Sabinal Blue

Who pays?

2009-11-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

The "health care" bill has passed in the Senate. To whose benefit? As always, fast forward to the final line:

"The bill includes tax increases on insurance companies, medical device makers, patients electing to undergo cosmetic surgery and drugmakers."

So, let's get this straight - the insurance companies are going to "eat" the new tax? Right! Maybe those who make medical devices will elect to "eat" the tax increases? Right! No, I know, it'll be the drugmakers! They will, naturally "eat" the new taxes! Right!

People who were burned in a fire and need skin grafts. Well, they are only people, so they WILL pay taxes. Those guys I feel for.

As always, it is NOT the companies that will pay these new taxes, but the consumers. AND, if the taxes are 5%, the companies will raise their prices 10%. If the taxes are 30%, the companies will raise their prices 60%. And blame the government.

Don't we all?

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

"Stupid"

2009-07-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Obama has done many things to make me sad, but this one has me angry at him. He was 100% correct in calling the police racist and stupid earlier this week. Now it's all over the news saying he regrets saying it.

Why? Because stupid racists are mad at him for saying it? Stick to your guns on something - this was too obviously stupid & racist, why back down? So far he's backed down on getting out of Iraq, and has raised the stakes way high in Afghanistan, has bac-pedaled on what the citizens and doctors of our country overwhelmingly want in favor of the profits, has even one and bought a car company for tax payers that we didn't want, but will accept the day they give every american family a free electric car. You KNOW the CEO of GM gets a free car as a benefit. Now we are the owners of the company, but we won't see any perks. We can have socialized car building without the perks, but we can't have socialized medicine because some stupid insurance companies need to make a profit.

Ah, heck with it. The man can't even hold firm with stupid racist cops, how can we expect him to hold firm against the military and the insurance comapny profit machines?

Yes

2009-05-26T21:04:00.000-07:00

Too quiet.. US troops are in Afghanistan because . . .

2009-03-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

I've been quiet about Obama for two reasons. First, he needs his 100 days to stop campaigning and start getting to work. Second, he's making too dang many mistakes every day for me to even start talking about. I'd be talking all day.

He's busy this week trying to convince us his budget is smart. He's not convincing me. I do love the fact that he's not trying to sweep the cost of the wars we are engaged in under the rug any longer, and including them in the budget. That's a plus. But it's also a minus. Because the budget doesn't answer the question: Why are US troops in Afghanistan? Click on the link and you'll find that Google found two answers, neither of which are from the government or the military. In fact, the answers are from people like you and me that really do not know the answer.

Obama ran on making a change and being open. He's making a change - sending more troops to Afghanistan. But he's not being open about the reasons he wants more American soldiers killed there. Ask all your friends and strangers you meet for the next few days. Their answers will be no better or worse than the answers on the two pages Google can find, really lame answers.

The best answer I heard this week when I asked that question was "to keep the price of heroin low". I checked, and turns out that's true - more heroin is leaving afghanistan than ever before, bringing supplies way up and costs way down. Interesting, but still not excuse enough to have one more death of an American because he was ordered to go.

I really love the answer by one of the regular folks that says: because we are part of NATO. North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Anyone looked at a map lately?

Wanna talk economy? No, neither do I. Gotta be rich to get bailed out, that's the lesson of both Bush & Obama. Republican, Democrat. It doesn't really matter. Just don't ask how the money is getting into their pockets and we'll be at peace. I was very sad to hear of protesters being arrested last week. Obama promised to bring change and listen to people. I guess his definition of people is different than ours.

Future taxes (handout aka bailout) vrs forward thinking

2009-03-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

In the US our government is using future taxpayer mnoney (from my grandchildren, basically) to make a few extremely rich people even richer in what they are calling "bail-outs". It's a smoke-screen, and most citizens know it, but we are are not going to start a revolution, so the rich will stay rich and the middle class will become poor. Such is life.

It does intrigue me, however, that there are companies that refuse to participate in the bail-out (actually hand-out), and think more of reality. I love this from the guy running HP:

In fact when it comes to the economic downturn, Mr Banerjee said it is not a major focus of concern.

"We are not looking at the recession," he told the BBC. "We are looking at investment in technology for the long term so that HP is fully prepared to provide its customers with a variety of choices when we get out of the recession.

"Innovation is not for the next quarter, it is for the next two years, five years from now. The key is to invest in innovation that truly matters."

Read the whole article

The gig is up

2009-02-16T17:16:00.000-08:00

Heh-heh. Yep, we're smart all right. Let's see. Two days ago some satellites collided in space. No biggie, life happens. Today two nuclear subs collide in the ocean. Yep, we're high-tech all right.

Last week a truck accidentally cut an optic cable running across the road outside the school. Nothing lost, but no net access for a few days.

Heard something similar happened in the Mediterranean a month ago, but that took out a lot more than a school building.

Yep, we're high tech. Hey! No mare TV starting tomorrow, right? We are great!

Heard that Korea s begging for us to attack. HA! And the President announced again that he's still going to support all the Bush policies, and can't figure out why the Republicans won't back him. Heck, they started it all.

Oops, wait, I just remembered. Gore started the Internet. Tax, that is.

Oh Well

2009-02-14T08:01:00.000-08:00

It's always a dream, I guess - hoping the new boss is different than the old boss. So far Obama has reneged on every promise that I cared about (closing the Cuban prison, ending torture, revamping the budget, and most importantly ending the war). He's carrying on with Bushes plans in all these areas instead of stepping forward with "Bold New Plans". I'm disappointed, but not surprised.

I love the line "I inherited a trillion dollar deficit". So, what's the answer? "Double It!" If the deficit makes things bad for the country, then dang it, let's show that we can make it twice as bad.

The bail-out was a joke when Bush suggested it AND got it through congress- a minor miracle in itself. Obama, instead of negating the bailout, said, Hey! These guys deserve $500,000 a year, let's bail them out some more." The fun part, of course, is they ca simply change their job titles and steal more than $500,000 from the coffers; but that's another story.

Another fun line is "the economists are telling me this is the best way". HA! He shoulda talked to my mom, his mom, anyone's mom. Spending money you do not have is never "the best way". The only people who think this is the best way are people who think the system is going to collapse anyway, "so here's our last chance to get out with our pockets filled with someone else's money".

The only thing he's honest about that I can see is the promise that the next few years will be hard on the poor and middle class. What's sad is those are the folks whose votes he courted. Typical.

I was hoping he'd end the war in 10 days, close Guantanamo in one day, put bush & cheney on trial for war crimes - set an example to future despots that war crimes will be labeled correctly by the United States of America, that he'd jail the mortgage bankers who cheated and lied to their customers, and take the failing companies whose workers have always starved while the bosses partied hearty and turn the companies over to the workers to run. Autos can be built without bureaucrats. In fact, everything that has ever been built has been built without bureaucrats - the workers build it, the bureaucrats have profited from their labor.

He should have stood up and declared the failed No Child Left Behind act as a failure. Instead, he's promising to reform it. A guy with his education should have learned somewhere along the line that you cannot reform failure. Simply closing the Department of Education and returning the responsibility of educating back to educators would have been wisdom.

And on and on I go, same old arguments - some of which Obama accepted when he was a candidate, and has now rejected. His children are now in private school, his goal has been reached. Everything else can be forgotten now.

Oh well.

Hmmm

2009-02-05T20:32:00.000-08:00

Hamid Karzai has become increasingly vociferous in his criticism of American military tactics and has been making half-hearted threats to shift his allegiance to Moscow if he does not get his way.

Am I wrong in saying "Why Not?" They don't want us, we certainly don't intend to do anything serious there in regards to stopping heroin & Bin Laden's troops, so why not? There's no way America can bring peace to the region. We helped them defeat the Russians with the help of Bin Laden a few years back. If the guy we propped up as a puppet would rather ally with the Russians, why the heck not? What have we got to lose? So our heroin becomes more costly. So what?

Let me know where my thinking is off.

I'm lost

2009-01-19T20:34:00.002-08:00

I can't figure out what this trial is about:

A judge held pretrial hearings for Omar Khadr, who was 15 when he allegedly killed a U.S. soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer of Albuquerque, New Mexico, with a grenade during a battle in Afghanistan in 2002.

This guy has been held for 6 years, and is finally an adult (21 years old now). He finally comes to trial for killing an enemy during war? Where does that lead us? Does every American soldier who kills an enemy during war now have to face trial also? Seems to me if you put this young man on trial, then every American in Iraq and Afghanistan needs to go on trial too.

Something's not computing in my brain.

Prison time!

2009-01-11T10:01:00.000-08:00

This just in:

Obama repeated his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but suggested it might not happen within his first 100 days in office.

100 days? What? Sheesh. Give me the job. I can close it in one day. Send the drivers and cooks back home on a transport, and put the Americans who are torturing people in a military prison in the US. Let the Cubans keep all the jeeps and cameras. Done. 24 hours. Sheesh - let Keifer Sutherland do the job. Look at all he can accomplish in 24 hours!

Billions

2009-01-11T09:41:00.001-08:00

I didn't a good way of figuring out how much $700 billion dollars is. All I know is it sounded like a heck of a lot of money. So I sat down and figured it out with a pencil and paper. This "bail-out" to the rich will cost each American citizen $3,500. For a family of 4 that's only $14,000. That's a full six months of my pay. So, I will work for a full six months to keep some rich man rich while my family subsists on our hard-earned savings, including our cashed-in-IRAS, which are worth 1/7 of what they were worth a year ago. At least the 10% cash-in tax will be 1/7 of what it was a year ago.

I heard our new prez talk about a 4 TRILLION dollar economy boost. That amounts to $20,000 for each citizen of the US. For a family of 4 that's $80,000. 3.3 years of my labor to pay off some rich folks. Add that to the already famous bail-out, I will be working 3.8 years of my life just for this bail-out. I don't mind helping my neighbor, in fact, I believe in that. By why does it always have to be my rich neighbors? Wouldn't it be nice if I could decide which neighbor got it? And, perhaps, some so my family could afford sheets, underwear, towels, etc.

I did splurge last week and bought 4 pillows for $40. First new pillows we've had in 10 years. Also, the new diet won't be bad for me, I am overweight by some 40 pounds. There's good comes out of everything. Only thing is, my wife isn't overweight. That's not a real prob, I can simply eat less and be sure she gets more. She doesn't like that - she's used to me eating much more than her, and she's balking at my scheme. We'll see who wins. At least the government has given us new things to discuss.

The only really bad thing is I sat and figured out that I won't be able to pay off my new debts to the rich before I die if I live even 10 years beyond 'average'. That means my children and grandchildren will incur my share of the government debt spent by the government this year. That saddens me. Oh well, nothing I can do about it except compalin, and Lord knows I'm tired enough of that.

I know that Obama didn't create the problem, but I do know he could choose to be radical and simply let all the rich go bankrupt. Wouldn't hurt the rest of us any, and the average family will be $94,000 less poor. Sheesh, that's enough to GIVE each family a nice brand-new home instead of buying yachts and mansions for the rich. Why is NO ONE talking about THAT in the media?

2008-12-14T12:43:00.000-08:00

Optomism waning

2008-12-13T00:04:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to stay optomistic about our next President. It's still very difficult to see where he is different from Bush. He plans to stay in Iraq, expand Afghanistan, continue the No Child Left Behind act, continue bailing out big business (with lip service to 'main street' - ha!). He talks about raises for 'some teachers' (ones who raise those phony test scores - a monkey can do that - a teacher helps kids actually learn how to be a life-long learner, not a bubble filler). It's difficult to remain optimistic, but I'm trying.

DOUBLE WOW!

2008-11-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

I always use the BBC news because I don't trust the US newspapers to tell the truth. Well, on something as important as the Iraqi Security Pact, it seems like facts are necessary.

Turns out the Associated Press left out most of the facts, and tried to make it sound like this benefits the US.

Read for yourself.

(US) Associated Press

(UK) BBC

Of course, the US proclaims to be the only country in the world with a free press. HA! Thank you for the internet! We can discover truths we're not supposed to know. AARRGGGHHHH

WOW! Security Pact Approved by Iraqi Cabinet

2008-11-16T08:55:00.000-08:00

Time for the rubber to meet the road here. Here's the agreement for the US to stay in Iraq, released today:

* placing US forces in Iraq under the authority of the Iraqi government
* US forces to leave the streets of Iraq's towns and villages by the middle of 2009
* US forces to hand over their bases to Iraq during the course of 2009
* US forces to lose the authority to raid Iraqi homes without an order from an Iraqi judge and permission of the government.

I am very interested in the first one. Suppose I am a member of the US Army. I volunteered to do this. Now, I am serving overseas with many extensions on my term because my fellow citizens aren't joining up to help me kill and maim people who aren't truly our enemies. But, I joined in good faith to protect MY country, the United States of America, blind to all the political truths.

I feel good despite the chaos we have created, because I am serving MY country. Now, on December 31, 2008 my government has made the choice for me to no longer be under US authority, but under Iraqui authority. What do I do? Do I mamby-pamby and grin and bear it, or do I stand up and say, "No"?

It will be interesting to watch what the men and women who serve in the military do.

My opinion, such as it's worth, is that this deal is pretty dang good for Iraq. I'm all for it in principal. But I know this does not bode well for the future of our military.

I believe in protecting my country from a foreign invader. I do not believe in serving my country in order to steal from another country, as we're doing in Iraq in Afghanistan. I will not support that. But suppose Canadians decided to go ahead and rush for the borders ready to kill every American they see? It sure would be great to have a military to mess up their plans. However, what bright 18 year old is going to join the US military with the knowledge that they will no longer serve the United States, but a foreign government?

What is not coming out, but I'm trying to find out - is this a done deal? Is this the plan the US government approved & signed already? I do not recall any public debates over whether or not we should hand our troops over to the Iraqi government? Are we as citizens going to continue to allow deals to be made in private, without our knowledge? Did Congress approve this? Does the President have the authority to do this without Congress? What about the Supreme Court? Shouldn't they weigh in on something this serious? Many questions. I'm interested if there are any answers.

