Violent Crime needs Solutions not more Violence....

Reducing Crime and Violence is a state of mind and spirit, and an indispensable and key aspect for society’s success in reducing crime and violence lies in the arena of criminal rehabilitation. If you can help an individual see how moral conduct will improve his survival, then you better his chances of improving his own behavior by his own free will. It is the single most effective way to produce lasting change.

With inmates in more than 2,000 prisons around the world studying attitudes for success on any given day, hardened criminals are routinely reformed through a rehabilitation program known as criminon which uses The Way to Happiness as the heart of its curriculum.

The Way to Happiness Programs have been implemented in some of the worst prisons in the world. Witness a Mexican state prison, where 80 percent of the offenders were heavy drug users and the recidivism rate was 70 percent. After the implementation of The Way to Happiness, recidivism fell to 10 percent at the facility.
Similar results were achieved in South Africa, where recidivism in maximum security prisons fell to an astonishing zero. The success of the program "has been remarkable," writes a Pretoria chief magistrate with jurisdiction over 39 judges and 55 courts, "The workload of the juvenile court has dropped from 30 cases per month to just two, the rest were successfully diverted away from the criminal justice system."

Accompanying the judge's accolades is a letter to Criminon signed by the Minister of Justice of South Africa, which cites the enormous impact that Criminon plays in rehabilitation: "This program is so important to us — and the world — that we've brought it to the direct attention of the United Nations so that every courthouse in the world may benefit."

In the USA, a local businessman, along with the mayor of Harlingen, Texas, conducted a citywide "Set a Good Example Contest," where school-age children did projects based on The Way to Happiness to improve the community. As part of the campaign, every family in the city of 60,000 received copies of the book and instructions on how to participate.

Subsequently, the local Police Department's annual report showed crime had fallen in almost every major category, and no murders had occurred in the city for an entire year. Though the local police force was at a loss to understand how it happened, their chief could only suggest that changing values in the homes and streets had contributed to the decrease — exactly the objective of The Way to Happiness.

Through these grassroots campaigns and more, The Way to Happiness has helped tens of millions of people face the challenges of daily living by offering common-sense solutions for common problems. The guidelines in The Way to Happiness give an individual a road map to follow toward a happier and safer life. It is unique in that it strips away the false ideas some may have about why "it is okay" to be immoral — and it makes clear why honest conduct actually leads to better survival and a more joyous existence. Here is common sense, cast in a code that can be followed and kept. And like a ripple on a water's surface, the benefits and changes produced and experienced by those who read and use the book spread far and wide, out into the community, bringing peace and calm, dignity and respect — and ultimately a higher quality of life.

Crime and Violence in our cities and neighborhoods is not someone elses problem, it is our problem, society's problem, and if we're to find a workable solution to Crime and Violence, then we as society must become an integral part of that solution.

Snippets of Barack Obama's Socialist "Change" for America...

1) Pg 22 mandates that the Government will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that
self insure. So every employer in the United States will be subjected to a
health insurance audit just as all taxpayers are subject to audit. Of course, we
will have to pay for an entire new bureaucracy to do this--the Internal Health
Revenue Service?

2) Pg 30, Sec 123 states that there will be a government committee that decides
what treatments you are allowed and what your overall benefits are.

3) Pg 29, lines 4-16 basically mandates the rationing of health care as is being
done in Canada.

4) Pg 42, recognizes the power of the Health Choices Commissioner to determine
your health benefits. You will have no choice.

5) PG 50, section 152 states that free, taxpayer-paid health care will be given
to the 30 million non-citizens in the USA, even illegal aliens.

6) Pg 58, states that government will have possession of all your health care
records & history including finances and you will have to have a National ID
Health card.

7) Pg 59, lines 21-24 gives direct access to your banks accounts to compel you
to pay any out-of-pocket or premium costs electronically without your previous
consent.

8) PG 65, sec 164 provides for a political payoff from the Democrats and Obama;
a special subsidized plan for retirees and their families in unions community
groups like ACORN.

9) Pg 72, lines 8-14 creates a Health Care Exchange to bring private health
insurance plans under government control. This part of the bill reveals Obama’s
lies about being able to keep your plan if you like it. Any health insurance
plan which does not completely rework itself to conform to these regulations
will be dropped from the exchange and those insured will have to pick one of the
plans in the exchange. This is why the Congressional Budget Office determined
that over 20 million will lose the coverage they are now enjoying if Obscure is
implemented.

10) PG 85, line 7 provides specifics for benefit levels for all health plans,
giving government the right to ration everyone’s health care (senior citizens,
get in the back of the line).

11) PG 91, lines 4-7 mandates that doctor’s offices, clinics and hospitals
provide language-appropriate services, basically ordering them to hire
translators at the expense of the American taxpayer.

12) Pg 95, lines 8-18 allows the government to hire non-profit community groups
like ACORN and Americorps to sign up people for the government health plan.

13) PG 85, line 7 provides for specifics on benefit levels for Medicare
recipients, basically rationing the care of every senior citizen I the United
States.

14) PG 102, lines 12-18 mandates that all Medicaid eligible will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid based upon income and insurance status. No choice.

15) Pg 124, lines 24-25 states that no private company or individual can have
the right to sue the federal government for medical price fixing, basically
eliminating your right to seek redress in the courts regarding your medical
care.

16) Pg 127, lines 1-16 dictates doctors’ payment and therefore income which will
reduce what doctors earn and lead to greater shortages of doctors and more
rationing of care.

17) Pg 145, line 15-17 any employer not currently insuring their employees must
enroll employees into public plan option, with no choice of private insurance
allowed.

18) Pg 126, lines 22-25 mandates that employers must pay for health insurance
even for part-time workers and their families, which will certainly lead to
massive layoffs.

19) Pg 149, lines 16-24 all employers with an annual payroll bigger than $K who
does not pay to enroll employees in public insurance option will pay an 8% tax
on all payroll.

20) Pg 150, lines 9-13 mandates that employers with an annual payroll between
$251K & $400K who does not pay to enroll employees in public insurance option
will pay a 2-6% tax on all payroll.

21) Pg 167, lines 18-23 any individual who is self-employed and does not have
health insurance will be taxed 2.5% of income and forced to accept public health
insurance. So paying for health care out of pocket will be banned from the face
of the earth.

22) Pg 170, lines 1-3 exempts non-resident aliens from the individual health
care taxes, so Americans citizens will pay for these aliens, legal and illegal
alike.

23) Pg 195, officers & employees of the new Health Care Administration will have
access to all Americans personal financial records and accounts.

24) PG 203, line 14-15 actually says that “The tax imposed under this section
shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it says that.

25) Pg 239, line 14-24 mandates that available physician services will be
reduced for Medicaid recipients. Many poor people including many seniors will be
affected.

26) Pg 241, line 6-8 mandates that all doctors receive the same pay, rega
rdless of specialty. This will vastly reduce the number of specialists available in the United States, a common problem where medicine is socialized like Canada .

27) PG 253, line 10-18 allows the federal government to set the value of
doctor's time, professional judgment.

28) PG 265, Sec 1131 mandates and controls the productivity of all health care
providers including surgeons!

29) PG 268, Sec 1141 regulates the rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs.

30) PG 272, Sec. 1145 regulates the operation of certain types of cancer
hospitals, again rationing the care of cancer patients.

31) Page 280, Sec 1151 allows the government to penalize hospitals for what is
deemed to be preventable readmissions. So instead of being sued for
malpractice, the government will be the punitive body when mistakes are made.

32) Pg 298, lines 9-11 mandates that if a doctor treats a patient during initial
admission and that result in a re-admission, the doctor will be subject to
federal penalties. Gee do you think that’s going to drive up the cost of
malpractice?

33) Pg 317, lines 13-20 will create prohibitions on ownership and investment in
the health service industry for doctors.

34) Pg 317-318, lines 21-25, and 1-3 will prohibit the expansion of all
hospitals.

35) pg 321, lines 2-13 allows hospitals apply for an exception to the expansion
rule but they must seek community input first!

