My digital camera was faster than the t.v. camerman?

My digital camera was faster than the t.v. camerman?
I have no idea how I got BOTH, but it seems an omen, doesn't it! I'm happy to have him as our President! Diane Stirling-Stevens, Laughlin, Nevada - January 20, 2009

WHO are the most of us? Watch this. Turn OFF the music; the sidebar tells you how.

WHO ARE WE? WHO ARE THEY? Excellent Video!

WHO is homeless out there? You? Someone you know?

For an excellent list of agencies you can contact, and helpful informatioin, use this link:

http://www.hud.gov/homeless/index.cfm#1

WHO love music? WHO wants to get thousands of songs for FREE????

This past year, I've played 'disc jockey' - building about 7,000 songs on a variety of play-lists. If you want to have music at no charge; listen to
it while you 'surf' - clear e-mails, or play your favorite computer game, link up here first. Once you get the music, just diminish the window, and keep on with what you were doing....


http://www.playlist.com/playlist/user/20509435

WHO wants to KEEP TRACK of some of that $$$$$$$$$$$$ our government is spending?

One link I've been using is:

http://www.recovery.gov

The other - over 2.2 trillion dollars 'handed out' through TARP and other 'programs', use this link:

http://www.treasury.gov/initiatives/eesa/


Truly a helpful web-site - helps you find your way through the 'red tape'....

WHO has felt they were abused by a psychiatrist? WHO knows someone who is (or was)????

Currently I have a 2nd cousin who has experienced years of abuse - no one has known how to report this, or have it investigated.

After doing a thorough search via Google, I found the web-site for Concerned Citizens and Human Rights. After much reading, I found this form one can use to report just such a problem.

If you feel you need to report an abuse, click this link - it takes you directly to the form/format.

http://www.cchr.org/land/reportabuse/index.html

If you want to have them contact you, or send a message before filling out the form/complaint, then use this link and list the country (all are listed alphabetically - for America, you'll find it listed under United States of America):

http://www.cchr.org/contact/index.html?locale=&senderId=humanrights@cchr.org

Sunday, May 3, 2009

WHO sometimes feels sad; blue - angry, or unable to manage their life and problems???

I think it happens to many of us. I found this wonderful article on the I-net - sharing.......
Method of procedure in curative suggestion: Emile Coue

When the subject has passed through the preceding experiments and has understood them, he is ripe for curative suggestion. He is like a cultivated field in which the seed can germinate and develop, whereas before it was but rough earth in which it would have perished.
Whatever ailment the subject suffers from, whether it is physical or mental, it is important to proceed always in the same way, and to use the same words with a few variations according to the case.
Say to the subject: "Sit down and close your eyes. I am not going to try and put you to sleep as it is quite unnecessary. I ask you to close your eyes simply in order that your attention may not be distracted by the objects around you. Now tell yourself that every word I say is going to fix itself in your mind, and be printed, engraved, and encrusted in it, that, there, it is going to stay fixed, imprinted, and encrusted, and that without your will or knowledge, in fact perfectly unconsciously on your part, you yourself and your whole organism are going to obey. In the first place I say that every day, three times a day, in the morning, at midday, and in the evening, at the usual meal times, you will feel hungry, that is to say, you will experience the agreeable sensation which makes you think and say: "Oh! how nice it will be to have something to eat!" You will then eat and enjoy your food, without of course overeating. You will also be careful to masticate it properly so as to transform it into a sort of soft paste before swallowing it. In these conditions you will digest it properly, and so feel no discomfort, inconvenience, or pain of any kind either in the stomach or intestines. You will assimilate what you eat and your organism will make use of it to make blood, muscle, strength and energy, in a word: Life.
"Since you will have digested your food properly, the function of excretion will be normal, and every morning, on rising, you will feel the need of evacuating the bowels, and without ever being obliged to take medicine or to use any artifice, you will obtain a normal and satisfactory result.
"Further, every night from the time you wish to go to sleep till the time you wish to wake next morning, you will sleep deeply, calmly, and quietly, without nightmares, and on waking you will feel perfectly well, cheerful, and active.
"Likewise, if you occasionally suffer from depression, if you are gloomy and prone to worry and look on the dark side of things, from now onwards you will cease to do so, and, instead of worrying and being depressed and looking on the dark side of things, you are going to feel perfectly cheerful, possibly without any special reason for it, just as you used to feel depressed for no particular reason. I say further still, that even if you have real reason to be worried and depressed you are not going to be so.
"If you are also subject to occasional fits of impatience or ill-temper you will cease to have them: on the contrary you will be always patient and master of yourself, and the things which worried, annoyed, or irritated you, will henceforth leave you absolutely indifferent and perfectly calm.
"If you are sometimes attacked, pursued, haunted, by bad and unwholesome ideas, by apprehensions, fears, aversions, temptations, or grudges against other people, all that will be gradually lost sight of by your imagination, and will melt away and lose itself as though in a distant cloud where it will finally disappear completely. As a dream vanishes when we wake, so will all these vain images disappear.
"To this I add that all your organs are performing their functions properly. The heart beats in a normal way and the circulation of the blood takes place as it should; the lungs are carrying out their functions, as also the stomach, the intestines, the liver, the biliary duct, the kidneys and the bladder. If at the present moment any of them is acting abnormally, that abnormality is becoming less every day, so that quite soon it will have vanished completely, and the organ will have recovered its normal function. Further, if there should be any lesions in any of these organs, they will get better from day to day and will soon be entirely healed." (With regard to this, I may say that it is not necessary to know which organ is affected for it to be cured. Under the influence of the autosuggestion "Every day, in every respect, I am getting better and better", the unconscious acts upon the organ which it can pick out itself.)
"I must also add -- and it is extremely important -- that if up to the present you have lacked confidence in yourself, I tell you that this self-distrust will disappear little by little and give place to self-confidence, based on the knowledge of this force of incalculable power which is in each one of us. It is absolutely necessary for every human being to have this confidence. Without it one can accomplish nothing, with it one can accomplish whatever one likes, (within reason, of course). You are then going to have confidence in yourself, and this confidence gives you the assurance that you are capable of accomplishing perfectly well whatever you wish to do, -- on condition that it is reasonable, -- and whatever it is your duty to do.
"So when you wish to do something reasonable, or when you have a duty to perform, always think that it is easy, and make the words difficult, impossible, I cannot, it is stronger than I, I cannot prevent myself from . . . . , disappear from your vocabulary; they are not English. What is English is: "It is easy and I can". By considering the thing easy it becomes so for you, although it might seem difficult to others. You will do it quickly and well, and without fatigue, because you do it without effort, whereas if you had considered it as difficult or impossible it would have become so for you, simply because you would have thought it so."

To these general suggestions which will perhaps seem long and even childish to some of you, but which are necessary, must be added those which apply to the particular case of the patient you are dealing with.
All these suggestions must be made in a monotonous and soothing voice (always emphasizing the essential words), which although it does not actually send the subject to sleep, at least makes him feel drowsy, and think of nothing in particular.
When you have come to the end of the series of suggestions you address the subject in these terms: "In short, I mean that from every point of view, physical as well as mental, you are going to enjoy excellent health, better health than that you have been able to enjoy up to the present. Now I am going to count three, and when I say 'Three', you will open your eyes and come out of the passive state in which you are now. You will come out of it quite naturally, without feeling in the least drowsy or tired, on the contrary, you will feel strong, vigorous, alert, active, full of life; further still, you will feel very cheerful and fit in every way. ONE -- TWO -- THREE --" At the word "three" the subject opens his eyes, always with a smile and an expression of well-being and contentment on his face.

Sometimes, -- though rarely, -- the patient is cured on the spot; at other times, and this is more generally the case, he finds himself relieved, his pain or his depression has partially or totally disappeared, though only for a certain lapse of time.
In every case it is necessary to renew the suggestions more or less frequently according to your subject, being careful always to space them out at longer and longer intervals, according to the progress obtained until they are no longer necessary, -- that is to say when the cure is complete.
Before sending away your patient, you must tell him that he carries within him the instrument by which he can cure himself, and that you are, as it were, only a professor teaching him to use this instrument, and that he must help you in your task. Thus, every morning before rising, and every night on getting into bed, he must shut his eyes and in thought transport himself into your presence, and then repeat twenty times consecutively in a monotonous voice, counting by means of a string with twenty knots in it, this little phrase:
"EVERY DAY, IN EVERY RESPECT, I AM GETTING BETTER AND BETTER." In his mind he should emphasize the words "in every respect" which applies to every need, mental or physical. This general suggestion is more efficacious than special ones.
Thus it is easy to realize the part played by the giver of the suggestions. He is not a master who gives orders, but a friend, a guide, who leads the patient step by step on the road to health. As all the suggestions are given in the interest of the patient, the unconscious of the latter asks nothing better than to assimilate them and transform them into autosuggestions. When this has been done, the cure is obtained more or less rapidly according to circumstances.

Thursday, April 30, 2009

WHO LOVES BEAUTIFUL PIANO MUSIC?????

Well I know I do!!! I started playing when I was 8 years old; teaching piano when I was 13 - had a wonderful life-time of playing for private parties; lounges, clubs - art exhibits, and as accompanist to glee clubs and choirs.
Today one of my piano pupils who started lessons with me in 1969 - 40 years ago, sent me a link to a play-list of piano music. She told me, "This sounds just like how you played for me when I was taking lessons from me; I hope you like it!"
Like it - I LOVE IT!!!! I wanted to share the link - when I listened to it the first time, my husband came into the computer room and said, "I thought you were on the piano - where'd you get that music - it sounds just like you playing!"
What a wonderful lucky day for me - now I can just 'listen'. The artist was born in 1940; born in Mexico - lived for a while in Los Angeles, and moved back to Mexico a few years before he died in 2004. He just doesn't play the piano, he plays his 'heart' - most of the music is composed by him which makes it even more profound.
I hope you like this link - we all need some music in times like this!

http://www.imeem.com/people/wUjoqnM/playlist/QTwwu9It/cortazar-ernesto-music-playlist/

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

About this H1N1 - just WHO might be losing money (Smithfield), and WHO is going to make big $$$$ (all the makers of the vaccine)....

Here's a very interesting article - I'm sharing it from an e-mail sent to me by someone who's doing some serious research on this via the I-net:

Cover-Up: Mexican Government Lying About Swine Flu by Fintan Dunne, BreakForNews.com, 29th April, 2009, 07:00 EST
Amid a growing international focus on a suspicious mass flu
outbreak around intensive pig production facilities in Mexico, government
officials there have resorted to lying about the type of flu which struck
hundreds of locals.
At a press conference on Monday,
Mexican Health Minister José Ángel Córdova assured the media that a flu outbreak
in the town of La Gloria was not Swine Flu, but an already-known and different
flu strain. The town is set among 72 industrial pig production facilities
part-owned by the multinational Smithfield Foods.
He said that of 35 mucous samples taken from flu victims, only one sample matched the Swine Flu strain which is causing international concern. That sample was taken from Edgar Hernandez Hernandez, a 4-year-old local boy who fell ill and has now recovered.
Local Veracruz governor Fidel
Herrera echoed his Health Minister's comments on Tuesday, stating that: "there
is not a single indicator" to suggest La Gloria was the epicenter of Mexico's
Swine Flu outbreak.
The government position is that barring this single boy, the rest of the samples indicate locals fell foul of the known flu strain H2N3, not the new variant A/H1N1 strain.
AGAINST THE ODDS
But there is a serious flaw in the Mexican
government's public position. After hundreds of mucous samples had been
collected from flu victims across Mexico, health officials took a small subset
of those samples and in mid-April sent them out of Mexico to US laboratories for
further scientific analysis. Of the 35 samples they had secured from the
inhabitants of La Gloria, only one sample was included in that smaller subset
sent to the US. That sample was the one taken from 4-year-old Edgar Hernandez
Hernandez.
So the Mexican Government wants us to believe that by sheer chance they happened to pick the only A/H1N1 sample in La Gloria, and that the other 34 samples still in the custody of Mexican health authorities are the known H2N3 strain!
A trivial calculation show that the odds of that serendipitous sample selection are 35 to 1. Those odds against the Mexican government increase when we consider that residents of La Gloria say that they had symptoms which were identical to those reported by Swine Flu victims across Mexico.
La Gloria resident Jose Luis Martinez, told Associated Press that he heard a description of the symptoms of other Mexican victims on television: fever, coughing, joint aches, severe headache, vomiting and diarrhea. "..We said to ourselves, 'This is what we had. The symptoms they are suffering are the same that we had here."Writing from La Gloria for the London Guardian, Jo Tuckman recounts the experience of another local:
"I watch what is going on in Mexico City and we say to each other that is exactly what happened to us," says Rosa Jimenez, as she walks down the road holding her toddler's hand with a filthy mask around her neck. She notes that many families in La Gloria have relatives who work in Mexico City but came back to the village for the Easter week celebrations. "Could that be how it spread to the capital?" she asks.Reporting from Mexico City for the London Independent, Ioan Grillo heard similar stories:
"We have been fighting this disease for months now and complaining about the pig waste for years," said La Gloria resident Erasto Bautista, 45, talking by telephone from the state capital Veracruz. "We are glad to see that the world is finally listening to us." Like many other residents, Mr Bautista often works on building sites in Mexico City, explaining how the flu could have quickly spread here and make it the world epicenter in the virus. Mr Bautista said he himself fell sick from the flu in January, keeping him bed ridden for a week. "My head was so painful it almost exploded. The body aches were so strong that I couldn't move," he said, describing symptoms strikingly similar to those plaguing swine flu sufferers in Mexico City hospital beds."When residents of La Gloria began to get seriously ill from as far back as mid-February, health officials astonishingly downplayed their severe symptoms as merely atypical colds.
Nevertheless locals say they were told the 'cold' was probably caused by the flies from the pig farms, and fumigation teams were sent to get rid of the flies.The official line rubbishing any possible link between the Swine Flu outbreak and the wealthy multinational Smithfield Foods will hardly come as a surprise to La Gloria locals. In previous years, some of them have been jailed for protesting the effect of the company's million-pig-per-annum operations on them and their environment.
A resident speaking anonymously to the London Guardian said: "This is a company with lots of power and lots of dollars. They have always been protected by the government and there is not much we can do about it."The Mexican government's handling of the flu outbreak hasn't impressed people outside of La Gloria either. One Mexican told Associated Press: "Nobody believes the government anymore."But the officials are nothing but insistent in their claims "This virus did not start in this area. It originated in Asia and spread into Mexico via the United States," said Veracruz governor Fidel Herrera when visiting La Gloria. Considering the odds against their public claims, if Mexican officials were to repeat their position in court, a judge might well warn them that lying under oath is a serious business. And if they persisted they could face prosecution for perjury and even jail.What are the odds of that happening? About the same odds as the odds of Smithfield Foods owner Joseph Luter III, described as the world's richest "pig baron", giving up his vast fortune; starting a sustainable farm; and befriending some of the 27 million pigs his company slaughters every year.

WHO, AND W.H.O.

Okay, so I thought it was just a 'fluke' when I read about H1N1, but after getting sick on April 24; going to the doctor on the 27th, and learning I've got it (and it isn't fun), I'm now much more cognizant of just how miserable it is!

I'm taking Ensure; lots of water - broth, and Thera-flu' to add to the treatment my doctor already administered. I live on the border of Arizona and California - my doctor and hospital are in Arizona, and I learned that 3 more cases have been confirmed as well as mine.

They expect to have the vaccine into our area by early May, so 'back I go' - and I hope that others will be able to get the kind of care I've had so far.

I just read this 'open letter' from W.H.O. - and I all think we know WHO they are:

Swine influenza
Ladies and gentlemen,
Based on assessment of all available information, and following several expert consultations, I have decided to raise the current level of influenza pandemic alert from phase 4 to phase 5.
Influenza pandemics must be taken seriously precisely because of their capacity to spread rapidly to every country in the world.
Related links
Watch the video [wmv, 7min 13 sec] Listen to the audio [mp3 57 Mb] Swine influenza - full coverage Current WHO phase of pandemic alert International Health Regulations (IHR)
On the positive side, the world is better prepared for an influenza pandemic than at any time in history.
Preparedness measures undertaken because of the threat from H5N1 avian influenza were an investment, and we are now benefitting from this investment.
For the first time in history, we can track the evolution of a pandemic in real-time.
I thank countries who are making the results of their investigations publicly available. This helps us understand the disease.
I am impressed by the work being done by affected countries as they deal with the current outbreaks.
I also want to thank the governments of the USA and Canada for their support to WHO, and to Mexico.
Let me remind you. New diseases are, by definition, poorly understood. Influenza viruses are notorious for their rapid mutation and unpredictable behaviour.
WHO and health authorities in affected countries will not have all the answers immediately, but we will get them.
WHO will be tracking the pandemic at the epidemiological, clinical, and virological levels.
The results of these ongoing assessments will be issued as public health advice, and made publicly available.
All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans. Countries should remain on high alert for unusual outbreaks of influenza-like illness and severe pneumonia.
At this stage, effective and essential measures include heightened surveillance, early detection and treatment of cases, and infection control in all health facilities.
This change to a higher phase of alert is a signal to governments, to ministries of health and other ministries, to the pharmaceutical industry and the business community that certain actions should now be undertaken with increased urgency, and at an accelerated pace.
I have reached out to donor countries, to UNITAID, to the GAVI Alliance, the World Bank and others to mobilize resources.
I have reached out to companies manufacturing antiviral drugs to assess capacity and all options for ramping up production.
I have also reached out to influenza vaccine manufacturers that can contribute to the production of a pandemic vaccine.
The biggest question, right now, is this: how severe will the pandemic be, especially now at the start?
It is possible that the full clinical spectrum of this disease goes from mild illness to severe disease. We need to continue to monitor the evolution of the situation to get the specific information and data we need to answer this question.
From past experience, we also know that influenza may cause mild disease in affluent countries, but more severe disease, with higher mortality, in developing countries.
No matter what the situation is, the international community should treat this as a window of opportunity to ramp up preparedness and response.
Above all, this is an opportunity for global solidarity as we look for responses and solutions that benefit all countries, all of humanity. After all, it really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic.
As I have said, we do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them.
Thank you.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

I read a long article on THE RAG BLOG TODAY - these words were imbedded in that article....

I think all of us would do well to remember these words and abide by them - strive to live up to this 'adage' (as I'm choosing to call it). It's now in the tough times, that we should join together, and not allow ourselves to be divided by rumor; frightening articles we read in the newspapers, and avoid everything that is being blasted all over the television news of late. Most of all, I avoid Glenn Beck; anything on Fox News, and Nancy Grace - they are the worst of the lot.....they do nothing but incite fear, hate, and anger!
Shut off the television; turn on the music - and remember these wonderful words (as well as abide by them):
Where there is injustice, we should correct it; where there is poverty, we should eliminate it; where there is corruption, we should stamp it out; where there is violence we should punish it; where there is neglect, we should provide care; where there is war, we should restore peace; and wherever corrections are achieved we should add them permanently to our storehouse of treasures."

Thursday, April 16, 2009

WHO is getting sick of these protests; RIGHT-WING nut-cases, and MSM promoting it? I am!!!!

Anyone with a real brain and sense of what's going on by the GOP - the dissident groups and the just plain resentful and hateful people in this country, will avoid the main-stream media at all costs. Shut down the noise; shut out the din - refuse to listen to the propaganda that's being spread around like salmonella-infected peanut butter!
I'm reminded of a fable by Aesop; this is exactly what's going on right now as they 'untie' the string........

