UPDATE: THE IRAQ SITUATION TODAY

THE IRAQ SITUATION

I have been blogging about the fiasco that is Iraq for a number of years mostly to point out how totally stupid Bush and his twits were for invading Iraq.

History tells us that the three groups in Iraq (Kurds, Shiites & Sunnis) were thrown together unnaturally by the British after WWI and as such, they are not really meant to be together. I have maintained that Bush will never unify this country and produce a stable democracy in the Middle East, his vision and his legacy.

Today, we are reading about the general elections that the U.S. is making them have so a stable, unified government can be formed and U.S. troops can go home. NO SUCH LUCK.

The Shiites are trying to disqualify the Sunni from running in the elections and the Sunni are sending suicide bombers to Shiite gatherings to register their displeasure at not being allowed to share political power and now, the Sunnis have decided to boycott the elections making them invalid.

The Kurds are just sitting in their fortified area with their oil and getting ready to repulse any in-roads the Shiites may want to make into Kurdistan.

Iran (Shiite nation) is taking a bigger role in telling the Shiites in Iraq what to do. Do you smell a civil war? Do you see us never leaving Iraq? Do you see us in another war, this time with Iran? Do you see more American soldiers dying in Iraq on top of the 4000+ we lost already?

Thank George Bush for that one; his legacy to us, our children and our children’s children.

UPDATE: HAITI CHILDREN ROUNDUP

UPDATE

HAITI CHILDREN ROUNDUP

Two women are still in a Haiti jail for trying to sneak 33 children from Haiti to an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, the rest of the group were allowed to return to the States after the judge ruled that they really did not know what they were getting into.

New facts coming to light include the fact that none of the children were really orphans; they had parents or relatives to take care of them. Another fact is that those parents or relatives willingly gave the children up to the Christians from Idaho when they were told that those children would be much better off if they left with them.

So in my previous blog I tried to understand the motivation of this woman who heard God call her to action and specifically tell her to take non-orphans out of Haiti to an orphanage in another country???

This is very confusing but I think the Haiti government did the right thing by stopping this group at the border because they had no paperwork to document what they were doing which was illegal since you cannot just take 33 kids from their families and do with them what???

Just because you say you are a Christian and hear God speak does not give you any right to circumvent the law and in fact, hearing God speak may qualify her as a loony in need of psychiatric treatment and therefore in no position to be leading 33 kids out of the country.

Of course God will provide for her welfare in that Haiti jail; He always does, he told her so and after all she was only doing what He told her to do…

UPDATE: The racist juror

UPDATES


THE RACIST JUROR

I mentioned that I would monitor the responses to the black juror that caused a mistrial when she stated that she is not looking at the evidence because she will never convict a black man. Stephen Henderson of the Detroit Free Press, a respected black columnist, wrote a lengthy article on the subject but he did not say anything specifically about the black juror. Instead, he wrote about the black, political culture of corruption that preyed on the very black citizens of Detroit, the corrupt politicians swore to serve to the best of their ability.

I think Mr. Henderson did not what to deal with the racist juror for some reason or other but I think he could have at least talked about the rules all jurors must follow and the oath all jurors must take before they are seated as a jury. In this way, he could have addressed her actions in an objective manner pointing out that her behavior was hypocritical in light of the law she swore to uphold.

I think the judge in this case, has a right to dismiss a juror and seat an alternative if all the other jurors state that this sole juror refuses to deliberate; it will happen again, you wait and see.

Tiger to Brit Hume: Buddha is Just Alright With Me -- Politics Daily

Tiger to Brit Hume: Buddha is Just Alright With Me -- Politics Daily

Following up on my Tiger Woods blog, I have to drag religion into it because it was a factor in his apology speech today. Brit Hume, from my favorite TV news channel FOX: News for morons, stated previously that Woods needs to become a Christian because that is the only way he can fix his life; mainly because Jesus forgives everything and everybody.

Well, other religions have redemption and Jesus forgiving everybody and everything is a made up bunch of crap to gain paying, sinning followers who feel they can get to heaven, no matter how bad they are, if they join the Christian faith.

Buddhism is a much older faith of sorts, started way before Christianity was invented and it deals with reality and how to handle everyday life without screwing it up as Tiger Woods did.

