THE JAWS ARE WAITING FOR YOU

The header needs to be clicked.

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I found a web site the other day that had me going from one thing to another. More than interesting, it had me riveted, from its quality and ease of use, to the very American messages it had on its pages. I urge you to look it over (but take your time, 'cause it's very graphics heavy). I am humbly giving you my opinion on three pages that should not be missed.

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Page 1: Wonderful World

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Page 2: http://apathetic-usa.com/

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Page 3: http://apathetic-usa.com/mission.htm

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Feel free to send any of these clips around the web, with the usual credits.

PRESIDENT OBAMA, CAN YOU HELP ME?

Click the header.

Mr. President, sir.

I know this may be an imposition on your valuable time since you have to keep accepting resignations from your Cabinet choices (and probably regretting having chosen other people you shouldn't have named as bosses), but I'd like to take the time and ask you, as one American to another, if you might be able to help me out on a few things.

1. I'm just a little guy (almost a millionaire at one time, but I got eaten alive by medical care), so I'm not rich. But I wonder if you could re-arrange the economy so I could regain my status as an average, middle class citizen? With the loss of all these good paying, middle class jobs, I might have to go work for MickeyD's. With my Master's and Doctorate work. I really think I should be able to do better than that.
2. I've noticed that oh so many politicians feel that in our country, nowadays, it seems to be good form to lie. And often, it doesn't matter what they lie about. It is as if they were making a direct assault on our morality fable about G. Washington. There was a time, sir, when getting caught lying to the public automatically bropught about an impeachment trial and removal from office. That rarely happens nowadays. (See Bill Richardson, as an example.) We had great men and women in public office back when this country was founded. Those who weren't got dumped. So, I would like to ask you to try and restore real honesty, at least to our government. Would you?
3. Please put men and women on your staff and in your cabinet who are not named for these jobs because they raised huge amounts of money for your campaign. Seems to me there are many, many people in America who could fill some of those posts and do the jobs better and more honestly than money grubbers. Would you?
4. Please let all the journalists know that they don't have to try and expand your powers with the printed word. After all, you didn't "impose an executive pay cap" did you? I believe I heard you say you asked Congress to do that. See, sir, that's part of the problem with broadcast and printed news: Journalists and editors want to create a situation in which the subject must, sooner or later fail. Please promise not to get caught in their traps?
5. Please help us remember, Mister President, that America is a country founded on law and no one should be permitted to violate our laws with impunity for any reason. That begins with petty shoplifting charges, to illegally entering the country, to powerful men stealing from the taxpayers and/donors. Please give our morality back to us?
6. This is also just a suggestion, but do you think you could call a governor's conference and let them all know that you, as President, will not tolerate irresponsibilty, fiscal or physical, in any shape or form? We would sure appreciate that.
7. I'm kind of an internet hound, and I'd like to hear you state, positively, that you will forbid the Federal (or any other American or body of) government to take away any of our freedoms in its use. I believe that using our right to free and unfettered speech must remain a prime purpose of any President. Yes, I know that means we'll have to accept porno and other distasteful sites being there, but we don't have to visit them. Would you help?
8. I note that there doesn't seem to be any bail out for small business firms in the Executive Bail Out Plan. (At least I haven't heard of any.) Well, sir, I think you know that small businesses, as a group, have more employees even than your federal government. And those people are losing their jobs. Could you help them out?
9. We all have heard of terrorist groups like Hamas and Qaeda and so on, and I was wondering if we could stop sending any and all aid, in any form, to those countries that are harboring these groups? Seems kind of silly to me to help, in any way, the state that is helping support those who want to kill all Americans. Would you consider this?
10. I have heard horrendous stories about our country giving many, many nations "favored" status so that we charge them almost no duty for their goods, but we Americans pay outrageous duty on goods we send them. Would you put a stop to this, please?
11. Since we are in a depression (not a recession) would you agree that it might be a good time to reorganize and institute the old WWII organization, the Office Of Price Administration? And give them control over the oil companies, too? I'd sure appreciate that, too.
12. I would like to see you do something about Social Security, too, if you would, sir. No, I don't want to see it laid on the door step of the people to control their retirement money. If you give them the cash to invest, I am sure you will know what will happen. But here is a modest suggestion: Take the survivors of wage earners and children off the SS rolls. They haven't worked for retirement yet. It's not for them. Take the handicapped off the SS rolls. Few are at the retirement age. The children and survivors should have an entirely different funding plan. So, too, should the handicapped. (While you're at it, maybe you could get the new agency to really tighten up on the "handicap" regulations?) You see, sir, if just those two things happened, Social Security would go back to what it was meant for and would be solvent once again.
13. Since your party has control of both houses, do you think you might ask them to give you a line item veto? That would give you the power to approve or negate the pork barrel items. (And you might consider having them put some teeth in a new act. Like automatic, non-revokable impeachment and jail for any sitting President who was found guilty of deliberately allowing pork in any government budget. I'm pretty sure you think the people would like to have control of their government spending back?
14. Maybe you could give the FDA more money so they could catch these horrible diseases and infections from reaching us? Whoever heard of an American staple like peanut butter having the evil to kill you? In fact, sir, it seems strange to me that a country like ours (who can feed the world) should be importing food from any other country. While we pour milk down storm drains and plow wheat under the ground. Would you give us our food back?
15. One final suggestion for this round: How about putting God back in our schools? And in our country? After all Charles Darwin was a lad of some 26 years when he wrote about nature (an undefined word) making changes in all the animals on earth. After he may or may not have "investigated" an island in the Pacific. And, by the way, he never denounced God, nor suggested that what he wrote was any more than theory.

