The Columbus Dispatch - Ohio's Greatest Ho Newspaper

We can do more than "trust in our leaders"!!!

Hey Folks -


In a September 28 column, in the Columbus newspaper, Joe Hallett suggested:

"All they could do -- all any of us can do -- is trust our leaders." (highlighted below)

There you have it, the major problem with this crazy nation: abdication of personal responsibility, trust in our betters, reliance on authority/"leaders"/preachers/experts.

TRUST!?!?

My ass!!!!!

His solution?? Put new leaders in at the top! (highlighted below) He doesn't even comment on what kind of leaders, just NEW leaders - as if sausage squeezed from the same press will fry up differently.

The point of his column is that he's always been able to find solace back home among the corn and soy bean fields where they are concerned with "democracy's stewardship," but this time it didn't work. Now, " little people are crying out for leadership."

These "little people," he says are like local Republican official, Sandy Barber, who "is a loyal partisan, but you won't find a Democrat in the county who doesn't like her. She played to win, but she didn't play to destroy her opponents, because she knew she'd be cheering with them at the next high-school football game."

Yeah, the world is just a small town where friday-night-football rules, protected from weightier matters by our beloved "leaders" in the State House and the White House. "Yep, elect 'em and fergit 'em. We're done with that 'til the next 'lection - unless a tit gits caught in the ringer; then we'll squeal bloody murder, and vote-in some other guy who smiles nice while he makes his promises."

Ignorance IS bliss, and "throw the bums out" as a solution is just a part of that ignorance.

- Uke Man


Folks are getting fed up with the same ol' politics as usual
Sunday, September 28, 2008

By Joe Hallett

Whenever I need perspective, I go home to Fulton County, where I cut my teeth as a weekly-newspaper editor at a time when everyone seemed less angry and I still had hair.

At the end of every drive through endless corn and soybean fields made possible by pioneers who dug ditches to drain the Great Black Swamp, I find old acquaintances who have done what Americans are supposed to do -- work hard, educate their children and look after their neighbors.

They are baby boomers, children of the 1960s, who fretted about America's future and, as a result, made the country better. Now, they are getting older and growing tired of the burden, eager to turn democracy's stewardship over to their children and grandchildren, while remaining ever protective of it, ready to step back in if needed.

As Wall Street's tumultuous week catapulted the country and world toward an uncertain and fearful future, I sought comfort in the familiar places and faces of home. But the usual uplifting visit did not occur, and perhaps for the first time ever, I returned to Columbus depressed. The economic and political factors dragging down the nation were reflected in conversations with three friends.

At Ickey's, the best place in Archbold to get a beer and burger, ever-affable James "Bummer" Dominique lamented that his business was down, maybe for the first time since his dad started the restaurant more than a half-century ago. A town once reputed to have more millionaires per capita than any other in the United States, even Archbold is suffering, especially after layoffs by its major employer, Sauder Woodworking.

"There's been a glut of homes on the market here, and Sauder cut back, and when Sauder cuts back, it makes a difference," Dominique said.

In tiny Pettisville, halfway between Archbold and Wauseon, I found Joe Rychener holding court at his feed company early in the morning with the farmers, teachers and businessmen who gather for coffee beneath a wood-carved sign: "Sit long, talk much."

Here, you can always get a dose of country wisdom, such as Ron Gearig's answer to my question about the local economy: "If you've got a good job, the economy's good. If you don't, it's bad."

The corn crop is hearty, and the farmers are doing pretty well, Rychener said. But many farmers also work in small factories, most related to the auto industry, and those jobs are drying up quickly.

"We're seeing that there are a lot more vets that need help," Rychener observed.

In Wauseon, at the county office building, Recorder Sandy Barber said housing transactions processed by her office are a fraction of what they were four years ago. Barber, who was chairwoman of the Fulton County GOP for 26 years, is a loyal partisan, but you won't find a Democrat in the county who doesn't like her. She played to win, but she didn't play to destroy her opponents, because she knew she'd be cheering with them at the next high-school football game.

In March, Barber retired as leader of the party. Part of the reason, she said, is that she just got worn down by the rancor and anger that has overtaken politics, particularly in Washington and Columbus.

Fulton County is 150 miles from Columbus and 600 miles from Washington. But what happens in those two capitals directly affects the lives of Dominique, Rychener, Barber and all the good people who share their little plot of God's country. Late last week, they watched with heightened anxiety and a sense of helplessness as President Bush and congressional leaders struggled over a plan to rescue the national economy.

