Quote of the day

Even if that concern for the less fortunate is from someone of color.

Quote of the day

"A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations."

--President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Paul Ryan, Mr. "I Don't Want Big Government For You"

Sure, it's been great for him and his family but you?

Fugghedaboudit.

In case you didn't see the 4 minute freefall

Here you go, the video of "daredevil" Australian Felix Baumgartner and his 24 mile, 4 Minute, 834 mph freefall/jump, reduced here to a minute, 30 seconds:



My question--how did he stop the spinning?

Ladies and gentlemen, the Republican Party

And we would want to vote for them why?

Note from America to the US Congress

Get back to work, you slugs.

First there's this one:

Alarm on Wall Street Grows as 'Fiscal Cliff' Nears

And then there's this:

US Nears Fiscal Disaster: ‘Washington Doing Nothing’

You created this mess and you, unfortunately, are the only ones who can fix it.

Get back to Washington and get back to work.

It's that simple.

Links: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49392277/Alarm_on_Wall_Street_Grows_as_Fiscal_Cliff_Nears

http://www.cnbc.com/id/49375694

Entertainment overnight

The prefect song to describe these Fall days.



If you don't own this cd, go get it. "Avalon Sunset."

Here's Christianity for you

Not Capitalism, no, absolutely not, but what Christianity--or modern life--should be:

Mitt Romney: Both sides of nearly any issue

"If you're on both sides of every issue, how can you lose?" --Mitt Romney*

*Not an actual quote. It just seems like something he would have said or did say.

Quote of the day

"In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent. The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich. We are inevitably our brothers' keeper because of the interrelated structure of reality." --Martin Luther King, Jr.

On war

Support the troops.

Bring them home.

Keeping corporations accountable

Again, from The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, there were two totally unrelated articles having to do with corporations and their responsibility to society.

The first has to do with a company, St. Jude Medical, creating heart defibrillators that had wires in them that burst out of their insulation so they ended up shocking the patients that had them. Here's the article and link:

St. Jude Riata Heart-Device Flaws Known for Years

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444223104578036752346768278.html?mod=e2tw

Nice, huh?

The thing is, the company sent out recalls on them but the doctors didn't report them to the patients, in most cases.

So say you had a heart defibrillator put in your chest and all of a sudden you started getting shocks from inside your body. Then, later, you find out your doctor just didn't tell you about it.

Real quick, there's two things about this.

First, you're angry--and likely scared as heck--that you have this thing you need to live in your body that your doctor put there years ago and it's giving you electric shocks no one can control.

That's bad enough.

Then, on top of that, it will continue to keep giving you those electric shocks until your doctor once again opens up your chest, disconnects it from your heart, takes it out and replaces it.

Here's the second article:

US Warns Motorists of Counterfeit, Faulty Air Bags

Ironically, it was right next to this, above story.

It seems people who work on cars have been replacing good, working air bags with ones that don't.

Sick.

People--mothers, fathers, sons, daughters--depend on their air bags to keep them at least a bit more safe in their cars, should they be in a car wreck, heaven forbid. They have some issue or problem with the bag, for one reason or another, depend on their local auto repair company to fix it and they put in one that isn't likely to work.

Again, fantastic. Fantastic in a sick, selfish, greedy, "free-market" Capitalism kind of way.

What this brings me to is that we, the people, the ones who end up in -these personally- and financially-exposed ways, need some kind of way to hold corporations and people responsible so if, in fact, these things happen, we are compensated for them and, just as importantly, there are punishments so others aren't tempted to cut their costs or to out-and-out cheat their customers and these types things don't happen again.

We're not shooting for a "perfect world" here by pushing for this. We're mere hoping and working for a more honest fair and working one.

So, if you think America really needs "tort reform" to help the country and get an keep our nation's company's costs down, you're badly, badly mistaken.

As a recommendation, if you haven't already seen it, go rent the documentary "Hot Coffee." (Link below).



It will really open your eyes.

Links: www.hotcoffeethemovie.com/

Letting the states fix Medicaid?

