Education of Governor Deval Patrick

Picture courtesy of NECN


NECN has a great in depth broadcast on an imbedded reporter with Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts during his first one hundred days in office. Alison King of NECN did a great job on the mini documentary that follows the Governor from his home to the office and to his meetings around the state.

According to Eagan and Braude and Alison King’s guest spot on 96.9FM Talk Radio in Boston she was given full access to the Governor with only one request, the Governor could request to omit anything. For the record, the Governor omitted nothing from the broadcast and that took political guts. This isn’t just a fluff piece with just lovey love to the Governor. They cover all the so called scandals as he learned the ropes of Beacon Hill day by day.

I just love the idea that they titled it “The Education of Deval Patrick: The First 100 Days”. Having watched the piece it truly fits. This guy is genuine and one hundred percent a regular guy and it shows in the broadcast. If you were not a favorite of Deval Patrick before viewing this on NECN then you will be after.

This is what NECN has to say about the

NECN TO PREMIERE THE DOCUMENTARY “THE EDUCATION OF DEVAL PATRICK: THE FIRST 100 DAYS’’ ON MAY 31st at 8 p.m.

AN UP-CLOSE AND EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT THE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR AS HE NAVIGATES THROUGH HIS FIRST TUMULTUOUS MONTHS IN OFFICE, PRODUCED AND WRITTEN BY NECN POLITICAL REPORTER ALISON KING

NEWTON, MA – MAY 23, 2007 – When he decided to run for governor of Massachusetts in 2005, Deval Patrick was a largely unknown figure hoping his grassroots campaign for change on Beacon Hill would catch fire across the state.

In November 2006 his “Together We Can’’ campaign did, indeed, carry him to victory and he emerged the first African-American governor of the Commonwealth, and the first Democrat to hold the post in 16 years.

“The Education of Deval Patrick: The First 100 Days’’ candidly chronicles Patrick’s first few months in office, from his historic swearing-in ceremony, to controversies involving his car, office drapes, his phone call to help former employer Ameriquest, and staff shakeups, to his wife Diane’s battle with depression, and many staff meetings, press conferences, and bill signings in-between. - NECN

Preview video courtesy of Boston.com

To be honest with you I can see this Governor winning a second term. I can also see him running for the Presidency in eight years and winning it as well. With all the campaign issues that he went through and tried to let the people know who he was he just skimmed the surface. This documentary gives you the real person that is Governor Deval Patrick.

He hangs out at home in jeans and is very comfortable just being himself. His wife is his world and the relationship that they have is something to be jealous of. Just the simple fact that when he makes a mistake he owns up to it instantly. As he has said in the past regarding his own missteps “You didn’t elect a saint as Governor”. He never claimed to be perfect.

One thing that I applaud the Governor for is his own personal refusal to get into a racial debate over his custom built home in the Berkshires. The man was a very successful employee of Coca Cola Corporation and with that success a bountiful salary with the rewards and ability to afford a home of comfort. A home that his wife Diane and he earned and paid for that they will retire to and spend the best times of their lives just being themselves.

During the campaign this was a racial bate question by the main stream media and it was uncalled for. It was never questioned of any of the other candidates with great personal wealth with regard to their so called “Mansions”? You could see in the broadcast that it bothered him that people even had the audacity to ask that question as if he deserved his home. He earned his four walls the hard way by working his ass off for it and he and his family deserve the benefit of that hard work.

Check out the broadcast if you can or contact NECN to get the DVD on it. Mark my words, this man will be President of the United States someday and you read it here first.

Other air dates and times:

Friday, June 1, 7pm
Saturday, June 2, 8pm
Sunday, June 3, 11am
Monday, June 4, 4pm
Tuesday, June 5, 2pm
Wednesday, June 6, 11am

*DVDs available upon request*

Papamoka

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The End of Big Oil and the Middle East Strangle

Picture courtesy of Biodiesel America .org


I’ve heard it said that the very last stage coach company in the world built the best damn coach around but the end of the horse and stage coach was inevitable with the invention of the combustion engine. Isn’t it ironic that the hay that once fed horses to pull that same stage coach is now somewhat replacing the fuel that runs the combustion engine little by little?

Our world is held hostage by our energy needs and the ones holding the knife to our throats are not just in the Middle East. Corporate America with its own multi nation partners is hijacking your wallet every time you pull up to the pump.

With any monopoly in any given industry comes the frugality of the American people in our selfish desire to overcome that strangle hold on our lives. Such is the American spirit that the brightest amongst us have had enough and all it took was the oil industry stealing not just food off of our tables but the unmitigated audacity of the oil barons of today telling us to pay it or do with out it. New inventions are popping up daily on saving gasoline in your car or mini-van and the tide is just starting to rise as far as more savings and new ideas go.

Hurricane Katrina is long gone, the gas refining plants are pretty much rebuilt and yet gasoline is over $3.00 per gallon. My only thought on this is that the industry is robbing the American people blind while they still can and the President simply has no authority or desire to intervene.

