Irma's Rants & Raves

CHS senior SHAWN HECKATHORN died today

2009-09-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Shawn was a friend of my son's.

Caldwell police are investigating a fatal traffic crash in which a pickup hit a
school bus in a head-on collision around 7:40 a.m. Wednesday on South Indiana Avenue, just south of Ustick Road.

The 17-year-old driver of the GMC pickup — Shawn Heckathorn, a senior at Caldwell High School — was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, according to Idaho State and Caldwell police reports.

Caldwell Police Chief Chris Allgood said none of the approximately 40 kids on the school bus — students of the Thomas Jefferson Charter School, ranging from kindergartners to high school students — nor the bus driver were hurt in the crash.

This is what happened, according to Idaho State Police officials:

A school bus from the Valley View School District, driven by 28-year-old Chandra Wilhite of Nampa, was traveling northbound on Indiana Ave, south of East Ustick Road when a 1998 GMC Sonoma pickup, traveling southbound, crossed the center line and went into oncoming traffic, colliding head-on with the school bus.

Heckathorn, the driver of the pickup, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash from the force of the impact. Heckathorn was wearing his seat belt and the airbag in his truck deployed, according to ISP reports.

The Thomas Jefferson Charter School students in the bus were taken to school from the crash scene by another bus, according to ISP reports.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation. The speed limit at the accident site is 50 mph. It does not appear that excessive speed was a factor in the accident, Idaho State Police Capt. Steve Richardson said.

In general terms, investigators will check to see if cell phone use or texting could have been a factor in the crash, Richardson said, but officers have not made any specific determinations about those issues yet in connection with Wednesday's accident.

Caldwell High officials are bringing in counselors from all over the district to the high school today to assist any students in need.

Heckathorn was a long-time Caldwell resident and was a member of the Caldwell High wrestling team.

Michael Jacksons Memorial Memorable

2009-07-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

The most touching moment from Michael Jacksons memorial was when his 11 year old daughter expressed how much she loved her daddy. I cried for those kids who lost the most important person in thier lives.

I laughed and cried at the same tie when Magic told the world that Michael Jackson loved to eat KFC.

I never cared for Rev Al Sharpton and was disapointed that they had him speak at Michael's memorial BUT.... when he said to Michaels children... there was nothing strange about your daddy...it was strange what he had to deal with..and he dealt with it" I was floored it will be a quote that will go down in history.

Brooke Sheilds how I envied her when I was 15 years old and she was pictured on Michael Jacksons arm everywhere he went. Today I did not envy her pain at the the loss of her life time friend. She gave everyone an insight on how special their friendship was and how rare.

How do YOU remember Michael Jackson? Please comment on my blog

2009-06-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

Today we lost Michael Jackson and I would like for you to comment on how you remember him. Did you see him in concert? Did you ever meet him? Can you share with us what you were doing when you found out that he died? Please share your story.

THE KING OF POP - MICHAEL JACKSON DIES AT AGE 50 on JUNE 25, 2009

2009-06-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

Michael Jackson
born 1958
died 2009

I remember the night almost 24 years ago when I was 15 years old and I impatiently waited for MTV to premiere Michael Jackson's " THRILLER " music video/short film. I sat just inches from my parents 27" floor model t.v. screen and fidgeted through the annoying voice of D.J. Downtown Julie Brown and wished for her to just shut up and end my pain.

I remember getting chills as the music started and the credits started to roll and I got a glimpse of my hero my teenage object of my affection, my idol - Michael Jackson wearing one of his trademark leather jackets - this one in red.

I was dizzy, enamoured as I watched spellbound the music video unfold like a short movie. I remember feeling the hot tears run down my cheeks as I sang along with him on the screen every single word memorized, burned into my memory. I was afraid to blink, terrified that I would miss a smile, a turn, a moonwalk the beautiful way his body moved to the sound of his own music.

I acted as if I sat front row center seat at a sold out concert watching him dance with zombies hypnotized by his amazing choreographed performance and cried like a baby as my parents sat stunned by my teenage hysteric reaction to the pop star on the t.v. screen.

Fast forward 20 plus years. I am now 39 years old married and a mother to my own teenage children who have idols of their own for this time and era.

I sit here numb, with hot tears welling up in my eyes as I try to grasp the reality of the news that has unfolded today that my teenage idol, the man that I worshiped and swore that I would meet one day has died of a heart attack at the young age of
50.

My teenage hero, the object of my affection and teenage devotion died today and the world will grieve. The world will overlook the shadows that followed Michael Jackson and tainted his image and painted him as a disturbed lonely individual.

The world will remember the artist, the musical genius, and they will remember how he was the number one historical figure in the world selling the most records of all time.... ever.

The child like voice, the laugh, the giggle, the fierceness of how he danced like no other... the moonwalk... least we never forget the music that he created... able to touch our very souls with his words.... gone.

Michael your life will never be forgotten, you left an imprint on my heart that I will will forever be grateful to your existence and influence in my life and thank you for being my teenage idol you were and are my generations Elvis.

Shakespearean Tragedy unfolds in Sultan, WA as 5 teens face 2nd Degree Murder Charges…

2009-06-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

What a horrible tragedy as five families are torn apart by the senseless murder of a teenage boy who was beat, kicked and stabbed to death on June 17, 2009 by three teenage boys and two teenage girls as it was caught on surveillance camera just yards away from the towns city hall.

It seems that the boy Antonio Mark, a 17 year old from Marysville, WA went to Sultan, WA to visit his girlfriend who has two brothers, 19 year old Marco Castillo and 16 year old Adolfo Castillo who allegedly belong to the street gang “Brown Pride Soldiers” and happens to be the rival gang that Antonio Mark allegedly belonged to.

Apparently, The Marysville teen visited the Castillo home on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, to see his girlfriend and had “words” with Marco Castillo the 19 year old brother and he left the residence.
Later, the next evening Antonio Mark was walking alone in the city center of Sultan when he encountered Marco Castillo 19, his younger brother Adolfo Castillo 16, a male friend of theirs, Jaime Michel 16, and two of the boys girlfriends Ana Cary Ayala Bustos 16, and Ivette Rico 17.
What occurred next is as close to mob mentality and savage disregard for human life. The five teens ended their lives as well when they decided to attacked Antonio Mark and took turns kicking and punching him. The surveillance video shows that Antonio Marks was knocked to the ground by Marco Castillo, who pummeled the younger boy, Marco Castillo then backed away and the other four teenagers ( the two girls included) attacked Marks, repeatedly kicking his body, then Marco Castillo stabbed Antonio Marks several times in the torso while the other teens continued to kick the motionless Marks in the head.
The video also shows that Antonio Marks never fought back.
As the life drained out of Antonio Mark, the teens fled and left him in the middle of the street to die just a few feet from Sultan’s City Hall.

Antonio Marks life ended at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was taken by helicopter.
All five teens are in custody and are being charged as Adults with 2st degree murder AS THEY ALL SHOULD!!!

Final Journey Home

2009-06-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

I just got done watching the movie 'Taking Chance" and from the second the movie started I had a lump in my throat and tears welled up in my eyes and flowed down my cheeks unchecked throughout the entire movie to the very end.

As a war veteran of the gulf war and the wife of a war veteran of Afghanistan I know first hand the fear that grips your very soul at just the thought of that "Knock on your door" and that is the first image that you see as the movie starts.

This movie really shows you how our fallen soldiers are taken care of as they are moved from the battlefield, to the United States, then processed and prepared to be taken and escorted on their final journey home by a fellow comrade.

The Honor and respect shown by the Military and the public as the body is escorted home shows the purest form of gratitude that can be expressed, and I was literally chocked up, lip quivering with every scene as it unfolded before my eyes, I cried, and cried... imagining that it could be my own loved one being sent home to me.

This was a very powerful story for me because as I watched it I was reminded that my own husband was a Military escort for a dear friend of ours who was not killed in action but an accident here in the states back in 1993.

My husband told me of how he was responsible that the body be treated with honor and respect the entire journey home and that he never left the coffin not even once. He too inspected the uniform to be sure that his "friend was squared away" .

It was really hard on my husband because he was only 21 years old and the widow asked him to identify the body because he was torn apart in the accident and she felt she could not handle viewing her husband like that, so mine did. Since he died in TX, there was a memorial and a viewing for family and friends who lived there. A week later the body was to be flown to Florida for another memorial, viewing and the funeral service in his home town. Everything that my husband told me he did for John 15 years ago was visually shown to me in the movie Taking Chance and I realized how painful it must have been for my husband to escort his dead friends body for a week across the country to his family and then return changed forever in mind and soul.

So you see, this movie is so powerful that you have to see it for yourself to understand because words do not give it any justice just watch it.

For the first time I truly understand what that deep ache I feel in my heart is when I hear taps, see the red white and blue wave in the wind or see a soldier in uniform.... its called gratitude for every single man and woman who has served in our Armed Forces past present and future and the knowledge I now have after watching this movie that their final journey home is done with as much honor and respect that is humanly possible and that their service to their country will not be in vain, regardless if they die on the battle field, home on leave, or 20 years after they served in the military.

As a war veteran I qualify to receive military honors at my funeral. The minimum of two uniformed members representing my branch of service, a flag presented to my family, and the bugle playing taps.

The honor, pride and gratitude my family,children and friends will feel when my last journey home is with the United States flag draped over my coffin will be my final voice and testament of who I was and am.

"Taking Chance" a personal narative by Lieutenant Colonel Michael R. Strobl

2009-06-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn't know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.

Over a year ago, I volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq should the need arise. Thankfully, I hadn't been called on to be an escort since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. The first few weeks of April, however, had been tough ones for the Marines. On the Monday after Easter, I was reviewing Department of Defense press releases when I saw that a Private First Class Chance Phelps was killed in action outside of Baghdad. The press release listed his hometown as Clifton, Colorado — which is near where I’m from. I notified our battalion adjutant and told him that, should the duty to escort PFC Phelps fall to our battalion, I would take him.

I didn't hear back the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday until 1800. The battalion duty NCO called my cell phone and said I needed to be ready to leave for Dover Air Force Base at 1900 in order to escort the remains of PFC Phelps. I called the major who had the task of informing Phelps’ parents of his death. The major said that the funeral was going to be in Dubois, Wyoming. (It turned out that PFC Phelps only lived near my hometown during his senior year of high school.) I had never been to Wyoming and had never heard of Dubois.

With two other escorts from Quantico, I got to Dover AFB at 2330 on Tuesday night. First thing on Wednesday we reported to the mortuary at the base. In the escort lounge there were about half a dozen Army soldiers and about an equal number of Marines waiting to meet up with "their" remains for departure. PFC Phelps was not ready, however, and I was told to come back on Thursday. Now at Dover with nothing to do and a solemn mission ahead, I began to get depressed.

I didn't know anything about Chance Phelps; not even what he looked like. I wondered about his family and what it would be like to meet them. I did push-ups in my room until I couldn't do any more. On Thursday morning I reported back to the mortuary. This time there was a new group of Army escorts and a couple of the Marines who had been there Wednesday. There was also an Air Force captain there to escort his brother home to San Diego.

We received a brief covering our duties and the proper handling of the remains, and we were shown pictures of the shipping container and told that each one contained, in addition to the casket, a flag. I was given an extra flag since PFC Phelps’ parents were divorced.

It turned out that I was the last escort to leave on Thursday. This meant that I repeatedly got to participate in the small ceremonies that mark all departures from the Dover AFB mortuary.

Most of the remains are taken from Dover AFB by hearse to the airport in Philadelphia for air transport to their final destination. When the remains of a service member are loaded onto a hearse and ready to leave the Dover mortuary, there is an announcement made over the building's intercom system. With the announcement, all service members working at the mortuary, regardless of branch, stop work and form up along the driveway to render a slow ceremonial salute as the hearse departs. On this day, there were also some civilian workers doing construction on the mortuary grounds. As each hearse passed, they would stop working and place their hard hats over their hearts. This was my first sign that my mission with PFC Phelps was larger than the Marine Corps and that his family and friends were not grieving alone.

Eventually I was the last escort remaining in the lounge. The master gunnery sergeant in charge of the Marine liaison there came to see me. He had a pouch with Chance Phelps’ personal effects. He removed each item: a large watch, a wooden cross with a lanyard, two loose dog tags, two dog tags on a chain, and the Saint Christopher medal, which was on a silver chain. Although we had been briefed that we might be carrying some personal effects of the deceased, I was taken aback. Holding his personal effects, I was starting to get to know Chance Phelps.

Finally we were ready. I grabbed my bags and went outside. I was somewhat startled when I saw the shipping container, loaded three quarters of the way into the back of a black Chevy Suburban that had been modified to carry such cargo. This was the first time I saw my "cargo," and I was surprised at how large the shipping container was. The master gunnery sergeant and I verified that the name on the container was Phelps', and then they pushed him the rest of the way in and we left. Now it was PFC Chance Phelps’ turn to receive the military — and construction workers' — honors. He was finally moving towards home.

As I chatted with the driver on the hour-long trip to Philadelphia, it became clear that he considered it an honor to contribute to getting Chance home. He offered his sympathy to the family. I was glad finally to be moving, yet I was apprehensive about what things would be like at the airport. I didn't want this container to be treated like ordinary cargo, but I knew that the simple logistics of moving around something this large would be difficult.

When we got to the Northwest Airlines cargo terminal at the Philadelphia airport, the cargo handler and hearse driver pulled the shipping container onto a loading bay while I stood to the side and executed a slow salute. Once Chance was safely in the cargo area, and I was satisfied that he would be treated with due care and respect, the hearse driver drove me over to the passenger terminal and dropped me off.

As I walked up to the ticketing counter in my uniform, a Northwest employee started to ask me if I knew how to use the automated boarding-pass dispenser. Before she could finish, another ticketing agent interrupted her. He told me to go straight to the counter, then explained to the woman that I was a military escort. She seemed embarrassed. The woman behind the counter already had tears in her eyes as I was pulling out my government travel voucher. She struggled to find words but managed to express her sympathy for the family and thanked me for my service. She upgraded my ticket to first class.

After clearing security, I was met by another Northwest Airlines employee at the gate. She told me a representative from cargo would be arriving to take me down to the tarmac to observe the movement and loading of PFC Phelps. I hadn't really told any of them what my mission was, but they all knew. When the man from the cargo crew met me, he, too, struggled for words. On the tarmac, he told me stories of his childhood as a military brat and repeatedly said that he was sorry for my loss. Even here in Philadelphia, far away from Chance's hometown, people were mourning with his family.

On the tarmac, the cargo crew was silent except for when they gave occasional instructions to each other. I stood to the side and saluted as the conveyor moved Chance to the aircraft. I was relieved when he was finally settled into place. The rest of the bags were loaded and I watched them shut the cargo-bay door before heading back up to board the aircraft. One of the pilots had taken my carry-on bag himself and had it stored next to the cockpit door so he could watch it while I was on the tarmac. As I boarded the plane, I could tell immediately that the flight attendants had already been informed of my mission. They seemed a little choked up as they led me to my seat.

About forty-five minutes into our flight, I still hadn't spoken to anyone except to tell the first-class flight attendant that I would prefer water. I was surprised when the flight attendant from the back of the plane suddenly appeared and leaned down to grab my hands. She said, "I want you to have this," as she pushed a small gold cruciﬁx, with a relief of Jesus, into my hand. It was her lapel pin and it looked somewhat worn. I suspected it had been hers for quite some time. That was the only thing she said to me the entire flight.

When we landed in Minneapolis, I was the first one off the plane. The pilot himself escorted me straight down the side stairs of the exit tunnel to the tarmac. The cargo crew there already knew what was on this plane. They were unloading some of the luggage when an Army sergeant, a fellow escort who had left Dover earlier that day, appeared next to me. His "cargo" was going to be loaded onto my plane for its continuing leg. We stood side by side in the dark and executed a slow salute as Chance was removed from the plane. I then waited with the soldier and we saluted together as his fallen comrade was loaded onto the plane.

My trip with Chance was going to be somewhat unusual in that I had an overnight stopover. We had a late start out of Dover and there was just too much traveling ahead of us to continue on that day. (We still had a flight from Minneapolis to Billings, Montana, then a five-hour drive to the funeral home. That was to be followed by a 90-minute drive to Chance's hometown.)

I was concerned about leaving him overnight in the Minneapolis cargo area. My 10-minute ride from the tarmac to the cargo holding area eased my apprehension; just as in Philadelphia, the cargo guys in Minneapolis were extremely respectful and seemed honored to do their part. While talking with them, I learned that the cargo supervisor for Northwest Airlines at the airport is a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve. They called him for me and let me talk to him.

Once I was satisfied that all would be okay for the night, I asked one of the cargo crew if he would take me back to the terminal so that I could catch my hotel's shuttle. Instead, he drove me straight to the hotel himself. At the hotel, the lieutenant colonel called me and said he would personally pick me up in the morning and bring me back to the cargo area. Before leaving the airport, I had told the cargo crew that I wanted to come back to the cargo area in the morning rather than go straight to the passenger terminal. I felt bad for leaving Chance and wanted to see the shipping container where I had left it for the night.

The next morning, the lieutenant colonel drove me to the airport, and I was met again by a man from the cargo crew and escorted down to the tarmac. The pilot of the plane joined me as I waited for them to bring Chance from the cargo area. The pilot and I talked about his service in the Air Force and how he missed it.

I saluted as Chance was moved up the conveyor and onto the plane. It would be a while before the luggage was loaded, so the pilot took me up to board the plane where I could watch the tarmac from a window. With no other passengers yet on board, I talked with the flight attendants and one of the cargo guys. He had been in the Navy and one of the attendants had been in the Air Force. Everywhere I went, people were telling me about their relationship to the military. After all the baggage was aboard, I went back down to the tarmac, inspected the cargo bay, and watched them secure the door.

When we arrived at Billings, I was again the first off the plane. The funeral director had driven five hours up from Riverton, Wyoming, to meet us. He shook my hand as if I had personally lost a brother.

We moved Chance to a secluded cargo area, and it was now time for me to remove the shipping container and drape the flag over the casket. I had predicted that this would choke me up, but I found I was more concerned with proper flag etiquette than the solemnity of the moment. Once the flag was in place, I stood by and saluted as Chance was loaded onto the van from the funeral home. I picked up my rental car and followed Chance for five hours until we reached Riverton. During the long trip I imagined how my meeting with Chance's parents would go. I was very nervous about that.

When we finally arrived at the funeral home, I had my first face-to-face meeting with the casualty assistance call officer (CACO). It had been his duty to inform the family of Chance's death, and I knew he had been through a difficult week.

Inside I gave the funeral director some of the paperwork from Dover and discussed the plan for the next day. The service was to be at 1400 in the high school gymnasium up in Dubois, population about 900, some 90 miles away. Eventually, we had covered everything. The CACO had some items that the family wanted inserted into the casket, and I felt I needed to inspect Chance's uniform to ensure everything was proper. Although it was going to be a closed-casket funeral, I still wanted to make certain his uniform was squared away.

Earlier in the day I wasn't sure how I'd handle this moment. Suddenly, the casket was open and I got my first look at Chance Phelps. His uniform was immaculate — a tribute to the professionalism of the Marines at Dover. I noticed that he wore six ribbons over his marksmanship badge; the senior one was his Purple Heart. I had been in the Corps for more than 17 years, including a combat tour, and was wearing eight ribbons. This private first class, with less than a year in the Corps, had already earned six.

The next morning, I wore my dress blues and followed the hearse for the trip up to Dubois. This was the most difficult leg of our trip for me. I was bracing for the moment when I would meet his parents and hoping I would find the right words as I presented them with Chance's personal effects. We got to the high school gym about four hours before the service was to begin. The gym floor was covered with folding chairs neatly lined in rows.

There were a few townspeople making final preparations when I stood next to the hearse and saluted as Chance was moved out of the hearse and into the gym. A Marine sergeant, the command representative from Chance's battalion, met me inside. His eyes were watery as he relieved me of watching Chance so that I could go eat lunch and find my hotel.

At the restaurant, the table had a flyer announcing Chance's service. Dubois High School gym, two o'clock. It also said that the family would be accepting donations so that they could buy flak vests to send to troops in Iraq.

I drove back to the gym at a quarter after one. I could have walked; you could walk to just about anywhere in Dubois in 10 minutes. I wanted to find a quiet room where I could take Chance's things out of their pouch and untangle the chain of the Saint Christopher medal from the dog-tag chains and arrange everything before his parents came in. I had twice before removed the items from the pouch to ensure they were all there — even though there was no possibility anything could have fallen out. Each time, the two chains had been quite intertwined. I didn't want to be fumbling around trying to separate them in front of his parents. Our meeting, however, didn’t go as expected.

I practically bumped into Chance's stepmom accidentally and our introductions began in the noisy hallway outside the gym. In short order I met Chance's stepmom and father, followed by his stepdad and, at last, his mom. I didn't know how to express to these people my sympathy for their loss and my gratitude for their sacrifice. Now, however, they were repeatedly thanking me for bringing their son home and for my service. I was humbled beyond words.

I told them that I had some of Chance's things and asked if we could try to find a quiet place. The five of us ended up in what appeared to be a computer lab — not what I had envisioned for this occasion. After we had arranged five chairs around a small table, I told them about our trip. I told them how, at every step, Chance was treated with respect, dignity, and honor. I told them about the staff at Dover and all the folks at Northwest Airlines. I tried to convey how the entire nation, from Dover to Philadelphia, to Minneapolis, to Billings and Riverton expressed grief and sympathy over their loss.

Finally, it was time to open the pouch. The first item I happened to pull out was Chance's large watch. It was still set to Baghdad time. Next were the lanyard and the wooden cross. Then the dog tags and the Saint Christopher medal. This time the chains were not tangled. Once all of his items were laid out on the table, I told his mom that I had one other item to give them. I retrieved the flight attendant’s crucifix from my pocket and told its story. I set that on the table and excused myself. When I next saw Chance's mom, she was wearing the crucifix on her lapel.

By 1400 most of the seats on the gym floor were filled and people were finding seats in the fixed bleachers high above the gym floor. There were a surprising number of people in military uniform. Many Marines had come up from Salt Lake City. Men from various VFW posts and the Marine Corps League occupied multiple rows of folding chairs. It turned out that Chance's sister, a petty officer in the Navy, worked for a rear admiral — the chief of naval intelligence — at the Pentagon. The admiral had brought many of the sailors on his staff with him to Dubois to pay respects to Chance and to support his sister. After a few songs and some words from a Navy chaplain, the admiral took the microphone and told us how Chance had died.

Chance was an artillery cannoneer and his unit was acting as provisional military police outside of Baghdad. Chance had volunteered to man a .50caliber machine gun in the turret of the leading vehicle in a convoy. The convoy came under intense fie but Chance stayed true to his post and returned fie with the big gun, covering the rest of the convoy, until he was fatally wounded.

After the admiral spoke, the commander of the local VFW post read some of the letters Chance had written home. In letters to his mom, he talked of the mosquitoes and the heat. In letters to his stepfather, he told of the dangers of convoy operations and of receiving fire.

The service was a fitting tribute to this hero. When it was over, we stood as the casket was wheeled out with the family following. The casket was placed onto a horse-drawn carriage for the mile-long trip from the gym, down the main street, then up the steep hill to the cemetery. I stood alone and saluted as the carriage departed the high school. I found my car and joined Chance's convoy.

All along the route, people had lined the street and were waving small American flags. The flags that were otherwise posted were all at half-staff. For the last quarter-mile up the hill, local Boy Scouts, spaced about 20 feet apart, all in uniform, held large flags. At the foot of the hill, I could look up and back and see how enormous the procession was. I wondered how many people would be at this funeral if it were in, say, Detroit or Los Angeles — probably not as many as were here in little Dubois, Wyoming.

The carriage stopped about 15 yards from the grave, and the military pallbearers and the family waited until the men of the VFW and Marine Corps league were formed up and the school buses had arrived, carrying many of the people from the procession route. Once the entire crowd was in place, the pallbearers came to attention and began to remove the casket from the caisson. As I had done all week, I came to attention and executed a slow ceremonial salute as Chance was being transferred from one mode of transport to another.

From Dover to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Billings, Billings to Riverton, and Riverton to Dubois, we had been together. Now, as I watched them carry him the final 15 yards, I was choking up. I felt that, as long as he was still moving, he was somehow still alive. Then they placed him at his grave. He had stopped moving.
Although my mission had been officially complete once I turned him over to the funeral director at the Billings airport, it was his placement at his grave that really concluded the mission in my mind. Now he was home to stay and I suddenly felt at once sad, relieved, and useless.

The chaplain said some words that I couldn't hear and two Marines removed the flag from the casket and slowly folded it for presentation to his mother. When the ceremony was over, Chance's father placed a ribbon from his service in Vietnam on Chance's casket. His mother removed something from her blouse and put it on the casket. I later saw that it was the flight attendant's crucifix. Eventually friends of Chance's moved closer to the grave. A young man put a can of Copenhagen on the casket and many others left flowers.

Finally, we all went back to the gym for a reception. There was enough food to feed the entire population for a few days. In one corner of the gym there was a table set up with lots of pictures of Chance and some of his sports awards. People were continually approaching me and the other Marines to thank us for our service. Almost all of them had some story to tell about their connection to the military. About an hour into the reception, I had the impression that every man in Wyoming had, at one time or another, been in the service.

It seemed like every time I saw Chance's mom, she was hugging a different well-wisher. After a few hours at the gym, I went back to the hotel to change out of my dress blues. The local VFW post had invited everyone over to "celebrate Chance's life." The post was on the other end of town from my hotel, and the drive took less than two minutes. The crowd was somewhat smaller than earlier at the gym but the place was packed.

The largest room in the post was a banquet/dining/dancing area and it was now being renamed "The Chance Phelps Room." Above the entry were two items: a large portrait of Chance in his dress blues and a wooden carving of the Eagle, Globe, and Anchor, the Marine Corps emblem. In one corner of the room there was another memorial to Chance. There were candles burning around another picture of him in his blues. On the table surrounding his photo were his Purple Heart citation and his Purple Heart medal. Above it all was a television that was playing a photomontage of Chance's life from small boy to proud Marine.

As had been happening all day, indeed all week, people were thanking me for bringing Chance home. I talked with the men who had handled the horses and horse-drawn carriage and learned that they had worked through the night to groom and prepare the horses for Chance's last ride. They were all very grateful that they were able to contribute.

After a while we all gathered in the Chance Phelps Room for the formal dedication. The post commander told us of how Chance had been so looking forward to becoming a life member of the VFW. Now, in the Chance Phelps Room of the Dubois, Wyoming, post, he would be an eternal member. We all raised our beers and the room was christened.

Later, a staff sergeant from the reserve unit in Salt Lake grabbed me and said, "Sir, you gotta hear this." There were two other Marines with him and he told the younger one, a lance corporal, to tell me his story. The staff sergeant said the lance corporal was normally too shy to tell it, but now he'd had enough beer to overcome his usual modesty. As the lance corporal started to talk, an older man joined our circle. He wore a baseball cap that indicated that he had been with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. Earlier in the evening, he had told me about one of his former commanding officers, a Colonel Puller.

So, there I was, standing in a circle with three Marines recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq and one not-so-recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. I, who had fought with the 1st Marine Division in Kuwait, was about to gain a new insight into our Corps. At that moment, in this circle of current and former Marines, the differences in our ages and ranks dissipated — we were all simply Marines. The young lance corporal began to tell us his story.

His squad had been on a patrol through a city street. They had taken small-arms fire and had literally dodged a rocket-propelled grenade that sailed between two Marines. At one point they received fire from behind a wall and had neutralized the sniper with a SMAW (shoulder-launched multipurpose assault weapon) round. The back blast of the SMAW, however, kicked up a substantial rock that hammered the lance corporal in the thigh, missing his groin only because he had reflexively turned his body sideways at the shot.

Their squad had suffered some wounded and was receiving more sniper fire when suddenly he was hit in the head by an AK-47 round. I was stunned as he told us how he felt like a baseball bat had been slammed into his head.

He had spun around and fallen unconscious. When he came to, he had a severe scalp wound but his Kevlar helmet had saved his life. He continued with his unit for a few days before realizing he was suffering the effects of a severe concussion.

The staff sergeant finished the story. He told how this lance corporal had begged and pleaded with the battalion surgeon to let him stay with his unit. In the end, the doctor said there was just no way; he had suffered a severe and traumatic head wound and would have to be medevac'd.

The Marine Corps is a special fraternity. There are moments when we are reminded of this. Interestingly, those moments don't always happen at awards ceremonies or in dress blues at Birthday Balls. I have found, rather, that they occur at unexpected times and places — next to a loaded moving van at Camp Lejeune's base housing, in a dirty tent in northern Saudi Arabia, and in a smoky VFW post in western Wyoming.

After the story was done, the lance corporal stepped over to the old man, put his arm over the man's shoulder, and told him that he, the Korean War vet, was his hero. The two of them stood there with their arms over each other's shoulders, and we were all silent for a moment. When they let go, I told the lance corporal that there were recruits down on the yellow footprints tonight who would soon be learning his story.

I was finished drinking beer and telling stories. I found Chance's father and shook his hand one more time. Chance's mom had already left, and I deeply regretted not being able to tell her goodbye.

I left Dubois in the morning before sunrise for my long drive back to Billings. It had been my honor to take Chance Phelps to his final post. Now he is on the high ground overlooking his town.

I miss him.

Obama's response to April 15, 2009 Tax Tea Party

2009-04-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

BOYCOT: Jamie Foxx he is a RACIST ASSHOLE!!!!!!!

2009-04-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

"....Jamie Foxx is the Son of a nasty "nappy haired" lesbian black crack whore bitch!!!!!!..."

Sounds awful? Sounds racist? Yeah....I'm gonna get slammed as a racist because of that comment above, but hey.... I'm practicing my first amendment right of free speech just like Jamie Foxx did when he and his racist buddies ranted and raved on a 16 year old Miley Cyrus and called her worse things than that comment above on the radio "live" the other day!!! Then he goes on Jay Leno last night and gives a half ass apology. WTF???

Hmmm, " calling a black woman's basketball team "nappy haired" and there was a national outcry for that radio personality to lose his job a few years ago because he was WHITE and had NO RIGHT TO SAY SUCH HORRIBLE THINGS as calling black women "Nappy haired" how DARE HE??? Well, he paid the price.....he lost his job!

