THE WORLD ACCORDING TO KIMBA

2012-01-25T18:15:00.000-08:00

THANK YOU SOUTH CAROLINA !!

2012-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

What could be better for us.....the primary goes on with them attacking each others obvious limitations for being elected....Santorum going after Gingrich....Uncle Fester grabbing votes, and Gingrich being...well, nut job Gingrich. He is Joe Biden without all the charisma baggage.

Newt Gingrich, fined 300k for ethics violations by a 395–28 House vote. It was the first time in history a speaker was disciplined for ethical wrongdoing. ....left his first wife while she recovers from cancer....cheated on and left his second wife demanding theirs be an "open marriage" or we are done. What a putz. Who on earth will agree to be his running mate...Mel Gibson?

STOP BEING AFRAID....SPEAK YOUR PEACE

2012-01-21T16:12:00.000-08:00

ROMNEY A WINNER AND THE GOP'S A LOSER IN IOWA..

2012-01-08T05:45:00.000-08:00

There he is folks, your winner and still champion.....hold your nose and vote for Mitt Romney. The GOP slate of candidates is sooo incredibly weak that Perry still thinks he has a chance, and 2 nut bags like Paul and Santorum are in the upper eschelon. Blows my mind that a huge political party as the GOP consistently fails to promote a viable candidate for President.

Is it any wonder that the majority of pundits give President Obama's reelection an every increasing percentage of viability? Mitt Romney...someone without any passion except for self promotion...someone who would trade in his grandma for the Oval Office...say or do literally anything...be anything...it takes to win. It is only a matter of time before the press starts scrutinizing his performance of Bain Capital..and he will be clouded over with taint. Can you say four more years?

2012-01-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

MR. SENATOR, I HAVE A QUESTION....

2011-12-31T12:57:00.000-08:00

It's New Year's Eve, and the candidates are burning up the map of Iowa in preparation for Tuesdays caucus...answering mindless questions repetitively all the while saying less than nothing with virtual aplomb, or painting broad strokes of reform with little or no depth to indicate they have the faintest clue to correct the problems besetting our great nation.
These are the normal protocols for running for political office, and are completely predictable. I can only assume the candidates have been over and over the list of "usual" questions they can expect...the normal four year softball questions they will attempt to answer in order to curry favor and possibly even receive a round of applause, if the size of the venue allows.

The unfortunate result is a complete lack of information given from the candidates; as no one expects you to prove your worldly intelligence, or to display any impressive, or even appreciable modicum of pseudo intelligence beyond the average voter's ability to understand.

The sad fact is, the closest the average American gets to any public figure of any enviable intelligence level has been reduced to recent appearances by Dr. Neil DeGasse Tyson on space exploration, and "The Big Bang Theory." Any intelligent conversations or public debates are a rare vestige of what our worlds, and our entertainment avenues used to incorporate.

Intelligence and education used to be exalted and admired. We used to have a respect for the written word. Generations past would never consider additions to our lexicon such that are summarily added to Websters Dictionary without an iota of thought or debate in present day....bon mots that would render our previous generations spinning in their graves.....take the following sentence for instance.....

"The pod person used his WiFi at hyperspeed to listen to some tuneage, complain about plumber's crack, saw a gay-friendly drama queen and - bada-bing - wound up with some bling."

A nonsensical sentence to be sure, but every word now appears in the Oxford Dictionary. Every word. I have not researched it, but if it is not included already, can frickin' be far behind?

Our country no longer values education, no longer revels in the written word. We have become a nation of uneducated video idiots. Our educational system is begging for an overhaul. Book stores routinely go out of business. Libraries are under appreciated, and under utilized. Our public airwaves neither addresses the issue, nor seeks to be a part of the remedy...namely producing anything of an enriching nature, opting instead to produce an endless array of pablum targeted to the least common denominator amongst us.

Seems to me each candidate should be asked a variety of questions, such as "Our population has become increasingly lazy, unintelligent and culturally vapid...what can you do as a leader to help to return this nation to its former glory?" I would love to hear the answer, because until we return to a love of learning, until this nation returns to dreaming, until this nation returns to respecting and revering its intelligent people and regains its thirst for knowledge, we will be hopelessly mired in mediocrity. Even today, as we consider who to vote for, rarely if ever consider which candidate is the smartest person in the room...instead, utilizing our, baser instincts to make the decision, which in part leads to the banal charade a public forum with a candidate has become.

And if you are reading this and acknowledging the obvious fact that I could use a remedial course or two in grammar and diction, consider this. I graduated with all A's and B's throughout my school years and found the education system to be very easy and remained largely unchallenged throughout. I realize and acknowledge that I am......this post is....an indictment of the very system I rail about, and the very character and lack of priorities I assail against today. I know I am a part of the problem, and in no way above it all.

But welcome to my world...."The World According to Kimba." Thanks for reading.

CELEBRATE RESPONSIBLY & HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR

2011-12-30T13:07:00.000-08:00

THE GOP CONTENDERS...FORMER SITCOM STARS

2011-12-29T19:50:00.000-08:00

Random I know, but over dinner with friends (including a decent bar tab), I now realize where I know the GOP candidates from....The Addams Family.
Pugsley---------Newt Gingrich
Lurch-----------Mitt Romney
Morticia-------- Michelle Bachmann
Gomez----------Rick Perry
Uncle Fester----Ron Paul
When you think of them in this context, even the Addams motto begins to makes sense.....
Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc......
(We gladly feast on those who would subdue us)
I should probably add quitting drinking to my New Years Resolutions...

2011-12-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

2011-12-03T07:37:00.001-08:00

"I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a disgrace; that two are called a law firm; and that three or more become a Congress!" -- John Adams

HOLY CRAP.....WILL BARNEY BE REPLACED BY WILMA?

2011-11-29T09:14:00.000-08:00

Barney Frank, ranking minority member on the house Financial Services Committee has announced he will not seek re-election in the upcoming election. In his many years of service to the country in government, Representative Frank has certainly made a mark on the landscape of the country, both financially and politically.

Despite his long and somewhat storied career in politics, ultimately Frank's legacy will be in his involvement in the economic crash we are currently experiencing; specifically in the issues with Fannie May and Freddy Mac, the failure to oversee Wall Street, the push to end the unfair practices by the financial sector towards granting loans to minority communities (which resulted in loan application abuses in order to reach acceptable loan percentages) and the lack of oversight of the housing bubble indicated by the creation of default swap products that devistated many financial institutions to the point of near elimination.

However the history books judge his involvement in the economic crisis, or any other portion of his 30 year political career....they will all pale in comparison to the effect his retirement will have upon the Financial Services Committee......

Ranking Minority Member Maxine Waters.

I could go into a 200 word rant about the political buffoonery, her complete lack of political acumen of Ms. Waters over the years, but let me just quote something from her memo on Rep. Franks retirement as testimony......

“I will miss Barney deeply. I will miss his wit, his sense of humor.....

May I submit to the ranking chair of the

Financial Services Committee

of the House of Representatives....

wit and a sense of humor is virtually the same thing.

Good Lord help us.... we have 12 months to unload our stocks.

ROMNEY & PERRY: LIARS AND THE LYING LIES THEY TELL

2011-11-25T18:36:00.000-08:00

Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have been accused of telling TV viewers blatant untruths about Barack Obama.
The candidates deny their TV commercials are deceitful and dishonest but both ads selectively quote the president to make it appear he is saying one thing when he is saying another.
The advertisements have been widely scorned for crossing a line from a longstanding practice of political campaigns pushing the truth to its limits, over to misrepresentation. One ad appears to show Obama admitting he will lose next year's election if he talks about the economy. The other has him calling American workers lazy.

Romney's campaign ad is airing on TV stations in New Hampshire, which holds its primary in January. It shows the president saying: "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose."
The ad appears to have the president admitting he is vulnerable on the economy. But Obama's words were from his 2008 campaign, and he was quoting a statement by a strategist for his Republican opponent, John McCain, who was the one on the back foot over the economy.
Perry's ad shows a short soundbite of Obama saying: "We've been a little bit lazy I think over the last couple of decades."
The ad switches to Perry saying: "Can you believe that? That's what our president thinks is wrong with America – that Americans are lazy. That's pathetic."
But a viewing of Obama's full statement shows that he was saying the US government had been lazy in attracting foreign investment.

Foolish men mistake transitory semblance for eternal fact" (Thomas Carlyle).

So is this the new political normal? Complete and blatant lies in order to create the perception they want to put out? A complete abdication of any semblance of honesty or integrity?

Not only have they put out completely false ads...not only have they come out with additional lies in a vain attempt (cover up) to justify their dishonesty....but as lies go, they were inept and easily identified. Morons...they setting themselves up to be destroyed by fellow candidate Newt Gingrich, who seems to be taking the high road during the debates.

MORE THAN 1 IN 5 CHILDREN LIVE IN POVERTY IN SOME SOUTHERN AREAS

2011-11-20T18:28:00.000-08:00

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/18/1037739/-Child-poverty-increased-in-2010;-more-than-1-in-5-children-are-poor-?via=blog_1

NETANYAHU NEEDS A U.S. BITCH SLAP...HILLARY?

2011-11-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

So Natanyahu won't consult with us, or even notify us of an impending preemptive strike against Iran? Here is all SOS Clinton has to say in her next press conference...

"It has been made clear by Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel cannot guarantee that we will be notified prior to an Israeli preemptive military strike against Iran, and their nuclear weapons program. This obviously signifies Israel's desire to go it alone in any future military action against Iran. The United States will honor those wishes." DONE.

He'll be kissing our asses again in no time flat.....

OOPS

2011-11-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

Oops is right....have you witnessed any of the debates? Where did they get these complete morons? The talent the GOP is bringing to the table is laughable!...they have Bachmann, who barely has the intelligence required to be the next FOX News on-air bimbo....there's Uncle Fester Ron Paul, Newt "cheated on my dying wife" Gingrich, and then theres this guy....

Mr. "on day one I am going to close three huge governmental departments...I just can't think of all three right now" Perry. Let's see, I think I had them written down right here....no, I guess not....OOPS is right. Who said there are no good sit-coms on TV anymore?

Update: IMPORTANT MESSAGE.... Apparently, I was all wrong........it appears one of the candidates is not only ready, but being endorsed, well.........by God. That's right Herman Cain, just like Moses, has been hand picked by the Almighty and come November, he is going to save us all...here is his quote: "That's when I prayed and prayed and prayed. I'm a man of faith — I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I've ever done before in my life," Cain said. "And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. 'You've got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?'"

NOT COOL

2011-11-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

FROM THE FLAVOR OF THE MONTH...COMES THE FLAVOR OF THE MONTH

2011-11-09T18:01:00.001-08:00

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/herman-cain-gets-a-ben-and-jerrys-flavor
Thank You to Buzzfeed.com,

always an excellent, amusing read...

