groups. I realize this is based in freedom of speech, but, there is a limit. There are published editions of these text, however, this is flying in the face of civilization. Publishing a text that is already available is symbolic. It is not necessary. It reaches as a symbol extends to every right wing hate group on the planet, including the KKK in the USA. No one needs such an event.

There will be a great deal of propaganda surrounding such an event. One of the propaganda statements about Ukraine the current government proves a rise of a right wing extremists. The simple act of publishing a text such as this when there is no need for it, carries with it real life implications hate groups will use as elevation of their ideology. 

On the other hand if governments maintain their position stating this is hate speech and intended to cause harm to others it will prove these groups have no standing. 

The text caused a war. A global war. I think hate speech such as Hitler's words needs to be contained. 

I want to know how US Representative Steve Scalise feels about the publication of this words. Is it Freedom of Speech or hate speech that should be suppressed?

February 24,2015
By Anthony Faiola
MUNICH — Old copies of the offending tome (click here) are kept in a secure “poison cabinet,” a literary danger zone in the dark recesses of the vast Bavarian State Library. A team of experts vets every request to see one, keeping the toxic text away from the prying eyes of the idly curious or those who might seek to exalt it.
“This book is too dangerous for the general public,” library historian Florian Sepp warned as he carefully laid a first edition of “Mein Kampf” — Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto of hate — on a table in a restricted reading room.
Nevertheless, the book that once served as a kind of Nazi bible, banned from domestic reprints since the end of World War II, will soon be returning to German bookstores from the Alps to the Baltic Sea....

Reagan's amnest policy was realistic and expedient.

The Amnesty Policy of Ronald Reagan regarding the Undocumented did not fail. What failed were the border problems AND employers that hired and paid the Undocumented. That needs to be clear.

The USA has limited resources unless the people want a 50% income tax. Those resources have to be applied across all aspects of governance. When the Undocumented under Reagan were provided amnesty, it relieved the resources being taped to enforce deportations. 

There is a profound problem with the USA immigration policy as it stands today. It is necessary to tackle all the problems including any border issues. The USA borders will never be 100% patrolled and maintained in it's integrity. It is not realistic and still have a country based in freedom. The burden to any docks of the USA if such a paradigm existed would shut down a significant piece of the USA economy, not to mention the global economy.

The immigration system of the USA is causing it's own problems. There are not enough court rooms to process all the legal documents currently in the system. While the immigrants wait for their hearings they loss their status as LEGALLY within the country and therefore become Undocumented.  

The more than 11 million Undocumented INCLUDES those that legally entered the USA and entered the immigration process. It's gotten to be ridiculous. The entire immigration system of the USA is over burdened with it's current infrastructure. The entire system is hideous. This is the USA and we don't even have control of the legal system that processes legal immigrants.

I think the question among the immigrants in the USA is, "When we enter the status of Undocumented do we go to the end of the line or keep the one we have now?" Maybe the Republicans can answer that question first. 

When realizing how completely perverted the immigration system has become since Reagan it is increasingly obvious the political right wing of the USA simply hate immigrants, legal or otherwise.

Wall Street and Small Businesses have a lot on the line with this mess. They need to act and demand movement on Immigration Reform. A simple letter stating free standing immigration reform needs to be addressed now for the sake of the employees bringing viability to their company.

Rick Snyder wants to bring million/billionaires to Michigan in some kind of obscure economic reform, but, it doesn't matter. It is all lip service because the immigration process is stalled. How is a person considering the possibility of investing in the Michigan economy as an immigrant going to actually receive that goal? They won't. The 'offer' by Snyder is mute. It is an empty promise. The immigration system is broken. Congress needs to be reminded a free standing immigration reform is absolutely necessary.

Is Great Britain's Muslim population an aggreived class. This was not a poor family, yet the culture spawned a radical.

Could some of the sympathy in the Muslim community in Great Britain be caused by coercion from Syria? Regardless of the lack of affiliation to Daesh, these former citizens, such as Mohammed Emwazi, know others within the sovereign borders. I hope if any Brit receiving threats from Syria or otherwise report their problems to the authorities. I am confident it can be done anonymously.

