Freedom: Responsibilities & Costs

As 2011 ends and the War in Iraq draws to a close, I am reminded of the cost of freedom.


Many of us, fortunate enough to be US citizens,  have had relatives (grandfathers, fathers, uncles, siblings, children, or grandchildren)  who have paid the ultimate price to preserve the freedoms we inherited from our Founding Fathers. We stand in Arlington Cemetery, the United States Cemetery in Normandy, Gettysburg, the Memorial at Pearl Harbor, or facing the Vietnam War Memorial Wall, and we are overwhelmed by the the sacrifices made by our brothers and sisters to protect our freedoms.


Many of us who enjoy the freedoms of being U.S. citizens would like to think that we also would posses the honor and courage to put our lives on the line to protect those freedoms. And perhaps we would - let's hope so. On the other hand, most of us are not called upon to make that ultimate sacrifice; we are called on to make many smaller sacrifices. We are asked to:


1) preserve freedom by voting.
2) inform ourselves to vote intelligently.
3) "promote the general Welfare" (U.S. Constitution)
4) abide by the "rule of law" unless it contravenes our conscience. 
5) and, yes, pay our fair share of taxes!


Granted, it might be appealing to take all the benefits afforded by the United States of America, disappear into the wilderness of Montana, refuse to  pay taxes and hope that the rest of the country continues to make the sacrifices that freedom requires. But, as is apparent to most, freedom is not cheap. Somebody has to pay, and it would be best if we all paid our fair share. Unfortunately, there is a disturbing and predatory  attitude that says: "Screw the general welfare, I'm all about my welfare."


And that problem was exacerbated by the Edwards' Supreme Court ruling that multi-national corporations are persons, and they can use their wealth to influence the democratic process, while abdicating the corresponding responsibilities, and leaving the rest of us "persons" to carry the load to protect the freedoms for which so many of our relatives have sacrificed  their lives.


No matter how the oligarchs and their puppets in Congress try to frame the debate, there is no excuse for the super-wealthy and huge corporations to take advantage of the benefits of this country and not pay their fair share. In fact their behavior is despicable in light of all the blood that has been spilled to provide these very benefits.  


It's time for those who claim to be patriots to step forward and demand, as Warren Buffet has,  that his secretary does not have to pay a proportionally higher tax than he does. 

Christmas Presents for Republicans

With just a few days left until Christmas, I am having trouble finding gifts for my my dear Republican friends. What can you find for those who have it all? A coupon for a McDonald's Big Mac and large fries is not going to cut it for those who wearing Rolex wrist watches and custom-tailored Armani suits. In years past, in the days when the GOP pretended to be "compassionate conservatives," I was able to make donations to Heifer International,  the World Wildlife Fund, or the Cherry Street Mission in their name, but now that economic evolutionism with it's doctrine of survival-of-the-wealthiest has taken over the GOP, I am forced to take a new approach. I certainly do not want to offend their sensitivities, and I definitely do not want to see John Boehner cry one more time. Sorry John, but it does not make for a pleasant picture.


While I am open to your suggestions, this is what I am considering at the present:


Sarah Palin:
I know she likes big guns, but face it - if it kills, she's got it. She loves money, but giving money is so tacky. She would love to have the mounted head of several Democrats and Katie Couric above her fireplace, but that is just not right, no matter how close a friend she is. Therefore, I am giving her an audio book -- Things I Should Have Learned In Junior High.


Rick Perry:
I was thinking I might give him a copy of  Ten Easy Steps to Improve Your Memory, but I am afraid he would forget where he left it.. Since he also likes hunting and things that go bang, I am seriously considering buying him a copy of Dick Cheney's Look Before You Shoot. The fifth chapter is particularly helpful, "If You Shoot Someone in the Face, Blame Them  for Being in front of Your Gun."


Mitt  Romney:
I know what he needs, but how do you give someone a personality? A pair of flip-flops might be appropriate for a man who wears out a pair a week. Although I can't afford it, I know he would like to own another company so he could lay off Americans and outsource their jobs.  But, let's admit it,  he already has the best gift of all -- Newt Gingrich and a group of opponents who make him look presidential. Since he is a Morman, I can't fall back on an old stand-by - a bottle of single-malt Scotch. I think I will have to resort to the one thing that always works for Republicans -- a renewal of their membership in the National Rifle  Association. I'll bet you $10K he will love it.


Michele Bachmann:
Since she has fallen on her backside throughout the Republican presidential nomination process, Michele  desperately needs a life-time subscription to FactCheck.org. It is always better to to get the facts right the first time. I know, Michele, using FactCheck may make you uncomfortable, but you will thank me for it in the long run.


Mitch McConnell:
Whether the Senate Minority Leader knows it or not, Mitch needs a copy of The Oath of Office and What It Means. He will be surprised that the Constitution does not say anything  about promoting personal or partisan welfare; rather, he will learn that he swore to "promote the general Welfare." I know it's not much of a gift, Mitch, but sometimes we all need a reminder.


