FOUR MORE YEARS

KOLOB IN SPRING

There's a Mormon Cult Bishop running for President and most people don't know what his church actually dictates. What the cartoon doesn't address is what family members endure when they try to leave the Mormon community or anything about the odd rituals that occur in their windowless church in Utah. 

I have known a few recovering Mormons in my time. As a landlord, I have had the pleasure of meeting many families. When the two issues meet, you can get an enlightening crash course in what painstaking measures these people have to prepare before making their escape. More so when there are younger children in the troop.

Americans should know about any Presidential candidate before voting. We all know what a tough vetting process Obama and Clinton put us through during the primary four years ago. We still chose Obama over McCain in the General.
Obama has been a gentleman through the three and a half years he's served considering the crazy, hurtful and slanderous crap that's been hurled his way. That alone should indicate how right we were to elect him the first time. Who else could maintain their equanimity under such an endless assault?

Since I am in New York, the urgency to get out and vote for Obama is less intense, here we GOTV for the down ticket candidates trying to unseat the few Tea Party fruitcakes that made it in two years ago.

Enjoy the informative cartoon and think about how nice it must be on planet Kolob this time of year. 

MITT ON GLOBAL WARMING

TAKE YOUR MEDS

To finish out the last days in Ohio making shit up about the car companies that provide much of the employment and state pride within that very state, takes balls. Willard is delusional if he thinks this will help.

If you follow me on twitter you may remember when I suggested keeping a live mic around this guy at all times until the 6th. Now, I realize, the mic doesn't have to be stealthily placed to catch Romney saying stupid comments. He's actually offering these words in speeches.

I am astonished each and every day that there are people around us cheering this guy on as a Presidential candidate. 

Even in New York where I tend to assume people are more educated, there are still the desperate Tea Party souls towing the Koch Brothers astroturf lines and waving "Don't Tread On Me" flags along Rt 9W in Ulster, N.Y.

May I suggest taking your prescribed dosage of Klonopin and call me in the morning.

MATTHEW MODINE'S SHORT FILM

This is well worth your time watching.

QUESTION FOR EVANGELICALS

FRANK SCHAEFFER, New York Times best-selling author, posed this question in the Huffington Post last week: 

According to polls 73 percent of WHITE evangelicals will be voting for Mitt Romney.
If the polls are correct here's the question I'd like to ask evangelicals using their own style of language/concerns/theological thinking as applied to their choice:

What's the explanation for the fact that WHITE American evangelicals made the allegedly philandering lying ignorant braggart lapsed Roman Catholic Dinesh D'Souza their anti-Obama hero, embrace a pro-choice Mormon bishop who promoted abortion and Planned Parenthood in MA, are working to elect a job-destroying tax-avoiding lying flip-flopping-tell-anyone-anything-they-want-to-hear Swiss bank account collecting draft dodger running with a disciple of the God-hating, Jesus-mocking hater-of-the-poor Ayn Rand, for their presidential candidate and look the other way as a crazed ultra-Zionist many Israeli Jews fear billionaire casino owner who is being investigated for allegedly making billions off the dirtiest Chinese gambling Communist Party-controlled outfit in the world funds the enterprise, at the very same time as Franklin Graham sold his ailing father Billy's soul and denied core evangelical theology by taking Mormonism off the Billy Graham organization's list of cultsTrinity-denying, casino-money-grubbing billionaire-coddling, earth-destroying global-warming denying Mormon bishop win respectability for his dead-Jews-baptizing-polygamy-rooted-reality-denying-interplanetary Masonic lodge-embracing faith in an election against an exemplary modest faithful husband good father compassionate smart BLACK evangelical Christian President who's major accomplishments include saving the economy, ending a war, killing our greatest enemy, giving health care to children and the poor and the "least of these" and who has tried to reduce the number of abortions by helping women escape poverty in a reenactment of the lesson of the parable of the Good Samaritan?

Go figure.

Frank is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed novelist of 4 novels including Portofino who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as "pretty terrible." Frank's nonfiction includes "Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" and AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country."

