Right Truth

"THE CORRUPTION IN ALBANY MUST END" An interview with GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio

BY: FERN SIDMAN

For New Yorkers who are angered and frustrated by the corruption that has plagued politics in Albany for many years now, the upcoming gubernatorial mid-term election races offer viable alternatives in terms of candidates. Having represented New York's 2nd congressional district for four terms from 1993-2001, Republican Rick Lazio is challenging Democrat Andrew Cuomo for the state's highest office. With a platform predicated on bold reforms and a concrete plan to battle corruption, I sat down with Mr. Lazio to discuss some issues effecting New Yorkers. 

 

FS: Concerning healthcare reform, as you know, the Medicaid system in New York spends 73% more per recipient than the country as a whole and 25% more than California, which covers twice as many people. What would you do to make Medicaid a more efficient system?  

 

RL: I'm totally in favor of reforming and revamping our Medicaid program. We must move Medicaid to a managed care system in order to streamline costs. The taxpayers in this state are already been strangled by exorbitant taxes and with the rising cost of healthcare for employers, we must move with alacrity to remedy this problem. Those on the Medicaid rolls should be encouraged to seek appropriate healthcare and that means each recipient should have a primary care doctor who can oversee their follow up care if they need to see a specialist. What has proven to be extremely costly to our system are those Medicaid recipients who visit their local hospital emergency rooms when they have a health crisis, rather than seeing their own doctor. Incentives should be provided such as beneficiaries having stored value cards in order to get the right level of care. Provider reimbursement should be harmonized and doctors and hospitals should be extended the same reimbursements and the co-pays should be managed accordingly. I am also in favor of enforcing an anti-fraud program to the Medicaid system because each year there is over $5 billion in Medicaid fraud. We want to promote the very best healthcare system for all New Yorkers and in order to do that we must investigate medical supply companies and other who are bilking the system and hence increasing taxes in our state. 

 

FS: How would you address the burgeoning unemployment rates in New York State and what would you do to help stimulate the economy?

 

RL:  There is no doubt that we must focus our efforts on putting people back to work immediately. There has been way too much emphasis on stimulus money to create jobs and that's just not happening. New York ranks 49th out of 50 states that are business friendly and that's just deplorable. The fact that our state is laden with high taxes drives individuals and their businesses out of the state. We must encourage the creation start up businesses to stimulate the private economy in New York. We must take a good hard look at the tax environment that we find ourselves in and we must put an end to the political chaos in Albany, where the state legislature can't get a budget done. Our government is unpredictable and Bush era tax credits have been revoked for businesses. Subsidiaries that provide energy costs have also lapsed. The more people that are employed translates into fewer dollars being taken out of businesses for taxes. The core part of our strategy is to restart the growth engine, get the costs to businesses down by reducing business taxes, rewarding startup companies and creating a new capital gains structure. Another source of major capitol and economic development are our colleges and universities. New York is a state of great people, with great skills and ingenuity and I am sure we can do exciting things in this wonderful empire state.   

 

FS: You've come out against the construction of the proposed mosque at Ground Zero. Could you tell us why you are against it and what do you think of offers to have the mosque built on state property?

 

RL: I stand in staunch opposition to the construction of the proposed mosque close to Ground Zero. What we need here is complete transparency as this issue is not about religion. I would immediately demand a full accounting for where the funding is coming from for the construction of this $100 million dollar building. Clearly, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf who is behind this project is ducking the question of why he refuses to label Hamas a terrorist organization, when the US government lists Hamas as a foreign terrorist organization. We also know that Hamas is behind the incessant rocket attacks on Israel's southern border. Imam Rauf has said that America was an accomplice to the 9/11 attacks on our country and that "Osama Bin Laden was made in the USA". When Imam Rauf was asked whether he would take money from Iranian sources to build this mosque, he refused to answer and if he can't respond to that kind of question, one could believe that he and others involved in this project may have sympathies with radical Islamist organizations.The Imam has also been associated with the Turkish terrorist organization who was behind the flotilla that sought to smuggle arms to terrorists in Gaza  Just a few short years ago, Sharif El-Gamal and his brother Sammy El-Gamal of Soho Properties who are the developers of the Ground Zero Mosque were waiting tables in New York City. Where did all their money come from?

