beware of politicians who try to use "schools" to get your vote

Robin's commentary --

With the November elections around the corner the political ads trying to earn your vote are starting to become more hot and heavy.

If you listen to John Kitzhaber ad is touting the old line of it's all about schools and our children.

our future is our children... we need education for a future... we need education for jobs.

PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THIS!

sure, education is a good investment unless you go to Lane community college, but either way, your return on your investment is not going to be immediate and unless there are businesses to employ graduates, those graduates will move out of the area and therefore still not help the local economy.

also remember that they tend to use "schools & children" to try and coax you into voting for whatever it is that they want.

If you remember measure 66 & 67 they were really pushing that it's "for the children" and look what happened.

For me, any politician that starts using the it's for the... schools... children... public safety... quickly run and hide.



But this seems to be the year that we are recycling the politicians and personally, I think this is one time that we should forget about recycling, do away with the old and bring in the new.

President Obama was correct in the fact that we need "hope and change", however, not in the way that Obama was planning... but in a way that it's really time to clean house and literally "throw the bums out."

Tom Bosley 83 and Barbara Billingsley 94

Tom Bosley, star of the longest-running 1970s television series happy days died today of heart failure at the age of 83.

Barbara Billingsley otherwise known as June Cleaver on the TV series "leave it to beaver" died at her home in Santa Monica October 17 of a rheumatoid disease. She was 94.

just more of the television greats that can't be replaced.

Rest in peace

would you go along with banning all cell phone devices including hands-free while driving?

Bloomberg --

US transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is calling for an all-out ban on all communication devices including hands-free while driving.

"I don’t want people talking on phones, having them up to their ear or texting while they’re driving,” LaHood said in an interview this week. “We need a lot better research on other distractions,” including Bluetooth-enabled hands-free calls and the in-car systems, he said.

LaHood is also calling on limiting the growth of vehicle features such as Sync.

I will agree with LaHood on a few things...texting
while driving is a big one, and optional devices that require thumbing through a menu to activate, and this includes some car radios.

Other than that... stay out of my car!

now I know that there are some people they can't walk and chew gum at the same time and a very easily distracted, but I am one of those people that have been using communication devices for really long time back in the days when you had a cord connected to a microphone, and trying to talk and use a stick shift.

Now that took a little bit of coordination.

I guess my point is... as soon as they started getting one law passed such as the hands-free law, I kind of figured that it would not be long before that somebody would try to ban communications altogether.

today date is relevant to the answers of life the universe and everything

Robin's commentary --

Today's date, October 10, 2010 is very unique in the fact that when you spell it out it is

10/10/2010

Or broken down to...

10/10/10

Combine together equals a binary number...

101010

Which equals the decimal...

42

which by the way also happens to answer the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.


and here you thought it was just another normal day...

President Obama to head to Oregon to support John Kitzhaber and friends Do you really care?

The Statesman Journal --

October 20, 2010 President Obama is scheduled to come to Oregon on behalf of Dr. John Kitzhaber and other Democratic candidates.

and did you notice that Vice President Joe Biden was also a recent visitor to Portland on July 8 for a fundraiser.


I don't know about you, but I think if I was as John Kitzhaber that I would ask the president to stay home.

However, I am pretty certain that President Obama's visit to Oregon will be quite memorable, in fact, he might even join our last sitting president whose visit was so memorable, that he gave Portland a nickname to remember us by.

Although, I'm still a little confused on how being known as "Little Beirut" was a compliment...

And as far as Obama's visit... I wonder if he's coming here to congratulate us on our efforts of being a "green state"? After all, we are recycling our candidates this year.

1 thousand postings!!!

POSTING #1000 -- WOW!!


it's hard to believe that this is posting #1000 and it all started in June of 2005 about the state wanting to put GPSs in cars and the registered guard felt that my letters to the editors regarding this issue was less important then articles about left-handed golfers and whatever religious save the world message that somebody sent in today.

To the register guard... I say thank you for snubbing me.

as for my readers... I wanted to say thank you for making this blog what it is today and I'm hoping and praying that SOMETIME in the near future that the job situation will become more stable and I can get back to doing daily postings again.

Trust me, it is very frustrating with everything that's been going on with EmX and west Eugene and I haven't had time to jump on the bandwagon as my regular readers know exactly how I feel about the project. (sigh!)

so again I just want to say thank you for your comments and your participation on this momentous occasion.