John Boehner:
My friend John is easy; although as Speaker of the House he appears to have so much, he needs so much more. He obviously needs a large supply of monogrammed handkerchiefs to wipe his copious tears, but I gave him a dozen last Christmas. (I keep a list so as not to embarrass myself and my friends.) However, I am seriously thinking of a new tanning bed. Since he does not have the deep tan he has had in the past, I am thinking his present tanning bed is malfunctioning. If the tanning thing doesn't work out, I could give him a good  $139 bottle of Scotch, but I would prefer to give a gift that lasts more than a few hours.


George W. Bush:
Several years ago I gave him a fancy pair of leather cowboy boots and he loved them. Since I knew I could never do better than that, I haven't tried. Ever since 2006, I phone him a couple of weeks after Christmas and in the course of the conversation, I ask how he likes the cowboy boots I gave him for Christmas. Usually, after a brief pause, he profusely thanks me. In fact, last year he said he loves them because they don't even feel like new, they feel as though they are already broken in.


My other Republican friends  who are so fond of the Tea Party, will receive tea sets  and previously used tea bags to remind themselves  that the Tea Party is simply reusing the rhetoric of the John Birch Society. Remember them? How well did that work for you?

Transaction Tax: The Right Thing to Do

Time for Transaction Tax

When Mary Mainstreet  buys a dress, a wash machine, or a used car, she pays some sort of sales tax. In many states, when Mr. and Mrs. Retired hire someone to mow their lawn, prune their trees, or plow the snow from their driveway, they pay sales tax. Mary and the Retireds have very little control over how the money they pay in sales tax is spent. It may be used to replace the money used to keep the Bob Evans Corporation in Ohio, but that's not their call. What they do know is that a major corporation is receiving a sweatheart deal to move their corporate headquarters from one part of Ohio to another. Mary Mainstreet and the Retireds would be willing to move from one place in Ohio to another if they could get a deal similar to Bob Evans.


Knowing that they will never get a sweatheart deal like the major corporations, Mary Mainstreet and Mr. and Mrs. Retired continue to pay sales tax because they have no choice, but more importantly they know that their taxes are serving a wide-range of activities that only government can serve.. And, even though they realize that a sales tax by its very nature is a greater burden on the poor than the wealthy, they continue to pay it in order to support the government in doing the things that nobody else can or will do.


And then there is Wall Street. Millions of stock are sold daily and no one is paying sales tax or a Value Added Tax to the government which facilitates the very existence of Wall Street. Perhaps it's time for these oligarchs, day-traders, fund managers and  "Mom-and-Pop investors" to pony up and pay a pittance for every transaction made.


Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Oregon), last month, introduced legislation that would impose a miniscule 0.03 percent fee on finanacial transactions. This fee is so small that the only ones who would feel it are the speculators who move vast sums of money in and out of the market. These are the very speculators who have caused so many problems for the economy and the markets in the past. "But because of the enormous volume of transaction, the new tax would still raise $350 billion in the next ten years, according to nonpartisan congressional scorekeepers." (Huffington Post. 12/16/2011)


I gotta tell you. my friend, Hank, and I think $350 billion is not chump change.


Also,  gotta tell you:  if our friend, Mary Mainstreet has to pay a 7% sales tax on her daughter's new, back-to-school dress, Mitt Romney and his buddies can afford to pay a  measly  0.03 percent transaction fee when they buy and sell millions-of-dollars of stocks.


Personally, Hank and I think they should pay as much as Mary has to pay for her daughter's new dress, but we all know that will never happen. We know the game is rigged; the 99% will always have to prop up the 1%.

Fatwas and Anathemas

Fatwa

A report making the rounds of the internet is that a Muslim cleric "somewhere in Europe" has issued a Fatwa prohibiting Muslim women from touching bananas and cucumbers because their resemblance to a male penis might cause these women to think of sex. If Muslim women wish to eat either, a male family member is to cut up the offending items into small pieces, and the women then can partake of the forbidden foods.


There is a question as to the authenticity of this Fatwa. but it has caused Muslim bloggers to search out other verified Fatwas that leave one scratching one's head. For example, "A man can work with a woman to whom he's not a brother, father, uncle, or son, if he drinks her breast milk first." (The Daily Beast, Asra Q. Nomani, 12/12/2011)


No offense to you fundamentalists, but whether you are Muslim, Christian, or Jewish, you all seem to be quite similar. Given that phenomenon, I am wondering whether fundamentalist Jews and Christians can issue Fatwas. 


