Whitewater Baldy Complex Fire Slowly Being Contained

The Whitewater Baldy Complex Fire is now up to seventeen percent containment.

Over 1,200 firefighters, including fourteen hotshot crews, are involved against the blaze.

It has burned over 241,000 acres, and is the largest in New Mexico history.

Advances have been made against the fire due to changes in the terrain in which the fire is now burning.

Before it had been in narrow canyons that were only accessible by helicopter, now there are areas where trucks and crews have easier access.

Due to that firefighters hope to have the containment a lot further by the end of Monday.

Already some evacuations have been lifted, with more being considered.

Review: Snow White and The Huntsman

Snow White and The Huntsman hit theaters this weekend, and there was no disappointment in it.

An extremely well done movie, in which everything came together. Even the ending credits continued the use of the amazing graphics, accomplishing what very few movies do, making you want to watch them.

Charlize Theron did a superb job as the evil queen. Chris Hemsworth did a great job as the huntsman, though one couldn't help but think of Thor. Kristen Stewart, showed that maybe there is potential there after all, and maybe Snow White will be the turning of a new leaf for her.

Other than Disney's animated Snow White, this is very possibly the best version ever. The attempt at making the story more of an epic succeeded, without ruining it at all.
For those worried about the classic fairytale storyline, have no fear. It's all there, including true love's first kiss breaking the spell of the poisoned apple. Amazingly they manage not to focus on that, actually not even verbally mentioning it, just showing the few moments when it happens.

An almost Narnian level of magic is brought in, with a bit of Druid mythology added, giving the movie a little something extra. With a great soundtrack going along with it, Snow White and The Huntsman isn't just a must see, but very likely a must buy as well.

Remembering: Queen Elizabeth II's Sixty Year Reign

On June 2, 1953 Elizabeth II is formerly crowned Queen of the United Kingdom in the ceremony that dates back for a millennium.

Born, April 21, 1926, as the first daughter of Prince George, she saw first her uncle's coronation and then after he abdicated, her father's.

During WWII she and her sister were sent to the countryside for safety. But when she reached eighteen she joined the women's services and as a second lieutenant drove and repaired military trucks.

In 1947, she married Phillip Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and Denmark, who renounced his titles in order to marry her.

It was on February 6, 1952, whilst in Kenya, on a world goodwill tour, they received word that her father had died. Immediately she was proclaimed Queen, but it would take over a year for the full coronation ceremony to took place.

June 2, 2013 marks sixty years since Queen Elizabeth II's crowning. During that time she has set many firsts for the monarchy. Among them being the first reigning monarch to visit many of the commonwealth countries, and the first monarch ever to pay income tax.

At the age of eighty-six she is still going strong. Despite beginning to give some of her duties to her children, she is showing no signs that she'll stop anytime soon.

Venezuela Bans Private Gun Ownership

Venezuela has announced a new law that makes owning a gun illegal if you are a private citizen.

Under the new law only the military, police, and licensed security will be allowed to have firearms.

An amnesty period, of unknown length, is in currently in place for all citizens to turn in any firearms that they might own.

Once the period is up, anyone found possessing a gun will be jailed for the offense.

Legislators say that they voted for the law in order to cut down on the murder rate in Venezuela. Over 18,000 murders were committed during 2011.

But President Hugo Chavez's government is completely honest about what their goal is, stating that eventually they will disarm all civilians.

Opponents state that it is further attempt by Chavez to continue his dictatorship. They also point out that violence has continuously grown worse under his reign.

IDF Service for All Israelis

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will face a struggle as he seeks to expand who is called to serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Members of the IDF have led calls for reforms that they be joined by all Israelis in defending the country.

Officially all able bodied men and women age 17-49 must serve three (men) or two (women) years of active service, and then up to a month each year in the reserves. However in reality two groups have been given exemptions.

Haredi Jews are very orthodox, and do not take part in the military service. Their argument is that their full time study of sacred Jewish texts adds to Israel's defense.

They likely will be the greater challenge, as some of their number have already pledged to protest, and go to jail rather than serve. Their promised mass demonstrations will hurt the Prime Minister abroad.

The larger group makes up more than twenty percent of Israel's population, Israeli Arabs. They were given the exemption by former Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, who stated it was unfair morally for Arabs to be forced to fight against their fellow Arabs. Many, especially Beduins, though do volunteer already. With their addition, come security concerns, mostly due to the large numbers of previously unknown individuals that they will add.

