Syrian rebels exposed - George Galloway

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Syrian Rebels Captured With Israeli Weapons

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

A dailymail.co.uk article from mohammed razavi

Mitt Romney supports Israeli strike on Iran in tough talk speech supporting the Jewish state... after he cancels fundraising dinner scheduled for a holy day of fasting



The cultural misstep on his stop in Israel followed a disastrous trip to Britain, where he insinuated that London was not ready for the Olympic games.



Full Story:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2180624/Romney-forced-cancel-fundraising-dinner-scheduled-Jewish-fasting-holiday-Tisha-BAv.html



30 July 2012

www.dailymail.co.uk

BREAKING NEWS: Militarized Police at Anaheim Protests -

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Syria News 29 July 2012.Saudi regime suppress protests. Zionist behind w...

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

America's Police Shooting Gallery

America's Police Shooting Gallery http://www.pacificfreepress.com/opinion/12116-americas-police-shooting-gallery.html Sun 29 Jul 2012 America's Police Shooting Gallery written by Tom Engelhardt Written by Tom Engelhardt Police Shootings Echo Nationwide: Aurora Gets the Attention, But Guns Are Going Off Everywhere by Stephan Salisbury l TomDispatch Welcome to the abattoir -- a nation where a man can walk into a store and buy an assault rifle, a shotgun, a couple of Glocks; where in the comfort of his darkened living room, windows blocked from the sunlight, he can rig a series of bombs unperturbed and buy thousands of rounds of ammo on the Internet; where a movie theater can turn into a killing floor at the midnight hour. We know about all of this. We know because the weekend of July 20th became all-Aurora-all-the-time, a round-the-clock engorgement of TV news reports, replete with massacre theme music, an endless loop of victims, their loved ones, eyewitness accounts, cell-phone video, police briefings, informal memorials, and “healing,” all washed down with a presidential visit and hour upon hour of anchor and “expert” speculation. We know this because within a few days a Google search for “Aurora movie shootings” produced over 200 million hits referencing the massacre that left 70-plus casualties, including 12 fatalities. We know a lot less about Anaheim and the killing of Manuel Angel Diaz, shot in the back and in the head by that city’s police just a few short hours after the awful Aurora murders. But to the people living near La Palma Avenue and North Anna Drive, the shooting of Manuel Diaz was all too familiar: it was the sixth, seventh, or eighth police shooting in Anaheim, California, since the beginning of 2012. (No one seems quite sure of the exact count, though the Orange County District Attorney’s office claims six shootings, five fatalities.) Tomgram: Stephan Salisbury, Life in the American Slaughterhouse Is America an increasingly violent society? Statistics seemingly tell us no. From 2001 to 2010, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, violent crime victimizations actually dropped 34%. While this decrease is part of a longer-term trend (and there’s still startling amounts of carnage in this country), it begs the question of whether the United States is really less violent than previously and, if so, where all that excess violence went. It’s notable that, since 2001, the U.S. has been exporting and facilitating violence of all sorts all over the globe. Some of this violence is thoroughly sanctioned and some isn’t. In Iraq, members of the U.S. military committed violent acts against untold numbers of Iraqis, including military personnel who served Saddam Hussein’s regime, as well as insurgents, and civilians. (The U.S. invasion itself touched off Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence that killed tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands and continues to this day.) Though the numbers may not be comparable, much the same story could be told about Afghanistan, not to speak of Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. Americans have also killed African pirates on the high seas and, just days ago, an Indian fisherman on a boat in the Persian Gulf. Recently, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been killing suspected drug smugglers in Honduras. U.S. arms have been sent to Middle Eastern autocrats visiting violence on their own people and the U.S. military has trained African troops to more effectively kill African insurgents. American weapons have flooded Mexico and supercharged drug violence there. A war in Libya, involving the U.S. military, led to Tuareg fighters looting Libyan weapons stockpiles and committing acts of violence across the border in Mali (which was plunged into further violence due to a military