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It isn’t the Democrats fault. It’s the Tea Party… Just look at how Republican patriarch Ronald Reagan got us out of his recession….
Were we to have that same growth coupled with the private sector growth Obama has orchestrated for us, we’d be banging out paychecks……
But we only have the private sector. Remember this chart the next time someone utters the phrase: The government doesn’t create jobs; only the private sector does….
We could fix this in a year, but we need your help. Only support those who will grow government, not insist on its cutting back…
This chart proves John Carney is following the wrong path. This chart proves Tom Carper is following the wrong path. I believe Chris Coons is on board with the right path, as is ironically, Tom Gordon….
It probably hit mass culture with Star Wars. Where, when in a pickle, one made some adjustments to a computer, pushed a button, and one was suddenly in another part of the universe.
Then came the TV show Quantum Leap in the 80’s, where after a certain feat had been changed, one jumped through space and time into a new body, to begin a new episode the following week. Remember Ziggy?
I was reading one of my earlier pieces that for some random reason yesterday had caught a flicker of interest, and back then I had used that concept, that of “jumping”, to explain why America was finally settling on Obama as their candidate of choice….
America had been milling around in stagnation and needed a “jump” to move us forward. Clinton and McCain could not engineer that, I proposed and that is why we needed someone new, to “make the jump” forward.
That was written during the campaign of 2008. This summer will be 5 years hence.
America still needs to make that jump.
But just as we almost get there, Republicans sabotage it by pulling the computer’s plug…
Now you reading this may be a Republican but please don’t take offense. You are actually a big part of the solution which you will see, if you read through to the end.
Let’s look at a few things.
- Starting in the 80’s the Middle Class has consistently been losing ground against the top 1%. Now the Middle Class has spent their retirement savings just to pay normal expenses , and we are still heading downward.
- Immigration reform was supposed to be completed and done in Reagan’s time. Thirty years ago. We are just getting serious now.
- Our interstate system is 50 years old. We haven’t reinvested adequately. 11,000 bridges are held up by paint, and could drop out from under us at any moment.
- Our tax system is still after 30 years, in disarray. The wealthy get breaks, the poor get pissed on.
- Our Social Security and Medicare Programs are going bankrupt. They were also supposedly permanently fixed in Reagan’s term, again 30 years ago.
- We have been at the mercy of oil speculators for the past 13 years. We still are. What did you pay today?
- Capital investment in America is at an all time low, yet the wealthy have parked $13 trillion in savings. Why no investment?
So America, why are we still stuck in the 1980’s?
Republicans. That is why. Conservatives.
That sounds so simple that one must wonder why we haven’t moved them out of the way?
And that answer, is because for some crazy reason, we keep changing the rules to let them play longer. Citizen’s versus United is just one case in point. Allowing one person to fund a candidacy opposing the people’s true choice, obfuscates the entire playing field, and in the fog, makes the minority appear to have far more clout than is endowed to it by the American people.
Voting tallies prove that we have had over the past 24 years, 5 popular vote victories for Democrat presidents, and just 1 for Republicans, and to be fair, that was to a wartime president who barely got re-elected into office. Voting totals are the only non-spin, the only unobfuscated time we ever get to see how America truly feels.
The majority of America want us to jump forward. They are tired after thirty years of nothing.
Right now, Republicans have killed the America dream. College grads do not see them using their knowledge in their future jobs. Retirees see their golden year’s savings swallowed up by profits of gigantic medical corporations. Everyone is making tremendous amount of money, except 99% of the American people.
The majority want to jump forward. Yet it is always Republicans holding us back.
Holding us back on Immigration Reform. Holding us back on higher revenue. Holding us back on budget cuts. Holding us back on health care reform. Holding us back on Chuck Hagel’s nomination….
It is just stupid.. It is done simply to achieve drama, and is only done for dramatic effect; it still is just a stupid waste of time and your money. It is as if Republican behavior was patterned after that of a six year old child who drags his feet before going to school. That child knows he has to go there eventually, but he whines, supines, and acts recalcitrant, just to get attention…. maybe make someone feel “sorry’ for them… Boo hoo.
America is playing the role of the parent to these recalcitrant Republicans and is damn tired of it.
One simply has to look at today’s looming sequestration, which is strictly a problem Republicans created and brought down upon all of us, and across this great nation, Americans shake their heads in unison, remembering that if a Republicans had never been elected President in the year 2000, by 2008 and Obama’s election, our national debt was on track to have hit zero… Yes, Democrats would have paid off the entire National Debt by 2008, if we had never had George W. Bush slip into office.