New President-Elect

2008-11-04T20:38:00.000-08:00

Just heard McCain's gracious speech. I am thrilled that the ugly denial of voters rights in places the past two presidential elections were not repeated tonight. I'm sure we will regain our standing in the world's eyes as people who care for our fellow earthlings, not people who have a sick and ugly desire to dominate every corner of the earth for capitalistic gain. We shall see, but I am trusting that President-Elect Obama will at least be open to the truth that we do not live alone on this planet.

Sounds like President-Elect Obama is going to speak on the radio. Let's see if he moves us forward in spirit!

Wisdom

2008-10-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

This from the Canadian Prime Minister Harper:

"There's no way the prime minister should start panicking during a stock market fall, or should start making up a new economic policy in the middle of a campaign."

Too bad Americans do not have the same wisdom. The markets fell, the markets will rise again. With or without government interference. If there was no campaign on, or a need to pay off old friends, then the government would be steering clear of this "crisis" and calling it what is really is, a correction in the market. Real estate has been tremendously overvalued, as have stocks in recent years. Pretending they haven't is just playing into the hands of greed.

Could We Win By Default?

2008-10-08T19:28:00.000-07:00

Amazing - the Associated Press is finally letting it be published in the US newspapers. Most of us have known that the US had to be out of Iraq by December 31, because the government cannot censor all foreign newspapers. Since it did not censor this US press release from Bagdhad, I can only think that the war may possibly be over finally - before the next President takes office. That will be a great relief all around for everyone!!! Now, if we can just get McCain to stop making threats to Iran and North Korea, there's a slight chance the next President can help the US find grace with the world again.

AP BAGHDAD - A U.S.-Iraqi security agreement spelling out how American troops and contractors operate was supposed to be in place over the summer, but the thorniest issues remain unsettled and neither side is budging.

Time is running out. The deal must be finished and ratified by Iraq's parliament before Dec. 31, when the U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S. military mission expires. Otherwise, there will be no legal basis for the U.S. presence in Iraq.

For President Bush, some of the pressure to get a fast deal has faded since Iraq is no longer a dominant issue in the presidential campaign.

Too Exhausting

2008-10-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

NOW THEY DECIDE TO INVESTIGATE!!!! I told you so no longer suffices. We all knew the truth, but Congress refused to listen to the Amrican people. We should, really and truly, insist that congress go without pay for the next 230 years. This is what used to be called taxation without representation, because they ARE NOT representing US. Arrgghhh.

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer 7 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The now-bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers arranged millions in bonuses for fired executives as it pleaded for a federal lifeline, lawmakers learned Monday, as Congress began investigating what went so wrong on Wall Street to prompt a $700 billion government bailout.

More: The rest of the story...

Debates Again

2008-10-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm nuts. I keep listening to the debates, mostly to find out why Koreans are singled out for being short.

I did learn that Mr McCain wants to be Miss Congeniality, and Mrs McCain wants to be Joe 6 Pack. She doesn't mind gay rights, which is good, but for whatever reason she's against gay marriages. Maybe Miss Congeniality can steer her in the right direction, since she wants to be "a Joe 6-Pack".

Just keeps getting better

2008-10-03T20:04:00.000-07:00

Yay!!! President Bush signed it into law. Now, not only the rich benefit, but also gives "breaks for such narrowly focused groups as motor sports racetrack owners, film producers." Cool. Now that motor sport race track I bought can make me some real money. Sorry teachers, you're not as important to this country as the racetrack owners. Shoulda produced films instead of thinking of helping the next generation of kids grow up and get jobs so they can also help support the rich.

And I love this tag line: "The measure also has $8 billion in tax breaks for disaster victims."

Think about it.

$700 Billion dollars free to 1000 of the most rich Americans. $8 Billion for the approx 12 million folks who were affected by a disaster this year. Of course, the disaster folks get to write it off. The Rich folks get direct grants. Each rich person gets a full grant of (where's that calculator?) $700,000,000. Each person affected by a disaster can write off $1,500. So what if they lost their home and their job, their small business, their school, their memories? They can write off $1500 off their taxes this year, while 1000 of their favorite Americans can place $700,000,000 more dollars in their off-shore accounts. Oops, I forgot, they each owe Bush a 10% finders fee, so they'll only net $693,000,00 each. Poor folks, I feel so sorry for them.

Texas Senators & Congressman

2008-10-03T19:41:00.000-07:00

Both went for the rich:

Texas: Cornyn (R-TX), Yea Hutchison (R-TX), Yea

You know I'll be telling everyone I meet.

Your state listed here:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213

On the Congressional side, at least my local guy voted with the people. He has my full support. Thanks Ciro - you KNOW people will be hearing about this too. I'm sad so many did not show the cajones that you did and stand up for the people that really make this nation work. At least you did the right thing, and you know that we're proud of you for that. We don't see eye to eye on everything, as you know; but when you are willing to stand up against the pressure of liars and people giving away free gifts to congress, let's just say I'm proud to give you my vote. Wish I could say the same about one of the Presidential contenders. Neither voted for the people of the United States. Kinda sad.

Congressional votes here:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml

Questions I Don't Hear

2008-10-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out Social Security? Nope. Let them eat cake.

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out Medicare/Medicaid? Nope - would reek of socialism.

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out our infrastructure? Nope - no lobby for that.

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out failing school buildings? Nope - kids can't vote and do not contribute to campaign funds.

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out teachers who are paid way under the poverty level? Nope. We keep them too busy to complain. Plus, we all know even if teachers did complain about low wages nothing would be done. Most people do not realize that garbage truck drivers make more than teachers, as do police and fire workers.

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out Nasa/science/research for cancer/research for alternative forms of energy/etc? Of course not.

Would the government give 700 Billion dollars to bail out Executives of failing companies? Now, that is enticing. Let's go for that one. They contribute a lot, and have lots of free vacations, jet rides, surprise boxes in Senator's private homes, etc etc. Can't let friends down.

Clearly they don't speak truth

2008-10-01T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, the senate roll call did not appear in one hour. Nor did it appear in 2 hours. Which could simply mean the webmaster is smarter than the senate and myself, and is tucked in bed sleeping soundly.

And that brings up a great question - why was this vote taken after Sundown? What is the big deal and secrecy about all that? Why did the congress vote late on Sunday? That is strange when you think about it. Like they can't do this in the light of day, because there's no light in the bill. Kinda reminds me of what the Sanhedrin did. These zealots are no different - can't face the light of truth.

Found Text of Senate Bill

2008-10-01T19:08:00.000-07:00

Okay. Took a bit of searching, but found it. Have to link through cnn below. Bottom line, instead of 110 pages no one read, the senate version is 451 pages of stuff no one read and is offering lots and lots of promises to some big businesses that you won't hear about in the news. Read the text, and be prepared to start throwing things.

We have the luxury to read what our Senators didn't bother to even glance at.

All 451 pages

Just one of hundreds of examples:

REGULATORY AUTHORITY.—The Secretary of the Treasury or the Secretary’s delegate may prescribe such guidance, rules, or regulations as are necessary to carry out the purposes of this section.

If you ain't angry about these terms, then read again.

Paid off, oops. I mean voted in record time.

2008-10-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

It's over. 75% voted for. Yeah, right. Like 75% of the American people are for this? No way. You know it, I know it.

You know how to stop rape. Expose it and act on it.

You can find out if your senator is one of the 24 good guys or 75 bad guys in about an hour from now here:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_110_2.htm

Just heard

2008-10-01T18:27:00.000-07:00

60 senators have said aye so far (according to CNN). That'll cinch it for the fat cats. BUT, still has to be approved by Congress, if we're still being constitutional. Sounds like they're forcing a second vote. Let's hope that our congressmen still support us and not the rich cats making them all kinds of fat juicy promises. Yep, I let my buddy know he can't count on my vote in 4 weeks if he turns against us now.

Also heard it's like 200 - 1 American People against the fat cats. That doesn't affect the senators who have always rode the big business gravy train. Read what Woodrow Wilson had to say about those senators 100 years ago. Nothing has changed.

Still Proud

2008-09-30T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm still proud of congress. I checked & my local congressman (Ciro Rodriguez) voted against the bail-out, so I'm happy with him to.

But there's lots of pressure on him to turn away from the wishes of his constituents. The newest game in town is to go the other way - through the richer Senators first, and then try to shove it down the throats of the congressfolks. Lets hope the pressure stays hot from the people. After all, there's an election in a few weeks.

The newest gambit: "One of those new clauses will raise the government's guarantee on savings from $100,000 to $250,000. "

LOL!!! If the government cannot afford to pay out the $100,000 guarantees on all the banks that close down, what makes them think we believe they can pay out $250,000 in the same situation. They really do think we are stupid.

2008-09-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, I apologize. Just heard some speeches by Republicans. Apparently they are not against the bill. In fact, they are all for it. They simply voted no because of something Nancy Pelosi, who was for it, said. I dunno what she said to anger so many people, but whatever. Cool with me as long as people continue to keep their hands outta my pocket to make the fat cats even fatter.

The system works

2008-09-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Alright! I know it wasn't my letter, but I'm glad to know that congress was thinking along the same lines as me. Congress votes down bail-out plan. It's both surprising and gratifying that 65% of Republicans, usually known as the big business party, voted against it. Boo boo boo!!! To democrats who voted for the lobbyists over the American people. We often hear the democrats are for us and the Republicans for Big Business. Todays vote proved just the opposite. Weird, but true.

I'm really proud that my congress is awake, and I'm really sad that the two presidential hopefuls were asleep on this one. Does not bode well for the next 8 years to know that people as dumb as Bush are running. Except for the fact that checks and balances WORKS!!! I'm excited.

110 pages - I read them, did you?

2008-09-28T19:57:00.000-07:00

The most important question is - is my family a financial institution? We do, after all, sell our services for cash and use that cash to make investments in food, gas and housing. Occasionally a pair of shoes are nice too, and some clothing so we can continue to appear in public so we can continue to sell our services. Anyway, the food sometimes can't be bought because we have to purchase enough gasoline to make it to the e=areas where our services are needed. I think that qualifies my family as a financial institution. Therefore, I want my portion of the TARP funds. I'm not greedy, either. I simply want the portion you expect my family to pay for. As I read this you are asking my family to pay for approx $350,000 of this bail-out for the rich. That's way more than the retirement plan that Nancy Pelosi said she's protecting. Oh yes, I know - you're not asking me to pay off the debt you are placing my family into right away - you plan for us to pay it all back, with interest, so our total payment in 30 years will actually amount to $2,346,786.37. Yeas, I got it, I understand. Interest. Of course. Of course, we should pay the interest, not the rich people you're giving my money to this year. Gotcha. I still think if you simply give us the $350,000 that we can figure out how to survive when those rich folks go bankrupt. You know they'll survive with the funds they have socked away off-shore. Plus, as I understand the bail-out plan, the bail out is not restricted to US companies. You're more than happy to bail out foreign-based companies also. Fine. Do what you want. Just give me my share first and let me decide which one I think needs to be bailed out. I'm sure these guys have no intention of giving it back to us anyway. Be serious - when is the last time a company allowed a worker to stay around in the company long enough to actually retire. Hasn't happened in many years - so you can't fool me by saying you're protecting my pension plan. You know and I know everyone gets downsized at least a year or two before retirement. Yeah, yeah. Give me my family's share and I won't tell anyone else to look at the fine print. I want my TARP. Give me my TARP. I know you want me to stop saying TARP. If I say TARP enough this will pop up on the top of the search engines. In the next few days even though no one will read your 110 pages, the newscasters will say the word TARP, and people will be googling TARP. I hope members of congress will google TARP and read this, because I know they won't have time to read 110 pages before you force them to vote on this TARP stuff. HA! I just figured out why you used a common word like TARP. You think we'll all think we're some sorta ground cover that we can use as a TARP when we lose our houses and have to sleep under the stars. Well, last I thought, which musta been a few years ago, I realized you couldn't legislate away our stars. I know you guys in "elected" government all have great plans to not lose your homes - but I've also seen how many of you have gone to jail the past few years. Lets hope there's at least one honest FBI gent who reads section 127. Much as I think most of our government is corrupt, I still have faith that there's a few good guys out there willing to put you all in jail for pocketing TARP funds, or making sure your relatives and college roommates all get TARP funds. Gotta good feeling my family won't be considered a financial institution, even though we'll be the ones paying for your bailout plan. We're already paying your salary, and your staff's salary. Oh, yeah, you forgot that, didn't you? Those guys in the corporations you're helping buy you fancy things and give you rides in their fancy jets, but they do not pay your salary, your health care, your staff, your secret service agents, all of their dental and eye care plans. I pay that for you. Yep. Regular citizens like me pay for all the necessities, plus a few goodies. All the things the corporations give you, well, that's called personal greed. You don't need it, you just crave it because it's "free". Well, someday we might decide to stop paying your salary. I'm sure you'll survive. You can become a consultant at $10,000 per speech. You can talk about how the citizens finally got angry because you stole their future in order to make some rich people even richer. TARP TARP TARP. I know some of you think this is going on way too long. My point exactly. If you can't bear to read this little bit, do you think you're going to give honest thought to 110 pages? Vote no! I wonder how many of you will take the time to even click on the link to learn more about TARP?

Koreans

2008-09-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

During the Presidential debate one of the freaks said that the North Koreans were shorter than the South Koreans. They made it sound like that was a bad thing. Is it really? If anyone knows, please let me know.

Also, since I'm shorter than the North Koreans, does that inherently make me bad, too?

Full text of debate

Meanderings

2008-09-28T19:10:00.001-07:00

It's a weird race. This time we do not have the "lesser of two evils". Both guys seem like decent folks, still married to the elite cause; but that's nothing new.