coup by an American-trained officer). Today, America’s commander-in-chief regularly selects individuals in a number of countries to be placed on a “kill list,” targeted, and assassinated. And so it goes. Exporting violence is not, of course, simply a post-9/11 phenomenon. It’s been an American tradition, from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli, from Haiti to Hiroshima. When the U.S. exported war to Southeast Asia, it eventually engulfed Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in utter carnage. One way civilians there were frequently killed resulted from what historian David Hunt has trenchantly called “the sin of running.” A Vietnamese villager frightened by the roar of a helicopter or a door-gunner pointing an M-60 machine gun at her would bolt in fear or a young military-age man would take flight when armed American teenagers, who might detain, beat, or kill him, approached. As Vietnam veterans would later tell me, “running” branded Vietnamese as guilty, and so as enemies, in the minds of many U.S. troops and led to startling numbers of noncombatants being gunned down. Today, TomDispatch regular Stephan Salisbury examines police violence in America, which may, hardly noticed, be on the rise. In poor neighborhoods, in particular, the “sin of running,” it appears, is alive and well. For the last decade, we’ve barely noticed as the U.S. spread violence globally. At home, we generally take note of only a few of the most egregious or spectacular cases of violence. Luckily, Salisbury has delved deeper and offers a window onto the less-reported version of American violence that most of us fail to see. (To catch Timothy MacBain's latest Tomcast audio interview in which Salisbury discusses the lack of good numbers on police shootings and why they are so poorly covered, click here or download it to your iPod here.) Nick Turse Police Shootings Echo Nationwide: Aurora Gets the Attention, But Guns Are Going Off Everywhere by Stephan Salisbury Diaz, 25, and as far as police are concerned, a “documented gang member,” was unarmed. He was apparently running when he was shot in the back and left to lie on the ground bleeding to death as police moved witnesses away from the scene. “He’s alive, man, call a cop!” a man shouted at the police. “Why would you guys shoot him in the head?” a woman demanded. “Get back,” officers repeatedly said, pushing mothers and youngsters away from the scene, which they surrounded with yellow crime-scene tape. Neighborhood residents gathered on lawns along the street, upset at what had happened near their homes, upset at what has been occurring repeatedly in Anaheim. Then, police, seeking to disperse the crowd, began firing what appeared to be rubber bullets and bean bag rounds directly at those women and children, among others. Screaming chaos ensued. A police dog was unleashed and lunged for a toddler in a stroller. A mother and father, seeking to protect their child, were themselves attacked by the dog. We know this because a local CBS affiliate, KCAL, broadcast footage of the attack. We know it because cell phone video, which police at the scene sought to buy, according to KCAL, showed it in all its stark and sudden brutality. We know it also because neighbors immediately began to organize. On Sunday they demonstrated at police headquarters, demanding answers. “No justice, no peace,” they chanted. Who Is Being Killed and in What Numbers? This is daily life in less suburban, less white America. On Sunday, when the first of growing daily protests took place, Anaheim police shot and killed another man running away, Joel Mathew Acevedo, 21. Acevedo was armed and opened fired, police maintained -- yet another suspected gang member. It is not hyperbole to say this is virtually a daily routine in America. It’s considered so humdrum, so much background noise, that it is rarely reported beyond local newscasts and metro briefs. In the days bracketing the Aurora massacre, San Francisco police shot and killed mentally ill Pralith Pralourng; Tampa police shot and killed Javon Neal, 16; an off-duty cop shot Pierre Davis, 20, of Chicago; Miami-Dade police shot and killed an unidentified “stalking suspect”; an off-duty FBI agent shot an unnamed man in Queens; Kansas City police shot and killed 58-year-old Danny L. Walsh; Lynn police and a Massachusetts state trooper shot and killed Brandon Payne, 23, a father of three; Henderson police shot and killed Andy Puente Soto, 42, out in the desert wastes near Las Vegas. These are some of the anonymous dead. Their names are occasionally afloat on seas of Internet data or in local news reports. Many are young, even very young; many are people of color; many are wanted by the police for one thing or another; some are crazy; some are armed; some, like Manuel Diaz, are not. In the end, though, we know remarkably little about these victims of