Unlike Christianity that tells you that you can go fuck up all you want and everything will be forgiven, Buddhism teaches restraint and it teaches that you need to learn not to give in to physical temptations but remain above them. I don't know that much about Buddhism but I know it beats Christianity hands down because it does not depend on superstitions and miracles and mumbo jumbo but on realism and the achievement of a life one can be proud of through self control.

Tiger's mother, who taught him his Buddhist faith, was at his speech and told him that he is not alone and that she will always stand by him and help him all she can because she loves him.

I am proud of him that he did not run to Jesus like all the other sinning assholes that beg for forgiveness and vow that they have been born again and have been forgiven - bullshit - you screwed up so take the punishment and don't hide behind Jesus, you sorry ass.

Well, its Friday and I am relaxed with a nice vodka on ice next to me so I better quit while I am ahead...

TIGER WOODS: Nation of hypocrites?

It is remarkable how much air time the Tiger Woods saga is getting, beating out issues that invariably are much more important but hey, that’s who we are as a nation, we love the sleaze and the networks know it and that’s why they show it – Tiger probably would have preempted Obama.

To me it all boils down to hypocrisy and we as a nation, are rife with it. Just today Benny Hinn (no, not Benny Hill) a televangelist specializing in prosperity gospels was just served with divorce papers by his wife of 30 years. Ted Haggard, the holier than though, anti-gay fire and brimstone televangelist admitted a couple of years ago that he had a gay lover and was also buying drugs from him and the list goes on and on BUT we keep asking for more…

Tiger isn’t a religious hypocrite, preaching one thing and doing another, he is a private person who happens to be a very public golfer who has cultivated a clean image to make millions as a trusted spokesman for about every company on earth.

So who does his hypocrisy affect? Well, first and utmost his wife, children, mother, etc. and after that his image that now is tarnished and unacceptable to some of the companies that use him as a spokesperson.

To us, the public, he actually does not owe an apology or an explanation. Yes, we think less of him but he is one of many that disappoint us by their lurid behavior. As a golfer, he will still be great but now he will be the great, sleazy golfer and women will be after him more than ever knowing he is an easy target and judging by the women he slept with, he will sleep with about anything, the raunchier the better it seems.

So here we are, the most religious nation on earth, so concerned about our values and so judgmental of every one not American and yet we are a nation of hypocrites par excellence!

I have always told my son that they way a man wants and should be remembered as is a “good man” and a “gentleman” who protected and cared for his family – life is short but memories can last forever.

SOCIETY: Racism in the Jury Room?

You have heard me talk about the corruption in Detroit and especially in the old Detroit City Council where Monica Conyers (wife of Congressman John Conyers) is going to jail for accepting bribes (she made a plea deal). Well, her partner in crime, the man that went and asked for the bribes (Sam Riddle) went on trial in federal court for corruption and got off Scott free.

Here is the kicker, the only black juror on the jury (female) decided before deliberations even began that she is not convicting a black man. A similar story occurred last year where a man accused of a brutal rape and murder of a college girl at Eastern Michigan University also walked free after a lone, female black juror, refused to listen to evidence and caused a mistrial.

The Sam Riddle case will cause more waves since the eleven (11) non-black jurors are speaking out that the whole fiasco was racially motivated and that race has no place in the jury room. In the past, a black could not get a fair trial from an all white jury (usually down south) but here and now, things appear to have reversed.

Sam Riddle’s lawyer complained to the judge before the trial that juries in the Detroit Metro area are mostly white and the city is majority black. He wanted the judge to declare that Riddle could not get a fair trial here since he cannot be tried by a jury of his peers; the judge denied the motion.

Is this O.J. Simpson type phenomenon wide spread where black jurors won’t convict a black man or woman on principle and not on evidence?

Even my super liberal wife thought that something is wrong here; her recommendation, do away with the rule where all twelve (12) jurors must agree (unanimous vote) and go to where only a simple majority vote can convict. I am not sure if we are ready to re-write our legal code but she may have a point.

I am more interested in the motivation that would allow a rapist / murderer free based on the color of his skin. Many are saying we now live in a post-racial society after Obama was elected president and I feel that at least on the white side, there a lot fewer racists (that I can detect) than in the past and I feel as a whole, our society maybe closer to being color blind than at any time in our history but I never looked at the situation from the other side.