As usual, I'm voting a 3rd party. In our country if no one votes for them then they will not be included on the next ballot.

I listened to the debate twice. Note I said "listened". I did not see it. Both men said that they wanted to end the war in Iraq. Both men said they wanted to expand the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both men said Russia was horrible for protecting their allies against Georgian aggression. Both men said it was wrong of Iran to desire clean, cheap nuclear in it's country.

Both men said they supported the bail out of corporations by the corporations. They both have no problem making the rich richer. Both claim they will not rise taxes on the middle class.

That's the only difference I heard. Obama wants to raise taxes on the rich, and McCain doesn't. Obama forgets the simple fact that the rich live off the slave labor of the citizens that will be voting for him. When he raises their taxes, they simply raise their prices and citizens, instead of paying higher taxes, pay higher prices for goods sold. And since everyone gets a cut up and down the system, the prices go higher faster than the taxes would have. No matter. The rich will stay rich no matter what. If they make a mistake and lose some money, both candidates are willing to bail them out.

I do not think either of these men believe they are corrupt. They are both spouting exactly the same rhetoric. They probably aren't any more corrupt than the system is, and the system is totally corrupt. I see it in my little corner of the world because, like it or not, being a teacher means I am working for the government. I see the corruption, even at my level. No teacher would say that testing kids 3 1/2 months a year is good education policy. Yet we do it "for the funding." No one wants to buck the "system". Everyone I talk to agrees it is corrupt, yet we're all at a loss at what to do because even the candidates have exactly the same platform to keep the corruption going forward into the future.

But we survive. And even smile a few times a day. I did like the line that McCain threw out. "We went to Washington to change the system, and it changed us." At least he recognizes the problem. But there's no answer to how to solve it. Once people are being paid to look past their morals, there's no looking back.

Just Peek and Think It Over

2008-09-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

Cynthia McKinney's blog for today (Green Party Candidate)

Also, in the spirit of democracy, we should see all these folks at tomorrow's debate:

Green Party/Cynthia McKinney
Republican Party/John McCain
Democratic Party/Barack Obama
Socialist/Brian Moore
Independent/Ralph Nader
Libertarian/Bob Barr
Prohibition/Gene Amondson
Independent/Alan Keyes
Constitution/Chuck Baldwin
Socialist /Róger Calero
Boston Tea/Charles Jay
Socialism Liberation/Gloria La Riva
New American Ind/Frank McEnulty
LA Taxpayers Party/Ron Paul
Reform Party/Ted Weill

I never heard of the Boston Tea Party as a political party before, but it's got a groove to it's name. I'm also going to look up the Prohibition Party - have no idea what they want to prohibit. Hopefully politicians. Actually, I plan on looking them all up. I did like Cynthia's essay today. Not real clear on whether or not she wants to join the rest of Washington DC and bail out the rich, but at least she'd make demands on them and jail the criminals who are running those companies before giving the bail-out.

The Rich Are Richer, And We Owe More Taxes

2008-09-25T19:09:00.000-07:00

Well, since the prez & both candidates are saying that we are no longer a capitalist society, but an elitist state-run beaurocracy that has its eyes only on the rich there's no more choices for citizens except third parties.

I am really sad that neither candidate is stepping forward to say NO, THIS IS WRONG. In a capitalist society the rich people who make mistakes go down. That's it, life happens. But, we are proving once again that this is not truly a capitalist society, just like it is not truly a democracy.

And life goes on. It does make it hard to face the little children who already owe the government $100,000 when they're in second grade just so people who are already rich can stay rich. And who knows how much each and every citizen will owe the government by the time they graduate high school? I know that they are being set up by our government to forever be enslaved to the rich, and I am being forced to teach them every single day that there is "liberty and justice for all." Yeah, right.

The sad thing is I still want to believe in the dream, even though it's becoming abundantly obvious that it was always simply a dream. I will die knowing that I could do nothing as a fellow citizen of this country to stop the constant sucking of the blood of my grandchildren by the corporations who truly own Obama, McCain, Bush, and the rest of the wimpy politicians who refuse to simply allow the deadbeat rich to go ahead and fold up.

What is the worst that could happen? The rich would stop raping us for mortgages and insurance that they have no intention of honoring. The huge Time-Life-Warner-AOL-Walmart collective would die out and mom & pop stores could return. Small business would flourish again. And that's exactly what the rich fear - the middle class. They don't fear workers. But they have extreme fears of people who can make daily decisions on how to run their own business. The scary folk whom they have systematically made disappear.

Life will go on. And someday one child will become man enough to stand up and JUST SAY NO to the rich. And then we'll have another martyr to celebrate every year in school.

Kinks

2008-09-13T14:55:00.000-07:00

Doesn't matter who you are
You're there and there you are
Everything is in its place
Authority must be maintained
And then we know exactly where we are
Let them feel that they're important to the cause
But let them know that they are fighting for their homes
Just be sure that they're contributing their all
Give the scum a gun and make the bugger fight
And be sure to have deserters shot on sight
If he dies we'll send a medal to his wife

Ray Davies

Pete

2008-09-13T10:05:00.001-07:00

"I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it. But if by some freak of history communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail." -Pete Seeger

Nobel Prize For Pete Seeger Petition

I threw my ticket in the trash

2008-09-12T21:04:00.001-07:00

I thought I had a great ticket in Palin-Obama. But, as always I've learned politicians sound better when they don't say anything.

Today I heard her praising a bunch of 18 year old National Guardsmaen, who are sworn to protect our country, for choosing to go to Iraq to kill "the enemy that killed our citizens". I hate when politicians play this mind-game. It's long been proven the Iraquis had nothing to do with 9-11 (she gave the speech yesterday, on the anniversary of 9-11). It was, in fact, allies of ours that planned and carried out the attack (Saudi Arabia).

If we assume she's innocent of knowing these truths, which could very well be; that simply means she is not ready to lead. If, in fact, she simply lied, then again, she is not fit to lead. So, feel free to laugh at my earlier naivete - I feel foolish.

The funniest part is she was talking to a bunch of young men, including apparently her son, who were 11 years old when the attack took place. She has no qualms of sending them, including her son, to death - not to protect our country; but the 'interests' of a few rich people in our country. Shallow.

I heard one commenter suggest that perhaps she wasn't talking about the 9-11 attacks. Perhaps she was talking abut the Iraqui "insurgents" who have killed our troops since we invaded their country. No matter. I only need remind those 'give her a chance' folks that the British called the American revolutionary army "insurgents". On our side of history we call them Patriots. And you and I both know that once the Iraquis finally get us off their soil, they will be holding up their patriots as brave fighters who dies for their country and beat the oil-seeking Americans off their homeland. We all know that no matter how this war "ends", that we will always be seen by the world community as the invaders of a country who had not done one thing to the Sovereign nation of America except refuse to allow our spies in their land. That was the only thing they did against "US".

Sounds like several other countries who are expelling the CIA from their soil in recent days don't believe we'll attack them. Time will tell. We need the CIA to protect the profits of the few - if they're not allowed, then watch the military take the next step. Fascinating how this keeps on happening over and over. "Where have all the flowers gone?"

Bye Ms Palin - it was nice thinking that you had some independence from the machine there for awhile. But I'm learning that I haven't learned either. Truth is no one can get where you are now without being an integral part of the machine. I was just hoping that "A change was (finally) gonna come." I know, the answer is always the same. "There'll be pie in the sky when we die." I can dream, can't I?

Goin' Green

2008-09-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'm siding with my daughter this year. Green party all the way. Unless Palin goes independent and takes Obama as a running mate in the next few weeks, I am definitely in the Green camp.

Glad that decision is made. On to getting back in the trenches and having a great school year.

Teacher Talk

2008-09-03T20:21:00.000-07:00

This is a private conversation, but it was real and so vividly represents the state of education today - test dependence.

Somehow or another a teacher managed to get a day ahead in her lessons. The kids are actually great - doing excellent, and trying their best to please. Monday is the first day of TPRI, a federally mandated test. It goes on all week, and sets the bar for what the kids are learning this year. Supposedly. If that were true, of course, then it wouldn't be controversial.

She said, "maybe I should give the test Friday, since I'm a day ahead. Then next week one day would could do something fun." As soon as she said it she realized and verbalized the fact that someone would get "in trouble" because every child has to take the test on Monday. Federal policy. Gotta do it their way or risk being fired.

So, I suggested, in passing, why not play some spelling games with the words they learned last year. We know the 20 words we cannot use (they're the test words); but it wouldn't hurt to remind them of similar words they learned last year.

She said, without skipping a beat, "Richard, we do not want the kids to do well on this test. We want them to do well on the test at the end of the year. We need to show growth or we will not have jobs." And, of course, she's 100% correct. that's the way the NCLB is written. We are not supposed to teach the children and push them to their best, we are to purposely dumb down our curriculum so we can continue to show growth.

Now, this is not a slumming teacher. She is a great teacher, a 20 year veteran, but one who knows the political realities we have to face to keep our jobs. I have high respect for her skills, and would be extra pleased to have my children attend her class if they were that age. Even though she will keep them from passing this test on Monday to make her score appear "super" at the end of the year, that does not make her a bad teacher or a bad person. Just a politically savvy one. She will teach the kids many many other things, none of which will ever be tested, simply because she's that kind of teacher.

But my heart makes me ponder - what if there were no politics in our schools? What if we simply let all children pass that silly test simply by reminding them of what they already know? How much further can we take them than the state wants? Our kids would be able to reach for the stars! Think for themselves. Read, write, and do arithmetic like children always have.

Oops sorry, another mandated test is coming up. A full week at the beginning of the year. A full week with no teaching, just testing. A full week that we purposely want the children to not do well at so we can show "growth". Oh, me of my, the realities of this profession could lead one to deep depression, except for the fact that kids are resilient and will grow despite our governments best efforts to keep them from reaching their highest potential. The children wil learn despite us, and that's why I love working with them.

The Good News Is Bad

2008-09-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

The bad news is all my gushing yesterday about a stray report in an educational magazine was for naught. Apparently the pressures on real fast to get both parties in line with those making lots of $$$ from NCLB:

GOP Moderate Expects McCain to Back NCLB
castle.jpg

Rep. Michael N. Castle, a key moderate member of the House education committee, says that President Bush dropped the ball on education policy after the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. But he expects that either Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama will support retaining the federal law's commitment to accountability if elected president.

"I believe very strongly we need a president of the United States who is focused on education," Rep. Castle, a Delaware Republican, said Tuesday at an education forum in Minneapolis. "I do not believe we've had that president of late."

So, again, it doesn't matter which party. They're both in it for the rich to get richer. Anyone want to guess why the two largest textbook companies merged into a super-mega text book company? (Houghton Miflin & Harcourt). Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Reading first flat out told school districts to use them or not accept federal money? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the guy in charge of Reading first worked for these textbook companies? No one of either party would listen when we were screaming out against monopolizing our children's by a single entity? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the children we taught to think in the 70's and 80's were refusing to join the military because they were able to analyze for themselves that the military was no longer protecting our country but a few key American corporations? Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the military needs to dumb down our citizenry so they will join whatever war machine necessary to protect the financial interests of the few?

I had the privilege of hearing the speeches from the democratic convention all via podcast & was uplifted by the rhetoric - they truly pretend very well to be concerned about the interests of common people. Hillary's speech was especially stirring, though Barack got a few good ones in about his grandmother, etc. In the end it rings empty because their speeches are not reinforced by the platform they adopted. The platform is easily available as a pdf file from the dnc website.

anyway, I had one good day of gushing - I shoulda known better, but it felt good to feel good for awhile.

The website for the complete text of the quote I borrowed is: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2008/09/gop_moderate.html - There's a picture of Michael N. Castle smiling as he says the things he says in honor of the people finacing his speech. As always - follow the money. Sad.

An interesting day.

2008-09-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

Won't take long for people to now me before they think I'm a die-hard social democrat. And, for the most part that's true.

One of my main button issues is education, mostly because of my job and my care for the kids I teach. So I was very disappointed to read in the democratic platform that they plan not only to keep NCLB, but to "completely fund it" (which is impossible). There's only one good thing in the entire NCLB act, and that's the requirement for teachers to know the subject they're teaching. That only makes sense. Although, I have to admit that one of my favorite teaching positions was one year when I was required to teach math and science (6th grade), and I knew next to nothing about either. I worked my butt off that year, staying excited every day because everything I was learning was new to me, thus fresh for the kids. But it's not something that I'd recommend. When I protested the priciple simply said "you're a great teacher, and I know you'll be great at this." That's called faith. It worked, but I can see why it's important for teachers to know their subject, so that's the only part of NCLB act that makes sense. The downfall to that, however, is that people who major in science and math are NOT going to be teachers - teaching pays approx 1/4 of what they will get in what we call "real life", so it's tough to find people willing to sacrifice their future for the future of children. Not impossible, just tough. As usual, I've igressed.

Okay, back to where I was. The democratic position bothered me. Then, today, in an education on-line magazine they announced the republicans are thinking of scrapping NCLB altogether! Wow! Someone is actually listening to all the teachers and parents in our country??? And it's the republicans??? Is that weird or what??? I'm still high on McCain's choice for VP, and this news makes me think even more about voting for a party that truly cares about what real people are saying. You can't find very many parents or teachers supporting NCLB - mostly because of it's emphasis on a single test. And, say what they want, I know for a fact we are being told to teach to the test. Teachers are forced to pour over "released tests" and word their tests exactly like the state tests, etc etc etc. We are told which topics are most likely to come up, and we have to teach those topics over and over. The "released tests" over the past few years give everyone a good idea of what will be on next years test. Which explains why test scores are rising back to where they were before NCLB went into effect.

