Speaking last Friday at the Center for American Progress, Napolitano said 600 miles of border fence have been completed to date and more than 20,000 Border Patrol agents have been hired, the Associated Press (AP) reports.

"I’ve been dealing hands-on with immigration issues since 1993, so trust me: I know a major shift when I see one, and what I have seen makes reform far more attainable this time around," she said, quoted by the news provider.

However, Terence P. Jeffrey, editor-in-chief of CNSNews.com, recently quoted Lloyd Easterling, acting director of media relations for the DHS, as saying that Border Patrol is planning to decrease the number of agents on the U.S.-Mexico border by 384 in fiscal year 2010 which started on Oct 1.

In addition, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, who is the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, expressed concerns about the more than 400 miles of border with Mexico which are still open.

The AP says the 2006 immigration enforcement legislation called for 700 miles of border fences and barriers to be built, and it quotes immigration critics who say the existing fence has not been built with double layers as the law requires.

While most of the initial concerns centered on the issue of national security, recent objections have also included the constitutional rights of the alleged terrorists. For example, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, who is the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, stated that trying the accused in a civilian court will expand their constitutional rights and may result in more lenient sentences than in a military court.

"The administration should not prioritize the rights of terrorists over the rights of Americans to be safe and secure," he added.

Critics have also voiced their opinion on the Democratic side, with Senator Jim Webb of Virginia pointing to the potential disruption and high costs associated with conducting the trail on U.S. soil.

However, the Obama administration’s decision was praised by civil rights organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, whose executive director Anthony Romero called it "a huge victory" for the rule of law.

"It would have been an enormous blow to American values if we had tried these defendants in a process riddled with legal problems," he added.

Five Guantanamo prisoners accused on planning the terrorist attacks will stand trial in a civilian court in New York just blocks away from "ground zero."

In announcing his decision, Dobbs—who has attracted controversy in recent years for vocally expressing his conservative views on the air—aid that "some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day."

However, there is no shortage of speculation that Dobbs was ousted for practicing what CNN president Jonathan Klein term "advocacy journalism."

The 64-year-old anchor has become a target of criticism for taking a tough stance on issues such as illegal immigration and for his involvement in the so-called "birther" movement, which questioned President Obama’s eligibility for the office for failing to produce his original birth certificate.

Hispanic groups have expressed satisfaction with the developments at the cable network. The Latino Policy Coalition issued a statement expressing gratitude to more than 40 local and regional civil rights organizations "that have succeeded in their efforts to draw national attention to CNN Anchor Lou Dobbs’ anti-immigrant news program, and thus ultimately end his slanted commentary show."

Monday night, Dobbs is expected to appear on The O’Reilly Factor with Bill O’Reilly, which airs on Fox News. Last summer, O’Reilly defended Dobbs’ right to free speech.

Sometimes, when I get galled and tired from the tasks of the day, I watch the national news. What do the newscasters really say? What news do they really tell us in America?

I am duly impressed by how articulate they are and how they never say anything. They are trained icons at having NO OPINION.

It’s my conclusion that to be politically correct and socially acceptable in America is to be a faceless people. Just have no opinion.

Oh yes, we can master the King’s English as long as we don’t say anything. Does this remind us of the three monkeys who “See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil?”

This is modern America, faceless and soulless. Scripture suggests that we are neither hot nor cold and that God spews us out. (Rev. 3:15-19) So how do we learn? How do we approach reality?

I have my own rules. My rule—and I have taught this to my children—is to believe just the opposite of government and political pronouncements. This is the most direct route to sobriety and a peek at the real world.

The system can thrive with no opinion. With this syndrome, “they” can milk us and shear us and keep us on the animal farm. We are as docile and obedient as cattle.  We can be intellectual giants and, as far as practical reality, be complete idiots.

But what if our inner soul begins to suspect disharmony of and disgust with the monotony of the system and the sickening conformity of the masses? The people can have literally the firepower of armies and still be under disciplined control, just so long as they believe the lies of the system.

How else can countries field multi-million-man armies that really don’t know who their enemies are, but are willing to fight to the death for some nebulous propaganda? Ignorance is not bliss. It is sorrow and death.

If we do not know reality we cannot know right from wrong. We have no moral ethic or restraints.

There is a system. Outwardly and ideally it is the rule of law and a moral order. Inwardly and secretly it has an unannounced agenda of human and population control, regardless of the name of the system or the form of government. The same secret elite rules. They have the power of life and death through and with thought control.

