Bayshore Views

The Honeymoon

2008-11-07T11:30:00.000-08:00

Congrats to President- Elect Obama to a well earned win and for taking on this massive job of cleaning up and attempting to set right so much that has gone wrong.

Thank you Hillary for getting him ready to run in the general - you tested him and his organization and it all worked.

Classy exit for Sen. McCain - too bad that McCain wasn't around for the whole campaign.

Gov. Palin? May you and the First Dude find the strength and wisdom to deal with all the needs of your youngest child - you will need it.

Keeping August Simple

2008-08-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

Iraq and Afghanistan, the Olympics, political conventions, running mate selection talk/text, NFL pre-season games, Russia/Georgia two-step.

All important stuff for the late summer days we are in.

Thankfully, there were the Little League World Championship playoffs to watch – little boys doing big things and having fun doing it. Sure there was some stress, some tears and the process of overcoming fears. Much of the latter quickly dissipated as they returned to their selves, their age and onto the next steps in growing up.

Never mind who won it all, it was just nice to watch kids give their all for something, good or bad, that they could share together.

It was nice to see a competition where everyone didn’t get a trophy, letting the motivational teaching message to be sent that losing doesn’t feel good and that winning it all does.

The Inevitable Collapse

2008-08-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

To read the latest campaign email revelations about the failure of the Clinton campaign to secure the presidential nomination that are currently being listed on the Atlantic Magazine website (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200809/hillary-clinton-campaign ) is to wonder how the “inevitable” nominee – Hillary – could have even set the alarm clock for 3 AM, much less answer it.

The circular firing squad that was formed by her senior campaign staff and spouse, Bill, gave her decidedly different ways to deal with a novice, first term senator with the funny name.

The Mark Penn/Bill Clinton wing wanted to go ugly early and often – lay out the negatives and keep ‘em coming. The Wolfson / Ickes side wanted to deal with Hillary’s high negatives and show her positives.

And what did Hillary want? She never decided. The would-be president couldn’t decide in broad daylight, never mind at 3 AM, on how to deal with Obama during a political campaign. She just let it fester, giving no clear path for HER staff to follow.

How can that be?

Look around the world today and think about that type of decision process being applied to it.

If she had been successful and did become president, one would expect that many of these campaign “advisors” would have found themselves working for her in the White House.

How would they have dealt with the current Russian incursion into Georgia? What would they have advised Hillary to do? Call John Edward’s at his girlfriend’s house and ask him about the newly founded 2 Russias?

Read the emails, read ‘em and weep – this could’ve been in the White House.

War Peace And The Homefront

2008-08-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

So we watched as the world came together in China and a war broke out between the Soviets & Georgians.

U.N. forces that were located in Georgia were asked to leave the area and when they did, the bombing began.

Foreigners were invited to China and 2 Americans were attacked, with one killed.

War and peace, Putin & Bush together in Bejing and have dueling press conferences against a backdrop of gushing reports about the greatness of the opening ceremonies.

Throw in the adulterous affair of a former presidential candidate and the angst of another loser in the primary about whether she should have her named placed into nomination process and it makes you sit back and shake your head. This is especially true when a video from Paris Hilton seems to be the sanest thing out there.

You see, this year unlike others, there are more people paying attention during these dog days of August – all of those who have been forced by the lack of money in our pockets to take a “Staycation”.

Now comes all of the passing of municipal budgets and their increases, further underlining the need for not going on a relaxing foray.

Yeah, we’re home and we’re watching.

On State Aid, Energy And Housing

2008-07-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Municipalities in this state are dealing with a lot of budgetary angst of late and it is interesting to see some of imaginative ways that some are incorporating to deal with it.

With so many negative influences coming to bear on their funding sources and expense outlays, some governing bodies have begun to react on behalf of the pocketbooks of their residents, while others merely talk about the situation and seemingly do nothing.

Some immediate actions include the closing the town hall on Fridays and lengthening the 4 remaining workdays to compensate for the shortened availability of municipal office availability and workers time. (Hmmm, at the end of the week, aren’t the lights, computers, air conditioning, etc still being used for the same amount of hours?)

Others are looking at possible fuel alternatives for their police cars (hybrids, propane, etc). The patrols are needed, but the costs are killing budgets across the state.

With state cut backs in aid to towns, costly energy crunch and a severe downturn in a housing market that, with a retiring baby boomer sales glut, will continue to be depressed for the foreseeable future, I’m thinking that towns need to look at generating electricity themselves (solar, wind, etc) to sell it back to the utilities at the state mandated retail rate.

Open areas that are currently designated as "areas in need of redevelopment" can be developed as energy farms – solar panels, wind turbines – that will require much less zoning/planning headaches, school population impact and environmental concerns, traffic/parking concerns.

IF the initial set-up of such a program can be done with grants and subsidies from state and federal sources to help offset some, if not most, of the start-up costs for the municipality, the eventual return from the sales of generated power could provide meaningful relief for the average town and in turn, its’ residents.

A Side Dish

2008-06-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

Have you ever bought milk at Costco? The square one gallon containers?

Ever try pouring a glass of milk from one of those babies?

Yeah, if your like me, you’re either glad you have a dog or cat or you spend a lot of time cleaning up the inevitable spill that such an exercise produces.

Even when I’ve tried being real careful about it, the spill happens.

My dog is re-a-a-l happy.

FISA And The Fourth Amendment

2008-06-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

In an article entitled “Who Voted 'No' to Protecting National Security?” the conservative website Human Events had this to say:
Posted: 06/20/2008
HumanEvents.comIn an article entitled:

The following congressmen voted 'no' or did not vote on today's important FISA Amendment Act.

The only Republican to vote against the bill, Rep. Tim Johnson (Ill.), is listed in italics. HUMAN EVENTS spoke with Johnson's press secretary as to why Johnson voted against protecting our national security with the FISA Amendment Act. He responded that Rep. Johnson "feels he voted that way in protection of our civil liberties…the powers that Department of Justice and other law enforcement officials need already exist. That system is working quite effectively."

My headline would have read:

Who Voted 'No' to Crushing Our 4th Amendment Rights:

(Link to 4th Amendment: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment04/ )

This newer version of the FISA amendment is the bill that gives amnesty to the telecoms that enabled the Bush administration to eavesdrop on American citizens without a court order under the prior version of this act (even though the administration had up to 3 days to get a court order from a secret court that had been specifically set-up to handle this program) after the wiretapping had already commenced. That the telecoms never asked for or demanded the court orders on the 4th day or later is, at the least, a criminal act).

By passing this new version, those that voted yes to this amnesty for the telecoms also voted to give themselves amnesty for going along with the first FISA Amendment and its’ assault on the 4th amendment.

I’m sure each of the following representatives want to get the bad guys too, but it can be done without our changing what WE stand for as Americans.

Voting NO
Abercrombie (Hawaii)
Holt (N.J.)
Olver (Mass.)
Allen (Maine)
Honda (Calif.)
Pallone (N.J.)
Andrews (N.J.)
Hooley (Ore.)
Pascrell (N.J.)
Baldwin (Wis.)
Inslee (Wash.)
Pastor (Ariz.)
Becerra (Calif.)
Israel (N.Y.)
Payne (N.J.)
Blumenauer (Ore.)
Jackson (Ill.)
Price (N.C.)
Brady (Pa.)
Jackson-Lee (Texas)
Rangel (N.Y.)
Braley (Iowa)
Jefferson (La.)
Rothman (N.J.)
Capps (Calif.)
Johnson (Ga.)
Roybal-Allard (Calif.)
Capuano (Mass.)
Johnson (Ill.)
Ryan (Ohio)
Carnahan (Miss.)
Johnson E.B. (Texas)
SÃ¡nchez Linda T. (Calif.)
Carson (Ind.)
Jones (Ohio)
Sanchez Loretta (Calif.)
Clarke (N.Y.)
Kagen (Wisc.)
Sarbanes (Md.)
Clay (Miss.)
Kaptur (Ohio)
Schakowsky (Ill.)
Cohen (Tenn.)
Kennedy (R.I.)
Schwartz (Pa.)
Conyers (Mich.)
Kilpatrick (Mich.)
Scott (Va.)
Costello (Ill.)
Kucinich (Ohio)
Serrano (N.Y.)
Courtney (Conn.)
Larsen (Wash.)
Shea-Porter (N.H.)
Cummings (Md.)
Larson (Conn.)
Slaughter (N.Y.)
Davis (Calif.)
Lee (Calif.)
Solis (Calif.)
Davis (Ill.)
Levin (Mich.)
Speier (Calif.)
DeFazio (Ore.)
Lewis (Ga.)
Sutton (Ohio)
DeGette (Colo.)
Loebsack (Iowa)
Thompson (Calif.)
Delahunt (Mass.)
Lofgren Zoe (Calif.)
Tierney (Mass.)
DeLauro (Conn.)
Lynch (Mass.)
Towns (N.Y.)
Dingell (Mich.)
Maloney (N.Y.)
Tsongas (Mass.)
Doggett (Texas)
Markey (Mass.)
Udall (N.M.)
Doyle (Pa.)
Matsui (Calif.)
Van Hollen (Md.)
Edwards (Md.)
McCollum (Minn.)
VelÃ¡zquez (N.Y.)
Ellison (Minn.)
McDermott (Wash.)
Walz (Minn.)
Eshoo (Calif.)
McGovern (Mass.)
Wasserman Schultz (Fla.)
Farr (Calif.)
McNulty (N.Y.)
Waters (Calif.)
Fattah (Pa.)
Meek (Fla.)
Watson (Calif.)
Filner (Calif.)
Michaud (Maine)
Watt (N.C.)
Foster (Ill.)
Miller (N.C.)
Waxman (Calif.)
Frank (Mass.)
Miller George (Calif.)
Weiner (N.Y.)
Gonzalez (Texas)
Mollohan (W.V.)
Welch (Vt.)
Grijalva (Ariz.)
Moore (Wis.)
Wexler (Fla.)
Hall (N.Y.)
Moran (Va.)
Woolsey (Calif.)
Hare (Ill.)
Murphy (Conn.)
Wu (Ore.)
Hill (Ind.)
Nadler (N.Y.)
Hinchey (N.Y.)
Napolitano Neal (Mass.)
Hirono (Hawaii)
Oberstar (Minn.)
Hodes (N.H.)
Obey (Wis.)
Not Voting
Brown-Waite Ginny (Fla.)
Cannon (Utah)
Gilchrest (Md.)
Gohmert (Texas)
Jones (N.C.)
Paul (Texas)
Peterson (Pa.)
Reynolds (N.Y.)
Rush (Ill.)
Stark (Calif.)
Tiahrt (Kan.)
Visclosky (Ind.)
Weller (Ill.)

The $4.00 A Gallon Trip Wire

2008-06-22T13:34:00.000-07:00

So now we have the Saudi’s promising to up their oil production to ease fears and concerns about the impact of high oil prices around the world.

We also have John McCain pulling a move to have offshore oil drilling along the coasts of America, a change in stance so drastic that a devotee of the game Twister would be left with their jaw agape.

Seems that the $4.00 a gallon trip wire has emitted a tune so sour when it was plucked that desperation and exasperation have merged to provide an impetus so strong that to match it would require the combined strength of both Hercules and Superman.

At $4.00 a gallon alternate fuel sources and their development look good. OPEC wants none of that, so they’ll pump more, just enough, to keep the price at $3.00 to $3.50 a gallon. It won’t happen as soon as we think, some are even saying that we’ll have to get a lot nearer to the $200 a barrel price before we’ll see anything in the way of serious decreases, perhaps the first effects in 6 months or so, but that’s where it will settle.