THE BUNDLE OF STICKS
An old man on the point of death summoned his sons around him to give them some parting advice. He ordered his servants to bring in a faggot of sticks, and said to his eldest son: "Break it." The son strained and strained, but with all his efforts was unable to break the bundle.
The other sons also tried, but none of them was successful. "Untie the faggots," said the father, "and each of you take a stick." When they had done so, he called out to them: "Now, break," and each stick was easily broken.
"You see my meaning," said their father.
Union gives strength.
I'd also like to add a commentary made by THE RUDE PUNDIT. He can get pretty 'colorful' with his language, so I don't keep a link on the side-bar just in case someone bumps into some of his remarks, and is offended.
However, he addressed the 'tea-party' with just about the best summary I've read so far, so I'm giving him credit and posting it here:
By Rude One
The Tea Parties:
So That Happened:
Yesterday, thousands of poor and middle-class people were manipulated into
helping rich people keep more of their money. It's sort of like going to a
Yankees game, but without the souvenirs.
The Rude Pundit thinks it's generally a good thing when large groups of people come together for a cause, and, agree or disagree with the cause, getting people in the habit of protesting is ultimately positive for the nation. It gives us a more European feel, where citizens tend to actually give a shit about what their government is doing.
Would that many of the people holding up signs yesterday had
respected our antiwar marches back in 2003 and 2004, but, hey, water under a
bridge built of bones, you know.
What is stunning is that yesterday's Tea Party protests were based on a demonstrable, factual lie. It wasn't about interpreting something or opinions. No, what people were protesting was actually a falsehood. They were played for suckers while they thought they were saving democracy. It was a bait and switch, man, a con game that was more dishonest than sidewalk three-card monte.
The whole day was filled with Fox-fanned falsehoods, starting with the whole acronym the protests adopted after "teabag" became the subject of mucho deserved mocking. "Taxed Enough Already" presupposes that taxes will be raised. And it seems that the tea partyers simply think that Barack Obama is lying to them when he says that the taxes for the vast, vast majority of Americans are lower under his plan.
(On his radio show, Alan Colmes was screaming at callers who kept insisting that Obama was raising taxes for everyone.) The protests were against some fantasy administration, a sandwich of fascism on a socialism bun covered in a secret sauce of tyranny.
It's like prayer: you can't really prove that it matters, but, hey, someone told you it was a good idea to do it, so down on your knees you go.
But it's not just the concept of being "taxed enough" that was a chimera. The Fox "news" hosts built the day around a fantasy America, as if we were all in a 1950s elementary school history class being force-fed the long-disproved myths of the nation.
Take, for instance, this one that Taste of Texas restaurant owner Nina Hendee told Glenn "Twitchy" Beck while they were standing outside the Alamo in San Antonio: "The night before the Alamo fell, [Col. William B.] Travis gathered his men in this courtyard, took out his saber right there, and this is where the line in the sand came from. He drew -- history says -- he drew the line in the sand right here and said, 'If you'll will stand with me and fight with me, you may die with me, come and cross this line with me,' and they did."
Beck returned to that "line in the sand" again and again in his broadcast yesterday, as when he yammered, "I have a feeling something big is starting with the tea parties and I think the line is being drawn in the sand once again."Except, you know, Travis didn't draw a line in the sand at the Alamo. He was kind of a dick, too. And let's not even get into why the Alamo was there in the first place.
Later, on On the Record with Greta Van Susteren's Nose Job, Beck echoed himself: "Everybody's always heard, you know, draw a line in the sand. This is where it happened. They drew a line in the sand and said, Enough is enough." Which is a misreading based on a lie. Even if the line story was true, the soldiers knew they were gonna die.
Compound this with the near-constant, unrelenting gang rape of the Founders by Fox and the tea partyers. Sean Hannity had on the creepy fuckin' Thomas Paine actor and, really, they may as well skull-fucked the real Paine's bones, each taking a hole so Hannity and the old guy could rub their cocks against each other.
Said faux Paine, "My name is Thomas Paine. In 1776, I wrote, 'The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth.' Now, my fellow Americans, it's your moment to change the course of history. On this night in Atlanta, Georgia, citizen Sean Hannity and the rest of an aroused nation will hear from you as we the people once again declare our independence."
Of course, Paine was advocating for war with Great Britain. Yeah, "Common Sense" even lays out the military strategy and the postwar economic situation. Oh, and he was also specifically advocating for the unity of the colonies, not really for any kind of states' rights. But, sure, yeah, he did write that thing about the sun.
How goddamned simple-minded this whole tea party thing was. How divorced from reality. What a waste of time, of energy, of paper and ink. All it succeeded in doing was propping up some egos, giving understandably frustrated people a place to misdirect their anger, and allowing there to be an hour of TV that featured Ted Nugent, Penn Jillette, and Janine Turner, like Hell's Tonight Show.
One last thing: Unless Joe the Plumber starts snakin' some fuckin' pipes, he has to drop the title.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Who do I owe a great thank you to? .....hmmm, that rhymes!

Thanks to Richard Jehn of THE RAG BLOG, I received the link to the greatest 'Joe' I've ever known (other than my grandpa Joe).
I won't write a big post; I think if you'll just click on the link - read the side-bars on Joe's web-site; choose some of Joe's essays, you'll be thanking Richard (and even me) for finding one of the greatest writers and insightful people of our time (coupled with a great sense of humor).
One of Joe's essays - a favorite of mine - from his web-site:
A Mean and Unholy Ditch Main Poor, White and Pissed »
January 26, 2005
Drink, Pray, Fight, Fuck
How the Scots Irish Screwed Up America
By Joe Bageant
You may not meet them among your circle of friends, but there are millions of
Americans who fiercely believe we should nuke North Korea and Iran, seize the
Middle East's oil, and replace the U.S. Constitution with the Christian Bible.
They believe the United States will conquer the entire world and convert it to
our notions of democracy and fundamentalist Christian religion. And that will
happen says my Christian neo-conservative friend Dave Henderson, "when we elect
a man with the balls to use our nukes." You may not believe me, and if you don't
I cannot blame you for never having been exposed to such folks. Only an idiot or
a masochistic observer of the American scene would subject himself or herself to
these Americans. I like to think I am the latter, but the jury is still out.
In understanding how such ominous political ideations manifested themselves in this country, it helps to look back 450 years to a group of Celtic cattle thieves killing one another in the mud along Hadrian's Wall -- the Borderers. Fanatically religious and war loving, these Scottish Protestants made their way first to Ireland as the "Ulster Scots," then to American shores during the early 18th century. Known to most Americans as the Scots Irish or Scotch Irish, the Borderers brought cultural values that govern (some would say screw up) the political emotions of millions of Americans to this day.
Nearly a third of Americans have Borderer ancestors, though they know little
about them, if they know anything at all. Even informed people generally know
zilch about the influence this culture continues to exert on America, although
that may be about to change somewhat with the current spate of hagiographic
Scots Irish books. One is James Webb's Born Fighting, wherein all that is good
in America is attributed to Scots Irish willingness to make war. This is quite
in tandem with our self-justifying national storyline.
Americans have always described themselves in Borderer terms and values, such as "fierce, liberty loving," "individualistic," "freely religious," and "fighting to defend our way of life." With the neo-conservative takeover of American politics, this has intensified, and we see a supercharging of these themes in the forms of fanatical religiosity, hatred of government, bellicose piety, and in a new twist, the technological fist of Jesus smiting the swarthy godless heathen in the name of a crude-oil-stained flag.
The homeland of the original Borderers was a squalid place. Denuded of forests
and incapable of growing enough food to support its inhabitants, much less
produce enough to sell within the traditional English culture of commerce, the
natives survived by and gloried in "reiving", (cattle rustling.)
It was a land of alternating famine and overpopulation, the only constant being warfare between England and Scotland along the fluctuating border. Rooted in centuries of national fighting -- and in those rare times of peace, inter-clan warfare among themselves -- they maintained their fierce ways, clan loyalties and holdings. The right to hold any turf they occupied was determined by their ability to defend it. Holding such miserable land was a worthwhile effort mainly in as far as it created clan proximity so it could be held. It was a vicious, near pointless circle. Given the unceasing looting, burning and moving, the Borderers built impermanent earth and log dwellings called "cabbins". Within their smoky cabins they lived a quick-tempered, hard drinking, volatile lifestyle, one that anthropologists say can still be seen in American trailer courts today. So the next time you see one of us drunkenly kicking in a neighbor's car door in some trailer court parking lot at 1 AM, try to remember: That's not a brawl you're witnessing, it's cultural diversity.
More importantly however, in the off time between fighting, the Borderers
embraced the most fanatical form of Calvinism -- embraced it so thoroughly they
almost hugged it to death. In justifiable reaction to the corrupt Catholic
Church of their times, the Johns, Knox and Calvin, established the democratic
from-the-bottom-up Kirk organization of the Presbyterian Church, with Jesus
Christ himself as the church's only primate. After failing in efforts to make
Scotland's government a theocracy, Presbyterian Scots settled for the next worst
thing -- putting Christ as the arbiter of all civil government. Ever haters of
earthly authority, they deemed that any civil government was only as legitimate
as the degree to which it was Biblical, and reserved the right to resist it on
those grounds. (By now you must be smelling a theme here for chrissake! I'm
trying. Work with me people!) As theological ideas go, John Calvin had slammed
one out of the park. Halfway around the world and across four centuries, he is
the undisputed father of American Christian fundamentalism, which still clings
to those same conclusions about government. His American Borderer descendants
are busily dismantling the mainspring of their hated government, the U.S.
Constitution, and for the last thirty years "dominionist" fundamentalists have
worked politically to replace it with Biblical Law according to their own
interpretation. Calvin would jump out of that grave and demand a high five if he
knew what his movement has accomplished in the world's most powerful empire.
Looking back, it is hard to believe such a motley swarm of border Celts as arrived in America could accomplish all that. They certainly appeared unlikely candidates when they began migrating here during the first 75 years of the 18th century. So unsavory were their habits that even fellow Calvinists, the New England Puritans, did not much accept them. The East Anglican followers of Cotton Mather's brand of Calvinism were less than enamored with the Borderer practice of drinking in church and their low hygienic standards.
Eventually the Borderers found themselves once more (where else?) on another
border. This time it was the border of civilization, the frontiers of British
North American holdings in Pennsylvania. True to form, they were exactly where
they were not supposed to be -- tilling soil and killing Indians west of the
Allegheny Mountains against King George II's prohibition.
In the long run
however, these unwashed, hard-fighting fanatics turned out to be useful to the
aristocracy in developing their vast land grants in the colonies.
For example, from the 1730s onward, the Virginia elite sought to populate the Blue Ridge Mountains as a barrier between the Indians and their lowland slave plantations, and make fortunes selling the Blue Ridge and the Shenandoah Valley to those willing to settle there. Thus, elites such as Thomas Lord Fairfax, the Byrd and the Beverly families brought in Borderers, along with sturdy Pennsylvania Germans. The Borderers were more than willing to keep the Indians, and later the French, killed back to some appropriate line along the Alleghenies and Virginia's leading families indeed made fortunes that stand today from the land sales, particularly from the Germans. The Borderers often squatted on almost as much as they purchased or shot at rent collectors. But so long as Borderers could pour powder and buy rum, their villages and cabinsteads were considered a reasonable success. Sort of.
The young officer George Washington, while building Winchester's French and
Indian War frontier defenses at Fort Loudoun, called our town one of the most
ignorant, mean spirited and predatory places in all the colonies, a tradition we
have thus far managed to maintain. That did not keep Washington from marching
said uncouth souls --my ancestors among them -- into the Alleghenies to "take a
pull" as an early account puts it, at the menacing French and the murderous
feathered heathen. Not too many years later, when the elitist, land speculating
Washington entered politics, he had barrels of rum rolled out on our main street
and the same mean spirited Winchesterians elected him to his first public
office, the Virginia House of Burgesses. Which goes to show that no political
idea or personage is so unpalatable to us it cannot be washed down with a drink,
or otherwise made acceptable through God rhetoric or patriotic bloody shirt
waving. It still works. Repeated showings of Twin Towers footage and beheadings
via streaming Internet are the kind of bloody shirt an America steeped in
Borderer culture can grasp. To hell with explanations about oil and global
resentment of U.S. imperialism.
Ever hateful of authority and government, we working class products of Borderer values have remained useful to the rich and the politically ambitious in the ensuing 260 years, including many of the same elite families, the Byrds, Lees, Carters, Glasses, etc. During the Civil War, although too poor to piss straight, we nevertheless died to protect slavery on behalf of the elite (40% of all wealth in the South was in the form of slaves held by the elite.)
Later during the Jim Crow era we Virginia Borderers were indispensable to the Harry Flood Byrd political machine in helping "keep the niggers down," as they used to say. We shut down the state's public schools and sent our kids to school in the church basements during Byrd's "massive resistance" campaign. And to this day we can be counted upon for bellicose objection to such government oppression as health care for the poor, equitable taxation on the rich, fair labor practices, seatbelts, environmental laws, and stopping state line gun sales to out-of-state urban criminals.
But a good blood-rousing war is where we truly shine, and where God, glory and mayhem really come together. I currently receive emails from Iraq, compliments of a born-again coworker, which I in turn forward to progressive friends in liberal sites -- who promptly write them off as the screed of religious nutjobs. Which they are. But that doesn't take into account that there are millions of said nutjobs who exercise their right to vote. Here is one from a U.S. government sponsored "imbedded reporter," writing for the church newsletter of an Arlington Virginia Assembly of God congregation. He is a smalltime bakery shop owner deemed a news reporter by the administration, one of many rabid evangelists sent to Iraq along with legitimate journalists:
Blessings from the land of Babylon!
I just want to praise GOD for when I am weak HE is strong. LORD I know not what to do but my eyes are on YOU, JESUS. So much to talk about and I do not know where to start … It makes me so angry that these quiet warriors receive no appreciation from the media and a lot of other people in our nation for the sacrifices they make. They are truly 'a genuine blessing to this nation as every other soldier before them has been.' … It is criminal of those parrots of the media back home who stand with their lie for political gain and who profit from the blood and pain of our fallen soldiers. This nation need unite.
The media is a pack of lying, deceiving whores who will go
to any length to defeat George Bush and the righteousness of this cause to set
these helpless people free from antichrist spirit through Saddam and his wicked
sons, Uday and Usay … All of those who had recently lost their comrades said "We
have a job to do and that is a risk of the job. These people need us here and we
can not leave until the job is done." … I am fighting back tears as I
think of them right now. Oops I lost the fight, I need to wipe my eyes.
It is criminal the pressure that the media puts on these soldiers and their families to try to defeat George Bush and get their wicked agenda through. There are two lords, we follow one or the other. There is JESUS or there is the devil. The media follows the devil and perpetrates his wicked lies upon this nation to the destruction and endless pain of so many. Stand up against the aimless babbling of those whose father is the father of lies, Satan. Call those liberal lying rags like the Washington Post, L.A. Times, N.Y.Times, CBS and the CNN [communist news network] and voice your disapproval of their lying. … I say stand and deliver in the name of JESUS … Decide today where you stand for the LORD is coming soon and we will all be held accountable for "who we been hangin with". The LORD said "be away from me for I never knew you." As the song goes "do you know JESUS and does HE know you."
GOD BLESSMichael
And they say we do not engage in holy wars.
The American Borderer take on the world is that it was always a tough place and is getting tougher. Which is damned hard to argue with and few of us would. But after that, the American penchant for emotionalism and simplistic solutions kicks in. I myself nearly succumb to it at times, the most recent being this morning after viewing the videotaped beheading of Eugene Armstrong in Iraq. It was done slowly over minutes in sawing motions. Belief in a universal humanist socialism is the only thing that gets me through days such as this, and then but barely at times. Then I remember that the beheading was a political media event calculated to serve all sides in the struggle for the world's worst emotions. It serves one side as proof of the power to avenge American imperialist policy and invasion. It serves the other as proof of Muslim savagery, providing another bloody shirt for the American public. But ultimately it serves to elevate raw emotionalism above thoughtfulness, which is always a good thing for extremists, whether they be radical jihadists or a militant U.S. capitalist junta.
By the end of the day I am usually back to
the realization that global starvation killed far more people this day than the
de jour bombing or fighting in the Middle East. Starvation just doesn't pull the
kind of audience ratings a beheading does, does not sell as much advertising for
news shows. It does not satisfy an unspoken global energy policy and it does not
fulfill a national religious mass psychosis regarding good and
evil.
Most of all, mercy is not profitable. If it were, we would be seeing more close-ups of children with sunken fly-covered eyes. But the fundamentalist working man in the taverns and the churches, the in-the-dirt ignorant one steeped in the American Borderer ethos, cares about none of the above. (The reader may call me arrogant for saying what I know is true. But I've been there and still live there … so ask me if I give a damn.) For him, it comes down to this: Drink, pray, fight and fuck. Kill the bad guys. Life ain't really that complicated. Get over it folks.
So here we are, the Borderer people who "shaped America," as the history books like to say. Today we can be found everywhere in America. Although most of the early Borderer immigration took place in Pennsylvania, from there they spread north and south, and later west, and assimilated into the cultures they found. Those that went south identified with the South during the Civil War. Those that went north identified with the North, and so on, as they spread their strain throughout the entire nation. And what a strain! Every damned one of them part wampus cat, "part Cherokee,"meaner than a wad of snakes on a griddle, ever malleable by the swells, and more than happy to give any deserving Muslim a .45 caliber ticket to paradise. Ready to ship out for the next holy war on any shore that flies a heathen flag. To our minds, what could possibly be wrong with making the world heel to an empire piloted by Calvin's ghost and anointed by God? Love us or hate us, we are nevertheless the same touching, pathos ridden, stubborn, God-obsessed folks who gave you Johnny Cash, Andrew Jackson, Ma Barker, Ronald Reagan, Mark Twain, country music, NASCAR, Edgar Allen Poe, John Hancock and Bill Clinton.
As I write, I am monitoring a local online discussion between two old friends. One is a news vendor and the other is a factory worker. It runs like this:
Lets take a couple of camel jockeys and crucify them on TV down on the Mall in DC.
Hell yes! If the Muslims can behead our guys, then we Christians can crucify theirs!
"ALLLLLL RIGHT!"
This may be a digital age, and that conversation may be in cyberspace, but if I close my eyes I can almost smell the peat fires and hear the rasp of claymores slipping their sheathes at Bannockburn.
I gotta tell you one last Scots Irish anecdote because, well hell, I don't know how to get out of this thing. Hereabouts in the Blue Ridge we still have plenty of full strength Scots Irish, what the sociologists and historians call "vestigial cultures." Meaning tough-assed little inbreds of the old mold. So anyway, out on the loading dock at the local Rubbermaid plant forklift driver Jodie Macauley, a skinny twitchy middle aged redneck, failed to show up for a couple of days. When he returned to work, he explained to the dock foreman that he'd been in jail. "Whatta hell for?" asked the foreman. "Waall, these two tractor-trailer trucks hemmed me in on the road. So I pulled my pistol and shot out the radiator of the truck behind me. But, please don't tell nobody here sir, because these days there is some people who think doing that kinda thang is weird."
Yeah. Right.

Friday, April 10, 2009

WHO loves to look at OLD POST-CARDS??? I do; I collect them..........


This is just one from my card collection; it was put out in WWI. I love the notes written on the back-side, and the beautiful art-work.
If you want to look at thousands (or even buy or get a quote to see what yours are worth), here's the link:

Thursday, April 9, 2009

WHO loves Joe Walsh? I do!

From the James Gang to the Eagles; he's the 'funkiest' and most fun! Here's a play-list I made....nothing but JW.......

WHO enjoys rss feeds? Boy, I know I do..........


Me, Diane Stirling-Stevens with Doug McClure at his art exhibition in 1990 - Laguna Beach, CA. Sadly, since that time Doug has passed away; he was a wonderful person - actor, artist, and truly a kind human being.
I keep track of my favorite web-sites and blogs from http://www.bloglines.com/ - just set up an rss feed, and it's easy as 'pie'....
I 'load them up'; check them out - then I 'weed them out', when I find that the bloggers spend way too much time blabbing about their daily lives in minute detail; complaining - bitching - moaning, and I don't learn a darned thing. Of course it's the individual right of the 'blogger' to talk about anything they want; the nice thing is we don't have to visit that blog if it turns out to be boring, and nothing that really educates us or states an opinion of worth.
My favorite web-sites and blogs TEACH ME SOMETHING; they give me RESOURCES - they're not personal journals that ramble on forever about unimportant issues.
I like bloggers who find information - share it; one is http://watergatesummer.blogspot.com/ A few others I like are on the side-bar.

