We have all heard stories about certain groups wanting to ban certain books from schools and public libraries.  Huck Finn, Catcher in The Rye and To Kill a Mockingbird have all been the target of some group of ‘concerned’ people at one time or another.  In a move that is both an act of ignorance and stupidity the Menifee Union School District in Ca. recently pulled all copies of the dictionary off the shelves of their school libraries!  Yes, the dictionary.

This action was taken due to a complaint from one parent, yes just one parent in the entire school district whose child happened to “stumble” across a definition of oral sex in the dictionary.  Now really, are they serious about this?  Is this the United States of America with that pesky first amendment or Berlin in 1936?  How long until we see the dictionaries  being piled up in the town square along with any other book that has one word or one idea  in it that one person might find offensive?  Then you can add all the copies of all the movies that one person or another finds offensive and all the music ever recorded because there will be one person that finds it offensive.  Then we can just poor a little gas on it, toss on a spark and march around it holding the flag high and proud.  All this as we march our children into a totally protected and ignorant future.

Before the flames die out though, be sure to remember to toss The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence and the bill of rights in there as well.  I mean after all the new protected child will not be able to read or understand them because there are no more books left for them to learn to read from.  Besides, how will they look up the words they do not understand without a dictionary?

Next step would be to pile up your cell phones, computers and laptops and burn those as well.  After all we must protect the children from ever running across anything that might be offensive to their parents or cause them to ask an inappropriate question.  Then the flag waving, torch carrying mob can go around town and burn every place that has WIFI, the telephone lines, the radio stations and the television stations.

Then you can go home, lock your child in a soundproof windowless room and keep them there until you deem they are old enough to deal with the real world.  Sadly when you decide to let them out they will be perfectly happy, simple minded adults with absolutely no idea of how to deal with life.  That will be fine though because all of the children of the same age will be in the same shape.

Then our great nation will be ready to boldly march into the dark ages as proud Muricans.

Now, I know that was bit of a rant but seriously, banning the dictionary from the classroom?  Can this parent remember being a kid?  We are talking about college dictionaries that the schools have for 4th and 5th graders that are advanced readers so you are talking about kids in the age range of 9-11 and above average learning skills.  When I was that age the only way my friends and I ever found out about the ‘adult’ stuff was by looking up the dirty words we heard our parents use.  We looked them up….. in the dictionary.  Other good sources were National Geographic Magazine because they showed boobies sometimes or by giving ourselves pounding headaches by watching the scrambled H.B.O. to see one fuzzy frame a minute of the after hours shows.

The best thing you can do is TALK to your child and explain things to them that they do not understand.  You might just be amazed at what happens!  Yes kids today seem to grow up to fast but that is the way things are.  You need to bring your parenting skills up to the times.  It was not long ago in our nation when girls were married off at age 15 and if you were a 22 year old unmarried woman you were considered and ‘old maid’.  Kids will learn what they will learn and it is up to the parents and the teachers to help them understand what they learn and how to apply that knowledge to their life.  If you teach you kids the right way and communicate with them then you should have no worries.

The major problem seems to be parents who want to keep their children a child and cannot deal with them growing up no matter how old they are.

To their credit the Menifee Union School District is reviewing the action of banning the dictionary from their schools and I am sure that more level heads will reach the right conclusion and return the books to the library shelves.

To read more on this story click here:

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_dictionary23.466f8d4.html

Will one person find this book offensive?  The Song of Soloman and all that?  

When you think of our national icons, the symbols of strength, freedom and power for our nation, what comes your mind?

The bald eagle, the wild mustang, the grizzly bear and the grey wolf all jump to my mind as symbols of freedom in our nation.  Symbols that over the years have taken the very breath from your body and made your soul leap with joy if you have been fortunate enough to see them in the wild.  Symbols that have been hunted to extinction by men with very small minds and very big guns.

Through hard work on the part of many Americans the bald eagle has been brought back from the brink of extinction and the grizzly bear population has stabilized.  Several years ago the wolf was reintroduced to our country and I for one think our nation was better for it.

Now two of our nations icons are being hunted, tortured and killed outright once again.  The two that are now in danger once again are the wolf and the wild mustang.