Enough enough enough. I know I sound like a broken record. I'm simply surprised because of all the money being made from the testing that the Republicans would be the party that scraps it. I'm in shock & awe right now. Of course, the article did say they were considering it. I'll make a stand and say if they promise to do that that I will be happy to switch parties. I'll place my loyalty to any party wiling to listen to the majority of Americans, and not the minority of moneyed people.

The articles against the new VP are popping out:

_With the convention still abuzz, the list of potentially embarrassing details grew Tuesday

LOL!!! Did we expect anything less than negative from the press?

_Palin sought pork-barrel projects for her city and state, contrary to her reformist image.

LOL!!! Get this straight - she was hired as mayor of a city by citizens who wanted her to bring $$$ to her district, and by the people of the state to do the same thing. We don't elect Governors who say "no more job growth for our state!" So, she's being criticized for doing her job well. Well, that's normal, I guess. No one gets criticized for starting illegal wars anymore.

_Her husband once belonged to a fringe political group in Alaska with some members supporting secession from the United States.

LOL!!! I support succession from the United States myself. It's legal for Texas to do that, by the way. They're just too stupid to actually do it. It seems smarter to them to send money to Washington and then beg to get it back. The real point is - who cares what her husband wanted to do? He's no going to be VP, she is.

_A private attorney has been authorized to spend $95,000 to defend her against accusations of abuse of power.

LOL!!! Having been falsely accused of stuff myself, that only makes sense. Lawyers, for whatever reason, do not come cheap. And you KNOW someone is going to accuse her of something. Life is funny that way when you're in the public eye. So, she's being ridiculed for being smart.

_She has acknowledged smoking marijuana in the past.

LOL!!! Catch 22. She's being ridiculed for telling the truth! If she had of said she never smoked, everyone would know she was a liar. She's 44. Of course she has. Anyone who says they haven't over the age of 16 is a liar. That's a given. She knows we know that, so she told the truth. Caught either way. Sad. Let the past lie in the past. It's good to know she's human.

I decided I know why I like her. She reminds me of some of my very opinionated neighbors. I always wish they would run, but here in Texas it's not normal for women in the country to run for office. Some big cities are more liberal in that regard, but let's face it folks, they don't even sell beer to women in this part of Texas, so things are moving real slow up here. The only thing that's changed in the past 50 years is the gas prices and property taxes.

Palin - Obama 2008!

2008-08-31T10:46:00.000-07:00

I finally worked through all my issues. I'm not anti-Obama, really - but I do think he is listening to his advisers and not his heart, therefore he cannot and should not be President. Give him a few more years to become an independent thinker and I'll gladly vote for him. In the meantime, let's elect Palin for President and Obama for Vice President. Would be a great investment in our future! I feel better.

Vice Presidents

2008-08-29T16:45:00.000-07:00

Was super disappointed by Obamas VP pick. My thinking is simple - we're bringing a new generation into the White House, why pick an old fogey who not only has approved every single one of Bushes military budgets, but made sure they passed. That puts him square one on the side of everything we did in Iraq. I was also disappointed by the democratic platform & it's total support of the Bush education policies. So, with an Obama or McCain administration we're in for 8 more years of really poor education policy for our nation. And it looks like the war will stay status quo. That, plus the fact after 8 years Obamas VP will not be ready to step into his shoes in the new century. He's deeply rooted way back into historical blubberings in Washington, jsut like McCain.

However, McCain's choice today enlivened the discussion, so that's something to be grateful for. While I could not stand any of the crap that's come out from McCain headquarters the past few days, today's announcement was a pleasant surprise.

I'm sad Obama listeend to the old guard in charge of his "party." There were plenty of young people he could have chosen who are well-equipped to lead this country, including several women. But, he balked.

I can't help but think that McCain took deep advantage of that balk by choosing a VP that will be equipped once he leaves office. That is exciting & makes the next few weeks promise to be exciting. While I can't vote for McCain, I also now can't vote for Obama (because of the old white man he chose to help him lose my confidence in his leadership). But, wouldn't it be fun to vote for McCain's running mate with the knowledge that she is a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Dunno for sure. She'll probably turn out to be another politician; but it looks like she hasn't been in the game long enough to really be one of the good old boys yet. I'll be watching.

Almost free = Almost pregnant

2008-08-07T20:23:00.000-07:00

Well, heard the good news on the radio - Bin Ladin's driver will only be in jail for 5 1/2 years instead of 30. PLUS, even better, he gets 5 years off for the torture they've put him through for the past 5 years! So, only six months to go,

Then, EVEN BETTER NEWS! Because he's still under military control, when he gets outta jail, they send him straight back to Guantanamo for even more torture.

Aren't we just nifty groovy world citizens?

Actually, I have a feeling the jury has an ace up their sleeves. They did not let him out for time served, because Cheney/Bush would probably have him killed one way or another. With six months left to serve, he'll be protected until Cheney/Bush are out of office. Then we'll see what the new Prez has cooked up. McCain will probably want to torture him himself. He claims the Vietnamese tortured him, now's his chance to get back at someone/anyone. Obama - anyone's guess. My hope is that he'd free the guy & all the other prisoners. But, he's political, so who the heck knows what he'll do?

It's like asking about the no child left behind act. Neither major candidate is taking a stand on that. Too much of a hot potato. Too many kick-backs being passed around & who knows who has the "list". We'll just have to wait and see. As always.

I pity the poor limo driver. Almost fits perfectly. I Pity The Poor Immigrant becomes I Pity The Poor Limoman. Help me out here, Bob.

Osama's Plumber

2008-08-07T11:02:00.001-07:00

Gotta wonder how much the person that drives arounf George Bush knows about the secrets of the white house? My bet is the guy who fixes meals knows more than the driver.

So, bets are on - who is next to be jailed for life? Bin Laden's cook? Don't forget his plumber. Oh, and bets are on that the Nanny who raised him knows some of his secrets also. Wonder how long she'll have to stay in jail?

What angers me the most is that Salim Hamdan is returning to jail after being held without access to the world for 5 years for 30 more years beacause he did nothing more than provide a service to Bin Laden. We seem to forget that the United States government provided many services to Bin Laden when he was fighting for us against Russia. We supplied weapons and finances. This guy didn't even supply the car he was driving. He was simply driving. Arrrggghhh.

I hope the guy that drives Cheney around (you KNOW it isn't a woman driving Cheney) gets 40 years.

My current hero is Aafia Siddiqui. If every person attacked by the US military had her guts we'd have a much better world. The military has got to be called to task for their utter disregard of human rights. Long live Aafia, and I'll be the first to apologize for the young men that were ordered to mug her.

Can a person be impeached after leaving office?

2008-08-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

It's a sticky point I know, but here's some of my reasoning.

These guys have committed crimes. Yet, we are obligated as taxpayers to not only pay them for the rest of their lives, but to pay for bodyguards, offices, secretaries, libraries, etc. An impeachment and conviction could relieve the taxpayer of this burden.

Also, and this is even more important, we could be sure that all those that profited from the illegalities are forced to pay for the damage they created, and, imho, forced to pay the families of all the dead soldiers that were needlessly killed. The American corporations that profited in the billions and billions of taxpayer monies should be forced to pay for the damages in Iraq, not our grandchildren.

The only thing I see for sure in the constitution is that an impeached person cannot be pardoned. We are way too close to the end of this administration to expect they'll be impeached before leaving office, so the big legal question I have is can we still have them impeached after leaving office?

The reason for impeachment is to remove a criminal from power. Well, isn't it still power over people when they receive funds for themselves and their staffs and offices after leaving office? And isn't it still power over people when the few corporations that profited mightily from the war siply smile in the sunshine with their non-taxable dollars?

Questions someone must know answers to.

Oh me oh my - let's blame anyone but ourselves

2008-07-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

The article I'm quooting is here.

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The next president will inherit a record budget deficit of $482 billion, according to a new Bush administration estimate released Monday. The administration said the deficit was being driven to an all-time high by the sagging economy and the stimulus payments being made to 130 million households in an effort to keep the country from falling into a deep recession.

Well, if I am reading this correctly, the deficit has absolutely nothing to do with the war, which is costing $320 billion a year the past 6 years. Nope, the war has not had any impact on our economy, legal or not. Arrrgggghhhhh!!!

Plus, let's face it, he's blaming us for deciding to send out "stimulus payments"! I don't recall even thinking about asking for that - they were telling us that if we spent it there would be no need of a deficit. "When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?"

Someone new to think about 2008

2008-07-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Bob Barr. I've just briefly looked at this guy - some things are impressive, others - well, let's just say he isn't the classic libertarian. He's still extremely legalistic. I probably won't be able to vote for him because of his legalistic nature, but I can't vote for McCain because he's openly re-writing history (AKA lying), and I'm still struggling with Obama because he's not talking about what he will do with my issues (education, infrastructure, stopping the fences between us and Mexico, etc etc). He's doing great at simply ignoring these issues - good politically, but lousy for voters who prefer to be informed.

http://www.bobbarr2008.com/

wikipedia article on Bob Barr

2003 article on Bob Barr

He's right about Waco, but he's way off on marriage and religion in the military. How to deal with this apparent contradiction in honest thinking?

EDIT A fine reader asked me to look into the Green Party nominees for president. I certainly will! In the past the seemed to have a narrow platform, but I will look into anything at this point. I am intrigued by the fact that both the prez and vice prez nominees are women. Very cool.

What Happened?!?! - Scott McClellan

2008-06-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

My daughter, her husband, and my grandchild got me this book for Father's day. Of course, my grandson is only a year old, so I'm sure he just pointed to the book cover & aid "that one". I read in Newsweek that this book was only written for democrats, so I wasn't going to read it. But since it was a father's day gift...

It took me several weeks to read it all the way through. For those who keep track of literature, this is not a very literate book. The sheer amount of repetition is horrendous. I'm thinking that Scott is thinking one of two things. He could simply be feeding out propaganda, which means if someone repeats a story enough times people will assume it's true. Of course, that doesn't work with readers, so I'm thinking he's got a different idea. People will be quoting small pieces from this book, so he wants the fact pertaining to that section to appear in the quote. There is a third possibility. Could be he expected no one to read it all the way through in one setting, so best to keep things fresh by repetition. What happened for real? He ain't telling, but only because he refuses to speculate on things he was not a party to. That's reasonable.

That aside, it was still fun to read because Scott was in the middle of a lotta crap so it's good to see his viewpoints. Turns out this is not a book for democrats only. Scott goes way out of his way to insist that Bush is honorable and not stupid. Misinformed, and not willing to listen to other opinions, but still a decent man. That's kinda good to hear because I not only have thought for 7 years that the man is stupid, but quite literally insane. Of course, I wasn't there, and Scott was, so it's good to hear that view. A lot of what he says I agree with. For example, his assessment of Bush's pardon of Libby "sent an unfortunate message to America and the world - that in the United States criminal behavior on behalf of a political cause may go unpunished. . .those in power have access to a different system of justice," is fully in line with my opinion. What political party does that make me a part of? Hopefully, in my view, members of all political parties would consider that pardon completely over the line and inexcusable.

On pages 145 McClellan actually addresses people like me that have considered Bush stupid. He says "Bush is plenty smart enough to be president." But then he notes that Bush's "leadership style is based more on instinct than deep intellectual debate." How is that different than stupid? Anyone who picks a wrong course and then refuses to acknowledge it over days, weeks, months and years - is "intellectually incurious", and some of us still consider that plain stupid. I don't mind people making mistakes. But not learning from them doesn't make one very smart. Scott puts it this way on the next page, "in light of today's situation, it has become reasonable to question his judgment."

There's some real fun in the book. Some of it is unintentional. Early on, on page 129, Scott is showing how the president uses his brains to the benefit of mankind. "As President Bush likes to say, free countries are peaceful countries that don't go to war with one another." Scott throws that out without one iota of irony, failing to comment on the hypocrisy involved in that statement. Of course, it makes one wonder just how free we are as citizens because it's obvious we have started and continued an unprovoked war - using funds to be earned by my grandchildren and great grandchildren. How free are we really?

A few pages later Scott quotes another speech by Bush that clearly outlines the true reason for the war in Iraq. "Our planning will make sure there is no oil disruption; we are looking at all options to enhance oil flow." And, it goes without saying, oil profits.

Most of the book centers around the plot by Cheney to make Robert Wilson look like a fool because Ambassador Wilson was willing to speak out publicly about some lies the administration was spreading about Iraq and Africa. What bothers me about the book and all the public discussion is that no one faults the vice president for openly spreading lies about a political enemy in order to discredit him. This is accepted as a normal way of doing business in Washington. No one gets upset until Wilson's wife is exposed as a CIA agent. Sure, I agree that's bad, and legally a very bad thing to do. Libby and his friends should have gone to prison for their action. But morally, isn't it just as bad to openly and purposefully lie and spread propaganda about an Ambassador who is willing to share his true knowledge and intellect with the American people? Kinda scary that no one else seems to think so.

Interesting book, a bit self-serving, but all autobiographies should be that. I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in seeing things from an insider's viewpoint. McClellan does offer some suggestions to make things better. The simplest idea is perhaps the best and would make life a lot more fun again - we should expect partisan bickering during an election year - that's historically been our heritage - but after the election, the folks in Washington should come down off thier own press-released covered high horses and simply work together to make life work for the good of all Americans. Kinda simple? Why not? Used to be an old saying before Clinton's era: KISS - Keep it simple, stupid. Clinton changed that to "It's the economy, stupid", and Bush has changed it to "I have to make my friends richer, stupid". However, is is just possible that we could someday return to a more open, enjoyable society? We'll see. Looks like in the next few years we'll all need to re-access our careers and futures if we simply want to stay afloat financially. But that's another story.

Loving Our Strange Times

2008-06-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7461099.stm

This is just too funny, but typical of what happens when there is discrimination of any sort from any place. Blacks have more benefits than whites in SOuth Africa, so 200,000 Chinese people petitioned to be considered black instead of white. And won.