When faced with a bully, Americans fight back. Then we spread the word on how to fight back. There is a great web site on the daily progress of Biodiesel as it is happening in this country and around the world. It’s called Biodiesel America .org and it is a wealth of information. This is just one solution to the crime that is happening at the pump every single day…

Over at the New York Times they are pointing out that the threat from big oil that is raping and pillaging Europe much like Attila the Hun of centuries long ago has finally had its people saying enough is enough. Farmers are being paid higher premiums for raising crops that can be converted to biodiesel…

Europe Pushes to Get Fuel From Fields
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
Published: May 30, 2007

ARDEA, Italy — The previous growing season, this lush coastal field near Rome was filled with rows of delicate durum wheat, used to make high-quality pasta. Today it overflows with rapeseed, a tall, gnarled weedlike plant bursting with coarse yellow flowers that has become a new manna for European farmers: rapeseed can be turned into biofuel.

Motivated by generous subsidies to develop alternative energy sources — and a measure of concern about the future of the planet — Europe’s farmers are beginning to grow crops that can be turned into fuels meant to produce fewer emissions than gas or oil. They are chasing their counterparts in the Americas who have been raising crops for biofuel for more than five years. – The New York Times

I was watching the local television magazine program the other day and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy that has over one thousand students is almost an entirely off the grid educational facility. With a constant breeze off of the ocean they have a huge wind turbine that runs non stop. If that isn’t supplying enough power for them then they are installing solar panels on the roofs of many of the buildings on the campus. At some points during the generation of all this green electric power the local utility is paying the MMA for excess power generation. That is just one campus in America. Can this be duplicated across America?

This movement towards alternative clean energy is not going to end any time soon. With the knives to our throats on our energy needs America has a few new solutions that pretty much turn that knife into a limp noodle. Europe and the rest of the world will follow our lead.

I do have to say that much like the attack on Pearl Harbor at the start of World War II, I believe it was Admiral Yamamoto that said we have only woken the sleeping dragon. America is an industrial nation and if our source for energy is threatened then we can fight on the fields of foreign lands to secure our needs or we can think of a better way to turn the wheels of our industry and society. One simple fact is that if the American people want independence from foreign sources for our energy needs then no amount of money will stop us to fight this side of the war on terror. Take away the source funding them and they have no teeth to bite us back with.

My only concern with this new alternative energy market is that the good old boys with the tens of billions of profits quarterly are going to try to buy up the future of America’s and for argument sake the world’s energy movement away from fossil fuels.

Papamoka




Cross posted at Bring It ON!

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Speed of Light

I happen to love Steven Wright the Comedian. He cracks me up to no end. Some of his stuff is just mind blowing. Like this thought...

If you are in your car traveling at the speed of light and turned your headlights on... Would they work?

Better yet...

If you accidently put your car keys into the front door of your house... Would it start?

Just some stuff to think about or laugh about...

Papamoka

Political Honesty

Picture Courtesy of the White House

Politicians are great at telling you what you want to hear all the time. Sometimes when you actually get the chance to meet a real elected politician you can feel the sense of being in the presence of greatness and you should. Then again you have to remember that they use the same damn bathrooms you do and some of them do not wash their hands as often as they should.

We all know that the President has the Congress by the old short gray hairs and his trump card is the military. As much as this President wants to continue his private war in Iraq is just as much the same levity as the Congress wanting to end the war in Iraq. From two perspectives there has to be one and our nations military can not and should not be a pawn in this chess game of millionaires. Moving a Rook to take a Bishop is one thing but having to move the entire chess board to take down the King is another task.

From my perspective the new Congress has no clue how to play the game of chess that is politics and the President is very confident in his game. Just look at all the pieces that he has sacrificed to win his will? There is no piece on the board including the Queen that is not disposable. Pelosi and Reid are playing a weak strategy and the President is taking them out for a walk around the board. Check Mate is not truly in their game plan. Time is what they are counting on and that is a very weak strategy and the President knows it.

While he watches all the players fall around him he will survive because they are not strong enough to win the game that is Washington politics. Just as in chess games by the masters in the middle of play you are not thinking about your next move but ten moves later and that is where the President has the Congress. He is set in his strategy and they are fumbling on what the next move is.

Knight has the King at check mate is not in this Congress ability and President Bush knows it. All of his Pawns that are the Military are the Democrats weakest link and the President has no problem putting them in harms way to protect his spot on the board. It is political suicide to go against our sons and daughters in battle and Bush knows it and lives it.

Pieces on the chess board sacrificed by President Bush are numerous but the will of the voting people of America is stronger than the Presidency. That is one move he never planned on.

Pawn takes King.

Papamoka

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Michael Linn Jones

My good friend and former co-writer over at the Gun Toting Liberal has more or less given birth to his own blog and web site. Michael is a great political writer and I highly recommend that you check his works out as often as you can. I've linked to his site here and I highly encourage you to do so as well.

Michael has allowed me the good graces to put a few of his pieces here on my site and let me tell ya his writing is phenomenal. If you have ever read his works in the past from the Gun Toting Liberal then you know his style and clever historical wit that seems to be very much relevant with anything going on political today.

On a scale of one to ten as far as true well written bloggers go I would give Michael Linn Jones a 9.5. My .5 deduction is a private religious debate that he and I love to joke around about. I'm still keeping my .5 till he changes his mind...lol!!!

Check his site out and you will never be disapointed...