Wolves are being hunted down en-mass in corporate sponsored ‘predator derbies’ where the hunters get points for every animal they kill.  These are the very same animals that so many worked so hard to bring back to our country, returning a portion of our past glory.  To read more about the ‘derbies’ and to lend your voice to stopping them click here:

http://www.fluffyfeet.net/wp/2010/01/29/corporate-sponsored-wolf-hunts/

The wild mustangs are actually being killed by a division of our government, the B.L.M.  During their “humane” round ups of the wild mustangs the B.L.M. herds them with helicopters and is running them so long and so hard that the horses are quite literally separating their hooves from their legs.  The reason for this so-called humane treatment of the wild mustangs is because there are now to many cows on our public land grazing for there to be enough food to go around so a national treasure is being forced into concentration camp like conditions.

I have seen animals forced to the brink first hand.  When I first moved to the beach in L.A. you hardly ever saw pelicans flying over the water.  In a few short years and with a lot of hard work the pelicans have returned to the beaches and are a site to see flying along the wave tops.  When I fist moved to central Nevada three years ago you could see wild mustangs a couple of days a week.  Now they are becoming a rare sight but you are seeing more cattle. For some reason I just do not find them as inspiring to watch as a small group of mustangs.

This is public land we are talking about.  It is owned by you and me but is leased to the cattle ranchers at dirt cheap prices to graze their cattle.  The solution is simple to me.  Either put a few less cattle on the land or quit leasing it to the ranchers completely.  The mustangs are a part of our national history and must be preserved.  To read more about the B.L.M. roundups and find out how you can help lend your voice in defending them click here:

http://www.fluffyfeet.net/wp/2010/01/26/wild-horses-killed-in-round-up/

Your time and your voice in correcting these issues would be of great help to our national heritage and our national pride.  I thank you in advance for taking the time to lend your voice to ending this abuse of our national icons.

Brian L. Vaubel

A wild stallion and his group roam free.

Wolves bring balance to the environment. Let them continue to roam free and hunt down the big ranchers who want them dead.

I have personally believed for some time that George W. Bush is mentally ill.  I think his mental condition was manipulated for their own ends by many in his administration including Dick Cheney.

I think drinking killed a few too many of W’s brain cells and the few that were left were corrupted by religion.It looks to me as if many Republicans and conservative Christians have the same problem.  Unfortunately, in Bush’s mind, the Bible and religion got all mixed up with prophesy and war.  He was thus able to give his own brand of reasoning for the horrific harm he did.

I truly do not think Bush was smart enough to put together his actions with their consequences in his mind.  If he was, surely he would have realized his illegal war against Iraq was resulting in hundreds of thousands of innocents dieing.  He would have also realized that their blood was on his hands and their deaths were on his soul.

There have been many mentions of George Bush’s strange behavior and conversations about the Iraq War.  Now, former French President Jacques Chirac recounts another episode that happened in 2003.

From The Council for Secular Humanism:

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East…. The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled…. This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its “coalition of the willing” to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush’s call and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

After the 2003 call, the puzzled French leader didn’t comply with Bush’s request. Instead, his staff asked Thomas Romer, a theologian at the University of Lausanne, to analyze the weird appeal. Dr. Romer explained that the Old Testament book of Ezekiel contains two chapters (38 and 39) in which God rages against Gog and Magog, sinister and mysterious forces menacing Israel. Jehovah vows to smite them savagely, to “turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,” and slaughter them ruthlessly. In the New Testament, the mystical book of Revelation envisions Gog and Magog gathering nations for battle, “and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”

In 2007, Dr. Romer recounted Bush’s strange behavior in Lausanne University’s review, Allez Savoir. A French-language Swiss newspaper, Le Matin Dimanche, printed a sarcastic account titled: “When President George W. Bush Saw the Prophesies of the Bible Coming to Pass.” France’s La Liberte likewise spoofed it under the headline “A Small Scoop on Bush, Chirac, God, Gog and Magog.” But other news media missed the amazing report.

Subsequently, ex-President Chirac confirmed the nutty event in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, who tells the tale in his new book, Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai (If You Repeat it, I Will Deny), released in March by the publisher Plon.