 

Andrew Cuomo is the attorney general of New York and as such, he could eliminate the controversy that swirls around this mosque by launching an investigation into the group's monetary sources. People really need to get their voices on this issue because if Iran is even partially funding this mosque then we can expect that those preaching in it will be promoting terrorism against the United States and Israel.  Iran has already threatened to wipe our ally Israel off the map while the whole world sleeps. America must never allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and we must do everything in our power to protect Israel. I believe in solidifying relationships with our good friends such as Israel and working to ensure her safety and dealing forcefully with our avowed enemies such as Iran.

   

The Passenger Jet You Can Never Ride

Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. The maiden flight was Feb. 2, 2007.

The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights.

"If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before -- you'll never find a place to sit there," says Offer Baruch, a former Israeli Shin Bet agent.

Baruch, now vice president of operations for International Shield, a security firm in Texas, says the plane is reserved for Iranian agents, including "Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and other intelligence personnel."

Current and former U.S. intelligence official fear the flight is a shadowy way to move people and weapons to locations in Latin America that can be used as staging points for retaliatory attacks against the U.S. or its interests in the event Iranian nuclear sites are struck by U.S. or Israeli military forces.   ( more at WTOP)

The flight makes some trips to Lebanon.  Peter Brookes says the passengers "may not even need visas".  Brooks is also concerned that Iranian special advisers are schooling the Venezuelan military and may be involved in plans to move Iranian agents inside the U.S.. 

No offense to Brookes, but it has long been known in security circles that Iran has influence in South America and specifically Venezuela and that Iranian agents and Hezbollah have been working in that region for years. 

Iran Air 744 

Image hat tip Maggie's Notebook who questions what might be on the return trips of this flight?  Uranium?

According to former CIA Director Michael J. Hayden, there is another one of these country-to-country flights scheduled this Friday.  What will we do?  Well again according to Hayden, all we can do is watch --   we're just so darned busy:

"American intelligence services have a lot of things on their plate. The fact that I can tell you that we're really interested in that direct flight tells you that it was on our scope -- something that we are sensitive to," Hayden says. "Are we doing enough about it? I would have to say 'no,' because it's a very challenging menu that American intelligence has to deal with."

Miss Universe Goes Political

Miss Universe 2010 national costumes are here, some are very strange to look at and their 'inspiration' is very strange:

 

Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010, wears a costume inspired by the Seal of the President of the United States as a tribute to Barack Obama. She apparently drew a basic design, and then Victoria's Secret Fashion Show designer Martin Izquierdo came up with the final creation. We haven't heard what Mr Obama thinks of the tribute Picture: AP.

Miss Venezuela Marelisa Gibson wears a costume covered in glittering shards in tribute to a glass monument to revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara that was shot up and destroyed less than two weeks after it was unveiled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government Picture: REUTERS

The Muslims must be having fits around the world, knowing that Miss USA is a Muslim, dressed in that outfit.  Ground Zero mosque imam Rauf, eat your sharia heart out.

Search for "Most Dangerous Terrorist" Finally Taken Seriously—Maybe

Search for "Most Dangerous Terrorist" Finally Taken Seriously—Maybe

by Ilana Freedman, Gerard Group

The day I saw terrorist Adnan el-Shukrijumah, I was walking along a path on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and he was walking towards me. His expression was intense and he seemed deep in thought. We never made eye contact, but I recognized him immediately.

Shukrijumah is a very short man, barely 5'4", and his face is distinctive. I had been studying his activities for several months. I knew he was a master of disguise and that he had the ability to pass from country to country, seemingly at will and without being recognized or caught. But on that day, he was clean shaven and wearing casual clothing in what he must have considered a comfortable and safe setting.

I already knew that he was an insider in al-Qaeda, with multiple passports, and links to Canada, Trinidad, Saudi Arabia, Guyana, Mexico, the US, and no doubt a raft of other countries as well. He was clearly a man with a deadly mission, and a rising star among the al Qaeda elite. And his appearance at McMaster, looking like any other student, was not comforting.

I first learned about Shukrijumah from Dr. Paul Williams, author of Day of Islam, who had carried out some extensive research on Shukrijumah and first described his activities at McMaster. Williams wrote a book about what he found, in which he reported that Shukrijumah had stolen 180 pounds of nuclear material from the 2campus reactor. Although McMaster denied the loss and sued Williams for libel, the fact was corroborated by a number of respected experts.

