King's Dream is Still Relevant for Today's Nightmares

Here it is, the United States once again takes the day off to honor Martin Luther King’s birthday. It’s been almost 43 years since James Earl Ray gunned him down on a Memphis motel balcony. Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1983 to establish Martin Luther King’s birthday, January 15th as a Federal Holiday. The date of the celebration was changed to the third Monday of January to be consistent with the Uniform Holiday Act. After all, no matter how solemn the occasion, holidays should be Mondays to facilitate long weekends and big sales at the malls and car dealerships which thankfully haven’t become crass enough to call them MLK Day Blow Out Sales or whatever. Instead they obscure the observance all together by often calling them, “post holiday” sales.

Scoundrels will give a nod to Doctor King even when every ounce of their effort seems contrary to King’s vision. Once again, the scary little man comes into focus. Glenn Beck in his pompous pseudo sincerity gave MLK a salute today on his broadcast attempting to tie together all kinds of arcane historical references. Yes, this is the same self-pitying twerp who enlisted Sarah Palin to help stage a rally for the terminally white folk at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th, the anniversary of King’s miraculous history changing rally held on that spot in 1963.

Beck can say whatever he will about the commonality of all Americans or what a good person MLK was. The rest of his narrative says otherwise. In Beck’s world, there was a political Garden of Eden back at the beginning of the 19th century when the young Republic of the United States was guarded by the vision of its founding fathers. There was no visible black dissent because most Americans of African ancestry were slaves. The media was in the north east and totally blind to the black experience. People like Beck and Palin believe in the mythology of these wonderful stark white people who were all good Christians and Jesus Christ whispered in their ears on how to live the perfect life until the 7th President, Andrew Jackson, started taking things in a new direction. Across the Atlantic, all kinds of bad things were brewing. Some sixty years into the century, Abraham Lincoln came along and freed the slaves, so black people were all so happy to be free so they could sing spirituals, bake corn bread, and eat lots of pig and chicken products. They had their little plots of land, and America was still a good place.

Oh-oh, around the turn of the next century, something bad happened, these evil progressives came along and both openly and secretly started to take over every thing. Women were told not to be good happy wives any longer, but to organize and vote. They started stirring up the black folk and oops, they started to want what white people had. Very bad people were doing very bad things because they were bad people – oh my, that idyllic word Beck and Palin thought America was in 1800 was gone. (Hmm, could it be that Mr. Beck and Mrs. Palin aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer – what was that industrial revolution and the influx of populations from overseas and rural America to the big cities all about – oh immigrants – BAD PEOPLE.)

After World War II, so much happened so quickly. President Truman desegregated the military much like today we rid “don’t ask don’t tell.” Oh the horrors of squeaky clean bleached white people should serve side by side with those coloreds. A great black lawyer, Thurgood Marshall, took a case against the Topeka Board of Education to the Supreme Court (probably directed by communists that McCarthy hadn’t caught yet given the historical time it happened). Under Chief Justice Earl Warren the court ordered an end to segregated schools. Later in the 1950’s, Rosa Park refused to sit in the back of the bus in Birmingham, Alabama, and soon young blacks would take seats at lunch counters where only white people were supposed to sit. There were uproars in Baltimore at North Wood Plaza, the cities new fancy shopping center and Reads drug store at Howard and Lexington Street. The young Martin Luther King from the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta began his march through out the Deep South facing guns and violence to set the oppressed people free.

Yes, a lot of progressives were involved, but so were lots of other Americans. King’s points were overwhelmingly true.

Nothing a charlatan and a little toady like Glenn Beck has to say has any relevance to the day we should honor.

So where have things gone since King died. Brutal riots broke out right after his death. White populations exited big cities in droves fearful of the “dangerous” neighborhoods. Left behind without the middle class, cities turned into cesspools of suffering with horrible schools, drugs on every corner, and nightly shootings.

In the last quarter of the 20th century the new segregation was based more on zip code than race officially, but the consequences are largely the same, blacks are all too often forced to deal with second class public accommodations where the public schools, once a powerful tool of liberation, became breeding grounds of dysfunction.

Many civil rights leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton because racial hucksters using race as an issue to capitalize on suffering while solving nothing.

While Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice became the first and second black secretaries of state, somehow the election of Barack Hussein Obama seems like an ironic corruption of King’s dream. While like so many “black” people, he is a multiracial person, but he has no connection whatsoever to the struggle Dr. King fought. He has no ancestral connection to slavery and the evils black Americans could not overcome for decades. The dream is perverted once again by an Ivy League elitist who does not talk from the people but down to the people.

Doctor King spoke of the “content of one’s character” being what really matters. Especially in light of the cowardly cynical political attacks that came out of the Tucson tragedy, many prominent politicians and media members find the content of their character running on empty.

Doctor King has been gone for 43 years. His work must continue…




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Arizona Massacre: The New Reefer Madness



What is it with everyone’s obsession to try to find someone or something to blame for the Tucson shootout other than the evil nutcase himself, Jared Loughner?

Sure there are plenty of would have, could have, should have’s, but excuse the cliché, hindsight is always 20-20.

Now, in part due to Barack Obama’s wonderful address, the blame is sliding away from feeble attempts in the media to pin the murders on conservatives and talk radio. Now it’s time for the conservatives to play the blame game along with the believers in the “drug free America” crows to take their stab at it.

Marijuana caused Loughner to go nuts and kill. Common sense alone would tell a right minded person, this is preposterous. If Marijuana were capable of causing such an extreme degree of drug induced psychosis there would be many more episodes of pot smokers gone berzerko and blasting innocent citizens.

It’s probably not too surprising that folks who engage in dangerous anti-social behavior would smoke weed. The way they see the world laws have no meaning so if society admonishes against pot smoking, it must be pretty cool to puff.

Just as there is a rush to create new gun laws, now there’s some who want to create new drug/gun laws. Gun owners should have to take drug tests to own a firearm and if one is convicted of drug possession, that person would forfeit his right to own guns. Okay, we probably don’t want folks stoned out of their mind carrying guns – but ditto for those who had a bad day at the office, drank a few beers, or had a bad argument with the wife.

The issue is mental illness and our society is doing a terrible job dealing with such unfortunate people.

By the 21st century, it’s hard to believe that so many still seek to continue marijuana possession. There’s nothing Washington, DC or in statehouses around the country can do that will keep people from smoking pot. The consequences of illegal marijuana are obvious. The horrors along our southern border and below it have much to do with the value of the cash crop marijuana represents and the huge profits satisfying its high demand in US society.

Legalize marijuana, tax it, put the tax money toward bailing out the debt and perhaps also helping to finance medical reform. Doing so would dry up the black market. If the black market were eliminated, perhaps laws could be enacted that would make it illegal for the mentally ill with certain conditions to purchase marijuana – such could be recorded on their driver’s license or suitable ID required to buy marijuana and alcohol.

Marijuana reform requires a little bit of bold thinking out of the box and one hell of a lot of common sense. In the meantime, what went wrong with Jared Loughner will become clearer for all to see. The left will never let a good crisis go to waist. Everything that appears to threaten public safety becomes another excuse to enact more laws to micromanage everything, and we must always look for boogy men beside the real culprits.

The blame game is as insane.


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Does the 2nd Amendment Protect Assholes?

Colorado radio station owner and personality pushes the limits on gun rights.

Brett Reese is not a conservative. He’s an asshole, but how far does an asshole half to go before it would be inappropriate for him to legally carry a gun?

Reese is a talk show flame thrower who broadcasts on radio station KELS-FM in Greely Colorado where he is also a member of the Greeley-Evans school board in Weld County. He threatened a “shootout” with a rival radio station’s owner if he didn’t stop calling businesses that underwrite Reese’s non-commercial radio station.

One would normally assume that he was talking figuratively albeit it irresponsibly and his comments were not to be taken literally. Nevertheless, he further helped stake his reputation as a mad man in many peoples’ views for his editorializing against Martin Luther King Day as a national observance calling King among other things, “a degenerate embezzler,” “a plastic god,” and “an American-hating communist.”

