Jack & Jill Politics

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!
President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Blacks will fall in line with Obama on Afghanistan
By Dr. Boyce Watkins
9:50 AM on 10/07/2009

African-Americans don't like war, and we especially don't like the wars we've been fighting for the last eight years. According to the Department of Defense, the number of African-American volunteers for the military dropped by 58 percent between 2000 and 2007. The current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were cited as the key reasons for the decline. We've now hit exactly eight years since the start of the war in Afghanistan, and troops are still being killed.

As black mothers grow weary of sending their children to die, and black fathers recall their experiences in Vietnam and the first Iraq War, African-Americans are confronted with a president who is caught in the middle of unnecessary military conflicts from which he cannot remove himself. Recent setbacks in Afghanistan have led to calls by some Republicans to increase the number of troops in the war, while many Democrats are asking for numbers to remain level or to be reduced.

President Obama has remained adamantly against the idea of increasing the number of troops in Afghanistan, but he also has not met his campaign promise to withdraw all of our troops from battle. In standard Barack Obama fashion, the president has taken the middle road, where liberal idealism is slapped in the face by pragmatic realism. Of course the liberals will continue to be angry over the war, but Obama has grown increasingly comfortable with their disappointment.

Black Americans, quite honestly, don't give two Bushes about what Obama does in Afghanistan. It doesn't mean that African-Americans don't want what's best for our nation. It means that issues such as the war, torture, and even environmentalism do very little to test the black community's love for our nation's president. Obama could send 100,000 more troops across the sea, or he could bring everyone home; either way, people will still (incorrectly) consider him to be the second coming of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The truth is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are primarily white, liberal issues; African-Americans tend to be worried about problems in our own communities, such as violence, unemployment and education. In fact, even when it comes to matters that affect us most, it would take a long list of incredibly irresponsible decisions before the black community is to ever turn on their political superman.

African-Americans will stick with Obama through the war. They will stick with him through health care. They will stick with him through hell, high water or the return of bell-bottom pants. They love Barack Obama - and no war, economic downturn, educational crisis, or health care quagmire is going to change that. He might as well name himself the King of Black America.

http://www.thegrio.com/2009/10/blacks-will-fall...

I am just as war weary as the next person but President Obama always said he would escalate troops in Afghanistan and withdraw them in Iraq......anyone who came to another conclusion just were NOT listening.

"Obama could send 100,000 more troops across the sea, or he could bring everyone home; either way, people will still (incorrectly) consider him to be the second coming of Martin Luther King, Jr.

...

In fact, even when it comes to matters that affect us most, it would take a long list of incredibly irresponsible decisions before the black community is to ever turn on their political superman.

....

African-Americans will stick with Obama through the war. They will stick with him through health care. They will stick with him through hell, high water or the return of bell-bottom pants. They love Barack Obama - and no war, economic downturn, educational crisis, or health care quagmire is going to change that. He might as well name himself the King of Black America."

Sounds like Dr. Boyce believes he could have solved ALL of Blacks problems by now if he was president.

This picture of Barack and Michelle tonight is going to be one of my all-time favorites. I just can't stop looking at how endearing Michelle is acting. Wonder what Barack is saying to her. Whatever it is, it has really touched her heartstring. My second all time favorite. First favorite is the two of them gazing into each others eyes at that defining moment in the room right before the inauguration. Anyone else have an alltime favorite Barack and Michelle pic?

It would be nice if he was my "husband for a day" !! I would write a book about all of the sweet things he would say to me. Just one day AND ONE NIGHT (hehehehe)!!