In the 2011 GOP presidential primary elections, we have several Republican candidates who are openly groveling to secure the fundamentalist Christian vote. Now that Herman Cain's shenanigans have forced him to remove himself, we still have Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum  trying to out-christian each other. Can they issue fatwas? Perhaps not; maybe the term, fatwa, should be reserved for Muslims. After all, it was their idea. So we need to find another word for these christian pontificators. I would suggest the word, "anathema" - a denunciation often involving a threat and frequently used in religious situations. Let the Christian fundamentalists issue "anathemas."


This Republican Troika (Bachmann, Perry, and Santorum) would issue general anathemas against gays and lesbians, Occupy-Wall-Street protesters, doctors who perform abortions, Mexican immigrants, and Socialists. In addition they would issue more precise ones against:


1. Wealthy Mormons offering $10K bets.
2. Black men who become U.S. Presidents.
3. Ron Paul who supported the right of gay couples to marry.
4. The Department of Education, the EPA, and........what's the third one?
5. The "country of Solynda," whenever Rick Perry discovers it.
6. Any one who supports the Afffodable Health Care Act.
7. Newt Gingrich because he sat in a love seat with Nancy Pelosi urging Congress to take action on climate change.
8. TLC network for airing a reality show about ordinary, patriotic American Muslims.
9. Those who have the audacity to suggest that Congress stop paying huge farm subsidies to millionaire farmers like the Bachmanns.
10.Those "wanton little waifs" (Limbaugh) receiving free school lunches.


I guess the bottom line is: Christians issuing anathemas is anothe way of describing fundamentalist "trash talk."

New Republican Mascot: Fox

One has to wonder about the irony of the name, Fox News Channel, the cable and satellite news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Why name a news channel after a small, omnivorous mammal which has a reputation, at least in folklore, of being sly, cunning, crafty, and treacherous? In the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus calls Herod Antipas "that old fox." And, as I recall, that was not a compliment. The fox is a nocturnal animal that continues to hunt and kill even  after it is no longer hungry. Again, not an image enhancer for a news channel.

But on the other hand, "foxy" is synonymous with "sexy" and "attractive," and one has to admit that FOX has an impressive stable of vixens. If you doubt it, google "fox hotties." And if you ask me, those attractive ladies are the inspiration for the slogan, "fair and balanced." Obviously the slogan has nothing to do with the organization's  news coverage.

Since Fox News Channel is a front for the Republican Party, perhaps the GOP should just drop Dumbo the Elephant as its mascot and replace it with a fox. Then their agenda would be transparent. But, the GOP might have a problem with that - after all, although a fox is reputed to be sly and conniving, that presumes a certain level of intelligence. Given that, how is the GOP going to assuage the Tea Party and their stable of candidates?  On second thought, I would recommend they stick with Dumbo.

(And for all of you who are going to explain to me that the Fox network derives its name from the original 20th Century Fox corporation, don't bother.  I don't care. Just like the Fox News Channel, I do not let the facts get in the way of a good story.)

Catholics Call for Lay-led Mass

Lay-led Mass at St. James the Great (Wellesley, MA)

To the surprise of no one, the Catholic Church throughout the world is in dire need of priests. The causes for this situation are many and their significance could be debated ad infinitum, but the more important issue is what can be done about the situation. 

The traditional answer, of course, is to "foster vocations" among young men, but that is obviously not working. Since the Church in recent years has taken a turn to the right and appears to be attempting to rewrite Vatican II, many young Catholic men do not see a future in such a Church. And the flip side of that is that, according to anecdotal reports, the young men who are entering seminaries are basically fundamentalists. 

There are, of course, other solutions. The most obvious is to reignite within the Catholic Church the the enthusiasm generated by Pope John XXIII and Vatican II. If you recall back then, Catholics felt  that they were "the people of God," and they were the Church. Today, unfortunately, Catholics feel they are the peasants serving THE Hierarchy, who dictates minute details as to the proper "Latin Way" to worship. Most typical young Catholic men will not choose to be part of this feudal system. 

Above and beyond the above, there are two obvious solutions to our lack of ordained priests. The first is to eliminate celibacy as a condition for the priesthood. Why not encourage men who experience the sexual intimacy  of marriage into the ranks of the priesthood, i.e. going back to our origins in the early Church.

The second is to ordain women, either married or single, to  the priesthood. Although Catholic Nuns have been the backbone of the Catholic Church's social mission, whether it be education or healthcare, they have been excluded from positions of prominence in the liturgy and the clerical power structure. Although the rest of the world, even multi-national corporations,  have come to recognize the value of women, the Catholic Church remains a blatantly sexist church.

Given the Church's intransigence to consider the above solutions. another possibility exists. Since, in the near future,  there will not be enough traditional priests to serve the liturgical needs of Catholics,  the faithful need a lay-led liturgy alternative.

At St. James the Great in Wellesley, MA, in 2008, Catholics were meeting in their church, even though the Boston Archdiocese had turned off the heating and the water, to celebrate Mass without a priest. To assist the lay-led liturgy, anonymous, but supportive priests had consecrated communion hosts to be used at  the lay-led Mass.

