TSA- New Slogans

It was just a matter of time....

I had heard TSA stands for "Touch Some Ass"

But wait- there's more:

get yer Fiore

Click here to see the:

 How to survive the post election blues :


The Anonymously Funded
United American Americans
for a more American America



a guest cartoon by Xeth

Palin blunders...

Freaking Palin--

She thinks "serious media" should listen to Glenn Beck as their source for material!

"Obviously, I would have been even more impressed if the media showed some consistency on this issue. Unfortunately, it seems they couldn’t resist the temptation to turn a simple one word slip-of-the-tongue of mine into a major political headline. The one word slip occurred yesterday during one of my seven back-to-back interviews wherein I was privileged to speak to the American public about the important, world-changing issues before us.

If the media had bothered to actually listen to all of my remarks on Glenn Beck’s radio show, they would have noticed that I refer to South Korea as our ally throughout, that I corrected myself seconds after my slip-of-the-tongue, and that I made it abundantly clear that pressure should be put on China to restrict energy exports to the North Korean regime. The media could even have done due diligence and checked my previous statements on the subject, which have always been consistent, and in fact even ahead of the curve. But why let the facts get in the way of a good story? (And for that matter, why not just make up stories out of thin air –"

#1- Palin was probably slipped a note during the radio show, letting her know the difference between North & South Korea & which one we are allies with. 

Palin stands strong with madman Kim Young Il, & his son Kim Young Sun ( a Freudian slip for sure!!). 

#2- Listen to Glenn Beck's radio show as a source for credible information????

#3- Obama is a working, active political figure, in the top role. He is allowed some gaffes, because he is working hard. He also faces the media & takes random questions regularly. 

Palin is a quitter, who shields herself from the real media (let's face it Glenn Beck is not real media, but FOX news freak show!). 

#4- Palin always has gaffes every time she is not reading a script. 

As comical as that is sometimes, it simply proves she is not up to the task of her presidential aspirations. 

Happy Buy Nothing Day!

* The date may be wrong, but the sentiment is right.

Happy T Day!

This is one of the happiest songs I know.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays... in part because we take time to reflect upon what & who we have in our lives to be thankful for, and the feast.
Thanks to all you wonderful people in the blogosphere for keeping it real, making me laugh & putting things in perspective. Enjoy the day!

no purchase necessary

What follows are a few subtle-as-a-freight-train videos with "Buy Nothing Day" & anti consumerism themes. Just a little something to help us all remember, as we get inundated with messages to consume-- stores opening at 3 & 4 am, encouraging the stampede of shopping.
Consider embracing the *Buy Nothing Day* movement- a symbolic one finger salute to the whole hyped consumer situation. Relax. Enjoy some time with friends & family, or just take a hike & breathe.
It seems like all the stores pretty much carry the same crap anyway. Maybe you don't need more stuff?
Or maybe you'd just like to contribute to others in need via the local food bank, or help friends who are unemployed. While the stores want you to line up early, perhaps you choose to think outside the box, the big box stores that is.....

Black Friday

TSA all the way...

Rangel your way out of this one

Oh the headlines sound like it is such a huge consequence....  in violation of 11 ethics charges, so far The House ethics committee voted to censure Rep. Charles Rangel D-NY.
They go on about how censure is one step short of expulsion.
Seriously? He loses no voting privileges, no pay cut, and so far, I've not read about any fines.

The guy failed to pay income taxes on his Dominican Republic villa for 17 YEARS.

Censure is a hand slap.

If you or I failed to pay taxes for 17 years, $10,000 in taxes... we'd be in jail, and also hit with back taxes, fines, fees & hefty penalties to boot.

By contrast, former Rep. James Traficant, who was expelled after a felony conviction, didn't pay taxes for just two years.

The House does not have to accept the advice of the Ethics Committee.

So please, don't bullshit us, trumping up this extreme punishment by censure story.

Take this job & shove it...

Would YOU do this job for $10.91 an hour?