HAPPY GUY FAWKES DAY

2011-11-05T08:17:00.001-07:00

BEST TAKE I HAVE HEARD YET ON THE 1%

2011-11-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

Arnold Kling:

『 The recent trend in job polarization raises the possibility that gains in well-being that come from productivity improvements will accrue to an economic elite. Perhaps the middle-class affluence that emerged during the latter part of the industrial age is not going to be a feature of the information age.

Instead, we could be headed into an era of highly unequal economic classes. People at the bottom will have access to food, healthcare, and electronic entertainment, but the rich will live in an exclusive world of exotic homes and extravagant personal services. The most popular bands in the world will play house concerts for the rich, while everyone else can afford music downloads but no live music. 』

http://www.frumforum.com/libertarians-for-oligarchy

2011-10-29T16:27:00.001-07:00

THIS PUTS IT INTO PERSPECTIVE.....

2011-10-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

2011-10-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

SESSIONS: CUT INTO THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM!

2011-10-22T11:39:00.001-07:00

It takes a special kind of heartless bastard to suggest we cut into the food stamp program....it's not like they do not have to offer proof of their inability to afford food....let's take food out of the mouths of children...fuck the millions of children with no access to healthcare (through no fault of their own)...and let's filibuster any attempt to create jobs so we can blame the President next year and get elected....but let's continue to give tax cuts to the top 3% of income earners....you are a real fucking patriot, sir.

2011-10-19T15:49:00.001-07:00

LEND YOUR VOICE TO THE MOVEMENT

2011-10-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

HERMAN CAIN: SAY NEIN, NEIN, NEIN!

2011-10-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

He is the GOP flavor of the month. He is a brash, hard speaking candidate who professes to be a political outsider. However, it doesn't take much investigation to see he is nothing more than the spokesperson for the Koch Brothers, and their organisation, Americans for Prosperity.
Who are the Koch Brothers? Here is an accounting for their actions from the Bloomberg News....

"....In May 2008, a unit of Koch Industries Inc., one of the world’s largest privately held companies, sent Ludmila Egorova-Farines, its newly hired compliance officer and ethics manager, to investigate the management of a subsidiary in Arles in southern France. In less than a week, she discovered that the company had paid bribes to win contracts. “I uncovered the practices within a few days,” Egorova- Farines says. “They were not hidden at all.”

By September of that year, the researchers had found evidence of improper payments to secure contracts in six countries dating back to 2002, authorized by the business director of the company’s Koch-Glitsch affiliate in France.

A Bloomberg Markets investigation has found that Koch Industries -- in addition to being involved in improper payments to win business in Africa, India and the Middle East -- has sold millions of dollars of petrochemical equipment to Iran, a country the U.S. identifies as a sponsor of global terrorism.

From 1999 through 2003, Koch Industries was assessed more than $400 million in fines, penalties and judgments. In December 1999, a civil jury found that Koch Industries had taken oil it didn’t pay for from federal land by mismeasuring the amount of crude it was extracting. Koch paid a $25 million settlement to the U.S. Phil Dubose, a Koch employee who testified against the company said he and his colleagues were shown by their managers how to steal and cheat -- using techniques they called the Koch Method.

In 1999, a Texas jury imposed a $296 million verdict on a Koch pipeline unit -- the largest compensatory damages judgment in a wrongful death case against a corporation in U.S. history. The jury found that the company’s negligence had led to a butane pipeline rupture that fueled an explosion that killed two teenagers.

The Koch brothers have vaulted into the American political spotlight in recent years. Koch Industries has spent more than $50 million to lobby in Washington since 2006, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks political donations. The company opposed derivatives regulation and greenhouse gas limits.
The brothers have backed a foundation that has trained thousands of Tea Party activists. The Tea Party, a popular movement whose name stands for Taxed Enough Already, has grown into a potent force in national politics. Sixty representatives of Congress, out of a total of 435, identify themselves as Tea Party members. Virtually every Republican candidate for president -- including Texas Governor Rick Perry and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann -- has solicited the group’s support.

Cain's economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to the two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity. Cain's campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an AFP advisory board with helping devise his "9-9-9" plan to rewrite the nation's tax code. And his years of speaking at AFP events have given the businessman and radio host a network of loyal grassroots fans.

Cain is always quick to promote his career at the helm of the Godfather's Pizza chain, but his ties to AFP aren't something the candidate appears eager to highlight. But Cain continues to work with the group.
While several other candidates will be at an Iowa Republican Party dinner on Nov. 4, Cain is scheduled to be in Washington mingling with activists at AFP's annual "Defending the American Dream" summit. He is the only confirmed presidential candidate for the event.

"Herman Cain is the first presidential corporate spokes-candidate," said Scott Ross, a liberal activist who leads One Wisconsin Now, which has often mocked AFP as a front group for corporate interests. "The best way to have your issues talked about in the issue debate is to have a candidate in your pocket with snappy comebacks and easily branded policy papers which mask how destructive they would be." AFP's agenda also includes weakening private and public sector unions, opposing environmental regulations and undoing Obama's health care reform law, among other policies.

2011-10-12T17:23:00.001-07:00

2011-10-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

WHY THEY ARE MARCHING ON WALL STREET

2011-10-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Declaration of the Occupation of New York City

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.

We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.

They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.

They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.

They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.

They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.

They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.

They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right.

They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay.

They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility.

They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance.
They have sold our privacy as a commodity.
They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press.
They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit.

They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce.

They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them.
They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil.

They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit.

They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit.
They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media.
They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt.
They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad.
They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas.
They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts.

*To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power.
Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone.
To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal.
Join us and make your voices heard!

2011-09-27T18:43:00.000-07:00

2011-09-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

IT MUST REALLY SUCK TO BE THE EX-FIRST LADY

2011-09-12T14:51:00.001-07:00

I'm surprised Michelle is on the inside of the President....

9/11: REMEMBERING WHAT WE ALL WANT TO FORGET

2011-09-11T06:47:00.000-07:00

As we mark the tenth anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks on our country, you will be, no doubt engulfed in media coverage (if you choose to turn on your television, radio or computer). For the days leading up to this day, I myself have viewed hours of coverage...photos, 911 emergency calls from those in the top floors of the WTC, and interviews from survivors and widows.

And as I continued to watch program after program dedicated to the event, I wondered if this wasn't wrong. Wrong to continue to watch....continue to feed my morbid curiosity. Continue to listen to the 911 calls from people almost certainly aware they were about to die....and see pictures of victims who chose to die, not by fire, but to leap to their deaths 80 or 90 stories off the ground. I could tell you chapter and verse of where I was, and how the events unfolded for me, but I wasn't there. I couldn't feel the palpable fear NYC must have felt, nor the atmosphere days later, as New York City struggled to understand why 4000 people perished that day.

I don't have anything to add to the information storm available today if you so choose. Only that the feeling of togetherness we felt as a country, that "one nation, indivisible" mindset we felt on that day, and for weeks and months after, has inextricably vanished. Quite possibly never to be seen again.

And for all our high minded bloviations of how we are number one, or are the only great super power remaining on earth......how we are indeed, "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all....."...is not true today. We are not one nation...we are many nations, rendered fractious and weak as a result.

So, as we seek to remember that ominous day ten years ago, let us mourn our fellow Americans that were murdered in a cold hearted, diabolical fashion...yes. But let us also remember the feelings we shared, the resolve we felt towards a common enemy, and that feeling......quite possibly the last time we ever feel it.......as we strip ourselves clean of the labels we don politically, socially and in every other way.....and remember what it felt like to indeed be..."one nation, indivisible..."

God bless their memories, God bless you, and

God Bless the UNITED States of America.

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult

2011-09-10T15:54:00.000-07:00

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

"To those millions of Americans who have finally begun paying attention to politics and watched with exasperation the tragicomedy of the debt ceiling extension, it may have come as a shock that the Republican Party is so full of lunatics. To be sure, the party, like any political party on earth, has always had its share of crackpots, like Robert K. Dornan or William E. Dannemeyer. But the crackpot outliers of two decades ago have become the vital center today: Steve King, Michele Bachman (now a leading presidential candidate as well), Paul Broun, Patrick McHenry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Allen West. The Congressional directory now reads like a casebook of lunacy.
It was this cast of characters and the pernicious ideas they represent that impelled me to end a nearly 30-year career as a professional staff member on Capitol Hill. A couple of months ago, I retired; but I could see as early as last November that the Republican Party would use the debt limit vote, an otherwise routine legislative procedure that has been used 87 times since the end of World War II, in order to concoct an entirely artificial fiscal crisis. Then, they would use that fiscal crisis to get what they wanted, by literally holding the US and global economies as hostages.
The debt ceiling extension is not the only example of this sort of political terrorism. Republicans were willing to lay off 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) employees, 70,000 private construction workers and let FAA safety inspectors work without pay, in fact, forcing them to pay for their own work-related travel - how prudent is that? - in order to strong arm some union-busting provisions into the FAA reauthorization.
Everyone knows that in a hostage situation, the reckless and amoral actor has the negotiating upper hand over the cautious and responsible actor because the latter is actually concerned about the life of the hostage, while the former does not care....."

Please click on the link for the complete article by a GOP insider who retired, because he could no longer stomach the incidious behavior of a political party who would rather the American people suffer....if it means they acheive victory down the line.

2011-09-10T06:26:00.000-07:00

HAPPY LABOR DAY....

2011-09-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

TAX EDUCATION

2011-09-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

STEWART MAKES FOOLS OF THE VARIOUS FOX NEWS MORONS

2011-08-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog

The Daily Show on Facebook

GENERATION F*CKED

2011-08-20T07:07:00.000-07:00

Short post to think out loud....as the parent of a soon-to-be fifteen year old; what kind of future have we created for our children?
The economy sucks, so no employment.
We have allowed them to create a lexicon all of their own based on texting, so they cannot assimilate into the job market, or be taken seriously.
We have allowed them to enter a technological cocoon with their mobile devices. They are oblivious to the immediate intimacies of their world, so they do not value, or desire any real social interaction, especially with anyone they do not know, limiting their world.
We have virtually eliminated the reading of books (printed on paper), thus creating a YouTube generation.
We have deteriorated the educational system, so we are graduating semi-functional illiterates. They are not "generation X," or "generation Y," or anything other than what must be labelled "generation fucked"....
And that's the world..."the World According to Kimba."
Thanks for reading.

CAPTION CONTEST

2011-08-18T17:30:00.000-07:00

Texas Governor, and GOP candidate for the Presidency, Rick Perry.

Obviously, his handlers need to tell him to stop posing like this.

IOWA SPEAKS, AND THEY SAY.....

2011-08-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

DUH.....

2011 Straw Poll Full Results (Votes, %)
1. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (4823, 28.55%)
2. Congressman Ron Paul (4671, 27.65%)

3. Governor Tim Pawlenty (2293, 13.57%)

4. Senator Rick Santorum (1657, 9.81%)
5. Herman Cain (1456, 8.62%)

6. Governor Rick Perry (718, 3.62%) write-in

7.Governor Mitt Romney (567, 3.36%)

8. Speaker Newt Gingrich (385, 2.28%)

9. Governor Jon Huntsman (69, 0.41%)

10. Congressman Thad McCotter (35, 0.21%)

This is too good to be true! Iowa actually picks the strangest, wierdest, "no chance in hell" candidate...Michelle "pray away the gay" Bachmann. This is someone so completely stupid she actually thinks the only thing we need to do to completely eliminate unemployment as we know it is to ........wait for it......eliminate the minimum wage. Moron! I love it!