All they could do -- all any of us can do -- is trust our leaders. If they fail, well, Bush will be gone in January, and the first thing the new Congress should do is replace House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, House Minority Leader John Boehner of West Chester, Senate President Harry Reid of Nevada and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

From Archbold to Pettisville to Wauseon to Columbus, we little people are crying out for leadership.

Joe Hallett is senior editor at The Dispatch.jhallett@dispatch.com

Happy Rosh Hashanah !!!

Hey Folks -


Phone atone!! (& Happy New Year !!!)


- Uke Man

"Let them eat debt."

"rancid, fraudulent, sub-prime, neo-con-man debt"

Eliot Spitzer, George Bush, and George Orwell

Hey Folks -

Give a listen. Our "leaders" are pigs - the ones from Animal Farm, and we are the "lower animals." Surprised!!??!! You shouldn't be.

THIS is the "Democracy" our "leaders" want spread around the world. Doesn't smell like democracy to me.

- Uke Man

All Animals are Equal - but some are more equal than others

Hey Folks -

The Dream World continues. The Fantasy Land creators of trickle-down/free market/flat tax/spread democracy/some men are more equal than others/freedom & justice for some/under god's thumb/of, by, and for business are squealing like cut pigs!! Demanding that their victims shoulder their masters' burdens so that Master can continue the lifestyle to which he has been accustomed.

Here are some appropriate comments in that regard by a smart woman from Toledo, Ohio!!

- Uke Man

I'm with Matt Damon

Hey Folks -

I wonder, too. How much shit does it take for some Americans to complain about the odor and the flies??

- Uke Man

Palin for President!! (He can see England from his house!!)

Hey Folks -

I like THIS Palin!!!

- Uke Man

Every Election is an IQ Test - how smart ARE we???

Hey Folks -

And this came out before all the "Free Market"/no regulation/"trickle-down shit hit the fan on Wall Street !!

Yep!! Just how smart IS the American electorate? We'll see in November.

- Uke Man

Tom Teepen: McCain's cheeky gambit: GOP vs. the GOP

Has there ever been a more peculiar presidential campaign than John McCain's?

Like the cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in the nests of other species -- and in the colors of their own eggs, no less -- McCain has brazenly swiped Barack Obama's themes of hope and change, terms Republicans had elaborately disdained until the pulse behind the words began to show some endurance.

The Republican nominee managed to talk his way through the Republican convention without mentioning the Republican incumbents, neither George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney, by name. He did once cite a certain "president of the United States," which may be taken as referring to, uh, umm? well, you know: Bush.

And now, a campaign commercial for the Republican candidates boasts of McCain and his running mate Sarah Palin that "He battled Republicans and reformed Washington. She battled Republicans and reformed Alaska."

We are to take it, then, that the two are credentialed for election by their established ability to fight Republicans. This would seem to be, actually, a terrific commercial for Barack Obama, who is a Democrat and whose heart as a result would likely be more into the task.

You have to hold a little compassion for McCain in this muddle. He doesn't dare run on the Republican record of the past eight years.

The president has an approval rating just a tick better than cholera's.

Bush pushed us into a needless, grinding war in Iraq that has cost us going on 4,500 dead, is headed, some economists calculate, toward $3 trillion in real money and trashed our international standing on a fling of kidnappings, endless detentions and torture and thus squandered the very considerable strategic advantages of U.S. soft power.

That historic miscalculation cost us victory in Afghanistan, the actual frontline against terrorism, and has left the U.S. military so worn out and worn down that it is questionable we can redeem the neglect there.

And the Republican Congresses offer no better a foundation for McCain. They were enthusiastic partners with Bush in polities and practices that turned a budget surplus into record deficits, putting us so deeply in hock to China that we could end up scrubbing woks in a Hong Kong restaurant if Beijing ever calls our paper.

Millions are losing their homes. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two great struts of the mortgage market, are in federal receivership. Banks approach the failure rate of a geriatric ward. Unemployment is steadily rising, jobs are evaporating, workers have increased their productivity but have seen their incomes deteriorate, the money spread between the rich and everybody else has widened.

So get this: Republicans are putting forward a ticket billing itself as anti-Republican in hopes of retaining Republican power. And who knows? Maybe the cheeky proposition that the answer to Republican misfeasance is more Republicans will sell. It is doing well so far.

But whatever the outcome, let's pause to savor the moment. It is historic. McCain is the first third-party candidate licensed to run against a major political party by that party itself.

Move over, Alice. We're all falling down the rabbit hole.

Tom Teepen writes for Cox News Service.
teepencolumn@earthlink.net

Not Members of "The Reality-Based Community"

Anal-ysis of American Perception

Hey Folks -

I can't guarantee what Barack Obama will do if ellected, but I CAN guarantee that the Republicans are low, slimy reptiles if they believe the stuff they are saying about Obama - OR - if they think you are stupid enough to believe it.