Sadly you completely MISSED the point of this article, which is that black folks need to take the blinders off and hold Barack accountable just like every other group in this country. Otherwise black people will be taken for granted and marginalized just like every other president (democrat and republican) has done. Comments such as "Oh Michelle looks so wonderful or Barack is such a great husband" almost make me cringe because it tells me that ni matter what he does in office, no matter how much blacks continue to suffer in this country, we are satisfied with just having a black face in office. Meanwhile, Barack's 4 years will come and go and we will have missed perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity to leverage our political power to bring about real change for African Americans. I personally could care less if he's cute, if Michelle loves him, if she wears nice clothes etc. What I do care about is the economic stability of my family, that I can continue to afford to send my child to a good school and provide a safe and decent home for her. It's time to get our heads out of the clouds and hold OUR president accountable. Also I disagree with the author about another thing, some of us black folk do care about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Myth: U KNOW that I have sooooo many! :>) :>)

+President & FIRST LADY - - SIGH!! :>)

+At The Inaugural BALL! SIGH! :>) :>)

+ALLL-o'-THESE! - A-DO-RA-BLE!! :>) :>)

+At The Congressional Black Caucus Dinner! LOVELY!! :>) :>)

ENJOY!! - - AGAIN!! GREAT TOPIC!! THANKS!! :>)

+G'NIGHT!! :>)

1 MO': JUST TOUCHIN'! :>) - - SIGH!!

ENJOY!! :>)

Ooooo-KaaaaaaY! LAST 1! THE LOOK OF LOVE IS IN THEIR EYES!! - - SIGH!! :>) :>)

O thank you!!! GLH...for these wonderful pics that reminisce the LOOK of LOVE!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VJOQypAg80&feat...

HEEEEY laRapierWit! ***BIG HUG*** :>)

U! R! WELCOME!! :>)

I posted THAT song by Nina Simone - a coupla days ago! But, I like Isaac 2! :>)

Sooooo - - -***eye-2-eye!*** :>)

P.S. I didn't realize about - - - the "DETAILED ANATOMY" of the RAPIER! :>)

Does anyone watch 'Fringe?'

No, but I meant to get back to you about TAR last week. Well, now it's this week. I'm not missing the couple that got eliminate this week. It's a race, and they looked like they were strolling around trying to answer the clue. I really want the lawyer and his fiance gone, then as I'm watching Survivor, they show the team who loses their passports and kills the suspense for Sunday. Gah!

Yeah but that doesn't mean they're necessarily out. Zev has Asperger syndrome. I could tell right away 'something was up.' I have a nephew with Williams syndrome and though it's not related, you tend to pick up on such things.

That strolling couple drove me nuts. And that lawyer - un-freakin-believable how disgusting he is. I LOVE that show.

No

I do...it grew on me..once I accepted the bad female lead and looked around the other positive parts of the show

I just happened to read the 'plot line' for tonight and it struck me as interesting, but I got "busy" and missed it.

Charles Rangel says he didn't know he needed to pay taxes on his house in the Dominican Republic because the lady handling it (his wife) talking to the accountant who, "kept speaking Spanish".

ROTFLMBO

Come on Charlie, say it ain't so....you can come up with an excuse better than that. LOL, please, your butts in trouble. This dog ain't gonna hunt.

Isn't it odd, its always the POC with the focus in a crowded room of miscreants and the POC's transgression is always perceived as MORE severe. Congressional ethic problems and Senate Ethics Committee investigating Ensign.

His Congressional District is 50% Hispanic...OMG

he needs to hang it up

This excuse is going to be pretty lame. You saw how bad they did Geithner for not paying up on time (when he was going thru his confirmation hearings). What is Rangel thinking, Chairman of the United States House of Representatives House Ways and Means Committee???

Sometimes the stereotypes just stick.

Com'on, Myth. Now you know when you're around people who speak a fereign language you have no idea what's going on! Com'on!

HEEEEY WordSmith! ***BIG HUGS** :>)

Now you know when you're around people who speak a fereign language you have no idea what's going on!

It is 4 THIS REASON that I have a MEGA-collection of - - - --

+ROSETTA STONE TAPES :>)

I shall NOT B caught - - LINGUISTICALLY UNAWARES!! UH- UH!! :>)

That's fer sure, GLH!! Ohmigosh! A familiar 'face!!' Hope you're doing GOOD. Takin' it eazy, I'm sure.