The occurrence of this phenomenon is problematic if it signals a trend. The money wasted in re-trying these criminals is substantial but the social and cultural ramifications are considerable since again people will generalize these incidents into a stereotype we as a society, do not want to get into again.

I am going to watch if any commentary appears on this issue. Our papers have placed this on the front page so obviously; they are not sidestepping this issue but inviting comments. I will also be watching the reaction of white and black leaders in the community to see if there is any courage out there to broach the subject as a problem that needs to be addressed…

RELIGION: Just making a buck?

I just read that over 2 million people are expected to view the SHROUD OF TURIN this year; pilgrims are coming from all over the world to get a five (5) minute glance at the shroud that some claim was used to cover Jesus after his death and now has the outline of Jesus’ body (wounds) on it.

Scientists have confirmed that the image on the shroud is a medieval forgery and have carbon dated the shroud to the 13th or 14th century.

But that is not the story; the story is that the Vatican is well aware that this exhibition will bring in money. Money to the Church as well as money to the town of Turin which will benefit greatly from the money the pilgrims leave behind.

Well, this reminds me of the Protestant Reformation where Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church mainly for selling indulgences. Briefly, if your mother died and was stuck in purgatory because of some sins she committed, paying $5 to the Church will get her out of purgatory, kind of a “Get out of Jail” card.

The Church also sold relics (bones of saints or dog bones sold as bones of saints) to raise money; having a holy relic, the Church said, would give you that extra intercession power with the Big Guy in the sky.

And look what the Church is doing today; making money off dumb Catholics that don’t know any better and believe they are viewing a truly miraculous cloth that touched Jesus – if only we can touch it and be cured or absolved or maybe just looking at it can transfer Jesus’ healing power through our eyes?

I guess some things will never change and the Catholic Church will continue to peddle its relics as long as its gullible members keep shelling out the dough!

DETROIT: Strip Club defence!

In the past and I mean for a very long time, I have defended prostitution and strip clubs as societal needs that have existed from time immemorial. I have argued in letters to the editor and in blogs that making both activities illegal will just create an illegal black market run by unsavory types that do not pay any taxes and are a danger to the participants as well as the community as a whole. I used similar arguments for the legalization of drugs.

In Detroit, topless clubs are legal but the City Council, yes the corrupt one, wanted to ban topless dancing by passing regulations that would thwart the enterprises by banning liquor sales, compelling dancers to stay on stage (no lap dancing) and making the dancers wear see- through pasties?

The driving force behind such regulations turns out to be religious pastors in the area who term the activities evil and immoral even though they are quite ok as far as the Bible is concerned. On the other hand, religious pastors have turned out to be quite the hypocrites when it comes to morality. They have as much credibility on these issues as the pedophile priests trying to talk to you about morality.

Anyway, we have just installed a new city council with younger members who hopefully are not as corrupt as the old one and a little brighter than the dimwits we had before. The president of the council is Charles Pugh, a black gay who used to be a news anchor for a local station – so he can verbalize well.

When the same pastors came before the council to demand enactment of the anti-strip club regulations, Pugh asked why are we targeting law-abiding businesses that provide a service that members of our society / community are willing to pay for and thus support business and employment in the city? Pugh even went further and characterized the attack on strip clubs as a civil rights issue and even suggested a possible red-light district similar to what Boston has / had. I COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT I WAS READING!

We may actually be in a position that makes fighting these age old prohibitions a possibility. Being in an economic depression, which Detroit is in, makes it silly to close tax paying employers of local people. Also, I think the moral objection to topless dancing has diminished through time (in Europe both men and women go to such clubs) they call it entertainment.

My wife thinks people may get the wrong idea about me when they see me defending these positions but to me it’s the principle of the thing and the common sense and the utter stupidity of people that oppose them and yes, their so called Christian outrage.

I hope Charles Pugh prevails…

RELIGION: Vatican lost all credibility!

Let’s talk about the Irish Catholics for awhile. They had/have a priestly sex scandal that puts the U.S. scandal to shame. In the U.S. there are parochial schools run by religious organizations like the Catholics (I went to a Catholic grade school and Catholic high school, all run by nuns and priests) and there are public schools, run by the state or local government, where most U.S. kids go.