Whatever your position regarding the election, you can't read the analysis below without finding plenty to indict the Republican campaign.

- Uke Man


A Difference - A Powerful Analysis of American Perception

*If you're a Democrat who has been in the Senate for two years, you are a Washington 'insider'.

*If you're a Republican who has been in the Senate for 26 years, you are a Washington 'outsider'.

*If you're a Republican and make a commercial portraying your rival as wanting to teach 5 year olds how to have sex and repeatedly make claims proven utterly false- you're "running a hard-hitting campaign."

*If you're a democrat and joke about your rivals policies with an expression he himself has used many times, you are "savaging" your opponent and running a "dirty campaign."

*If you're white, win a beauty contest, attended 5-6 colleges before finally graduating, join the PTA, are voted to be mayor by 1000 people, govern a sparsely populated state for almost two years, and randomly get chosen at the last minute to be VP, you've 'lived the American dream '.

*If you're black, raised by a single mother, lived on food stamps, help the community, get into Harvard, become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, and are voted the presidential nominee by millions of people,you are 'uppity'.

*A Democrat who doesn't fully vet a VP is 'reckless'.

*A Republican who doesn't full y vet a VP is a 'maverick'.

*Get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you're a 'phony'.

*Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you're 'well loved'.

*If you manage a multi - million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an 'empty suit'.

*If you are a part-time mayor of a town of 7,000 people, you are an 'experienced executive'.

*If you cheated on your first wife with an heiress, you're a Christian.

*If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years, you're 'risky'

*If your pastor rails against inequality in the United States of America, you're an 'extremist'.

*If your pastor welcomes a sermon by Jews for Jesus, who preach that the killing of Jews by terrorists is a lesson to Jews that they must convert to Christianity, and once said that those who don't vote for George Bush will go to hell, Or if you embrace a preacher who calls catholicism a "great whore" and wants to protect Israel so we can bring about Armageddon you're representing 'fundamental Christian values'.

*If you're a Republican and you talk to America's enemies, it's 'diplomacy'.

*If you're a Democrat and you talk to America's enemies, it's 'appeasement'.

*If you're a Republican you think women should vote for a female candidate because "she's one of you", regardless of her stand on issues.

*If you're a Democrat and you vote for a woman who shares your ideology, you're 'playing the gender card'.

*If you are born in the 50th state of the union and got a passport at birth, you are too 'cosmopolitan' and let the 'corruption of European ideals affect your judgment.

*If you grew up in the 49th state to enter the union, and never had a passport until 2007, you are a 'true patriot of America'.

*If you grow up in Hawaii, you're 'exotic'.

*If you grow up in Alaska, you're the quintessential 'American story'.

*If you think it's okay to shoot wolves from helicopters, you're just an average American hockey mom having some fun.

*If you try to ensure those wolves are treated humanely, you are out of touch with the average American.

*If you are biracial, America needs more than 2 years and 3 major speeches to 'get to know you'.< /b>

*If you're white, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you're 'one of us'.

*If you're a Republican and are divorced once (Reagan, McCain) or twice (Giuliani, Gingrich, Limbaugh), you are a champion of Christian moral values.

*If you're a Democrat and want to marry your gay partner of 20 years, you are a threat to the institution of marriage.

*If you're a Republican and you don't wear a flag pin you're a 'maverick'.

*If you're a Democrat and you don't wear a flag pin, you're 'unpatriotic'.

*If a Republican agrees to a set date of troops leaving Iraq it is called 'horizons'.

*If a democrat calls for a set date of troops to leave Iraq, with the blessing of the Iraq government, it is called 'timetables', 'endangering our troops', 'cut and run' and 'wanting to lose the war for political purposes'.

*If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $ 70,000 to $ 400,000, then become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African American20voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend nearly 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend nearly 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsor 131 bills serve on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you are 'woefully inexperienced'.

*If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor of a state with 650,000 people, then you are 'well qualified' to lead the nation.

*If you question a black democrat's qualifications to lead the nation, you are "trying to protect the American people"

*If you question a female Republican's qualifications to lead the nation, you are "sexist" "demeaning to women" and picking on a girl.

*If you are a conservative and reveal that your son will be deployed on Sept. 11, but actually, that is only the date of the deployment ceremony, you are the mother of a patriot who is doing the best to confuse the terroris ts andprotect the troops being sent over.

*If you are a democrat and announce the same thing, you would be accused of pandering to the public and trying to garner public emotion through a lie.

