Michoacan is Mexico's big new 'problema'

(My new American Thinker post)

Michoacan is a Mexican region that most Americans don't know much about.  There are no major beach resorts for honeymooners or romantic getaways.      

Morelia, the largest city in the state, is a beautiful colonial destination to see the old Mexico of long lunches in an outdoors restaurant, "siesta" and late dinners at a friend's home.   Close your eyes in old Morelia and you will feel like you are having a tequila in that "cantina" of "The Treasure of The Sierra Madre".  

The state does have a lot of resources, from avocados, lumber and the Lazaro Cardenas PEMEX refinery.

Years ago, Morelia was a charming place to experience old Mexico.  

Today, beautiful Michoacan is a lawless region:

1) Just yesterday, a high ranking Navy Admiral was killed while traveling with his wife.  It may be the highest ranking public official killed by cartels or gangs.

2) There are vigilante groups all over. They fight the cartels and the cartels fight them. The police is nonexistent!

A Mexican friend told me that it is "the law of the bullet" in Michoacan.  He used to drive there from Mexico City but won't risk it anymore.  He related the story of a neighbor who was assaulted and left out in the open with his wife and small children.

3) A young man in Dallas told me recently that his family farm was burned down by gangs. You pay for protection or they burn you down.

Michoacan is putting President Pena-Nieto's ideas to the test,

Candidate Pena-Nieto criticized President Calderon's use of the military to fight cartels.  Of course, President Calderon was forced to use the army because the local police forces were no match for the cartel's weapons and tactics. There was also too much money in the streets and the police was in the pockets of cartels.

My guess is that President Pena-Nieto will have to reconsider his campaign promise and increase the heat on the cartels and gangs loose in Michoacan.

It won't be easy because Michoacan is a bit like Afghanistan with a lot of trees:  

"The terrain and culture of the area make the task especially difficult. With lush land for marijuana growing and a major port, Michoacán has been a precious smuggling hub for years. Its winding roads through thick forests and steep mountains favor local knowledge over military might, while the area's small towns have long maintained a distrust of government that makes it easier for criminals to claim they are trying to protect their community from outsiders."          
Move over Ciudad Juarez.  It looks like Michoacan is where the action is south of the border.

---

Tags: Michoacan is Mexico's new big "problema"  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Below zero temperatures in Wisconsin & Alvarez-Guedes on the turntable!

We learned today that Guillermo Alvarez-Guedes died in Miami.    He was 86.

Looking back at those early days in the US, or Wisconsin for us, it was Alvarez-Guedes on the turntable who made a few things just a bit more bearable.

Freezing outside?  Listen to Alvarez-Guedes!

Long work hours and little money?  Listen to one of his LPs.

Feeling nostalgic for Cuba?  Laugh at one of his jokes.

Alvarez-Guedes is the man who made "el exilio" laugh and survive those difficult early days that all of our parents had to endure. 

He was a comedian and a lot more than that for all of us Cubans!

RIP and thanks for all of those stories.  Click here for Tuesday's show and my thoughts about Alvarez-Guedes:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

 

---

Tags: Guillermo Alvarez-Guedes  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The death of two political originals

(My new American Thinker post)

We just heard that former Governor William Scranton died. Just the day before, we learned that Lindy Boggs passed away.  They were both in their late 90s. 

I remember both of these political figures. I don't think that they make them like that anymore. Scranton was a RINO before we knew what RINOs were, and Boggs was one of those Southern Democrats that went out of business with President Nixon's Southern Strategy.  

Boggs was really unique and i used to love her accent.  She was elected to the House after her husband was presumed dead when a plane was lost in Alaska.  She was also the first woman to preside over a national convention in 1976, the year Jimmy Carter was nominated by the Democrats. Her daughter is Cokie Roberts of ABC News and her son is a lawyer and lobbyst.

Scranton had a very distinguished career.  He was elected governor of Pennsylvania.  He challenged Barry Goldwater in '64 and then he was a foreign policy adviser and eventually became Ambassador to the UN.  

