Carroll's Place

LEST WE FORGET

2011-09-11T08:43:00.000-04:00

Reposted from a previous post. The email is from a colleague that was in our NY Office

"This is surreal -
For years I have looked south out of my apartment window to see the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center - now the Twin Towers are gone. Symbols of US might and power, our open society, has been challenged. Thank God, they did not get the Statue of Liberty. It's hard to explain the emotion I now feel as to what that represents....

...The whole southern skyline of Manhattan, as it existed two hours ago, no longer exists.
My God, what is man capable of doing to man, and in the name of what?"

W. C. Ragals

From an email at 10:43 am on September 11, 2001

Investigation of the Closing Process for the Parishes in Cleveland Catholic Diocese

2011-06-29T09:15:00.000-04:00

Interesting development, but I don't see how it can change things:

A "classic" negative example of the reorganisation linked to the economic problems is that of Cleveland, where the Holy See has decided to send an apostolic visit, or rather, an investigation to look into whether the decisions taken by the Bishop Ordinary Gerard Lennon were adequate. He announced that 29 parishes will close and another 41 will be merged. The restructuring plan which will cut 52 parishes out of 224 is already in effect. Other cities in which word about closure has been heard are Camden, New Jersey, Allentown, Pennsylvania and New York City. The reasons that prompted the decision to close parishes in Cleveland have been the flow of population to outlying areas, the financial difficulties that have seen 42% of parish budgets finish in the red and the shortage of priests. Now this last point is questioned by the Vatican and the apostolic visit will serve to ascertain the facts. The Vatican has asked Lennon to stop his policy of savage cuts. In Boston, amongst many other controversies, he closed 60 parishes. So far the Vatican has not had any luck.

But, I think the real reason for the Apostolic visit is actually the reason a couple of paragraphs before this:

There is great concern in the Vatican. Not just because the United States, historically, has always made large contributions to the Holy See's budget, a budget which receives very little revenue and so is normally in the red without the contributions of the dioceses of the various donating countries throughout the world, among which the most important are the U.S., Germany and Italy. The Holy See, however, also fears that economic problems could lead to repercussions on religious life and even on maintaining the basic living conditions for priests, especially pensioners.

Bishop Lennon has started a $250 million dollar capital campaign, my guess the apostolic visit may be more a look at that and to see if it would work in other areas.

Click the headline and you can read the whole article.

Light Storm Hitting Key Tower

2011-06-22T00:06:00.001-04:00

Since this is where I work everyday, it happens several times a year and drives my firm's tech guys a little crazy. But, it is still very cool to see.

Flag Day

2011-06-14T09:15:00.000-04:00

The History Of Flag Day

The Fourth of July was traditionally celebrated as America's birthday, but the idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the Flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. B. J. Cigrand, a schoolteacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wisconsin Public School, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes) as 'Flag Birthday'. In numerous magazines and newspaper articles and public addresses over the following years, Cigrand continued to enthusiastically advocate the observance of June 14 as 'Flag Birthday', or 'Flag Day'.

On June 14, 1889, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City, planned appropriate ceremonies for the children of his school, and his idea of observing Flag Day was later adopted by the State Board of Education of New York. On June 14, 1891, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration, and on June 14 of the following year, the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, celebrated Flag Day.

Following the suggestion of Colonel J Granville Leach (at the time historian of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolution), the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America on April 25, 1893 adopted a resolution requesting the mayor of Philadelphia and all others in authority and all private citizens to display the Flag on June 14th. Leach went on to recommend that thereafter the day be known as 'Flag Day', and on that day, school children be assembled for appropriate exercises, with each child being given a small Flag.

Two weeks later on May 8th, the Board of Managers of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution unanimously endorsed the action of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames. As a result of the resolution, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia, directed that Flag Day exercises be held on June 14, 1893 in Independence Square. School children were assembled, each carrying a small Flag, and patriotic songs were sung and addresses delivered.
In 1894, the governor of New York directed that on June 14 the Flag be displayed on all public buildings. With BJ Cigrand and Leroy Van Horn as the moving spirits, the Illinois organization, known as the American Flag Day Association, was organized for the purpose of promoting the holding of Flag Day exercises. On June 14th, 1894, under the auspices of this association, the first general public school children's celebration of Flag Day in Chicago was held in Douglas, Garfield, Humboldt, Lincoln, and Washington Parks, with more than 300,000 children participating.
Adults, too, participated in patriotic programs. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: "I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself."

Inspired by these three decades of state and local celebrations, Flag Day - the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 - was officially established by the Proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson on May 30th, 1916. While Flag Day was celebrated in various communities for years after Wilson's proclamation, it was not until August 3rd, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

"John has a long mustache"

2011-06-06T08:20:00.000-04:00

"You are about to embark upon the great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months." Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower

Well that didn't take long - NSFW

2011-05-02T13:35:00.000-04:00

h/t Blackfive

Do you remember?

2011-04-19T08:18:00.000-04:00

April 19, 1995

168 People Killed, 19 of them under the age of 6, 680 injured.

Where were you?

I AM SO PROUD OF MY CONGRESSMAN

2011-04-15T09:48:00.002-04:00

Ward 1 Councilman

2011-02-28T22:24:00.001-05:00

Received word that a new Councilman has been selected!

As I was one of the 13 candidates to have submitted their names for consideration, but I was not selected.

But, I do appreciate the call I received from Mary Louise Madigan Ward 4 Councilperson regarding their decision.

UPDATE: March 3, 2011

From LoveLakewood.com - Interesting comment is made:

Madigan read aloud the name of each candidate to gauge the group’s interest level in conducting an interview. If a single councilperson responded in the affirmative, the resident would be granted an interview opportunity. Many names prompted an immediate response, but there were some awkward silences. Timothy Carroll, for instance, who is a fine candidate, was on the cusp of being declined for an interview until Bullock spoke up at the last moment.

I'll let the record reflect that each applicant was given 10-15 minutes before the panel, so their decision was based on that and their own views.

House Cleaning

2011-02-11T12:56:00.000-05:00

Looks like CE Fitz is not waiting for spring time to do some house cleaning.

He certainly knows how to do the government house cleaning. Let us see some more steps forward on changing the culture in County Government.

Is he thinking of another Presidential Run?

2011-02-11T12:50:00.001-05:00

Our man DENNIS! makes some interesting comments.

Is this a precursor to him announcing another bid for the White House in 2012? Stay Tuned.

UPDATE: Link not working - Inserting new clip - Starts at the 4 minute mark.

Welcome Lakewood Observer Readers

2011-02-11T12:24:00.001-05:00

It appears that there was some trouble this week over at the Observer Deck.

I was pointed to it, by a friend.

I have not followed the discussion until today. Don't know what the guy said in his original post, but he was using this post from March 2008 regarding the Section 8 map.

Suffice it say, it must have been pretty bad, since the guy was banned.

I am not going to interject my comments into the battle, but I did take some pause over a couple of comments that could be misconstrued as to indicate this site has caused problems for individuals. I am hoping the poster was indicating that the source of the map was the one causing the problems.

Hopefully, there will be a clarification on that point.

UPDATE: One other point that I need to mention. The link on the Deck to the March 2008 post, was killed on their end. I don't kill any one my posts. They are my words and thoughts and I must stand by them be it good or bad.

Cleveland Company on Mad Money

2011-02-05T08:26:00.001-05:00

I admit I am bit biased since I know some people that work at Chart Industries.

COMCAST FINALLY SAYS TO AMERICA

2011-01-21T23:06:00.001-05:00

We are "truly dreadfully sorry"

Thank you Comcast! Perhaps now I will be able to watch more then 2 minutes of MSNBC!

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Now the political discourse will move up a notch since the children have left the room!

Merry Christmas to All Those who Protect Us

2010-12-25T00:01:00.001-05:00

Sometimes words can't express the proper thanks for the men and women who have served our great country, both past and present.

So let me leave you with this message.

Merry Christmas to All

Please Stay safe.

For a New Political Government

2010-11-04T12:21:00.000-04:00

It certainly looks like previous races.

Need Help with your Ballot Picks for the November Election

2010-09-28T10:11:00.001-04:00

For those of you who need help in selecting the Judicial races, let me offer one place that can be of some use.

Judge4Yourself.com provides a non-partisan rating of the Judicial Candidates.

You can go here to see all the ratings.

Lakewood Residents May Want to Study up on this.

2010-09-09T11:23:00.000-04:00

With FitzGerald's Primary win, this will be a little more than just idle chatter.

SECTION 8. ACTING MAYOR.

(A) If the Mayor’s office becomes vacant, the following individuals shall succeed to the office in the following order: Director of Law, Director of Finance, Director of Public Works, President of Council, and an elector of the City chosen by Council.

(B) If a vacancy occurs more than two years and 105 days before the next regular election to be held for the office of Mayor, a successor shall hold office until the first day of January following the next regular municipal election, as provided for in this Charter. If the Mayor-elect dies, resigns, or removes his or her residence from the City, after election but before taking office, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment made by Council prior to the commencement of the term to be filled, and the person so appointed shall hold office until the commencement of the new term for the office of Mayor following the next regular municipal election. In either case, a Mayor shall be elected for the unexpired term at the first regular municipal election following such event.

(C) If that vacancy occurs two years and one hundred five days (2 years and 105 days) or less before the next regular election to be held for the office of Mayor, the successor shall hold office for the balance of the term of the Mayor who is succeeded.
(D) If the Mayor is temporarily absent from the City, or becomes temporarily disabled for any cause, the duties of the Mayor shall be performed during such absence or disability by one of the officials named, and in the order provided, in this Section, under the title of Acting Mayor.

Who is in line:
Law Director - Nora Hurley
Finance Director - Jennifer Pae
Public Works - Joseph Beno
President of Council - Depends at the time of the Vacancy

My feeling is Council won't let it get to the Elector of the City, so that I will leave unanswered.

With next year being the time for the next Mayoral race, who ever takes over for FitzGerald (If he wins the County Exec job) will have the incumbency to ride if he/she decides to run for retention.

Still a big if on all this. But, we shall see.

Special Election Today on Reforming the County Government.

2010-09-07T10:31:00.000-04:00

If you haven't already voted by mail, then by all means get to the polling booth and select your candidate for the November ballot.

If you want one of the Independents, then grab a bowl of popcorn and sit back and enjoy the results. My guess it will be an early night, as the numbers of early voters is over the 100,000 mark.

As to my prediction, I am assuming it will be Ed FitzGerald (D) and Matt Dolan (R) against the independents Ken Lanci, Tim McCormack and Don Scipoine as well as Green Party's Dave Ellison for the November 2 ballot.

Another Beautiful Sunset of the North Coast of Lakewood

2010-07-25T21:16:00.000-04:00

It these moments that you just appreciate living on the Lake and getting opportunities to watch sunsets.

DO YOU REMEMEBR THIS?

2010-07-20T15:15:00.000-04:00

I was 7 years old and my Parents let me stay up and watch it.

Still something to behold!

CBS News - Apollo 11 Moon Landing, July 1969 - part 1!!
Uploaded by videohollic. - Check out other Film & TV videos.

This is about right!

2010-07-20T14:12:00.000-04:00

My Conservative Identity:

You are a Freedom Crusader, also known as a neoconservative. You believe in taking the fight directly to the enemy, whether it’s terrorists abroad or the liberal terrorist appeasers at home who give them aid and comfort.

Take the quiz at
About.com Political Humor

Bush Tax Cuts Were Not Just for the Wealthy

2010-07-07T18:20:00.001-04:00

I was reminded earlier today of what the tax implications maybe for the implementation of the Health Care Bill from earlier this year. By this excerpt of the bill

(Sec. 9002) Requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer-sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employee's gross income (excluding the value of contributions to flexible spending arrangements).

In Lakewood's Division of Tax, I would bet they will be looking at that grossed up number to squeeze extra money out of every tax payer and every business entity in the City. When you look at it on an individual basis it may not be a lot of money, then add 10 - 20,000 tax payers it all of the sudden becomes something of boon to the budget bottom line.

Then along with that bit of information comes an article from SmartMoney.com regarding how the cost of the expiration of the Bush Tax will not only affect the wealthy, but it will affect every level of the tax paying public.

"You may have been led to believe that only individuals in the top two brackets will face higher federal income taxes when the Bush cuts go bye-bye. Not true! Unless Congress takes action and President Obama goes along, rates will go up for everyone -- not just a sliver of the wealthiest Americans. The current six rate brackets of 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33% and 35% will be replaced by five new brackets with the higher rates of 15%, 28%, 31%, 36% and 39.6%. Just a few months ago, it seemed like a safe bet that Congress would make a fix to keep the existing 10%, 15%, 25% and 28% rate brackets to help out lower and middle-income folks..."

As you can see, those in the 10% tax bracket will move up to 15% and the rest will move up 3-4%. The question is, will those currently in the 15% tax bracket remain there or will they be hammered moving up to the 28% bracket.