I'm missing some folks, too - their familiar 'faces' - Miranda, Spirit, ...... who''s the other ..... Justice! Whiterosebuddy......??

Getting into the holidays I guess..... Halloween! /smirk!/

Hop

Wordsmith: THANK U! :>)

I'm makin' some progress - - BUT still under RESTRICTIONS!! :>)

MISSIN' U 2. :>)

You might want to give Charlie a jingle and tell him he can borrow those Rosetta Stone tapes....once he's in prison, it'll be too late.

WordSmith: LOL! :>) :>)

Oooooooooh yeah! I better stop paying my bills too when I get a Hispanic bill collector. NOT! I'll be sitting in the dark with no lights, with no water or heat. Now, Charlie how bout my excuses.

SMMFH

Digest this for a moment re our First Lady...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2...

"WHEN HE drew up his will in 1850, the owner of First Lady Michelle Obama’s great-great-great-grandmother Melvinia valued the six-year-old slave girl at $475.

"....and ain't I a woman?""

and for those who don't get it...in 1850, anything valued at $475 was just a ton of money.

Can you really put a value on a human life?

of course not, but, some thought they could....and guess what? they were effing wrong.

Placing it in perspective, Myth. We know regardless of it being $475 in 1850 or $47,500 today - the monetary value is sorely lacking.

For sure!

Digest this for a moment re our First Lady...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2...

"WHEN HE drew up his will in 1850, the owner of First Lady Michelle Obama’s great-great-great-grandmother Melvinia valued the six-year-old slave girl at $475.

pics of the star gazing last night with the President and Malia and Sasha, too cute.

http://www.etonline.com/gallery/2009/10/79499/

Did any of you watch Chris Matthews tonight. He was doing a piece on Michelle Obama's heritage as a result of the New York Times piece. I read the NYT piece and found it written very well. I liked the Matthews interview with the writers - they said they presented all this information to the First Lady beforehand because they knew how personal it was and they wanted her to digest the information before it showed up in the paper.

saw it

Oh..oh...oh! I walked in the midst of that interview. So both the women he was talking with were the writers? Kewl!

yes, it was well done

makes think about how all this data will add to the heritage of Malia and Sasha..just beautiful stuff

Just ran into a cool natural hair blog via The Black Snob: http://leaveinthekinks.blogspot.com/

Off topic:

Has anyone seen "Paranormal Activity" yet?....there is a lot of buzz about it, it is said to be SCARY...and it is touted to be similar to what the " Blair Witch Project" film was over a decade ago...only much scarier?

A friend of mine saw it and loved it. I'm not into scary movies like I used to be; I frighten easily in my old age.

Christtt... the cats have been known to scare the hell outta me.

I have a wicker chair just outside my front door. One day my sister called, on the way over 'right now' - that's 10 mins from my house. I don't remember why I went outside before she even came to the door, but she was sitting in that wicker chair when I walked out. I'm sitting here LMAO just remembering how loudly I hollered and how she was laughing so hard she couldn't catch her breath.....and damned near peed her cute capris.

So - no scary shit for me. I can't handle it. That hand in 'Carrie' come up right about now - probably keel right over. Dead.

What Not Being Able To Buy Oil In Dollars Means
By Ian Welsh Thursday Oct 08, 2009 3:00pm The big news this week on the financial front was the Independent’s claim that Gulf Arabs and France, Japan, Russia and Japan were planning to move from buying oil in dollars to buying it in a basket of currencies, including gold and a new universal currency shared by the Gulf nations.

Buying oil in dollars is one of the foundations of the dollar’s role as the world’s primary reserve currency. Because the the dollar is the world’s primary reserve currency Americans have been able to borrow money for significantly less than other countries are able to. This has both made America more prosperous, and through the perverse incentives of cheap money, helped lead to the high indebtedness of American citizens and the financial crisis.

