Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Dear Florida Governor, Dear Lt. Governor, Dear Florida Legislators:

These are exactly the headlines in the media that scare away retirees. Who in his/her right mind wants to come to Florida and risk the family's life-savings after reading such a headline?
 
We can twist and turn it any way we want: What's totally lacking in community associations is CONSUMER PROTECTION.
 
Marlene Kirtland, attorney from the law firm of Becker & Poliakoff, wanted to foreclose on a condo owner because of a $4.70 late fee -- a fee that ballooned to more than $3,000. In my opinion this is plainly disgusting and any attorney who is willing to go to court over such a measly sum should be ashamed. Donna Berger's attempted excuse is no excuse -- it makes it sound even worse. "The old rules of engagements have changed," said Donna Berger of Katzman Garfinkel & Berger. What is this? A war over our homes?
 
These are the law firms claiming to lobby for associations -- and they have the ears of our legislators. If board members who support these law firms still haven't figured out that it's all about billing hours -- nothing else -- I can only feel sorry for them.

Personally, I'm disgusted reading such a horrendous story.
 
Don't we have enough foreclosures in Florida? These are the stories that make national headlines. And we wonder why even the sun and warm winters can't attract any more retirees to Florida. And that is an important factor that would help to revive our sagging economy.

Isn't that what we desperately need?

Regards,
Jan Bergemann, President
Cyber Citizens For Justice, Inc.
QUICK LINKS
---
MY LAST TRIP TO COSTCO

Yesterday I was at my local COSTCO buying a large bag of Purina dog chow
for my loyal pet, Jake,
the Wonder Dog and was in the check-out line when a woman behind me
asked if I had a dog.

What did she think I had an elephant? So since I'm retired and have
little to do, on impulse I told her
that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I
added that I probably shouldn't,
because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50
pounds before I awakened
in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices
and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a Perfect Diet and that the way that
it works is, to load your pants
pockets with Purina Nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you
feel hungry. The food is
nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again.
(I have to mention here that
practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care, because the dog
food poisoned me.
I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff a poodle's ass and a car
hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was
Laughing so hard.

Costco won't let me shop there anymore.

Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the
World to think of crazy things
to say.
Here’s Occupy Wall Street’s “One Demand”: Sanity

By Richard (RJ) Eskow

Even the sympathizers don't always get it. I'm sure I get a lot of things wrong too, but here's one thing I do understand: Change doesn't begin with policy. It begins with perception. And you don't change things by asking. You change them by acting.

But it begins with perception. "All money is a matter of belief," as someone once said.
In the New York Times, Nick Kristof shows that he understands the #OccupyWallStreet movement more than most of his peers. "The protesters are dazzling in their Internet skills," he writes, "and impressive in their organization."
But like many other sympathetic observers, he misses their most important point when he says, "The movement falters in its demands" because "it doesn't really have any."
As movement participant Nelini Stamp told the Take Back the American Dream conference this morning, "We don't have demands. If we make demands of Wall Street, we're saying that Wall Street has the power."
But the fact that the movement doesn't make demands of Wall Street - or Washington, for that matter - doesn't mean it doesn't have demands. It does, but they're not directed at Wall Street, or K Street, or Pennsylvania Avenue. They're directed at you. And at me, and at every other citizen in this country.
To be sure, these "demands" are't couched in the strangely condescending and hostile language of all the Democratic fundraising emails going around lately. ("You think of yourself as a smart voter, don't you?" said one I got this weekend). These "demands" come in a friendler, more respectful tone, that of one person saying to another, "Hey, did you see that?"
Some mainstream liberals and politicos rolled their eyes at the protestors' response to requests that they come up with "one demand." Their "one demand" page includes the execution of Troy Davis ("Ending capital punishment is our one demand"), Yahoo's blocking of emails that included the occupywallst URL ("Ending corporate censorship is our one demand"), and a list of others: 

