NASTY JACK

As school shootings increase, Arizona rushes to make guns legal on college campuses

2012-03-06T06:29:00.000-08:00

Gun on college campuses legislation

There was a recent article titled “Why does America lead the world in school shootings?” by Dr. Frank Ochberg, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University and former Associate Director of the National Institute of Mental Health. With notable credentials like that, the gun industry, particularly the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), should pay attention to his findings.

One in particular was, “Access to guns is a significant factor in American school shootings. If kids could not and did not bring guns to school, we wouldn't have Columbine, Virginia Tech or Chardon, Ohio.” He continues, “But the reason we have an American school shooting problem that exceeds other nations has to do with access to loaded weapons by kids who should not have that access.”

Other factors include peer warning signs, bullying gone unchecked, lack of recognizing mental illness, and violent role models and drugs. Each is significant but without that access to the weapon there would be no killings or injuries, at least by guns, which are most prevalent in these incidents.

What is most interesting about Dr. Ochberg’s study is that the

U.S.

has the worst problem in the entire world. That is tragic for a civilized nation when compared to some third-world countries.

AZ Sen. Ron Gould...finger pointing

But damn the killing of young adults and children, full speed ahead to force guns onto Arizona college and university campuses when both the educators and law enforcement are dead-set against it and have vociferously voiced their opinions. The drive for Senate Bill 1474 is led by Arizona State Sen. Ron Gould who, some have indicated, has as his main intention to fire up the gun nuts in Arizona so they will vote for him in his run for a U.S. House seat.

The Arizona Republic says, “Currently, it is illegal in 22 states to carry a concealed weapon on a college campus. In 25 states, including Arizona, the decision is left to the individual college or university. No Arizona college or university allows guns on campus. Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Mississippi require campuses to allow concealed weapons on campus.” Another NRA promoted law forcing guns down the throats of those who don’t want them.

See video below on Arizona campus guns bill:

And while the Arizona gun bubbas are forging ahead with their campus legislation, there were two more shootings in the state, one at a Wilcox high school, the other at a Tempe (Phoenix suburb) nightclub, which wounded at least 14 people. Tempe is the home of Arizona State University two miles from the club. The shooters were not ASU students, who have said repeatedly that they do not want guns on their campus.

Chardon, OH shooter

Most of the focus lately has been on Chardon, Ohio’s High School where student

T.J. Lane

opened fire on February 27, in the Cafeteria, killing three and injuring two others, one paralyzed. It wasn’t even his school, which turned out to be the Lake Academy, where a fellow student said he was “…being picked on for everything from his hair, to his clothes, to his quiet personality.” Lane used a 22 caliber pistol and had a record of violence in the past.

But returning to the Arizona campus gun legislation, local Phoenix columnist Laurie Roberts puts the blame squarely on the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) exclaiming that if the NRA wants it, they will get it in Arizona. And why not? They have already been responsible for diluting the state’s gun laws to the extent that they are the loosest in the nation.

Roberts says: “But then this bill isn't about making college campuses safe. It's about making the NRA -- and the sizable block of reliable Republican voters it can deliver (or take away) -- happy.”

And finally there’s the cost that will have to come from the university budgets that are already strained to the limit. It is estimated that the legislation will result in one-time costs of $13 million for lockers to store guns that can’t be brought into buildings, with annual maintenance of $3 million. The Arizona legislature has offered no support. Pathetic!

Aides finally muzzle Arizona Governor Jan Brewer

2012-03-05T07:00:00.002-08:00

NY Sen. Chas. Schumer

First Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer was invited to testify before New York’s Democratic Senator Charles Schumer’s Senate Judiciary’s Committee’s immigration subcommittee. She was invited the day before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments on the state’s anti-immigration bill SB-1070 on April 25.

Schumer said to Brewer that she was always asking President Obama to come to the border to discuss immigration problems; why not come before his committee and air her concerns. She declined, saying that it was a publicity stunt.

Talking of the new increased security at the border that has drastically decreased border crossings, Schumer wanted to know: 1) why you signed SB 1070 in 2010; 2) whether you still believe SB 1070 is necessary in light of the substantially increased security situation along our southern border; and 3) whether you favor SB 1070 being made a permanent law irrespective of whether conditions further improve along the southern border," as reported in the Huff Post.

President Obama in OZ

Next, just a few days later, Brewer declined an invitation from Obama to attend the G honoring the nation’s governors just before the Nat’l Governors Assn. conference, which Brewer attended on Feb. 27. She told her staff that she didn’t want to “participate in a ‘social’ event.” But when quizzed about not attending the dinner, aides whisked her away before she could speak and mouthpiece Matthew Benson answered questions.

Someone is finally waking up to the fact that every time Jan Brewer opens her mouth she puts every resident of Arizona’s foot in it, not just hers. It has become so embarrassing that those around her that have propped her up in the past are at last realizing they must put a muzzle on her to try and prevent more ridicule of the state of Arizona. Unfortunately the country’s most incompetent governor doesn’t even realize what’s going on and simply muddles on.

Satirist Fran Lebowitz, who appeared recently in Scottsdale, AZ, talking about Brewer’s finger pointing at the President said: “Arizona has not endeared itself to me. I have to say, truly, the president of the

United States

deserves respect… On top of everything else, it's morally crass. Not just from an etiquette standpoint, but it shows a kind of moral vulgarity.”

Brewer spokesperson Matthew Benson said to the Washington Times, “It doesn’t appear that this would be the most productive hearing for Governor Brewer to attend,” talking about Sen. Schumer’s committee hearing. My take is that Jan brewer is always willing to shoot off her mouth when she won’t be pressed for hard answers, or can just walk away from a media event as she has in the past. But she can’t walk away from Schumer, fully realizing she will be in way over her head.

Russell Pearce RECALLED

But it all fell into place when disgraced recalled Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce, who is known as one of the state’s biggest racist bigots, offered to replace Brewer at Schumer’s hearing. He agreed to go to Washington on April 24, as a replacement for Brewer saying he knew more about SB-1070 than the Gov since she “…only signed the bill that was sent to her.” That in itself is an insult from the man known as the de facto governor since Brewer was elected.

Charles Schumer press aide Brian Fallon comments, noting Pearce’s offer: “It is interesting that other Arizona officials responsible for this law are willing to come and defend it, but not Gov. Brewer." Fallon is simply being diplomatic, knowing full well that Brewer’s former 16 seconds of silence could easily turn into hours, starting with the first question of Sen. Schumer’s committee.

What U.S. company do you hate the most?

2012-03-02T07:00:00.001-08:00

In today’s environment where big business is focused entirely on profits, it would be near impossible to determine just how many companies are hated for their lack of concern for their customers. But

24-7 Wall St

, through “substantial” research, has determined those that are “loathed” the most. Their results are based on customer care and satisfaction and the way the company conducts its business, such as profits, earnings, products development and brand valuations.

According to MSN Money, online businesses take a big hit with their unhappy number of enemies, no doubt due to the fact that much of the time it is impossible to reach someone for satisfaction. This compared to smaller companies with less customers. There’s also the current economic situation where employers have had to fire or lay off their workers. A large variety of sources were used to determine the results, which you can see in the above link.

The results are arranged in no particular order and here are the

24-7 Wall St.

5 most hated companies.

Facebook's Mark zuckerberg

1. Facebook: There are 800 million online users of this social network so there is plenty of room for unrest. It is no doubt that a great deal of the problem is the arrogant founder Mark Zuckerberg’s flamboyant attitude toward his customer’s privacy. “Facebook has the lowest customer satisfaction score from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.“ The company’s customer service was described as poor by 25.9 percent of users in 2011.

2. American Airlines: This airline has had its problems, currently being in bankruptcy, having lost $234 million in January. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, American was picked as the worst airline for customer service by the annual Middle Seat scorecard. “For the past five years, American has been among the worst three airlines at on-time performance.” They are at the bottom of the American Customer Satisfaction Index with a score of 63.

3. AT&T: JD Power gave them the lowest score in their wireless customer care performance. The feds accused them of trying to form a monopoly with the buyout of T-Mobile and Consumer Reports gave them their lowest satisfaction rating for cellphone standard service providers. MSN-Money-IBOPE Zogby International says that 26 percent of AT&T’s customers rate their service as poor.

4. Nokia: Unhappy shareholders here with market share dropping repeatedly with their stock declining 50 percent this past year. The company was tied for lowest overall satisfaction in JD Powers 2011 Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction Study and also received the lowest ACSI score for wireless telephones. Interbrand reports that Nokia’s brand value has dropped 15 percent from last year.

5. Goldman Sachs: You knew we had to get around to Wall Street with this company one of the largest offenders during the financial crisis. The government sued GS for fraud in 2010. Fraud accusations continued with two lawsuits for selling mortgage products valued at $15.8 billion. The Federal Housing Finance Agency just this past Fall made another accusation that Goldman Sachs embellished the quality of $11.1 billion of another group of mortgage-backed securities.

Later, the next five most-hated companies according to

24-7 Wall St.

and reported by MSN Money.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) uses Super Bowl to launch latest drive for more gun control

2012-03-01T07:00:00.004-08:00

The Giants beat the Patriots 21 to 17 in the 2012 Super Bowl where no one turns down the sound on commercials that can sometime be as interesting as the game itself. One in particular stood out on February 5, showing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino vying for their local teams, food etc. But the real focus of the 30 second commercial was a new push by Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) for more gun control.

Bloomberg and Menino co-founded the organization in 2006 which currently has more than 600 mayors nationwide participating. Their main thrust is to keep criminals from getting illegal guns.

A good example of their work is the recent sting by MAIG at an Arizona gun show, a state where gun laws are the loosest in the nation. MAIG investigators bought guns from a private weapons dealer there without anything but the money it took to make the purchase. They even told the seller they probably could not pass a background check. The seller simply laughed at their comment and sold them the guns, which is illegal.

MAIG plans to keep the heat on for more gun control right through the November election, although the Democrats still cringe at the thought of supporting any gun discipline legislation. Unfortunately, there are more people in the

U.S.

with guns now and these newly created National Rifle Assn. gun worshippers are fixated on no control so anyone can buy a gun and take it anywhere. And there lies the problem.

Arizona gun show sting

According to a Reuters report, “Members of the MAIG says it is not trying to take guns away from their legal owners, just to close loopholes that allow criminals to get guns and move them around undetected.” Although murder is down in New York and nationwide, the mayors also comment that they still see too many killings of cops and teens. It is rare for a day to go by in Arizona without a shooting, some of which end up as deaths.

This gun show loophole/background checks issue is one area that needs fixing. But another is required education and training before you can own a gun. Arizona has nothing, zip. Most states don’t. I decided to ask an expert so I contacted Ladd Everitt, Director of Communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, and asked the following question: “Can you tell me the average gun training/education a gun owner is required to have?” His answer below.

“If they're simply purchasing firearms, none whatsoever. If they are going to be carrying that gun in public, they MIGHT be required to have training. In 28 states you can now openly carry a loaded gun in public with no permitting, screening or training. Four states now require no permitting, screening or training to carry a concealed firearm in public.

And even in ‘Shall Issue’ states that require one to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public, several have no training requirement. In Arizona, it is wide open. Law enforcement would have no idea what the background of a gun carrier is until he opens fire (unless that individual voluntarily obtained a permit to carry a firearm into certain sensitive public spaces).”

Phew! That means a mentally unstable person from Arizona could walk into a gun store there and buy a Glock 19 with a 15-round clip, hop in his car, and assuming Congress passes HR 822, the federal open-carry bill, with a carry permit drive to any state and commit mass murders like Jared Loughner in Tucson and Seung Hui Cho at Virginia Tech. Assuming he wasn’t caught, he could be on his merry way to another state to commit more mayhem. Only in

America

Private prisons another example of big business exploiting states

2012-02-29T07:00:00.001-08:00

The undocumented immigrants issue had been seething in many states across the country and finally came to a head in April of 2010 when Arizona passed the first law attempting to ban those who were illegal from the state. Alabama followed in April 2011, with its own law somewhat patterned after Arizona’s but even more stringent. Then Florida passed a watered-down version of both bills in May of 2011. Other states have passed similar laws.

Private prison industry

It quickly became obvious to the private prison industry that when these illegals were arrested they would have to be housed somewhere. It was the perfect opportunity to profit from a newly defined crime, so companies like Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) and GEO Group decided to focus on states with the harshest laws. For the last ten years and leading up to the current immigration dilemma, CCA and GEO have doubled their annual revenues.

The idea is to buy up state prisons or open up new ones when expansion is justified. There’s something called the Corrections Investment Initiative between the companies and the states that requires a guarantee of 90 percent occupancy rate over the term of the contract, according to the Huff Post. Which means the states must come up with prisoners from somewhere and what better way to do this than to go after the undocumented immigrants.

Jan Brewer

The most famous purveyor of this required supply of inmates is Arizona’s Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County, billed as the toughest sheriff in the U.S. His counterpart in the state is Paul Babeu, Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona. Both are carrying their own baggage with Arpaio about to be indicted by the feds for abusing his power as a law-enforcement official, and Babeu, who was outed as gay, and accused of threatening to deport his former lover. Only in Arizona.

