American Citizenship- The Forgotton Arguement

With all the fuss over our President's Citizenship and further talk on what makes an American I just had to put my five cents in. I mean never mind the utter ridiculousness of the nonsense that has been going on for the last two years. I am not even going to go there. Stuff like that has been going on since the first colonists landed and settled on Plymouth Rock. And like those first visitors (yes, I said visitors) to this land there has always been a question everyone seemed to forget to ask.

Is this place ours?

No one wants to make that argument. This debate will not be televised on MNBC anytime soon. Oh occasionally you might see some documentary about the original settlers of a country to them they just called "The Land". (Heck what else are you going to call it? You migrate from one land mass to another land mass where you've never been before and your last thought is; "Gee, we're tired and hungry we should stop for a minute and name this place where we're at!") They were travelers who were hunters and gathers. Their main concern was to find a better place to live where there were more food. Boy oh boy did they hit the jackpot! Plenty of food, i.e prey animals like deer, buffalo, squirrel, and fruits on the tree and the vine. Many materials to make clothes and homes. Wow what I wouldn't give to be those first settlers! Up to a point!

I am talking about people who had been on this land that some other people got together and named after some Italian map maker. America. For millions of years they lived, hunted, gathered, developing their farming techniques, falling in love, giving birth, laughing, and crying; just living life it's self. Then the shit hit the fan with a domino effect their still reeling over. At this point you know who I'm talking about. The Native 'Americans' or The Peoples of this land.

That's why I just think it's soooooo hilarious to hear, see, and watch some people always squawking about just who has right to what. Who should be here? Who has a right to be a government official elected by the people? Who should be considered an 'American' citizen? Yada, yada, yap, yap! Oh God, (capitial G people, cause I sure hope he's hearing ya'll)! Really? Seriously! And if I'm having an OMG moment can you imagine how those people are feeling? Ever time there's a fight over immigration rights, a call for prevention of more immigrants coming over, and the latest nonsense which I refuse to mention, they must wince with the most unbelievable sub-concious pain that can be felt all the way to the future. Where I'm sure there will be the most facinating talk about who is the best citizen who really belongs in power on that space station colony in space over that moon near that planet where those native aliens live.

Maybe before Tea-baggers, Anti-immigration proponents, and Politicians with a popular axe to grind, start using a lack of a birth certificate as an issue maybe they should remember the people who didn't bother asking for one in the first place. Bet your bottom dollar some tribes wish they did.

Next week- I promise I will write my Essasy on the still ongoing situation in Libya. I might even write some views on what's ongoing in Syria. More research is needed either way.

Update: Libya

Looks like the U.S.A is currently pushing for NATO to run things from now on in the Libya fight for freedom. Which means yet again I may have to change the title of my next essasy. I advise those that maybe reading this to stay tuned to your local news broadcast to keep abreast of the situation. Meanwhile before I develop another opinion I too will be watching the news. (Mostly Charlie Rose.)
I will be giving any readers interested more update to follow.

Oh, Shit! The Revolution Was Televised!

Oh Shit! The Revolution Was Televised!

This essay was written before the new developments with the U.N involvement with the approval of the Arab League of a ‘No Fly Zone’ over Libya. So of course my readers (whoever you are) must please excuse the datedness of this essay. As it stand the next essay to follow ‘A fine time to be neutral! Do something Washington!’ title will of course have to be changed. The new title ‘Situation Libya- The ‘No Fly Zone debate.’ There is always an apparent down side to writing a blog article when you have other interests beyond trying to add your thoughts to the various opinions out there in the world. (One of these days if my “readers” are really, really, good I might right an essay on why I do this facata thing in the first place.) Meanwhile the upside to be just one step behind all the news out there in the world is that I get to have a fresh new take on situations. Believe it or not it’s not always not the smartest move to be stuck in your opinion, being set in your ways about an opinion you feel strongly about can really leave you looking like a fool, a stubborn one at that, plus you can never learn new experience in life if you never have an open mind. That being said I still believe some of my original premise that the current situation needs to be supported. However this preface is turning into another article. So ‘readers’ here’s “Oh Shit! The Revolution Was Televised!”