In addition, buying oil in dollars is one of the things which allowed strong dollar policies to drive the price of oil down. Making dollars extremely scarce in the 80’s and nineties was one key factor leading to a price per barrel under $20. Oil prices started their rise upwards after Greenspan’s Federal Reserve let loose the money spigot in the Asian crisis and the Long Term Capital fiasco. Greenspan essentially never took his foot off the pedal from that point onwards, and oil prices soared, until last year at one point they were over $150/barrel.

So one consequence of going off the dollar is that a major benefit of the strong dollar play is taken off the table, and the US loses its ability to control the price of oil. Since at this time, contrary to what the Feds are saying, a strong dollar play isn’t in the cards (the US needs to borrow way too much money) that’s not a big deal in the short run—in the long run it is.

But buying oil in dollars isn’t the only thing that underpins the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and to understand what buying oil in something other than dollars would mean we need to understand what else makes, or perhaps more accurately, made, the dollar so important.

Technological Revolutions: Remember the internet boom of the nineties? Remember the way that money flooded in from the rest of the world to buy up internet stocks? Sure, most of them turned out to be worthless, but some didn’t. When the US was the nation most likely to create the next technological revolution you needed dollars so that when it occurred you could buy in on the ground floor. Whether microcomputers in the 80’s or the internet in the 90’s, odds were that America was going to create the next big tech. So foreigners needed to be in the dollar.

At this point the US is the undisputed leader in almost nothing except military tech. As expected, US dominance of the arms sales market continues to increase, but the US can’t live on weapon sales alone. In most other fields, including telecom, the internet, large chunks of biotech, renewable energy, ground transportation and so on the US now lags other modern economies.

The structure of the US economy, with a few large oligopolistic firms dominating the market in key fields needn’t necessarily mean no technological advances, after all Japan and Korea certainly have high concentrations of large firms, but US firms such as the telecom giants essentially don’t engage in research, don’t believe in upgrading infrastructure more than they have to and are rent seeking corporations—they provide an inferior product to a captive audience (as with insurance companies) knowing that Americans have no other options. If they fail, they expect the US government to bail them out with huge subsidies.

This structure means that the US, is unlikely to be the home of the next great technological revolution. The next tech reveolution could happen in the US, with the right policies, but the Obama administration has not engaged in those policies, instead spending trillions on propping up failed business models.

Consumers of Last and Main Resort: For decades now Americans have bought a ton of consumer goods, from cars to electronics to clothes. As time went by, more and more of these goods were bought from foreign countries, and more and more of it was bought on credit. America and Americans have been the engine of development for Japan, the Asian Tigers, and most recently, China. China, Japan and Korea, in particular, used mercantalist policies—that is to say they generally used trade barriers to protect their internal economy and subsidies to help their exports. China’s main trade barrier and subsidy is its massive interventions to keep the Yuan cheap against the dollar, an intervention which has amounted to as much as 10% of China’s GDP.

That intervention has left China with a huge number of dollars denominated assets. In effect the Chinese loaned America the money to consume Chinese goods, which simultaneously made American manufactured goods uncompetitive which meant that manufacturing employment in American dropped like a rock while new factories opened in China rather than the US. In exchange for the money they loaned America, China industrialized. Even if they don’t get most of the money back (and they won’t) it was a good deal for them. As for Americans, well, Americans were able to live above their means—those who didn’t lose their jobs, anyway.

Many countries export a lot to the US. While US consumers have pulled back significantly, they still consume a lot. There is, as yet, no replacement for the US consumer. China and other countries may wish there was, but there isn’t.

The American Security Product: One of the main reasons other countries were willing to, in effect subsidize the US, for decades, is that it provided the common security product—against the Soviets, then against real rogue nations, and always against pirates.

In particular, America’s navy is as large as the next 13 navies combined. The US was responsible for keeping the world’s shipping lines open, and it was the core of the NATO hammer when a problem needed to be dealt with (for example, Serbia in the late nineties.)

But lately the US hasn’t been delivering the product in a way that the rest of the world appreciates. Most of “old” Europe (ie. the countries with money and power) opposed it. So did most of Asia. So did America’s allies in the Middle East. Once in Iraq, the US couldn’t be defunded for fear of Iraq splintering, but now that it’s clear the US is leaving anyway, the possibility exists.

