What I've Learned (Best of)

1.What other people think of me is none of my business

2.Writing itself is not hard..but having a good idea that someone else may find interesting is the hard part.

3.The difference between success and failure is that success got up off the ground one more time.

4.Children are remarkably honest souls....until we teach them not to be.

5.Charm is deceptive, Beauty is fleeting.

6.The things I write are not for the intelligenstia...I write for the guy( or girl) standing on the street corner, who doesn't normally read, but is happy that somebody was thoughtful enough to write something short and sweet for them that they can get next to.

7. If You never doubt your beliefs ,then obviously you are wrong a lot.

8.You have to find your own joy in this life!

9.I always do the best I can...Anything else is someone else's problem.

10.Want what you need as opposed to wanting what you want.

11.Sometimes the only blessings you need to count is your heartbeat!

12. .At Every stage of life you think you have it all figured out...but if the truth be told...You never really know.

 Peace And HAPPY NEW YEARS!

R.I.P. Fontella Bass

                                            1940- 2012
Many people have forgotten her name....but if you're a certain age and was around in the summer of 1965, you couldn't forget the bass line of her most famous hit..."Rescue Me."  Soul Singer ,Fontella Bass has died..
She was 72.  I was so busy celebrating with my family over the holidays that I had forgotten about her.

I guess you can tell that I've kind of been on vacay, because I haven't been posting on Escapades and Good Foodie at all and I've been micro-blogging on this blog....but I had to stop and remember a soul legend..

Fontella Bass died Wednesday night at a St. Louis hospice of complications from a heart attack suffered three weeks ago, her daughter, Neuka Mitchell, said. Bass had also suffered a series of strokes over the past seven years.


"She was an outgoing person," Mitchell said of her mother. "She had a very big personality. Any room she entered she just lit the room up, whether she was on stage or just going out to eat."
Bass was born into a family with deep musical roots. Her mother was gospel singer Martha Bass, one of the Clara Ward Singers. Her younger brother, David Peaston, had a string of R&B hits in the 1980s and 1990s. Peaston died in February at age 54.

Fontella began performing at a young age, singing in her church's choir at age 6. She was surrounded by music, often traveling on national tours with her mother and her gospel group.
Her interest turned from gospel to R&B when she was a teenager and she began her professional career at the Showboat Club in north St. Louis at age 17. She eventually auditioned for Chess Records and landed a recording contract, first as a duet artist. Her duet with Bobby McClure, "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing," reached No. 5 on the R&B charts and No. 33 on the Billboard Top 100 in 1965.

She co-wrote and later that year recorded "Rescue Me," reaching No. 1 on the R&B charts and No. 4 on the Billboard pop singles chart. Bass's powerful voice bore a striking resemblance to that of Aretha Franklin, who is often misidentified as the singer of that chart-topping hit.

Fontella had a few other modest hits but by her own accounts developed a reputation as a troublemaker because she demanded more artistic control, and more money for her songs. She haggled over royalty rights to "Rescue Me" for years before reaching a settlement in the late 1980s, Mitchell said. She sued American Express over the use of "Rescue Me" in a commercial, settling for an undisclosed amount in 1993.


"Rescue Me" has been covered by many top artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Melissa Manchester and Pat Benatar.Queen of soul , Aretha Franklin eventually sang a form of it too – as "Deliver Me" in a Pizza Hut TV ad in 1991.

Fontella Bass lived briefly in Europe before returning to St. Louis in the early 1970s, where she and husband Lester Bowie raised their family. She recorded occasionally, including a 1995 gospel album, "No Ways Tired," that earned a Grammy nomination.

Fontella Bass was inducted into the St. Louis Hall of Fame in 2000.
Funeral arrangements for Ms.Bass were incomplete. She is survived by four children. Bowie died in 1999.

Keith's Favorite Quotations

Keith's Favorite Quotations

Happy 7th Birthday, Cousin Miles!

Yesterday, I took my two oldest grands, The Booga Wooga & Little Sister Sophia, to our Cousin Miles' birthday party at Bounce U! Everybody had a great time bouncing on everything in sight and yes, even I did some bouncing! One of my regular commentators on this blog, my Cousin Arlene, was also there beaming with pride because Miles is her grandson! Here are some photos that were taken while we were there...

HAPPY BLOGAVERSARY!!! (5 years in this Blogging game!)