In Ireland, the Catholic Church runs nearly all the schools, so you don’t get a choice of a secular vs. religious school and you also can’t escape the holy perverts that control the schools. The scandal is very familiar; priests have been allowed to molest youngsters for years and, it now appears, with the Irish Church basically allowing the molestation by ignoring it.

My point is not to talk about the scandal and the cover-up, that it happened is a documented fact I am trying to wrap my head around the fact that priests and bishops including pedophilic priests and bishops, have been treated like holy royalty for all these years and in some countries including Poland, still are, as if they talked to God directly and therefore could instruct us lowly shits how to behave according to God’s law which obviously does not apply to them and now all we get is – oops – sorry?

In my mind, all Catholic clergy, the Vatican and yes, the Catholic God invented by the Vatican, have lost all credibility and therefore authority associated with the Catholic religion.

I cannot understand how the Catholic Church can continue to issue pronouncements on issues as if they somehow still had authority, even a moral authority to make pronouncements on any subject. The Pope vows to apologize to the Irish people and even write a personal letter to them telling them how he feels their pain – bullshit – resign!

What burns my ass even more is the attitude of Catholics like the Polish Catholics I wrote about previously and how they can conveniently ignore the crime that is the Church and continue, like bleating sheep, to follow the rulings of these criminal perverts; some may not be perverts but all are criminals.

If you still want to believe in a Catholic God then think how this God of yours allowed poor children, some of them orphans, to be treated in this beastly way by His servants no less – nice God.

RELIGION: Polish Catholics and Abortion.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

To: Polish American Journal
Re: “Polish Americans to President: Veto health Care if it Finances Abortion”, January 2010

I was disappointed but not surprised to read “Polish Americans to President: veto health Care if it Finances Abortion”, January 2010.

My mother, who is in her late eighties, very Polish and very Catholic, told me that the question of abortion is such a personal issue that no one, not even the Pope, Polish or otherwise, can dictate what a person should or should not do. I told her that she is not following the dictates of her religion. She smiled and said that the boys in Rome don’t always know about the realities of life and that is why many Catholics, especially in the United States, choose to disagree with Rome on a number of issues. She added that everyone is entitled to their beliefs but if their beliefs infringe on the freedom of other people to choose how to manage their lives, then they are plainly wrong. She called the abortion fanatics “ciemnota”.

The Polish word is interesting and hard to accurately translate but it describes people that allow religious superstitions to dictate how they think and behave, usually in a very conservative manner bordering on backward.

Yes, the Polish community is more than Polkas and pierogis but progressive it is not. Let us hope that eventually it can climb out of the darkness.

I get a paper called the Polish-American Journal which is published on a monthly basis and which reports all things Polish from mainly the U.S. but also reports on international events concerning Poland. I usually just peruse it and toss it but a headline caught my eye the other day. It was about Polish organizations sending President Obama a letter urging him to veto the healthcare bill if it contains provisions where taxpayer money is used for abortions.

I have for years put up with the accepted notion that all people of Polish descent are Catholic; not only Roman Catholic but Polish Catholic which means blind obedience to anything and everything the Church teaches. I thought it was time for the readers of the venerable Polish American Journal learned that not all Poles toe the Catholic line as not all Catholics toe the Vatican line.

As you can see, I used my elderly mother to show that even old; Catholic Polish Babcias don’t buy into everything the Church teaches especially something as personal as abortion and I was not making this up – she really feels that way and always has.

I may have gone too far by using the word CIEMNOTA which basically means “people in darkness” or “people of darkness” and I included basically all Poles that are anti-choice – my bad!

There are many older Poles that are super Catholics that behave a lot like sheep but I do not know if there exist other Poles, old and young (like my mother and myself) that differ with the Vatican on this issue (as do many American Catholics). I guess I am saying that I should not have generalized.

It will be interesting to see what kind of response (if any) my letter garners. I expect the use of the word CIEMNOTA may have poked a few people in the eye since they most probably consider themselves intelligent and progressive and some may even have PhDs behind their names but at my age in life, after all I have seen and learned, if you are capable of denying me a choice on the abortion issue than you are a true CIEMNOTA.

