Posts filed under: ‘Voting‘




PRESIDENT OBAMA and GUN CONTROL… the View on Chris Christie and Weight…

It is a shame that it took this long for this conversation to sincerely and truthfully come to the forefront 75084_10151396532909238_1417681934_nof American conscientiousness… but at last it has happened.  And 1 might say several senseless massacres too many before something should have really been done… like a long time ago.

After mass killings after mass killings finally the l_gunviolenceUnited States government is taking a stand, and President Obama is initiating laws against assault weapons and hand guns…all of which the Republicans for the most part want no part of it.

Well, I understand when your biggest financial campaign contributor is a gun manufacturer, and you have all those gun lobbyist sitting on Capitol Hill.  Yes, that might sway your judgment about gun control until it becomes a question of your own son or daughter…getting killed in some ruiz5k-1-webmovie theater… grade school or upon some college campus etc…

I’m happy that President Obama has said enough is enough, and is taking a lead on doing something that the Congress and the Senate of the United States has refused to have taken seriously for all these years and episode after episode.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/16/16544842-obama-unveils-sweeping-new-gun-control-proposals?lite

But  what is so annoying and distasteful to me is how the Republicans hate President 485992_433034763435241_415730549_nObama…and are so very disrespectful of him.  they despise him. And no matter what good President Obama tries to do… they are against him.   Whereas, no matter what George Bush did…    In fact, it appeared that everything George Bush did was good to them… down to lying about weapons of mass destruction… and sending off people’s sons and daughters to be killed in wars which should not have been.   But they… those arrogant Republicans stood by George Bush… all the way.   Pushed pass everything Bush wanted without so much as a sniffle.  But oh how they cry bloody murder over everything that President Obama does or tries to do.  And then they want to say that ‘they are not racist.’

Yeah, sure…

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/states-obama-gun-proposals-constitutional/story?id=18243043

Finally got a chance to read the above entire article LINK.  Those republicans are a real joke. They can’t even President Obama Speaks On Homeland Security's Announcement About Deportationsbring themselves to call Obama ”Mister President” or ‘President Obama.’. It seems that uttering those words when referring to the President would seriously hurt them.

0238190179_1_296x196_tlWhat kind of fool do they think President Obama is?

Trying to scare Obama by saying they will consider impeaching him for legally using Presidential authority 394934_433034866768564_800118516_ngranted unto him, as President of the United States. I don’t think anything dumber has EVER been said. What a bunch of fools.

Arrogance… ignorance and hatred will make a fool of you all the time… and that is the state that the American Republican party is in.  They are arrogant… ignorant fools.  And they show that by making the stupid statements such as those expressed in the above news LINK.

I am so happy Obama is not a chump. He doesn’t back down.. and he knows exactly who he is and they can’t stand that.

He’s the President…and they are only members of the House… He’s ”head houcho”…and that really bugs ‘em…. And even worst of all Obama acts like it…and THAT is killing them.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/01/republicans-accuse-obama-of-using-position-as-president-to-lead-country.html

http://socialreader.com/me/channels/28439/content/sNxMe

It is far beyond the time for the Federal Government to step up into the role of ensuring the safety of the American Public by enacting laws that will lower the availability of guns to the criminally minded, and those who have some insane agendas.  These incidences have become too frequent and they are escalating.  I am just story that it took a bunch of very young school children to signify this point.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2013/01/17/Biden-Time-has-come-on-gun-violence/UPI-44991358409600/

I just happened to catch a segment on The View regarding gun control and various methodsmedium_viewmccainad_jez_Sm.flv that can be put into place at schools.  It was 1 of those rare times that I must admit to being totally in agreement with Elisabeth Hasselbeck… who is almost always a voice of dissension on that show… and a devote Republican.

Whoopie, Sharri and Barbara were all for guns being given to school teachers as a good method of curving school killings.  Which is something I find to be totally ludicrous.

gun-violence_0Do not teachers go berserk and fall off the deep end too?

Of, course some do.  And then the other side of that scenario is this…

What happens when a student gets a hold of 1 of his or her teacher’s guns?

Or even worst…  What happens when a school shooting occurs and the police arrive and can’t determine who is the real culprit with so many people firing guns?normal_Guns-1920x1080

Because arming teachers and/or other school faculty staff is a very very bad idea… so many walking and carrying guns in school this could very well become a worst problem… and dilemma would arise at  knowing who to shoot at.   In the heat of a shoot out… like out on the battlefield this is not necessary 1 of the easiest things to decipher…  Hence, ‘friendly fire.’

But fear and a haste to make all the wrong choices by putting into place measures that could bring about even worst consequences, than the problems we now face itself  are worthy of some deep thought.  And it is not Obama’s plans that I fear… but all these so-called do-gooders who may have some very flawed thinking triggered by lots of fear… or hidden agendas… all coming… running with their irrational suggestions.

Guns_1000I was not in favor either of arming flight attendants.  And thank God we got over that fear… when flying high in the friendly skies.

It would have been a disaster if suddenly a shoot out  between a passenger and airline personnel broke out in an aircraft… leaving all the passengers in grave danger not to mention the aircraft itself.  And so would be arming teachers or other supposed teaching professionals with guns be too.  The mediumlast time I checked that  shooting at Sandy Nook school, in Connecticut where 26 people were killed… and most of theml children under the age of 10… it was the mother (the school teacher of that classroom)… who had owned those guns which were used…by her crazed son.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/18/16584988-woman-protected-from-rapist-by-boy-14-with-hunting-knife-after-she-leaps-from-car?lite

The article reads that the woman…the female victim was the true hero here…

But, no.  It was the 14-year-old boy who opened the door and let her into him parent’s home who was house4738the real hero…because it was at risk to himself and his 2 younger siblings.

I am, however, sure that his parent’s might have seen this picture entirely different… and particularly since the crazed man, who had kidnapped the young woman, torched their home in an effort to get the young female victim back.

The young 14-year-old in this story definitely deserves to be praised.  But I know his parents must have an entirely different take on this story.  But he saved that young woman’s life…while at the same time putting at risk his own, and that of his younger sister and brother.  And not to mention their family 5333118-baseball-in-mitt-isolated-on-white-backgroundhome.

But it was an unselfish act.  And a lot of times people can’t understand unselfish acts…because they only see the dangers in them.

But this boy will probably be blessed for the rest of his life…because he did what God calls Seton Hall takes on Notre Dame in mens basketball game on 2-11-2010all of us to do.  To love our neighbors as we love ourselves.  The text actually specks of laying down your life for your brother.  Something that I know would run across no parent’s mind at the time when they hear how their home and family was put into jeopardy by the actions of 1 their older child.

the-viewAnd going back to The View… on that same show they were also discussing Governor Chris Christie and his weight.  Truthfully speaking I felt a bit offended.  They made it sound like ALL overweight people are unhealthy… which is definitely not the case.  And they also made it sound like only overweight people have health problems… and we all know that is definitely not true.

whoopi_goldbergBut what struck me as being somewhat bias was Whoopie’s response to the whole conversation.  She who for many years… if not still… has been known to be a very heavy smoker.  Even while listening to Whoopie speak you can hear the effect of those years of smoking upon her voice.  Yet she failed to mention that her own addiction… the 1 to cigarettes is even far more unhealthy and harmful…if not just as much so… as she talked about all of Christie’s weight wearing on his heart… and would hinder his ability to do the job of a President effectively.

According to the consensus cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for close to 17 percent of total healthcare spending.  Cardiovascular issues include: hypertension, coronary artery disease, acute myocardial infarction, per-cutaneous coronary intervention, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure.

Cigarette smoking is a major contributor to theCigarette butts in an ashtray
three most prevalent causes of death in African Americans… heart disease, cancer, and stroke. All people, regardless of race and ethnicity, can become addicted to tobacco and can be damaged by the harmful effects of smoking.

So, what I am saying is this…  Governor Christie should not be singled out and declared unfit… or otherwise unhealthy simply because of his weight.  It brings about an astigmatism Man-Exercisingthat is many times placed upon all heavy-set people unjustly.  Causing many of them to not get health benefits… jobs… and oftentimes ostracized.  Which certainly is not fair and treads upon their civil rights.1263239297_fit_person

It is very likely that if Christie chooses to run again as Governor of New Jersey… tries to leap out into Presidential waters his weight is going to be continuously made a factor.  And that really should not be.

I recall that this guy wrote this book called ‘THE JOY OF JOGGING.’   He was an avid jogger.  By every regard he was considered in good health… and his body trim and fit.  One day while out jobbing the man dropped dead from a heart attack.  I imagesam not trying to poke fun here… but merely saying skinny or fat… tall or short… you are subject to drop dead or have a heart attack.  And yes, I would agree that having more weight upon your body does put stress upon your heart, but so doesn’t smoking or some of those other bad habits like excessive drinking or drug abuse… etc…

So, then why keep talking about this man… Christie like it just doesme resized...n’t happen to skinny or fit people.  Because that is a lie.

Now, I do not advocate being overweight.  Lord, no…  I have had my own issues and battles with it.  But I also can see where such a conversation is hurtful, demeaning and liable to bring about discrimination to those seeking  job placement… or whatever.2ab-the-bishop-wifecover

God bless…hope you enjoy your weekend.  I think I may get so much needed sleep… and edit some video projects this weekend.

And remember that Monday… this coming Monday is both President Barack Obama’s second inaugural… AND Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.’s birthday celebration.  Enjoy them both… and I am hoping to see you in D.C fomichelle-obama-inauguration-parade-GCr the festivities.  But if not please enjoy it for me too.

I am so happy about it.  Truly a time to remember…   And if you can be part of it don’t let the michelle-obama-dnc-fasion-600x400opportunity go by… by not being so.

And happy belated birthday FIRST LADY MICHELLE OBAMA… can’t close without saying that.   I love you.

In fact, I love you both….  And 49 is a great year…  A very good year indeed…

And I hope that you are checking for a picture of me in these blogs…  Who knows I might even think of doing something real special.  Just keep looking out for me… in my blogs.

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  ©2013

Add a comment January 18, 2013

POEM… “SOME”…PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA’S FIRST INAUGURATION…2009

National Mall

Some

came by bus…

some by train….

some by plane…Airplanes-Silhouettes-600x375

some by car…

some by whatever…

however….

but they got there.

Some late in the night…

some in the wee hours of the morn…

some by daybreak…

2009 inaugurationsome by noon…

some by midday

some by the time it was nearly through….

some at the end…

but they got there.

Some lined the streets…

USA-OBAMA/some sat on ice cold street curves…

some bundled together…

some crowded the gates…anxious to get in.

Some cried…Inauguration A Nation Gathers

some cheered…

some screamed…

APTOPIX Inauguration A Nation Gatherssome shouted ‘GLORY!’…

some rejoiced…

and some

just gave

God glory.OI15

Some came in furs…

some in overcoats and gloves…

some with ear muffs and thick heavy scarves…

2009_01_18t173947_450x317_us_usa_obama12some in knitted caps…

some in baseball caps…

alg-band-jpg
some in boots…

but you made it there.

Some white…

some black…r8811551501

Obama Inauguration

r17969919571

USA/OBAMA/some Native American Indian…

some hispanic…

some jew…

some italian…

some polish…r7005136172

some russian…

some african…MG_5111raw

some asian…

some muslim…

some christian…

Some young…

some old…

r30956757631some yet born…

12262012_AP090120057733_jpg_300

some nearly able to walk…

some barely able to stand…

some barely understanding english…

but they got there.

Some travelled through r14372078281the night…

some caught early morning flights…

but they got there.obama-inauguration_2447877c

Some slept in cars…

some in hotels… obama-supporters_1241151c

some in motels…

some with friends…

some out in the streets…

but they got there.

Some came by faith…

some motivated by desire…

some by history…

some by pride…

some by curiosity…

but they got there.

Some will remember…

some will forget…ap-aptopix-obama-inauguration_001-4_3_r536_c534

some will cherish forever

what this day truly meant…

   but they got there.

Though history many not truly relay it with all of its glory…f

or its great importance

and significance…

nor may it be kind…

and some facts left behind…

but you were there…

you made it there out of  ‘no way’

Through pain…shame,

heartache and

chains…somehow we made it

there.

So, some

travelled by car…

some from afar…

some said ‘no matter how far’…

hours…years…centuries…bondage…hangings…whippings…and burnings…

tar and feathers…

but… we made it…

large_people-celebrate-obamawe were there.

But you were there…you

and some

million…zillion other folk.

You made it  there…you and some more than 2 million

and more poured into that place…that city…those streets…those 6a00d8341bf8f353ef0120a77a8780970b-800wisidewalks…

the corner stores…

the restaurants….

the Mall of Lincoln Monument…

628x471places that used to not seat us…

feed us…

or give us a place to rest…

You were there…

praising and singing  ‘We’ve Come This Far By Faith’

to see the dream…

no longer deferred…

to see the courage…

and the pride…

the trust…

the hope…

and to see the promise rise up like Moses…

and the Red Sea once again stand on end…

and destiny again be

fulfilled.

some…

Now, you fill the rest in…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/7838851.stm

 
 
CLICK the LINK BELOW to see and hear Martin L.
King,
Jr.’s prophesy regarding an African-American
President in the United States.
 obamamlk_answer_1_xlarge

Well, God bless…and in case I make to D.C. this time to celebrate both President Obama’s second inaugural and Dr. King Martin L. King’s birthday… then I will see you there.20558871_BG1But if I do not… for those of you who do please celebrate for me too.   And forget to touch Dr. King’s memorial for me…as I will truly be remembering him too on this great day, Monday, January 21, 2013… when we along with all of America…and the world celebrate two great men American heroes.

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
©2013


Add a comment January 16, 2013

OBAMA WINNER! ROMNEY big LOSER…biggest EVER…

And they are hating it.  Hating that Obama won.  Before Ohio even reported their ballot count President Obama already had 282 electoral votes.  Making him the winner for his 2nd term as the President of the United States.  Ohio put the President at 303 electoral votes…and by the time Florida weighed in some 4 days later… Obama’s electoral count hit 332.  Romney was finished at 206.

So, yes… President Barack Obama won… and it was not through cheating or lying… or even by playing games with the American people.  He won by being real and being compassionate towards the people whom he has been elected to lead.  And by showing that even though the odds were against him he could make things happen… and start to change.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57548098/obama-wins-florida-final-electoral-vote-count-332-to-206/

How in the world do you throw away as much money as the people backing Mitt Romney on a horse race… and know in your hearts of hearts that your horse isn’t even that good?

You would have to be a fool.

And foolish they were.  All those people… Republicans who poured in a million… a hundred million… a few hundred thousands… or even 50¢ to back a political opponent as flawed as Mitt Romney.

What were they thinking?

They did it feeling they had no choice… and that Romney was going to be their ‘great white hope.’  Because when you get right down to it that is all this campaign meant to them.  It was not based upon issues… or substance… or even based upon truth for them.  No, sadly it was not… but a need to have the black man removed from the White House by any means necessary.  And if it took ever dime they had… they were willing to try and do it.

Personally, I hope to hear that a few of them have to file for bankruptcy… because they were… and are just a bunch of old racist idiots.  And many times the only way such people who think as they do ever learn is through their pocketbooks… or checkbooks… or by zeroing out their entire bank accounts.

Which some of them might have done.

One might be able to understand it if any of their fears… or concerns (if they had any legitimate concerns) were real or true.  But they were and are not.  President Barack Obama has been doing a good job… and this country is on its way back.  And greatly because of Obama’s efforts to keep at it regardless of the unnecessary blocking of his every move put up by the Republicans.

From de’ Donald Chump to Chuck ‘gimme a break’ Norris and a bunch of other fools… something was definitely wrong with their thinking.

If we are all Americans… then we should all want and desire the same things.  But this is not so.  There are people in this country who enjoy being considered ‘elitist.’   They strive on it.   They love this status of being better off than most… going where they want… able to buy whatever they want when they want etc…etc…   They live well… they drive well… and they play well.  And this is all that matters to them.

They are shallow people.  They live only for themselves.

Well, as a rule… they do.  But when a black man became President of the United States… Barack Obama… they viewed this as a step towards loosing more and more of their cherished status-quo.  Believing that soon all their exclusive little places would soon be overrun by the up-and-coming folk… folk like those who stepped into the White House 4 years ago.  Who by the way are the new elite… and the lily whites have found that hard to swallow.

They would have loved history to regard Barack Obama’s first term as President as a fluke.  But a second time around?

It can hardly ever go down in history as a ‘fluke.’   No, but rather a people’s choice.

No, Barack Obama’s winning the Presidency of the United States the first or the last time can hardly be considered either a ‘fluke’ or something which came by mere happenstance considering the sheer numbers of American who voted for him.  But then these belly aching people they have another problem.  And that is trying to determine among themselves who is or isn’t really American… a question they raise often when speaking about our President.