Can you believe it was five years ago that this blog first began??? Yes..It was five years ago...But not only did this blog begin...but it was also a beginning for me...It was my entering into the wide wide world of the internet..

"Keith's Space" ...this little blog of mine was my introduction into the online world.... I published one three line post on that day and promised to come back with more posts in the coming year...2008.  I sure did...and I met other folks who also had blogs...Folks like Zack of "Go Zack" , who unfortunately, no longer publishes that blog...Mizrepresent , Eb The Celeb, Karrie B. , Pocohontaz, Ladylee, Don, 12Kyle, Southern Gal, Bored and Talkative, SLC and many many more...

People who like me, were finding their voices through this thing called Blogging... We helped get a President elected...(Twice) we shared our highs and lows....and we went on to become friends on both Facebook and Twitter...

If not for this blog...I would not be in any of those domains... I owe it all to my wife... She had started a blog for our first grandchild  a year before....and had been begging me to start one of my own...I finally gave in and the day after Christmas, 2007...we sat down and she came up with the basic  design of this blog..(She has designed all of my blogs templates.)

We came up with a format...I said I wanted this blog to be about whatever was on my mind on any given day....I did a play on words of the popular social media format Myspace and came up with the name- "Keith's Space" and the rest is as they say...History...

By July of 2008, My blog was pretty popular,I was being added to people's lists and getting a lot of responses from all over the nation... So I created another blog..."Escapades" - Which features my poetry and Fiction and now also includes art, music and erotica....Serial Fiction and Short Stories....Two years later,I created "Good Foodie" my food blog...Not creating any more...Just having fun writing these three..

So what can I say?  Three blogs, a Facebook page and a Twitter account with friends and associates from around the globe...Who would have thought it, huh?   And I owe it all to this blog...My window into the new world!!!

Five years !  I'm just shaking my head!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Dear Santa

Keith's Favorite Quotations

Weekend Humor

A beautiful lady was sitting next to a guy on the plane......

The lady said to him '' Can you help me remove something from my breast please?

‘'The excited young man replied, ''Wow! Why yes.. It will be my pleasure....... So what is it?'

 "Your Eyes ,Idiot!" she replied....

Have a great weekend everybody!

America's First Boogeyman

About 83 days before I was born in 1958, a young man...He was only 19 to be exact named Charles R. Starkweather and his 13 year old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate committed America's very first Mass Murder!
They killed 11 people in the state of Nebraska.....Including Fugate's parents...

America was shocked! America was horrified...How could anybody do something this horrible?  The killings occurred over a period of days..


Charlie Starkweather had been born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the third of seven children to Guy and Helen Starkweather. The Starkweathers were a respectable family with well-behaved children of working class background. The family always had shelter and other resources. Guy Starkweather was by all accounts a mild-mannered man; he was a carpenter who was often unemployed due to rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. During Guy's periods of unemployment, Charlie Starkweather's mother supplemented the family income by working as a waitress.

Charlie Starkweather had attended Saratoga Elementary School, Everitt Junior High School), and Lincoln High School in Lincoln. In contrast to his family life, Starkweather possessed no kind remembrances of his time of going to school. Starkweather was born with genu varum, a mild birth defect that caused his legs to be misshapen. He also suffered from a speech impediment, which led to constant teasing by classmates. He was considered a slow learner and was accused of never applying himself, although in his teens, it was discovered that he suffered from severe myopia that had drastically affected his vision for most of his life.

The sole aspect of school in which Charlie excelled was gym. It was gym class wherein he found a physical outlet for his growing rage against those who bullied him. Charlie used his new found physicality to begin bullying those who had once bullied him, and soon his rage stretched beyond those who had bullied him to anyone whom he happened to dislike. Starkweather soon went from being considered one of the most well-behaved teenagers in the community to one of the most troubled. His high school friend Bob von Busch would later recall:

“

He could be the kindest person you've ever seen. He'd do anything for you if he liked you. He was a hell of a lot of fun to be around, too. Everything was just one big joke to him. But he had this other side. He could be mean as hell, cruel. If he saw some poor guy on the street who was bigger than he was, better looking, or better dressed, he'd try to take the poor bastard down to his size.