Could you imagine rolling up to the pump and having 3 or 4 energy sources to choose from to fuel your car? OPEC wants to make sure that scenario remains an expensive dream to develop.

Does the idea of having these many choices at the pump sound crazy? For those of a certain age, I’ll remind you of a time when there was only one phone company and it was hard to imagine a second or a third.

At $4.00 a gallon, we have, in addition to John McCain, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (who by this move shows he REALLY wants to be McCain’s VP) & South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham (BIG McCain supporter/reminder/corrector) both attempting to get whiplash by changing their long standing positions AGAINST offshore drilling.

All three cite the need to lease these areas ONLY with a state’s approval, (which might cause a problem if a bordering state says yes and its’ oil spill washes up on the shores of a neighboring state that said no – but I digress) and offer this as a plan for the beleaguered American taxpayer.

Or is it really just a case of pandering to potential campaign donors who own lots of oil stock (who are flush with cash) by handing out even more leased land to the oil companies before Bush leaves office? More land NOT to explore and develop in addition to the huge amount that these companies currently have and do nothing with already.

Russert: A Significant Sign Of Respect

2008-06-18T10:02:00.001-07:00

The two leading candidates for president, McCain and Obama, gave a small, but significant, tribute to Tim Russert today at his funeral mass, they sat side by side.

With the ramping up of the general election rhetoric and the staking out of familiar positions by both campaigns, it was refreshing to see that all of the flotsam and jetsam was set aside so as to allow for the civility of the moment to show through.

They will return to their respective ramparts in short order, no doubt, but for a few moments the decency of both allowed for the underlining of the respect they and so many others had for Mr. Russert.

On Russert

2008-06-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

While I and many other devotees of Meet The Press, and in turn, admirers of Tim Russert will miss him a great deal, I do believe that the on air tributes, as deserving as they are, needn’t be stretched over 2 days.

I understand that his death has/had a real “kick-in-the-teeth” essence to it to those who worked so closely with him and I admit that I cannot ever recall having a boss who deserved such devotion.

However, there has to come a time for those who worked with him to stop and listen to what they themselves are saying about how he influenced their professional lives and get up from behind the desks and go out and actually get back to doing what he guided them with – reporting.

As a long time viewer, I have the sense that he wouldn’t want all this attention focused on him, that he would have wanted the current floods or the recent deaths of 4 soldiers in Iraq, etc. covered instead, rather than having these talented reporters sitting around for 2 to 3 days telling stories about him.

Hillary: An Amazing Speech

2008-06-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

I listened to the formal concession speech today that many thought was going to be given this past Tuesday night when it became fact that Obama was going to be the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Hillary undid whatever damage the Tuesday night “rant”, as some were calling it, with this heartfelt, dignified exit, that when done, left a sweeter taste in the mouths of all who had been disappointed with the previous effort.

I do believe she will work to get him elected in November, I do believe that she has been able to provide a path to all of those who put 18 million cracks into the last and highest of glass ceilings.

She has my respect and admiration for what (and how) she delivered today – both herself and her supporters to help unify the party.

We’ll see her again, I feel and I think she will be met with a much better reception after today’s speech.

The Day After

2008-06-04T15:22:00.000-07:00

On this the day after, she hesitates to formally concede, thinking that somehow there is leverage in the delay.

There is none.

Those that have supported her on the issues will wind up supporting Obama, simply because their mutual stances on so many topics are so closely aligned.

Those that supported her just because she is a woman (couldn’t that be called sexism?) will not find any comfort in the likes of John McCann – a guy who could very well appoint Supreme Court justices that will erode some, if not many, of the rights that have been gotten as they relate to women’s issues. Staying home in November will accomplish the same for McCann.

If Obama had lost and delayed like this in conceding, and for him to think that I, a supporter, was a bargaining chip of some sort for him to use while he pouted and contrived to improve his own person position, he’d been sadly mistaken. I do not blindly follow nor do I willingly cede my vote for anyone else’s view without my consent.

Does Hillary think her 18 million are any different – if so than maybe they need to reconsider their allegiance.

I won races and lost a close race (7 votes the other way and I would have an unbeaten record of 4-0). Losing sucks, especially close ones. I went through 1 recount – to settle my mind that an 8 wasn’t seen as a 3 or a 7 taken as a 1.

This is the first time Hillary has lost a race with her name on the ballot. As they say, the first cut is the deepest. I’d give her 72 hours to talk and concede and then gracefully move on with or without it.

He’s been bending over backwards to give her the room to sort things out, but that, like the primary campaign needs to end.

Hillary, It’s Over

2008-03-24T13:12:00.000-07:00

So now Hillary wants us to count the Electoral College votes that would be had from her wins vs. Obama’s. She wants this new facade in place for the super delegates to look at, so they won’t move to Obama’s side.

It’s a façade of straws, twisted in so many ways that the gust of one more win by Obama in any of the upcoming states will, like the big bad wolf, blow it down.

Then what? Will we be asked by her campaign to count only those states that were in the Union before 1865 or other such nonsense?

Her campaign’s desperate premise is based on the notion that Obama, as the party’s nominee, would not win any of the states in a general election that she has won.

With the last gasps of redo’s in Florida & Michigan in the rearview mirror, it’s really time for the fantasy to stop, for the what ifs of a divisive campaign to give it up and shut it down – it’s not going to happen.

On The Democrats Primary Problems

2008-03-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Why?

Why are the Democrats at this juncture in the primary process, a place where “super” delegates are being treated as if they are political eggs or sperm to be frozen in place until such time that they are removed from refrigeration, thawed and inserted into the political world, perhaps only in Denver during the month of August? Is it because the party’s surrogate Mommy & Daddy are still fighting with each other and are refusing to let them move?

As far as I can see, the real mommies and daddies (the voters) have been letting the political world know what they want done with their “supers” in an ongoing fashion with the results of the primaries and caucuses. The “supers” should be broken down in direct proportion to the popular votes cast in their respective contests. This may make some declared “super” supporters uncomfortable, no doubt, having to take a side not entirely comfortable – but too bad, your elected or appointed position that entitled you to the “super” designation is, at its’ root, subservient to the voters. This includes the Howard Deans, Nancy Pelosis, etc of the party.

For that portion of the votes that have gone to candidates no longer in the race and their proportional delegate count – follow the lead of Iowa and reconvene at the county level and allow those delegates to move to the remaining candidates.

Notice is hereby given to all the supposed Type “A” personalities that are running this party throughout the country – you all agreed about penalizing Florida & Michigan for their early primaries – stick to it. They don’t count at the convention. If that causes a problem, then it’s between the voters in those states and their state party- some of whom make up their state “supers”.

Deduct the total of delegates (“super” and pledged) from Florida & Michigan from the 2,025 needed for nomination and make the result the required number for nomination. No re-do’s or reruns, no “yeah, but’s”, none of that.

I believe this would be consistent with the two campaigns, the same campaigns that signed off last year on the agreement that these two states would not count if they moved up their primaries – which of course they did.

When it comes to the kids, even a divorcing Mommy & Daddy must be consistent, lest the children win by playing one off against the other.

Your Town's Upcoming Budget

2008-03-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

An editorial cartoon in the Asbury Park Press today:

Page 6 of the governor’s recent 2009 budget summary had the following:

“The budget will also include a reduction in the level of aid to municipalities. The budget will provide over $1.8 billion in aid to municipalities, a decrease of approximately $190 million, which represents less than 10% of the amount provided in the current year.

A portion of the reduction in municipal aid will be targeted to those municipalities with
populations of less than 10,000. This group of towns will be given priority standing in
the awarding of the $32 million in grants from a state fund that encourages consolidation
and shared services.”

Similar state monies to cover the cost of surveys for these smaller municipalities were made available in the current 2008 state budget to see what, if any, municipal services or departments could be consolidated with surrounding towns.

My guess is that not to many municipalities sought any of these funds, that very few surveys were done and that consolidation of any kind is something that will be given lip service to rather than being acted on in any meaningful way.

Residents of any town facing any proposed municipal tax increase should rightfully expect that their elected local officials requested and used the state's 2008 survey funds last year, that the surveys have been done and as a result of these findings that all operating expenses that could be saved have been saved before any new taxes be considered for a municipal 2008 budget this year. Copies of all municipal surveys should be made available to their residents so that a more complete understanding can be had by all.

If these residents find that nothing in the way of surveys have been done in this past year, then it is clear that the question of "Why Not?" be asked of these local officials as they bemoan these latest state cuts in local aid. The state has been withdrawing aid from municipalities in recent years in a variety of ways, including the areas of pension funding for municipal employees and extraordinary aid.

With much of the local costs being based on contractual obligations, it is long past the time that shared services be done. To not have this information as to what areas within which this could be achieved, garnered from already completed surveys, at hand at this time is inexcusable, especially when the state had money sitting there to pay for it this past year. The residents see, on a daily basis, that the costs of living in NJ are going up and they expect their local officials to have noticed this too and respond accordingly.

As to our State Senator Joe Kyrillos' legislative efforts to force the mergers of smaller municipalities by some type of state committee, I can see that, whether it is through their planning and zoning boards or "areas in need of redevelopment" efforts, it would also not be an unexpected development that there might be an upturn in the efforts of some towns that find themselves close to that 10,000 population marker to increase the size of the residential population to meet that figure by the next census (2010). To do so could probably insure that these towns would not to be subject to any future independent state commission’s recommendation of a forced merger with another municipality.

Thanks, Kids

2008-02-24T11:13:00.000-08:00

As I sat there watching my Sunday morning news shows, I realized that more than once on the Democratic side of these discussions, the question of voter’s preferences when it came to a black male vs. a white woman came up.

The initial startle to me was that they were still talking about that aspect of it this late in the contest. I had been under the impression that we’d had gotten past this segment of the discussion after Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008.

But there it was still echoing around the dial by the supposed pundits and it left me a bit disappointed for I contrasted these round table media discussions with the images of yesterday afternoon.

You see, I was at a Pop Warner awards program that centered on the kids and their accomplishments. Boys and girls – black, white – Hispanic, Irish, Italian, etc- and their parents mixing it up, having a good time. I noticed that children who were getting a little rambunctious were mindful of the corrective orders of adults, related to them or not – neither group was concerned with heritage, skin color or gender. The elders spoke and the kids did as they were told.

With a few exceptions that will persist in some places, I believe that for the most part, the electorate, like this Pop Warner group, has moved on from wanting things to be filtered through gender, skin color or heritage. Rather, their focus is on each other’s commonality, whether its’ financial, health, family or any of a thousand other topics that affect our lives each day.

We’ll see.

So, Where Is The Snow?

2008-02-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

The snow blower has been sitting in the shed and, to borrow a line from the Rudy campaign, it is “Tested. Ready. Now.”

(Thanks to Rudy for spending $40 million, garnering his 1 delegate and coming up with that line.)

With a little over a month to go until it’s official end, winter has gone wimpy, giving only the occasional below 32 degree cold snaps to us. In doing so it has deprived many with the need to find the sleds, to watch our steps on the ice (“just walk like a duck” my mom would say and I would mumble something about not having webbed feet), to throw a snowball.

We have also been spared driving behind cars and trucks whose drivers failed to clear the tops of their vehicles and watch the snowy projectiles coming at us as the clearing process took place at 60+ miles an hour.