The http://theragblog.blogspot.com/ finds excellent and challenging articles that stimulate my brain; inform me.
I want to learn; I want to stay informed - I don't have much time to 'read on the I-net', so when I do find the time I wanted to have great information; super recipes, and of course the best of music.

I've built over 7,000 songs on http://www.playlist.com/ There's no fee; no charge - a quick 2-minute 'sign up', and you've got music 24/7 - I hardly use my CD player anymore.
I love Google's books on line - I can't live without Wikipedia; what a wonderful gift the I-net gives us........

WHO loves to cook? WHO looks for recipe blogs? WHO can't keep track of all the blogs and web-sites on food?


.....Who? .....Me - that's who....
Then today I got terribly lucky, I used Google and used the word 'directory' of food blogs and web-sites. Why did it take me so long to think of that....
Anyway, here's the link to the biggest DIRECTORY of recipe and food web-sites; all in alphabetical order!!!!
Now I guess I should just say, "Woo-WHO"!!!!

WHO is trying to help AVOID LAYING OFF THEIR EMPLOYEES????

Today I was reading an article posted by http://www.businessweek.com
I enjoyed one part in particular; the management staff asking all employees to go home over the week-end, and come back with ideas as to how they could cut costs and everyone could keep their jobs.
This is what they came back with:

Among the ideas Strite used:
get rid of bottled water in the office, save on car washes by
asking employees to hose down the company's seven trucks, and delay a planned
office renovation. Those cuts didn't add up to big money—only about $1,900 a
month—but they "demonstrated that we were all buying into cutting overhead and
maintaining as many people as we could," he says. "We were a team that had the
same objective in mind."
That left payroll as the only place Strite could trim enough to balance the budget.
Twelve days later, office staff went to 32 hours a week from 40.
Each week, one of the seven project managers also cut their hours to 32.
Strite and two salaried managers cut their pay by a
third, and one woman went on maternity leave. Still, Strite had to let three
people go, choosing who would leave based on whether their work could be picked
up by others.
The cuts were accepted in peace. "Our employees know that they are highly valued," he says. "They understand the entity has to survive."

A few months later, several projects came through and, in July, Strite brought back two laid-off employees and restored normal hours, though the leadership's pay cut remains. But it's not over. Declines in the stock market and home equity loans hurt home improvement budgets further. By the end of 2008, the company posted $2.56 million in revenues, about 30% below 2007's $3.8 million, Strite says. He's hoping work will pick up—so he won't have to cut again.
Then another example:

TAKE ONE FOR THE TEAM
Craig Lindell, Aquapoint

While other executives look to share the pain, those at Aquapoint in New
Bedford, Mass., decided to shoulder the burden of reducing payroll costs
themselves.
Troubles in the construction industry began to squeeze Aquapoint in February 2008, when delays for new housing developments held up orders for the company's eco-friendly wastewater treatment systems. Then a planned retirement community that had placed a $400,000 order lost its bank funding. "Our liquidity just disappeared," says Chief Executive Craig Lindell.
By June, something had to give. So Lindell and two other top executives, Stephen Sedgwick and Raymond Cullum, took 50% pay cuts and asked employees to take a 10% trim. In August, "we realized we probably wouldn't come out of the year with better than $5 million" in sales, compared to the $8 to $12 million they expected, Lindell says.
The trio considered licensing their technology, bringing in an investor, or reducing staff. But they were convinced that, after 16 years of straining to build a new market, the company was on the brink of taking off. The company is "full of engineers and marketing people and technical sellers, and you don't want to lose that base," Lindell says. "Memory and experience is so critical....I wasn't about to jeopardize it."

So for the last quarter of the year, Lindell, Sedgwick, and Cullum took no pay.
They asked two clerical staff to work three days a week rather than five. By
January, Lindell and Sedgwick had restored 25% of their salaries, but Cullum
continues to work for free. The company posted $4 million in sales in 2008. If
business picks up soon, the trio will receive bonuses to make up for the lost
salaries. Sedgwick and Cullum could receive larger ownership stakes, says
Lindell, who owns 60% of the company.

Owners and managers see more rewards in good times, and so it's fair that they sacrifice more in the bad, says Lane Transou, a member of the Society for Human Resource Management's Total Rewards panel. "You do what you can at the top until you get the number you have to have," she says. "It sends a message to employees that you are doing what you can to keep the doors open and keep the company solvent."

And yet another example - it proves it 'can be done'...


CUT HOURS, TAKE UNPAID LEAVE
Gina Stern, d_parture spa

For Gina Stern, a lot has changed since September 11, 2001. Back then,
the founder of d_parture spa had one full-service airport spa, while today she
operates three. Her Harrington Park (N.J.) firm had 15 employees and $457,000 in
annual revenue in 2001, while today it has 45 people and brings in well over $1
million in annual sales.

But business in the airports now feels eerily similar to seven years ago, when travel fell off amid terrorism fears and a faltering economy, Stern says. Her numbers "are starting to drop" in Continental's domestic terminal at Newark International, where her business was born in 2000. By October, weekly sales were down 12% from a year earlier, a dramatic turnabout from the 36% growth pace she was clocking in July. She ended the year with $1.4 million in revenue, about $400,000 less than she had forecast.

Stern made the "easy" cuts first. In August she put full-time employees on a less expensive health-care plan with higher co-pays and deductibles.
But by the end of 2008 she was forced to implement the first phase of the 9/11 response plan that saved both her business and her employees' jobs eight years ago. As she did then, she's asked staff to take extended unpaid vacations. Next, she may once again ask people with more than one job to sacrifice hours, or encourage others to go back to school, promising them a job when they return. Back in 2001, the spa manager waived a raise and Stern was paid when there was money to spare—steps they may consider again.

"We go to the same mode because it worked. It was the only thing we could do to respond to the numbers, because my goal is to not let anyone go," Stern says. "My people are the backbone of my company, and they're like my family."

She's also looking for new customers who can keep her employees productive. Stern's spa outside security at Newark's international terminal is thriving, thanks to European travelers. So she has asked the airport's management company for more space near the gates, where people with long waits might be enticed to have a massage or manicure. Now if only Stern could relax, too.

WHO thinks about the cost of bottled water; the consequences of all those plastic bottles being discarded????

We know we should 'make like a cactus', and drink water for our health. About 3 years ago we decided the detrimental effects of tossing out many plastic bottles wasn't a good idea. We also calculated the cost of bottled water; when people were complaining about the high cost of gasoline we realized that bottled water (per gallon) was actually higher than gas has ever been since I've been alive these past 67 years.

I thought this article from http://www.thegoodhuman.com was excellent - portions of it are here for you to think again, about whether or not drinking bottled water is the best idea - not only for your pocket-book, but for the environment.

It is a common misconception for many people that bottled water is safer than
tap, plastic bottles get recycled, and no harm is being done to the environment
in the bottling process. Unfortunately, that could not be further from the
truth! So in case you either needed more reasons to stop drinking bottled water,
or a few extra talking points when discussing with your friends, here are 12
solid reasons to kick the bottled water habit:

American tap water is among the safest in the world.
As much as 40% of the bottled water sold in the U.S. is just filtered tap water anyway.

Be sure to check the label and look for “from a municipal source” or “community water system”, which just means it is tap water.
By drinking tap water, you can avoid the fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, disinfectants, and other chemicals that studies have found in bottled water.

Tap water costs about $0.002 per gallon compared to the $0.89 to $8.26 per
gallon charge for bottled water. If the water we use at home cost what even
cheap bottled water costs, our
monthly water bills would run $9,000
.


88% of empty plastic water bottles in the United States are not recycled. The Container Recycling Institute says that plastic water bottles are disposed of (not recycled) at the rate of 30 million a day.

Plastic bottles can leach chemicals into the water if left in the sun, heated
up, or reused several times.

Production of the plastic (PET or polyethylene) bottles to meet our demand for bottled water takes the equivalent of about 17.6 million barrels of oil (not including transportation costs). That equals the amount of oil required to fuel more than one million vehicles in the U.S. each year. Around the world, bottling water uses about 2.7 million tons of plastic…each year.

Bottled water companies mislead communities into giving
away their public water in exchange for dangerous jobs
.
It can take
nearly 7
times the amount of water in the bottle
to actually make the bottle itself.

On a weekly basis, 37,800 18-wheelers are driving around the country delivering water.


The EPA sets much more stringent quality standards for tap water than the FDA does for the bottled stuff.


One out of 6 people in the world does not have safe drinking water, and about 3,000 children a day die from diseases caught from bad water…that we know of. This while Americans spend about $16 billion a year on bottled water.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

WHO 'DARES'....This Las Vegas teenager won 1st place for the design that's now on the BUS!!!!


As part of the anti-graffiti effort in Las Vegas, they held a contest to create posters and have one bus painted with the winning design.
I think the bus is just beautiful - a project more cities and towns should consider. A smiling face; a proud child who will know what it means to 'get involved in the community'.
It's this type of news I love to read - it's our young children learning about citizen spirit; good will, and regard for not only their city but the wonderful country they live in.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

WHO likes CREDIT UNIONS better than BANKS? We do, that's for sure!

We have most of our money saved at our CREDIT UNION; as well as CD's, and a checking account.
We have our home mortgage at a BANK, as well as a checking account.
This past week, we received little inserts with notices in our payment envelopes. Here's an example of WHY we stay with the CREDIT UNION as our primary source for holding our money.
#1 - Our bank and the B of A Visa, sent information about how they will charge anyone who is delinquent, an INCREASED INTEREST RATE - up to as much as 30%.
#2 - Our CREDIT UNION sent information about how they will charge for any delinquencies; their rate is a MAXIMUM of 17.9%. Also, they will return the borrower to the lower rate of interest, if the delinquency is not repeated, and if they remain current for six months in a row, they will revert back to the lower standard rate. With the B of A, they DO NOT give you a reduction no matter how long you remain current (or become current).
#3 - Our BANK, and B OF A VISA, charge a 25% interest rate on a CASH ADVANCE.
#4 - Our CREDIT UNION charges a 7.9% on a CASH ADVANCE.
In ALL CASES, each account is insured up to $250,000 - just as the banks also are.
However, our CD rates we get through our credit union compare with a 5% earnings with a MINIMUM of $1,000 invested; our bank pays only 3.4% , and they require a $3,000 MINIMUM of investment.
#5 - The B of A charges us $12 for 250 checks; our credit union gives us 'standard checks' at NO CHARGE.
Over the course of using the CREDIT UNION for nearly 50 years, we've had 'Signature Loans' taken out; very little paper-work, and always approved. With our bank, we've had tons of paper-work; yes, the loan has been approved, but with much more hassle and delay.
To date, so far NONE of the CREDIT UNIONS have asked for bail-out money; they refrain from getting involved in questionable loans. You are a MEMBER of a credit union; at a bank, you are simply a depositor.
If you want to find a CREDIT UNION in your state, here's the link to find it - I suggest you take a look at it, because we get the best interest rates; the best and lowest-cost finance charges, and top-notch service. Our particular credit union has over 3,000,000 members; deposits total over $33,000,000,000,000! While other credit unions may not be as sizeable, they are a wise alternative to using a bank - if you want to find one in your area, here's the link:

Friday, March 27, 2009

WHO can see the wisdom and sincerity in this man's eyes?????


I'm listening to another TOWN MEETING by our president; if anyone can gell me another person who cares more about ths country; who is better educated, and who has a reason to see our USA succeed, let me know.........
I respect this president; more than anyone since JFK!

Thursday, March 26, 2009



Subject: Just in case you're interested in participating; here's the information to submit questions as well as vote on topics/White House

In advance of President Barack Obama's first online town hall, on Thursday, March 26, the White House has launched an "Open for Questions" page.

For this inaugural virtual town hall, the theme is the economy. Once you set up an account, you can submit your own question (text or with a link to a video version) or vote on others on a range of subjects, including auto industry, budget, education, financial stability, green jobs and energy, health-care reform, home ownership, jobs, retirement security, small business, and veterans.
Just in case those doesn't cover it, there's also a "more" category. Is that where you can ask, Can you do more to fix the economy? How can you keep health care from costing more? What's the best way to keep more Americans from losing their jobs?

Among the current roster of questions related to the home:

• "Why do
I have to be to the point of foreclosure to get any help with my mortgage? Why
aren't you helping the people who want to PREVENT foreclosure?"


• "Why can't the refinancing of your home, at the home's current values, be
available to any homeowner, not just the ones in trouble now. Help the
homeowners across the board, give us all relief, treat us all the same."

"What can be done about the drop in home values that have left many people
"under water" on their mortgages and unable to refinance to take advantage of
lower interest rates?"

• "Do you plan on giving any incentives to people who choose to update their
homes with green energy sources, such as solar panels?"

• "Dear Mr. President, When and how will legislation make it possible for
independent landowners to create green energy (I.e. Wind), work with local
utilities to sell energy back to the grid at fair prices, and promote individual
energy independence?"

• "Here in So. Cal. we are facing a huge drought. Would you consider creating a government program to buy/subsidize water trapment systems so people can catch rain water for use in irrigation, bathrooms, etc. So we can save money and conserve water?"

WHO wants to see the NEWSPAPERS CONTINUE TO PUBLISH?



Well I'm one person for certain. Above are two drawings our newspapers (local) used to promote the continuation of their publications - they had local students draw their REASONS as to why they wanted the papers to keep publishing.
I think a great idea for newspapers all over the country, would be to feature children's art in every publication. Even more, they could have the children do the advertising lay-outs for their advertisers and business who would like to have their services promoted - letting the youngsters bring 'real appeal' to the ad' campaign, by doing the art-work.
Parents would love seeing their children's art-work 'in print', and it would have a much more 'human touch', than expensive graphic art-work.
You might make the same suggestion to your local newspaper as well.......

WHO is tired of hearing about the POST OFFICE'S financial woes?


First, when they became a private enterprise, we should have known there would
be 'trouble'.....
Then we noticed most of the post offices we stopped at, looked like the inside of a Hallmark store combined with a gift shop. Selling little teddy bears; pins that replicated collector stamps - shipping boxes that were over-priced (but with pretty flowers on them). Pens - pretty; over-priced. Guess they were relying on this 'gift shop' theme, to add to their revenue.
Now, in our personal case, we've had a post office box for 16 years - we don't get home delivery. We pay $55/year for the box; it's a big one - holds all we need (including small shipping boxes that are sent to us). We pick our mail up ONCE A WEEK - the last week of the month, we go TWICE, to be sure we get the
monthly bills that come through the mail.
Our family and friends use e-mail or call us on their cellular phones (they get free calling on week-ends). So, we have little use for the mail system other than to get our bills and occasional letters that come when people want to send a card; our dentist reminds us of our appointment that's coming up, etc.
Because we can access just about everything 'on line', we really don't (personally) rely upon the postal system that much.
For those who do need postal service because they lack the 'high tech' methods of communication, of course this is important to them - BUT - if we can get mail JUST ONCE A WEEK, and have been doing this for almost 20 years now, we know the same is possible for nearly everyone who has residentail mail service.
As to the business mail, of course the need for mail is important; however, even they could handle getting mail on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday -
3-day delivery.
So, cutting down the days of delivery is what we see as the first viable method of cost-cutting. Of course the employees will want to maintain their salaries, but given the average annual salary of a mail clerk at $45,000/year, if they would cut each employee's salary by 10%, no one would be standing in a bread line.
Delivering mail THREE TIMES a week; paying a liveable wage, would also help CUT COSTS by not USING GASOLINE and running the carrier's vehicle (in our area, the carriers have to use their own trucks, and are reimbursed for their mileage - a cost-cutting measure because of our small community).
Now the BIG SAVINGS as I see it: I'm sick of catalogs and JUNK MAIL - and of course this not only wastes ink; paper, and destroys trees in the process, if the USPO wants to deliver this crap to our door, then STOP ALLOWING BULK MAILING FEES.
Make all that junk mail be sent at PRIORITY RATE - this will slow down the segment of companies who send this garbage out; this will reduce the 'bulk' of the mail, and reduce the burden on the sorting time it takes, and the mail carrier's 'load' they carry.
The post office can 'go green' by refusing to allow bulk rates for huge piles of unnecessary mail to be sent through their system unless the sender pays a HUGE RATE INCREASE, which will add to their income sources.
As the trend to using the I-net and e-mail system grows, there's less need for daily mail delivery. Of course if the USPO decides to ignore the options that are obvious as cost cutting measures, then I suggest their whining is just that - and they're doing nothing viable or intelligent to reduce their costs and truly focus on operating as a profit center just as big business does.
We see the carriers outside smoking cigarettes; talking - reading the newspaper or a magazine. We see them take huge loads of mail that is 'junk', and has been put into the various trash containers inside the post office's lobby.
For people who work 5 days a week, Saturday is an important day for the post office to BE OPEN.
So, I suggest: Delivery 3 times a week; Saturdays the post office is open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Stamp dispensers and scales to weigh mail in every location. Reduction of salaries by 10%, and a 'forever stamp' (now there is one at 42 cents) set at 45 cents; no rate increases on stamps for the next 10 years.
Instead of fancy shipping boxes that are too expensive, just use the standard USPO shipping envelopes and boxes; a fixed cost on each item - for shipping boxes of medium size - 50 cents. Small boxes - 35 cents. Large boxes - $1.00; not those $4.98/box fancy gift shipping containers that aren't necessary.
Get rid of the teddy bears; the pins - all the gimmicks, and get back to being a SERVICE, not a department store.
Junk mail senders are charged at a first class rate; no more 'bulk mail' discounts except to charities.....
That's for starters - I might think of a few more things, but at least these few changes would garner more revenue and reduce expenses.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

We live near Las Vegas - this might be their MAGIC BUS....

Train-like bus line on track for winter opening
By Brian Eckhouse
Wed, Mar 25, 2009 (2 a.m.)

As legislators revive discussions of a light-rail line stretching across the Las Vegas Valley, the first phase of a transit system intended as a more affordable substitute is months from operation.

The ACE Downtown Connector bus line is expected to start this winter.

The first line of ACE will link the county government buildings in downtown Las Vegas to resorts on the Strip, Town Square, the Las Vegas Outlet Center and finally to the South Strip Transfer Terminal at Sunset Road and Gilespie Street.

The route starts near Charleston Boulevard and Grand Central Parkway and proceeds north to the World Market Center and Union Park before heading south on Casino Center Boulevard at Fremont Street.

Along that part of the line, the buses will travel in their own lane, separated from traffic by medians.
Before the buses reach Las Vegas Boulevard, they’ll travel in the regular traffic mix.

Near the county government center on Grand Central, the dedicated lanes are complete. Construction of these lanes is ongoing on Casino Center Boulevard, prompting some road closures. Casino Center between Bonneville and Lewis avenues and again from Coolidge Avenue to Charleston is closed to traffic, though the intersections on Casino Center from Bonneville to Coolidge are open to cross-street traffic.

Construction is estimated at $52 million, according to Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada spokeswoman Tracy Bower. Federal and local funding contributed to the project.

Although the buses aren’t exact facsimiles of light rail, there are similarities: ACE will have stations with platforms, the buses resemble trains and passengers will buy tickets before boarding.