No doubt many on the left would consider such remarks “hate speech.” This writer would considerate his remarks ill-motivated lies and mischaracterizations. He walks a fine line between outright lies and grossly unpopular and unacceptable opinions.

Do these factors render him unworthy to carry a gun with a permit? It certainly makes his presence on the school board questionable unless he was elected to serve and that community desires a hater like him on their board.

The question is does being an asshole who expresses ridiculous opinions justify grounds not to carry a gun?

He claims he has received numerous death threats for airing his unpopular views. Surely, right minded people would challenge his assumptions in the snap of a finger. He goes on to defend himself by saying, "That's not what my push is. I think it's important for people to discuss any issue openly, freely and without being assassinated or bankrupted."

The cost of free speech, however, is that once one says something inflammatory, it becomes that person’s obligation to deal with the consequences his free speech brings. The same freedoms Brett Reese is exploiting in a hateful, hurtful manner are the same freedoms Dr. Martin Luther King exploited to enlighten a whole society to the wickedness of promises unfulfilled, of a population of Americans denied what most of the population took for granted on account of their skin color and origin.

King was a human being. He is not above criticism. An honest biography conducting a complete appraisal of his life would show some of his political positions were quite extreme. While it is constructive and noble to honor his great accomplishments, it would be equally wrong to deify him putting him above critical evaluation.

It is also unfortunate how many opportunists attempt to invoke King’s legacy and cloak themselves in King’s reputation attempting to say that their positions are an outgrowth of King’s vision. Some as radical as members of the New Black Panthers to paranoid nut jobs like Glenn Beck have attempted to do just that. Imagine that, Glenn Beck attempts to convince his audience of fawning bobble heads that he’s saying exactly what Martin Luther King might have said. If the angry little man had truly revered Dr. King, there’s no way in hell he would have held his rally of self justification held last August 28th on the 47th anniversary of King’s great “I Have a Dream” speech.

Supporting Brett Reese in any context is very tough to stomach. Perhaps his very presence on public airwaves could be contrary to his FCC license. While authorities should assume nothing, it is probably most appropriate that he be subject to a hot interview or hearing to determine his worthiness to carry a concealed weapon. Certainly, those responsible for issuing permits should be very clear what he means by “shootout.”

As much as it would be wonderful to argue otherwise, his way out of bounds remarks about Dr. Martin Luther King are protected by the 1st Amendment and unless his comments unlawfully insight violence, that’s no reason to deny him the rights the 2nd Amendment promise.

Brett Reese, one way or another, YOU have a lot of explaining to do.


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The Tragedy of Phylicia Barnes: Cupcakes and Colored Girls

The Sad Tragedy of Phylicia Barnes versus Natalee Holloway


Phylicia Barnes disappeared without a trace on December 28, 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland last seen around 3:00 am presumably to buy some food. She had everything going for her, a straight A student, a young lady with a bright future from Union Academy in Monroe, NC, an outer Charlotte suburb. To all who knew her, she had it all, a winner among winners. She vanished when visiting her sisters in Baltimore. News coverage on both the Baltimore and national level are scant, but in the initial article in the Baltimore Sun, there is a curious passage that perhaps tips off a disturbing attitude implicit handling this case, “Barnes is an A student who does not have a history of running away or of criminal behavior, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a Baltimore police spokesman.” Why does it even merit mentioning that this young lady has no criminal history unless one would be inclined to predispose she does, and on what basis would the question arise when examining an A student?

While Baltimore is no Aruba, the tropical “paradise” where conspicuous hedonism is the national identity, these two cases appear so similar. Natalee Holloway came from Mountain Brook, Alabama, a high income community just outside Birmingham. She had just graduated from Mountain Brook, High School, an honor’s student who was an enthusiast participant in school activities including the drill team in the school marching band. She was destined to head to undergrad school at University of Alabama with a full scholarship where she intended to prepare for medical school. This young lady was on the fast track to be a fine doctor.

So why is it that Phylicia Barnes receives relatively little attention in the news media even cable news and the localities involved where viewers could not escape the Natalee Holloway tragedy from her disappearance on May 31, 2005 until Hurricane Katrina took all the attention though Holloway coverage would return getting far more attention on a regular basis than Miss Barnes? Is it because the chances of murder seemed so obvious in the Holloway chase? After all quickly villains emerged, a young man who’d quickly become a world renowned punk, Joran van der Sloot with his shady looking sidekicks, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe . Is it because such an occurrence is so unthinkable in tiny Aruba the island where fantasies of pleasure come true? People getting killed and disappearing in Baltimore aren’t that rare. Last year 222 people were murdered. More disappeared. However, most of those were involved in urban street violence. For a very impressive young lady like Phylicia Barnes such a fate is quite rare. Natalee Holloway’s saga would occupy the lead slot on at least one Fox News program every night interviewing detectives, lawyers, forensic experts, friends, family, and classmates of Ms. Holloway, Aruban officials, and people from Natalee’s home town. Her plight would find Greta Van Susteren travelling the globe searching for answers and Geraldo Rivera would make her a cause de célèbre for tabloid journalism. Phylicia Barnes received almost no primetime coverage relegated to the day time and weekend morning shows with relatively few viewers. More than two weeks after her disappearance, Fox News interviewed her father on “Fox and Friends Weekend.” While some might accuse the networks of going overboard on Natalee Holloway, what could be employed as a greater power that could call attention to her disappearance than the national and even world media? While her story does not live up to the urgency of national issues including conflict in Iraq and Iran (gee, don’t you think those military families of deceased service men would like at least a nod of appreciation telling their loved one’s tale), perhaps bumping up the priority of her case would be justified if it helped to bring the tragedy to conclusion? Still, the irony remains – two promising young ladies who were brilliant and popular students – one received saturation coverage, the other almost escapes notice?

Did we tell you Phylicia Barnes is African American? Natalee Holloway was pin-up girl gorgeous, blonde, blue-eyed, makeup verging on the trashy side – in other words, white and sexy.

There in lines the difference between the two cases. Young white woman and girls are our culture’s dream of human perfection as long as they’re pretty. Somehow they seem to be the embodiment of every American dream. Think of the iconic all-American images we bestow on the girl next door (of course we know what kind of neighborhood that would be as right out of Norman Rockwell Americana). We ascribe and associate titles of royalty which just aren’t associated with black girls – homecoming queen, prom queen, and all kinds of princesses, or Miss State Fair, Miss Alabama, or Miss America regardless of the small handful of minorities who have been so honored. If it’s any consolation to African Americans, white men, not particularly attractive fully grown white women, Asians, Latinos, and white boys the same age as Natalee or Phylicia don’t get much press either. Only babies and grandparents get more attention than the vast spectrum of our sea of humanity, but nubile white females get the highest degree of attention when they are victims. Conversely, black males of that age don’t even get mentioned unless they’re valedictorians or stars on their school’s sports teams which would at least earn them mention in the news – but after a day or two, they’re gone too.

Clearly, not all men and especially women even more so women are created equal where the ratings driven mainstream media is concerned. The public gets very worked up when seemingly innocent white girls’ fate meets evil. Fear and horror grip the population. Demands for resolution become deafening, the young lady’s biography becomes a tale of human virtue. Families blessed with a lovely girl of that age reassure themselves nothing happened to their little cupcake but oh how gripping is the fear that she might meet a horrible end even though the chances of being a victim of violence remains incredibly low.