What they do not want to give President Barack Obama credit for is the thing which hurts them the most.  And that is that he is smart.

I am so sure that they all almost cried while watching the debates  when and even Romney had to admit, “Maybe, I can’t talk as good as him.”

What????

Did that white man say that… about a black man?

No wonder they didn’t want us to start learning how to read or write.  Why they kept our schools in run down structures.  And why back a few years ago none of our schools never had tracks or swimming pools… or libraries… of football fields… and many still do not.

So, now the winner has been declared.  It was Barack Obama… and we didn’t even have to wait until mid-night.  And when the announcements came in the news people said Obama didn’t even need Ohio to win… but he got it.  And he definitely by the time Florida’s vote count was finally release some 4 days later… he didn’t need that state to win either.  But he got it.

No wonder Romney was in such dismay.  The man thought he had it in the bag.  He was prepared to make his acceptance speech… but had never planned on making a loser speech.  The fireworks were set to go off… people prepped to run into the street cheering… confetti ready to fall… and the bottles of champagne had already been opened.  And then reality slowly began to seep in… they were loosing… loosing… lost.

The polls were wrong… but then how could they not help but to be wrong?

  • Because the so-called polls kept saying that Obama was behind Romney is popularity…   Now, that was a joke.
  • Behind Romney on where America stood…  Who thought of that?
  • Behind Romney in how America felt where they wanted this country to go…  Well, I guess the end of the election proved to to be wrong too.

And Romney and his people bet everything on what their pollsters were saying… and it all had to have been a lie.  Which is what the Romney campaign became known for… lying.  I guess all that lying caught up with them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/obama-has-slight-lead-in-electoral-votes-congress-expected-to-remain-status-quo/2012/11/03/6b7f2a3e-25cb-11e2-9313-3c7f59038d93_story.html

Now a whole week later they are still belly aching over it.  Romney is saying Obama would not won if he hadn’t given people gifts.  What gifts?

http://theweek.com/article/index/236469/why-mitt-romney-will-regret-blaming-his-loss-on-obamas-gifts-to-minorities

With all the money poured into Mitt Romney’s campaign he should never talk about anyone giving people gifts.  They gave him the give that was supposed to do what had done during the Republican primaries… and that was to ensure that he would be the last man standing.  But money could not do it.  And lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of money couldn’t do it either… and that is what they cannot believe.

But why can’t they just accept that their man was not good enough?

http://theweek.com/article/index/236211/president-obamas-victory-6-conservatives-behaving-like-sore-losers

Because it was never about being good.  It was about color… and it is still about color.

When Barack Obama won 4 years ago we began to hear about this seceding thang.  And now we are hearing it again.

It did not happen 4 years ago when they started churning the waters then with this craziness… and it is not going to happen now.  They just want to put it out their as a why of spotting Obama’s win.  But they are only showing their hand as the racists that they are.  And they are truly that.

Because if another person… somebody more like them.  Somebody who looked like them …had the same skin color like them ….  Now, that would have been acceptable and there would not have been no talk of seceding from the Union of the United States.  Without being a part of this federal government any state would soon fail.  First of all they woul2ab-the-bishop-wifecoverd have  to create all their own collateral… t distribute it  …and buying up all that ole dirty American money that claim they don’t want any more since the President is somebody who is non-white.  And before they knew it they would all be bankrupt… every state talking this craziness.   And they would all soon find themselves running back to Obama for help.

So, they… these spoil little brat Republicans… need to stop making themselves look like fools… and trying to incite people against President Obama and his Administration.  Because it won’t work.  And it especially won’t work because most of us… more than 54% of Americans all voted OBAMA …and not ROMNEY anyway.

So, grow up and stop winding you losers… you are making little children look good.

http://theweek.com/article/index/236486/are-fringe-republicans-trying-to-impeach-president-obama

UPDATE: Monday, November 19, 2012….  It is really a shame when public systems… such as a school district belittles itself in such a matter as this, as well in an attempt to degrade and belittle the President of the United States.  Years ago such a thing as this would never have been tolerated by any school system.  But things change… and particularly when it comes down to the color of skin.

This piece of paper was circulated in some local school by a teacher.

Worst than being  just a bunch of  bad losers… they are a bunch of the worst losers EVER.  They really should just grow up.

Thankful for the warmth coming back.  Was concerned about those without electricity and whose homes and apartments were damaged with Hurricane Sandy blew in.  But our God is sooooo good.  As strong and as powerful as Sandy was so many more could have been hurt or killed… and much more destroyed.

It is amazing to me that something of this nature had never happened to New York City before… being that New York sits on the Atlantic Ocean and is made up of nothing but a bunch of islands.

And another thought  came to my mind just now… as I was about to end this blog.  It is hard for me to believe that anyone would vote ‘yes’ on legalizing marijuana for recreational use… meaning like the way the teenage kids smoke it.

Now, we have to worry about not only drunken drinkers but those with ‘a buzz‘ from smoking a couple or few marijuana joints.  And the stuff does destroy brain cells.   Unbelievable…

Then I wonder how many states voted on doctors prescripting a pill for people to commit suicide.  I just have 1 question…

How is it that people are so pro-life… yet would vote ‘yes’ on distributing pills that people can kill themselves?

This is crazy…    We are beginning to live in some very crazy times.

Well, Veterans Day just passed… and we are now looking toward Thanksgiving.  Hope that you have an enjoyable… in case I fail to post anything between now then.

Enjoy your turkey day… and may God shine his light down upon you and your family this holiday season.

God bless… and I will see you the next time.  And if it is after Thanksgiving… believe me when I say ‘it was some good eating.’

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  ©2012

Add a comment November 15, 2012

THE DNC…the Democratic National Convention…is Mitt Romney’s money clean…SERENA & the U.S. Open… Aretha…

Well, unlike 4 years ago I have yet to say much… if anything about this the 2012 Presidential Campaign.  It has not been  for the lack of any interest… more like a bit busy these days.

But 1 thing is for sure just as it was 4 years ago… I am still an Obama girl.

As in all campaigns there are some hits and misses… so too here.  But when you stack it up side by side of DNC vs. RNC… it was the Democratic National Convention hands down over the Republican convention.

Well, for 1 thing most of the Republican speech givers must have taken a score of creative writing classes… because for the most part most of their speeches were all… for lack of a better word… creative.  Very creative indeed.

Nothing like taking on a bit of self-responsibility…or in this case Party responsibility.   The Republican Party lacks the desire to do anything but win.  It does not matter to them how they win… they just want to win.

It must be sad that the only points you can give to your team are points that you have to make up.  Creative 1.

Creative 2… you forget any role in  anything.

Creative 3… and you pretend as though ‘we want to help you.’

Yeah, right…

When I think about Mitt Romney it is a marvel to me as to how he has gotten this far?

And THEY called Jim Kerry  the ‘flip-flop’ kid.  Romney is the master at it.  No, I take that back… because it seems to me Mitt does not master anything.  He just says 1 thing now… tomorrow he’ll say something that contradicts that… and say he didn’t say that of do that.  Or he just allows his money to speak for him or do what needs to be done… and he goes from this to that saying-

“Oh, well…”

And a lot of times when he gets caught at something and doesn’t know what to say… he just looks plain lost.

Either Mitt Romney suffers from the same thing as Clint Eastwood… or the last ship just pulled out of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Which happens to be a major street way… as in roadway… not a water way.  But to those suffering from some bout of disillusion… as a Mitt Romney or an aged Clint Eastwood it may  seem like a major water way.  Because the Republican Party for sure is up a creek without a paddle… with a man who seems to have nothing else going for himself except ‘money.’

I think that it is sad when you are asked to go to a convention and cheer for a man you don’t even like.

I must admit though that the Republicans who decided to throw in their hats into the ring as contenders to become the nominee for the Presidency on the Republican ticket were…  Well, they were slim pickings.  There is no other way to have put it.  And out of that bunch of slim pickings came Mitt Romney, who gave an acceptance speech as their choice for candidate to run against President Obama… not because Mitt came with a whole lot of credentials… but rather money.

In fact, Mitt Romney has no real credentials that would make him eligible for any job.  His stint as Governor of Massachusetts was a joke.  The man was hardly there… and when you boil it all down… Mitt Romney did absolutely nothing for Massachusetts.  Mitt Romney did  zero… a big fat NOTHING.

I love when people pick up and move to some place just to run for political office.  Hillary did hit when she and Bill departed the White House, moving to New York.  Jeb Bush did it when he up-rooted himself and family from Texas to go south to Florida… where they by the way fixed the 2000 Presidential Election so his brother could win the Presidency. But Mitt left whatever state he came from to move north to Massachusetts.

Massachusetts is known for a great jumping off point for potential wanna-be Presidents.  I cannot begin to tell you how many Presidential candidates have run from the state of Massachusetts… including Kennedy and Adams who both won.  Dukakis ran… that guy with the red hair ran… Ryan I think his name was.  And I don’t know how many others.

So, along came Mitt with his Presidential dreams… seeking to springboard himself into the number 1 seat in the White House from a state known to be a good launching pad… Massachusetts.  Mitt did not move there… or rather set up a residence there by mistake.

But he did NOTHING.

Now, we are into 2012 and Mitt is running for that mantle for his fireplace up in the Alps.  He likes titles… he wants people to call him ‘Mister President’ ‘Commander’… but he has not a plan… and we won’t take about ’a clue.’   Which Mitt doesn’t have either.  He just has money… and lots of it.

Herein lays Mitt’s dilemma…  1. Why should any American citizen want to even consider a man… much less vote for him… who has money locked away in a place-

Excuse me… I meant locked away in ‘not in a place’… but in an entirely different country other than his own… and paying no taxes on it?

2. Why does Mitt not want to divulge how much money he has?

3. Could Mitt’s money be bad?

Well, the only people I know…   I mean whom I have heard about who do that with money who are criminals… big time drug dealers, thieves and robbers etc…

So, I’m wondering which 1 …or if Mitt Romney is them all?

Because if the money is clean… legit… then I can’t understand the problem Mitt is having releasing financial his information?

I mean we all know that there are rich people in this world… and some a lot richer than others.  But they do not appear to be evading the issue of their net worth.  So, why is Mitt?

You know when you live in the hood and hear all of those stories about how ‘the real’ drug dealers are not the ones walking the streets day and night trying to sell the stuff.  That is really the truth.  It is those big time Wall Street type… the type that have big jobs, lots of money and live in penthouses… who can afford the secret air strips and pilots it take to fly that stuff in.  But the drugs never actually touch their hands …they just finance it.

They own the planes that fly the drugs in, the places where the drugs are cut or cooked, packaged and then disbursed.  They reap all the real benefits of the drug trade… (if you want to call it that) but none of its negative publicity, images, hardships or dangers.   The money goes to them… the real money… and they sit on top of the whole sha-bang looking as clean as a whistle.

So, Mitt where did you get all your money from?

I am more curious than ever… because try so hard to hide something there is usually a very good reason.  And when you are dealing with a guy who seems to have an endless supply of money… such as a Mitt Romney… I think somebody should be asking him some intense questions about his finances.

Out of  6 or 8 other Republicans who ran along with Mitt to become President… Mitt just simply out spent them all.  He had more money to spend than any of them.  Which is the only reason Mitt Romney happened to get this far.  And it has been his money that has kept him for his entire political life.

The Olympics take money… you can’t be a promoter of something like that without some really big capital to even consider financing it.  Running in all the political campaigns for as many years as Mitt has …it had to cost him some major capital.

Good investments are 1 thing… but lots of people have made good investments and evidently do have what Mitt has by way collateral.

Mitt just how did you get all your money?

Rick Santorum vowed that he was staying in the race… that Romney’s money was not going to force him out of the race.  But in the end even poor Rich just could not stand the test of time.  He simply did not have that Mitt had… by way of money.

So, 1 by 1 all the other GOP would-be nominees bailed out.  Mitt Romney it can easily be said won by  default.  And it happen because of a money deficit on the other’s sides.  They just could not hang with Mitt and all the money he was spending.

Now, it’s Obama and Mitt.  And I will say it… hands down its going to be Obama.

A Paul Ryan/Mitt Romney ticket cannot compare to an Obama/Obama/Biden ticket in anybody’s book.

Though I realized upon hearing about that HBO had a show about a Mormon family… from the moment I heard about it I knew what that program’s purpose was all about.  It was designed to show America that Mormon families are just like everybody else.  But they are not.  And a show created to sugar coat real Mormon life …and designed to desensitize Americans to the real ways, religion and practices of Mormons was all done to make way for  a Mitt Romney  win into the White House.

That show was as much a ploy… and I should political ploy whose purpose was as much a form of propaganda movies during the Cold War.  It came about to get people to feeling and saying-

“Oh, they are just like us.”

And if anyone looked real deep… they might even find out that it may have been financed either part or in whole by somebody tied to Mitt Romney or by Romney himself.

Inside the Mormon world …their close-knit families… their families are not just like ours.  Their families look nothing like ours.  They live by entirely different set of rules… and they believe differently.

Their worship is not the same… because  their root beliefs are different.  And their concept of family is different.

It is funny that when you google ‘what do Mormons believe’… it is interesting that there is no clear answer. But a variety of varied responses… like they believe in God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost.  And so does the devil.

Okay, then maybe you should ask what do they practice religiously?

Multiple wives… women who live their lives in total submissiveness… with no power and no voice for 1, 2 and 3.

I am thankful that my God gave me the freedom to be more than a baby factory…not to be just somebody who turned out child after child.  Because that is pretty much the lives of Mormon women.  It is a man’s world as James Brown used to sing in his song by the same title.  The men within their group love that… so much so that age means nothing to them in consider to their pleasure and choice of wives.

So, I really do not understand any man who is supposedly running for the top political position in this country ….who does his banking in foreign banks… in order to hide his money.  And I do not understand any man or woman who would want to lift up a man to rule in this country …who belongs to an organization that is very much a cult…  and where the spirit and minds of women is stripped from them.

Came across a quick note about Patti LaBelle… and I was surprised to read it.  I never thought she cussed or became so enraged that she would totally loose it.  Never really seemed to be the type.  And I must say that I have met her… and I found her to be quite nice.

It all happened in a confrontation with a woman… who I believe may have been pregnant… if I remember the story right.  But was outside of a building that Patti was either entering or exiting and something or other happened that caused Patti to show a side of herself that I never would have never thought in  her.

The confrontation cost Patti $100,000 in an outside of court settlement.  Can’t imagined what happened that would have been worth that kind of payout… but Patti must have gone berserk… when she threw water on the woman and a few choice words.

Perhaps Patti reflected on it and felt so real bad about her poor behavior… and the possible shame of having this type of case go to court where people just like me… would have never thought Patti could have done such a thing… stare at her with their mouths wide open in disbelief.

But sometimes it is just a matter of it being a bad day… a very bad day.   I do not know if you have ever had 1… but I have.  The incident occurred while I was teaching in high school.  My son had done something which had really upset me… and here came this student that had been acting stupidly in my class.  Earlier in the day the actions of this boy I had let go by… I was being professional and I had not yet spoken to my son.  But by noon I heard of something about my son that had worked me up… and here came this boy… and he either said something to me or did 1 last thing… and I said to him-

“I’m so mad I could leap up in the sky and kick you right in the face.”

It is when I realized that I  was not cut out to be teacher material.  So, when the school department tried to offer me another contract to teach the following year I said no.  Besides I wanted to work on shooting my film and that had not become my focus… and goal.

Now, it wasn’t that I couldn’t handle it… teaching… or that I did not have control of my classes.  No, nothing like that.

In fact, quite the opposite… because in my classes I ruled.  And I was not very tolerant of anyone who did not come into my class to work.

Students respected me and I respected them.  But on that day… that boy crossed me at the wrong moment… and all my professionalism left me.  When I went into class the next day…. I will tell you this…  I was afraid his parents were going to be there waiting on me.  I would have if my child had come home and told me a teacher had said such a thing to them.  But evidently that boy never told it to his parents.

So, what I am saying here is that there are times when any 1 of us can lose it.  But the difference is our names are not Patti LaBelle.  And that does make a difference.  But does not any less make such times less embarrassing… or just as shameful.

Talking about shameful.  Happen to come across this picture of Patti and wondered if she is going through mid-life crisis?

I do not believe this looks decent even when the kids dress like this.  So, you know seeing this photo was a thumb down from me.