And now, we preparing to slash $86 billion over the next 9 months. Then do the same over the next 12 years…
Under the Budget Control Act by 2021 discretionary spending will be at 5.5% of GDP which is its lowest level of GDP since 1931. (We all know what happened in 1932!) And we propose to cut it lower?
Yet we have $13 trillion in savings owned by the top 1%. $86 billion of $13 Trillion is…. 0.7th of one single percent. If you increased taxes on the wealthy by only one penny per every dollar over $1 million, we would have yearly budget surplus... just like that. One penny per dollar over $1 million. That one penny would even give us an additional 0.3 of one percent extra which could be applied to lowering the deficit… Unbelievably easy…. If you own trillions, who is going to miss a penny?
But we can’t do it for one single roadblock. Republicans won’t raise taxes.
America needs to “make a jump”…… and we need to make that jump now.
If this were Hollywood or a television drama, Captain America would pull out his sidearm, kill the insubordinate (spy) officer, and ask his attache to step into his position. We would then, finally be able to save our ship.
Americans could then dream again about prosperity. There is only one reason we don’t still have it today.
If an EMP went off right now, what would happen? Let’s say it was caused naturally, and not from an earthly application… Just stop for a second and imagine if in one split second, all electronics got fried…
What could you do? You would initially do just what you do when the power goes out. You would get up, open the door, look at all your neighbors opening the door looking back at you, say a few words, and go back into wait for the power to come on…
You might get suspicious when your cell phone wouldn’t turn on, or not being primed to consider what the possibilities were, you might just think your battery picked that interlude to die…. You might likewise get suspicious when your car wouldn’t show life. You might curse your luck that the power went off, your cellphone battery died, and your car now needs a new battery, all in the same afternoon… You couldn’t get a hold of anyone to help, and so you walk over to your neighbor. He’s out back trying to get his generator started. It won’t work either. He’s mad as hell and is taking it back to Lowes where he bought it.. and he finds his Ford Pickup battery has died too… Oh the terrible luck …
So you walk to the store and see no one is open, everything is temporarily closed until the power kicks back on….
Only it won’t come on… ever.. I mean ever… Well at least in your life time…
Why? simply put, every electrical component, every magnet, every fuse, every connector, will have to be replaced from your house to the nearest power plant. .. Even if somewhere a power plant opened, and produced, that would leak all over the country unless someone actually got up and cut the wires to keep that power from dissipating and becoming too weak to do any good…
So new power plants would have to be built. New wires strung, new transformers built, forget about the ones on the shelf for emergencies, they’re shot too. Everything would need to be rebuilt from scratch…
And we would have no access to the information that told us how to rebuild….
This is how civilizations disappear rather quickly.. They become so specialized, that no one can put everything back together. It mimics the Tower of Babel accounting.. “There once was a great civilization, that evaporated instantly” is how most scholars view the accounting of that story today…
To survive, you would have no heat.. unless you had either a fireplace of wood stove. Everything else is electrical unless your unit dates back before 1990…. You would have no transportation. You couldn’t buy a working car. The first cars to be made would have to be created from scratch, at a factory, that unfortunately had no power.
Your world would shrink to where you could walk. There would be no news, unless someone walked to tell you what they saw in Wilmington. And what someone from Philadelphia had told them when they had walked from there, and rumors that had been told from those who had walked from New York, and from New Jersey, and up south from Washington and Baltimore…
Was any of America working? NO one knew… Once a military fighter roared overhead, and it was the first sound heard since the event, and all raced outside to cheer… But that was it.. Hope was that someone, somewhere out there, was in charge, and was working to make our lives return to normal…
But years went by…. Most people moved from the cities. Many died of disease, and starvation, and life became involved of defending oneself and ones property from those that wanted to take it… To live, you really had to sell yourself to an Overlord, who was intimidating enough that no one moved into your neighborhood because of him.. Most of what you made, he took as payment for protecting you. It included your children.
The once great civilization, was erased. No one knew about Rome. No one knew about Babylon. No one knew about Greece… unless it was from the old Bibles kept in decorative cabinets. Some books existed, but most had been burned to keep warm that first winter…
Just like that… Our huge skyscrapers, began to fall, one by one, each time covering the streets with an overbearing dust cloud.
Nature began to reclaim her own. The ice caps grew back. The seas lowered. The flora and fauna multiplied as people perished. The children heard stories, about the world being round, and names like China and Japan that could be found on old artifacts. But, without any reinforcement, they gradually faded from all knowledge…
The question I want to raise is this. Is our education system as it stands now, capable of continuing civilization as we know it, in and if, such a natural event were to occur? Or non natural event?
Do we currently teach enough basics so anyone can build a computer, build a electronics kit, and repair cars, generators, home electrical appliances, were such an event to occur?