That's all I have for now, but it surely would be grand to have America back. Thank you, sir.

WELCOME TO MEXICO, YANKEE

There is an article in the header that shows why an immigrant is against Driver's Licenses for illegals. Just click it.

I wanted to get your attention for this post. I know it succeeded in a couple of cases.

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I'm not sure which political party I'm the most disgusted with over this Driver's Licenses (DL) for illegal aliens business. .

The Democrats, in general, seem to feel that it would be ok to give them out to people who are in this country illegally. Some of the Republican candidates agree with this. .

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I have a problem with this, however. Since the States issue DL's why should they surrender this right to the Federal government?

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While watching the almost total lack of any action in any sphere by the sitting Senate and House representatives over the past year, it occurred to me that we don't really need any Federal law ordering the states to issue, or not issue, DLs to illegals. It has been stated that far too many bills (laws, acts, whatever) are approved or disapproved by our representatives without that person even reading them. It may sound cavalier on my part, but it has to be an ugly fact. If it isn't true, then why are so many of them bad and totally inadequate for the subject they concern? After all, the majority of our reps are college grads and the majority of them are lawyers. I've heard, from other sites, that the poor dears are so overworked they sometimes don't have time to read what they are voting on.

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Busy with what? Well, they have to see all the lobbyists and other people with an axe to grind to help individual businesses. And then there are the (paid for) trips to other lands, vacation spots, holiday events and tours and meetings in various locations around the U.S. and the world.

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But about issuing DLs to illegals. Is it possible that those in power don't grasp the fact that once one has a DL, it is a simple matter to register to vote? Voter registration cards are easy to get, easy to fill out and easy to return to the registrar. If you remember the application you filled out years ago, they don't even ask if you are a citizen. So I guess that means we must be quite willing to allow non-citizens to elect our law makers. Maybe we should send a few millions to China and Iran and Russia and North Korea and any other country that wants them? And let's not forget those countries that our State Department says we shouldn't visit. They'd probably love to help elect a President and Representatives for us.

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I'm quoting from a comment in http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071115/OPINION03/711150362 "Iowa on its own, however, could issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. It's a matter of public safety. That's why the New Iowans Policy Task Force, created by former Gov. Tom Vilsack, asked the 2007 Legislature to consider doing just that. That idea went nowhere, and it's not likely to go anywhere in 2008, especially after what happened in New York. Ignoring the problem, however, will not make it go away."

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Iowa, and all our states need to recognize that we, and the illegals, are a mobile country. If I can get a license from Iowa (or any other state) it is a simple matter to then apply for a new license from any other state as a new resident.

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I seem to remember a famous American who said, unequivocally: "Beware of entangling alliances." I feel like a definite minority accepting that quote.

THINGS THAT MYSTIFY ME

Once in a while I get stuck on my own questions. The thing behind the header is one such item.

Others follow.

