Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Michael Steele, Streetwise?

PHOENIX - MAY 15:  Rupublican National Committ...Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Michael Steele’s Recent Troubles with the GOP - “” managerial style?
Republican Party chairman Michael Steele defended his stewardship of  the party’s finances by suggesting that his managerial style is  "streetwise" and that has rubbed some of the old guard GOP the wrong way. The latest criticism concerns the $2,000 the GOP recently spent at a sex-themed Hollywood nightclub.
Steele had already come under fire for committee spending on flights, limousines and high-end hotels, but he was not present at the Voyeur Hollywood West on Jan. 31 when a group of young Republicans ran the $2,000 tab picked up by the RNC.
Two top congressional Republicans said that the RNC must be held accountable for the way it uses the money it raises in light of the much-criticized Hollywood outing. "This kind of thing has got to stop or they won't get any contributions," said Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate.
Kyl and Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, who is leading the GOP effort to recruit candidates and elect House members, distanced themselves from Steele when discussing the committee's controversial spending.
After reporters noted the bill in a funding report, the RNC fired a staffer it blamed for the outing and said it would be reimbursed by a donor who had attended.
Steele was asked if he felt he has a smaller margin of error than others because he's black."The honest answer is yes. It just is," Steele said. "Barack Obama has a slimmer margin than others." "But you take that as part of the nature of it," Steele added. "It's more because you're not somebody they know. ... Not old-boy network oriented. ... My view on politics is much more grassroots oriented ... so I tend to, you know, come at it a little bit stronger, a little bit more street-wise. That's rubbed some feathers the wrong way."
In my opinion, Michael Steele is an opportunist and uses every opportunity to promote himself and to suggest that he is being criticized because he’s black – well duh, that’s the only reason he was elected as GOP chairman. If Barack Obama had not been elected President, Michael Steele would not be Chairman of the Republican Party. The Republican leadership did not want Steele as their Chairman which was painfully obvious after it took six ballots before he was elected Chairman. Minorities, in general, are not well represented in the Republican Party and based on Republican’s rhetoric and fundamental beliefs they are not a big tent party. Any minority who thinks that Republicans will look out for their interests are truly misguided.
Steele knows exactly where he stands in the Republican Party; and it’s not his so called “streetwise” managerial style that got him into trouble; he’s basically a joke.
Carol, CFO
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Saturday, April 3, 2010

STEVE POIZNER

LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 15:  Republican gu...Image by Getty Images via Daylife
MOUNT PLEASANT HIGH SCHOOL
STEVE POIZNER






 Being a native of San Jose, I grew up on the eastside. I lived one mile down the street from Mount Pleasant. When I was in school I went to Silver Creek because the border was Tully Road everyone on the left of Tully went to Silver Creek, everyone on the right went to Mount Pleasant.
This changed in the 80’s, so my niece went to Mount Pleasant.


  How dare this Steve Poizner generalize eastside union high school kids like that, “From an intellectual standpoint, I absolutely knew not to expect Silicon Valley-caliber ambition and smarts from East San Jose school kids.” To say the school is “shabby” and “dangerous” is not true.
He hasn’t seen shabby or dangerous let him go to Oakland or Richmond high schools that will give him a wake up call.


  I fell that school kids living on the eastside, do have ambition and the smarts to succeed. My niece for example had the ambition and smarts who graduated from Mount Pleasant High School and went on to Saint Mary’s College in Moraga California to graduated she was a product of the eastside school system.


   Steve Poizner is supposed to be a strong advocate of education reform and assisting disadvantage children in public schools. To make a statement like he did in his book, makes him a look like a calculating conniving phony. He probably knew he was going to run for Governor in 2010.  In all his articles he reference teaching “in the trenches” as a volunteer teacher at Mount Pleasant High School in East San Jose. I fell he had a agenda all along to push for his Charter School program, he was the one to start the Charter Schools in California. Steve Poinzer shame on you!






 http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0500-about-us/0200-commissioner/
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Sunday, March 21, 2010

THE VALUE OF "OLD SAYINGS"

WORDSImage by Feuillu via Flickr
Image via Wikipedia
I've made a hobby of collecting and remembering old sayings.  We hear them everyday from everywhere and by everybody--whether as coined phrases, one-liners, words to live by, or lines from a movie: 

"Hey dude let's party" helped launch Sean Penn as 'Jeff Spicoli' in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High".  'Scarlett O'hara's' "Tomorrow is another day"(Vivien Lee in "Gone With the Wind") echoed throughout my childhood. 

