Coffee Table
Wots the deal?
posted by Ron at 9:25 PM
Real America
The only thing we have to fear is fear its self. Nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
Monday, September 12, 2005
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- The Toll Of History
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- Onward And Upward In 2006
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- Republicans First To Confiscate Your Gun
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- One Plan That Always Works, Blame Someone Else
- Join The Democrats Response
- From Santa Fe To DC
- Corporations Get Even More "in"
About Me
- Name: Ron
- Location: Roswell, New Mexico, United States
A radio broadcast veteran, a father of 2, a son, a brother,a friend and a child of God.
35 Comments:
I have been thinking about this "black" issue concerning Katrina. I honestly don't think it had to do with color and I am starting to wonder if it's about poor people. Now, I tell you I am not a conspiracy theorist but something doesn't smell right here. I heard a LA. congressman talk about how the Gov. called a state of emergency and prepared. The President issued an emergency proclimation and FEMA moved into place. The storm hit and nothing. He was mistifed at what the holdup was because everything was in place. I have heard and read this in other places too. Now I'm not saying this is what is going on but isn't it interesting that things only got better when we got the military involved. Hmmmmmmmmmm
Thought I would post something here from the "Bring Them Home Now" website.
Enlightening!!
And for Mark et. al., I posted a question awhile back. I asked WHAT has gone well for this country since Bush became president?? WHERE has been the LEADERSHIP in anything?? In what way are the average people better off?? What have the members of this administration not lied about??
August 27, 2005
My step-brother Jan is undocumented right now. My mom remarried and her husband gained his citizenship recently, but his two sons were adults who couldn't be adopted and get their papers. So one of my step-brothers has been picking up odd jobs that no one wants around the country, or that pay so low that no one wants them. He's been doing some agricultural work when it's harvesting season. Recently he was able to start trucking for a living, which was higher pay but riskier. He could get picked up much easier, especially crossing state boundaries.
There's a grapevine of information that runs in the workplaces and areas where other undocumented folks work, and he found out about a way to get his citizenship--go over to Iraq! Jan lived in fear of the Immigration and Naturalization Service every waking day that he was trucking. You have to watch our for every state patrol officer; every traffic stop could mean deportation and separation from our family and his life here in the States.
Jan decided to look into it and found out that: if you drive a truck for Kellogg, Brown & Root (owned by Halliburton, Dick Cheney's old company) in Iraq for four months you could get your citizenship. So he goes to the KBR offices and they tell him "Yeah we can get you set up, we'll go with you to the INS office and help you process your papers even." So suddenly he has a small team of lawyers go with him to the INS office and within a few hours he gets a one week visa to stay in the country. At the end of the week he has to be on a plane bound for Iraq. He can only take 50 pounds of personal stuff with him and he has only that one week to tell everyone and get things cleared away. He takes the week driving out to my parents' house and leaves all of his stuff behind.
He's over there right now and my mother is scared to death. There are next to no statistics for how many truck drivers get killed or injured in Iraq--KBR won't release the information. He has no military training, he's got no firearms training, he's just driving this big 18-wheeler through Baghdad and beyond. And what's really horrible is that he didn't sign any kind of contract that clearly stated the day that his papers would even start getting processed. They could hold him there for a year.
He's been there for three weeks so far and no one's heard anything yet. I hope he's home for Christmas.
Eric
Oakland, CA
posted 30 august 2005
August 26, 2005
I am a Vietnam vet who served from '69-71 over there. What a waste. Don't the American people learn from their mistakes in history? We went into vietnam to save the world from communism. What a load of crap. Now for basically the same reasons (economics--valuable natural resouces--oil in Iraq), we are again sacrificing our youth for a cause we can not win.
No country can invade another without expecting the common people to resent them and fight to get them out. This is Vietnam all over again, just spelled differently in the history books. Bush needs to be impeached along with the rest of the gang from Washington who planned the invasion and all the lies that go along with it. There is a wall in washington with over 58,000 names of my brothers and sisters who died for a few wealthly people in power back in the '60s and '70s. Should we set aside some more land in Washington for a new wall or just add on to the Vietnam wall for the same stupid mistakes.
