A Spaces friend bloged on eBook writing and reading back in August.  This is one thing that has been on the fringe of technical circles for years but is slowly coming into mainstream thanks to Amazon.com and Ophra.  The issue is, as with any new technology, standards.  Each reader has its own internal format they don't share, there is PDF, HTML, TXT, etc. all of which require their own codes to store, load, and read in the device.  Just like now, most music is played in MP3 format, though there is still Windows Media Player, Real Player, and Quick Time formats, most players can read most files.  That is the issue with eBooks and preventing it from really taking off.

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The Joys of Bookmaking in a Digital World

No, I don’t mean the kind of bookmaking that involves gambling! This post discusses techniques you can use to make or assemble your own ebooks that can be read on your Sony Reader, Amazon Kindle or other eBook reader you might own. You might be wondering why someone would want to do this. After all, there are many ebooks available for sale or downloadable from libraries (provided you have a Sony Reader) and many web sites that provide free ebooks for download or reading online. - Jeff Flynt

The reason for bloging on this is because I have been thinking of getting some books.  While not a big issue, I can order from Amazon and shipping is relatively quick, 4 weeks, but there is customs and such.  For the older books I wanted, US historical references, speeches, essays, and works from authors like Poe, Twain, etc.  Thanks to Project Gutenberg, digitizing copyright expired books into public domain and eBook formats, many older works are now available for free in various formats.  Gutenberg, by the way, was the German printing professional who profected the printing press by developing and implementing moveable typeface.

I have a PSP 2000 that I got last Christmas.  I have only a few games, half are in Japanese or Chinese, and its memory stick is half filled with photos, music, and demos of games (because I do not download illegal games).  I had heard that you could read books on the PSP so I investigated and found the program PSP eBook Creator, found at parablax.co.uk  The program is small and is pretty cool that it allows you to customize background color, text color, font face and size, etc.  It is limited in that it takes files saved in TXT format, so if you have PDFs or other formats the program can't read them.  The good thing is Gutenberg has thousands of books and they are all in TXT format, so there are tons of copyright free books available, all classics.

The program works like this, it takes the TXT file, converts it into a JPG that fits perfectly onto the PSP screen.  You flip pages/screens using the left and right buttons so there is no scrolling which makes reading more easy for me.  I have downloaded about 8 files and the longest one is 104 screens and comes in about 6Mb.  I have just found this so it is still in the novelty phase but I do like it.  Reading is ok, you can increase the text size, and being on PSP you can have multiple enternatinment options to you now.  Sometimes playing games, watching video, or listening to music is not all that practicle you can now read a book, and all of this one device.  I really like that the PSP is much more functional then originally thought, with wireless and Skype loaded I can even use as a WiFi phone if so inclined.  So for those out there interested in trying out ebooks and not wanting to invest any money, take your, or your kids PSP, download a small program, a few books and see if it is good enough to sink the money into a Kindle (which I could use but WiFi will not work in China, just like Amazon unbox, music, game, and other downloads).  I recommend this as a money saving way to read, no books, no shipping, and all done in less then the time to get to the car!

From a Milwaukee Conservative "tax payers" ralley the local newspaper quoted the ranking state Democrat with the following:

Mike Tate, the Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman, downplayed the impact of the tea party movement.
"These are extremist elements pulling together, distinct vocal minorities that frankly don't believe in this country," Tate said. "They don't want to see more people have access to quality affordable health care; they don't want clean air and water. They fundamentally don't understand how the American government, economy and capitalism work."

Liberals are classic, Democrats are priceless!  First and foremost, if people at these rallies, from tea party rallies to taxpayer rallies, are so un-American, un-patriotic, and don't believe in the country of America then why are they calling for things that HELP keep America strong; responsible fiscal spending, business friendly regulations, fair media practices, having a represenative government and not appointed overlords who control things, a legislative branch who listen to those who elected them, strong leadership with clear objectives and plans and policies that do not spark trade wars, cower down to threatening states, and build ties through mutual agreements.  No these people are only exercising their constitutional rights, they have read the proposed legislations and agree that the measures are not in the best interest of their lives or the nation as a whole, how is that not believing in the country?  How does Mr. Tate know what conservative want?  He and his party refuse to listen to anything a conservative has said since Obama won the nomination.  Their party is now trying to institute conservative measures introduced last fall and trying to pass them off as new.  Who in America does not have access to quality affordable health care?  People who have been rejected by health insurance companies, and those who do not have a full time job that offers health insurance as a benefit, and finally those who do not want any for whatever reason they choose.  Of course we want affordable quality healthcare, but we want the market to do this through tort reform, cross state competition, and insurance company reform that works.  Now who on Earth wants to live in filthy air and water?  No one, so why make such an idiotic statement, because he is unaware that the resistance to Cap & Trade is based off of logic and not emotion, something many liberals can't relate to.  Lastely, of course we know how America works, we know we have rights such as free speech, freedom of assembly, access to the government to address grievences right to bear arms, and that these rights are protected against the government BY the constitution, not provided by the constitution, read the wording, its there.  As for capitalism, we know very well how it works, its called unemcumbered business practices and free market trade where the best business cases and plans suceed and profit that drives more innovation and expansion.  Its the liberals who don't understand by insisting government interference is required to make things "fair" through restrictions, regulations, taxes, penalties, and polities to hand government control of all aspects of a business instead of the prople who founded and grew the business.  EEO, affirative action, pay scale limitations, windfall taxes, union protections, etc.  The market is dominated by supply and demand, when the government tries to inject itself it messes things up, like cash for clunkers.  Later, after hearing critism over his public comments Mr. Tate released the following to Wisconsin Democrats:

Fellow Democrats,

Over the weekend I was asked to comment on the self described “tea baggers” who held an angry mob gathering in Milwaukee. (CNN Anderson Cooper came up with the term and its a refernece to a gay sex act.  No one is a self described tea bagger, that is a slander and leftwing term pinned by media arm of Obama's administration, the main stream media)

Here is what I said: "These are extremist elements pulling together, distinct vocal minorities that frankly don't believe in this country. They don't want to see more people have access to quality affordable health care; they don't want clean air and water. They fundamentally don't understand how the American government, economy and capitalism work." (see above)

I meant what I said, and I'm not afraid to say it again. (there is a fine line between bravery and stupidity)

Just because you throw the biggest temper tantrum doesn't mean you can silence the majority of Americans who want fundamental change in this country. (but it was ok for the last 7 years with people like Cher, Johnny Depp, George Cloney, and politicans as well as WTO demonstrators and people like Michael Moore who profit off of discontent.  No, all that was done post Obama, after Obama we reset all the history of the world.  All the shouting down, demonstrations, and violence done duing the Bush years was just A-Ok, because he was bad.)

History is riddled with examples of vocal fringe groups that have risen to oppose progress and success. From the red-baiting McCartyhyites to the Know-Nothings and the KKK, we have seen this story unfold many times in the past. Fueled by ignorance, racism and intolerance, these groups have done everything in their power to obstruct progress – often resorting to intimidation and violence.  (let's talk about history Mr. Tate, the Ku Klux Klan was a relic of post War Between the States Reconstruction and was resurrected after D.W. Griffith's 1915 movie The Birth of a Nation.  After WWI, the popularity of the Klan surged, and it became a political powerhouse in many regions of the country, particularly in the South, in the border states, the Mountain States, and the West.  Its local political strength gave it a major role in the 1924 Democratic Party National Convention. However, its participation was unwelcome by many DNC delegates, such as Catholics from the major cities of the Northeast and Midwest.  The tension between pro and anti-Klan delegates produced an intense and sometimes violent showdown between convention attendees, who were, yes Democrats.  It was the DNC who raised the KKK and gave it legitamacy in American politics from the thugs and racists it was initially started from.  How about ELF, the domestic terror organization who fight for environmental causes through violence and intimidation, recently they blew up 2 radio towers in a national forest in protest over land usage as well as their infamous SUV and home burnings.  How about the WTO demonstrators who trashed Seattle and contiune to bomb military recruiting stations, shoot soliders and plant bombs IRA style, and I am talking about in the last 3 years not Obama's buddy Bill Ayres the Weather Underground founder turned professor and community organizer.  Least we forget the new Black Panthers who intimidated and threatened voters in November in PA and other states.  Or about the Demcratic Represenative from Milwaukee's son going out and slashing tires of GOP campaign aide workers the day of the election to keep them from bringing people to the polls as they were doing, sure, its all a vast nationally coordinated effort by know-nothing racists who only want the very thing they are accusing your party of implementing in this country.)

We will not be intimidated, and we won't back down.

This moment is too important. The American people voted for change in November, and our President is fighting to implement that change. We will not sit idly by while these extremists pretend to be mainstream Americans. Their views couldn't be any more out of touch with average, working people. (Unfortunately the vast majority of them are average mainstream Americans as proven by interviews and your media constantly trying to debunk them, they can't because unlike DNC sponsered and paid for demonstrations by labor and trade unions, PAC's, and community organized events, these people are just fed up with the fawning press, radical leftist policies, and out of control spending coupled with arrogance of the legislature.  All of this is evidenced by falling ratings, subscriptions, and failing news outlets across the country, except for conservative slanted outlets - this isn't healthy by the way.  No, these people have mostly never attended any political event in their lives until this spring and we are seeing more engaged citizens in government now then anytime in the past 60 years.  Mainstream Americans are not the radical leftist policy fawning sheeple you think, the sooner you realize that and tone down the hate speech and fear mongering rhetoric the better.)

One sign at the protest in Milwaukee over the weekend read “Obama, Osama: Both bombed the American people,” while right-wing, anti-worker pundit Michelle Malkin told those gathered “I've never been so proud in my lifetime to be part of this angry mob.”  (First off, you got the sign wrong Mr. Tate, it read "Obama, Osama, Both had Friends who Bombed America"  And that is from the FB pages of people from the Milwaukee rally and the susposed creator of the sign.  I have not found a picture of it, but I have seen similar signs during the November campaign.  Next, Mrs. Malkin is a NYTimes best selling author who is pro capitalism and worker, she is anti-union, anti-regulation, anti-excessive tax.  Next the comment was made as a response to the DNC constantly, and with aid of the main stream media, refering to conservative rallies as 'angry mobs', I guess Democrats don't understand satire or scarcasim.  How is this any different then the First Lady's 'proud of this nation' comment taken at face value?

What do Wisconsin Republicans think of this extremist rhetoric? As Republican candidate for Governor Scott Walker said over the weekend, “I'm with them.”

I have a message for Scott Walker and his extremist allies: You will find out soon enough that Wisconsin is not with you.  (To what Wisconsinites are you refering to Mr. Tate?  If you mean the teacher's union, Mr. Doyle's cronies, and the trail lawyers then you are right.  If you mean the majority of the voting public, well polls tell a different story.  Mr. Walker is just one of several prominate conservatives running for Governor, as well as Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke who was a speaker at the even, and is a black man to boot!)

You and I know that hate speech and misinformation isn't what Wisconsin families need, and it's not what America needs.  (Then STOP doing it yourself and demand your part stop doing so as well.  You have already stated 3 FALSE items above.  On this note, you know how many people have been arrested over the conversative rallies, 0!  If anyone were arrested for violence it would be plasted front page of USA Today, NY Time, LA Time, Washington Post, etc.  Instead all we have found in the media is people carrying guns, including a black man carrying a black assualt rifle, all of which was 100% peaceful.  The only violence and issues where when leftist DNC supported groups try to taunt and incite violence, like the liberal who bite off a senior citizen's finger tip at a rally against health care, and he was not part of the rally, just asking for directions and to see what was going on.  Facts are a stuborn thing, so maybe you should not glaze over the past 7 years of history and try to resolve issues by being positive, not fearmongering and misinforming yourself.)