I know about the global warming process and the changes it has invoked upon us, but I wish, just once, we can be harmlessly stopped in our busy lives by nature for a day or two, with a good 8 to 10 inches of the white stuff. Things have a habit of becoming real local then, real intimate.

The family all watch the weather reports together or are asking about the storms progress, wanting to know what impact or restrictions Mother Nature might be imposing on their lives. The looks out the window become longer as the snow falls and at night, the streetlights are sought out to inform us of wind and density.

The planned activities first succumb to the "maybes" then fall by the wayside to "the can’t".

Winter has made its’ presence known in no uncertain terms.

But so far, not this year. It’s looking like we may have to settle on the outside chance of tulips and snow.

Then again, maybe I should just go out and make sure that the lawn mower is “Tested. Ready. Now.”

The Clemens Congressional Fiasco

2008-02-14T09:42:00.000-08:00

With his appearance before the Waxman Congressional panel investigating the use of steroids and Human Growth Hormones (HGH) in baseball, premier pitcher Roger Clemens accomplished one thing – no matter how many ballots his name appears on - he will not be going to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

His willingness to play the stubborn fool in desperately trying to cling to his fantasy that America will accept his actions of throwing his wife under the bus for her usage of HGH for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit layout and trying to label his best friend Andy Pettitte as deaf (“he misheard –misremembered- me”) will not work.

As a Yankee fan since 1961, I have followed this team and it’s players through good and bad, ups and downs and the mediocre and never once, not once, have I ever heard a bad thing being said by anyone in baseball about Andy Pettitte. “Stand up”, “honest”, “hard worker”, “family man”, “Born Again Christian” are the words and descriptions that are most often heard when Petitte’s name is brought up.

Pettitte came right out and admitted using HGH twice and that he was told by Clemens that he (Clemens) too had used it. They even had some discussions about how Clemens would respond if asked by the media about whether he used these drugs or not.

Forget the trainer, Brian McNamee, and his statements. Forget the former Senator George Mitchell and his report’s findings; forget Clemens’ former teammate, Chuck Knobloch and his endorsement of the McNamee statements.

It comes down to who you believe – Andy Pettitte or Roger Clemens.

Andy does not necessarily have a place in the Hall of Fame waiting for him – a good pitcher, but not an automatic famer. In his written testimony to the committee, a deeply religious Pettitte mentioned how he had to tell the truth, that one day he would have to stand before God and account for all he had done.

I'll believe Andy.

Until he opened his mouth yesterday, Roger Clemens was a first round definite Hall of Famer.

Not anymore.

The best he can hope for now is maybe getting together with Mark McGuire for some batting practice and that the tests on the saved syringes from McNamee's injection sessions come up as a negative match to Roger's DNA.

Merla's Going Away Interview

2008-02-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

Role models cannot be repeatedly tempted with the option of wrongdoing. Eventually they will have to do the wrong thing.

Such was the explaination offered by John Merla, the former mayor, to the citizens of Keyport, on why he took the money offered by a surrogate of the FBI in it's Bid Rig undercover operation.

We learned that valuable lesson from a going away interview with a local weekly newspaper.

The former mayor likened himself to a ten year old faced with cookies - and the uncertain moral certitude associated with that age group when faced with a delicious offering.

However, the adult version of this senario replaced the cookies with envelopes of cash (ironically referred to by those on the take as "doughnuts") and their ethical standards having been filtered through such processes as asking for the voters trust, taking an oath of office and repeatedly stating your innocence in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary that you knew to be true.

If we use the former mayor's definition of the term "role model", then all of those fine people who, along with him, were named to the Keyport Hall of Fame will also be found to have the moral certitude of ten year olds and will have to do the wrong thing when faced with temptation.

Fortunately for Keyport, wiser thinking pervails in the community. The Keyport Board of Education voted to remove the former mayor's photo from the ranks of true role models.

He says he will use his prison time constructively, looking to educate himself about a new business venture he intends to take up upon his release.

Perhaps during his stay in prison he will get the fact that what he has done is wrong.Then again maybe not. We'll know for sure if, in two years, the former mayor is seen in the early morning hours walking down the streets of Keyport muttering to himself "time to make (or take) the doughnuts..."

6 Days to go.....

2008-01-30T12:56:00.000-08:00

So we’ve found out that Rudy and Judy will not be the first couple, that John and Elizabeth gave it the old college try and that Ron Paul still (as of today) has more money than John McCain – the current version of the “frontrunner” for the Republicans.

Huckabee? He’s the Jed Clampett of the bunch running for president, living off the land, “shootin’ at some food” and looking for some crude.

Hillary found her voice in New Hampshire and a funny thing happened when she got to South Carolina – she sounded a lot like Bill. He talked so much that she actually left the state to go to California. While she was gone, Bill went ahead and flew off the handle and threw Hillary’s campaign off the track. Obama routed the two of them in the election – yes he beat Billary - by a 2 to 1 spread.

Suddenly the no delegate rich Florida contest on the Democrats side was all-important to Billary. Because Florida decided to move up their primary, the DNC said that under no circumstances would Florida delegates be allowed to be seated nor be able to vote at the convention. So severe was this primary date movement that all Democratic presidential campaigns promised not to campaign there.

Billary will try and undo all those penalties, will try to rewrite the rules after the fact because they will do and say anything, at any time, so long as it’s in their best interest – forget everyone else.

Billary wants us to vote for a four-year term of this type behavior.

Billary – take a hike, your time has come and gone.

On February 5th, 2008……

2008-01-21T08:42:00.001-08:00

I will be casting my vote for Barack Obama for President.

Yes, this 52 year old white guy will be looking to give the United States a chance to begin with a fresh start, a fresh face and a fresh perspective that Senator Obama provides.

While there are those that question his “experience”, I see him as having enough of that to know how the current system works and the ability to see where corrections need to be made in that system. I believe he approaches this with the understanding that these corrections, or changes, will need to be done by those he will choose, based on his strong suite of judgment, rather than the more current method of who you “owe” a favor to.

I have watched how he has not been sucked into the race debate – the “is he black enough” – that those within my party would use to validate there own position as being important and in turn, who see their subsequent endorsement as a “necessary” check off to acquire the party’s nomination.

Much to their dismay, Obama has worked at a level above this – causing them to have to play catch-up to him. These supposed kingmaker’s frustrations are beginning to show as they see his ability to garner both white and minority votes without their influence in the mix is viewed as a threat and something that needs to be dealt with in an untested manner. They failed early on to correctly gauge the level of Obama’s potential appeal and in doing so, failed to plan how to deal with it in a constructive way.

Unfortunately for Hillary, her one time asset – her husband, the former president Bill Clinton has become more of a distraction of late. His utterances that casts doubts upon Obama’s abilities are becoming more and more viewed as signs of both a divisive and desperate approach by her campaign. Add to it that she cannot control his off the campaign script actions and one is left to wonder what a newly christened Clinton White House would look like -and be received on a daily basis on the world stage- given an uncontrollable First Husband. The impact of off-the-cuff remarks that differ from a national U.S., Hillary Clinton instituted, policy could very well be monumental and would not be easily undone by some warm and fuzzy moments with Tyra Banks.

Another unfortunate fact for Hillary is her very high negatives going into a general election - and most of them having nothing to do with her gender, but rather a prospect of revisiting the nightmarish headlines of the prior Clinton era.

Speaking of gender based votes, why do I have the feeling that an all female ticket of Elizabeth Edwards / Michelle Obama would dwarf Hillary's candidacy for it's ability for garnering votes and prevailing in the fall general election? Is it a not so outrageous proposition for the Dems to consider at a brokered convention? Forget their husbands and wrap your mind around an Elizabeth/Michelle ticket for a moment or two. Two intelligent, well spoken people, lawyers both, who are passionate and genuine in their approach to any subject that has been handed them to dissect in an impromptu setting. Both are just as "tough" as Hillary (they are mothers, after all) and know first hand the travails of a campaign. Is this that far flung of a notion? Just a thought.

There are many more reasons that I could cite for my upcoming vote for Obama, but I fear that anyone reading this may fall prey to the process of glazing over of eyes and the stifling of yawns that could soon start, so I’ll just end it here.

Keyport Condemns Toll Hike Plan

2008-01-17T08:59:00.000-08:00

At it's 01/15/08 council meeting, the Keyport Council asked it's Borough Attorney, John Wisniewski (a state Assemblyman), to formulate a resolution condemning the recently introduced toll hike plan of Gov. John Corzine.

Keyport Council President Joe Sheridan cited the disproportinate burden being placed on communities like Keyport, whose locale to the major toll roads forces their residents to be, in essence, "taxed" unfairly as he introduce the idea for the resolution.

At issue is the premise that only some of the citizens of this state are being asked to unfairly shoulder the escalating costs of government and that other ways need to be explored and utilized to insure that every citizen is asked to either help pay the cost or to deal with any cuts in the state budget that might need to be made in place of this unfair approach of raising tolls.

The resolution is expected to be formally introduced and voted upon by the full council in the very near future.

The expectation is that if the resolution is passed, it's final version will be forwarded to the Governor and state representatives of Keyport. It will also be made available for all other municipalities to copy and adopt it for themselves and forward to their respective state representatives.

Thank you Mr. Sheridan for speaking for the hard pressed taxpayers.

Baseball - The Mitchell Report

2007-12-14T07:12:00.000-08:00

With baseball being a sport where the stats of one era are used to compare
the efforts of players to another era, (part of the "integrity" so often
spoken of) we, the fans, have often wished to discount the influence of the
business side of it all. We know it's there and somehow the 8 year old in
each of us wants to believe that a "Bad News Bears" team can win it all,
even at the adult level (aka '77 Yanks).

Even then The Boss kept rehiring Billy Martin, because he put fannys in the seats.

And that's what it's all about - filling seats - not the purty of the game
and it's records. They use the latter at the begining of each spring
training to sell the former to the 8 year old in each of us.

The house that Ruth built was via the HR. People loved that and because of
it, him. He drank, caroused, etc - it was all tolerated for the most part -
because he could hit it out.

When Ruth died, tens of thousands lined up to pass his casket.
(Question - Who among today's stars would they do that for?)

No, the 8 year old in us is outraged, saddened and wanting those who have
violated our sense of right and wrong to be punished.

Because of the drip, drip, drip nature of these revealations over the past
few years, the adult in us has been conditioned to view these latest
disappointments on the same level as we would the latest recall of Chinese
made products.

Well Done, Keyport !!!!!

2007-11-09T08:01:00.001-08:00

The recent elections have served up mixed reviews and I will leave the interpretation of those statewide results to others to somehow surmise for digestion.

However, here in Keyport we had our first election since the sentencing of our former mayor, John Merla (elected as a Republican) on the reduced (from the original 8) one count. If the results of the council race here in town is any indication, the town is ready/has moved on and rightly so.

In the hours prior to the results being known or tallied, I met John at the Keyport Republican outpost for election night and we shook hands, with the understanding that what is past is past, atonement by him with regard to his sentence to be carried out and once done, that we’ll take from there.

Democrat George Walling, was the big winner of the night, despite disarray in his own party about what measure of support he enjoyed from those who would seek to “control” every issue or discussion.

The fact that a Republican, John Kovacs, won and thus became the lone member of his party to be on the new 2008 council is a refreshing reminder that the 2-party system is alive.

Knowing both of these gentlemen, I believe the electorate sent a clear message that they want straight-shooting, open minded individuals who will really listen, who will respect those who might have a different view rather than attempt to brow beat or look down upon them.

