Just as any craziness and fun, all things must come to an end.

Writing this blog in deed doesn’t exempt me from life’s serious side.  I do have some assumed responsibilities you know.  Just as any household, domestic work must continue.  After all, I am a rational, responsible adult.  I think.

Most of all, my wife is coming home from her Colorado fling and I must reassemble the living area.  Vacuuming, dish washing, toilet cleaning, bed making, etc.  You know the drills.  Must make the home look as if no one had ever been here.  Which actually is the case but a few things have gotten disheveled and tossed about.  Spilled coffee here.  Crunched potato chips there.  The usual reckless bachelor marauding about the bungalow.  So, must get busy.

Goodbye Mr. Banker. Goodbye Mr. Wall Street. Can't afford the risk. I'll go it alone.

We are now in an era what I call a “Stow it under your mattress” economy.  Many folks who were burned by the past recession and who lost significant amounts of money in the stock market, funds, and annuities are now putting their cash in low interest CD’s or under their mattress.  Both grow about the same.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some mattress maker sell a box spring and mattress with a vault inside.  Now, if they could only put an ATM in there as well.

But my point is a huge amount of personal money is away from investments and Wall Street.  Away from risk.  Hidden and safe.  However, not growing.  And I’m sure that’s the way the smaller investor wants it to be.  Money holders more in control of his or her own money.

Therefore, Wall Street and banking is finding this “tight to the vest” approach as the new normal.  And most likely will be this way for years to come.  Less spend and investing and more sitting tight on personal money.  “Got burnt in 2007.”

I too recently have cashed out some funds and place it in a credit union CD account.  Just feel better about that.  I no longer trust Wall Street and big banks.  After what others and I have witnessed in the past couple of years I certainly feel I can manage my money better than the typical money managers.  Surmising that the big money people really had no interest in the safety of my investment.  But only interested in making money off my money.  Keeping the rewards to themselves while others and I suffer the losses.  But I was told over and over to stay in the market for the long run and most likely my money might grow again.  Yeah sure.  While my money sits long term in some mismanaged fund, day traders and in and out traders are using my money as leverage to spike the market, take a profit, and bale out.  Leaving me holding an empty moneybag. 

Nope.  “No thank you any more!  I’ll manage my own money.”

I know it was just last week those guys were shouting Jobs jobs jobs.

Remember a few weeks ago the shouting from the Republican Party about jobs?  Once again they forgot what they were doing.  Now, it back to Washington after Labor Day and dismantling the Obama administration. 

Starting with road blocking EPA laws.  Our own US Rep Sullivan is going to introduce a bill that will slow down or de-fund the EPA.  Putting you and me at risk from environmental hazards.  Is this proactive?  It more like preposterous.  It’s pure nincompoopism.

Also Eric Cantor wants to dismantle NLRB laws in order to thwart the unions.  Specifically the machinist union at Boeing. 

But anyway, the Republicans are not doing what they had agreed to do at the outset of their current congressional term.  Again, they were haranguing and harping on jobs and clearly that is not what they are doing.  They’re back to nincompooping.  Hollering a hollow cause. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, can you not see their motives.  They act instead on behalf of big money.  Big oil.  Big gas.  Well, maybe they’ve been eating too many beans.

While many people are still out of work, the Republicans are still playing games.  Time is wasting and they need to get busy creating jobs.  Please write or call your congressman and ask them to knuckle down and find America a job.

"We gotta defeat Obama because he has big funny ears.

Our lovely governor here in Oklahoma Mary Faloin was recently talking in public with the current front-runner in the Republican presidential marathon.  She told Rick Perry she too wants very much to defeat Obama.  Certainly a noble cause for the Republican Party.  However, she and Ricky have no discernable alternative program to really help America.  America in its present job and economic crisis.

So far, I have not heard a workable policy or program to sell to the American voter come this next presidential election in 2012.  Except for “Defeat Obama.” 

Nonetheless, the Republicans are avoiding issues that Americans are most concerned about.  Do republicans have thoughts about programs that could answer the nagging questions of “where will jobs come from.”?  How do we pay down the deficit?  How can we make health care and pharmaceuticals more affordable for all Americans?  How can we secure Social Security and Medicare?  How do we clean up the environment?  How do we make this part of the world more secure?  What to do with Afghanistan?  And the list is endless.  But I don’t hear any of these concerns being discussed by Republican presidential hopefuls.  Why.

All I hear is “we gotta get rid of Obama.  He’s evil and a socialist.  He wants to turn America into one big federal camp.  Besides he has big funny ears and doesn’t look like us.” 

And if the truth were to be known, it’s more about control instead of good government.  The take back America part is the issue of just returning control back to the Republicans.  Never mind the welfare of America.  Its purpose is Just for being the party in charge.  No other rational reason.  Well except, Obama is funny looking and doesn’t look like “Us.”  So you can draw the conclusion here yourself. 

Mr. Smith, Dr. Jeckle, and Mr. Hyde.

How do we explain the metamorphic process that occurs in a person recently elected to congress?  How does Mr. Smith goes to Washington suddenly evolve into Darth Vader?  What chemistry changes in his or her brain?  Is it drugs?  Alcohol?  Facebook?  Being away from home too long?  What is it?