• I have a difficult time understanding how Yale University (a prestigious and expensive school here in the U.S.) could give a degree to a student who can barely make coherent sentences when he speaks. Does Yale care that they have lost their prestige with many of the American public?
• When did MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) lose its way? They were started by a lady who was grieving for her lost daughter, killed by a drunken driver. The idea was to force law enforcement officers and judges (more on that in another post) throughout the country to enforce the laws against drunk driving. It has degenerated into an organization that wants every single vehicle (we have more cars than people here) to have an ignition interlock installed and working. With a no start feature if it detects that glass of wine you had with dinner two hours ago. They want cars impounded of those who get a ticket (for the first or fortieth offense) and sold at auction. And driver's licenses cancelled if you're arrested. Not convicted, just arrested. Mad's actions have become so Zero Tolerance centered that the lady who started and was president of the organization has resigned. My question is "wha' happened"?
• American television has become an advertising first, entertainment and education second, medium. In spite of a Federal Communications Commission no-no note, shows now consist of at least 35% advertising. That's over 12 minutes of being harangued in a 30 minute show, 23 minutes in an hour, untold number of minutes in a sporting event. Some "networks" run print ads over the show they are telecasting so you can be entertained by a full hour of ads. It is very distracting. I've timed some of the ads run during various shows and I guess it depends on how much time their sales people can peddle on a given show. If a citizen complains they love to point out that advertising pays for the "free" television they watch. One network president even said that mute buttons should be removed from TVs. His reasoning indicated that we would be stealing the shows if we didn't watch the commercials. I don't watch the pointless and inane "comedy" shows nor the cruel "sports" shows nor do I watch the thousand and one "infomercials" they display. Question: Isn't it time the FCC started enforcing their own guidelines?
• When did the U.S. decide it was ok to buy food from foreign countries? When we produce more food than we can consume, sell to the rest of the world and even pay farmers not to grow food it seems this action is an oxymoron. And food from certain unnamed (by me) foreign countries who are not known to practice American style hygeine. Don't say it's cheaper. One trip to the hospital from a disease or infection would pay for several years of various food stuffs. Question: When do we wake up and say something like "OK, buy caviar and some wines and exotic items, but do not buy the basics? We were avoiding many diseases until you started to buy from third world countries."
• Why do some bloggers have 6, 8, 10 or even more websites? I can understand two, mebbe three, but larger numbers? (cuckoo has three, one in Hindi, two in English, a couple of others have two). Where do they get the time? Do they ever go to the dinner table? The bathroom? The mailbox? What happens when they have to stop and clean all the garbage out of their browsers? When do they bath? Open a beer? Read the paper? Surf the web?
• When did America decide to ok slavery again? I'm talking about wages and conditions here. There will be a post about it in the future.
• When did the Federal Bureau of Investigation (filled with CPAs and Attorneys) decide an entertainer, in fact a stage magician, was violating a federal law when he was accused by some woman of raping her? Mebbe I am in Kansas? Or Oz?
• When did we decide it was ok to break the law and suffer no consequences? When did the Bar Association decide that the end justify the means?

I'm looking for some smart answers here. So I'm asking the smartest people I know.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL

For heaven's sake. Here's a warning I got this morning:

A meat company issued a nationwide recall yesterday for 21.7 million pounds of ground beef products after reports of up to 25 cases of illness caused by suspected E. coli bacteria in eight states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, federal officials reported. A Topps Meat Company spokesman said most of the 21.7 million pounds of ground beef the company recalled has already been consumed. The recall, by the Topps Meat Company of Elizabeth, N.J., covers a wide range of frozen hamburger patties and other products manufactured over the last year and bearing a “sell by” date or “best used by” date between last Tuesday and Sept. 25, 2008, along with the United States Department of Agriculture designation EST 9748. The voluntary recall, an expanded version of one issued last Tuesday for nearly 332,000 pounds of Topps beef, was the first in one of the nation’s largest meat processing concerns. It was also one of the larger meat recalls of recent years, the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety Inspection Service said. Amanda Eamich, a spokeswoman for the service, said the expanded recall was based on an additional sample of meat contaminated with the E. coli O157:H7 strain, as reported by the New York State Health Department; by findings of an inspection service safety assessment; and by reports of illnesses under inquiry in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Maine, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In Florida, Scott P. Schlesinger, a lawyer for Samantha Safranek, 15, of Pembroke Pines, said she became ill after eating a Topps hamburger on Aug. 17, was hospitalized on Aug. 23, and underwent dialysis before recovering. He said federal and Florida health officials confirmed the E. coli link to Topps on Sept. 7, and he questioned why it took so long to recall the products.