Racism is not always in your face hatred. When it’s as obvious as to where white folk call black folk “niggers,” it’s easy to recognize and fight. There is a tendency for some to say, “racism, what racism, we elected Obama after all!” None of this recognizes that more insidious and less obvious forms of racism. How do we account for not developing the resolve and simply allow things like the total failure of urban school systems to function in productive and supportive ways to effectively educate the next generation of those kids who have every right to escape the grips of the squalor. How can we tolerate and not intervene with full-force to end the kind of street corner genocide where in many communities such as Baltimore where on any given night the odds are better than not that at least one young black man will be killed in the streets. We deprive the personal tragedy and that each of these deaths is some mother’s son by associating the killings as gang warfare or drug violence. Such labels strip the victims of their humanity making them disposable human beings. That we mention failing schools and urban violence side-by-side helps us understand in many ways, one leads to the next. Where kids challenged, encouraged to see goals and ideals for themselves, taught effectively so they could achieve it would be unthinkable to think such kids would waste away and ooze out on to the mean streets of the big cities. Nevertheless, the master culture feels that it attempts to address these issues through a myriad of social programs continuing to believe that these problems could be solved if only more money were spent as if not taxing those selfish rich people to death is the answer. Plenty of money is being appropriated. The money is being spent, but HOW is it being spent and WHERE does the money go? Look at the largesse of urban school bureaucracies often incredibly bigger than suburban schools but look how those additional offices provide nothing that help kids on the classroom level. Nevertheless, millions and millions are spent on studies and blue ribbon panels that invariably reach the same conclusion – spend more money, create more programs, but where does it become someone’s responsibility to get results?

Fast forward back to the Phylicia Barnes case, both North Carolina and Maryland are states with large populations of black middle class citizens and a significant number of people who reach high positions in corporate and government settings. They almost seem to be stealth accomplishments because so little is made of their success and held up as goals for achievement when it seems like the only place blacks truly excel in our society is entertainment, especially sports. Ghetto kids start to believe their ticket out of the ghetto rests in the NFL and NBA. The odds that any particular kid will realize such glory is probably far less likely than being gun downed in the street or struck by lightening.

A wonderful young lady has vanished without a clue. Would anyone recognize the face of Phylicia Barnes? Would we have recognized the face of Natalee Holloway? Five years later her graduation picture and several others we identify almost instantaneously with Alabama’s up and coming angel who disappeared in the tropical paradise of Aruba. About the only consolation one can find is that Aruban law enforcement is more inept, corrupt, and ineffective than even the worst police departments in big city America.

We pretty much know what happened to Natalee Holloway; Joran van der Sloot killed her. Any doubt he didn’t was erased when he killed another young lady in Peru That he might spend the rest of his life in one of the world’s nastiest prisons is just rewards for his treachery even if it weren’t specifically for Natalee, but the Holloway family deserves better closure than that.

We have no idea about Phylicia Barnes or even to what extent she is a priority in Baltimore. Just add one more to the body count of black people in a city where there’s not a huge difference between 222 and 223 murders for 2010 as if to say what’s the value of one particular human being compared to the rest, just one more report to file. This kind of dehumanization helps show why society is so tolerant of such high murder rates to begin with. Some human beings aren’t as human as others.

Phylicia Barnes disappearance should challenge all of us to challenge these assumptions and demand justice. The similarities of these two cases parallel in so many ways, but when a lovely white girl vanishes, it is such a real life case of the damsel-in-distress motif it somehow appeals to every sense of chivalry. Chivalry is an ancient concept borne in European and British aristocracy. As much as American society eschews notions of royalty and privilege based on class, those ancient rituals lurk just beneath our subconscious, and we see the dreadful contradictions they breed.

Despite the many resources employed, millions spent, and saturation media coverage, Natalee Holloway remains missing though Joran van der Sloot surely looks like a guilty murderer. There is still hope, albeit getting slimmer by the day, Phylicia Barnes, might turn up okay.

Keep Phylicia Barnes in your prayers. A tragedy like hers demands to be told.




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Higher Ed Journal Writes: Regional Dialects Coming Back Via Twitter!?!?



Baltimore's Cultural Icon: The Cafe Hon


A casualty of the last quarter of the 20th century would appear to have been the rich variety of regional dialects around the USA. Who remembers the classic  Brooklyn -- thoidy-three-anna-thoid (thirty three and a third), Boston -- pack yah cah (park your car), Baltimore -- Blair Reowd, Lumber Street, zinc, amblance, poeleeze (Bel Air Road, Lombard Street, sink, ambulance, police). Who wouldn't recognize the nass an' ez (nice and easy) laid back Southern drawl, y'all. The Great Lakes region has it sharp vowel sounds which is almost impossible to spell phonetically but we know someone's from out there when they answer the phone with a distinctive "al-loooow" (hello)  Just as southern folk have their famous "Y'all" residents from south Philadelphia have an uncanny knack for slipping, "huh" as an interjection almost anywhere in a phrase or sentence. You know you're in Balimer (Baltimore) when you stop for a cup of coffee, and the waitress or cashier calls you "hon."  Can out of state folk translate, "Wars mah chuin gawm in gawreen oy shadder, hon?" (Where's my chewing gum and green eyeshadow [an East "Balmer" fashion necessity] hon?)

Leave to researchers in academia with too much time on their hands, they have found the bastions of Twitter and instant messaging are now developing their own distinct regional dialects. Somehow what they report just doesn't have folksy charm of a big-haired Baltimore breakfast waitress addressing you as "hon!"

Reference article: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/suttin-hella-koo-yall-regional-dialects-thrive-on-twitter/28960?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en





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NFL 2010: Divisional Playoffs -- Some Really Fun Matchup's

As if the wild card contests didn't live up to their billing, wait until the next round concludes. The AFC has a rivalry that has rapidly installed itself on par with the greatest face offs in sports history: Red Sox/Yankees, Michigan/Ohio State, UNC/Duke. When Baltimore plays Pittsburgh, it is war!!!!

Who knows, though it won't be easy when the top team has earned dynasty status, New England versus the New York Jets could be warming up to provide an extensions of the Red Sox/Yankees into the NFL -- though in the Big Apple, the Jets have always been the ugly little toady step brother to the Giants even though the Jets have been far more interesting recently.

The NFC match ups don't have the instant story lines the AFC ones do, but clearly the Green Bay visit to Atlanta will be the hotter contest. The Falcons have been the NFC's most consistent team in 2009, but the Packers when healthy are explosive.  It's hard to warm up for the Seattle trip to Chicago. Seattle is a team entering the post season with a losing record, but they sure looked like they belong in the fight given the ass-whoopin' they laid on New Orleans in Seattle last weekend. Nobody saw that coming.

Stock up on beer and munchies, fire up the grill, get that big pot of chili cooking, invite some friends over to show off that new HDTV and get ready to watch some football. Let's look at the games.

Saturday:
Baltimore @ Pittsburgh (-3 1/2), 4:30 pm, CBS
The commentators talk about this as "old fashioned" football or football the way it's supposed to be played. Translation, don't look for a lot of fancy trendy offensive strategies. No this will be grind it out in the trenches hard hitting football where each team's defense will do everything possible to rip its opponent to pieces. The match up seems to be as much Palomalo versus Reed as it would be Roethlisberger against Flacco. These games have a habit of playing close with which team pulls off the big play toward game's end winning. Pittsburgh might have a couple more intangibles on their side, but that does not suggest the Ravens can't win. They can and win very ugly. There will be nothing pretty about this game besides the cheerleaders.

Green Bay @ Atlanta (-2), 8:15 pm, FOX
Here's another game almost too close to call. Aaron Rodgers is more the big play, dramatic QB where Matt Ryan is more the mechanic. Our snapshot would call the Falcons superior on defense but give the edge on offense to Green Bay. We'll give Atlanta the slight edge.

Sunday:
Seattle @ Chicago (-10), 1:00 pm, FOX
Here's the one game if one team were to prevail, the results would be seen as a true upset. Look at it this way, it's unthinkable that a team with a 7-9 record could even make it to the playoffs, but not only did they make it, they obliterated the defending champions convincingly. The Seahawks with their Pom-Pom Prince, Pete Carroll,as head coach have nothing to lose. They're there to have fun and anything they accomplish is a plus. But fans should never forget, Carroll understands big games and the pressures that come with such distinctions given his winning tenure, championships, and huge success at USC.

"Da Bears" must approach the game with workman like precision, stick  to their strengths, and execute their plan without mistakes. They have a strong defense with Julius Peppers and Brain Uhrlacher leading the way. Jay Cutler must prove he can play a must win game without mistakes. No question, if this were all based on past performance and stats, the Bears win, but add the human element where anything Seattle accomplishes is gravy and the Bears could have a coach fighting to preserve his job, all things are possible, but it would be foolhardy to actually pick Seattle unless one hedges  --why not?