Recently, according to Reuters' News, 6,000 Catholics in Belgium have signed a manifesto urging their bishops to allow lay people to celebrate Sunday Mass in parishes left without priests. More than 200 of the signatories were ordained priests.

In June, 2,000 Catholics (including 361 priests) in Austria called for lay-led Masses and the ordination of married men and women to maintain parishes that no longer have priests.

Since none of these solutions - the ordination of married men and women or lay-led liturgies - is contrary to core Catholic dogma, one would think the Church, bishops and laity, would be having a serious discussion of these options. Unfortunately, Benedict XVI is not into discussion; his thing is Papal edicts.
   

 The Catholic Church's near-future looks gloomy as long as the Vatican with its medieval mentality is not willing to follow John XXIII's example of open discussion. 

We are the 1% - "Read and Weep"

"We deserve it."

A letter, presumably satire, written  (12/2/2011) to TCPalm, a newspaper for the Treasure Coast and Palm Beaches of Florida by Bob Boyd of Stuart, Florida:


"A message from the 1 percent - read and weep, unless you're one of us.


Stop whining, you 99 percent. We 1 percent have realized the American Dream: to own a home(s), a car(s), a boat(s) and a plane. (We don't like to fly commercial airlines.)...


Paying off members of Congress is not cheap. We have sacrificed millions of dollars to dominate their agenda. We like to give the impression that we have a moral value system and everybody loves and envies us.


It is true,a few times our control over the legislative process has caused a few problems: the savings and loan debacle, the tech bubble burst, Enron, Tyco, and the stock market crash of 2008, to name a few....


We can finally cement our capitalist oligarchy by eliminatingsuch wasteful programs as Social Security, welfare and Medicare.


We would especially like to thank the U.S. Supreme Court for the Citizens United ruling that guarantees our continued domination of society."


I suspect that there are some of the One Percent who fail to recognize Mr. Boyd's satire because everything in the letter makes perfect sense to them.

Reminder: Reagan Initiated "Class Warfare"

Every time a Democrat or Independent speaks of the need to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, some Republican,  or one of their puppets at Fox News, or a talking head like George Will  begins screaming, "CLASS WARFARE."  This is supposed to suggest to us voters that the Democrats are trying to divide the Super Rich and the rest of the country. Face it, we are divided. Look around and you will see the multiple ways we are divided. To quote Shakespeare, "Let me count the ways." And we are divided not because some want to repeal Bush's "temporary" tax cut for ultra rich, but because Bush and his party passed the damned thing in the first place. And this "welfare for the wealthy"  followed years of tax breaks for the rich which started with Ronald Reagan. That was the beginning of class warfare, and guess who won the war. It was not the middle class which has been sliding down the slippery slope to a lower class.*


Those fortunate ones who are among the nation's wealthiest citizens are in that category either because 1) they were intelligent,  received a good education, worked extremely hard, had a little luck, and were extremely successful or 2) they are descendants of parents, grandparents or ancestors who accumulated great wealth. Most of us admire those in the first group and do not begrudge them their wealth, but we do recognize that this great country provided opportunities, paid for by tax dollars, that made it possible for them to succeed.. All taxpayers helped them along the way, and now it seems ironic that they don't want to pay their fair share. We wonder, along with Warren Buffet, why his secretary pays a greater percentage of her salary in taxes than he does?


As for those fortunate individuals who did not earn their wealth, but inherited it, we in the middle class can appreciate your good fortune. In fact many of us are in the middle class because our immigrant parents and grandparents worked their butts off to make that possible. Our problem with you is that we are expected to bear a disproportional tax burden. Excuse us, but we think you should be paying your fair share. Quite frankly, those of you who are paying less than a fair share are a drag on our country.


This country is facing a deficit crisis and many of our wealthiest citizens and their minions in Congress are looking for ways to shirk their duty as citizens.


*There is no doubt that our nation's wealth has been steadily moving away from the middle class to the pockets of the most wealthy, but if you need statistics (warning, don't let your children see them; they are too depressing.), here are just a few:


1. 83% of U.S. stocks are in the hands of 1% of the people.
2. 66 % of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans
3. In 1950 , the ratio of the average executives paycheck to the average worker's paycheck was about 30 to 1, Since the year 2000, that ratio has exploded to between 300 to 500 to one.
4. As of 2007 , the bottom 80% of American households held about 7% of the liquid financial assets
5. The bottom 50% of income earners in the U.S. now collectively own less than 1% of the nation's wealth..
6. The top 1% of U.S. households own nearly twice as much of America's corporate wealth as they did 15 years ago. 
7. Approximately 21% of all U.S. children were living below the poverty line in 2010 - the highest rate in 20 years.
8.Despite the financial crisis, the number of millionaires in the U.S. rose a whopping 16%t to 7.8 million in 2009.
(These statistics were taken from The Business Insider, July, 2010)

Bendib Cartoon

Wicked cartoons by America's Most Wanted Political Cartoonist. Enjoy!