True, some old sayings get old fast, however,  many become thought-provoking, words of wisdom which enlighten us--as I hope this blog does for YOU!  Are you there?  Still reading? 

I got interested about 20 years ago in the office restroom of all places, where, above the urinal hung a two-foot by three-foot painting frame totally filled with hundreds of tiny sentences, each a different color, and each--an old saying!  The first was; "The journey of a thousand miles starts with but one, single step"...and the last was; "Have a nice day". 

 In between, I read hundreds of great ones over a period of bathroom visits--only a handful of which I will share!(I promise)  One night I took that painting down and started jotting them down:

"Those who talk the most have the least to say".
"A welcome guest is one who knows when to leave".
"Easy street is a blind alley"
"Those who pays too much attention to their reputation, often loose their character".
"Those who ignore the past, are condemned to repeat it".
"A person who trusts no one, should include himself".
"To truly hear you must quiet the mind".
"Trust is like money; you spend it, lend it, save it, and sometimes get robbed of it".
"A rumor is as difficult to unspread as butter".

Here are a few sales meeting motivators:
"A goal without a plan is just a wish". 
"Nobody plans to fail, they just fail to plan".
"A smooth sea never made a skillful mariner".
"A wish changes nothing, a decision changes everything".
"If a situation is constantly confusing, to solve the problem...look to the financial interest".
"A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept, and the hours are lost"...(the one I prefer)

Then there are the love letter tools:
"Success in marriage is more than finding the right person, it's becoming the right person".
"The heart has reasons which reason does not understand".
"Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all". (Boo,hoo,hoo) "A woman never shot a man while he was doing the dishes".
Are you still reading? These are good aren't they?  Here are a few more:
"Good taste is boundless, while bad taste has no bounds".
"When there's nothing on TV, most people will watch it anyway".
"A young person knows the rules, but an old person knows the exceptions".
"Smile. It increases your face value".
"Stewardesses is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand".(You stopped to visualize that one, didn't you?) "Life is like playing a violin solo in public, and learning the instrument as you go along".
"There are no atheists in foxholes".(My dad taught me that one) "Life is a bowl of cherries, just watch out for the pits"--"Life is a bed of roses, just watch out for the pricks".(My sisters taught me those) "Chance favors the prepared mind".
"Fortune favors the brave".
"Once in a while, you meet someone who thinks they are all eight wonders of the world".
"To be a good sport, one has to lose to prove it".
"Show me a good loser, and I'll show you someone who's playing golf with their boss".
That last one came from my family priest, the late Reverend John Sweeny, who pastored the much known "Our Lady of Peace" Parish in Santa Clara, California.What a wonderful soul he was, an not a bad golfer.  He helped inspire me to add this next batch of quotes--all with authors.