Love it.

Wonder if that would work here? Guess it does, actually. I've met some white people who officially changed their name to Hernandez or Rodriguez so they could get money to go to college (you don't need to be Hispanic to get the money, you just need a Hispanic surname).

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!! Why can't we all be friends?

UN Mandate for Iraq Expires December 31, 2008

2008-06-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

I've been challenged via email about the "truth" behind the UN Mandate I mentioned in my last rambling. So, I dug up a few sources. True, it's not widely reported, but that fact does not negate the fact that the mandate exists, and Bush is insisting he's going to ignore that fact. Here's just a few:

NY Times January 2008: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/world/middleeast/25military.html

With its international mandate in Iraq set to expire in 11 months, the Bush administration will insist that the government in Baghdad give the United States broad authority to conduct combat operations and guarantee civilian contractors specific legal protections from Iraqi law, according to administration and military officials.

China Daily March 2008 (US news sources ignored this one): http://en.bcnq.com/world/2008-03/06/content_6513042.htm

The US administration can keep troops in Iraq into next year even after expiration of the UN mandate that governs operations there and without Congress' permission, says a senior State Department official in a letter to a Democratic lawmaker. In the letter to Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman, David Satterfield said military operations can continue "beyond the end of this year under the laws passed by Congress and the president's authority as commander in chief." Satterfield's statement reaffirms the administration's position that it does not need international or congressional approval to conduct military operations anywhere in the world.

If that does not sound like treason, then what does treason mean? The administration does NOT need congressional approval? When is the last time an American has read our Constitution? Obviously, just saying such things is grounds for impeachment. Doing them is criminal both domestically and internationally. Of course, we have nuclear weapons pointed at every nation in the world, so who's gonna be the one to call us on this?

BBC June 2008 (this was also not reported in the US - hmm, wonder why?) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7444525.stm

UN mandate runs out on 31 December

Will either of the two candidates stand up, focus on, and stick to the mandate? We will see.

The US news media also completely ignored this, which I will let you read for yourself and not bother to comment on because it's obvious Iraq does not see Iran as an enemy. You decide. IMHO, this is the way the world should be run, not with US troops 'policing' it. http://en.bcnq.com/world/2008-03/03/content_6503667.htm

YAY!!!

2008-06-12T17:28:00.001-07:00

I was just proven wrong by my own search. Guess the times things are reported are simply different around the world, but the Washington Post is running an article about the Supreme Court decision today.

"The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote. "Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law."

Kennedy also wrote this, which brings a huge smile to my Amercian face (yes, I am starting to be proud to call myself American again):

Kennedy defended the role of the courts even in time of war. "The gravity of the separation-of-powers issues raised by these cases and the fact that these detainees have been denied meaningful access to a judicial forum for a period of years render these cases exceptional," he wrote.

It is interesting that the reporting is done from Rome. That's where Bush is, of course, but it seems the Washington Post could have a writer handy to visit the Supreme Court when these important things are dicussed. As I said in my previous posting - the US seems to not want to touch these stories with a ten foot pole. I hate corporations owning America.

2 months later

2008-06-12T16:51:00.000-07:00

The world is slowly changing to something I can appreciate again. The Supreme Court today made me very very happy.

While they have steadfastly ignored people like me who have felt strongly that this war was illegal from the get-go because a modern nation simply does not attack anyone anywhere for absolutely no reason. Iraq had NEVER threatened the United States, had freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, electricty, teaxhers, police, everything a modern society needed. Along with a tough leader who knew how nuts his fellow countrymen were. Now, as Sadam and everyone else in the world knew would happen without strong leadership, there is no longer freedom of religion, freedom to bear arms or enough teachers to teach the next generation. The war we started, without provocation, was not only illegal, it was immoral.

Slowly slowly Americans and our system of checks and balances is waking up to the horrendous harm we've done to our world, and to our own country by not allowing the checks and balances to be real. We want to give the world something we don't even have.

The past week has also made me feel good about "the system" in that I felt sure Hillary would use some sort of sneaky back-door politics (read bribes) to gather the super-delegates around her table. Surprise surprise. Either Obama paid them more, or they are more honest than I thought. I woulda hated to see a McCain-Clinton race because they are both of the same mold.

The McCain-Obama race will open up a whole new realm of possibilities for our country. Let's face it, McCain is a jerk, and really would have probably attacked Iraq - he's part of that old school mentality of "Kill them because they're different than us". I like Obama's rhetoric of keeping the doors of communication with those who think different than Americans open. Find out why the heck they hate us and work on smoothing the rough edges. Methinks they probably hate us because we try to shove ourselves down their throat instead of being a model of a good world citizen. Just a wild guess. I'm not them, tho, so I really don't know for sure.

The cool thing about the race is how hard it si for me to decide. Despite McCain being a real jerk when it coes to foreign policy, I happen to think his domestic policy makes a lotta sense. I heard him saying we should not bail out the banks and mortagage companies that greeded us into deep doo-doo. Nor should we bail out the idiots who fell for the stupid schemes these companies dreamed up to both steal money AND cause real estate to go up 10-20% a year. I agree 100% with McCain. Let the greedy bastards die, some honest companies may come up in their wake. If you bail 'em out they'll remain dishonest and greedy, no doubt.

Also, we gotta be honest, Obama has really given us no real facts about what he means by "change". Is he going to do away with the greed and corruption of the "Department of Education"? Or any other government oragnization? Seems they're all fed by corruption now, I'm just most familiar with the Department of Education because of my job. I have not heard him explain one thing he plans to change.

And how about the end-game for Iraq? I'd love to hear either Obama or McCain stand up and say - December 31, 2008, the agreed upon date to end our involvement, will be honored. You can bet your Haliburton that neither of these guys will say that. I hope they prove my prediction wrong. Wouldn't it be great of America lived up to ONE commitment with the world?

Okay, I just realized I'm getting cynical on this best of days. Maybe, just maybe the Supreme Court will make us honor the commitment we have to leave Iraq on Deember 31, 2008. We'll see. Would be nice if the Supreme Court did that. The Senators and Representatives and Presidents have way too much financial backing from the Haliburton types to make this a public issue on their own.

Good things can happen! Today is proof. The BBC is reorting the good news, I notice that the American Press isn't. But it is good news, indeed.

For the American Bar Association, the ruling helped restore the credibility of the US as a "model for the rule of law across the globe".

Amen to that. There is another issue buried in the article - the Supreme Court is not wholly wise yet. Which makes the next election even more important - the next President will fill a seat or two on the court. Scalia is proving to be a real dummy as a judge:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who voted against the ruling, warned that "it sets our military commanders the impossible task of proving in a civilian court ... that evidence supports the confinement of each and every prisoner".

The words themselves say it - 'we can't prove them guilty, but we want them to be found guilty anyway.' We HAVE to get rid of people that think like that and bring America back to some sanity. If we want the rest of the world to be sane, we have to set the model. Ha! Listen to me. I'm still one of the crazies who still believes it's not too late to impeach both Clinton and Cheney at the same time. It's never to late to fix a bad bad mistake. The Supreme Court is proving that!

Defining "HERO"

2008-04-13T06:56:00.000-07:00

Headline: 1,300 Iraqi troops, police dismissed link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080413/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

You learn a lot about the way our current elected officials would prefer to run our government when you see the choices they force upon other countries.

1300 police officers and troops were dismissed simply because they refused to kill fellow citizens that the US doesn't "like". Makes you wonder. If an ATF officer or FBI agent had refused to participate in WACO, were they "dismissed"? Probably. So, I guess it's noting new. What is new is the sheer numbers of people who are willing to stand up for the evil that the US is exporting in the name of "freedom". Is it true freedom when all police officers are forced to kill people simply because one person decides to commit genocide against a specific tribe or group?

The true heroes are not those who follow orders. The true heroes are those who not only take the time to think for themselves, but act upon their own moral understanding of honesty and morality. Thou Shalt Not Commit Murder is the same in all languages, and applies in all circumstances. May we have more and more heroes, and less and less "troops" whose whole entire career rests upon blindly following orders.

In that light we must also do away with the NCLB act, which has the distinct and immoral purpose to not allow American students to learn how to think, but to act en-masse to answer every single question the exact same way that some government official has declared is the only correct answer. The kids and parents that are standing up and refusing to participate in "high-stakes testing" (the politically correct way to say brainwashing) are also true heroes and should be more loudly applauded by the press. In theory the press wants individuals to work for them that are self-starters and thinking individuals. Of course, with "the press" being owned by fewer and fewer people, that era might be over also.

Right vrs Rights

2008-03-15T10:32:00.000-07:00

Saw this interesting article about Obama's pastor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7297943.stm

In all honesty, I believe the pastor is 100% correct. However, it is really stupid to think that everyone who listens to the pastor is "guilty" of agreeing with the pastor. I can't think of any one person who agrees with pastors all the time.

I'm laughing because the same is true of the great Pastor, Jesus, born in Bethlehem and raised in Nazareth. I believe he was 100% correct in his teaching also, yet I have never found anyone else in my travels through life who feel everything He said is perfectly true.

The sad thing about this particular article is not that Obama doesn't believe his pastor was telling the truth. The sad thing is Obama's prophecy that there will be people who use his Pastor's words against him. Obama has the right to disbelieve his pastor. That should be a given.

Seems like we shoulda learned with the current President. Just because someone claims to be a Christian does not make them one. They shall be known by their fruit. And I believe that to be perfectly true.

Is it possible to live too long?

2008-02-18T14:38:00.000-08:00

You know I do a lot of complaining about things like the "No Child Left Behind Acts". The implication in such a political statement is that there were/are actually teachers out there whose whole purpose in life is to leave children behind. I don't believe that, I really don't. The job just doesn't pay that much to have that kind of political motivation. Let's face it, teaching is a calling, and those who don't do it well disappear after 2-3 years. You have to really really want to do it to last beyond.

But I've said all that and more too many times. So what prompted me to write today? Well, I'm analyzing things. It is very true that each year I find more and more typos in magazines, newspapers, and books. I find more and more mistakes in textbooks. Nothing drastic, nothing that will change a person' life. Just little things that make me feel a bit creepy. Like, maybe that's what prompted all this No Child stuff. [That's another whole issue. I bet the people behind the act either a) have no children and/or b)have no children in public school. But I digress again.]

But the truth is, typos are not the fault of education. It's the fault of magazines, newspapers, and book publishers. They simply do not hire people to be editors anymore. Not true editors. Oh, I'm sure someone has the title. But they aren't paid enough to do the actual work that's involved. At least that's what I always thought.

Which brings me to what prompted today's tirade. I borrowed a book from the library. It's 4 years old, and says right across the cover #1 New York Times Best Seller in big enough letters. I guess it's okay to mention the publisher - Harper Collins. I'm going to read the book, because my bet is the author is a lot smarter than the editor. But what started me to thinking about getting upset about this whole thing is something written across the bottom of the cover. Before I blurt out what's bugging me, I must also say this is NOT a funny book. It is, in fact a political history book. I don't want to call out the title, because I sincerely do not want this to be associated with the author, who is someone I respect.

So, here goes. Right along the bottom edge of the front cover, centered, it says: "Written by the author."

I'm starting to think I've lived too long. Also, I'm wondering why this bugs me and no one else?

The truth about the "rebate"

2008-02-07T21:36:00.001-08:00

A rebate is usually made when you are overcharged for something to begin with. Very common in industry.

Now, I'm not saying taxes are not too high, but dang it, we have a deficit. Not my fault, I admit; but it's still true - largely due to some big mistakes by the entire government. I blame Congress for not stopping Bush from the get-go. We shoulda never went to Iraq, period. The constitution makes it clear - only the Senate can declare war. But, then, we don't elect people who believe - or even know the constitution. We elect people who sound cute.

These guys all sound cute when they're offering us a "rebate", like there's lots of $$$ hanging around. Few are speaking out, but at least one guy in congress made the foreign press (bbc news):

"We have to remember that every dollar being spent on the stimulus package is being borrowed from our children and our children's children," said Republican Senator Judd Gregg, who voted against the bill."

Amen, Senator Judd. And why didn't he run for President?

Super thoughts on a Tuesday

2008-02-05T20:47:00.002-08:00

Should be focused on Mardi-gras, but I'm not.

Never came back to say this, but I gave up on Ron Paul after digging deeper into his website. Guy appears to be a super-racist, and has no real ideas toward getting rid of the insurance companies. I love his views on education, however. No one else is eve close to being honest about the mess Washington has made.

So, today we end up with three folks. No contest for Hillary. There's no way I'd vote for her, simply because she's like Bush - unbending. Once she's made her mind up, that's it - everyone else is the enemy.

The other two. Well, I couldn't vote for McCain at this point because it will give us four more years of Bush policies, especially toward Iraq. He's a huge supporter (and I'm willing to bet huge recipient of campaign financing) of the people who profit mightily from NCLB. That sickens me. His health care stuff is weak. There is good things, tho. I can picture that he'd be wiling to learn, and once the campaign is over he might be able to look at facts through better eyes (no $$$ floating in front of them). He does seem that honest.

Obama. Seems really smart - doesn't let on any deep thoughts about how he's going to change, or what he's going to change. That's kind of scary in a way. If he would come out and say something real, he'd probably end up turning off 1/2 of his supporters. That makes it hard for those of us looking for someone real. From what folks who know him have said, he sounds like he could be my kind of candidate - someone willing to take on one issue at a time, and represent the people of the United States, not the few who have this insane desire to get even richer. Part of me is cynical - the guy wouldn't be where he is today if he didn't make a promise to several of those people.

I had a friend ask me why I won't run for office. Simple. I think politicians should be honest, and represent the citizens of the country. I can't bring myself to honestly represent some of the views of a lot of people I talk to. I'd be voting my beliefs, not theirs. That would be dishonest. I know that this is true of everyone - does Bush really think he's rep[resenting the people of the United States? Naw, he's not that stupid. He represents those few people that got rich from NCLB & the war. He's happy that they're happy, and I'm sure there's a pocket someplace where he's found extra weight in his own wallet. But I can't do that. Just seems wrong to do that to a country you truly want to believe in.

