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A white teenager got in a violent argument with a bunch of black teenagers at a party. He fled the party and ran home. He went inside and bolted the door and told his father about what had just happened. He said he was afraid some of those black guys — in a drunken rage — would come to the house to finish the argument. And they knew where he lived.

To make things even worse, this white family lived in a mostly black neighborhood. There were a lot of racial tensions, and the most trivial argument could easily explode into an ugly tragic incident.

And now the family’s worst fears have just materialized. Those black thugs from the party have arrived. They’re at the foot of the driveway. They’re in a drunken out-of-control fury and they’re shouting out threats to this white family. They aren’t gonna go away.

The panic-stricken father probably made the wrong choice — 20/20 hindsight and all. He took his gun and walked down to the foot of the driveway to confront the angry mob. One of the black thugs lunged toward the father and tried to grab his gun. The gun went off and the would-be attacker was killed.

And now the father — who was trying to protect his son from an out-of-control mob — has been convicted of second degree manslaughter. He faces up to fifteen years in prison. Do you think this is right?

Let’s see, I’m just gonna pore over this news article one last time to make sure I — OOPS!! Uhh…well, I got most of the story right; I just had one minor detail wrong. I had their races switched around. Doh! OK, so it was a black family living in a mostly white neighborhood, and it was a gang of out-of-control white teenagers who came to the house in a drunken fury, determined to settle a score.

So anyway, that doesn’t change the story or anything. Right???

One of the largest expenses for the elderly in our nation after healthcare is property taxes. Homes that were purchased forty or fifty years ago for five to ten grand are now appraised at over three hundred grand in some areas of the Northeast. Tack on a property tax bill at thirty dollars per thousand and we have a senior citizen on a fixed income nightmare.

One of the problems with a one for all tax base fee per thousand dollar home value is that it does not in fact take into consideration the age and income level of the homeowner. Granted good old Donald Trump is at the age of AARP membership level but the average senior citizen is not anywhere close to his income level. Should the two have homes and property taxed at the same level? Personally, I don’t think so.

I’m a large supporter of letting senior citizens keep their homes. Not for one second is their one iota of thought in my mind that thinks that we should toss them to the home if they can’t pay the property taxes due. Over at the Houston Chronicle I found this interesting piece on helping the elderly that are able to help themselves…

N.Y. town lets seniors work off property taxes — for $7 an hour
By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press

GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a $620 Social Security check each month and worries about the sharply rising taxes on her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her family there and after 43 years, she really doesn’t want to leave Greenburgh.

Greenburgh doesn’t want her to leave, either.

The town is pushing a program that would let seniors work part-time, for $7 an hour, to help pay off some of their property taxes.

“People shouldn’t have to sell their house, move away to a place with less taxes, leave behind their family and friends,” said Town Supervisor Paul Feiner.

He envisions retired doctors mentoring schoolchildren, retired accountants helping with the town’s finances, retired lawyers offering their services for a discount. But there are plenty of less-skilled jobs that need doing, he said.

“It’s not like we’re going to see grandma running the snowplow,” he said. “There are lots of things people can do for the town and it wouldn’t cost us that much to pay them.” - Houston Chronicle

Growing up I had my neighbors in a small town in New England that actually were able to live in their homes till the day they died because the town cared about it’s elderly citizens. After a certain age the elderly based on income paid no property tax to the town. The end result was my neighbor Betty Stein, may she rest in peace, that lived out her days in the home she and her husband bought sixty years prior. Betty was never in the best of health but she loved the kids in the neighborhood and always had treats for my friends and I that played in her yard, searching for crawfish in the pond behind her home, or just stopping in to say hello to her. Betty would never have been able to keep her home if she had to pay property tax on it. Her deceased husbands pension and Social Security were next to nothing.

Betty was wheel chair bound for all the time that I knew her growing up. Neighbors helped her every single day because she was just Betty. She had no living children or family to speak of and maybe that is why she adopted all of us neighborhood brats. What about all the other Betty’s in the nation today? Granted, our workforce in America has changed where both the husband and the wife worked a full career and with or without a pension still struggle to survive in the homes they bought so many years ago. This is an issue that needs to be looked at and solutions or probabilities discovered to save the senior citizens all across America.