February 26, 2015
By Souad Merhennet and Adam Goldman

...US officials declined (click here) to comment for this report. Emwazi's family declined a request for an interview, citing legal advice.
The Kuwaiti-born Emwazi, in his mid-20s, appears to have left little trail on social media or elsewhere online. Those who knew him say he was polite and had a penchant for wearing stylish clothes while adhering to the tenets of his Islamic faith. He had a beard and was mindful of making eye contact with women, friends said.
He was raised in a middle-class neighbourhood in London and on occasion prayed at a mosque in Greenwich....

He was challenged as a devout Muslim in Great Britain which is obvious in the immediacy of his trip to Tanzania after his graduation from the university. There is something within the culture of Muslims in Great Britain creating discomfort within the identity of their young men. Are there extremists at the university?

I understand how a university has to function, but, there are limits. Treason is not a curriculum.

How many Muslims are in office in Great Britain?

18 June 2014

By Martin Robinson
Britain's first elected Muslim mayor (click here) could face a High Court battle after he was accused of electoral fraud and calling his main rival a racist to sabotage his chances.

Documents challenging the result of last month's election in Tower Hamlets, east London, also claim Lutfur Rahman paid supporters to gather inside and outside polling stations to influence voters.

His Labour opponent John Biggs was also illegally smeared during last month's campaign, the election petition argues....

There needs to be minority inclusion in the country's parties with sincere victories. Are the fears of Islam so deep in Great Britain it permeates the lives of their citizens? If so, why?

There are social problems in the USA with right wing extremists and the USA's minorities and Muslim populations, but, President Obama and other elected Muslim officials speak out about the importance of our populations and the strides they have made in our country.

 

Not because of a job action, but, because of costs associated with work.

I am not convinced 20 to 30 thousand essential DHS workers will show up for work without a pay check. They have transportation costs and meal costs. Heck they have to buy detergent to wash their uniforms. It is that they are required to work regardless of funding, but, the possibility they won't have money for travel and childcare is very real.

February 24, 2015
By Esther Yu-Hsi Lee

The Department of Homeland Security (click here) (DHS) is due to “shut down” at midnight on Friday if Congress doesn’t find a way to pass a bill to fund the agency. But for the vast majority of the 243,000 agency workers deemed essential on the job, a “shutdown” would mean that they would have to continue to go back to work without paychecks. 

At least 50,000 of the more than 55,600 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workforce, like airport passenger and baggage screener personnel, would be required to work without pay. Some TSA personnel are afraid that they might face the same financial and morale issues that they ran into during the October 2013 shutdown in which many federal employees went to work without pay, only to eventually receive their paychecks at a later date....

The TSA will have problems because of workers that are without enough monies to pay their work expenses. The airline industry will be out of luck because passengers aren't screened and/or flights have to be consolidated. This was the worst idea the Republican Congress ever came up with.

The concern about the President's Executive Order is in the courts, the Congress needs to move on. The President is appealing the activist decision in Texas. Appeals are real and state there are issues that are uncertain. The status quo is maintained in any case where there is an appeal. The Congress is taking the country hostage again and they don't believe in judicial order to fund DHS.

The President has already acted prudently while appealing the ruling. He has delayed the process of his Executive Order because of the Texas ruling. There is nothing standing in the way of funding DHS. If the President was insisting on the Order going forward there would be a legal debate, but, that is not the case. The Congress has no legal issue before them. This is all Republican politics and nothing short of it.

The average employee (click here) at United States Transportation Security Administration (TSA) takes home $45K per year....

Theses folks aren't going to have a lot of financial residual to their needs and they will be forced to make choices.

The Department of Homeland Security if vast and the impact could ultimately cause an economic slowdown from an economy not completely recovered.

President Obama is correct about the power of the people.

If the minority communities will recall, there have been times during his presidency when he came to the podium in the White House to explain problems with the legislative process. These were the times when the Republicans allowed the budget to expire. 

I know for a fact the people made a difference. When President Obama asked the nation to write their Congressmen and Congresswomen or call them or twitter them, it impacted the outcome. The Congress paid attention to the President's ability to harness the people's focus to move the legislative process forward. I witnessed it. I was a part of that and it works.