”

After viewing the film Rebel Without a Cause, Charlie Starkweather developed a James Dean fixation and began to groom his hairstyle and dress himself to look like Dean. Starkweather related to James Dean's rebellious screen persona, believing that he had found a kindred spirit of sorts, someone who had suffered torment similar to his own whom he could admire. Starkweather developed a severe inferiority complex and became self-loathing, believing that he was unable to do anything correctly and that his own inherent failures would cause him to live in misery^.


Just two years before in 1956, He met his soul mate thirteen-year-old Caril Ann Fugate.Charlie  Starkweather dropped out of Lincoln High School in his senior year and became employed at a Western Union newspaper warehouse. He sought employment there because the warehouse was located near Whittier Junior High School in Lincoln, where Caril was a student. His employment allowed him to visit her every day after school. Charlie was considered a poor worker, and his employer later recalled, "Sometimes you'd have to tell him something two or three times. Of all the employees in the warehouse, he was the dumbest man we had."

Charlie taught Caril Ann how to drive a car, and one day she crashed his 1949 Ford into another car. Starkweather's father paid the damages, as he was the legal owner of the vehicle. This caused an altercation between Starkweather and his father. Refusing to condone his son's behavior, he banished his son from the household.
It was all downhill from there, Starkweather quit his job at the warehouse and was employed as a garbage collector for minimum wage. Starkweather began progressing towards his nihilistic views on life, believing that his current situation was the final determinant of how he would live the rest of his life. He used the garbage route to begin plotting bank robberies and finally conceived his own personal philosophy by which he lived the remainder of his life: "Dead people are all on the same level".

Long story short, in between December of 1957 and January 28,1958....The two killed 11 people... Unlike today's killers...Neither Charlie ,nor Caril Ann committed suicide...They were captured by the Nebraska State Police....Caril Ann turned on her boyfriend claiming that she was his prisoner and that he did all of the killing...Maybe, because of her age...The judge halfway believed her...

Trials were faster then...and when convicted there were not a whole lot of appeals......I was born, two months after all of this mayhem and by then, Both had been tried and convicted...Charlie was sentenced to die in the electric chair and Caril Ann was sentenced to life...

Wasn't a whole lot of appeals either like they have today....By the time my cousin Tammie and I were taking our first steps, Charles Starkweather went to the electric chair and was executed !

Caril Ann spent the next 18 years in prison and was paroled (if you can believe that!!) in 1976....She's still alive today..Living in a new town with a new name, quietly!

I was 18, about to graduate from high school when her parole became a news item and I heard for the first time about America's first boogeyman....

Hell, by then, we'd had Richard Speck, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and John Wayne Gacy...America ,it's safe to say was immune to horror or so I thought....It was almost like in every decade..there was a boogeyman....

In the 90's we had Jeffrey Dahmer....and in the first decade of this new century we had Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold , the Columbine Killers and the guy who shot up Virginia Tech......but this year...this year alone we've had "The Batman Killer" as the Aurora ,Colarado movie slayer is known and now, Adam Lanza..

America talks about mental illness now and America talks about gun control....but just like in 1958, when America didn't talk about mental illness or gun control....America does nothing...

They say if you don't learn from the past, you live to repeat it...We've repeated this mistake far too many times.....The question is...not if there is another boogeyman, another Charlie Starkweather, Another Adam Lanza.....not if...but when is he going to emerge again???

Something to think about!

Not Over The Cliff Yet!

So while we were trained on the tragedy at Newtown, Conneticut....which just broke all of our hearts...Apparently the hearts of some Republicans have warmed a bit to the idea that the wealthy should pay their fair share of the nation's tax burden....

President Obama's White House and  House Speaker John Boehner now appear closer to a deal than ever before. (Imagine that!)The only questions remaining are whether both sides can resolve their remaining differences and, more importantly, can sell the deal to their respective rank-and-files. (Easier said than done!)

After House Speaker Boehner made an offer on Friday to raise rates on income above $1 million, President Obama yesterday presented the speaker with a counterproposal consisting of $1.2 trillion in revenue (which includes the Bush-era tax cuts expiring for income above $400,000) and $1.2 trillion in spending cuts (including $800 billion in health and non-health programs, $290 billion in interest, and $130 billion in changing the cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits).

The White House’s offer also extends unemployment insurance, raises the debt ceiling for two years, and includes funds for infrastructure.House Speaker Boehner’s office released a statement calling the White House’s counteroffer “a step in the right direction,” per NBC’s Frank Thorp. But it doesn’t want to count the interest as part of the spending cuts. Yet he fact the White House is agreeing to the Boehner principle of 1-to-1 revenue increases vs. spending cuts on this deal means it’s now about exchanging numbers, potentially dotting “I”s and crossing “T”s. Good people, while this is a bit of progress -- but we’re not there yet.