It Patti is not going through some type of mid-life crisis… between this dress and her law suit actions …I do not know what is going on?   I cannot figure another reason for Patti flashing as much flesh as this.  Personally, I like the classy Patti better.  I really think it is ridiculous when the young girls do this… and cannot understand any woman… older woman wanting to follow what the kids do.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/05/showbiz/patti-labelle-settlement/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/05/patti-labelle-lawsuit-roseanna-monk-nyc-lobby-run-in_n_1857234.html

When I heard Jesse Jackson answering a question about his son recuperating  in an interview recently… I thought that it was that his son had had a stroke or something.   The way that Jesse spoke about it and how he was smiling I would have never known anything otherwise.

I would never have thought that the Senator or Congressman… whatever he is… Jesse Jackson, Jr was in rehab due to a problem with drugs.  He always seemed to be so on top of it… sharp …clear and on point about what he was doing… saying and about his service to the people he was voted to represent.

Hard to believe.  But we pray that it all comes back together for him.  And if it was just an illusion… that he gets it together for real.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13733523-jesse-jackson-jr-back-in-washington-dc?lite

Well, Serena is tearing up the tennis courts in New York at the U.S. Open.  It is win…win ….win.  And that she is … and she appears to be more determined to continue to do so.

Serena is going after her opponents with more power… and her mental game is so strong that the other female tennis players might as well not even walk onto the courts to face her.

Serena is slaughtering them.  One behind the other Serena is shutting  everybody down… and proving in such a big way… and without a doubt she is #1.  Whether they say so or not.

Serena Williams is #1 in the world.  The #1 female athlete.  Highest grossing woman in sports …and the least celebrated.  But she is slamming it home… ‘I’M #1!’    Respect me… fear me… and and try to beat me if you dare.  And she is menacing threat because she is relentless… and packs as much physical strength as she does mental power.

And I noticed that ain’t nobody said nothing about Serena’s hair.  Oh, I forgot she’s from Compton.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/serena-williams-easily-reaches-us-230243194–ten.html

UPDATE: SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2012…Well,  she is taking it home.  Serena won it all once again… not only the top women’s trophy …but the big check that went along with it.  She was a little more challenged in her final game, 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, but rose to meet the challenge.

I guess you could say-

“Another one bites the dust.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more-sports/serena-williams-wins-2012-u-s-open-overpowers-1-victoria-azarenka-flushing-article-1.1155505

Just 1 more thing before I close out.  Lady ‘Re became Dr. ‘Re this past week receiving an honorary doctorate from Princeton.  Good for her…I know she was overwhelmed.

Proud of this diva…for 1 thing because she never did what a lot of other artist have done or are trying to do.  She has never forsaken her base of fans trying to seek after something else.  Because ‘Retha already knew she had what she had… and if that wasn’t good enough too bad.  (I’m smiling because I know how Aretha thinks)  That’s what makes her the Queen…and she is second to none.

http://www.essence.com/2012/06/06/aretha-franklin-earns-honorary-doctorate-of-music-from-princeton/

Thanks again to those of you who have purchased my book, THE BISHOP’S WIFE.  As I said in my2ab-the-bishop-wifecover View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledBylast blog it is amazing…  I cannot not believe how much my book is moving …and I thank you from the depths of my heart.  Please let me hear from you regarding my book.   I would love to know how you liked it… or didn’t like it… or whatever…. either way.

And if you have yet to purchase my book I found this link over the internet via barnes&nobles.com where you can read bits of a couple of my chapters.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/read/9781467055437

My book can be purchased via www.authorhouse.com, www.amazon.comwww.barnes&nobles.com   etc…etc… or by placing an order for it at your local bookstore.

Sent most of day resting today.  Had been busy this week… but glad to now be able to rest.  Hoping you get your rest on this weekend too.  Because the body does need rest… so give yourself some.  You probably deserve it too.  I know that I do.

Well, God bless… its TGIF… so I hope you enjoy your weekend.

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  ©2012

Add a comment September 8, 2012

HAS GOSPEL MUSIC GONE SECULAR…the Gospel… and Changes in People Preaching the Word

You might not believe this but I actually completed this blog the night before Martin L. King’s birthday weekend.  But I’m just now getting back to it now… nearly how many months later??  But I hope that you still find it to be a good read.

Interesting…

Recently, I got an interview request from someone who wanted to discuss with me some of my comments and opinions… or rather some singular statements that I  voiced here on my blog site. Statements regarding a shift in gospel music.  In particular they wanted to talk to me regarding my blog entitled… ‘KIM BURRELL…secular music wanna be.’

In that blog I stated my opinions on gospel artists attempting to move away from their musical base…or roots if you will… to chase after what appears to them to be ‘greener grounds’ on the other side.  They want larger crowds… bigger audiences… and when you get right down to it… it’s all about “moe money”… “moe fame”… “more of the roar of the crowd”… and “moe money.”

Wonder who told them getting it would be “all of dat…then some?”

Do I feel that Kim Burrell’s decision to try to follow a secular career in music is based upon money?

Yes, I do.

Kim saying that it is about souls…really contradicts Biblical text which says ‘come out from among them’ …not become like them so you can bring them in.

So, when I hear an gospel artist say that they have hipped up their music and performance to reach the masses or the younger generation… it really does not equate.  Least ways… not for me.

What it really amounts to is nothing more than not wanting to be labelled as an ‘gospel artist‘ any longer… which Kim Burrell has publically stated.

So, Kim has this burning desire  to not just do ‘gospel music’  any more ….or to be labelled as a ‘gospel music artist’ any longer…but something wider…and broader than that.  Might as well just come out and say… something more worldly.

You can tell something about Kim Burrell if you have ever watched that show, Sunday’s Best…which I never did.  But it was all over the internet …including a youtube upload of the segment that I am refering to… where Kim told someone to get rid of  “that gospel sound” … saying, “You’re sounding too churchie.”

Too “CHURCHIE???”

Has Kim not heard of Aretha Franklin?

Sounding ‘churchie’ never hurt Aretha 1 little bit.

Po’ Kimberly.

Well, this kind of thinking may or may not have stemmed from Kim having grown up in her family’s church, singing gospel music most of her life.  Until… I guess… maybe  all of her life until now.

So, now  Kim Burrell wants a secular career.  She wants to cross over to do R&B … or SOUL music or Pop Music… or whatever they call it today.   And I say that because today all ‘our’ musical forms are under attack… though Pop is not  ours.  But our music is under attack.  Is under the threat of  seriously totally disappearing before our very eyes.  It is all being re-catagorized into something else.

Coming from the music industry from way back… I can make certain assessments and statements from a point of knowledge that most cannot.  Because of my history of being many years in the record industry …namely by way of  radio…I do therefore come with some degree of insider  knowledge based upon my observations over the years… and they are merely my observations.  I have been watching certain changes and themes going on in the music industry since I guess I started listening to music… because it has always been there.  And namely because we do not control it… other people do.

Who would have ever thought that there would come a day when black folk would not want to sound black?

We all have heard of Elvis and other white recording artists covering black folks music and trying their best to sound like us.  There were those that emulated our keyboard playing… guitar playing… singing …and even dancing.  But now there has been a shift… now we’re the ones trying to do the emulating.   This is sad.  We are now doing what they used to do… and it is especially so in the gospel industry.  And particularly among some of the upper tier gospel artists who want to get air time on Christian radio stations.

It used to be that black gospel singers just wanted a contract… get some radio exposure… do concerts …and praise the Lord, while showing forth their praises to Him for the marvelous gifts He had endowed them with.  But not today.  The atmosphere has changed… and it is not about God.   Well, for many it is not… but all about money.

Guess gospel radio stations are about to bite the dust as far as some of today’s gospel artists are concerned… and they are disappearing.   Our artist could care less about those small little black owned radio stations that they used to leap at for a chance to get an interview on so they could talk up their latest projects.

In regards to my thoughts on what some so-called gospel artists are currently calling urban gospel music… I really think that it is a shamme.   It is truly a shame and disgrace how readily we are so quick to forsake those things which are so uniquely us.   And we do it all for nothing more than the sank of  a few almighty dollars…that only last for a little while.

And they do it without any consideration to our history and our future legacies.

We just throw it all to the wind…and then other people come in… and they begin to lay claim to it… calling it theirs.

Have you not seen that?

There was once a time when there had been more than just a hand full of black owned businesses in America… and they were large booming corporations.  But during the latter 70′s into the mid-80′s there was a big sale off of most of those black owned companies… and mostly they were sold off to companies controlled by non-African Americans.  Thoes African American companies were companies that produced products directly for us and by us… and had been birthed primarily because other corporations did not care about us… or what our specific needs were.

There was a time when all the make-up and hair products in the stores were basically geared towards white women and men.  But the difference you see in stores today is not there because of anyone outside of ourselves.  We began to produce black hair products and make-up etc. for us… to fit our needs… or skin tones… and hair textures etc.

But those African American companies…for the most part were really the beginning of the big sell off.  The big money makers like the black hair care and make-up companies followed by publications and radio stations etc. were the first things bought out by white corporations.  Today you see that almost all our so-called black radio stations are owned by 1 corporation, Clear Channel.  Clear Channel owns almost everything media…black, white, hispanic and etc.

The first cab company here in our town was even started by a black woman… and even that  too was sold off.

So, what am I saying?

I am saying that we are good historically at creating then selling off and out everything that we own… and have created… selling out our goods, talents, gifts etc… to other groups of people who almost always end up capitalizing far more off them… than we ever did.   And we usually have done so to our own detriment…as a group of people… and to the lack of consideration for our future generations, who have no knowledge of what was… and no vision for what can be for them.

We have lost so much in  all of those sell-off transactions.  And one of the greatest things we have sold off  is our ability to control and determine our own destines…through any sustainable period of time.

This same trend for years has been spreading across the board into everything  we have either created or  have produced… not just our hair care products and cosmetics, but also in our art and various other art forms such as dance etc.  This is not good… and has been a huge determent to our children’s future and their entrepreneurial spirit.  Which many of them have none at all.

It is definitely not good for  us to forsake our cultural gifts… our diversity and own creativity… and particularly to forsake those things which are uniquely us… such as our music and our other cultural forms of art.

If we don’t preserve them …who will?

If we don’t treasure them …who will?

Today’s artists are greedy.  They want more money… and they are just not satisfied with more money… they want LOTS of it.  Which, of course, has to mean more sales… wider variety of awards… and all of this translates into creating a wider market.

So, today’s gospel artists do not mind forsaking their old fan base who loved and supported them during their meager beginning… who bought their music before the big switch to sounding like somebody else… somebody non-black… somebody undefined…somebody non-negro …because it is a race thang… or un-black. And many gospel promoters can’t even touch them… because they are priced outside of our reach.

It all has to be a new form of self-hate.  And I thought we had gotten way past that.

Our children walk around believing we have nothing… have done nothing… and that they will be nothing… because we have forsaken so much.  We have just thrown it all away… all  to the wind.  Even our own self-respect.

There are just some things too valuable to place a price on… things that are truly worth holding on to no matter what.  If we do not… we all loose.  There are so few black businesses today. 

A few gospel labels are still trying to hold on… like Malaco, Tyscot, JDI, and some smaller record labels and those yet under-ground… companies that we all should be trying to support because they still maintain their integrity by staying close to our gospel core… providing good gospel music while other companies… the larger gospel labels out weigh them with the stellar gospel stars and much much much larger budgets.

The thing that hurts the most … and I can say even worst… is that our children will loose… and loose big for every generations to come.  Clearly, they are already suffering when you look and hear what they are pumping out.  It neither sounds like us… or looks like us.  They have gone ga-ga..

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/evangelisttonyaglive/2011/12/03/ngm-presents-talk-show

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/btrplayer.swf

During the course of my career there has come my way many times that I got up and walked off  away from the table… because I was made offers.   But money has never wowed me like that.  Me… myself… and I…  WE ARE NOT FOR SALE… and have never been.

So, even as a sinner… way back then… I got up and turned my back on a lot of things that could have gotten me lots of money… but I chose to say, ‘no’… as I have never elected to do anything that would disgrace me or my family… or my people… or my core beliefs.

So, I have never been a sell-out.

Nor have I ever sold myself out.  And as good as God has been to me… I definitely have no intentions of ever considering ‘going for the money’ now.

No, way… I love Him too much.  And all our gifts are for his glory.

Money is not worth selling off that part of you that you will never be able to buy back.

How do you sell off your soul?

I have always been called an artists.  Most of the time I made a lot of decisions based upon my art… and not necessarily in consideration of my pocketbook.  So, I have been in the dark many a times.

Yes, I have had the electricity shut off…more than a few times…. cars repossessed… and bill collectors up the yah-zoo.  But I never did anything that went against me…   Well, almost once.  But it didn’t work out… thank goodness for God.  He stepped in.

I do believe some gospel artists are choosing to go against whatever moral standings they may have had… if some of them had any at all.  Or maybe it is just that they are not really saved or sanctified in the first place.  I have heard comments concerning people we have long held in high regard as truly being people of God… who behind the scene cuss… fuss, use drugs, drink …and show off a side to be anything but holy.

But truly here are some things that we have to take seriously…  and very seriously indeed.  Putting God up for sale.. or whether we should… or  would want to is one of them.  And trying to sell it off as a means of winning souls to Christ is another.

Confess and tell the truth.

Today the music industry is going through another re-defining, repositioning, and a transitional period.   It is something that the industry goes through periodically.  It ususally comes about when they realize that there is more money to be made if we…do this.  So, by dangling sparkling trinkets before the eyes of certain artist who may be hot… or have the talent to be very hot.  So, these companies feed them a song and dance about how they can make more money if they would…  Sell out… because that is what it comes down to. 

It happened with Michael Jackson when he was stolen away from Motown and his family group, the Jackson 5.  You remember when Michael emerged as the King of Pop… that was the new thing then… a new musical catagory called Pop Music.

This re-catagorization or creation of new music sub-divisions are for the purpose of openning artists up to larger audiences …by making them more acceptable to ‘other people’ in order to rake in more capital.  And it has  meant the lost of  such music catagories as… R&B… and Soul Music… which were converted into catagories called ‘urban‘ and this new junk call ‘neo-soul’ today.  And most of the black radio stations became urban radio stations.

When gospel artist decide that they are going to ‘go for the money’ then they should say that… if that is what they are going for.

They really should just say, “I’m going for the money.”

But no… they want to make statements like-

“God told me I needed to go out there to the unsaved.  And in order to do that I have do what will appeal to them.  That means creating music that speaks to them and will intrigue-  Ooops…excuse me. I mean to say help bring  them in.”

Such statements speak in direct contradiction to Biblical text… and can never justify anyone going out there trying to cross-over their music in order to reach ‘a wider’ audience outside of the gospel world.   And when you think about it… was not gospel music created for the saved… not the un-saved?

They already have their music.

In the mid-80′s came this thing called “POP MUSIC.”  It was the beginning of a marketing plan to make black artist… or African American talent more acceptable to white audiences.  And it was all about making more money for those artist who wanted to do this thing called ‘cross-over.’ And was the beginning of ridding the music world of anything sounding …or looking like us.

In many cases of  the artist’s who wanted to go Pop their whole sound changed… just as we are hearing today in the gospel music industry.  The artist moved away from making music or writing songs that brought them to the attention of those who began chasing them, offering more money and bigger contracts.

Those people came up with a plan to do away with certain groups  of music… music you hardly hear any more because they set about graying the lines between the music to make it more acceptable to all…  Well, almost all.

One of the first types of music that was aimed to hit the bricks was jazz.  This began just about the time that many of the real jazz masters started departing this earth… jazz greats such as Miles, Coltrane, Armstrong, Thelonious Monk etc…etc…etc…   And if it had not been for die hard jazz lovers who strongly resisted the lost of this musical genre by (1) rebuilding a core of new real jazz music lovers, (2) the emergence of  jazz radio station programming it … usually on mostly public radio and/or educational stations where subscribers  supported this type of programming, and (3) the creation of smooth jazz radio stations programming a softer more acceptable jazz, 24 hours a day everyday of the week.  Though smooth jazz is considerably different from the type of  jazz that had been created by the masters  like Miles Davis… it did, however, find its nitch.

Now, while half watching… get this… the Soul Train Music Awards show… I noticed a drastic change  has happened to Soul Music.  While watching it all I could think was… if Don Cornelius was alive (and he was at the time…I just didn’t know it until he committed suicide).    During that show I heard terms  like ‘urban soul’… and that mess they called ‘neo-soul.’   All mostly foreign to me… as of course do not listen to such mess.

I equate ‘neo-soul’  to the new direction we see gospel music headed in… and it is very sad.

While putting together a gospel music video program… I included a music video by the gospel duo of sisters called MaryMary.  What stuck out to me as I was typing in the data for their video… I noticed that it was classified as being ‘urban.’ 

