Obama's Healing America by Kurt Garrett

Framing Peace

I am proud of our President's leadership and the Tucson memorial service highlights his character. Now it all makes sense...why he didn't throw stone for stone when any ordinary person would have if 'openly' disrespected as he has been. His foresight, patience and composure during his presidency allowed him to stand and lead this country 'objectively' to a better discourse on things we disagree on. I am committed to following his example. Link: Full Tucson Speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztbJmXQDIGA

Glowing Nuclear Waste by Kurt Garrett

 Security of various types is being employed by a consortium of countries moving nuclear waste to secure storage sites. Meanwhile, they must ensure the nuclear waste stays out of the hands of villains who could misuse it, the worse of which might be to build nuclear weapons.  The recent transport of nuclear waste across Europe is being protested by some organizations and is dangerously attractive to criminal minded factions. Seeing the infrared images reminds us of how scary nuclear materials can be even when properly stored. See related story link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/pictures/110119-nuclear-waste-train-castor-antinuclear-protest-germany-power-energy-pictures/?source=link_tw20110127news-train

Dissecting Giffords' Words: Part I by Kurt Garrett

Giffords in her own words

 

The 4.55 minute video interview of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on MSNBC after her Tucson Office was vandalized was a cry for help and a warning that was ignored or even chided by some as politicizing a random act. The MSNBC interview highlights Rep. Giffords' willingness to state her concerns with straight-forwardness and her courage should cause pause in the present tone of partisan politics. Dissecting her interview gives us insight into her feelings about her own safety and the need to redirect the volatile rhetoric spewing onto the already heated issues of the day. 

MSNBC Interview 4.55 min. Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7046bo92a4), 

Without the interview prompts listen to what Rep. Giffords says:


1. "...sometime after the healthcare vote between midnight and 2am...  the front door of the office... had been kicked out, shot out or just basically destroyed, we don't know."


2." ...the coincidence of this happening is fairly likely...whether it was a direct effect...we weren't there."


3. "...you know I'm, I'm not" [afraid]


4. "...we have had hundreds and hundreds of protesters over the course of the last several months..."


5. "...our office corner has really become a place where the Tea Party movement congregates..."


6. "...and the rhetoric is incredible heated...not just the calls, but the emails the slurs...so things have really gotten spun up."


Ask yourself a few questions:


a. Was Rep. Giffords afraid?
b. Were her words a cry for help?
c. Did she feel targeted?
d. Can we learn from other similar communications about threats that translate into physical damages?


Stay tuned for Dissectin Giffords' Words: Part II

BANKS CHEATED MANY AMERICANS…AND STILL CHEAT!? by Kurt Garrett

We are still playing around with the question.

 

There's plenty of blame to go around for the mess we're in. So if there is a remedy, let's make sure the remedy gets spread around, too. Such is not the case typically when banks are involved; I mean, they might get money to help but Joe E. General Public may never see any benefit. For example, to my childish dismay, banks generally slithered into grey-areas of self-beneficence from 2008 bailout money totaling $45B. Precisely, they took TARP funds that were 'verbally' directed to "loosen lending on Main Street" and bought investments for their portfolio leaving Main Street choking from lack of cash. So who’s hurting? Below is a list of sentiments from neighbors that are less partisan and more focused on the commonly shared problems still caused by the malicious practices of some lenders. Any wonder who’s hurting now?

 

A few comments taken from LINK: http://business.newsvine.com/_news/2011/01/17/5858896-no-2-bank-overcharged-troops-on-mortgages.