police action. The FBI, which annually tracks every two-bit break-in, car theft, and felony, keeps no comprehensive records of incidents involving police use of deadly force, nor are there comprehensive national records that track what police officers do with their guns. Because of that we have no sense of whether such killings are waxing or waning, whether different cities present different threats, whether increased use of private security guards poses a greater or lesser danger to the public, whether neighborhood watch groups are a blessing or a bane to their neighborhoods. The Trayvon Martins of the world, who could perhaps speak to that last point, are mute. The FBI’s Uniform Crime Report does include a more limited category of “Justifiable Homicide by Weapon, Law Enforcement,” defined as “the killing of a felon by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty.” That figure has hovered around 400 annually for the last several years. (In 2010, it was 387, down from 414 in 2009; in 2006, it was 386.) Would Manuel Diaz fall into that category? Was he a felon? Can running fit the bill for “justifiable homicide”? The FBI does list all police officers killed while on duty, whether they are gunned down deliberately by violent suspects or hit accidentally by a car. (In 2010, the FBI reported, 56 officers died “feloniously,” while 72 were killed “accidentally.”) But the Manuel Diazes of America are not included in the FBI data sets. Ramarley Graham, 18, followed and shot by New York City police last February, is of little interest to FBI statisticians. But the Graham killing, which has resulted in manslaughter charges against a member of the NYPD, stirred numerous protests in that city. Luther Brown Jr., killed by Stockton, California, police in April, and James Rivera, killed by Stockton police two years ago, stirred community protest as well. Would their names make the FBI list of “justifiable homicide”? Who makes that judgment and on what basis? The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics has been compiling data on deaths of suspects following arrests, but the information covers just 40 states and only includes arrest fatalities. From January 2003 through December 2009, bureau statistics show 4,813 deaths occurred during “an arrest or restraint process.” Of those, 61% (2,931) were classified as homicides by law enforcement personnel, 11% (541) as suicides, 11% (525) as due to intoxication, 6% (272) as accidental injuries, and 5% (244) were attributed to natural causes. About 42% of the dead were white, 32% were black, and 20% were Hispanic. Total gun deaths nationwide in 2010? 11,493, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Who Is At Risk? The lack of authoritative and comprehensive national data on police shootings and the reluctance of local law enforcement departments to release information on the use of deadly force has sent researchers onto the Internet searching for stories and anecdotal evidence. Newspapers looking into the issue must painstakingly gather information and documents from multiple agencies and courts to determine who is being killed and why. One major recent independent effort by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2011 -- undertaken in the wake of community protests over two police shootings in 2010 -- confirmed anecdotal evidence drawn from virtually all major metropolitan areas. If you are a young man, a person of color, and live in a poor urban area, you are far more likely to become a victim of police gunfire than if you are none of those things. The newspaper, which analyzed court cases, police data, and other documents, determined that there had been 378 victims of police gunfire in the Las Vegas area since January 1990; 142 of the shootings were fatal. And deaths from police gunfire, the paper found, had risen from two in 1990 to 31 in 2010. Over the entire period of the study, the paper found that “blacks, less than 10 percent of Clark County's population, account for about 30 percent of Las Vegas police shooting subjects. Moreover, 18 percent of blacks shot at by police were unarmed.” A joint study carried out by the Chicago Reporter and the online news site Colorlines in 2007 determined that “about 9,500 people nationally were killed by police during the years 1980 to 2005 -- an average of nearly one fatal shooting per day.” African-Americans “were overrepresented among police shooting victims in every city” investigated (the nation’s 10 largest). African-Americans would not be surprised by this finding; nor would it come as a surprise to Hispanics to learn that they are increasingly at risk of police gunfire. Bureau of Justice statistics show that 949 Hispanics suffered arrest-related deaths from 2003 to 2009 (out of the total of 4,813 such deaths noted above). The numbers have bounced around over the years, but are trending up from 