So, which of the three front-runners is like that? Well, probably all are in someone's pocket. Too much money floating around for them not to be. But, which one has the fortitude to say no to the deep-pocket folks if it goes against the common sense of America? I hope the answer is all three.

If Hillary could learn the art of compromise the way her husband was able to, perhaps I'd lean that way. Of course, I am completely unable to forget Waco.

If McCain could let us know that he's willing to turn education back to the educators, and give Iraq back to the Iraqis, then I'd lean that way.

If Obama would say anything about anything, I'd be more than happy to lean his way.

In the meantime, I'll be searching for a third party candidate. Libertarian, Green Party, Socialist Party, Beach Party, I really don't care. If I can't find one of these three guys to represent me, I'll vote for any third party, even if they don't sin. I've done that may times, and have been asked why - the answer is simple. The top guys do not represent me, and the little guys can't make it to the ballot next time around unless they get a few votes. I'm more than happy to see that ballot fill up with alternative views. That's democracy. I know, we're not a democracy, we're a republic. Don't yell at me. But since we're insisting that other countries practice democracy, wouldn't it be nice if someday we could?

See No Evil by Robert Baer

2007-12-27T15:06:00.001-08:00

I finally had the opportunity to read this book. It's written in very readable prose. I'm not a big fan of the CIA and it's intervention in other countries, but then, I'm not a big fan of big business and it's interference in our government and our lives. Why taxpayers should support big business is way beyond my understanding, and in my world with me as president this would stop immediately. Of course, I'd look like Benazir Bhutto the very day I announced this much-needed reformation of American domestic and foreign policy. Yes, I believe they are tangled in very intricate manners.

Which leads me back to this book. This guy makes some horrific accusations. Against both Republicans and Democrats. No need to go into them, they've been well publicized. The point is, even with the honesty with which this book was written, no one is standing up and announcing even a minor change to the way we run our world. It's accepted, it's fact, so what? Corruption is the order under which we must live.

All of which makes me sad. To realize someone who had the ears of important people cannot make an iota of difference in the corruption of our state makes me realize there's really no place for any of us who have faith in humanity changing the world for the better. It's just not going to happen.

$696,000,000,000 for 9 months

2007-12-15T00:33:00.000-08:00

Nothing to say, really. I'm sad. 90 said Yes, including the democartic majority, obviously. Only 3 said no. Voting to finance wars they have not declared as wars. Fascinating and disheartening. I'm going to simply stay away from the news. Sickens me. Can't decide if I want to make the effort to find out who the three courageous souls are.

On a similar subject, we just found out today that the Texas Senate & Governor have signed into law a bill that takes away the physical education requirement of 30 minutes per day for k-8 students. The expectation is that even more time preparing for tests and not coming up for air will make these kids fill in bubbles faster. The irony is the bill goes into effect December 25 (Christmas day), when no schools are in session.

I asked every teacher I could find in my school if they knew this was even being considered, much less passed, and NONE had heard of it, not even in the administration building. Just sorta slid in from nowhere. So much for "of the people".

EDIT - went ahead & did the research. The 3 "nays" were from Byrd (D-WV), Feingold (D-WI), Sanders (I-VT). It is instructive to notice none of the leading candidates for president next year voted for this important bill. They obviously don't want to take a stand on this important issue because it will come back around to bite their sorry behinds. Not voting: Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Inouye (D-HI), McCain (R-AZ), Obama (D-IL)

LOL!!!

2007-12-13T18:47:00.001-08:00

This guy, Ron Paul, must be reading my blog. Just kidding, I know there are 5 or 6 other Americans who feel as strongly as I do about this, but he's the only politician I've read who has made this statement in public:

"No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution." - Ron Paul

Ain't that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" We all know, every single person with any neurons in their brains knows, that the Congress would NOT have declared war on Iraq. They wouldn't in the beginning, and the wouldn't now, which is why myself and 5 or 6 other Americans are calling this war absolutely and totally illegal.

As for the $80 Billion called for every 3 months? Do you REALLY believe it's going to the troops? No one is that stupid. It's, of course, going to the private contractors. But is anyone talking about that? No! Why? The truth hurts us all. Our tax money is making a few private individuals extremely rich. Yes, I know we all know that, but why can't we talk about it openly. Oh, that's right, we're getting back to education. We are testing kids, not educating them. So they won't be able to read and write. BUT! You bet your booties, they can all fill in bubbles!

Ron Paul & Education

2007-12-13T18:35:00.000-08:00

Well, true to my plan, I googled Ron Paul & Education. He does, unlike the other candidates, have a policy on education, and it's amazing!

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/issues/education/

Much further than I've heard anyone talk about since Reagan. Excellent. Don't just do away with NCLB, which I have always said is the only right thing to do. He's actually calling for the constitutionally correct idea to do away with all federal involvement in education! Boy, has my head been buried in the sand. There are real poiliticians that care about people out there.

Gotta go find out more about this fella. He seems just passionate enough to not have a chance to get any votes from my fellow Americans. After all, our culture has taught us to despise and fear true passion. Well, at least he has a website.

Me, oh my, just found out this guy is from Texas! Should make the papers here once in awhile. Would you believe the local papers have NEVER mentioned this fellow?

It's Education, Stupid

2007-12-13T18:15:00.001-08:00

It's hard to believe it was 16 years ago when Bill Clinton said the most important issue was "the economy, stupid".

Well, I don't hear any true differences in any of the front runners in the two parties. The little tiny bit I read about Ron Paul in Newsweek tells me he has a different message than the others, so I will start doing more research on him.

But on the things the "front-runners" all consider "important" they, well, they all sound exactly the same. None of them are talking about a complete transformation of the health system, for example. Their position on the war are all identical (except, as I mentioned Ron Paul, who is not discussed as a front-runner).

But the one subject NO ONE is discussing at all is education. I have a theory about that. Let's face it, the guys selling tests are making billions off the backs of our kids, so I'm betting they've bought off ALL the candidates already and there will be NO changes to that sad, sad situation after the next election. After all, the whole boondoggle started under Clinton as Goals 2000; so I don't blame Bush for the entire high-stakes testing culture. However, it is true that Bushes NCLB act has made the situation much worse than before.

But the point is, no one is touching the subject. Not a peep. The future doesn't matter to these candidates. Let's face it, these kids will run the country in the future. Don't educate them now and it will simply allow the elite from private schools who don't have to answer to or pay for government tests to be the only ones truly educated. Thus, the ability to manipulate. Oh, sheesh, I forgot. 90% of these guys we call politicians went to private schools. Oh well . . . So much for a dream of a government of the people, for the people and by the people. Go ahead, call me a dreamer. I was dreaming that could one day be a possibility.

Guess it's time to wake up. I just answered my own question about why they want the schools to keep testing and not educating. Sure, its still about making a few rich people even richer on the taxpayer's dime. But it's also to keep those unable to afford a private education from ever being educated. Guess they learned their lesson in the sixties when kids were coming out of school smart enough to know they were being oppressed.

Wow! An agreement!!!

2007-12-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

The White House has said it welcomes the defeat of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's controversial reform plans in a referendum.

"It looks like the people spoke their minds... and I think that bodes well for the country's future and freedom and liberty," a spokeswoman said.

Mr Chavez narrowly lost his bid to change the constitution but says he will try again to win approval.

The changes would let a president stand indefinitely for re-election.

I'm not philisophically opposed to a person being able to run for office over and over again. What's wrong with it is when the whole game is a money game and not a philosophy game. In Chavez' case, it just seemed too egotistical. He needs to build up some people to follow intelligently in his footprints, and this will force that issue. I believe if he's going to pursue this on a more intellectual than emotional plane, then he needs to make his referendum say it will effective after he steps down from office.

I know his fears - giant US firms (read CIA if you wish) coming in and taking over the election process. It's been done before. If he can train his citizens to watch and know when the US is playing those games, he will leave a more lasting impression on history than if he simply becomes "permanent President".

It is intriguing to see that the press has changed the tenor of what the referendum said now that it's over. All the articles from the past few months said he was looking to be the permanent President, which I am totally against. Turns out that now they're admitting he was asking for the repeal of term limits, which I am totally for. I truly believe people can be taught to be smart, and that people wouldn't elect an idiot three times, even if they were stupid enough to elect him twice. Well, gotta take that back, I guess the people didn't have a say in our last two elections. Sorry, writing too fast.

Just for the record - I still think Chavez has a lot to offer the world in terms of understanding the imperialism of the past 100 years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7125689.stm

Jesus In Genesis 001

2007-12-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

Over the years I have taught the Bible from the perspective taught to me as a youngster by Vernon McGee. Paraphrased: "If you want to truly love Jesus, find Him on every page of the Bible." I first heard that concept in the mid 1960's. At first I was not successful on my own, but from time to time Dr McGee would mention something that I'd write down. Those were truly exciting days because there was no such thing as "Christian Radio". I would hear Dr McGee on the same station I listened to my favorite top 40 music on.

I later discovered Arthur W. Pink, through the Bibliography in one of Dr McGee's books. That was a deep eye-opener. Then, as I began studying at seminary I started finding my own pictures of Jesus in the Old Testament.
After graduation, as I taught from this perspective, the folks I was sharing with started sharing pictures they saw. I kept track, as much as possible, and have little pieces of papers, notes in various Bibles, personal notebooks, and my faulty memory to create this series of blogs. My prayer is that someone will read these and share their own discoveries with me.

As I start this, I feel compelled to remind everyone that this type of study is extremely personal, and should never be doctrine for everyone. This type of Bible reading is when Jesus opens your eyes to a new truth - for you to share if you wish, but it is for you, and not a doctrine for everyone else to follow. I regard these blogs as love letters. Love that God shared with me directly and through others.

These are not truths others must believe, but love we can all share during this short journey together through Genesis. Feel free to comment whenever you feel moved to. -Rich

Chavez - looney tunes?

2007-11-26T18:48:00.000-08:00

Every time I think I may regain my respect for Chavez he goes off the deep end. I'm beginning to wonder if the man isn't simply ready to be committed. My respect for him came from his ability to be honest and not accept the crap Bush was feeding him - and being willing to forego "American Aid" in exchange for freedom from the oppressive presence of America. I respect that.

But his inability to get along with anyone else, well, it makes one stop to ponder. I gave my 2 cents when he decided he wanted to be king. I thought that was way over the top, but now he's ending up toppling himself by being overly sensitive to criticism.

Jeez, dude. Hopefully you're just paranoid enough to keep checking out what people on the net are saying about you. My advice, lighten up a bit, accept some criticism from your friends and neighbors, and if it doesn't fit, let it slide off your back. If it does fit, then think about how to go about being a bit more down-to-earth and regaining some of the respect you're losing from your friends. -Rich

More Chavez

2007-11-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

While I am upset with Chavez for not trusting his fellow countrymen to vote for him and trying to set up a sorta monarchy for himself, I can sorta understand his lack of trust when watching our US politics. It's all about who has the most money and the best press instead of who has the best ideas. Ideas have no place in American politics, especially rational ones. So, while I wish Chavez would trust his fellow countrymen, I can see why he is paranoid - especially with world bullies using many methods of propaganda and brute force to keep ideas out of the political landscape.

All this came up because I heard Chavez' latest speech about how his country and others should "demand respect for the sovereignty of our nations" from the US. I cannot say enoujgh how much I respect and believe we should honor this statement. Our imperialism disgusts and saddens me, and it's good that there are countries standing up and demanding we stay out of their internal politics.

Fascinating

2007-11-17T07:48:00.000-08:00

I am fascinated today by a long debate I heard. The crux of the administration side of the debate is that we MUST insist on political unity in Iraq before we start pulling our troops from there.

Fascinating coming from a leadership that does not seek political unity in our own country. Even such items as funding a stupid war cannot find unity. Nor should it. We who believe the war is not in our best interest would never agree to funding it without some evidence - anything - any little idea or proof - beyond stealing oil from the "dumb third world countries" - that it is in the best interest of the world for this war to continue. So, there will be no unity here. And that's okay. We can agree to disagree and simply not like each other here in the United States.

If a person is asking for "extra emergency funding" they should be able to show, in plain American English, what the emergency is. There is no emergency in my eyes, and they should not use my granchildren's tax money to pretend there is an emergency. If there's no emergency, then a sane person should not vote for emergency funding.

What's fascinating is that we're (the Bush administration represents the US people, which includes little ol' me) insisting on unity over there.

I love headaches. These idiots are giving me a huge one today.

Personality Insights?

2007-11-11T09:23:00.000-08:00

Sabinal Blue Is An INTP

The Thinker

You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can.
Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge.
Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat.
A quiet maverick, you tend to ignore rules and authority whenever you feel like it.

In love, you are an easy person to fall for. But not an easy person to stay in love with.
Although you are quite flexible, you often come off as aloof or argumentative.

At work, you are both a logical and creative thinker. You are great at solving problems.
You would make an excellent mathematician, programmer, or professor.

How you see yourself: Creative, fair, and tough-minded

When other people don't get you, they see you as: arrogant, cold, and robotic

What's Your Personality Type?

A Victory Of Sorts

2007-11-08T21:12:00.001-08:00

US Congress overturns Bush veto

This news article is a victory. It's easy to say too little, too late; but it finally shows that there is a backbone available in our senate and congress. When needed, and when it looks like they profit from it. This water bill encompasses profits for large corporations in almost every state of the nation, thus made it easy to override a Presidential veto. Now, if we can get them to stand up and be counted on issues where no campaign contributors profit, but the lives of their fellow citizens are made more sane. We shall see. There's a year left before the election and 14 1/2 months before the replacement.