It was because of Dr William's work that I made the trip to Hamilton. I visited the campus with my colleague, Scott Winchell. Our tour included a walk through the reactor building, a small building right in the center of the campus. We walked through its open door, entering unchallenged. There was no security, not even a receptionist. We wandered briefly through and around the building, and then we explored the rest of the campus.

We visited the graduate and undergraduate engineering departments, the library, and the student union. We interviewed a number of administrators, students, and faculty members. What we found there was a lot of material for another article, but it was the chance sighting of Adnan el-Shukrijuma that made the trip most memorable.

After seeing him myself that day at McMaster, I immediately called a contact I had been given at the counter-terrorism task force of the Canadian police, but had to leave a voice mail and never received a call back. Then I called the FBI.

- - -

As early as March 2003, the FBI had asked for help from law enforcement and the public to locate Shukrijumah. They had posted a $5 million reward on his head "for information leading directly to [his] capture". He was the man the FBI has called "the next Mohammed Atta", and FBI director Robert Mueller labeled Shukrijumah "the most dangerous terrorist in the western hemisphere." On March 26, 2003 the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a Material Witness Warrant for his arrest.

But when I notified the local FBI office in early November 2007, I was told that because they had no warrant for his arrest, they could do nothing about apprehending him.

Although their 2003 alert warned that Shukrijumah might be planning an al Qaeda terrorist attack in the United States, it wasn't until last week that the FBI finally indicted Shukrijumah for plotting terrorism against US targets.

- - -

Shukrijumah was raised in the US and speaks English without an accent. His father was an Imam who had a brief connection with the Al Farouk mosque in Brooklyn, and then studied at both Broward College in Florida and McMaster. He is known as an engineer, a bomb maker, and a pilot. He is known to have strong personal ties to Trinidad and Tobago, and went there in 2001, 2003, and 2006, although his reasons for being there are still vague. He is thought to have close ties to several terrorist groups there. It has also been reported that he spent several months in Point Fortin there working on the construction of the LNG Port, which is the largest such terminal in the world.

The implications of al Qaeda involvement in a terrorist attack using an LNG tanker as a bomb leave little to the imagination. Among other possibilities, a closed loop supply chain exists between the LNG facility in Port Fortin and Boston, whose large LNG farm is just outside the major hub of the city.

Shukrijumah is the leader of the al-Qaeda task force already here in the United States, preparing to carry out an attack they have called "more devastating than 9/11". He has been known to use a number of aliases. The most significant of these was confirmed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who identified a photo of Adnan Shukrijumah as 'Jaffar the Pilot', the man whom al Qaeda had picked to lead the next big attack against U.S. targets.

- - -

There is no doubt that this man is clever, elusive, devious, dangerous, and thoroughly evil. Over the last few years, there have been a series of unverified sightings in various parts of the world from Venezuela to Texas to Toronto to Trinidad. He has been connected with our enemies in South America and the Middle East, and was thought to be working with hardcore gangs in Mexico. Yet, with so many sightings, law enforcement has been unable and unwilling to do what is necessary to find and apprehend him. Why?

No doubt some of these sightings were cases of mistaken identity. Some, however, were undoubtedly correct, but were disregarded or ignored. Lack of moral fiber, fear of repercussions, and political correctness taken to its illogical extreme, have brought us to a tolerance that is far beyond what is reasonable or acceptable.

Instead of becoming more firm in our resolve to protect and defend our nation, we have come to accept the very people who openly hate us and are bent on destroying us. Those who embrace radical Islam and shari'ah law, and who publicly curse America now enter our country with impunity, roam freely, take over entire communities, and exploit the freedoms they profess to despise in order to further their mission. As a result, terrorist cells have sprouted up throughout the country, while we continue to ignore the existential threat that they represent. We have now learned not only to tolerate their hatred against us, but to accept it as the norm.

- - -

The national trauma that resulted from 9/11 created an unparalleled opportunity to marshal Americans together in a united mission based on the underlying values of our nation. Yet we are now so divided that we have become dysfunctional, teetering on the brink economic catastrophe, and singularly unprepared for the next major attack on American soil?

America stands at a decisive fork in the road. The resurfacing of Adnan el-Shukrijumah should remind us of how much is at stake and how much we have to lose. When the next 9/11 happens, the shock is likely to be far worse than the first time.