Arizona’s sham Gov. Jan Brewer was caught with her hand in the private prison dole when she accepted campaign contributions of $60,000 from CCA. Her campaign chairman and policy adviser, Chuck Coughlin, is a lobbyist for the largest private prison company in the country, and one of two people in the Brewer administration with ties to Corrections Corporation of

America

Florida recently killed a state bill that would have privatized South Florida prisons. Passage of the bill could have eliminated around 4,000 prison jobs in 24 facilities in South Florida. Those in favor of the bill claim it could save the state $16.5 million a year but opponents say that public safety situations like corrections should not be contracted out.

Apparently the private prisons industry relies on three factors to thrive: One is lobbying; two is campaign contributions; and three is knowing people in the right places.

Private prison philosophy

When you look at the undocumented population there are over 11 million in the U.S. Because Arizona was the leader in anti-immigration laws in the country with over 700,000 undocumented, they are a good state in which to evaluate the private prison system. The Tucson Citizen released a report recently by the American Friends Service Committee, a group that is working to prevent private prisons in Arizona.

One of the main findings of the study was the fact that “the private prisons under contract with the state cost more than equivalent units operated by the Department of Corrections.” There’s more.

The Arizona Auditor General found a total of 157 security failures in the 5 private prisons under contract with the Arizona Department of Corrections
California’s Inspector General found serious security flaws and improper treatment of California inmates held in three CCA prisons in Arizona
AFSC found evidence of at least 28 riots in private prisons since 2009. The number of riots is likely underreported
There were at least 6 escapes from inside Arizona private prisons in the past 10 years

Free enterprise is one of the foundations of our democracy, but it is clearly inappropriate for private prisons to coach states with the following rhetoric:

“The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction or parole standards and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws.

In other words, ramp up the searches and arrests of illegal immigrants to keep our jail cells full. Remember the 90 percent rule.

More…gun insanity…state by state

2012-02-28T07:00:00.001-08:00

Gun insanity

This is a continuation in my series to point out that there is gun insanity all over the country that needs to be corrected with sane gun control. Of course, there is no better place to start than Arizona.

ARIZONA: Add animal abuse to the charges against this suspected gun freak. It seems that Mark Donald Arneson gave his pit bull “Buddy” to another man and somehow the animal ended up with two rounds in his head. Arneson has a criminal history which makes it illegal for him to have a gun, if in fact he did. Arneson said Buddy had become aggressive and he decided to unload him on this other man. The cops say at the least, he facilitated the dog’s death.

WASHINGTON: Another school shooting of an 8-year-old girl in an elementary school in Bremerton, Washington. They had the shooter in custody but there was no report as to whether he or she was also a student. School shootings are becoming more and more prevalent, but some states still want to legalize bringing a gun on college campuses.

ARIZONA: In a “Walmart Special” recently, a man from Mesa, Arizona dropped his Ruger .357-caliber Western-style revolver in the restroom as he started to sit for his constitutional. The gun went off when it fell out of his holster and hit the floor, the bullet passing through the stall door, ricocheting off the wall into a light on the ceiling then back at the floor almost hitting a man at a urinal. It wasn’t clear whether Andrew Seals would be prosecuted for endangerment. In Arizona? HA!

Following is a must-see video on Arizona gun laws:

PENNSYLVANIA: Tyrirk Harris is accused of killing his neighbor, Franklin Manuel Santana, in Philadelphia over his dogs running free and making a mess. Police say it was an ongoing dispute that eventually prompted Harris to pull out his 9-mm handgun and shoot Santana several times. The victim left a wife and 2-month-old baby. Harris was charged with murder and was not licensed to carry a gun at the time.

ARIZONA: A 42-year-old man, from Mesa again, was arrested on suspicion of threatening his 19-year-old son at gunpoint. Jeffrey Higgins is a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detention officer; one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s boys. He was booked into jail on suspicion of aggravated assault and criminal damage and was placed on administrative leave by the Sheriff’s office. Higgins has a history of threatening his son with guns but the incidents have been unreported.

Sarah Palin with best pal

Jared Loughner, Tucson shooter

MISSOURI: Several Democratic state lawmakers found stickers on their office doors with rifle crosshairs on them. Shades of Sarah Palin and her 2010 crosshairs on Gabby Giffords Arizona district. Coincidentally, it was just one day before Giffords announced on Capitol Hill that she would resign to concentrate on her recovery from being shot at the 2011 Tucson massacre. Some lawmakers removed the stickers only to return later and find even larger ones.

ARIZONA: In Mesa, once again, a 7-year-old boy brought a handgun on a loaded school bus and discharged it. There were about 30 students on board when the boy manipulated the gun in his backpack, firing a single shot. His father,

Mike Place

, was “grateful nobody was hurt.” The kid found the weapon in a closet at home and had carried it around school all day. What kind of moron gun owner leaves his handgun unsecured in a closet? One from Arizona, of course.

From accidents to intent to harm, there are too many guns on the streets and too many of those guns are in the hands of those who either legally should not possess a weapon or are not educated well enough to carry a gun. More coming up on the lack of gun education later.

Arizona mock Gov. Jan Brewer takes racism back to pre-1964

2012-02-27T07:00:00.003-08:00

It was July 2, 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation.

AZ Gov. Jan Brewer

It was bad enough that a troubled, less-than-capable head of state Jan Brewer greeted the President of the United States to Arizona with a finger-wagging in his face in an attempt to dominate him. That was more than adequate to prompt charges of bigotry against the leader of a state known for its racists and an intolerant conservative legislature that, along with much of the state’s population, also hates Hispanics.

Now Brewer is not the greenest saguaro in the desert but Politico thinks she has ignited a “firestorm” around the potential of race becoming an issue in the 2012 election. And there is no state better than Arizona to coddle this movement with known racist, bigot and recalled state Senator Russell Pearce and his buddy J.T. Ready, another racist and also a neo-Nazi, to fan the flames. However, jaundiced Jan didn’t stop with her finger in the face of Barack Obama.

Following the incident and on Fox News and various other media outlets, she offered up several versions of the incident. She accused Obama of being “thin skinned,” and said that she felt threatened by his attitude. Harry Shelton, Sr. VP for the NAACP commented: “What were you afraid he would do, steal your purse?” Although there are those who support her in Arizona, she and other state politicians like her continue to bring unbridled ridicule to the state.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson pointed out that we are celebrating the 150^th anniversary of the Civil War but are seeing an awakening of the States’ Rights movement of the 1940s, that fought the federal government because of its opposition to federally mandated racial desegregation. I grew up during that movement and experienced several Dixiecrat Party political rallies in Tennessee that opposed integration. The party was formed in 1948 and dissolved in 1948.

PoliticusUSA says the fact that we have a black President doesn’t indicate any progress toward race equality. Further, “The racism in

America

is not limited to hatred of African-Americans, and the past year’s negative rhetoric against immigrants, the poor, and Muslims has been a display of white supremacy that has permeated the general population and many of our politicians.”

In other words, the feeling of superiority over others knows no bounds when they are different than we are.

PoliticusUSA also said, “Conservatives’ attacks on ACORN, NAACP, and the Southern Poverty Law Center were not for their activism or defense of civil rights, but an attack on African Americans.” Their concern is rooted in the fact that blacks, Hispanics and other minorities will eventually organize and use their voting power to oust the conservative bigots and make equal rights mean what the Constitution originally intended.

If you want a demonstration of Arizona racism, you must see the following Russell Pearce and J.T. Ready video:

Politico reports, “An AP-Ipsos poll taken just before the 2008 election showed that Obama’s support would have been as much as 6 percentage points higher had he been white.” Because of the concerns over the economy, this “racial bias” will be played down in 2012. Although the racial effects were there in 2008, they didn’t decide the election, according to Tammy Frisby, a research fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.

Getting along

If you must have your specific illustration of racism against Barack Obama, Politico says it is “visceral,” providing the following example: “That was true in 2008 — when a handful of rabid Obama haters sent out emails that included crude caricatures of Obama as a Muslim, a monkey, Buckwheat or worse.

Mary Frances Berry, former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, thinks we should focus on how the President handled the tarmac finger wagging and ignore Jan Brewer’s motives. Obama characterized the moment as “no big deal” and moved on from there. Unfortunately, Arizona, and much of the rest of the nation, isn’t able to do the same.

Eliminating the penny could shut down the junk mail industry

2012-02-24T07:00:00.001-08:00

When is the last time you saw anything in a junk mail catalog that didn’t end in 99 cents? Well maybe sometime they fudge with 95 cents but that’s pretty rare. I spent 35 years in this business as a data broker and consultant and when I first started it was impressed on me the value of using the word “free” and never using a rounded off price. And it’s not only junk mail; traditional retail establishments use the same ploy.

Gasoline prices end in 99 cents. Dollar stores even sell many of their products at 99 cents. Amazon.com has a 99 cent Lady Gaga album and authors sell their e-books for 99 cents. The Dish Network has 99 cent movies and one game maker was selling its games for 99 cents. Some companies have an offer to ship your merchandise for only 99 cents and one 99 cent chain is in the middle of a huge buyout that will no doubt end in a selling price that includes 99 cents somewhere.

Do they think we’re stupid? No, so thought David Gold in 1982 when he opened his first 99 Cents Only store in California. The move was prompted when he tried using the 99 cent approach to selling wines in his liquor store he wanted to move, and friends told him he had a concept that should be expanded. Dollar and 99 cents stores are now found in most cities around the country. One of Gold’s first promotions was selling a limited amount of TVs for 99 cents.

Wikipedia calls it “psychological pricing,” which it is by using odd prices like 99 cents with the theory that it increases demand. I doubt that and firmly believe that if you sold an item for $5.00 instead of $4.99, consumers would buy it for the sheer novelty. At least until the impact of the change wore off. From a study done back in the late 1990s, it was found that 60 percent of advertised prices ended in the digit 9, 30 percent 5, 7 percent in a zero.

Just think of the money that could be saved by rounding prices off. Without all the 99 cent digits gone, catalogs could be smaller or contain more products and junk mail could lower prices even more. Gas pumps could be narrower without the .99 extension and fuel prices could be lowered. Retail outlets could use smaller signs in stores without all the .99s meaning they could hold more sales with more price reductions.

In 1970 when I entered the junk mail business they were already using the 99 cent price calculation so David Gold might have gotten his idea from receiving one of their catalogs. In case you don’t know, the purpose of the junk mail offer is to “get your attention,” then get you “involved” so you end up buying something. It was determined early on that a round figure was not attention-getting, thus, the move to just one cent lower than the round figure.

You might wonder, had the industry gone with the round figure, just how much more profitable could it have been.

Typical Victorias Secret ad

On the other hand, junk mail companies sell your names from their mailing list at round figures. It’s almost as if they think the buying public is dumb enough to fall for the 99 cent subterfuge but other junk mailers they are selling their lists to are not. Based on my 35 years in the business, I would take exception with that. For perspective, the lingerie catalog Victorias Secret sells its customer names for a base price of $115 per thousand names. This can increase dramatically to over $200 per thousand names if junk mailers want things like age, income, etc.

My gut tells me that the public has seen this 99 cent thing for so long that it doesn’t do anything to incite them to make a purchase anymore. However, when you have developed a habit like this based on, hopefully, some logic that was inspired years ago, you’re not likely to dump the idea without new logic. Junk mailers are much busier at this time trying to figure out how to wring even more bucks out of your names; they gross over $4 billion annually now.

Read more here about eliminating the penny.

Rick Santorum can eliminate Mitt Romney in Arizona…just use a gun

2012-02-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

It’s all but guaranteed. Mitt Romney supports the 2^nd Amendment but his more moderate politics may lead some to believe it is also where he stands on gun rights. Even if not true, his conservatism is not quite fanatical enough for Arizona Republicans, some of which think a middle-of-the-roader is a bleeding liberal. Rick Santorum, on the other hand, goes all the way with his views, so far to the right that he almost circles the political globe back to the left.

All the polls report that Santorum and Romney are close in the latter’s home state of Michigan leading into Wednesday’s debate in Arizona, and the Christian Science Monitor reports that a new CNN/Time poll announces that Santorum may now be closing the gap in Arizona. Romney does still have a lead prior to Wednesday.

But all Ricky boy has to do to get the majority’s attention in Arizona is to swagger into the debate wearing a Glock 19 at his side, an AK-47 over his shoulder. I can see it now. With a tumultuous applause including standing ovation, Santorum tells his loving audience, I feel your pain and one of my first acts as President will be to pass a law that will make it legal to shoot illegal immigrants as they cross the border. Forget the fence; just work on improving your aim.

Typical Arizona lawmaker

Now, of course, Rick Santorum would never do that but there are some in Arizona that would welcome a law like this. The Arizona Republican state legislature, after hearing of this idea, is probably already checking out the concept to see how they might turn it into legislation. And if they don’t get them at the border, just confront the first immigrant at your local bar, starting an altercation that ultimately ends up in you shooting them, illegal or not.

I know. Purely bizarre and maybe I am pushing the envelope, but all within the realm of possibility in a state that hates a huge portion of its workforce, and loves its guns more than it does the safety of Arizona’s citizens. I don’t want you make-believe vigilantes protecting me with your concealed weapons. You don’t have the proper training, nothing even remotely close to law enforcement, and it is time you cowboys understood that.