GEORGE TAKEI STATEMENT

LOUIS CK AT THE DOCTOR

ARE YOU PART OF THE 47%

WILLARDS TAX RETURNS

JIMMY FALLON AS JAMES TAYLOR

RELIGIOUS CULTS ARE FUN

I saw this posted on JoeMyGodBlog earlier and I had to repost it here.
Could someone tell me how it is that this attracts people to their flock?
Could this be any better than the rest of the cults? They should be wearing helmets.

GABBY GIFFORDS

CLINTON's 2012 DNC SPEECH

PLANNED PARENTOOD DNC 2012

MICHELE'S TERRIFIC ADDRESS TO DNC2012

JULIAN CASTRO KEYNOTE DNC

HUMOROUS NYT COLUMN

The Real Romney 

By DAVID BROOKS                          

Published: August 27, 2012 

The purpose of the Republican convention is to introduce America to the real Mitt Romney. Fortunately, I have spent hours researching this subject. I can provide you with the definitive biography and a unique look into the Byronic soul of the Republican nominee:

Mitt Romney was born on March 12, 1947, in Ohio, Florida, Michigan, Virginia and several other swing states. He emerged, hair first, believing in America, and especially its national parks. He was given the name Mitt, after the Roman god of mutual funds, and launched into the world with the lofty expectation that he would someday become the Arrow shirt man. 

Romney was a precocious and gifted child. He uttered his first words (“I like to fire people”) at age 14 months, made his first gaffe at 15 months and purchased his first nursery school at 24 months. The school, highly leveraged, went under, but Romney made 24 million Jujubes on the deal. 

Mitt grew up in a modest family. His father had an auto body shop called the American Motors Corporation, and his mother owned a small piece of land, Brazil. He had several boyhood friends, many of whom owned Nascar franchises, and excelled at school, where his fourth-grade project, “Inspiring Actuaries I Have Known,” was widely admired. 

The Romneys had a special family tradition. The most cherished member got to spend road trips on the roof of the car. Mitt spent many happy hours up there, applying face lotion to combat windburn. 

The teenage years were more turbulent. He was sent to a private school, where he was saddened to find there are people in America who summer where they winter. He developed a lifelong concern for the second homeless, and organized bake sales with proceeds going to the moderately rich. 

Some people say he retreated into himself during these years. He had a pet rock, which ran away from home because it was starved of affection. He bought a mood ring, but it remained permanently transparent. His ability to turn wine into water detracted from his popularity at parties.

There was, frankly, a period of wandering. After hearing Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” Romney decided to leave Mormonism and become Amish. He left the Amish faith because of its ban on hair product, and bounced around before settling back in college. There, he majored in music, rendering Mozart’s entire oeuvre in PowerPoint. 

His love affair with Ann Davies, the most impressive part of his life, restored his equilibrium. Always respectful, Mitt and Ann decided to elope with their parents. They went on a trip to Israel, where they tried and failed to introduce the concept of reticence. Romney also went on a mission to France. He spent two years knocking on doors, failing to win a single convert. This was a feat he would replicate during his 2008 presidential bid.

After his mission, he attended Harvard, studying business, law, classics and philosophy, though intellectually his first love was always tax avoidance. After Harvard, he took his jawline to Bain Consulting, a firm with very smart people with excessive personal hygiene. While at Bain, he helped rescue many outstanding companies, like Pan Am, Eastern Airlines, Atari and DeLorean.

Romney was extremely detail oriented in his business life. He once canceled a corporate retreat at which Abba had been hired to play, saying he found the band’s music “too angry.” 

Romney is also a passionately devoted family man. After streamlining his wife’s pregnancies down to six months each, Mitt helped Ann raise five perfect sons — Bip, Chip, Rip, Skip and Dip — who married identically tanned wives. Some have said that Romney’s lifestyle is overly privileged, pointing to the fact that he has an elevator for his cars in the garage of his San Diego home. This is not entirely fair. Romney owns many homes without garage elevators and the cars have to take the stairs. 

