Food For Thought…

Just because you are free to do something, should you do it – and when you do it, should we/others be called upon to comment on it?

Seems to me that values are becoming trivialized.

Is MODESTY something to be admired and embraced here in America – or do we just let it ALL hang out, along with our breasts?

Do you see/agree that there is an eroding of  some mores/moral attitudes and values that trivialize and demean the culture?

I see commentators on TV oohing and aahing over babies and pet animals that create “great” art. To hear them, you’d think Van Gogh had no idea what HE was doing!

Why are they telling us about this? So we can go out and force our babies and pets to perform? Then we save the money we make from their 15-minutes of fame for their retirement? Nah, we’ll spend it!

I see people who can’t act getting multi-million dollar roles…not because they can convey emotion, but because they have a big following…a young following.

I see record producers going after younger and younger singers. What’s next: Baby Gangsta? Ole Blue Nappies?

I see America making celebrities out of people who are not worth the attention they get. People who are motivated by money, fame and spotlight being glorified for having multiple plastic surgeries, multiple love partners, multiple problems, multiple arrests, multiple kids that they cannot support and then pimp those kids out to make ends meet. (That’s the way I see it).

We’re being taught that to “break through” the celebrity wall, we must pose in Playboy or make a sex tape. Starting a community center for runaway kids will NOT bring attention – but runaway boobs will!

People who will give their 5-year olds plastic surgery to win beauty contests – and claim to see NOTHING wrong in that. At least if these parents say: Yes, it’s weird, I know, but it’s my kid and I want her to be Miss America someday, and so…

But these parents seem oblivious!

Why is it that we’re now being asked to weigh in on every single thing, nonsensical or not.

Snow not cleared in time: Let us KNOW what you think!

Pizza delivery guy attacked? Let us know what YOU think?

This mother decides to have 50 kids. Tell US what you think!

First Lady Michele Obama shops at Target! Ooh, tell us, quick – what DO you think?

I see people who treat marriage like just one more roadshow, a narcissistic spectacle. Your young girls then proceed to scream over these calculating fame guzzlers. Why?

I see people getting record deals who cannot sing, who must wear skimpier and skimpier clothing and gyrate to sell albums. Singers, who without the benefit of countless in-studio mixing and remixing make you CRINGE when they perform live.

Are there no MORE Lionel Ritchies, Whitney Houstons, Celine Dione’s or Tom Jones’s left. And if an up-and-coming artist with a VOICE rose up and started singing – would their records sell or would we rather have meaningless, repetitious nonsensical lyrics.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah…oo-oo-oo” repeated a million times between bursts of foot work?

Does the media have to parse every court case, opine about who was right and who was wrong, orate on who is guilty and who is not…deconstruct evidence and when we don’t get the verdict commentators led us to believe we should get, send jurors death threats?

Jurors are examining the evidence and we’re not. We’re running on HEARSAY. And even if we don’t like the verdict, it is what it is! Let the LEGAL system handle it…we should not take justice into our own hands and harass people who had their day in court. Let them be. If you know something different, go to court and testify.

I feel that in TODAY’S AMERICA, people can’t say what they feel anymore – that nobody must be offended anymore – that everything must always work well and on time, that nothing must go wrong, that after a disaster everything must be immediately set to rights.

Nobody takes any responsibility for anything, anymore.

We buy houses/merchandise we cannot afford, but it’s NOT our fault.

Our child stabs someone, but it’s NOT his fault.

We spend every cent we make living beyond our means, buying nonsense we don’t need, but think we can’t live without, SAVE NOTHING, then when we lose our job, we blame everybody else because another job should be right there waiting for us.

We are uninterested in the political process, can’t name the Supreme Court judges whose decisions affect our lives every day, but know who Paula, Randy and Simon are. (Reality show TV judges.)

This society is so disengaged with World Politics, we seem NOT to understand that the world and America has entered a new economy, based on technology, and therefore, many jobs have disappeared AND WON’T BE COMING BACK.

Once upon a time, there was a big industry here in New England based on Whaling and Whale Oil. Then gas and electricity came along. Do you still expect a job making tallow candles to light homes?

Do you still expect to see a factory taking shape in your town to build cameras that use film – or phonograph records? Doubt it. But you may see one making computer parts. Are you trained to work in such a factory? If not, what are you doing about it? Waiting for a politician to fix it?

We seem NOT to understand that the Global economy is sick – just look at what’s happening in Greece and Italy, right now. This is affecting and will affect you! Expect belt-tightening. It will get worse before it gets better. Don’t look for a great economy just yet, regardless of what politicians say! WE HAVE NOT EVEN STARTED TRIMMING THE BUDGET YET!

Riots in Europe? Just like here, in America, other nations say their economic house is broken, everybody claims to want to fix it…BUT NOBODY IS WILLING TO TAKE THE TOUGH MEASURES NEEDED TO FIX IT. America, too, MUST cut debt. But

• Pentagon interests don’t want to cut military spending
• Retirees don’t want to touch Medicare/Social Security
• Education interests don’t want to cut education
• Business interests don’t want to cut companies’ tax breaks
• Energy interests don’t want to lost drilling concessions
• Agriculture interests don’t want to lose subsidies.

WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?

Why don’t we balance our budget by cutting spending in Canada. Then we won’t have to cut anything here…!

Ah, don’t mind me.

Long ago you’d NEVER have been able to read anything I wrote. Pontification was left to Walter Cronkite. Now I can go online and say anything I want.

Isn’t life great?!

JOE PATERNO

Joe Paterno

You must be  kiddin’ me…

People/Students feel sorry for Joe Paterno, the former star football coach at The Pennsylvania State University, (Penn State/PSU)…? Why? Why!!??

Paterno may be a great coach – but in my opinion, he’s not a great man.

Here is a coach who allegedly KNEW and (not guessed) WAS TOLD, that his former defensive coordinator  Jerry Sandusky was allegedly having sex with young boys and Paterno felt he’d done his duty to the world, to the kids, and to humanity because he told the university!

Sandusky was charged Friday (11/04/2011) on dozens of counts of child sexual abuse – molesting eight boys (so far) over 15 years. Some of the assaults took place at the Penn State football complex. Sandusky turned himself in the next day.

Sandusky founded The Second Mile charity in 1977, working with at-risk youths.

At risk? Of…being molested (allegedly) by their …?

OK, so Paterno told the university.

Then time passed and the university apparently did – what? Some people allege a cover up (see links below).

• Sandusky was not handed over to the authorities.
• There was NO scandal, so football remained King while kids were being (allegedly) used as serfs.

