See…I said it.  And she hasn’t proved me wrong.

I love her.

I really hate people who don’t know how to go home and just be quiet.

It is not like Cheney and his friends did anything but put this country into a whirlwind spin downward.  And we have yet to set the turbulent waters still.

Cloaked in secrecy since they went into the White House…it is hard to believe that they had not planned this whole mess from the very beginning.  To get in steal what they could…and cause havoc just because they could.

Or maybe all the chaos was just a shield…to cover up the crime.  You know how the criminals do…create a disturbance or some type of confusion somewhere else to divert the attention from what they are really doing.

Man…you know I never thought of that before.

But what if it was?

What if  9/11 had been cooked up by some of our own people…in high places?

It would certainly address the issue as to why they never really went after Bin Laden.

I  hope with all my heart that would never be found to be true.

I personally believe that every covered record, tape and piece of video…recorded phone calls, messages, emails, faxes, text messages…and everything else used to imprint messages on…or engendered dialogue…including documents…should be thoroughly gone over by some high commission seeking illegal irregularities by the Bush Administration…pacifically the lying and untruthful behavior of now ex-Commander and Chief, George Bush,   and his bully, Dick Cheney.  And they should be dragged before some court or tribunal to face charges of some sort…if for nothing else but for all the lives which have been lost and the families destroyed by an illegal war that not only devastated a country but the world economy…as well as, our own.

What a herculean mess the previous administration has left behind.

From 4.2% under Bill Clinton…to 7.6% unemployment by the time George Bush left the White House.

The number of  Americans living in poverty when Clinton left the White House under 33 million…by time Bush left White House 37.3 million.

When George Bush went into the White House…Clinton had left it the country with a $128 billion surplus…while George left us with a deficit…of $1.3 trillion.

So, how dare Dick Cheney sit around on the sidelines now…sipping his champagne and smoking his big Cuban cigars chirping like a canary over what the Obama Administration should be doing…and is now doing…calling it ‘a risk’…in trying to bring this country out of the Bush/Cheney mess…and to get this country back on track again.

Who put us here…where we are today?

Inflated gas prices…highest ever in the history of America.  Unprecedented number of home foreclosures.  Failed economy…massive job losses…daily bodies flying back from Iraq…corporate thief…Enron…Bear Sterns…Halliburton…war…inflated cost of living…etc…etc…etc…etc…etc…

If only Dick Cheney could have been but so wise in the advise he was shoving down his fellow Texan’s throat…while they both were sitting in the White House.

Who put us here?

And then want to question how Obama is running the country?

Are you kidding me?

I know exactly where Obama is trying to take this country.  OUT OF THE MESS THAT YOU GUYS PUT US IN…that’s where.

Thank you, Condi Rice…tell Cheney to put a lid on it again…and again…

He seems to be the type who just can’t seem to stop talking.

I can’t stand big fat hypocrites.  Particularly, when the hypocrites are the ones to blame.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

How could something like this happen?

On their way rushing to the hospital they get stopped by the police in the parking lot of the hospital while leaping from their vehicle trying to rush inside the hospital.

A cop tells them to stop prohibiting them from going inside.  He tells them that they ran a red light…all this mind you while they had their red hazard lights flashing while rushing to the hospital.

The officer is told over and over and over…”my mother-in-law is dying.”

To which the officer acts as though he is making an ordinary…what they call a routine traffic stop.  And he did so without any kind of concern or consideration regarding the situation of  his captives.  Well, that is what they were to him…because that is what he acted like with regard to them.   He acted as though there was no type of any emergency…and that Ryan Moats was just out joy riding to the hospital.

All the pleading and trying to get the police officer to understand…it all fell upon death ears.  He could have cared less…as you hear in the video because he turned a deaf hear to everything that Moats was saying to him.

The cop threatens to arrest him…tells him that he is going to tow his car…etc.   But the cop does everything but attempt to even try to comprehend…or make any sense out of the situation…as to what is being told him.  Nor did he  offer any help or assistance to the family members of the vehicle of near death mother as they tried rushing to her bed side.

How had this scene might have played out differently…if…

If the occupants of vehicle had not been African Americans but some other race…namely white?

The officer might have ran into the hospital with them.  Maybe…

He might have been a lot more understanding and helpful to them…probably.

But I doubt that the above scenarios…and the way that it actually happened did get played out as it did because of…who they were…or are.  They were black…African Americans.  This officer saw their color…and paid no attention to their situation…or anything else.

And the police chief’s apology wasn’t much better.  Near the end of his apology…he states that to the credit of NFL  player Ryan Moats-

“At no time did Mr. Moats state that he was a NFL football player. Or expect any special consideration.”

What kind of statement was that?

Was that meant to be a compliment?

It is all on tape.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/03/26/lavandera.tx.nfl.player.hospital.cnn?iref=mpvideosview

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/03/26/lavandera.tx.nfl.player.hospital.cnn?iref=mpvideosview

Historian John Hope Franklin…didn’t know him and never heard of him before.  But  just read something about him…how he had a way of  telling our history.  It really made me feel like I would have liked to have known him.  Would have loved to have heard his name before now…and certainly would have loved to have heard him lecture on our history.  There had been a time when I couldn’t read enough on it.

http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/franklin/3050019

There is something about our history that amazes me.  So, many many stories…as varied as the people.  Stories of  lives shattered… broken… and often torn…and yet many victorious.   Stories of a peole who were really a mixture of various people…thrown into chains…transported on ships…carried across the Atlantic…to stand upon auction blocks…and herded like cattle.

Yet, they were able to turn scraps into meals…later called Soul Food.  Messages into songs…that later transformed into gospel, blues and R&B.  People who turned hardship into culture.   People meant to have not to survived…but did.  Kind of like the stories of  the blankets infected with smallpox given to the American Indians.   They weren’t suppose to survive either.

I guess that is kind of why I cried when I saw them riding…strong and tall upon their horses…all dressed up in their traditional headdresses and everything…in the parade for Barack Obama on Inaugural Day.   That was special.   What a sight they were…just like all of us who flocked to D.C. to see…to hear…to cheer…and to cry as we bared witnessed to the dawn of a new American era.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/crime/2009/03/26/pn.anchor.death.cnn?iref=mpvideosview

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/5056617/Professor-John-Hope-Franklin.html

Wow…I wish I had heard him.  Had known of  a  place where he had been lecturing…or had booked him myself.

Now, that I have had an opportunity to find more info on Dr. Franklin…I had heard and seen him once.  He was on Charlie Rose…a show I used to love to watch…at a time when I used to watch television.

They said he had a gift…a gift for telling our history.   Wow…I sho’ wish I could have heard that.  Not much of  it going around any more.  Soon, I guess it will all be dead…all our real history…dead and gone…buried when all our elders have all gone to their graves.  Because nobody will be left carrying it on.   Nobody studying it…nobody who thinks that it is now still important…or relavent.

So, now…almost all of the African American Studies departments have been done away with…removed…squashed…vacated…because “ain’t nobody taking the classes no ways.” Yeah, because they need to make room for all of this new stuff…like the history of rapp. ..and hip-hop.

No one taking an interest…too busy thinking about rapp…hip-hop…and baby/mama drama.  I hear those classes are jam packed.

Or maybe we should wait on others…others to come and pick it up for us…and start claiming it for their own.   Like they came and picked  up jazz.   That was on its way out too.  It was dying as the masters began to die.   And would have been dead too…ifin’ they hadn’t.

Our history in this country sprang up out of the toil and sweat…and  out of bearing chains in this country…and there is no reason why we should ever let the memory of those who walked before us…and broke those chains die.  Nor our history prior to slavery ever be forgotten…which so few of us know little if anything about.

Teach it!

Preach it!

Recite it!

Pass it on to your children…because a tree without roots will fade away.   Strengthen the roots.

Don’t let it die.  It is far too important for our children…and the legacy we leave behind.

I had said to myself-

“You are going to go home and go to sleep early tonight.”

And I did get in early.

And I did shower and get ready for bed.

But then I started writing this blog…and here I am at almost ll:30 PM…and I got in before 5.   And I am still not finish yet.

Eleven Native American tribes from all across the country participated in the ceremonies celebrating Obama’s Presidency by marching…or riding if you will…in the inaugural parade and various other events that day and week in Washington, DC.