Due to the Arabs lack of automatic service, many have come to view them as second class citizens. However, international ideas that all Arab Israelis would rather be part of Palestine have been repeatedly shown as false. Time and time again Arab Israelis have fought not just for Israel, but against the idea of their being separated from their beloved country.

In the long term Israel can only grow more unified by the inclusion of all into the IDF. Already viewed as having the best trained military in the world, the increased diversity and greater numbers will only make it stronger.

International Cooperation in The Drug War

Since the beginning of 2012 US drug enforcement agencies have been partnering with their counterparts throughout most of the Americas to stifle drug trafficking.

Already the affects have been seen, as any all flights by drug traffickers have been targeted, and arrests have been made as soon as planes have landed.

Thanks to the fading out of the US in Middle East conflicts, money has been able to flow in other directions, and so the drug war has seen a vast increase in US active involvement.

In one raid, the US worked with Guatemalan and Honduran forces in the seizure of a large amount of cocaine.

The US is continuing to press other governments to further their involvement, pooing intelligence so that the crackdown can become even more effective.

Governments that help have gained extra funding, specifically for schools and police training, from the US.

However, some members of Latin American governments are expressing their displeasure with the arrangements. They disapprove of what they see as growing US control of their own resources.

Concerns also have been raised, about an increase in violence in countries that are fighting the drug trade. But most recognize this as a stepping stone in a war.

Countries that have been fighting the trade for years are seeing declines in the violence as drug runners consider those places just too dangerous to try. Some see this as a sign that the war is truly being won.

Hewlett Fire Could Affect Ft. Collins Water Supply

A survey completed by The Forest Service's Burn Area Emergency Response, or BAER, Team has determined that the Hewlett Fire will affect the Poudre River.

The fire, which burned more than 7,000 acres to the north west of Fort Collins, Colorado.

According to the survey, increased erosion on the burned areas will add sediment to the river, that could add a smoky taste.

Extra purification procedures should be able to handle the lower quality of the water. The city also has the option of adding water from the Horsetooth Reservoir.

It will take around five years for enough growth to take place for the area to be stabilized from erosion.

The Forest Service is also looking into removing expected weeds and burnt trees from the area, especially along hiking trails. Aerial seeding and mulching are also options being considered to speed the recovery of the forest.

Google Applies for Domain Names

Google announced that they have applied for various domain names.

In 2008, ICANN announced a program to expand the number of generic TLDs (think .com, .org, .edu), developed through its bottom-up, multi-stakeholder process, in which we participate. Given this expansion process, we decided to submit applications for new TLDs, which generally fall into four categories:

• Our trademarks, like .google
• Domains related to our core business, like .docs
• Domains that will improve user experience, such as .youtube, which can increase the ease with which YouTube channels and genres can be identified
• Domains we think have interesting and creative potential, such as .lol

Domain names are run by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, an independent agency which controls and runs them. They stopped taking applications for new domain names, after Google's announcement.

At this point there are less than two dozen domains available, .com being used by about fifty percent of web sites. Any and all new ones will be listed June 13.

Some regulators, from various governments, have requested that ICANN not allow any more domains, at all. However, internet freedom groups support the expansion, praising that it will allow for more diversity.

Walmart Caves to Far Left Pressure and Leaves ALEC

Walmart, the largest retailer in the country, has fled ALEC in the progressive left's latest victory in its war on the organization. Jessica Wohl of Daily Finance stated "In April, ALEC said it was abandoning the committee that worked on 'public safety and elections' to focus on the economy. Despite the change, Walmart decided it was no longer focused on the same issues as the council." As I've mentioned before, in a previous post, and which was reiterated by Ben Shapiro of Breitbart.com today:

Liberal groups like Media Matters for America and its close associate, the Van Jones-run Color of Change, working in coordination with friends of the Obama Administration, launched secondary boycotts against members in ALEC this year; several major ALEC sponsors have already dropped out, prompting ALEC to announce in April that it was no longer going to focus on “public safety and elections,” and would instead direct its energies toward the economy.

These groups have ALEC targeted due to its past support of model bills related to Stand Your Ground laws and Voter ID legislation. Wohl continued in her piece stating that such legislation is opposed by groups like "ColorOfChange, a liberal advocacy group for black Americans,[that] has said the voting laws put the poor and minorities at a disadvantage." This group was co-founded by Van Jones. The ex-Special Advisor for Green Jobs advisor to the Obama White House who infamously called Republicans "assholes" that led to his premature departure from the administration.