Jerry Sandusky

INSTEAD…

• Sandusky kept on recruiting little boys for…his charity.
• If anybody spoke to Sandusky at all and told him to stop what he was doing, then it was kept pretty quiet!
• Sandusky allegedly kept having showers with kids.
• Sandusky kept “mentoring” kids.
• Sandusky was walking around happy as could be (and why shouldn’t he?).

AND WHEN PATERNO SAW ALL THAT, HE DID NOT FEEL THAT HE NEEDED TO DO ANYTHING ELSE BECAUSE HE HAD TOLD SOMEONE AT THE UNIVERSITY…he’d done all he felt able to do. He passed the buck and could now wash his hands and pocket his many pieces of silver. And sooo…

• Paterno apparently did not see a need to take his case back to Penn State.
• Paterno apparently did not see a need to send an anonymous letter to the cops.
• Paterno apparently did not see a need to let parents know.
• Paterno apparently did not protect those kids.
• Paterno apparently sat on the sidelines and looked on as his former defensive coordinator kept interacting with kids – little boys…all the while KNOWING what was allegedly happening in the showers and elsewhere.

FOR YEARS…!!!

Yet he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong…not really! Paterno was so arrogantly delusional that instead of resigning immediately – he stated Wednesday (11/09/2011) that he’d stay on as coach until the end of the season! Um-hum…

Penn State Football

“That’s why I have decided to announce my retirement effective at the end of this season. At this moment the Board of Trustees should not spend a single minute discussing my status. They have far more important matters to address. I want to make this as easy for them as I possibly can…”  Paterno.

If only he’d been equally willing to make it as easy for the kids who were allegedly molested.  (Penn State University trustees fired Paterno Wednesday…11/9/2011)

WHAT was going through Paterno’s mind? That Sandusky had reformed? That Sandusky was fine for kids to hang out with?

Would you be able to do that?

And NOW, we are to feel sorry for him…?

For what?

PATERNO SHOULD GO TO JAIL…

…wonder how Paterno would feel if his male cellmate forced him to have sex against his will for years! And the jailers knew, and said nothing!

Come on America.

• Building a football dynasty IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT than protecting kids from predators
• Getting a paycheck IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT than protecting kids from predators
• Fame and Power IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT than protecting kids from predators
• NOTHING IS NOT MORE IMPORTANT than protecting kids from predators.

Penn State Students Riot

For shame - watching these Penn State students riot in support of Paterno – when they should be MARCHING ON THE UNIVERSITY AND DEMANDING THAT HEADS ROLL FOR WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE KIDS.

Those poor, used, helpless, compromised, abused kids…

• The physical pain of the sex act (kids bodies are not developed enough yet for ANY kind of sex)
• The emotional/mental pain
• The social pain
• The kids sense of helplessness
• The kids exposure to disease
• The parents who now have to deal with this…

One of the student hooligan protestors said Mr. and Mrs. Paterno were the closest thing she had to grandparents.

Me, I DON’T WANT grandparents like that.

Grandparents who LOOK THE OTHER WAY WHILE GROWN MEN ALLEGEDLY MOLEST 10-YEAR OLD BOYS?

NO THANKS!!!

I am not a big fan of lawsuits. But this is ONE time where if I was one of those parents, I’D SUE THE HELL OUT OF PENN STATE.

Pennsylvania State University

The university’s board wants us to believe, now, that if they had known…they’d have done something about it. Maybe so - but I don’t buy it.

When it comes to football, and the contribution the sport makes to these “Football” schools, I believe they’d do anything – cover up murder, human trafficking, (I wonder if they’d shield terrorists?) to protect their Football Franchises.

It’s about DOLLARS and POWER and the kids had none! If there hadn’t been so much riding on the backs of the truth, the outcome would have been different.

The irony is that if this had been addressed immediately, it would now be forgotten and Penn State would have gotten kudos for its swift and decisive action to protect kids.

 (Now the: you know what has hit the fan.)

Good luck with that!

Read the links below….and make up your own mind.

• http://www.nesn.com/2011/11/jerry-sandusky-rumored-to-have-been-pimping-out-young-boys-to-rich-donors-says-mark-madden.html
• http://www.timesonline.com/columnists/sports/mark_madden/madden-sandusky-a-state-secret/article_863d3c82-5e6f-11e0-9ae5-001a4bcf6878.html

Talk is Cheap…

See my NEW post:

Talk is Cheap. Doing NOTHING is Cheaper!

http://prfordemocrats.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/123/

Obama could help create jobs by…firing Malia and Sasha from their jobs as First Daughters and hiring me/us instead!

“…in the Republican zeal to hold Obama to a One-Term Presidency – YOU, Joe and Jane American can lose your job, your house, your hopes and dreams…”

http://prfordemocrats.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/123/

Silent Center Starts to ROAR! Amen!!!

It’s about time for this nation’s MAJORITY — the middle-of-the-road Americans who make up the “Silent Center”  — to wake up and roar. THANK GOD that you are beginning to…finally!

For too long you’ve chickened out, burying your head in the sand, while you let a handful of posturing kooks and haters set the agenda and shape the political debate.

So where have you been?

The majority of Americans are NOT racists. The majority of Americans are NOT haters. The majority of Americans are sensible, level-headed people who understand that compromise is NOT a dirty word. In short, the majority of Americans are realistic, LEVEL-headed people who have NO problems electing a black president…and would elect a green, blue or striped president, if they liked what he or SHE stood for.

But until the shoe started to pinch you, Silent Majority, YOU didn’t care, did you? You happily let the country go to hell, gave politicians carte blanch to engage in unnecessary wars, to desiccate Healthcare Reform with one hand — while accepting money from the Health Care Industry with the other hand.

YOU, the silent majority, allowed your kids/families to be burdened with crippling student debt and other bad consumer loans. You let Republicans defeat and stymie attempts to regulate business. You looked the other way because YOU were too busy engaged in a buying frenzy you couldn’t afford – rushing to buy another prop you did not need, or another piece of materialistic flotsam that was cobbled overseas.

Did you NOT understand that there would be a price…for not caring? Now you’re waking up…hi ho!

Here’s just one example where you turned the other cheek. IMMIGRATION REFORM. (I use Immigration as a mirror to reflect several other issues of key importance, like the Iraq war, where you turned a blind eye with negative consequences.)

Where were you in 2006/7 when you let a minority of extremists on the right, led by racism and political posturing instead of practicality and human decency, set the agenda over IMMIGRATION REFORM?

Where were YOU when Ted Kennedy and John McCain (he was a different McCain – a principled McCain, back then) and President George W. Bush came so close to passing The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, (110th U.S. Congress)? If you think ILLEGAL Immigration is bad, LEGAL immigration is even worse – it’s a nightmare!

