Posted on

How about waiting until we get there?

Today is the day after the first day to early vote in the Texas primary elections. Whoopee.

You notice my lack of an exclamation point. That is because nothing about the Democratic primaries excites me this year. I am curious as to how the Republican primary will turn out, mainly between Gov. Rick “Good Hair” Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey “the aged cheerleader” Hutchison. Of course, I won’t be voting in that primary.

While this crop of elections are beginning to get under way one would think the General Election is next week, or perhaps Judgment Day, if you listen to the political and cable news media.

These people who have to have controversy for their shows to thrive, who must have conflict, are like the little kids sitting in the back seat on a vacation trip  screaming: “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Take, for instance, this poll by CNN. The poll says that 52 percent of Americans surveyed say Obama doesn’t deserve reelection in 2012. Uh, don’t miss the last word in that sentence. It says he doesn’t deserve being reelected in 2012. This is, what, February 2010?

The president’s job approval has slipped some, the survey says, with 49 percent of Americans saying he is doing a good job and 50 percent saying he isn’t. What about those who believe he is mostly doing a good job? I’m in that category.

But Barack needs to shape up, or rather, needs to shape up his administration. It seems as if Obama was banking on a lot of Americans being behind him what with his election and a Democratic congressional majority. Little did he know that the Republican and others of the right-leaning have pulled out the stops to build a very efficient propaganda machine.

It seems that the GOP have found that outlets such as Fox News work so well at getting out their message that they can use all of the nation’s politically-oriented media to their advantage. The Republicans and those who might tear away from the GOP such as the Tea Partiers have discovered that the 24-hour news cycle thrives on conflict, so the right is fighting everything that the Democrats are trying to do. Ta-da! We have conflict!

The situation for Democrats, at least for their November elections more than nine months away, looks grim. That is even though, most signs point toward the Democrats retaining their House majority and most likely the one in the Senate. Of course, there is that “throw the bums out thing” that seems to be running pretty strong. The CNN poll says 44 percent of registered voters do not feel their member of Congress should be returned to office while 51 percent would return their congressional member. There also have been some congressional members, on both sides, saying they won’t run for another term. The most recent, and apparently most shocking, was Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana.

But these polls are averages at best. There are all kinds of variables when it comes to voters who elected their representatives to Congress. Also, it can’t be stressed too much that 2012 is a ways away for the presidential election. Let’s see who would the Republicans have as their candidate as of now? Sarah Palin maybe? Gives me chills! No, I don’t think so.

Are we there yet? No. We are not. We are not even close to electing a president for the next term. That doesn’t mean that Obama shouldn’t make some improvements. His first year has been lackluster in many respects. But that doesn’t mean it has been disastrous. It doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.

Are we there yet. No. We aren’t there. We aren’t even close when it comes to the future in politics. We still have miles to travel.  And stop pulling your little brother’s ear.

Posted on

Fox: When it comes to partisanship, nothing's too petty

This story off the Fox News Web site proves how nothing is too petty when it comes to carrying the propaganda water bucket (perhaps a little water boarding?) for the right wing.

“Hillary Clinton’s plane was grounded in Saudi Arabia Tuesday, forcing the secretary of state to hitch a ride on Gen. David Petraeus’ plane, outranking him in the process.”

The article supposedly is about Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s airplane needing repair in Saudi Arabia and how she hitched a ride with U.S. Central Command leader Gen. David Petraus. But Fox, ever the right wing tool, made the story about how Clinton “outranked” Petraus, making it seem as if she made the general sit on the plane at the little kids’ table. The article likewise mentions a second time that once the secretary of state boards the plane, she outranks the general. However, never does the story provide anything showing why that little nugget — since Petraus’ chain of command doesn’t include Hilary Clinton the validity of the claim is questionable — is in any way important.

Finally, Fox exhibits how right-wingers should at all costs should avoid humor.

“Since Petraeus is going to be swinging by Washington, D.C., he could schedule some meetings but that still is up in the air.”

Haw, haw! Did you let the cleaning lady write that? Oh, I’m sorry I’m sure the cleaning lady could do a much better job and perhaps even manage to be funny.

Posted on

Getting thinner on Fat Tuesday

It seems fitting that today is Fat Tuesday.

My stomach has seemed to disagree with me during the afternoon. I wonder if it was the cheeseburger and fries I had for lunch? Not that I plan on giving up C-burger and fries for Lent. I just fell off the wagon.

Since learning of my apparent Type II diabetes I have started dieting somewhat. I say somewhat because my medical personnel at the VA haven’t told me squat about what kind of diet I should be following. I have had to take a crash course in diabetic chowology from the Internet and books. So I am not following any one course other than trying to eat less at one meal, eating healthier, eating non-fattening and lower carb snacks.

