Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year 2012!

I wish all of you, your families and friends Happy New Year 2012, full of happiness, good health and plenty of wealth!

Here is a video of Sydney Harbor New Year celebrations fireworks that you may enjoy!

Krishna

Monday, November 7, 2011

Herman Cain on US taxes and economy



Listen to Herman Cain's talk on how he will tackle the taxes and the economy better than what is being done now!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Smoke break

smoke break by danielle_blue
smoke break, a photo by danielle_blue on Flickr.

The Bodgery by Chris Myers

The original uploader of this image to Flickr.com has labelled it as: "BBC Gardeners' World Live 2011 (14th June 2011)", possibly because it is related to the BBC gardeners series. Any way, I love this image! I hope you too like it.

A doll picking out flowers

Ginger lee   by pipjess87
Ginger lee , a photo by pipjess87 on Flickr.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Michele Bachmann, Republican Presidential Candidate

Michele Bachmann

Photo: Michele Bachmann by Gage Skidmore, on Flickr

Republican Presidential candidate and the United States House of Representatives Member Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) addresses CPAC FL in Orlando, Florida on 23 September 2011.

Republican Prez candidates at Ames Straw Poll

Ames Straw Poll 007 by IowaPolitics.com
Ames Straw Poll 007, a photo by IowaPolitics.com on Flickr.

Republican candidates seeking nomination for contesting the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election at Ames Straw Poll: Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Thaddeus McCotter, Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, photo dated 12 August 2011

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Convair 240 at Pinal Airpark, Avra Valley

Photo: A Convair 240 aircraft (CV240) parked in a boneyard in Avra Valley, 1996. It was one of the last models produced and delivered to the USAF in November 1954, and spent most of its service life in Europe based at Rhein-Main. In 1975 it was stored at Davis Monthan AFB in the desert of Arizona, where it remained for a few years. It was reportedly sold to a Mexican owner in 1997, but it never went there, as reported in 1999. (Source: R. Leeuw)

The place in the picture, the Avra Valley is a 50 mile/ 80 km long valley bordering the west of Tucson, Arizona with the Tucson Mountains at center-east of the valley. An aircraft storage park (seen in the picture), Marana, and the Pinal Airpark are to the northeast of the valley.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Mitt Romney leads in polls

Mitt Romney by Gage Skidmore
Mitt Romney, a photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.

According to various reports, opinion polls show that the former of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is a leading contender for the 2012 U.S. presidential elections. Consistently he has been one of the top three contenders along with Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, but the latter two have decided not to contest. Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination on June 2, 2011.

New surveys show that Romney leads over his Republican rivals. Herman Cain, who as the former CEO, was instrumental to rescue Godfather's Pizza from running into red, has come second, and gained more votes than Rick Perry. The other Republican contenders who scored less are Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman.

The two main slogans on which Romney builds up momentum for his campaign are the overall improvement of U.S. economy and fastest creation of job opportunities. The latter is turning out to be his trump card as currently the U.S. unemployment remains very high, above 9.1%, with about 14 million Americans remaining jobless.

Romney ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, won several primaries, but lost out to John McCain.

A pertinent point that comes to mind is, “Can these results be really meaning anything?” In the last elections, Obama was only a second option to Clinton and that seemed the best choice for the Democrats, but at the end everything tilted unexpectedly in favor of Obama.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Callista Gingrich

Callista Gingrich by GingrichProductions
Callista Gingrich, a photo by GingrichProductions on Flickr.

Callista Gingrich (nee Callista Bisek) is married to Newt Gingrich, a former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives who seeks the Republican nomination to run in the 2012 presidential election.

Callista worked from 1988 to 2006 as a staffer in the United States House of Representatives for the House Committee on Agriculture. She married Newt Gingrich, who is 23 years her senior, on 18 August 2000, shortly after he divorced his second wife Marianne Ginther. Callista had been in a romantic relationship with him since 1993, while he was still married to Ginther.

Callista Gingrich is the President of the Washington D.C. based multimedia production company Gingrich Productions and the President of the Gingrich Foundation, a charitable nonprofit corporation.

Newt Gingrich speaking to voters at Des Moines

Newt Gingrich photo by Gage Skidmore
Newt Gingrich, a photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.

Newt Gingrich speaking at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, ahead of the Ames Straw Poll – photo by Gage Skidmore

Newt Gingrich, who served as the 58th Speaker of the House of Representatives (1995-1999), represented the 6th congressional district of Georgia as a Republican member from 1979 to 1999. Gingrich announced in May 2011 that he will seek the Republican nomination to run in the 2012 Presidential Election.

