Who’s Killing The Newspapers?

With many newspaper companies closing their doors, it makes one wonder what will happen to our society.

Because it is newspapers that normally make the national news because of their investigations. Most local TV news stations, or even CNN, do not bother with investigative journalism much. They do reaction coverage of events as they unfold, but it’s usually the newspaper reporter who digs in the mud to uncover corruption.

And while many newspapers are finding a home on the Internet, for many it has become too little, too late to do so. Many newspapers did not embrace the power of the Web and now they are paying a heavy price for it.

But the Web cannot be the sole murderer of your friendly, neighborhood newspaper. A bigger co-conspirator is society itself. Many people polled from different surveys claim that they do not have the “time” to pick up a newspaper and would not care if their local daily or weekly folds.

It’s interesting that for a society that does not have “time” to pick up a newspaper or just log onto their local newspaper’s Web site that many people do find the time to text-message their friends, download some new songs or engrossed themselves with mind-numbing reality TV.

And while the Web is an excellent tool for newspapers, sadly, it does not have that “in-your-face” presence that newspapers have when they are found in your local Wawa or on the street corners.

So, when the last newspaper publishes and corruption from politicians goes unnoticed but its effects are felt, just remember that it was society that put the American watchdog to sleep.

Not Sure Who To Vote For?

This editorial is dedicated to Violet Pinto, my grandmother. She suffered a major heart attack and stroke last week, but according to her doctor yesterday, she’s making very good progress. My 88-year-old grandmother is a Democrat, but it’s from her long conversations about politics with me that have shaped my objectivity of America’s political parties. While a lifelong Democrat, she has always been the first one to call them on any political gaffes, shenanigans, or any other dirty handed deed that they have done. And she’s certainly has given an equal blasting at Republicans for doing the same things. This country would be in far better shape if we had more people like her.


Get well soon Grandmum.

The 2008 presidential election is coming to a close and there is much anticipation about the voting results.

And while many voters have already decided which major candidate they will be voting for, many undecided voters are still scratching their heads over which one to choose: Republican Presidential Candidate Sen. John McCain or his political rival, Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Barack Obama.

The die-hard staff of these candidates have been working hard to cater to undecided voters by giving them pamphlets of information about the candidates and telling them which pro-candidate Web sites they should go to for more information.

And while their intentions are honorable, the information that the supporters are giving out about their candidates are biased, dishonest and/or deceitful.

Most of the information and Web sites do not go into great detail about how the candidates plan to get the money to help fund a lot of the spending that they plan on doing, as one example. And let’s not go into how both Obama and McCain have been less than honest with the American public in their attack ads against each other.

Thankfully, there are many Web sites out there that give unbiased information on McCain and Obama. Hopefully, undecided voters will find the following Web sites useful in deciding which candidate will be the best one to lead our great nation.

And always remember this: An informed voter who gets his or her information from objective sources is far more powerful than the voter who only relies on political bias and sound bytes from the candidates.

www.ontheissues.org

www.factcheck.org

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/

www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/candidate-match-game.htm

www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html

www.votebyissue.org/election2008/

Campaign Ads Discredits
‘Change’ Slogan

For months we have heard Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama saying he is for change for this country. He says that he is not the same as other candidates or politicians in Washington.

And his Republican counterpart, John McCain, has joined the change bandwagon for a while now. After eight years of the Bush Administration, many Americans are not happy where this country is heading and McCain wants to make it clear that he’s not part of the Washington “same old, same old,” group. While he does have a reputation for being a maverick, he has been in Washington for a good number of years too.

But with Obama and McCain trying to desperately convince voters that they are the change this country needs, their actions do not reflect this. Their campaign ads towards each other are just as dirty and underhanded as the countless ones we have seen before in previous election years.

Is this the best our alleged leaders can do? Trash talk about their opponents as if they were running for an elementary school student body election? Can you imagine if you walked into a professional office meeting as a supervisor and start putting down your competitor without offers any real solutions on fixing your company’s product? Any respectable CEO would not allow that type of worker as a supervisor and we should not allow these candidates to act this way either.



But the only way to do that is to stop with the political bias that is so strong with Democratic and Republican supporters. Sure, it’s fine to have party loyalty, but it should not get in the way of fixing the problems that this nation is facing.

And McCain and Obama are their leaders. They should be leading by example, by showing ads and giving speeches that explain in detail how their plans will work and how they will actually change this country for the better. But instead, just like an elementary school student body election, this presidential election, much like others in the past, is very much like a popularity contest.



But let’s be realistic. Many supporters from both parties are too blinded by their candidates to care about the details of fixing this country. For them, a 2-minute sound byte from the local news report is good enough for them and the candidates know this. Essentially, getting elected to be president is as cheap and easy as a McDonald’s ad: Give the people what they think they want in the fastest, simplest way possible.