It is not hard; the hard part is that no one knows how to do it.
If everyone knew simple basic electricity, and how things worked, we’d have power in some places within a week, and withing three months, we’d be 50% back to normal. We would be back to normal within three years.
Our current educational system is teaching us the wrong things…. We are focused on the wrong items. We test for the wrong items. We do not teach the basic knowledge our life needs right now…
It should be: A: fixing your phone/ and or computer.
B: fixing your generator.
C: fixing your vehicle.
This knowledge is vital for national security. It needs to be taught to every man, woman, and child… 3 x 6 equaling 18 doesn’t do much.. Nor does Black History Month, or proper English Grammer, or American History, or Economics, or ………….
Our first grade needs to begin…. “Ok, kids…. this is a 1… this is a 0…… All of life revolves around those two numbers…”
….. and now Steve Newton of Delaware Libertarian is bowing out….
Forgive me for getting some out of order, but his name now goes up on the wall next to those of Dana Garrett, Mike Matthews, Jason Scott, Shirley Vandever, Dave Burris.
All gone, leaving only these few greats are still left: Nancy, Tommywonk, Kilroy, LiberalGeek, Pandora, David Anderson, & Hube.
The era over which these giants roamed was between the elections of 06 and 08. Some started earlier, but these few individuals were the only source of information during that time stamp.
Today, the News Journal has lost its paternalistic viewpoint touting the union of construction labor and developers formerly known as the Delaware Way, and is actually reporting news ahead of bloggers for a change. Likewise today, WDEL has both on its morning show with Al Mascitti and afternoon show with Rick Jensen, steered discussion away from the likes of (who?) Sean Hannity… and Al Loudell has kept us abreast of local politics in ways unheard of before bloggers began typing in their briefs…
So in a way, since these bloggers were successful back then, today they are not as vital as they once were… Many saw their blogs as the only way to get the truth past the News Journal censors, those higher ups who would not publish any truth that showed an elected official in bad light….
Those studying this phenomena will see that there was much agreement between bloggers on both sides of the aisle… It was very rare for this group to be divisive over the prime issues of this state’s business.. All of them were for Atkins removal. All of them were for beginning offshore wind in Delaware, … All of them were for the slowdown of work force housing… all of them were for the betterment of Delaware’s educational opportunities…
Of course we quibbled on who would become the next president, but that is to be expected… No family lives without arguing at least once…
There were rises and falls among each giant’s influence… But at the core of each individual was the feeling that each had a unique insight into the current problem staring us down, and wrote about it with an urgency that turned out usually to be correct… And usually, if agreement was not forthcoming by the first comment, by the end of the comment thread, some form of agreement among the blogger’s roundtable, was visible…
As politicians came to realize the News Journal wasn’t changing, they began contributing to these giant’s pages, giving substance in ways unheard of among those writing for the Community Board of the News Journal… Reading the blogs gave us a real time insight into the workings of our state government in Dover……
But it was the wind controversy that elevated the giants to their current stature… Only the blogs could get the message out that Delmarva was incredibly concerned about losing control of their monopoly, and that wind power for Delaware would by offering competition, lower our energy prices. And they did, so well, that the entire legislature at the end of their 2007 session, voted unanimously to approve of the landmark agreement between Bluewater Wind and Delmarva Power….
Some of us think that they, shaking in their boots, didn’t dare vote otherwise… For bloggers have long memories as well as does the public….
But these giants among men, did more than just push wind. They publicized the eminent domain controversy. They scoured local politics. They broke the work force housing pact apart. They clamored against Atkins, forcing him to resign. They dogged the SEU. They picked apart candidates so much that those who had flaws, couldn’t win. Dana Garrett could be heard almost weekly on WVUD.. Tommy Noyes, for a while was a weekly guest on Al Loudell’s award winning newscast. They OOGAcised the fight for open government, forcing one flustered legislator to call out for a prayer dedicated to just for the bloggers, asking for their salvation of their souls… Apparently those prayers were answered; for by their souls we have open government today….
But amongst the best, the very concept of government was debated back and forth, no doubt as it once was during the beginning of this nation during its infancy… Torture, domestic spying, gun ownership, thieving Vice Presidents, all had their day in court upon these pages….
And today, there are new names who in the years ahead might be considered to be the giants of this contemporary time zone..
Deldem, RSmitty, El “S”, Donviti, Cassandra, all came into prominence after the defining moment of passing the wind act…. As well as Sussex Green, Red Water Lily, Mourning Constitution,… all of which became big as the 2008 election season came upon us….
And from the ranks of commentators came a Sussex County Councilwomen, a candidate for a House seat, as well as a last minute candidate who took on Mr. Pam Scott, and began nailing his shoes to the floor…. Miro had a contender for once; that commentator speaks up often…
Steve Newton will be missed.
