Require people to show ID at the polls. You know, to make certain that they are who they say they are.
A hedge against voter fraud, proponents say.
But there are others who fear that people who are otherwise qualified to vote might be turned away.
A group of senators has now asked the Justice Department to investigatewhether those states that require photo ID at the polls are infringing on the rights of voters.
The chances that the DREAM Act, which would permit children of illegal immigrants an opportunity to become U.S. citizens, will pass this time around is not particularly good.
In an interview for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, Eleanor Palta, president of the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association, says it will be an ”uphill battle.” Even though, she says, the people who it affects are culturally no different from their peers who were born in the United States.
Palta says her hope is that with the nation’s changing demographics and as Hispanics gain greater political influence, the resistance to immigration reform in the country will subside.
UPS means good customer service. zyphbear photo/Flickr
What do UPS, Costco, FedEx, Apple and Southwest Airlines have in common?
If you guessed excellent customer service, you’re right. They are all on the MSN Top 10 list of companies providing great customer service.
At the bottom of the list, however, one finds a wall of shame. The 10 worst companies for customer service. Which, according to the MSN survey includes Bank of America, AOL, Capital 1, Spirit and Time Warner.
In an interview for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, author and behavioral expert Beverly Flaxington, says, unfortunately, many companies are arrogant and feel that the customers need them more than they need their customers. So, for them, customer service is a low priority.
The companies that top the Best 10 list, however, know that treating a customer right can result in loyalty.
The latest Gallup poll finds overwhelming support for President Obama’s announced draw down of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. But that poll was taken before Tuesday’s horrific series of coordinated terrorist attacks in Kabul.
Talk Radio News Service correspondent Ken Bazinet, in an interview for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, says the attacks sent messages to two presidents: Afghanistan’s Karzai, telling him that, once your friends the Americans are gone, we’re going to come and get you. And to Obama. Telling him, you can leave, but it won’t be without pain. Someting, Bazinet notes, the president acknowledged during his Wednesday’s news conference.
The Greek financial crisis, Bazinet reports, has some parallels to that in the United States. While the kind of anarchy and Parliament enveloping tear gassing of demonstrators of Athens is not expected outside Washington’s Capitol Hill, the United States has to tighten its spending belt as well. But Wednesday’s announcement by some GOP senators that they will introduce a Balanced Budget Amendment was termed by our correspondent a “sideshow.”
Finally, the challenge to the mandatory health insurance provision of Obamacare was defeated in an Ohio federal district court Wednesday – but that’s an issue that likely will ultimately be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maggots found in the trunk of Casey Anthony’s car, a forensic entomologist Dr. Neal Haskell testified on behalf of the prosecution, help determine the time of death of her daughter, Caylee Anthony. That is, if you believe it was Caylee’s body in the trunk of the car, as the prosecution wishes to convince the jury in her mother’s capitol murder trial.
Author and forensic entomology expert Tim Downs (timdowns.net), who studied under Haskell while researching his latest book in the Bug Man series, Nick of Time, says, the evidence is circumstantial, but significant. And, in an interview for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, Downs says, the jury may be eating it up – thanks, in large part, to the public’s acceptance of forensic evidence because of the popular CSI television shows.
That being said, you only have to place reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors to avoid a conviction. Downs says the burden, in this case, even with the maggot-evidence – weighs heavily on the prosecution.
GOP presidential hopeful Tim Pawlenty, who has been called every kind of chicken in and out of the book after failing to stand up face-to-face with fellow candidate Mitt Romney to his face during a debate after having blasted him outside of his presence is attempting to reinvent himself as a strong personality.
Tuesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York he took direct and heavy aim at President Obama’s handling of the Arab Spring.
Talk Radio News Service Washington correspondent Kenneth Bazinet, in a conversation with News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, said Pawlenty has an obvious image problem.
Not so, he says, Michelle Bachmann, whose campaign for the GOP nomination for president is on fire.
Bazinet also reports that Anthony Weiner, the deposed congressman from New York, wants to help choose his replacement. Weiner was forced out of office by the Democratic leadership. Bazinet says Weiner’s constituents forgave him his sexting scandal transgressions. And he believes an eventual run for New York mayor is not necessarily out of Weiner’s future.
Finally, the DREAM Act which would find a citizenship track for children who were brought illegally into the country by their parents but raised here has been reintroduced in the Senate. But Bazinet doesn’t see sufficient support for its passage this time around either.
