I'd admired and respected joe paterno for YEARS, but...

...obviously, my feelings and beliefs have done a complete about face.

I had a thought last night that took away all of the regrets that I had about the tearing down of his "legacy". I'm running it up the flagpole for you. Some of you may salute, some may pee on the pole.

One of the things that I'd always held against Ike as President is that he had such high stature with the public that he could have ENDED joe mccarthy's little reign of terror with a single sentence. The public would have rallied to Ike and mccarthy would have been finished and a whole lot of lives wouldn't have been needlessly ruined or ended.

it was an unnecessary absence of leadership on Ike's part.

The same could be said for joe paterno. He could have ENDED this with a simple statement to the university administration and started the ball rolling to get his sexual predator employee in jail for life.

It wasn't only an Ike-like absence of leadership, it was, in fact , compounded by the active cover up.

This is where the football fan in my went aside and the father in me took over. All of a sudden I saw my son's face whenever I thought of these young men who were victimized by sandusky and paterno's tolerance of his conduct. In a way I'm sorry that the statue is no longer on the campus. It would have been a good place to relieve myself if I were ever on the grounds of PSU!

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

I have 2 thoughts about this Presidential election.

I'll run these ideas up the flagpole. Some of you may salute. Some of you may pee on the pole.

First, The June fund raising. I suspect that the President's tally for June, while not romney's 100 million, may actually be pretty good. I think that if it weren't, the figures would have been released on Friday afternoon or over the weekend when fewer people are paying attention. Of course, even if I'm right, as many of us as possible still have to give our $10 & $20 donations. This will not be an inexpensive campaign.

Secondly and possibly more important, I wonder if voter attitudes in this election is starting to become set. It seems that the polling in the last several weeks has next to no response to any news event. If this is so, possibly no amount of money spent by the billionaires to get their own bought and paid for chief executive with the working digits that grover norquhist requires in his next president will get their man in office. After all, the attacks that they're leveling at President Obama are the same tired old, much debunked and too oft repeated horseshit that they've been throwing since January 20.2009. It has been so often used that the public may be getting deaf to it. Of course, we still have to bust our asses to get the President re-elected.

Anyway, there's my 2 cents for this evening, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

The DU community has supported my family & I through a lot of BS, so now, some GREAT news to share!

My wife and I will always be very grateful for the support, kind words and good vibes we've received from our DU community through some HORRIFIC times recently. Some of those are here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002282915

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002311756

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002514497

I remember several years ago when Kephra passed on, Plaid Adder made the comment that we are a cyber "family" and we need to let each other know about the goods & bads of our lives. I wholeheartedly agreed, and continue to agree, with her.

After all the bad news BS I've shared with you these past few months, now for something truly wonderful!

My wife and I reached an agreement to buy a house tonight.

I know that many here have a very low opinion of home ownership, but both of us have always been of the home ownership mentality. We had a house in the Philly suburbs before we moved here 10 years ago. We've been living in rentals (sometimes really crappy rentals) for most of the last 10 years. for 7 months of 2009 we were homeless and living in a 9 unit transitional apartment house where there were 2 drug dealers and a woman who, shall we say, rendered professional services and a family who was hiding their fugitive sister-in-law in their apartment.

After my recently concluded 10 month nightmare of unemployment, we thought that we were at least a year from this. We were looking for a house to rent or lease/purchase in the city where my wife works. Our Realtor suggested that we talk to a mortgage broker to see what we may be able to qualify for when we would qualify. We found out that we qualified under my wife's income and job for a mortgage of the size that we wanted.

As of mid-August, we will move into a 3 bedroom, 1 bath (for now) ranch with an attached garage in 1/3 of an acre of land and within walking distance of a beautiful residents and guests only lake/beach. We will also be within walking distance of our son's new school (that has a sterling reputation) and some FINE ice cream, pizza and roast beef restaurants. We believe that this will be our final move. We believe that we will buy this house but our son will sell it in about 30 or 40 years when we leave the house feet first.

If I can master the technology, I'll post a picture after closing!

Our mortgage payment will be less than our monthly rent for a 600 sq. foot 2 bedroom apartment. Our combined round trips to work will be about 200 miles less every week. Our auto insurance and home owner's insurance will be less than our current auto & renter's insurance.

You've shared some very dark and difficult times with me and have been a great support to my family and I. For all of the faults and squabbles that we may get into in this community, DU is fabulous at coming together for it's membership in time of need.

Please allow us to share our joy with you tonight!

PEACE!

paul ryan is apparently being seriously vetted as vp.

HMMMM...lets look at a few things here

grover norquhist said that he didn't want a president who will lead, but follow the rightist/bagger faction in the congress. According to him, all the president needs is enough working digits to sign whatever is sent his way. Under george w moron, there was a rubber stamp congress. In groverland, there will be a rubber stamp president. He made it very clear that what he wants is the ryan budget passed and his no taxes pledge only applies to taxes on rich people. If you want to screw the average American, than THAT is ok.

