Obama wants you to lose weight: “Cut the butter & cream. Hide the French fries. Make carrots the default choice! Substitute wheat pasta for white pasta..”
“Cuba is expected to begin drilling offshore for oil and gas as soon as next year with equipment that will go deeper than the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, industry experts say.
The Spanish energy company, Repsol, which drilled an exploratory well in 2004 off the coast near Havana, has contracted to drill the first of several exploratory wells with a semi-submersible rig that is expected to arrive in Cuba at the end of the year, said Jorge Piñon, an energy expert and visiting research fellow at the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University. He said the rig is expected to drill down 5,600 feet in an area about 22 miles north of Havana and 65 miles south of the Marquesas Keys.
The development comes as 20 Cuban scientists joined their American and Mexican counterparts at the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota this week to finalize a long-term marine research and conservation plan for the three countries.
Oil refinery in Santa Cruz del Norte in Havana, Cuba. (AFP)
Luis Alberto Barreras Cañizo, who led the Cuban delegation as a representative of Cuba’s Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, confirmed the plans for exploration. “Cuba needs to find its oil, it’s a resource Cuba needs,” he told the Bradenton Herald in an interview.
Environmentalists suggested the prospect of rigs just 45 miles from Florida’s coastline could intensify pressure for the Obama administration to engage in talks with its Cold War antagonist to prevent ecological damage.
[...]
[I]t took Cuba time to secure a rig that didn’t violate the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba — which prevent vessels with more than 10 percent U.S. parts from operating in Cuba. He said the Italian rig, the Scarabeo 9, has a blow out preventer manufactured in the U.S. It is expected to drill as many as nine other wells off Cuba’s coast.
MIAMI-DADE 14% UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DESPITE STIMULUS (link):
Excessive spending has not created jobs. Despite an increased federal stimulus for Miami-Dade County, the unemployment rate remains high.
“Miami-Dade government stimulus spending of $284 million clearly hasn’t nudged unemployment.”
“Now the county has spent far more stimulus money and more is pledged. With a staggering 170,900 now jobless in Miami-Dade, a 13.2% rate, the federal commitment is up to $284 million. Excluding short-term jobs for teens and their cost, as we reported [below] county government says it has created 240 jobs at $1.03 million each.”
WHEN THE STIMULUS WAS $254 MILLION, THE COUNTY REPORTED 209 NEW JOBS (link): “The $254 million Miami-Dade has received to date in federal stimulus money has resulted in 209 new jobs for county residents…it amounts to $1.2 million per job.”
“As all American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects are automatically included in the program, in March the county also began tracking the estimated jobs generated for recovery act projects. In an effort to collect more data regarding job creation, the county commission compiled information from as far back as last October.”
HOW MANY JOBS WERE CREATED BY THE STIMULUS? (link): $254.8 million stimulus created 209 full-time jobs, plus 3,019 temporary part-time jobs, 8 indirect jobs and 38 contracted jobs: “Miami-Dade’s Office of Capital Improvements estimated the $254 million the county has received in federal stimulus money resulted in 209 new jobs for county residents…”
● “Without these part-time temporary jobs, the stimulus jobs total would be 240.”
$7.3M for 3,019 part-time temporary jobs = AVG. $2,412 per job.
“The South Florida Regional Workforce Board received $7.3 million from the US Department of Labor to finance Workforce Investment Act Youth Programs. The money was used to expand services to low-income youths ages 14 to 21, set to increase to age 24. Services include employment, academic and vocational training. So far 3,019 people have been put to work, averaging $2,412 per job, nearly 32 times lower than the county average.”
● $6.4M for 53 jobs = avg. $120,751 per job
“The regional workforce board also received $6.4 million for the WIA Dislocated Worker Program, which would assist persons terminated or laid off due to business closures, who are eligible for or have exhausted unemployment benefits, who are unlikely to return to their former occupation, who are self-employed but can’t work due to the economy or who are displaced homemakers. As a result of funding, 53 people found work, averaging $120,751 per job.”