I’m puzzled how elected representatives from our home districts morphs from a “champion for the people,” into a stammering glassy eyed automatons when returning back from Washington.  Mostly staring into space and droning on about most nothing.  All the while avoiding answering most constituent’s questions straight out.  Thus, necessitating hand picking one’s town hall audience.  “Please no difficult questions.  Mr. Smith is under great pressure and is about to suffer a breakdown.  Treat him gently please.”

All the while we voters have no representation in Washington.  The noble congressman has turned into a drooling, prattling receiver of many monetary gifts from major corporations.  Therefore becoming a paid lobbyist himself.  Not only do we constituents have to deal with and worry about lobbyists influencing our gentle Mr. Smith, now we have to fight Mr. Smith who also is a paid representative and lobbyist of a big corporation as well.  Bought and paid for.  Indicating big money really talks.  Actually Money barks and bites.

Do you remember the story of Doctor Jeckle and Mr. Hyde?  Dr. Jeckle made up in his chemistry lab this magic serum and when ingested turn him in to a hyperventilating, red-eyed knuckle dragging monster.  Remember?  Pretty much the same as our Mr. Smith after returning from Washington.  Well then.  Maybe Dr. Jeckle could formulate a serum that would reverse the process.  Hopefully returning Darth Vader back to Mr. Smith.  Do you think this could work?  Well, maybe not.  But a good idea anyway.

I thought I was reclaiming my Okie heiritage.

I sometimes wonder why I had moved to Oklahoma.  And I make that statement because I’m not sure if it was our best choice.  I do know cost of living was much less here than our other choices.  Choices like any of the Pacific coastal states.

Never the less, I felt we were lead here to assume the role as Missionaries for the savage Oklahoman.  Doing our duty to make Oklahoma a better place to live.  Giving the redneck hope and raising the intelligence factor a few notches.  After all, education in Oklahoma is a low priority. 

But don’t tell that to any of the public school teachers.  Actually schoolteachers here are trying there very best to educate but seem to meet formidable opposition from local and state politicians.  Politicians acting on behalf of controlling “For Profit” religionist.  Plus pushback from the terminally ignorant and math and science education-phobics.  People who thing ignorance is easier to manage than having to always think.  As in critical thinking.

Then there’s my other theory.  I was sent to Oklahoma as the result of my bad behavior.  Yes, as punishment.  Much similar to the British sending reprobates and the lazy to Australia.  I must have done something most reprehensible.  So, I am paying for my crimes.  You my son will spend eternity as a Blue believer in a Red State.  No probation.  No early release.  No review for parole.  You are in for life.”

So, here I am.  Stuck.  No hope for escape.  So, I’ll have to just make the best of it.  Where’s my watermelon?

From my Okie Without Borders journal. Growing up Okie in L A.

Well, there was just one more thing to do after our summer vacation and before Labor Day weekend came.  Back in the early 1950s prior to returning to school we Okie kids were always rounded up like a flock of red chickens, loaded into our family’s Ford, and mindlessly driven to Sears and Roebucks.  Sears near the L A River in East Los Angeles. 

Nonetheless, We were taken there for our annual fall fashion-shopping fling.  And I casually say that width my tongue planted firmly in my Okie boy cheek.  Never the less, yes, our back to school autumn outfitting.  And, I just might add, moments for all to cherish.  It’s not easy to forget early life suffering events.

Back to school shopping was a unexplainable Okie event.  But first, just to clarify and give perspective, Sears in our little East L A town was nestled neatly in to the blue collar Boyle Heights neighborhood at Olympic and Soto Street.  Just north of the famous Vernon meat packing district and the Union Pacific rail switching yards.  One of my favorite parts of town.  You can smell it before you can see it.

But anyway, The Sears building was a 10-story white art deco L A ancient icon that housed the Sears west coast catalogue distribution center and retail outlet.  And by the way is now on a historical registry.  But continuing on, it was aesthetically surrounded by more Sears’s big box warehouses and huge crowded parking lots.  A place where I had later worked during my college years.  One Christmas in the toy warehouse and one summer in the shoe warehouse.  Boy what fun!  I just couldn’t escape the place.

Never the less, on occasion on a rare clear and smogless 1950s day, the tower could be seen four miles away from our little adobe home.  That is if you walk down to Olympic Boulevard and looked west.  However, if you look west these days on Olympic, you almost might see the traffic light a block away.  Yes, the smog has gotten worse.

Now, if the Chamber of Commerce were to describe the East L A Sears tower, it would go like this:  A whitewashed building overlooking the majestic and mostly empty L A concrete river.  The little known backdoor to the near downtown Los Angeles manufacturing and warehouse district.  Come witness the splendor of this ten-story white squarish retail mountain.  In the 1950s, the Sears tower was one of the tallests building in all of L A (for whatever that’s worth).

But back to my school shopping story.  Our annual shopping spree would start something like this; Son!  Put that down!  Don’t touch anything.  Don’t touch that either.  I told you to stop handling everything with your reckless hands.  Go over and stand by your dad

Now the end result of all this crazed madness would end up in buying a few incidental school items.  Finally purchasing a pair of Roebuck jeans, some striped T-shirts, a pair of black sneakers, one pair brown lace-up Sunday shoes, and a less than satisfying hasty visit to the popcorn and peanut counter. 