New York Jets @ New England (-8),4:30 pm, CBS
For those getting a glimpse of this contest through the lenses of the New York media or sports stations, with all the showmanship Jets coach, Rex Ryan, has been feeding them, the game itself might seem anti-climatic regardless of outcome. Make no mistake, Ryan has brought life to the Big Apple's other team making it to the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Ryan's humor and boastfulness certainly adds a little fun to a game which often is taken way too seriously. However, making comments like "it's personal" between him and Tom Brady or Bill Bellichick and the constant prattle for every open microphone,Ryan is getting to seem a lot like a professional wrestler working up the crowd before hopping in the ring. On the other hand, pretty boy Tommy and Yoda, the New England QB and coach are going at it quietly with such secrecy you'd almost think they're working on some clandestine black magic as if the talent and organization of the New England Patriots alone doesn't equal championship expectations.

It looks like New England will put its collective foot down and the Rex Ryan travelling freak show will be done. If New England breaks Jets QB Mark Sanchez early, this game could be a blowout. While a Jets win is not impossible by any stretch, New England can dispirit another team like no other.

The Baltimore byline....
It's so hard not to crave a Ravens and Jets win leading to a AFC Championship played in Baltimore. Keep dreamin' baby. It's not impossible, just improbable!!!!

Obama Targets States Guaranteeing Workers' Rights Against Union Intimidation

Perhaps the most stunning wide-reaching efforts of the Obama administration is the extent to which they function as tools of organized labor in the United States. The Union wish list and Obama labor policy are one and the same.  Consider how the unions were given ownership stakes in General Motors and Chrysler in the auto-industry bailout over the legitimate contracts of debts to be settled by those owning bonds in the companies leaving their financial stakes out in the cold. While the so-called stimulus program has done nothing at all to help small businesses, much fortune has been devoted to creating government union jobs.

Anyone who can clearly see what organized labor has contributed to the American economy in the last 50 years, we see a malignant cancer that has destroyed entire industries while forcing the lion share of manufacturing jobs overseas. In the interest of cynical short-term gains, unions have not only destroyed once mighty industries, but they have forced millions of union workers to the unemployment jobs settling for employment that could never come close to what would have been reasonable compensation for the jobs they once held had the unions not priced their wages and benefits out of sight.

Not just excessive wages are the problem but the real onerous burden unions have stuck society with funding are their legacy costs -- pensions and insurance benefits which keep union workers basking in high cotton for the rest of their lives. Not only are the benefits extremely generous in compensation and benefits granted, provisions that provide for ridiculously early retirement after often around 25 to 30 years of service, productive workers go from contributing to the economy, albeit it a very high cost, for the goods and services they produce to a financial burden threatening the financial stability of the corporations and municipalities where they once worked.

When looking at the eminent downfall of the economies of financially strapped states including California, New York, and Illinois, the burden of funding pensions with such such perks as exceptionally liberal and generous cost-of-living adjustments, the wretched greed and shortsightedness of unionism stands naked in the breeze. Only through bankruptcy can corporations get out of crippling contracts -- but if demeaned "too big to fail" we see how GM and Chrysler retirees remain living high on the hog not even having to do a little belt tightening that EVERYONE else has had to endure to some measure.  Having liberal state governments allowing unions to gain binding arbitration where an arbiter can commit the tax payers to finance union demands contrary to what the state (the feeble supposed representative of the electorate) intended.

Clearly, where the Democratic party, essentially the labor movement's political arm, is deeply entrenched, those states will become financially strapped, raise taxes, screw businesses, and drive wealth, both personal wealth and entire corporations to move elsewhere. Manufacturing companies including many overseas companies are more than happy to set up shop in right-to-work states, but the old "rust belt" manufacturing states continue to fall to pieces.

Despite the 2010 election demanding frugality and bucking union desires, the Obama administration and the Democratic party are still hell-bent on destroying a worker's right to vote to accept or decline union representation through their card check provision. To compel a worker to vote on the spot in clear view of union organizers, such workers are subject to severe intimidation and retribution if they don't follow union mandates. History has shown unions seldom give any regard to following the law whether its what recently happened with snow removal in New York after last month's blizzard to the kind of violence that they inflict on independent truckers any time there is a truck strike.

Some bold states have declared enough is enough. They will make it a basic right of citizens as part of their constitution not to be subject to union intimidation, but the Obama administration will have no part of it. Certainly once again using the primary tool of the radical left to impose the reach of government through misapplication of the commerce clause, they seek to prosecute or persecute those states just as they have with states who attempt to protect themselves from the ravages of illegal immigration.

Is not a government controlled by labor one of the most well established definitions of socialism? Yet, the media in the administration acts as if those calling the President a socialist are guilty of hate crimes.

America must stand up to organized labor with Ronald Reagan as our inspiration. Their thorny grip on our society must be destroyed.

REFERENCE ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110114/ap_on_re_us/us_unions_secret_ballots



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An Open Letter to University of Arizona, Tuscon Students

Dear Arizona students involved:

Grow up you snot-nosed disrespectful little bastards.  A Memorial Service is not a pep rally, and when you have the opportunity to be in the audience whether it is for elected officials or guest lectures, YOU TREAT THEM WITH RESPECT AND RESTRAINT WHETHER YOU AGREE WITH THEM OR NOT!!!

If you don't understand this, you do not belong in college. You're not mature enough to be in Middle School.  Such forums are not sporting events. You do not whoop it up and scream approval for those you like and you do not boo or interfere with those with whom you disagree (even if that's customary at ivory tower elite campuses in California or the North East -- calling out Columbia University as the prime offender).

Okay, we get the message you still fawn over Barack Obama who has totally led this country to ruin for the past two years, though even though this writer believes he is an awful President, in a setting like last night there would be only one way to react to his presence, polite applause. You don't like Governor Brewer, a woman with the thankless job of looking out for you immature little bastards. The fights she wages are for your benefit and will help keep your tuition from skyrocketing if that matters to you. Ooops, your unlimited ATM, mom and dad are paying for your college?  No wonder you're acting like such little pukes.  Oh, you have student loans?  Live it up but your debt will come due some day sooner than you can imagine.

Oh yes, we know,you believe you shouldn't have to pay for college. You sure as heck don't understand the Federal deficit or financial hell Arizona is facing.  You probably believe it's those dreadful corporations (some of you who learn how to grow up and act responsibly will be working for in 1-4 years) ripping everybody off and we just need to go to the rich people and tax them and tax them and tax them to take care of your sorry little asses and all those silly causes your favorite Hollywood celebrities and pop music stars endorse.  Of course there are plenty of people you'd demonize who are the evil rich in your eyes who are donating huge sums of money to your college, many of whom attended there. They do so not because they have to, not for the tax advantage (which only reduces their tax liability), but simply because they want to. They want to see your school do well. Some of you if you learn how to work hard enough and set meaningful goals for yourself will be "rich" too.

So head back to your dorms, load up the bongs, grab huge quantities of beer, fire up the video games, and party til you puke.

You have taken a solemn occasion and transformed what could have been a very noble and special event and turned it into just another campus pep rally.

It is terrifying to think ungrateful, disrespectful, ignorant little brats like you represent our nation's future. You little bastards have A LOT of learning to do. So why not start with today's classes, challenge your liberal professors to prove their outrageous assertions and work your furry little butts off for the ones who actually have something of value to teach you.

You're so pathetic you almost make Sarah Palin look like a grown-up.

Sincerely,

RMF  (Not to be mistaken for your father because if I were your dad, I'd drive you to the military recruiter as I discontinue my support for your party club and rent your bedroom out to someone who will appreciate a secure roof over his head)



Sarah Palin Once Again Proves What a Worthless Shit She Really Is

To think, we were even considering a post that was going to indicate Sarah Palin was on her best behavior so far in the wake of the Tucson Tragedy. There is no question the criticism and blamestorming directed at her rhetoric and a particular campaign brochure that had gun sight targets on certain members of congress on the map including Gabby Giffords has been unfair and reprehensible even when directed at the Wasilla Wench. Even more ironic is that the Democrats used a similar "target" map in their 2004 election campaign.