WTF...did they legalize marijuana in Iowa? It sure would explain yesterday. Their political selection criteria in the past decade completely defies logic. Keep up the good work...

5 THINGS WE CAN, AND MUST DO THIS YEAR

2011-08-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

1. Tort reform to reduce runaway medical judgements, and reduce malpractice premiums
2. Patent litigation reform to expedite innovation as well as stop the endless parade of frivolous lawsuits bogging down our system
3. Incentivize and encourage corporations to re-invest their massive amounts of liquid capital sitting on the sidelines waiting for an up tick.
4. Stop talking about deficits, and concentrate on growth.
5. Bring party elders into the Congressional negotiation process.

STALLING RAISING THE DEBT LIMIT DID THIS COUNTRY GREAT HARM...GOOD JOB CONSERVATIVES

2011-08-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here is what Standard & Poors said initially was the primary cause for our credit rating to lower.......“the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policy making and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges.”

Translation: they did not like our considering NOT raising our debt limit....they did not like that a major political party in the United States would have the audacity...the stupidity....the temerity.....to even question raising the debt limit....and even worse...use the potential of not raising the debt limit to blackmail the other party into entering into a bill that will, yes cut expenditures, but yes, slow growth as well (not to mention hurting the lower classes, the seniors, the poor; and leaving the uber-rich completely off the hook.

Yes, of course their were other factors...rising deficits, the inability to balance a budget since Clinton, etc. etc. But the fact remains that at its core....the very foundation is their opening statement....“the downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policy making and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges.”

Good job tea party, Speaker Boehner and the G.O.P.....once again you have shown how when it comes to economics you should sit at a card table, and leave us libs to sit at the large table. How many times have you shit your pants and expect a Dem to takeover the Oval and wipe your collective asses?

POLITICAL M.V.P.? ANDREW SULLIVAN KNOWS....

2011-08-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/08/who-is-washingtons-most-effective-politician.html?om_rid=NHk2HO&om_mid=_BOPEqVB8coOvfo

Who is it? Well he ".....defeated the most heavily favored party machine in decades (the Clintons) while actually bringing his biggest rival into his cabinet, where she has performed extraordinarily well; helping to cement the GOP's broad identity as extremists opposed to compromise; entrenching black and Hispanic loyalty to his party; retaining solid favorables and not-too-shabby approval ratings during the worst recession since the 1930s. 44 percent of the country still (rightly) blame Bush for this mess, only 15 percent blame Obama.
On policy: ending the US torture regime; prevention of a second Great Depression; enacting universal healthcare; taking the first serious steps toward reining in healthcare costs; two new female Supreme Court Justices; ending the gay ban in the military; ending the Iraq war; justifying his Afghan Surge by killing bin Laden and now disentangling with face saved; firming up alliances with India, Indonesia and Japan as counter-weights to China; bailing out the banks and auto companies without massive losses (and surging GM profits); advancing (slowly) balanced debt reduction without drastic cuts during the worst economic period since the great depression."

And if that wasn't enough.....a favorable jobs creation report that just came out for July.......let's face it folks, there is a method to his madness. As "bark at the moon, ape shit" pissed off I get over some of the way he operates, and the dismal way he ran immediately to the center, he has done an extraordinary job considering the state we were in when he took office....and with two complete idiots as speakers (Pelosi and Reid---how did that happen), an ineffectual baboon as VP (Biden), and a Chief of Staff who cut and run on him before his first term ended.

BRILLIANT PIECE IN THE DAILY BEAST

2011-07-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

"As the economy teeters on the precipice of a double-dip recession, as millions of Americans search in vain for a job, as tens of millions of homeowners are underwater, as poverty soars and the middle class is hammered, the Speaker of the House is pushing a proposal that—let me repeat a Greenstein analysis—“could well produce the greatest increase in poverty and hardship in modern U.S. history.” Deep cuts in every domestic priority—from education for disabled children to food safety to homeland security to clean air and water. Followed by painful cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But not a dollar in new revenue. Not one corporate loophole closed, not one billionaire asked to pay one penny in higher taxes."

Paul Begalla in the Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/29/republicans-on-the-debt-ceiling-screwing-over-america.html?om_rid=NHk2HO&om_mid=_BONAKsB8chDdsU

PARTY ELDERS COULD ADD WISDOM & LEADERSHIP TO CURRENT SITUATIONS

2011-07-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, Alan Greenspan, Bob Dole, George Mitchell, Trent Lott....there are former economic heavyweights and party leaders out there....why aren't they being brought into the process? The current leaders need to drop their egos and ask for help.

Immediately raise the debt ceiling so we can pay for what we already spent, then hash out a bi-partisan economic policy....it's not so tough. And with a senior bi-partisan commission, the current leaders would listen and fall in line.

Unfortunately, party elders are rarely, if ever sought out for their counsel. Foreign affairs? There are experts on the sidelines willing and able to lend their expertise and wisdom. The same holds true for any issue or situation that might arise,yet we do not get them involved. WHY? Ego, pure and simple.

A TICKING TIME BOMB MANUFACTURED LARGELY OUT OF MANURE

2011-07-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

As news reports continue to filter out of Norway in response to the horrific slaughter of nearly 100 students, we learn more about the frame of mind and motive of a mad man; a self-described right winger and opponent of increasing immigration of foreigners, especially those of the Muslim faith.

These right wing sentiments, grounded in fear and bigotry, are already flourishing in the United States, and are beginning to take a strong foothold across Europe as well, and not just with right wing extremist groups. Multi-cultural tolerance has largely met its demise in Europe.

Great Britain's Cameron, Germany's Merkel and France's Sarcozy have all declared any tolerance to immigration dangerous, and Merkel went so far as to say "multiculturalism has failed...utterly failed." Cameron states that his countries immigration policies have led to segregated communities within which "extremist radicalism can thrive."

In France, the right wing National Guards leader Marine Le Pen has gained favor with the French to the extent it is a real possibility she could be elected President...in fact her popularity is surging in many national polls within France. She compares the public praying of Muslims outside overcrowded mosques in her country to the Nazi occupation.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilder, leader of the Party for Freedom, having won over 15% of the previous general election, equates the Koran to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

In Finland, their third largest political party is the right wing "True Finns" with almost 20% of the voting electorate. In Norway, the second largest political party, with over 25% of the votes in their last election is the right wing Progress Party.

So when reports come in from Norway of a right wing zealot attempting to make a political statement with a bombing, then the gathering up of young students and summarily opening fire upon them, then hunting the fleeing survivors with a barrage of gunshots, we shouldn't be shocked, welcome to the new normal.

This is not news to us in the U.S. either, as Timothy McVeigh, the perpetrator of the Oklahoma City bombing which killed 168 people, described himself as a right winger as well. Need more proof? Read the comments on any right wing political board, or blog....you will be amazed....at the anti-government and anti-culturalism sentiments that proliferates the comments.

Of course in a democracy, they are entitled to their opinions and I am certainly not trying to suggest we round them up and place them into internment camps....I am just saying it might be wise when confronted with a customer looking to buy a ton of steer manure and a propane tank, we check their vehicle for a Obama/Biden bumper sticker before completing the sale.
And that is the world...The World According to Kimba....thanks for reading.

WHOSE SIDE IS HE ON????

2011-07-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

I am all for reaching across the aisle. I am all for a bi-partisan approach to solving our nation's issues and obstacles, as the correct answer can usually be found within the middle ground, and the more sane, less radical elements of Congress.

However, President Obama has taken reaching across the aisle to mean bending over backwards. He has turned "kow-towing" into an art form.....keeping Gates on as Defense Secretary, completely keeping the Bush Middle East strategy, keeping the Bush tax cuts, etc. etc. He promised us change, and the only thing that has changed is he has completely lost any genitalia he may have once had.

It is time he realizes he may well be a one term president and start pushing the liberal agenda....and that starts with insisting on a two year moratorium on the Bush tax cuts targeting the rich (at least, if not a total reversal).

$4 trillion in added revenue is at stake. Good Lord, wouldn't that be more palatable than cutting Medicaid to the point that seniors will be too poor to get treatment? That our seniors will become homeless due to the medical treatment that may save (or prolong) their lives? That seniors will be forced to decide between financially devastating their spouses retirement, or receiving life sustaining treatment?

It's time that Obama finds whatever is left of his testicles and put his foot down with John Boehner on the tax cuts. The wealthy typically do not create jobs....Bush has proven...history has proven...time and time again,that tax breaks for the wealthy do not "trickle down," they just make the wealthy wealthier. Mr. President, you have the job...now act like it, and represent all those that voted you into power.

Three years...three years of wishing my vote for Hillary put a real man into the Oval....instead of the apologetic piece of shit we have in office at present. Be a man and stand up for what you know and believe...if you in fact believe in anything other than breaking a color barrier at the top. Time is wasting, Mr. President.

THE BRUTAL ECONOMIC TRUTH THEY DON'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

2011-07-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'M ON A FRAMERS QUOTATION BENT

2011-07-04T16:34:00.000-07:00

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State ... " Thomas Jefferson

LET FREEDOM RING !

2011-07-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."
John Adams

THERE ARE NO WINNERS IN THE WIENER CASE

2011-06-17T19:18:00.000-07:00

At the end of the day...at the end of the work week, once you have returned home and scraped off the barnacles...you ain't shit unless you can roast a chicken and properly decant a bottle of red. At the end of the day, it is almost entirely about the little things.

The little things.

Funny how a little thing can take you down.

See I have developed a severe case

of cognitive dissonance this week.

He was...well not quite a hero of mine, but I held equal parts respect and awe for the man. In my eyes he was the modern-day Henry Clay. I remember the times he would take control of the Senate well, screaming at his colleagues...imploring them to vote their conscience, demanding that just once they could see fit to, if not completely cast off the shackles of party loyalties, at least loosen them long enough to stand up long enough to vote what they knew in their hearts were right.

I remember the time he fought against bogus information being introduced into the record, with him fighting for a minutes time...long enough to accurately, if not parliamentarily acceptably, call the speakers bluff, and assert them as the lying liars that they were.

Funny how the little things can drag a good man down. We needed him in the Senate. We needed him like a meadow needs the occasional gust of cool, clean air. But he took himself down. And in a moment of sheer stupidity, he snapped the self portrait heard around the world. We are all the losers for it. Because at the end of the day, he was a clarion of truth, a breathe of fresh air in a very polluted atmosphere...and a man who stood up for what he believed. And that was no little thing.