Papamoka

THE GLOBAL WAR ON TRUTH

Contributed by Michael Linn Jones

Having become somewhat accustomed to a constant feeling of nausea, I was thrown off by the realiization that it was passing. So, in order to rectify this, I listened to Rush Limbaugh for a while today. It doesn't take much, but something he said stuck with me. It starts at one point but can race off in several directions.

The Great Bloviator made the statement that liberals were aiding and abetting terrorists by ciriticizing President Bush. It is wartime, and to question or criticize is tantamount to treachery. According to that logic, should I pose the question: "Is George W. Bush capable of pouring piss out of a boot with the instructions printed on the heel?"....I am encouraging terrorists to attack us. I am apparently giving carte blanche to Bin Laden and his lunatic band of murderers.

As the saying goes, I may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. So I will proceed with this 'aiding and abetting.' One of the great dangers of warfare is how it changes the nations involved in it. Never in history has a nation been the same at the end of a conflict as it was at the beginning. So, how is George's War changing us? To continue to refer to it as the Iraq War is a misnomer. It is George's War, pure and simple. He wanted it; he got it, despite any information or advice to the contrary. He steamrolled over any opposition inside or outside the goverment to get what he wanted.

In so doing, he declared this "global war on terror." If we don't fight them in Iraq we'll have to fight them here, blah, blah, blah. The six terrorists arrested for plotting an attack on Ft. Dix is a good case in point. It doesn't really matter when they entered this country, but three of them entered the U.S. VIA THE MEXICAN BORDER. That is so impolite to say, as it might imply that a porous border could be used by terrorists. There is no doubt about it and to pretend otherwise is spitting in the face of the oaths these oafs took to protect the people of the United States.

But I digress. I meant to talk about my own culpability in this. This is hard for me to do as I voted against Bush twice, and for very good reasons as it turned out. Unlike our current president, no one will attribute to me the statement that "the constitution is nothing but a goddamned piece of paper." Nor have I stood in a room full of the richest people in America and declared that the haves and have-mores are my "base." Nor have I rushed through legislation that flies in the face of the very reason our republic was founded and have the gall to refer to it as a "Patriot" act.

Gagging, I turned off the radio. Rush is great if you're bulemic. After the spin and hype and repetition of the Bush non-doctrine, I thought of a pie. A very small slice is quite rich and tasty. But 95% of it tastes like....well....

I thought of calling Rush and reminding him of the old adage: "Don't go stepping in the stuff you're trying to sell us."

Memorial Day With A TWIST

Contributed by Michael Linn Jones

About two hours drive north of Paris there is a small village; la Neuviille-Houssett. Not far from this village is a farm, dissected by a small lane. This is old country, originally civilized by the Romans and witness to centuries of the horror of warfare. Across the lane from this farm is a Cross, with a small retaining wall holding a bronze plaque.

The monument, standing about 15 feet high, looks out upon a rising field, facing a hillock where on a cloudy night in 1944, an American bomber crashed at nightfall. The aircraft split in half, and all the crew were ejected. Local men dragged the men away from the flames. They were carried to the farmhouse. Three men survived, and the other four died. One was a young man from West Virginia. He died on a kitchen table, with Last Rites being read by a local priest. Aware of the fact that the dying man was Protestant, this priest did not care; a man of God performed his duty. This particular priest turned out to be the kind of man who did a lot of things not expected of him.

The West Virginian in question was the bomber's tailgunner, a SSgt. Wetzel Kimball. Several years before he had fallen in love with a girl from Jackson, Tennessee named Camille Owen. Camille had to accept the loss of her husband, a common experience in those days.

The village priest, Father Heroux, dedicated himself to bringing closure to the families of the dead airmen. In 1946 Fr. Heroux raised the funds necessary to erect the original Cross, at the same site where it stands today. He travelled to the U.S. after the war and met Camilee and other family members of the crew.

In 1948 Camillle opted to have her husband's remains returned to the United States from his resting place at Epinal in France. He was finally laid to rest in Hollywood Cemetery in Jackson, Tennessee.

In 2001, the local people of la Neuville-Houssett learned the details of the old Cross along the farm lane. Without government involvement or support, a huge amount of money was raised, and the result is what you see in the photograph. It is, if I may say so, as much a testimony to the gratitude and good hearts of good people as it is a remembrance of dead soldiers.

*********************************
Near the southern border of the Netherlands is a small town named Margraten. Nearby is an American cemetery from World War II. Please watch this short video; it'll only take a moment of your time. It's important that you do so because within the clip is a short mention of the fact that the people of that area regularly visit the graves of the 8,000 men buried there.

What the video does not show is that following World War II, and also 9/11/2001, a system of "adopting" American graves took place. These people waited their turn to have "their" American to lay flowers upon at every American holiday, such as the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and so on. They WAITED to have the opportunity to express their thanks to men who died long before many of them were even born.

Camille Kimball never remarried. She died a widow in 2003. After 59 years, she and her husband were finally reunited at the Hollywood Cemetery in Jackson. The love of one person for another can be most powerful, and in this case stretched for decades.
The story of the Kimballs is an interesting and poignant one. But you don't need to dwell upon them. In any city or town in this country there are cemeteries, and in each of them lies some man or woman who served us up gifts that we love but take for granted.

Sad to say, yet I'm proud to say, certain human beings in France and the Netherlands do not take these gifts for granted. It is part of their tradition that whatever frustrations they may feel in trying to figure out Americans, their gratitude is more than just talk. They walk their walk and, as in the case of Margraten, compete to do so.