*If you name your kid 'Barack', you're 'unpatriotic'.

*If you name your kid 'Track', you're 'colorful'.

*If you give your wife a fist-tap on stage, it's a 'terrorist fist jab'.

*If your daughter licks her palm so that she can slick down your youngest child's hair on national TV it's an 'adorable moment'.

*If you're 18, white, and get a 16 year old girl pregnant 'life happens'.

*If you're 18, black, and impregnate a 16 year old girl, you're a 'registered sex offender.

*Black teen pregnancy? A 'crisis' in America.

*White teen pregnancy? A 'blessed event".

Lords of the F-LIES

McCain-Palin - Liar-Liar- Forked Tongue on Fire

Hey Folks -

You heard it here already - a ways back (see the familiar picture above). Now you can read the chapter and verse, supplied by Robyn Blumner.

These Republican jerks have no shame (they should check in with Republican snake-oil-salesman Billy Bennet who a while back sold his Book of Virtues by ranting about how shame is good - mainly for poor, unwed mothers).

McCain-Palin, good Christians both, devoutly believe in The Nine Commandments !! Yeah, there used to be Ten, but for the duration of the campaign, "Thou Shalt not Lie" has been relegated to the Apocrypha.

God's speed, Forked Tongue Express !!!

- Uke Man


Lies are working for McCain-Palin
Monday, September 15, 2008
By Robyn Blumner

The McCain-Palin ticket is having remarkable success with its revolutionary campaign tactic that I call "Lying Eyes."

I've named it after that classic joke about a man caught by his wife in flagrante delicto with another woman. He denies the affair, saying, "Who are you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?"

It doesn't seem to matter what the facts are or how directly they contradict the candidates' claims; the McCain-Palin campaign is sticking with its fantasy version.

The storyline in a presidential campaign has always been important. It is the incisive narrative of who the candidates are and what they represent. But the McCain-Palin campaign has put way too much story in storyline, making things up and selling pablum to an apparently credulous electorate.

The most obvious example is the leviathan pork-barrel $223 million Bridge to Nowhere that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin claims to have opposed. She has put this at the top of her resume for the job of vice maverick-in-chief.

It doesn't seem to matter that, as has been reported endlessly, when Palin ran for governor she endorsed the bridge project that would have connected a tiny island with few residents to the mainland city of Ketchikan. She abandoned it when the project became politically radioactive. Then, as governor, Palin kept the hundreds of millions in taxpayer money, redirecting it for other transportation projects.

It is as if these facts are not in evidence. McCain-Palin campaign ads are still touting how "She stopped the Bridge to Nowhere." And on the stump she continues to say, "I told Congress thanks but no thanks."

We also know that Palin is queen of winning federal earmarks. As mayor of Wasilla, she hired a private lobbyist to help bring in $27 million in earmarks to the town, then home to about 7,000 people. As governor, she has made the largest per-capita federal earmark request in the nation, totaling nearly $750 million.

So when the McCain-Palin campaign runs on an end-to-earmarks message and seeks to tar Barack Obama with his earmark requests that are modest by comparison, it is once again resorting to those Lying Eyes.

Now let's talk about taxes. The campaign of John McCain has put out a series of scary campaign ads about Obama's tax plan. Newsweek has dubbed them a "pattern of deceit."

One of McCain's new ads says that Obama plans to impose "painful tax increases on working American families" and past ads have said Obama wanted to raise taxes on "families" making just $42,000 a year.

Here's the truth: Obama's plan would substantially cut taxes to all but the wealthiest families -- far more than McCain's tax plan would. But if you're yearning for some more hefty tax cuts for the nation's rich, then McCain's your man.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has analyzed both campaigns' tax plans and found that Obama's would cut taxes for 81.3 percent of all households and for 95.5 percent of households with children.

Going with Obama's plan, according to the center, would reward middle-income taxpayers to the tune of $2,200 in tax cuts annually by 2012. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent of income would face an average tax increase of $19,000.

Under McCain's tax plan, middle-income taxpayers would see a rise of $1,400 in after-tax income by 2012. But for those in the top 1 percent, McCain would cut their taxes by more than $125,000 annually.

McCain's plan would increase the national debt by $5 trillion by 2018, while Obama's plan would increase it by $3.5 trillion, according to the center. Yet McCain's ads warn that Obama's plan would bring about "years of deficits."

The only thing "maverick" about McCain's use of lies to smear his opponent is how breathtakingly blatant they are. If the nation falls for this, the Lying Eyes campaign will have succeeded, and for all of us with eyes that saw through to the truth: tears.