So far it seems to be working. As of Saturday I had lost eight pounds in two weeks. For some reason this morning when I woke up, my stomach felt smaller than normal. Maybe the diet doctors visited me during REM sleep. Plus, this pair of dress pants I wore to work today, a larger size than what I had been wearing, could use a belt where a week ago it felt tight.

I feel like something must be working although I am not at all pleased with the stomach upset. Hopefully it will go away soon. Maybe after I snack on some celery and carrots dipped in fat free ranch dressing. It’s not bad as a snack. Ditto for Cheerios. Well, maybe not today.

At least I haven’t reached the Kevin Smith point yet, where I would need to purchase two seats on an airliner. It reminds me of that old fat joke: He was so fat, if he had to haul ass he’d have to make two trips. Not PC, but perhaps there is meaning there.

Posted on

Cut the 12th grade? Maybe so in Utah

Forget cutting teacher pay raises or even laying off teachers when the bottom line comes calling. Utah State Sen. Chris Buttars, a Republican, sees school districts ridding themselves of buses and the 12th grade.

In less desperate times such an idea may seem nutty. But with an economic crunch from a hard-hitting recession, people tend to listen to just about any idea that might save money. So Buttars believes a disappearing act for school buses and a pesky 12th year or school would net that state, which wants to cut education funding by 5 percent, about $300 million a year.

Are such cuts ridiculous? I couldn’t tell you. I’m sure a case can be made either way. Maybe yes, maybe no. I can only give you my personal testimony which can either be used as food for thought, or fed to the dog under the table.

First, let’s start with kindergarten. I never went to kindergarten. Texas school laws require that kids who turn 6 years old as of Sept. 1 must attend the first grade. I turned 6 almost two months later than that date.

I remember Momma took me to some kind of orientation for parents and kids entering elementary school. It was “elementary” school then but I don’t think it was too far from those days when beginning grades were called “grammar school.” This was in 1961. Wow, it’s hard to believe that was almost 50 years ago. Of course, there was no Internet back then. There was barely television where I lived some 60 to 75 miles from the area’s TV stations, although we received them with a tall antenna on the old house.

At that gathering my Momma was informed that I was too young to attend school, although I could attend kindergarten. The preface above is that it is difficult for me to believe that my mother didn’t know that I was too young. After all, she was a brilliant woman who worked for county government. But maybe she wasn’t aware of that because she had been busy raising five boys and the fact that she did work. I also don’t know why my parents didn’t opt to send me to kindergarten. I don’t remember, though, being upset over attending.

During my senior year I took two classes that — even though they may have not been all that crucial — turned out to be the most important classes I had in high school. One was English composition with Miss Miller. The other was civics with Mr. Davis, our school superintendent and who had hired my mother by that time as school tax assessor.

Prior to my senior year the practice ended allowing those in the 12th grade “study halls” or basically what were free periods for those student not needing more credits to graduate. What luck! I was assigned two classes not of my choosing. One was a first period physical education course and the other was Algebra II.

Fortunately, I was put into what was essentially a co-ed P.E. class. Coach Simmons, our teacher, had a girls’ class during that period and there were about five boys including myself who were assigned because we had nowhere else to go. Coach had his hands full with the girls so the guys were left to roam the area of the football and P.E. field or field house. We would lift weights if we wanted to or would occasionally play softball with the girls if we chose. It wasn’t very productive educationally, but it was okay by me.

The advanced algebra class, on the other hand, really brought out the rebel in me. I wasn’t at all pleased we could no longer have a free period so I just took a book into that class each day and read while class took place. I had made all this known to the teacher. I suppose she really couldn’t do anything since the class wasn’t required although I had to attend it. At the end of the year the teacher made a deal with me. If I passed the final I would get a “D,” which was (barely) passing. I think I squeaked by with a D and got a D in the course. Looking back, I don’t guess it is something to be proud of but also I am not particularly ashamed of it either.

My other classes that year included “homeroom,” which was basically a social hour to gab with my friends. I also had yearbook staff, which was fun. My final class was general business. I don’t think it was of great benefit even though I did the work and passed. However, it was a fun class because Mr. Weaver was a cool guy who let us joke around.

English composition and civics turned out to be essential classes in my career as a journalist as well as during my stints as a government employee. Neither class had been required. The two classes which I was made to attend but were not essential for my graduation except for being made to attend, as was the case with the rest of my senior year at school, which served only in improving my social skills.

I won’t say my senior year was worthless because it certainly wasn’t. It was the best year I had in all 12 years of school. That is because of the two courses which turned out as beneficial as well as the social aspect. I have to add, that socialization in school can be of tremendous importance to those students such as I who tended to be rather timid during my younger school years. (I still tend to be somewhat introspective, although much of it is because certain types of people now just tend to piss me off! Call it my curmudgeon phase.)

