important statistic & the election

When President Clinton was in office from 1993-2001, the average American family gained $7,500 from the beginning of his term to the end.
While George Bush has been president, the average American family HAS LOST $2,000 from 2001 to the present time.

I can't complain about election coverage or the way the election is going. There has been some criticism of the media for being too positive with Obama and too negative against McCain. They have counted more negative stories about McCain than Obama. However, one journalist said it best, "If McCain is running a lousy campaign and we don't show that or report that, then we are biased against Obama."

If there was one thing that I don't like it's that journalists and everyone else is trying to create false suspense. They are saying that the election is closer than it appears. McCain, they say, could still win it. Yea, right! 1st he has to win Pennsylvania and the polls have him up by over 10% points. Very big lead to overcome. Obama is going into Republican states to campaign while McCain is desperately trying to hold onto those same states. But the journalists have been coming up with all these scenarios that he could win. One is that people don't want to look racist so they tell the pollster that they will vote for Obama and then turn around and vote for McCain. But pollsters are getting wise to that & ask questions that will uncover bias which they then factor into the results.

Anyway, I enjoyed the joint appearance by Clinton and Obama last night in Florida. That's where I got the statistic to open this post. I'm also really happy to hear Obama give Clinton credit to how much better our nation was in the 90s.

I don't know... maybe I should take these reports of a close election seriously. But the problem is that the thought of McCain winning after Obama has opened up this lead makes me too angry to think about. IT's bad to lose elections especially to a guy as devious and underhanded as Bush. But to lose after being ahead is just too much to take. I think if McCain wins, I'm going to go on a prolonged, violent attack against certain conservative targets. It's going to make my pyro escapades the night Reagan was re-elected in 1984 look tame in comparison.

Well, lets just pray that don't happen!! The nation needs a decent president and so does the world!! We deserve a helluva lot better than a Bush retread.

I like this guy

I read a really good article/bio about Keith Olberman a newsman at MSNBC. So, I have been checking him out a couple times ever since. I like hearing what he has to say. I guess I can almost empathize with someone on the other end of the political spectrum saying that they like Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly. After all, if there is a guying saying things that you really agree with, you will probably enjoy hearing them talk.

I enjoyed what he had to say last night for instance and the cravenness that Fox Network had tried to capitalize on their coverage of the woman who said she was accosted by a black man from the Obama campaign and had a "B" scrawled on her face. This woman finally confessed that this didn't happen, and that she had beat herself up and scratched the B on her face to get publicity (how does someone do that).

Now I hear that he has a "political soulmate" named Rachel Maddow, and since she also agrees with my views, it looks like I will be watching more of them in the future. She comes on right after he ends his broadcast of "Countdown".

The chances are very good that there will be more Democrats in Congress and that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. So the "hope" I spoke of in my Intro part of my blog is being replaced by happiness and optimism. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas only my day to "open the presents" is going to be November 4! I will right more about this when the results are official.

The kids and I are going to take part in the history and hopefully go to Grant Park for Obama's election rally. The only thing holding us back is trying to get a ticket quick enough, and the difficulty in either getting the kids on the train or downtown by car. It would really be great to take part in history rather than reading about it.

season over

Ted has been playing ball on Sundays for the Oak Forest 49ers since the last wk. of August., and today was the last game of the year. They were winless, the team they played today was undefeated. So they lost 28-0. Ted's team was smaller, slower and inexperienced than that team and all the other teams they played too. They were decent on defense, but poor on offense. They had a very difficult time achieving any consistency on offense. When there was good blocking the running backs would run to the wrong place (they were only 3rd graders as running backs). When they ran to the right place there was no blocking.

But there were some bright moments. Ted played nearly every snap of every game. He did a pretty good job today. They played the same team last week, and he was up against a kid bigger and tougher than him and he ended up hurting his legs and his back. He was so sore he missed school on Monday and missed Tuesday's practice. But today, he came out of the game unscathed.

Anyway, I am showing a picture of the back of his helmet. His awards are either "Pows" or "footballs". He gets a Pow for stopping the ball (he pulls off a flag rather than tackling the ball carrier). He got a football for achievement on offense like snapping the ball back to the QB flawlessly (Ted was the center), the team's only TD or blocking well on a given play.