You can read the rest here.

This is no the first world leader that has called Bush half-cracked.  Putin did the same.  But somehow, I would rather not have been right about my feelings about W.  I would have been far happier to have been wrong and to have left the people of Iraq live the lives they were supposed to before Bush decided it was a great idea to kill them all.

The final lines from The Theme from Billy Jack seems appropriate here.  “There won’t be any trumpets blowing on that Judgment Day.  Or the bloody morning after.  One tin soldier rides away.”

It certainly seems this tin soldier ex-president just rode away.  Somehow, that is very unsatisfactory.  He should be punished for what he unleashed on the American people and the illegal war he unleashed on the world.

So glad this man is out of power. He should be in prison or at least on trial. His defense would probably be innocent by reason of religious insanity.

A line from a recent movie that stated “we are Spartans” seemed to ring a bell with many in our nation today.  I am forced to ask if that was the Liberty Bell or some other bell that resides deep in our brains.

I am asking myself and all of you, what are we?  Is there any simple three word statement that could describe our nation at this time?  Is there any simple statement regardless of word restriction that you can think of that would rally all of our people to it?

Sadly, I think there is not.

We are in fact, all Americans.  Regardless of skin tone, financial status or religious belief that fact is certain.  For the last two hundred years our people, all of our people, have worked, fought, bled and died for an idea.  Regardless of your families ancestry we have all moved here and become Americans.  Our country though prejudiced against some at times, is still a beacon of hope for many around the world.

So if we are all seeking the same freedom and hope for the future then why are we not a more united people.  Why is it that the United States of America seems to be in such a state of discord?  Why are so many of our people at such a disadvantage in this, the land of opportunity?  Why are there so many hungry children just off of Wall Street and under the ever watchful eyes of Lady Liberty?  When did the poor and weak and huddled masses become illegal aliens?  When did being poor become a crime in the eyes of many who represent us in Washington D.C.?

Our two party system is part of the problem, especially today.  Now instead of working with the party that won the last election the losing party, like a petulant child, picks up its  marbles and refuses to play anymore.  As they block the will of the people by playing politics they happily laugh and chuckle while our nation stagnates.  They have their receptions, fancy $2000.00 dollar a plate dinners and are hospitalized for a sore throat while many people in their district go hungry and suffer in pain for lack of health care.

Greed is an even bigger part of the problem.  The sad truth is that the money needed to win an election will more than likely put you in someones pocket for life.  Many of our great leaders from the past would never make it to office today due to the simple fact that they were too poor and not well enough connected.  Many officials today work only to insure their own political future and, should that fail, their future with a grateful financial backer whose bills they either blocked or passed.

Politicians that promote agendas on behalf of the corporations in their districts instead of the people in their district are by far the biggest problem of all.  As they spend our tax dollars to bail out their campaign contributors and block the return of regulations to these same corporate interests, they ignore the needs of the people of our nation.  We recently witnessed a prime example of this corporate government mentality during President Obama’s State of the Union address.  When The President called for full repayment of bailout funds to banks, promotion of businesses that keep jobs in our own country and regulations to prevent another bail out, those in the pocket of corporations, sat and in some cases actually laughed at him.  Who exactly are these people looking out for?  Can you honestly say its common folks like you and me?

I personally think there is yet another problem when politicians reach the highest levels of government and that is lack of perspective.  We keep hearing a lot of talk about how TARP and stimulus funds are only helping Wall Street and not Main Street America.  I am forced to ask if any of these people have recently driven down a Main Street in any city in America?

As many of you know I live in a small town in rural Nevada.  A town that the McCain-Palin campaign called ‘real America’ populated by ‘real Americans’.  The town is about three miles from end to end and there is one street that runs all the way through town.  You would be right to call it Main Street because that is its name.  I would like to tell you a few things about the businesses that line the Main Street of this ‘real American’ town.