We need fundamental change in this country. And with your help the Democratic Party of Wisconsin will continue to fight back against this right-wing extremism.  (Ahhh, here it comes, the reason behind all this hyperbole, a sales pitch!)

Your gift of $5, $25, $50, $100, or whatever you can afford will help us cut through the incendiary rhetoric and move Wisconsin forward.

Together, we can rise above the scare tactics, temper tantrums, name-calling, and false claims to bring about the change we need.

Sincerely,

Mike Tate Chair,
Democratic Party of Wisconsin

This exemplefies the degree to which the DNC is out of touch with mainstream America.  Are there racist elements within the anti-Obama crowd, yes, of course, just as there were extreme elements who bood Bush during his last inaguration, burned him in effigy in Seattle, and incited violence at events he attended.  The racist elements are small, less then 5% at the greatest.  The anti-American sentiment is rehashed GOP tactic utilized against those who did not support the war and anti-terror measures, quite effectivey.  Unfortunately this tactic does not translate well to domestic issues.  There is a big difference between people withhold war funds and people trying to stop runaway government spending and expanding into all sectors of our lives.  The DNC is trying its best to apply Rules for Radicals to the current conservative movement but it isn't working well.  They continue to try to tie the people carrying guns with the Oklahoma City bomber.  They continue to try to tie in the anti-nazi signs at rallies to people supporting facists ideas in the crowds. 

As stated before the DNC is in trouble when they have to pull the race card.  They are doing this daily now.  The media can't resist reporting on a race issue, they never have before and now it is more.  With sinking rating and dwindeling subscriptions they have to sensationalize the news just to keep from losing what they already have.  The messages coming from the DNC are mixed at best.  Carter is saying its all about Race, Obama is dismissing it.  Pelosi, Tate, and others are saying its about race yet all indications and evidance point to the contraty.  Despite things like record gun and ammunition sales, you are not seeing gun violence erupt at rallies, there is no FBI or Secret Service accounts about assination plots.  All the warnings are being blared 100 times a day, yet nothing is found to be going on that is illegal or wrong.  Obama's slide in the polls has appeared to stop, but one partisan poll by CNN, one of the most liberal news agencies in America, is not enough to prove that.  

Obama won the election by less then 10% margin.  The change people voted for was accountability, transperency, and cleaning up Washington DC by getting rid of the insiders and changhing the way business was done, well let's look a the results.  Obama has installed a record number of 'czars', over 30, yet his cabnet is nearly still 1/2 empty.  Over 10 appointees did not pay taxes until congress investigated them.  Only Chicago insiders and extreme radical leftists are getting key jobs capible of making changes.  Legislation is being rammed through the process without being read or even written.  Lobbyists are enjoying better days in DC then they had in 4 years.  The administration is out of sync with itself, basically having to throw the VP under the White House to keep from retracting every word he states.  The Secritary of State is making low level foreign policy appearances, while back door deals are the order of the day.  The only change people have seen in DC is from an extreme right wing foreign policy agenda to an extreme left wing domestic agenda.  Things like Obama getting into the New York Governor's race by demanding the incumbent refuse to run to keep the state Democrat is leaving a bad taste in many people's mouth.   Actions like this show a federal government trying to push itself and its policies down to the local levels, and this isn't resonating positively with local Democrats who think they should make the choices for themselves, which sound American to me.  This is why people are upset, poll numbers are falling and the trust in government and media is at historic lows.  Why else are books like Malkin's Beck's etc. NYTimes best sellers despite never being reviewed by the Times?  The 'Fairness Doctrine' is back in the limelight because conservative talk radio is more popular then music programs now.  There are underlying reasons for this and the fact that the DNC is resorting to lying, cheating, and trying to regulate and legislate to stop it proves they are out of touch with the message.  That message is that their policies are NOT popular, they are NOT trusted, they are NOT resenating with main stream Americans, so why are they continuing to push them?  Al Gore made a good point during a presidental debate stating the defination of crazy was doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result, well, the DNC is doing just this now.  Mr. Tate needs to review what is going on across the state and the country before he opens his pie hole again and spewes the very things he is ranting against, hypocrite.

In middle school I remember spending a week on memorizing the preamble to the Constitution, it was at this time that I also learned the preamble, the Constitution, and the meaning behind most of the words. In today's climate we need to get back to our inner middle school selves and revisit this historic document and what all the words are and why they hold as much weight and importance today as they did on September 17th 1787 when penned and signed. While our Declaration of Independence was a world shattering document, the Constitution has much more significance and weight in our everyday lives. I will take this opportunity to paraphrase a line from Oliver North: Who gives you the rights you and I enjoy as Americans? God, for the Constitution only protects our God given rights from the actions of the government.  With that said, the Preamble to the Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

National Constitution Center: Constitution Day:  National Constitution Center - 525 Arch Street, Independence Mall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19106
215.409.6600

America Reads the Constitution

September 17, 2009, at 8:30 a.m.
This year, our America Reads the Constitution event will focus on Americans in Service. Individuals who serve the nation in a variety of capacities will be asked to read the Preamble to the Constitution. Invited readers include embassy officials in Kabul, Afghanistan and students and teachers from Constitution High School.

Virtual Field Trip: Signing the Constitution

September 17, 2009, at 9 a.m.
Classrooms around the country can join the National Constitution Center via live webcast for a special demonstration in Signers’ Hall about the signing of the Constitution. Participants will also learn more about the Center’s new virtual field trip program. Educators can register to join the event on the Constitution Center’s website.

Click here on September 17 by 8:45 a.m. to join the virtual field trip of Signers' Hall.
Please sign in as a "Guest" simply by typing in a screen name or your real name.

Constitution Celebration

September 17, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visitors can learn about the three branches of government through the Balance of Powers Demonstration and the Separation of Powers Show; learn about the Pennsylvania Packet printing of the Constitution during the Decoding the Document Workshop; participate in the Articles of the Confederation to Constitution Demonstration; join in the Preamble Scramble; and learn more about the leadership styles of the founding fathers in the Leadership Tour of Signers’ Hall.

Articles of Confederation to the Constitution Demonstration

September 17, 2009, at 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m.
Join in this interesting demonstration about the journey our country took from the Revolution to the Constitution. Find out more about this rocky road to a Democracy.

Separation of Powers Show

September 17, 2009, at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m.
This fun and energizing show teaches you about the branches of government and how our Constitution limits government by separating power—a revolutionary idea! Take part in an educational game of tug-of-war among the three branches of government while they learn about checks and balances.

Separation of Powers Workshop

September 17, 2009, at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Dive deeper into the formation of our national government as we examine primary sources of the three branches of government.

Balance of Powers Demonstration

September 17, 2009, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Learn more about the three branches of government as you explore giant models of the Capitol, White House and Supreme Court. Public Program demonstrators lead you through an entertaining look at the buildings, the people who work in them, and the checks and balances of our government.

Constitution Birthday Party  

September 17, 2009, at 12 p.m.
Visitors can join the Center as we celebrate the birthday of the Constitution, compete with cake! Guests will also get a chance to decide whether or not to sign a giant copy of the Constitution.

This has got to be the longest titled blog I have posted.  Seriously, since this story broke I have been waiting to see how the media would cover it, well it seems I have my answer now – nothing.  Anyone who has been getting news from New Zealand or on the fringe, ISP news services etc., is aware of this, for those who aren’t well here is the short and dirty facts of the story:

An aspiring film maker, James O’Keefe, and an actor posed as a pimp/prostitute combination and sought help from various urban ACORN chapters (Baltimore, Washington D.C., and New York).  They filmed their escapades with a hidden camera and struck gold in the three branch offices mentioned.  I of course can’t open YouTube so I can’t review the tapes but I have read over 20 articles on them, mostly from center to conservative blogs due to only ABC news giving any air play to this, and it was small and scant.  Heck New Zealand is now scooping the entire national media and the story is now getting major air play in the UK as well.

From the reports, O’Keefe and his ‘working girl’ walked into the ACORN branch offices and requested assistance in how best to apply for and get housing for ill repute.  In all 3 locations they received advice on how to massage IRS information into something more ‘practical’.  The ‘working girl’ was instructed to list her profession as self employed and as an entertainer.  O’Keefe was adamant about her profession and how best to deal with it, each time he received advice from several staffers on best practices for keeping things looking legit.  I have heard the transcript from the Maryland office and O’Keefe made it crystal clear he was bringing up ‘several’ underage girls from Latin America to ‘work’ in the home as child prostitutes.  He wanted advice on how best to handle the paperwork to keep the government from investigating.  He was told to list those under 16 as dependents, up to 4, and because they were all going to be here illegally just to keep the others off the books.  From what I read the same thing happened in the New York office.  The New York workers went a step further, not only offering advice in IRS income hiding, money laundering, and immigration dodging, they offered advice on how best to store and keep the money out of the financial system to increase the chance of getting away with the scam and avoiding any legal penalties, all by burying the money in a box in the back yard, covering it with sod, and living off of that when it was time to retire.  I live by the rule of 3’s.  One time is an isolated incident, two times is a coincidence, three times marks a trend.

When the story first broke ACORN was quick to point out it was an isolated incident and fired the staff identified in the video, then the Washington DC and New York videos came out.  ACORN then threatened to sue Fox News, O’Keefe, and cried political conspiracy and shake down as a way to harm and take down the organization.  Fall out was quick, first the US Census Bureau publically cut ties with ACORN and stated their services would not be utilized for the 2010 Census as it was initially planned and promised by the President.  Even at the time of his DNC nomination he was touting ACORN as being intimately involved in shaping his administration’s policies, so far nothing from the White House on this.  Next, and most likely what sparked the lawsuit talk, was the recent Congressional Senate vote that cut all federal funds to ACORN, the vote was 83-7 (the seven are now known as the sleazy 7 on the blogosphere).  This will cut $4 billion slotted for community assistance and $165 million for foreclosure relief according to Reuters, who wrote a massively sympathetic and slanted piece, only one of a handful available in the main stream press.  So now the darling of the Obama nomination, election, and administration, has become toxic and is sinking fast.

Now for the main story, what you thought the ACORN part was the main story?  Well now that you know ‘the rest of the story’ you need to know the second part.  Under Maryland Law, Annotated Code of Maryland Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article 10-402 - “The only information received in reference to this alleged criminal behavior was a YouTube video. Upon review by this office, the video appears to be incomplete. In addition, the audio portion could possibly have been obtained in violation of Maryland Law and requires two party consent.”  According to Maryland State’s Attorney Office, If it is determined that the audio portion now being heard on YouTube was illegally obtained, it is also illegal under Maryland Law to willfully use or willfully disclose the content of said audio. The penalty for the unlawful interception, disclosure or use of it is a felony punishable up to 5 years.  Wow, 5 years for uncovering:

• massive corruption
• accessory after the fact to criminal activities
• conspiracy to commit fraud
• conspiracy to defraud the government
• conspiracy to launder illegal income
• accessory after the fact to human trafficking
• accessory after the fact to aid in child prostitution

Forgive me for being so naive but isn’t this a good thing that we have turned on the light to this organization’s cockroaches?  How about the whistle blower laws put into place to protect those who are going to expose corporate and government corruption?  And the ace up the sleeve, how about NBC’s Dateline who has made a ratings boom out of Chris Hansen’s ‘To Catch a Predator’, ‘To Catch an Identity Thief’, etc.  Now some of Hansen’s reporting is done with assistance from law enforcement, who are part of the show as they arrest those who are bold enough to go through with their chats.  I looked up Maryland’s whistleblower law and found the following:

SPP 5-301, et seq - Can not take or refuse to take any personnel action as reprisal if applicant or employee discloses abuse of authority, gross mismanagement or waste of money, violation of law or substantial and specific danger to public health or safety and seeks a remedy - as per the Prohibited Employer Activity section.  Protection provided is extended to the public.  Can submit a complaint to the secretary within 6 months of first knowledge of violation; if violation found, secretary can remove detrimental information from complainant's personnel record, reinstatement, promotion or end of suspension, back pay, leave or seniority and attorney's and court fees listed under the Remedies section. 