After a successful stint at Bain, Romney was lured away to run the Winter Olympics, the second most Caucasian institution on earth, after the G.O.P. He then decided to run for governor of Massachusetts. His campaign slogan, “Vote Romney: More Impressive Than You’ll Ever Be,” was not a hit, but Romney won the race anyway on an environmental platform, promising to make the state safe for steeplechase. 

After his governorship, Romney suffered through a midlife crisis, during which he became a social conservative. This prepared the way for his presidential run. He barely won the 2012 Republican primaries after a grueling nine-month campaign, running unopposed. At the convention, where his Secret Service nickname is Mannequin, Romney will talk about his real-life record: successful business leader, superb family man, effective governor, devoted community leader and prudent decision-maker. If elected, he promises to bring all Americans together and make them feel inferior.

YOURE RYAN LIKE A RUG

So, I watched the Paul Ryan speech as he accepted the Nomination for Vice President. As the event started, I knew pretty much what he was going to say, but like everyone else, wanted to see how he would say it and how everyone reacted.
  
It's his standard points, true or false, that he has hitting since his VP announcement. In this setting, the crowd ate up those talking points like the last supper. For the rest of the TV audience, not so much.
  
The fact checkers have been working overtime this morning and if facts are something you find necessary in a campaign, you're going to listen to the reports. Or not.
  
Ryan told his misleading stories about Medicare, the stimulus, the unfortunate demise of his local auto plant, the US credit rating, Simpson-Bowles report and actually suggested they were looking to protect our most vulnerable. How many people in that stadium are either sceptical enough to research his rhetoric or perfectly willing to say whatever they want in order to take the White House?
 

What has been a running comment for two days is ow all of the main speakers at the convention have spent most of their time touting their own virtues rather than promote Bishop Willard Romney.
 
Let's see what the grand finally brings us.

BY THE ROOTS

It's compulsive. I can't help it. I see it lookin rough long enough, I'm going to end up cleaning it. So long as it's legal, I'd like to catch more Kingstonians weeding and cleaning our city owned medians and gardens.
 
Maybe we should form a citizens beautification task force. Hmmm

MOVIE PREVIEW: THE DO-OVER

CHARLIE CRIST OBAMA ENDORSEMENT

I’ve studied, admired and gotten to know a lot of leaders in my life. Across Florida, in Washington and around the country, I've watched the failure of those who favor extreme rhetoric over sensible compromise, and I've seen how those who never lose sight of solutions sow the greatest successes. 

As America prepares to pick our president for the next four years — and as Florida prepares once again to play a decisive role — I'm confident that President Barack Obama is the right leader for our state and the nation. I applaud and share his vision of a future built by a strong and confident middle class in an economy that gives us the opportunity to reap prosperity through hard work and personal responsibility. It is a vision of the future proven right by our history.
We often remind ourselves to learn the lessons of the past, lest we risk repeating its mistakes. Yet nearly as often, our short-term memory fails us. Many have already forgotten how deep and daunting our shared crisis was in the winter of 2009, as President Obama was inaugurated. It was no ordinary challenge, and the president served as the nation's calm through a historically turbulent storm. 

The president's response was swift, smart and farsighted. He kept his compass pointed due north and relentlessly focused on saving jobs, creating more and helping the many who felt trapped beneath the house of cards that had collapsed upon them. 

He knew we had to get people back to work as quickly as possible — but he also knew that the value of a recovery lies in its durability. Short-term healing had to be paired with an economy that would stay healthy over the long run. And he knew that happens best by investing in the right places. 

President Obama invested in our children's schools because he believes a good education is a necessity, not a luxury, if we're going to create an economy built to last. He supported more than 400,000 K-12 teachers' jobs, and he is making college more affordable and making student loans, like the ones he took out, easier to pay back.
He invested in our runways, railways and roads. President Obama knows a reliable infrastructure that helps move people to work and helps businesses move goods to market is a foundation of growth.