Check it out-Both sides are $200 billion apart on tax revenue ($1.2 trillion vs. $1 trillion), apart on the income cut-off for tax rates going up ($400K vs. $1 million), apart on whether you include interest as part of the spending cuts (Republicans believe the White House has actually only proposed a net of approximately $850 billion in spending cuts compared to $1.2 trillion in tax hikes), and apart on the debt-ceiling increase (one year vs. two years).

 If you simply split the difference, you could have a final deal of $1.1 trillion in revenue, $1.1 trillion in spending cuts, and $600K to $700K on the income cut-off. The things to watch today: 1) How both sides’ rank-and-file members receive these numbers, and 2) if the momentum for a deal continues. As one Dem congressional aide tells First Read, “Momentum breeds momentum.”

A Senate leadership aide adds that the potential “Plan B”s circulating among GOPers are being held off until Thursday. So House Speaker Boehner and the White House have until then, realistically.

So time is now of the essence. If you want to do something before Dec. 31, the clock is ticking. By the way, House GOP leaders (Boehner, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Lynn Jenkins) are holding a stakeout at 10:00 am ET.

So how are Liberal and Progressive thinkers and their conservative counterparts reacting to all of this???

From the liberal and progressive side, here is the headline banner of today’s Huffington Post: “Raw Deal: Obama’s latest fiscal cliff offer targets middle class, elderly.” From the story: “Obama's offer would allow the payroll tax holiday to expire, meaning middle class workers will see smaller paychecks in 2013.” (Though wasn’t the payroll tax cut supposed to be temporary?)

Meanwhile, the New York Times’ Paul Krugman is taking a wait-and-see approach. “Those cuts [CPI adjustment for Social Security] are a very bad thing, although there will supposedly be some protection for low-income seniors. But the cuts are not nearly as bad as raising the Medicare age.” And yesterday, on the conservative side, we saw the right wing think tank,Heritage Action blast House Speaker Boehner’s offer to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire on income over $1 million, and Club for Growth urge Republicans not to concede on the debt ceiling. The way you used to be able to get a deal in Washington is if both sides complained -- that meant there was equal pain. The question is if that still applies today.

I expected that there was going to be some pain in order to avoid this fiscal cliff.. I don't honestly know if I like some of the compromises that might have to be made...But since it's been so long since Congress and The President have compromised on anything...I suppose some pain is better than the enormus pain that would have or could have occurred if we went over this fiscal cliff.

I'm looking ahead to 2014...To get Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Tea Party out of Congress  completely.....Then maybe some real progress can be made... At best, this is just an early Christmas gift...You know ...the kind you open and realize, although it's not what you wanted...It is better than the pair of socks that you got the year before..

A Hero

One of the most heartbreaking , but yet moving stories to come out of the recent tragedy in Newtown, Conn. at the Sandy Brook Elementary School was the story of this young teacher ,pictured above who gave her life to save her students...

Too often we talk about the killer and his motivation and what have you and he becomes a celebrity for committing these monstrous mass murders....If I never mention Adam Lanza's name again, it won't be too soon.

Instead ,I want to shed light on a person that should be remembered...Vickie Soto!


First grade Teacher Vicki Soto, 27, certainly died a hero on Friday when she was killed protecting her class of first-graders from alleged school shooter Adam Lanza, 20.
Her family spoke out on Sunday, telling TODAY's Erica Hill about Ms.Soto's dedication to the children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

“She didn’t call them her students," sister Carlee Soto, 20, told TODAY. "She called them her kids."
James Wiltsie, Soto's cousin and a Fairfield County police officer, said the family was told that Vickie Soto died trying to save the lives of her students. “She was found protecting her kids," he said, "doing instinctively what she knew to do.”


While details are still emerging about exactly what happened, James Wiltsie was told that Soto hid her first-graders in closets and cabinets once she heard there was a gunman in the school. "(She was) huddling in the closet, trying to shield them from the spray of bullets,” he said.

Vicki Soto had been teaching at the school for five years. The oldest of four children, she lived with her parents, sisters and a brother, along with her black Labrador, Roxy, in a modest, Cape Cod-style home in Stratford, Conn. When asked what he would miss the most about Vicki, her brother Carlos pointed to the mundane daily activities that would no longer happen.