Now, it was at this juncture where the real story starts.  It was at the Sears candy and nut counter, where dozens of parents and their busy chattering children crowded.  You could sense the anticipation.  Parent and child alike squeezed around the warm lighted glass displays nut bins.  We small kids would be pressing noses and fingers against the warm salty display glass hoping for the best.  However, at the peanut counter was where we Okie kids learned our mathematical fractions and division.  Plus some sociological protocol.  Why bother going back to school when mathematics and sociology 101 were right there at the cash register?  And, for sure, mathematics that didn’t work in my favor.

“One-quarter pound roasted peanuts please,” my mom would mumble to the person behind the display counter.  I’m almost certain she had never ever bought a whole pound of anything.  Especially a whole bag of expensive roasted peanuts.  Well, they seemed expensive to me.  I would have to collect three-dozen pop bottles to pay for such a purchase. 

Now, here’s where the mathematics worked against me.  Someone might ask, how do four starving Okie kids share a quarter pound of roasted peanuts?  Well, did you ever see four squealing piglets rooting at a feeding trough?  First come.  First serve.  All in a pecking order.  And, naturally, me being the youngest, I was last to dip in my smallish hand resulting in major disappointment.  Barely coming up with a fraction of a fraction of the salted roasted peanuts.  Most likely, one tiny peanut morsel.  Once again proving nice guys always finish last.  Certainly a study in family dynamics.  If not statistical probability.

So, we would take our back-to-school treasures stuffed hastily into Sears brown paper sacks and head for the family car parked way out in the furthest parking space.   Then all we kids would noisily climb up in the back seat and claim our rightful places.  I would be shoved to the middle, doors would slam, and we all headed back to our little East L A adobe home.  Often wondering why it took so much time to buy so little.

Oh well.  There is back to school to think about.  Another new schools year and another new teacher.  In the fourth grade it was Mrs. Gregory.  A slim trim fifty something smiling mostly kind woman.  Certainly a great softball pitcher.  Obviously interested in we recalcitrant children.  Why?  I do not know. Nonetheless, I liked her and she treated we kids well.  But anyway, I hope the year goes fast.  Come on Christmas!  Can’t wait for that Sears Christmas catalogue.  Come on Santa.

Hotdogging around

My big discovery of the weekend.  I just happened to go to a Sonic Drive-in and ate one of their Chicago Hotdogs.  Hmm.  Pretty close to the real thing.  Sesame seed bun, chopped tomato and onion, a jalapeno pepper, mustard, a dill pickle spear, and all piled atop a reasonable frank.  Of course anybody named frank is reasonable.  But anyway a pretty good dog.  Check out Sonic’s Chicago Hotdog.

King of the minimum wage solution

Jobs jobs jobs.  Rick Perry, governor of Texas, in today’s USA Today Editorial section claims he is the Jobs king of America.  Creating more jobs than any other state.  And you know what?  He’s right.  Far right. 

He claims many businesses applaud him for creating a business friendly environment.  No unions.  Right to work laws.  No income tax.  Tax structure favoring business, and low labor costs.  All favoring business growth.

However, what he didn’t mention in his editorial is, Texas has the highest number of low and minimum wage earners in the United States.  Many earning below the poverty level.  And what he didn’t mention at all is Texas has the highest number of individuals with NO health care or health care insurance.  Plus education standards have fallen.  Fallen along with the shrinking middle class worker.  Many good quality jobs have left the state.  Gone to India and China.  Talk to Dell Computer about that.

But yes, many jobs have been created on his watch.  But to repeat, jobs of low quality and minimum wage.  Attracting many undocumented workers.  Jobs, which don’t pay into Social Security and worker’s compensation.  Contract worker jobs that pay no federal taxes.

So to say the least, Texas may not be all that friendly to the working class blue-collar worker.  Don’t go to Texas and expect long term good paying middle class jobs.  They just don’t exist.  Go somewhere else where they retrain and hire semi-skilled workers.  Oklahoma maybe.  Perhaps Louisiana.  Who knows?

Nonetheless, Rick Perry is only the bluster king of Texas and will soon discover as he campaigns across America that he is just a big bag of gas.  Nothing else.  Just another George W Bush.  Mostly a ‘Pickup cowboy’ and rolling about while spinning tall tales.

Letter to our local editor

Letter to the Editor: Bullied by tea party. M.K. Marlow, Broken Arrow. Finally, retribution for bad behavior: The U.S. House of Representatives, bullied by the tea party, has finally seen what can happen when you think yours is the only point of view. It took a credit rating agency to pull them up and slap them. Even after a downgrade in the rating of U.S. credit, the tea party and all of its lackeys in Congress are clueless. They will probably come back after their "deserved" vacation time, not admitting to anything having to do with their failures. I hope, and will help in any way I can, to throw them all out at the next election. This is not Democrat or Republican. This is integrity versus sleazy, "what's in it for me" behaviors. We taxpayers deserve more from people to whom we pay a pretty comfortable salary, plus major benefits. Unfortunately, it took an outside party, Standard & Poor's, to bring to our attention the ridiculousness of the behaviors of the people we actually voted for to be our representatives in Congress. Are they really speaking for the rest of us? I hope not. I am mad as heck. You should be, too. Letters to the editor are encouraged. Send letters to letters@tulsaworld.com..

Your best buy is to not buy from China

“Made in China benefits US.” 

Oh really?  This was a headline in today’s USA Today.  And it tries to explain how goods made in China benefits America.  A China/America trade group propaganda piece if I have ever read one.  Even though a USA Today reporter wrote it.