Correct me if I am wrong didn't Obama campaign on the theory of no new income tax increases in the lower income brackets. Seems to me that is not going to be a promise he can hold if he and the Democrats allow the Tax cuts to expire.

Here is the money quote from the article:

"The Bush tax cuts don't just offer tax relief to the wealthiest Americans. They offer it to just about anyone who pays federal income taxes. Their scheduled demise next year will raise the tax bill of nearly every taxpayer, unless Congress makes changes and the president jumps on board."

"When in the Course of human events..."

2010-07-04T10:35:00.000-04:00

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

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

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

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

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

John Hancock

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

THE CLOSING OF ST. JAMES IN LAKEWOOD

2010-06-28T11:22:00.002-04:00

After attending this Parish for nearly 11 years and been a Parishioner for most of that time, this past weekend the Community of St. James said Farewell.

Saturday consisted of the Bishop saying the mass, although he was greeted by protesters:

Then on Sunday it was time for the Community to say goodbye one final time. It was nice to see that the Church was filled to overflow capacity.

As the Mass ended Fr. John had everyone process out row by row shaking the hands or hugging Deacon Jim Stewart and Danny Bryan.

Then it was time to say goodbye to Fr. John, Deacon Jim and Deacon Danny.

Fr. John Weigand

Deacon Jim Stewart

It was a beautiful day to say goodbye, but, it was bitter sweet. I am not sure which parish my wife and I will join going forward, but, it may take some time before I am comfortable again.

A little Friday Afternoon Fun Courtesy of the Scarlet and Gray

2010-05-07T12:48:00.000-04:00

This County is in Such Good Hands

2010-05-06T17:32:00.000-04:00

To answer you Jimmie, the reason nothing positive is happening in town is because of your leadership or in this case the lack of it.

Congressman Paul Ryan on the Real Cost of Healthcare Reform

2010-03-23T16:16:00.000-04:00

Its not a pretty picture, which shows that we will all be paying the premiums, but also the taxes to cover the costs.

Based on everything I have read, there will be a lot more people paying a higher cost in taxes then they figured. The key theme is, I have yet to hear if there is some buffer as to when the taxes begin. Mostly you hear its the single person making $200,000 a year or a married couple making 250,000 paying an additional 6% or more in taxes. It also includes taxing on investments. So essentially, unless I have missed that certain nugget of information, then you begin to pay for this at dollar one. Not at a later dollar amount after the pre-tax benefits come out like the (401K).

One other bitch I have about this is, for the last several years I have set money aside for a Health Savings Account all monies taken out pre-tax. Now, under the new law, that money becomes taxable income, even if I don't use and just leave it in the bank.

So unless there are some changes, more people are going to have to pay in, then anyone is letting on. Perhaps when the law is viewed in a greater clarity some of these issues will be resolved, but, so far from the early readings and analysis, I don't think that will happen.

We may be spending the next four years tweaking this bill to get it good in the short term, but it will need some major work to achieve anything close to what Obama and the Democrats are saying it will do for Americans.

From Politico

Best breakdown of some of the issues of the Healthcare Bill

2010-03-22T16:32:00.002-04:00

This is the best breakdown of some of the myths attibuted by Obama and the Democrats with the facts right next to it. Wish I seen this sooner.

Go read Jane Hamsher's piece that accompanies this chart.

Obama Trying to Sell Healthcare to America

2010-03-17T22:17:00.001-04:00

Based on watching this, Obama would have made a very good trial attorney, specifically a Plaintiff's lawyer.

He can say nothing while talking a lot.

Don't be fooled, he doesn't know everything that is in the bill and he wants the Slaughter rule to be used.

He wants to say in 2012 or at some point down the line, I didn't get a lot done or solve many problems, but I got Healthcare passed.

Ladies and Gentlmen, meet Obama's Legacy.

All done in the first 500 days of his Presidency.

Kucinich To VOTE FOR HEALTHCARE BILL

2010-03-17T10:13:00.009-04:00

Doesn't like the bill, but will vote for it.

More later

UPDATE

Cleveland Plain Dealer report asked is there was a Quid Pro Quo - Kucinich fenced the question away. Leaves me to believe that he did get something in return.

UPDATE II

Still going to work towards Single Payer system.

"Bill is still flawed"
"Looking at the Bill as it is not as he wants it"

UPDATE III - PRESS CONFERENCE OVER

Some more quotes from Rep Kucinich:

A defining moment as to moving off of square one to get healthcare;

Its about creating jobs, keeping people in their homes - need to move off debate to get on with other items.

Was asked again if there was a regulatory deal like the Louisiana Purchase or a Nebraska deal for the 10th District or Ohio, he said no, this change in vote is "taking a more historic movement of moving the contry forward"

When asked about the way the Healthcare bill is being moved through congress he said "Doesn't like much about this process"

Final message from Kucinich - Doesn't want the Obama Presidency ruined because of Healthcare legislation.

Downsizing the Federal Government

2010-03-04T14:51:00.000-05:00

Saw this article by Chris Edwards listing six reasons to downsize the government and in light of the Obama's attempt to increase the size of the government and quite possibly the debt via the debacle known as the healthcare plan, I thought it quite timely.

1. Additional federal spending transfers resources from the more productive private sector to the less productive public sector of the economy. The bulk of federal spending goes toward subsidies and benefit payments, which generally do not enhance economic productivity. With lower productivity, average American incomes will fall.

2. As federal spending rises, it creates pressure to raise taxes now and in the future. Higher taxes reduce incentives for productive activities such as working, saving, investing, and starting businesses. Higher taxes also increase incentives to engage in unproductive activities such as tax avoidance.

3. Much federal spending is wasteful and many federal programs are mismanaged. Cost overruns, fraud and abuse, and other bureaucratic failures are endemic in many agencies. It’s true that failures also occur in the private sector, but they are weeded out by competition, bankruptcy, and other market forces. We need to similarly weed out government failures.

4. Federal programs often benefit special interest groups while harming the broader interests of the general public. How is that possible in a democracy? The answer is that logrolling or horse-trading in Congress allows programs to be enacted even though they are only favored by minorities of legislators and voters. One solution is to impose a legal or constitutional cap on the overall federal budget to force politicians to make spending trade-offs.

5. Many federal programs cause active damage to society, in addition to the damage caused by the higher taxes needed to fund them. Programs usually distort markets and they sometimes cause social and environmental damage. Some examples are housing subsidies that helped to cause the financial crises, welfare programs that have created dependency, and farm subsidies that have harmed the environment.

6. The expansion of the federal government in recent decades runs counter to the American tradition of federalism. Federal functions should be “few and defined” in James Madison’s words, with most government activities left to the states. The explosion in federal aid to the states since the 1960s has strangled diversity and innovation in state governments because aid has been accompanied by a mass of one-size-fits-all regulations.

One thing that I have always thought that once you begin to take out more money from the citizenry, then there is always less for them to make purchases and thereby creating an economy or in the current climate no economy.

But, it seems to me that at every level of government they just can't seem to understand that.

h/t Prof Reynolds

Saturday Afternoon

2010-03-04T14:44:00.000-05:00

If anybody is looking for me, I will be here:

Flying around on this:

Finally, a dream come true!

Interesting to Look at the Nuts & Bolts of voting

2009-11-04T13:49:00.002-05:00

Unofficial Results by Precinct. With the reconfigured precincts this year's election was a bit of a guess as to how everything would fall.

Once again the Dems have this City figured out and now the Mayor has all of his people in place to govern. So lets see what happens.

01 NICKIE J. ANTONIO 5,616 20.30 05 DANIEL E. SHIELDS 3,789 13.70
02 RYAN PATRICK DEMRO 5,229 18.90 06 = MONIQUE SMITH 5,451 19.71
03 BRIAN POWERS 5,591 20.21 07 = OVER VOTES 24
04 JARED K. SHAPIRO 1,984 7.17 08 = UNDER VOTES 12,306

----------------------- 01 02 03 04 05 06
LAKEWOOD -01-A 159 137 178 43 81 175
LAKEWOOD -01-B 159 171 181 50 109 182
LAKEWOOD -01-C 112 95 109 26 76 104
LAKEWOOD -01-D 117 130 136 42 89 130
LAKEWOOD -01-E 160 150 143 44 94 167
LAKEWOOD -01-F 65 78 64 31 76 83
LAKEWOOD -01-G 77 114 78 43 63 101
LAKEWOOD -01-H 189 176 252 54 82 179
LAKEWOOD -01-I 161 137 151 42 98 155
LAKEWOOD -01-J 203 203 226 65 109 234
LAKEWOOD -02-A 196 173 218 49 139 188
LAKEWOOD -02-B 133 118 125 37 111 132
LAKEWOOD -02-C 154 176 146 55 145 180
LAKEWOOD -02-D 119 82 106 41 98 122
LAKEWOOD -02-E 157 163 168 51 145 168
LAKEWOOD -02-F 123 151 162 44 115 118
LAKEWOOD -02-G 136 145 103 55 102 117
LAKEWOOD -02-H 118 136 103 56 130 136
LAKEWOOD -02-I 137 151 123 43 106 146
LAKEWOOD -02-J 147 157 132 44 150 171
LAKEWOOD -03-A 239 208 342 51 106 191
LAKEWOOD -03-B 203 174 175 81 119 168
LAKEWOOD -03-C 120 129 116 94 78 107
LAKEWOOD -03-D 144 171 145 56 96 141
LAKEWOOD -03-E 128 121 131 75 88 140
LAKEWOOD -03-F 204 170 193 64 114 178
LAKEWOOD -03-G 122 122 120 52 84 87
LAKEWOOD -03-H 147 121 125 45 84 122
LAKEWOOD -03-I 102 134 113 62 78 96
LAKEWOOD -03-J 102 82 94 44 67 89
LAKEWOOD -04-A 182 165 176 60 91 153
LAKEWOOD -04-B 119 82 106 47 64 111
LAKEWOOD -04-C 85 45 78 18 53 76
LAKEWOOD -04-D 133 99 137 45 80 115
LAKEWOOD -04-E 49 43 47 26 38 54
LAKEWOOD -04-F 116 114 101 54 98 119
LAKEWOOD -04-G 83 63 68 26 48 83
LAKEWOOD -04-H 142 94 111 44 74 108
LAKEWOOD -04-I 138 117 123 44 70 130
LAKEWOOD -04-J 155 83 119 50 88 117
LAKEWOOD -04-K 81 49 67 31 53 78

Council at Large Race General Elections 2009

2009-11-02T14:11:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow is the General Election in Lakewood for the 3 At-Large Council seats.

This has been pretty much a ho-hum type of race, no real drama from the Candidates themselves. The only one creating drama is Mayor FitzGerald and based on the comments I got while knocking on doors yesterday, Mayor FitzGerald should have left things alone and not injected himself into the mix. I think a few people who have liked what he has done since he has been Mayor felt he overstepped himself with the last minute hit piece.

I have a feeling there are a few Democrats who probably didn't distribute his piece because of the ineffectiveness of it. (I will post the piece in question later on today)

Now on to the race it self.

Generally speaking there are three seats up for Election.

Nickie Antonio is seeking re-election to a second term

Brian Powers is looking to retain the seat he was appointed to last year when FitzGerald became Mayor and had to vacate his seat.

Mike Dever decided to not run for re-election this year so this seat is open.

So here are the Candidates:
Nickie Antonio
Brian Powers
Ryan Demro
Jared Shapiro
Dan Shields
Monique Smith

Now this is where the intrigue begins:

The Lakewood Democratic Club endorsed Antonio, Shields and Smith;
Mayor FitzGerald is pushing for Antonio, Powers and Smith

The Republicans are working for Demro and Shapiro

So it looks like the Democrats are going to be split as to who to choose.

The question really becomes who gets the other two seats.

The way I see it,

Antonio will win the top spot pretty handily, she has waged pretty much a similar campaign that worked for her 4 years ago. Although, I don't think she knocked on as many doors this time around. Name recognition will get her in.

To me the next two seats are essentially up for grabs.

Brian Powers had a rocky start to his tenure when he pulled up the Pit Bull ban and then came across a little heavy handed. Will he retain his seat -- maybe.

Ryan Demro is the former Ward 2 Councilman, who gave up his seat last year to run an unsuccessful attempt for Mayor. Besides Antonio, he is the most experienced candidate on the slate.

He has run a campaign this time around with a little less bombastic stuff then he did for the Mayor's race. Maybe a little Army training and maturation will help him slide into one of the spots.

Jared Shapiro is a newcomer to Lakewood politics and unfortunately will suffer the same fate that I did, and finish out of the hunt.

Now to Monqiue Smith and Dan Shields, here is where the Democrats will create a problem.

Smith is a rookie to running for office, but she is not a rookie to Democratic politics. Shields has made several attempts for elective office. But is considered to be an outsider from the Democratic clique.