RELIGION: Polish Catholics and Abortion.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

To: Polish American Journal
Re: “Polish Americans to President: Veto health Care if it Finances Abortion”, January 2010

I was disappointed but not surprised to read “Polish Americans to President: veto health Care if it Finances Abortion”, January 2010.

My mother, who is in her late eighties, very Polish and very Catholic, told me that the question of abortion is such a personal issue that no one, not even the Pope, Polish or otherwise, can dictate what a person should or should not do. I told her that she is not following the dictates of her religion. She smiled and said that the boys in Rome don’t always know about the realities of life and that is why many Catholics, especially in the United States, choose to disagree with Rome on a number of issues. She added that everyone is entitled to their beliefs but if their beliefs infringe on the freedom of other people to choose how to manage their lives, then they are plainly wrong. She called the abortion fanatics “ciemnota”.

The Polish word is interesting and hard to accurately translate but it describes people that allow religious superstitions to dictate how they think and behave, usually in a very conservative manner bordering on backward.

Yes, the Polish community is more than Polkas and pierogis but progressive it is not. Let us hope that eventually it can climb out of the darkness.

POLITICS: Chaney needs to be challenged!

This Sunday, Dick Chaney went on TV to spit out his drivel about the Iraq War and what Obama is doing to endanger this country. Most of all he is trying to re-write history, repeating the already discredited bullshit him and Bush were spouting when they were in office.

I was happy to see that the White House IMMEDIATELY (the same Sunday) sent VP Joe Biden to counter Chaney’s horseshit.

I cannot believe that the networks are allowing Chaney to even have air time. He still tells the host about Saddam’s WMD (weapons of mass destruction) that have never been found and do not exist. Chaney still mumbles that the War on Iraq was justified when it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the war was a HUGE mistake that cost thousand of American lives and countless BILLIONS of dollars and has NOT resulted in any benefit(s) to the U.S. or the world.

In fact, as we speak, the three (3) factions in Iraq (Sunni, Shia and Kurds) are getting ready for a civil war; there will never be a democratic government, there will only be a Shia dictatorship and everybody knows that. Obama is deluding himself if he thinks otherwise.

BUT back to Chaney, why is he not being challenged by respected news people? I expect FOX to agree with him because they know how to manufacture their own news but ABC? Challenge the old fucker, show him to be senile. You notice Bush isn’t talking – he knows better – real history will be bad enough for his legacy of imbecility.

ECONOMY: What jobs?

The topic of jobs or unemployment has come up in discussion on a number of occasions especially what Obama is doing to generate jobs and bring down the unemployment rate.

One of my friends posited the idea that many of the jobs that have been lost in the last few years were jobs created by the credit bubble and will never return. He makes a compelling argument which I have seen firsthand; I know of a number of people who quit their normal jobs to become mortgage writers / originators. In those days anybody could get into the mortgage business, all they had to do was write a mortgage, get it signed, and sell it to a mortgage holder who would pay the originator a commission. The originator did not have to worry if the mortgage was sound or if the person signing could ever have a chance in hell of paying it back – they took the commission check and moved on to the next one – they made a ton of money.

I would imagine that there were countless thousands of people who became mortgage originators or worked as clerks for mortgage originators and now they are all out of work and those jobs are never coming back because we hope federal regulators will prevent something like that from ever happening again.

The loose credit also encouraged people to spend foolishly buying all sorts of things they could not afford and that in turn created jobs for people making the shit that people could not afford – when credit dried up so did the manufacturing jobs – people stopped buying things they could not afford.

So I guess the question is what will these people do that have lost jobs that are never coming back? More and more people are entering the job market each year while older workers are scared to retire in our economic downturn and will hold on to their jobs as long as they can. Where are the new jobs coming from? My friend suggests that we may be facing a “permanent” 10% unemployment rate.

People are going back to school to learn new skills but what are the skills one should learn to get a job; we will eventually have enough nurses or cops or we may have enough already. Even now, I am getting resumes from skilled workers applying for non-skilled jobs that I have openings for; hamburger flippers with master’s degrees?

Some are saying that “new” industries like energy generation will create new jobs but how many? If we continue to engage in constant warfare we at least will always have openings for soldiers?

