Top Ten

[Warph]

I agree.  Happening here and has for some time

[Warph]

Earlier this summer, New York City's Metropolitan Transit Authority announced that it would be rearranging some of its subway signs because they resembled a slightly naughty bit of internet slang.  The signage for the F, M, and L lines read "FML," which savvy web users know as self-deprecating shorthand for "F— My Life."  The double meaning of its signs caught the transit authority off guard, but they've worked quickly to switch around the letters.

New York's subways are hardly the first victims of acronym problems, though. Here are ten other organizations, places, and businesses that have realized a bit too late that their initials meant a little more than they had intended.



1. WTF
In 2009, the Wisconsin Tourism Federation's biggest problem wasn't finding a way to attract more people to the metropolitan Kenosha area; it was the realization that its initials mirrored the slang abbreviation for "What the F—?" The WTF from America's Dairyland has been around since 1979, so it likely predates the vulgar WTF. In the end, though, you can't fight an internet meme. The organization changed its name to the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin.

The WTF's only consolation must be that it's not alone. In 2008, the North Carolina DMV allowed drivers whose license plates contained "WTF" to swap out their tags free of charge. The DMV also had to change its website; the sample plate pictured on the site was "WTF-5505."

2. DOAIn a move that must have been unsettling for thousands of Iowa's seniors, the state changed the name of its Department of Elder Affairs to the Department on Aging, or DOA, in 2009. Something's telling us that the change hasn't helped Iowa's elderly sleep any easier. The organization now goes by IDA, for Iowa Department on Aging.

3. AIDS
When Joan Woehrmann started her ambulance company in Whittier, CA, in 1955, she hit on a pretty brilliant acronym: AIDS. The letters stood for "attitude, integrity, dependability, and service," which are all great qualities for an ambulance line. The name was also easy to remember in times of crisis.
She didn't foresee the name eventually signifying one of the greatest medical catastrophes of the century, though. By 1985, the LA Times reported that Woehrmann's drivers were being taunted and that the public mistakenly started to think that the line only transported AIDS patients.

Finally, she had enough and changed the line's name to "AME," even giving up the ambulances' customized line of "AIDS 1" and "AIDS 2" license plates.

4. SUX
While FAA identifiers for airports aren't technically acronyms, the three-letter codes can give rise to their own headaches. Just ask the Sioux City Gateway Airport, which the FAA saddled with the unfortunate designator "SUX." Airport authorities petitioned for a new code, and the FAA – and this is not a joke – offered them "GAY" as a nod to the "Gateway" part of the airport's name.

Sioux City decided that switching to GAY probably wouldn't save them much sophomoric taunting, so officials decided to make the best of the SUX situation. Now the airport markets playful t-shirts emblazoned with slogans like "Fly SUX."

SUX might not even be the worst airport code. According to a 2008 LA Times story, Fresno's is FAT, and Perm, Russia's is PEE. The big winner has to be Fukuoka, Japan, though. We'll let you guess how that one gets abbreviated.

5. SLUT
In 2007, Seattle opened a new streetcar line connecting the South Lake Union neighborhood to the city's downtown. While the project was officially called the South Lake Union Streetcar, local residents began ribbing it as the South Lake Union Trolley, or SLUT. Although the city and the line's developers did what they could to dispel the notion that the line had a bawdy name, residents still refer to it as the SLUT; in 2007 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer even reported that a coffeehouse was selling t-shirts that read, "Ride the SLUT."

6. CCRAP
In 2000, delegates of Canada's United Alternative convention needed a name for their newly formed political party. They came up with Canadian Conservative Reform Alliance Party, which in addition to taking roughly six minutes to pronounce was abbreviated CCRAP. Organizers quickly realized the blunder and changed the party's name to the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance.

7. WPPSS
In 1998, the Washington Public Power Supply System chose to change its name to Energy Northwest to discourage people from pronouncing its unfortunate acronym as "Whoops!" The old name left the utility open to quite a bit of taunting in 1983, when the WPPSS defaulted on $2.25 billion worth of bonds. Whoops indeed.

8. POOF
In 1990, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Florida decided it had heard just about enough kidding about its acronym, POOF, which resembled an old offensive term for a homosexual man. The musicians changed their name to the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra.