The National Victims Action Council (NVAC) has an interesting illustration of how those packing heat probably would never have the chance to react, even if they had enough training. It’s a fantasy, they say, advanced by the gun lobby, that gun owners need their weapons with them at all times for self defense. Like walking down a street in Dodge City waiting to draw and shoot. Doesn’t happen that way. The criminal almost always has the element of surprise.

Mitt Romney, Mr. 1%

In most instances a police officer would have the upper hand by most likely being in uniform, trained to spot the bad guys before they get the upper hand. He or she can anticipate their moves and already has a strategy for almost any kind of confrontation. Gun fanatics take notice: you don’t have any of this talent but if you do it is no doubt limited to watching TV cop dramas. I keep bringing this up but two gun nuts almost shot each other in the Tucson massacre.

Let’s be realistic. Because of a lousy economy law enforcement has been cut back but I’ll still wait for the police any day rather than put my life in the hands of a vigilante cowboy.

NVAC says in a 2009 study commissioned by the National Institutes of Health and published in the American Journal of Public Health, “…guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault.” Further, “The study found that people carrying a gun were 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault than those not carrying a gun.” Go to the NVAC site, above, for more facts on this issue.

In the meantime, when you read this post, it will probably already be evident how both Romney and Santorum stand on gun rights from the debate last night; that is if anyone dares bring it up. My exposition above is simply to shed light on the fact that gun rights in Arizona, and several other states, are simply insane. I would settle for just one of the candidates saying, ‘Ah, come on Arizona and the rest of the country. Can’t we just agree on sane gun control?’ Yeah, right.

Doctors dump parents that refuse to vaccinate children but where do they go?

2012-02-22T07:00:00.001-08:00

I did an article back in November of 2011, “Reckless parents endanger children by not vaccinating,” when this whole fiasco started about parents who adamantly decline to have their children inoculated properly. It all started over a study done by a doctor in

Great Britain

that was proved to be wrong. But families persisted in their refusal to vaccinate and now some pediatricians who have lost patience with this attitude are “firing” them from their practice. Good riddance!

Child with measles

As a result of this denial, whooping cough is back, mumps are back, measles are back. As of November 2011, there were 152 cases of measles, double a typical year; the biggest outbreak in 15 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the pre-vaccine days, this disease killed between 3,000 and 5,000 Americans a year. Doctors are only attempting to protect their other patients when they tell the stubborn ones to take a hike.

But, where do they go?

In a Wall Street Journal piece, it was reported that “Medical associations don't recommend such patient bans, but the practice appears to be growing, according to vaccine researchers.” And the docs aren’t giving in; a study done in Connecticut showed that around 30 percent of 133 doctors had asked this group to leave their practice. In the Midwest, the figure was 21 percent. Who wants to sit their child down next to another who could have God knows whatever?

Another concern of these misled parents was that mercury was used as a vaccine preservative, also disproved like the autism scare by numerous studies. The WSJ found another interesting fact, that more medically educated parents these days are willing to challenge their doctors, thus, these physicians do not want to deal with patients that outwardly confront them. This alone I cannot condone since a well-informed patient is the best kind of patient.

Some doctors said that they have not had much luck in persuading these misinformed parents to change their minds so the only alternative is to fire them. Pediatricians do not agree on their obligations to these families but do know they want them to get the best medical care possible. Unfortunately, those let go from these practices are “…probably going to gravitate toward another practice with unhealthy practices."

And that is one answer to where will they go. But there is yet another possibility; they won’t go anywhere and that is worse.

With the economy in the shape it is and affecting so many financially, along with a number of families without health care coverage, the ingredients are there for a real health care emergency. 40% of parents say they have deliberately skipped or delayed a shot for their children. In another study, 1 in 10 parents vaccinated their children outside of the recommended schedule developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The doctor's pledge

A lot of younger parents today have not seen the havoc diseases like measles, mumps or whooping cough can cause. They are willing to opt for the other side based primarily on emotionalism, reading material on the Internet without really checking its source for authenticity. One Atlanta mom made the statement that any doctor should feel “obligated” to discuss vaccine risks.

True, but if that doc tells you that you are endangering your child in what you are doing, and if you trust his or her judgment, then you should also take their advice.

Gun nuts are right, guns don’t kill people; the NRA does by forcing loose gun laws

2012-02-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Why the NRA gets its way

In talking about the “Fast and Furious” fiasco, Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, “anyone can walk in and buy anything,” referring to firearms. F&F occurred in Arizona, which just happens to have the loosest gun laws in the USA, perhaps in the world. The Senator’s home state has more stringent weapons laws such as a ban against assault weapons compared to Arizona that allows their sale.

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) filed a lawsuit in August of 2011, challenging a new federal regulation requiring gun merchants in states along the border with Mexico to report bulk sales of certain semiautomatic rifles. The key word here is “bulk” as if NRA members need 10 or more assault rifles to protect their homes. The organization was prominent in the appeal of the assault weapons ban

The NRA has the state of Arizona by the balls and yet it continues to push for more laws that will allow firearms everywhere in the state. The latest to come out of this demented Republican legislature is a bill to force guns onto college and university campuses; you can already take them into bars. The NRA has succeeded in diluting Arizona weapons laws to the extent that anyone can buy and carry a handgun concealed with absolutely no training.

In the following video you can watch one of the NRA's Exec. Dir. Wayne LaPierre's ludicrous answers to why the government should not monitor multiple gun sales along the Mexican border:

In all fairness, the National Rifle Assn. has several gun safety programs available to its members, which it recommends on its site, but hardly the kind of thing that would appeal to a Jared Loughner before his Tucson massacre or Seung Hui Cho in the Virginia Tech bloodbath.

NRA new member

This all stems from a branch of the NRA, the Institute for Legislative Action, which is their lobbying arm. It places its strength in the 4-million members of the organization and gun manufacturers that both contribute generously to the NRA. The ILA depends heavily on grassroots efforts in the states to pass pro-gun reform legislation.

Although it says its efforts are to “recognize the right of honest citizens to carry firearms for self-protection,” the ILA fails to mention that these same laws also allow lunatics to buy and carry around weapons with which they create mayhem on innocent citizens.

Other NRA approved state legislation includes: In Mississippi when you have a concealed carry permit and take an eight-hour education course, you can now carry a gun on college campuses, in bars and in courthouses; Despite Iowa loosening its gun law regulations back in 2010, the NRA demanded more, wanting more firearms on the street; In Tennessee gun laws look almost as loose as the state of Arizona.

Here’s an example of the NRA’s arrogance and misplaced priorities: "This is all a coordinated approach to respect that human, God-given right of self defense by law-abiding Americans," says Chris W. Cox, the NRA's chief lobbyist. "We'll rest when all 50 states allow and respect the right of law-abiding people to defend themselves from criminal attack." From the Nashville, Tenn. Herald Sun.

NRA's Wayne LaPierre laughing at gun control

In Pennsylvania a bill is going through the legislature that would penalize municipalities - including Philadelphia and 29 others - that have enacted laws to curb illegal gun sales by requiring them to pay damages and penalties to plaintiffs who challenge those laws in the courts; Virginia is considering a bring your gun to work bill; And at the federal level, the “National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011” would make it easier for people to carry concealed handguns across state lines.

You can take a look at your state on Wikipedia’s “Gun Laws in the United States” site. Then compare it with bizarre states like Arizona, Tennessee and Texas. If your state has reasonable gun control laws, I can guarantee you that the National Rifle Assn. is lurking close. It is simply a matter of time, unless you do something to stop it.

Occupy Movement must dump camps for mission and strategy

2012-02-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you look at the latest stamina of President Obama’s rhetoric on issues you would have to agree that it is far more forceful than a year ago. And it was just a little more than a year ago that the Occupy Movement started; Occupy Wall Street held its first demonstration on September 17, 2011. At that time the Tea Party was going full blast and deciding much of what was going on in Congress.

TPers still have their influence but it is waning, evidenced by recent GOP conciliations on the payroll tax cut.

Arlen Grossman, writing in OpEdNews, talks of how the President was willing to make all kinds of deals with the GOP on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the taxing of the rich back in early to mid-2011. And then the Occupy Movement began to do their number in September and the American public suddenly realized there were several inequities in the system that needed to be fixed.

It all centered around the 1% that controlled all the wealth, leaving the other 99% to fend for itself in an arena that was clearly weighted toward the 1%.

“Issues of class and economic fairness that had been swept under the rug for years suddenly became issues for discussion. Middle class Americans began to understand that corporations and the wealthy were paying a lower tax rate than they were,” says Grossman. And Barack Obama became “bolder,” more resolute in where he stood on the issues he had had to appease Republicans on just a year ago.

Grossman adds: “I can't help but think that the Occupy movement has played a major role in reversing the focus of politics from last fall until now. If Occupy disappeared right now, they could get credit for accomplishing quite a bit in a short time.”

The New York Times says that although the Occupy camps are dismantling, it is “far from dissipating.” They are only regrouping for the next thrust which will include larger marches and strikes coming up in the spring, designed to rebuild momentum, returning to the issues of inequality and corporate greed. New York City is still the center of the movement but expansion nationwide, even worldwide, has proved the dedication of those involved.

William A. Galston, a senior fellow and an expert on political strategy at the Brookings Institution in Washington said, “They’ve gotten the people’s attention, and now they have to say something more specific. Average Americans want solutions, not demonstrations, and their patience for the latter won’t last indefinitely.” Demonstrators have been hearing this for months, but like any new movement, they had to wear through the emotionalism first.

An editorial from USA Today says the Occupy Movement is “…fading out in a whimper.” The paper also says the movement hit a rich vein of dissent with Wall Street, “But after successfully tapping into this vein, the Occupiers chose a course best described as doing nothing.” They may have a point that the demonstrators put too much stock in their physical presence in an encampment, but others might counter that they were simply taking time to reorganize.

Pew Research Report

One thing is very clear. “Occupy must include minorities.” is an article from the Pasadena Sun that comments on the economic regression of the middle-class in

America

. It goes on to say, “According to a 2011 Pew Center report, the median wealth of Hispanic households dropped by 66% between 2005 and 2009. That is a larger drop than experienced by black households, 53%, and far worse than the 16% experienced by whites.”

In other words, who is more likely to be affected by the Occupy Movement that blacks and Hispanics?

The piece made another excellent point that in good times the U.S. favors immigration because of the work force available to do a number of jobs. But in bad times immigrants are “scapegoats,” evidenced by the anti-immigration law SB-1070 enacted by Arizona. With the surge in the Latino population, and in particular their recent enterprise toward activism, this should be one of Occupy’s top priorities.

The unemployment rate for black Americans is at 15 percent, compared to around 8 percent for whites. But the majority of the movement is white as reported by A Fast Company survey recently that found that African Americans, who are 12.6 percent of the

U.S.

population, make up only 1.6 percent of

Occupy Wall Street

. The Washington Post also said, “We can’t expect our civil rights organizations and political leaders to help blacks rage against the corporate machine when they are part of it.”

There is no other group of Americans more entrenched in activism for their rights than blacks and it will be a tragedy if they are not encouraged to fight for them alongside the Occupy Movement.

Starbucks position on open gun carry laws creates nightmare

2012-02-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

If you are a Starbuck’s fan, and I am, and if you are an advocate of sane gun control, which I am, you might be looking for a place other than your local Starbuck’s store to get your daily coffee fix. And I might just do that too if the gun bubbas attempt to bully their way around where my wife and I migrate to at least three or four times a week for our favorite brews.

So far I have not seen one open-carried weapon where we frequent—we are in Arizona and that’s not normal—so maybe there is still hope. However, that doesn’t mean that half the people we’re sitting around with don’t have a Glock in their pocket. Hey, they can carry loaded handguns into bars in this state so why not their local Starbucks? The whole concept amounts to sheer lunacy.

This past Tuesday the National Gun Victim's Action Council (NGVA) called for a boycott on all Starbucks stores because the company allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores (in 43 states) and concealed and carried in its stores (in 49 states). There is the implication by NGVA that Starbucks has been pressured by the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) due to its 2010 Pro-Gun Agenda where the "open carry" movement began meeting in popular major retail chains.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz

All the chains but Starbucks banned guns from being carried in their stores. As a loyal customer, I asked Starbucks to email me their current policy on open gun carry which they did. It dates back to March of 2010 which coincides with the NRA’s Pro-Gun Agenda so I decided to ask the company a question I felt might shed some light on the matter.

The question was: “Is Howard Schultz (Starbucks CEO) a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA)? If you cannot answer this question, please forward this email to Mr. Schultz's office.”

I waited for over 10 days and when I received no answer sent this email: “As of this date I have not received an answer and would like to hear from someone at your earliest convenience. Otherwise, I will proceed and write my article with the information I have indicating your response to the above. That was on February 9, with still no answer yet.

Whether Howard Schultz is or is not a member of the NRA makes absolutely no difference in this matter other to simply clarify his personal position on guns. If an NRA member, he could be as radical as certain factions of this organization that believe that guns should be available to anyone in the world and be able to be carried by their owners anywhere in the world. But Howard decided to keep this information to himself and that is his right.