It seems the bigger and more powerful our Government becomes, the less we are protected from such things.

Some years back I met a gentleman who had retired from his job as a Federal meat inspector here in New Mexico. I asked him then about the sudden rash of "wash your hands after handling meat", "make sure your meat is cooked well enough to kill bacteria" advertising that seemed to just suddenly appear. I pointed out to him that while I was in college, we had had many parties where raw high quality hamburger was served and no one got sick from eating it. What, I demanded to know, is going on here now? How come my favorite meat is dangerous?

He had retired, he said, because, 1: he had enough time in to draw his pension and 2: the Federal Government had changed the rules on how meat was being hung and treated in the abbatoires. It seems, he told me, that before the method was changed, the hide was stripped from the carcass and deposited in a special room. Thus, the fur never touched any meat. The Feds changed the method since the sellers of the beef claimed they weren't always given credit for their beeves. (After all, the brand is only on the hide.) So, in order to make sure every rancher got paid correctly it was decreed that the hide would be separated from the meat, but left hanging on the carcass. And that, he concluded, is how beef gets infected with these horrible diseases. The hair, carrying the bugs, rubs against the raw meat. And now you know why you need to clean your cutting boards with strong disinfectants every time you use them. And why it's recommended that you wash your hands after handling beef.

Our Government in action.

THINGS I'D LIKE EXPLAINED

In all the hubbub about manufactured goods from China ignoring basic safety considerations (why aren't these things inspected before they get to resellers?), it seems that we need to realize something else.

America has been "the bread basket of the world" for so long, that we tend to ignore that fact. We've all heard how Nebraska alone could feed the world's population. (Although the cities in Nebraska might not like having to move out.)

If that's agreed upon, then here's some questions I'd like answered:

1. Why are we importing beef cattle meat from a country we are told is starving?

2. Why are we importing grains and vegetables from that same country?

3. Why are we importing sea food from China when they consistently violate world wide conservation bans?

Current farm policies are misplaced. Taxpayers spend as much as$20 billion annually to subsidize only a few farmers. Crop subsidies damage the environment by placing pressure on sensitive lands such as wetlands and native grasslands.

The Fairness in Farm and Food Policy Amendment would better reward farmers for conservation practices, increase assistance to hungry Americans, provide consumers with more food and energy choices, and stop sprawl. and foreign importation.

Interest and unrest has been building in the US over sourcing products and ingredients from China after several safety problems reported in the past few months. The Chinese safety scares have included chemical additives in wheat gluten, poisoning in dog food, toothpaste recalls due to the presence of diethylene glycol, a poison found in antifreeze, and a hold on safety of some seafood imports.

Tony Snow, White House spokesman, said: "It's important to note that you have food safety concerns throughout the world and it's important to act on them." He said that the US did not expect a trade war to develop, in spite of China's decision to bar some US meat imports in response to increased US scrutiny of its products.

China wants to bar our imports? OK with me. We can bar their crappy stuff, too. I'm first in line to cast a vote, too. I just wonder if the FDA is a tool of the Administration or can act on its own with Congressional approval?

I guess my real, main, important question is: When do the people get their America back?

And another thing about Chinese ideas on food safety: BEIJING - They're flush with pride in a southwestern Chinese city where a recently-opened porcelain palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 32,290 square feet. Officials in Chongqing are preparing to submit an application to Guinness World Records to have the free four-story public bathroom listed as the world's largest, the state-run China Central Television reported Friday. "We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV," said Lu Xiaoqing, an official with the Yangrenjie, or "Foreigners Street," tourist area where the bathroom is located. "After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy." Footage aired on CCTV showed people milling about the sprawling facility and washing their hands at trough sinks. For open-aired relief, there is a cluster of stalls without a roof. Some urinals are uniquely shaped, including ones inside open crocodile mouths and several that are topped by the bust of a woman resembling the Virgin Mary. "Other bathrooms are all the same. This one is very special, I've never seen anything like it," one visitor to the tourist area told CCTV. There are also plans to build a supermarket nearby, which will sell toilet-related items, CCTV reported.

Where could there be better fplace or a supermarket than next door to a public potty?

To end this post, this, from a real action hero:

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.--- Theodore Roosevelt