AFGHANISTAN: Obama's big problem!

Senate Report Says Bin Laden Was Within Reach of U.S. Troops

I have been having some heated discussions with my wife about the Afghanistan War and what President Obama is going to do about it; he will announce his plans this Tuesday.

She wants Obama to stick to his promise and end the war and bring back our troops. Money is also a factor as the cost of the war is unsustainable given our very poor economy; we could be spending the money for other things?

As a student of history, I have to first point out that after 9/11, the Afghan war or more precisely, the elimination of al-Qaeda and bin-Laden as a threat to the U.S., could have been accomplished years ago if it wasn’t for that lying sack of poop BUSH (see link to story). He pulled our troops, who were winning the war and about to annihilate al-Qaeda, out of Afghanistan and into the totally wrong, never should have happened, war in Iraq. What is worst, BUSH allowed al-Qaeda to actually strengthen and become even a bigger danger to the U.S.?

The war in Afghanistan has now grown extremely complicated involving the Taliban insurgency, a corrupt Afghan government and tribal tensions; it’s a mess.

Please remember that Obama inherited this mess from the BUSH era so don’t blame him; he now has the unenviable task of fixing something that probably cannot be fixed completely or very quickly.

In my mind, he really has no choice but to follow the original mission in Afghanistan; eliminate the al-Qaeda threat completely. With Pakistani forces battling al-Qaeda on their side of the border, U.S. troops need to do the same on the Afghan side of the border – squeeze play.

Once that is done let the Afghans handle the rest.

POLITICS: Sarah Palin's Supporters Scare Me!

Sarah Palin wrote a book and went to Grand Rapids, Michigan for a book signing. Thousands of people showed up, many standing in line to get her signature and tell her how much they loved her and would vote for her when she ran for president – NOW THAT IS REAL SCARY!

She picked cities like Grand Rapids, Michigan for a reason. They are filled with right wing; religious fundamentalists who see her as one of them and believe when she becomes president, the nation will once again be under the control of ultra conservative, Christian fundamentalist wackos.

Palin’s book has been panned as a fiction masquerading as a factual account of her life and political campaign with John McCain. She obviously is trying to position herself correctly for the 2012 presidential elections in the eyes of her supporters and people that are thinking of supporting her.

I have no problem with people liking Palin; she is cute, energetic and outspoken but to take her seriously as a potential president of the United States is patently absurd but what does it say about those people that support her efforts.

Well, those people will only believe things about Sarah Palin that they want to be true; facts do not matter here. These people are not objective and will just shutout any criticism of Palin as a campaign by the left to smear her reputation. But it is not only the left that is being criticized, these Palin supporters also are not happy with the current Republicans who they view as way too liberal and also jealous of Palin’s popularity.

The Republicans have a tough road ahead of them as evidenced by recent Congressional races in upper New York State where a moderate Republican was told to step down in favor of a conservative wacko type Republican who Palin supported. The wacko lost to a Democrat but the split in Republican ranks was palpable and a sign of trouble ahead.

I realize the nation is divided but the extent of the division and the type of division is quite concerning but maybe the media (FOX) is just making it up as they do all their news – don’t laugh – it is a proven fact that they have apologized for many times – just tune into the Daly Show with John Stewart on the Comedy Channel; he actually catches them at making up the news all the time.

GAY MARRIAGE: Can be made into non-issue!

When we were vacationing in Maine this fall, we saw a pretty intense campaign going on about gay marriage. People in Maine are mostly secular so we were surprised to hear that the gay marriage proposal was defeated.

I was also surprised to see that the Mormon Church which defeated the gay marriage proposal in California now endorsed an anti-discrimination proposal in Utah which allows gay partners to share in economic benefits now given only to married couples.

On the same topic, the Catholic Church in Washington, DC which provides social services to the poor under contract with the city said it will not be able to provide those services to gay couples once the city recognizes gay marriage even though it provides those same services to divorced and remarried couples which it also does not recognize.

As I see it, many people feel that gay committed couples do deserve to share in the benefits allotted to heterosexual couples but they gag at the idea of legalized gay marriage since to them the word marriage is a religious ceremony blessed by God.

Europe has no problems with gay marriage because over there ALL COUPLES wanting to get married must be joined in a civil union at the court house for their union (marriage) to be legal. After the civil ceremony, the couple is free to have a religious ceremony performed at the church of their choice; the church ceremony is not the legal ceremony, the civil one is.