US "Intelligence"!!!

2007-10-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

The US has revealed that it has spent $43.5bn on intelligence during 2007

(so far).

Well, well, well. Now. Just imagine if that amount had been spent on rebuilding falling apart schools, and adding electricity to schools that do not have enough amperage to run a few computers without throwing all the breakers off. Or, better yet, stop using the xerox machines and purchase textbooks. Oops, that's not right, that wuld be a cost savings in and of itself. Skip that idea.

Anyway, point is, instead of using good money to help schools create true intelligence, we are using the funds to purchase opinions of where the WMD may still be in Iraq. We know we sold it to Saddam, we still have the dang receipts. Where the heck did he hide 'em?

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

US intelligence budget disclosed

Chavez - a fading hero - my 2 cents

2007-10-23T19:04:00.000-07:00

I have (had?) a lot of respect for Hugo Chavez. But, he's starting to let his intelligence go to his head. By not allowing any opposition he's becoming more and more like Bush, and less and less a true socialist. I have no problem with constitutions allowing multiple terms for President - our country ran very well on those terms for over 150 years. If there's an idiot at the helm, it's the responsibility of the people to vote him/her out; not term limits.

Socialism, as envisioned by Marx & Engels, is pure democracy - people rule. We all know, especially after the last two elections, that we are not a democracy, but a republic. I've always lived in this republic, but see how the future of the United States would be much brighter if we were run by a democracy, not by a corporation. I have faith in the intelligence of people.

For a long time it seemed liked Hugo Chavez shared that faith, but since he's starting to not allow an opposition voice to have a platform it looks more and more as if he's patterning himself more after Lenin than Marx.

Today's article on Chavez

Doris Lessing - My New Favorite Hero

2007-10-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

Someone who can speak clearly and with a long-term view always impresses me. Well, Doris Lessing is able to say everything I've been saying in the past 6 years about Bush with one very simple sentence. And, wow, she sums up Americans in 3 words, and she's not generalizing but being totally honest. Very cool.

Read the words of Doris Lessing

Answering The Question

2007-09-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

I was asked by several colleagues why I did not participate in the 9/11 celebration. You know how it is with colleagues, you have to have 100 words or less because attention spans don't last much more than 12 words.

The main reason is the original day depressed me, and the children I am teaching this year were only 1 year old when it happened. Why celebrate?

The other reason is more personal. I'm still pissed that we were attacked by 19 Saudi Arabians and 2 Egyptians yet chose, as a nation, to make scapegoats out of two countries that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. We have absolutely destroyed two countries for no reason, and have nothing to show for our lack of self-control except the disgust of the other major world powers over our failed attempt at colonization.

Got To Find A Hole To Hide In From Now On

2007-09-03T19:29:00.000-07:00

I'm in a position this year to listen to kids sing praises to "the rockets red glare - the bombs bursting in air" every morning. Pisses me off every morning. Think I'm going to have to change my schedule and come in after the kids are done being brainwashed into thinking that's a good thing. I hate being angry first thing in the morning.

When you elect me Prez of the world this would be the edict: "No one may sing this song unless they have experienced bombs bursting in air", because I know that anyone who has truly experienced this will not sing about it. What kinda jerk decided this should be the song that represents our nation anyway? No wonder folks are so gung-ho to make sure we're constantly out dropping bombs people around the world. Oh, that and the fact there's huge profits behind it. Oops, we're not supposed to talk about that.

dream conception

2007-08-31T22:24:00.001-07:00

Life is a dream I cannot conceive of. There are paths I travel that foment a taste of truth yet torment because the flavors are so quickly digested and a new hunger stirred at each fork on the trail. I have full assurance and total peace for the future yet no knowledge and a steady bombardment of questions for each day. I feel no doubt in my total trust of security and millions of doubts for the persons I meet and even recognize from other trails. The end of the trail is powerfully true, and as I take each step closer I begin to realize the fork I chose was laid out long before I could see it over the hill or around the bend yet as I reach a new fork I know the choice is mine. Is it a choice I made before the dream and discover along the way, or a careful plan mapped out by one much wiser? The hilarity on this exercise is that the answer truly does not matter, yet the answer is what I seek.

The more I work with young children the more I discover they are owners of truth we have long ago discarded because of some perverse need to mold them into ourselves. The child feels joy not at the expense of others, but in the quest of discovery. A child has no need to seek innocence, plainness, or simplicity.

The neurons we have decided to call thoughts cannot be contained. I see them in an oleander bush and the space of time is so infinitesimal that it seems almost simultaneously to bounce off the rear of my skull into an area of my brain that forms something fleetingly concrete that will disappear from the moment and from forever unless captured onto paper for further study. The amount of time utilized to construct a full sentence evaporated the power of the song experienced while viewing the oleander. A child, however, would remember the tune and the color, absorb the mystery and become one with it.

Even my contemplations are not my truth, but the truths of all those who have over the years molded me with their truths. My grammar is not the grammar I spoke as a discoverer, but the grammar of those who insisted that they needed to understand me so I must be forced to speak their language and imitate their grammar. If I expressed the truths I was experiencing I was scolded and made to feel inferior, a simpleton. When I chose to daydream I was written upon for my eternity, “a very bright but lazy student.” When I chose to speak with friends and enjoy their discoveries and quests the report said “Could be a bright child if he could stop talking with the other children during class.” When I tried to take these lessons I read and re-read to heart and try to be what they wanted me to be my next report was “a very shy child who has the potential to be bright if he would open up.” And so on infinitum.

A child learns quickly not to express the truth. Especially the truth of what they are feeling. If you tell Aunt Joanie that it hurts when she hugs you so hard everyone looks at you with stern faces, not at the person who hugged you so hard. The stern faces tell you that what you said was somehow wrong, even though it was true. Later mom will say, Aunt Joanie really means well.” Sure, maybe, but, damnit, it still hurts. The good news is that Aunt Joanie’s fragile ego was so hurt by your hurtful comment that she never hugs you again. She also never sends you $5 for your birthday ever again, and soon you realize you haven’t even seen her for 35 years. Time, as a concept, never stops. And you accidentally hug a child too hard. He’s 5, you’re 40. Our strength seems as nothing to you. What will be your reaction when the child tells you the truth? The path of choice. Your choice has been established, yet you do not know it. Your choice defines you. Love the child or leave the child forever etched in your mind as your mortal enemy.

This simple story ferments an earlier thought into a full glass of deep, dark, wisely aged petite sirah and lets me know an earlier truth is so easily negated. Earlier I discovered thoughts cannot be contained, yet I realize with just as much clarity that those who harbor hatred toward a child have perfected the craft of containing thought. A contained thought is not free. A contained thought cannot explore. But it is obvious that thoughts can be contained. This hypocrisy excites me because both statements contain absolute truth. And can live within the same person at absolutely the same time. Life is a vision I cannot visualize.

Bush equates Vietnam and Iraq

2007-08-22T20:15:00.000-07:00

President George W Bush has warned a US withdrawal from Iraq could trigger the kind of upheaval seen in South East Asia after US forces quit Vietnam.

"The price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens," he told war veterans in Missouri.

Mr Bush said the Vietnam War had taught the need for US patience over Iraq.

His speech comes amid an apparent rift with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, but Mr Bush said Mr Maliki was a "good man with a difficult job".

Hours earlier, Mr Maliki called recent US criticism of his work "discourteous".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Sheesh. I didn't think there was one person left on earth who believed we did the right thing by intervening in Vietnam in the first place. Even the guy who sent us there made a movie apologizing for his lack of fore site. Now we have a president who completely ignores history and says our only mistake was not staying longer. What we need is someone willing to start a no citizen left behind act. We the people do not want this man to lead us anymore, nor do we want a congress so weak they can't impeach him for war crimes. Even the President of Iraq has said publicly he believes the United States is guilty of war crimes.

The very least someone could do is declare the president and his Vice President and their cabinet insane.

Nope, that's not fair, because the military is just as much at fault for following illegal and immoral orders. And we are at fault for allowing the improper voting to happen in the last two elections. And, with all the research coming out about the new voting machines and how easily they are manipulated, I would not be surprised if those in power allowed them to be utilized anyway.

Well, it's obvious from what I'm reading in the literature about the future of education in our country that our government is planning very soon for a huge influx of Chinese speakers, so I'm sure all this worry about our current form of government is moot. Someone is planning some big changes in the very near future. Look closely at both these lists: US DEPT OF ED 2007 & US DEPT OF ED 2006. Unfortunately the lists of classes have been removed from 2006, but you can still read about the main focus. Admittedly there are a lot less about Chinese in 2007, but they are still there, and they still vastly outnumber the workshops on hispanic and black children. In fact, there were none (unless the government is doing it's irrational best to lump them all as low-achieving students, which is a lie much like the NCLB), of which it offers one workshop. Curiously, this year there was also a Hindi workshop. Notice the severe lack of workshops on Muslims, or anything regarding the middle east. Ignore them and maybe they'll go away seems to be the prevailing attitude. Our government is in severe need of drastic change.

LOL!!!

2007-08-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

President Bush is using blunter language than in the past.

"Will the [Maliki] government respond to the demands of the people?" he asked on Tuesday, during a visit to Canada.

If it does not, he added pointedly, the people will replace it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk

Oh me. Oh my. Bush should know that his own presence in the world negates his very statements. He is not responding to the demands of the people of the United States, and he seems to have enough bad stuff on every enough members of congress to be sure that the people will not replace him. What a farce!

At least when Clinton played these games we could see his tongue in his cheek. This Bush guy seems to believe that what he says is true. Or, he's just a really good actor.

Sheltered, Protected

2007-07-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

There are depths I can’t travel, yet I feel I must. Bursting through is fearful because I foresee a period of pain. I worry that when chasing demons the angels will also flee for there will no longer be a need. Is there enough trust within me to stand naked before myself. That seems like a question, but it isn’t. Like when the computer sends out an unasked for warning – ‘you are not connected to any networks.’ There will be words to avoid of necessity because their meanings have escaped purpose in the world.

Nothing erodes the heart. It cannot become a smooth ball without becoming destroyed, thus as it flips through its stages the ache strengthens and knows it is there to remain. A voice creeping slyly without guile – not wisdom but experience. The words are notes the sentences chords the paragraph a movement in a symphony.

I’m on the beach with fruit flavored ice wondering my tongue. The Ramones were the catalyst. A cartoon band for young adults. Moving out of childhood into a world of music that both reminded me of my youthful joy and rebelled against the synthesizers that had taken over that soul of music. I did not belong in a world where the muse was violently removed from popular culture, yet I found myself there. The Ramones sheltered me, protected me.

Two months

2007-07-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

Been awhile since I've been here, but I finally read a report in the newspaper that was not censored by our government. How the heck it slipped through is anyone's guess. I've been hearing stuff like this underground for almost 5 years now. Well, it's no longer underground. The only question now is - how do we get the burning Bush to back off when his truth in his head does not meet the truth on the ground??? The man is way off base with reality, and really needs a good 6 or 7 months in an asylum. Of course, that would only help reality if Cheney were committed in the next room. And, I'm being nice, because I truly believe they both belong in prison. Here's the article and the link:

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press Writer 3 minutes ago

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki shrugged off U.S. doubts of his government's military and political progress on Saturday, saying Iraqi forces are capable and American troops can leave "any time they want."

One of his top aides, meanwhile, accused the United States of embarrassing the Iraqi government by violating human rights and treating his country like an "experiment in a U.S. lab."

Al-Maliki sought to display confidence at a time when pressure is mounting in Congress for a speedy withdrawal of U.S. forces. On Thursday, the House passed a measure calling for the U.S. to withdraw its troops by spring, hours after the White House reported mixed progress by the Iraqi government toward meeting 18 benchmarks.

During a press conference, al-Maliki shrugged off the progress report, saying that difficulty in enacting the reforms was "natural" given Iraq's turmoil.

"We are not talking about a government in a stable political environment but one in the shadow of huge challenges," al-Maliki said. "So when we talk about the presence of some negative points in the political process, that's fairly natural."

Al-Maliki said his government needs "time and effort" to enact the political reforms that Washington seeks — "particularly since the political process is facing security, economic and services pressures, as well as regional and international interference."

But he said if necessary, Iraqi police and soldiers could fill the void left by the departure of coalition forces.

"We say in full confidence that we are able, God willing, to take the responsibility completely in running the security file if the international forces withdraw at any time they want," he said.

One of al-Maliki's close advisers, Shiite lawmaker Hassan al-Suneid, bristled over the American pressure, telling The Associated Press that "the situation looks as if it is an experiment in an American laboratory (judging) whether we succeed or fail."

He sharply criticized the U.S. military, saying it was committing human rights violations and embarrassing the Iraqi government through such tactics as building a wall around Baghdad's Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah and launching repeated raids on suspected Shiite militiamen in the capital's slum of Sadr City.

He also criticized U.S. overtures to Sunni groups in Anbar and Diyala provinces, encouraging former insurgents to join the fight against al-Qaida in Iraq. "These are gangs of killers," he said.

In addition, he said that al-Maliki has problems with the top U.S. commander, Gen. David Petraeus, who he said works along a "purely American vision."

"There are disagreements that the strategy that Petraeus is following might succeed in confronting al-Qaida in the early period but it will leave Iraq an armed nation, an armed society and militias," al-Suneid said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070715/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Do NOT question your teacher

2007-05-26T18:03:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070526/us_nm/usa_museum_dc

I'm one of "those folks" that believes it takes more faith to believe in evolution than in the truth that God created me. I'm saying that up-front, so the next part probably won't take you by surprise:

"Teachers don't deserve a student coming into class saying 'Gee Mrs. Brown, I went to this fancy museum and it said you're teaching me a lie,"' Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, told reporters before the museum opened.

That's a direct quote from the above article. What is Dr. Scott really saying? We scientists are absolutely correct, and we should not be subjected to questions or discussions. At what point did "scientists" turn into dictators?