Things change and maybe politicians do too.  However, it is fun to think that I grew up watching people like these two.  

They had a lot of class!  

I miss that today specially when I watch Senator Reid go on the US Senate floor and say that someone told him that Mitt Romney had not paid his taxes.

---

Tags: Governor Scranton and Representative Boggs  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Colonel Bud Day is why we objected to linking Ho and George Washington

(My new American Thinker post)

A couple of days ago, we were talking about President Obama linking Ho Chi Minh and George Washington.   Many of us objected. One reason we objected is because of men like Colonel Bud Day.  He died over the weekend and left behind a legacy of patriotism and bravery:   

"Colonel Day's life was defined by the defiance he showed in North Vietnamese prison camps, where besides Mr. McCain, the future senator and Republican presidential candidate, whose Navy fighter jet had been downed, his cellmates included James B. Stockdale, also a Navy pilot, who became Ross Perot's running mate in his 1992 presidential campaign. When he volunteered for duty in Vietnam and was assigned to a fighter wing in April 1967, Colonel Day, then a major, had flown more than 4,500 hours in fighters.  
On Aug. 26, 1967, he was on a mission to knock out a surface-to-air missile site 20 miles inside North Vietnam when his F-100 was hit by antiaircraft fire. He suffered eye and back injuries and a broken arm when he ejected, and he was quickly captured. Major Day was strung upside-down by his captors, but after his bonds were loosened, he escaped after five days in enemy hands. He made it across a river, using a bamboo-log float for support, and crossed into South Vietnam. He wandered barefoot and delirious for about two weeks in search of rescuers, surviving on a few berries and frogs. At one point, he neared a Marine outpost, but members of a Communist patrol spotted him first, shot him in the leg and hand, and captured him. This time, Major Day could not escape. He was shuttled among various camps, including the prison that became known as the Hanoi Hilton, and was beaten, starved and threatened with execution. His captors demanded information on escape plans and methods of communication among the prisoners of war, as well as on America's air war. 
In February 1971, he joined with Admiral Stockdale, then a commander and the ranking American in the prison camp, and other prisoners in singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" while rifle muzzles were pointed at them by guards who had burst into a prisoners' forbidden religious service. 
He was released on March 14, 1973, having supplied only false information to his interrogators. 
He was promoted to colonel during his captivity, and on March 4, 1976, President Gerald R. Ford presented him with the Medal of Honor at a ceremony in which Admiral Stockdale was also awarded the medal."   

We don't know if Colonel Day heard President Obama's remarks about Ho and George Washington.  

I heard President Obama's remarks and found them very offensive.

Yes, I found them appalling because of men like Colonel Day. Yes men like Colonel Day and Senator McCain were tortured by Ho's government. They saw first hand that Ho was not George Washington.

---

Tags: Colonel Bud Day  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

A bad economy is a tough sell

(My new American Thinker post)

"Hope and change" is getting the kind of reviews that no one voted for in 2008.   

After all, how many "yes we can screamers" voted for a president who kept most of the anti-terror Bush policies in place, made Bush look like a miser on spending, benefited the rich and created a lot of "part-timers"?  

President Obama has been just dandy for the rich but not the middle class, according to this amazing editorial at WSJ:   

'What about the middle class that is the focus of Mr. Obama's rhetoric? Each month the consultants at Sentier Research crunch the numbers from the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey and estimate the trend in median annual household income adjusted for inflation. In its May 2013 report, Sentier put the figure at $51,500, essentially unchanged from $51,671 a year earlier.
And that's the good news. The bad news is that median real household income is $2,718, or 5%, lower than the $54,218 median in June 2009 when the recession officially ended. Median incomes typically fall during recessions. But the striking fact of the Obama economy is that median real household income has fallen even during the recovery. "

ObamaCare has been good for "part-timers", as Robert Samuelson explains:  

"Firms seek to minimize fixed labor costs by using contractors, "temps" and part-timers. Obamacare intensifies the pressures, because the incentives against hiring full-time workers are so obvious."    