In our country, the church ceremony (marriage) is the legal one since priests and ministers are allowed to perform legal unions. We also have secular civil ceremonies.

In my mind, the solution to all of this is simple. Make civil unions the only legal unions and take away all legal powers to perform marriages away from priests and ministers. Churches would still perform religious marriage ceremonies but they would not have legal standing only religious standing; in this way, the issue of gay marriage would become a non issue.

HEALTHCARE: The abortion issue!

I have been sort of following the healthcare reform debate in Congress and in general, feel that the Democrats are really making a mess of the whole healthcare reform issue.

BUT my blood pressure really hit the roof when I heard Bart Stupak (Michigan) and a number of other like minded Democrats, added an anti-choice amendment to the healthcare bill prohibiting abortion coverage for people receiving federal subsidies or using government health insurance coverage.

Now, I will make myself clear right of the bat; I am not for or against abortion itself, I am PRO-CHOICE.

Pro-choice means that I am not going to dictate to anyone what they should or should not do when faced with a decision as to abortion. IT IS A LEGAL PROCEDURE in this country and as long as it is legal it is illegal to block access to the procedure so the Bart Stupak amendment is ILLEGAL and should be immediately removed.

The Stupak amendment makes no sense on a number of levels besides being illegal. As far as FISCAL logic, poor people that are on federal (tax payer) support are the ones that need abortion coverage the most. They are the ones most susceptible to suffer from self attempted abortions or from botched back alley abortions when they try to end unwanted pregnancies. Those that actually take their unwanted pregnancies to term deposit their unwanted babies at tax payer’s feet to support them for life.

From the so-called religious conscience opposition to legal abortion position which Stupak claims, all I have to say is that we are a secular society and our government is constitutionally obligated to be non-religious so why are people’s religious views getting into our laws?

The American Catholic Church, in all its mighty arrogance, is playing a major role in demanding an anti-choice position in the healthcare legislation. This is unacceptable and pro-choice Catholics need to start making their views known. I realize that the Catholic Church is not a democracy but a religious dictatorship BUT they can be influenced when the money trail stops; make your voice heard through the collection plate.

In my opinion, no one should be allowed to tell me and my wife what to do with OUR creation. Yes, our sperm and egg and if you want to somehow throw God into this let me remind you that your beliefs and superstitions are just that; they are YOUR beliefs based on YOUR faith and not on any evident fact or truth that I accept so please do not suppose that you have some holy right to tell me and my wife what we can or cannot do with our own bodies.

DETROIT: Election results; good or bad?

I am very pleased that Dave Bing has received another term as mayor of Detroit so he can continue to drag the city out of its financial hole. Voter turnout was low and I feared city unions would garner enough voters to vote Bing out but it appears that many votes were by absentee ballot and those votes were mostly from older Detroiters who were not swayed by union demands and voted for the man they felt could finally make a difference in city government.

As far as the city council is concerned I mentioned before that I liked the fact that many candidates were young, smart and eager to bring change to the city but then I was dismayed that many of those candidates had personal financial problems like foreclosures and many were delinquent in paying their taxes. I reasoned that if they could not manage their own money, how would they find the know-how to manage the finances of a large city?

A member of the old city council who got caught under-paying her property taxes laughed at it and said - did you want me to call the city and tell them that I am way under-paying my taxes? This from a council member that castigated businesses and individuals for not paying their fair share of taxes – shall we call her a hypocrite?

I have shared my musings about a Detroit black political and probably social culture in many previous blogs. I was seeing how “sticking it to the man” (government) was actually applauded with our former mayor Kilpatrick being the biggest practitioner of that culture even though HE WAS THE MAN. So we may say he was sticking it to the taxpayers who kept re-electing him even though they knew he was sticking it to them.

In the nearby city of Ecorse, black mayor Herbert was re-elected even though he was arrested by the FBI for conspiracy, bribery and fraud together with his comptroller Hollonquest.

Barbara Braceful a deputy corporation counsel of Detroit under then Mayor Kilpatrick owes $198,000 in delinquent state, federal and property taxes. She continues to work for the City of Detroit under a different title and job.