However, this whole notion that it disadvantages the poor and minorities is absurd in the extreme.  It always amazes me how liberals seem to think people, who are missing identification for voting, are incapable of going to their local DMV and acquiring a photo ID. It's only $13.50. Let's take a look at the process in my home state of Pennsylvania.

$13.50! Holy Cow

Regardless, Maggie Sans, Walmart Vice President of Public Affairs and Government Relations, wrote this statement, addressed to ALEC's national chairman and executive director:

Previously, we expressed our concerns about ALEC's decision to weigh in on issues that stray from its core mission 'to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets...We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business has become too wide. To that end, we are suspending our membership in ALEC. Sans, who is also giving up her role as secretary of ALEC's private enterprise board, did not specify the issues that caused the split. Walmart has benefited from ALEC campaigns involving taxes, commerce and technology. While we are disappointed in Walmart's decision, we understand the unique pressures they are under, said spokeswoman Kaitlyn Buss.

I guess we can add Walmart to the list of victims of far left badgering.

RIP

Coca-Cola

Kaplan

Procter & Gamble

Blue Cross/Blue Shield

Pepsi

Kraft

Wendy’s

Walmart

California's High Speed Folly

More news of the stimulus's failure emerged this week with CBO's report citing how it may have cost $4.1 million per job, but the story that should be on everyone's minds concerning the Obama's agenda is California's high speed rail project. Calls for a high speed rail system by the Obama administration have been enhanced given China's successful completion of their system last summer. However, if you look at the current California project, the scale of failure is epic and our tax dollars are being poured into it.

In a rare instance, CNN gave a rather insightful report on how this proposed high speed rail is actually three times more than its estimated cost. The railroad project itself seemed sound. A line from Los Angeles to San Francisco spanning two hundred miles was a palatable initiative for Californians, which is why they voted for a $10 billion dollar bond measure back in 2008. However, the original estimate was in the ball park of about $34 billion dollars. It is now projected to cost a monstrous $198 billion dollars. Additionally, Drew Griffin, CNN Investigative Correspondent, reported that not a single rail has been laid in the four years since the initiative was passed.

This marks another stinging failure of the domestic agenda of the Obama administration. First clean energy, now high speed rail networks. It fits nicely into the description George Will aptly made about American liberalism on Charlie Rose, last August, as "an amalgamation of appetites of parochial interests". The project is now revised under the new Chairman of California's Railway Authority, Dan Richard, but it's very different original high speed blueprint. Griffin stated:

It turns out, the latest plan could be for a much slower train, not actually the high- speed futuristic cartoon California voters approved four years ago. More of a hybrid that goes slower, makes a few more stops and doesn't quite deliver the L.A. to San Francisco promise of just a few hours.


And that's not the half of it. This is about to become really political. California's high-speed rail has one huge backer -- President Barack Obama -- and that is where you come in. The administration has pledged $3.5 billion in stimulus money, also known as federal tax dollars, and that's just so far. Now, California admits it will need even more, tens of billions of dollars more from federal taxpayers to finish it.


But first, you have to start. And that's where it really gets dicey. The foundational segment, the first stretch of track, will cost at least $6 billion alone and, under the new plan, will connect Fresno to Burbank. It won't go anywhere near San Francisco. And in the process, will dissect generations-old dairy farms, nut orchards and towns that don't want it. 

That's not the worst of it.  Apparently, Barack Obama, who continues to be a staunch proponent of this project:

has pledged $3.5 billion in stimulus money, also known as federal tax dollars, and that's just so far. Now, California admits it will need even more, tens of billions of dollars more from federal taxpayers to finish it.

But first, you have to start. And that's where it really gets dicey. The foundational segment, the first stretch of track, will cost at least $6 billion alone and, under the new plan, will connect Fresno to Burbank. It won't go anywhere near San Francisco. And in the process, will dissect generations-old dairy farms, nut orchards and towns that don't want it. 

However, even with the inflated costs and objections by local farmers, Dan Richard and the rest at the Railroad Authority aren't giving up. After all, as Griffin reported, "they've already got the promised $3 billion of your tax dollars in federal stimulus. California may not get another dime from President Obama, but it has no intention of giving back the $3 billion already promised or the billions more from California voters." This Rube Goldberg project is expected to take ten years to finish. Who's lining up to get their first ticket?