The law would have overhauled America’s broken Immigration system, INCLUDING providing legal status/a path to citizenship (PATH – as in working your way towards a goal) for the approximately 14 to 20 million illegal immigrants currently residing in this country.

What is the convincing argument that you can come up with to keep millions of undocumented people in this country remaining IN THE SHADOWS? There were ONLY two options. Assimilate or Repatriate. Now, Republicans have added a third: Limbo! Not deporting, not assimilating – just hanging around!!!

Think of it. There are up to/or more than 20-thousand people living in this country without official documentation. Meaning, most are NOT in government databases. So authorities have NO idea WHO these people are, WHAT they are…or even WHERE they are. What a haven for terrorists!

Some of these people have been here for 10, 15, 20 years. They come from EVERY country in the world, EVERY race, including an estimated 20 thousand undocumented Irish. But Republicans focus ONLY on the Hispanics. Why? There are thousands of Chinese, thousands of Vietnamese, thousands of Africans, Cape Verdeans, Caribbean…Haitians, WHITE Europeans, Russians, Brazilians etc…

(Please note that as far as I am concerned, immigrants of any kind who rape, kill, pillage etc…should be deported immediately, without process. I am NOT asking for hardened criminal immigrants to remain here. My case is for honest, hard-working people who come here to WORK, who come seeking a better life or who are fleeing persecution and hunger, famine, disease.)

Do you really believe the reason the economy is bad and you can’t find a job is because of undocumented immigrants? OK, tell me.

How many Undocumented Immigrants killed President Obama’s 447-billion-dollar jobs bill in the Senate? (October 11, 2011)

How many undocumented immigrants are working at NASA? Or assembling train engines at General Electric (GE)? Are at Boeing building jet engines? At Bank of America creating bad mortgage policies? How many jobs did Undocumented Immigrants take at investment banks on Wall Street? At Goldman Sachs? And How many Undocumented Immigrants took home million-dollar bonuses while you lost your home…or voted to bomb Iraq?  

How many towns are laying off teachers, doctors, nurses and closing fire stations because Undocumented Immigrants are taking their jobs? Don’t you understand that the jobs these immigrants take are generally the backbreaking, low paying jobs so necessary to an advanced economy that traditionally the better off natives NEVER WANT TO DO? Even welfare dependents will stay home instead of doing these jobs. (Don’t blame immigrants, blame your system, and the politicians who won’t fix it.)

The Wall Street Journal has a list of major companies that laid off workers in ONLY the FIRST quarter of 2009.

• UNITED TECHNOLOGIES: 18-THOUSAND
• GM: 10-THOUSAND
• NISSAN: 20-THOUSAND
• PANASONIC: 15-THOUSAND
• NEC: 20-THOUSAND
• CATERPILLER: 20 THOUSAND
• HOME DEPOT: 7-THOUSAND
• CIRCUIT CITY (Bankrupt): 34-THOUSAND
• ALCOA: 15-THOUSAND.

I listed some of the bigger companies/biggest job cuts. But go check the list for yourself: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2009/01/08/first-quarter-layoffs-selection-of-job-cuts-by-major-companies/

Is somebody trying to make YOU believe that UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS are “taking” your jobs? Did they take those jobs in the Journal list? Whom do we blame here?

For the fourth quarter of 2008, follow the Journal link or use this to check company lay-offs: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008/12/04/fourth-quarter-layoffs-selection-of-job-cuts-by-major-companies/

How many of you are willing to go to Georgia to dig onions? Why not? Like Republicans claim, Immigrants are taking your jobs. Now the jobs are available. Go do them!  $8 an hour, with little or no benefits. Backbreaking, filthy, baking in the sun all day. Waiting for you.

Lawmakers in Georgia, led by the state’s Republican governor, (naturally)  Nathan Deal, passed a law: House Bill 87 – the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Enforcement Act of 2011” intended to drive such individuals “back home.”

What happened? About a-third of the workforce fled Georgia (they didn’t leave America, they left Georgia), crippling Georgia’s largest economic sector: agriculture…by leaving millions of dollars in crops—blueberries, onions, melons and others—to sit rotting in the fields.

Farmers, who were not consulted about the law, (what do farmers know?) and left out of discussions when the law was being crafted…are pissed.

So, you’ll take the jobs if farmers pay more? Say from $8 to $12 per hour? Is 12-dollars an hour acceptable to you? Not YOU, per se…(you’re looking for at least $20 an hour and up) but maybe lesser educated people? OK. Throw in Health Care and other benefits, you argue — to attract American Workers.

Are these the same Health Care/Benefits packages that big companies are trying to get out of? The Post Office says benefits are crippling the service to bankruptcy!  (I’m NOT arguing FOR or AGAINST benefits. Just saying companies claim benefits raise costs, and they do.) Ford, Chrysler and GM had to renegotiate their benefits packages or go bust. Remember, YOU had to then bail them out? Are you willing to pay $5 for a head of lettuce? Why not? Just think of the number of American jobs you’ll be saving…

A factory here in Massachusetts, (employs an acquaintance of mine), shut down and moved operations to Mexico. The company is keeping an office with a skeleton staff in Massachusetts. Who took those jobs? Immigrants – over in Mexico. Since they didn’t actually COME here, and are not immigrants, we’ll call them “potential immigrants-in-waiting.” They didn’t NEED to come HERE because YOUR jobs went to them! Well, I guess that’s better than having them come here, right?

I’d prefer the factory to stay here and at least pay taxes and have the wages they pay be spent HERE and generate economic activity HERE, for shelter, movie passes, food, clothing, furniture – wouldn’t you? I assume Undocumented Immigrants pay rent and buy food and pay bus fare and their phone bills? Or does somebody do THAT for them?

Do you hear Republicans saying anything about these companies that they support, the ones they give tax breaks to, while these companies export jobs overseas? Of course NOT! Big business can send jobs overseas to foreign workers, long as (a) these foreign workers STAY OVER THERE and don’t take these same jobs here, IN America…and (b) as long as these businesses continue to donate to Republicans political coffers!

How many of you, the Silent Majority, believe that every one of these millions of undocumented people in the U.S. should be rounded up and deported?

How many of you believe that every one of these people CAN be bundled up and deported?

How many of you are willing to pay for it? To pay for hiring airplanes and personnel, pilots, law enforcement to accompany deportees, food and shelter to house deportees while they wait, and for the long appeals lawyers/individuals will mount in YOUR courts? Would you mind the government hiring more lawyers, judges, court clerks…while laying off teachers and police?

