Jon Huntsman enters 2012 White House race

 Republican Jon Huntsman, President Barack Obama's former ambassador to China, entered his party's 2012 presidential race on Tuesday pledging to make the "hard decisions" to deal with America's debt.
"I'm a candidate for the office of President of the United States of America," Huntsman told supporters at Liberty State Park in New Jersey, with the Statue of Liberty in the background. The site is where former President Ronald Reagan launched his bid for the White House in 1980.

"For the first time in our history, we are passing down to the next generation a country that is less powerful, less compassionate, less competitive and less confident than the one we got," Huntsman said. "This, ladies and gentlemen, is totally unacceptable and totally un-American."
Huntsman called for "broad and bold" changes to tax laws and regulations and said America should seek energy independence and boost job creation, but gave no specifics on his plans.
"We must make hard decisions that are necessary to avert disaster," the former Utah governor said, painting a bleak picture of what it would mean for the country if it does not reduce its debt load.

[Reuters]

Welcome to the race. A lot of people say he the better candidate to face Obama. Well, welcome to the spotlight. Ha!

Rory McIlroy beats Tiger Woods Record. The new face of Golf?

By the time dusk settled over Congressional Country Club on Sunday evening it was clear that golf had found its challenge to Tiger Woods, even if it comes in the form of a man barely 22 years old with freckles on his face and the bushy hair of a teenager. For all the imposters and has-beens and never-really-coulds who were supposed to break the iron rule of the game’s most dominant player over the last 14 years, who would have imagined Rory McIlory? 

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Stalking the greens he fades into the scenery, a kid making a joke of grown men, he hardly seems tall enough to crush the drives he hits so precisely. And yet with one brilliant week here on the very course that hosts Tiger’s tournament, he leaped into that hazy ether owned only by Woods. McIlroy might only have won three professional tournaments in his brief career, but his 16-under par total in this U.S. Open was one of the most dominating performances in a major ever, obliterating Tiger’s previous Open record of 12 under set at the 2000 Open at Pebble Beach.
So here is the new face golf was desperate to find, the one whose life changed forever this weekend, the one that will now be pictured as the favorite at the next several major tournaments regardless of whether Woods returns from his injuries.
But Rory McIlroy is not Tiger Woods. He does not strut through golf tournaments with an icy indifference, breaking opponents just by the act of not even looking their way. He isn’t the kind to brush past a group of fans without at least a nod or the tiniest of waves.

On Saturday, after McIlroy nearly made the outcome of this tournament moot by shooting a 68, he walked into the clubhouse, spotted a small boy standing in the hallway and tossed him his glove. The boy beamed. The boy’s mother clapped. And Rory replied with a slight smile as he walked toward the locker room.
It’s the kind of thing Tiger would have never done lest he seem compassionate. Yet it is the frigid distance that helped Tiger win 14 major titles and become the most-feared man on the tour. He crushed his adversaries before he ever played them.
McIlroy is not a golf robot. Even as he scorched his way through Congressional doubts lingered about his will. He could have been the true challenge to Tiger two months ago in the green forest of Augusta, but his last-day lead at the Masters imploded somewhere off the side of the 10th fairway cementing a label as yet another talented young player too fragile to survive the pressure of a major tournament.
You do not go from being the player who blew the Masters and squandered a first-day lead at last summer’s British Open to being the most intimidating presence on the tour in a matter of weeks. You are not yet the game’s best player if thousands are lining the ropes on Sunday, craning their necks half expecting you to crumble.
Just Saturday evening Lee Westwood, who shares a business manager with McIlroy, wondered aloud if McIlory would hold what was then an eight-stroke lead. “You don’t know how he’s going to deal with the big lead,” Westwood said. “He had a big lead in a major and didn’t deal with it well before. There’s pressure on him with regards to that. We’ll see.”
Nobody said “we’ll see” when Tiger led by eight strokes on the next to last day of a major.
Maybe someday McIlroy gets a Tiger-like desire. Maybe winning this tournament and all the fame that comes with it will harden him, wiping the youthful smirk that dances on his lips and steeling him against the world the way Woods always did. Perhaps, as everyone seems to predict, he will win lots and lots of majors and approach the 14 major titles won by Tiger. But it’s hard to believe a kid who talks freely about his failings and admits that the thing he needed to add most to his game was arrogance could be Tiger.
Instead he will likely become something else, something more loveable: a really good player who knows how to treat people well, who will smile and sign autographs and play the game with joy and not as if he was on a corporate mission.
Sunday he took the victor’s walk down the 18th fairway, basking in the roar that reverberated through the trees, over the pond and against the giant clubhouse standing regal atop a hill. There are few strolls like this in sports and everybody expects there will be many more. But still it lay in contrast to the previous evening, when he leaned over to knock his final putt into the hole and from far across the water there came a voice piercing the silence.
“Just like the Masters!”
Nobody would have dared scream such a thing at Woods in the same situation.
Which is why Rory McIlroy is a really, really good golfer.
But he is not Tiger Woods. At least not yet.
[YahooSports]