There can be no secret elite without thought control. Man must not be allowed to think his own thoughts, but must think the thoughts of the system. And he must not know the difference.

Mind control is used to extract wealth and human freedom without consent. The most perfect crime is when the people who carry out the will and purpose of the system do not suspect the complete shroud of thought control. They suspect nothing.

There are those who see and there are the many that are blinded. What gives us perception and vision? Knowledge is the mechanical attribute of the brain.

The world is floating in knowledge. There are thousands of universities and colleges. This is the black and white world, the rote and the mundane.

But wisdom only filters through to a very few. They are the ones who see with their souls and with their spirits. Their vision is as the colors of the rainbow. Spiritual vision cannot be known or communicated to the vain.

Words carry knowledge but words cannot carry wisdom. Wisdom is perception and spiritual discernment. It is to know God and reality.

It is the evolution of consciousness. It is the fullness of life on earth that God intended. Blessed are those who have it!

It is beautifully described in Madame Ghis’ book “Madame Ghis: Escape In Prison.” In it she wrote:

“My soul showed me that the world in which I live is made up of lies and illusions. Reality can only be perceived with the soul’s eyes. With her (my soul) help, I learned that behind the tax system and all other systems, we find slaves without chains, human beings who are ignorant and unconscious of being the property of the State.

They trust their government enough to entrust it with their children, their health, their property and their entire lives. Citizens cannot guess that the State is a mere legislator and tax collector working for the bank of Canada, and a cartel of private bankers.

When I became aware of this situation, I decided to put an end to my life as the subject of a ‘higher’ authority. How could I do this?

By doing the exact opposite of what I had been doing before. How does a slave behave? Like a domestic dog. He submits to the will of his master who uses it as he wishes. In return, the master feeds it and brings it security. The more docile is the dog, the better he gets treated.”

Madame Ghis is a prison name given by inmates to Dr. Marie Eva Sophie Ghislain Lanctot, a medical doctor who spent a few months in prison for refusing to conform to the income tax system in Canada. She has written several revealing books, “The Medical Mafia,” “The Trial of the Medical Mafia,” “What the Hell am I Doing Here Anyway,” and “Madame Ghis: Escape in Prison.” They can be bought at  www.personocratia.com.

How do we become aware of the illusory world in which we live? How do we come to understand that law, finance, politics and religion are all interconnected?

Everything turns on the individual imperative to inquire. Do you know that most people do not inquire? They ask no questions. They seek no information.

We who inquire are few. We speak of the battle for our minds. We seek freedom from lies and deception which saturates our lives. Self change and release from deception is not easy, nor is it comfortable.

It is very difficult for the ego to let go of old habits of thought and lifelong, cherished attachments. The inquiring person reaches reality according to his own level of consciousness.

What then does the fascist state not tell us? What does the state not want us to know?

They do not want us to know that we do not think our own thoughts, but those of the system. They do not want us to know that we do not have human freedom, that democracy is a myth.

They do not want us to know that we have imaginary money that transfers wealth and savings to the state.

They do not want us to know that public schools and universities are government schools. They indoctrinate us with the system so that we cannot evaluate reality.

They do not want us to know that the medical system is a front for pharmaceuticals and a marketing vehicle for their drugs.

They promote a sickness system to sell drugs. The American people are fast discovering that sea salt and water are more medicinal than all the drugs.

Dede Scozzafava, a Republican candidate who quit the race for a House seat late last month and subsequently endorsed the Democratic candidate, told CNN she was subjected to "vicious" attacks from conservative members of the party for her alleged liberalism.

In the interview she stressed that local elections should be about local issues not big ideology and added that "hopefully a lesson can be learned [so that we] understand that there are many voices that make a party."

Meanwhile, speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, Scozzafava was less diplomatic and said that these days the GOP was "really not based on any sort of substance," that could enable it to work for the benefit of the American people, quoted by Politico.com.

In the run-up to the vote, GOP heavyweights such as Sarah Palin and Dick Armey, as well as Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, chose to back a third-party candidate Doug Hoffman because of his more socially conservative credentials. However, he was defeated by Bill Owens who became the first Democrat to win the district in more than 100 years.

The shenanigans accompanying the final days of the campaign before the November 3 ballot brought the race to national attention and exposed divisions within the GOP between its conservative base and the party’s leadership who often back more moderate candidates.

Among the critics of the bill is the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) which says a report from the Joint Committee on Taxation found the provisions to increase taxes on the wealthy in order to finance the reform will translate into a big tax hike on small business owners.

SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan said this will "deprive the private sector of the capital it needs to hold onto their workers, create more job opportunities, invest, innovate and grow."

Meanwhile, several Democratic lawmakers, joined by a group of small business owners, participated in a press conference, and stressed the legislation will end the insurance industry practices of hiking premiums for small businesses when an employee gets sick or because the business hires a woman.

Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa said that "[the] bill will end the practice of denying coverage based on preexisting conditions or increasing premiums based on health status, gender or industry."

The Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship says studies indicate small businesses—which employ nearly 40 percent of private labor force in the U.S.—are likely to see their premiums rise by 15 percent in the coming year, twice the rate of last year’s increase.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who allegedly confessed to masterminding the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, and four other Guantanamo Bay prisoners will be tried by a civilian court in lower Manhattan, just blocks from the World Trade Center site.

While some family members welcomed the decision as a chance to have their day in court, Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that "bringing these dangerous individuals onto U.S. soil needlessly compromises the safety of all Americans," quoted by CNN.

He added that "putting political ideology ahead of the safety of the American people just to fulfill an ill-conceived campaign promise is irresponsible."

The announcement was made by Attorney General Eric Holder who also stated that he expected the prosecutors will seek the death penalty against the defendants.

He said, moreover, that five other detainees held at Guantanamo Bay will be sent to military commissions for trial, also in the U.S.

Commentators suggest the decisions are a step towards fulfilling the pledge made by President Obama last January to close the controversial detention facility that has attracted criticism from around the world for its harsh interrogation techniques which some say included acts of torture.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, only 52 percent of registered voters would like to see their representatives re-elected next year, while just over 33 percent say that most members of Congress should be returned to office. These figures are among the lowest in the last 20 years, the organization says.

In addition, voters who plan to support Republicans in 2010 are more enthusiastic than those who plan to vote for a Democrat. The survey found that 58 percent of Republican voters are very enthusiastic about next year’s elections, as opposed to 42 percent of those who plan to vote Democratic.

CNN polling director Keating Holland commented that the results are not surprising as "the party that is out of power usually gets to play on offense, while the party in power is essentially playing defense."

The poll also found that the vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction the country is heading as nine out of 10 consider the national economic conditions to be fair or poor. Nearly two-thirds describe their own finances that way, the highest number since the summer of 1992.

Ever more Americans are also convinced the war in Afghanistan is not going well, and a plurality continues to oppose the healthcare reform proposals, the Pew Center has found.

Finally, recent opinion polls have found that increasingly many people disagree with President Obama’s policies, although they continue to like him personally.

Barack Obama must be thrilled with fellow Nobel Prize winner and former Vice President Al Gore and his just-published book, Our Choice, A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. In it, Gore sings the liberal refrain that big government can save the world.

Gore, who is making the rounds touting his book this month, argues there are economic as well as political reasons to be green.

"There is a common thread running through the discussion of climate, (national) security, and the economic crisis, and that is our ridiculous dependence on foreign oil and coal," Gore said.

In other words, clean energy will bring us peace, prosperity and respite from that “End of Days” scenario known as global warming.

Gore thinks we can have peace because America will no longer be dependent on Middle East oil. As a result we can pull out of the region lock, stock and no barrel.

That will save hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on Arab oil. Best yet, that money can be invested into clean technologies—a super-grid to capture and transport wind and solar power.

Gore’s vision is for America to become a world leader in clean technology and export it around the world, correcting one last annoyance—our staggering trade deficit.

Gore’s utopia is green. Soon we can sleep easy in our lavish solar homes with our electric cars plugged in.

If it sounds too good to be true there is a reason for that—it is.

Jousting at Windmills
If you have ever been to Palm Springs, Calif., and driven west you can’t help but notice the forest of wind turbines that pockmark the desert landscape.

As we drove along Interstate-10 years ago my wife Angela said, “How come the windmills aren’t turning?”

“No wind,” I said.                       

That sums up the problem with wind power, a system that currently produces about 1 percent of America’s energy needs.

When the wind blows you get electricity but when it doesn’t blow you get nothing. That is because it is impossible with current technology to store alternating current. Direct current wind power can’t be stored in batteries. As a result consumers need redundant power plants.

Then there is a question of cost and space.

Last year in England, former Industry Secretary and current Labour MP John Hutton announced the British government should build a huge array of giant windmills to meet the country’s future energy needs.