There are five gas stations in town, three of which are national franchises, one a regional franchise and one independent.  There are four places to get fast food, two national, one regional and one family owned.  There is one grocery store that is part of a regional franchise.  There are two ‘sit down’ restaurants’, one in a national hotel franchise and one independent.  Am I the only one that sees a trend here?  Honestly, the majority of the businesses that line my towns Main Street are small business but there are enough corporate names in town to make me wonder what the politicians use to compare Main Street to Wall Street.  To my eye it looks like Main Street today is corporate America.

I have never hidden the fact that I am a liberal and a democrat.  In the last election my state voted for President Obama but the county I live in went Republican on all local seats.  Having lived here three years now and made a couple of friends I feel I can make a statement of what many of the people that live in many of these ‘real American’ towns would like to see.  First and foremost is JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!!  There are far to many of us (want to be) hard working ‘real Americans’ that have been out of work for way to long!  They say that there are six unemployed Americans for every job that becomes available but I think that number may be higher.  At a recent casino opening in Las Vegas 75,000 people applied in person for the 5,000 jobs available.  That is a rate of fifteen to one and does not include those who applied by Internet, fax or phone.

So how any member of our government could sit and show disdain for a President, any President, that calls for bringing more jobs to our country at this time is way beyond me!  How anyone can sit and make up smart ass replies while the President calls for investing in industries that will hire more Americans and punish those industries that move our jobs overseas is a total mystery to me.  The only thing that I can make of this is that they KNOW their future is secure until the next election and beyond from high income jobs promised to them by those for whom they are shilling.

Another thing we would love is to be off of welfare, food stamps and out of government assisted living.  Now solving all three of these problems seems to be related to one thing.  I hate to repeat myself but that would be… umm…  let’s see, JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!!  I hate to break it to all of you but welfare and food stamps are not just in the ‘hood’ anymore but are alive and well in rural America as well.  Food banks nation wide have seen a rise in some cases of 400% of those in need and there is no end in sight.  It will not stop until there are JOBS for Americans to return to.

We would also like to be able to afford to go to a doctor when we are sick.  Just like you bigwig government types do.  Is that really to much to ask?  According to many of you it is.  Of course with your health care plan that is paid for by us you can be hospitalized for a month, all expenses paid if you get a paper cut.  Glad to see you are healthy enough to be so glib about how many of those you represent either cannot afford to go to a doctor or just die because of the lack of preventive medicine.

Our nation is in crisis.  Both parties agree on this point.  What is to be done about it is the bone of contention.  While one party and our President is attempting to seek solutions the other party picked up its marbles long ago.

We need to move forward, we need to face the future and we need to do it as a people.  So to ask the original question.. We Are…What?

'Real Americans' are reaching out and asking for help. Can't politicians see us anymore or do we have to get on our knees to beg?

We all know the supposed press players at Fox.  The insane Glenn Beck, the illiterate Sarah Palin, the off the wall coward Sean Hannity are among the Fox elite ‘press’ corps.  But no one stands for Fox News more than the Loofah man himself, Bill O’Reilly and his O’Reilly Factor.

We also all know how President Obama scored big with his first State of the Union address and then did an encore by mopping the floor with Republican Congress members face to face.  But, I am sure that Fox will put their own trade marked lie/spin on the Obama success.

All of this leads to the poll shown below which appeared on The O’Reilly Factor website.

Fully 94% of the responders to this question gave President Obama an A grade for his first year in office.  Imagine that!

Now I am going to assume that the vast majority of respondents to this poll are Fox viewers.  That is because I am quite sure most Democratic an progressive people wouldn’t visit this website no matter what.  So, if this is an Internet poll, while I can see it being skewed by left leaners going there just to make a vote for Obama, I have a very hard time believing it could be skewed this far.

What I want to know is how Fox is going to spin this?  The results are not scientific as stated at the bottom of the poll results.  But, I can’t see what difference that makes because right wingers, Fox viewers and Fox themselves do not believe in science anyway.  So it will be interesting to see if O’Reilly even has the guts to mention this unscientific poll at all.  Will anyone at Fox have the gonads to cite this poll?

Don’t hold your breath for it…… you might suffocate.

You have probably already heard about Democratic President Obama speaking and taking questions today at the House GOP Issues Conference which is a fancy name for a two day retreat in Baltimore, Maryland.  Everyone I have read, watched or talked to has said basically the same thing.  It was a mistake for the Republicans to do this.