And then there’s the Somali pirates. Because most of the US navy was occupied with the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, the Somali pirates got completely out of hand and the US Navy didn’t do anything about it for a long long time. When the issue was finally dealt with, the US navy was only one of a number of navies doing so. The US let it get out of control, and then wasn’t key to fighting it.

Now that the US no longer protects very well against the Soviets, rogue nations or pirates, and now that joint naval operations are how the Somali pirates are being dealt with, the rest of the world is wondering whether it’s worth paying for a US military which doesn’t do what they want it to do. Only the Afghan war, which has elite support in Europe (though not popular) makes some think that perhaps the US is worth keeping on as the world’s policeman.

Buying Key Technologies Required Dollars: Yet another reason folks wanted to have lots of dollars and access to dollars was that you needed dollars to buy certain goods. For decades the only good commercial jet liners were Americans. Key computer technologies needed to be bought in dollars. Intellectual property needed to be bought in dollars. The best military technology had to be (and still has to be) bought in dollars. And so on. The US wasn’t just home to the next technological revolution, it was home to all the good things you wanted to buy and which you couldn’t buy in your currency.

This is, with a few exceptions, no longer true. The Europeans and Japanese can sell you most high end capital goods. There is no real difference between Airbus and Boeing products (though both are essentially 30 year old technology). The Chinese can and will sell you middle and low end goods for less than America. You don’t need dollars to buy most of what you need and want, and if something comes up really worth buying (say General Motors) well, if you’re someone who really wants it, like the Chinese, you just won’t be allowed to buy it anyway. (The Chinese would have loved to buy GM.)

A Safe Haven For Money and For You: For decades, if you wanted a safe place to put your money and put it to work, the US was probably the best. It was the most stable, it was impossible it could be conquered even if there was a World War III, it was the largest and could absorb the most money. Likewise, if things went really bad in your country, it was a great place to flee to.

The financial crisis put the wisdom of placing your money in the US in question. Bush era immigration and travel policies, not rescinded by the Obama administration, put the utility of the US as a safe haven in question as well. And yet, to an extent, the US retains at least the first role, because there is simply no other country available. Europe did not avoid the financial crisis, China doesn’t allow that much investment in the country and is an unsafe place to put money, and so on. So the US retains some safe haven appeal. At the same time, however, foreign elites have become far more uneasy about the idea and want a different option. And for themselves, they’d rather vacation, have their second homes and educate their children in Europe.

And at last, back to oil: Of course, the final and in some ways most important reason for the dollar’s reserve currency status is that oil was sold in dollars. This is a result of a decades long understanding between the key Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and America that the US both underwrote their security and could knock them over any time it wanted. In exchange for America’s security umbrella and help in maintaining their regimes, oil was priced in dollars. When they became rich in the 70s, their money flooded primarily through US banks.

Indeed, in prior years, every time an OPEC nation talked about going off the dollar as the currency for buying oil, rumor has it that the Saudis were the ones to spike the move.

Oil is the most important commodity in the world. Ultimately all economies are underpinned by oil. Oil is also the most important military resource. With oil your army can move and fight. Without it, it can’t. In many ways WWII was fought for oil and with oil, and the powers with the oil defeated those which didn’t have it.

Which brings us back to the US military product. As long as oil is priced in dollars, the US military can always function at full capacity, because if push comes to shove, the US can always just print more dollars.

If oil is not priced in dollars, then certain US access to oil is removed—both for the military and for the civilian population. Sure, the US can still print more dollars, but if oil isn’t priced in dollars, well, print too much and you may get inflation, even hyperinflation. And if the oilarchies don’t approve of a particular military action, well, they can make it much more expensive.

Are the Dollar’s Days as Reserve Currency Over?