Ted is reading this too. & he would like to point out that he would have gotten a lot more Pows but they ran out 2 games ago. So he would have received 6 or 7 more than what appears in this picture. Also, he would have had 2 more footballs on his helmet too.

poor MB

I feel sorry for MB, b/c she didn’t get a wink of sleep last night. Her father couldn’t go to dialysis and has been filling up with fluid and that makes it harder for him to breathe. Plus, he’s also got pneumonia so she was up for awhile hearing him breathe then finally she called the ambulance.

It was annoying, b/c the paramedics in the ambulance wanted to ask her dad a bunch of questions to verify he wanted to actually go to the hospital. Then, he made it worse by saying he had no problems breathing. So that led to more questions, finally with MB’s blunt warnings, they concluded it was a good idea to take him to the hospital. It’s usually a good idea to take someone to the hospital if they can actually hear how hard it is for someone to breathe (Don’t you think??? Duh!)

The illness has also made him confused. Maribeth got home at 6:15 after being up all night, then a ½ hour later, she got a call from the hospital. First a nurse talked to her, and then her dad got on the phone. He said, “Guess what Maribeth? I’m in the hospital!”

Resolved

I was upset with my older brother at the content of his political e-mails sent (I think it's reasonable to assume that he agrees with what was said, b/c that's what he said!)

Later, however, he complemented me for the way I presented my view compared to his.

So that was very gracious of him, and I complimented him for that. We promptly changed the subject in our e-mails and talked about my oldest son instead.

So, in the last post in this blog, I was being sarcastic and not trying to take things too seriously, but now it's even less important.

The chances of Barack Obama and a more Democrats in Congress are growing. I am happy about that but I am not too exuberant, b/c it would be foolish to make all sorts of predictions only to see them proven false on election day.

I love my family, but they're wrong

So, Thursday, I receive this political screed from my well-to-do older brother. He forwards something that some idiot from Maine wrote stating that those who give money to Democrats during this election might as well "Fed Ex a grenade launcher to the terrorists".
Then today, I get an e-mail from one of 2 sisters (no, not the one who deliberately ignores me, but the other, more intelligent one). In it, I read from some other political screed that if I vote for Obama, I am going against God. As much as I really hate to admit it, that e-mail hurts worse than the one that my brother sent.
I wrote back to both. The screed that my sister sent also noted that Obama is suspect because he was once supported by Jeremiah Wright. I told her that by that standard, all Catholics should be held under suspicion because our leader, the Pope, idiotically states that married couples who use condoms are sinning.
Yeah, I know, it doesn't make sense to me either.
So one day my brother insults me, the next day my sister insults me, I insult both of them back so I was just thinking about the future.

At the rate I'm going, I'll probably not even get the satisfaction of seeing Barack Obama win the election. No, instead I'll probably get run over and killed after I vote for Obama in the morning of Nov. 4 by one of those asshole cab drivers in Chicago running a red light, then promptly go to hell (hey that's what the e-mail insinuates anyway), then in the final coup de gras, some person will piss on my grave and write TERRORIST with a big black magic marker on my tombstone.
It's been nice knowing everyone. Don't worry, I'll try to avoid all this mess; I'm going to confession within the next 10 days. Please pray for me!
Thanks.
Good bye.

witty speech from insignificant me

A few of you may be here for one of the 1st times b/c I told you to check out my political entry. That would be the entry BEFORE this one.

I belong to the St. Damian Men's Club, we are a philanthropic organization that helps the parochial school and the church groups and the Oak Forest community. So we had a free dinner tonight in appreciation of the members of the group and their lovely wives/significant others/ domestic partners, and Maribeth couldn't go b/c she had the common cold.


It's really amazing how far you can go by just paying attention. The average age of the Men's Club is 65. So the women were that old too. But I was amazed at how many kept themselves "up" and they looked great! So since I am the Vice President of the group I got up. Giving a speech, I said, "I haven't seen this many good looking women in one place since the Miss USA pageant!!!" There's was a big whoop and cheer, and since we got some sharp people in the group, someone yelled out, "What year was the pageant"? That was so funny b/c it was dead on w/ reality.

Then I added how happy I was to see so many new faces b/c the only way the group will have a good future is with young men taking the place of a group of men leaving the group b/c they are in their 70s and 80s.

It was a short, concise happy speech which picked up the mood of the crowd of 70 and even picked up my sour mood too after some person insinuated that I was a terrorist just b/c I would rather fall off a 10,000 ft. cliff than vote Republican.