God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on “

www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

http://www.aaanativearts.com/article1632.html

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Indians-on-the-Inaugural-March.html

I just finished listening to the most hypocritical piece of garbage I have ever heard…or maybe I should say in a long time.  It has to do with some white woman announcer talking about First Lady Obama who recently paid a visit to a local D.C. school and began sharing with the young students about her earlier years growing up.  Being bright and well spoken the kids in her school and neighbor used to tell her that she ‘talked like a white person.’

This white woman announcer pounced all over that and began saying, “We have trash in the White House.”

Clearly, she is in need of loosing her job…besides having been way off the mark.

For some reason white people just can’t seem to get it right.  They think everything is about them.  They have no understanding of the black experience…yet want to say that they do.

Because we are the only group of people who came here in chains…there is no other group of fellow country men who can quite grasp this with any kind of clear understanding because they never went through it.  Sure, many groups were ostracized, joked about, called names, belittled and many hated…some more so than others…as they came here to this country in search of a better way of  life for them and their family…same as those who came before them.  But their experiences were still not the same as ours.

Having worked on a job…my last job with a bunch of black folks.  The first time in my life I had ever worked with all black people.  I must say it was the worst job I ever had.  They put me through the ringer…and it was all because…as I came to find out over time…because I had a highest level education than anyone else in the building including out of all the workers, other managers and upper management.

I did not talk like them…I did not swear…nor did I stand around telling nasty jokes…and I did my job far above average.   They hated me because I was not like them.   They hated my work ethics…everything about me.   To them…I have no doubt…they felt that I thought I was white.   Because this is something which many black folks have been called when they were smart, or well spoken…good workers… etc…etc…  Which for those of you who may be white…it means they thought that I thought…I was better than them.

So, that white woman radio announcer had not a clue of what she was talking about when she started to bite into Michelle Obama.  Because had she had a clue she would have known that Michelle Obama was telling the students in that class that it was okay to be smart and not to be ashamed of making good grades…and not to worry about what the other kids might call them.   This was indeed what Michelle Obama was telling those students…and vast numbers of African Americans, if not all, hearing that speech knew right off what the First Lady was saying without thinking twice about it.   She was not talking about some ‘white/black thing’…but a ‘black on black thing.’

But white people do not have a clue.  They feel they know us.  Have a handle on how we feel about things…how we operate…behave…and react.  But really…they do not have a clue.

Take for instance shock jock-Imus in the Morning.  He thought he was being funny…that what he was saying was cool and that he could get away with continually degrading and belittling black folks.  And he felt this because of  Pop culture…rapp music…rapp videos…and how the brotha’s talk in the streets.

But he failed to understand that there are other groups of black folks who felt that even the brotha’s and sista’s on the streets, in the videos etc…speak things we too find offensive and unacceptable.  Because the kids…the rappers etc…do not have clue…didn’t mean that Imus could also operate within that same clueless realm and feel it was okay…because as he said, “They say it.”

Like Imus…the kids are clueless.  The kids know nothing about the history behind much of what they say…nor take it, unfortunately, as being serious.   But those of us who know the history…know also the pain…and saw the cost…we know.  And not only take it seriously…but personal.

But…so isn’t that female announcer who would dared to want to call the First Lady of this country ‘trash.’ She is definitely quite clueless…and maybe so to a even higher level.

Would anyone dared to have called Barbara Bush that…and then felt that they could have gotten away with it?

How about Jacqueline Onassis-Kennedy?

Never.

And if you tried…everybody would be up in arms coming at you.

But you can get away with things when you are talking about black people or other minority groups that would never be acceptable or allowable when talking about  someone white who sits in such a high position as the Obamas…or anywhere.

After all the stuff that Bill Clinton did while he was in the White House with Monica…never once did anyone call him outside of  his name.  They may have went after Bill but they never called him anything but Bill Clinton…or Mr. President.

Two semesters ago in a communications class we had to read about the uproar about the making of a TV movie about Ronald Reagan.  The first part of the controversy was about the belittling of an American President…making him to appear erratic…and lost.

The second part of the argument had to do with party lines…the Republicans were staunchly against the TV mini-series about their beloved President Ronald Reagan claiming that the mostly liberal Democrats of the Production’s Executive Directors and writers were trying to tarnish the memory of an American hero, as well as, President…which should not be allowed.

I doubt that any of those people will stand up for First Lady Obama.  But clearly large groups of people should including the owners and affiliates of that radio station that she works for and the syndicated stations she airs on.

Not only did not the woman have a clue as to what she was talking about by trying to under-cut what the First Lady had said to the students…but she was also highly out of order and offensive…and racist.   There was an air about her tone which spoke…”I can say whatever I want about those n…..s and nobody will stop me.  Because they are just n…..s anyways.”

So, it is not Michelle Obama who has a problem.  No, but anyone who thinks and talks like this woman announcer.  CLICK the LINK BLOW…if you want to read more about what this woman had  to say…and you will also hear what it was that Michelle Obama said to the students.   This woman clearly did not have the slightest clue to the real meaning of…outside of possibly pushing up some negative ratings for her radio program.

http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2009/03/24/tammy-bruce-calls-the-first-family-trash-in-the-white-house/?icid=main|hp-laptop|dl5|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.blackvoices.com%2Fblogs%2F2009%2F03%2F24%2Ftammy-bruce-calls-the-first-family-trash-in-the-white-house%2F

I wish I were the Program Director or manager at that radio station…she would have been pulled immediately…and sent packing.

And oh, yes…I purposely did not call her by name.  Some people just are not worthy of the bother…I have given her more than enough play…(many of you might not understand that either…but I will let you try and figure it out). She is in dire need of a proper education.

This is America…and we do have freedom of speech.  But she went way overboard.  And for that there should be a penalty…as was in the case of  Imus.  And no appology will do.  We are in the 21st Century…when do people start to grow up?

I get so tired of people saying whatever they want to say whenever it comes to black people…and then have the nerve to feel that there should and will not be any reprecautions for doing so.

Still working on the web site.  I have to admit that it is really shaping up far better than anything I have done in the past.  God is so good…He has endowed me.

And oh, yes…the weather has turned again.  It is freeeeeeezzzzing.

God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family, co-workers and all your friends… “pass it on “

www.bsmith101.wordpress.com ©2009

 If they are not getting busted for fooling around on their wives…then its in a sting operation investigating fraud, shake-downs and/or corruption…and whatever else.

It seems that some politicians simply cannot learn.  They repeat the same old things over and over again.  From being caught with under aged male pages on Capitol Hill to sticking their feet into another man’s bathroom stall. 

What is the problem?

Democratics and Republicans alike…where are the morals?

Is there anyone who is not quilty?

I used to think that John Edwards was a decent stand-up guy…a good husband and family man. 

Well, that is what it seemed.  He also seemed ginuwine…and a person you could really believe. 

Boy, was I way off base there.

The guy was an out and out liar…deceiver and cheat to his wife who was ill and battling for her life against cancer.  And on top of it all…in video footage he calls himself “Ken”….of the Ken & Barbie doll thang.  And grinning no less…as he said it.  Grinning into a mirror while combing his hair.

Now, enter the Govenor of Illinois….Rod Blagojevich.

Was the guy stupid or something?

He gets busted trying to sell off Obama’s seat in the Senate. 

Did he really need money that bad?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081209/ap_on_re_us/blagojevich_corruption_probe

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=4226934&ch=4226736&src=news

The feds actually have audio tape of phone coversation of the Governor seeking financial gain for himself and his wife behind the sell of Obama’s Illinois Senate seat.  Now, that is just plain dumb.

The Bible says they have eyes to see but they see not.  They have ears to hear but they hear not.  If someone had told him that it was a bad idea…he probably would not have listened to the person.  Because he had ears but could not hear.  And though he had eyes…and has seen other politicians go down for various reasons…yet, he could not see how trying to sell off Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder was both wrong and illegal…and that he might get caught.

Though Governor Blagojevich had a supposed list of 5 probable candidates inclusive of Jessie Jackson’s son, Jessie Jackson, III.  But  he was apparently fishing for some other fishs to add to his list…who had some deep pockets.

http://www.npr.org/multimedia/2008/11/obama/index.html

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/election2008/2008-election-map.html#/president?view=race08

The question we should all ponder is-

“What causes people to want to just throw it all away?”

“Why do they want to just throw everything away?”

