Showing posts with label News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label News. Show all posts

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Return Humanity To Darfur


I appeal to netizens around the globe to take action in support of returning humanity to Darfur.

Make today the day that you stand in support of stopping the genocide in Darfur. Make your voice heard, enlist those in your social network to help and ask them to do the same.

Begin by signing this petition. {Check out the petition sponsor}

The genocide occurring in the Darfur region of western Sudan began in 2004. Government troops and militia groups known as janjaweed sought to crush rebels who complained that the black residents of the region had been neglected by the Muslim central government.


The janjaweed is responsible for widespread killing of civilians; that with the support of the central government.

{Life is Darfur is no game. Could you survive?}


A May, 2007 New York Times article estimated that 200,000 had died and more than 2.5 million more were believed to have fled their homes in the face of atrocities and the destruction of villages.


Every day we allow this to continue, each and every one of us becomes less human.

Interventions intended to stop the genocide in Sudan have been weak and ineffective with little or no follow-through. It is up to us to demand that our individual governments act and that we push the United Nations to take action.


No governmental body in the world has shown it will do what is necessary to stop the genocide. If pressure is not applied, if it is not made clear to government officials that we are unwilling to accept their inaction nothing is going to change.


Regardless of whether you have expressed support for this cause in the past or not, let us stand together beginning today to become a force that governments can not ignore.

If you are signing on to support this cause feel free to write a comment on this post and include the URL where people can most easily connect with you.

Learn more about Darfur...

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Making The United States of America's National Debt A Long Forgotten Memory

The ----(-)--> 2008 Freak Power Ticket Presidential Campaign Platform <--(-)---- remains a work in progress. This is a supplement to that original post.

The United States of America National Debt - Check The Amount {SEE The Truth}

There has been talk for decades about starting a national lottery in the United States. The focus of this discussion, more often than not, centers around directing this money to pay off the national debt.

Given the success of the multi-state MEGA MILLIONS and POWER BALL lotteries, and the failings of the Bush/Cheyney fiscal policy, it is a subject that continues to crop up.

I have a proposal. Double federal tax on tobacco and alcohol; directing funds to eliminate the debt. What to do with that money once the debt has been paid will be the subject of a future proposal.

The United States government grows some of the best marijuana you will find in the world. Believe me, I know. It's time we bring some sanity to our national drug policy and tap into those funds at the same time.

Whichever side of the marijuana legalization debate you're on there's plenty of ammunition available. I don't think, though, that a proposal like this has been offered before.

To talk about decreasing the size of the government, to raise objections about increasing the size of the bureaucracy is wasted breath. Or words best left unwritten. The bottom line is that the United States government is too big and will continue getting bigger.

Instead of instituting a national lottery, we should put the government in the restaurant business. There are enough agencies dealing with food that it shouldn't be too much of a challenge. They're doing an inadequate, inefficient job now. What better than to re-engineer the whole mess? Better yet, put their bureaucratic ass to the fire. If the business doesn't generate a profit they're out on the street, resume in hand.

Putting the government "in business" isn't a novel idea. The U.S. Government Bookstore is well established. And the Department of Education is set up largely as a collections agency pursuing defaulted student loans. {More bloggables for a future time.} All this sets up a government operated restaurant as a real goldmine.

Eating at USAppetites will be like no other from sea to shining sea. When you arrive you'll have a ticket punched; at the same time as you hand over your keys to a parking attendant.

There will be a childcare center. As well as play areas; for children and for adults.

USAppetites will have a food menu with offerings from every region of the nation. And there will be the best of the best marijuana and hashish from around the world. What it will not have is alcohol.

There will not be anyone under the age of 18 able to purchase or partake. Nor will any children be exposed. There will be an area of the facility dedicated to those who wish to envibe. Each time the person makes a purchase they will have their ticket punched. When they buy food their ticket will be punched.

A person will not be able to have the keys to their car returned to them until a set amount of time has passed since they last smoked. Everyone in the party will have stopped smoking for that amount of time before the keys will be returned. The more a person smokes - that's any person in your party - the longer you'll have to wait to have car keys returned. Which brings to front the question, do you think people will be at eating at USAppetites?

Keep in mind, the citizenry is already paying the government to grow marijuana. We just don't get to smoke it.

Given the menu, smoking marijuana would not be required to eat at USAppetites. The closed environment of the smoking area, with it's filtered air, would ensure that there would be no exposure to those in the restaurant who are not puffing. Those patrons would still receive a ticket upon arrival and have access to the adult play area. Think, game arcade on steroids; with the newest, highest tech games and the best blasts from the past.

Being a restaurant, of course, you would not have to smoke to enjoy the selections of marijuana and hashish at USAppetites. There would be healthier options; an entire section of the menu fortified with buzzables. That would also be taken into account in terms of ticket punching and time required before car keys are returned.

USAppetites would have regional locations throughout the country. Every state would have at least one facility - a size that makes the Mall of America look like a modest start-up - in addition to the one located in the state capital city. That will make for BIG proceeds from Little Rhodie!

