Blogs > It's Time To Take A Stand

Being a business theatre producer has allowed Brian the opportunity to meet and work with some very fascinating people from a variety of backgrounds which, in turn, has helped shape his knowledge and his opinions. His blog will not always be political, it will be about a lifetime of subjects, and nothing is off limits. “Few people have original thoughts, we are shaped by the people we know and meet” he says.



Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Blame Game

Washington is doing what it does best. Blame someone else and take no responsibility for whatever happens.

And it is not only the politicians. The media, and I mean all media, is so busy looking for whomever they can pin the latest terrorist "leg bomber" attempt on, that the extent of the blame game has lowered the level of mediocrity to sub par levels.

I don't care if you listen to Fox News, they blame President Obama for even going on vacation. On CNN, they blame former President Bush for not fixing the communication problem, after all he had 8 years. The A.C.L.U. doesn't want racial profiling. Congress is afraid to take any position. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said it didn't work and then retracted her statement. The CIA doesn't talk to the FBI, the FBI doesn't share with Homeland Security. We should rename it Homeland Insecurity.

Here is a novel idea, take a cue from Nike sports. JUST FIX IT! Quit looking for an escape goat! Quit putting tactics in place to delay travellers in America. The TSA is a joke in the U.S. but the real problem is not in this country. The "leg bomber" did not originate in this country. He boarded a plane in Nigeria and transferred in Amsterdam (without going through additional security) bound for Detroit.

Why not have bomb sniffing dogs inspect every passenger at the final boarding point before leaving for the U.S. In this case, it would have been Amsterdam and it would have stopped the "leg bomber" from getting on the airplane. And we would not need additional insecurity checks in our travel procedures and I probably would write about some other government attempt to interfere in our lives.

JUST FIX IT!

Monday, December 28, 2009

Democracy at work - NOT!

One viewing of this example of Rep. John Murtha - D-Pennsylvania and you will understand why the citizens of the U.S. have contempt for our elected officials. This type of behavior is disgusting and dispicable; more like a dictatorship than a democracy.


A total, complete and absolute abuse of power. Disrespectful to all Americans. He spits in our face and still gets re-elected. What is wrong with our values, electing someone like this in the first place and then re-electing him again and again? Are we all that blind to the truth?

He is one of the leading PORK purveyors, bringing money to Pennsylvania for self-serving projects like the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport, a $200 million contribution of taxpayer money. Offering three flights daily, all backed by stimulus money earmarked by Murtha, otherwise the airport is void of people.

For the complete story on the airport, go to:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/23/murtha.airport/index.html

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Nation welcomes Detroit political mentality!

Welcome to Detroit! The highest rate of unemployment in the country. The lowest student test scores in the country! Home of some of the most violent crimes in the country! Home of some of the most corrupt city governments in the country! Home of some of the most polarizing unions in the country! Home of the MEA that is hell bent on serving its members without regard to student impact!

And why? Why has Detroit been on this spiral of self destruction? Why is Detroit, once one of the great cities in the country, losing residents faster than any other city in America? Detroit reached its peak in the 1950s and 60s and has been on a downward slide since. Why does Detroit always seem to be in a crisis mode?

The answer is simple! Detroit residents don't learn from their mistakes. The voters of Detroit vote blindly for their self-serving leaders. Evidence is aplenty. Coleman Young - 20 years, Kwame Kilpatrick - 6 years, Carl Levin - 29 years, Debbie Stabenow - 9 years , Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick - 12 years, John Dingell - 49 years, John Conyers - 44 years, Jennifer Granholm - 6 years, all have many characteristics in common. They were re-elected in spite of their dismal self-serving Democratic Party records.

Whenever an elected official in Michigan attempts to correct the errors of the past, like former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer or current Mayor Dave Bing is trying to correct, they run into an angry citizenry. Incumbent Senators don't even take any challenges to their seats seriously. They know that if you are elected in Michigan, you will automatically have the citizens of Detroit vote for you simply by being a Democrat. It doesn't matter what you values are. It doesn't matter what your politics are.

With the current politics in Washington, now the nation is experiencing the stupidity of Detroit politics. With the Democratic controlled Senate voting for the Health Care Bill this morning, they have accepted Detroit Style politics. Vote blindly for whatever the party puts forth. Shame.

German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel said it best, "If we don’t learn our history, we’re doomed to repeat it"

Time to wake up and vote them all out in November, 2010.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

How much is your vote worth?

So what do you think your vote is worth?

If you are a private citizen, probably not much more than the satisfaction that you participated in the democratic process but if you happen to be a Senator, the ranges are from $100 million to $1 billion, depending on how corrupt you are or how low you allow your ethics to sink.

I can't believe the Senators, make that Democratic Senators only, in Washington, D.C. prostituting themselves for personal gain. They are saying that it is just the nature of politics. It is simply deal making. I contend that it is not politics as usual. This is the most vile type of behavior I have ever seen come out of our nations capital.

These guys are defecating on the entire nation. They have no shame. They lack ethics and morals. They make Tiger Woods behavior seem like that of a boy scout. Senator Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, sure pulled the wool over the eyes of the rest of the Senate. They must feel completely stupid to let him pull the coup of the century on them. Did your Senator get his millions?