I've had a lotta fun this year with my students at the expense of science - in September no one could say dogmatically of we had 8 planets, 12 planets, or 20 planets. All the scientists were in an uproar for a few weeks. Last I checked they've decided on 8. But for awhile there they weren't sure. For about 100 years prior they were pretty dogmatic about 9. Point is - scientists are always learning, and should accept questions, ideas, and be ready with some provable answers.

Since general evolution is not provable, it is a statement of faith, and not truth. Dr. Scott should be happy that Mrs. Brown has students in her class who have questions. These are the students that make teaching a worthy profession. And it used to be scientists that had questions. I guess once you have the Dr. in front of your name you no longer have questions.

2007-05-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Ben Goodwin, Sherby, Starcode, Bob Burger, Timz, The Uprising, Dustins Bar Mitzvah, Love Kills Theory, Killjoy, Liza & The Wonderwheels, Eisenhower Field Day, Red Soda, Stalking Horses, Jets Under Fire, Cass Fox, Steve Vaclavik, The Hazy Davys, Louise Setara, Rodney Parker, The Majestic Twelve, Phantasm, and Swampdawamp are spinning your head with an hour and fifteen minutes of thoughts and dreams they know will satisfy your musical cravings. SEE MORE INFO.

Sabinal Blue friends will note that the Hazy Davys are singing a hit written by Connie Van Matre - 21st Century Trap!

And we are there for?

2007-05-04T20:16:00.000-07:00

"The Pentagon survey found that less than half the troops in Iraq thought Iraqi civilians should be treated with dignity and respect."

The No Dentist Left Behind Act

2007-04-09T16:06:00.000-07:00

One of the craziest things about the No Child Left Behind act is whenever you search for it all the paid ads in the search engines point to the "Left Behind" book series, a series I've enjoyed. What a marketing ploy, eh?

Anyway, this essay is great - first I laughed because of the truth of it, then I cried because of the truth of it, and now I'm angry because of the truth of it. I love it when words are powerful. Written by John Taylor, a Superintendent of Schools several years ago, it still packs a wallop. Click the link, read, weep, and get angry.

No Dentist Left Behind

Out of the mouths of babes

2007-04-08T08:13:00.000-07:00

Below is a copy of some emails I sent to a colleague. It started off funny. I erased her name, but they are real:

--------------------------------------

From: Richard
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 10:32 AM

Subject: Out of the mouths of babes

This morning I was prepping seven kids for next week’s vocabulary. One of the words is students?

“What are students?” I asked.

“Kids that take tests” the first child replied.

“Children who are quiet and co-operative and do not wiggle in their chairs” another child replied.

When I told them that a student was someone who learns they all looked at me like I was nuts.

Witnesses: C. P. & N. M.

--------------------------

From: AW
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 11:23 AM
To: Richard
Subject: RE: Out of the mouths of babes

Definitions change over time: Teachers - "people who give tests"

--------------------------

From: Richard
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 11:35 AM
To: AW
Subject: RE: RE: Out of the mouths of babes

LOL!!!

--------------------------

From: AW
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2007 11:42 AM
To: Richard
Subject: RE:RE:RE: Out of the mouths of babes

Glad you think I’m funny. What’s wrong with this picture- I’m not laughing!

a

Set in Stone

2007-04-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This is a real e-mail I sent to a colleague. She was a teacher for many years, and joined the enemy two years back. At first she was taking the teacher's side, and responding to everything with the heart of a teacher. Note that the bold "set in stone" was in the original message. The "implementation visit" she discusses is a group of neo-cons from the federal government who have been invading schools across the nation trying to get teachers to "toe the line." This shows what two years can do to a heart.

I am sure that if I joined the enemy (for a few extra lousy bucks a month) and was fed the same clap-trap baloney day after day for two years that my heart would be fitting more and more in line also. So, this is not about my friend changing sides, it's really about all of us and how we are indoctrinated...

From the ex-teacher:

>>>>One more time, I need you to send me your Tier II time slot that is set in stone. This should also be listed on your lesson plan. When we get our implementation visit, they may walk through during the Tier II time. Please make sure you are pulling your Tier II group daily.

My response:

Sandy – Thanks for that e-mail yesterday entitled “Set In Stone”. I know you are the “messenger”, and do not feel you are the enemy, but the more I think about exactly what is going on, the more I realize this is truly an “us and them” situation. I’m not complaining, and will follow your directives; so don’t look at this as a rebellious note, simply a philosophical musing or meandering.

The point that made me realize everything has been turned over to the enemy was the terminology you used. “Set in stone.” I am a firm believer in the moment. And the fact that teachable moments are not controllable. If a sudden teachable moment appeared at 10:14, and my small group was set in stone at 10:15, well; no more teachable moment.

Now, I’m adult enough to know if I followed that teachable moment and some big-wig entered my room that I would not have to fear, because whatever we are being ordered, we still live in a free society, and that our job is to teach, not follow orders. I am sure that the big wigs in our situation would be proud that someone was teaching instead of being rigid and stone-like. Plus, we all know that teachable moments do not always happen at 10:14; and in reality may never happen at 10:14. So my musings are all in the arena of unreality.

There does seem, however, more and more of us being treated with the slave-master mentality. We are the slaves; you are the master when terminology such as “set in stone” starts creeping into our vocabulary. As if there is no middle ground, as if there is only one possibility, and it’s the one someone else chose for us.

We are either masters of our own destiny, or slaves where virtually all decisions are made for us by one ruling body or another. It's a classic struggle that every person and society is forced to look upon from time to time - individual freedom or state control.

I am not against control. It’s simply when it comes to education it should be control on a local level. More and more we find ourselves being controlled by the state, and even worse, by the federal government. If we give in to such dictates as “set in stone”, we will be willingly giving our freedom away, and I am simply not willing to do that. This giving away of our rights leads to more and more possibility of becoming the society that we as a nation have fought against in several world wars and cold wars. State or federal control does not give freedom, but takes away freedom.

We can no longer teach our students to pursue their own dreams and ideals – they need to be “molded” to fit in to the order created by the government. Once the government micro-manages what, how, and when students are taught, students will not benefit from the fruits of their own learning, or their own thinking. Students will be forced into a position of being guided only by the wisdom of the current government, which changes every few years. Anyone who has had the opportunity to live beyond eight years realizes how fickle and unsubstantial governments can be educationally.

So, while I accuse you of joining the enemy, I know that is not your true heart. My plea is for you to re-join the freedom loving people of the educational community, and forsake your ties to the enemy.

Your friend, Rich

Some days I just need to laugh. . .The Onion

2007-03-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

Bush Announces Iraq Exit Strategy: 'We'll Go Through Iran'

U.S. To Give Every Iraqi $3,544.91, Let Free-Market Capitalism Do The Rest

I Thank You God ~ E. E. Cummings

2007-03-08T20:45:00.000-08:00

i thank You God for most this amazing day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth day of life and love and wings: and of the gay great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any - lifted from the no of all nothing - human merely being doubt unimaginably You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

~ E. E. Cummings

We can dish it out, but. . .

2007-03-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

I love it when the truth comes back to slap us. As a country, we have this superiority complex, like we're better than anyone else in the world. We have "clean bombs", they have "dirty bombs". Both kill effectively, and truth is the "clean bombs" kill and maim a heckaofalot more people. Guess that's why they're clean. Accomplishes death much more effectively.

Today's blast by the Chinese doesn't say "We Chinese are innocent." What it says is "We have problems we are dealing with as a country, just like you do." Note that none of the Chinese accusations were made up in some dream like the US accusations usually are (Weapons of mass destruction being the most blatant - but others, like the NCLB act pretending to be real when it's really just money sucking scheme for a few rich folks).

All of the Chinese accusations came directly from US Government reports. Here's the link - enjoy. I did. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070308/ap_on_re_as/china_us_human_rights

My Ignorance Is Bliss

2007-03-01T20:29:00.000-08:00

Forgive me if I'm wrong. I often am, obviously. I mean, I've said from October 2001 that going to war against Iraq for no reason was wrong in the face of the terrorism that was facing our country. Well, since the war went so well and there is peace among all the countries in the middle east these 5 1/2 years later, I was obviously wrong and I apologize for that.

I also mentioned in those days how wrong it was that we go to war in Afghanistan. Sending troops into a nation that had no wish or desire to accept the United States even exists just didn't make any sense. Of course, the arrest, trial, and confession of Osama Bin Laden has proven that I was wrong on that account to. Apparently all the bad leadership and education in Afghanistan was all his fault, and now that everyone there owns Fords and Ipods we are one big happy world community, and I can accept that my predictions were way off base.

It still seems weird to me, tho, that even with the billions of dollars our government pours into Afghanistan each year, plus the thousands upon thousands of troops that we have there protecting the interests of the United States that we are still only able to raise poppy production by a mere 25% per year. With all our help you'd think they could double and triple their output of heroin to our needy country. How are we going to ever keep the poor people from rioting if we can't keep them forever high?

Opium production in Afghanistan reached record levels last year, the United States has said. Four years after the US and its British allies began combating poppy production, Afghanistan still accounts for 90% of the world's opium trade.

Feb 9 Eartaste Podcast Ready For Download

2007-02-09T21:39:00.000-08:00

http://eartaste.podbean.com

Showing Off The Grandkid

2007-02-09T20:39:00.000-08:00

Photo Of Parker Munns!

Non-Binding Leadership

2007-01-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

I shoulda left myself sleep somewhere sometime. Yuck. I read more details. Turns out all the hoopla and news is about a non-binding resolution. Which means, "We'll talk, but no one has to change anything." They will not hold Bush accountable. Why the flake not???? What is he holding over all these folks heads?

The Iraqui President is in the news today bad-mouthing Bush for crying out loud. But, he's willing to take our finances. We're up to 1.2 trillion dollars spent looking for a weapon of mass destruction.

It keeps getting better!

2007-01-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

http://obama.senate.gov/press/070117-obama_statement_on_iraq/index.html

I am on a high!

http://www.llrx.com/extras/troopsurge.htm

Now, I know, that talk doesn't always translate into action. But, at least there's talk!

Yes!!! At Last!!!

2007-01-17T15:44:00.000-08:00

Bush's outrageousness is finally pissing off the folks in Washington. Here's some names:

Sen. Chuck Hagel, Nebraska (Republican)
Sen. Olympia Snowe, Maine (Republican)
Sen. Joseph Biden, Delaware (Democrat)
Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan (Democrat)

Favorite quote for January: Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican and potential 2008 presidential candidate, joined Democrats at a news conference announcing the resolution. "I will do everything I can to stop the president's policy as he outlined it Wednesday night," Hagel said. "I think it is dangerously irresponsible."

It's good when people can finally admit the emperor's clothing is not really there. Took 'em long enough, but that's another story. I'm just going to be happy there's some inkling of leadership taking place.

And what a beautiful headline: "Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has authored a measure that would prohibit President Bush from increasing troop levels in Iraq without congressional approval."

I heard the comments he made, and I'm very pleased there's someone at this level talking some truth finally. He said something to the effect that when the war started the Senate was sold a bill of good about the weapons of mass destruction; the weapons were never found and we have started a civil war by displacing a strong leader from Iraq. While the US made a mess of things because of the unprovoked military attack, it was largely due to Bush's lies. Thus, Bush should be held responsible, not the US military and the citizens who are being asked to pay for the meglo-maniac's insanity.

Ask for expert help and reject it?

2007-01-17T06:38:00.000-08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070117/ap_on_re_mi_ea/kuwait_iraq

"Kuwait tells U.S. to talk to Iran, Syria"

"The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan U.S. panel, which had urged talks with Damascus and Tehran on ways of curbing the sectarian violence in Iraq."

And Bushes reaction?

"Bush rejected the recommendation"

Hey, folks, I didn't write this book. The man is clearly being pushed by a self-serving agenda or is completely incompetent - in either situation there should be leadership at the highest levels removing this man's influence from the catastrophes he is causing world-wide. What does it mean when we do not have that type of leadership?

Testing the resolve of the democrats

2007-01-08T20:51:00.000-08:00

"The U.S. military launched a strike against several suspected members of al-Qaida in Somalia, a government official said Monday night. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity. . ."

I see this as totally testing the resolve of the democrats. We are openly invading another sovereign nation - an act of war - a war that was not declared by congress - a clear and potent violation of the US constitution. Let's see. I'm making no predictions. I would like my new congressman to be the first to stand up and call for impeachment. I wouldn't bet on it, but Bush is testing - and if he wins this fight without a contest . . . what will it say about true leadership in our country?

A True Military Hero

2007-01-05T16:02:00.000-08:00

First Lieutenant Ehren Watada

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs19056

There are some early comments on the page, but check out the later, more thoughtful comments by a "agoldenegg" who graduated from west point & has actually been to Iraq 3 times: http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs19056?rf=15958#comments

Well, new year, same noise

2007-01-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

Just heard Bush. Basically he's dropping all the military leaders who feel he's wrong and hiring on a bunch of "I always say yes the the commander" types. I guess I shouldn't have hoped for better leadership, but I did. 20,000 more Americans in Baghdad next month. Sheesh. We don't learn.

Loved the other quip, when Bush said Saddam Hussein had been given justice that "the thousands of people he killed had not". Yeah, right. And what about the tens of thousands of Iraquis dead at the hands of American leaders. Any chance at all in them seeing justice? What about the ones still being held in Guantanamo, even after the Supreme Court said it wasn't cool? Heck, we can keep pointing fingers. My favorite one here in Texas are the folks in Waco that will never see justice. Dead by the hands of fellow citizens for what cause? Money. It always comes down to that.

On another issue, I love this: "Based on current political trends, within 2 decades 95% of the school year will be devoted to testing." - Michael Giangreco. It's already at 35%, and I can see where some of the things we're hearing about will raise it to 40% within a year.