This certainly adds to The One’s previous, well-documented
efforts at slowing down or reducing IT outsourcing. < sarcasm off > This
funding of direct competition for U.S. technical workers puts the lie
to all he has said about reducing “off-shoring” or “best shoring”, and
the bashing of the previous administration for creating tax incentives
for moving jobs overseas. This training will facilitate more movement
of tech jobs offshore.

You can read the full article here (in Information Week). (By the way,
the comments are entertaining…)

The funding is through USAID (United States Agency for International
Development), headed by Czar Rajiv Shah, and coming through this agency,
the money cannot be used domestically. But this begs the question: why
in the world are we (our own government!) training foreigners to take
jobs from us? We have approximately 10% official unemployment (maybe
more than 20% real unemployment) in this country! Perhaps those funds
(even the piddling amount of $22 million) could be put to better use here
at home… or, heaven forbid, perhaps we could even cut taxes a bit?

Why, in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great
Depression, we are continuing to send our tax money out of the country,
is beyond me. Just one more reason to think seriously about your vote
in the upcoming fall elections…

The gist is this: the Obama Administration is actively negotiating with Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority: not as a middle man, but on behalf of the PA. The sources for this are a senior PA negotiator (unnamed) and unnamed sources in the Israeli government.

… rather than act as an intermediary, the U.S. has been negotiating with Israel on behalf of the PA, assuming all Palestinian positions and bargaining with Israel from the Palestinian side.

The Obama Administration negotiating with an ally and friend, on behalf of a terrorist organization, taking the side of the terrorist organization… I don’t even know how to think about this, much less what to think. To know that our country is now actively taking the side of a despicable, blood-thirsty, cowardly, terrorist group that has nothing in common with us and our way of life, against a long-time ally, friend, with which we have a common cultural heritage and linked interests, literally takes my breath away.

This just keeps getting better and better….

Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund video

Other than the obvious issues related to this sort of email, curiousity got the better of me and I searched around for a more balanced view of this. I found this rebuttal:

Kswatcher’s Weblog

Although I abhor such hunting, especially for predators (my wife and I are dog breeders, so I have a soft spot for wolves and other wild canines) I suspected that there might be more behind this than was included in the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund video. There was…

It turns out to be a wildlife management issue in Alaska, and that the National Research Council and the National Academy of Sciences has an issue with how the State of Alaska is managing their wildlife resources, i.e. not doing exactly what these councils want.

Wildlike management issues are very complex, controversial, difficult and painful, for both sides alike. Usually, neither side ends up getting all that they want, but the end target should be the most humane, effective, and most cost-effective management program that can be created, meeting the goals required by the law and deemed attainable by science. But to do this, both sides have to negotiate and cooperate with this in mind. It rarely happens in practice…

The sad part is that the radical Green/Enviro crowd used this to stir up emotions on both sides in an effort to slime a Republican/Conservative… what a surprise!

By his choice of Sarah Palin as Vice-President, he has
opened the door for these new faces of the Republic Party to be seen, in
spite of the MSM. If he can continue to pull these sorts of politicians
into the government once he is elected, I think it is possible to start
a real transformation of the Federal government, that can really start
to take off once McCain’s term is complete, if all goes well.

It appears that this “new” Republican Party will tend to be more socially
conservative; more fiscally responsible; less tolerant of the corrosive
Left (socialists, communists and their ilk); more overtly religious
(but at the same time not judgmental or “preachy”); more willing to
identify and target true evil in the world; more appreciative
of the uniqueness and greatness of the United States; and overall just
more like the bulk of us “normal” people. In a word: conservative.

I think I now have more reasons to be optimistic for the direction our country
now has the opportunity to take. Now, if only people will sit back and
think before they pull the lever in the November election…