And the president invested in our retirement security by strengthening Medicare. The $716 billion in savings his opponents decry today extended the life of the program by nearly a decade and are making sure taxpayer dollars aren't wasted in excessive payments to insurance companies or fraud and abuse. His opponents would end the Medicare guarantee by creating a voucher that would raise seniors' costs by thousands of dollars and bankrupt the program.
We have more work to do, more investments to make and more waste to cut. But only one candidate in this race has proven a willingness to navigate a realistic path to prosperity. 

As Republicans gather in Tampa to nominate Mitt Romney, Americans can expect to hear tales of how President Obama has failed to work with their party or turn the economy around.
But an element of their party has pitched so far to the extreme right on issues important to women, immigrants, seniors and students that they've proven incapable of governing for the people. Look no further than the inclusion of the Akin amendment in the Republican Party platform, which bans abortion, even for rape victims.
The truth is that the party has failed to demonstrate the kind of leadership or seriousness voters deserve.
Pundits looking to reduce something as big as a statewide election to a single photograph have blamed the result of my 2010 campaign for U.S. Senate on my greeting of President Obama. I didn't stand with our president because of what it could mean politically; I did it because uniting to recover from the worst financial crisis of our lifetimes was more important than party affiliation. I stood with our nation's leader because it was right for my state. 

President Obama has a strong record of doing what is best for America and Florida, and he built it by spending more time worrying about what his decisions would mean for the people than for his political fortunes. That's what makes him the right leader for our times, and that's why I'm proud to stand with him today.

MAX KEISER AND THE FRANKENMARKET

GUILTY AS STIM

JOB CREATION

OHIO AND THE EARLY VOTE

So, there's a vast number of people in OHIO who have been restricted from voting early. Well, the weekend before the general election in November anyway.
The Republican leadership has decided that, since the record indicates most of the early voting occurs in the more dense, urban areas of the state, that the majority of those who participate in this civic exercise are obviously Democratic in their political leanings. 

Problem is, for some reason, the GOP has left the early voting option to military registrants only. Hmmm; what do you think they are assuming?

The Obama campaign's law suit levied against the Ohio admin regarding the imposed restriction intends to once again allow everyone registered to vote early just as it had been previously. Problem is, the Romney camp fully expects to drown in the heavy participation during the early voting. If their DATA says such a turnout, it would seem natural for the Republican governor and Romney's minions to enact such a restriction.

When you see opposition camp and the turds on FoxNews spewing these twisted fairytales to their micro-cephalic viewers, keep in mind; these folks actually cant help it. Remember the edict of Hate the sin, Love the sinner. Lets stick to that.
  
Eventually the electorate in Ohio will understand just how badly they've been hoodwinked, but until then, be gentle my friends...for they do not know the path they lead.

WILLARD'S SUPPORT BASE

Gregory Nathan Peterson, seen here with Willard Romney, is the "Go To Guy" in Utah when it comes to Tea Party issues. At least it was.
This was the scene at a fundraiser a few years ago standing proudly with his candidate for President.

Who knew in just a few short years he'd end up the pariah of the Republican Party with 23 felony and two misdemeanor charges in connection with the alleged rapes of four women. 

According to the Salt Lake City Tribune, Peterson is still sitting in jail with a $750K bail set for his release. Suddenly the guy everyone wanted to be seen with is the embarrassment they wish they never knew.

Dont worry. Alleged serial rapist and Tea Party henchman, Peterson isn't going anywhere soon. It's not like people are clammoring to get him out on the streets. Other than maybe the Koch Brothers.

Hard to believe this picture is only a few years old. 
Peterson claims he's good friends with the Romney family, but in all fairness, the Romneys haven't had contact with this screwball. 
Tough to have such fans though.

WISH HE'D MAKE UP HIS MIND

VISIT UPTOWN KINGSTON

ROMNEY AND STERICYCLE

So, we're in the summer season of the Presidential Election cycle. The Romney camp is throwing whatever it can at the incumbent President Obama in hopes of replacing him. The Obama camp is doing what it can to show Romney in his true form. No news there. 
What is news is this revelation that while leading Bain Capital, the firm had actually invested $75 Million in Stericycle, the Medical waste disposal company that built its reputation on efficient collection from Abortion clinics.

