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.

Advise for Herman Cain

Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain

Since Herman Cain ( Republican presidential candidate) appears to lack a credible defense against numerous charges of sexual harassment, he wants us to believe these allegations were invented by his enemies. At first he told us the Rick Perry campaign was generating these charges. Then a day or two later, he changed his mind and informed us that the old Republican boogeyman, the "Liberal Press," was out to get him.


Although Herman has not asked for my advise, I will give it anyway:


1) Continue to blame others for your problems. In addition to Rick Perry and the damned liberal media, you can blame the gays and lesbians, Al Gore and the environmental nuts, the Occupy-Wall-Street protesters, the illegal aliens who got over the wall without being fried, Mitt Romney and the Mormon Underground, along with those slimy, sleazy socialists, And of course it is quite fashionable within the Republican Party to blame all the ills of the world on the Muslims.


2) Seek out the advise of Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas.He knows a thing or two about sexual harassment. I am confident that he will suggest that you attack those whiny women who say that you tried to get in their skirts. Better yet, get some congressional stooges to launch an investigation and attack on your behalf. Never mind that such things are "red herrings."  You have to admit that it worked out pretty well for Clarence Thomas. He has a life-time salary (plus perks) just for sitting there.


3) Consult Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's exiting  Prime Minister. He seemingly made a career of sexual harassment and is proud of it.


3) Blame your alleged groping on the modern state of morals that encourages women to participate in the work place and tempt good Christian men to seek the forbidden fruit. Shame on those hussies!


4) Convince Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin to issue statements saying that you have never groped either of them and, that being the case, they could not conceive of you groping other women.


5) And if all this fails, "man up" and explain why your employer paid many thousands of dollars to make these allegations go away.


Herman, just to be clear, I do not expect to be paid a consulting fee for this advice