 

     That damn Statue of Liberty irks the 1 %

Catholicism Getting Scary

What would John XXIII have said  about
what's happening to the Church today?

As an American Catholic. I am concerned and dismayed by several events of the past few weeks.


The most disturbing is the following quotation from Pope Benedict XVI:
“It is my hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. ”

Wow! He thinks the Catholic Church responded effectively the sexual abuse of children by priests? If he considers that effective, it is no wonder he thinks rhythm  is an effective method of birth control .  He is saying this at the very time the Church is trying to obstruct civil authorities in Ireland who are investigating  clerical pedophilia. If he wants the "broader community" to follow the Church's example in this situation, then sexual abuse of children is going to continue to be covered up.

Another issue of concern for me is the following quotation that was included a a letter from Bishop Roger Joseph Foys of Covington Kentucky:

"Special note should also be made concerning the gesture for the Our Father.  Only 
the priest is given the instruction to “extend” his hands.  Neither the deacon nor the 
lay faithful are instructed to do this.  No gesture is prescribed for the lay faithful in 
the Roman Missal; nor the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, therefore the 
extending or holding of hands by the faithful should not be performed."


And Catholic bishops wonder why they are irrelevant today in the the United States? Where will such silly nit-picking end? What's next? Is he going to tell Catholic women they have to wear a veil over their head when they attend Mass? Does he think that the early Christians were forbidden from extending their arms or holding hands during the recitation of the Our Father? 


The  third issue is the new mandated, translation of the Roman Missal that is used for the  Eucharistic liturgical celebration - for most of us, that is Sunday Mass. I cannot become too concerned about about the difference between "you" and "your spirit." but I do think the new translation at times seems absurdly Latin in both vocabulary and syntax. For example, "consubstantial with the Father"? Give me a break. Archaic language like that is really going to go over great with U.S. teenagers. 


 But what I am even more concerned about is the obvious attempt to take the Church back to the days prior to The Second Vatican Council. Benedict the XVI seems intent on burying Vatican II in the archives of the Vatican, and the American bishops are marching to his tune with this new translation which they tout as returning to the Roman Missal prior to Vatican II. 


It appears that although they cannot negate Vatican II, they will just ignore it, pretend it never happened.

Conservatives Say Sexual Harassment Does Not Exist

While Herman Cain, like Clarence Thomas before, claims he has not engaged in sexual harassment, he does not go as far as his conservative supporters who claim there is no such thing as sexual harassment.


In the National Review, John Derbyshire wrote: "Is there anyone who thinks sexual harassment is a real thing? Is there anyone who doesn't know it's all a lawyers'ramp, like 'racial discrimination'? You pay a girl a  compliment nowadays, she runs off and gets lawyered up." Is groping a woman and offering her a job in exchange for sex a compliment? Apparently so, according to the National Review.


This leads one to wonder: do these conservative Republicans think the victims of pedophilia are just a bunch of whiny money-grubbers who lawyered up? Do they think pedophilia is not a "real thing?" 


And then there is conservative talk show host, Laura Ingraham, who said: "We have seen this movie before and we know how it ends. It always ends up being an employee who can't perform or who under-performs and is looking for a little green." 


Demonizing the victim is a classic strategy. If the victim is poor or has financial difficulties, she is apparently fair game because the harasser then can claim she accused him only to get a pay-off. Are murderers exonerated because the victim was poor and lived in an unsafe neighborhood? When did US conservatives change  "the rule of law" to the point that a victim's financial status becomes a factor? If a Lexus runs a red light and collides with a 1987 pickup truck, are we to presume it must be the fault of the pickup driver?


I guess it is no big surprise that Rush Limbaugh does not recognize sexual harassment as the Neanderthal crime it is, but as a political tool. He said: "You know what sexual harassment is? You know what it really is? It'a political tool. It is a political tool invented by the left. And - for the express pur...(sic) - just like political correctness is a political tool of the left to shut people down, sexual harassment is a political tool of the left to get rid of people or to score money gains, whatever is most desired." I get it. Privacy, respect, decency, honor, and courtesy are all "political tools" of the Big Bad Left. (Please note: I refrained from making any cheap references to "tools" in this context.)


Apparently, sexual harassment is just another "inconvenient truth" the neoconservatives deny. To them, it ranks right up there with other things that do not exist, things like evolution, pollution, racism, and global warming.

(The above quotations are taken from an article by Paul Rosenberg.)

Kasich's Newspaper Lie

Ohio Governor Kasich (R) has lied before and, chance are, he will again. However, this is his latest example. 


