California Astronomer to Leap Into 2009 at 3:59:60 p.m. PST

by Sandy Sand

This might be the last time to celebrate the adjustment of atomic clocks if scientists, who think it’s a waste of time get their way.

The quiet high desert town of Valencia in Southern California won’t be so quiet around the home of Skip Newhall this afternoon.

Seventy-year-old retired astronomer Newhall plans to celebrate with a number of friends to equal his age when the clock strikes it’s 60th second at 4 p.m. PST, which is midnight Greenwich Mean Time.

"We are going to have some fun with it," Newhall said while pictured (in the Daily News) sitting next to four digital clocks in his home that will display the “leap second” when it happens, but don’t blink.

The purpose of the leap second is to adjust timekeeping to be in sync with the Earth’s rotation which varies with tidal friction and lunar gravitational pull.

This is the 24th time since atomic clocks have been adjusted since the practice began in December 1972.

A time-tracker since childhood, and fearing that this might be the last time the adjustment takes place, because the scientific community is divided on whether it’s a waste of time or not, Newhall plans to make it the best Leap of Time party ever.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11340442

Bad Economy Trickles Up; Good Economy Does Not Trickle Down

by Sandy Sand

Aaaaaw. Isn’t that just too bad. Even the wealthiest are tightening their belts.
Welcome to the real world.

According to SpendingPulse, luxury sales dropped nearly 35 percent at the beginning of December as compared to the same week last year, and were also down 23 percent for the five previous weeks.

High-end stores and the manufacturers of the brands they carry are feeling the pinch, too. It’s not like no luxury items aren’t being purchased; they are. The wealthy are just buying fewer of them.

Tuff. Things are rough all over.

I lived through Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics and all I saw was greed, the wealthier getting richer, prices go up, companies swallowed up by mergers and acquisitions then chopped up and sold off and a huge loss of jobs.
All that was really swell for most of us.

That led to global economics, outsourcing of jobs, the death of our manufacturing base, rise in prices and even more loss of jobs.

I never understood why companies like Nike and Mattel outsourced all their manufacturing to cheap labor countries, yet the prices of their good never came down; in many cases they went up.

Global domination is nothing new in the diamond market either.
While diamonds were never a girl’s best friend regardless of what the song said, they were the best little pals of De Beers Group, which is also feeling the pain of the tanking economy.

I can’t begin to say how much my heart goes out to De Beers, which has artificially controlled the price of diamonds worldwide for years. Diamond-rich Russia has vaults filled with billions of the little gems from the precious to the industrial.

If Russia were to released even a small portion of them, a diamond would have less value than a zircon on the open market, which are their real value anyway.
Although the rich haven’t stopped spending altogether, they’re buying fewer pieces of jewelry, yachts, furs, cars or whatever their little hearts desire.

Don’tcha really feel sorry for the Vanderbucks of the world?

They may be making do with fewer diamonds, but they’ll still never have to worry about paying the mortgage; taking their kids to the doctor; choosing between cheap hamburger or a prescription; giving up faithful Fido because they can no longer afford to feed or vet him; choosing between turning on the heat or A/C and freezing or boiling to death; or any of the little financial decisions most of us have dealt with on a daily basis for most of our lives.

No. They’ll never have to make those choices.

Welcome to our world. It’s about time you, too, learned the lessons of frugality and a little less materialism in your lives might make you wake up and smell a little reality.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11292189

One Potato, Two Potato. 100 Potatoes to Cook Up Super-sized Chanukah Latke

by Sandy Sand

Only in Southern California. A beach town Jewish congregation creates a super-sized potato pancake to make McDonald’s proud.

Southern Californians like to pride themselves in being innovators and concocting new ideas that the country soon follows.

Members of Temple Isaiah in Newport Beach combined a green Chanukah with the traditional blue and white celebration making it into a light aqua event, and an attempt to break the world record for the largest potato latke.

Potato pancakes -- latkes -- are traditional fare served at Chanukah parties and are usually about four inches in diameter.

Isaiah congregants shredded enough of the spuds to make a three-foot wide super supper latke, which they cooked up in a solar paneled oven.

Record setting by itself, it must have taken a fantastic amount of sun power to heat up an oven big enough to cook that giant pancake. Not even new kitchen ovens are that big.

Rabbi Marc Rubenstein said in a sermon to the 100-family congregation that focused on the environment, "We are our brother's keeper, and we also have to take care of the Earth."

A neat idea and a fun thing to do, but I’m afraid there will be no prize as far as latke purists are concerned.

Real potato latkes are fried; their’s was baked.

If anything, they should win a prize for baking up the world’s biggest potato kugel.

Cook’s 5,111 Nights Off

by Sandy Sand

Poor baby, Laura forgot how to cook.

No one forgets how to cook, it’s worse than and more engrained than bike riding, which no one forgets how to do either.

If Laura Bush has forgotten how to cook, as she told Fox News in a recent interview, she better reach of the bottle of Arecept.

The plastic-faced wonder with the permanently tattooed smile that never changes, also told Fox that Georgie has only seen pixs of their new multi-million dollar house in a posh section of Dallas.

No matter, except for trying to rewrite the travesty of his eight years in office, George could care less.

He won’t be spending much time there; he’ll be spending most of his time in exile on his 100,000-acre, bovine-less ranchero in Paraguay, and trying to figure out how to hold the world hostage to the largest supply of fresh water in the world that lies under the land when the time comes.

Thirty-one days and counting…

No Double Life For This Young Woman

by Sandy Sand

There’s a fascinating profile in today’s Los Angeles Times http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-muslimgay17-2008dec17,0,1438523.story about a young woman of Indian descent, who is no longer living the double life of denying her gayness to her devout Muslim family.

Aliyah Bacchus, 22, a transplant from Guyana, is an exotic looking young woman living in New York City who had a big problem -- knowing that while most Americans are generally accepting of gays, her family isn’t.

She was left with two choices: Live a lie or be true to herself and who she is, or leaving her family forever.

She did what we should all do; be true to ourselves and the rest of the world be damned.

The article made it sound like this problem of being true to oneself or living in an intolerable situation is exclusive to homosexuals.

It isn’t.

Many of us have found ourselves trapped in impossible situations.

Bacchus’ story can be inspirational for anyone finding himself in the same situation, and it doesn't matter if it's a miserable marriage, adult children who are leeches, the mother-in-law from hell, a drug addict family member, or having the worst job in the world.

Fed to Lower Interest Rate to Minus 0.50 Percent

by Sandy Sand

It’s a topsy-turvy world.

The Fed began a two-day meeting yesterday to discuss the economic crunch and came up with a solution to stimulate the economy.

“Our economy is like a dying patient,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, “so we’re going to try drastic experimental surgery to see if we can save its life.”

Interest rates dropped to an all-time low of one-percent during the Great Depression, and that coupled with FDR’s jobs programs worked, he noted.

“We’re going to take that idea a step further into the great beyond of an economy on life support,” said Federal Reserve Assistant Money Counter John Cash, III. “We’re going to take the interest rate into uncharted territory and see what happens.

Later today, Bernanke will announce that the Fed will lower the interest rate to minus 0.05 percent.

“I know it’s a whacky idea, but what hasn’t been complete whacked out basackwards during the last eight years?” said a cynical source who demanded to remain anonymous.

“Who knows. It might work. Nothing else seems to, at least not while George Bush is in office,” he added.

It would be ironic if for a change, the rich, who no matter what will be rich, and banks and Wall Street-types who just got themselves a whopping bail out with no strings attached were forced into coughing up a little payback.

By cutting the interest rate to -0.05 percent, at the end of the loan they will owe the borrower money?

You know, just like happened to T-bills last week.

The Day the Music Died

by Sandy Sand

If not died, at least silenced a bit.

Even music has fallen victim to a crumbling economy. Work holiday parties, too, but maybe that's a good thing.

But this is about entertainment, and heaven knows that during tough times we need a little excapism.

= = = = =

Santa Clarita, California -- Due to slow ticket sales and limited fundraising, the Santa Clarita Symphony was forced to cancel its 2009 concert season.

In stead, they will introduce a Café Series, featuring duos, trios and quintets, but large concerts with a full compliment of professional musicians, and the annual family concert will have to wait for some financial recovery to perform again.

Even music lovers have to pay the price for difficult economic times.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_11201264?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews.com

In Retrospect, My Job From Hell Was Funny

by Sandy Sand

When I look back on one of my jobs from hell, I can laugh about it.