Which is why it cannot be stressed enough that all voters, regardless of their party affiliation, must demand from their respected candidates to offer the American people something more than a cheap car sale slogan. Yes, researching the candidates’ voting records and any bills they created or sponsored is great and using nonpartisan Web sites is fantastic. But the candidates are making us work too hard to do the job that they are supposed to be doing.

But sadly, this is not how the game is played.

If this is how the game is played in order to win an election, then there is something severely wrong with not only the political process, but also us, the voters, who seem to either tolerate it or are too much in awe of these candidates to care.

Olympics Sets The Stage For Tragedy

The Olympics give us a rare opportunity for the world to come together and watch the achievements of athletes who win by pushing themselves beyond their endurance.

However, the Olympics unwillingly place world events on a stage to be speculated and ridiculed. When China was awarded to host the 2008 Olympics, its atrocious human rights record gained more attention than what government officials wanted.

These limitations were further magnified when it was reported that the freedoms that China promised to international journalists were severely tighten and restricted.

Certainly not something that should surprise too many. If a communist country cares little for its own people, why should they care about foreign visitors?

But the most recent event that was calculatingly placed on the Olympic world stage is the current conflict between Georgia and Russia, with South Ossetia sandwiched in the middle.

While the Olympics is one of the few events that can draw many diverse nations and people together to make them cheer together in the glory of winning and share a moment of sorrow in defeat, the Olympics, in a unique way, also brought many together to bear a tearful witness of the tragedy of the loss of people in South Osseria or the loss of a people’s freedoms in China.

Because these two events have, in a horrific fashion, been place on the same stage where people competing for gold metals for impressive achievements of the human body, this murdering of decency forced us all to take notice of them and not be able to turn away.

While these things should not intrude on the Olympics, nonetheless they have and we should not turn a blind eye. This would be a good time for the world to truly unite together to better help our fellow men and women of these injustices. The accomplishment in this would be worth more than a million gold metals.

Can Edwards Recover
From Affair Scandal?

Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards’ dreams of being Barack Obama’s vice president are shattered after he admitted to having an affair with 44-year-old novice filmmaker Rielle Hunter, reported ABC News today.

It has been speculated that meetings with Obama and then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a few months back after dropping out of the race that Edwards would be their choice for vice president. That speculation was further fueled when Edwards endorsed Obama this past May.

While Edwards’ experience in the Senate and in politics in general would have made him a very attractive candidate for the VP position, having an affair on his terminally ill wife would turn down even the most morally challenged politician. Granted, Edwards told ABC News that his wife’s cancer was in remission during his affair, but that isn’t how some people are going to see the 2006 fling.

And when the National Enquirer first reported on this recently, it was reported that Edwards fathered a child with Hunter, but Edwards’ former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has stated that he is the baby’s father.

Now, what does this really mean for Edwards’ political career? It will hurt him, but he can recover from it like Bill Clinton. Clinton had numerous alleged affairs, not including the Monica Lewinsky one, and he’s approval ratings were still quite good. America still loved him.

With Edwards background of helping the lower class and the poor, he is basically a media darling in that regard. Whatever political faults he may have, Edwards’ heart is in the right place when it comes to people in need. Many might easily forgive Edwards for his affair and say he was under stress of losing his wife Elizabeth before hand. Some might see that as a “noble” and understanding cause of running into another woman’s arms.

By no means is this an excuse for Edwards to cheat on his wife, but merely how some will see it. Besides, Edwards is no Eliot Spitzer, the former New York Democratic governor who was caught with a call girl earlier this year.

However, there seems to be more to this than meets the eye. Hunter, who was hired in 2006 to film campaign videos for Edwards, had been living under false names while she was pregnant and lived in expensive homes in North Carolina and California, according to ABC News. Her baby girl was born on Feb. 27 of this year.

And Edwards claimed that he has not paid any money to keep Hunter silent about their affair, “but said it was possible some of his friends or supporters may have made payments without telling him,” ABC News reported Edwards as saying, a former North Carolina senator.

(Editor's note: It an updated story, ABC News has reported that Edwards' 2008 national finance chairman Fred Baron stated that he gave "assistance" to Hunter without the former senator's knowledge, according to an e-mail sent by him to the news network late on Friday.)

And Edwards also told ABC News that he did not tell his wife of the famous Beverly Hills Hilton meeting with Hunter last month.

It is only a matter of time before the whole truth comes out. Edwards just has to take his medicine that the media onslaught and his wife will give him before he even considers entering politics again.

McCain’s Sleazy Campaign Ads

Recently, Paris Hilton created her own ad to counterattack presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s ad that compared the heiress and celebrity with his political foe.

Yes, McCain has launched some sleazy ads against his Democratic presumed presidential counterpart, Barack Obama. Because of certain things that Obama has said, McCain had campaign ads that linked the Illinois Senator with airhead celebrities or is the next political Messiah.

And yes, these campaign ads are sleazy and tactless. Sadly, they do not begin and end with John McCain. All politicians from both sides of the political aisle enjoy launching their attack ads at their opponents.