We are skidding into national insolvency, both moral and economic. While Shukrijumah continues to plot and plan the next major terrorist attack against America, our ability to survive will depend on the strength of the will and moral fortitude of the American people. It is only our determination to save this extraordinary nation that will make the difference between our capitulation to tyranny or the survival of our free nation.

I, for one, cast my lot for freedom!

Ilana Freedman has been an intelligence analyst for more than twenty-five years. She has earned an international reputation for the accuracy of her analyses and forecasts, and has participated in providing actionable intelligence for industry and law enforcement. Her work has contributed to the prevention of mass casualty terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad. Comments and questions may be addressed to ilana@gerardgroup.com.

The Gerard Group does great work and are back in business full force.  Please check them out.

 

Venezuela's Smoking Gun

by Alvaro Vargas Llosa , The Independent Institute 

If anyone thought Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe, who will be succeeded Aug. 7 by Juan Manuel Santos, was going quietly into that good night, they were wrong. The Western Hemisphere has been shaken by his government’s expose of the sanctuary that Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has provided to two Colombian terrorist groups, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).

Uribe’s ambassador to the Organization of American States presented photos, videos, satellite maps and testimonies as evidence that 1,500 guerrillas enjoy protection in 14 camps along the Venezuelan border with Colombia. Ivan Marquez, a member of the FARC’s high command, is based there.

Venezuela’s complicity with FARC is no scoop. In December 2004, Colombia used bounty hunters to capture FARC’s international spokesman, Rodrigo Granda, in Venezuela. In March 2008, Colombia took out a FARC camp headed by Raul Reyes two kilometers inside Ecuador, a Chavez ally. A video posted by a Spanish journalist on YouTube shows the guerrillas in La Gabarra, a village in the Guasdualito area inside Venezuela’s Apure region. Not suspecting the hidden microphone, a military boss from a nearby Venezuelan base admits he is aware of them.

But this time the evidence is overwhelming. Chavez has reacted, in the words of former Colombian Vice President Humberto de la Calle, like a husband who comes home at 3 a.m. with lipstick on his face and, when confronted by his wife, walks out furiously, slamming the door. Caracas has broken ties with Colombia, which does not alter the status quo since ties were frozen a year ago. For the umpteenth time, Chavez has announced preparations for a war he does not intend to wage, that his army would swiftly lose, and that he knows Colombia is too prudent to join.

In saner times, Chavez would not survive this exposure. But positioning himself outside of international law has never cost him much. He knows he is in violation of U.N. antiterrorism resolution 1373. But he also knows that the OAS is a dysfunctional organization headed by Jose Miguel Insulza, a man intimidated by Chavez’s government; that the United States will not attack Venezuela; that Brazil is too ideologically sympathetic with Chavez and interested in a sphere of influence that counterbalances the U.S.; and that he controls his army sufficiently to pre-empt any rebellion.

Caracas is also aware that President-elect Santos has a more accommodating personality than Uribe. Before the outgoing president ordered the expose, Santos was on a mission to repair relations with Venezuela. He had announced that Maria Angela Holguin, a nonideological Venezuelan expert, will be his foreign minister, that his emphasis will be on achieving economic growth (i.e. not security), and that he welcomed Chavez at his inauguration. Chavez is calculating that once Uribe is out of the picture, he will have a less obsessed foe.

None of which bodes well for the prospects of Chavez getting rid of the FARC and the ELN. Except that Uribe, a popular departing president, will not shut up. He has placed the international community in an awkward position by revealing a degree of collaboration hard to find anywhere else between a state and the terrorist groups of a neighboring country—comparable situations usually involve terrorists harassing a neighboring country from a territory over which the national state is sovereign in name only. Even if Chavez survives this, Venezuela is under notice that everything inside its territory will be meticulously revealed. The warning may scare some allies of Caracas. Since Raul Reyes’ camp was targeted inside Ecuador, that country’s president, Rafael Correa, has apparently broken ties with FARC.

Some Colombians initially criticized Uribe for rarifying the climate of the handover of power. Actually, Uribe has done Santos a favor. No government with this much evidence of a neighbor’s complicity in crime can afford to sit on it; sooner or later, Santos would have had to confront the situation—and bear the cost Uribe has now assumed. Should it have been revealed later on that Colombia did nothing, Santos would have been pummeled for jeopardizing the success of the “democratic security” policies of recent years.