It’s amazing how time can alter one’s perception of things.

All I could find was an awful boring part time job to take while looking for a real job. I had construction experience and went to work for a general contractor, who was in the middle of an acrimonious divorce from his wife of thirty or more years.

She wasn’t supposed to come anywhere near the office and must have waited in the parking lot for him to leave, because she always walked through the door when he wasn’t there. Like right after he was no longer there.

They were both nice people, and while they both like me, I really liked her better.
Each decided I was to be a best friend, putting me squarely in the middle of their divorce from hell, which made my less than desirable hellish.

It was like being a child of parents who were currying favor, and forcing their daughter to take mom’s or dad’s side.

Two weeks was all I could stand. Not having ever left a job without giving notice, this time I did; I had to for my sanity.

Come to think of it, maybe I should have stuck around and learned how to play the game of pitting mom and dad against each other, and let them bribe me with phenomenal toys to pick a side to play with.

Nah. It was so much easier and less stressful to go back to collecting unemployment and battling the bureaucrats instead of the Bickersons.

I always wondered what happened to them. I had visions of them solving their marital disputes at the point of a sword rather than pointed words.

African-America women and AIDS. We must change this.

by Kathlyn Stone


HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American women between the ages of 25 and 44.

Take a moment and let that sink in.

During the ages when the more fortunate among us are starting, then advancing in our careers, and frequently balancing work and families, a generation of American women are getting sick and dying from a preventable disease.

In her article, "This era of black women and AIDS," (See article below) published Dec. 4 on The Black Commentator, feminist scholar and activist Rev. Irene Monroe points out many disturbing facts surrounding black women and HIV/AIDS. She also makes it crystal clear that this is an issue of not only race but gender disparity.

It should get everyone’s hackles up. Why is the prevalence of AIDS among African-American women so well hidden in our society?

Monroe pinpoints the reasons: Failed national leadership, lack of support in the church community, homophobia, and the legacy of slavery.

It's a sobering read that could and should open many eyes.

Suzanne Brooks, co-founder of the Sacramento, Calif.-based group Justice 4 All Includes Women of Colorcalled these times “a holocaust against black women.”

Brooks pointed out that not only is this demographic facing the highest rate of increases in HIV/AIDS, African-American women also have the highest suicide rates; the highest death rates from curable diseases; the greatest likelihood of death from heart disease; and the fastest growing rates of incarceration.

Justice 4 All sponsored a conference in September aimed at establishing a National Women of Color Agenda and reports receiving personal commitments from President-Elect Barack Obama that these pressing issues will be addressed.

Brooks and the group’s co-founder, Akilah Uwimana Hatchett, have also appealed to other organizations, such as the non-profit group WomenCount – now campaigning for a Presidential Commission on Women -- to include the health crisis in their priorities.

“Politicians do respond to the will of the people when that will is expressed in sustained, organized actions,” said Brooks.

Let it be so for the sake of an entire generation of black women.


Kathlyn Stone is an independent journalist and publisher of fleshandstone.net. She can be reached at fleshandstone@gmail.com.

This era of black women and HIV/AIDS - Rev. Irene Monroe

December 1st was World AIDS Day and Black women are dying of AIDS. And is anyone doing anything about it?

Right here in the nation’s capitol, the HIV/AIDS epidemic rivals that of many Third World countries. Washington D.C., affectionately dubbed as “Chocolate City,” is approximately 60 percent people of African descent. And of its residents, one in 20 is thought to have HIV, one in 50, AIDS. Of the 3,269 HIV cases identified (tested positive) between 2001 and 2006, nine of 10 were African American.

Are these statistics overwhelming?

“The Washington data is really a microcosm of what we already know: that AIDS in America today is a black disease,” said Phil Wilson, founder of the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank that focuses exclusively on AIDS among black Americans.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-Americans account for half of all new HIV cases despite comprising 13 percent of the U.S. population.

Equally alarming is that HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death for African-American women between the ages of 25 and 44.

At the “Women and Response to AIDS” panel at the 16th International AIDS Conference in Toronto in 2006, Sheila Johnson, founder of the Crump-Johnson Foundation in Washington D.C., pointed out that another at-risk population in the African American community is teenage girls. Seventeen percent of the U.S. teen population is African-American. In 2004, 70 percent of all teens testing HIV-positive were black. One in 10 African-American teenage girls test HIV-positive in the nation’s capital, the highest percentage in the country among this age group. When asked why such a high percentage test positive, Johnson said, “As long as girls see themselves as glorified sex objects in hip-hop videos, HIV/AIDS will increase within this population.”

These statistics are overwhelming?!

But so, too, is the failure of leadership African-Americans have faced since the epidemic began. And no group of women is as affected by the failure of leadership in this country than women of African descent.

African-American women and their struggle against the AIDS epidemic was never so glaringly obvious than in the 2004 vice presidential debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. And the invisibility of my group’s plight has less to do with African-American women’s agency to combat the epidemic than with how the government, African-American men, the Black Church, and race and gender biases, inherent in the problem, collude with African-American women’s efforts to get help.

Gwen Ifill, an African-American female journalist with PBS’ “Washington Week” and moderator of the vice presidential debate, brought the issue of AIDS in the U.S. front and center when she asked the men to comment on its devastating impact on African-American women. Ifill asked:

“I want to talk to you about AIDS, and not about AIDS in China or Africa, but AIDS right here in this country, where black women between the ages of 25 and 44 are 13 times more likely to die of the disease than their counterparts. What should the government’s role be in helping to end the growth of this epidemic?”

Vice President Cheney responded to Ifill’s question by saying:

“Here in the United States, we’ve made significant progress. I have not heard those numbers with respect to African-American women. I was not aware that it was - that they’re in epidemic there.”

But Edwards’ response wasn’t any better. Edwards deflected the question by first going back to answering the previous question. Then with the remaining seconds left, he flubbed his way through.

However, three years later in the June 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University, that focused on African-American issues ranging from health care and housing to Katrina relief, the economy and the environment, black women stood on their feet as they applauded Sen. Hillary Clinton’s comment about the impact of HIV/AIDS on African-American women.

“Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV/AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged outcry in this country.”

When the color of the epidemic shifted from white to black, the inherent gender bias focused only on the needs of African-American men and rendered women invisible. And when gender became a new lens to track the epidemic, white women were the focus. The invisibility of African-American women in this epidemic has much to do with how the absence of a gendered race analysis makes African-American women invisible to the larger society.

What is also unnerving is that today, African-American women make up 60 percent of all AIDS cases reported among women, 64 percent of new AIDS cases among women, and are three times the number of new cases reported among white women.

Many African-American women with HIV contracted it from heterosexual sex. And two ways the virus is contracted heterosexually is through intravenous drug use and African-American men “on the down low.” But men living on the DL is not a new phenomenon in the African-American community. Naming it, however, is. And it was J.L. King who became the country’s poster boy by exposing the behavior in his best-seller, On the Down Low: A Journey into the Lives of 'Straight' Black Men Who Sleep with Men.

“There are many women, too many women, in relationships with men who they think they know but really don’t. He knew he had the disease, his mother knew he had the disease, his doctors knew, everyone seemed to know except me. And no one said a word,” LaJoyce Brookshire wrote in the foreword of Browder’s book, herself author of Faith Under Fire: Betrayed by a Thing Called Love .

While homophobic attitudes in the larger African-American community and church contribute to their behavior, African-American men are also not taking responsibility for how their behavior is killing African-American women, and putting the entire community at risk.

But the disparities within the healthcare system also contribute to the disproportionately higher number of HIV cases among African-American women, which directly affects their quality of life and the spread of HIV.

While health disparities in the black community is overwhelming, so too is the failure of leadership African-Americans have faced since the epidemic began.

But Phil Wilson states it plainly:

“I think it’s important for us to take just a moment to realize that we are where we are today because we weren’t concerned when we thought it was somebody else’s disease.”

However, the disease has also taught us about the various people -- across race, class and gender -- who wore and continue to wear the face of this disease.

When The New York Native, a now-defunct gay newspaper, in its May 18, 1981, issue first reported on a virus found in gay men then known as GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency), an editorial noted that “even if the disease first became apparent in gay men, it is not just ‘a gay disease.’” And HIV/AIDS, having neither an alliance to nor an affinity for queer sexualities, spread.

But where would the leadership on HIV/AIDS come from?