There are numerous billionaires who are contributing their bottomless fortunes to Super PACS designed to smear and defeat President Obama. This is done as they are supporting a man who has spent nearly 20 years demonstrating that he has NO CORE VALUES other that mining companies for every single nickle they can as they ship the jobs of thousands of Americans overseas. Also, the mormon faith that he will not discuss.

romney is so gaffe prone that he makes george w moron sound almost lucid. He is so out of touch that he makes bush senior look like a populist man of the people. He has a disdain for working class Americans and their values that he makes rightist radio hosts look like actual human beings (well, let me not get TOO crazy there!). He mistreats animals to the point that he makes dick cheney look like St. Francis of Assisi.

paul ryan is not only the man who constructed the most draconian budget possible, but he is also the man who makes ayn rand mandatory reading for his staff.

To me, the most scary sum of these parts is this...

...this would be the ryan/romney administration, much like the late and unlamented cheney/bush administration. The biggest differences are that romney's smile is a lot more phony and that ryan is still young enough to do WAY more damage than cheney.

How many ryan appointed SCOTUS justices would there likely be in the next 4 years? Holy shit, I think I'm going to get out my debit card and zing off another $10 bucks to the Obama/Biden campaign. This post is making me way more frightened now that I've written it than it ever did while I was thinking of it for the last couple of days. Sheesh! I'm not a person that scares that easily, either!

PEACE!

I know that every parent has felt, is feeling or will feel what my wife and I are feeling today.

Our son graduated from 6th grade today. Come late August, he will be in Middle School, or, as it was called when I was a kid, Junior High. We are proud of him, amazed at just how fast Elementary School went by, very happy for him and very sad that our son is no longer a little boy.

Actually, he passed "little boy" by a long time ago on the way by "kid" to arrive at "young man".

I will never again feel the joy in my heart of seeing him run into his school, eager to start the new day. Maybe I'll drop him off at school in the future, but he'll be WAY too cool to run in unless he's late. My wife and I said goodbye to the goodbye kiss at school over a year ago. The exchange is that we're going to damn well kiss him when we're at home

When he was about 4 months old, a few weeks after we adopted him, I had a dream of something taking place when he 'll be about 17. In this dream, he's going out on a date and I'm at the door with him while mom is close by in the living room. I'm asking if he has enough money and he says yes but I give him another $20 just in case. I then ask if he has enough gas and he says yes but I give him another $10 just in case.

3 things that I know. First is that, unlike August of 2000 when I had this dream, $10 for gas will go nowhere 5 years from now. The second thing is that the $20 won't go a hell of a long way then either.

The third thing that I know is that his being 17 is just around the corner and will be here in NO time.

it has nothing to do with getting older. It has nothing to do with my wife getting older because she'll still be the most beautiful and wonderful woman on the face of the Earth when she's 199. It has to do with the fact that we LOVE being parents, even when we want to absolutely throttle him (which is frequently). In just a few years, he's going to be out, in college and GONE!

He'll be home for holidays, weekend visits, laundry, refrigerator raiding and hitting mom & dad up for money that we'll bitch about giving him while we're silently happy to do it. He'll always be our son, we'll always be family, but before long, he'll have a family of his own.

Of course, THAT'S when the fun will come in!

My mother-in-law lets him get away with a lot. My mother (God rest her soul & RIP) let him get away with absolute murder! We've always told him that we'll get our revenge when he has OUR grandchildren!

At least we have that to look forward to!

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

The Barber victory vs. the walker victory.

A few quick thoughts before I dash off to work this fine AM.

Let's see. scott walker's campaign outspends us by 8 to 1, wins by about the same margin as he did in 2010 and, according to some polling, got the votes of some who don't like him but disapprove of recalling a governor for political reasons. In the meantime, the same polling shows President Obama with a comfortable lead.

The media response? Democrats are doomed...Doomed I say, DOOMED!

Barber wins a special election for Gabby's seat defeating the teabagger that she beat in 2010 after the rethugs cast the election as a referendum on President Obama and we show that the repubs are as hostile as they are to anything even barely resembling a social program.

The media response? If I listen closely I may be able to hear the crickets.

There goes that damned liberal media again!

Horseshit!

That;s my 2 cents, and quite possibly over priced at that!

PEACE!

Hey, everybody, PLEASE K&R this Great video in the LGBT Forum!

I put my money where my mouth is today (ALERT for Augusta, Maine)!

For those of you who live in Augusta, Maine, This took place in the Tim Horton's on Western Ave. That and the other Tim Horton's on Bangor street are owned by the same people.

Yesterday my wife and I were running a few errands while our son was at home a little under the weather. On the way home we stopped at Tim Horton's to get him a treat because he LOVES their frosted cinnamon buns. There was a woman there with campaign literature, signs and bumper stickers promoting one of the teapublican senate candidates for Tuesday's primary. It appeared that there were volunteers coming and going. Since we live in a free country my wife and I believe that even teabaggers have the right to believe what they want to believe. We also like to ignore the baggers unless we have the opportunity to really piss them off.