But who is it really for? Are these ads for die-hard political supporters with their rose-colored glasses locked on? It’s only these people who usually eat up these ads, but where does it leave the rest of us who are looking beyond these political shenanigans and want real substance from the people who want to be our next president?

People like us would rather have McCain and Obama spend their money more wisely by telling us what their plans are for this country with its crumbling economy and facing a global terror war. But instead, they would rather childishly criticize each other than offer real solutions to the problems we face.

And the real sad part is that Paris Hilton made more sense in her mock campaign ad than either McCain or Obama in their attempts to fix the oil crisis.

Paris Hilton For President - Wait What?!!

But no, that does not appear to be what these candidates are after. As one reader told me in the last presidential election while I was an editor of a newspaper, “It seems as if the candidates spend more time telling us how bad the other guy is.”

And that’s exactly right. Last week we had Obama falsely accusing McCain and President Bush of planning on using racial scare tactics and offered no real proof of them doing it. And McCain has been telling us that a star-struck Obama would not make a good president.

If candidates are unwilling to give voters more informative campaign ads that tell us how they are going to make their plans work for Americans, than at the very least, stop with the tasteless attack ads. By doing so, these candidates insult our intelligence.

NY Times Attacks McCain
For Defending Himself

I want to say this burns my bacon, but to be honest, it explodes it.

The New York Times’ editorial board wrote an opinion piece about Barack Obama accusing John McCain and President Bush of using or planning on using racial scare tactics. But while many would think that they would go after Obama, they instead attack John McCain for firing back at Obama’s false accusations.

First, they claim that McCain’s attack ad of comparing Obama with drunken celebrity Britney Spears was a “racially tinged attack” on the Illinois senator. How they make this great leap of illogic, The New York Times makes a weak case for it.

While there has been no real evidence that McCain has or will use race against Obama, The New York Times decides to paint him guilty of racial attacks anyway by associating the Arizona senator with a few dirty Republicans who allegedly used a racial attack on black Senator candidate Harold Ford in Tennessee in 2006. The ads against Ford “juxtaposed” him with white women, according to The New York Times.

However, the only ad that I could find that’s against Ford isn’t a racial attack at all and it’s still a weak comparison with McCain’s ad, because if you’re going to sleazily compare a presidential candidate with an airhead celebrity, who better than Britney Spears? It seems like a good case of The New York Times seeing things that aren’t there.

Is John McCain's political ad a racial attack against Obama? The New York Times seems to think so.

And instead of attacking Obama for his obvious and false racial assault on not only McCain but President Bush, The New York Times goes after McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis when he defensively said, “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck.”

Now, it’s interesting that The New York Times doesn’t have a problem with, “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills,” but they’re having kittens over what Davis said.

Because according to The New York Times, Davis’ statement conjures up a “loaded racial image” of Robert Shapiro during the famous O.J. Simpson murder case when he said, “Not only did we play the race card, we dealt it from the bottom of the deck.”

But isn’t that what Obama did? He blatantly played that card and it was from the bottom of the deck because it was a low thing to do to accuse our nation’s president and another politician of using racial scare tactics and don’t offer any solid proof.

The New York Times not only kicked John McCain when he was down after being falsely accused of being a racist by his political opponent, but they stomped on him for trying to defend himself from Obama’s baseless attacks.

It’s bad enough that they turn a blind eye against Obama’s despicable statements, but they also made a feeble argument that McCain will use racial attacks simply because he is guilty by association because of what fellow Republicans allegedly did in Tennessee.

This sadly certainly gives credence to what many McCain supporters have been saying about Obama: He’s a Teflon candidate that the media simply loves too much to be objective with.

But more importantly, The New York Times just destroyed its own credibility when they attacked the victim and not the attacker.

Breaking Their Sons’ Hearts

There are many monsters in this world, but one of the cruelest are parents who disregard their children for profit.

That is what happened when Brits John and Anne Darwin faked John’s “death” in a staged canoeing accident in 2002 in order to collect his insurance and pension in order to clear some debts, according to the Associated Press.

While their two sons mourned for the loss of their father, their mother did such a wonderful performance of a grieving widow that her sons were completely fooled by her.

But sorrow turned to joyous celebration when their father “showed up” in 2007 with amnesia, but unlike the typical soap opera drama, it turns out that John Darwin’s memory problem was as fake as his “death”. It discovered that he had been secretly been living with his wife and the two were planning a trip to Latin America to start a new life.

Who knows how these two deplorable parents were going to break the news to their children if their Latin American plan succeeded.

While John and Anne Darwin are going to be serving jail time, they will be losing much more than six years of their lives in prison. They lost the love of their own flesh and blood.

“They have tarnished all the good times that came before. I can't ever forgive them for putting us through the torture of mourning,” said son Andrew Darwin. “They were in it together and they deserve the sentences handed down by the judge.”

We do not get a lot of time in this world. People commit crimes for various reasons but when a man fakes his own death and cause such heartache and anguish to his own children just to clear off debt that he could have honestly worked off shows how selfish some people are.

