How is it that some families, like the Kennedys, have three (3) sons buried at Arlington National Cemetery, the most famous cemetery in America while other families’ sons are incarcerated in famous American prisons?
What is it that makes some families excel and others go to hell?
It’s not always money or prestige, either. Some famous families have kids who don’t do well and some poor, unconnected families have kids who become president. Does anyone have that winning/losing recipe or equation?
I looked at the people who turned out to pay tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy and they came from all walks of life, all races, all colors, and all parties. Isn’t that amazing? Boston is still a rather socially segregated city. Whites go to white events – blacks go to black events, etc…but everybody turned out for Kennedy.
I guess that’s because he included everybody. And that is a telling aspect of his legacy!
And now we focus on a rarity in Massachusetts politics: an open Senate seat - the first time that’s happened in 25 years.
Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, just this afternoon, (Aug. 31, 2009) announced that the special election to replace Senator Ted Kennedy will be held January 19. The primary will be on December 08.
I guess it’s too late to include it on the September 22 primary for city council and mayor. That would ensure a huge turnout, but I guess that’s too much trouble for Massachusetts. It’s probably cheaper to have two primaries!
Notice how we botched the Big Dig (3.5 miles under Boston/Charles River) while the 31-mile undersea Channel Tunnel (Chunnel) connecting France and England is fine?
According to information I dug up online, The Chunnel is the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world. It took about 6-years: Work began in 1988; the tunnel began operating in 1994. Cost about 10-million British Pounds (inflation-adjusted to 2007) with an 80-percent cost overrun.
Boston’s leaky Big Dig, on the other hand, was estimated in 1985 at nearly 3-billion-dollars (6-billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006). As of 2006, we’d spent over 14-billion in federal and state tax dollars. Some estimates put the cost, including interest, at 22-billion-dollars. Roughly two Chunnels! We probably have an 800-percent cost overrun by now!!
Notice, too, how our Mass Transit, the MBTA or “T” is 8-billion dollars in debt but we buy some million-dollar trolleys that break down? Or how everybody in New York, even visitors, somehow know they have to pay to get on trains and buses there, but up here we think we are supposed to ride free?
I have no ideas at all on a Kennedy replacement– I can’t see anybody stepping into Kennedy’s shoes and hitting the ground running. (I’m not saying no-one can do it – I’m just saying I can’t see anybody who’s floating at the top, unless governor Patrick takes a shot, and he’s unlikely to).
Other Kennedy family names are being bandied about – the one I like is Ted Kennedy’s grandson, Edward Moore Kennedy III, the cute little kid who announced his plan to become the Senator of Massachusetts when he turns 45.
Does he know that from now on everywhere he goes with a girl, he needs a chaperone?
He may be just 11-years old, but I already see the Kennedy aura surrounding that kid. I think the Kennedy Mystique will skip a generation and manifest itself in the grandkids. You watch!
However, until the Kennedy family steps forward and says they are NOT interested in that seat, nobody is stepping forward to publicly show their hand. I guess they’re remembering what happened in New York when Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, JFK’s daughter made a play for Hillary Clinton’s vacant senate seat, (Jan. 2009).
Nobody wants to become the next David Paterson, the hapless governor of New York who ran afoul of the Kennedys with the way he handled that vacancy. I don’t blame Patterson, but someone needs to be blamed. And we can’t blame Caroline, now can we?
So I’m waiting, you are waiting, the country is waiting, the world is probably waiting to see which Kennedy, if any, will step up to the plate – and more importantly, if someone does, will anybody have the guts to run against that person?!
The only disappointing news (to me) is that Former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney says, yes says…He won’t be running for the late senator’s seat. I wanted him to run so he could add another convincing loss to his resume.
That man is not true to his convictions. He has ah-ha moments/epiphanies whenever the sun comes out! As a candidate for governor of Massachusetts, he was pro-choice. He gets on a plane, flies to a republican convention as a candidate for president and suddenly all those liberals in MA who support abortion rights are what he hates most about America.
Definitely, he is no Kennedy!!
Monday, August 31, 2009
Friday, August 28, 2009
Apt Final Resting Place for Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy's body will be leaving his beloved Massachusetts, apparently forever, on Saturday, (Aug 29, 2009.
The senior senator, who represented his state in the U.S. Senate for 43-years, will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, that same afternoon.
Massachusetts is saddened greatly to see you go, Senator Kennedy. Part of you will forever remain here, with us.
I wonder if Joe and Ethel Kennedy thought, back when they were raising a family in the early 1900’s, that three of their sons - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, JFK (1963); Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, (1968) and now, Ted Kennedy, (2009) - would be buried alongside each other at one of the most famous cemeteries in the world.
Only two presidents are buried at Arlington Cemetery: William Howard Taft (1930) and the senator’s brother, JFK. Ted Kennedy will also be in the presence of four Chief Justices of the United States: William Howard Taft, Earl Warren, Warren Burger and William Rehnquist.
Arlington National Cemetery (Arlington, Virginia), is a military cemetery and a visit there is a step back in time. The cemetery was established during The Civil War, and is located near the Pentagon, directly across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. The land once belonged to the estate of the family of Robert Lee’s wife.
More than four million people visit the cemetery each year and about 100 graveside services are conducted there each week.
Arlington National Cemetery is open to the public everyday at 8:00 AM.
It closes at 7PM from April 1 to September 30…and for the rest of the year it closes at 5:00PM.
Senator Kennedy’s journey to Arlington begins on Saturday, August 28, 2009.
According to the Kennedy family, the Senator’s funeral mass will take place at a private church service at 9:00AM, Saturday morning.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be present. Also expected are: President Clinton, President George W. Bush and President Jimmy Carter. President George H.W Bush, Sr., won’t be attending.
But many of the Senators colleagues are expected to be there, and I’m now hearing that world-famous Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma could be attending!
According to the Kennedy family, after the service, the senator’s body will be taken to Andrew’s Air Force Base where his motorcade will pass by the Capitol for a stop at the Senate steps for a brief prayer so that Senate staff and members of the broader Senate community with whom the Senator worked can bid a final farewell.
From Andrews Air Force base, Senator Kennedy's motorcade will travel along the east plaza of the US Capitol building and go past the Senate Chamber steps. The motorcade will then proceed to Arlington National Cemetery.
5:30 p.m. A burial service for Senator Kennedy will be held at Arlington National Cemetery. The burial service is closed to the public.
The family says Senator Kennedy spent a lot of time at Arlington Cemetery, visiting the graves of his beloved brothers and paying tribute to the fallen men and women of Massachusetts who gave their lives for our country.
Now it’s our turn to go and visit him...who gave so much of his life to this country.
The senior senator, who represented his state in the U.S. Senate for 43-years, will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, that same afternoon.
Massachusetts is saddened greatly to see you go, Senator Kennedy. Part of you will forever remain here, with us.
I wonder if Joe and Ethel Kennedy thought, back when they were raising a family in the early 1900’s, that three of their sons - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, JFK (1963); Robert “Bobby” Kennedy, (1968) and now, Ted Kennedy, (2009) - would be buried alongside each other at one of the most famous cemeteries in the world.
 |
Only two presidents are buried at Arlington Cemetery: William Howard Taft (1930) and the senator’s brother, JFK. Ted Kennedy will also be in the presence of four Chief Justices of the United States: William Howard Taft, Earl Warren, Warren Burger and William Rehnquist.
Arlington National Cemetery (Arlington, Virginia), is a military cemetery and a visit there is a step back in time. The cemetery was established during The Civil War, and is located near the Pentagon, directly across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. The land once belonged to the estate of the family of Robert Lee’s wife.
More than four million people visit the cemetery each year and about 100 graveside services are conducted there each week.
Arlington National Cemetery is open to the public everyday at 8:00 AM.
It closes at 7PM from April 1 to September 30…and for the rest of the year it closes at 5:00PM.
Senator Kennedy’s journey to Arlington begins on Saturday, August 28, 2009.
According to the Kennedy family, the Senator’s funeral mass will take place at a private church service at 9:00AM, Saturday morning.
President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be present. Also expected are: President Clinton, President George W. Bush and President Jimmy Carter. President George H.W Bush, Sr., won’t be attending.
But many of the Senators colleagues are expected to be there, and I’m now hearing that world-famous Spanish tenor Placido Domingo and Chinese cellist Yo-Yo Ma could be attending!
According to the Kennedy family, after the service, the senator’s body will be taken to Andrew’s Air Force Base where his motorcade will pass by the Capitol for a stop at the Senate steps for a brief prayer so that Senate staff and members of the broader Senate community with whom the Senator worked can bid a final farewell.
From Andrews Air Force base, Senator Kennedy's motorcade will travel along the east plaza of the US Capitol building and go past the Senate Chamber steps. The motorcade will then proceed to Arlington National Cemetery.
5:30 p.m. A burial service for Senator Kennedy will be held at Arlington National Cemetery. The burial service is closed to the public.
The family says Senator Kennedy spent a lot of time at Arlington Cemetery, visiting the graves of his beloved brothers and paying tribute to the fallen men and women of Massachusetts who gave their lives for our country.
Now it’s our turn to go and visit him...who gave so much of his life to this country.
 |
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Kennedy's Seat - Which Perspective?
I scrolled through world newspapers looking to see which ones covered the death of Senator Kennedy, and many did!
I found this article in Cuba's Prensa Latina that I'd like to share with you.
http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112208&Itemid=1
(Translated into English by toolbar)
• Democrats and Republicans prepare weapons for Senate seat
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
August 27, 2009, 11:17Washington, Aug 27 (Prensa Latina) The Republicans and Democrats ready their weapons today to win a Senate seat in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, vacated by the death of Edward Kennedy.
For the first time in 25 years this land has an empty seat at the federal upper house, and must be filled by a special election before 160 days.
Nobody knows who will take the place of Kennedy, who remained in his seat 47 years, but one thing is certain, the fight to replace him will be fierce, CNN* estimated.
Massachusetts is essentially a one-party state, the Democrats control the government and Congress, recalls.
However, it stresses, the Republicans have a special interest in that seat, then conquer It will leave the Democrats a majority in the federal upper house.
Currently, the so-called blue party has 60 seats out of 100, while their rivals have the rest.
That number allows the Democrats to defeat any delaying tactics by the Republicans, known in the jargon of American politics as filibustering.
ORIGINAL POST IN SPANISH:
• Demócratas y republicanos preparan armas por escaño senatoril jueves
27 de agosto de 2009
27 de agosto de 2009, 11:17Washington, 27 ago (PL) Los republicanos y demócratas alistan hoy sus armas para conquistar un escaño senatorial por el estado norteamericano de Massachussets, vacante tras la muerte de Edward Kennedy.
Por primera vez en 25 años ese territorio tiene vacío un asiento a la Cámara alta federal, y deberá ser llenado por una elección especial antes de 160 días.
Nadie sabe quien ocupará el lugar de Kennedy, quien se mantuvo en su curul 47 años, pero hay algo cierto, la lucha por reemplazarlo será feroz, estimó la televisora CNN.
Massachusetts es esencialmente un estado unipartidista, los demócratas controlan el gobierno y el Congreso, recuerda.
No obstante, subraya, los republicanos tienen un interés especial en ese escaño, pues conquistarlo le arrebataría a los demócratas la mayoría absoluta en la Cámara alta federal.
En la actualidad, el llamado partido azul tiene 60 asientos, de un total de 100, mientras sus rivales cuentan con el resto.
Esa cifra le permite a los demócratas derrotar cualquier táctica dilatoria presentada por los republicanos, conocidas en la jerga política norteamericana como filibusterismo.
Boston Herald - great coverage! This photo of the Senator's casket arriving at the J.F. K Library in Boston is from their site:
>>>>>WASHINGTON (CNN*) -- As Americans paused Wednesday to remember the extraordinary life of Sen. Edward Kennedy, political observers also took note of a rare development caused by his passing.
For the first time in 25 years, the state of Massachusetts has an open Senate seat. Nobody knows who will take it, but virtually everyone agrees that the fight to replace the Bay State's liberal lion is guaranteed to be fierce.
Massachusetts is essentially a one-party state. Democrats control the governorship and every congressional seat and have overwhelming majorities in both houses of the state legislature.
One unintended consequence of this monopoly is a lot of pent-up political ambition. Bay State Democrats itching to go to Washington usually have to wait -- for a long time. Kennedy won his Senate seat in 1962; John Kerry won his in 1984.
Massachusetts law requires a special election for Kennedy's seat to be held within 160 days.
A long-term vacancy could have effects far beyond Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts, since his death deprives Democrats of the 60-vote majority necessary to force laws through the Senate despite Republican objections.
Just last week, Kennedy urged that the law be changed to allow the governor to appoint a temporary replacement until the special election could be held. Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday told Boston radio station WBUR that he is in favor of the change and would sign it into law if the state legislature passed it.
When the special election is over, the winner will serve out the remainder of Kennedy's term, which expires in January 2013. A slew of local officeholders have nothing to lose and everything to gain by tossing their hats in the ring.
So who's on the list of possible contenders?
Start with the state's 10-member House delegation. With the exception of 72-year-old Rep. John Olver, each one is considered a possible contender, said Bill Mayer, a Northeastern University political scientist.
Rep. Ed Markey, a 17-term congressman from north of Boston, ran for Kerry's Senate seat in 1984. He also briefly aired television ads during his 2004 House re-election bid. Why? There wasn't a serious threat to Markey's House seat, but he wanted to raise his profile in the event of a Senate vacancy created by a Kerry presidential win over George W. Bush, Mayer said.
The one caveat for Markey today: He may not want to give up his chairmanship of an influential House committee dealing with climate-change legislation. The same goes for Rep. Barney Frank, who has plenty of name recognition but may not want to cede the helm of the powerful House Financial Services Committee.
Rep. Mike Capuano, now in his sixth term from Somerville, currently has the seat once held by President Kennedy and House Speaker Tip O'Neill. He took office in 1998 by edging out a 10-candidate primary field with 23 percent of the vote.
Capuano and others might try to follow that same blueprint for a statewide victory, Mayer said. As little as 20 percent may be enough to win a heavily contested Senate primary.
Capuano, Rep. Stephen Lynch from South Boston and Rep. Jim McGovern from Worcester might also bet that their stronger urban Democratic organizations can help them eke out a victory if the primary turnout is low.