Starting in January, ACE and Deuce (another bus line) will cost $3 for a one-way ride, $7 for a day pass and $65 for a monthly pass.
Where we live in Laughlin, they have very low-cost fare busses; it helps the many who are retired, get their errands done and be able to get to their medical and dental appointments easily, and at a low cost.
If one thinks about it (as we did), you can buy your retirement home next to a bus-stop (the one we have is right outside our condo' gate). We spend about $80/month for gasoline; our car is paid for, and our insurance runs us about $900/year.
We also own a motor-home; we rarely use that, but it's good as a 'second home', should we ever have a financial hardship, and need to sell our condo. We pay $350/year for the motor-home because of the low miles we drive; tags for our two vehicles run us $120/year.
Our neighbor who relies on 100% bus transportation pays $55/month for her bus pass - this means she pays just a little over $600/year for transportation; no insurance - no car repairs - fully insured while she's using the bus, and about the only thing she's subject to is the driving skills of the bus driver (which, so far, have been excellent - no bus accidents in the 9 years we've lived here).
If a person needs to cut expenses in this tight economy, they might consider using the bus; a bicycle, and their 'legs' to get from point "A", to point "B".
If/when a car is needed on occasion, then a low-cost rental could be the answer to reducing transportation costs.
And WHO doesn't benefit from taking a little stroll to their local store; it's good exercise - helps keep you fit, and the birds will serenade you along the way.....

WHO can 'stomach' such stories like this??? Not many I'm sure.....

Near Christmas this year, a local boy of ours was seen battered and thin; slouching in the seat of a push-car at Walmart in Bullhead City, AZ.

The woman behind him saw the dilemma; dialed 911, and had the police heading to the store before his 'parents' left.

Quickly she went for a tall man who seemed strong enough to help her grab the boy from the cart, and hold him until the police arrived. It made headline news in our area; the boy was saved from dying, and the two parents were recently given jail time.

We all participated in the fund-raising effort to help the boy so he could have ample funds for when he was placed in foster care.

Now I read this story out of Washington state.....WHO would think it could happen again? I guess we need to take more time to pay attention to the children in our community - this from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

State, others will pay $6 million to boy who nearly starved to death
By VANESSA HO SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
A 6-year-old Everett boy who was found beaten and starving to death will receive $6 million from the state and two other defendants in an court settlement reached Tuesday.

The state's portion - $5 million - is the largest payment to a child victim ever by the Department of Social and Health Services. The boy's therapist and a social-service agency that employed the therapist are the two other defendants.

The agreement ends a lawsuit filed against the agency in Snohomish County Superior Court last year on behalf of the boy, Shayne Abegg, who was a skeletal weight of 25 pounds when police rescued him in March 2007.

The boy's body was covered in bruises and sores, his temperature had dropped to 87 degrees, and he could not sit or stand without help. A judge compared the sight of him to someone in a Nazi concentration camp.

The lawsuit accused DSHS of failing to adequately investigate many signs of abuse while the boy lived with his father. It said four caseworkers had missed a pattern of abuse and neglect, including reports that the boy was malnourished and had hoarded food.

"This little boy who was neglected by the state for 14 months while they received warning after warning that he was being starved and neglected will now have the resources to take care of himself for the remainder of his life," said the boy's lawyer, David Moody, of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro law firm in Seattle.
Moody has a long history of successfully suing DSHS.

The boy's father, Danny Abegg, and his girlfriend, Marilea Mitchell, were sentenced to eight years in prison last year. They were convicted of criminal mistreatment for withholding food from Shayne as punishment.

The lawsuit alleged that the family's therapist had failed to report signs of abuse, despite billing for work for regular visits he allegedly did up until Shayne's rescue, Moody said.

Moody said Shayne is now living with his third foster family since his rescue. "DSHS continues to get it wrong for this little boy, and has now placed him in three separate foster homes," he said. The money will be placed into a fund managed by the court until he is at least 18.

Sherry Hill, a spokeswoman for the Children's Administration in DSHS, said Shayne is in "good health." She could not comment on his foster-care status.

"Any child who has endured what Shayne did so early in his life may face challenges throughout the rest of his life," she said. "We're pleased the state can provide some financial assistance to help him face those challenges."
Thank goodness there is justice for some of these children when're they found in time. Our little guy from Arizona received nothing from the state - hopefully someone will pass this on (as I'm doing), and suggest a similar settlement be given to our little fella who almost didn't make it........

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

WHO is interested in how the CIA 'front' a myriad of companies?

Just type in CIA proprietary agencies, and 'fronts' - you'll get this list (and I don't know how updated or complete it is; however, it will make your mouth drop - for certain......


CIA Proprietary Agencies

A
AALC, see Afro-American Labor Center
Acrus Technology
ADEP, see Popular Democratic Action
Advertising Center, Inc.
Aero Service Corp. of Philadelphia
Aero Systems, Inc.
Aero Systems Pvt. Ltd
AFME, see American Friends of the Middle East"African Report"
African-American Institute
Afro-American Labor Center (AALC) of Agencia Orbe

Latinoamericano

Agency for International Development (AID)

Agribusiness Development, Inc.

AIFLD, see American Institute for Free Labor Development

Air America
Air Asia Co., Ltd.Air Proprietary Company

All Ceylon Youth Council Movement
Alliance for Anti-totalitarian Education
America Fore Insurance Group
American Association of the Middle East
American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism, Inc.
American Committee for the Liberation of the People of Russia
American Committee for the International Commission of Jurists
American Economic FoundationAmerican Federation for Fundemental Research
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)American Foundation for the Middle East
American Friends of the Middle East
American Friends of the Russian Freedom
American Friends Service Committee
American Fund for Czechoslovak
RefugeesAmerican Fund For Free Jurists
American
Historical Society
American Institute for Free Labor Development (AIFLD)American
Machine & Foundry
American Mutual Insurance Company
American Newspaper
Guild Association
American Oriental Society
American Political Science
Association American Research Center in Egypt, Inc.
American Society of
African Culture
American Institute of Cairo
American University - Special
Operations Research OfficeAmes Research CenterM.D. Anderson Foundation
ANSA
(Italian Wire Service)
Antell, Wright & Nagel
Anti-Communist Christian Front
Anti-Communist Liberation Movement
Anti-Totalitarian Board of Solidarity with the People of Vietnam
Anti-Totalitarian Youth movement
Appalachian Fund
Arabian-American Oil Company
Area Tourist Association

Arrow Air
Ashland Oil and Refining Company
Asia Foundation
Association of American Geographers
Association of Computing Machinery
Association of Friends of Venezuela
Association of Preparatory Students
Assoziation ungarischer Studenten in Nordamerika
Atomics, Physics & Science Fund, Inc.
Atwater Research Program in North Africa
Bank of Lisle
Bankers Trust Company
Basic Resources
Beacon Fund
Berliner Verein
Berliner Verein zur Forderung der Bildungshilfe in Entwicklungslandern
Berliner Verein zur Forderung der Publizistik in EntwicklungslandernBlythe & Company, Inc.
Boni, Watkins, Jason & Company
Brazilian Institute for Democratic Action (IBAD)
Broad and High Foundation
J. Frederick Brown Foundation
Burgerkomitee fur AuBenpolitik
Bulgarisches Nationales
ZentrumBurndy Corporation
Butte Pipe Line Company
Cahill, Gordon, Reindel & Ohl
Cahill & Wilinski
California Shipbuilding Corporation
Caribbean Marine Area Corporation(Caramar)
James Carlisle Trust
Caspian Pipeline Consortium
Catherwood Foundation
CBS Television Network
(CRESS) Center for Strategic Studies
Center for Strategic and International StudiesCenter of Studies and Social Action(CEAS)
CEOSL, see Ecuadorean Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations
Chesapeake Foundation
Civil Air Transport (CAT)
Clothing and Textiles Workers Union COG, see Guayana Workers Confederation
Colt's Patent Fire Arms Company
Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)
Columbian Financial Development Company
Combate"EL Commercio" Com.
Suisse d'Aide aux Patrgrols
Committee for Free Albania
Committee for Liberty of Peoples
Communications Workers of America (CWA)
Confederation for an Independent Poland
Conference of the AtlanticCommunity Congress for Cultural Freedom
Continental Press
Continental Shelf Explorations, Inc.,
Cooperative League of America
Coordinating Committee of Free Trade Unionists of Ecuador
Coordinating Secretariat of National Unions of Students (cosec), see International Student Conference (ISC)
Cosden Petroleum Corporation
Combat Military Ordinances Ltd.
Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs, Inc.
Cox, Langford, Stoddard & Cutler
CRC, see Cuban Revolutionary Council
CROCLE, see Regional Confederation of Ecuadorian
Coastal Trade Unions Cross, Murphy and Smith
Crossroads of Africa
Crusade for FreedomCSU, see Uruguayan Labor Conference
CTM, see Mexican Worker
Confederation
Cuban Portland Cement Company
Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC, Cuban Exile)
Cummings and Seller
Curtis Publishing Company
CUT, see Uruguayan Confederation of Workers
Daddario & Burns
Dane Aviation Supply
Debevoise, Plimpton, Lyons & Gates (West)
Deutscher Kunstlerbund
Dominion Rubber Company
Double Chek Corporation
DRE, see Revolutionary Student Directorate in
ExileEEagleton Institute of Politics - Princeton University East Asian Institute
East-West Center
Ecuadorean Anti-Communist ActionEcuadorean Anti-Communist Front
Ecuadorean Confederation of Free Trade Union Organizations (CEOSL)Ecuadorean Federation of Telecommunications Workers (FENETEL)Editors Press ServiceEdsel Fund
Electric Storage Battery Company
El Gheden Mining Corporation
End Kadhmir Dispute CommitteeEnsayos
ERC International, Inc.
Enstnischer Nationalrat
Enstnischer Weltzentralrat
Estrella CompanyEurope Assembly of Captive Nations
Exeter Banking Company
Farfield Foundation, Inc.
Federal League for Ruralist Action (Ruralistas)
Federation for a Democratic Germany in Free Europe
Fed. Inte. des Journalistes de Tourisme
FENETEL, see Ecuadorean
Federation of Telecommunications Workers
First Florida Resource CorporationFood,
Drink and Plantation Workers
Union
Ford Foundation
Foreign News ServiceForeign Press Association B.C.
Forest Products, Ltd.
Fortune
"Forum" (Wein)
Foundation for International and Social Behavior
Foundation for Student AffairsFranklin Broadcasting Company
Free Africa Organization of Colored People
Free Europe Committee, Inc.
Free Europe Exile Relations
Free Europe Press Division
Freie Universitat (FU)
Frente Departmental de Compensinos de Puno
Fund for International, Social and Economic Development
Gambia National Youth Council
Geological Society of America
Georgia Council on Human Relations
Gibraltar Steamship Corporation
Global International Airways
Glore, Forgan & Company
Goldstein, Judd & Gurfein
Gotham Foundation
Government Affairs Institute
W.R. Grace and Company
Granary Fund
Grey Advertising Agency
Guyana Workers Confederation (COG)
Gulf Oil Corporation
Andrew Hamilton Fund
Heights Fund
Joshua Hendy
Iron Works
Hierax
Hill and Knowlton
Himalayan Convention
Histadrut - The Federation of Labor in Israel
Hiwar
Hoblitzelle Foundation
Hodson Corporation
Hogan & Hartson Holmes Foundation, Inc.
Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace
Hutchins Advertising Company of CanadaHuyck Corporation
BAD, see Brazilian Institute for Democratic ActionIndependence FoundationIndependent Research Service
Industrial Research Service
Information Security International Inc.,.,
Institut zur Erforschung der USSR e.V.
Institute Battelle
Memorial
Institute of Historical Review
Institute of International Education
Institute of International Labor Research EducationInstitute of Political EducationInstitute of Public AdministrationInternational-American Center of Economic and Social StudiesInternational-American Federation of Journalists
International-American Federation of Working Newspapermen (IFWN)
International-American Labor College
International-American Police Academy, see International Police AcademyInternational-American Regional Labor Organization (ORIT)
Intercontinental Finance Corporation
Intercontinental Research Corporation
Intermountain Aviation
International Armament Corporation (INTERARMCO)
International Air Tours of NigeriaInternational Commission of Jurists (ICJ)International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (IFCTU)International Cooperation Administration (ICA)
International Development Foundation, Inc.
International Fact Finding Institute
International Federation of Christian Trade Unions IFCTU, see World Confederation of Labor
International Federation of JournalistsInternational
Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers (IFPCW)
International Federation of Plantation, Agriculture and Allied Workers (IFPAAW)International Federation of Women Lawyers (IFWL)
International Geographical Union
International Journalists Conference
International Labor Research Institute
International Police Services School
International Press
Institute
International Rescue Committee
International Secretatiate of the Pax Romana
International Student Conference (ISC)
International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT)
International Trade Services
International Trade Secretariats
International Trading and Investment Guaranty Corp., Ltd.,
International Transport Workers Federation (ITF)
International Union Officials Trade Organizations
International
Union of Young Christian Democrats
International Youth Center
Internationale Federation der Mittel- und OsteuropasInternationale Organization zur Erforschung kommunistischer NethodenInternationaler Bund freier Journalisten
Internationales Hilfskomitee

Japan Cultural Forum
KAMIKentfield Fund J.M.
Kaplan Fund, Inc.
Kennedy & Sinclaire, Inc.
Kenya Federation of Labour
Khmer Airlines
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Komittee fur internationale Beziehungen
Komittee fur Selbstbestimmung
Komittee fur die Unabhangigkeit des KaukasusKorean C.I.A.Korean Freedom and Cultural Foundation, Inc.
Labor Committee for Democratic Action
Lawyer's Constitutional Defense Committee
League for Industrial DemocracyLeague for International Social and Cooperative Development
Ligue de la Liberte
Litton Industrial Company
London American
Manhattan Coffee Company
Marconi Telegraph-Cable Company
Maritime Support Unit
Martin Marietta Company
Marshall Foundation Center for International Studies (MIT-CIS)
Mathieson Chemical Corporation
McCann-Erikson, Inc.
Megadyne Electronics
Charles E. Merrill Trust
MerexMexican Workers Confederation (CTM)
Miner & Associates
Mineral Carriers, Ltd.
Mobil Oil Company
Molden-Verlag
Monroe Fund
Moore-McCormack Lines, Inc.
Moral Majority
Moral Rearmament
Movement
Mount Pleasant Trust
Movement for Integrated University Action
Robert Mullen Company
Narodno Trudouoj Sojus (NTS)
National Academy of Sciences
National Research Council National Board for Defense of Sovereignty and Continental Solidarity
National Council of Churches
National Defense Front
National Educational Films, Inc.
National Education Association
National Federation of Petroleum and Chemical Workers of Ecuador
National Feminist Movement for the Defense of Uruguay
National Student Press Council of India
National Students Association (NSA)
National Union of Journalists of EcuadorNewsweek
New York Times
Norman Fund
North American Rockwell Corporation
North American Uranium, Inc.
Norwich Pharmaceutical Company
Oceanic Cargo
Oil Workers International Union
Operations and Policy Research, Inc.
Organix. Ukrainischer Nationalisten (OUN)
ORIT, see International-American Regional Labor Organization
Overseas New Agency

Pacifica Foundation
Pacific Life Insurance
Paderewski Foundation
Pan-American Foundation
Pan AviationPappas Charitable Trust
Parvus-Jere Patterson & Associates
Pax RomanaPeace and Freedom
Penobscot Land & Investment Company
Plant Protection, Inc.
Plenary of Democratic Civil Organizations of Uruguay
Pope & Ballard
Popular Democratic Action (ADEP)
Press Institute of India
Price Fund
Public Service International (PSI)
Publisher's Council
Rabb Charitable Foundation
Radio Free Asia
RadioFree Europe
Radio Liberation
Radio Liberty Committee, Inc.
Radio SwanRand Corporation
Regional Confederation of Ecuadorean Coastal Trade Unions (CROCLE)Research Foundation for Foreign Affairs
Retail Clerk's International Association
Revolutionary Democratic Front (RFD, Cuban exile)
Reynolds Metal Company
Rubicon Foundation
Rumanisches Nationalkomitee
Russian and East European Institute
Russian Institute
Russian Research Center
Safir St. Lucia Airways
SamanSan Jacinto Foundation
San Miguel Fund
SBONR
Sentinels of Liberty
Sith & Company
Social Christian Movement of Ecuador
Sociedade Anomima de Radio Retransmissao (RARETSA)Society for Defense of Freedom in Asia
SODECO (Sakhalin Oil Development Cooperation Co)
SODIMAC Southern Air Transport
Standard Electronics, Inc.
Standish Ayer & McKay, Inc.
Sterling Chemical Co.
Student Movement for Democratic Action
Sur International
Sylvania Electric Products, Inc.
Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Outside of Russia
Systems Development Corporation
Tarantel Press
Tetra Tech International
Thai-Pacific Services Company
Tibet ConventionTower Fund
TransmaritaniaTwentieth Century Fund
Unabhangiger Forschugsdienst
Ungarischer Nationalrat
U.S. News and World Report
United States Youth Council
U.S.-Russian Commercial Energy Working Group
United Ukrainian American Relief Committee
Universal Service Corporation
Untersuchungsausschub freiheitlicher Juristen (UfJ)
Uruguayan Committee for Free Detention of Peoples
Uruguayan Confederation of Workers (CUT)
Uruguayan Labor Confederation (CSU)
Vangard Service Company
Varicon, Inc
Wainwright and Matthews Joseph Walter & Sons
Warden Trust
Erwim Wasey, Ruthrauff & Ryan, Inc.
Wexton Advertising Agency
Whitten TrustWilliford-Telford Corporation
Wikipedia
World Assembly of Youth (WAY)
World Confederation of Labor
Wynnewood Fund
York Research Corporation
Zenith Technical Enterprises, Ltd
Zenith Technical Enterprises
Zen Nihon Gakusei Jichikai Sorengo (Zangakuren)
Zentrale for Studien und DokumentationZweites deutschen Fernsehen (ZDF)
I high-lighted (in color) the corporations that in the USA, we tend to 'trust'....a very curious list; a very disturbing revelation (at least to me).

Monday, March 23, 2009

If your restaurant says they're charging you $1 for a glass of water for UNICEF.....

.....decline the offer; if you don't want to pay for any other drink they have on their menu, tote your own bottled water to the table!

An announcement by UNICEF that it's going to solicit to all restaurants and dining places, to charge $1 for a glass of water (which is to be then donated to their campaign), is ludicrous. Also, you have absolutely NO WAY of knowing if UNICEF receives that $1.00 or any portion of it.

When we were asked over the week-end, to do this, we canceled our order and went to another restaurant where the campaign wasn't being promoted.

If you want to give money to any charity, GO DIRECT - we have so many homeless people in our area, we take water; food, and give each person we see $20 (let them spend it as they want to). If they spend it all on beers, we figure at least they had some fun. If we give the gift, we want to SEE the person we're contributing to.

Cancer? We learn of a person who has cancer, and we take a basket of fruit, and $100 - this way we're assured that the cost of any major charity isn't diluting the actual funds an individual gets. We all know the high costs of administration of a charity; the over-head they encounter, and have no way of knowing just how much of that money benefits
DIRECTLY, the person(s) in need.

We figure that our taxes support certain entitlements such as food stamps and unemployment; we also know that published reports by the IRS show that anyone who makes over a million dollars, is taxed LESS, and audited 20% LESS OFTEN, than those who make UNDER a million dollars.

Another way to help a charity is to VOLUNTEER and GET INVOLVED directly - your time is worth money; do what you can FOR FREE - this is just another way to make certain what you give or do, is optimized.

I just read that due to the economy, people will spend $116 to celebrate the Easter holiday. I say there should be NO EASTER expense except what you give in a donation to your church if you believe in this holiday season, and in god.

Every single holiday is designed to take your money; ignore the holiday, and 'keep the change'. Give pictures; hugs - and make a nice dinner with each bringing a dish to share.

Look to see WHO is suffering in this economy, and see what you can do to help - every little thing helps; if you've got a surplus, then you can easily share.

If you're the one in dire straits, take as many steps as you can to reduce your expenses - look for the food banks; meals on wheels, and soup kitchens who are operating over-time to help people avoid hunger.

I've done my share of homelessness; my share of dumpster-diving, and my share of going hungry - the more we experience trials and difficulties, the bigger our hearts and helping hands become once we gain a foot-hold.