Perhaps without knowing it, they are simply responding to the request of a dying Captain Miller in "Saving Private Ryan." He said, "Earn this. Earn this day."

If people an ocean away can do this, why cannot we start a similar tradition? On this Memorial Day, before you go off to your well-deserved rest or fun, take a moment to do something you've probably never thought of doing. Pick up some flowers...anywhere, it doesn't matter. Find the grave of a veteran and do no more than say "thanks."

You'll have a whole year to think about what you've done to earn that gift.

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Invasion of Families by the State

This is a personal issue that I think should be played out here. My girls are my world and my family is my world but when you insert one child with a serious mental health issue into the equation and ask the state for help it can turn your life up side down. Anything your child says is a weapon for the state social services to use against you and you are guilty till proven innocent no matter what you do. That is the case in our lives today.

Would you see a problem with a sixteen year old that is reasonably stable watching her little sisters for an hour or so till Mom gets home from work? Apparently, the Department of Mental Health in Mass A Two Sticks has a problem with that. They filed parental neglect charges along with more idiotic accusations from the mouth of just on child. Missing one phsyc appointment is neglect too! Not accepting as realistic as a parent of that child stating two days later that she took enough of her mental health medication that could have killed a cow is serious neglect because you did not take her to the Emergency room two days after the fact is a viable charge. The laundry list goes on. I apparently pick up a six pack and drink and drive with my four little ones in the car. NOT! This is what society has become when the state has a voice in raising the child. She can state any fact and we are guilty. We are dirty and we are criminals in the eyes of the state till proven innocent accordigng to the words from a child on more mind altering drugs than Timmothy Leary would have ever dreamed about being available.

A good friend of mine slapped me upside the head the other day and told me to get a lawyer. My wife and I don't really need one because we have done nothing wrong. We are lucky that we have nothing to hide. Having a child that is diagnosed Bi-Polar is a rough road to travel and it comes with some serious dilemas if you ask the state for help. From that point on they own you and you live under a microscope as parents. Any accusation from the troubled child triggers by law an investigation by other state services and you are guilty till proven innocent. Yup, toss out the Constitution and insert social services rules and state regulations.

There is no abuse of any kind here in this case, and yet I fully back social services in cases where children are truly abused. They don't make enough money in my opinion for the job that they have to do. Given our situation, if the sixteen year old does not like the decicions of her parents then she can say what ever she wants to make our lives hell. We get investigated because we refuse to allow a sixteen year old to date someone that is twenty three? That is how the system works if your kid is part of DMH in Mass! Tantrums gone extreme with teeth.

I do have a problem with them telling me that they will be in our lives for the next three months and visiting every single week till the investigation ends. Last time I checked this wasn't France and you are in prison till you pay the fine. This is what Mass A Two Sticks is like if you dare to beg the Department of Mental Health for help with a troubled teen. The troubled teen becomes the overlord of the family and you are the prisoner of the system forever. No matter how good of a parent you are they make you feel dirty and wondering what you ever did wrong. Guilty till proven innocent is all that it is.

I've pondered this for a while and I am fighting back fire with fire. If the state wants to come after me based on the laws of the land then those same laws work for me as well. I'm not going to let the railroad of state agencies rule my life or my other childrens lives. I have to fight for my family and if the one is lost to the state agencies and the laws they have to live by then so be it. There are still four sister in the family that are my daughters that need a voice of reason from a father that has done his best to date.

If you find yourself in this same situation and you have nothing to hide then I seriously beg you to contact your state representative or anyone that will listen in your state government. Do not let them tell you that you have no rights. Nobody can suspend the Constitution of our country and that is a fact.

Fight for what is right and you will never be wrong. Fight for your kids and you are a true parent. Even if one is over the edge you have to take a stand.

I'm planting my feet square and solid and I have contacted my State Representative and the Governors office. I will not be railroaded by them. Not going to happen in this lifetime!

Round one: State Representative is in our corner

Papamoka

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Shrek Rocks the Box Office!

Picture courtesy of the Boston Herald

We as adults will never understand the mentality of what kids think is truly funny simply because we have forgotten how to laugh. Just because all the news reports have said Shrek 3 kind of bombed does not mean that it is a true bomb. Kids love the characters and frankly, it is a kid’s movie.

When was the last time you talked to an extreme liberal or conservative that thought a fart joke was funny? Nope, that would be taboo wouldn’t it?

Then again, we as adults still talk about the Monty Python movies with very fond memories. Search for the Holy Grail is a classic for my generation. Life of Brian is another. Then there is the Mel Brooks classic gut busters of my youth such as Young Frankenstein or even better was Blazzing Saddles. History of the Earth was a gut buster as well. Need I say more other than Space Balls? And yet we as adults just don't get Shrek humor?

Rock on Shrek! Twenty years down the road the kids of today will be reciting lines from it just as we do today for the classics of our own youth.

Over at the Boston Herald they had this to say about Shrek 3…

‘Shrek the Third’ sets ’toon record with $122 million opening
By Associated Press
Sunday, May 20, 2007

LOS ANGELES - The big green ogre keeps getting bigger.