"Ending health profiteering is our one demand." "Ending American imperialism is our one demand."
That was a signal for the snark to commence. "I'm not a genius at math," said one commenter, "but I've been counting these demands and I've gone way past one." Meanwhile well-intentioned voices like Kristof and my friend Mike Konczal helpfully provided them with policy demands. And they're good ones: A financial transactions tax. Investigate Wall Street crimes. Cancel excessive debts.
But the "one demand" that matters most is directed at our society, not our policymakers, and it's much more fundamental than these excellent ideas. The demand is this: "Come back to sanity." That's the underlying demand that unifies all those items on the #OccupyWallSt website. Our culture is insane today, and they recognize that. Create a transactions tax, and they'll simply rob us another way - until we restore our society to sanity.
"Sanity: The ability to think and behave in a normal and rational manner; sound mental health. Reasonable and rational behavior." Oxford Dictionaries Online
The scope of our confusion and delusion can't be addressed by specific policy measures, any more than you might have overthrown Mubarak's regime in Egypt with a "single demand" to end the torture of political prisoners, or fixed elections, or the theft of the nation's billions by Mubarak and his cronies. The first step is to lift the veil from everyone's eyes, as they did in Egypt, to say to others and to themselves: "This isn't democracy - and it isn't inevitable. We can change it."
Why mention Troy Davis and the death penalty while you're demonstrating against the power of corporations and the big banks? Because executions are a diversion that corporate America throws at the people to draw our attention away from their misdeeds.
The public's getting upset: Wage inequality is worse than its been in modern history. Bailed-out bankers are still paying themselves huge bonuses with taxpayer money. Our corporate politicians always know what to do in a tight spot like that: Kill another black man and change the subject. That's how Troy Davis fits into the demonstrators' "one demand."
Why is "American imperialism" on the list? Because politicians in both parties are determined to cut Social Security and Medicare, even as they support military bases around the world and prosecute two unnecessary wars. Those bases and those wars enrich the corporations that serve the Defense Department.'' Those wars are a symptom of democracy hijacked by corporations.
Why is "corporate censorship" on the list? Because in both a literal and metaphorical sense, certain information is marginalized or blacklisted in our social media and our traditional media. A majority of Republican voters - not Democratic voters, Republicans - want to protect Social Security benefits and close tax loopholes. A vast majority of Americans want the government to create jobs more than it wants deficits to be cut.
But try finding a news report about the budget that doesn't treat these ideas as marginal, extreme, "lefty," and impractical. See how hard it is? That's corporate censorship.
In every voice, in every ban, the mind-forg'd manacles I hear.
William Blake
Here's how insane this country has become. You can find "liberal" pundits and leaders from both parties on every channel who will condemn American homeowners as morally bankrupt and unworthy of help. But the banks they trusted, who sold them mortgages on the false promise that real estate values would rise forever, and who then when on a crime spree, walked away free. And their CEOs are broadcast and quoted as they were legitimate, mainstream American voices.  That's insane.

While the middle class dies and the ranks of the poor swell, this country is talking about cutting the government's spending. While one home in four is underwater, this country's worried about the financial health of banks. While we fight two unnecessary wars, war criminals like Dick Cheney are given television platforms as if they were simply representing a different political point of view.  That's insane.

We executed an innocent man in Georgia while guilty people on Wall Street go free. That's insane.
Conservative Democrats whose views are far to the right of Richard Nixon's, and sometimes even of Ronald Reagan's, are considered the "left" side of the debate. That's insane.
How do you end insanity? By seeing the reality as it is - not by seeing parts of the truth, but by seeing the whole. You start by seeing that we're being run by, and manipulated by, a system. It's a corporate system that drives our politics, our news, and even our entertainment. You begin to see it as a system that's overthrown our basic values and discarded our basic sense of decency, replacing them with an exaltation of consumerism and a condemnation of the unfortunate.
People have been waiting for someone to connect the dots. They've been waiting for someone to explain how these forces act together and work together to exploit us. They want to know how and why they're been losing their wealth, their security, and even their self-esteem.
The #OccupyWallSt protestors are succeeding. They're carrying the message - and they're being heard. They've won over the Transit Workers Union, the Airline Pilots Union, the SEIU, and - in an echo of Tahrir Square - soldiers in uniform who are willing to defend them. You don't do that by proposing a financial transactions tax, as important as that is. You do that by demanding an end to the insanity, the madness that's being manufactured and distributed every day by the leaders of corporate America.
John Samuelson, head of the Transport Workers Union, told Keith Olbermann that his union and the protesters are "singing the same song." My work takes me deep into the weeds of economic policy, but there comes a time to recognize that a financial transactions tax - necessary as it is - is not a "song." Before the words, there's the music. And it's the music that makes us dance.

"Emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds."
Bob Marley
Being as analytical as he is, Konczal delves deeply into the theories of anarchist movements and "autonomous zones." It's a fascinating read, even if you've read up on this sort of thing. But the main point is: This is a song, not a policy platform, and there's no one composer. Everybody's making it up as they go along, and everyone else is welcome to join - as long as they don't lose the beat.
Let's compile our list of policy ideas. They're badly needed. But first comes the song: End the corporate-driven insanity. Restore the values that have guided our country for more than 200 years. Make us human again. Make us a community again. Make us sane again.
Oh, wait. I almost forgot to tell you who said that "all money is a matter of belief." It was Adam Smith, who's been adopted by the free-market types as their philosopher/guru. Smith was right. A change in the money begins with a change in our minds. More socially conservative liberals may be uncomfortable at the protesters' dress code, or their masks, or slogans that sound strange to older ears.
Well, as they say, "democracy is messy." And sometimes it wears masks or unusual clothes or says cryptic things. But when it comes to the beliefs that drive an economy, that "matter of belief" that makes us who we are financially, then - as the Who used to say - "the kids are alright."
The Who. British guys from the sixties. Never heard of 'em? "Hope I die before I get old"? Ah, forget it. Different generations sing different songs. But they sing for the same reason people say birds sing: To be free.
That's why Nick Kristof recognizes that what he's seeing in lower Manhattan is the same thing he saw in Tahrir Square. It's what I saw in Eastern Europe, too, during the fall of Communism. It's democracy in its purest form. That's why the Transport Workers are coming to the demonstrations. And the pilots. And maybe even the Marines, if the rumors are true.
It's the reason I'll be there, too. How about you?
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/heres-occupy-wall-streets-one-demand-sanity-1317740016. All rights are reserved.


Ron Biendseil
608-712-6831
rbiend44@gmail.com

"MOST PEOPLE, ON MOST DAYS, ARE DOING THE BEST THEY CAN"

Monday, October 3, 2011

THIS SENIOR CITIZEN NAILED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alan Simpson, Senator from Wyoming , Co-Chair of Obama's deficit commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security" to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats.
August, 2010.

Here's a response in a letter from PATTY MYERS in Montana ... I think she is a little ticked off! She also tells it like it is!

Listen up. Direct from Ms Myers:
"Hey Alan, let's get a few things straight..

1. As a career politician, you have been on the public dole for FIFTY YEARS.

2. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. I am now 63).

3 My Social Security payments, and those of millions of other Americans, were safely tucked away in an interest bearing account for decades until you political pukes decided to raid the account and give OUR money to a bunch of zero ambition losers in return for votes, thus bankrupting the system and turning Social Security into a Ponzi scheme that would have made Bernie Madoff proud..

4. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN.

5. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying into Medicare from Day One, and now you morons propose to change the rules of the game. Why? Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills.

6. I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. Why? Because you incompetent bastards spent our money so profligately that you just kept on spending even after you ran out of money. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay off YOUR debt.
To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling "bullshit" on your incompetence. Well, Captain Bullshit, I have a few questions for YOU.

1. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career?

2. At what age did you retire from your pathetic political career, and how much are you receiving in annual retirement benefits from the American taxpayers?