Money is certain to be a key factor. Former Rep. Marty Meehan, now the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, has almost $5 million in contributions at his disposal that could be used for a Senate run.
Massachusetts Democrats might, however, decide it's time to turn the political page by sending a woman to the U.S. Senate.
The state's politically ambitious Attorney General Martha Coakley has the distinction of being one of the few women to win statewide. Rep. Niki Tsongas of Lowell, on the other hand, has the benefit of a famous name. Her husband -- former presidential candidate Paul Tsongas who passed away in 1997 -- represented Massachusetts for one term in the Senate from 1979 to 1985.
But the most famous name in Massachusetts politics is, of course, Kennedy. Ted Kennedy's widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, has so far expressed no interest in filling the seat, according to sources. Speculation is nevertheless rampant that she might ultimately try to keep the seat in family hands.
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy, who held Capuano's seat from 1987 to 1999, may also try to launch a political comeback on the strength of the current wave of emotion and nostalgia. The nephew of Ted Kennedy and son of Robert F. Kennedy, he currently heads Citizens Energy Corp., which provides home heating fuel for low-income Americans.
Massachusetts may be headed for its most hotly contested Senate race in at least a quarter century.
I found this article in Cuba's Prensa Latina that I'd like to share with you.
http://www.prensa-latina.cu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112208&Itemid=1
(Translated into English by toolbar)
• Democrats and Republicans prepare weapons for Senate seat
Thursday, August 27th, 2009
August 27, 2009, 11:17Washington, Aug 27 (Prensa Latina) The Republicans and Democrats ready their weapons today to win a Senate seat in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, vacated by the death of Edward Kennedy.
For the first time in 25 years this land has an empty seat at the federal upper house, and must be filled by a special election before 160 days.
Nobody knows who will take the place of Kennedy, who remained in his seat 47 years, but one thing is certain, the fight to replace him will be fierce, CNN* estimated.
Massachusetts is essentially a one-party state, the Democrats control the government and Congress, recalls.
However, it stresses, the Republicans have a special interest in that seat, then conquer It will leave the Democrats a majority in the federal upper house.
Currently, the so-called blue party has 60 seats out of 100, while their rivals have the rest.
That number allows the Democrats to defeat any delaying tactics by the Republicans, known in the jargon of American politics as filibustering.
ORIGINAL POST IN SPANISH:
• Demócratas y republicanos preparan armas por escaño senatoril jueves
27 de agosto de 2009
27 de agosto de 2009, 11:17Washington, 27 ago (PL) Los republicanos y demócratas alistan hoy sus armas para conquistar un escaño senatorial por el estado norteamericano de Massachussets, vacante tras la muerte de Edward Kennedy.
Por primera vez en 25 años ese territorio tiene vacío un asiento a la Cámara alta federal, y deberá ser llenado por una elección especial antes de 160 días.
Nadie sabe quien ocupará el lugar de Kennedy, quien se mantuvo en su curul 47 años, pero hay algo cierto, la lucha por reemplazarlo será feroz, estimó la televisora CNN.
Massachusetts es esencialmente un estado unipartidista, los demócratas controlan el gobierno y el Congreso, recuerda.
No obstante, subraya, los republicanos tienen un interés especial en ese escaño, pues conquistarlo le arrebataría a los demócratas la mayoría absoluta en la Cámara alta federal.
En la actualidad, el llamado partido azul tiene 60 asientos, de un total de 100, mientras sus rivales cuentan con el resto.
Esa cifra le permite a los demócratas derrotar cualquier táctica dilatoria presentada por los republicanos, conocidas en la jerga política norteamericana como filibusterismo.
Boston Herald - great coverage! This photo of the Senator's casket arriving at the J.F. K Library in Boston is from their site:
>>>>>WASHINGTON (CNN*) -- As Americans paused Wednesday to remember the extraordinary life of Sen. Edward Kennedy, political observers also took note of a rare development caused by his passing.
For the first time in 25 years, the state of Massachusetts has an open Senate seat. Nobody knows who will take it, but virtually everyone agrees that the fight to replace the Bay State's liberal lion is guaranteed to be fierce.
Massachusetts is essentially a one-party state. Democrats control the governorship and every congressional seat and have overwhelming majorities in both houses of the state legislature.
One unintended consequence of this monopoly is a lot of pent-up political ambition. Bay State Democrats itching to go to Washington usually have to wait -- for a long time. Kennedy won his Senate seat in 1962; John Kerry won his in 1984.
Massachusetts law requires a special election for Kennedy's seat to be held within 160 days.
A long-term vacancy could have effects far beyond Kennedy's home state of Massachusetts, since his death deprives Democrats of the 60-vote majority necessary to force laws through the Senate despite Republican objections.
Just last week, Kennedy urged that the law be changed to allow the governor to appoint a temporary replacement until the special election could be held. Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday told Boston radio station WBUR that he is in favor of the change and would sign it into law if the state legislature passed it.
When the special election is over, the winner will serve out the remainder of Kennedy's term, which expires in January 2013. A slew of local officeholders have nothing to lose and everything to gain by tossing their hats in the ring.
So who's on the list of possible contenders?
Start with the state's 10-member House delegation. With the exception of 72-year-old Rep. John Olver, each one is considered a possible contender, said Bill Mayer, a Northeastern University political scientist.
Rep. Ed Markey, a 17-term congressman from north of Boston, ran for Kerry's Senate seat in 1984. He also briefly aired television ads during his 2004 House re-election bid. Why? There wasn't a serious threat to Markey's House seat, but he wanted to raise his profile in the event of a Senate vacancy created by a Kerry presidential win over George W. Bush, Mayer said.
The one caveat for Markey today: He may not want to give up his chairmanship of an influential House committee dealing with climate-change legislation. The same goes for Rep. Barney Frank, who has plenty of name recognition but may not want to cede the helm of the powerful House Financial Services Committee.
Rep. Mike Capuano, now in his sixth term from Somerville, currently has the seat once held by President Kennedy and House Speaker Tip O'Neill. He took office in 1998 by edging out a 10-candidate primary field with 23 percent of the vote.
Capuano and others might try to follow that same blueprint for a statewide victory, Mayer said. As little as 20 percent may be enough to win a heavily contested Senate primary.
Capuano, Rep. Stephen Lynch from South Boston and Rep. Jim McGovern from Worcester might also bet that their stronger urban Democratic organizations can help them eke out a victory if the primary turnout is low.
Money is certain to be a key factor. Former Rep. Marty Meehan, now the chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, has almost $5 million in contributions at his disposal that could be used for a Senate run.
Massachusetts Democrats might, however, decide it's time to turn the political page by sending a woman to the U.S. Senate.
The state's politically ambitious Attorney General Martha Coakley has the distinction of being one of the few women to win statewide. Rep. Niki Tsongas of Lowell, on the other hand, has the benefit of a famous name. Her husband -- former presidential candidate Paul Tsongas who passed away in 1997 -- represented Massachusetts for one term in the Senate from 1979 to 1985.
But the most famous name in Massachusetts politics is, of course, Kennedy. Ted Kennedy's widow, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, has so far expressed no interest in filling the seat, according to sources. Speculation is nevertheless rampant that she might ultimately try to keep the seat in family hands.
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy, who held Capuano's seat from 1987 to 1999, may also try to launch a political comeback on the strength of the current wave of emotion and nostalgia. The nephew of Ted Kennedy and son of Robert F. Kennedy, he currently heads Citizens Energy Corp., which provides home heating fuel for low-income Americans.
Massachusetts may be headed for its most hotly contested Senate race in at least a quarter century.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Senator Ted Kennedy: 1932-2009
News outlets in Massachusetts are today focusing on the same story: The death of our senior Senator, Ted Kennedy.
Kennedy died Tuesday night (Aug 25, 2009) at his Cape Cod home, after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. Accolades are pouring in from around the world for the 77-year-old statesman known as: “The Liberal Lion of the Senate”.
• Kennedy family: We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives.
• President Obama called Ted Kennedy: One of the greatest senators of our time…one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. His extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. And the extraordinary good that he did lives on. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was the defender of a dream.
• MA governor Deval Patrick: A giant of social progress...one of the Commonwealth's brightest lights went out last night.
• British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown: Kennedy was admired around the world for his efforts to help the under-privileged…a man who “will be mourned not just in America but in every continent.
• Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair: Kennedy showed a "passionate commitment" to a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
• British Opposition leader, David Cameron: Kennedy was one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate.
• Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd: A great American, a great Democrat, but also a great friend of Australia…a robust and continuing supporter of the alliance between the United States and Australia.
• Former President, George H.W. Bush: A seminal figure in the United States Senate — a leader who answered the call to duty for some 47 years, and whose death closes a remarkable chapter in that body’s history.
• Irish Prime Minister, Brian Cowen: America had lost a great and respected statesman and Ireland, a long-standing and true friend.
• Nelson Mandela (South Africa's first black president): He made his voice heard in the struggle against apartheid at a time when the freedom struggle was not widely supported in the West.
• German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: An extraordinary personality in American politics" who had demonstrated a firm and resolute commitment to peace and justice.
• Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi: A role model for politicians.
• French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner: A dogged fight for democracy, social justice, civil rights and peace.
• Afghan President, Hamid Karzai: Deeply saddened by Kennedy's death.
• Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: A great friend of the Jewish state.
Kennedy will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where his two older brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert “Bobby” Kennedy are also buried.
Kennedy died Tuesday night (Aug 25, 2009) at his Cape Cod home, after a yearlong struggle with brain cancer. Accolades are pouring in from around the world for the 77-year-old statesman known as: “The Liberal Lion of the Senate”.
• Kennedy family: We’ve lost the irreplaceable center of our family and joyous light in our lives.
• President Obama called Ted Kennedy: One of the greatest senators of our time…one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. His extraordinary life on this earth has come to an end. And the extraordinary good that he did lives on. For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was the defender of a dream.
• MA governor Deval Patrick: A giant of social progress...one of the Commonwealth's brightest lights went out last night.
• British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown: Kennedy was admired around the world for his efforts to help the under-privileged…a man who “will be mourned not just in America but in every continent.
• Brown’s predecessor, Tony Blair: Kennedy showed a "passionate commitment" to a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
• British Opposition leader, David Cameron: Kennedy was one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate.
• Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd: A great American, a great Democrat, but also a great friend of Australia…a robust and continuing supporter of the alliance between the United States and Australia.
• Former President, George H.W. Bush: A seminal figure in the United States Senate — a leader who answered the call to duty for some 47 years, and whose death closes a remarkable chapter in that body’s history.
• Irish Prime Minister, Brian Cowen: America had lost a great and respected statesman and Ireland, a long-standing and true friend.
• Nelson Mandela (South Africa's first black president): He made his voice heard in the struggle against apartheid at a time when the freedom struggle was not widely supported in the West.
• German Chancellor, Angela Merkel: An extraordinary personality in American politics" who had demonstrated a firm and resolute commitment to peace and justice.
• Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi: A role model for politicians.
• French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner: A dogged fight for democracy, social justice, civil rights and peace.
• Afghan President, Hamid Karzai: Deeply saddened by Kennedy's death.
• Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: A great friend of the Jewish state.
Kennedy will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, where his two older brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert “Bobby” Kennedy are also buried.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Real mother to Michael Jackson’s Kids!
Poor Michael Jackson…
Did he have any sperm at all?
To believe news reports, none of his kids are his…they all belong to a rag-tag assortment of hangers on and so-called friends that I’m happy I don’t have.
Way too much sperm was apparently swirling around Neverland. Everybody gave sperm or knows of somebody who donated sperm!
One of them, former child star Mark Lester, godfather to the King of Pop's kids, says he might, just possibly, be the actual father of Jackson’s daughter, Paris.
He even went so far as to drag his own 15-year-old daughter in front of the camera, (Today Show) into the spotlight, so those of us who can't rest until we know who fathered Jackson's kids, can finally have our brains find some peace, like Michael Jackson should!
Don’t stress over it, Mr. Lester; they can’t keep the truth from her! One day she will Google who her real dad is, and your name will come up! She will be very happy you went on TV!
If I was that kid that he’s claiming to father, I’d run as far away for that odious man as I could! Supposing, just supposing, he is the girl’s father, why is he on television making his argument? Is he trying to convince us that he’s a good parent? Who’d put their kids through that?
If those kids were poor little homeless orphans, without a famous and potentially lucrative inheritance, would anybody be coming forward to “claim” them?
Why don’t I say that I’m the real mother of those kids? You know what, I never met Michael Jackson, but I could be those kids mother. Actually, I think I AM THEIR MOTHER! And I want my kids. I miss them so, you see, ever since Michael, with all his celebrity and fame paid me off and took them.
It’s true that if he was still alive today, I would not be missing them so much, but back then, they didn’t have any money of their own. Now, it’s different, with all those record sales since their dad passed away - and I WILL NOT STAND BY AND LET CATHERINE JACKSON TAKE WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!
Oooh! It was good to get that out of my system.
So, getting back to the King of Pop, the L.A. coroner has made it official. Jackson died from: an overdose of propofol…a powerful sedative he was given to help him sleep.
I would never have thought that! I was thinking all the time that he died from exhaustion, planning that concert in combination with maybe a weak heart? Who would have thought that Jackson and other celebrities indulge in drugs?
Don’t they all just die from old age? I’ve not heard of any other instances where celebrities overdosed on drugs or died from kinky asphyxiations or spousal jealousies…have you?
Jackson’s family lawyer says: “there was a tragic and gross violation of duty and care for Michael Jackson."
Do any of the Jacksons feel that they should have been looking out for their brother/son?
Where were they while he was being overdosed, fleeced and misled? Could the Jackson family have gotten in touch with the Williams sisters dad?
Think anybody is going to get Venus or Serena Williams so befuddled as to put those tennis aces on propofol without dad Richard Williams breaking that bedroom door down and kicking some butt?
How about Tiger Woods’s dad? You think anybody could have sneaked past the late Mr. Earl Woods to put Tiger on propofol?
I loved to see Michael Jackson perofrm and pity him for his lost childhood, the push for fame and his inner misery. He clung desperately to his missed childhood!
However, Michael isn’t hurting anymore. All the hurting now is being born by those kids. Please leave them alone.
Anyone who claims to love those kids will protect them, and resolve any issues OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT!
Did he have any sperm at all?
To believe news reports, none of his kids are his…they all belong to a rag-tag assortment of hangers on and so-called friends that I’m happy I don’t have.