I saw an article earlier this week--a few days ago--in Rupert Murdoch's business-loving Wall Street Journal saying:

Howard and Sykes: Medicaid Is Broken—Let the States Fix It

Block-granting Medicaid is the best way to deliver better, cost-effective care to the most vulnerable Americans

(Link at bottom)

And I can tell you, without quoting any of it here, that the surest way to kill Medicaid would be for the Federal Government to take the money and disperse it to the states individually.

This whole thing that keeps coming back again and again, that of the government collecting monies for different things and that the best thing to happen for any program is for the states to distribute the funds is a Right Wing, conservative, mostly Republican idea that is sheer tripe.

Hasn't anyone heard of "divide and conquer"?

Are we seriously going to fall for this?

On these issues of spending, let alone addressing and solving our problems, it seems obvious, clear and necessary that we need to stay and work together, all of us, as Americans, instead of pulling ourselves apart with our differences.

For Medicaid, Medicare, health care and all our problems as a nation and people, there is strength in our being and working together. Taking apart this or any other program only weakens it--and us.

As Benjamin Franklin so aptly, wisely and familiarly said, "We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

And it is certainly applicable here.

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443982904578046161332775362.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Entertainment tonight, doubleshot, with a theme

Here's a first. Two videos on my "Entertainment overnight" post.

Video one:



Number two:

FDR and his "2nd Bill of Rights"

A "2nd Bill of Rights":

President Franklin Roosevelt, in 1944, for pity's sake, proposed an economic bill of rights just before he died. It was a list of rights proposed during his State of the Union Address of that year. In it, he "suggested that the nation had come to recognize, and should now implement, a second 'bill of rights.' Roosevelt's argument was that the 'political rights' guaranteed by the constitution and the Bill of Rights had 'proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.' Roosevelt's remedy was to declare an "economic bill of rights" which would guarantee:

-Employment, with a living wage
-Freedom from unfair competition and monopolies
-Housing
-Medical care
-Education
-Social security

And the thing is, I think we all agree that we are--or were--the wealthiest nation on the planet. That seems self-evident. And I think we could have done this, I think we could have given ourselves the above but instead of taking care of the nation and of ourselves, we've plowed far, far too much money and materiel into war and defense, even when it wasn't necessary.



For anyone and everyone that thinks that what he or anyone else means by proposing this is that we have "big government" and a nanny state I say stop. That is not what we're talking about at all.

If we took our nation's wealth and ability--and more nations did the same--and plowed it into the people's well-being and yes, infrastructure (roads, bridges, sewage and sewer systems, schools, transportation, etc.), instead of, again, defense and weapons of war, all people and nations of the world would benefit. There would be rising standards of living instead of falling. People would be fed, clothed, housed and have health care and so on.

Think about it.

If we had all been on this path long ago, the former Soviet Union wouldn't have collapsed and wouldn't have had to. They'd have been taking care of their people instead of squandering the nation's wealth on bombs and aircraft to carry them. All nations of the world could have spent less on war and weapons of war.

Unfortunately, the US has, since the Cold War, at least, has continued spending outrageously high sums on defense, even to this day. And it's incredibly high spending both in terms of our own Gross National Product (GDP) and that of all the other nation's spending on defense.

It's crazy. It's unfounded. It's unnecessary. It's obscene.

And it's all those things especially when you know there is so much poverty in our nation and so many go with little food and/or little or no schooling and millions go without good health care, etc.

It won't happen. At least, it won't happen anytime soon but we need to cut defense spending deeply and across the board. We--and the world--need to transfer over to a world of taking care of one another, instead of worrying about some big, ugly "bogeyman" that doesn't exist, by the way, and that may "take us over."

We, the people, need to push for this. We all need to get educated on why and how this should happen. And then we need to make it happen as soon as possible.

Here's hoping.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bill_of_Rights

America today

Elderly? Poor? Either? Both? Other?

Tough beans.

(Click on picture for larger, better viewing)

Because we be lovin' us some wars and huge military spending, instead.

To the Overland Park prudes

With love

You overly-religious, closed-minded, Right Wing, ridiculously conservative zealots.

With much thanks to Meesha.

Link: http://kcmeesha.com/

Quote of the day

"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."