I realize that many, many white people and people of different races are delinquent in paying taxes and are out and out crooks all you have to do is look at New Jersey, the center of white corruption and there are many mostly black cities like Atlanta that scoff at Detroit and its residents. I am merely trying to get a handle on why Detroit is Detroit and why it keeps digging a deeper and deeper hole for itself.

The first thing the new president of the Detroit City Council did was to go to payroll and get an affidavit from them that he will be making a salary. He will take that information to his bank just in time to stop foreclosure on his condo in the city. A man that desperate for money has to make a perfect target for bribery – do you think?

On the other hand our totally corrupt and incompetent Detroit Public School Board saw its members re-elected even though the newspapers have documented what a bunch of crooks they are and how they steal from the children they are elected to serve.

The same voters approved another $500 million bond sale for the school system after these same board members basically squandered the previous bond fund’s millions on themselves and their friends. How can voters knowingly vote this way? Don’t they care about their children’s future or are they getting a kick-back?

It’s hard to figure out Detroiters and what is on their minds and why they vote like they do but I do see a ray of hope. One smart thing they voted for was to change how the members of the city council are elected. So far, they are elected as “at large” candidates which meant they all can live in the same apartment building. The new way would be by wards or districts which would force candidates to actually represent a specific area of the city. This will bring in Latinos, Muslims and others that form blocks in the city.

I don’t think it’s the race of the individual that will matter but the fact that the candidate will have responsibility for a very specific area and a very specific group of people as well as the city of Detroit as a whole.

Overall, I am hopefully optimistic for the city especially with Dave Bing as mayor. Lets see what happens next as he kicks union butt…

SOCIETY: Child labor in blueberry patch?

You may have recently read about a blueberry farmer in Michigan who was castigated for using child labor to pick his crop of blueberries (Michigan is biggest grower of blueberries in the country).

Kroger, Meijer and Wall-Mart immediately cancelled all orders for blueberries from the farmer. The news media was all aghast at the inhumanity of it all. We were aghast also until we did some thinking.

On closer inspection, the blueberry pickers were from Mexico; they make this seasonal trip to Michigan every year for the harvest as do hundreds of Mexicans. They brought their children with them as they always do because they did not want to leave them behind and they may actually help the parents a little. In the rural days of America, this was also the custom where kids went to school after the harvest was in.

The grocery chains and the media may actually have done more harm to those kids than the physical labor they performed. The farmer now has no market for his crops and so the Mexican families now have no job – great!

The farmer hired the Mexicans to pick his crop. He did not hire the little kids, they just happen to be part of the blueberry picking family.

We are just so quick to jump at perceived wrongs that we just forget to think. I blame the media for that; they just lead us to conclusions that may not be fair or even true but hey, it made for a good human interest story even if it cost people jobs they really needed.

DETROIT:Candidates for council?

Sticking with the Detroit theme I was initially overjoyed that there were so many good looking, young and seemingly intelligent people running for the Detroit City Council. The old council was filled with people like Monica Conyers that will ne off to jail for selling her vote as well as other twits with big mouths but little brains.

The shocking revelation that appeared recently and so close to the elections was that many running for the council were either in foreclosure on their homes or owe back taxes to the city, state and federal government. The obvious question was that if these people are such poor managers of their personal finances, how can they possibly be responsible for the finances of a city in deep trouble?

Another obvious question was that if they are so hard up for money, won’t they be ideal targets for bribes like the previous council members?

Some of the candidates tried to paint their troubles as normal for the average Detroiter which actually made them more sensitive to the troubles of the average Detroiter – huh?

These are people running for public office because the office is a paying job and they will get as much out of that office as they can. In other words, they are looking at making some money and living large at the taxpayer’s expense and not trying to help a city in trouble.

I am having trouble with this whole scenario and so are the local papers which for the first time in my history have rescinded their endorsements of certain candidates – wow – what a fine mess!

DETROIT: Kwame was back for awhile!

I don’t know if anybody has been following the continuing saga of our former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick but after he did his jail time he ran away to Texas to live in the lap of luxury thanks to a bunch of rich white guys who thought he would never be forced out or are hoping he will be back like he said he would and grant them all the favors they paid him so handsomely for.

The idiot was back in town for a court hearing as to why he is not paying back to the city the money the court said he needs to pay back; 1 million dollars.