These two gentlemen know how to check their egos at the door and they understand the concept that they do not have “power”, but rather responsibility. That the authority these positions supply is something that is best kept in the back pocket and used only when every good faith attempt at reaching consensus has been exhausted.

Well done, Keyport!!!

What Happened, Mr. Christie?- You Had So Much Promise

2007-10-27T11:57:00.000-07:00

As I write this I note that it’s been 4 days since the sentence has been handed down for our former mayor, Mr. John Merla, 4 days that has allowed for, to quote Andrew Jackson, "the application of a calmer light and a milder philosophy" to this episode. Considerations have prompted the raising of certain questions that need to be addressed by the U.S. Attorney, Mr. Christopher Christie.

On the sentence given to Mr. Merla - 22 months in jail, a $20,000 fine and 3 years of supervised release upon completion of his prison sentence:

A)The jail sentence is approximately 1-½ months less than the time period that elapsed from the day of arrest and the final day of his term as mayor expired – throughout which Mr. Merla refused to cooperate and refused to resign as Mayor of Keyport.

B) The fine is $4,000 less than the total amount of bribes he admitted to taking.

U.S. Attorney Christie said in a statement after the sentences were handed down “We think the sentences are appropriate. The judge carefully balanced the need to punish public officials who took bribes with the need to recognize, as a mitigating factor, their particular levels of cooperation".

The U.S. Attorney should be ashamed of himself if he thinks is true.

He allowed the hard work and sacrifice of so many people – FBI agents, lawyers, residents and honest public officials – to be minimized by reducing the original 8 counts that were brought against Mr. Merla – all to which he admitted guilt to - to a single count and to somehow mask Mr. Merla’s stubborn refusal to cooperate in any meaningful fashion during anytime other than that of his (Mr. Merla’s) own choosing and even then, apparently giving up supposedly only confirmations of existing knowledge held by the U.S. Attorney’s office.

We need some answers from the U.S. Attorney as to why there was a reduction in the counts (and therefore the subsequent removal of the expanded available jail time and fines for the judge’s option to impose) from 8 to a mere 1.

Could the U.S. Attorney not prove the other 7 counts in a trial? Or was the cooperation by the former mayor actually much more than mere confirmation of existing knowledge and perhaps a bit more has been revealed by his former honor that will lead to the future indictments of others?

It would appear on the face of it, that all involved have been given short shift by the U.S. Attorney’s office in both the initial raised expectations from this office and the less than spectatcular explanations surrounding this entire event – from the initial arrest to the recent outcome – to satisfy the outstanding questions that remain.

Mr. Christie needs to clear up these questions so that we can all finally put this entire matter behind us.

On The Creation Of Fluff

2007-10-06T16:21:00.000-07:00

I was recently included in a group to go (courtesy of my mother-in-law) to some recent tapings of the game show “Wheel of Fortune”, which was in NYC to celebrate it’s 25th year on the air.

The festivities were taking place at the historic Radio City Theater and we were told to arrive by 12 pm for the start of their 3 show taping, scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm.

Arrive we did, to one of 2 lines that stretched from 6th Ave to 5th Ave. on either side of the theater. Fortunately the people who were around us were pleasant and in a good mood for the wait. There was nearby seating that allowed for those of a “certain age” to leave the line and made those of us who remained to be line holders.

I soon found out that I was a novice compared to some of those who stayed on line with me.

Scattered up and down the lines were representatives of the show who were there to answer questions and to start the process of getting us in the “good audience” mind-set. We were told how lucky we were, in that these were to be “celebrity” show tapings – with celebrities that, for the most part, I had never heard of.

Some on the line began to share their previous experiences on the “show taping” orbit of life. A lady next to me told of how she had planned her outfit so as to be highly noticeable on TV – she went with day-glow lime & pink on a basic black foundation. A gentleman behind me shared his “Jeopardy” in NYC adventure with all of us, allowing us to know how he actually talked to Alex Trebek, and did we know that Alex was Canadian.

Thankfully, the line began to move and in we went.

As we went through the doors a gentleman from the show stopped the line at our point and counted out 42 people and marched our group up to the left side front of the stage. We felt soooooooooo lucky – until we sat down and realized that we were behind the camera and a desk that were on the stage. We could see the contestants, the wheel & Pat Sajak, but not Vanna. The only time we saw her was when they walked out at the beginning of the show and during the breaks. Thankfully we had a wide screen TV to see all the “action” on the wall to our left.

What truly amazed me about all of this is, given all the breaks, how little of an actual show there is. No sooner did it feel like the show was running smoothly then they were saying goodbye.

We made the decision that after taking 1 hour and 10 minutes to tape a thirty-minute program, our time would be better spent doing anything else and we left.

I know Vanna was crushed by this and that Pat’s ego may have taken a hit, but really – these two work 45 days a year – my hands were hurting from all the clapping and the woman sitting in front of us was getting on my nerves by regaling us with stories of her other career (by day she is a 3rd grade teacher in NJ) as a seat filler and who she has met over the years.

I’ll never go to one of these again.

Rove is leaving? I have a bridge you might want...

2007-08-14T09:18:00.000-07:00

Spare me the choked up goodbye, the subsequent initial feint at trying to frame the legacy that officially begins on January 20, 2008 or the glossy retelling of the old days.

Somehow the term “genius” being applied to Mr. Rove and his tactics that resulted in 2 terms of a failed administration seems misplaced, even downright insulting, to many of the voters in those elections.

His use of gutter tactics and polarization reached new lows – even by comparison to the ways and means employed by such people as Richard Nixon and his crew. Just ask Ann Richards (phone question used -“Would you vote for Ann Richards if you found out that most of her females staffers are lesbians?”- not that anyone knew if they were or not) when Bush ran for governor of Texas or John McCain, during the 2000 campaign in South Carolina.

He is not going anywhere that doesn’t have a phone, that doesn’t have access to his RNC email account, that can’t be contacted by those in need of his “wisdom”.

He is going to a place that will be even further out of the spotlight on an everyday basis, where his appearances will be in an even more controlled setting than they were in the White House. He’ll be on the dinner speaker circuit, making tens (if not initially, hundreds) of thousands of dollars for 20 to 30 minute speeches, during which he will be laying out the ground plan for the 2008 election to the faithful.

The importance of his words will be enhanced mightily if the Democratic nominee is Hillary – make no mistake about that. If there were one person that can galvanize the Republicans to overlook any differences they might have with one another, it would be the candidacy of Hillary. Enter Fred, Rudy or Mitt and their running mates (a running mate chosen to accommodate and placate those within the party that might not normally support the ticket’s top spot holder).

Rove will – through Bush, his pulpit in the White House and his veto power – orchestrate facts, imagery and legislative agendas to whatever advantage for the Republican nominee – while being out of sight and out of mind.

Dick Cheney will be envious.

Here's Hoping Our Leaders Will Be Dogged In August

2007-08-09T09:23:00.000-07:00

So, here we are, in both NJ and the country, in debt up to our eyeballs, with repeated reminders that our infrastructure is, in some regards, falling or ready to, fall apart. Bridges, roadways, power grids, water/sewer systems.

We are reminded daily of the drain of our strength, both human and financial, in Iraq. Add to these reminders our dependence on foreign oil and it’s fluctuating price at the pump and our dependence on foreign money to finance our self imposed debt.

A glut in the housing market and fewer starts, credit/mortgage problems that threaten hundreds of thousands of families with the loss of their newly acquired homes, A Wall St. that is both Jekell and Hyde – new plateaus reached and then quickly abandoned as fears suddenly set-in.

Horrific displays of the underbelly of human behavior – both domestic and foreign – splash across our media everyday.

An immigration policy that is broken, the export of good paying jobs to cheaper markets, the importing of tainted goods from many of those same markets.

Corrupted politicians being caught and, in some instances, only being slapped on the wrists for their crimes or in the case of the former druggy D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, being enshrined in wax.

So what do our leaders do for all of this?

They give tax breaks to those who don’t need them, give out tax rebates checks just in time for the elections (the monies from which were gotten from taxes to begin with), worry about whether we need a front license plate on our car or not, beat the dead horse path of what you cannot do while driving – talk/text on a cell phone, smoke with a child in a car (when does childhood begin anyway?) – to the point that in five years, you better not be seen picking your nose.

With August here, our Congress, our President, our Supreme Court, our State legislature have taken a cue from the Iraqi government and have gone on a formal vacation, one that is traceable on a calendar versus that of a vacation from their senses or, mind you, any type of display of their convictions.

Hmm, here in NJ, it may take a different descriptor that the use of the word “convictions”. What a shame.

WTO: "Stabbing Weapons need not be put out to bid"

2007-08-04T10:06:00.000-07:00

Made in China: Swiss army knife suffers an identity crisis

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Friday August 3, 2007
The Guardian

It is as closely associated with Switzerland as the Matterhorn, muesli and the cuckoo clock. But the Swiss army knife, considered by millions around the world to be an indispensable tool, is in danger of losing its Swiss identity.

The Swiss army, which is to order a fresh batch of 65,000 of the pocket knives with new specifications, has caused nationwide consternation by declaring that under World Trade Organisation rules, the tendering process must be opened to companies worldwide because of the high value of the contract.

China, which has been producing pirate copies of the knife for years, is thought to have the best chance of winning the contract, which is estimated at 1.7m Swiss francs (£695,000), followed by Taiwan and Bulgaria.

The issue has become one of the hottest political topics of the summer, with far-right politicians saying that national pride is at stake.

"If the Swiss army knife no longer comes from Switzerland, then we might as well stop producing it altogether," said Thomas Fuchs, MP for the far-right Swiss People's party.

Alois Kessler, a lawyer and a former colonel in the Swiss army, has taken up the campaign and launched a nationwide petition, Keep Soldiers' Pocket Knives Swiss!
He said he had found that under WTO rules "stabbing weapons" - among them the Swiss army knife - are on a list of products that do not need to be put out to tender (bid).

"I simply cannot imagine our soldiers carrying a Made in China knife in their knapsacks," he said.

"It would be like us giving them German-made chocolate."

The army is saying little, except that it is working on the technical specifications for the new product to make it suitable for modern soldiering, including a serrated blade with a locking mechanism, a saw, and a Phillips - crosshead - screwdriver. It should also have a case, allowing it to be attached to a belt.

Victorinox, the company that makes the knives, said it was confident it would win the bid on the combined factors of quality and cost.

The knife, which was first produced in Ibach in the canton of Schwyz in 1897, can be equipped with anything from a nail file and a tin opener to a fish-scaler and a USB stick, and features in the design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

It is credited by everyone from balloonists and astronauts to surgeons and pilots with saving lives and is the official pocket knife for 16 armies around the world, including the US military.

It has also prompted many jokes, perceived as it is as the weapon of choice for the military of neutral Switzerland. The US comedian Robin Williams once quipped: "How can you trust an army that has a wine opener on its knife?"

(Hmmm, how soon until Chinese Swiss cheese, eh?)

Who Is Norma Gabler And Why Should We Care

2007-08-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

If you ever used a textbook in a school, especially a public school you were influenced by Norma and her husband Mel.

From The NY Times:

Norma Gabler, Leader of Crusade on Textbooks, Dies at 84
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: August 1, 2007

Norma Gabler, a Texas homemaker who recoiled at material in her children’s textbooks and became the public face of a crusade with her husband to rid schoolbooks of content they considered antifamily, anti-American and anti-God, died on July 22 in Phoenix. She was 84.

The cause was Parkinson’s disease, her son James said.