9. The C-word
In 2002, Microsoft had to do a little rearranging on the fly. It quickly and quietly changed its ribald "Critical Update Notification Tool" to the more family friendly "Critical Updated Notification Utility."

10. NIC
What's wrong with NIC? In English, nothing. In Arabic, a whole heck of a lot. When the Coalition Provisional Authority began planning new Iraqi armed forces in 2003, they originally called them the New Iraqi Corps. They hit a big snag, though. As ABC News reported, in Arabic "nic" is "a colorful synonym for fornication." The coalition quickly changed the name to the New Iraqi Army.

[Warph]

The United States have a well known history of providing military support to countries in need. But from time to time, the US Government has provided secret forces.  While many are successful, there have also been a number of failures. This is a list of the eighteen top secret armies of the CIA.  Check Wikipedia for a more in-depth view:

1. Ukrainian Partisans
Wikipedia

From 1945 to 1952 the CIA trained and aerially supplied Ukranian partisan units which had originally been organised by he Germans to fight the Soviets during WWII. For seven years, the partisans, operating in the Carpathian Mountains, made sporadic attacks. Finally in 1952, a massive Soviet military force wiped them out.

2. Chinese Brigade in Burma
Wikipedia

After the Communist victory in China, Nationalist Chinese soldiers fled into northern Burma. During the early 1950s, the CIA used these soldiers to create a 12,000 man brigade which made raids into Red China. However, the Nationalist soldiers found it more profitable to monopolise the local opium trade.

3. Guatemalan Rebel Army
Wikipedia

After Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz legalised that country's communist party and expropriated 400,000 acres of United Fruit banana plantations, the CIA decided to overthrow his government. Guatemalan rebels were trained in Honduras and backed up with a CIA air contingent of bombers and fighter planes. This army invaded Guatemala in 1954, promptly toppling Arbenz's regine.

4. Sumatran Rebels
Wikipedia

In an attempt to overthrow Indonesian president Sukarno in 1958, the CIA sent paramilitary experts and radio operators to the island of Sumatra to organise a revolt. With CIA air support, the rebel army attacked but was quickly defeated. The American government denied involvement even after a CIA b-26 was shot down and its CIA pilot, Allen Pope, was captured.

5. Khamba Horsemen
Wikipedia

After the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet, the CIA began recruiting Khamba horsemen – fierce warriors who supported Tibet's religious leader, the Dalai Lama – as they escaped into India in 1959. These Khambas were trained in modern warfare at Camp Hale, high in the rocky mountains near Leadville, Colorado. Transported back to Tibet by the CIA operated Air American, the Khambas organised an army number at its peak some 14,000. By the mid-1960s the Khambas had been abandoned by the CIA but they fought on alone until 1970.

6. Bay of Pigs Invasion Force
Wikipedia

In 1960, CIA operatives recruited 1,500 Cuban refugees living in Miami and staged a surprise attack on Fidel Castro's Cuba. Trained at a base in Guatemala, this small army – complete with an air force consisting of B-26 bombers – landed at the Bay of Pigs on April 19, 1961. The ill-conceived, poorly planned operation ended in disaster, since all but 150 men of the force were either killed or captured within three days.

7. L'armee Clandestine
Wikipedia

In 1962, CIA agents recruited Meo tribesmen living in the mountains of Laos to fight as guerrillas against Communist Pathet Lao forces. Called l'armee Clandestine, this unit – paid, trained, and supplied by the CIA – grew into a 30,000 man force. By 1975 the Meos – who had numbers a quarter million in 1962 – had been reduced to 10,000 refugees fleeing into Thailand.

8. Nung Mercenaries
Wikipedia

A Chinese hill people living in Vietname, the Nungs were hired and organised by the CIA as a mercenary force, during the Vietnam war. Fearsome and brutal fighters, the Nungs were employed throughout Vietnam and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The Nungs proved costly since they refused to fight unless constantly supplied with beer and prostitutes.

9. Peruvian Regiment
Wikipedia

Unable to quell guerrilla forces in its eastern Amazonian provinces, Peru called on the US for help in the mid-1960s. The CIA responded by establishing a fortified camp in the area and hiring local Peruvians who were trained by Green Beret personnel on loan from the US army. After crushing the guerrillas, the elite unit was disbanded because of fears it might stage a coup against the government.