But, seriously - don't pay for water when this campaign could just be another 'gimmick'.....

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Allie has an excellent compilation of the TENT CITIES..........

Not only does she have information and videos about the tent cities, but a couple on other areas where motor-homes and r.v. people, are now living. Having done that myself for 5 years, I know all about it. Still, I have some of the best memories of how we all pulled together; helped each other, and enjoyed our 'home less, but enjoying it more' experience...........

Here's Allie's link:
http://watergatesummer.blogspot.com

If the link doesn't 'click' right, scroll over it; copy, and paste.....

Sunday, March 15, 2009

WHO read the article on the $250 payment to each person on Social Security or SSI???

In the month of May, 2009, each and every person WHO is on Social Security and/or SSI, will receive $250 in addition to their regular monthly payment.

If you're on SSI, you'll receive $250; if you're on BOTH, you'll receive only one single payment of $250.

If there are two people in the household who are on either entitlement, then that household can expect a nice little 'windfall' of $500. Of course there might be more than 2 in a home who are retired, but I figured in most cases, it will be a husband and wife, or two companions who live together who can expect this bit of money by the end of May, 2009.

The Social Security office says if you do not receive your check (or direct deposit of that's how you have our payment handled), to contact their web-site or your local Social Security office starting June 15, 2009. They ask that you refrain from calling or visiting until June 15, 2009, because there could be a potential delay in sending out this money, and they are short-staffed to handle such an influx of calls and letters.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Who is bravely discussing RACIAL ISSUES on the web? Probably many are, but this one is the most profound and thoroughly written in great detail!


I do hope anyone who stops by, will definitely read the myriad of articles and posts on this blog - some of the remarks have brought tears to my eyes; something that brings out the realization of the hardships and difficulties many of us can never imagine, nor will we even come close to experiencing!

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Get on the bus, Gus - we don't need to discuss much...or do we....

I think there's a lot to discuss - and to take a 'new stand', Stan - this web-site might help set others 'free' to vote; to let their voices be heard.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

WHO bought the YELLOW COACH BUS COMPANY? Who was the LARGEST USA EMPLOYER at one time? My, oh my, 'boo-WHO'.....2009!

The history of GM, the world's largest automaker, saw its beginning in 1908. The company was founded by William Durant in the year 1902. The shrewd businessman that he was, Durant realized that the future lay with cars and not carriages.

Initially, the company was founded as a holding company for Buick. The latter part of the year saw the company acquiring Oldsmobile, followed by the possession of Cadillac, Oakland and Elmore in the very next year.

Many of the motor companies were in dire straits during the difficult years of the early 1900's. The stock market panic in 1907 put a lot of small companies into financial distress. Many of these companies were running on credit from various bankers. This was a golden opportunity for Durant, who proceeded to buy smaller car builders, and companies that built car parts as well as car accessories.

In 1908, these various companies were folded into a single unit, thus creating the new GM entity. This marked the exciting beginning of the true history of GM.

William Durant was a flamboyant businessman whose curious mix of genius and over-reaching took GM both to its heights as well as plunged it into financial distress.

In 1910, bankers were forced to step in to prevent financial collapse of GM, and Durant was removed from the company he had founded.

But by 1911, the company had made enough advances into the international market that the General Motors Export Company was established to handle sales outside the U.S and Canada.

Durant managed to use another company he formed, Chevrolet, to come back to power in GM during 1915, and the history of GM from 1915-1920 is full of successes. During this time, the Cadillac became wildly successful. In 1918, GM bought the operating assets of Chevrolet Motors. But, soon America was hit by a power recession and in 1920, Durant again found himself out of the company.

During the financial boom in the 1920's, the history of GM virtually glowed with success. Auto sales reached the 4.5 million mark, and the auto industry now had three giants - GM, Ford and Chrysler. GM now had a brilliant engineer turned industrialist at its helm. Alfred Sloan who was later acclaimed for his marketing genius had slowly worked his way up among the ranks of GM. His marketing genius breathed a fresh lease of life into GM that was beginning to get overshadowed by Ford.

Ford's philosophy of giving the public the best value for their money offered little variety. But Sloan and GM were interested in providing the public with more than a black box. Stylish colors, features and comfort became the new motto of the company.

GM also made a path-breaking offer - the public could now buy a car on credit.

The five brands of GM - Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile and Chevrolet began changing every year with the focus being directed mainly at looks and style. This strategy paid rich dividends. Ford was pushed to the backseat again by GM.

The great Wall Street crash in 1929 put an abrupt stop to all expansion plans at GM for the time being. Stocks of GM fell rather badly. But, by early 1930's GM bounced back and bought the Yellow Coach bus company.

In 1930, GM bought Electro-Motive Corporation, the internal combustion engine railcar builder. The next 20 years saw GM powered diesel locomotives running on American railroads.

December 31, 1955 is another landmark in the history of GM. GM became the first company to make more than a billion dollars in a year.

There was a time in the history of GM when it was the largest corporation in the US. The history of GM also shows that there was a time when GM was the single largest employer in the world.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Today a friend of mine posted all the great things Obama has accomplished to date....


I decided to comment on her blog; read a couple other comments - one or two were critical of what our president has done 'to date'. Considering he's only been our president for six weeks, I'd say what he's done so far is enormously productive - it's clear he has an agenda for the betterment of all Americans.

Anyway, in the process of finishing my 'comment' on her blog, I decided I'd bring it over and put it here as well....


HAPPY IN NEVADA said...
I also think he's doing a wonderful job! Imagine this: Obama is brilliant; he's an orator - he could easily have taken the 'celebrity route', by going on some major television station as a talk-show host (or commentator).


He can see through all the political crap; he could eloquently be 'critical and insightful' with his remarks, and his following would put him at the top of the 'commentator' game.

He would make millions of dollars a year - he'd have publicity; be present at all the various gatherings of 'great minds', and have not one iota of responsibility on his back or mind, that he now carries as president of our country!

Instead, he takes a modest-paying job; he risks his life and his family's comfort, by taking over the 'war-zone' called the presidency - left in a state like never before, from Bush and cronies....

Admire him just for this courage; for the fact he had a myriad of other options that would have left him time at night to spend with his family - enjoy vacations; have a sizeable income, and 'lounge' in the comforts of the many who are right now, busy throwing barbs and rocks because that's what they 'do'....

Everyone is playing 'target practice'; everyone is throwing darts at a board - a board that will crumble when they blow enough holes in the bull's eye - then they'll build another 'target' and start on that one.

You can go to the White House web-site and read/see what Obama's been doing.

You can go to http://www.recovery.gov/ and read even more.

You can read this article, and see what he's doing about health-care - this man is energetic; caring, and determined to bring us back to our senses - regardless of political choice!

Not since JFK, have I been so happy to have 'my president' speak to me on the television; to see his smile, and see the clarity in his eyes - the wisdom and calmness of one who is truly dedicated to all.

Now this article - from Reuters:
By David AlexanderWASHINGTON (Reuters) -

President Barack Obama opened his drive for a healthcare overhaul at a White House forum on Thursday, seeking momentum to change a costly and inefficient system he says is dragging down the U.S. economy.

Hoping to learn from the mistakes of the past, Obama gathered about 120 experts, from doctors and patients to health insurers and lawmakers, to discuss possible approaches and find areas of agreement.

The U.S. economic crisis makes the task even more critical, said Obama, who plugged his goal of passing a comprehensive healthcare measure by the end of 2009."

Health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it is a fiscal imperative," Obama said. "If we want to create jobs and rebuild our economy, then we must address the crushing cost of healthcare this year, in this administration."

Obama said he understood public skepticism about the possible success of his effort given President Bill Clinton's failed plan in the 1990s, which died amid heavy opposition from insurance and drug companies."I am here today because I believe that this time is different," Obama said. "This time, the call for reform is coming from the bottom up, from all across the spectrum -- from doctors, nurses and patients; unions and businesses; hospitals, health care providers and community groups."

He added: "This time, there is no debate about whether all Americans should have quality, affordable health care -- the only question is, how?"

U.S. healthcare costs have grown to $2.5 trillion annually as the ranks of the uninsured have swollen to some 46 million people. The country consistently ranks lower than other rich countries in preventing and treating many diseases such as diabetes.

MOMENTUM GROWING FOR REFORMS

Political momentum for an overhaul has grown in recent years. Obama and his Republican rival in the presidential election, Senator John McCain, both proposed extensive changes in the healthcare system during the campaign.

The nonprofit Commonwealth Fund released a survey last August showing more than 80 percent of Americans want reforms and in a budget plan announced last week Obama proposed setting aside $634 billion to help pay for the overhaul over the next 10 years.Obama has not presented a specific reform plan to Congress, seeking to avoid the problems that killed Clinton's effort and build support before he dictates an approach.

"He isn't sending a bill up to the Hill," said Melody Barnes, Obama's senior domestic policy adviser. "He's articulated some of the principles that are important to him, but I think he also strongly believes that to get this done he's going to have to ... be open, pragmatic and listen and engage with Congress to get a bill done."

The attendees at the White House session included a broad range of congressional, industry, unions and think tanks including some, such as the insurance and pharmaceutical industry lobby groups, who could oppose a final plan.

Health Care for America Now's National Campaign Manager Richard Kirsch believes the effort can work this time."We have unity in a common position amongst the Democratic leadership of Congress and the large, organized progressive base representing the American people,"

Kirsch told reporters in a conference call.Obama pledged during his election campaign that he would expand health insurance coverage to virtually everyone and find a way to control costs, which businesses complain are making their products less competitive in the global markets.(Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Maggie Fox and David Storey)

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

WHO IS OBAMA? Just the finest president since John F. Kennedy - in my opinion!


Source of the picture? My t-shirt I wore back in 1991 to honor our troops.
Remember, it was nearly 20 years ago, that GWB's father put us at war - over oil; then his son took us further into a war that cost this country $1,000,000,000 a MONTH - for oil; with lies and excuses - just as his father had done!
How can one justify
spending nearly a trillion dollars on a war for oil? For 'control' - a 'personal
agenda', and then have that same party (Republican), be critical of a stimulus
bill that will now turn its dollars back TO AMERICA - to REBUILDING AMERICA!
Did we destroy Iraq;
commit genocide, so we might make more money offering to help them 'rebuild the
country WE destroyed?
It makes me think of an evil 'window-washer' - a person who offers the service to wash your windows, then employs hooligans to go back in the middle of the night and throw mud all over those same windows so he can 'bid on the job' to RE-WASH them again...re-wash, or white-wash - that is the legacy of both 'old man Bush', and his evil and inept son!
Also remember, It took President Clinton 4 years to bring us a balanced budget; it was completely destroyed by the decisions and actions of the GWB administration!

When the Republicans talk about 'too much government', it was TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT that brought us this huge debt - one born out of lies, deceit, and actions that were criminal. Let us not let the very same political party frighten us with their scare tactics as they try to imply Obama's plan of action is an attempt to place more government power in place. The Republicans are 'terrorists' of a different kind!

Now, let's read and hear Obama's words that offer us a new and better direction for our future. The transcript of his speech to Congress is below.

"While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before," the president said.


Creating and saving jobs, Obama said, were the top priorities for the nation--something that the $787 billion economic stimulus act aims to do.
The president went on to try to explain why the government is bailing out banks and Wall Street. After reassuing our Americans their personal savings were not in danger from collapsing banks, Obama said, "The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins."


He added later, "It’s not about helping banks--it’s about helping people."


The second part of the president's speech focused on his first proposed budget and the long-term spending plans in it. Obama highlighted three issues he wants to tackle, as well as the ever-growing costs of funding those changes.

"The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren’t preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit," the president said.

President Obama ended his address looking toward the future.

He said, "If we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, 'something worthy to be remembered.'"


Transcript of the president's address:


THE PRESIDENT: Madam Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, the First Lady of the United States -- (applause) -- she's around here somewhere.


I have come here tonight not only to address the distinguished men and women in this great chamber, but to speak frankly and directly to the men and women who sent us here.


I know that for many Americans watching right now, the state of our economy is a concern that rises above all others. And rightly so. If you haven't been personally affected by this recession, you probably know someone who has -- a friend; a neighbor; a member of your family. You don't need to hear another list of statistics to know that our economy is in crisis, because you live it every day. It's the worry you wake up with and the source of sleepless nights. It's the job you thought you'd retire from but now have lost; the business you built your dreams upon that's now hanging by a thread; the college acceptance letter your child had to put back in the envelope.
The impact of this recession is real, and it is everywhere.
But while our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken, though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before. (Applause.)

The weight of this crisis will not determine the destiny of this nation. The answers to our problems don't lie beyond our reach. They exist in our laboratories and our universities; in our fields and our factories; in the imaginations of our entrepreneurs and the pride of the hardest-working people on Earth. Those qualities that have made America the greatest force of progress and prosperity in human history we still possess in ample measure. What is required now is for this country to pull together, confront boldly the challenges we face, and take responsibility for our future once more. (Applause.)


Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that for too long, we have not always met these responsibilities -- as a government or as a people. I say this not to lay blame or to look backwards, but because it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we'll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament.


The fact is our economy did not fall into decline overnight. Nor did all of our problems begin when the housing market collapsed or the stock market sank. We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before. The cost of health care eats up more and more of our savings each year, yet we keep delaying reform.
Our children will compete for jobs in a global economy that too many of our schools do not prepare them for. And though all these challenges went unsolved, we still managed to spend more money and pile up more debt, both as individuals and through our government, than ever before.


In other words, we have lived through an era where too often short-term gains were prized over long-term prosperity; where we failed to look beyond the next payment, the next quarter, or the next election. A surplus became an excuse to transfer wealth to the wealthy instead of an opportunity to invest in our future. (Applause.)

Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day.


Well that day of reckoning has arrived, and the time to take charge of our future is here.


Now is the time to act boldly and wisely -- to not only revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity. Now is the time to jumpstart job creation, re-start lending, and invest in areas like energy, health care, and education that will grow our economy, even as we make hard choices to bring our deficit down. That is what my economic agenda is designed to do, and that is what I'd like to talk to you about tonight.
It's an agenda that begins with jobs. (Applause.)


As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery plan by President's Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets. Not because I believe in bigger government -- I don't. Not because I'm not mindful of the massive debt we've inherited -- I am.
I called for action because the failure to do so would have cost more jobs and caused more hardship. In fact, a failure to act would have worsened our long-term deficit by assuring weak economic growth for years. And that's why I pushed for quick action. And tonight, I am grateful that this Congress delivered, and pleased to say that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is now law. (Applause.)


Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs. More than 90 percent of these jobs will be in the private sector -- jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges; constructing wind turbines and solar panels; laying broadband and expanding mass transit.


Because of this plan, there are teachers who can now keep their jobs and educate our kids. Health care professionals can continue caring for our sick. There are 57 police officers who are still on the streets of Minneapolis tonight because this plan prevented the layoffs their department was about to make. (Applause.)


Because of this plan, 95 percent of working households in America will receive a tax cut -- a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st. (Applause.)


Because of this plan, families who are struggling to pay tuition costs will receive a $2,500 tax credit for all four years of college. And Americans -- (applause) -- and Americans who have lost their jobs in this recession will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage to help them weather this storm. (Applause.)


Now, I know there are some in this chamber and watching at home who are skeptical of whether this plan will work. And I understand that skepticism. Here in Washington, we've all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.


And that's why I've asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort -- because nobody messes with Joe. (Applause.) I -- isn't that right? They don't mess with you. I have told each of my Cabinet, as well as mayors and governors across the country, that they will be held accountable by me and the American people for every dollar they spend. I've appointed a proven and aggressive Inspector General to ferret out any and all cases of waste and fraud. And we have created a new website called http://www.recovery.gov so that every American can find out how and where their money is being spent.


So the recovery plan we passed is the first step in getting our economy back on track. But it is just the first step. Because even if we manage this plan flawlessly, there will be no real recovery unless we clean up the credit crisis that has severely weakened our financial system.


I want to speak plainly and candidly about this issue tonight, because every American should know that it directly affects you and your family's well-being. You should also know that the money you've deposited in banks across the country is safe; your insurance is secure; you can rely on the continued operation of our financial system. That's not the source of concern.


The concern is that if we do not restart lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.


You see -- (applause) -- you see, the flow of credit is the lifeblood of our economy. The ability to get a loan is how you finance the purchase of everything from a home to a car to a college education, how stores stock their shelves, farms buy equipment, and businesses make payroll.


But credit has stopped flowing the way it should. Too many bad loans from the housing crisis have made their way onto the books of too many banks. And with so much debt and so little confidence, these banks are now fearful of lending out any more money to households, to businesses, or even to each other. And when there is no lending, families can't afford to buy homes or cars. So businesses are forced to make layoffs. Our economy suffers even more, and credit dries up even further.


That is why this administration is moving swiftly and aggressively to break this destructive cycle, to restore confidence, and restart lending.


And we will do so in several ways. First, we are creating a new lending fund that represents the largest effort ever to help provide auto loans, college loans, and small business loans to the consumers and entrepreneurs who keep this economy running. (Applause.)


Second -- second, we have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values -- Americans who will now be able to take advantage of the lower interest rates that this plan has already helped to bring about. In fact, the average family who refinances today can save nearly $2,000 per year on their mortgage. (Applause.)


Third, we will act with the full force of the federal government to ensure that the major banks that Americans depend on have enough confidence and enough money to lend even in more difficult times. And when we learn that a major bank has serious problems, we will hold accountable those responsible, force the necessary adjustments, provide the support to clean up their balance sheets, and assure the continuity of a strong, viable institution that can serve our people and our economy.


I understand that on any given day, Wall Street may be more comforted by an approach that gives bank bailouts with no strings attached, and that holds nobody accountable for their reckless decisions. But such an approach won't solve the problem. And our goal is to quicken the day when we restart lending to the American people and American business, and end this crisis once and for all.


And I intend to hold these banks fully accountable for the assistance they receive, and this time, they will have to clearly demonstrate how taxpayer dollars result in more lending for the American taxpayer. (Applause.) This time -- this time, CEOs won't be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks, or buy fancy drapes, or disappear on a private jet. Those days are over. (Applause.)


Still, this plan will require significant resources from the federal government -- and, yes, probably more than we've already set aside. But while the cost of action will be great, I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade. That would be worse for our deficit, worse for business, worse for you, and worse for the next generation. And I refuse to let that happen. (Applause.)


Now, I understand that when the last administration asked this Congress to provide assistance for struggling banks, Democrats and Republicans alike were infuriated by the mismanagement and the results that followed. So were the American taxpayers. So was I. So I know how unpopular it is to be seen as helping banks right now, especially when everyone is suffering in part from their bad decisions. I promise you -- I get it.


But I also know that in a time of crisis, we cannot afford to govern out of anger, or yield to the politics of the moment. (Applause.) My job -- our job -- is to solve the problem. Our job is to govern with a sense of responsibility.

I will not send -- I will not spend a single penny for the purpose of rewarding a single Wall Street executive, but I will do whatever it takes to help the small business that can't pay its workers, or the family that has saved and still can't get a mortgage. (Applause.)


That's what this is about. It's not about helping banks -- it's about helping people. (Applause.) It's not about helping banks; it's about helping people. Because when credit is available again, that young family can finally buy a new home. And then some company will hire workers to build it.

And then those workers will have money to spend. And if they can get a loan, too, maybe they'll finally buy that car, or open their own business.

Investors will return to the market, and American families will see their retirement secured once more. Slowly, but surely, confidence will return, and our economy will recover. (Applause.)


So I ask this Congress to join me in doing whatever proves necessary. Because we cannot consign our nation to an open-ended recession. And to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never happens again, I ask Congress to move quickly on legislation that will finally reform our outdated regulatory system. (Applause.)

It is time -- it is time to put in place tough, new common-sense rules of the road so that our financial market rewards drive and innovation, and punishes short-cuts and abuse.


