Travel Warning

United States Department of State

Bureau of Consular Affairs

Washington, DC 20520

August 07, 2008

This Travel Warning updates and reminds American citizens of ongoing security concerns in Colombia. The Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens of the dangers of travel to Colombia...The potential for violence by terrorists and other criminal elements exists in all parts of the country...Small towns and rural areas of Colombia can still be extremely dangerous due to the presence of narco-terrorists. Common crime remains a significant problem in many urban and rural areas...terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other criminal organizations continue to kidnap and hold civilians for ransom or as political bargaining chips. No one is immune from kidnapping on the basis of occupation, nationality, or other factors. Kidnapping in rural areas is of particular concern.U.S. government officials and their families in Colombia are permitted to travel to major cities in the country, but normally only by air. They cannot use inter- or intra-city bus transportation, or travel by road outside urban areas at night...

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_941.html

re: after a week of watching the U.S. domestic auto industry teeter on the brink of annihilation

If it's any consolation, the foreign automakers are going down the tubes as well:

Global car crisis far from over, executives say

Top European car makers warned of a bleak 2009 as signs grew the deep crisis in the auto sector went far beyond the U.S. industry's life-or-death struggle.

The heads of Renault-Nissan and Fiat said the car market would decline further next year...The world's largest carmaker Toyota Motor Corp was set to report a loss of about 100 billion yen ($1.11 billion) for October-March...German premium car maker BMW, which also sells Mini cars and Rolls-Royce limousines, is putting up financial aid to its German dealer network for at least 100 million euros...Daimler aims to cut costs at Mercedes-Benz by 10-15 percent in 2009...A renewed rally in petrol prices at the pump will mean further misery for the global car sector...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081213/bs_nm/us_autos_3

Obama faces heady challenges, and they're growing

Obama sounds dire, particularly as he talks about the economy: "We're in an emergency."

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6dxzjn

No one will give a crap about Blogojevich. We're all heading for homelessness and starvation.

re: Rahm spoke with Blago before the election

Maybe you should read your own article:

The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat...Federal authorities have not suggested Obama or his team knew about Blagojevich's alleged schemes.

re: Unions successfully wrecked steel, cars, airlines, education

BWAHAHAHA!

You cheap-labor conservatives are such a riot!

P.S. Why do you hate America so much?

re: Nothing I said contradicted the article itself. I only posted the facts.

You posted nothing but a misleading headline.

I posted the facts.

re: the [devilishly handsome native of Scorpio] has long been on my ignore list for obvious reasons

An obvious lie, since you responded to my post.

Were you born a compulsive liar? Or did it take you years of practice?

re: Isn't it interesting how the main stream media did not fully vet Obama during the primary and general election.

BWAHAHAHA!

Obama has lived under a friggin' microscope (as he should have) for many months. The best the right-wing nutjobs could come up with was airing his pastor's(!) comments, and a phony brouhaha about his birth certificate.

re: The powers that really run this country have split the average Joes successfully once again.

“You can always hire half the poor to kill the other half.”

-Boss Tweed, Gangs of New York (2002)

Progressives don't own the media or the politicians. Obama's choices for the various cabinet and other posts are mostly recycled Washington-Wall Street insiders. So, outside of Salon and similar blogs, it will be business as usual -- brilliantly summed up by Frank Rich, in his column in today's The New York Times. In it, he deftly dissects

the bipartisan roots of the morally bankrupt culture that has now found its culmination in our financial apocalypse

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/opinion/14rich.html?em

The destruction is truly beyond repair. We're in a state of permanent economic decline, and there is nothing and no one that can stop it.