10. Congo Mercenary Force
Wikipedia

In 1964, during the Congolese Civil War, the CIA established an army in the Congo to back pro-Western leaders Cyril Adoula and Joseph Mobutu. The CIA imported European mercenaries and Cuban pilots – exiles from Cuba – to pilot the CIA air force, composed of transports and B-26 Bombers.

11. The Cambodian Coup
Wikipedia

For over 15 years, the CIA had tried various unsuccessful means of deposing Cambodia's left-leaning Prince Norodom Sihanouk, including assassination attempts. However, in March, 1970, a CIA-backed coup finally did the job. Funded by US tax dollars, armed with US weapons, and trained by American Green Berets, anti-Sihanouk forces called Kampuchea Khmer Krom (KKK) overran the capital of Phnom Penh and took control of the government. With the blessing of the CIA and the Nixon administration, control of Cambodia was placed in the hands of Lon Nol, who would later distinguish himself by dispatching soldiers to butcher tens of thousands of civilians.

12. Kurd Rebels
Wikipedia

During the early 1970s the CIA moved into eastern Iraq to organize and supply the Kurds of that area, who were rebelling against the pro-Soviet Iraqi government. The real purpose behind this action was to help the shah of Iran settle a border dispute with Iraq favourably. After an Iranian-Iraq settlement was reached, the CIA withdrew its support from the Kurds, who were then crushed by the Iraqi Army.

13. Angola Mercenary Force
Wikipedia

In 1975, after years of bloody fighting and civil unrest in Angola, Portugal resolved to relinquish its hold on the last of its African colonies. The transition was to take place on November 11, with control of the country going to whichever political faction controlled the capital city of Luanda on that date. In the months preceding the change, three groups vied for power: the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). By July 1975, the Marxist MPLA had ousted the moderate FNLA and UNITA from Luanda, so the CIA decided to intervene covertly. Over $30 million was spent on the Angolan operation, the bulk of the money going to buy arms and pay French and South African mercenaries, who aided the FNLA and UNITA in their fight. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, US officials categorically denied any involvement in the Angolan conflict. In the end, it was a fruitless military adventure, for the MPLA assumed power and controls Angola to this day.

14. Afghan Mujaheedin
Wikipedia

Covert support for the groups fighting against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began under President Jimmy Carter in 1979, and was stepped up during the administration of Ronald Reagan. The operation succeeded in its initial goal, as the Soviets were forced to begin withdrawing their forces in 1987. Unfortunately, once the Soviets left, the US essentially ignored Afghanistan as it collapsed into a five-year civil war followed by the rise of the ultra-fundamentalist Taliban. The Taliban provided a haven for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

15. Salvadoran Death Squads
Wikipedia

As far back as 1964, the CIA helped form ORDEN and ANSESAL, two paramilitary intelligence networks that developed into the Salvadoran death squads. The CIA trained ORDEN leaders in the use of automatic weapons and surveillance techniques, and placed several leaders on the CIA payroll. The CIA also provided detailed intelligence on Salvadoran individuals later murdered by the death squads. During the civil war in El Salvador from 1980 to 1992, the death squads were responsible for 40,000 killings. Even after a public outcry forced President Reagan to denounce the death squads in 1984, CIA support continued.

16. Nicaraguan Contras
Wikipedia

On November 23, 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed a top secret National Security Directive authorising the CIA to spend $19 million to recruit and support the Contras, opponents of Nicaragua's Sandinista government. In supporting the Contras, the CIA carried out several acts of sabotage without the Congressional intelligence committees giving consent – or even being informed beforehand. In response, Congress passed the Boland Amendment, prohibiting the CIA from providing aid to the Contras. Attempts to find alternate sources of funds led to the Iran-Contra scandal. It may also have led the CIA and the Contras to become actively involved in drug smuggling. In 1988, the Senate Subcommittee on Narcotics, Terrorism, and International Operations concluded that individuals in the Contra movement engaged in drug trafficking; that known drug traffickers provided assistance to the Contras; and that 'there are some serious questions as to whether or not US officials involved in Central America failed to address the drug issue for fear of jeopardizing the war effort against Nicaragua'.