Robyn Blumner writes for Tribune Media Services.
blumner@sptimes.com

H L Mencken

Pay no attention to the Palin behind the curtain burning books !!

Hey Folks -

It's difficult to read Ellen Goodman's column below without thinking that any woman who buys the Republican spin on Sarah Palin is an idiot. Likewise for any male erstwhile Hillary-supporter who has hopped on the barracuda boat.

Well, they can't be very rational. As Goodman points out, the R's have been proudly keeping women down for decades, and Sarah's ideas cast her not as Hillary but as Bizarro Hillary.

The basic dichotomy of the culture wars is Faith versus Science. It is a conflict between those who believe what they want to believe and those who believe what the material world seems to indicate - between those who believe what they believe because some authority tells them to, or because they feel that they should, or because they are afraid not to - and those that attempt to discern reality based on facts and the scientific method.

When it comes to Palin, few thinking people find her worthy of high office; the facts scream out against her. The lies, half-truths, dodges, and folksy schmaltz just doesn't cut it. But for people who reflexively look to their gut, their emotions, or some "higher" authority; facts are irrelevant; lies don't matter (they aren't even recognized as lies); and anyone attempting to point out threatening facts are demonized and ignored.

Republicans know this, and that's why McCain's campaign is slandering the Democrats even more than McCain was once slandered by George Bush's henchmen.

So, we'll see. What kind of people are we? Every election is an IQ test, and as H.L. Mencken said, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." Our scores will be published in November.

- Uke Man

Something amiss with GOP's embrace of Palin
Friday, September 12, 2008
By Ellen Goodman


Who would have dreamed that a hockey mom could produce such a bounce? But now that so many women have skated over to her side, allow me another metaphor. Sarah Palin is the Zamboni of this campaign.

She rolled onto the ice, did a couple of turns around the rink and managed to clear off all the nasty old Republican detritus. She gave the Grand Old (Boy) Party a new image, or at least a new surface.

Let us remember that Republicans had long targeted working mothers as the centerpiece of the culture wars. They ran an entire convention on Marilyn Quayle's line that "Most women do not wish to be liberated from their essential natures as women."

Now their heroine is the in-your-face governor who once said, "To any critics who say a woman can't think and work and carry a baby at the same time, I'd just like to escort that Neanderthal back to the cave."

Hey, wasn't that our line? Weren't the Neanderthals who wanted women to stay in their traditional roles these same conservatives? Suddenly, we are watching the parade of the flip-floppers, patriarchs with pedicures.

Who can forget James Dobson, who blamed the decline and fall of morality on "working mothers and permissiveness," and told us that real women "are merely waiting for their husbands to assume leadership." He now says "I believe Sarah Palin is God's answer."

Who can forget Phyllis Schlafly, who said the "flight from home is a flight from yourself, from responsibility, from the nature of woman." She now says that "I think a hardworking, well-organized CEO type can handle it very well."

Who can forget Pat Buchanan, scriptwriter of the culture wars? He now says, "For heaven's sakes, I mean, can't you have a traditional woman who is also a -- you know, a beauty queen and is a governor? What's the matter?"

Who can forget all this? I'll tell you who can forget: Everyone! Sarah the Zamboni has cleared the ice of this pesky historical memory.

Mind you, sexism is alive and well, although it is enchanting to watch the folks who criticized Hillary Clinton's supporters for whining take off after the media for vetting. Back when a Hillary hater asked John McCain "How do we stop the bitch?" he responded, "Excellent question!" Now his campaign says it's "offensive and disgraceful" of Obama to use the word lipstick. How do you spell chutzpah?

Nevertheless, the good news for this cockeyed optimist is that Palin has made it politically incorrect to criticize working mothers. The mommy wars wage on in playgrounds and the blogosphere, but among candidates and in politics, working moms are the demilitarized zone of the cultural battleground.

There is, however, another divide between left and right that has reappeared with the governor's star turn: the difference between those who think a woman can have it all as long as she can do it all by herself, and those who think that it is neither wimpish nor whiny to push for some help.

The Emergence of Sarah Palin is actually the Return of Supermom. Mother of five, moose killer and marathoner, she was back at work three days after her son's birth, juggling a Blackberry and a breast pump while making Helen Reddy look like a slacker. Call her a role model or a parody, but the fresh face of 2008 looks like the exhausted face of the 1980s.

The conservative virtue of Palin's life is that she doesn't need anything from anyone outside the family. She isn't lobbying for, say, maternity leave, equal pay or universal pre-K. Let alone universal health insurance. Or college-tuition breaks, especially for that soon-to-be-teen-mom and her soon-to-be husband. Compare this to the actual Wal-Mart mom juggling day-care fees and gasoline bills, fantasizing about a job with benefits and the flexibility to be home when the kids are sick.