I believe the split in the Democratic party endorsements will cause a split in these two and cancel each other out and put someone else in that third slot.

Here is how I think it will go:

Antonio - Gets re-elected
Demro - Comes in second, the split votes among Powers, Smith and Shield jumps him into here
Powers - Gets Retained, LCA parents and FitzGerald Fans will bring him in to the final slot
Smith - She needs more polish on her presentation at candidate forums and Q & A sessions.
Shields - Just can't get by the machine
Shapiro - Like Shields can't get by the machines

Eight Years Laters

2009-09-11T08:00:00.001-04:00

Today as we remember those who have perished in the WTC, the Pentagon and in the fields of Shanksville, let us also remember those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedoms.

The video below honors the troops, but the song sings to all of us. Some have already left and the rest live until then we are all called Homeward Bound.

God Bless the United States of America.

Some Post Primary Thoughts

2009-09-09T10:14:00.003-04:00

With the actual ballots cast information still not yet published its interesting to see that over 5,000 absentee ballots were requested but only a little more than 2,600 were returned.

Once the voter information is published it will be telling to see who did the better job of stirring the pot and moving people into the polls.

As in past years, the sad part is that about 10% of the voting public will be making choices that affect 100% of the population and businesses in Lakewood.

Mayor FitzGerald's piece seemed to help Monique Smith at the absentee level, but I think the Lakewood Democratic piece helped Dan Shields more.

Can Monique Smith keep the party faithful to her side or do they side more with Dan Shields?

More to come in the next few weeks. Everyone, except Antonio is going to need to work a little harder to keep their voters in check and pick up new supporters along the way.

UPDATE: Here is the Unofficial breakdown by Precinct.

Lakewood is near the end of the page.

Results from Primary Day in Lakewood

2009-09-08T23:01:00.002-04:00

Selected Election Results
Municipal
LAKEWOOD COUNCIL AT LARGE 41 of 41 precincts reported. (Bolded Moves on)

NICKIE J. ANTONIO 2400
DANIEL BARTOS 756
ANTHONY DAVIS 377
RYAN PATRICK DEMRO 1993
EDWARD M. MCCARTNEY 483
BRIAN POWERS 2283
JARED K. SHAPIRO 825
DANIEL E. SHIELDS 1157
MONIQUE SMITH 2196

Congratulations to all, now the hardwork begins!

Primary Day in Lakewood

2009-09-07T20:09:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow the City begins to narrow down the list of candidates for the At-Large City Council race.

Here is the ballot:

You get to make three choices on the ballot:

Nickie Antonio - Incumbent
Daniel Bartos - Challenger
Anthony Davis - Challenger
Ryan Demro - Challenger
Edward McCartney - Challenger
Brian Powers - Incumbent
Jared Shapiro - Challenger
Daniel Shields - Challenger
Monique Smith - Challenger

Now looking at the historical data from the 2005 At-Large Race the level of turn out was a paltry 9.27 percent or about 3,935 ballots cast out of 42,441 registered voters. With no one garnering more than 1750 votes.

If my information is correct 2800 absentee ballots were requested, so the polling locations could be very sparse and the results should be known very quickly after 8 PM.

We have nine candidates and the primary will cut it down to six:
I think at 11 pm the six will be in alpha order - Antonio, Demro, Powers, Shapiro, Shields and Smith.

Now I would not be surprised in Bartos slid in there and maybe knocked Shields or Shapiro out. But, I think the Republicans will be trying to keep two GOP candidates for the General in November.

What has been interesting to me is the play amongst the Democrats. Who will the Democratic voters be going for. Will have to wait and see.

The Health Care Issue

2009-08-19T09:14:00.002-04:00

As most know I grew up in the WNY area and the only remaining paper is The Buffalo News and it is very similar in many ways to the Cleveland Plain Dealer with its very strong lean to left.

Its a paper that I read every day, more so than the Plain Dealer.

As to the Health Care Issue, The News has been steady in its support of it, until this morning.

This editorial is summing up the fact that Obama has lost this round and needs to go back and rethink or redraft the legislation.

Here it is in its entirety:

Before he took office, one piece of advice President Obama took seriously was that "you can't succeed with your agenda without the cooperation of the Congress."

Perhaps he took that too seriously, because in at least two instances he has directed Congress to draft the actual legislation for what are perhaps his two most critical domestic problems. He should have proposed his own bills.

In the first case, he allowed Congress to draft the stimulus bill. It did, coming up with a hugely expensive plan -- an estimated $1.2 trillion when interest payments are factored in -- that minority Republicans quickly criticized as laden with pork. And then, the next day, it passed a $410 billion omnibus spending bill that included 8,575 spending "earmarks" from congressmen. The slow trickle of actual financial stimulus into the economy is good evidence that never would have passed a panel most concerned with need and effectiveness. Economic recovery might be a lot further along had the president drafted a bill that met those goals he was promoting.

Now, in the second instance, he is faced with multiple thousand-page proposals, in several House and Senate committees, and a Congressional Budget Office estimate that the two leading plans -- the House leadership's HR 3200 bill and Sen. Ted Kennedy's still-unnamed plan -- will drive up costs until 2019, when savings supposedly would take over. Be wary of any politician who wants to tap your wallet more deeply based on savings that might appear in 10 years.

Also, be wary of efforts to ram through such sweeping, financially freighted and dramatic reforms -- changes that would affect a sixth of the American economy -- on a political deadline.

The president is a gifted communicator, but even he cannot overcome the confusion the multiple, changing bills have created. And now he has a public uprising on his hands. Most people in the country don't trust the government to maintain the health care they now have, and while people realize costs have spiralled out of control, they don't believe the health bills will produce a solution. In fact, many worry that their health costs could accelerate more quickly with what has been proposed. They are right on both scores.

The bills have sought to add new programs that are staggering in their costs and potentially reduce existing health care, particularly for the elderly. There are calls for mandates that would escalate business costs, with potential stimulus-killing effects on the economy.

All deserve careful, not rushed, consideration and reasoned, not misinformed, debate.

Most immediately, the president also must address true reductions in costs -- the costs of care that are in large part driving up the price of insurance and driving down the number of people able to afford insurance -- before he simply adds on new benefits or expands the ranks of the insured. Cutting just 1 percent from the escalating cost of health care would save the nation $1.3 trillion.

What is needed is genuine reform. Various agency watchdogs say there is plenty of room for that. Bad practices and policies have been identified; let the government's energies be spent there.

Two relatively easy but gigantic savers are conspicuous. Introducing universal use of electronic medical records not only should save billions, it also can prevent errors that can cost lives. Tort reform -- changing medical malpractice litigation -- also could save hundreds of billions by eliminating "cover your backside" testing and allowing doctors to practice and prescribe according to their own training and judgment, not to mention curtailing the costs of physician insurance that in turn also escalates health costs.

The president does not have a lot of time. He rightly should fear that the Democrat-controlled Congress will pass a hodgepodge of compromises that will be costly and accomplish little. His signals that he may be willing to drop the "public option" that would offer a choice of a government-run program alongside existing private health plans may be evidence of his awareness of his limited opportunity, and his willingness to compromise to win some health care reforms.

In any case, it is time for reform proponents to regroup. What has happened so far has been soundly rejected. Confusion still reigns.

Draft a simple, clear bill that makes some headway. The cost of health care is a complex problem of major proportions, and it will not be easy to solve. Rather than take a chance on risky proposals that are certain to be costly, do something in which the people can have confidence.

Obama indeed may need the cooperation of Congress to get his agenda passed, but he can do nothing lasting if the people of America have lost confidence in the current proposals. It's time to restore that confidence, and move forward with clear, significant reforms.

I agree the White House needs to go back and start over. The American people are demanding it now and deserve something that is workable and won't bankrupt the nation in 50 years.

Just in Time for the September Primaries - Check your Registration

2009-08-07T10:44:00.002-04:00

The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections has redrawn the precincts for the County. I noticed it when I received my absentee ballot.

Do yourself a favor and check your registration. Here is the link for the polling locations

Here is the new map for Lakewood.

Lakewood 4th of July Parade

2009-07-04T14:32:00.003-04:00

County Commissiner Jimmy Dimora

2009-06-30T10:33:00.002-04:00

If you have not see the diatribe by Dimora from yesterday's press conference, here is a bit of it.

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora wants federal investigation

I watched the whole thing and felt like it was a train wreck waiting to happen.

While Dimora was flailing away at the DOJ, the Plain Dealer and the GOP, my thought was the following.

What lawyer in is right mind would let his client get out in front of the media and lay out such drivel. Honestly, it was despicable advice from counsel.

Based on this press conference, it will be my guess that if Dimora and Frank Russo are indicted, the legal maneuvering will be to get the location of the trial moved to either Akron or Youngstown, since the Jury pool will be fairly tainted by the time it comes around.

Wonderful Video Honoring One of America's Heroes

2009-06-19T22:53:00.003-04:00

I have watched this twice and is still moved by it.

From Blackfive

God Bless SSG Beale and Thanks to Rep. Steve Davis for showing the view from the motorcade!

Dever Announces he won't seek re-election

2009-06-05T12:11:00.003-04:00

Didn't see that coming:

Mike Dever, Council President and At-Large Council member told the Lakewood Democratic Club last night that he won't seek re-election in November.

Citing that it was time to put family ahead of the City matters.

This certainly puts a twist into the At-Large Race for this fall.

Mike, thanks for your Leadership in Lakewood!

A beautiful Friday Morning

2009-06-05T09:06:00.003-04:00

These pictures just don't come out as well as the naked eye as to the brightness of the morning and the clarity of everything. Visibility is 15-20 miles from this vantage point.

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-25T08:03:00.000-04:00

St. James in Lakewood

2009-05-06T11:36:00.002-04:00

Things are still swirling for St. James. Although the appeal to the Bishop was denied there is a group of people who are assembling the necessary documentation to prepare an appeal to the higher level of the Catholic Church. When that will be done, my guess within the next few days.

With the Bishop's reversal of St. Colman's and St. Ignatius of Antioch's decision has certainly changed some peoples thinking about St. James remaining open.

The theory is that those two churches were in tougher shape than St. James and St. James provided a much faster debt retirement and facility upgrade plan. But, we will keep plugging away.

The City of Lakewood is joining the fray in introducing legislation creating a Civic Landmark Designation. How, this is going to play out, I am not sure. I was going to check with Mayor FitzGerald and Ward 1 Councilman Kevin Butler regarding their thoughts on this matter.

I think by Memorial Day, we shall have a better picture.

Congrats to LeBron James

2009-05-06T11:14:00.005-04:00

Never in my wildest dreams that a little less than 4 years ago when I was sitting next to him at lunch table in the basement of the Summit County Court House awaiting for another afternoon session in Judge Jane Bond's courtroom on a contract dispute, I was sitting next to an MVP for all of the NBA.

(Okay, I had hoped, but I am a Buffalo Bills fan and I live in Cleveland!)

One of the nicest guys I have met in the sports world.

Carroll's Place: Sorry it's been so long

St. James Closing

2009-04-23T15:31:00.002-04:00

As expected the appeal for St. James was denied. Unless there is some movement by the parishioners for appealing to Rome, St. James will cease to exist by the end of 2010.

Based on what I have seen of the letter the Bishop is basically telling all the members of St. James to move to the remaining parishes of Lakewood.

This is not only a crushing blow the the members of St. James, but it will cause some initial financial hardships to St. Luke's, St. Clements and the merged parish of SS Cyril & Methodious and Rose. The biggest loser in all of this will Lakewood Catholic Academy, they are going to have a difficult time in the near term and to the middling years in overcoming the loss of the second largest contributor to their school.

As I see it, this consolidation of Lakewood Parishes is not complete.

Maureen Patricia Carroll Atkinson

2009-03-21T09:03:00.004-04:00

This morning I was slated to be Mexico. But, God had a different plan!

On Thursday morning God decided to call my sister Pat home to be with him.

For 40 years my sister had Juvenile Diabetes, it was a constant battle for her to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keeping the diabetes in check. At least once or twice a year it would knock her down, but she would get back up and renew the battle.

Last year the disease took a limb, but she continued to battle. However, the JD was beginning to get the upper hand.

Recently, she moved up to Buffalo to stay with my mother while the home that she,her husband Tom and son TJ shared was rebuilt after a fire in January. A home she will not see again.

I am sad and happy for her because she doesn't have to deal with the daily struggle of Diabetes again, but will not see her son, TJ do all the things that she had hoped for when she gave birth to him nearly 20 years ago.

My heart is broken and my eyes are full of tears!

Rest in Peace, Pat

Love your
Mon Petite General

PS If you hear thunder in the heavens the next couple days, its Pat kickin' my brother's butt for leaving back in 95.

St. James to Appeal Bishop's decision

2009-03-17T15:38:00.006-04:00

St. James will appeal the decision of the Bishop. We have ten days in which to respond.