However this will be interpreted by the defense attorney for O’Keefe if Maryland decides to pursue the matter further is up to the lawyers and the judge.  Personally I feel this is within the law as it is no different then a police officer deceiving criminals in a sting, a news team setting up people in investigative reporting to undercover some sort of nefarious activities, private investigators gathering information for their clients, employees reporting illegal activities or cover-ups of potentially illegal activities.  What is the one thing that may not be in O;Keefe’s favor?  He never contacted the State’s Attorney Office, Baltimore DA, or even a lawyer prior to his stunt.  He was aware of this, why do it on a hunch.  He had enough time to get a script, actress, and rehearse enough to have a dynamic plan in place to expand or contract the questions based on feedback.  There was a fair amount of planning, yet he did not seek legal council.  Of course it can be argued that the largest union to contribute to the DNC is the trial lawyers unions, and with so many lawyers being in the bag for liberals, may be sympathetic to Acorn and tip them off to the plan before it could be executed in the state’s executed.  O’Keefe made a surprise attack to see what would happen.  He found out and found it to be much worse then initially expected, spinning his back up plan thicker and thicker each minute and getting more and more assistance.  This shows the culture of corruption and greed of the organization as ethics training seems to have never taken place in at least Maryland, New York, and Washington DC ACORN offices.

Was it an ambush, of course, all investigative reporting and stings are.  Ask DC mayor Marian Barry about ambushes.  Ask Monica Lewinski about ambushes.  There are thousands of politicians, corporate officers, corrupt law officers, criminals etc. who have fallen for and been put out of commission by sting operations.  O’Keefe had some inside information to go out and do what he did.  He wanted to get proof, irrefutable proof, of the mindset and length ACORN workers would go to assist in criminal activities.  What is the down side.  If the ACORN operation was legitimate and its workers ethical they would have taken his name, stated they could offer no assistance and then contact the appropriate authorities to investigate the matter.  If O’Keefe, the actor and over the top pimp, and his ‘working accomplice’ were able to get such great assistance and advice from 3 branch offices in major metropolitan offices of ACORN, what advice and assistance were granted to real criminals and those getting houses for crack smoking, drug selling, brothels, harboring human trafficking victims, chop shops, etc.  The most troubling part is ACORN has seemed to have started the prosecution ball rolling against those it preceives as instigators and accomplices.  Going after O'Keefe and Fox News is not resolving the situation, it is pure blame shifting and distracting from the real issue, their organization's willingness to assist in criminal activities.  If this is to stand then what is the resulting effect to investigative reporting.  Will O'Keefe be drug through the mud and villified because he is not part of the intellectual elite or leftist leaning ideology of ACORN and those who support it?  Will the main stream media finally pick up the story, and if so will they hold past investigative reports to the same standard they try to apply O'Keffe too?  These are important because if there isn't fair treatment then it will signal that justice, in the minds of the liberals and their supporters, is not blind or impartial but slanted and in favor of those to whom hold the majority power.  O'Keeft should be seen as doing a service to the community for his exposing criminal activites, just as NBC has and hundreds of professional reporters who have risked more to get their stories and built outstanding careers off of those stories.  Prosecuting or charging him will send the worng message, not that the ends justify the means, but that only those in power matter and anyone opposed to them will bear the full brunt of the system against them.  We need to have ways of justice, which is why liberals pushed for whistleblower laws in the first place.

If ACORN were really for improving communities and helping the poor who have real need they why are their ethics, standards, and practices so lax as to implant illegal activities into communities where the citizens are vulnerable to such activities?  How can minority females be so crass and complicit in the trafficking and turning out of underage girls prostitutes who will be shipped here against their will and held for sexual use without any chance of justice as they are here illegally?  Where is ACORN’s head?  Where is the accountability and professionalism Obama keeps calling for us to live up to in ACORN?  ACORN is trying to sue Fox News and O’Keefe, for what, exposing how sleazy and complicit they are in ruining neighborhoods across America!  A recent House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report stated since 1994 more than $53 million in federal funds have been released to ACORN and under the Obama administration ACORN stands to receive up to $8.5 billion in available stimulus funds, of which they just last week petitioned to get almost $6 million of.  The report also stated: evidence that ACORN has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in racketeering, and created a conspiracy to defraud the United States.

All this aside I have to return to a previous point.  What exactly is the purpose of ACORN?  Isn’t the organization to assist poor people obtain housing, assist poor people in keeping their homes, and organizing communities to give them a greater voice to politicians who have many voices airing concerns to their specific operations?  Isn’t the point to help build communities of stronger community ties and organization to improve the life quality and socioeconomic condition of the neighborhood and improve the property values and thus the condition of that community?  Apparently not.  ACORN is nothing more or nothing less, then a fully partisan political organization that is dedicated to the advancement of the ideology and philosophies of social Democrats and those they ally themselves with.  From the voter registration drives, fraud convictions, exposures of corruption by past directors and former employees, etc. is all detracting from any good the organization has ever accomplished.  We had a saying in the Navy, ‘one oh-shit erases a thousand atta-boys’ which translates to , what you do lately is more influential then what you did in the past.  ACORN has not accepted any responsibility or humility in any of these cases, they have not vowed to correct the actions and re train to prevent these allegations from surfacing again.  No they have always cried foul and stating it is the fault of their enemies and those opposed to their vision, that is not correcting the problem which we have just witnessed not once, not twice, but three times.  This organization is rotten and exemplifying the problems with such organizations.  I am glad to see ACORN is out of the 2010 Census now, they will not receive further stimulus monies, and their continued lack of morals and judgment is exposed for another round and hopefully now we can now say enough is enough and get rid of this cancer to American communities and neighborhoods.  With the assistance and help they are providing it is no wonder the less fortunate communities continue to be held down in poverty and crime.  Its time for ACORN to go, the handouts to stop, and communities organize themselves instead of outsiders who have slanted views and partisan agendas to force and retain in the communities.

** Update ** Listing of the Senators voting FOR Acorn getting more money, and those not voting, the rest all voted to stop funding and it passed the Senate

ACORN to receive money 7 AYEs

Burris (D-IL) - Obama's old seat
Durbin (D-IL)
Casey (D-PA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Leahy (D-VT)
Sanders (I-VT)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

9 not voting

Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV) - too old to vote on most things
Coburn (R-OK)
Graham (R-SC) - at a town hall event in S.C.
Gregg (R-NH)
Hutchison (R-TX)
McCain (R-AZ) - at a town hall event in S.C.
Mikulski (D-MD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Full roll call vote here

I have not really gotten into the September 11th issue here.  There is an idea on the conservative side we should use the anniversary to remind the country of the horrific lengths our enemies will go to just to get our attention and voice their dissatisfaction against us.  Liberals want to use the anniversary to highlight the evils our country has continuously coerced the world into accepting.  Obama wants to use the anniversary to do the one thing her knows and knows really well, community organization via his national day of service.  Well, all of this is good in many ways but we are still realistically spinning our wheels over what happened and what to do next.

September 11th was something we never saw before.  The only thing close was Pearl Harbor.  The major differences were at Pearl Harbor it was a military on military attack and we know who did it, Imperial Japan, and we knew how to get revenge, war.  This attack was different, a stateless, faceless, loosely bound group of radical fanatics thusly we have had no way to deal with it – militarily, economically, nationally, emotionally, or personally.  Sure we have heard talking heads and ‘experts’ spew off this and that about motives, missed opportunities and warning signs, and even others who have gone too far is stating we deserved it (Van Jones, Rev. Wright).  This open ended lack of reason and acceptance have prevented closure more then the inability of our government to get the top leaders who authorized and financed the operation, the highest we got was the architect and initial planners.

Why am I bringing all this up?  Well, for one it needs to be and two, we have lost the meaning of the day just a few years after that day.  Yes, the families and survivors will never forget, and they will never forgive the results of that day.  For those who were there and witnessed the events and results of that day will also never forget or forgive those responsible.  My duties in the US Navy as well as tax payer funds paid for my training to understand and combat the intentions of fanatic terrorists, who are different then other terrorists, think IRA verses al Qaida.  I understand why they did what they did, the justifications and lies told to those who executed the act and those who assisted them.  Most Americans don’t and they should not have to either, but they should understand the amount of hate and ill will inspired this and that little if anything we can ever do will make those and the ones they inspired to ever stop.

In the case of Pearl Harbor it was easy to rally and solidify support of the entire nation against Japan.  This never happened with September 11th.  Sure, after the initial shock we had some common ground, but by January it was all gone as the bitter in-fighting and politicizing of the day and its aftermath began.  We had lost before we even started to fight.  Sure, we overthrew the Taliban in Afghanistan, bombed the crap out of some mountains and disrupted the networks of terrorists globally to such a degree they were forced to hide and go on the defensive.  Well, that ended quickly because we were fighting a new kind of enemy.  Our leaders had failed to explain to us the depth, length, and breadth these men and their associates were willing to go to destroy us.  They got side tracked with old scores, new opportunities, and personal vendettas.  This left a vacuum that took the solidarity out of the public and resulted in some of the bitter in-fighting we have seen across the nation since the Patriot Act.  We have lost trust and faith in our government and as a result we are now paying the price.

Those who lost their lives on this day, civilians, first responders, and innocent bystanders have thus had their sacrifice tarnished by our petty bickering and loss of focus.  Our country was attacked, our own symbols of strength and prosperity were taken down in front of us by using the very conveniences we took for granted, our lifestyle and freedom.  Our enemies were not attacking New York and Washington DC, they were trying to demoralize us and embarrass us to the point of giving up.  They want us to stay on our side of the ocean, stay out of the world’s affairs, stay out of the world economy, why, so they can fill the void and spread their message of hatred and fear.  This is the message that was lost.  We got side tracked over abuses of executive powers, letting politicians run wars, and trying to focus on enemies who did not need our attention at that particular moment.  We took our eye off the ball.  We have given the orchestrators of this horrific attack the upper hand and a victory.

Seriously, look at where we are today and where we were 8 years ago.  Some out there believe we can just say we are sorry, humiliate ourselves and apologize for past digressions and all will be forgotten and forgiven.  Well, that ain’t going to work, it will only embolden and encourage our enemy because they will then smell fear and weakness.  Strength is all they understand and respect, look at the historical record of the region.  We no longer are fighting against those who attacked us, most of us don’t even know who we are fighting, or why we continue.  We have disconnected from the war believing it is over because there is no symbol of the opposite side remaining.  Its hard to fight against an enemy that has no country, territory, economy, infrastructure, or tangible asset we can see, measure, and destroy.  The largest defeat is by our leaders who have decided to move past this issue because they feel it is now a back burner issue.  We have already hardened our defenses, made strides in securing our infrastructure to prevent a repeat of the exact same attack.  Well, our enemy is resilient and inventive, they will not use the same tactic twice.  Our ignoring them will not discourage them or convince them to go away.  We need to take this day, September the 11th, and use it as a day to remember those if lost their lives tragically, heroically, and unaware of why and we should remember it was all done out of pure hatred toward us as a people, country, and culture and those responsible will never concede or give up because they believe their fight is just and right.  It is of a basic primal fight, us and them.  We need to get our heads out of the sand and remember this on this day, else we invite a different attack, and if we allow that, it will be far worse for us all.

Well the speech happened, some saw it, some didn't and sun rose and another day went on with business as usual. 