Way too much sperm was apparently swirling around Neverland. Everybody gave sperm or knows of somebody who donated sperm!
One of them, former child star Mark Lester, godfather to the King of Pop's kids, says he might, just possibly, be the actual father of Jackson’s daughter, Paris.
He even went so far as to drag his own 15-year-old daughter in front of the camera, (Today Show) into the spotlight, so those of us who can't rest until we know who fathered Jackson's kids, can finally have our brains find some peace, like Michael Jackson should!
Don’t stress over it, Mr. Lester; they can’t keep the truth from her! One day she will Google who her real dad is, and your name will come up! She will be very happy you went on TV!
If I was that kid that he’s claiming to father, I’d run as far away for that odious man as I could! Supposing, just supposing, he is the girl’s father, why is he on television making his argument? Is he trying to convince us that he’s a good parent? Who’d put their kids through that?
If those kids were poor little homeless orphans, without a famous and potentially lucrative inheritance, would anybody be coming forward to “claim” them?
Why don’t I say that I’m the real mother of those kids? You know what, I never met Michael Jackson, but I could be those kids mother. Actually, I think I AM THEIR MOTHER! And I want my kids. I miss them so, you see, ever since Michael, with all his celebrity and fame paid me off and took them.
It’s true that if he was still alive today, I would not be missing them so much, but back then, they didn’t have any money of their own. Now, it’s different, with all those record sales since their dad passed away - and I WILL NOT STAND BY AND LET CATHERINE JACKSON TAKE WHAT IS RIGHTFULLY MINE!
Oooh! It was good to get that out of my system.
So, getting back to the King of Pop, the L.A. coroner has made it official. Jackson died from: an overdose of propofol…a powerful sedative he was given to help him sleep.
I would never have thought that! I was thinking all the time that he died from exhaustion, planning that concert in combination with maybe a weak heart? Who would have thought that Jackson and other celebrities indulge in drugs?
Don’t they all just die from old age? I’ve not heard of any other instances where celebrities overdosed on drugs or died from kinky asphyxiations or spousal jealousies…have you?
Jackson’s family lawyer says: “there was a tragic and gross violation of duty and care for Michael Jackson."
Do any of the Jacksons feel that they should have been looking out for their brother/son?
Where were they while he was being overdosed, fleeced and misled? Could the Jackson family have gotten in touch with the Williams sisters dad?
Think anybody is going to get Venus or Serena Williams so befuddled as to put those tennis aces on propofol without dad Richard Williams breaking that bedroom door down and kicking some butt?
How about Tiger Woods’s dad? You think anybody could have sneaked past the late Mr. Earl Woods to put Tiger on propofol?
I loved to see Michael Jackson perofrm and pity him for his lost childhood, the push for fame and his inner misery. He clung desperately to his missed childhood!
However, Michael isn’t hurting anymore. All the hurting now is being born by those kids. Please leave them alone.
Anyone who claims to love those kids will protect them, and resolve any issues OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT!
Monday, August 24, 2009
Elderly Drivers Unsafe? Bah humbug!!
As I write this, news that an elderly driver (79) has just plowed into a cop who was working detail for a utility crew in Weymouth, Massachusetts.
By the time the 4 o’clock news teams hit the airwaves, we’ll be told how another elderly driver has done it again – caused an accident to add to the long list that we seem to be hearing about daily.
Within the space of four weeks, there was a rash of serious, sometimes deadly accidents involving elderly drivers in Massachusetts.
An 89-year-old woman allegedly hit and killed a 4-year-old girl in a crosswalk. An 84-year-old woman died when her 83-year-old husband crashed into another car. One elderly woman died after her 92-year-old husband slammed into her while backing out of a parking spot.
A 73-year-old accidentally drove her minivan into a crowd of people attending a Memorial; eight people were hospitalized. A 93-year-old driver hurt a mother and toddler when he stepped on the gas instead of the brake and drove his car into a Wal-Mart.
And as we are won’t to do – the knee-jerk reaction is: Elderly Drivers must be driven off the roads. The MA legislature is considering several options that could reduce the accident risks of elderly drivers due to poor eyesight or slower reflexes. Elderly drivers would have to submit to more frequent, in-person license renewals, vision tests and driving tests.
The Boston Globe cites the following statistics relating to elderly driers and accidents:
• In 2008, Massachusetts drivers age 75 or older made up more than 7 percent of those holding licenses and accounted for nearly 4-percent of all crashes.
• Drivers age 75 or older were involved in about 7,000 crashes out of more than 200,000. (NO data to show how many elderly drivers caused crashes.)
• In the past four years, the percentage of crashes involving elderly drivers has remained consistent at about 3.5 percent of all auto accidents in Massachusetts.
• The percentage of elderly drivers killed in crashes, though slightly higher, remains relatively small, averaging about 38 deaths a year.
• In 2008, nearly 8 percent of the 451 fatal crashes in the state involved a driver age 75 or older.
The US Government Accountability Office says the crash rate for elderly drivers is lower than the rates for younger drivers partly because seniors drive fewer miles per year than younger drivers.
According to the Globe, based on licensed-driver rates: “drivers in the 30- to 59-year-old category are much more likely to kill other motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists than elderly drivers.’’
I agree! I walk about four-miles around Boston every day and run into many young drivers who need similar restrictions.
What about drivers who: DO NOT YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS ON THE CROSSWALK, even when the walk sign is on!
How about those drivers?
-Signal says “Walk” and driver cuts across pedestrians, blocks the crosswalk and strands pedestrians in the middle of the street…by the time driver moves and pedestrians can continue traffic is already speeding towards them from the opposite direction?
-How about those cyclists who insist on biking on the sidewalk, even though the law clearly states that cyclists should bike on the sidewalk only in a business district? Cyclists who suddenly and silently come up from behind and pass to your left or right, without warning…so that if the pedestrian had just stepped to that side, the cyclist would have crashed into that unsuspecting walker?
-Cyclists who think that traffic signs/lights are not for them – that they are pedestrians, so when vehicles are stopped on the red light, they should fly past, even if people and vehicles are coming from the other direction?
-How about those cyclists who challenge pedestrians on the sidewalk and come speeding towards you, forcing pedestrians to jump out of their way? Well, I’m the one who doesn’t move. You go around, if you can! OTHERWISE WE’RE BOTH CRASHING TO THE GROUND!
Am I the only person who sees this...or cares?
Do we wait for the knee-jerk first? Do we wait for a cyclist to crash into a pregnant woman or a baby carriage for there to be a crack down?
Is that how we roll? The accident must happen first, BEFORE WE ADDRESS THE POTENTIAL CAUSE
So who’s making the roads unsafe…elderly drivers?! Bah humbug!
By the time the 4 o’clock news teams hit the airwaves, we’ll be told how another elderly driver has done it again – caused an accident to add to the long list that we seem to be hearing about daily.
Within the space of four weeks, there was a rash of serious, sometimes deadly accidents involving elderly drivers in Massachusetts.
An 89-year-old woman allegedly hit and killed a 4-year-old girl in a crosswalk. An 84-year-old woman died when her 83-year-old husband crashed into another car. One elderly woman died after her 92-year-old husband slammed into her while backing out of a parking spot.
A 73-year-old accidentally drove her minivan into a crowd of people attending a Memorial; eight people were hospitalized. A 93-year-old driver hurt a mother and toddler when he stepped on the gas instead of the brake and drove his car into a Wal-Mart.
And as we are won’t to do – the knee-jerk reaction is: Elderly Drivers must be driven off the roads. The MA legislature is considering several options that could reduce the accident risks of elderly drivers due to poor eyesight or slower reflexes. Elderly drivers would have to submit to more frequent, in-person license renewals, vision tests and driving tests.
The Boston Globe cites the following statistics relating to elderly driers and accidents:
• In 2008, Massachusetts drivers age 75 or older made up more than 7 percent of those holding licenses and accounted for nearly 4-percent of all crashes.
• Drivers age 75 or older were involved in about 7,000 crashes out of more than 200,000. (NO data to show how many elderly drivers caused crashes.)
• In the past four years, the percentage of crashes involving elderly drivers has remained consistent at about 3.5 percent of all auto accidents in Massachusetts.
• The percentage of elderly drivers killed in crashes, though slightly higher, remains relatively small, averaging about 38 deaths a year.
• In 2008, nearly 8 percent of the 451 fatal crashes in the state involved a driver age 75 or older.
The US Government Accountability Office says the crash rate for elderly drivers is lower than the rates for younger drivers partly because seniors drive fewer miles per year than younger drivers.
According to the Globe, based on licensed-driver rates: “drivers in the 30- to 59-year-old category are much more likely to kill other motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists than elderly drivers.’’
I agree! I walk about four-miles around Boston every day and run into many young drivers who need similar restrictions.
What about drivers who: DO NOT YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS ON THE CROSSWALK, even when the walk sign is on!
How about those drivers?
-Signal says “Walk” and driver cuts across pedestrians, blocks the crosswalk and strands pedestrians in the middle of the street…by the time driver moves and pedestrians can continue traffic is already speeding towards them from the opposite direction?
-How about those cyclists who insist on biking on the sidewalk, even though the law clearly states that cyclists should bike on the sidewalk only in a business district? Cyclists who suddenly and silently come up from behind and pass to your left or right, without warning…so that if the pedestrian had just stepped to that side, the cyclist would have crashed into that unsuspecting walker?
-Cyclists who think that traffic signs/lights are not for them – that they are pedestrians, so when vehicles are stopped on the red light, they should fly past, even if people and vehicles are coming from the other direction?
-How about those cyclists who challenge pedestrians on the sidewalk and come speeding towards you, forcing pedestrians to jump out of their way? Well, I’m the one who doesn’t move. You go around, if you can! OTHERWISE WE’RE BOTH CRASHING TO THE GROUND!
Am I the only person who sees this...or cares?
Do we wait for the knee-jerk first? Do we wait for a cyclist to crash into a pregnant woman or a baby carriage for there to be a crack down?
Is that how we roll? The accident must happen first, BEFORE WE ADDRESS THE POTENTIAL CAUSE
So who’s making the roads unsafe…elderly drivers?! Bah humbug!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Cash for Clapboards & Kennedy’s Replacement
Wouldn’t it be nice if the government decided to buy foreclosed homes – invite people to turn in homes they no longer want or can afford - like homes that are not energy efficient? The government could then buy these houses, rehabilitate them and sell them to people who can afford them!
I suggest we call that program: “Cash for Clapboards" (CACLAP).
Its forerunner, “Cash for Clunkers” seems to have:
• Ignited under new car sales.
• Thrilled General Motors (GM) so much, the auto maker decided to lend dealers money to run the program…while those dealers wait for the government to reimburse them!
• Increased vehicle production. GM is adding 60-thousand vehicles in the third and fourth quarters and re-hiring about 1400 laid-off workers.
Under The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS program), owners traded in their gas guzzlers. That made them eligible to get from 35-hundred to 45-hundred-dollars towards buying a newer model that meets or exceeds higher mile-per-gallon standards. Dealers fronted the money and the government reimbursed them.
According to the Associated Press, the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program has: revived business at car dealerships, taken gas-guzzlers off the road and given a badly needed boost to struggling auto factories. By many measures, the government's Cash for Clunkers program has been a success”.
Well then! My "Cash for Clapboards” (CACLAP) program could similarly inject a substantial infusion of cash into the struggling housing market/industry.
Under CACLAP, homeowners could trade in that draughty old colonial for that new, energy-efficient detached with the big yard that you’ve been drooling over! Water saving, energy efficient appliances, solar panels on the roof – just think of it!
Cash for Clunkers ends Monday, August 24, 2009. I say we start “Cash for Clapboards” immediately!
*****
I don’t support changing the Massachusetts Succession Law because a situation has developed that could benefit Democrats.
The Boston Globe says Senator Ted Kennedy (who’s been battling brain cancer since May 2008) has written to Governor Deval Patrick asking the governor and legislative leaders to change the succession law. Kennedy apparently wants to ensure that Massachusetts will have a Senate vote when his seat becomes vacant.
Massachusetts governors used to have the power to fill Senate vacancies.
But in 2004, democratic lawmakers didn't want republican Governor Mitt Romney to fill Kerry’s seat with a Republican if Kerry became president. So Democrats (who also held the majority back then) changed the law and created a five-month vacancy.
Now that little self-serving trick could come back to bite democrats. President Obama and Democrats may face a close vote to pass health care legislation…and if Kennedy is out of the running, that’s one crucial vote short…unless that seat can be filled quickly!
I tend to be pro-Democrat, but that doesn’t mean I support everything they do…or want to do.
Why don’t I support it? Because it was Democrats who changed the law when it didn’t suit them – and if they changed it solely to tie Romney’s hands – what makes them think they can just as opportunistically change it now?
Sometimes just having the required votes and the ability to do something…doesn’t mean you should do it! I like it when people fall into holes that they’ve dug for others!
At one time Rome was the superpower. At one point it was Egypt. The Huns ruled, the Aztecs ruled…and more recently, Europe ruled. Empires come…empires go. Civilizations come and civilizations go!
Learn from this. Politicians come and politicians go. Parties come and parties go!
Whichever party has a majority should understand that this state of affairs will never last! What use is history is we never learn from it?
I suggest we call that program: “Cash for Clapboards" (CACLAP).
Its forerunner, “Cash for Clunkers” seems to have:
• Ignited under new car sales.
• Thrilled General Motors (GM) so much, the auto maker decided to lend dealers money to run the program…while those dealers wait for the government to reimburse them!
• Increased vehicle production. GM is adding 60-thousand vehicles in the third and fourth quarters and re-hiring about 1400 laid-off workers.
Under The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS program), owners traded in their gas guzzlers. That made them eligible to get from 35-hundred to 45-hundred-dollars towards buying a newer model that meets or exceeds higher mile-per-gallon standards. Dealers fronted the money and the government reimbursed them.
According to the Associated Press, the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program has: revived business at car dealerships, taken gas-guzzlers off the road and given a badly needed boost to struggling auto factories. By many measures, the government's Cash for Clunkers program has been a success”.
Well then! My "Cash for Clapboards” (CACLAP) program could similarly inject a substantial infusion of cash into the struggling housing market/industry.