All Reactionaries can fuck off!

an exchange of 2 opposing political views

1st e-mail:

I am very scared for our nation as we have gotten so soft and liberal. I believe if Obama get in for president that we are in the end times. I feel very badly for what we have left our children.

My reply e-mail:

Nonsense, (name withheld) I am damn glad that we are going to have a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President. You make it sound like Obama is some Godless twerp. Bush will go down as one of the worst presidents we've had since Warren Harding. It's not right when his rich friends lobby and make laws that are lax on the environment. Bush was way, way, way behind figuring out that allowing cars to burn gas for the forseeable future is a great thing. The state he led, Texas, before he was president had cities with the worst smog in the nation. The United States, among the world, is not the leader or the beacon in saving the environment. It used to be!!

Reasonable minds can disagree on Iraq. I don't agree with leaving Iraq on January 20, as some would think Obama would (HE WON'T!!). But the Iraq War was a mistake for 3 reasons: we were, in fact, misled to believe that there were weapons for mass destruction, (2) we lost over 4,000 of our finest men and women and that was a shame (3) more effort in Iraq means less effort in Afganhistan. Anyone who pays attention knows that Democrats favor the war in Afganhistan. (THereby proving the idea that Democrats are soft on terrorism is B.S.)

I once was a Republican and believed the bill of goods Reagan tried to sell us. But I stopped in 1982. What I've learned over the years is that Republican presidents favor going billions and billions of dollars more than what this nation needs in national defense all the while deprive poor people programs and opportunities to improve. I will never support a party like that. I will never support a party that hates the minimum wage.

Here's a dirty little secret that you and other Republicans fail to acknowledge. Republican businessmen love to proclaim how hard they worked for the wealth they earned. Well, the fact is poor people work hard too (surprise)! There are many people, as we speak, working 2 jobs, work 50-60 hrs. a week and getting a crappy wage with no insurance. They, their children and their community suffers as a result. & the answer ISN'T TAXING THEM LESS, JUST AS THE PROBLEM OF TOO FEW PEOPLE HAVING INSURANCE IS LESS TAXES. That's the most weak, ineffective solution there is!

You may have heard of a President by the name of Clinton. Oh, of course, you know that he got impeached and lied and committed adultery. Yes, yes shame on him for that. But you probably forgot the part where he raised the taxes of the wealthy in 1993 and then our nation had the longest sustained prosperity in our nation's history. He balanced the budget and that led to the prosperity. But don't take my word for it. Listen to Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman during the Bush, Clinton and Junior Bush early adm. Oh and by the way Alan Greenspan is a REPUBLICAN!! He gave Clinton credit for balancing the budget and trimming the national debt (which is double; thanks to Bush and the Republicans in Congress when they were in the majority). He said that trimming the national debt led to prosperity. Yes, it wasn't the only reason but it was a MAJOR contributor.

Republican love to deride Democrats about how they tax and spend. Well, I hate the Republican "borrow and spend' policies. Think about it when we buy a tank or a machine gun for one of our courageous soldiers in Iraq on borrowed money, you know & I know the taxpayers pay for the price of the tank and gun and they pay the interest for borrowing the money. With Bill Clinton, we had a "pay as you go" government. You'd never hear that from a Republican. I could go on for 8 more pages, but that would really suck, wouldn't it? Let's face it. You are a businessman who hates high taxes, who believes in morality and capitalism. So you are a natural for supporting the Republicans. I don't hold that against you. What bothers me about you is when you support candidates who believe in borrow and spend policies, who waste billions of dollars to the Pentagon, and their actions show that they don't give a damn for the poor.

You had your 6 years of Republicans in Congress and the White House. In those 6 years, some things didn't go so well did they?? Guess what? it's our turn! Don't worry, someday we'll elect another Republican president. The Republicans are alive and well. I am a natural Democrat as I proudly work in the 3rd largest city of our nation, I walk past homeless people Monday through Friday on my way to work. I have struggled and cut costs trying to balance a budget. I am an employee not a boss.

So (name withheld), if you ever tout your political views to me, I promise you a very spirited response. If you still want to do that, great. I respect, but don't agree with your views. Also, I believe and assume that you are a very good boss. You told me in the past you provide your employees health insurance. Good for you. If more bosses treated their employees like you, _____, we might not have some of the laws protecting employees as we do now. The fact is that there is a certain minority of bosses that ruin it for others and have to be stopped.