109 in 2003 to 130 in 2009. Certainly, the Latino community of Anaheim is familiar with this territory. Orange County and Anaheim authorities have promised investigations of the two recent police shootings. The FBI is reviewing the shootings and the U.S. Attorney’s office has agreed to conduct an investigation at the request of Anaheim’s civilian authorities. Those authorities -- the mayor and five-member city council -- are all Anglo, while Hispanics constitute about 52% of that city's 336,000 residents. There is no civilian complaint review board in place to conduct any probe of police actions, no independent group gathering information over time. The family of Manuel Diaz has filed a federal civil rights suit in the case and called for community calm as protestors become increasingly restive. “There is a racial and economic component to this shooting,” said Dana Douglas, a Diaz family attorney. “Police don’t roust white kids in affluent neighborhoods who are just having a conversation. And those kids have no reason to fear police. But young men with brown skin in poor neighborhoods do. They are targeted by police.” Post-9/11 Money Is No Help The last decade, of course, has seen an enormous flow of federal counterterrorism money to local police and law enforcement agencies. Since 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security has allocated $30 to $40 billion to local police for all manner of training programs and equipment upgrades. Other federal funding has also been freely dispensed. Yet for all the beefing up of post-9/11 visual surveillance, communications, and Internet-monitoring capabilities, for all the easing of laws governing searches and wiretaps, law enforcement authorities failed to pick up on the multiple weapons purchases, the massive Internet ammo buys, and the numerous package deliveries to the dark apartment in the building on Paris Street where preparations for the Aurora massacre took place for months. Orange County, where Manuel Diaz lived, now has a fleet of seven armored vehicles. SWAT officers turn out in 30 to 40 pounds of gear, including ballistic helmets, safety goggles, radio headsets with microphones, bulletproof vests, flash bangs, smoke canisters, and loads of ammunition. The Anaheim police and other area departments are networked by countywide Wi-Fi. They run their own intelligence collection and dissemination center. They are linked to surveillance helicopters. The feds have also anted up for extensive police training for Anaheim officers. In fact, Anaheim and Orange County have received about $100 million from the federal government since 2002 to bring operations up to twenty-first century speed in the age of terror. Yet for all that money, training, and equipment, police still managed to shoot and kill a running unarmed man in the back, just as NYPD officers shot unarmed Liberian-born Amadou Diallo after chasing him up his Bronx apartment building steps in February of 1999. Diallo was infamously shot 41 times after pulling his wallet from his pocket, apparently to show identification. Police thought it was a gun. The shooting precipitated national protests and acquittals in a subsequent trial of the police officers involved. The year Diallo was killed was also the year of the Columbine massacre, 20 miles from Aurora. It seems like only last week. Since that time the nation as a whole has become poorer and less white, while police departments everywhere are building up their capabilities and firepower with 9/11-related funding. Gun ownership of almost any sort has been cemented into our American world as a constitutional right and a partial ban on purchases of assault weapons lapsed in 2004, thanks to congressional inaction. This combination of trends should make everyone uneasy. Stephan Salisbury is cultural writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer and a TomDispatch regular. His most recent book is Mohamed’s Ghosts: An American Story of Love and Fear in the Homeland. To listen to Timothy MacBain's latest Tomcast audio interview in which Salisbury discusses the lack of good numbers on police shootings and why they are so poorly covered, click here or download it to your iPod here. [Note: Bureau of Justice Statistics data on the demographics of arrest-related deaths can be found by clicking here.] Follow TomDispatch on Twitter @TomDispatch and join us on Facebook, and check out the latest TD book, Terminator Planet: The First History of Drone Warfare, 2001-2050. Copyright 2012 Stephan Salisbury Add comment Name (required) E-mail (required, but will not display) Website Title 1500 symbols left Notify me of follow-up comments Security code Refresh Send JComments About Advertise Help Privacy Policy Terms of Use Banners Feedback Sitemap Top Atlantic Free Press Atlantic Free Press LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Behind Closed Doors