WE NEED A LITTLE WEINER IN CONGRESS

2011-06-10T06:58:00.000-07:00

His high school boy prank aside, this is what we need in Congress...someone who will hold them to task....someone who will go into the well and demand that for once in their lives, they simply vote their conscience, instead of being a sheep and voting the party line.....we need a little weiner in Congress...actually we need a little more of this kind of weiner, and less of the present day dicks we currently have in office.....

FLORIDA MANDATES DRUG TESTING

2011-06-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

Florida has mandated drug testing for all welfare recipiants, a move I whole heartedly agree with. Strange hearing this from ableeding heart liberal? Maybe....but it is only fair that the taxpayers, who fund welfare, be assured that their taxes are not getting into the hands of criminals.

Food stamps cannot be used for alcohol or cigarettes, and welfare money should not go to drug dealers. I have been calling for this for years now, and I cannot be happier. Florida gets it, and I hope the appeals from the ACLU get squashed. The sooner this movement goes national, the better off we will all be.

Will we save money? Of course not...the savings we may reap will almost certainly be negated by the cost of the drug testing.....personally, I would like to see all drug testing go to local colleges, who could certainly use the revenue, and have the students and resources to perform the testing.

TARGETED TAXATIONS

2011-06-05T06:41:00.000-07:00

Personally,when it comes to taxation, I think the government should worry less about those that worry about the number of carats they have, and focus on all those who worry about how many carrots they have......

THERE ARE ACTUALLY PEOPLE WHO WOULD VOTE FOR THIS MORON

2011-06-04T21:38:00.001-07:00

130 BILLION REASONS TO VOTE TO RE-ELECT

2011-05-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

Just a little something for the neysayers of the economic recovery that has been taking place slowly but surely since President Obama has taken over the Oval. Please note the abysmal trade deficits during the Bush years, then tell me why you still want to vote conservative. Repeat after me....exports just hit a new all time high. Now write it on the blackboard fifty times, then enter your nearest voting booth.

ADVOCATING A GRAND OLD PARTY

2011-05-06T18:48:00.000-07:00

It's all starting to make sense....you would have to be on drugs to vote the party of Bush and the Bush doctrines back into power....so let's legalize damn near everything! Marijuana, prostitution, cocaine and even heroin would be legal if these two candidates for President on the GOP ticket got there way....very clever gentlemen.

TEDDY SAID IT BEST...IN 1907

2011-04-30T17:31:00.000-07:00

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language...and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

ARIZONA FIRES BLANKS YET AGAIN

2011-04-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

Congratulations are in order to the Arizona representatives and its legendary Governor, Jan Brewer.....they took a long hard look at the issues of their state, prioritized and came up with priority one....the voting in of an official state gun.....and the winner is..... The Colt single action army revolver......winner of the wild west, and the number one preferred weapon of mass destruction against native Americans, especially ballsy since Arizona is home to many Indian tribes today. You have to love these Arizona Republicans...they have their priorities straight at all times.....chase Mexicans from their state and celebrate the very weapon which is most responsible for the western genocide of native Americans years ago. Kind of makes you want to live there doesn't it?
Nothing surprizes me coming out of Arizona these days......except that they stopped short of naming the Glock 19, 9 millimeter semi-automatic handgun their official state gun, the very gun which shot Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords in the back of her head and very nearly cost her her life........I guess they do have a heart after all....

BIRTHERS: A MOVEMENT BORN OUT OF STUPIDITY

2011-04-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

The document above is not new to us......yet the "birther" movement still rages on...including current front runner in the polls for the GOP 2012 presidential nominee, Donald Trump ( I love this fact....last time their VP nominee was a no-nothing press whore from Wasila, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and now, according to early polls, Donald Trump is ahead of career politicians / public servants Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee).

It is clear that President Obama is, indeed a native Hawaiian, so what is the problem? Why do these so called "birthers" hate the current President so much? Is it the inevitable philosophy differences between liberals and the far right? Couldn't be....this has been going on for a century. Each side has distinct opposite philosophical differences, and has since the parties came on the scene. Is it because his political philosophy includes a touch of socialism....a sense of wanting to help out his fellow Americans who need it? No, the liberals have long held this viewpoint. Do they truly believe he is a Marxist....a Muslim....or an enemy of the United States? They can't be that stupid....these beliefs would extend even their huge capacity of ignorance.

So, what's left....seriously, is it because he is black? Is this hatred merely a manifestation of their bigotry? When they goad Arizona Governor Brewer to clean out her state of illegal aliens, achieving the most aggressive sweeps of minorities since the rebel flag flew freely across the south...are they expressing their bigotry? When they say, "we need to take the country back," don't they mean take it back from anyone non Caucasian?

The answer is...who cares? We liberals need these idiots. We need them to hold their candidates hostage; to keep them very far to the right...so far they are unelectable by any moderate. So, go Trump and your inevitable gaffes in the press, and go Birthers! You are about to the best thing you could possibly do for this country.....see to it President Obama is re-elected....to finish the job he was elected to do....reverse the damage his predecessor did in his eight year term...and get this country back to where we were when President Clinton was in office...financially sound and in good standing across the globe.

2011-04-19T15:29:00.000-07:00

CONGRESS NEEDS TO BALANCE MORE THAN THE BUDGET

2011-04-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Anyone watching Congress of late knows two painfully obvious things, none of them presents our economic situation without spinning them to their own advantage, and it's election time again. And who gets hurt as they attempt to gain favor of the American electorate first and foremost, and do their sworn duty of taking care of the country who elected them second? Of course it is us.

History has shown over the last few administrations that we have a universal problem that cannot be blamed on any one political party. Needless to say, if you are currently in need of a financial advisor, the last person in the world you would want to put your economic portfolio in the hands of is a member of Congress.

The current platitude of the season is "we are broke....", and if you can sob a little while saying it, you get extra style points. The simple fact is, this is an absolute lie. This country has plenty of revenue, more than ever before. We are an economic behemoth whose business is coveted by every country the world over. Get our business in any economic sector, and you can literally make a fortune, pure and simple. Ask Japan, ask India, ask China. They have gotten rich primarily of us (or U.S. to be more accurate).

The trouble is not so much how much money we have, it's how we spend it. Of course we spend too much, more than we can afford every administration since the Clinton / Gingrich years, the last time we actually had balanced budgets. So why not get their expertise? They did it before, let's put them to work on it again. A Congressional advisory committee. Throw in Greenspan for good measure. Examine the overblown budget...page by mind numbing page. Let them get their highlighters out, and start cutting. It would be a true bi-partisan commission advising Congress on the two things we need to do to get out financial house in order......two simple things......spend less, and make more.

Let them cut ridiculous things we spend our money on...planned parenthood and the National Endowment for the Arts....and I am sure there are thousands of organisations like them on the public payroll. Let them make the unpopular decisions without worrying about what the public thinks, none of the three are going to be running for anything (Gingrich for Pres? now that's ridiculous) and should be capable of making the hard decisions without worrying about getting elected for anything.

Let them report that the reductions in regulations have made corporations preditory and monopolistic (not to mention remove methods of consumer protections); let them report that we need to simplify the tax code so that the IRS can focus on all those who are illegally avoiding paying their fair share. Let them examine our history and report the truth for once....and the truth is, if you made $250k last year, you paid on average $67,398, and in 1981 you would have paid $126,953. In 1940, corporations paid 43% of all federal income taxes, in 1950 it was 39%, and in 1990 they paid 19%. We coddle corporations today, and they slap us in the face by moving their workforce overseas and their money out of the country...this has to stop. We need to make it financial suicide to manufacture products overseas and bring them into the country. We need to make it advantageous to create jobs here if you want to sell your goods here.

When it comes to revenue, we need to simplify the tax code and eliminate all credits, deductions, tax reforms and loopholes that allow everyone to avoid paying their fair share (not to mention the ridiculous notion that we need to incentivize being rich with tax breaks...). We need clarity and transparency in the way everyone pays their taxes. And we need to make it a crime to set up shell headquarters outside of the country in an attempt to hide revenue and shield their companies from taxes. We need to make it a crime to take your personal revenue and wire it off shore to countries such as the Grand Caymans and Switzerland to avoid paying taxes. We need to find out who they are and tax the living shit out of them. We need to setup a month long amnesty to allow everyone to get their money from overseas and get it back into their country where it belongs...safe....and taxable.

We need to reduce our entitlements...and that means Medicare and Medicaid. Actually if we left the money alone, they would be much better off, but Congress can't keep their hands off from it....more voodoo economics. More bait and switch con games of now you see it, now you don't.

And we need to get our heroes out of Iraq, Afghanistan and everywhere else....unless we are welcome, and the host country are willing to pay us to protect them. It is mind blowing that we are spending ourselves stupid in oil producing countries, and they do not give us anything for our troubles. We need to shift our country from being the world's watchdog, to being the world's paid mercenaries.

Want to fix our financial problems? Get out of two wars, simplify the tax codes, eliminate all non-essential spending, and establish a non-partisan committee to advise Congress on how best to do what the country desperately needs to do....

Earn more, spend less....or do both.

If we do this, we will find we have plenty of cash...to do what we should have been doing all along...updating and improving our infrastructure, educating our populous and taking better care of each other.

And that is my world...the World According to Kimba.

Thanks for reading.

BTW, your taxes are due on Monday.

KAPUT

2011-03-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry, folks, my laptop has succumb to a virus, and won't even load windows.....I'll be back as the one true clarion of truth in the political world shortly, once I have brought Best Buys and the Geek Squad to their knees! This is war!!!!!!

POSTING IT WITH VALENTINES DAY WISHES

2011-02-14T19:03:00.000-08:00

A LITTLE BIRTHDAY CLARITY

2011-02-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

One has to wonder when someone becomes bigger than life. Time passes, vision blurs, and all we can see is perspective of a legacy, and become unable to focus on the brutal reality of days gone bye. I am all for a celebration for the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan...he was a very good Governor for the state of California, and deserves to be praised for his service to the country as our President. BUT, before we begin carving his likeness in Mount Rushmore and naming him the principal architect of the conservative political philosophy, let's take a moment to review some salient points of his presidential administration....

1. He aided and abetted one of the most brutal armies...the Nicaraguan Contras by selling arms to Iran (despite an official embargo), and using the money to train the Contras who were attempting to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. The contras engaged in the most violent and brutal forms of warfare.....rape, arson, murder, torture, abduction, and mutilation. And, oh yeah, he lied about it....and his administration destroyed documents in a cover up of the truth by all accounts. Check out these quotes from RR...

"despite the wildly speculative and false stories of arms for hostages and alleged ransom payments, we did not-repeat, did not - trade weapons or anything else for hostages nor will we" November 1986

"a few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tells me it was not" March 1987

2. He was one of our most popular presidents...this may have been true after he was shot, but as unemployment continued to rise over 10%, his approval rating hovered in the low thirties.

3. He was for smaller government....the truth is government grew over 2.5% during his tenure, including establishing the Veterans Affairs department...however this fact failed to reach his speechwriters.....check out these quotes from RR....