With his passing is the last of the great thinkers… Today, we have bullets fed to us… But Steve took on all other blogs, all other commentators and wrote posts about them… Steve looked at everything with fresh eyes…. Giants can do that, since they see things from way up…….
I won’t go in to praising Steve… for I’m here to call attention to the passing of a era. Perhaps those times when benevolent giants roamed our state, will be considered by us dying men and women, to be the glory times we hark back to, the second we close our eyes for their last time…..
For when you look back as what we’ve done, the word “giants” is not really a bad moniker….
Many of you were too busy struggling to survive this past decade to watch one of our decades defining moment unfold on, of all places, the Sci Fi Channel.
It’s over now. But from the perspective of this season’s finale, when looking back, social historians will divide this decade into two phases… The Lord of the Rings phase, which influenced the first half of this decade, and the Battlestar Galactica, which will influence the first half of the next ten years…
There is a difference in the mediums… The cinema forces hoopla to be compressed into a tight schedule… The medium of television, allows the showings to have less influence upon their initial showings, but… continue playing over and over for a long period of time…
As an example, the series Star Trek II was not watched by large numbers of viewers during its initial showings, but accumulated fans by its late night showings of its reruns… But the social philosophy of the nineties decade, is remarkably similar to that which emanated out of the series: show tolerance, people are different, all can work together for a common goal, as well as it is our duty to make other’s lives better….
It is not that the series directly touched millions of viewers. It is that those viewers it touched, were influential enough so that what they then wrote, what they were able to accomplish, what they said, went on to mold part of our core as well..
Now looking back in retrospect, we can see how the Lord of the Rings trilogy gave us clues into humanity’s development of character…. Battlestar Galactica, illustrates our future.
If I could pinpoint the essence of both these works, I would have to say that both boil down to this premise: that there has to be some form of destiny at work in all things… That each independent individual action taking place in what looks like on the local scale, to be a random action, is in truth, some small part of some overall plan…
We are reminded of this in Lord of the Rings, where it is actually the odious Gollum who saves the universe, instead of our noble hero whose arduous burden we bore over three years, who at the bitter end succumbs to moral failure, and comes seconds away from eliminating “good” from the universe.
Suddenly all those moments throughout the three episodes involving that odious character, are seen in new light… A force, a destiny perhaps, that chain of events leading up to that surprising conclusion, instead of being a sideline to the main plot… are in truth the real story; and those of us blindly following the narrative, were fooled and simply did not know it…
Likewise in Battlestar Galactica, a strange series of events, signs, prophecies, unexplainables, conflict, death and destruction, all occur to one end… and that end … at least to those of us still inhabiting this warm planet, leads us to the most important thing in the universe.. ourselves..
How then could a song on a piano, taught by a loving dad to his little girl, change the course of destiny… Well, if you watched… you already know…
If you didn’t, or refuse to… you will eventually come around to understanding it, as the rest of us today who are now setting up society’s frames of thinking for the next ten years… begin espousing it.
For me, the final episode crystallizes ones life’s journey spent investigating the influence of external forces on internal matters… They came up with these words…
How do you know that God is on your side, doctor?
I don’t. God’s not on any one side. God’s a force of nature, beyond good and evil. Good and evil, we created those. Want to break the cycle? Break the cycle of birth, death, rebirth, destruction, escape, death. Well, that’s in our hands, and our hands only. It requires a leap of faith. It requires that we live in hope, not fear.
That last line boils down to why man needs God. And why there will always be God, as long as there is man…
The futileness of our lives, can be summed up in this simple phrase…”what difference do we make?”
Really, what difference do we make?
Personally as I look at my children, my spouse, my dear friends, my lovers in past lives (lol), and I can acknowledge I have made a rich, but small difference… In “It’s A Wonderful Life” we are ultimately reminded of how different the world would be were we not continually engaged in being ourselves…
But if I were not here, wouldn’t someone different have taken my place?
Wouldn’t the same events transfold, perhaps not on a small scale, but wouldn’t the larger picture remain the same?
Ah… the unsolvable argument…. Bottom line? We never, ever get the chance to know…
And that is why we have this deeply ingrained need to believe lives matter.. And some of us, yes, will obstinately persist to think otherwise. But were they to do so, the irony still exists that somewhere in their progeny, again this same thought or belief will be reborn… for to us, …our lives matter very much indeed… Believing they are part of a greater purpose, does just that.
Others may say that this theory actually disproves God’s existence.. They argue that if we believe in him, simply because WE need to, then he doesn’t exist at all, we are in essence just creating him. They argue our weakness is what brings us to that conclusion; that with purity of thought, all argument disproves his existence entirely…
To statements like this, I smile… They mean little.. Purity of thought. Who cares?