All of the sudden we will be hearing about TSA agents w Carpal Tunnel health issues,

 knee problems & blown out backs. 

Not to mention the nightmares of having to grope hundreds of very unhappy strangers every day.

Traveler's might consider a Limburger cheese & bean i.e. stinky fart revolt. 

4 of a kind...

Striking resemblance!

World Peace Day

What the Frack?

To be honest, I had never heard of fracking, before I stumbled on it in the 60 minutes story. 

Fracking is a process of getting at Natural gas reserves deep underground:

Of course Dick Cheney, ex Halliburton honcho, when VP under Bush jr, created a genre of drilling that would be totally exempt from all environmental protections. 

Fracking requires huge amounts of water, and the process just happens for foul the waters when leaks occur & the fractured zones happen to leak into drinking water aquifers, ponds, lakes & waterways. 

Toxic Chemicals contaminate drinking water, making it unsafe. This toxic water can actually ignite, has killed massive farm animals & resulted in massive fish kills. 

Leave it to Dick Cheney to come up with one of the most vile, life-blood-sucking, environmentally horrific loopholes to foul up the nation's drinking water. There has to be a special place in hell for Cheney. 

Airport Security & 21st century flight scenarios

New airport security procedures just kicked in, and I had the opportunity to experience all of the various methods of screening, during recent travel.
When we left, the old procedure was in place. Because I had a total knee replacement, I always set the metal detector off, so I tell the TSA agent before I walk through the scanner that I will set off the alarm, due to the titanium knee. Sure enough I do, so I am prepared to be sent to "Area B", for additional scrutiny. Previously this meant another TSA agent would take a hand held scanner wand & have me assume the da Vinci pose (see diagram @ the left), while they checked me out for any metal items. It was not a huge deal, but strange as you stand there in your stocking feet, spread eagle position as some stranger wands you down.
Now, it would appear, those were the good old days. A few new forms of screening have emerged.
In Chicago, one of the world's largest airports, they were geared up with the new whole body scanner x ray machines. You put your hands up over your head & hold still, while Uncle Sam takes an x ray scan of you. Personally, to be more efficient, I think they should make this a two-fer by making it double as a medical diagnostic scan as well.
Just like they hit you up for $25 bucks to check in baggage, they could hit you up for $25 bucks to be able to forward the x ray to your Doctor.
Anyway, in the Columbus airport, they said the x ray scan machine was not yet fired up, so I was sent for the pat down. A blue gloved, same sex agent had me assume the da Vinci pose, as she did the whole body pat down. Gone are the days of the less intrusive wand.... now it's a touchy feely whole body hand exploration. I happened to be having a major hot flash at the time, so I was sweating profusely-- probably made me look like I was harboring something illegal.... she did question the lump in my vest pocket-- a wad of Kleenex did not go by unnoticed!
I suppose they abandoned the metal scan wand, as many terrorists are using plastic explosives these days.
Thankfully, I was traveling w my husband & he was able to catch the stuff on the conveyor belt...
carry on, laptop, shoes, purse, bag of 3 ounce items in a ziplock bag. These whole body scanners may be a few rows away from where your stuff is going through the X ray machine.
They will not let you cross over to the other side till you have passed the test, scan or pat down, but your stuff proceeds on down the conveyor belt, the other way. Intentionally or not, someone could theoretically gab your laptop, or purse in a busy airport & be gone. In our case, the husband was double timing it, gathering up all the stuff in the bins, his & mine, while I endured the bigger scrutiny.

Ok, so I was busted-- now they know about the Kleenex, but they let me through the security screen anyway.

Now onboard the plane, I had to laugh as the flight attendant made this announcement:
"At this time please turn off all electronic devices. This includes cell phones, i pods, MP3 players, electronic books, i pads, 3G phone,  DVD players.... then she said "Look, if you have anything with an on/off switch it needs to be turned OFF!"

Clearly, there are so many *things* in the electronic device world these days, constantly changing, she had given up on trying to name them all. She stopped short of bellowing "Turn off all the electronic crap, dammit!!!"