"government isn't the solution to our problems, it is the problem" "the nine most terrifying words in the English language.....I'm from the government and I am here to help"

4. He was an economic genius....under Reagan, the national debt exploded from $700 billion to $3 trillion, unemployment hovered around 10%, the number of families living below the poverty line increased by one-third (despite this fact, he made cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, aid to families with dependant children, school lunch programs and declared unemployment insurance as "a pre-paid vacation plan for free loaders"), and many believe his policies paved the way for the Savings & Loan scandal, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

5. He was a tax cutter throughout his administration....his 1981 tax cut was a sweeping measure that reduced taxes for our wealthiest Americans from 70% to 50%, including big breaks for corporations and the oil industry. However one year later with the economy tanking towards recession and the federal deficit spiraling out of control, he signed measures that increased taxes every year of his eight year presidency, except the first year and the last.

Please believe me, I take no pleasure in bringing up these points...I voted for the man twice as Governor, and just as all other Americans,grew to love him for his persona and quick wit. However the present day GOP still hold these principles as if they actually worked then, and will work for the country now.....hopefully they will include a visit to the facts in between the speeches by Sarah Palin and Dick Cheney...for the good of the country before we enter into a Reaganesque recession.

NUMBERS TO RIOT OVER

2011-02-05T19:02:00.000-08:00

Just in case you are not quite sure what is going on over in Egypt, what would cause such an enormous portion of the population to protest, let me give you some numbers....

5: the maximum number of citizens allowed

to assemble together without an official government permit.

$34: the fine police officers must pay for

"cruel treatment" on a civilian while on duty

300%: increase in malnourished children younger

than 5 for the period of 2000 to 2008

10%: unemployment

20%: live below the poverty line

10%:of the population controls 28%

of the household income

750m: the net worth of Mubarak's son, Gamal

205.8: gallons of oil go through the Suez Canal

and adjacent pipeline (6% of the global supply)

Simply put, the citizens of Egypt see massive, massive amounts of money going through the country, but live in abject poverty, they can't get at it. They have no hope, and they have no chance of ever improving their economic status with the class system they have there. And, well, they live in Egypt. Once you've seen the pyramids, the thrill is gone. It is primarily sand, at least the Egypt the lower class gets to experience. And it gets hot. Unbearably hot. And after 30 years of Mubarak's rule, they want to be heard. They want a spot on the world's center stage, and they've got it. And we're listening.

H.R. 3: AT FIRST GLANCE, I APPROVE...LIBERALLY

2011-02-01T19:43:00.000-08:00

If you are a regular, or even occasional reader to this blog, first of all thank you, and secondly, there should be no doubt in your mind where I am politically. I am just barely to the right of Jerry Rubin. But, that does not mean you can anticipate, or predict my views on any particular issue. Mere political affiliation does not, and should not lock in someones viewpoints. No, shed your labels and proclivities, and do a little research, then formulate an opinion. You never know, you might just sit on the other side of the aisle on an issue or two.....and good for you if you do. Your vote should be the result of a little critical thinking, not to mention soul searching. So, having said all of that, let me give you three of my beliefs that just might get me kicked out of a Democratic caucus.

Just being born on American land

should not automatically make you a U.S. citizen,

outstanding teachers should know they don't need tenure

and

it is categorically unfair to force all taxpayers

to pay for abortions.

Yes, it's true.

And so, while just barely skimming over the highlights of H.R. 3 introduced today in the John Boehner House of Representatives, and still meaning to read over the entire piece of legislation before making a firm commitment...I see nothing entirely wrong in the bill. I do want to fully understand their definition of "forcible," but for now, I would tend to vote aye on the bill that guarantees that no federal moneys are allocated towards giving someone an abortion, unless a victim of forcible rape, incest, or if carrying full term would risk death on the birth mother. Let's be clear...it does not, and is not intended to make abortions illegal, or take down Roe v. Wade. It just addresses the allocation of funds...your funds to provide abortions. But, read it yourself and make up your own mind.

LOSING SLEEP OVER CIVIL UNREST

2011-01-30T10:55:00.000-08:00

While some cynics will say the world is about to begin spinning out of control, more level heads will acknowledge a very serious situation is taking over the world's landscapes. Civil unrest has raised its ugly head in Tunisia, Ireland, Ecuador, Peru, Italy, Jordan and now Egypt. This could have been predicted....faltering economies, unemployment, rising fuel costs, and sharp increases in the price of food. When these conditions occur in democracies, citizens can vote to change their governments. In more oppressive regimes, they take to the streets to voice their dissatisfactions.

And their voices are being heard around the world at present....and they are toppling governments......the next seemingly being Egypt's Mubarak, a leader, a dictator soon to be looking for a safe haven, a soft landing spot to retire. In fact, Hillary Clinton has publicly called for an "orderly transition."

But in Egypt, more is at stake than a change at the top. For decades now, we have pumped millions and millions of dollars into the Mubarak regime, and much of those resources have resulted in a very well armed Egyptian militia, an entity currently sitting on its hands, unwilling to engage with the protesters,made up of their own countrymen.

Egypt is more than the largest nation in the region. They are a US backed, US ally who has been very valuable in stabling the entire Middle East. And the government is about to topple, for whom we do not know. Normally, we would not give much chance for the radical led Muslim brotherhood to gain power, but in times of civil unrest, extreme voices gain ears. The thirst for change can result in unlikely victors. And should radical Islam elements take power in a country this large, it could set a disastrous example of what can happen in other Islamic countries in the region.

Certainly no one would be shocked if such a rise took place in Iran, one of the most oppressive governments in the world. And such victories in neighboring countries embolden others, and give voice to extremely radical voices within.

Clinton and Obama need to become fully engaged, at least in the backgrounds of the current situations in the region. Like a bad game of dominoes, the entire region is aching for a tilting in the balance of power, and if you are viewed as a U.S. ally, a U.S. sympathiser, you may become a marked man by your citizens.

You think the United States should be very worried? What about Israel? With anti-Jewish sentiment everywhere in the region, and new, more radical elements assuming power, especially in countries like Egypt, who is more than capable, more than adequately armed thanks to us, to do some real damage.... we cannot, cannot afford to become more militarily engaged in the region than we already are. So who will rise up and attempt to stabilize the region? Our friends are extremely nervous, at least as nervous as the more radical anti-U.S. sentiments are empowered, and emboldened. This is their moment. Will it come to fruition? Time will tell.

OLBERMANN OUT: I THINK HE JUST DIDN'T LIKE WHAT HE HAD BECOME

2011-01-21T22:47:00.001-08:00

Keith Olbermann, MSNBC's most popular and successful personality has abruptly ended his reign over the unapologeticly progressive political show "Countdown," and his association with MSNBC. The terms of and deciding factors around his departure have not been announced, but in my opinion, he quit. He had enough. There is no way that MSNBC gets rid of their singular cash cow.
So why did he leave? Fatigue? Probably a factor. Tired of the bullshit? No doubt. But in my opinion, he had gone from world class reporter and journalist, and slowly but surely become something he could not tolerate....something he could not stomach.....the liberal Bill O'Reilly. A talking head spewing an anti-GOP agenda on a daily basis. A man and a writer capable of brilliance at times (an example of which is below)...but he could also be a caricature, a comic windbag inexplicably foaming at the mouth; a bat shit crazy imitation of Peter Finch in Network.
He is mad as hell, and he is not going to take it anymore. Good luck Keith. I hope you find a better avenue for your journalistic abilities. I hope you find...and bid you peace.

WHAT THE REPEAL ALSO TAKES AWAY FROM YOU

2011-01-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

Disguised as a budget / deficit cutting repeal effort, the GOP House members, as expected voted to repeal the Senate Democrats Health Care Bill (anyone calling it Obama-care is an out and out liar trying to take advantage of ignorance--if anything it is Pelosi care, with 40% of it coming from previous conservative measures). What does this mean? Well take a look at what it takes away immediately (the bulk of the bill doesn't start until 2014).....

Coverage for young adults under the age of 26 on their parents policies, free preventative care for 42 million seniors and 40 million other Americans under their private plans, reduced prescription medicine costs for seniors, tax breaks for small businesses and protection for children with pre-existing conditions.

Liberal Communist ideas all, right? No wonder the GOP wants to kill the measure...how many opportunities do you get to screw over literally 100 million people with a stroke of a pen? Fortunately the Senate and the pen of President Obama will save them from the heartless bastards of the GOP.

2011-01-17T20:08:00.000-08:00

THIS IS THE GUY I VOTED FOR

2011-01-13T19:47:00.000-08:00

If you can't sit through the entire video, at least hear the last 5 or 10 minutes....classic Obama.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: PALIN & GIFFORDS

2011-01-12T18:47:00.000-08:00

BLOOD LIBEL: is a false accusation that Jews sacrifice Christian children either to use the blood for various "medicinal" purposes or to prepare Passover matzoh, or for vengeance and mock crucifixions. It is one of the central fables of medieval and modern Christian anti-semitism.

INTO THE CROSS HAIRS

2011-01-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time.

You fill up a powder keg and it is bound to explode. Sure, it will more than likely be an unstable person to eventually light the fuse, but it will explode. And explode it did.

Did Palin want someone to actually put Gabrielle Giffords "in the cross hairs?" Of course not. Say what you want about Palin (and us libs generally do), but she is in control of most of her faculties. However, some of her followers are not, and she should have realized this. Realized it when she posts a picture such as below, or says inflammatory, violent rhetoric such as "don't retreat...reload."

Gabrielle Giffords knew the potential, of course. Palin put her in the cross hairs. Giffords replied to the ad in this manner...."we're on Palin's targeted list, but the thing is, that the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realize that there are consequences to that action."

It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time.

Giffords just won re-election by a very close margin, despite the popularity of the tea party, especially in the state of Arizona, where anti-illegal immigration sentiment screams loud and clear. "Take our country back!"

Jesse Kelly knew the sentiment. He tried to jump onto the Tea party bandwagon and take Giffords seat in the House of Representatives. One of his most popular fundraisers was a visit with the candidate to shoot his fully loaded M-16 rifle. The ad states "help remove Giffords from office....shoot a fully automatic M-16 with Jesse Kelly..."

It was bound to happen. It was only a matter of time. She was in the cross hairs.

Yesterday, Giffords held a meet and greet outside of a supermarket in her district. A young, 22 year old man came and asked a volunteer if he could meet her. The volunteer told him he would have to wait in line. Reports are that he left and came back with a gun. He didn't retreat, he reloaded. The death toll now stands at six, including a nine year old girl. Only six, because he was overpowered by two spectators as he was...you guessed it, reloading his gun with a fresh clip.

Was 22 year old Jarod Loughner a tea party follower? Unknown. Was he mentally unstable? Of course. Is this a direct result of the rhetoric from the tea party, or ex-Governor Palin? Probably not. But, as Michael Moore tweeted this morning, "If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web with cross hairs on 20 politicians, and then one got shot, where would he be sitting right now?

If you are looking for examples of the incoherent ramblings of Loughner on his Twitter account and My Space page, don't bother, they have been taken down. If you are looking for the cross hairs picture or rhetoric on Palin's web site, don't bother, they have been taken down.