On the stand he basically played dumb and said he has no money even though he lives in a mansion and drives luxury vehicles. The court can either buy into his bullshit or throw him back in jail – we shall see.

What caught my eye was a statement he made to a reporter outside the courtroom. He said that all men will understand when he says that he needs to keep his lady satisfied by buying her expensive stuff to please her. He actually said this with some seriousness so I had to believe that he was honest in what he said.

Now, since he cheated on his wife with every woman that came by his office, I wonder why he now needs to please his “woman” so much; is it a pay back that she is demanding for sticking around or is this another culture thing that I am not familiar with?

Dave Bing the current mayor is so good, so business like, so honest and so determined to save a city that he did not even come from but just played basketball in that the difference between him and Kilpatrick is almost blinding even though they are both black.

The election next Tuesday will show if Detroiters are serious in their desire to survive and improve or are they fundamentally like Kilpatrick, living in and trying to preserve a corrupt and incompetent black political urban culture that should have died a long time ago; we shall see…

UNIONISM: Ford needs to kick ass!

Today, Ford Motor Company realized that the UAW workers at its plants are not going to ratify a new contract requested by the company; contract UAW leaders have endorsed.

Ford, which did not go bankrupt and is not receiving any federal bailout dollars would like to be on an even competitive playing field with GM and Chrysler who did go bankrupt, received federal bailout money and could then re-write their UAW contracts to help them be competitive with the foreign car manufacturers.

What Ford UAW members are telling their company is that GM and Chrysler can have favorable UAW contracts but Ford, because it is doing better than GM and Chrysler, cannot? Ford workers want Ford to be uncompetitive with other manufacturers and therefore fail because their cars will be priced above the competition to cover their higher labor costs. Ford UAW workers believe like they always have, that Ford is in business to provide them jobs and not to build and sell cars.

My socialist wife thinks this is fine since the Ford workers deserve what they can get from a company that is being run well. She has no concept of the big picture and the fact that Ford has to remain competitive or they will die and all those high paying UAW jobs will die with them; UAW leaders understand this but the rank and file is having trouble grasping the concept.

This whole issue pisses me off to no end and I think Ford needs to make a hard move to quash this union blackmail once and for all. Times have changed FOREVER and cushy union auto jobs do not exist and never will again; there has been a sea-change in auto manufacturing and the Ford workers need to be shown the new way or the highway.

GM and Chrysler are licking their chops in anticipation of Ford falling behind in cost control so Ford needs to make a big decision here; they cannot survive a prolonged strike or is that the only way to make the union come to their senses. The UAW cannot afford a strike either but Ford may want to force them into a strike to bankrupt them.

This is a historical time for Ford. Allan Mulally has been great at stewarding Ford through this treacherous time but now may be his finest hour and I hope he is up to it. He cannot give in or the company will falter. I hope he has the balls to castrate the union once and for all!

FACEBOOK: Self censorship?

Some time ago I linked my blog to my Facebook page; yesterday I unlinked it.

Since some of my posts are controversial and may offend, I was writing fewer and fewer posts and I can blame that on a lack of time but also on restraint on my part because of the people on my Facebook page and my not wanting to upset them even though originally, I thought I would bring a different perspective on the issues I write about.

One person on my Facebook page is actually a priest so I thought that may be a good thing to see if he would comment on my religious views but no such luck.

I still will link a blog or two to Facebook if they are neutral like vacation comments or of local Detroit or Michigan issues.

Am I a chicken shit or a little too sensitive in doing this self censorship? Maybe and I promised that in my later years I would let it all hang out. I will have to examine my feelings on this issue a little more…

RELIGION: Catholics, Anglicans and Episcopalians!

I heard something interesting coming out of the Vatican recently that attracted my attention and that of many others. The Vatican announced that it is opening its doors to all those disaffected with the Anglican Church (Episcopalian in the U.S.). It is welcoming even those priests that are married and with children even allowing them to keep their beliefs and traditions; they will have to go through some “re-training” though.

At first read, I thought that the Vatican has found a way to ease its priest shortage. Those Anglican priests who are most disaffected do not agree with their own church’s rulings allowing women to become priests or gay people to become priests or even allowing same sex marriages to be performed. In essence, the Vatican would get the staunch conservatives they so desire.