● $56.2M for 78 jobs = avg. $720,513 per job
“Miami-Dade’s Metropolitan Planning Organization received $56.2 million from the Federal Highway Administration for the Surface Transportation Program. This program allots funds to be used for highway, bridge, transit, rail and port infrastructure. The money can be used for transportation related activities such as pedestrian and bicycle facilities and paths. As a result of the funding, 78 people were put to work, averaging about $720,513 per job.”
● $19.3M for 5 direct jobs + 38 contracted positions =avg. $447,740 per job
“Miami-Dade’s Public Housing Agency pulled in nearly $19.3 million from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for the completion of 74 projects aimed at improving energy efficiencies in existing public housing units. This funding led to the creation of five direct jobs, as well as 38 contracted positions, averaging $447,740 per job.”
GREAT NEWS FROM COLOMBIA
FARC’s #2 man, Mono Jojoy, killed in a military air strike.
This victory would have not happened if Colombians had elected the Marxist clown who mooned his students (video here) when he was dean of the National University of Colombia in Bogotá.
Colombia’s new president, Juan Manuel Santos was well-known for fiercely combating the leftist terrorists of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) when he was minister of defense under the Uribe administration. As president, Santos continues the fight.
“The devastating Sept. 22 attack on FARC headquarters in Colombia’s central Meta province all but signifies the end of the five-decade-old conflict. It will take a little while for the official end to be declared, but this war is pretty much over.
The death of Jorge Briceno, aka Mono Jojoy, the feared military strategist and top commander of the organization, means two things.
One, the historical leadership is now finished; the legendary founder, Manuel Marulanda, was killed by the army in 2008 and the man who replaced him, Alfonso Cano, is an ideologue, not a military strategist.
Two, since Mono Jojoy’s demise is the culmination of a two-year streak in which every key camp inside Colombia has been located, FARC is now unable to operate effectively within national borders. No terrorist guerrilla has ever won a war in exile. [...]
The authorities infiltrated the headquarters and, after patient work, were able to place a GPS device inside Mono Jojoy’s (U.S.-made) boots that signaled his location.
This would have been impossible without the almost 40 million pages contained in the laptop computers of Raul Reyes, the FARC commander killed during an incursion into Ecuadorean territory in early 2008. [...]
For decades, politicians, academics, human rights activists and journalists on both sides of the Atlantic failed to see that there was nothing romantic, “bien-pensant” or Robin Hoodesque about an organization that killed, maimed, kidnapped and extorted for a totalitarian objective. [...]
Colombians did not give up and continued to reclaim territory for civilian rule…Colombia’s victory against FARC is the result of civilians awakening to the evil of totalitarian terror.
…[P]easants, factory workers, teachers, students and others joined the struggle to defeat FARC, beautifully symbolized by the hundreds of thousands who took to the streets inside Colombia and around the world in 2008 to clamor for the end of terror.”
Chavez's party (red) won at least 90 seats, while an opposition coalition (blue) that united under the Democratic Unity Table banner won at least 59.
“His party and leadership got rebuked by voters in yesterday’s election as Chavez lost the supermajority in the legislature necessary for him to rule by decree.”
“Chávez still enjoys a congressional majority after winning at least 95 of the 165 seats. But opposition candidates won at least 59 seats, enough to strip Mr. Chávez of a two-thirds majority—the threshold needed to pass sweeping legislation in the congress. More importantly, the opposition says it won 52% of the popular vote which will give them momentum going into the 2012 presidential elections. “We are the majority,” said Ramón Guillermo Aveledo, an opposition director.”
But beware of a desperate Marxist tyrant: Dictator Chavez can change the rules any time. “He has three months before the next legislature takes its seats, which means Chavez can still use the lame-duck session to pass whatever he wants. He has not exactly been shy about using that process for his own ends before this, and it may mean that most of the damage the opposition hoped to avoid with a victory will already be a fait accompli by the time they arrive.”
