Reno's Blog: Politics and News

Rockupy Everett: The Concert In Front of the Snohomish County Courthouse Plaza

2011-12-04T02:21:00.001-08:00

Occupy Everett has been going on for almost a month now and on Saturday December 3rd the movement held a small gathering and concert opened to all who wanted to join in. There were multiple performers, including Peter Ali and Jim Page. The greatest part of the whole event was one Dorli Rainey, the 84 year old lady who was pepper sprayed in Seattle during the Occupy Seattle movement.

The Occupy Everett movement is indeed a small one, but none the less an important one. I spoke to a few members and got a little bit of history regarding the movement here Everett. I was told that the Occupy Everett movement was started in response to the Occupy Seattle fiasco that occurred (the one in which a pregnant woman and Dorli Rainey were pepper sprayed by police). The leadership is in constant contact with Snohomish County officials and regularly attends their meetings where they make deals and learn about new regulations that the county makes for the occupiers to follow while they camp out in front of the administration building.

The County made a deal with the Occupy Everett leadership, and they gave the occupiers a permit to camp out in front of the administration building, a permit which never expires so long as the occupiers follow certain regulations like keeping the area clean and free of hazardous materials and obstructions. For instance, one of the regulations is the prohibition of wooden structures on the camp because they are considered a fire hazard. This has upset most occupiers many because it rains here a lot, and the occupiers were using wooden pallets to set their sleeping arrangements on so they are raised off of the ground and won’t get wet. As these pallets are wooden structures they are banned.

The occupiers here in Everett have access to two porta-potties in the camp as well. One is paid for by the county and the other is paid for by the occupiers as per an agreement that was struck with the occupy leadership and the county. Although this had caused a twist in the panties of some Everett residents (I’m assuming their Republicans) who don’t believe that their tax dollars should be used to supply the occupiers with any amenities. The one porta-potty that is being paid for by the county has apparently been there since the beginning, but the funny thing is that it’s not being used by just the occupiers there on the scene. Comcast Arena is located not far away, and many occupiers have seen Comcast workers using the porta-potty as well and say they have always used said amenity.

Aside from “pottygate” the occupiers assured me that everything is well in their little encampment. They keep the area clean, they follow the regulations imposed on them by the county, the police and deputies have been friendly (to the extent that they just don’t make contact the occupiers) and no one has been heckled or treated poorly in anyway.

This concert event did have a police presence, but it was a small one as the event itself wasn’t relatively large (at least compared to it’s cousins like Occupy Seattle, Oakland, etc). I saw at most three sheriff’s deputies overlooking the event and looking rather bored with the orders they were given.

There was music at this event of course, and even coffee which was free for all people who were attending the event. There were also a few speeches and attendees were encouraged to come up on stage and speak their mind throughout the event. Performers were playing guitars, drums, and flutes and over all they were all very nice. But as I said, the main event was the anxiously awaited speech that was going to be given by Dorli Rainey herself.

For those who don’t remember or follow the news, Dorli is being called the “new face of the occupy movement” because of what happened to her when police tried to break up the Occupy Seattle movement back in mid November. When she stood up on the stage you could see just how small she is, and how much of an imposing and threatening person she is not. She spoke for a short time and talked about how she gets letters, emails, and phone calls from all across the United States and the world. In one letter she received came from Vienna, in which the writer called her a hero. She wanted to make it clear to everyone at the concert that she was not a hero, and went on to say that she was just “in the right spot at the right time”.

Dorli went on to say that the Occupy movement is the biggest movement she has ever been apart of. Bigger than the civil rights movements, the women’s rights movements, and the anti-Vietnam War movement. She assured the attendees that the Occupy movement was growing larger and larger and wasn’t going to go away anytime soon, and that she was going to continue to participate. One thing she did say which I had trouble agreeing with was “the police aren’t your friend”. I had to disagree, but I had to agree with other parts of her speech regarding the police. It’s obvious that the occupiers don’t like the police at all because of the dispersals, the beatings, the arrests, and of course the indiscriminate use of pepper spray. The thing I agreed with the most about her talk on the police was that since 9/11 the police forces across America have changed forever as they are being militarized and are used against the people in the name of freedom and safety.

All in all, the event was wonderful. It was fun, exciting, and most importantly it was safe. Dorli Rainey’s words are true in that the Occupy movement isn’t going anywhere, and that it is growing day by day.

They are the 99%, as well as you. The cops are the 99%. Other civil workers are the 99%. Even the Republican who lives down the street from you is part of the 99%. It’s time we all realized this, came together and fought against these bankers and corporations that are destroying America and turning our country into a police state. It’s time the workers, the welfare recipients, the civil servants, the unions, the police, and other stand up to these banks and corporations and tell them “we are the 99% and our voices will be heard. You will not buy us out!”

Penn State Scandal: Why Joe Paterno Should Be Punished

2011-11-16T14:56:00.000-08:00

It’s been a crazy few months for the United States. The Republican Presidential hopefuls are all debating for their party’s nomination, the Occupy Wall Street (and other Occupy movement itself) is in full swing and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere, and the Penn State scandal is all over our TV screens as Penn State students are protesting against the firing of Joe Paterno. The latter is what I will be writing about tonight.

Back in 2002 a man walked into the Penn State showers only to find one Jerry Sandusky raping a 10 year old boy. Instead of calling the police and/or stopping the rape himself he reported the incident to Joe Paterno, the Penn State head football coach. After hearing the news of this incident you would think he would have called the police or at least confronted Sandusky and fired him and/or forced him to retire. But no, apparently Paterno thought that the best punishment would be to revoke his locker room and shower privileges and never speak of the incident again.

Well at the beginning of the month Jerry Sandusky was finally arrested for sexually abusing multiple young boys from his charity “The Second Mile”. News got out to the public that not only has Sandusky been abusing children for almost a decade but that Joe Paterno and others on the Penn State football staff knew of the abuse and didn’t do anything about it. As a result the Penn State Board of Trustees fired Paterno for trying to cover up this horrible crime. The Penn State students did not like this idea.

After Paterno was fired many students took to the streets and protested (or rioted, rather) the firing of Paterno. They turned over a news van and even threw objects at police officers. The students said that they believe that the firing of Joe Paterno over this situation is horrible because he has done so much for Penn State’s football program and thus he should be allowed to keep his job.

The students are not the only ones who believe this, as just recently football hall of famer and Penn State great Franco Harris is releasing statements saying that he stands beside his former coach Joe Paterno and believes that his firing was unjust.

From the article:

"I feel that the board made a bad decision in letting Joe Paterno go," said Harris, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "I'm very disappointed in their decision. I thought they showed no courage, not to back someone who really needed it at the time. They were saying the football program under Joe was at fault.

"They really wouldn't give a reason. They're linking the football program to the scandal and, possibly, the cover up. That's very disturbing to me. ... I think there should be no connection to the football program, only in the case that it happened at the football building with an ex-coach.”

For one, the football program isn’t being linked to the scandal. It wasn’t the football program who raped and then tried to cover up the abuse of several young boys. But people that are a part of the football program (Sandusky, Paterno) are linked to the scandal because one of them raped young boys and the other one didn’t report it to the proper authorities.

Jon Stewart made the best point I think I have ever heard.

From the clip:

“I guess it’s pretty hard for you to believe that this guy you think is infallible and this program you think is sacred could hide such heinous activities, but there is some president for that (the catholic church). And just like with the Catholic Church no one is trying to take away your religion, in this case football, they’re just trying to bring some accountability to a pope and some of his cardinals who fucked up. So don’t worry, on Saturday you’ll still get to go to services against Nebraska, no one’s going to take that away because obviously you’re young, and that would be a traumatic experience. And we wouldn’t want that memory to scar you for life.”

The case for firing Paterno is simple. He technically did something illegal and he should be held accountable for it legally. He covered up a crime. He knew Sandusky was raping young boys (in the locker room showers of Penn State) and the only thing he did was try to stop it from happening on his turf by revoking Sandusky’s locker room and shower privileges. What he should have done was fired Sandusky, or forced him to retire, or (hey this is an interesting concept) reported Sandusky to the police for raping young boys.

The reason for this cathartic outcry for Paterno from Penn State students is simple. Penn State’s football program brings in millions of dollars for the school. As one student said on the news, “he’s done so much for this school.” But I’m sorry, just because you have done so much for the school and the football team should not exonerate you from covering up such a crime. Thank about it this way, if you knew that someone that worked under you was raping little boys would you just sweep it under the rug? And if you would, where the hell are your morals and ethics? If I caught someone I worked with raping young boys I would report them to the police immediately.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Drug Testing Those on Welfare: A Wasteful and Stigmatizing Tactic.

2011-11-10T15:55:00.000-08:00

During the summer, the state of Florida made it law that anyone applying for welfare benefits had to take a drug test before receiving said benefits. If you were applying for welfare you are required to pay for the drug test first. If you pass you are reimbursed for the test and you can receive the benefits. If you do not pass you are denied the benefits for a year, then you can retake the test and get your benefits if you come up negative.

This idea is becoming very popular among Americans who believe that drug testing welfare recipients will cut back on waste and stop the poor from spending their welfare money on illegal drugs. The reasoning behind this is that those who are currently on welfare will have to be drug tested, and if they are positive then the benefits are taken away, thus the ex-recipient will no longer receive money to spend on illegal drugs and the money saved can go to someone who is more deserving.

“Why should my tax dollars go to someone who is just going to buy drugs with it?”

This idea is expanding as well. Some states are considering mandatory drug testing for unemployed individuals who are applying for unemployment benefits, as well as drug testing for people who are participating in state job-training programs. These ideas are appealing to people and seem to be overwhelmingly supported.

But the truth is that mandatory drug testing for people applying for or already on welfare doesn’t do what supporters think it does. It is in actually wasteful, and more importantly can be unconstitutional.

Supporters highly believe that large numbers of people who use drugs go on to welfare to pay for their drug habit. When the law was enacted in Florida 38 out of 40 people who were first drug tested came up negative. That means only 2 came up positive for drug use, and 1 of those 2 individuals is appealing the results.

Why is this law so bad? Well for one it stigmatizes the poor. The idea that the majority of people on welfare are drug users that use their welfare money to buy illegal drugs only supports the stereotype that anyone who doesn’t make a lot of money is automatically a drug abuser. Also, it’s not very cost effective for the state either. Drug testing is thought of as a great way to save tax dollars, but that’s not factual. Think about it. In Florida if each drug test costs (lets assume in lowest terms) $50 and the state has to pay $50 back to the 38 people who passed their drug test then that means the state has just lost $1,900. That means the state only made $100 dollars from the two individuals who did not pass their drug test.

Now think of it on a much larger scale. If 100,000 people apply for welfare and are drug tested, and only 5% do not pass that means 95,000 people have to be reimbursed $50. That’s $4,750,000 that the state now has to repay to those who passed the test just to prevent 5,000 people from receiving welfare benefits. The state has only made $250,000 off of those who did not pass which means the state has actually paid back $4,500,000. But it’s worth it for so little revenue...right?

Wrong.

A study conducted back in 1996 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism showed that there is no significant difference in the rate of illegal drug use by those on welfare and those who are not on welfare. Another study showed that 70% of people between the ages of 18 and 49 use illegal drugs and are employed full time.

But let’s also take something else into consideration; the amount of time and money that is going to be wasted in court fighting this new law. The Fourth Amendment puts strict limits on what kind of searches the state can legally conduct, and drug tests are considered a type of search. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg said that drug testing was an unreasonable search and that the state can only conduct drug tests in exceptional cases when the safety of the public is an issue. Bus and train operators should be drug tested because their job requires them to safely transport the public. And there is no real safety reason for drug testing welfare applicants, thus the law is unfair, wasteful, and more importantly unconstitutional.

The truth is that this law is aimed at stigmatizing the poor during times of economic hardships. Think about it, if the state of Florida was seriously concerned about drug use they would implement stricter laws regarding illegal drugs that are aimed at the entire population, and not just a certain class of people.

The idea that this laws saves tax dollars and curbs illegal drug use is bunk. You’re concerned that your tax money will be going to a small percentage of people who may or may not use the money on drugs. And now you’re paying for drug tests for the higher percentage of individuals who pass.

Wasteful.

I understand fully that no one wants their tax money going to pay for someone's drug habit, I mean who would? Aside from the fact that we don't want to be enabling someone's drug habits, we also feel that welfare recipients should be doing something useful with the money we give to them like buying food and clothing and putting a roof over their head. Don't get me wrong, I'm not for people using drugs on welfare money. I just think that if you want to curb drug use or stop this kind of thing you should make stronger laws against illegal drugs that apply to everyone. Instead of doing that the state of Florida has gone into an all out class war.

Here's some more food for thought for you. It only takes 30-40 days of not smoking marijuana for a marijuana user to pass a drug test. It only takes a few days to a week for crack and meth users to pass a drug test, and people who abuse prescription drugs only have to stop for a few days for their systems to be clean as well. So how does this law work when all a drug user needs to do is discontinue using drugs for a short time so they can pass a test (a test that your state will have to reimburse the money on) and then start using again once they receive their welfare money (money that YOU will technically be giving them)?

This law makes no sense.

I know this blog is late in being posted as the law was enacted during the summer. I had to write it now because I see this poll being passed around Facebook asking people if they believe drug testing welfare recipients is a good idea. The results are an overwhelming “yes” vote. I believe this is because the majority of people believe the stereotype that most people on welfare are drug users who can’t get their life together, or believe that drug testing is an effective way to make sure deserving people get welfare money rather than undeserving and that this will save money for the state.

The 2012 Conspiracy and Why It's Bunk

2011-06-15T23:22:00.001-07:00

For the past few years I have heard all sorts of things about the 2012 myth that is gaining momentum as the date, 12/21/2012, draws near. I first heard about the myth when I was attending college from an old friend whom I went to high school with. At the time I thought that maybe this was just some Nostradamus fad and that it would die after some time had passed. Sadly, it didn't. (And sadly Nostradamus' "predictions" are also being hyped up, but that's another blog for anther time.)

More recently another friend of mine has been going all out with the 2012 myth nonsense, as if he were on war time mobilization and needed to spread the word as if he were Paul Revere and 2012 was the British Red Coat army coming to arrest the founding fathers. I remember back in 2008 we used to have all kinds of discussions and debates about the apparent doom that was approaching earth. In fact I remember making a bet with him that if the world didn't come to some cataclysmic end on 12/21/12 he would owe me $50. And if it did come to an end...I would owe him $50...

But back then he could provide no proof or any kind of evidence or any viable research that could prove this unstoppable doom of course. Just things that he heard from others, or maybe got off of the internet or from a book. I don't know where he got the idea to begin with and unfortunately the idea hasn't faded from his mind at all in the past 3 years. And what's even more unfortunate is that this 2012 myth has him scared.

No, I'm being 100% serious. He's actually afraid that he is right, and that something terrible is going to happen on or after 12/21/12. And nothing seems to be able to convince him otherwise. He has claimed to have done all sorts of "research" that he cannot present to prove his stance. The only things he can present are conspiracy videos from youtube with Jesse "The Body" Ventura, and David "HOLY SHIT REPTILIAN ALIENS ARE CONTROLLING THE PLANET!" Icke featured in them.

First off, Jesse Ventura is an ex-pro wrestler from the WWE (formally the WWF), who somehow got elected as Governor of Minnesota. He has no background in science and (in my own words) is a "fly by the seat of your pants" politician.

Secondly, David Icke is a British journalist with no formal college or university education, no background in science, and he seriously believes that the world is under the influence of reptilian aliens that have taking the form of humans. One day he had a strange sensation that he was being pulled to a new age healing book as if he were a piece of metal being magnetically pulled in. He sought out the author, who was a psychic healer named Betty Shine, and was apparently told by her that she had a message for him and that he was sent to heal the earth.

In the early 90's Icke went to Peru where according to him he felt attracted to an earthen mound that was surrounded by waist high stones. He says that he was pulled there, again as if he were magnetically drawn to that place. Now he writes new aged books about vibrations, psychic energies and...oh yeah that's right, reptilian alien shape shifters that control the planet.

Are these credible sources of scientific information? Are these the people you really want to get important information from regarding the end of the world or a hostile shift in American Government policies?

There is more than just one 2012 myth though, and I trust each of them about as far as I can throw Dick Cheney. Of course there is the once wildly believed (and terribly NOT entertaining movie) scenario of the world simply crumbling apart. There are also the scenarios of the massive solar flare, the asteroid, and (Dun, dun DUUUN!!!) the so-called return of "Planet X" (which is considered by most to be a brown dwarf star).

More recent scenarios seem a little more plausible, but as always no one has any evidence to prove the claim. This scenario is a rather vague and unspecified threat of hostile Government action against the people of the United States and the entire world. The scenario begins with, of course, the date of 12/21/2012. According to conspiracy theorists on the day that the Mayan calender ends the "New World Order" will begin with the US Government handing over all sovereignty to the United Nations. That means the Navy, Marines, Air Force, Army, and Coast Guard will be under the full control of the UN. We will be at the mercy and the whim of the UN.

Other theorists believe that...well...they don't know what will happen. But they are pretty damn sure something is going to happened on the day the Mayan calender ends. Whether it's a solar flare, an asteroid or comet colliding with the earth, the planet simply tearing itself apart, hostile Government actions, "Planet X", or even planetary alignments. They aren't sure what it could be, but it will be something, and it's certainly going to happen and it's a real fear that they have.