NGVA made this additional statement: “Starbucks has the legal right to ban guns but despite having been petitioned by thousands, asked at a shareholder meeting, and a direct appeal made to their Board, Starbucks clings to this policy that puts millions of Americans at risk every day and encourages the spread of guns being carried in public.” They add, "Open and conceal and carry are among the reasons there are 12,000 gun homicides each year in the

U.S.

”

NGCA thinks "Starbucks’ steadfast support of the NRA's lethal pro-gun agenda damages its 'socially conscious company' brand.” They said the boycott will continue until “Starbucks rejects the NRA's Pro-Gun agenda by banning all guns from their stores and committing to be an Aggressive Corporate Advocate for sane gun laws.”

The Brady Campaign says: “Fifty six percent of those polled - favor Starbucks and other retail establishments establishing strict ‘no guns’ policies for their businesses - and far more gun owners support a “no guns” policy for Starbucks than believe Starbucks and other businesses should allow firearms on their premises,” this according to a poll conducted for the Brady Center by the polling firm Lake Research Partners.

That is a pretty strong mandate that Starbucks has opened a can of worms it had better close before the boycotts start to affect their business, and there are even additional gun control organizations threatening more of the same. Or…before someone is injured or even killed at one of their stores, which, based on daily reports of shootings that occur in Arizona, could happen at my favorite location.

Gun rights fanatics and some moderates say gun control is racist

2012-02-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Ladd Everitt Director of Communications for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence has written an article on racism as a concept to explain gun control. You might laugh at the thought that the gun nuts would come up with this ridiculous hypothesis, but in his piece, Ladd quotes author Adam Winkler, who is a UCLA Law Professor, as declaring that “gun control is racist” in his new book, Gunfight.

According to Everitt, Winkler implies that gun control is defined by extremists who want to take away all guns from owners and establish a system much like the United Kingdom. I have been writing on gun control for over seven years now and know this is not true as Ladd Everitt confirms. He even cites others who concur like Sen. Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

See Ladd Everitt question Adam Winkler over racism and gun control below:

There are others that add to this misconception like historian and author, Clayton E. Cramer, who says, “The historical record provides compelling evidence that racism underlies gun control laws -- and not in any subtle way.” He underlines that with, “Throughout much of American history, gun control was openly stated as a method for keeping blacks and Hispanics "in their place," and to quiet the racial fears of whites.” Shades of Mississippi and Arizona.

Cramer continues in his article with examples like the French Black Code that required Louisiana colonists to stop and if necessary beat blacks carrying any weapon, even a walking cane. He also talks about the Haitian Revolution of the 1790s, the fear of the first North American English colonies slave revolts, and the 1834 change to the Tennessee Constitution that allowed only “white” men to bear arms in their defense.

The author sums up the article with the statement, “…gun control has historically been a tool of racism, and associated with racist attitudes about black violence.” Interesting, but still not proving a real connection between gun control and racism other than the fact that the days of slavery in this country were violent ones.

Everitt says that Winkler “…even acknowledges that an overwhelming majority of African-Americans today support strong, strict gun laws.” And he adds that “Winkler can cite no example of the contemporary gun control movement being racist.” This is a modern day comparison unlike the historical one by Cramer.

And growing up in the South in Mississippi and Tennessee, I was well aware of the killings of the Ku Klux Klan.

KKK hanging

Once, after I was old enough to drink I said to my father when we were having a beer together in a local Tennessee tavern, that I thought the KKK was a bunch of illiterate barbarian murderers. He quietly let me know that this wasn’t something you said in this part of the country, particularly in a saloon where everyone had been drinking. Actually, I grew up in this West Tennessee small town thinking I was the one that was crazy because of my beliefs, but I never gave them up. I was for gun control then and not once experienced anything racist about it.

If you are interested, I would suggest that you Google “gun control is racist” to see a multitude of sites on the subject. The gun rights extremists will go to any length to try and prove their point that everyone should be able to own a gun, no matter what their status, and be allowed to take their firearms anywhere in the USA—perhaps even the world—they want to. But connecting gun control to racism is just wrong.

GOP Congress masterful at blocking anything Obama

2012-02-15T07:00:00.000-08:00

The GOP stonewall

The Republican merry band of stonewalling bunglers started out the new year with their same tactics of saying no to anything President Obama presents. On January 18, the GOP Congress voted to block Obama’s request for $1.2 trillion in additional borrowing authority, indicating the same Republican reaction to “anything Barack Obama” would continue throughout 2012. Oh, that’s right, it’s an election year.

Tea Party flake, Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican representative, said, “Until we have a plan to deal with our fiscal crisis, we should not raise the debt ceiling any further.” In other words, push the problem to as close to the November election as possible, and, by the way, I’m running for Senator. He also voted against the temporary payroll tax extension back in December 2011, the bill to extend payroll tax deductions and unemployment compensation.

Following is a list of bills, appointments, etc. that this gang of obstructionists has stalled or stopped in their tracks:

GOP blocks vote on Richard Cordray to head consumer bureau (later appointed)
Republicans Block Congressional Health Care Disclosure
GOP leadership blocks congressional insider-trading ban
Senate GOP blocks Democrat disaster aid

GOP attempts to block EPA’s climate change rules
Republicans block Tax on Companies that ship jobs overseas
GOP blocks Political Ad disclosure bill
Republicans block The Small Business Jobs Act (later passed)
GOP blocks The DREAM Act

Republicans block repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (later passed)

And there are more that you can see here.

All of which brings us to President Obama’s proposed budget that he says is a "blueprint for how we can rebuild an economy where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded."

At the same time there is the end of February deadline to pass an extension for the payroll tax cut and unemployment compensation which is sure to heat up the rhetoric since Obama wants to cover the cost with a “surtax on income over $1 million and eliminating some corporate tax subsidies, like those going to oil and gas companies.” Republicans want to cover it partially by “extending the current pay freeze on federal workers and requiring wealthier seniors to pay higher Medicare premiums,” according to CNN.

If we run into the same GOP barricade that we did in December, the result is that 160 million American families would pay an additional $1,000 in taxes per year. The package will cost an estimated $160 billion and that is where the President wants millionaires to step up to the plate and pay their fair share. New chief of staff Jack Lew would not predict passage but recounted the “ugly fight” this past December over the payroll tax, something we need to avoid this go around.

This past Saturday in his weekly presidential address, Obama urged Congress to "stop this middle-class tax hike from happening, period." He also said "No drama. No delay. And no ideological side issues that have nothing to do with this tax cut. Now is not the time for self-inflicted wounds to our recovery. Now is the time for common-sense action. And this tax cut is common sense." Naturally Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, did his number to make the Dems the bad guys.

GOP House Speaker John Boehner wants to vote this week on a Republican plan to extend “…the payroll tax cut -- but not unemployment benefits or a delay of cuts in fees to doctors who treat Medicare patients,” as reported in USA Today. The White House is wary and press secretary Jay Carney says there is still time to negotiate a settlement. Not sure there are many Americans that would agree with Carney.

People throughout this country have become weary over the shenanigans of the GOP Congress, including some Democrats, and their lowest approval rating ever supports this. It’s like they just don’t get it, and until this self-serving clan of taxpayer moochers decides that they do work for us, there will be no change.

We all have a chance to do something about this in November and it will be interesting to see just how concerned voters really are. Or will it be business as usual?

GUNS: The geography and demography of guns

2012-02-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

Richard Florida, who is a Senior Editor with Atlantic magazine and Director of Martin Prosperity Institute of the University of Toronto, has done a study that determines the circumstances that run parallel with firearms deaths at the state level. He recounts all the accusations that might have caused Jared Loughner’s massacre in Tucson, Arizona, just over a year ago, some blaming politics others the shooter’s mental state. Florida says we must look deeper for the answers.

Arizona then and now is the center for the fight against immigration with known bigot and racist state senator Russell Pearce, author of the state’s anti-immigration bill, SB-1070, recalled and voted out of office, while his buddy, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, continues to foster hate against all ethnic groups. Arizona also has the loosest gun laws of any state in the U.S. Richard Florida asks if “tighter gun control laws” could have made a difference. Arizona ranks eighth nationally with 15.1 firearms deaths per 100,000 population.

Florida decided to go to the state level to analyze “…the statistical correlations between firearm deaths and a variety of psychological, economic, social, and political characteristics of states. But he cautions, “…that correlation does not imply causation, but simply points to associations between variables.”

Findings: no statistical association between gun deaths and mental illness or stress levels; no association between illegal drug use and death from gun violence at the state level; no evidence in association with unemployment and higher levels of inequality. So what are the elements associated with firearms deaths at the state level?

Dr. Richard Florida

According to Florida’s study, poverty is one. The correlation between death by gun and poverty at the state level is .59. An economy dominated by working class jobs is another. Having a high percentage of working class jobs is closely associated with firearm deaths (.55). And, not surprisingly, firearm-related deaths are positively correlated with the rates of high school students that carry weapons on school property (.54).

Based on politics and the 2008 presidential election, firearm-related deaths were positively associated with states that voted for McCain (.66) and negatively associated with states that voted for Obama (-.66). Firearm deaths were far less likely to occur in states with higher levels of college graduates (-.64) and more creative class jobs (-.52). And states with more immigrants have lower levels of gun-related deaths, which runs counter to the fact that Arizona ranks eighth nationally with 15.1 firearms deaths per 100,000 population.

So back to the question of gun control and whether tougher laws could make a difference. Florida’s analysis suggests that they do. He says if you look at the second U.S. map on the above link, “It highlights states which have one of three gun control restrictions in place - assault weapons' bans, trigger locks, or safe storage requirements.” The highest injury states, Arizona, Alaska, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have none. Even Texas has at least one.

Though admittedly with some small sample sizes, the study says “Firearm deaths are significantly lower in states with stricter gun control legislation.” Correlations are substantially negative when considering firearms deaths in states that ban assault weapons (-.45), require trigger locks (-.42), and mandate safe storage requirements for guns (-.48). In other words, with more control you end up with less gun injuries and deaths.

The Pew Research Center also did a survey on the demographics of Americans who have views on protecting guns rights and those who feel the need for more gun control. 50% of the country felt more gun control was necessary compared to 46% who didn’t. 52% of those preferring more control were under age 50, 56% under 30. 54% wanting more gun freedom were white compared to 30% black and 21% Hispanic. The more educated wanted more gun control

Those who were married wanted less control as did registered voters. 70% of Republicans want less control compared to 30% Democrat and 46% Independent. 67% of evangelicals want less control but 63% of Catholics want more. Mountain states like AZ, CO, ID, MT NM and NV want less control compared to CA, OR and WA that want more. Naturally, 78% of Tea Party members want less control in contrast to 18% who don’t.

It isn’t exactly overwhelming but it is abundantly clear that more gun control is needed. As I have said before, it should start with strengthening background checks to catch the mentally ill before purchasing a gun, closing the gun show loophole and drastically limiting the concealed carrying laws for handguns with federal legislation. Agreed, it won’t sit well with the gun fanatics but I do believe there is a rational faction of gun owners who agree somewhat with my thinking.

RELIGION: How will evangelicals affect the vote in November 2012?

2012-02-13T07:00:00.000-08:00

Thou shalt not not conceive

If the Catholic Church outburst over President Obama’s healthcare bill order for religious companies to provide birth control protection, joined now by evangelicals across the country, is any indication of the level of their impact on 2012 voting, it would appear that the White House and Democrats have a fight on their hands. Add to this the fact that Rick Santorum is not only a Catholic but also an evangelical.

The question remains just how much reaction there will be from voting religious beliefs if they aren’t necessarily good for the country.

California megachurch pastor Rick Warren said "I'm not a Catholic but I stand in 100% solidarity with my brothers & sisters to practice their belief against govt pressure." I hate to break this to both Warren and the Pope but 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women practice birth control and those same figures apply to evangelicals and other Protestants. This comes from a recent report by the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit sexual health research organization.

What it appears the Obama administration is trying to do is keep certain factions from taking away a right for women who opt for contraception, not simply exert government pressure.

The following Bill Maher video is hilarious:

Southern Baptist minister Phil DaCosta from Atlanta says, “I vote on Jesus first.” He is a Tea Party member whose priorities are Israel, abortion and marriage. As a TPer he does want lower taxes and smaller government. But these people invariably miss the point completely when their emphasis is based on their religious beliefs with no outright concern for the economy and its problems like the jobless, foreclosures, Afghan war, the state of U.S. education and the pitiable Congress some of which the religious right stuck us with.

Jaweed Kaleem, writing in the Huff Post, says DaCosta is just what Ralph Reed, a political strategist and former Christian Coalition director, is looking for. Reed’s new organization, Faith and Freedom Coalition, wants to “…unite under his relatively new organization that aims to fuse the Bible-based value voting of traditional social conservatives with the grassroots momentum of the Tea Party to form a bloc of voters big enough to influence state and national elections.”

Ralph Reed buddy Jack Abramoff

According to Wikipedia, “in 1996, the Christian Coalition's chief financial officer, Judy Liebert, ‘went to federal prosecutors with her suspicions of overbilling by Ben Hart, a direct-mail vendor with close ties to Reed, then the coalition's executive director.’" Ralph Reed resigned later during an investigation. Reed wasn’t charged but the Christian Coalition later sued Hart's firm.