Somehow, the original women's- movement slogan, the personal is political, has been turned on its head. It's more fun to talk about the candidate's family and eyeglasses than Iraq and the recession. If Bush was the guy you wanted to have a beer with, Palin is the gal you want to go to aerobics with. The political is waaay too personal.

So let us applaud the way Palin has pushed the working mother out of the firing line of the culture wars. But what about those family issues flattened by Sarah Zamboni?

Ellen Goodman writes for The Boston Globe.
ellengoodman@globe.com

John McCain finds his Fascist Girl

Hey Folks!!

Looks like life is imitating art. A good while back I wrote "Fascist Girl" as an attack on aristocratic, Bible-thumping, stiff-necked fascist types so obviously infused in the Republican party/Fundamentalist/Business axis.

Now, it seems, John McCain has taken the song to heart - but without recognizing the irony (one is reminded of Reagan's use of "Born in the USA").

The sound of this COMFEST video isn't great, but you'll get the picture. Imagine Johnboy singing to Sarah!!

- Uke Man

McCain:Lies / Palin: more Lies

McCain / Pig / McCain / Pig / McCain / Pig???

You decide !!

Pitbull?? Palin?? Pitbull?? Palin??

You decide!!

2 Gigs This Weekend - Ukulele Man & his Prodigal Sons

Hey Folks -

Ukulele Man & his Prodigal Sons will be playing two gigs this coming weekend, September 13 & 14.

Saturday we play in the early afternoon (12:45) at the Via Colori festival at Goodale Park. The festival is free.
Via Colori is a fund raiser for the Arts Community. Artists decorate the streets with their beautiful chalk works for you to take in and enjoy. There is music throughout, and we are part of it.


Please stop by.


Via Colori® Columbus is being held on September 13 and 14 in Goodale Park. It is free to attend and opens at 10:00 AM on each day. On Saturday, it closes with a street party that runs until 10:00 PM. On Sunday, it closes at 5:00 PM
Via Calori website: http://www.viacolori.com/columbus.asp

Some photos of past Via Colori art: http://www.in-and-around-columbus.com/via-colori-in-columbus.html and http://flickr.com/groups/88258284@N00


On Sunday we are playing a benefit concert for Ma Miller, a folkie and cancer victim who has no health insurance and is already in debt for $40,000.

The show begins at 7:00 P.M. at the Shedd Theater, 549 Franklin Ave., Columbus, OH 43215 (Downtown Columbus).

A $10 donation is requested.

From East Broad St. go South on Washington St. to Franklin. Go east (left) on Franklin to the 549 address.

Hope to see you there!!


- Uke Man

One Person's Pork is another Person's Sports Facility

Palin isn't against pork - as long as it's cut to her specifications

Here's the home-report on Sarah Palin

Hey Folks -

When I was an evil, local union "boss," and a new administrator was hired or under consideration by the school board, I'd check in with the union folks at the school where he or she last served. I was always better informed than the slo-mo "deciders" who did the hiring.

Well, below we have an open letter from someone who lives in Mayor Palin's Alaskan town who has known her for years and who has seen her in political action.

Of course, you might question the credibility or accuracy of the letter-writer, but put that up against your own feel for the validity of her comments and compare that to the obviously spun Republican pronouncements.

In my opinion most or all of what she says is true. Even if you are not as certain as I, this will certainly give you something to consider.

I heard about this on NPR in a broadcast that really didn't share much hard information. You can hear that segment at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94332543

- Uke Man

About Sarah Palin: A Letter From Anne Kilkenny
Sep 3, 2008

What follows is an open letter written by a resident of Wasilla, Alaska named Anne Kilkenny

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe”.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months. She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby. She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit. Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans. Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters. She’s smart.


Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.


Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.


The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.


While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city. As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.


In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.


She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideasor compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.


While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.


Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).


As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.


She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.


Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.


When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job.


In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).


As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.


As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.


She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.


Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.


They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.


As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.


Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked toglobal warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.


McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.


CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years

•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since

•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.



•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.



•political maverick: not at all



•gutsy: absolutely!



•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.



•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no



•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.



•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.



•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents



•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.



•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

Did I say she believes in Jesus?

Jesus must be in vogue at the moment

She believes in Jesus, but

Jesus is ashamed of her

The Jesus Story - Uke Man style

Folks -



Well, we now have a Jesus freak running for vice president. People like her make the case for atheism (God told me to say that).