I wonder if I could coin a new word for someone who is afraid of the date 12/21/2012, and the unknown that it will bring? Mayanaphobe? Twentytwelveaphobe? Eh, I'm leaning toward Mayanaphobe.

But the question still remains. Why? Why are people afraid of this one specific date? What started it all?

This is all caused by the ancient Mayan people (Damn those handsome devils!) and the fact that one of their calenders abruptly ends at a certain date. The truth is that the Mayan were in fact very sophisticated mathematicians. They were comfortable with calculating things right down to a certain day, or even hour. They were also very good astronomers and could predict solar and lunar eclipses. They were able to grasp math in ways that no other culture was able to do. They were also known for sacrificing virgins to appease their gods. But in all seriousness, in Mayan records there is no mention of the world coming to an end.

OK, I have done my research. Most of this stuff I'm getting from Professor Mark Van Stone. He's a Mayan expert. That's right, a Mayan EXPERT. He has a PhD. Yeah, that's right! An actually honest to God PhD! That means he goes by DOCTOR MARK VAN STONE! He has his PhD in Latin American studies with an emphases in archeology. You would want to listen to this man when getting your research, not Jesse Ventura or David Icke.

So why did everyone start to believe the world was going to end on 2012? The story starts with (Dun, dun, DUUN!) "Planet X". Actually, it's called Nibiru. And it was supposedly discovered by the Sumerians which was believed to be heading for earth. The occurrence of Nibiru colliding with earth was originally planned for May of 2003. But as usual when nothing happened on the supposed day of destruction the date was moved back to December 2012. Much like the California priest who predicted the rapture would occur in May of this year, when it did not happen he eventually moved the date back. These two stories (the one about Nibiru being discovered and the other about Nibiru colliding with earth) were soon combined with the end of ONE of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calender, which according to the Gregorian calender is on the Winter Solstice December 21st 2012.

Just as any calender you have in your house does not cease to exist on December 31st, the Mayan calender does not cease to exist on December 12th 2012. The date on the Mayan calender marks the end of a long-count period and just like the calender you have at home begins again on January 1st another long-count period begins again for the Mayan calender.

As far as planetary alignment goes, there are no scheduled planetary alignments for the next few decades, and the earth is not going to cross the galactic plane. And even if it did the earth would be fine. Each December the earth and the sun align with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and nothing happens.

As for the "Planet X" (Nibiru) theory, there is nothing to fear. There is absolutely no proof what-so-ever that a brown dwarf star is heading toward the earth. And if it was we would know about it, and we would know about it hundreds of years in advance.

The threat of an asteroid or meteor hitting the earth is always a real threat. And the truth is that the earth is hit by stuff from outer space all of the time. If there is a collision that is going to happen then show the proof. Come on folks, we would know if something like that was coming for us. There is no evidence to suggest that on the exact date of 12/21/2012 something will collide with earth causing wide spread destruction/extinction.

Solar flares are something that happen to us all the time. Just recently we were hit by some solar flares. In fact in 2003 the earth was hit with some very large solar flares, some of the largest ever recorded. Nothing bad occurred aside from some communication disruption. Some of the conspiracy theorists say that there will be a huge solar flare that hits the earth and that scientists agree with this notion. But the truth is that solar maximums happen approximately every 11 years. And it is true the that next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame, but it is predicted to be an average solar cycle, just as the cycles we have had through out history.

As for some of those theorists who say that something is going to happen on 2012 they just don't know what, I have this to say: You don't need to set an exact date for something to happen, especially if it is something that you have an irrational fear of. Be it an earth quake, an asteroid, a solar flare, a "Planet X", a hostile Government action, or the unknown. There is no need to be afraid of these things and set a date for when they are going to happen to satisfy your anxiety. Of course something bad can happen on 12/21/2012, and of course something bad can happen afterwards too. Something bad somewhere on earth is going to happen today. Some time, on or shortly after 6/16/2011 there is going to be an earth quake, a fire, a hostile regime abusing it's people. There are always bad things happening but we shouldn't fear them. This is how life is, and it's not just a waste of energy to be afraid of something you can't control it's also neurotic.

So to all of those who are seriously worried that something bad is going to happen today, tomorrow, a week from now, or on 12/21/2012 I say to you relax. Enjoy life for what it has to offer instead of being afraid of the parts you can't control. It's a waste of good mental energy that could be put to better use rather than being afraid and paranoid and spreading that irrational fear and paranoia to others so that they can be afraid with you.

SOURCES:

Penn & Teller BS: 2012 Part 1
Penn & Teller BS: 2012 Part 2
NASA
About Mark Van Stone
Mark Stone Lecture Trailer

Glenn Beck’s Gold Interest

2009-12-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Glenn Beck is a misleading, liar who can’t prove half the things he says? No way! That can’t be! Oh wait, hold on. It is!

What’s going on in this man’s mind, or lack thereof? The most recent news about conservative commentator Glenn Beck is just adding a little more icing to the cake he has been building upon himself for the past year. Beck is being accused this time of a huge conflict of interests regarding one of his business relationships, in this case the relationship between he and the precious metals company called Goldline International.

Critics are saying that Beck, who has shows both on TV and on the radio, is guilty of misleading his audience by advising them to buy gold in advance because of the potential threat of the US dollar losing value on the world market. But the thing that’s so bad about this is that Beck isn’t an economist, nor does he know anything about where this economy is going and how much better we are doing, but it has to do with the fact that he is a paid spokesman for Goldline International.

This has been going on for a while though, in fact ever since Beck was on CNN. His on air promotions for buying gold include advising people to build “fruit cellars” and follow the “three G system” which is “God, Gold, and Guns.” Beck has even had the CEO of Goldline International on his radio show to talk about the future of America after an apocalypse of epic proportion which will leave the economy in ruins, and the only ones who will be able to survive are those who bought gold. Here is a quote from Beck’s show:

When the system eventually collapses, and the government comes with guns and confiscates, you know, everything in your home and all your possessions, and then you fight off the raving mad cannibalistic crowds that Ted Turner talked about, don't come crying to me. I told you: get gold.

Wow, scare tactics much? I like how he says the government is going to come and take away everything you own. Sounds like a Bush administration to me and the destruction of the middle class. Beck is not just guilty of being an ignorant TV personality who is a paid spokesman for gold, but he should also be guilty for trying to spread panic throughout the USA.

But what’s more is the fact that Fox News strictly prohibits on air personalities from making paid product endorsements. But when Fox was contacted about this issue a strange answer was given…

FROM THE ARTICLE:

…the network "makes an exception for its commentators who are also radio hosts," adding that they knew upfront that hiring Beck came with the understanding that he was also a radio host and that they "had to be accepting of certain elements of that." Nevertheless, a Fox spokeswoman said that the company is addressing the matter with Beck's agent, George Hiltzik.

Beck actually responded to this issue though saying, “So I shouldn’t make money?”

Beck is shown in a video clip that was made by Air America saying that the value of the dollar is slipping (hello FED anyone?) and that the two ways you can stop this are by purchasing gold and joining…a tea party. He’s just jumping on the “Obama is a bad socialist guy” routine, like every other Republican who wants you to believe that Obama will be the cause of New World Order and the rise of a new currency.

Come on America, are we all that blind? We all know it was Bush, who signed the North American Union pact that will usher in a new world order. But it’s not just Republicans or Democrats who are behind this; it’s the Federal Reserve Bank. Beck is no smarter than any other Republican commentator on Fox.

Rather, he and Hannity, and O’Reilly and the rest of the conservative commentators on Fox are all just puppets. They will say anything they have to in order to make you scared so they can earn crazy amounts of money. I mean, do you really think that Beck is going to be hurting if the economy does fall? Of course not, he’s got all the money he will need because he sold his soul to the devil of Fox News.

Check out the video made by Air America, and keep in mind that you’re real masters are not in the government, but rather they are in the Federal Reserve. I’m not saying that gold is a bad investment; I’m just upset that no one knows anything about our economy or how money is made. By all means go out and buy some gold and stash it. Don’t do it because you think you can trust Glenn Beck…

Lou Dobbs Quits CNN

2009-11-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

It’s about time we got this guy off the air. According to Lou he has reached an agreement where he will be released from his contract to go explore new opportunities. Can anyone say Fox News?

FROM THE ARTICLE:

“Over the past six months it’s become increasingly clear that strong winds of change have begun buffeting this country and affecting all of us, and some leaders in media, politics, and business have been urging me to go beyond the role at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day. And to continue to do so in the most honest and direct language possible.”

I’ll give Lou Dobbs this, he did cover the North American Union and the new world order thing, but continues to slam Obama and things like immigration and healthcare reform. Bush was the one who sign the North American Union in and yet it’s all Obama’s fault to him now these days.

Hey Lou, if you’re going to play the new world order card just remember that both sides are apparently in on that, not just democrats.

I honestly think this has more to do with MSNBC’s anti-Lou Dobbs ad that they were running last week. Well congratulations MSNBC you did it! You got Dobbs off the air!

Murdoch’s In Deep

2009-11-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

The Fox Noise Network is still at it, proliferating lies about President Obama. And now their owner Rupert Murdoch is jumping into the ring to protect his network’s commentators with absolute nonsense.

Murdoch must be going senile, or he’s just stupid enough to say that Fox commentators never drew comparisons between President Obama and Stalin. I did a big scoop on Glenn Beck a while back where he’s trying to proof that Obama is a socialist for one, and for two Fox news commentators take the chance to call Obama Stalin-like or Hitler-like every chance they can find.

So why try and lie about it Murdoch? Why say that none of your commentators have ever called Obama Stalin? There is a few videos at the bottom I would like people to watch to proof my point.

Murdoch is also in very deep with his statement defending Glenn Beck. Back in the summer Beck called Obama a racist, and said that he believes Obama has a problem with white people. Such a stupid comment seeing as how Obama is half black half white…

So wait, I really need to know what makes Obama a racist in these people’s heads. What was it that he said? Can anyone remember what he said or did to make a news organization think he is a racist?

In the video, Murdoch is being asked about Glenn Beck and how he called Obama a racist and Murdoch agrees with Glenn Beck. Murdoch says that Obama “did make a very racist comment…about blacks and whites and so on.” He goes on to say that it was a comment that probably shouldn’t have been used against the President, but if you assess what Beck was saying you’d realize he was right.

Unfortunately there was more to the video that Media Matters for America cut out for some reason. But they showed the same interview on MSNBC and the interviewer asks Murdoch what the racist comment was that Obama used and when it was used. Murdoch couldn’t answer either of those questions.

Now a spokesperson for Fox is spreading the word that Murdoch does not believe that Obama is a racist.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch has drawn criticism following an interview with Sky News Australia, where his comments were interpreted by some as being in agreement with Glenn Beck's view that President Obama's "a racist."

But News Corp. spokesperson Gary Ginsberg tells POLITICO that Murdoch did not intend to suggest that he had the same opinion as Beck.

"He does not at all, for a minute, think the president is a racist," Ginsberg said.

Murdoch, in the interview, said that the president "did make a very racist comment" and seemed to indicate he thought Beck was right in making the controversial claim. Media Matters, and others, quickly seized upon the interview as evidence that Murdoch shared the same view as the Fox News host.

“Seemed to indicated?” Murdoch’s own words were, “And, you know, that was something which perhaps shouldn't have been said about the president, but if you actually assess what he was talking about, he [Beck] was right.”

So Glenn Beck was right in calling Obama a racist, and Murdoch agrees that if you assess what Glenn Beck said you would realize he is right. And yet Murdoch does not think the president is a racist?

Is Murdoch trying to promote Beck from the football team’s water boy position to Sean Hannity’s cheerleading position? Or does he want to make him quarterback in place of Bill O’Reilly?

Lets get back into reality can we please? There is no proof, NONE WHAT SO EVER, that Obama ever made a racist comment against white people. There is also no proof that he is a socialist or a Nazi (which are too different things…funny how people have no idea what either of those words means these days).

Glenn Beck goes on TV and lies about the president and loses sponsors. Until this man can come up with any proof to back up his claim he is a lame duck. And Murdoch is even lamer for going one step further than Beck by saying that Obama made a racist statement which no one can seem to remember.

If he did make a racist statement then why isn’t Fox covering that and presenting proof? If Obama did slip up during a speech why isn’t there any video/audio for it? Why is it that no other media source, not even Fox has the proof of this claim? A better question, why are these people calling themselves journalists when they concocted lies and stories? People like to say that MSNBC and other networks do the same which is untrue. And if any of those commentators on MSNBC did in fact say something that wasn’t true they always apologize the next day and correct the error. I have NEVER seen Fox make a correction based on a story they broadcasted that wasn’t factual.

Get Glenn Beck off the air and make Rupert Murdoch air a correction on behalf of his entire “news” organization. Fox is not news, it’s a 24/7 political operation.

My Friend’s Tragedy

2009-11-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

Saturday night was a terrible night for my good friend Kelly.

On Saturday around 7:30 pm in a sports bar in Vail Colorado, Kelly’s father Dr.Gary Bruce Kitching, was shot to death by a Vietnam veteran who apparently suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The shooter was a longtime Vail resident, Richard "Rossi" Moreau, age 63. Witnesses say that Moreau was being escorted out of the bar by staff members when he rushed back in with a pistol and started shooting.

Moreau shot multiple people in the bar injuring most, but killed Kelly’s father Dr. Kitching.

Kelly was terribly distraught at our favorite watering hole Silky Sullivan’s. We all came to comfort her.

Kelly’s father was shot to death in a sports bar right in front of her mother, by a man who was not mentally stable. No motives have been discovered for Moreau’s actions other than an argument he had.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

Witnesses told investigators that Moreau, a Vietnam veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, was being escorted out of the bar by bar staff at about 7:30 p.m. when he pulled out a semi-automatic .45-caliber handgun and started shooting. Moreau had been argumentative and disruptive, they said.

My heart goes out to my friend Kelly and her mother, who lost a father, husband, man of medicine, and man of love in their life.

Fort Hood Victims Remembered

2009-11-06T15:58:00.000-08:00

We now know who the victims of major Hasan’s attack yesterday are. They were all men and women who joined the military to serve their country, only to be brought down by one of their own people.

Velez: 21, preparing to return home to Chicago.

Nemelka: 19, of Salt Lake City.

Pearson: 21, from Chicago.

Hunt: 22, spend 3 ½ years in the Army and served in Iraq.

Krueger: 29, joined the Army to hunt Osama Bin Ladin.

Xiong: 23, of St. Paul Minnesota.

These are half the people that were killed by major Hasan yesterday at Fort Hood Texas.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

Ft. Hood Shooting Update

2009-11-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was one crazy day. Army major Nidal Malik Hasan, just before going on his rampage at Ft. Hood killing 12 people and injuring 31 more, gave leftover frozen broccoli to one of his neighbors and called the other to thank him for his friendship, as if he was going off war. At 1:30 pm yesterday he began shooting at fellow soldiers and was thought to be killed. Then we found out that he wasn’t dead, merely just wounded and in a coma while under military guard.

More developments have been made in these horrible tragedies which do shed some light on the issue. But of course there are those out there who have no regard for people and like to twist facts and spread rumors. Mainly the Bucks County Conservative Examiner Doreen Alli Linder, who most likely doesn’t even read her own material before or after posting it.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

According to Jihadwatch.org Maj. Halik Nidal Hasan was a on a Homeland Security Panel advising the incoming Obama administration. Hasan, was a psychiatrist and army Major who gunned down 43 people yesterday at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. Hasan participated on November 6 in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation, a transition task force last year.

According to Jihad Watch the panel was, "The task force was not officially affiliated with the White House. It was a project of the Homeland Security Policy Institute, an independent think tank housed at George Washington University, aimed at drafting policy recommendations for the incoming Obama administration."

Doreen Alli Linder is suggesting that major Hasan was on the Homeland Security Panel which was advising the Obama administration. There are absolutely no facts to back this statement up except for a link she posted on her blog that doesn’t even work because she doesn’t know how to make hyperlinks correctly. I got to the site she wanted to share and it’s the jihadwatch.org site. Yup, the highly conservative, highly religious, Christian fundamentalist website that tries to take itself seriously by sounding intelligent. Too bad they can’t back this up with any proof.

This man was pushed by people who hated him for his faith and persecuted him. His actions were deplorable, but let’s use this opportunity to take a look at our actions. Hasan’s car was damaged by a fellow soldier who came back from Iraq. The soldier keyed the car…

FROM THE ARTICLE:

According to a Killeen police report in August, an Army employee was charged with scratching Hasan's car, causing $1,000 in damage. Apartment manager John Thompson said the man charged was a soldier back from Iraq, who objected to Hasan's faith and ripped a bumper sticker off the major's car that said: "Allah is Love."

Perhaps if people could be more understanding things like this wouldn’t happen. Or not, who knows. Hasan is in a hell of a lot of trouble either way now, and might not come out of this coma alive anyway. Why he really did I’ll never know. Maybe he really did lose it and felt betrayed by President Obama for not pulling out of the wars. Too bad Hasan, you could have been a great Army major psychiatrist, but you threw it all away and took 12 people with you.

Fort Hood Shooter Alive!

2009-11-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

This is just too crazy to pass up. It seems that the Fort Hood shooter Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan is indeed alive. Hasan is a 39 year old psychiatrist and 8 year Army veteran.