How many of you believe that the legions of kids born to these undocumented immigrants, who are U.S. citizens by law, should either remain here while their parents are deported – or should be deported with their parents? Or should the parents go – kids stay?

How many of you believe that undocumented students who have excelled in their studies at American schools (at taxpayer expense) should be denied access to university while American kids are failing? Do you blame Undocumented Immigrants for the numbers of American kids, who sit next to the immigrant kids, sharing the same lessons, teachers, facilities and opportunities, but still fail?

How do you expect these bright, intelligent immigrant kids to support themselves when they leave high school with straight A’s but cannot get a job, not even at McDonald’s, because they have no Social Security number? Are you willing to throw these promising kids under the bus – your future scientists, teachers and artists – while shouldering lifetime Welfare Benefits to failing American kids – just because they are American?

So, lets’ re-examine. What did Republicans achieve by killing Immigration Reform? Political gimmickry, pandering to the Right!

Did undocumented immigrants leave? NOPE. Still here, with de facto Amnesty.

Is the problem fixed – or did Republicans manage to sweep one more major issue under the carpet, again?

Do you expect people who braved hell to get here, crossed deserts, sailed rickety boats in shark-infested waters, paid smugglers, sold everything they possess for passage, to endure great hardship and persecution, even rape, along the way, to give up now, that they’ve gotten here? Do you really think that after getting a taste of America, people will return to foraging in garbage dumps for food? To return to drug wars and disease and starvation and political uncertainty and religious persecution and lack of opportunity? Would you?

Would you like a pregnant undocumented  immigrant woman to start labor pains, or get involved in an accident, or suffer a heart attack and go to a hospital and be refused treatment, and be sent away to die? Do you want the hospital to tell the pregnant woman, sorry, we can’t deliver your baby and let the woman and baby die in the parking lot? How would YOU feel if you woke up one morning and there were 20, 50 such cases around the nation?

Or would you proclaim, like the Republican Right/Tea Party crowd (yes, the ones who so zealously appear to believe in a merciful, just, compassionate, forgiving God, the ones who speak for Jesus), because they are very sure that Jesus would also say: “Too bad for you, unwanted immigrants. You should die, so you can get the message and go back to where ever it is that you came from. You are taking away from my plenty – go back to your nothing! Furthermore, I talked to Jesus this morning, and he agrees with me!”

Polls consistently show that a MAJORITY of Americans favor giving undocumented people who are already here, have been here for years, those who are hard-working, upstanding, willing to learn English where necessary, A PATHWAY TO LEGALITY.

So again I ask YOU, the Silent Majority, where were YOU when you let voices on the right prevail, and shallow, scared politicians ducked for cover, and let a MINORITY of right-wing Republicans crush efforts by tying reform to a secure border? Do you plan to build a fence on the Canadian border too?

Now states are passing piecemeal Immigration Laws WHICH THE WHITE HOUSE AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THEN GO TO COURT OVER, WASTING THOUSANDS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS, because the Obama White House is AFRAID to take up a bill THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN INTRODUCED (HR 4321 – Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity (CIR ASAP) Act of 2009 by Representative Luis Gutierrez, Illinois Democrat in December, 2009)…because Republicans oppose it.

Most people thought President Obama had a wonderful opportunity to reform Immigration. But he squandered his political capital on a Healthcare Hash and now, instead of having the guts to force a vote, the White House is cowering because they’ve done the math/taken a poll, and apparently do not have enough votes to pass the bill!

Now we are governing by poll? By posturing? We are governing by fear?

Gone are the days when politicians with balls INTRODUCED a bill and DEBATED it and LET Congress VOTE. No, now handlers must first go behind the scenes and find out who is willing to vote for the bill, and tally how many votes they have, and if there are not enough votes, then capitulate and shelve/kill the legislation – EVEN IF IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO!

Oh Silent Majority, how much you are to blamed for…!!! And now, you protest…

Thanks God slavery is already abolished.

Imagine passing an anti-slavery vote Today. IT WOULD NEVER BE DONE. And thank God Rosa Parks did not go around asking for support BEFORE she sat down on that bus seat!

White House, take note. If the polls allow it…

CHUCK TURNER….GUILTY! YES!!

What is it with Blacks (I’m black too, so I CAN go there) that makes us (well, NOT me) but I’ll say “us” – champion other blacks who so obviously do (or appear to do) wrong?

Take Massachusetts State Representative Diane Wilkerson and Boston city councilor Chuck Turner!

I don’t know Turner personally. He might be someone who’d give his last dollar to a person in need. I DON’T KNOW! But based on what I’ve seen of Chuck Turner on TV, Mr. Turner turns me off.

Turner’s co-conspirator pal Diane Wilkerson at least had the smarts to plead guilty to taking bribes! Yet after years of Diane’s drama – the unpaid taxes, the debts, the campaign financial mismanagement, the photos of her stuffing wads of cash into her bra (an attaché case would have been classier!) many in Wilkerson’s district still voted overwhelmingly for her!

Seems hard for some blacks to believe their black officials are corrupt too.

They see a conspiracy. The FBI, the government, the KKK, some elements within the NAACP, I don’t know – the Martians? All were out to get Wilkerson and Turner! These voters refuse to see a corrupt politician who happens to be black!

I was debating Turner’s bribery case with a resident from Turner’s district. He suggested he’d vote for Turner because Turner is black and I just exploded. WHY would you vote for a corrupt official based solely on ethnicity?

I’d vote for a corrupt politician (are not they all corrupt, in some way?) IF he brings home the bacon! Not because we’re the same race or gender!

Corrupt but the jobs are rolling in. Hey, hey!

Taking pay-offs but our schools are on top! Ho-ho! Way to go!

My representative’s mom, four sisters, 5 kids and cousin’s father’s neighbor are all employed in cushy city jobs, but my Rep sees to it that my streets are clean/well patrolled and the district has tons of after school activities. Yo yum! Here I come…

However, if your corruption is ONLY to enrich YOUR pockets and that of your cronies, if you have done NOTHING for your district, if your greatest pastime is puffer-fish type pontification, if the crime rate in your district is high and you’re MIA (Missing In Action), if the schools in the district are terrible, if there are NO jobs, then why, WHY am I championing you? Black – or not black?

My people wake up! Stop championing losing causes!

It’s OK to want a politician who looks and talks like you. But LOOK around. There ARE black alternatives whose handshakes are just handshakes! Find one!

Councilor Turner was convicted today (10/29/2010) on federal bribery charges.

PS:  Hey, Turner!  Things you can CLAIM you DON’T remember.