The recovery plan and the financial stability plan are the immediate steps we're taking to revive our economy in the short term. But the only way to fully restore America's economic strength is to make the long-term investments that will lead to new jobs, new industries, and a renewed ability to compete with the rest of the world. The only way this century will be another American century is if we confront at last the price of our dependence on oil and the high cost of health care; the schools that aren't preparing our children and the mountain of debt they stand to inherit. That is our responsibility.


In the next few days, I will submit a budget to Congress. So often, we've come to view these documents as simply numbers on a page or a laundry list of programs. I see this document differently. I see it as a vision for America -- as a blueprint for our future.


My budget does not attempt to solve every problem or address every issue. It reflects the stark reality of what we've inherited -- a trillion-dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.


Given these realities, everyone in this chamber -- Democrats and Republicans -- will have to sacrifice some worthy priorities for which there are no dollars. And that includes me.


But that does not mean we can afford to ignore our long-term challenges. I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves; that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity.


For history tells a different story. History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas. In the midst of civil war, we laid railroad tracks from one coast to another that spurred commerce and industry.

From the turmoil of the Industrial Revolution came a system of public high schools that prepared our citizens for a new age. In the wake of war and depression, the GI Bill sent a generation to college and created the largest middle class in history. (Applause.) And a twilight struggle for freedom led to a nation of highways, an American on the moon, and an explosion of technology that still shapes our world.


In each case, government didn't supplant private enterprise; it catalyzed private enterprise. It created the conditions for thousands of entrepreneurs and new businesses to adapt and to thrive.

We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril, and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again. That is why, even as it cuts back on programs we don't need, the budget I submit will invest in the three areas that are absolutely critical to our economic future: energy, health care, and education. (Applause.)

It begins with energy.

We know the country that harnesses the power of clean, renewable energy will lead the 21st century. And yet, it is China that has launched the largest effort in history to make their economy energy-efficient. We invented solar technology, but we've fallen behind countries like Germany and Japan in producing it. New plug-in hybrids roll off our assembly lines, but they will run on batteries made in Korea.


Well, I do not accept a future where the jobs and industries of tomorrow take root beyond our borders -- and I know you don't, either. It is time for America to lead again. (Applause.)


Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years. We've also made the largest investment in basic research funding in American history -- an investment that will spur not only new discoveries in energy, but breakthroughs in medicine and science and technology.


We will soon lay down thousands of miles of power lines that can carry new energy to cities and towns across this country. And we will put Americans to work making our homes and buildings more efficient so that we can save billions of dollars on our energy bills.


But to truly transform our economy, to protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy. So I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America. That's what we need. (Applause.)
And to support -- to support that innovation, we will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies like wind power and solar power, advanced biofuels, clean coal, and more efficient cars and trucks built right here in America. (Applause.)

Speaking of our auto industry, everyone recognizes that years of bad decision-making and a global recession have pushed our automakers to the brink. We should not, and will not, protect them from their own bad practices. But we are committed to the goal of a retooled, reimagined auto industry that can compete and win. Millions of jobs depend on it. Scores of communities depend on it. And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it. (Applause.)


None of this will come without cost, nor will it be easy. But this is America. We don't do what's easy. We do what's necessary to move this country forward.


And for that same reason, we must also address the crushing cost of health care.


This is a cost that now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds.



By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes. In the last eight years, premiums have grown four times faster than wages. And in each of these years, 1 million more Americans have lost their health insurance. It is one of the major reasons why small businesses close their doors and corporations ship jobs overseas. And it's one of the largest and fastest-growing parts of our budget.


Given these facts, we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold. We can't afford to do it. It's time. (Applause.)


Already, we've done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last 30 days than we've done in the last decade. When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for 11 million American children whose parents work full-time. (Applause.)


Our recovery plan will invest in electronic health records and new technology that will reduce errors, bring down costs, ensure privacy, and save lives. It will launch a new effort to conquer a disease that has touched the life of nearly every American, including me, by seeking a cure for cancer in our time. (Applause.) And -- and it makes the largest investment ever in preventive care, because that's one of the best ways to keep our people healthy and our costs under control.


This budget builds on these reforms. It includes a historic commitment to comprehensive health care reform -- a down payment on the principle that we must have quality, affordable health care for every American. (Applause.) It's a commitment -- it's a commitment that's paid for in part by efficiencies in our system that are long overdue. And it's a step we must take if we hope to bring down our deficit in the years to come.
Now, there will be many different opinions and ideas about how to achieve reform, and that's why I'm bringing together businesses and workers, doctors and health care providers, Democrats and Republicans to begin work on this issue next week.


I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. Once again, it will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and our conscience long enough. So let there be no doubt: Health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year. (Applause.)


The third challenge we must address is the urgent need to expand the promise of education in America.


In a global economy where the most valuable skill you can sell is your knowledge, a good education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity -- it is a prerequisite.


Right now, three-quarters of the fastest-growing occupations require more than a high school diploma. And yet, just over half of our citizens have that level of education. We have one of the highest high school dropout rates of any industrialized nation. And half of the students who begin college never finish.


This is a prescription for economic decline, because we know the countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow. That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education -- from the day they are born to the day they begin a career. (Applause.) That is a promise we have to make to the children of America. (Applause.)


Already, we've made an historic investment in education through the economic recovery plan. We've dramatically expanded early childhood education and will continue to improve its quality, because we know that the most formative learning comes in those first years of life. We've made college affordable for nearly seven million more students -- seven million. (Applause.) And we have provided the resources necessary to prevent painful cuts and teacher layoffs that would set back our children's progress.


But we know that our schools don't just need more resources. They need more reform. (Applause.) That is why this budget creates new teachers -- new incentives for teacher performance; pathways for advancement, and rewards for success. We'll invest in innovative programs that are already helping schools meet high standards and close achievement gaps. And we will expand our commitment to charter schools. (Applause.)


It is our responsibility as lawmakers and as educators to make this system work. But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it. So tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship. But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.


And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country -- and this country needs and values the talents of every American. (Applause.) That's why we will support -- we will provide the support necessary for all young Americans to complete college and meet a new goal: By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. That's is a goal we can meet. (Applause.) That's a goal we can meet.


Now, I know that the price of tuition is higher than ever, which is why if you are willing to volunteer in your neighborhood or give back to your community or serve your country, we will make sure that you can afford a higher education. (Applause.) And to encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations, I ask Congress to send me the bipartisan legislation that bears the name of Senator Orrin Hatch, as well as an American who has never stopped asking what he can do for his country -- Senator Edward Kennedy. (Applause.)


These education policies will open the doors of opportunity for our children. But it is up to us to ensure they walk through them. In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a parent -- for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, read to their child. (Applause.)


I speak to you not just as a President, but as a father, when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home. That is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. That's an American issue. (Applause.)


There is, of course, another responsibility we have to our children. And that's the responsibility to ensure that we do not pass on to them a debt they cannot pay. (Applause.) That is critical. I agree, absolutely. See, I know we can get some consensus in here. (Laughter.) With the deficit we inherited, the cost -- (applause) -- the cost of the crisis we face, and the long-term challenges we must meet, it has never been more important to ensure that as our economy recovers, we do what it takes to bring this deficit down. That is critical. (Applause.)


Now, I'm proud that we passed a recovery plan free of earmarks -- (applause) -- and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities.
And yesterday, I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office. My administration has also begun to go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs. As you can imagine, this is a process that will take some time. But we have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade. (Applause.)


In this budget -- in this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusiness that don't need them. (Applause.) We'll eliminate -- we'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq -- (applause) -- and reform -- and -- and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. (Applause.) We will -- we will root out -- we will root out the waste and fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier. We will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas. (Applause.)


In order to save our children from a future of debt, we will also end the tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans. (Applause.) Now, let me be clear -- let me be absolutely clear, because I know you'll end up hearing some of the same claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: If your family earns less than $250,000 a year -- a quarter million dollars a year -- you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: Not one single dime. (Applause.) Not a dime. In fact, the recovery plan provides a tax cut -- that's right, a tax cut -- for 95 percent of working families. And by the way, these checks are on the way. (Applause.)


Now, to preserve our long-term fiscal health, we must also address the growing costs in Medicare and Social Security. Comprehensive health care reform is the best way to strengthen Medicare for years to come. And we must also begin a conversation on how to do the same for Social Security, while creating tax-free universal savings accounts for all Americans. (Applause.)


Finally, because we're also suffering from a deficit of trust, I am committed to restoring a sense of honesty and accountability to our budget. That is why this budget looks ahead 10 years and accounts for spending that was left out under the old rules -- and for the first time, that includes the full cost of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Applause.)


For seven years, we have been a nation at war. No longer will we hide its price. (Applause.)
Along with our outstanding national security team, I'm now carefully reviewing our policies in both wars, and I will soon announce a way forward in Iraq that leaves Iraq to its people and responsibly ends this war. (Applause.)


And with our friends and allies, we will forge a new and comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat al Qaeda and combat extremism. Because I will not allow terrorists to plot against the American people from safe havens halfway around the world. We will not allow it. (Applause.)


As we meet here tonight, our men and women in uniform stand watch abroad and more are readying to deploy. To each and every one of them, and to the families who bear the quiet burden of their absence, Americans are united in sending one message: We honor your service, we are inspired by your sacrifice, and you have our unyielding support. (Applause.)
To relieve the strain on our forces, my budget increases the number of our soldiers and Marines. And to keep our sacred trust with those who serve, we will raise their pay, and give our veterans the expanded health care and benefits that they have earned. (Applause.)


To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend -- because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America. And that is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists. (Applause.)


Because living our values doesn't make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger. (Applause.) And that is why I can stand here tonight and say without exception or equivocation that the United States of America does not torture. We can make that commitment here tonight. (Applause.)


In words and deeds, we are showing the world that a new era of engagement has begun. For we know that America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. We cannot shun the negotiating table, nor ignore the foes or forces that could do us harm. We are instead called to move forward with the sense of confidence and candor that serious times demand.


To seek progress towards a secure and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbors, we have appointed an envoy to sustain our effort. To meet the challenges of the 21st century -- from terrorism to nuclear proliferation; from pandemic disease to cyber threats to crushing poverty -- we will strengthen old alliances, forge new ones, and use all elements of our national power.


And to respond to an economic crisis that is global in scope, we are working with the nations of the G20 to restore confidence in our financial system, avoid the possibility of escalating protectionism, and spur demand for American goods in markets across the globe. For the world depends on us having a strong economy, just as our economy depends on the strength of the world's.


As we stand at this crossroads of history, the eyes of all people in all nations are once again upon us -- watching to see what we do with this moment; waiting for us to lead.


Those of us gathered here tonight have been called to govern in extraordinary times. It is a tremendous burden, but also a great privilege -- one that has been entrusted to few generations of Americans. For in our hands lies the ability to shape our world for good or for ill.


I know that it's easy to lose sight of this truth -- to become cynical and doubtful; consumed with the petty and the trivial. But in my life, I have also learned that hope is found in unlikely places; that inspiration often comes not from those with the most power or celebrity, but from the dreams and aspirations of Americans who are anything but ordinary.
I think of Leonard Abess, a bank president from Miami who reportedly cashed out of his company, took a $60 million bonus, and gave it out to all 399 people who worked for him, plus another 72 who used to work for him. He didn't tell anyone, but when the local newspaper found out, he simply said, "I knew some of these people since I was seven years old. It didn't feel right getting the money myself." (Applause.)
I think about -- I think about Greensburg -- Greensburg, Kansas, a town that was completely destroyed by a tornado, but is being rebuilt by its residents as a global example of how clean energy can power an entire community -- how it can bring jobs and businesses to a place where piles of bricks and rubble once lay. "The tragedy was terrible," said one of the men who helped them rebuild. "But the folks here know that it also provided an incredible opportunity."
I think about Ty'Sheoma Bethea, the young girl from that school I visited in Dillon, South Carolina -- a place where the ceilings leak, the paint peels off the walls, and they have to stop teaching six times a day because the train barrels by their classroom. She had been told that her school is hopeless, but the other day after class she went to the public library and typed up a letter to the people sitting in this chamber. She even asked her principal for the money to buy a stamp. The letter asks us for help, and says, "We are just students trying to become lawyers, doctors, congressmen like yourself and one day president, so we can make a change to not just the state of South Carolina but also the world. We are not quitters." That's what she said. We are not quitters. Applause.)
These words -- these words and these stories tell us something about the spirit of the people who sent us here. They tell us that even in the most trying times, amid the most difficult circumstances, there is a generosity, a resilience, a decency, and a determination that perseveres; a willingness to take responsibility for our future and for posterity.


Their resolve must be our inspiration. Their concerns must be our cause. And we must show them and all our people that we are equal to the task before us. (Applause.)


I know -- look, I know that we haven't agreed on every issue thus far -- (laughter.) There are surely times in the future where we will part ways. But I also know that every American who is sitting here tonight loves this country and wants it to succeed. I know that. (Applause.) That must be the starting point for every debate we have in the coming months, and where we return after those debates are done. That is the foundation on which the American people expect us to build common ground.


And if we do -- if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, "something worthy to be remembered."
Thank you. God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. Thank you.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

WHO needs to find assistance - WHO is HOMELESS, here are some helpful links....

Homeless
Information by State Esta página en español Print version

Jump to...

If you are homeless

If you are a Homeless Assistance Provider

If you want to help the homeless

Other resources

Food stamps

Food bank locator

Domestic Violence

Help from the VA

Fair Housing protections

GovBenefits

Homelessness is a problem that affects many people in America. If you are homeless yourself and need help or if you want to learn more about homelessness and how you can help, we have information for you.

If You Are Homeless...

If you are homeless, help is available! HUD, along with many other federal agencies, funds programs to help the homeless. These programs are managed by local organizations that provide a range of services, including shelter, food, counseling, and jobs skills programs. So start by contacting a homeless assistance agency in your area.

Local homeless assistance

Housing counseling

Information for homeless veterans (HUDVet)
If You Are a Homeless Assistance Provider

HUD's Homeless Assistance programs

More on HUD's homeless assistance programs

Second Chance Homes

Interagency Council on Homelessness
If You Want to Help the Homeless...

Donate to your local food bank

State homeless assistance organizations

Kids can help the homeless
Other Resources...

Federal Definition of Homeless

Facts about homelessness

National Coalition for the Homeless

Family Promise

National Law Center on homelessness and poverty

National Low Income Housing Coalition

National Alliance to End Homelessness

Corporation for Supportive Housing

National Coalition for Homeless Vets

National Clearinghouse for Drug and Alcohol Information

National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness

Content current as of 28 September 2009

Saturday, February 14, 2009

"Bin there, done that"....this article struck me particulary hard because I remember doing all of this for 3 years myself....



Small service makes big difference on L.A.'s skid row


Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times


Supervisor Peggy Washington, 50, moves bins at the Central City East Assn.'s 20,000-square-foot warehouse, where the homeless have long stored their belongings. Audio Slideshow>>>




A warehouse where the homeless can keep their belongings is adjusting as more
families -- and even educated professionals -- seek aid. It's getting more bins
and may add a dressing area.
By Scott Gold February 6, 2009


The trappings of the lives of Krystle Marage and her three daughters are not unusual. There are hairbrushes and loofah sponges; Game Boys and skateboards; school books and Bibles; clothes, clothes and more clothes. These days, they have to fit it all inside four trash cans, which sit alongside 500 others in a dank warehouse, around the corner from a frozen fish distributor and a cheap hotel.


Marage, 46, grew up on a pig-and-chicken farm in Belize. The girls' father checked out long ago, she said. She's never had money, not in Belize, not in New York, where she immigrated in 1993, and not in L.A., where she arrived last year after friends convinced her there were jobs to be had. She's always made it, one way or another.


Map

Audio slideshow: Warehouse offers a...
Out There



Two weeks ago, luck ran out. Unable to find work and living on $359 a month in county general-relief assistance, Marage couldn't carry the rent on the one-bedroom space where they'd been staying in the South Park district, not far from Staples Center. She and her daughters landed on skid row.Marage, a devout Christian, is sure the devil is after her. Authorities offer a more temporal explanation. The economy, they say, has soured to the point that skid row's sad parade of junkies, drunks and the mentally ill is not only swelling, but is increasingly peppered with new faces.Many are new to homelessness. Some are educated professionals -- a few still carry briefcases -- and one, a few weeks back, was so confident that he was but a temporary visitor that he arrived clutching a pair of unused golf cleats. Long after it became city policy that skid row is no place for children, a jarring number of the newcomers are mothers and their children.

So, at the warehouse run by the nonprofit Central City East Assn., where the
homeless have long stored their belongings in trash cans that are gently
referred to as "bins," operators are contending with a clientele they've never
had before. The shift, they said, is subtle but real, and they are scrambling to
respond.Last weekend, they closed the warehouse several hours so they could
reconfigure and squeeze in more bins.


Managers hope to add 50 more, although that still won't meet the need, said the group's executive director, Estela Lopez. Bigger changes are expected in coming months. For instance, the warehouse has a rule prohibiting clients from changing clothes at the site. That no longer seems practical, not with mothers bringing their children in to fetch clothes for school. So operators are hoping to add a private dressing area.That move would come with complications unthinkable somewhere else. Skid row is home to a large concentration of sex offenders, and precautions would have to be taken. Also, many addicts in the area search each day for a secluded place to shoot up; warehouse supervisor Peggy Washington said she fears they might try to take advantage of a dressing room. "I don't need anybody dying here," she said.


Still, everyone agrees aggressive steps must be taken. "There are going to be
things we're going to have to talk about that we've never had to talk about
before," Lopez said.The other day, Krystle Marage sifted through her family's
bins. She and her daughters -- Mishanta, 14; Jay, 19; and Lilly, 21 -- stop in
at least twice a day to retrieve clothes, grab a bar of soap, even snag a pack
of Ramen noodles if they need a snack.

They've all memorized the numbers assigned to their bins: 194, 202, 287, 348.Marage stuffed plastic bags full of dirty clothes into the containers. Soon, she said, it would be laundry day. She rolled her eyes. "A momma's work," she said, "is never done."The association's warehouse, along with the district's missions, food banks and social services, is one of the things that make skid row work, in its own tragic way.


For the homeless, the most mundane steps of the day -- going to the bathroom,
finding a shower -- are tiring ordeals. It is particularly difficult for
homeless people to figure out what to do with their stuff. After a point, they
can't carry it with them, but if they leave it on the street, it'll be lost or
stolen. Even if, like Marage's family, they are staying at one of the area's
missions, most facilities limit the belongings that can be brought in and offer
no storage space.

That's where Central City East's warehouse comes in, taking care, as Lopez puts it, "of one tiny aspect of an enormous conundrum."In 2002, the warehouse was born of tension on the streets, when merchants became concerned about homeless people leaving bedrolls and shopping carts in front of their businesses. A local developer and association board member, Richard Meruelo, donated the warehouse, which is financed by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority and local business improvement districts.


The bins are popular. As long as clients renew them once a week, they can keep
them in perpetuity, and many do. Only a handful of empty containers open up each
day, and people routinely wait all night to try to qualify for one. Shortly
before dawn each day, workers distribute scraps of paper -- "#1," "#2," "#3" --
identifying the hopefuls who were first in line.

Clients keep an astonishing array of items at the warehouse. Some are predictable: blankets for colder nights, rolls of toilet paper, umbrellas. Some are more surprising. One man, wearing a jacket with the words "God Bless America" on it, sifted recently through the personal library he stores in his bin, including Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth" and Alexandre Dumas' "The King of Romance.""I don't know what I'd do without this place," said Rick Cuthbertson, 52, a former plumber and electrician who is unemployed and on the streets. "I would've given up. I would've committed suicide." He is not being hyperbolic; a diagnosed schizophrenic, Cuthbertson said he becomes suicidal without his pills, which he stores in his bin.Last year, the clientele began to change.