--Gilbert K. Chesterton

What corporations are doing to Americans and people across the globe

Karl Marx is surely spinning in his grave, given the incredible and rampant exploitation of workers that exists today, largely due to the modern day corporation and their ease of buying government representatives and so, laws and governments. They can make virtually anything legal.

Forget morality. Forget ethics. It's all profit, all the time. That is what comes first and last to and for the corporations and the wealthy.

And what are those corporations doing?

--First, they're outsourcing work and jobs all across the planet so they can take that work to the absolute least expensive cost source they can find.

Forget about a "living wage."

We've certainly seen this all across China, at least and in general but more specifically, we've seen it at the Foxconn company that makes the Apple companies nifty computer and phone gadgets. It's been infamously shown that conditions and pay there were so bad, people were committing suicide in groups. It got so bad, the company had to put netting just outside the company's walls to catch those throwing themselves to their deaths.

You can only take so much for so long, after all.

Thanks, Steve Jobs.

--Second, corporations are hiring only part-time employees here in the good old USA so they don't have to offer pesky things like health insurance.

Some of the companies doing such a thing?

Sure, we know Wal-mart has been doing it for years, shamefully, tragically enough but other companies also doing it include 24 Hour Fitness, with over 400 facilities, nationwide and whole restaurant chains like Red Lobster and Olive Garden. Their owners do this, too.

The companies have staff that know far less about the companies and their clients so you're bound to get worse service, as a patron, but what the heck? They save more money and add more profits to their bottom line.

Fix health care in America though?

Fuggedaboudit.

--The third thing too many corporations are doing is having employees supply their own work tools like pens and paper, in spite of the fact that the company may have 75,000 employees across the planet and be a multi-billion dollar concern.

More costs cut. More profits for them. More expenses put on the back of the employees, of whatever size.

--Fourth, more companies are having their staff do office work "off the clock" and on their own time. This applies to both existing employees and prospective employees, too--those not yet on the payroll, by having them do new hire work before they've been given the jobs.

It's pathetic. It goes on and on.

--Then, fifth, these same corporations, after the companies do all they can to cut their costs on the backs of their employees, they cut their costs further by putting what should be and what used to be their own corporate tax responsibilities on the backs of the counties and states they operate in. They ask for Tax Increment Financing or county or state bond money to build their firms or move them, instead of taking ownership of these themselves as companies used to do.

And we let them, idiots that we are.

Sure, their company ends up paying lower taxes and then it's on the taxpayers to finance the roads and bridges and sewers and water treatment plants and schools they need to get their educated employees. WE end up paying for all that. It's more on the backs of the working and lower classes and not on the business world and that of the rich.

And super-rich.

So they get even more wealthy.

--Finally, at least here, today, corporations and the wealthy (think the Walton family) are exploiting the daylights out of everyone they come near or touch and then they're taking all those profits and all the millions and billions of dollars they're making and they're offshoring the profits. They're taking the money they make here in the US or whatever country they operate in and they put them in other countries BECAUSE THEY CAN and because they then pay either far less in taxes to the countries they function in or no taxes at all.

Again, it's just obscene. It's the worst kind of exploitation imaginable. It's total. It's all-encompassing.

More later...

Links: http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/10/olive-garden-red-lobster-putting-more-workers-on-part-time-because-of-obama-health-care-law-80832.html

Walmart in Missouri: the company with the most government dependents

I've been seeing a recurring post out on the interwebs this week, saying Walmart stores have more employees on food stamps than any other.

So I searched it.

And voila, look what I found:

Missouri

In October 2009 the state Department of Social Services finally fulfilled a requirement contained in a law passed in 2007 by publishing a list of the companies with the most employees (and their dependents) participating in the state's Medicaid program, known as MO HealthNet (MHN). At the top of the list is Wal-Mart, which was found to have 1,555 employees enrolled in MHN and another 3,040 employees with dependents enrolled in MHN.

Source: Missouri Department of Social Services, MO HealthNet Employer Match Report: First Quarter 2009, October 21, 2009; online at http://dss.mo.gov/mhd/general/pdf/emp-match.pdf

Original source for the larger article, showing state-by-state statistics: http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/corporate-subsidy-watch/hidden-taxpayer-costs

Nice, huh?