36) Pg 335, lines 16-25, Pg 336-339 mandates the establishment of outcome based
health care and insidious idea that actually limits the treatment choices made
by patients with their doctors, based upon the patient’s health and condition.
This will result in the oldest, weakest and sickest patients being denied
treatments simply because the statistics for success in their demographic category are poor! This is a form of health care rationing that will save money
at the expense of seniors to help buy insurance for the uninsured, most of whom
are young and healthy!

37) Pg 341, lines 3-9 allows the government to disqualify Medicare Advantage
Plans and HMO forcing people into the government run public plan.

38) Pg 354, Sec 1177 will arbitrarily restrict the enrollment of special needs
children and adults.

39) Pg 379, Sec 1191 mandates the creation of even more bureaucracy in the
Telehealth Advisory Committee.

40) PG 425, lines 4-12 mandates “Advance Care Planning Consultation,” another
insidious vehicle to save money by encouraging seniors who are in poor health to
be more accepting of death rather than fighting to stay alive and healthy and
with their loved ones.

41) Pg 425, lines 17-19 mandates that all senior patients will be consulted
regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney.

42) PG 425, lines 22-25, 426 lines 1-3 provides an approved list of end of life
resources, to help guide seniors abou
t the process of dying!

43) PG 427, lines 15 mandates program for orders on the end of life, actually
giving the government a say in how your life ends!

44) Pg 429, lines 1-9 dictates the frequency with which an Advance Care Planning
Consultant will have to meet with patients as their health deteriorates.

45) PG 429, lines 10-12 give an Advance Care Planning Consultant the power to
order end of life plans for a patient.

46) Pg 429, lines 13-25 will only allow certain doctors, not necessarily your
own physician, to write an end of life order.

47) PG 430, lines 11-15 allows the government to decide what level of treatment
you will have at end of life.

48) Pg 469, mandates “Community Based Home Medical Services” through non profits
like ACORN. Happy yet that we elected a community organizer to the White House?

49) PG 489, Sec 1308 force taxpayers to pay for Marriage & Family therapy under
the public insurance plan.

50) Pg 494-498, allows government to define mental illnesses and what services
will be allowed to treat, again rationing this care.


When Obama campaigned on his vision of "change" in America, he didn't mention that he was referring to Socialism which is now undoubtedly changing the America we all have known, fought and died for, and loved. We the People must either take back our beloved country, or become slaves to Socialism as it's implemented, step by step, by Barack Obama. We are now supporting Hugo Chavez, Fidel and Raul Castro, Daniel Ortega, and the entire cabal of leftist ALBA dictators in Latin America. Will Obama continue following their steps, and decide to nesxt change our constitution to become president for life.

if you don't believe what's happening under our very noses, just think that if only 10% of this were true. Wouldn’t that be enough to open your eyes?

Honduras Sounds the Wake-Up Call to the Americas...

As the Honduran crisis is still unresolved and attempts at mediation continue, the case has presented an interesting challenge whose outcome could be crucial for the future of the region and the United States.

For the time being Costa Rican President, Oscar Arias, is trying (so far unsuccessfully) to mediate between the current President of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti, and ousted Honduran President, Manuel Zelaya. The Obama Administration did the right thing by encouraging President Arias’s intervention as well as opposing Zelaya’s demand that a deadline be set for his return to power.

Yet, the Obama Administration, in principle, has supported the return of Zelaya to power as part of any settlement. This point requires further analysis because we are not merely dealing with an internal Honduran problem but also with a problem that has far reaching regional and international implications.


Zelaya was, indeed, democratically elected. In his attempt to pursue a constitutional reform via referendum he engaged in a violation of the constitution as it was sanctioned by the Honduran Supreme Court and the national Congress. The military intervened to prevent Zelaya from carrying out unconstitutional measures. Because that action involved a military intervention, it prompted negative reactions in the U.S., Latin America and Europe.

The action by the Honduran military was aimed at preventing Zelaya from doing what is being done in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador: that is strengthening the prerogatives of the executive power via a constitutional reform and using that as a stepping stone towards dictatorship.

In order to understand the severity of Zelaya’s actions, we have to imagine a situation where President Barack Obama tries to pass legislation on health care, immigration, or any other policy. For Obama to expect full support in Congress or even full support in the Democratic Party would be unrealistic. Yet President Obama would be so eager to pass legislation or implement policy in all these areas, that instead of negotiating with Congress, he appeals to popular referendums taking advantage of his current popularity. Thus, because Obama is annoyed at Congressional resistance and because he is aware of his popularity, he calls for a constitutional reform via a popular referendum that approves a constitution that increases the power of the President to carry out a “socially just policy.” Would not America be outraged at such an action? That is exactly what Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela, what Evo Morales did in Bolivia, what Rafael Correa did in Ecuador and what Zelaya tried to do in Honduras.

Zelaya’s actions also raise a serious suspicion regarding his dealings with Hugo Chavez. In other words, it sounds like in exchange for economic support and other types of agreements beneficial to Honduras, President Zelaya seems to have compromised his country’s constitution and its democracy.

But there is also another element. Zelaya was elected as head of the liberal party, a party that holds conservative economic views, quite the opposite of views held by Chavez. Certainly leaders can change their minds about certain things. But how can we explain Zelaya’s quick ideological turn around? One thing is to accept Venezuelan largess but another thing is to move his country into a Chavista sphere of influence by showing disdain and undermining state institutions. This raises eyebrows as to whether Zelaya’s move could have been part of an unwritten agreement between him and Chavez. If this is the case we are talking about a major case of political prostitution where a whole country is put up for sale by a single man. If this is the case, Zelaya needs to be investigated on grounds of corruption.

Also, if the Obama Administration insists on the principle that any settlement should return Mr. Zelaya to power we may be facing a case of a Latin American Yalta.

The Yalta conference that took place early in 1945 between U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, paved the way for the subjugation of Poland and later countries such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia into the Soviet sphere of influence. At the time of the Yalta conference, the Soviets had the advantage of having their troops in the heart of Europe. This card was strongly used by Stalin to get strategic and political advantages from Roosevelt and Churchill in the negotiations.

In the current Latin American situation, Chavez has a different type of advantage than Stalin during Yalta but a serious one nonetheless. First, Chavez is a generous oil producer and distributor of wealth among Latin American countries. Second, Chavez has integrated into his sphere of influence countries such as Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and probably El Salvador and Paraguay plus a few small Caribbean nations. Third, populist governments such as Argentina support Chavez, and social-democracies such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay have displayed indifference towards the Chavista phenomenon or have been mere apologists of the dictator. Fourth, the organization of American States (OAS) under the leadership of Jose Miguel Insulza has de-facto empowered Chavez by conspicuously ignoring his anti-democratic steps against the rule of law, the political opposition, and the media and against his own interference in the internal affairs of other countries in an attempt to influence their political outcomes.

In other words, losing the battle in Honduras means a big victory for Chavez and the spread of dictatorship in Latin America to be followed by serious criminal elements such as drug trafficking and connections to rogue states such as Iran.

At the minimum the Obama Administration needs to do no harm in this situation. By isolating Honduras and threatening to stop all financial aid, we are inadvertently strengthening the Chavista countries while discouraging Honduran resistance to dictatorship.

The best scenario would be to move forward with the scheduled November elections without restoring Zelaya. However, if the Administration’s idea is to restore Zelaya in order not to be an accomplice of a coup d’état, it needs to be done in a certain way. If restored, Zelaya should face impeachment over his constitutional violations and also undergo an investigation as to how exactly his dealings with Chavez are related to his project of constitutional reform.

These phenomena of “elected dictatorships” need to be exposed as they are and countries need to find legal mechanisms of protection against them. Perhaps this tiny country Honduras has provided us with a “wake up” call.

Ousted Honduran president complains U.S. condemnation of his removal from power is waning...

Latin American governments and the United Nations have demanded Zelaya be reinstated as President of Honduras, but U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton criticized him as "reckless" when he took a few steps onto Honduran soil on Friday in a symbolic gesture in front of international media as cameras flashed hoping for that Nobel Prize winning fatal shot and announced blood bath.