If there were a god, and he made us in his image; either he is a poor craftsman, or - if he got us just right - he is a really messed up dude.

Here's an original of the Uke Man's from his "spiritual but not religious" days:

"I Believe in Jesus"







Jesus has left the building.



- Uke Man

the "Illegal Alien Problem" exposed !!!

Hey Folks -


Trying to understand the "Illegal Alien Problem"?? Well, it's all there in the AP article below, if you understand the context, the underlying dynamics:


1. Business/Money comes first.


2. Xenophobes need a bone thrown their way periodically.


3. The goal is to maintain the status quo - which keeps wages low, exploitable workers plentiful, profits high, and aids in dividing and conquering the people.

I've highlighted some of the article below in blue. My comments are in red.




Hospital chided for reporting illegal applicant
By ANABELLE GARAY, Associated Press Writer Mon Sep 1, 4:18 AM ET



CARROLLTON, Texas - Maria Martinez' attempt to land a cafeteria job at a suburban Dallas hospital got her arrested, jailed and deported.

She did use a counterfeit social security on her application to Trinity Medical Center, but her relatives and supporters wonder whether the hospital overreacted by calling the police.

During yet another year marked by several high profile [for show???] immigration raids targeting both undocumented workers and the companies who hire them, the Martinez case raises questions about what employers can or should do if they discover an applicant is not authorized to work legally in the U.S. The raids say: "Turn 'em in," but reality indicates otherwise.

A spokeswoman for the medical center here contends the hospital was simply following policy and has a responsibility to report criminal activity, including possible identity theft. Seems sensible and correct - law-abiding!!

It may be hospital policy, but employers aren't required to report a worker or applicant suspected of being in the U.S. illegally [Well, then how can employers be raided and targeted for NOT doing what they are NOT required to do?], say immigration attorneys and enforcement officials.

"For an employer to go ahead and take it upon themselves ... to report that is unusual," said immigration attorney Kathleen Walker ["unusual"!! Since when is it unusual to report a crime to law enforcement!! Obviously, a different approach is being used with the "illegal alien problem"]. "There's no obligation on my part to go call law enforcement." Why doesn't government want to know?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok agreed, saying employers and local police typically don't have the training needed to determine whether someone is in the country illegally. And they ACTUALLY think they are supposed to be stopping the employment of "illegal aliens" - which they are not (see #'s 1 & 3 above).

Carrollton's mayor has emphasized that one of his priorities is to rid the city of illegal immigrants [see #2 above]. The neighboring suburb of Farmers Branch has unsuccessfully tried to prohibit landlords from renting houses and apartments to tenants who cannot prove they are in the U.S. legally [# 2 trumped by #'s 1 & 3] .

But hospital spokeswoman Susan Watson said the decision to report Martinez had nothing to do with the immigration debate in suburban Dallas. The hospital reported what it considered a crime, she said. Yeah, but even if forgery and identity-theft, as well as illegal entry, were involved, turning the woman in works against #'s 1 & 3.

"Regardless of whether they were an illegal alien, legal immigrant or an American citizen, it still wouldn't have mattered. They still would have been reported," she said. Makes sense based on the common (mistaken) understanding of the situation.

Watson said it was the first time in at least two years that the hospital reported a possible crime involving a worker or applicant to police. But officials are always on alert because many employees have access to patients' medical records and other private information, she said.

Immigration attorneys and advocates are concerned that many employers have become overly cautious, to the point that they might be bending or breaking the law. They - like the feds, but for different reasons - want their clients left alone

"When people are being prescreened before a decision to hire is being made, then you could have exposure to discrimination charges," said Walker, an El Paso lawyer and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Recent workplace raids around the country have increasingly led to prosecuting unauthorized workers for identity theft and use of someone else's social security number. But those prosecutions have stemmed from federal investigations into workers at specific companies, not calls from an employer to local police. That way the feds can execute "show" raids to placate the xenophobes, but do minimal damage to business interests. Willy-nilly, full-blown involvement by fearful local businesses and demagogic local politicians could get the "crack-down" out of hand.

Still, such raids have left employers edgy, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at New York University School of Law.

"I think employers are beginning to feel the pinch and in many cases I think they are trying not only to be sort of extra cautious but ... to be pre-emptive," said Chishti. "What's troubling is that employers have taken it upon themselves the job of ascertaining whether a crime has been committed." This is totally unnecessary if not untrue. Every worker needs a Social Security number. When the worker is hired. that number is sent to the federal Social Security authorities who then let the employer know whether anything is fishy.

Although we have been told that there was no way to check for illegal workers or that it would be too cumbersome to check, the Social Security department has been doing that for years and has been notifying employers. The fact is that, just as with the "bookies" among us, everybody involved knows who the "illegals" are, but they look the other way.