At the very least, Latin America has a right to know the truth about Venezuela, whose government, not content with instituting a dictatorship, is propping up the region’s most unsavory characters—the latest being Suriname’s President-elect Desi Bouterse, a former dictator accused of multiple murders and convicted of cocaine trafficking in the Netherlands.

---

Alvaro Vargas Llosa
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Alvaro Vargas Llosa is Senior Fellow of The Center on Global Prosperity at The Independent Institute. He is a native of Peru and received his B.S.C. in international history from the London School of Economics. His weekly column is syndicated worldwide by the Washington Post Writers Group, and his Independent Institute books include Lessons From the Poor: Triumph of the Entrepreneurial Spirit, The Che Guevara Myth and the Future of Liberty, and Liberty for Latin America.

Full Biography and Recent Publications

Hezbollah's Here!

Andrew C. McCarthy,  lead prosecutor in the trial of "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman and 10 other Muslim terrorists for the 1993 World Trade Center bombings, has been warning Americans of the threat from Muslim terrorism.  On Fox News this morning while promoting his new book about the Islamist challenge to Americans' freedom, "The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America", he discussed a Kuwaiti newspaper report about Hezbollah on the US Mexican boarder.  It has long been known that Hezbollah was active in South and Central America and has roots in the US.  Mexican authorities have now discovered a Hezbollah network in Tijuana, across the border from Texas,  closer to American homes than the terrorist hideouts in the Bekaa Valley are to Israel.   

As McCarthy notes, here in the US we are threatened by both physical terrorism and the political attack from Muslims, supported by Liberal/Progressives here:

"While Islamists carefully execute their plans to impose Allah's law, which directly contradicts the bedrock principles of American society, President Obama and the Left are not only asleep at the wheel, but complicit in the effort. Simply put, the prognosis for liberty could not be more dire," he writes.

The alliance between Mr. Obama's hard-left followers and radical political Islam, also known as Islamism, has its roots in a relationship that has been around since at least the last century, Mr. McCarthy said.

He said that people are now afraid to say anything negative against Muslims or Muslim groups because they think they would be perceived as racist. (Washington Times)

Hezbollah on the border:

Its goal, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper that reported on the investigation: to strike targets in Israel and the West.

Over the years, Hezbollah – rich with Iranian oil money and narcocash – has generated revenue by cozying up with Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs and people into the U.S.  [snip]

In March, Adm. James Stavridis, then head of the U.S. Southern Command, which includes Latin America, warned a Senate committee hearing: "We see Hezbollah acting throughout the region in proselytizing, fund-raising, involved in the drug trade."

Now they are right across the Rio Grande - a stone's throw.  (New York Daily News,  via National Terror Alert)

Yesterday at the Counterterrorism Blog Walid Phares had a fantastic article on Irans Global Terror Reach where Phares gives the reader an excellent history of Hezbollah from Iran, to Syria, Hamas connections, Iran's stooges in Iraq and Afghanistan, Yemen, Saudia Arabia, the Gulf, North Africa, Egypt, East and West Africa, Turkey, Qatar, Europe and into the Americas.

Phares states, "Because it cannot project much conventional military power, Iran threatens the United States, Israel and other democracies by unconventional means. Through the use of its terrorist surrogates—such as Hezbollah—Tehran's reach extends around the world."

Stretching into the Americas

Iran's longest arm stretches into Latin America. As of the early 1990s, Hezbollah had established a presence in the tri-border area between Brazil, Argentinaand Paraguay. This lawless zone enables the Khomeinist network to develop illegal financial activities and train and plan for terrorist attacks in the region. The 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center there are prime examples of Tehran's terrorist activities and global reach.

Iran and the Chaves regime

With the rise of the Hugo Chavez regime, Iran's Latin American presence expanded even further. The Venezuelan strongman has signed several agreements with Ahmadinejad's regime, including an April 2009 defense treaty that provides for military and intelligence cooperation. Venezuela has granted Hezbollah operatives permission to organize their presence under the protection of Iran's Pasdaran and local intelligence, and according to U.S. Department of Defense reports, the Venezuelans are providing Iranian units with Spanish language instruction with the aim of inserting them in a Latin American context. One of the most dangerous aspects of Iran's presence in Venezuela is the increasing ability to install Iranian missiles aimed at the United States and other countries in the region.

