Vote to Matter!

Voter turnout is important regardless of your candidate or party line. The only thing which makes these campaign money grubbers pay attention to us at all is our collective votes. If either party believes a certain group of people will not turn out then that group of people is ignored. I'm not pointing out something new, and both parties are guilty of doing it. So, no matter what your demographic make it a point to show up and vote. Even if you believe your candidate will win or lose without your vote, you need to be perceived as an active voter by the politicians to ever truly matter. Vote to matter! 

Poetry in Motion Review of Rapping You with the Facts CD

Although tempting to call Bob McNeil’s Rapping You with the Facts CD a masterful example of urban word slam poetry, it evades classification. Spoken word accompanied with music, his poetry challenges listeners with his expression of social perceptions, painting vivid pictures of relevant issues of our times. The Political Poet gives Rapping You with the Facts, 5 out of 5 laureates.     

“The message is clear, the music is solid and the presentation is strong.  The consciousness in Bob’s poetry is so very much needed today.” –Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets

 

“Bob McNeil is a genuine American poet with a feel and the heart to carry the word.” –Danny Simmons (artist/poet)  

 

Obtain your own CD of deep poetry and music, Rapping You with the Facts, by sending the nominal amount of $3.00, plus $2.00 postage and handling to Bob McNeil at P.O. Box 144, Hollis, NY 11423 or mcneil_bob@ yahoo.com or visit him at www.facebook.com/BobMcNeil.

What Do We Owe Our Vets? Really!

Lately, I’ve been disgusted by the way the returning vets have been ignored when it comes to employment. I've actually heard people debating if we really owe our vets anything more than a pat on the back; afterall, they got combat pay didn't they. Must bite my lip in rage! What do we owe them? Really! I don't buy the cap in spending argument. The GOP had no problem waiving the requirements to pay for sending those vets into harm’s way. I don’t drink the Kool-Aid that the bill is a duplicate jobs training program. Both parties are getting shady on this one, job training versus actual jobs? I just saw where vocational schools couldn't field enough car mechanics for job vacancies at the tune of 70,000 unfilled every year because the schools lack funds for the equipment to train them on newer cars. The Republicans are saying slim down government on one hand which means less government jobs. The government can't just give vets jobs in the private sector which means more training opportunities are needed to fill jobs with vets. Another answer would be to offer more incentives to business to hire vets but they neither seem to be offering that as a solution in real time; unfortunately, I don't think the government should have to subsidize businesses to hire vets. I feel businesses should be doing it on their own because they enjoy the freedom to do business in this country and out thanks to our military. Really, it is shame on the big corporations sitting on record capital. Why is it governments' job (our pockets being picked) for job training or credits to hire? Why shouldn't the companies making the money flip their own bill for equipment to train employees? Why do they feel they deserve a credit to hire vets they should already want to hire because the vets deserve it? Whatever happened to the Reagan mandates? Tell corporations vets take priority when they hire by mandate and it doesn't cost us anything except letting them go to the front of the line because they deserve it? This brings me back to training. If they need to be trained then they should have a free pass to the front of the line there too. Why? They have given up years off their lives, some of them four and five tours of duty for us. They lost time at least we can do is try and save them a little time now. As far as I'm concerned, this bickering between parties because it is an election year is a travesty to our vets. Mock the vets by pretending they are important to your party (insert Dem or Rep) then do nothing in any hurry feigning a concern with the legislation your parties should be working on together instead of using for political speaking points. They’re doing the same thing with the American economy, job creation, the energy crisis and environmental protection. We (all Americans) should be demanding at the top of our lungs for both parties to stop acting like children and do their jobs, service for us.

 

Please see the following article on the GOP blocking a jobs bill for vets. We need to put pressure on both parties and demand our vets be treated with more respect than this.
GOP Blocks Veteran Jobs Bill

Romney Tries to Remove Foot from Mouth Only Manages to Insert Other Foot

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney got caught on video saying some unsavory and untrue things about 47% of Americans these, “people who will vote for the President no matter what. Alright, there are 47% who are with him (President Obama), who are dependent on government, who believe that they are victims, who believe government has the responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing!”

In a press conference Monday, Sept. 17^th, in Costa Mesa, California, Romney tried to clear the air regarding his comments but only manages to offend people more by clarifying his previous remarks as merely "not elegantly stated" about nearly half Americans thinking they’re "victims." Revealing Romney’s belief in the derisory statement, he just didn’t think he said it correctly.