Bruce Gaggero
San Francisco, CA
posted 29 august 2005
Morrell Enterprises??? Owmed by the reknown "osmond Family" in UT...Morrell is in the business of employing people immediately after a disaster---Katrina??? Also has contracts inside Iraq???---employ people---who???those family members blessed enough to survive one of the most tragic natural/man-made disasters in recent history???Dieblod assurred us of a stolen election and now Morell is going to keep looking to employee people without homes, toilets, clothes or maybe in some cases living family members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!While Orin Hatch is seeing to it that "Roberts" passes all the tests being administred to him via the hearings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Mormons have taken up economically where the Jews left off...........they do learn from history---amazing---huh??? Enterprising economically off of the desperation and agony og human suffering...opportunistic cockroaches is way to kind a description for those Latter Day Thieves and Liars...my advice to them better read your scriptures rather thsn twist them around to suit your needs for personal financil gain, there atr no banks in heaven???writer
I do, unfortunately, have to agree with Writer and say bad things about the Mormon Church and its hypocrisy. The Mormons are largely, if not all, conservative Republicans. Diebold is a Mormon owned company and my friend has told me that a Diebold employee in Utah informed her daughter that "the election had already been taken care of" so don't bother to vote for or work for Kerry. I thought stealing and lying were against God's laws!!
I appreciate the faith and the family togetherness of the Mormon Church. About 25 years ago, I invited 2 female missionaries into my home to tell me about their religion. I quickly lost interest after learning that there are 7 levels of Heaven and that only MORMONS can enter the top level. Also, couples who have not been married in The Salt Lake City Temple are not considered married and of course, no one can marry in The Temple without first becoming a Mormon. Also, these young ladies went to a fast food resturant with my husband and myself and had a hard time choosing what they could drink (decided on lemonade) as Mormons were not allowed to drink soft drinks. They are now allowed to drink Coke, but that's because the Morman Church has bought stock in The Coca-Cola Co. Talk about HYPOCRISY!!
Tempted to call in today when Ron was talking to JD and Bob about the New Orleans rescue operation delay. 'Course I have recently gotten in trouble for defending Bob, so didn't know if I should chance agreeing with Bob and the boss and making Ron mad at me, too.
I have to agree with JD that bureaucracy and red tape have made EVERYTHING in the country difficult, and that as the military has discipline and a chain of command, it's easier to get things done that way. True, the military has red tape, too, as anyone in the service who has had to fill out forms in triplicate could tell you.
Bob was right that there needed to be a strong leader to take charge.
In my opinion, this was kind of like a football game being delayed because even though all the players showed up, the coach couldn't understand the playbook. The coach in this case not being the LA governor, etc. but Brown, the head of FEMA appointed by Bush whose major claim to fame had been something to do with Arabian horses and nothing to do with disasters/national emergencies.
Ron, you can repeat this analogy to the boss, but tell him it came from one of those wacky Liberal Democrats (and a Yankee).
DemoCat
Writer you only forgot one Liar Bob. Thank you
http://www.katrinalist.net/
http://www.wanttoknow.info/050911hurricanekatrinacoverup
Is being conservative a crime?
It seems that over the years judges have to prove to democratic senators that they are not "too conservative."
Why is it a crime to have conservative values, mainly believing that the law should be interpreted. It has been the argument that judges are allowed to advance liberal belief systems and agenda from the bench.
Why is it when a Democrat nominates a very liberal Supreme Court justice Republicans vote them in, because the American people voted in a Democrat, meaning at the time the American people agree with that persons philosophy.
Well, GWB has won two elections, and the house and senate have won seats since 1994. It seems very clearly that the American people are thinking more on the right side for the last 11 plus years. So why does Judge Robert's face so much scrutiny?
He has been given the highest rating by the ABA.
Votes of Judges:
William H. Rehnquist (nominated by a republican) 1971 vote...68-26
John Paul Stevens (republican) 1975 vote...98-0
Sandra Day O'Connor (republican) 1981 vote...99-0
Antonin Scalia (republican) 1986 vote....98-0
Anthony Kennedy (republican) 1987... 97-0
David Souter (republican) 1990 vote...90-9
Clarence Thomas (republican) 1991 vote...52-48 (democrats still controlled senate)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (democrat) 1993 vote....96-3
Stephen G. Breyer (democrat) 1994 vote... 87-9
Okay...answer a few questions...
What happened between Scalia and now? How can the senate go from a 98-0 vote on a definite conservative, to probably a 70-30 vote on a moderate?
answer is....Liberals know this is all they have left...this is the only way they can get their agenda passed...
How does a far left liberal get confirmed 96-3?
Republicans know the American people elected Clinton, so he gets to choose who he wants...
Why do judges get attacked on being strict constructionists of the constitution? Since liberals hate that mind set, does that mean their way of thinking (activist judges) is the only way to think? Does that make liberals "tolerant?"
