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...

It is countdown to the local elections and the silliness continues. Hard to believe it has been a month since last I typed - silly high school reunion took up a HUGE chunk of that time, my apologies. The fourth debate between the mayoral candidates was last week and the final is this week. This would be interesting except that we keep going over exactly the same territory, which can happen in a one-note opposition campaign apparently. Last week's debate was interesting in regards to the questions being asked by the business person on the panel who wanted to know what good the challenger would and/or could say about the city if faced with the prospect of a company wanting to locate here. Apparently nothing. Or maybe the gentleman simply was unprepared for the question. Interesting timing in today's paper however, on the front page TA DA! a new business bringing new jobs and YUP! the current administration was involved and the company in questions was quite impressed with the spe...

As you may have gathered... assuming anyone is reading this... we have a few City elections coming up and thus silly season has begun. Silly season typically starts a month or two out from the election. It is safe to say we are there. We have mayoral candidates and their trusty sidekicks disrupting council meetings with schoolyard taunts regarding various aspects of male genitalia towards those who disagree with them. Followed a day or so later by a threat to file a complaint/lawsuit claiming other council members were in violation of open meetings laws when having a brief conversation prior to the official start of the meeting. So how does this person who feels so violated know what these other two were talking about? Unless he was standing right there. And by standing right there and not calling fellow council-folk to task on the spot (or at least reminding them with a gentle 'hey guys, not a good idea') does this not make him culpable? If not standing right there, eavesdropp...

You may not remember all the back and forth over whether the Hubble Telescope should be repaired or allowed to simply die... how it was too dangerous to send a repair team up to fix it, etc... Well if there was any doubt as to whether or not it was worth the risk, the new images released this week ought to put those doubts to rest. If you haven't seen them, check them out at the Hubble Web Site Of course this service mission is being billed as the last service mission to the telescope - partly because the shuttle fleet itself is being retired not too long from now. It was only fitting that the repair work be done this year - which in case you missed it - is the International Year of Astronomy. So called because this year marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to view the night sky. Back then of course HE didn't have to worry about light pollution. Even though I live in small city Ohio and am surrounded by farm land it is still not possible to get far en...

The Mayor's race here is starting to get "interesting". Yesterday we learned that the opposition candidate (and by that I only mean the guy NOT currently in office) was served with a "cease and desist" order by the local NBC TV station because his YouTube campaign ad not only used copyrighted news broadcast footage without permission but it was altered in such a way as to change the meaning of the reporting. Funny that this bit of info did not make it into the local paper this morning. It was on the 6 p.m. news last night, plenty of time to make the press... Today the candidate called yet another press conference (he did that earlier in the week too, code enforcement issue) to rant about a company called Global Energy - a project that is admittedly on hold. I didn't see the entire report as of yet but from what I gathered the gentleman was casting aspersions over the fact that the City's has "dropped the ball" on this thing, that permits have e...

It appears the real audacity of President Obama's hopes was bipartisanship. As the health care reform debate continues to move along - flaring up here and there in town hall meetings, talked about on all the news programs and talk shows (please note, there IS a difference between journalism and entertainment, to whit: The CBS Evening News is journalism; Glenn Beck's radio show is entertainment), ranted and raved over on the editorial pages of those papers still in existence, blogged about, etc. - the one thing that seems clear is that there will be no bipartisan effort on this subject. Over the weekend some administration folks stated that the so-called "public option" might not actually be necessary to passing the bill. This "public option" has been the big beastie under the bed for those opposed to the potential legislation. Republicans have been screaming about the addition to a "public option" from Day One. Some have guaranteed that there will ...

In all the brouhaha over health care reform and the economy; let's not forget about Iran and what its people are going through. In typical agenda setting fashion, the media has turned its attention away (for the most part) from Iran and the aftermath of the elections. By doing so the topic has lost its "top of mind awareness" and when that happens Americans tend to think the problem is over. It is not over. The media has simply gotten bored with it. They are setting the agenda for what we are to think about, not exactly what to think mind you but certainly what to think about. The famine, for example, in Ethiopia hasn't gone away simply because we haven't seen it in the news lately. Those arrested in Iran are facing trials that are travesties of justice. Some of the clerics on the ruling council are calling for the execution of those who have taken part in the protests, people are being killed while in custody, women are being raped and now Mr. Ahmadinejad is sayi...