Zelaya hit back at Clinton for the second time in two days, complaining she had stopped using the term "coup" to describe his removal. "The position of the Secretary Clinton at the beginning was firm. Now I feel that she's not really denouncing (it) and she's not acting firmly against the repression that Honduras is suffering," he told reporters.

Honduran troops manning checkpoints have prevented several thousand demonstrators from staging a show of support for the leftist leader who has been accompanied by Venezuelan officials at the border since Friday. The Honduran Armed Forces demonstrated professionalism has insured peace and order between the opposition factions, while at the same time preventing the much announced blood bath that Hugo Chavez and Zelaya had encourage through their called for a generalized uprising and insurrection.

Reality of Zelayas support became more obvious at his encampment only Six miles from the border, 100 weary protesters milled around the coffee town of El Paraiso, a far cry from the massive outpouring of public backing Zelaya had called and hoped for.

"We're going to head back to Tegucigalpa where most of the people are," said teacher Lilian Ordonez, wiping away tears. "We have to change our strategy. ... People are angry but we don't have weapons and against a rifle, we can't do anything." This was the same cry heard from the foreign instigators sent from Nicaragua and El Salvador trying to spart the so-called insurrection. Hugo Chavez and Manuel Zelaya realize that only casualties and civilian martyrs will draw world attention to them, once again and the international press will come flocking back.

A couple of hundred Hondurans who managed to reach the border were camped out in Nicaragua with Zelaya, holed up in the town of Ocotal planning his next move. Meanwhile the Nicaragua people were demanding that these foreign insurrectionists leave their country and stop using Nicaragua as their staging ground.

In comments carried live on pro-Zelaya Radio Globo, Zelaya showing his frustration urged mid-level military officers to mutiny against their generals, who he said had betrayed Honduras for money. He encourages the same army who he accuses of staging a coup d'etat, to now help him regain the presidency through mutiny. This only further demonstrates his disregard and the low esteem Zelaya has for the Honduran professional soldier.

Among Zelaya'a other crimes against the Honduran nation, the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court have accused Zelaya of trying to extend presidential term limits in the same way that Hugo Chavez and Manuel Ortega have made themselves president for life. The Honduran constitution prohibits reelection and/or the intent of reelection, and calls for the immediate dismissal of any official attempting that ploy, and excluding that person from holding any public office for ten years.

Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed interim president by Congress, and the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Romeo Vazquez Velazquez, say Zelaya's removal was legal since he was acting against the Constitution. The Supreme Court ordered his arrest and Congress backed his removal. The case against Zelaya is clear and he needs to step forward and face the judicial system of the country.

"As commander in chief of the armed forces, I ask patriotic soldiers to think of their children, think of their families and to rebel against Romeo Vazquez," Zelaya said as his calls for insurrection fell on deaf ears.

The Honduran military issued a statement expressing support for the negotiating process and affirming respect for civil institutions and the Constitution -- a move seen as partly a response to reports in pro-Zelaya media of unease in the middle ranks of the military. With Hugo Chavez's oil money, Zelaya is shooting his last wad, trying to subvert young officers to mutiny and go into open insurrection against the interim Honduran government.

U.S. President Barack Obama has cut $16.5 million in military aid to Honduras but has yet to take harsher measures, and there are growing tensions with Zelaya, a close ally of Venezuela's anti-American president, Hugo Chavez.

Obama was caught off guard and duped, and now finds himself in a difficult position of supporting Fidel and Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Daniel Ortega. Apparently Obama is caught between a rock and a hard place, as He does not want to appear to show U.S. support for rightist coups (which never existed), but many Republicans now realize that Obama has already done too much in supporting the ousted leftist and the Hugo Chavez ALBA Alliance who is the power behind it.

The U.S. State Department has said Zelaya is expected to visit Washington for a bath and a hot meal on Tuesday but he said he had not been invited and had no plans to go this week. He also said at an evening news conference he had heard about a plot to kill him. Zelaya would shot himself in the foot to draw world attention to his faltering campaign.

Honduran interim president, Roberto Micheletti seems to believe he can resist international pressure until elections in November and the world will accept the new order when a new president takes office in January. Which is the only legal outcome of this crisis and it is obvious that Zelaya should be in jail rather than in the presidential mansion. And Honduras demands their nation’s right to self determination and non interference from outside interventionists.

One possible alternative to the Honduran crisis is a negotiated solution under pressure from Washington, likely modeled on a proposal by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. In an interview with El Pais published on Sunday, Arias said his plan remained the only option.

While he said the coup must be reversed, he added that it was unrealistic for Zelaya to demand an unconditional return. And since there was no "coup" but rather a legal action taken by the judicial branch of government, Honduras demand that the criminal Manuel Zelaya be arrested and given a fair trial for his crimes.

The Micheletti government says it is open to some parts of the Arias plan, but not the return of Zelaya as president, and will allow Zelaya to return to Honduras and stand trial.

The chiefs of staff have much to lose if Zelaya does return as president, since their position would be weakened if there is an admission that they acted illegally in removing him, yet the constitution clearly states and clarifies that the removal of Manuel Zelaya was completely legal as defined and demanded by the national constitution.

Zelaya's relations with the military were tense before the coup. Just days before he was removed from power, he fired the military chief of staff after the army refused to help him run an unofficial referendum on extending his mandate. Actions and intentions clearly penalized the by constitution.

In the capital, Tegucigalpa, tensions bubbled up at the funeral of a man found dead in El Paraiso in unclear circumstances. It was unclear how he died but Zelaya supporters blame police. Mourners burned a police car and beat two police officers, a Reuters photographer on the scene said. It's common practice that leftists such as the Zelaya backers take the law into there own hands in order to attempt to destabilize authority rule.

Leaders of the pro-Zelaya movement said a small explosive device went off outside a building where they were meeting, breaking windows but causing no injuries. And it will be no surprise to anyone that they themselves create their own martyrs because obviously the government and the military authorities are aware of these ploys.

As Fall Classes near, Flu Projections become More Alarming....

In a disturbing new projection concerning H1n1 (swine) Influenza, health officials are saying that up to 40 percent of Americans could get swine flu this year and next and several hundred thousand could die without a successful vaccine campaign and other measures.

The estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are roughly twice the number of those who catch flu in a normal season and add greater weight to hurried efforts to get a new vaccine ready for the fall flu season.

Swine flu has already hit the United States harder than any other nation, but it has struck something of a glancing blow that's more surprising than devastating. The virus has killed about 300 Americans and experts believe it has sickened more than 1 million, comparable to a seasonal flu with the weird ability to keep spreading in the summer.

Health officials say flu cases may explode in the fall, when schools open and become germ factories, and the new estimates dramatize the need to have vaccines and other measures in place.

A world health official said the first vaccines are expected in September and October. The United States expects to begin testing on some volunteers in August, with 160 million doses ready in October.

The CDC came up with the new projections for the virus' spread last month, but it was first disclosed in an interview this week with The Associated Press.

The estimates are based on a flu pandemic from 1957, which killed nearly 70,000 in the United States but was not as severe as the infamous Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19. The number of deaths and illnesses from the new swine flu virus would drop if the pandemic peters out or if efforts to slow its spread are successful, said CDC spokesman Tom Skinner.

"Hopefully, mitigation efforts will have a big impact on future cases," he said. Besides pushing flu shots, health officials might urge measures such as avoiding crowded places, handwashing, cough covering and timely use of medicines like Tamiflu.

Because so many more people are expected to catch the new flu, the number of deaths over two years could range from 90,000 to several hundred thousand, the CDC calculated. Again, that is if a new vaccine and other efforts fail.

In a normal flu season, about 36,000 people die from flu and its complications, according to the American Medical Association. That too is an estimate, because death certificates don't typically list flu as a cause of death. Instead, they attribute a fatality to pneumonia or other complications.

Influenza is notoriously hard to predict, and some experts have shied away from a forecast. At a CDC swine flu briefing Friday, one official declined to answer repeated questions about her agency's own estimate.

