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.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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.”
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.”
Friday, September 19, 2008
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
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
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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.
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/
=====================
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/
Sunday, September 7, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
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."
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."
Friday, September 5, 2008
Hospitals are Using Scare and Loss-leader Tactics
By Sandy Sand
Businesses, especially super markets, are famous for using loss-leaders to draw us into the store to get a bargain or two, knowing that we’ll buy enough stuff to more than make up for what they lost on selling a few cases of mayo or canned beans at a slight loss.
Now hospitals in the Los Angeles area are doing the same thing, only they’re adding scare tactics to the loss-leader ploy.
Here’s how a radio ad from Crooker & Snooker Memorial Hospital goes: Do you know that one out of three women, age 24 and older will die of heart disease?
You didn’t really think I’d use the hospitals real name and be open for a libel suit that would give me heart failure, did ya?
Of course, they deliberately neglect to mention that for most women (men, too) that won’t happen for years and years.
Now that these snake oil salesmen have gotten your attention and scared the crap out of you, the ad continues: Step right up ladies and get your bargain red-blooded, American heart screening for only $55. That’s right, ladies. A paltry $55. Just 55 slim, trim one dollar bills. It’s an offer you can’t afford to pass up.
Hurry ladies! This is a limited time offer. Get you cardiogram while supplies last and we still have large quantities of print-out tape in stock.
So you’re scared, because migawd, you might…might have a little heart trouble at age 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 or never. You might be hit by a bus first, but then they can sell you a test for that.
The scare tactic worked. You’ve called the convenient, toll-free number 1-800-IMMINANT-HEART-ATTACK, and made your bargain basement appointment for a week from Friday, which by chance, is the 13th.
A great omen for them, because once you have that simple little test, the loss-leader kicks in.
The results are in, and just like you go through the super market checkout line with two jars of cut-rate mayo to go with $259.67 worth of high-priced groceries, the Crooker & Snooker Hospital will sock it to you.
“This test came out pretty good,” they will tell you, but…”
Ready for this?
“We think…just to be on the safe side,” they will continue, “we need to sell you a few more tests, their exercise and heart-healthy cooking classes and enough vitamins to choke a giraffe for a mere ten grand.
Loss-leader worked!
They made you an offer you couldn’t refuse, and that bargain only cost you $10,055.
Super!
The diagnosis said you’re pretty much okay.
No worries. Feel better now?
It wasn’t your body doin’ you dirty; it was the final tally at the Crooker & Snooker Hospital cash register that nearly gave you a heart attack.
Businesses, especially super markets, are famous for using loss-leaders to draw us into the store to get a bargain or two, knowing that we’ll buy enough stuff to more than make up for what they lost on selling a few cases of mayo or canned beans at a slight loss.
Now hospitals in the Los Angeles area are doing the same thing, only they’re adding scare tactics to the loss-leader ploy.
Here’s how a radio ad from Crooker & Snooker Memorial Hospital goes: Do you know that one out of three women, age 24 and older will die of heart disease?
You didn’t really think I’d use the hospitals real name and be open for a libel suit that would give me heart failure, did ya?
Of course, they deliberately neglect to mention that for most women (men, too) that won’t happen for years and years.
Now that these snake oil salesmen have gotten your attention and scared the crap out of you, the ad continues: Step right up ladies and get your bargain red-blooded, American heart screening for only $55. That’s right, ladies. A paltry $55. Just 55 slim, trim one dollar bills. It’s an offer you can’t afford to pass up.
Hurry ladies! This is a limited time offer. Get you cardiogram while supplies last and we still have large quantities of print-out tape in stock.
So you’re scared, because migawd, you might…might have a little heart trouble at age 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 or never. You might be hit by a bus first, but then they can sell you a test for that.
The scare tactic worked. You’ve called the convenient, toll-free number 1-800-IMMINANT-HEART-ATTACK, and made your bargain basement appointment for a week from Friday, which by chance, is the 13th.
A great omen for them, because once you have that simple little test, the loss-leader kicks in.
The results are in, and just like you go through the super market checkout line with two jars of cut-rate mayo to go with $259.67 worth of high-priced groceries, the Crooker & Snooker Hospital will sock it to you.
“This test came out pretty good,” they will tell you, but…”
Ready for this?