Bill Clinton did it not only with Monica Lewinski…but with all those other women he had been involved with before he even got to the White House as President of the United States.   He just continually kept risking it all.

Kwame Kilpatrick did it, the Mayor of Detroit...text messaging his aid whom he was having an intra-office affair with and was sending hot steamy text messages.

High level Democrats and Republicans  and small local politicians of both parties have been quilty of doing the same…be it was sex or other forms of illegal acts.

Some actors…some business people…some just plain ordinary people…have all ventured to just chuck everything away for something that you and I would classify as…nothing.  And it was for nothing considering who they were and what they had.

Countless governors have fallen from one sex problem after another over the past 2 years.

It seems that both sex and money are still seem still high on the charts as the number 1 and 2 down falls of people.   Sex and money continuously have been the number one and two corruptors of all times…even since the beginning of time.  Though I think that back in the earlier times ‘power‘ was also counted among money and sex.  But today it those with ‘power’ who keep falling into the pits…or some may say….the web of money and/or sex.

I understand the draw of sex…but I don’t know if I would let it sink my ship.  I can admit to this.  At one point in my life that sex was all I mostly thought about and desired. 

I am so happy now that I am  no longer in that trap.

I am now neither definded by sex…nor does it any longer rule me.

But then there is money…over a few dollars some people would give their lives…their profession…and their reputation.

Can money or sex have that much value…pull…or lure?

Can you be lured in by money or sex?

I have seen people get so far down with sickness where nothing…and I do mean nothing…nothing mattered.  Not the car…not the house…not the kids….not whatever situation they had been going through a month ago…nothing.

It is when you see these kinds of things…you come to realize what is really important in life. 

The Bible says a good name is worth more than rubies.  I believe this…I don’t have much money.  I have never worked with money as my focus…and I have said ‘no’ to money many times.  I also have given away alot of money.

I have been down to my last dime…walked out of a McDonald’s and seen someone who was hungry…and gave them both my bag of hot McDonald’s food and my drink.  All of which I had not touched.  But I figured they needed it more than I did. 

While I could go home and make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich…I realized that they could not….because they had no home.

No, I don’t value money. 

In a fire would you rush to get out…or would you rush to get you money stashed in the next room first?

I think in a fire…most people think about their lives first.  Everybody would vacate the house or building leaving most of their valuables inside.  Because as long as you live you can always make more money or obtain more valuables…get some more pictures etc.  It is true…whether you say so or not…at the end of the day you value your life over money or things.

That is why…when I have seen people get to the point where they are near death…I have also seen people to whom nothing else mattered outside of their current state.  This is how I have come to know the essence of life.  And it is not money…or things.

And a good name is worth more than rubies.  And the stupidity of what that Illinois Governor has done will haunt him for a long time.  As does anythig which we have done or will do foolishly.

Well, we finally have seen our first real snow.  Wasn’t much…but I did have to shovel.   But then it is winter.

Still haven’t gotten a new furance…and thank goodness it has not been overly cold.  But the furance is coming.  God worked it out…  I am so glad that I know Him.   And believe me when I say…He has never let me down.

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com

God bless…and thanks for reading ©2008

Ever since George Bush and the rest of the Republican Party forced their way into the White House by having virtually rigged the 2000 Presidential Election everyone in this country should have realized that we were going to be in for a rude awakening…and a long bumpy ride.

The most you can say about Bill Clinton was that he did his best to keep them out for as long as he could…but those rebellious little Republicans were on a roll and they were not going to let a little thing like Bill Clinton blocking the front door to the White House in order to wait on a final count of the Florida ballots and a Superior Court decision on the matter keep them out of the White House.  Oh, no….

For a man who stole his way into the White House in 2000 and then sat in the Oval Office doing everything a single person could possibly do to sabotage this country there is little wonder today why the Republican Party has ended up in the state it has finally fell to.  And has well deserved to.

Somewhere while growing up…or maybe while sitting in church, I heard it said several times, “That a thief cannot prosper.”

With Presidential Performance ratings the closest in history of any President of the United States, it would be safe to say that neither George W. Bush nor this country has prospered in the past 8 years.  In fact, since Bush went into the White House a millionaire, having to be able the reaped the benefit of coming from a wealthy oil family…and then not to mention his $400,000 annual salary per year as President of the United States, a rate that went up, doubled in fact, upon his entering into the White House over Bill Clinton’s measly $200,000.  The salary $200,000 was that of every U.S. President since 1969.

It is safe to say that Bush probably won’t be starving upon his departure from the White House this year, as he also receives a pension of over $100,000 per year.  But we cannot say the same about millions and millions of Americans whom his policies have financially devastated, personally injured and yes…many have died…all because of him. 

Under the Bush Administration foreclosure swept this country like wildfire, banks crashed, financial institutions had to be bailed out and government spending went through the roof putting this country into receivership. Instead of being the country that lent money to other countries, we became the country that started begging for money from other countries. 

We are now billions upon billions of dollars indebt to countries which used to seek out aid from us.  And some of those countries are Communists countries…like China for one.  Not to mention the overall financial disasters…diving stock markets, raging gas prices, high food and other consumer costs…that one would not have to argue were the direct ’cause and effect’ of 8 years of the Bush Administration’s poor ability to run this country properly.

There is little wonder that Bush was so invisible at the Republican Nomination Convention this past August.  And he has been the invisible man throughout the entire McCain campaign.

There had been a time in history when  had been considered the worst President in American History.  Now, Truman a man whom many thought was probably his own worst enemy…well, he can now rest in peace.  He has been topped by George W. Bush…who never got around to dropping an atomic bomb…perhaps it wasn’t for a lack of trying. 

Neither Harry Truman or Bush were good on economy, both were hawkish in their attitudes and an inability to manage the economy well.  But also there seemed to be a careless nature about them.  This is a character flaw that a President of any country simply cannot have.  It is just too costly.  And costly it was back in Truman’s time and has been now on us all.

It has in fact been so costly that even the Republican Party has spent much of this election season trying to distant itself from the shadow of a George W. Bush.  He has been the invisible man…the Invisible President.

With a disapproval rating of more than 70% would you have him out campaigning for you?

Or would want to be caught shaking his hand if you were trying to maintain your seat in Congress, the Senate or the House of Representatives?

I don’t think so.

But let this be a lesson for those of you who believe you can get it by cheating or stealing your way there…wherever your “there” is.

“A thief never prospers.”

The unfortunate part…is neither did we who allowed George Bush to rob his way into the White House in the first place…and then to be voted in the second place.  As sad as it may be…we are all paying for it now.

http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/27/opinion/polls/main1350874.shtml

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/05/01/bush.poll/

http://www.gallup.com/poll/106741/Bushs-69-Job-Disapproval-Rating-Highest-Gallup-History.aspx

http://www.gallup.com/poll/110806/Bushs-Approval-Rating-Drops-New-Low-27.aspx

Lets get out and vote CHANGE on Tuesday.  And let put a legitimate candidate into the White House…not someone who is heir apparent.  But the best possible choice for this country and all that she means to each and every one of us.  And all that she means for us and for our children, nieces, nephews etc…and for years to come.

There have been one too many black spots on this nation’s history.  Now, is the time to put this country on a new course and to seek to undo some of the harm that the Bush Administration has caused in this country and throughout all the world.

I’ll be looking for you at the polling places from state to state.

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com

After 8 years of essentially nothing but a bunch of failed economic schemes on the part of the Bush Team where we have seen one large company after another go under, Enron, WorldCom, AIG, Bear Sterns…now Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac and many large banks are headed for the drain.  Somebody needs to call in the plumber…and I guess that is what that $700 billion bailout is all about.

But what could have led George Bush to possibly believe that anybody in their right mind was going to underwrite for him a blank check giving him what would have amounted to a have virtually amounted to a $700 billion free roller coaster ride with taxpayers money with no oversights written into it…no promise of ever getting back…and was earmark directly to Wall Street.

Paulson had real cause to get down on his knees in the Senate and beg Nancy Pelosi to bless him with what evidently his boss, George Bush, had sent him to Capitol Hill to do…beg for it.  And as he dropped to his knees he was probably snickering to himself thinking about the big bonus he was going to get for brokering the deal.   And everybody…including large number of Republicans (well, it is an election year even for them…and many of them would like to return to Capitol Hill after November too)…so, they hemmed and haa-ed until finally all slowly broke down and gave him a yes.