This is a good example of how trade associations write their own misinformation and pass it along as gospel.  It mentions in the article who benefits the most from American/China trade.  And, it is not the common middle class folk or grassroots American worker.  But, the upper management, shareholders, marketing and sales gains the most from this trade relationship.  Not the blue-collar worker.  The worker who was the foundation of the American middle class.  Those jobs moved to China.  Which is my point.

Now, am I sounding a bit proletariat?  Well I should.  My dad was a working class American laborer and supported his family with his blue-collar wages.  It wasn’t easy but the middle class system worked well in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.  Then after that accountants and attorneys took over many manufacturing companies.  Shortly after Ronald Reagan came into the Presidency. 

At that juncture, shareholders and high-end executives ruled businesses in general.  Discounting became the marketing buzzword and the result was the American worker was laid off.  Manufacturing moved to China with the blessings of Washington along with many tax incentives.  And you know the rest of the story.

Nonetheless, I still believe in the notion of “Buy American.”  Congress is not going to change this gravy train for big business.  The president has little power in changing this imbalance.  So, the only force in America today is you and me.  The American consumer.

Just buy American made goods.  If Americans don’t’ make what you want, just don’t buy whatever it is you want.  Stay away from Walmart, Target, Toyota, and Best Buy.  I know it might seem harsh but it’s for the good of America.  The hope here is sooner or later Americans will start making what you want.  It might be a bit more expensive but it benefits the American worker and puts him or her back to work.  You and me.  God bless America and what it manufactures.

See no evil. Hear no evil. Just leave your kids outside.

Warning:  If you are planning a summer trip with your children to Washington DC, be advised to bring earplugs for your children.  Beware of spicy ‘R’ rated language in the “District.”  A place where the spoken word comes in many forms.  Such as colorful street language, seasoned vernacular, old school colloquialisms, edgy expletives, and very much more.  All heard in the halls of congress.  Certainly not a kid-friendly place.

Every label imaginable is used.  Shot like cannon from one side of the house to the other.  Surely a war of words.  Words meant to destroy if not paralyze.  Shooting from the hip.  Surrounding ambush.  Lobbing hand grenades filled with shrapnel of multiple disparaging words.

Yes, welcome to congress where the House and Senate natives are engaged in gorilla warfare.  A place where no respectable human being should be found.  Signs should be posted outside warning all visitors to either stay away or wear body Armour.

Lethal words fly through the air of the chambers like bullets and arrows from a ‘B’ Western movie.  Marauding aimlessly through the congressional halls is Word slinging sheriffs and their posse of pundit.  Labeling everything that doesn’t move.  “Tax and spenders.”  “Cold hearted conservatives.”  Idiots, buffoons, clowns, blowhards, goobers, whacko, right-wingers, lefties, and the labels are spent like cartridges from a 9mm Glock.   Pop-pop-pop.  Mowing down anything or anyone who disagrees with the orthodoxy.

Parents, please don’t bring your children to Washington.  Washington is ‘R’ rated.  R for repugnant or repulsive.  Most of all ridiculous.  Beware of Dogma.

We need strong heavy lifters

Hurricanes, fires, floods, Tornados, earthquakes, and more.  How can we deal with the enormity and depth of these horrific events?  Often times it’s more than the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other national organizations can possibly handle.  Some of these disasters exceed normal comprehension.  How to we all grasp and react to these bigger than life disasters without larger and resourceful assistance?

So the question is, who is going to do most of the heavy lifting?  Who did the heavy lifting after hurricane Katrina?  Who did most of the heavy lifting after the floods down the Mississippi over the past few years?  Who did the heavy lifting after the Joplin Tornado, Who did the heavy lifting after the fires in California and Colorado?  Who was there with FEMA, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, the National Border Patrol, the Corps of Engineers, the Small Business Administration, the National Weather Service, National Flood Insurance, etc. etc.  Who was that?

The answer is, The United States of America.  Otherwise known as you and I.  The taxpayers of America.  The Federal Government.  Yes the same Federal Government that Grover Norquist, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachmann want to drown in a bathtub.  All obviously anti-Americans.  Certainly the opposite of American patriotism.  For sure no friend to our America.

Are these the people you want to run America.  Are these the people you want to run your future?  Do you trust people who in the past wanted to pull out from the United States?  Do you want a president who wants to take away your Social Security and Medicare?  Do you want a president who wishes to return America to a narrow bigoted Confederacy?  Most of all do you want someone who doesn’t know Elvis’s birthday from the date of his death?  No.  No.  And No for sure!  None of the afore mentioned people is fit to run the United States of America.  God save America.

Do all politicians hire science fiction writers to write their speeches?

I am going to seriously soil my underwear if I hear one more bloviating political candidate say, “Our party is going to take back America.”  And, we are going to do it in 2012.  Oh, really?  Where abouts are you going to take our America to Bubba?  I thought they had outlawed science fiction in politics years ago.  Now you say Take it back from where and take it to where again?  Politicos from both sides of the political divide have been saying this for decades if not centuries.  And, you know what Garbonzo?  It never has happens.  America is still ere.  Rooted in the bedrock of the American Constitution.  Taking America anywhere is like pushing a tiger by the tail and trying to push it towards the mythical goal of “taking back America.  There are too many old folks like us that have heard it all and knowing taking back America will seldom if ever happen.  It never needs taking back.  We are where we want to be and have been there for decades.  Good luck.