ObamaCare is impacting hiring again? Where have we heard that before?

These new numbers, the gains of the rich and more part-time work, come the day after President Obama delivered another one of those "class warfare" speeches that automatically "pop up" in the TelePrompTer.

Obamaeconomics is not working, unless you are rich and enjoy doing temp work.  

As Michael Barone wrote:  The Obama economy emphasis is all talk!  Yes bad talk for our ears!

---

Tags: A bad economy is a tough sell  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

A bad summer for Hollywood

We read today that Hollywood has had a rough summer:

"Industry insiders are referring to this season as "the summer of doom" – an overcrowded huddle of big-budget spectaculars, without the audience to sustain them. US box office takings are down 19% on the same period last year, while the studios are smarting from such high-profile casualties as The Lone Ranger, After Earth and the supernatural action-thriller RIPD. 

While the runaway success of Iron Man 3 and Despicable Me 2 helped soften the blow, major figures claim that the industry needs to adapt quickly or die."

We spoke about Hollywood and the movie industry with Bill Katz of Urgent Agenda.   Bill worked in the entertainment industry and believes that the industry is in trouble.  My theory is that the movies just aren't that good!  Where are "The Ten Commandments" when we really need them?

Click here for Sunday's show:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: A bad summer for Hollywood  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Memo to President Obama: Ho is no George Washington

(My American Thinker post)

Did I hear just hear an anti-Vietnam war speech from 1971? 

Remember when the speakers used to say that Ho Chi Minh was George Washington and the Viet Cong were sort like "the Indo China Founding Fathers"? 

Remember the Viet Cong flags waved by young American idiots unaware or ignorant that dozens of US soldiers were held and tortured at the infamous Hanoi Hilton? 

By the way, did any of these "Viet Cong flag wavers" say anything when millions were slaughtered in Indo China after we left in 1975?  All I remember was a lot of silence! 

President Obama took unscripted remarks to another level when he said this:   

".....we discussed the fact that Ho Chi Minh was actually inspired by the U.S. Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and the words of Thomas Jefferson."   (President Obama talking to reporters alongside Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang)      

Where do we start? 

First, it is true that we have diplomatic relations with Vietnam.  We are doing business with them.  We may be allies in the region.  Vietnam is obviously looking for foreigners to invest and use their cheap labor. Their current leadership would rather see more "Made in Vietnam" stuff at WalMart than any discussion of Ho's ideas! 

Second, every despot in the world, including Castro in Cuba and Chavez in Venezuela, has quoted George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. They do it to enhance their arguments while they practice the exact opposite of what those wonderful men stood for. 

Third, and most important, doesn't President Obama understand that 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam? 

And millions living served there?   Some are disabled veterans!  Some still live with the memory of watching their buddy killed in action. 

Didn't it occur to President Obama that such a remark might hit a few people the wrong way?

Doesn't he realize that some of our current military leadership served in that war?

Is he that "tone deaf"? 

How do you elevate Ho Chi Mihn, a communist, a dictator, an anti-American, by having the president of the US bless his memory with a remark like that?

We often hear that President Obama is ignorant of US history.  He certainly proved it when he made those remarks to the leader of Vietnam. 

Where was the Teleprompter when we really needed it?   
Click for the Sunday show with Bill Katz:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: HO is not  George Washington  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

UNESCO and a criminal named Che

(My American Thinker post)

Andy Garcia's "The lost city" portrays Che Guevara correctly.  He was a thug, a criminal and responsible for thousands of executions.   

We just learned that UNESCO is going to honor Che Guevara.

That's an outrage and we can not take this one sitting down.

UNESCO wants to make "the life and works of Ernesto Che Guevara" the 2013 addition to the Memory of the World Register.

We remind you that UNESCO is supposed to be the intellectual agency of the UN. 

My question is this:  What life and works?

It would take me many pages to tell you about Che Guevara.   My friend Humberto Fontova wrote a great book bout Che.  Frankly, UNESCO should add Humberto's book!