17. Haitian Coup
Wikipedia

In 1988, the CIA attempted to intervene in Haiti's elections with a 'covert action program' to undermine the campaign of the eventual winner, Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Three years later, Aristide was overthrown in a bloody coup that killed more than 4,000 civilians. Many of the leaders of the coup had been on the CIA payroll since the mid-1980s. For example, Emmanuel 'Toto' Constant, the head of FRAPH, a brutal gang of thugs known for murder, torture, and beatings, admitted to being a paid agent of the CIA. Similarly, the CIA-created Haitian National Intelligence Service (NIS), supposedly created to combat drugs, functioned during the coup as a 'political intimidation and assassination squad.' In 1994, an American force of 20,000 was sent to Haiti to allow Aristide to return. Ironically, even after this, the CIA continued working with FRAPH and the NIS. In 2004, Aristide was overthrown once again, with Aristide claiming that US forces had kidnapped him.

18. Venezuelan Coup Attempt
Wikipedia

On April 11, 2002, Venezuelan military leaders attempted to overthrow the country's democratically-elected left-wing president, Hugo Chavez. The coup collapsed after two days as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets and as units of the military joined with the protestors. The administration of George W. Bush was the only democracy in the Western Hemisphere not to condemn the coup attempt. According to intelligence analyst Wayne Madsen, the CIA had actively organised the coup: 'The CIA provided Special Operations Group personnel, headed by a lieutenant colonel on loan from the US Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to help organise the coup against Chavez.

[Warph]

It is not just the federal behemoth that is intrusive in our everyday lives -- state and local governments are just as likely to pass laws and take actions that should be troubling to freedom-loving Americans.

Here they are... the Top 10 outrageous government actions on the state and local level:

1. Save the rats
The District of Columbia City Council included rats in its Wildlife Protection Act, requiring a catch and release of the filthy, disease-spreading rodents. Now residents of the nation's capital will have to capture rats without using glue or snap traps, and relocate them to a natural habitat. No matter that rats already have the run of alleys and restaurant garbage dumpsters from Adams Morgan to Georgetown and occupied Occupy Washington.

2. Library police
Yes, we all know it is wrong to not return library books on time, but was it really necessary to send the police to retrieve an overdue book from a 5-year-old girl? In Charlton, Mass., little Hailey Benoit burst into tears when a police officer stopped by her house to tell her two books needed to be returned to the library or be paid for, according to WBZ-TV. Actually, Hailey got off easy. Under the state's legal code the action was a misdemeanor -- she could have been cuffed and hauled to booking.

3. Gay history mandated
A new law in California requires that public-school history classes, starting in kindergarten, teach about the contributions to society made by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Americans. If that wasn't enough for an overtaxed school system, the history teachers also must single out the accomplishments of disabled people.

4. Obesity spying
Obese, public-school students are wearing electronic monitors to allow schools to check their physical activity outside the classroom. Schools in Street Louis, South Orange, N.J., and Long Island are measuring the students' heartbeats, sleeping habits, and movements in the hopes to reduce the waistlines of the chubby boys and girls. The constant surveillance was done without the parents' consent or knowledge.

5. Elementary school indoctrination
It was bad enough when cities had to endure the nonsense populated in the Occupy Wall Street encampments, but an elementary school program in Charlottesville, Va., actually had students singing the pro-Occupy song, "Part of the 99," causing a backlash among parents. The Big Government website had it right when it called the song "Marxist rhetoric" and said "to an impressionistic third-grader, it plants poisonous seeds at odds with long egalitarian American traditions that disdain class hatred."

6. Jailed for messy yard
A municipal judge sentenced a woman from Mount Pleasant, S.C., to 10 days in jail for having a messy yard. Linda Ruggles, 53, was imprisoned when she was unable to pay a $480 fine for violating a city ordinance governing lawn care. At the time, Ruggles had other reasons to worry: To keep her home from entering foreclosure, she had resorted to selling blood and volunteering for medical experiments, according to the Post and Courier of Charleston.

7. Lemonade stand crackdown
Police across the nation are cracking down on a new genre of criminality -- the unauthorized lemonade stand. Police in Midway, Ga., shut down a stand run by three girls because they failed to obtain a business license costing $50 a day. Police in Appleton, Wis., told a nine-year that her stand violated a new city ordinance preventing vendors from selling in a two-block radius of an event. Police in Coralville, Iowa, told a 4-year-old girl to close her stand for not getting the approval of a health inspector.

