Bye Bye American Pie

This video is just too good to pass up. Enjoy:






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Wal-Mart Makes Sheriff Joe's Job Easier

Sheriff Joe Arpaio

Walmart is trying to dive deeper into the $90 billion-a-year Hispanic grocery market by opening a new supermarket in west Phoenix today.

The Supermercado de Walmart is 1 of 2 stores nationwide that will test the country's appetite for a possible string of Hispanic supermarkets. The other store opened in Houston on April 29 and the giant retailer says it's far exceeding expectations so far.

Phoenix and Houston were chosen for their large, multigenerational Hispanic populations with considerable spending power. Arizona has about 2 million Hispanic consumers.

Walmart has gained considerable knowledge and experience marketing to consumers in Mexico and Latin America and hopes to leverage it to boost sales to U.S. Hispanics, who have an estimated buying power of about $1 trillion a year.

click to read Complete Story from AZCentral.com.

This apparently plays into the hands of Sheriff Joe Arpaio who has outraged many groups with his strict enforcement of immigration laws and his bulldog-like campaign to get illegal immigrants off the streets of Maricopa County.

Copyright @ 1998-2009
All Rights Reserved

Obama Works His Magic as G20 Leaders Reach Global Agreement

G20 Leaders Seal $1.1 Trillion Global Deal

Sarkozy and Merkel Aboard

Leaders of the world's largest economies have reached an agreement to tackle the global financial crisis with measures worth $1 trillion. To help countries with troubled economies, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will get extra resources worth up to $750 billion. There will also be sanctions against secretive tax havens and tougher global financial regulation. And the G20 has committed about $250bn to boost global trade.

On behalf of the G20, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the following steps:

* Bankers' pay and bonuses will be subject to stricter controls

* A new Financial Stability Board will be set up to work with the IMF to ensure co-operation across borders and provide an early warning mechanism for the financial system

* There will be greater regulation of hedge funds and credit ratings agencies * A common approach to cleaning up banks' toxic assets has been agreed

* The world's poorest countries will receive $100 billion extra aid

* G20 countries are already implementing the biggest economic stimulus "the world has ever seen" - an injection of $5 trillion by the end of next year. The IMF has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the G20 summit. The resources it has to help troubled economies will be increased to $500 billion.

An overdraft facility will also be increased to $250 billion (in the IMF's currency, so-called Special Drawing Rights) that all members can call upon.

"This is the day that the world came together to fight back against the global recession, not with words, but with a plan for global recovery and for reform and with a clear timetable for its delivery," Mr Brown said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that the conclusions of the G20 summit were "more than we could have hoped for". Mr Sarkozy had threatened to walk out of the meeting if it did not yield concrete results.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also praised the outcome. She said the new measures would give the world a "clearer financial market architecture" and the agreement was "a very, very good, almost historic compromise".

Nice job, Barack!

source: BBC
















Copyright @ 1998-2009
All Rights Reserved

Obama Wows the World

Obama Leads

The amazing characteristics of Barack Obama throughout his campaign and now into the infancy of his presidency, are his ability to be calm under pressure, to say the right thing, to LISTEN to others, and to address their concerns with honesty and directness. He demonstrated that to the American people and became our President. Yesterday he demonstrated this enormous talent and ability to communicate to the rest of the world, a world still fearful from the threats, both economic and military, of our former President who shamed us in the face of the world.

Yesterday, Barack Obama went a long way toward re-establishing the good name and reputation of the United States in the global community.

CHINA

Mr. Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, resulted in an agreement to create a new "U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue," going beyond the twice-yearly forum during the Bush administration. The effort will add security and other issues, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House said it would be led on the U.S. side by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

The meeting with Mr. Hu was described as businesslike by senior White House officials, who said the main hot-button issue -- Beijing's suggestion that a new global currency replace the dollar -- didn't come up. Mr. Hu invited Mr. Obama to China, a visit the U.S. president set for the latter half of the year, and Mr. Hu indicated that he was confident he could work with Mr. Obama and looked forward to a personal friendship.

Hu said: "Since Obama took office, China-U.S. ties have got to a good start." "Good relations with the United States is not only in the interests of the two peoples, but also beneficial to peace, stability and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region, and the world at large."

RUSSIA

Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev met in London ahead of Thursday's G-20 summit and later released a statement. The statement said the two leaders agreed that the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms -- which expires in December -- "has completely fulfilled its intended purpose and that the maximum levels for strategic offensive arms recorded in the treaty were reached long ago."

"They have therefore decided to move further along the path of reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms in accordance with U.S. and Russian obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," the joint statement said.

Negotiators from both countries will soon begin talks "to work out a new, comprehensive, legally binding agreement on reducing and limiting strategic offensive arms to replace the START Treaty," the statement said.

Earlier, two senior Obama administration officials said another goal of the president's meeting with Medvedev was to set a date for a U.S.-Russian summit in Moscow, Russia, this summer. The joint statement said negotiators from both countries would report their progress on working out the new nuclear arsenal reduction agreement by July.

* Medvedev: I'll work with Obama to improve our relations

"The new agreement will mutually enhance the security of the parties and predictability and stability in strategic offensive forces, and will include effective verification measures drawn from the experience of the parties in implementing the START Treaty," the statement said.

WORLD REACTION

As Barack Obama's much-crticized economic moves begin to take effect, stronger-than-expected U.S. economic figures boosted confidence the world's largest economy is on the mend. Huge gains in Asia and a strong open in Europe followed an overnight surge on Wall Street and extended last month's rebound in world equity markets amid tentative signs of stabilization in the hard-hit global economy and banking industry. It came as Group of 20 leaders met in London for a summit that aims to hammer out policies to combat the economic slump and reform the global financial system.

Nearly every sector in Asia charged higher, with carmakers like Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) rallying on U.S. auto figures that were less dismal than feared. Exporters such as Sony Corp. (SNE) were lifted by the weakening yen.
Investors were encouraged after U.S. car sales jumped by nearly 25 percent last month from February, beating the typical rise and underpinning hopes of a turnaround in the American auto market - critical for Asia's giant auto companies.

The jobs market remains poor and real estate values remain low, however. Obama remains confident that as his measures take effect, the jobs market will improve and real estate values will stabilize.

In summary, Barack Obama is succeeding wildly in re-establishing the reputation of the United States as a world leader. Good job, Mr. President!



















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All Rights Reserved