Try to imagine the Primary season had the opponents known this little factoid. It would have been the death knell of Romney's assention to the GOP nomination. 

Now, I am a pro-choice advocate. Abortion is what I feel to be a least desired, but important legal option for women who face hard facts about theirs and the child's future and be responsible for the functions of their own reproductive organs.

What strikes me is, Romney is touting his anti-choice credentials during the campaign while shrouding his past financial gains from providing fetus disposal. Would someone explain how his fundamentalist supporters are rationalizing this revelation?
 
Would Rick Santorum let this go? Where are all the fire & brimstone preachers screaming from the pulpits that such deals with the devil constitute a breech of trust with Religious Conservatives? 
Other than some online news sites like Mother Jones, I havent heard much. 
My thought? Maybe the hypocrisy has reached a point that no-one is shocked anymore and the effort to care has waned to the point that even the Press Core is too frackin lazy to pursue it. 

THERES NO PLACE LIKE HOME

The newest summer sensation in Kingston: Movies Under the Stars, has a second success to reflect on. The volunteer staff, the food and water donations, inflation and break down of the screen and the clean up all made for a seamless and joyous event for all the families who watched the second movie in the series, The Wizard of Oz.
 
Below are some pictures of the installation. 

The crowd scene was taken around 7pm, long before dark. Once the movie got started, I looked around again and was shocked at the number of people who attended. 
From Jen, to the Board to the volunteers, everyone deserves accolades for such a smooth and professional event.

Next Saturday evening, you will find everyone at the Kingston Point Beach. The movie will be E.T. so, gather your beach blanket, lawn chairs and soda coolers to make the best of another warm afternoon for the whole family.

GRACE JONES - SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM

OUR DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776 

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 
Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. 
The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. 

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

UNION THUG

ASSAULT & BATTERY

Mitt Romney returned from a three-week spring break in 1965 to resume his studies as a high school senior at the prestigious Cranbrook School. Back on the handsome campus, studded with Tudor brick buildings and manicured fields, he spotted something he thought did not belong at a school where the boys wore ties and carried briefcases. John Lauber, a soft-spoken new student one year behind Romney, was perpetually teased for his nonconformity and presumed homosexuality. Now he was walking around the all-boys school with bleached-blond hair that draped over one eye, and Romney wasn’t having it.

“He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!" He said. 

 
So, I'm reading this article in the Washington Post about Willard's roommates recounting this incident that happened with him and this free spirit puff. Obviously an effeminate fellow student that didn't quite fit in. What is a well-to-do, self inflated bully like Mittens to do? Well, beat up on the guy of course.
 
The story just makes me reflect on my youth as well as the generations before and after me enduring those troubling High School and College years. Granted I went to SUNY Ulster so I never faced the drama of dorm life, but I can imagine what the underclassmen must go through elsewhere. It's a formative period in our lives. Fun and exciting, but also very scary.
 
By today's standards, the holding down and cutting someone's hair would be considered assault. Perhaps in the 60's on a campus like Cranbrook, it was probably expected. I don't know, I wasn't there. But fast forward to today. Now we are faced with the possible leadership of our country with a man who thought traumatizing an assumed homosexual classmate through public haircutting was no big deal. I suppose, anyone other than the fella on his back probably walked away without so much as a care. (OK, so I was wrong)
 
The point is, this blast from the past probably wouldn't have even come back to haunt Willard had it not been for the recent Same-Gender Marriage conversation occurring at every dinner table this week. Yes, Obama has finally admitted that everyone should be treated as equals. Don't you just hate this shit? Just when so many of us were getting used to living as second class citizens, the President throws us into some kind of "I'm worth living" sense of righteousness. Ugh. Now we have to contend with the mobilization of bigots across the nation spewing the same hysterical nonsense we've heard for decades. It's so tired.
 
Saddled with the task of weeding the grounds with my co-workers this afternoon, I mentioned how some of my friends feel we are educating and changing minds every year. I continued to tell them that no, they aren't changing, they are simply being replaced. It's a generational thing. People who harbor the darkest thoughts passed on from our parent's era are simply growing old and passing on. Those of us who feel all humans are simply people worthy of equal rights are replacing them both in the home and in position of influence. Simple.