As of now, Iran's reach within the United States is principally—but not entirely—in the hands of Hezbollah's networks, which have been trying to recruit new agents since they established their own foundations in Lebanon in the 1980s. Working naturally through Lebanese communities, beginning with its bases in the home country, Hezbollah established groups and cells inside the U.S. in states such as Michigan, New York and North Carolina.

The main activities detected by U.S. law enforcement organizations have centered on smuggling, fundraising, and providing material support to the mother organization in Lebanon. But Hezbollah has gained valuable experience in penetrating Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and the countries of northern Africa, which enables Iran to do considerable damage to the U.S. in case of open conflict. American authorities have also been monitoring Iran's financial presence in the U.S., with recent discoveries showing Iranian front companies even holding assets in Manhattan.

Go read the entire article.  Phares concludes "From a U.S. counterterrorism perspective, the threats posed by Iran, Hezbollah, and its global terrorist network are considerable. But the addition of nuclear weapons into this global network of Khomeinists may well prove as dangerous if not more so than nuclear weapons in the hands of al-Qaeda."

Did you get your Census form?

Apparently not everyone received a Census form.  The following is an email from a reader, where an entire apartment complex did not receive census forms and apparently cannot get them.  Also see my response and information I found after the email:

I live in an apartment complex in Norcross, Georgia.  Norcross is just outside Atlanta.  The complex has 460 unites – about 1,000 residents.  Not one resident in the complex has received their 2010 Census form.  The forms are due back on April 1^st.

 

The Census has two primary functions. 

 

One Function is Constitutional.  That is to distribute political power.  We are a representative democracy and accurate distribution of political power is a cornerstone of our Republic.

 

The second is statutory (written into law).  That is to distribute federal funds.

 

Both are critical to Norcross and Gwinnett County.

 

This apartment community (The Conservatory) has been here for 25 years so it's not as though they don't know we are here.  Long time residents recall receiving their 1990 and 2000 census forms.

 

Why have we not received our census 2010 forms?  I can think of only two reasons: 

 

1:  Maybe Incompetence.  Which would be remarkable since the Federal government is spending 14.7 billion on the census.

 

2: Maybe the administration is planning on using statistical sampling which was outlawed by the  United States Supreme Court (for congressional apportionment) prior to the 2000 census.

Diana Davis of WSB-TV did a story on the problem.  The Census Bureau representative would not do an on-camera interview but when he was asked by Diana what went wrong she was told “nothing had”  He said “the residents can go online to find a help center.”

“Nothing had” gone wrong?  Breathtaking!

Our government wants to take over our healthcare system.  My God, they can’t even count!

I can just see a family asking “what went wrong?” after a loved one dies after a minor illness. 

“Nothing”. 

God help us.

PS.  The Census Bureau online help center says you can’t fill out the form online.  Plus, many residents don’t even have internet access.

If you did not receive a census form or if you received more than one form, please leave a comment and let us know.

Also leave a comment and tell us which questions you answered or which ones you refused to answer.

A quick Google search for "did not receive census" reveals the following:

2010 Census.gov:

If you did not receive a form, call the Telephone Questionnaire Assistance center at 1-866-872-6868. (If you prefer a Spanish-speaking operator, then dial 1-866-928-2010.) The lines will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. (your local time) seven days a week from February 25, 2010 through July 30, 2010. For the hearing-impaired, TDD 1-866-783-2010 (during the times noted above).

Is there another way to get the form other than the mail?

Be Counted forms are census forms that are available at various community locations for use by people who either did not receive a form in the mail or whose information was not collected on any other form. Be Counted forms are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. These forms can be picked up in various community locations and mailed back in the attached postage-paid envelope.

Can I fill the form out online?

No, not this time. We are experimenting with Internet response options for the future

What if I don't fill in the form?

Many residents who do not complete and return a 2010 Census form will receive a replacement form. If no form is mailed back, residents can expect a personal visit from a census taker some time after March 2010. The census taker will ask you the questions on the form, record your answers and then submit the form for your household. Learn more about the census taker.

From the City of Utica, residents can obtain forms from the library:

"Be Counted Site"
Residents who did not receive the census forms can pick them up and fill them out at the library, or residents who did receive the forms but have questions may receive instruction. Even residents who have already sent the forms in but believe they made errors, can speak with Census representatives and re-submit their information. They will be in the Gibbing Room of the Utica Public Library the following dates and times: March 19 11-3:30 March 23, 30, and April 6 and 13 11-7:00 March 25, and April 1, 8, and 15 10-5:30

From the Chicago Tribune:

Q: What should I do if I still have not received a form?

