A young girl who, as
the newspaper stories say was a good church going kid and dreamed of
joining the Police Explorers' but nonetheless wanted to "fit in" with
the crowd in school.
When she left the
dance and waited for her father to pick her up, she was apparently
asked, lured into joining a group of students and non students who
were, as we used to say, "drinkin' and actin' a fool."
She
was somehow convinced to drink alongside this gang of fools and soon
found herself the object of their insanity, and that is exactly what
happened; a collective insanity that allows a group to attack the
'other' without any qualms, without any fear of consequence.
The
news accounts go on to say that this young woman, a little girl really,
she is only fifteen and probably just recently put away her Barbie's,
endured a two and a half hour
rape and beating
ordeal that can only be imagined. The goons were cheered on by their
fellow ass-holes, as they repeatedly raped and otherwise defiled the
soul of an innocent.
The San Francisco
Examiner reports that the Richmond Police estimate that twenty or more
men or boys were involved and that some had even taken pictures on
videos on their cell phones.
The latest
story out of Richmond is that this situation was inevitable, that the
area where these heinous acts occurred was known to be a danger spot,
and place just itching for the right elements to align themselves, as
if this were a natural event that could not have been prevented. The
area had no cameras, no patrols by school security, poor lighting and
abutted a neighborhood known for gang activity.
That
so many things were wrong and no action was taken is inexcusable,
bordering on negligence and dereliction of duty; and I have read all
the excuses...poor neighborhood, high unemployment, state budget cuts,
and on and on. However at some point, we the people must take
responsibility.
Little boys model what big boys do. Little girls model what big girls do.
To
believe, as some do, that violent video games, sexualized hip-hop
videos, the ugly words we call each other...bitch...ho...the inability of
parents to monitor and behave in a way that sets an example to them.
These
kids are no different than other kids in the U.S. most want to succeed
in their dreams, but what they lack is a moral center, and if there is
no moral center, well, nature abhors a vacuum.
Don't
confuse 'moral center' with this religion or that religion, it has more
to do with watching out for your kids and mine. Be aware of the
influences that get in the way of growing a good human being.
Snitch,
if the idiots selling their fear in our communities believe they can
get away with anything, they will continue to hold our kids hostages
and by extension they hold us in their grip.
As
I said at the beginning of this rant, I don't know this girl, but I'm
sure you and I have passed her on the street, seen her on the bus and
probably sat next to her on BART.
Look to your left, and look to your right, she's probably standing right next to you.
]]>Fresh off his stint as a war correspondent in Gaza, Joe the Plumber is now doing political strategy with Republicans.
When GOP congressional aides gather Tuesday morning for a meeting of the Conservative Working Group, Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher - more commonly known as Joe the Plumber -- will be their featured guest. This group is an organization of conservative Capitol Hill staffers who meet regularly to chart GOP strategy for the week.
That little gem was from the other satirical site...Politico
Yes it seems after their stunning "victory" and by 'victory", I mean they got their collective asses handed to them in the 2008 elections, the GOP is feeling the love from all those new Republicans in Congress.
and it gets better:
"Wurzelbacher, who became a household name during the presidential election, will be focusing his talk on the proposed stimulus package. He's apparently not a fan of the economic rescue package, according to members of the group"
I've been kicking the horrific numbers
of proposed jobs lost during the past week around in my head.
On Monday morning, we started the week with
announcements from a number of companies that 43,000 jobs were going to be cut;
later in the day that number was revised upwards to 70,000. That is one hell of
way to start the week.
We hear on Friday that the new number of
jobs lost would be in the neighborhood of 100,000, that's one hell of a
neighborhood and it seems that the light at the end of the tunnel just may be
an oncoming train.
I am not an economist, but I am beginning to think that of all jobs in the
world, the only ones that fail upwards are the pundit class, Wall Street CEO's
and economists. Nice gig if you can get it.
The sectors involved are varied; from
Caterpillar, Inc. to Pfizer, from Boeing to Chico's, a Fort Myers, Fl. women's
clothing outlet. That last one may not seem important, but if you're one of the
500 who will lose their jobs, it's important enough.
It's clear that before things get
better, they are going to get a bit worse. According to CNNMoney .com on
January 29:
·
The U.S. economy lost
2.6 million jobs in 2008, according to government reports.
This includes 21,137
mass layoffs, a seven-year high. In a mass layoff,
50 or more workers are laid off at a time.
And
from the same piece:
·
The job market isn't expected to get
any better any time soon. The Council Board forecast two million job losses for 2009.
I know I may have taken a rather
circuitous route to get to the title of this post, but it seems to me that
wedapeople could or perhaps should do more to register our discontent.
From the AP: January 31, 2009
MOSCOW -- Thousands of protesters rallied
against the government in cities across Russia on Saturday, reflecting mounting
anger over the nation's economic woes.