Given the name, and the nation's appetite for oil, those who smoke and eat at the restaurant would also be able to buy gasoline before leaving. The cost of the petroleum products would be sold at a rate including only 50% of federal taxes.

Once USAppetites opens random sobriety checks would become a common site on highways throughout the nation; testing for a broad range of intoxicants. Caught once driving under the influence you would face stiff penalties include confiscation of your vehicle for one year.

The days of people driving with multiple DUI convictions would be over. Kill someone when you're driving under the influence, you face the death penalty. That would be in a country where the penalty is carried out expediently.

USAppetites 1-800-PayDebt


Call today for reservations.
The United States of America National Debt - Check The Amount Now {SEE The Truth}

If you REALLY want to see THE TRUTH, refresh the page a time or three.

If you're a citizen of the United States, you may not want to know the truth. Especially if you have voted for George W. Bush once - when you were in the minority when the popular vote was counted - and as hard as it is to believe if you voted for the Bush/Cheney ticket twice.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I'm Trying To Decide

I'm trying to decide...

What is the most ridiculous thing I heard on the news today?

I've narrowed it down to these two.

* Two pandas that are not having sex; because, the "experts" think, the male is too fat. They are going to show film of other pands having sex so the pandas know what to do. The phrase panda porn is being repeated on, from what I can tell, every news station on the dial.
* A guy who couldn't sing was juggling two sticks badly during his American Idol performance. They justifiably ridiculed him; one of the judges pointing out how bad even his juggling was. The news footage focuses on him crying uncontrollably talking about how terribly they treated him.

I would have to say they're pretty much equally sad. Or lame. Or disgusting. Definitely ridiculous.

Friday, January 12, 2007

No, It Wasn't SchemesAlot

There was a story on the news last night that captured my attention.

A man rented a house. He paid rent for months; always on time. Nothing newsworthy yet. As it turns out, one day when he answered the door the people who had bought the house were there to move in.

The "landlord" had broken into a house that was for sale, changed the locks and put a For Rent sign in the front yard. He has yet to be found.

No, It wasn't SchemesAlot.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Heaven And Hell Share Top Billing

I can't imagine two who represent the very broadest ends of the spectrum when it comes to human beings than Gerald Ford and Saddam Hussein. How amazing it was that they shared top billing in yesterday's news cycle.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

All The News... With Extra Sizzle

Frequently I turn on CNN to listen to the news while I'm working. My list of favorite reporters:

Chuck Roberts
Anderson Cooper
Lou Dobbs
Jeff Greenfield
John Zarrella
Wolf Blitzer

Linda Stouffer
Richelle Carey
Adrianna Costa
Paula Zahn
Soledad O'Brien
Susan Hendricks
Catherine Callaway
Robin Meade
Kathleen Kennedy
Christi Paul
Heidi Collins
Kyra Phillips

"Your Move"...Check it out, one of the "Things I've Found In The Blogosphere"

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

From The Department of Legal Affairs

Photograph by Kilroy_60
I have been avoiding writing about the news of late. This item, though, caught my eye and I couldn't let it pass by without comment.

--------(-)--> Eric Rudolph, - he who will always have "Olympic Park Bomber" attached to his name - has been talking about his life in prison:

"It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis," he wrote in one letter to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

Rudolph wrote that he spends 23 hours a day in his 7-by-12-foot cell, adding that his only exercise is in an enclosed area he described as a "large empty swimming pool" divided into "dog-kennel style cages."

"Using solitary confinement, Supermax is designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible," he wrote.

I'm going to limit myself to six comments here...

--------(-)--> I think it's time we start looking at things more realistically in this country. The Department of Justice is a dreadful misnomer. Justice has nothing to do with the law. At best what we have is a Department of Legal Affairs.

--------(-)--> This statement from the article jumped out at me, "designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constituionally permissible". If that were true, I would say, "Well done." In fact, those who are held in federal prisons have a better life than alot of people on the outside.

--------(-)--> I agree that capital punishment is not a deterrent. It takes a decade or more to carry out the death penalty {if it ever happens}. The story gets a few seconds on the news {if at all} or is reported in a paragraph or three that lands buried somewhere in the newspaper {if the story ever sees the light of day}. Under those circumstances the death penalty is never going to make a positive difference in society.

--------(-)--> I believe state and federal governments should provide DNA tests for every prisoner held on deathrow. Those who can be exonerated should be released. Executions would begin the day after the test results start coming in. So, if you're not cleared...you're in the express lane.

--------(-)--> The best thing I think we can do is return to public executions. The one thing on which I have agreed with George W. Bush is his enthusiastic support of the death penalty when he was the Governor of Texas. I think ol' George W. could get behind this. I see it this way, television stations would be required to air the executions in order to receive a broadcasting license from the FCC. This might be a good two birds with one stone opportunity; in addition to the free broadcasts they could do Pay Per View events with the proceeds going to pay off the national debt.

--------(-)--> Lethal injection; I think we should dump that one. I think there would be a greater impact if we went back to the electric chair, the gas chamber, firing squads, the guillotine and hanging.