Then there are these partisan wags whose sole purpose in life is to “rid America of Socialism.”  “I will vote down every attempt to socialize anything in America,” an ignorant politician recently retorted before a partisan TV audience.  I would be willing to bet he also has a library card.  A card to a socialized free service provided by county taxes.  And perhaps, maybe once in the past he called the police to an emergency and not paying a dime for the police officer’s services.  Services paid by the city sales tax.  And if it weren’t for tax subsidies, the political nare-do-well would have to haul his own trash to the subsidized city dump.  Need I go on?  From parks to airports in our town, all are paid mostly by sales or property taxes.  All social contracts with the citizens of our town.  Major socialism that I have ever seen.  What a totally stupid and ignorant thing for these political blockheads to say.  What jerks!  Get these guys off the TV and away from our sensibility.  They are an embarrassment and insult to us all.

Rick Perry!  Go back to Shallowhead, Texas.  Michele Bachmann!  Go back to BettyCrocker, Minnesota.  Mit Romney!  Go back to Bumperguard, Michigan.  Newt Gingrich!  Go back to Poisonwell, Georgia.

Get these whackos off the stage.  Or get me some TP fast!  I feel it coming down.

He's happy day after day after day. Why?

I sometimes can’t help but think about my loveable dog Rickles.  He’s just a typical dog.  Rickles lives a dog’s life.  He eats and sleeps and eats again.  His only other interest is Rickles regularly goes outside and poops.  Yes, he’s a dog.

What I really don’t understand is what he eats and eats and eats again.  Twice a day he eats dry dog food.  The same dry dog food everyday.  All week.  Every month.  And, for the past ten years Rickles has willingly and excitedly eaten the same dry dog food every morning and afternoon.  What I have to marvel about is, he is jumpy and excited day after day each time I ask him “do you want food?”  He almost jumps out of his doggie skin.  His tail bangs endlessly on the clothe drier near his food and dog dish.  Bang-bang-bang.  The same animated excitement over and over again without fail.  One happy dog.  I don’t get it.

How can I transfer his happy DNA to some of my friends?  Some of my friends are people in need of shock therapy.  Dull and emotionless.  Well, just maybe they too need to eat dry dog food.  Yes, that’s it!  Feed them dog food.  Hmm.  Where’s my dog dish?  Maybe I could use some happiness as well.

Who are we now anyway?

Growing up in the 1950s and 60s, I have notice a declining trend.  And this is no laughing matter.  We as Americans have gone from a culture of simplicity, honesty, and integrity down to the opposite end.  We are now experiencing hyperbole, dishonesty, and adultery.  Adulterating our previous world position up on the pedestal of righteousness and wholesomeness.  We have traded our soul to the devil for personal gain.

And no greater representation of this fact lives in our United States congress.  Especially member of congress and other high states positions.  And I am talking about those gadflies who are running for the Presidency.  The presidency, which at one time was a world position beyond any other.  The president of the United States was like supreme commander of the world.  Now, it has been shrunk to just another position to fill by a host of yammering, blathering, president wanna be’s.  You know them.  Rick Perry, Mit Romney, Michele Bachmann, and the list is endless.  All compromising themselves in order to gain the presidency.  Lying, exaggerating, misleading, and besmirching anyone or thing that crosses their paths.  Stopping at nothing to get the attention of TV, Cable news, and anyone with a black berry, phone-camera, pad, and pencil.

Of course, politics has always been contentious.  But nothing like this.  And, if my memory serves me right, it all started with George H W Bush.  Bush 41 allowed the smear campaign against Michael Dukakis.  It was dirty.  Low down. And purposeful.  Nasty dirty politics.  So it went on from there.  Becoming dirtier and nastier.

Now, there are no truths one can depend on.  Now political rhetoric fills the air like suffering smog.  Clouds of poisonous gas.  Certainly something many decent folk would run from.

It’s awful.  It’s regrettable.  And, it’s today’s politics.  God save us from ourselves.  And forgive us for we know not what we do.  God save America.

Just do as I want you to do and we'll get along for sure.

I want a computer that I will never ever need to replace.  It will never need new software.  No new hardware or software to learn or become obsolete.  Just the same thing day after day.  Same operating system.  Same functionality.  Always predictable.  Year after year.  Never ever changing. Never!  Ever!

However, I not only want voice recognition but angry thought recognition as well.  I want it to know when I am sometimes pleased with the PC’s performance.  Most of all, I want it to be vary aware of when I am mot pleased.  Especially when I am about to slam my fist on its keyboard.  I want it to acquiesce and defer to my moods.  “Oh, I am so very sorry your Excellency sir.”  All written in big bold letters across the PC screen.

Yes, I shall be in charge.  Not the computer.  No sir!  I want that freaking thing to lick my boots and always say nice things about me.  I most of all want it to say it’s sorry.  I want apology and contrition. 

Just do what I want and don’t ask all those silly exasperating questions computers always are asking.  Don’t give me that Yes or No or that silly cancel jive.  Just gbe nice and I’ll most likely take you most everywhere I go.  Maybe.  And if you were naughty then I’ll leave you out in the hot suffering car.  Yes, PC, left there to bake and let you suffer in your own digital recalcitrant juices.  Fry baby fry.

Yes, this is what I want for sure.  A user friendly compassionate and well-behaved computer.  And most of all do as I say and not as I want to do to you.  You hear me PC! 