Today, the three of us stopped there for a snack while we were out and about. The same table in the same Tim Horton's was regaled with the same literature for the same teabagger candidate. When our order was completed, I asked to see the manager on duty. I asked him if Tim Horton's had made an endorsement of this particular candidate. He said that he didn't know . I stated that if this were the case, than I doubted that my wife or I would be patronizing either of their stores again because we would interpret this as an indication that our Democratic money was not wanted, or at least we didn't want to spend our money at a place where the beliefs held by the ownership were directly contrary to ours.

On both days, there was a car in the parking lot with a very large sign for the teabagger candidate on display and visible to the street traffic. I should also mention that I've seen campaign material from this candidate that promotes him as the teabagger candidate for the US Senate this year. Two years ago when he ran for governor, he embraced the teabagger movement then, too.

After we left, we saw through the window that the manager was speaking with the teabagger woman. I don't know what was said and I don't particularly care. My hope is that the ownership realizes that opinions can frequently be bad for business. If they are not endorsing this teapublican candidate, I hope that they realize that the baggers using their store as a de facto headquarters certainly gives that appearance and is equally bad for business.

I believe in voting with my pocket book and my very big mouth. Whenever I see faux noise on in an establishment, I either make an issue of it, stop patronizing or both. Unfortunately, there are way too many people on our side that still have the post 911 neutered puppy mentality that dictates the silence of our convictions and allows the right to spew it's venom with impunity. They are afraid of rightists calling them traitors. Rightists have been calling me a traitor since the Spring of 1967 when I was just shy of my 12th birthday and expressed my opposition to the Vietnam war.

Horseshit!

When george w moron had his illusory 92% approval rating immediately following 911, we were proud to be in the 8%. We are patriots who will support our country without supporting the unelected fraud who'd been appointed to office before a national tragedy occurred.

My wife and I have NEVER been quiet about our beliefs. We never will be. And we will NEVER willingly or knowingly financially support political views that we find repellent.

That's my 2 cents and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!

Gerald Ford, george w bush and willard romney are on a ship.

The ship starts to sink.

Ford says "save all the women and children!"

bush says "SCREW all the women and children!"

romney says "Out of WHAT?"

The reason I picked these 3 is because none of them ever won a presidential election, even though Ford was basically good guy.

PEACE!

Hello! Here's a report from the Maine state Democratic Convention...

...from a very personal perspective.

My very personal report from the convention's first night is here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/113715043

My perspective is very personal because this year, I was not only a delegate but the VERY proud father of a convention page. Not only was my 12 year old son a page, but numerous party officials independently approached me to say that my son was the hardest working and most dependable of all the volunteers at this year's convention. He worked hard putting delegate, volunteer & guest badges together, passing out Obama/Biden signs to the delegates and guests, helping to get pizza for the convention staff and then to serve it and running various errands. He had the time of his life and earned a great deal of respect and regard from party officials and, of course, his parents. He came back on Sunday morning (the ONLY page to do so) to help clean up and the Democratic leader of the state senate spent a few minutes with him complimenting him on his service and involvement.

I actually wondered if he didn't have the better job. He, the Page, got pizza for lunch on Saturday afternoon and I, the delegate, got crappy stale pop tarts & chips from the vending machines.

As far as the convention business went, we heard from our 4 candidates for olympia snowe's seat and I was impressed by their passion to NOT automatically concede this seat to angus king's ego. I hope that the DSSC feels the same passion, also (though I doubt it).

We heard a terrific presentation from the Obama campaign that was preceded with a video of an African American woman from SC who was responsible for getting our future President "Fired up...Ready to GO!" and she got US fired up & ready to go. too!

We re-elected our national committeewoman and selected a new national committeeman. I was disappointed that our current committeeman didn't get re-elected, but it was more my being FOR him, not against the new man, whom I believe will do a great job, too!

I personally became more convinced that we have a MUCH better and deeper bench than the teapublicans for future races. I am especially impressed with Meaghan Maloney, whom I expect to be the next Kennebec/Somerset county DA, current house leader Emily Ann Cain, who will be moving up to the state senate this year, Hannah Pingree, our former House Speaker and Barry Hobbins, our state senate leader who in term limited and is now running for the state house.

Our Keynote Speaker was Gov. O'Malley of Maryland and he BROUGHT THE HOUSE DOWN!
He inspired us to never say the words "recession", "job losses" or "deficits" without preceding them with "BUSH". Two of my favorite things that he said were "We have a jobs creation President and a jobs constipated house of representatives" & "We see an America that is united in the belief in the dignity of everyone".

If this man runs for President in 2016, I will be SERIOUSLY looking at him!

Overall, it was a great weekend. We had a united and harmonious convention that not only ran on time, but frequently AHEAD OF SCHEDULE! This is after the bloodbath of acrimony that was the teapublican convention several weeks ago.

My family and I are "Fired Up & Ready To Go" to get the Prez re-elected, get the state legislature back and to bring marriage equality to Maine! I spent a few dollars for buttons & bumper stickers, too.

That's my 2 cents, and quite possibly overpriced at that!

PEACE!