Back just a few years ago the cost for just one senior citizen to live in a nursing home was averaging five grand a month for full round the clock care. How I know that little bit of information is simply because that was the bill I received every month for my father with Alzheimer’s Disease. Till we were forced to sell his home, which went entirely from the lawyers hand to the nursing home for his care. We were lucky with Blaire House of Worcester for Dad. Many other cared for elderly family or friends are not. What happens to the individual that gets placed in that home?

Elder Abuse in Nursing Homes
Nursing Home Abuse News

Watching our grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles grow older has its own set of stresses. As those we love fall victim to the ailments of aging, we worry about our lives without them, all the while learning to provide care for them. We look to medicines, doctors, diets, vitamins—anything we can find—in hopes of keeping them healthy and happy and able to live as independently as they wish to. When finally the complications get too great, we turn to an assisted living, nursing home, or other long-term care facility to continue the thoughtful and conscientious care we are no longer able to provide.

Many of these facilities provide excellent care, however, far too many do not. Often understaffed with underpaid and poorly trained employees, many nursing homes push the bottom line so far that they endanger the lives of their patients.

Neglected, abused, and threatened, nursing home residents may suffer physically and emotionally. Painful bedsores, broken bones, or even premature death can result from neglectful and outright abusive treatment. - Nursing Home Abuse

What about the Betty’s that live just next door into their nineties that do not need a nursing home and still want to live their days out in their own damn home? We need to think of people like her or for that matter ourselves because the simple fact is that you or I will be in that position eventually. Would you want to be kicked out of your home because your home was taken for back property tax bills?

Don’t get me wrong, I give full credit to all of our nations senior citizens that work every single day. God bless them for being able to do so. One of my friends and co-workers is eighty four, another is seventy four. There is a difference to what these two friends are doing and what this program is all about. This work for property taxes can work for some people but it is not a fix all for blindly abusing the elderly. Did these people not live through the worst times our nation has ever seen and survived? It sickens me as a political opinion writer to think that anyone could have any argument against giving elderly retired homeowners living below poverty level any kind of break but feel free to speak your peace.

As much as America needs to protect its children with the full diligence that they deserve we need to do the same for our aged and elderly. That is a direct reflection on our society and way of life as a people. We all know that we can do better for all of our senior citizens. Should I mention that senior citizens vote too? That probably isn’t supposed to be relevant when it comes to this topic. I happen to think it is. Everyone forty and younger forget that I wrote that part. All of you forty and older bookmark this page. Maybe we should take back America by taking care of our Grandparents and elder neighbors first.

This liberal stands by all senior citizens no matter what political affiliation and will bitch the loudest when it comes to protecting them. They were the ones that paid the ultimate sacrafice and you can never forget that fact. What freedoms we enjoy today were bought and paid for by the previous generation. Maybe we should look to them as to what really being an American is all about?

In the words of former President Ronald Reagan, “As I fade into the sunset of my life…”

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

From this political liberal opinionated Irish Catholic New England Yankee Socialist snob to all of you out there that take the time to read my rants, thank you.  I probably left out a few names I’ve been called but it comes with the territory of writing political opinion.  From my five daughters and my lovely wife we wish you and all of your families the happiest times this Christmas holiday.

For all of my friends that are Atheist, Muslim, Jewish or whatever faith you choose.  Have a great Tuesday this week.  And do not set the Alarm clock!  Umm, the power is out  so nobody is open for business unless you are a police officer, fireman, or medical hospital.  Ya, that’s the ticket.  Christian’s are all at Church because Jerry Falwell and Oral Roberts have threatened from beyond the grave to come back if we do not send $20,000,000 to some clown named Papamoka.  Ya, that’s it!  I kid you not, even Bill O’Reilly is going to church.  This is serious stuff! 

Well, I’m off to boobie trap the damn chimney in hopes of catching the fat bastid’ in the act.  I saw it on the internet that some of those supermarket tabloids are willing to pay $100,000 for a legitamet picture of Santa Claus.  The bonus is the $40 per pound on the reindeer meat but do not tell anyone about that please.  That is our little secret.   