Hasan was shot and thought to be dead, but in reality he is wounded and alive under military guard. He was transferred from Walter Reed Medical Center to Fort Hood in July, and received a poor performance evaluation.

A retired colonel told Fox that Hasan was about to be deployed to Afghanistan, and elaborated on Hasan’s frustration with President Obama for not pulling the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Hasan apparently also got into arguments with others in the military that were for the wars.

About two hours ago President Obama addressed the situation called it, "a horrific outburst of violence."

More on this story as it develops.

FULL ARTICLE

Beck Compares Healthcare Reform to 9/11

2009-11-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought Glenn Beck couldn’t get dumber, he did. I guess I don’t mind too much, seeing as how the dumber he acts the more people will see through him and stop listening to him.

Beck is trying to compare healthcare reform to the acts committed on 9/11. I know, it’s so funny you can’t believe it. Actually it’s so stupid you can’t believe it. Yes, Beck is trying to say that healthcare reform is bad, and he’s making it sound like support for healthcare reform will spell out certain doom for us all on a scale that we only know because of you guessed it, 9/11.

The video was absolutely funny I must say. At first he’s talking about how in the 1990’s he was on the radio talking to people about the dangers of Osama Bin Ladin. Of course, he never really makes it clear what parts of the 1990’s he was talking about Bin Ladin until later, and totally tries to blame it all on Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky.

Glen says he wasn’t a super smart man (that we know) that he just listened to Obama’s words and believed them. Wow Glenn! Where were you when we needed you man? Condi totally screwed everything up, but you actually would have believed that memo would you? You wouldn’t have just passed it along like she did? Man, if only you were there to protect this nation against Condoleezza Rice and Osama Bin Ladin, because 9/11 would have never happened.

What’s so funny is the fact that Glenn I saying that he truly believed that Osama Bin Ladin would attack the USA, but that it wasn’t on the top of the list because we were all too worried about fat interns and the definition of ‘is’.

OK Glenn, as I recall it was the Republicans who made a big stink about Clinton’s affair so why aren’t you mad with your own party? Not only were they the ones wasting time with oral sex and impeachment but they were also the ones who let Osama Bin Ladin attack in the first place!

FROM TRANSCRIPT:

KEAN: You didn't see any memos to you or any documents to you?

RICE: No, I did not.

Really, is that so? How odd because when it was discovered that there was a memo and that you read it you claimed it was no smoking bullet. Then when asked what the memo said all you could say was, “I believe it said Osama Bin Ladin determined to attack.” Wow, and yet Glenn Beck has been warning all of you guys for so long!

Beck then goes on to say that on 9/11 we experienced something we never experienced before when those buildings went down, because when those building came down so did our markets and our economy. And that at that moment we Americans realized we weren’t invulnerable.

And then he goes on saying that it was a decade ago he was trying to warn us about Osama Bin Ladin and terrorist attacks, and that he is doing the same thing warning us that our economy is weak and some how he fits spending into all of this and says that we can’t afford to spend any more money continuing
down this “progressive” path.

Wait a second…President George W. Bush was the one who created this spending problem, and he spent all that money when we didn’t have it to spend. After 9/11 the market was so messed up and needed time to heal, and he thought the best way to do that was to do the country in a deficit and try to destroy the middle class. Where were you and you’re great ideas then Glenn?

Conservatives are awake now? Well it’s about damn time! Oh wait, you’re still all crazy and protest the government on the day after 9/11. Yeah, that’s pretty crazy. Blame Democrats and our current President for 9/11 and the tactics of the previous administration. Yes, and do it all in the name of the horrible terrorist attacks that occurred on 9/11/01. And I’m pretty sure you 9/12ers as you call yourselves aren’t actually reading the healthcare reform bills every weekend.

The thing that Glenn Beck is trying to do is make it seem like a public option and corporations competing against each other is bad…because that’s what the public option is all about. But many are upset with affordable healthcare.

The truth is that this bill isn’t even finished. It has been put up to vote, voted down, rewritten by both Republicans and Democrats, repackaged and voted on again, voted down again, and rewritten again. Leave it up to stupid people spreading lies about the bill to scare people in to crazy ideas like forced euthanasia, mandatory abortions, and free healthcare for illegal immigrants.

And leave it up to Glenn Beck to distort the truth and lying and telling half truths and omit certain facts. Like for instance, he says he’s been talking about Osama for ten years now and that it was overshadowed because of Bill Clinton, when it was Republicans who turned that issue into a big deal.

Solider Shooting Spree at Fort Hood

2009-11-05T16:13:00.000-08:00

Something terrible has happened today at Fort Hood in Texas. A soldier went on a shooting spree and killed 12 fellow soldiers and injured 31. This happened right about 1:30pm and there was no known motive for the shootings right away, an online news report said.

According to the news the shooting broke out in the bases Readiness center where troops prepare themselves for deployment or go through medical screenings. The suspect was Army Major Malik Nadal Hasan, and was soon shot and killed after he opened fire on the base. Hasan was an Army mental health professional and was most likely a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Officials making statements at the base are saying that it was unclear what Hasan’s religion was and it is still be determined whether or not Hasan is his birth name or not. The base has since been on lock down and the wounded are being treated at different hospitals across Texas.

There were two other soldiers who were apprehended and treated as suspects, but they were soon released.

Why this man would go on a killing spree at an Army base in still unknown. We know he was possibly Muslim but would that matter? The man was a 30 some year old Major in the US Army and a mental health professional, so why would he do this? We may never know unless he kept some type of record around.

This was a terribly tragic event, and I will keep everyone posted as new details come in.

Gay Rights Pushed Back Again

2009-11-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

Well it’s happened again everyone. Gay rights were given the boot out of Maine last night because of this hateful campaign lead by the religious right wingers who believe that marriage is reserved for straight people only. It wasn’t only a set back for gay rights, but human rights as well.

A year ago yesterday we went through the same thing here in California when Prop 8 was passed, and we all had such high hopes for Maine. It was a very upsetting night and of course the smearing continues from the right wing. I found an article today on a right winged website that argues that gay marriage and gay rights are not the same thing. Oh I’m sure, just like a black’s right to marry a white person or Latino person fifty years ago wasn’t an issue of civil rights.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

Some people are claiming this as a sign, as a resounding referendum on this nation’s views of same-sex marriage. You know what? It’s hard to argue with that. Gay marriage isn’t gay rights; it’s the thorniest splinter of the thorniest national social issue this side of abortion.

What’s funny is gay rights have been compared to a lot of crazy things in the past such as bestiality, incest, and even child molestation and pedophilia. And now they are comparing it to abortion, because we all know gay people would much rather see a child be aborted then adopt one. Just like we know that gay people can’t reproduce so they are trying to recruit straight people’s children to the gay side of life and spit in god’s eye. I mean, they talk about it at all the meetings don’t they?

Now this next excerpt from the article upset me the most, as the writer claims that religious right wingers (which make up most of America according to this author) do not oppose gay rights.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

That’s an important distinction. Those who worry about the “silent majority” of gay rights opponents, the people you rarely meet in the city but see in the news holding signs and public prayers, have little to fear. America does not oppose gay rights. Or, to be more specific, a majority of this country does not oppose ensuring that queer citizens receive the same rights as anyone else. That’s a fact, yes.

OK, after reading this person’s full article I realize he isn’t 100% right wing whack job, but he still made a lot of poor comments. Like saying at the end that no one is acting gay marriage or gay rights. Yeah right, that’s why gays are always told that they’re life style is wrong and disgusting and a sin and that they are going to hell. No, you see these people are just trying to protect that paradigm that they are used to.

The results of Prop1 were very close, so I do not believe that the majority of Americans believe that it’s not time for gay rights. EQCA has said that California will push for gay marriage again in 2012, which I believe is a great idea. It will give the community time to regroup and by then many more people will realize how important it is to get involved.

On another topic, Halloween was this past Sunday. I went to my local bar’s Halloween party as a Lieutenant in the Navy with a patch on that said “don’t ask don’t tell”. The reason being I hate the ‘don’t ask don’t tell’ policy. It was a bit cryptic I know, but a lot of people liked the idea and were very good sports about playing along with it.

Also, I met a few people at the bar I haven’t seen in a while. A lot of them were very supportive of my efforts, and a lot of them really liked my idea about the free reading program. Thanks everyone!

I say down with all these hateful people and down with ‘don’t ask don’t tell’. And come on people, if you believe in this stuff it’s time to get involved and do something!

Jealous Hannity on Smear Campaign

2009-10-01T16:14:00.000-07:00

So when I got up and took a shower this morning I thought about all the Glenn Beck insanity that has been going on in recent months. In fact, at the beginning of this week I posted the Glenn Beck SNL spoof on my FaceBook page and someone called me a loser for covering Glenn Beck and his hateful smears. The person said that if I want to silence partisan opposition I should begin with my own.

First off, I really don’t think this person knows what the word ‘partisan’ means. But that aside it made me think of other right-wing pundits out there that are no where near as bad as Beck has been. This isn’t just about some right-winged guy on TV that I don’t like, it’s about a crazy person who’s making up lies and trying to spell things out like “oligarh”.

Here’s an interesting piece of information for everyone. I would much rather watch Hannity on TV on a daily basis (which I used to do anyway) then hear Glenn Beck’s voice anywhere.

So back to my story, I was in the shower thinking about these pundits when I thought, “Wow, Sean Hannity must be pissed off that Glenn Beck is getting so much more attention than he is”. Then I got on the computer and found this lovely article on Media Matters for America about Sean Hannity’s new smear campaign against a Department of Education official Kevin Jennings.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

Just last night, Hannity claimed (citing a Washington Times report) that Jennings covered up a "statutory rape." But evidence indicates the episode in question was not statutory rape -- the individual involved was at the legal age of consent.

Falsely accusing someone of covering up the rape of a minor is a pretty sleazy move, even for Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity doesn't have much credibility outside the right-wing fever swamps -- but he probably has more than Beck. For now. Sargent thinks Hannity's jealousy may be getting him in trouble.

Sean does have credibility oddly enough in the fact that he isn’t an insane invalid. I’ve never seen Sean running around the studio with crazy conspiracies, or screaming at someone on his radio show and acting like he was just going to go crazy. Although he does scream at a lot of people I must say he never seemed like he was going to pop a gasket and be sent off to the funny farm. That’s not Sean’s MO. He’s a bully and a spin expert and can probably spin just about any subject in the world. He’s not a very good story teller though.

I think we can expect to see a lot more of this though. Knowing Sean I’m very sure he could get more attention if he pursues it with the same energy in which he destroys. He’ll have to work hard though because Beck has all of the attention, and it’s all bad attention which is the kind of attention people like to follow. So come on Hannity, come on Bill! Do something absolutely crazy and maybe the spot light will be back on you guys!

I’m sorry but Glenn Beck is insane. He even admitted to being suicidal at one point and honestly I’m not surprised by the way this guy acts.

I’m not sorry that some out there think I’m a loser for trying to get this stuff through people’s heads. If you can’t see the facts about this venomous, insane TV personality then what do you see exactly?

Watch this video from the Young Turks, you’ll hear Glenn Beck losing his mind and then you will see Glenn admitting to being suicidal at one point.

My Reading Program Idea

2009-09-30T00:42:00.000-07:00

A lot of people have been asking me how my idea for a free reading program in Fountain Valley’s schools was coming along. I’ve had to outline my entire plan at least three times and I’m tired of it. I need to get this down on paper and in the public’s eyes and ears.

For those of you who didn’t know, I am making some pretty big plans to run for a public office in Fountain Valley in the next few years (like 2 to 3). I’m actually thinking about getting a chair at a school board.

You see my whole thing is educating the newer generations around my home town, and getting them involved in their community. But my main focus is reading. I don’t think people read enough to begin with, but total illiteracy is unacceptable and has to be combated.

So my idea to get started off in Fountain Valley politics is a free reading program. Orange County has a county wide program where children can go to a library and have volunteers help them with their reading. Well my plan is to bring the volunteers to schools on certain days for certain classes, and have an hour long reading session with the students.

I thought it would be a great idea because you not only teach kids to read, but you encourage continued reading, and it gives you as the volunteer a chance to open a child’s eyes to a book that he/she has never heard of before.

Another great idea I had for this project was a “Book Drive”, where we would collect books or cash toward new books from people and businesses in the community, and give kids free books. This might also benefit the teachers who are suffering from financial cut backs and have barely any books for their students. The “Book Drive” could support both students on a personal level and teachers on a financial level hence everyone wins.

I would get my volunteers from the high schools in the area, because seniors in high school have to do a certain amount of community service hours before they can pass Government class and graduate. Not only will my program be teaching kids to read, and supplying them and our class rooms with books, it will help teens in high school graduate by completing their community service hours as well as teaching them about civic duty and the importance of being involved.

After sometime I could get someone from lets say city council to sit in on one of these reading events and tell me what they think of it. If they like it then I can ask the city council member to honor our program at city hall. You get to take a nice pretty picture and get a neat little certificate showing that the program was honored by the city. That is my first step to getting closer to running for an office.

But how am I going to do this? How can I get this started?

Well first off I have to meet with a man named Reuben Martinez who works at the Santa Ana Library, and did (so I was told) something very similar to my idea which ended up being highly successful. A friend told me about him and that he has a lot of insight and can help me out with some ideas as to how I’m going to get this program into schools.

So I have to talk to Mr. Martinez and get a little more acquainted with this reading program idea. After that I have to come up with a presentation to give to my old teachers that still remember me. If I can win their support I can move up to the next step and start to seriously present the program to schools.

But I need to first find out if I should present the idea to the school board before I go to the schools themselves. Or should I go to the board after getting teacher support? Although it may not be a bad idea to mix all of these ideas together, because I can get teacher support, support directly from the schools, and then go to the school board.

I’m obviously going to be asked how I plan on doing any of this. How do I plan on getting books? How do I plan on getting volunteers? How do I plan on managing this program? When do I plan on doing these on school site programs?

Well, I have a few answers to all of those questions.

First off, I need to build a website that will contain the information of this program like, what it is, who it runs it, where we can be contacted, how to get involved in the program, how to help the program, etc. Once I have a stable median like that it will be very easy to keep people informed with what is going on.

Secondly, I have tons of old children’s books that I have saved since I was a very young boy. I have all kinds of books that are suitable for students from K-5^th grade. But, and someone brought this up to me, I have to make sure that there are no “selected reading lists”(notice I called it ‘selected’ and not suggested). I don’t want to read an awesome story to kids yet be told I can’t because the story isn’t on the reading list.

Thirdly, I will be getting my volunteers from the high schools where I have the support, and especially from high schools where I get support from my old teachers. I can ask teachers to suggest to their students to volunteer for the program so they can get their community service completed. I can also go into Government class rooms and talk to students directly.

And then the most common method would be a mixture of all of these techniques, as well as posting fliers on walls and leaving stacks of info/sign up sheets in class rooms. Also, some friends who went to FVHS with me said they would love to help me, and I could certainly use their help in class rooms to help recruit students.

Fourthly, I have no idea how I’m going to manage this program to be honest. I figure it will be an out-of-house operation, meaning that my house will be the programs HQ. Although, I am going to need other people to help me manage the program, and since some old high school mates said they would help I think I will have no trouble finding a team. I will have to form some type of small committee with them basically, which will gather at my house to meet and to plan and brainstorm.

Fifthly, again I have no structure for this problem yet but I do have a few ideas. For one, I was thinking it could be an hour long session in a teacher’s class room (or more than one per day, depending on how many volunteers we have) where we basically break the children up into groups with a volunteer reader. I mean, not only will the kids be learning and totally expanding their minds, their teachers will have an hour of free time to do whatever else they need to do like admin paper work, grades, and even plan lessons for future classes.

But if that idea doesn’t fly I will suggest that the program be an after school program like homework club/study hall. If parents want their children to participate they can just talk to one of the teachers for info, or just tell their kid that they are going to stay an extra hour after school to join the reading program.

Again, this is a free reading program that is comprised of volunteers that want to help teach kids to read and encourage continued reading. No one will be paying for this as it is all community service type of work which will benefit many, so no one has to worry about who the bill will be passed to.

I want to get as much support from teachers and administration staff as possible, as well as parents and school board members. It shouldn’t be too hard, just a lot of planning and presenting of ideas.

It takes a village to raise a child, and I think with this free reading program that’s exactly what we will be doing; getting the village together to raise the children.

So that’s my plan. Again, any support you could give me would be awesome, and if you would like to help in anyway please let me know. And wish me luck.

The Week in Review

2009-09-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

What a crazy time it has been. I have been so busy with work, and on top of that I injured myself, and on top of that I won tickets to an album listening party. So where to begin?

Last Sunday I fell off my bike with my friend. I face planted the ground and got a gash right above my eye. On top of that the entire eye was black and blue, and when I fell I put out my hand and got some nargley road rash on my hand.

I was going to have a party on that day, but I hurt myself pretty bad and had to call it off and relax. But I’m feeling better and healing nicely.

I was able to win tickets to Jim Ladd’s “Headsets II” album listening party. It was held at the Lasarium in Hollywood. It was one awesome laser light show to the sounds of Billy Sherwood’s music and Jim Ladd’s inspirational voice over. It was all about love and with the entire Tribe there that was all you felt. It was an awesome experience.