What Sarah Palin is showing once again is that she is totally unfit for leadership and is an exceptionally shallow, immature person whose place in the political spotlight must be obliterated NOW!!

She is too immature that to realize there is some criticism a true leader rises above by not responding to or at very least dimissing with just a slight brush off that we've heard many leaders use before, like saying, "I won't dignify that remark by responding."  Sadly, for the Wasilla Wench, it's all about her and nobody can ever be a leader if that person is incapable of rising above her critics no matter how wrong, mean-spirited, or dishonest they are.

This is the time for the REAL leaders to step forward, rise above the wicked and the petty and help the American people aspire to higher principles and attempt to use a dreadful tragedy as the vehicle to advance a greater good. Sarah Palin once again, not only fails miserably, but she demonstrates a woeful pouting angry child kind of immaturity which reveals just how dangerous she is in the realm of politics. Anyone who could even remotely consider her a choice for President must do some serious soul searching and re-evaluation. Is it any wonder Glenn Beck talks frequently of carrying on conversations with her?

They fit together like pieces of a puzzle, don't they?


Jon Stewart nailed this issue on the head when he said he's as soon blame what happened in Tuscon on political speech as he would blame Columbine on heavy metal music.  The court jester shows the wisdom profound idiots like Palin are not adult enought to accept.

The Worst America Has to Offer: Westboro Gang Is At It Again -- STOP THEM!!!

They ridiculed the families of 9/11 victims. They taunted the loved ones of those who lost kin in Iran and Iraq. They picketted Elizabeth Edwards' funeral, and now these hateful shitheads promise to do the same for victims of the Tuscon Slaughter even including little 9 year old Christine Green.
We know freedom of speech does not allow for yelling fire in a crowded theater, and freedom of religion does not allow for the sacrifice of human virgins. Such logic should apply to these sickos whose continued presence in our society leaves a path of filth upon us all.

It's time to say no more and hold these hate mongers to account for their treachory. No more screwing around or politically correct nonsense, and if the ACLU decides to defend them, they deserve the full wrath and fury of the American people.

Hey you Westboro idiots, we proudly support the full rights of citizenship and all rights provided by the US Constitution for our homosexual friends and neighbors. They are good people, which not even a mad man could say of you.


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The Picture Says It All

Look at death straight in the eye.  Here it is....

Evil has a face, and here it is.

Pima County Sheriff Must Resign NOW!!!

Professionalism alone demands this disgraceful excuse for law enforcement must lose his job, NOW!!!

An open message to Pima County sheriff Clarence Dupnik, “SHUT UP AND DO YOUR GOD DAMNED JOB.” Your job is to gather the facts from the crime scene, draw inferences from the material at hand and seek justice. You are FUCKING CRAZY if you think even the worst of conservatives are responsible like Sarah Palin. Nowhere in any of the material from the psychotic shooter showed any coherent political motives – the guy was out in some crazy zone. Jared Lee Loughner’s dreadful behavior could be blamed on the left as well but at least so far even the worst right wing bomb throwers have stayed out of doing so. However, you Sheriff Dupnik have slaughtered any pretense of professionalism in the conduct of your job and you must be dealt with accordingly. If you were a real man, you’d resign and apologize immediately.


If some political criticism of Gabriel Giffords was full of anger, so be it. That’s what the 1st amendment and our freedoms are all about. We have the right to be wrong. She has been a model representative in many ways regardless of where one stands on the left/right continuum. We cannot stifle the passion of those who have strong feelings about the issues for fear of being branded by overzealous pompous assholes who are so insanely partisan that they would make claims like Clarence Dupnik has done.

If this were just a knee-jerk reaction in the heat of the moment, that would be one thing, but still totally unacceptable; however,  Sheriff Dupnik has repeated his hate drenched feelings again and again. When asked by Megyn Kelly on Fox News if he could offer any proof of his charges, he conceded he had none, it was a gut reaction. How reassuring could this be to the people in his community that a total boob like this is their chief enforcer.

This writer can't help but think of this low-life excuse for law enforcement being attended to by another Arizona sheriff who'd have Dupnik in the infamous pink underwear.

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Baltimore Pepsi Plant to Close -- The Cost of Higher Taxes

Baltimore is closing it's Pepsi Plant in the Hampden section of Baltimore City. Pepsi cites Baltimore's decision to impose a two cent per bottle tax as part of the reason for leaving the plant whose sign on the eastern side of the Jones Falls Expressway has become a Baltimore landmark (often used to mark traffic backups on the JFX). More than 70 workers will become jobless.

This is a hard lesson the Democratic party which exists in its purest form in Maryland refuses to recognize. Their hostility toward business and tax-happy big spending ways directly cause economic harm. There are sandwich shops and other businesses which feed off of Pepsi workers that will be affected too. The loss of a job magnet costs far more than the loss of jobs at the facility itself. The real nature of Baltimore once again shows its ugly face.

Reference: http://www.wbal.com/absolutenm/templates/story.aspx?articleid=65460&zoneid=3

Meanwhile, Ann Arundel County should be forewarned it had better not consider following the mistakes of Baltimore City for the Coca-Cola plant was a huge triumph when attracted to the new MD-100 corridor that opened in the late 90's through Dorsey, Maryland.



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9 Year Old Christina Green -- The Real Horror of the Tuscon Massacre

Christine Green was not just any nine year old girl. At her innocent age, she already had bold ideals and a keen interest in government as a vehicle to "help" people. She was elected to some kind of student assembly in her school. Her father is John Green, a scout for the LA Dodgers. Her grandfather is Dallas Green, long-time Conowingo, Maryland resident who managed the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees (among others) and is now a senior exec for the Phillies.

This lovely child's death touches us all but also hits the world of Major League Baseball especially hard.

Now is the time for prayer and compassion. The blame game cannot be tolerated except for that directed at the killer himself.

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Tucson Shootings -- Fallout

Who wouldn't have known that the knee jerk liberal reaction to the horrors that beset Tuscon, Arizona would be more justification for more gun laws.  As the NRA folks have long said, outlaw guns and then only outlaws will have guns.  Here's the latest attempt, rest assured there will be more in the days ahead and the rhetoric will be worse.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47338.html

Short of an all out ban on certain kinds of weapons or even all as some radicals would prefer totally contrary to the 2nd amendment no matter how much they chose to spin it, there are tons of gun laws on the books. In cities where handguns have all but been outlawed, the black market runs wild.

We do need to find ways to do better background checks to screen out the mentally deranged but for fear of invading their civil rights, that could be very thorny to accomplish. Look at all the things that broke down in the horrible tragedy that beset Virginia Tech just a couple years ago.

The solution is effective enforcement of current laws and that those who use guns in the commission of crimes are shown no mercy. While kids rot in jail for drug possession, how many dangerous criminals have been released too soon or have plea bargained their way out of justice?

An Open Letter to Glenn Beck

Dear Mr. Beck:

This is a stern warning, you'd damned well better not use this weekend's horrible tragedy as a prop to power up your fear and paranoia machine. I was thinking of you yesterday as your network started to broadcast some of the sick rants of the supposed killer. He had a warped sense of doom. He cited the constitution being ignored. He also spoke of the currency trouble and necessity of gold. These are issues you've tried to scare people in to accepting your warped vision. You're both insane. We're only talking about a matter of degrees, and at least so far, you haven't picked up a gun yet.

We can almost see what's coming in the week ahead. You're going to use this as one more sign of the apocalypse you keep insinuating is on our doorstep. Even if you're careful enough not to blame specific political entities, we've learned how to follow your inferences.

Your frothing madness, mean-spirited sarcasm, holier-than-thou self-righteousness, and rabid demagoguery will be seen in a new light this coming week. Now it's time for us to put the scare in you. You'd damned well better watch what you talk about and what you say especially when you try to work your audience into a fearful frenzy. We've caught on to your "magician's tricks" used in your narratives and how you use books as a prop to take things out of context you surely don't have the analytic abilities to express rationally.