This is a topic I am sure every economist is talking about and Obama is all ears but what are the solutions. I will keep on looking…

OBAMA: Not what I expected?

Just got back from Turks & Caicos where I had a good change of scenery and a little rest from the weather at home and the storm at work; the storm at work is obviously huge since I have not been able to write to my blog like I had for a number of years now – hopefully things will return to normal soon…

There are a lot of issues to discuss but let me start by saying how disappointed I am in Obama. I guess I was duped by his rhetoric; reminds me of John Kennedy who also duped the public with his “charm” and his “family” but no substance.

I have mentioned before that I felt he took on way too many projects all at once and did not concentrate on what needed to be done FIRST.

Now he is actually back-tracking on issues he was firm on and that makes him look wishy-washy. He was jolted by the Massachusetts voter revolt and now is questioning his own resolve on some issues but maybe he should have taken a harder look at some issues before leaping into the fray the way he did.

He has backed down on healthcare, he has backed down on trying terrorists in NYC’s civilian courts and he has backed down on dismantling Bush’s “faith-based” charities getting federal aid and he probably should have waited bringing up the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays in the military.

Let me just touch on the “faith-based” charities issue first, the rest later. Bush’s faith based charities policy gave federal funds to religious organizations that discriminated on the basis of religion i.e. they hired only members of their own religion which is against federal law which demands zero discrimination on any basis from firms receiving federal funds. Obama promised to dismantle the obviously illegal and unconstitutional relationship between the federal government and religious organizations BUT now he thinks the relationship is OK because he needs support from the religious right – bullshit!

Obama was always pro-union as are most Democrats but I did not think he would abandon all rationality just to give them a chance to get stronger by getting rid of all legal obstacles to unionization; I had to actually depend on the Republicans to keep union rule in check and so far they have done a good job forcing Obama to take another look at his blatant unionism and the damage that stance can do to the nation’s economy. Actually, one of the factors that prolonged the Great Depression was FDR’s pro-union legislation that kept unemployment very high for too long.

I have not given up completely on Obama but things need to change and he needs to change; maybe he should change some people around him who obviously are not giving him good advice.

Hope to have time to talk about specifics this month…

HAITI: Christian Missionaries???

While on our way to the Turks & Caicos Islands in the Caribbean we noticed a number of what we call Jesus groups with T-shirts stating that they are going to do missionary work in Jamaica, Haiti or some other “poor” country.

Although I believe some missionaries actually accomplish some good for the people they go to serve, I still believe that the main impetus behind all this “good” work is to get a good place in heaven for themselves, add converts to the faith and spread the Word.

I have been watching the Baptists missionaries imprisoned in Haiti for child smuggling and I am trying to get a handle on what they were really up to. I don’t for a minute think they were collecting children to sell but what were they really doing, since most of those kids were not orphans? I guess you could say they were trying to give those children a better life…?

I read one report saying that Haiti needs help to establish itself as a viable culture; you cannot rebuild what has never been built in the first place. Haiti does not need Jesus people taking their kids away; they need help as a society to get to a position where they can take care of their own children as well as themselves so back to the Jesus people…

The leader of the imprisoned group is Laura Silsby from Idaho. It seems she is a single parent with a house in foreclosure and a business in bankruptcy with employees filing suit against her for various reasons. She says she heard God’s call to go to Haiti and led a group of people who have since told authorities they were mislead by Laura as to their actual mission there, to collect children and take them to an orphanage that she controlled (?) in the Dominican Republic.

I guess what aggravates me, and this is turning into a much larger aggravation then I originally envisioned, is people like Silsby who seem to know what God wants or what His plans are. I am now reading about missionaries baptizing people (Voodoo people I presume) and issuing them a baptismal certificate which happens to be the only legal document these people have to identify themselves - so they are issuing identity cards if you agree to be baptized a Christian?

I am reading that the Haitians are being told that God was so pissed at them for practicing Voodoo that he sent the earthquake to punish them and if they become good Christians and abandon Voodoo, their lives will improve dramatically and no more disasters.

I realize that the Haitians need help desperately, in fact, their whole culture needs help; they need to change the way they think and the way they act and that may mean switching from one superstition (Voodoo) to another (Christianity) since Christian communities have a history of social and commercial success whereas I have never heard of a Voodoo culture / community building a Wall Street.