I realized then that MaryMary did not desire to be pigeoned hold as simply being  ‘gospel’ artists… but something more acceptable to a wider audience… which would also mean wider radio and television programming… and/or exposure for their music

Okay…

I guess if that is what you want to do.  But the argument on the side of  MaryMary can still be made that they have never really totally sold out… they are not afraid to speak ‘Jesus’ or ‘God’ in their music… nor does it appear that they are willing to expose much of their bodies ‘for profit.’  And the focus of  their music still seems to be not as far out there as I see where some others have gone lately.

In order to reach the acclaim and match the money that MaryMary has managed to reap… it appears that others have decided to follow MaryMary’s lead… but they have decided to go that additional mile.   They have decided to reach further out into the deep waters… by what seems to me to be a casting off  of any semblance of  anything that remotely sounds like ‘gospel’ music… and/or looks ‘holy.’   They  desire to be more like what is being called ‘Christian’ music artists.  Which is very much more like rock music… and will drive you crazy if you sat listening to it all day.

In almost all of the music on the so-called Christian radio stations… you have to  listen real hard to even be able to deciper that itit is a Christian song… because Christian radio stations do not play gospel song.

So, in order to be heard over Christian radio stations…which are growing while our smaller less popular gospel radio stations are fading, barely able to stay afloat… since many black people are now tuning in to Christian radio stations too., which give them greater Arbitron numbers which means more advertising dollars going to them.  So, many of our artists have lost that black sound… or the ethnic sound in order to blend in.

Oh, I know that rock music has it roots in our music… going all the way back to such people  like Little Richard and Jimmy Hendrix.  But that is not what I am talking about.

What I am talking about is this…

Christian radio station is a misnomer… because it sounds like for the most just like another rock station.  It is just positioning itself as something else… and that something else is working.

I do not care what they call it… those radio stations  pump rock music… and they are rock & roll radio stations at their core, and they are hurting our radio stations.  It really doesn’t matter what type of lyrics their songs may or may not have… the basic overall sound of it is still the same as that of rock and roll.

When urban radio stations began playing music like Donnie McClurkin’s ‘We Fall Down’  …or going all the way back to Walter Hawkins,’ Oh, Happy Day’…it did not make those stations become gospel radio stations.  Nor did playing Donnie’s song or the Clark Sister’s ‘You Bring the Sunshine’ dictate an overall change in their basic programming format.  Their focus was and still is… is on playing supposed urban music… or today  mostly that neo-soul mess.

Therein, this leads me to further  make my case,  urban radio stations used to be soul radio stations… or R&B radio stations… but in the mid-90′s there came about a change.  A re-classification change… many R&B artists wanted to follow the king of Pop…Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie and others come from under the rock called  ‘black music artist’ tag.  They wanted to lean toward another word just beginning to circulate… first ‘urban’…and then it became ‘pop.’

All of it was aimed at reaching beyond the boundaries of  our own neighborhoods… from the urban areas to a much wider and broader audiences.  Also it was to bring about something which was being whispered at that time… the doing away of the R&B/Soul music categories.  And none of  this was being done by us.

No,  but it was by those who whispered into the ears of the so-called up and coming artists and rappers of  today.

It was done by the people who own the labels… the chart books… and who had influence to get things heard and played over the radio.  And those people are a lot like the penthouse drug kingpins…and might be some.

You know those guys… the drug lords who never touch the street but reap the bigger benefits… because the drug market is really theirs… and to a large degree it intertwines with the music business.  Though this is never spoken of.

Yeah, it is like that.  The drug business and the music business are constructed very much the same.  Little wonder why drugs are so easily and readily obtainable in the music industry…  the sports industry… and wherever else where there are lots of dollars to be made.  Anything that makes money is usually owned and operated by the same people when you get right down to it.

When a new radio station signed on in New York City I was looking forward to it.  I had read that it was going to be a Christian radio station… in a place that was pumbing everything else but any daily gospel music.  But from the moment it began airing I realized that there was something wrong.  It sounded more like Z-100 ‘the Zoo’… a  local New York City rock music radio station.

The whole thing is really a gimmick to entice hardcore rock listeners to tune into something else which is being passed off as Christian music …but is still very much  and sounds just like the music that they love and crave for so very dearly… rock.   They have not been transformed.

Thus, were the Christian radio stations birthed.    They became a quick sell buying into every market and opening the doors for many of their artists… caucasian singers and musicans to become more widely known and accepted in the Christian/Gospel music market… and more importantly the  award shows.

In a very large metro areas such as New York City… which up until the Christian radio station began air… it had no 24 hour …or daytime radio station programming any gospel or Christian music at all at that time… it was seen by many Christian people as a welcomed  and long overdue arrival.

But this welcomed arrival… soon became a big game changer too.  And they were on the FM dial… which everybody knows sounds a lot better than a low signal AM station any time.

Thus was a desire kindled by some gospel artists to create material which could become acceptable to this new outlet called ‘Christian Radio.’   A large part of  this transformation called for those artists wishing to cross over… to first  lose their ‘black’… or ‘gospel-ee’ sound.   And that is exactlyy what they have done… much like Beyoncé sounding less ‘black’… like almost that whole ‘neo-soul’ movement in what used to be known as the Black Music Division yesterday… to the Urban Music Division a few years ago… and now Neo-Soul.  And there is nothing soul in it… or about it …outside of  the color of the skin of  those who call themselves performing it.

This change you can especially  be heard in  Tye Tribbitts latest cd… also in much of the Kirk Franklin’s material… as well as in many others who want to jump onto that band wagon.   You can say that they have sold out …and it is not for Christ’s sake.   But for that all mighty thing called in the Biblical text  ‘filthy luka.’

Kim Burrell in her latest cd release has attempted to do the same thing… as well as,  Kierra Shear… and Trinity 5:7… and the list goes on… and on.

When I saw Kim baring her shoulder and trying to appear as a sex vixen in a music video produced from a song on her latest cd… it seemed sad to me.  I thought… she has eyes but can not see.   The video was anything but sexy… nor was it appealing.

Then I saw where someone had posted over the internet  a note about the Trinity 5:7′s latest  video… saying that she  was shocked at their display… asking if it was just her…. or whether or not the video appeared to be leaning towards anything gospel… religious… or  Christian at all???

So, I checked out the video.  And my answer was…‘NAY.’ ‘NAY.’ ‘NAY.’

One could say that many of  todays new brand of  gospel music producers and performers are pimping that gift that God has so freely endowed them with … which is supposed to be for His glory… by subverting it for their own benefit… and worldly profit.

Yeah, the kids like it… I guess…must be… for the most part.  And don’t get me wrong… not all of it is totally bad.  There are a lot of songs that I like by Kirk… and at least 1 by Tye.

I know my son loves Kierra’s latest cd.  But when I first heard it I didn’t have a clue as to who it was singing.  It was not until sometime later that he told me it was Kierra, Karen Clark Shears daughter.

Kierra’s cd does get there but after a while… but still you can see the direction that Kierra chose to take in an effort to land on Christian radio stations… as opposed to catering to the gospel music brand of  those she follows so closely in the footsteps of… namely her mother, Karen… and her aunts… the other Clark Sisters.  And of course her grandmother… Dr. Mattie Moss Clark.

Thank goodness most of the gospel artists and especially the gospel quartets have remained true and strong their art form.  Chosing to preserve the traditions of an art form that still moves many of us to tears with moving http://www.countryuniverse.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Blind-Boys-of-Alabama.jpgtouching lyrics… or foot stomping songs… and hand clapping music that still  brings many of  us to our feet.  Music created in the muke and miry clay of  the fields during slavery times… and on up through the years of  our history here in America.

Maybe, I should have waited to write this during Black History Month… or Gospel Music Month.  Is there such a thing as… Gospel Music Month?

Is there a Gospel Music Month?

If  not then there should be.  Because our music is the only real American music… as Soul Food is the only real American cuisine.  Because it is the only food in which its roots were started here in America.  Almost every other food we eat came from some other  country… rooted in other cultures and brought here as the immigrants began to flow into this country.  But our circumstances being different… forced us to create ‘a new’ everything we eat… said… and did.

Earlier this evening while working on this blog… I had my computer on the Word Network listening to this preacher named Dr. Chris Hill, a pastor of a T.D. Jakes church in Dever, Colorado.  I had heard him before and have occasionally watched his broadcast… but to tell you the truth I can only take a little bit of the guy.  But tonight as I typed I would occasionally glance over to his broadcast …and it dawned on me as to what it was I found so irritating about him.

For the first thing… it came across my mind that each time I have happened to catch a piece of his broadcast… that the man appeared to be on drugs.

And for the  2nd  thing that I noticed was… the guy likes to holler.  I have nothing against hollering …preachers holler.  So, growing up in the Church… and particular the black Church… I have learned to accept hollering by preachers as being part of their technique.

In the Pentecostal Church whenever the Pastor or whomever is preaching  when they  got excited they automatically began to holler… or  in other words speak very fervently.   But this guy… Dr. Chris Hill hollers at numerous places throughout his sermon at varying times… and most of the time as it appears to me… he does it for no other reason outside of  him just wanting to do so… or to grab a laugh.

As I occasionally would glance back and forth at him tonight… he reminded me of a stand-up comedian.   Appearing comedic appears to be very much Dr. Hill’s forte… or so he believes.

But tonight I felt I have really put my hand on it finally.   That is to say… put my hand on exactly what it was that I had been trying to put my hands on about him.  And this is it…he appears more like ‘Stepin Fetchit.’

Now, I am really not trying to crack on Dr. Hill.  No, I am not.  Truly, I am not trying to do that.  But he gives me the impression of someone who is more playing with his audience… which is made up of a large number of  white church goers.  Rather than just delivering a sermon to them. He likes to play with the sermon and them a lot.  And he seems to love to do what he thinks will prompt them to laugh.

I don’t know… perhaps I am just toooooo old school… or maybe I’m just being ‘too’ black… first the gospel music… and now this????

Will the church become full of preachers who want to do stand-up comedy rather than preach the word?

I don’t mind humor.  I know that humor is good.  But the entire sermon turned into a joke…  I don’t know????

Or maybe it is that this is the Chris Hill way of preaching.  Is the way of a new group of preachers coming up today… to slay them with laughter?

We’ll see.

But there does seem to me to be such an urgency today that wasn’t there yesterday.  And that is we are getting closer and closer to the end times… far closer than we were yesterday.  And though I definitely know and agree that laugher is good… but preaching salvation and deliverance is of a greater need.  And I’m not saying that humor cannot be mixed with it… if you can do it without shading the overall message too much.

So, do not get me wrong.  Yes, I believe in laugher.  In fact, I hired some comedians recently and brought a night of comedy here… but for everything there is a time and a season.  Standing up and humoring a bunch of  folk straight through what should be your sermon does not seem to me to be ministering to the whole man… when you are working the crowd like a stand-up comedian rather than a man of God operating in his formal capacity.

It was Jesus who said… “Feed my sheep.”

As of New Year’s Eve Pastor Paula White became the new senior Pastor over New Destiny Christian Church… following the sudden death of their founder and leader Pastor Zackery Tims.

In reading the story… namely the ill feelings between the Broads of Regents over the Church and Riva Tims… the ex-Mrs. Zackery Tims, who filed papers against the Church claiming that she should have been named the senior Pastor since she and her then husband, Pastor Tims, were the founders of New Destiny.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/zachery-tims-fla-church-denies-riva-tims-claim-to-leadership-66085/

http://www.christianpost.com/news/zachery-tims-death-fla-ministers-ex-wife-comments-on-leading-megachurch-56660/

I found it interesting that Paula like Sheryl Brandy just decided to up and leave her church behind.  Well, Paula not quite…as it seems that Paula is still in control over her own church still,  the church Without Walls International, in Tampa, FL … which Paula founded along with her then husband, Randy White… whom we do not hear much of anything from or about rany more.

As you many may or may not have noticed …but over the course of the last few years Paula has shifted in terms of her theology… it has swung to prosperity.  This is extremely evident in her daily television show segments which she broadcasts over the Word Network… and other channels as well.   One thing in particular that stands out is Paula’s show’s guest list … featuring a bunch of false prophets and supposed evangelist… and I guess even some so-called Pastors all soliciting sowers on the behalf of Paula  White.

It will be interesting to see or read about New Destiny since the passing of Pastor Zackery Tims, who had built up such a vast media following.  I can only imagine how greatly vested he was in media equipment and facilities as he had a large television ministry.   His vast media possibilities have now availed themselves to Paula White since she has been chosen the new Pastor at New Destiny.

The question in all of this is whether of not Paula White can carry it …or what will she do with it?

Well, tomorrow is Dr. Martin L. King’s birthday.    Meaning we all have a day off… and an opportunity to reflect upon the history and legacy of  Dr. King.  With some states chosing it to initiate state issued Voter ID cards… a trend that can only be seen as a drive by Republicans to lessen minority votes…as well as,  to try and weaken worker’s rights, benefits and compensation, medical plans, and unions busting… also changes in Women Rights to abortion etc… as it is all tied in with the power to vote.

This holiday we have much to reflect upon.

Let us not allow the hands of time to be turned back.

It is interesting to think that forty years after the death of  Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. we have an African American man  in the White House, as President of the United States of  America.  And I love it.

But the other side of that coin is the number of  death threats per day that President Obama receives, more than 8 per day… it is the highest number ever in the history of American Presidents.  And the number of  insults hurled at him publicly by Republican members of both the Senate a2ab-the-bishop-wifecovernd Congress… inclusive of being called ‘liar’ loudly during a State of the Nation broadcast… can be surmised as nothing more than pure out and out racism.

Miss Daisy said it best… an elderly woman of over 100 years of age… who said to me 1 day angrily-

“Do you see what they are doing to Obama?”

And man… was Miss Daisy mad when she said it.View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledBy

Unlike the kids… she saw… lived …and remembered what it had been like years before laws were created to force the change in things… as to how we live… our basic everyday rights… and privileges that were never extended to us before.  But Dr. King marched…went to jail and fought that we might be able stand like everybody else in this country… with our back up straight and tall.   So, we could stand on the law… and in our case ‘the laws’… there were many and they were long in coming.

Enjoy Dr. King’s day.

Got a little snow the other night… didn’t amount to much and I am glad about that after all the snow we got last year.

But it has been very very very cold these last few days… then 1 day would get mild… and by night fall which to come very early this year… it turns soooo cold all over again.  But then it is winter… and I would rather the cold over the snow… or cold and snow.

Well, God bless… and enjoy your week.  Just noticing… this is my first blog for this year….2012.  Time is truly flying by.

Well, it would have been… had I finished it before now.  LOL….

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  ©2012



Add a comment July 31, 2012

Sandusky…abuser, liar, sodomite and destoryer of young boys… and Herman Cain…

Yesterday I read that Sandusky’s lawyers released to the press that the young men coming out against Penn State ex-coach Jerry Sandusky were not  victims… but people who were coming forth ‘for the money.’

And you know what?

Oftentimes, victims do come forward for the money.  Sometimes it might move some who would not step forward otherwise.  But regards victims… are victims.  Sandusky used his power, position and a shaddy charity to take advantage sexually of very young boys.  They deserved to make him pay.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/13/9413485-sandusky-waives-hearing-moves-case-toward-trial

What a crazy statement to make.  Money can’t undo what Sandusky has done.

Of course they should come forth…but all the money in the world will never change what was stolen from those young boys.  They are due whatever financial compensation they can get.

But it will never be enough.

Money cannot recover your manhood.

Money cannot restore your innocence.

Money cannot remove the guilt you feel as a child when someone violates you.

Money cannot replace that which was stolen.

Nor can money reclaim that which was eroded and may have been destoryed inside those young boys, when someone enters you into something you are too young to even understand.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/sports/ncaafootball/sandusky-scheduled-to-face-several-of-his-accusers.html


http://abcnews.go.com/US/penn-state-jerry-sandusky-accuser-ready-set-record/story?id=15140589

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2071255/Jerry-Sandusky-arrested-9th-10th-alleged-sex-abuse-victims-file-charges.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/dec/12/sandusky-a-classic-story-line-that-players-cannot-/

There is no doubt that the man was… or is a pedophile.  He destoryed lives… and people knew about it and turned blinded eyes on it.  They should all go down.

It was criminal.  And no one reported it.

In this kind of thing  …and for the number of years that Sandusky had been involved with young children… I am sure that there are many more victims.  And if the truth be told… I believe that Jerry probably had a few of his friends involved in it too.

Truthfully, it would not  surprise me if a ring of pedophiles becomes exposed before this whole story wraps up.  A ring of others involved that includes other football personnel from Penn State… and professional staff… and possibly even players on the Penn State teams too.

The world of pedophiles is very large… and encompasses all kinds of unsuspecting people.  Men from all walks of life… who love little boys… and the younger the better.

N.A.M.B.L.E.R. is a national association of men who seek out young boys for sex.  In fact its initals stand for National Association of  Men and Boys etc… etc… This organization is large.  And their motto is ‘eight is too late.’

Sick isn’t it?

In reading some of the articles that are now surfacing on this story about complaints against Sandusky at least 1 mother some time ago contacted Penn State… when her son came home with wet hair.  She called the campus officals complaining that Sandusky had done something to her son.   So for some time the powers that be upon the campus of Penn State knew.  Not only did they know but they also allowed Sandusky to do his thing in their locker rooms and showers upon their campus… knowing what he was doing.  And they never tried to stop him.

In almost all cases of predators… whether  a school teacher, coach, Boys Scout leader, preacher, priest etc… they seek out victims of a certain nature.  Usually children without a father… or come from troubled homes… underprivilged and/or minority children etc.  Children who cannot help themselves …or come from parents who do not have resources.  And so it was with Sandusky… and his fake little organization that had been supposedly set up to aid underpriviledge children.

In reading the Washington Times article on this story… it states that Sandusky lived only a mile away from an elementary school.  People who are into children sexually… try to get as close to them as many ways as possible.

I recall as little child when walking to school how the cars were lined up just a little beyond the school yard… with white men trying to intrigue us into their cars.  And I say ‘white men’ because I cannot remember seeing any vehicles with black men or any other race doing it.  But I do know that all races have sexual offenders …and those who seek out little children.

Because even though the cars awaiting us on our school block just outside of our school yard were white men… I had encounter Hispanic men… and black men quilty of doing the same… trying to entice little children to lure them into sex.  I eventually did become 1 of them that got lured.

But once while working in Jersey… I was on the bus riding somewhere in Newark when I happened to glance out the window.  I saw a black man in the broad daylight… in the middle of people on the sidewalk.  There he was with his penis in his hand following behind this very young little girl… who trying to escape him ran into a corner store.  And that man went into the store right behind her… with his penis still in his hand.

That scene shocked me.  I often lament that I did not get off that bus and go back to help that little girl.  That thought of her …that little girl and that …and that MAN stays in my mind.  And I will forever regret not getting off that bus.

Men travel all over the world to places where they can indulge with very young girls and boys freely.  The child sex trade is big… and I guess exploding.  So many poor children around the globe are being exploited everywhere… even in this country for money.  Some given up by their own parents in exchange for drugs and alochol …and/or cigarettes.  And in poorer countries in exchange for food, housing or whatever else the sale of their little child can bring.

What a curel world.

Sandusky threw himself into things which gave him massive access to a lot of little boys.   Even in the founding of an organization that was supposedly set up to help and aid underprivilged children, Sandusky put himself in an arena that availed more and more little boys to him.  So much so that his organization somehow got parents to allow their sons to go and stay in his home with him and his wife.

And speaking of Sandusky’s wife… of course she had to come out  finally …claiming that she knew nothing.  She knew.

At least 1 victim alleged that he cried out for her to help him… and she did nothing.  Sandusky’s wife would be party to Sandusky’s crimes if she did claim that she knew.  But there is no way that she could not have known… especially since so many others did… and so much of it took place within their own home.  And it appears that after a point the man began to feel that he was untouchable.

When the charges started surfacing… what did Sandusky do?

He called some of his victims to come and have dinner with him.  Who does that?

The next thing that he lawyers are going to claim is that Sandusky is insane… and probably that he was a victim of abuse himself.  They always play those same game cards.  If they can’t see where they can win the cases 1 way… lawyers shift their game play and start saying ‘he couldn’t help himself.’   ’He was under great strain.’  ‘His father never loved him’… and used to abuse him… or the man down the street… or his uncle.  The story is always the same.

But if this were true than everyone would be a perpetrator… a pedophile… a sexual predator… an abuser of women, children and/or boys.  But this is not so.  And most people in some way or other have been abused.

If you remember John Gacy… the mass murder years ago from Chicago or a suburb outside of Chicago.  He was a contractor who used to dress up as a clown and perform at all kinds of chartities, parades, kiddie parties etc.  When a 15 year old turned up missing they discovered that Gacy had not only abducted him but killed him too.  They found that Gacy had done the same to many other young boys …all of whom they discovered were buried behind the walls and under the floor broads of  Gacy’s home.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/gacy/gacy_1.html

We would all say that such a man must have been crazy.

How could he have done what he had done?

And then to have buried those boys… more than 13 of them within the framework of his own home.2ab-the-bishop-wifecover

Now, that sounds crazy.  But he was smart enough to continue to do what he had been doing for years.  And who knows how long really that John Gacy had been raping and killing young boys before he thought about deposing of their bodies within the walls and floors of his own home?

Sandusky may look crazy now… and I would want to look crazy too if I thought I was faced with the rest of my life behind bars.  But while he was grabbing a hold of those 10 and 11 year old boys… he wasn’t crazy.  He was enjoying it… and worst of all he thought himself smart.

Didn’t say much about it… but it did not get pass me.

That Herman Cain was a real joke.

For a while it looked like the Republicans had decided to run a supposed ‘black man’ against President Obama.  Now, that would have really have been a joke if they could have mustered it.  But poor ol’ Herman had too many ghost in his closet.

The first thing I would like to look at regarding Herman Cain is why?

Why would you even think about running for President of the United States knowing what Herman knew?

Herman knew that he had a problem keeping his hands to himself.

Speaking of which… I have decided that I have really got to talk to some guy myself.   Not Herman but somebody just like him.

Everytime I see this guy he has got to embrace me… and kiss me.  I do not like it.

A couple of years I stopped the guy as he reached for me… saying ‘no.’   And I told him that I only wanted him to shake my hand if he had to make contact with me.

This I did… and I did write about this situation in a prior blog of mine.  I did this after I was standing in a bank line …and the guy seeing me stepped into the bank, and then commenced to plant a kiss on the back of my neck.

Are you kidding me???????

At first it did not hit me… but when it did I was livid.

How dare that man sneak up behind me and kiss me on my neck …like he and I had something going on.  Nothing could be further from the truth… but anybody witnessing that would have believed otherwise.  The Bible tells us that we have to forsake even the illusion of un-holiness.

So, the very next time I saw the guy… here he came again reaching for me… and I stopped him.  And I told him ‘no’  …and I broke it down for him believing I had settled that matter.  And I had.

But it seems that he has totally forgotten that conversation these days.

If somebody told me that something I was doing made them uncomfortable… I would cease to do it.  I respect other people’s space.  But it seems that many people do not.  And when it comes to men and women… men lack a lot of understanding.  We don’t like just any ol’ body grabbing a hold of us… or kissing us.

And why should we?

Why does a woman have to tell you ‘no’ regarding anything pertaining to her?

It would seem that a man’s respect of women would automatically give way to the respect of her space.

But it does not.  They clearly do not think like us.

Men feel that they can do to women whatever they want.

I do not feel it flattering to have some funky man grab a hold of me.

Nor do I just want everybody in this world to come and just freely lay a kiss on me.

Which is something that just happened to me only a couple of hours ago.  Another person I wish would just stop.

With all the various disases going around… all kinds of things on people’s lips… tongues and mouth.  No, I don’t want people coming up and kissing on me.  And particularly people I certainly do not know… or hardly know… and plan on keeping that way.

Having worked for years with men… I am simply not tolerant of a lot of things now.   Like I don’t want anybody calling me ‘baby.’   I listened to them calling each other ‘man’ and referring to each other by their names… but when it came to me…  is was ‘honey.’

I was not anybody’s ‘honey.’  I had a name… and that name was just fine with me.  My parents gave it to me… and called me by it all their lives.

So, why not everybody else?

But it was a way of  degrading me… minimizing me.  And it is a thing which men love to do to women in the work force.

They like keeping us in ‘our place.’

Herman Cain… it was clear to me even when I first heard him speak  …that he was the kind of man I would have never liked working for.  He sounded arrogant… puffed up… and filled with himself.  Narcissistic in every possible way.

Which would account for why he would believe …knowing his history with women…  and how many women who had filed charges against him… why he would think that such a man with ‘that kind’ of a history  …as his would be qualified to run, and be sucessful in a bid for the Presidency of this country.

Yes, that would explain why.

I only say 1 thing… Bill Clinton.

And maybe you might say… John Kennedy too.

Okay, I’ll give you that.  We could include the Senate and Congress too.   And while we are going at it… let us not stop there… but include Governors and other elected officials… police officers… company heads etc…   And we could go on forever… and this list does not exclude women.  Because there have been a few.

Moral standards are not what they used to be… nor are they required it seems.  Why would you quiz and question canidates for certain Cabinet offices in this country… and just allow people with obvious character fawls run for the highest office of this country?

Or any office?

Or run any school?

Or head up any church?

What are we thinking?

How could we be so caught up with people that we are willing to just lay aside certain obvious faults in their moral nature?

As much as I used to feel that I liked Bill Clinton back in the day… that’s slang for when he was President… and/or running for President… the truth of matter is this.  The man had issues.

Herman Cain had and has issues.  And his were bigger than Clinton’s.  Because the man dotted upon himself so much… and saw no wrong in ‘him.’

What an egomaniac?

And lets not negate Herman’s propensity for lying.

“Who lies about things that are a matter of  legal record?”

“Herman…”

Forget ’999′… it would have been more like ’666′ if Herman got in.

Now, going back to the game plan.  The plan was to chump up Cain to run against Obama.  Thereby pitting 2 black men against each other… which ‘they’ felt  would split the black vote.  This in turn would allow… ‘their’ real guy…  an outside canidate  to ease into a win, and take the White House.

That was the political game plan of some key Republicans.  It was the way that they were hoping would guarantee a win for them and their party.

Do we really look that DUMB????

We are really not the dumber race.  Believe that if you believe nothing else.

Because ‘you’ had to know that was a game the Republicans was playing …by pretending Herman Cain was so popular among Republicans.

Who were they kidding?

Most Republicans hate Obama.  And they hate him for the most part for no other reason than the fact that he is a black man.

And how dare he be black  …and smart too.

Everything that Obama has tried to do the Republican Party has blocked.  Any bill or intitative to get American moving and back on track they have hindered.  Even down to refusing federal funds to begin rebuilting America’s infrastructure.  All for the pleasure of claiming that Obama is a failure.

But Obama is not a failure.  Failure is something which is not in Obama’s vocabulary.  Nor does he believe in quitting because it appears that the deck is stacked against him.  And do note the word ‘appears.’

I have come to know that oftentimes it not what it ‘appears’  to be… that is what  actually is.  That’s why I do not follow polls.  Learned in my statistics class…  No, it was in 1 of my poli-Sci classes on research… that taught me ‘it is how you phrase the question‘… to get the answer that you want.  Pollsters are paid by interest groups… parties that want to slant whatever their interest is… in their favor by misleading people on a bunch of supposed facts that many times are not true and are meaningless.

So, the polls that showed Cain to be a favorite…

How in the world could you have believed that?View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledBy

No, way in the world were the Republicans going to put any black man into the White House.  And never 2 black Presidents… back to back?

They would have all curled up and died first.

So, that whole thing about Herman Cain was a myth.  They were never going to let him in the White House.  Not unless he was going in delivering some pizza.

Must say though that it is a shame when men in power be they white or black… or any nationality… sit in power, and chose to abuse the power vested in them.  By proving themselves less than moral.  They have no character.  Cain clearly is a man without character.

If they choose not to say anything else about Obama… at least his character is certainly not an issue.   And his desire to uphold the values of his office, and that as a husband and family man are sure and true.

Well, hope you had a good day.  We haven’t had any more snow.  But it has been cold.  And for a while we had lots of rain… but that is sure to change as we move closer and closer to Christmas.

Hoping you have a joyous Christmas …just in case I do not post another blog between and Christmas just thought I would get it in now.

Well, God bless… and enjoy the rest of  your week.

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  ©2011


2 comments December 14, 2011

THE VERIZON ATTITUDE… changes in the workplace…

I can’t imagine working for anyone who threatened me.

In reading a posting on my facebook page, I read where the daughter of 1 of my facebook friends was told by her employer during Hurrican Irene-

“If any of you leaves, you’re fired.”

Meaning that if any of the employees left the job they would be terminated.

I can’t imagine me wanting to work for anyone who would even consider trying to strong-arm me like that… and particularly in a state of emergency.   But it made me think of 9/ll.

On September 11th …on the day that the airplanes flew into the World Trade Center, after the first plane hit the first tower  …many of the workers in the second tower were told to remain seated, to continue working.

But friends of mine who were inside the 2nd tower of  the World Trade Center that day… told me that when they saw that first plane hit… they didn’t care what their supervisors said… they were getting out of there.  And because many people had already began evacuating that second tower, as soon as they saw what had happened to the first tower… it for many meant the difference between life and death.

A few days ago while driving down to Atlanta, I happened to catch a news story on 1010 WINS …an all news radio network in New York City.  I had seen the picketers standing before various Verizon locations.  But I did not know what was going on.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023428/Verizon-worker-strike-Thousands-picket-line-east-coast.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/aug/9/verizon-workers-hit-picket-lines-mass-va/

It seems that the contract for 45,000 Verizon workers had expired… meaning the Verzion worker’s contract is now up for renegotiation.  Playing hardball, Verizon withdrew their worker’s health plan when the workers went out on strike.  Verzion claim that they could no longer afford to pay for the worker’s health coverage because they were losing so much money with them being out on strike.

BALONEY.

Everybody who is doing any business with Verizon should cancel every service …or whatever have you with them.

What money is Verizon losing?

None.  In fact, with the workers out… they are saving money.  Because Verizon doesn’t have to pay them while they are out on strike.

But the problem we face today is this…    IT IS AN EMPLOYER’S MARKET.

Do you hear me?

Can you understand that?

It is like how they say it is a buyer’s market in terms of  real estate sales.  Because not many people are buying homes …and banks are not lending as much as they used to.  So, if you got money …and it doesn’t matter about what the seller is asking for …make them an offer.  They may just take it… you never know.  Because they are not getting many other offers these days.  And who knows… your’s might be their only offer.

And you see this clear across the board.   Car sales and other large ticket items… because there is less cash flow these days with so many people out of work.

And therein lays the Verizon workers dilemma.Verizon is having its way with the Verizon worker’s union because so many people are out of  work… and Verizon knows that it has the power to wheel and deal as it pleases because of the way the job market is today.

These companies have no employee loyalty.  In fact, most companies today could care less about their employees.  This is why most companies today do not even offer full-time employment anymore.  Who needs full-time employees when there are millions of people willing… able …and ready to accept part-time employment with no benefits, and wages that amount to little… but beats nothing.

There had been a time when America was sending top executives to China to learn techniques of how to create a happy and more productive working enviroment.  It would seem that those executives learned something much more valuable to them.  How to take an iron fist and hold it over the heads of your employees… and keep it there.  Forcing them to produce more for less… while compensating them little… and forcing them to smile while the company break their backs.

I dislike companies with the Verzion attitude.  My cell phone is a Sprint account… but my broadband was with Verizon.  I can’t tell you how happy I am that it is off … and has been so for some time now.  But I can’t see myself giving money to a company that will not do its employees right.

Though these companies may feel that they have the power… the truth of the matter is… no they don’t.  We do.  And our power can bring any company to its knees just as the Montgomery bus boycotts brought that city of Montgomery to its knees in the mid 1960′s, and gave way to the opening of the doors that gave us all the right to vote, sleep and eat … etc… etc… where we wanted to.  Today we get on the highway and travel anywhere we want… as African American people in America… eat where we want to eat… and book a hotel and sleep where we want to sleep.  But for years this was not the case at all.

I remember listening  to Shirley Caesar talking about that very subject on a television show that she was being interviewed on.  She said that back then when they travelled… talking about her days as a young singer travelling with Albertina Walker and the Caravan… back in latter 50′s through the 60′s.   She said-

“We had to sleep in our car.  Because back then they did not allow us (black folks) to stay in the hotels or the motels like they do today.  And we just couldn’t pull up anywhere and eat either.  Because it wasn’t allowed.  If we wanted food.  We had to go back around to the back the door and see if they would give  us some food.”

Thank God for powerful people… who knew that they possessed power.  Or we would still be sitting on the back of the bus today.

Union busting is not anything new.  One of the greatest examples of it is when Ronald Reagon decided to interfere in the air traffic controller strike, PATCO …in August 1981.  Reagon froze the air traffic controller’s $3.5 million strike fund in order to force the striking workers back to work… saying that they were in violation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifKX9EXSvrQ&feature=related

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/reagan.years/whitehouse/airtraffic.html

And if you remember any facts to this story… you will remember how  quickly many of the striking air traffic controllers were replaced.  While a the powers to be… then trained a bunch of  unprofessionals to replace to them.

