Happy Easter
True Goodness
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Apr 082012
Spring/Summer Break
Economy, Government
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Mar 192012
See you after Easter Labor Day.
I’m in a rush, but I am taken with these charts lately. I will just leave you with another one showing that Democratic presidents manage taxpayers’ money much better than Republicans do:
An Irishman Goes To A Bar
Photos, Presidency, True Goodness
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Mar 172012
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
US President Barack Obama speaks with the bartenders at The Dubliner pub on March 17, 2012 in Washington. Obama went to the bar to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
President Barack Obama drinks a Guinness with his ancestral cousin from Moneygall Ireland Henry Healy, center, and the owner of the pub in Moneygall Ireland, Ollie Hayes, right, at The Dubliner Restaurant and Pub and Restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day, Saturday, March 17, 2012, in Washington.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
More pics at DU.
Aw, My Heart Just Bleeds
Crime, Foreign Affairs, National Security, Treasonous Bastards
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Mar 172012
From Huffington Post:
NAIROBI, Kenya — American-born jihadi Omar Hammami says in a new video that he fears members of his own Somali militia group may kill him over differences of opinion.
Hammami, known as Abu Mansur al-Amriki, or “the American,” appears in a video saying he has disagreed with his comrades in the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militia on Islam’s Sharia law and strategy. The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Hammami is the most visible of foreign fighters in the ranks of the al-Shabab, Somalia’s most dangerous militant group, that is trying to topple the country’s weak U.N.-backed government.
There was speculation last year the bastard was killed, but no such luck.
The Road We’ve Traveled
Elections: 2012, Presidency, Video
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Mar 162012
Have Corsi and Zullo violated Arizona state law?
Birthers, Crime, Ethics, Right Wing Nutzoids
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Mar 162012
From Turning the Scale:
According to documents on file with the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Cold Case Posse is a non-profit corporation incorporated on Dec. 29, 2006. Zullo was named as one of the officers.
Zullo said on a recent Internet radio program that he became the head of the posse in 2007.
Guidestar.org, a repository of information on non-profits, notes that the Cold Case Posse (whose name is misspelled as Maracopa, by the way) is registered with the IRS but is not required to file a an annual return because it is “an arm of a state or local government.”
The categories under which the CCP is listed are “B Educational Institutions” and “B 90 Educational Services and Schools – Other.”
(The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Cold Case Posse is an educational institution? Really?)
Read the rest.
Mar 162012
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — More veterans are coming back from war and getting back to work in the civilian job force, thanks to efforts by both employers and the government, as well as the improving economy.
The jobless rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has fallen to 7.6%, well below the overall U.S. unemployment rate of 8.3%, and nearly five percentage points below the 12.5% rate for veterans a year ago. …
The Wounded Warrior tax credit is worth up to $4,800 for companies who hire disabled veterans. This credit was doubled in November for the long-term unemployed, giving a tax break of up to $9,600 to companies that hire disabled veterans who’ve been unemployed longer than six months.
There are other efforts in the works. President Obama has proposed the Veterans Job Corps initiative, which calls for $1 billion to hire 20,000 vets over the next five years to work in jobs related to environmental protection and maintaining roads and levees. …
He’s also proposed a $5 billion program to hire police officers and firefighters that would give priority to veterans.
At Military.com:
There’s been a lot of fanfare about the new tax credit for businesses who are hiring veterans (worth up to $9,600), but is it making a positive difference in veteran hiring? Some early evidence from the Star-Ledger in New Jersey suggests that it might be. At a recent job fair in Newark, numerous veterans were interviewed, and many cited the VOW to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, which was signed last November and included the new tax credit program, as helping them get more attention from prospective employers.
Army veteran Sharon Strand said in her interview, “For years I didn’t really talk about my time in the service. I didn’t realize the relevance of it, but now it has its advantages… A woman from a law firm called me for an interview this Friday and she wanted to make sure I had been in the military… I’m excited. I’m going to bring my dog tags and DD-214 form with me.”
Other job seekers such as National Guard veteran Farhaj Hassan have noted that conversations with employers have changed since institution the tax credit, with one employer calling him a “walking lottery ticket.”
Affordable Housing Veterans Actually Want to Live In
Good Idea, Housing, Military, Urban Issues
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Mar 162012
If anyone deserves our thanks, appreciation, and support, it has to be veterans of the armed forces, many of whom serve at great risk only to return to civilian life with limited income, housing, and social services. A shocking portion are homeless: veterans make up around 9 percent of our population but 23 percent of our homeless population. Veterans comprise fully a third of our homeless men. The federal Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 107,000 veterans are homeless on any given night.
There are people doing something about it in Milwaukee, however, where the locally-based Center for Veterans Issues has teamed with local affordable housing builder Cardinal Capital Management to create a new, 52-unit apartment building just for veterans. Called Veterans Manor, the new homes have been designed to green standards in a walkable neighborhood (rated a “very walkable” 72 on Walk Score), with an east-west transit line right at the front door and a north-south line across the street.
Onsite counselors from CVI allow residents quick and easy access to support and guidance. In addition, the facility features a commercial kitchen cooking 22,000 meals weekly for local schools, according to Sam Newberg’s Joe Urban blog, while offering training for the veterans in the food service industry. The kitchen, which also cooks for residents, is operated by the nonprofit Milwaukee Center for Independence. The Center’s training program includes both classroom training and daily functional work activity. Soon to come is a bistro-style Troop Cafe that will offer meals to the community. …
A notice posted on the website of the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority says that financing for Veterans Manor was made possible by the Authority’s award of $1.1 million in Affordable Housing Tax Credits resulting in over $6.8 million of equity to assist in development efforts. The Center for Veterans Issues and Cardinal Capital also received a $1.8 million federal loan to address equity financing gaps for the tax credits.