-- Robin

PS -- I apologize for the word verification system being turned back on again in the comments section, but apparently there are some spammers who really feel that my sex life needs improvement. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Stephen J. Cannell dies at 69

la times--Stephen J. Cannell, the prolific television writer and producer who co-created "The Rockford Files" and "The A-Team" Cannell also created or co-created more than 40 TV shows, including "Baa Baa Black Sheep," "Baretta," "The Greatest American Hero" and "21 Jump Street.and later became a bestselling novelist, has died. He was 69.

while the name to me is not all that familiar, his shows are.

What is really going to be missed is ORIGINAL programming versus re-cycling of old shows as an excuse to make a totally different show to attract any audience.

as an example the remake of the 1965 Get Smart TV show totally bombed because the only thing that they used that was even close to the shows original concept was the name of the characters, a few thrown in well known catch lines and a cameo appearance Bernie Kopell who played Kaos Agent Siegfried.

Even Kopells name sake in the new movie (2008)played by Terence Stamp was not even close to the original as Kopells character spoke with a fake German accent.

The list goes on of "copied" shows and movies, but it takes real talent to make an original.

Defazio campaign versus Robinson

Robin's commentary --

One thing I can definitely say about the elections this year is that they are very entertaining.

Once I particularly enjoyed are the ones from Peter DeFazio against Independent Art Robinson. For example at the following website "who is Art Robertson?",

"I think public schools should be abolished... "

Public education is "child abuse" and should be abolished...

Doesn't like plans to reform Wall Street...

People calling for financial reform are "making a mistake"

What I think is funny... is that everything that the DeFazio campaign is trying to put down regarding Art Robinson, I totally agree with.

"I don't think public schools should be abolished"... I think they should be overhauled and that there should be an audit of their finances because they never seem to have enough money and quite frankly, I don't think were getting our money's worth.

"Education is child abuse"... yes in a way it is. If you read the report by 20/20 and if you look at what is being offered in schools and how many students are dropping out... then yes, I would say that instead of preparing the student for the future, then yes I would say very much so that it would be child abuse. While it is exactly been a while since I've been in public schools, if I compare them to my recent experience at Lane community college, then yes I would have to agree that it is child abuse because they are definitely doing a disservice.

"Doesn't like plans to reform Wall Street" well, neither do I. There are systems in place (or least there were) to prevent the Dow from crashing known as circuit breakers. The economic meltdown in which they are blaming on Wall Street is simply because the price of futures raised fuel costs so high that it triggered a series of events that were just waiting to be triggered.

The government was continually raising the interest rates in addition to high taxes and unemployment and the catalysts that broke the camel's back was when gasoline was five dollars a gallon for some people to decide between food and putting gas in their cars to go to work. But that didn't stop the cities from continuing to raise the gas tax either such as what is happening in January in Oregon when gas tax goes up six cents a gallon.

So is financial reform "a mistake?" Time will tell... but from what I have seen of it, personally I think it is.

So basically my point is, every time I hear a DeFazio attack at against Art Robinson, it just makes me more in favor of Robinson.

But just remember folks... even though Peter Defazio for years has done Oregon well, HE DID VOTE IN FAVOR OF OBAMACARE which for me, is enough not to give him my vote.

Chris Dudley and John Kitzhaber -- what I'm really getting a kick out of them, is the "dueling point plan" that they are bouncing off each other.

Chris Dudley has a 20 point plan

John Kitzhaber has a 26 point plan

Personally, I don't think we need any more recycled candidates, in fact for that matter, I think it's time to just "kick the bums out" and start over.

This has nothing to do with bipartisanship... it had more to do with "taking back America" and reminding OUR EMPLOYEES that they are there to represent us, and to work in our best interest... not the other way around.

Mexico -- doing the jobs that Americans won't do

Fox news --

Mexico has started construction of its own fence on its southern border to try and reduce or stop illegal immigration from Guatemala.

"According to the head of customs for Mexico’s tax administration, Raul Diaz, the Mexican border state of Chiapas is constructing a wall along the country’s southern border with Guatemala, along the river Suchiate which divides the countries. Diaz says the purpose of the wall is to prevent the passage of contraband, but admits, "It could also prevent the free passage of illegal immigrants."

Mexican President Calderon recently stood before Congress and called us a bunch of racists for wanting to construct a fence along our southern border and to increase enforcement against illegal immigration, because his people are coming here to seek a better life.

However, now Mexico is constructing a fence along their southern border in order to keep Guatemalans from entering their country even though they are crossing their border for the exact same reason.

Gosh Mr. Calderon, I don't understand it. You criticize us for not welcoming criminal aliens with open arms, and now you're doing the exact same thing?

So how does it feel to have the shoe on the other foot Mr. hypocrite?