Federal Government has to be involved by setting standards.

My friend Danny and I have had some excellent discussions concerning the Federal Government's involvement in our lives. I am going to responds to some concerns Danny has on this issue and explain further my stand and direction I see for us as a country. I invite everyone to chime in with their thoughts and ideas. As brilliant as I am I do not have all the answers. Once everyone stops laughing, keep reading this post. Danny when I talk about Federal Standards I look at our history and see many times when states failed to protect their citizens by imposing standards on either private citizens or businesses. Without federal intervention we would still be a segregated society. Remember the state of Mississippi refusing to admit James Meredith to their university. When many states, imposed laws to keep certain groups from voting, who stepped in to stop this abuse? Without Federal standards who would have established clean air and clean water acts? The state and local governments did not act on these issues. Who has set the standards for new drugs that are developed? The federal government. The highway system that links all of the states and allows for easy travel from area to area in the nation. Who set this up? Oh, wait again, I believe the Federal Government. I could go on but I believe I have established my point of view. Their are some issues and I believe education is one of them, that if the states were left to their own standards, we would be even further behind then we are now. In our wonderful state, Mr. Scott and a Republican controlled legislature has already slashed the amount of money spent per student. Last year we paid five times more per prisoner then student and that gap has just widened. That is what happens when we allow our "Sovereign States" to have free rein. You say we need to allow our state and local officials have more control, but where did most of our federal politicians begin? They were local and state elected officials! The corruption that begins locally has just grown to include the federal level. Now I am sure you are thinking that I am just saying give it all to Washington. No, I agree that more decisions need to be made local, but the standard has to be set at the Federal level on some issues, and education needs to be one of them. If no standard is set then the children in various states will not get a quality education because the state and local officials will undercut the spending further and make education a low priority. On Michele Rhee, the results I was talking about was that some test scores from D.C. are being questioned. All I want is for someone to be accountable for their results and not make up scores or skew them. I stated that there are many issues that I can support from her and I stated that tenure and seniority were part of them. Again you want to throw out the entire union process instead of looking at the good parts and adjusting the weaker parts of the contracts. The last point for now is my statement that instead of abandoning unions for teachers we need to expand them for others. You asked who I would want unions for? The short answer is for everyone. Right now who speaks for the average person. Nobody. The law makers hear from lobbyists for corporations, businesses and the wealthy. Maybe I missed my invite to Tallahassee, to give my opinion during the latest legislative session, but I really don't believe they wanted to hear from me now. This is the state officials that you want to place all of our faith in. Again I will agree that I do not have an invitation from the federal level, however I am working on that. One thing I know we can agree on 100% is that education, whether it is in schools or our own education on important issues and elections is paramount. This is were it should begin and end. Yes the most important part of the Constitution is "WE THE PEOPLE" and we have not just a right but an obligation to know who, whether it is at the Federal, State or Local level, is doing what and voicing our opinions loud and clear. My question to everyone is why do we turn out, still not strong enough, in Presidential elections and then in off years the numbers drops even further. I believe that if we could have strong  state and local elections and  hold them accountable, we could have more standards set locally. Then Danny and people that believe in less federal government would be happy and people like me that believes in strong standards would be happy. It is up to us.

America Is No Longer Number One in Anything. Except What?

My wife, Pat, and I were talking this morning about politics, what else, and she stated that she, "Was tired of hearing how we are drowning our children and grandchildren in debt."  While this is true, why is it only important now, when talking about programs for the average America?  Where have these brave politicians been over the last forty years, when the elite in this country was amassing huge wealth and prosperity for them? This ties in with my headline in this way. Next college football season, I want to see students shout into cameras, "We are number 25 or we are number 17." What do these kids shout? "We're number one!" The real legacy we are leaving future generations is that at best America and Americans are mediocre. We have become delusional and complacent. Look at some recent studies. The U.S. in education is #25 out of 30. Yeah, "We're 25th, we're 25th. Go America"! Infant mortality 180th out of 224 countries. Let's hear that chant! Medical Technology at or near the bottom of the industrialized nations. Infrastructure, #25 out of 30. Technology we are moving up to 10th. Now we are talking. "Hey, Hey, When When  We are only number 10. Go U.S.A." Now what are we the best at. Yeah, we are still the number one consumers in the world and we still produce more waste. Now we are talking. What really sets us apart from the rest of the world. We can kick just about every bodies ass, because we have the best military in the world. This is not to take anything away from our fighting men and women, who are the best, but wouldn't it be great to leave our children and grandchildren something more then we could beat other countries into submission, or we consumed more then everyone else? We used to be the leaders and the doers in the world. Now we follow. I heard the other day that 16 other countries lead us in "green technology". We used to have big ideas and bold thoughts. Now we meekly sit back and watch as everyone else rushes past us. The politicians have convinced everyone that we are spending too much. I say, we are not spending nearly enough. Politicians say, we have a spending problem. I say, we have a revenue problem. As we fall further behind the rest of the world, we protect the interest of the wealthy elite and corporations, while we destroy our nation. We need corporate responsibility. We need the wealthy to become responsible. We need all of us to  become responsible and rebuilt and rethink the American dream. This dream was never about being last, it was about being first. This dream was never about following it was about leading. This dream was never about individual and corporate greed, it was about the prosperity and success of all Americans. I want to end with a quote from the late James William Fulbright, who served the state of Arkansas in the U.S. Senate from 1945 to 1975.
"We must dare to think the "unthinkable" thought. We must learn to explore all the options that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world."
Let's dare to be NUMBER ONE again!

Trump dicides not to run. Is anyone truely surprised?