"I would hear her running the coffee machine every morning, and then running down the stairs, slamming the door on her way out," he said. “That’s the thing I’m going to miss.”
Ms. Soto was reportedly adored by her students. Her sister Carlee said the feeling was mutual, and that her first-graders, who Ms.Soto called her "angels," would always bring a smile to her face.

"She would come home with stories of what the kids did that day," Carlee said. "She loved those students more than anything."

There’s been a huge outpouring of support for the Soto family. A candlelight vigil was held on Saturday night, which brought hundreds of people out in support of the family, paying tribute to the woman many knew just as “Miss Soto.” And several colleagues got in touch with the family.


The Soto family paid homage to Vicki with her favorite color -- wearing green scarves and handing out green ribbons to the community.

“Vicki would’ve been very happy to see all those people there supporting her,” Jillian said.
Snow was falling while the family spoke with TODAY, and Jillian said it was Vicki’s way of being there, as she loved Christmas and the holidays.

“She wouldn’t have it any other way than having us speak right now and having it snow.”
“They said they were honored to know her,” her sister Jillian Soto, 24, said.

And I wouldn't want it any other way than for Vickie Soto, a true hero to be remembered...rather than the troubled young man who caused so much destruction and mayhem!

Thank You Vicki, you're my hero!

Here We Go Once Again

It seems like I'm writing about this type of thing all too often this year....Mass Murder....I'm writing about it so much that I should make Mass Murder a category.....

Now the most innocent of our population have become victims...Yesterday A teacher's son, clad in black and carrying two 9mm pistols, rampaged through a Connecticut elementary school Friday, killing 20 small children and six adults, a tragedy President Barack Obama said had broken the hearts of America.

The gunman, identified as Adam Lanza, 20, was found dead at the scene of the slaughter, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, law enforcement officials said. The body of a woman believed to be his mother was found at their home in Newtown, authorities said.
Officials initially misidentified the shooter to NBC News as Lanza's brother, Ryan. But a senior official later said that Ryan was nowhere near the shooting, is not believed to be involved, and is cooperating with the investigation.Ryan told police that Adam has a history of mental illness, according to the senior official. Yet the motive for the mass killing — the nation’s second-worst school shooting — was a mystery.

The weapons used in the attack were legally purchased and were registered to the gunman's mother, two law enforcement officials said. Two 9mm handguns were recovered inside the school. An AR-15-type rifle also was found at the scene, but there were conflicting reports Friday night whether it had been used in the shooting.

Police believe Lanza fatally shot his mother in the face, then drove to the hilltop school and unleashed a blizzard of bullets on children and staff in two rooms before apparently taking his own life.
"Evil visited this community today," Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Friday evening. "We are all in this together."

Are we though? Are we all in this together?  The NRA and the gun lobbyists don't seem to think so... And mind you....This is the second mass shooting this WEEK!!!  ...The second....Some guy in Omaha shot and killed three people earlier this week..

Yet these folks still get on television and parrot their stupid logic that if more people were armed, this wouldn't have happened... Really?? If more people were armed...Everybody would have been blasting away and perhaps even more folks would have gotten shot..

Somebody has got to get some guts...Somebody has got to stand up to the NRA and the gun lobbyists and enact some sensible and more stringet gun laws....

It's not just the gun laws....These guns were purchased legally by the shooter's mother.....It's also treatment for the mentally ill....The shooter's brother said that he had a history of mental illness....Was he being treated?
Was he on medication??  Why is it that no one who knew the shooter or has been interviewed seemed to recall any of it???

These are talking points and questions that need to be discussed and dealt with....because....the next one is out there...Reading this and planning a real show stopper!!   That's NOT a good thing.... I don't want to be writing another post about yet another atrocity.

Weekend Humor

 

 

There was a beautiful young blonde at a soda machine in Vegas, and she arrived there just before a business man coming to quench his thirst. She opened her purse and put in 50 cents, studied the machine a short while, pushed a Diet Coke selection, and out came a Diet Coke.

Then she reached in her purse again and pulled out a dollar and inserted it in the machine. Studying the machine carefully, she pushed the button for Coke Classic and out came a Coke Classic and 50 cents change...