Merry Christmas

Papamoka 

In New England we are blessed to have a Santa on an oil fuel truck named Joe Kennedy. Yes, he is from the world famous Kennedy clan. When it comes to rock stars of charitable work then Joe Kennedy is the Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones.

Some people have a problem with Joe Kennedy’s public charity that delivers home heating oil to many people in the New England area at huge discounts. For the life of me I can not comprehend why they have an issue with Joe Kennedy but some people just do not understand what real human kindness is. I’m thinking, Joe worked in our government, saw how polarizing it was to get anything done and just made up his own mind to just make it happen on his own.

What is the non issue of the work that this great man does is Hugo Chavez. Citgo Corporation and the government of Venezuela donates the home heating oil to Citizen Energy at undisclosed prices if not for free. I’m big on the devil in the details but if the end result is my seventy eight year old neighbor having heat then I more or less chuck the bird at the politics. Her furnace does not care or differentiate between oil at price gouging rates due to over market manipulation or something she can actually afford. The end result is a senior citizen that is warm while the temperatures dip below thirty degrees.

Joe Kennedy is a saint amongst the poor of New England for a reason, he cares. He isn’t running for any political office and frankly he never should. The work he does for the poor in my home state alone is to valuable to loose him.

That leads me to this thought, what are the Republican’s doing to help the poor in the northern parts of the United States? If you are coming up with the same results that I am you come back to just one result. Market forces are good for business and government should not interfere. Blah, blah, blah. What the interpretation of that is simply put. Screw the poor! Their personal portfolio of oil stocks has doubled in the last eight years. Making money is more important than caring for a neighbor or someone you never will meet. The very poor do not exactly associate in the same circles with people making even $50,000 plus per year.

With home heating oil at record prices this winter, in his own way, Joe Kennedy and Citizen Energy rescue a people much in need. They are not contributing dollars to any political campaign but Joe hears their voices anyway. Home heating for the poor amongst us will never be on the Republican Party radar.

One thing that the Republican’s forget is that many of the soldiers that have died in Iraq and in the Republican lead War on Terror have left family behind here in New England if not in the rest of the country. What happens to them after the burial of their husband? They seek public assistance! They have no choice. That ranks them with the worst people of the political opinion of the Republican Party. And yet being Republican is manipulated to be pro military. That works as long as your are not killed in action.

After the pictures are taken with all of the political so called leaders paying their respects, the family still grieving is left at the door of the forgotten. Supporting the troops ends right after the photo Op when it comes to any Republican politician. What happens to the kids and wife left behind is not of any concern to them if the speech went well. Do not look for the answers over at the Republican Party. They believe that you must make your own way and be damned if your life is up ended just because your husband and father of so many children was killed in service to our nation. You must help yourself and not be a burden on the taxpayers of our nation. Get a fringing job you blood sucking pieces of trash. Insert chuck the bird to the Mom with one or two babies as they are also kicked off of the military base as a widow.

I don’t care how Joe Kennedy puts the oil in the poor people of this regions oil tanks, heat and warmth is a Godsend when you don’t have it. Many widows not just from this war but many others that were designed by so called great minds in Washington have been left behind and Joe Kennedy is the only one offering a warm home this winter. Sponsored by Citgo and Hugo Chavez is more relief than any of the Republican millionaires running for President are offering the people left behind and in the cold.

Thank you Joe Kennedy, and thank you Citizen Energy for doing all that you do for the forgotten people of America in the cold. You renew the forgotten faith in human kindness with every oil tank you fill. God bless you Joe Kennedy.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

Cross posted at Michael Linn Jones

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mike Capuano from Mass A Two Sticks but he is living a pipe dream. He is proposing a regulatory independent agency to more or less police the Congress for ethics violations. The only problem with his plan is that Constitutionally this outside law force would have to be armed with feathers. Gives a whole new meaning to “Packing Heat” does it not?

I’m thinking little tiny down feathers in little tiny holsters on a lawman from the old west. Armed agents patrolling and roaming the halls of the Congress ready to arrest anyone that steps over the line of truth, justice and the American way. Stepping into the dark corners of the law and breaking the ethics rules just might get you a handful of feathers tossed in your face. Take that you wrong doer!