8. Tasered dog walkers
Gary Hesterberg was out taking a walk with his two dogs at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area when he encountered a National Park Service ranger. The Rancho Corral de Tierra section of the park had long been an off-leash spot for dog walkers, but the federal government recently obtained the property and is enforcing leash laws. When Mr. Hesterberg was informed of the new federal regulations, he ignored the ranger and walked away, whereupon the ranger used a stun gun to subdue the offender.

9. Date mandated
A Florida judge sentenced a man to take his wife on a Valentine's date following a scuffle that led to domestic violence charges. Judge John Hurley ordered Joseph Bray, 47, to bring his wife, Sonja,39, flowers and take her bowling and to Red Lobster instead of imposing a bond or ordering his confinement, according to the Sun Sentinel.

10. Frisbee fine
Throw a Frisbee or ball on a beach in Los Angeles County and expect to pay a whopping $1,000 fine. The new rules are in an ordinance passed by the county board of supervisors and are meant to encourage safety. The same measure contains a passage that prohibits digging a hole deeper than 18 inches -- an exception is made for film and TV production companies filming on location.

[larryJ]

Rule #10 also includes the throwing of footballs, baseballs, soccer balls, anything that can be thrown in the air.  The reason for this totally necessary law (wait---I'm laughing too hard to type) is that beachgoers are constantly being bombarded by those sportsmen and wannabe pro players who can't seem to throw anything in a straight line.  The irony here is that most of the beachgoers stay close to the shoreline so to enjoy the view, the breeze and the waves.  Many of these avid sportsmen tend to stay back closer to the parking lots where there are less sunbathers. 

Up next, on the agenda of our overworked legislators, will be the banning of flying kites on the beach.  I, for one, am all for this one.  I have a morbid fear of being nailed by a falling kite while laying on the beach.  Besides, I was never good at flying kites anyway.

On the near horizon will be the banning of beach umbrellas as they may injure someone if a gust of wind should blow it over and on to your next door neighbor who is trying to get some zzzz's.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

No more kites? That's sad.We have beach kite festivals here that are wonderful to see.

[Warph]

With Americans burdened with high taxes, one would hope that the government they pay for would at least be used efficiently and wisely.  These Top 10 Examples of Government Stupidity from around the country would suggest otherwise:

1.  Sensitivity training:  The Omaha, Neb., public school district spent $130,000 in federal stimulus money to buy manuals to instruct teachers and school administrators on how to be culturally sensitive.  The book, The Cultural Proficiency Journey: Moving Beyond Ethical Barriers Toward Profound School Change, says that teachers need to work for social justice in order to overcome a white-privileged society.  The book says racism, sexism, homophobia and ableism are forces of oppression in schools, and that institutions in America "channel wealth and power to white people."

2.  Green car bust:  The city of Salinas, Calif., invested more than $500,000 in Green Vehicles, an electric car venture that failed to produce a single car.  In addition to the city money, the State of California chipped in another $187,000, but the owner of the company said it folded due to a lack of investors.  The city ponied up the money after the company promised it would create 70 new jobs and generate some $700,000 in tax revenue annually for city coffers.  City officials were reportedly irked when they learned of the company's collapse by e-mail.

3.  Don't help the homeless:  The city of Houston shut down a Christian couple's effort to aid the homeless earlier this year because they did not have a permit to distribute free food.  Anyone serving food to the public for any reason must prepare meals in a certified kitchen that has a certified food manager, according to the city's Department of Health and Human Services.  But because the couple gave out food donated and prepared by various stores and volunteers throughout the city, they ran afoul of a city ordinance, leaving the 100 or so recipients of their daily charity out of luck.

4.  Right to View Porn in Jail:  The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that a man awaiting trial for making child pornography videos while raping boys will be allowed to watch the videos of the acts while in jail.  Weldon Marc Gilbert is acting as his own attorney and therefore has the right to review the evidence against him, which includes 28 hours of porn on some 100 videos, the court ruled.