I have mixed feelings about the "Donald" not running for president. As a political junky he was the fuel to my fire. Everytime he opened his arrogant mouth I delighted in pointing out what a jerk he was. Am I surprised. No! I always had a feeling this was all about publicity and feeding his enormous ego and it was. So now Donald Trump can go back to, "The Celebrity Apprentice," where I don't have to listen to him. I have never watched his shows and will continue this practice. I can take heart that we still have, Sarah ,"ya bet cha (wink wink)," Palin, Michelle "I am an idiot naturally," Bachman, Newt, I was too passionate about my country, " Gingrich, Rush "the druggy" Limbaugh and Glen "I never met a conspiracy I didn't like," Beck to keep my blood pressure up and keep me laughing all the way through the Presidential election. God, how I do love politics!

Response to Danny about, "Waiting for Superman" film.

Welcome back Danny, as always I look forward to your responses. First, yes, I have seen the movie and to put it mildly I was pissed off. On February 26th I posted a blog, "I am pissed off, but why aren't you". This was in response to watching, "Waiting for Superman". So let's get started with my response to your questions. You miss a very important point that I have made several times. You tend to discuss the Federal Government as if it were an entity of it's own. It is not. We, the people, are the Government and we have done a terrible job at making it what it should be. We have made a complete mess out of education, by keeping it a political football, to be passed around and no one taking responsibility. The state and local governments should make the bottom line decisions, but again we have to be involved. The Federal government helps by providing money and setting standards. Again we are sitting back and allowing these choices to be made, without our input. So to summarize, yes we need federal involvement to hold state and local government accountable. Now as far as our felon governor. Rick Scott brought in Michele Rhee, as an advisor only. Her time was brief and was for the transition period only. Ms. Rhee is very polarizing and I am still looking at some of the results that she claims, to have had in D.C. schools. I believe she has some ideas that can be implemented, but she also has some that I disagree with. The merit pay system, I do support and teachers that do not do their jobs should be out of work. There are cases that the unions have overreached and need to be pulled back. Tenure is one of them. Great and good teachers deserve job security and in a state such as Florida, with it's ridiculous "Right to Work Laws," they,  like all of us have none, without some union support. I believe instead of taking away unions from teachers, we need to have unions for many more of the workers in Florida and the country. You state unions are in our children's education. Not entirely correct. Yes, the unions, as stated above have gone too far in some areas, so why don't we change that area and keep the good part of the unions, like collective bargaining, job security for the good teachers, good benefits and pay and a voice to support the teachers in areas that matter to them and the children they educate. I happen to believe, and I can hear your blood pressure rising, Danny, that teachers along with every American deserves to be compensated fairly for their hard work and excellence. If that means a pay increase then let's reward them. I believe, and now your eyes are bulging out, that teachers and the average American worker should be able to work one job and support themselves and their families. Danny I believe that you want, exactly what I want. An excellent, world class education for all of our children. We all have to be involved. Whether it is the parents, grandparents, the corporate community, the general community and most importantly our great teachers and educators, we have to all be there. We have to make education the number one priority in our country and we need to support it financially. We can not continue to pay three to five times more for prisoners, then we do our children. We need to take the parts that work and keep them and take the parts that do not work and throw them out. We do not need the fictional Superman to rescue our education system, we need the everyday Super People that make up our country to get involved and make us the most highly educated people in the world. Together we all become Super!

Which is worse Corporations or the Mafia?

The first thing I want you to do as you read this is hum the theme music from "The Godfather". This will help set the mood and tone. The answer to the question above is simple. The corporations are much worse then organized crime families ever were. Keep that music going in your heads. Look at the facts. In crime families they had an organization, that reflected not only the values of the group, but their lust of greed and wealth. Modern companies have an organization that reflects their greed and poor values in the respect that they will do whatever they need to do to get more money. Both groups protected the inner circle from outsiders, who were trying to bring them down. Both groups have the politicians and the judges under their control. Remember in Godfather 1 when Sollozzo wanted to have the Corleone family help with the distribution of drugs? He said to Vito Corleone, " You carry politicians and judges in your pocket, like so much loose change." The modern corporations, own politicians and the judicial system. How do you think they get laws passed that are good for them and the wealthy elite and not for the average American. Why did the Supreme Court rule that corporations have the right to pour as much money as they want into a political campaign? They overruled the average America. Do you still have that music in your head? When Vito wanted you gone, he sent Clemenza or Tessio to deal with you. Which is scarier, sudden death or the slow dissolving of your life style and the worry about how you will deal with your life. If you have a problem with the local Mega Bank, who do they send? They have Terry or Susie or Juan smile at you while they explain why they are taking as much money as they can from you, and you have to pay for the protection they give you from the cyber thieves. In the old days they would have sent Al Neri to break your kneecap (maybe even Tonya Harding), if you couldn't make your payment on the loan as they charged you 30% interest. Now they have Congress pass, so called, consumer protection laws that if you miss one payment your rate goes from 20% to 35% and it is all legal. Personally, I would rather have the old days, because some Mafia and organized crime figures went to prison. Today you can legally steal from people, (CountryWide Mortgage, Enron, Goldman Sachs) are a few of the many and keep all the money you made and face no prosecution.  So which one is worse? Let me put it this way, instead of humming the theme music from Godfather, listen to the latest corporate commercial and hum their song. This will send shivers down your spine.

Blogger was down

To my faithful readers. Sorry that I haven't been able to post anything over the last couple of days. The Google Blogger that I use was down and I was unable to access for new postings. I will have new posts again later today and every day going forward. I am sure some people were glad and hoped the switch would remain off, so they would not have to listen to my opinions. I would also, invite the people that follow me from other countries, ( 18 foreign countries at this point and growing) to please comment to us. I am very curious what the perception of folks in other countries is at this time, about America and American politics.  So hang on to your hats, the next few weeks are going to be fun.