3. How much do you pay for YOUR government provided health insurance?

4. What cuts in YOUR retirement and healthcare benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies?

It is you, Captain Bullshit, and your political co-conspirators called Congress who are the "greedy" ones. It is you and your fellow nutcases who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. And for what? Votes. That's right, sir. You and yours have bankrupted America for the sole purpose of advancing your pathetic political careers. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it.

And you can take that to the bank, you
miserable son of a bitch.

If you like the way things are in America delete this. If you agree with what a fellow Montana citizen Patty Myers says, PASS IT ON!!!!
 
 


Subject: Lies on the birth certificate

I guess whoever put out the "birth Certificate" failed to do their homework.     That was stupid! This would hardly matter except he is running for another 4 years.
 
Interesting points…maybe the so called "birthers" are'nt so "crazy" afterall
It was brought to light that back in 1961 people of color were called
'Negroes.' So how can this 'birth certificate' state he is
'African-American' when the term wasn't even used back then?? 
Here is a comment from a reader to George Ure at  UrbanSurvival.com:
"As you all know, Donald Trump made a big deal about Obama's birth
certificate. 
I will tell you right now that I had never given this "birther" issue
any credit. I watched the hype and the crazies come out. I completely
dismissed the entire ordeal altogether. 
In fact, it was not until the White House released the birth certificate
that it had gained my attention. I am the studious sort of guy, and I
have plenty of time on my hands. So, I took a close look at this
document. 
While I would have thought that this issue would have been closed for
good (and, got the crazies to crawl back into their holes), I found two
extremely strange inconsistencies that merit some attention. 
First of all, the birth certificate that the White House released lists
Obama's birth as August 4, 1961. It also lists Barack Hussein Obama as
his father. No big deal, right? At the time of Obama's birth, it also
shows that his father is aged 25 years old, and that Obama's father was
born in " Kenya , East Africa ".  
This wouldn't seem like anything of concern, except the fact that Kenya
did not even exist until 1963, two whole years after Obama's birth, and
27 years after his father's birth. How could Obama's father have been
born in a country that did not yet exist? 
Up and until Kenya was formed in 1963, it was known as the "British East
Africa Protectorate". But, this is not the only thing that I found that
just does not jive. 
The other item that I looked into was the hospital that Obama was born
in. On the birth certificate released by the White House, the listed
place of birth is "Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital ". 
This cannot be, because the hospital(s) in question in 1961 were called
"KauiKeolani Children's Hospital" and "Kapi'olani Maternity Home",
respectively. 
The name did not change to Kapi'olani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital
until 1978, when these two hospitals merged. How can this particular
name of the hospital be on a birth certificate dated 1961 if this name
had not yet been applied to it until 1978? 
Go ahead, look it up. I am not talking crazy talk, these are the facts.
Like I said, I thought that this was a non-issue until the actual
certificate was released. Now that it has been released, of course I had
to look into it. I have found these issues, now I know that something is
up. If you doubt me, just look at the following resources: 
Sure as hell, the hospital part is true, as you can read about the 1978
merger here. 
Post-colonial history (from Wikipedia)
The first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council took
place in 1957. 
Despite British hopes of handing power to "moderate" African rivals, it
was the Kenya African National Union (KANU) of Jomo Kenyatta that formed
a government shortly before Kenya became independent on 12 December
1963, on the same day forming the first Constitution of Kenya .

Sunday, October 2, 2011


Do you remember 1987.....



  
Thought  you

Might be interested in  this forgotten bit  of

Information.........

It 
Was  1987! At a lecture the other day they  were
Playing an old news video  of
Lt.Col. Oliver North  testifying at the Iran-Contra
Hearings during  the  Reagan
Administration.
There  was Ollie in front of God and country  getting
The
Third degree, but  what he said was  stunning! He  was being drilled by a
Senator,  'Did you not recently spend close to
$60,000  for a home  security
System?'