And our air ways have never been the same.  They have found people sleeping and all kinds of crazy things.  And we will not discuss what took place on 9/11.

Because if the truth be told… that is still a mystery to me?

How is it that at least 3 airplanes took off from Logan Airport in Boston… and got so far off of their courses.  And nobody …not 1 person knew about it until very important buildings began to be flown into?

Something is wrong with that picture.  And for the life of me… how was it that the 2nd airplane was allowed to hit the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center?  This is even a bigger mystery to me?

Because before it did… every airplane and helicopter in New York City was up in the air that day soon after the 1st airplane had flown in the World Trade Center.  So then, how is it that nobody saw the 2nd airplane until after it hit the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center?

My niece woke me that morning with a phone call saying that an airplane had just flown into 1 of the towers of the World Trade Center.  And as she was still talking to me… some 20 minutes later the 2nd airplane flew into the 2nd tower of the World Trade Center.

How could that have happened?

After the 1st airplane into that air space…  clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space should never have happened.

First of all, the air space around the whole area of the World Trade Center  and Statue of Liberty was and is…a protected air space. Which means it was supposed to be under the protection of fighter jets anyhow. But notwithstanding the admission of the 1st air craft into that air space… clearly, a 2nd air craft entering into that same air space should have most definitely been shot down…and shot down long before coming in contact with the 2nd tower of  the World Trade Center.

But going back to the then President Reagon who decided that he needed to step in on the striking air traffic controllers… and teach them a lesson.  Reagon, of course, being the idol of ever Republican… the 1 that they most try to exemplify, and proclaim themselves to be the most like.  And I wonder if that was before or after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?

But then of course… nobody knows exactly how long Reagon had actually been losing it.  Though I must say that most of the Republican Party seems to be fit candidates for an Alzheimer’s examination.  Because truly most of  them seem to be suffering from some sort of mental deficiency…  starting with but not limited to Palin.

Something has to be wrong …mentally with a bunch of people who claim that they love something and seek so vigilantly to destroy it.  And I am talking about America.

They claim that they love America.  Yet everything they have been doing lately… and I am talking … for years now… has been done to undermine America… if not to utterly destroy it.

One of the most disastrous things to happen to the United States of America was something called George W. Bush.  I understand how wars were used in past American History to re-jump start the economy.  But George who was supposedly an economy major from that great learning institution known as Yale University, in New Haven, CT.  George having gotten into hot water somehow either on his own… or via the un-wise thinking of some of his flunkies…they came up with a plan.  The plan was to go to war.  Start some wars and the economy will take off again… the money you spent will be forgotten… and forgiven…  and all will be well.

But there was a problem with the plan.  The work place had changed.

In years past America had plenty of factories and factory workers.  But by the time George stole his way into the White House all those jobs were gone.  Those factories had been closed… and years later turned into lovely condominiums.  And if  the companies still exists those jobs didn’t… robots had moved in and replaced the workers.

Do you remember when you used to read the Help Wanted Ads and saw a train of Bank Teller jobs being offered?

Look for that now.  You won’t find it.  Because many of those jobs no longer exist.  Bank tellers have been replaced by atm machines.

The same has happened to a position called ‘receptionist.’  When was the last time you heard that word?

It is voice mail… and automated voice activated systems now.  No more receptionist jobs almost anywhere today.

Most utility companies have closed down their offices which used to handle bill paying services.  They don’t do that any more.  Oh, no…   If you can’t send it in by mail… or go to a local payment center at your check cashing center  …or corner store… then for a charge call them and they will take your payment over the phone.

In 2008 Americans voted for a change.   While Republicans are quick to say that Obama did not… or has not delivered.

Yet  on the other hand Republicans will never say-

“And we  have done everything within our power  to ensure it.”

On every issue… and non-issue Republicans have done their best to block Obama from even trying to do anything to fix the mess.  A massive and highly expensive and burdensome mess… that George W. Bush… a Republican …whom I believe will never ever be forgotten… for the mess that he left us all in.  And when President Obama has managed to get something pass them… they … the Republicans attack it like a bunch of mad dogs.

Whoever said that Barack Obama was a magician?

Whoever said Obama was Merlin?

Or even had some kind of ‘black magic?’

In case you did think that let me be the first to just say-

“Are you for real?”

Magic is an illusion.  It is based upon trickery… cunning and deceit.  Thank goodness these are not traits that are found within our President Barack Obama.

President Barack Obama has never lied to us about ‘weapons of  mass destruction.’

He has never tried to pull the wool over our eyes… by blinding us with a bunch of codes that meant absolutely nothing… code RED…  code YELLOW…  (if you have no understanding of  this then you would have had to have lived in New York City following 9/11).

Obama has never tried to used 1 fear tactic to keep us up under our beds… or hid in our closets.

President Barack Obama is not the cause for why America is where America is today.   He had nothing at all do do with it.  He did not bring us here.  In fact, as quiet as it is kept… he is trying to fix this mess.   It is more than possible that he might aid in bringing us a long ways out of  this runt… if we all stop listening to lies.  Stop being deceived…  and turning every which way the winds blows.

It is Republican deceit and lies that have turned this country upside down… and not Barack Obama.

  • Corporate greed and mis-handling of business was here long before Barack Obama walked into the White House
  • Job losses many years before Obama
  • National Debt was already there… but really began running away after George W. Bush stepped into the Presidential picture
  • Problems on Wall Street with the stock market are not new… trace them back into the 1930′s

Several States now have had to fight against Republican Governors who lead people into believing that they were either the man or woman for the job… and would wholly work for them… the voters.  Telling them that they were a person with their interests in their mind and in heart… only for those voters to lament a vote that they ever casted in that person’s favor.  It ended up costing voters benefits… or their job… or a less powerful union etc.  Because that Republican political had an agenda.  And that agenda had nothing to do with the people’s minds… or hearts that they  con into believing in them with their claims of  ‘I want to serve you.’

The Republicans are so slimy they have created a 2nd Republican Party… the co-called Tea Party a group of real lunatics… formed by that lunatic queen Palin and few other crazies.  All of whom who have fallen out with one another… that is how firmly rooted they were.  Like a bunch of crabs in a barrel… all clamouring to be the top dog… and if they can’t then they pick up their marbles and go home.

They have all… whether they call themselves ‘Tea Party’ or not… they …the Republicans have all developed a seek and destroy attitude.  And that attitude did not just get started when President Barack Obama stepped into the White House… it is an attitude that they have long adapted to.

You need only to look at the 2000 Presidential Election between George W. Bush and John Kerry to see how demented the Republicans are.  They saw nothing wrong …NOTHING…in undermining the entire American practice of our right to vote… and to have ALL our votes counted.  And it was not something that they were not bold enough to do so all could see… and dared any of us to do anything about it.

So, don’t blame Obama.  This mess is not his.  But he decide to champion the cause… to try to set America back on the right course.  To raise Her from low depths She sank to under what no one can call ‘leadership’… but just say… George Bush brought Her to.

Don’t look for magic.  Look at it as it really is.  The world has changed.  And the work place and work force has changed with it.

Many jobs that people used to do… no longer exist.

Re-training people has it place… I guess.  But when they are re-trained where will they go?

Everyone is learning computers… but there are only but so many computer jobs.

The medical field is good.  In a field that had nothing but female mostly… had seen a great emergence of male.   Use to be you never saw a male nurse… but today hospitals are loaded with them.  Men are entering the nursing field in very large numbers.  And to think there was a time that such a thing… would have been seen as being sissy.

One thing is for sure… no matter what happens in this world… we all at some point or other need something medical.  As long as we are in these bodies the need for the medical profession cannot …or will ever be replaced.  But that is not to say that it too… will not evolve.  It has.

However, technology is forever changing things.  But even so there will still only be a need for but so many people to work in the medical field too… at any given time.

Radio stations have changed… television stations have changed.   Most newspaper companies have gone out of business… because few people read newspapers any more.  They get their news now over the internet… on their ipads… and cells.   And if you haven’t noticed… most news companies have cut back drastically on their staff.

For 1 of my journalism classes, my professor… a great woman… had been booted out of her position as a staff writer for a local newspaper… a job she had had for many years.  That company’s lost was of course … my great gain.  Because she came with a wealth of knowledge, and understanding about the history and future of journalism… and media at large.

But if you have noticed over the internet all the news sources seem to buy their stories from 1 source.  You can read the exact same story… word for word from 1 internet source to another.  And if you are like me… you always have a need to want to know more… but they don’t have it to give.

And somewhere along the way… they grab ahold of this attitude:   THAT LESS IS MORE.

Yeah, right…  When I want to know less…or read less… I will just stop.  I don’t need anyone deciding for me… when I have had enough.

Which I guess is the main reason why so many people like my blog… www.bsmith101.wordpress.com.  For as you can tell… I do not believe in the ‘less is more’ concept.  Nor do I just regenerate news items.  What a waste that is.  If  I follow a story… I want to read something I haven’t already read… or at the very least …give me some more details …or info on whatever it is I’ve come to your website searching for.

But going back to my thought… the workplace has changed.  It is not what it was 20 years ago… or even 10 years ago.

Remember all those customer service jobs that used to be in the newspapers?

Roughly about 20 years ago customer service became such a big thing.  There were tons of  ad campaigns about the type of  service you could expect if you did business with such and such.  Companies trained their employees to  greet you in a special way, and to service you as quickly and efficiently as they could.

Today all of that is gone to the wind.  You can stand in a line for up to 10 or 20 minutes listening to someone… who is working the only open window… or check-out line… carry on a conversation with another employee or either with the person who had been right ahead of before they got to the cashier.

Have you experienced that?

You are at the top of the line… but suddenly the ‘ONLY’ open window has a highly talkative employee… or someone looking around as though they are trying to wonder why ‘their’ window or ‘their’ counter is the only 1 open?

So, what do they do?

They slow down… as if mentally they have taken a mental stand in their mind… to not kill themselves trying to serve all the people who waiting in line.

No body cares about customer service any more.  And so… gone are these jobs.

Switchboard operators are a thing of the past too.  A little company in your area that hired local people… mostly women to man the phone lines.  But then it was for mostly doctor’s offices.  Today those people can be anywhere in the world taking tons of calls for everything from subscriptions to publications, orders for books or other products, complaints, messages, prayer requests …you name it.  But small companies in your town probably do not offer this service any more because it has been farmed out around the world.

Most of the manufacturing companies long departed …going into Mexico and other countries where the labor was cheaper.

This country really does not have a great number of blue collar workers any more.  Most of  the automobile workers were replaced by robots… or companies that sent large divisions of their manufacturing into other countries as well.

So where are the jobs?

Where are the openings that are available …or will become available for all the displaced workers who are currently out of  work… and have been so now for years?

There are none.   And nobody can do anything to change that… because of computers coming into the marketplace.  They… computers brought about an unpresidented change to what was our workplace.

The only thing you can do is look for the next big wave in the future.  That will

More and more colleges are offering on-line courses.  Have you noticed that?

Some schools are over the internet only.

I am dropping hints here.   Personally, I hate on-line courses… and feel that they are a huge waste of  time.   If you are going to sit in isolation… with no classroom interaction… then you might as well just read the book and be done with it.

But if you were considering a teaching career.  Great… but you should also consider this fact.  That soon many of  those teaching jobs too will soon be gone.  Due to on-line classes and on-line classrooms… and schools… cities… colleges and universities looking to cut their budgets.   It is coming… and soon the classroom as we know it today will  be gone forever too… just like yesterdays work force.

And with it will be gone… tenure.  Tenures will bite the dust just like pension plans… and all other full-time employment;  and whatever else they can do away with for the sank of the bottom line.

Soon even common currency as we know it will be gone too.  They are already talking about stop minting the $1 bill.  Soon it will just be all plastic… be it a debit card …or credit card…. or something else.  But the coins will be gone …and the paper bills.

Bet all those folks working at the Mints all felt that their jobs were well secured.  We have all better start to think again.

Who ever thought there would be no more pension plans?

Or health care benefits on your job?

I didn’t.

You really have to be a visionary.  You have to look deep into the future.  You must go beyond your nose… if you truly want to have a chance in the future.  You have to look deep beyond what you see.  The future is what you cannot visually see… but something coming.

Many people now do not even go into the office any more.  They can do all their work from home.  They write their news articles at home… edit news copy at home… edit books at home… and mother-frames and inter-locking networks are big things in corporations now.2ab-the-bishop-wifecover

I do see computers… and our dependence upon them growing.

In New York City they have all most totally done away with ticket booth operators down in the subway system.  They too have been View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledByreplaced by machines… which can dispense to you fare tickets.  And while in Boston not so long ago… I noticed that they were doing the same in their subway system.

The world is becoming a place of less working people… and more automated machines.  And unless you are prepared to service these machines… or program these machines… your work history will too soon come to an abrupt end.  And you will find yourself with a need to be re-trained… to nothing.

So, when George W. Bush thought that he could jump start the economy by creating a war… with the hope that the war would create jobs.  He and his people forgot something.  All those factories were gone… and so weren’t those jobs.  And even if  the jobs could be revived… robotics still had replaced the manpower that used to produce the goods.

So, the wars didn’t work.  But only sunk us deeper and deeper into debt as the years have dragged on.  But of course …the Republicans will never tell you any of  this.  Any more than Verizon will tell you that they were happy for any old excuse to rid themselves of paying their employee’s health benefits.

Irene hit the East Coast hard… and it seems that my cousin who informed me of the storm was right.  Sadly there were a few deaths.  But thank God He saw most of us through it safely.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304431/ns/weather/t/irene-weakens-packs-punch-it-slams-coney-island/?GT1=43001

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44304431/ns/weather/t/irene-weakens-packs-punch-it-slams-coney-island/?GT1=43001

My cousins and friends in various places… including my brother had to deal of electrical outages.  But that is the least.  Many suffered damages due to flooding and/or falling trees.

The good news is Irene wasn’t as bad as what had been expected.  To God be the glory.

The New York subway is up and running once again.  Though on our way back from Atlanta… I did notice where many of the over-passes in the New York area were being worked on.  And that was following the earthquake that hit us… before Irene came bouncing and blowing in.

Well, God bless…and enjoy the rest of  your week.  Amazingly we are at the end of August already.  Schools and colleges are already in.  I pray that all are safe and do well.

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  ©2011



Add a comment August 28, 2011

To spite their nose….

We have all heard that saying-

“They or she or he is cutting off his ….or her ….or their nose in spite of their face.”

What it simply means is that they…he…or she…because of some problem…dislike …hate or some type of disdain of their face…decide to get rid of or destroy …or remove …have redone that nose  “in spite of their face.”  Or in other words… they end up destroying  …or making a bigger mess to their face.

You know in thinking about this it makes me think of all those plastic surgery mistakes…the things that people decided that they wanted to corrected about their face or some part of their body.  They decide that the plastic surgeon is able to give them ‘that’  look which they have always wanted.  So, they set up an appointment with the plastic surgeon to have the work done. Low and behold when the wrappings come off…they discover that something went wrong.  The surgery did not turn out as they both thought…them and the plastic surgeon who did the work.  What they thought was so bad before is now made worst…and there is no going back to the way it was.

Whatever the plastic surgeon gave them is what they end up with…whether they like it or not.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110311/tr_ac/8037122_michigans_new_governor_wont_fall_into_the_wisconsin_trap

When we go into the ballot box and elect public officials we do it believing that we are voting in people who are working on our ‘behaves.’  Not people who desire to be voted into public office to fulfill their own personal…or even party agendas.

Today we are faced with a dilemma of the un-abidding politician.  The crafty person who solicited your vote only to turn around and do everything ‘but’ what you voted them in to do.  In fact, they do things which are against you and endangers you, your family…your community, city and state…because of some personal political agenda.

This agenda can easily be called ‘the undoing of America.  Or a very evident attempt to do so on the parts of  the Republican Party.

How in the world did America get to this place?

Can racism be the sole force for what is happening concerning Republican governors and their decisions to change state policies and connection to the larger and greater picture… called the ‘United States’ of America.

A friend posted a notice on my facebook page about the governor of  Michigan’s plan to turn cities in Michigan over to what amounts to ‘corporate takeovers.’    By simply declaring a state of  emergency and  some type of  financial woe  over a Michigan township or city…and then allow the corporations to have power to determine the policies and contracts to those cities and/or towns at will.

The Republicans talk about government becoming too big.  And perhaps it is.

In what country have you ever heard this?