“We think…just to be on the safe side,” they will continue, “we need to sell you a few more tests, their exercise and heart-healthy cooking classes and enough vitamins to choke a giraffe for a mere ten grand.
Loss-leader worked!
They made you an offer you couldn’t refuse, and that bargain only cost you $10,055.
Super!
The diagnosis said you’re pretty much okay.
No worries. Feel better now?
It wasn’t your body doin’ you dirty; it was the final tally at the Crooker & Snooker Hospital cash register that nearly gave you a heart attack.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Maureen Dowd's storyboard for "The Sarah Palin Story"
Dowd makes me laugh even when it hurts. Read her column "Vice in Go-Go Boots?" and dream about the possibilities.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Criticize the Mother, Not the Daughter
by Sandy Sand
While Bristol Palin must take responsibility for her actions just as we all must, don’t get me wrong from a piece I wrote yesterday http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=8962, which some interpreted as a condemnation of Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old pregnant, out-of-wedlock daughter.
The converse is true. I have utter contempt for her mother and her skewed family values that she wants to shove down our throats.
Sarah Palin is a militant right-to-lifer; her way is the only way.
Bristol has absolutely no choice about having a baby or marriage, for that matter.
This isn’t even a matter of a pregnant unwed young lady choosing to have her baby and having the full loving support of her family, which is a beautiful thing.
This is a case of you vill have that baby. Ach tung!
Since Sarah has said that the pregnant couple will wed, it’s probably also a case of you will marry!
What a lousy reason to get married. A 17-year-old is an emotional baby with zero maturity or worldly experience, let alone dating experience to choose a mate.
And being Catholic, technically it’s a pairing for life.
Parenthood is a lifetime commitment, but marriage? Not necessarily.
In the good ol’ days when life expectancy wasn’t as long as it is now and women couldn’t earn their own livings, it might have been a necessity to marry after getting pregnant.
Even 50 years ago, Bristol would only have had to be stuck in forced marriage for 20 or 30 years. Today, it could be for as long as 70 years.
Let’s face it, being shotgunned into a wedding where the couple could easily hate each other after a year, and have absolutely nothing in common within five years is no way to start off married life.
This is what Sarah wants for her daughter?
Barack Obama has gentlemanly and magnanimously said children are off limits during this campaign, as did the Kennedys and Clintons.
All three families had young children and that is a reasonable request.
But not in this case. Bristol is one year away from legally being an adult, and unfortunately for her she’s fair game just as the untamed Bush twins were and are, and the adult Reagan offspring were.
But this isn’t about Bristol. It’s about her mother, her mother’s parenting skills, judgment and ridiculous, narrow-minded and dangerous stance on abstinence only education.
’Abstinence only’ is a good idea and great talking point, but is totally contrary to human nature. It leaves those indoctrinated in abstinence, who decide to abstain from abstaining left in an uneducated wilderness.
Not only is their health endangered by contracting lifelong SDTs, but it puts them in jeopardy of unwanted/unplanned pregnancies.
Palin is one-hundred percent responsible for putting her nearly adult daughter in the limelight and is to be condemned for it, not us who will talk about it, and Palin’s lack of judgment by putting her political career ahead of her family.
That’s Republican family values for you.
While Bristol Palin must take responsibility for her actions just as we all must, don’t get me wrong from a piece I wrote yesterday http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=8962, which some interpreted as a condemnation of Sarah Palin’s 17-year-old pregnant, out-of-wedlock daughter.
The converse is true. I have utter contempt for her mother and her skewed family values that she wants to shove down our throats.
Sarah Palin is a militant right-to-lifer; her way is the only way.
Bristol has absolutely no choice about having a baby or marriage, for that matter.
This isn’t even a matter of a pregnant unwed young lady choosing to have her baby and having the full loving support of her family, which is a beautiful thing.
This is a case of you vill have that baby. Ach tung!
Since Sarah has said that the pregnant couple will wed, it’s probably also a case of you will marry!
What a lousy reason to get married. A 17-year-old is an emotional baby with zero maturity or worldly experience, let alone dating experience to choose a mate.
And being Catholic, technically it’s a pairing for life.
Parenthood is a lifetime commitment, but marriage? Not necessarily.