 Ollie  replied, 'Yes, I did,  Sir.'
The  senator
Continued, trying to get  a laugh out of the
Audience, 'Isn't that just  a  little
Excessive?'
'No,  sir,' continued  Ollie.
'No? And  why not?' the
Senator  asked.

 'Because  the lives of my family and I  were
Threatened,
Sir.'



'Threatened?  By whom?' the  senator
Questioned.

 'By  a
Terrorist, sir' Ollie  answered.

 'Terrorist?  What terrorist could
Possibly  scare you that  much?'

 'His  name is Osama bin Laden, sir'  Ollie
Replied.



At  this point the senator tried to repeat the  name,
But
Couldn't pronounce  it, which most people back then
Probably  couldn't.  A couple
Of people  laughed at the attempt.  Then the  senator
Continued.  Why are you  so
Afraid of this man?' the  senator  asked.



'Because,  sir, he is the most
Evil person  alive that I know of', Ollie  answered.



 
'And
What  do you recommend we do about him?' asked  the
Senator.



'Well,  sir,
If it was up to me, I would  recommend that an
Assassin team be formed  to
Eliminate him and his men from  the face of  the
Earth.'



The  senator
Disagreed with this approach,  and that was all that
Was shown of the  clip.




 
By
The  way, that senator was Al  Gore!

Also:
Terrorist
Pilot  Mohammad Atta blew up a bus  in
Israel
In  1986. The Israelis captured, tried  and
Imprisoned him.  As part of  the
Oslo agreement with the  Palestinians in 1993,
Israel    had to  agree to release
So-called  'political  prisoners.'
However,  the Israelis would not  release
Any with blood on their  hands.  The American
President at the  time, Bill Clinton,
And his  Secretary of State, Warren  Christopher,
'insisted' that all prisoners  be
Released.



Thus  Mohammad Atta was freed and eventually  thanked
Us by
Flying an  airplane into Tower One of the
World   Trade
Center
. This was  reported
By many of the American  TV networks at the time
That the terrorists  were  first
Identified.
It
Was  censored in the US    from  all
Later
Reports.



If
You  agree that the  public should be  made
Aware of this fact, pass this  on.


Do  Not  Break - it is 9 years  strong.




This

Is  why I always say I love  YOU....


 

A man and his ever-nagging wife went on vacation in Jerusalem . While they were there, the wife passed away. The undertaker told the husband, "You can have her buried here in the Holy Land for $150 or we can have her shipped back home for $5000. The husband thought about it and told the undertaker he would have her shipped back home. The undertaker asked him, "why would you spend $5000 to have her shipped home when you could have a beautiful burial here, and it would only cost $150????" The husband replied, "Long ago, a man died here, was buried here, and three days later, rose from the dead. I Just can’t take that

Why Go To Church?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons.  But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:  "I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this....They all nourished me and gave me the
All right, now that you're through reading, send it on!!! I think everyone should read this!!
"When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Jesus, could you get that".
 
CHECK OUT THE Bald Eagle video below .. .. ,.
'Challenger' is his name (in honor of the lost space shuttle crew) & is cared for by the non-profit American Eagle Foundation (AEF).
He's a 'human-socialized' bird raised by the people who rescued Him after being blown from a wild Louisiana nest in a storm as a baby in the late 1980's.  Declared 'non-releasable' by federal and state wildlife authorities, he was trained by the AEF to perform educational free-flight demonstrations at high profile public events.
He's the first Bald Eagle in U.S. History that learned to free-fly into stadiums, arenas and ballrooms during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. The celebrity eagle has appeared at numerous major sporting events like the World Series, Pro-Bowl, All-Star game, BCS National Championship, Fiesta Bowl, Men's Final Four, etc.
Challenger has also flown before 4 U.S. Presidents!
His life story is told in a children's storybook
CLICK ON THE BELOW SITE titled 'Challenger, Americas Favorite Eagle' FOR AN INSPIRING PRESENTATION: