THagan's blog

Now that current CIA Director Porter Goss is leaving the agency in less than a month, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden (the same man who has adamantly went to bat for G.W. Bush's now infamous Domestic Spy Program) is almost certain to to be appointed. Although there are members in both parties of Congress that question his confirmation, both the House and the Senate are in a rush to find a replacement.

I went to see the movie Mission Impossible: III this weekend and it was an action packed thriller. Tom Cruise was walking up walls, taking out enemy forces dozens at the time, and Tom Cruise's buddy at the CIA betrayed him in the movie. So again, it was filled with plenty of action.

A realistic and modern issue that the movie addressed was that of corrupt government officials. I began to think about this War on Iraq or as Bush would rather refer to it (to save his last few approval ratings) the War on Terrorism. But no matter what it is called today, I still think that maybe Mr. President knew a little more about the events which led up to 9/11 than he has been letting on. Which then leads me to consider the idea that maybe he could have done more to prevent them.

Should non-profit groups that provide down-payment assistance to low-income and first-time home buyers be penalized because they often receieve donations from people who sell the homes? 

 Yesterday the Internal Revenue Service ruled that such groups no longer qualify for tax-exempt status. The controversy is that sellers who donate to these groups receive more benefits than the actual person receiving the assistance. How can this be so? Industry officials and lawmakers say that after a person receives the payment, the cost of the assistance is included in the mortgage payments and this is causing for the price of the house to actually go up; basically sending more money into the pockets of the person who sold the home. This is then looked upon as a shady business transaction.

If you don’t believe that companies are actually making money off of how drunk you can get, THINK AGAIN. Many companies that have high sales commonly use demographics as a way to increase their profits. What you probably didn’t think about was just how harmful this tactic can be. I was especially appalled when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. uses a system called Budnet to find out when, where, and for what reasons people consume beer. Based upon the information that they collect in this database, they can determine what areas that they may be able to sell more beer in. Particularily (according to the WSJ article High Performance by Peggy Ann Salz) Anheuser-Busch combines this information with the U.S. Census figures on ethnic and economic neighborhoods to better construct marketing promotions.

If you don’t believe that companies are actually making money off of how drunk you can get, THINK AGAIN. Many companies that have high sales commonly use demographics as a way to increase their profits. What you probably didn’t think about was just how harmful this tactic can be. I was especially appalled when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. uses a system called Budnet to find out when, where, and for what reasons people consume beer. Based upon the information that they collect in this database, they can determine what areas that they may be able to sell more beer in. Particularily (according to the WSJ article High Performance by Peggy Ann Salz) Anheuser-Busch combines this information with the U.S. Census figures on ethnic and economic neighborhoods to better construct marketing promotions.

If you don’t believe that companies are actually making money off of how drunk you can get, THINK AGAIN. Many companies that have high sales commonly use demographics as a way to increase their profits. What you probably didn’t think about was just how harmful this tactic can be. I was especially appalled when I read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. uses a system called Budnet to find out when, where, and for what reasons people consume beer. Based upon the information that they collect in this database, they can determine what areas that they may be able to sell more beer in. Particularily (according to the WSJ article High Performance by Peggy Ann Salz) Anheuser-Busch combines this information with the U.S. Census figures on ethnic and economic neighborhoods to better construct marketing promotions.

You can view a news article related to this topic at the link provided below.

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20060430135909990001&ncid=NWS00010000000001

The personal emotions of Hispanics concerning the proposed H.R. 4437 can be felt by Americans living in every major city. In Washington, DC area, the impact was mainly felt in schools. Although D.C. schools Spokeswoman Roxanne Evans did not have exact boycott figures, it was noted that the number of absent students on May Day (or International Worker's Day) were unusually high.A school in Northern Virginia, C.D. Hylton High School reported that 143 of 392 students were absent yesterday. I will post more on this topic later as I gather more information.