I've chosen one story because it speaks volumes about the real Che.

Let's remember the story of a Cuban teenager who was executed by Che:    

"Rigoberto Hernandez was 17 when Che's soldiers dragged him from his cell in La Cabana, jerked his head back to gag him, and started dragging him to the stake. Little "Rigo" pleaded his innocence to the very bloody end. But his pleas were garbled and difficult to understand. His struggles while being gagged and bound to the stake were also awkward. The boy had been a janitor in a Havana high school and was mentally retarded. His single mother had pleaded his case with hysterical sobs. She had begged, beseeched and finally proven to his "prosecutors" that it was a case of mistaken identity. Her only son, a boy in such a condition, couldn't possibly have been "a CIA agent planting bombs." "FUEGO!" and the firing squad volley shattered Rigo's little bent body as he moaned and struggled awkwardly against his bounds, blindfold and gag.
"Certainly we execute!" boasted the man honored by UNESCO last week. "And we will continue executing as long as it is necessary!"
Those executions (murders, actually; execution implies a judicial process) had reached about 16,000 by the time of Che Guevara's statement, the equivalent, given the relative populations, of almost a million executions in the U.S. (This figure comes from "The Black Book of Communism," by the way, written by French scholars and published in English by Harvard University Press, neither an outpost of "right-wing Cuban exiles.")  
Quite fittingly, Che's bloodthirsty boast was made on Dec. 9, 1964 while addressing the hallowed halls of the United Nations."   

Our taxes fund the UN and UNESCO.  Make sure that your congressman and US Senator know that you won't stand for this. 

That's the man that UNESCO wants to remember!  

Click here for Saturday's show: 

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: UNESCO and Che Guevara  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Will the rest of Europe follow William and Kate's example and start having babies too?

(My new American Thinker post)

As the father of 3 sons, I understand how happy Prince William feels this week.  It's an awesome feeling when you hold that new baby.  I did it 3 times and it was very exciting!

So congratulations to the royal couple and we hope that they enjoy these precious moments.   

It won't be long before you're explaining to your son why soccer teams keep playing after the clock shows 45:00! It took me a long time to figure out this "compensation time" rule, too!  

Back to babies.  Unfortunately, there are very few of them in Europe.    

The birth rates are down - even lower since the economic crisis started a few years ago: 

"Experts say a 2.1 fertility rate is needed to keep the population stable, assuming net migration is zero. 
In crisis-stricken Greece, the fertility rate dropped to an estimated 1.43 in 2011 after rising to 1.51 in 2008 from 1.27 in 2000, Mr. Sobotka said. Official data from Greece show abortions there rose 50% to 300,000 in 2011 from 2010. 
In Spain, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in Europe, the fertility rate fell to 1.36 in 2011, after increasing to 1.46 in 2008 from 1.23 in 2000, according to Mr. Sobotka's data. 
In Ireland, the economy is still growing despite the country's austerity regime, begun when it took a bailout in 2010. The Irish birthrate registered only a modest fall in 2011, Mr. Sobotka said, to 2.05 from 2.1 in 2008. 
In Portugal, the number of births in 2012 is expected to tally around 90,000, the lowest level in more than 60 years. 
"Birthrates in Portugal have been so low for such a long time that even if the falling immigration eventually increases again, it won't be enough to sustain the population," said Maria Filomena Mendes, president of the Portuguese Demography Association. Ms. Mendes estimates the country's population will be close to nine million by 2030, down from the current 10 million. 
Spain's national statistics agency estimates that nation's population could fall 10%, to 41.5 million, by 2052 as more people die than are born, even taking into account an eventual upturn in immigration. 

The Vienna institute estimates that by 2050, people 65 and older will account for one-third of the populations of Portugal, Spain and Greece, up from about 18% currently."   

 
The bottom line is that you can't have a future without babies.  They are the ones who will pay the taxes in the future, especially in the welfare states of Europe. They are also the ones who will defend your culture and values.  