In the meantime, there's this from the LA Times on the Walton family:

Wal-Mart heirs worth as much as bottom 41.5% of American families

And this:

Walton Family Lands Combined $3.3 Billion On Wal-Mart's Biggest Gain In 3 Years

Seriously, if you still shop there, would you please stop? It's not good for you, in the bigger picture, even with lower prices, and it's patently bad for America.

Finally, know, too that Arvest Bank is owned by a Walton family member.

Don't. Just don't.

Links: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jul/18/business/la-fi-mo-walmart-heirs-20120718

http://www.forbes.com/sites/calebmelby/2012/05/17/walton-family-lands-combined-3-3-billion-on-wal-marts-biggest-gain-in-3-years/

http://walmart1percent.org/top-reasons-the-walton-family-and-walmart-are-not-job-creators/

Ladies and gentlemen, gifts from the Republican Party

Click on picture for larger picture and easier reading:

Thank you, George W. Bush and the Republican Party.

Now, don't just try to pawn off these debts onto anyone else, but especially not this administration, thanks.

Likely the quote of the night last night

And it was probably the quote of the night because, first, it was fun, and second, because someone from this administration finally, finally called out the Republican candidates for the highest office in the land for at least one of the misrepresentations of the truth (read: lies) that they've been telling.

Granted, there were other good to great quotes, too, and some of them really nailed inconsistencies in the opposing side but this was, as I said, both fun and sorely needed.

Good on you, Joe.

Go get 'em.

More here: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/elections-best-quotes-of-the-vice-presidential-debate-1350008240-slideshow/best-quotes-of-the-vp-debate-photo-1350010769.html

On last night's debate

First, from Economist, writer, author and former Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Reich:

"I thought Biden won tonight's debate because he came off as genuine, passionate, and brimming with conviction. Ryan, by contrast, seemed like a wooden marionette, a kid out of his depth relative to someone who not only knew the facts but lived them.

On taxes, Ryan couldn't come up with any details about what loopholes he and Romney would close, or how their magic arithmetic (giant tax cut for the wealthy plus $2 trillion more for the military than the Joint Chiefs of Staff want) can possibly be paid for without socking it to the middle class.

By contrast, Biden made the case for average working people whose wages have barely risen in thirty years but who are bearing a higher total tax burden (payroll, sales, property, income) on a higher percent of their income than high rollers like Romney -- and why the well off should do more.

On Medicare, Ryan couldn't explain why his plan wasn't a voucher program that "saved" money only by shifting the costs on to seniors who would end up holding the bag as medical costs rose. Biden effectively defended the President's plan to save Medicare by cutting excessive payments to providers.

Biden also pointed out that Ryan and his allies had tried to privatize Social Security. Score another one for Joe.

On abortion, Ryan had to admit he and Romney would work to prevent women from having the right to choose an abortion if they needed and wanted one. Biden made it clear his religious beliefs about when life began should not, in his view, force anyone who didn't share them to follow them.

I thought Biden's closing could have been tougher, drawing a sharper contrast between the Romney-Ryan "you're on your own" worldview, and the "we're in it all together" belief that has built America -- and which Obama and Biden represent.

But overall it was Biden's night. He not only trounced Ryan, but also, in the process, trounced Romney. Joe Biden is an average Joe solidly grounded in America's working middle class -- nothing pretentious or devious about him -- in contrast to the plutocrat who heads the Republican ticket, and the billionaires who are backing him."

And then there's this from comedian Andy Borowitz from his Facebook page:

"The Democrats should crush a little bit of Joe Biden into a joint and have Obama smoke it."

He's right, of course, and I think we're going to get it, next debate.


Links: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/team-romney-biden-off-balance-strange-025702439--election.html

https://www.facebook.com/RBReich?fref=ts

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Borowitz/38423635680?ref=ts&fref=ts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich

Entertainment overnight

As Walter Cronkite might have said, and that's the way it is, October 12, 2012:

Rock-solid Romney

No wonder people want to vote for Mitt Romney.

He's on both sides of every issue.