William J. Brock
Some treasonous twitch in Chase made the decision to overcharge. How gutless can a person be to screw our troops when they halfway around the world, fighting for the rights of all freedom loving people, including this treasonous twitch? Find the guy responsible, bring him to trial, and have his ass executed.
First BofA, now Chase. The evidence that banks were involved in outright, premeditated theft is mounting. Every employee who followed illegal orders needs to resign or be jailed. Remember that ignorance of the law is no excuse. If we threw them all in jail, we would solve the unemployment problem through replacements and the need for additional jailers!
see? The banks are standing in the way of recovery.
• 119 votes
#1 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:32 AM EST
William J. Brock
Let's also not forget that this is the very same bank that conspired to drive our country ionto this worst recession of all time. They did it by forcing oil prices through the roof. It's time to bring down this monster before it owns the very pockets it has robbed!
• 86 votes
#1.1 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:37 AM EST
Optomyst
They were charging 9 or 10% three years ago? Does this sounds right to you?
• 45 votes
#1.2 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:44 AM EST
Ranger S
When will we stop settling for these "inadvertant" mistakes as acceptable excuses? When will we start holding these banks accountable? When does this become a criminal issue? Whatever happened to misfeasance and malfeasance of responsibility in a fiduciary capacity?
Amazing how incompetence abounds at these banks......sounds kind of like congress!
• 88 votes
#1.3 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 8:46 AM EST
David Walker
Do not imagine these are isolated incidents. I would love to hear stories from activist posters here, who have gone to their Senators and/or Congressman detailing abuses, and there are many. Yet time and time again, information that should - at the very least - end these abuses, is ignored.
I notified my Congressman of constant collections phone calls. I get them at all hours on a cell number that once belonged to the person these jerks are trying to contact. (This is illegal.) I had every bit of information the office needed to stop this practice. Would the Congressman like this information? Well, not right now, but they'd get back. Well, of course. Doesn't that make sense? We'll wait, rather than solve this right now.
This Congressman - Huelskamp from Kansas - has, on his web site, the petition we can sign if we want Health Care Reform repealed. Anyone with even a first-grade knowledge of civics knows repeal is not going to happen. Yet, Huelskamp fuels the fire of ignorance. But, do his job? Stop law breakers? Hell, no.
This is the problem folks. Fraud, waste, abuse, rampant lawbreaking!!!! It's going on each and every day, and even with a road map, even when you connect the dots for these clowns, they do nothing about it.
• 83 votes
#1.4 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:10 AM EST
Beth-440386
David -- there are issues were we do not agree. This is NOT one of them! Nice post and, unfortunately, too true.
• 17 votes
#1.5 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:12 AM EST
Nicey-1026620
Wait, wait...let's hear about the free market reasoning on why they had to do this....
Surely, they must have been forced in someway..../sarc
• 29 votes
#1.6 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:49 AM EST
Indigogal
Wait, wait....you're expecting the banks to be FAIR and HONEST and treat everyone equally??? Waaaa hahahahaha.....oh, oh, that's a good one....I needed a good laugh. Those corrupt monsters have no heart or soul....give me a break. AND they are running the economy and its going just the way they want.....this is such a surprise? Simon La Greed is alive and well.
• 50 votes
#1.7 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:02 AM EST
Donna-367223
WOW - some things will never change. It is all about GREED!!!!!!! Chase Bank needs to fix this ASAP and I for one will not do business with Chase.
• 43 votes
#1.8 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:38 AM EST
GuyLittle
I hope this doesn't interfere with the bonuses the people in charge receive.!!
• 32 votes
#1.9 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:45 AM EST
Tony Helland
Jesus folks U all act like this is something new!!! the service men and women have been screwed over for years!!!! It was like that when I was in, back in '73' and it was like that before!!!! It didn't matter ....housing U paid more, U bought a TV or furniture U paid more!!!! U bought a car only certain banks would finance U and for that U paid more!!!!
Hell in some towns U couldn't live in certain neighborhoods!!! U were treated like second class citezens......don't believe me??? go to any military town and see how they treat the armed forces!!!!
All banks and lending institutions discriminate
• 30 votes
#1.10 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:53 AM EST
Allison Shaw
Voters need to start harassing their elected congresspeople to 1. pass legislation protecting consumers from these coercive and fraudulent activities that the banks are engaged in, 2. enforcing the federal racketeering laws on the books (and racketeering is exactly what the banks are guilty of), 3. enflorce the Anti-Trust laws and break these megabanks up, and 4. turn the Justice Dept loose on these banks from the CEO's right on down to the employees handling the transactions and ignoring the consumers' phone calls.
William J Brock is correct...ignorance of the law is no excuse. The problem is they aren't ignorant of it so much as they are completely ignoring it. And they can ignore it because our lawmakers are letting them get away with it. And while we're at it, let's see if we can't get rid of Tim Geitner as well. He's part of this same bunch of corporate sharks that are striooing our country for all they can get and the hell with the working folks.
• 25 votes
#1.11 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:56 AM EST
rock-760945
Lets also not forget where William Daly (Obama's new white house chief of staff worked as a Vice President... all the dots and crossed t's point to one thing: there is zero difference in political parties, just an exchange of those in favor among the elites. Like Tunisia, we should throw ALL the bums out.
• 29 votes
#1.12 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:57 AM EST
Shugga-Shugga
GREED!
Rake in the money for their overpaid salaries and bonuses and screw over the people once again.
They are all crooks.
• 31 votes
#1.13 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:58 AM EST
cmon-864012
the next time chase has a board meeting, while all the scum is in one place, kick in the door and send them all to prison. I'm sure we can lose them in the system long enough for bubba to have his way with them.
• 25 votes
#1.14 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:20 AM EST
mike-2704291
Just like CONGRESS,...No accountability at ALL!...And the iceing on the cake is,...Most of these Men & Woman have been doing"MULTIPLE TOURS"
I'll Re-iterate,.... WHY don't ALL these disgruntled "KILLERS" target,..BANKERS & LOBBYISTs?........I'll be Cheering!
• 14 votes
#1.15 - Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:29 AM EST