Will Jamie Foxx pay the price??? Will he get away with calling a 16 year old little girl a white bitch? Yes, he called her that... and worse...

I believe that he "WILL" GET AWAY WITH IT BECAUSE he is BLACK!!!!! Discrimination seems to only be allowed to be used when its aimed at minorities/(black) people.

If nothing happens to Jamie Foxx over what he said about Miley Cyrus... (shes a little girl, remember)....it will prove at least to me.... that reverse discrimination is not allowed in today's day and age and its all one sided...if your black that is...

oh!oh!.......Am I a white right-wing racist extremist now, because of this rant and rave of mine against Jamie Foxx? Let me remind ya all.... My ethnicity is MEXICAN!!! So hold off on all the anti-white hate comments....I'm a minority so I can say ANYTHING I WANT!!! Thats how it works right?

BOYCOTT ALL MOVIES WITH JAMIE FOXX..... DONT GIVE HIM YOUR MONEY!!!!!! HES A RACIST!!!!!

Homeland Security warns that Veterans are a National threat!!!!!! WTF?

2009-04-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

This report came out yesterday by the Homeland Security Department and given to police departments and other agencies all over the country to GATHER information on veterans and soldiers returning from the war because they are now considered right-wing extremists and get this.... terrorists to our country!!!!

Me, a stay at home mother of two who served her country and was willing to die for the rights and liberties of the very people who have now labled me a threat to national security. I am a threat according to this report because... I believe in the system that this countries forefathers designed to protect the rights and liberties of its citizens. I am a threat because I believe in GOD, family, the right to bear arms, the right to free speech and the right to work hard and achieve the American dream with dedication and determination.

I am so offended.... Im disgusted.... and it seems that I have no rights as I am now a right-wing extremist and a threat according to the Department of Homeland Security!!!! Hmmm...... I wonder when they are going to break down my doors and take me to Guantamano... its empty... for a reason... I beleive....

Please read below an article by www.weeklystandard.com and followed by a response written by the American legion David K. Rehbein National Commander.

**********************************************************************

American Legion Objects to DHS Classification of Vets as Possible Terror Risk
We're all right-wing extremists now, according to the Department of Homeland Security's report, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." You may think you're just an average entrepreneur disgruntled with the debt, but Janet Napolitano is here to tell you you're so much more.

The report, which DHS argues was begun during the Bush administration and is analogous to reports on left-wing extremism, does not just warn of racist hate groups, but of threats posed by returning vets, gunowners, people who prefer local government over federal government, and single-issue advocates on abortion and immigration. Eli Lake at the Washington Times reports that key findings of the report show most of the work was done in the last couple of months, despite DHS claims that it was prepared long ago by non-political appointees.

The report alleges a resurgence in right-wing extremism, fueled by hard economic times and the election of Obama, but provided no examples or numbers to local law enforcement, to whom the report was sent. The broad generalities of the report give lie to the equivalence DHS is trying to make to previous reports on left-wing extremists, which were specific in naming animal-rights and environmental groups that had been proven to engage in terrorist activities:

"Leftwing Extremists" report, on the other hand, focuses on "animal rights, environmental, and anarchist extremist movements," warning that such organizations will focus their attacks on economic targets and specifically cyberattacks such as overwhelming a corporation's servers with spam e-mail or hacking into closed networks and deleting user accounts.

The report, however, limits its warnings to "animal rights and environmental extremists," which it says "seek to end the perceived abuse and suffering of animals and the degradation of the natural environment perpetrated by humans"; and "anarchist extremists" who the report says "generally embrace a number of radical philosophical components of anticapitalist, antiglobalization, communist, socialist and other movements."

That report does not lump such groups, though, with single-issue advocacy on broad topics and the stances of mainstream liberals. It also cites specific attacks by contemporary groups that fit the given descriptions, rather than draw analogies from the 1990s.

Now, for the second time in his administration—the first being when he floated the idea of having wounded vets pay for their own medical treatment— Obama has riled the American Legion:

The report, which prompted a storm of outrage Tuesday from conservatives, cited the example of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in warning that the return of disgruntled military veterans could lead to "terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks."

Mr. Rehbein also challenged the department on that score, speaking on behalf of the legion's 2.6 million members. "To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical 'disgruntled military veteran' is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam," he said.

"I think it is important for all of us to remember that Americans are not the enemy. The terrorists are," David K. Rehbein, national commander of the veterans organization, said in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about a security assessment titled "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence and Recruitment."

The Legion has asked for a meeting with Napolitano to discuss the report and other, you know, real threats to national security, and her office indicates she's willing to meet.

Are you now reading or have you ever read "Atlas Shrugged?" Are you now a fan of or have you ever been a fan of "The Federalist Papers?" I'm traveling to a tea party protest today in Edenton, N.C., so count me one of the rabble-rousers, I reckon. Who knew I was a terrorist threat? I must admit I do prefer local government control in many areas. Nefarious!

Posted by Mary Katharine Ham on April 15, 2009 08:52 AM | Permalink

**********************************************************************

AMERICAN LEGION: An Open Letter to Homeland Security on ‘Rightwing Extremists’
Editor’s note: David K. Rehbein, an Army veteran and national commander of The American Legion, sent the following letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in response to the recent Homeland Security report warning about “Rightwing Extremism.”

Secretary Janet Napolitano
Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Washington, DC 20528

April 13, 2009

Dear Secretary Napolitano,

On behalf of the 2.6 million-member American Legion, I am stating my concern about your April 7 report, “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence and Recruitment.”
First, I want to assure you that The American Legion has long shared your concern about white supremacist and anti-government groups. In 1923, when the Ku Klux Klan still yielded unspeakable influence in this country, The American Legion passed Resolution 407. It resolved, in part, “…we consider any individual, group of individuals or organizations, which creates, or fosters racial, religious or class strife among our people, or which takes into their own hands the enforcement of law, determination of guilt, or infliction of punishment, to be un-American, a menace to our liberties, and destructive to our fundamental law…”
The best that I can say about your recent report is that it is incomplete. The report states, without any statistical evidence, “The possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.”

The American Legion is well aware and horrified at the pain inflicted during the Oklahoma City bombing, but Timothy McVeigh was only one of more than 42 million veterans who have worn this nation’s uniform during wartime. To continue to use McVeigh as an example of the stereotypical “disgruntled military veteran” is as unfair as using Osama bin Laden as the sole example of Islam.

Your report states that “Rightwing extremists were concerned during the 1990s with the perception that illegal immigrants were taking away American jobs through their willingness to work at significantly lower wages.” Secretary Napolitano, this is more than a perception to those who have lost their job. Would you categorize union members as “Right Wing extremists”?

In spite of this incomplete, and, I fear, politically-biased report, The American Legion and the Department of Homeland Security share many common and crucial interests, such as the Citizen Corps and disaster preparedness. Since you are a graduate of New Mexico Girls State, I trust that you are very familiar with The American Legion. I would be happy to meet with you at a time of mutual convenience to discuss issues such as border security and the war on terrorism. I think it is important for all of us to remember that Americans are not the enemy. The terrorists are.

Sincerely,

David K. Rehbein
National Commander
The American Legion

I quit smoking.... In time before .62 cent tobacco tax hike takes effect April 1, 2009....I guess he JOKE is on the smokers!

2009-03-03T23:02:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I decided that after almost 20 years of smoking that I did not want to do it anymore. I woke up one morning and I realized that I stunk of stale smoke from the night before and it made me sick.

I went for a physical last November and my Dr. gave me a perscrption for the drug CHANTAX an aid to quit smoking. I filled the perscription but was afraid to take it and put it away in my medicine cabinet. I continued to smoke but in the back of my mind I knew that I just needed to courage to just do it and rid myself of cigarettes forever.

On the day before Obama swore in and became our President was the day that I chose to quite. February 19, 2009 and I took the first CHANTAX pill. I still smoked for the next few days but not as many, I found that I was forgeting to smoke and for longer periods of time. On the 4rth day I did not smoke one single cigarette and I am still SMOKE FREE!!

I am on my second month on CHANTAX and the side effects are not that bad, the first week I had a slight headache all day long for the entire week and I had dry cotton-mouth and was constantly thirsty and drinking lots of water.

By the second weeek the headache went away, cotton-mouth got better but was still drinking lots of water.

By the third week I was having nightly vivid crazy dreams that I actually remembered when I woke up.

Im not going to lie, everyday I have had a craving or a very strong desire to smoke a cigarette - every time TRIGGERED by something that was doing at the time that I used to do when I smoked - like after I eat for example. I get over the cravings by chewing on a peice of gum and it goes away after a few minutes.

The funny thing is I DO NOT GET A CRAVING FOR A CIGARETTE WHEN I SMELL CIGARETTE SMOKE!! THE SMELL OF THE SMOKE GIVES ME A HEADACHE BECAUSE IT STINKS TO ME NOW... weird I know but its true.

I understand that I will never be rid of the desire to smoke again. I am like a recovering drug addict - I will always have to fight the desire to smoke for the rest of my life.

I don't like to day that I quit smoking, I say that I am smoke free for another day - because there could be the one trigger that makes me light up one day..... I hope not though.

My kids notice that I am calmer, don't yell or get frustrated like I used to. My husband likes that he can smell the shampoo in my hair and not the smoke and I like the fact that I can smell my own perfume and food tastes better to me as well.

I went bike riding with my daughter and husband, we rode 5 miles and I was not even winded or tired, I loved the fact that I could breathe the fresh air and take it into my lungs without coughing.

I heard on the news that Obama signed a new tax bill to raise tobacco taxes by 62 cents a pack!!! WOW!!! That means that the generic brands will now cost around $4.00 a pack!!! The new tax hike takes effect April 1, 2009..... so I guess decided to be smoke free just in time....

Rush Limbaugh gives speech to CPAC

2009-03-03T22:39:00.000-08:00

You may not agree with what he says because of WHO he is but..... take "off" the republican and democrat hats for half an hour and just "listen" to what he is saying... Im only 39 years old and really don't know much about the stock market or really understand the entire dynamics about the stimulus plan, but I "DO" understand that a trillion dollars, doubled is alot of money - more money than has ever been spent since the birth of the United States to Obama's inauguration and that scares me.

"Where is the money going to come from?" Obama is talking about spending trillions of dollars and I'm wondering if Im going to have enough Washingtons in my checking account to last me til next payday.... like most Americans are doing now a days..... WE DON'T HAVE MUCH LEFT OVER TO TAX ANYMORE!!!!!!!!

So regardless of who you voted for please have an open mind and take the blinders off your eyes AND ears.... and LISTEN.

New York Post Cartoon stirs controversy...

2009-02-19T22:29:00.000-08:00

AP – New York State Senator Eric Adams stands in front of the New York Post building holding a cartoon that … NEW YORK – After two days of protests, the New York Post apologized Thursday for a cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Barack Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police. But the newspaper also said its longtime antagonists exploited the image for revenge.

The qualified apology didn't mollify at least some of the cartoon's critics, who said they might continue protesting Friday.

The newspaper posted an editorial on its Web site Thursday evening saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but "to those who were offended by the image, we apologize."

The piece was posted hours after 200 picketers chanting "Boycott the Post! Shut it down!" marched in front of the paper's office, saying the cartoon echoed racist stereotypes of blacks as monkeys.

The editorial said that "most certainly was not its intent," adding that some media and public figures who have long-standing differences with the paper saw the cartoon "as an opportunity for payback."

Calling them "opportunists," the editorial said: "To them, no apology is due."

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who helped lead the outcry over the cartoon, criticized what he called the paper's "conditional statement" of regret.

"Though we think it is the right thing for them to apologize to those they offended, they seem to want to blame the offense on those (who) raised the issue, rather than take responsibility for what they did," he said in a statement.

The tabloid, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is known for its feisty attitude, provocative headlines and conservative outlook — a mix that has garnered hundreds of thousands of readers, but also criticism over the years.

The newspaper had stood by the cartoon, which its editor called "a clear parody" about the death of Travis, the chimp that Connecticut police killed Monday after it mauled a friend of its owner. Editor-in-chief Col Allan had said the intent was to ridicule Washington's efforts to revive the economy.

The drawing by longtime Post cartoonist Sean Delonas, published Wednesday, shows a dead chimp and two police officers, one with a smoking gun. The caption reads, "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

The Post was picketed and deluged with angry calls, with some of Thursday's marchers carrying signs that said "Jail Billionaire N.Y. Post Owner Rupert Murdoch."

"We make them and we break them with our money, and we should shut it down," said protester Angela Brown, who carried a glossy photo of Obama.

Some protesters said the cartoon not only underscored racist tropes but even suggested that Obama should be shot.

"Since when can you call for the killing of the president of the United States?" demanded City Councilman Charles Barron.

FOLLOW MY BLOG

2009-02-19T22:11:00.000-08:00

What is Following?

Do you like my blog and want to let me know that you are a fan? Well now you can do that and more with the Blogger Following feature! You can even keep track of my blog via your Reading List on the Blogger dashboard.

How do I become a Follower of my blog you ask?

One of the easiest ways is to click on the "Follow this Blog" link under the "Followers" widget located on the top right side of my blog:

You'll then see a popup window with the options to either follow publicly or anonymously:

Select how you'd like to follow the blog, then click the orange "Follow" button. It is that simple, you are now a follower of my blog! Dont forget to down load a picture of you while you are at it, mine is posted with my husband Chris.

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If your a return reader PLEASE take the time to Follow my blog and add yourself it only takes a minute, Id LOVE to know whos reading my rants and raves.

Defense Department Announces Civilian Expeditionary Workforce

2009-02-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Obama’s promise of a civilian security force is set in motion

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Friday, Jan 30th, 2009

The Defense Department has established a “civilian expeditionary workforce” that will see American civilians trained and equipped to deploy overseas in support of worldwide military missions.

The move is seen by some as an initial step towards fulfilling President Obama’s promise to form a civilian national security force as powerful as the U.S. military.

The intent of the program “is to maximize the use of the civilian workforce to allow military personnel to be fully utilized for operational requirements,” according to a Defense Department report.

The program was officially implemented one week ago, on the 23rd January, when Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed Defense Department Directive 1404.10 (PDF), which provides a summation of the duties the workforce will undertake.

The directive, which is effective immediately, states that civilian employees of the DoD will be asked to sign agreements stating that they will deploy in support of military missions for up to two years if needed.

Workforce members, who are divided into different designations under the directive, will serve overseas in support of humanitarian, reconstruction and, if necessary, combat-support missions.

“If the employee does not wish to deploy, every effort will be made to reassign the employee to a nondeploying position.” the DoD report states.

While the directive suggests that the DoD will at first seek volunteers to serve in the civilian workforce, section 4, subsection (e) paragraph (2) states:

Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees, either voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission.

In addition, the directive states that all workforce members will be subject to physical and psychological testing, both before and after deployment.

The directive refers several times to the civilian workforce as a component of the “Total Force”, which it describes as “The organizations, units, and individuals that compromise the DoD resources for implementing the National Security Strategy.” This “Total Force” includes active, reserve and retired military personnel in addition to DoD civilian employees.

Back in July 2008, Barack Obama, then the presidential front runner, called for a “civilian national security force” as powerful as the U.S. military.

“We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded,” Obama told a Colorado Springs audience.

The comments that were ignored by the vast majority of the corporate media but compared by independent journalists to the formation of the Nazi Hitler Youth.

Fears of “youth brigades” or civilian stasi style units increased following Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel to chief-of staff.

In his book, “The Plan: Big Ideas for America,” Emanuel writes: “It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service.”

The book also notes, “Some Republicans will squeal about individual freedom, ruling out any likelihood that they would let people opt out of universal citizen service.”

Emanuel is also an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies - a youth corps whose students would be trained in “civilian internship in the armed forces”.

Furthermore, in a rediscovered 2006 audio clip of an interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel outlined the agenda for compulsory military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at preparing Americans for a chemical or biological terrorist attack.

When controversy arose over the program last November, the use of the word “required” to describe the program was removed from Obama’s change.gov website and replaced with “community service” type terminology.

Though the civilian expeditionary workforce program is restricted to DoD employees, similar programs have already been established for public sector workers.

One such program has seen hundreds of police, firefighters, paramedics and utility workers recently trained and dispatched as “Terrorism Liaison Officers” in Colorado, Arizona and California to watch for “suspicious activity” which is later fed into a secret government database.

http://waronyou.com/topics/defense-department-announces-civilian-expeditionary-workforce/

IS THE US GOVERNMENT PREPARING TO SEND DISSENTERS TO PRISON CAMPS?

2009-02-19T21:42:00.000-08:00

By NWV News writer Jim Kouri
Posted 1:00 AM Eastern
February 5, 2009

Within the last few weeks since Americans witnessed the transition between a Bush Administration to an Obama Administration, some conservatives have noticed an escalation in using the US military and military-style tactics to deal with "national security concerns." Such actions include use of army troops within US borders and the building of camps designed to house and control American citizens.

For example, in January immediately following the inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama, Newswithview.com dispatched a reporter to participate in a US Department of Defense press conference.

Armed Forces Press Service representative Donna Miles reported to news reporters, bloggers and Internet journalists that troops from the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team were deployed to the Naval facility located in Indian Head, Maryland. Their assignment was allegedly to get hands-on training in skills they could depend on to provide "support during a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive incident, known here as a CBRNE."

“It appears to me that the federal government is relaxing Posse Comitatus,” author Jerome Corsi told NewsWithViews.com

The "Rock of the Marne" division, which returned to Fort Stewart, Ga., direct from its third deployment to Iraq, the army division became part of the CBRNE Consequence Management Force. The force includes various military assets assigned to US Northern Command that could be called on to respond to a natural or manmade disaster with US borders.

However, not everyone is happy about this military development coming so close to the transition from the Bush White House to the Obama Administration. Some observers believe this plan is part of a deal between President-Elect Barack Obama and the current Secretary of Defense who will remain in his current position even after the Bush-Obama transition.

While these soldiers are being trained to operate within US borders, another development was discovered by conservative observers: the introduction of a congressional bill that would create de facto detention camps throughout the US.

“Unfortunately, the US has a history of using detention camps,” stated author and investigative journalists Jerome Corsi, best know for his co-authoring Unfit to Command, a work credited with keeping Senator John Kerry out of the White House.

“[This country] used detention camps in Washington, DC during the anti-Vietnam War protests. They were used in World War II to incarcerate Japanese-Americans. We are talking about a slippery slope: camps being prepared to be used in emergencies can easily be used to imprison dissenters,” Corsi told NewsWithViews.com in a telephone interview.

Disgraced former Florida judge -- now a Democrat Party member of the House of Representatives -- Rep. Alcee Hastings -- introduced what some claim is a disturbing piece of legislation. The new bill calls for the Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to build at least six facilities that can be designated as "emergency centers. Hastings rationale for such facilities is to gather and "house" civilians on what are basically detention centers guarded by armed soldiers or paramilitary troops.

The House bill (HR 645) is not even on the radar of members of the elite media. According to critics of the plan, if passed the government will create camps or centers that by their nature restrict the activities of US citizens herded into them.

One critic, political strategist Mike Baker claims the idea of such detention center smacks of the type of concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany, Americans find repugnant.

"Why aren't the news media covering this story? Could it be because they fear being the first occupants of these so-called emergency installations? Where is the outrage by our nation's Fourth Estate?" asks Baker.

Hastings bill is suspected of attempting to help expand the President Obama's military and law enforcement powers. While Hastings pushes this bill, even Republican congressmen are hesitant to remind one another and the nation that this Florida congressman was impeached while he sat on Florida's federal court bench.

Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979, he became the first African-American federal judge in the state of Florida, and served in that position for ten years. He’s still called “Judge” by some of his colleagues, but one would think he’d rather forget his days on the federal bench.

In 1989, Judge Hastings was impeached by the US House of Representatives for bribery and perjury. The Democratic-controlled Senate convicted Hastings of accepting a $150,000 bribe in 1981 in exchange for a lenient sentence and of perjury in his testimony about the case. Hastings said the charges against him smacked of racism.

Even Rep. John Conyers, who is also black, said he “found no trace of racism during the investigation.” He urged his colleagues to remove Hastings from the bench. He said, “[Hastings] is unfit to serve.”

When the ultra-liberal Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi nominated Hastings for the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee, even members of her own political party balked.

"The prospect of Rep. Alcee Hastings becoming the chairman of the House of Representative’s Intelligence Committee was proposed by Congressional Black Caucus, who had been pressuring the new House Speaker Pelosi to appoint blacks to key leadership positions and Hasting benefited from the pressure on the radical left Pelosi," said former Detective Sidney Frances (NYPD-ret.), himself an African-American.

While not appointed to chair the intelligence committee, Hastings is currently a member of the powerful House Rules Committee and is a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). On the HPSCI, Hastings is the ranking Democratic member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security.

"While Obama and his team are making it sound as if they will use the military in a non-combative roll, part of the training being conducted is in urban warfare," claims political strategist Mike Baker.

"Obama appears oblivious to Posse Comitatus and to the US Constitution when it comes to using the military against civilians within US borders," he said.

"And where do you think they'll keep these American prisoners of war? In comes impeached and corrupt Congressman Hastings with a solution," adds Baker.

© 2009 NWV - All Rights Reserved

http://www.newswithviews.com/NWV-News/news123.htm

http://waronyou.com/topics/is-obama-preparing-to-send-dissenters-to-prisoner-camps/

PRESENTING: DON'T CLOSE YOUR BLINDS SHORT FILM

2009-02-19T10:24:00.000-08:00

Don't Close your Blinds "
Inspired by the original story
" A Lesson For My Son"
by Irma S. Chambers
A Flicker Fusion Film
Produced & Directed by Libby Brien
www.FlickerFusionFilms.com

BREAKING NEWS: OBAMA ADMITS "IT"S A TRILLION DOLLAR SPENDING BILL"

2009-02-05T23:12:00.000-08:00

"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"
"IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL" "IT'S A SPENDING BILL"

OUR PRESIDENTS WORDS....... NOT MINE!!!!

PANETTA GOT PAID WITH BANK RESCUE FUNDS?

2009-02-05T22:56:00.000-08:00

I have a question that is bothering me... If Panetta does not "supposivly"violate Obama's executive order to not have lobbyists in his administartion then what about politicians who are paid speaking fees from banks that "possibly" got federal bailout money?

I HAVE to BREAK it down so you all can see what I mean...

$56,000 from Merrill Lynch & Co. for two speeches
$28,000 for a speech for Wachovia Corp
$28,000 honorarium from the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm that owns
companies doing business with national-security agencies of the U.S.
government.
$60,000 "Governmental Advisor Fee" from the Pacific Maritime Association,
which represents the shipping industry
$130,000 "Directors Fee" paid by Fleishman Hillard, a large public affairs and
lobbying firm
$50,000 paid to Mr. Panetta's institute by EduCap who happens to be under
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. EduCap also
provided flights on its corporate jet to Mr. Daschle and other Washington
figures.

Good ol boy' I'll scratch your back you scratch mine......

TWO MORE OBAMA CABINET "PICKS" RAISE EYEBROWS

2009-02-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

What the hell? Every time I turn on the news it seems as if Obama's nominee's are falling off the golden tree like the rotten apples that they are at an alarming rate!!

Lets start with HILDA SOLIS, now I do not like to knock a fellow Hispanic and a female at that, especially since it "appears" not to be "her" fault that her husband did not pay back taxes on his company. However, as a married couple, I am positive that she was "aware" of it and at fault especially since her husband "PAID" the taxes YESTERDAY!!!.

She was suppose to be confirmed today as SECRETARY OF LABOR but it has been postponed due to the "TAX ISSUE" as if it were no big deal.

Hilda Solis now the FOURTH OBAMA NOMINEE WHO'S CONFIRMATION HAS BEEN TARNISHED BY THE INABILITY OR UNWILLINGNESS TO PAY TAXES DUE LIKE REGULAR FOLKS HAVE TO.

Public records show that since 1993, two state and 14 Los Angeles County tax liens totaling about $11,640 have been lodged against Sayyad and his business, Sam's Foreign and Domestic Auto Center.

The documents indicate that $6,468 in county liens remained unresolved until Wednesday, when Sayyad paid off the balance, according to the Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector's office.

A tax lien is a legal claim filed by federal, state or local governments to collect unpaid taxes and fees from individuals and businesses. Anthony Yakimowich, chief deputy treasurer and tax collector for Los Angeles County, said Thursday that Sayyad "has paid everything he owes us."

Yakimowich said liens are not necessarily an indication that a business or an individual is trying to avoid paying taxes. Businesses can run into financial difficulties, and honest disputes can arise, he said.

Democrats in control of the labor committee said they are confident Solis will be confirmed.

Now let me rag on CIA Nominee LEON PANETTA.... I better be careful what I say or I might not be around to continue to inform and amuse you all with my rants and raves, if confirmed he WILL be the HEAD HONCHO OF THE CIA!!!!

So to be safe (LOL) I am just going to copy and paste an article by the WALL STREET JOURNAL.....Let Panetta go after Glenn Simpson's head on a stick..... ROMFLOL!!!!

CIA NOMINEE PANETTA RECEIVED $700,000 in FEES

WASHINGTON -- The White House's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has earned more than $700,000 in speaking and consulting fees since the beginning of 2008, with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies, according to financial disclosures released Wednesday.

Mr. Panetta received $56,000 from Merrill Lynch & Co. for two speeches and $28,000 for a speech for Wachovia Corp., according to disclosures released ahead of Thursday's scheduled Senate hearing on Mr. Panetta's nomination.

Both Merrill and Wachovia reported big losses last year and were acquired by larger firms. The Wachovia honorarium was dated Oct. 30, and the last Merrill Lynch honorarium was dated Oct. 11, according to disclosure forms filed by Mr. Panetta in connection with his nomination. At the time, Bank of America had agreed to a rescue of Merrill Lynch; Wachovia had agreed to be acquired by Wells Fargo & Co.

Mr. Panetta's disclosure form illustrates how retired politicians commonly make money giving speeches and consulting for prominent companies with significant interests before the government. That was one element in the controversy over the cabinet nomination of former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who withdrew Tuesday.

The former White House chief of staff's disclosure form also shows the delicate balance President Barack Obama is trying to strike -- trying to curb the influence of lobbyists, while relying on Washington veterans who often help clients navigate the halls of power. Mr. Panetta's forms show that he performed government affairs consulting last year and also sat on the board of a public affairs firm that lobbies Congress. Like Mr. Daschle, who also worked for a firm with lobbying clients, Mr. Panetta doesn't violate Mr. Obama's ban on hiring registered lobbyists.

"We anticipate that [Thursday's] hearing will focus on the substance of Mr. Panetta's views about how to strengthen our intelligence gathering and keep our nation safe, as all of Mr. Panetta's income and investments have been thoroughly reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Mr. Panetta also received a $28,000 honorarium from the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm that owns companies doing business with national-security agencies of the U.S. government. Carlyle holds a majority stake in the government consulting arm of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which works for the CIA and other agencies. A Carlyle spokesman said Mr. Panetta was paid to speak at an investor conference and that the matter was unrelated to Booz Allen or any other defense contractors.

Mr. Panetta also reported receiving a $60,000 "Governmental Advisor Fee" from the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping industry. The group lobbies the federal government regarding terrorism laws that affect shipping. A spokesman for the association didn't respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Panetta is a former Congressman from central California who served as White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton. A White House spokesman said Mr. Panetta "provided consulting services on port security issues and some labor issues" to the Pacific Maritime Association. The spokesman said Mr. Panetta was "unaware" if his work was related to lobbying efforts by PMA in Washington that were described in public disclosure forms. Regarding potential conflicts of interest involving his speaking fees from Carlyle and other firms, the spokesman said, "All of his income and investments have been thoroughly reviewed by the Office of Government Ethics, and he will abide by whatever they require."

Fleishman Hillard, a large public affairs and lobbying firm, also paid Mr. Panetta $130,000 in director's fees. Fleishman Vice Chairman Paul Johnson said Mr. Panetta advises firm clients on policy and economic issues but performs "absolutely no lobbying or government relations work."

Another source of income for Mr. Panetta was California State University, which hosts the Leon & Sylvia Panetta Institute for Public Policy, a nonprofit foundation. Last night, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee posed a series of new questions to Mr. Panetta about his finances, according to a Senate aide. The panel is seeking information on his relationship to a nonprofit firm called EduCap Inc. that is under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service. EduCap and a sister firm donated $50,000 to Mr. Panetta's institute and provided flights on its corporate jet to Mr. Daschle and other Washington figures.

—Susan Schmidt contributed to this article.
Write to Glenn R. Simpson at glenn.simpson@wsj.com

WOW!!! ALMOST ONE MILLION DOLLARS PAID IN FEES..... ONCE HE'S DIRECTOR OF THE CIA.... HE GONNA BANK SOME REAL MONEY WITH INFORMATION TRADE FEES!!!!!

WILLIAM LYNN & WILLIAM CORR = OBAMA'S NEW "LOBBYIST" CABINET MEMBERS

2009-02-05T21:53:00.000-08:00

I was watching FOX news yesterday and something interesting got my attention. They tried to put 900 BILLION DOLLARS into perspective. They said that if you spent ONE MILLION DOLLARS A DAY from the time that JESUS CHRIST was born up to today, you STILL WOULD NOT SPEND ALL OF IT!!! The other one was if you stacked 900 BILLION SINGLE DOLLAR BILLS on top of each other, the stack would reach about 3/4 of the way to the moon!!!

Day after day I watch the news and see how well bipartisan does not work and how Obama has resorted to SCARE TACTICS and telling the public that we NEED TO SPEND ALMOST A TRILLION DOLLARS of our Children's children tax money or else we will never recover!!!

I find it ridiculous that you have the small minority of Republicans trying to shave off 100 BILLION off the STIMULUS PLAN while the DEMOCRATS insist that since "THEY WON" they write and pass the bill regardless of the fat and pork that they snuck into the bill to get new gyms and golf courses built that may provide a few jobs for a time but in no way CREATE JOBS THAT LAST FOR DECADES not months!!

Now I read that the two newest members to Obama cabinet team are former lobbyists or benefited financially from lobby groups and now they are " PARDONED" by Obama with invisible quotation marks and do not have to comply with the executive order that he signed THE DAY AFTER HE BECAME THE PRESIDENT BARRING LOBBYISTS FROM HIS ADMINISTRATION!!!!!! AGGG!!!!!

