Am I the only one just a little bit concerned about the lack of specific ideas on fixing the economy by all of the current presidential candidates? They are quick to hit all of the hot button no brainer political issues like the war in Iraq, healthcare, oil prices etc. but when it comes to talking about the economy we hear more ideals than we do ideas. Phrases such as “I will protect the middle class” or “Americans deserve to work hard and be successful” are commonplace. The question is what are you as a presidential candidate going to do in this global economy to stimulate new jobs and reduce the outsourcing of current American jobs? I believe one huge step toward these goals would be for the government to invest in the proliferation of new web technologies and in education in the web technology sector.

How would this be accomplished? Right now the U.S. government provides grants to states to prepare workers for new and emerging industries. By increasing this funding and setting aside a certain amount for web technology grants the government would provide a big boost of capital for this emerging industry. Also, the government could provide small business loans to businesses in the web technology sector to provide access to middle class Americans. Finally, by increasing funding for web technology education the government would provide a boost to the level of skilled labor in the market.

Why web technology? If we are looking to provide quality opportunities for middle class Americans this is the place to start. Startup costs for a web business are low. The web is the great equalizer in that if you have a good idea and you can create a web presence the payoff can be immense. You see it every day now that the internet is doing away with the need for newspapers, movies, even television. Advertising dollars are slowly migrating to the web. Our economy is moving there as well but unfortunately our leaders don’t have the forethought to move it out of the industrial age just yet. By making a big push in this sector the United States would gain a huge economic advantage in the global economy which would create new jobs and possible reduce the outsourcing of jobs. It is time to retrain our workforce to operate in the new web economy. Unfortunately, our current presidential candidates do not seem to find this notion politically satisfying.

There are no jobs now which can give you 100% guarantee nowadays. But you can avoid the lay off and the effects of off shoring by the following:-

- Keep a step ahead of the crowd by learning new skills – Make yourself a valuable asset to the employers – Try to get a federal or defense related job since most these kind of jobs are safer from off shoring.

- Due to the war in Iraq and the downsizing of the armed forces there are plenty of contract jobs in the private sector doing business with defense forces. Most of the positions require US citizenship which means these kinds of jobs are never off shored. This is a safe bet to start.

- Know more about your business; if you have a strong business knowledge it will be hardly outsourced or off shored

- Take a moment to think about the job you are doing. Can any one do your job from anywhere? any time restrictions? Lot of interaction? these questions might give a clue about your job situation.

The high tech industry and the software industry in particular is vulnerable to offshoring of services. The only way you can avoid is to learn more business about the company and make yourself an important player in the team.

There are several web sites that specializes jobs related to federal government and defense contracting jobs. You should check some sites and apply for a job.

At the time, Judith Miller, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter then employed by New York Times, was working on an in-depth article about the al-Qaeda network. She says that during the weekend immediately preceding July 4th 2001 (two months before the 9/11 attacks) officials within the White House’s Counter-terrorism Agency were trying to alert the president and other senior officials, but had decided to leak their concerns since they were being listened to.

CBS News reported, on July 26 2001, that the FBI had determined that the threat was serious enough to prompt enhanced security measures for certain officials. By August, the FBI knew that the pending attack would involve airplanes.

By early August 2001, the CIA had developed enough clarity about the threat to specifically warn the President. They titled their Presidential Daily Briefing for August 6, 2001 “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S” in the hope that the president would be concerned enough to energize the governmental agencies responsible for security and head off the attack. President Bush, who spent an estimated 42% of his first year vacationing in his ranch in Crawford, Texas, was not pleased by the in-person intrusion of the CIA agent who was sent to present the analysis. Bush glared at the CIA briefer and the snapped: “All right, you have covered your ass”. When the agent cleared out, the President went back to fishing and working on a speech about the stem-cell research, putting the CIA’s warning in the distant back of his mind. Source: Ron Suskind, “The One Percent Solution”.

As far back as 1995, Philippine police in Manila had uncovered an al Qaeda related plot to hijack commercial airliners and fly them into American buildings. The plan was named “Project Bojinka” and the World Trade Center was specifically mentioned as a target. This information was turned over to U.S. Intelligence, but no preventive measures were ever ordered, even though the CIA was informed the attack would involve airplanes…

The attacks of 9/11 have helped authoritarian countries increase their control over their people and countries they are fighting, under the pretext of defending themselves against terror. It also helped the Bush administration impose measures that greatly expanded the Federal government’s control over the American population. The attacks also provided an excuse to start the desired war on Iraq. But as the American people became aware that the Bush administration had misrepresented the facts used to take America into that Iraq war, they lost a significant degree of trust in their own government. That led to further questions about the 9/11 attacks and fueled the 9/11 conspiracy movement at the heart of which are the lies of the Bush Administration and the reasonably resulting distrust of the American people.