Yes, perhaps government is too big.  So big, in fact,  that any given elected politician can turn on his or her own constituents and feel that they have the freedom to do so…simply because they were ‘voted in.’   Something is wrong with this picture.  And it has nothing to do with our system of  government… but more to do with deceit on the part of  some voted in… and also upon our feelings of  powerlessness once we  have voted them in.

But in this country there is a thing called ‘impeachment.’   The people have power.  Do not allow politicans to continue to wheel and deal as they like without you… the people taking up arms and going out against them.  And when the time for elections come around again Republicans need to hear  loud and clear that Americans all across this country will no longer suffer them, and their under-handed ways of  trying to control and restrain the will of  the people at large.  Or their continued undermining of  this country.

It seems that Republicans have declared that if  they can’t run America they will tear it apart…state by state…section by section…. class by class… line by line and precept by precept.  And in spite of  all of our noses.

It is so amazing that after all that George Bush did…no matter how bad…or how many lies… or the number of  lives lost in a highly senseless war  that not only continues to take lives… which has also substantially driven up our gas prices… and the cost of  everything else.  Not to even mention Bush sending this country to near collapse…throwing America back into a depression with the collapse of the banks, Wall Street, the American dollar …and millions upon millions of  jobs lost due to Bush Economics.  And no governor in this country ever mentioned much less thought about not accepting any government funds in protest… or about going after unions… or  any undermining  of  Bush policy in any way.

So, why now?

When this country was sent wheeling and plummeting due to Bush ’nomics(lets just call it that)  why did not any of  these so-called ‘so fed-up’ with government spending and management of  this country people …where were they then…who are now espousing that they are listening to the will of the people.  Where were they during all of  the Bush lies?   Of which none of them even refer to in any shape or form or in any way whatsoever… even now.   But yet rather  lay the faults of  such …and all that deceit of their own party upon the shoulders of  President Barack Obama… the man who is now the White House and trying to rectify the messes of  George Bush. View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledBy

Yeah…right.  Obama is to blame…and while you are at it just blame him for everything.

And with that make no mention of  how Obama has managed to stabilized the whole Bush situation from the wars to our economy…and even jobs.  Yes, jobs are back on the raise.  All of this after 2ab-the-bishop-wifecoverthe near total and absolute disastrous collapse of  this country brought about by George Bush…a Republican.  Who shut the doors to the White House and operated in the most  close-door and tight lip operation of  the White House of  any President of this country in history.

This country is under attack and the attack is not coming from without.

Beware of  the Trojan horse…it is called the Republican Party.

Well, God bless…

Oh, yes…before closing.  Let me just say what an out and out racist Donald Trump has proven himself to be with all his ridiculous chatter about  Obama not being American …and that he had people down in Hawaii to prove it.   What an egomaniac imbecile.   Be it all for hype or not (and I think not).   At any rate  we have all seriously gotten an opportunity to see ‘the real’  Donald Chump.  I mean Trump.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704187604576288811924282824.html

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  ©2011

Comments Off April 27, 2011

Wolves in sheep clothing…

They are tall dark and handsome.  They look like a breath of  fresh air.  You think they are just what the doctor ordered.  But… what is really on their minds?

You vote these people in believing you are getting back at some other political party… when it really plays out to your own deficit.

What the people fail to realize when they listen to all the highfalutin talk made by Republicans during their campaigns to win political office… talk like government is too big… we need to cut taxes…  bring down the deficit …and slash all unnecessary spending… what they need to ask is who is he or she talking about?   Could it mean my job?

Because for the most part when Republicans talk… that is exactly who they are talking about.  They are not talking about slashing anything away from the rich… which is their political base and core supporters.  No….but they mean they will be going out after the poor… the hard workers … labourers …blue-collar people …people who barely can make enough to make ends meet.  And yes… as found out in Wisconsin… that includes unions and union workers too.

What a set-up.

In the 2010 November elections the governor race in Wisconsin was between a Republican named Scott Walker and a Democrat named Tom Barrett.   In that race Walker a political Republican insider after years in public service… sweeps the Wisconsin Governor’s race with more than 52% of  the votes.  While the Democrat, Barrett who had been the Mayor of  Milwaukee, only garnered a mere 45% of  the votes.  

Walker was younger, and looked like a Mit Romney type.  While Barret was older, and had grey hair compared to Walker’s thick dark hair.  And if  anybody tells you looks doesn’t matter… tell them to go and take a back seat somewhere.  Because it  does.

Have you not heard that  image is everything.  It doesn’t matter whether the image is a false image or a sincere image… it just matters how that image comes packaged.  And that will determine the outcome.

You can have more knowledge and skill than someone on your job, while outwardly they are better put together… classier… more out-going in their personality… but lack organization, effective communication skills and dedication… but they look better than you.   Who do you think will get the job… or the promotion?

More than likely the one well put together… though they come with none of  the expertise or inner skills to sufficiently do the job.  They just look good… or let me phrase it this way… they look better.

How do I know?

Because most of  my life I was looked over.   Looked over to the 1 that wasn’t fat… better put together …and looked pretty.   While she or  he couldn’t carry a note  to  me… if  they wanted to.  But they got picked… and I didn’t.   But in saying that… let me also say that it never made me bitter.  I do not become bitter over such things.  I just get better …and better.  And God has worked it all out for my good.

I remember this 1 job where I was doing sales for a radio station in New York.  I really wanted to be on-air but they didn’t have any openings … so I took sales.   As God would have it… I didn’t know that then but I do now… I somehow became the number 1 sales person at the station.  They gave  me the whole of  Jersey to work… and I was bringing in new accounts like crazy. 

But I also worked the New York side of the Hudson River also.  And many times when the owner or the person responsible for making decisions wasn’t  in the business when I dropped by… I would get his or  her name and number and leave my card.

What I didn’t know was that there were times when I was out of  the office… which was pretty much most of  the time… that I got calls from businesses that I had visited… and these calls were passed on to another account executive.

Her name was Carla… and was a pretty young woman who rarely left the office.  She seemed timid and often talked about how much she hated sales.  The chile couldn’t sell her way out of a trash bag… so of  course she was going to hate sales.  But it never dawn on me that some of my leads were being passed onto her.

But she worked there… and on that job  where you had to make sales in order to earn any pay.  It was commission only.  So, Carla was doing something.   And the something she was doing was robbing me.  Because our boss had her hooked up… she didn’t have to worry about a thing.   And it had never… ever dawn on me.  I wasn’t too smart back then.

Never thought about it really… but now it hits me.

While I had to get out and hustle for my bread and butter.  But she had looks… and I had that something which God bestowed upon me… something that seems to make everybody like me.  When I was young I didn’t like it… because even my friends parents loved me.  And I thought that was weird… and it just seemed odd to me.  I had no understanding of  the  wonderful gift that God had given to me.  None whatsoever.

People said they liked Walker because he would be good for the economy… he would turn the state around… and would cut out all of that state bureaucracy.  Yeah… but what… or better yet.   At  whose expense?

Did anyone ever stop to ask Walker that question?

Perhaps not.

Or was it that he was younger than his oppossing canidate?

Was it Walker’s good looks and seemingly good-guy demeanor… if  he has 1?

Was it how he spoke it… or the gleam in his eyes… or an easy smile?

What was it that the voters in Wisconsin fell for?

A  lot of  it has to do with political games.  And Republicans have become the master at it.

They munipulate the people with a bunch of  sweet sounding talk… laden with lies.   They spew out all kinds of  promises telling you how bad government is… but miss out on telling you who has richly aided in making our government so.

Long before Obama tried to save our automobile industry Republican Senators and Congressmen were laid up in bed with them… and with the lobbyist … the insurance companies …and the phramaceutical companies… the oil barons… utility companies… and anything and everybody else who could make them some  money.   And yes… many Democrats are guilty of  doing the same.

But I do believe that there are more Democrats fighting and trying to do the right thing… than there are Republicans.

The Republicans love winning political races and turning everything around… and more times than not… to suit  their owe benefits… and agendas.

I think …because I come from media… 1 of  the worst things that the Republicans could have done was remove FCC Rules and Regulations regarding sex and sexual content in music… and explicit language over the airwaves.  This was the Republicans doing… and the affect of  it has been devastating to this country.

But it has made a whole lot of money for some… and I am not talking about the little ignorant artists or other so-called talents who believe that they are doing something.  But I am talking about the kingpins in the back who own the companies that produce, release and distribute… exhibit and play the garbage that has worn away at  the very  moral fabric of  this country and the world.

I will get off  my soap box now… and  go back to politics.

Today they come beating a path to your door… or their recruits coming seeking your votes while knowing they mean you no good.  Shirt collars open and trying their best to look and smell like you… when they are just a bunch of wolves in sheep clothing.

Every political race does matter.  You cannot afford to become complacent with your vote.  Because your complacency is being used against you.

Republicans know that historically most people turn out for political races which they think really matters… the big ones… like voting in a President.  But they fail to take local races seriously.

But it is the local political races which will effect you the most.  The local races have to do with state matters… and state matters do not take as long to come into effect as do Federal matters… which have long processes to go through before even being voted on and then signed into effect… which entails some years before actually happening even after being signed into law by the President.

In the case of  Wisconsin …Walker decided that state workers were being paid too much, and were virtually holding the state ransom through the collective bargaining process of  their union.  He decided that in order to aid in cutting the state deficit he needed to put a restraint on the union so that the state would not be forced to issue increases in benefits or pay to state employees.  Which on its surface may sound like a good idea… but at the same time it plays a major role into weakening the power of  the worker’s union… giving the worker’s no voice to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay.’

There can be no argument that unions have played a major role in this country in aiding voiceless employees, who were badly treated… forced to  work long hours without compensation or other benefits… by improving their working conditions etc.

If  there had not been a dire need for unions in this country …as they are needed around the world… American workers would have had to continue to work under whatever standards  …conditions and orders issued to them by the entities for which they worked for…  and to do so without proper compensation and under hazardous conditions  in many cases to their lives and/or limbs …without health benefits …or re-course against false firings… promotions and/or  other forms of  help etc… that the unions protect them from.

While running for office Walker promised to cut both the state taxes and the government spending as the state of  Wisconsin was in dire financial straits.

Could Walker have come up with another plan other than virtually stripping the state worker’s of  their say so… destroying their right  to collectively bargain (under their union) for their raises, changes in their pension plans, health benefits etc.?

Probably.

Well, how do you know?

Because other states have faced the same kind of  problems… and so have individual cities… but none of  them set out to destroy the unions that represented their workers.  And yet those states and cities survived… managed… and eventually pulled through.  New York City had to do it.2ab-the-bishop-wifecover.. Boston had to do it… you name a place that has not had to suffer some kind of  re-arrangement in order to pull their city or state out of  near  financial collapse.  Even California has and is going through it.

So, why did Walker chose to go after the states public workers and their union?

In order to shut down the power of  the union.  The power of  the union to wheel and deal to the benefit of  its members.  Butt most importantly… because there is a push by Republicans  to stop union support of  political candidates which the unions  feel they cannot trust… which mostly tend to be Republicans.

They …the Republicans are just not for the working class.  And though in history that was different… today it is their stance… a  360 degree turn from how they thought during their early history which dates  back  to a pre-Lincoln.

Today they celebrate their great champion  that former actor… better known as Ronald Reagan… and the trickle-down theory.  Which never quite worked… and star wars.   What a massive waste of government spending there.   But the Republicans  didn’t and don’t today in hind sight see it that way… just a bunch of  short-term memory people when it suits them.   They loved the theories anyhow.View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledBy

And can anybody believe that they …the Republicans are out against Obama’s pledge to up-grade our infrastructure and bring rapid mass transit into the states as it is aboard.   Yes, Republicans are lining up to say that they will go against it.

Hmmm… wonder how Obama’s ideas would fare if  he were a Republican?

And I won’t even say that other thing… that has to do with color… but it plays a big factor.  It just would not do to have a black man’s stamp  on such a big historic thing  as that.   It would be big… a rail system that cuts down commuter and travel time by shaving off  hours on long distance ground travel?  Adding ‘zoom service’  to commuter service…    Come on, that’s big.   And it  means big money… money that I  am sure that the Republicans would rather see in  their control and in the hands of  their many friends.

Can you imagine if  Obama came out talking about spending money on a project… hmmm… say ‘star wars.’   The Republicans would have been all over him…  even more than they are right now… and that’s kind of  hard to beat.

Think about it trying to beat the Russians into space  was utterly ridiculous.   The laugh is on both sides… as space cannot be conquered.  It will forever be an item of  mystery to us… as much as   the deepest of depths of   the sea.

Seeing how the Republicans stay on Obama about the Health Care Reform Bill  …Guantanamo Bay… to you name it… just take your pick… no matter what he does.   If  he had come up with a  star wars  idea  they would have chewed him up…and  laughed themselves into stitches while doing it.

Here it is  Obama comes up with highly sensible ideas like improving our country’s infrastructure and instituting  a rapid mass transit system in America (which really could bring about tons of  new jobs) …they bawk… and say they won’t support it.    Those Republicans. 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_high_speed_rail;_ylt=AthNvCRGYlehqbpbYiOSaPtH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTM2OXIwMjkzBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTEwMzEyL3VzX2hpZ2hfc3BlZWRfcmFpbARjY29kZQNtcF9lY184XzEwBGNwb3MDNARwb3MDNARzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA2Zsb3JpZGFsb3Nlcw

It is sad when you vote somebody into office… then realize… you made a mistake.  The same thing happens in churches… somebody gets appointed to fill a vacancy left by a passing pastor… or 1 who has moved on.  The replacement is fine for a short period of  time  …but gradually he or she starts making their moves.   And they …the congregation begins to find out that the person just wasn’t who or what they presented themselves to be… but now it is too late.   So it is in Wisconsin.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/02/republican-walker-defeats-barrett-win-wisconsin-governors-race/#

God bless… may you enjoy the remainder of your day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42076054#42080998

Was up last night and caught the news over the internet  about the tsunami that struck Japan.  The  news piece said that the tsunami caused an earthquake that was the strongest ever in history… 8.9 in magnitude.  I could not help but think of  just how close we are coming to last days and times.

I know you probably do not want to hear this.  But it  is  true… devastation upon devastation.  There can be or is no other explanation for it.

You may say global warming… changing climate … and the changes with our eco-systems is causing them.  And that may appear to be the case… but there is something  greater operating who is orchestrating it all.

http://www.euronews.net/nocomment/2011/03/11/8-8-magnitude-earthquake-hits-japan/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110312/ap_on_re_us/us_japan_earthquake_pacific

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

“…a thousand shall fall at thy side, and 10 thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh to thee.” 

We pray for the people whose homes, families, jobs and lives  have been impacted and turn around by this massive devastation.

Though I didn’t write anything on it… the devastation that hit Australia earlier this year with massive flooding… did not get pass me.

Truly sad… we cannot imagine.   Our hearts go out…

UPDATE:  Monday, March 14, 2011… What a massive devastation.   And now radiation problems from their nuclear reactors being breached due to the earthquake.

And now our West Coast shores are being bombarded as a result of  the tsunami that hit Japan as well… from California to Oregon and Washington State.  Not to mention Hawaii…

My…    We’re now being told it was he 4th most powerful earthquake known ever.  And thousands have been washed away… and was said to of  the magnitude of 9.0.

I am keenly aware that people read this blog all over the world.  And  I often see comments from folks in  the European Union, Asia, the Baltics and  Australia etc…   Thank you all for taking the time to read what I have to say.  And may God bless you and your families… and it is my sincere hope that God is keeping you and your families from all hurt and harm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12102126

The Church of  God in Christ recognizes  and mourns the passing of  Bishop Chandler D. Owens… one of  our  leaders.

http://www.jacksonadvocateonline.com/?p=2569

 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  ©2011

 

Add a comment March 12, 2011

Rangel… Pelosi… Palin…

I am now back in business.  For a while my internet service was out….but now it is back.  And I am up and running.

Now, for all the things I have wanted to comment on and couldn’t…but now have the  leisure and resources to now do so…namely electricity and a broadband internet line.

On to…Charlie Rangel.  He  got just what he deserved.  A big fat slap across the face… with more to come…I hope.

How dare this man making all this money… as a supposed representative of  the people of  New York City…  a real mover and shaker… property barron (being a part owner of  the landmark Apollo Theater and I suspect having other property holdings as well outside of  those subsidized apartments).

Yes, how dare Charlie Rangel sit around lounging in  rent controlled apartments… 1 of  2 or 3 that he owes in New York taking subsides and write-offs at the mercy of   hardworking taxpaying people in New York.  Many of  whom who themselves can barely make it from day to day due the high cost  of rent in the city.   While Charlie Rangel has had his choice of  places  in which to lay his head and conduct business dealings all at considerable lower rates than the average New Yorker… and all in the name of  his hardworking constituents.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101116/pl_nm/us_usa_congress_rangel_8

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101116/pl_nm/us_usa_congrss_rangel_3

Truthfully, I have been waiting on  the hammer to be lowered on him since the news was leaked about his double dealings a while ago.