You can forgive the Republicans for making this error.  After the odds were one hundred and fifty of them to only one Obama.  The one thing the Republican House members forgot in their rush to try to make the President look bad was that Obama is the smartest guy in the room and probably smarter that the one hundred fifty of them combined.

If this was a football game, the only way to describe it would be Obama sacked the quarter back, picked up the fumble caused by his sack and ran the ball in for a touchdown……twice…… at least.  In the game of politics, it looks even worse for the GOP home team.  Like a TKO in the first fifteen seconds of the first round of a boxing match.  The Republicans were to put it simply, out played, out smarted and most certainly out classed.

For ninety minutes President Obama spoke then took questions.  He answered every single talking point that the Republican House members threw at him.  It was obvious the President knew what he was talking about and he faced the Republicans down in the same way he did during his State of the Union Address.    He was friendly while at the same time accepting no bulls**t and every time that was offered he answered it with truth which knocked down any rebuttal or repeat of the bull.

To give you an idea of how badly the Republicans were out classed, both CNN and MSNBC carried the entire speech plus the question and answer session.  Fox quit carrying the event half way through.  Now that should tell you something.

Due to the length of this meeting, I will not post the entire video here, but if you want to read the transcript you can go to this link.  Or, you can watch the video of the speech plus the question and answer session at this link.

Below is a video from MSNBC that is part of their wrap of of the event.  It will give you a good idea of the reaction to this meeting.  I’m sure more will be said about this extraordinary event on the news shows this evening.

Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota wants to keep foreign money and interests out of United States elections.  He realizes the Supreme Court dealt a blow to this desire  with their Citizens United decision.

So rather than sit and carp about the bone headed court decision Senator Franken has introduced the ‘American Elections Act of 2010′ in the Senate to help correct the inequity.  The legislation was developed in coordination with Professor David Schultz of Hamline University School of Business in Minnesota.

From the press release:

The “American Elections Act of 2010″ will keep foreign interests out of our elections by:

· Banning election contributions and spending by corporations that are controlled or highly influenced by foreign nationals (foreign governments, companies, and persons). This includes:

- Corporations that receive most of their financing from foreign nationals.

- Corporations where foreign nationals hold a controlling share of stock (as defined under leading corporate law) or a majority of the Board of Directors.

- Corporations that allow foreign nationals to control or participate in their political activities – including ad spending, donations, and political action committees.

· Requiring all corporations to certify, before giving or spending in elections, that they are in compliance with these requirements.

· Requiring all corporations to disclose in their political advertising how much of their company is controlled by foreign nationals, or if this isn’t possible, how much of their financing comes from foreign nationals.

The “American Elections Act of 2010″ is supported by Common Cause, People for the American Way, Common Cause Minnesota, and MPIRG.

Read the rest of the press release here.

Congratulations and thanks to Senator Al Franken for taking action on this very important matter.  Let’s hope more legislation is in the pipe line to reverse at least most, if not all of the damage the wingnut portion of the Supreme Court has done to this country.

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) official Senate portrait.

Post by BobbiV

There have been many times in the past when I have hung my head in shame at the politics and antics in Kansas.  I lived in the state for over thirty years before moving to California.  After the move, I found myself at a loss when asked what was wrong with the people in the state I migrated from.  The best I could come up with was a lame that is why I moved.

But today, Kansans went a long way toward restoring their credibility in my book.  They found Scott Roeder guilty on all counts in the murder of Dr. George Tiller.  I applaud the jury for their clear thinking.  This man was trying to claim he was justified in killing the doctor because he performed abortions.  He claimed he did it to protect the children and frankly, this is an excuse I am beyond tired of hearing from the right wingnuts, misguided Christians or anyone else.  It is as if they can’t understand the un part of unborn.  However, that is a discussion for another time.

Today, I am proud of the people of Kansas for doing the right thing.  Vigilante justice is not justice and assassination is assassination.  The jury said they understood that by finding this poor excuse for a human being guilty.  The courts and justice won today.  Now, please just sentence this guy to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  He should never walk free among us again.

Watch the local news announce the verdict.