Quote:

Obama addressing the nation's youth
From my previous blog:  "Obama is going to take 30 minutes to tell kids the importance of staying in school and studying hard and that if they put their minds to it they can achieve their wildest desires, even becoming president.  Well it does not take that long to say all that but he will be addressing more specifics I am sure.  The kids he is addressing are K-6 so his message will not be all that complex or sophisticated; remember this is America in the information age and not Germany in the 1930's... This is the difference, I can give him the benefit of the doubt on things he has not demonstrated a violation of my trust in yet."

I lived up to my end of the bargain, I did not join in the bandwagon mindset of 'everything Obama does is bad and socialists' that I heard echoed from flapping heads on pod-casts, in the news, and on the internet.  I am an independent thinker and I will lay waste to the GOP and conservatives when they mess up as much as the Dems have since November.  My wife has even gotten concerned saying I needed a break from the talk radio and WSJ reading saying I was getting too one sided.  I hope it did not seem that way as I am passionate on my beliefs but I try to stay grounded.
 
I don't hate Obama, I just hate his politics, ideas, and thoughts on how best to run our lives.  Personally I don't know the guy so I can't place judgment on him for that because that WOULD be baring false-witness and against my personal beliefs and values.  That being said lets discuss the speech he gave yesterday.  No, I am not going to type out the transcript as I usually do, why, well my last blog posts were very very very long and I need to balance that out.
 
I have read Obama's speech 3 times, twice with my 'critical eye'.  For the most part I agreed with him, not all of it and not 100% on some of what he said that I did agree on.  I liked the personal responsibility message, this is something lacking from many Democrats addresses and philosophies.  It was refreshing to see him compare and contrast the hard work and rewards.  I really liked him addressing the 'not everyone can become a sprots figure or reality TV star' line.  I was not aware he was also addressing grades 6-12 but that is a moot point after reading the speech.

Obama is a great orator; he speaks well and as long as his teleprompter is working right his delivery is personal and powerful.  So have I flipped my lid, how can I be praising someone who has drawn so much venom from me?  Well, as I stated in my original piece, I will only lay blame after the fact, this time there was little to disagree with, hey I can admit it.  There were some things he missed that I feel should be addresses.

First, he failed to mention the competition we as a nation face.  He did not challenge the students with a clear goal of clawing our way from the bottom of the industrial nation education list.  He did not set a goal of improving math, science, or writing skills or how much behind we were form our Asian neighbors.  Americans are a competitive lot, give us a challenge and we will work harder and longer.  He missed the boat by not asking the students to get us back into the top 10 in critical education areas.
 
Second is honestly addressing our economic future.  I am a firm believer that manufacturing as the main backbone of the nation is done, through, gone forever.  The ability for average Americans to raise a family comfortably on a high school education are shrinking faster then our national deficit is growing.  He should have used this opportunity to challenge each student to find an emerging career fields and study it.  He should have stressed that math and science are needed more and more to keep our country strong, if you are not good in that, writing and the arts are areas we are still dominate in, until India takes over.  This would not be so political as practical.  Our future generation in school will need to break the dependency on manufacturing and help usher in a more information based economy.

Lastly, he tried to keep the message too positive and too upbeat, he did not address the social issues that confront kids today, gangs, drugs, and teen pregnancy.  Yes these are sensitive and political topics but that are pitfalls our kids need to be told again and again to avoid.  I am sure he could have found a liberal way to do so with out coming off like a preacher.  In recent years we have seen the declines of all three bottom out and increase again.  National stories of sex clubs, binge drinking, resurgent pot usage have kept the issues on the fore front.  School violence does not seem like such an issue now; he did touch on it thought.  The more kids hear to stay off drugs, stay out of gangs, and wait until married or out of college to have a kid and the more people they hear it from the stickier the message will be.

Overall I would give the President the grade of a B+ on this address.  I am disappointed and a little ashamed by my fellow conservatives who acted and reacted like liberals did toward G. W. Bush for the past 7 years.  Who cares if the Pelosi crowd called for inquiries and trial over Bush's speech to kids, that was the past and aren't conservatives supposed to be more mature, restrained, thoughtful and less emotional, excitable, knee-jerk then liberals?  Obama did a good job on this address, sure his administration botched the initial delivery but they corrected it.  We have to remember we are all here to balance out the extremes and smooth over the bumps to keep things on course.  I hope this isn't my only time to say this or my only accolade toward Obama, but given his track record it may few and far between.  He did a good job, he could have done better but he did good enough.  Let's all give him credit for that and try to build off this one positive thing.

This is again what the Democrats strategy is, 'it's a crisis so we have to pass it now before it is too late'.  This hurry up and pass it now philosophy is what has gotten the Democrats into trouble in the first place.  We need time to review, pick apart, and debate the measures of this bill before we can expect any action on it.  At least the summary is only 18 pages, unlike HR3200.  So what is in the proposal?

• Small Business Tax credits, companies with less then 25 workers averaging under $40k/yr, up to 35% for up to 2 years, good news for really small businesses
• Part D Drug Discount Program, drug companies forced to give a 50% discount off negotiated price of brand name drugs, provided 30 hoops are jumped through, so where will these companies recover these costs?
• Health Insurance Exchange and Compacts, interstate policy selling can begin only when states establish a compact but only for those states, limited competition
• Ombudsman, states required to set up departments of consumer advocates for private insured to deal with rejections or cancellations of service, massive staffing!
• Transparency, requirements for companies to post monies spent on items other then health care, hospitals must have price lists, how about campaign contributions?
• High Risk Pools, increase funding for state high risk pools provided it does not go to companies with a waiting list, not 100% sure of this yet, need to dig deeper
• Forcing Companies to Cover, eventually pre-existing conditions and policy cancellations will be a thing of the past, and premiums fixed, so a big ? for companies
• Prohibit illegal aliens from receiving tax credits
• Utilizing existing government health insurance, Medicaid/Medicare by expanding eligibility requirements
• Coverage for Preventative Services, provided the Secretary of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force agreed
• Incentives for Healthy Lifestyle, given health status is improved in the areas; high blood pressure, cholesterol, tobacco use, obesity, diabetes, and falls prevention
• Improving Payment Accuracy, a whole slew of things to cover in there

As this was just released and I do require sleep I have only glanced over the proposal.  For the most part is looks much better then the disaster the House passed.  For one, it does require all citizens and resident aliens get coverage or pay a fine, unless you meet specific economic hardship conditions, of which there are many so it’s not like some college grad who is still working part time and eating mac and cheese will have to pay a fine.  The state exchange program is a little vague but the state compact provision is encouraging as it would allow states to ban together and let people in said states do with health insurance what they can do with home and auto insurance, get the lowest cost option that suits their needs across state lines.  The small business incentive is great for really small businesses, provided they don't pay their employees that much.  There are some solid protections offered but it keeps the co-op option open as well as creating a 10 year $900 billion program that is sure to see cost over runs and problems under the stress of the baby boom retiring.  The heart of the bill seems to be to expand Medicaid to non-elderly and non-pregnant adults by easing the eligibility requirements.  While this is not the 100% free option Pelosi and Obama wanted it is more realistic.  I am concerned with spending control, fraud waste and abuse provisions being too light, and it not addressing the real cause of high medical prices in our country;

• Tort reform
• Medical staff and facility insurance reform
• System to control Medicare and Medicaid costs
• Credits for those who buy insurance on their own
• Deductions for medical purchases made

I have less then 15 minutes to address this so it will be short.  Today Obama will address our nation's youth via television address.  For starters I have no problem with this, presidents have done this for years now and there was nothing sinister or troubling about it then, so I would think the same would hold true this time.  Now the President's staff has gotten into trouble by releasing a long agenda and setting odd goals that were a little open ended and resulted in conservatives interrupting them in the wrong light.  The problem is not the messenger, it’s the message.
 
Obama is going to take 30 minutes to tell kids the importance of staying in school and studying hard and that if they put their minds to it they can achieve their wildest desires, even becoming president.  Well it does not take that long to say all that but he will be addressing more specifics I am sure.  The kids he is addressing are K-6 so his message will not be all that complex or sophisticated; remember this is America in the information age and not Germany in the 1930's.
 
Keeping your kids out of school and protesting this address is comical.  For one people should be more concerned with what is in the text books and the agenda of the school administrators and teachers then the president, we all know what he is about.  If 30 minutes with him on TV is that dangerous there would be no opposition to him or his ideas by now.  We need to expose our kids to different points of view and arguments so they can begin to learn how decisions and opinions are formed and voiced publically. 
 
We should not be up in arms on this address.  We should only act after the address and only if the message is inappropriate or somehow improper.  Obama seems to be just as polarizing as Bush, and for that he continues to play the part of the anti-Bush he so loves and craves.  I remember in college how distraught and upset all the liberals were in my department after the Patriot Act was passed, we were in the library science department.  People knew I was a veteran and a staunch conservative and would flat out say 'Bush is not my President, I didn't vote for him'.  I hear the same thing from some hard line GOP people today, so I have to ask them 'who then is your president, how is he passing his agenda to the nation?'.  For better or worse Obama in America's President.  We don't have to agree with him on everything, or even most things.  He is however the will of the voters, for now, and we are stuck with him for 3 and a half more years.  Now I may not agree with his policies or things he is doing and trying to do to the nation, however I can still give him the benefit of the doubt on his official duties until after the fact, for if he messes up, or makes an astronomical error, in my opinion, then I will call it like I see it.  Thus far I have been critical of Obama on things he has either done, said he was going to do, or set forth in motion events that will result in things I do not agree with.  This is the difference, I can give him the benefit of the doubt on things he has not demonstrated a violation of my trust in yet.  He wants to make education a priority in the nation.  Until I hear or discover his exact plans I will give him the preverbal line to do with what he wants, if he miss uses it and ends up out in left field, well I will call it like it is then.  So chill out and let's see what he is going to say to the kids today.  Remember his comments will not ring as truth as much as what the teachers are doing to the kids for 8 hours a day.

Over the course of the month I found a few articles that caught my attention and illustrate how our of wack our social policies are when it comes to dealing with our children.  One of the items comes from the morally bankrupt state, my birthplace, California.  It seems the bankrupt state of California spends upwards of $216,000 per juvenile offender per year.  The other comes from the recent publication on the standardized test results from the past school year highlighting the flat academic health of the nation as well as nearly flat scores for Latino and continued slippage for African America groups.  Yet another, admittedly not American, hails from New Zealand where the citizens passed a vote to allow them to discipline their kids with a light smack legally, and then the government over riding the citizen’s majority vote.  Now how do these tie together?  Well, they all involve youth and the treatment of them, more importantly is how much resources we dedicate to the raising, educating, and disciplining of our youth.

The information about the tests has been discussed in-depth in some media outlets, however only a few have focused on the trending and corresponding factors I feel resulted in such results.  Below are two charts.  The first is the SAT Scores broken down by race for 2009 (past year) that shows how ethnic groups are improving, or declining in education achievement.  The second is the SAT Average scores from 2005~2009 that shows the trending of scores, which are falling.  A note for my foreign readers, these tests are equal to national exams used to determine which college and which subjects can be taken, they determine the choices and programs suitable to the student taking them.  The charts reflect slight trends, but when stepping back to the root of the problem, to be discussed later, I will outline how our declining social priorities have led to this. 

