Paris Panorama

Moody

‘Cynic Journalist’ thinks outside the box for answers

My bi-monthly column for The Times Herald, October 28

With Election Day creeping ever closer, the surprises just keep coming.

This week started off with President George W. Bush finally facing reality, and dare I say, moving in the direction of the moderates — including those in the Democratic Party. Could it be that the Democrats had it right all along?

Could it be that now that there is some sort of consensus that things aren’t what they’ve been made out to be, and that the president and all of Congress can agree on doing something about Iraq?

Could we see a real plan from the Democrats?

Oh, the possibilities of boring moderation!

But I guess for every wrong or bad or misguided thing our president does over and over each year, we get one good thing.

So of course this column has given about as much praise as I can actually milk out of it.

It wasn’t but a few days after the change on Iraq that our president signed off on the border fence, just 700 miles long, to keep immigrants from crossing our 2,100 mile long border with Mexico.

Bush’s OK does not include a means of paying for this proverbial Band-Aid over the severed limb. It will also take about three years to complete half of the fence, which means more people could pour through holes this fence can’t fill in.

The fence is a waste of time and resources, and a lot of people know that, but more border patrol agents are less visible and a photo picked up by the media of a new fence has more impact.

And if you can’t tell the story in one photo, no words, most Americans aren’t going to get it.

There’s a reason I blog under the title, The Cynic Journalist.

I’ve joked before that our business-minded president should consider a merger or buyout with Mexico.

On a more realistic note, plenty of people are getting into this country without scurrying across the border under the cover of night — but that’s our little secret.

Editorials in The Times Herald and elsewhere have been getting it right: Punish the demand side of the illegal immigration issue. That would be the businesses hiring the illegal immigrants. It would be far more effective than the fence.

But politicians aren’t looking for effective measures, perhaps for a reason. Perhaps because some of the “facts” about illegal immigration are overblown.

To be sure, the border should be watched, but the fence isn’t the right “brick in the wall,” so to speak.

What should happen, is the billions — and that figure isn’t an exaggeration — being wasted on a fence and increased border agents to appease the masses should instead be used more constructively.

Like, say, using those billions as aid to people in Mexico. Put money into infrastructure that provides jobs for Mexicans. You might call this welfare of sorts, but moving some of the demand to south of the border could more substantially cut the flow north of Mexicans.

How’s that for thinking outside of the box?

Oh, and on the welfare comment, President Bush proposed more than $9 billion in foreign aid for 2006, might as well make it work for us; it is our money.

One step further, which I don’t see happening because the U.S. government has been letting businesses off the hook for decades now, would be to use some of the money to entice American businesses in Mexico to do better by its workers. Increasing the pay of Mexican workers has the added benefit of keeping families together and improving the quality of life of many.

How American!

To bring this back to the local level, Bridgeport this week passed an ordinance putting some of the illegal immigration fight on the shoulders of the renters.

So, an illegal resident can work in the area, but could end up being homeless? You’re taking away a person’s shelter while still giving them a reason to come to the area?
And this comes as the winter season is setting in?

Bridgeport, Bridgeport, Bridgeport, I have trouble thinking of a more heartless or problematic approach to the situation.

Sure, my complaint can be taken with a grain of salt because I don’t live there — but then again, such actions help to explain why I don’t.

More Republican Problems

Ah, to the moral authority of this country ... The Associated Press moved the following story across the wires

N.Y. candidate accused of billing taxpayers for phone sex says aide may have misdialed

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — Both major-party candidates for a congressional seat are decrying an ad sponsored by a national Republican committee that accuses the Democrat of billing taxpayers for a call to a phone-sex line.

The ad, which began airing Friday, shows Michael Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, “Hi, sexy. You’ve reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.”

Arcuri’s campaign said an associate mistakenly dialed an 800-number sex line two years ago from Arcuri’s New York City hotel room, and released records supporting the claim. The number shares the same last seven digits with the number for the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, which was dialed the minute after the first call was made.

Arcuri, the district attorney in Oneida County, said the ad was “clearly libelous” and threatened to file a lawsuit. His GOP opponent, state Sen. Ray Meier, described it as “way over the line.”

At least seven television stations in Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton refused to run the ad, Arcuri said.

The ad’s sponsor, the National Republican Congressional Committee, stood by the 30-second message. Spokesman Ed Patru insisted it was “totally true” and said Meier was not consulted.

The two candidates, who say they are friends, are running to fill the seat left open by the retirement of Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert. Political analysts have said the race is among the nation’s most competitive.

Arcuri said he had “never seen such an unfair commercial. I have a 12-year-old daughter. She’s going to have to go to school and hear other kids talk about this.”
Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, called the ad “an egregiously stupid accusation.”

Earlier in the week, both candidates said they were disappointed by the attack ads produced and funded by their national party committees. They said campaign-finance laws prevent them from screening the commercials.

One voter, Rosemarie Paladino of Utica, said she found such negative advertising so distasteful that she was tempted to avoid voting.