No. They aren’t. But they are numbered. They aren’t over because other nations still need the US consumer. Until the Chinese manage to create a domestic consumer society, both they and other countries can’t cut themselves lose from the US consumer. What they will do, and what they are doing, is trying to manage how much the US borrows and to take away the US ability control the world’s money supply. They will still have to keep the US propped up for the time being, because in so doing they are propping up themselves. And remember always that Chinese citizens aren’t like Americans. Take their jobs or their land or their hope and they get violent—very violent. They have, do and will fight both the police and the military. China’s elites know that if they don’t keep economic growth coming, their heads could literally wind up rolling.

In addition, while no one is happy with the US security product, the fact is that no one can really replace it. The European military is not strong enough, and their navy does not have the projection ability. Likewise with the Chinese military, who in any aren’t trusted half as much as the Europeans, though their moral flexibility is appreciated by many regimes, who still understand you don’t invite China to station large number of troops in your country if you have half a brain.

Likewise, there is simply no replacement for the US as a haven of last resort. China’s currency and investment controls make it unsuitable. Europe managed its financial affairs no better than the US over the last decade, although they seem to have learned the regulatory lessons marginally better than the US. If you need a place to store your money, and put it to work, the US may not look good, but neither does anyone else who is large enough to absorb large amounts of money.

The key break point, the end of the dollar hegemony, will come when the Chinese are able to move to a consumer economy. At that point, the Chinese will no longer need America as consumers, and they will let the Yuan float. The devastation this will wreck on the US economy is hard to overstate. Standards of living will crash. In the long run, being forced to live within its means, and no longer having to compete against massively subsidized foreign goods may turn out to be good for the US, but that won’t make you feel better as your effective income collapses or you lose your job.

This is probably two economic cycles out. We’re talking 12 to 16 years. So there’s time yet. Probably.

So what does oil not being priced in dollars mean to me now?

Less money for everything. The US will not be able to afford as large a stimulus as it should have. It will mean borrowing costs higher than they would otherwise have been and more restricted credit (sure, theoretical interest rates may be low, but can you get a loan at those rates?) Oil prices, and gas prices will be more volatile for the US than they were before, which is saying something.

And other countries will get more oil, relatively speaking. Which means they will get more growth. They will receive more investment from the oilarchies, and the US will receive less. Relatively speaking the US economy will not be as good as it was. This is a marginal effect, but marginal effects add up.

This is, in short, not good news. You won’t be able to say “I lost my job because oil isn’t priced in dollars” but it will be true for some people. Lower wages, more restricted credit, and more restricted government policy will be the price paid for the massive incompetence which lead to this moment.

And yet this does have a silver lining. Both for other countries who deserve to be able to pay in their own currencies and for America and Americans, who need to learn to live within their means, to emphasize production again rather than consumption and who need to wean off of oil as much as possible in any case.

But it will hurt

Hey, anybody wanna go a few rounds on my Somalia boys tonight? How 'bout they jumped onto the wrong ship the other day!! Ooops! I thought we were supposed to be sending some aid to Somalia so they would stop acting so desperate. What happened? Maybe it's just hard to break old habits???

"And then there’s the Somali pirates. Because most of the US navy was occupied with the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, the Somali pirates got completely out of hand and the US Navy didn’t do anything about it for a long long time. When the issue was finally dealt with, the US navy was only one of a number of navies doing so. The US let it get out of control, and then wasn’t key to fighting it."

Because most of the US navy was occupied with the wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, the Somali pirates got completely out of hand and the US Navy didn’t do anything about it for a long long time.

Oh, but if we'd've parked a carrier group off the coast of Somalia and bombed the country flat, people would've complained.

Or, if we'd've just started sinking the pirate boats, people would've complained.

We're not supposed to be "the world's policeman," but people complain when we aren't? Or when we police in a way they don't like? WTF's that about?

It goes with the distinguished statuses including: World Super Power, Leader of the Free World, Barack-the-Magic Negro. There you have it, the US Navy took the lead and popped the young Somalian boy earlier this year, but did anyone follow our lead?

"The key break point, the end of the dollar hegemony, will come when the Chinese are able to move to a consumer economy. At that point, the Chinese will no longer need America as consumers, and they will let the Yuan float."

