39 and Holding

I generally read my daily newspaper in an orderly fashion.  This is not the way it is put together by the publisher, but “to each his own”.

As a former publisher, general manager, photographer and reporter covering local breaking news and sports, I also have served as a rewriter, so I understand that it takes advertising to make the payroll and pay the printing bills.

As a subscriber however I choose to immediately toss out 95%  plus of all advertising, as they just interrupt my daily perusal of what I feel is of importance to me.

I thoroughly enjoy using my internet by being able to read newspapers from all over the world, and cross compare their take on a given news event.  Often the various reports don’t seem to be covering the same event, but this gives me insight into how other reporters view the world events.

Now that we are getting into the November elections it is even more fun to read the various international print media's reporting.  It rapidly becomes apparent that these folks have absolutely no concept of how we Americans determine who is going to occupy the White House for the next four years.  

I am going to close this entry with the following observation, “These folks are akin to the average American citizens, as they have the same lack of the electoral concept.”

I received this from a friend who is also a writer, and am passing it along for your information.  As those who follow my blogs are aware, I am an Independent Moderate so this is not a negative piece, just an opinion of one who has the credentials to offer it.

Amvet

Subject: Fwd: Jack Wheeler
 
 
 
 Jack Wheeler is a brilliant man who was the author of
Regan's strategy to break the back of the Soviet Union with
the star wars race and expose their inner weakness.  For years
he wrote a weekly intelligence update that was extremely
interesting and well structured and informed.  He
consults(ed) with several mega corporations on global trends
and the future, etc.  I think he is in semi-retirement now.  He is
a true patriot with a no-nonsense approach to everything.  He
is also a somewhat well known mountain climber and adventurer.
 
 
Subject: Dr. Jack Wheeler Regarding Obama
 
Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
 
 The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored
empty suit. No resume, no accomplishments, no experience, no original
ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of
how the world works, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid
of real substance.
 
He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him
is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African, Arabic
surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim
his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya . Only a small part of him is
African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he "is"
exclusively.
 
What he isn't -- not a genetic drop of -- is 'African-American,' the
descendant
of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships. He hasn't a
single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave
owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for
centuries until the British ended it.
 
Let that sink in: Obama is not the descendant of slaves, he is the
descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.
 
It's something even Hillary doesn't understand -- how some complete neophyte
came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is
beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents
reject
Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it from the
evil of being human to the evil of being white.
 
Thus Obama has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution from
the
Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no faults or
flaws of his
can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make of any kind can be
effective
against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy Clothed In Human Flesh being their
Savior is all the more cause for liberals to worship him: Credo quia
absurdum, I believe it because it is absurd.
 
 Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and
are
in no desperate need of a phony savior.
 
His candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any free
thinking American.

The e-mail closed with the following, *Pass this on to every free thinking American you  know!*
 
 

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are without a doubt in my mind the two biggest terrorists in the United States.

We voting citizens, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents, sent our members of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate to serve we citizens, and what have they done?  

They have done nothing to substantially make the necessary changes in our disgraceful national debt, solutions to our stupid energy problems ( that most high schoolers could suggest corrective actions), and even though a consortium of leading Democrats and Republicans have offered a bill to drill for oil on available land, they have instead resorted to childish behavior such as turning off the lights and taking a paid vacation at tax payers expense in their efforts to kill this legislation.

Going back to my first paragraph, I repeat that they have done something that foreign terrorists have never been able to do and that is to grind  a primary source  of our government to a screeching halt, and worse yet making we tax payers foot the bill for their misdeeds.

These folk and their ilk should be, in my opinion, drummed out of their offices and possibly found criminally responsible of obstruction of their responsibilities as leaders of our legislative branch, with appropriate fines and or/ jail terms.

I had not planned on becoming involved in the political brouhaha until after the opponents for president had been officially selected...........However, I feel that an observation at this time is appropriate, and that is that Senator Obama has somehow managed to shoot himself in the media foot and Senator McCain has begin to learn how to keep his foot out of his mouth.

In other words these two have somehow managed to spend millions of dollars and are running at a dead heat.

The Libertarians are looking to be a spoiler for both candidates and not having a chance for beating either of the two top dogs.

I really feel that this is time and money wasted by all and sundry, and come November, we will be psychological basket cases unless we stop watching the television and news media's with their talking heads and inept editors and start using our computers and common sense prior to casting their votes.

This is a big week in Austin, as the city hosts two, (count em, 2) bloggers national conventions, one for folks of the liberal political persuasion and one for the conservative.

Now this puts me into a real quandary as I have been blogging for around three (3) years and am a publicly recognized Independent moderate.

I get several thousand hits for each blog and as I read the Statesman and check the local news TV affiliates there is some complaining about the lack of revenue for these bloggers writings.  Some of them have hired staffers and writers and they for the most part I have determined that they have a day job and blog for a second source of income or some other reason.