She immediately took the 50 cents and put it in the machine, studied it for a moment and pushed the Mountain Dew button. Out came a Mountain Dew. She placed them both on the counter next to the Diet Coke..

As she was reaching into her purse again, the business man, who'd been waiting patiently for several minutes by then, spoke up. "Excuse me, miss, but are you done yet?"

She looked at him as if he were crazy and responded- "Duhhhhh, can't you see that I'm still winning???


Have A Great weekend everyone!

A Hairy Issue!

One of my friends on Facebook shared this story with me yesterday...Unfortunately..I was busy working on another post...

Apparently this beautiful woman answered a racist twit on her station's Facebook page who criticized her short hairstyle....and has lost her job because of it. I read her answer to him...there was nothing vulgar or disrespectful about it...and yet she was fired.

Rhonda Lee, a meterologist (Weather Girl) was terminated from her position at KTBS 3 News, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, La., after responding to racially charged remarks about her short natural hairstyle. The exchange between Lee and a KTBS viewer happened back in October on KTBS 3 News’ Facebook page, where a viewer, Emmitt Vascocu, posted a comment that referred to Lee as the "black lady that does the news" and suggested that she should "wear a wig or grown some more hair."

Ms.Lee responded to Vascocu's comment at length on the Facebook thread, saying, "I’m sorry you don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I don’t have cancer," Lee wrote. "I am very proud of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your edification: traditionally our hair doesn’t grow downward. It grows upward."

In the end, Mr.Vascocu apologized to Lee via Facebook and reportedly called KTBS’s station manager to express his regret as well.

However, in the wake of all the publicity surrounding Ms.Lee's firing, KTBS has issued a statement making it clear that they do not typically comment on personal matters, but felt that due to the interest surrounding the issue, it has decided to speak out. Here is KTBS' official statement:

 On November 28, 2012, KTBS dismissed two employees for repeated violation of the station’s written procedure. We can confirm that Rhonda Lee was one of the employees. Another employee was a white male reporter who was an eight year veteran of the station. The policy they violated provided a specific procedure for responding to viewer comments on the official KTBS Facebook page. Included is an email that was sent to all news department employees informing them of this procedure. This procedure is based on advice from national experts and commonly used by national broadcast and cable networks and local television stations across the country. Unfortunately, television personalities have long been subject to harsh criticism and negative viewer comments about their appearance and performance. If harsh viewer comments are posted on the station’s official website, there is a specific procedure to follow. Ms. Rhonda Lee was let go for repeatedly violating that procedure and after being warned multiple times of the consequences if her behavior continued. Rhonda Lee was not dismissed for her appearance or defending her appearance. She was fired for continuing to violate company procedure.

Rhonda Lee tells a different story....I happened to catch her on CNN yesterday and she told Soledad O'Brien..-

 "I have yet to see this policy. Upon my termination I asked, 'Could I see it?' and I was told, 'No,'" Lee told CNN. "I pled for my job again just this past Friday and asked to see the policy and was told that there isn't anything written down."

So basically, Ms. Lee was let go for violating a policy that in actuallity, does not exist!!


KTBS provided Soledad O'Brien with an email that was issued to the staff on Aug. 30, 2012, that outlines how employees should respond to Facebook complaints from viewers. In short, employees are encouraged not to respond, but if they do, the "only proper response" is to provide the viewer with the contact info for a designated staffer that can help with any pressing issues.

Rhonda Lee told CNN that she never saw the email, but that she feels as though she is being harshly punished for defending herself.

I recall an  incident just a few months ago where a white female reporter was harshly criticized for being too heavy by a viewer and she got on Television and eloquently defended herself.. She was praised on talk shows and news reports across the nation... While Ms. Rhonda Lee was fired for violating a phantom policy!

Hmmmmm... Definitely a double standard....Racism??, Sexism?? I don't know....but if it looks like a duck and waddles like a duck....

The Battle For Michigan

Apparently, Republican lawmakers in the state of Michigan have learned nothing from the people in the State of Wisconsin...And they apparently don't realize that they lost big in the recent elections...They are going full speed ahead in their war against the working class and middle class Americans....

Michigan lawmakers gave final approval yesterday to legislation that would sharply limit labor rights, passing the first of two measures over the objections of thousands of people packing the Capitol in protest, some of whom chanted "Shame on you!" at lawmakers from the House gallery.

Yes...Shame on them...Shame , shame ,shame...and these people should take names and make sure that every legislator who voted for this pay for it, come the next election.