In June 2005 it was revealed that Reed secretly accepted payments from Jack Abramoff to lobby against Indian casino gambling and oppose an Alabama education lottery. Abramoff pled guilty to three felony counts in federal court. So you have to wonder why the Tea Party would want to get mixed up with Reed unless you consider the fact that the Tea Party itself is a fraud. The Huff Post exposes the “ugly underbelly” of the tea party movement” and the deceit of its stands on taxes and government tyranny.

Rick Santorum branded "Loser"

According to a survey from Reed’s faith and Freedom Coalition, “…32 percent of all voters in 2010 were Christian conservatives, and 72 percent of them voted Republican.” They helped the GOP gain 63 seats to control the House. Reed himself asks, “So it is that a presidential campaign that is largely about the economy is nevertheless deeply shaped by issues of faith and morality.” He adds that the evangelical vote made up 44 percent of Republican primary voters in 2008.

Now enter Catholic evangelical Rick Santorum who appears to have put Mitt Romney on the defensive with his recent wins in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado. The comment was made that Santorum made them “swoon” at the Conservative Political Action committee (CPAC) meeting recently, even though Romney also delivered an outstanding speech.

But one political analyst says Santorum won’t survive and the conservative crowd will eventually end up falling in behind Romney.

The GOP may very well end up tossing a coin for the nomination.

UPDATE: Romney wins Maine caucuses and CPAC straw vote.

States try to legislate unions out of business

2012-02-10T07:00:00.000-08:00

I have heard before that there is a cycle between unions and corporate management where one prevails in power for a few years, then the other takes over. It is clear that big business has been in control for several years now thanks to the support of the GOP. Labor unions have been diluted by the right to work laws, the latter which seem reasonable if unions are allowed to continue to organize and encourage membership.

Enter the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), headed up by the Koch brothers, and started some 30 years ago to draft state (sometimes national) legislation that favors big business. You might know it best from its backing of Arizona’s anti-immigration law SB-1070, because ALEC was helping promote private prisons in the state to house the arrested illegals. Arizona’s mock Governor Jan Brewer supported the private prison movement, as did the Republican controlled state legislature.

The fight over union rights has been going on for some time. A bill passed in Ohio was overturned in a public referendum last year. Wisconsin passed a similar bill that would eliminate most union collective bargaining rights. As a result, enough signatures have now been collected to recall Gov. Scott Walker. He actually went to Arizona to promote corresponding legislation for that state that some have said is even more radical than Wisconsin’s.

Brewer met with ALEC this past December during its meeting in Scottsdale, AZ. Wisconsin Gov. Walker was also there talking to ALEC groups who were meeting at the Phoenician hotel, one of the poshest resorts in the world. This bunch of bozos basking in opulence while they attempt to deny working people their rights is yet another example of Republican arrogance in putting the desires of the corporate world ahead of the American public.

Jan Brewer, wicked witch from Arizona

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) is taking on Brewer and other extreme right-wing lawmakers in retaliation for her assault on their Arizona members. Her attack is to limit the ability to negotiate of teachers, fire fighters, police and other public service workers. In their petition they said, “Where you see public workers and unions as a nuisance to get rid of, we see a movement.” Once again Arizona has opened a can of worms with an ALEC ring in their nose.

The Huffington Post picked up a recent comment from Phoenix TV reporter Brahm Resnik who lists what the proposal includes;

Make it illegal for government bodies to collectively bargain with employee groups.

Public safety unions would be included in the ban.

End the practice of automatic payroll deductions for union dues.

Ban compensation of public employees for union work.

The sham Gov. Jan Brewer also wants to take away all civil-service protection for state employees so she can fire them at will. Shades of Donald Trump.

Wisconsin’s Gov. Walker made a bizarre statement at the annual Goldwater Institute dinner. It said that, “…compromising with unions was ‘bogus.’” If that doesn’t send union members postal, nothing will. But the Ohio vote proves that the union vote is still important to political elections and can still be persuasive in the outcome. At this point the GOP has both Hispanics and unions to look out for in November.

One last point. Recall papers have been filed to recall Gov. Jan Brewer, in some part obviously due to her support of limiting union rights. You can help by spreading the word and signing the petition if you are an Arizonan.

More…gun sense and nonsense

2012-02-09T07:00:00.000-08:00

ARIZONA: Where else to start but here. Back in November of 2011, a Surprise, AZ 4-year-old boy was injured in the face while playing with a gun. In the headline of this story it said “only in Arizona.” The article also stated that over the years there have been “scores of scientific studies documenting the fact that guns in homes tend to decrease, not increase, the safety of the occupants of such homes.” What kind of idiot parent allows a 4-year-old to play with a gun? Of course, only in Arizona.

CALIFORNIA: In Salinas, CA, councilwoman Gloria De La Rosa’s AK-47 was stolen. In this state the assault rifle is against the law, except for those privileged like De La Rosa due to her position. But wait, the weapon was actually brought into the state by her late son-in-law who bought it at, where else, a gun show in Arizona. Of course, assault rifles are legal in Arizona just like anything else gun-related.

Start em out right

ARIZONA…AGAIN: The Secret service is investigating a photograph posted on the Internet showing what is apparently a bullet-riddled image of President Obama’s face. In the photo are seven men, four of whom are holding weapons and a t-shirt with holes and gashes with an image that also looks like Obama. The photo with remarks was posted on the Facebook page of Sgt. Pat Shearer, a police officer in Peoria, AZ. Any takers on a bet that this nitwit is a NRA member?

GEORGIA

: Some guy shot himself in the leg at a Savannah, GA, gun show. He was reloading his pistol outside the show because you aren’t supposed to bring a gun inside. Sounds like the gun shows don’t even trust the gun nuts. Charles Lake had purchased the gun the day before and had returned to buy another weapon which is probably just the beginning of another great American arsenal. The moral of this story is that apparently Georgia firearms education doesn’t teach you how not to shoot yourself.

ARIZONA…AGAIN: A Maricopa County, Arizona sheriff’s deputy was killed by a man who, when confronted by deputy William Coleman, came out of the van shooting, hitting the deputy below his bulletproof vest and he later died in the hospital. Coleman had a wife and two young children. The cold-bloodied murderer used a rife, which actually isn’t the killing weapon of choice in this state. Just another day on the streets of Arizona.

NRA taking aim

NEVADA: A teenage relative of Edwin Green turned him in to authorities in Reno, Nevada for having 16 firearms in an underground bunker at his home. He was arrested because he has a felony conviction in California, which makes having a gun against the law. The 14-year-old relative said Green didn’t trust the government and that he was tied to the Arizona militia. Apparently all “gun” roads lead to Arizona.

What is most pathetic about this post is the fact that in all but one case, regardless of the state where the incident occurred, there is an Arizona connection.

U.S. open carry bill, HR 822, more of the same insane gun legislation

2012-02-08T07:00:00.000-08:00

Typical squirrely NRA member

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) must be stopped and whoever accomplishes this feat will be a hero, at least in my book. They have ramrodded a new law through the House, HR 822, that would allow anyone in a state with loose concealed carry laws (like Arizona) to carry their handgun in any other state in the country, no matter what the laws of that state are. This is the first piece of legislation this inept Congress has come up with since the Giffords shooting.

That means other wackos like Jared Loughner from the Tucson massacre and Seung-Hui Cho from the similar disaster at Virginia Tech—and they are walking around out there with guns in their pockets—could take their firearms to a state with stricter laws and hold their own massacre. Pure idiocy. “The Second Amendment is a fundamental right to bear arms that should not be constrained by state boundary lines," said GOP Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in the Huff Post.

My 2nd Amendment right

Bullshit. I am not even convinced that the 2nd Amendment literally includes the right to carry a concealed weapon and I think with the recent momentum of gun control advocates, this very point may be up for consideration. It is sheer insanity to pass a law that makes one state law—especially one passed by deranged legislators like those in Arizona—a national law. The latter are now trying to push guns on college campuses; you can already take them into bars.

Video on bullet hits White House, below:

The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report tells us that 8,775 people were killed in shooting incidents in 2010. Barry Krisberg, a criminalist from Berkeley’s School of Law, says we can expect an increase in 2011. He adds, in an article from The Telegraph in the United Kingdom, “Overall violent crime rates in the

are going down but comparatively, shootings and homicides are going up a little bit. Last year we had both an increase in police officers shot and killed and also an uptake in citizens being shot and killed.”

The gun show loophole

Krisberg also said that a dilution of weapons legislation has led to people who are mentally ill and who have criminal convictions being able to go out and freely buy guns. This is a result of the lack of background checks and the gun show private sale loophole.

In another example of a deranged gunman that shouldn’t have had a firearm, he ended up shooting and killing a park ranger in Washington state. According to the mother of his toddler daughter, he “was a former soldier who owned many knives and guns despite an emotionally unstable, vindictive and anger-prone mind-set.”

And the NRA wants to turn more of these lunatics loose across the country with guns hidden their pockets. HR 822 is designed to do just that and it must be stopped now.

Obama shift on immigration policy good news for Hispanics

2012-02-07T07:00:00.000-08:00

Some in the four border-states with

Mexico

may not like it but Latinos are encouraged by the fact that President Obama plans to concentrate on law-breaking undocumented immigrants for deportation. But also because he has now proposed that those illegal immigrants closely related to U.S. citizens do not have to leave the country to attempt to get their legal status. This would reduce time measurably in the actual separation of family members.

Critics cry that it is just another way for the Obama administration to weaken the immigration laws. Others think it is simply election-year grandstanding for the Hispanic vote. As an example of the current situation, if you are an illegal immigrant married to a

U.S.

citizen, you must return to your country of origin first. But what many haven’t taken into consideration is the record number of illegal immigrants Obama has deported, much higher than former Presidents.

The Pew Research Center has some interesting facts about the length of residency of unauthorized immigrants. Almost 10.2 million unauthorized adult immigrants in the United States have lived in this country for at least 10 years and nearly half are parents of minor children. Pew Hispanic found that 35 percent of this group has been in the

U.S.

for 15+ years; 28 percent 10 to 14 years; 22 percent 5 to 9 years; and just 15 percent less than 5 years.

They are younger than their legal counterparts; average age of 36.2 years for illegals and 46.1 for those legal. U.S. native adults are 46.5. The U.S. Hispanic population is 50,477,594 living in 14,110,760 households, according to the Census Bureau. Their median income is $44,404 with a high income average of $217,851. Over 6 million of the U.S. Hispanic population is making over $50,000 annually, almost 2 million $100,000+.

There was an interesting article on CNN, “Want jobs? Encourage immigration,” quoting the phrase, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of immigrant entrepreneurs yearning to breathe free," expressing that that should be the message from Lady Liberty. The author, Amy Wilkinson, goes on to say, “Inviting immigrants in to create jobs may seem counterintuitive, but the facts are clear. Immigrant-led innovation is key to creating

U.S.

jobs.” She backs this up, below.

“According to statistics from Partnership for a New American Economy, 40% of Fortune 500 companies were created by immigrants or their children. Further, between 1995 and 2005, 25% of high-tech startups in the United States had at least one immigrant founder, and these companies have created more than 450,000 jobs.” Inc. magazine lists the top ten Hispanic entrepreneurs in 2010 you can see here. Wilkinson comments that while the U.S. often kicks out immigrant innovators, other countries welcome them.

The point is that immigrants, in general, and Latinos in particular, with their fast growing population can and have made their mark in the American marketplace. Congress and the U.S. public will have to deal with this soon, making amends and negotiating for rights that are currently being denied Hispanics or the white citizenry could very well find itself voted out of Washington, state and local offices. I am not sure this faction could handle being in the minority.

As long as the gun rights fanatics won’t negotiate, the killings will go on

2012-02-06T07:00:00.000-08:00

NCCI Holdings, a company involved in workplace data, just released a new report on workplace violence. According to the U.S. Dept. of Labor, nearly 2 million American workers each year report that they have been involved in some kind of violence where they work, which includes threats, physical assaults and homicides. The Bureau of Labor Statistic says 11 percent of those incidents were homicides, the fourth-leading cause of occupational injuries.

An important NCCI finding which has not been played up by the media is the fact that 80 percent of workplace homicides were caused by guns, compared to 10 percent by stabbings. This report was released just two days before the Tucson massacre where a mentally ill gunman injured U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, also injuring 14 others and killing six. No particular connection to the workplace but an example of loose gun laws that allow a deranged gunman to buy a weapon.

The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) is even for keeping guns out of the hands of individuals trying to purchase a firearm but they aren’t championing the cause. They are afraid that it will show weakness and their message is one of fear (that someone will take their guns away) rather than negotiation on things like background checks, the gun show loophole and concealed weapons laws. So they whip their membership into a frenzy to deny anything that smacks of sane gun control.

A recent post I did on the issue, “New York’s strong gun laws make state safer than weaker states of Arizona and Texas,” brought me a conglomeration of comments from these NRA trained fanatics. Some of their points are worth considering because there are always two sides to every argument. Many are just very inane and an affront to any intelligent human being. But not once does either group admit there are major problems with our gun laws like a lack of background checks, the gun show loophole and concealed carry.