Romney then threw gasoline on the fire in an attempt to explain what he meant about President Barack Obama's approach being "attractive to people who are not paying taxes." A comment eerily similar to a falsehood about 51% of Americans not paying any taxes Romney stated earlier in his campaign. The fact everyone pays some sort of taxes in this country either directly in payroll taxes for cities, counties and states even if Federal payroll taxes are refunded, sales taxes on just about everything we buy from movie tickets to soft drinks, from fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror to our cars, real estate and personal property taxes, utility taxes on wireless and landline telephones, internet, cable, satellite, electric, water, sewage, and natural gas bill, Social Security and Medicare taxes paid from payroll by us and matched by employers leading to indirect taxes (employers claim their contributions to Social Security and Medicare Taxes only reduces the salaries of their employees), or we pay them indirectly in excise taxes on everything from gasoline to immunization shots for our children, on diesel used to transport food and commodities to market which indirectly raises the price and passed on to consumers. If you breathe in the United States of America then you are going to pay some sort of tax along the way.

After the video surfaced, Romney did not refute his comments but said they were privately made in a fundraiser during a question-and-answer session to donors. Romney backed up the statements made on the leaked video posted on the magazine website Mother Jones that almost half of American voters "believe that they are victims," and his campaign's effort was to "focus on the people in the middle." Based on comments Mitt made previously about middle income Americans earning from $200,000.00 to $250,000.00 a year, when mean income is $50,000.00 for the nation, many voters are starting to question to which middle is Romney referring?

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Thoughts from an Independent Voter on the Presidential Race

The past is treasure to remember or trash to throw away, but learning from it allows you to prepare and recycle as you plan for the future.

As voters think about the Presidential race and decide who they are going to select as the next President of the United States of America, I'd ask them to think more about the people of this country than any political party. Our economic woes started over 10 years ago with the re-instating of trickle down economics. We had a Republican President then, and the current Democratic President has been unable to reverse those policies because he was saddled with an obstructionist Republican controlled House of Representatives after his first year in office. Despite this, he has managed to track down our number one enemy, pass health care reform as promised, stop the bleeding of our job losses and held together a fiscal ship that by all standards was about to completely sink.

Now, we are asked to decide between someone who is struggling to keep our economy afloat, and someone who wants to go full blast over Niagara Falls with cutting, gutting of programs and a tax plan which increases the burden on 95% of our people in order to give the top 5% of earners even more of a tax break than they have already enjoyed for more than 12 years.

If you believe trickle down economics has worked for you in the past 12 years then you know for whom you should vote. If you are like me and learn from the past, the choice is obvious. The theory of trickle down economics is flawed. We should steer our fiscal ship away from the falls and the cut, gut philosophy of extremist who would shut the entire government down if they could with threats of cliff of no return. Once again, I point to the past. I recall another bad economic time when a guy named Bill was running against another guy named George; however, there was a third fellow by the name of Ross who brought out charts and sounded a lot like the doomsday forecasters in a certain party within a party today.

Back then, the guy named Ross was convincing, and I started to believe cut and gut were the only ways our country would right itself. A funny thing happened. Bill won not Ross or George, and the economy went into overdrive. Before his 8 years as President ended, our budget had a surplus and our debt was being paid down. The positive growth, not cut and gut, moved us in the right direction without throwing our seniors, our children, our poor and our disabled under the cut and gut bus. I learned something then. There is more than one way to right a fiscal ship. I'm not saying our government shouldn't find ways to reduce spending, but it doesn't have to come at the cost of our nation's soul. It doesn't have to hurt those among us who are least able to fight back.

A positive growth approach may actually require our government to spend more money short term to prime the pump for future growth. This is tried and true method just look to the past, FDR the New Deal. If you want to really see a difference in our economy, re-elect our current President and give him a Senate and House he can work with to institute some real change. Vote for Democrats to replace the Republicans up for re-election. Don't think I'm a Democrat. If they don't perform then we replace them with Republicans next time. It's time we all learn from the past.

Thoughts on the Olympic Uniforms

Maybe it is because it is the Olympics, but it seems to me that every country should be wearing uniforms and using equipment produced in their own country not just the United States of America. I understand the argument of using items supplied by other countries if in fact a provider doesn't exist in a country, but that claim about our uniforms isn't true. They should be ashamed. In one newscast I saw a businessman saying we don't make clothes in this country anymore so it didn't matter then the next person interviewed was the owner of a struggling clothing manufacturing company from New York saying why didn't they use an American company. I guess NY isn't part of the United States any longer.

Follow the link and sign the petition if you agree. Feel free to share.

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=277509&id=46671-19316290-u%3DECEax&t=6