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Cycle Of Poverty Hard To Break In Poorest U.S. City

Can we take sometime, DEAR NPR, and talk about the consequences of out of wedlock sex, teen sex and how it promotes poverty, and how sexualized kids end in trouble and poverty, how too many kids cause permanent poverty. How the promiscuity causes family breakups. How media and their overlords promote sexuality and cause these problems to fester, and this just for starters, not including  the resultant diseases,  injuries due to domestic violence, partner and child abuse, bankruptcy etc. Poverty is not and incurable problem, we just don't have the money for all the people who want to be stupid, respectfully yours. We are supposed to be humans, able to control out desires and urges, natural and otherwise, or so I was told. Not pushing religion here, just some common sense is needed.  

 

Heard on All Things Considered

July 10, 2012 - ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block.
Reading, Pennsylvania, was once a thriving railroad hub and factory town. There were good jobs and a strong middle class. Today, with a poverty rate of more than 41 percent, Reading has been labeled the nation's poorest city. As the economy slowly recovers, many families there are being left behind.
SIEGEL: And though we're in the midst of a presidential campaign, neither candidate is talking much about how to help these families and the more than 46 million Americans still living in poverty.
Well, this week, we're going to talk about poverty and meet some of those who are struggling. Our project begins with three families in Reading. NPR's Pam Fessler has our story.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
PAM FESSLER, BYLINE: In the middle of the night, most children are home in bed. But at the Second Street Learning Center, a half dozen tiny bodies are curled up on green plastic floor mats, fast asleep.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Two or three should be her next feeding.
FESSLER: Conversations here are hushed. The lights are dim. But at 1:30 a.m., a worker gently shakes two little sisters snuggled under the same blanket.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Kimberland(ph), let's go. Mommy's here. Come on. Go home, go back to bed, get up and get ready for school.
FESSLER: It's another day - or, in this case, night - at a center where parents can bring their children at any hour.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: She's out like light bulb. Come on.
FESSLER: And they do, coming and going from late-night shifts, school or another job search. Today, we'll meet three mothers who rely on this center - a safe haven for many in this troubled city. These women's lives say a lot about what it means to be struggling and poor in America, that it isn't starving in the streets as much as it is the countless frustrations that often add up to one step forward and two steps back.
TRACY BOGGS: I do have a car, but I don't trust it...
FESSLER: There's Tracy Boggs(ph)...
BOGGS: ...because it needs a lot of work and I haven't had the money to put into it.
FESSLER: ...and Lori Lebo(ph)...
LORI LEBO: The paperwork alone is a headache. Like I said, I did the application for food stamps and medical this morning. That was 17 pages.
FESSLER: ...and Meghan Gonzales(ph).
MEGHAN GONZALES: I didn't have a babysitter, so I couldn't go to work. And then my dad and his wife, they foreclosed on their house, and they couldn't really take us all on a second-floor apartment.
FESSLER: First, Meghan: perky, optimistic, but clearly stressed.
GONZALES: Sleep? What is sleep?
(LAUGHTER)
FESSLER: She says she feels like she's 50. She's so tired. But she's only 25.
GONZALES: My oldest daughter's 9, then 8, then 5, and then my son is 2.
FESSLER: And her husband says, later, there's another one on the way. Meghan is cheerful as she picks her kids up from daycare. She wears lots of pink, even has a pink streak in her hair. She's gone from living in a homeless shelter to earning a nursing license, to getting a good job at a nursing home. But juggling four kids, school, work?
GONZALES: It's really tough.
FESSLER: Well, how do you do it?
GONZALES: Motivation is probably the kids and setting a good example for them so they can never say that, you know, my mom didn't do it, so why should I do it?
FESSLER: And we heard this again and again in Reading. These mothers know instinctively what all the studies show, that poor children are more likely to become poor adults, to drop out of school and become single teen parents. It's tough breaking that cycle, but also complicated, when lives are a messy combination of bad luck and bad choices.
LEBO: When he broke my nose, he was in jail. They locked - he went to prison. October 10 is what I have. They took him out of my house October 9.
FESSLER: Lori Lebo's had a string of setbacks. Her 20-month-old daughter was born premature. Her boyfriend hit her. Then she lost her job in February. But she's tough, resilient. Sitting in her row house, she shows me her nine tattoos: a dragon wrapped around a rose on her ankle, a sun and moon with her kids' birth dates on her thigh.
LEBO: She was born at night. He was born in the daytime.
FESSLER: She's talking about the baby, Mikaela(ph), and 9-year-old Jeffrey(ph). They're at daycare now, so Lori can look for work, but she's not having much luck. She's also preoccupied. Mikaela's father, released from prison in March, has just been sent back.
LEBO: His parole officer said, you realize he violated every condition.
FESSLER: Including staying away from Lori. But she says he loves the baby, the baby loves him - so she let him back home.
LEBO: Obviously, life is happening around us, and I can't always focus on one thing. I feel like I'm doing a juggling act. Mikaela.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: Mikaela.
LEBO: Mikaela. Hi, baby girl.
FESSLER: Later, Lori goes to the Second Street Learning Center to pick up her daughter - a slice of a little girl with white blonde hair.
LEBO: Come here. You want mommy today? You want mommy now?
FESSLER: Lori says she was let go from her job at the power company after five years because she missed too much work. But she says, what was she to do? Michaela was 1 pound, 5 1/2 ounces at birth. There were long hospital stays, doctor visits, not to mention court appearances after her boyfriend broke her nose.