In the case of Immigration Reform, it was very sad to realize so many of our minorities decided the elections in 2014 was not important to them. I realize so many of these communities are feeling defeated, but, that is what the Republicans want. As long as the community is oppressed by the viciousness of the Congress, they 'll continue to carry out the strategy against the people.

Everyone, including the minorities in the USA, has to vote. When the President asks the country to respond to legislative obstruction it is our responsibility to help. Everyone who values the wonderful people that are within the minorities or the Undocumented feels the pain they feel. It is important to remember we are all in this together and we have to act as a family when called upon to vote or participate in our democracy.

The Hollywood effective.

How well known is the name of the other person dead besides Chris Kyle?

Chad Littlefield. His brother was the only person speaking to the judge last night.  

...The trial of Eddie Ray Routh (click here) has drawn intense interest, in part because of the blockbuster film based on former Navy SEAL Kyle's memoir about his four tours in Iraq....

This trial does not scour the Iraq War clean or elevate it's complete destruction of order in the Middle East.

The problem with this trial is the fact Mr. Routh may have a very viable appeal. Texas is bizarre. They carry out the death sentence with the criminally insane after they have been medicated and know their own reality AFTER THE FACT.

Mr. Routh was insane. He was well diagnosed. The idea Iraq/Afghanistan War Veterans could defeat mental health issues by taking people to the firing range is extremely odd and dangerous. Chris Kyle and Chad Littlefield were playing with fire and this was the result. They are not blameless in their own deaths.

I was looking to find where the criminally insane are hospitalized in Texas for their rest of their lives. Texas is not California with a dedicated and expensive facility to house those dangerous to society. So, what difference would it have made if Mr. Routh was sentenced guilty of capital murder or not guilty due to insanity, his disposition would ultimately be the same after being stabilized on medication. 

Psychiatric diagnosis are not temporary when it comes to schizophrenia or PTSD. That is why US Veterans are considered disabled when receiving these diagnosis. What ever made two former US soldier believe they could reverse the effect of mental illness with a gun? I am quite confident they didn't have the approval of any psychiatrist in this '...let's be friends moment.' 

Schizophrenia (click here) affects different people differently and symptoms can vary from person to person. Some people may have many symptoms, while others may only have a few.

No other US Veteran should have the delusion that weapons of war can cure the mentally ill. They need medical treatment, not a return to the battlefield. 

The prosecution in this case completely lost it's dignity last night when she stated the statements of a mentally ill SOLDIER were "Hogwash."  Somehow Mr. Routh's status of soldier to the USA was erased in his trial. He put his life on the line no different than Mr. Kyle or Mr. Littlefield. Even Mr. Routh's defense dare not bring up the service Mr. Routh provided to this country.

This is about the saddest trial ever conducted. Three veterans were lost and no one seems to understand the implications of that except to use it as a political agenda. So good of Hollywood to cooperate.

While on the subject of the human experience.

Here is a message to the Republican House and Senate leaders to the reality of USA citizens under the skies of the Climate Crisis, otherwise known as, "Breathing is important." This is what most psychologists would call coping. Coping is not good for the economy. People need to be out living and enjoying their lives.

Back in the day it used to be Billy Joel and "Uptown Girl."

This is what the young minds compete with when told by propaganda they don't worship their best god. 

Hey, even in the years of Billy Joel I knew I was not a candidate for the nunnery, but, it didn't disturb my ideal in finding the perfect man. The reality of life is that there is no such thing as the perfect man or woman. Life is always a compromise. A delicious compromise at that. Personally I think this is a great sound. It is a favorite on Facebook.

Europe has to work on acceptance of their minorities.

Europe believed as long as a person 'had a place' to practice their religion without oppression that would enamor the children to their loyalties forever.

Some members of the EU want to attempt to eliminate head coverings in their school girls and that has turned into a propaganda statement by radical extremists.

The generosity of democracy is to include all of what defines an individual as a member of it's society. Unfortunately, democracy has been trampled by young men and women who are told their own democracy hates them and they need a greater dedication of their masculine prowess and uterus to find favor with Allah. 