Let's clear a few more things up. Not all Democrats believe in abortion. THe Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is against abortion. I am against abortion in most cases. Democrats are for a strong national defense and applaud the policies Bush carried out against Afganhistan until he went to war against Iraq and depleted forces in Afganhistan. There are moral Democrats. Barack Obama is a church going, happily married man. He's a Christian, NOT A MUSLIM, as a few of those redneck Republicans would have us believe. If Obama cheated on his wife, don't you think with how intrusive the media is we would know about it? Clearly Fox's "fair and balanced news" (not) would have dug up something by now. I never thought that Republicans were evil or stupid. I do however, question/disagree with Republicans' policies and their national priorities.

tell Karen Knudsen that I have her card

A few nights ago, I was walking the 2/3 of a mile to the train. Below the curb laying on Adams Street by LaSalle Street was something that looked like a credit card. I picked it up and it was an employee ID. The company was The Human Resources Services Group, and proclaimed that I had some of their property by holding on to her ID.

I want her to have her card back. I googled the above company but the results were not helpful. I guess the thing to do now is Google "Karen Knudsen." Wish me luck finding her. & if you know her please let her know I have her ID and would be happy to give it back. I feel bad for her, b/c I know what it's like to lose something important and all the inconvenience associated with replacing the possession lost. I remember one time I was carrying $200. Now, that was a very, very rare event. I usually carry a sum of $20 or less. Carrying $200 was an event that happens .000001% of the time. I'm not exaggerating that much. I made the mistake of wearing a fall jacket with shallow pockets in it. I was pick pocketed and gone was the $200. My wife understandably raised some hell and even cried about it because obviously to a struggling family, $200 is a lot of money.

& Karen, if we don't meet, and I can't give your ID back, I keenly feel your pain.

sometimes I wonder

I've seen a pattern with blogs and writing on my depression support group. I will be so upset that I'm compelled to write. So I do, and some of the remarks, observations made seem a bit "edgy" maybe even "outrageous".

Then, sometimes as soon as 24 hours later, after a decent night's rest, I don't feel so upset. Then I wonder if what I said was too outrageous, too overwrought. Of course, if I never showed my feelings, this would be a pretty damn boring blog.

For example, two days ago, I used the analogy of a finger being cut off and being upset. It would be a mistake to think that I believe that what I'm going through is as bad as getting a finger cut off. It was just an analogy. I actually know someone who has had their finger cut off, and I know for a fact that man has gone through more horrors than I could ever imagine. & I'm sure some of you knew what I meant already.

Still, I worry that I'm being a bit of a "drama queen". That's not the intention. It's a really fine line that a blogger must deal with anytime he writes about him or herself. If you write about how happy you are and your accomplishments, there are those who think you are "tooting your own horn" and that you are a tiresome bore. The triumphal Christmas card from an overbearing family comes immediately to mind.

Then, if you bemoan your problems, then people think you should get off your ass and stop whining so much (because it's getting annoying).

I don't know if I handle that dilemma very well or not. What do you think?

a story and a money saving dilemma

Here is a story and a problem I often think about.

There was a baseball player named Mordecai Brown. He was a great pitcher and played for the Chicago Cubs. He was so great that the Chicago Cubs won a championship with him. The fans here in Chicago have been thinking a lot about the time Brown helped the Cubs win the World Series for them. It was in 1908, a hundred yrs. since they last won the championship.

Mordecai Brown was very unique, b/c he was born with only three fingers on the hand that he pitched with. They nicknamed him “3-Fingered” Brown and rarely called him Mordecai. Brown accepted the nickname, b/c in those days everyone had nicknames. People marveled that a man with one less finger than others could pitch so well. They used to ask him, “Isn’t it hard to pitch with 3 fingers?!?” He said, “No, because I was born with only 3 fingers on that hand. I’m obviously used to it.”

This story points out a very important lesson. You don’t miss what you never had. How many of you miss not living in a mansion? Not very many of you. However, if you have something and it gets taken away, then we really miss it!! I would like it if our household got rid of cable TV. The problem is that Maribeth and my 3 kids would definitely miss cable TV.

