Pawprints From Space

I was reading postings on Facebook this morning from friends far and wide and some of the content got me thinking. We've just crossed the Thanksgiving threshold into the holiday season, "Black Friday" has expanded to a weekend madhouse of shopping (pushing, shoving trying to get the 'door buster' specials) and we will soon be bombarded with holiday "cheer" every which way we turn. There will be those insisting that there is a campaign out there to kill Christmas - how DARE you say "Happy Holidays" after all, it's "Merry Christmas" damn it. Personally I find that rather amusing since Christmas isn't the only holiday that occurs this time of year. There's the celebration/observance of (in no particular order) Guru Tegh Bahadur Martyrdom, Samhain, Eid-al-Adha, the Ascension of Abdu'l-Baha, Hanukkah, the sacred month of Muharram begins mid-December, there's Kwanzaa, Boxing Day (okay not religious but it is a holiday), ...

Every day we are bombarded with information, advertising and out-and-out "spin” on the issues. It seems as though every organization out there is yelling for our attention. One of the greatest strengths our nation can bring to bear is an informed electorate but how does one become an informed voter and citizen? Thanks to the Internet there are a lot of options, perhaps too many. The following list compiles a few of those web sites that attempt at least to provide an unbiased look at the issues: The U.S. Senate: www.senate.gov The U.S. House of Representatives: www.house.gov The Library of Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov (track legislation as it moves through Congress) Congress in general: www.congress.org (these guys have a great email newsletter you can sign up for too) To research the issues: www.factcheck.org (they beat up folks on both sides of the aisle) Now most of you have figured out I tend to run a bit left of center politically and otherwise, so for t...

So... late last night after our local paper went to bed the US House voted to pass their version of health care reform. No one should celebrate just yet. The Senate has not yet brought its bill(s) to the floor yet - for some reason I thought they had but that must have been all the hype over the Baucus bill. In any case, the Senate needs to pass something before any reconciliation of the bills can happen. And reconciliation is usually a LONG process. Things can change a lot during this process, compromise can rewrite all sorts of things. So the battle is far from over and both sides are going to gear up and flood the airwaves with all sorts of spin and insanity. There will be polls, and commentary and all sorts of silliness on the various talk shows. The funny thing is that prior to this vote the majority of the polls were reported as indicating that the public did in fact want a public option and yet the opponents of health care reform kept (and still keep) saying that "the Ameri...

Okay I think we need a tiny bit of perspective here. When I graduated from college in early May 1983 the unemployment rate for that month wasn't out yet but in April that rate was (brace yourself) 10.8%. Today it is 10.2% Okay so a 0.6% difference may not seem like much but translated into jobs that's a lot of people. Yes! That's right! 10.8% in 1983. And even then the numbers did not include those whose unemployment had expired, those who were no longer actively looking, just the way the numbers don't include them now. Now think a minute folks... which president was called upon as a beacon throughout the entire campaign last year? Ronald Reagan. Who was president in 1983? Ronald Reagan! He was half-way through his first term then (or nearly so) and we had unemployment that high. Inflation was at 6.68% in May 1983. Today that rate is - 1.29%. Can you see the difference? When I was first entering the "real" work force in 1983 unemployment was higher, the rate o...

As you know by now the voters in Ohio have passed a ballot issue to allow casinos in four major cities in the state. This was the fifth time the idea was on the ballot and even though this was a constitutional amendment the thing passed. By a decent margin. So now the state legislature is having a fit. Some of them are putting together a ballot initiative for 2010 that will amend the casino issue to charge higher fees to the casinos claiming that other states charge more for licenses etc. than Ohio will according to the amendment that passed on Tuesday. Yup, the Greedy Gus Guys are already at work to torpedo the whole thing by wanting more money. So we could potentially have the ability to have casinos here and yet charge so much in fees, etc. that no one will want to build one. Again Ohio is doing everything it can to scare business away no matter what the voters want. The ironic thing is just last week it was I think that one of those organizations known for ranking such things liste...

Well "silly season" is officially over for another year. The Mayoral race is complete... and the "good guy" won. Unofficial final count called in to headquarters was 55% us, 45% them. Funny comment heard from several people in the room: "oh thank God, now we don't have to move!" Of course this would not have been funny if we had lost. Literally more than half of my neighborhood would have been out of a job come January and would have had to move, the rest of us would have left because living under a "my way or the highway" style of mayor would have been intolerable. We can now look forward to the sheriff and police chief continuing to work together, someone with vision leading the administration and my company gets to keep a client (can you say "win win"?). The school levy passed. Folks seem to finally understand what a renewal levy is... took only HOW many tries on the ballot? Sales tax in the county however did not survive. Once a...

Time has just about run out for the candidates and issue promoters/preventors, the last flurry of campaign ads is hitting the airwaves and it is not a moment too soon people!! We have mayoral candidates, we have school levy insanity (it is only a renewal they say, no new $$ - but if I have less $$ right now won't it still hurt more?), we have state issues that no one seems to really understand but everyone is yelling about, we have city charter changes that again no one seems to understand even the people working on them, etc. etc. etc. And this is an OFF YEAR. Just wait until 2010 when the congressional nuts come out of the woodwork and this state has its districts redrawn thanks to the census - then the fun will REALLY begin. But it is almost over... tomorrow we vote. And that's where you come in.... Wherever you live, whatever your politics you should get out there and exercise your right to vote. Polls open early and stay open long enough for even us working fools to make i...