Faris and I got our pictures with Jim Ladd, although they didn’t come out too well because the guy we gave the camera too couldn’t figure out how to use it. Faris bought the album and got Billy Sherwood and Jim Ladd to sign it. We both got them to sign our tickets as well.

I also got in contact with that guy who was complaining about after school sports and the Marching Band at FVHS. He was very sharp and quick with me, but in the end he never really answered any of my questions. Rather he told me to contact HBUHSD, which I have already done. I’m going to go look up the minutes to that meeting on their website and see what really went on.

Did anyone see that awesome Saturday Night Live sketch with President Obama turning Glenn Beck’s show on? It was absolutely hilarious! Glenn Beck tries to rearrange the letters in the word ‘Obama’ and comes up with ‘Aroma’. Quite a testament to what we saw a few weeks back, a paranoid Glenn Beck with a caulk board trying to spell words without using letters that may mean something in secret like how ‘c’ stands for czar.

Anyway, I’m going to post that clip and you should all check it out.

Today I worked all day at the computer and then did s hit load of house work which mainly included getting my room organized. Since I moved back in with my father to help him out with the house I haven’t had a chance to get my room in a good position. I just had to straighten it out today, and whereas it’s not fully complete its good enough for now until I can unload some of this junk I’m selling.

And that was the week in review for me. Stay tuned for incoming news stories.

Neighborhood Surrounding FVHS Complaining About After School Activities?

2009-09-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

It was brought to my attention recently that the neighborhood surrounding FVHS has been complaining about after school activity noises, mainly the marching band and the metronome.

A friend of mine who lives in the neighborhood gave me this flier that he found on his doorstep on day, which was meant to rally people to a Huntington Beach Unified High School District meeting in what seemed like an attempt to quell after school activities due to noise pollution.

The flier (which I will post a picture of) had this say:

Fountain Valley High School is a play ground for outside activities which creates loud and continuous noises. There has been an effort to work with FVHS with little being accomplished. (…)

On September 15^th at 7:30pm there is a monthly meeting of the Board of Directors of the Huntington Beach Unified High School District. (…) We will be presenting our information on our grievances and use code violations and pictures showing the offending activities.

Our grievances are mainly related to the band and metronome activity, non-school sporting events, annoying light devices, code violations and general disregard for the well-being of the surrounding residents.

We need to persuade FVHS to discontinue activities after school hours and not allow activities from other areas to intrude in our privacy and well-being. Non-school activities should be held at Mile Square Park since their $20m renovation included areas for the non-school activities.

We need your support!!! Please stand up with your neighbors in taking back our neighborhood. These non-school activities wish to control our environment without regard for their negative influence on our community. (…)

When I read this flier I was pretty shocked. I thought, “Who on earth would want to discontinue after school activities?” Obviously you have a bunch of uptight people who knew they were going to be living near a high school with it’s own marching band and football team and they can’t stand it.

My friend made a good comment when he told me about this story. Why would people want to stop after school activities just because they make noise? Would it be better if there kids were tagging your walls and smoking drugs in front of your house?

And what the hell counts as a non school activity, and how do they make enough noise to disrupt anyone’s well-being? A non-school activity sounds like an activity in which students who are not on a school team go and play a sport with friends on one of the open fields.

FVHS has their own Soccer team, their own Baseball team, their own Field Hockey team, their own Football team, Swim team, Track and Field team, Cross Country team…the list could go on. There are so many students that use this field after school, and practices are occurring just about every day. So tell me, what are these non-school activities that are causing more of a disturbance than any of the school teams I mentioned above?

In the flier they claim that their main grievances regard the marching band and the metronome, non-school sporting events, and code violations? What are these code violations?

A lot of these questions are still unanswered. I did call HBUHSD, and I was told to call Principal Hertzfeld at FVHS. The Principal was not in to take my call, so I decided to call the band teacher directly.

I reached Gary Wampler, the FVHS Marching Band Director. He informed me that obviously the HBUHSD board meeting was already held two days ago, and that many things were cleared up.

Mr. Wampler is trying to keep the noise from the band as low as he possibly can. He told me that they have been playing as soft as possible and that they are pointing the metronome away from the neighborhood. He went on to say that they have been doing even more to curb the amount of noise that gets heard every day after school.

They usually hold practice at a stadium on Wednesdays at 8:30pm. When they play at the school they usually start at 6:30pm. They don’t always have access to the stadium though, so they have to play out of on field on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Mr. Wampler told me that being a band director you want to get the best sound possible. And that the best sound is the loud sound. They try to keep it down and respect the neighboring residence, but it’s a marching band and sometimes it’s going to get loud.

He also informed me that it wasn’t just the band that caught this flak from the residence. They also complained about the football team due to yelling and the whistles that are constantly being blown. And the swim team of all teams is also at fault apparently for playing music by the poolside to loudly. The pool is much further from the neighborhood…

Either way, Wampler said that the band program has not been affected and that they are doing their best to not disturb the residence.

But come on, you live next to the high school. Did you just think that they’re would never be any noise at all? And what sits across the street from the high school? The FV Fire Department of course. The fire trucks come out of there with sirens blazing all the time, so are you going to start to tell them to keep it down?

That whole area around the high school is a noisy area anyway. The 405 runs right through there, the high school is there, and the fire department is there. Just a street over from all of that you have the hospital.

But that’s not all of the information...

On the flier there is a number you can call to get active and support this whole no after school activities thing. And it’s a 323 area code phone number which means in mainly a central Los Angeles area code.

OK, obviously someone here in Fountain Valley could have an LA number. I’ve known a few people who live here and have out of town area code cell phones. That’s what this number seemed to be, because when I called it I was taken to what sounded very much like a normal cell phone voice mail message that wasn’t personalized.

I left a message and asked whoever gets it to please call me back. I really want to know who this person is and where he lives. And I would really like it if I could get in contact with Principal Hertzfeld.

The Week in Review

2009-09-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

What a week man.

Well as all of you know I've been covering the Obama address in schools. I was able to contact a lot of schools in Newport-Mesa, Fountain Valley, Huntington Beach, and Anaheim. The story is fizzling out now though, so I'm going to wrap it up in a week or so with a final review.

My blog about the Obama address was actually accepted on to theLiberalOC blog early this week, and that was pretty awesome.

Other that working on my blog I've been working my ass off with my dad's business. I seriously just want to fall on my bed when work is over and sleep the rest of the day away...

It was a very interesting party situation though all weekend. I went to my friend's Faris' house on Friday and went to Silky Sullivan's. Pulled a three-party night on Saturday. Faris had invited me to a college football party at his buddy's house, then we had to get to Huntington Beach for my friend's house warming party. Then we had to rush back to Silky's to meet up with some more friends, and that lasted pretty much the whole night. I took some awesome pictures though, which I will be posted on FaceBook soon.

And finally Sunday, I hung out with Faris for a bit and watched some Woody Allen movies, then came back home and worked on the computer pretty much the rest of the night.

Well that's all for the week in review for me. And as always keep your eyes right here because there is always more news to be broken. :)

Mark Whicker Apologizes for Remarks He Made About Jaycee Dugard

2009-09-10T00:36:00.000-07:00

A lot of strange things have happened in the world of journalism. And this one is right up there. Keith Olbermann has dubbed him the Worlds Worst Person in American on his show “Count Down”.

The man in question is Mark Whicker. He’s a sports writer for the Orange County Register and had an article published on the 7^th of this month. The article was extremely rude, and absolutely stupid. It had nothing to do with sports at all…except he did talk about them…

Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991 while waiting for the school bus. Her kidnapper, Phillip Craig Garrido was caught on August 26, 2009. During that 18 year time span Jaycee was raped multiple times by Phillip and she bore two children between 1994 and 1998.

She was forced to live in the backyard of Garrido’s house inside a shed that had sound proof walls and had to shower and shit outside in a tent.

So in comes Mark Whicker, a sports writer who has the worst taste I have seen in a while. I can’t even find a way to put it into words…I’ll just post the whole article he wrote.

FROM THE ARTICLE

It doesn't sound as if Jaycee Dugard got to see a sports page.

Box scores were not available to her from June 10, 1991 until Aug. 31 of this year.

She never saw a highlight. Never got to the ballpark for Beach Towel Night. Probably hasn't high-fived in a while.

She was not allowed to spike a volleyball. Or pitch a softball. Or smack a forehand down the line. Or run in a 5-footer for double bogey.

Now, that's deprivation.

Can you imagine? Dugard was 11 when she was kidnapped and stashed in Phillip Garrido's backyard. She was 29 when she escaped. Penitentiary inmates at least get an hour of TV a day. Dugard was cut off from everything but the elements.

How long before she fully digests the world she re-enters? How difficult to adjust to such cataclysmic change?

More than that, who's going to explain the fact that there's a President Obama?

Dugard's stepfather says she's going to need a lot of therapy — you think? — so perhaps she should take a respite before confronting the new realities.

So, Jaycee, whenever you're ready, here's what you've missed:

•Barry Bonds, who was just leading the Pirates to their second NL East title, wound up breaking Henry Aaron's home run record. How did such a skinny guy manage that? We'll deal with that later.

•Well, actually, some baseball players began taking drugs in order to hit more home runs and throw faster fastballs. Football players, who had cornered the market on most of their drugs, began driving drunk, slapping their wives, selling drugs, and killing people. The baseball players caught more grief.

•Michael Jordan did indeed win the big one, and five others.

•Yeah, this golfer really is named Tiger Woods.

•Stock car drivers now marry international models and are invited to the White House.

•Domed stadiums, like the ones in Houston and Minneapolis, are considered obsolete, or at least unfit for baseball.

•John McEnroe became a respected television analyst, just as tennis adopted a replay system that eliminated the need for McEnroe to argue.

•Magic Johnson is a billionaire businessman, and most of us have forgotten just why he had to retire.

•You missed absolutely no Servite victories over Mater Dei in football.

•Or World Series championship for the Dodgers.

•Or Stanley Cup championships for the Kings, even though Wayne Gretzky took them to the Finals in 1993.

•Mike Tyson now makes fun of himself in movies.

•The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in '07. Yeah, a hockey team came to Anaheim. Yeah, they built an arena in Anaheim.

•I know you've had trouble digesting all this so far, but they also built a basketball arena at USC. Honest to God.

•A guy from East L.A. named Oscar De La Hoya now makes boxing contenders rich and famous. Just as he did when he was boxing.

•The Angels won a World Series. When you learn who they beat, you'll understand why.

•Speaking of the Giants they did not move, but they did get a new stadium downtown. The Florida Marlins, who did not exist when you left, won two World Series and are getting their own ballpark. Even if you were there, it's hard to believe.

•For the most part, fans have stopped doing The Wave.

•In fact, you don't see many beach balls in Dodger Stadium or Angel Stadium anymore.

•The two NFL teams that we used to have? They've been gone for 15 years. You haven't heard anyone complain about that? Neither have we.

•Jackie Autry isn't in charge of the Angels anymore, as you might have surmised by looking at the standings.

•Joe Torre now manages the Dodgers, after a fruitful detour through New York. Tommy Lasorda? Sure, he's around. He hasn't called?

•You disappeared a couple of months before John Daly came into our lives at the '91 PGA. Who's John Daly? Never mind.

•Todd Marinovich showed why careers aren't played on paper.

•USC is one of college football's elite programs, three coaches later.

•The Red Sox won two World Series, which proves that history is bunk. The White Sox even won one. But not the Cubs.

•Cal Ripken Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played but never threatened Vladimir Guerrero's record for most consecutive swings.

•One blessed constant remains: Vin Scully.

•And ballplayers, who always invent the slang no matter what ESPN would have you believe, came up with an expression for a home run that you might appreciate.

Congratulations, Jaycee. You left the yard.

This crazy nut…who gave him a job and not me? But he did apologize…

FROM APOLOGY:

For Tuesday's Register, I wrote a column that clearly offended and outraged large portions of our readership .

It was not my intention to do so. But it's obvious that I miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity, had on those who read, buy and advertise in our newspaper.

For 22 1/2 years at The Register, I feel like I've had a good and direct relationship with our audience and I think most of the regular readers know how I go about reporting and commenting on sports.

This column appears to have disconnected that bond with at least part of our readers. For that I apologize.

It's impossible to unring a bell or to bring back a column that has already been transmitted. In many ways the damage is done. I'm hopeful that I can be forgiven for this lapse of professionalism by those who were affected most profoundly.

I'll try to earn back the trust of those customers in my future endeavors.

Again, I regret this incident and apologize to all concerned.

The man did this for some weird reason, but I can’t figure it out yet. Why would he do this? He ‘miscalculated the effect the column on Jaycee Dugard, and the events that she might have missed during her captivity…’

I still can’t figure out why you did it. But lets see how long it takes before anyone takes you seriously again.

Superintendent Hubbard Update/High School Responses

2009-09-09T16:55:00.000-07:00

The saga continues as today I was able to get in touch with a few more schools, and I have more news on other districts as well.

The biggest news I think I should follow up on is the Dr. Hubbard story. As you know Dr. Hubbard is the superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District who allegedly barred his entire district from watching the Obama address due to “political sensitivities” and “internet access” issues.

I called NMUSD today and spoke with the direction of Public Information Laura Boss. Laura Boss told me that the address was not shown in the district’s schools live in class due to technical problems. She explained that the whole controversy over Dr. Hubbard was blown out of proportion because he never really tried to bar students from watching it all. They are going to make the address accessible on the internet for children to watch whenever they want. They are also allowing teachers to show it in there class, at teacher discretion of course.

Laura went on to say that yesterday was the first day of school in that district and that they had other things to accomplish. But yes, children will be able to watch it, and if parents opt out and don’t want their children to view it they will have an alternative activity planned for them (which is most likely to go to the library).

This is where our conversation got interesting. According to Laura, giving parents the option to opt out is causing some controversy in that district. Many people are upset with NMUSD because they are allowing parents to make the decision to not have their children participate in viewing the address.

On this issue I would say that Dr. Hubbard, while his statements on the NMUSD website seemed contradictory and unclear to me, made a good choice by allowing schools to view the address at teacher’s discretion. Dr. Hubbard, you need to make your statements a little more clearly in my opinion.

But yes, the schools in NMUSD did not show the address live, but they are allowing students to watch it after the live broadcast in class at teacher discretion.

Now I also called FVHS again to see if I could talk to the principal. I wanted to ask the principal if the superintendent of HBUHSD had a meeting with principals and staff, but the principal is still too busy to respond.

I also called Edison High School and still couldn’t get a clear answer. The principal’s secretary had no information for me on whether or not that children got to watch the live address, but passed my phone number along to the assistant principal and assured me that he would be returning my call tomorrow.

Huntington Beach High School’s secretary told me that they “had no comment for me”. So it’s safe to assure that students at HBHS did not get to see the address, which doesn’t surprise me really.

But here is a new piece of news. My friend got a message on his phone from a friend who has kids. His children’s first day at school was yesterday, and he said that his kids did not get to see the Obama address and thought that maybe the Anaheim City School District had barred their schools from showing the address.

I called Anaheim City School District today and got some answers. ACSD did in fact allow their schools to show the Obama address live in class. But once again it was made clear that it would be shown at the teacher’s discretion. The nice woman I spoke with informed me simply that some teachers did show the address live and some did not. She told me that I should call the Director of Public Information Peter Daniels tomorrow as he was on a matter of business outside of his office, and that I should be able to obtain more information on this subject.

She was able to tell me though that the superintendent Jose Banda did have some kind of communication with the schools of the district, making it clear that the address could be shown at teacher’s discretion. Whether or not he had a meeting with principals and staff to discus the issue is unknown, but it was believed that some type of letter or email was circulated throughout the district. And of course, for those parents who don’t want their child to watch the address and alternate activity was offered.

So there you have it, and now it seems like this story can come to a close (unless of course I do find a school district that barred all of their schools from showing the address).

Dr. Hubbard is not barring his schools from watching the address. Although it won’t be live, teachers will have the opportunity to show their students, and the student can also look up the speech freely on campus computers when they have the technological capacity.

Huntington Beach High School said, “No comment”.

Anaheim City School District did not bar their students from watching the address.

If I get in contact with anyone and I have more information I will present it.

Are Your Children Socialists Now?

2009-09-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

So today was the big day everyone. Today was Obama indoctrination day for schools across America, and where as some schools refrained from showing their students the Obama address many others did not.

I spent most of the day working so I couldn’t get on the phone and talk to the schools very much, but the information I did collect this afternoon was very helpful. I called schools in the Fountain Valley School district, including FVHS, EHS, and HBHS. Here are the results:

I called up the Fountain Valley School District and I spoke with the Superintendent’s Office where I was informed by a very nice woman on the phone that the Superintendent had a meeting with the principals and staff where it was made clear that this was a principal/teacher discretion issue. That they were allowed to make up their own minds on whether or not their students were allowed to watch Obama give the address in class. It was also made clear in the meeting that if parents did not want their students to watch the address that an alternative activity would be offered. That alternate activity was to go to the library.

Courrages Elementary School gave me a very simple clean cut answer as to whether or not their students saw the address in class today. That answer was no, the students did not see the address. But Courrages was not alone in that decision as Moiola Elementary School and Newland Elementary School also refrained from showing the address to students.

Cox Elementary and Gisler Elementary informed me that the Obama address was a teacher’s discretion issue, and that some children did get to watch in class. Oka Elementary told me that children were allowed to watch the address in the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade classes, but that the principal had a meeting with teachers and staff making it clear that it was up to the teacher’s discretion.