On the one hand I hate to see those self-serving Christians handing out Bibles to desperate people in need of food but on the other, I don’t know how to change their culture so they can become productive people with a future for themselves and their children.

ECONOMY: Job creation or charity?

I have heard Obama’s State of the Union speech and I have heard his emphasis on JOBS but quite frankly, I don’t think he and his team really know what to do about creating jobs for Americans; if that is even possible.

I have looked where Obama’s stimulus dollars are going and they are going to “support” existing programs and in fact, they are nothing more than “welfare” dollars with nothing to do with creating jobs.

I will admit that some of those stimulus dollars are “saving” exiting jobs like the State Troopers in Michigan which were laid-off due to budget cuts and that is important and productive BUT giving money to YMCAs around the country or Food Banks or Libraries…

Don’t get me wrong, these are noble institutions but if your aim and goal is to create JOBS, you are missing your target by a mile!

During the Great Depression, FDR tried to create jobs through the government and many of the projects those jobs created are evident today in our national parks, hydroelectric dams etc. He allowed charitable giving to take care of the food banks and support organizations that helped the unemployed and those suffering through the Great Depression.

Even though I voted for Obama, got caught up in his rhetoric and believed that he truly knew what needed to be done and how to do it, I now feel he has bitten off more that he can chew or in other words, trying to do too many things at once.

The economy is paramount and jobs need to be created, hen why is he doling money out to support organizations that will NOT create jobs? He is supporting the unemployed instead of trying to employ the unemployed. I realize that this is a fine line but why should I support food banks with my donations when our government is doing that for me?

I am no economist but some things make sense and others do not and the Obama administration does not appear to know what to do and in fact they are making things worst. My two (2) cents in this matter is spend tax payer money on projects and organizations that will create jobs, even if not permanent jobs, just jobs that will put people back to work and pay them a wage that they can spend and therefore stimulate the economy – kapish?

POLITICS: Republican takes Kennedy's Senate Seat

Martha Coakley lost a Senate seat from Massachusetts that has been in Democratic hands (Ted Kennedy) for over 46 years, why?

Many are saying that independents in the blue state are sending a message to Obama and Democrats in general that they don’t like what is going on and want a change; ironic that Obama ran on a “change” platform.

How quickly people forget how bad it was under Bush and the Republicans and now they want to go back?

A big factor in the Democratic loss (I think) was the candidate Martha Coakley; she was a bad candidate.

I have grown very leery of government prosecutors whether state or federal. They are a breed of attorney that has higher office in mind and thus they will do anything to attain that office even if they have to compromise on justice. For them winning big cases gets them closer to that higher office and they will win them by hook or by crook.

In our state of Michigan we have had many of this type including David Gorcyca who tried to railroad a young male school teacher on sexual molestation charges. He nearly succeeded until a smart defense attorney revealed how certain evidence that could exonerate her client was being hidden; Gorcyca is not running for higher office any more. There are many more examples of these unscrupulous people in power all over the country.

Martha Coakley, in my mind, is another Gorcyca. She was involved in the famous Amirault Family Fells Acres Day Care sexual molestation case. This was at the height of the day care sex abuse scare where children were goaded into revealing the most prurient deeds which on closer examination were just that, ideas placed in children’s heads by prosecutors that wanted to win a sensational case no matter what the truth actually revealed.

This total disregard for the truth and basic justice has turned me against prosecutors and unfortunately I am skeptical about even the goods ones since some good ones must exist.

Talking to some business associates from Boston who flew in today after the election, they said that as bad as Coakley’s character is, her loss let in a fundamentalist, conservative Bush nut that we already have way too many of in Congress. I guess the people of Massachusetts picked between two evils and gave their nod to the Republican. Were they wrong? Only time will tell.

HAITI: Where are the Americans?

The scenes from Haiti on the evening news are pretty gruesome. It is hard for me to understand how come it is taking so much time for basic supplies like food and water to reach the people that desperately need them when the news networks keep showing supplies coming in the tons, plane after plane, but not making it off the airport tarmac; something is amiss.

The past two nights, the networks were showing doctors using garage saws to cut off limbs and rum to sterilize those saws; where are the medical supplies?