Key Break Point now under way:

As sales wither at home, manufacturers see China, India and Brazil as a customer base of new affluence.

With debt-burdened American consumers cutting back in response to the recession, many U.S. companies are increasingly looking outward, toward fast-developing countries such as China, India and Brazil.

But instead of seeing these nations primarily as cheap producers of goods to sell to Americans, U.S. corporate leaders see them as potential customers for American products and services.

That shift, which has been underway for several years but has intensified sharply during the downturn, comes as vast numbers of families in these emerging economies are moving into cities and spending like never before to improve their living standards.

U.S. firms look to sell wares in emerging markets

African American and Latino populations are traditionally undercounted. Census officials and advocacy groups are trying to figure out ways to fix that. But many community members are not sure that they are all on the same page.

Certain U.S. populations are historically undercounted by the census. The 2000 Census data show that in Los Angeles County alone, African American and Latino populations were undercounted by a margin of 2.85 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively. This may not seem like a lot, but when you consider that a U.C.L.A Center for Regional Policy Studies analysis alleges undercounts cost more than $26,000 per 1000 people not counted, it adds up.

This means that the $300 billion in federal funding allocated every year does not reach the areas and communities it needs to reach.

But why are these demographics underrepresented, census after census?

The Census Bureau and the many advocacy organizations agree on some reasons.

According to Evan Bacalao, deputy director of civic engagement at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), one of the primary reasons for this undercount is limited English proficiency. The Census Bureau acknowledges that this as a problem as well.

But what about actual members of these often poorer and ethnically diverse communities? What do they seem to think is the main barrier to achieving a strong count?

According to Sean Shavers, 18, of Oakland, the issue is not so much one of language but of fear or misinformation. “Door-to-door workers won’t go to dangerous areas without the cops,” for follow-up counts, Shavers muses. Essentially, “houses are skipped.”

Census Mulls How to Fix Undercount

---

This is where ACORN could shine since the people normally hired for census are afraid to go into the "bad" neighborhoods.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/08/moon-b...

Does anyone else think that bombing the moon isn't a good idea? I mean, they said it is a "controlled experiment, but something in my gut says NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

HEEEEEY Evita: ***BIG HUG** :>)

Just providin' the - - -+B 4 IMAGE!! :>) :>)

ENJOY!!! :>)

lol

You are a mess, though accurate.

I want to know who is going to clean up!

Evita: THANK U! :>) :>)

Could it B - - - -Mr. CLEAN!!? :>) :>)

ENJOY!! :>)

HAPPY MARRIAGE!! :>)

I can't believe you remembered! The wedding was in May! We are having a great time being married, too.

Evita: O! YES! I! DID!! :>) HEEEEY "Mr. Evita!" :>)

+4 - U - 2! :>)

R! U! 2! DANCIN'? :>) :>)

ENJOY! :>)

Yes we are, and going to concerts too! Next one is Maxwell! Email me your info and I'll give you the link for my wedding slide show. eva@ evavegadiversity dot com

Evita: N-I-C-E!! :>) O.K. :>)

If I don't hear from you all tomorrow, just know I enjoyed JJP while on earth lol

HEY aleth: ***FIST BUMP** Pleased ta meet-cha! :>)

LOL! :>) Nice 1!! :>)

Don't worry, it'll take a couple days for things to really go to shit.

Move inland. The tides will be the first thing to get screwed up.

Inland?? :) They going to blow the damn moon tomorrow! Its too late..

Lord Why? Why Lord? I better go pray now so I could get into the pearly gates, lately been mean to a lot of people.

I am sorry if I have ever ever ever offended anyone on jjp :) Ok now onto Project Runway

I think it might be kinda neat. One day we may ask each other the question "Where do you live, Earth or the Moon?" Testing this cold part of the Moon and Finding a water source on the Moon has lots of promise from the reports that I've heard today.