Let’s confront the elephant in the black community, by telling the truth and shaming the devil. The biggest problem black lawmakers have had to confront concerning the HIV/AIDS crisis in their communities is the political gag order imposed on them by their voting constituency’s homophobia and animus toward any discussion of the disease.

Would the leadership on HIV/AIDS come from the Black Church?

When it comes to the Black Church and HIV/AIDS, I am always reminded of what my mayor in Cambridge, Mass., Ken Reeves, who is both African-American and gay, told The Washington Blade in March, 1998, during a two-day Harvard University HIV/AIDS conference: “African American male ministers over 40 are a tough nut to crack. If we wait for the Black Church on this, we’ll all be dead.”

The Black Church continues to play a part in the death of African Americans with AIDS. While its silence on the issue is appalling and unconscionable, so too is its various forms of heterosexualized rituals and pronouncements that denigrate both LGBT people and women. A study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life showed that since 2000, African-American Protestants are less likely than other Protestant groups to believe that LGBT people should have equal rights. And since hot-button issues like gay adoption and marriage equality have become more prominent, support for LGBT rights among African-American Protestants has dipped as low as 40 percent.

Therefore, women with AIDS are as unwelcome in the Black Church as LGBT people. Within Black Nationalist milieus like the Black Church and the Nation of Islam espousing “save the endangered black family,” African-American women with AIDS are also viewed as race traitors. In this patriarchal straightjacket, biological essentialist views are as holy and deified as the Bible itself. And with the belief that women are to multiply and bring forth new life for the perpetuation of the race, women with AIDS lose their status in the community. Often labeled as “loose” for having contracted the virus, she is viewed as not only diseased but also dangerous because her sexual wiles continue to seduce men. A woman with AIDS is a fallen woman, not only for having contracted the disease, but also for having disregarded the policing of sexual behavior by the Black Church.

The feminization of this disease makes many of us AIDS activists and scholars wonder if the same amount of money, concern, communication, and moral outrage that was put into white gay men with the disease will be put into curbing its spread among black women.

The AIDS epidemic among African-American women is also symptomatic of the dialogue we need to have about our bodies and sexuality, which has been choked for centuries by a “politic of silence.”

Working in conjunction with the “Politic of silence” is what African-American women historically created as a “culture of dissemblance” and “the politic of respectability,” the silence African-American women created around their bodies and sexuality that had been exploited during slavery was viewed as a revolutionary act against the white oppressive gaze.

African-American women are no more promiscuous than white women, however, stereotypes about African-American women’s bodies and sexualities prevent the proper prevention and education needed to stem the tide of HIV/AIDS.

The iconography of black women is predicated on four racist cultural images: the Jezebel, the Sapphire, Aunt Jemima, and Mammy. With the image of the strong black women who can endure anything and “make a way out of no way,” her strength is either demonized as being emasculating of black men or impervious to the human condition. The Aunt Jemima and Mammy stereotypes are now conflated into what’s called “Big Mamma” in today’s present iconography of racist and sexist images of African-American women.

While the Aunt Jemima and Mammy stereotypes are prevalent images that derive from slavery, for centuries both of them have not only been threatening, comforting and nurturing to white culture but also to African-American men. The dominant culture doesn’t see and hear African-American voices on this issue because our humanity is distorted and made invisible through a prism of racist and sexist stereotypes. So, too, is our suffering.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, the Rev. Irene Monroe, is a religion columnist, theologian, and public speaker. A native of Brooklyn, Rev. Monroe is a graduate from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American church before coming to Harvard Divinity School for her doctorate as a Ford Fellow. Reverend Monroe is the author of Let Your Light Shine Like a Rainbow Always: Meditations on Bible Prayers for Not-So-Everyday Moments. As an African American feminist theologian, she speaks for a sector of society that is frequently invisible. Her website is irenemonroe.com.

Another Silly Study. If Only I Remember What It Was About

by Sandy Sand

Okay. I do remember. I was being as silly as the study.

Where do they come up with these nonsensical studies and who are the fools who pay for them? And why do newspaper editors allow their lazy reporters to get away with blindly rewriting press releases with no thought to the efficacy of the study, who paid for it or the study's conclusions?

I read this study with my usual skepticism and came up with more questions than ever about what were the so-called researchers thinking when they did a study on older people not remembering too "good" when they're distracted.

Like, doesn't everybody?

Being an early ancient, I can clearly remember having things go in one head and out the other, because I was distracted. Real bummer when that happens especially while driving and an errant trash can dashes in front of your car.

So, they threw a bunch of oldsters into a noisy lab and tested their concentrationess, and concluded that older people don't concentrate too well when distracted.

Golly gee!

Were any of their victims somewhat deaf or hard of seeing? They wouldn't be so easily distracted by sights and sounds.

How many of them had even heard of concentrating on something to the exclusion of anything else. It take years to develop that talent unless you're blessed with the single-mindedness gene.

Old as I am, I remember writing news stories while sitting at my desk in a noisy bullpen surrounded by an infernal babble of reporters and ad people hawking their wares. There was even a time when I wrote a story while standing in the unemployment line. Now I write with the radio on and only hear an occasional word uttered by the disembodied voices.

The only thing that distracted me was the hugely fat ad saleslady keeping the air-conditioning set at below Arctic zero. It's damn hard to think or type when you're shivering and your fingers are frozen stiff.

I can't imagine why the editor got pissed at me when one day I had the backshop guys literally pick up my desk and move it to the front office with all the chattering display ad people.

But I digress.The study was based on face recognition.

I dare anyone to see a face for one second, and then recall if it had been flashed before their eyes before.

Guess what, geniuses, I couldn't remember a face when I was younger and I can't do it now.

Heaven help me if I ever have to pass that are-you-going-soft-in-the-brain test and have to count backwards by sevens from one hundred, nor can I recite the times tables above five with any degree of accuracy.

I could never have done that at any age. Or worse, what if they tested me on remembering names, book or movie title. Everyone is you know, what's-his-face, and I have to describe movie or novel plots and let someone else come up with the title.

Unlike the average dufuss on the street that Sean Hannity interviews to see how current they are on what everyone should know, I unfortunately know the name of the vice president and I can find obscure and well-known countries on a map. We all have our talents.

There was also a degree of unfainess to the study, as they used more youngsters than oldsters, which didn't balance the study, but as far as I concerned, skewed and skewered the results.

Read the study for youself and draw your own conclusions, that is...if you can remember to do it.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11084242

Woman Who Kept Slinky Alive Died at 90

by Sandy Sand

Who can forget?

Ev'ryone knows it's SlinkyIt's Slinky,it's Slinky
For fun, it's a wonderful toy.
It's fun for a girl and a boy.

Betty James, who named the Slinky toy and rescued it from falling into oblivion after her husband abandoned his toy company, died at age 90.

Her determination to save the company and the toy paid off with Slinky becoming a household word.

It didn’t hurt either that Saturday Night Live and the combined brilliant comedic talents of Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner and Bill Murray entertained us with their long-running version of coiled wire toy.

Curtin played the widow of “Poor Mr. Lupner,” the human Slinky, “He was born without a spine.”

Radner was their hapless daughter Lisa, who constantly suffered from “nooggies” dished out by her dufuss boyfriend, Todd, played by Murray.

Slinky soared into the hearts of American children by walking down stairs after Gimbel’s department store in Philadelphia gave the couple the opportunity to demonstrate the unique toy for its customers.

On that cold, snowy day 63 years ago, the James’ sold 400 Slinkys at $1 each. Considering how much the cost of everything has gone up since 1945, the toy is still a bargain that brings hours of entertainment to kids at $4.99.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-james25-2008nov25,0,7420591.story

Speculation Runs Rampant on the Future Who’s Whos in the Obama Administration

by Sandy Sand

Vegas odds makers are probably in on the spek-a-latin’ act, too. Maybe we should check them out; they were correct in calling Obama’s election.

Before we go all nutzy over the new same old faces in the Barack Obama administration, and some of his rumored picks don’t thrill me either, we should always keep in mind that those who have served in previous administrations, or are currently serving are the people with experience.

We’d be raising holy hell if the Obama team were only considering names we never heard of and people with no experience…like choosing a “Brownie”, who served on a horsie set board to head up FEMA.

That worked out really well, as did all of Bush’s other appointments that amounted to no more than political patronage and payback for support.

(Speaking of FEMA. Mr. President-elect, please take FEMA the hell out of Homeland Security and put it back as a cabinet position where it belongs!)