Democat, that analogy of yours really hits the mark. But to take it one step farther, I think the problem was that no one could decide on whose field to play, much less who was gonna be coach.
Also, why would Ron be mad at you? As far as I can tell, he disagrees with Bob but is not mad at him. Have the courage of your conviction! I mean, what the heck, it's just politics and your opinion is every bit as valid as someone else's, even, gasp, Ron's, Bob's, or the Maniac's. The day democracy dies is the day when everyone believes that no one else with a different opinion has anything valid to bring to the table.
To Ron's first post here:
I don't think it had to do with color, either. I think it had to do with the oil in the Gulf Coast region.
Speaking of oil, since this is Coffee Table, I received this in email today, and thought you might enjoy it:
Oil Shortage
A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.
~~~
Well, there's a very simple answer.
~~~
Nobody bothered to check the oil.
~~~
We just didn't know we were getting low.
~~~
The reason for that is purely geographical.
~~~
Our OIL is located in
~~~
Alaska
~~~
California
~~~
Coastal Florida
~~~
Coastal Louisiana
~~~
Kansas
~~~
Oklahoma
~~~
Pennsylvania and Texas
~~~
~~~
Our DIPSTICKS are located in Washington DC.
democat Of course I wouldn't get mad at you if you disagree. I know at least that you have a sense of the true reality.Everything else to me is peanuts. It likely could be bureaucracy. I guess it's just hard for me to imagine this country messing up that bad without doing it on purpose. To have everything ready to go before the storm got there and then taking 3 to 4 days to react is just not logical to me.
"Also, why would Ron be mad at you? As far as I can tell, he disagrees with Bob but is not mad at him. Have the courage of your conviction! I mean, what the heck, it's just politics and your opinion is every bit as valid as someone else's, even, gasp, Ron's, Bob's, or the Maniac's. The day democracy dies is the day when everyone believes that no one else with a different opinion has anything valid to bring to the table."
You couldn't be more right Watchman. I see you get it too. Now we need a way to bring people together for a common good. We will always have differences on the common good but its not a big deal if we can dialogue. While character is a factor we can't spend too much time not pondering the issues we face. Before that can happen the right needs to quit making the issue about the man or woman and not the ideas. Cuz that's what is important in the long run. And thats what we need to talk about.
Game, It is not a crime to be a conservative. It's a crime to be a thiefing neo-con PNACer. Frankly I watched a little a lunch yesterday and found him to appear capable with a good knowledge of the law. He states he is in favor of the right to privacy and individual liberty. If he acts in that way on the bench then it will be alright with me. He is getting grilled because that is the duty of the loyal opposition..you know both sides of the story? Sorry you haven't figured out this democracy thing. What changed between Scalia and now is that the conservatives have been hijacked by corporate industrialists who have not only all the power but money too. That tends to make some of us a bit uncomfortable.
Were Backkkkkkkkkkkkkk, and this Time we promise no one will shut us up, unless of course ?????????????
Later
Light and Love
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy happy that Mr. and Mrs. Maniac are back and that all is well with DemoCat and the famous couple!!!It is so good to see people practicing what they preach amid all the world's hypocrisy in these times...light and love are the way to go, if only more of us had that spirit inside of ourselves???Where would that leave the money hungry war-mongers???...only the future will tell...stay strong all of you...writer...
Wed Sep 14, 3:38 PM ET
WASHINGTON - House Republicans derailed Democratic attempts on Wednesday to force the Bush administration to surrender documents on prewar intelligence and the disclosure of the identity of a
CIA operative.
The Donkey could not resist stealing this post. The Donkey feels bad and lazy stealing from another blog:
http://theheretik.typepad.com/the_heretik/
If the donkey keeps using other peoples posts,without proper credit they will start calling him the game.
DECISIVE LEADER GEORGE W. BUSH UNSURE WHETHER HE NEEDS TO TAKE LEAK? Note question mark in Top Secret Note to Condi Rice. The Donkey thought he addressed these questions to Karen Hughes.
UPDATE: Rove knew about leak. But was not first to leak.
UPDATE: New York Times relieved. Judith Miller not involved in leak.
UPDATE: Where was Condi Rice at time of leak? Time magazine's Matt Cooper has the double super duper exclusive.
UPDATE: WHO IS IN CHARGE? Cheney refused direct order to leave stall next to Bush. Bush may have been slow in response time to leak.
Some people would call the Donkey an asshole because the Donkey does not need Condi Rice's fucking permission to take a bathroom break.