The protests, among the largest yet,
posed a challenge to the Kremlin, which faced little threat from the fragmented
opposition during the years of oil-driven boom.
The largest march took place in the far
eastern port of Vladivostok, where about 3,000 people denounced the Cabinet's
decision to increase tariffs on imported cars. Some shouted slogans urging
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign.
And from FT.com:
By Ben Hall in
Paris
Published:
January 29 2009 09:11 | Last updated: January 29 2009 23:17
At
least a million striking workers held demonstrations across France on Thursday
in protest at the government's reform programme and its response to the
economic crisis, demanding extra help for ordinary families in place of state
aid for the banks.
Now, I'm not sure if the Russian and the
French protests will bring about the needed changes, but I have to believe
that, at least in the case of the French, mobilizing one to two million people
to take to the streets will at a minimum bring to the table some strength in
negotiations.
In the case of the Russian protests,
Putin has to take into consideration that Russian workers are not to be taken
lightly.
Now that we have a new administration in
place, we must keep their feet to the fire. President Obama has his Economic
team in place and I think he deserves some time to try and wrap his head around
the problem at hand.
I will give him the benefit of the
doubt, but I must say that I am somewhat underwhelmed by his choice at Treasury
and about some of his advisors. Larry
Summers has already made his presence felt in the under emphasis on
infrastructure spending and Geithner has been handed the wheel to the shipwreck
he failed to see coming. These are people who for the most part live in an echo
chamber reinforcing their own ideas and sadly, not allowing different ideas to
find root in their imaginations.
They take to the streets, we email...one
of the demands of the French workers is that the government provide... 'extra
help for ordinary families in place of more state aid for banks'...what a
concept.
I do not pretend to know who the French
classify as "ordinary families', but I would suspect that their measuring stick
is very much like ours, people who do what is expected of them, and in return
they expect the government do what is
expected of it.
The Russian protests are demanding that
the government step down because of the worsening economic conditions. They
were met by riot police
They take to the streets...we email.
I honestly believe that except for a
handful of people in the upper reaches of government, especially our
representatives, have no first hand clue what it means to be without a job, to
not know if the next decision is to pay the mortgage or buy medicine. Let's not
forget that some of the most vociferous rants against universal health care are
from the very same Senators and Representatives that receive the health care
they would deny the rest of the population.
The very people who are in charge of the
economy are, for the most part, members of the same country clubs as the
bankers they are trying keep afloat. It's a funny thing when I read or hear
that such and such bank, insurance company, brokerage house is too big to fail,
and yet they get bigger and bigger and yet, still they fail.
They protest...we email.
The
last eight years have for the most part been part and parcel; a massive
exercise in greed and manipulation. From the highest reaches of government and
finance, we have witnessed excesses that were the norm back in the days of the
robber barons.
The
rampant abuses are reminiscent of an uglier time in our history; the arrogance
of wealth and power is now seen as the perks of being one of 'the boys'. This
arrogance is seen daily in our political leaders and the so-called giants of
Wall Street.
In
2000, George W. Bush was selected as the heir to the Presidency; just as in
some of Europe's oldest monarchies, ability was trumped by being a member of
the lucky sperm club. As is the norm in monarchies, one's aptitude or lack of
same only becomes a problem when one is called to perform above one's ability,
and as he have seen over the past years, he fails stupendously.
As
an electorate, we missed the opportunity to 'throw the bums out' and instead
chose to 'stay the course' and returned the same idiots to office and expected
a different outcome; a sure sign of electoral insanity.
Many
of us were criticized for our lack of enthusiasm for our elected officials, the
problems in government were manifold; unqualified people were making decisions
that would have a lasting effect on us. The Abu Grahib and Katrina scandals
laid bare the horrible truth. We were on a ship without a rudder.
In
2006, it seemed like we were coming to our senses, the Republican majority in
the House of Representatives was replaced by a Democratic one, but it was still
business as usual.
Which
brings us to the 2008 election, on the Republican side, it seemed like they
were all trying to bring us kicking and screaming into the nineteenth century
with their emphasis on more laizzes-faire
economics and a nativist turn that would have scared even the
Know-Nothings. I would not have been
surprised to see the retread of the Alien and Sedition Act of the eighteenth
century.
Then
came Barack Obama...skinny black guy from Chicago by way of Hawaii, and
Indonesia. A one term U.S. Senator from Chi-Town, he really shook things up. He denied the heir apparent the chance to run
for president (pissin' off a bunch of folks, among them Hillary, Carville, the
PUMA's, Chris Matthews, the Sunday Talking Heads, just to name a few).