Under CACLAP, homeowners could trade in that draughty old colonial for that new, energy-efficient detached with the big yard that you’ve been drooling over! Water saving, energy efficient appliances, solar panels on the roof – just think of it!
Cash for Clunkers ends Monday, August 24, 2009. I say we start “Cash for Clapboards” immediately!
*****
I don’t support changing the Massachusetts Succession Law because a situation has developed that could benefit Democrats.
The Boston Globe says Senator Ted Kennedy (who’s been battling brain cancer since May 2008) has written to Governor Deval Patrick asking the governor and legislative leaders to change the succession law. Kennedy apparently wants to ensure that Massachusetts will have a Senate vote when his seat becomes vacant.
Massachusetts governors used to have the power to fill Senate vacancies.
But in 2004, democratic lawmakers didn't want republican Governor Mitt Romney to fill Kerry’s seat with a Republican if Kerry became president. So Democrats (who also held the majority back then) changed the law and created a five-month vacancy.
Now that little self-serving trick could come back to bite democrats. President Obama and Democrats may face a close vote to pass health care legislation…and if Kennedy is out of the running, that’s one crucial vote short…unless that seat can be filled quickly!
I tend to be pro-Democrat, but that doesn’t mean I support everything they do…or want to do.
Why don’t I support it? Because it was Democrats who changed the law when it didn’t suit them – and if they changed it solely to tie Romney’s hands – what makes them think they can just as opportunistically change it now?
Sometimes just having the required votes and the ability to do something…doesn’t mean you should do it! I like it when people fall into holes that they’ve dug for others!
At one time Rome was the superpower. At one point it was Egypt. The Huns ruled, the Aztecs ruled…and more recently, Europe ruled. Empires come…empires go. Civilizations come and civilizations go!
Learn from this. Politicians come and politicians go. Parties come and parties go!
Whichever party has a majority should understand that this state of affairs will never last! What use is history is we never learn from it?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Animals, Plants smarter on Global Warming
If we’d lived between about 1100 and 750 million years ago, we’d have been able to walk to practically anywhere on the huge supercontinent called Rodina: Russian for “motherland.”
Scientists say when Rodina broke up, around 700 million years ago, the climate cooled dramatically. After Rodina came Pangaea, the last supercontinent, some 300 million years ago. Pangaea broke apart during the dinosaur age, in the Triassic and Jurassic periods.
Since these two supercontinents, the earth has gone through various heating and cooling periods, and we’re apparently heading into a warming cycle. Whether humans are causing or accelerating the cycle, it is happening, and I can’t help but feel that governments worldwide are not taking this seriously enough.
We humans keep acting as though we own the paltry little plot of land that our house sits on because of something called a “deed”! Nature does not recognize deeds. The sea, the desert, the ice caps – they go where they will!
Even the mighty Dutch who’ve tamed the sea for generations are now realizing that it’s best to let nature take its course – so the government is acquiring tracts of land that it will allow to “flood” to ease pressure on its famous dykes.
According to The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global sea levels rose about 3-millimeters each year, from 1993 to 2003. Yet people are continuing to build along coastlines…and demanding that the government and taxpayers prop up their buildings with sand and help from US Army Corps of Engineers.
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development put 10 cities at the highest risk from flooding due to rising sea levels. Among them: New York City and New Orleans. I’m not surprised…scientists say Manhattan was once under a sheet of ice taller than the Empire State building.
Scientists point to the following signs to show that Global Warming is happening:
• Spreading Disease
• Heat Waves
• Melting Glaciers
• Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding
• Spring Comes Earlier
• Coral Reefs are Bleaching
• Downfalls, Heavy Downfalls and Floods
• Droughts and Fires
• Plant and Animal Range Shifts
So what are we doing to deal with Global Warming? We can always colonize space!
Meantime, the animals and plants are planning and evolving.
In Scotland, a species of sheep is getting smaller. According to a Newsweek article (Why Are Scotland’s Sheep Shrinking? July 20, 2009) Wild Soay sheep on St. Kilda archipelago, off Scotland’s west coast, have been getting smaller – by about 5-percent in the last 25 years.
Seems the sheep used to fatten up to survive the area’s harsh winters but as the weather warms up and winters get shorter and milder, there’s more food to go around so smaller, scrawnier, less fit sheep are surviving. These sheep in turn have offspring that tend to be smaller.
According to the Newsweek article, mosquitoes along the mid-Atlantic/Canada seaboard are also adapting to changing weather patterns. Mosquitoes in Maine normally start hibernating in late August, but now with winter arriving later, mosquitoes are hibernating about a week later!
Even California’s Field Mustard Weed seems to be preparing for climate change.
According to the Newsweek article, the plant’s reproductive cycle has sped up. It's adapting to recent droughts in California by flowering earlier. Smart plant!
Scientists say nearly half of the Earth’s species are adjusting to Climate Change. Birds, insects and plants are changing their habitat and moving north towards the poles…or up mountains.
We should listen. Officials say animals did not die in the tsunami disaster in Asia (December 26, 2004).
Scientists say when Rodina broke up, around 700 million years ago, the climate cooled dramatically. After Rodina came Pangaea, the last supercontinent, some 300 million years ago. Pangaea broke apart during the dinosaur age, in the Triassic and Jurassic periods.
Since these two supercontinents, the earth has gone through various heating and cooling periods, and we’re apparently heading into a warming cycle. Whether humans are causing or accelerating the cycle, it is happening, and I can’t help but feel that governments worldwide are not taking this seriously enough.
We humans keep acting as though we own the paltry little plot of land that our house sits on because of something called a “deed”! Nature does not recognize deeds. The sea, the desert, the ice caps – they go where they will!
Even the mighty Dutch who’ve tamed the sea for generations are now realizing that it’s best to let nature take its course – so the government is acquiring tracts of land that it will allow to “flood” to ease pressure on its famous dykes.
According to The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global sea levels rose about 3-millimeters each year, from 1993 to 2003. Yet people are continuing to build along coastlines…and demanding that the government and taxpayers prop up their buildings with sand and help from US Army Corps of Engineers.
The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development put 10 cities at the highest risk from flooding due to rising sea levels. Among them: New York City and New Orleans. I’m not surprised…scientists say Manhattan was once under a sheet of ice taller than the Empire State building.
Scientists point to the following signs to show that Global Warming is happening:
• Spreading Disease
• Heat Waves
• Melting Glaciers
• Sea Level Rise and Coastal Flooding
• Spring Comes Earlier
• Coral Reefs are Bleaching
• Downfalls, Heavy Downfalls and Floods
• Droughts and Fires
• Plant and Animal Range Shifts
So what are we doing to deal with Global Warming? We can always colonize space!
Meantime, the animals and plants are planning and evolving.
In Scotland, a species of sheep is getting smaller. According to a Newsweek article (Why Are Scotland’s Sheep Shrinking? July 20, 2009) Wild Soay sheep on St. Kilda archipelago, off Scotland’s west coast, have been getting smaller – by about 5-percent in the last 25 years.
Seems the sheep used to fatten up to survive the area’s harsh winters but as the weather warms up and winters get shorter and milder, there’s more food to go around so smaller, scrawnier, less fit sheep are surviving. These sheep in turn have offspring that tend to be smaller.
According to the Newsweek article, mosquitoes along the mid-Atlantic/Canada seaboard are also adapting to changing weather patterns. Mosquitoes in Maine normally start hibernating in late August, but now with winter arriving later, mosquitoes are hibernating about a week later!
Even California’s Field Mustard Weed seems to be preparing for climate change.
According to the Newsweek article, the plant’s reproductive cycle has sped up. It's adapting to recent droughts in California by flowering earlier. Smart plant!
Scientists say nearly half of the Earth’s species are adjusting to Climate Change. Birds, insects and plants are changing their habitat and moving north towards the poles…or up mountains.
We should listen. Officials say animals did not die in the tsunami disaster in Asia (December 26, 2004).
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Culture Clash: Red Sox vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka
I did not jump on the Daisuke Matsuzaka bandwagon...
I like Daisuke. I even like his name. I think he’s having a hard time settling here and that if/when he does settle, he can/will do well.
However, I never understood (I get the rules and technicalities) why the Sox or any team would shell out 51-million US dollars (6-billion Yen) just to TALK to a player unless he was a religious icon like Jesus...or a powerful wizard like Dumbledore in Harry Potter. That’s like what, 100K per word! In my mind, you’d have to be able to catch a popup in your mouth to get that kind of attention, but what do I know!
Why do MLB teams look to other countries for players, while little leagues in the U.S. are struggling for money? (Kudos to the Dominican Republic for its high-quality players...and, er...energy drinks!)
When you compare today to the era of the Negro Leagues, the state of baseball among black youth in America is so deplorable it's practically dead! I’d like to see a modern day version of the “Negro League” as a farm system to develop black players.
I’m not saying that teams are wrong to go outside looking for players. Go get them wherever you can or want to: The Middle East, the North Pole or Zimbabwe!
What I’m saying is: I think MLB is neglecting to invest enough in Little Leagues. (Though teams will come up with figures to show they are!) Then a team like the Red Sox spends 100 million (including a 2-million-dollar signing bonus) to acquire a Matsuzaka and to my mind, doesn’t get the necessary returns.
The week of July 30, the normally unflappable Red Sox manager Terry Francona appeared a little testy with Matsuzaka. The Japanese pitcher has not been delivering, after overworking his shoulder in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, March 5-23. (Matsuzaka bagged the MVP, and led Team Japan to its second (2006) gold medal)
The frustrated Red Sox put Matsuzaka on a 60-Day Disabled List. He's not eligible to pitch again until today, August 18. An equally frustrated Matsuzaka bitched about his training to a Japanese reporter: “If I’m forced to continue to train in this environment, I may no longer be able to pitch like I did in Japan.”
Matsuzaka apparently blames his pitching shortfalls on the Sox training program. He wants the club to account for the needs of Japanese pitchers, who use a practice called: nagekomi, or marathon throwing sessions.
Matsuzaka believes that such between-starts work increases arm strength and helps his pitches. Sox, on the other hand, don’t care for marathon throwing sessions and choose to emphasize more weights in their shoulder and training programs.
The Japanese apparently believe that people of different ethnic, racial, and/or national origin have physiological traits that require distinct training programs. So when he follows the same routines as his American-born teammates, doesn’t get the same results.
If the Sox didn’t know that, just what exactly did they talk about during that 50-million-dollar conversation back in Japan?
And how on earth do you expect me to understand – for free?
I like Daisuke. I even like his name. I think he’s having a hard time settling here and that if/when he does settle, he can/will do well.
However, I never understood (I get the rules and technicalities) why the Sox or any team would shell out 51-million US dollars (6-billion Yen) just to TALK to a player unless he was a religious icon like Jesus...or a powerful wizard like Dumbledore in Harry Potter. That’s like what, 100K per word! In my mind, you’d have to be able to catch a popup in your mouth to get that kind of attention, but what do I know!
Why do MLB teams look to other countries for players, while little leagues in the U.S. are struggling for money? (Kudos to the Dominican Republic for its high-quality players...and, er...energy drinks!)
When you compare today to the era of the Negro Leagues, the state of baseball among black youth in America is so deplorable it's practically dead! I’d like to see a modern day version of the “Negro League” as a farm system to develop black players.
I’m not saying that teams are wrong to go outside looking for players. Go get them wherever you can or want to: The Middle East, the North Pole or Zimbabwe!
What I’m saying is: I think MLB is neglecting to invest enough in Little Leagues. (Though teams will come up with figures to show they are!) Then a team like the Red Sox spends 100 million (including a 2-million-dollar signing bonus) to acquire a Matsuzaka and to my mind, doesn’t get the necessary returns.
The week of July 30, the normally unflappable Red Sox manager Terry Francona appeared a little testy with Matsuzaka. The Japanese pitcher has not been delivering, after overworking his shoulder in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, March 5-23. (Matsuzaka bagged the MVP, and led Team Japan to its second (2006) gold medal)
The frustrated Red Sox put Matsuzaka on a 60-Day Disabled List. He's not eligible to pitch again until today, August 18. An equally frustrated Matsuzaka bitched about his training to a Japanese reporter: “If I’m forced to continue to train in this environment, I may no longer be able to pitch like I did in Japan.”
Matsuzaka apparently blames his pitching shortfalls on the Sox training program. He wants the club to account for the needs of Japanese pitchers, who use a practice called: nagekomi, or marathon throwing sessions.
Matsuzaka believes that such between-starts work increases arm strength and helps his pitches. Sox, on the other hand, don’t care for marathon throwing sessions and choose to emphasize more weights in their shoulder and training programs.
The Japanese apparently believe that people of different ethnic, racial, and/or national origin have physiological traits that require distinct training programs. So when he follows the same routines as his American-born teammates, doesn’t get the same results.
If the Sox didn’t know that, just what exactly did they talk about during that 50-million-dollar conversation back in Japan?
And how on earth do you expect me to understand – for free?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Health Care Quiz
It is midnight on a chilly morning in an isolated parking lot. A medical team from the organization: Remote Area Medical is laying out equipment as they prepare for a free clinic. The American relief organization is used to airdropping doctors and medicine into the jungles of the Amazon.
The doctors open the gates at midnight. The clinic won’t open for another 7 hours, but people are already streaming in. Some have driven for 200 miles, just to get here. They will sleep in their vehicles as best they can – comfort is not a priority – they just want to be at the head of the line. They don’t want to be turned away, but many will.
276 volunteers from 11 states are waiting. They will tell many patients, young and old: that lump, pain or foot problem is cancer, or diabetes or heart disease. The medical team will also try to find volunteer doctors who will follow up with these patients. Otherwise, these people stay without medical attention when they return home.
One guy waiting out in the parking lot drove 200 miles to get there. He has an infected tooth that had been killing him for weeks. He had two heart attacks and heart surgery a few years back, but almost no follow up since. He can’t afford it. He has employer-based insurance through but can’t afford the deductible $500.
He brought his wife and daughter for basic care like checkups, glasses and mammograms.
The doctors saw a woman who had surgery for cervical cancer in 2005, with no follow up in two years. She was supposed to have a Pap Smear every six months. RAM doctors suspect the cancer may still be there.
One elderly woman’s glasses didn’t work anymore. She’s retired, living on disability with no insurance and arrived only to find the Vision Care Line had already closed. A RAM staffer noticed her condition and put her in the line. She was examined her for a new pair of glasses.