More from DemoCat:
Well, hey, Ron, I kinda knew you wouldn't be mad at me, but I seem to have gotten on people's last nerves lately. Speaking of that, I have been forgiven now, but my new motto is "Don't Mess With the Maniac!" (The Game should keep that one in mind.)
Speaking of The Game, I agree with Ron re: The Supreme Court justices. I have many TRADITIONAL conservative views, but these guys like Scalia and Thomas are a whole new breed and very very scary. Not to mention that the conservative justices decided the voters could all go to He** in 2000 and SELECTED the worst president in U.S. history when Al Gore was the REAL winner. (God, knows how Sandra Day can live with the shame of it all!) In addition, Roberts has only 2 years experience as a judge and shouldn't even be eligible to be a Supreme Court justice, let alone Chief Justice. It's a slap in the face to all the judges sitting on the court, not that I want the notorious Scalia to be C.J., or Thomas, either. With that kind of experience, expect Roberts to be nothing more than Antonin Scalia's puppet (ala Bush/Cheney)! Jeez, didn't Bush learn anything from appointing the totally unqualified Brown to be FEMA director? No more giving out appointments as FAVORS. These people have to be qualified and if Bush would nominate MODERATES instead of rightwing activists he'd have a lot easier time getting them approved.
To learn more about adoption, esp. of foster children-
Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
http://www.davethomasfoundationforadoption.org/html/works/index.asp
The No Child Left Behind Act is being used as a way for military recruiters to get info about High School Juniors and Seniors for a database. Public schools that don't comply with this will lose federal funds, a real hardship for financially strapped rural and inner city schools. (Note, that PRIVATE schools such as the ones Dubya and his good buddies attended don't have to do this.)
To opt out of the Defense Dept. database students should send a typewritten request to:
Joint Advertising Market Research
Attention: Opt Out
Suite 200
4040 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203-1613
Include: student's full name, street address, city, state, ZIP code, telephone number, and date of birth. Do NOT include social security numbers.
High School Juniors and Seniors, college students, and parents of minor Jr. or Sr. High School students are allowed to opt out of the database.
DemoCat
Here's another discussion for ya.
When it comes to birth control why is it the woman's responsibility more often than not?
Ron says that he did take personal responsibility when he decided he didn't want more than 2 kids. Kudos to him! How many guys do? How many guys are willing to step up to the scalpal for what is a minor procedure?
I have 4 kids because my ex was "allergic" to any kind of birth control that didn't involve him and I had problems with "the Pill". I didn't get surgery after the 2nd child when we had health ins. or wouldn't have had the younger two. After the 4th, when we did have ins. I got to get a tubal ligation which meant surgery in a hospital instead of a clinic. What fun! We get to face the risks from general or spinal anesthesia because most guys can't bear the thought of a simple in-office procedure.
If it wasn't for AIDS, etc. the condom sales wouldn't be so high, either. I have talked to numero women who agree with me.
Comments anyone?
Correction:
My ex was "allergic" to any form of birth control that involved him which meant anything but "the pill" or surgery.
Jailed Deaconess, 73, Ordered Released
By KEVIN MCGILL and JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writers
KENNER, La. - Merlene Maten undoubtedly stood out in the prison where she has been held since Hurricane Katrina. The 73-year-old church deaconess, never before in trouble with the law, spent two weeks among hardened criminals. Her bail was a stiff $50,000.
Her offense? Police say the grandmother from New Orleans took $63.50 in goods from a looted deli the day after Katrina struck.
Family and eyewitnesses insisted Maten was an innocent woman who had gone to her car to get some sausage to eat only to be mistakenly arrested by tired, frustrated white officers who couldn't catch younger looters at a nearby store.
Despite intervention from the nation's largest senior lobby, volunteer lawyers from the
Federal Emergency Management Agency and even a private attorney, the family fought a futile battle for 16 days to get her freed.
If guys were held accountable for the child in all cases men would worry about it too. Of course to do that also means that the child is not automatically the womans in the case of a breakup. If a more neutral all around situation was in place I think you would see more responsible people. I have all the children I can afford if they are to have anykind of life I wish for them so I'm done. Adoption is always an option for those that might want down the line.
Thanks for your imput, Ron. Come on, guys and girls, join in the discussion on this issue.
DemoCat
P.S. Joint custody seems to be the rule of thumb these days.
Here's another incredibly important question (not). How many of you think Britney Spears was a little coward to PLAN to have a C-Section for no good reason because she didn't think she could stand to face the pain of childbirth? I think that any OB that would do a totally unnecessary C-Section should have his/her license suspended. Hasn't she ever heard of LAMAZE, for God's sake? The main part of childbirth is called labor for a reason, right?