BREAKING NEWS ************ SENATE BILL IS AT 928 BILLION, 100 BILLION MORE THAN HOUSE BILL BECAUSE 78 BILLION FROM FIRST BAILOUT IS UNACCOUNTED FOR BECAUSE IT WAS AN OVERPAYMENT!!!!!

HOW CAN 78 BILLION be OVERPAID and not ACCOUNTED FOR?

The following is a excerpt from another website that tells about Mr. Lynn and Mr. Corr having "SPECIAL EXEMPTION" from OBAMA"S FIRST EXECUTIVE ORDER AS PRESIDENT.

From NEWS.scotsman.com

ON 21 JANUARY, the day after his inauguration as US president, Barack Obama issued an executive order barring any former lobbyists who join his administration from dealing with matters or agencies related to their lobbying work. Nor could they join agencies they had lobbied in the previous two years.

The order was a clear attempt to distance his administration from Washington's lobbyist culture, which employs thousands of people in the US capital and spends hundreds of millions of dollars soliciting political assistance for nearly every cause imaginable.

However, William Lynn, his choice to become the No 2 at the defence department, recently lobbied there for the military contractor Raytheon. And William Corr, tapped as deputy at health and human services, lobbied through most of last year as an anti-tobacco advocate.

"Even the toughest rules require reasonable exceptions," said the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs. That was a big step back from Mr Obama's unambiguous swipe at lobbyists in November 2007, while campaigning for the presidential nomination. "I don't take a dime of their money," he said, "and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."

From NEWS.scotsman.com

NOT DONE

2009-02-04T14:29:00.000-08:00

Just to let you know Im not done with my research on the rest of the people on Obamas cabinet..... have to go pick up kids now.....

Obama admits: ANOTHer one BiTeS the DusT... and ANotHeR one!!

2009-02-04T08:03:00.000-08:00

For 8 years President Bush never admitted fault or a mistake.... claim many, many Democrats in defense of President Obama admitting he made a "MISTAKE" with Tom Daschle's nomination. Oh, PLEASE!!!! Lets all cheer " CONGRAGULATIONS Mr. President FOR SCREWING UP!!!! What a great way to start his first 100 days in Office!!!

Tom Daschle wisely withdrew his nomination as secretary of health and human services on Feb 3, 2009 as did, Nancy Killefer, a management consultant and former Treasury official. She withdrew her nomination to serve in the White House as the country's chief performance officer because of her problems with taxes.

Unfourtunatly, we can't say that about CONFIRMED Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, who FAILED to pay $34,000 in self-employment taxes. The joke is on us fellow Americans this is the man in CHARGE OF THE IRS now and who is going to screw YOU when YOU fail to pay YOUR taxes!!!! Instead of withdrawing his nomination because it was the right thing to do, he just PAID his taxes and everything was forgiven because he was the BEST CANDIDATE. I wonder what that says about all the rest if Geithner was their BEST CHOICE?

Here are Obama's Choices for his cabinet and what has transpired with each one, but I have to start with our New Presidnet.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES - OBAMA HUSSIEN OBAMA
( In charge of the USA)
SCANDAL/CRIME: NOT A US CITIZEN/ CORRUPT FRIENDS

On Aug. 21st attorney Philip J. Berg requested an injunction in Federal Court against the nomination of Barack Obama, citing evidence that candidate Barack Obama is not a US citizen, and "the obvious problems that will occur when the Republican Party raises these issues after Obama is nominated."

Berg argues that Barack Obama was born in Kenya in 1961 to an American woman, Stanley Ann Dunham, and a Kenyan man, Barack Hussein Obama Senior, as reportedly shown by a birth certificate from Mombasa Maternity Hospital. According to the law at that time, a parent could pass US citizenship on to a child born abroad if the parent was at least 19 years old. Obama's mother was only 18.

No hospital birth certificate has been produced to show Obama was born in Hawaii, only a certificate of birth registry after the fact, which forensics experts have denounced as a forgery.

Moreover, when Obama was six years old his mother remarried and moved with her husband to his country, Indonesia. Records indicate Obama was naturalized as an Indonesian citizen. Indonesia does not allow dual nationality, so even had he been born in Hawaii, he would have lost his citizenship then.

DO I REALLY NEED TO MENTION THE "REVERAND" AND BILL AYERS? No.... lets move on.....

****************************************

Secretary of Treasury - TIMOTHY GEITHNER
(In charge of IRS and our money)
SCANDAL/CRIME: TAX EVASION : APPOINTED

Not only did Geithner neglect to pay his taxes, he turned a buck by doing so—accepting payments from his employer for the very purpose of offsetting those taxes. When he took the money, he signed a statement promising to pay the taxes and then ignored his obligations—for years!!! Protected by a statute of limitations, he did not pay his 2001–02 taxes until his nomination made them a public issue.

*****************************************

Secretary of State - HILARY CLINTON
(In Charge of foreign affairs)
SCANDAL/CRIME: VIOLATION OF THE CONSTITUTION/CORRUPT PAST : APPOINTED

Where do I start? lets begin with the clause in the U.S. Constitution (Article One, Section Six) that prohibits senators (or representatives) from taking a civil office if the legislator has voted to increase the pay for that job. It reads as follows:

"No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office."

Must be nice to vote yourself MORE pay because Hilary "KNEW" that the January 2008 Executive Order signed by President Bush during Hillary Clinton's current Senate term increased the salary for Secretary of State, thereby rendering Senator Clinton ineligible for the position.

I dont know how President Obama got around the U.S. Constitution but Hilary is now Secretary of State and the person who will be responsible for negotiating with foreign representatives and instructing U.S. embassies or consulates abroad. The Secretary also serves as a principal adviser to the President in the determination of U.S. foreign policy and, in recent decades, has become responsible for overall direction, coordination, and supervision of interdepartmental activities of the U.S. Government overseas, excepting certain military activities.

This is bothersome to me since, the CLINTONS have a long history of corruption AND to date 61 people associated with the Clintons or Arkansas politics have died of unnatural causes or suddenly under circumstances that have raised questions. You can google "Arkansas Sudden Death Syndrome" or copy and paste the link below in your address bar

http://emporium.turnpike.net/P/ProRev/wwdeath.htm

to read the list of People who died, how and their association to Bill & Hilary our NEW SECRETARY OF STATE.

************************************

Secretary of Defense - Robert Gates
(In Charge of Military & Defense)
SCANDAL/CRIME: POLITICIZED INTELLIGENCE : APPOINTED

If Obama does keep Gates on, the new President will be employing someone who embodies many of the worst elements of U.S. national security policy over the past three decades, including responsibility for what Obama himself has fingered as a chief concern, “politicized intelligence.”

During a campaign interview with the Washington Post, Obama said, “I have been troubled by … the politicization of intelligence in this administration.” But it was Gates – as a senior CIA official in the 1980s – who broke the back of the CIA analytical division’s commitment to objective intelligence.

You can pick up a copy of the book: " Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA" by former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman who identifies Gates as the chief action officer for the Reagan administration’s drive to tailor intelligence reporting to White House political desires. A top “Kremlinologist,” Goodman describes how Gates reversed a CIA tradition of delivering tough-minded intelligence reports with “the bark on.”

************************************

Attorney General - ERIC HOLDER
(In Charge of enforcing the law)
SCANDAL/CRIME: CLINTON/MARC RICH PARDON SCANDAL/ASSOCIATION W/TERRORISTS :APPOINTED

Eric's Holder involvement in the controversial pardons during his days in the Clinton administration, where he As deputy attorney general, was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency.

If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire who renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, 51 counts of tax fraud, tax evasion (to the tune of $48 million), and illegal trades with Iran in violation of the US embargo following the 1979-80 hostage crisis.

Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.

It was Holder who had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, although he claims that he did not know the identity of the client.

And he gave substantive advice to Quinn along the way. According to Quinn's notes that were produced to Congress, Holder told Quinn to take the pardon application "straight to the White House" because "the timing is good."

And once the pardon was granted, Holder sent his congratulations to Quinn.

In 2002, a congressional committee reported that Holder was a "willing participant in the plan to keep the Justice Department from knowing about and opposing" the Rich pardon.

The Pardon scandal is nothing compared to what Hannity Colmes discovered on January 14, 2009 when he interviewed JONATHAN REITER, an Attorney.

Mr. Reiter admitted the Eric Holder had a connection to a company with ties to a known terrorist organization during his years in private practice.

It starts with Chiquita, one of the world's most recognizable brands exports more than 2.4 billion pounds of bananas from Colombia to North America each and every year, but in the highly competitive banana trade being one of the top producers comes with a price.

From 1997 to 2004 Chiquita funneled $1.7 million in protection money to the AUC. These two groups have been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and account for a sizeable percentage of the country's cocaine exports.

On September 10, 2001, the AUC was designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization.

Chiquita claims they paid the protection money to keep their employees safe from the para-military groups, but victims' families disagree.

After seven years of lining the pockets of terrorists, Chiquita admitted their wrongdoing to the Justice Department and hired and extremely influential man to bail them out, former deputy attorney general, Eric Holder.

Holder had left the DOJ after the Clinton administration and was now in private practice. On March 19, 2007, with Holder as lead counsel, Chiquita pleaded guilty to one count of, quote, "engaging in transactions with a specially designated global terrorist organization."

Holder then brokered what some call a sweetheart deal in which Chiquita only had to pay a $25 million fine over five years, yet not one of the half dozen company officials who approved the payments would receive any jail time.

************************************

SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY - JANET NAPOLITANO
(In charge of homeland security)
SCANDAL/CRIME:

While at a Phoenix law firm in 1991, Napolitano was part of the legal team representing Anita Hill, a former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission colleague of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas who accused Thomas of sexual harassment. Hill's accusations jeopardized but ultimately failed to derail the Senate's confirmation of Thomas.

Napolitano's representation of Hill became an issue in 1993 when the Senate considered Clinton's nomination of Napolitano for the U.S. attorney's job. Napolitano refused to answer questions about a private conversation with one of Hill's witnesses, Susan Hoerchner. At issue was whether Napolitano persuaded Hoerchner, Hill's corroborating witness, to change her testimony.

************************************

Secretary of Health & Human Services - TOM DASCHELE
(In Charge of Welfare)
SCANDAL/CRIME: TAX EVASION and ACCEPTING MONEY & GIFTS : WITHDREW NOMINATION/GONE!

Daschle’s offenses were accepting money and services—including a chauffeur-driven Cadillac—without reporting the income to the IRS. Daschle claimed that this was a series of honest errors, but his story was never credible. Even a million-dollar-a-year guy should notice an extra check for $83,333—a month’s installment on his consulting contract. He knew who owned that Cadillac and who paid its driver. Like Geithner, the former Senate majority leader began making good on his debts when it became clear that Obama’s political rise would present opportunities for his own advancement.

****************************************
Secretary of Commerce -BILL RICHARDSON
( In Charge of economic trade )
SCANDAL/CRIME: POLITICAL DONORS GAINED FAVORS : WITHDREW NOMINATION/GONE!

--The Secretary of Commerces' job is "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce" of the United States.

In December 08, right on the heels of the corruption tainted Governor - Rod Blagojevich who is accused of trying to sell Barack Obama's Senate, Forced Bill Richardson, Obama's choice for commerce secretary, to withdraw his nomination under pressure of a federal investigation into how his political donors landed a lucrative transportation contract.

A federal grand jury investigated whether a financial firm improperly won more than $1.4 million in work for the state of New Mexico shortly after making contributions to political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson (D).

The pay - to - play investigation focuses on whether the governor’s office urged a state agency to hire CDR Financial Products. The grand jury in Albuquerque is expected to hear testimony today from several key witnesses, including officials at Richard’s political action committees and bankers at J.P. Morgan who worked with CDR on the state’s investments.

President Barack Obama nominated Senator Judd Gregg as the next Commerce Secretary
on February 3, 2009. Lets hope he don't have any pay -to- play scandals in his closet.

**********************************************

Secretary of Veteran's Affairs - Eric Shinseki

**********************************************

Secretary of Agriculture -Tom Vilsack

*********************************************

Secretary of Education -Arne Duncan

*********************************************

Secretary of Energy -Steven Chu

*********************************************

Secretary of Housing & Urban Development -Shaun Donovan

*********************************************

Secretary of Interior -Ken Salazar

*********************************************

Secretary of Labor -Hilda Solis

*********************************************

Secretary of Transportation -Ray LaHood

********************************************

LEAVE THE MOM OF OCTUPLETS ALONE!!

2009-02-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

WTF!!!!! I cannot believe the media attention this poor woman is getting for making the terrible choice of giving life!!! Oh my Gosh what a horrible woman to even THINK of doing such a thing!!!

Come on people. What a shameful scandal the media has turned this into, getting physiologists to come on TV and declare this woman mentally unstable because she wanted to have more children. Yes!!!! MORE CHILDREN!!!! I understand that she has 6 at home and had 8 embryos implanted in her uterus, oh and shes single. SO WHAT!!!!

My mothers mother had 7 children and my fathers mother had 13 total!!! They all grew up loved, well adjusted and had everything they needed growing up., Does that make my grandmothers mentally unstable women because they had so many children? What about that Mormon family on TV that just had their 17Th Child? Is it OK for them to have as many children as they want because they are married and have some money and a TV show?

Everyone smiles and feels all gooey inside when Angelina Jolie-Pitt adopts another kid but shes rich so that makes it OK? Everyday children are born to non-citizen Americans in this country and guess who pays for it? WE DO!!! Its OK to pay for those children to be born into welfare but there is some unwritten law that states they have to be born one at a time not 8?

WHO PAYS FOR IT?!!! I HEAR EVERY NEWS COMMENTATOR ASK ALL DAY LONG? WELL.... what about Mr Tom Dashele who seems to have special privileges to pay his taxes when he FEELS LIKE IT.

Are we going to put rules and regulations on women now as to who can have a child and how many based on economic situation? Well why stop there? What about because of race, religion and sex!!! You cant have a baby because you are a poor black woman and there are already way too many poor blacks and you cant feed it so you CANT HAVE ONE!

Sounds asinine doesn't it? The News media is giving this woman shit about wanting to sell her story for 2 million dollars.... Well she don't sound stupid to me... it sounds like shes already thinking about how shes going to support her children by making some money out of it. I do NOT SEE any difference with her asking 2 million to care and feed her children than Brangelina asking 6 million for their twins first photograph.... and they are millionaires and don't need the money but.... they donated it to charity so its OK for them to get that much money but if a mother with 6 children and ALL 8 embryos took...resulting in 8 lives births ( I'm sure neither she or her DR. thought that all 8 would survive the first few weeks )shes a greedy metal case looking out for herself!!!!

If we start to judge and question how many children we are choosing to have in this country then we are no better than a communist country like china who forces women to abort their unborn child regardless of what trimester they are in to follow the 2 child rule they enforce over there. They have two children already? Too bad so sad they cant have anymore ever!!! Imagine the law trying to tell us how many kids we could and cant have.

I don't know. All I know is that God gave her 14 children because she was MEANT to have them, and like I said MY OWN GRANDMOTHER HAD 13 children just one less than this California woman has and none of my grandmothers children starved to death and had she stopped at 2 or even 5 for that matter my father would not have been born and neither would I or my children.

I just hope and pray that social services does not get involved and takes this woman's children away on the one fact that she has too many.... and according to her mother always wanted to have kids.. what woman doesn't?.... How is she going to take care of them?

WELFARE.... If the democrats get their way with this stimulus bill we will all be going to be on it soon anyways so whats the big deal?

or... someone pay her 2 million for her story..... shit we pay millions to celebrities and politicians why not a mother of 14?

Im done... that was my rant for today..... It dont help that its been almost two weeks since I had my last cancer stick...yup!! trying to quit the habit.... so Im really ranting my rant!

Abuse Survivor Support Group thread on Don't Close the Blinds

2009-01-22T23:34:00.000-08:00

I hope that this support group does not get upset that I copied and pasted these particular responses that is related to my analogy Don't Close the Blinds. It appears that this is a support group for victims of child abuse and someone in the group posted my Analogy as an example of how they could as the victims empower themselves and fight back against their abuser.

It also appears that many people in the group misunderstood the posters meaning and many saw the boys father as the abuser and seemed traumatized by the visual others were very upset at the entire story and relived their own emotional and physical abuse by the tone of the analogy while others were upset that the analogy was very political and did not understand the posters message and so on.

This is a response from one of the people in the group and how he interpreted it and it will follow with a very long powerful emotional and very telling of how painful this person suffered from child abuse but this persons interpretation of my analogy is what compelled me to post it here.

Reading his interpretation was very emotional and from his told from the depth of his soul. It proved that yet another perception of how powerful my analogy can be to so many different people.

This particular thread is very long and very emotional responses due to the subject that they are dealing with and trying to heal as adults. I was surprised that my analogy would be used as a HEALING TOOL to help these victims of child abuse who try and heal themselves through this support group and try to heal and empower themselves against the pain and hurt caused by their abuser.

My analogy has so much more meaning to me now that I realize that at least this group was able to use it to heal the hurt they suffered as children.

God Bless the little children and if you suspect "ANY" child of being abused DON'T CLOSE THE BLINDS!!!!! HELP THEM!!! HEAR THEIR MUFFLED CRIES!!! GET INVOLVED!!!!

*****************************************************************
Anonymous
(Unregistered)
10/17/04 04:44 AM
Re: don't close your blinds [re: NewVoice]

((((((((((((((((((((((((((( newvoice )))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I have read the responses here and I won't comment one way or the other on the politcal aspects.

I just want to say that your opening statement seemed to have said it all for me.

As I read your post, I thought about it, just as you did.

You opened with... I just received this forward and thought it fit sooo well in defending ourselves against our abusers that I thought I'd share it with you here. Though it has the political slant, please read this with you and your abuser in mind...and how you can be used to stop the terror that is placed upon our darling children and them safety..(that means, you too!)

That is how I looked at this story. Not as a political statement, not as how a parent choses to raise their child, not as an abusive story, but on how I need to take a stand against abusers and not allow them to get away with it.

It told me that I do have the strength to fight back. It does come at some point and even though, as a child, I had no recourse, I am an adult now and I can fight for the rights of other children, including myself.

I am sorry that some saw this differently. I can see how it would appear to be abuse, if one just read the story.I too felt the pressure and frustration of it. However because of your opening statement, I saw it in the way I believe you meant it to be.

I have and do fight for family members who are being abused and I have won a few of the battles. I see where I may have been more helpful had I stepped up to the plate long ago, but I didn't and now family members have been so abused for so long and now are just beginning their fight. A lot of it I didn't really know about.

I can't change what I didn't know, but now that I do know, I can help them to work through it and be of support to them.

I believe your heart was in the right place when you posted this and I am thankful for this post.

Luv Wishing

****************************************************************

NewVoice
(member )
10/17/04 04:15 AM
Re: don't close your blinds [re: NewVoice]

thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me with this posting ... i appreciate the love and caring that you demonstrate with your words.

thank you also to those who found this posting offensive. you helped me to realize how very easily it is to have our words misread and misconstrued. i have no doubt that your critical words come from your own source of pain and misunderstanding. i am sorry for the pain you still suffer.
without your comments i would probably never have even thought to explain the similiarities i see ithis story tell in our own lives as we deal with our abuse issues.

because my intent obviously was not conveyed correctly, i would like to clarify the reason and emotion behind this post so that we as survivors can see a new understanding of the atrosity of our own abuse and stop minimizing it all the time, which is just another form of abuse and control our abusers continue to have on us.

here is my interpretation of the story:

we are the child at the window, living and seeing what appears to be a normal happy life, until suddenly someone we thought loved us and was suppose to take care of us, did something very bad to us and abused us. our world gets turned upside down and it isn't the same world anymore. we remember the abuse that we endured. we become appalled at the sheer memory and start to question our memories, our perceptions, our own belief system, and everything around us.

as a child growing up, we have been treated as the wife in this story, experiencing horrendous abuse as we were beaten and our souls were dragged about and finally the innocent child within us was mercilessly murdered infront of everyone's eyes - so to speak - without anyone really "seeing" what just happened to us. we lie silent and still at the hands of our insane perpetrator and the child who would have lived a happy life otherwise no longer exists.

the "other" children appear then, the ones who love and want to protect us (the other personalities / sides / parts of us, the inner children, all various ages), and they are crying and screaming in horror, but are too afraid to stop what is happening before their very eyes! they are children ... what power do they have? they are innocent, defenseless children with no ability to protect themselves against such an evil force. and they are afraid to speak out because of what may happen to them if they would reveal such horror.

in their own childlike ways, they try to reach out and find someone to help them ... they think that their sad and pleading eyes will somehow someway get the attention of someone who could stop this nonsense, but no one listens. everyone turns their eyes as they watch this happen and do not want to get involved - its not their place, and besides, they are afraid for their own lives at the hands of this monster should they step in and intervene.

the insane abuser/perpetrator gains more strength and courage and power to go on to his next victim, another innocent human being who did nothing to deserve their own horror and death, but no one stops him.

the little children inside you have seen all this, witnessed it first hand, and because their screams and cries and distress signals were all so useless, they give up feeling that no one understands, no one cares, no one will listen or believe them, so they have no other recourse but to retreat deep inside their own safe place and close their eyes and minds to the horror that exists on the outside. they deny it exists for their own survival. they don't want to see the reality of what has taken place and they pretend it never did happen just so they can live some sort of life, even though it is badly broken, sad, and what feels like - irrepairable. their world has become a war zone, unsafe to come out. and there is nowhere to hide but within themselves.

then suddenly the memory of the abuser comes knocking on your door again. what do you do?? do you go run and hide? do you keep your blinds down so you don't have to face it and deal with the reality you see before you? do you deny that it exists? do you drive yourself crazy in fear that something bad is going to happen again?

or do you face your abuser, regardless the cost, because you cannot live any longer with the unending taunting and further abuse he dishes out to make your life miserable? you do have a choice to fight him and gain control back of your home and neighborhood - running the great risk of being hurt again - or to ignore it all and hope he will somehow go away on his own?

to stand up and fight for what is yours is always risky. there is always a perceived or a real cost. standing up against your abuser and all other abusers out there puts you in the position of control over your own life and not letting someone else get away with stealing what is yours - rightfully yours - to live in peace and with no fear of being harrassed again.

you will have to do real battle against the abuser because he won't go down easily. he is a fierce warrior because of the false confidence he has in his victories he's won with his other victims. he will be determined to not let you win.

but you can't have the ability to lose if you don't also have the ability to win. to every negative there is a positive. you have to make your choice if you feel the battle is a worthwhile cause, regardless if you feel the odds are in your favor in your victory or not. You can prepare for the battle and learn the tactics that your abuser uses to defeat you and turn them around to defeat him, along with your own tactics to ensure your victory over him. you CAN win. you have every source available to you to win, and every nerve in your body is prepared to fight ferociously for what is yours. do you turn that endless energy into the war of defeating this SOB, or do you turn it inward and create a battle within yourself, utlimately detroying the very thing that you want to preserve? turning inward guarantees a slow and painful death that mascarades as protection. but turning outward and pointing it at the real source of your torment brings ultimate victory and life.

good people choose to close their eyes to the atrosities that happen every day aroudn them and choose to not get involved for a whole myriad of their own reasons. all the while, the perpetrator continues to win, bullying his way through everyone's life and leaving scarred and dead little souls along his path and finding more and more insane people to join his cause - because he has gotten away with it; so will they. they know they are safe in pushing their own selfish, senseless, and heartless ways upon the little and the innocent because no one will have the courage and the guts to stop them. and they go on intimidating, destroying, and leaving disaster along their paths.

we MUST fight this evil in our own lives! we MUST take up arms to defend ourselves and gain control of our own territory, our own lives!! we MUST NOT turn our eyes away from the children who are crying out in pain for someone to please help them, even the children inside each and every one of us who we hvae never listened to before. we MUST listen to their terror and help them to tell their secret stories of destruction so that they can heal and overcome the damage done to them. we MUST pay attention and be on guard against every single perpetrator out there that is lurking to seize an unsuspecting little one. we MUST fight to protect those little ones who cannot defend themselves and who will surely will be masacred if this insanity is not stopped. If we choose to not get involved and fight for our freedom, surely the freedom of those we love, the ones that will come after us, and even ourselves are all at HIGH RISK! The generations to come are depending on us to protect them so that they can live in freedom, free from the fear and the threat of abuse and destruction. The buck stops HERE, with US, the ones that recognize the truth of their own abuse and who are dilegently working to rebuild their lives and bring some semblence of peace and order to their world. It is not up to anyone else but us. We are responsible for the happiness of our own lives. We are the ones that need to take up arms against all those who seek to harm us and our loved ones and our loved ones loved ones. It is our responsiblity to build a better world for ourselves and for others. Today is the day of reckonning. Tomorrow may never come. Today is the day to take control of your life and to make a difference in someone elses.

to close our eyes to our own abuse and not deal with the damage and heal the wounds gives the abuser more control over us and keeps his perpetration alive. to close our eyes to the abuse of the innocent makes us accessories of the very crime we abhor.

when we will wake up? when will we see that these people need to be stopped? when will we see that what they left in the wake of their destruction in our own lives CAN be restored and rebuilt instead of resigning ourselves to lives of fear, anger, paranoia, and paralysis? when will we protect the children of the world, hear their cries of pain, and pick them up to carry them to safety? when will we believe them? when will be listen to their stories of horror so that we can better defend them and others? when? and when will we see that it begins with our own fearful children who live within us?

and when will we see that what they have done is exactly what it is -- abuse and control and hatred toward the unsuspecting innocent. when will we call it what it is -- INSANITY, rather than taking that upon ourselves and thinking we are the ones crazy?

there IS freedom for those who seek it, fight for it, and defend it. there IS restoration to those who are willing to tear down every damaged wall and rebuild new and healthy ones. there IS peace and contentment to those who will sacrifice their own pain in order to heal. there IS a way to stop all of this insanity. and there IS VICTORY!!!!!!

that, my friends, is what i meant when i posted this message. it was a message of hope and healing. it was a message of encouragement to take up arms for yourself and those that you love and the ones that live in your corner of the world.

DO NOT LET YOUR ABUSER WIN!!! TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE!!! GET RID OF ALL THAT ENTANGLES YOUR SPIRIT THAT MAKES YOU FEEL SO MISERABLE AND FIND FREEDOM!!!

it CAN be done. do you have the courage?

NewVoice

p.s. and for the ones who do not recognize the danger and the damage those perpetrators inflict on us and who choose to turn away and reason that no one has a right to step in and stop the bastard, i pity you, for the very pain that you seek freedom from is the very pain you inflict on others if you don't stop the one inflicting the damage. there are consequences to every action or inaction. there is always a cause and an effect. simply crying out that recognizing the pain and the abuser is not emotional abuse. abuse is when you demand the one in pain to stay silent. and then you, too, my friend become the abuser. my tolerance for abusers in my life has come to an end.

may your eyes be opened to the Truth before you and may you also be set free.

my love, and blessings, and prayers are with you also.

peace be to you and peace be to your house and peace be to all you have.

Inauguration Comparison of: Bush Vs. Obama

2009-01-22T12:55:00.000-08:00

How quick the deceived mind forgets our past. Not four years ago the media plastered headlines news all around the world how outrageous and outlandish the Republicans were wasting our tax money on President George Bush's Inauguration when he should have served his guests cold chicken salad and plain pound cake like FDR did at his 1945 inauguration instead of spending 45 million dollars on a festivity where US soldiers did not have enough armored vehicles to fight his war.

Fast forward just four years. The first Black President, "OUR" hope for "CHANGE" the inauguration that will go down in History DESERVES three days of outrageous and outlandish Democratic spending of our tax money on President Obama inauguration and no mention of " serving cold chicken salad and plain pound cake this time around. Our soldiers still don't have the required armored vehicles they need to fight this war and the latest estimation of what Obama's inauguration cost is $150 MILLION!!!!!!

I'm confused, how could there be such a discrepancy in the public and the medias opinion on the vast difference of the cost of these two similar yet very different inaugurations?

One is Republican and one is Democrat? One is White and one is Black? One is considered to represent the rich the other the poor? One Represents oppression the other Hope? I can even go as far as President of Venezuela Cesar Chavez and say one is Evil and one the Savior.

Sounds ridiculous, neither one is much different than the other they are both MEN who became Presidents of the United States with different ideas on how to run the country and manipulating the public to get them into office

So why was this inauguration treated differently? Change. The first BLACK PRESIDENT. It's reversed discrimination at its worst. Treated in a way for AMERICA and all its bad white people who owned slaves 300 plus years ago to purge themselves of this countries past sins and PROVE to the world that we HAVE CHANGED and are no longer prejudice.

It will never go away. Its there in the crevices of our society not only dormant against blacks but against whites too and Asian, Hispanic, gay, women, age, religion, creed...... should I go on?

I'm a Hispanic female war veteran who at the age of 39 years old has memories of discrimination so I can and will give my opinion on this subject matter freely.... Hmmm... I wonder if I was a white female war veteran blogger if I would be able to express myself on this matter so freely without fear of being accused of discrimination and being a prejudice B**ch!!! Is that reversed discrimination?

Anyways,

I have a memory when I was about 10 or 11years old when my family drove in my dads beat up station wagon to south TX to visit my fathers family all the way from Idaho and it was winter with snow covering the roads. I do not know where we stopped to get a bite to eat but I remember it was a small town and my dad pulled up to a cafe and we got out and went inside to get a table. The man at the counter did not even let us finish stomping the snow from our feet and he told my dad that "They did not serve spics in that town" My father being gracious and humble did not argue with him and thanked him for his time and we left. I remember my mother crying and wondering what SPIC meant, I had never heard that word before or what had just happened to us. We ended up getting something to eat at a gas station and just kept driving into the night.

So like I said,

PREJUDICES will NEVER GO AWAY!!! Having a Black President will NEVER CHANGE that!! If anything the differences on the attitude about the cost of Bush inauguration and Obamas inauguration PROVES my theory.

I want to leave you with food for thought. I found these two YouTube videos and thought they were appropriate for this particular blog. They are parodies of Obama now that hes our President. They are somewhat funny but bothersome in there not so hidden messages.

I can do what ever I like.........

If you voted for me...........

What change do I get if I did NOT vote for you?