Others were not so lucky!
My question to you is: NAME THE COUNTRY where Remote Area Medical was seeing all these sick people, with no health care:
(a) Arica
(e) Ecuador
(p) Philippines
(u) United States of America
Answer: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
RAM saw 920 patients, made 500 pairs of glasses, did 94 mammograms, extracted 1,066 teeth and did 567 fillings. 400 people were turned away.
The above information comes from a “60 Minutes” segment originally broadcast on CBS on March 2008 and updated some months later.
It started like this: “Some 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and that's just the start: millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care”.
We should all ask ourselves the question “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley asked Stan Brock, the man behind RAM:
“You created this medical organization designed to go into Third World countries to go into remote places, and now doing 60-percent of your work in urban and rural America…what are we supposed to make of that?"
That’s what the HEALTH CARE DEBATE should be about: Health Care, not politics.
But then again, the agitators railing about "Socialized Medicine" were not sitting in their truck in a Tennessee parking lot at 2 AM in 27-degree weather, running the engine to keep warm. They should have come to see what "Capitalist Health Care" looks like!
These agitators didn’t drive from Georgia to Knoxville or wait for hours only to be turned away, because If they had been, there’d be no health care debate! There’d just BE Health Care!
My advice to people who don't have Health care or find themselves in a situation where they need Health Care but don't have coverage: call Orin Hatch or Blue Dog Democrat Mike Ross (D-Ark). Ash to be put on their plan!
Read full "60 Minutes" story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/28/60minutes/main3889496.shtml
The doctors open the gates at midnight. The clinic won’t open for another 7 hours, but people are already streaming in. Some have driven for 200 miles, just to get here. They will sleep in their vehicles as best they can – comfort is not a priority – they just want to be at the head of the line. They don’t want to be turned away, but many will.
276 volunteers from 11 states are waiting. They will tell many patients, young and old: that lump, pain or foot problem is cancer, or diabetes or heart disease. The medical team will also try to find volunteer doctors who will follow up with these patients. Otherwise, these people stay without medical attention when they return home.
One guy waiting out in the parking lot drove 200 miles to get there. He has an infected tooth that had been killing him for weeks. He had two heart attacks and heart surgery a few years back, but almost no follow up since. He can’t afford it. He has employer-based insurance through but can’t afford the deductible $500.
He brought his wife and daughter for basic care like checkups, glasses and mammograms.
The doctors saw a woman who had surgery for cervical cancer in 2005, with no follow up in two years. She was supposed to have a Pap Smear every six months. RAM doctors suspect the cancer may still be there.
One elderly woman’s glasses didn’t work anymore. She’s retired, living on disability with no insurance and arrived only to find the Vision Care Line had already closed. A RAM staffer noticed her condition and put her in the line. She was examined her for a new pair of glasses.
Others were not so lucky!
My question to you is: NAME THE COUNTRY where Remote Area Medical was seeing all these sick people, with no health care:
(a) Arica
(e) Ecuador
(p) Philippines
(u) United States of America
Answer: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA.
RAM saw 920 patients, made 500 pairs of glasses, did 94 mammograms, extracted 1,066 teeth and did 567 fillings. 400 people were turned away.
The above information comes from a “60 Minutes” segment originally broadcast on CBS on March 2008 and updated some months later.
It started like this: “Some 47 million Americans have no health insurance, and that's just the start: millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care”.
We should all ask ourselves the question “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley asked Stan Brock, the man behind RAM:
“You created this medical organization designed to go into Third World countries to go into remote places, and now doing 60-percent of your work in urban and rural America…what are we supposed to make of that?"
That’s what the HEALTH CARE DEBATE should be about: Health Care, not politics.
But then again, the agitators railing about "Socialized Medicine" were not sitting in their truck in a Tennessee parking lot at 2 AM in 27-degree weather, running the engine to keep warm. They should have come to see what "Capitalist Health Care" looks like!
These agitators didn’t drive from Georgia to Knoxville or wait for hours only to be turned away, because If they had been, there’d be no health care debate! There’d just BE Health Care!
My advice to people who don't have Health care or find themselves in a situation where they need Health Care but don't have coverage: call Orin Hatch or Blue Dog Democrat Mike Ross (D-Ark). Ash to be put on their plan!
Read full "60 Minutes" story: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/28/60minutes/main3889496.shtml
Friday, August 14, 2009
Hypocritical Michael Vick reactions
Football player Michael Vick is being vilified as the lowest of the low, the baddest of the bad, and what – the blackest of the black?
Michael Vick was involved in dog fighting. Michael Vick did not knowingly use sub-standard materials in construction projects that would later fail and kill people. Michael Vick did not spitefully publicize the name of a CIA spy because her husband pointed out flaws in the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” shell game.
Cock Fighting, Dog Fighting, and Bull Fighting: Different societies view them differently. The Romans took it a step further, and had humans face lions!
Should Vick have been involved in dog fighting? No, he should have been smarter than that. Do I condone cruelty to animals? No. And I don’t condone cruelty to humans, either!
Michael Vick did not tie a live person from another race behind his truck and drag him until his skin came off! There were people who defended that crime, hid the facts and protected the instigators for decades.
Now we are so outraged that Michael Vick killed dogs, one man thinks: it’s horrible, a disgrace that shows a complete lack of character by the Philadelphia Eagles organization.
Give me a friggin’ break!
Which NFL? The same one that for years has coddled, protected and hired spouse beaters, drunk drivers and rapists, to name a few? There’s no moral plateau inside the NFL! Now they have a dog killer to add to their people killers.
Some NFL players/ex-players charged with murder:
• Hubert D. Thompson - New Orleans Saints: First-degree murder
• Barret Robbins - Oakland Raiders: Attempted murder, 2005
• Jim Dunaway - Buffalo Bills/Miami Dolphins: Reduced to wrongful death
• Tommy Kane - Seattle Seahawks: Manslaughter
• Ray Lewis - Baltimore Ravens: Indicted for murder and aggravated assault; reduced to obstruction of justice.
• Rae Carruth - Carolina Panthers: Conspiracy to commit murder, firing into an occupied vehicle, using an instrument to destroy an unborn child, (1999)
According to a Sports Illustrated story (2000), Lewis and Carruth were charged within months of each other.
Back then, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in his state of the NFL address: "Can we separate ourselves from society? Of course not…we can't predict what NFL players will do any more than we can predict students shooting other students or workers shooting fellow workers."
Now get this:
VICK SERVED 18 MONTHS at the medium-security federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, for his involvement in an illegal dog-fighting ring. He also agreed to pay nearly $1 million for the care of about 54 pit bulls found on his property during the dog fighting raid. The money was earmarked for the long-term care and/or the humane euthanasia of some or all of those animals.
Meantime:
A member of a Saudi royal family, Prince Bader Al Saud, was sentenced to one year in jail for killing a Hispanic landscaper in a drunken-driving accident in Boston, MA. (2002)
Prosecutors claimed Al Saud, who did not have a Massachusetts driver’s license, had a blood alcohol level of point-12 and was speeding when he hit the man.
(In Massachusetts, the legal limit for alcohol is point-08 Blood Alcohol Content for those over 21 and point-02 for those under 21 (zero tolerance). Al Saud was 20-years-old at the time.
Al Saud pleaded guilty in 2005 to a reduced charge of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and one count of operating without a license. He served a one-year sentence at the cozy Dukes County House of Correction (Martha's Vineyard) with another year of jail time suspended.
Under a June 2006 settlement reached in a wrongful death suit, the victim's only child was awarded 325-thousand-dollars from Al Saud and 20-thousand from the dealership where the prince leased his BMW.
Seems Vick would have been better off if he’d run over a person!
Michael Vick was involved in dog fighting. Michael Vick did not knowingly use sub-standard materials in construction projects that would later fail and kill people. Michael Vick did not spitefully publicize the name of a CIA spy because her husband pointed out flaws in the “Weapons of Mass Destruction” shell game.
Cock Fighting, Dog Fighting, and Bull Fighting: Different societies view them differently. The Romans took it a step further, and had humans face lions!
Should Vick have been involved in dog fighting? No, he should have been smarter than that. Do I condone cruelty to animals? No. And I don’t condone cruelty to humans, either!
Michael Vick did not tie a live person from another race behind his truck and drag him until his skin came off! There were people who defended that crime, hid the facts and protected the instigators for decades.
Now we are so outraged that Michael Vick killed dogs, one man thinks: it’s horrible, a disgrace that shows a complete lack of character by the Philadelphia Eagles organization.
Give me a friggin’ break!
Which NFL? The same one that for years has coddled, protected and hired spouse beaters, drunk drivers and rapists, to name a few? There’s no moral plateau inside the NFL! Now they have a dog killer to add to their people killers.
Some NFL players/ex-players charged with murder:
• Hubert D. Thompson - New Orleans Saints: First-degree murder
• Barret Robbins - Oakland Raiders: Attempted murder, 2005
• Jim Dunaway - Buffalo Bills/Miami Dolphins: Reduced to wrongful death
• Tommy Kane - Seattle Seahawks: Manslaughter
• Ray Lewis - Baltimore Ravens: Indicted for murder and aggravated assault; reduced to obstruction of justice.
• Rae Carruth - Carolina Panthers: Conspiracy to commit murder, firing into an occupied vehicle, using an instrument to destroy an unborn child, (1999)
According to a Sports Illustrated story (2000), Lewis and Carruth were charged within months of each other.
Back then, NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in his state of the NFL address: "Can we separate ourselves from society? Of course not…we can't predict what NFL players will do any more than we can predict students shooting other students or workers shooting fellow workers."
Now get this:
VICK SERVED 18 MONTHS at the medium-security federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, for his involvement in an illegal dog-fighting ring. He also agreed to pay nearly $1 million for the care of about 54 pit bulls found on his property during the dog fighting raid. The money was earmarked for the long-term care and/or the humane euthanasia of some or all of those animals.
Meantime:
A member of a Saudi royal family, Prince Bader Al Saud, was sentenced to one year in jail for killing a Hispanic landscaper in a drunken-driving accident in Boston, MA. (2002)
Prosecutors claimed Al Saud, who did not have a Massachusetts driver’s license, had a blood alcohol level of point-12 and was speeding when he hit the man.
(In Massachusetts, the legal limit for alcohol is point-08 Blood Alcohol Content for those over 21 and point-02 for those under 21 (zero tolerance). Al Saud was 20-years-old at the time.
Al Saud pleaded guilty in 2005 to a reduced charge of misdemeanor motor vehicle homicide while under the influence of intoxicating liquor and one count of operating without a license. He served a one-year sentence at the cozy Dukes County House of Correction (Martha's Vineyard) with another year of jail time suspended.
Under a June 2006 settlement reached in a wrongful death suit, the victim's only child was awarded 325-thousand-dollars from Al Saud and 20-thousand from the dealership where the prince leased his BMW.
Seems Vick would have been better off if he’d run over a person!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
H.R. 3200.IH
Here is the link for: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (Introduced in House) [H.R.3200.IH] Health Care Reform Bill
Or: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw06/sl060058.htm
Check it out, yourself, the Bill that’s causing some people in some quarters to get so enraged, one man came to the Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire with a gun!
Why are they angry? Little or nothing to do with Health Care! Obama could have said: I'm going to ensure that every bridge in America is safe, and they'd be out there screaming...
CBS quotes a woman who says: "We didn't stand up when they took prayer out of school and replaced it with drugs, we didn't stand up and we got legalized abortion and they're killing babies, and if we don't stand up now, God help us"
Another one says: "I don't want this country to become Russia, to become socialist."
Yep!
Here's one of the sections that some groups are using to stir up their "believers of the same ilk":
`SEC. 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.
`(a) Tax Imposed- In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of--
`(1) the taxpayer's modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over
`(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.
`(b) Limitations-
`(1) TAX LIMITED TO AVERAGE PREMIUM-
`(A) IN GENERAL- The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed the applicable national average premium for such taxable year.
`(B) APPLICABLE NATIONAL AVERAGE PREMIUM-
`(i) IN GENERAL- For purposes of subparagraph (A), the `applicable national average premium' means, with respect to any taxable year, the average premium (as determined by the Secretary, in coordination with the Health Choices Commissioner) for self-only coverage under a basic plan which is offered in a Health Insurance Exchange for the calendar year in which such taxable year begins.
`(ii) FAILURE TO PROVIDE COVERAGE FOR MORE THAN ONE INDIVIDUAL- In the case of any taxpayer who fails to meet the requirements of subsection (e) with respect to more than one individual during the taxable year, clause (i) shall be applied by substituting `family coverage' for `self-only coverage'.
`(2) PRORATION FOR PART YEAR FAILURES- The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed the amount which bears the same ratio to the amount of tax so imposed (determined without regard to this paragraph and after application of paragraph (1)) as--
`(A) the aggregate periods during such taxable year for which such individual failed to meet the requirements of subsection (d), bears to
`(B) the entire taxable year.
`(c) Exceptions-
`(1) DEPENDENTS- Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual for any taxable year if a deduction is allowable under section 151 with respect to such individual to another taxpayer for any taxable year beginning in the same calendar year as such taxable year.
`(2) NONRESIDENT ALIENS- Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual who is a nonresident alien.
`(3) INDIVIDUALS RESIDING OUTSIDE UNITED STATES- Any qualified individual (as defined in section 911(d)) (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) shall be treated for purposes of this section as covered by acceptable coverage during the period described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 911(d)(1), whichever is applicable.
`(4) INDIVIDUALS RESIDING IN POSSESSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES- Any individual who is a bona fide resident of any possession of the United States (as determined under section 937(a)) for any taxable year (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) shall be treated for purposes of this section as covered by acceptable coverage during such taxable year.
`(5) RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE EXEMPTION-
`(A) IN GENERAL- Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) for any period if such individual has in effect an exemption which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section.
`(B) EXEMPTION- An application for the exemption described in subparagraph (A) shall be filed with the Secretary at such time and in such form and manner as the Secretary may prescribe. Any such exemption granted by the Secretary shall be effective for such period as the Secretary determines appropriate.
They are loudly proclaiming that Obama's plan will penalize people who don’t sign up. I ask them: Where were you when Republican Governor Mitt Romney signed the MA plan? You were not screaming then, were you?
Here is the section oulining the Tax Penalties for MA residents who don't sign up by a certain deadline:
CHAPTER 111M.
