So I have a new task at hand. Marketing a new blog to a local audience. Here’s the second catch. The blog (hopefully) will only be relevant for less than 3 months.  How to market this?

Let me explain a little. I live in a suburb of Chicago. Villa Park is a small suburb of about 22,000 people. Since I moved here and bought a home, I’ve become interested in local politics. Being that I have, well, a big mouth, I’ve become a bit known in the circle of local politicians. (in a good way, I think) A new issues has come up for our village, we are having a referendum in Feburary to enact home rule. I’m involved with trying to get this initiative passed and we are forming a citizens Committee for Villa Park Home Rule.

Naturally, the first thing on my mind was "We need a website!" So I registered a domain, Villa Park Home Rule, nd have started to build a blog on the domain. This site needs to be informational. Since the election is in just under 3 months, I dont have much time to do traditional offpage SEO, and that wont likely help much anyway. I dont know people are going to search for terms such as "Illinois Home Rule" and "Villa Park", so I’ll chase those keywords. One of the tricks is going to be to get local newspapers to link to us. If I can accomplish that we should be able to get the rankings and traffic to get the information out there. ANother method I think I will use is the Digital Point COOP Ad Network, since its free and quick. I’ll talk more about the DP COOP at a later date.

Anyway, so I have a pretty good challenge on my hands with this one. But that’s how we learn, through experience.

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Becoming  Illegal (Actual letter from an Iowa resident  and sent to his senator)

      The Honorable Tom  Harkin
      731  Hart Senate Office Building
      Phone (202)  224 3254
      Washington DC,  20510

      Dear Senator  Harkin,

  As a native  Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am  writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of  Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an  illegal alien and they referred me to you.

 My primary reason for wishing to change my  status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was  recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted. If my  understanding of this bill’s provisions is accurate, as an illegal alien  who has been in the United  States  for five years, all I need to do to become a citizen is to pay a $2,000  fine and income taxes for three of the last five years.. I know a good  deal when I see one and I am anxious to get the process started before  everyone figures it out.

 Simply put, those of us who have been here  legally have had to pay taxes every year so I’m excited about the  prospect of avoiding two years of taxes in return for paying a $2,000  fine. Is there any way that I can apply to be illegal retroactively?  This would yield an excellent result for me and my family because we  paid heavy taxes in 2004 and 2005.

    Additionally, as an illegal alien I  could begin using the local emergency  room as my primary health  care provider. Once I have stopped paying  premiums for medical  insurance, my accountant figures I could save almost $10,000 a  year.

  Another benefit  in gaining illegal status would be that my daughter would receive  preferential treatment relative to her law school applications, as well  as “in-state” tuition rates for many colleges throughout the United  States  for my son.

   Lastly, I understand that illegal  status would relieve me of the burden of renewing my driver’s license  and making those burdensome car insurance premiums. This is very  important to me given that I still have college age children driving my  car.

  If you would  provide me with an outline of the process to become illegal  (retroactively if possible) and copies of the necessary forms, I would  be most appreciative. Thank you for your assistance.

      Your Loyal  Constituent,
      Donald Ruppert
      Burlington  , IA

      Get  your Forms (NOW)!! Call your Internal Revenue Service 1-800-289-1040.
 
 Please pass this on to your friends so they  can save on this great  offer

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Those of you who know me know that Im neither republican or democrat. I just look at the issues and decide what I think about them independant of what one party or the other says.

 Immigration is one of the bigger issues of the day. I see one major flaw in just about every proposal on how to deal with it. There is little or no penalty for the illegal. They get caught, and sent back to wherever they came from. No real penalty. How can we expect to deter the flow of illegal immigrants if they have nothing to lose by coming here illegally? How can we expect them to go through the red tape of legal immagration if it is literally easier and without consequence to come here illegally?

Over the years we have had several ‘amnesties’ for those here illegally. We are always of the mindset that we will do better on border security in the future, but we never address any real consequences for those who actually break the law and cross the border. This doesnt seem fair to those who do go through the process of obtaining legitimate immigration status.

We also have the issue of the wall on the border of Mexico. Some say it wont do much good. Facts seem to say otherwise. The City of San Diego put up such a wall between themselves and Mexico. Since construction of the San Diego Border Fence began in 1996, the smuggling of people and narcotics has dropped drastically and crime rates have been reduced by 50% according to FBI statistics.

So what I would suggest, is that we create some penalties for those caught here illegally. How about a year at labor, such labor to be building and maintaining the wall we’re building. Second offence, 2 years. This would be in addition to some kind of guest worker program, and near amnesty for those already here. Guest workers should be charged tax on a paycheck per paycheck basis. In addition, allow those already here illegally to apply for legal status. If they apply in the US, they must pay a fine. or they can return to Mexico and apply from there with no fine. If caught, well, they help build the wall.

 I dont understand what all the wrangling is about with our politicians. Seems pretty simple to me.

 

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza held a press conference today and discussed The draft United Nations resolution, written by the United States and France, calls for “the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations.”

Big deal. More UN bs, in my opinion.

What caught my eye, and my attention, was the photo. Secretary Rice gave the press conference in Crawford, Texas, where President Bush has a home and ranch, and is currently there on vacation.

When did we get a “Western White House”?

I don’t remember this. But, there it is, the official seal of the United States President and the title “The Western White House” in Crawford Texas.

Does this president know no end to his arrogance? What makes him think he can just designate his Texas ranch the “Western White House”? I am so tired of President Bush just doing whatever he wants regardless of the Law or tradition or anything else. It’s like he has no respect for the office of the President, and just will use it as he sees fit. Many western residences of past presidents have had the nickname “The Western White House” but the official plaque that has been made for the Crawford Ranch just seems to have gone too far.

One even has to question if Crawford is an appropriate place for the President to spend time. Crawford’s official motto is “1295 miles from Washington DC, 97% White, and ARMED TO THE TEETH!” — Is this the image we want for our country?

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