No one hates pain more than I do, but I managed to have four kids using Lamaze and only had a minimum of Demeral with the last one because I was in labor 20 hours and was exhausted after 17 hours of it. I still feel guilty about it.
Course, I gotta admit that this poor little boy has got worse problems than being deliberately delivered by C-section-like having Britney and Kevin for parents!
Sept. 17-Constitution Day-Right?
Here's a Constitution Day question?
Why do all these supposedly super patriotic RePUNKlicans hate
The Constitution and keep trying to change it?
Also, I am totally ticked off about the apathy among young adults and many other potential voters. Voting is not just a privilege, it's our patriotic obligation. The youth is our country's future, but they will have no future unless they're willing to take a stand and make a difference.
Whatever happened to the idealism of the 60s and 70s? Bu$h and his gang of thugs have been steadily dismantling everything that has been accomplished since the time of FDR. Increasingly, the power and the wealth has been transfered to the few and the media has fallen under the control of the same. The environment, civil rights, education, healthcare, caring for the elderly, the disabled, the poor, etc. have less than no importance to these neo-con war criminals, and neither does the opinion of the rest of the world. Yet these non-voters don't care to step up to the ballot box and make a difference in their futures. They'll stand by passively and watch the world go to Hell in a handbasket and what then when it's too late?
Am reading a book called "Pay it Forward" now. Idea is that a person does something to make a major difference in the lives of 3 people, and they each do the same, and it keeps branching out so it becomes a huge network of do-gooding. What if each of us could convince 3 people to register to vote and each of them did the same, etc. etc. until finally every American who is eligible to vote was registered? I think we ought to try it.
Re: the comments made on the show recently on abuse of prisoners in the County penal system.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for MOST criminals, but I agree that there need to be minimum standards. (What! Should our jails be like Abu Ghraib?) There's no excuse for there to be cockroaches, for games to be played with temperature controls, for medications to be denied, etc. What is wrong with hugging a male inmate? Don't these guys deserve a little human contact and compassion? Maybe it would help inspire their rehabilitative efforts. A hug isn't a conjugal visit, for God's sake!
My understanding is that EVERYTHING must be purchased through the jail/prison commissary at grossly inflated prices. Family members must send/bring in cash to inmates who can't even get a magazine or a change of underwear from home. Come on!!
No one's saying they should have color TVs in every cell Ron, or be served filet mignon or lobster for dinner. They're not going to work ALL day and should have a TV in the lounge, a library, tutoring, arts and crafts, counseling, decent medical care, etc. Denying them these things will not rehabilitate them and is more likely to result in jail/prison riots.
Besides that, SOME of the people in jail are innocent and have not even gone to trial yet. Many of them are in for possession of pot (those of us who smoked it in our hippie days could have gone to jail, Ron, and that means you, too). Should they be treated worse than dogs in the pound? I don't think so and Jesus urged his followers to visit people in prisons and to be kind to them, so we know where He stood on prisoner abuse.
I think we can mostly agree. I guess it depends on minimum standards. I just don't think it should be as comfortable as to not feeling like you are being penalized.
Well, prisoners shouldn't feel like they're staying at The Ritz and that means the so called "country club" prisons, too.
It's one of those things where they have to feel they're being punished so jail time (we hope) acts as a deterrant, but we have to be humane, as well, and at least TRY to rehabilitate people.
I, also, feel that there could be some kind of government program (think FDR's CCC, etc.) that would put people to work after they serve their time because it's so difficult for them to find jobs when they have criminal records. If they try and can't be accepted back into society, we will continue to have the revolving prison door. Besides, there are a lot of things that need to be done, like cleaning up the roads, repairing public buildings, etc.-kind of a public works kind of thing.
Well, for prisoner abuse, we definitely need to start with charging GWB... and work our way down from there (of course, it hasn't, and won't happen).
Hang him by his you-know-whats and leave him there 'til he dies the torturous death the prisoners did. Prison isn't good enough for these people.
Do the same to the county employees, imho.
Thanks for the imput, Dedanna, as it is a very good place to start. Course we could just remove Cheney's pacemaker and lash Bush and Cheney together for the rest of BUSH'S life.
Interesting you say that.
I said dead-center on the air, when the 2004 campaign was going on, that there should be a dickbush.com domain going. LMAO.
Think about that one, and yes, I was referring to what each one refers to LOL.
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