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves". Confucius "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody". Bill Cosby "The human voice can never reach the distance that is covered by the still, small voice of conscience". Mahatma Gandhi "To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible". St. Thomas Aquinas "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who, only dream by night". Edgar Allan Poe "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the moment it starts raining'. Mark Twain "A hero is someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his freedom". Bob Dylan "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs, who has never learned to walk forward". Franklin D. Roosevelt "Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Benjamin Franklin "You can't separate peace from freedom, because no one can live in peace unless they have their freedom". Malcom X "The bitterest tears shed over graves, are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone". Harriet Beecher Stowe "All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word; freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope". Winston Churchill "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have told me...faster horses". Henry Ford "Sure there are dishonest men in local government, but there are dishonest men in national government too". Richard Nixon "The nice thing about being a celebrity, is that when you bore people they think it's their fault". Henry Kissinger "If all economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion". George Bernard Shaw "Death is not the greatest of evils; It is worse to want to die, and not be able to". Aristotle "Do not fear death so much, but, rather the inadequate life". Bertolt Brecht "Thanks to the interstate highway system, it's now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything". Charles Kuralt "I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to". Jimmy Hendrix "I have a dream",that one day all mankind "shall not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character". Martin Luthur King Jr.
"It is easier to fight and die for one's principles, than to live up to them". Alfred Adler "Charity is no substitute for justice withheld". St.Augustine "Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face". John Updike "My brain; it's my second favorite organ". Woody Allen "Ninety-eight percent of this country's adults are decent, hard working, honest Americans.  It's the other lousy two-percent that get all the publicity...but we elected them". Lily Tomlin "It is not an old movie if you haven't seen it". Lauren Bacall "Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius.  A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein". Joe Theismann "Computers are useless. They can only give you answers". Pablo Picasso "Life....is a sexually transmitted disease". R.D. Laing "Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance". Edgar Bergen

"If the law is against you, bang on the facts. If the facts are against you, bang on the law. If both are against you, bang on the table". No One

I can't end this thing without sharing the first saying that inspired me, the worst ever written, my all-time favorite, and one I made up myself!

As a TV sports anchor-reporter some 26-years ago in Bakersfield, California, I did my first quality feature package(story) on a guy who's legs were blown off in Viet Nam--yet he lived life fuller than most! Entertaining 500 school children, Bob Weilan took batting practice sitting down with the baseball team, bench-pressed 380 pounds in the gym, and told of how he walked across the entire country on specially made hand-shoes! He also walked the LA Marathon a few years later!

I closed the feature with his final message...that the joy is truly in the journey--and that, "The only time you fail in this life, is the last time that you try". 

My favorite saying comes from the late comedian George Carlin, of all people...who wrote:"Life should not be measured by the amount of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away".

The most diabolical, hypocritical saying of all still remains posted above the front gate at 'Auschwitz' death camp in Poland, where innocent millions(mostly Jews) were murdered during World War Two. It reads: (In German) "Arbeit Macht Frei"...work will set you free.

 Almost finally, Diogenes of Sinope happily wrote once:
"One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotations". 

Nevertheless I end with an original: 
"Men have all the lines, and women have all the curves. Happy are those who can read between both". 

I hope you enjoyed all of these inspired words! Take care and check out more blogs on www.streetwisesd .com

Sincerely, PeteCam4






  


















  




















"Best Wishes"--PTCJr
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Could Pentagon shooter have been stopped?