And it was on the internet where it all started. Wow! I mean wow! Talk about coming out of left field. Like I said at my introduction to this piece; who would have bet on a revolution happening in the Middle East? Not me? Not all the political pundits out there who were to busy demonizing Middle Eastern cultural, religion, and politics. Not the many people who were buying all the propaganda since 9/11. I being one of those people, after a while of course I went back to using my sense of fairness and realize the difference between Muslim Fundamentalist Terrorists and every other Muslim in the world. The powers that be of course just love it when we fight and fuss at each other for shear bullshit. It takes away from all the cold callus crap that they throw at us year after year, decade after decade. But I digress.

Any who, when I first heard the second shot heard around the world my first thought was of course as mentioned earlier was “Wow” then I listen to the anchorpersons on the T.V news networks and the pundits on Charlie Rose. (By the by if you really want all the real deal blow by blow your best bet is to watch Charlie Rose on PBS. More lately in other articles about how the Republican government in Congress screwed the American People out of another positive free thinking organization.) It really brought home the real ideals of Democracy.

Now when your average person, no matter where they from, think about democracy they automatically think America. No matter the varying opinion of American Foreign policy or American Government interference. But ask any political historian that hasn’t been indoctrinated by the American mythos and they’ll tell you; democracy did not start nor does it end with the United States Of America. I could go on about the Greeks, Romans, and the Magna Carta-brought to us ironically from England, but then I do not think there is any person that has patience with a ten page essay on that? Sufficed to say anyone with half a brain must realize that the foundation of most democratic countries owes a debt to those mentioned and many more. Democracy can be found in Italy, France, England, and Canada. Look east in Eastern Europe and people were fighting for their unalienable rights in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

Many people like myself had doubts that in regions like Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and yes especially Libya. I mean along with almost everybody that watches the news and hears every C.I.A conspiracy theory or story out there has heard about the U.S government support of countries such as this, (for the exception of Libya believe or not), facing the facts or stories that because of one interest or another; Oil, so-called Political Stability, plain ole Economics. Whatever! You name it there always seems to be a reason for letting civil liberties falter. People, brave people have been thrown into prison, killed, tortured, because they dared to blow the whistle on these dictatorships that flourish for whatever cold-hearted, so-called logical reason that some governments can name. The thinking that someday, some how the security of Democracy in Democratic countries, the interests that seemed important at the time will do some good in the long run.

We citizens in these democratized countries who live in shear bliss of ignorance of the hard fought revolutions that brought us here have no idea what our current democratic governments have done in the name of stability and how unstable these countries under these dictatorships were and are. So we’re so surprised at this because we have forgotten that civil rights didn’t start with Martian Luther King or Gandhi, freedom wasn’t something that was forged at Valley Forge, for a people to feel like they have some sort of control over their lives in these countries they just can’t pick up a picket sign and protest in front of their local government with no more stress than standing behind some barricade and a couple of local police force. No in order to fight for the same democracy that you and me take for granted these people have to face military force, detainment, torture, and martial law. One day we in the Western democracy will have to face the fact that freedom aian’t free for anyone. Working for it takes work that I don’t think the average person in a free democracy would have the strength for.

So bravo to the brave people in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya! Unlike that old saying from the sixties. The revolution has been televised!

The Tea Party Whine

The Tea Party Whine

The Republican party have created or has at least had a hand in creating a monster. A seven headed hydra called the Tea Party. I say that they had at least a hand in it because when you look closely at the Tea Party you will find that this party has a lot in common with the current Republican Party. I know I’m not the first one to make that inference but the way the Tea Party is acting one would think that they were just these sweet misunderstood naive middle-class infants that just want things the way they used to. You know before some minorities became the majority and defeated their petty, vindictive, insane, dictator?

Yes well though I’m sure they miss the days when taxes went high in just about every Red state in the union. The Tea Party seems to suffer from a kind of insane amnesia that makes them totally forget the last eight years. I know there is such a thing as selective memory but come on! But hey I’m just some blogger who is just your average American who watches the T.V news and reads the paper from time. What do I know right? So of course this blogger has decided to do some research and find out about these Tea Partiers.