By a 58-51 vote, the Republican-led House passed a bill that would ban workplace rules that make union membership a condition of employment for government workers. It then approved a second bill, covering private-sector workers, by a vote of 58-52. After final parliamentary maneuvering, the bills will head to Gov. Rick Snyder, who said Tuesday that he would sign them.

This legislation would make Michigan —which I here to for thought was one of the most union-friendly states in the country — the 24th "right to work" state, making payment of union dues voluntary even though the union negotiates on a worker's behalf.
Governor Snyder told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that he was "pro-collective bargaining," but he said right-to-work laws denied workers freedom of choice.
"I think it's a good thing," he said of the legislation. "I think it's pro-worker."

This is an example of what my grandmother used to call throwing bath water in my face and telling me it's raining...(Bath water is not actually what she said...but you get the message!) Sounds good on the surface, but it's really not!

As the vote was taking place, as many as 10,000 people descended on the Capitol, State Police estimated, prompting authorities to restrict access to the building because it was at its capacity of 2,000. The overflow filled the lawn and stretched down East Michigan Avenue to the Lansing Center across the river several blocks away.
About 200 onlookers filled the gallery overlooking the House floor Tuesday. As debate resumed on one of the bills, the session was interrupted with protesters yelling, "Shame on you," NBC News' Nadine Comerford reported.
After the votes, protesters then moved to the building housing Snyder's office, chanting, "Governor Snyder, just say no!"

Law enforcement officials said they wouldn't let Michigan become another Wisconsin, where demonstrators occupied the state Capitol around the clock for nearly three weeks last year to protest similar legislation.

Armed with tear gas canisters, pepper spray and batons, State Police officers guarded the Capitol as protesters shouted "No justice, no peace!" and "Shut it down!"

State Police officials confirmed that one of their troopers used pepper spray on one protester. Police spokesmen said the man was sprayed when he grabbed a trooper and tried to pull her into the crowd.

The man wasn't arrested, but two other people were arrested after they tried to force their way into another building on the grounds where Snyder has offices, police said.
A tent set up by supporters of the measures also collapsed amid what authorities described as "pushing and shoving" among protesters. No one was hurt, police said.
Elsewhere on the lawn, four large inflatable rats were set up to mock Snyder, House Speaker Jase Bolger, Senate Republican leader Randy Richardville, and Dick DeVos, a prominent conservative businessman who union leaders say is behind the bills.

Schools in at least three districts were closed because so many teachers and other staff were at the rally.

Valerie Constance, a developmental reading instructor for the Wayne County Community College District and a member of the American Federation of Teachers, sat on the Capitol steps with a sign shaped like a tombstone. It read: "Here lies democracy.

Indeed!

They (Republicans) don't get it...And I'm afraid that if they don't "get it" soon...Many states are going to wind up like California...So dominated by the Democrats that if every Republican legislator stayed at home...It wouldn't matter....And that's not good for Democracy either...A one party system...I want it to be a two party system...I think their should be reasonable idealistic debate....But as long as one party is sytematically trying to turn America into a caste system of just filthy rich and  filthy...that's not going to happen.

People are going to always look out for their own self interest...And the Republican party seems to be acting only in the interest of two percent of the population...That's not good....

There goes Democracy!

Lost Ones...

The year 2012 has not been kind to boxer Manny Pacquiao...First...He was robbed of a decision in June of this year against Timothy Bradley and now , just this past Saturday night....he was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez...

It hasn't been too kind to Mitt Romney either!

Mitt and Ann Romney were at the fight....Yes...They were! The Associated Press reported on the Romneys attendance of Saturday night’s fourth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. Placed seemingly in line with cameras, “The Romneys arrived during the undercard, drawing little reaction from the crowd.”


Perhaps the boxing world is not the one in which Romney “captured the imagination” of Americans.
According to Manny Pacquiao’s publicist Fred Sternburg, Mitt Romney stopped by to introduce himself to Manny Pacquiao in his dressing room before the fight with this, “Hello Manny. I ran for president. I lost.”
Hmmmm, I'll bet that that's just what every fighter wants to hear before a big fight. It appears that Mitt Romney has not lost his special connection with humanity, it seems.