LEBO: I mean, the job market's tough right now. And a lot of employers are now cracking down that you can't even take the time to take care of your family. You know, you - they basically give you a choice. You want your job or you want your family?
FESSLER: And things have only gotten worse. Two weeks after we spoke, Lori lost her childcare subsidy from the state because she's unemployed. She had to remove her kids from daycare, which makes looking for work more difficult. And if she does find a job, she'll have to wait up to a year to get the subsidy renewed because of state budget cuts.
MODESTO FIUME: These things just make me crazy because when finally people are doing what they need - it's almost like we've set up a system where we want people to stay dependent.
FESSLER: Modesto Fiume heads Opportunity House which runs the daycare center. He says it's difficult enough helping families get on their feet without having the rug pulled out from under them at the wrong time. He says for many here, getting jobs isn't enough.
FIUME: A lot of this is just a product of dysfunction, quite honestly, and a lack of stability in their own homes. So what we try to do here is we try to bring some sense of stability to the kids' lives, and that's the most stable time in their life.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #4: You ready?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Yes, we are.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #5: Begin.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Open, shut them, open, shut them, give a little clap. Open...
FESSLER: And the kids here do get a lot more than snacks and play. There's plenty of organized activity, computer training, homework help, all with a message: Work hard and opportunity will follow. But some things are easier said than done. It's clean and bright inside the center. But outside, the neighborhood is filled with empty lots and tired row houses. Jobs and companies have been fleeing Reading for years: Lucent Technology, auto parts manufacturers, even Hershey candy plant.
And that brings us to mother number three: Tracy Boggs. She lives across the street in a three-bedroom townhouse with her daughters: 7-year-old Emily, 21-year-old Tracine.
BOGGS: So each of us have our own bedroom. It's real nice.
LEBO: Tracy is 49, soft-spoken but tired. She's just returned from her part-time job cleaning a beauty supply store at the mall.
BOGGS: My unemployment stopped and didn't know where I was going to turn.
FESSLER: She worked eight years at a company that made needlecraft kits but then it was sold, and the jobs moved to China. At first, things looked promising. The state paid to retrain Tracy in medical billing and coding. There's a big hospital here. But when she got her certificate in December and started to look for work...
BOGGS: Nothing here in Reading. All the offices here outsource their billing and coding to other sources, other companies.
FESSLER: All the jobs were way outside the city. The only way to get there is to drive. Tracy takes me outside to show me her car. This is yours?
BOGGS: That one's mine, yeah.
FESSLER: A 1997 Chrysler Concorde with 81,000 miles and a growing list of problems.
BOGGS: And just had the struts and tie rods put on yesterday. And I have to get tires, although my engine light came on yesterday, so I have to get that checked out today and see what's wrong with that.
FESSLER: Like most of the mothers here, she has no husband to share the bills. Poverty's high, but it's a lot higher for women like Tracy. An astounding 66 percent of single mothers in Reading live below the poverty line, less than $19,000 for a family of three.
Tracy admits she made some bad decisions.
BOGGS: Both of the men that I chose were louses, you know, or you know, not good choices.
FESSLER: Although she quickly adds...
BOGGS: I wouldn't change anything in the world for my kids, my daughters. They're what keeps me going and keeps me fighting to keep searching, as bad as the economy is. If it was just me, I would have gave up a long time ago.
FESSLER: And you hear that a lot around here. Hope that things will get better if you just keep plugging away. Down the street, Meghan Gonzales, who we met earlier, is finally home with her four kids and husband. He's on disability with a bad back. She's had a long day with orientation at her new job. Half-eaten plates of spaghetti are scattered across the kitchen table. Their row house is cheerful, but chaotic and tiny.
Meghan says she wants to leave Reading so her children can go to better schools. She's especially worried about the high school, where almost one out of every two kids drops out.
GONZALES: There's like over 4,000 kids there and - I don't know - I think it makes it hard for them to do good in school. Like it's - I don't know - (unintelligible) is just like it's not cool to do good in school.
FESSLER: Did you go to that high school?
GONZALES: Yeah.
FESSLER: For a year and a half until she got pregnant. Meghan wants better for her kids. Earlier that week, the whole family went to the bank to open a first savings account to start putting money aside, but then the family van with everyone inside broke down in front of the bank. Another bill to pay.
Pam Fessler, NPR News.
SIEGEL: And you can see pictures of some of the families and get a glimpse inside Opportunity House at NPR.org. For the second part of our series on poverty, we'll return to Reading to meet a single mother of three. She is 29-year-old Jennifer Step(ph). Her day starts at 6:30 in the morning.
BLOCK: She juggles work, school, daycare. It's a hectic life for her and for her children.
JENNIFER STEP: And I explain to them that I'm doing it for them, not for me, so later on down the road, we can have a comfortable life and a nice house. I try to make it look pretty for them. A nice house with a dog and a front yard for you to play in.
BLOCK: And she couldn't do it without a lot of help from her family, her work and from the government, but Step says she doesn't expect a handout.
STEP: I'm the opposite and I know there are some other single mothers out there that are also the opposite. They try hard and, sometimes, it's just not hard enough. You need that help.
SIEGEL: That story, Single Mothers and Poverty, tomorrow on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