Plaven Elementary gave me a very straight up ‘yes’ answer. They said nothing about teacher discretion or a principal meeting (which doesn’t mean it didn’t happen), just told me that ‘yes’ the students were indeed allowed to watch the address.

I even called Tamura Elementary school but no one was available to pick up the phone.

High Schools were a different matter. When I called Fountain Valley High School I was told by the Secretary that she believed the address was shown, but directed me to the principal’s office. I was advised there that yes the students were allowed to see the address at teacher’s discretion. Whether or not the superintendent at the HBUHSD had a meeting with the high schools was unknown by the person I talked to. She took my number down and told me they would get back to me with more details.

Edison High School’s secretary was a substitute today and had no clear idea if the students were allowed to watch and she directed me to the principal who was not available to answer any questions, so I left a message with my number and hope to hear back by tomorrow.

No one at Huntington Beach High School was available to answer my call.

So out of all the schools I got 3 no, 5 yes, 1 unknown, and 2 no answers.

I believe that this was a good turn out to be honest. It seems like the districts in this area made it less of a district or superintendent concern and made it into a teacher discretion issue. Which is fine by me, at least there were no excuses like, “the internet is down” or the fear of reprisal from parents who have “political sensitivities”.

So why then did Dr. Hubbard, superintendent from the Newport-Mesa Unified School District bar his entire district from watching the address? The address was not only viewable on the internet but was broadcasted live on C-SPAN as well. So why use the excuse that since his district is having “internet access” troubles he can’t show the address?

I find it hard to believe that every school in Dr. Hubbard’s district had this internet issue. I think it did have more to do with “political sensitivities” than anything else, mainly his own political sensitivities.

I believe more light needs to be shed on this NMUSD issue. I would like to see if I can talk to Dr. Hubbard soon, but it may be hard to get in contact with him. And by the time I do it may be too late, and the story will have already fizzled out. And I’m certainly not going to turn this issue into a local political crusade to demonize or make anyone look terribly bad. I just want to know the truth. So I’m going to call NMUSD and see if I can speak to Dr. Hubbard briefly just to get a little more insight on what’s really going on.

Thank you to everyone who has been following this story. I came out with this story last week and since then I have received nothing but support and followers from like minded individuals who share my sense of honesty and truth. The reason I brought this issue to everyone’s attention was because I believed that Dr. Hubbard turned this positive message from the president into a political issue when I really believe it shouldn’t have been.

Hopefully more to come within the week! If I can talk to Dr. Hubbard I think that would conclude my on going coverage of this story.

Obama-nator II: Indoctrination Day

2009-09-07T13:44:00.000-07:00

The time has come, just one day to go until Obama’s positive pep talk for schools. Challenging children to set goals for themselves and to stay in school and get an education. It should be one momentous day for our country’s children, but there are still people out there who are trying to say that this is no pep talk, but the President indoctrinating our children.

Seriously, a lot of people in America believe that when Obama speaks to our children that he is going to be indoctrinating them with socialist attitudes and ideas. So I’m challenging anyone out there who agrees with this theory of Obama indoctrination to tel me why you think that and show some proof that this is actually what Obama is planning on doing.

I already have done my research…and then some over the past weekend. I’ve been getting ready for this one, because this one is going to be big. So I challenge you to prove that Obama’s address to America’s children will have anything to do with healthcare, banks, automobile companies, or taxes. Well…anyone?

FROM THE HUFFPOST:

A spokesman said the party was particularly concerned about the study questions the department had provided. "The goal of these materials is to tell students why they should support President Obama in his overall agenda," said Katie Gordon.
"If the former administration had done something like this, the media would be handling this a lot differently," she added.

We reviewed the study materials but didn't see any mention of controversial issues, let alone any attempt to indoctrinate students in socialism. The pre-K through 6th grade materials said the main ideas of the speech would be "citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty." The materials for high schoolers mention "personal responsibility, goals, persistence."

If you were to ask me I would say without a doubt that the President’s speech is rather innocuous. And what’s also very true about this issue is that if the previous administration was to do this and speak to our children in school it would be greeted with open arms.

Seriously (and I got this from the HuffPost) this pep talk caused so much anger and craziness you’d think that Obama was going on national TV to show our kids how to slip a condom onto a banana. It’s just not going to happen!

FROM FOX NEWS:

Gordon, of Tampa, Fla., is among a growing number of parents across the country who are troubled by the president's plan to address elementary, middle and high school students in an online and televised speech Tuesday.

"It's a form of indoctrination, and I think, really, it's indicative of the culture that the Obama administration is trying to create," Gordon told FOXNews.com on Thursday. "It's very socialistic."

How the hell is talking to kids about work ethics and setting goals socialistic? Unless you have any proof that what Obama is going to be talking about deals with socialism then present it! Unless Obama starts to talk about business, healthcare, taxes etc then it’s not a socialist indoctrination. It’s not an attempt to make kids believe that they should support President Obama, it’s an attempt to make kids have their own ideas about an issue and to get active with the community. Last I checked you could be a member of any political party and still be active in the community.

If you don’t want your child to watch Obama give schools an inspirational pep talk on the value of education then tell your school. I’m sure they’ll find some ridicules alternative activity for your child to do. But whatever you do don’t tell the schools not to show this address, because I’m sure they are some parents who would like they’re child to watch the speech, so don’t ruin it for them because of your misplaced fears and your uneducated beliefs of what socialism is.

Don’t forget to call the local school districts and tell them you want the Obama address to be shown in schools!

NMUSD- 714-424-5000

FVSD- 714-843-3200

HBUHSD- 714-903-7000

These numbers are just the districts by me, you district can be found just as easily on the internet.

UPDATE!

This article was found just as I was finishing up this new blog! The Obama speech has been released (or at least a few parts) to show to America that it is not an indoctrination!

FROM THE ARTICLE:

WASHINGTON – In a speech that drew fire even before he delivered it, President Barack Obama is telling the nation's schoolchildren he "expects great things from each of you."

"At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world," Obama said. "And none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."
The White House posted Obama's remarks on its Web site at midday Monday. He's scheduled to deliver the talk from Wakefield High School in suburban Arlington, Va., Tuesday. It will be broadcast live on C-SPAN and on the White House Web site.

Obama's planned talk has proven controversial, with several conservative organizations and individuals accusing him of trying to pitch his arguments too aggressively in a local-education setting. White House officials, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, have said the allegations are silly.

Oh my god! Obama’s trying to tell our kids that we have the most supportive parents, the best teachers, the best schools, but that it won’t matter if our children don’t fulfill their responsibilities! Socialist! Socialist! I found a socialist everyone!
This is just stupid.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

"It's a sad state of affairs that many in this country politically would rather start an "Animal House" food fight rather than inspire kids to stay in school, to work hard, to engage parents to stay involved, and to ensure that the millions of teachers that are making great sacrifices continue to be the best in the world," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday. "It's a sad state of affairs."
In the prepared remarks, Obama tells young people that all the work of parents, educators and others won't matter "unless you show up to those schools, pay attention to those teachers."

Yes, it is a sad state of affairs when someone turns a good message into something political. I don’t see how this is indoctrinating at all. I don’t see how this instills communist ideas and attitudes in our children.

In my last few blogs about this subject I was under the impression that this speech was only going to be delivered to students through the internet. I found out that C-SPAN is actually going to be carrying the speech.

If that’s true, than why is Dr. Hubbard from Newport-Mesa Unified School District claiming that all of his schools are having internet access problems and that’s why he can’t show the kids Obama’s speech? That is one lame duck of an excuse and I urge everyone to call NMUSD and leave a message telling them what you think of his lame excuses.

Indoctrination…yeah right. Lets see you try and pull that stuff now righties...

FULL SPEECH RIGHT HERE!!! YOU WILL FIND NO INDOCTRINATION, THIS IS OBAMA'S FULL SPEECH!! CLICK HERE!!

Ben & Jerry’s Celebrates Vermont Decision on Gay Marriage

2009-09-06T21:26:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of the month Ben & Jerry’s renamed their legendary Chubby Hubby flavor in celebration of the state of Vermont’s decision to allow same sex couples the right to marry.

Chubby Hubby, which was named appropriately seeing as how if you eat enough of it you will indeed become a chubby hubby, is now being called Hubby Hubby. Fudge cover peanut butter filled pretzels in vanilla malt ice cream with fudge and peanut butter. In case you haven’t noticed this is a huge conspiracy to make gay men fat. :)

Ben & Jerry’s have been very well known in the political activist arena. They stand up and fight for equal civil rights, in this case one’s right to marry who he/she loves.

Apparently the flavor will only be renamed for the month of September, and it seems like you can only get it in Vermont. Ben & Jerry’s working with Freedom to Marry, an organization run by homosexuals and heterosexuals whose efforts are directed toward the basic right of marriage.

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE:

“At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” said Walt Freese, Chief Executive Officer of Ben & Jerry’s. “From the very beginning of our 30 year history, we have supported equal rights for all people. The legalization of marriage for gay and lesbian couples in Vermont is certainly a step in the right direction and something worth celebrating with peace, love and plenty of ice cream.”

Congratulations all you happy lovers out there, and congratulations to the state of Vermont for legalizing same sex marriage.

Thank you Ben & Jerry’s for fighting for what’s right in the world. And I hope you send some of that Hubby Hubby this way toward California. I would at least like to have the pint container to show to people heh.

Obama School Address Update

2009-09-05T17:49:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I got word that superintendent Hubbard from the NMUSD would not be showing Obama’s live streaming address in schools. The two excuses for not showing this address to students are “political sensitivities” and “internet access” problems.

I got this story from Katrina Foley, who posted it up on FaceBook.com. I asked her for some more information, like if she knew of any other schools that are following NMUSD lead. She told me that Irvine, Saddleback, San Juan Capistrano, and Santa Ana all did the same.

So what is going to happen? What can we do to show the schools that we want our kids to see the President address them and challenge them to stay in school and get an education?

Another friend on FaceBook.com, Susan Freeze, posted that her husband was listening to Air America Radio when a man called in and explained to Randi Rhodes that his school district would not be showing the address. His solution to this issue is to keep his child home from school that day so that he can watch the address.

Here’s some good news though. The Mesa School District in Arizona will in fact be showing the Obama address to their students. The superintendent has said that if parents don’t want their children to watch the address they can contact their school and their child will not be shown the address.

The speech Obama is going to be giving students on Tuesday is a 15 to 20 minute long address, where Obama will be challenging students to create good work ethics, personal educational goals, and to take responsibility for their learning.

Glenn Beck calls this indoctrination. I call it a positive message that is meant to challenge our children to stay in school and get an education.

I honestly think that if this were President Bush no one would have these weird “political sensitivities” and the address would be shown. If Bush did give an address to children in schools to challenge them I wouldn’t be mad. I would be happy, and I would say “Thank you for your help, Mr. President.”

But there are so many lies being spread about Obama being a Fascist, Communist, Socialist, Marxist, Nazi that uneducated people are in an uproar over the idea of the President talking to their children. If Bush were to do this speech I would bet you all the money I have in my name that it would be very similar to what Obama’s speech will be on Tuesday.

The lies need to stop here and now. People, do some research and find out what a socialist actually is. I did a whole blog on what it means right HERE, and no one cared to learn I guess.

But seriously people, don’t let shortsightedness get the better of you. Don’t give in to the lies and slander the right-wingers are spreading. And certainly don’t take away the opportunity of seeing the President give a live speech meant for your children. Watch the address yourself on Tuesday, and then come back to me and try to tell me it was indoctrination. You won’t be able to, because it won’t be indoctrination.

This isn't about politics, so don't make it out to be. It's about your children and their education.

Newport-Mesa USD Superintendent Will Not Show Obama Presidential Address to Students

2009-09-04T17:57:00.000-07:00

So I was on Facebook just moving through as I usually do. Usually I’m talking with people, trying to find new stories, or researching a story when I’m on the net. Well a story did come to me as I was reading Katrina Foley’s post on FB about the NMUSD Superintendent.

As I read her post I thought, “Wow, now here is a story.” But I also thought, “Wow, here is my first LOCAL story on my blog ever.”

Obviously the Newport-Mesa Unified School District covers the Newport/Costa Mesa area schools. I know, I know, I live in Fountain Valley so why aren’t I covering something in my district. Well my answer is simple. Just a stones throw away from HBUHSD and FVSD is NMUSD. If the Superintendent of NMUSD is barring his students from watching the President give an address which is mean for school success it will only be a matter of time before someone here in my district does the same…if it hasn’t happened already.

I did some share of research, even called FVSD and HBUHSD and left messages. Hopefully I can get an answer by Monday on whether or not those two districts will also not show the President’s address.

This was supposed to be an opportunity for children to see the President give an address that was specifically meant for them. An address which Glenn Beck calls indoctrination; I call an address on how students and schools can succeed.

I never got to see the President give a live speech to me and my peers in the class room ever. It would be such an awesome experience in my opinion if the Superintendent would just put things aside and start the new school year with a rousing speech by the President. But instead he wants to focus on other things.

Dr. Jeff Hubbard is the man in question. He is the Superintendent of NMUSD, the man who is preventing children from watching the live streaming address. But why would he be doing that? I found what seems to be some kind of press release regarding Dr. Hubbard, and then a statement by Hubbard. The statements seem to contradict each other…

FROM THE NMUSD WEBSITE:

Superintendent Dr. Jeffrey Hubbard appreciates the attention the President of the United States is giving our schoolchildren and the attention that he is giving to the most important policy matter of our day. At the same time, the Superintendent has always been a strong advocate for protecting the rights of conscience of both children and parents, and believes that the District’s approach in this matter is appropriately sensitive to the wide variety of political sensitivities and viewpoints in this diverse District.

OK...so the good Doctor is afraid that if he allows children in schools to watch this live streaming Presidential address that some people with “political sensitivities” will be upset. He wants to protect the conscience rights of both his students and their parents...but mainly he doesn’t want some parent getting their undies in a twist and breathing down his neck because they don’t agree with Obama.

Then I found this…letter I guess. It looks like it was meant for teachers and staff and possibly parents.

FROM THE NMUSD WEBSITE:

On Tuesday, Sept. 8, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech to U.S. schoolchildren. It is to be broadcast live via the White House Web site, www.whitehouse.gov/live/ and on C-SPAN. The U.S. Department of Education reports that this is the first time an American president has spoken directly to schoolchildren about success in school. The Department provides the following information about the speech’s content:

“The President will challenge students to work hard, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.”

Based on this description, Newport-Mesa Unified School District believes this is a unique opportunity for students to hear from the President of the United States. The U.S. Department of Education’s Web site provides additional information about the address at www.ed.gov/index.jhtml.

Because September 8 is NMUSD’s first day of school, we plan to capture the President’s address for possible later viewing to students. We will not be showing the President's address streamed live on Tuesday, September 8 at 9:00 a.m. in any classroom in NMUSD as we face technological issues with our internet access. We have many things to accomplish on the first day of school and this will give principals and teachers the opportunity to tend to several important tasks and focus on students, as well as an opportunity to preview the speech to identify age/grade appropriateness of content. The principal, in consultation with teachers, will exercise their discretion and may choose to show the speech at a later time as it fits into their curriculum. If after review by the principal and teachers, a decision is made to show the video at a later date, the school site will notify parents well in advance so that they may complete the attached waiver and opt out their child(ren) from participating.

We provide you with the below form. Please fill out the form if you request a waiver of participation. Principals have been directed to provide an alternative educational activity for children whose parents or guardians do not wish to have them view the address.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and for partnering with us in the education of children.

Respectfully,

Dr. Jeffrey Hubbard, Superintendent

Technical problems are to blame for not allowing children to watch the live streaming Presidential address. Wow, all of the schools in NMUSD are having computer problems? And since they all apparently have these net issues he is going to focus on something else and maybe…just maybe will show the address at a later time and date which are yet to be set.

I honestly think showing the address to kids on the first day of school would be awesome. It’s a great way to start a new school year, and Dr. Hubbard wants to prevent it from being shown because of political sensitivities and an alleged internet access problem that is apparently affecting all of the schools in his district…

Dr. Hubbard has turned this awesome, monumental, and historical address about school success into something political.

Obama is going to be talking to kids about work ethics, making educational goals for themselves, and taking responsibility for their learning. This is not some indoctrination; he isn’t filling up their heads with BS Nazi crap (IE. Beware the Jew). He’s telling them to stay in school and learn!

Dr. Hubbard, you have turned a positive message about education meant for our students into a political issue. I believe that you are either afraid of some parents getting upset with the schools, or you may just be someone who doesn’t want the President to address students because you don’t agree with him. Which is it?

I urge everyone to call NMUSD, FVSD, HBUHSD, or your USD and tell them that you think all children should have unbridled access to the address.

NMUSD- 714-424-5000

FVSD- 714-843-3200

HBUHSD- 714-903-7000

Your best bet is to call on Monday, and get as many people as you know to do the same. Or you can call today and leave a message. It’s short notice I know, but hopefully we can bombard them with support for the address and they will show it.

Glenn Beck on Socialist City Buildings

2009-09-04T12:41:00.001-07:00

I've been on a Glenn Beck kick lately I know. Here's a run down of my pundit smashing history:

4 years ago I started to listen to and discredit Sean Hannity.

Soon after Sean got boring I moved on to Larry Elder.