There was a recent article by Leonard Pitts, Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Miami Herald that blames firearms for much of the political change in this country. Like the fact that Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords was forced to leave Congress due to the reckless use of an easily available handgun.

He recounts past instances in our history with similar outcomes like the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, Huey Long, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, the Kennedy brothers, George Wallace, Martin Luther King and others.

Glock 19

Citing Jared Loughner’s easy access to the semi-automatic Glock 19 he purchased at the Sportsman’s Warehouse outlet in Tucson, Arizona, Pitts exclaims that Loughner was able to acquire the gun despite the fact that he had been rejected by the U.S. Army and kicked out of a community college due to his behavior. Pitts continues this line of thought with, “Which suggests that, while Loughner may be unbalanced, American gun laws are downright insane.” I couldn’t have said it better.

Pitts also has an opinion on the refusal of the gun lobby to allow the banning of automatic high-capacity magazines: “The hunter who needs a gun that fires hundreds of rounds a minute isn’t much of a hunter.” Amen! And he even cites the political left for its crusade to get rid of all guns instead of concentrating on the specific issues of just making it harder for the bad guys to obtain them. Just like the political right led by the NRA won’t give an inch.

Yes, the killings will go on if we don’t find some means for conciliation, and that includes both sides of the issue. Pitts comments that this whole fiasco reflects the will of the people and that is tragic because they are the ones getting killed.

Animal abusers should be required to register like sex offenders

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

Animal abusers are the bottom of the barrel just like sex offenders. Both take advantage of the innocent who trust us to love them and provide a secure place for them to live. Not take advantage of them, in some cases actually causing harm, even death. Maryland may well be the first state to launch such a registry, if State Senator Ron Young has anything to do with it. Young plans to introduce a bill that would require convicted animal abusers in Maryland to submit their information to a registry.

Abusers would be photographed, fingerprinted along with their address and would have to pay $50.00 per year to fund the registry. They could be taken off the list if they are abuse-free for 10 years. All the data would end up on a Web page run by the state. Other states working on similar legislation are New York and Florida. I am thinking more along the lines of a federal law that would make animal abuse a major offense, including what happens in puppy mills and backyard breeders.

Typical puppy mill

64.5 percent of victims are dogs, 18 percent cats and 25 percent involve other animals. Domestic violence seems to have an impact on animal abuse. According to the Animal Humane Assn., 71% of pet-owning women entering women’s shelters reported that their batterer had injured, maimed, killed or threatened family pets for revenge or to psychologically control victims. Abusers even kill, harm, or threaten children’s pets to coerce them into sexual abuse or to force them to remain silent about abuse.

In one study, 70% of animal abusers also had records for other crimes. And in case you didn’t know, more

U.S.

households have pets than children, which helps account for the number of animals that end up in shelters. It is estimated by The Humane Society that 6 to 8 million cats and dogs enter animal shelters every year. 3 to 4 million are euthanized, 3 to 4 million are adopted out and some are rescued by their owners. Many would say the abuse starts in normal homes where pets are allowed to run away or are deserted by owners.

The Humane Society has released its 2011 "Humane State Ranking," a comprehensive report rating all 50 states and DC on issues ranging from animal fighting to farm animals to wildlife to companion animals. The results are interesting with California as number one with its laws compared to South Dakota which is last. SD is one of only three states with no felony level penalties for egregious acts of cruelty, and also has some of the weakest laws against cock fighting in the country.

Unfortunately some individuals treat animal like their property and think they can do with them as they please, including maltreat and/or murder them. Yes, it is murder and in many states in this country you are executed for it. When you see what has happened to some of these loving little creatures, it makes you wonder if execution is too good for the abusers.

Support your local animal shelters!

New York’s strong gun laws make state safer than weaker states of Arizona and Texas

2012-02-02T07:00:00.000-08:00

The gun nuts, especially in Arizona, will argue with you until they are blue in the face that because the state’s gun laws allow just about anyone to own a gun and carry it around concealed to just about anyplace they want, including bars, that the state is a safer place for it. They would be wrong. In a recent Wall Street Journal Letter to the Editor, Richard Reay of Riverdale, NY, made his point by using the 2010 FBI Violent Crime Statistics report.

NY Mayor Bloomberg for gun control

As an example, there are 408.1 violent crimes and 6.4 murders/manslaughters in Arizona per 100,000 population compared to 392.1 and 4.5 in New York. In the same comparison, Texas is 450.3 and 5.0. Reay’s letter was reacting to the typical inaccuracy of a gun freak who spews out whatever garbage the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) tells him to. The guy, a Californian named Dave Culver, was ranting over the fact that the people of New York were less safe because they had been disarmed by their civic leaders.

To add to Culver’s misinformation, Reay tells us that gun-related robberies and aggravated assault in New York were around 20 percent and 25 percent that of Texas and Arizona, respectively. (also in FBI Crime Statistics) With the population growth of cities like Phoenix, Dallas and Houston, the density rate is adding to the problem, and when you give anyone in those metropolitan areas a handgun that asks for it, you are just asking for trouble.

If you want to check out gun laws by state, Wikipedia has excellent access to the data with facts on each facet of buying and carrying a handgun. For example, New York requires a permit to purchase, the owner must register the weapon, assault weapons are not allowed and there is a limited conceal carry law; you cannot carry a gun into a bar or state offices or government buildings.

AZ concealed permit no one needs

In direct contrast, Arizona requires no permit to purchase, registration is limited to federal laws, assault weapons are allowed, and anyone, literally anyone, can walk around with a concealed weapon. Texas laws are very similar to Arizona but the latter stands out as the state with the most lax gun laws in the

U.S.

In a ranking by The Daily Beast, Arizona ranked second in gun deaths per 100,000 pop., Texas 23 and New York 45.

The facts don’t lie and don’t talk to me about recent reports that overall crime is down in the

U.S.

That would be right but there is still absolutely no excuse for even one murder due to a handgun being in the wrong hands, much less the recent massacres in Tucson and at Virginia Tech. The above reports even came with the news that shootings—yes, that would require a gun—of law enforcement officials has increased for the second year in a row, 23 percent in 2011.

Common sense suggestions on gun control from Delaware Gov. Jack Markell below:

Paul Helmke, former Mayor of Ft. Wayne, Indiana and also a recent President of The Brady Campaign, exclaims that an astonishing 40 percent of guns are purchased without a background check. To illustrate this, the state of Indiana does not require documentation to either sell or buy firearms. On the other hand, California is ranked number one for its universal background check system, dealer regulations and assault clip ban.

And there is where we should start with more gun control. Ban large capacity magazines like the ones used in Tucson and at Va. Tech. Require a background check for every firearm purchase to stop mentally ill from getting them. Close the gun show loophole where private dealers have to require little or no information to purchase a weapon. By the way, Indiana is tied for 38^th according to the Brady Campaign when it comes to laws preventing gun violence.

With the above revelations, you would think that at least progressive congressional Democrats would get behind legislation for at least the three issues above. And where has President Obama been on gun control since his election and his reaction to Gabby Giffords shooting? The American public has also softened on gun control, that is until one of their own is taken from them. Yes, hindsight can be a great thing but in this case, it is too late.

2 confirmed racists, one a neo-Nazi, run for high Arizona offices

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

It’s not enough that the valley of the Sun has its “affected” Gov. Jan Brewer, but now there are two other nutcases, one of them recently forced out of office, that aspire to help run the great state of Arizona. And it is a great state. Former Governor Carl Hayden once said, "I built this state. Don't let the GOP destroy it!” Unfortunately, this statement turned into factual intuition on the part of the author.

Russell Pearce recall

Former state senator Russell Pearce, who is a Mormon and the first Arizona legislator ever recalled (last November), has been elected to the top Arizona GOP Party post of 1st Vice Chairman. In the face of those folks who unanimously voted to oust Pearce from office, state Republicans decided he was fit to be in the party’s No. 2 leadership role, according to spokesman Shane Wikfors. On Saturday, Wikfors commented, "I will tell you that the two biggest generators of applause at today's meeting was Russell and Sheriff Joe (Arpaio)," Pathetic.

Democratic Party chairman Andrei Cherny said, "Arizona has moved past the divisive and corrosive politics of Russell Pearce -- but the Republican Party hasn't," sealing the fact that this pack of fruitcakes does not learn from experience. There was a movie back in 1948 named The Snake Pit, which portrayed a woman who finds herself in an insane asylum. I remember scenes from the film as a teenager at the time that depicted patients completely out of touch with reality constantly babbling incoherently.

Following is a must-see Russell Pearce video:

Bingo! The GOP dominated Arizona state legislature. These vipers have proceeded to pass laws and practice a type of political suicide that has made the state laughable, placing it at the top of the ‘Who do we ridicule today’ list. The state’s five Republican congressmen attended the meeting, apparently placing their sign of approval on Pearce’s appointment.

Russell Pearce was fired from Arizona Motor Vehicles in 1999 for allowing subordinates to tamper with a woman’s driving record. In 1980 Pearce’s wife Luanne accused him of beating her and said she wanted a divorce. His two sons have been accused of domestic violence, one, Josh, who allegedly fractured his daughter’s skull and sports a Nazi eagle tattoo on his neck/chest. Sounds like the perfect Mormon family.

JT Ready 2nd from right

But an even better story is Russell Pearce chum, racist and neo-Nazi J.T. Ready running for Arizona’s Pinal County Sheriff…as a Democrat. Once a registered Republican, Ready’s answer to why he switched was, "It's the party of Jim Crow, [late U.S. Senator and one-time KKK member] Robert Byrd, and [late Alabama Governor and one-time segregationist] George Wallace. Exemplary company. I once asked Ready if he was a member of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) and he replied he was but behind on his dues.

However, it is Stephen Lemons Feathered Bastard column in the Phoenix New Times that captures the essence of J.T. Ready. He supports legalizing marijuana and has referred to Adolph Hitler as a "great white civil rights leader." He once was a member of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and still marches with them. As a one-time close buddy of Russell Pearce, Ready is known for his armed patrol in the Arizona desert looking for illegal immigrants. His committee chairman is NSM member Harry Hughes, another neo-Nazi racist.

Dept of Justice boots Arpaio

And it wouldn’t be right not to give a nod to Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is up for reelection in November. When you talk about racism along with anti-immigration policies, Sheriff Joe ranks right up there at the top. The U.S. Dept. of Justice has charged the Sheriff with human-rights violations and the Phoenix Human Relations Committee has just unanimously voted to ask Arpaio to step down.

This basically completes the inner circle of Arizona’s notoriously best known bigots in politics.

Can Republican HATE politics bring this country down?

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

GOP Hate and Fear

Daily Kos posted a piece recently, “Why Does The GOP Hate (everything sane)?” that is the best I’ve seen for putting Republican hate-mongering in perspective with its biggest supporter, the Tea Party. It said, “The GOP has such an easy task when it comes to adapting people's minds to vote for them; Spread hate and they will be yours…” Sounds like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the master, Karl Rove. Also reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984 but more on that later.

I Googled “GOP hate” and “Republican hate” and was able to formulate a list of what some pretty influential sites and organizations think Republicans hate, as follows:

Taxes, the poor and hungry, gays, Hispanics, liberals, gun control, animal rights, the truth, women, even those pregnant, the Occupy Movement, Barack Obama, science (as in stem cell research), public education, environmentalism, veterans, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, teachers, unions, and, yes, even other Republicans (as in Newt Gingrich)

There are probably more that I have missed but this will get the ball rolling and I encourage you to add to the list with your comments.

Norman Lear

Many of us—all but the very young—remember Norman Lear’s TV sitcom All in the Family, starring Carroll O’Connor as Archie Bunker and Jean Stapleton, Rob Reiner and Sally Struthers as the rest of the family. Archie was a “nice” bigot and was constantly chastised by his son-in-law “Meathead” played by Rob Reiner. Many thought this character was patterned after Lear who abhorred bigotry. Because of its insightful humor the show lasted for nine years on CBS.

Lear was concerned over how the religious right could repeatedly disgorge sermons that reeked of politics so he, through his organization People for the American Way, complained to a Los Angeles television station about one of Pat Robertson’s TV program. Robertson responded with a threat of God’s wrath against him. Jerry Falwell told his followers, “I am about to name the man that some people believe to be the greatest threat to the American family in our generation: Norman Lear!"

Falwell’s “threat” comment garnered Lear hate mail and death threats, one so threatening that the TV producer had to get protection. Since most of this religious pack are Republican, it is astonishing that their religion—if that’s what it really is—would allow them to do such a thing, although it is commonplace they would as a right-wing extremist, particularly Tea Partiers. Lear’s position is that “Our founders clearly intended that there be a level of separation between church and state.”

And as promised, the Orwellian connection between hate and the Republican Party. In 1984, Emmanuel Goldstein is the face of the “Two Minutes Hate” which the citizens of Oceania were subjected to on a regular basis. They were whipped up into a tremendous frenzy to hate Goldstein and anything else that didn’t agree with the Party. What Goldstein said made perfect sense in defying this extremely hellish atmosphere and no matter how much hatred was directed against him and his leftist beliefs, his influence never seemed to grow less.