INDIVIDUAL HEALTH COVERAGE
Section 2. (b) Every person who files an individual return as a resident of the commonwealth, either separately or jointly with a spouse, shall indicate on the return, in a manner prescribed by the commissioner of revenue, whether such person, as of the last day of the taxable year for which the return is filed, (i) had creditable coverage in force as required under paragraph (a) whether covered as an individual or as a named beneficiary of a policy covering multiple individuals, (ii) claims an exemption under section 3, or (iii) had a certificate issued under section 3 of chapter 176Q. If the person does not so indicate, or indicates that he did not have such coverage in force, then the tax shall be computed on the return without benefit of the personal exemption set forth in paragraph (b) of Part B of section 3 of chapter 62, or, in the case of a person who files jointly with a spouse, without benefit of one-half of the personal exemption set forth in such paragraph. If the person indicates that he had such coverage in force but the commissioner determines, based on the information available to him, that such requirement of paragraph (a) was not met, then the commissioner shall compute the tax for the taxable year without benefit of the personal exemption set forth in paragraph (b) of Part B of section 3 of chapter 62, or, in the case of a person who files jointly with a spouse, without benefit of one-half of the personal exemption set forth in such paragraph, first giving notice to such person of his intent to do so and an opportunity for a hearing, under rules prescribed by the commissioner. The commonwealth shall have all enforcement and collection procedures available under chapter 62C to collect any penalties assessed under this section.
I live in Massachusetts and I had to sign up – or else! I’m not screaming at Romney! None of us are!
It is OK to protest. It is wonderful to acquaint yourself with the facts, then take a stand.
I guess these days: Anybody who makes up their mind before hearing the facts is very normal and well adjusted!
And anybody who insists on believing nonsense, even after the facts prove otherwise, is deemed a highly intelligent person! !
Go on, join Mensa! They'll be thrilled to have YOU!
Or: http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/seslaw06/sl060058.htm
Check it out, yourself, the Bill that’s causing some people in some quarters to get so enraged, one man came to the Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire with a gun!
Why are they angry? Little or nothing to do with Health Care! Obama could have said: I'm going to ensure that every bridge in America is safe, and they'd be out there screaming...
CBS quotes a woman who says: "We didn't stand up when they took prayer out of school and replaced it with drugs, we didn't stand up and we got legalized abortion and they're killing babies, and if we don't stand up now, God help us"
Another one says: "I don't want this country to become Russia, to become socialist."
Yep!
Here's one of the sections that some groups are using to stir up their "believers of the same ilk":
`SEC. 59B. TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE.
`(a) Tax Imposed- In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of--
`(1) the taxpayer's modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over
`(2) the amount of gross income specified in section 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.
`(b) Limitations-
`(1) TAX LIMITED TO AVERAGE PREMIUM-
`(A) IN GENERAL- The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed the applicable national average premium for such taxable year.
`(B) APPLICABLE NATIONAL AVERAGE PREMIUM-
`(i) IN GENERAL- For purposes of subparagraph (A), the `applicable national average premium' means, with respect to any taxable year, the average premium (as determined by the Secretary, in coordination with the Health Choices Commissioner) for self-only coverage under a basic plan which is offered in a Health Insurance Exchange for the calendar year in which such taxable year begins.
`(ii) FAILURE TO PROVIDE COVERAGE FOR MORE THAN ONE INDIVIDUAL- In the case of any taxpayer who fails to meet the requirements of subsection (e) with respect to more than one individual during the taxable year, clause (i) shall be applied by substituting `family coverage' for `self-only coverage'.
`(2) PRORATION FOR PART YEAR FAILURES- The tax imposed under subsection (a) with respect to any taxpayer for any taxable year shall not exceed the amount which bears the same ratio to the amount of tax so imposed (determined without regard to this paragraph and after application of paragraph (1)) as--
`(A) the aggregate periods during such taxable year for which such individual failed to meet the requirements of subsection (d), bears to
`(B) the entire taxable year.
`(c) Exceptions-
`(1) DEPENDENTS- Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual for any taxable year if a deduction is allowable under section 151 with respect to such individual to another taxpayer for any taxable year beginning in the same calendar year as such taxable year.
`(2) NONRESIDENT ALIENS- Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual who is a nonresident alien.
`(3) INDIVIDUALS RESIDING OUTSIDE UNITED STATES- Any qualified individual (as defined in section 911(d)) (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) shall be treated for purposes of this section as covered by acceptable coverage during the period described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 911(d)(1), whichever is applicable.
`(4) INDIVIDUALS RESIDING IN POSSESSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES- Any individual who is a bona fide resident of any possession of the United States (as determined under section 937(a)) for any taxable year (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) shall be treated for purposes of this section as covered by acceptable coverage during such taxable year.
`(5) RELIGIOUS CONSCIENCE EXEMPTION-
`(A) IN GENERAL- Subsection (a) shall not apply to any individual (and any qualifying child residing with such individual) for any period if such individual has in effect an exemption which certifies that such individual is a member of a recognized religious sect or division thereof described in section 1402(g)(1) and an adherent of established tenets or teachings of such sect or division as described in such section.
`(B) EXEMPTION- An application for the exemption described in subparagraph (A) shall be filed with the Secretary at such time and in such form and manner as the Secretary may prescribe. Any such exemption granted by the Secretary shall be effective for such period as the Secretary determines appropriate.
They are loudly proclaiming that Obama's plan will penalize people who don’t sign up. I ask them: Where were you when Republican Governor Mitt Romney signed the MA plan? You were not screaming then, were you?
Here is the section oulining the Tax Penalties for MA residents who don't sign up by a certain deadline:
CHAPTER 111M.
INDIVIDUAL HEALTH COVERAGE
Section 2. (b) Every person who files an individual return as a resident of the commonwealth, either separately or jointly with a spouse, shall indicate on the return, in a manner prescribed by the commissioner of revenue, whether such person, as of the last day of the taxable year for which the return is filed, (i) had creditable coverage in force as required under paragraph (a) whether covered as an individual or as a named beneficiary of a policy covering multiple individuals, (ii) claims an exemption under section 3, or (iii) had a certificate issued under section 3 of chapter 176Q. If the person does not so indicate, or indicates that he did not have such coverage in force, then the tax shall be computed on the return without benefit of the personal exemption set forth in paragraph (b) of Part B of section 3 of chapter 62, or, in the case of a person who files jointly with a spouse, without benefit of one-half of the personal exemption set forth in such paragraph. If the person indicates that he had such coverage in force but the commissioner determines, based on the information available to him, that such requirement of paragraph (a) was not met, then the commissioner shall compute the tax for the taxable year without benefit of the personal exemption set forth in paragraph (b) of Part B of section 3 of chapter 62, or, in the case of a person who files jointly with a spouse, without benefit of one-half of the personal exemption set forth in such paragraph, first giving notice to such person of his intent to do so and an opportunity for a hearing, under rules prescribed by the commissioner. The commonwealth shall have all enforcement and collection procedures available under chapter 62C to collect any penalties assessed under this section.
I live in Massachusetts and I had to sign up – or else! I’m not screaming at Romney! None of us are!
It is OK to protest. It is wonderful to acquaint yourself with the facts, then take a stand.
I guess these days: Anybody who makes up their mind before hearing the facts is very normal and well adjusted!
And anybody who insists on believing nonsense, even after the facts prove otherwise, is deemed a highly intelligent person! !
Go on, join Mensa! They'll be thrilled to have YOU!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Hilary Rodham, er...Clinton - is my girl!
Anyone who feels brave enough to ask Secretary of state Hilary Rodham Clinton a question about her attractive, sexy husband -- former president Bill Clinton, (unless it’s “How is Bill?” and maybe not even THAT!) should please join the military. Uncle Sam definitely needs brave men and women like you!
Who didn't see how she snapped at that male student in The Democratic Republic of Congo, who (reportedly meant to ask her what Obama though of something, but instead) asked her what Bill thinks of it? Oh boy – I was here, in front of my TV two continents away, and I was scared. You better believe no one in the Congo will want to mess with America, now!
Oh Yes, it’s gonna be a long time before somebody, anybody, asks Madam Secretary of State:
• What her husband is doing?
Or:
• What her husband is saying?
I love it!!! That wasn’t Mrs. Clinton talking...that was Hillary Rodham talking! Mee-wow!
So what exactly was Hillary doing in the Congo? In typical American fashion, most people don’t know!
Whom did she meet with? Where did she visit?
We don’t know, do we? The media showed us over and over that clip of Hillary testily answering the question. We know that! The Huffington Post ran a very enlightening article about Clinton’s visit, including her interview with local station Radio Okapi*. They spoke about Human Rights, Chinese investments and the ongoing corruption in Congo leader Joseph Kabila’s government.
I especially like this passage from Hillary:
President Obama would like to forge a new chapter in the relationship between the Congolese people and the American people, that I'm here to explore ways that we could work together, but that we believe strongly there must be an end to impunity, an end to corruption, more transparency and accountability; that the mineral and other natural resource riches of this country should be used for the benefit of the Congolese people, not for a very small group that have historically benefitted, not just for outside corporations or countries that extract the riches and leave with them without really putting back the commensurate investment in the country. And we think there are a lot of areas where we could be helpful, and we're going to explore whether that's possible.
Did we hear about that, of course not! THAT'S not important!!
Get details from the Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton in Congo: Tempers, Human Rights, and Media Cliché.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/hillary-clinton-in-congo_b_256865.html
** (According to information put out by The Communication Initiative Network Radio Okapi was launched in 2002. It’s a project by the United Nations (UN) and Foundation Hirondelle which works to promote dialogue and peace-building in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It includes nine radio stations broadcasting in French and 4 other commonly spoken languages in the Congo. Programs are devoted to themes like health, education, human rights, culture, and music.
Along with its head studio in Kinshasa, Radio Okapi is a network of 9 radio stations scattered across the country. It broadcasts across political and military boundaries. The stations feed information to the Kinshasa headquarters, providing material for a single program. The material is then rebroadcast over different frequencies in each of the studios in the other towns. The network is served by satellite, short-wave and FM transmitters. In order to reach the sizeable Congolese diaspora, it also broadcasts live on the internet with streaming audio versions of the network's programming).
Who didn't see how she snapped at that male student in The Democratic Republic of Congo, who (reportedly meant to ask her what Obama though of something, but instead) asked her what Bill thinks of it? Oh boy – I was here, in front of my TV two continents away, and I was scared. You better believe no one in the Congo will want to mess with America, now!
Oh Yes, it’s gonna be a long time before somebody, anybody, asks Madam Secretary of State:
• What her husband is doing?
Or:
• What her husband is saying?
I love it!!! That wasn’t Mrs. Clinton talking...that was Hillary Rodham talking! Mee-wow!
So what exactly was Hillary doing in the Congo? In typical American fashion, most people don’t know!
Whom did she meet with? Where did she visit?
We don’t know, do we? The media showed us over and over that clip of Hillary testily answering the question. We know that! The Huffington Post ran a very enlightening article about Clinton’s visit, including her interview with local station Radio Okapi*. They spoke about Human Rights, Chinese investments and the ongoing corruption in Congo leader Joseph Kabila’s government.
I especially like this passage from Hillary:
President Obama would like to forge a new chapter in the relationship between the Congolese people and the American people, that I'm here to explore ways that we could work together, but that we believe strongly there must be an end to impunity, an end to corruption, more transparency and accountability; that the mineral and other natural resource riches of this country should be used for the benefit of the Congolese people, not for a very small group that have historically benefitted, not just for outside corporations or countries that extract the riches and leave with them without really putting back the commensurate investment in the country. And we think there are a lot of areas where we could be helpful, and we're going to explore whether that's possible.
Did we hear about that, of course not! THAT'S not important!!
Get details from the Huffington Post:
Hillary Clinton in Congo: Tempers, Human Rights, and Media Cliché.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/georgianne-nienaber/hillary-clinton-in-congo_b_256865.html
** (According to information put out by The Communication Initiative Network Radio Okapi was launched in 2002. It’s a project by the United Nations (UN) and Foundation Hirondelle which works to promote dialogue and peace-building in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It includes nine radio stations broadcasting in French and 4 other commonly spoken languages in the Congo. Programs are devoted to themes like health, education, human rights, culture, and music.
Along with its head studio in Kinshasa, Radio Okapi is a network of 9 radio stations scattered across the country. It broadcasts across political and military boundaries. The stations feed information to the Kinshasa headquarters, providing material for a single program. The material is then rebroadcast over different frequencies in each of the studios in the other towns. The network is served by satellite, short-wave and FM transmitters. In order to reach the sizeable Congolese diaspora, it also broadcasts live on the internet with streaming audio versions of the network's programming).
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
New Republican Angry Rallying Point: Health Care!...
How many of you remember those Headlines from about a year ago?
• Anger Is Crowd's Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally, Washingtonpost
• Panic attacks: Voters unload at GOP rallies, politico
• Republican anger bubbles up at McCain rally, Reuters, Minnesota
• The Political Carnival: David Gergen talks about anger at McCain Rally
• McCain-Palin's hot rhetoric risks GOP backlash
• Rage rising on the McCain campaign trail - CNN.com
Or this video: McCain Rally/Angry Supporter
If link doesn't work, try:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuSYHnVpYbs&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ehuffingtonpost%2Ecom%2F2008%2F10%2F10%2Fformer%2Dmccain%2Dstrategist%5Fn%5F133523%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded
Isn’t it disturbing to see all these same screaming people popping up again? They’re acting even more irrationally now, over Health Care Reform.
Do we need to behave like vultures over a Health Care carcass? What kind of Opposition Party whips its supporters into a frenzy to deliberately sabotage an issue so vital to the country, BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD TO LET IT SUCEED?
Early on, Republicans asked their supporters to stop Obama from succeeding, and they will do whatever it takes to make this happen, even if it means destabilizing and undermining his programs!
Both parties cannot rule at the same time - THERE WILL ALWAYS BE AN OPPOSITION (at least, we hope so) and the role of the opposition is to provide a constructive, balanced, civil, respectful discourse and show voters where the government is going wrong. THE ROLE OF THE OPPOSITIION IS NOT TO UNDERMINE THE GOVERNMENT!
I watch hysterical, out of control “protestors” with veins popping, shouting down speakers, swearing at them, making wild, unfounded allegations and refusing to see or hear any reason at all. Why?