I can only speculate that she didn't want to be criticized for her contribution to the violent, anti-Democratic rhetoric that is rife in the Tea Party movement. Ms. Palin....it was bound to happen, it was only a matter of time.

CONGRESSIONAL TIPS FROM KIMBA

2011-01-08T09:06:00.000-08:00

It isn't a matter of right vs. left. It isn't a matter of who was sitting in the Oval Office at the time. Polling consistently has shown that the American people, the ones who actually research and care....has thought that Congress has sucked for over two decades. Right, left, moderates, independents...they all suck. Spending fools, lying bastards,not to be trusted, do nothing idiots.
So in order to form "that more perfect union," I humbly offer the following words of wisdom to our newest Congressional bodies....
1. Quit running each other down. On the floor, in the press, on your web sites, stop agreeing with the American people and saying what a joke Congress is. What morons are comprising it. Stop creating the perception that the body you work for sucks. The American people are listening...and agreeing with you, and they are taking down incumbents like Paul Bunyan with his mighty axe. If you think say, if you say so, it must be true. And so they vote for people with little to no experience just to fire you. Good move.
2. Stop lying. Stop exaggerating, stop"spinning" the truth, get real. For example...the health care bill was crafted in Congress, not the oval. If you are still calling it "Obama care"... you are a liar. Come out and be truthful. You might get the respect of the voting masses. Stop it, repeal it, I am with you on that, but stop blaming someone who did not write it. BTW...lets tell the American people we still desperately need health care reform....we are not saying not ever...just not now.
3. Work harder. Tuesday through Thursday is not enough. You are lucky to have jobs....FULL TIME jobs. Now days if you want to meet your Congressmen or Senator, all you need to do is hang out at a DC airport on any Thursday afternoon. Keep this up, and we will pay you by the hour.
4. Can anything be left to a straight up or down vote? Hopefully without 20 pieces of pork added on that we do not want, as a compromise to get votes for the measure we do want? Whatever the benefit of the bill is, it is negated by the crap pasted to the back of the measure, having absolutely nothing to do with the bill. And it is usually expensive without merit.
5. Read the damn bills before voting. Do not leave this task to the aides, or heaven forbid, the lobbyists. If each every member of Congress had to read the bill and pass a comprehension test before voting, maybe you would limit the size of the bills to less than 20 pounds each.

T.W.A.K. PERSON OF THE YEAR(s)

2010-12-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

2010 was a troubling and challenging year, to be sure. Certainly not the time anyone would want to be in charge of a company, yet alone the most powerful nation on earth. It could be said that few if any Presidents started their terms in office with so much going against them. Two wars, an economic tailspin, two polarized Congressional bodies with majority leaders that were straight out of a stooges movie, and oh yes, you are the first black President in a country that did not even pass a Civil Rights bill before your lifetime.

Yet for all the saber rattling, the do nothing congressional opposition and the intense criticism that questioned your citizenship and compared you to Nazi leaders, you have flourished. In fact the last time a President got so much accomplished, booze was illegal.

Yes, the federal debt has increased, a troubling fact since you inherited a 12.5 trillion dollar deficit as it was. But with your stimulus bill (or more precisely the senate's stimulus bill) you have staved off a second great depression. Unemployment still hovers around 10%, and that fact much be improved, but the country has rebounded, and confidence has been regained.

Militarily you have shifted the focus away from Iraq and are concentrating on the real hotbed of terrorist activity, Afghanistan. You closed secret detention facilities in Europe,and prohibited the use of torture. You eliminated wasteful defense spending, such as the F-22 fighter jet program. You got rid of the arcane "Don't Ask Don't Tell," and reformed protocols with a Weapons System Acquisition Act. You signed a new G.I. bill, and pushed the START treaty through a lame duck senate.

You have spent more on education than any other, including an increase in Pell grants and loans, increasing the SCHIP program, and you reformed student loan predatory practices. You expanded spending for NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Domestically, you have gotten a new food safety bill through, along with landmark legislation allowing the FDA to regulate the tobacco industry. You negotiated a 9/11 relief workers bill which seemed all but dead, you signed the Christopher Reeve paralysis act and stem cell research has begun because of your efforts. You have continued to offer tax cuts, extended unemployment and COBRA rights for the unemployed. You crafted a credit card reform bill that will end abuses from lenders, signed the Ledbetter fair pay act, crafted a Wall Street reforms bill, a fraud enforcement and recovery act, and changed the way lobbyists operate in our government....and you signed hate crimes legislation that will protect victims and prosecute offenders.

You invested more than anyone in clean energy initiatives, increased fuel economy standards, continued the debate on climate change, allocated over 100 billion to improve our infrastructure and signed a sweeping public lands bill.

What am I forgetting? Oh yes, you put two women on the bench, saved the American auto industry and did what others have been trying to do for 65 years...reformed health care for all.

Not bad for half of his first term.

He has been a shining example of a family man, and an educated man. Because of him, when a parent tells their off spring that they can truly be or do anything when they grow up, they will not be lying or exaggerating.

Under enormous pressure, under enormous scrutiny, and some might say under enormous hatred, he has succeeded.

No doubt you will focus next on the DREAM act, energy reform and filibuster reform. You will keep reaching across the aisle despite having your hand slapped back numerous times. And you will continue to achieve and succeed.

For these and many other considerations....and without question or hesitation, the "World According to Kimba" Person of the year, is United States President, Barack Obama.

IN GOOD COMPANY

2010-12-20T08:42:00.000-08:00

Only 4 presidents have had their birthplace home declared a national park, can you name them?

Undoubtedly not, but you probably guessed the biggies...

Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt.

Care to guess the fourth?

If you read the paper (does anyone do that any more besides me?)

you might have read about the creation/approval of the

394th park created in the National Park System.

Give up?

Needless to say this list makes me ecstatic...

George Washington,

Abraham Lincoln,

Teddy Roosevelt and

William Jefferson Clinton

Quite the list

SOCIALISM

2010-11-21T08:48:00.000-08:00

"When you are in the service of your fellow human beings,

you are in the service of your God"

EGREGIOUS SPENDING MARKS THE MIDTERM

2010-11-14T07:34:00.000-08:00

Now that the midterm elections are over and the dust has cleared, we should look back and take note of the process. Certainly as a liberal, who apparently got "shellac-ed" by all estimation, I may have an axe to grind, but the numbers speak for themselves...and I am talking of the cost of running for statewide and congressional offices, or at least the amount of money some candidates were willing to spend in order to become elected.

John Roberts and the Supreme Court recently declared that campaign contributions are merely "speech" and thus should not be regulated or inhibited in any way. This ruling, as repugnant as I may find it, went into our election process with nary a whimper from the electorate, leaving the rich, and leaving large corporations entirely free to spend at will in order to push their candidates, and their agendas (and yes...the unions as well).

No matter how you may view this ruling, I am sure we can find agreement that election spending is completely out of control; in fact is has reach obscene levels in some cases. Case in point, Carly Fiorina spend over 6 million of her own money in a failed run for the Senate from California. You do not have to be a bleeding heart lib to consider much more palatable alternatives for this money...but this is the tip of the iceberg. Let's look at three other examples.

Florida's Greene spent 23 million of her own cash reserves to mount her campaign. Garnering 284,000 votes, this works out to a whopping $83.55 per vote, hardly a bargain. Wrestling magnate Linda McMahon spent over $41.9 million from her pocket book, or $84 per vote.

Former Goldman Sacs exec and e-Bay head Meg Whitman got out her checkbook and spent over $144 million, and some estimate the total will top $160 million by the time the dust clears. That's a relative bargain at $38.32 per vote, until you realize she LOST her bid for California Governor. With that amount of cash, she could have paid the 2011 tuition of all 23,000 UCLA students, or certainly made some very happy non-profits this year.

This is not to say that in a democracy they should not be allowed to spend their own hard earned cash to mount a campaign, but we have to ask ourselves what affect this will have on who can run for office in the future. Abe Lincoln would not have a chance in today's world...but Larry Flint might breeze into office with his financial advantage. An exaggeration of course, but what happens to the caliber of candidates able to mount a successful campaign when the most important line item on their resume is personal wealth?

For my money, each office should be capped in terms of how much they could spend. A run for Governor? $50 million. A run at the Senate would be capped at 35 million, and so on. Of course the first thing any candidate would have to do is either pay for, or raise the money, but from then on, they would be free to be as innovative as possible when allocating those funds, certainly a consideration of fitness for office.

In the case of Whitman, it would have limited her to spending only $12 per vote, a much more palatable expense, and certainly fair across the board. And if it shortens up the election cycle periods, I couldn't be happier.

And that's the world...the "World According to Kimba." Thanks, as always, for reading.

Hamish and Andy interview Hillary Clinton - The 7pm Project (Australia) ...

2010-11-10T19:48:00.000-08:00

This should be our President folks....doing an outstanding job as our Secretary of State, garnering great polling numbers, earning the respect of our allies and our enemies alike...classy and tough, she is the best thing Obama has done in his first term.

Ohio McDonald's gives voting advice in paychecks

2010-10-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Ohio McDonald's gives voting advice in paychecks: "A handful of McDonald's employees in northeastern Ohio received handbills in their most recent paychecks suggesting they vote for three Republican candidates.
'If the right people are elected we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above our present levels,' the insert said. 'If others are elected we will not.'
The fast food chain's corporate headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill., distanced itself from the action by Canton franchisee Paul Siegfried, saying it was not reflective of the company's position. Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, the Democratic elections chief, said she was launching an investigation because the action appeared to violate Ohio election laws.
Allen Schulman, an attorney representing one of the employees, said Friday he had forwarded the paycheck insert to Canton's city law director, citing state and federal laws against corporate advocacy in elections.
'It's no surprise to anyone that Ohio is a battleground state in this election, and for a multinational corporation like McDonald's to threaten employees like this is morally and legally wrong,' Schulman said in a statement.
Siegfried issued an apology later Friday, emphasizing the value he places on employees and their freedom of choice in the upcoming election.
'Distributing this communication was an error of judgment on my part,' Siegfried said in a statement. 'Please know, it was never my intention to offend anyone. For those that I have offended, I sincerely apologize.'
The handbill with a simple McDonald's logo at the top recommended votes for Republicans John Kasich for governor, Rob Portman for U.S. Senate, and Jim Renacci for Ohio's 16th congressional district. A Renacci campaign flier was also included."

Portfolio's Worst American CEOs of All Time - CNBC

2010-10-23T08:43:00.000-07:00

Portfolio's Worst American CEOs of All Time - CNBC: "A consummate self-promoter, Fiorina was busy pontificating on the lecture circuit and posing for magazine covers while her company floundered. She paid herself handsome bonuses and perks while laying off thousands of employees to cut costs. The merger Fiorina orchestrated with Compaq in 2002 was widely seen as a failure. She was ousted in 2005."

Want to vote for a business train wreck? Someone who outsourced 30,000 American workers in favor of boosting the economies of foreign countries labor force? Someone who brought HP down to their knees? Vote for Carly Fiorina.