From its origins at the Gablers’ kitchen table in Hawkins, Tex., in 1961 to its incorporation as Educational Research Analysts in 1973, the mom-and-pop textbook-criticism enterprise grew to occupy a prominent niche in the nation’s conservative pantheon. For more than four decades, the couple influenced what children read, not just in Texas but around the country.

The reason was Texas’ power to be a national template; the state board chooses textbooks for the entire state, and of the 20 or so states that choose books statewide, only California is bigger than Texas. It is difficult and costly for publishers to put out multiple editions, so a book rejected by Texas might not be printed at all.

In a 1982 article in The New York Times, Anthony T. Podesta, executive director of People for the American Way, a liberal group, said, “Texas has the buying power to influence the development of teaching materials nationwide, and a textbook edition chosen for Texas often becomes the sole edition available.”

The Gablers were first to seize on the Texas textbook process as a means of pushing their conservative principles, and their success baffled and angered civil liberties advocates and progressive educators. Publishers, with much to lose if Texas rejected their books, were often willing to make changes to please the Gablers.

Richard Morgan, president of Macmillan’s school division, said in a 1983 interview with The Times, “Not making the list in Texas is not a good sign.”

Mrs. Gabler, always with a smile and careful, precise diction, usually testified at textbook hearings rather than her shyer husband, Mel. She argued for more instruction in morality, free-enterprise economics, phonetics and weaknesses in evolutionary theory.

The Gablers had a two-barreled strategy: in addition to pressing issues of ideology, interpretation and philosophy, the Gablers ferreted out errors of fact. In 2001, Time magazine reported that their “scroll of shame” of textbook mistakes since 1961 was 54 feet long. In the early 1990s, Texas fined publishers about $1 million for failing to remove hundreds of factual errors the Gablers had found in 11 history books.

An example: A textbook said that Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina had supported the tariff of 1816. He opposed it.

But the Gablers’ most important battles concerned bigger issues, like making publishers define marriage as a lifelong union between a man and a woman.

The couple’s interest in textbooks began when James, at 14, had to memorize the Gettysburg Address and turned to an encyclopedia, he said in an interview. The words “under God,” part of the address, were shown in a picture of the Lincoln Memorial, but were omitted in the text as published. His parents blanched.

Soon, the couple were poring over textbooks, something they said few parents ever did, and finding lots to offend. They raised objections at the local P.T.A.
Why did a history textbook give more space to the French Revolution than to the American Revolution? Were not Vietnam and Watergate overemphasized? Was Robin Hood a hero, as the text claimed, or a dangerous advocate of income redistribution?

From the kitchen in Hawkins, about 100 miles east of Dallas, their piles and piles of books and notes spread throughout their house. They worked by what they called the three p’s — prayer, preparation and persistence — as they geared up for their once-a-year trips to Austin, the state capital, to ride herd on textbooks.

There, each academic subject — English, say — is reviewed on an eight-year cycle in a system established a century ago to create an organized buying system to negotiate lower prices. It was also intended to improve the quality of books used in rural areas.

Norma Elizabeth Rhodes was born in Garrett, Tex., on June 16, 1923. She did not go to college. Her husband of 62 years, Melvin Nolan Freeman Gabler, went for a year. He worked in the oilfields, served in the Air Force during World War II, was a clerk for 39 years for Esso, now part of Exxon-Mobil, and died in 2004.

In addition to James, who lives in Phoenix, Mrs. Gabler is survived by another son, Paul, of Houston, and six grandchildren.

Neal Frey, who has worked with Educational Research Analysts since 1972 and is now president, said that Mrs. Gabler’s larger public role was deceptive.

“Mr. Gabler wore the pants in that family, and Mrs. Gabler wanted it that way,” he said in an interview.
Together, they were “the most effective textbook censors in the country,” Creation/Evolution, a publication of the National Center for Science Education, said in 1982. It went on to point out that while the Gablers derided textbooks that left out alternatives to evolution, they opposed alternative interpretations of American history they deemed negative. They objected to an Edgar Allan Poe story as gruesome. Texts that raised questions without firm answers were suspect.

Famously, in 1973, they flinched at a fifth-grade American history text that devoted more attention to Marilyn Monroe than to George Washington.

“We’re not quite ready for Marilyn Monroe as the mother of our country,” Mrs. Gabler said.

Imus isn’t the real bad guy

2007-04-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Excellent Article Worthy of a Reprint

COMMENTARYImus isn’t the real bad guy

Instead of wasting time on irrelevant shock jock, black leaders need to be fighting a growing gangster culture.

By JASON WHITLOCK
Columnist
Kansas City Star
(Note: Jason Whitlock is a black columnist and former ESPN personality)

Posted on Wed, Apr. 11, 2007

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

I ain’t saying Jesse, Al and Vivian are gold-diggas, but they don’t have the heart to mount a legitimate campaign against the real black-folk killas.

It is us. At this time, we are our own worst enemies. We have allowed our youths to buy into a culture (hip hop) that has been perverted, corrupted and overtaken by prison culture. The music, attitude and behavior expressed in this culture is anti-black, anti-education, demeaning, self-destructive, pro-drug dealing and violent.

Rather than confront this heinous enemy from within, we sit back and wait for someone like Imus to have a slip of the tongue and make the mistake of repeating the things we say about ourselves.

It’s embarrassing. Dave Chappelle was offered $50 million to make racially insensitive jokes about black and white people on TV. He was hailed as a genius. Black comedians routinely crack jokes about white and black people, and we all laugh out loud.

I’m no Don Imus apologist. He and his tiny companion Mike Lupica blasted me after I fell out with ESPN. Imus is a hack.

But, in my view, he didn’t do anything outside the norm for shock jocks and comedians. He also offered an apology. That should’ve been the end of this whole affair. Instead, it’s only the beginning. It’s an opportunity for Stringer, Jackson and Sharpton to step on victim platforms and elevate themselves and their agenda$.

I watched the Rutgers news conference and was ashamed.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke for eight minutes in 1963 at the March on Washington. At the time, black people could be lynched and denied fundamental rights with little thought. With the comments of a talk-show host most of her players had never heard of before last week serving as her excuse, Vivian Stringer rambled on for 30 minutes about the amazing season her team had.

Somehow, we’re supposed to believe that the comments of a man with virtually no connection to the sports world ruined Rutgers’ wonderful season. Had a broadcaster with credibility and a platform in the sports world uttered the words Imus did, I could understand a level of outrage.

But an hourlong press conference over a man who has already apologized, already been suspended and is already insignificant is just plain intellectually dishonest. This is opportunism. This is a distraction.

In the grand scheme, Don Imus is no threat to us in general and no threat to black women in particular. If his words are so powerful and so destructive and must be rebuked so forcefully, then what should we do about the idiot rappers on BET, MTV and every black-owned radio station in the country who use words much more powerful and much more destructive?

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

No. We all know where the real battleground is. We know that the gangsta rappers and their followers in the athletic world have far bigger platforms to negatively define us than some old white man with a bad radio show. There’s no money and lots of danger in that battle, so Jesse and Al are going to sit it out.

To reach Jason Whitlock, call (816) 234-4869 or send e-mail to jwhitlock@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com

Amish Away

2007-03-05T08:07:00.000-08:00

Spent an overnight in Lancaster, Pa recently going to auctions of the fellowship held at a local firehouse in the area. This was no small affair as items ranging from horses to house wares, and everything in between, were up for bid.
While many of the attendees were Amish, “civilians” were also numerous in their presence and activity, with a total crowd at approx. 2,000.
Little known to me at the time was the pricing on such items as handmade quilts ($300 to $600) and the buggies that the Amish use ($850 for a used one to $3500 for a brand new one – I asked the guy and he said it was to be a wedding gift), 5 piece handmade bedroom sets (beautifully made) for $1200, was an education onto itself.
However, the outcome of the successful bidding is that the item must be taken away from the grounds that day. While this may be seen as a fairly easy exercise in the case of a quilt or farm tools, the buggies are another story altogether.
We witnessed one of the successful bidders of a buggy actually using himself as the horse and pulling (running) the buggy down the state highway with about 10 cars behind him.
We are planning on going next year – with more time allotted to allow for viewing of the items before the bidding.

And So It Ends

2007-02-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it comes before you think it would, before the natural end plays out as you envisioned it.

Funny thing, this vision stuff.

It has a way of clarifying that which you thought to be true, wanted to be true, would have sworn to be true. We’ve had a lot of people here in Keyport of late, reexamining what they thought they saw, wanted to see, believed to be true on so many fronts.

So much disappointment when the reality was found, that in the end of the realization process, the only option is to step aside and let it play out without your involvement. To allow others the room to be who they truly are – without your hope or disappointment in them weighing them down. Perhaps with the additional light allowed through from your absence, comes the ability to see the shortfalls and maybe allow some growth.

At least that’s what I want to be true, think to be true, hope to be true……

On Repairing Our Reputation

2007-01-30T16:14:00.000-08:00

It was 1987 when Raymond Donovan, the former U.S Secretary of Labor under Ronald Regan asked, "Where do I go to get my reputation back?" after being acqitted of charges that included larceny and fraud in connection with a constructon project for the New York City subway system.

There are many in my hometown of Keyport who may be wondering the same thing about our community’s reputation after the recent confession to felony charges by our former mayor, John Merla.

As revealing as it was to find out that, although admitting to all accusations made by the U.S. Attorney, the sentencing will be for only one charge, with guidelines that call for 24-30 months in prison, we are still left to wonder how this scenario was arrived at, and what give and take transpired to allow this leniency to be somehow satisfactory.

Perhaps time will tell.

With this confession comes a clear deliniation between the right and wrong, between the friendship and the public figure, between the accomplishments and the betrayals of the public trust, between the innocent and the felon.

It was disheartening to read the reactions to this news by individuals who maintain high level and influencial positions within community organizations. It seemed to come across that to them, our former mayor should be allowed some discount on his failure to be honest, and his willingness to work at personal gain, while using this community’s name and reputation to do so.

An example of this settlement’s failure would be the charge stemming from the September 11, 2003 get together with the government witness, a meeting where our former mayor accepted $9,000.00 for the promise of work.

Within hours of accepting that envelope, our former mayor told an assembled goup of 150 people who had gathered to mark the second anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy – that Sept. 11 will always be "a day of mourning, a day of thinking and a day of trying to forget even though we’ll never forget" and that “the country should keep in mind those who lost their lives and the soldiers fighting for our rights and our freedom,” Merla said. A youngster later approached the then mayor and asked for a donation for a fundraiser. Attempting to play the Big Man On Campus in front of a large group of individuals, Mr. Merla produced a $100 bill and gave it to the child.

Ironically, it was disclosed during my interview with the FBI that the $9,000 payment made to Mr. Merla that day was comprised of $100 bills.

While many would point to his many accomplishments in our town, his felony confession now provides the filter through which they must be viewed, assessed, and properly valued.

The restoration of our community’s reputation rests with each of us, our elected officials, and the leaders of all community groups and organizations that have been tarnished and harmed by Mr. Merla’s criminal violations. Convincing statements and actions are needed from our collective leadership, to assure those who would potentially invest and consider living and/or working here; that there are not two sets of understandings of right and wrong in Keyport. That confessed felons are not to be held up as an example of what we, as a community, strive for in a moral foundation.

To this end, I applaud Councilman George Walling for asking that a new plaque be installed on the front of Borough Hall without the name of our now disgraced mayor. While to some this one action might seem to be a small step, I would hope that other community organizations and groups follow this lead as it pertains to them and this disgraced mayor.