"44th President blunders Oath into highest office in America"

2009-01-21T19:32:00.000-08:00

WOW, I could not believe to watch how Obama totally F**ked -up the oath!!! After listening to him I turned to my husband and Brother and said " I don't think he's really the President he messed up the words!" They just laughed and said " Oh, he's our President now."

Well, then Chris Wallace from FOX TV commented on exactly what I had just said and I looked at my husband and brother and said " See!! he thinks the same thing I just did!"

So, I read this morning that "President" Obama took the oath a "SECOND" time in private with no cameras or news reporters and it was said correctly the second time.

Here is the Youtube video showing how he messed it up, then the Youtube video with what Chriss Wallace said and the wording of exactly "HOW" the oath is suppose to be said and word for word how Obama messed it up.

I guess that they felt that they "HAD" to re-do the oath again or else they would of left it as it was..... hmmmmm?

The presidential oath of office, which was given again to President Barack Obama Wednesday after the wording was flubbed slightly when given Tuesday, is set by the Constitution and reads:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

THE BLUNDER HAPPENED WHEN OBAMA ..........

interrupted Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.

Next in the oath is the phrase " ... that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States." But Roberts rearranged the order of the words, not saying "faithfully" until after "president of the United States."

That appeared to throw Obama off. He stopped abruptly at the word "execute."

Recognizing something was off, Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting "faithfully" in the right place but without repeating "execute."

But Obama then repeated Roberts' original, incorrect version: "... the office of president of the United States faithfully."

Craig, the White House lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday evening: "We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. Yet the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time."

The Constitution is clear about the exact wording of the oath and as a result, some constitutional experts have said that a do-over probably wasn't necessary but also couldn't hurt. Two other previous presidents have repeated the oath because of similar issues, Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur.

INTRODUCING: JOSE ANTHONY SAUCEDA

2009-01-13T08:51:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of the newest member of the Sauceda Family. Jose Anthony was born December 5, 2008. He just turned one month old last week. He is the second son of my brother and he is estatic that he now has two sons to carry on the Sauceda name.

WELCOME HOME ANTHONY, WELCOME HOME.

FIVE US PRESIDENTS

2009-01-13T06:44:00.000-08:00

When I heard that President elect Obama wanted to have lunch with three former US Presidents and the Current US President George W. Bush, I could not wait to see the photo that would show them standing all together.

It reminded me of the last photo taken of five US Presidents together a short few decades earlier when Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford and Nixon where photographed together.

As critical and harsh as my personal opinions may have been last fall when the elections peaked at an all time high - nastiness - I must remind you all that I am a true Patriot and like it or not I must put all of my trust and support in the man who my country elected to represent their interests and freedom including that freedom of speech that we all so love and have so little gratitude and appreciation for.

As I look at these photos, I reflect on the men behind the faces and what history will say about each single one of them. Each man pictured in both photos share a common ground as Presidents of the Greatest Nation in the world, yet each single one will be remembered for situations that occurred while they held the highest Office in the Nation.

Some of these men will be remembered as Republicans, Democrats, Great and not so great. Some of them will still hold the hearts of the American public and some of them will be wished off the face of the earth, while some will be remembered for things that should not even be mentioned at all.

If you notice two of the Presidents are pictured in both photographs while the deceased Presidents are replaced with the still living Presidents. Each man leaving a chapter in our history for the choices that he made while President.

In retrospect, they all did what they felt was in the best interest of our Country in times of economic turmoil, times of prosperity, times of war and times of peace.

Each single one deserves our respect and gratitude for taking on the most difficult job in the country as Commander in chief of a Country and its people that is often more fickle and thankless than a three year old child.

President George W. Bush should be remembered as the President who took on terrorism. The man who made the world aware of the real threat that every man woman and child on earth faces at the hands of terrorism. He took a stand and stood by his choices even when his own country turned their back on him.

When it comes to the war on terror, circumstances that were beyond his control occurred and transpired in ways that no one foresaw or understood. I truly believe that he did the best he could considering the fact that he faced the complex mentality of a people who have a religion and way of life that have geographic,cultural and historic biblical ties that we have barely touched the surface of understanding in a Christian society. President Bush deserves more respect and credit than he has been given.

As President elect Obama's time nears as being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America lets not lose sight that he will be our President and as soon as he is sworn in deserves our respect and loyalty.

Let us not forget how the majority of Americans abandoned President Bush in times when he needed the support of the public the most. The press for the last three years has been out for blood, the public has been critical of events that occurred that President Bush had as much control of as he has the weather.

We live in times that show that our world seems to be falling apart. Global warming, unrest, war, famine,economic turmoil. We are living in a world that is controlled by new rules governed by the threat of terrorism, a real threat that as many Americans sit in our homes in front of our big screen TVs and watch the news - do not realize or understand the true reality of that threat to our very own country.

I do not envy President elect Obama. The country and the world fell in love with the handsome, charismatic, articulate, Harvard graduate - African American when he was traveling the Country during his Presidential campaign.

I wonder how "QUICK" the "DISAPPOINTMENT" sets in after he takes that coveted Office that he fought so hard to obtain.

The DISAPPOINTMENT he will feel when those who praised him turn on him when he does not make the decisions and choices that they thought he should have. When the media who gave him the highest accolades turn on him and question his every move and command.

When the "CHANGE" that he promised does not happen fast enough to please his fickle and Judea's public.

When he is faced with a challenge as paramount as 9/11 and the entire world is watching to see what move he makes.

I have to admit he has proven steadfast and firm in his convictions and composure, and I hope that is a sign of his true character and we elected who we thought we elected and not a chameleon who will change colors as soon as he is sworn in.

I honestly wish him the best of luck and hope and Pray that the Good Lord sits beside him during his entire Presidency.

1 - 183rd Aviation Ball - 2009

2009-01-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from this years 1-183rd Aviation Ball. It was not as exciting as last year's ball when we had the honor of meeting Medal of Honor Recipiant MAJ. Ed Freeman, but it was entertaining with a local comedian and we had fun nevertheless.

I hope you enjoy the photos and maybe if your in the 1-183rd you will see a picture of yourself in this entry.

Natrually, I saved the best photos for last..... LOL! I look Hot!!! Ha!Ha!

Christmas gift Idea for the women on your list for 2008 on a tight budget!!

2008-12-09T08:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas is approaching fast and it seems like the dollar wont stretch like it used to. Grocery prices seem to be increasing faster than gas did at the pump this summer every time I go to the store. I get frustrated when I can't buy the food I used to because it seems the basics like bread and butter seem to be a luxery item's in my cart these days.

I have two kids a teenager and a preteen. Talk about stress in purchasing them the expensive items on their wish list this year.

Don't get me wrong, I feel great gratitude that so far my family seems to be one of the lucky ones and my husband is employed and makes good money and we are able to pay our bills and have some discresionary spending money left over. I don't know if its called luck, karma or just real good financial planning on our part. What ever you choose to call it, I'm not tooting my horn but like I said we are doing ok.

However, that does not mean we don't feel it in our pocket book every time we leave the house and have to pay the outraguos prices for the things and stuff we need and want.

This year, the presents under our Christmas tree seem to be just a molehill compared to the mountain stacked underneath it last year, but we are still two weeks away from Christmas so there is still hope for a few more to be put under our tree for my kids.

Thinking about how tight so many families are this year I thought i would give my readers a few ideas for gifts this year. My husband calls me a "tightwad" because I penny pinch everything we spend but for good reason. Its all about saving money everywhere I think I could save it. My motto is

" If your one penny short at the store they won't give you the item, your a penny short"

So why would I throw away pennies and change here and there because it's just change? It all adds up and its money that was hard earned regardless if its a penny or a $100 bill.

Im not going to bother with telling you to cut coupons or to shop at discount stores we all know how to save money there or try to.

My idea is to help you give a wonderful inexpensive gift for the women on your list. Trust me take the time to print this recipe or write it down, go to the store and buy the ingediants, buy small ziplock bags and go to the dollar store and buy enough coffee cups to put the finished Chai tea in the bags and then put the bags in a coffee cup put a bow on it and the instructions on how to prepare and Tada!!!!

The total cost of all the ingedients should not cost you more than $20.00 and if you go to the dollar store and buy the coffe cups however many you buy. This recipe will make about enough mix to give to at least 6-8people on your list!!!! Imagine less than $3.00 per gift!!!

3 cups nonfat dry milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweatened instant tea
3/4 cup vanilla powdered nondairy creamer
1 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cardamon ( this is a little expensive but worth it)
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

In a food processor, combine all the dry ingrediants; cover and process until powdery. Store in an airtight container in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.

To prepare 1 serving; Disolve 3 tbsp of the mix in 3/4 cup boling water: still well. Add a dollop of whipped cream if desired.

I plan to make this for all the female friends on my Christmas list and put the mix in a 1/2 pint mason jar with the instructions on how to prepare it. ( Keep the recipe for yourself, dont give the secret away!!!) Im using mason jars because I want to give them more mix than what I recommended above.

If you have ever had a Spiced Chai Latte you know that it is fantastic!!!!!! This gift is cheap when you consider that the total cost of the indgediants divided by how many people you give it to will equal less the cost of a cup of chai at the latte stand per person!!! They will love it!!!!

ILL. (D) GOV Rod Blagojevich Arrested - Another one of Obama's corrupt "friends?"

2008-12-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

You all should know my personal thoughts about this .... Why am I not suprised that it happens to be a politician from Illinois, Are they all corrupt over there?? Oh, wait, BO is from there - huh? "Selling BARRACK OBAMAS SENATE SEAT!!!! OH MY GOD!!!! WHAT A 1st Class ""PEICE OF SHIT!!!!

Makes me shudder what bad habits and ideas our new President learned from his Illinois political mentors..... ahgggggg!!!!!! Read Breaking Story below.....

Ill. governor arrested on corruption charges
Feds: Blagojevich put 'for sale' sign on naming of Obama's Senate successor

BREAKING NEWS

NBC News and news services
updated 15 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested Tuesday on federal charges that accuse him of trying to benefit from his ability to appoint President-elect Barack Obama's replacement in the U.S. Senate.

A 76-page FBI affidavit says the 51-year-old Democrat was intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the last month conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti.

The affidavit contends Blagojevich discussed getting a substantial salary for himself at a non-profit foundation or an organization affiliated with labor unions. It also says Blagojevich talked about getting his wife placed on corporate boards where she might get $150,000 a year in director's fees.

The affidavit also quotes Blagojevich as saying "I want to make money" in one conversation.

In Illinois, the governor selects a successor when there is a mid-term Senate vacancy. Obama resigned from the Senate soon after winning the Nov. 4 presidential election.

John Harris, the governor's chief of staff, was also charged.

Federal prosecutors have investigated Blagojevich's administration for at least three years. The governor has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Blagojevich and Harris, 46, both of Chicago, were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery.

Senate seat is 'valuable thing'
The FBI affidavit alleges that Blagojevich also sought promises of campaign cash, as well as a cabinet post or ambassadorship in exchange for his Senate choice.

Blagojevich is accused of saying on November 3 that if he is not going to get anything of value for the open seat, then he will take it for himself.

The affidavit quotes Blagojevich telling an advisor later that day that a Senate seat "is a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing."

In a conversation with Harris on November 4, the day of the election, Blagojevich is alleged to have compared his situation to that of a sports agent shopping a potential free agent to the highest bidder.

On November 5, Blagojevich allegedly told an advisor, "I've got this thing and it's [expletive] golden, and, uh, uh, I'm just not giving it up for [expletive] nothing. I'm not gonna do it."

Patrick J. Fitzgerald, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said the charges "allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States Senator."

Among those being considered for the post include U.S. Reps. Danny Davis and Jesse Jackson Jr.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Blagojevich also was charged with illegally threatening to withhold state assistance to Tribune Co., the owner of the Chicago Tribune, in the sale of Wrigley Field. In return for state assistance, Blagojevich allegedly wanted members of the paper's editorial board who had been critical of him fired.

Operation Board Games
Corruption in the Blagojevich administration has been the focus of a federal Operation Board Games involving an alleged $7 million scheme aimed at squeezing kickbacks out of companies seeking business from the state. Federal prosecutors have acknowledged they're also investigating "serious allegations of endemic hiring fraud" under Blagojevich.

Political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who raised money for the campaigns of both Blagojevich and Obama, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of fraud and other charges.

Blagojevich's chief fundraiser, Christopher G. Kelly, is due to stand trial early next year on charges of obstructing the Internal Revenue Service.

According to Tuesday's complaint, Blagojevich schemed with Rezko, millionaire-fundraiser turned federal witness Stuart Levine and others to get financial benefits for himself and his campaign committee.

Federal prosecutors said Blagojevich and the chairman of his campaign committee have been speeding up corrupt fundraising activities in the last month to get as much money as possible before the end of the year when a new law would curtail his ability to raise contributions from companies with state contracts worth more than $50,000.

According to the affidavit, agents learned Blagojevich was seeking $2.5 million in campaign contributions by the end of the year, with a large part allegedly to come from companies and individuals who have gotten state contracts or appointments.

Blagojevich, in his second term, is the latest in a string of Illinois governors to run afoul of the law. His immediate predecessor, George Ryan, is in jail following a federal corruption conviction.

200 unemployed Americans seek 16 vacant jobs left by immigration raid

2008-12-06T22:05:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning Idaho Truss and Component Co. got raided by I.C.E. ( Immigration Customs Enforcement) It was reported that the positions left open paid from $10 - $18 an hour with benefits. The 16 individuals arrested were being accused of being in the United States illegally without legal documentation. What gets me is that three of them had been deported before and three others had criminal convictions and where working for the company build homes at the Mountain Home Air Force base.

This story got my attention because the raid was on Thursday, December 4, 2008 and by the next day Friday, December 5, 2008 Idaho Truss and Component Co. was flooded with almost 200 applicants looking to fill the 16 vacant jobs.

I do not know about you but this says alot to the dire distress our very own community is facing right here in our own backyard. Foreclosures are at an all time high with one out of every 10 homeowners being for closed. The unemployment rate in Nampa is 7.8% and 8.8% in Caldwell. Officials reported that thousands of jobs disappeared in Idaho in November alone. Nationally, half a million jobs vanished in the month of November.

If the results of the aftermath of this raid are correct and 200 unemployed Americans jumped at the opportunity to try and secure the 16 jobs left vacant by the immigration raid, I foresee a very scary trend in our very near future.

I was never one to believe the theory that illegal immigrants only take jobs that Americans DO NOT want to take, I have always argued that they want the same jobs we have or better with the same pay and benefits. As human beings who naturally have the instinct to want a better life they want a piece of the American dream as well or else they would not risk the dangers and perils they do to enter our country illegally but.... I also know alot of hard working American human beings with families who deserve those $18.00 an hour jobs too.

This is going to be a dilemma and a major issue that we are going to have to face and I feel that this problem is not going to go away either. I feel that is is going to get worse and worse as the economy gets worse. As more Americans lose their jobs they will start to feel resentment and a false sense of entitlement out of desperation. We are going to here alot of people asking this kind of question: "Why should "they" have a job and I can't find one to feed "MY" family, when "they" don't even belong here?"

This frame of mind scares me as it separates "us" from "them" and dehumanizes "them" to justify and solidify our convictions. The heated issue of immigration based on legality is one thing when trying to address the topic and reform our national laws to enforce the problem we have been facing for decades on the illegal entry of immigrants from other nations.

However, when Americans are faced with their own mortality and livelihood and as unemployment rises, more people lose their jobs and homes and can no longer pay their bills and lose that comfort zone that they are accustomed to.... they are going to strike out.... they are going to panic and try to blame something.... someone. We are human after all and our natural instinct is predatory laced with superior intelligence and stupidity at the same time.

I hope I am wrong as I write these words but my gut tells me that I am not and if this particular story has any true merit to the number (200)of people applying for those 16 positions, the day after that raid.... our country REALLY IS IN DIRE DISTRESS.

I foresee, people turning in suspected illegals to claim their jobs out of desperation and that sense of entitlement that I was referring to earlier. I foresee, civil unrest and possible riots and assaults against "them",

Its not good and this scares me to tell you the truth because the last thing we need in our country is to be divided in this type of way that could possibly lead to a civil war fought in our own backyards.

THE BIG 3 - "Why should we bail them out?"

2008-12-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

With Christmas fast approaching and not enough greenbacks in our checking accounts to pay bills, buy food AND buy our children those coveted toys and gadgets that their little hearts so desire it depresses me to see these BIG 3 begging for billions that THEY are responsible for mismanaging.

Think about it? If the average American managed their household the way these CEO's managed the auto businesses in their charge, who would bail them out? All you have to do is watch the news or read the newspaper and see that their are millions who have lost their homes or losing their homes because they couldn't afford them in the first place and or cant afford them anymore. Who is bailing them out? The banks are going to get their money regardless of where it comes from - GOOD OLD UNCLE SAM = our taxes.

Don't get me wrong. I am all for American made and owned companies, I understand that it is a vital part of our culture and important for our economy. I own a GMC Sierra. When gas was 4.00 a gal it was a hardship to put gas in it and drive it go buy my groceries, needless to say - less food for my family because of it. It took us over ten years of marriage to finally be able to afford a piece of the American pie and own an American owned and American made luxury vehicle in the form of an over sized two cab truck.

Let me tell you though the road to owning it was not easy. I cannot tell you how many times we went to a car dealer and were on the brink of financing an over priced brand new car/truck of the year, but we didn't because even though we had the income to support it we knew that the payment would be impossible to pay "if" anything happened and we no longer had that set income anymore.

I have memories of observing neighbors and family or friends over the years drive up with brand new cars or trucks and wondered how in the world they could afford them, when they earned less than we did.

Then I would realize that their priorities where different than our own because many of them lived in rented crowded apartment complexes but... they had a new car.

When I sold real estate for a brief time in 2005, I refused to sell or show homes that I knew my clients could not afford based on their ratio to income, Oh, their lenders promised them that they could afford the homes of their dreams and would come up with creative loans to manipulate the lending program and make it look affordable on paper that my client could easily afford the payment.

I would review the loan and would get frustrated when I would see adjustable interest rates that reset after 24 months or that taxes and home owners insurance was not included in the payment or when the loan was two separate loans split 80/20 because of their income. I can go on and on how people who historically could not afford to purchase a home, were given questionable loans above their means to afford them without a single cent down payment. No wonder the housing market is the way it is right now.

I made good money selling homes and I was good at it. The clients that sought me out knew I was working for them and looking out for them. I was up front with them and would tell them that I would ONLY show them homes that were priced at around 20 thousand LESS than what they qualified for. My reason for this was because many of my clients got qualified for 20 thousand MORE than they could realistically afford if something happened to their income.

I would tell them that it would benefit me financially if I got them in the most expensive home that I could find them because my commission would be more but that was I in the business for finding them a home that they could afford and stay in it for many many years without worry.

I think we live in a culture of instant gratification, "I want it now" type of mentality. It seems that most of the problems that we are seeing in the economy is because of this type of thinking. The reason why so many people have lost their homes is because they wanted that instant gratification of owning a home and signed questionable loans and got into over sized and overpriced homes that they could not normally afford.

It pisses me off that the banks are getting a bail out for the mistakes that THEY made by lending out money to individuals that they normally would not even have looked at 10 years ago. People got into homes 0 percent down, where normally 20% down had been the required down payment to get a loan from the bank. The banks are at fault for the failing economy and the problems we are facing with the auto industry as well.

I have a gut feeling that the BIG 3, dealt business in the same way that the banks did when approving loans for homes. They approved loan after loan to people who could not afford them with high interest rates. When the housing market started to crash the auto industry felt the effects because when people started to lose their homes and they no longer could make their auto payments or even THINK about purchasing a new American made vehicle. Even if people want to buy a new car or truck the banks now wont LEND the money they gave out like candy a few short years ago.

GM is asking for 34 billion, Ford is asking for 9 billion now plus 6 billion later and Chrysler wants 7 million.

Is this a loan? Are the tax payers going to get paid interest individually for this total 56 billion dollars that the big 3 are asking for? Will they even PAY it back?

I know that one CEO said he would work for 1.00 for an entire year if his company got the bailout requested. Who can work on a salary of 1.00 a year unless they are filthy rich to begin with? But, that is another story and another blog altogether!!!

Devastating? If the big 3 go bankrupt? Yes, it would be, I understand that millions would lose their jobs and the down hill effects would be felt in just about every business sector hurting our economy even more.

What is the solution? I don't know, but I don't think just giving the money away will solve anything... it will cause more companies to stretch out their palms for their portion.

I don't believe that bailing out large businesses will help at all. The banks proved that once they got their bailout money they became the classic Ebenezer Scrooge and are not lending out any money like they promised to boost the economy. The big 3 will do the same in my opinion.

I don't know what the solution is.... but I think that if any money is going to be passed out it should be back to the public.... give those billions in stimulus checks back to the people. The checks we got this year were a joke, a grand that went straight into my GMC truck so that I could drive it to the grocery store to buy food when gas was the highest this summer.

Give us 50 or 100 thousand per house hold.... now that would make a difference... That would stimulate the heck out of the economy!!!! People would pay off their mortgages, buy new cars, GM, Ford and Chrysler... probably pay for it in full and they would pay off their credit cards, medical and God forbid if any of them could actually afford to send some of their kids off to college for more than a semester if they got that money.

You know why our government wont do that? Well, if they do that then those same banks, auto companies, credit card companies wont get the accrued interest on those loans they lent out if everyone pays off their debt! They would rather that the American people pat twice for their mistakes, take their homes AND cars away AND still make them pay for it out of their taxes in the form of this bailout money.

I would rather the American people get the bail out that the major corporations, banks and credit agencies because regardless of negligent accountability on both parts people not paying their mortgage because they lost their job -vs- the big three auto makers who flew to Washington in their jets.... I'd bet on the people and their ability to spend the money more wisely if it was given to them instead.
Anyways I'm done ranting... til next time...

My first "BLACK FRIDAY" experience!!

2008-11-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

3:00 am came much to fast after a long day of basting the Thanksgiving turkey and making sure my glazed ham didn't burn, not to mention hosting the feast at my home and then the tiresome cleanup afterwards. BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! the alarm startled me from the deep slumber I so needed. CRAP! I thought as I turned off the alarm and got out from under my warm blankets and my pillow that tempted me to just stay in bed.

I washed up and got dressed as quietly as I could so that I would not wake my husband and kids. After going outside to warm the truck that already had frost build up on the windows I came inside to make me a cup of chai tea. I sat down at the kitchen table and reviewed the "black Friday" ad for walmart that announced the DS system kit that was on my daughters Christmas wish list this year.

UGG! I grunted as I considered just paying the extra 100 dollars I would be saving this morning and just go back to bed. just then my mother arrived and I grabbed the ad and locked up the house and left with my 64 year old mother in tow.

It was eerily dark at the hour and a light fog dusted the roads as we headed to the main streets. A glow like the rising of the sun assaulted us as we turned on the main highway to Walmart and I realized that it was the headlights of cars and trucks going in the same direction. I laughed as it reminded me of a long steady line of cars and trucks in a funeral heading towards the cemetery. I should have gotten the hint right then and there and turned around and went home.

Car after car and truck after truck turned into Walmart ahead of us. My mom in awe, as it was her first "black Friday" as well said " they are all going to Wal-mart too!"

Upon entering the parking lot, I gasped as there appeared to be no parking spots left and wondered were I would park. Parking on the far end of the garden center near the car wash I locked my truck and my mom and I speed walked to the entrance.

Inside looked like the circus had come to town, people were elbow to elbow, jam packed in the isles with a crazed frenzied glazed look in their sleep deprived eyes.

I looked at my mom and told her that I needed to get to the back of the store and find out were the line for the DS was because I would need to get in it PRONTO! She told me to go ahead and that she would shop around by herself.

After pushing my way through the tight and frustrated crowd I finally made it to the back of the store were I was assaulted by the heat and smell of crammed angry bodies waiting in a long ridiculous line by the shoe isle. I asked a few questions and found I was in the right line and planted my slim 135 lb body in the ever growing line.

I glanced at my phone to see what time it was and saw that it was 4:00 am and I was roughly about 100 people behind the front of the line. Would I even get what I came for I thought? After asking the people in front of me what they were waiting in line for I realized that the line was also for the PS3's, digital cameras, GPS's, Wii's and X-Box systems, not everyone in line was waiting for the DS system so I had a shot I thought.

The next hour and a half was what HELL must be like. The line did not move for the first hour since the SALE started at 5:00 am as the ad stated but the the pushing and the shoving was really starting to piss me off.

Several times people tried to cut right in front of me as I was situated right in the middle of an isle. People pretended to want to go through the isle to get to the other side then stop right in front of me. Needless to say and those who know me, know I am not exaggerating when I say that I told those people where they could go and bullied them to move on cuz no one was going to cut in front of me after Ive been waiting in line for an hour! One lady near tears told me that she had been waiting for 15 minutes just to get through and realized that this was the line she needed to get in to get her son the ice blue DS system he wanted.

Mothers instinct kicked in and any empathy or compassion that I normally would of had any other time evaporated, I told her too bad so sad that I had been waiting in line for over an hour and that I was in line for the same exact thing and that I was not going to let her cut in front of me a risk the chances of not getting what I came for. She cursed at me, I laughed at her and spread my legs and crossed my arms in a nonverbal confrontation as I faced her and challenged her to just try it. Fortunately for me the other people standing in line with me stated to back me up and told her to get to the back of the line and wait like the rest of us.

UGLY!!! I KNOW!!!! I was vicious!!! My aggression was in full gear and I was not going to let anyone cut in front of me at this point. As the line started to move and I got closer to the front I noticed that the pushing got worse behind me and I could hear people swearing and cursing like sailors.

Finally, I was at the front of the line and it was 10 til 6 am!! I went to the desk and told the clerk that I wanted an ice blue DS system and noticed that she went to the back shelf and there were only 5 left! 4 after she sold me mine!!! I asked her if they had any more in the back and she said no, that was was on the shelf was ALL they had for the sale.

I paid for my daughters DS, shoved it into my over sized purse and possessively held it to my side as I walked back through the waiting line of impatient people.

As I walked past the hundred or so people left in the long line I wondered who would be the one to get the last Ice Blue DS system and what the person waiting next in line for it would feel like when they realized they were one person too late.

I took out my cell phone and called my mom asking were in the store she was at and she told me she was in the produce isle getting 2 dollar movies. As I shoved my way past people and shopping carts to were she was at I noticed a crowd of people grabbing armfuls of bath towels off a pallet on sale for 1.50 each and throwing them in their carts. I noticed two ladies fighting over a vacuum cleaner each claiming they touched it first, and everyone seemed to have a bad attitude and cursing and swearing.

I finally found my mom and laughed when I saw she had a cart full of 1.50 bath towels and was dumping handfuls of 2 dollar movies in her cart as I walked up to her.

We left Walmart around 6:30 and decided to go check out a few other stores as well, but by the time we got to them most of the sales they had were sold out already and the frenzy and attitudes of the shoppers the same as at Walmart, cranky, grumpy, and foul!!!

We were home by 8:30, totally wasted mentally and physically after just a few crazy short hours of shopping.

Was it worth it? Well, yes and no, I saved over 100 dollars on my daughters DS system because I got a free 60 dollar game with it and a hard carrying case worth 50 dollars but the hassle and the fighting and waiting in line at that ungodly hour was not something I care to ever have to do again.

However, for my mother and others on a limited income, the sales she got at the prices she got were definitely worth it for her, I think my mother got like over 400 dollars worth of merchandise for like 60 dollars!!

Will I do it again next year? Only if my mother asks me to go with her, but I don't think she will, because she did not like how people pushed and shoved her and she said she got scared a few times that she would trip and fall.

It was ridiculous and if you as me dangerous, I kept thinking what if a riot breaks out,while I'm standing in line with this many angry, pushy people, how would I get to my mother? There was a Walmart that had an employee trampled to death by customers trying to get into the store this Black Friday. WOW!!!! Could they not see the poor guy on the ground? But, like I mentioned earlier, I was in another zone mentally while I waited in that line and I did not like what it turned me into for those two hours, scary, if you ask me.

NO!!! I WILL NEVER DO BLACK FRIDAY EVER AGAIN!!!! IT'S FOOLISH, DANGEROUS,and even though some of the sales are good, I DON'T THINK WORTH PUTTING YOURSELF INTO A SITUATION WHERE YOU CAN GET TRAMPLED TO DEATH BY GREED!

THE DEMORALIZATION OF A SOLDIERS CHILD AND POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION OF A 5th GRADE CLASS

2008-11-11T08:09:00.000-08:00

This 5th grade teacher decided to talk about the elections to her 5th grade class and her strong personal views and opinions got in the way of teaching. Watching the video I have strong conflicted views about what she says, how she says these things to the children and what I think she believes she was doing.

I think she really thought she was being fair when she asks her students to say who they would vote for if they could vote and that " it was ok " to say who they preferred and that she believed she was doing her job by trying to teach them the basic fundamentals of the election process.

However, it was very clear that she disapproved of McCain by her body language, the tone of her voice, her comments and how she tried to influence the children to lean towards Obama by telling that soldiers daughter that McCain would keep her daddy in "that senseless war " for another hundred years.

As a soldiers wife with two children of my own and a daughter in the forth grade watching this video made me feel angry that teachers can take so much liberty to push their own views on our children.

This made me think about how last year my own daughter was learning about Martin Luther King at school and Black History. She came home and said that white people were bad because they owned black slaves a long time ago and that white people thought they were better than blacks because they used to not let blacks eat with them in restaurants, use the same public bathrooms, or vote.

I tried to tell her that half of what she told me was fact but the other part was opinion.

She argued with me and told me that everything was a fact and true because her teacher taught her that.

It took me a long time to teach her the difference between fact and opinion. It upset me that my daughter believed that all white people where bad because they used to own slaves. My daughter is half white and it bothered me that this opinion that she believed to be fact would have a negative affect on her self-estem and her identity.

I finally redirected her thought process by teaching her to challenge her teachers at school by asking them if what they were teaching was a fact or their personal opinion on the matter. I taught her to pay attention to what they say and how they say it to give her a clue that it may be their opinion and not a fact, then for her to decide based on the facts what she chooses to believe and make her own opinion.

I have to admit I created a strong free-willed child who pays close attention to what everyone says and challenges everything that does not make sense to her and asks question after question in her quest to decipher fact from opinion so that she could make her own assesment on what her opinion will be.