If you are a parishioner or former parishioner we are asking that you submit a letter to Bishop to explain what is that is important to you about St. James.

Send your letter to:

The Most Reverend Richard G. Lennon
Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
1027 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114

We ask that you be respectful.

The Parish Council and Finance Committee will be meeting tomorrow night to begin drafting the appeal.

Spread the word.

Help St. James of Lakewood Ohio

2009-03-16T12:12:00.002-04:00

As you now the Bishop of Cleveland has decided that St. James in Lakewood is to close sometime in the next 18 months.

I believe that we must fight to save the Church, which in turn will maintain the solvency of Lakewood Catholic Academy.

Tonight, Monday 3/16 at 8:00pm is a Town Hall meeting to discuss the next steps but also share memories of this once glorious parish.
Come join us to show solidarity to the Parish family and the community as a whole.

Just so you are aware, here is the letter the Bishop sent to all the Lakewood Pastors.

I think the Bishop is wrong

2009-03-14T23:23:00.002-04:00

Forget the platitude the Bishop is saying about the parish closures and consolidations, this was not about Priests, demographics or vibrancy. For some parishes especially in Lakewood, this is decision was all about money.

Unfortunately, the kids may suffer the most.

More later.

Banned from Lakewood Observer

2009-03-06T11:43:00.005-05:00

I have joined what seems to be the growing ranks of those banned from posting on the Observation Deck.

For those individuals reading this off of Facebook, the Lakewood Observer is a local Community Forum and newspaper. It started 4 years ago as a way to engage the community in discussion about issues facing the local cummunity and the world affairs at large, it has been up to now a successful venture with expansion to other communities mostly in the Northeast Ohio area.

Now, why did I get banned you ask, well I am affiliated with another forum site, that is viewed as in direct competition to the Observer. The site administrator is banning those involved with the Lakewood Soapbox and is according to my sources planning to seek legal remedies to shut us down.

Now, so far everyone else was notified by email that they were going to be banned, me I didn't get that courtesy, I got a round about threat from the phone.

Today JOB posted this topic as you can see was the third post, my original post said this:

You must be kidding right? You are now Thanking her?

I need to change my medications, because I am not seeing this straight! Maybe, you just needed to peddle around the Internet a little to find those pictures:

Here let me help you!

http://carrollforlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/gov-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html http://carrollforlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-photos-of-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html

I have a couple of more one is of the Gov. Palin with the Lakewood Hometown Band sign behind her.

The signs were there and behind her. Funny thing is all my photos were taken from the media stand and have photos of Lakewood for McCain. I will have to let all my Republican friends know about this post! Especially Ryan and Steve, they won't believe it!

Funny thing is it now has been edited by the Site Administrator, here how it is now:

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

You must be kidding right? You are now Thanking her?
I need to change my medications, because I am not seeing this straight!

Maybe, you just needed to peddle around the Internet a little to find those pictures:

Here let me help you!

http://forlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/gov-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html

http://forlakewood.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-photos-of-sarah-palin-in-lakewood.html

I have a couple of more one is of the Gov. Palin with the Lakewood Hometown Band sign behind her.

The signs were there and behind her.

Funny thing is all my photos were taken from the media stand and have photos of Lakewood for McCain.

I will have to let all my Republican friends know about this post! Especially Ryan and Steve, they won't believe it!

Well JOB posted a reply and I received an email about it and hit the link and received notice that my user name and password have been deactivated.

Funny, I am looking at the terms of service as provided by the LO and I don't believe I violated any terms:

Here it is in its entirety:

You must use your real first and last names.

Please use a space between your first and last names in the user name entry box.

If you do not comply to the terms of service agreement, your account will be immediately deleted.

While the administrators and moderators of this forum will attempt to remove or edit any generally objectionable material as quickly as possible, it is impossible to review every message. Therefore you acknowledge that all posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author and not the administrators, moderators or webmaster (except for posts by these people) and hence will not be held liable.

You agree not to post any abusive, copyrighted, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented or any other material that may violate any applicable laws. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that the webmaster, administrator and moderators of this forum have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time and deactivate any user should they see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered above being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent the webmaster, administrator and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

This forum system uses cookies to store information on your local computer. These cookies do not contain any of the information you have entered above; they serve only to improve your viewing pleasure. The e-mail address is used only for confirming your registration details and password (and for sending new passwords should you forget your current one).

By clicking Register below you agree to be bound by these conditions.

I Agree to these terms, will use my real first and last names and am over or exactly 18 years of age

I Agree to these terms, will use my real first and last names and am under 18 years of age

I do not agree to these terms

Well, I guess I won't be over there anymore and will be at www.LAKEWOODSOAPBOX.com

I really won't miss the Observer too much, since I was ready to drop it anyways, this just makes it a little sooner.

There are some people in Lakewood that need to hear this!

2009-03-05T10:02:00.001-05:00

h/t Blackfive

The Fate of the Catholic Parishes in Lakewood

2009-03-02T18:44:00.003-05:00

As I have written before, there has been an 18+ month evaluation as to the various parishes located in Lakewood and St. Rose of Lima on Detroit and W 114th. The final answer as to who remains open and who closes is now coming down to the final days.

Word is that by the middle of the month the parishes will be informed of the decision. There are going to be hard feelings and lots of traditions that will also be lost.

But, what will be needed afterwards is a quick forging of new relations between the remaining parishes, parishioners and the Catholic Schools in Lakewood which also be affected by any closings.

One other party that could harmed is the City itself, I am told the City administration has been kept abreast of the situation and are just sitting back waiting for the answer just like the rest of the thousands affect by this process.

Like I said we are just days away from a decision, I hope its a smart one.

Taking Chance

2009-02-21T10:09:00.002-05:00

Over the past several days the Obama Administration, particularly Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has been reviewing the DOD's ban on photos being taken at Andrews Air Force Base of the returning heroes who have fallen in the line of duty.

One of the reasons provided by the Military is to provide one last act of honor that the military will bestow on the fallen before they are return to the families.

Tonight on HBO is a look into how the military, specifically the Marines honor one of their own.

Here is the trailer for it:

Now I read Lt. Col. Mike Strobel's report several years ago and it has always stayed with me for several reasons.

One is, that while I was in college and affiliated with the ROTC cadre, I was involved in several military funerals and understand the process that takes place and also I have been a part of a grieving family whose Father was WWII vet was given military honors at the time of his death.

23 Apr 04 – The enclosed article was written by LtCol M.R. Strobl USMC who is assigned to MCCDC Quantico, VA and served as the officer who escorted the remains of PFC C. Phelps USMC from Dover AFB, DE to his home. PFC Phelps was assigned to 3d Bn, 11th Marines – an artillery unit functioning as a provisional infantry battalion during Operation IRAQI FREEDOM 2. PFC Phelps was killed in action from a gunshot wound received on 9 Apr 04 during combat operations west of Baghdad. He was buried in Dubois, WY on 17 Apr 04.

TAKING CHANCE

Chance Phelps was wearing his Saint Christopher medal when he was killed on Good Friday. Eight days later, I handed the medallion to his mother. I didn’t know Chance before he died. Today, I miss him.

Over a year ago, I volunteered to escort the remains of Marines killed in Iraq should the need arise. The military provides a uniformed escort for all casualties to ensure they are delivered safely to the next of kin and are treated with dignity and respect along the way.

Thankfully, I hadn’t been called on to be an escort since Operation Iraqi Freedom began. The first few weeks of April, however, had been a tough month for the Marines. On the Monday after Easter I was reviewing Department of Defense press releases when I saw that a Private First Class Chance Phelps was killed in action outside of Baghdad. The press release listed his hometown—the same town I’m from. I notified our Battalion adjutant and told him that, should the duty to escort PFC Phelps fall to our Battalion, I would take him.

I didn’t hear back the rest of Monday and all day Tuesday until 1800. The Battalion duty NCO called my cell phone and said I needed to be ready to leave for Dover Air Force Base at 1900 in order to escort the remains of PFC Phelps.

Before leaving for Dover I called the major who had the task of informing Phelps’s parents of his death. The major said the funeral was going to be in Dubois, Wyoming. (It turned out that PFC Phelps only lived in my hometown for his senior year of high school.) I had never been to Wyoming and had never heard of Dubois.

With two other escorts from Quantico, I got to Dover AFB at 2330 on Tuesday night. First thing on Wednesday we reported to the mortuary at the base. In the escort lounge there were about half a dozen Army soldiers and about an equal number of Marines waiting to meet up with “their” remains for departure. PFC Phelps was not ready, however, and I was told to come back on Thursday. Now, at Dover with nothing to do and a solemn mission ahead, I began to get depressed.

I was wondering about Chance Phelps. I didn’t know anything about him; not even what he looked like. I wondered about his family and what it would be like to meet them. I did pushups in my room until I couldn’t do any more.

On Thursday morning I reported back to the mortuary. This time there was a new group of Army escorts and a couple of the Marines who had been there Wednesday. There was also an Air Force captain there to escort his brother home to San Diego.

We received a brief covering our duties, the proper handling of the remains, the procedures for draping a flag over a casket, and of course, the paperwork attendant to our task. We were shown pictures of the shipping container and told that each one contained, in addition to the casket, a flag. I was given an extra flag since Phelps’s parents were divorced. This way they would each get one. I didn’t like the idea of stuffing the flag into my luggage but I couldn’t see carrying a large flag, folded for presentation to the next of kin, through an airport while in my Alpha uniform. It barely fit into my suitcase.

It turned out that I was the last escort to leave on Thursday. This meant that I repeatedly got to participate in the small ceremonies that mark all departures from the Dover AFB mortuary.

Most of the remains are taken from Dover AFB by hearse to the airport in Philadelphia for air transport to their final destination. When the remains of a service member are loaded onto a hearse and ready to leave the Dover mortuary, there is an announcement made over the building’s intercom system. With the announcement, all service members working at the mortuary, regardless of service branch, stop work and form up along the driveway to render a slow ceremonial salute as the hearse departs. Escorts also participated in each formation until it was their time to leave.

On this day there were some civilian workers doing construction on the mortuary grounds. As each hearse passed, they would stop working and place their hard hats over their hearts. This was my first sign that my mission with PFC Phelps was larger than the Marine Corps and that his family and friends were not grieving alone.

Eventually I was the last escort remaining in the lounge. The Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant in charge of the Marine liaison there came to see me. He had Chance Phelps’s personal effects. He removed each item; a large watch, a wooden cross with a lanyard, two loose dog tags, two dog tags on a chain, and a Saint Christopher medal on a silver chain. Although we had been briefed that we might be carrying some personal effects of the deceased, this set me aback. Holding his personal effects, I was starting to get to know Chance Phelps.

Finally we were ready. I grabbed my bags and went outside. I was somewhat startled when I saw the shipping container, loaded three-quarters of the way in to the back of a black Chevy Suburban that had been modified to carry such cargo. This was the first time I saw my “cargo” and I was surprised at how large the shipping container was. The Master Gunnery Sergeant and I verified that the name on the container was Phelps’s then they pushed him the rest of the way in and we left. Now it was PFC Chance Phelps’s turn to receive the military—and construction workers’—honors. He was finally moving towards home.

As I chatted with the driver on the hour-long trip to Philadelphia, it became clear that he considered it an honor to be able to contribute in getting Chance home. He offered his sympathy to the family. I was glad to finally be moving yet apprehensive about what things would be like at the airport. I didn’t want this package to be treated like ordinary cargo, but I knew that the simple logistics of moving around a box this large would have to overrule my preferences.

When we got to the Northwest Airlines cargo terminal at the Philadelphia airport, the cargo handler and hearse driver pulled the shipping container onto a loading bay while I stood to the side and executed a slow salute. Once Chance was safely in the cargo area, and I was satisfied that he would be treated with due care and respect, the hearse driver drove me over to the passenger terminal and dropped me off.

As I walked up to the ticketing counter in my uniform, a Northwest employee started to ask me if I knew how to use the automated boarding pass dispenser. Before she could finish another ticketing agent interrupted her. He told me to go straight to the counter then explained to the woman that I was a military escort. She seemed embarrassed. The woman behind the counter already had tears in her eyes as I was pulling out my government travel voucher. She struggled to find words but managed to express her sympathy for the family and thank me for my service. She upgraded my ticket to first class.

After clearing security, I was met by another Northwest Airline employee at the gate. She told me a representative from cargo would be up to take me down to the tarmac to observe the movement and loading of PFC Phelps. I hadn’t really told any of them what my mission was but they all knew.

When the man from the cargo crew met me, he, too, struggled for words. On the tarmac, he told me stories of his childhood as a military brat and repeatedly told me that he was sorry for my loss. I was starting to understand that, even here in Philadelphia, far away from Chance’s hometown, people were mourning with his family.

On the tarmac, the cargo crew was silent except for occasional instructions to each other. I stood to the side and saluted as the conveyor moved Chance to the aircraft. I was relieved when he was finally settled into place. The rest of the bags were loaded and I watched them shut the cargo bay door before heading back up to board the aircraft.