When Elder got boring I moved on to O'Reilly

Soon after that I moved onto Limbaugh

And now it's all about Beck, who's insanity is giving me and tons of other bloggers out there material that will last for at least the rest of this year.

Beck has been losing sponsors for calling Obama a racist, and now he is on this communist kick. Last night Olbermann did one hell of a number on Beck's little New York socialist tour/lesson. Beck points out all of the symbols in New York that remind him of Communism.

Why does he do this? He does this so that he can haphazardly tie in MSNBC. MSNBC in Beck's mind is a Fascist, Socialist, Marxist, and just plain evil television network that broadcasts from a communist building in New York...and by the way did he mention the mind control device MSNBC uses?

He's talking about what he calls propaganda that you see every day in New York, Socialist propaganda that is infesting your streets over night. It NEVER existed until now guys...seriously. All these sculptures and engravings popped up just within the past few months since Obama took office.

Beck first points out this lovely engraved picture of a man with a hammer and a man standing next to wheat...which is misinterprets as weed. I loved Olbermann's response to this.

"There's weed over there? I've been coming here for thirty years; I never knew there was weed over here!"

636 5th Avenue, Beck talks about another picture that no one knows what it is...So what is that building located at 636 5th avenue anyway? The clothing store Façonnable is what is located at 636 5th ave...

What's worse is how Beck tries to describe this picture on the side of the clothing store building. The man in the picture he claims is Mussolini...

These are all pictures that prove that Obama is a Socialist...because they were put on the side of a building nearly thirty years ago...before Obama became President...

Beck is talking about how all these images of socialism drive him mad...and yet he has a socialist image on his desk IN FOX STUDIOS! He claims he likes to keep it because it reminds him that something so beautiful can come out of something that's so horrible. In this case the sculpture he has on his desk is that of a man bending a sword into a plow. Guess what...it was MADE IN THE USSR!

The sculpture he has is actually a miniature one made after a statue that was given to America by the former Soviet Union, a statue that sits behind the United Nations...which sits on land donated by Rockefeller.

Way to go Beck...you successfully tied in socialism, MSNBC, Rockefeller, New York, the United Nations, and YOURSELF!

"Oh my gosh!" - Beck

"Glenn Beck has a communist paper weight?" - Olbermann

These are all communist fascist images that Beck says you see everyday...you just don't realize it. So Olbermann takes us on a tour/lesson of his own to read ancient images off the News Corp home building.

Fox and Friends- Oh! It means being held back a year in school!

Hannity and Colmes- The man on the right depicts a man functioning despite absence of brain. And the man on the left is...well Allen Colmes...who isn't on Fox anymore...so why is there still a symbol for him?

O'Reilly- Why it's a pictograph from ancient Crete. Yes! An ancient Cretan!

But what you won't find is a picture or symbol for Glenn Beck. Is Fox ashamed of Glenn Beck? Where is Beck's symbol??

Guess what's on top of the building that houses News Corp?

The NBC Earth Station.

Wow so lets see here...Fox News is located in Rockefeller Center....

Glenn has successfully tied in Fascism, Socialism, Obama, Rockefeller, MSNBC, Fox News, the United Nations, and himself.

Wow...6 degrees of separation here...

Glenn Beck calls Obama a socialist for pictures that he sees in New York, especially one that he keeps on his desk that is located behind the UN; pictures that were put on buildings in the Rockefeller Center, who donated land for the UN, which is home to MSNBC where Keith's show is broadcasted, and is also home to News Corp where Glenn Beck's show is hosted...

From Lenin, to Rockefeller, to New York, to the UN, To Obama, to MSNBC, and back to him at Fox News. Way to go Beck, you only proved that you and half of New York are communist.

Reno Back Online: A Two Week Report

2009-09-04T01:26:00.001-07:00

Welp, it's been two weeks and I finally got back online.

My grandfather moved back in and we ended up moving all the routers and such, so I have been down until we were able to figure out the mess we created...then fix it. And it finally happened. We fixed it, and now I'm online temporarily until I hook up my router.

All that matters is I'm back online.

I missed a lot of blogging. Ted Kennedy has died...That was last week and it still sends shocks down my back.

Other than that, nothing has really been happening. Well...that's not entirely true. :)

Glenn Beck is Insane...?

2009-09-03T23:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while. I've been out of service for about two weeks and I just got the net working again.

Yay, good for me. :)

So there is totally a two week in review blog that I have to do, but when I came online my friend directed me o this AWESOME video of Glenn Beck. The video is awesome to me mostly because it looks like Glenn Beck is losing his god damn mind. So I had to push back the two weeks in review blog. :)

For one, we knew Glenn Beck was losing his mind when he called Obama a racist. But this is icing on the cake. Glenn is on his show in this clip running around the studio like a middle school teacher who has no idea what he is doing.

He's talking about how he wants people to ask questions...my question is who the hell let you do this Beck? Did someone put you up to it?

He makes up a few lines and creates a nifty acronym...

O-Bama
L-eft I-nternationist
G-raft
A-corn
R-evolution
H-idden Agenda

OMG! OLIGARH! And he puts a Y at the end! Spelling...*sputter* *Laughter*...Oligarhy!

This was posted while I was offline...damn it. I miss the good stuff when I'm off line...

Oligarchy, is how the word is spelled by the way.

And you're watching Glenn Beck...as he absolutely loses his mind, and a little more of his integrity, on national television. And I thought Hannity and Rush were bad...

Glenn, stop trying to make acronyms that ain't makin' you KNOW sense.

...OK sorry...I had to do it... <.<

But of course slow me...I couldn't get on the net and find this out sooner...but hey I take clips from Keith Olbermann too :). He always has something funny and witty to say on the subject!

Well Beck is obviously panicked! That's enough fodder for anyone. Keith relates it to that Twilight Episode "To Server Man." He said something like, you may lose your credibility when you start yelling "Mr. Chambers! Don't get on that ship! The book! To serve man! It's a phone book!"

I was getting into debates a few weeks back with someone on Facebook, and I guess I'm just not very clear. This young man insisted that no one cares about these commentators on Fox. That they are just as bad as the faces on MSNBC. This is a true testament to Glenn Beck's stupidity, and the reason I post about these pundits is because they lie. They are truly snakes in my opinion.

Glenn Beck calls Obama a racist. Beck, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Limbaugh all run the idea that Obama is a socialist, when it seem they don't even know the meaning of the word.

Hannity, fool heartily, said that he would be water boarded to prove that it's not torture. On top of that he said he would do it for charity. April 22nd 2009 was when that coward and a liar said he would be water boarded...We're coming up to five months now...

That's why I talk trash on these guys. They deserve it. And people need to know that these guys are full of it.

Let's end the blog with a clip of Glenn Beck losing his mind, and a kitty cat at the end who is able to outplay Beck :)

And there is another treat, the video of Keith Olbermann spanking Glenn Beck's sorry ass for not only his blatant, ignorant behavior...but for misspelling oligarchy.

What is Socialism?

2009-08-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

Socialism! It's a word that is being thrown around a lot lately to describe the president and in some extreme cases the people who voted for the president. According to a lot of people, and everyone right wing pundit on TV and radio, Obama is a Socialist and all of his plans are socialistic from his health care reform to his views on the war.

To quote the movie the Princess Bride, "You keep on using this word. I do not think it means what you think it means." And it's true, they don't know what it means and they don't see how Obama is not Socialist. But since they have no concept of the word they can never make a coherent argument about it.

So lets take a quick look at the word Socialism and what it means...

so⋅cial⋅ism

–noun

1.	a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

2.	procedure or practice in accordance with this theory.

so⋅cial⋅ist

–noun

1.	an advocate or supporter of socialism.

2.	(initial capital letter) a member of the U.S. Socialist party.

So how is Obama a Socialist? What makes the right think that he is a communist? Well take a look here. An article I found is claiming that Obama is a Socialist simply because he made statements about some bitter people who go to church. They say it's reminiscent of Karl Marx's quote, "religion is the opiate of the people".

Is Obama a Socialist? Not if you ask one. That's the title of an article I found where a REAL American Socialist speaks out about Obama and Socialism.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

Greg Pason, National Secretary of the Socialist Party USA: “Barack Obama's programs are not socialist. The vast majority of his proposals are anti-worker (or he might say ‘pro-business’). His health care proposals are more to save the for-profit insurance industry and do not have the goal of ending for-profit insurance. He has refused to support a Senate version of HR676, which would create a single-payer program (not socialist but much better than we have, and [which has] the support of labor and community organizations across the US). Many of his other economic proposals are pro-corporate.

A socialist program (even a reformist one) would not be a program that props up capitalism when it fails, but one that transforms the economy. None of Senator Obama's proposals do that. Senator Obama’s tax plan is regressive and even less ‘progressive’ than programs put forward under such conservative administrations like the one of Richard Nixon.”

F.N. Brill, National Secretary of the World Socialist Party (US): “Obama is as much a socialist as the Pope is an atheist. Income redistribution isn't a socialist act. It might aid in ameliorating income disparities within a capitalist economy for a limited time. But the logic of capitalism demands the rich grow richer (more capitalization is needed) and the poor grow poorer (their work creates the needed capital used by the rich).”

WOW! That guy is comparing Obama to Nixon! Wow...if Obama is a Socialist he sure is pissing off his party pretty well. Come on now, how could a guy like this be elected as Socialist?

That's the sad thing about all of this. Most people don't know what Socialism even is, and they just throw the word out there. As Hitler once said, "the more times you tell a lie the more people will believe it." That's just the case here with calling Obama a Socialist. None of his programs are Socialistic programs, and no one can prove that they are.

The tag still doesn't apply if you're relatives were Socialist, or wrote about Socialism. Obama's father wrote an essay about Socialism, so that MUST mean that Obama is a big Socialist! My grandfather and father are big Republicans, so I guess by that logic I must be a big conservative!

A Socialist is the working people's leader. A Socialist wants everything to be public domain, regulate pay so that no one person has more than the other person, and is most certainly not a fan of big business.

Obama's plans don't so much help the working people as much as it helps the big businesses. No one gets their pay regulated, competition is great for America, and he wants big businesses to thrive which is why there are more business stimulus packages in the works.

The idea that Obama is a Socialist stems mainly from his health care reform plan. The idea to give the people a public option that is affordable, decent quality health care is not socialism. No one gets their current benefits taken away, no one is forced by the government to see certain doctors, and current insurance companies would still be in place.

Socialist? Sounds more like a liberal Democrat who wants to make health care afford able if you ask me.

ARTICLES:

OBAMA THE SOCIALIST

IS OBAMA A SOCIALIST? NOT IF YOU ASK ONE

Reno's Sunday: A Two Week Report

2009-08-23T20:21:00.001-07:00

Oh man, I can't believe it's Sunday already. All week I have done nothing but work late into the night. I got 3 or 4 hours of sleep each time I went to sleep, before I had to wake up and start working again. Got very little time to rest.

We've been taking apart my father's office and moving it to the garage so that we can set up my grandpa's new room. But before that we had to clear out the garage of all the boxes that were piling up to the ceiling.

But the room was finally put together by Friday morning, and the office is together in the garage as of today. Now all we have to do here at home is go through the rest of the boxes, and organize around the house.

While all that was going on I found moments in the day to do other things. I've been blogging and I made it to Drinking Liberally in Santa Ana twice. I've been racking my mind trying to think of ways to present my idea of a free reading program in Fountain Valley. When I went to Drinking Liberally this past Thursday I was able to get even more ideas, and I found some contacts that I I need to pursue.

I found a lot of children's book in the boxes in my dad's garage. They used to be mine, and now that I have them again I can start to build my library of age appropriate books to use for the free reading program. Got to keep these ideas flowing!

I've been listening to Jim Ladd on 95.5FM KLOS for the past two weeks as well. I met the Jim Ladd Tribe members last month and they kid of turned me on. It's been pretty damn fun. I went to one of the Tribe member's birthday yesterday and had one hell of a day.

So in short, the past two weeks have been crazy. Full of work, strategical planning, talking to people to get advise, blogging, listening to Jim Ladd, and making new GREAT friends.

And now the big news.

Grandpa got out of ManorCare in Fountain Valley, and is now living with us in my father's house. Since my Aunt stole his house and sold it he has no place to go but come live with us. So he is here now, doing very well. He's still pretty much all there, but a little more reserved as he hasn't got as much energy.

My forecast for the week ahead of me. Pretty much the same, but I'll have a lot of computer work and writing to do. That too and I have to get my room settled finally. I've been living back at my father's house for more than two months now and I haven't finalized the room set up yet. I got some of my posters up, but there are still boxes up here to go through.

Welp, I can only wait to see what crazy things will happen during the week. Hopefully something good happens that I can blog about. Tired of the news about health care myth spreading, and American socialism myths, and Obama Nazi/racist/Communist myths.

But, keep reading for more news of all the above mentioned!

14 Myths/Misconceptions/LIES About Health Care Reform

2009-08-21T02:29:00.001-07:00

The article I have been hoping to see for quite a while now! I have been talking about Limbaugh's lies about health care for a while now, and I'm sick and tired of it. How people can believe the stuff he says is beyond me.

Let me being by saying this: the right is trying to get you to believe that Obama's health care plan is going to mandate abortions, demand euthanasia, allow illegal immigrants access to care for free, take away your existing health care, and of course lets not forget the establishment of the infamous 'death panels'.

All of these statements above are completely fiction.

The truth is that Obama's health care bill isn't even in it's completion. Yup, you read correctly. The bill isn't finished, nor has it ever been presented to Congress for a vote. I mean, how can you vote on a bill that isn't even finished, that hasn't even been presently in it's full entirety? So yes, the above falsities are in fact...false.

I'm so glad this article came out because I can spread the truth and extinguish the lies. These are all directly from the article by the way.

Read the full article from Media Matters for America here:

Myth # 1

There is no health care crisis

CLAIM: The health care system currently works fine, and only a purportedly small number of uninsured people would benefit from reform.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: "There really isn't a crisis in health care in this country. The crisis in health care that -- if you wanna say, that does exist -- is the fear that a major illness or catastrophe could wipe you out, which isn't gonna change. In fact, the odds of you being wiped out by a catastrophe or accident once the government gets started running this stuff is greater than if the private sector -- but day-to-day, there's no health care crisis in this country. You can get it.

ME: No I can't get it Rush. I cannot afford health care, as well as many other in America. Don't you know the unemployment is still going up? People are losing not just their jobs, but their benefits as well.

STEVE DOOCY: "Currently, 90 percent of all Americans have got some sort of health care coverage, which means they are effectively blowing up the system for 5 percent.

OK, now here's the facts:

REALITY: Roughly 25 million Americans were underinsured in 2007. According to Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of The Commonwealth Fund, "From 2003 to 2007, the number of adults who were insured all year but were underinsured increased by 60 percent. Based on those who incur high out-of-pocket costs relative to their income not counting premiums despite having coverage all year, an estimated 25 million adults under age 65 were underinsured in 2007." [Testimony from Schoen before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, 2/24/09]

The underinsured do not receive adequate care and face financial hardship.
[Schoen testimony, 2/24/09]

Insurance companies currently rescind policies when their insured customers need treatment.

Currently, insurance companies deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions.

Myth # 2

Health care reform will impose rationing

CLAIM: Progressive health care reform proposals will introduce a system of "rationing" into American medicine.

SEAN HANNITY: "We're gonna have a government rationing body that tells women with breast cancer, 'You're dead.' It's a death sentence." [Fox News' Hannity, 6/19/09]

MICHELLE MALKIN: "Big Nanny Democrats want to ration health care for everyone in America -- except those who break our immigration laws." [Malkin column, 7/22/09]

REALITY: Insurance companies already ration care. Insurance companies acknowledge that they ration care, restricting coverage of procedures and tests like MRIs and CAT scans and denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions.

Insurance companies ration care by rescinding coverage. As former senior executive at CIGNA health insurance company Wendell Potter explained in June 24 Senate testimony, insurance companies restrict or deny coverage by rescinding health insurance policies on the grounds that people had undisclosed pre-existing conditions. President Obama recently cited one such example, noting that "[a] woman from Texas was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, was scheduled for a double mastectomy. Three days before surgery ... the insurance company canceled the policy, in part because she forgot to declare a case of acne. ... By the time she had her insurance reinstated, the cancer had more than doubled in size."

Myth # 3

Health Care Reform provides for Euthanasia, 'death panels'

CLAIM: House health care reform bill mandates end-of-life counseling that will pressure seniors to end their lives.