No more updating in the middle of a word document.  No more arbitrary frozen blue screen.  No more gotta have the right downloaded player.  Just no more updates, downloads, and Offloads.  Just work when I want you to work.  And you can take all your error messages and stuff it up your USB jack.  You got that Jack!!  Just be the same day after day after day.  Never changing.  Always doing just the same old thing.  Just keep that hard drive whirring Bubba and then we’ll get along.

Rules of the road. Just stay to the right as far as possible.

How to deal with the media and prying questions.  Also, you can take charge of any negative oriented debate.  Stop revealing and embarrassing inquiries.  Control the “q and A” by simple in your face intimidation.  Bullying.  Threats.  Just take the upper hand by turning the tables on the inquirer, your opponent, or the hostile audience.

Plus, distraction is a good tool in your quiver to add to intimidation.  If shrill anger doesn’t work with the media then quickly point the arrow of blame at your opponent.  Any fabricated rumor or innuendo will work.  He’s a socialist!  She’s a tax and spend liberal!  Blame and Non-plus accusation often works as well. 

Or, take your cause to the online media.  Facebook or Twitter your opponent to death.  Have any supporter, contributor, or staffer place well scripted rumors or misquotes out on the World Wide Web.  It will go viral in seconds.  Boy!  Don’t you just love the Internet?  Right?

Another way to squelch besmirchment is to take your case to Fox News.  Just tell the Fox newsboys to only ask certain prescribed questions and nothing else.  Usually they will oblige you with little resistance.  Also, any half cracked quote sells advertisements.  You can say anything and they will love you.

If by some unfortunate predicament you are in a public debate on TV or cable, again bluster and fume every time your opponent starts to say anything.  Talk over him or her.  Do not allow he or she to complete a sentence.  This will quickly add confusion to his or her talking points.  Deny, rebuff, disclaim, and override, at any pause in their harangue.  Just say anything with any half-baked retort.  Even if it is unintelligible or gibberish.  No matter what it sounds like.  Just squall and bluster your opposition.

If you can do this with style and panache then you are a true far right conservative.  Go gettem boy!  Go gettem girl!

Gunslinger and shallow religionist.

“By their fruits yee shall know them.”  A biblical principle that indicates if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s must be a duck.  Right?  And, nothing else.

Therefore, to apply this principle to what is heard and notice from Texas Governor Rick Perry he’s is definitely a duck with a killer instinct and nothing more.  Even though professes to be a religious person, his actions and verbiage betrays him.  I’m pretty sure he’s a teeth gritting, eye squinting cowboy with a gunslinger agenda.  More like a bounty hunter looking for Obama.  He won’t be satisfied until he rides back into town with a corpse draped over the back of his saddle.  Certainly proof we got his man.

What Gov. Rick Perry says and does is by no means representative of his professed religion.  And what is shown on TV and heard on radio makes me and others wonder if he as no discernable main stream American religion.  At least no religion I’m familiar with.  Avenger perhaps but nothing else.  Well, I must admit he has a nice hair do.

I just wish he and other presidential candidates would go back and read the Bible.  Then try to synchronize their so-called religious beliefs with what is REALLY presented in the Bible.  If he professes to be a believer in Jesus and his peace loving religion, then governor, be peaceful.  Be loving.  Be forgiving.  That’s role model Jesus put forth in the New Testament.  Not rhetorical gunslinger or partisan avenger.

Do we not learn anything from history? Oh yeah. It repeats.

History lesson.  Herbert Hoover’s “Katrina” was the great Dust Bowl of the 1930s.  A horrific movement of dirt and dust carried by relentless winds.  Huge clouds of topsoil blowing over Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas and further east.  Millions of tons of dirt blew up from the southern Plaines and carried as far away as New York.

It was called the Black Blizzard of the 1930s.  Often called a “Duster” by the poor folks living in the panhandle of Oklahoma.  Millions of acres cleared off of its prairie grass and left barren.  All because cattle ranchers and wheat farmers didn’t know about proper usage of the land.  Herbert Hoover had no agricultural policy.  There was too much money to make growing wheat and selling cattle.  So, strip the land and use it for all it’s worth.

Then came the crash of Wall Street in 1929.  No one had enough money to buy wheat or beef.  So, millions of acres then lay barren with no place to go.

Soon the winds picked up and then carried the topsoil hundreds of miles into near by states.  The drought came and the rain went away.  Dust blasted the prairie houses and killed the cattle.  And so, it went on and on.  Relentless and most menacing

Mostly because Herbert Hoover took his eyes off the heart land and was only focused on money and big banking.  Certainly a story of misfortune.  However, a story not to far from our present day difficulties.

People out of work.  Businesses shut down.  Land and water resources misused.  Hunger.  Poverty.  School closing.  Law enforcement lay off.  Just general despair and hopelessness.

Sound familiar?  Do we not learn anything from history?  Does anybody even read history any more?  Almost everything that has plagued us recently, has happened many times in one form or another in the past.  When will we ever learn?  The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.

Forgive my ego but I would like a little credit too.

Public Notice:

If you feel it necessary to copy my postings and place on other blogs or on other online media, I only ask one thing.  Attribute.  Please give me credit for writing each posting.  All postings are written by me, Chuck Ayers.

The exception to this is I do place from time to time a letter to the editor.  Letters taken from our local Tulsa World newspaper.  If you would please copy the letters in its entirety.  Giving credit to the letter writer.  That too would be helpful.