"Shrek the Third" took in $122 million in its first weekend, breaking the franchise’s own record for best debut ever for an animated film, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The latest adventure of the ogre shot past 2004’s "Shrek 2," the previous record-holder for animated openings with $108 million.

Produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount, "Shrek the Third" was the third-biggest debut ever, coming in behind the $151.1 million haul of this month’s "Spider-Man 3" and the $135.6 million gross of last summer’s "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest." – Boston Herald

When it comes out on video the kids will beg Mom and Dad to buy it so they can watch it ten thousand times over and over and over. If you have kids, you will be assimilated into the Shrek hype...

Having five kids of my own I am Shrek bound eventually for the third time. This site is not affiliated with Dream Works or any media agency. No charge for the free shameless plug to Shrek the Third either.

Papamoka

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Was Hillary Clinton the Mother Theresa of Walmart?

Picture courtesy of the White House

The simple answer to the question of this post is an out right no. As the wife of the Governor of Arkansas she was on the list of candidates of woman that chose to serve on the board of Walmart. It by no means didn’t hurt that she was also a very large contributor to the Rose law firm that oversaw many legal cases for the smiley face mega retailer.

Which reminds me that they stole the smiley face from Worcester, MA own Harvey Ball. I have to give credit to my eleven year old daughter for that enlightenment.

Back in the day when the wife of Governor Bill Clinton was on the Board of Directors of Walmart she did have some influence on the corporations directions no matter how you look at it. However much like most Boards that oversee any corporation in America their power is strictly limited. Boards can suggest directions for the corporation to move in and that is it. Yes a Board of Directors can direct CEO’s to progressively move the company one way or the other but they can not over rule the likes of a CEO like Sam Walton.

Over at the New York Times they have this near miss slam on Senator Clinton and frankly the piece makes me reconsider her legitimate candidacy for the Presidency…

Clinton Moved Wal-Mart Board, but Only So Far

By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: May 20, 2007

In 1986, Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, had a problem. He was under growing pressure from shareholders — and his wife, Helen — to appoint a woman to the company’s 15-member board of directors.

So Mr. Walton turned to a young lawyer who just happened to be married to the governor of Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is based: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Mrs. Clinton’s six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest company, remains a little known chapter in her closely scrutinized career. And it is little known for a reason. Mrs. Clinton rarely, if ever, discusses it, leaving her board membership out of her speeches and off her campaign Web site.

Fellow board members and company executives, who have not spoken publicly about her role at Wal-Mart, say Mrs. Clinton used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program, despite being Wal-Mart’s only female director, the youngest and arguably the least experienced in business. On other topics, like Wal-Mart’s vehement anti-unionism, for example, she was largely silent, they said. - New York Times

I happen to be of the opinion that change in any large corporation has to start with one voice and I honestly believe that Hillary Clinton was that first voice at Walmart. My first point would be that she was the first woman on the Board of Directors for Walmart and she fought the battles she knew that she could possibly win. Woman in the workplace and especially at senior management levels was unheard of before her tenure at Walmart.

Environmental impact and footprint issues for new stores was her idea and suggestion as a member of the Board of Directors for Walmart. How many other issues did she have suggestive power and the conviction to know that it was the fight of that time that could be won by just one woman among many powerful men at Walmart? Suggestion is the key word here.

Anyone that logically thinks that a young respected woman attorney that was also the Governor of Arkansas wife serving on the board of Walmart with 14 other men, most of which agreed with Sam Walton that unions were bad for the business, was going to flip the board and the Chairman’s opinion has no clue as to how true business runs.

Sam Walton ran his business as he chose to do so. If there was any influence as to how he ran his business it came to him from directly across the dinner table and from his wife Helen. Not since his death has the business chosen to even begin to acclimate itself to acceptable business ethics and even then they still miss the mark by a couple thousand yards.

Blaming Hillary Clinton for Sam Walton’s corporation’s (Walmart) long standing opinion against unions is simply ridiculous.

Papamoka

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Politicians or Leaders?

Picture Courtesy of The White House

There is a distinct difference between the words politician and leader. One is a person that would sell your mothers soul for a few extra votes and the other is someone that would defend your mother’s soul and care not about losing votes. American politics has been bastardized into a media event that has truly lost the meaning of what being a public servant is. Having the best makeup and looking good for the camera has become more important than the message behind the candidate and yet it gets worse.

American voters no longer expect the rough and ready character of the true debates of long ago but who looks the best on camera or whom best resembles Bob Barker of the Price is Right fame. Spin the Wheel of Fortune and the politicians of lesser character will say whatever the political base wants to hear. If that doesn’t work then lets go on a Supper Market Sweep and see who can load the grocery cart with enough of the political base by just pandering and grabbing at votes as if they are fifty dollar hams in the meat case.

Running for the Presidency of the United States is a very tedious task. Every single politician has to make the rounds in towns and cities that they hope and pray they never have to set foot in again once elected. Ask yourself this question, how many times has the current President been to Iowa or New Hampshire other than when he was in election mode? Not enough if ever. Once elected, those Americans have no value to this President or his political party. Their fifteen minutes of fame is up.

Given the current day media and coverage of all of the candidates you can see the disgust on some of their faces as they romp through yet one smaller town in New Hampshire or Iowa and the contempt of the elite politician is right there on the television. It almost seems like they believe the lie themselves knowing that they have a hundred million in the bank to fund the campaign and that actually visiting the real people that vote is just absurd.