This is not unprecedented or shocking news because Pope Paul II opened the door to Anglicans in 1980 and there has been an on-going dialogue between Rome and Canterbury about joining the two churches for many years. If you remember, Henry VIII broke with the Vatican and started his own church in England when the then Pope would not grant him dispensation to marry over and over again. Essentially, it became a Catholic church with the king or queen of England as head instead of the pope.

On the surface, this appears like a shrewd move on the part of the Vatican, making the most of the turmoil in the worldwide Anglican Church but I see it as a fundamental division, schism if you will, among Roman and close to Roman Catholicism.

Many Catholics left their church to join the Anglican Church because they could not longer stomach the Vatican’s conservative and in many cases, preposterous positions on religious and social issues but they still wanted to maintain Catholic ceremonial traditions they grew up with; the Anglican Church was perfect for them.

Now those Anglicans that want to maintain their conservative positions have an opportunity to maintain those positions by joining the Roman Catholic Church; it’s just a big switcheroo.

Pope Benedict has not tried to hide the fact that he wants to wash the liberal stain of Vatican II right out of the church. He wants to take the church back to the dark good ole’ days of smoke, mirrors and superstition and there are many Catholics and Anglicans that prefer it that way even to bringing back the unintelligible to most, Latin language as the language of the mass; it adds to the mystery and solemnity of the mass when you can’t understand the incantations.

The questions many are asking have to do with priestly celibacy and the fact that if you want to become a Catholic priest but want a wife and kids, all you have to do is become an Anglican priest, marry, procreate and then convert to Roman Catholicism.

A very interesting situation to be sure…

LIFE: The cycle of life

At the end of September I made a trip to Tampa, Florida. It was hotter than hell out there but the trip was not a vacation trip. I was visiting my aunt and cousin; the last U.S. relatives from my father’s side.

My aunt was diagnosed with late stage lung cancer and my wife thought we should visit before we go on our Maine vacation; just in case. We had a great visit. Took her to the beach, ate at her favorite restaurant, walked around the block, all, as it turned out, for the last time; she died a few days after we returned from Maine.

People of my generation, the baby boomer generation, are in life positions where they may have elderly and needy parents or relatives (mother 87 / father-in-law 92) on the one hand with young and needy grandchildren (and children in some cases) on the other.

Many generations obviously have been in similar positions but this time is different because I am in that position.

People my age (62) can start receiving Social Security, some have retired, some, like me, are semi-retired, some have to work full time to make ends meet but, I think, we are all aware that we are deep into the second half of our very finite life.

If you keep busy which most of us are, you may not give life longevity a second thought but I feel many of us do allow the thought of an ebbing existence to brush against our consciousness once in awhile.

My aunt’s passing and my visit with her, looking over old family photos, gave me pause. We all will have to evaluate our lives and grade them as to what we intended and what we accomplished at some point and if we had to do it over, what would we do different.

My nephew interviewed me about my military service and my decisions at that time for a school project he had to do. He asked if I had to do it over again would I have done something different. My thinking was that I was part of a generational movement, some went one way and others went a different way. In my case, it turned out to be the right way for me although at 18, I doubt I was giving anything much thought.

VACATION: Bar Harbor, Maine / Fall Colors

Instead of just going up north to our condo in Charlevoix to see the fall colors, we decided to do something a little different; we journeyed to New England, more specifically Bar Harbor, Maine to see their fall colors and to munch on fresh lobster.

We have never been there so it was a true adventure for us. The weather was in the 50s and we were lucky to have sunshine most of the time.

Bar Harbor is actually located on an island (check your map) which also happens to be Acadia National Park.

We drove the loop roads around the area, we hiked small mountains and around ponds (small lakes) and perched on the rocky cliffs that make up Maine’s coastline. We also took boats out into the bays to learn about lobster and crab fishing and view mansions of the rich and famous perched on top of rock formations. We took the most pictures of any vacation so far (500+) because every where we turned – another photo op!

The village of Bar Harbor was quaint with one or two cruise ships in their harbor on a daily basis which deposited hundreds if not thousands of people in the small village. Lucky for us, most ship passengers were whisked away by tour busses to explore the area and did not interfere too much with our adventure.

We ate a lobster dish every day (as we intended) everything from lobster in a kind of hot dog bun to lobster enchiladas and lobster pizza. We even visited a real lobster fishing village to get the full feel and flavor of the area.

We will now bore our relatives with all those pictures…