(In case there is a misunderstanding about the word Allah, it means "The God." There is no separate God to Muslims. Allah is simply the word that expresses "The God." The French are correct in calling IS by the name of Daesh. If God is defined by the word Allah, then IS should be defined by the same standard. As we have witnessed the IS changes names over and over again, but, it cannot escape the name Daesh.)

But to Europe. It is obvious it's immigrants decades ago were disgruntled and that is now reflected in their adult children. These young people are so important to Europe no different than a native born, but they don't feel it. They are feeling a higher calling. God has to be a partner in the understanding of Europe's young adults. It doesn't mean the laws have to change, so much as society finding these young people as precious as their own. After all, if God could speak to them the words might be, "You all worship me and the variety of worship is delightful."

These young people are falling prey to men who design a very hostile world for them. They define their higher purpose as serving God by relinquishing their rights to personality and individuality. The recruitment of young men and women from The West means they found the depth of meaning in life by destroying the very aspect most cherished in their Homelands.

So what to do? Acceptance and elevation of the spirituality of these young minds would be inclusive, but, there has to be more cooperation with all the nations involved. Turkey has to close it's borders. 

The constant flow of young men and women into Syria only proves the very naivete of their own life experience. Perhaps developing a service corp similar to the USA's AmeriCorps (click here) is needed. At a time when the economies of many countries are soft the addition of young people dedicated for a year or so to the best outcomes of their countries may be appropriate. Perhaps placing them in internships with great democratic practitioners of freedom of speech such as Charlie Hebdo would reveal the essence of democracy and it's need for their loyalty and defense.

25 February 2015
By Matthew Holehouse

One in four (click here) British Muslims sympathise with terrorists behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks, a new poll shows.

A poll reveals how a significant minority of Muslims endorse terrorist atrocities against those who mock the Prophet Mohammed.

Some 27 per cent of British Muslims said they have "some sympathy for the motives behind the attacks" on the Paris magazine, according to polling by ComRes for the BBC....

It is difficult to condemn young people badly effected by propaganda to a life of pain and suffering at the hands of Daesh. Excluding them from redemption to return home is at the same time reinforcement of their status to bring about success for these extremists. It should be a challenge to Europe to find a solution to return their people back to status in their Homelands. 

But, until those remedies can be decided and reinforced to the best outcome Turkey is a strategic partner in NATO. The open border policy has to end.  

It is so ironic to realize Syria was once an ally of Russia and Turkey has an open border policy and it's greatest concern was PKK. But, today with Daesh in place that policy is a far greater danger to itself and Europe. I am sure Russia is not exclusive from losing young people to Daesh. Although rarely mentioned, I would be surprised that Russia has not lost some of their young people to Syria's civil war. 

The resolve to this dilemma is multifaceted and it is a challenge to countries in closer proximity to Syria, but, it is not a challenge so great Europe is stymied to it's resolve. 

February 23, 2015
By Magnus Ranstorp, Linus Gustafsson, Peder Hyllengren

GOTHENBURG, Sweden — When he was 3 years old, (click here) Ahmed arrived in southern Sweden from Iraq, together with his older brother and parents. The family settled in one of their new country’s cut-off suburbs, where its many new immigrants come to live, but mostly to be forgotten.
 
The family found a home in one of the many rows of gray, faceless apartment buildings that make up these deeply segregated suburbs that ring Sweden’s urban centers — in Angered, outside Gothenburg. As he grew into his teenage years, Ahmed began to scold his siblings to be more religious. He spent considerable time in front of his computer, becoming engrossed in graphic, violent videos from the civil war in Syria. Inspired, he read the biographies of martyrs who had died in battle, waging jihad in the holy land. And gradually he turned inward, withdrawing from society and his former life.

A troubled teenager in search of his identity, 17-year-old Ahmed was asking the basic questions of coming of age: Who am I? What is my place in the world? At the local mosque, extremist recruiters made easy work of him, providing the answers he sought. In just six or seven weeks, he became radicalized — changing his beliefs and adopting a Salafi interpretation of Islam, with a strict, binary outlook on life. He distanced himself from his friends, labeling them apostates. Or, as he said, kuffar....

This is the kind of propaganda the Senate Majority Leader McConnell believes.