Selling the canned message is more important than actually connecting with the people. Tell me what you want to here politics sells better to the media than telling the people what they really need to hear.

One of the saddest things that I have to acknowledge as a realist is that the campaign tactics and the amount of money spent for our nation’s highest office isn’t going to change any time soon. The next President will be the person that can best manipulate the media and the American people’s attention span in a thirty second commercial in the last two weeks before the actual final vote.

Papamoka

Cross Posted at Bring It On!

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A SUGAR-COATED LEGACY

Contributed by Michael Linn Jones

George S. Patton was a brilliant tactician. He served his nation well despite his tendency at times to put his foot in his mouth. His nickname was "'ole blood and guts." Some of the soldiers who served under him groused that yes, it was his guts, but their blood. In other words, Patton's roaring rhetoric was paid for by someone else's physical sacrifice. It must be said, though, that General Patton was no coward; he was a brave man, a throwback to 19th century thinking that even generals should be prepared to stand the front lines if need be.

I mention this because it has come to the forefront of my mind that enough is enough. The much-vaunted "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has become nothing more than a huge millstone around the neck of the United States of America. It has become a disease eating at the vitals, and the vitality of our nation.

Say what you want about anyone in the Bush administration involved in starting the debacle on its downhill lurch towards disaster. Take your list of names....Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Pearl, Rice, and so on. The fact is, no buck stops with them. It stops, one way or the other, in the Oval Office. And the man currently employed there by the American people is the ONLY one who matters. It is HIS judgment that we live with.

The point has been reached where the grasping of straws is commonplace; the tried and true method of blowing smoke up the ass of the populace. But....but, as Lincoln said, not with all the people all of the time. When I hear these complaints that the media is not telling the "full story" on Iraq, that the wonderful works being done with schools and hospitals is going unheeded in the press.....I no longer cringe. I get angry.

For, it is put across like some dubious business deal. Look at all this great stuff that's been done in Iraq. They have water, electricity, facilities, their zoo is making a comeback. And ALL it is going to cost you to 3,500 (so far) totally forgettable people and a mere trillion dollars or so. So give us your son or daughter, and even if they return home in a coffin, well, you get a free flag. And, the eternal thanks of a nation.....along with a passing glance by the man at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Maybe a tear or two if the cameras are rolling.

I woke up thinking about the scene from the film "Full Metal Jacket." Sgt. Hartman discovers a contraband jelly doughnut in the footlocker of Private Leonard Lawrence, branded by Hartman as "Gomer Pyle." Hartman has the entire platoon do push-ups while Private "Pyle" stands on his footlocker and eats the jelly doughnut. He tells "Pyle" to enjoy it, because the other marines are paying for it.

And so goes our nation. We have a rich boy who will never really grow up sitting in the White House. His flawed decision making is evident in business and politics. After 9/11 he really broke bad and proved to his daddy that he, not his father, has the bigger pee-pee. What is life, after all, if one is asked to face the consequences of their own decisions? Such burdens are for the little people.

So, enjoy your sugar-coated jelly doughnut, Mr. President. In 2009 you can do the 1,000-mile mosey back to Crawford and rest your laurels. Enjoy it all, because everyone else is going to be paying for your sweet tooth for a very, very long time.

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USMC Snubbed by VFW for Burial Reception

Picture courtesy of the Boston Herald

According to 96.9 FM Talk in Boston and Eagan & Braude the reception post the burial of a Rockland, MA native son, Walter K. O’Haire who was killed in Iraq serving in the United States Marine Corp was snubbed by the local VFW for a Bingo game. Apparently, the contract from the local Son’s of Italy was iron clad and the reception for a fallen soldier was passed on by the VFW to host the Bingo night.

I’m speechless.

Was the hall built for veterans and their families or was it built for Bingo players? Our kids are being killed serving our country and yet Bingo is a higher priority in the minds of the local VFW?

Fallen Rockland Marine is laid to rest
By Jessica Van Sack
Wednesday, May 16, 2007 - Updated: 10:38 AM EST

A hush fell over the hundreds in Rockland who clutched flags and saluted yesterday as the mournful procession arrived carrying the casket of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Walter K. O’Haire on what would have been his 21st birthday.

From inside a limousine, his uncle, through tears, saluted back to the crowd, which included local schoolchildren, military families, area soldiers and veterans. Then the slow cadence of bagpipes began, breaking the silence.

“Wally saw himself as defending his country and his family,” said the Rev. James Hickey at Holy Family Church in Rockland. “All of that stuff was so important to him.” – Boston Herald

There is no logical explanation for why this happened and yet the mother of the 21 year old man holds no animosity toward the VFW. She buried her son and that was something that she needed to focus on and I offer my heart felt prayers to her and her family.

Papamoka

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Is the Bush Conspiracy Proven at the Pump?

Given the fact that raising the minimum wage to a decent level could break the economy of America according to President Bush I think that the prices at the pump are going to pretty much bury the American people for the good graces of our President. I was talking to a good friend of mine this evening and he brought this comparison up.