I received assurances at the 1/23/07 Council meeting from the Borough Council and Mayor Bergen that they will contact the US Attorney’s office and obtain all of the videotapes of Mr. Merla and the government witness, and make them available to our community. In doing so, the tapes can be viewed without the filtering of the news media or other descriptions and opinions of the events that took place, so that by using their own judgment, everyone can draw their own conclusions based on the actual facts that were found by the U.S. Attorney to be suitable for evidence.

However you feel, perhaps you might want to make your feelings known to the judge before the May 8th sentencing. His address is as follows:

Honorable William J. Martini
District Judge
U.S. District Court – District of New Jersey
Martin Luther King Building & US Courthouse
50 Walnut Street
Newark, NJ 07101

The Oil Crack And Our Addiction To It

2007-01-24T17:54:00.000-08:00

I watched the State of the Union address last night (Tivo’ed it) after the council meeting. Lots of same olds’ same olds being pulled out and mentioned – Bush wants 20% reduction in oil consumption by 2011, wants fuel efficiencies, no details how to get there.

Here is my suggestion:

Look to Brazil, a country that is totally off the oil nipple and onto Ethanol. Ethanol made from sugar, not corn.

The difference between the two sources is startling. The return gotten from the ethanol made from corn is 1 ½ times what you put into making it. Compare that to a return rate of 8 to 1 by using sugar to produce the ethanol.

Brazil has done the research into this sugar source and has fine tuned it to some 41 different species of plants – plants that can grow in almost any type of soil, are disease resistant and can be manipulated to produce a very high sugar content, with minimal waste by products.

The problem with corn is that the starch has to be extracted, then converted to the sugar- base used to create the Ethanol.

Where does Brazil currently get most of its’ automobiles that use this sugar based Ethanol?

Detroit. The technology is in place on the production line already.

Now imagine what could happen if we took just one of the 100 billion dollar supplemental appropriations that have or are being used in Iraq and applied it to a 5 year plan of credits to consumers (car buyers), sugar farmers, ethanol production infrastructure development, etc.

We could stop using our current 25% of the world’s oil on an annual basis, while stopping the emissions that are helping create the green house effects.

A question – if this was all in place right now – would we really give a rat’s ass about what is happening in the Middle East? Where would these archaic countries be without the petrodollars we send over? We, by default, go on supporting these repressive regimes because of our need for their oil.

What if Bush had said this, or something like it, on Sept. 12, 2001. We would have all fell into line, readily said “yes sir” and we would have been on our way to being off the oil crack by now.

Instead we are in the middle of civil war, slipping on quicksand, with over 3,000 dead and more the same ahead.

APP Video - Merla pleads guilty

2007-01-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

click here to see the report

APP.COM | Asbury Park Press Online

Belated Merry and a Happy New

2007-01-04T17:50:00.000-08:00

Took some time away from this, just enjoying the holidays.

A lot has happened – death of 2 presidents (one of natural causes, the other of causes of his own doing), death of the Godfather of Soul, a new mayor & 2 new council members, new majorities in House & Senate in DC, a new year.

Mob scene (shown via cell phone video) at Saddam hanging did the impossible – they actually made this despicable bastard look good and made me wonder if this is the best this supposed government (that we are spilling the blood of our young to establish) could do. I guess it could have been worse, given the level of “civilization” we’ve seen on display for the last 3 years, they could have decided on death by stoning.

Sorry to see President Ford go – nice guy who did some hard things and with the passage of time, some wise things. Some facts you may or may not know about Ford:
Authorized the establishment of ATM’s and variable rate mortgages.
Authorized women in the armed forces.
Authorized the use of the White House for daughter Susan’s high school prom.

Liked James Brown music, but could do without some of his personal battles with loved ones.

I wish the new Keyport mayor well.

To the new council members – good luck and make sure your votes are based on your feelings, not somebody else’s instructions. Try to have some fun too.

On Holidays Greetings

2006-12-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

First off, thank you to everyone for their best wishes during this season. Some even took the time to express a nice message about my having been on council.

I can only wish you and yours the best in 2007.

Enjoy this time living out the definition of who we are with those we love - it is the process of unwrapping this personal touchstone - that inner collection of ideals and understandings - that sometimes reveals both our longsuits and shortcomings. It is the result of this effort that we find ourselves referring to for the rest of the year.

The sources for these fundementals are hopefully as diverse and as numerous as possible, thereby constantly adding to their strength in both belief and wisdom. It is in this decision making that will hopefully lead us to understand who we are in an ongoing, evolving fashion.

We are, afterall, human - as good, and sometimes as bad, as it gets.

Be good.

I Wonder?land

2006-12-21T06:09:00.000-08:00

Given this seasons’ penchant for the make believe, it is not surprising that the battle between The Donald & Rosie O’Donnell would be front and center in the news cycles of late.

Apparently the Miss USA “scandals” qualify for hours upon hours of scrutiny by everyone and with it the eventual fallout by these two great mind trusts. The Donald takes a failing asset, the Miss USA pageant, and turns it into something everyone wants to know about and Rosie takes the bait, thereby extending this make believe important story’s life for another day or two or three.

While we are focused on this “important” diversion, the meter keeps running in Iraq at $10 million dollars an hour. That is correct, an hour. The American deaths are fast approaching the 9/11 losses. The president is about to ask for another $100 billion in funding for this effort and perhaps another 30,000 troops and, in an “oh-by-the-way” moment at his recent press conference, tells Americans to go shopping.

How can the focus of what’s really important be put where it belongs?

Perhaps we should have Miss USA go and do her rehab in Baghdad where she can dance on tables and make-out with Miss Teen Iraq in a bathroom in the Green Zone.

A New Year's Lynching?

2006-12-20T07:36:00.000-08:00

With the news of John A. Lynch Jr. being sentenced to 3 years 3 months for mail fraud and income tax evasion from using his public offices for other reasons than the public benefit and with the end of the year approaching, I thought it a good time to speak about public service.

As a public official myself, whose term is expiring at the end of this year, I read this story from a somewhat different perspective than most and I am embarrassed to see yet another trust being violated by someone who thinks more of themselves than anyone else.

If there is anything that has been affirmed to me in each of the 9 years that I have been in public office, it is that those in a public position, or those thinking about seeking an elected position, need to remember some things:

1) It is the fool who thinks that they have “power”, for the only thing given to them by the electorate is responsibility.

2) Don’t fool yourself into EVER thinking that you are all wise, all knowing about any subject – there are ALWAYS other people who know more.

3) A fool thinks that backroom deals will not become public knowledge because the details are being held so close to the vest. People WILL ALWAYS talk and you will be found out.

4) When it comes to casting your vote on an issue, don't make the mistake thinking that you owe anyone or organization anything for putting you there. If those that helped you get elected really respect you, they won't EVER have a problem if you disagree with them on anything. If they do, then maybe they are part of an overall problem. Remember, you are voting on behalf of the citizens, not a clique or party basis.

With the New Year approaching and the oaths being taken, remember – don’t be foolish or you just might find yourself wishing a future Happy New Year to Mr. Lynch in person

Swedish Yuletide "Tradition"?

2006-12-19T06:35:00.000-08:00

December 18, 2006, 3:21 pm

Is That a Bow on the Christmas Goat, or a Bullseye?
By Tom Zeller Jr.

NY Times

Some residents of Gävle, Sweden celebrate the holidays by erecting a Christmas

goat. Others celebrate by beating it down.

In keeping with the holiday spirit, a good-news story (so far, at least) from Gävle, Sweden, where the town’s giant Christmas goat (a 40-year tradition) survived its first attack by arsonists (also a 40-year tradition) and remains standing today in Castle Square.

According to news agency reports, since 1966 when the town first erected a 43-foot wood-and-straw goat, the seasonal sculpture has “been hit by flaming arrows, run over by a car and even had its legs cut off” and has made it intact past Christmas Day only 10 times.

A more detailed history from Wikipedia gives the Gävle Goat — apparently a version of the Yule Goat, a traditional Scandinavian Christmas symbol — a survival rate of 54 percent overall, with 13 of 31 goats surviving various assaults, including one last year by attackers dressed as Santa Claus and a gingerbread man.

Official Web cameras have been erected to monitor the goat (it’s still there, despite the poor odds, as of this writing). And an English language Web site, based in Sweden, for fans of the Gävle Goat offers a guestbook for those who might want to leave messages of support.

Last week’s attempt on the goat, which happened overnight on Thursday, was foiled by flame retardant chemicals, in which the goat’s straw had been soaked this year, officials said.

“Somebody tried to set fire to the right front leg, but the flame-resistant chemical worked 100 percent,” Kurt Lagerholm, chairman of the goat committee, told the Associated Press. “There’s a smell of gasoline and the ribbon is a bit smutty, but otherwise it’s unhurt.”

NJ and "Civil Unions"

2006-12-17T18:19:00.000-08:00

It would seem that the gay rights issue has taken on new momentum with the passage of the civil union legislation this past week here in NJ. I’m glad that it finally happened for them. It’s been a long time in coming and as a NJ resident, I’m glad to be in a state that recognizes consenting adults’ commitments to each other.

In being around gays in all the various paths that I have taken since high school, I have seen that the relationships that they have are not that much different from my own or others that I know of a hetero world. Sometimes life is good, sometimes it stinks and most of the in between, it’s so-so.

Unfortunately, the “civil union” status that was passed is not enough for some in the gay community as they wanted it called “marriage”. Well, welcome to the world of those who want their cake and want to eat it too.

“Marriage” is not going to be there for a while, if ever.

The reason is that for many of the constituents of those who voted for “civil unions”, the term “Marriage” is off limits and reserved for the daughters who grew-up believing in that special wedding day – that day that they get married to Prince Charming. Many of these brides already knew the wedding gown style they were going to wear that day even before they met Mr. Right and all of it is geared for a wedding type as close to Princess Di & Prince Charles as they, or their families, can afford. To them, they are not getting “civil unionized”, they are getting “married”.

So the fight for the term “marriage” to be used for gay civil unions may go on, but I wouldn’t bet on it happening in the next 25 years. Mothers of the hetero brides carry ALOT more clout than you may think.

The Using Of Billy Graham

2006-12-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

A truly disturbing report appeared in the Washington Post on Wednesday, 12/13/06 written by Laura Sessions Stepp concerning the family battle of Billy Graham, the world renowned evangelist and his being caught in the middle of wife Ruth and his eldest son Franklin – the dispute is about where he will be buried..

While I am wary of the current crop of evangelicals who have used their positions to try and influence public policy in such an extreme way of late, Billy Graham has, over the long haul, proven to be a man of his beliefs and has steadfastly maintained a certain degree of self control when it came to “using” his influence in any other arena outside of his religious deeds.

While I am not an overtly religious person, I have always thought of the Rev. Graham as one of the good guys. Whether I agreed with what he said or not, the delivery of his message always made me stop and listen and in turn, made me think.

In this world of 1,000 channels of TV, hundreds of cell phone ringtones or the come hither of the Internet, it’s a rare accomplishment for one person to stand at podium, with full humility and armed not with an elected title, or backed by an army, but armed only with just his voice, command the attention of so many around the world to at least stop and listen. He was John Paul II decades before that pope arrived on the scene.

Herewith that story from the Washington Post:

A Family at Cross-Purposes
Billy Graham's Sons Argue Over a Final Resting Place
BY Laura Sessions Stepp
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 13, 2006; Page A01

MONTREAT, N.C. -- It is a struggle worthy of the Old Testament, pitting brother against brother, son against mother, and leaving the famous father, the Rev. Billy Graham, trapped in the middle, pondering what to do.