I’m in a dilemma, because as much as our household saves money, we still come up a little short when we pay for bills. We rarely go out to eat, and on the rare occasion we do, it’s to McDonalds. We always do our laundry at my father-in-law’s place rather than pay $2 for laundry at our condo. (bless my FIL’s heart! He’s helped us in so many ways!!) We don’t order out for pizza. We don’t rent movies like we used to. We don’t subscribe to as many magazines as we used to. We make our meals at home and then we eat them at work, we don’t go and plunk down $10 to eat lunch somewhere. We NEVER go clubbin’ and haven’t for well over a decade.

But if that’s not enough, the idea is to do more cost cutting. If we got rid of cable TV, we would save $50,$60 a month (enough to pay another bill). But if we got rid of cable Maribeth and our kids would raise holy Hell! They wouldn’t get to watch Cartoon Network and Maribeth wouldn’t be able to watch The Closer and Law & Order. I wouldn’t give a damn whether we have cable or not. But MB pays the cable, so I don’t have the power to get rid of it. Plus, it’s probably still not enough to solve our bill-paying problem.

So how far does one have to go to live an ascetic lifestyle? Should we all go around eating peanut butter sandwiches for most of our meals? Should we walk everywhere within 1 mile to save on gas (even when it’s raining)? Should we skip all snacks to save on the grocery bill? Should we avoid all plays, school productions, Market Days to save all sorts of money? Should we both work 60 hours a week and stop seeing and parenting our kids so much, but we’ll earn a lot more money? Should we stop our subscription to the Chicago Tribune, and get the same paper out of the trash for free? Should we go “dumpster diving” like some families do if it meant that we no longer suffer the anguish of overdraft fees and late charges?

Now you and I know the answer to the last 3 questions, but it still makes me wonder. We are used to living an easier, more pleasant lifestyle. It’s hard to cutback, so how much will we sacrifice?

I often come up with analogies about a certain situation or a certain plight.

I finally came up with one about the problem that bothers me most, my family’s financial situation. It’s a well known fact that many people are struggling to pay their mortgages, pay their bills, go into debt, lose their ass, etc. Here’s what it’s like:

It’s like a bunch of people walking around with diabetes, and the diabetes is the severe form because if we don’t make all the right moves we lose a limb. (That’s analogous to all the people with money problems.) So, I try hard and make 85% of the right moves, but since I haven’t made 95-100% of the right moves, then I’m forced to lose my right pinkie finger. But people come up to me and say, “It’s sad you lost a finger, but I know so many people who are losing arms, legs, one person I know lost all four limbs!!” Yet, I don’t agree with them at all. I feel bad that I lost my finger. I’m staring at my little lost appendage and thinking, “Damn, this is terrible! I tried hard not to lose this but I still did!”

The people who lose arms, legs, all 4 are analogous to the people who lose their cars, who are thrown out of their houses, go homeless, begging on the streets, are bankrupt. Yet, as hard as I work, it seems like I don’t deserve to lose my house. But then again, what did they do to deserve this?

Some updates

Wanted to give a few updates:

I have announced at the last meeting that I wouldn’t run for another term on my condo complex’s board of directors. After November 24, I will no longer be the President of the Board. It will be nice to not worry as much on how the condo is doing and there was stress when we had to pass a special assessment or had to raise assessments. I am happy that I was on the Board, and I think that I have helped a lot of people while I was first Secretary and then President of the Board. The proudest achievement was getting a very corrupt administrator of the complex out of there when we first started back in 2003.

Andy, my oldest son, is doing OK in school and we will continue to watch his progress and make sure he is doing his assignments in school. This will be vital, because it seems like 7th grade is more difficult than 6th grade was. He will definitely need to work harder than last year.

Ted is doing well in football and continues to play every minute of the football games. His team is younger and smaller than the other teams that they play, and they have not won any games yet. I hope they continue to learn and improve. They have 2 more games to go. They are playing the 1st place team and they will play the same team in the tournament. I doubt that they will win, because they other team is bigger and stronger. Hopefully, Ted and his teammates will not get hurt against this tough team.

Brianna and Ted both celebrated birthdays this past week. Brianna is now 7 and Ted is 10. (On December 4, Andy will be a teenager and celebrate his 13th birthday.) Brianna & Ted had fun celebrating their birthdays at the Hollywood arcade, a place where kids can have birthday parties.

Lately, things seem all right, and there is not as much reason to complain. I am also happy with the way the upcoming election is going for the United States. It looks as though November 4 will be a happy day as the candidates running for office have good chances in winning. But nothing is guaranteed and we won’t know until Nov. 4 what the outcome will be.