To hell with experience or people with a modicum of common sense and doing what’s best for the country.

Some have interpreted Obama’s theme of “change” during the campaign as throwing out all the old people for fresh new faces.

That was our and/or the press’ conclusion jumping.

More logical, “change” meant out with the Bush Doctrine, killing the Constitution, signing statements, fiats, hating average Americans and only loving the wealthy and corporations and every other evil afflicting the Bush administration, and dragging the country into the depths of worldwide animus and depression -- both psychologically and economically.

Below is a link to an Associated Press story that lists all the current possible who will be whos, who are under consideration.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11036199

Sandy Sand is a resident of Los Angeles, free lance writer, former editor of the Tolucan and blogs at runrundan.blogspot.com

Credit Crunch: Bringing Back an Old-fashioned Christmas

by Sandy Sand

Merchant greed may be out, consumer sanity and the real meaning of Christmas in.

For years I’ve been bitching about merchant greed, especially during the holidays.

It’s not that I want merchants to go bankrupt, it’s that I want to see some sanity restored to the holiday shopping season. They're going to have to learn to tighten their belts and get along with less, just as we have to.

Stores do not have to be opened 18 hours a day; they will sell the same amount of seasonal crap as they will by staying open only 10 hours a day.

My granny told me of the days when stores weren’t open on Sundays at all, as well as not being open on the Sunday before Christmas. It was a shopper’s joy when they remained open until 9 p.m. for the 10 days prior to Christmas.

Although not fun to work evening hours, it’s doable and still give employees time to be with their families and tuck the kiddies into bed.

It is outrageously ridiculous for stores to open at 4 a.m., 5 a.m., or even 6 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Who are the people who are the most employed in retail? Women, of course.

Women, the same people who worked a full day on Thanksgiving and Christmas; stood on their feet all day preparing, cooking, waiting on their couch potato, football-watching husbands, significant others and boyfriends and then cleaned up the mess.

They are the ones, who by and large have to get up at the ungodly hour of three, four or five to be at work at four, five or six in the morning.

Credit crunch

It was reported in last week’s papers that too many people have yet to pay off their credit card debt from last year’s holidays.

They really don’t need to increase that debt any more this year by being conned and guilt tripped into buying a bunch of crappy toys that will either be disintegrated or forgotten by New Year’s.

With all due disrespect to greedy retailers, who overwork and underpay their employees, it’s long past time to go back to the real meaning of Christmas for those who practice it religiously, and for those who participate at work, and get in on the act because “everybody else is,” and they’re forced to.

I don’t know about you, but when I worked, it was to support my family and pay for all the necessities. There was one extra dime to spend on gifts for anyone at work…most of whom were lucky if they got a friendly hello, because I wouldn’t have chosen 99 percent of them as friends.
If you’re honest, you might say the same thing. Co-workers are like family; they’re forced on us, we don’t choose them.

As adults, we’re making difficult choices. Some are choosing between food and medication, or between turning on the heat and rent, or a million other things.

If we can learn to economize, so can our children learn to be economic with their holiday desires. They are part of a family and they must learn to participate in family matters during good as well as bad times.

This Christmas/holiday season is going to bring along with it some big lessons in learning what the true meaning of Christmas is. Not a time of selfish longings, but a time of good spirit and goodwill and being thankful for what we have spiritually and materially and not wanting more of the material things.

Remember the Grinch? He could steal all the trapping of Christmas, but he couldn’t steal the spirit.

Actual Weather in Southern California on Bellwether Election Day

by Sandy Sand

What never happens is happening in Los Angeles and environs; it’s raining on election day in sunny Southern California. Never happens. But it is and it’s an historic weather event on this bellwether election day.

Rumors started by local morning KABC radio guy, Doug McIntyre, are flooding the internet that Karl Rove was seen flying over the area seeding clouds.

Why would Rove do such a thing? Because everyone knows how laid back we are out here, and rain just might discourage voters from trekking to the polls.

Last, last minute desperation on John McCain’s part.

The last minute desperate act of losing panic was a deluge of despicable McCain Rev. Wright commercials in the Los Angeles area. They had to be kidding with that.

Eleventh hour sleazy, slimeball campaign ads in California? What? They’ve got money to burn in a state that’s so cemented in support for Obama that it couldn’t be broken up with a jackhammer?

While Barack Obama is in Chicago to cast his vote, and more than a million people are expected to flock to the downtown area for post-election celebrating, Sarah Palin will be flying to Alaska to cast her vote, then take a quick turn-around flight to rejoin McCain for his minimally planned post-election whatever you want to call it.

Rumors are flying that between flights Palin will give birth to another baby to collect on that generous, socialistic, share the wealth $3K a year from the oil companies each Alaskan receives.

Just in. It's twins and she'll name them Attu and Barrow.

Voter Apathy Equals Election Board Apathy, Long Lines

by Sandy Sand

Changes are needed in how we conduct all elections.

This headline in today’s Los Angeles Daily News, combined with pervasive voter apathy might reveal the answer [or part of the answer] to long lines at polling stations: Experts Concerned System May be Overwhelmed by Big Voter Turnout.

I’ve been stunned every time I see excruciatingly long lines at polling places across the country on television.

Stunned and pleased. Pleased, in the hope that Americans have finally woken out of their eight-year coma induced by hypnotic lies and scare tactics spun by BushCo, and they’re waiting in those devastatingly long line to vote Obama for Change; change from Republican domination.

I’m also stunned when I think about these long lines in relationship to not having early voting.
If a third or more of registered voters are voting early, what would the lines at the polls look like if there weren’t so many early voters?

It would be a colossal mess and utter chaos on election day, and in some places it’s pretty messy as it stands.

Is part of this the fault of election boards across the country who were too lazy and too apathetic to pay attention to the surge in voter registrations?

Let’s hope this puts an end to voter apathy and election board incompetence, and brings about some changes in how we hold elections…although I doubt it will.

Experts Concerned…: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10876711

DST: Springing Forward, Falling Back is Bad/Good For Our Health

by Sandy Sand

Being a devout hater of Daylight Savings Time, I always knew DST is bad for one’s health and psyche, and a study by Swedish researchers proves it.

Daylight Savings Time turns our body clocks inside out and backwards.

According to the Associated Press, the findings, which are reported in today’s New England Journal of Medicine, Swedish scientists discovered the following after reviewing health records for the last 20 years: In the week after "spring forward," there was a five percent increase in heart attacks, with a six percent bump Monday and Wednesday and a 10 percent increase Tuesday.

In the week after "fall back," the number of heart attacks was about the same as in the previous and subsequent weeks, except for a five percent decrease Monday.

In my opinion, contrary to popular belief that DST is an energy saver verges on worldwide urban legend; Daylight Savings is NOT an energy saver.

If anything, it’s an energy waster.

Because the sun sets an hour later, it means we keep our energy-guzzling air-conditioners running an hour longer. Keeping the A/C on longer is certainly more energy-consuming that flipping on a few light switches.

Not only that, but the last two week of DST are depressing as hell. It’s dark for so long in the morning it puts a drag on the entire day while draining our own personal energy.

When I look at the clock and it says 7 a.m. and the sun is barely peeking over the horizon, it feels like something is terribly wrong.

Blame the charcoal industry for extending DST hours; it was their lobbying efforts that done this to us, because they wanted a little more daylight so they could sell more charcoal.

Who uses charcoal bar-b-ques anymore anyway? As for me, I find it a pain in the butt to make all those trips out back to cook what I can whip up just as well and far more easily in my kitchen.

Even with gas bar-b-ques, I rarely smell the tempting aroma of sizzling steaks wafting into my back yard, so I’m not sure how many people are still throwing shrimp or anything else on the barbie.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_10851210

Single Digits Narrow Obama/McCain Race

by Sandy Sand

Election day is almost here.

The race between presidential candidates Barack “Change” Obama and John “More of the Same” McCain is eight days from now and counting…

These are the only single digits I want to see separate these two candidates.
The election cannot come soon enough.

Or as Obama said, “ENOUGH!”

Sarah Palin is Going Off the McCain Reservation and Staking Out Her Own Territory

by Sandy Sand

The first hints of Sarah Palin separating herself from John McCain came last week from Rachael Maddow and Keith Olbermann; now it’s all over the Web.

As I write, it’s the first topic on Howard Kurtz’ Reliable Sources on CNN.