• Getting drunk and allegedly doing something foolish/criminal.
• Saying something best left unsaid.
• Visiting questionable places. Pray the area has no surveillance cameras.

Cash or packets people palm to you when discussing favors – HARD TO FORGET THAT!!

GOD BLESS AMERICA—HAITI, not Iraq!

I am witnessing America at its best…

Rushing in to help Haiti – doing what AMERICA does best.

NOT starting wars – NO!

NOT bombing civilians – NO!

NOT torturing prisoners – NO!

This is NOT what you do best, America – WHAT YOU DO BEST, AMERICA, IS HELP OTHERS – ESPECIALLY POOR COUNTRIES THAT LACK THE MASSIVE RESOURCES YOU HAVE.  AND WHEN YOU DO WHAT YOU DO BEST, AMERICA…YOU’RE FREAKIN’ UNBEATABLE – YOU’RE GRRRREAT!

you and me together
Through the days and nights
I don’t worry ’cause
Everything’s going to be alright…
No one, no one, no one

(Alicia Keys song: No One)

Yep. NO-ONE….NO-ONE… NO-ONE CAN BEAT YOU AT THIS, AMERICA.

I am from the Caribbean (not Haiti) and when I/we/the world see/sees you rushing down there, see/sees a STRONG president; yes, a STRONG president (not a war-mongering, arrogant bully) immediately dispatch troops and equipment and call Haitians: our neighbors – in our back yard, I feel good!

Finally, a president who recognizes that the CARIBBEAN is in AMERICA’S back yard (and let me remind you that while you isolate Cuba, to please a voting bloc in Florida, OTHER countries like China are MOVING IN-to your back yard!)

It is hard for Haitians here and in Haiti; for Caribbean nationals here and in the Caribbean; for the rest of the world, even - to NOT admire you over your response to Haiti, America.

See how the world rushes to join you in helping Haiti…

See how they call you first – and look to YOU for leadership…

See how YOU will be the go to people, down there…

THAT IS YOUR CALLING, AMERICA.

Please use this as a lesson. This mission in Haiti will do more for your image than supporting a coup, helping to oust their president or covertly subverting their political process.

The airport in the Haitian capital, Port au Prince is not functional. But here come American soldiers, setting up a makeshift Air Control System.

Survivors trapped in the wreckage – here are our soldiers, with their rescue dogs. The hospital collapsed – but here are the Americans, coming with a big Hospital Ship.

Here are the Americans providing security; there are the Americans bringing food and water and personnel. We need this, that – where are the Americans…?

PRESENT!

DOESN’T THAT MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD, AMERICA?

I doubt there is any Haitian on this planet right now who wants to bomb America or kill Americans.

An entire region and its people are happy to see you mobilize and come and help them…and neighboring countries are thinking: America would do the same thing for me!

Out in the Middle East, young kids are thinking: When is the next American bomb falling on my village?

When is the next American drone going to destroy my compound?

WHEN ARE THE AMERICANS GOING TO LEAVE MY COUNTRY?

See the difference…?

You can change minds and attitudes (though results can be discouragingly slow) with peace, love, goodwill, relief, aid.

NOT with bombs – because although you can mandate compliance and force submission – YOU CANNOT BUY LOVE AND RESPECT.

Hello Republicans…you can try to bomb every nook and cranny where you think the enemy is hiding, (and you should include random blocks in any U.S. city, because many of them are hiding right here among us).

BUT YOU WILL NOT, CANNOT – IN SHORT, WILL NEVER get the results you want by war-mongering, torturing suspects, withholding suspect’s rights or whatever bullying tactics that you think are right.

You may get some information, but when you chop that head off, like the Hydra, many more spring up. So in trying to kill one monster, (e.g: Iraq) you end up with a band of monsters.

(And I say MAY get information, because all reports suggest that while suspects DID reveal relevant information – that information was gotten through regular, sane methods…NOT from torture!)

Still, Republicans THAT WILL NOT DETER YOU FROM TRYING TO BULLY YOUR WAY THROUGH A WORLD THAT INCREASINGLY REFUSES TO BE BULLIED.

I can’t wait to see you try to BULLY CHINA! Know what they do to their enemies? Boy, that’s going to be interesting!! (May I suggest you start learning some basic Kung-fu?)

So thanks, president Obama, for stepping up. Way to go, bro…

Yes, people like having the cops around.

But they like free food more!

More power to you, America, for coming forward with the food – and leaving the guns in their holster. This is the America we love – America at its best.

This disaster is a great opportunity to start Haiti on the road to recovery. SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY, AMERICA!

You have a great opportunity to SUPPORT THE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT in Haiti and to build meaningful infrastructure in that country.

You have been handed a great opportunity to ensure that the fragile peace emerging in Haiti is nurtured and allowed to flourish.

Pull yourself together, America – get your act together, America – Stop the Decline, America – THE WORLD NEEDS YOU, AMERICA!!!

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming? 

Yes – GOD BLESS AMERICA!! In many countries, especially poor countries, after a disaster – when people see that Flag coming, they know it will be OK.

Many immigrants will walk, swim, take straw boats, take bathtubs, brave the desert heat, pay smugglers, hide in airplane wheel wells – do whatever it takes – to get to America.

This is a compliment that Republicans do not understand. (OK. Not all Republicans are crazy. Non-crazy republicans are excluded) but to the crazy ones I say:

You cannot and will NEVER understand anything outside your dogmatic*, myopic view of how things should be ACCORDING TO YOU, as opposed to how they really are – except  for corruption, tax cuts for the wealthy and moral values wrapped in hypocrisy!

* (Definition of “dogmatic”: Characterized by an authoritative, arrogant assertion of unproved or unprovable principles.)

That about describes Republicans, in my book!

Don’t agree? Here’s what one LEADING Republican said about U.S aid to Haiti: “We’ve already donated to Haiti. It’s called the U.S. income tax.”

According to that particular, PROMINENT voice/face of the Republican Party: The earthquake has played into Obama’s hands, because it lets Obama look “compassionate” and “humanitarian” while at the same time bolstering his standing in both the “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country.

WAY TO GO, REPUBLICANS! Is he saying that NO white person is moved, too?

This darker-skinned black person does NOT believe that, and neither do the rest of us: light-black, dark-black or medium dark-black!

Unlike that crazy republican, WE know that the capacity for compassion among the vast majority of WHITE people HAS NOT BEEN DULLED BY PROLONGED EXPOSURE TO OXYCONTIN!

Epic Congressional Battle 2 – IMMIGRATION REFORM!

If you thought that HEALTH CARE REFORM was tough – wait until debate starts on Immigration Reform!