So back to the video, I realize that not every parent in the US will sit down with their child and teach their children how to be independent thinkers like I did.

So... as public teachers they have a big plate to fill as they not only teach our children the ABC's and 123's they also have a big part in shaping and forming how and what their students belive and think.

This is bothersome because if a teacher has strong views and opinions on any subject they will be expressed to their influential students.

This gets me to thinking about the Norman Rockwell era where America was like one of his paintings: patriotic, family orientated and every home had a stay at home mom like Mrs. Cleaver and the pledge of alligence was recited with pride every morning with AMEN at the end. It seemed as if every American had the same values, belief system, and personal opinions.

Not anymore. Times have changed. America has gone through some scary kind of demoralization that has torn and shredded the basic core and belief system that America was founded on.

Our children seem to be target to the indocternation of this new way of thinking.

Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas because it offends non-christians for example.

I find it interesting that this teacher is appologetic but only because she got caught on video. This video is proof that the course to "CHANGE" that President elect Obama has been preaching has been happening for a while and its a "CHANGE" that I personally do not care much for.

I AM THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

2008-11-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

TRIBUTE TO ALL VETERANS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

2008-11-10T19:02:00.000-08:00

I "WILL" BE YOUR PRESIDENT

2008-11-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

"I may not have won your vote tonight, but ... I will be your President, too." Barrack Hussein Obama – November 4, 2008

November 4, 2008 will be a date that I will never forget for the rest of the days of my life, for it is the day that the majority of Americans betrayed their country by electing Obama as our 44rth President.

I cannot even fathom how it even came to be that a true Socialist with deep ties to cultural and ethnocentric radicalism could have been elected as the President of the United States of America. Obama’s executive and legislative agenda poses such a great threat to American liberty and our way of life that in Obama’s own words, he seeks to:

"Break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution."

Based on his policy proposals and objectives Obama has no intention of honoring the oath on January 20, 2009 where he will be sworn in as President to:

“Defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and to "bear true faith and allegiance to the same."

Today, November 5, 2008 the day after the election I am positive that there are at least fifty-five million of my fellow Americans who are deeply concerned about the direction Obama plans to take our country and “How” he plans to do it with our very liberties at stake.

I am also positive that there are over sixty-three million Americans who have been hood-winked and lulled by the empty promise of “hope and change” into a state of mind and devotional frenzy; that I can only describe as “cult worship.”

I find it so hard to understand how more than half of Americans who voted, turned their back, turned up their nose and practically spit on a true genuine American Hero who devoted over half his life to serve the American public, for a wolf in sheep’s clothing with the “Garden of Eden” serpents tongue.

What a sad state of priorities that half of my fellow Americans have that they are so eager to blindly overlook all of Obama’s obvious flaws -- his radical roots, his extreme liberalism, and his utter lack of experience or achievement.

Barack Obama is the epitome of what for decades we have tried so hard to eradicate.

“He is a man judged by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character.”

If it's God's will that Barack Obama is our next president, then so be it – it is what it is. However, I refuse to hang my head in shame or accept defeat. This battle may be lost, but the war is not! I call upon all my fellow Americans some fifty-five million to pick ourselves up, dust off the lies and deceit that we all saw through and roll up our sleeves!

Let us march right back to the war front, unite with the sole and intent purpose of fighting for our rights our liberties and our way of life everyday for the next four years!!

For this reason, and to exercise the very freedoms that we all cherish, I decided this morning that the symbol of our national heritage of liberty, the American flag that graces my front yard was respectfully lowered, inverted, and raised to full mast as a sign of national distress.

My flag will remain inverted until Tuesday, November 11, 2008 when I will right it to honor all Veterans past, present and future.

“Mr. Obama, yes…YOU WILL BE OUR PRESIDENT but… you will have to EARN the respect and loyalty of almost half the country that you will lead.” – Irma S. Chambers

11/3/08 The Last day of the United States of America as we Know it

2008-11-03T13:31:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up to the gloom of rain tapping on my window, mocking me, as if foretelling me of what the future of America will be like for the remaining days of my life.

A feeling of dread and despair fills my heart and I am unable to do anything about it but cast my single vote.

I feel anxiety, frustration and disgust when I see how every single news channel FOX,CNN, MSNBC all favor Obama. I get upset to my stomach when I see POLL after POLL claim that Obama Leads McCain and how the electoral votes all but seem to be PROMISED to Obama.

What gives? Is there something that I'm missing here? What ever happened to fair coverage of the press? Giving both sides equal time and coverage?

Does it not seem to you that the cards are stacked against McCain by the media itself as if by the airwaves alone they have already elected Obama to the highest office of this country.

They give more positive airtime to Obama (free and PAID)than to McCain. When McCain is aired on the news it seems it is only to show how Obama has a lead over him.

As if the media is trying to imprint a subliminal message in our brains and TELL us that Obama has already won and that going out to vote tomorrow is a lost cause if your candidate of choice is McCain.

As if by watching the news the news media is brainwashing your subconscious mind to say " Why bother? Obama has already won all the electoral votes so why vote when my vote does not even matter!"

That's exactly what they want!! They want you to feel, think, and ACT that way.

Well, tomorrow is the day that will change the United States forever. This is not just another election, it is THE election of the century and McCain has to win because if Obama wins it will be the....

END OF THE UNITED STATES AS WE KNOW IT!!!!!

TWO FACED OBAMA AD

2008-10-28T08:47:00.000-07:00

This ad really makes me angry. Obama has the "audacity to hope" that the Latino community will actually believe these lies!

The ad, which is titled " Dos Caras,” or two faces, has the facts all wrong and in actuality it is OBAMA who is two-faced and outright lying to the Hispanics with this ad.

First, let me say that trying to compare Sen. McCain to Rush Limbaugh is absurd – especially on the issue of immigration reform – about the only things they have in common is party affiliation.

Limbaugh and McCain oppose eachother on that issue as they do on many, many issues. What I find actually humorous is that the ad is trying to paint McCain and Limbaugh as the best of buddies and anyone who spend just a few minutes listening to Limbaugh knows that he does not even care for McCain since their views on the issues are polar oopsites.

What makes me want to scream is that Limaugh's qotes pasted at the bottom of the ad are out of context.

I am not fond of Limbaugh at all. However, he does say out loud what many think and wish they could say outloud. He is never, and I mean NEVER politically correct and just says things as he sees them. The quote is taken from a show about how he was against NAFTA in 1993 about what kind of jobs NAFTA was going to create and what type of people would be doing these jobs. The full quote is as follows:

"If you are unskilled and uneducated, your job is going south. Skilled workers, educated people are going to do fine 'cause those are the kinds of jobs NAFTA is going to create. If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people, I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do -- let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work."

Like I mentioned he says it how HE sees it. What he was trying to say was that NAFTA would give be giving (undocumented)/uneducated & unskilled workers the jobs that should go to uneducated/unskilled Americans.

I’m not defending how Limbaugh said it, but like I said any EDUCATED individual with enough sence to think for themselves KNEW what he mant to say.

To act as if this was anti- Mexican Limbaugh's way of slurring ALL Mexicans is not correct. I could see why the Hispanic community would find this comment offensive but I am willing to take the risk and ASSUME that the ones who are uneducated and could not see or understand the reasoning behind the comment are they ones who got offended. I certainly did not.

The second quote is totally unfair. In 2006, Limbaugh was mocking Mexican law, and he wrote:

“Everybody's making immigration proposals these days. Let me add mine to the mix. Call it The Limbaugh Laws:

“First: If you immigrate to our country, you have to speak the native language. You have to be a professional or an investor; no unskilled workers allowed. Also, there will be no special bilingual programs in the schools with the Limbaugh Laws. No special ballots for elections. No government business will be conducted in your language. Foreigners will not have the right to vote or hold political office.

“If you're in our country, you cannot be a burden to taxpayers. You are not entitled to welfare, food stamps, or other government goodies. You can come if you invest here: an amount equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage. If not, stay home. But if you want to buy land, it'll be restricted. No waterfront, for instance. As a foreigner, you must relinquish individual rights to the property.

“And another thing: You don't have the right to protest. You're allowed no demonstrations, no foreign flag waving, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our President or his policies. You're a foreigner: shut your mouth or get out! And if you come here illegally, you're going to jail.

“You think the Limbaugh Laws are harsh? Well, every one of the laws I just mentioned are actual laws of Mexico today! That' how the Mexican government handles immigrants to their country. Yet Mexicans come here illegally and protest in our streets!

“How do you say ‘double standard’ in Spanish? How about: ‘No mas!’”

What I do not understand is how the Obama campaign can even rationalize linking Limbaugh and his comments to McCain?

Obama's campaign defended this ad by saying that McCain lies to the Hispanic community because in July 2008 McCain told La Raza that he would have voted for the DREAM act, a bill that provides scholarships for the children of illegal immigrants, even thought he earlier in the campaign season said he would have voted against the bill.

Let’s CLARIFY THIS SO CALLED LIE.

McCain was asked by a Latina if he supported the Dream Act and this is how it went:

girl: Hi. I’m a part of One Dream 2009 and I am one of the 6 million who either have an undocumented parent or is undocumented and I wanted to know if you would support humanity all around the world and support our Dream Act that we are trying to pass.

MCCAIN: Yes. Yes. Thank you. But I will also enforce the existing laws of a country. And a nation’s first requirement is the nation’s security, and that’s why we have to have our borders secured. But, we can have a way and a process of people obtaining citizenship in this country. And, we cannot penalize people who come here legally and people who wait legally. And so, that’s a fundamental principle on which we have to operate. Thank you.

McCain has changed the way he goes about discussing immigration after he almost lost the GOP presidential nomination because of it. His stand on immigration now is simple and to the point: " Secure the Borders first " period.

The Obama campaign has siezed on the opportunity to charge McCain of flip-flopping on the immigration issue because of McCains safe stand and they now are quoting him selectevly and unfairly to make their ill points.

The implication that this ad is trying to make that McCain is no friend to Latinos really makes my mexican blood boil!!

Obama and his campaign have crossed the line to an all time low of low by linking Mccain to Limbaugh's quotes that were convineintly twisted and purposely misleading the Hispanic viewers to believe that McCain is anti-Mexican / anti-Latino.

What a crock of crap coming from a man who when its convinient to him hes white and when its convinient to him hes black, I guess now its convinient to him to pretend he understands Latinos and their needs and lie to them.

Mommy, what does spread the wealth mean?

2008-10-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

I was watching the news about the elections when the issue of what Obama told a plumber named Joe came up.

My nine year old daughter watched the news with interest but confused at why the commentators were arguing and fighting over the comment " Spread the wealth "

She turned to me and asked me " Mommy, what does spread the wealth mean? "

"Let's see how do I explain this to you so you will understand?" I thought out loud.

"Halloween is this weekend right?" I asked her

she nodded.

" OK, let's say that you get all dressed up for Halloween and you go walking door to door trick or treating all night long. It's cold outside and your nose starts to run but you keep going because you know that you have to knock on allot of doors to get allot of candy. Your feet start to hurt and your ears and hands are freezing because you forgot your hat and gloves they would not look good with your costume anyways."

My daughter laughs.

A few hours later you have about five pounds of candy. You are so excited to go home and dump the bag of goodies on the floor and go through it and pick out your favorite candy.

My daughter nods her head in agreement.

"Your proud of yourself because YOU earned all that candy all by yourself. Right?"

"Right!" My daughter agrees happily with me.

" Well, lets say that your brother and all his friends are waiting for you to get home with all your candy. "

"Why?" asks my daughter with a hint of knowing dread in her voice

"Why? well because they know that you went trick or treating and they want candy too. They feel that because its Halloween they deserve some candy too, so they are waiting for you to give them yours." I said

"Oh, Mommy, I'd give some of my candy with my brother and his friends, that's OK, you say that I'm suppose to share right?"

" How would you share? " I asked

" I'd let my brother and his friends pick a few pieces of candy after I picked my favorites first." She said all proud of herself.

"Why would you pick first?" I challenged

" Mommy, I was the one who went trick or treating for it, so I should pick first" She said as if that were a non-brainer.

"Well what if I told you that they don't want you to pick first. They want you to split all of your candy equally with them all."

" That's not fair!!! MOMMY!!!" she said wide eyed

"Why?" I challenged again

"MOMMY!!! ITS NOT FAIR WHY SHOULD I SPLIT ALL OF MY CANDY EQUALLY WITH THEM? I WAS THE ONE WHO WENT OUT IN THE COLD AND WENT DOOR TO DOOR, I BASICALLY WORKED FOR IT, THEY DIDN'T!!!!" She said near tears

" But they feel that they deserve some of your candy because you have soooo much of it" I said

" Its not fair mommy, if they wanted allot of candy then they should of went trick or treating too" she said

"Why should they? They want you to "SPREAD YOUR WEALTH" because THEY THINK ITS NOT FAIR THAT YOU HAVE SO MUCH CANDY AND THEY DON"T" I said

"Daddy worked real hard to get a good paying job" I said

"I know he went to college so he could fix airplanes " my daughter said proud of her daddy.

" Well, Obama, wants to take more money out of Daddy's paycheck because Obama thinks Daddy earns too much money and Obama thinks that Daddy needs to share his money with those who don't make as much as Daddy makes, kinda like the example I gave you with the candy" I said

" That's wrong! Mommy!! I don't like him, he's not fair!!! I don't want him to be our President!" she exclaimed

"Neither do I baby, neither do I" I said

The Real Truth about Obama/Ayers Relationship

2008-10-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

With the elections just 14 days away it is imperative that people hear the real truth about Obama's relationship with Ayers. Obama has a natural born ability to be articulately deceiving in how he phrases his words and manipulates the truth.

I find it disturbing that Obama has Anti-American views and I wish the media would expose him for what he really is... a Socialist Matrix reformer. These videos are not false fabrications, they are actual real news clips, real interviews with Ayers, and real clips of Obama during his campaign and how close their views mirror each other.

False accusations or accurate facts?

Watch these videos and then decide.....

JOE "Wurzelbacher" THE PLUMBER THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA!!!

2008-10-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

What more can I say, Joe the Plumber has said it all? Vote for McCain this November!!!!!!!

Do NOT let Obamas cool, calm, eloquent, articulate way of speaking in tonights debate FOOL YOU!!!!!

He plays with words and you had to really listen to WHAT he is said to notice that he played Middle ground HARD tonight!!!

Mccain, kept Obama on his toes. I totally understood what McCain was trying to do and like I said if you REALLY LISTENED he did an exceptional job in making Obama back peddle on things he has said in the past and kept him on the deffensive.

I just hope that the American public saw what was really going on and were not distracted with Obamas ability to publicy speak well and hope that they HEARD everything he did NOT SAY - THE TRUTH!!

This video PROVES how sneaky Obama is when answering questions, he NEVER gives a straight answer.

VOTE McCain!!!!!!!!

economy
taxes
health
abortion
education....... I agreed with McCain on all these issues!!!

SHORT FILM " DON'T CLOSE YOUR BLINDS" PRODUCED BY FLICKER FUSION FILMS

2008-10-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to announce to all of my family and friends and to all of my loyal blog readers that my opus "A Lesson for my Son" that I wrote back in 2003 has been made into a short feature film by Flicker Fusion Films out of Los Angeles, CA

You can visit their web site at: www.flickerfusionfilms.com

Unfortunatly, I am unable to share the movie with you all at this time because it is going to be submitted to the Santa Barbara Film Festival and if selected it has a chance to be nominated for the Emmy's next year. The Producer is checking to see if posting the movie on the internet prior to the festival is ok or not with the submission rules and regulations.

However, you can all go to www.flickerfusionfilms.com and click on Libby Brien's photo and it will take you to her portfolio page and then click on " Acting Demo "
and there you will see " Don't close your blinds " highlighted in yellow/orange and click on that and it will take you to a windows media player and show you a 40 second clip of the short movie.

As soon as the producer gives me a green light to share it with you all I promise I will!!!

I cannot thank you all enough for giving " A Lesson for my Son " life 6 years ago. Had it not been for all of you forwarding it to your family and friends in the first place it would have been just "another e-mail".

I never imagined that when I wrote it and decided to share it with my closest family and friends via e-mail 6 years ago that it would literally turn into an internet phenomenon that has motivated thousands if not millions of people to read it, copy it, paste it, debate it, hate it, love it, share it, defend it, debunk it, plagerize it ;< UGH!!! and continue to email it today, keeping it alive on the internet highway for six years straight and counting....

I never imagined that the legendary Pat Boone would call me one day out of the blue December of 05' and request "MY" permission to print " A Lesson for my son" in an article he wrote to David Letterman because of an heated debate he had with guest Bill O'Reily on his late night show!

I never imagined that a film company would see that my opus could be written as a screenplay and actually take the time to get actors and a set and invest money in creating a short movie out it!!

I never imagined that the Producer that created this short film created it with the intent of it becoming festival bound!!!!

Emmy's? WOW!!! I still can't imagine that one!!

Does this make me a professional writer now?

My poetry is posted on International Veterans Poetry Archives. I have been given awards for my editorals printed in the local news paper, several times over the years, I wrote an article that was printed in a national magazine (In which I got $$$), a published author used something I wrote in his book, crediting me in it, and now an opus I wrote has been made into a motion picture film, crediting me for writing it at the end.

Natrually, I cannot forget my personal blog and everything I have written in it,that has over 14,000 views on it so far since I created it.

Yeah right!!! I feel as if I'm just beginning to take the cake out of the oven and its hot!!! I still need to put the icing on top... can that mean writng a book is in my future?

LOL! I can't seem to finish the book I started to write years ago and the one I started to write this year!! I guess I needed some motivation... I'm motivated!!!.... I better start writing...................

In MEMORIAM: For my new friend Libby

2008-10-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

In MEMORIAM

NON SEQUITUR by: WILEY ( click on the cartoon strip to bring up bigger picture to be able to read it)

It is now more than 60 years after the Second World War in Europe ended. This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated with the German and Russian Peoples looking the other way!

Now, more than ever, with Iraq , Iran , and others, claiming the Holocaust to be 'a myth,' it's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

This message is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!

Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world.

Please copy and paste this and postit on your blog or e-mail it to 10 people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.

It will only take you a minute to pass this along - Thanks!

OPEN LETTER FROM IRMA S.CHAMBERS TO LIBBY BRIEN OF FLICKER FUSION,INC REGARDING "CORRECTION " OF "DON'T CLOSE THE BLINDS SHORT ( MINI-MOVIE)

2008-10-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Dear family and friends,

On October 8, 2008 I discovered that a Short ( mini-movie ) based on the ANALOGY THAT I WROTE AND CREATED IN 2003 WHEN ROBERT ASKED CHRIS WHY WE WERE AT WAR ...was produced by Flicker Fusion, Inc a film production company based in Ft Lauderdale, FL with an office in Los Angeles, CA were the Short was filmed and produced.

I was elated to see that MY ANALOGY WAS MADE INTO A "MOVIE" and watched it with wonder, excitement, and pride...until the end of watching the movie I noticed the credits.... the Film company credited STEVEN R. CHANDLER.

I understand that the internet is very fluid and I do not know how along the last 6 years my analogy's title of "A Lesseon for my son" was changed to "Don't Close the Blinds" or how and why my name was removed and this Steven R. Chandler's name was replaced as the author.

I Have a few theories, it got forwarded so many times from inbox to inbox and somewhere along the way maybe when Steven R. Chandler got it he forwarded it and when he did his "Signature Block" appeared on all the forwards he sent it off to and he "MAY" have recieved it without my name.

Somewhere along the way someone thought that "Don't close the blinds" was a better description of the analogy and wrote that instead of " A lesson for my son" in the subject line of a forward to grab peoples attention.

Regardless, I do not know if Steven R. Chandler STOLE my analogy on purpose or if it was an accident or by mistake. However, it has been on the internet for over three years and Im shure he has googled his name at one point or another and seen that he was given credit that was not his and has made no effort to correct it.

Therefore, I hope that you all read the following and help me on my quest.

This is a copy of the letter that I sent to film producer yesterday ( deleted email addresses to protect you all from spamming)

If you can email the producer yourself on my behalf and tell them that I wrote this analogy I would appreciate it and love ya all even more. Send the link to my blog to your family and friends and let them know.

Their email is: ffusion@aol.com
Attn: Libby Brien

Below it the link to the Short ( mini- movie ) "Dont close your blinds"
Copy and paste it onto your address bar to view it.

None of you can deny that I wrote it and that it is mine and if you can check your email and see if by chance any of you saved a copy of from 2003 when I sent it to you all it would help prove my claim.

www.revver.com/video/1145555/dont-close-your-blinds

I do NOT want to post the Short ( mini-movie )on my blog until the credits are corrected and MY NAME ADDED to give ME MY PROPER CREDIT>

Love ya all

Irma S. Chambers
*******************************************

OPEN LETTER FROM IRMA S.CHAMBERS TO LIBBY BRIEN OF FLICKER FUSION,INC REGARDING CORRECTION OF "DON'T CLOSE THE BLINDS SHORT (MINI-MOVIE)

Dear Libby Brien,

Hello, my name is Irma S. Chambers and I am the author of " A Lesson for my son" that has been renamed and is now known as: Don't Close the Blinds. I wrote this analogy back in 2003, three days after the war in Iraq started because our then 9 year old son Robert asked his father why we were at war with Iraq.

How do you explain something like that to a child, when you can't explain it to a grown adult? My husband being very candid by nature tried to teach our son a very valuable lesson. It was very powerful and I felt the need to write it down and share it. I e-mailed it to a handful of family and friends, and with the power of the Internet it had traveled around the world in a matter of weeks and found its way back into my in box when a co-worker sent it to me.

The weeks turned into months then years, and my analogy took a life of its own on the Internet. It became an Internet phenomenon that motivated thousands if not millions of people to read it, copy it, paste it, debate it, hate it, love it, share it, defend it, debunk it, email it and PLAGIARIZE IT.

I first became aware of Steven R Chandler, CMSgt,332 ELRS/Vehicle Management, Flight Balad Air Base, around April of 2006 when I found a site that had posted my analogy with the new name of "Don't close the blinds" and was given credit as the author. I was really upset at this revelation because whether by intent or accident my name was removed and replaced by his.

Since April of 2006 there have been dozens of sites giving him credit as the author and in the last 2 1/2 years I have continuously contacted sites that credit Steven R. Chandler as the author to my work and have provided them proof that I am the real author and for his name to be removed and replaced with my own.

Unfortunately, the Internet is bottomless and there are too many sites crediting Steven R. Chandler as the author for me to accurately contact each and everyone of them, so his name is still out there attached to my work and continues.

This morning, October 8, 2008 I did a google search looking for such sites and found your production of "Don't Close your blinds" and as I watched it I cried.

Your ability to create a screenplay and turn my analogy from words to sight and sound gave it the justice the piece deserves. You really captured the Essences and delivered the message my husband tried to teach our son 6 years ago.

I cannot explain to you the feelings that were going through my mind as I watched the short, how my own memories of that day came back to me as if it happened yesterday and how I could not believe that someone took the time to make a short movie out of it.

My elation was short lived and turned into a gut wrenching disbelief as I wiped the tears from my eyes and saw that you gave Steven R. Chandler credit for it.

I do not know how you verified that he is the author of Don't close the Blinds" but I am asking you to please review my supporting documents that I have enclosed as proof that I am the true real author.

My supporting documents go back to April of 2003 and a simple google search of my original title "A Lesson for my son" or my name "Irma S. Chambers "will prove to you that I AM THE TRUE AUTHOR OF THIS ANALOGY. All I am asking is that you REMOVE STEVEN R. CHANDLERS name and replace it with IRMA S. CHAMBERS and note that it was originally titled " A LESSON FOR MY SON "

International War Veterans Archiveshttp://iwvpa.net/chambersis/index.htm

Pat Boone "Fighting the Ostrich syndrome"http://www.wnd.com/index.php/index.php?pageId=34339

This is the email Pat Boone sent me after I gave him permission to use my analogy in the article above titled "Fighting the Ostrich syndrome"
******************************

Dated Jan 15, 2006
Hoping we did you justice
Sunday, January 15, 2006 12:40 AM
From: "BoonesBiz@aol.com"
To: irma_ur_hot@yahoo.

...takes you to the posting in the weekend edition of WordlNetDaily. Thanks again for the job you did and your permission for me to grace my column with it.

Your exact ver batim it's not, but any making it shorter that annoyed you

Grateful to have you and your husband (and kids) as my fellow citizens,

Pat Boone
************************************

These are some sites that PROVE that I wrote this anaolgy back in 2003 as the dates posted are shown clearly and my original title and proper full name is being credited.

http://www.fromtheinside.us/thinking/dontcloseblinds.htm

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/886152/posts Posted April 5, 2003

http://www.saturnspot.com/f10/lesson-my-son-5762.html Posted April 10, 2003

http://www.the-drews.com/2003/04/ Posted April 21 , 2003

http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/000917.html Posted March 6, 2003

http://www.bigbigforums.com/off-topic-chat/290649-proud-american.html Posted April 10, 2003

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/armysecurityagencyvets/message/46524 Posted May 2, 2003

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/armysecurityagencyvets/message/46524 Posted April 8, 2003

Everything with Steven R. Chandlers name on it are during or after 2006 - TWO AND A HALF YEARS AFTER I ORIGINALLY PUT IT ON THE INTERNET.

Further proof are my original emails from 2003. This is the one that I mentioned my co-worker sent me. It was titled Patriotic Lesson. Please note the dates. It shows that it was forwarded on April 8,9 and 10. I forwarded it to my cousin in Maryland on the April 13, 2003 to tell her that I could not believe that it had traveled the globe and I was amazed that it was so well recieved by people.
**********************************

Fwd: FW: Patriotic Lesson
Sunday, April 13, 2003 6:37 PM
From: "Irma Chambers"
To: clopez@XXXXXXXX

Message contains attachments
FW: Patriotic Lesson.eml (15KB)

Christy, I am forwarding you the paper I wrote when Robert asked Chris about why we were at war with Iraq. I am amazed at the fact that I wrote it March 23, 2003 and gave it only to a handful of people and now it's April 13, 2003 ( about 3 weeks) it has managed to come back to me in the form of an e-mail. It has apparently traveled around the world!!! I got it e-mailed to me from MY co-worker who got it from her sister-in-law, who got it from a friend in Korea. I also know that a friend of Chris's got it e-mailed to her from her friend in Texas who is a retired Colonel!!! Who are these people and how did they get it? I feel good to know that it has touched so many people. So now I am sending it to you. Today on the news it has been reported that our P.O.W.'s are FREE!!!!! What a beautiful word. Another reason to support this cause, support the President, support our troops!!!! God speed the Freedom of Iraq and the safe return of our fellow American soldiers who are so ready to defend the Freedom we take for granted.

Your cousin,
Irma S. Chambers
Caldwell, Idaho

Note: forwarded message attached.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FW: Patriotic Lesson FW: Patriotic LessonThursday, April 10, 2003 3:52pm From: "cherice" To: irma_ur_hot@yahoo.com
Message contains attachmentsMessage001.eml (9KB)
-----Original Message-----
From: chelsea pratt [mailto:grrlcj7@XXXXX]
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2003 6:18 PM
To: babeflwr@XXXX; cherice@XXXX; emorgan326@XXXX; chang_chun@XXXX; Kamy07@XXXX; lleeggss22@XXXX; Geeper7@XXXX; pjandnak@XXXX; nkapitan@XXXX; tracy32514@XXXX

Subject: Fwd: Patriotic Lesson

From: Astrid Bidanec
To: Carrie XXXX , Lori XXXX , Karen XXXX , Randy and Lou XXXX , Donna E XXXX , Rich XXXX,PaulXXXX , Chelsea XXXX , Scott XXXX , Amy&Ken XXXX , CarolynXXXX , Nick&Alex XXXX , George XXXX , Alexandra XXXX , Stinson XXXX , Heidi XXXX , wendi XXXX, Christina XXXX , Gwen XXXX , Andrea XXXX , Natalie XXXX , nancy XXXX , Allison XXXX , Christine XXXX , Su XXXX , Chrystal XXXX , Tracey XXXX

Subject: Patriotic Lesson
Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2003 16:57:42 -0700 (PDT)
>> > > Note: forwarded message attached. > > > >

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forwarded Message: Message001.eml [ No Subject ]Tuesday, April 8, 2003 10:58pm
From: "Kristin Finley"
To: 4eldridge@XXXX, astridb1974@XXXX, srhelen@XXXX, bobmichaels@XXXX, catalinashorkey@XXXX, Cmillerregion2@XXXX, twocsons@XXXX, cookie747@XXXX, gfinley@XXXX, DLicata@XXXX, harms_sherry@XXXX, harmsrobert@XXXX, bfgraham@XXXX, kurbis6@hotmail.com, skierjl@hotmail.com, jenrose71@comcast.net, jessquatnot@yahoo.com, jnmoyer@msn.com, JodyLDeLong@aol.com, Joe.Patterson@BUCKLEY.AF.MIL, jroyal@comcast.net, mnkmcgraw@home.nl, threeksmag@aol.com, CountryBasketeer@aol.com, lgummgray@aol.com, lwisniewski2000@yahoo.com, proiettorm@aol.com, nikkiwical@aol.com, rpaul185@hotmail.com, sasquith@XXXX, sgray@XXXXX, sspanitz@XXXX, SUPERPAAS@XXXX, bltbruce@XXXX... more

A LESSON TO MY SON
>>by A PROUD AMERICAN
>>Irma S. Chambers
>>
>>The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war.
>>My
>>husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were
>>in
>>the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend
>>our
>>country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good
>>explanation.
>>
>>My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in
>>our
>>front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me
>>what...........

***************************************************

Here is another one that my brother forwarded to me after he got if from one of his friends and his reply. Notice the date April 14, 2003 and what my brother wrote.

Fw: A Lesson To My Son
Monday, April 14, 2003 4:38 AM
From: SAUCEDA@XXXX
To: "Lisa HErnandez" , "Oscar Hernandez III" , "Irma Chambers" , "Keith Maxwell"

Hey, Keith this was a good lesson huh? My sister wrote this....is that not cool, apparently it has traveled the world..I get a kick that you sent it to me...

your friend, Jose

-------Original Message-------

From: Keith Maxwell
Date: Sunday, April 13, 2003 11:21:52
To: cory; jose; Pho; sam; thomas
Subject: Fw: A Lesson To My Son

----- Original Message -----

From: Kim B.
To: ANTHONY (TONY)
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2003 10:31 PMS
Subject: A Lesson To My Son

A LESSON TO MY SON by A PROUD AMERICAN, Irma S. Chambers ............The other day, my
> > >nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked
> at
> > >our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army
> > during the
> > >Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again
> > >today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation. My
> > husband
> > >thought for a few minutes and then told my son .....