Henry Paulson declaring that we were in a dire straits and if we didn’t act quick the walls would come tumbling down…sounded much like what Bush spewed out while rushing Capitol Hill into signing in that thing that…thereby ingratiated George Bush with the first blank check…called the Patriot Act.  And there was nothing Patriotic about it…it just gave Bush and all his little men much to much power, infringed upon our rights of privacy, allowed them to essentially set up a dictatorship right here in America.  And they had wrote it in a way that no one could…either say anything…or pose them any opposition.   They in effect have had total and absolute free reign.

At that time the powers that be on Capitol Hill…blindly turned everything over to a bunch of crooks worst than Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the George Bush Administration gang.  The Senate gave them everything but the kitchen sink without any restraints, oversights or means of appeal.  George and his people got to do whatever they wanted to…and they did.  That is exactly how he happened to order a preempted strike against Iraq…which unarguably has been one of the biggest financial mistakes in Presidential history…and World political suicides since Woodrow Wilson launched the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Bush and his crew put us into a war without end that has been draining this country of manpower, lives and absolutely huge unheard of amounts of money per day.

Since George Bush stole his way into the White House in 2000 this country has suffered one calamity after another.  Today America is in its worst financial condition since the Great Depression with both the Euro and the Chinese yen outperforming the American dollar.  Eight years of Bush Economics has virtually put this country in receivership to both China and Europe.

Since George Bush’s cooked the books on weapons of mass destruction throwing us into ‘yes’ a very un-necessary war inflation has ran wild in this country in ways we would and could have never imagined in the years prior to Bush taking over the country after Bill Clinton.

Who would have thought we would have ever seen nearly $5/gallon of gasoline at the pumps in this country?

When the gas went up…the food costs went up…clothes…medical expenses…everything went up.  And they are not going to come down…even if the cost of gas temporarily has .  The cost of gas as we once knew it is gone.  It will never be anywhere near where it used to be…$1.99 to $2.50/gallon ever again in this country…thanks to George Bush.

Everybody around the world, at the time….realized that when Bush had declared he was going to strike Iraq that the decision was for one primary reason…that decision was for the oil.  He sent troops in to plunder and destroy the infrastructure of that country…that could have never been about just a single man and his 2 sons.  The orders were too broad, too vast and far to destructive to have ever have been just about Saddam Hussein.

Halliburton was sent in….and a bunch of Halliburton sub-companies…all companies with special ties to Bush and his Administration were the only companies given contracts to enter Iraq to supposedly rebuild that country at a cost of billions of dollars to America’s taxpayers.  While Halliburton and others sent back to the U.S. Pentagon a bunch of bogus invoices and padded bills…filled with lies stealing from everyday people like you and me millions upon millions of dollars…for which they suffered no penalty and/or penalties for and are still on the Pentagon payroll.

Bush stole his way into the highest seat in this country…and immediately ate away the Bill Clinton surplus plunging America in a deficit his very first year in office.

Once he stole his way into the Oval Office, America came under attack for only the second time in her history…but this time it wasn’t some small distant South Pacific island that was hit.  A strategically planned and deployed attack on America took place on September 11, 2001… the likes this country or no country has ever seen.  It was a day I will never forget along with millions of other Americans and millions around the world.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/business/29markets.html?hp

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fi-bailout29-2008sep29,0,855202.story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/20/bush-asking-for-700-billi_n_127926.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/28/congress-white-house-reac_n_129964.html

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-080928bailout-deal-reached,0,2436591.story

9/11….2001

At the time I lived just on the other side of both the Brooklyn and the Manhattan Bridges, in downtown Brooklyn. 

I remember awaking to one ambulance and siren after another…non-stopping all day. 

I remember looking out my bedroom window and watching the Twin Towers engulfed by heavy black smoke that soon became white/grayish billows of smoke as they went down. 

I remember the congestion of that day of all the roadways being block, train service being suspended, people having to find their way out of darken train tunnels all over New York City.   No cabs or buses allowed through the police barricades posted all through the city in every borough…nobody could drive anywhere. 

I remember looking out the window and watching as people lined the streets passing out bottles of water to those laden with ashes from their heads down who were walking the streets in disbelief trying to find their way home from Wall Street. 

I remember sitting near the radio listening and waiting most of the day…and all of the night to the reports…the questions… and people searching for answers. 

I remember hearing that the Pentagon had just got hit…and then how a plane went down in Pennsylvania.  And everyone was trying to figure out how many more planes were out there…and wondering what would be the next target…and where? 

I remember getting dress and walking into the Brooklyn Mall area with droves of people rushing pass me…stopping to stare into the window of an electronic store to watch the TV monitors along with many others who gatheed around…just watching the towers getting hit time and time again.  And hear in disbelief “Just like in the movies.” 

I remember trying to find my way to one of the medical emergency centers set up all over New York for victims so that I could volunteer.

I remember going to the medical center they opened up in downtown Brooklyn near where I lived…and nearing the location seeing the staff standing outside their door turning droves of people away who had all come to volunteer just like me.   But they had no victims…there was no one to help.  Because they had either gotten out…or they were gone…as if they had never been.

I remember crying and wondering about friends who worked in those buildings…if they had survived? 

I remember my utter and complete feeling of lost and being lost during that whole day. 

I remember how everything had been turned upside down…and I was sitting in the midst of it less than a mile from Wall Street and the World Trade Center.

I remember the days that followed…how there was not a sound down in the subways. 

I remember how no one spoke…not one word…not even a whisper.  There was no laughter or mirth on the trains, or buses or anywhere in New York.  Every face was like stone…expressionless, empty, devastated and shocked beyond all words. 

New York was in shock for months…and New Yorkers rallied behind each other as never before during that day, and days to come.  Every fraction and group was dissolved…everything that had separated them was gone…they were all now only New Yorkers and they had been attacked.  And nothing was as unusual.  But nothing would ever been the same ever again…the towers were gone.

The towers lit your nights…gave you direction if you got lost.  They stood beautifully…long tall and straight as could be.  From Jersey to Far Rockaway…from Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan and the Bronx…the towers stood as beacon on a hill lighting the way home…and now she was gone.   And nothing would ever be the same.

 

Please be sure to share this blog site with your friends.

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com 

God bless…and thanks for reading  ©2008

Somebody should have seen this coming.

A $700 billion government bailout?

A need for a government bailout this big didn’t just happen over night. 

A bailout of over hundreds of millions of bad mortgages…gotten through greedy companies who sought only to enrich themselves causing much pain and devastation across the United States.  Americans have really been suffering…but not until Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac hit the rocks did the Bush people seriously seek to do anything.

And now we, the taxpayers, are going to have to suffer from yet another Bush Administration fumble.  In light of the upcoming elections, just about a month away, it is with good reason that the Republicans are taking a lead on this one, and seeking to push as much as they can push through before the election come November in order to try to ensure no landside in Obama’s direction. 

And why not seeing they were the ones who caused it in the first place. 

So, there is little wonder why the Republicans are rushing…trying to solve this massive problem which could potentially destablize the entire American Economy.

Poor upper govenment management on the part of the Bush Economic people has caused this country to sink to levels it has never seen before.  The amounts of money sought to rescue Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac are unheard of…and far exceed anything during the Great Depression.  Though Bush and his people have refused to call this time what it is…and it certainly is not just some kind of a ’slow down.’ 

No, it is far more than that…and far greater than that.  And people thought that Bush’s father was out of touch.

From the on-set of George Bush taking control of the United States government, we have had nothing but problems…as if 9/11 and a un-necessary war costing us millions per day were not enough.  Now, the most unpopular President in the history of the United States…a dunce who should have never been allowed into the Oval Office in the first place has sent this country reeling out of control financially and otherwise. 

Everything is out of control and from day to day the average American doesn’t know what new mess they will awaken to that has been brought on my George Bush and his people.

What an out and out shame.  To think that some poor guy…and it will be some poor guy who will be going into the White House following the November Presidential Elections…to think that he will have to try to clean up…rectify…and restore this country as best he can is a travesty after the mess that his predecessors, the Bush Administration, has left him with. 

Because if it is Obama…those Republicans will certainly claim that Obama was the cause of it…just the way they tried to say Bill Clinton had done certain things which was why George Bush dwindled the surplus that was left behind.