The good news first.  The number of students taking the test only 1 time has increased to 48.2 from previous year of 46.5, meaning students are achieving good enough scores the first time.  Second we see that among ethnic groups Asian Americans and American Indians have made gains.  American Indians in the US, for the most part, live in conditions that most would call third world or fourth world as to facilities, infrastructure, and proximity to areas where learning can be facilitated (museums, historical sites, learning centers, libraries, etc.).  The gains among American Indians, while modest, are encouraging as it shows that education is being taken more seriously by the families and students taking the test with aspirations of attending college.  The overall results are still below national average by large numbers and show that the quality of education on the reservations is still well below national average.  Asian Americans made significant gains, continuing to out pace their fellow ethnic groups and continuing to leave the national average in the dust when it comes to demonstrating what they learn, especially in Math and Writing (above 27 points ahead of national average).  The continued advance and excellent scores in the Asian American community demonstrate something that illustrates my point and will discuss further down in this article.

SAT Scores by Race and Ethnicity, 2009

Group	Critical Reading Score	1-Year Change, Reading	Math Score	1-Year Change, Math	Writing Score	1-Year Change, Writing	Total 1-Year Change
Asian American	516	+3	587	+6	520	+4	+13
American Indian	486	+1	493	+2	469	-1	+2
Latino	452	-2	457	+0	445	+1	-1
Black	429	-1	426	+0	421	-3	-4

Now the bad news.  African American seem to be declining in education quality as represented in the above chart.  This is disheartening result as it shows a far further systemic problem that continues to get worse despite the efforts of policies and practices to reverse that decline.  Next is the below chart that shows the national average keeps dropping.  Sure, the decline is gradual, but over time you see that America is, on average, becoming less educated and knowledgeable on core areas of education, so other areas are going to correlate proportionately.  Next are the scores of today compared with the SAT peak scores for the nation, in 1963.  The linked article, Kids Today: Dumb and Dumber? on Encarta states the national average score are discussed and explored however it is glossed over as more of a fluff piece stating the education is important and kids are smart in areas outside of academia, as if that is really useful.  1981 marked the 19 consecutive year of decreases in all score areas and the the bottom of the test historically speaking with national averages in Verbal 424, Math 466.  1982 saw modest increases of 1 to 2 points and the era of slight gains as the test was restructured and retooled to make the test more fair without compromising the quality of the test as much as possible.  During the 1980’s and 1990’s the SAT test itself came under more scrutiny as it was argued the test was ‘too hard’ for some minority groups, but not others.  After 20 years of work by political parties, education experts, and the booming marketplace of test taking preparation specialty classes and programs we have seen some gains but are still way off the 1963 peak and even in another decline in scores, though not as dramatic as seen in the 1970’s.

SAT Averages, 2005-2009

Year	Critical Reading	Mathematics	Writing
2005	508	520	n/a
2006	503	518	497
2007	502	515	494
2008	502	515	494
2009	501	515	493

So what does all that mean?  Well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it must be a duck.  Our kids are dumber now then they were in the 1950’s and 1960’s.  Since I graduated high school back in 1989 we have seen things from Ubonics, to Hip-hop English to help engage minority students and provide an alternative to learning the subject material.  Well, the class may be fun and entertaining but it sure isn’t translating into good grades and test scores to get kids into college.  How about that new math that was all the rage in the 1990’s?  Well, it seems the Asians are doing much better with traditional math and dedication to study, and let’s get off the stereotype racial profiling of Asians just being better in math due to genetics, math is learned – it is not an instinct.  Dumbing down the curriculum is not a serious option as all it does is drags down other students instead of elevating lower achieving students.  The rage of the 1990’s of self confidence boosting where everyone was a winner and no one was to be placed in a situation of self doubt has only resulted in a spoiled generation of kids unprepared for the harsh realities of uncertainty we face in times like today.  We have seen liberal options like alternative teaching methods and tailoring the curriculum to more ‘fair’ content has resulted in test score stagnation and worse, declines over the modern scores.  We have seen conservative solutions like No Child Left Behind that only targeted kids in k-6 and was grossly underfunded and school vouchers and choice programs that flooded good school systems with good students and left lackluster school systems declining in all aspects, with the exact same results.

So now Obama is saying we need to beef up our education system, and he is 100% right.  How is he proposing to do so?  Good question, one I will be looking at over the fall, and hopefully he will stop appointing czars and finish filling the 50% vacancies of his administration.  I will not get into his address to grades k-6 in this blog, I have to dedicate an entire page to that, and it is not what you will think it is.  Back on topic, our schools are falling behind global standards.  We were the most educated and literate society on Earth in the 1950’s and 1960’s and then we let it all fall apart in the post counter culture years of the 1970’s and self indulgent 1980’s.  So how do we fix this and do so realistically?  Well, we have to go with what works and abandon all aspects of what doesn’t work.  We have to do this seriously.  We need to get educators out of the upper levels of the Department of Education.  Why?  Because they are too close and have too much invested to seeing the education status quo or latest hypothesis to be effective leaders.  Let the specialists play the role they are best suited, advisors.  Let the administrators be people who can make the hard choices without nagging ideas of theories and ideas.  Let stone cold administrators make the hard decisions of reviewing the facts to get the curriculum back to the basics and advice from experts on how to best modernize subjects like science, history, reading, etc.

If I were to put a platform together on education it would look like this; Basic tools, challenging subjects, challenging standards.  Here in China kids learn math in 1st grade, and it gets progressively harder and more intense from there.  We should look at the systems that are current world leaders and emulate them, to a degree, and add in what makes sense to our cultural and educational philosophy.  Reading, Writing, Arithmetic being the basics.  K-2 would focus on these, and do so in a way to challenge and prepare kids for the next phase.  Build off basics and add History, Science, and Literature.  3-6 would focus on this as well as organized sports.  The next group would advance the complexity of the level of subjects and focus on preparing kids for high school.  High School would phase in the advanced tools needed for college and job market positions.  Core requirements would need to be updated for hours needed, classes required, and evaluations for tracking as well as grading scales, regional variations allowable, and ways to deal with struggling kids.  Our kids are not less capable of those of India, Japan, China, the UK, they are just more lazy and have less expectations placed on them, and that is where the next phase comes in, parental responsibility.  The messages goes well beyond Bill Crosby and his hard line message to absent fathers in the African American community.

The social component of laziness has come out of arrogance, ignorance, and lack or responsibility for the lives people in America have created.  Why must we lower grading scales, inject bell curves, or re-write a text book because a socio-economic group is not doing as well as others because of racist perceived deficiencies.  Responsibility is taught at home, not at school.  Respect and dedication are taught at home, not at school.  The job of teachers is to impart subject materials of knowledge useful for succeeding at the next phase up to college.  Parents have to raise their kids and get them to the point of being able to learn from the teachers.  I know not all parents are doing a bad job, but when a recent study states that over 50% of kids today are raised in single parent house holds that means the parent is not around or has the time to adequately raise or assist the child(ren) they have to be able to learn effectively.  When we have become so anal and guarded that a parent is no longer allowed to discipline their kids in an effective manner, time outs and negotiating with children is not parenting but placating, then you get kids who raise themselves and are unprepared for and have no clue of how to deal with or overcome adversity and setbacks in real life.  You gets kids who lack self discipline and restraint and are impulsive and unresponsive to rationale thought.  Think I am crazy?  Sure juvenile crime peaked in 1993 and has since dropped to levels lower then 1983 only rising in the late 90’s for a few years and then falling again.  However, according to History.com: “Since the 1970s, juvenile arrests have risen in every serious crime category, and female juvenile crime has also increased substantially. Unofficial reports suggest that a higher percentage of juveniles are involved in minor criminal behavior; grossly underreported common offenses include vandalism, shoplifting, underage drinking, and marijuana use.” The unofficial account is juvenile activities and behaviors are increasing as well as associations in violent, delinquent, and social gangs.  Influence on kids lives has shifted away from the family since the 1950’s to the peer groups and entertainment industry today.  This means the messages, morals, values, and ideologies of youth in America today is dictated by people who have only self interests or profit motives at the core of their message and not the well being and best intentions of the kid at heart.  Until parents can get over their lazy streaks, work at life together and reverse the tide of over 50% divorce rate, 50% single parent households, and instill normal values and discipline in today’s kids we will only see things get worse as these kids grow up and continue the cycle of uncaring and selfishness.

If we shift our focus to the cost of taking care of our kids, In California last year they spend $216,000 per child in juvenile corrections while in Washington D.C. the cost of public education costs $24,600 per child per year.  I bet you didn’t know that.  First off you can see the most economic solution, keep the kids in school.  Next we have to see why the costs in both ends are so high (my private school education cost less then $10,000 per year!).  Juvenile corrections is a huge money pit.  Facilities have to be built, staffed, have electricity, water, food, sanitation, and medical costs to operate.  Then you have the staff, corrections officers, councilors, other PhD’s, vehicles, communications, probation officers, judges, courts, etc.  If you look at it for a minute you can easily see how the cost can balloon but to such an outrageous level is beyond belief (it only cost $24,000 per prisoner per year to incarcerate an adult in 2005).  Looking at public schools how can we get to $24,000 per student?  Well, believe it or not the lion’s share of the cost comes from labor unions and medical plans for the teachers (who average $47,000/year in salary).  If you exclude them and other bureaucratic fees you come up with a more modest $8,300 per child, which is what schools typically operational costs are.  So where do all the costs come from?  In education the cost come from?  Add up the local operating budget, staff fees (school board members, administrators, secretaries, councilers, coaches, nurses, janitors, bus drivers, security, cooks, maintenance and groundskeeping staff), retirement fund contributions, county and state funding, federal funding and then divide the amount by the number of students and you get the figure.  The most funding we are immediately aware of is taken from property taxes and other certain state and local tax allocations.  This is why the power of teacher’s unions and those in higher education are such powerful forces in politics, they are self serving and must justify their existence and importance somehow.  The problem is how do we funnel all these dollars into the areas that matter the most, facilities, teachers, course materials, etc.  When compared to juvenile corrections the inflated and bloated costs of public education is far cheaper, and private school is a steal (if you rent and don’t pay state and local taxes).  Unfortunately raising costs seldom go towards increasing the value of the education.

Finally is the New Zealand story.  Parents have felt they were having their rights and ability to properly parent their children intruded upon by the government.  So many New Zealand citizens felt so strongly about the law making spanking illegal that they petitioned to get the measure put on a national ballot and then 87.6% of the country voted to repeal the law, lawmakers of course refused to remove the law citing children safety and welfare trumped citizens wills.  That is a great example for democracy.  To be fair the referendum that was voted on was non-binding but it does send a strong message to the parliament.  How does that apply to us?  Well, it is not much different here.  Anyone who has witnessed a full blown temper tantrum in the grocery store or on a plane will understand that parents need more tools to correct inappropriate behavior besides time outs, bribery, giving in, or pleading with the kid to just stop.  Of coarse there is a line, and most of us well adjusted and responsible adults know where that line is.  Child abuse is not like pornography, we all know that a light slap or raising of the voice to get attention is not abuse, but a closed fist hit or excessive use of force is full blown abuse, no room or subjectivity here.  The school I went to exercised physical punishment with parental consent, it worked and worked well.  There is a line, a line where government intrudes too far.  Just as we don’t want the government to tell us how to discipline our kids, we don’t want them in our other lives telling us what to eat, how to dress, what car to buy, etc. 