I guess that I have missed the boat, I checked my blog sites and here's the breakdown. For my blog “Austin Talks”, I am sponsored by Sprint, Falcon Pointe, Chili’s, Austin 360 Spa Guide, Viva/aerobus, and Metaclin. For the “MyFoxAustin” effort, I only got Capitol Hundai, and Federal Credit Union, bummer.

There is a downside to all the above, I, DO NOT, receive any spondulics from these advertisers.  

On the other side, I do not have to pay annual fees for my website, I can sit at my home office with a couple of computers and high speed internet connection, which gives me world wide news at the flick of a mouse to my Firefox browser and a TV for Cspan and other such drivel in the U.S. I have a cell phone with an Austin direct line which gives me no minute charges to many of my sources.

I write what I want, when I want, and have absolutely no deadlines.

If you want to read some of my stuff, just click on your browser, go to Google and type in, “Zpadre Comments”, last time I looked I found three pages of my efforts.

I will be getting involved in the upcoming electoral process, but am saving myself for the dash to November. So, “Keep those cards and letters coming”, to coin a phrase.

jandrews31@rr.com



  

Lets see if I’ve got this right. The airlines have gone up with their prices.....reduced services.....and all in the name of high fuel prices.  

O.K., we common folk are faced with higher and higher fuel prices.....we are faced with changing our eating habits to be able to afford to drive to work.  Our vacations are reduced to staying home and mowing the grass, so we can put away a few bucks to get our kids an education.

My question is how did this all come about?  There is no one answer, but we have been able to name  several contributors.  We have had a legislative branch spend money they didn’t have like a drunken sailor on shore leave.  We have airlines basing their revenue on revenue from the postal service.  I could care less that a first class letter is carried on a truck or bus which means an additional day or so enroute to its destination at a tiny fraction of the cost of handling it several times to get it to an aircraft that can save a day of delivery time.

The automobile industry is one of the worst contributors to the problem with their greedy desire to make it a social force to own a bigger, faster and less fuel efficient autmobile.  

To add to this we must now face the worst offender, the American public.  We fall prey to the TV and print media’s bruhaha that we must not let the next door neighbor have something, from a newer  bigger, faster automobile, a bigger TV, a larger fishing boat, and live in a house that can meet the needs of many times the number of occupants.  

I stand firm with former Senator Phil Gramm with his assessment that we Americans have become a nation of “whiners”.  We need to kick the slats out of our political leaders inside the Beltway, suck in our gut, and get out of the business of trying to tell the rest of the world how to govern themselves.

The Iraqi political leaders have asked us to leave and this opens the door for us to get the heck out of Dodge because we were asked.  It is a sorry way to save our face, but it’s time to face the music.  

We need to control our borders, and balance our budget.

Now I ask you. is this simplistic approach all that wrong?

Slick Willie Clinton has just alienated virtually every veteran and their families regardless of party preference.

This draft dodging, so and so, has once again let his vulgar mouth overload his sad excuse for a brain.

He has the nerve to recommend that we voters oppose Sen. McCain on the grounds that a veteran who has spent time as a POW can unexpectedly “Snap” therefore the Senator should be unacceptable as our president.

My comment is that this mouthy ex president should be publicly tied to a post and receive a thorough thrashing, and all his presidential benefits be revoked.

I personally do not agree with all of Senator McCain’s views, but I am going to support him because of his service record as well as his many other attributes.

Thank God for the many men of his stature who have given so much to our country.

Barack Obama has insulted this proud old veterans intelligence with his remarks of July 3rd in a veterans town hall meeting in Fargo, N.D.

He has an impending trip planned to Iraq where he, and I quote, “I am going to do a thorough assessment when I’m there” and “ I’ll have more information and continue to refine my policy”.  

As a writer and political observer for over 50 years I will try to define these PC bites into straight talk.

I’m going to Iraq to get some publicity for my campaign and a bunch of pictures for my staff to use.

It’s this kind of talk that the average American voter views as “Talking down on me”, and bodes ill for the Democrats in November.

Mr. Obama, how dare you insult my intelligence with your verbal blatherings.

To follow up on this outburst, less than four hours later at a hastily called news conference he went on the defensive of his earlier remarks with, “Apparently I was not clear enough this morning”.

Well, Mr. Obama, you didn’t fool the press and you are not going to fool the Americans who read, listen and vote their conscience either, so stick to your slick willie style of verbosity and start looking for a day job.

Not a single leader, journalist or businessman has mentioned the only way to lower gas prices, that being a price rollback.
 
The oil and gas industries were regulated from WW ll till the 70's. Free markets with supply and demand factored in do not exist without competition. Major oil companies and the cartel have destroyed competition and can now charge what they will, whether it kills the U.S. economy or not. America has always controlled industries that can charge whatever they want. A surge in free enterprise propaganda during the last several years has poisoned the minds of Americans and further enriched Big Business, where free enterprise flourishes while the rest of the nation dwindles and dies.