On December 15, 2009, Representative Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced legislation titled: The Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP).

According to Immigration Attorney Sheela Murthy’s law firm:

The bill addresses a wide range of key immigration areas. Comprehensive Immigration Reform is intended as an overarching rewrite of a laundry list of pervasive immigration problem areas.
 
It is an effort to address these issues in a cohesive manner, rather than in a piecemeal fashion. This includes many matters of concern to our readers, such as enhancements to the legal immigration system, as well as revisions to the H1B and L-1 programs.
 
Some of these areas of interest:
 
–  The bill would allow family- and employment-based immigrant visa numbers that went unused between 1992 and 2008 to be “recaptured.”  It would prevent future loss of numbers by allowing them to roll over to the next year.
 
 – The bill also proposes to increase the percentage of immigrant visa numbers that may be used each year by a given country. Some categories of highly-skilled workers would be exempt from the numerical limits.

 – The bill also proposes to permit nonimmigrant skilled workers to file applications for adjustment of status (I-485s), if otherwise eligible, even if their priority dates are not yet current.

• This would have significant ramifications…like the ability to obtain the employment authorization document (EAD) and possibly enjoying AC21 portability benefits. 

 – The bill contains significant revisions to the current H1B, H2B, and L-1 temporary worker programs. It proposes establishing a Commission on Immigration and Labor Markets to research and provide recommendations on the flow of workers into the United States.

 – Included in the H1B changes would be requirements for recruitment of U.S. workers. The U.S. Department of Labor would be given additional enforcement authority. There would be audit authority given to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in connection with L-1 employers.

 – Finally, the bill contains proposals to improve the process of naturalization to U.S. citizenship, and to encourage naturalization. This would include grants to community-based programs in English-training and legal support aimed at facilitating naturalization.
 
Gutierrez chairs the Democratic Caucus Task Force on Immigration. Here is the release:

On Tuesday, December 15, Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) will introduce new legislation, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America’s Security and Prosperity Act of 2009 (CIR ASAP), to the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Gutierrez will be joined by members of many different faiths and backgrounds, including the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Black Caucus, Asian Pacific American Caucus and Progressive Caucus.

Who:
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (IL-4), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force

Rep. Nydia  M. Velázquez (NY-12), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus

Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (NY-11), Whip of the Congressional Black Caucus

Rep. Mike Honda (CA-15), Chair of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus

Rep. Silvestre Reyes (TX-16), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (CA-6), Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus

Rep. Joe Baca (CA-43)

Rep. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)

Rep. Judy Chu (CA-32)

Rep. Joseph Crowley (NY-7)

Rep. Sam Farr (CA-17)

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez (TX-20)

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34)

Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15)

Rep. Grace Napolitano (CA-38)

Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz (TX-27)

Rep. Pedro R. Pierluisi (PR-At large)

Rep. Jared Polis (CO-2)

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-9)

Rep. Jose E. Serrano (NY-16)

Rep. Anthony Weiner (NY-9)

Other Members of Congress
 
What:
Introduction of Comprehensive Immigration Reform Legislation 
 
When:
12:30 pm, Tuesday, December 15, 2009
 
Where:
Room 2261, Rayburn House Office Building
 
“We have waited patiently for a workable solution to our immigration crisis to be taken up by this Congress and our President,” said Rep. Gutierrez. “The time for waiting is over. This bill will be presented before Congress recesses for the holidays so that there is no excuse for inaction in the New Year.

It is the product of months of collaboration with civil rights advocates, labor organizations, and members of Congress. It is an answer to too many years of pain —mothers separated from their children, workers exploited and undermined security at the border— all caused at the hands of a broken immigration system.

This bill says ‘enough,’ and presents a solution to our broken system that we as a nation of immigrants can be proud of.” 
 
Now we’ve been through this before. Last time a similar effort at Comprehensive Immigration Reform was shot down, largely by republicans.

What’s going to happen this time around?

When President Obama was campaigning for office, he placed Health Care Reform and Immigration Reform among his TOP priorities.

He’s had to deal with the economy which was tanking when he took office. He’s had to deal with Afghanistan. He’s also taken on Health Care.

Many of his supporters are NOT too happy that he decided to send MORE troops to Afghanistan.

Others are NOT pleased that the PUBLIC OPTION is NOT included in the Health Care Bill. Yet more remain unhappy with his administration’s handling of Wall Street excesses…not that there’s much he can do about that!

However, IMMIGRATION REFORM gives the president an opportunity to mobilize and energize the growingly influential Hispanic base and pacify Unions/Labor Leaders who are lukewarm at best over the Health Care Bill they’re getting.

DEMOCRATS – let this be a warning!

FAIL ON IMMIGRATION REFORM AND COME 2010 – YOU WILL BE THE ONES LOOKING FOR STATUS…AND PACKING UP TO GO HOME.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!

Opinion – Tiger Roars…shows, er – stripes?

I’m tired of hearing about Tiger Woods and his mistresses…

I really don’t care if he was having sex with the maid, the PTA chairman or the CEO.

The KANSAS CITY STAR has an interesting article on the Tiger Woods affair…

It’s titled: Media should be ashamed of Tiger Woods ‘coverage’. The writer says:

We’re no better than the gossip rags, tabloids and blogs, and we will no longer strive to be.

The high road no longer pays our bills. So, like TMZ, the National Enquirer and all the rest, we will pick through the personal lives of celebrity athletes, and when we turn up dirt, we will shout they owe us a televised, remorseful, ratings-driving explanation.

I disagree with this approach. But I’m willing to accept it, as long as we’re honest about it and enthusiastically accept the consequences of our decision.

Media houses are NOT honest about their decisions to cover these types of stories. And of course, it IS a decision. Stories don’t just walk into the newsroom and jump onto the screen. Editors, anchors and managers decide WHICH stories to pursue, what angles to take and when to run them.

News has been so trivialized to feed the ratings game…that media houses now have WE The People actually thinking, heck demanding, that WE have a “right” to know about the personal lives of prominent people. The Media will even find “experts” to tell us why we need to know!

Meantime, the media, the fourth estate that is supposed to act as a counter balance to the pressing authority of politics and religion - fiddled while the government planned a useless, distracting, ill-conceived war in Iraq.

A war based on lies and false premises that will (if not forever, then for a very long time), affect us and this country. They didn’t think we had a right to know how much it would cost – or whether there were weapons of mass destruction, etc.

No, our right to know revolves around how many mistresses that Tiger Woods has!

Why do we care where Tiger prowls when we are sending thousands of soldiers (who hopefully are not texting mistresses from the trenches) to Afghanistan?