On Monday John Kasich (R) said: "You should know, I don't read newspapers in the state of Ohio. Very rarely do I read a newspaper."  His statement raises questions. Does he read? Does he read newspapers from other states? Does he read the legislation the Koch brothers write for him? Since he is a Wall Streeter, does he read Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal? On the other hand, I am confident he can read. After all, he left Pennsylvania to get an education at The Ohio State University.


But, back to the lie. The next day, Tuesday, he told the Dispatch (Columbus) he was unaware of Strickland's policy change until he read read a story in the Dispatch. So about the time he was saying he doesn't read newspapers. he was in fact reading the Dispatch!

Mitt Romney Purposely Lies

My father was fond of the quote: "By their works you will know them."


I was reminded of that recently when I saw Mitt Romney's television ad which misrepresents President Obama.
The ad shows President Obama saying, "if we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose," but does not point out that Obama was quoting John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign.


There is no nice way of characterizing Romney's ad other than calling it what it is, an outright, purposeful LIE.


As far as I know Romney has taken no action to pull the ad. Although he knows it is a lie, he is hoping there are voters out there who don't know the truth and will therefore believe President Obama actually said that in reference to the upcoming elections.


It is reminiscent of George H. Bush's campaign ad featuring Willie Horton and appealing to racial fear.  George H. Bush never embraced the ad but he never asked his campaign to pull it. Likewise, his son, George W. Bush, never rejected the false "Swift Boat" ads against John Kerry.


In my book, and my father's book, a candidate who purposefully and knowingly lies in a campaign is not fit to be President of the United States.


Sorry Mitt. This country can do better than that.

What Was Romney Trying to Hide?

Mitt Romney

"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney admitted Monday that he and his team had destroyed official government records for purely political reasons.

WCVB-TV reported Friday that as Romney’s term as governor Massachusetts was ending, all of his administration’s emails were wiped from the servers. At the same time, eleven of his top aides purchased their computer hard drives for $65 each, and the remaining computers in the governor’s office were wiped clean as well." (Raw Stories, 11/23/2011) This admission came after days of trying to duck the question.

What is it with Republicans and transparency? If Romney worked so hard and spent so much money to become Governor of Massachusetts,  he surely understood that as governor he was a public employee working for the people of the state. If he had been working for Proctor and Gamble, he certainly would have realized that his employer owned all the records and could scrutinize his emails. It seems that he and other Republican governors do not want to admit that they are public servants; they apparently see themselves as lords of the manor, not accountable to the peasants.


As you may recall, Sarah Palin fought for months to conceal her emails from her time as Governor of Alaska. Another GOP presidential candidate, Texas Governor, Rick Perry, was systematically deleting emails until September, at which time a court ordered him to stop destroying public records. Sunday, a South Carolina paper, The State, reported that Republican Governor, Nikki Haley, had deleted "most emails that were sent prior to Oct.3."  So much for her campaign promise of transparency.


If one works for the people, the people have the right to see what you are doing. Apparently these governors have trouble grasping that concept.


And then there is the question: what are they trying to hide?  Years ago we learned that when Richard Nixon fought so hard to keep his tapes secret, he was indeed trying to hide criminal activity.

Are You a 1% Wannabe?

Even with my limited math skills, I realize that most of us are not and never will be among the top 1% in terms of wealth. We are and will always be among the 99% who share the leftovers after the 1% has taken the majority of the nation's wealth.


If that's the case, how does a major political party like the GOP, who caters to the interests of the 1%, remain politically competitive? Would not the 99 % win every election? Perhaps, the answer lies in the fact that wealth is power in this country, and the wealthy and huge corporations have the ability to use their power to drown out the message of the troublesome 99%.


Another, less obvious answer is that there are millions of "1% Wannabes." They apparently vote in favor of the 1% in the hope that they maybe among them one day. Fat chance! Oh, okay, if you have a billion dollars that you did not earn yourself, and you don't pay any federal income taxes, you might make the elite 1%.


So who are these 1% wannabes? I thought you would never ask.


You might be a 1% wannabe,


1) if you are too busy making a living to notice the crimes committed by Wall Street and the Big Banks.
2) if you think educational opportunity should be based on one's wealth.
3) if you think the Koch brothers are unbiased philanthropists.
4) if you think the wealth of the 1% is going to trickle down and land in your sorry pocket.
5) if you actually thought the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy were temporary.
6) if you think Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia are not influenced by the fees they receive from the wealthy members of Federalist Society.
7) if you watch Fox "News" on a semi regular basis.
8) if you agree with Grover Norquist that Americans should never sacrifice financially for the sake of their country.
9) if you think Wall Street and the pharmaceutical Industry can and will regulate themselves.
10) if you think providing a tax cut for the wealthy is more important than providing a health care safety net for our most vulnerable..
11) if you thought John McCain's "friend" from Toledo, Joe the Plumber, is an economic genius.
12) if you believe, as the Puritans, that material wealth is a sign from God that one is "chosen." 
13) if you think that the Republicans have not been redistributing the nation's wealth to the few. 
14) if you think the "Corporate Good" is more important than the "Common Good."
15) if you think US police should club, pepper spray, and shoot rubber bullets at OWS protesters.
16) if you think Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan is good for the country.
17) if you think Mitt Romney has a just and fair economic plan, or any plan at all.
18) if you think the health care plan of Congress is okay for them, but too good for the rest of us.
19) if you think a major corporation is a person, as the Edwards' court ruled.
20) and finally, if you think that we should not be equal by law, but that the wealthy should be given special privileges because of their wealth.