John Darwin spent five years hiding in a small room in an apartment, most likely hearing praiseworthy words from his own grown sons while they visited their “grief-stricken” mother.

Now he and his wife will most likely never hear anything from their own sons for the rest of their lives. After all, how can one forgive a heartless parent like that?

What makes it even more tragic for Mark and Anthony Darwin is that this time they lost both of their parents by choice: By disowning them.

Obama Tells Blacks
To Be More Responsible

Just like comedian Bill Cosby and Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington, presumed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is telling black Americans to be more responsible for themselves at the annual NAACP convention.

And this is why the Rev. Jesse Jackson said that he wanted to cut off Obama’s male anatomy. But these are some hard truths that need to be heard, especially coming from a black presidential candidate who is trying to bridge the racial divide in this country.

And Obama is one out of many shining examples of a minority working hard to get where he or she is at.

And working hard is a key thing, because if black Americans do not pull themselves by their bootstraps than no amount of government programs will help them.

“Because I believe that in the end, it doesn’t matter how much money we invest in our communities, or how many 10-point plans we propose, or how many government programs we launch — none of it will make any difference if we don’t seize more responsibility in our own lives,” Obama said, as reported by the Associated Press.

This is great advice for all Americans and things that needed to be heard. Because even the most well-intentioned white man who said these same things would unjustly be called a racist and quickly ignored. Obama is wisely using his presidential political status to good use. Maybe if Jackson took more initiative like this years ago, the black community would be in a better place than it is today.

It cannot be denied that white Americans for far too long have kept the black man down, but since the Civil Rights Act was created, many whites have worked hard to correct the evil that their kind have done against their fellow Americans. Sadly, many whites still do not see blacks as equal or deserving of basic rights that all Americans should have and enjoy.

Yet, Obama is at least trying hard to correct past mistakes made by some in the black community. He is certainly a new member of a growing choir conducted by Cosby.

If elected president, Obama would force many whites to look differently at blacks and it would force many black Americans to look differently at themselves.

Oversensitivity Over Race
Will Cause More Problems

It’s another case that our society is going to hell in a hand basket because of oversensitive people.

By now most of you have heard that in Dallas County, Texas, white Commissioner Kenneth Mayfield said, “It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole.”

Right after Mayfield said this at the Monday county commissioners’ meeting black Commissioner John Wiley Price shot back “white hole” and a black county official wanted an apology.

“So if it’s ‘angel food cake,’ it’s white. If it’s ‘devil’s food cake,’ it’s black. If you’re the ‘black sheep of the family,’ then you gotta be bad, you know. ‘White sheep,’ you’re okay. You know?” Price said later in a FOX News interview.

As most rational people know, a black hole is an astronomy term to describe a hole that allegedly sucks in matter and nothing can escape from it, not even light.

But Price and others have become too oversensitive to racial terms like this. And Mayfield rightly shouted back at the black official who wanted an apology for using the term.

Too much sensitivity is going to blow up in our collective faces. It’s like the popular scenario where a jealous girlfriend will accuse her faithful boyfriend of cheating on her repeatedly. The boyfriend gets tired of the accusations and starts to think to himself, “Well, if she thinks I’m cheating on her, I might as well.”

The same thing will happen to non-racist white people. If a white man is going to be accused of being a racist and a member of the KKK because he honestly used a common term like “black hole,” than he’s going to start thinking negatively about black people. It’s doubtful that this example white man will join the KKK for being falsely accused of being a racist, but those negative seeds have been planted.

Granted, many black people have become a bit unhinged in a sense because of the horrible misdeeds of many white people. That’s certainly understandable. But that does not give them the right to wrongfully call a white man a racist for using a common term.

It’s a shame that our society has become so sensitive to general terms that people have to start censoring themselves so they won’t offend anyone. The fact is, people will always be offended over something that is unintentional.

We should not bend over and edit ourselves for anyone who dissects every single word to see if there is some racial undertone to it. We are all adults and it’s time to stop acting like children or the racial divide in this country will just get wider.

Losing Our Way

What does it say about our society that we turn a blind eye or just stand by and watch by the sidelines as another fellow human being is in the middle of the street, after being hit by a car?

Sadly, this isn’t a hypothetical question. Angel Arce Torres was crossing a busy street in Hartford, Conn., where one car swerved to miss him, but a second car behind the first one hit the 78-year-old man and kept going.

But what has gotten Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts so upset was how bystanders walked by and just stood there; gawking at the elderly man as he lay unconscious in the middle of the street. Other cars swerved from running over him and kept going their merry way. Thankfully, police say there were four 911 calls. Torres is listed in critical condition.

(Editor's Note: The following is a video of the accident, released by the Hartford Police Department. Some may find it disturbing to watch, so please use your own discretion. It's advised that young children should not watch the following.)