Perhaps some of the positive reflection and the extent to which tragedy can bring the good out in people, this horrible tragedy will mark the beginning of the end for the Glenn Beck fear-monger machine. Folks are going to start saying enough is enough for those who engage in mad exploitation of that which scares them and look for reassurance, consideration, and communion.

You're a one trick pony and your race has been run. Find your seat next to Morton Downey and Joe Pine.

-RMF

How NOT to React to What Happened in Arizona

While we still work on making our definitive statement on the Tuscon Massacre killing a Federal Judge, a nine year old girl, and some citizens participating in representative government and seriously injuring a dedicated congresswoman, how quick some are to assess blame.

How quickly the blog world had the worst of the left spewing their hatred and intolerence blaming this horrible event on the Tea Party and Sarah Palin. While we are harsh critics of Palin, this is not her doing; however, we put her on notice, as someone who is prone to meanspirited knee jerk reactions, she'd damned well better chose her worlds carefully.

Paul Krugman is a creep, a New York Times elitist whose viewpoints reflect the worst of what the American left believes. Is it any wonder he couldn't wait to get his warped view of the tragedy posted at 3:22 pm yesterday.

His posting is called, "The Conscience of a Liberal."  Well, here it is. His words speak for themselves.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/assassination-attempt-in-arizona/

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NFL 2010: The Wildcard Games -- It's Now Or Never

The playoffs to decide the Super Bowl contestants for the 2010 season feature some familiar playoff participants: Baltimore, Indianapolis, New Orleans, and Philadelphia, a team that is something of a Cinderella team, Kansas City, and a team that simply is hard to figure why they are in the field with a losing 7-9 record, Seattle, but given the mess the NFC West is right now, they’re the last men standing and their victory to get there was not of little consequence. The showoff between the Seahawks and St. Louis with the winner gaining the final playoff berth achieved record ratings for NBC’s Sunday Night NFL programming.

In making our selections, we’ve examined how each team has played down the stretch, the matchups they’ve face, how healthy the players are, and the ever present intangibles and here are our selections in order of their broadcast time.

New Orleans (10 ½) @ Seattle [Saturday, NBC, 4:30 pm]
Are you kidding, the national champs versus the chumps. Seattle is 1-3 in their final four games only beating St. Louis. They lost to San Francisco, Atlanta, and Tampa Bay. New Orleans is 2-2, but lost to the kinds of teams they’d have to beat to repeat – Baltimore and Tampa Bay. This is the one game on the slate that could be a blow out if Drew Breese gets everything running. The Saints march on.

New York Jets @ Indianapolis (-2.5) [Saturday, NBC, 8:00 pm]
This has not been a typical year for Payton Manning and the gang. Their spot in the playoffs was not secured until the final Sunday but nevertheless they are getting healthier and have won their last four games including Jacksonville in week 13 the team they needed to top to secure their playoff berth. The Jets are 2-2 in their final drive losing to Miami and Chicago but QB Mark Sanchez is finding his lack of experience getting in the way of winning. Rex Ryan will throw every defensive trick in the book at Payton Manning, but what quarterback except maybe Tom Brady researches his opponents more? The Colts look like a convincing pick.

Baltimore (-3) @ Kansas City [Sunday, CBS, 1:00 pm]
Baltimore has certainly raised questions with their week performance in the second half of crucial games with their defense looking gassed and their offense not using up the clock and putting up the points. The important thing is they are winning and are 4-0 down the stretch including knocking off the champs from New Orleans, aside from a foolish loss to Cincinnati in week 2, the Ravens have lost to the most elite teams in the game this year, one game to Pittsburgh, New England, and Atlanta. These are teams they might have to face later to be the champs. They should beat the Chiefs but they’ll have to pick up their game to look worthy of what lies ahead.

Green Bay @ Philadelphia (-2 ½) [FOX, 4:30 pm]
Philadelphia comes into the playoffs Eastern Division champs after the New York Giants closed up shop playing against them in week 15. Since then, they haven’t won but didn’t really need to in the final week. Still, they have two home losses against a decimated Minnesota Vikings and the Cowboys. Meanwhile, Green Bay had to win on the last day of the season to clinch their playoff spot being a strongly favored team early in the year but facing considerable injuries which are only now being resolved. Green Bay began their stretch run with an embarrassing loss to the suddenly hot Detroit Lions and then went to Foxboro and got beaten by the Patriots. They finished with wins against a playoff rival, the New York Giants and then beat their division winner, Chicago, at Lambeau Field. This could perhaps be the closest match in this year’s Wild Card field but we’ll give the edge to the Green Bay Packers. How about a little Wisconsin cheese topping that Philadelphia Cheese Steak, huh?



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The Dufus is Done

After observing Scott McClelland in action during the last administration, did anyone think there could ever be a more smug arrogant dullard  to serve as White House Press Secretary, well leave it to the O-blunder administration to come up with a worse candidate, one who instead of cowering, has a smirky smart-ass streak too him and unlike his predecessor, was working for what should be a sympathetic audience given the liberal bias of the Washington press.

Alas, the dullard dufus has found it time to move on. Regardless of party affiliation, these fellows don't last long under the White House Press Corps's bright media glare, and to think he was fortunate enough to have the little bad witch from Lebanon, Helen Thomas, be forced to retire earlier in his tenure. Having to face that cranky old bitch would have been enough to irritate a person with the strongest nerves of steel.

To think that the Obama administration feels the public's attitude toward him and some of his policies were because his program wasn't explained well enough. Does this make Gibbs the fall guy? Mr. President, it sure goes beyond the dork who was thrown to the wolves with note pads, Blackberry's and bad attitudes each day while it does seem true McClelland helped facilitate a very negative attitude against George W. Bush and that that little puke was enough of a scum to write a misleading tell-all book upon leaving his post. Our advice to Mr. Gibbs, please don't write a book, just go away. We'll develop a distaste for your successor quickly.

In truth as irritating as Robert Gibbs was, it's not the messenger that we most despise, it's his message. Remember, don't let the door hit yah where the good Lord split yah.

Conservative America's (well really the whole darned country's) Highest Priority: Get Rid of Sarah Palin -- NOW!!!

A hog for publicity, an inexperienced oaf, an incapable leader who couldn't even complete a full term as governor of Alaska, a one-dimensional intellectually-challenged loud mouth, a person who screams and hollers every time criticism (often well-deserved) is directed at her while constantly never missing a chance to slur her opponents, Sarah Palin is a person laking in knowledge, experience, integrity, ability and intelligence to handle any position of high responsibility much less the most powerful job in the world. One must think, when has there ever been a more divisive, polarizing figure on the American political stage who so obviously savors the attention while offering nothing of substance in return. For those looking for any sense that Palin has any clear understanding of complex issues or any sense of sound policy judgment, voters will find her lacking any kind of vital substance to accomplish anything more than a rah-rah pep rally kind of public speech.

One must ask, what has she accomplished?  What has she successfully mastered that demonstrates she has the capacity to take on greater responsibilities?

The truth is her one qualifier was being elected as governor of Alaska, and had she succeeded one must keep in mind that Alaska is one of the country's least populated states with rather limited challenges compared to the great population centers in the lower 48. We can give her no credit for her gig as Governor of Alaska when she was unable to complete the term she was elected to fulfill. We cannot possibly use Mayor of Wasilla as a meaningful credential. A small town mayor in a community with a rather homogeneous population encounters very few challenges that most big city mayors face.

Outside of the political area, what noteworthy contributions has Ms. Palin made?  Was she a promising prodigy in her academic career?  Her college credentials are mediocre. She has no business background that amounts to a situation requiring high-level responsibility.

Nothing should make us more aware of the dangers of inexperience better than what our country is facing with Barack Obama as president. Replacing an unqualified, under experienced left wing ideologue with someone who might only be friendly ideologically but far less intellectually endowed isn't a very good trade.