A couple living on the sidewalk asked for a bin after having a child. The
warehouse is strict about providing just one bin per client, but another woman
soon asked for an extra; she was having trouble fitting in her daughter's school
clothes. "These were people who did not belong here," Washington said.

Two weeks ago, Marage walked through the door. She asked a worker for four bins -- one for herself, one for each girl. She'd been looking for work for months, Marage said -- as a nanny, an office cleaner, you name it. Her youngest daughter attends Compton High School, but her older daughters had been looking for work too. Nothing. Never did they think they'd wind up here, she said. They just ran out of money and had nowhere to turn."We tried to avoid it as long as possible. But bad things happen, and it can happen to anybody," she said. "The things we see here . . . it hurts. And it hurts to know that we're in the same boat as everybody else down here."The future is bright, she said; she remains convinced of that. "The Lord said: 'Ain't nothing too tough for me,' " she said. "All around here, you see people falling apart, and I can't afford to fall apart."


Still, the transition has been tough on them all. They often have to walk to two
different missions to fill up on dinner; that practice is frowned upon, but some
missions, hurting financially like everyone else, have begun scaling back their
meal portions.The experience has been especially hard on Mishanta, the youngest,
who hasn't been talking much lately, though she periodically tells her mother:
"I can't take it anymore."Mishy, as her sisters call her, is a talented artist.

This week, a friend at school gave her an early birthday present, a clock
decorated with Japanese-style anime characters.It was supposed to go on the
wall, but Mishy has nowhere to hang it. So she put it in her bin, No. 287. It's
still in there, hidden away in a room that never seems to get warm, under
roosting pigeons and yellowing rolls of flypaper.scott.gold@latimes.com

HOWEVER, HERE'S SOME GOOD NEWS I LEARNED FROM ANOTHER WEB-SITE/BLOGGER WHO POSTED THIS INFORMATION TODAY:

$1.5 billion for short-term rental assistance, housing relocation, and stabilization services for families who may become homeless due to the economic crisis.

Funds will be distributed to states, cities, and local governments through the Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) formula.

From the Las Vegas Sun..after reading this, I'm wondering if they'd throw out Jesus and his dedicated '12'...maximum number allowed were 10....


Homeless in Serene Country Estates prompt action from city
By Jeremy Twitchell
Fri, Feb 13, 2009 (6:27 p.m.)
Read the memo


Last year's discovery that two homes in Serene Country Estates were housing
several homeless people has prompted Henderson to draw up a new ordinance that
would prevent the practice.


The new zoning ordinance, which would redefine the number of occupants allowed in a single-family home, received a unanimously favorable recommendation Thursday night from the Planning Commission. It is scheduled to go before the City Council March 3.


After residents in Serene Country Estates complained in June about what was happening in the two homes, city attorneys reviewed Henderson's single-family housing ordinance and determined that it was problematic, because it allows up
to 10 unrelated people to live together in a single-family home.


"After researching the law in this area, it is my opinion that our ordinance can and should be amended in order to provide that a group of people living in the same household must function as at least a functional family unit, such that transient people living together merely as a result of a government program would not qualify as living in a single-family residence," Assistant City Attorney Ron Sailon wrote in a memo to the city's Community Development Department.


The ordinance being considered would require the residents of a single-family
residence to meet the city's definition of a "family unit," which could be one
of three definitions: any number of related people and no more than two
unrelated persons; four unrelated people; or two unrelated people and any minor
children related to either of them.

In the two homes in Serene Country Estates, homeless individuals were placed by a property management company, which found them on the street and took them to Clark County Social Services to apply for a rental voucher. If approved, the individuals were put up in the homes for up to three months while they looked for work and permanent lodgings.


The practice was legal because of the way the ordinance is written, but it
raised concerns among city officials after some Serene Country Estates residents
complained that they were being confronted and threatened by the occupants of
the two homes.


In his memo, Sailon wrote that, while cities aren't allowed to define family units as traditional nuclear families, the courts have upheld their efforts to uphold family environments by limiting single-family homes to stable groups.


"This suggested definition of a family unit promotes a sense of community, sanctity of family, quiet and peaceful neighborhoods, low population, limited
congestion of motor vehicles and controlled transiency," Sailon wrote. "These
are valid zoning objectives."


The ordinance would preclude "any society, club, fraternity, sorority, lodge, organization or group where people come and go on a transient basis or where the relationship is merely based on a commercial basis" from residing in a single-family home.



Jeremy Twitchell can be reached at 990-8928 or jeremy.twitchell@hbcpub.com.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Get on the bus, Gus - President Obama is driving...


I should say, I do trust the driver.........

Monday, February 2, 2009

Okay, nothing on GOOGLE is working correctly right now - so, I 'takes what I gets'....later.........

Sadly, this happened about 45 minutes from where we live...it pretty much occupied my mind these past couple days...........

Officials to release 1st findings in bus crash

by Megan Boehnke - Feb. 2, 2009 12:00 AMThe Arizona Republic

Federal investigators are expected to release parts of their investigation in a news briefing today after spending the weekend examining a mangled tour bus that crashed Friday in northwestern Arizona, killing seven people.

A six-member team from the National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday surveyed the crash site on U.S. 93 near Dolan Springs, taking measurements and looking for markings and imprints that may offer insight into what happened when the driver lost control of the bus Friday afternoon.

The team went on to Kingman, where the bus had been towed, to examine its tires, brakes and steering system, checking for mechanical problems.

"All these are clues to tell the story of how this accident occurred," said Peter Knudson, an NTSB spokesman.

Along with the fatalities, 11 people were injured when the bus filled with Chinese tourists veered right and then left, rolling into southbound lanes.
The group was heading back to Las Vegas from a day trip to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.


Officials are waiting to release the names of the deceased until the Chinese Consulate can make next-of-kin notifications. The dead have been taken to the Clark County Medical Examiner's Office in Las Vegas.

The NTSB, which is working with the Department of Public Safety, is expected to release some of its findings at a briefing at midday today, Knudson said.

The team members are staying in Henderson, Nev., about 70 miles north of the crash site, and are likely to hold the news conference there.
The team is expected to be on the scene for five to seven days before returning to Washington, where the full investigation will take 12 to 18 months.


"One of the things we're concerned about is crash-worthiness issues," Knudson said. "How or why did seven people die in the type of accident and what can we learn from this, and how can the safety of these types of vehicles be improved?"

The investigators will also be talking with passengers and the bus driver soon, Knudson said. Survivors were continuing to recover at hospitals in Kingman and Las Vegas, including the bus driver, who is 48. He was upgraded from serious to fair condition at University Medical Center.

Also at UMC, two women, 35 and 40 years old, remain in critical condition, and an 8-year-old boy was discharged from the hospital Sunday.

A 61-year-old man was upgraded from serious to fair condition, according to a recorded media hotline.

The only fatality that did not occur at the scene was that of a man about 50, who died about 5:30 p.m. on Friday at UMC.

At the Kingman Regional Medical Center, a 41-year-old woman was in good condition Sunday, recovering from surgery the day before
.
A spokesman said she was likely to be released by the middle of the week.
At Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas, an 18-year-old woman and a 57-year-old man were upgraded to fair condition on Sunday.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

We can thank the many women WHO have helped our gender find a 'new-age' freedom....

I'm glad Ron's not a 'ditto head' either. Ron has told me of his trials and difficulties during the time he decided to let his friends and family know he is gay. He wondered WHO would continue to call him 'friend' after this revelation.
I'm wondering WHO is not celebrating the fact our nation
finally got past the 'color barrier', and helped elect our new president - I
choke up every time I hear him speak; see his face, and almost pinch myself to
remind me this is not a dream.
I wanted to share the history of this woman WHO helped 'blaze' a trail for
free-thinkers to follow. Free thinking leads to freedom; no one has to
take the 'guilt trip' ; I suggest you 'get off the bus, Gus, and set yourself
free'....

Frances Wright
In 1795, Frances Wright, the first woman to publicly lecture
in the United States, was born an heiress in Scotland.
An arresting five feet, ten inches as an adult, Wright
influenced fashion of her day with her liberating style of ringlets, and later
her adoption of "Turkish trousers." She traveled with her younger sister Camilla
to America in 1818.
In 1819, her play, "Altorf," was staged to acclaim in New York, where she shocked society by using her byline as a female author.
Her travel book, Views of Society & Manners in America,
(1820), caused a sensation in Great Britain and abroad. Freethinker Jeremy Bentham
became her mentor and General Lafayette her confidante.
Returning at 29 to America, Frances became a U.S. citizen. As
an early and passionate abolitionist, she began a noble but ill-fated model
communal plantation to educate slaves for freedom at Nashoba, Tenn. They would
have no religion but "kind feeling and kind action," Wright decreed. The
experiment unraveled for lack of money.

At 34, Wright launched her speaking career on July 4, 1828, in Cincinnati, seeking to "destroy the slavery of the mind," and counteract the effects of a religious revival on women, as well as the Christian Party in Politics movement. Wright called for the education of women and the rejection of religion.
Her historic speaking tour won her adoration from progressives, such as the young Walt Whitman, who recalled how "we all loved her: fell down about her." But press and clergy dubbed Wright "The Red Harlot of Infidelity," and a "voluptuous preacher of licentiousness." Wright urged:
"Turn your churches into halls of science, exchange your teachers of
faith for expounders of nature . . . Fill the vaccuum of your mind!"
Practicing what she preached, she purchased an old church in New York City for $7,000 and renamed it the "Hall of Science." It opened its doors in April 1829, for lectures, a radical bookstore and at one time offered a health clinic. She and Robert Dale Owen launched the Free Enquirer, and the Working Men's Party, advocating a ten-hour workday, for which she was dubbed a "female Tom Paine" by the mayor of New York.

After an unsuccessful marriage to a Frenchman, Phiquepal D'Arusmont, resulting
in the birth of a daughter, Frances Sylva, Wright returned to the United States,
where she lectured and wrote.

When Wright divorced her husband, she tragically
lost custody of her daughter. She broke her hip in a fall and died prematurely
after great suffering in Cincinnati.

The women's movement of the 19th century
later lionized her as a path-blazer of unparalleled brilliance. D. 1852.

Monday, January 26, 2009

WHO'S HELPING THE HOMELESS? Here are a few agencies WHO are.....

Helping the homeless in ARIZONA - here's information, if you want to give a hand to people in the Mesa, AZ area:
Among the agencies partnering with the City of Mesa for the East Valley Project Homeless Connect are the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles, Maricopa Association of Governments, Save the Family Foundation of Arizona, A New Leaf, East Valley Men's Center, Valley of the Sun United Way, Mesa United Way, Central Christian Church and City of Grace Church.
To volunteer or donate items, contact Wilson at (480) 644-5831.
In addition to Cliff's blog (read his post; and see the link to his blog below), you can also learn more about the plight of the homeless WHO do need our help; understanding, and tolerance.
More-over, we must NOT assume these individuals are without resource because
they lack ambition; drive, or missing in intelligence and self-esteem. I met
some of the wonderful former 'professionals'; even a couple nurses; talented
artists as well as writers and solid hard-working citizens while I was homeless.
Real people - caught by circumstances - so many, I don't need to detail them
here.
I just want to leave this link for anyone who wants to get involved as I did - before I became homeless; while I was homeless, and after I found my way back to the comforts of having a roof over my head.
Now, let's talk about the 'man' in my state of Nevada, who's diligently working on behalf of those who have no place to call 'home'....there will probably be more of them as the economy continues to cause others to lose what they've worked so hard to obtain.
Here's his latest post:
How You Can Help the Homeless in Your Own Community
Become Part of the RIVER Organization Worldwide.
Join Us as We Help the Homeless in Our Own Communities
Worldwide.
This is a list of the small things you can do in your own community to help the homeless. This will be a continued series of How-To articles, Tips and Dos and Don’ts an individual or small group can do in order to participate in a humanitarian cause to help the homeless who have no shelter in your area.

Over a long period of time, we will add articles and suggestions, some short and
some long, which will greatly benefit you as an individual or small group in
helping the homeless in your own community.

Your investment in time and money will generally be small, but the impact you will make on the homeless in your own area will be great. We will group these articles in a sidebar element on the right side of this page for easy future references. It will be listed under the title of: RIVER Organization Worldwide: Helping the Homeless Series.Tips on Helping the HomelessHow You Can Help the HomelessFor Only a Few Dollars in Your Own Community

There are three essential winter needs of the homeless in addition to food and
other survival needs which are generally obtained at larger organizational
gatherings.

These three things are knit hats, gloves and socks. For only a few dollars, you as an individual can help supply these vital goods to the homeless in your own community.

The RIVER Organization continuously supplies the homeless in Las Vegas, Nevada
with these three major articles, among other supplies. The homeless who are
exposed to the elements and/or who are without adequate shelter need these three
things in order to survive on the streets.

You can do the same in your own community as we do here in Las Vegas.Using our system you can be sure that every penny of every dollar you ever spend on your charity to help the homeless will go one-hundred percent to the cause. You need not worry about some organization milking a large percentage of your donated dollars off the top for extreme administrational fees. But you and/or your friends will yourselves be the volunteers distributing the goods directly to the needy homeless on the streets in your community.

No Question, Your Money Will Get To The Source—The Homeless.Wal-Mart sells men’s
knit hats for only one dollar each. Women’s knit hats and ski bands sell for
slightly more, usually around $1.40 each. The knit “cuff” hat is the kind of
knit hat which is perhaps the best to purchase for both male and female. Some
women prefer the ski band to keep their ears warm rather than hats. So, pickup a
few of the ski bands of various colors as well.Jersey gloves can be purchased in
bundles of about six pair for around five dollars. That is less than one dollar
per pair. Jersey gloves are brown cotton gloves that will protect the hands
against the elements and yet allow fair freedom of movement of the
fingers.Women’s knit gloves can be purchased at Wal-Mart for around one dollar
to $1.40 each. You can find matching knit hats and gloves for women.A package of
six men’s white cotton crew socks can be purchased for as little as $4.00 per
package. Again, that is less than one dollar per pair. Size 10-13 is perhaps the
most popular size needed for most men.


Stimulate the Economy

So, for less than three dollars on average, for each homeless person you serve, you can provide one winter knit hat, a pair of gloves, and a pair of new, clean socks.

For around thirty dollars, you can supply ten homeless street persons with essential winter gear.

For around fifty dollars, you can supply approximately 16 homeless people with these same articles.

That’s not much money compared to the impact you will make on the lives of homeless street people in your area.

We carry a supply of a variety of colors, especially for women, and let the homeless choose which colors they like best while we are on our supply missions.

Dark or navy blue is the most common color of knit hats preferred by men.

Not all homeless people will need all three items at one time. Some may only need socks, while others may need just a knit hat or gloves.

By working on a small scale in your own community with a limited number of homeless people you can do your part in a great humanitarian effort.

These Big Three; knit hats, gloves and socks are the most commonly needed articles of the homeless who are living on the streets without shelter and who are exposed to the elements. These items are most easily attainable at your local Wal-Mart store or other discount stores at affordable prices. For only a few dollars almost anyone with a caring heart can become a Good Samaritan the RIVER Organization way.

You can be a Good Neighbor as explained by Jesus in the parable found in the Gospel of Luke. The kindness you show toward your needy brothers and sisters will be rewarded to you by many folds.

Start SmallStart small and service only a few homeless people at a time until you become familiar with the habits and routine of the homeless people on the streets in your area.

Perhaps you can take a drive around your community or take a bus in order to locate the area small groups of homeless people can be found at.

Many nonprofit organizations, churches and so-called shelters provide these things to the homeless who line up to receive them in groups.

But many homeless people are often left out since they may miss these group distributions or they don’t go to them for a variety of reasons. Those are the ones you need to serve as we do.

The homeless people who remain away from the larger groups and shelters.

Your acting as an individual, or a small group, can cover the needs of those homeless persons who need these supplies the most. That is those who stay alone or in small groups on the streets away from popular homeless destinations.

Tips: Give out only one or one pair of each of these three items to each homeless person.

Don’t rely on a homeless person to pass out bundles or packages of these articles to other homeless persons. They may or they may not honestly distribute these items to other homeless people.

Some homeless people would hoard them; others would sell them to the needy instead of distributing the articles free of charge as you had planned for them to do.

You want to remain in control and assure your efforts are being beneficial as you intended them to be, that is, for as many as possible needy homeless persons receiving your donated gifts of winter survival gear.

Socks are crucial year round. If you can do nothing more than to pass out individual pairs of clean, new socks, you will fulfill a critical need. You could possibly do this year round on a regular basis, perhaps once or twice per week if you could find the time and money to do so.After a rain storm or snow storm socks are crucial.

Homeless people often get wet feet due to being out in the elements and exposed to inclement weather conditions, often with poor footwear. A change of socks after such wet conditions can be extremely comforting to the homeless. Also, homeless people often travel great distances on foot each day and often can not remove their shoes for days upon end. The need for fresh, clean socks can not be over emphasized.


Meet & Greet

There is a great need for a regular, even fulltime distribution of this single item--clean, new socks—year-round. Socks are so important in wet weather or dry that we list this as the single most import item needed by the homeless after food. One person or one small group of people could keep a large number of homeless citizens in constant supply of socks for little expenditure.

Become the Sock Lady or the Sock Man in your area and you will become friends of
the homeless. For only about $20 you can supply about 24 homeless persons each
with a pair of clean new socks.
With $40 you could supply about 48 people and so forth. Doing so would be a
great opportunity to see the benefits of the fruits of your labor producing good
fruits before your own eyes on the streets of your hometown.The homeless,
particularly those living outside of shelters, are unlikely to laundry their
clothing.

So, consider what you give them to be disposable and in constant need.Ask the homeless person if he or she needs a knit hat?

Don’t just give one to them. Most homeless people are honest and will only take what they truly need. But ask if they need something before just giving them something. There is often more humanity on the streets than there is in the greater of society.

Do you need gloves? Do you need socks?

If they say yes, give them what they need, one pair only at a time. Then God Bless them and move on to the next homeless individual.

If you don’t carry money with you while on these supply missions, you won’t need to lie if a homeless person asks you for money in addition to your supplying winter survival gear.

It is your choice rather or not you provide money as well, but if others see you passing out money then you need to be prepared to have many asking for your money.


Make A Friend

Don’t try to make friends too quickly. It takes time to establish their trust
in you. Appear with their needs, smile when they thank you, wish them luck and
God Bless them and then move on.

There will be time to build a bond later.

Don’t expect flowers on your first date. Don’t ask for prayers. And don’t try to be demanding in anything in return. That is not your mission.

Your mission is to deliver your goods which help the homeless, not to take a
photo shoot of you helping the homeless to show off to your friends.

Homeless people are sensitive to those who seem to want something in return.You can advance your individual friendship later, after you have had several meetings from distributing needed goods to your many homeless friends.

Once they have become acquainted with you and you with them, on a first name basis, you can expand your friendliness. But until then, don’t get too friendly, too quickly, unless of course they want you to by their inviting you to stay and talk with them.


It Takes Time To Make A Friend

Sometimes nothing is more important to the homeless than having a friend who
truly cares about them. But you need to be aware that not all homeless people
care about having a friend.

Society hasn’t always been kind to them, and they are not always kind back to society. They are often skeptical and cautious of whom they get comfortable with at least until they get to know them well enough to trust them. And, that comes from frequent, low-profile visits.

Don’t go into an area where there are more homeless people than you have
supplies for. You can only serve so many, so stay within those limits. Find
individual homeless people or small groups of them that you can adequately
service without leaving someone out. These people have been left out of our
society often, for some their entire lives and nothing makes a homeless person
more lonely or feeling rejected than he already was than providers telling them,
“I have nothing left for you, sorry!"

Be smart. Use a good plan for your distributing methods. With practice and in time you will be knowledgeable on how to be efficient as well as being a good provider.

Suggestions:

You may consider working in small groups with friends, such as members from your own neighborhood, employment, schools or colleges, club, church or some other group and taking turns to establish a “route” to supply the homeless with inexpensive items of needs. If you are able to, perhaps you and a couple of your friends can distribute such goods on a particular time and day of the week and another set of your friends could distribute on alternative times and days of the week.