Check out this video at a meeting in Pennsylvania led by Democratic Senator Arlen Specter:
(Network videos start with an ad, may have more than one story)
Lebanon, PA
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8301646
(PS: I thought Specter would be standing before God, but if that man says God will stand before Specter, then it must be so!!)
Anyway, this isn't about Health Care; this is still about a set of people who WILL NEVER accept the fact that a BLACK man is in the White House, that he’s not hypocritically quoting from the Bible in coded terms and doesn’t share their misguided views on race and other issues.
Remember during the campaign how republicans misquoted facts, deliberately twisted them, spread rumors that Obama is a Muslim, and used their talk-show surrogates to spread gossip, rumor and innuendo— while denying any involvement?
Remember those McCain Town Hall meetings. Isn’t that eerily similar to the acrimony, absurd reasoning, denunciation, deliberate misrepresentation of facts and screaming that we saw then? Republicans used rumor, innuendo and calculated attacks to brand Obama as a terrorist, who palled around with other terrorists, that he was a Muslim…and an Arab! They also rallied supporters at gatherings by referring to Obama as “Barak Hussein Obama”?
Now, we are back to those tactics.
McCain’s ex-running mate, Sarah Palin, has invented a death panel that she says is part of the Obama health Care Plan. According to Palin, under Obama’s plan, she’d have to stand in front of a "death panel" to argue for the life of her son with Down Syndrome.
(The Obama Plan should include a proviso to prevent people from using their special needs kids to score political mileage.)
PALIN’S Face Book page says: in the America she knows, people won't have to "stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care." She calls the system: "downright evil."
Only Palin knows where she got that fact…according to ABC News, there is NO such provision in Obama’s Health Care Plan.
ABCFactCheck
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8297797
Even health care experts who don’t support the Obama bill call the accusations: shocking, inflammatory and incorrect. But a little thing like truth won’t stop those hell-bent on finding weapons of mass destruction.
Monday, August 10, 2009
ODE: To Cash For Clunkers
Have you junked your old car yet -- under the government's Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS)...aka "Cash for Clunkers"?
The House of Representatives passed the 2 billion extension July 31 and the Senate approved the money August 06.
The voluntary vehicle trade-in and purchase/lease program falls under the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009. Consumers, who trade in a less fuel efficient car or truck, can get a government rebate of up to 45 hundred dollars to pay for a new, more fuel efficient car or truck from a participating dealer.
If you’re wondering why congress rushed to approve more money (after the initial one-billion-dollars ran out), while they’re balking over Health Care, here’s my take on it.
Forgive my poetic license:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door…" **
Not the newly homeless or jobless about
Who go hungry...we think!?
Nor those whose pensions are wiped out
Their HEALTH be dammed! Live on the brink…
Easier to spend billions on clunkers
Get new cars rolling off the lot
Than invest in Healthcare
For those who need support
WE your congressmen…and women
Hate waste and graft, we’re moved by expedience
Having voted for a wasteful war
(Well, we didn’t have good examples from before)
We find, we think, and do concur
That universal healthcare is a…
Socialist way to go!
Someone dared to pipe up from the crowd:
Excuse me, Mr. Big, Omniscient Congressman
Social Security IS a socialist concept
AND IT REALLY COSTS A LOT
Is way too expensive
And likely to go bankrupt!
And the big, powerful congressman
Retorted: don't think!
You sent us to Washington to do that for you
Those decisions, YOU, must let US do
Facts are unimportant things
It’s not the Truth
But the spin you wrap it in!
Clunkers make us look caring, dear
New vehicle sales will double, triple
Employers will hire
So ultimately, the jobless will get Healthcare
Then he added: Well, only those with jobs
Whose employers still offer healthcare
And those workers who can afford it
But does that matter…?
** Inscription on Statue of Liberty, from Emma Lazarus Poem, “The New Colossus”- 1883)
The House of Representatives passed the 2 billion extension July 31 and the Senate approved the money August 06.
The voluntary vehicle trade-in and purchase/lease program falls under the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009. Consumers, who trade in a less fuel efficient car or truck, can get a government rebate of up to 45 hundred dollars to pay for a new, more fuel efficient car or truck from a participating dealer.
If you’re wondering why congress rushed to approve more money (after the initial one-billion-dollars ran out), while they’re balking over Health Care, here’s my take on it.
Forgive my poetic license:
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door…" **
Not the newly homeless or jobless about
Who go hungry...we think!?
Nor those whose pensions are wiped out
Their HEALTH be dammed! Live on the brink…
Easier to spend billions on clunkers
Get new cars rolling off the lot
Than invest in Healthcare
For those who need support
WE your congressmen…and women
Hate waste and graft, we’re moved by expedience
Having voted for a wasteful war
(Well, we didn’t have good examples from before)
We find, we think, and do concur
That universal healthcare is a…
Socialist way to go!
Someone dared to pipe up from the crowd:
Excuse me, Mr. Big, Omniscient Congressman
Social Security IS a socialist concept
AND IT REALLY COSTS A LOT
Is way too expensive
And likely to go bankrupt!
And the big, powerful congressman
Retorted: don't think!
You sent us to Washington to do that for you
Those decisions, YOU, must let US do
Facts are unimportant things
It’s not the Truth
But the spin you wrap it in!
Clunkers make us look caring, dear
New vehicle sales will double, triple
Employers will hire
So ultimately, the jobless will get Healthcare
Then he added: Well, only those with jobs
Whose employers still offer healthcare
And those workers who can afford it
But does that matter…?
** Inscription on Statue of Liberty, from Emma Lazarus Poem, “The New Colossus”- 1883)
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Sotomayor: Si, Se Puede.
Bienvenida, Sotomayor! Welcome to the U.S Supreme Court, Wise Latina Woman!
“We The People” of these United States are actually beginning to look like the people.
While Congress was making history, sitting a Latina woman on the nation’s highest court, right-wing pundits were gagging and sputtering over their prescription pills! The outrage against white males that congress perpetuated this day is surely akin to treason. How dare lawmakers vote for a Hispanic, when these pundits keep reminding us that Hispanics bring disease, crime and mortgage meltdowns into the nation?
Before Hispanics America was a country where everybody got along, there was no need for hospitals as everybody was extremely healthy and every family owned a home that they could actually afford! There were no foreclosures…at all! And rumors of prostitution in the Wild West were just that, rumors!
Now that Hispanics have arrived and forever ruined the peace, instead of relegating them to enclaves in some parts of the country, they are actually getting into positions of authority…like the Supreme Court! And what’s more, as Hispanics, they may, just may, be sympathetic to other Hispanics…something that no other race would ever, ever do. Empathy is a trait that only Hispanics possess!
And Justice Clarence Thomas’s views on Affirmative Action have nothing to do with his life experiences. They’re all grounded in the law!
Nevada Senator John Ensign is one of the many republicans who decided to vote against Sotomayor. Ensign said he has doubts about Sotomayor's impartiality and takes his “…responsibility as Nevada's senator very seriously and feel I need to protect the sanctity of our Constitution."
I admire the senator for wanting to protect the sanctity of the Constitution. How about the sanctity of marriage? Apparently, Ensign isn’t too concerned about protecting that.
In an article in Ensign’s home paper, The Las Vegas Sun, writer Jon Ralston says he recently posted e-mails on his blog (on the Sun’s website) that purport to show that last year, (2008), Ensign apparently asked his top political operative to find a job in the man’s company for the husband of a woman Ensign was having an affair with. The husband, Ensign’s good friend and top aide, worked for Ensign as his administrative assistant. Ensign admitted to the affair in June (2009).
Sun
Remember Harriet Myers? President Bush’s White House counsel who withdrew her Supreme Court nomination to replace justice Sandra Day O’Connor?
There were widespread complaints about her lack of legal credentials, doubts about her ability and assertions of cronyism because of her longtime association with Bush. Conservatives immediately bashed Miers for her: lack of judicial experience and constitutional background, and her close relationship with Bush. The anti-Miers republican revolt forced Bush and Miers to withdraw!
Ensign was not too hot on Miers, himself, but he defended much of the criticism of Miers as "unfair".
Sotomayor got fewer votes (68-31) than John Roberts (78) (Czech on mothers side) but more votes than Italian-American Samuel Alito, (58) who replaced Miers and was confirmed.
Judge Sotomayor may not necessarily be the most brilliant judge in America. But I bet little Puerto Rican girls are looking at her and saying: Si Se Puede.
“We The People” of these United States are actually beginning to look like the people.
While Congress was making history, sitting a Latina woman on the nation’s highest court, right-wing pundits were gagging and sputtering over their prescription pills! The outrage against white males that congress perpetuated this day is surely akin to treason. How dare lawmakers vote for a Hispanic, when these pundits keep reminding us that Hispanics bring disease, crime and mortgage meltdowns into the nation?
Before Hispanics America was a country where everybody got along, there was no need for hospitals as everybody was extremely healthy and every family owned a home that they could actually afford! There were no foreclosures…at all! And rumors of prostitution in the Wild West were just that, rumors!
Now that Hispanics have arrived and forever ruined the peace, instead of relegating them to enclaves in some parts of the country, they are actually getting into positions of authority…like the Supreme Court! And what’s more, as Hispanics, they may, just may, be sympathetic to other Hispanics…something that no other race would ever, ever do. Empathy is a trait that only Hispanics possess!
And Justice Clarence Thomas’s views on Affirmative Action have nothing to do with his life experiences. They’re all grounded in the law!
Nevada Senator John Ensign is one of the many republicans who decided to vote against Sotomayor. Ensign said he has doubts about Sotomayor's impartiality and takes his “…responsibility as Nevada's senator very seriously and feel I need to protect the sanctity of our Constitution."
I admire the senator for wanting to protect the sanctity of the Constitution. How about the sanctity of marriage? Apparently, Ensign isn’t too concerned about protecting that.
In an article in Ensign’s home paper, The Las Vegas Sun, writer Jon Ralston says he recently posted e-mails on his blog (on the Sun’s website) that purport to show that last year, (2008), Ensign apparently asked his top political operative to find a job in the man’s company for the husband of a woman Ensign was having an affair with. The husband, Ensign’s good friend and top aide, worked for Ensign as his administrative assistant. Ensign admitted to the affair in June (2009).
Sun
Remember Harriet Myers? President Bush’s White House counsel who withdrew her Supreme Court nomination to replace justice Sandra Day O’Connor?
There were widespread complaints about her lack of legal credentials, doubts about her ability and assertions of cronyism because of her longtime association with Bush. Conservatives immediately bashed Miers for her: lack of judicial experience and constitutional background, and her close relationship with Bush. The anti-Miers republican revolt forced Bush and Miers to withdraw!
Ensign was not too hot on Miers, himself, but he defended much of the criticism of Miers as "unfair".
Sotomayor got fewer votes (68-31) than John Roberts (78) (Czech on mothers side) but more votes than Italian-American Samuel Alito, (58) who replaced Miers and was confirmed.
Judge Sotomayor may not necessarily be the most brilliant judge in America. But I bet little Puerto Rican girls are looking at her and saying: Si Se Puede.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Freed Journalists Goodwill Leads to Embrace!
I didn’t watch the triumphant homecoming of Laura Ling and Euna Lee…the two journalists who were jailed in North Korea, since March.
The TV was playing in the background so I know they arrived.
I’m sure their relatives, friends, employers are happy to see them and I would too, in their place.
What I care about right now is bringing home military personnel captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m all for evacuating nationals when there’s a disaster, a coup, a plague etc. And I don’t like it, either, when fellow journalists get captured on the job. We expect these journalists to take risks, to get up close and dodge bullets so those of us at home can know what’s happening in these remote locations.
My struggle is: (1) How indebted should your country be to you when you break another country’s rules, enter forbidden territory and knowingly take risks? We lose out when journalists are not there, taking those risks, but how far should they go – how far do we want/expect them to go? Are they working for the country – or their network? Don’t they often get more money and greater prestige the more risks they take? It’s nice when the government steps in…but should it always?
(2) Whom do we treat as “real” journalists? New York Times reporters? What if it’s a blogger, who may or may not be a journalist…like me?
In listening to the commentary about the freed journalists, some people say this just gives countries like North Korea the leverage to act badly and get rewarded with a high profile visit from a powerhouse like former president Bill Clinton. They claim it will embolden the Irans of the world to try similar stunts.
To me, all this attention, diplomacy, time and money spent negotiating these releases (plane was paid for privately) should now be focussed on military personnel who are missing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
23-year-old Bowe Bergdahl, disappeared from his base in Afghanistan (July 2009), and was later seen in a Taliban video posted online. Bergdahl was serving with an infantry regiment at Fort Richardson in Anchorage. Where is he?
Dianne Feinstein, of course (the Senator from California) speaking as a politician, says: American citizens are in trouble overseas - we must rescue American citizens in trouble overseas? Really? If Americans go to China and take part in anti-government protests that the Chinese say is illegal, and officials sweep them up, we must rescue them, too? Where does it stop?
If religious people rush to Iraq to impose their version of God on the Muslims, and are arrested, should we go free them? I think Jesus will come and free them, since they’re doing his work, not the state’s…and if he doesn’t free them, like he did for Paul, (and Silas, Acts 16:25-28) then he either (a) just doesn’t support what they’re doing and couldn’t care less or (b) it’s his will that they sit in that prison and convert the prisoners.
On the other hand:
Why don’t we just say it’s a game we’re playing with whichever country happens to be holding the hostages, and that even if it was Ronald McDonald, we’d want him back!?
If we manage, through our offensives – charm or military – to free hostages, then it looks like we’ve won! AND, if it brings North Korea to the negotiating table, then send strategic “hostages” to every troublesome corner of the globe! I’ll support that!
One U.S. official says President Clinton talked to North Koreans about the "positive things that could flow" from freeing the two women”. Some analysts apparently think now that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has gotten his high-profile visit from a former president (he didn’t want a former VICE-president, and turned Gore down) that could open the way to direct nuclear disarmament talks.
Plus, it was worth it to see Gore embrace Clinton.
Guess he’s not mad about his lost election anymore!
The TV was playing in the background so I know they arrived.
I’m sure their relatives, friends, employers are happy to see them and I would too, in their place.
What I care about right now is bringing home military personnel captured in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m all for evacuating nationals when there’s a disaster, a coup, a plague etc. And I don’t like it, either, when fellow journalists get captured on the job. We expect these journalists to take risks, to get up close and dodge bullets so those of us at home can know what’s happening in these remote locations.