One of the pilots had taken my carry-on bag himself and had it stored next to the cockpit door so he could watch it while I was on the tarmac. As I boarded the plane, I could tell immediately that the flight attendants had already been informed of my mission. They seemed a little choked up as they led me to my seat.

About 45 minutes into our flight I still hadn’t spoken to anyone except to tell the first class flight attendant that I would prefer water. I was surprised when the flight attendant from the back of the plane suddenly appeared and leaned down to grab my hands. She said, “I want you to have this” as she pushed a small gold crucifix, with a relief of Jesus, into my hand. It was her lapel pin and it looked somewhat worn. I suspected it had been hers for quite some time. That was the only thing she said to me the entire flight.

When we landed in Minneapolis, I was the first one off the plane. The pilot himself escorted me straight down the side stairs of the exit tunnel to the tarmac. The cargo crew there already knew what was on this plane. They were unloading some of the luggage when an Army sergeant, a fellow escort who had left Dover earlier that day, appeared next to me. His “cargo” was going to be loaded onto my plane for its continuing leg. We stood side by side in the dark and executed a slow salute as Chance was removed from the plane. The cargo crew at Minneapolis kept Phelps’s shipping case separate from all the other luggage as they waited to take us to the cargo area. I waited with the soldier and we saluted together as his fallen comrade was loaded onto the plane.

My trip with Chance was going to be somewhat unusual in that we were going to have an overnight stopover. We had a late start out of Dover and there was just too much traveling ahead of us to continue on that day. (We still had a flight from Minneapolis to Billings, Montana, then a five-hour drive to the funeral home. That was to be followed by a 90-minute drive to Chance’s hometown.)

I was concerned about leaving him overnight in the Minneapolis cargo area. My ten-minute ride from the tarmac to the cargo holding area eased my apprehension. Just as in Philadelphia, the cargo guys in Minneapolis were extremely respectful and seemed honored to do their part. While talking with them, I learned that the cargo supervisor for Northwest Airlines at the Minneapolis airport is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves. They called him for me and let me talk to him.

Once I was satisfied that all would be okay for the night, I asked one of the cargo crew if he would take me back to the terminal so that I could catch my hotel’s shuttle. Instead, he drove me straight to the hotel himself. At the hotel, the Lieutenant Colonel called me and said he would personally pick me up in the morning and bring me back to the cargo area.

Before leaving the airport, I had told the cargo crew that I wanted to come back to the cargo area in the morning rather than go straight to the passenger terminal. I felt bad for leaving Chance overnight and wanted to see the shipping container where I had left it for the night. It was fine.

The Lieutenant Colonel made a few phone calls then drove me around to the passenger terminal. I was met again by a man from the cargo crew and escorted down to the tarmac. The pilot of the plane joined me as I waited for them to bring Chance from the cargo area. The pilot and I talked of his service in the Air Force and how he missed it.

I saluted as Chance was moved up the conveyor and onto the plane. It was to be a while before the luggage was to be loaded so the pilot took me up to the board the plane where I could watch the tarmac from a window. With no other passengers yet on board, I talked with the flight attendants and one of the cargo guys. He had been in the Navy and one of the attendants had been in the Air Force. Everywhere I went, people were continuing to tell me their relationship to the military. After all the baggage was aboard, I went back down to the tarmac, inspected the cargo bay, and watched them secure the door.

When we arrived at Billings, I was again the first off the plane. This time Chance’s shipping container was the first item out of the cargo hold. The funeral director had driven five hours up from Riverton, Wyoming to meet us. He shook my hand as if I had personally lost a brother.

We moved Chance to a secluded cargo area. Now it was time for me to remove the shipping container and drape the flag over the casket. I had predicted that this would choke me up but I found I was more concerned with proper flag etiquette than the solemnity of the moment. Once the flag was in place, I stood by and saluted as Chance was loaded onto the van from the funeral home. I was thankful that we were in a small airport and the event seemed to go mostly unnoticed. I picked up my rental car and followed Chance for five hours until we reached Riverton. During the long trip I imagined how my meeting with Chance’s parents would go. I was very nervous about that.

When we finally arrived at the funeral home, I had my first face to face meeting with the Casualty Assistance Call Officer. It had been his duty to inform the family of Chance’s death. He was on the Inspector/Instructor staff of an infantry company in Salt Lake City, Utah and I knew he had had a difficult week.

Inside I gave the funeral director some of the paperwork from Dover and discussed the plan for the next day. The service was to be at 1400 in the high school gymnasium up in Dubois, population about 900, some 90 miles away. Eventually, we had covered everything. The CACO had some items that the family wanted to be inserted into the casket and I felt I needed to inspect Chance’s uniform to ensure everything was proper. Although it was going to be a closed casket funeral, I still wanted to ensure his uniform was squared away.

Earlier in the day I wasn’t sure how I’d handle this moment. Suddenly, the casket was open and I got my first look at Chance Phelps. His uniform was immaculate—a tribute to the professionalism of the Marines at Dover. I noticed that he wore six ribbons over his marksmanship badge; the senior one was his Purple Heart. I had been in the Corps for over 17 years, including a combat tour, and was wearing eight ribbons. This Private First Class, with less than a year in the Corps, had already earned six.

The next morning, I wore my dress blues and followed the hearse for the trip up to Dubois. This was the most difficult leg of our trip for me. I was bracing for the moment when I would meet his parents and hoping I would find the right words as I presented them with Chance’s personal effects.

We got to the high school gym about four hours before the service was to begin. The gym floor was covered with folding chairs neatly lined in rows. There were a few townspeople making final preparations when I stood next to the hearse and saluted as Chance was moved out of the hearse. The sight of a flag-draped coffin was overwhelming to some of the ladies.

We moved Chance into the gym to the place of honor. A Marine sergeant, the command representative from Chance’s battalion, met me at the gym. His eyes were watery as he relieved me of watching Chance so that I could go eat lunch and find my hotel.

At the restaurant, the table had a flier announcing Chance’s service. Dubois High School gym; two o’ clock. It also said that the family would be accepting donations so that they could buy flak vests to send to troops in Iraq.

I drove back to the gym at a quarter after one. I could’ve walked—you could walk to just about anywhere in Dubois in ten minutes. I had planned to find a quiet room where I could take his things out of their pouch and untangle the chain of the Saint Christopher medal from the dog tag chains and arrange everything before his parents came in. I had twice before removed the items from the pouch to ensure they were all there—even though there was no chance anything could’ve fallen out. Each time, the two chains had been quite tangled. I didn’t want to be fumbling around trying to untangle them in front of his parents. Our meeting, however, didn’t go as expected.

I practically bumped into Chance’s step-mom accidentally and our introductions began in the noisy hallway outside the gym. In short order I had met Chance’s step-mom and father followed by his step-dad and, at last, his mom. I didn’t know how to express to these people my sympathy for their loss and my gratitude for their sacrifice. Now, however, they were repeatedly thanking me for bringing their son home and for my service. I was humbled beyond words.

I told them that I had some of Chance’s things and asked if we could try to find a quiet place. The five of us ended up in what appeared to be a computer lab—not what I had envisioned for this occasion.

After we had arranged five chairs around a small table, I told them about our trip. I told them how, at every step, Chance was treated with respect, dignity, and honor. I told them about the staff at Dover and all the folks at Northwest Airlines. I tried to convey how the entire Nation, from Dover to Philadelphia, to Minneapolis, to Billings, and Riverton expressed grief and sympathy over their loss.

Finally, it was time to open the pouch. The first item I happened to pull out was Chance’s large watch. It was still set to Baghdad time. Next were the lanyard and the wooden cross. Then the dog tags and the Saint Christopher medal. This time the chains were not tangled. Once all of his items were laid out on the table, I told his mom that I had one other item to give them. I retrieved the flight attendant’s crucifix from my pocket and told its story. I set that on the table and excused myself. When I next saw Chance’s mom, she was wearing the crucifix on her lapel.

By 1400 most of the seats on the gym floor were filled and people were finding seats in the fixed bleachers high above the gym floor. There were a surprising number of people in military uniform. Many Marines had come up from Salt Lake City. Men from various VFW posts and the Marine Corps League occupied multiple rows of folding chairs. We all stood as Chance’s family took their seats in the front.

It turned out that Chance’s sister, a Petty Officer in the Navy, worked for a Rear Admiral—the Chief of Naval Intelligence—at the Pentagon. The Admiral had brought many of the sailors on his staff with him to Dubois pay respects to Chance and support his sister. After a few songs and some words from a Navy Chaplain, the Admiral took the microphone and told us how Chance had died.

Chance was an artillery cannoneer and his unit was acting as provisional military police outside of Baghdad. Chance had volunteered to man a .50 caliber machine gun in the turret of the leading vehicle in a convoy. The convoy came under intense fire but Chance stayed true to his post and returned fire with the big gun, covering the rest of the convoy, until he was fatally wounded.

Then the commander of the local VFW post read some of the letters Chance had written home. In letters to his mom he talked of the mosquitoes and the heat. In letters to his stepfather he told of the dangers of convoy operations and of receiving fire.

The service was a fitting tribute to this hero. When it was over, we stood as the casket was wheeled out with the family following. The casket was placed onto a horse-drawn carriage for the mile-long trip from the gym, down the main street, then up the steep hill to the cemetery. I stood alone and saluted as the carriage departed the high school. I found my car and joined Chance’s convoy.

The town seemingly went from the gym to the street. All along the route, the people had lined the street and were waving small American flags. The flags that were otherwise posted were all at half-staff. For the last quarter mile up the hill, local boy scouts, spaced about 20 feet apart, all in uniform, held large flags. At the foot of the hill, I could look up and back and see the enormity of our procession. I wondered how many people would be at this funeral if it were in, say, Detroit or Los Angeles—probably not as many as were here in little Dubois, Wyoming.

The carriage stopped about 15 yards from the grave and the military pall bearers and the family waited until the men of the VFW and Marine Corps league were formed up and school busses had arrived carrying many of the people from the procession route. Once the entire crowd was in place, the pallbearers came to attention and began to remove the casket from the caisson. As I had done all week, I came to attention and executed a slow ceremonial salute as Chance was being transferred from one mode of transport to another.

From Dover to Philadelphia; Philadelphia to Minneapolis; Minneapolis to Billings; Billings to Riverton; and Riverton to Dubois we had been together. Now, as I watched them carry him the final 15 yards, I was choking up. I felt that, as long as he was still moving, he was somehow still alive.

Then they put him down above his grave. He had stopped moving.

Although my mission had been officially complete once I turned him over to the funeral director at the Billings airport, it was his placement at his grave that really concluded it in my mind. Now, he was home to stay and I suddenly felt at once sad, relieved, and useless.

The chaplain said some words that I couldn’t hear and two Marines removed the flag from the casket and slowly folded it for presentation to his mother. When the ceremony was over, Chance’s father placed a ribbon from his service in Vietnam on Chance’s casket. His mother approached the casket and took something from her blouse and put it on the casket. I later saw that it was the flight attendant’s crucifix. Eventually friends of Chance’s moved closer to the grave. A young man put a can of Copenhagen on the casket and many others left flowers.

Finally, we all went back to the gym for a reception. There was enough food to feed the entire population for a few days. In one corner of the gym there was a table set up with lots of pictures of Chance and some of his sports awards. People were continually approaching me and the other Marines to thank us for our service. Almost all of them had some story to tell about their connection to the military. About an hour into the reception, I had the impression that every man in Wyoming had, at one time or another, been in the service.

It seemed like every time I saw Chance’s mom she was hugging a different well wisher. As time passed, I began to hear people laughing. We were starting to heal.

After a few hours at the gym, I went back to the hotel to change out of my dress blues. The local VFW post had invited everyone over to “celebrate Chance’s life.” The Post was on the other end of town from my hotel and the drive took less than two minutes. The crowd was somewhat smaller than what had been at the gym but the Post was packed.

Marines were playing pool at the two tables near the entrance and most of the VFW members were at the bar or around the tables in the bar area. The largest room in the Post was a banquet/dinning/dancing area and it was now called “The Chance Phelps Room.” Above the entry were two items: a large portrait of Chance in his dress blues and the Eagle, Globe, & Anchor. In one corner of the room there was another memorial to Chance. There were candles burning around another picture of him in his blues. On the table surrounding his photo were his Purple Heart citation and his Purple Heart medal. There was also a framed copy of an excerpt from the Congressional Record. This was an elegant tribute to Chance Phelps delivered on the floor of the United States House of Representatives by Congressman Scott McInnis of Colorado. Above it all was a television that was playing a photo montage of Chance’s life from small boy to proud Marine.