But the most prophetic analysis of Palin’s inner self came from the woman who beat her out in the Miss Alaska pageant 24 years ago, Maryline Blackburn.

If you haven’t hear all the buzz about Sarah Palin’s “divaship.” This is a must read: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/25/palin.tension/index.html

One Palin aide said she’s trying to take control of her message, while a McCain adviser is quoted as saying, "She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone."

It almost goes without saying that divas are ego-centric people, who listen to no one or nothing but their own egotistical, single-vision inner voices.

But the most prophetic person in all of this is Maryline Blackburn, who nailed Palin for what she is way back when.

Blackburn beat out Palin as Miss Alaska, and at the conclusion of the pageant in 1984, she nailed Palin as “calculating,” “determined,” and is always sizing up people and situations behind her smile.

It appears that nothing has changed in the intervening 24 years, except that Palin’s calculating and determination may have gotten even stronger.

You‘d be wrong if you think Blackburn‘s past association with Palin is influencing her to vote for the beauty pageant runner-up. In spite of the pageant’s Miss Congeniality winner’s note of congratulations to Blackburn, she said she’s firmly in Barack Obama’s camp.

Hallowe'en Masks Pick the President

by Sandy Sand

And the winner is…..

….. Barack Obama!

I wouldn’t take it to the bank, but pre-presidential election sales of Hallowe’en masks have been accurate predictors of who will be our next president.

Tracking of sales by Amazon.com showed that Barack Obama masks are outselling John McCain masks by a margin of eight percent; 54 percent to 46 percent, which more or less reflects the national polls.

Buycostumes.com has been tracking sales of presidential candidate Hallowe’en masks since 1980, and there’s no masking the fact that in every instance the winner of the election also was the winner in mask purchasing race.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/ci_10772061?source=rv

Free Range Grannies Own Sandy Sand is Running For President. Must be True, I Got the Email

by Sandy Sand

Sandy for President!

I got the funniest, if not the most important email of my life yesterday, informing me that I’m a presidential candidate.

Wow! How good does that get? And I haven’t done a thing or raised one deflated penny.

Once informed of my party-of-one candidacy, I immediately went into platform-forming mode.

Sandy's First Fiat: All health insurance companies will be outlawed and Rep. Dennis Kucinich will be name to the cabinet post of Single-Payer Planner.

That’s just for starters.

California dreamin’? You bet! But it would sure make a lot of people happy.

http://www.aarpvote08.org/?d=U2FuZHkgU2FuZA==

John McCain is the New Monster Frightening Our Kids to Death

by Sandy Sand

John McCain is the new bogeyman, ghost, vampire and worst kind of monster rolled into one, who's scaring our kids.

Now we know that McCain truly hates children.

It wasn’t bad enough that he voted against the S-Chip, which provides health care for children, but now if they don’t die from a preventable disease, his robocalls accusing Barack Obama of being a terrorist will scare them to death.

Yesterday MSNBC reported that children across America are picking up phones and hearing the despicable robo messages.

Parents are reporting that after their children hear the message they are terrified that if Obama is elected we will be overrun by terrorists and they are doomed.

Thanks, Johnny. Just what we need is for you to be making our kids even more neurotic and hyperactive than they already are.

Who knew that the simple act of answering a telephone could be harmful to our kids’ health?

FOX to Delay World Series Game 6 Due to Hurricane Barack

by Sandy Sand

Proving that money speaks louder than ideology, the Fox Network has asked for and received permission from Major League Baseball to delay game six of the World Series by 15 minutes.
That is…if there is a game six.

The Obama campaign has made a major television buy on all the networks on October 29th to air a half-hour special.

Sports events are never pre-empted except in the case of a national disaster, such as 9/11, or in the event of a natural disaster as the earthquake in San Francisco that delayed the third game of the 1989 World Series between the Giants and Oakland for 10 days.

Fox and Fox News may be the National GOP Network, but when it comes to money, the umpires at Fox ruled that ideology struck out and money won.

Any Sane Granny Will Say This is Quote by John McCain is Insane

by Sandy Sand

Behind by six: McCain said he “Has ’em where he wants ’em.”

What’d he say? Talk about needing some mental health care.

Calling Dr. Phil!

It might take one assh**e to cure another.

Quote of the young century by John McCain:

We’re down by six points. We've got 'em where we want 'em!

How many other things can we apply to McCain's losing illogic of “we've got 'em where we want 'em?

* The Dodgers are down by three to one…
* The stock market is down a thousand points…
* My son just got arrested for the third time…well maybe that’s where you wanted him.
*The price of gas is $5 per gallon…
* Al-Qaida is stronger than ever in Afghanistan…
* Osama bin-Laden is hiding in a cave…
* Bush got us into trillion of dollars worth of debt…
* Prescription drug prices are at an all time high…
* More people than ever lost their jobs last month…
* The ice caps are melting at an alarming rate…
* Our borders are wide open, so any damn terrorist can walk in…
* We no longer manufacture anything in this country…
* Detroit can’t make a decent car to save their company lives…
* We accept toxic toys, drugs and food from China…
* Just think anything that’s bad is good and the situation is just where you want it.

Maybe we should call in Dr. Bombay. Nah. The Reverend Thomas Muthee will just go after him.

Progressive Grannies Should be so Proud

SEE/HEAR UNCAMOUFLAGED BOOING LINKED BELOW

Except it doesn't work and I have no idea why, and being technically computer illiterate, I can't make it work. So to see the video, which is well worth viewing, go to steveyoungonpolitcs.com.
SJS

By Steve Young

Philadelphia Flyers owner and major Republican donor, Ed Snider piped in the loudest music he could, but it couldn't camouflage the Philly boos snowing down on Republican VP nominee, Sarah Palin.

In what will be known forever in Philly history as the Palin Curse, it set the scene for one of the Flyers' worst opening night, opening period performances ever as they found themselves down to the New York Rangers, 4-0 before the first period was over.

In what should have been a sweet, memorable moment for Philadelphian Kathy O'Connell, voted the Flyers top hockey mom, Snider forced O'Connell to become part of a national embarrassment when Palin was bought onto the ice next to accompanied by a barrage of boos from the Philly faithful.

Congrats McCain campaign. Mess up a wet dream? You even ruined a home team's opening game.

For All You Hockey Grannies Out There

The Stupidest Political Move in History - Palin To Drop Puck At Philadelphia Flyers Opener

by Steve Young

Given enough room, Kate Smith has to be turning over in her grave.

In what has to be the most brainless moves in political and sports history - other than Texas Ranger managing partner, George Bush trading Sammy Sosa to the White Sox for Harold Baines - National Hockey League Philadelphia Flyers owner, Ed Snider is bringing in Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Sarah Palin to drop the ceremonial first puck at the Flyers home opener Saturday night.

Besides the fact that it is an overt politically-partisan move by Snider, who is a major Republican donor, that will completely distract from the united fan front of such an evening, the presumed “mixed” reaction from the fans, where boos always echo far louder than cheers, will send the embarrassing YouTube clip swirling breakneck viral through the net until November 5.

Philadelphia doesn’t take kindly to any icon, friendly or not, messing with their sports teams. There are still many unrepentant snowball-throwing terrorists residing in Philly. Has Snider forgotten Santa Claus being pelted with snowballs at the Eagles game?

But even more important than the public humiliation Snider would have provided to Palin and himself, the greatest offense is the defiling of the memory of the Flyer’s time-honored symbol of God, country, and the Broadstreet Bullies…Kate Smith.

A great songstress of earlier days, her stirring rendition of “God Bless America,” she sang her way into Philadelphia sports lore when the team played her version of “God Bless America” before a game in 1969.

The Flyers began to play the song before a number of home games…many more of them they won than lost. When Smith made a surprise visit and actually walked onto the Spectrum ice on October 11, 1973 to sing the Flyer’s appropriated anthem for their opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs, she carved a place in every Flyers fan’s heart forever.

Smith again performed the song before Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals on May 19, 1974, at which the Flyers clinched their first of two back-to-back Stanley Cups, winning that playoff series against the Boston Bruins 4 games to 2, with Bernie Parent shutting the Bruins out 1-0 in that game.

Smith united the fans even more than the game itself, and now Snider has decided to spit on her grave while carving a political divide right through the center of the Wachovia Center.

Kate Smith and Philadelphia deserve more.