Non-compliance to this request will result in having to copyright each posting.  Then if found on other blogs or where ever without writer’s credit, you would be subject to prosecution and legal action.

If you comply, then we’ll get along just fine.  Thanks for your cooperation.

All my best,

Chuck Ayers

Editor of

The Red Dirt Post

New ideas for congress. One term.

Here is something all congressmen and women should consider while out on summer break.  Congressmen and women should be only elected to one term either in the senate or the house.  If you are elected as a U S representative, you have two years to finish your business.  If you were elected as senator, you too have only one six-year term to get done what you gotta get done.  Get in.  Get out.  That’s it.  Your time is up.

The best reason for this reasonable proposal is to save time.  Time in getting the job done.  As in, not having to fuss and wrangle with re-election.  No time is wasted going to luncheons, black tie affairs, gatherings at BBQ cookouts, and whatever else wastes time trying to raise funds for reelection.

So you spend all your usable time in congress proposing and passing laws.  Debating, arguing, bloviating, making deals, compromising, stalling, prodding, and before you know it, you’re out the door.  Someone else takes your place and the process starts all over again.  Just like that.  In.  Out.  And Washington goes on.  It never stops.  You had your turn.

A side benefit is there is no lobbyist to piddle with.  No rich guys to satisfy.  No one making deals that is hard to refuse.  Only because you have nothing to offer him or her.  Your time is limited and no time to cavort with the special interest panhandlers.

Pretty good huh?  Let’s do it!  One termmers.  It just might work.  God bless America.

Letter to our local editor

Letter to the Editor: Who's at fault?. Sonia Sniderman, Tulsa. Our Republican congressmen are predictably blaming the White House for the Standard and Poor's rating downgrade ("Coburn says downgrade probably 'overdue,'" Aug. 9). Rep. John Sullivan put it most churlishly: "It's a clear signal that President Barack Obama and his economic team are in way over their heads when it comes to managing our economy. The S&P credit rating statement, however, explicitly condemned obstinate Republicans, not Obama, for failure to consider increasing taxes or allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire. S&P downgraded the credit rating because of Republicans' cavalier willingness to provoke a default and their inflexible refusal to allow even modest revenue increases. Anyone paying attention to the pathetic debt negotiation debacle could see that the Democrats offered several plans that combined cuts along with closing tax loopholes on luxury items for savings of up to $4 trillion. The tea party-run GOP refused to consider any revenue options, even such boondoggles as the elimination of tax breaks for corporate jet owners. They wanted radical cuts on programs for the poor and middle class while protecting the entitlements of the rich. They were quite ready to crash the economy if they didn't get their way. So who is irresponsible and over their heads here? Is it President Obama who repeatedly offered painful cuts in programs Democrats value, or tea party activists who were quite willing to destroy the full faith and credit of the U.S. for the sake of partisan politics? Letters to the editor are encouraged.

Away but not away.

The 1950s and 60s pop/rock singer Connie Francis had a hit called “We’re on Vacation.”  It started out, V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, we’re on vacation in the summer time.  One of my favorite Connie Francis tunes.  Especially when it was played when high school was out for the summer.  Free at last!  I loved it.

Which brings me to this point.  President Obama and his family are on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Cape Cod.  Certainly a lovely place to escape.  However, the entire world knows where the president is.  His staff knows where he is.  Every conceivable communication device is with him along with needed staff.  Which means he is really not on vacation.  He is absolutely linked to the Whitehouse and the Whitehouse is linked to him.  It’s like he never left.

So, what is the fuss about him being on vacation?  Would it be better if he went to a Motel Six in Arlington Virginia?  Or across the street in Blair House?  It’s all the same.  He is connected.  He is just seconds away from any crisis.  He’s wired.  He’s plugged in.  He’s got his Black Berry.  What else could he want?

Nonetheless, at the same time the entire Congress has left Washington as well.  All on vacation.  Some hosting Town hall meetings.  Some hosting conference calls to constituents.  Some fishing, hiking, camping, sailing, etc.  All on vacation.  All away from Washington DC.  And, away from our present economic turmoil.

George W Bush had more time off during his first term as President than Obama.  More than Clinton.  More than president Reagan.  So what’s the big deal?

Any complaint by detractors is just P-O-L-I-T-I-Cs.  In the summer time.  Woo Haw!

The voters vote and the lobbyist get the ear.

When are we going to realize our congressional leadership is beholding to the very rich?  Beholding to the very incorporated.  The very polluted.  The very unregulated.  The very self-serving.  The very lobbied.  When?  When will we realize this simple fact?  Huh?

And what this means, ladies and gentlemen, is they value their special interests more than their constituency.  Reelection money is more important than good laws or good government.  In other words, money talks.  Not only does money talk, it barks.  It bites.  Special interest money gets between you, me, and the voters best interest.  It separates us from good representation. 

Do you feel sorry for the special interests?  Does special interest feel sorry for you?  Not to likely. 

So, why do we continue to support the political partisans that take money for favors?  They easily take money from lobbyists and large corporate interest because they can’t raise their reelection campaign money otherwise.  Their valid talking points are few and far between.  Necessitating taking and accepting large cash donations (more like bribes) in order to save their failing reelection campaign.  Which means we get a mediocre representative without representation.  His or her reelection cause is to be reelected.  Just that simple.  Just a corporate automaton taking care of their corporate sugar daddies.  Is this the type of government you want?  Well, sorry to say, this is what we have now.  Should we continue to reelect them?  Lets hope like heck not.