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 stop making excuses for poor behaviors, it only encourages bad behavior, Liberal bleeding hearts should be warning the poor that if the Conservatives win, they will be on their own, no more free lunches, get your stuff together and fix yourself, pan handling in front of a republican majority will not work for liberals, get real,

 only single mother in the history was Mary, almost all the others have always had someone else involved. STOP using the phrase "single mother", and you may find some short cuts out of poverty.

 Yes, agree whole heartedly, and also single moms need to stop breeding with worthless run away sperm donors, you will never find love by offering free or most frequent or generous amounts of sex, how about finding guys with jobs, or least some kind of otherwise qualifying traits besides good in bed.

Safety net, how about finishing high school and getting married first, that would be a hell of a safety net right there.

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Bet You Didn

Bet You Didn





LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

THE BOTTOM LINE

07/09/2012

 THE BOTTOM LINE


 Don't blame me, I get tired of posting knowing no one comes here to read this blog, I leave links on site, but all those with already made opinions do not want to see or hear a different word beside what they already KNOW! The thing is if everyone already knows what is wrong and how to fix it then why are we in this mess.

I know, I know we are waiting for the Messiah, Muslim , Jews, Christians, we all wait and soon the salvation will come, we have waited for three thousand years,  I am almost sure it will not happen in my lifetime. But wait, the world will end on the 22d of December, no more problems.  But what if it does not happen?

We have an election coming up and if you are not convinced that Obama or Romney have a cure than you can vote for Ron Paul, that is your solution to the world problems, oh nice if you are a fool.

Let me try this one more time, if the world does not end on the 22d of December, and the Messiah still has not come, we are in deep deep trouble! It is said that the first step in solving a problem is to identify the problem, so let me tell you this, friend, you are the problem. We talk about the trade deficits and can't stop buying cheap junk made overseas, we talk about health care problem but we do not want to pay for any but want the best care in the world. we talk about the unemployment problem but ship the jobs overseas. We talk about no job but don't want to work, talk about welfare but don't want to pay a living wage, we don't want to go to school but want an office job with good pay.

 Feeding people does not create a lot of jobs, killing people and making wars, now that is jobs program, good paying jobs too, mind you!

I have told you in these pages, how the Republicans and the Democrats both lie,  there policies can not and will not work, to be honest, nor will the Ron Paul policies work in real world.

How can you imagine the we can have a government without taxes, we do not live in the eighteenth century,  and how did the people in the eighteenth century live any ways? No roads, no huge prisons, slave labor, black and white, no health care, no hospitals, no internet, telephone or airplanes. I know the writers of the Constitution were geniuses, but they did not live in the 21st century, did not what will happen in this century, so we DO need some fresh ideas now and then.

Time and time again, I have shown how foolish the ideas being promoted by the left and the right are, but mind you, we are Americans, we know it all already and we damn well stick to our guns,  no matter how stupid our beliefs in reality. My liberal friends will not not listen to reason, and my conservative friends already know it all too, no need for a real thoughtful conversation.

Let me tell you once again, just in case, I don't write to make money, I have enough ( not plenty mind you), I don't write for fame, I would have hired an agent, my goal as from day one has been to expose the truth, or to expose you to the truth, harsh as it may be and to make you confront reality, though that is hard too, but I plug along. I don't mind hard work, and I don't mind playing the game and making money to feed myt family and to provide for then a decent start in life.

 Time and again, in this blog, I have brought out the hidden problems in our thinking  as I saw them and as  I analyzed what was being done and said, the bottom line here is that ever since Reagan, we in this country have been living a lie, and as it is with all lies, they keep getting bigger and bigger because people keep catching on over time. Only now as average person has become dumber, as evidenced by their "firm belief in whatever they wish to believe in" it has become easier for the leaders to continue their lines.