November
4th, 2008 and January 20th, 2009 are days that will be
marked forever in the history of the United States; not only did we undo the
Republican majorities in both the Senate and the House of Republican, we also
managed to elect the skinny guy from Chicago, we also swore him in as the
forty-forth President of the United States.
Many
things happened in 2008 that made this possible, McCain and Palin, the Wall
Street bubble that had been threatening to explode finally burst, and then
there was McCain and Palin. I just can't thank that old' maverick enough!
This
brings us to the title of this post: The Failed Obama Presidency.
He
has been in office for less than ten days and yet we still have all these
problems to deal with.
·
Wall Street has not recovered the five
thousand points that it lost over the past two years. On the contrary, it seems
as if it has stagnated. The Masters of Ponzi, which may be a new post graduate
degree, Madoff, Nadel et. al are not in jail, they are under house arrest.
Roger Thain, late of Merrill Lynch spends over a million dollars to redecorate
his office. All this and more.
·
Universal Health Care has not been
passed...we who voted for Obama, must ask ourselves whether or not we have made a
colossal error in voting for him. It's called leadership!!
·
The so-called 'Stimulus' bill is still
tied up in Congress even though we own the House and the Senate. The fear of
being bold seems to have taken hold, now is not the time for the timid.
·
The Middle East in its current iteration
is impossible to maintain, the inability to see this problem as a human rights
issue is what is clouding the solution. Israel cannot maintain its territorial
integrity as it stands today; the risk of a nuclear confrontation is too high.
The Palestinians lack an honest broker that can be bold enough to suggest a
radical solution. A two state solution is not a solution at all, a negotiated
one state solution, in my opinion, is the only way out. It is a bold and
radical proposition that deserves a chance.
There is an element of
sarcasm in what I call 'The Failed Obama Presidency'; we've become so
accustomed to immediate gratification that we've forgotten how long it took us
to get into the position we find ourselves in. The issues we face today had its
origins during the Reagan administration, they were exacerbated during the
first Bush presidency and they were made worse during President Clinton's
'Third Way' when the DLC managed to turn the Democratic Party into republican
'lite'. The dismantling of The New Deal protections for workers continued apace
throughout the Dubya's administration and
culminated in what we are facing today, malfeasance on Wall Street, crooked
politicians, and ideologically driven opposition whose heroes are small minded
and lacking in their civic and patriotic duties.
The Obama Presidency
can only succeed if it takes the bull by the horns, this is what I voted for,
and it is also what the American people expect from the 'skinny black guy from
Chicago.
There you have it...or
not.
Update: The House passed stimulus bill along party lines.
Cross Posted at: http://betweentheheavensandthesky.blogspot.com/]]>
Well,
here we are again, another year has passed, a new beginning is on the
horizon and all is not well in the world. We seem to start each year
with the bestest of intentions, we resolve to do better by our families
and friends, we promise to take time out for ourselves and embark on
that self revelatory journey we have hope will lead us to that
spiritual awakening we know is just around the next bend, just beyond
that next hill, just on the other side of that cloud.
I'm
going out on a limb and make my do or die projections for the year. I
have a very scientific, data driven process that can only be describes
as such, I bend over and with my nose touching my knees reach back and
pull them out you know where...this being a family show and all, I won't
go any further into detail; suffice to say my process is as accurate as
all other psychics, clergy, soothsayers and the like. Although I must
admit I missed that whole 'let's elect a black guy to the highest
office in the land'...and for disclosures sake, I voted for the guy.
So here it is:
On
a personal note...I will try very hard to...aww the heck with all that...I
will continue to love my wife...my sons and daughter...my beautiful
grandchildren...and follow the doctor's orders.
Tuesday, October 28th 2008, 5:04 PM
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Joe the Plumber endorsed Republican John McCain for president on Tuesday and agreed that a vote for Democratic candidate Barack Obama would be "a vote for the death of Israel."
Now I think everyone has the right to go to hell in whatever self-designed hand basket on wishes to, however, an endorsement for any political candidate should, at the very least be grounded in some sort of objective reality. The kind of reality that does not depend on false equivalences or aluminum foil conspiracies.
Joe da Plumber...no...I won't use that term anymore, the guy's name is Samuel J.Wurzelbacher,and from what I can tell, he is not licensed in the state of Ohio.
Normally, one can ignore the rantings of the delusional, and pray that they either get religion and see the light or remember where and when to get back on their meds. It is noteworthy only because the Media seems to want to extend his fifteen minutes.
Samuel J. Wurzelbacher seems to believe that Senator Obama is is going turn the country into a socialist state, and has the destruction of Israel somewhere hidden in his super-secret, hush-hush plan to turn us all into Marxists.
I doubt that there are many new voters or any one born after 1988 who can define Marxism, or for that matter truly define the so-called free market.
The silly season is truly upon us, when ill-informed people are given a pulpit and some even get elected.
There ya go!