It has always been a wonder to me as to why people who have money… why they are always trying to beat the system in ways that many of us would not think to do.

Being in New York… I often hear people talking about rent controlled apartments and how they wished they could get into one.  After hearing the amounts that you could pay for rent in 1… there is little wonder why anyone wouldn’t want to move into 1.

Why not?

When you could  pay anywhere from $300 to maybe $500  in rent for some really grand apartment space?

Compare that to paying $2200 which is currently what my apartment is going for.  And to  many that would seem cheap by New York City standards… and especially considering how beautiful my apartment is.   But not to me.  Paying that kind of money you really should be owning whatever it is that you are living in.  Which is why I have made up my mind that the next time I move into something… I will be owning it.  But in New York you can find people happily paying $10,000 a month in rent.  Go figure that.

Before I would even consider paying that kind of money for anything… I would go and run for Charlie Rangel’s office in the Senate first.

Now on…to Palin.  I am so sick of  Palin.

Honestly, this is classically what God calls calling evil good and good evil.  But in Palin’s case it is the ignorant calling her capable when clearly she is not.  And she is a clear example of  somebody on too many drugs and cough medicine… all thrown in together.

And I do mean all thrown in.

What is the intrigue?

She was neither the brightest nor smartest.   When she was running for Vice President on the McCain ticket she was thought of  as being  just a touch above brain-dead… and  quickly came to be little more than a laughing-stock to most people here in the States.

So, who could hope that any of  that has changed?

It is not like she somehow managed to find the yellow brick road to Oz and got a chance to visit the wizard.

Somebody please tell me why is Palin trying to make herself  look like some kind  of   powerful political broker  following the recent elections?

It is absolutely ridiculous.

But I guess if you can pull off…then…    Some people will fall for anything… and anybody.

There has only been 1 real Tea Party in this country and that was in 1777 when they stormed  upon British ships in Boston and began throwing over barges of  tea into the Boston Harbour yelling-

“No taxation without representation.”

Outside of  that this new-found tea party is merely just a group of  wacko extremist Republicans who will soon fall to their own demise.  If  for no other reason than  the fact that they simply think that they are just tooooooooo big for their own breeches.  I have heard them talk… and they all seem to be a bunch of  power hungry monguls.

Yes, I am back.  And it feels sooooooo good.

I have been holding all of  this in for some time now.  And it is just good to finally release some of  it.

I am happy that the Democrats didn’t totally decide to jump ship and to kick Nancy Pelosi to the curb.   I think that she has done a good job.  She has handled her duties well.   And she has done it as well as any man I have seen sit in that capacity.

Wounded maybe by some of  the losses that they suffered during this past election period perhaps.  But all in all the Democrats fared pretty well.   In a an election season where it was thought that they would have been totally overthrown they were not.

Just goes to show that all that media hype was just that… just a bunch of  hype.  And then the ballots came in… and they set the record straight.

Personally, I feel that the Republicans need to stop gunning for President Barack View Bernadine Smith's profile on FiledByObama.

Since Obama walked into the White and took a seat at that desk in the Oval Office… I for 1 having been sleeping a lot better.  There is no one on this planet who cannot say that there has not be a sense of  calm and more peace of  mind 2ab-the-bishop-wifecoversince Obama became President of the United States.  Whereas ever second under George W. Bush there was some cause to fret… a red alert… a yellow alert… code red…   enemy bombers on this plane and that airplane.

What ever happened to all of that?

Guess it all packed up and went back to Texas when George Bush went home.

How quickly we forget the horror we had while under the oppressive and highly dangerous… and lying thumb of  George  Bush.

It has been cloudy here.  It rained a bit last night but not as much as they had forcasted.

I am so looking forward to Thanksgiving.  And 1 of  the things on my Thanksgiving list is a thankfullness to God for all that He has done… and continues to do for all of us.

Well, God bless…

Thank you for reading this blog…and  my others.  Please be sure to continue to share this blog site with your family to em , co-workers and all your friends“pass it on…”  www.bsmith101.wordpress.com  ©2010

 

Add a comment November 18, 2010

Rooting out a scandal…ACORN under investigation… Raccoon problem2…

Who in the world is ACORN?

Well,  first of  all  ACORN is an acronym which stands for  the Association of  Community Organizations for Reform Now.  Hence…Acorn.   It is an organization which advocates for poor people.

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/10-22-2004/0002292745&EDATE=

But what I did not understand was…

What was all the secrecy about some supposed cover-up scadal?

And why were certain news organization declaring-

“An Acorn cover-up.”

And who was covering up what?

And for what reason?

I had read some of this article below…and began wondering why…what scandal…and why was some organization named ‘Acorn’…in danger of of losing its funding?

http://news.aol.com/article/the-point-acorn-scandal-federal-funds/673000

So, of  course, I had to put on my old Sherlock Holmes hat and begin sniffing about.

To answer my first question….who was Acorn?

During the 2008 Presidential Election a community based organization whose home head-quarters  in New Orleans, LA…Acorn came into the spotlight as Republicans began to cry foul…if you can imagine that.   It is kind of like the pot calling the kettle ‘black’…if you get my drift. 

Well, they called ‘foul’ because Acorn…which had opened up numerous offices around the United States…began organizing and registering voters on Obama’s behalf.

Following the Primaries the Republicans started accusing Acorn at that time of using false and fraudulent tactics as alleging that Acorn was registering dead people…etc..etc.  And primarily these charges stemmed from actions in Florida.   

Because Florida and Michigan chose to break a rule set up the Democratic Committee that no state should hold a primary before a specific date…which both the State of Florida and Michigan ignored.  So,  they therefore lost the right to participate in the Democratic Primary Presidential Election…the race between Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But within states around the country a group emerged called Acorn which began organizing the urban communities…gearing them up for the final showdown.  The day in which Americans would entered into their ballot booths to cast their votes for who would become the  President of  this country for the next 4 years…of which Barack Obama won solidly over Bush.

Part 2 of  my question…about  Acorn and the questions surrounding its organization…and their current problems.

But it was during  the days leading up the ballot day that a little known organization called Acorn began popping up in the news, as the Republicans began slinging shots…and trying to throw whatever punches they could at the Obama campagin.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/exponentialchange/gGglzC

To find out more about the rule that Florida and Michigan failed to abide by prior to the Democratic Primary read the LINK BELOW.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080331134815AAtAORo

This controversy about Acorn has been brewing for quite some time now.   And of course, with Obama sweeping Nevanda, Colorado, New Mexico, California, Ohio, Virgina…and Florida…  could the contention and rage over his win get any greater?

The Republicans have only been trying to discredit Obama in any matter and way they can…as proven by Joe Wilson’s rude outburst, which I wrote about in blog on civility.  From trying to cliam that Obama is not legally an American citizen…to trying to disregard Hawai as being an offical state of this country (being the birthplace of  Obama)…to trying to rig and provide false papers which they claim to be Obama’s African birth certificate.  What they call…‘his real birth certificate.’

For years in this country black folks birth certificates have been messed with.  From writing down things properly…to not properly recording them…to not properly keep up with our records.  My birth name was messed up so bad…that my parents had to legally amend my birth certicate with a change of name shortly after my birth.  Not to mention that my grand-mother went to her grave not knowing her correct birth date…as is the case with our Aunt Kate, who is still very much alive today.   I suspect that if  she were to seek public office in this country…she would have a real problem.  Even though she was unquestionably born and raised here in America.  But racist practices in properly documenting black folk in the existed then…and still do.

And such allegation concerning the legitimacy of  Obama to President of this country…comes  from a group of people who out and out stole the 2004 Presidential Election right out from under Al Gore, the Democratic opponent of  George W. Bush.  And it had been done illegally… bogusly… and without fear of  any pentalty.   They just did it…didn’t care who saw…who knew…or who didn’t know.  And all of  America knew…it was not hard to miss. 

It had been the most outragous campaign of  all times…and of  any country.  Which is  why George W. Bush will certainly go down in history as a big fat question mark…for having been the most illegitimate President that the United States of  America has ever had.

And what a joke that election was.  What a farce.   And for the first time in American History…as we know it…an illegitimate cadidate took possession of  this country’s White House and made a mockery of  our entire political system…and country. 

And not only that…but sunk this country into the lowest levels of  political integrity…moral standing…and financial lossess…coupled by a fraudulent war which he conjured up.  A  war which
has cost this country vast resources, lives…and a waste of our political time and efforts.  A war that unleashed centuries of stored up hatred and antimosities…religious strife…and massive unrest in the Middle East.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2008Nov09/0,4670,ObamaMajority,00.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93869921

http://www.rove.com/election

http://www.presidentialelection.com/

During the 2004 it was widely known that the Republicans rigged the election…and hindered people in urbans from casting their votes.   They had various voting locations declare some legitimate voters as being dead…and others as ex-convicts in order to stop them from voting…as well as, other such tricks.   Such as, having voters stand for prolong periods of time out in the rain…provided urban areas with broken ballot machines…had women leave their pocketbooks outside…slowed up the balloting process that long lines gathered etc…  All to deter voters for the Democratic Party.  Not to mention the rigging of  ballots…mis-counting of  ballots…loosing and all those other in-side jobs which they easily arranged.   …hinged ballots…

 And this country sends people out to monitor the balloting procedures of  other countries?

Going back to Acorn…having been under the fire  for some time now…evidently their efforts were effective.  The did manage to register some 1.3 million new voters.   All the more reason why the other party would want to do away with them.

It kind of reminds me of when this country decided un the stern and ambiguous eye of the then House Leader, Newt Gingrich…who felt that  the National Endowment of the Arts grants were to liberal in their giving out of funds.  So, he moved to act upon limiting those funds from being given out to individuals…but to people like himself…and organization etc.  Today, you hardly hear much about those funds…though they still are given out but in a very different way and under far different circumstances.

Today, when you hear this guy talk…he sounds more like a summer breeze…as opposed to that typhoon he used to be.  I suspect that being taken down a notch or 2 can do that to you.

Now, definitely going back to Acorn.

It seems that some videographer enter into a couple of their offices for some reason or other.  This videographer along with a women…that he or she brought with them.  Supposedly, during these meetings the videograper was given by a worker…or workers at the organization (Acorn office)…to become not-for-profit and open up their own brothel…or in other words whore house…prostitution den.

Which if it is true…it would not reflect back on Obama…as he is not really tied to that organization other than it assisted in getting out the vote…which many other people also did too…and I was one of  them.

However, in any office…supposed office…or business…or supposed busines you are subject to fall upon some type of illegal activity.   Which does not necessarily mean that those in management or corporate heads know anything about.   You can, in fact, find out about how to do all kinds of  things while sitting in your workplace…including how to cheat on your husband or wife.  There are crooket…and bad people everywhere.  And they usually know right where to go…to run whatever game they are trying to run.

Recently, in my town they closed down a couple of used car dealerships…neither of  which I believe had anything to do Obama…or his being elected President.  But one was closed for selling drugs and using the dealership as front.  And the other…I guess you could say they were in the money laundrying business…using their used cars to thash cash.

I suspect that if  the Republicans could tie Obama to either of them…they would.  And heavens forbide if   somehow they could make a connect to both of  them…and Obama.

I hope Obama didn’t happen to buy a car at either of  those 2 dealerships.  You know…like he bought his house.  That was tied to some other alleged criminal.

Big Brother is watching.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550602,00.html

Part of the problem is…is that the Republicans will not stop at  nothing to get their candidates in.   Nothing to taboo for them.   They play a political anything goes game in  order to win.   They cross state lines…double and triple voting wherever  they can.  During the primaries they sign up as Indedpendants seek ing  to swing elections towards cadidates that are weak and more favorable to them…in order to fix elections by giving their real cadidate of  choice  (a Republican) in the overall election a upper hand.  

I have no doubt..that they have and continue to  put people into place to do their will.  People who operate as fake agents …or workers  (if you will)…pertending to the opposite side.   When in fact…they were plants (Republican plants)… who went under-cover…crossed over to the other side…to do fraudulent work…create false documents…and to put bogus names  onto  lists. 

Hence, the real scandal…and the real cover-up.

Then the Republicans come around as they always do…wanting to look innocent…and appearing to be  the squeaky clean whistle blowers.  Crying ‘foul’‘foul.’     When in fact…it is them who are the foul ones.

It is interest the way that the Republicans  always seemed to know exactly what the problems are…and where they lay. 

Why?

Because they put  certain people into place to purposely cause the problems and issues…which they later turn around and begin pointing out as being fraudulent.   These type of  games are old…and go way back  in  history…where many of  these  very schemes were first hatched…by other other political crooks.

It is such a shame that such a group operates in this country…who are clearly anti-American when they indulge in such under-handed  behavior…and deceitful practices.

Recently, Acorn  has requested an independant investigation into the actions of some of their employees.   The Senate to block  the Housing and Urban Development from giving grants to Acorn, along with the U.S. Census Bureau had dropped Acorn and its involvement in the 2010 national census.  And of course under these last allegation of  being a training ground for how to own and operate your own brothel…the White House has been forced to also move away from Acorn.

I barely got any sleep last night.

Well, for one thing…I love my hair style so much that I am refusing to mess it up.  Which means I have been trying to stay on my elbows since Saturday when I initially got the hair style.

And then the other reason is…is…

Well, those raccoons are back.   Not that they ever left…as I have yet to have the money to seal up the roof.  So, they are living in our attic.

But last night after getting in I stepped back out on the porch…and that is when I heard a noise.   I thought it was pesty neighborhood cat…which sometimes sits upon our porch waiting on my neice’s cat to come out.

So, I picked up the water hose and sprayed some water over in the direction of the noice.  And saw the thing move…and that is when I happened to catch a glimsp at what appeared to be 2 white circles around it’s eyes.

Not certain I went back into the house and got my flash light.  I opened the screen-door and shot the light over into the far corner of  my parent’s porch and there it was.   Yes…a raccoon.

It seemed to be trying to hide.  And appeared to indecisive.

So, I tried to talk it out of  corner and off  the porch…while I quickly punched in a call to our local police station.  As I talked on my cell…the raccoon quietly left the porch.  It seemed timid…mayold…possibly frighten.  And I felt bad for her…or him…or whatever it was. 

But they have got to go.  The thing was huge…and I am not exegerating.  I was at least a foot and half  long…not including it’s big and long tail.   And it was about a foot high in width.

No, that has got to go.  No matter how bad I feel for it.  I just don’t want them hurt.  But I have got to get them out of  our house and away from our home.  I have far too many young neices and nephews.  And I would hate to see anything happen to any of   them because I sat around doing nothing about our raccoon problem.

So, today I walked around the outside of our house checking to see exactly where it is that they are entering into and out of our property.  It is via our roof.  Some rotting has taken place along various portions of  our roof.   And as I walked around examing our weather beaten root… I was calling upon the name of  Jesus. 

Because those raccoons have got to go.

Well, hope you had a less eventful day and night.

http://www.animalcapture.com/pages/raccoons.htm

One thing I can say though…my neice’s cat is no fool. 

The raccoon which had gotten into 2ab-the-bishop-wifecoverkitchen…when I initally realized we had a problem…she chased out that raccoon…and up the stairs back into the attic.  But this raccoon…was much bigger than her.   Though she did go out on the porch…she never approached that corner…and got low to the ground the whole time she was out there.  And my neices cat is usually no j4_printer_Promo_Cars_b_smith2oke…she is a real killer.

She must have been able to tell that  that raccoon was  a big one.

But I am going to have a talk with that…because she can’t be punking out on me.

And after I laid down and thought about…since I could not fall asleep.  The thought came to me…that with all the hermones and everything else put into our food…it is little wonder that that raccoon was so big.  She and others like her wander around the neighborhoods at night searching for scrapes to feed upon. 

And if the chemical put into food…in order to make it grown bigger…get fatter…effects our bodies…and that of  our children the way that it does.  Then what about whatever else that feeds upon anything that we eat?

I can everything becoming super-sized.  And I am not kidding.  

You would have had to seen the size of  that raccoon. 

We all need to consider what it is that we are doing to this planet…our food…produce…water ways etc…   And these animals are also being impacted by our lack of  good judgement.

That thing was huge.  

Oh, I know that some people believe they can escape to another planet.  But I have always been told-

“That 1 bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush.”

Just saw the below picture and just could not resist adding it.  It is so beautiful.  Put you in mind of  what we are in store for next…by way of weather.   I don’t know where you are…but it is cold here already.

Well, 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 

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