"I don't think that influenza and its behavior in the population lends itself very well to these kinds of models," said the official, Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's flu vaccination programs.

The World Health Organization says as many as 2 billion people could become infected in the next two years — nearly a third of the world population. The estimates look at potential impacts in a two-year period because past flu pandemics have occurred in waves over more than one year.

Swine flu has been an escalating concern in Britain and some other European nations, where the virus' late arrival has grabbed attention and some officials at times have sounded alarmed.

In an interview Friday, the WHO's flu chief told the AP the global epidemic is still in its early stages.

"Even if we have hundreds of thousands of cases or a few millions of cases ... we're relatively early in the pandemic," Keiji Fukuda said at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The first vaccines are expected in September and October, Fukuda said. Other vaccines won't be ready until well into the flu season when a further dramatic rise in swine flu cases is expected.

First identified in April, swine flu has likely infected more than 1 million Americans, the CDC believes, with many of those suffering mild cases never reported. There have been 302 deaths and nearly 44,000 laboratory-identified cases, according to numbers released Friday morning.

Because the swine flu virus is new, most people haven't developed an immunity to it. So far, most of those who have died from it in the United States have had other health problems, such as asthma.

The virus has caused an unusual number of serious illnesses in teens and young adults; seasonal flu usually is toughest on the elderly and very young children.

Exiled Leftist Honduras President heads to the Border despite likelihood of Bloodshed and further Hunger...

– Honduras's de facto government shut its southern border with Nicaragua Thursday, hoping to block leftist ALBA ex President Manuel Zelaya's bid to return home a month after he was ousted in a coup and accused of treason and other constitutional crimes.

Zelaya on Thursday completed the first stage of a dramatic bid to end his military-imposed exile, traveling to the border town of Esteli, northern Nicaragua, and vowing to cross the nearby frontier on Friday or Saturday.

Defying government threats to arrest him and multiple warnings that the move would likely prompt bloodshed, Zelaya boarded a 50-vehicle caravan in the Nicaraguan capital Managua, accompanied by a phalanx of media and supporters.

In Honduras, the military-backed government responded with restrictions on incoming border crossings, as hundreds as Zelaya supporters headed for the coffee-growing frontier region, which straddles the pan-American highway.

"I'm walking toward the Honduran border. I hope that a good portion of the Honduran people can get through the barriers," Zelaya said on arrival in Esteli.

Honduran troops expelled Zelaya from Honduras at gunpoint on June 28 in a move supported by the courts and Congress.

But the deposed president said he hoped that Honduran soldiers awaiting him would "lower their guns" when they saw their elected leader and join his ranks to "raise the banner of democracy."
"We go with the white flag of peace to proclaim reconciliation for the Honduran people," he said.
"I know that I am in danger, at risk, but I am ready to make the sacrifice, because Honduras needs peaceful change."

Zelaya announced he would return home after talks with the interim government, brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, collapsed.

In a first attempt, on July 6, he tried to fly into the Tegucigalpa airport, but was blocked by military units deployed on the runway, while on the ground, two of his supporters died in clashes with troops.

Regional powers, including the United States, have backed Zelaya's quest to regain office, but urged him not to return for fear of prompting bloodshed in a country some say is teetering on the brink of civil war.

In an increasingly polarized Honduras, Zelaya supporters called a national strike Thursday, with teachers unions suspending classes across the country.
In the Honduran town of El Paraiso, 10 kilometers (six miles) from Nicaragua, supporters of "Mel" as he is known, congregated in defiance of a 12-hour curfew in the steamy border region.
"The people are here to defend the constitution and democracy," Jorge Elicer Gaitan, a local trade unionist told AFP.

Zelaya aide Alan Fajardo said the president would return when the conditions were ready: sufficient citizen participation and an element of surprise were key conditions, he added.
The high-stakes gamble unfolded as international rights groups slammed the government of interim Honduran leader Roberto Micheletti for a host of human rights violations, including extrajudicial executions.

A 15-person team of international human rights group representatives meanwhile said there had been "grave and systematic violations" in Honduras over the last month.
The groups mentioned extrajudicial executions during the curfew, pressure on news media opposed to Micheletti's government and the "suspension of fundamental rights of Hondurans."
Honduran human rights commissioner Ramon Angel Custodio, who supports the interim government, denied the charges made by the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, the Washington-based Center for Justice and International Law and Spain's Federation of Associations in the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights.

Hopes for a mediated solution to the crisis were scuttled when Micheletti's negotiators rejected fresh proposals late Wednesday to allow Zelaya to return to power until his term ended in January.

Acting Honduran foreign minister Carlos Lopez Contreras told CNN Zelaya's return as president was "impossible." The entire world community cannot force Honduras to take back that leftist Hugo Chavez wanna be.

Arias, who won the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end to civil wars in Central America, wanted Zelaya to head a national unity government. In return, interim leaders would have seen sanctions lifted, a limited amnesty for political crimes, and a bar on Zelaya seeking changes to the constitution.

The extorsion and threats of hunger by the world comunity against Honduras, attemping to force the democratic forces in that country to take back the ousted leftist ALBA Alliance president, Manuel Zelaya, only serves to reinforce the leftist leaning tendencies of these biased world organizations which should be disolved.

During President Barack Obama's unexpected and uncanny slide to the left, now openly supports Fidel and Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Daniel Ortega and the ALBA Aliance, in demanding that Honduras reinstate their ousted leftist president, Manuel Zelaya, o face worldwide economic sanctions. As their primary trading partner, Hillary Clinton, recently spoke with interim Honduran president Micheletti to extend the U.S. warning.

Perhaps Obama should join Hugo Chavez's ALBA Alliance, and follow their example by modifing the constitution, making selective payoffs, and then naming himself president for life too.

Humans actually Glow in Visible Light...

The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day, scientists now reveal.

Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels to which our naked eyes are sensitive. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light, which is thought to be a byproduct of biochemical reactions involving free radicals.

(This visible light differs from the infrared radiation - an invisible form of light - that comes from body heat.)

To learn more about this faint visible light, scientists in Japan employed extraordinarily sensitive cameras capable of detecting single photons. Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day.

Faces glowed more than the rest of the body. This might be because faces are more tanned than the rest of the body, since they get more exposure to sunlight - the pigment behind skin color, melanin, has fluorescent components that could enhance the body's miniscule light production.

Since this faint light is linked with the body's metabolism, this finding suggests cameras that can spot the weak emissions could help spot medical conditions, said researcher Hitoshi Okamura, a circadian biologist at Kyoto University in Japan.

"If you can see the glimmer from the body's surface, you could see the whole body condition," said researcher Masaki Kobayashi, a biomedical photonics specialist at the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Sendai, Japan.

Obama supports leftists to further isolate Honduras....

Senator Jim DeMint delayed confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nominee for the top U.S. diplomatic post for Latin America over dissatisfaction with the administration’s handling of the Honduran political crisis.

In a letter dated today, the South Carolina Republican asked Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, to postpone voting to confirm Arturo Valenzuela as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs until the committee’s next business meeting.

DeMint also asked Kerry to temporarily block the nomination of Thomas Shannon, who currently occupies that post, as ambassador to Brazil.

A copy of the letter was obtained by Bloomberg News.

Obama “rushed to side” with Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in calling the June 28 overthrow of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya a coup “before getting the facts,” DeMint said in an e-mailed statement. “Now it’s clear that the people of Honduras were defending the rule of law.”

DeMint was among 17 Republican lawmakers who complained to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over her refusal to meet in Washington with representatives of the interim government named by Honduras’s congress after Zelaya was ousted by the military at gunpoint.

Valenzuela defended the White House’s decision to condemn the overthrow as a coup and suspend aid to Honduras, Central America’s third poorest nation, at the foreign relations panel’s hearing on his nomination.

‘Classic Coup’

“In my studies of military coups in Latin America, this was a classic military coup,” he said at the July 9 hearing.

When pressed by DeMint about whether Honduras’s military acted to defend the constitution against abuses by Zelaya, Valenzuela said “I don’t want to get into some of the details of this. I’m not familiar myself with all of the details.”