5.  Sex-offender custody:  After Trista Crews Coleman died in a car wreck some four years ago, her one-month-old daughter, Miranda, was raised by her grandmother.  But a Baker County, Fla., judge has given custody of the little girl to Crews Coleman's ex-husband, a registered sex offender who has a history of domestic violence.  The ex-husband, Donald Coleman, divorced Crews Coleman, saying Miranda was fathered by another man, but he still has paternity rights because he was married to her mother when she was born.

6.  Ex-cons protected:  City officials in San Francisco are seeking to make ex-convicts a "protected class," joining blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals, the disabled and transgendered, and pregnant women.  Ex-cons already have the special status when applying for city government jobs, but a council of top city officials wants to extend the protection to make it illegal for landlords and private employers to ask about a person's criminal record.

7.  Bee watering fine:   New York City fined Tip Sempliner $2,000 for failing to water his beehive.  There was a beehive waterer two feet from the hive and nearby ponds on his property on Little Neck Bay.  Only after public outcry did the city replace the fine with a "warning."  As Queens Councilman Daniel Halloran told CBS News, "There are criminals who get cases in city criminal court who don't have a $500 fine, let alone a $2,000 ... this is absolutely absurd."

8.  Homeless custody:  A Family Court judge in New York City awarded custody of a teenage boy to his homeless father and chided the boy's mother for criticizing the court and the legal system.  The father, John Jacobs, has lived in storefronts and borrowed rooms for years, yet Judge Bernard Graham ordered the son to live in a shelter with his dad despite his mother's attempt to retain custody.  The mother, who makes $90,000 working as a court clerk for the Manhattan Supreme Court, and father have spent a decade locked in the custody battle.

9.  Massachusetts' Big Brother:  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is setting up a massive database that tracks drivers via scanners on police cars and stores the information indefinitely.  Thousands of license plate numbers, and the car's location, can be gathered per hour, and data will be made available to local, state and federal law enforcement officials.  The Executive Office of Public Safety is spending some $500,000 for the scanners and will distribute them to local police throughout the state.

10.  Go Gore, not Palin:  The state of Nevada last year denied a request for a vanity license plate that said "GOPALIN" because, in the view of the Department of Motor Vehicles, such a plate was "vulgar or obscene or expressing superiority of political affiliation."  That policy didn't stop the agency from issuing personalized plates that said "AL GORE," "GO OBAMA," "GOGREEN," "DMOCRAT," and "KERRY."  While an administrative law judge rescinded the rejection, the state now faces a lawsuit challenging the policy.

[Warph]

Wonder why gas prices are surging, with the cost at the pump topping $5 per gallon in some parts of the country?  Obuma's anti-energy-producing policies certainly are not helping.  The buck stops in the Oval Office, as this list of the President's energy blunders attest:



1. Keystone kerfuffle
Canadian energy producers want to sell the United States an abundance of oil, if only President Obama gives the go-ahead to build the Keystone Pipeline XL. However, the President has chosen his deep-pocketed environmental backers over U.S. energy needs (and thousands of jobs for American workers). With the Middle East more volatile than ever, developing North American energy resources would help free the United States from being beholden to Islamic fanatics.

2. Volt vanity
After President Obama's bailout of General Motors, the automaker turned its attention to producing the Chevy Volt. Even with the government's help, the electric car is a flop, with few buyers and an exorbitant price. The Volt has trouble staying charged in cold weather and the battery can burst into flames long after being damaged in a minor accident. Obama's fantasy of gasless cars is proving to be among the biggest debacles in automotive history—rivaling Ford's Edsel and Chevrolet's Corvair.

3. Solyndra silliness
President Obama made sure the $787 billion stimulus package was stuffed with initiatives meant to create green jobs by the millions. What the taxpayer got in return was a parade of bankrupt companies, led by Solyndra. The solar-panel producing company got a $535 million loan guarantee, with the promise that 4,000 jobs would be created, but end up filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year. Solyndra became the symbol of Obama's misreading of the marketplace's demand for green energy.

4. Tesla travestyHere's another tragic "green jobs" story. Tesla Motors received $465 million from the Obama administration to produce electric cars. So far the company has created 400 jobs, at a cost of over a million dollars per job, by producing the Tesla Roadster, with a price tag of $100,000 per car. Unfortunately, should the electric car ever become fully discharged, it would cost $40,000 in repairs. Where's Occupy Wall Street on this?