In the past week, experienced Washington observers George Will and Charles Krauthammer have discussed the futility of a Palin presidential bid. Krauthammer examines her lack of credentials while Will demonstrates why she would be impossible to elect.

We remind the reader once again that Nevada and Delaware would almost certainly have Republican senators were it not for Palin's interference in those states' nominating process. Harry Reid would have been retired.

It's time to speak up and destroy her onslaught. For starters, Fox News must be held accountable that as an organization which aspires to be the nation's premier news source, it is unacceptable and unethical to be shilling for a political candidate providing biased fawning coverage every bit as biased as the mainstream media has devoted to Barack Obama or any other prominent figure.

If Sarah Palin is not reduced to rubble very early in the 2012 campaign, not only will Barack Obama easily win re-election with a landslide of Reagan proportions possible, the gains the GOP realized on Capitol Hill could be short-lived.

All Tea Party sympathizers, conservatives, and Republicans must see Sarah Palin as the Pied Piper of doom for their political hopes. Palin must go, NOW!!!

2010 -- Ten Losers --- Ring 'em out with the old or ring their necks -- the less seen of them in 2011 would be a blessing!!!!

2010 Losers, Liars, Loafers, Loud-mouths…


2010 was a bumper crop year for idiots, lowlifes, liar, loud-mouths, losers, and generally maladjusted individuals to make their mark. While surely Barack Obama could top the list just has he has since his emergence in the public eye – what can we say about O-blunder that we haven’t said already. Whether it was publicly dressing down John McCain during a White House meeting on the economy, the countless sorties around the globe he and his Mrs. embarked upon, his failure to take seriously the day-to-day administrative roll of government demonstrating the incompetence borne of inexperience, his constant whining and finger pointing and lightly veiled efforts to push the republic ever closer to European style socialism, ol’ O-blunder deserves some kind of lifetime achievement award in the sphere of hateful politics.

Nancy Pelosi
Close behind Obama’s performance and surely one of the most despicable figures in recent American history would be Queen Nancy. Good old Nancy Pelosi, we needn’t list her many crimes here. We do allow ourselves a little schadenfreude that she will now be flying commercial stripped of the elegant military transport she demanded upon ascent to her Queen Bitch position. She best summed up the kind of arrogant idiot she is when addressing a supportive audience of special interest lackeys concerning Obama-care when she stated: “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy….”

Sarah Palin
As if the previous two years weren’t long enough for Sarah Palin to wear out her welcome, her self-serving publicity gag about Momma Grizzlies is enough to elicit vomiting. Attempting to seize the Tea Party movement as the “Elect Palin in 2012” mob, her involvement in the mid-term elections turned something very good into great possibilities squandered. Her personal vendetta against the Murkowski family in Alaska saw Joe Miller defeat Murkowski in the primaries then to lose to her in the general election through write-in ballots. Nevada was well on its way to ridding itself of Harry the horrible with a strong field of challengers. Palin supported Sharon Angle, a nice lady but someone so hopelessly confused, she just wasn’t cut out to be a senator, thus, Harry Reid remains. The Republicans even had a rare chance to gain a Senate seat in Delaware filling what had been Joe Biden’s seat. Their incumbent congressman was poised to slaughter the democratic opposition. Enter Christine O’Donnell, a world class dip shit who many would see as Sarah Palin’s version of mini-me. Another Senate seat remained with the Democrats. Palin has unprecedented media access with Fox News who finds a spot or more for her just about every evening. How nauseating it is to hear a grown-up crying about the naughty boy sitting next to her trying to poke her eye out Her name calling, blame-storming and whining far exceed anything she has going for her. She dare not articulate policies as what little she says about US History or the Constitution wouldn’t reach a middle school level of achievement.


Brett Favre
Brett Favre should have known the party was over when the Vikings lost to the Saints in the NFC championship. That he was staying at his Deep South digs while the rest of the NFL players reported to camp and had to be coaxed into joining the Vikings when a cadre of team mates flew to Mississippi to bring him up north clearly indicated it was time to hang it up. From the very beginning his performance on the field was a disaster then came the charges of hanky-panks with a female member of the New York Jets from two seasons earlier. Finally, his Iron Man streak was over. He was no longer the Huck Finn lovable eternal boy wonder. He was a tired old fart over the hill.

Glenn Beck
Outside a handful of HNN viewers and hardcore devotees to right wing radio, Glenn Beck was a mere nobody two years ago. Like a sickly pestilence, his presence has oozed its way into the conservative voice and if rational folk with traditional values don’t start ostracizing this charlatan the credibility of American conservatism could take a severe hit. The man is a fraud, a fear monger, and a raving demagogue. Beneath the showmanship and wild raves, there is little credible substance but plenty which we find distorted, overstated and misrepresented.

Nothing could demonstrate how dangerous Glenn Beck is than the huge rally he hosted in Washington DC on August 28, 2010 at the Lincoln Memorial, the anniversary of the Martin Luther King “I Have a Dream” speech held on that spot 47 years earlier. To stage a rally dedicated to the whitest of white people couldn’t be a symbolic slap in the face to all who were engaged, liberated, or supportive of the civil rights struggle of that time.

While Beck speaks of the value of learning history and the Constitution, he is a master of neither showing an uncanny ability to selectively take things out of context weaving a quasi-religion that is fundamentalist Christianity at heart but where the disciples and lesser deities are the American founding fathers whose lives were so pure, their wisdom so brilliant, today’s society should stand in awe-struck unquestioning reverence of their contributions. Those who align themselves with those values, “traditional American” values are the good guys. Beck attempts to demonstrate how the world and the United States in particular are speeding like an out of control train toward inevitable destruction lead by a monolithic progressive movement which has been in the driver’s seat in America since Teddy Roosevelt paved the way and Woodrow Wilson got it moving full speed ahead. There are the outwardly obvious “progressives” who are not so thinly veiled communists and socialists such as Barrack Obama and major media and government sources, but there are creepy people he believes the public doesn’t know about such as billionaire financier George Soros who he describes as the puppet master.

Beck screams, cries, and pleads that his followers make a decision – there are but two choices, the traditionalists versus the progressives. History is rapidly moving to an apocalyptic showdown where one side or another will reign supreme after our culture is ravaged by economic collapse, moral decay, and other bad things promoted by progressives.

In preparing for the judgment day, Beck even goes as far as suggesting that his followers horde food and invest every spare dime they have in gold (gold sellers sponsor his show) so they will emerge secure when the rest of the world collapses.

Beck’s gift for extreme overstatement, misrepresentation, and all out pure emotionalism make him a most dangerous fellow attracting the fearful and anti-intellectuals who feel at odds with today’s political picture.

Alan Grayson
Thankfully, Alan Grayson will have a hard time making the list for 2011 since the Florida voters in the Orlando area had enough of his foolishness and voted him out.

Grayson shocked the country with the extreme anger and malicious mischaracterizations of his opponents. First, he did a poster board talk on the floor of the house where successive posters accompanying his narration indicated the Republican health plan were as follows: Don’t get sick. If you get sick, the Republicans want you to die.

In his campaign against Republican Daniel Webster, he ran a campaign ad taking clippings from a completely unrelated Webster speech attempting to establish Webster’s devote Christian faith to being akin to the Taliban that created a message that was in complete opposition to what Webster’s original speech had been about using the phrase, “submit to me” to characterize Webster’s attitude toward women. If there were ever a more mean spirited political ad, it would be hard to imagine what that ad would look like.

Julian Assange
The principle of WikeLeaks appointed himself as a one man arbiter of world order seeking to attempt to undermine American influence by releasing a series of classified government and military documents with threats to do the same for major US corporations including the banking industry. Charged with raping two women in Sweden, this loathsome scumbag has used the Internet as a tool of espionage consistent with the sense of anarchism which infects the radical left and which surfaces in every locale where world leaders gather for G-8 conferences. Interestingly enough, there are at least some connections between Assange and George Soros.

Meanwhile, Assange has become a celebrity of the highest order to some figures in the radical left including Michael Moore. Likewise some extreme right wingers who represent a warped sense of distorted libertarianism embrace his revelations as well.