Apparently Senator Nelson's abortion stand of alleged ethical proportions was just his way of extorting money from taxpayers in states other than Nebraska. He was just playing the game of "what's in it for me?"

You know that this bill is terrible when not even Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, R-Maine vote for it. They are major RINOs (Republican In Name Only). If they don't sellout, no Republican will.

So are the Republicans just playing politics. Maybe but they are committed to stopping this travesty of a bill from becoming law.

And what did our illustrious Senators from Michigan, Senators Stabenow and Levin, get for the fine citizens of Michigan. Nothing, nada, zip, zero.

Either they are just plain incompetent or in the pocket of Harry Reid and President Obama but there vote for this bill is a complete sellout. Even the unions that elected Levin are against this bill. If this bill passes, they will probably lose the most.

How do you like that change now?

Monday, December 21, 2009

Cash for Clunkers - Japanese Style


Japan 2 - USA 0.

That is about the net results of the Japanese Cash for Clunkers program designed to shutout all U.S. made vehicles.

According to the Automotive News, Japanese automakers sold 319,342 vehicles under the U.S. cash-for-clunkers program this year, almost half of the roughly 677,000 vehicles purchased. About 115,000 of those Japanese vehicles were imported.

Now Japan is running its own stimulus plan and the rules shut out all U.S.-brand vehicles.

Japan's cash for clunkers plan pays ¥250,000 ($2,778) to buyers who trade in cars that are at least 13 years old that meet Japan's 2010 emissions standards. Buyers with no trade-in get $1,111 if their purchase beats Japan's 2010 emissions standards by 15 percent or more but no U.S. vehicle qualify, according to James B. Treece of the Automotive News.

Our government representatives at work with their usual efficiency. The rules for the Japanese program were laid out more than half a year ago. Yet nobody seems to have seen this coming. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk only broached the matter when a Detroit 3 lobbying group prodded him this month, after the program was extended.

In 1995, under President Clinton, the U.S. threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Japanese luxury cars but that was just "cheap political talk" and Japan understood; the U.S. would never follow through with the threat.

We don't need the U.S. government to impose trade tariffs. We are and should be committed to free trade but it should be FREE TRADE for all countries, not just the U.S.

What we really need is for the American people to vote with their wallets. The real vote will come later in 2010.

Friday, December 18, 2009

When will enough, be enough?

Remember the Wall Street bail outs? AIG? The stimulus money given to these companies and how they used that money to give bonuses out.

We have become a society of the "here and now!" Nothing ever lasts for long. Tragedy and sometimes good news make the front page of our newspapers and headlines on TV News shows for maybe a day or two at most before they disappear into the far recesses of our attention span. Unless it is some celebrity gone bad, then it is thrown at us on every form of communications from Twitter, television, tabloids, talk shows, you name it.

Wall Street, AIG, GM, Chrysler bailouts, Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac crisis; a thing of the past. Cash for Clunkers, gone. Never to be reported on again. Wall Street bonus packages; a second or third page item. Bonuses for banks; page eight. AIG; not even mentioned lately.

The Dubai pending economic collapse news was a prime example. It came on Thanksgiving Day because they knew that the U.S. Stock Market was closed for the holidays and couldn't do their normal "knee jerk" reacting to economic news. Cooler heads would prevail and the news would be a page 4 story Monday morning. And that is exactly what has happened.

With our penchant for instant communication, we receive so much information on a daily basis from the Internet and other forms of communication; we can only process what is relevant at that moment. We mentally “filter” all information out that is not on our immediate radar screens. We have become a nation of reacting to the "now" news. We no longer act in a timely manner, we just react.

Blackberry, iPhone, Droid, Twitter, Facebook, all designed for the purpose of instant communication and gratification. The media can only focus on the events of the moment because our world is so out of control that we are just passengers on the road of life. At some point, we have to say, "Stop the insanity" and let me off.

You have executives in major companies putting off decisions because they are on information overload. Everything has to be "on the front burner" to reach an executive or it falls through the cracks.

We need to take back control and not let ourselves become what we feared the most. A society of self absorbed, media driven, attention grabbing, self-centered, what's in it for me, go for broke, to hell with everyone people who are so hell bent on gadgets that we ignore common basic human elements of communication, personal contact.

And this coming from a self professed "gadget guy."

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Supreme Court and Kwame!

The Supreme Court announced that it will take up a case involving text messaging on a company paid or co-paid device which will have a profound affect and could impact some already convicted felons.

If the Supreme Court says that individuals have a right to privacy with their texting, or should I say sexting, it could impact the case of Kwame Kilpatrick.

Remember he was convicted as a result of the sexting messages he and his chief of staff Christine Beatty sent to each other.

The Supreme Court said Monday it would rule for the first time on whether employees had a right to privacy when they sent text messages on electronic devices supplied by their employers.

Reported in the L.A. Times, the justices agreed to hear an appeal from the city of Ontario, California which was successfully sued by police Sgt. Jeff Quon and three other officers after their text messages -- some of which were sexually explicit -- were read by the police chief.