For what actually happens is that over the long existence of mankind’s history, we always return to God.. We may stray for centuries, but no matter what random forces batter or impact us, eventually we return… Our need for religion is not our weakness. It is our nature…
And that is where this phrase plays big… God is not good or bad. He is a force of nature…
For as long as there is one person alive who believes and creates the argument that God exists, that our actions are part of a larger purpose, …. like it or not, God is playing a role in our thought processes, and by extension, therefore our lives…
And if he is playing a role in our lives… how then can he not exist?
Photo courtesy of People’s Daily
Ouch. The Olympics ended yesterday. As someone watching 24/7 coverage, their absence is immediately felt. Surprisingly,…. there was little discussion related to that major event within our little frame of the world.
Overall, the global consensus is that the Chinese pulled this one off well. Their overall execution was acknowledged to have probably been “the best ever” by some of the globe’s most seasoned participants. Remarkable not only for its individual achievements, but just in the scale of records broken, this Olympic rank for a considerable time as the one to beat…. Of course it helps boost our nation’s spirits that the US came out well.
But hidden within that statistic, is a deeper truth. Most of those playing for, and vying for Olympic fame, have spent considerable time, and have trained within the United States. Ironically our NBA stars were scattered over the entire globes competing basketball teams… But so had soccer stars, gymnasts, kayak specialists,….all of which had used our technology and our expertise to better their game….
But so did the Chinese do well… Without question the two athletic powerhouses in the world today are the Chinese (age 11 and up) and the United States. Wealth is the driving force behind both. The Chinese spent an estimated 80 billion on the Olympics this year alone. It will be a while before that amount is ever spent again. The Opening Ceremony alone was $330 million just in itself. London appears to have a tough time keeping up with its predecessor, of that there can be no doubt.
Frighteningly, depending on what happens within the global markets after this year’s third quarter announcements…… this Olympics may one day looking back, become to be considered Mankind’s most astonishing, crowning achievement….
That hyperbolic announcement, if true, is scary, but should our global economy collapse into a Great Depression far more epic than the one lasting during the 1930’s, and should a subsequent war consumes all efforts to rise above it……. we may have just witnessed the temporary peak of our species’ achievement.
Achievement peaks fascinate historians. For there are times throughout History when everything comes together. Peace, prosperity, technology, the pursuit of knowledge, artistic expansion, caused unsavory negative issues to become fixed instead of ignored. Egypt’s Middle Kingdom was one, Salomon’s reign during the Old Testament was another, Byzantium during the Western Europe’s Dark Ages was a third, Elizabethan England in the 1590’s was a fourth, America’s Gilded Age as well as the Roaring Twenties up until the market crashed, could count as well.
During each of those times those within their respective societies, looked around and breathed a sigh of relief. For there were no pressing problems interfering with living well, and with no challenging battles to fight, the entire realm of society could look around and say to themselves, wow…look at how great we are….
China provided mankind today with just such an opportunity. And just from a cursory glance it seems that most of Delaware’s blogosphere seems to have missed the occasion.
For within each of those past societies, once their vigilance stopped, the cracks in the foundation started to appear and increase spread rapidly….. For two beautiful weeks during the August of 2008, while our eyes looked up to the Olympic Flame soaring above the Birds Nest Stadium, raising the marvel and future aspirations of all Mankind, those cracks of ruin were racing across the globe underneath our feet at lightning speed.
Photo courtesy of Utah Senate Site
For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice. FDR Prayer On D Day, June 6th, 1944
One of the obligations of being in a family is that whenever one of your young relatives performs in public, you feel obligated, if not proud, to arrange your calender in order to go out and see them…..
So it was at the year end concert I attended tonight…….A gaggle of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders encompassing the entire range of talent humanly available, assembled wearing jet black pants and bleached white shirts, before parents and family to perform (or for some, to endure) their 15 minutes of fame.
After each of the individual class acts, the entire assembly of students was assembled for a grand finale.
They preformed their school song and the last song on the ticket was according to the program…..some patriotic song…..Of course I thought……
The piano started and among the children, the singing broke out……..
Tears started to well…..
As my mind grasped the immensity of what I was beholding…..it was America I was seeing, right to the core….It was what makes this nation different from any other past or present…….
For on that stage, there were no blacks…..there were no whites……one could tell by the contrast with those clothes they were wearing…….just many, many, different shades of brown…..Some with red hair, were a light brown. others with black hair were a dark brown….But from the audience level looking up it would be rather hard to quantify among most of them whether we were gazing at a light skinned dark person, or a dark skinned light person in a majority of those pouring their hearts out in singing those words…..