DeMint said Valenzuela’s responses were unsatisfactory. “Mr. Valenzuela told me he didn’t even know the facts in Honduras,” DeMint said in the statement today. “Yet, everyday Zelaya’s own statements reveal his true desire to be a Chavez- style dictator advocating violence in order to return to power.”

DeMint also said that Shannon, in his State Department post, “has still failed to show a clear understanding of Honduras’s fight to defend democracy.”

‘Insurrection’ Planned

Zelaya said July 19 that his supporters were organizing an “insurrection” to return to power, as negotiations mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias stalled.

Honduras’s institutions and business groups remain united in support of Zelaya’s overthrow. The Supreme Court ruled that Zelaya violated the constitution by trying to hold an illegal poll on whether people support his proposal to change the constitution. The court issued a sealed arrest order for the president on June 26, two days before his overthrow.

Zelaya also ignored a court order that said he couldn’t fire the head of the military for refusing to oversee the survey, and stormed a military base with a mob of civilians to “liberate” the ballots.

Eric Farnsworth, the Washington-based vice president of the Council of the Americas, said the Senate may delay action on the nominations until after its month long summer recess, which begins August 7.

‘Open Question’

“It’s an open question what DeMint really wants,” he said in a telephone interview. “If the goal is to change the course of policy on Honduras,” the battle over the nominations “could be extended.”

The Chilean-born Valenzuela is director of the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University. He previously served President Bill Clinton as the White House’s top national security adviser on Latin America.

In the July 8 letter DeMint and 16 other Republican senators sent to Clinton, they complained about her refusal to meet with envoys of acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti earlier this month in Washington.

“Given the turbulent history of Latin America, we can understand, but disagree with, the rush to label the events of June 28th a coup d’etat,” the senators wrote in the letter. “While you have already met with Mr. Zelaya, we find it discouraging that you are unwilling to meet with Honduran officials that have simply followed their constitution.”

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican, met today with Shannon and State Department legal advisers to request that the U.S. restore $20 million in assistance to Honduras that was suspended following Zelaya’s ouster.

“It is deeply troubling that, after so much time, energy and effort has been expended by the U.S. to help the Honduran people consolidate and strengthen their democratic institutions, the U.S. position appears to remain focused on Zelaya’s political and personal future,” Ros-Lehtinen said in a statement following the meeting.

Dooms Day... As if we didn't have enough to worry about...

Indian astrologers are predicting violence and turmoil across the world as a result of this week's total solar eclipse, which the superstitious and religious view as a sign of potential doom.

But astronomers, scientists and secularists are trying to play down claims of evil portent in connection with Wednesday's natural spectacle, when the moon will come between the Earth and the sun, completely obscuring the sun.

In Hindu mythology, the two demons Rahu and Ketu are said to "swallow" the sun during eclipses, snuffing out its life-giving light and causing food to become inedible and water undrinkable.

Pregnant women are advised to stay indoors to prevent their babies developing birth defects, while prayers, fasting and ritual bathing, particularly in holy rivers, are encouraged.

Shivani Sachdev Gour, a gynaecologist at the Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, said a number of expectant mothers scheduled for caesarian deliveries on July 22 had asked to change the date.

"This is a belief deeply rooted in Indian society. Couples are willing to do anything to ensure that the baby is not born on that day," Gour said.

Astrologers have predicted a rise in communal and regional violence in the days following the eclipse, particularly in India, China and other Southeast Asian nations where it can be seen on Wednesday morning.

Mumbai astrologer Raj Kumar Sharma predicted "some sort of attack by (Kashmiri separatists) Jaish-e-Mohammad or Al-Qaeda on Indian soil" and a devastating natural disaster in Southeast Asia.

An Indian political leader could be killed, he said, and tension between the West and Iran is likely to increase, escalating into possible US military action after September 9, when fiery Saturn moves from Leo into Virgo.

"The last 200 years, whenever Saturn has gone into Virgo there has been either a world war or a mini world war," he told AFP.

It is not just in India that some are uneasy about what will transpire because of the eclipse.

In ancient China they were often associated with disasters, the death of an emperor or other dark events, and similar superstitions persist.

"The probability for unrest or war to take place in years when a solar eclipse happens is 95 percent," announced an article that attracted a lot of hits on the popular Chinese web portal Baidu.com.

Sanal Edamaruku, president of the Indian Rationalist Association, dismissed such doomsday predictions.

"Primarily, what we see with all these soothsayers and astrologers is that they're looking for opportunities to enhance their business with predictions of danger and calamity," he told AFP.

"They have been very powerful in India but over the last decade they have been in systematic decline."

Astronomers and scientists are also working to educate the public about the eclipse.

Travel firm Cox and Kings has chartered a Boeing 737-700 aircraft to give people the chance to see the eclipse from 41,000 feet (12,500 metres).

Experts will be on board to explain it to passengers, some of whom have paid 79,000 rupees (1,600 dollars) for a "sun-side" seat on the three-hour flight from New Delhi.

The eclipse's shadow is expected to pass over the aircraft at 15 times the speed of sound (Mach 15), said Ajay Talwar, president of the SPACE Group of companies that promotes science and astronomy.

"It's coming in the middle of the monsoon season. On the ground, there's a 40 percent chance of seeing it in India. On the aircraft you have almost a 90 percent chance of seeing the eclipse," he added.

Siva Prasad Tata, who runs the Astro Jyoti website, straddles the two worlds.

"There's no need to get too alarmed about the eclipse, they are a natural phenomenon," the astrologer told AFP.

But he added: "During the period of the eclipse, the opposite attracting forces are very, very powerful. From a spiritual point of view, this is a wonderful time to do any type of worship.

"It will bring about good results, much more than on an ordinary day."

Foreign pressure be damned.... Hondurans don't want Zelaya back...

Nicaragua – Ousted President Manuel Zelaya held out hope for a negotiated solution to Honduras' deepening political crisis even after talks in Costa Rica fell apart, but vowed to prepare the way for his return to power regardless of their outcome.

Zelaya accused his opponents of "making a mockery" of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias' attempts to mediate an agreement and called for stronger international pressure on the government of Roberto Micheletti, the interim president sworn in by Honduras' congress after a June 28 coup.

Singling out the United States repeatedly, Zelaya said the international community risks tacitly endorsing the putsch if it does not confront the interim government that abducted and deposed him at gunpoint.

"The international community is facing a dilemma," Zelaya told reporters at the Honduran Embassy in the Nicaraguan capital late Sunday. "They asked the guerrilla movements 20 years ago to put down their arms. ... And now the conservatives come back and take up arms to boot out the leftists who are attempting a process of reform."

Arias, the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize laureate for brokering an end to Central America's civil wars, proposed a plan that would let Zelaya serve out the final months of his term, move up elections by one month to late October, grant a general amnesty and include representatives of the main political parties in a reconciliation government.

The Micheletti government endorsed several of those proposals on Sunday — but his foreign relations secretary, Carlos Lopez, rejected the overall plan, specifically citing the issue of Zelaya's return to power.

A counterproposal suggested Zelaya could return as a regular citizen — to be tried in court. Honduras' Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant for Zelaya before the coup, ruling that his effort to hold a referendum on calling for a constitutional assembly was illegal.

Many Hondurans viewed the referendum as an attempt by Zelaya to push for a socialist-leaning government similar to the one his ally Hugo Chavez has established in Venezuela.

Zelaya, a wealthy rancher who shifted left during his presidency, charged that the current constitution protects a system of government that excludes the poor.

The aftermath of the coup is turning into a major test of Latin American democracy and of the Obama administration's policy toward the region.

The U.S., the United Nations and the Organization of American States have demanded that Zelaya be reinstated, and no foreign government has recognized Micheletti.

In Washington, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said Sunday that the international community continues to support Zelaya's return to power, and the Micheletti government needs to confront that reality.

"This is a coup that failed," Insulza told a news conference.

But further isolating impoverished Honduras, even Zelaya's allies concede, puts the country's stability at further risk.

Arias promised further efforts to seek a solution, and Vilma Morales, a negotiator for the interim government, said talks could resume Wednesday.