GROUND ZERO MARKING A SUSPENSION OF CIVIL RIGHTS?

2010-08-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

What do the following cities have in common........Temecula California, Murfreesboro Tennessee, and Sheboygan Wisconsin? Answer....they are all fighting the construction of mosques in their cities. Given that you do not feel these cities are too close to ground zero.....the question has to be asked, why? Why the blatant discrimination towards one religion?

Certainly the threat of terrorism comes with costs....bigotry, paranoia, suspicion and open hostility. But that is not all....the ultimate cost is the suspension of civil rights, and a questioning of the constitution, the very document that not only extends us those rights, but defines (or once defined) our country as a whole.

So it has to be asked....How does a country such as this, a country established as a haven against the blatant and discriminatory practices of a country and King who demanded their homeland worship in one manner only....how does this country....why are its citizens and politicians, in a country founded by individuals who sought religious freedom and enshrined it in their constitution overlooking this value by condemning the Muslim center in Lower Manhattan in a manner that is increasingly demagogic and vitriolic? (paraphrased from Jennifer Merolla)

Not to water down or question the focus of political leaders and political entertainers calling for the relocation of the proposed site for the Cordoba mosque a few blocks away from ground zero (Palin, Gingrich, Beck, et. al.), but maybe they should start slower with their campaign of hatred and bigotry and take on the Halal food carts parked directly across from ground zero.....can you imagine, rubbing their pita bread concoctions into the open wounds of the 9/11 tragedy!!

And that is the world...the "World According to Kimba."

Thanks for reading.

WHO REALLY CREATES JOBS IN AMERICA?

2010-08-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Jobs, jobs, jobs......when is the Obama administration going to create jobs? That's the question being asked, but is this notion a fallacy? Can any administration truly create jobs without out and out creating them and paying the salaries? Of course not.

The creation of jobs (non-governmental positions) happen in the private sector. It is as much a result of economic confidence as much as anything, my friends. As the stock market rebounds back to normal, the auto industry experiences growth, and many other indicators improve, the nation holds onto their cash with a death grip. A record death grip, in fact.

Non-financial corporations in the S & P 500 index reported cash on hand of nearly $837 billion, an increase of 26% over the previous year. Needless to say, they are nervous about our economic futures.....and their reticence to invest and / or hire is having a dramatic effect on any economic recovery. Companies are currently holding, on average, cash on hand equal to 10%+ of their total value, twice as high as in 1999. And as their cash increases, their inventories reduce to extremely low levels.

This lack of confidence is not limited to corporations. Consumers are holding onto their cash in record amounts as well; American households are hoarding their cash whenever they can, rising 6.4% over last year. And if they will not spend, corporations will not spend...in compensation or inventory stocks. No wonder unemployment continues to be stuck at 9.5%.

So is the nation out of financial danger...certainly not. In fact, we may succumb to a looming recession. Growth has been extremely sluggish, albeit positive for the past three quarters.

But for the recovery to continue at a appreciable rate, a sense of economic optimism has to be created, and I do not see this happening at any time soon. Naysayers far outnumber optimists these days, and certainly the GOP is leading the charge, a charge maintained in order to gain Congressional seats in November.

So as they continue to tout the frightful economic times in the nation (and blaming Obama for it), what they fail to admit is they are playing a role in the sluggish recovery as well.

Personally, I continue to be cautiously optimistic for the near future. Yes, historically a deep economic lull turns around in a quick, booming manner, and that certainly has not materialised. But corporate profits are up....way up. Cash on hand is way up, for both corporations and individuals (at least those gainfully employed).

All we need is a little confidence in the numbers, in our ability to fight our way out of it, and a little leadership. I am afraid the character attacks on the Obama administration has taken hold to such an affect that it may delay any real robust recovery for a few years. In my opinion, this is a situation caused, and maintained equally by both parties. For all the talks of the GOP rebounding back, truth is, the American voters are disenchanted with both parties performances over the past ten years. Trouble is, they are our only two choices...at least for now.

9/11 RESCUE WORKERS GET SHAT ON BY NO VOTES

2010-07-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

PERSPECTIVE

2010-07-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

GROUND ZERO FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS

2010-07-25T07:26:00.000-07:00

By now you most certainly heard the debate over the proposed Cordoba Mosque near Ground Zero, the site of the tragic events of 9/11. You have certainly heard the calls to disallow its presence so close to a reminder of the threat of global Islamic radicalism. You most certainly have heard the ignorant blathering of the bonehead from Wasilla, Sarah Palin as she brutalised the English language while calling on peaceful Muslims to please "repudiate" their desire to establish their mosque so close to ground zero.

As understandable as it would be to blame the entire Muslim faith for the attack on the World Trade Center, as understandable as it would be to hate everyone sharing a common religion with the perpetrators; deep in our hearts, we know it was from a small band of animalistic criminals, and not a united effort from their religious leaders and followers. We realize that they no more represented their religion than Timothy McVeigh represented Catholicism.....and we do not stop the building of Catholic churches next to the site of that bloody act of terrorism either.

Am I for the building of the mosque? Absolutely. It goes to the main tenets upon which this country was founded...freedom of religion. For it? I am an ardent supporter of it. We need to insure this mosque is built, we need the world to know that we are a free society, an intelligent society, and not the mindless sheep that largely make up the Muslim world in the middle east. We need to begin to build monuments on ground zero, and monuments around ground zero, and the Cordoba mosque should be one of them......a testament to our freedoms......freedom of religion and religious tolerance.

If we let these blocking efforts succeed, if we let these hatemongers succeed, if we let the vicious act of madmen let us change what we are, and what we believe, then they win. Don't let them win. We need this mosque as much as the Muslims do. We need a mosque, a church, a synagogue and a temple surrounding ground zero. We need to retain the core beliefs this country was founded on. We need to point to this mosque with pride; as much a testament of who we are as it will be yet another defeat of the hatred and bigotry spewed forth by Ms. Palin and her irk. They say they want to take their country back....truth is, they want to change this country in ways that would make the framers of our constitution sickened. Don't let them win.

You may not like every component necessary in order to make this gigantic sausage we call democracy, but it doesn't mean you get to choose the ingredients. It's called freedom.......get over it. Freedoms do not change with what calms you, or upsets you. Freedoms are freedoms. Don't like it? Move to China and see what upsets you.

And that is the world...the "World According to Kimba." Thanks for reading.

IOWA TEA PARTY BILLBOARD PREYS ON THE NAIVE AND IGNORANT

2010-07-14T20:31:00.000-07:00

Billboard bought and paid for by the Northern Iowa

Tea Party placing a picture of our President

between two of the most heinous dictators in the world's history.

Question: when these zealots say they

want their country back, what country are they talking about?

Certainly not the United States of America.

NO CHOICES AGAIN IN CALIFORNIA

2010-06-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

The primary season is finished in my state, and once again I am left with no options whatsoever....and for a moderate this is especially disheartening (what.......you don't believe I would vote for Republican? Ask Governor Reagan...twice).

I would, but I can't. You see in California, I have a choice between a former board member of Goldman Saks (bleech), and Jerry Brown; a candidate I will, but don't want to vote for (Gavin was my hope, but he suddenly dropped out and will accept Attorney General in a landslide). His opponent, Ms. Whitman, long on cash and completely devoid of experience, sans running a business selling shit to the masses (EBay) and running a financial institution that brought us to our knees....and I am loathe to buy into her particular load of shit. No brainer...let's re-live the past and re-elect Brown.

On to the senator race where Barbara Boxer (double bleech) the incumbent, is running against one Carly Fiorina, whose only experience is making Hewlett Packard successful by shipping off every fucking job overseas she possibly could....maybe she should run for office in India. This is a candidate so devoid of experience or political savvy, she actually criticized her opponents hair into an open mic (her hair....it's sooooo eighties..."). Gag me with a fucking spoon, somebody. Double no-brainer, Boxer gets my vote.

And so it goes.....

BUSH LEGACY: IRREGULAR BEHAVIORS FROM UNREGULATED INDUSTRIES

2010-06-05T07:42:00.000-07:00

Government: bad. Corporations: good. If you had to encapsulate the Bush doctrine, this would have to be at least half of it to be sure, along with regional (Middle Eastern) domination of course. Smaller governments, and corporations given free reign to police themselves; to operate unfettered from government regulations and oversight.

This is the GOP party economic platform. Lower taxes and free markets. Less regulations, more competition. And although this looks good on paper, a mere year after the two Bush administrations we are seeing the aftermath of these doctrines.

Mining accidents with clouds of accusations of unsafe working conditions, as we dig further and further into the earth than ever before. Financial institutions left to operate less with the focus of what is good for the economy and its customers, and more focused on achieving their greedy end game of profit, and we are all experiencing the result of that.

And now we are seeing what happens when the offshore drilling industry is allowed to operate with little to no oversight, without a big government over their shoulder to reign in the profit driven practices of big oil....a gulf saturated with millions of gallons of crude, unfettered from a single shut off valve, which is standard practice allover the world.

So who is to blame...BP? Halliburton or others? Yes and no. Truth is, most of the fault lies in the 2001 energy policy masterminded by newly sworn in VP Cheney. Cheney, former CEO of oil and gas company Halliburton was charged with developing a new energy policy as his first official duty. And he did so with the aid of the leaders of the industry, leaders such as Enron's Ken Lay.

The task force report was based on recommendations sent to Cheney from coal, oil and nuclear companies...many of which were major contributors of the Bush election committee. This report included opening up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and encouraging increases in oil and coal production and output, along with increases in the development of bio-fuels and nuclear power.

A year later, the Bush administration released their first budget, which stripped renewable clean energy efforts drastically, solar and renewable cut by more than a third, nuclear by half, and energy conservation by twenty-five per cent. And as they did, big oil and coal applauded...they had won round one.

In 2003, research and development for biomass, renewable and solar energy were further reduced by the administration and the GOP controlled congress, while they provided multi-billion dollar tax breaks for dirty energy, along with tax breaks ($23.5 billion) and subsidies.

In his energy policy act of 2005, Bush gave $27 billion to coal, oil and gas, while giving only $6.4 billion for renewable energy. Also in that same year, the Interior Departments Minerals Management Service decided that oil companies, rather than big government, were in the best position to determine their operations environment impacts. This meant no requirements for environment impact studies for offshore drilling.

In his 2006 state of the union address, Bush famously stated "America is addicted to oil," and he was correct. What he failed to point out were his administrations continuous efforts to cater to big oil and the special interests efforts to quash all efforts into clean and renewable energy technologies. There can be little doubt of his efforts, as big oil garnered massive, record profits during his administrations.

In 2008, Bush lifted the moratorium on offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico and off the Atlantic and pacific coasts, reversing the ban placed in 1990 by his father. Only this time, they could do so with little regulation, little to no oversight, and an MME department all but bought and paid for with gifts and graft. No regulations, no oversight, no environmental impact studies, no shut off valves, no safety contingency plans.