So let's hope that more Europeans do something for their culture:  Get married and have a few babies!   

Dear Europeans: The "ghost of Euro future" is calling! Preserve your culture by increasing your birth rates!  

P.S.  You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).  If you like our posts, drop a dime here.

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: The UK Royal Family and new baby To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The Obama Administration would rather talk 'maps' than 'jobs'

(My new American Thinker post)

Here they come again.  Attorney General Holder is at war with Texas again:  

"Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that the Justice Department is opening a new front in the battle for voter protections, a response to the Supreme Court ruling that he said dealt a major setback to the Voting Rights Act.

In a speech to the National Urban League in Philadelphia, Holder said that as its first move, the department is asking a federal court in San Antonio to require the state of Texas to obtain advance approval before putting future political redistricting changes in place. 

The attorney general called the Voting Rights Act "the cornerstone of modern civil rights law" and said that "we cannot allow the slow unraveling of the progress that so many, throughout history, have sacrificed so much to achieve." 

The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, threw out the most powerful part of the landmark Voting Rights Act, the law that became a major turning point in black Americans' struggle for equal rights and political power."  

The Obama administration is once again attempting to distract minorities by banging the drums of racism. They'd rather do that than explain the high minority unemployment rates, the lousy pubic schools that blacks and Hispanics have to send their kids to, and all of the Bush policies that he did not overturn.

Attorney General Holder is a disgrace.  He should spend his time investigating the IRS and "Fast & Furious."

The Supreme Court already spoke.  However, that does not mean much to President Obama and Attorney General Holder!

---

Tags: Obama vs Texas  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Pope Francis' visit to Brazil is turning out to be rather consequential

(My new American Thinker post)

Pope Francis is in Brazil this week.  His visit is related to the "World Youth Day", an opportunity to preach the faith to thousands of young people in the largest Catholic country in the world.   

 

You will see images of Pope Francis greeted by many well-wishers and happy faces.  However, there is a lot of anger in Brazil and the Pope won't avoid it: 

 

1) The population is fed up with prices and the high cost of living.  I could not believe this information from this week's NY Times: 

 

"Shoppers here with a notion of what items cost abroad need to brace themselves when buying a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone: the same model that costs $615 in the United States is nearly double that in Brazil. An even bigger shock awaits parents needing a crib: the cheapest one at Tok & Stok costs over $440, more than six times the price of a similarly made item at Ikea in the United States. 

 

For Brazilians seething with resentment over wasteful spending by the country's political elite, the high prices they must pay for just about everything -- a large cheese pizza can cost almost $30 -- only fuel their ire. " 

 

Wonder what we would say if we had to pay $30 for a large pizza?

 

2) Brazil is not as Catholic as it used to be: 

 

"While Brazil still has more Catholics than any other nation -- an estimated 123 million -- rising secularism and the fast-growing Protestant churches have challenged centuries of Catholic supremacy in Latin America's largest country. Only 65 percent of the Brazilian population now identifies itself as Catholic, down from 92 percent in 1970."  (NY Times)

 

3) Brazilians are really angry at the lack of priorities.  They've watched their government spend millions of dollars in preparations for the World Cup and Olympics.  However, public services, from bus service to health care, have not received the same attention. 

 

This is from a young man in the streets:  

 

""We've got nothing against the pope," said Christopher Creindel, a 22-year-old art student from Rio who was protesting outside the palace. "This protest is against our politicians." " 

 

Pope Francis did not choose Brazil for his foreign tour.  However, there are many in Brazil who see his visit as a double blessing:

 

They get to cheer the  new and very popular Pope from neighboring Argentina, and,

 

They get to tell the world's media about the problems in their country. 

 

Many of us were wrong about Brazil.  We've been hearing about all of the growth and boom.  However, we are now learning that there are a lot of Brazilians left out.

 

It's the old "macro vs micro" problem.   The "macro" looks good to economists in the world's universities or investors in Wall Street. 