"Dialogue is not broken," she told the AP.

Zelaya, who previously vowed to go back to Honduras and set up a parallel government if the talks failed, left open the possibility that talks could bear fruit. But he said he would push forward with organizing "resistance" inside Honduras to prepare for his eventual return. He did not give details.

The Honduran military thwarted Zelaya's first attempt to fly home on July 5 by blocking the runway at the airport in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

"Next weekend we will have everything necessary to make our return," he said late Sunday in Managua. "The social pact in Honduras is broken; the military broke it."

Universal Health Care Now. Its time has come...

The steadily rising exorbitant costs of healthcare may be the biggest single fiscal problem facing the American people and the US government today.

Agreed that the stimulus bill, banking and auto bailouts were huge and the results are yet to be seen. We keep our fingers crossed, because if these stimulus packages fail, well, God save us and with us most of the world.

Those are all big expenses, to be sure, but they are one-time payouts limited in their long-term effect compared with the big federal health entitlement programs of Medicare and Medicaid which all Americans count on for their golden years of retirement.

This is one of the reasons it’s significant that Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), told the Senate on Thursday that proposed health care legislation does not rein in the government’s runaway costs for medical programs. Elmendorf continues by saying, “In the legislation reported, we do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by any significant amount.”

On Friday, a key House committee passed its chamber’s version of health-reform legislation, but critics complained that it, too, would do little or nothing to slow US health payouts. Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats appear to have seized on the cost issue, either to slow the movement of the health bill or curb its scale and price.

Slowing the rate of growth for healthcare spending is one of President Obama’s goals for healthcare. The other is expanding health coverage to millions who now lack it.
Healthcare costs are not exactly a new problem for Uncle Sam, of course. Spending on Medicare and Medicaid has been growing faster than the economy for decades. Medicare and Medicaid are the monsters in that list. Absent changes in federal law, their cost will grow from 5 percent of US GDP today to almost 10 percent by 2035.
By 2080, the two programs would be about the same size, relative to GDP, as the entire US budget is today.

Unless things change, that will continue in the future. Measured relative to the nation’s gross domestic product, almost all the projected growth in the federal deficit will be caused by rising interest payments on the national debt and increased Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security costs, according to CBO’s just-updated long-term budget outlook.

“Comprehensive health care reform means finding ways to deliver health care more efficiently, and that will help us restrain the rate of growth of government spending over the long run. We can’t start that soon enough,”

We the people of this great nation should demand strict manage to oversee the exorbitant and rising costs of our health care, through tough and honest government regulations and line item controls of costs and spending. Those who are now pocketing our health care dollars are also predicting a gloom and doom scare tactic scenario, but we are the wealthiest and grandest nation in the world and we outspend the world in health care dollars, yet we are the only industrialized country that does not offer a comprehensive health care plan for all of our citizens.

This is a shame and it is wrong!

Zelaya reviewing marching orders with sugar daddy, Hugo Chavez...

Leftist Venezuelan de facto dictator, Hugo Chavez, again meddling in the internal affairs of foreign states, said yesterday that his ALBA ally, the ousted Honduran president, Maneul Zelaya, will return to Honduras within the next hours. This clear provocation for a blood bath in Honduras, despite the ongoing second round of negotiations in Costa Rica between the delegations of Zelaya and Micheletti, is the type of interventionism that Hugo Chavez has become infamously known for in the region.

The Honduran people accuse Hugo Chavez of meddling and intervention, and of inciting Manuel Zelaya to return to Honduras and eternalize his presidency. If in effect Zelaya returns to Honduras, there is an arrest warrant for him, and he will be arrested and charged with the crimes of treason, violating the Constitution, and attempting to be reelected indefinitely and become president for life, as Hugo Chavez has so often implied regarding his ALBA Alliance acolytes.

Also, and in Bolivia, another leftist ALBA alliance president Evo Morales, stated his solidarity with Zelaya and proclaimed to the press, “we need to support Zelaya.”

These reckless comments and the constant meddling of Hugo Chavez and his ALBA alliance lackeys have heighten tensions in the region and made more difficult the mediation and dialog by Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias, who has proposed the formation of a national government of unity in Honduras that would defuse this mayor crisis that Central America has faced in the last decades.

This guy has no shame... And doesn't miss it either...

Aside from the damage done to his standing as South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford’s recent admission of an extramarital affair may end up tarnishing another of his political credentials — his carefully honed reputation as a tightfisted steward of taxpayer money.

Analysis of state travel records that were reviewed to explore the circumstances of his affair with his Argentine girlfriend, found that in his 6 1/2 years as governor, Sanford traveled frequently and in a style markedly at odds with his political persona façade.

The records detail more than $468,000 dollars worth of state-funded travel for Sanford and show that he routinely billed taxpayers for high-end airline seats, racking up more than $44,000 on business- and first-class airline tickets. He often stayed in pricey hotels that far exceeded the rate limits he imposed on other state employees.

On one overseas trip, the state appears to have spent more than $12,000 for the governor’s business-class tickets for a September 2007 trade mission to mainland China while his aides flew in economy class for airfares as low as $1,900.
The records released under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, cover commercial airline trips to destinations including Paris, Beijing, Stockholm, Munich and London, as well as state plane flights that carried him, his family, friends and staff around the state and country. They do not detail the costs of every international trade mission Sanford participated in, and, in some cases, the documents are incomplete or difficult to decipher.

Still, the picture that emerges from these records conflict with Sanford’s portrayed image as a politician who is especially stingy with taxpayer cash and vigilant about the costs of taxpayer-funded travel.

After winning a seat in Congress in 1994, he pounded his chest and publicly agonized over accepting a $10,000-taxpayer-funded trip, telling a local paper.

Is this guy for real…

Duh.... Where's Honduras...

The deposed leftist president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, last week called on his followes in that country to insurrection and to reestablish constitutional order in Honduras. Zelaya also presented the interim Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti, with an ultimatum, that in the ongoing dialog in Costa Rica he either accepts him (Zelaya) back as the constitutional president of Honduras, or to expect the consequences and “other” measures.

The chancellor of the deposed Zelaya government, Patricia Rodas, also informed in Bolivia but without offering further details, that Zelaya, would be at any moment somewhere in Honduras. That Zelaya is now on his way there, and she asks for God and the people of America to protect and accompany him.

Chancellor Rodas went on to say that Zelaya intends to establish an alternative government Hondura territory, and from there Zelaya would lead the final battle against the leaders of the coup that ousted him from power. Chancellor Rodas did not elaborate further, and she did not indicate exact places or time framss.

In Honduras yesterday, Zelaya supporters again took to the streets, protesting and interfering with the normal flow of traffic.

In La Paz, Bolivia, (another of the Hugo Chavez’s ALBA acolytes), vice president of the Union of Capital Cities of Iberoamerica (UCCI), together with his Mexico City counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard, condemned the so-called coup d’etat in Honduras, stating that no one can keep still while the act of oustering president Zelaya is allowed to stand.

Those who don't want to listen, can’t hear the rising crescendo of the drum beats that foretell of an upcoming blood bath in Honduras.

Most people in the U.S. either don't care, don't know, or prefer to go shopping.

Bio Fuels, A Viable Future for El Salvador ....

Two recent independent studies by international firms regarding renewable energy in El Salvador, with financing from the U.S. State Department, have concluded and demonstrated that within Salvadoran territory there already exists the production capacity and the markets for ethanol produced from locally grown sugarcane.

One important facet of the study detailed the creation of ethanol producing plants in the country’s already existent sugar refineries. One refinery specifically mentioned was La Magdalena Green Fuels,(the name of the study), the project would call for adding additional ethanol distillery capacity and replace existing and outdated equipment. The estimated ethanol production at this one site would be 9 million gallons of bio fuel per year and 9.6 megavolts of electricity.

The initial start-up costs of the project would be $43.9 million dollars that includes the costs related to financing costs and operations.

The study was presented to the Salvadoran Minister of the Economy, Hector Dada, for study and review by the National Committee on Energy, who will discuss the project and its potential for application.