These 3 stories all have a common thread, kids.  If we are not involved and raising our kids they will turn elsewhere for guidance and support.  Kids need boundaries and consequences for violating those boundaries in order to prepare them for life and to give them the self discipline and sense of consequences needed to judge situations they will face in daily activities.  Parents have to be engaged and responsible no matter their personal situation in our modern world.  Working all the time to provide money for the kids but not spending time with them is not parenting, and it is not right.  Our school systems need to rebuild their methodology for teaching our kids.  For the past 20 years we have not seen significant gains in our nations youth, while the rest of the world continues to pass us in academic achievement we continue to blame the tests for being too hard, the subject material not sensitive to ethnic diversity, and lack of funding.  These are cop outs and false.  We spend more money on education in the public school sector then the highest tier of private schools nationally yet we are not even in the top 20 in global comparisons.  The problems is what we are teaching is not equal to what those who are smarter then us are learning.  We need to abandon these antiquated theories of liberal education and reapply what worked when we led the world in education.  Sure, the world has evolved since then as have the subject material, but the approach was more effective then then today.  If the kids can’t keep up, well they will have to try again.  We need to stop coddling the kids and let them learn from mistakes, humiliations, and tribulations that will ultimately boost their self confidence and instill a true sense of accomplishment once they get over the shock of hard work.  In other words, we have to shift our priorities.  The above 3 stories show how priorities taken away from common sense approaches to raising and educating kids and placed in ideas of how to give them a better experience have failed.  We need to reprioritize and refocus our efforts on these areas of parenting, discipline, and education before we fall so far behind we implode under the weight of entitlements and blame shifting.  As we can clearly see it costs far less to educate a child then incarcerate them.  If are willing to accept taxes enough to support the juvenile justice system then why not shift that money to schools to where kids can learn civics, history, and basics to a degree to where they can pass the immigration naturalization exam, college entrance exams, or name the first president, know what year the War Between the States took place, who we fought in WWII, and the names of all 7 continents as well where they are on a map.  We should not be shocked when we hear of a kid being spanked for stealing, lying, or skipping school or what the parents fee is appropriate punishment as long as it is sensible.  As Obama stated in his last campaign, we have tried these systems in the past and they have failed, it is time for change and to try something new (in this case old again).  We got away from so many things that worked in the past; dual parent families, disciplining kids, teaching basics and holding kids to high academic standards.  Somewhere in the shift between our past culture and the current culture (the past counter-culture) we lost what worked along the way.  in trying to create a pleasing and fair environment where everyone and everything is nice and pleasant we have muddled up things to where they are upside down.  We all knows what works, but no one has the guts to come right out and say it or to actually set for the changed needed to correct the decent into madness we are on.  The real problem is our current lot of leaders all came form the very system we have to change, and they see nothing wrong with it.  We need to demand better, for our kids, for our future, and for our nation.

August is historically held as a slow news month, by news agencies.  This month we do have some interesting items, not all of them political either.  However we can not ignore the huge elephant in the room.  This month, full of vacations and trying to get the last bit of good out of summer does see a slow down in news but events like Senator Ted Kennedy’s passing, the continued health care reform bill, a sputtering economy, and continuing crystallization of ideology within America continue with no end in sight.  Internationally we have seen some interesting and odd events.  From public caning of a Indonesian fashion model for drinking a beer, then getting postponed, to North Korea calling for sanctions on South Korea and then holding new talks with them.  Here in China we have seen expansion of relations with Taiwan only to see a chill of the Dali Lama visit over the typhoon devastation and then continued civil unrest over lead pinioning of children in Hunan province and earlier Shaanxi province this month.  There is much more demonstrations going on, from Iran to Venezuela and China to America.  Thanks to all this twitter, Facebook, and other internet services continue to be blocked here in China.  So goes the tide against sharing information, take heed when the fairness doctrine debate starts.

Domestic Items – Our lead off topic this month is the age old debate over the Second Amendment – the right to keep and bare arms.  During the health care debates something that has not happened before did, people started practicing open carry to political events.  Only 7 states and Washington D.C. fully prohibit open carry (Texas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arkansas are included due to War Between the States concessions for re-joining the USA and are now looking to repeal the restrictions), 11 states allow open carry without restrictions, and 13 allow with a proper license, in the remaining 19 the laws are patch-worked between cities and rural areas but open carry is generally legal.  The issue was thrust into the limelight of public debate on the 11th when William Kostric open carried in view of a Presidential Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire.  This was followed up by an August 16th Presidential Town Hall in Phoenix Arizona where one individual was photographed with a M-4 semi-auto carbine and a handgun.  The liberal press exploded and called such acts racism and a voicing of violent intent against Obama, until it was proven the man carrying the offending weapons was a young black professional!  In an interview he said he always openly carried in Arizona (fully legal) because he could not carry a cop with him 24 hours a day.  During the national debate an open carry advocate was challenged on what permit allowed people to brazenly carry weapons, he replied: the 2nd amendment.  Since Obama made his ‘clinger’s’ comment in Pennsylvania, an open carry state with a state permit, the firearms market has seen a boom.  From ammunition shortages going from manufactured ammo to re-loading supplies to general firearms (hunting) to self defense (handguns) and even ‘assault style’ firearms.  The beginnings of our government relied on a fully armed local militia to defend against foreign and domestic powers.  The founding fathers later restricted the military operations within the borders of the country throwing up a roadblock to potential dictators.  States maintain their own militias yet our second amendment provides for an armed citizenry as a check of last resort against overbearing government pressure or foreign invaders.  The liberals hate this as they have lost their connection with the culture of firearms.  Over half our population lives in urban areas now, where guns are not immediately necessary or required.  As people continue to be allowed to be herded into cities like sheep it is more and more vital for those living outside to keep the rights of the constitution alive.  As for the practice of openly carrying to Presidential events; there were no issues, no arrests, no real concerns.  The Secrete Service was aware, kept an eye out, but as the people never had close proximity to the president it was a moot point.  The people to worry about are not those who carry their guns on public display, they are not going to go anything crass, its the ones who illegally conceal their weapons, they most usually have nefarious motives.  We are allowed to carry guns in America unless restricted by laws, law abiding people are of no concern; its the criminals you have to worry about and no gun law, regulation, or restriction will ever change their behavior as they are criminals with criminal intent at the core.

I have to combine 2 items into this one, easy to do though.  An august study showed that for the first time in our history single parent house holds outnumber ‘traditional’ households now.  Way to go progressive liberals.  Since the counter culture movement of the 1960’s and ‘70’s we have seen morale and societal values and cores beliefs erode into a decadent and self indulgent acceptance of individualism over the family, community, country creed I grew up hearing about from ‘old timers’ at coffee shops.  Yes we have harsh realities of increased alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, phobias, hang ups, etc. used as excuses for divorce today are more then they were in the 1950’s.  Are these causes or symptoms?  The study also included children born out of wedlock and raised primarily by the mother.  This is much deeper then just teen pregnancy.  While the black community has been hurt for generations by absent fathers and has been trying to address it from Bill Cosby to Barak Obama this problem, and it is a problem, is now expanded to every aspect of our country and its social norms.  When the fringe becomes the norm those who on the fence jump much sooner and with more conviction.  The real problem is we have become too selfish!  We don’t want to inconvenience ourselves with living with or even marrying another person now.  We don’t want to work through problems and compromise but rather get our way and just do the easier thing, splitting up.  Well, this affects the kids and colors their view of the world and what is normal and acceptable.  Great job baby boomers, your legacy to us is a couple of generations of kids raised by kids who only know self gratification as all that matters.  On the flip side are 2 cases on the opposite end of the spectrum about today’s kids.  On one side we have a Boy Scout who raised $62,000 for toys for orphans.  This example shows kids today are capable of looking past themselves and toward service that enriches others.  Being an Eagle Scout and proud member of the BSA I can say this accomplishment is the example we should applaud and showcase.  Think how happy those orphans will be with new toys and how hard it was to raise that money in such hard economic times.  On the other end a recent study on kids and the environment showed that the unoriginal generation behind my own, Gen-Y, is the most aware of the environment, its problems, and global warming theories yet they are the worst at practicing lifestyles that assist in reducing carbon usage or save the environment.  They are the largest users of electrical devices many or which require toxic batteries, own more electronic devices then other generations, spend more time consuming electricity, less time recycling, and take less steps in environmental improving (planting trees, cleaning up road sides, curtailing driving, eating, or consuming of non-durable goods).  They have the knowledge yet they do less to act upon it.  Maybe if the family values of the parents were stronger on community and civic matters and less on self indulgences for themselves and their kids (video games, pre-planned activities galore) then they would feel obligated to act on this knowledge.

Financial Items – How do you manage your monthly budget?  When in college I was running such a tight budget I could only afford 1 luxury purchase of $15 per month.  My bills ate up 90% of my income.  I did not have cable TV, magazine subscriptions, cell phone, etc.  I did not buy any new clothes unless they were 75% off or more for 3 years.  I did not eat out, worked 2 jobs, and still has such a razor thin budget that if anything happened to my car (used to get to the park and ride lot and work) or me I would be sunk.  What does this have to do with anything?  I did not increase my spending.  I did not run a larger and larger deficit to prod myself into creating more income.  I did not spend money to make more money, there was nothing to spend on.  I did not demand a raise from my employers to increase my income.  Well, this is what our government has been doing since we dropped the gold standard and began running deficit spending.  Our state governments are required, by law, to run balanced budgets but our federal government does not.  Now to the point.  The impetus of our recession, housing market crash, was caused by Clinton era programs deregulating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to include them to make loans to people unable to realistically afford them by stripping down the requirements.  Now, after the fall-out and tax payer bail-out of the organizations Fannie Mae is seeking $10.7 billion more due to a second quarter loss on their books.  What does this have to do with anything?  The CBO is stating that deficits are exploding to over $1.5 trillion above the tax revenue collected for the next 2 years.  Add this to the fact that our Federal Reserve has received less tax revenue this past tax season since 1932!  This is the largest tax collection decrease in our modern history.  Why, because those who get taxed the most, the rich and super rich in the top tax bracket and pay 90% of our taxes took a beating when the markets bottom fell out and the economy tanked this past year.  The recession is hardest on them, so they make less they pay less.  This means the projected tax revenue, of which all Obama’s plans have built their assumptions off of, will be far short of expected levels to pay for all this spending we as a nation have done since January.  Despite oil production peaking in 2005 and falling every year since then and corporate earnings increasing in the last quarter we are not seeing the recovery the White House keeps telling us is going on.  With all this the liberal left Congress is continuing to spend money, requesting to buy 15 airplanes, taking climate change tours of top tourists spots both of which was scantly covered in the press.  The Cash for Clunkers required a couple more billion dollars and dealers still to this day are saying they have not received their checks yet.  The point being that Democrats have problems running anything involving fiscal responsibility.  How can I say that?  Top 10 poorest US cities are Democrat controlled measured by the percentage of people living below poverty level (cities above 250K populations), the top, or bottom, 5: Detroit – 32% – no GOP mayor since 1961, Buffalo – 29.9% – no GOP mayor since 1954, Cincinnati – 27.8% – no GOP mayor since 1984, Cleveland – 27% – no GOP mayor since 1989, Miami – 26.9% – no GOP mayor ever according to the US Census and 2006 data.  The biggest problem we as a nation face in the present is not terrorism, climate change, or health care, its liberal spending on programs that have not done anything but breed generations of entitlement mentalities and dependency on government assistance for survival.  If there is one bright spot I can say Obama has shown us is that you can’t spend your way out of financial trouble.  Maybe that is why Europe is now ahead of the US in lower corporate taxes and free trade!