Another new flight trend I could not help but notice, is because the airlines are charging $25 for the first checked bag, and $35 for a 2nd checked bag, people are now carrying on more stuff to avoid the change. Newer & larger planes can handle the largest rolling luggage carry on, but older planes can not. This means there gets to be a kind of struggle to put your stuff in the carry on compartment.
I also noticed they strive to have full to the max flights, meaning the planes are full to capacity.
One of the flights I was on, we had to do the heave ho to force the overhead bin door to shut.

On several flights, they ran out of space & flight attendants had to scramble to take baggage overage out the door, to be stowed in the checked in baggage compartment.
So many people are loathe to do that because your carry on is your lifeline, should your other checked in baggage take a scenic tour. I am convinced now, that a non rigid carry on in the way to go, because it can be flexed to fit in the overhead bin. In any case, the fees are the crux of the problem. This was a multi destination trip, so our fees for 1 checked in baggage item per person were $150 bucks.
Gone are the day of peanuts or pretzels, you get a cup or can of soda or juice & that's it!

I should mention our extended stay in the Denver airport. We boarded a jumbo jet & the Captain announced we would be arriving in Chicago early. Yay!
Then he announced there was a "hydraulic issue" the mechanics were working on. About 40 minutes later, he ordered everyone off the plane, as the hydraulic issue could not be fixed & the plane was mechanically grounded. As much as that is a pain in the ass, I do embrace the idea that knowing about plane mechanical problems, are best to be discovered while on the ground. That being said..... we happened to be in the last seats in the last row.... consequently the last ones off the plane.
So it was no surprise that there were 300 people ahead of us in the customer service line.
I sought out a United clerk to give me an 800 number. Sure enough, United had automatically rebooked us on a flight leaving 10 hours later, arriving in Chicago @ midnight.
Well, at least we did not have to stand in that very slow moving line & I gave all of the people in the back of the line the 800 number, to spare them the agony of standing in line as well. You know your family loves you when they agree to come pick you up at O'Hare airport @ midnight.

Since Continental & United just merged, we wondered if the new name would be Unitinental, or Continited???  Other than that, the skies were friendly, albeit cramped. But as an almost 6 foot tall person with , ahem, large bones, don't get me started on just how uncomfortable it is to be crammed in those tiny seats. Flying these days is kind of like a root canal- you are just glad when it's all done.

Have you had any interesting flight experiences ?

The budget axe falls.... or So, you wanted less government....

Here is what "less government" looks like:

 • Social Security cuts

• Higher payments for Medicare patients

• Raising the retirement age to 69

• Continued tax breaks for the most wealthy

• Increased gas tax

• Eliminate mortgage-interest tax deduction

Notice who bears the brunt of these proposals?

The working stiffs. 

Here are my proposals:

• Pay freeze for Congress (they currently get automatic raises, unless they vote NO)

• Major Military budget cuts

• Tax the rich

• Do a 10 to 20% reduction of unneeded Government services

• Cut the fat in Congress-- fresh ice delivered daily, 

and other pampered privileged services that are unnecessary

• Stop Saturday mail delivery (Canadians have been doing this for many years already)

• Make prescription drug contracts for the lowest bidder to provide meds in quantity @ the best rate, for medicare & medicaid patients, for the top 100 most prescribed meds. 

• Require College sport programs making in excess of so many millions, to puts funds back into the educational funds of schools. 

What items would you add to the list???

Veteran's Day

You know the Vets have the real insight into the war situations. So often you hear them saying I have no idea why we are in these godforsaken no-man's land outposts. Their military presence is not making a difference, and in fact often makes things worse by creating a "war theater" atmosphere in any given town.

I have always felt, if those "deciders"of war in D.C., who think war is a good idea, had to suit up & go to war themselves, we'd have a quick end to wars. Instead, they stay in the hallowed halls of Congress, or the oval office, living comfortable & pampered lives, willing to risk other people's lives, to basically support the Military-Industrial complex. One of the most decorated Marines ever, retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler,  stated "War is a racket". 