The real motivation behind TEA partying. And it aint Booz.

In a recent issue of the New York Times, Paul Crugman says it’s the extreme politics of the TEA Party that was holding the budget negotiations hostage.  Certainly no new news here.  But anyway, who would know better than the Pulitzer Prize winner economist and NY Times columnist than Mr. Crugman.

So to find more information about the TEA party and its hidden motivation, I found this article and commentary on the net.  The main article was printed in the New Yorker.  Here it is:

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Money Behind the Tea Party

While it's popular fiction to say that the Tea Party is a grass-roots movement (it is neither grass roots nor a movement), it's interesting to see who is behind it. Jane Mayer has a profile in The New Yorker of the billionaire Koch brothers who have been the funds behind the nutsery.

The Kochs are longtime libertarians who believe in drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, minimal social services for the needy, and much less oversight of industry—especially environmental regulation. These views dovetail with the brothers’ corporate interests. In a study released this spring, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst’s Political Economy Research Institute named Koch Industries one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. And Greenpeace issued a report identifying the company as a “kingpin of climate science denial.” The report showed that, from 2005 to 2008, the Kochs vastly outdid ExxonMobil in giving money to organizations fighting legislation related to climate change, underwriting a huge network of foundations, think tanks, and political front groups. Indeed, the brothers have funded opposition campaigns against so many Obama Administration policies—from health-care reform to the economic-stimulus program—that, in political circles, their ideological network is known as the Octopus.

In a statement, Koch Industries said that the Greenpeace report “distorts the environmental record of our companies.” And David Koch, in a recent, admiring article about him in New York, protested that the “radical press” had turned his family into “whipping boys,” and had exaggerated its influence on American politics. But Charles Lewis, the founder of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan watchdog group, said, “The Kochs are on a whole different level. There’s no one else who has spent this much money. The sheer dimension of it is what sets them apart. They have a pattern of lawbreaking, political manipulation, and obfuscation. I’ve been in Washington since Watergate, and I’ve never seen anything like it. They are the Standard Oil of our times.”  (and the article goes on.  Click on link below to read the rest of the article.)

http://www.barkbarkwoofwoof.com/2010/08/money-behind-tea-party.html

Blame and shouting does not a job make

“Cut taxes for the rich and jobs will follow.”  Yeah right.  A mantra often proclaimed by many conservatives.  Oh really?  So, where are the jobs? 

I know this coming 2012 campaign season once again will have its share of the partisan battle cry, “Jobs Jobs Jobs.”  As if we’ve never heard this before.  Remember 2010?  It was Jobs-jobs-jobs into infinity.  Spouted mindlessly by hollow headed candidates.  But quickly forgotten once a candidate took office and then started their reelection campaign fund raising just days after swearing in. 

Well, if you haven’t been paying attention, taxes have been cut long ago.  The rich have been on a tax holiday for the past ten years.  And most recently the rich have been given an additional year of tax-free frolicking through the daisies.  All the while their savings are stacking up in large vaults like Scrooge McDuck.  But as a result, no new jobs.

So, where are the jobs that the well meaning congressman and the rich had promised?

TEA partiers, where are the jobs?  Mainline conservatives, where are the jobs?  The very rich, where are the jobs?  Don’t give me that shallow excuse, “Well Obama hasn’t created jobs.  The president doesn’t create jobs.  Congress has to act on any proposal the President suggests.  You know the freaking drill.  Stop excusing yourselves and blaming others.

It’s the TEA party stupid!  It’s the conservatives stupid!  It’s cutting taxes for the rich stupid!  All job killers stupid!

Pledge to ignore pledges. Huh?

Certainly there are those who think they are the maker and keepers of the rules.  Mostly partisans by self-appointment and feel obligated to make up the rules for the rest of us.  “Do we need more rules and pledges?”  Contrived rules to suit their own political partisanship.  Certainly Grover Norquist comes to mind (such as he is).  But anyway, fabricating pledges, promises, contracts, and the list goes on and on.  Why?

Never the less, we Americans already have our rules set in place.  It’s called the United States Constitution.  Well thought out and benefits all Americans.  We don’t need some half-cracked knucklehead lobbyist to tell us what we should do or not. 

TEA partiers go stuff it.  Far right radicals go study the Constitution.  Far left gadflies, take ten deep breaths and sit down now before you wet your pants.

All this postulating and blowviating is just to serve one’s own special interests.  If they don’t like something, then they will change the rules on the fly as needed.  Then start a way out in left field pledge or die campaign.  Then trash their opponent with half-truths and misleading social media rhetoric.  “Oh, I might be wrong but my worthless opponent is Adolph Hitler’s mother!”

The best way to throw water on this spin is to stop listening to talk radio and questionable shallow contrived cable news.  The best alternative is to read the daily newspapers.  It worked well for Will Rogers.  Remember?  Newspapers have more reliable information than a lobbyist or hopeful candidates Twitter or Facebook page.  Certainly you must know if the candidate or lobbyist writes his or her own press releases, it’s really gotta be pure processed baloney.  “Reader, Beware of Dogma.”  And for sure, don’t believe every blogger.  Blogging is entertainment.