BETSY McCAUGHEY: "And one of the most shocking things I found in this bill, and there were many, is on Page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory -- absolutely require -- that every five years, people in Medicare have a required counseling session that will tell them how to end their life sooner, how to decline nutrition, how to decline being hydrated, how to go in to hospice care. And by the way, the bill expressly says that if you get sick somewhere in that five-year period -- if you get a cancer diagnosis, for example -- you have to go through that session again. All to do what's in society's best interest or your family's best interest and cut your life short. These are such sacred issues of life and death. Government should have nothing to do with this." [FredThompsonShow.com, interview archives, 7/16/09]

HANNITY: "Now, she [McCaughey] actually uncovered in this bill a particularly outrageous provision -- and by the way, there will be more to come in the Obamacare plan. According to McCaughey, she's saying under the House provision and the House version, perfectly healthy senior citizens are going to be forced to undergo, quote, 'end of life counseling,' apparently to encourage them to check out before their time is up." [ABC Radio Networks and Premiere Radio Networks' The Sean Hannity Show, 7/17/09]

REALITY: Advance care planning is not mandatory in the House health care bill. Section 1233 of America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 -- which includes "Page 425" -- amends the Social Security Act to ensure that advance care planning will be covered if a patient requests it from a qualified care provider [America's Affordable Health Choices Act, Sec. 1233]. According to an analysis of the bill produced by the three relevant House committees, the section "[p]rovides coverage for consultation between enrollees and practitioners to discuss orders for life-sustaining treatment. Instructs CMS to modify 'Medicare & You' handbook to incorporate information on end-of-life planning resources and to incorporate measures on advance care planning into the physician's quality reporting initiative." [waysandmeans.house.gov, accessed 7/29/09]

PolitiFact: McCaughey's claim that seniors would be encouraged to end their lives "is an outright distortion." "McCaughey incorrectly states that the bill would require Medicare patients to have these counseling sessions and she is suggesting that the government is somehow trying to interfere with a very personal decision. And her claim that the sessions would 'tell [seniors] how to end their life sooner' is an outright distortion. Rather, the sessions are an option for elderly patients who want to learn more about living wills, health care proxies and other forms of end-of-life planning. McCaughey isn't just wrong, she's spreading a ridiculous falsehood." [PolitiFact.com, 7/23/09]

CLAIM: Health care reform would establish a "death panel."

GLENN BECK: "So, why is there no more discussion than there is on Sarah Palin and what she said over the weekend that there would be ... [a] death panel for her son Trig? That's quite a statement. I believe it to be true, but that's quite a statement." [Premiere Radio Networks' The Glenn Beck Program, 8/10/09]

REALITY: "Death panel" claims have been conclusively discredited. In one of more than 40 media reports debunking claims of euthanasia and "death panels," PolitiFact wrote: "We've looked at the inflammatory claims that the health care bill encourages euthanasia. It doesn't. There's certainly no 'death board' that determines the worthiness of individuals to receive care. ... [Palin] said that the Democratic plan will ration care and 'my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's "death panel" so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their "level of productivity in society," whether they are worthy of health care.' Palin's statement sounds more like a science fiction movie (Soylent Green, anyone?) than part of an actual bill before Congress. We rate her statement Pants on Fire!" [PolitiFact.com, 8/10/09]

Myth # 4

Health care reform legislation will cover undocumented immigrants

CLAIM: Under health care reform, you will be denied care, and it will be given to undocumented immigrants instead.

DICK MORRIS: "The point about these death panels is that if you restrict the amount -- the lifesaving surgeries, and you tell someone, no, you can't have that bypass surgery -- but I'm going to die if I don't have it. Well, here's the grief counselor. That will happen. And whether they fund the grief counselor or the end-of-life counselor or not, the rationing will take place when they tell you, no, you can't have the surgery because we have to give it to a 40-year-old illegal immigrant instead." [Hannity, 8/17/09]

REALITY: House bill stipulates that those "not lawfully present" may not receive subsidies to purchase insurance. Under the "Individual Affordability Credits" section of the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009:

SEC. 242. AFFORDABLE CREDIT ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.

(a) DEFINITION. --

(1) IN GENERAL. -- For purposes of this division, the term ''affordable credit eligible individual'' means, subject to subsection (b), an individual who is lawfully present in a State in the United States (other than as a nonimmigrant described in a subparagraph (excluding subparagraphs (K), (T), (U), and (V)) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) --

[...]

SEC. 246. NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS.

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

Senate HELP bill excludes those "not lawfully present" from federal funding. Under the "Making Coverage Affordable" section of the Affordable Health Choices Act:

(h) NO FEDERAL FUNDING. -- Nothing in this Act shall allow Federal payments for individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.

OK...these are only FOUR of the health care myths that the right wing is trying to spread. Another myth was that Obama never read his own health care reform bill. That's also a total lie. Obama was talking about the myths stated above, and how he never read them in the bill...because they don't exist!

You have to remember where these myths came from. They were invented by people who pretty much put together a cut and paste document calling it a "line by line analysis" of health care reform, which basically saves people from actually reading the real proposed health care bill. The document seems to be created by the Liberty Council, which is an offshoot of Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virgina which he is Chancellor of.

There is fact, and then there is opinion...and then there are some crazy lies that get spread and take the place of facts for some people. Someone I was debating with this past week liked to say, "listen to the information, and then put the pieces together." Well yes, that's exactly what people should do, but make sure you're getting your facts correct before you try to put together pieces that are twisted and don't fit.

Barney Frank Says It Like It Is!

2009-08-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at Dartmouth in Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank hosted a Health Care Town Hall Meeting in which at least 300 people showed up for. Of course the event had many Democrats who were in favor of a public health care system, and of course the opposition was there as well.

The people who opposed the health care plan were all right of center, and had pictures of President Obama which were defaced to make the President look like Hitler. But as usual, none of these folks had any real facts concerning health care, they just showed up because they don't like Obama...at least it seems that way.

One woman stood up to talk to Congressman Frank, only to ask him why he supports a "Nazi policy". The woman obviously had no real facts to back up her statements, and Congressman Frank wasn't going to answer. Rather he answered by asking another question. He asked her, "what planet do you spend most of your time on?"

What a great response! Don't even give her the benefit of trying to explain what she doesn't want to accept in the first place. There are no death panels, illegal immigrants aren't getting free health care, abortions are not mandatory, and euthanasia is CERTAINLY not demanded.

Why is it that people want to shoot the President down for an idea that hasn't even made full circle in the house yet? Oh wait I know! Jerry Falwell's little cut and paste document he spread to Republicans! Which by the way, was never an official health care reform plan.

What makes people think that the USA would seriously adopt such a health care system? And to compare Obama to a man who killed so many people...this is where the spin begins.

In an effort to bash the left, Obama, and public options for health care the right winged pundits have been spreading these lies about Obama's plan. The spin they are using is rather simple. Use Jerry Falwell's cut and paste document and act like it's absolutely true. Then call Obama a Nazi, because of his false 'death panels', and his plan to demand euthanasia. Thus you paint a picture of a man that is trying to implement Nazi policies.

That's where all of this spin gets funny. How can someone equate an effort to increase health care coverage to the Nazis? How is that even possible?

OK let's be frank while talking about Frank shall we? Barney did pretty much insult her, especially when he said, "trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dinning room table".

But come on people. You can't have a debate if the other person really doesn't know what they are talking about. Get your facts straight, and don't just assume that because some right winged pundit says its true that it must be factual.

Keep saying it how it is Barney. There is no point in debating with someone who doesn't have their facts straight.

Glenn Beck Loses Sponserships

2009-08-18T16:35:00.000-07:00

Media Matters for America is reporting today that Glenn Beck has had more than twenty ads pulled from his show in the last two weeks. Companies like Wal-Mart, Ally Bank, Best Buy, CVS, and others have pulled their ads from the controversial show which is aired on the Fox News Network.

All of this hit the fan for Beck when he said on the show Fox & Friends, that Obama was actually a racist who has a deep seeded hated for white people. Beck is losing more and more of his sponsors because of this radical (yes I yes 'radical'), hate mongering rhetoric.

Other companies that are giving Beck the boot are, "ConAgra, GEICO, Lawyers.com, Men’s Wearhouse, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Roche, SC Johnson, Sanofi-Aventis, Sargento, and State Farm Insurance."

I've been following this for a while, but I've been too caught up Rush "Limbo" to write anything about it.

FROM THE PRESS RELEASE:

“We are heartened to see so many corporate citizens step up in support of our campaign against Glenn Beck,” said James Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. “Their action sends a clear a message to Glenn Beck: Broadcasters shouldn’t abuse the privilege they enjoy by spewing dangerous and racially charged hate language over the air. No matter their political affiliation, hate language doesn’t belong in our national dialogue.”

This is perfect. It's nonpartisan, and it shows the right wingers that the lefty libs can play the same game. Back when Bush was in office and people called him a warmonger and etc, many pundits like Sean Hannity stepped up and said, "how dare you say those things about our President? That is anti-American!"

Well guys, saying things about Obama like, "he's a racist" is the same thing...but worse. White men in America know NOTHING about racism, except how to proliferate it. And when you come out and just start hatefully smearing someone like that with no proof you should accept the consequences and keep your mouths shut.

Ya know, this has been going on for a while. A lot of people called Bush a racist after Katrina. Kayne West said something to the affect of, "Bush doesn't give a fuck about black people." Then guess what happened at the end of '08? A black man was elected president. Now it's the same game, only slightly reversed. The old white man from Texas isn't the racist. It's the almost old black man for Chicago that's the racist.

Except here's the problem. When Bush was in office you heard a very few people talk about Bush being a racist. Many of the right winged news outlets shot that rhetoric down, and many liberal news outlets wouldn't touch it unless they were super brazen. The truth is, the whole thought that Bush was racist was shot down because no one wants to view their president as some racist who doesn't have the public's interest at mind.

Look everyone, it's called spin. I have been talking about spin for a long time now (even on my older blogs) and all I can say is BEWARE. Know your politicians, know your issues, and know your SPIN. But just keep this in mind; when the left was spinning Bush they never lost a whole bunch of their sponsors. Take into account spin on both sides and you see a kind of middle ground (if you are like me that is). Look at Glenn Becks spin and it takes spin to a whole new level (kind of like Bill O'Reilly, but he is way more articulate then Beck), especially when he hatefully bashes our President and calls him a racist who hates white people. He never gave any kind of scale (lol), so as far as I know Beck is saying, "Obama is one of the biggest racists in the world. He hates every white man with a passion and he wants them all to fall into poverty."

Mr. Beck, with all due respect your hateful rants about the president are wrong and libelous. You shouldn't just lose your sponsors, you should lose your show.

Limbaugh and Public Option

2009-08-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Public Options. What are they? How do they work? Will they kill my grandpa? These are the questions that have been raised by the right wing about Obama's health care reform plan. But the funny thing is, public options are exactly what right wingers say they want...at least now that Obama seems to be canning his plan, Limbaugh is harping about a public options that are not run by the government.

"LIMBAUGH: [A]nd there is going to be a public option. There is no reason to have this kind of liberal reform without a public option. All this talk about a public option -- dropping it or maybe putting it back in, whatever they're going to call it -- if -- there's no reason to do this kind of reform from this standpoint -- from Obama, from the liberals in Congress -- without the government running it. If that's not on the table, there's no reason for them to reform it."

These "death panels" and silly rumors about illegal immigrants getting care, and mandatory abortions, and demanded euthanasia is all a hoax people. The public option was always there. This imaginary health care system that the right wing has made up, where you have a death panel and decides whether you get to live or die based on your contribution to society, is completely false. There was always going to be a public option, but the idea is being slayed before it even has the chance to show itself to the American public.

Rush went on to say that if it was called a public option or a co-op that the democrats would get it one day. But he also said that it's a "game designed to react to the opposition and get you to cool down."

How is it that Rush gets to say these things? He makes it seem like there was no public option plan EVER. When in fact, back in March President Obama said, "‘The thinking on the public option has been that it gives consumers more choices and it helps keep the private sector honest, because there’s some competition out there.’

In fact Nancy Pelosi has also been standing firmly for the public option...

“We agree with the President that a public option will keep insurance companies honest and increase competition.

“There is strong support in the House for a public option. In the House, all three of our bills contain a public option as does the bill from the Senate HELP Committee.

“A public option is the best option to lower costs, improve the quality of health care, ensure choice and expand coverage.

“The public option brings real reform to lower costs over the 10 year period of the bill.”

So wait a second here Rush. Obama's plan won't work without a public option? I think I have heard "public option" for a long time. And now you guys on the right think you can spin this and make people believe that "Obamacare" spells out death to the young and elderly.

I'm not down for this kind of thinking. I have heard about Obama's public option health care plan for a few months now, and I think it's absolutely stupid that the right is able to get away with spinning this one. For shame man...

Rush also went on to say that nobody ever called Obama Hitler. I mean, anyone who has been paying attention to the news lately has heard this over and over again. Right winged pundits are comparing the President of the United States to Adolf Hitler.

LIMBAUGH: "...he is failing, and I'm happy. And you're happy. Fifty-seven percent of the American people think no health care change is better than his plan -- or 52 percent, 54 percent, I'm sorry -- 57 percent say the stimulus isn't working and it might be making things worse. I'm winning. He's failing. The American people don't want Obama to succeed."

LIMBAUGH: I never said Obama hates white people. He's got a chip on his shoulder about the unjust and immoral past of this country. I never called him Hitler. And let's not forget -- you dopes at CNN and everywhere else, could you please for 21 years behind this microphone, I have listened to people like you try to equate conservatives with Nazism and with Adolf Hitler, and I'm fed up with it. Hitler was a man of the left. Adolf Hitler was much closer to you guys than he is to me or any of my friends. And Nancy Pelosi started this, she called the people turning up at town hall meetings Nazis -- they were wearing swastikas. And you're purposely leaving that out of this so you can run with your template.

FULL ARTICLE <<<<<<<<<<

OC Gay Pride and EQCA

2009-08-15T17:07:00.000-07:00

Today was the Orange County Gay Pride...festival? It was held in Irvine and was more of a festival than a parade, but I still had a load of fun. I was volunteering at the EQCA booth, trying to get people to sign up to volunteer their time as well. I met a lot of awesome people and got a bunch to sign up with EQCA. They're looking for people to do calls, canvas neighborhoods, etc.

When I first got there I was like, "Wow, this is small." But a good amount of people showed up and kept on showing up the whole day.

Beth Krom was there. She was the mayor of Irvine and now she is running for Congress in the 48th district. I don't live in the 48th, but I do support Beth Krom for Congress. She is one tough woman. I never heard it speak until today and it was pretty amazing.

I signed up for more volunteer work because I do want to get involved with equal rights work with EQCA, but I also have to work on this free reading program this year. It needs to get started.

On the way home Faris and I saw something weird. We parked by a CVS to get some drinks, and the car next to us had two stickers:

1. Liberalism is not a majority

2. Abortion kills

The owner of the car was inside, talking away on his cell phone. When we, he followed us out. We saw him next to us about a street or so away from the freeway. Then we saw him again when we got back into Fountain Valley, right next to us the whole time. Not that I'm paranoid or anything, I just thought it was pretty weird. :)

Found My Issue!

2009-08-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

Well it took me long enough but I found my issue.

As many of you know I have been involved with county politics, and I've also been hanging out with a few good guys in Fountain Valley politics as well. I always knew I wanted to make a difference, especially in the younger community. My first attempt failed because a lot of the people I know that are my age in Fountain Valley just don't care about anything. Time to change that...

City Council was on my mind. But honestly...this is Fountain Valley "A Nice Place To Live", so there really isn't too much fixing up to be done. Then School Board came to mind and I said, "Hey! That's perfect! But what will I do? What's my platform? My issue?"

Someone told me the biggest issue with the school system is the budget. OK, that's one.

Then I thought, "Hey! The budget sucks, so why not volunteer at places like the Boys and Girls club or local elementary schools and start up a free reading program?"

And now I have my issue, and my plan.

Step 1.

I need to introduce myself at either the schools or the Boys and Girls club. Tell them my plan to start a free reading program, where once a week, or month, me and volunteers from the High Schools in the area will go and help younger kids learn how to read.

Step 2.

Go to the High Schools and talk to some of my old teachers who have Senior and even Junior students. Seniors now have to complete a certain amount of community service to graduate from HS. So this would be the perfect opportunity for them to get that written off.

Step 3. I have to gain the attention of the City Council. Ask a Council members to join us and watch us read with these kids and ask him/her if they would honor our group.

If honored, the support base I will need will be right there. I'll know more of the teachers, the students, the city council members, maybe even the police or Fire Fighters.

So then, in the future like say...a few years from now I'll be well known in the community and can start working toward a campaign.

I owe most of this idea to a guy I met last night. He has been involved in LA politics, and he gave me a lot of good insight. THANKS TOM!

Limbaugh: Palin was Dead Right

2009-08-13T15:53:00.001-07:00

Yay! I swear Rush gives me some of the best (and worst) material. What was it...Monday or Tuesday...when Keith Olbermann called Palin out on his show Count Down.

Some people I have talked with think I'm crazy for listening to Limbaugh or Hannity. But my whole thing is, the more you listen the more you will know what crazy ideas the right wingers are throwing out there to scare people. Call me a spin expert (actually don't, because I don't think I am haha) but I love reading and listening to these jokers so I can reverse their spin.

The Limbaugh Wire is just a great resource for this stuff. And what are they saying today about Rush and Health Care?

From the article:

"He knows why Obama is not specifying a plan or talking about the House plan: because Obama doesn't care about anybody but himself, and he's out of touch and detached from reality -- Obama just wants control of health care and doesn't care about the details. Rush added that he was "proud" of the people going to the town halls, calling it civic activism at its best, not malcontents or leftist rent-a-mobs."

Obama is a hater, plain and simple. What? You didn't know that?

Chris Prevatt from TheLiberalOC.com showed me some pictures he took a while back during the "Tea Bagging Party's". He got a real good shot of some guy holding a sign that had the lone man standing in front of a tank an Tienanmen Square, with a caption saying soemthing like, "America's Future."

So yeah, didn't you know? We are Soviet Russia now!