Sound familiar? George Orwell was a novelist and political writer who was well acquainted with social injustice in the world. The proles of Oceania represent the poor and out of work people in the U.S. today who are completely ignored by the GOP in favor of supporting the wealthy and large corporations. (See the poor and hungry and those on Medicaid in the list above.)

The difference is, where Goldstein’s followers, above, could only look on in the “Two Minute Hate” but could not take action, the progressive movement has begun to rebut the Republican hate messages with responses of hope. There is no hope in hate, and the American public is beginning to see through the GOP façade. And to answer the original question, the answer is NO, the Republican HATE politics will not bring this country down.

If you haven’t already, please check out Norman Lear’s People for the
American Way
.

It’s Official: Arizona’s phony Governor Jan Brewer is a moron

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Jan Brewer, Pres. Obama

I’m convinced, and probably most of the rest of the country as well, that Arizona’s laughable governor should register in the class of double-digit IQs. This, after her recent finger-pointing incident at President Obama on the Mesa, AZ airport tarmac. It’s like when this state turns Brewer loose on the public there is a guarantee that it will bring on another round of ridicule of a state that is already considered by most of the

U.S.

as preposterous, at least in its politics.

Yes, unfortunately, the world has seen the coverage of this twit excuse for the head of a state government gone viral in her finger-pointing at Obama that is a huge embarrassment to all. And now this bungling politician has raised the ire of black activist Jesse Jackson who says her confrontation with Obama was racist. Actually, I don’t think Brewer has the brains to pull off a genuine racist incident; rather, it was just a publicity stunt for her stupid book. Other blacks like Al Sharpton and the NAACP have joined in with their own accusations.

Brewer Obama Oval Office

Brewer says it all comes down to something she said in her book about their prior meeting in the Oval Office that Obama said was inaccurate. Leaving that meeting Brewer said she was encouraged describing it as a “successful” encounter. But in the book she said: “It was [as] though President Obama thought he could lecture me, and I would learn at his knee. “He thinks he can humor me and then get rid of me.” As CNN’s John King said in the video below, you can’t have it both ways, which was it?

Pool reporter, Politico’s Carrie Budoff Brown said it certainly wasn’t a normal get-together in Mesa. “Aside from the pointing, they appeared to talk over each other and he appeared to walk away from her while they were still talking.” Can you blame the man? Brewer later described Obama as “thin skinned” and “tense,” which he denied. Immediately following the incident the President moved on through the line of dignitaries being greeted very civilly by Phoenix’s Mayor Greg Stanton and Mesa’s Mayor Scott Smith.

Mr. Obama made a comment that it was always good publicity for a Republican if they are in an argument with him. This is based on the degeneration in the relations between the GOP and Obama in the past year. This deterioration continued the minute Barack Obama stepped off the plane in Mesa and came face to face with Arizona’s version of the great Republican buffoon. It couldn’t have been planned better if it had been staged by Hollywood.

Local Phoenix newspaper columnist E.J. Montini called Brewer’s behavior “embarrassingly juvenile” continuing to define respect due the highest office in the land as something that “…does not mean sandbagging a president who is about to provide a tremendous public-relations plug for your state.” He went on to describe Brewer’s feeble-mindedness as third grade, then retracted that as an insult to 3^rd graders and downgraded it to kindergarten.

Bob Schieffer, highly respected CBS chief Washington correspondent said: “I've watched a lot of presidents over the years but I can never recall a president stepping off Air Force One, which is itself a symbol of the presidency and American democracy, and being subject to such rudeness,” referring to Brewer.

And Modern Magazine’s headline says it all, “The Sorry State of Jan Brewer.” It goes on to call her “Gov. Jan ‘Brew-ha-ha’ Brewer” and laments how she has embarrassed just about anyone who has ever been remotely connected to the Grand Canyon state.

So who is to blame for this sham in the desert? The people of Arizona. Not only did they elect this incompetent crackpot entirely due to her support of the anti-immigration law SB-1070, but in a recent poll these same pathetic individuals said they still liked or sorta liked her and her dull-witted GOP dominated state legislature. Brewer’s job performance came in at 37% excellent/good, 30% fair and 29% poor/very poor. The legislature was 26%, 25% and 30% respectively.

And this post would not be complete without the reaction of the people in Letters to the Editor of the Arizona Republic. Out of nine responses, only two favored Brewer in the finger-pointing incident. The terms used were disgrace, negative impression of state, tasteless show of personal regard, shameful show of self-importance, embarrassment, despicable show by Brewer, and one asked where was that “13 seconds of dumb silence” she displayed in the gubernatorial debates?

Where the hell were these people in the last election and when the above poll was taken?

Jan Brewer will certainly go down as the worst governor Arizona has ever had—

Jan Brewer

and this state has had some doozies—perhaps the worst governor ever in the

United States

. But Keith Olbermann, political commentator and writer, takes it even further with his evaluation that Jan Brewer is the “worst person in the world.” You have to see his video here.

George Orwell lives and so do his “1984” predictions

2012-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Geo. Orwell at typewriter

I was prompted to write this post because of another of those privacy naysayers who claims that, although identity theft, which results in the exposure of your most personal data, and which is the number one consumer problem for the Federal Trade Commission, we only have ourselves to blame for its loss. Pete Cashmore, writing on CNN, says the fact that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was dumped proved George Orwell’s 1984 “woefully incorrect.” He couldn’t be more wrong.

Agreed, there are those individuals out there—probably in the millions—that willingly give up their private information, mostly due to promises of certain conveniences that seem to these folks more important than protecting their personal data. There is also a culture that has been expended by data gatherers that has convinced this same group that their information is safe. It is not. To support this theory, take a look at a recent NJ post that shows that in 2011 there were 419 breaches of private information exposing 22,918,441 personal records.

Watch a good synopsis of 1984 below:

One of the primary reasons I am so cynical over the security of your personal data is that the junk mail industry grosses over $4 billion annually from selling names and personal information with some placing profits over security. My authority on this comes from being a junk mail data broker for 35 years. I have seen the cracks in the damn and some of them still remain despite some efforts by this business to clean up its act. And hackers may be around to haunt us forever.

Over the years I have written numerous articles you can see here on Orwell, 1984, and how Big Brother is ever present in a society that is driven by information. Corporations picked up this thirst to know everything about you they can several years ago and maintain huge databases capturing every tidbit of data you will provide. What the public doesn’t seem to understand is that once it is out there, it is there forever.

Take Google and Facebook alone and you have probably the most massive storehouse of private information available in the U.S. Facebook’s Zuckerberg has been cited repeatedly for not protecting user data and Google just recently announced they would combine all their databases into one for more ease in profiling Internet surfers. In my experience one of the worst things that affect consumers’ privacy is the combination of data which can virtually lay out a person’s life in its entirety.

What bothers me most is Pete Cashmore’s blasé attitude toward people giving up their data so easily. He even compares this to the lack of control in 1984 by the citizens of Oceania where the thought police are everywhere. There is absolutely no difference between that and the uncontrolled collecting of private information today that lingers in databases across the world which almost any first rate hacker can access.

And the fact that consumers compound that by giving up their personal data so willingly only means that we are on the way to an unavoidable major disaster.

Research shows that Orwell actually predicted the Internet in the second draft of his dystopian novel but decided to cut this before publication. There is no way to know just how the man envisioned this current feat of genius but it would be clear to me that he would not approve of it in any way challenging the right to privacy of Americans or the citizens of Oceania.

For the best site to explore George Orwell and 1984 go to Orwell Today.

Can Newt Gingrich beat President Obama?

2012-01-26T07:00:00.000-08:00

James Carville, Mary Matalin

James Carville is the political genius that got Bill Clinton elected President in 1992 and has hung around for years now advising other Democratic candidates. I think he has an edge being married to expert Republican consultant, Mary Matalin. Nothing like bouncing ideas off your opponent. Carville recently said to the GOP re. its primary candidates: “You have a disaster on your hands.” It was actually sent to the Republican establishment naming such members as Bill Bennett, Karl Rove and Bill Kristol.

In my book, that covers the bottom of the barrel. But former White house press secretary for George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer, proceeds to tell us what Carville doesn’t get about Republicans. He does have a good point about the missed prediction by Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida) in underestimating the Tea Party appeal in the 2010 election. In another instance, Reagan’s 1980 win unexpected by Dems because they didn’t think he appealed to mainstream voters.

However, it’s Fleischer who is completely out of touch with reality when he says, “…Democrats are so bent on seeing Republicans as a bunch of angry, right wing, intolerant, unreliable extremists that they have a track record of missing the mood of the country…” Come on, everyone knows that Republicans are a bunch of angry, right wing, intolerant, unreliable extremists: even some Republicans admit it. Although Fleischer doesn’t endorse Gingrich, he says he could win the nomination or he could simply “blow up his chances.”

Carville thinks that Mitt Romney is only in the beginnings of explaining his tax returns indicating as a seasoned politician, he should have known this was coming. This is only on the surface and he wonders if there is anything else volatile yet to come. If there is you can bet Gingrich’s people will find it. Of course, the latter has to explain his $1.6 consultancy with Freddie Mac and the fact that he has been married three times. But if he got through the So. Carolina religious right with that baggage, he is probably home free.

And then David Frum, former special assistant to Geo. W. Bush, comments on CNN that GOP leaders don’t trust Gingrich and tells us why. There were 4 primary reasons: 1) His grandiose enthusiasm for divisive rhetoric; 2) Using talking points that go over big on talk shows but do not address issues; 3) Many of the man’s co-workers think he shouldn’t be trusted with executive power; 4) His opinion that Gingrich is one of the most disliked people in politics. There was also the advice to Bush in 2004 that turned out to be irrelevant to the election.

According to Frum, the irrelevancy of these 5 points (see them in the CNN article above) that Gingrich urged Bush to focus on was not because he didn’t think that there were substantive issues then like the inflating housing bubble, but rather because his 5 points were designed to define the opponent John Kerry as “alien, hostile and dangerous.” In other words, campaign politics as usual and doesn’t this remind you of the hate advertising approach created by Karl Rove?

Newt Gingrich

Frum is probably right about Gingrich but gets an “F” on his assessment of Obama re. being a President out of touch with the world, who was able to con himself into the White House. Pretty pathetic, in view of the fact Frum’s former boss, GWB, seems to fit perfectly into that profile.

Gingrich is an insider and still seems to weigh in heavily when it comes to GOP ideology. Case in point is his Contract with America which swept Republicans into control of the House in 1994 for the first time in 40 years. But recently the right has done little to whet the appetite of the American public, except for the radical fruitcakes in the Tea Party who have some mystical control over the GOP and who have succeeded in blocking almost everything Barack Obama has tried to accomplish in the last three years.

In summary, against Gingrich, Obama will win more electoral votes this November than he did in 2008.

Gun insanity…state by state

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-08:00

Typical NRA sidearm

I am always looking for ways to explore the craziness of gun freaks who think more of their firearms than their own family. Otherwise, why would these morons leave their weapons around for children to play with? They act as if their 2nd Amendment rights are more important than their country; many of these twits can carry a concealed weapon around on the streets of their city with no permit, no background check and little if any educational training on how to use it.

Since President Obama and Congress have decided they will do nothing about more gun control enforcement, the states have decided to have a field day and pass more gun rights laws and loosen those already on the books. The National Rifle Assn. (NRA) is licking its lips with the satisfaction of a demented fiend that is feeding off an equally demented following of losers. If you don’t believe me, take one look at Wayne LaPierre, the “conspiracy a minute” Exec. V.P. of the NRA, when someone mentions gun control.

Wayne LaPierre befuddled

So I plan to cover the insanities of those states that seemingly make this issue a priority over education, the needy, the children, healthcare and a host of other matters that should take prominence over the idiosyncrasies of this disturbed group. And where better to start than Arizona, the state with the loosest gun laws in the nation.

ARIZONA: State Sen. Ron Gould, a part of Arizona’s inept Republican legislature, wants to require colleges and universities to allow concealed weapons on campus…again. Forged Gov. Jan Brewer has already shot his bill down once saying it was “poorly written.”

FLORIDA: It is now legal to take your Glock with you to the maternity ward while giving birth so you can thrust it in the hands of your newly born to make sure he or she is fully protected when leaving the hospital.

NEW YORK: Tea Party crackpot Mark Meckler, licensed to carry a gun in California, felt he had the right to check his Glock pistol with 19 cartridges in along with himself. He spent the day in jail and eventually left on a felony weapons charge.

WISCONSIN: 47-year-old Mark Manning from Indiana with a license to carry in Wisconsin was charged with threatening a truck driver on an Interstate highway. Seems like muttonhead Manning cut off the semi and when the truck flashed its bright lights on the car, Manning pointed a gun back at the semi.

ARIZONA-AGAIN: a 7-year-old from Mesa was detained in school after a handgun he had brought with him in his backpack that day discharged on a loaded bus. Fortunately, no one was injured. The kid got the weapon from a closet at his home.

NEW YORK: Damark King was apparently trying to settle a score with someone when he blasted 5 rounds in a courtyard hitting a 21-month-old in a stroller in the face causing her to lose an eye. I didn’t say NY-AGAIN because King had brought the 9mm handgun with him from Arizona with an expired license to sell it in New York.