The Energy Tribune said Hutton’s plan would literally change the face of Britain. That’s because Hutton wants the government to build 7,000 turbines—or one every half-mile around the entire coast of Britain.

It’s interesting that as much as the greens hate to spoil the environment they embrace wind power. Turbines not only kill tens of thousands of birds but also use up more space per unit of capacity than any other power source. According to the U.S. Department of Energy each wind turbine requires 40 acres.

Physicist Howard Hayden at the University of Connecticut sums up the situation: “Imagine a one-mile swath of wind turbines extending from San Francisco to Los Angeles. That land area would be required to produce as much power around the clock as one large coal, natural gas, or nuclear power station that normally occupies about one square kilometer.”

And wind turbines don‘t come cheap. One commercial 2 megawatt turbine costs about $3 million installed.

According to Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), “At a time when America needs large amounts of low-cost reliable power, wind produces puny amounts of high-cost unreliable power. We need lower prices; wind power raises prices.”

The Sun of All Things
My experience with solar power dates back to that time we drove past the motionless windmills. It was the early 1980s and we were buying our first house. The 1970s energy crisis was still lingering and since real estate was cheap in Spokane, Wash., we decided to spend some extra money and buy a brand new solar home.

It was a nice enough berm house if you didn’t mind dirt piled up against the sides and the back of it. As for the solar panels, they collected energy to beat the band in the summer, which was too bad since we didn’t have an air conditioner. As for its use in the winter, we were in the rainy Pacific Northwest so our solar panels were practically useless.

Nearly 30 years later solar power meets about 1 percent of America’s electricity needs. And solar is still an incredibly costly proposition. It costs up to $80,000 to put in solar technology that would meet the electrical demands of a modest home.

Green Econometrics did the math. In a 2007 article they calculated that solar energy is 10 to 20 times more expensive than fossil fuels for power generation (see graph below). You can read the story at: http://greenecon.net/understanding-the-cost-of-solar-energy/energy_economics.html.

Beam Me Up Scotty
To better understand how ridiculous the prospect of solar energy is, consider a press release sent out by Pacific Gas & Electric Corporation (PG&E) (NYSE: PCG) this past spring.

PG&E announced that it had requested approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to enter into a power purchase agreement with Solaren Corp. in Southern California.

Under the plan Solaren would deploy a solar array into space—yes space—to beam an average of 850 gigawatt hours (GWh) for the first year of the term, and 1,700 GWh per year over the remaining term to PG&E customers.

According to Solaren it has even had talks with Lockheed-Martin and Boeing to build the solar plant and the rockets needed to send it into orbit.

All of which prompted Energy & Capital to write: “The press has gushed about the ‘next frontier’ of solar power, which would collect power ‘24 hours a day’ from the far brighter solar radiation available above earth’s atmosphere from a low-orbit. The energy would be transmitted to a receiver based in Fresno, Calif.”

Meanwhile, it was revealed that the Pentagon had done its own study on space-based solar power. Their report said that a $10 billion program could create a measly 10-megawatt pilot satellite.
 
The scale of the PG&E project is out of this world. Their satellite would have to be hundreds of times bigger than the International Space Station, which can barely sustain itself with solar energy.

Just one final detail: nobody—not even a Nobel Prize winner—has yet figured out a technology that will actually transfer the sun’s rays.

The fundamental truth is that we will, for decades longer, continue to rely on fossil fuels.

Next week, in Part Two of this three-part series, I will touch on more earthly problems, including America’s all too real oil crisis and one rock solid industry that will help ease America’s energy pains and earn you gusher-type profits.

Yours for real wealth and good health,

John Myers
Myers’ Energy and Gold Report

The amendment prohibits coverage of abortion in the public option and bars anyone receiving a federal subsidy from purchasing a health insurance plan that covers the procedure.

Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina was quoted by MSNBC as saying he believes the amendment will be dropped from the legislation when the House and Senate bills—the latter is still pending—will be fashioned into a final act. He also suggested many House Democrats voted for the amendment with the expectation that it will not be included in the final version.

In response, GOP spokesperson Joanna Burgos denounced what she called "a cruel and morally questionable political hoax" committed by the Democrats.

"The last-minute maneuvering by Democrats in Congress to strip provisions allowing for taxpayer-funded abortions was nothing more than a shell game," she stated, quoted by TheHill.com.

The news provider says that although House liberals have threatened to block the final bill if the amendment is not stripped, it is not clear how removing the provision would affect centrist Democrats’ vote.