Politics
If, as Tip O’Neill once observed “all politics is local” then do you know what’s going on in your own backyard? Do you know who your local congress representative is? How about your city council rep? School board? This isn’t a rallying cry to take to the streets and become politically active (although there’s nothing wrong with that!) but we should all become politically aware. Being informed about what our government is up to and how their polices are going to impact our lives is important. Remember, those folks back in Washington D.C. are working for us. That only way to make sure they do a good job is to hold them accountable. And you can only do that with the facts.

Obama Missing Historic Boy Scout Jamboree for Fundraisers, ‘View’ Taping

SRW’s 4-1/2 cents: OK, maybe it’s just me but does this strike anyone else out there as just plain wrong? Somebody! Get the President a PR Czar – QUICK! (Photos courtesy of SRW)

From Foxnews.com, July 27, 2010:

President Obama will make history as the first sitting president on a daytime talk show when he visits with the ladies of “The View.” But he’ll be missing out on another historic occasion — the Boy Scouts’ Jamboree marking the group’s 100th anniversary, right in the president’s backyard.

The Jamboree kicked off this week at Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia, where organizers had invited the president to speak to the 45,000 scouts in attendance. (SRW: and possibly over 80,000 in total attendance along with the historic first simulwebcast in Boy Scout history.  See this: A SHINING LIGHT ACROSS AMERICA Just saying…) All three of Obama’s predecessors have made it to one Jamboree while in office.

But the president will instead be traveling Wednesday to New York for a taping of the ABC show, as well as Democratic fundraisers and a stop in New Jersey. The talk show appearance comes as campaign season moves into full swing, but also amid efforts to cap the Gulf oil spill for good, contain the damage from an unprecedented leak of Afghanistan war documents and battle Arizona over its immigration law — set to go into effect Thursday. Obama also has an out-of-town event planned for Friday in Detroit.

CLICK HERE for the full Fox News article Read More...

“Put Down The Duck. I’m Just Here To Count You.”

From the outbox of Meyer’s inbox:

So it looks like we’ve pretty much all been counted by the U.S. Census. Guess which state has shown the biggest growth in residents? The answer is below. But how would you like to be the hapless census taker who had to file an official report about being bit by a duck? The mind boggles….

NEARLY ALL U.S. HOUSEHOLDS REACHED, CENSUS REPORTS by Sam Roberts

As of Tuesday, 98 percent of the 47 million households that had failed to return their census questionnaires had been contacted by a census worker.

And despite fears of hostility toward the federal government, rates of incidents involving census workers have been relatively few. Since April, in the course of knocking on 47 million doors an average of two times, the bureau has logged 430 on-the-job incidents against enumerators, including 13 cases where shots were fired (one man was killed in Baltimore) and 139 cases in which a weapon was pulled. Ten workers were robbed, one was bitten by a duck and another by a rooster.

“I don’t see a pattern,” said Robert Groves, the Census Bureau director. “The assaults are not all ideological, but there is a group where the respondents articulated a hatred of the federal government.”

Meanwhile, in a preview of 2010 census results, data released Tuesday revealed that Texas accounted for much of the nation’s urban growth in the year ending July 1, 2009. Read More...