I did not buy a drink that night. As had been happening all day, indeed all week, people were thanking me for my service and for bringing Chance home. Now, in addition to words and handshakes, they were thanking me with beer. I fell in with the men who had handled the horses and horse-drawn carriage. I learned that they had worked through the night to groom and prepare the horses for Chance’s last ride. They were all very grateful that they were able to contribute.

After a while we all gathered in the Chance Phelps room for the formal dedication. The Post commander told us of how Chance had been so looking forward to becoming a Life Member of the VFW. Now, in the Chance Phelps Room of the Dubois, Wyoming post, he would be an eternal member. We all raised our beers and the Chance Phelps room was christened.

Later, as I was walking toward the pool tables, a Staff Sergeant from the Reserve unit in Salt Lake grabbed me and said, “Sir, you gotta hear this.” There were two other Marines with him and he told the younger one, a Lance Corporal, to tell me his story. The Staff Sergeant said the Lance Corporal was normally too shy and modest to tell it but now he’d had enough beer to overcome his usual tendencies.

As the Lance Corporal started to talk, an older man joined our circle. He wore a baseball cap that indicated he had been with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. Earlier in the evening he had told me about one of his former commanding officers; a Colonel Puller.

So, there I was, standing in a circle with three Marines recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Iraq and one not so recently returned from fighting with the 1st Marine Division in Korea. I, who had fought with the 1st Marine Division in Kuwait, was about to gain a new insight into our Corps.

The young Lance Corporal began to tell us his story. At that moment, in this circle of current and former Marines, the differences in our ages and ranks dissipated—we were all simply Marines.

His squad had been on a patrol through a city street. They had taken small arms fire and had literally dodged an RPG round that sailed between two Marines. At one point they received fire from behind a wall and had neutralized the sniper with a SMAW round. The back blast of the SMAW, however, kicked up a substantial rock that hammered the Lance Corporal in the thigh; only missing his groin because he had reflexively turned his body sideways at the shot.

Their squad had suffered some wounded and was receiving more sniper fire when suddenly he was hit in the head by an AK-47 round. I was stunned as he told us how he felt like a baseball bat had been slammed into his head. He had spun around and fell unconscious. When he came to, he had a severe scalp wound but his Kevlar helmet had saved his life. He continued with his unit for a few days before realizing he was suffering the effects of a severe concussion.

As I stood there in the circle with the old man and the other Marines, the Staff Sergeant finished the story. He told of how this Lance Corporal had begged and pleaded with the Battalion surgeon to let him stay with his unit. In the end, the doctor said there was just no way—he had suffered a severe and traumatic head wound and would have to be med’evaced.

The Marine Corps is a special fraternity. There are moments when we are reminded of this. Interestingly, those moments don’t always happen at awards ceremonies or in dress blues at Birthday Balls. I have found, rather, that they occur at unexpected times and places: next to a loaded moving van at Camp Lejeune’s base housing, in a dirty CP tent in northern Saudi Arabia, and in a smoky VFW post in western Wyoming.

After the story was done, the Lance Corporal stepped over to the old man, put his arm over the man’s shoulder and told him that he, the Korean War vet, was his hero. The two of them stood there with their arms over each other’s shoulders and we were all silent for a moment. When they let go, I told the Lance Corporal that there were recruits down on the yellow footprints tonight that would soon be learning his story.

I was finished drinking beer and telling stories. I found Chance’s father and shook his hand one more time. Chance’s mom had already left and I deeply regretted not being able to tell her goodbye.

I left Dubois in the morning before sunrise for my long drive back to Billings. It had been my honor to take Chance Phelps to his final post. Now he was on the high ground overlooking his town.

I miss him.

Regards,
LtCol Strobl

One of my favorite MilBlogs Blackfive has followed this story almost from the begining and just recently has updated with two messages from those who were with Chance Phelps in the vehicle.

Take the time tonight, read the story and then watch the film, maybe even honor Chance Phelps by donating to his foundation.

Semper Fi and Thank you Chance and Lt. Col Strobl.

Just in case you wanted to see the change that we can believe in!

2009-02-18T17:45:00.000-05:00

With the recently passed "Stimulus Bill" this video is a reality check on how the Congressional Democrats are not in lock step with the President.

If this continues, I wonder how effective Obama is going to be.

Wants to Reform Government

2009-02-18T09:57:00.002-05:00

I just noticed in the Plain Dealer that Mayor Edward FitzGerald is openly running for County Auditor either for the open seat if Frank Russo gets indicted/convicted or in the Primary in May 2010.

Lakewood Mayor Ed FitzGerald, a Democrat who was elected in 2007, also wants to reform government starting with Russo's office. That's why the former FBI agent is openly running for his seat.

FitzGerald met recently with Russo to tell him of his plans. If Russo seeks re-election, he will face FitzGerald in the Democratic primary in May of 2010.

But FitzGerald, who has worked on wide-ranging political corruption investigations in Chicago, is really betting that Russo will be forced from office before the primary.

FitzGerald says party members are encouraged by his pedigree and promise to bring reform.

On the street level, ward and precinct leaders -- traditionally beholden to the party bosses -- are acting a little more like free agents, not worrying about what Dimora and Russo think.

Democrats don't need the outrage that sparked the civil rights and anti-war movements and the presidential campaigns. They just need enough to give themselves the courage to stop embracing the antics of politicians such as McFaul.

I think this is the money quote:

Ed FitzGerald, a Democrat who was elected in 2007, also wants to reform government starting with Russo's office.

Hey Ed, How about finishing the job of reforming Lakewood before you jump off to something else!

40 Years Later - A Life Saving Reunion

2009-02-13T06:48:00.000-05:00

A warm story about a young baby in 1968 being rescued by a fireman and reuniting with that fireman, 40 years later.

The firefighter crawled on his stomach through the pitch-black apartment, the smoke so thick he couldn't see his hand in front of his face. Somewhere inside was a baby and he had to find her.

A window broke, light filled the room, and he saw her lying in her crib, dressed only in a diaper, unconscious. Soot covered her tiny nose. She wasn't breathing and had no pulse.

He grabbed her and breathed life into her as he ran from the apartment.

A newspaper photograph captured their image - a white firefighter from South Boston with his lips pressed to the mouth of a black baby from the Roxbury public housing development - at a time when riots sparked by racial tensions were burning down American cities.

But despite this most intimate of introductions, they remained strangers. William Carroll won a commendation for the rescue, stayed on the job another 34 years, and retired. Evangeline Harper grew up, lost her family to drugs and illness, had six children of her own, and became a nursing and teaching assistant. And through it all someone would often tell her the story about the day she almost died and the man who would not let it happen. She always wanted to meet him and say thank you.

Yesterday, more than 40 years after the fire, she finally did.

In the neighborhood where they first met, Carroll, a slim 71-year-old, got out of his car, dressed in a navy blue uniform he had borrowed from a fellow firefighter, strode up to the 40-year-old woman, and beamed.

"You've grown a lot since the last time I saw you," he said, laughing and putting out his hand. She smiled, gently took his hand, and looked at him almost shyly.

"Thank you so much for remembering me," he told her.

Then he pulled her into a tight embrace and they held on to each other as they stood on Keegan Street, just a few yards from where he had carried her limp body decades ago.

"Thank you so much," she said softly.

The Globe arranged the meeting after Evangeline Harper, now Evangeline Anderson, introduced herself to a reporter at a community meeting and asked for help tracking down Carroll.

Anderson, who now lives in Dorchester, had tried twice before to locate the firefighter, first when she was 18, after her adoptive mother told her about the rescue, and again right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

She tried to get his address from the Fire Department, but they said they could not give out personal information. She left her name and phone number, but never heard back.

"I thought, 'Oh, forget it. He probably doesn't remember," she said. " 'He's not interested.' "
That could not have been further from the truth.

"Evangeline Harper," Carroll said. "I'll never forget her name if I live to be 100 years old."

He heard once that she had been trying to get in touch with him, but somehow her phone number was lost and he did not know how to reach her.

For a while, Anderson stopped looking. Then, she heard the news about Lieutenant Kevin M. Kelley, the firefighter who was killed in January after his firetruck crashed into a Mission Hill building.

" 'Oh my God, this could have been this gentleman, and I never got a chance to say thank you,' " she recalled thinking. "I didn't want him to leave this earth or I to leave this earth without saying thank you."

Yesterday, she brought her youngest child, 6-year-old Reginald, and her godmother, Jacqueline Greer, who witnessed the rescue. For the meeting, Anderson swept her hair in a curly updo and carefully applied lip gloss.

The women brought Carroll a giant stuffed bear, and a thank-you card tucked inside an envelope addressed "To Our Hero."

Richard Paris, vice president of the firefighters union, stood nearby with Carroll's wife and little Reginald, who kicked at the frozen snow on the sidewalk as Greer, Carroll, and Anderson reminisced about the neighborhood. Gone were the brick high-rises that had once formed Orchard Park. In their place were two-level attached apartments painted in pastels and browns.

"I haven't been here in so long," Carroll said.

No one could remember exactly what started the fire on Nov. 7, 1968, but Greer said it began in the family's kitchen. Carroll, who was assigned to Engine 3, heard the report of children trapped in a burning building.

When Carroll arrived, Greer was at the scene, screaming and crying hysterically.

Carroll saved Evangeline, while Firefighter Charles Connolly rescued her 17-month-old brother, Gerry, and handed him to Lieutenant Joseph O'Donnell, who gave the boy mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

"He just cared," Greer, now 60, said of Carroll. "It wasn't that the child was black or she was white. It was a child and he was trying his best to bring her back her life."

Yesterday, both remembered who was missing from the reunion. Connolly and O'Donnell died long ago of heart problems. Anderson's brother Gerry succumbed to pneumonia as a toddler. Her grief-stricken mother turned to drugs for comfort, and died of an overdose at age 25. Her two sisters died young of natural causes. Last year, Anderson lost both her adoptive mother and uncle.

"I wish my friends . . . were here," Carroll said. "But they're up there watching over us."

"That's what I say about my family," Anderson said.

The two quickly built a rapport. He asked about her children, and she told him her eldest son was studying forensic science in college and how musical her other children are.

He told her he wanted to get to know her, and she promised to cook him some soul food.

"Oh, baby," he said, laughing. "I love it, but my stomach don't."

Carroll then took the group for lunch at Florian Hall, the union's headquarters, where Carroll still goes every week for coffee with friends or to help fellow retirees with healthcare questions. Over sandwiches, the group looked at old black-and-white photos of that day and traded stories about the challenges of raising children.

Carroll bonded with Anderson's son, who drew a picture of himself holding Carroll's hand.

Parting in the parking lot, Carroll hugged Greer and Anderson and told Reginald to call him.

"There's your new grandpa," Anderson said to her son.

"What a beautiful day," the retired firefighter said as he turned and walked back inside.

A beautiful day in deed!

A Look at a Buffalo Winter Pastime

2009-02-12T17:39:00.000-05:00

On this day 200 Years ago

2009-02-12T13:18:00.004-05:00

Abraham Lincoln was born 200 years ago.

In November of 1863 he would give a small blueprint on how this still very young nation should live and learn:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

But, to put into prospective he also in very short statement some five years before provided another portion to the blueprint of freedom, with these paraphrased words from Matthew :

A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South.

Sixteen months after the Gettysburg address he would become a martyr to cause of freedom and equality.

Is the Party over for Obama?

2009-02-12T09:49:00.003-05:00

Jon Stewart of the The Daily takes a look at the Obama Press conference the other night.

I think he understands what a lot of people have already realized as to the effectiveness of the early days of his administration.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - The Stimulus Package

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Funny Political News
Joke of the Day

This is getting Ridiculous!

2009-02-05T18:00:00.004-05:00

Will someone please step forward and help out the vetting process for the Obama administration. They certainly have shown that they can't handle it.

Look at this list:

Bill Richardson - Dropped out from Commerce - Under threat of Indictment
Timothy Geithner - Confirmed Secretary of Treasury with tax paying issues
Tom Daschle - Dropped out of HHS - Tax Problems
Hilda Solis - Labor Secretary nominee - Tax Liens
Eric Holder - Attorney General with issues from the Clinton administration regarding circumventing the pardon process to get some pardons issued.

Just yesterday it came to light that a former aide for the Commerce Secretary Designate is under investigation for accepting tickets and other items in return for legislative favors.

Not to mention all the former lobbyists that work in the Obama administration:

Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Geithner, was a top lobbyist for Goldman Sachs Group

William Lynn, deputy secretary of Defense, lobbyist for Raytheon last two years.

William Corr, deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was a federal lobbyist with the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids

John Podesta, Transition co-chair; lobbied for the Center for American Progress

Mark Gitenstein, Advisory board member; lobbied for Merrill Lynch, KPMG and Ernst & Young

Tom Donilon, Member of the State Department review team; lobbied for Fannie Mae

Cassandra Butts, Senior staff member; lobbied for the Center for American Progress

Patrick Gaspard, Senior staff member; lobbied for 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East

Christine Varney, Senior staff member; lobbied for the Online Privacy Alliance

Michael Strautmanis, Senior staff member; lobbied for the American Association of Justice, a trial lawyers group

Ron Klain, Chief of staff to Joseph R. Biden Jr.; lobbied for Fannie Mae

Sally Katzen, Agency review working group member; lobbied for Amgen

h/t Chuck Z for the list

When it rains it pours!