I'm thinking two things:

1. It's not really about the moon; we're testing a kinetic interceptor for our missile defense program, or

2. It is really about the moon, and we're gonna break something huge. I'm starting to buy into the Mayan 2012 hype a bit too much, in anticipation of the movie.

1.Give it up.Star Wars was just a movie not your dream for missile defense.
2.Dont believe the hype.Unless you want to make crackpots richer.

you are cracking me up on this one

Have you seen the trailer for 2012?

I'm sorry, but any movie where an aircraft carrier is dumped on a city gets my money.

I love End Times movies; I don't know why, though. I'm definitely seeing 2012.

I read the first book in a YA duet about what happened when a meteor hit the moon and knocked it closer to earth. Every city on every coast on the planet 100 miles in disappeared and a sort of nuclear winter happened. The first book was so depressing I didn't want to read the second. Know they're knocking rockets into the moon for who knows what reason. What did the moon ever do to them?

duplicate

If this is any indication, astronomers can barely see stars same as before because of space junk, I going to opt for #2.

There's a lot of "don't knows" here. And NASA ain't exactly in the targeting business....

"NASA bomb the moon on October 9 in a dramatic search for water in space."

Idiotic. So what, if water is on moon. How are they going to bring it back? Why not spend the money to clean up the water here?

Maybe if they find a water source and a way to give the moon life, the rethugs will leave Earth to its big growing population of minorities and just move to another planet. LOL! The neighborhood on Earth is just not what it used to be.

I'm wondering if there was a NASA engineer who predicted the date and time of when chunks of the moon would land on Africa or Latina America before they scheduled this test.

NASA couldn't explain this Mar 2009 "event"

A team of scientists is looking into what could have caused bright lights in the sky that prompted hundreds of calls to the National Weather Service and emergency officials.Callers from Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina described brilliant, streaking lights followed by an explosion-like sound around 9:45 p.m. Sunday.

Virginia residents from Hampton Roads to Richmond reported seeing "great balls of fire" lighting up the sky in shades of yellow, white orange and blue. Some described the explosion as sounding like thunder.Several calls came to Richmond International Airport, but spokesman Troy Bell said tower workers did not see anything unusual.

Mystery Lights seen in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina

Dodo dodo dodo dodo dododo (Twilight Zone Music) LOL

Myth: Errrrr, Ummmmm. . . .

Did U "AXE" 4 - -Twilight Zone intro.??? :>) :>)

ENJOY!! :>)

Hey GreenLady, you so crazy!!

HEEEEY Myth: LOL!! :>) I TA-RY!! :>)

+THANKS! :>) :>)

yes, it's a bad idea and a waste of money.

anyone had cauliflower mashed potatoes

No, do you just put in cauliflower with the potatoes?

no, just using cauliflower and mashing it up to look like mashed potatoes.

if its fixed right, they're pretty good.

what do you put in it? I've read a few different recipes....I've read add garlic, green onions, cream cheese, regular cheese...just wondering what others put in it.

should depend on your diet restrictions...at my age, we cut down on fat as much as possible so cheeses would be out, but the garlic would work for me along with the green onions, both add flavor

Harry Connick Jr. Just stepped into a racist Aussie TV show and represented the US well! Come see my blog!

http://blog.evavegadiversity.com/


JJP regulars and other bloggers please give me your feedback on my blog. I need to update the technology and learn html tags, I know. I'd love your feedback and tips anyway! MANY, many thanks!

Represented the US well on a racist Aussie show, huh?

There is an absurdity to that statement that makes me laugh to the core of my being...

But can you represent Canada well on a US blog? The answer is no.

I will give you that. Maybe I should say he represented MY US well. In my US, calling out racism is an inherent responsibility of being a good citizen. I acknowledge it is not the same for others.

Okay - first off, ya gotta fix the http link attached to your name. It's doubled up - like so below. Take one of them out, o/w folks get an error message.

[http://blog.evavegadiversity.com/, http://blog.evavegadiversity.com/]

Trying to figure out where that problem exists on the blog... any ideas?

UPDATE!

I figured it out. It was a disqus issue.