Are they blind dupes of the Republican Party? Are they just a bunch of dissatisfied Middle-class sore losers? Or are they the slack-jawed shock troops building up to just one more Republican coop? Who are these Tea Party whiners really? Let us start at the beginning.

Let’s take a look from the beginning, shall we? It all started out quite benign. One girl in college practicing her fundamental America rights. As American as Apple Pie but of course just like real apple pie, once you look closely at the nutrition list you see how really unhealthy that apple pie really is. (Do you know how much calories there are in apple pie? Real apple pie with brown sugar and lard in the crust? Whoooo! You don't want to know!) But you will want to know about Keli Carender. Ms. Carender an actress, Math Teacher, and improv comedian with a democratic boyfriend woke up one day to find herself interested in the 2008 political race as a voter but none of the candidates appealed to her. Like most people of the year her age the whole get out the vote thing attracted nearly apathetic young people. Of course when the powers that be decide to use the youth vote they conveniently forget that getting young people interested in the political arena is a double-edged sword. It cuts both ways. You can't get young people interested in politics and voting as a way of getting their individual voices heard and then expect things to go the way you want. The Democrates via President Obama found out the hard way.

Keli Carender not only got interested but she also got dissatisfied. The how and wherefores are to much to mention in this essay so please go read look here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/us/politics/28keli.html Suficed to say Ms. Carender just wanted her voice to be heard and like many a budding activist she found that in order for her voice to be heard she must find other like minded individuals to back her up. Oh, she found them alright! And then that's when the pie started to hit the fan!

Groups fell under the Tea Party umbrella that varied from Libertarians to Right-Wing white power pundits. It will be up to the readers to judge which out of the many groups to be most concerned about. As for this writer the main thrust of this essay is to point out the Republicans who used the Tea Party for their own ends. As of this writing the Republicans have retaken the House due to the overwhelming 'support' of the Tea partiers. One of the many accusations that was brought up during the 'high' point of the Tea Party surge was Astroturfing. That is when a political group with an agenda; like the Republicans, who put into place a supposed grassroots organization with apparently no support from any political group at all. That means that anyone looking at a grassroots movement on the surface sees a group of people who are just your average citizen with a gripe that wants government to change certain policy. Only problem is once you look deep under the surface you find the puppet masters behind it all.

Now I don't know how stuff like that happens but I can give a good guess. One young person who just happens to be a Republican (or chooses to become one) gets like minded people together, a political group (let's just say, umm, The Republican party), co-ops the movement. Whether it's by monetary support, Public Relations, or Politicians coming out of the wood work 'all of a sudden' to support this grassroots organization. Something like that. At any rate as far as this writer can see it looked more like another subtle attempt of the Republican party to climb back into the political arena with a vengeance! Subtle the Republican party don't do so good. (Pardon the bad english. ;) ) Because to get on point, think 1995. The Republicans initiated a government shut-down putting the blame on the then Democratic President Bill Clinton and his policy. (Yeah, that worked!) When the public turned on them like rabid wolverines the Republicans were sweating it like a white supremacist at a million man march. (They must have heaved a sigh of relief when the Monica Lewisky 'scandal' broke out.) Now as then a lot is riding on the Tea baggers to back them up while they ride into Congress to burn and slash through every social program they can catch.

So Tea Partiers, what are they? Republican dupes or a grassroots middle-class trying to save their own asses?

I want to be fair I really do. America is about freedom of choice. But when the choice is either saving the middle-class on the backs of the poor yet again or going into another reccesion and using American know how and innovation to pull ourselves out of another economic whole, I say let's pull up our sleeves America and stop whinning!