Over at the Washington Post they have this to say on it…

House May Add Outside Watchdog For Ethics

By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007; Page A27

House task force yesterday recommended creating an independent Office of Congressional Ethics that would have the power to initiate reviews of lawmakers’ behavior. The new office, whose creation requires the approval of the full House, which reconvenes in mid-January, would be the first in either chamber to allow an outside body of nonmembers to examine alleged ethical misdeeds.

“It breaks the appearance of the good ol’ boy network,” said Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.). Capuano headed a task force that spent a year trying to craft a compromise for the new ethics office in the wake of the lobbying scandals that helped sweep Democrats into power.

But some ethics watchdogs warned that the office, if approved, would not be strong enough, particularly because it would lack subpoena power. - Washington Post

Keystone Cops mentality all over again…

Not to mention the fact that any Congressional member could at any point in time, when under fire for ethics violations, recite the Constitution and then express a raspberry with their tongue.
For those in the Congress not knowing what a raspberry is, you insert your tongue between your lips, gently press down with your lips and exhaust air from your lungs in a rapid exhale. Not through your nose People! Take two. Insert your tongue between your lips, gently press down with your lips on your tongue, and exhale rapidly through your mouth. Not through both your nose and mouth Congressman. This is going to take some practice. Most of these folks have not lived in reality for a long time so you might want to check back later. When you do come back could you bring about four hundred pair of underwear. That last try had some of the older members of the House in a most discomforting position. That’s a first isn’t it!

Oh screw it, they could just lift up the middle finger, close the rest of their fingers and show it to the Congressional Police. No, No, NO Congressman. You close your thumb too! Everyone knows that is how you hail a cab for a F’n ride. This is going to take a long time to educate these folks about how American’s really live. When you come back with the underwear would you bring some coffee too.

Speaking about how American’s really live, when we have corrupt leaders in our government, if they do not police themselves, the voters can fire them at the polls. For Congressional members that happens every two years, President is every four, and Senators every six years. Then again there is this whole whacky thing called freedom of the press that sometimes can shame SOME people in our government into resigning from office.

I applaud the attention that Congressman Mike Capuano has put into this but I fear that any outside influence on the Congress would be the first step in finally killing the Constitution. That is something as an American that I could never accept. Neither should you and that is why we all should vote based on our own personal ethics. Democrat, Republican or Independent political mindset, if you see a wrong then right it with your vote. It is as simple as that.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk

My personal experience with the our local Schools fluctuates from extremely good to extremely bad. We have lived in our town since 1998 and my four children have attended the public schools since we moved here. Over those nine years we have had the opportunity to work with some outstanding teachers and principals that have fostered enormous successes in my children’s education. Unfortunately we have also experienced some horribly negligent teachers and principals that seem to be going through the motions in order to pick up a paycheck each payday.

I could go into the details of each and every experience that we have had throughout the last nine years, but that would be of little use and foster little progress. In fact, two of the problems that we have dealt with over these years will never be corrected because the people have already died from diseases related to their alcohol problems. Unfortunately when we did confront these problems and bring them to the attention of those delegated with the responsibility our cries fell on deaf ears.

This time we have a new set of teachers and administrators and a new problem. We have seen this all before and it saddens me greatly. I personally don’t understand the resistance of the administration to effect change and fix these problems. But, as we have seen this all before we know exactly how this will play out. It is as if there is a script and every person plays their role and each time nothing is done the person lies about how they will be sure to look into the problem. Since the politics of the personal relationships is kept behind closed doors under the guise of protecting a alleged suspect I will not name names in this letter. I would surely provide further information to anyone who would talk to me, but all of the administrators involved already know the facts and the problems, they have just chosen to do nothing about it.