Obama: An Authentic Voice by Kurt A. Garrett

Tucson memorial Wednesday 1/12/11

The Tucson tragedy ignited flammable feelings, approaching at times near spontaneous combustion, about the direction and future of America. After two years of rigorous campaigning, Gabrielle Gifford won again her seat in the Congress.  Congresswoman Gifford’s appeal to tone out rhetoric and partisanship was featured last year on MSNBC and today reads like a prophetic warning. See link to video in parentheses. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36033690#36033690). Even with the daily solemn updates by physicians about her struggling to stay alive, her message has not been enough to stop yet another wave of contention, this time about the motives of Jared Loughner.  Almost immediately following the shooting, discord spread virally in all directions via cable television, radio, Twitter, Facebook and numerous other media outlets. Tucson became like the epicenter of a threatening earthquake. Tucson and the nation needed a unifier to bridge the bickering and who better that the US President. President Obama was uniquely suited for the job; he is the picture of tolerance and dignity. Unmoved by personal attack and provocation, his thoughtful calm and cool demeanor makes it possible for us to believe his message of civility and service. President Obama's Tucson memorial message link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEiitkI2WH0.

Boeher’s Competitiveness by Kurt Garrett

Is she competitive?

The following statement is reported from HUFFINTON POST (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/09/jared-loughner-youtube-videos-_n_806370.html). The final statement is reminiscent of language used by House Speaker John Boehner. Congressman Boehner describes America as a competitive landscape and “those who choose not to compete” should not receive “help” from government resources.   I believe Speaker Boehner is setting the course for a new direction for social thinking and I am surprised that American Renaissance uses the same language. Competitiveness in both cases is arguably a code word for conservative-conformance and white supremacy.  If this is true, then it is divisive and inflammatory. 

American Renaissance is opposed to the entry of non-whites into the United States and supports Arizona's SB 1070 immigration law, which was criticized as racist and challenged by the Obama Justice Department. In an introduction to readers when the magazine was started in 1990, the publication wrote that "blacks and Hispanics are, compared to whites, far more likely to be poor, illiterate, on welfare, or in jail; they are far more likely to have illegitimate children, be addicted to drugs, or have AIDS. By no definition of international competitiveness can the presence of these populations be anything but a disadvantage."