Retired and almost blind at 88, the evangelist is sitting in his modest log house on an isolated mountaintop in western North Carolina and listening to a family friend describe where Franklin Graham, heir to his father's worldwide ministry, wants to bury his parents.

Billy's wife,Ruth Bell Graham, is listening too, curled up in a hospital bed on this bleak November evening. At 86 and 100 pounds, she suffers from degeneration of the spine, which keeps her in constant pain. In a nightgown, quilted pink silk bed jacket and pearl earrings, she stares up at the longtime friend on her right, her face and mind alert. On her left sits her younger son, Ned, 48, who has taken care of her and Billy for almost four years, and Ned's wife, Christina.

Events will unfold quickly in the days afterward: more meetings at the house, prayers offered and a notarized document produced that Ruth signed before six witnesses.

But at this moment everyone's attention is on the visitor, crime novelist Patricia Cornwell, who is talking about a memorial "library" that the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, headed by Franklin, is building in Charlotte. Cornwell toured the building site and saw the proposed burial plot. She was asked by Ned, who opposes Franklin's choice, to come and give his father her impression.

"I was horrified by what I saw," she tells Billy, in the presence of a reporter invited to be there.

The building, designed in part by consultants who used to work for the Walt Disney Co., is not a library, she says, but a large barn and silo -- a reminder of Billy Graham's early childhood on a dairy farm near Charlotte. Once it's completed in the spring, visitors will pass through a 40-foot-high glass entry cut in the shape of a cross and be greeted by a mechanical talking cow. They will follow a path of straw through rooms full of multimedia exhibits. At the end of the tour, they will be pointed toward a stone walk, also in the shape of a cross, that leads to a garden where the bodies of Billy and Ruth Graham could lie.

Throughout the tour, there will be several opportunities for people to put their names on a mailing list.

"The whole purpose of this evangelistic experience is fundraising," Cornwell says to Billy Graham. "I know who you are and you are not that place. It's a mockery. People are going to laugh. Please don't be buried there."

Billy Graham's eyes never leave Cornwell's face as she talks. Ruth Graham sighs. A lot.

"It's a circus," Ruth says at one point, softly. "A tourist attraction."

Ruth Graham has told her children that she doesn't want to be buried in Charlotte. She has a burial spot picked out in the mountains where she raised five children, and she hopes her husband will join her there.

Ned Graham has been working to convince his three sisters, Gigi, Bunny and Anne, that their mother's wishes should be followed.

But six years ago, Franklin, 54, took over the BGEA and now is trying to convince their dad of the appropriateness of the Charlotte burial site, Ned and another family member say.

Franklin, in a telephone interview, says no decision has been made. "Some of the board members feel the library ought to be the place," he says, declining to name which members. "I'm preparing both places."

Of the library, he said, "I wanted to show to another generation of pastors and evangelists what God did through a man who was faithful and who communicated it simply."

After Cornwell finishes, Ned Graham speaks to his father.

"Could you see going to a Ronald Reagan library and there not be one book?" he asks. "Or people being solicited to be on a donor list?" He wipes his eyes; his mother, tissue in hand, wipes hers.

Billy Graham, who has Parkinson's disease, sits erect in an orthopedic chair, dressed in pressed bluejeans and a pale yellow pullover. His famous rugged face remains impassive except for something Ned notices: He's grinding his teeth.

His dad, he says, does this when he's upset. And why wouldn't he be?

The burial issue threatens to tear asunder what some have called the royal family of American religion, and Billy is being asked to make a Solomon-like choice between the wishes of his heir and his wife of 63 years.

The Preacher's Wife

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to those who know her, Ruth Bell Graham has always spoken her mind. When she and Billy married in 1943, Ruth, raised by Presbyterian missionaries in China, told her husband, a Southern Baptist, that she would remain a Presbyterian. When Billy announced in 1947 that he wanted to become a full-time traveling evangelist, she insisted that they settle in Montreat, a hamlet in the Blue Ridge Mountains, so that she and the children could be near family.

With his tall frame and Hollywood good looks, Graham drew record crowds to his Billy Graham Crusades and became so popular that between 1950 and 1990, he appeared on the Gallup Organization's "Most Admired" list more often than any other American.

He traveled as much as six months at a time and while he was away, Ruth was raising their children in a house built from logs found on abandoned farm sites. Her children say that she was fearless and fun, a mom who thought nothing of chopping off the heads of rattlesnakes or driving a motocross bike into a split-rail fence when she realized she didn't know how to stop it.

As teenagers, the children struggled with the expectations that come with being a preacher's kids. Both boys, Franklin and Ned, fell in love with fast cars, drinking and girls and were no strangers to the local police. Eventually, however, four of the children started their own ministries, the largest of which is Franklin's international relief agency, Samaritan's Purse.

Though initially, according to family members and news reports, Billy and several other BGEA board members had reservations about Franklin succeeding his father because of his limited experience, in 1995 the board named Franklin vice chair.

The Charlotte Site

As its new CEO, Franklin, who has the tall, leonine looks of his father and the feisty nature of his mom, persuaded the BGEA board to move the organization from its longtime headquarters in Minneapolis to Charlotte, near where Billy Graham was born. It was a logical choice, and not just for nostalgic reasons: Charlotte's business elite had always been big supporters of the Billy Graham Crusades, raising as much as $1 million for the preaching tour each time it came to town.

Though growing in population, Charlotte was experiencing something of an economic downturn in the late 1990s. The new BGEA headquarters would pump money and jobs into the local economy. Franklin Graham and Graeme Keith, a major developer in Charlotte and a BGEA board member, began envisioning something else as well, a Billy Graham memorial that might attract 200,000 or more tourists to Charlotte -- putting it up there with the nearby Paramount Carowinds theme park and a planned NASCAR Hall of Fame.

In 2001, the organization purchased 63 acres of land adjacent to a major highway (named years earlier for Billy Graham) for $7.4 million. In 2005, the new corporate headquarters was completed, a 200,000-square-foot building of fieldstone, cedar and glass costing almost $44 million. Then Franklin turned his attention to the memorial library, which he sees as a tool for evangelism.

"I would hope every person who comes through hears the message and by the time they come out of the library be confronted with a decision to accept or reject Christ."

The library was, by all accounts, not something his father initially wanted. In fact, Billy Graham abstained when the board first voted on the idea. Though Billy has hobnobbed with the rich and mighty for more than a half-century, observers have often commented on his humility. Unlike Franklin, who collects handmade cowboy boots and leather jackets, Billy wears old suits that, as Johnny Cash once said, look like they came from a JCPenney store.

According to Graeme Keith, the board tossed around several ideas for the library, including something like the stucco-and-tile Reagan Presidential Library in California. Finally, Franklin suggested a house resembling the one Billy grew up in, plus a barn, to be called the library. Convinced by Franklin and others that this new building would perpetuate the Gospel after he died, Billy gave it his blessing.

The 40,000-square-foot structure has a high-pitched roof supported by unfinished wooden beams, and bathroom stalls of corrugated tin. The tour is geared particularly to children, according to Franklin, starting with the life-size mechanical Holstein named Bessie who greets visitors from her stall just inside the front door.

What Bessie will say is yet to be decided, Franklin said, but she might start off with something like, "Hello. I bet you didn't know milk comes from a cow. Well, let me tell you about that." She'll then introduce the main man: "When Billy was young, we cows knew there was something special about him. . . ." Bessie will challenge youngsters to count how many times during the tour they hear the voice of "Billy Frank" mention Jesus. For their efforts, they'll be offered a glass of milk at the snack stand, where cookies and other items will be on sale.

"One of my concerns is how do you engage a child," Franklin said. "To see pictures of a man preaching in black and white, that isn't going to do it."

Franklin says the library also will house some of his father's writings and memorabilia taken from the Cove, another piece of BGEA property about 100 miles west of Charlotte in Asheville. As it turns out, it is also where his mother wants to be buried.

Nestled in forests of poplar, locust and Southern pine, invisible from the highway except for a single gray steeple, the 1,500-acre Cove was Ruth's project from its beginning in 1984. She believed that people working hard for Christ, in whatever capacity, needed a place where they could idle in a rocking chair, stare at the mountains, and find new energy to continue their work. Her husband and his board agreed, setting up the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove.

Ruth worked closely with architects and construction engineers on the classrooms, auditorium and guest accommodations. A small library was established and as years went by, books given to Billy, inscribed by the world leaders who wrote them, found their way there. Glass cabinets today display some of the thousands of gifts he acquired: a Ten Commandments tablet from movie producer Cecil B. DeMille, a letter opener from German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and porcelain and silver from visits to China, North Korea and Russia.

In his early years on the BGEA board, Franklin directed millions of dollars to the Cove, which is 18 miles from Montreat. But once plans for the new library in Charlotte were underway, he turned to the Cove for money. The BGEA sold its 300-acre campground, transferred money earned from the Cove's endowment to the library's endowment, and laid off Cove staff.

The Cove Location

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When Ruth was supervising construction at the Cove, she paid particular attention to the chapel, a spare yet elegant stone edifice built by local laborers.

She arranged six arched, clear glass windows on each side of the sanctuary so that visitors would always see outside. She asked that the floors be made of native pine and the chandeliers of cast iron from Asheville. On the sanctuary's back walls she hung two damask banners summing up Billy's ministry and what she considered hers, the first quoting Jesus saying, "Go Ye Unto All the World" and the other, "Come Unto Me and I Will Give You Rest."

A few hundred yards from those banners is the quiet, leafy spot where Ruth intends to be buried. Her desire might have remained just a preference communicated to a couple of her children had Ned Graham and Patricia Cornwell not acted. Cornwell happened to call Ned Graham in mid-November to ask how his mother was doing. She had felt close to Ruth from the time Cornwell was a child living a few miles down the mountain. In 1984, she wrote a biography of the woman whom she had come to consider as a second mother.

After learning from Ned about the Charlotte plans, Cornwell retrieved a letter, mailed to her several months earlier, asking for a sizable donation to the new library and signed by Billy Graham. She had been puzzled because Billy didn't write fundraising letters. She decided to fly to Charlotte.

Board member Graeme Keith took her on a tour of the barn. She was impressed by the TV footage of Billy over the years. But a talking cow? "It truly is tacky," she said.

She asked Keith about the mailing list. He told her that traditional donors were aging and that younger donors were needed. He also said the names of big donors would be inscribed on the concrete silo.

At one point, she asked Keith, "Are you going to have any memorabilia, like a suit or something people can touch?"

Keith leaned over, she said, and told her that Billy and Ruth were going to be buried on the property. The tour, he said, would end at the foot of their graves.

Cornwell recalled, "I asked, 'How do Billy and Ruth feel about this?' "

Keith told her that Billy had agreed. And Ruth? Billy was working on her, Keith said.

Cornwell then visited Montreat to ask Ruth where she wanted to be buried. Ruth repeated her position. That's when Ned Graham decided he needed to get the notarized statement, which his mother dictated. "My Final Wishes Concerning My Burial Site" says, in part:

"Since it is impossible for me to be buried at my 'first home' in China, my next choice is the beautiful mountains of Western North Carolina which I have loved and where I have lived for the past 60 years. . . ." A number of years ago, the document continues, she and Bill "agreed that we would be buried together near the chapel at The Cove. The Memorial Garden at Chatlos Chapel was prepared for that very purpose."

"Bill has recently talked to me about being buried at the Billy Graham Library/Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. However, I want to make it very clear that I am standing by our original agreement. My final wish is to be buried at the Cove. Under no circumstances am I to be buried in Charlotte, North Carolina."

