Tent cities on the rise in the USA

From Middle Class to Homeless: The Rise of Tent Cities

Tent city populations are blossoming across America. Areas that have had particularly high foreclosure rates and job losses, such as Sacramento, California, where the ‘newly homeless’ rate rose 15% from 2007 to 2008, offer the most dramatic views.

The tent city along the American River in Sacramento is not new. Two years ago the population averaged about thirty chronically homeless individuals. Today residents of the makeshift city, also known as a shanty town, report that anywhere between 20 to 50 newly homeless people are showing up every week. ...

Republicans own FOX

GOP Admits it "Owns" Fox

On April 6, 2009, the University of Colorado hosted the 61st Annual Conference on World Affairs, which included a panel presentation entitled Rebranding Republicans: Don't Misunderestimate Us, recorded by and broadcast on C-SPAN.  Among the panelists was Robert G. Kaufman, author of In Defense of the Bush Doctrine: Moral Democratic Realism and American Grand Strategy, published in 2007.  In a ten-minute presentation, Mr. Kaufman posited five "core principles" that Republicans must embrace if they are to succeed "when Obama fails."

There is much to find disturbing in Mr. Kaufman's presentation, such as his assumption that Obama will fail and his assertion that "multiculturalism is a euphemism for the Balkanization of the United States".  However, his "recommendation" that the GOP "acquire another television network" to disseminate its message in future elections is both an audacious proposal and a stunning admission.
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Pirates and nation building?

io9 - Could Pirates Become an Army for the Stateless? - Pirates