Rather you make a single run only to set your good deeds in place or rather you
make this a weekly routine, is up to you and your ability to provide.
For safety sake travel in pairs or small groups of threes or fours and service a
small number of homeless individuals at a time rather than the larger numbers
congregated in large groups near shelters or parks and so forth.
You can service these larger groups, but you need more money for products and
more articles than we list here and you need more volunteers in helping you.If
you decide to make this a continuing project, eventually you will become
familiar with the many homeless persons you serve and you will become friends.

Communicating with others will help determine the needs of the homeless community in your area so there is less duplication and more distribution of a variety of needed items.We will cover other ideas in subsequent articles which will be grouped in this series.

Some of the most needed items in addition to the Big Three listed here, and the
standard survival products such as food and heavy winter clothing are; chap
lipstick, under arm deodorant, tooth paste and tooth brushes, Oral Analgesic
Gel, shavers, meal gift cards, calling cards and much more.

Snacks can also be a warm welcome to the homeless. Snacks help take the edge off of being on the streets.

While We Work in Our Community, You Can Work in Yours
We will teach you how to gather, package and
distribute many of these things you supply to the homeless in future articles as
you join the RIVER Organization Worldwide to help your homeless brothers and
sisters in your own community on a small scale.

But before you set out to do some of these additional things on your own, let us give you some thoughts to consider. After all, if we are going to teach you, let us teach you properly.

Quickly Touching Upon Some Other Needs

Under arm deodorant and similar hygiene supplies can be found at Wal-Mart and
other pharmacies in the travel-supply section at around one dollar each. In
fact, most of the items we will suggest only cost around one dollar each.

Chap lipstick sells for less than one dollar as do many of the things we will suggest.

We will go into more detail in subsequent articles on these other products, but
touching briefly here we want to inform you that not all good intentions bear
good fruit.

Stay away from using the cheapest stuff you can find like the larger organizations and groups use. They really do a disservice to the homeless unintentionally. For example for the underarm deodorant commonly passed out now is an item distributed in packets which upon opening and using is messy and terribly uncomfortable to use. They also break inside a backpack if punctured and make a horrendous mess.

He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother

Travel-size deodorant can be found in pharmacy sections of stores for around a dollar or so slightly more.

Right Guard and other brands make an anti-perspiration deodorant in a 0.6 oz container.

Even Old Spice High Endurance long-lasting stick deodorant in 3.25 oz containers
cost only a couple of bucks but can last a long time for a street person’s use,
providing more dollar for dollar usage than the cheap stuff.


Those Cheap Little Blue Shavers Are Killers

Another item which causes great discomfort to the homeless yet is widely distributed by shelters, churches and other larger groups helping the homeless are those little blue disposable razors or shavers. This is yet another example of a disservice to the homeless unintentionally made by caring groups. The reason is these blue shavers are so cheap larger organizations buy them in bulk thinking they are doing a favor to the homeless.

Only the homeless, who shave daily, or perhaps hourly, can benefit from this
kind of junk. Most homeless men can not shave this frequently. Use them yourself
if you think they are so terrific. No pun intended.

Don't Be Cruel
Most homeless men go for days without shaving. This is also why so many homeless men grow a beard, so they don’t need to deal with shaving with inferior shavers. You must always remember homeless men go for days without shaving. When they use one of these cheap blue shavers they cut and nick themselves leaving the possibility of infections in open wounds, not to mention the discomfort.

Good intentions often end with bad results simply because no one is monitoring
the situation at the street level, which is the outreach level.


Do Onto Others As You Would Wish Them Do Onto You

Purchase instead triple blade shavers such as Bic Comfort 3 Advance instead of
passing out those cheap blue ones. A package of four shavers normally cost five
dollars and change, or for around slightly more than $1.25 each.

But the homeless man can gain multiple shaves from the one razor. The per-shave cost is actually less than those disposable blue shavers. Most homeless men for the absent of a wash room or shelter, dry shave. Meaning they do not use shaving cream. This is because they often do not have access to shaving cream or wash rooms unless they are in a shelter. If they are in a shelter, the triple-blade razors are still superior to use. A single shaver can last for several weeks and still perform a better shave more often than those inferior, cheap blue ones.

Provide tooth picks with the razor.
The tooth picks will help them clean the clogged shavers. Tell them what the
tooth picks are for, so that you don’t get a funny look in return.

Even with the triple-blade shavers, when homeless men don’t shave for days, the blades clog up quickly. The Bic Comfort 3 Advance Triple-Blade Shaver will be a much appreciated gift for your male homeless friends.And, you can be proud you loved your neighbor as you loved yourself.


Start With The Basics

Start with the big three, knit hats, jersey gloves or women’s gloves and socks. Then later, after you have serviced the most needed items, we can add other low-cost goods which will benefit the homeless citizens in your community.

Do onto others as you would wish them do onto you. I’m not advocating being
wasteful, I am advocating being prudent.
Hobo’s JukeBoxHollies: He Ain't Heavy, He's
My Brother

Neil
Diamond: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Subsequent articles will explain how
to approach the homeless, what to say and what not to say and so forth as time
allows us to publish the tips for this series. There will be many things you can
do for only a few dollars and with just a little time spent on your behalf.
Your heart will be warmed and so will those unfortunate ones you serve. Until
then, God Bless You for your efforts for doing your small part in your community
to help the homeless citizens on the streets in your hometown.

Keep in touch with us by telling us your experiences by making comments on our blogs or emailing us. RIVER Organization Worldwide is something anyone can participate in at no cost other than directly helping the homeless in their own area simply by utilizing the ideas and suggestions we set forth herein.

As Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of the life.” John 8:12Jesus also said, “This
is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” John 15:12

In Christ

Cliff Harrison

Sunday, January 25, 2009

WHO REMINDS US OF HOW THEY COPED WITH THE GREAT DEPRESSION....

Nope, certainly not this beautiful lady who's representing a country and time when most were 'sorely oppressed'; building pyramids - dying for the likes of the ruling class.
How about these people; I was taken by their memories and advice - let's count just a few here:
Leroy Green from Kalamazoo, Michigan - now 92 years old; a black man says:
He charged a nickel to pull people in his red wagon across a flooded Chicago street.
His favorite past-time was to watch the planes at Midway Airport in Chicago.
He dug ditches; earned $27/month while his white co-workers earned $55/month.
He saved his money; with his siblings, they opened a drug store, and prospered. He moved to Michigan and was the first African-American to own a Spartan grocery store.
Next we have John Pahl who now is retired in Allegan, Michigan
His father died when John was 12 - he became the man of the house and provider.
He worked two and three jobs.
In his home where he spoke of the years he spent working long hours, there was the smell of extinguished firewood; cobwebs could be seen on the aging lampshades - a porcelain bald eagle hung from the wall.
He says he lied about his age to get a job spraying water on residential streets around Allegan to keep the dust down, and was paid $2.50/week.
He worked week-ends in a grocery store for ten cents and hour.
In the summers, he picked fruit for a penny a pound.
His family rented their home for $8.00/month.
They grew vegetables and sold them in front of their home.
Marian Johnson - Kalamazoo, Michigan
In 1933 her family was nearly wiped out by the measles. Her parents and four of her siblings were stricken with pneumonia; a young doctor from Paw Paw, Michigan came daily to care for them and never charged one penny.
They sold vegetables they grew on their farm; grapes grew along the fence-rows, so they sold them too - they survived until their farm was foreclosed on in 1936. They rented a small house; moved 6 times - always looking for cheaper rent.
"We stuck together as a family unit; loved each other, and managed", she says.
Martha Bell - Otsego, Michigan
She felt the shame as her family had to sell their furniture and other goods just to pay bills and keep a roof over their heads.
They moved to Illinois so her step-father could take a job as a policeman - they were able to eat and finally lived under their own roof when he procured a small loan to put the down-payment on their home.
They housed her grand-parents; an aunt - an uncle, and all took jobs to pitch in to pay the bills.
Her mom made their clothes; meals were cooked on an oil-fired stove. They would buy half a beef because they could get a better price per pound. Her mother would then keep the livers, hearts, and tails - the rest of the meat her mother would prepare in 1 to 2 pound packages; wrap in newspaper with string, and the kids would sell the better cuts of beef to neighbors and go door-to-door until they'd sold all of the meat for a price that was ten cents per pound more than her step-dad had paid for it.
She says, "Times were tough but we learned to do without; we learned to do with less, and sacrifice can be good because it teaches you the real values in life."
.....I thought this something that was truly worthwhile, and wanted to share.....

Monday, January 19, 2009

WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE THEY? THEY COULD BE 'YOU'....


I live in Southern, Nevada; have been involved with charities and homeless people since 1992 (pretty actively) - before 1992, periodically. These are the statistics in 'our state'.

As a new year 'dawns', consider finding out about WHO needs your help; time - volunteer, etc., because 'you could end up the who' that no longer has a home to call your own....

Southern Nevada’s Homeless Crisis
Southern Nevada is currently spending over $25 million annually on shelter, healthcare and other stopgap services for the homeless. Yet we still have over 14,500 homeless men, women and children in our valley.

Did you know that?

Doing nothing costs something?

Studies in New York and Philadelphia showed that the average person who was chronically homeless accessed over $40,000 per year in public services.
In San Diego, the costs were as high as $200,000 over 18 months. The details of these costs can be found at the US Interagency Council on Homelessness website (http://www.ich.gov/).
These same startling costs are true for Southern Nevada's chronically homeless.

A monthly stay in emergency shelter costs $300; the typical stay is six months or $1,800.

One night in jail costs $106 per arrest. It would not be unusual for four arrests and bookings to occur per year at a cost of $424.

Emergency room visits cost an average of $3,722.

Homeless individuals average two visits per year at $7,444 per homeless person. An average transport by ambulance costs $214.15.

The average hospital stay is three days at an average cost of $4,440. Those who only access healthcare through the emergency room do not receive follow-up care or services beyond immediate intervention, making them more likely to return to the hospital in the future.

It can happen to anyone! Many hard-working people have become homeless because they have lost their job or had a healthcare crisis.


Approximately, 60% of all workers work in service or retail trade.


Unfortunately for many of these workers, their income does not allow them to meet their basic needs without government assistance. Many can’t afford housing, health care, child care or health insurance.


There are many faces of homelessness - families with children are among the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.


50% of the homeless in Southern Nevada are families with children.Of our homeless population…


16% are employed but cannot afford housing.


25% of our homeless are veterans.


67% have lived in Southern Nevada for less than a year.


73% have a high school education or higher.


31% have a disabling condition.

On average, each night, 331 unaccompanied homeless youth are sleeping on the streets or on friend’s couches. In the '05-'06 school year, Clark County School District reports that there are over 3,700 homeless children enrolled in school. One size does not fit all when helping the homeless.


There are as many reasons for homelessness as there are homeless individuals and families. Because of this, there are that many differing programs needs.Because each individual and family comes with their own unique needs and circumstances, it is necessary to have a diverse service delivery system that includes:


Aggressive outreach to those living on the streets and/or in shelters that would otherwise not seek assistance.


Clinical assessment and referral for medical treatment of physical and psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse.


Long term transitional residential assistance, case management and rehabilitation.


Employment assistance and linkage with available income supports and permanent housing.

Homelessness affects you and you can affect homelessness. Over 14,000 of our neighbors in Southern Nevada live on the streets, under bridges, in alleyways, in the desert, on rooftops, in cars or in shelters... This is not acceptable. We need to make sure that there are opportunities for everyone to be a part of this great community and contribute.


In my opinion, one of the FIRST WAYS to reduce the COSTS to the STATE OF NEVADA, is for hospitals of eliminate the charges for those hospital stays, and WRITE IT OFF TO CHARITY (they've got enough profit to use this simple accounting method to reduce their federal obligation to the IRS since Nevada has NO STATE TAX).


The same could apply to the ambulance services.
Case-in-point: When I nearly died in a car accident in 2002, the helicopter
service to fly me from Bullhead City, Arizona to Las Vegas for surgery, was
billed at $10,000 while the cost to tour the Grand Canyon (departing from Las
Vegas) was $550! Think of that - nearly 20 times cheaper to make that vacation
special by sight-seeing over the Grand Canyon - a distance that was 3 times
FURTHER, but they operate as a 'profit center', and keep the prices at $550.


Granted, more people are taking helicopters over the Grand Canyon than are being flown to a Las Vegas hospital because of a critical injury, so I understand the cost should have been higher, but surely not $10,000!


I'm not homeless now, and I have insurance so you can see just how a person who is living with a roof over their head; who is 'insured', is being billed an outrageous price while the homeless are being 'billed' and they should come in at 'no charge' as far as I see it.


I believe every single entity that is assessing a fee or charge against a homeless person, should move it into the 'charitable contribution column' of their year-end tax report, and this would remove some of the high cost to the state of Nevada (or any state for that matter).


The many casinos in Las Vegas offer succulent buffets; food that is later thrown out - it could feed the entire homeless community, and all any casino would have to do is have a legal disclaimer drafted by their attorney, to eliminate any back-lash should there be a complaint of illness following eating this food that sometimes is never even touched by the customers who've already paid for it!


We know that not only is the cost of food up-charged to cover over-head; personnel wages, and the like, but for the WASTE - the waste no longer would be 'wasted'; hungry people would be fed, and the law can provide for appropriate verbiage in any contractural agreement that could be made with the various shelters and food or soup kitchens, to stop any potential law-suit or claims that might not be valid. Frankly, I don't think a hungry person is going to file a 'suit', when they aren't starving on the streets.


Speaking of suits, there's no reason that there can't be free clothes for the homeless - easy to come by when people who often take their clothing to Good Will or Salvation Army (where the homeless can't afford the prices these charities are now charging), would take their clothing directly to the homeless shelter management for distribution. Do not pass go; do not go to jail - do not miss the opportunity to think this idea through, and find it as another viable remedy for homeless individuals.


I plan on entering other ideas that I have at another time; just to prove that any lingering obstacle or problem, can be resolved and with a minimum of cost to any single person with a job; a little extra time and some spare 'change' - now that Obama is for 'change', let's start with a few pieces from our pockets that could translate into 'pennies from Heaven' for those in such dire straits.
In the meantime, if you're a Nevada resident or close enough to our
state to possibly get involved, learn more (as I did when I copied their
statistical data), from:
http://www.helphopehome.org.
OH YES, ON THE 'TOPIC' OF 'ANOTHER WHO'....
Who is paying for all this security? Below is an article from the Time
Magazine web-site. We all know the homeless live in danger -
threatened by the elements and would-be attackers, and often die as a result.

However, the president - WHO has put his energy and commitment to becoming a
president WHO will truly 'give a damn', and make every effort to implement
improvement and change, is also threatened - his life is on the line, but we do
know WHO is paying for this high cost, now don't we....

...now from THE TIME WEB-SITE:

The security net covering Barack Obama's Inauguration will comprise more than 20,000 law-enforcement officers focusing on a 3½ sq. mi. secure zone that includes the White House, the Capitol and the National Mall. There will be metal detectors, 155 two-person FBI teams dressed in plain clothes, 5,000 surveillance cameras, eyes in the sky and a 40-ft. bomb truck for dealing with suspicious items — in other words, the works.

Photos: Behind the Scenes on Obama's Train
Photos

Inauguration Balls Past and Present
Stories
Inauguration Day Security: Is a Police State Necessary?
More Related
Inauguration Day Security: Is a Police State Necessary?
Tight Security Net for Inauguration
Lieberman Update

And should the event succumb to Murphy's Law — which says that anything that can go wrong will go wrong — nobody can accuse the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of failing to warn that it might happen. (See pictures of Barack Obama's family tree.)

The latest joint threat assessment report by the DHS and several security agencies urges law-enforcement officers to watch out for almost everything short of an asteroid strike. (The assessment is not classified but is marked "for official use only." It was posted on Cryptome.org, the controversial site that posts government documents not released to the public.)

The good news is that the report says there's not a single credible terrorism threat, domestic or foreign, to the Inauguration. That covers the whole gamut of threats, from a cyberattack on sensitive computers to the use of weapons of mass destruction. Top officials have echoed these findings. "I don't anticipate anything disruptive," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told CNN. But, he added, "part of my job is to hope for the best but plan for the worst."

In doing so, the assessment report leaves no base uncovered. It notes that there are "scenarios of concern": the use of Iraq-style improvised explosive devices, Mumbai-style armed assault and hostage-taking, and suicide bombing. It says law-enforcement agencies should be watchful for lone offenders, attacks on soft targets (hotels, restaurants, transport, etc.) near the Capitol and explosives placed in "heavily trafficked areas."

In other words, anything could go wrong. And if it does, the DHS can say, "We told you so." Or, as Joe Funk, a former Secret Service agent who now runs the private firm U.S. Safety & Security, puts it, "Somebody is covering their ass."

National-security experts say the cover-all-bases approach is justified because of the sheer scale and prestige of the Inauguration. "It is the most challenging national-security event in the world," says Edward Clark, a former director of Homeland Security. "You're talking about a huge volume of people, and of dignitaries, so it is potentially a target for every kind of extremist, domestic or foreign." Besides, says Clark, the authors of the assessment report also need to cover themselves for every untoward possibility. "This is as much a political situation as it is a security situation," he says.

Both Clark and Funk are sympathetic to the department's predicament, pointing out that it couldn't not put out a general alert before such an important event. "In situations like these, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't," says Funk. "On balance, I think it's better to put out this report, and afterward we can have a discussion on how useful it was."
...and there you have it - all the 'who's-who' and in the
know, as well as those WHO ARE COVERING THEIR BUTTS more than trying to
potentially COVER THE PRESIDENT!
Sometimes I think we should have the OWL as our
National
Symbol!!!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

When you exercise, be sure you give equal time to both sides....


Actually, I wanted some of my favorite music from THE WHO to listen to, so that's why I created this particular blog.


Also, I think we need to remember to give 'equal time' to those who might have opinions that are different from ours. If we don't, then we'll look like this goofy lop-sided guy who only worked on 'one side' of his body, and damned if he doesn't look 'strange'..........

Now we worry about Gazy/Palestine/Israel. We have concerns about Iraq. We get all disturbed about Afghanistan (and we didn't even know how to spell that country's name until the violence started).

We learned about sub-prime; another hyphentated expression. We had to deal with African-American; Spanish-American, Asian-American, and we wore out our typewriters and computers with the 'hyphen' symbol (actually I popped mine right off my Selectric II about 20 years ago).

Ask me why organic foods are better and why when we did this years and years ago, we were bombarded with the complaint that we might not have 'killed the bugs'.

Ask me why it's now 'okay' to carry your fabric tote to the store (now that you've gone green), when 30 years ago they inspected the tote because they thought you were going to steal something.

Tell me about that second-hand smoke that is now banned; once no one gave a good god damned....

Let me know why bottled 'spring water' is better than the good old cold water from the well we brought up from 300 feet.

Why is it now called Edemame (spelling????) instead of just plain soybeans?

Why do we pay 50 cents for a 'green' plastic bag to save the food, when in fact we shouldn't buy more than 5 days of fresh produce so we can eat it up before it spoils and save the money on the 'greenies'.

Why were 'greenies' known as the 'snot' that came from some kid's nose who chose to gross us all out on the play-ground when the kid squeezed it out his nostrils, and now the greenies are bags; fabric totes, and fancy square boxes that cost about $5.00 each????

So, who are we; are we on the bus, Gus? Who are we - the World Health Organization is 'who'...but, do you know who you really are; are you being programmed by the crappy newspapers; tabloids, and television shows?

In 2009, decide who you are; what you want to be, and where you're going - if you believe in your own value system, I just bet you'll get there without blowing out a bunch of hard-earned money on a few more 'new gimmicks' now that they've bankrupted or worn out the old ones.

Happy New Year - 2009. I hope you like the music...........