Then you have the Press secretary Robert Gibbs who doesn't think that its a pertinent question regarding transparency.

It just seems this administration can't get its act together either to hire people or assist in getting the stimulus package passed.

I wonder if some country that does not like the US will use the extremely apparent inexperience to take a shot at America to see if they can get away with it.

Best line of the day from Ed Morrissey:
Have we had a more incompetent vetting process in the White House over
such a short period of time? When we criticized Barack Obama’s lack of
executive experience, even we didn’t think it was going to be this
bad.

I needed to laugh

2009-01-29T11:36:00.002-05:00

h/t Allahpundit - Hotair

Medical Mart

2009-01-27T08:21:00.003-05:00

Well, the site for the Medical Mart has been chosen. Some say it was a rash judgment since there was discussion of looking at the East Bank of the Flats.
Which in the long term might have been the best place for it to be built since the Stark Group had already begun infrastructure work thereby eliminating some early costs.

Mayor Jackson appears to be building a spine on this issue, and is now asking for assurances on costs and maintenance over the long haul.

The City and County government are not great builders or developers so look for the $18 million savings from the Tower City site to be used faster than than water can go down the drain.

The Citizens of Cuyahoga County will be pumping money into this site for a long time.

Dennis Kucinich

2009-01-27T07:48:00.011-05:00

Interesting comments from DENNIS! I, like Glenn Beck agree with some of the statements that Rep. Kucinich makes. But, then he goes off with again and giving people back the money.

Tried to embed, but blogspot is giving me some issues, here is the link:

I am now a member of the Loyal Opposition

2009-01-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

Congratulations Barack H. Obama, 44th President of the United States of America.

Thank You Mr. President!

2009-01-20T07:40:00.003-05:00

You wake up this morning as the Leader of the Free World, but when you go to sleep this evening you will just like the rest of us, a normal citizen of these United States of America.

You have a endured difficult times and have had several shining moments these last 8 years.

Some of the burdens you have borne are only know to the other 42 men to have held that position and I am sure your successor will feel some in the coming days of his administration.

Mr. Bush, you started out on the river of freedom on the USS America with great hopes that our country will be able to expand the democracy in which we sometimes take for granted. Yet, on the beautiful September morn, that river of freedom entered an unforeseen rapids in which for some there would be no escaping.

Yet Mr President you shined in the midst of the pile of rubble:

For all the slings and arrows that came your way, you continued to hold to your beliefs never wavering. As the Marines say you were always faithful to America and her ideals.

I can say with conviction, that you never made me regret my votes and all the hours I devoted to your two elections. I hope that perhaps with your successor that I may one day say that I regretted not voting Obama, but, I am just like you, hopeful, that he will instill the same confidence in America that you had.

Thank you Mr. Bush and I wish you and Laura many more days together to share in more private joys that the both of you so richly deserve.

Tomorrow is the Day 1

2009-01-19T18:11:00.003-05:00

The Democrats and the rest of the Angry Left have waited 8 long years to begin to run this country.

The Obama Administration has stubbed its toe with a couple of appointments regarding the Secretary of Commerce and the Treasury Secretary. But, if you don't pay taxes, as a Democrat it should still get you appointed.

I hope that the Democrats will remember that if the Tarp Fund does not recover the economy, that they can not blame everything on the Bush Administration. Since one of the key designers of that plan could very well be sitting as Secretary of Treasury.

I am hopeful that President Obama can persuade the Congress not to open criminal inquiries on various members of the Bush administration, I believe that would be a bad idea and create more hostility for when the GOP retakes control in one or both of the houses.

Should SanFran Nan want to take on the Bush Administration, I would certainly hope that she is open to ethics investigations on Charlie Rangel, Barney Frank and getting Harry Reid to open one on Chris Dodd. It would be a nice bi-partisan look at criminal activity.

With the recent court decision on the wiretapping it will be interesting to see what the Dems will want prosecute.

As to what to expect from the Obama Administration.

Barack Obama tomorrow at 12:15 pm will begin his re-election campaign. He will basically have two years for the rest of America to either continue to stay on the bandwagon or begin to look for new leadership.

The big question is how long before the media tires of Obama.

Annoying the Left

2009-01-15T14:15:00.000-05:00

Intelligence Court Rules Wiretapping Power Legal
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: January 15, 2009

WASHINGTON —

A federal intelligence court, in a rare public opinion, issued a major ruling validating the power of the president and Congress to wiretap international phone calls and intercept e-mail messages without a specific court order, even when Americans’ private communications may be involved.
The court decision, made in August 2008 by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, came in an unclassified, redacted form.

The decision marks the first time since the disclosure of the National Security Agency’s warrantless eavesdropping program three years ago that an appellate court has addressed the constitutionality of the federal government’s wiretapping powers. In validating the government’s wide authority to collect foreign intelligence, it may offer legal credence to the Bush administration’s repeated assertions that the president has the power to act without specific court approval in ordering national security eavesdropping that may involve Americans.

The Aug. 22 appeals court decision upheld a secret ruling issued last year by the intelligence court that it oversees, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, or FISA, court. In that initial opinion, the secret court found that Congress had acted within its authority in August 2007 when it passed a hotly debated law known as the Protect America Act, which gave the executive branch broad power to eavesdrop on international communications.

“The Department of Justice is pleased with this important ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, which upholds the constitutionality of foreign intelligence surveillance conducted under the Protect America Act of 2007,” a Justice Department statement said.

The court ruling grew out of a previously undisclosed challenge from a telecommunications provider, which questioned the constitutional authority of the executive branch in ordering it to capture and turn over international communications without court approval.

The telecommunications company, which was not identified, refused to comply and instead challenged its legal basis under the 2007 law.

The FISA court rejected the telecommunication companies’ challenge. It found that the Protect America Act did not violate the Constitution because the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, contained an exception for the collection of foreign intelligence information.
The opinion did not directly rule on the legality of the once-secret operation authorized by President Bush between October 2001 and early 2007, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international communications of Americans suspected of ties to terrorists. The disclosure of the program’s existence in The New York Times in December 2005 set off a national debate on wiretapping, privacy and the limits of presidential power. Critics charged that Mr. Bush had violated a 1978 law requiring that the government obtain a court order to listen in on Americans’ communications.

Still, the new ruling is expected to have broad implications for federal wiretapping law, because it is the first time that any appeals court has ruled on the constitutional question of the president’s wiretapping power.

It could also influence a number of court challenges now pending in federal court in California against telecommunications companies that took part in the N.S.A. program. Last year, Congress approved legal immunity against lawsuits for the telecommunications companies, but a federal judge has yet to decide whether the lawsuits should be thrown out.

The Protect America Act was a temporary, six-month measure that gave the president the authority to collect international phone calls and e-mail messages in large batches in search of possible terrorist connections without getting individual warrants. The international communications of Americans could be collected, so long as the target of the wiretapping operations was outside the United States.
The law drew strong objections from congressional Democrats, who blocked its renewal in early 2008 despite repeated warnings from President Bush that national security would be compromised. Ultimately, Congress approved a plan last June that authorized the same basic framework for international eavesdropping — along with long-sought immunity for the phone companies — but added some restrictions.

Barack Obama, then a United States senator, was highly critical of the presidential wiretapping power claimed by Mr. Bush, and threatened to filibuster the final bill. But he ultimately voted for it, angering some of his liberal supporters. His administration is expected to examine possible changes in wiretapping law and operations, a review that will probably be affected by the findings of the FISA appeals court.

The FISA court and the review court operate in secrecy. The appellate court has issued only one other major ruling in its 30-year history.

Looks like if President Obama would like keep this, he now has legal cover to continue this program, even if he and other Liberals may publicly abhor it.

Although since the New York Times disclosed this intelligence avenue several years ago, I wonder how effective it will continue to be.

Change is Coming to America

2009-01-15T13:10:00.002-05:00

Thank God, some believe that we need change in leadership in Washington.

On Tuesday, January 20th 2009 at 12:01pm that change will occur for the 44th time.

What will it look like:

Here is a small snippet:

Working in New Computer

2009-01-14T18:01:00.002-05:00

The old laptop was just about done, now configuring new one and while I am at it a new all in one printer.

Heard some background on the School board selection and so far everyone seems to be happy with it.

Received a call from Ryan Demro while on his way to Ft. Jackson. According to him he was somewhere in the Carolinas. He will be finishing up his final phase of Officer Training. Unless Uncle Sam sends him somewhere else, he should be returning mid-March.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T12:27:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas to All

2008-12-24T23:15:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite versions of the Little Drummer Boy

Please Remember Those on the Front Lines

2008-12-24T17:31:00.000-05:00

Straight No Chaser - Friday

2008-12-12T13:32:00.002-05:00

Since we are nearing Christmas and it seems that a Friday needs to be a little lighter then some of the others that I want to write about, so here is Straight No Chaser.

Lakewood is in a tizzy - Decisions to make

2008-12-10T16:58:00.001-05:00

Topic # 1

City Hall

Well, it seems that one of the many golden geese in Lakewood is about to be put aside. What is that you ask?

Why its backyard pickup for all the residents.

Several months ago the City announced that all multi-tenant apartments above five (5) units was going to lose its garbage pickup, the City claiming as a cost cutting measure announced that it was to drop the service. That is one goose that died, it doesn't really save a lot of money, but with the state the city's finances are in anything right now is a help.

Then just a couple of weeks ago, it was floated that the city was going to drop the backyard pickup in favor of a more automated system with all the garbage being picked up at curbside by an articulating armed truck.

Once again, the initial costs may not save a lot, but in the long run I bet it will save the city several hundred thousand dollars each fiscal year.

I believe that a lot of people will be upset by this move, but I thought 4 years ago this was a necessary move as a cost cutting issue.

I applaud Mayor FitzGerald and the City Council for taking a bold move into reducing costs. There is still few more things that could be done, but this is a major move forward for the City.

Topic # 2

Lakewood Library

Ken Warren has announced his retirement from the Library. Ken has done a magnificent job along with the board in creating a fine institution and now a spectacular facility in which to browse the literary world or words.

Personally, I think very highly of Ken, who occasionally stops in at this site and will offer his comments either here or via email.

Ken, Good Luck and I will be curious to hear what books you might be reading and if you are going to write one.

Topic # 3

Lakewood School Board

Chaz Geiger stunned the community by announcing his retirement from the Board, some are angered that he is leaving after only finishing one year of his 4 year term.
Quite frankly, I think he a right to step aside anytime he feels necessary.

Now the School is scrambling to not only to fill the the Superintendent's seat, but now finding someone to fill Mr. Geiger's seat until the November election.

So as I said Lakewood is a tizzy and people are having to make decisions, political ones and financial ones.

The political ones are who is going to step up for the School Board and coming into 2009, who might give a run at City Council.

The financial question - will there be even more cost cutting at City Hall?

There are some interesting time coming up! Stay tuned

In light of the recent Russian Analysts Opinion

2008-11-25T12:16:00.002-05:00

In seems ironic that with the recent post about a Russian Analyst's opinion that the United States will break up based on financial indices.

The USS Ronald Reagan arrives home to San Diego after doing tour in the Arabian Seas and Pacific Ocean.

IS AMERICA HEADING FOR A BREAKUP?

2008-11-25T09:45:00.005-05:00

From the Drudge Report:

RUSSIAN ANALYST PREDICTS DECLINE AND BREAKUP OF USA
Tue Nov 25 2008

A leading Russian political analyst has said the economic turmoil in the United States has confirmed his long-held view that the country is heading for collapse, and will divide into separate parts.

Professor Igor Panarin said in an interview with the respected daily IZVESTIA published on Monday: "The dollar is not secured by anything. The country's foreign debt has grown like an avalanche, even though in the early 1980s there was no debt. By 1998, when I first made my prediction, it had exceeded $2 trillion. Now it is more than 11 trillion. This is a pyramid that can only collapse."

The paper said Panarin's dire predictions for the U.S. economy, initially made at an international conference in Australia 10 years ago at a time when the economy appeared strong, have been given more credence by this year's events.

When asked when the U.S. economy would collapse, Panarin said: "It is already collapsing. Due to the financial crisis, three of the largest and oldest five banks on Wall Street have already ceased to exist, and two are barely surviving. Their losses are the biggest in history. Now what we will see is a change in the regulatory system on a global financial scale: America will no longer be the world's financial regulator."

When asked who would replace the U.S. in regulating world markets, he said: "Two countries could assume this role: China, with its vast reserves, and Russia, which could play the role of a regulator in Eurasia."