 
So I see it as some kind of evolution too. Like the President and the general public opinion that's shifted toward equality for everyone. Who knew.
But for all you faithful out there, here's to another baby step toward a better America!

NEWS COMEDY NEWS COMEDY

ROBBIE WILLIAMS MEDLEY

FAIR HOUSING EXPO

FREE FAIR HOUSING EXPO SCHEDULED IN KINGSTON

Fair Housing Week Celebration

Mayor Shayne Gallo is pleased to announce that a Fair Housing Expo for all area residents will be held on Thursday, April 26 at the Midtown Neighborhood Center in Kingston, NY.  The event, which will feature a variety of family fun, educational activities and refreshments, will be held rain or shine from 2 pm – 6 pm at the Midtown Neighborhood Center at 467 Broadway in Kingston, according to event sponsor, Community Development Director Jen Fuentes, in partnership with Rural Ulster Preservation Company (RUPCO).

Current and prospective homeowners will learn about available housing restoration grants and about first time homebuyer programs as well as a number of initiatives to promote Fair Housing and enhance the quality of life in the City of Kingston.  Members of the Green Jobs, Green New York program will provide information to apply for free energy audits and contractor opportunities.  Consumer services and legal services will be covered, as will accessibility options for persons with disabilities. 

To celebrate Fair Housing Week, the event will host representatives from many City of Kingston departments and various non-profit service providers, including the Human Rights Commission, the Water Department, the City of Kingston Assessor’s office, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley, U.C. Health Dept, Local Lenders, City of Kingston Police, Building and Safety, Public Works, Parks and Recreation Dept, and Real Estate Professionals.  Free refreshments will be provided throughout the afternoon, along with various family fun activities.

ASTEROID MINING

So, there's this group of super wealthy billionaires who have decided to join forces to realize what I guess has been a childhood dream. They want to mine asteroids for resources just like all those science fiction movies we grew up with. So, get ready because this group of billionaires and former NASA scientists will announce Planetary Resources Inc., the first asteroid mining company in history.
Ordinarily, I would just read about this with amusement and think "how 2050" but then the list of contributors strikes you as almost doable. Serious even.
Harnessing the resources of asteroids is not a crazy proposition and the return of investment could be amazing. So much that they are convinced they can "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP." More importantly, this may solve many of our material needs as resources on Earth keep dwindling fast.
 
What's important to know is that the world governments couldn't embark on this kind of investment. Not because they couldn't, but because the general public, especially here in the US are thinking regressively. There's no way people would trust government, when all anyone's witnessed is leadership helping those who contribute substantially to campaigns.
 
Which is why, the billionaires list kinda makes sense. These are people who no longer need government and haven't for quite some time. Some got there by bilking the system decades ago, but that's another matter. So the question is, is this a hobby? or is this doable?
 
There are no details yet, but if they are going to invest millions of dollars on it, you can be sure it is doable and it will be profitable. They don't have to travel to the asteroid belt to grab them. There are many passing near Earth that may be accessible. Will it happen any time before we feel the passing of peak oil? Exhaust our coal and gas? We'll see. Will our global resources be better managed during the time they perfect their project? Don't be silly. The corporatocracy will continue to plunder what's left for their own profits.
 
Be aware of the press on this in the weeks to come. There are some famous names associated with this and plenty of money to make it so.

WORKIN SO FAR...

HOPE FOR THE "OLD LACE"

Mayor Shayne Gallo supports a plan by an affordable-housing provider to turn a former Midtown factory building into a 55-unit apartment complex.

Gallo said the renovation project by Rural Ulster Preservation Co. would transform a vacant building, add to the city’s housing stock, serve to help revitalize Midtown, and provide an oasis for young artists and couples.

“It would improve the quality of life in that neighborhood and contribute to the revitalization of Midtown,” Gallo said. “We need to do anything we can to revitalize Midtown and the (project) goes a long way to that end.”