In an attempt to bring discussion and light onto this subject I would rather like to talk in generalities as a matter of furthering public discourse without pointing fingers and making accusations. The people who are guilty of stonewalling already know who they are. The teachers who choose to go through the motions without doing their jobs already know who they are. The solution to the problem is not to hide the fact that there are poor teachers and administrators in our schools, but instead to inform them that we are watching and they should do their jobs. Unfortunately most of these cases only involve a few people each year. The few people that are effected know that the school year will eventually end and the new school year is likely to provide them with one of the many very good teachers that we have in these schools. What the public needs is a way to bring attention to these problems and have them solved in a reasonable and effective way.

Now that I have explained the situation in generalities I will be a bit more specific. There is a teacher in a our local school that one of my children has for a class. The teacher has basically refused to teach in almost any definition of the term. Instead the teacher has the students attempt to teach themselves by reading their textbook to themselves and take notes. The teacher occasionally administers a test of the subject matter that she copies off of the Internet. The tests from the Internet do not correspond to the textbook material, because the tests from online actually come from another textbook that covers the same material with different details. My child has complained to counselors and the different levels of administration. The one time that an evaluator came into the classroom to evaluate the teacher the teacher conducted the class more closely to a traditional discussion style class. Obviously the teacher knows what she is doing would be frowned upon. However, the behavior continues and even with the complaints to the administration by approximately half of the students in the class. The students have signed a petition and presented it to the administration, but the administration requires each case to be dealt with individually and not en masse. The students continue to bring the issue to the administration with no results. Finally during the last meeting with the administrator the students were told the matter was already brought to their attention. When the students asked what was going to be done the administrator explained that nothing was needed to be done.

So, the sad situation that we have in the our local schools is portrayed in this example. The administration complains that they want the students to excel in academics. They publicly claim that they have hired the best teachers. And, they have hired some very good teachers. Unfortunately they have also hired some very poor teachers that should be removed from their responsibilities. We should not be paying teachers to shop online while the students outline the chapters in their textbooks during class time. The administration doesn’t want to know about the failures. Perhaps they want to claim ignorance. Perhaps they are too lazy to fix the problems in the schools. Perhaps the law ties their hands and they really can’t do anything about this. There are solutions to every one of these problems. We can fire the administrators that are too lazy or incompetent. And, if the laws are in the way, then we have an obligation to change the laws. The students deserve it and our future society is built on the education of these students.

Sincerely,

a concerned parent of a concerned student

—————————————————–

Don’t forget what Stephen Colbert said, “Reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

Cross Posted @ Bring It On, tblog, Blogger and BlogSpirit

Reflection

Finally, a Democrat grew a pair. Instead of Harry Reid, the cajoneless wonder, Chris Dodd stepped up and threatened a filibuster over retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies spying on behalf of the government. The Knight of Shining Hair didn’t put the vote off forever, but he did delay action until after the first of the year, leaving enough time to win a few more rational senators over. But more importantly, he highlighted just how meek and timid the current crop of Reidsters really are. Harry doesn’t just look like the kid who got has ass kicked every day in gym glass, he put the “kick me” sign on himself and dared bully George to kick him. And as bullies are wont to do, George routinely kicks his empty crotch with relish at every opportunity.

Many will claim Chris’s backbone grew as he grasped at straws to keep his woe-begotten Presidential campaign going. My response is “big frickin’ deal”. The man took the right stand and it doesn’t matter to me if it was for all the wrong reasons or not. We are no longer standing on a slippery slope when it comes to eroding our once-sacrosanct civil liberties. We’re sliding hell-bent for leather down the world’s longest mud slide directly toward a brick wall a million times worse than anything America’s Evilest Home Videos has to offer. Someone has to put the brakes on, and strangely, mild-mannered Chris turned out to be the man.

(more…)

It only took 32 years for the Congress and the White House to finally realize that the sacrifice American’s need to make is in our energy consumption. All of the SUV’s that are gulping down the Go-go juice will have to change and that is just the beginning of the end of the oil monopoly in the world. President Bush has stated that he will sign the bill into law and frankly I thought he would have vetoed it based on some ridiculous facts. I am frankly and apologetically stating that I was wrong about President Bush and this issue. Stuff that up your back side Haszinski! That is another story from another post.