Had I chose a different path in life, say in science, my senior year and perhaps even the three other years in high school would not have been much of a help. It would even have been largely a waste of time insofar as receiving an education to prepare me for college and a career. After four years in the Navy and a year of just working I began the four years it took me to get a bachelor’s degree. I ended up with a 2.8 grade average over all despite half of all my semesters were spent on the Dean’s List with a 3.0 or better. That’s not summa type but not bad for both working and attending college full time.

A 12th year of school was added in Texas only in the 1940s. Compulsory education laws today are still more aimed at age rather than grade, unless you happen to be enrolled. Even now kids can graduate early. But the whole argument of what a 12th grade is worth is much more than just academics alone. This is especially so if you look at extracurricular activities and aspects such as the life of parents who these days are more likely to both work.

As for cutting school buses, that is even more distant a thought for me than eliminating the 12th grade. Many schools already contract bus services, thus eliminating equipment and costs for drivers and mechanics. Getting rid of buses altogether though, I don’t know.

If my voice were important to this debate about to happen in Utah over the 12th grade, I would have to say that maybe a 12th grade need not be mandatory. Perhaps the state could just let the parents decide whether their kids should attend a 12th grade  if the student has completed enough credits to graduate in the 11th grade. It might not save nearly as much money although it might cause a few dollars to be saved. Then again, I don’t live in Utah, I live in Texas. And I am quite happy about that.

Posted on

Small-town robbery suspect in the less than 5% category

Update: Police cleared Aurielle Tineo of charges she robbed this credit union and arrested another woman. Jennifer Sykes Deviller of Lake Charles, La., was arrested for the robbery discussed here. Repeat: Auriell Tineo has NOT been charged with any crimes. It must really suck for Ms. Tineo being charged with such a crime. She still might want to make some changes on her My Space page. The jist of this post on the rarity of women bank robbers. Apparently, they are not so rare where I live.

Before I start, I have to first say that having a fascination for a subject doesn’t mean one has to condone that subject.

I speak of bank robbery. It’s an odd crime and I am fascinated by the subject. It is odd because the chances are so meager for someone to get away with holding up a bank. FBI statistics indicate that only murders are cleared by arrest more often than bank robbery. Almost 60 percent of bank robberies are cleared compared to about 62 percent of murders. Then, when you throw in the fact that only about 5 percent of bank robbers are female, you might see how someone who is interested in the crime of bank robbery from a sociological standpoint such as I, might be even more interested in that rare bird, the woman bank robber. True.

So when a young, relatively attractive female was arrested yesterday for the robbery of a small-town credit union in my area, I found myself asking why? If this person indeed robbed this financial institution was it because she likes drugs, as she admits on her My Space page and seems to be the motive given the judgment of the sheriff whose jail now holds the young woman? Was it because, as famed bank robber Willie Sutton was supposed to have said: “Because that’s where the money is?” Was it excitement, prodded by small-town boredom? Was she just nuts?

These are all questions we won’t know, probably, anytime soon. We don’t even know if she is the robber. However, she was fingered by a phone caller who saw a robber fitting her description on a video of the hold-up during a local TV news broadcast.

Aurielle Tineo, 26, of Hamshire, Texas, is suspected of robbing the Texas Coastal Commercial Federal Credit Union — someone needs to look into abbreviating that name — in nearby Winnie on Feb. 4. The linked video in the paragraph above shows a woman who held a pistol by the barrel while telling employees to stuff money in a bag. Some of the still pictures in the news video, by Beaumont TV station KFDM Channel 6, also capture a nice-looking young woman with some evident quirks judging by her driver license photo. She admits to that quirkiness on her My Space page.

“Auri the renegade angel,” as she calls herself on the popular social media page, claims to be “a witch” and notes that she likes “racehorses … guns, marijuana …” as well as making her son laugh and watching him sleep.  She said she likes “speed” but so much so she had to quit and no longer “f**ks with it.” As well she admits enjoying shocking people to see the look on their faces. She might just be shocking some folks right now.

Although Tineo rambles on her My Space page, she isn’t alone in that respect, it is evident from some of her statements that she is of average or perhaps even above average intelligence. She is in that age range — from 18 to 30 — that FBI statistics say most commit bank robberies. This is, even though, the average yield on a forced withdrawal by armed robbery at a financial institution is upon average less than $5,000.

Tineo was just arrested. She is presumed innocent like everyone else. Above all, I would point that out because police say someone else is likely involved in the crime and when two play and are caught things can become all skewed in the legal process.

But if Aurielle Tineo, self-proclaimed witch, is convicted then perhaps some understanding of her specific reasons for committing a crime with such little chance for success will come to light. Until then, we shall see how things play out in her case.