You know...I could understand how Al Gore felt in 2000.... Yeah I could understand 
Al Gore being devastated after “losing” in 2000,(Somebody say, Rigged election) but Mitt Romney’s state of depression could be bordering on delusion. I mean , come on..It is not as if  Mitt Romney came close to winning the presidency. He pretty much got his clock cleaned. The loss has to be painful, but had Mitt Romney and most of the folks at Fox News and the Republican Party been living in reality, he and THEY would have known that he was losing heading into Election Day.

He should have been like Richard Nixon and said -"They won't have me to kick around anymore or something to that effect..He goes up to Manny Pac and says-"Hi..I'm Mitt Romney, I ran for President and I lost.."  Like Manny needed to hear that...

What can I say?....Two men...One got knocked out for real and the other one got knocked out and still doesn't realize it....What can I say?

Weekend Humor

My neighbor, who is a Tea Party Republican was being burglarized last night...The burglar couldn't see me, but I was staring right at him as he attempted to cut the window and gain access into his house...

I started to call the police....but , I thought better of it and did not...


After all, don't they always say that government is not the answer?


Have a great weekend everyone!

So Who Will Blink?

Yesterday President Obama suggested that some....yes, some Republicans had begun to soften their opposition to increased tax rates on the wealthiest Americans, but sharply warned the GOP against looking to tie their budget fight to an upcoming debate over whether to increase the debt ceiling.

Speaking in Washington before a group of corporate leaders, Pesident Obama suggested some rank-and-file GOP lawmakers might relent in opposing increased income tax rates for the wealthiest earners, meaning Washington might be closer to an agreement on the fiscal cliff than principal negotiators' public comments might suggest.

“I think there's a recognition that maybe they can accept some rate increases as long as it's combined with serious entitlement reform and additional spending cuts. And if we can get the leadership on the Republican side to take that framework, to acknowledge that reality, then the numbers actually aren't that far apart,” Presisdent Obama told members of the Business Roundtable this morning.

 “Another way of putting this is, we can probably solve this in about a week. It's not that tough. But we need that conceptual breakthrough that says we need to do a balanced plan; that's what's best for the economy; that's what the American people voted for; that's how we're going to get it done.”he added.

Negotiations toward resolving the fiscal cliff, the combination of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts set to take effect on New Years Day, seem to have hit a brick wall after House Republicans and President Obama each offered countervailing proposals to address the looming combination.  Why must they turn every thing into a western stand off? Why must everything this President suggests turn into a battle of wills??

The  latest stalemate involves the question of whether tax rates are allowed to increase for the top earners. On one hand,Republicans say they are willing to ask the wealthy to shoulder a larger share of the tax burden, but only through ending deductions and loopholes in the tax code. Thing is...They never define what these loopholes are.

"Now the revenues that we are putting on the table are going to come from, guess who? The rich," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill. "There are ways to limit deductions, close loopholes and have the same people pay more of their money to the federal government without raising tax rates, which we believe will harm our economy."

President Obama, in his appearance shortly following peak of the house,Boehner's press conference, argued that closing those deductions would not raise the type of revenue needed to establish the "balanced" approach on which he campaigned. The president also said that the GOP plan would harm philanthropic and charitable giving.
(Doesn't he know...They don't care about any of that?)

As the opposing sides race toward the end-of-December deadline, a New York Times report on Wednesday suggested that Republicans might turn, as a fallback position, to authorizing an extension of current tax rates for all but the wealthiest Americans (this was essentially the president's initial request of lawmakers following the election).

But the report also suggested that Republicans might then use an impending need to authorize more borrowing authority, a point at which the GOP might have more leverage, to extract the kinds of spending cuts and tax and entitlement reforms for which Republican leaders have pushed during this fall's fiscal cliff talks.

Why...Why..Why.. Why must they turn every thing into a western stand off? Why must everything this President suggests turn into a battle of wills??

Moving on.. In Referencing that report, the president sternly warned Republicans against tying another increase in the debt ceiling to a fiscal fight -- a scenario which would risk reigniting the debt talks during the summer of 2011, during which the government was brought to nearly the brink of default due to partisan differences.

"I have to just tell you, that is a bad strategy for America, it's a bad strategy for our businesses, and it's not a game that I will play,"  President Obama said.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are currently set to depart for their holiday recess, though John Boehner has said that he would remain in Washington, ready "at any moment" to sit down with President Obama and negotiate...

So here we are...at the brink of near disaster....Who will blink?  Stay tuned folks!