Butler writes:

WAR is a racket. It always has been.

It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

In the World War [I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War. That many admitted their huge blood gains in their income tax returns. How many other war millionaires falsified their tax returns no one knows.

How many of these war millionaires shouldered a rifle? How many of them dug a trench? How many of them knew what it meant to go hungry in a rat-infested dug-out? How many of them spent sleepless, frightened nights, ducking shells and shrapnel and machine gun bullets? How many of them parried a bayonet thrust of an enemy? How many of them were wounded or killed in battle?

Out of war nations acquire additional territory, if they are victorious. They just take it. This newly acquired territory promptly is exploited by the few – the selfsame few who wrung dollars out of blood in the war. The general public shoulders the bill.

And what is this bill?

This bill renders a horrible accounting. Newly placed gravestones. Mangled bodies. Shattered minds. Broken hearts and homes. Economic instability. Depression and all its attendant miseries. Back-breaking taxation for generations and generations.

For a great many years, as a soldier, I had a suspicion that war was a racket; not until I retired to civil life did I fully realize it. Now that I see the international war clouds gathering, as they are today, I must face it and speak out.

Of course, for this loss, there would be a compensating profit – fortunes would be made. Millions and billions of dollars would be piled up. By a few. Munitions makers. Bankers. Ship builders. Manufacturers. Meat packers. Speculators. They would fare well.

Yes, they are getting ready for another war. Why shouldn't they? It pays high dividends.

But what does it profit the men who are killed? What does it profit their mothers and sisters, their wives and their sweethearts? What does it profit their children?

What does it profit anyone except the very few to whom war means huge profits?

Yes, and what does it profit the nation?

Butler had solutions on how to smash the racket....

WELL, it's a racket, all right.

A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation – it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted – to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

Let the workers in these plants get the same wages – all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers –

yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders – everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!

Let all these kings and tycoons and masters of business and all those workers in industry and all our senators and governors and majors pay half of their monthly $30 wage to their families and pay war risk insurance and buy Liberty Bonds.

Why shouldn't they?

They aren't running any risk of being killed or of having their bodies mangled or their minds shattered. They aren't sleeping in muddy trenches. They aren't hungry. The soldiers are!

Give capital and industry and labor thirty days to think it over and you will find, by that time, there will be no war. That will smash the war racket – that and nothing else.

Maybe I am a little too optimistic. Capital still has some say. So capital won't permit the taking of the profit out of war until the people – those who do the suffering and still pay the price – make up their minds that those they elect to office shall do their bidding, and not that of the profiteers.

Another step necessary in this fight to smash the war racket is the limited plebiscite to determine whether a war should be declared. A plebiscite not of all the voters but merely of those who would be called upon to do the fighting and dying. There wouldn't be very much sense in having a 76-year-old president of a munitions factory or the flat-footed head of an international banking firm or the cross-eyed manager of a uniform manufacturing plant – all of whom see visions of tremendous profits in the event of war – voting on whether the nation should go to war or not. They never would be called upon to shoulder arms – to sleep in a trench and to be shot. Only those who would be called upon to risk their lives for their country should have the privilege of voting to determine whether the nation should go to war.

There is ample precedent for restricting the voting to those affected. Many of our states have restrictions on those permitted to vote. In most, it is necessary to be able to read and write before you may vote. In some, you must own property. It would be a simple matter each year for the men coming of military age to register in their communities as they did in the draft during the World War and be examined physically. Those who could pass and who would therefore be called upon to bear arms in the event of war would be eligible to vote in a limited plebiscite. They should be the ones to have the power to decide – and not a Congress few of whose members are within the age limit and fewer still of whom are in physical condition to bear arms. Only those who must suffer should have the right to vote.

A third step in this business of smashing the war racket is to make certain that our military forces are truly forces for defense only.