February 23, 2015
By Wendy Koch

So in late January, (click here) after TransCanada filed paperwork to begin using eminent domain to acquire land from owners who didn't agree to sell easement rights, landowners sued. Kleeb says about 40 landowners in Holt County and another 20 in York County object to the pipeline on their property. TransCanada says it has approvals from 90 percent of Nebraska landowners along the pipeline's path....

TransCanada has touted their own facts in the matter. It states all the property owners have signed on to the pipeline. Under duress. The company believed it had the right to eminent domain. And in believing that, it has warped the facts to reflect it's wrongful powers and Mitch McConnell only validates the lies.

...Not all landowners see TransCanada as cooperative. In South Dakota, rancher Paul Seamans says he initially opposed Keystone because of the way the company "treated us, bullied us." Now, he says he's also concerned about the potential environmental damage, citing possible pipeline spills into waterways and the climate change impact of using the fuel extracted from Canada's oil sands....

There is a disconnect between the US Congress and the State Department assessment that is suppose to be a friend to TransCanada. The Congess and State Department assessment concerns itself with the border crossing and not the problems within that decision. 

It is an increasing problem with the environmental assessments of the US Army Corp and US Fish and Wildlife. There is increasing pressure on these agencies to LIMIT their assessment to 'the system' they are assigned to assess. In other words, the PRODUCT coming into the USA with high levels of danger to the land and air is NOT to be considered a part of the assessment. Literally, the processes of assessment is becoming hostile to the people of the USA.

It has been my experience as of late the opposing assessment regardless of it's validity is simply explained away by the US Army Corp who sides with the city and their demands for the work to be done. I am on the verge of sending my assessment to the White House to prove the level of deceit that currently exists in the assessment process.

Global Warming has no borders. It is an assessment LACKING within the State Department document and that is why the legal challenges to this stupid project exists. Somehow the jurisdiction of the USA doesn't consider the air mass over the USA a part of the global warming problem. It is sovereign air mass that simply has found a home to prove the USA is not the problem to the rest of the world.

The country's legislature excluding very capable Senators found in Whitehouse and Boxer simply thinks today is another great day in the USA. It isn't. There are citizens at all corners of the country suffering from the wicked weather that comes along with the warming of Earth. If Cornyn says there is nothing to be done to END greenhouse gas emissions or at the very least impact the greenhouse gas emissions of the USA, well by god it is law. It is a real question to find out if Cornyn knows how to spell physics. And if he does, what is his application of the word, constipation?

The words of scientists have gone unheeded for decades, over half a century and to that end the very infrastructure the USA counts on, is being destroyed. It is being destroyed not by Boko Harem or Daesh, but, the very cold of the Arctic Ocean when it comes to visit the northeast USA. Let Cornyn assess that battle and we might actually find the worst enemy the USA has to face is itself and it's unwillingness to modify the energy sector to end it's emissions to the troposphere. 

We have a problem.

February 24, 2015
 
DAKAR, Senegal — An American missionary (click here) was kidnapped on Monday from a school in central Nigeria in an area prone to kidnappings for ransom, officials said Tuesday.

The missionary was identified as the Rev. Phyllis Sortor on the website of the Free Methodist Church. A Washington State television station, KING, said Ms. Sortor was from western Washington. In a statement on its website, the church said she had been kidnapped from the compound of Hope Academy outside Emiworo in Kogi State....

This is a particular individual. Daesh and/or Boko Harem is using intelligence to secure targets of their hatred. It appears as though Christianity is a particular target. These organizations are looking to insight the leadership of some of the powers of the world to challenge their design for the future. 

Neither Boko Harem or Daesh care about the people they dictate to, those people that surround them are disposable. The idea a great country would simply walk into Nigeria to destroy a totalitarian regime without regard for the very lives they want to protect is as unthinkable as the kidnapping itself. 

This kidnapping proves the nature of these organizations and their plans for all of humanity. They aren't defending Islam, they are destroying it's noble reputation. 

This a change in the DISPLAY of the vicious nature of these organizations. They have no beneficial purpose. Their spread is deadly and has to be contained. In containing them they will fail in a vacuum.

It may be that this kidnapping is more proof of their failure. They have to invite war, they are not able to wage it.