It’s despicable how a driver can hit anyone, let alone an elderly man, and keep on going. Torres was like a rag doll, tumbling head over feet when the car hit him, and at one point the car carried Torres several feet.

But how can anyone on the sidewalk or other drivers just stand there as precious time ticks away before a police car arrives at the scene, a whole 67 seconds after the accident?

Granted, it has been said that no one should move a person who has been in an accident for fear of causing further harm and to wait for trained medical personnel. But these people just stood there and gaped at him, as if they expected Torres to get up and start walking again. Cars passed by him and one person in an SUV parked to the side of the road right after the accident, but then drove off.

Fortunately, there were quick-thinking citizens who took action and called for help. The others could have stopped traffic to ensure that Torres wouldn’t get hit by another car.

They say that actions speak louder than words. However, these peoples’ inaction is deafening. It’s time that as a society that we start caring for each other and reach out with a helping hand when we can.

We simply cannot sit by anymore and watch another fellow human being suffer and hope someone else does the right thing.

No Matter Who We Are …

The recent news wires are reporting that more than 12,000 people have died as a result of China’s 7.9-magnitude earthquake, while 18,645 are buried under fallen buildings and debris.

Many more are missing and feared dead, especially school children caught in the destructive force that has shattered homes and destroyed families.

Just days ago, the people of Myanmar were caught in another of nature’s devastating forces in the form of a cyclone, which has left 34,273 dead and 27,838 missing.

Both of these cataclysms have resulted in children becoming orphans, wives into widowers and husbands losing their beloved spouses and parents who have become childless.

Too many times tragedies at this biblical scale have a way of making people realize how much the same we all are. Thousands of miles away, we can feel the sorrow and the pain of those caught in the destruction that has gripped China and Myanmar.

And despite political and cultural differences, generous people and nations look past these differences and see their fellow humans in need of great help and donate what they can.

Former President Ronald Reagan once said that if there was a huge threat to the Earth, her children would reunite and conquer the threat. Why do we have to wait for such a threat for us to come together once and for all when disasters like these should be doing this?

When we can place ourselves in the situations that these tragedy-stricken people have found themselves in and feel their anguish and despair, then that should be the first step towards unity.

NY Times Exposes Bush Administration, Networks’ Secret Shame

According to a New York Times investigative story, the Bush Administration had retired generals and other former military leaders try to sell the war as “analysts” to news networks during the buildup of the Iraq war and afterwards.

“Many analysts strongly denied that they had either been co-opted or had allowed outside business interests to affect their on-air comments, and some have used their platforms to criticize the conduct of the war,” The New York Times wrote on April 20, 2008.

The Pentagon said it was laughable that they could make retired military men into puppets and that they only provided these men with factual information to give to the American public.

But The New York Times’ article painted a very different picture by using 8,000 pages of e-mails and other documents it had obtain after suing the Department of Defense. These materials contained Pentagon talking points operations, private meetings and trips to Iraq, among other places. According to these documents, the Pentagon referred to these analysts, some of whom were being paid a nice sum of money per interview by the news networks, as “message force multipliers.” This certainly doesn’t sound like a friendly term to refer to messengers of “factual information.”

In fact, some of these military men weren’t comfortable with the messages they were delivering, but didn’t say anything for fear of losing access to important briefing information.

And what is worse is that some of these networks, according to The New York Times, knew about the relationship between these military men and the government and didn’t report it to the viewers.

“…other analysts said their network handlers also raised no objections when the Defense Department began paying their commercial airfare for Pentagon-sponsored trips to Iraq — a clear ethical violation for most news organizations,” according to The New York Times.

It was reported that some of the other networks didn’t know about the dubious relationships between their analysts and the Bush Administration.

But since The New York Times has let the cat out of the bag, hardly any of the networks reported their shame, according to a recent Editor & Publisher article.

The networks who did not know they were being shammed should get a small pass from criticism and should work harder to prevent any conflicts from happening. To the other networks that went along with this disgusting display of a huge lack of media ethics, shame on them. They failed in their job of being objective and truthful, and more importantly, being the watch dogs of the government.

There was no need to sell the idea to the American public that we needed to go into Iraq to find out what was going on after years of broken resolutions by Saddam Hussein, as it has been written before in The Times Observer.

And the Bush Administration isn’t the first one to use propaganda to push a war effort to the American people. However, it shouldn’t be an accepted practice by the American public. We deserve truth and accountability from our leaders, especially from our elected president.

PETA Going Ape Over Aflac Commercial

That zany group the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is upset because the health and life insurance company Aflac used an orangutan in one of its commercials, as reported by the Columbus, Ga., newspaper the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

PETA shot off wild accusations that implied the orangutan used in the Aflac commercial could be one of many apes in the entertainment industry that can only be taught through dominance, beatings and electrical shocks.

As Maj. T.J. “King” Kong would say, “Shoot, a fellah could have a pretty good weekend in Vegas with all that stuff.”