The above statement and quote are from the Daily Freeman, and let me say, I am thrilled to have started my day with such news. Anyone who knows recent Kingston history remembers a not-too-distant Common Council that worked hard to change the zoning around this abandoned mill.The idea was fostered by former Alderman Chris Gonyea of Ward 2 in his attempt to increase our urban housing stock. After much effort, he Artist Loft Mixed-Use Overlay was born and extended into this M-1 Zone. 
I'm glad to have worked with Chris and the rest of my former colleagues to help lay the opportunity for RUPCO and associates to make this huge investment in this neighborhood.

Another great point: Gallo stressed that the creation of housing at the former United States Lace Curtain Mill site would help Midtown businesses as well because people living in the facility would frequent neighborhood shops and restaurants.
  
The right Mayor at the right time.

XAVIER COGAT

THINK

JUST YOUR AVERAGE GUY

ZOMBIE ECONOMICS

YUMMY FAST FOOD

By now, you've heard of that Pink Slime stuff they've been mixing with your fast food burger meat for decades. The 2008 documentary called FOOD Inc. raised our awareness of some of the creative short cuts the meat industry has used to increase their profits. 
  

This Pink Slime is made from all the trimmings in the packaging plant that you'd never purchase on the shelf. I am so not going into those details any further.
The question is, even if it's all beef, how safe can it be when you have to shower the parts with ammonium hydroxide to kill the bacteria? In the instances where the potency of the chemical was reduced, the FDA discovered several batches of burger destined for school lunches to test positive for E. coli and Salmonella. So you're stuck with that ammonia smell.
 

But is pink slime really any worse than hot dogs, balogna or yellow nuggets of mystery poultry? Probably not. But it might be smart to ask more questions about this stuff too. Unlike your burger patty, many nuggets and hot dog cylinders are made with mechanically separated meat. Chicken, turkey and pork carcasses, already picked clean of presentable cuts, are pushed through filtering machinery under high pressure, removing every last scrap of tissue. The resulting fragments are used in chicken nuggets, turkey and pork sausage, and many other processed meats.

 

I haven't ingested anything from the fast food joints in years. I think Wendy's was the last time about three years ago. However, I have enjoyed the burgers at Five Guys, but then you can see the ground beef handled right in front of you and you can ask which farm the cow flesh came from. The potatoes too.

 

As for the rest of the processed food supply, some legal preservatives have been linked to cancer, and the World Cancer Research Fund has recommended that people avoid processed meats altogether. Just the fact that humans are starting to resemble the pigs, chickens and cows they consume at such an alarming rate, should be an indication that the growth hormone enhancers in the livestock is making it to our Happy Meal.

THEY'RE PICKIN ON MITTENS AGAIN

BONACIC OFFERS THE CASINO BILL

John Bonacic, pictured here with Mary Wawro of 

Saugerties, has offered a bill in the State Senate 

that would open New York State to casino gambling

without the Native American reservation restrictions.

It may be time we actually think about this. 

Way to go John!

Here is the Bill as posted: 

BILL NUMBER:S6734

TITLE OF BILL:
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY
proposing an amendment to subdivision 1 of section 9

of article 1 of the constitution, in relation to 

casino gambling in the state

PURPOSE:
Provides for the authorization of commercial casino 

gambling in New York State.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Article 1, Section 9 of the State Constitution would

be amended to allow no more than seven casinos as 

authorized and prescribed by the legislature.

EXISTING LAW:

Article 1, Section 9 of the State Constitution 

generally proscribes all gambling except for four 

exceptions. These four exceptions are: 

(1) pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing; 

(2) State lotteries; 

(3) bingo conducted by certain charitable, 

non-profit and religious organizations; and 

(4) games of chance conducted by these same 

charitable, non-profit, and religious organizations.

JUSTIFICATION:
Casino gaining has significant potential to be a 

major economic engine for New York State and the 

fact is that gaming already exists throughout the 

State but the State is unable to fully capitalize on
it. Native Americans have five casinos and there are 

nine racinos at the racetracks in New York State. 