It was George W. Bush’s incompetence, not clever design, that allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place. The tragedy could likely have been prevented had his administration attended to the numerous danger signals preceding those attacks by mustering the surveillance already in place and increasing the airport security measures. There certainly remain a number of strange coincidences and unexplained phenomena relevant to the 9/11 attacks, but the assertion that they could have been an inside government job strains credibility. It would have been insane, even for an administration as misguided as that of George W. Bush’s, for the neocons to have orchestrated such an event, because the level of organization necessary for such acts would inevitably have leaked and led to the destruction of the Republican Party forever. Although George W. Bush did manage to implode Republican prospects in general, it is important for the country as a whole to focus its attention on the serious challenges left his wake. Toward that end, Congressional investigations of the Bush/Cheney years would be most appropriate.

Speaking at a recent seminar marking the 61st anniversary of Jordan’s independence, the Prime Minister asserted that everyone should realise that:

“this small country [Jordan] was not accidentally born nor was the outcome of deals,conferences or conspiracies.”

Jordan’s history is well documented and totally contradicts the Prime Minister‘s amazing assertion.

It was accidentally born in 1921 – as the emirate of Transjordan. It then comprised 77% of the area designated by Britain and France as “Palestine” after the First World War – the land in which the Jewish National Home was intended to be reconstituted almost 2000 years after the Jews had lost their biblical and ancestral homeland to foreign invaders and occupiers.

This noble plan was suddenly “postponed or withheld” in relation to Transjordan, when Britain changed tack and proceeded to transform Transjordan into an “Arab province or adjunct of Palestine”, as Winston Churchill described it at the time. However it still remained part of Palestine until independence was granted by Britain in 1946 but the Jews were prohibited from settling there.

What was postponed or withheld became permanent after 1946.

The Jews were then left to reconstitute their homeland in just 23% of the area originally allotted to them – a miniscule 28000 square kilometres. The Arabs had ended up with the other 92000 square kilometres of Palestine as an exclusively Arab State but this did not and never has satisfied the Arabs. Some wanted and still demand a greater share and others want the lot.

Jordan was indeed the outcome of deals, conferences and conspiracies – a pay off by the British, following the Cairo Conference, to Emir Abdullah, second son of Sharif Hussein of Mecca – to stop Abdullah and his armed band of followers transiting through Transjordan on their way to Damascus to help his brother Feisal in a struggle against the French who had taken control of Syria in the break up of the Ottoman Empire.

Former US President Jimmy Carter best summed up Jordan’s history in Time on 11 October 1982 when he said:

“As a nation, it is a contrivance, arbitrarily devised by a few strokes of the pen.”

One could equally apply Carter’s statement to Syria (independent only since 1946), Iraq (1932), Saudi Arabia (1932) and Lebanon (1943) – all nations created from the vast tracts of the Ottoman Empire allocated to the Arabs by the British and the French simultaneously with the allocation of Palestine to the Jews at the end of World War 1.

Deals, conferences and conspiracies certainly abounded at the time of Jordan’s birth and still exist today when it comes to Jordan and the role it has to play in resolving the Arab -Israel conflict.

The Jordanian Prime Minister ’s statement appears to be trying to distance Jordan from the current woes of the West Bank and Gaza – just 5% of former Palestine and 15 times smaller than the large chunk of former Palestine that Jordan now occupies.

Denying Jordan’s Palestinian parentage and lineage draws a line in the sand. It sends a message to both Hamas and Fatah to not be tempted to try attacking and wresting control of Jordan from its current rulers, as the idea of a separate State in the West Bank and Gaza now slowly fades into the sunset of history.

King Abdullah of Jordan is well aware of this nightmare scenario.

Yasser Arafat tried to do it in 1970 to Abdullah’s father King Hussein from inside Jordan and failed dismally leaving thousands dead in the process.

Now Jordan could face such a threat externally if the chaos, lawlessness, murder and mayhem occurring in Gaza spreads to the West Bank as Messrs Haniyeh and Abbas find themselves engaging in an undeclared war with Israel that they cannot possibly win.

Firing Kassam rockets into Jordan from the West Bank and making terrorist incursions into Jordan could well mirror what is happening in Israel if steps are not taken to prevent jihadist groups taking root in the West Bank.

Preserving the territorial integrity of Jordan and the safety and welfare of its citizens, all of whom are Arabs of Palestinian descent from either eastern or western Palestine, has been King Abdullah’s and his family’s sacred duty since that day back in 1921 when his great-grandfather was induced to remain in Transjordan under British patronage and protection.

Because of their efforts Jordan has been preserved as an exclusively Arab state in 77% of historic Palestine.