Beware the ides of March!  We have a major issue tied to the above; double dip recession, hyper inflation, stagflation.  Those my age or older remember the energy crisis of the 1970’s.  Gas lines, double digit inflation and unemployment, flat GDP and decreasing opportunities.  We have to remember the difference between deficit spending and national debt.  National debt is the total amount of money from the past year and earlier years owned by the American people.  If you have a credit card and only pay off the minimum payment each month the remaining balance and the interest left over is the debt owed.  A deficit is the amount spent beyond the amount gained through tax revenue.  If you spend more then you make you have a deficit.  If you have savings you can get away with this for a short while.  One of the first lessons in fiscal responsibility I got in life came from my first real job.  I worked at a local country grocery store that allowed you to buy things on credit.  Just buy what you need, sign the receipt and at the end of the week pay off what you owe.  I worked just 16 hours a week.  When I got a girlfriend and gas went up I had to support my habit of driving fast, driving around on weekends, and getting snacks and school supplies.  One week I was called into the office, I had spent more then my pay check.  Because I was an employee I was allowed to continue my credit.  I needed gas, shampoo, lunch items, and something else that week.  The next Friday I was paid only $8.35 for the entire week!  I still needed gas, lunch items, etc. plus money for dating.  Needless to say it took me a whole month to recover to get paid enough to make it a week without spending anything on credit.  That is deficit spending and the only way I could get out from under it was to cut spending and maintain fiscal discipline.  Obama is overspending more then all past presidents combined.  The problem is we can not sustain these kinds of deficits for long.  We have to have some national debt, this allows us to get money from bonds as we are off the gold standard.  We have to have some deficit spending, this way we can pay out money before we receive tax revenue (pay checks, durable goods, aid programs).  But we do not have a money tree in D.C.  China own the majority of US bonds.  They refuse to buy long term bonds now.  The Federal Reserve is printing money driving down the value of the paper circulating through the system (inflation).  Our bonds have historically been seen as guaranteed so dividend rates were low.  Now the risk is higher so we can only sell more bonds if the rate or return is higher, further devaluing the dollar and our spending power (hyper inflation).  All of these are tied together and by spending more and more and more and more we are seeing the ends of these things pulled to the extent they will all crash together, stagflation.  The solution is not to try to stimulate the economy but to cut spending like the states have to now.  The Cash for Clunkers, followed by stimulus checks, have the high likelihood of causing a double dip recession.  This is when you have an artificial recovery that is unsustainable that will collapse when the stimulation ends.  The auto market is a shinning example.  When the government offered to pay out for people to buy cars the demand went up, factories hired and put out more, profits resumed and there was a surge in output and consuming.  Now the program is over and vacuum of sales, orders, and spending will cause layoffs, shutdowns, and inventory sell-offs.  The figures and reports will cause investor worry who will in turn pull investment money out of the economy thus causing companies to continue current spending limitations on hiring, raises, expansion, innovation, production.  This is the double dip.  Despite the sunny rhetoric coming from the White House those covering the markets and financial institutions are singing a different tune.  We need to demand spending less, cutting fraud, waste, and abuse from existing programs and cutting those that are not benefitting the nation as a whole.  Spending more will only solve the problem of what our national langue will be, Chinese.

International Items – The war on terror may be over, it seems the terrorists didn’t get the memo.  The UK got red faced when member state Scotland decided to release convicted Lockerbie bomber, Libyan government official Megrahi, on supposed humanitarian rights as they reported he had 3 months to live thanks to cancer.  Well then he was greeted as a returning hero demonstrating one man’s terrorists is another’s patriot.  Since then we have discovered there was a huge oil deal signed with British Petroleum and Libya.  Then we learned that Megrahi is not as sick as we were told.  Now Libyan leader, Kaddafi is coming to New York to address the UN and wants to pop up a tent in New Jersey, where many of the victim’s families live.  Afghanistan has seen July 2009 just get trumped by August 2009 as the deadliest months for US soldiers since the war began 7 years ago.  They had elections but they are disputed, the terrorists cut off some women’s fingers who voted, and despite cutting opium production we have not ‘won the hearts and minds’ of the average Afghani.  The generals are calling for more troops, an Afghan surge.  Iraq is now falling apart after being nearly won and the draw down continuing.  During all of this Obama celebrates Ramadan with a White House dinner.  This shows his sympathy and common ground with Muslims but changes little to the fanatics who continue to attack and plot against us.  The problem is that Obama is no longer dictating how the efforts against our enemies are to be executed.  All of us are getting mixed messages from the White House.  Tough talk on one day, soft gestures and silence on others.  Obama took a week to address the civil unrest in Iran, despite stating it would be unacceptable for them to develop a nuclear weapon.  Then he is silent again when they confound IAEA inspectors.  He talks tough on the necessity of continuing operations in Afghanistan and how vital it is, yet the very thing he demanded of the past administration is what he is not doing or even saying he will do there, draft up a clear plan with milestones, measures, and dates, instead he is relying on utilizing the past plan and its measuring stick.  We are told we are more safe today because of the work done to heal our reputation and take the high path by closing Guantanamo Camp X-ray and ceasing torture yet Gitmo is still open and this week it was discovered by the LA Times Obama’s first rendition was of one Raymond Azar, a Lebanese citizen, was taken from Afghanistan to Alexandria Virginia and after typical rendition treatment, plead guilty to felony bribery for authoring inflated invoices according to the report.  Human Rights watch calls this the most bizarre case of rendition as the offense is a low level white collar crime in our country.  The difference is that he was brought back the US, warrants signed by Federal Magistrates, and Afghanistan was notified.  Also the difference is Democrats who called for Bush’s impeachment and sensor for his administrations renditions are now completely silent over Obama’s now exposed first case.  The problem is not the approach but the message.  Terrorists are seeing what others are seeing, weakness.  There is no clear plan, strategy, or even draft out there.  Meanwhile the terrorists are not cowing down to the confusion or lack of message.  Time will tell if we are more safe then last year, I hope we are, but for the most part I think the lack of a plan is not giving the feeling of being more safe.

North Korea tried to raise some stink over South Korea’s attempted satellite launch this month.  Well the launch happened, the satellite did not get into the right orbit and North Korea shut up.  Why, well because the big difference is the launch was announced plenty of time in advance and was completely transparent to the UN and others to see.  The issue has since resulted in talk between the two nations that has resulted in continued family reunions and work in the collaboration zone as well as the release of a fishing boat.  Bill Clinton did a great job in securing the release of 2 reporters for political associate Al Gore’s TV network that were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in North Korea for “violation of border” in kangaroo court.  Unfortunately we don’t know what happened in the meeting that only yielded the two reporters and not the return to 6 party talks that North Korea insists are “dead”.  Meanwhile, not to be outdone Hugo Chavez has called for Obama to come join the brotherhood of socialism while his mentor Fidel Castro is saying Americans are miss-labeling Obama a socialist because he is black, those silly racist white people don’t understand blacks or socialists enough to differentiate between the two.  

Science Items – Wired.com reported that drug companies have run into a growing problem, placebos seem to be getting stronger.  What?  According to the article Merck was behind and losing ground resting hopes on a new anti-depressant during the middle of the decade.  The article states: “Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive's dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects, and Merck touted its game-changing potential at a meeting of 300 securities analysts. Behind the scenes, however, MK-869 was starting to unravel. True, many test subjects treated with the medication felt their hopelessness and anxiety lift. But so did nearly the same number who took a placebo, a look-alike pill made of milk sugar or another inert substance given to groups of volunteers in clinical trials to gauge how much more effective the real drug is by comparison. The fact that taking a faux drug can powerfully improve some people's health—the so-called placebo effect—has long been considered an embarrassment to the serious practice of pharmacology. Ultimately, Merck's foray into the antidepressant market failed.”  The placebo effect came about during WWII when an Army nurse was running low on pain killers and administered saline solution that had incredibly the same effect.  After the war Henry Beecher went back to Harvard where he established a method of deceiving patients and providing test to grade the effect of drugs under development.  Out of this the procedure of the double blind trial was established and is used to this day.  In psychology classes we were taught about how the brain interprets input from nerve endings that have to travel along nerve bundles, up the spinal column, and must pass through the “gate” or brain steam into the primitive brain and eventually the higher brain.  If you can ‘learn’ to control the gate you can learn to manage and control pain to a degree.  This however only applies to pain, not to correcting legitimate ailments.  The issue is not the placebo effect but the increase of its effect since the mid 1990s.  Medications like Prozac have lost ground against placebo in effectiveness since the mid 1990’s!  It seems the body alters its internal chemistry based on cognitive assumptions.  It was discovered that “Now, after 15 years of experimentation, he has succeeded in mapping many of the biochemical reactions responsible for the placebo effect, uncovering a broad repertoire of self-healing responses. Placebo-activated opioids, for example, not only relieve pain; they also modulate heart rate and respiration. The neurotransmitter dopamine, when released by placebo treatment, helps improve motor function in Parkinson's patients. Mechanisms like these can elevate mood, sharpen cognitive ability, alleviate digestive disorders, relieve insomnia, and limit the secretion of stress-related hormones like insulin and cortisol.” later in the article it states “In fact, just by participating in the trial, volunteers in this high-interaction group got as much relief as did people taking the two leading prescription drugs for IBS. And the benefits of their bogus treatment persisted for weeks afterward”  So what is the most surprising part?  Geopolitical differences enhance or suppress the effect.  It seems Europeans react differently with better placebo results for some things and worse for others.  Also pill color, shape, and size impact the effectiveness of the placebo effect.  This is interesting in that culture and attitudes toward pills and their ability to cure and heal alters our brain’s ability to control and regulate internal chemistry.  It seems we can do more then just control pain, except in order to receive a benefit from placebo you have to ‘believe’ it will work, especially subconsciously.  If we can accept this and learn how to convince ourselves of healing we can actually benefit from it.  The effects recorded are real.  The best thing it seems is to believe in it so much we prepare our bodies for healing and it can, to a limited degree, heal itself.  That is incredible and something the drug companies will try to keep under wraps.

23 years ago the worst industrial accident ever happened, the meltdown of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia.  While there were worst industrial accidents, in my life time Union Carbine in India comes to mind, as does Love Cannel and the space shuttle Challenger.  However Chernobyl and its impact struck much further then the others and promised to wreck havoc for centuries to come.  Back when it happened I remember seeing news reports of radiation fallout being circulated by the jet stream into the Arctic, Canada, the US, and Northern Europe.  Scientists and ‘experts’ all said the region around the reactor would be a ‘dead zone’ for upwards of 300 years and tens of thousands of Russians would suffer the effects of radiation poisoning for generations.  The use of nuclear fuel was written off as dead after that.  April 26, 1986 was the date.  The city of Pripyat was where the reactor was, a city of 50,000 people.  The facility was built in 1970, going operational in 1977, and it was reactor number 4 that melted down and released the radiation cloud.  Chernobyl is actually 15 Km (just over 6 miles) from Pripyat.  The zone of alienation is 30Km around the reactor site.  The village of Chernobyl today has a hotel, couple of bars and a few shops.  People live there but stay less then 4 weeks at a time and maintains a population of around 500 (mostly scientists and power plant workers who are still working at the plant trying to meet a 2020 shutdown date.  The radiation exposure actually happened for the first year.  Visitors to the area today typically get the same amount of radiation exposure as they get from a dental x-ray.  Today the situation is still not good for habitation but surprises have been reported as more and more people go in and investigate.  Scientists have stated 80% of the zone is now forested, before the meltdown it was only 20% due to need for lumbar.  240 species have been counted in the zone, more then before the disaster.  I find all of this fascinating because it proves something about the differences between perception and the real world.  For generations we have been fearing nuclear power because of the potential for such a disaster.  This is healthy to a degree.  The moment you lose respect for something dangerous you will fall victim to it.  That being said, the area around Pripyat and Chernobyl, while dangerous and contaminated for thousands of years, is not as bad as people were fearing it would become.  Evidence that the worst of the effect form the radiation and its fall-out was done in just a couple of years is something that should be lauded.  The facts that trees have reclaimed the region, animal species have flourished, and radiation levels have dropped for the areas where man made items were minimal is encouraging that radiation accidents are not as dire as Hollywood and environmentalists have led us to believe.  The situation is not good in the area but it is not a desert, wasteland, or glowing green full of mutants and death as was the projections by people immediately after it happened.  In just 23 years the area is still contaminated but is looking more like a wildlife preserve then the site of the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history.  We refuse to build more power plants in America because we have no place to store the waste, currently in on-site warehouses at the facilities that produce the waste instead of Yucca Mountain where it used to be stored, deep underground.  China builds a new dirty coal fired power plant every month to keep up with its thirst of cheap, quick, and reliable power.  If we were serious about carbon emissions, global warming, and environmental impact we would replace all our power plants with nuclear, hydro, and emerging power facilities and export nuclear power technologies to countries responsible enough to use it correctly.  We would also revise our nuclear waste disposal and develop a way to store the waste in a manner that ensures safety as much as humanly possible.  Unfortunately it seems we are more concerned on working within the confines of our existing systems then researching and developing the one system proven to work and work well as long as diligence and respect are properly paid to it and its by-products. 