******************************************

This one is dated Jan 19, 2005. A dear Army friend of mine forwarded it to me after she sent it to her family and friends. And it was titled "Why we are at War" and she writes about how getting the email helped her locate me.

Fw: Why we are at War

Wednesday, January 19, 2005 8:41 PM
From:atj_mom@XXXX
To: "ATJmom"

This was written by a friend of mine nicknamed named "Sauce". We served in the Army together in 1991-1993. The first time this email was sent to me, it was signed, S. Chambers. I recognized the writing style and the name and searched for a year before locating my dear friend. Because you see, during 1993, both of us were pregnant and I left the military while she and her husband chose to stay and we lost touch. In Nov. 2003, we made contact again. Her husband, Chris still serves in the National Guard, and they are proud patriots of this country.

This email means a lot to me, in that it clearly explains why we are at war and because it came at a time when I had given up hope of ever finding my friends again.

Jenese

>Why we are at war>>

Some of you may not approve of the Iraqi war, and I hope this email>doesn't offend anyone, but it's the BEST explanation the war that I've>ever read, and I feel I must pass it on.> >> >>This is the BEST explanation of WHY we are AMERICA, the Home of the>Brave>and>the Land of the FREE!>

>>The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war.>My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I>were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve>and defend our country>again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation.> >>My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand>in>our>front living room window. He told him: "Son, stand there and tell me what>you>see?"> >>"I see trees and cars and our neighbors houses." he replied.> >>"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the>United States of America and you are President Bush."> >>Our son giggled and said "OK."> >>"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every>house>and>yard on this block is a different country" my husband said.......

***********************************

And finally this is an email that I sent to my family and friends when I found out that my analogy was being credited to Steven R. Chandler under the changed title of Don't close the blinds" in April of 2006. The entire Analogy is in it's original form is in this email.

PLEASE HELP ME AND EMAIL THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW.....

Thursday, April 27, 2006 2:38 PM
From: This sender is DomainKeys verified "Irma Chambers" View contact details
To: jsauceda@XXXX",, , , , , rcncastrillo@XXXX>, , , , , , lisa21@XXXX, "irma_ur_hot@yahoo.com" , "Jenesse" , "lfladwood@XXXX , "mbutts@XXXX" , , "op-ed@XXXX" , "Rena" , , , "Jose Sauceda" , , , " ,
Family & friends,

I am asking for your help. Three years ago I sent you all a piece that I wrote. You all know me so Im sure you remember it " A lesson for my son" becasue of all of you emailing it to all your family & friends and them emailing it to their family and friends and so on it has survived the internet. It is still in circulation today. Thank you all for spreading it around the world for me. However as you will read someone ELSE is taking credit for it. Please help me to fix it and get the word out that he is a fraud. Yes he is a soldier, what a shame that he has to steal from a fellow veteran. I posted the following message on my space last night. If anyone knows who he is please forward this to him and tell him to stop stealing and give me the true author credit. Thanks friends I appreciate your concern and time. It only takes a second to forward this, please do it. Irma S. Chambers.Caldwell, ID Ok this is a plea for help. Three years ago when the war first started I wrote a piece after our then 9 year old son asked my husband why we were at war. I emailed it to a few family and friends because I wanted to share it with them. In three weeks it circulated the world! I got it back as an email and could not believe it. I got it copyright on:

http://iwvpa.net/chambersis/index.htm
( international war veterans poetry archives)

I am sure that most of you have read it. Its original name is " A LESSON TO MY SON"

The name has been changed to " DONT CLOSE THE BLINDS" by a:

STEVEN R. CHANDLER CMSgt
332 ELRS/Vehicle Management
Flight Balad, Air Base, Iraq

Who is posting it ALL OVER THE INTERNET WITH HIS NAME ON IT!!! I have spent hours going to sites and emailing them that he is not the original author and that I need to be given credit for my writing.

It upsets me because this a real account of a conversation that happend between my husband and my son. It is personal to me. The conversation was not as severe as it is written, but nevertheless it really happend to US.

I know that alot of people like it because I have seen pages dedicated to it on personal and professional sites. I also know that alot of people dont like it as it has been a very heated topic on forums and groups and has been torn apart word for word.

Regardless of your opinion of its contents, I still wrote it.

I have also spent hours trying to find who this STEVEN R. cHANDLER is and I come up empty handed, other than the fact that his name is all over my writing.

Please help me and repost this bulletin to spread the word and maybe someone who KNOWS him can inform his that he is wrong to steal someone elses work. He is a soldier as well and he should not take credit for something that is not his.

I have copied it below for you to read, with proof that it IS MINE.

*************************************************
Webmaster's Note: Today I received an email from Irma Chambers and have included the body of that email hereunder. I have no doubt whatsoever about the veracity of the contents of the email and therefore have no hesitation in displaying the email and crediting the article to Irma Chambers. I have Ms Chambers' email address so if any person wishes to contact her, please send such requests via me and I'll on-forward them for her further action.

Anthony W. Pahl, OAM
IWVPA Webmaster
March 24, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Irma Chambers [mailto:Email Address Supplied]
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 3:27 PM
To: iwvpa@internode.on.net
Cc: [Email address supplied]
Subject: PROOF to AUTHORSHIP

I was going crazy trying to figure out if I had some proof to send you to prove that it is me who wrote this piece and I remembered that I have a folder with saved emails. I sent it out again three weeks after I wrote it because in the first email (did not save) I had only sent it to a few people and I had received it back and was so proud of it that I resend it to more people. It is DATED. Is that proof?

Irma S. Chambers
March 24, 2006

Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2003 11:51:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Irma Chambers" [Email address supplied]
Subject: Fwd: FW: Patriotic Lesson
To: [several identities and email addresses are included here]
CC: [Email address supplied]

I wrote this 3 days after the war started when Robert asked Chris why we were at "WAR with Iraq" I send it to a handful of people. It appears that this has travelled the world, in less than three weeks, as it has returned to me.... in the form of an e-mail. I wanted to share it with you, if you have not received it yet.

Love,

Irma S.Chambers
Caldwell, Idaho
[Email address included]

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A LESSON FOR MY SON
The other day, my nine year old son wanted to know why we were at war. My husband looked at our son and then looked at me. My husband and I were in the Army during the Gulf War and we would be honored to serve and defend our country again today. I knew that my husband would give him a good explanation. My husband thought for a few minutes and then told my son to go stand in our front living room window.

He told him:

"Son, stand there and tell me what you see?"

"I see trees and cars and our neighbor's houses." he replied.

"OK, now I want you to pretend that our house and our yard is the United States of America and you are President Bush.

Our son giggled and said, "OK."

"Now son, I want you to look out the window and pretend that every house and yard on this block is a different country." my husband said.

"OK Dad, I'm pretending."

"Now I want you to stand there and look out the window and see that man come out of his house with his wife and he has her by the hair and is hitting her. You see her bleeding and crying. He hits her in the face, he throws her on the ground, then he starts to kick her to death. Their children run out and are afraid to stop him, they are crying, they are watching this but do nothing because they are kids and afraid of their father. You see all of this son... what do you do?"

"Dad?"

"What do you don son?!"

"I call the police, Dad."

"OK. Pretend that the police are the United Nations and they take your call, listen to what you know and saw but they refuse to help. What do you do then son?!"

"Dad, but the police are supposed to help!" My son starts to whine.

"They don't want to son, because they say that it is not their place or your place to get involved and that you should stay out of it." my husband says.

"But Dad... he killed her!!" my son exclaims.

"I know he did... but the police tell you to stay out of it. Now I want you to look out that window and pretend you see our neighbor who you're pretending is Saddam turn around and do the same thing to his children."

"Daddy... he kills them?"

"Yes son, he does. What do you do?"

"Well, if the police don't want to help, I will go and ask my next door neighbor to help me stop him." our son says.

"Son, our next door neighbor sees what is happening and refuses to get involved as well. He refuses to open the door and help you stop him," my husband says.

"But Dad, I NEED help!!! I can't stop him by myself!!"

"WHAT DO YOU DO SON?"

Our son starts to cry.

"OK, no one wants to help you, the man across the street saw you ask for help and saw that no one would help you stop him. He stands taller and puffs out his chest. Guess what he does next son?"

"What Daddy?"

"He walks across the street to the old ladies house and breaks down her door and drags her out, steals all her stuff and sets her house on fire and then.he kills her. He turns around and sees you standing in the window and laughs at you. WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!"

"Daddy."

"WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!"

Our son is crying and he looks down and he whispers, "I close the blinds, Daddy."

My husband looks at our son with tears in his eyes and asks him."Why?"

"Because Daddy... the police are supposed to help... people who needs it... and they won't help. You always say that neighbors are supposed to HELP neighbors, but they won't help either... they won't help me stop him... I'm afraid... I can't do it by myself. Daddy... I can't look out my window and just watch him do all these terrible things and... and....do nothing... so... I'm just going to close the blinds... so I can't see what he's doing... and I'm going to pretend that it is not happening."

I start to cry.

My husband looks at our nine year old son standing in the window, looking pitiful and ashamed at his answers to my husbands questions and he tells him. "Son"

"Yes, Daddy?"

"Open the blinds because that man. he's at your front door. "WHAT DO YOU DO?!!!!"

My son looks at his father, anger and defiance in his eyes. He balls up his tiny fists and looks his father square in the eyes, without hesitation he says: "I DEFEND MY FAMILY DAD!! I'M NOT GONNA LET HIM HURT MOMMY OR MY SISTER, DAD!!! I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM, DAD, I'M GONNA FIGHT HIM!!!!!"

I see a tear roll down my husband's cheek and he grabs my son to his chest and hugs him tight, and cries. "It's too late to fight him, he's too strong and he's already at YOUR front door son... you should have stopped him BEFORE he killed his wife. You have to do what's right, even if you have to do it alone, before... it's too late." my husband whispers.

THAT scenario I just gave you is WHY we are at war with Iraq. When good men stand by and let evil happen is the greatest EVIL of all. Our President is doing what is right.

We, as a free nation, must understand that this war is a war of humanity. WE must remove this evil man from power so that we can continue to live in a free world where we are not afraid to look out our window and see crimes on humanity. So that my nine year old son won't grow up in a world where he feels that if he just "closes" that blinds the atrocities in the world won't affect him. Today the second day of "WAR on IRAQ" I felt compelled to write this and pass it along. Hopefully, you will understand the lesson my husband tried to teach our son.

"YOU MUST NEVER BE AFRAID TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO DO IT ALONE!"

Be proud to be an American. Be proud of our President. Be proud of our troops. Support them. Support America so that in the future, our children will never have to close their blinds.

©Copyright circa April 2003 by Irma S. Chambers

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It really makes me mad that someone, let alone a fellow VETERAN would stoop so low as to STEAL someone elses work.
All of you who support the troops please support me in this.... You see my husband is now deployed......
Our son is now 12 years old ........
And this is OUR story......
NOT STEVEN R. CHANDLER's

THANK YOU.... Together we all have the power to get this bulletin out to millions of people in a matter of days.

PLEASE REPOST... ...................................................................

*****************************************

So Libby, I hope you understand why I am making a plea to you as well to please credit my name to my work. I do not know this Steven R. Chandler and have not been able to locate him or contact him but he is NOT the author of Dont close the blinds, I am. I dont know what else I can do to prove that it is mine other than to print all the emails and everything else out and mail them to you so that you can read them on paper.

I would appreciate a quick reply to my email and if you would like to contact me by phone my numbers are:

XXX-XXX-4XXX home (Numbers provided)
XXX-XXX-XXXX cell

my address is

Irma S. Chambers
XXXX street (sddress provided)
Caldwell, ID XXXXX

I am sorry this was so long but felt you would take the time to read it and follow up on my claim.

Irma S. Chambers.

TO THE FALLEN RECORDS

2008-09-23T00:46:00.000-07:00

This new record label produces music by veterans and soldiers currently enlisted. I love the songs that they have produced they are incredible! This is just one song that I love by the soldier/artist "SOLDIER HARD" the song is called "SUPPORT US" Hope you like the video.

Look at the Presidential Candidates

2008-09-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

“LOOK AT THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE NOT THE PARTY”

I just recently read this in an email response that started out innocently enough with a YouTube video that my brother emailed to a handful of relatives including myself about a disabled Iraqi war veteran who was addressing Mr. Obama and explaining why he was going to vote for (SEN) John McCain.

Interestingly enough, one of the relatives forwarded the video to her brother since he was not an original recipient of the video and he responded to her by implying that she go ahead and believe all the right wing propaganda her “NEW” party was telling her and forwarded the reply to everyone in the address bar.

Needless to say this started a very healthy but heated debate between my brother, my cousin and myself included) about issues, parties, and the candidates themselves. Unfortunately, as always happens when “talking Politics” jabs, snide remarks, and attacking personal character occurred while trying to defend said chosen candidate.

I almost fell victim to responding in kind to some rather petty attacks on my character, my intelligence and personal choice of candidate when my reply was taken out of context and misquoted and was accused of promoting right wing –propaganda.

This is my cousin I thought to myself. Obviously his political views and opinions are the polar opposite to my own, and we will agree with each other as easy as you can combine oil and vinegar. How am I going to respond and keep the family peace I thought?

Then out of the blue our Aunt responded in agreement and defense of our dear cousin, and she wrote something that caught my eye.

“Look at the candidate and not the party”

Eureka! How clever! I decided to take that challenge literally. I am going to focus on the candidates. What better way to gauge the character and personal convictions of the next President of the United States of America other, than to look at the company they keep? “Birds of a feather, flock together”

Let’s meet two of the people Obama has associated with and called friend…

Meet William “Bill” Ayers. Co-founder and member of the 1970’s domestic terrorist group (as defined by the FBI) Known as the Weatherman and later as the Weather underground group who claimed responsibility for:

· October 8, 1968 riot “Days of Rage” in Chicago

· BOMBING of the UNITED STATES CAPITAL on March 1, 1971

· BOMBING of the PENTAGON on May 19, 1972

· BOMBING of the Harry S. Truman Building housing the United States Department of State.

More interesting FACTS:

· Published the book “Fugitive Days: A memoir in 2001

· Served with Obama on the “Woods Fund Board” in Chicago from 1999 until Obama left in 2002.

· Hosted Obama’s first fund raising reception in his first Illinois State Senate Campaign in 1995

· Donated $200 to Obama’s campaign in April 2001.

We all know who the (now retired) Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago ’s south side.

· Did I mention he was Obama’s pastor for the last 20 years?

· In a 2003 sermon the Rev Wright preached to his congregation about the treatment of Black Americans as gospel:

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America .' No, no, no, God damn America , that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," . "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

· On the Sunday after September 11, 2001 the Rev. Wright told his congregation that the United States had brought on al Qaeda’s attacks because of its own terrorism.

· Taken from a September 16, 2001 sermon he said:

"We bombed Hiroshima , we bombed Nagasaki , and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost,"

· When questioned about the controversy surrounding Rev Wrights sermons Obama stated: “ I don’t think my church is actually particularly controversial, Rev. Wright is like an old uncle who says things I don’t always agree with”

· Elizabeth Payne, 37, admits she had steamy sexual affair with Rev, Wright.

And… just a few more friends of Obama,

· Tony Resko: Syrian business friend who was on trial in April of 08’ in Chicago facing Corruption charges.

· Khalid Abdullah Tarig al-Mansour: a well known laywer, devout Muslim and extremely vocal opponent of Israel . A mentor to the radicals who founded the Black Panthers. He is Known to be an advisor to Saudi billionaires’ Abdul Aziz, Khalid al-Ibrahim and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal the latter being the 19th richest man on the planet. Interestingly enough, he also helped bank Obama’s Harvard education.

Now, there may be nothing to these “friends” of Obama but I am reminded of a passage in the Bible from the book of Proverbs 22:24, when I think about the type of character he has kept.“Do not make friends with a hot tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared”Given Obama’s choice of company in his early political formative years of his life, I cannot help but wonder what kind of expectations would fall upon his shoulders should he reach the Oval Office by these “type” of friends. What favors are left to be returned and to whom?Not propaganda, Just truth. Research the names and the information for yourself, I did.
Now, to be “fair” let’s meet just two of the people McCain has associated with and called friend…

Meet Ralph Reed. Reed, the former head of the Christian Coalition, was tied to the corruption scandal involving Jack Abramoff, the highly paid Washington lobbyist now serving a six year prison. The association between Reed and McCain is linked to the fact that the scandal was exposed by an investigation led by McCain when he chaired the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

He is currently considered a questionable friend because:

· Reed was involved in a Atlanta fund raiser for McCain in August 2008

· Reed emailed supporters asking them to give money at the fund raiser while he praised McCain and said that he had joined the “McCain Victory 2008 team.

· Reed made the following statement in a e-mail when questioned about his ties with McCain:

“"I take the long view of politics, which is that yesterday's opponent can be tomorrow's friend or ally, I have found this to be the case with Senator McCain. I am supporting him because he is running on principled conservative positions on taxes, judges, terrorism, energy, values and the family. I hold no position, title or official role in the McCain campaign and am not seeking one."

Meet Cindy McCain, his 2nd wife.

· Before John McCain tour of duty in Vietnam John married Carol Shepp, on his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam he was shot down and captured. While he was imprisoned, carol was in an auto wreck (1969) that left her seriously injured. Carol refused to allow John to be notified about her condition fearing that the news would not be good for her POW husband.

· When McCain returned to the States in 1973 he found his wife crippled and a different person.

· In 1979 McCain met Cindy Hensley, an attractive 25 year old woman from a very wealthy politically-connected Arizona family. Cindy’s father, founded the Hensley Company, the nation’s third largest Anheuser-Bush distributor.

· While still married to Carol, McCain began a relationship with Cindy and married her in May 1980 – just one month after his divorce from Carol.

· McCain followed his young, millionaire wife back to Arizona where her father helped catapult McCain into politics.

· Cindy Hensley McCain is chairwoman of Hensley’s board of directors and is worth an estimated 28 million.

· John McCain and Cindy have been married for 28 years.

· John McCain has been accused of having an affair on Cindy just this year.

And another friend of McCain:

Charles Keating. Also known as the “Keating five” scandal”

· In early 1987, at the beginning of his first Senate term, McCain attended two meetings with federal banking regulators to discuss an investigation into Lincoln Savings and Loan, an Irvine , Calif. , thrift owned by Arizona developer Charles Keating. Federal auditors were investigating Keating's banking practices, and Keating, fearful that the government would seize his S&L, sought intervention from a number of U.S. senators: McCain and DEMOCRATS Dennis DeConcini of Arizona, Alan Cranston of California, and John Glenn of Ohio --met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, on April 2.

· Those four Democratic senators and Sen. Don Riegle, (DEM)- Mich. , attended a second meeting at Keating's behest on April 9 with bank regulators in San Francisco .

· Regulators did not seize Lincoln Savings and Loan until two years later. The Lincoln bailout cost taxpayers $2.6 billion, making it the biggest of the S&L scandals. In addition, 17,000 Lincoln investors lost $190 million.

· In November 1990, the Senate Ethics Committee launched an investigation into the meetings between the senators and the regulators. McCain, Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn, and Riegle became known as the Keating Five.

· The Senate Ethics Committee probe of the Keating Five began in November 1990 and committee Special Counsel Robert Bennett recommended that McCain and Glenn be dropped from the investigation. They were not. McCain believes Democrats on the committee blocked Bennett's recommendation because he was the lone Keating Five Republican.

· In February 1991, the Senate Ethics Committee found McCain and Glenn to be the least blameworthy of the five senators. (McCain and Glenn attended the meetings but did nothing else to influence the regulators.) McCain was guilty of nothing more than "poor judgment," the committee said, and declared his actions were neither “improper nor attended with gross negligence." McCain considered the committee's judgment to be "full exoneration," and he contributed $112,000 (the amount raised for him by Keating) to the U.S. Treasury.

I tried really hard to be fair and neutral in my search of “SCANDALS” and “QUESTIONABLE” associations regarding the two candidates and I really did not find any hard evidence that questioned McCain’s over all character compared to Obama’s.

“RECAP”

Obama

· Has a long history and personal association with William Ayers dating back as far as 1999, almost a decade. How could Obama NOT KNOW about Ayer’s involvement in the 1971 BOMBING of the United States Capital when he worked closely with him on the Woods Fund Board for almost 4 years? Especially when Ayers helped Obama with his first fund raising reception for his first Illinois State Senate Campaign in 1995?

· Obama attended the same church for 20 years whose pastor was the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. When the controversial sermons about “God Damning America came out Obama claimed that he did not agree with everything Reverend Wright preached. It took Obama 20 years of sermons to say that or was it the fact that the WORLD now knew what the pastor was preaching that made Obama say that?

· Obama’s tie with Khalid Abdullah Tarig al-Mansour is very interesting. A devout Muslim and mentor to the radicals who founded the Black Panthers and advisor to Saudi billionaires’ Abdul Aziz, Khalid al-Ibrahim and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal the latter being the 19th richest man on the planet, helped finance Obama’s Harvard degree. Why? Does Obama owe him any favors for that now?

In contrast, McCain is not without controversial judgment, however, on a much lesser degree.

McCain

· McCain’s ties with Ralph Reed have recently been questioned by Reeds endorsement of McCain and involvement of an Atlanta fund raiser for the McCain campaign earlier this year. Reed was tied to the corruption scandal involving Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist now serving 6 years in prison. A scandal that was exposed by and investigation led by McCain when he chaired the Senate state Committee on Indian Affairs. Reed has come out to say that: “I hold no position, title or official role in the McCain campaign and am not seeking one."” When questioned about his ties with McCain.

· McCain’s extramarital affair with his now wife of 28 years seems to be a favorite topic on the internet as to the true character of John McCain and was accused of having an affair earlier this year as well. Let us not forget the blue dress in the Oval office.

· “The Keating five scandal” is another interesting “affair” (pardon the pun) In 1987 McCain attended two meetings with federal banking regulators to discuss an investigation into Lincoln Savings and Loan, an Irvine , Calif. , thrift owned by Arizona developer Charles Keating. Invited to the meeting were U.S. senators: McCain and DEMOCRATS Dennis DeConcini of Arizona , Alan Cranston of California , and John Glenn of Ohio , whom -met with Ed Gray, chairman of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Three years later the Senate Ethics committee launched an investigation into the meetings between the Senators and the Regulators. A year into the investigation McCain the only republican along with John Glenn were fully exonerated from blame. The Senate Ethics Committee found that McCain and Glenn attended the meeting but did nothing else to influence the regulators and were guilty on nothing more than “Poor judgment” they declared McCain’s actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence.

I challenge you to think hard and reflect within the moral compound of your heart and soul, that if you had just the facts above without knowing which "candidate" these "PEOPLE" were linked to... whom would your gut instinct tell you to pick was the better MAN?

Just some food for thought, you decide. In the end (for us) it does not really matter who becomes the President, my husband will have to follow the Orders of his Commander in Chief, right or wrong. Irma

Introducing:Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline

2008-08-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

OMG!!! I LOVE ANGELINA JOLIE AND BRAD PITT!!! I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THEIR TWINS PICTURES TO COME OUT... THIS PICTURE WILL HIT NEWS STANDS TOMORROW MORNING AND I HAVE IT ALREADY FOR YOU ALL TO SEE...ENJOY!!!

Georgia & Russia WAR while World Zombies in on Olypics

2008-08-09T07:44:00.000-07:00

I understand that I have been absent from my blog for a few weeks again but that does not mean that I have been asleep on the current affairs of the world. I find it very interesting that this conflict between Georgia and Russia broke out on the Olympics eve of the opening day of "Parade of Nations" held in Beijing, China on
08-08-08.

History has proven that attacks are purposely planned on significant days, months, years. Look at 9/11... planned on that day and month to signify that our nation was in a state of emergency based on our emergency hot line number 911.

Lets look at why China Chose August 8, 2008, as the opening day for the Olympics. The Chinese believe that the number 8 represents wealth and if you turn the number eight 90 degrees horizontally, it becomes “infinity” in math or “eternity” philosophy.

In Chinese Astrology, perfect balance is considered the ideal, meaning that if you add up to 8: 8-8-2008, or 16 + 10 = 26 = 8. In China, the Summer Olympics opened on August 8 at 8:08:08 pm. The word for "8" in Chinese is similar to the word "wealth" or "fortune."

I find it very hard to believe that this conflict with Georgia and Russia over South Ossetia was a happenstance. While the "WORLD" got ready for the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China ( another milestone, if your familiar with that history ) and the Prime ministers, Presidents and the leaders of the world were gathered there for the opening day Georgia and Russia broke out in a bloody conflict, knowing the world news would concentrate their attention on the Olympics.

What exactly is happening in Georgia and Russia you ask? What is the big deal, wars are constantly breaking out all over the world you say.

Well, I am not an expert of foreign affairs, and I do not fully grasp the enormity of what the consequences are going to be with this conflict but I know enough to know that if it escalates we are in a world of hurt.

This is how "I" understand it... and PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG.....

South Ossetia, is a region in Georgia. It is separated from North Ossetia which is in Russia. It would be like if the state of Texas was split in half and North Texas being in the USA and South Texas being in Mexico. Follow?

This part gets a little difficult, to explain. South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in a 1991-1992 war, EVEN THOUGH IT IS A REGION WITHIN GEORGIA. In November of 2006, the citizens of South Ossetia went to the polls to vote in a referendum confirming the region's independence from Georgia. The result was an overwhelming "yes" to independence, with a turnout above 95% from those among the territory's 70,000 people who were eligible to vote.

Since its separation from Georgia in 91-92 South Ossetia has been run as a de facto independent state, although its proclamations of independence have been ignored by the international community and the territory is heavily reliant on Russian support since the majority of its citizens are Russian and have Russian birthrights.

Here is the problem at hand, Since South Ossetia is NOT RECOGNIZED by the international community as an independent state/territory/country, "LEGALLY" it is PART OF GEORGIA even though GEORGIA has lost its CONTROL there for the last 15 years AND almost all of South Ossetia's citizens are RUSSIAN.

Here is the real question for the day... Is Georgia the victim or the aggressor? Georgia's President Saakashvili is presenting his military actions against the South Ossetian regime as righteous ones.

Interestingly enough, Saakashvili uses the same words to describe the military operation in South Ossetia that Russia used to justify its intervention in Chechnya: "Restoring the constitutional order" in Georgia. As far as Saakashvili is concerned, Russia's involvement in South Ossetia amounts to a declaration of war against Georgia and the involvement in the internal affairs of a neighboring state ---- not without hope for western, especially American support against the alleged Russian aggressor.

WOW!! Do you realize what that means? Georgia is EXPECTING THE US TO SIDE WITH THEM, on this conflict AGAINST RUSSIA!

RUSSIA on the other hand is claiming that it is simply trying to justify its policies. In line with western arguments during the NATO mission against Serbia to protect Kosovo, Russian officials are now presenting the military intervention as a "humanitarian" one: Moscow needs to save "Russian lives" and strengthen the so-called Russian peacekeepers. Since the citizens of South Ossetia are "RUSSIAN"

Do you now see what a mess this is? How difficult it is going to be to even TRY to take sides and be neutral? Both Georgia & Russia are using arguments that the US have used in the past to justify their cause and in effect will put the US in a catch 22 - dammed if you do - dammed if you don't.

It's hard for me to predict the military outcome and any future political consequences .. but I know one thing for sure: The alienation between Russia and Georgia, between Russia and the West, will INCREASE because of the war in South Ossetia AND THAT MY FRIEND IS NOT GOOD FOR US.

"Make the song Cry"

2008-07-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

I have added this video on my side bar as a permanent item on my blog, forgive the fact that part of it is cut off like the rest of my youtube videos, I have not figured out how to change the size without messing up my entire layout.

This video is a remake from the original youtube video that I posted last year in Memory of Leo Matthew Chambers who passed away last July a day after he was born.

What makes this video extremely special is that Leo's oldest brother Nicholas Chambers who lives in Seattle, WA,is only 13 years old!! He is an aspiring song writer and singer. He wrote the lyrics to this song and he has his two youngest brothers Payton and & Ray who are both 6 years old, singing with him.

I do not know who wrote the music that goes with this song but I am sure that who ever it is will be honored to have such a young talented artist emulate their style and use their music for such an heartfelt cause.

The song is called "Make the song Cry" and it is about how he felt when his baby brother passed away and how much he wanted to cry but found a way to make the song cry for him instead.

I am so proud of him. I have heard other songs that he has written and they are incredible!! I love how he incorporates his little brothers into his songs and how good they are as well for 6 year old!!!

I just know in my heart that he is going to get discovered and the name Chambers will be a household name!!!

A letter to my brother...

2008-07-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Jose,

Our whole lives we will live our life, only aware of what we can "see" on the outside of our bodies and of what we "think" our insides feel like....

I will go my entire life never laying eyes on my heart, yet I know it is there. I will never "see" how my heart pumps my blood through my veins, but always fully aware that it does so, as surely as I breathe the very air that I cannot "see" that goes into my lungs.

I will never see the contents of my stomach or witness how this organ will break down the food I eat and nourish my body, yet I know when I am full.

I will never know how my muscles look like when they strain and flex at my command, yet as my indentured servants they complain with aches and pains if I command too much from them.

Yet, here I sit and stare at this ultra-sound picture in 3-D of your unborn son and I am an awe! To gaze upon the face of your unborn child while he is still developing in his mothers womb unaware of the proud prying eyes who lovingly look upon him. Never, would have I imagined that such a clear picture could of been possible to "see" within our bodies in such a way.

As a woman I know how alive your wife must "feel" with the awesome responsibility of knowing that she is creating "Life" within her womb. How she was fully aware at the first butterfly movements within her belly as a sign of Life and how her body "talks" to her always reminding her that she is not alone.

How the natural maternal instincts take over and makes her overly protective of the new charge in her care. How she must protect, nurture and love this life within her and how she loves it unconditionally already even though she has yet to lay eyes on her new child.