Upcoming Essays for 2011

It's never too late to say what you think. So this year I will finally finish writing my essays on the Tea Party movement then I will write so much more as time allows. Here are the following titles:

Tea Party Whine
Who are these people? Before it was just another political splinter group, just another lame protest movement that probably thought they compared to the political movement of the 60's but were really just a mockery. Now they've placed Republicans into half of the Senate and pushed the Democrats back into a minority in Congress. Before I thought that there might be some people interested in them and what they stand for. Now I'm filled with unease with these people and the people they support. Stay tuned.

Oh Shit! The revolution was televised!
Who would have bet that there would be a revolution in Tunisa? Not a lot of people to be sure! But that there are three revolutions happening one after another? Amazing! So of course I had to write my take on it. And as soon as I write it you'll see it here first. :)

A fine time to be neutral! Do something Washington!
Of course once the 'Wow' factor had worn off, I couldn't help but to wonder what we as Americans should do to help. Should we help at all? Should we mind our damn business? American Foreign policy is kinda batting at 000 in things that American government shouldn't be involved in. Iraq keeps spring up as an example.
But in the case of Libya the American government should help. If only to clean up the mistakes of previous adminstrations. Although I'm not gunho for another war by any means perhaps a minor distraction of Naval boats just might give some of Muammar Gaddafi's paid mercenaries pause. Further research on my part might pull out some insights that some people might share.

So that's three of my planned essays. Hope I pull it off! Please stop by and read them. Even if you don't agree with my opinions I can only hope for some kind of dialog.

Congratulations Mr. President: Now En Guard!

Started the Draft on old-fashion paper in November, finished writing it on the day of our Presidents inauguration in my blog. Hope you enjoyed it. If not I at least I hope it engenders intelligent and civil debate. Peace! Clueuin

On November 10, 2008 Daily News headline: Smiles, Tension.

 It was about the transition of presidential power in the White House and the meeting between Former President George W. Bush and then President Elect Barack Obama. The article by Kenneth R Bazinet also mentioned the possible reversal for Bush's longstanding orders; (or should we call them edicts?)

That article started me thinking about the long road ahead for president-Elect Obama. I promised myself that I would take a deep look into how President-Elect; now President Obama will be doing as our current President. But as he just started his presidency I don't have much to say. However as with everybody and their grandma I do have an opinion on what he should do during his first 100 days.

First things first, watch you back President Obama. Right now your the media's darling and almost everyone's hero but heroes have an Achilles heal and people in Washington D.C (mostly in the media but in the Capital Buildings as well) have a way to blow up weakness and mistakes.If you don't think so just ask your collegleuges and predecessors who have had the job before you. Just today just after your inauguration their were pundits already talking about not enough applause in space in between your speech. I for one found myself for the first time since Clinton firmly focused on what you had to say. Those who were looking for stirring moments that would drive people into a frenzy of cheers and hoping weren't really listening to you firmly shake people out of their 'what are we going to do' pity party into a 'pick yourself up, dust yourself off' and do something to facilitate change as soon as possible speech. Your speech was about remember how Americans in the past worked hard in the best and worst of times to make this country great and that we Can do it again. What they wanted was for your to practically hold then in your big lean arms, hug them and say 'there, there'. They have yet to realize that you are not that kind of President.

President Reagan did that to the intelligentsia, Big Business, and the disenfranchise and all we Americans got for it was Tax incentives for the Rich and the Nicaraguan Scandal. Not to mention we're still recovering and had a repeat of a recession that leads us to be the highest debited country in the world.

No Mr. President, I for one would not accept platitudes and lies in exchange for honest truth and wise solutions. Just as we didn't need former President Bush promises to make things better for middle-class Americans but instead plunged American into a War we did not need to get into and an economy that was blinded to the idea of fair play and honest dealings.

So what are some of the things you must watch out for? Well I've comprised a couple of things that you Mr. President, (oh how I love writing that!), might want to look out for.

Firstly don't let Congress lull you into a false sense of security. Not that your can't trust your Congresspeople in the Democratic party and some of the Republican that are willing to cross party lines for you, (however few), but as the days and weeks go by they might convenietly forget that your have lifted their tails from between their legs and given them pride in the Democratic Party once more. Their minds might start to drift to lobbyist, Corporations, and Critics and such people who's only need is their need to collect as much money and power as they can amass. Their only human of course and they might get the idea that you are just a flash in the pan that they can used as their poster boy for how great opportunities can be had in American.