Why do we care who Tiger sleeps with when our infrastructure is so worn thin, we are closing bridges?

Why do we care about Tiger’s crash – instead of the stock market crash? Did we not see what happened after Dubai’s loan default –  or is that NOT as important as Tiger Woods and his shenanigans?

As I see it, THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO SHOULD CARE ARE: Tiger, his family/relatives, the women involved (and apparently THEY don’t care), the PGA (maybe) and sponsors.

Outside of that, apart from the: Tiger did What? moment (why Tiger, I didn’t know you lived up to your name off the links, too) – drop it! There are too many issues of substance to be focusing on a golfer’s sexploits!

There was even a doctor on TV saying Tiger is displaying all the symptoms of a “Sex Addict”. We only want to know, though – when it involves OTHER people. Our own lover/spouse/better half could be having their own Tiger moments and we would NOT want the neighbors to know, much less the world!

Heck, some people even KNOW, but pretend they don’t know…

Others don’t want to know…

The Star also says that:

Had Elin been found barefoot, floating in and out of consciousness, with facial lacerations and Tiger hovering over her, the tone of media commentary would be quite different regardless of whatever alleged actions Elin might’ve taken to provoke Tiger.

I agree. Tiger would have been labeled another star athlete who is a wife beater; a pampered, self absorbed jerk of a jock!

So, why do these highly paid, high profile men lack the ability to see through women they should steer clear of? WARNING: If you see BOOBS first, before you see the person – RUN! Don’t look back or you will be turned into a pillar of shame! (Biblical reference to Lot’s wife.)

Bill Clinton and  Monica Lewinski?

Don’t these men understand that they should start running soon as they smell these women coming?

How is it that men are not caught gallivanting with female professors or nuclear engineers or head teachers or even nurses? Well, except for that NASA astronaut and the media did NOT portray HER as sexy.

Notice how the news reports made her look crazy? However, she is NOT out there, though, arranging press conferences to sell sexy emails (Or whatever types of communication they use) between earth and space! Well, not yet!

High profile men/athletes seem to marry professional, supportive girl next door (in most cases) then gravitate towards bar workers, nannies and hostesses. Are these women MORE attractive? Is it that the personality types who gravitate towards these jobs are different? Is it the educational level? (Some bar hostesses/nannies have degrees, too.) Can somebody explain?

I’m confused because there are many highly attractive, sexy female PHDS with an abundance of boobs – and brains! Or is it that they have the presence of mind to keep their mouths shut, so we never find out!

According to the Star:

Look at what we’ve done to Tiger in a week. We’ve convinced the public, among other things, that Tiger was wrong for exercising his right to remain silent with the police. We did this while young Americans are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan in protection of this most American freedom.

Remember when Dick Cheney and other White House officials refused – refused to talk about the leaking of emails and information pertaining to the outing of a CIA spy? We’ve already forgotten? There was NO sex involved. (That we know of!)

One woman is on TV saying: Tiger’s wife should leave him!

Really?

I have a neighbor whose boyfriend beats her up! They have two kids. The apartment is in her name – it’s a constant domestic abuse saga of tears,  police and drama.

Why doesn’t SHE leave him? He’s no Tiger – if he was a book, he would not even be in the same library as Tiger. He has no education, no looks, no money – yet SHE is standing by her thug!

All across America women are standing by men who cheat (see politics) lie, even KILL!

I’d NOT worry about Tigers wife, Elin Nordegren. She can apparently take care of herself! Go Sistah! Maybe YOU should take up professional golf, Elin! You apparently know how to use that iron. Birdie to you – or is it eagle?

And as for those women saying Elin Nordegren should leave…do YOU think they would turn Tiger down if he called them and said: “Elin left me, I want to marry you“!?

You believe they’d say: “No Thanks Tiger – I’m waiting for a man who doesn’t cheat“?

About this bridge in Brooklyn…

From Success To Failure In Just One Year…

I guess you’ve heard the news about Dubai – the oil rich, over-spending tiny Arab Emirate that tried to rebuild “The world” is now drowning in debt!

The country can’t pay some 60 billion-dollars it owes to mostly European banks. The news sent European stock markets plunging, which in turn dragged American markets down with them.

(I hope the protectionist people see a lesson in there. When America sneezes the world catches a cold. And when the world is down with that cold…the virus finds its way back to the US!)

I feel sorry for President Obama…

The poor guy DID NOT create any of the messes he now has to deal with. How do you fix Dubai or the next Dubai? How do you insulate the US from these economic meltdowns…and can we?

I guess these are questions for FED Chairman Ben Bernanke…and Treasury Secretary, Tim Geitner.

Bernanke is one of the few people I have confidence in on the economy. I don’t particularly care for Geitner. I’ve always thought that HE should NOT have been appointed…after his tax debacle came to light.

Geitner did not pay 34-thousand-dollars in self-employment taxes when he worked at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It is supposedly a common “mistake” that Geitner conveniently realized around the time he was being nominated for Treasury Secretary.

How can a banker, and a prominent one at that, or anyone in the financial industry, especially the top dogs, NOT know they have to pay taxes…and on what?

That is a question that should flummox me; NOT the former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

If you don’t understand a simple thing like that, HOW CAN YOU UNDERSTAND THE CONSIDERABLY MORE COMPLICATED US ECONOMY?

Still, the IRS did NOT go after Geitner. But it comes after me…and YOU – ordinary Joe (NOT John McCain’s Joe the non-plumber – the IRS went after him! That poor Joe!).

Do you know auditors sent me a letter over my withholding for a couple hundred dollars? Even though I stapled a COPY of the bank forms to my return?

Yep. But Tim Geitner slipped through the cracks. I guess our tax guys are more efficient here in Massachusetts.

Anyway, back to Dubai!

In August 2008, CBS’S 60 Minutes ran a story on Dubai entitled: A visit to Dubai Inc. Steve Kroft reports on a Success Story In The Middle East.

News headline this past week: Debt crisis in millionaires’ playground could herald new phase in global financial meltdown

I feel sorry for people who are near retirement and have invested in the Stock Market…

Heck, I feel sorry for myself. But I don’t feel sorry for Dubai!

60 Minutes opened its Dubai piece by saying: Dubai is a tiny sheikdom nestled along the Persian Gulf on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula and part of a tiny, oil-rich country called the United Arab Emirates. Over the course of just a few decades, it has transformed itself from a spit of sand about the size of Rhode Island into the Singapore of the Middle East.

Kroft described the transformation as: the vision of one man, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.