A: Be patient. Census officials are asking people to wait a little longer, because forms are still being delivered — although the bureau started mailing forms in early March. If you did not get your original form, a replacement may be on its way. If a form still has not arrived by April 12, then you can contact one of the bureau's 2010 toll-free help lines. The bureau also has opened assistance centers where forms can be completed in person through April 19. The addresses and phone numbers can be found on the bureau's Web site at 2010census.gov.

From the Norcross, Georgia website:

...  Starting March 22, visitors to the 2010 Census Web site will be able to track how well their communities are participating in the census on a daily basis. Communities will even be able to embed a Web-based tool on their own Web sites that automatically updates the daily rates. An interactive Google-based map is now online that allows visitors to find out how well their communities did in the 2000 Census.

I hope this helps those who have not received their forms yet.  We're looking for feedback from readers.

Big f**ing deal.

President Barack Obama met meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ...but  the afternoon meeting was closed to reporters, an unusual choice when hosting a close ally.  No pictures either.  As the Jawa Report says, "Praise our enemies and diss our ally".  Indeed, even bow to our enemies, slap their backs, take their crap ... but be nice to the leader of Israel?  Obviously beyond Barack Obama's capabilities.

As Vice President Joe Biden said, on live microphone concerning the health care bill,  “Mr. President, this is a big f**ing… deal”.

The media continues to promote the idea that everything would be just hunkey-dorey between Israel and the mysterious Palestinians if Israel had just not announced the planned building of 1,600 residences two weeks ago.  Pfffft!  The Palestinians don't want peace, they don't want a two-state solution.  Meron Benvenisti, a Harvard-educated historian today said, "The fight for the two-state solution is obsolete," 

The UK isn't doing any better than the US when it comes to her relationship with Israel.  The decision to expel Israel's Mossad station chief from London marks a new low in Britain's problematic relationship with one of the world's most ruthless proficient, well-run, well-trained, intelligence services.

Dear Israel.  Obama and his crowd may be against you, but the majority of American citizens support you.

Images via Atlas:

We've all got your number, Obama, and yes ...  It's a BIG F**KING DEAL.

Other Reading:

Racist Obama will Not Be Photographed with Jewish Prime Minister of Israel,  By Pamela Geller

Federal courts perfect for terrorists,  By blackfive

Did VP Biden Cuss During Obama Introduction?.   Yes he did!

Muslim Mafia - Review (update)

MUSLIM MAFIA

 

Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America

 

BY: P. DAVID GAUBATZ and PAUL SPERRY

 

REVIEWED BY: FERN SIDMAN

 

The Muslim Brotherhood, an Egyptian based Islamic terrorist organization appears to be alive and well and cloaking itself in legitimacy in our nation's capitol under the guise of a front group say intrepid undercover agents P. David Gaubatz and Paul Sperry in their new book, "Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America" (World Net Daily Books 2009). Investigative journalism reaches new levels in doughtiness and concludes with a shocking crescendo in this tome, as Gaubatz, his son Chris and Paul Sperry infiltrate the shady Washington, DC based organization known as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); the nation's largest and purportedly mainstream Muslim-American "civil rights" advocacy agency. The frightening facts published in this book are supported by more than 12,000 pages of confidential CAIR documents and hundreds of hours of video captured in this unprecedented undercover operation.  

Through painstaking and nuanced research of internal memos and documents the authors establish the fact that CAIR is the ideological cousin of the notorious Muslim Brotherhood and their leadership is inextricably tied to the promulgation of an explosively violent "jihadist" agenda.  Utilizing double speak and a wide variety of cleverly devised subterfuges, CAIR manages to ostensibly present itself as a law abiding, pro-American organization, however the authors expose their unbridled mendacity in its most egregious form. 

 

Mr. Gaubatz served for twelve years as a former agent with the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations and is a career military counterterrorism specialist as well as a US State Department trained Arabic linguist. Joining him on this six month long covert foray into the nefarious machinations of CAIR and it's overt ties to Muslim terrorists of all stripes are his son Chris who worked undercover as a convert to Islam and Paul Sperry, a veteran investigative journalist and author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington". 