Face it, if you agree with most of the above, you are an advocate of plutocracy, not democracy.

Rick Perry: GOP's Hockey "Goon"

Gunslinger Turned Goon?

Since Rick Perry has raised all this money but cannot win the nomination due to his his own incompetence, he and the Republicans have a new strategy for this election season: use all that corporate and pac money to trash the President of the country. And if his attacks are incorrect or untruthful, neither he or the party will have to tak responsibility for the sleaze because he is not going to be the GOP candidate. He can just sit back there on his hunting reserve and take pop shots as the President. (By the way, Rick, if your youth was so poverty-stricken, why does your father have a hunting preserve. My middle class friends can't afford that kind of luxury.)


In hockey the goon is a player of moderate, or even lees, skill whom the team can put on the ice simply to pick a fight with one of the skilled players on the other team. His job is to get the skilled opponent in the penalty box or, better yet, injure him. Once he has accomplished his goal, he is pulled and replaced by a real hockey player.


Rick Perry had every intention of being a real player, but given his ineptitude, it is apparent he is not going to be the GOP nominee. However,  he can still attempt to help the Republicans by being the "goon,"  attacking the President with a barrage of falsehoods a  la the "Swift Boat" crowd. His recent TV ads are indicative of the new strategy.

Stop Cell Phone Telemarketers

Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month!

REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public this month.

REMINDER..... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls.

.... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 1-888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list It will only take a minute of your time.. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked.You cannot call from a different phone number.

HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON .. It takes about 20 seconds. 

(Thanks to Jacob Roig for the above XBarbarian post.)

Avoiding Restaurant Identity Theft

Hand-held Credit Card Terminal

NBC has reported that waiters at some of New York City's top restaurants have engaged in credit card identity theft of over a million dollars. The danger of such theft occurs every time  a customer turns over his credit card to a waiter or waitress who takes the card out of sight of the customer. The waiter can then scan the card with his smartphone as he prepares the customer's receipt. He can then use the info himself to purchase a big screen TV from Amazon or sell the information to an identity-theft ring.


Having spent two weeks in France recently, I was fascinated to observe how French waiters handled credit cards. When the customer had looked over his bill, the waiter would come to the table with a small,  hand-held device, swipe the card, return the card to the customer, print out a receipt for the customer to sign, and a 2nd receipt for the customer to keep. The credit card is never out of the customer's sight. These small hand-held readers were used everywhere, from fine Parisian restaurants, side-walk cafes, to small unknown restaurants in small towns.


My question:  if they are really serious about counteracting identity theft, why don't American Credit Card Companies and restaurants use this  technology?  I suspect the initial cost is not much different than the hard-wired systems they are currently using.


Perhaps, as consumers and customers,  we should begin demanding this basic security.

GOP Science: Pizza is a Vegetable

              

Background: First Lady Michelle Obama is spearheading a campaign against childhood obesity and fostering  healthy diets coupled with more physical exercise. In January, the USDA proposed limiting, but not eliminating,  french fries and pizza from federally-subsidized school lunch programs.

Result: food corporations that sell frozen pizza and their lobbyists "convince" the Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee to reject the new USDA rules. Now congress is seriously considering categorizing pizza as a vegetable in order to protect corporate profits. Children's health be damned! (Ronald Reagan, who tried to tell us that ketchup was a vegetable, would be proud.)


Yesterday, having breakfast with my old friend, Sly (his real name is Sylvester, and his last name is not Stallone), I mentioned this latest attempt by the GOP to enhance the Corporate Good over the Common Good, and Sly was off and running. While his biscuits and gravy were getting cold, he came up with the following bits of wisdom:


1) "Damn, the're onto something there. If  pizza is a vegetable, beer is a grain, and grain is on that health pyramid thingy."


2) "Come to think of it, tobacco is a good ole American plant. It's closer to a vegetable than any pizza I've seen."


3) "Anyway, I have to find myself some of those pizza seeds for my vegetable garden;  my sweet peas jus' don't do it for me."


4) "Ronnie Reagan grew up in Iowa and he knew ketchup was a vegetable, so why are you questioning the pizza thing. When I went to school, we had nothing to eat but stale bread and lemon peels. Pizza's got to be better than that."


5) "Also, pizza's good for the kids' classical education. What other vegetable came from, Rome?"