5. Moratorium morass
After the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama imposed a moratorium on deep-water drilling. The action prompted oil rigs to relocate to Brazil, costing jobs in America. Obama then offered technology and support for Brazil to develop its offshore oil production, creating jobs in Brazil. Does this make sense to anyone?

6. Drilling dashed
It is not only the deep-water drilling pull-back that is wrongheaded. The President also refuses to consider drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or along most of America's coastline. And he is not aggressively pushing for shale oil extraction or natural gas drilling on federal lands. There is an abundance of energy in this country if only the President would seek to develop it.

7. Price pandemonium
Of course energy prices are exploding. That's what the President wanted all along. Remember his famous utterance, saying that under his policies, "electricity prices will necessarily skyrocket." Also telling was his selection of Steven Chu as energy secretary. Chu once said that it was important for U.S. gas prices to mirror Europe's sky-high petrol costs. It looks like he may be getting his wish.

8. Cap and trade catatonic
Despite a big push by the environmental lobby, President Obama couldn't get his convoluted cap-and-trade package through the Democratic-controlled Senate. The legislation would have raised energy costs for consumers, while enriching visionary thinkers like Al Gore, who tried to parlay his global warming alarmism into a profitable venture by cashing in on the legislation's emission-credits trading market.

9. Algae acclamation
With enormous areas of shale oil deposits and oil reserves in the U.S. remaining off-limits for development, President Obama has turned his eye to America's algae resources to solve the nation's energy problem. The President claims that by harvesting algae, and turning it into fuel, the nation could replace 17% of the oil it imports. Mr. President, if you want to reduce oil imports, here is some advice: Drill, baby, drill.

10. Energy excess
It takes a village of Secret Service agents and White House aides to accompany Michelle Obama and her husband (sometimes) on vacations to Spain, Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii, etc. With Air Force One gobbling up copious amounts of fuel, even one of the First Couples' date nights to New York could light a town, or even Al Gore's house. With Americans struggling to pay high gas prices, perhaps the first family can set an example for the nation and start cutting back on their excessive energy use.

[Warph]

TOP TEN - RESEARCH ON YOUNG VOTERS TODAY

1.The Millennial generation already makes up 1/5 of the electorate.  By 2015, they will account for 1/3.  And research shows that young voters with college experience are much more likely to vote than their non-college counterparts.  Although ½ of young Americans ages 18-29 have never enrolled in college, 79% of the young voters on Super Tuesday attended college.

2.Compared to 2000, young voters have more than doubled their turnout in the 2008 primaries and caucuses.  For example, in Texas, the number of 18-29 year old voters grew 301%.

3.In both the 2006 and the 2008 primaries, young voters made the difference in several tight races.  Senator Obama owes his caucus win in Iowa to 18-29 year olds, and a winning margin among the youth vote helped Senator McCain win in California.

4.The 2008 presidential election was the first in decades where candidates were actively and aggressively courting the youth vote.  In the primaries, four candidates from both parties had full-time, national youth outreach directors.

5.Young Latinos are the largest, and fastest-growing ethnic subset of young adults; 50,000 young Latinos turn 18 each month, and Latinos make up 17% of the youth electorate.

6.In comparison to other people of color, young African-Americans voters are more likely to vote regularly, donate money to candidates, and display a campaign button or sign.

7.Since 2004, young women have led the turnout increase witnessed among young adults overall.  In both 2004 and 2006, young women voted at rates seven and three points higher than young men.

8.The majority of young voters identify themselves as Democrat (47%), with 55% of young women classified as Democrats, compared to 38% of men.

9.Overall, 28% of young voters identify as Republicans, with 30% of young men categorizing themselves as Republican, compared to 26% of young women.

10.Republican identification is also highest among Caucasian youth, with 35% identifying as Republican.

Sources:
http://www.rockthevote.com/about/about-young-voters/who-are-young-voters/

http://www.civicyouth.org/research-products/fact-sheets/

http://www.civicyouth.org/quick-facts/235-2/

[Warph]

President Obuma is in need of a new campaign slogan, as his "hope-and-change" mantra from 2008 has been worn threadbare after a dismal first term.  Here is Ten that might work:


1. "Buy now, pay later"
President Obuma has added trillions of dollars to the nation's debt.. more red ink in his first term than was accumulated in America's first 225 years.  Piling up debt has the political advantage that taxpayers are getting a lot of stuff without having to pay for it.  The downside is that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off the balance.  Luckily for the president, that demographic group won't be voting in November.