So why is so much effort being used to quantify race in this election year. Who cares?
What was obvious to me, as one Delawarean school performed for their families, was anyone pushing us back down the way of division, was leading us the wrong way…..That is not where America needs to go. Rather we need to be going the opposite way….the way in which every American can prosper and by each person’s cumulative growth, together our nation prospers at the same time…. The key word is “every”. And I’d be willing to settle for a definition of 98% as being the practical definition of “every”.
America does not need to prosper….as Republicans have touted as they roll back taxes on the wealthy. But every human American does….if this nation is to remain a bastion of Democracy against the new threats of Russia, and China. both technological equals with vast resources at their disposal…..
There may come a time when we may need assistance from the rest of the world if our nation is to survive….. Having a multicultural nation would be our best defense against any national attack…. Who could not support a nation which allowed ones relatives to work and send back the very money one needed to survive upon?
Allow me the luxury of this theoretical example. One of our best defenses which we have going for us to keep China from attacking us, is to have a large number of Chinese living here and calling us their home…. How can an attacking nation convince its citizenery that we are evil when each individual soldiers relatives back home are telling him otherwise?
Likewise with Russians, Indians, Arabs, and Latin Americans…..Our common defense rests on our friendships, probably a little more than it rests on our weapons…..
America needs to become color blind…and recognize in some way that we are all some shade of brown….some are East Asian brown, some are Central Asian brown, some are West Asian brown. Some are western Eurasian brown. And some come from the Mother continent of Africa. Those indigenous Americans are immigrants themselves whose ancestors migrated across the Siberian land bridge and spread across both continents……Genetically among the whole planet’s pool, we are (rounded) 99% alike.
It is time for Obama. I haven’t paid that much attention. What is he? West Eurasian, East Asian? Is he west or east African? And if one honestly comes to terms with the fact that one really doesn’t know,.,… then how can that person automatically collate him as a black man, when my own television screen shows me his skin is light brown? Obama throws our racial stereotypes right on edge. Furthermore this controversy brings up a valid point. If any child comes from parents of two different shades of skin, why do we automatically call that child black? Why is he not white? This controversy is solved if we choose to call it as it is…. “If a dark brown mothers the baby of a light brown, it’s a medium brown…” “Whoop de doo.” Anyone with married friends of different shades of brown, who happen to have children, knows full well the impossibility of pigeonholing each of their progeny’s behavior based on their skin’s shade of brown…..
If one looks at race with a clear eye….it is laughable.
Our country is crumbling apart, is currently fighting just to say we didn’t lose in some dry ungamely place, and is flat broke. Meanwhile billions and billions, are spent switching corporations from one owner to the next, and back again at an even higher price…..and for what?
America cannot afford to stay the same……McCain is the same…..Hillary…..likewise is the same…..Yes, they both are good people….Yes, they both have reasons for proposing what they do. And yes, they could each make a much better president than the one we have just endure.
But to use Galactica termonolgy, America needs “to Jump”….. We need to move our entire nation, en masse, to some point into the future. The last person to make a jump of the likes we now need, was Franklin D. Roosevelt. The one before that, was Lincoln….. So these events don’t come that often.
It would be wise to reflect that as little as a year ago, even within our little forums here in “the first state”, there was general excitement among progressives of both parties, who were clamoring over whether Gore would eventually rise high enough in stature to take back the presidency, and after an 8 year delay, put us back on the proven course to success…..
It would be worth noting as well that at this time last year, Clinton was odds on favorite to be elected. So what has happened, is that an upstart has risen through his own party, and beaten back the efforts of a front runner, who all had assumed would waltz into the White House because there was no one who could beat her (sort of like the New England Patriots)……..But someone did, and when they came out of the fight, they did so unbloodied with negatives, as did their opponent…..Democrats across the nation have spoken….and this is… a nation of all…..Collectively they have said ” wow, we had two wonderful candidates; we each voted for our favorite; it’s tough to settle, but in the end, maybe by only a field goal, one will win.”
Undeniably the winner will need to jump America’s ship far into America’s future…..We can’t wait for the shattering of our infrastructure and economic markets, the poisoning of our planet, or the breakdown of our people to occur before we take action. We know what needs done and that action will need to be taken as quickly as possible. Having either one of the two candidates with a ligher shade of brown calling the shots, means we will still have to relive those same old controversies that should have been put behind us many years ago……
Race should not be an issue…..it certainly isn’t for kids in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades…..ask them…..They’ll tell you….”Who cares what shade of brown lurks in one’s skin? We’re all the same.”