 

This book could effortlessly take it's rightful place among classic hair raising espionage thrillers if it's tragic geo-political realities weren't so terrifying. The authors scrupulously document CAIR's foreign fundraising sources including exceedingly large donations from the Wahabi dominated Saudi Arabian government that gave birth to the 9/11 hijackers. Not to be outdone, CAIR also assumes the role of benefactor, as the recipients of their financial largesse include such heinous terror organizations as Hamas. 

 

Moreover, the authors offer shocking revelations about CAIR's infiltration of key US law enforcement agencies including local police departments, the FBI, the CIA and the State Department as well as their heavy handed influence operations against members of homeland security committees on Capitol Hill and their insertion of Islamic spies in congressional offices.  According to the authors, FBI wiretaps reveal that, "During a secret Muslim Brotherhood meeting he organized last decade, CAIR founder and former chair Omar Ahmad expressed the need to strengthen "the influence with Congress." He argued for using Muslims as an "entry point" to "pressure Congress and the decision makers in America" to change US foreign policy in the Middle East and other policies." 

CAIR's far reaching tentacles have even permeated corporate America, say the authors, as they and their sister organization, the Islamic Society of North America blackmail Wall Street firms who do not comply with Islamic financing principles. The authors also spotlight CAIR's use of intimidation tactics in silencing their political opponents as evidenced in their efforts to unleash a vitriolic campaign to blacklist such media personalities as Bill O'Reilly, Dr. Laura Schlesinger, Glenn Beck and Michael Savage while pressuring the National Review to acquiesce to their demands.   While elected officials from both sides of the aisle, including former president George W. Bush, have legitimized the dubious organization with governmental recognition and ceremonial gravitas, CAIR's underlying credo remains seditious and rabidly anti-American until this very day.

The authors remind us that in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, President Bush appeared alongside officials from CAIR and other outwardly benign Muslim groups that weren't properly vetted at the Islamic Center of Washington in a display of "unity". The unsuspecting former president announced, "It is my honor to be meeting with leaders who feel just the same way as I do. They're outraged, they're sad. They love America just as much as I do."  These words would come back to haunt the president as facts concerning CAIR's zealous legal representation of Muslim Americans charged with terrorist activities came to the fore and as history would record, certain members of CAIR's own leadership would turn out to be unindicted co-conspirators in helping to finance terrorist organizations.  

As the burgeoning and pernicious scourge of global radical Islam continues to proliferate in an unfettered manner, it is clear that within our borders the threat to our cherished democratic values and principles are all too real. The release of this book of paramount importance by authors Gaubatz and Sperry hasn't come a moment too soon. To say that the information published in these pages is a real eye opener is an understatement of monumental proportions. It is a must read for anyone, the world over, who still clings to the hope of freedom, peace and liberty that Western civilization represents.

Update: 'Muslim Mafia' author ordered to remove documents from Web, McClatchy.

Stifling free speech

Stifling free speech on democracy, free enterprise, religion, illegal immigration, etc. is something we see more and more here in the United States, but it something new for us.  Not so in Venezuela.  The Independent Institute's Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa found out first hand:

Senior Fellow Alvaro Vargas Llosa Harassed by Venezuelan Police State

By Anthony Gregory on May 26, 2009 in Civil Liberties, Latin America, Law, Personal Liberty

Our very own Alvaro Vargas Llosa, on his way to a conference on democracy and free enterprise in Venezuela, was detained by its authorities for two hours. Thankfully, his call to the media made them back off for now. The Buenos Aires Herald reports that his passport was withheld as he was detained and continues:

Álvaro, son of the novelist Mario Vargas Llosa, said that after being released he was told he “didn’t had the right to make any political comments, that I’m only a foreigner, but as a Peruvian citizen, a country that was also freed by Simón Bolivar, I don’t think I have less rights than others of Bolivar’s supporters to defend my ideas.”

The heroic Alvaro intends to do just as he planned, and proceed to speak on behalf of liberty at this conference, despite the dictatorship’s intimidation. The people in Venezuela, and throughout Latin America, need to hear the universal message championing free enterprise and the rule of law, which Vargas Llosa, one of the premier experts on political economy in the region, has tirelessly shown is the one true path to social peace and prosperity there.

Update: The TV station that broadcast Alvaro’s call has apparently already been facing government intimidation. Bold of them to broadcast it anyway.