At each session of Congress the question of further naval appropriations comes up. The swivel-chair admirals of Washington (and there are always a lot of them) are very adroit lobbyists. And they are smart. They don't shout that "We need a lot of battleships to war on this nation or that nation." Oh no. First of all, they let it be known that America is menaced by a great naval power. Almost any day, these admirals will tell you, the great fleet of this supposed enemy will strike suddenly and annihilate 125,000,000 people. Just like that. Then they begin to cry for a larger navy. For what? To fight the enemy? Oh my, no. Oh, no. For defense purposes only."

And so it goes. 

I respect & thank those who have been in the trenches. 

I grieve for those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and for those who lived through it, but will never be the same because of it. 

I also know if they laid down their arms & refused to participate in war, the wars would be over. 

War is terrorism with a bigger budget. 

In our current case, a budget borrowed from China. 

As we are now in the 9th year of the Afghanistan war, by now we should realize that the violent methods of war are a failure. Ask any Veteran. 

Weird News

Let them eat spam......

The people onboard the stranded cruise ship Carnival Splendor, after an engine room fire that disabled the ships ability to move, are being towed by MEXICAN TUGBOATS.

They hope to have the ship towed to San Diego.
NOW they are suddenly OK w Mexicans crossing the border?

Perhaps is it because the ships refrigeration system was disabled & they are forced to eat Spam, crab meat, croissants and Pop Tarts, brought onboard by the Coast Guard? 


In other weird news~ If it's weird news it probably involves Sarah Palin. 

Palin was spouting off in Pennsylvania about how the local government should not be regulating or making decisions about what kids eat. Parents should be making those decisions, she said, and the from the hip, going rogue, Maverick took the bold move of passing out cookies to kids. 
Pennsylvania, after all is home to Hershey's chocolate, therefore treats should not be regulated. 
(Who cares about the obesity rate of children, and the epidemic of children with type 2 diabetes!)...
Let them eat cookies!
But she also wanted to let the kids in the private school know "how privileged they are".... because the ban would be enacted in public schools. 


She also spewed a load about the economic situation, but quickly dumbed it down, by saying people don't ask her about that stuff...... what they really want to know about is Bristol on Dancing with the Stars.  Sarah must be so relieved, because, she shared with the crowd that Bristol said, I can't dance,  & I'm not a star, but sure I'll be on the show. She loaded up the truck & drove to Beverly....
Hills that is. Movie Stars, swimmin' pools. 
She actually said "foo foo she she". 


I'm not making this up--- listen to it if you can stand it:





While Sarah P slips the kids cookies, the City of San Francisco just made a legal restriction on Happy Meals sold with toys. Because of the poor nutritional value, and the fact they are sold with toys, to bait kids. 
Giving your kid a Happy meal burger, small fries & 1% chocolate milk equals 650 calories, 23 grams of fat, and 7 grams of saturated fat. 

The new San Francisco ordinance goes into effect December 2011 and “prohibits toy giveaways in fast food children’s meals that have more than 640 milligrams of sodium, 600 calories, or 35 percent of their calories from fat. The law also would limit saturated fats and trans fats and require fruits or vegetables to be served with each meal with a toy.”

“Our effort is really to work with the restaurants and the fast-food industry to create healthier choices,” said Supervisor Eric Mar, the measure’s chief sponsor. “What our kids are eating is making them sick, and a lot of it is fast food. This is a tremendous victory for our children’s health.”

Click here to see their Nutrition information chart for the (Un)Happy Meal line up.


Finally, in our weird news segment....
 Keith Olbermann is NOT a corporation (or he would have been allowed free speech in the form of campaign contributions). Keith's 2 day suspension is over.

He apologized for three things:

 

— "For having subjected you (his viewers) to all this unnecessary drama."

— For not knowing that "NBC had rules about getting permission for making political donations."

— That after he gave money to Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' campaign, he had her opponent on the air. "I should have made either it clear that I had contributed to her campaign or better still just dropped (the opponent, Jesse Kelly) from the segment."