 

However, the "micro" does not, specially if you are part of the lower middle classes in Brazil.

 

Or as Tip O'Neill once said:  "All politics is local".  We are seeing that in Brazil! 

 

Click here for Wednesday's show:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: Pope Francis in Brazil  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The Pope in Brazil & other US-Latin America issues

Pope Francis is down in Brazil this week.  He will be greeted by large and happy crowds.

He will also see just how much Brazil has changed in 40 years:

"While Brazil still has more Catholics than any other nation — an estimated 123 million — rising secularism and the fast-growing Protestant churches have challenged centuries of Catholic supremacy in Latin America’s largest country. 

Only 65 percent of the Brazilian population now identifies itself as Catholic, down from 92 percent in 1970."

He will also hear from many Brazilians complaining about high prices and taxes:

"Shoppers here with a notion of what items cost abroad need to brace themselves when buying a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone: the same model that costs $615 in the United States is nearly double that in Brazil. 

An even bigger shock awaits parents needing a crib: the cheapest one at Tok & Stok costs over $440, more than six times the price of a similarly made item at Ikea in the United States."

Pope Francis did not pick Brazil because of its internal problems.    Nevertheless, his visit has given the locals a chance to tell the world about their problems.

Click here for Wednesday's show:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: The Pope in Brazil  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The 'economy tour': It happens every time his polls drop

(My new American Thinker post)

It happens every spring or maybe every summer or maybe every time that the Obama approvals start dropping.  

Like Willie Nelson, President Obama is "on the road again".  Get ready for another economic tour - another round of speeches about how his agenda is tied up by that GOP that does not care about poor people, children, grandmothers and everybody else.  

Hopefully he won't use that bus "Made in Canada" this time around.  

We just learned that President Obama will unveil his new economic agenda:  

"With major battles looming in the fall over the federal budget and the debt ceiling, President Obama is trying to regain the initiative, embarking on a campaign-style tour of the Midwest this week to lay out his agenda for reinvigorating the nation's economy, administration officials said Sunday. "  

Does this guy know that he's been president for the last 5 years?  or that he passed a "stimulus" in the spring of 2009?  

President Obama is doing a little more distraction than unveiling anything new about the economy: 

1) The last jobs report was mixed to say the least.  Morton Zuckerman is not impressed:  

"The longest and worst recession since the end of World War II has been marked by the weakest recovery from any U.S. recession in that same period."

 2) Gasoline prices are going up and that's squeezing middle class incomes: 

"The economic recovery of summer 2013 is playing out in an all-too-familiar way for poor and middle-class Americans: Gas prices are up, growth is slowing, and there still aren't nearly enough new jobs to employ the almost 12 million people seeking work."  (Washington Post) 

3) The Senate immigration bill is dead.  We will probably get something from the House but I'm not sure that President Obama will sign it;

4) The Middle East is a mess and Iraq may be the next headache; and 

5) ObamaCare may have to be delayed because it's not ready for prime time.  The unions are the last group to figure it out!  

President Obama has little to talk about or show for his 5 years in the presidency. Job growth is weak.  Immigration is stuck in the Congress. ObamaCare is not off to a good start.   

Why not get out of Washington DC and go around the country giving speeches to pre-screened "yes we can screamers"?   

It beats governing, tackling problems or showing leadership!

---

Tags: President Obama and the US economy  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

The lessons of Detroit

We can learn a lot from Detroit, according to Ron Fornuier:

"Wrenching economic change … income inequality ... political corruption … ineffective government … rigid institutions … chronic debt and racism -- these are the things that bankrupted Detroit, morally and fiscally, and they're an exaggerated reflection of the nation's challenges."

In so many ways, Detroit is Exhibit A of the failure of American liberalism.

Click here for Tuesday's show with Frank Burke:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: The lessons of Detroit   To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

Don't you always put sugar on your MIGs?