El Salvador consumes approximately 150 million gallons of gasoline annually and the government plans to create 10% of that consumption total in domestically produced bio fuels for use in automobiles. This would reduce the country’s imports of hydrocarbons by 15 million gallons annually during the next years.

Bio fuel production from nationally grown sugarcane has been the norm in Brazil for many years, and El Salvador could benefit greatly form that Brazilian expertise.

At the present, the judicial framework is being worked out that will give the necessary assurances and guarantees for the investment and the markets.

Julio Arrollo, General Manager of the Sugar Association of El Salvador, stated that there was a definite interest in the private sector to review and promote this project that would clearly favor El Salvador.

Chavez's Bolivarian Nirvana waning.....

One would be hard pressed to find anyone who misses the presidency of George W. Bush more than the Venezuelan chafarrote, Hugo Chavez. While George W. Bush was president and remained fixated on the Middle East, Washington all but ignored Latin America during that last decade. Our neglect permitted the opportunistic leftist blustering eight hundred pound gorilla, Hugo Chavez, to bolster his standings at home and throughout the region by flashing his new oil wealth and mocking Bush, whom he described as producing sulfurous emissions like the devil himself, and by warning of the threat from “the empire,” which has become Chavez’s usual term for these United States of America.

Bolivarianism, the socialist ideology and methods honed by Hugo Chavez during the Bush years, began making inroads and spreading like a malignant tumor into other parts of Latin America. In great part, Chavez's success was in great part due to the oil dollars that Chavez doled out to his supporting factions in this or that country's electoral process. The Venezuelan chafarrote seizing his moment in the sun, then proceeded to consolidate his power by modifing the Venezuelan Constitution to permit him the presidency indefinitely. This same Chavista, Bolivarian model for usurping power from the people, by first using and then trampling their democratic values has become the modus operandi of Hugo Chavez’s Alba acolytes such as Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and later, Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.

The Honduran people, by ousting the pro Chavez socialist, Manuel Zelaya, have in fact have succeeded in creating a precedent that the ALBA socialists can not let stand. The Honduran crisis has served as a dire prediction and warning to these would be leftist dictators, that they and their benefactor, Hugo Chavez, can be plucked clean, one feather at a time, and the people themselves can regain their usurped freedoms and their democratic ideals toward peace and prosperity.

Recently, and since the decline of the oil prices that had propped-up dictators like Chavez, we have seen how the Honduran people have risen in unison against the false promises of the ALBA alliance, and throughout Latin America leaders who emulate Chavez and have received strong financial support from Venezuela, are beginning to run into strong resistance from within and are showing lower and lower approval ratings from the people.

Before the removal of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from power, less than one-third of the population approved of his rule, and this discontent threatened to bubble over -- as it ultimately did -- as he tried to take a page from Chavez’s book to extend his own term of office. At the same time we witness that In Argentina, the Chavez-aligned Kirchner administration has also suffered a devastating defeat in the midterm elections on June 28th.

In Nicaragua, former guerrilla leader, current president and Chavez acolyte Daniel Ortega, also faces strong opposition, along with scandals over electoral fraud and the heinous sexual abuse charge by his his own daughter-in-law. In the Bolivarian mold, Ortega is also plotting the perpetuation of his rule, perhaps by changing Nicaragua from a presidential to parliamentary system so he can become prime minister.

Chavez and his leftist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas is being rejected by people like the Hondurans themselves, who have demonstrated that Chavez and his lackeys can be plucked clean, one feather at a time, and until our entire American continent will be free to live and prosper in the democratic freedom and happiness we all aspire and dream of.

Pollution produces dazzling colors..

Whenever China is engaged on their pollution and energy problems, the inevitable response seems to be, “Hey, you western industrialized nations were able to grow dirty for more than 150 years, using cheap coal and oil. Now it’s our turn.”

It’s a tough argument to refute, and finally we must agree with them. “Yes, you’re right, now it’s your turn.” But we also know that with our Green Environmental policies, we just need perhaps another five years all the clean energy technologies the entire world will need and clamor for as they choke to death on their own pollution.

Now China too is finding that it will have to go green out of sheer necessity because in too many places, its people can’t breathe, fish, swim, drive or even see because of pollution and the effects its inevitable climate change. We know that necessity is the mother of invention, and the Chinese are moving in a big way to developing solar, wind, batteries, nuclear and energy efficient technologies on its low-cost platform.

It’s become more and more clear that if the U.S. fails to adopt an economy wide carbon abatement program, we will be ceding leadership in new worldwide energy technology. The alternative for us is business as usual and end-up buying windmills from Europe, batteries from Japan and solar panels from Asia.

President Obama is focused on universal health care and on putting the green energy technology on the back burner for the time being.

I believe that health care and clean energy go together, and we need them both..

Marxist Technique for Fabricating Martyrs...

When one discussed and does research on Marxist or Socialist insurgency tactics that have been employed in Latin America since the early 1980's with the objective of creating sympathy toward their ideological cause, we must recognized and not be duped by one of their favorite and most widely successfully used techniques.

We must understand that we are dealing with a version of Marxist criminal terrorist who does not at all flinch at sacrificing a few of their own, the so-called useful or useless fools, to draw worldwide condemnation for the authorities, while creating wide felt sympathy for themselves.

One of their most popular and widely used ploys to create martyrs and be able to parade these unfortunate victims before the photo journalists of the foreign press, is to have one of their own, a professional agitator and sniper, fire a few rounds directly at the authorities from within the “peaceful” demonstration.

When the police or military that are guarding and maintaining order along the demonstration route, receive fire from the crowd they logically shoot back in self defense and, "WHALLA" instant martyrs! Dead and crying civilians (men, women, children, no matter) to parade up and down the streets before the insatiable cameras of the foreign press until the fetid stench of the dead becomes unbearable.

Their macabre reasoning for not returning the bodies immediately over to their loving families is that, “the martyrs belong to the people now, they were assassinated serving the people and the people need to immortalize their sacrifice.”

As Honduras becomes more and more a lynch mob of condemnation and the there crisis continues to widen, we can expect more Hugo Chavez ALBA intervention and financing. It is clear that this ALBA alliance cannot permit the precedent of allowing the ouster of one of their own comrades to stand.

As the U.S. and the world vacillate between whether to isolate Honduras or stop Chavez, the violence in Honduras will undoubtedly increase, and we can expect more destruction, more “innocent” civilian deaths, and a widening and spilling over of the crisis into neighboring countries.

Agreed that Hugo Chavez is only a blustering chafarrote, a mouse that roared, but the implications for America are great because if leftist regimes are allowed to flourish throughout the continent and destroy their already decrepit economies, there will obviously be a mass human tsunami banging on our Southern border wall.

We are currentlly in an ideological tug-of-war on this American continent, and it’s about time the sleeping giant awaken to that reality. Democracy has been proven time and again that it is the only viable solution for the languishing poverty in our world today.

All repressed people of the world should take the Honduran example of the oustering of their corrupt leaders and replacing these rhetorical demagogues with professional leadership that can honestly and courageously lead the nation.

America has the potential, now what is needed is the will to get out there and do something about it!

America, the shining light on the hill of the hope for the downtrodden and languishing masses of the world…

Honduran Crisis Widens to all of Central And South America…

The short and sweet of it all is that the current and ongoing crisis in Honduras encompasses all that is represented within the four letters, ALBA: The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, a radical Socialist alliance created and financed by Venezuelan Socialist and eight hundred pound gorilla, Hugo Chavez, who’s primary goal remains to destabilize the democratic and pro U.S. countries in Latin America.

The ouster of ALBA president, Manuel Zelaya, from Honduras not only represented a strong and definite rejection of the Honduran nation to the Socialist agenda and its impositions dictated by Hugo Chavez himself, but also constituted a dire warning and precedent to the ALBA alliance itself. Hugo Chavez was recently quoted as saying, “We will support the Honduran people’s insurrection against those who dared ouster Manuel Zelaya.” And while sitting together with Raul Castro, Manuel Zelaya and Daniel Ortega, Chavez added, “I will do everything in our power to defeat the interim government of Honduras.”