The yelling continues across the country at the various town halls. The misinformation continues to fly from both sides. And in our area no one wants to hear about it. Not that I can completely blame them. I did find an interesting link to a summation document on the White House web site. Check this out: http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-insurance-consumer-protections/ It boils down what the President's thoughts on the subject are. Gee, don't see "single payer plan" on that at all. In fact, he doesn't seem to be for that one bit. The public option is just that, an option. It isn't the only option, just one of them. The insurance companies would compete for our business along with this option. Competition is a good thing. As the President noted, Fed Ex and UPS do quite well in competition with the US Post Office. What I like about the President's ideas are the elements aimed at that insurance industry. I mean come on, when I moved to Hartford the Aetna comp...

Been a while, been busy with the new kitten funny how a small fuzz-ball can take over your house, your life and your wallet. But I have been paying attention to the "news" and other assorted insanity ... The fact that we have a version of democracy that allows us to shriek and yell and be idiots in public towards our public officials is a good thing. Freedom to speak one's mind without fear of being locked up (most of the time) is a good thing. The ability to act like a rational adult and discuss our concerns with each other as if we actually are civilized beings is a much better thing. I am referring of course to the recent outbursts during town hall meetings regarding the proposed health care reform bills. I say "bills" because as I type this there are at least four of them in one stage or another of development. This too is a good thing, it means there are options, there are things we can discuss and tweak and refine until we get something that will work. I a...

It is as I feared and actually expected. The stimulus package is six months into its two year life span and the public (or at least the pundits) are complaining that everything isn't all better yet. Well the unemployment tsunami has slowed and if the states weren't hanging onto the money to patch holes in their budgets and putting it to work as they were supposed to their projects might very well be further along. In our little community we received some stimulus money for projects that we had had no idea how to fund, no ground hasn't broken yet but the projects are further along now than they were. "Shovel ready" after all does NOT mean that the crews have been hired and are just standing around... it means the plans have been approved and so forth now all we need is the funding. Oh sure, all across the country money will get redirected and misdirected but if even three quarters ends up where it supposed to things will improve. Financial institutions aren't l...

President Barack Obama entitled his second book "The Audacity of Hope" and yes perhaps it was audacious for a young African American man without benefit of an elite family background to aspire to greater things. But look what he accomplished! The way I see it today however, the real audacity of hope is coming to life in Iran. It is audacious to think that after 30 years of tight-fisted rule by a small number of clerics groups of outspoken people taking to the streets can honestly hope for and achieve change and freedom in their lives. And yet they are calling for it. Despite arrests, despite being killed, despite clerics now calling for the participators in these demonstrations to be executed... they have hope. They want change and now their government knows it. A government that is frightened and now weakened by this vast out pouring of anger at them. It must be quite a shock for them to realize that the control they have isn't as powerful as they had thought. Once upon ...

A young woman died yesterday. Neda Soltani. I didn't know her. And yet when I heard about her today on the news, saw the cell phone video of her bleeding to death from a gunshot wound I cried. 27 years old, a philosophy student. Gone. Sources told NBC that she was not involved in the protests yesterday, she was walking on a neighboring street when she was shot in the chest by alleged plain clothes Basij on a motorcycle. She has come to symbolize the struggle over there now. Being called by some the Angel of Iran, by others the Voice of Iran. Either way, the government forbade mosques from holding memorials for her and she was quickly buried. They don't want her to become a martyr. Too late for that, she became one the moment she was shot. Half a world away, knowing no one in her country there are tears tonight for Neda.

Good grief! I haven't posted since April????!!!! Okay, random rant and comment time then, buckle up this is gonna bounce all over the place: Other than to be an idiot, why would a volunteer at an event for a local art gallery sponsored by one political party wear a T-Shirt bashing that party? Sources confide that this person does this at every event - he finds the most obnoxious shirt possible in counterpoint to whatever the sponsor stands for and that's what he wears. Even when asked not to. When asked last evening to change his shirt, he refused, cited free speech and convinced the organization that they would lose this volunteer if they pushed it. The VP of the Board caved since he is one of their best volunteers and the shirt stayed. Personally I wasn't offended since it made him look like the small minded moron that he apparently is. Coordinating volunteers for a fun event that includes beer is a hell of a lot easier than coordinating them for an event that aims to cur...

This November our little city will hold elections for Mayor. So far there are three candidates and the primary is just under two weeks away. I did not make it to the candidate forum sponsored by neighborhood associations tonight but I did attend the first one and I doubt the rhetoric has much changed since then. One candidate has been our Mayor for several terms. He is competent, calm and in full command of the facts. Next is a former sheriff who has convinced himself and is trying very hard (for about three years now) to convince the rest of us that the city is going straight to hell - crime is out of control, housing is falling apart all around us and the immigrants are going to steal our jobs in our sleep. Vote for him or else we're doomed, we're all going to die. Candidate three has been on city council for some time. He represents a particularly troubled part of town and is the only minority on the ballot. Unfortunately he also struggles with putting a coherent sentence to...