Sports Items – As football season is almost here, preseason underway, we are in that unique period of overlap.  Football is ramping up, baseball is winding down, hockey will start soon, basketball is just on the horizon.  One of the great things of football’s preseason goes beyond the game itself.  It introduces us to the coming year’s insanity of rules and sports facilities we have to contend with.  The shinning example of this is the Dallas Cowboy’s new stadium’s set of HD monitors.  Not only are they some of the largest video displays in the world, they hang above the field like a looming flock of vultures ready to descend on the field at a moment’s notice.  They are so big the people on the field are reduced to mere ants as their video projected selves hover over them at many times their actual size.  The video boards are a few stories tall making them descend from roof to a mere 95 feet from the playing field.  As outlined in one of the preseason games, when the punters kick the ball under this board they will hit it, requiring an emergency rule for just this arena.  This is insane in my opinion.  Video boards are nice and do enhance the viewing experience, IF done correctly.  They should show; time, score, quarter, time outs, ball position, last play stats, and replays.  I am even ok with mini commercials or promotions during lulls in the action.  But to have a full HD, 10 times larger then life screen that is so big it blocks the view of the field for those in the stadium and forces people to eventually watch the game on TV as they would at home or in a sports bar totally detracts from the live game experience.  There is such a thing as going overboard with amenities and such.  Who was the project manager of this thing?  Why did the engineers not get the Dallas Cowboy punter to go out and kick a few balls just to see how high he could get the ball before they decided how low to hang this thing?  Why didn’t the owner, the ever football purists Jimmie Johnson, not do the same?  Who thought that placing a gigantic TV over a football field that focuses all the attention to the said TV would make for a better game day experience to the fans; one that charges them a HUGE ticket price, parking, time in traffic, lines for toilets, overpriced food and drink, and intrusive security when you can sit at home and watch it done professionally from a network for free or as part of your cable package, in HD?  I think its time to abandon college and pro football and just focus on high school leagues.  Put all our money into there instead.  Who ever dreamed up this monstrosity never played football or saw live games from anywhere but a luxury box or private section.  The focus of the game experience when at the game is supposed to be the field.  The action is on the field.  The game is played on the field.  When the fans go to a game they want to see the stars, the great feats of athleticism, and to feel the emotion of the game emanating from the field.  It is our great live drama experience.  To shift focus away from that will disconnect all of that and place it onto the glossy pixels we can see from anywhere, even our cell phones.  This is a shame and decadence we need to reject, now.

Seldom do I cover sports that are not solely American.  Why, well because I know those sports and can discuss them at length and with the depth required.  The case of Caster Semenya has brought about the case of gender verification in the world of competitive gender segregated sports.  Since her accuser started a media storm by accusing her of not being a female it has hit papers around the world.  Ever since the Soviet Empire started the practice of placing surgical altered persons into woman’s competition did the issue become huge.  Before then it would be really easy to settle a gender dispute with a simple visual glance.  They elevated the situation to a new level that required a genetic work up to measure the levels hormones, chromosomes, etc.  Feminists have rallied around Semenya stating the unfair accusations are sexist and degrading to girls who are better then other girls.  Unfortunately in the real modern world of sports and its lucrative marketing enterprise that is no longer the case.  While the worry of men having sex change operations to compete against women in track and field competitions, giving them a clear unfair advantage over their fully female competitors, there is another group this brings into question.  There are rare genetic groups of mankind who have a natural androgynous appearance and hold a unique combination of both sexes make up inside them.  This is rare but it does lead to a question of fairness.  Is it really fare to a girl to be questioned if she is really a girl any more then to have a person with enough male genetic makeup so as to have male muscle structure compete against a group of girls who do not have the ability to develop or strengthen their muscles to the degree that this type of person could?  Would it then be fare to have this person compete against Usain Bolt?  I fully shoot down the feminists argument on fairness when it comes to men not getting tested for similar things when they win records.  How would it benefit a woman to compete against a man in a sports competition where men have nearly all the advantages?  This is an insane argument for track and field, weight lifting, etc.  Only in gymnastics, diving, or sports that favor women would you have to worry about this.  Usain Bolt may need to be thoroughly tested for some kind of performance enhancing substance but not for being a woman.  When women can consistently match men in such events then we can make that argument but in our reality that is not the case.  As our species flourishes those slight mutations will become more and more popular.  This will raise the question of what to do with them in sports.  Some people have gender selection done at birth, a decision made by doctors and family for the child with no real way of knowing if they are making the correct decision for years to come.  What is the case then.  What side would feminists fall in a case where a girls was found to actually be a man whose parents and doctors made the wrong decision?  Semenya is most likely to pass her tests with flying colors.  While it is somewhat not fair she has to prove she is a woman to the international sports authority doing so does keep the realm of women’s sports more fair and honest in the long run.  Bolt needs to prove he has never taken any drugs to get to where he is, just as Ben Johnson failed to do when he broke the world’s record.  By proving Semeya is a female you keep the purity of competition for women’s sports intact, else you open it to poaching by those who will take advantage of the situation, just like the Soviets did in the 1960’s.  This testing is little different then what men have to face a battery of PED’s, HGH, steroids, other muscle enhancers, etc.  It may be intrusive but it is necessary to keep fairness in the sport, else you are sacrificing fairness for an appearance of fairness.

Political Items – I always heard that if you like something never do it as a profession.  Case in point, if you really like pizza never work in the making or selling of pizza, it ruins the magic.  I am starting to get sick of politics.  The reason is not that I have become involved in it, more aware of it, or more exposed to it.  The problem is that in our ever changing world politics seems to refuse to change.  Special interests run the show, politicians habitually lie, and we the people who are in charge of it all keep on electing idiots and power hungry narcissists and then act surprised when they get caught being what they are.  This month we saw a new wave of citizen activism that was started out of the tea party movement of this spring.  Citizens are becoming more aware, more concerned, more vocal, and more active in politics, and this is a good thing.  The problem is that we are still the same gullible lot who voted in the current government under the guise of ‘change’ and with ‘hope’ that getting a single party system in place we could bypass the D.C. establishment with political outsiders who would not betray our trust as those who play the beltway games.  Surprise!  Guess who the largest beneficiary of lobby dollars and special interest monies is none other then our very own Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi who is also hiring one of Washington's top lobbyists, Richard Meltzer, to be her policy director.  Not only that but she, along with 2 other top democrats, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn have donated and raised $10 million for their party, more then any single interest according to Open secrets.org.  New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, discovered a missing $780,000 of missing income from his 2007 taxes, making his net worth for the year between $1 million to $2.4 million according to the Wall Street Journal.  All this after the investigation into the $70,000 in missing rental property he reported in taxes this year.  While Obama has implemented more czars then Russia ever had in its history into his administration he is still not filled 50% of his branch’s open positions.  We are seeing more back-room, closed door, and partisan deals out of this government then the past 4 administrations put together.  All we did was change the letters after the government leaders names, to D.  Big time fundraiser Hassan Nemazee, who raised funds for Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, was arrested for $74 million bank fraud and now people are scrambling to pay back his money.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Instead of trying to fix the root cause of health care inflation we are trying to force socialized medicine into the market to fix the problem, thanks to the AMA, Trial Lawyers, and AARP lobby who keep throwing tens of millions at Obama and the current Congress to pass a government run system.  If this president was serious about change and open government he would do as he said and kick out the lobbyists, instead of hiring them and call out his fellow Democrats for hiring them too.  Instead we are just getting more and more of the same arrogant narcissistic rhetoric from both branches of government.  Obama keeps claiming to have a mandate for change, well I don’t see it and I am not alone, even CBS news (yes CBS news) has come out and called the president on this claim outlining the following facts: “Yet the election of 2008 was not like the 1932 contest. It wasn't like 1952, 1956, 1964, 1972, 1980, 1984, or even 1988, either. Obama's election was narrower than all of these. FDR won 42 of 48 states. Eisenhower won 39, then 41. Johnson won 44 of 50. Nixon won 49. Reagan won 44, then 49. George H.W. Bush won 40. Obama won 28, three fewer than George W. Bush in his narrow 2004 reelection”.  So the anger, frustration, and mistrust of the government seen in town halls across the nation is not some ‘vast right-wing conspiracy’ but people sick and tired of politics as usual which we were promised would not happen over this 4 year cycle.  No wonder AARP lost 64,000 members in July, their members are sick of it too.

Finally is the shameless use of Ted Kennedy’s death to help push socialized medicine over the top.  Before Kennedy was even placed in state the calls from Democrats were coming down to ‘pass this for Teddy’.  Well, the debate is far from over and as long as the pressure stays consistent we the people may just achieve a draw.  It is impossible to achieve a win until we get the reasons the prices are too high to begin with, lawsuits, insurance rates, cost recovery models out of control, etc.  For all of those who want a government option please consider this.  In the military it was a big joke to those of us who served that everything provided to us was provided because that company was the lowest bidder for a government contract.  That means your health care, by law, will have to be provided by the lowest bidding companies to provide your care, not something that is the example of efficiency or cost savings robust services being promised.  So before we invoke the memory of poor Ted Kennedy to pass legislation that is incomplete, socialist, and unrealistic let us hear from the president himself, President Barack Obama - June 24: “But what we can do is make sure that at least some of the waste that exists in the system that's not making anybody's mom better, that is loading up on additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care, that at least we can let doctors know and your mom know that, you know what, maybe this isn't going to help. Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller.”  Counter-point by Mike Huckabee – August 28: “Proponents deny that the bill would devalue older people’s lives, or encourage them to accept less care to save money. But it was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don’t have as long to live might want to just consider taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them. Yet when Senator Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die, of course not.”  We have to remember that the very thing our government is asking us to accept is something that they themselves (right down to local government), unions, government contractors, and community organizing agencies will not have to accept, government run health care.  You see, these groups are all exempted in the current bills and their amendments.  If this plan were so great and cost effective then why not scrap Medicare, Medicaid, and put all the above mentioned groups into it?  The problem is not getting coverage to those in need, its getting 260 million people to foot the bill for 40 million, most of whom are illegal immigrants and kids in college or just out of college and those who just don’t want to pay for anything themselves.  When socialized medicine programs were introduces in this country, in the 1950’s it was to cover just 8 million people.  Our population has not grown 5 times since then, it has only doubled (from 154 million in 1950 to 300 million today).  Of course Obama wants only 5% of Americans to pay taxes, the rest will receive entitlements and handouts as well as services like roads, schools, etc.  When you look at the figures you begin to see the impact of 30 years of dummying down the American school curriculum has gotten us.  We have not elevated our minority students test scores, just lowered everyone else's.  Despite throwing money into systems that are visibly failing, why not cut through the bull and fix things the right way, the first time, and keep them simple, transparent, and effective so the accountability goes to those in charge, our law makers and not what we have today?  The problem is not lack of courage to do what is necessary, the problem is rushing to do what is expected to just get something done.  Kennedy may have been a liberal, but he did love this country and we should honor him by doing what he was known best for, compromise and getting something we all can live with, not just the radical costal living intellectual elite liberals who know best for us all.