My struggle is: (1) How indebted should your country be to you when you break another country’s rules, enter forbidden territory and knowingly take risks? We lose out when journalists are not there, taking those risks, but how far should they go – how far do we want/expect them to go? Are they working for the country – or their network? Don’t they often get more money and greater prestige the more risks they take? It’s nice when the government steps in…but should it always?
(2) Whom do we treat as “real” journalists? New York Times reporters? What if it’s a blogger, who may or may not be a journalist…like me?
In listening to the commentary about the freed journalists, some people say this just gives countries like North Korea the leverage to act badly and get rewarded with a high profile visit from a powerhouse like former president Bill Clinton. They claim it will embolden the Irans of the world to try similar stunts.
To me, all this attention, diplomacy, time and money spent negotiating these releases (plane was paid for privately) should now be focussed on military personnel who are missing in Iraq and Afghanistan.
23-year-old Bowe Bergdahl, disappeared from his base in Afghanistan (July 2009), and was later seen in a Taliban video posted online. Bergdahl was serving with an infantry regiment at Fort Richardson in Anchorage. Where is he?
Dianne Feinstein, of course (the Senator from California) speaking as a politician, says: American citizens are in trouble overseas - we must rescue American citizens in trouble overseas? Really? If Americans go to China and take part in anti-government protests that the Chinese say is illegal, and officials sweep them up, we must rescue them, too? Where does it stop?
If religious people rush to Iraq to impose their version of God on the Muslims, and are arrested, should we go free them? I think Jesus will come and free them, since they’re doing his work, not the state’s…and if he doesn’t free them, like he did for Paul, (and Silas, Acts 16:25-28) then he either (a) just doesn’t support what they’re doing and couldn’t care less or (b) it’s his will that they sit in that prison and convert the prisoners.
On the other hand:
Why don’t we just say it’s a game we’re playing with whichever country happens to be holding the hostages, and that even if it was Ronald McDonald, we’d want him back!?
If we manage, through our offensives – charm or military – to free hostages, then it looks like we’ve won! AND, if it brings North Korea to the negotiating table, then send strategic “hostages” to every troublesome corner of the globe! I’ll support that!
One U.S. official says President Clinton talked to North Koreans about the "positive things that could flow" from freeing the two women”. Some analysts apparently think now that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has gotten his high-profile visit from a former president (he didn’t want a former VICE-president, and turned Gore down) that could open the way to direct nuclear disarmament talks.
Plus, it was worth it to see Gore embrace Clinton.
Guess he’s not mad about his lost election anymore!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Gone Wild: Kids…Or The System?
The 10-year-old boy was interrogated for 2-hours, at school, (a parent wasn't there), for drawing a picture in art class that showed a person sitting in a safe with dynamite. The boy used a caption that said: “I have a bomb on me.”
Officials in Peabody, Massachusetts, treated it as a serious crime, and nearly evacuated the school. (December 2007).
Police and school officials (already on edge after three bomb threats weeks earlier) questioned the 10-year-old. His parents were not present. Police decided NOT to arrest the boy. He got a 2-day suspension.
The town’s lawyer says the cop who saw the drawing thought it was a crime. He says under state law, it’s illegal to communicate a threat which causes evacuation or serious disruption of a school.
The kid argues that he did not say that a particular place was going to blow up!
His mom says the school copped out. It took the easy way out by leaving the decision-making up to police.
According to the local station that carried the story, kids are now getting arrested for offenses that used to lead to detentions. It cited another Massachusetts student who was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, last spring. He threw an apple! That case went to court.
One judge interviewed says these types of cases are getting out of hand…and he’s annoyed. As the judge puts it, HE IS NOT a school principal!
I decided to check online and see if we were just more paranoid here in Massachusetts…or if such cases were equally prevalent in Blue States.
A New York Times article seems to suggest that calling in police to deal with unruly students…seems to be turning into a national trend.
For instance, The N.Y. Times reports that a 14-year-old girl’s low-cut midriff top in Toledo/Ohio violated the school’s dress code, but she refused to change. So the cop assigned to the school handcuffed her, put her in a police car and took her to a juvenile detention center courthouse. She was booked on a misdemeanor charge and placed in a holding cell for several hours.
The paper says more than two dozen students in Toledo were arrested in school in October for offenses like being loud and disruptive, cursing at school officials, shouting at classmates and violating the dress code. They had all violated the city's safe school ordinance.
In cities and suburbs around the country, schools are increasingly sending students into the juvenile justice system for the sort of adolescent misbehavior that used to be handled by school administrators. According to the paper, in Toledo and many other places, the juvenile detention center has become an extension of the principal's office.
The report says there were nearly 2-thousand such cases in Ohio's Lucas County in 2002, up from just over a thousand in 2000. And that’s worrying the administrative judge for the Lucas County juvenile court. He says “We're demonizing children.''
Court officials say most cases involved unruly students. Only a few were for serious incidents like assaulting a teacher or taking a gun to school.
The paper says in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Florida, juvenile court judges are complaining that their courtrooms are at risk of being overwhelmed by student misconduct cases that should be handled in the schools.
Many of the court cases around the country involve special-education students whose behavior is often related to their disabilities.
An 8-year-old boy in a special-education class in Pennsylvania was charged with disorderly conduct this fall for urinating on the classroom floor, throwing his shoes at the ceiling and telling a teacher: ''Kids rule.''
I read online about two elementary school children in Florida (aged 9 and 10) who were arrested and handcuffed at school. They drew a stick figure cartoon showing themselves being violent towards another 10-year old.
Are schools going too far…?
Or are their reactions understandable - given the current climate of school shootings and lock-downs?
Officials in Peabody, Massachusetts, treated it as a serious crime, and nearly evacuated the school. (December 2007).
Police and school officials (already on edge after three bomb threats weeks earlier) questioned the 10-year-old. His parents were not present. Police decided NOT to arrest the boy. He got a 2-day suspension.
The town’s lawyer says the cop who saw the drawing thought it was a crime. He says under state law, it’s illegal to communicate a threat which causes evacuation or serious disruption of a school.
The kid argues that he did not say that a particular place was going to blow up!
His mom says the school copped out. It took the easy way out by leaving the decision-making up to police.
According to the local station that carried the story, kids are now getting arrested for offenses that used to lead to detentions. It cited another Massachusetts student who was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, last spring. He threw an apple! That case went to court.
One judge interviewed says these types of cases are getting out of hand…and he’s annoyed. As the judge puts it, HE IS NOT a school principal!
I decided to check online and see if we were just more paranoid here in Massachusetts…or if such cases were equally prevalent in Blue States.
A New York Times article seems to suggest that calling in police to deal with unruly students…seems to be turning into a national trend.
For instance, The N.Y. Times reports that a 14-year-old girl’s low-cut midriff top in Toledo/Ohio violated the school’s dress code, but she refused to change. So the cop assigned to the school handcuffed her, put her in a police car and took her to a juvenile detention center courthouse. She was booked on a misdemeanor charge and placed in a holding cell for several hours.
The paper says more than two dozen students in Toledo were arrested in school in October for offenses like being loud and disruptive, cursing at school officials, shouting at classmates and violating the dress code. They had all violated the city's safe school ordinance.
In cities and suburbs around the country, schools are increasingly sending students into the juvenile justice system for the sort of adolescent misbehavior that used to be handled by school administrators. According to the paper, in Toledo and many other places, the juvenile detention center has become an extension of the principal's office.
The report says there were nearly 2-thousand such cases in Ohio's Lucas County in 2002, up from just over a thousand in 2000. And that’s worrying the administrative judge for the Lucas County juvenile court. He says “We're demonizing children.''
Court officials say most cases involved unruly students. Only a few were for serious incidents like assaulting a teacher or taking a gun to school.
The paper says in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Florida, juvenile court judges are complaining that their courtrooms are at risk of being overwhelmed by student misconduct cases that should be handled in the schools.
Many of the court cases around the country involve special-education students whose behavior is often related to their disabilities.
An 8-year-old boy in a special-education class in Pennsylvania was charged with disorderly conduct this fall for urinating on the classroom floor, throwing his shoes at the ceiling and telling a teacher: ''Kids rule.''
I read online about two elementary school children in Florida (aged 9 and 10) who were arrested and handcuffed at school. They drew a stick figure cartoon showing themselves being violent towards another 10-year old.
Are schools going too far…?
Or are their reactions understandable - given the current climate of school shootings and lock-downs?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Americans! Stay Away from Iran, North Korea...
You have no place going there unless you belong to (or work with) a select group that includes: The military, contractors, spies, businesspeople, diplomats, etc…
My Mother said, I never should, play with the gypsies in the wood
If I did, she would say, you naughty girl to disobey.
I immediately remembered this old nursery rhyme when I heard about those three Americans who went hiking along Iran's border.
If a friend tells me don’t do something - maybe I can shrug and say, neh! My sister, brother tells me don’t do it - I can also shrug and say, bah! My mom, dad says don’t do it? Whatever!
But when the State Department says don’t do it – OK, now! It’s about time to listen. The next level of authority (for Christians, at least) is God...and I don’t need a burning bush to be convinced!
Still, those three intrepid travelers were not convinced by all the people, including the government, who told them it was a bad idea. They wanted to see a “waterfall.” They left America, with its abundance of waterfalls, including the world-famous NIAGARA FALLS, (where Canada would not have arrested them) and decided they absolutely had to see, just HAD to see...that Kurdish waterfall. So much so, they allegedly ignored warnings from border guards! Why? Is that waterfall on some endangered list?
These three Americans therefore handed themselves to Iran as pawns for an international chess game that all of us must now play. Nxd4. Only it’s more like Wizard’s Chess, in Harry Potter.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing opposition protests over the results of the June 12 presidential election and he’s happy to get something tangible to parade before his country...to prop his claim that the West is behind the protests. He's calling the Americans: CIA spies. Yep, CIA as in: Confused, Idiotic Americans!
Iranian guards apparently nabbed the three Americans in a popular hiking area, in the mountainous Kurdish region between Iraq and Iran. The poorly marked border region is near the resort town where the three were staying.
So what now?
The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, so we’re depending on the Swiss to act as a go between. Somehow, I don’t think the Iranians are too interested in cheese or watches!
Seems to me that Americans need to STOP flirting with danger along the borders of countries like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Stop it. There are many, many places in the world where Americans can go and won’t get arrested. Yellowstone Park has waterfalls…and if it’s danger you want, that park sits on a humongous volcanic super-crater that blows her top every million years or so!
For others, who just must go hang-gliding over some hostile territory that the State Department warns people to stay away from, please remember:
1. Journalist Roxana Saberi spent more than three months in an Iranian jail, before her eight-year prison sentence on espionage charges was reduced and suspended.
2. North Korea captured U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, while they were filming near the North Korean/Chinese border, March 17...and they are still being held.
3. Christian Science Monitor reporter, Jill Carroll, captured in Baghdad in January 2006 and freed after nearly 3-months.
If the State Department was anything like me, I’d start leaving people over there.
It’s like I tell my teenage son: There are many things I've warned you about. Don't sass the cops, for one. If you ever disregard those warnings and consciously put yourself in that situation and the police arrest you, I WILL LEAVE YOU IN THAT CELL, FOR AS MANY DAYS AS I DEEM NECESSARY TO TEACH YOU A LESSON.
And what’s more, he knows I’ll do it...plus, I’ll ask the cops to make his life miserable, too!
My Mother said, I never should, play with the gypsies in the wood
If I did, she would say, you naughty girl to disobey.
I immediately remembered this old nursery rhyme when I heard about those three Americans who went hiking along Iran's border.
If a friend tells me don’t do something - maybe I can shrug and say, neh! My sister, brother tells me don’t do it - I can also shrug and say, bah! My mom, dad says don’t do it? Whatever!
But when the State Department says don’t do it – OK, now! It’s about time to listen. The next level of authority (for Christians, at least) is God...and I don’t need a burning bush to be convinced!
Still, those three intrepid travelers were not convinced by all the people, including the government, who told them it was a bad idea. They wanted to see a “waterfall.” They left America, with its abundance of waterfalls, including the world-famous NIAGARA FALLS, (where Canada would not have arrested them) and decided they absolutely had to see, just HAD to see...that Kurdish waterfall. So much so, they allegedly ignored warnings from border guards! Why? Is that waterfall on some endangered list?
These three Americans therefore handed themselves to Iran as pawns for an international chess game that all of us must now play. Nxd4. Only it’s more like Wizard’s Chess, in Harry Potter.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is facing opposition protests over the results of the June 12 presidential election and he’s happy to get something tangible to parade before his country...to prop his claim that the West is behind the protests. He's calling the Americans: CIA spies. Yep, CIA as in: Confused, Idiotic Americans!
Iranian guards apparently nabbed the three Americans in a popular hiking area, in the mountainous Kurdish region between Iraq and Iran. The poorly marked border region is near the resort town where the three were staying.
So what now?
The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Iran, so we’re depending on the Swiss to act as a go between. Somehow, I don’t think the Iranians are too interested in cheese or watches!
Seems to me that Americans need to STOP flirting with danger along the borders of countries like Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Stop it. There are many, many places in the world where Americans can go and won’t get arrested. Yellowstone Park has waterfalls…and if it’s danger you want, that park sits on a humongous volcanic super-crater that blows her top every million years or so!
For others, who just must go hang-gliding over some hostile territory that the State Department warns people to stay away from, please remember:
1. Journalist Roxana Saberi spent more than three months in an Iranian jail, before her eight-year prison sentence on espionage charges was reduced and suspended.
2. North Korea captured U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, while they were filming near the North Korean/Chinese border, March 17...and they are still being held.
3. Christian Science Monitor reporter, Jill Carroll, captured in Baghdad in January 2006 and freed after nearly 3-months.
If the State Department was anything like me, I’d start leaving people over there.
It’s like I tell my teenage son: There are many things I've warned you about. Don't sass the cops, for one. If you ever disregard those warnings and consciously put yourself in that situation and the police arrest you, I WILL LEAVE YOU IN THAT CELL, FOR AS MANY DAYS AS I DEEM NECESSARY TO TEACH YOU A LESSON.
And what’s more, he knows I’ll do it...plus, I’ll ask the cops to make his life miserable, too!
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