See we elected Obama to end the wars and close Gitmo and  bring some civility back to the political discourse, but some because of his lying and some because of "opposition" by Republicans none happened but we are still willing to give him another chance because we are "Democrats". He is absolved of all his sins.
Lo that we were not so stupid, both sides tell us what we want to hear, that is about it folks while  they keep doing what do, both sides are the same.


How can we blame the politicians for being sellout or selfish when we elect them for our own selfish aims, funny we never think of it in this way, we always elect people for what we want them to do for us, then they go ahead and do only what is good for them and we blame them for it.

From Romney to the lowly Republican congressmen of late have picked up on the line "don't worry about the poor they have a safety net",  they just fail to mention in the same sentence that the first thing they want to do when they get in the office to chop up ,cut up and burn that safety net!

The Democrats keep promising that we can have all the things we want and the money will come from,,,,, where? they have kept the insane Bush tax cuts and are in bed with the banker, they hired a tax cheat for the treasury secretary,  Obama is wined and dined by the biggest bankers and oil chiefs and we keep buying his bullshit, hook, line and sinker. Are we in Iraq or out of Iraq? Why are we still guarding the poppy fields in Afghanistan while we have "war on drugs" going on in this country? If we are at war in Afghanistan  and Iraq,  why won't we let the IRC visit our pr4ison and "dark sites". Worse, why is no politician asking questions about the daily rampage of our out of control police that are murdering the innocent daily and they are forcing girls and women to have sex with them with made up and trumped up charges.

It is all our fault really, we are keeping ourselves entertained and damn the torpedoes,

How can we understand the economy, let alone have an opinion on it when we can't make change for a dollar  or at least balance our check book, make a budget for the home, or avoid over draft charges on our debit card. "Stupid is as stupid does", really"

First thing we have to do in this country, the world, is to  realize, to acknowledge and face it that the money does not grow on trees, and that if money is created by "imagination" it is imaginary money and can and will go "poof" on you  some day. We saw that happen in 1987, it happened in the tech bubble in 2000, and it happened in 2006 with the housing bust. But we have short memories. We still think that the money will come out of some dark hole soon and we will all be rich.

The prequel to all of it, lest we forget started with Reagan, who was either and idiot or a sell out, (once again, I voted for Reagan the first time because he promised to balance the budget, I was still young and naive). His idea that tax cuts increase revenues to the government, did not work then and will never work. Either you let the government steal money from the rich thru taxes, or you let the rich steal money from the government that has no money and must print more to hand over to the rich making THEM get richer,


more will follow soon





LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Many dead in triple Pakistan drone strike - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

"I know it will sound to many like ME being an apologist for the damn Muslims, but the time has come to say that Obama is going out of his way to show that he is not a Muslim, and to suck up to the Israeli, and conservative US voters by indiscriminate and even unjustified killing of innocent Muslims, and not without the approval and support of some sellout Muslims themselves!"




Many dead in triple Pakistan drone strike - Central & South Asia - Al Jazeera English

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Robert Fisk on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir Conflict, India, China & U...

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Syriagate-WIKILEAKS Releases Syria Files,2.4 mlllion Emails to be published

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/68665-david-icke-shut-up-you-dont-want-to-know-about-this

http://www.davidicke.com/headlines/68665-david-icke-shut-up-you-dont-want-to-know-about-this

LIFE IS A GAME OF CONNECT THE DOTS, IF YOU DON'T CONNECT ALL THE DOTS OR DON'T CONNECT THEM IN THE RIGHT ORDER YOU NEVER GET THE PICTURE

Tim Stone has sent you an email

Al Jazeera.Net

TIM STONE (Tstone1@yahoo.com) wants you to see following article


Twitter says government requests keep rising

( http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2012/07/20127371613243748.html )

Also he/she attached you the following message:

Active-duty troops, vets launch campaign to help GIs resist Afghanistan war

Mohammed52@yahoo.com has sent you an article from http://www.answercoalition.org.

Page title: Active-duty troops, vets launch campaign to help GIs resist Afghanistan war

Link to full page: http://www.answercoalition.org/march-forward/statements/active-duty-troops-vets.html

Summary:

In response to the catastrophic, immoral war in Afghanistan and the ceaseless epidemic of military suicides, active-duty U.S. troops along with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have launched a nation-wide campaign to educate and assist service members about their right to refuse to fight.