Then at the end, Keith used the commentary to make a point about campaign finance laws. If he had given money to the political action fund of a group like the Chamber of Commerce, which then could have donated the money to a candidate, "you would have never, ever known."

Maybe, just maybe private citizens have rights too???

Saying goodbye

This last week, we had a memorial for Grandpa Mac. Even though we know he is in a better place, we deeply feel the sting of his loss. He really was more like a Father to me, as my Dad died when I was 17. 

The Memorial shed light on the things Grandpa did in his life....

Student non-violent coordinating committee.  SNCC (pronounced Snick)....

On February 1, 1960, a group of black college students from North Carolina A&T University refused to leave a Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina where they had been denied service. This sparked a wave of other sit-ins in college towns across the South. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC (pronounced "snick"), was created on the campus of Shaw University in Raleigh two months later to coordinate these sit-ins, support their leaders, and publicize their activities.

Over the next decade, civil rights activism moved beyond lunch counter sit-ins. In this violently changing political climate, SNCC struggled to define its purpose as it fought white oppression. Out of SNCC came some of today's black leaders, such as former Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, Congressman John Lewis and NAACP chairman Julian Bond. Together with hundreds of other students, they left a lasting impact on American history.

This site covers the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from its birth in 1960 to 1966, when John Lewis was replaced by Stokely Carmichael as chairman. This event marks a decided change in philosophy for SNCC, and one that warrants an equal amount of attention. However, we have focused on the first six years of the movement, in order to adequately explore such events as sit-ins, the Freedom Rides and Freedom Summer.

We found a picture of Grandpa holding a sign in Mississippi

 "What could happen to YOU in Mississippi?"

He was there in the hotbed of it all when Goodman, Chaney & Schwerner (Freedom riders who were SNCC members promoting black people to register to vote) were murdered, and the local police were searching the woods, looking for their missing bodies. 

Just after that was the march from Selma to Montgomery. 

Grandpa was in the thick of it. 

He donated his correspondences with MLK jr & other prominent Civil Rights leaders to the 

African American Museum, so others could enjoy them as well. 


Many people from Wilberforce University came to speak & pay their respects, as he was a chaplain, professor & Head of the Humanities Dept. 


Figures Grandpa was involved in that University-- check out the history-


Given migration patterns, this was also an area where numerous free blacks settled, many having migrated across the Ohio River from the South for better living conditions. Xenia had quite a large free black population, as did other towns in southwestern Ohio, such as Chillicothe, Yellow Springs and Zanesville. The towns had houses which were stations on the Underground Railroad in the years before the war, and Wilberforce College also supported freedom-seeking slaves.


The brush stroke that completes the picture of Wilberforce University is its mandatory Cooperative Education Program. Wilberforce bears the distinction of being only one of two four-year institutions in the country to require internships as a requirement for graduation. Cooperative Education has been the heartbeat of academics at Wilberforce. The program has seen many others attempt to duplicate its success story, but to date no other has been able. 


One statement made @ the memorial was that Grandpa was involved in the Civil rights movement before the Civil rights movement even existed!


But he also went on to champion disable access rights, gay rights, the right to choose, and so many programs of helpful, social uplift. 


It was great to hear from then students, or young faculty talking about how Grandpa was such a cutting edge person in this regard. That he was not just some preacher who prattled on @ the pulpit, but got out there & was a mover & a shaker. 
He also helped set up full service prep for SNCC work, making sure students had legal assistance & counseling, and the full support network needed to forge ahead w Civil (dis)obedience, to achieve civil rights. 


The Memorial closed with a candle light vigil, stating Mac illuminated our lives, and an invitation for us to keep the flame brightly burning. 

Awwwww

Officially Married!

Congratulations Shane & Jessica

Love

Today is the big day!

Our son is getting married today.

pictorial election recap.....

Elected....

Well, crap! There goes the House. Looks like we kept the Senate.
Some of the worst of did not get elected...
the Witch, the bitch Meg Whitman, and sidekick Fiorina.

Reid kept his seat & Oregon's Gov race is too close to call. Can't watch any more.