Nigerian in race for New York city council seat

Nigeria’s David Kayode says he will run for a seat in the New York City Council, hoping to become the first African to be elected into the council. Kayode, a Baptist priest and staff member of the New York City Department of Homeless Services, is running for the 28th Council District in Queens in the election to be held in November.
He said in New York that his campaign would focus on “employment, education, housing and public safety’’ for his constituents in New York.

He expressed the belief that his vocation as an ordained priest and a credentialed Alcohol and Substance Abuse (addiction) Counselor makes him a candidate to beat at the elections.
“If you fear God, you will know how to deal with individuals with issues. You will not be an island to yourself.
“If I say because I am a minister, I am not going to be a politician to help my own people, that is self prophesy.
“People in the community need people who fear God to be in City Hall and the people in City Hall know me for so long because I was a legislative aide to Thomas White from 2002 till he passed away last year.
“We have a very solid base to serve our people with the fear of God in our mind,’’ he said.
The native of the Ijero Kingdom in Ekiti State, who travelled to the U.S. in 1977, said his close relationship with the former city council man would serve as a boost to his campaign.
White spent 15 years in office under three different mayors and died last August after a long battle with cancer.
During his tenure, the veteran Queens legislator reportedly worked tirelessly to break the cycle of poverty and violence in his constituency.
Kayode, a democrat and avid supporter of President Barack Obama, is married to Adunni, with three girls and two boys.
The New York City Council is the law-making body of the City of New York and comprises of 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs.
The council works closely with the mayor each year to develop and approve the city’s annual budget.
For 2012, the New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg had proposed a 65.7-billion dollar fiscal budget for the city council.
[NAN]

Obama Opens Up Educational Opportunities For All Ladies – Granting $10,000 Additional in Grant Cash

In our today's installment of student loan consolidation programs, we bring you the news of President Obama's scholarship for ladies.
Obama's scholarship for females program is absolutely 1 excellent give to all the concerned females of the United States. This is the answer for the current undertakings of the American families, and the hope in their struggle for a much better life. Education is not only a way of learning, its effects to one's life is not limited from obtaining much better job opportunities to securing one's future, but also it is 1 way of enhancing the whole nation.

Becoming a working mom is actually tough, specially when she does not have an individual to depend on. 1 of the unkind realities that American females face today is financial obligations, especially all the single moms. When it comes to this kind of factor, like obtaining back to college, most females do not feel of it more than as a dream. But, President Barrack Obama's scholarship for females program turns their dreams into reality.
This scholarship is actually 1 large chance for all the American females, no matter what other individuals say about this, specially those anti Obama group of individuals who oppose the program. What matters most is that the President of the United States acknowledged 1 of the main concerned of his individuals, which is to finish their education.
This scholarship will allow all those mothers who could by no means actually do anything for them in their own life simply because they had been too busy taking care of the families, to get back to school and realize at least 1 of their dreams of college education. And when there is so much to accomplish and absolutely nothing to lose, this dream is surely worth chasing.
[Studentloanportal]

Wal-Mart wins Supreme Court sex-bias ruling

 The Supreme Court rejected a mammoth class-action lawsuit charging sex discrimination at Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Monday in a ruling that could affect major cases in other industries.
The justices unanimously overturned a U.S. appeals court ruling that more than a million female employees nationwide could join in the lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart of paying women less and giving them fewer promotions and seeking billions of dollars.