(My new American Thinker post)

The Cuban "brown sugar" crisis took a turn over the weekend.  We found a couple of old MIG's under the brown sugar:   

"Panamanian investigators unloading the cargo of a seized North Korean ship that carried arms from Cuba have found the two MiG-21 fighter jets the Cuban government had said were on board, the government said on Sunday. "

And then it got better because they found "two missile radar systems."

 

Before they found the MIGs and radar systems, the Cuban government said that the "the cargo was a donation of sugar for the people of North Korea." 

 

Wonder if a couple of Cubans and North Korean were singing that song from Mary Poppins:  "Just  a spoonful of sugar...." 

 

My guess is that most North Koreans would tell the Cubans to keep their MIGs and put more brown sugar, or other foodstuffs, in the shipment. 

At the same time, I think that it's getting more and more obvious that these military items were headed somewhere other than North Korea. 

 

Where?  I don't know but there are some guerrilla in Colombia who could use a little firepower. They killed 19 Colombia soldiers over the weekend. 

 

There are also cartels in Mexico who would love to shoot down one of those Mexican Army helicopters.  I'm sure that the cartels are very angry with the capture of another leader.

 

Where?  Again I don't know but there are lots of bad guys out there with liquidity and looking to add some inventory!

---

Tags: Cuba and North Korea  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

A new start for Detroit

The bad news is that Detroit is the largest city to file for bankruptcy.  The good news is that Detroit now has a real chance to reinvent itself and become a dynamic place for business.

We know what happened in Detroit.  The images of today's Detroit are devastating.

First, the taxpayers moved out.  They took their taxes to the suburbs as has happened in other metropolitan areas.

Second, the public schools failed miserably. 

Third, the Democrats and the public sector unions messed up everything.  Too many promises, lousy services and a political system that automatically elected and reelected  Democrats.

Fourth, the auto industry left for greener pastures, such as "right to work" states in Texas, Tennessee, Kentucky, etc.

That's the past.  What can we do now?

Turn Detroit into the most attractive place on earth to start a business.  Encourage entrepreneurs, like the car makers of 100 years ago, to make and create the industries of tomorrow.

It won't happen overnight but it will work.  Give capitalism a chance in Detroit and you'll see how quickly the city will turn around.

Click here for Monday's show:

Listen to internet radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

---

Tags: A new start for Detroit  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!

In support of a limited DREAM Act

(My new American Thinker post)

The US Senate immigration bill is a bit too comprehensive for me.  In other words, too long, too bureaucratic and full of potential unintended consequences. 

 

So I hope that the House will start fresh and look at several bills rather than one "comprehensive" solution. 

 

For the record, I do not support "a path to citizenship."  However, I would like to see some pathway to legalization for those who are here and wish to stay here. 

 

My "path" includes a fine, back taxes, probation and a commitment to assimilate into the US.  It would simply provide these individuals with some type of "work visa" that allows them to work in the US. 

 

It is not a "green card" or put you on any list to anything. It simply allows you to work legally in the US.  The visa can be renewed every so many years.  

 

The visa holder would be subject to deportation if he or she engaged in any kind of illegal activity.   

 

So what do we do with the young people or "the dreamers"? The Dream Act, or whatever the House GOP wants rename it, involves youngsters.  

 

It gives the GOP House the opportunity to demonstrate that they have a heart.  It would also create a lot of goodwill with younger Hispanics who've lived here for much of their lives. 

 

I'm diappointed that conservatives in the GOP don't jump on a plan that would grant legalization to thousands of kids who were brought here by their parents. 

 

You can limit the plan to those young people who've completed high school, attending college or willing to serve in the US military. 

 

Politically speaking, it would show that the GOP can act on immigration. 

 

The House should pass a tough border security measure, with very harsh employer sanctions, and add a pathway for the aforementioned young people. 

 

It makes sense for the country and it's good politics.  it would take away the Democrats' talking point that the GOP is not concerned with these young people.  

 

The House could then take the time to discuss and analyze the legal and economic consequences of the 10 million or so who are here.

---

Tags: In support of a "limited" Dream Act  To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the My View by Silvio Canto, Jr. Thanks!