Jerry Sandusky, Lance Armstrong and our soccer park

First, this week, Tuesday, in fact, Jerry Sandusky was finally sentenced for sexually exploiting and abusing young men at Penn State:

Jerry Sandusky sentenced to at least 30 years

BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- Jerry Sandusky has been sentenced to at least 30 years in prison in the child sexual abuse scandal that brought shame to Penn State and led to coach Joe Paterno's downfall.

The sentence means the 68-year-old former Penn State assistant coach will be in prison at least until he's nearly 100 years old.

Judge John Cleland issued the sentence Tuesday, three months after a jury convicted Sandusky on 45 counts of child sexual abuse.

Here's the problem, here's the really odd thing, however, in spite of the testimony of the young men he sexually assaulted and betrayed:

Sandusky maintains his innocence and plans to appeal, a process his lawyer has said will probably begin in the coming weeks.

This is all followed rather closely this week--a mere two days later--with the release of the government's report on Lance Armstrong and his alleged doping to win his cycling races:

Armstrong led doping, agency says

Sophisticated program is detailed in 202-page report against the cycling great. Attorney calls it a hatchet job.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency on Wednesday released details of its investigation of Lance Armstrong, calling it the most sophisticated doping program in recent sports history.

It said Armstrong played a key role by doping, supplying doping products and demanding that his top teammates dope so he could be successful.

Here's the tough part, for Mr. Armstrong:

A 202-page account of the agency’s case against Armstrong included sworn testimony from 26 people, including nearly a dozen former teammates on Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service and Discovery Channel squads who said they saw Armstrong doping to help him win every one of his record seven Tour de France titles.

26 people say you did it?

That seems pretty conclusive.

If I'm Lance Armstrong, I'm thinking that's some lousy company to be in.

As for Kansas City, we were wise to have only named it the "Livestrong Sporting Park", weren't we, instead the Armstrong Soccer Stadium or some such?

Links: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/09/3858809/jerry-sandusky-sentenced-to-at.html#storylink=misearch

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/10/11/3861904/armstrong-led-doping-agency-says.html

http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1110/major-league-soccer/2012/10/11/3442618/sporting-kansas-city-will-not-change-name-of-livestrong-sporting-

Conservative,, Republican and Veteran, squarely for President O

Just saying.

"Missouri", just released today

This singer, songwriter, political commentator, Roy Zimmerman, has been writing little brief ditties like these on all 50 states and some other topics. He already did Kansas and just released this one on Missouri:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch endorses President Obama

This past Sunday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch endorsed President Barack Obama for President in this Fall's election. A little bit of it:

Editorial: Obama for president: A second term for a serious man

"Four years ago, in endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, we noted his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure. He was unproven, but we found him to be presidential, in all that that word implies.

In that, we have not been disappointed. This is a serious man. And now he is a proven leader. He has earned a second term.

Mr. Obama sees an America where the common good is as important as the individual good. That is the vision on which the nation was founded. It is the vision that has seen America through its darkest days and illuminated its best days. It is the vision that underlies the president’s greatest achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Twenty years from now, it will be hard to find anyone who remembers being opposed to Obamacare.

He continues to steer the nation through the most perilous economic challenges since the Great Depression. Those who complain that unemployment remains high, or that economic growth is too slow, either do not understand the scope of the catastrophe imposed upon the nation by Wall Street and its enablers, or they are lying about it.

To expect Barack Obama to have repaired, in four years, what took 30 years to undermine, is simply absurd. He might have gotten further had he not been saddled with an opposition party, funded by plutocrats, that sneers at the word compromise. But even if Mr. Obama had had Franklin Roosevelt’s majorities, the economy would still be in peril.

They go on to point out Mitt Romney's inconsistencies, at least.

The fact is, he--President Obama--is the right man for the job for the next four years.

Links: http://www.stltoday.com/news/opinion/columns/the-platform/editorial-obama-for-president-a-second-term-for-a-serious/article_c5371a41-ab43-5724-96e2-2d23eaa56589.html

http://www.eclectablog.com/2012/10/st-louis-post-dispatch-endorsement-of-barack-obama-hits-the-nail-squarely-on-the-head.html

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/06/1140995/-St-Louis-Post-Dispatch-Endorses-Mr-Obama-A-second-term-for-a-serious-man

Entertainment overnight