But careless thinking got us here.  It was definitly the cause…and without any form of opposition.  For some reason the Republicans have been allowed to run a muke for the past 8 years…doing whatever they willed.

Yes, carelessness got us here…and since going into the White House, George Bush has been nothing but careless, carefree and cared about nothing.  So, just how was that kind of thinking going to do anything for America…and/or her people?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21cong.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=government%20bailout%20of%20fanny%20mae&st=cse&oref=slogin

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21econ.html?scp=3&sq=government%20bailout%20of%20fanny%20mae&st=cse

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/09/post.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26827357/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26827357/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3683270/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7617186.stm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/26821963#26821963

Lets get out the vote.   Every vote counts.  And…yes, it’s definitely time for a change.  Not just a change in the name of the person who occupies the White House…but an overall change in thinking and doing.   This country needs people genuinely interested in America for the masses of her peoples sake…not a chosen few.    VOTE….OBAMA

Please be sure to share this blog site with your friends.

…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com 

God bless…and thanks for reading  ©2008

 

Reform…Change …McCain????

The real agents of change…McCain…or Obama?

It was interesting hearing the Republicans talk about change during their convention as though they were the first to conceptualized that idea of change…or that America was in need of a change.

And man do we need a change.

And that change is by way…of removing the Republicans out of office…getting their hands off of regulating the business of the United States of America.  Under Bush this country has hit rock bottom.  It has gone to places where it hadn’t been since the stock market crash of the 1930’s bringing about the Great American Depression, which lasted into 1940’s.

How could one group of people do so much damage?

From a huge surplus left by Bill Clinton to a massive deficeit that continues growing moment by moment as another bullet is shot or a war tank is moved through the dessert sands of Iraq.

Under Bush has come war, attacks on American soil, home foreclosures, U.S. takeovers of huge companies  with the hope of trying to stablize a highly flautering economy.  Companies like Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae…who ever thought anything would happen to her…or them?  

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21cong.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092000883.html?hpid=topnews

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/lehman_brothers_holdings_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org

And they say that Bush was an Economics Major. 

Well, that is one degree that Yale should go back and reclaim quick before everybody starts wondering just what is Yale teaching its Economic Majors?

It is easy to preach change…but without it being actually in your heart…or having the heart to actually implement it….change just becomes a catch phrase…a means of merely trying to get elected without the hope of making any change.  And that is exactly what ‘change’ means to the Republicans.  It is a catch phrase…a practical joke that everytime they said it…they almost choke trying not to laugh.

Those Republicans…they have no real desire to change anything.  And why would they want to?

From what I heard at the Republican Convention….they’re all happy with the way things are.  And why not…they have reaped the benefits from this mess that the Bush Administration has sunken us into. 

Who ever heard of paying $4.00/per gallon for gas in America before George Bush got into office?

Even under Bush senior…this country still was under 90 cents per gallon for gasoline.

But when you go into office and the first thing you do is increase your own salary that really should speak volumes to everybody in the country.  Bill Clinton as President of the United States only received $200,000 a year…but George Bush felt that wasn’t enough.  So, the President’s salary went up to $400,000 a year.  That meant that within the first 4 years of Bush’s term he was paid all of what Bill Clinton got for the whole of 8 years Bill was in office.  And Bill Clinton never took any 4 week vacations at any time while he was in the office of President of this country…a thing George Bush really loves to do  (that’s that party boy attitude he’s had all his life)…and he started taking them shortly after he stole his way into the Oval Office.

Honestly, when you look at the American Economy…Bush has really been on vacation for his entire 8 years that he has been in the White House.  Well, maybe if he had…then maybe we wouldn’t be here where we are right now. 

What a mess!

So, yes…drinking champagne and watching their stocks vested in fuel, food goods etc. go soaring through the roof those Republicans loved that. 

Why shouldn’t they?

They’re making money.  That’s why they are against better health packages for employees, more taxes for the richer Americans, help to the poor, disabled, sick and disenfranchised

When you get right down to it….those…those…those REPUBLICANS are a selfish bunch!

They could care less about anybody but themselves.

So, for the most part they enjoy their standing in America…they are vested.   Vested in things remaining just as they are.

When you looked out upon the people who filled the coliseum where the Republican National Convention took place…it looked more like a meeting of the Wall Street Klan.  They for the most part looked like a bunch of stuff shirt business people (who all by the way looked sad to be at their own convention).  The Republican Convention certainly didn’t seem to have a cross section of people from all sectors of America as were the people that attended the Democratic  National Convention.  And besides that…the Republican Convention didn’t have one person who was just an ordinary Joe or Jane who came up to tell their story…like the Democratic Convention did.  And all of those stories were quite moving and compelling…as to what the Republicans have done to the American Economy and how people…everyday people are truly suffering.

Not only did there seem to be a deep difference between the 2 types of crowds attending the various Political Conventions…but also…the Republican National Convention was geared towards personality and had nothing to do with what the maverick McCain would do differently for America.  In fact, the whole Republican Convention was one big war hero story.  It would have been great for Memorial Day or something…but it didn’t speak to what McCain plans to do for America.

The Republicans attacked Obama…his eloquence and ability to rally the crowds.  But they failed to offer up any meat on a Republican agenda.  They talked ‘change’…and spoke about ‘reform’…but never said ‘how’…or what differently they were going to do.  Because the reality is…it is all talk as it has always been when it comes to the Republicans. 

The Republican make promises…but only continue to enrich the rich and could care less about those who are struggling to keep above the water…as the Republicans steadily watch their bank accounts grow having invested in energy, oil and whatever else that is bleeding us into nothingness…we who don’t have their deep pockets…and have to work hard at trying to make every dollar stretch as far as we can get it.

McCain may well have been a hero…but having served in the military and making the decision to stay with his troops is not something that many others also did not decide to do when they had the option of doing something else.  I have watched stories of such people all the time on PBS.  And no one has said of them-

“This qualifies you to become the next President of the United States.”

If so, then we would see more military people running for political office along with mostly lawyers and other professional types who choose to become Senators, Governors, Mayors etc…  But no, you don’t see them…those just plain military people…and if they were to stand up and say-

“I can do a better job than of those guys.”

Somebody would tell them to sit down….and that they just did not have the experience or whatever else it takes to be in politics. 

So, therefore, military service is no prerequisite to be President of the United States…nor can it be a substitute for qualifications or experience.  When your military record is all that can stand on or all that can be said about you…one really has to wonder about John McCain.  And believe me that Republican Convention was all about John McCain’s military record.  Not once did I hear about some bill or anything else he managed to push through.

I say, give me a person who knows what it is to serve people though he may have not have been Governor or a corporation executive…but a honest caring person who has made it his life work to serve the everyday woman and man.   And that is the history of Barack Obama.

“Drill, baby…drill.”

Sounds like the Republicans don’t mind destroying what little lands this country has set aside in order to protect certain eco-systems and various species of wildlife, foliage etc.  As long as they can make money the Republicans could care less about anything else. 

Is this not the very reason that the investigators laid claim to about Hurrican Katrina?

Did they not say that that if the wet lands had not been removed that perhaps New Orleans might have had the flooding it suffered?

It was the eco-system that had been destoryed in order to increase the city limits…and in the end nature dealt New Orleans a death defying blow by the name of Katrina.

But destorying the eco-systems mean nothing to the Republicans.  Because they reap all the benefits and none of the fall-out from such decisions.

Money is the only thing most Republicans put first.

That sign being waved by many at the Republicans at their National Convention which said ‘Prosperity’ looked so much like a Hersey’s Chocolate wrapping…to me that I started craving a Hersey’s bar for the remainder of the night.  And finally got one just this week.

Prosperity…not change is what the Republicans want.  Its their same old game…they’re just trying to repackage it and give it a new name.   And during their own convention those Republicans were bold enough to display large signs reading just that…”Prosperity.” 

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761584403/great_depression_in_the_united_states.html

Remember to get registered if you are not…the clock is ticking.  And be sure if you are registered to go down to the Voter Registration Office in your city or town and double check on your registration…just to make sure you won’t run into any problems on election day.  You vote counts.

Well, God bless…and enjoy the rest of your day.  And thanks for reading…and please remember to share this blog address with your friends….‘…pass it on…’ www.bsmith101.wordpress.com 

God bless…and thanks for reading  ©2008

I had gone into a local Jamacian restaurant to get my son something to eat when I first heard the story.  I was shocked and cried out aloud-

“Oh, no!  Not John Edwards too?”