Show them that your more than just a symbol and a convenient figurehead that they can use to bamboozle the American public into thinking that things can be that bad in Washington. 'Look we have a Black President ain't life grand!' Put them to work President Obama and keep an eye on them!

Secondly, although it is nice that you can be civil to some Republicans and other Conservative members of the Politico you must keep this in mind. Some of them are not your friends, they are the smiling masks that will tell you that everything is fine the next minute then turn right round and find something wrong that they did and make you the fall guy. Case in point, Former President Clinton, not only did they make him look like a philandering fool, (mind you he didn't need much help in that regard, but it's just the hypocrisy of those a-holes in Washington just grinded my oats I tell ya!), but way after he left office they practically had the nerve to try and blame President Clinton for the situation in Iraq. Here he is trying to be the best Diplomatic President since Kennedy and there they are trying to say that if he had just continued the Gulf War past Saudi Arabia into Iraq we wouldn't be in this difficulty. So what the Republican Politico's were saying was that if only Clinton had become a War Monger in Chief we wouldn't be in such grief now. They have practically blamed 9/11 on the guy! Sheesh!

These are the people whom you will have to deal with and work with on a daily basis. I don't mean to total bash all Republicans of course some of them work very hard for their constituencies  and want to keep a level eye on spending. It's just that some will cut and slash needed programs in a rush to save money one minute and the next spend lavish amounts on pork policies before your can say, 'Bridge to Nowhere'. Keep an eye on the bad ones and cultivate to good ones till they wouldn't take a tax break for the Rich even if the NRA had guns to their Grandmas' heads!

Finally, Mr. President I wish to advise you to pay close attention to the needs of the average Americans like me who are living paycheck to paycheck, deferring their dreams until things get better. We need your help now more than ever and if you disappoint us the Media, pundits, and Critics will be the least of your worries.

Mr. President, En Guard!

Willamsburg: Welcome to the 21 Century!!!!!

This was written some months ago and I think you get a feel of where I'm coming from when you read this. This aian't your mama's liberal democrats ba-by! Enjoy! I'm working on the article even as we speak. I promise you'll likey! ;)

It's all cool really, to believe in what you want to believe in that is why I call myself a Spritual Activist. I'll be the first @itch on line to defend anyone's right to pray, meditate, sing, jump up and down in airports, whatever! I'm not perfect, sometimes I slip, then I just pray or meditate or joke about my flaws, ask God to forgive me and move on. But some people think that their religions viewpoint is the only viewpoint that matters. I guess it's o.k when it's inside your home, at your church, sometimes those people get lucky and get whole blocks of like minded indivduals to impress their religious viewpoint on each other. Like the Amish, the luckless people in Texas, or our friends in Williamsburg. So at this point your wondering what had gotten me on this tear. Well I'll tell you, in fact I'll show you.

HASID LUST CAUSE
CULTURE CLASH OVER SEXY CYCLISTS

By RICH CALDER

(Saw this little bute in the New York Post this morning. This my friends is one Genuine No holds barred Genifried Neighborhood. Told you Kensington and maybe sometimes Flatbush isn't as bad as some neighborhoods. But enough of my blabbing, read on.)

It's the Hasids vs. the hotties in a Brooklyn bike war.
Leaders of South Wil liamsburg's Hasidic community said yesterday that bike lanes that bring scantily clad cyclists - especially sexy women - peddling through their neighborhood are definitely not kosher.
The red-faced religious sect is calling on city officials to eliminate the car-free lanes on Wythe and Bedford avenues, and to delay construction of a new one planned for Kent Avenue.

(O.k for more of this precious tidbit go tohttp://www.nypost.com/seven/09122008/news/regionalnews/hasid_lust_cause_128750.htm

enjoy and discuss friends, enjoy and discuss)

To my friends in Williamsburg,

I say this:

Welcome to the 21 Century!