This from my mail. Makes me go Hmmmm!
Amvet

Subject: Dangerous
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:52:35 +0000

We must be very careful who we vote for, I think this man could be very DANGEROUS indeed, for the United States & all its' people; Pray for the right man to be our next President of our Country! God Bless America!       Subject:  Did you know.....       From Rush Limbaugh's radio show today.....      RUSH:   Hey, folks,   Want to participate in tweaking the Drive-By Media?  You   are aware, probably, that Barack Obama lost his bearings recently and   said that he was going to campaign in all 57 states.  You heard this?   And everybody chalked it up to, 'Well, he's tired.'   You know, this is a Dan Quayle moment.  I mean, Dan Quayle goes out there   and misspells 'potato,' and we still hear jokes about it.  Barack Obama   says he's gonna go out and campaign in 57 states, he was just tired, you   know, it's been such a long campaign, he's been so many places, he   probably thinks there are 57 states.  Well, I have here a printout from a   website called the International Humanist and Ethical Union.   And here is how the second paragraph of an article on that website   begins.  'Every year from 1999 to 2005 the organization of the Islamic   conference representing the 57 Islamic states presented a resolution to   the United Nations commission on human rights called combating.'   ( is   there any doubt which side of the fence this bastard is on? Ginger)   We're participating here in a tweak of the media.  Obama said he's going   to campaign in 57 states, and it turns out that there are 57 Islamic   states.  There are 57 Islamic states.  'Every year from 1999 to 2005, the   organization of the Islamic conference representing the 57 Islamic   states,' this is from the International Humanist and Ethical Union.  And   the title of the piece here is, 'How the Islamic states dominate the UN   human rights council,' and there are 57 of them.       So did Obama just lose his bearings, or was this a more telling slip,   ladies and gentlemen?

As I said at the beginning, "Makes me go Hmmmmm!"

 

With the finger pointing at almost everybody that is engaged in the economic problems now facing the United States, and rest assured we do indeed have some SEVERE economic problems, it is my conclusion that it comes straight back to one simple word, “Greed”.

The greed factor has been aggravated by out media outlets by money hungry advertising of products the majority if which encourage the gullible stupidity of the American buying public.  We have to have more, bigger, faster, homes, automobiles, boats and second houses.

Does this observation ring a bell? It should sound a warning, loud and clear that we are building a house of cards that are now sounding a warning that if we do not heed it will certainly reduce our once powerful country to one that is just barely able to keep itself fiscally afloat.

Our national government cannot escape it’s share of the blame, with its greed factor, witness the “earmarks” attached to almost every bill that is sure to pass and be signed into law.

The totally obscene Washingtonian waste factor can be cut off if the voters will go to the polls, after having made an intelligent appraisal, and make our political leadership feel the sting of an aroused electorate.

As a proud American veteran I can only plead through these writings for my fellow Americans to wake up and smell the coffee and modify their lifestyles, and get back control of our political destiny and we can surely prevail.

Please remember that our government is composed of three, repeat three, branches and we voters can control those who represent us in each of the branches.

OPEC sells oil for $136.00 a barrel.
OPEC nations buy U.S. grain at $7.00 a bushel.
Solution: Sell grain for $136.00 a bushel.
Can't buy it?  Tough!   Eat your oil!
Ought to go well with a nice thick grilled fillet of camel BLEEP!!!

Think it over !

As a pet lover I was appalled at the NAACP'S disgusting take on the recent offer for a special discount for the adoption of black dogs and cats.

To carry this absurdity to the extreme, we should not sell nor own black vehicles, and the Statesman should stop using Black ink on White paper.

As a pastor, I thought that God created ALL the races, but what do I know?

These folks have just made up my mind not to support Obama.

The airlines get no sympathy from me.  These guys act like that we are a bunch of lambs being led to slaughter, and I, for one, have been complaining about their high handed treatment of the folks who spend their money with them instead of treating them like customers.

These Ariel bus companies have become so used to adding surcharges to their fares and reducing the service to the public that it has become their way of life.

Well the chickens have come home to roost and have found that public transportation like the bus companies and the railroads are proud of their service and we might also remember our family car as a good means of travel.

With a bit of advance planning some of us have even, heaven forbid, found that we can enjoy simple things like staying home or riding our bicycles, or taking a walk can be enjoyed and even learning our neighbors names, and visiting folks who are members of our church, and the list goes on and on.

There are a few, very few, airlines that seem to care whether we book passage with them and so I, again for one, choose not to spend my hard earned retirement money with a company that apparently does not give one whit for my comfort and I just laugh at the overpaid executives and also that they are cutting flights, and whining about the cost of jet fuel.

The hub system has been a dismal failure from the get go, and with the simple way to fix this broken spoke these geniuses just continue to buy bigger and bigger jets, that burn more fuel to drag their overweight conveyances instead of sticking with smaller aircraft that can operate from smaller and more convenient airports as just one part of the solution, and lets not forget the mergers of these money losers. Tis a sad day for their stockholders and the general public and frankly, they with their high handed treatment of their fare paying passengers, are getting less and less sympathy and can’t understand why.

Worse, they are apparently too stupid to ask.

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.
 
Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.
 
The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Obama is a 'post turtle'."  Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was.
 
The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'."
 
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain.
 
"You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb BLEEP put him up there in the first place!."