A new Rasmussen poll finds that 51 percent of Americans want all U.S. troops removed from Afghanistan, not just the numbers ordered to return home by President Obama.
Talk Radio News Service Washington correspondent, reporting for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, says the administration made it clear there’s a need to keep troops in country, to ensure that the Taliban not regain a foothold there. But, perhaps, she suggested, this wasn’t communicated effectively to the American public.
Meanwhile, attempts on Capitol Hill Friday to defund the war in Libya failed – much to the surprise, Jones said, of many observers who thought that it had enough support to pass.
There are those in the Republican camp who are confused over why Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and former U.S. amabassador to China, entered the GOP presidential nomination race. Among them Alan Moore, aconservative blogger, who says in an interview with News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network that many Republicans are looking for candidates with a more conservative appeal.
Huntsman, Moore says, is viewed with distrust by many in the Republican Party, simply because he was part of the Obama administration. And while he acknowledges that one must appear moderate in order to get elected, others, like Mitt Romney, who also have moderate credentials, are far more palatable to most of the party faithful. Accounting, Moore says, for the former Massachusetts governor’s lead in the polls.
But that all could be torpedoed if, as is expected, Texas Governor Rick Perry enters the race. A real challenge, Moore says, to Romney (although Moore says he’d love to see the two political heavyweights duke it out in a debate).
But the speculation is that Perry will toss his hat into the ring in August. These days, that’s late to get in. Perhaps too late, Moore suggests, for Perry to stand a chance.
Did the Cantor (right) announcement come as a surprise to Boehner (left)? Talk Radio News Service photo
The White House announced Thursday that it was releasing some of the oil it holds in strategic reserve to counter what it calls a slight disruption in its flow because of the NATO action in Libya and recent events in the Middle East. But Talk Radio News Service Washington correspondent Victoria Jones says, the decision comes at a curious time – as gas prices – at least in the United States, continue to decline and there doesn’t seem to be the kind of clamoring for government intervention there was when it reached peak prices.
Jones, in her Washington report for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, also provided latest details of the debt ceiling talks – heretofore believed to be progressing well. But there was a stunning announcement that apparently took everyone by surprise Thursday. That Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) was quitting the talks over the issue of taxes. A move that may have taken House Speaker John Boehner by surprise, though Boehner insists he was forewarned by Cantor.
Jones reports that there’s speculation that President Obama might now insert himself into the talks. They’re being chaired by Vice President Joe Biden.
And, finally, Jones provided analysis of Obama’s Afghan draw down speech, one in which the president said the mission is changing from a counter-insurgency role – which was authored by the outgoing U.S. commander in country, Gen. David Petraeus – to one that had been recommended by Biden – hit and run counter-terrorism missions.
People are fighting for their rights throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa. But for decades, repressions have remained in place in Cuba, and the lack of attention about the plight of the people of that island nation, a mere 90 miles from the United States, is a source of frustration for Humberto Fontova.
Fontova, an author, public speaker and columnist, insists the so-called embargo of Cuba is really a mirage. When you look at it, there are so many exceptions to it and travel restrictions, that more money is actually flowing into Cuba now than when it was a satellite of the former Soviet Union.
Fontova, in an interview for News Talk Online on the Paltalk News Network, compares the Castro regimes to that of Stalin, saying the imprisonment of Cuban dissidents rivals that of Russians during his reign of terror.
He’s particularly frustrated with President Obama, for going back to the policies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton – basically not pressuring Cuba for the human rights violations – the imprisonment of people who dare to speak out – that has continued for decades.
As to the perception of reforms now that Fidel Castro is no longer in charge, Fontova argues they are cosmetic in nature, that Raul Castro who is now president rules with the same iron fist as did his brother.
What fuels the regime’s ability to keep control of Cuba? Fontova says, look toward Venezuela for the answer to that. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, he says, is Cuba’s new “daddy” – and without the influx of free oil – more than the Cuban people could even imagine consuming – the regime would fold.
Interestingly, Chavez is in Cuba for what’s being described as a minor operation. But he has not been seen in public for days, fueling speculation about his well-being. But even if he were to fall from power, Fontova predicts nothing would change. Chavez, he says, has groomed underlings to take his place when he’s gone. Bad news for Venezuela, he argues. Equally bad news for Cuba.