Asked why he expected the U.S. to break up into separate parts, he said: "A whole range of reasons. Firstly, the financial problems in the U.S. will get worse. Millions of citizens there have lost their savings. Prices and unemployment are on the rise. General Motors and Ford are on the verge of collapse, and this means that whole cities will be left without work. Governors are already insistently demanding money from the federal center. Dissatisfaction is growing, and at the moment it is only being held back by the elections and the hope that Obama can work miracles. But by spring, it will be clear that there are no miracles."

He also cited the "vulnerable political setup", "lack of unified national laws", and "divisions among the elite, which have become clear in these crisis conditions."

He predicted that the U.S. will break up into six parts - the Pacific coast, with its growing Chinese population; the South, with its Hispanics; Texas, where independence movements are on the rise; the Atlantic coast, with its distinct and separate mentality; five of the poorer central states with their large Native American populations; and the northern states, where the influence from Canada is strong.

He even suggested that "we could claim Alaska - it was only granted on lease, after all." Panarin, 60, is a professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has authored several books on information warfare.

This almost laughable, perhaps the Russians would know what it feels like to have their own country implode. But, at least we are still a true democracy!

County Corruption Probe drifting into Lakewood

2008-11-19T13:00:00.002-05:00

In Sunday's Plain Dealer it was interesting to see that Council President Micheal Dever's name appear on court documents.

To me this was not surprising, but apparently it was to Dever:

Mike Dever, former head of construction for the county engineer's office, is the deputy to the sanitary engineer. He is not sure why he is named in a subpoena, though he said he once accepted a campaign contribution from Blaze Construction owner Ferris Kleem as a Lakewood councilman.

I guess perhaps I have been in the legal business too long, because I had figured that Dever's name would eventually appear in the legal documents when the initial raids were first announced. Especially, with him so close to the County Engineer on the various construction projects. A position he has mentioned several times during Council hearings on the road and sewer projects and the probe involving sweetheart deals from contractors.

Let me state now that on the face of the information that has been made public, he has done nothing wrong, but, this probe will draw in people that may have nothing to do with the issue.

USS FREEDOM IN CLEVELAND

2008-11-14T12:08:00.004-05:00

From 43 stories up and just under a mile away

The line forming to view the ship. The Navy is only allowing a 1000 people a day to view it.

These photos were taken from the floor of my office, I thought I might be able to run over and see up close, but that may not be possible.

THE 11th HOUR of the THE 11th DAYof the 11th MONTH

2008-11-11T11:11:00.000-05:00

As Lakewood dedicates its new Veteran's Memorial at Lakewood Park, let us all take time to honor all the Men and Women who have served in our Armed Forces.

Especially, I would personally to to thank:

2nd. Lt. John P. Bobo USN Medal of Honor Winner, Niagara Falls NY
Lt. Col. Terrence Crowe USA Kenmore, NY; Niagara University Class of '82
Sgt. V. Sumner Carroll USA (Ret) Niagara Falls, NY - My father.

Until Then!

President - Elect Obama

2008-11-05T20:39:00.002-05:00

After having several hours to contemplate the victory of President - Elect Obama's it is truly amazing. His campaign has shattered every political myth and trend that has been in place since the beginning of the USA.

Today, though reality has begun to creep in as he begins to form his administration and set his priorities.

In listening to snippets of his speech last night he let his supporters know that perhaps that not all the promises he made can be kept during his administration or at least in the first term.

So we Republicans and Conservatives will have to sit back for a few weeks to see the hand that will be dealt by the new administration. We should know with the various Cabinet selections in which direction the administration might lean.

Some of the key positions to look for besides the obvious of Secretaries of State, Defense, Treasury and the Director of the CIA are the Secretaries of Commerce, Transportation and the most telling of all the Director of the EPA.

Those positions could hold sway over the American economy for years to come, perhaps more than the State or Defense Departments.

With the judiciary, it seems that perhaps for the first time since perhaps the Reagan years that all Federal District Court vacancies will be filled with the size of the majority of the Senate.

As to the Supreme Court time will only tell, since no justice as of yet has provided a signal on retirement.

Things are still interesting, but somewhat muted.

Stay tuned!

AS MUCH AS IT PAINS ME TO SAY

2008-11-04T07:51:00.000-05:00

On this election day, I will manning a poll location as Republican Observer in the City of East Cleveland Ward 2.

While I am there I will seeing first hand the type of ground game that the Democrats will have fielded for this Presidential race.

With just about unlimited funds, the Democrats should have a program in which the Republicans used to have, but this year the GOP was truly bested by the Obama campaign.

Probably by sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning the national media will begin make their calls.

That call will be that Barack Obama and Joseph Biden will become the next President and Vice President of the United States.

Obama as the 44th President, will need to begin to heal the wounds of his own party and be able to reach across the aisle to the remaining Republicans in Congress to continue the business of the United States of America as the being the leader of the Free World.

Once again, America will show the world that we can hold divisive opinions on governing, but still able to provide elections that are beholden to the tenets of our founding fathers ideals some 232 years ago.

What will be made of our electing of Mr. Obama, it will be historic!

The election of Barack Obama will bring to full circle the idea and concept espoused by a fellow Illini on the battlefields of Gettysburg.

As this long campaign comes to a close and America begins again, we must look to the future to determine the paths that must be taken to restore the hope in our economy and set a goal to the next generation to follow.

To Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, I thank you for fighting the good fight, for withstanding the brutal blows directed at you and your families. We believed that you both would have been good and able stewards of our countries fortunes, but, alas, that bright and shining dream will be dimmed to a faint glow for these next few years.

You both have followed the U. S. Marine Corp credo of DUTY, HONOR and COUNTRY these past few months with that I say job well done.

More photos of Sarah Palin in Lakewood

2008-11-03T13:31:00.005-05:00

I was so close to getting these, but not close enough!

Gov. Sarah Palin in Lakewood

2008-11-03T12:35:00.004-05:00

John McCain for President

2008-11-03T04:48:00.001-05:00

I am an American!

2008-10-31T17:59:00.001-04:00

The Coach says it all!

What is Obama's Tax Plan Levels

2008-10-31T16:50:00.003-04:00

What is Obama's definition of the rich?

I guess it depends on who you talk with. Obama says its $250,000, Biden has said its $200, 000 and then later it was $150,000. Now Governor Bill Richardson says its $120,000.

Please gentlemen, which is it!

Calculate your 401k Fund

2008-10-31T09:18:00.000-04:00

Check the numbers

2008-10-30T14:20:00.005-04:00

I have stated on this blog that the measures that Barrack Obama wants to implement during his presidency do not measure up financially with all his proposed tax cuts.

His "spreading the wealth around" comment WILL increase every one's taxes. It will start with the expiration of the Bush Tax cuts from 2001 and 2003. From that point on everyone will have to share the burden.

Why do I bring this up again, it seems that CBS News is beginning to look at Obama's plans.

In case it goes down the memory hole, here it is in its entirety.

(CBS) This story was written by CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews.

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

Without question, the Barack Obama infomercial served as a very slick and powerful recitation of the biggest promises he's made as a presidential candidate. But the very bigness of his ideas is the problem: he seems blind to the concept his numbers don't add up.

Let's start with his highly suspect, and widely discredited, claim that he can find federal "spending cuts beyond the costs" of his promises. Very few independent economists believe he has identified the savings needed to offset his remarkable list of tax credits, tax cuts and spending pledges.

Fact: Even if you believe Obama intends to fix health care, most independent analysts say the cost is massive - $1.2 trillion over ten years, according to the highly respected Lewin Group. When the new Congress wakes up next year to a $1 trillion deficit, and answers the overwhelming new demands for another stimulus package, will the leadership really bite on a health care reform package that digs the deficit hole so much deeper?

And that's just the beginning of what Obama would spend.

Fact: The tax cuts he promises, which are mostly refundable tax credits (code for cash back), will cost $60 billion just in year one, according the National Taxpayers Union, though the Obama campaign's own estimates in July put that figure at $130 billion.

Fact: His new promise to give businesses a $3,000 tax credit for each new job created will cost $40 billion. But economists say this credit is far more likely to benefit companies already planning to expand and will likely not be enough to help companies create new jobs or forestall layoffs.

Fact: Obama's claim he will lower health care premiums by $2,500 is: 1.) guesswork, which is 2.) based on health care savings that might, in a perfect world, happen over 10 years - a fact Obama neatly glosses over.

Fact: Obama, when referring to savings he can make by leaving Iraq ($90 billion, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates), has spent these savings several times over, across several different promises depending on the crowd he's addressing.

Most of the time he spends the Iraq savings in the context of the roads he wants to build; sometimes it's for the teachers he wants to hire. Tonight, he riffed rhetorically on the savings, asking how many scholarships could be funded, or how many schools could be built. In the end though, presuming he really saves $90 billion, he can only spend it once.

Remember he also mentioned rebuilding the military ($7 billion/yr); his education initiative ($18 billion/yr); and his energy initiative ($15 billion/yr). He did not mention the $188 billion that he would spend on the brand new stimulus package he has proposed.

If he closes every loophole as promised, saves every dime from Iraq, raises taxes on the rich and trims the federal budget as he's promised to do "line by line," he still doesn't pay for his list. If he's elected, the first fact hitting his desk will be the figure projecting how much less of a budget he has to work with - thanks to the recession. He gave us a very compelling vision with his ad buy tonight. What he did not give us was any hint of the cold reality he's facing or a sense of how he might prioritize his promises if voters trust him with the White House.

Maybe its time America wakes up and realizes that Obama is not the answer.

Heritage Foundation's Quick Review of the Tax Plans

2008-10-29T14:31:00.006-04:00

Which tax plan provides more after tax money to a family of four?

Here is a chart showing affecting employment growth.

Josh Mandel Attack

2008-10-28T15:47:00.005-04:00

It has been said quite a lot this campaign season how the Republicans are conducting a nasty negative campaign. I have written several times how I have thought the Democrats on the national stage were just as guilty in the negative campaigning, well I think I have seen or heard the most negative thoughts by a Democrat here in Cuyahoga county.

I learned of this from Joel Mowbray at Townhall.com.

To quote Mowbray's article:

The opponent in his tough re-election fight, trial attorney Bob Belovich, is attacking Mr. Mandel’s service, arguing that he abandoned voters. Mr. Belovich’s wife, Barbara, acknowledged in an interview for this column that she has told voters that Mr. Mandel “went AWOL” (a military term for desertion) by fighting in Iraq.

Even Mr. Mandel’s motives for serving in Iraq are being questioned. Mrs. Belovich claimed in an interview with this columnist that Mandel “put his personal ambitions ahead of his constituents.” Asked why anyone would enter a war zone out of “personal ambition,” Barbara Belovich replied curtly, “Certainly he wasn’t serving our needs.”

Here is one outlet with what was said.

Click To Play

Here is Josh Mandel talking about this slam

Unfortunately, this story is beginning to be picked up by some of the big bloggers, like POWERLINE and BLACKFIVE

Not a good political move by the Mr or Mrs Belovich.

Interesting Voter Registration Order

2008-10-28T15:42:00.005-04:00

A Federal District Court judge has ruled that the homeless can use a park bench or other locations that aren't buildings as their address for being eligible for voting.

What does another World Leader think of Obama?

2008-10-28T13:30:00.000-04:00

From Haaret.com

Here is a report regarding comments made by French President Nicholas Sarkozy:

Here is a money quote:

Following their July meeting, Sarkozy repeatedly expressed disappointment with Obama's positions on Iran, concluding that they were "not crystallized, and therefore many issues remain open," the Israeli source said. Advisors to the French president who held separate meetings with Obama's advisors came away with similar impressions and expressed similar disappointment.

Cleaning Up Washington

2008-10-28T12:28:00.002-04:00

Barack Obama has made a hallmark of his campaign the idea that Middle America will be the driving force for his campaign and not let Corporate Lobbyists dictate to him what should be done.

He also has take to task the McCain campaign about the lobbyist running his campaign. But here is this report from CBS regarding following the money trail on the donations to the Obama campaign.

Pay attention to the end when it breaks down the Wall Street contributions:

Hypocritical?

The More things CHANGE the more they stay the same!

Judicial Elections

2008-10-27T15:26:00.002-04:00

Once again this election cycle, here is a website to help you look at what the lawyers think of the judicial races.

www.Judge4Yourself.com.

To start with, for the the Ohio Supreme Court select Maureen O'Connor over Joseph Russo and
Evelyn Stratton over Peter Sikora.

CORY THE DRILLER

2008-10-26T10:28:00.003-04:00

A devastating post the "One" regarding what Cory has done and what the Democratic policies of this year and possibly the coming years could do.

Here is a snippet:
You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn't want to take a risk, and would not demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it the most" that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land.

What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach of every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our country. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.

You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.

Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office - can you pronounce "politically motivated"), you averaged less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else's money you are giving to them. I won't say what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you and Joe Biden. combined (don't you just hate google?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.