Courtesy of Department of Defense
The most notable event that took place in our recent blogosphere, was the unceremonious “fuck you, assholes” sent by the Delaware House of Representatives (25 to 11) to those turds in the Senate, who are, and have been for too long,….. clogging up the plumbing of good government. By now, all should know that Charlie Copeland, Harris McDowell, Tony DeLuca, and Thurman Adams, are impersonating the Four Whoresmen (sp?) of the Apocalypse, responsible for keeping Delaware from becoming anything more modern than…………a feudal government.
Gloom and Doom opened the morning of the tenth. The News Journal and WDEL both took the fake, went chasing after a foul ball, and ran squarely into the right field fence. Anyone reading past the headlines would have instantly realized that something was wrong, There was nothing lurking in the background to back the headlines. It was a rumor gone wild. Someone had whispered that the wind farm was in mortal danger.
“What?” “The wind farm is in danger?” “Oh, No!”……..
But no report was out, said both news sources, but fortunately for us, four senators were squealing to the press about the issue.
What? Four Senators? Could it be?……Were we about to see the New Age reincarnation of the four Whoresmen of the Apocalypse? Was Armageddon just around the corner?
The News Journal named no names but gave background quotes from 4 sources…..Can we guess? “Desk Drawer” Adams? Harris McDowell? Tony DeLuca? Charlie Copeland? My………………………..how did you know? What amazing powers of prognostication you all possess! (That could, in part, be why you are bloggers).
So as we listened to Karen Petersen stammer from having been aroused too early in the morning (session went late the night before), things didn’t sound so good, Especially everywhere one turned, something was being said about the end of the windfarm……..
But those of us in the know, saw it as a concerted effort by four people. A quick look at the math, leaves 783,596 Delawareans still unaccounted for.
Any basketball team losing 4 to 783,596, would never be considered, even by its most ardent believers, as sitting on the edge of an upset!…………Some of us are wondering why those within the media, who should be immune to this type of fake out, were so gullibly sucked in……..
Tommywonk set them straight on Loudell’s Noontime broadcast, notable for being the first guest in recent memory, that Loudell has allowed to go over his time limit, during an interview without pulling the plug…….. Meanwhile, down south, Maria Evans was filtering through the News Journal story as well.
This flap had occurred just on the toes of Delmarva releasing their on shore prices for renewable wind energy. Or lets say they issues a perspective…..a rosy perspective…..an almost too rosy of a perspective to be taken with a grain of salt………This was quickly debunked by several of Delawares bloggers as purporting to buy wind energy from windmills whose building rights on the tops of mountains, were not even proposed?
And then, HCR 38 went to a vote. Tommy has the scoop on how it happened. as well as does John Kowalko. It came out………… in favor of Bluewater Wind by a vote 25 to 11. Almost all of the 11 came from Sussex County, and were Republican……..Looks like no help will be forthcoming from Dave for these notorious bashers of Dave Burris and backers of John Atkins. Sussex County is wind country. Don’t believe me? Just ask Lynn Bullock?
There is no doubt that Harris McDowell is tearing up all of the fabric of compromise within the second smallest state, in his all out scorched earth attempt to kick out Bluewater Wind.
Dana at Delaware Watch, sings the praise of one committed Legislator, intent on working for the people of his district, unlike his compatriots in the Senate, who have sold their people “out”. That’s the problem with keeping politicians in office too long. It is only inevitable that they eventually, they spoil like a ripe papaya
There has been a surge of spirit among those willing to take on the sad state of affairs known normally as Delaware Politics. Strange events are occurring. People are not willing to sit back and just take it anymore. Many will wonder where this spirit is coming from, and why it suddenly manifests itself among us……..But some of us know exactly from where it comes ….and will fight to keep that free spirit alive.
Delaware Politics.Net has absolutely nothing on Bluewater Wind this past week. Too occupied with “being bitter” and like the rest of us, they are nostalgic for 1999. When Republicans start fondly reminiscing about 8th year of a Democratic president, during the middle of the 8th year of a Republican one, you know something has broken down somewhere in their philosophy.