And here we are....cleaning oil soaked wildlife, hiring shrimp boats stripped of their ability to make a living fishing to aid in the clean up, and listening to the conservatives bloviating about how this is "Obama's Katrina." All they needed was to foot the cost of an emergency safety shut off valve. But, unlike offshore rigs everywhere else on the face of the earth, they chose not to. And there was no one around to tell them otherwise. What an absolute crock of shit.

IT'S ALL DONE WITH MIRRORS

2010-05-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Critics have said the Obama home buyer tax credit only created imaginary demand. I agree....home sales up 7.45%? 20.5% increase over April 2009? Obviously President Obama has created imaginary people to purchase imaginary homes, creating the imaginary illusion that the economy is growing. Imagine that??

2010-05-24T19:43:00.000-07:00

ARIZONA WHITEWASH MERELY AN ATTEMPT AT ETHNIC CLEANSING?

2010-05-16T06:06:00.000-07:00

In 1993, the United Nations defined it as...."The planned deliberate removal from a specific territory, persons of a particular ethnic group, by force or intimidation, in order to render that area ethnically homogeneous."

It is called ethnic cleansing, a process the state of Arizona is currently on the throws of. Not only have they passed a tough immigration bill (see below), but they have now passed a new bill banning any school or university from offering curriculum in ethnic studies.

And with this new bill passage, the government of the state of Arizona, has made it official. Their efforts, which at first appeared to be an attempt merely to enforce immigration law and protect their citizenship, now appears to be nothing more than an official doctrine to the 41.6% of the population who do not enjoy the advantages of being Caucasian in a bigoted state / country: "you are not welcome here."

Considering the Mexican border / drug wars currently being waged, which are practically forcing the Mexican border population into relocating for their own safety, and the new assaults on the Hispanic population in Arizona by way of two major bill passages, one can only wonder what hell Arizona is bringing on themselves by shaking up this already volatile hornets nest.

I think I am going to cancel my Arizona vacation plans this summer....oh wait a minute...now I remember, Arizona is a brutally hot, barren land with virtually nothing of worth, or interest whatsoever. Kind of like Las Vegas without the fun. Now that I think about it, the only thing California has to do is strengthen their Arizona border to insure no ignorant, bigoted Arizonian tries to move here. Let them move to Texas, they'll be at home there.

And that is the world....the World According to Kimba. Thanks as always, for reading.

2010-05-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

The average entry age of sex slavery (child prostitution) is 12 years old

Their are 27 million modern-day slaves in the world today,

more than at anytime in our history.

Human trafficking is the second largest criminal activity market in the world.

BORDERING ON RACISM? A TOUGH ARIZONA IMMIGRATION LAW PASSES.

2010-04-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

You may have heard of the bill recently passed in Arizona which establishes increased penalties and enforcement capabilities involving illegal immigrants. The bill, Arizona Senate bill 1070, contains sweeping changes in policy, and has drawn much ire from liberal groups, up to and including the President himself. Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahoney went so far as to call the mandate to show legal papers to prove legal status in this country bordering on "Nazism" (your papers, please).

Here is the bill in a nutshell...

"a law enforcement officer, without benefit of a warrant, may arrest a person if the officer has probable cause to believe that a person has committed any public offense that makes the person removable from the United States"

"...it is unlawful for a person who is unlawfully present in the United States to knowingly apply for work, solicit work in a public place, or perform work as an employee or independent contractor"

"...it is illegal to transport an illegal alien if they know or recklessly disregard this law"

"it is illegal to conceal, harbor or shield an alien from detection in any building or means of transportation..."

"...an employer shall not knowingly employ an illegal immigrant, and shall keep records of all immigrant workers status for a period of 3 years through the federal e-verify program..."

The bill also contains a very narrow definition of entrapment on the part of law enforcement agencies, especially if the employer is "predisposed to hire such labor." It establishes strict fines, criminal penalties, and allows for the confiscation of motor vehicles in the case of blatant disregard for the laws. It also allows people to sue their local or state government agencies if they believe the immigration laws are not being enforced.

Will this lead to massive sweeps of known places immigrants congregate, especially where they have been known to look for work? Yes. Will this result in some citizens being forced to show proof of citizenship merely as a result of their appearance or heritage (racial profiling)? Yes. Will it require everyone be able to provide proof of citizenship on demand of any law enforcement agent, even if they are not presently involved in criminal activity? Yes.

And so you would expect a bleeding heart liberal such as myself to be screaming bigotry and fervently against such a bill. Better sit down...I cannot. Yes, in Arizona,this bill will severely effect Hispanics. If passed elsewhere, in Florida it will effect Haitians, in New York, it will effect Puerto Ricans,and on and on.

The bottom line is, this is a great country, and if you want to enjoy immigrant status here, carrying papers to prove you are here illegally is not to much to ask. If you are an employer who frequently hires illegal immigrants, you should be held to the law. I am not crazy about law enforcement agents in sting operations trying to catch you, but the courts will protect you from overt entrapment.

This is merely a drastic step to protect its citizens from the unfortunate situations on our Mexican border....illegal drug smuggling, illegal immigrant smuggling, Mexican criminals seeking refuge here in the United States, illegal immigrants here to commit crimes in the United States, and illegal gun and weapon smuggling in the United States. Carried out correctly, this will be a small thing. Will law enforcement take this way too far? Possibly, but if enforced judiciously and to the letter of the law, it will be yet another tool to protect our borders and weed out the criminals in our society here illegally. I am holding my nose slightly, and I am biting my liberal, card carrying ACLU bent somewhat, but I am 60-40 in favor of this bill. Good Lord help me....but I am siding with the GOP on this one....and praying I will not hear stories of massive abuse of this law by bigoted law enforcement agencies.

THE TEA PARTY: STEEPED IN IGNORANCE

2010-04-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

I love protests, I love anyone in this country who cares enough to form an opinion....if it is an informed one. But criticism for criticisms sake with no solutions offered is just whining, which is exactly why I think these zealots either need to come up with a solution, or shut the f*ck up.

Take a portion of their platform...smaller government and a reduction of taxes. Makes sense to me, where do I sign up? AND this is easily done...we just have to get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, avoid an armed conflict with Iran, raise the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare, and we can reduce the deficit and lower taxes...and reduce the size of government. Where do I sign up?

Oh wait, the Tea Party is actually against reducing Medicare and the raising of the age for Social Security (their supporters are..let's be kind and say "mature"), and FOR the dual wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as taking a hard line on Iran (and who knows where that will lead us)....so considering these are overwhelmingly our largest expenditures, how exactly does that work? Hello.....tea partiers, hello? Anybody?

They want to end any socialist program to help the poor and disadvantaged, yet seem to forget that is what Social Security and Medicare does (programs that do not pay for itself since long ago in the bubble generation)......how about we drop you sorry asses from these programs...it would save a fortune, and the savings could be used to reduce taxes for everyone.

They are decidedly anti-Obama (with insultingly immature signage and slogans) and his spending, but fail to remember his one year performance was overwhelmingly affected by the sorry state of the economy he inherited from his predecessor (and his multiple tax cuts, pathetically run wars with massive amounts of funds still unaccounted for, his unfunded mandate called Medicare-D, and two sorry attempts at regime change in the Middle East).

They want government to stop as they say "rewarding failure"....so I can only imagine this means an end to lunch programs in school, unemployment insurance, welfare, food stamp programs, and the like. And I can get on board....because my religion says screw everybody. I have long said this country would be better off with more people starving and living on the streets. More people losing their jobs, their homes, and watching their children go to sleep hungry. I am with you...where do I sign up?

Maybe I should ask your spokesperson, the Governor who quit her job and quit on the people who elected her for an all out assault on the American pocketbooks, as she refuses to even speak to an American college without six figures and a humiliating list of diva like demands. Where do I sign up....and do I have to be white to join? It seems all your members are white and middle aged. OK, I qualify. But do I have to mirror your bigotry? Maybe I won't join. I just can't get into your little protests and the insipid signage you carry, and the limited intelligence you possess.

Sure, I like to criticize...do it all the time. But at least I think of solutions in my own way. Maybe I won't join your little group. Cause I don't need to be a card carrying member of your little cult to aimlessly scream into the darkness.

IT'S OFFICIAL...WE HATE EVERYONE!

2010-04-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

According to recent polling, you would be hard pressed to find anyone in politics today who poll favorables over 50%...especially in the Senate, where only 6 out of 50 poll favorables over 50% (and barely at that).

In early 2012 polling, Obama has dropped to 47%, Romney 44%, Gingrich 43%, Pawlenty, once thought to be a contender is at 42% in his home state, Huckabee is at 40%, and ex-Governor (and current public speaking / money ho) is at 37%, although polls incredibly high among the Tea Party cult. BTW, the Tea Party itself is polling favorables at 41%.

So does this mean we have yet to meet the next President, or the race is wide open? Not hardly. The only question is who Romney will take for his ticket, and (I hope not) if Obama retakes the invisible man Joe Biden once again on his ticket.

Clearly, anyone in politics today is about as popular as a child molester in a Chuck E. Cheese. Obviously, this dark period opens up all kinds of opportunities for fringes on both sides to organize and achieve some level of acceptance (witness the Tea Party). Anytime unemployment reaches double digits and the economy is sluggish as it is, the political scene will be rife with critics and 15 minutes of fame celebrities. But, as strong as the American citizens disapprove of both sides of the political scene, it will only mean a lower turn out at the polls. Clearly the fever pitch of engagement by the citizens is waning to say the least.

Can either side achieve any momentum in 2012? Not to 2008 levels in my mind. Clearly the right has the big "MO" at present, but if the economy continues to improve, the left can only benefit (and take credit), which would even the score by primary time.

But at present, the early numbers lead me to ask...who the hell do the American people want (or approve of)? The more I read, the more I wonder if they even know. As engagement decreases, so does knowledge on the behalf of the electorate, and this is a scary proposition to say the very least......as each party distorts and retorts the truth in order to curry favor. This is a scary time indeed.

THE COMPLETE LIST OF THE MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF OUR VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

2010-04-11T06:33:00.000-07:00

Just kidding, the man ain't done shit.

At least he hasn't made the news by

saying something stupid lately.

What a great choice our Pres made.

The invisible man.

His only accomplishment has been standing next to Pelosi

and clapping during the State of the Union.

The only positive I can think of for Joe Biden is

he has good taste in women.

20+ REASONS TO APPRECIATE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION

2010-04-03T18:06:00.000-07:00

stabilized the stock market

health care reform

expansion of SCHIP program

more money for education

stimulus package signage

no lobbyist rule

pay freeze for WH staffers over $100k

closed the secret CIA prisons

ended water boarding, no torture policy

freedom of information act

reversal of stem cell ban

more $ in college Pell grants

lowered taxes for middle class

higher auto fuel standards

credit card reform bill

increased earned income tax credits

new car purchase tax breaks

withdrawal of troops from Iraq

focusing on Afghanistan

assisting Pakistan to stay strong

DIPLOMACY

lifting restrictions to Cuba

recent job growth (165k)