President Obama will need to act definitively and act soon. Will the U.S. join the lynch mob further condemning and isolating the Honduran nation, or will we finally decide to Stop Chavez…

Hugo Chavez acts like we were attacking him and Venezuela, but all to the contrary we remain trading partners to his country, and the U.S. is the principle importer of Venezuelan oil.

The American public needs to be infomed and told the truth. It’s time that the sleeping giant wake-up to the understanding that we are in an ideological tug-of-war on this American continent and the stakes are high.

The ball is in President Obama’s court.

Love it, Make it Better, or Leave it....

A friend who was working recently in the tiny Republic of El Salvador, one day commented to me about his perceived ill will by certain segments of Salvadoran society toward our homeland, the United States of America. At first, I jokingly responded that we are definitely not a gold coin to be loved and cherished by all. But later and upon further rationalization, I reached the conclusion that:

Anti Americanism may run deep within the socially resentful few, who always seem to omit the fact that El Salvador once sent official emissaries to Washington to request their country's admission into the North American Union.

Although the request was not acted upon at the time, but the fact remains that there are currently more that two million Salvadorans living and working in this marvelous country, many of which are here illegally.

Because of the current worldwide economic crisis that clearly affects poor and underdeveloped countries the most, El Salvador irrefutably needs and lives on the so-called “remesas,” remittances sent by their compatriots working in the United States of America, to relatives in their native homeland. Realizing this need, the Salvadoran government has requested that we give special treatment and even amnesty to Salvadoran illegal immigrants.

There are millions upon millions of people throughout the world clamoring to reach our shores and live their lives in the happiness and freedom that our American Dream affords; a paradisiacal dream that is only found in a light atop of a hill.

These United States of America, because of its unique greatness and enormous generosity to all those less fortunate, has simultaneously become the envy but at the same time the beacon of hope to the world.

This is the classic love hate duality one might often perceive from the insecure, the frustrated and socially resentful of our world. We Americans certainly must rise above this mediocrity and learn to understand and nurture those mourning lost souls, and feel human compassion toward their bias and their repressed ignorance.

God has blessed our America from sea to shining sea, and we need to be fully understanding, compassionate and grateful in our unique greatness. “We are the World” and the hope to millions of languishing souls.

God Bless America!

Honduras' non Coup D'etat....

Honduras, the tiny Central American nation, had a change of leaders on June 28. The country's military arrested President Manuel Zelaya -- in his pajamas, he says -- and put him on a plane bound for Costa Rica. A new president, Roberto Micheletti, was appointed. Led by Cuba and Venezuela (Sudan and North Korea were not immediately available), the international community swiftly condemned this "coup."

Something clearly has gone awry with the rule of law in Honduras -- but it is not necessarily what you think. Begin with Zelaya's arrest. The Supreme Court of Honduras, as it turns out, had ordered the military to arrest Zelaya two days earlier. A second order (issued on the same day) authorized the military to enter Zelaya's home to execute the arrest. These orders were issued at the urgent request of the country's attorney general. All the relevant legal documents can be accessed (in Spanish) on the Supreme Court's website. They make for interesting reading.

What you'll learn is that the Honduran Constitution may be amended in any way except three. No amendment can ever change (1) the country's borders, (2) the rules that limit a president to a single four-year term and (3) the requirement that presidential administrations must "succeed one another" in a "republican form of government."

In addition, Article 239 specifically states that any president who so much as proposes the permissibility of reelection "shall cease forthwith" in his duties, and Article 4 provides that any "infraction" of the succession rules constitutes treason. The rules are so tight because these are terribly serious issues for Honduras, which lived under decades of military rule.

As detailed in the attorney general's complaint, Zelaya is the type of leader who could cause a country to wish for a Richard Nixon. Earlier this year, with only a few months left in his term, he ordered a referendum on whether a new constitutional convention should convene to write a wholly new constitution. Because the only conceivable motive for such a convention would be to amend the un-amendable parts of the existing constitution, it was easy to conclude -- as virtually everyone in Honduras did -- that this was nothing but a backdoor effort to change the rules governing presidential succession. Not unlike what Zelaya's close ally, Hugo Chavez, had done in Venezuela.

The attorney general filed suit and secured a court order halting the referendum. Zelaya then announced that the voting would go forward just the same, but it would be called an "opinion survey." The courts again ruled this illegal. Undeterred, Zelaya directed the head of the armed forces, Gen. Romeo Vasquez, to proceed with the "survey" -- and "fired" him when he declined. The Supreme Court ruled the firing illegal and ordered Vasquez reinstated.

Zelaya had the ballots printed in Venezuela, but these were impounded by customs when they were brought back to Honduras. On June 25 -- three days before he was ousted -- Zelaya personally gathered a group of "supporters" and led it to seize the ballots, restating his intent to conduct the "survey" on June 28. That was the breaking point for the attorney general, who immediately sought a warrant from the Supreme Court for Zelaya's arrest on charges of treason, abuse of authority and other crimes. In response, the court ordered Zelaya's arrest by the country's army, which under Article 272 must enforce compliance with the Constitution, particularly with respect to presidential succession. The military executed the court's order on the morning of the proposed survey.

It would seem from this that Zelaya's arrest by the military was legal, and rather well justified to boot. But, unfortunately, the tale did not end there. Rather than taking Zelaya to jail and then to court to face charges, the military shipped him off to Costa Rica. No one has yet explained persuasively why summarily sending Zelaya into exile in this manner was legal, and it most likely wasn't.

This illegality may entitle Zelaya to return to Honduras. But does it require that he be returned to power?

No. As noted, Article 239 states clearly that one who behaves as Zelaya did in attempting to change presidential succession ceases immediately to be president. If there were any doubt on that score, the Congress removed it by convening immediately after Zelaya's arrest, condemning his illegal conduct and overwhelmingly voting (122 to 6) to remove him from office. The Congress is led by Zelaya's own Liberal Party (although it is true that Zelaya and his party have grown apart as he has moved left). Because Zelaya's vice president had earlier quit to run in the November elections, the next person in the line of succession was Micheletti, the Liberal leader of Congress. He was named to complete the remaining months of Zelaya's term.

It cannot be right to call this a "coup." Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country's elected Congress. The president is a civilian. The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before. The armed forces are under civilian control. The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November. Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law. All Honduran bishops joined Rodriguez in this pronouncement.

True, Zelaya should not have been arbitrarily exiled from his homeland. That, however, does not mean he must be reinstalled as president of Honduras. It merely makes him an indicted private citizen with a meritorious immigration beef against his country.

Any Self Respecting Insurgent is more fearful of dying of old age than of being killed on the battlefield...

We all know and it’s common knowledge that the chafarrote, Hugo Chavez, has as his mission in life to destabilize Latin American democracies and U.S. allies in the region, as if he or Venezuela were under attack.

His current victim country is tiny Honduras, but if it wasn’t Honduras it would be somewhere else. Chavez has been shown to be an insecure and frustrated egomaniac who has the petrol dollars to feed his compulsion, to feel important and to feel that he matters.

As the ALBA countries in Latin America come under the Chavez boot, they will soon discover that Socialism or anything resembling socialism is ultimately doomed to fail.

As in Cuba with the Castro’s fifty year old dynasty, we’ve witnessed that, “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” And the Cuban people only want to escape that once beautiful island paradise.

All these demagogic feel-good ideologies, filled with nonsensical rhetoric will ultimately and irrefutably fail simply because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes the reward away, no one will want to succeed.

After all, we must realize that we are dealing with the reality of human nature.

Cuba contines to be a fantastic example of this truth, where the national pastime apparently has become to look for a decent inner tube and splash your way to America.

Another great example of this phenomenon, resides in the families who no longer want to work because they prefer waiting for their monthly "remesas" from the U.S.

The Cuban government finally decided to levy a 10% tax on these remesas coming from abroad!

I dare only imagine the uproar and condemnations if ARENA had gone to that extreme.

But then, we live in a democratic country where we can peacefully voice our opinions. God bless.

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