However all friendly kidding aside, they, along with JTTR, and Rick Jensen, are taking on the 10% cuts being forced upon our educational departments. This is an issue. Schools are being asked to give back money as well as every other state government entity. Dave asks if that is fair? Is it the best option on the table? Dana shows us where that money is going to. Take it from the schools and give it to………….Kilroy has a better answer…..Translate that feeling into action……Steve Newton takes the message directly to the source. Obviously our soon-to-be-retired Governor, having heard Allan Loudell who seems to be the only one mentioning the catastrophic food shortages, (that quite possibly has the potential to change our global political landscapes relatively soon), is worried that in her retirement, she will run out of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Stay tuned for a photochop of Minner enjoying her retirement dinner, with a twenty years stash stored behind her. Those of you who are parents, get yourselves ready for conversations such as this: “Dad,” “Yes, son,” “Why did you let the governor eat up all our school’s money?” If you are prepared, your answer should go like this……”Well, once upon a time…..It all started off when four people got together, and all of them had funny names. Their names were Tony “On The Take” DeLuca, Charlie “No Wind Here” Copeland, Harris “I love Delmarva” McDowell, and “Desk Drawer Adams”…………………” (more to come later)
From the Libertarian side of things, Shirley shows us that there are other people in this world who also have brains, balls, and the know-how to use both, other than Tyler Nixon. Figures this link would come from the “Live Free or Die” State. What is it with small states having the most vocal Libertarian contingents?
Thank heavens some one is finally getting wise.What a beautiful day
Bet it wasn’t a beautiful day for these people in Berks County, PA. (There is a highly recommended YouTube clip in this post’s comment section.) Obviously some laws are still subjective when it comes time to met out their punishments……
Alan Coffey lays the Republican hypocrisy right on the line with this post. Don’t forget, up until just last November, we were going to bomb them…….
Delaware Libertarian has a short post (Yes Duffy! It’s true……Check it out… 🙂 ) about how an above mentioned controversy will impact our local politics. Try as you may to simplify and reduce it further, it can’t be done……..
Along the same lines…..Duffy has some similar advice about finding simple solutions to big problems: always check the registry, and then, check it again………………..Duffy’s stories always make me feel human again; its nice to know I am not the only one upon who life is not always smiling….
On a more serious note, Duffy brings home just exactly what America is all about. Honor, Duty, and the willingness to sacrifice for a greater cause. Irregardless on how you feel about the war, you can feel nothing but pride after reading this tribute…….It infuriates me that back home, in Dover, we are forced to deal with those pursuing a narrow,specific, personal agenda, focused only on themselves and the accumulation of their own wealth, with not even a smidgen of responsibility to those who will suffer because of their actions.
What a huge difference between our military heroes, and those politicians who stay at home……………..
People ask me if I am worried…….I tell them no, I had an omen that in this week something great would happen……I was right. It did. Blue bug eyed aliens were discovered in and around Sussex County (must see picture). And after some trouble with a blood clot, Mahaffie is now in New Orleans, giving us a first hand look at the aftermath of Katrina. I was relieved to see the Cafe du Monde was still around with their awesome beignets. I hope he gets a chance to ferry over to Algiers, but his schedule may be a little too tight…….I’m still waiting for him to show up at the South Pole, to check out the accuracy of his GPS device. 🙂
And we need to keep Joe M. close to our hearts and in our prayers. Anytime one of us goes silent, I start to worry.
But a real event spinning off one of JTTR’s posts had be worried even more. Although I am fond of his analysis covering his taste in music, he did exceptionally well in reviewing this product. I was able to fight the power of suggestion for twenty one minutes before heading out to the nearest 24 hour location…………only to find, that because of the slowness of the economy, it had cut back its hours…….stranding me unfulfilled with JTTR‘s words echoing though my head….(By the way, his review is on target, and the purchase is worth the effort…) His mirror image, has finished his four years and like everyone who has traveled that path, looks backwards and says ………………..”ok”.
Matt Marshall is on TV. No not like water on Mars, this is the real thing. Those who follow DWA can also get a glimpse of the always articulate, and eloquent Dominique…..
But even bigger news it how Gene Reed, insurance commissioner gets his money……..and how the News Journal tried to hide it and cover it up……Just imagine the Pottersville this state would be in if it weren’t for us bloggers?
The Colossus of Rhodey points out that not all stupidity lies with our administration. The University of Delaware is getting ready for another national firestorm, especially during an election year, by putting this up for all to see….”The University of Delaware has revised a speech code that used to classify “[a]ny instance that is perceived by those involved as being racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, or otherwise oppressive” as an emergency equal to fire, suicide attempts, and alcohol overdose.” Hmmm…a little hyperbole we have there, perhaps? Perhaps the University of Delaware’s officials should watch Battlestar Galactica to learn how one deals with those having different viewpoints, even if that person is yourself. I’m telling you. It’s the best show on television.
Finally full circle back to Bluewater Wind. Jason at Delaware Liberal shows us that as we squabble away valuable time arguing with, instead of simply bypassing one Harris McDowell, the rest of the world is moving forward with Offshore wind very quickly. We have just days before the announcement that the East Coast Hub of Offshore Wind development, will no longer be in Delaware. Because we (1st Senatoral District, Wilmington) elect stupid asses to our Legislature.
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kavips 