“But then I said, 'Wait a minute. I’ve got to exercise my right.'"

Back on Land

Went skydiving today. I jumped from 13,500 feet and it really didn't bother me at the airplane door. But then again, there wasn't much time for thinking.

So this makes me officially 27. This was how I was going to spend June 27, but rain delayed that day and one other attempt.

So Happy Belated Birthday, Brian!! Thanks New Jersey Freefall Adventures

Crossing the Threshold




Free falling to an exhilarating landing


Swope Swoops


Jersey Below Me, as Always


Free fall done

New blood just might give the nation new life

My bi-monthly column for The Times Herald, October 14

It was widely reported over the past year that President George W. Bush was softening on his “cowboy politics” way of dealing with some issues, but, it would seem, that isn’t the case as the big election day nears.

And this time it isn’t how the Texan deals with countries abroad.
Much has been made of the back and forth between the two monopolistic political parties when it comes to “politicizing issues.”
It’s not a completely fair argument as a genuine desire to rout out problems is most certainly held by some on the opposing side, on occasion.

But when Bush said, on more than one occasion last week, that the Democrats shouldn’t be trusted — one story attributed this distrust to running Congress, another to fighting terrorism — I experienced a momentary pause and some confusion.

Preservation of power is a very corrupting enterprise, and I couldn’t help but revel in the juxtaposition of these statements. They came as the GOP leadership — the only party fit to protect America, down to every last teenage boy — in the House was implicated in covering up a cybersex scandal involving one of their own from Florida and several teenage boys.

But not only did Bush’s own prove that neither are current Republicans fit to hold the reins, his words go a long way toward division — this from the great Uniter of 2000. My how one flip flops…

How are his words going to lead to agreement, good will and trust on all sides?

Sure, Bush would love to have an even greater control to push through those plans of his to solve the health care crisis, increase the minimum wage, protect our country at home, help the middle and lower classes improve, make education really work for America and keep it affordable, truly work to cut this country’s energy dependence (not just on foreign oil), follow the Declaration of Independence’s famous line “all men are created equal,” etc. etc. and keep our scientific prowess ahead of the global curve.

Yet, our great Uniter, with control of Congress, has instead focused on much more important issues such as removing checks on his office by Congress, banning gay marriage, giving corporate handouts to myriad industries, sending more than $300 billion of U.S. taxpayer money to Iraq and Afghanistan and finding a new buzz word each year to rally the increasingly disillusioned American public to fight his war and die for a fabricated storyline.

According to an Associated Press report, Bush said at an Arizona campaign stop: “If the people of Arizona and the people the United States don’t think we ought to be listening in on the conversations of people who can do harm to the United States, then go ahead and vote for the Democrats.”

I suppose he forgot that some Republicans, including Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania, also had problems with the wiretapping. Specter’s position was similar to Democrats and other Republicans that these wiretaps broke the very laws Bush wanted to allow him to do wiretapping.

The devil is in the details, including that the eavesdropping blanketed millions of people with a landline, but Bush never seemed like one to pick up on such nuances, regardless of how blatant.
Certainly, the current Congress, with its historically low approval rating, should remain.

Perhaps you feel that Democrats are without a plan — and you wouldn’t be completely incorrect, but when you’re not in the majority you don’t as easily control the issues or dialogue.

I’m of the thought that many incumbents should lose their seats to newer blood. The rule, it seems, is that no one likes the status quo as a whole, yet is happy with their representation.

Well, take a second look at that and think long and hard about what and where this thinking has gotten the citizens of America.

The changing of the guard, so to speak, has started and is happening in Harrisburg. Why not take it to the national scene?

Will the Real Christpher Columbus...

Every year around this time the newsroom fills up with discussion of what a bogus holiday Columbus Day is.

I'll give it to him, it did change the world, but that he was the discoverer of America is the most bogus story ever taught to children in America's schools.

Lest we forget, but America was populated for thousands of years prior to Columbus. But also before Columbus we have the Vikings who more than likely landed in here prior to him and now it would seem the Irish may have been here in the 6th Century A.D.

Columbus is loved by Italians, but recently his nationality has come into question. Scholars are pointing toward a Spanish descent for the famed explorer.

An online article about Christopher Columbus sums up the man and the myth.

Remembering

So I've managed to post some pics from my Travels.

They definitely don't look like what follows.

These shoes were done walking the Louvre



Hmm, is this French food good or not?



Novelty item from colonial Indian

Fair and Unbiased Fox News

OK, have you gotten your breath following that absurd statement?

If you have a feeling that Fox News is what they claim to be or need to help convince someone of the fraud, read on:

The Brad Blog reports, with video footage, Fox News reporting disgraced teen sex predator Republican Mark Foley of Florida as a Democrat when identifying him - in three instances.

Rebroadcasts scrubbed the information entirely, rather than correcting. Several news outlets also picked up on this...

Dirty work is afoot, I'd say.