Steve Young blogs at the aptly named steveyoungonpolitics.com

Sarah Palin to Return Tainted Contributions, Sort Of…

by Sandy Sand

Republican V.P. candidate Sarah Palin, who professes to be unscrupulously clean and above it all when it comes to political corruption, has decided to return $2,030 contributed to her 2006 gubernatorial campaign by allegedly corrupt Alaskan politicians.

Give the money back? Not exactly. She giving it to an as yet unnamed charity.
How convenient. Odds on that Palin, who says she holds herself to the “highest ethical standards,” will deduct the 2K from her income taxes as a charitable contribution.

But which charity will she give it to? Witch Hunting Reverends, Inc.?

It would be better to send it back from whence it came; those guys need all the gold they can get for their legal defense funds.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-palindonors26-2008sep26,0,3740374.story

The Perkiness Factor: Why Joe Biden Lost the Debate

by Sandy Sand

This piece by Steve Young is such dead-on satire that after reading it twice, I still don't whether to laugh or cry.


The Perkiness Factor: Why Joe Biden Lost the Debate

If you’re gonna run a town, it’s better to be perky than smart.” Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor*

I know the liberal mainstream media will try to spin the vice presidential debate as a win for Joe Biden, but that’s because they continue to be out of touch with what the folks really care about.

Perkiness.

It wasn’t simply that Biden wasn’t perky enough, but the guy just doesn’t understand the plain folks. Not once did Biden punctuate a point with a snappy wink. That’s for darn sure. The folks like a politician who knows how to wink to show they’re right there with you. My only problem with Sarah was that he did not point and click at the same time.

Yet Sarah was far more than perky. She was shrewd. Shrewd enough to know darn well than to answer the questions that were asked. Biden felt he had to answer the actual questions, filling those answers with all kinds of endless specifics.

If he gave one more detail to explain how he and Obama plan to change the horrific direction Bush and company has taken this country that McCain wants to continue, I swear I would have crawled through the TV machine and strangled him.

Sarah correctly pointed out that Biden kept looking back instead of forward. Where I come from, if you don’t want to bump into people in front of you, you look forward not backward.

If Biden thinks you can learn anything from history, I can tell you from experience, he’s just bound not to repeat it.

Biden said that “looking back” was a prologue. A prologue? Come on. We’re not talking books here. We’re talking running a country, which is less about books and more about, energy, which, as Sarah obviously knows, is the answer to every question.

Sure, as the MSM will say, Biden spoke with expertise and a full grasp of the details of whatever he was proposing. That’s because he obviously has no where near the ability of Sarah to memorize. And if Biden ever really went to school he would know that passing a test has far more to do with memorization than any kind of comprehension. Leave no child behind? Try leave no Senator behind.

It was blah-blah-blah “the Ayatollahs are in charge of Iran, not Amadinejad,” and blah-blah-blah “Energy plans are more than just ‘drill, baby, drill.’ They’re wind, solar, bio-diesel, and nuclear power” or blah-blah-blah “our commander on the ground in Afghanistan has said that an Iraq surge would not work there like Sarah said.”

Enough with the facts. You fill your head with facts, how in the world are you going to have room for the talking points that can fit on a bumper sticker? And while I’m at it, what is so wrong with Sarah using talking points. Perhaps you want her to make her points without talking?

They’ll say Sarah is just a high school cheerleader parading as a legitimate candidate for leader of this country. Perhaps those elite, blue state, northerners don’t know that your can’t spell the word “cheerleader” without the word “leader.”

And you can’t spell Vice President with three e’s and you don’t have to be a math genius to know there are just that amount of e’s in cheerleader.

But above it all, Biden’s problems were embodied by his refusal to respond to Sarah’s polite, but unrehearsed, request to “Say, it ain’t so, Joe.” He kept saying it was “so.” Over and over. And that’s not what the folks want to hear, doggonit.

They want hear “perk.”

Ask anyone in Mayberry.

*Though it might have been Chrissy from “Three’s Company.” What Andy Taylor might have said was, ”After last night, Aunt Bee must be rolling over in her grave.”

Steve Young is the author of "Great Failures of the Extremely Successful" and the aptly named steveyoungonpolitics.com

Food For Thought: What to Cook Up For Tonight's Veep Debate Party

by Sandy Sand

What to whip up to satisfy our need for nourishing our bodies, while nibbling on something to quench our thirst for knowledge at our debate watching party?

Come to think of it, why aren’t all the newspaper food sections filled with debate recipes like they are for Thanksgiving or the Super Bowl?

I know. Combine them.

First, we’re thankful that kickoff for the debate is almost here; and secondly, by 10:30 p.m. on the East Coast and 7:30 out here in the wild west…it will “thankfully” be over.

Over that is except for all the post-debate armchair quarterbacking.
Our foodie tradition has been have sloppy Joe’s on election night, hotdogs for the Super Bowl, burgers and chips for the Oscars and nothing but munchies for New Year’s.

Yes, it’s no longer debatable, tonight will be well-served by a one-time tradition for the Biden/Palin debate by combining Thanksgiving with the Super Bowl.

For appetizers we can start with mushroom caps crammed with stuffing and yams on a skewer. The main course will be turkey dogs and chips. To make the meal well-balanced, olives, pickles and quacamole for veggies.

To be ultra patriotic, after all we’ll be watching the vice presidential debate, I’ll throw in Sara Lee’s Stars and Stripes Fourth of July cake.
It might not be the most nutritious meal I even whipped up, but it will be tasty and colorful.

As colorful as the post-debate analysis.

McCain Blinked. The Debate Happened. He Placed His Bet and Lost

by Sandy Sand

McCain’s his name; craps his game.

By his own admission John McCain likes to gamble, and now the gambler wants to be President; McCain thinks the presidency is a crap shoot.

When asked if he’ll be at the debate Friday night, he said he’s betting that there will be enough of a bailout bill together to allow him to debate.

There wasn’t and he welsh on his bet and showed up to debate Barack Obama.
Swell. He’s gambled on Congress getting a deal.

Is that how he’ll preside as president?

“I’m bettin’ the Iranians have nuclear weapons; let’s attack.” McCain’s going to start wars on a hunch, or will he hedge his bet by using the best information our intelligence services can gather?

I’m not an expert on past presidents, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a president who was a confessed gambler, and we certainly don’t need one now.

It’s a good thing that former secretary of education and former drug tzar, Bill Bennett never became president. Hooked on the drug of hypocritical arrogance, moralism and gambling, Bennett would have led us into moral bankruptcy and gambled away all the country’s assets. Who needs a Bennett when we have deregulating Bush, McCain and Wall Street to do that.
We’ve had some really bad presidents. Among them were Richard
Nixon, a criminal and Constitution violator; Ronald Reagan broke the economy with trickle down economics that only trickled up, was brain dead and made policy by wife and astrologer; George H.W. Bush was a liar who said he wouldn‘t raise taxes, yet did, had a 1,000 points of light, all of which combined couldn’t kindle a candle, and was totally out of touch with the average American; his son, King George II, is a Constitution killer, a total failure at running businesses and a country, and gets his marching orders directly from God. Everything he touches turns to crap (the real kind, not gambling kind), and he’ll go down in history as the country’s worst president.

Bill Clinton was far from perfect. He bought into a lousy free trade agreement, yet at the time the job market hadn’t collapsed and most people were doing pretty darn well, and the deficit he inherited from Bush I was turned into a surplus.

His biggest shortcoming was not being able to keep “it” zipped, throwing the country into two years of impeachment chaos.

The say sex and money make the world go ‘round, and we were doing pretty well in spite of or because of Bill’s dalliance. Americans aren’t totally stupid; they thrive on sex, too…not gambling.

Ma Barker is Looking Up and Smiling at Long Beach Mom

by Sandy Sand

Long Beach gangster’s mom rivals Ma Barker for Mother-of-the-Year Award

Eva Daley. What a mother! You gotta luv her. Not!

She really loves her son. She will stop at nothing to give her son, Mauricio "Smiley" Rivera, everything in life he needs.

Everything in life he needs for financial security, food on the table everyday, a roof over his head, and a lifetime supply of friends who will be his constant companions, if not lovers.

So last year when her 13-year-old son needed a lift to an extremely important meeting, she bundled him and a friend into her car and whisked them off to an emergency after-dark gangbang.

Minutes from the gangbang recorded that a motion to “kill” was seconded and passed, resulting in one 13-year-old boy being stabbed to death.

Meeting a success. Mission accomplished. Daley, then sped off with her son and friends in the delivery and get-away car.

Daley, 31, went on trial two day ago charged with murder.