PETA practically said they weren’t sure if the orangutan used in the commercial was harmed, since they didn’t know which agency the animal came from. And Aflac pointed out that not only was the unnamed agency had a great reputation with working with all types of animals, but a member of the Humane Society was on the set at all times to ensure the hairy little entertainer was cared for.

PETA said that there were a few thousand complaints sent to Aflac and is urging the insurance company to pull the ad and to never use the little walking carpets in commercials again. But maybe Aflac can find a better use for orangutans in general by donating them to cancer research labs as experiments to benefit humans.

What? You think PETA would object to having orangutans be used to see if new cancer drugs actually work? Sure they would, but at least these animals would die for a good purpose. And if PETA complains about it, then they really are hypocrites.

It was just reported by Newsweek that since 1998, PETA has killed nearly 85 percent of animals, that’s 17,000 pets, the organization “rescued.” And get this. The organization that loves animals so much says that putting them to sleep is a necessary evil to rid the world of over-populated pets. So it just seems unusual that PETA isn’t exactly crazy about the idea that extra hard work can prevent the majority of these animals from being killed.

Newsweek interviewed attorney Nathan Winograd, author of “Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America,” and Bonney Brown, executive director of the Nevada Humane Society, who both say that there are better alternatives, such as P.R. and media outreach programs and improving volunteerism at animal shelters.

“…We can find homes for virtually all of the healthy animals we are now killing,” Winograd told Newsweek.

PETA claims that it’s not possible to have no-kill animal shelters and that those shelters across the nation actually turn away animals. But Brown insists that is not the case and they are doing it much cheaper than PETA’s $30 million budget.

In addition to bizarre attacks on celebrities for wearing fur or implying that an insurance company may be abusing an animal, whose favorite pastime is picking fleas off its mate and eating them, it seems that PETA doesn’t have its priorities in order in the actual protection of healthy animals.

Maybe it’s best if they clean up their own act first before condemning an international health insurance company for using an entertaining circus animal.

Only They Can Save A
Troubled Black Community

Some of the easiest solutions to some of the toughest problems are saying some hard truths that no one really wants to hear, or so it would seem.

Comedian Bill Cosby and Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington, who told whites to leave his courtroom as he lectured to young, troubled black defendants to change their ways, held a forum on Thursday, in Atlanta, Ga., reported CNN.

It should come to no surprise as to what the topic was about or who it was directed to: How the black community can help themselves and at-risk teenagers.

The Dynamic Duo told the 500-member, invitation-only audience that black adults have to start behaving like adults and offer real guidance to black youths. Arrington said he sees the same type of cases before him that are committed by blacks: Drug charges, murder and even incest. Cosby told the audience about young black girls having children and condemning rap, among other things.

Cosby in recent years has been known for airing out the black community’s dirty laundry and has received both praised and criticism for it. He says that the inner-city black culture of glorifying rap and gangster life is deteriorating not only the youth, but young adults. And sadly, it is just not the black community that has succumbed to this type of degenerate lifestyle: Other communities have too.

It is because of this culture that stylizes drugs and crime that ended the life of 17-year-old Jamiel Shaw Jr., a young black high school student in Los Angeles, who was murdered because he refused to answer a gang-themed question as he was walking home. Shaw was a bright student who had colleges and universities interested in his football skills and he was not involved with gangs, according to his family and the police.

The shame of it is, is that there are thousands of Jamiel Shaws out there and they don’t get the recognition or the credit that they deserve. Too often, hard work and dedication in the community, in school and in the home go unnoticed and underappreciated. Only obtaining “street cred” is more important or getting involved in other unsavory behavior is what really matters for too many.

That’s why real black leaders like Cosby and Arrington are some of the few who have decided to speak out against what they and many other see is the needless corrosion of the pillar in the black community. They are saying: Stop blaming somebody else for your problems and fix them yourselves.

And Cosby and Arrington have earned the right to say it. They worked hard and had nothing and look what they became of themselves: One is a successful comedian who holds a doctorate in education and the other is a respected superior court judge.

And only they can say it. The most well-intentioned white man can say the same things and he would be quickly and unfairly be labeled a racist, accused of being a member of the white separatist group Nationalist Movement and quickly discarded. But what can be said if a growing number of black men who worked their way up from nothing and through hard work achieved a respectable career? Sadly, they are called “sellouts” or “Uncle Toms” by their own race, which is even more perplexing. However, it is still harder to write them off.

Of course, Cosby and Arrington’s message to young and adult blacks of bettering themselves and taking responsibility for their own actions shouldn’t be restricted to their own race: Many can benefit from their old-fashion words of wisdom, despite their skin color or background.

It can be easy to see why many blacks have condemned Cosby for his frankness of the plight of the black community. After all, any group, either whites, Hispanics or Asians, would not want a member from their own community to tell the world of their own wrong doings or how it’s their own fault.

But maybe it’s time to stop worrying about what others are thinking and start caring more about the crumbling of our society and owning up to our mistakes and responsibilities. Clearly, these are hard truths that anyone can appreciate.