In fact, New York State now has more than 29,000 

electronic gambling machines; More than Atlantic City

and more than any state in the Northeast or Midwest.

New York State is also surrounded by gambling. 

States & Canadian provinces just across the State's 

borders have legalized casino gambling and they are 

the beneficiaries of the tourism, revenue, and good 

jobs that could be in New York.

It is estimated that over $1 billion of economic 

activity can be generated from casino gaming. Passing 

a Constitutional amendment would allow New York to 

maximize opportunities. Limiting casino gambling to 

between three and eight facilities guarantees there 

will not be an excessive proliferation of casinos 

within New York State.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
Over the past 40 yrs, numerous resolutions have been 

introduced to amend the Constitution in New York 

to authorize commercial casino gambling. 

None of these proposals have achieved the required
second passage by the legislature and have never 

been subject to a vote of the electorate. 

In 2011, Assembly Bill No.3293/Senate Bill No. 3326, 

Assembly Bill No. 3605/Senate Bill No. 3327, and 

Assembly Bill No. 6753 were introduced to authorize 

casino gambling. None of the bills were acted on.

BUDGET IMPLICATIONS:
There are no immediate budget implications since the 

Constitutional amendment cannot go into effect until 

January 1, 2014. Future budget implications would 

depend on the enabling legislation that would 

accompany passage of the amendment.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Constitutional amendments require the passage of a 

concurrent resolution by two separately elected 

Legislatures and subsequent approval by the voters. 

As a result, the amendment could not take
effect until January 1, 2014.

CONGRATS RICKY

Congrats to Ricky Santorum on his primary wins in Alabama and Mississippi. The south may actually rise again. Who knows.
  
Will Newt get out and provide the path for Ricky to take Romney out at Tampa? Time will only tell.
Meanwhile, None of them are talking about GWBush, the two unnecessary wars, Medicaid Part D, Wall Street prospecting inflated gas prices and that the Stock market is way up & economy is turning around.  
C'mon fellas, get to these talking points. You'll be faced with it once either of you is the nominee.

WHATS THE BEEF?

I know what you're thinking... but last month McDonald's announced it would stop using the stuff. So now you're thinking the industry will avoid this stuff right?

But back in February, this pink amonia slime got a de facto endorsement from the USDA, which plans to keep buying millions of pounds of it for use in the National School Lunch Program. 

To find out the full story behind the return of pink slime, click here.

THE O'BAMAS ENJOYING GUINNESS

Last year, while in Dublin, the President and Michele hit a few pubs and enjoyed Guinness among other cocktails. Where do you think they will be this St. Patrick's Day?
More importantly, where will you be?

City of Kingston St Patrick's Day parade will be this Sunday. Rendezvous Lounge, among all the other pubs & restaurants in the city, will be open for the party. Please enjoy yourselves responsibly.

TAKE ME HOME

This sweetheart needs a home. She is in custody of the Kingston Dog Warden and is closing in on the last of her days. If you'd like a lovable addition to the family and make one worthy dog very happy, contact the City of Kingston dog warden in the City Clerk's office soon.

TERRY'S BIRTHDAY BASH

Happy Birthday Terry Bernardo! Tuesday night's party was held at the Hillside Manor in Kingston and attended by friends and fellow politicos from across the county with a special appearance by State Senator John Bonacic. 

This is the camaraderie that I thought was long gone. People from all philosophies were mixin it up while eating birthday cake. The drinks didn't hurt either. 

GOP SANDBOX

 
Whether it's a Democratic, Republican or Independence primary, Closed is the only way to insure that the members of THAT party influence the outcome, thus deciding who best represents the whole.
 
Democrats across the country argued this point through the 2008 season as the primary season tanked along. Where it was an "open" primary, outside influence was noticeable. Here comes 2012.
 
Democrats have decided to play in the Republican sandbox. Several states have open primaries so there is potential to have fun with their results like they did four years ago. Unfortunately, like a sand box, there are usually things in the sand not many of us would want to bring home. Enjoy.