Martinez, a single mother of a 3-year-old son and a teenage daughter, acknowledged buying the social security card for $110 at a Wal-Mart., according to police records [So, going after Martinez could result in trouble for Wal-Mart, and we don't want that!!]. She also had a second social security card and two counterfeit cards stating she was a legal permanent resident.

She had planned to fight the state charge, but after being held in jail for nearly three weeks, she agreed to be deported to Mexico. Her son joined her there.

"She told me to please forgive her," said Martinez' 19-year-old daughter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she also is in the U.S. illegally. "She told me she wasn't strong enough to fight."

Someone once said that every system is perfectly designed to give the results it gives. This twisted drama is not an accident. It is the inevitable result of the twisted system, the ACTUAL system, in which we live.

- Uke Man

John McCain - Rabid Republican Maverick !!

McCain the sly Maverick !!!!

Folks -

You GOTTA hear this!!!

McCain's Voice Mail to Palin Leaked to Press

http://www.236.com/blog/w/lee_camp/mccains_voice_mail_to_palin_le_8644.php

- Uke Man

Ossifer, arrest the man on the Forked-tongue Express!!

Hey Folks –

This is how it works:

“Did you know that it is a crime to tell a lie to the federal government? Even if your lie is oral and not under oath? Even if you have received no warnings of any kind? Even if you are not trying to cheat the government out of money? Even if the government is not actually misled by your falsehood? Well it is.”

See the article below. Martha Stewart went to jail for lying to a federal official - under the statute discussed below.

BUT!! Here’s what I want to know:

If a citizen can go to jail and be heavily fined

for lying to a Federal Official,


Why can’t we put federal officials in jail

for lying to citizens?



Maybe it’s because there aren’t enough cells.

- Uke Man








From: http://library.findlaw.com/2004/May/11/147945.html


FindLaw > Library


How to Avoid Going to Jail under 18 U.S.C. Section 1001 for Lying to Government Agents


By Solomon L. Wisenberg of Wisenberg & Wisenberg PLLC


What do Martha Stewart and enemy combatant Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri have in common? They were both indicted, under Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001, for lying to federal government agents. Ms. Stewart now stands convicted of intentionally misleading SEC and FBI officials who questioned her about insider trading. Mr. Al-Marri was one of several hundred immigrants who voluntarily submitted to FBI interviews in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was later charged with lying, during his interview, about the timing of a previous trip to the United States. Here are two criminal defendants from widely divergent backgrounds. Yet both were ensnared by Section 1001, a perennial favorite of federal prosecutors.


Did you know that it is a crime to tell a lie to the federal government? Even if your lie is oral and not under oath? Even if you have received no warnings of any kind? Even if you are not trying to cheat the government out of money? Even if the government is not actually misled by your falsehood? Well it is.

Title 18, United States Code, Section 1001 makes it a crime to: 1) knowingly and willfully; 2) make any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation; 3) in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative or judicial branch of the United States. Your lie does not even have to be made directly to an employee of the national government as long as it is "within the jurisdiction" of the ever expanding federal bureaucracy. Though the falsehood must be "material" this requirement is met if the statement has the "natural tendency to influence or [is] capable of influencing, the decision of the decisionmaking body to which it is addressed." United States v. Gaudin, 515 U.S. 506, 510 (1995). (In other words, it is not necessary to show that your particular lie ever really influenced anyone.) Although you must know that your statement is false at the time you make it in order to be guilty of this crime, you do not have to know that lying to the government is a crime or even that the matter you are lying about is "within the jurisdiction" of a government agency. United States v. Yermian, 468 U.S. 63, 69 (1984). For example, if you lie to your employer on your time and attendance records and, unbeknownst to you, he submits your records, along with those of other employees, to the federal government pursuant to some regulatory duty, you could be criminally liable.

Even in our age of ever expanding federal power, the breadth of this statute (and the discretion it lodges in prosecutors) is awesome. Congress has regulated so many areas of our lives and federalized so many functions that the reach of Section 1001 is virtually boundless. This is what caused many federal courts to create an "exculpatory no" doctrine, holding that falsely answering "no" to an inquiry from a federal agent was, standing alone, not a crime under Section 1001. In 1998, however, the United States Supreme Court rejected this doctrine (as being inconsistent with legislative intent) in Brogan v. United States, 522 U.S. 398, 805 (1998). Thus, the only avenue for reform with respect to Section 1001 is in Congress, where politicians seldom get brownie points for narrowing the reach of federal criminal statutes.