In a statement of ultimate chutzpah, her public defender, Javier Ramirez, told the court that “Daley was just a normal mother of three trying to get by, and one of her children went bad.”

Yeah. And Ma Barker was a sweet little old lady, who helped her sons rob from the rich for the betterment of the poor.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mother25-2008sep25,0,6162625.story

Being a Mom: Dumbest Qualifier to be a World/Political Leader

by Sandy Sand


You cannot make up this crap.

Quote. Los Angles Times, Sept. 24:

Standing outside the Midtown hotel where (Sarah) Palin was meeting with (Hamid) Karzai, Tamara Sverdlov, a business analyst, said the vice presidential nominee's experience as a mother of five probably made up for her lack of foreign policy chops.

"If she can manage five kids, she can run the politics of the world," said Sverdlov, who is Russian and has three children.

Sverdlov may be Russian and have three children, but I’m part Russian and have three children, therefore I must have the political chops to be a foreign policy expert or even president. NOT!

[Political chops? Where did that come from? Sverdlov must have been in this country for a very long time to come up with that arcane verbiage…or someone put words in her mouth. I wonder how that sounded spoken with a Russian accent.]

Having babies qualifies a woman to be a brood mare; nothing more. Having five babies doesn’t even qualify her to be a good mother.

For all we know, behind closed doors Saran Palin is a “mommy dearest,” just as we’ve heard that behind and in front of closed doors John McC is a foul-mouthed, short-tempered maniac.

Palin’s meeting with Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger [spelled “Kessenger” in a press release by the brainiacs in the McCain camp] was a well-orchestrated and tightly controlled circus that made a lot of noise and proved nothing.

Okay, it proved that Ms. Sarah is qualified to shake hands and say “howdy-do.”

Punxsutawney Bush Sees Shadow. Experts Predict At Least Six More Weeks Of Hell

by Steve Young

Picture this: President Bush being held up by VP Dick Cheney in The Rose Garden.

President Bush, who has been hibernating over the past months -- either to keep from ruining John McCain’s presidential chances or so that he won’t royally botch up something else -- emerged from the White House yesterday to comment on the broken economy announcing that “The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence.”

He then appeared to see his shadow, and after momentarily being held up by Vice President Cheney, so that all those who had come to witness the every four year tradition, retreated back into his burrow.

In other news, Bill Murray has signed on to play a fictitious president who wakes up every day to find that he will be once again be screwing up the country the same as he does everyday.

“Next Day, Same President, Oh Shit!” starts filming February 2, 2009.

The award winning satire of Steve Young can be found the appropriately named steveyoungonpolitics.com

Where’s the National Guard When We Need Them?

by Sandy Sand

They’re not under Bush’s desk. They’re not behind his desk chair. They’re not behind the drapes. They’re in Iraq!

Metaphorically, we might say the National Guard units have been swept under the rug in the Oval Office, and rolled up for a magic carpet ride all the way to Baghdad where they’ve languished, died and been turned into desert dust.

While thousands of National Guardists, on average 130,000 at any given time, protecting us from an “enemy” that was never in Iraq until we invaded that country, they could have and should have been HERE doing their job of REALLY protecting us.

Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster of epic proportions, and it’s aftermath a super disaster of man-made proportions. Three years later and New Orleans is no more put back together than any city in Iraq that we’ve bombed the hell out of.

Now it’s Ike, and nobody likes this Ike. Soon, if not now, everyone will hate FEMA…again.

Where are the home protectors?

If they were over here and not over there, they could been helping in the rescue effort, and now they could be helping to distribute much needed food and water, and assisting the Army Corps of Engineers rebuilding our own feeble infrastructure.

No food, no water, no electricity. Baghdad on a grand scale and everyday the projections of when the lights will come on again gets farther and farther into the future.

Inexcusable!

Hundreds, thousands of displaced hurricane victims could be returning home except for one thing: No electricity.

If the Army Corps of Engineers can build a bridge over a river in hours, or roads and landing strips in a few days, they should be able to repair power lines in a matter of days -- not weeks -- especially if they were assisted by guard units.

Ten billion dollars a month -- off budget -- goes to Iraq. We need the money and the men over here, not over there.

In Los Angeles It’s All About the Mayor. What About Your City?

by Sandy Sand








=====================

In Los Angeles It’s All About the Mayor. What About Your City?

Is your city suffering from mayoral egotism that’s destroying your city?

Three years ago the idiot electorate of Los Angeles voted for Antonio Villaraigosa, an egomaniac who used every public office to step up to the next one as he was term-limited out of each office.
Villaraigosa makes wild promises and starts massive projects, such as taking over L.A.’s ever-failing schools, which by California law he can’t, and never finishes anything he starts.

Of course, it’s not surprising that he’d try an illegal take over of L.A. schools; he failed the bar exam four times before giving up on taking it.

Then there are all the feel-good promises he makes like increase the size of the woefully undermanned police force, filling potholes, controlling gangs, unjamming traffic and so much more. You’ll notice they’re not listed in order of importance, because it doesn’t matter; none got off the ground.

He can’t even succeed in giving away trees to help the environment. Ten thousand trees were to be given away to the public for planting. One problem. All the trees disappeared. Vanished. Never to be seen again. Stolen? Ground up into mulch and sold? Taken by a nursery and sold? Nobody knows and nobody cared to find out.

There are five things he’s found time to do in the 11 percent of the time he’s spent actually conducting the city’s business since he‘s been in office.

If the idiots in my city don’t pay attention to any of his crooked wheeling and dealing when he’s up for re-election in March, they should pay attention to that 11 percent. Who among us could get away with that and not be fired?

The five things he’s accomplished is to Lie! Lie! Lie! To get his way; keep L.A. the largest sanctuary city for illegal aliens in the country; give illegal sweetheart no-bid contract deals out to his developer cronies; campaign to be appointed to Barack Obama’s cabinet or governor of our failing state; and get his picture in the paper on an almost daily basis, no matter where he is in the world.

Below is an article from L.A. Weekly by Patrick Range Mcdonald. It’s quite long, but the first page gives you enough of an idea of what is going on in the country’s largest corrupt, sanctuary, third world city.

To read the article in it’s entirety http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/news/the-all-about-me-mayor/

After perusing it, maybe you’ll see of the handwriting is on the walls of your city hall.


The All-About-Me Mayor: Antonio Villaraigosa's Frenetic Self-Promotion
Hours of travel, fund-raising and PR leave little time for his job

By Patrick Range Mcdonald
Published on September 11, 2008

IN THE EARLY AFTERNOON of July 14, a week after quietly slipping home from a trip to Hawaii, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was halfway though a typical workday.
He'd spent the morning doing interviews on two Latino radio stations, his picture was taken with an old friend, Juan Alvarez, he met with major labor union insider Sean Harrigan, he lunched with his staff, he was prepped by aides on what to say at an upcoming press conference urging Angelenos to vote for higher taxes, and he held a meeting to discuss one of his persisting embarrassments as mayor — his failure to plant a promised "one million trees," or even a fraction of them, in Los Angeles.

As he began his closed-door meeting to review the million-trees fiasco, a loose coalition of angry community activists billing themselves as the Save L.A. Project stood on the steps of City Hall, venting frustration over the Los Angeles Unified School District, the mayor's stiff new rate increases on Angelenos' utility bills, and a controversy over alleged backroom talks by Villaraigosa's Planning Department "density hawks" about building yet another big-box project, this time a Home Depot in the Valley.

Villaraigosa's spokesman, Matt Szabo, had the job of watching the protest so he could report back to the mayor, who has made his frenetic hourly pace and constant busyness the hallmarks of his first three years in office.

After getting briefed for a carefully staged press conference scheduled the following day, at which Villaraigosa would urge L.A. residents to back a big boost in the Los Angeles County sales tax, he prepared for a special meeting at the posh mayoral mansion, Getty House, that was of pressing importance: posing for a statue of himself for Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

At the hourlong "sitting," Villaraigosa offered the Tussaud's creative team the quiet privacy of his official residence, on the leafy border of Hancock Park and Windsor Square on Irving Boulevard. Three artists had flown in from London, meeting him at Getty House with boxes of fake eyeballs, hair samples and tooth samples.

Inside the historic mansion, they placed Villaraigosa on a stool atop a giant turntable and went to work, twisting him back and forth as they snapped photographs, took measurements and matched their anatomy samples to their real-life subject.
"He was approached," says Jack Holland, an external-relations representative for Madame Tussaud's, "and he was very gracious to cooperate."