As my brother and as you get ready to become a father for the second time I marvel at how involved you have been with Aprils pregnancies. Men, in general do not take such an interest before the birth of their children. Times have changed and have allowed the fathers to be involved and be part of this important stage of their children's development.

I believe that this is a good thing. Fathers are more attentive, more receptive to their wives condition and when they witness their own flesh and blood being delivered into this world with their own eyes, it makes them stronger, better loving husbands and fathers.

It is incredible what technology is capable of these days, and how it has been able to bridge the gap and bring husband and wife together uniting them, BONDING them with their unborn child.

I remember when I was pregnant with Stefani, and one night she was so active that she stretched inside of me and the perfect outline of her tiny foot could be seen on the side of my stomach. I moaned at how uncomfortable it made me and complained that I could not wait for her to be born. Chris, looked at me with a look that to this day I will never forget. Envy. He told me that he wished that even for a second he could feel what I was feeling in that moment.

Fathers, are not given the credit they deserve. They are the silent bystanders, as they watch people try and pat the belly of their pregnant wife, forgotten in the shadows. They are the ones who stand back, not knowing what to do to make their wife feel better after she has emptied her stomach in the bathroom, or sits there next to his wife and feels a jealous pang with his hand on her belly waiting patiently for his child to "kick" again and it won't.

Yes, times have changed.

I sit here and write because I am in awe that you have had the privilege and the wondrous opportunity that Chris and I did not have with our own two children at "seeing" your son in your wife's womb in a way that I never imagined was possible.

I can only imagine the look on your face when you witnessed the miracle of being able to see so clearly the formation of your child. The awe, the pride the love on your face as you gazed at your wife in that moment.

Seeing my nephew for the first time, brought me to tears. A warm feeling of love engulfed my body and warmed my heart. My mind captured every detail, from his tiny hands to the delicate curve of his shoulders and arms. Tears blur my vision as I am blessed to have the opportunity to "see" your son growing and being nurtured in his mothers body, as if a clear window has been wiped clean from her very belly so that I can gaze through at the wondrous miracle of life being created without disturbing the precious cargo within.

The babies face,tiny hands, shoulders, limbs and feet so clearly defined yet obviously not complete as if the creator of such wonders knows it takes time to create perfection.

My brother, your children are the fruits of your loins, and you are the roots. Nourish them that you will know longevity.

Feed them justice, wisdom, love, compassion and empathy, and they will be your legacy.

Thank you Jose and April for sharing such intimate pictures with me and allowing me to meet my nephew before his birth into this world.

I love you guys, even if I never tell you.

Irma

I'm Back!!!

2008-07-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

Wow! It seems as if I have not written in my blog for decades!!! As a person who likes to write, it has been depressing to my soul not to be able to sit for a few minutes and just put down my thoughts and let them flow from my mind to my fingers and let them have a life of their own.

I have not felt myself for the last few weeks, I felt suffocated as if I was drowning in my own thoughts that had no way to escape. Like a cluttered garage or closet forgotten they lay gathering cobwebs in my mind. Nagging, all these thoughts are crammed in my cranium, begging for release. So much time has passed that I find it difficult to pluck apart each thought, opinion and view and dissect each of them separately for what they are.

Confused my mind rebels and chastises me for allowing so much time to laps and the thoughts are at war in my head fighting each other to be let out first.

So much has occurred in the last month, world affairs, foreign and domestic, and my favorite: personal family matters. The one thing that remains constant is that no matter if I write about it or not, whether anyone really reads my blog or not, life goes on. Period.

Does anyone really care what I think? Am I that egotistical to believe that my absence of writing in my blog for a few weeks actually devastated someone? That someone "out there" thought: "OMG! I hope shes OK she has not written in her blog for a few weeks?" Wishful thinking, I know.

Anyways, I wanted to explain that if anyone out there cares, I'm back. I have been busy with family affairs and well ....life.

Now the daunting matter of what topic to write about first?

Grandmas visit video

2008-06-29T19:42:00.001-07:00

3 Doors down - " Citizen Soldier "

2008-06-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

This video by "3 Doors Down" with them singing " Citizen Soldier" is awsome. The reason I think it is awsome is because the two AH-64A Apache Attack hellicopters shown in this video belong to the Idaho National Guard, AND MY HUSBANDS UNIT THE 1-183rd Aviation Battalion out of Boise, ID.

KUDOS to the 1-183rd!!!!! YOU ALL ROCK!!!!

Tim Mcgraw throws fan out of concert in middle of song

2008-06-26T22:20:00.000-07:00

I could not help but post this video clip that happened last night at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington. It seems that there was a male intoxicated fan in the audience who pushing the female fans out of the way to get to the front row and as Tim McGraw started to sing the song he noticed what the man was doing so he pulled him up on the stage and called out to security to "get rid" of him and the drunk man went to hit Tim Mcgraw once he was on stage because Tim just pushed him out of the way and came after Tim McGraw so Tim pulled up his fist to hit him back if he got hit by the fan!

Security came and escorted the drunk fan off the stage and Tim McGraw just kept on singing without a hitch as if nothing had just happened.

The video made CNN after the concert and is the latest BUZZ on youtube right now.

FANTASTIC!!! IT"S GOOD TO SEE THE COWBOY IN HIM COME OUT!!!! WAY TO GO TIM!!

But.... I wonder if the drunk fan got his money back or if he will take advantage of this footage to sue TIM MCGRAW and try and make a cool million out of it? Hmmm? I guess we will have to wait and see....

Grandma Sharen's visit

2008-06-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know... my husbands grandmother is visiting us from Seattle, WA. She got here last Tuesday and will be with us until the 9th of July.

I do have to say that her visit has been a pleasure so far. We are really enjoying her very much and having such a good time. She is 83 years old and has a sharp mind and very alert.

Our days start out with sleeping in and then having some chai tea and then a brunch. My husband gets ready for work and leaves by 1:30. We then either go take Stefani to the YMCA to watch her swim for an hour or go get some ice cream or go visit my mom. We come home and start dinner and then eat.

After dinner we go out side in the back yard and just sit out there and watch Stefani play with Logan. We sit out there for two hours sometimes and just talk and talk and talk. She is an incredible woman and I have learned so much about her life, past, opinions and views in just the short week she has been here.

I marvel at the fact that my children are so lucky to have the opportunity to know their great-grandmother up close and personal.

The time is going by so quickly its hard to believe that she has been here a week already!!! I can really get used to having her living with us. Today we went and got her hair washed and set at the beauty shop. She really loved that and I was able to get both my kids in to get haircuts as well... major bonus!!!

Here are a few pictures I took a few days ago. I just wanted to write a short blog about why I haven't been writing much lately as I have been really busy spending time with her.

My husband is taking some vacation time at the end of this week so that he can spend some time with her as well before she has to go back to Seattle. I dont know what we will do this weekend but I plan on having a double birthday party on the weekend of the 4rth of July to celebrate her birthday and Stefani's at the same time. Grandma will turn 83 and Stefani will turn 9, its gonna be a memory of a life time and Im gonna take lots of pictures of our time with her. Well thats all for now... more pictures later.....

"BEFORE YOU GO" TRIBUTE

2008-06-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

The elderly parking lot attendant wasn't in a good mood! Neither was Sam Bierstock. It was around 1 a.m., and Bierstock, a Delray Beach, Fla. , eye doctor, business consultant, corporate speaker and musician, was bone tired after appearing at an event. He pulled up in his car, and the parking attendant began to speak. "I took two bullets for this country and look what I'm doing," he said bitterly. At first, Bierstock didn't know what to say to the World War II veteran. But he rolled down his window and told the man, "Really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you." Then the old soldier began to cry. "That really got to me," Bierstock says. Cut to today. Bierstock, 58, and John Melnick, 54, of Pompano Beach - a member of Bierstock's band, Dr. Sam and the Managed Care Band - have written a song inspired by that old soldier in the airport parking lot. The mournful "Before You Go" does more than salute those who fought in WWII. It encourages people to go out of their way to thank the aging warriors before they die. "If we had lost that particular war, our whole way of life would have been shot," says Bierstock, who plays harmonica. "The WW II soldiers are now dying at the rate of about 2,000 every day. I thought we needed to thank them." The song is striking a chord. Within four days of Bierstock placing it on the Web, the song and accompanying photo essay have bounced around nine countries, producing tears and heartfelt thanks from veterans, their sons and daughters and grandchildren. "It made me cry," wrote one veteran's son. Another sent an e-mail saying that only after his father consumed several glasses of wine would he discuss " the unspeakable horrors" he and other soldiers had witnessed in places such as Anzio, Iwo Jima, Bataan and Omaha Beach. "I can never thank them enough," the son wrote. "Thank you for thinking about them." Bierstock and Melnick thought about shipping it off to a professional singer, maybe a Lee Greenwood type, but because time was running out for so many veterans, they decided it was best to release it quickly, for free, on the Web. They've sent the song to Sen. John McCain and others in Washington. Already they have been invited to perform it in Houston for a Veterans Day tribute - this after just a few days on the Web. They hope every veteran in America gets a chance to hear it. GOD BLESS every EVERY veteran... and THANK you to those of you veterans who may receive this !

EUROPE FUEL & FOOD STRIKES

2008-06-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

The US MEDIA IS DELIBERETLY BLOCKING THIS NEWS COVERAGE FROM US OUT OF FEAR THAT WE MAY REACT THE SAME WAY. THIS VIDEO SHOWS THAT THE FUEL & FOOD SHORTAGE IS SERIOUS IN EUROPE SPREADING ALL THE WAY TO SPAIN & KOREA. THIS IS TROUBLESOME THAT WE ARE NOT INFORMED ON THE DAILY NEWS THAT THIS IS GOING ON.... I HAVE A FEELING OF DREAD THAT WE HERE IN THE US WILL FEEL THE OUT COME OF THIS BEFORE THE END OD SUMMER AND WE ARE GOING TO BE HURTING.....WHEN IT HITS HERE TOO.

CONGRESS!! GET CONTROL OF THIS GAS CRISIS!!!!

2008-06-18T22:48:00.000-07:00

I got this email from my brother today and it prompted me to post a blog about the content of it. What got my attention was that his boss wrote a preface to everyone he sent it to and this made me aware that of all people he would have first hand experience in how serious this gas crisis really is. Here is what he wrote:

****
I own a staffing service and many of our employees can no longer afford the cost of gas to drive to work. Most of these workers drive older, less efficient gas mileage cars. These workers just squeaked by when gas was at $2.00 per gallon. Now with gas at $4.00, they can’t afford the extra cost. To make ends meet many are forced to borrow money, if they can, from the “stop and rob payday loan” outfits; or quit their jobs entirely.

Many American Families are being forced to go into debt just to put gas into their cars. These high gas prices cannot be sustained and cannot be tolerated, as they are forcing extreme hardships on American families, especially on low wage earners. These high gas prices are single handily impoverishing many, many Americans. Many in congress have vowed to do nothing about it.

If you agree with me and you are tired of congress acting totally inept in this matter, and in letting us down “big-time” by not taking the bold decisive steps needed to get us out of this “out of control” gas crisis – please sign this petition “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less”

COPY & PASTE THE LINK BELOW TO YOUR ADDRESS BAR TO SIGN PETITION:

www.americansolutions.com

Our message to Congress - Its time to stop talking and start acting !!!

****

This made me want to write a poem about what the Average American citizen must be going through, here it is:

"GAS KEEPS GOING UP!"

Just the other day I went to the gas pump,
When I saw that it went up, I felt in my throat a lump.

My kids are hungry and my rent is over due,
Pay day is 10 days away, what am I going to do?

Gas keeps going up, an expense I have to pay,
If I want to keep my job and go to work every day.

They say it will be $5.00 by the 4rth of July.
I earn less than $8.00 an hour, how will I get by?

My kids need new shoes theirs are too tight,
I couldn't’t pay the power bill, so they turned off the lights.

My pantry is empty; I haven’t bought fresh fruit all year,
It will be ramen noodles again tonight I fear.

A double edge sword that our government has put us in,
Backed us in a corner a battle we’ll never win.

People are losing their homes and taxes are out of control,
People have to choose between gas and food and were still at war.

Corn crops are decimated by flood waters and others are scorched by the heat,
Now we have to add tomatoes to the list of contaminated foods we can’t eat.

I put my last $10.00 in my gas tank that day,
Three gallons of gas was all that I could afford to pay.

If gas keeps going up what will I do?
I can barely get by how about you?

BY: Irma S. Chambers - June 18, 2008

Meaning of US Flag draped coffin

2008-06-12T21:17:00.000-07:00

Have you ever gone to a military funeral? Many never have and many having friends or family in the service have been to one or many. Have you ever wondered why they drape the United States flag across the coffin? Well, I am sure if you are reading this your going to answer because they served. Yes, that is correct but there is much more meaning to flag draped coffin.

Like I said if you have ever been to a military funeral you will recall that there was a 21-gun salute and it represents the sum of the numbers in the year 1776. For those of you who do not know the history of our country that year is the year that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4Th.

Then you would have noticed the honor guard pay meticulous attention to correctly folding the United States of America Flag 13 times?

You probably thought it was to symbolize the original 13 colonies, but let me educate you on what the 13 folds REALLY mean.

The 1st fold of the flag is a symbol of life.

The 2nd fold is a symbol of the belief in eternal life.

The 3rd fold is made in honor and remembrance of the veterans departing the ranks who gave a portion of their lives for the defense of the country to attain peace throughout the world.

The 4th fold represents the weaker nature, for as American citizens trusting in God, it is to Him we turn in times of peace as well as in time of war for His divine guidance.

The 5th fold is a tribute to the country, for in the words of Stephen Decatur, "Our Country, in dealing with other countries, may she always be right; but it is still our country, right or wrong."

The 6th fold is for where people's hearts lie. It is with their heart that They pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Of America , and the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.

The 7th fold is a tribute to its Armed Forces, for it is through the Armed Forces that they protect their country and their flag against all her enemies, whether they be found within or without the boundaries of their republic.

The 8th fold is a tribute to the one who entered into the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day.

The 9th fold is a tribute to womanhood, and Mothers. For it has been through their faith, their love, loyalty and devotion that the character of the men and women who have made this country great has been molded.

The 10th fold is a tribute to the father, for he, too, has given his sons and daughters for the defense of their country since they were first born.

The 11th fold represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon and glorifies in the Hebrews eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The 12th fold represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies, in the Christians eyes, God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

The 13th fold, or when the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost reminding them of their nations motto, "In God We Trust."

After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington, and the Sailors and Marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones, who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for them the rights, privileges and freedoms they enjoy today.

Our country has a deep history of traditions and ways of doing things that have deep meanings that have been lost throughout the decades from indifference and "political correctness"

I hope that in the future if you should ever attend a military funeral or see a folded flag you will remember reading this and your heart will swell with pride for your country and truly understand the ultimate sacrifice that soldier paid with his or her life.

You will know that as you watch each fold being folded what each one represents and your heart will break, your soul will feel true empathy, and you will have goose bumps all over your flesh as you watch, as a reminder that you are living and breathing and you owe your liberty and freedom to the soldier about to be laid to rest.

Maybe, you will know a child in your life whom you can sit down with one day and explain to them what each fold means and represents so that they too will know the meaning of each fold and pass it on themselves one day to future generations of Americans.

Open your eyes and your heart - there is truth all around you.... you only have to be willing to see it.

I worked on my GARDEN today...

2008-06-11T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, what can I say? I waited all winter for spring to arrive so that I could go outside and feel the warm earth between my fingertips and plant my precious fruits and vegetables in my garden. Winter it seemed would not go away. I waited and waited and waited for the weather to get nice so that I could at least plant my cold weather plants in the garden. It was so cold most days I never got out there at the right time to plant, so.... needless to say I started late.... way late. It is June already and the plants that SHOULD be giving me my first harvest are still small and not bearing any fruit, yet. I got my warm weather plants in last week and some this week and we will see how they do.

I have to say that I was very frustrated last weekend when I went out and saw that my pet chicken "April" helped herself to all 9 plants of broccoli!! I wanted to cry when I saw the bare stems with no leaves and no clusters. I was so proud of them to, they were growing so big and I figured I had about another week to go before I could cut the first harvest off of them.

My lettuce is doing great. First year that I planted lettuce, I have two different varieties and I'm excited to have my husbands grandmother come to visit next week from Seattle, WA so that I could make her a fresh salad with my garden lettuce.

I also planted a few tomato plants, some bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, habanero, peas, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, squash, cantaloupe, watermelon, parsley, chives, strawberries and cilantro.

I decided that if I wanted to be able to serve my family and friends the fruits of my labor that I would have to do something about the chicken. Well, now its chickens because I bought three baby chicks a few months back and they are getting big. I figured that April lays me one egg a day, and if I had three more chickens I would be getting 4 eggs a day! You know with the price of food now a days every little thing you can do to keep cost down helps. I love eggs and knowing that I have backyard chickens that will provide me with enough eggs so that I don't have to buy any is a bonus.

Back to dealing with my "chickens" eating my vegetables out of my garden. My husband and son started to make a fence that went around the perimeter of the garden. Well, they never finished it because the cordless drill stopped working and it did nothing to stop the chickens from going into my garden.

Today, I went outside and gathered all the materials that I needed to finish the fence. I looked in the garage for my husbands drill and an extension cord - no excuses for me.

Once I had everything that I needed I got to work. I had bought a roll of plastic chicken netting a few weeks ago and used that as well.

Here is were I am going to confess something that my mother AND my brother both hate about me. I really do like to work in my yard. I am a creative, independent woman who would rather do things herself than to wait for someone else to do it for me.

I am also a person who is always thinking of projects to do and how I could do this or make that. My husband finds this annoying about me because over the last 15 years he has learned that one of my PROJECTS as he likes to call them takes an entire day or weekend to complete for that matter. My husband is more the type of person who will work out in the yard for an hour or two and then hes done... period.

So.... when it comes to the house and our yard I am the one who maintains them, fixes up and has touched every square inch of our property with my own to hands in one way or another and it makes me feel good and proud.

I worked from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm on completing the fence,putting the netting around the bottom, planting a few new plants, weeding and adding some garden accents.

To be fair, my son came home around noon from spending the night at a friends house and he came out and helped me finish the fence part, so that part went alot quicker than I originally thought it would.

I added a table and some chairs in the garden as well and I love it!!! Its almost perfect.... all I need is for the plants to grow and give me food!!!!

I will add a photo of my garden on the next blog. I did not get a chance to take a few pictures of the garden because my daughter reminded me that it was almost 4:00 and I promised to take her to the YMCA to swim.

So we jumped in the car and now here I am.... sitting at the YMCA in the pool area, drinking a chai latte, keeping and eye on my daughter swim while I type away on my blog.... I love the Internet!!!

Patriotic songs

2008-06-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I was surfing the net tonight looking for patriotic songs. There are so many songs out there that are so good it makes me wonder why they are not on the radio.

I put together a list of some songs that I found and liked and the artists who sing them/or wrote them and am sharing the list with you. I have never heard of these songs or the artists. Reading the bio's most of them have been singing music for decades and write songs for other artists to sing. Regardless, I have discovered them tonight and like what I heard.

Unfortunately, I did not link them so you will have to go to cdbaby.com and type in the song name in their search bar to listen to the song. I promise the effort will be worth it.

As a bonus I put the video " 18 video tapes" by Jason Meadows to show you what I am talking about. It seems like this song has been out for a while now and I have never heard it, and it is really, really good it made me cry. It makes you want to take out the video camera and tape yourself so that your kids will have some memory or your face, your voice, your laugh.... when your gone. I know when Im missing my dad I take out the video I have with him in it a watch it just to listen to his voice and hear him laugh....makes it seem as if hes still alive. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the video and take the time to look up some of these songs.

Elvis L Carden: "Afghanistan","Loving a Soldier","We cry together at the wall"

Jerry Reed: "American Veteran"

DeClare: "Lets Roll"

Doug Bartlett: "Mama, will you call my daddy?"

Max Bunyan : "Because your over there"

Howard Leese: "Run for the wall"

Derik Schumacher: "There's still POW's at the VFW" *** GREAT SONG!

Howard Hinkley: "Shes a soldier", "wounded warriors", "Daddy where is Iraq?"

Frank Wade Jr: "I still think America is #1"

David Samuel Thorton: "Family" *** GREAT SONG!

David Sidebottom: " So cary on", "A soldier Died" *** Great song!

Grandma Jennings Born: April 16, 1914 Entered into Rest May 30, 2008

2008-06-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to Grandma Jennings service and I read the following poem that I wrote in her memory. As I read it, I looked up at her family gathered there and could not contain my own emotions as I saw the tears flow freely from their faces as I read. Grandma Jennings was not my real Grandma, however, as a small child who grew up behind her home she was the closest thing to a Grandma I ever knew. A few months back Grandma got sick and was in the hospital for several weeks and then she was sent to a rehabilitation center. I went man times with my own mother and daughter to go visit her there in what ended up being the last few weeks of her life. She was very alert and was happy to see us while we visited and talked about summers gone by. I will always remember our last visit with her, while she stroked my daughters hair and said " Bless your heart, Bless your heart" to her.

When Aunt Linda called last Saturday morning and told me of Grandma Jennings passing I cried.

Those of you who know what type of person I am know that I am always writing. I sat down and wrote my memories of grandma Jennings and am sharing them with you today as well.

I'll miss you Grandma..... I'll see you again one day.

******************************
Grandma Jennings

When I think of Grandma Jennings… so many memories comes to my mind
Like the old tree in her back yard… and the tire swing there… that I would find.

I knew that it was there for her grandchildren, to swing in and have fun.
But when they weren’t there… I would sneak over to her yard…. and swing in the summer sun.

Or, like when one Mother’s day… I picked all of her flowers out of her garden… as small children do…
And knocked on her back door… and gave them to her and said, “These are for you”.

I coveted her strawberries… and would wait for her to go in…
Then, I would find a bowl of them freshly picked by the back gate… in a coffee tin.

Growing up behind her house brought me many years of joy
Like when every Christmas she gave us her hand made toys.

Her back door was never locked,
As if… she anticipated, the sounds of my little knock

I remember, sitting for hours… watching her in her sewing room
Fascinated, I watched… as she created all of her heirlooms.

Her house always smelled like cinnamon and baked apple pie
And she was always there for me when I needed a good cry.

Time passed as it always does, and I grew up and moved away,
Unfortunately, I lost touch with her, with each passing day.

So many years spent away from home…and I finally moved back at last
I took my kids to meet “My grandma” a few years back and we told them stories of our past.

Stories of the swing that is no longer there, and of her flower garden that has gone to seed
Of stuffed toy animals… made with love and the strawberry patch now taken over by weeds.

I’m thankful to God for allowing me to reenter her life, those last few weeks.
When I went to visit her we shared memories and laughed
Then before I would leave I’d kissed her on her cheek.

I know she was not my real grandmother, but tell that to my heart
When she left this world with her Angel, she took a little part

She took that small child from my past swinging in her swing,
Carefree like the wind, with her… on her Angels wings.

Now as we gather here to day to say our good- byes, my heart aches…
For that grandma… not of my blood… but my heart doesn’t know the difference… as it breaks.

Summer flowers
Old swing tires,
Strawberries and Apple pie….My precious memories of My Grandma

By: Irma S. Chambers written June 2, 2008

Cheater! Cheater!!!

2008-06-06T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've been watching "Can you Duet" on CMT and I love this song that this married couple wrote. I had to put it on here because it's so good.

Bill of Rights Revised in 2006... Did YOU know that?

2008-06-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Humor me, I'm feeling aggressive this morning, it must be PMS. I found the Bill of Rights because I wanted to know exactly what the Second amendment actually said word for word because of a conversation I had with my brother last night about Montana threatening to secede from the Union if their right to bear arms is taken away from them in that state.

In my search I found out that the Bill of Rights was already revised in 2006!!! How did that get past me? Did it get past you too?

Well, I copied them down here for you to read. Some are minor changes but the omitted words really change the content of how the Bill reads and being the sarcastic, pessimistic individual that I really am I could not help but add on my own revised version of each one. I did NOT ADD any words, simply OMITTED them as our wonderful leaders did.

AMENDMENT I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion; or prohibiting the free and requiring exercise thereof so long as that religion is favored by the government; or abridging the freedom of speech within Free Speech Zones; or of the government approved and funded press to publish articles supportive of the government; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble in designated areas and numbers as permitted; and to fruitlessly petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

REVISED VERSION
AMENDMENT I (REVISED)
Congress shall make law respecting an establishment of religion; and requiring exercise thereof so long as that religion is favored by the government; nor abridging the freedom of speech in Free Speech Zones; or of the government approved and funded press to publish articles supportive of the government; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble in designated areas and numbers as permitted; and to fruitlessly petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
Congress shall make law requiring exercise is favored by the government: abridging the freedom of speech, the right of the people to assemble and to fruitlessly petition the Government.

...........
AMENDMENT II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

REVISED VERSION
The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
The right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall be infringed.
...........
AMENDMENT III
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house in the United States without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law as the President says.

REVISED VERSION
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house in the United States without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but as the President says.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
No Peace, in time of war, the President says.

.........
AMENDMENT IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures, knowledge that we are always watching, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall be required issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

REVISED VERSION
The right of the people to be secure in their knowledge that we are always watching, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall be required.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
The right of the people to be in their Knowledge that we are always watching, shall be violated an required.
.........
AMENDMENT V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury information obtained under torture; except in cases arising in the land or naval forces; or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger or anyone the president names; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself; not be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without the due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation in good neighborhoods.

REVISED VERSION
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on information obtained under torture; except in cases arising in the land or naval forces; or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger or anyone the president names; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; not be deprived of nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation in good neighborhoods.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
No person shall be held to answer in time of war or anyone the President names.
............
AMENDMENT VI
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the crippled Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

REVISED VERSION
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the crippled Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
In ALL criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have crippled Assistance of Counsel for defense.
...........
AMENDMENT VII
In Suits at common law, where the value of the controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law but judgments made by juries can be set aside for any cause.

REVISED VERSION
In Suits at common law, where the value of the controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, but judgments made by juries can be set aside for any cause.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
In Suits, value shall exceed twenty dollars for any cause.
........
AMENDMENT VIII
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed on people wealthy enough to easy pay for a good defense, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

REVISED VERSION
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed on people wealthy enough to easy pay for a good defense.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
Excessive bail shall be required, excessive fines imposed on people for defense.
..........
AMENDMENT IX
The enumeration of the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people be taken seriously.

REVISED VERSION
The enumeration of the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be taken seriously.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
The Constitution, shall be construed to not be taken seriously.

.......
AMENDMENT X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution , not prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people can, like the powers spelled out here be taken by the President if he wants.

REVISED VERSION
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution ,can, like the powers spelled out here be taken by the President if he wants.

MY VERSION OF WHAT IT REALLY SAYS:
The powers delegated to the United States by the Constitution, can, be taken by the President if he wants.

.........

So, according to this, I am fruitlessly excercing my freedom of speech by writing this and because of it may be in danger of having my "right to bear arms" infringed, by soldiers who may take over my home because the Presidents can "ORDER" it, and have my person, home, papers and personal effects searched and siezed because I KNOW that they are always watching me and do it with no warrents required.

They will not be held accountable, since we are at a time of war according to the President and I will be criminally prosecuted, given crippled assistance for my defense with exesive bail and exsesive fines imposed on me for my defense, that I will not be able to afford and I wont have any rights because the Constitution will not be taken seriously and I will be at the mercy of the President since he can change the powers of the United States Constitution at will if he wants!!

Oh no!!!.... I'm being watched... gotta go...................

A letter to America from South Africa

2008-06-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

(Gemma Meyer is the pseudonym of a South African journalist. She and her husband, a former conservative member of parliament, still reside in South Africa.)

People used to say that South Africa was 20 years behind the rest of the Western world. Television, for example, came late to South Africa (but so did pornography and the gay rights movement).

Today, however, South Africa may be the grim model of the future Western world, for events in America reveal trends chillingly similar to those that destroyed our country.

America's structures are Western. Your Congress, your lobbying groups, your free speech, and the way ordinary Americans either get involved or ignore politics are peculiarly Western, not the way most of the world operates. But the fact that only about a third of Americans deem it important to vote is horrifying in light of how close you are to losing your Western character.

Writing letters to the press, manning stands at county fairs, hosting fund-raising dinners, attending rallies, setting up conferences, writing your Congressman - that is what you know, and what you are comfortable with. Those are the political methods you've created for yourselves to keep your country on track and to ensure political accountability.

But woe to you if - or more likely, when - the rules change. White Americans may soon find themselves unable or unwilling to stand up to challenge the new political methods that will be the inevitable result of the ethnic metamorphosis now taking place in America. Unable to cope with the new rules of the game - violence, mob riots, intimidation through accusations of racism, demands for proportionality based on racial numbers, and all the other social and political weapons used by the have-nots to bludgeon treasure and power from the haves - Americans, like others before them, will no doubt cave in. They will compromise away their independence and ultimately their way of life.

That is exactly what happened in South Africa. I know, because I was there and I saw it happen.

Faced with revolution in the streets, strikes, civil unrest and the sheer terror and murder practiced by Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC), the white government simply capitulated in order to achieve "peace."

Westerners need peace. They need order and stability. They are builders and planners. But what we got was the peace of the grave for our society.

The Third World is different - different peoples with different pasts and different cultures. Yet Westerners continue to mistake the psychology of the Third World and its peoples. Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are perfect examples of those mistakes. Sierra Leone is in perpetual civil war, and Zimbabwe - once the thriving, stable Rhodesia - is looting the very people (the white men) who feed the country. Yet Westerners do not admit that the same kind of savagery could come to America when enough immigrants of the right type assert themselves. The fact is, Americans are sitting ducks for Third World exploitation of the Western conscience of compassion.

Those in the West who forced South Africa to surrender to the ANC and its leaders did not consider Africa to be the dangerous, corrupt, and savage place it is now in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Those Western politicians now have a similar problem looming on their own doorsteps: the demand for power and treasure from the non-Western peoples inside the realm.

It is already too late for South Africa, but not for America if enough people strengthen their spine and take on the race terrorists, the armies of the "politically correct" and, most dangerous of all, the craven politicians who believe "compassionate conservatism" will buy them a few more votes, a few more days of peace.

White South Africans, you should remember, have been in that part of Africa for the same amount of time whites have inhabited North America; yet ultimately South Africans voted for their own suicide. We are not so very different from you.