In the good ol’ days when life expectancy wasn’t as long as it is now and women couldn’t earn their own livings, it might have been a necessity to marry after getting pregnant.
Even 50 years ago, Bristol would only have had to be stuck in forced marriage for 20 or 30 years. Today, it could be for as long as 70 years.
Let’s face it, being shotgunned into a wedding where the couple could easily hate each other after a year, and have absolutely nothing in common within five years is no way to start off married life.
This is what Sarah wants for her daughter?
Barack Obama has gentlemanly and magnanimously said children are off limits during this campaign, as did the Kennedys and Clintons.
All three families had young children and that is a reasonable request.
But not in this case. Bristol is one year away from legally being an adult, and unfortunately for her she’s fair game just as the untamed Bush twins were and are, and the adult Reagan offspring were.
But this isn’t about Bristol. It’s about her mother, her mother’s parenting skills, judgment and ridiculous, narrow-minded and dangerous stance on abstinence only education.
’Abstinence only’ is a good idea and great talking point, but is totally contrary to human nature. It leaves those indoctrinated in abstinence, who decide to abstain from abstaining left in an uneducated wilderness.
Not only is their health endangered by contracting lifelong SDTs, but it puts them in jeopardy of unwanted/unplanned pregnancies.
Palin is one-hundred percent responsible for putting her nearly adult daughter in the limelight and is to be condemned for it, not us who will talk about it, and Palin’s lack of judgment by putting her political career ahead of her family.
That’s Republican family values for you.
Monday, September 1, 2008
Tropical Storm Gustav Agrees To Fill In For President Bush
by Steve Young
In what is being called a brilliant move by most political pundits and Al Roker, Tropical Storm Gustav has promised to fill in for both President Bush and Vice President Cheney at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis today.
“We had a last minute choice to make. Bush or Gustav,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan. “We went with the less risky to the campaign.”
“There were many at the RNC who were concerned about the President and Vice President making an appearance, seeing it as another opportunity for the Democrats to stick on the third Bush term label.” said, “but Gustav not only keeps Bush away from the convention, but now the homeless in New Orleans can feel sorry for us.
”At first, it was actually thought a Gustav appearance would be at best, a long shot.
“What with Homeland Security , getting a tropical storm credentialed at the last minute alone would have been overwhelming.” said Duncan, “and with evangelical prayers failing to bring rain down on Obama’s stadium speech, we thought we might be stuck with Bush and Cheney. That’s when someone thought to call Rove. Next thing we new, Gustav was on the line.”
“I’m not a Democrat or Republican,” said TP Gustav. “But I know a good public relations opportunity when I see it. To tell you the truth, I’m more of a Libertarian and right now I’m leaning towards Bob Barr. I would have gone to his convention but at the time, I wasn’t even a glimmer in the eye of a low pressure system.”
Award-winning TV writer, author and columnist Steve Young blogs at the appropriately named www.steveyoungonpolitics.com
In what is being called a brilliant move by most political pundits and Al Roker, Tropical Storm Gustav has promised to fill in for both President Bush and Vice President Cheney at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis today.
“We had a last minute choice to make. Bush or Gustav,” said Republican National Committee Chairman Robert M. “Mike” Duncan. “We went with the less risky to the campaign.”
“There were many at the RNC who were concerned about the President and Vice President making an appearance, seeing it as another opportunity for the Democrats to stick on the third Bush term label.” said, “but Gustav not only keeps Bush away from the convention, but now the homeless in New Orleans can feel sorry for us.
”At first, it was actually thought a Gustav appearance would be at best, a long shot.
“What with Homeland Security , getting a tropical storm credentialed at the last minute alone would have been overwhelming.” said Duncan, “and with evangelical prayers failing to bring rain down on Obama’s stadium speech, we thought we might be stuck with Bush and Cheney. That’s when someone thought to call Rove. Next thing we new, Gustav was on the line.”
“I’m not a Democrat or Republican,” said TP Gustav. “But I know a good public relations opportunity when I see it. To tell you the truth, I’m more of a Libertarian and right now I’m leaning towards Bob Barr. I would have gone to his convention but at the time, I wasn’t even a glimmer in the eye of a low pressure system.”
Award-winning TV writer, author and columnist Steve Young blogs at the appropriately named www.steveyoungonpolitics.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)