At a minimum cost of $200,000 per wax statue, the team needed to be thorough and precise, especially since the mayor is all set to become one of 80 celebrities featured at the new Madame Tussaud's, opening on Hollywood Boulevard next spring — further fulfillment of the fame Villaraigosa avidly pursues.

Holland says the wax-sculpting team not only makes an exact copy of its subject but "is also able to discern the character and personality of a person, which makes our creations so lifelike."
It's unknown what the team learned about Villaraigosa's character or personality. But the fact that the mayor so eagerly posed for a tribute to himself offered some telling clues.

Los Angeles' mayor has not yet produced any results in improving schools, addressing greatly worsening traffic, keeping kids from joining gangs, cleaning the city's infamously filthy sidewalks, halting patently illegal clutter like 10-story building ads and thousands of illicitly constructed billboards, or controlling his spending in a time of family belt-tightening.

Since May of 2007, when a negative profile in The New Yorker, citing his "single-minded ambition" and "drive for self-aggrandizement," shattered his press honeymoon and made his local media coverage look parochial and protective, Villaraigosa has been slammed for wrecking his marriage and has backed the wrong horse for president.

Time has become his defensive tool, and the mayor continually touts his rushing, 16-to-18-hour workday in speeches and media interviews to anyone who questions his commitment.
Yet his latest work schedule, from May 21 to August 1, which L.A. Weekly obtained from his office through a California Public Records Act request, shows the man has a peculiar way of using that time — which works out to 13 hours, not 16 or 18 per day. (Click here for "How Mayor Villaraigosa Spends His 16-Hour Days," by Patrick Range McDonald.)

The document reveals that the mayor spends most of his working day flying in and out of town, holding staged press conferences, attending banquets, ceremonies and parties, raising political money and providing face time to high-powered special interest groups in a position to help his political advancement.

"No mayor has been out of town like Antonio, not in my time in Los Angeles," says former Daily News editor Ron Kaye, who organized the Save L.A. Project rally in mid-July at City Hall. "And part of his game is to be buried in nonsense. ... He needs to get to work!"

More: http://www.laweekly.com/2008-09-11/news/the-all-about-me-mayor/

Barack Can Attack Sarah on the Issues and Not be Called Sexist

by Sandy Sand

If Barack Obama can go after Sarah Palin on the issues, then Joe Biden shouldn’t have any problem facing her down in the one and only, one-on-one vice presidential debate.

Speaking to a crowd of about 800 people yesterday at Wabash Valley Fairgrounds in Terre Haute, Ind., Obama ripped John McCain and Palin for calling themselves ‘agents of change.’

When McCain says ‘change,’ the only change I see is the few coins that will be rattling around at the bottom of my purse if he’s elected. But I digress.

Obama went after the ‘earmark queen,’ who has boldly gone where no other woman has gone before by asking Congress for and receiving more pork barrel money per capita than that of any other state.

In her first year as governor -- with a great deal of help from the infamous Pork King, Sen. Ted “Bridge to Nowhere” Stevens -- the Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste, said she asked for more than $550 million, which is more than $800 per resident.

On average, other states got $34 per person for local projects.

She cut her fat requests somewhat this year after Bush said cool it.

"Don't be fooled," Obama said. "I know the governor of Alaska has been saying she's changed, and that's great.

"She's a skillful politician. But, you know, when you've been taking all these earmarks when it's convenient, and then suddenly you're the champion anti-earmark person, that's not change.

“Come on! I mean, words mean something, you can't just make stuff up."
Obama also reminded the crowd that earmarks soared under the domination of McCain’s Republican party, and did so with the help of McCain, who admits he voted with Bush 90 percent of the time.

So much for fiscal responsibility.

What I like is that when Obama puts down the opposition he does it with style, class and humor. He doesn’t rip away at them using a vicious Republican-like chainsaw.

Others in the party can use every tool in the box, hammers, nails, drills, pick axes to expose all the lies, hypocrisy and Republican McCain/Palin double dealing.

Hopefully, the rest of the country will see the truths Obama tells through humor.
If he keeps hammering away at them, eventually most will see that a win for a McCain/Palin ticket would be even worse for the country than the last eight years of Bush/Cheney.

Elder Abuse Isn’t Only Physical. It’s Financial, Too

This is a story from the Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, Los Angeles Daily News by Susan Abram. http://origin.dailynews.com/ci_10394250

It’s horrifying to think the are people with no conscience who are ‘snatch and grab’ thieves who prey on the defenseless aging population, from which there is very little protection.
They are in the same class of heartless sub-humans who swipe wheelchairs from the disabled and Christmas toys stockpiled by charities.

While shopping at a local Trader Joe's two months ago, a 78-year-old Sherman Oaks man was approached by a young woman with dark hair and a big smile.

Even though she didn't know him, she convinced him she was an old friend, asking, "Don't you remember me?"

Alzheimer's disease had stolen pieces of the man's memory, so he wasn't sure. But she persuaded him to take her to lunch. Then to Macy's for a birthday shopping spree.

"She got ahold of his credit cards," said David Sidney, the man's son, who asked that his father's name not be used.

The incident is an example of the alarming rise of Los Angeles County elder-abuse cases in recent years, which could get worse as the senior population grows, the economy struggles and funding gets slashed for services that protect a vulnerable population.

From 2000 to 2006, the last year for which data were available, abuse cases against those 65 and older jumped 65 percent in the county.

The increases come as state lawmakers are set to cut $6.1million from the state's Adult Protective Services department to close a $17.2 billion deficit. And the state's senior population is projected to swell to almost 13 million by 2050.

"Unfortunately, we are fighting a losing battle," said Peter Greenwood, head of the elder-abuse prosecution unit for the San Diego County District Attorney's Office and co-chairman of the state's elder abuse committee.

"We've done a lot to increase the awareness, but while more and more cases are now being reported, the state is saying, `We're going to take away your budget,"' he said. "Adult protective services are being compromised."

While cases of neglect, physical and verbal abuse continue to raise concerns, financial abuse is rising, a result of the elderly being preyed upon by greedy relatives or desperate strangers during a slumping economy.

"As the economy seems to head more and more downhill, people are thinking, `How am I going to make money?"' Greenwood said.

David Sidney's 78-year-old father was one of those victims.

The bank alerted Sidney about an unusual transaction. In all, the woman got away with $1,000.

"We were basically told by the bank that this happens all the time to people," Sidney said.

The precarious housing market also attracts more criminals to victimize the elderly.

"We see more people taking advantage of the elderly who may be in homes that are at risk," said Los Angeles police Detective Lillie Franklin in the department's Commercial Crimes Division.

Perpetrators will "drive around the neighborhoods, see homes that are at risk, and target them," Franklin said. "They befriend elderly people and then they'll take out loans on their homes. The victims don't even know they are a victim."

Last year, police gained an extra tool to catch thieves. Senate Bill 1018 mandated employees of banks and credit unions to report suspected financial elder abuse to Adult Protective Services.

Franklin said those calls have led investigators to suspects who purchase Porsches and speedboats, all on Grandma and Grandpa's dime. And locally, Los Angeles County prosecutors say their financial abuse cases are up 10 percent this year.

Michael Gargiulo, who heads the District Attorney's Office's Elder Abuse Division, said he is troubled by street crimes against the elderly, including scams and home-invasion robberies.
"The elderly are basically very vulnerable people," he said. "They are the wealthiest, most trusting, most monied generation."

The biggest hurdle with elder abuse is that seniors are not going to report they are being abused for fear of being placed in a nursing home, or because they are embarrassed, said Peggy Osborne of the state's Department of Justice.

"Some call (nursing homes) a fate worse than death," she said.

And as the elderly population grows, California faces a major challenge because it lacks a definitive system to track the abuse.

"The fastest growing segment of the population right now are those 85 years and older," Osborne said. "The wealthiest are those 65 years and older. We're talking about a population that is ripe for abuse and neglect."

An awareness campaign on elder abuse ended three years ago after funding for the project ended, she said. No other campaign has taken its place.

"It is truly a crime and situation that requires constant education that has to be in the public's face. It is a hidden crime," she said.

But some say California's current system is still better than in the past.

"We've done a better job, for example, in educating the paramedics into watching out for it," Greenwood said. "I think they are crucial in this whole business of reporting because they are the ones that find these elderly laying in squalor."