Last night, ABC News showed a field hospital from Israel. They came the night before, set up and started treating patients – huh?

Not only was this a field hospital, it had specialty tents; one for pediatrics, a maternity tent, an orthopedic tent and even an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). Where in the hell was the American field hospital?

I was trained as a medic during Vietnam and we were trained to practice field medicine. Field hospitals were organized in a triage mode where you treated those that could be treated and passed on those that were too badly hurt; remember MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) on TV from the Korean War?

During the Iraq war, the field hospitals basically saved everyone no matter how critical; we got that good at field medicine so where are we in Haiti? Maybe we are so thinly stretched by Iraq and Afghanistan that we don’t have any more field hospital units left; look how we handled Katrina on our own soil.

The French unit “Doctors Without Borders” were in Haiti and the French government was sending a complete field hospital and the Israelis were there as seen on the news but the only American doctor I saw on the news was Richard Besser, the ABC medical correspondent who couldn’t help anyone because he was just reporting and trying to look hunky for the cameras.

I guess I am just disappointed in our effort so far. All I see is Bill Clinton walking about, highly paid reporters and news anchors walking about trying to show compassion and next will come the politicians from around the world trying to personally asses the situation on the ground – what happened to passing out bottles of water?

Everyone is collecting money for Haiti, staging all sorts of money making events for the victims in Haiti. Yes, in the long run there will be a big need for money to build up the city and country again but right now it is as simple as getting the supplies off the airport tarmac and into people’s hands; we will rebuild later.

I would be very careful where I donate my relief funds since there are many shysters out there that sound very legitimate; I don’t even trust the Red Cross which has been known to use money donated for a specific cause like Haiti relief, for other Red Cross needs such as administrative costs.

There will be a need for housing; a lot of housing to shelter the people before serious rebuilding can be undertaken and lots of food and water for a very long time – now that will take some money.

HAITI: A religious issue?

I was waiting for some religious nutcase to link the Haiti disaster to a punishment by God and Pat Robertson, a certified nutcase, did not waste any time.

It is true that the island of Hispaniola is divided into Haiti on the left (West) and Dominican Republic on the right (East) and yes, the Dominican Republic has resorts like Punta Cana (loved our vacation there) and Haiti, on the other hand has nothing but poverty, corruption, squalor and now massive destruction and death.

Both countries are poor (we went off the resort to visit the countryside and it was pretty bleak) but Haiti is especially poor and the reasons for that poverty can easily be explained by their type of corrupt, non-functioning government and that the few rich, dominate and exploit the poor, just like in colonial slave days.

Pat Robertson seems to know something about history since he blamed Haiti’s plight on a historic rumor of a pact made with the devil to help them overthrow their French masters, how else could they have overthrown the Christian French; their Voodoo religion is obviously a satanic religion.

This historic myth, long discredited by historians, was promoted and spread by Christian colonial powers and colonists to explain how this could have possibly happened. Those same powers then blockaded the new country, plunging it into chaos and poverty.

The point here is not what really happened in history; it is that a supposedly educated American could possibly have equated the Haiti disaster to a punishment by God. Well, all disasters have been equated the same way, remember 9/11 was for us allowing abortions and Katrina was for us allowing gay marriage. So what does this tell us about fundamentalist Christian leaders and the masses of followers that they control. To me, these people are regressing to a time when such stupid notions were taken as fact and I will throw in the never disappearing stain of racism that some people cannot and will never wash out of their being.

How does this make us look on the world stage; as religious cave men living in the richest nation on earth?

Also, did you notice all the Christian missionaries in that country – what gives? Why are they trying to convert all those people to Christianity – what good will that do them – the Christian God brings disasters on Christians – lots of them – so what good is it to become a Christian?

Brit Hume of FOX NEWS told Tiger Woods that he needs to convert to Christianity from his Buddhist faith if he wants forgiveness for his misdeeds and a chance at heaven. This is a highly educated, very rich man and he is spouting off such nonsense? Do people loose their rationale minds when they become Christians?

I am not down on Christians, I am down on religion which is preventing this world from becoming a human world with all humans as brothers and sisters of earth, willing to help each other because they are fellow humans and not because their respective gods tell them that that is what they should do to enter into heaven.