Thank God For PA’s Primary!

Tomorrow will be Pennsylvania’s primary and many residents of the Keystone State will be grateful to see the end of the six weeks of political mud-flinging between the two Democratic juggernauts.

And that’s what it’s been. It’s been negative comments or ads relentlessly between Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In fact, a day before the primary, the two are still hell-bent to criticize the other.

We in Pennsylvania should be thankful that former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee quit the race, or we would have to endure twice the political attacks from him and the GOP’s virtually nominated candidate John McCain.

And not only is it bad enough that Hillary and Obama are disgustingly and pathetically attacking each other, but their supporters and fellow Democratic leaders are waist-deep in the mud.

These pointless attacks are only good for the die-hard supporters in the choir, who only nod their heads in agreement. For the rest of us who are looking for real answers to solving the very real problems this nation is facing, the blame game that politicians love to play is filling us with disgust.

These politicians, who are basically begging people to let them have the job of Commander-in-Chief, are so busy saying how the other candidate is no good that they don’t even bother telling us voters what their plans are for this country and how they are going to make those plans work.

It’s easy to say things like, “This country is in need of change,” but slogans like that are just slogans. These are empty promises for either gullible supporters or for those so desperate for real changes that anything sounds good to them.

And it’s hard to figure out the whole truth from them because they have been caught in so many lies, even the smallest ones. For example, in Obama’s TV ad, where the Illinois senator says he doesn’t accept money from oil companies, he fails to tell the audience that it’s against the law to do so. Or when New York Senator Clinton tried to buff up her image by saying she was under sniper fire, but really wasn’t.

Obama’s and Clinton’s eyes are so focused on the White House prize that they see right pass voters and the problems plaguing this country. And many of their, or even the Republicans’, die-hard supporters, with their rose-colored glasses, are also blind to the plight of America that they are not helping by attacking one another or the candidates with such vileness.

For those who are still undecided over who to vote for in tomorrow’s Pennsylvania’s primary, whether it’s Clinton, McCain, Obama or Republican candidate Ron Paul, then it’s best to seek answers from nonpartisan sources, such as Factcheck.org or OnTheIssues.org.

Voters who are not swayed by emotional political speeches, power or images and vote based on facts alone are the ones truly interested in change for this country, which says a lot (or less in this case) about some of the presidential candidates and their devious conduct to gain votes.

Vote wisely tomorrow Pennsylvania, because tomorrow depends on it.

A Rally For Convicted Killer Mumia

Today will be a beautiful spring day and many will enjoy the outdoors. But a few individuals will hold a protest rally in Philadelphia, New York and St. Denis, France, for convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Mumia, birth name Wesley Cook, has been convicted for the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1982. And despite his numerous appeals for various reasons over the years, he has been denied a new trial. But what he has mysteriously won are many supporters who profess that he is innocent of the hideous crime that he has been found guilty of.

What should really baffle the mind is that this convicted cop killer — who while in jail has become an honorary citizen of many countries, was given an award for human rights, and he even had streets named after him, just to name a few — is how people can rally for this man.

In all the years Mumia has tried to overturn his conviction — and back in March 2008 the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Mumia’s conviction but overturned his death sentence — he still has not produced one, solid, credible eyewitness who can clear his name. The prosecution, however, had four witnesses to the murder of Faulkner who all said that Mumia shot Philadelphia’s Finest in cold blood.

Standing up for truly innocent men, like Alton Logan who was locked away for 26 years for a murder he allegedly didn’t commit, are worthwhile causes.

But having rallies and giving awards to a convicted murderer, who has not been able to produce a credible witness, much less been able to get another trial, not only tarnishes the life he took away, but also the lives of those who loved and care about Daniel Faulkner.

To read the 1982 court case, please click here.

Rather Refuses To Go Quietly Into That Good Night

Legendary CBS anchor Dan Rather has accused his former bosses of hiding documents that would show that his former network sacrificed him to appease the Bush Administration over alleged memos that question the president’s National Guard conduct.

Now Rather is suing CBS for a cool $70 million and he also claims the network is intentionally keeping the trial out of the public eye. Well, duh. Of course they are and you don’t need a long career in journalism to figure that out.

To recap what happened, in my little opinion, that forced The Dan into an early retirement is simple: Former Texas Army National Guard officer Lt. Col. Bill Burkett gave four memos to CBS in late August of 2004 that claimed that President Bush’s former senior officer, Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, criticized the president’s service in the National Guard in 1972.

After CBS aired the story in early September of 2004, there were many accusations against the network and Rather of sloppy journalism and that the memos were fakes. Now initially, I supported Rather. My knee-jerk reaction was that even the best reporters get hoodwinked every once in awhile. But I had the good common sense to at least dig into some of these accusations against The Dan and discover why so many people were up in arms.