Not squeaky clean John Edwards…a man who could have told me anything and I would have believed it.  The man I would have perfered to run for President over John Kerry in 2004.  The man that I was holding out and hoping that Barack Obama would name as his Vice Presidential running mate.  The man that I watched stand along side his wife as she went through her bout with cancer.

Yes, that John Edwards…the Senator from North Carolina…who had thrown his hat into the Presidential ring again for the second time this year…only to be forced out by Obama and Hillary.  The one… and I don’t know about you…but I thought he could do no wrong.

And now I find out…him too.

Ex-New York Govenor Eliot Spitzer,  Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Chatholic Priests, Detroit’s Mayor…Kwame Kilpatrick,  Bill Cosby, Racist Senator Storm Thurmond who fathered a child with a young…very young black woman who was only 15 at the time, Ex-Louisiana Senator David Vitter with his DC madames,  Dr. Jay…Julius Erving, Rudy Giuliani, George Bush who had had 2 mistresses…one which accused him of rape who later mysteriously committed suicide, New Jersey’s Ex-Govenor Jim McGreevey, Larry Craig and that whole men’s bathroom foot thang…and the list goes on and on…

I guess he met this woman, Rielle Hunter, who was an actress turned a videographer who was hired to follow him around some time during his last run for the White House, where he ended up being John Kerry’s running mate.  During the time of this affair Edwards fathered a child with the woman.  And though there had been some talk about him having had an affair, Edwards continually lied and called the claims false…like a true politican. 

And I thought he was better than that.

CLICK ARTICLES BELOW for more on the story.

http://www.cnn.com/?refresh=1

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/edwards_admits_to_affair.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_affair

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/08/allow_bret_easton_ellis_to_int.html

Men cheat on their wives with other women who can’t shake a stick to what they already have at home.

So, then why do they do it? 

The affair between Edwards and what’s her name…happened sometime, I guess, while he was running for President the first time. Though, however, that woman was brought onto his staff with a 6 figure salary, $100,000…money like that one hundred thousand dollars just to shoot behind the scene video footage of him?  Being able to command that type of salary might suggest that he knew her before she picked up the camera and began shooting.

Having that in his closet…one has to wonder what prompted Edwards to dare even think about running for the White House a second time…knowing that he had just fathered a child with some woman other than his wife.  And this mind you while pretending to be all supporting and caring of his ailing wife, Elizabeth…whom I have always thought seemed to be terribly nice…and a great mother with her children.

All to the discredit of John Edwards…and to the pain of his wife who was and is already suffering…still battling cancer…topped off with that of their own children who will also have to endure this scandal.

I would really have to believe that so much better looking woman have tried to enticed them other than just the ones these men have ultimately crawled into bed with…and I’m not talking about men like Larry Craig or Jim McGreevy because their stories are a whole other set of issues.

I have been in the presence of men who have discussed with me after their wives have died how they wished they had been better husbands…hadn’t cheated…etc…etc…

It is ashamed that she couldn’t hear that…I have thought when hearing this.  And I have no idea…as to why it is…men would share this with me.  But they have.

And I have known a different man…and I have shared some things about him…a bit about my time in Chicago…it was in my blog about Minnie Ripperton.

Dr. A. L. Reynolds, Jr. was a man who loved his wife.  I became his secretary…I don’t know how many years after her death…as I had never met her or even seen a picture of  her.  But one morning he can into the office and said to me-

“Today is my wife’s birthday.”

And I said back to him-

“I bet you couldn’t remember that when she was alive.”

I think back now…and realize that that was rather cruel of me.  But I was young…and I wasn’t trying to be rude.  It was the extent of my quick wit…I just didn’t have any…then or now.

But he loved his wife, Dr. Reynolds did.  Even though women would try to entice him…and even though she had already passed some years ago…he loved her.   Her only…and there could or would be no other.  As it tickled him…women trying to get his attention.   There was a little old church mother whom he had pointed out to me…telling me she was an admirer.  But he had lots of those…if you were the type of man he was…you would understand why.

And I admired him for that…because he felt that passionate about her…long after she was gone…and I am sure all the while he was married to her.

He oftentimes shared stories about her with me.  This I imagine kept her very much alive for him.

Yes, he was a man who had loved his wife greatly…and I imagine…she him…based upon his stories to me.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4424507

Here is a story that really makes you sick to your stomach.  CLICK BELOW to read it.  It is on the UN Peacekeepers…just in case you thought it was about something gory.  And to a degree it is.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/081zxelz.asp

It seems the world is going to the dogs. 

Is there no one who can be trusted?

It is a very sad commentary on just how far we have fallen…and are falling.

Kwame, the ex-Mayor of Detroit, and his girl…

 Well, I will be busy tomorrow…plan to open up my business.  Finally got everything I need but a few bags of ice.  Today I purchased the bread, charcoal, lighter fluid and a few other things.

I have to get up early as I plan to call into a local radio station and start to get the word out.  Then I am going to very quickly paint up my signs…which I should have done already.  But it has been very wet lately…a lot of rain.  Might even do that night…in fact I will.  And hopefully it will dry over night.

Got to make the barbeque sauce tonight too…planning on having very hot and a mild sauce.

I’ve got to unfreeze that meat too tonight.  I’m glad I’m thinking of all of this now.  And I need to freeze up some more ice.

I’ve got a lot to do.

Let me see…what else do I have to do.  Was going to do some baking.  Thought it might be nice to have something sweet on the table…but then I ran out of money.   Couldn’t get the eggs…but bought everything else…well, almost. 

Because I thought about making bread pudding…my father used to make the best.  And I have a taste for it…so, I guess I am really going to make it more for me than anyone else.  But you know…sometimes you just have taste for something. 

So, I bought everything but enough bread for which I could bake with.  I bought bread…but for the hundred of so sandwiches which I intend to sell.  But not enough to bake a couple of pans or even one pan of bread pudding.  And I can’t afford to mess with any of the bread I brought for the sandwiches…because the real money is in the sandwiches.

So, I’ll just have to put those things away until I can afford to buy some more bread and the eggs too…but I do have the raisins, sugar, milk etc…etc…

So, yes…tomorrow…tomorrow…here I come.       God bless… and enjoy your weekend. ©2008

BEAR STERNS EXCE’s…

How many of these stories about insiders ripping off investors are we going to hear and bear? No pun intended but at the end of the day tax payers end up having to pay for it…that’s what really gets me. These guys always end up walking away with millions and leaving poor everyday people (tax payers) to bear the burden of their misdeeds while they always get to keep most of the money that they stole while perpetrating crimes.

Oh, sure we could say, “shame on you”…but they’ve heard that already. Or we could say, “Let’s make ‘em sign a pact to stop lying, cheating and stealing, and never do it again.” But didn’t we do that too?

You do remember that don’t you…Bush organized it and issued the code of ethics that all the executives were suppose to sign. But then let’s face it…would you cease to be a fraud, liar, thief and a cheat if George Bush gave you a document like that? Even Bush himself probably had his eyes closed with his fingers crossed behind his back as he put his signature on the document putting that supposed code into affect. And you know what…we haven’t heard anything about it since. And that all happened the first or second year after Bush stole, lied and cheated his way into the Oval Office.

But let me go to Martha Steward…how is it that she was ushered so quickly into prison when these Bear Stern exec’s (that they caught with their hands in the cookie jar…lying to investors while cashing in on their side of the table aiding in destabilizing the countries housing market). Just how did these two Bear Sterns exec’s manage to go off on vacation and spend millions in stolen hard cold cash while partying? What happened to freezing assets and not allowing crooks to put a hand on anything before their day in front of the judge?

Talk about some double standards…and the same thing with those Enron guys. It was the exact same scenario…and look how perfectly timed that was. The big Enron chief died before the trial and the jurors could be seated. How perfectly timed that was…couldn’t have happened by accident. And poor Martha they couldn’t rush her off to prison quick enough. In fact, it happened so fast it’s a wonder Martha didn’t get whip-flash.

Integrity and honor were something applauded and celebrated years ago. But today you can barely find them…either of them. Lying and cheating have become part of today’s culture. It is not just in the corporate world or Wall Street…it is in government, the court house, the school yard, college campuses, homes, churches…relationships, marriages, operating rooms, hospitals…television, news, internet…everywhere. And some of the places where lying, cheating, stealing, abusing etc. dominate the most are some of the most shocking.

