Summertime is here

Grab your hot dogs and cold beers because it’s grilling time, which can only me one thing. It’s summer. It a time which every American prides themselves in time where the worries of snow fall are put away until the every last leaf falls off the trees. And every person would trade mosquito’s bites for frost bites. It is a time where families can reflect over a fire and melt s’mores. Baseball is put in place to slow down the quick days. Summer can never last long enough and before you know it is all gone.

Freedom of Infromation Act

Since President Barack Obama decided that the pictures of Osama Bin Laden were “too gruesome to make public, lest they inflame violence or be used as anti-U.S. propaganda,” it will be up to journalists to force the U.S. Government under the Freedom of Information Act, an Act which many of us Media Studies majors are familiar with. The Associated Press has already taken it upon themselves to file a Freedom of Information Act for a pile of Bin Laden dead body-related media being held by the government, which, if granted by the courts, could require the info to be made public.

It won't work against the White House is exempt from FOIA, so the law wouldn’t apply if the images are controlled there. The CIA, which had operational control of the mission, and Defense Department can use a series of exemptions from the act to block the release of the images.

The government has 20 days to responds to FOIA request to the release of the images.

May Day!!!!

Today I should be writing about the Royal Wedding or the high gas prices, but this is a huge day for me as a former Armed Services member. We have killed the largest enemy against the United States. He has been hiding in Pakistan a mansion which we will all have question about in the upcoming days. Osama Bin Laden has been killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan.
President Barack Obama confirmed the death of the Al Qaida terrorist leader in a nationally-televised address Sunday night.
Obama said the killing of Obama was the top priority of the U.S. intelligence community.
“Last week, I determind that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get Osama Bin Laden,” the president said. “A small team of Americans carried out the operation…no Americans were harmed…after a firefight, they killed Osama Bin Laden and took custody of his body.”
So all I have to say is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsaTElBljOE

Pain at the pump

With my upcoming trip to San Diego I should be excited to see nicer weather, but I get sick to my stomach as I think about the price I will be paying for a gallon of gasoline. You can’t go anywhere without hearing some talk about the gas prices. San Diego is among the highest in the country when it comes to gas prices. The national average is about $3.90, in San Diego they are paying $4.61. I get so upset to think that oil companies raise the price of gas over holidays because they can make a huge profit and prosper. Prices have been spiraling upward for weeks and show no signs of stopping.

Funny enough, if there is pain at the pump in the U.S., our neighbors to the south may just have a remedy. Just 10 miles south of San Diego, is Tijuana, where an average gallon cost about $2.54, even less if you pay in pesos.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/15/pain-pump/

http://m.reporternews.com/news/2011/apr/06/pain-at-the-pump/

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/the-scene/cars/Gas-Prices-to-Skyrocket-in-2011-112676279.html

How a Government shut down effects tax returns

Sorry. Might as well uncross those fingers now… No matter what happens with the budget, Tax Day is still April 18, 2011. In case you missed the earlier announcement, Tax Day traditionally falls on April 15 unless that day happens to be on a Saturday, Sunday or federal holiday. This year, April 15 falls on a Friday – not a Saturday, Sunday or federal holiday – but also falls on Emancipation Day, an official public holiday, in D.C. Because of that, this year, Tax Day jumps ahead one business day to Monday, April 18, 2011.
Also happening in D.C. this time of year? Budget talks. April 18 just happens to fall a few days after a potential shuttering of the government on this Friday, April 8, if no deal can be reached on the budget. The April 18 deadline holds firm nonetheless. IRS Commish Doug Shulman has announced that any government shutdown will not affect the due date of federal income tax returns.
But those IRS folks aren’t working for free, right? Of course not. If the government does shut down, there will be a delay in processing paper returns (those hand delivered or submitted via USPS or private delivery service). That could mean a lag in your refund if you submit a paper return this year. However, the processing of e-filed returns will not be affected.

A government shut down could cause consumer spending to drop by just over $30 billion. It's a lot of money. And certainly meaningful to the people who count on those checks.

The spending hit has to do with tax refunds, which many Americans still expect to get in the next month or so. The Internal Revenue Service has said that if the government shuts down, Americans would still need to send in their taxes by the deadline, which this year is April 18. If you owe money, checks would still be cashed. But for the many people who are expecting to get a refund, a government shutdown could mean a much longer wait than usual. Worse, at a time when American consumers seem to be wavering between spending again and keeping their wallets shut, the lack of refunds could put a large dent in the economy.

America's Pastime

Get the grills going and the hot dog cooking, baseball season is right around the corner. For many of us the thought of the snow melting is enough to make the spring time look good, but for me it is a reminder of a time where athletes come out of the woodwork to play the oldest sport of our great nation. A time where little leaguers wear the gloves of their fondest players in hopes of following in their footsteps, and a time where landscapers spent hours of preparations just to give a field the prestige look it deserves.
For me hero’s like Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken Jr., and Mike Piazza were just a few players I liked to follow and have since retired, but have not left the game for good. Mattingly has gone on to become the manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He will face a home opener against the World Series Champions, the San Francisco Giants, Thursday March 31. Cal Ripken Jr. has started a little league to return the favor that he was once blessed with. Mike Piazza is spending more time teaching his children the love for the game.
Soon stadiums around the nation will be filled with spectators, “Root root rooting,” for their home team, and even if they don’t win, well that’s a shame. But it’s one, two, three strikes you’re out of the old ballgame.

Operation Odyssey Dawn

The Libyan Revolution has reached a critical point after Western coalition began military attacks that exceeded the goal of a no-fly zone over Libyan airspace. As a veteran who severed two tour in the Persian Gulf it seem to be remarkable timing that comes around the same time as the with the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

United States, France, the U.K., and other nations began striking the regime’s military assets on Saturday as part of an effort to enforce UN resolution aimed at protecting Libyan civilians.

The Arab League is soon expected to reiterate support for a no-fly zone over Libya, the countries involved in enforcing the zone had linked their participation to regional backing.

Three days after an international military coalition intervened in Libya, the cost to U.S. taxpayers has reached the hundreds of millions of dollars and continues to climb. U.S. and U.K. ships and submarines in the Mediterranean have unleashed at least 161 Tomahawk cruise missiles from their arsenals to the tune of $225 million, the Pentagon said.

U.S. warplanes have dropped dozens of bombs with price-tags of tens of thousands of dollars apiece. Now taxes payers have a $30 million F-15 to replace and cost are predicted to be in the billions by the end of the month.
The UN and the U.S are calling this a humanitarian crisis, but why was nothing done in Darfur years earlier when hundreds of thousands of people where being killed and strive to death? And why was nothing being do when Egypt was in it turmoil? It is nothing more than the price of gas that controls our military interest and this is yet another reason why we need to step away from our depends on fossil fuels.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/03/rhetoric_intervention
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/whats-happening-libya-explained
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/23/world/africa/23libya.html?_r=1&hp