It turns out that the forensic document experts, including Marcel Matley who was interviewed by the network, that CBS used stated that they had problems with the memos because they were copies and not the originals, which makes it hard to determine how authentic they are. Something that CBS and Rather forgot to report. Other document experts interviewed by the media stated the memos were actually created on a computer and not a typewriter from the 1970s.

And that’s where my support ended, along with many other journalists’. And thank goodness for the power of the blog or this little story would still been considered true.

And what gets me is that Rather could have covered himself by saying that experts questioned the validity of the memos by Killian. It’s Journalism 101 folks: You report both sides of the story and let the people decide. And if The Dan did that, he would still be working today, in my humble, little opinion.

Now Rather is making an idiot of himself by suing CBS and saying the network is hiding documents that can clear his name. Sure, he was hell bent that the initial story and even the memos were true, but Rather himself was the one who said that he had no confidence in the memos. And never mind the fact that Burkett has a proven history of lying about President Bush’s service. And because Burkett lied about the memos and how he got them, it makes me question Rather’s journalistic integrity if he still believes in the story and the memos.

Rather is just embarrassing himself by trying to make this an issue when he and CBS were clearly in the wrong about this story. He should be enjoying retirement as much as he can and not make a spectacle of himself.

It’s time to say “Good Night,” Dan.

School Board That Expelled Kissing Teens Says There Is More To It

The school board that expelled Blythewood High School junior Dominique Goyner and his unnamed girlfriend for kissing on a school bus is now coming out, saying that there is more to this than meets the eye but cannot release that information due to “legal reasons.”

Granted, there is always more to any story but the board members of Richland School District Two, in Columbia, S.C., did not handle the situation well at all. The board should have made it perfectly clear that from day one that there was another side to this story and that because of legal reasons, the situation could not be discussed. The school board would have saved itself a lot of headaches if it did that.

The Charlotte State reported that the officials stated that the kissing “… episode that resulted in the expulsion went beyond acceptable social norms.” If this is true, it certainly flies in the face of Jody Free, Goyner’s mother, who told the Associated Press that she saw the video recording of the “session” and said the two teens only kissed.

Sadly, because multiple parties are not willing to give full accounts of what actually happened on that fateful day last October, one is forced to speculate that the school board showed Free the video tape. So, either Free is lying about what she really saw on the bus’ video tape so she can help her son or the school board members saw something that they thought was inappropriate to them but not to Free. Or the other scenario is the school board members showed an edited, G-rated version to Free. Sure, that does not make any sense but at the moment, the whole affair does not make any sense at all either.

And it would be extremely helpful if we could hear the unnamed girlfriend’s side of the story in all of this. Or maybe the reporters could do some legwork and just interview the bus driver or the kids on the bus about what they saw. Since this whole affair is becoming a typical gossip mill found in any high school hallway between Goyner and the school board, reporters might as well get as much of the facts out as possible.

While many have found it hard to believe that the school board expelled two teens for kissing and insist that there is more to this story, they seem to be correct. But lately, school officials are making very stupid judgment calls.

After all, in today’s society we have teachers pretending to be hooded gunmen during class field trips and students getting detention for hugging, it truly does seem possible that a school board would allow such a ridiculous punishment to take place.

School Board Expels Teens For Kissing On Bus

We can all understand why some school boards are getting stricter in cases of sexual misconduct but this is asinine.

Because two Blythewood High School teenagers were caught kissing on the school bus, the school board decided to expel the both of them for the entire academic year, the Associated Press reported. The school is located in Blythewood, S.C.

“I saw the tape. They kissed maybe two minutes and the rest of bus ride home they leaned back on seat and that was it,” Jody Free, mother of ousted teen Dominique Goyner, told the Associated Press. “Had it been anything different, I would have said ‘OK you two have to suffer the consequences.’”

A message left for the girl’s lawyer was not returned and the school district refused to comment, except that it stands by the school board’s ludicrous decision.

All this has done is ruined two teens’ social lives and more importantly, their academic and professional careers. According to the story, Goyner receive awards for his service at the Blythewood High School JROTC and that now that he’s being home schooled, he hopes that does not hurt his chances to attend a military academy after he graduates.

Sure, kissing on a school bus, while a video camera is recording this act of passion, may not be the smartest thing to do but hey, these are two teenagers we are talking about. It’s not as if these two were having a “Lewinsky Moment.”

It seems as if the school board has a zero tolerance policy about any type of public displays of affection, which it seems to be labeled as “sexual misconduct.” We often hear in some schools that even hugging is not allowed without dire consequences.

Thankfully, it has been reported that parents for both teenagers will settle the matter in circuit court, which is a shame that that is the only place where this nonsense can be dealt with.

Let kids be kids. Allow them the freedom to express themselves as long as it’s within the line of civility. If not, such as the case of Romeo Dominique Goyner and his unnamed girlfriend, a warning is fine, but ruining two lives just results in big, fat “Fs” for members of the school board.

It’s time for the school board to reevaluate its “sexual misconduct” policy and start giving out appropriate punishments to fit the “crime.”