According to 60 Minutes: One project, called by some the “largest construction site on earth,” was just desert several years ago. The site employs half a million laborers, working 12-hour shifts on a reported $300 billion worth of projects, building Sheikh Mohammed’s dream of a modern, efficient and tolerant Arab city with fine restaurants, a vibrant nightlife, that is both the playground and business capital of a new Middle East.

Sheikh Mohammed came up with the idea of turning Dubai into an international center for finance and media. He set up a series of free trade zones, promising no taxes, minimal regulation, and special incentive to corporations willing to locate to the emirate.

Since it opened three years ago, the Dubai International Finance Center has attracted banks, investment firms, and capital from around the world

According to the Sheik: Five years from now you’re gonna see towers on your right, towers on your left. You’re gonna see a kilometer-and-a-half garden where you can exercise. And if you’re bored of that, you can go underneath it for a kilo-and-a-half shopping mall…and it is not the largest shopping center in the world. Because that’s next door…

The Sheik was referring to The Burj Dubai development, where the largest shopping center in the world is under construction at the base what will become the world’s tallest building.

The building includes the first Giorgio Armani hotel with floor after floor of million dollar apartments. It was already nearly a mile high, and when it is finished it will be twice as tall as the Empire State Building.

60 Minuets reported that: With no environmental regulations to stop him, Sultan began dredging a hundred million cubic yards of sand from the Persian Gulf, along with seven million tons of rock to form a man-made Island in the shape of a palm. It more the doubled the coastline of Dubai, and created waterfront condos and homes for 150,000 people, not including 35 hotels.

The palm island project sold out in less than a week, and houses that initially went for $1 million are being resold by original investors and real estate speculators for five times that.

Three more off-shore developments are underway, including a chain of 300 man-made islands, some of which will be private. They are shaped and situated to resemble a map of the world, which is what the project is called.

That was in 2008.

 And coming from a real island, when I saw those low-lying sandbars they were referring to as Palm “islands” I thought of a tsunami…

This past week (ending 11/28/2009), Dubai World set off its own financial tsunami when it announced it needed more time to pay back some of its 60 billion-dollar debt.

Sarah Palin…plus Economic Anger

• This past week (Nov. 15 to Nov. 21, 2009) Sarah Palin was all over the news – the way she likes it!

Here was Sarah on the cover of Newsweek – and there was Sarah on Oprah and ABC’s 20/20 and other places that I don’t watch.

And there was the phony controversy that both Sarah and the media promote. She was complaining all the way to the bank – about Newsweek putting a cutesy photo of her in her snug shorts on their cover.

Now Sarah – did Newsweek make YOU pose for that flirty photo? NO!

Why did YOU choose that particular pose for that photo? I don’t think we’ll see the Queen in shorts in that pose any time soon. So obviously, YOU posed, for your own reasons and liked the photo enough to let another publication run it.

So if it wasn’t sexist when YOU posed, then it’s not sexist now.

It’s like taking nude photos for playboy and saying Newsweek shouldn’t run them when the poser decides to run for president of the church guild!

However, Newsweek too is playing games. I mean, come on – of all the photos of Miss Palin in your archive; of her in suits that she paid for, suits the campaign paid for – you could have gotten a different (note I didn’t say better, just different) one to put on the cover.

So both Newsweek and Sarah Palin are playing games with the rest of us – the dummies who they think won’t notice.

Palin is generating publicity for her book and she will do whatever…

Newsweek is trying to sell magazines, and it will do whatever…

Play your games, but don’t try to fudge the score. 

• Americans are angry over the economy…

Apparently “the economy” resides in Washington, in the White House basement, and President Obama is just sitting on it.

We forget that we, yes WE affect the economy every day with our purchasing  and other choices

When we buy cheap whatever from China, WE are affecting the economy.

When you buy those expensive jeans you cannot afford and charge them to your credit card, then pay off the minimum each month, YOU are affecting the economy.

When people buy houses and cars they can and cannot afford, THEY are affecting the economy.

When we eat out, WE are affecting the economy.

When we don’t go to see a movie, WE are affecting the economy.

Buy a car or take the bus; go overseas on vacation or stay home; invest and pay taxes or stash our money overseas - all this affects the economy.

Was I the ONLY person who heard all the warning heads who were saying that the US economy is under pressure and something has to give?

That speculative housing was straining the market?

That our trade deficit was/is too large?

Why did some take note, while so many others did not?

Why did they disregard their own expenses and go on spending?

Why did people NOT save for the proverbial rainy day?

Now we are railing at the government for not providing more unemployment benefits…did the government ask you to overload your credit card?

Did the government prevent you from balancing your resources and allocating them efficiently?

So why do the prudent people who wear their shoes to the soles and buy things on sale now have to pay for your stupidity – instead of you?

AND MOST IMPORTANLY, WHEN OR RATHER IF PEOPLE GET OUT OF THEIR SELF-IMPOSED BLACK HOLE, WILL THEY HAVE LEARNT A LESSON – OR CONTINUE SPENDING AS IF THERE’S NO TOMORROW? Because we just learnt: TODAY IS TOMORROW’S…TOMORROW!

Now I understand that the government bailed out the banks. Well, you’re NOT a bank, even if you spent like you were a bank! So there!

You will never be treated as equitably as those big Wall Street guys. Not under a democrat, especially NOT under a republican, double especially NOT under a capitalist system! And not under communism either!

So basically, what all this long rambling tirade means is: We should be angry at OURselves for TURNING OUR BACKS on the old principles of saving and being thrifty and to hell with the Joneses.

But of course, that’s painful and inconvenient for us to blame ourselves, so let’s take our anger out on the government…and the banks and whomever.  (Not that they’re blameless, either!) But if we blame somebody ELSE, then we can feel better about our poor/lack of planning.

You think that’s bad?

Wait until you’re ready to retire and you didn’t plan, set NOTHING aside because it’s not your responsibility or your fault or your decision – NO ROTH IRA, NO 401K, NO PENSION…and find out there’s NO social security or a leaner payout!

America has become a country where IT IS ALWAYS SOMEONE ELSE’S FAULT.

I’m just waiting for the case where a pregnant woman sues because nobody warned her that sex leads to pregnancy. I’m sure it’s already happened. I just haven’t heard. Let me know…

• Did you see Republican lawmakers and some Democrats too, talking about spending?

The same ones who were there before AND during eight years of Bush, who helped spend, spend, spend…who gave Mr. Bush carte blanche to finance two losing wars?

Now those hypocrites want us to believe that the “economy” just turned sour overnight. That things started going downhill last January. That you sent them to Washington to enjoy a cozy incestuous relationships with their pals in the insurance industry and the auto industry and the housing industry…

And you agree – because YOU keep sending them back. Don’t you?