At issue is whether the chief violated their rights under the 4th Amendment, which forbids "unreasonable searches" by the government. The Supreme Court's ruling on the issue, due by June, could set new rules for the workplace in public agencies, and perhaps in private companies as well.

While the 4th Amendment applies only to the government, many judges rely on the high court's privacy rulings in deciding disputes in the private sector, legal experts say.

Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals broke ground when it ruled the officers had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their text messages. The officers had been led to believe by a supervisor that they could use their pagers for personal use, the appeals court said.

However, the city had a policy that said employees had no guarantee of privacy when they used computers, phones and other devices that were owned by the city.

The court said it would hear arguments in the case, City of Ontario vs. Quon, in the spring.

Could some of those text messages or all of them become inadmissible as evidence, I don't know, I am not a lawyer but it will be interesting, again.

Stay tuned, the saga of Kwame Kilpatrick continues.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

The impact of Tiger Woods!

With Tigers recent admission of transgressions and his announcement that he is going to take an indefinite leave from golf, I got to wondering about the impact of that decision.

First, I have to admire someone who will put his family and marriage first ahead of his living. I know he doesn't really need the money and he will lose some or all of his sponsors but the decision to try to repair his marriage is commendable. I am not saying his actions should be ignored but I am not judging Tiger because it is not our position in life to judge people. Let God do the judging, he is far more qualified than we.

But the impact of Tiger's decision to leave golf indefinitely is a major blow to the sport and the economy starting with his caddy, who is now unemployed. His agent, understandably, will lose a lot of commission , his direct employees will be evaluated as to their need, but some of the real losers are the networks. Without Tiger Woods in the mix, ratings will drop precipitously and tournament attendance will also suffer. TV crews will be downsized, tournament purses will re-evaluated and probably lowered.

Golf tournament purses have increased exponentially since Tiger turned pro. Sponsorship has increased and exposure has almost doubled. All of this will have to be re-evaluated.

But the real losers are the people who idolized Tiger. Millions of your children and adults who placed Tiger on a pedestal will now have to find a replacement. Hopefully they will select someone deserving of their worship. Maybe a police officer, a fireman, or a soldier, someone who truly perform acts of heroism daily without regard for their own safety, not sports figures making millions of dollars.

I have always appreciated that Tiger was one of the greatest golfers, took great pleasure watching him play the game and always cheered him to victory and I have always thought of him as a nice person, nothing more.

May God bless and guide Tiger.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

How to buy American this Christmas!

While we all feel good this time of year, many people are too busy to truly reflect on the reason for the season. The birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated on December 25th, but most of the month of December is taken up with trying to figure which gifts to buy for whom, when and how. That is if you are some of the fortunate Michiganians to be employed.

Statistics vary but unemployment in Michigan ranges from 15% to 20%. There is a way every citizen can help our economy. And that is to buy American, a task that is not always easy.


In his book, "How Americans can buy American" author Roger Simmermaker separates and lists companies that are American owned from companies that are foreign owned. He breaks it down by brand name, by country of origin, and by product. For those of you who don't have the time to read the book, Mr. Simmermaker has a website that you can sign up to receive weekly information about American products and companies.

I urge you to check out his website at: www.howtobuyamerican.com

Sign up for his weekly email. It is a great service that he is providing, doing all of the leg work and leaving the decision making to you, where it should be.

In a recent weekly email, Mr. Simmermaker writes, "One of the best and newest online sites I’ve discovered recently where everything is made in USA is simply named the ‘Made in USA Products Store’ and you can check them out at www.MadeInUSAProductsStore.com."

For those of you who want to buy Michigan products, you can research some products at: www.buymichiganproducts.com

This year in particular will be difficult for many Michigan families and a little wise shopping could go a long way. It is not the remedy for all that ails Michigan, but we have to start somewhere. We need to limit our foreign buying and attempt to buy American. Merry Christmas to all.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Setting priorities!

According to the legend, while Rome burned, Nero fiddled!

Our members of Congress are much like Nero while the U.S. is at war, our economy is in shambles, the educational system is in turmoil, health care needs true reforming, and we have an alleged man-made global warming hoax members of our Congress are determined to continue to waste money in new and creative ways.

Now, they want to hold Congressional hearings about the State Dinner party crashers and reality TV wannabes Tareq and Michaele Salahi for walking into the White House dinner right past security. Congress continues to get involved in ridiculous hearings and interfere where they should stay clear.

The director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, has agreed to testify but White House social secretary Desiree Rogers has indicated she will not. Rogers told The Associated Press last week that no one from her office was at the checkpoint through which the Salahis entered to help the Secret Service figure out who was and wasn't on the guest list.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, Homeland Security chairman, wants to have a panel look into the event. A panel in D.C. usually means beaucoup bucks wasted.

This is a Secret Service security issue, not a Congressional issue. If anyone should get their hands slapped, it is the Secret Service. They screwed up! Period!

Doesn't anybody in Washington ever accept responsibility? No, they would rather point fingers because they know that finger pointing is the most effective tool politicians have in their arsenal!

I have an idea, let's blame Canada, afterall they give us all the bad weather!

Time to put the fiddle down and get to work on real issues!