When Exxon/Mobile posts a $30 Billion dollar profit for one three month span is that going to wake people up to know that our President is corrupt and sacrificing his people for his few oil Barron friends? What does it take to make the people wake up and know that the fix is in and Bush is sitting there in the Oval office chucking the bird at the American people because we know that he is an idiot? From where he sits it looks like we are all the idiots. From where his friends in the oil industry sit the sky is green with cash, yours, mine and anyone driving a car in America.

Over at the Boston Herald they have this to say about this issue…

Gas prices soar above $3 a gallon and toward $4 in some areas
By Associated Press
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
- Updated: 04:05 PM ESTNEW YORK -

For all their complaining as they pay $3 a gallon or more to fill up their cars, few American drivers have yet to reach the point of cutting back.

That’s the message from government statistics showing that demand for gasoline is only just starting to level off even as refinery outages and tight supplies have sent pump prices soaring by 43 percent since the end of January.

And brace yourself: experts say with gas already closing in on $4 a gallon in Chicago and San Francisco ahead of the peak summer driving season, higher prices could be in the cards.

"I drive 55 miles each way to work every day," said Sandy Colden, of Medford, N.J., one recent morning while loading groceries into her Honda Pilot SUV. "So I really don’t have a choice, unfortunately." – Boston Herald

President Bush and his crew of thieves are stealing from all Americans by punishing us for simply being Americans and not agreeing to his political ideology. That ideology is summed up with your seeing things his way or taking the highway. Pick an article in any paper and the corruption and boldness of the deception in his administration is printed every single day! What better way to put the knife to your people’s throat than at the good old gas pump?

What really boggles my mind is that he isn’t just screwing Democrats and Liberals over with his lack of concern for the cost of gasoline at the pump is the simple fact that he is screwing over all Americans regardless of political affiliation.

This man is not the President of America as much as he is the protector of big oil and turning the other way as they rape Americans on a daily basis. Democrat or Republican, Bush is pissed and we will pay through the nose till he is gone. Only till he leaves office will this situation be corrected and even then the Robber Barron’s of today will walk away with pockets full of cash. Your cash, my cash, our senior’s cash, our grocery money, our kids college money, our retirement money, our new born babies’ money for formula and the list goes on and on. How much have you as a person or as a family had to cut back to afford the raping at the pump courtesy of this administration? How much more are you willing to give up and still defend this man that dares to call himself the leader of the free world?

There are emails out there suggesting a boycott of certain gas stations and I for one participated today. Moving forward in my life I will never purchase gas from the gas stations listed in them and if you want a voice in this fight then you should do so as well. I’m boycotting Exxon Mobile for the rest of my life. If they are going to screw me over at the pump anyway with a guy or gal making minimum wage manning the pumps then I am telling you that we should tell them to screw! I’ll spend my fifty dollars to fill my tank at another gas station just down the street. I’m fed up and I am sure that you are too. Be proactive in your disgust and send the message to the corporations bending you over the barrel at the gas pump.

Moving on and according to the Bush mentality and political thought process, the minimum wage hike will kill the economy? Small businesses will collapse; death and destruction to mid sized companies will lend a hand at bringing on a recession. Think again! Mr. President, you and your lack of defending the people and the supper table at home are killing the American economy. Wake the hell up will you! You sir, and your friends in big oil have taken far too much away from my families supper table and we can not afford you or them anymore. This President should be shown the exit post haste.

Let the investigations begin and if Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the guts to do it then she too should step aside. America is crying for help and all of Washington is looking the other way. Enough is enough! I can't afford politicians that look the other way while my family suffers for their ignorance of what the people at home need.

I'm asking my readers to boycott Exxon Mobil not for just me but for yourself. Send a loud and clear message from your own wallet!

Papamoka

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MySpace Vs ThemPerv’s

Educate your kids by clicking here Kids.gov

As the father of five very young daughters I first let out a cheer upon reading this piece that was in the Houston Chronicle today. If there is one type of American that I have no tolerance for it is sexual predators of our children. This kind of crime against children makes me sick to my stomach because most of the time the crime committed against the child is committed by someone that the child is related to or knows very closely.

Contrary to my mostly liberal mentality I firmly believe that castration or imprisonment for life is the only cure for this sick behavior on our nation’s children. You can call me a bad liberal but all it would take is one of these perverts to touch even one of my girls and I would be the parent in the courtroom going nuts when the guy walks away with a two year sentence for destroying my daughter’s life forever. Film at eleven and all the networks would cover it.
Here is what the Houston Chronicle had to say on this…

May 14, 2007, 12:40PM
MySpace asked to reveal sex offender information
By SAMUEL SPIES
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. — Top law enforcement officers from seven states issued a letter to MySpace.com today, asking the social networking site to turn over the names of registered sex offenders who use the service.

The letter asks MySpace to provide information on how many registered sex offenders are using the site, and where they live. Attorneys general from North Carolina, Connecticut, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania signed the letter.

Law enforcement agencies have identified more than 200 cases nationwide of children "lured out of their home by predators they met on MySpace," North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said a written statement Monday.

In their letter, the attorneys general also asked that MySpace describe the steps it has taken to warn users about sex offenders and remove their profiles.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the site a "virtual playground" for predators.