Hopefully the world justice system will lead him to the United States where he’ll spend the rest of his days in a high security federal prison though Gitmo might be a better setting that Obama would never consider.

PFC Bradley Manning
We’ll soon discover how strict the code of military justice is in the new millennium. Army PFC Bradley Manning assigned to a support battalion with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division then based in Iraq gained access to the government’s Secret Internet Protocol Router Network. He copied the data onto CD or DVD media which he had labeled as a Lady Gaga recording. Working through middlemen, the material was transferred to Assange resulting in massive disclosure.

Perhaps the military should have engaged in more due diligence before assigning Manning to any operation involving intelligence. His biographical details indicate a young man who was defiant, rebellious, confrontational, and willing to defy authority.

Like Assange, Manning is being elevated to celebrity and hero status by the radical left who are attempting to create a furor claiming Manning is being mistreated in custody even imploring the United Nations to investigate. Michael Moore and others are raising money for his defense. Manning is also openly homosexual and has participated in “Gay Pride” events in defiance of the military’s archaic “don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy. For some he is being cast as a victim of an anti-gay military which is of course nonsense given the nature of his crime and that he can hardly be cited as the victim of being framed given the extent to which he has acknowledged his misdoings.

Ultimately, his crimes as a United States soldier constitute treason of the highest order for which he could be executed. Regardless, anything short of full acquittal which is highly unlikely, for the radical left, he will be made into some kind of martyr while rational society will seem him for what he is a treacherous criminal hell bent on damaging national security.

Christine O’Donnell
Just when she was starting to become a fading bad memory, Christine O’Donnell was thrown back in the media spotlight amidst allegations she misused campaign funds in her run for Senator of Delaware.

We can say one thing of Christine O’Donnell. She was not the most unqualified and stupid person to run for Senate in 2010. That award goes to Alvin Greene who ran for the Democrats in South Carolina with zero chance of defeating incumbent, Jim DeMint.

The Republicans had a rare opportunity in Delaware generally a very predictable liberal state. Joe Biden’s long held seat was open. Congressman Michael Castle, well-known state wide having also served as governor, looked like a shoe-in to be Delaware’s next senator, a most important net gain for the Republicans marching toward majority status. Far-left Democrat, Chris Coons, with a reputation for lavish spending and raising taxes, would offer but token opposition. Enter Sarah Palin and her ability to arouse the Tea Party sympathies while perhaps many voters would have seen it plausible Castle could be defeated, and suddenly a person with no meaningful experience and a closet full of personal, financial, and legal issues ripe for revelation, Christine O’Donnell won the state’s Republican Party. Almost immediately, now Coons looked like the shoe-in and O’Donnell the long shot. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment was organizing a political group SALT, “The Savior’s Alliance for Lifting the Truth.” Among topics O’Donnell would select for public speeches were naïve and highly doctrinaire views on human sexuality including sex out of wedlock and masturbation. All the while, her ability to manage her personal responsibilities proved elusive even having been sued for foreclosure and other debts. The IRS initiated a lien on her fiancés to recover $11,000 in unpaid taxes. On top of all that, her stated college credentials were not accurate.

One biographical detail showed where she apparently engaged in some kind of witchcraft ceremony as she revealed on an appearance on Bill Maher’s television show. This provided the ultimate source for all kinds of fun at the hands of political comedians. This led to the ultimate concise statement why Christine O’Donnell simply lacked any kind of political credibility when she appeared in a black dress against a black background for a campaign ad where she stated, “I am not a witch. I’m you.” That line would become the butt of many jokes through the campaign. At her best, she seemed like a shoddy Sarah Palin recreation, little wonder then, that Palin would find her attractive.

That she was defeated having received 40% of the vote that one would have to wonder how many of those votes were for her or were protest votes against the Democratic agenda, it appeared she would disappear from the headlines. Lo and behold, it would only stand to reason someone as inept as she would be likely to screw up using her campaign finances properly and in the closing days of 2010, headlines surfaced she was facing Federal grand jury investigation. Naturally, she claimed she was being setup and that Joe Biden was the instigator. What she fails to realize is she is most likely far too small a flea to be worthy of such.

The one transcendent good O’Donnell offers is that every bit of attention she draws helps demonstrate how unsuited for any roll in national politics Sarah Palin is worthy of. She and her Alaskan mentor are two of a kind to be sure – loud mouthed, naïve, and intellectually vapid.


LeBron James
LeBron James had it all, as one of the NBA’s top talents, he reached supreme stardom for his hometown team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, more recently, James indicated Akron was his hometown, and folks from Akron aren’t big fans of the larger Cleveland thinking that Clevelanders look down their nose at the lowly folks from Akron.

After a standout showing as one of the nation’s top high school players, James signed directly into the pros with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003. It took little time for James to rise up as one of the league’s top stars possibly rivaling players like Kobe Bryant as the game’s top talent. Just as quickly as his star rose in the media so did his ability to attract controversy. While worthy of praise for his giving to charity, his lack of cooperation with teammates and others plus blatant self promotion quickly cast him as the poster child of the excessively indulgent overpaid star athlete completely devoid of any humility whatsoever right down to having a huge tattoo reading “Chosen 1.”

At the end of the 2010 season, LeBron James became a free agent and quickly sought to burn all bridges with the Cavaliers string them out while evaluating his options. As the ultimate expression of blind hubris, James announced that ESPN would provide him his own announcement program where he would announce the team for which he would play. To add insult to injury, he did not inform Cleveland of his decision to play for the Miami Heat until just moments before the broadcast.

Working in tandem with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, the threesome negotiated contracts with the Miami Heat to form the power nucleus that was supposed to ensure championships heading to the land of South Beach for years to come. To further the made publicity campaign, James, Wade, and Bosh arranged a huge coming out celebration where they would introduce themselves in a highly choreographed to hip-hop tastelessness show with multiple theatric gimmicks before an adoring crowd of screaming Miami fans.

The reaction in Cleveland, not the most mature sports fans in the nation, was swift and vicious supported by a wrathful open letter from the team’s owner bashing James for his decision. In some media circles the Cleveland fans were portrayed as something more than shunned lovers but as racist bigots infuriated by a young black man setting himself free from the plantation even getting Jesse Jackson involved.

Snooki and the Jersey Shore Gang
If anyone needs evidence that MTV is a sickly cancer eroding the moral fabric of America, we provide Snooki (Nicole Polizzi) and the rest of the ensemble of misfits, social dropouts, and dysfunctional youth elevated to cult hero status by this MTV “reality” program. The program follows these eight cretins horrible misrepresentations in many cases of Americans with Italian pedigree as they engage in their hedonistic, decadent lifestyles including Snooki’s addiction to exposure to ultraviolet rays as if there were some secret agenda to discover just how fast one can develop skin cancer in pursuit of a nauseating overdone tan. While perhaps too young to have a resume of failure akin to Christine O’Donnell this Chilean born, Italian raised train wreck aspires to be a veterinary technician but her greatest accomplishment would appear to be her July 30 arrest for public intoxication.

If pornography is material with absolutely no social redeeming value, “Jersey Shore,” is smut of the highest order. Like so many other MTV phenomenon of the past, we can only hope the ratings plummet only to see what the purveyors of puke will come of with next.

These ten figures by no means represent the complete list of scoundrels. Several others are worthy of attention including Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Washington Redskins coaching father and son combo, Mike and Kyle Shanahan, the ever present dufus face of the Obama administration, Robert Gibbs. Surely, Maryland Governor, Martin O’Malley, with his crass and dishonest reelection campaign for reelection loaded with boldfaced lies about Robert Ehrlich deserves notice. We’d also include wussy deluxe disposed coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Wade Wilson, but his situation involves greater villains than his meager ineptness. We fear that if such a list is composed for 2011, we might have to report on some Republican members of the 111th Congress who might squander the rewards granted by the voters. We went light on the media because while folks like Joy Behar deserve inclusion, where would we stop chronicling a parade of losers?

BETTER LUCK IN 2011 and may our top 10 find the obscurity and ridicule they deserve.





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