“He called for elections…like other tyrants have done before: Saddam Hussein Muwabe, Idi Amin, Lukashenko and the Castro tyrants among others…Their fraudulent electoral contests give arguments to their accomplices to defend their misdeeds [...]
The opposition obtained enough votes to break Chavez’s majority [...]
So, this time we must be vigilant and especially the opposition party and its leaders, it is not unreasonable to expect the worst from those who tramples the law and the Constitution…So we see [the Marxists] disturbed, nervous, and actively attacking their democratic opposition…As noted yesterday by Maria Corina Machada, the opposition congresswoman just elected with an overwhelming number of votes, the next three months are crucial…Chavez will try during this time to do anything to consolidate his power.
This has been a black September for Chavez…His cohort Mono Jojoy was killed, the plebiscite transformed the legislature proving that his opponents are the majority…and on top of that, Colombia’s attorney general removed [from the Colombian Senate] his cohort, Piedad Cordoba, who cannot be eligible for any political office for the next 18 years since they found her long list of crimes in combination with the murderers of the FARC. Chavez luck changed since he exhumed the remains of [Venezuela's George Washington] Simon Bolivar and his sisters…”
[Here is the video of Bolivar's exhumation]
CRASH STUDY IN FREE ENTERPRISE
Here are the videos of John Stossel’s documentary aired by FoxNews this past weekend. For this special, Stossel interviewed: Paul Ryan, Rob Andrews, Marc Lamont Hill, Arthur Brooks, Star Parker, Art Laffer, Donald Trump, entrepreneurs, etc.
Among other things, John Stossel explains the negative impact of unions, i.e., how the pay and benefits of the public sector unions have risen astronomically – all paid by taxpayers:
Public pensions have unfunded liability of $1 trillion to $3.5 trillion
Federal workers take home twice pay and benefits as private workers. Local and state workers also make more.
Total
Pay
Benefits
Private:
$59,909
$50,028
$9,881
Local/State:
$67,812
$52,051
$15,761
Federal
$119,982
$79,197
$40,785
– Average TWU union worker makes $60K without overtime or benefits.
– 25% took 15 or more sick days. Average was 8 sick days.
– Fox average 3 sick days (same for men and women)
– No FOX employee took 15 days
A new analysis of Census Bureau data shows that Texas and Florida may have won the reapportionment sweepstakes, mainly at the expense of New York and Ohio. In the next Congressional elections, Texas will have four more Congressional seats and Florida will add two more, strengthening their representation in the House. New York and Ohio will both lose two, in changes that will have repercussions in the 2012 presidential election…
The Census Bureau will have to make the final determination, which is scheduled for release in December. If this holds up, though, the power shift is a big problem for Barack Obama. States get Electoral College votes based on representation in the House (each state gets two for their Senatorial delegation), and moves away from New York to Florida will be a big problem if Obama can’t duplicate his success in the Sunshine State in 2012. With Florida looking as though it will back Marco Rubio and Rick Scott in statewide elections this year, it seems likely to return to its Republican trend in the next presidential election cycle.
DERISION – AN EXERCISE IN TYRANNY
Miami-Dade County Commissioner NATACHA SEIJAS at budget hearing on September 24, 2010 before voting to raise property taxes…during a recession.
AMERICAN PATRIOTS CONFRONT MARXISTS
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) came today to Miami to raise money for Marxist FL-25 congressional candidate Joe Garcia at the home of Marxist Raul Martinez. Tea Partiers of all ages and from all walks of life came to tell them, “November is coming…and we will fire you!”
WHEN POLITICIANS HAVE TOO MUCH POWER
Miami-Dade County Commissioner KATY SORENSON at budget hearing on September 23, 2010 before they voted to increase property taxes…during a recession.