ARIZONA-AGAIN: In a humorous appeal to a newspaper columnist in the rural town of Green Valley, a wife laments over the recent purchase by her 70-year-old husband of a shotgun and a .38 revolver he takes everywhere he goes. The wife says she isn’t convinced he knows how to use the guns and fears that he will accidentally shoot her, himself or an innocent bystander.

Thanks to the Arizona Republic, The Globe and Mail, CBS News, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Huffington Post, Staten Island Live and the Green Valley News/Sahuarita Sun

More fun and games with guns later.

What you can do to prevent identity theft in 2012

2012-01-24T07:00:00.000-08:00

The Identity Theft Research Center (ITRC) has come up with 10 guidelines to help keep your personal data secure in 2012. I’ll get to that shortly but first you should know that I worked in the junk mail industry for 35 years selling your names and private information to companies that use it to target customers. During this time I raised red flags over the lack of security for this massive dossier on almost every American household, basically falling on deaf ears.

I won’t get into specifics on just what junk mailers, financial institutions, corporations, and the government gather in their quest to find out everything possible about every individual in the

U.S.

Suffice it to say, there is almost nothing they don’t know about you and have at their fingertips to use at will. You probably already know about all the secret data factors available on you, yet many Americans could care less about protecting it.

The reason junk mailers refused to listen to warnings of loose data is that this is one of the most profitable profit centers in any business. By my calculations, selling your name and personal data grosses the junk mail industry alone over $4 billion annually. Marketing this information has a 60 percent profit margin. But the reason you are apathetic about protecting your private information is that you think identity theft won’t happen to you. And then it does.

In 2011 there were 419 breaches of private information exposing 22,918,441 personal records. If you weren’t included in 2011 you could be in 2012.

I was amazed recently to read a question in the newspaper directed to a consumer advocate exclaiming their surprise at finding things like their name, address, age, etc. when Googling themselves on the Internet. All of a sudden they were concerned over how to prevent this data from being released. There is no way to stop the flow of private information, and this made me wonder under just what rock this individual has been living.

Zappos, an online company selling shoes, is one of the largest most recent breaches where hackers may have accessed some 24 million customer records this month. These include names, mailing and billing addresses, phone numbers, truncated credit card numbers and “cryptographically scrambled” passwords. The company says there is little risk to the credit card numbers but a combination of everything taken can lead the crooks right to your most personal information.

My advice to those customers breached is to access their credit card and bank accounts on a daily basis to make sure there are no suspicious charges. Look for the small amounts around $6.00 since this is where they usually start, then, with success, go on to larger amounts. We shop with Zappos, whose service is the best in the country, and now I am checking the account we used at least once every day. If they have your data it won’t take long for them to use it.

Now that you are reasonably fortified with facts and advice, let’s get down to those 10 resolutions that Identity ITRC suggests you make in 2012:

Never carry your Social Security card in your wallet. Best to put it in a safety deposit box but at least locked up at home.
Never give out your SS number unless absolutely necessary. You can even try to deny it in some financial and medical transactions unless it is required for service.
Buy a good cross-cut shredder and use it on any document with SS#, birth date, medical numbers, etc.
Order regular credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228, one from each of the three credit bureaus every four months.
If you don’t already have a secure community mailbox, think about investing in one of your own, and take your outgoing mail to the post office.
Don’t use the same password for all accounts, including bank accounts and change them regularly.
Limit what you share online. This has fallen on deaf hears recently as consumers give up their most private information just for convenience, like in Facebook.
Know who you are buying from online. Check them out through your local BBB and make sure they have a secure payment system. Use a credit card instead of your debit card if possible.
Monitor all you financial accounts regularly, particularly your bank account online if you use your debit card; I do mine twice daily.
Protect your checks and deposit slips like gold; they’re flush with information like your account number, usually name and address.

If you have questions about any of these tips, go to Identity Theft Resource Center for help on answering any of your questions on ID theft. ITRC is a non-profit and lives off contributions from the public so help them out if you can.

Where were the evangelicals in So. Carolina when Santorum needed them?

2012-01-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Who knows?

Former senator Rick Santorum of Penn. finally won the Iowa caucuses over Mitt Romney with 34 votes when the folks in Iowa did their final count. Sounds reasonable to me considering the high evangelical population in the state but also appears much too close when you consider Romney is a Mormon. Like JFK’s Catholicism in the November 1960 election for President, Romney’s Mormonism has been a barrier for the religious right from the beginning.

Apparently there were missing votes in eight Iowa precincts that for some reason or other were never received and counted, blamed on the “state’s old-fashioned primary process.” The missing votes were spread across five Iowa counties and in 2008 that area accounted for a total of 298 votes. In one such precinct GOP chair, Karen Zander, said about the volunteers, “They had no training. They didn’t know what they were doing.”

Pretty pathetic for an election that screams to the rest of the country each year that they are the first, and one of the most important votes in the primaries leading up to the primary nomination. I have never understood the importance of these caucuses, and maybe the rest of the country and future presidential candidates will come to agree after this year. But Romney’s close second does speak well of evangelical voters in that they were apparently able to put religion aside and vote with reason.

Did the same situation occur in South Carolina? In the 2008 Republican primary there, 60 percent of the Republican voters defined themselves as “born-again-Christians,” compared with a national average of 44 percent. Another 69 percent said that the candidate’s religious beliefs mattered in their vote. In 2012 B-A-Cs jumped to 65 percent. Also in 2012, religious beliefs of the candidates differed in that 59 percent said they mattered a great deal or somewhat, followed by 19 percent who said not much, 21 percent not at all.

In 2012, 97 percent were worried about the economy in South Carolina; 63 percent thought it was the most important issue compared to 8 percent for abortion. However, 64 percent did think abortion should be illegal. Winner Newt Gingrich was helped by the fact that 64 percent of So. Carolinians support the Tea Party and he was apparently able to garner their vote according to exit polls. But it still isn’t clear if Gingrich can win TPers in less conservative states.

You can see the entire So. Carolina CNN Election Poll results here.

This is all somewhat perplexing since a meeting of the Christian conservative leaders in January of this year in Texas voted to back Rick Santorum, reported Family Research Council president Tony Perkins. Some of those involved were Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Perkins, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference president Rev. Samuel Rodriguez and former presidential candidate Gary Bauer. Members of the media were not allowed at the meeting.

Newt Gingrich

Although the Christian conservative majority vote was for Santorum, individuals voted for other candidates, such as American Family Assn. founder Don Wildmon who voted for Gingrich. For those of you who haven’t heard, Gingrich took So. Carolina with 41 percent of the vote, followed by Romney with 27 percent and Santorum trailing with 17 percent. The winner of the So. Carolina primary has gone on to win the GOP nomination in each election since 1980.

The big question is, if Newt Gingrich wins the Republican nomination, will he be a more formidable candidate against President Barack Obama than Mitt Romney? He is an excellent debater, but so is Obama. Gingrich has personal life baggage with his ex-wife that doesn’t play well with religious conservatives where the President is squeaky-clean. Both men are highly intelligent and there is no doubt in the separation of ideologies.

Like they have been saying for over a year now, 2012 is going to be one hell of an election!

U.S. and China Ping Pong Diplomacy revisited in recent Iran and Russia incidents

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

Time covers Ping Pong Diplomacy

Most Americans, and Chinese I suspect, have forgotten the occurrence when the U.S. Ping Pong team in 1971 was invited to China, all expenses paid, to play in Beijing, including tours of the Great Wall. Time magazine called it “The ping heard around the world,” and rightfully so since American/Chinese relations were in the toilet at the time. It was offhanded notification by the Chinese that they wanted to improve relations with the U.S. It worked.

Richard Nixon, President at the time, felt the gesture was a good one and ended up making a trip to China later as the first American President to visit that country. Premiere Chou En-lai even invited the Americans to a banquet in the Great Hall of the People. Ten journalists including five from the U.S. were also invited. In addition to visiting the Great Wall, the U.S. entourage saw the Summer Palace as well as being able to talk to Chinese students and factory workers and attend the ballet.

But what had led up to this competition between the two teams? It was simply a chance meeting between the two stars, one from China’s team, Zhuang Zedong, the other from America’s team, Glenn Cowan, on a bus in

Japan

following the 31st World Table Tennis Championship in 1971. Zedong presented Cowan with a gift, a silk-screen portrait of the Huangshan Mountains, which was unusual since we were in the midst of the cold war and China considered all Americans imperialists.

With no gift to return the favor at the time, in yet another chance meeting later, Cowan gave Zedong a T-shirt with a red, white and blue peace emblem flag with the words, "Let It Be." This was followed by media coverage that resulted in the statement from Cowan that he would like to visit China, which eventually got to the Chinese Department of Foreign Affairs. They, of course, declined the offer but Chou En-lai and Chairman Mao Zedong thought better of the situation and turned it into an international affair.

Find out who won the tournament in the video below:

At the time, many wondered why the major powers of the world couldn’t just turn their differences into one big ping pong game, rather than the on-going cold war and actual wars of destruction and loss of lives. Of course it never happened but there have been incidents over the years where countries, normally at each other’s throats, have halted the conflict temporarily to come to the aid of each other. Two such occurrences happened recently.

Iran seaman thanks US Navy

During January of this year, the U.S. Navy rescued Iranian fishermen three times. The first, an Iranian fishing dhow that flooded, requiring the men to abandon it and board other nearby dhows. The Navy provided them food and water. Earlier in the month the Americans rescued 13 Iranian fishermen who had been captured by Somali pirates. And just days later another rescue by the U.S. Coast Guard of six Iranian fishermen in waters off

Iraq

. The Iranians said, "Without your help, we were dead. Thank you for all you did for us."

Russian tanker in Nome, AK

And then it was Russia that came to the aid of weathered-in Nome, Alaska, which has experienced one of the severest winters in decades with temperatures dipping more than 30 below zero. Nome would have run out of fuel by March or April, which was long before their next delivery. A path had to be cleared through thick ice for the Russian tanker Renda by a Coast Guard cutter for the two 700 yards long parallel hoses to unload 1.3 million gallons of fuel.

All in a day’s work you might say? Actually, on the outset, it is an example of how world powers can work together in simple ways to come to the aid of those in need. It’s no different than how Americans, when challenged with a crisis, pull together to help each other, no matter what race, religion or status. It seems that we all have good intentions that we follow through on but it all eventually reverts back to business as usual. Why?

If blacks don’t back Occupy Movement will they back Democrats in November?

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-08:00

We can thank the Tea Party for repeated accusations of racism that once again reminded us of Southern bigotry and the Ku Klux Klan. The media accused it of being “racially exclusionary, if not…racist,” according to The Washington Examiner. Well-known African American congresswoman Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California, said tea partiers can “go straight to hell.” While perhaps not quite so contentious, progressives would like to see them just gone.

Tea Party parade

The Tea Party is predominantly white but 6 percent of its supporters are black compared to only 1.6 percent for Occupy Wall Street and a total in the U.S. population of 12.6 percent. Further, blacks represent 25 percent of New York residents. So where were they on the first Occupy Wall Street demonstration on September 17, and thereafter across the country? One opinion was that blacks did not participate because they have been through this before and think it’s hopeless.

I did a post back in December, “Immigrants want a part of the Occupy Movement,” including the agreement that no one is more likely to be in the Occupy “99%” than Hispanics. Of course, wouldn’t blacks fit the same criteria? Currently 60.7 percent of black incomes are under $50,000, compared to 40.3 for whites. Median income for whites is $63,404 compared to that of blacks which is $38,835. U.S. median income is $58,924.

Although 3 years old, the video below is an good example of black voting history:

The Washington Post also wonders about black inactivity in the Occupy Movement, commenting that some well known blacks like Cornel West,

Russell Simmons, Kanye West and Rep. John Lewis, (D-GA) have participated but nothing like Latino moves to join in as a group. There was an “Occupy the Hood” faction that attempted to get more people involved that has apparently made some inroads but nothing significant.

Based on a 2011 Washington Post survey, the conclusion was made, that, in spite of their economic standing, blacks feel more optimistic than whites. This is hard to understand when black unemployment is at 16 percent, teenagers 50 percent, compared to 8.6 percent for whites. The survey concluded that 24 percent of blacks were “very” or “somewhat satisfied” with the economy compared to only 12 percent of whites. Go figure.

And here we go again. In a recent NBC poll a huge 73 percent of Americans considered the country to be on the wrong track compared to 19 percent who thought it was. 49 percent of blacks thought the

U. S.

was on the right track compared to 38 percent who didn’t. Some say there is the Obama factor. The figures show that 86 percent of blacks approve of the President compared to 57 percent overall.

Still unanswered is why blacks have not joined the Occupy Movement with more enthusiasm. Larry Elder, author of The Washington Examiner article thinks that if they support Occupy it might appear that blacks don’t think Obama has done his job in Washington. But since the substance of the Occupy Movement is inequality, along with the fact that blacks have been fighting this for years with limited results, I find their detachment confusing, even alarming.

In the end, Elder says it really isn’t why so few blacks are participating in the Occupy Movement; rather, “why so many blacks still belong to the Democratic party.” I personally believe they still understand that the Dems., no matter how many mistakes they have made and will make re. minorities, that the least they do will be gargantuan over what the GOP would offer.