In an interview with The Washington Post yesterday, Keith said, "Ruth wants to be buried next to Billy, first and foremost." When asked about her objections to Charlotte, he replied, "In her physical condition, she agrees with the last person who talked to her."

Personality Matter

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Franklin knew where his mother wanted to be buried but until recently never talked to her about his plans, leaving that to his father.

It was not the first time he and his mother saw things differently. By his own admission, he was always a headstrong child. Once, Ruth, fed up with the teenage Franklin's smoking, made him smoke an entire pack of cigarettes. He vomited a half-dozen times but never gave in. On another occasion, Ruth, angry at Franklin's pinching his sisters in the car while on a trip to a fast-food restaurant, locked him in the trunk. When she opened it up, he asked for a cheeseburger without meat, French fries and a Coke.

He was sent to a Christian boarding school on Long Island, N.Y., then to a small college in Texas and in 1974, at 22, had a conversion experience in a hotel in Jerusalem. A month after that, he joined an international aid ministry that eventually became Samaritan's Purse, and channeled some of his energy into piloting planes carrying food, medicine and the Gospel to places such as Rwanda, Haiti and recently New Orleans. With a budget of $264 million, Samaritan's Purse is among the country's 50 largest charities.

Ned, six years younger than Franklin and the baby of the family, was the quieter child. Named for his mother's father, a surgical missionary in China, he says he was spoiled, and he wonders occasionally whether his siblings resent him for that.

That's not to say that, on occasion, he didn't give Ruth fits. "In my late teens, early 20s maybe, I'd be out late drinking, getting stoned. I'd come home at 2 or so and Mother would be up. She'd just kiss me and say, 'Ned, I'm glad you're home. Love ya, I'm going to bed now.' "

Now, he says, it's his turn to take care of his mother. Two years ago, Christina assumed the daily operation of their East Gate Ministries, a Bible and training ministry in China, so that he could return to Montreat. He found his mother severely undernourished, he says, and his father's health also deteriorating. He had the house adjusted to make it easier for his father to walk around, started his mother on a special diet and made sure she visited the beauty salon once a week.

As he heard reports this fall about the library from his sisters, one of whom compared it to a Cracker Barrel restaurant, he said, he grew concerned that it would belittle his father's ministry. His brother dismissed his concerns. His sister Anne was sympathetic but unwilling to challenge Franklin openly, he continued. Anne's own ministry, like Ned's, receives funding from the BGEA.

"I've spent the last few years trying to help my parents preserve their mental acuity, independence and dignity," he said over lunch in the spacious Cove dining room. "And I'm saddened that the family is not unified on this issue."

He says he would like to see the library become more about Franklin and less about his father who, in his view, is already memorialized at the Cove. He is close enough to his dad to know that, as he puts it, "there never would have been a Billy Graham without a Ruth Graham."

His parents are finally home together most days now. They eat supper watching old movies like "The Sound of Music" and listening to Ned or Christina read the Bible. Of late, Ned has chosen stories about decision-making and God's solace in troubled times.

Billy Graham sits next to Ruth's hospital bed for long periods, stroking her arms and her face.

Ned knows that his father hates conflict, which is one reason his dad has stayed away in recent years from the political battles of religious conservatives. But this is one dispute Billy Graham can't avoid.

As Cornwell ends her short speech to Billy that November evening, Billy says, "I sure appreciate what you say, and I have no comment. I've heard all this before."

Cornwell is not dissuaded.

"I tell you, if you're buried there I'll dig you up and move you here," she says.

Ruth chuckles from her bed. "I'll be one of the pallbearers," she says.

At the sound of Ruth's voice, Billy's face softens toward Cornwell, as he says, "I'll just think and pray about what you've said."

Merla Trial Delayed Again

2006-12-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

You know, by the time this trial takes place, we'll all be on Social Security.

The rumor that keeps bumping into itself around town is a deal of - admit to 1 count for a 10 month sentence.

Or go to trial and beat 'em on all but 1 count, piss 'em off and they'll ask for the max on the one count that they win (3 years?).

If that was the scenario facing you, what would you do, eh?

I know you would never find yourself in this position, but what if you did? What would you choose?

The Free Version - Iraq Study Group Book

2006-12-13T10:37:00.000-08:00

If you'd like to link to the Iraq Study Group report from your Web site, please use the following link:
http://www.usip.org/isg/iraq_study_group_report/report/1206/iraq_study_group_report.pdf

Downloads of 'Iraq Study Group Report' Beat Out Sales
December 13, 2006
By Kimberly Maul, Book Standard

Readers are heading online to download The Iraq Study Group Report for free, rather than buy the $10.95 book, published last Wednesday by Random House’s Vintage Imprint. The book, which has already gone back for a second printing, sold 38,000 copies in the week ending Dec. 10, according to Nielsen BookScan, while the online version has been downloaded approximately 1.2 million times, according to the U.S. Institute of Peace, which hosts the report on its website.

The book was released online and in book form on Dec. 6, to coincide with the presentation from the committee, led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican, and former Indiana representative Lee Hamilton, a Democrat, to President Bush and congressional leaders. The report is also available at the James A. Baker Institute website, where, from Dec. 6 to 11, it had been downloaded approximately 422,000 times, according to a representative.

How Does One Liberate And Not Communicate?

2006-12-11T18:12:00.000-08:00

One of the more startling revelations of the Iraq Study Group appears to put the lie to Vice President Chaney's proclamation the "we would be greeted as liberators".

It seems one fundamental piece of that picture was missing then and continues to be missing now.

The ISG found that of 1,000 people assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, only 6 spoke the local language. That's right, 6.

Joseph Heller of Catch-22 fame couldn't have dreamed that up.

How would our soldiers know what was being chanted at them as they drove into the place on that first day? For all we know they could have been smiling and wishing us dead.

How do you explain democracy to someone if the interpreter calls in sick or takes a long lunch break? How seriously are you taken by those who you want to stand up so you can stand down, when you can even ask them what their name is?

No wonder the middle and upper middle classes are fleeing to Jordan and Kuwait. The doctors, teachers and other professionals aren't going to stay any longer - they've waited 3 years thinking Bush's supposed policy was going to work and it was working - inside the green zone. Now that area is seeing increases in violence and the taking of more American and Iraqi lives.

So is it any wonder that we had to learn about the tribal nature of the people there as a result of violence, rather than through discussions.

How do you build a nation, if you can't even talk?

Discovery Lift-off Delays

2006-12-10T10:53:00.000-08:00

The NBC affiliate in Orlando had on its' website the reasons and concerns for and about the recent delays in getting this recent launch done.

Weather - rain & wind - were the factors causing the actual delays for the renewed effort for a nighttime liftoff.

However, in reading further, it was revealed that the scheduled 12-day mission was running out of time to happen this year and was in peril of being scrubbed until next year.

Why?

Because the on-board computers on the shuttle DO NOT have the capability to change their clocks from the 365Th day of a year to the first day of a new year.

That's right, something your cell phone can do, cannot be done by the computers on-board the space shuttle.

The engineers do have a patch for this, but withheld applying it because it hasn't been fully tested. It's 2006 and it hasn't been fully tested.

Did anyone at NASA pick-up a newspaper or turn on a TV to become aware of the Y2K scare of a few years back that had people wondering if planes in the air at midnight on that New Years holiday where going to be dropping from the sky? Or did they notice other government agencies and private businesses spend millions retrofitting software so that crashes to computer systems wouldn't happen?

News reports of the time had people stockpiling food, money and other essentials to at least temporarily thwart the effects of a complete societal breakdown caused by software failures.

Did NASA notice any of that?

And they are talking about putting permanent colonies on the moon?

NJ Gov. Backs Off On Unions

2006-12-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the dance, fellow New Jerseyians.

Unfortunately, the Gov. has asked that he, not the legislature, lead us in this charade of "getting tough" on the benefits that public employees are getting. The legislative leaders took that offer quicker than you could blink. Why not? After all they're the ones who will be up for re-election long before the governor will. He'll be the bad guy and they can play the good guys during their re-elction runs.

After decades of giving it up to the unions at the bargaining table by our elected officials, we are now suppose to believe that this one man, the Governor, is going to get it all, or most, of it back.

Right.

If I were a union member, why would I want my union leaders to give up a nice pension system, great health benefits, etc.? If you had it, would you give it up for nothing?

Let's see, the Governor got tough with them this year by saying that this was going to be the last freebie Friday after Thanksgiving day off that they would get.

I figure that the leftover turkey has more backbone that this guy.

Sunday 12/10/06 9:41 pm - Update

I think I have whiplash. It seems the Govenor has begun backstepping from his backstepping by sidestepping his intentions.

It seems that, via a letter sent tonight to Senate President Richard Codey & Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts, the govenor is challenging the leaders to have their respective bodies go ahead and attempt to reform public worker benefits, without any mention if he would sign any bills that they might come up with.

Apparently this caught the president of Communications Workers of America Local 1033, Rae Roeder, by complete surprise. She is as confused as Codey & Roberts are about this sudden turn by the Govenor.

Why do I get the feeling that if we put together all of the backbones of all the elected leaders that are involved in this situation, we would find ourselves sitting ringside witnessing the political equivalent of a jello wrestling match?

On Iraq

2006-12-09T09:37:00.000-08:00

It says alot when our President continues to hold a view on Iraq that, according to recent polls, almost 75% of his fellow countrymen disagree with.

The advice on what to do, whether it be from commissions, government agencies or departments, new appointees or even a former Secretary of State or two, continue to pile up in the "will be looked at seriously" stack on the president's Oval Office desk.

We can only hope that Laura Bush can nudge him to actually read any of them, like she has done with the Shakespeare writings and other literary works that the president so proudly boasted about having completed during the late summer.

How many American soldiers have died since then? How many American soldiers have been wounded or scarred, physically or emotionally, for life since then?

Why do we seem to want a democracy in Iraq more than the Iraqi people themselves?

There is only one person who can walk into the Oval Office and tell this president that the events in Iraq have reached the point of insanity and that it must be stopped sooner rather than later.

The surrogates have have their say, they have given it their best shot and the uncertainty still exists as to how much 43 has heard or absorbed. No, there is and always has been, only one that can reach 43.

That person is 41, the father, a man who faced death in war, a man who knew the names of military friends who were killed in action.

George H. W. Bush, like so many veterans, has in his heart those painful memories of war and with them the understanding of the impact on the families that are affected. He also knows the politics of it, whether it be from his days in Congress or at the U.N. as the U.S. ambassador. He could even draw upon his expierence as the head of the CIA if need be, not to mention his time as both Vice President and as the ultimate decider during his time as President.

The tears he shed the other day in Florida speaking about his eldest son, Jeb, the outgoing Govenor of that state, were from that same heart. I wonder how much of a stretch it would be to say that mixed in with those proud tears for his eldest son were perhaps one or two of sadness for the son in the Oval Office, the stubborn one with this mess on his hands, a mess of his own creation.

I hope that he, 41, gathers it all together and, for the sake of those in the field patriotically carrying out this mess of a plan, and for their families, sits W. down and tells him in no uncertain terms it's over.

LBJ had this moment with Eugene McCarthy in the New Hamshire primaries, Nixon had Howard Baker and Barry Goldwater in the Oval Office. It's time for dad to be the decider one more time.

Should 43 choose not to listen, then for the sake of stopping the deaths of American soldiers, 41 should reveal to the world his advice to his son.