2. "I am the Great Apologizer"
Obuma has certainly set the standard for the most apologies in presidential history!  In his first interview as president.. to the Saudi-owned al Arabiya... Obuma said, "We sometimes make mistakes. We have not been perfect."   In Turkey, he told students, "America, like every other nation, has made mistakes and has its flaws."   In Cairo, he said the response to 9/11 caused the U.S. "to act contrary to our traditions and our ideas." Recently he apologized when U.S. military personnel burned Korans already defaced by Afghan detainees.  No president in U.S. history has had a stronger record on telling the world about how bad America is.

3. "I am great, like Lincoln, Gandhi, Mandela, Jimmy Carter ..."
The Obumanator believes he is among the great figures in history... comparing himself to Lincoln even before taking office and winning the Nobel Peace Prize early in his first term.... like, what, 10 days in?  Lately, he has made references to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela when talking about how hard it is to change things.  His 2008 campaign rhetoric... "We are the ones we've been waiting for," & "This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow, and our planet began to heal"... has not quite worked out, but this president is so full of himself that he undoubtedly will keep telling the nation of his greatness. 

4. "Jobs for everyone around the world"
Even if the president doesn't have a very good track record of creating jobs in the United States, he can brag that he has helped boost employment overseas. After he drove off oil producers from the Gulf of Mexico with his deep-water drilling moratorium, Obama offered to help Brazil develop its energy resources. His investments in green energy helped to create jobs in China. Now it turns out that General Motors—owned, in part, by U.S. taxpayers—is buying a $400 million stake in French automaker Peugeot. Vive la France!

5. "Yoohoo.. Vote for me, I'm black"
Obuma recently launched African Americans for Obuma, hoping to re-energize blacks, who were giddy about his first campaign but have yet to benefit from his administration's policies.  The new campaign effort is complete with its own logo, Web site (www.barackobama.com/african-americans), and fundraising appeal.  Imagine the outcry if a "Whites for Romney," or "Caucasians for Santorum," were part of the Republicans' strategy.

6. "Food stamps for economic growth"
Under Obuma's policies, a record 46 million Americans, or one out of every seven, are on food stamps.  While some might consider that a bad thing, Democrats like to brag about how food stamps are an economic engine.  Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi once said, "It is the biggest bang for the buck when you do food stamps and unemployment insurance.  The biggest bang for the buck." Actually, Ms. Pelosi, the biggest bang for the economy would be for the government to ease the burden on taxpayers and businesses.  How the hell did she get to be Speaker, anyway?

7. "Gas prices finally catching up to Europe"
High gas prices can be viewed as an accomplishment since the president has long favored increased costs for fossil fuels.  When he was running for office, Obuma said his policies would make electricity prices skyrocket.  His energy secretary, Steven Chu, wanted U.S. gas prices to catch up to Europe's.  Alas, the other side of the energy equation... plowing money into green energy projects... hasn't worked out. (See Solyndra, et al.)

8. "I will call you if you are attacked by right-wing talk-radio hosts"
Ol' Barry showed that he really cares when people are attacked by conservatives by telephoning Georgetown University law student Sandra Fluke after Rush Limbaugh called her a "slut" for demanding subsidized contraceptives.  One would think that someone going to a university with a $46,000 annual tuition rate could afford to buy an oral contraceptive at Walmart for $9 per month.  If it polls well, look for the president to robo-call every aggrieved liberal.


9. "Workers of the world unite"
While the fall of the Berlin Wall rendered this slogan from Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto obsolete, President Obuma is trying to resurrect it with his class-warfare rants.  In Obumaland, Wall Street is evil, taxes need to be raised on the "rich," and wealth needs to be redistributed out of fairness.  Mr. President Clown: It didn't work in the Soviet Union and it won't work in the United States.

10. "I am just a regular guy"
Forget about the aloofness of the president and how he once said some working-class Americans are bitter and cling to their guns and religion.  He recently disclosed that the First Lady "allows" him to watch Sports Center on EPSN.  Allows him...?  How better to identify with the white working-class male than to point out that he is just as henpecked by his wife as they are.