OK enough of that. In all seriousness this is just silly....ok maybe a little more...

LIMBAUGH: I can deliver what Obama is promising with one sentence. Very simple. You're sick? Here's a train ticket to Canada. If you love the -- if you like socialized medicine, we can send you to Canada to get treated, and we can do it for much less than converting our system to Canada's. All we gotta do is put you on a train, put you on an airplane. The transportation costs -- let the Canadians handle the care, if you like that kind of system. Or if you wanna go to the UK, we'll put you on a plane and send you there.

Limbaugh: "Oh, and Sarah Palin has rocked 'em with that one because she's dead right, they are death panels."

OK...so I guess Rush is saying lets take all of our sick, huddled masses...and send them away. You truly are a "passionate conservative" Rush.

OK...more of Rush

LIMBAUGH: These death panels that -- and Sarah Palin has doubled down on it, according to the Politico. She's now defended her claim that the Democrat health care proposal would create death panels in a statement Wednesday night, slamming Obama. And if you go to her Facebook page and you look at the notes and you look at the things she wrote about death panels, it would seem to me that all of the inside-the-Beltway elites, from Peggy Noonan to Mort Kondracke, to Charles Krauthammer, to whoever the hell else said she needs to educate herself on the issues. She needs to become more sophisticated. She needs to do some homework. Seems to me if you go to her Facebook, she's done some homework on this health care bill. She has become an expert on section 1233. [...] But I would suggest that anybody who doubts her intellectual heft or her ability to learn and study, go to her Facebook page and look at the notes she's taken, and it's right there, the study that she has done and engaged in in order to learn about section 1233.

Didn't Keith talk about this in that video clip I posted yesterday? I can't remember exactly, but he was talking about a plan that actually did involve "death panels" and taking health care away from senior citizens, but provides FREE health care to illegal immigrants, mandates abortions, and demands euthanasia.

Keith: "If you read it without knowing the truth at the time you would have shoved the right wingers out of the way at the town halls and start screaming yourself. It seems to have been created by the Liberty Council, an offshoot of Jerry Falwell's(Spelling?) Liberty University. A council who's other big policy concern as been...the attack on Christmas."

Keith is my favorite TV Journalist next to Rachel Maddow. And let me tell you, both of them kick the right wingers right where they deserve it.

As for Rush...oh you poor little man. Sometimes I wonder if you were better or worse when you were on the drugs...but nobody that matters really cares I guess.

Here is a clip from Limbaugh's show today. Spin...I must be one of the most simplest (and most of the time effective) tool the right winged radio pundits use all day.

RIP Les Paul

2009-08-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

Yes it's sad but true. The guitar man himself, Les Paul, has died.

His real name was Lester William Polsfuss, he was born June 9th 1915 and died today August 13th 2009 in White Plains New York of complications from pneumonia.

He was an innovator, and created the solid body guitar we know today as the Gibson Les Paul. He was also the pioneer behind such recording innovations as overdubbing, phasing, and multitrack recording.

Many famous rockers have used the Les Paul guitar including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck from the Yardbirds, John Entwistle from The Who, John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival, Peter Frampton from Humble Pie, Ace Frehley from Kiss, David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, Arlo Guthrie, Jimi Hendrix from The Jimi Hendrix Experience, B.B. King, Lenny Kravitz, John Lennon from The Beatles, Paul McCartney from The Beatles, Bob Marley, Ted Nugent, Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue , Slash from Guns N Roses, Paul Stanley from Kiss, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Walsh from the Eagles, Neal Young, and last but not least Frank Zappa.

Although, the list goes on and on.

I bought my Les Paul back in late '07 and stil have it to this day...I mean why would I ever get rid of it? Of course it's on it's way to becoming a collectors item now.

If any of you listen to 95.5 KLOS I would tune in now and catch the all day tribute to Les Paul. It is a very sad day in the rock community and many of you may not care, but think of it this way: without Les Paul you wouldn't have that rock and roll sound. EVERY muscian who uses Paul's techniques owe him gratititude.

Les Paul you will be missed.

RIP LES PAUL- 6/9/1915 - 8/13/2009

The Death Care Scare!

2009-08-12T18:00:00.000-07:00

So what's in the news lately? Health Care reform! But lately the right wing pundits are all up in arms about what they call "Obamacare". They have been going after Obama relentlessly, saying that Obama's health care plan is nothing more than a scam to kill your grandparents and younger children who are not doing as much as they can for society.

You know, if the issue were that serious and Obama is going to start killing us off, why don't the right wingers call it "Death Care"? Well simple, the word "Obamacare" as Obama's name in it. And it's his health care plan they are trying to scare people into believing will take away all of their insurance and their right to be treated. So yeah, "Obamacare" scares people and makes them say, "It's that damn Obama! He's trying to kill me!"

Ex-Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin was brought into this when she said she doesn't want Obama's "Death Panel" to decide whether or not old or young people should go on living. And insinuated that her poor son with autism would be put to death by Obama because he cannot contribute much to society.

Keith Olberman did a GREAT show about this, where he totally calls out Palin and her evil lies. To say that an American president wants to kill you...isn't that criticism in some form? If it were Bush and people said things about it you can bet your entire wallet the right wingers would be up in arms saying it's unpatriotic to call your president a murderer.

Truthfully, these tactics can't go on forever. Obama has no "Death Panel" nor is he going to be telling you that yes you can have health care, but no this person can't because he doesn't do enough. It's a universal health care program, PUBLIC health care! Do these people even know what that means?

It basically means that I can be down and out on my luck, have hardly any money to live, but can still be treated by a doctor of my choice and it doesn't come out of my wallet.

Imagine how many lives that will save. Imagine how many people in the US can't afford health care or doctors bills. With this public health care system everyone can be treated. It's not taking away anyone's right to health care, it gives EVERYONE the same opportunity to be treated.

WATCH OLBERMAN:

Gavin Newsom in Santa Ana College! Newsom for Governor

2009-08-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

Gavin and I after the Town Hall Meeting

First blog in a while! I’ve been busy with moving and remodeling and all kinds of other fun stuff.

So last night San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was at Santa Ana College for his first Town Hall meeting here in Orange County. It was awesome to say the least. I saw Gavin Newsom give a speech at last year’s ECCO Awards Dinner but I never got to meet him until last night.

For those who read my blog and don’t know who Gavin is, he is the Mayor of San Fran and is running for California Governor in 2010. His big issue last year was making sure Prop 8 (or as I like to call it “Prob 8”) failed. You may remember him in the right winged commercial ads urging people to vote YES on Prop 8. They showed a video clip of him saying, “Whether you like it or not”, in regards to gay marriage.

There is something about a man who is willing to stand up for the gay community and have the courage to say, “This is wrong.” Unfortunately, Prop 8 was passed. But this man won’t stop there. He is going to go all the way to the Capital to make sure California gets on the right track.

Gavin’s platform is sterling. Gay marriage rights, California school reform, health care reform, and the issue of poverty are some of his biggest talking points. Gavin’s ideas for school make the most sense to me, as I want to run for Fountain Valley School District. So how do we fix the school problem? Better pre-school programs that everyone can get in on! A pre K-6 grade plan sounds the most interesting. He said it himself that to give our kids a good education we have to give them a good head start.

The other idea I thought was awesome was the Arts Education Program. I remember Art Ed in school, once a month someone would come to our class for about a week or so and teach us about a famous artist. After we learned about the artist our assignment was to create a piece of art in the style of that artist. Not only was it education and mind expanding, it was a lot of fun and kept our attention. But that program no longer exists in some places. I’m pretty damn sure Fountain Valley is one of those places that no longer have that program.

I actually got to meet the man and shake his hand. I also got a picture with him. He is one hell of a guy and I support his run for Governor.

Conservative Media: Obama Supports One-World Government

2009-04-10T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is aboslutely stupid. The conservative media is sugguesting that Obama supports a one-world government. They say that Obama is working his way toward repealing the Declaration of Independence, and taking away our right to bare arms. This is all an attempt to control the people through a type of socialist/fascist/nazi/marxist governemnt. Funny though...Nazism and Fascism are the same thing...and socialism and Marxism are the same thing. Ihonestly think they are trying to throw all those words together becuase the truth is many people don't know what they mean. So when you use four words that all mean the same thing you can scare a lot of people.

Fox News is behind this as well. Things were doing great while Bush was in office, but now we are three months into Obama's Presidency and the world is just falling apart. I honestly know that Obama will lead this country in the right direction. And what's funny is after Obama's term the conservatives will say, "remember when we were communists? Thank god those days are over." But we aren't! Nor will we ever be!

If anyone is responcible for America becoming a fascist nation it's the republicans. They profiled people they don't like who are "possible terrorist", they threw them all in CAMPS, where they tortured these people. And the Republicans have also been pushing this National ID card, which will have RFID tracking chips on them. They're plan is to have EVERYONE use these cards EVERYWHERE. And soon it will be in our money as well. They will know EVERYTHING about you, what you buy, where you go etc. And if you protest, they will simply turn off your chip and you are no longer a citizen. You can't buy things, work, drive, or go ANYWHERE.

From the article:

The one-world government rhetoric has been advanced by some of Fox News' most familiar faces. For instance, in an April 6 column headlined, "The Declaration of Independence has been repealed," Fox News contributor Dick Morris claimed, "On April 2, 2009, the work of July 4, 1776 was nullified at the meeting of the G-20 in London" -- an assertion Morris repeated on that night's edition of Fox News' Hannity. Additionally, on the April 2 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly stated that "[s]ome believe Speaker Nancy Pelosi [D-CA], Senator Harry Reid [D-NV], and President Obama himself are sympathetic to the one-world, global-justice view," which O'Reilly had earlier described as "requir[ing] that a one-world government seize private property and distribute it so that every human being has roughly the same amount of resources." O'Reilly then demanded to know: "Where does Barack Obama stand?" And on the April 1 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Fox News host Glenn Beck asserted, "The Constitution is being taken apart piece by piece through international coalitions, through international law, and through the United Nations."

I hope people in America are smart enough to not listen to these crazy fascists. But the sad thing is many Americans are not that smart thanks to Republicans. It's the Republican's idea to teach Creationism in classrooms as a science. It's Republicans who don't want to teach your kids about sex education. It's the Republicans who's rhetoric basically states that ignorance is bliss, therefore why would you want to be smart? Just sit back and let us control your lives. And that's what they are trying to do. Control you by making you think that Democrats like Obama are trying to take your rights away, even though they are trying to give them back to you.

It's all spin. Spin that we as Americans have to learn and stop. Don't let these Republicans control you with lies. GET WISE QUICK PEOPLE, because they ARE wise and know you are not. Stick it to them by showing them that YOU can make a difference.

Please, read the article and learn what tactics they are using against YOU.

FULL ARTICLE <<<<<<<<<<

Limbaugh: Obama Is A Scam Artist

2009-04-09T19:49:00.001-07:00

This day just got better and better...or should I say funnier and funnier?

After Rush's absolutely crazy rant about enemies of America being friends of the Democrats he started to bash Obama and even Brown University. Obama, he says, has competition from the scam artists of America. And he is attacking Brown because they changed the name of Columbus Day to Fall Weekend. They did this because obviously Coloumbus NEVER discovered America, and also because of the treatment of natives under Columbus' conquests.

Rush compared the Brown University student's intelligence to a vast desert. Sounds to me like Rush gets lonely in that desert, and he has to bring others down with him. Now as for Obama, this is great man...Rush is critizing his plan for home owners who can't pay their mortgages and decided to compare Obama to a scam artist. Basically Obama was telling people how they can save their houses, but also warning people not to fall for the scammers. That gave Rush the green light when Obama used the word "scammers".

"Oh, what a perfect time to come up with crazy lies and make Obama seem like a scammer himself." He most lilkely thought. Here was his most outragous qoute:

LIMBAUGH: Making you money? What is it? MakingHomeAffordable.gov. Go in there and plug in your pathetic figures, listen to the administration's website tell you whether you qualify, but don't go out there -- don't go out there. And if anybody that demands money up front -- that's right. The government demands money all the time, at the end, from the front, from the rear, from the down, from the up. What do we got? We got scammers out there?
Obama is admitting that there are scam artists in America now that he's president? They're going to take advantage of the people? Don't be fooled. So, he realizes he's got competition. He's in competition with the loan sharks, ladies and gentlemen.

Obama has competition? He's competing with loan sharks? Where the hell does Rush come up with this crazy shit? It's just like I was talking about in my last blog about Rush. When that guy Charles told Rush that no matter what Obama does he will criticize him because he is brainwashed. Well I don't think he is brainwashed, I think he is the brainWASHER lol.
When are we as Americans going to wake up and stop listening to these crazy fricking radio pundints that have no brain what-so-ever? i mean damn, Hannity gets all his material from the Rand Corporation. Thats a big right-winged think tank and supplies Hannity and these stupid asses with the intelligent seeming "facts" that they always have. Basically people at Rand get together and say, "ok how can we spin this? What can we say to get people to think this good thing is actually a bad thing?"
That's how these assholes make their careers. It's disgusting man.
Here's a good point. When Bush was in office these pundints used to say how unamerican it is to criticize the President. But now all they do is criticize Obama! How unamerican of these republicans who claim to love this country! You can't criticize our President! That's not patriotic! They should all go to a place where freedom doesn't exsist and THEN see what they think of our great country!
Ahh, it feels GREAT to turn the table on these illogical bastards.
:D

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Rush Limbaugh's Latest Rant: "(Pirates) are friends of the democratic party."

2009-04-09T19:47:00.000-07:00

Rush Limbaugh's latest rant about the rebound of piracy is absolutley CRAZY. His statement comes to us while an American captain is being held hostage by Somalian pirates and is waiting to be rescued. Rush's statement was pretty damn clear...and stupid as usual. But thisd isn't the first time these Republican pundints have tried this angle. Ann Coulter uses it, Sean hannity uses it, Bill O'Reilly uses it. And now Rush is using it, no surprise there though.

Saying that the enemies of America are friends of the Democratic party is another case of spin. This is what Limbaugh said on his show TODAY:

You know, people are like, "How come piracy is rebounding?" Piracy is rebounding precisely because of the American left and the European left's lack of intestinal fortitude -- gonads, if you will -- to categorize these people as they really are and to pursue them on that basis.

"We can't torture them." When we don't torture -- whatever we do is called torture. Everything we did to get answers was called torture. We can't do that.

We're mean. We're the bad guys. We put them up in a hellhole called Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. We're the bad guys. We're setting a bad example for the world. These people are just from an oppressed minority. We're too big. It's totally understandable why these people would hate us. We're the world's superpower. We steal the resources of the world to enrich ourselves, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The Democrat Party -- enemies of America are friends of the Democrat Party.

Wow Rush...blah blah blah....how articulate....

This is just as bad as Ann Coulter when she wrote that book, "Godless: The Church of Liberalism".

Rush the truth is, you are nothing but a tool for the Republican party. You have a listener base of MORONS that you could say ANYTHING to and they would believe you. And lets be honest now Rush, piracy did rebound. but it was STARTING to rebound after BUSH TOOK OFFICE! There were all kinds of reports about Somalian pirates when bush was in offce. So how is this the fault of Democrats?

You pundints all say the same bullcrap. When bush took office Hannity said he inherited a Clinton recession. That wasn't true becuase the recession started AFTER Bush took office. And now that Obama has inherited the Bush recession what do you have to say for yourselves? It's always everyone else's fault but yours.

Just to make my point clear, I'm not blaming the rebound of piracy on the Republicans. Piracy HAPPENS, and it has been happening for hundreds of years. It's no one's fault, besides when you try to keep the pirates down they just think of new ways to get back into business. Just like any drug lord or gang. People grow and they become smarter, craftier, and sneakier. To say piracy is the fault of Democrats because of this one instance is stupid. If thats were a real logical answer I could say based on the same logic that Republicans are at fault for piracy, because they were around during the Bush administration.

People please, open your eyes and ears and start getting smart quick before assholes like Rush Limbaugh brainwash you and turn you into one of his "ditto-heads".

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The Blog Cherry

2009-04-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

Gotta pop the blog cherry with something good but there isn't much...

Oh hey! In case you already don't know, my name is Reno. And this little page here is my blog, where I will write about stuff that happens....duh.

No really, I like blogs because they are like journals that everyone can read. I believe treating a blog that way is a good way to allow people to understand you better.

Well here is some background history for me;

I'm 24

I live in Huntington beach with my grandpa, who has a serious case of dementia. I have to take care of him.

I used to live in another area of Huntington Beach with some CRAZY bitch named Dina Brush and her brother Chops. I had to get the hell out of there though because I realized that Dina was a pathological liar and sociopath. She basically ruined the friendship I had for 7 years with Erica Newberg by talking a bunch of shit and telling everyone lies. She is seriously a sick woman, and I feel bad for her three kids, they are the REAL victims, not her.

Aside from that, I have a lot of good friends that I made from Silky Sullivan's. One of my very good friends is Leslie Moore, and in the past few months she has been my REAL TRUE friend. She has helped me out so much and is always there for me. We're are both Irish and Capricorns, so it worked out very well!

Anyway, this blog is neat and all, but it still has some bugs that need to be worked out.

Welp, stay tuned for more blogs and more crazy stories! Hopefully I get a good set of readers here. And please, feel free to comment about ANYTHING I post, I love to know that people are reading about me and thinking about me. Especially if they have something funny to say :D