The Supreme Court agreed with the giant American retailer that the class-action certification violated federal rules for such lawsuits.
It accepted Wal-Mart's argument that the female employees in different jobs at 3,400 different stores nationwide and with different supervisors do not have enough in common to be lumped together in a single class-action lawsuit.
The ruling was a setback for women's groups, which have said a decision for the company could signal a significant retreat for women's rights in the workplace.
It represented a major victory for Wal-Mart, which has also faced other legal battles, including an attempt to unionize and to block the giant retailer from opening stores in New York and other places.
"We are pleased with today's ruling and believe the court made the right decision. Wal-Mart has had strong policies against discrimination for many years," the company said.
Although the court rejected the class-action status, the small group of women who brought the lawsuit, such as Betty Dukes, a Wal-Mart greeter at a store in Pittsburg, California, still can pursue their individual claims.
The plaintiffs said they are disappointed by the decision.
"The court's ruling erects substantially higher barriers for working women and men to vindicate rights to be free from employment discrimination," the plaintiffs said in a statement, stressing that the decision does not address whether Wal-Mart committed sex discrimination.
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and the largest private U.S. employer, has denied the allegations and said it has operated under a policy barring discrimination.
EMPLOYERS REJOICE
The ruling in the biggest business case of the high court's 2010-11 term could affect class-action lawsuits against the tobacco industry and Costco Wholesale Corp. It also was the court's most important job-discrimination dispute in more than a decade.
Corporate defense attorneys said the ruling was a major victory for employers. "The decision pokes a big hole in the balloon of class actions for employment cases," said Michael Droke of Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Seattle. "Employers are literally breathing a collective sigh of relief."
Analysts including Brendan Burke, an employment discrimination law expert at Navigant Economics consultants, said the Wal-Mart decision may lead to an increase in smaller putative class-action lawsuits against large employers, which could actually increase the cost to defendants.
Justice Antonin Scalia concluded for the court majority that the class was not properly certified.
"In all, Wal-Mart operates approximately 3,400 stores and employs more than one million people. Because respondents wish to sue about literally millions of employment decisions at once, they need some glue holding the alleged reasons for all those decisions together," he said.
The court's four other conservatives joined all of Scalia's ruling. The court's four liberals joined the part of it, but dissented in another part.
Large class-action lawsuits make it easier for big groups of plaintiffs to sue corporations and they have led to huge payouts by tobacco, oil and food companies.
Companies such as Wal-Mart have sought to limit such lawsuits to individual or small groups of plaintiffs. The Supreme Court, with a conservative majority that often ruled for businesses, has rejected huge class-action lawsuits.
The Supreme Court case is Wal-Mart Stores Inc v. Betty Dukes, No. 10-277.
[Reuters]

Man goes from living in the streets to inheritance riches

This has got to be the most touching rags to riches story I have come across. Read below:
A homeless man in Utah has been tracked down by a private detective and told that he is to receive a life-changing inheritance. Max Melitzer, who pushed his possessions around Salt Lake City in a shopping trolley, has been left a "significant" amount of money by his brother, who died of cancer, said the detective, David Lundberg.
Mr Lundberg found Mr Melitzer, who is in his 60s, in a park on Saturday afternoon. "He'll no longer be living on the street or in abandoned storage sheds," he said.

"He'll be able to have a normal life, and be able to have a home, provide for himself, and purchase clothing, food and health care".

Mr Lundberg had been searching for Mr Melitzer for the past two months, on behalf of his brother's family's New York lawyers. He declined to name the family or give the precise sum involved.

He said that after news of his search was broadcast on local radio, he received a tip-off that the homeless man was in Pioneer Park. He broke the news to him while the pair sat on a bench and chatted.
"He's still in shock," said Mr Lundberg. "This came out of nowhere. He's a really mellow guy in his 60s, very sweet and more articulate than I thought for a man in his position".

Mr Melitzer has been homeless for several years and previously had occasional correspondence with his brother's family by mail. Members of the family are due to meet him in Salt Lake City next week.

"He does have some emotional issues," said Mr Lundberg. "The family just wants to make sure he's set up and he's taken care of."
[Telegraph]

Obama Impersonator Tells Racist Jokes at GOP Leadership Conference

This was an Obama impersonator hired to tell racist jokes during the GOP leadership Conference. Ain't the GOP jokers for 2012? Rather than worry about fielding a strong candidate for 2012. Here is what they have. Does this win elections? Obama wins! again.