"That combination of sex offenders and children is a recipe for tragedy," Blumenthal said. -Houston Chronicle

I’ve had some time to think about the article and had a few thoughts as to where this also could lead. What avenues of interpretation does this type of request open up that can be abused by our internet providers at the request of so called defenders of the people from our government leaders? What is the Constitutional basis that would throw the request out of court? Is it your personal privacy that is being invaded if you have a MySpace account? How is MySpace to know who is a pervert and who is just a kid other than the “honesty” policy of reporting your age that is required by the site?

It makes me sick to say it but this is ultimately an invasion of personal privacy that can lead to further actions that will eventually lead to abuse of all internet users to make sure that everyone is a good worker bee. Credit rating to risky, banned from site x, y, and z. Employment history not up to snuff, banned from sites A, B, and C. Filed bankruptcy in the last ten years and you could possibly be banned from L, M, N, O and P web sites. If you have ever been charged with shop lifting then you can forget about buying jack on Amazon or Best Buy or any online vendor.

This whole scenario could be solved by parents knowing that the twelve year old in the house has a MySpace account and the parents have full access to it. One item that was lacking in the story in the Houston Chronicle was the question of where the hell were the parents of these 200 kids when they were lured out of their homes. MySpace needs parental control for children under the age of eighteen and the kids need to have their parent’s permission to have the right to log onto it. Knowing that Mom or Dad will be monitoring it and aware of contact to their children’s account with a simple automatic email to Mom or Dad’s personal email is just one fix.
The world of information is changing so fast and so many avenues open up every single day that our children can be abused or singled out as pray for a sick deviant and we need to make the system accountable in a logical way other than setting a precedent that will uphold in a court of law that can be sighted for more big brother watching over our shoulders. MySpace needs to clean up its own act to protect the kids using their software and parents need to be actively responsive to what programs their children are using on the family or personal computer.

As for perverts and pedophiles I’m still however in favor of Castration. That form of treatment seems logical and sends a message that is loud and clear to perverts and deviants everywhere. Pass a law saying that that will happen to convicted people concerning sexual crimes against children and the percentage of sexual crimes against children will drop over night!

Papamoka

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Giuliani is Playing to the Left of the GOP on Abortion

Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave a speech in front of a very conservative pro life audience in Houston and dared to venture to the side of the isle that for the most part should be the third rail for any Republican candidate for President. In my opinion it was a brilliant political move to stand up for what he believes in and set him clearly apart from the other Republican candidates. Where others amongst his party fear the strong arm of the Christian right he has shown to the people that they are not the only voice in the Republican Party.

It is a political fallacy to dream or think that all Liberal Democrats are Pro Choice when many of us are not. If we were then all of us die hard Catholics and Christian party members should turn in our right to vote and abandon politics all together. In the same context it would be just as wrong to assume that all Republicans are die hard Pro Life. I give the former Mayor of New York City credit for the guts it took to put this part of his personal belief and opinion on just this issue alone with the audience he had to address.

Giuliani reaffirms his support for a woman's right to choose abortion
He also repeats belief the act is "morally wrong."
From Associated Press
3:42 PM PDT, May 11, 2007

HOUSTON -- Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani forcefully reaffirmed his support for abortion rights today and argued that his divergence from conservatives on the issue should not disqualify him from being the eventual GOP nominee.

"This is a matter of deep and profound judgment," he said in a speech at Houston Baptist University. "It's a matter of morals. It's a matter of your interpretation of how laws should operate, your interpretation of how respect for the rights of others should operate. But in a country like ours ... I believe you have to respect their viewpoint and give them a level of choice. I would grant women the right to make that choice."

The former New York City mayor has struggled in the last week to explain his personal opposition to abortion with his long public record of favoring a woman's right to choose. He has defended his positions — and some say contradictory comments — on late-term abortion, public funding for abortions and the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.

But Giuliani left few questions about his position today, telling about 500 students and faculty at the small conservative school that — despite his belief that abortion was "morally wrong" — he believes the decision should ultimately be left to individuals and their decisions should be respected.

Opposition to abortion has been a litmus test for conservatives within the Republican Party, who hold considerable sway in the primaries. Giuliani has drawn criticism from some in the GOP for his abortion rights support. One of his rivals, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has switched from supporting abortion rights to opposing the procedure — a shift that also has drawn complaints. – LA Times

Politically, Giuliani had to face this demon in the flesh and in an audience such as the one he did. Abortion is not the only issue America is facing in this election cycle and he made that fact known. There are many issues in this nation that needs a voice and pretending that all Republicans are self righteous and lacking sin is by far not the truth. On many issues Giuliani is hitting the target of the Republican message as defined by George (I’m the Decider) Bush. I think the Mayor is taking his own message and I honestly think that he is pandering to the left of the Republican Party. That makes him a direct threat to two other serious candidates in this race, McCain and Romney. Both of them are touting that they are “Me too W”!

This move by Giuliani is interesting because of the fact that it is not only drawing the attention of the left of the Republican Party but it is also drawing the interest of the right of the Democrat Party. That my friend is a classic game of chess with serious thinkers and players moving the pieces around the board with stealth plan that ultimately can lead to being elected to the Presidency. Not since the days of Ronald Reagan have these knights, rooks, pawns and bishops have been executed with a strategy toward gaining the middle so cleverly.

It will be interesting to see what the rest of the Republican Party throws at Giuliani.

Papamoka

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