Through all the arguments in the House and in the Senate over the last few weeks we now have a compromise and an energy policy that just might reverse the madness that is our energy usage. Over at the New York Times they have this coverage on the only real energy policy change in 32 years in America…

House Passes Sweeping Energy Bill
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: December 18, 2007
WASHINGTON — Legislation that will slowly but fundamentally change the cars Americans drive, the fuel they burn, the way they light their homes and the price they pay for food cleared the House on Tuesday by a large margin. President Bush said he would sign the hard-fought energy bill on Wednesday. The bill, which passed on a bipartisan vote of 314 to 100, sets higher fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks by law for the first time in 32 years and requires the production of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, a nearly fivefold increase from current ethanol production levels. The measure, known as the Energy Independence and Security Act, also establishes new efficiency requirements for household appliances and government buildings and aims to phase out the incandescent light bulb within 10 years. Its passage marks one of the largest single steps on energy that the nation has taken since the Arab oil embargoes of the 1970’s. But its full costs will not be known for years. Critics contend it will make cars and trucks less safe and more expensive, divert farmland to costly production of feedstock for ethanol and other synthetic fuels, and raise the price of food because of competition for corn and grain between fuel refiners and livestock growers. - New York Times

With the strangle hold of the Middle East on our energy consumption needs we need this policy as a starting point. No matter what items were dropped from this piece of legislation it gets us started down the road to freedom and energy independence. Arguments from both sides of the aisle have finished for now and the debate on tweaking it will be up to the next President’s of this nation and for that matter the next generations coming up. What has been started with this legislation we can only hope that it will begin the process of new energy sources from all thoughts possible by the human mind.

There are so many payoffs to our nation with these changes in the future that leads me to a sense of comfort for the first time in my adult life. This is the first time in three plus decades that our nation and our Government has literally chucked the bird at the corporations here at home and around the world when it comes to our energy needs. Our children or future grandchildren will never be obligated or owned by a foreign nation that can dangle our way of life over their heads ever again. Energy sources made in the good old United States of America and not imported can never be a bad thing.

Somewhere at OPEC headquarters it could possibly be heard “Doo-ohhh!” when President Bush signs this into law. That would be similar to Homer Simpson with an Arabic accent but you get the general idea. At $2.00 production cost for Saudi Arabia and the market price flirting at $100 per barrel every couple of weeks the writing is on the wall for this over priced energy source.

The ramifications of American interest and involvement in the Middle East region with its never ending turmoil because of this policy will drop as our nation slowly backs away from their strangle hold on the oil supply. Energy independence will only work if we keep locking horns over it and debating this critical issue for all Americans. This should not have taken 32 years. I think we can do better than that now. Realistically, we do not have a choice other than to do better.

Papamoka

Originally posted at Papamoka Straight Talk 

We knew exactly how it was going to happen, and it happened exactly that way. The FCC — oblivious to millions of letters, phone calls and e-mails begging them not to — has gone ahead and voted in favor of greater media consolidation. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin thinks there’s been too much diversity in the media. His solution is to have just two or three megalomaniacs controlling everything we read and listen to. (I thought they already did.)

Kevin Martin you’re a flaming douchebag. You’re a motherfucking son of a whore who should have been shot at birth. Eat shit and choke on it. Hope you get an AIDS needle in your Christmas stocking.

As you’ve probably guessed, Heartattackfuck and his dopey sockpuppet are standing firmly behind Kevin Martin’s plan to strangle the media.

Twenty-six senators — Republicans and Democrats — had already written to Martin, warning that they would “immediately move legislation that will revoke and nullify the proposed rule.” These twenty-six senators include several powerful Republicans and all four Democratic presidential contenders. This issue needs to be front and center in the 2008 election. If you listen to the radio, watch TV or follow the news, this FCC action affects YOU.

This is a bipartisan issue. Several rightwing Christian organizations and the National Rifle Association, plus a lot of liberal and non-political groups, are bitterly opposed to the FCC’s attempts to strangle competition and diversity.

Bush has already threatened to veto any bill that attempts to override the FCC’s decision. Congress must be willing to attach this FCC override as an amendment to every — EVERY — bill they send to Bush.

And now, a public service message: Beware of Child Molesters!

slavery is still illegal here in America.

Who knew?