A college professor, historian, and author, Gingrich continues to write on subjects related to the government and other matters and authored of 23 books. He is noted as the head and/or founder of many companies/organizations such as Gingrich Productions and Renewing American Leadership, Center for Health Transformation, American Solutions for Winning the Future, etc.

Gingrich resigned his Speakership and his congressional seat after the 1998 Republican losses in midterm elections.

Newt Gingrich uses social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter effectively for his 2012 presidential campaign. At the time of writing this, he has 1,334,773 followers on Twitter (2,920 Tweets), and 152,565 Facebook Likes, apart from his 'Newt Gingrich 2012 Presidential Election Candidate Headquarters' site at http://www.newt.org/

Monday, June 6, 2011

Sarah Palin undecided on running for presidency

Sarah Palin by infacinatorinc
Sarah Palin, a photo by infacinatorinc on Flickr.

Sarah Palin was talking to Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace on the potential 2012 presidential hopefuls, when she said that she has not decided about running for presidency.
Palin, a paid contributor to the Fox network, was asked about messing up historical facts on Paul Revere, when she said that his famous midnight ride was to warn the British that they are not going to win against the well-armed Americans.
But it turned out she was messing up historical facts as Revere travelled at night to avoid being caught as he was on a mission to inform the American revolutionaries that the British planned to arrest John Hancock and Samuel Adams. He had to take extra care because some people of his circle had become British informants.
On her position on presidency, not particularly now, but right after losing the last attempt for the post of Vice President, running with John McCain in 2008, all her moves showed that she was aiming at the next presidency. And always she was considered an unconfirmed candidate, and her actions showed that. So, it is a bit surprising to hear her say otherwise!

Monday, February 28, 2011

Camden: one of the poorest cities in the United States

Camden, New Jersey, is one of the poorest cities in the United States, suffering from unemployment, poverty, urban decay, and several economic and social hardships.

A homeless New York man with the American flag in the background

Homeless - American Flag
Photo by C. G. P. Grey ([1]) [CC-BY-2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

In an article titled 'Five Ways to Promote Your Text-to-Give Campaigns on Social Media', on February 28, 2011, the blog of Social Media Guide for Non-profits explains how ‘nonprofits are experimenting with Text-To-Give fundraising’, and goes on to explain how nonprofits must tap social media, especially Twitter, Facebook, and photo-sharing sites like Flickr.com to drive home the message to wealthy, or above poverty-threshold Americans that they must donate more so that the poor and hapless Americans are not forced to beg.

The site also quote startling statistics to show: “Approximately 1.4 million New Yorkers rely on soup kitchens and food pantries. Please don't make them beg..."

Please see the non-profit blog's illustrated photo below:

Food Bank for New York City

Friday, February 25, 2011

Teenage Pregnancies in United States


The New York Correspondent for the Daily Telegraph Jon Swaine reports about “New Directions high school would teach 300 boys and girls”, in line with similar free schools being set up in Britain. I think the new initiative is backed by public funding. The schools for young pregnant teenagers are expected to provide “free childcare” also for their children.

The schools for pregnant American teenagers will be managed by a group of pastors and teachers in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and it is aimed at developing self-confidence, courage to face life and its challenges, and to develop critical thinking skills as young “baby mothers”.

Teenagers getting pregnant, and eventually deciding to evolve into caring responsible parents, mostly and unfortunately as single mothers, are on the rise as reports and stats from various sources suggest.

Teen pregnancies were looked down upon with a lot of stigma and judgmental attitudes in the past. So, the new school for pregnant teenage American girls wants to address this problem and take care of girls becoming pregnant in school.

According to the school's founders led by Jacquelyn Wideman, "An all-inclusive high school for pregnant and parenting teens will eliminate barriers to completing high school education," the report said.

According to The Daily Telegraph ‘There are 77 pregnancies in a year for every 1,000 teenage girls in New York’, which is seven more than 70 pregnant teenage girls reported for every 1,000 teenage girls for the rest of the United States.

To quote from the report: "New York city rules state that pregnant and parenting pupils must be allowed in schools, and in that sense we believe that they are best served in the existing public schools system."

Interestingly, and sadly, the proposed school is opposing other groups that work with teenage parents in the area, such as the Brooklyn Young Mothers' Collective. As this issue are quite sensitive, needs more responsible handling, and more than ever, it needs greater cooperation with similar groups, individuals and organizations to work together. If that is the real need of the times, why do initiatives like the proposed school oppose the other groups? Any self-interest?