We lost our country through skillful propaganda, pressure from abroad (not least from the U.S.A.), unrelenting charges of "oppression" and "racism," and the shrewd assessment by African tyrants that the white man has many Achilles' heels, the most significant of which are his compassion, his belief in the "equality of man," and his "love your neighbor" philosophy - none of which are part of the Third World's history.

The mainline churches played a big role in the demise of Western influence throughout Africa, too; especially in South Africa. Today's tyrants were yesterday's mission-school proteges. Many dictators in Africa were men of the cloth. They knew their clerical collars would deflect criticism and obfuscate their real aims, which had nothing whatever to do with the "brotherhood of man."

Other tyrants, like the infamous Idi Amin, were trained and schooled by the whites themselves, at Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard. After receiving the best from the West, they unleashed a resentful bloodlust against their benefactors.

From what I have seen and read thus far, I fear Americans will capitulate just as we did. Americans are, generally, a soft lot. They don't want to quarrel or obstruct the claims of those who believe they were wronged. They like peace and quiet, and they want to compromise and be nice.

A television program that aired in South Africa showed a town meeting somewhere in Southern California where people met to complain about falling standards in the schools. Whites who politely spoke at the meeting clearly resented the influx of Mexican immigrants into their community. When a handful of Chicanos at the back of the hall shouted and waved their hands at them, the whites simply shrunk back into their seats rather than tell the noisemakers to shut up. They didn't want to quarrel.

In America, the courts are still the final arbiters of society's laws. But what will happen when your future majority refuses to abide by court rulings - as in Zimbabwe. What will happen when the new majority says the judges are racists, and that they refuse to acknowledge "white man's justice"? What will happen when the courts are filled with their people, or their sympathizers? In California, Proposition 187 has already been overturned.

What will you do when the future non-white majority decides to change the names of streets and cities? What will you do when they no longer want to use money that carries the portraits of old, dead white "racists" and slave owners? Will you cave in, like you did on flying the Confederate flag? What about the national anthem? Your official language?

Don't laugh. When the "majority" took over in South Africa, the first targets were our national symbols.

In another generation, America may well face what Africa is now experiencing - invasions of private land by the "have-nots;" the decline in health care quality; roads and buildings in disrepair; the banishment of your history from the education of the young; the revolutionization of your justice system.

In South Africa today, only 9 percent of murderers end up in jail. Court dockets are regularly purchased and simply disappear. Magistrates can be bribed as can the prison authorities, making escapes commonplace. Vehicle and airplane licenses are regularly purchased, and forged school and university certificates are routine.

What would you think of the ritual slaughter of animals in your neighbor's backyard? How do you clean up the blood and entrails that litter your suburban streets? How do you feel about the practice of witchcraft, in which the parts of young girls and boys are needed for "medicinal" purposes? How do you react to the burning of witches?

Don't laugh. All that is quite common in South Africa today.

Don't imagine that government officials caught with their fingers in the till will be punished. Excuses - like the need to overcome generations of white racism - will be found to exonerate the guilty.

In fact, known criminals will be voted into office because of a racial solidarity among the majority that doesn't exist among the whites. When Ian Smith of the old Rhodesia tried to stand up to the world, white South African politicians were among the Westerners pressuring him to surrender.

When Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe murders his political opponents, ignores unfavorable court decisions, terrorizes the population and siphons off millions from the state treasury for himself and his friends, South Africa's new President Thabo Mbeki holds his hand and declares his support. That just happened a few weeks ago.

Your tax dollars will go to those who don't earn and don't pay. In South Africa, organizations that used to have access to state funds such as old age homes, the arts, and veterans' services, are simply abandoned.

What will happen is that Western structures in America will be either destroyed from without, or transformed from within, used to suit the goals of the new rulers. And they will reign either through terror, as in Zimbabwe today, or exert other corrupt pressures to obtain, or buy votes. Once power is in the hands of aliens, don't expect loyalty or devotion to principle from those whose jobs are at stake. One of the most surprising and tragic components of the disaster in South Africa is how many previously anti-ANC whites simply moved to the other side.

Once you lose social, cultural, and political dominance, there is no getting it back again.

Unfortunately, your habits and values work against you. You cannot fight terror and street mobs with letters to your Congressmen. You cannot fight accusations of racism with prayer meetings. You cannot appeal to the goodness of your fellow man when the fellow man despises you for your weaknesses and hacks off the arms and legs of his political opponents.

To survive, Americans must never lose the power they now enjoy to people from alien cultures. Above all, don't put yourselves to the test of fighting only when your backs are against the wall. You will probably fail.

Millions around the world want your good life. But make no mistake: They care not for the high-minded ideals of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, and your Constitution. What they want are your posessions, your power, and your status.

And they already know that their allies among you, the "human rights activists," the skillful lawyers and the left-wing politicians will fight for them, and not for you. They will exploit your compassion and your Christian charity, and your good will.

They have studied you, Mr. and Mrs. America, and they know your weaknesses well.

They know what to do.

Do you?

This article first appeared in the August 2000 edition of Middle American News. I have copied and pasted it here because as harsh as it sounds, I find much truth in what it says and see the signs every day that this is occuring in our country already.

Lost Brazilian tribe discovered

2008-05-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

The picture above shows real live primitive Indians. They were spotted in Brazil near the Peruvian border today May 30, 2008 from a helicopter and the pictures were revealed today by Brazil's National Indian foundation. The picture of the Indians was taken over a Ethno-Environmental Protected area long the Envira River in Brazil.

If you look closely at the photograph of the Lost tribe of Indians you will see two strong and healthy warriors painted with some type of red dye, what appears to be a black female looking up at the aircraft, and a cleared area with a stripped tree.

The Brazilian government does not know which tribe these Indians belong to. They say that there are four distinct isolated tribes to exist in this region and that they do not make any attempt to make contact with these tribes to prevent invasions of their lands and to ensure "total autonomy" for the isolated tribes that exist there.

According to the Brazil's National Indian foundation these isolated tribes are in danger of illegal logging in Peru, and the logging isdriving the uncontacted tribes over the border into Brazil and that this that could lead to conflict with the estimated 500 uncontacted Indians now living on the Brazilian side.

There are more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, most of them in Brazil and Peru, the group claims and this particular picture proves that these uncontacted tribes really do exist.

I find it amazing that in the world we live in that there are actually still human beings living so primitive with out ever comming in contact to the rest of the world. This picture shows them shooting arrows at the passing helicopter as if it were a creature they could shoot down from the sky.

I hope and pray that the discovery of this tribe will not mean the end to their way of life as they know it, otherwise, this uncontacted tribe will be lost forever and become extinct.

To know that this world is so large and capable of supporting human life that has been hidden from the rest of the world all this time and has never been tainted, poisoned and corrupted by modern and so called civilian society gives me some hope that at least these most primitive humans living in the jungles of Brazil and Peru may be able to continue to populate and out live us all...

Tony Blair starts Religious Education Group: Is he really the next Antichrist?

2008-05-30T13:27:00.000-07:00

I was blown away just a few minutes ago as I watched the news on T.V. and saw former President Bill CLinton introduce former British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the announcement of the formation of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, in New York, today Friday May 30, 2008.

taken from the Associated Press:

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday that leaders in an interdependent world must work to end religious conflict or face "catastrophe" as he introduced a new foundation dedicated to interfaith understanding.

Religion is as important in this century as political ideology was in the last, Blair said. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation will fight extremism, organize faith groups against poverty and illness, and educate people worldwide about religions other than their own, he said.

"There is a new reality. We have to come to terms with it. And it implies, at its fundamentals, peaceful coexistence or catastrophe," said Blair in a speech before religious and business leaders at the posh Time Warner Center. "If faith becomes a countervailing force, pulling people apart, then it becomes destructive and indeed dangerous."
...............end

Ever since Blair resigned as Prime Minister and converted to Catholicism not to mention his "Special One on one private meeting with the Pope" there has been considerable speculation as to his future role on the world stage; as the NEXT ANIT-CHRIST.

Sound crazy? well lets speculate....

He could eventually become the first President of the European Union, and many perdict that one of his first moves as President would be to invite Israel to join the European Union in either a full or partial status.

If this prediction comes to reality, it would place Israel under the protection of the European Union. This could actually turnout to be the seven-year peace agreement the Bible speaks of between Israel and the antichrist (Daniel 9:27). It would also explain why Israel is one of the surviving countries following the world war of Revelation 6:7 & 8 (Fourth Seal) where one-quarter of the world's population will perish.

His move to Jerusalem last year to take up a new peace envoy job has made for much discussion on internet and has cemented many apocalyptic theories claiming that Tony Blair has the talent and the ability to be best described as the Beast with seven heads ( 7 year peace agreement ) and ten horns ( ten years as Prime Minister ))as fortold in the Biblical prophecy the REVELATIONS. hmmm?

So when I sat there today and watched Clinton with Tony Blair on T.V. announce the Tony Blair faith foundation lets just say that I felt goose bumps form on my skin and wonderered out loud if there is any truth to this theory and if speculation will turn into reality?

Food for thought....

BILLIONAIRE J.R. SIMPLOT DIES AT AGE 99

2008-05-29T07:42:00.000-07:00

A self-made BILLIONAIRE J.R. Simplot could not bribe death - Simplot was born in 1909 and would of been 100 years old next year.

At the time of his death March 25, 2008, J.R. Simplot was the oldest member of Forbes' 400 richest Americans and ranked 284Th on Forbes' list of the WORLD'S BILLIONAIRES!!

What makes "HIS-STORY " incredible is that he dropped out of the 8th grade in 1923and left home at 14 years of age after a fight with his father. His mother gave him four $20.00 gold coins when he left with nothing else but his name.

His life journey to self made billionaire is outlined in various news articles on the Internet, they will tell how this 14 year old boy turned into the quintessential entrepreneur with four gold coins in his pocket.

The reason why I am doing a blog on him today is because I was born in Caldwell, ID. As a child the name SIMPLOT was as common to me as the name McDonald's is to most American children. Ironically, part of Simplots fortune came about when he partnered with the McDonald's corporation by producing all of the french fries for McDonald's world wide.

My father worked for the Simplot Co. when I was a small child for 10 years, back in the day when Simplot still had cattle feed lots by the acres in this farm community.

Simplot has always been the livelihood of hundreds if not thousands of families around the valley. Even today, my best friend has been working for the Simplot Co. for over 20 years in the french fry processing plant and another friend of mine currently travels around the world for Simplot as a liaison for the McDonald's contract.

All around the valley this man left his mark and his legacy. He was the poor mans hero. An example of determination, will and what hard work could accomplish.

As with anyone, JR Simplot was just a man with faults and I am sure flaws like the rest of us. His rags to riches story is admirable, however I am sure in his personal life at times it came with a price as with everything in this world.

I hope that his heirs will continue their fathers legacy and work towards making this community a better place to live and work. Our community of farm workers, factory workers and computer chip makers are all tied in with the Simplot name ... I hope that they keep the jobs and the name here where it belongs and started.

After all this is the place were J.R. Simplot started out and made his fortune and who's name is recognized as one of the founding fathers of the treasure valley.

We lost a great man but his legacy to this Valley will continue on after his death......I hope.

MEMORIAL DAY 2008

2008-05-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

I am having a difficult time articulating what I want to write today. There are so many thoughts that are going through my mind on what the significance today represents to me that I am unable to put them down into words that make any sense.

I think of my friend Paula who today will go to the grave and put flowers on her daughters grave and grieve for her daughter all over again and reopen the wounds of her heart of her daughters precious life lost.

I think of our new friend Ed Freeman who is a WWII Veteran AND Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient and wonder what thoughts and memories must be going through his mind on a day like today and if he has ever found peace or if he still has demons from his time at war.

I think of all the new war widows and how painful today must be for them and wonder if they harbor bitterness when they witness others celebrating today with their families intact.

I think of all the families who's soldier is over seas right now whether it be Iraq or Afghanistan and remember the empty hollow feeling in my heart when my soldier was deployed and wondered if I'd ever see him again.

I think of how politics soil the true nature of what today is and wonder if they the politicians will ever truly know the sacrifices that they ask of those they send off to war.

I think of how most Americans will only consider today as a much needed day off from work and not give it a second thought that a soldiers blood was spilled, for that day off from work.

I think of how most Americans will celebrate today with a bar-b-Que, a day out at the lake or just working in their yard without even considering putting out the American flag to honor our fallen.

So many thoughts running through my mind as I wonder what today really means to America.

I guess it means to be free to do as we choose. As I go about my day today I will look around me and marvel at the freedom we have to do so freely and without fear.

To be able to go about and do what ever it is we choose to do, go to the store, go fishing, visit Friends and family, go to the lake, the movies, out to eat, whatever it is we can do it freely.

However it all came with a price. Lets not forget who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

YESTERDAY, TODAY and TOMORROW for that freedom we take for granted.

TIME OF MY LIFE

2008-05-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

I just had to post this video of David Cook singing the winning American Idol song. I LOVE this song and love the fact that every year the new American Idol sings this song... every winner has their own sound and soul when they sing it and it always sounds so different and new each time I hear it. ENJOY!!

DAVID COOK - THE NEW AMERICAN IDOL!!!

2008-05-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

OK I had mixed feelings about the final two. I LOVED BOTH OF THEM!!!! I was hoping that Archuleta would win because he reminds me of my baby Robert, minus the singing ability. I think that Archuleta was like Americas sweetheart and everyone just fell in LOVE with his innocent face and amazing ability to sing ballets.

However, to be fair COOK is incredible!!! he has a versatility and the ability to go off into any genre he wants. Naturally, his gift is rock but I can see him singing country as well and selling millions.

I was crying my eyes out when I heard George Michael sing his new song and still had chills and tears in my eyes when they announced that David Cook won, and to tell you all the truth I was not mad or sad that Archuleta lost. I was really genuinely happy that Cook won he really deserved it!! That is a first for me ever since Kelly Clarkson won the first season.

Anyways here is my favorite song that cook sung because he gave it his own sound and it was awesome and for those who know me I used to LOVE Michael Jackson in the 80's when he was normal and to hear Billy Jean sung like this makes me hope that the song comes back again... with this version of course...

I woke up crying hard this morning....

2008-05-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

I do not normally write any blogs about my very personal life. I try and keep them very generalized but this morning I woke up at around 6 am crying so hard, holding my chest because I felt real physical heartache. I had a dream that my baby girl had died. It was so real and the heartache I felt over her lose had me in real gut wrenching, sobbing tears that I scared my husband and he woke me up. Even after I was awake I still felt that it was real and kept crying and crying I could not stop.

After I realized that it was just a dream I jumped out of bed and went to my daughters room and woke her up and brought her back to bed with me and put her in between my husband and I. I layed there holding her and just stared at her until I was finally able to go back to sleep for another hour.

This dream really, really scared me and bothered me to the core. What does it mean? Why would I dream something so horrible? After checking dream site after dream site I finally came to the conclusion that the dream really is trying to tell me something but not what I thought.

This is my dream:

I don't know how I knew but my 8 year old daughter had died in my dream. I never saw her or how she died I just knew she had died. I was calling out to her and my husband told me she was gone. I started to cry when I remembered. I walked around the house looking at all her things that she had left scattered everywhere and I was crying my eyes out because her stuff was everywhere. I saw a box on a shelf that she had left a present for my husband and I started to cry again because I knew what was inside: a pencil and yarn creation that she had made at school but never got the chance to give it to her daddy. I did not want my husband to look inside because I knew it would break his heart if he saw what she had made for him. I broke down again and cried and cried while he held me. The heartache I felt was so profound it felt like my heart was breaking.

My first instinct was that something is going to happen to my little girl. However, I believe that dreams are your sub conscience mind trying to helping you to try and resolve a problem, issue or situation that your conscience mind does not know how to or is aware of.

I interpret this dream as telling me that I need to spend more one on one time with my daughter. Quality time. That I need to stop making keeping the house sparkling clean and clutter free a priority and make HER a priority.

The fact that in my dream all her things were scattered all over the house is all the proof I need to confirm this theory.

The fact that she was gone and had died in my dream represents to me that I subconsciously feel that I do not spend enough one on one time with her and in essence she is not in my life even though she is physically but not emotionally.

I think my mind is telling me that our relationship could be in danger and as she gets older I may lose her in different ways like she may not communicate with me anymore and so on.

The box with her pencil and yarn creation that she made for her daddy made me think about how for over a week I have been promising to scrapbook with her but have been too busy - so in my dream she created a craft to give to her dad instead of me - showing her preference to him who makes more time for her.

In my dream I would not let my husband look inside the box and had him hold me while I cried. This represents to me my trying to control every situation in my life.

I think that this dream is a real eye opener for me. I stay at home so that I could be here for the kids. I get so caught up in all my responsibilities in running the house hold that by the time they come home from school I'm still running in a million directions trying to keep things going, clean and organized that I forget to just stop and breathe and relax.

This weekend Chris and I were sitting outside trying to relax and I could not do it. I got up and started to weed the yard. He told me I will help you but for now just sit still.

Im going to worry about cleaning the house less and enjoy my kids more.... I guess it does not really matter if I can't see the floor in her room or if there is dirty clothes in the hamper or the beds are not made... because next week it will be the same story and the next and so on.

Don't get me wrong I make time for my daughter I am always taking her on play dates with her Friends I take her to the YMCA and we sit and play dolls and read together but not as much lately as I used to.

I guess the real lesson to this dream is not to take my daughter and my family for granted. To live for today and make memories with them.

Scary dream but I hope I got a good lesson out of it and I plan on applying what I think it means to my everyday life starting with today....

We are going to scrapbook together and I am going to let her use all the supplies she wants!!!.......that's a start.

The Boab Trees of Australia

2008-05-12T06:38:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been dismayed by the current local, nation and world news. It seems as if every day there is nothing but tragedy, human suffering, corrupt government and war on the headline news. We have over 15 current wars going on around the world, natural disasters like what occurred in Myanmar last week killing thousands (now: China earthquake last night over 5,000 killed)and our way of life as Americans soon seems to becoming to an end with the fast pace rise of food, energy and fuel reaching sky high prices.

I wanted to do a blog on something so naturally beautiful that has been around for thousands of years. Possibly even outliving man kind one day.

The Australian boab tree. It is also called the bottle tree and appears odd and some even claim that it is ugly. It is leafless during the dry season and a mature boab tree looks more like some scary creature from a horror film with its mangled branches and bulbous, grey, battered and scarred trunk that looks like it is suffering from some disease.

An Aboriginal legend claims that the tree was cursed and turned upside down. These trees grow naturally only in Africa, Madagascar and northwest Australia. These trees are also called dead-rat trees because the trees seed pods look like dead rats strung up by their tails from a distance and when the seed pods bloom and are bruised or damaged they ferment and smell like rotting meat! however, when healthy the flowers are large and and very fragrant.

What makes this tree unique is that they live for centuries. Even if they are hollowed out by fire they usually survive and repairs the damage and continues its growth. The boab wood is like a sponge it is soft fibrous and capable of storing a large amount of liquid. After a rain like the the monsoon rains these regions get the tree soaks up all the water and its trunk visibly swells, as the dry season progresses the tree uses up the water in the trunk and starts to return back to its previous size.

The flowers of this tree ONLY BLOOM at night, last for a few hours and then die after sunrise. The seed pods mature into large gourd like nuts, fall to the ground, break and spreed the seeds inside.

I find this tree truly remarkable as its roots are embedded in a rocky, sandy foundation and it still manages to find a way to absorb and store the rare rain waters into its trunk - literally and despite the months and months of the dry season it knows how to distribute that water to itself for survival.

Lets take a lesson from the Boab tree and take a look around us and see it what ways we too can plan for our ultimate survival if things get worse in this ever changing world that we live in.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

2008-05-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Mami with Stefani

This is dedicated to MY WONDERFUL MOTHER..."MICAELA SAUCEDA" without her love, guidance, patience and accpetance of who I am I would not be who I am today.

*******************

This is for all the mothers who were so scared when they found out they were pregnant for the first time and wondered if they were ready.

This is for all the mothers who already had children and found out they were pregnant again and thought can I do this again without losing my mind and sanity.

This is for all those mothers out there who have sat up all night with sick babies and cried along with them... and for those mothers who had babies that just cried because they wanted to be held all night.

This is for all those mothers who have had to clean up barf soaked children,blankets, pajamas and the floor on the way to the bathroom and hold back their hair while they continued to throw up in the toilet while rubbing their backs and say "its OK, mommy is right here."

This if for all those mothers who show up to work on time... haggard, worn, wrinkled and tired because they have already been up and awake for 4 1/2 hours with a child who had a fever half the night.

This is for all those mothers who stay at home who cook, clean, pay bills, yard work, carpool, attend sporting events, appointments etc. and are bone tired by 5 pm and everyone she knows... thinks she has it made because she stays at home.

This if for all those mothers who CAN bake cookies and cakes, sew costumes and plan terrific lavish birthday parties to show how much they love their kids.

This is for all the mothers who buy cookies and cakes and costumes at the store and plan CHUCKY CHEESE birthday parties because they wish they could do those things but can't and STILL show their kids how much they love them.

This is for all those mothers who gave birth to babies they knew they could not care for and gave them away so that another could be called "mother" who can't give birth to a baby of her own....so SHE CAN hold, cherish raise and love that baby.

This is for all the mothers who go hungry so that their children can eat. For all those mothers who don't buy themselves new shoes, clothes or get a badly needed hair cut so that their children can get those things instead.

This is for all those mothers who teach their son how to cook, clean and wash their own clothes so that he can take care of himself one day.

This is for all those mothers who teach their daughter how to say "NO!" and mean it. Love & Respect themselves and how to land a good punch you know where....so that she can take care of herself one day.

This is for all those mothers who has a child addicted to drugs or alcohol. This is for all those mothers who's child is a productive member of society.

This is for all those mothers who's daughter will soon be a mother herself and for those who's daughter choose abortion or adoption instead.

This is for all those mothers who head automatically turns when she hears a small child cry out "MOMMY" in a crowd even though she knows hers are not with her or already grown.

This is for all those mothers who cried when their baby started kindergarten and kept peeking in the door or window to see if they were doing OK afraid to leave.

This if for all those mothers who cried for joy when their last born child started kindergarten and left running to her car cheering to herself " finally!"

This is for all those mothers who's child has gone astray and can't find the words to reach them. This is for all those mothers who bite their lip when their child comes home with a tattoo, piercings or colored hair.

This is for all those mothers who child is the first one in the family to graduate from high school/college and for all those mothers who child dropped out of high school/college.

This if for all those mothers who have to be stripped, searched and humiliated by prison guards just to visit and see her child.

This is for all those mothers who have to painstakingly select flowers and drive their car to the cemetery just to visit her child.

This is for all those mothers who's child is the victim of a crime and for all the mothers of those who are responsible for the crime.

This is for all those mothers who who taught their children to be peaceful and now pray for them to come home safe from the war.

This is for all those mothers who cannot go to sleep until they hear the key in the door at 3 am to let them know that their child is safe at home and for those who are awakened at 3 am by the phone to let them know that they aren't.

This is for all those mothers out there, regardless of age, nationality, ethnicity, religion preference, social or economical status. We all share one commonality. We are mothers.

We all have experienced at least one of the situations I have mentioned above and our emotions are universal. We love our children without conditions.

From the young mother who is stumbling through feeding schedules and the endless diaper changes and not enough time in the day for even sleep.

To those who become older mothers who have watched their children grow and morph from babies, toddlers, awkward kids, rebellious mouthy know it all teens to finally grown up men and women who are on their own raising their own babies.

Mothers regardless at what stage they are at.... never truly cut the apron strings. They hold on dearly with heart strings, always ready to reel their children back into their arms when they are needed.

This if for all the mothers out there. For working mothers, stay at home mothers, single mothers, married mothers, birth mothers, adoptive mothers, widowed mothers, mothers with money and mothers without, mothers with children in the cradle and the grave.

Once a mother always a mother, in the end we can only do the best we can with the resources we have and the love in our hearts.

If your a mother and reading this... Happy Mothers day from the bottom of my heart.

Irma

BABY CHICKS

2008-05-07T12:42:00.000-07:00

You would think that I am busy enough as it is with staying at home and taking care of everything that needs to get done around here, house, yard, bills, errands, appointments, kids, husband and my collection of animals. Yes, I have one dog, two cats, one cocktail, one hamster and a pet chicken that lays me eggs.

Well, I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because yesterday I went and bought three baby chicks that will lay me roughly 300 eggs a year each once they are full grown in about 6-8 weeks.

I went into the hatchery just to look and I was amazed at how many people were there buying baby chicks. I asked what was going on and I spoke to several people who said that with the price of feed going up so was the price of eggs and chicken. Many were there to buy chicks that would produce eggs for them so that they would not have to buy anymore while one couple bought like 30 baby chicks that they told me they would kill and then freeze in about 10-12 weeks so they would have chicken for this winter.

I was really shocked that so many people were in there with the same idea and I asked the sales girl if they had been busy and she told me that they had been selling non-stop for the past two weeks!

I told one lady that I already had one chicken who free-roamed my back yard and layed me 2 eggs everyday and I was just looking because I lived in the city limits.
She laughed and told me she lived in a sub-division and had a chicken coup out in her back yard with about 6 hens and was there to buy 6 more. She said that as long as I bought sexed chicks and was positive that they were hens I would not have a problem having them as long as I did not get a rooster because roosters make neighbors angry at 6 am in the morning!

It only took me about 10 minutes to decide that I would buy a few more to raise at home. I have the room and if I could get 4 - 8 eggs a day that would be enough for me to never have to buy eggs again and give some to my mom and brother as well!

Who knows, I MAY even be able to buy some and raise to kill and freeze like that couple said they were gonna do and it would save alot of money raising my own chicken meat... at least I would know that they are chemical and preservative free if I raise them on my own.

Hell, if my grandfather could raise a hen house and feed them left over table food with chicken feed supplementation I could too.... after all our pet chicken April has survived for three summers with nothing more than what she eats in the yard and all our leftover table food.

Well... here they are... they are sooooo cute!!!!!

MY CURRENT PROJECT

2008-05-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

After a long cold harsh winter, our new cedar fence took a beating since we did not stain it when it went up. I do not like the grey, worn battered look of a weathered cedar fence - I think it looks dirty and ghetto. Every time I would come home and look at my fence turning grey I would just cringe and tell myself " Go buy some stain!"

Well, I finally went and bought some after spending quite a bit of time trying to decide which stain I preferred. I settled on the one you see here and I am quite pleased with it and I love how it makes the greenery stand out, clean and crisp and new looking.

Problem is that the wood sucked up the stain and it took 2 gallons of stain just to do this section that you see here!! OUCH! for the pocket book!!!

Looks like it is going to be an entire summer project to get the whole fence done front and back!!!

For those of you who "WISH YOU HAD MY TIME" to sit in front of this computer and fiddle and fuddle with my blog..... let me tell you I FIND TIME TO DO IT between loads of laundry, running errands, cooking, cleaning and late at night after the kids go to sleep or early in the morning while they are getting ready for school....

Just because I stay at home does not mean that I am on here 24/7 eating donuts and drinking coffee.

I find that I have MORE WORK to do and NEVER have time to really sit down and just watch TV and vegetate- I prefer to use that time to write in my blog as a way to relax.

As a stay at home mom with a pre-teen AND a teenager, who budgets a single income household it requires strong management skills in delegating and supervising tasks, meeting deadlines, attending appointments and meetings, it requires the ability to create and follow a financial budget that will rival any office environment requirements.

Yes.... I too have my work hours that start at 0600 hours but the difference is I don't clock out at 1700 hours and my day is done I literally clock out at midnight after the last load of laundry is in the dryer.

I choose my hours and choose to spend them wisely I am constantly on the go and rarely ever sit down as you can see.... I FIND PROJECTS TO DO to keep me busy as well.

AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD

2008-05-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received the most moist, delicious bread I have ever tasted along with a gallon size zip-lock bag with some " MASH" in it along with a recipe for AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD and what to do with the bag of "MASH" from a neighbor who lives down the street.

I had never heard of AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD and she explained to me that the ingredients in the bag was a STARTER that she had added the ingredients to after she followed the directions from her STARTER that was given to her.

She said that it takes 10 days for the "MASH" to get ready before you bake it and that on each day you need to "MASH" the bag and on the 6Th day you add some ingredients from the directions, "MASH" it from days 7-9 and on the 10Th day you add more ingredients, separate mixture into four separate batters - one to bake a loaf of bread for your family, one to start all over and TWO to give away and keep the AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD going!

I thought that this was so neat and since her 10Th day was April 30 - that means that today is MY 6Th day instead of my 2ND. Hope I have not lost you- she wrote what day her 10Th day was on the bag with a magic marker. So I will follow the directions for the 6Th day and add the ingredients.

I can't wait for the 10Th day so that I can make my four batches and bake my bread and give away the STARTERS.

She also told me that you have to keep it going since only the AMISH know the ORIGINAL ingredients in the very first batch started.

This got me to thinking? Hmmm.... that means that every 10 days I will have to keep baking this bread in order not to lose the STARTER recipe. What if I can't bake the bread and a few months down the road I want to make it again?

Well, I found the original recipe on-line and I am posting it here to share it with you and as a reference for me in the future if I want to bake it again.

Janie, this is for you..... make it, bake it, share it, eat it!!!!!!

AMISH FRIENDSHIP BREAD

Do not use any type of metal with this batter.
Do not refrigerate.
If air forms in your bag, let it out.
Starter kit consists of :
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups white sugar, divided
3 cups milk
This is divided into 4 bags of 1 cup each and the remainder makes bread. The calories and ingredients here are for a second + generation bread.

Day 1 (Do nothing with your starter bag)
Day 2-5: Mush the Bag
Day 6: Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup milk, mush the bag
Day 7-9: mush the bag
Day 10: Pour contents of bag into bowl and add 1.5 cups flour, 1.5 of sugar, and 1.5 cups of milk.
Measure 4 separate cups of batter 1 cup each into 4 1-gallon zip lock bags. Keep one starter for yourself and give the other 3 bags away.
To the remaining batter add:
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 large box of vanilla pudding
Grease 2 large loaf pans and mix additional 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half the mixture.
Pour batter evenly into the pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon/sugar mixture on top.
Bake for 1 hour at 325 degrees.
Cool for 10 minutes and serve!

Number of Servings: 24

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user POETRY13TAO.
Number of Servings: 24