6) "They should serve Fruit Loops with the pizza and then kids would have their fruits and vegetables at school and they could go home and eat junk food."


7) "That's not all, if pizza is a vegetable, strawberry Kool-aid must be a fruit .Plus it has all that extra sugar. Is sugar a vegetable too?"


8) "Somebody once told me that tomatoes are really fruits, but I'm sure the Republican congressmen know a vegetable when they see it."


9) "French fries with ketchup as an appetizer, followed by a main course of pizza. Two vegetables in one meal! Can't beat that."


10) "Anyway, this should shut up you liberal socialists who say the Republicans are anti-science."


Sly went on like this for some time, but I stopped writing down his gems so that I could finish my breakfast. When he finally stopped talking, he tried his biscuits and gravy, only to find they were quite cold. He called the waitress over to complain and wanted her to bring him a fresh order. "Sorry sir," she said, "we are no longer serving breakfast, but I could bring you a slice of pizza."

The Common Good and Common Ground

    


Since I have always admired the wisdom of our Founding Fathers' insistence on the separation of church and state in the US Constitution, I am somewhat dismayed that many who claim to honor the Constitution are also the ones who are willing to blur the line between church and state.

 In the current GOP presidential campaign, some candidates are essentially equating being a true American with being a true Christian. Such a position, I submit,  is un-American. In addition, two of the presidential candidates who are Mormon are being questioned because of their religion. In Minnesota a politician is being condemned because he took the oath of office with his hand on the Quran (in fact, Thomas Jefferson's Quran). Where will this nonsense end? Are some Christians going to demand that an elected official must take the oath of office on the King James Bible and not a newer translation ? Are we going to eliminate from our armed forces all Muslims, Jews, and atheists? If Christianity had been the litmus test of serving our country, some of our Founding Fathers would not have been able to serve since they were in fact deists.


Unfortunately, contrary to the Constitution and the wishes of the Founding Fathers, some of our fellow Americans seem intent on creating a Christian theocracy. Perhaps they envision a modern Christian crusade in which an American Christian theocracy attacks a Muslim Iranian theocracy? A return to the Middle Ages with modern weapons? Such insanity is perhaps what our Founding Fathers foresaw and wished to avoid when they drafted the Constitution.


On the other hand, almost all religions agree on some basic principles, and I think it is quite right that elected leaders espouse these principles without breaching the wall of separation of church and state. And these principles are quite simple:


1) tell the truth
2) face the facts
3) listen,specially to a differing opinion
4) help others and do no injury
5) mind your own business and stay out of your neighbor's business
6) act in the interest of the common good 
7) play fair and accept responsibility for your actions
8) share your blessings
9) do not pull your neighbor down as it does not raise you
10) do not interrupt


Since  almost everyone can agree with.simple principles such as these, we all share this common ground which is above and beyond our differing religious affiliations. Why don't we emphasize this common ground  and work together for the common good? After all, the first sentence of the Constitution says, we the people are founding a new country to "promote the general Welfare...."


In fact, what better common ground is there than the Constitution of the United States?

John Kasich's School Bus Crash

Kasich's School Bus Prior to Crash

When John Kasich became Ohio's governor after receiving less than 50% of the votes cast, he told Ohions to either get on his school bus or be run over by it.

With a legislative program previously prepared by the Koch brothers and a Republican majority in the legislature, he pushed through SB5, a bill eliminating collective bargaining. Ohioans demanded a referendum and on 11/8/2011 Kasich's bus ran into the wall of voter opposition.

Given his present situation, the embarrassed governor is in need of consolation and advice. I am here to offer both:


1) Thank your lucky stars, John, that Ohioans are not able to recall the governor. If they were, ....can you spell T-O-A-S-T?


2) If you have not mastered training wheels, do not consider driving a school bus.


3) Once you have wrecked the bus, it is a good idea to get your ass off before it explodes.


4) Having wrecked the damn thing, try to find someone you can blame. Unfortunately, I can't think of anyone but you.


5) Although it's a little late in this case, in the future you may want to consider negotiation and compromise. Just saying.


6) And, of course, John, you can always go back to Wall Street where you receive a bonus for screwing up.


7) If you want a quick "pick-me-up,"  you could sell the Ohio Turnpike to a private corporation....or sell Lake Erie to Dasani bottled water (Coca Cola). After all, privatization of public assets is conservative codeine.


8) Do a George-W-Bush move. Hurry up and sign a book deal with Random House. The longer you wait, the less money you will be able to get. And don't worry; you don't have to actually write a book yourself. Please tell me you didn't think GWB wrote that book.


9) And if the Ohio Highway Patrol questions you about speeding when you wrecked the school bus, please do not call them "idiots" or ask them "Do you know who I am?" They know who you are -- the guy who tried to reduce their pay and pensions.


10) And finally, please read "All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" by Robert Fulgham. As the book suggests, one should always remember to flush.