VICE PRES…HILLARY????

Noooo, not Hillary. I could care less what Hillary wants. She does not even deserve a consideration. Anybody who would single-handedly try to railroad any political party in this country to forcefully submit to their will…their demands…their-their…(SIGH) can’t think of anything else…but she should not be lauded or applauded and touted as some type of national hero…or should I say she-ro.

All along the campaign during the Democratic Primary, Hillary refused to play fairly…even down to the end. Had not the Political New York Heavy Weights gone after her and forced her to surrender, submit, give-in etc…etc…she would have gone before Judge Judy seeking out recourse and some type of resolution in the courts…of which she may still try to do as she merely suspended her campaign as she voiced. This, of course, had been a consideration of hers all along the campaign trail that even those close to her were disclosing all over media if Hillary failed to get the nod from Party. And they were all very clearly angry (Hillary’s people) and did not mind trying to get people to cross over and cast their votes for McCain in light of Hillary not becoming the nominee of the Democratic Party Presidential Election 2008.

Shame on Hillary for causing such discourse by trying to motion women and poor middle class Whites to cross over to the other side and vote for McCain. And she wants to purposely break Obama’s bank roll by having his people pay off her campaign debts which she so unabashedly, shamelessly and recklessly continuously kept pouring into her sinking ship of a campaign knowing that she would be looking to hit up Obama for the reimbursement. And we thought Nixon was tricky. He could have taken some lessons from Bill and Hillary.

If Obama were to choose Hillary as VP, and he won’t, but if he were to do so…he really wouldn’t be able to sleep. Talking about having to keep one eye open and a finger on a trigger…and I don’t even believe in guns. But if Obama got a phone call in the middle of the night it wouldn’t be about how he would handle the situation or the crisis. No, that would be the least of his worries…he would first have to be careful to stay away from all the windows…and remember to keep low because Hillary could be out in bushes.

I know Hillary is dangerous.

There is this saying about a woman scorned…maybe you know it.

If Obama chose Hillary…well, let’s just say it this way…the brother would have to start packing. Let’s face it…she has put out the code word and everything else against Obama. And all this, mind you, while she wasn’t even VP but just another person in the race.  Imagine just how much more dangerous Hillary Clinton would be to Obama if she were his VP.

OBAMA ON FATHERS…

Finally got a chance to hear the speech which Obama gave at a church in Chicago on Father’s Day.

Personally, as always Obama gave a great message…and that is what it was. He was invited to speak at a church on Father’s Day. So, what else would he have talked about? And it was a Black church…so, why wouldn’t he talk to them about Black Men stepping up and being responsible.

But clearly anyone hearing that speech by Obama could apply it across the board to men in almost all the various groups. Many men today totally disregard their responsibilities…whether it be inside or outside of marriage. What better day to have such a dialog than on Father’s Day. And Obama is destined to become one of the great fathers of this country.  So, who better than to take the time on Father’s Day to give it…in this day where we need leadership to step up to the plate and lead not only in words but by example.

It is unfortunate, however, that every time Obama speaks he is going to have to be dissected not only by White folks but by Black folks as well…believing that everything he says is politically motivated or that he has some kind of special agenda.

Enemy Combatants…

Labeling is everything…and the Bush Administration knows how to get around everything simply by refusing to call things what they are or as they are. This might just be a little something that the Bush Administration, however, picked up from the Clinton Administration when Clinton refused to called the Rwanda Genocide a genocide until some 100 days after it had begun and came to an end, in 1994.

Bush has been such a good student in learning how to not play the call it what it really is game…you can actually see how well it works by his phrasing of our current economic depression as a mere “Slow Down”…not a recession but just a little ol’ slow down.

So, Bush has applied the same little trick to how the US has classified various prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. By classifying prisoners as detainees rather than as enemy combatants has allowed the US Government to squirm around and not have to adhere to any of the codes of ethics or of conduct instituted by the Geneva Convention in regards to treatment of prisoners, the interrogation of enemy combatants etc. These little games, however, and that is what they are…games…fool no one…foolish…and are fools play.

The tarnishing of America’s image is something in which the Bush folks have not spent one night losing any sleep over. It is truly a very sad commentary on the legacy of any so-called President of the United States. However, to put at the jeopardy thousands of innocent enlisted men and women lives who risk being captured, tortured and/or killed every day in places where dismay and mayhem was perpetrated by this country under the Bush Administration is incomprehensible. And to heighten the likability of them being tortured and butchered because our government, the US government, refuses to play by the rules and adhere to the Geneva Convention is a grave mistake.

In every discourse, someone has to take the high road…and it will never be this country under the rule of Cheney and Bush.

Really, at the end of the day what would it hurt to allow detainees in Guantanamo Bay to have their day in court? Not unless this government has scooped up a bunch of people who really knew nothing and have had nothing to do with terrorism…just people used to make it look good by having large numbers imprisoned to aid somehow in the appearance of the Bush group seemingly looking good and as being effective in its war on terrorism. Truthfully, do not put this pass them.

That would be an outrage wouldn’t it…to find out there may be a bunch innocent people grabbed up and carted off to Guantanamo Bay for years and detained there with no kind of recourse or time table…or possible no way out. To allow anyone out who has been detained falsely under the Bush Administration would certainly guaranteed the possibility of future problems for the USA…as some of those detainees (who may have been falsely imprisoned) are bond to come out very bitter and harboring great hatred and resentment towards America now even if they may not have before.

What a mess the Bush Administration has gotten us into…and so foolishly.

TOMATOES…

I haven’t gotten over the spinach thang to tell you the truth. It is not that I have been eating spinach all that long. I really started about, I don’t know, maybe some 20 years ago…and I won’t tell you how old I am but that is far less than half of my age. But once I started eating spinach, mostly in salad…can’t really stand it cooked…I kind of grew to like it. And wouldn’t you know it…once I finally started eating my spinach it comes up being tainted…and I haven’t touched it since.

Now, tomatoes have hit the list. One good thing about tomatoes…you can always grow your own…cheaper that way too. And it doesn’t take a lot to grow them or to get them to grow. Funny the home grown tomatoes actually taste better anyway. And if you never noticed…and I hate to tell you this…I never noticed it either until somebody pointed it out to me…today when tomatoes rot they start rotting from the inside out. That never was…well, back in the day. (for some reason while writing this blog I’m beginning to feel old…real old)

All the un-natural techniques of growing fruits and vegetables today, as well as, pumping up everything…cattle…and those poor chicken. I really feel sorry for them. I can’t imagine being shut-up in a dark sealed off in a place where they are feigning night 24 hours, all day and night, to continuously have me producing eggs…ughhhh! It just doesn’t sound right. And the size of some chickens today can rival the size of a small turkey. (can’t get away from that word ‘today’ for some reason)

Salmonella is all over the place…tomatoes, spinach, chicken, hamburgers etc…etc… And if that doesn’t get ya’ there is Mad Cow disease, Bird Flu, Foot and Mouth disease and who knows what else…they never tell us everything until it is upon us and at least twenty or more have come down with it. I remember sitting at home in New York afraid to go out because the city would out all night busy spraying mosquito’s.

If you have noticed nothing tastes the same as it did years ago. Sometimes you just want to shout enough is enough…these scientist have just gone too far. Whenever I look at steak I never know if I’m eating one of poor ol’ Dolly’s off-springs…that could account for why most meats taste old and lack the favor of foods from yesterday. At lease those in Africa were wise enough to say no to bio-generated foods. Who would want it? That’s is how they got into trouble with AIDS. Nobody talks about it…but do you remember that ship they used to call the Good Ship Hope that used to carry thousands upon thousands of bags of blood to Africa.

Nobody of course talks about it…but that ship did used to exist and they even used to run commercials about it and their great humanitarian deeds. Nobody calls that ship’s name now…not since Africa suffers so heavily from HIV and AIDS. So, of course, the Good Ship Hope’s name has not been brought up, especially not since it has been discovered that blood is the number one means of transmitting AIDS.