61 years of Arab rejectionism since Jordan’s independence in 1946 wasted in attempting to conquer all or part of the remaining 23% have brought the Arab population nothing but misery and suffering.

King Abdullah understands that both Israel and Jordan now have common enemies that are seeking their downfall.

He told Acting Israeli President Dalia Itzik just that only recently.

King Abdullah now appears to be setting the stage for a return to the Arab occupied areas of the West Bank, which Jordan last occupied from 1948 to 1967, as a necessary counter to stop any threat to his country and the relative peace and tranquillity it has enjoyed since it signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994.

Jordan’s Prime Minister does not have to re-write history to justify the continuing rule of Jordan under its current leadership and the role it must play – as the successor state in 77% of historic Palestine – in resolving who will ultimately be allocated sovereignty in the West Bank.

Leading up to this historic election, I’ve heard folks give lot’s of reasons for sitting it out. The reasons range from old standards like “both parties are bought and sold” to my personal favorite “there isn’t a dimes worth of difference between ‘em”. But in these times of economic depression and war without end, these folksy excuses just don’t work anymore.

Voter apathy has been with us since our Republic was formed. Candidates and political scientists, pollsters and pundits have spent untold amounts of money and time attempting to explain it – and with good reason. Out of over 200 million eligible voters in America, just over half make the trip to the polls. The last two presidential elections have been decided by just over 50 million voters. Put another way, our national leadership is chosen by far less than 20 percent of the total population.

This statistic should concern everyone who believes that our freedoms are worth fighting – and dying – for. The current occupant of the Oval Office is quick to use the spread of democracy as a justification for attacking other sovereign countries. Yet the same man has not a word to say about the sorry state of our own democracy.

Everyone one us knows someone whether it be a friend, neighbor or a member of our own family who has a lot riding on the outcome of this election. Now here are some reasons why you – if not for yourself – should make that trip to polls.

We all know someone who needs access to affordable healthcare. Do you have a friend is unemployed or underemployed and struggling to make ends meet? Is your child’s school under-funded and his or her teacher underpaid? Do you know a single parent struggling to pay for daycare while working two jobs?

What about your neighbor with a son or daughter doing a second, third or even fourth tour of duty in Iraq? What about veterans who have been denied the benefits they deserve?

Are you or a coworker facing the loss of a job because of outsourcing? Is your father or mother – after a lifetime of work – seeing their pension squandered by reckless corporate interests?

I could go on but you get the point.

The choice of staying home out of a misguided sense of rebellion or just plain apathy simply won’t wash. If you truly believe that the sacrifices of generations past have been worth it, you will go to the polls. If you think that protecting our hard won freedoms is more than just an empty slogan, you will go to the polls. If you think we need to change this country, you will vote in November.

You have no more excuses.

Their History

The history of the 9th Parachute Assault Regiment dates back to WWI, although was re-established in 1953 after being disbanded after WWII. They were prohibited from the peace treaty signed after the war to deploy any armed forces outside of the country for twenty five years. They have been participating in foreign missions since 1982.

How To Become A Member Of The 9th Parachute Assault Regiment

The 9th, as it is often called, is comprised of some volunteers, although those on the front lines are professional soldiers who have been recruited from the Italian Army. After a training similar to that of the SAS, those who make the regiment are considered to be part of the 9th.

9th Parachute Assault Regiment Training

There are 700 members of the regiment, roughly, and they train in various terrains for various combat missions. Those who are volunteers can train for five months, although those who are considered the top echelon of this regiment are professional soldiers who train for two years and have already had two years of military service in the Italian armed forces. The training consists of learning to operate in desert, wooded and mountainous terrain.

What Are They Best At?

They are best at hand to hand combat, going into enemy territory, and support of troops in the Italian armed forces. They have been deployed to various countries on behalf of other nations as well as their own troops.

Weapons Of The 9th

The weaponry used by the 9th include The Glock 17 and 19, the Beretta 92 and 8000, the HK MP5, the Colt M4, The FN SCAR-L, the FN SCAR-H, Heckler & Koch G36, Beretta SCP, Steyr AUG, FNP90, Benelli M4 Super 90, Heckler & Kock MSG90, the Sako 338 Lapua Magnum and the Barett M82A1 12.7, among others.

Known Missions

In modern missions, the 9th were part of UN peacekeeping in Lebanon, humanitarian crisis in Iraq, Mafia assassinations, Kosovo, Albania, Afghanistan and are currently involved in the Iraq War.

Units

The units consist of the Command and Logistical Support Company, the Communications Company, the 1st Raider Battalion and the Special Operations Forces Training. Volunteers are part of the 101 Cadet Company.

Are They Professional Soldiers?

With the exception of the volunteers who are members of the Cadet Company unit, the rest of the Italian Special Forces are all professional soldiers with at least two years military experience and two years of training in the special forces.