Feb 24
The cartoon in the NY Post depicting two cops shooting a chimpanzee with the caption “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill” has been completely blown out of proportion by the NAACP.

I read the cartoon, published a day or two after the news incident involving a pet chimp that attacked a woman and literally ripped her face off.  The police had to shoot the animal.  I don’t normally find topics off limits as far as making fun and humor go, but sometimes, a little time needs to pass.  I thought it was way too soon to be making a joke out of this woman’s horror, she’s still hospitalized.

Then, I saw Rev. Al Sharpton all over the news talking about how that cartoon was a racial slur to Obama in that Obama wrote the stimulus, Obama is a black man and there are stereotypical depictions of black people being Simeon like, therefore the cartoon was depicting black people as monkeys.  I thought that was a big stretch.

But now, the NAACP is saying the cartoon was a call to assassinate President Obama.  I find this absurd, they are just making up some controversy now.  Apparently, neither Sharpton or the NAACP knew about the chimpanzee attack or they would have never come to this conclusion as political cartoons frequently satire current events.

I saw several cartoons, photoshopped pictures and other references to George Bush looking like, acting like, having the intelligence of a monkey.  How in the world are we going to get past some of the racial strife going on if we can’t refer to politicians as monkeys, apes, low brows and chimps if that politician happens to also be black?  White politicians don’t own acting like chimps.  Take Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele and Alberto Gonzales for example.
Feb 23

A horrible scene unfolded in Wampum, PA on Friday.  A 4 year old girl told workers at her home that she thought her mother was dead.  Police did find the mother, 8 months pregnant,  inside the house and she was dead, shot once in the head.

As the story unfolded during the day, it was discovered that an 11 year old, the son of the dead woman’s boyfriend, had conflicting stories about a strange truck he had told police was on the property that morning.  Investigators have since charged the boy with murder.   Police have not yet released the details of the shooting, but they have decided to charge the boy as an adult.

As a society, we’ve recognized the need for different laws for juveniles and adults.  An 11 year old boy, a fifth grader, is not an adult.

Feb 22

Pope Benedict is acting like he’s King of the Catholics  instead of the Pope and is making a few Cardinal enemies along his way.    Reports are that the Pope  spends his typical day meeting a few guests in the morning, having a solo lunch,  followed by the rest of the day writing speeches and reading religious materials.  Given some of his recent bishop appointments, the Pope needs to spend less time pampering himself and more time learning about the world the 1.2 billion Catholics are living in.   A senior Vatican official has reportedly said, “Our impression is that there isn’t anyone at the wheel.

Some of the pontiffs recent blunders  include revoking the excommunication of 4 ultra-conservative bishops which included Richard Williamson who denies the Holocaust and Gerhard Maria Wagner who thinks hurricane Katrina was gods way of punishing homosexuals, abortionists and prostitutes.

Feb 22

The sound is deafening.  All the whining about the next generation paying for our mistakes.  All the crying about how we need tax cuts for the rich to stimulate the economy.  All the gum flapping that is going on now, the feigned concern about debt that somehow didn’t bother them when George Bush was destroying our country’s reputation and spending our next generations health care money for his personal war in Iraq.  It’s not distant ocean sounds of mating sperm whales…it’s the Republicans.

We’ve tried the tax cut thing.  Remember?  It didn’t work.  We need ideas other than what have been pushed down our throats for the last 8 years.  That big old goose egg you laid on the Presidents desk when not one of the Republican Congress voted for the bill was entirely expected and also expected were your lame suggestions to modify the bill with, what’s that?  Further tax cuts.  What do you have to loose, you screwed up our country so severely, it will takes decades to lift us out.  And when the economy doesn’t turn right around, you’ll be posturing again, touting your outdated policies to your ignorant constituents.   Republicans had no plan on allowing Obama bipartisanship and every plan to continue the game.

Feb 22

President Barack Obama has signed the stimulus bill to help revive the U.S. economy, and hopes to cut the nations deficit in half by 2012, the end of his first term.

Republicans balk at the idea because it involves both scaling back the spending for the war in Iraq and not renewing the tax cuts that were put in by the Bush administration for those making over $250,000.

In his weekly radio address Obama said,  ”We can’t generate sustained growth without getting our deficits under control” and that his budget will be “sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don’t, and restoring fiscal discipline.”

Kentucky Senator  Mitch McConnell, (R) told CNN “I don’t think raising taxes is a great idea.”   Of course he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, Republicans seem to be fixated on getting tax cuts.

Somehow, a “small business owner” who pays himself a salary of more than $250,000 is suppose to get tax cuts.    Most  small businesses reinvest their profits, thereby adding more staff, larger office space, more equipment, and take reductions in profit as their tax break.  Republican small business owners apparently like to pay themselves a large salary, not reinvest that money in their company and then want to whine about paying a higher tax rate.  If they don’t want to pay all those taxes, why don’t they try running their businesses by growing it more and not taking all the profits in salary.  If they want to take the profits in salary, that’s great.  I applaud any small business owner who can pull off a $250,000 salary.  But they need to realize their wealth in relation to the rest of the country, and pay their taxes.