But going back to the foods that we eat it is little wonder people are suffering from all kinds of nerve and other disorders…it’s all the chemicals in our water and our food. Everything is shot up with this or that. Yes, larger is better in some things but not in all things. And not matter how you try to get away from it…it really doesn’t matter who plants what or where…because chemicals are everywhere…in all our water, in the soil…everywhere…even in the air we breathe.
We have truly messed up this planet…little wonder Mother Nature is striking back. (I don’t actually believe in Mother Nature…but I do believe in God and retribution)

GAS PRICES…

No matter how much we try not to acknowledge it this gas thing could get a lot worst. Based upon the prices that other countries pay we have really had it easy, and that really goes for everything…just talk to some foreigners. But who cares about other countries…we live in America!

Greed being what it is…it was just a matter of time before our prices started to catch up with the rest of the world. We, Americans, after all, have had the most disposable income in the world for a very long time…and for the most part our government has held back the super dogs from ripping every penny out of our little ol’ hands. But today our government is in bed with many those super dogs and just doesn’t mind passing legislation to help them, themselves and their friends to get richer.

A lot of things have changed since the influx of the Bush Administration into the White House. When you consider how rapidly under Bush the gas prices have blown-up…it is not just Exxon or Sunoco who should be called in to chat with the Senate and be investigated…but Bush and his gang too.

It is not a secret how closely tied Bush is to the companies making all these stellar millions while we have all have had to tighten our belts and go without. Think about it…when Bush went into the White House where were the gas prices…maybe at what…a $1.39/gal for regular gasoline…think about where it is now? Just how did that happened and so rapidly?

Nothing can happen as fast as our gas prices skyrocketing without some inside help. For one thing by going in and invading Iraq, Bush more than orchestrated this. At the very on-set when Bush started talking about invading Iraq most people here in America and elsewhere saw the invasion for what it really was…that it was all about oil. Not quite in the way as we all thought though. It was about the stifling of the oil market by disrupting the oil output coming out of Iraq thereby causing the oil world to go bonkers…and push up prices by destabilizing the Middle East even further and the OPEC Moguls.

If you think for a moment that they, Bush/Cheney and everybody around them didn’t have stocks in Sunoco, Exxon, Mobil, Texaco etc. and everything else having to do with basic home utility services and fuels…then you are living in the Dark Ages. They are all making out like a bunch of bandits drinking pina coladas waving a finger in the air with a hand on their hip dancing around the glow of the ol’ camp fire while singing songs and occasionally taking breaks to punch up their accounts on their Blackberries to see just how much more their fuel investments have grown within the last 15 minutes.

When you can manipulate the market…you can also help yourself to lots of the benefits and rewards of doing so. And as President of this country George Bush and Dick Cheney have been able to do pretty much anything and everything they have wanted to do including torturing prisoners which is clearly against International Law, eavesdrop and spy on American citizens etc. They launched a pre-empted strike on the Iraqi people, instituted wire tapping, torture and the Patriot Act which in essence gave Bush and his crew carte blanche as to whatever they wanted to do almost without limits as long as they framed under the guise of being in the best interest of National Security.

When you consider the gas shortage of the 70’s…it paled in terms of the prices we see at the gas pumps today at prices well of over $4.20. When the gas shortage of the 70’s was over it was finally disclosed to the American public that there really hadn’t been a gas shortage…because the government had never come close to having touched our own gas reserves…this mind you after a very tremulous period in American history where people were being killed at gas pumps fighting over gasoline…and then there was the gasoline rationing instituted by the government where depending upon the last number on your license plate you could or could not buy gas only to find out that we had not really been in a gas shortage after all.

Our government from time to time has been cruel without measure or reason…what was the purpose of having done that?  Money.  Then like today.

Bush having gone into Iraq and disrupted the oil supply by bombing everything was a very good way of ensuring a certain desirable outcome…like escalating gasoline prices. Before going into Iraq the outcome undoubtedly had to been weighed and the consequences probably had been of great consideration by the Bush Administration. So, the only logic for making such a decision could have only been if the benefit of obliterating Iraq outweighed the consequences of not invading Iraq.

There is this saying that the rich only want to get richer.

Surely, all that effort was not solely for the removal of one man and his two sons. There had to be something more to the invasion of Iraq. And we all know it was never about weapons of mass destruction.

Here is what it was…the idea was to make the rich richer…and if anybody among that group wasn’t rich prior to the bombing of Iraq…they quickly pulled together some money from somewhere, invested it in Sunoco and anything else that had to do with fuel, oil, utilities etc…and have made a bundle. And they are still making bundles of money on the Iraqi War while it is costing us over a billion dollars per day. And as if financial cost were not enough…consider the innocent lives on both sides. And here we are in America fighting to keep our heads above the water as the prices for everything shoot up due the inflated costs of oil and gasoline.

Now, Bush is calling to end the band on off-shore drilling as a means to decrease the rising cost of fuel from abroad. He says that now that gas prices are climbing over $4…”…it is now time to end the bands.”

Well, who caused the increase in the first place?

Now, Bush wants to turn it around? What in the eleventh hour? Yeah…and at what costs? And to whose benefit?

They’re in the oil business, folks. The Bush’s are oil barons. George Bush and the Republicans got us into this mess and he is not in business of turning anything around…but more money.
When was the first time you got into your vehicle and had to decide upon what errands you could afford to run that day…and what you could do along this or that route while carrying out some other errand?

It is called bundling…and you’re doing it…and I am doing it. This is something we never really had to think about before. But when you consider that nearly $4.50 gives you what you used spend $1.05 at the pump a few years ago…bundling is the only way to go.

My mother used to take us in the car and drive us through the countryside on beautiful summer days stopping by fruit and vegetable stands along the way. And many times we would find ourselves out on the Connecticut shoreline taking in the sun and racing through the rushing ocean waters lapping at the beach sands. But who can afford it today at the prices we pay at the gasoline pumps at today’s prices. To get in your car and go anywhere is like going on vacation now…we have ended up paying $100 to $300 or more a week just to get around town.
Think about it…putting $5 worth of gas into your tank today is just a little above putting in a dollar’s worth yesterday…I mean years ago. I understand that we live under the domain of inflation but something seriously wrong with this picture.

Perhaps we can’t say it all started after George Bush got into the White House…but these soaring runaway prices have. And the funny part about it is…everywhere he goes he rides for free.

REALITY CHECK…

Did you know that prior to George Bush presidents were paid only $200,000 a year. That was up until Bush stole his way into the White House. After Bush took over the country the presidential pay shot up (just like our gas prices but faster) to $400,000 a year.

To think we pay Bush double the amount of money Clinton was paid during his 8 years in the White House is mind bobbling. Talking about an over paid executive.

That’s not all…we not only pay him all that money but with every bite he takes, every piece of toilet paper or tissue he sneezes into we pay for it. So, to think that Bush is the one responsible for our fuel shock at the gas pumps, our food shock in the grocery stores, and our shock over prices in department stores and pharmacies etc. around the country is…is…is…(you fill in the blank…I can’t think of anything right now because many people are hurting…and really hurting from what this man and his administration has done). And it is a shame.

Thank God a new day is just ahead. Change is in the atmosphere.

THE MORTGAGE CRISIS…

When I read the newspaper and see all the foreclosures, forget about around the country, but right here! Right here where I live…it is hard not to feel for our fellow Americans who are faced with foreclosure, high education costs, runaway medical expenses etc…it is hard not to feel some level of empathy…and even more so if you have to go through some of this yourself.
Foreclosure is no joke. You do not go to bed and sleep…because you never know what you are going to wake up to in the morning. The fear our home being sold over her head is quite frightening. So, I have come to remember to pray for everyone going through this process.

I also had to go through most of my winter, last year, without heat or hot water…that too taught me how to pray for others going through that…for those without a home or roof over their head. I can’t imagine it…but I do know that it has to be a grievous state to be in.

It is funny if you don’t have to go through some of these things yourself you will never know just how much others have to contend with…and just how disconcerting it all can be.

But thank God we serve a mighty God who is true to His word. He will never forsake you…and it is true that the righteous never ever have to beg for bread. So, if you are going through something be encouraged. I’m thinking about you and praying for you. Remember it is only a test…you will come through like pure gold.

It is funny as I now more than ever thank God for all that He has done for me…and is doing. And my appreciation for the simpler things in life has grown…as they give me my greatest pleasures. Sometimes I can just sit and look up at the sky for great periods of time and just marvel at the goodness of God. And I am constantly thanking God every time I get into the shower for the hot water and the warmth in the house…and how He straightened out our mortgage situation.
He is good…and good all the time. God Bless…  ©2008