The Pentagon, looking northeast with the Potom...Image via Wikipedia
Last Thursday's Pentagon shooter was actually raised in Hollister, California where he recently lived with his now grief-stricken parents.  36-year old John Patrick Bedell  also happened to be a promising electrical engineering student who'd already achieved a bachelor's degree, and was was attending graduate studies at San Jose State University until last fall.
So, what was it that triggered this soft-spoken, 6-foot tall, blond haired, intelligent man to drive to Washington, D.C., pull out a gun, and shoot two Pentagon entrance guards, wounding them both....before being shot dead by their retaliating bullets?
A few of his high school classmates said Bedell was smart, quiet, but kind of weird.  Neighbors in Hollister claim he was just a normal kind of guy, while professors praised him as one of the best circuit-design students at San Jose State.
"He was always on time, always prepared, and asked great questions that sparked further discussion", said professor David Parent, who never thought Bedell was capable of such a violent act, and nothing like the student he came to know so well!  "I still can't believe this is the J.P. I knew," he said.  "It's as though someone stole his identity".
As it happens, however, troubling signs foreshadowed Bedell for years...including severe bipolar depressive disorder, which competed with an addiction to marijuana, causing fits of anger leading to numerous scrapes with the law, including charges for resisting arrest.
Bedell was also arrested in 2007 at Bubb Elementary School in Mountain View after threatening a six-year old and his father with a 6-foot long stick, after they refused to to let him join  soccer practice!
That same year, Bedell was detained on a mental health hold, pleading no contest to exhibiting a deadly weapon other than a gun.  A month later his youngest brother signed a citizen's arrest form, claiming Bedell even assaulted him, after which Bedell served just 20-days of weekend work service.
Am I the only one noticing an obvious pattern  here?  Aren't these incidents at least the beginning signs of impending disaster for Bedell?  Wasn't he, in fact, a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode, needing a heck of a lot more than community service work to defuse him?
It's true his parents Oscar and Kaye Bedell did try for several years to get their son into therapy for his marijuana addiction, often seeking help from San Benito County Supervisor Reb Monaco, who was a family friend.
However, when that failed, shouldn't Bedell have at least received treatment for bipolar depression, which is a highly severe medical condition requiring aggressive therapy and  life-long medication?  It often afflicts extremely intelligent people, and is brought on by an imbalance of naturally occurring substances in the brain or spinal cord.
Instead of treating himself with marijuana, Bedell should have been on prescription anti-psychotic drugs like Benzadiazepine or lithium....which treat symptoms of hyperactivity, irritability, and hostility; the very symptoms which haunted him!
I say this because I've seen the way bipolar-ism has affected others, even people I know personally!  My cousin's wife has an IQ of 155, and used to suffer psychotic fits and convulsions after consuming even the smallest bit of alcohol.  She's fine now, but only after receiving alcohol treatment, intense therapy, and a strict medical re gamin for bipolar depression.
My own sister took it upon herself to seek life-long treatment for mood swings and chemical imbalances, which caused her to throw violent fits of rage when we were kids. I remember them well, and now she's fine.but only because she got the necessary help she needed? 
So did actor Robert Downey Jr. a bipolar depression sufferer also strongly addicted to cocaine, who literally traded in a bright career for a jail cell until finally getting the proper mental health care required to achieve total sobriety. Could John Patrick Bedell have gotten similar help?  Unfortunately, we will never know.
His story only got worse, with even more disturbing and revealing behavior, such as his recent anti-government threats and rants on 'You Tube' and other internet postings, where Bedell blasted the alleged miss-handling of a Marine colonel's death, and launched conspiracy theories surrounding the 9/11 disaster.
Just after New Years there were more red flags and danger signs.  Bedell's parents filed a missing persons report when he vanished eight days earlier following another fight with one of his brothers. Then they received a call from the Texas Highway Patrol claiming to be "disturbed" about Bedell's car being in "disarray" after being issued a speeding ticket.
When Bedell finally returned home on January 18th, his parents confronted him about a $600 purchase from a Sacramento shooting range, however, their son refused to tell them what he bought...thus arousing obvious worry and suspicion, but no action! 
A few weeks later Bedell banished himself to the road again, headed for the pentagon in D.C. with two 9-millimeter automatics, never to see his family again. Why couldn't something have been done earlier to get him the mental health care he so drastically needed?  He may very well have received some treatment, and I'm not about to say the Bedell family didn't try very hard!  What I am hinting, is that,  perhaps our entire community and government  approach to mental health care needs to improve, for the sakes of families like the Bedells!
Every day homeless people wander the streets, some of them half-brain dead. mumbling aloud to themselves. Could they have been helped? How many of us (so-called) upper and middle class citizens suffer from chronic depression, and why are there so many suicides, homicides, and rapes? 
The fact is, our prisons are filled the the brim, while seemingly normal, over-achieving, clean-cut folks John Patrick Bedell end up killing and/or dying violently....while we continue to wonder; could it all have been prevented?
I only hope our government and its communities learn from this, and find a way to improve preventative, mental health care, whereby....fewer families have to suffer tragedies like the Bedell's,  who last Friday issued a statement saying: "We are devastated as a family because, to the outside world this disaster is the first and only thing they will know of John Patrick.  To us he was a beloved son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin. We may never know why he made this terrible decision, but one thing is clear--his actions were caused by an illness, and not a defective character."
Thanks, and stay in touch at Streetwisesd.com
Sincerely, PeteCam4
   


Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

RECALL ON FOOD TAINTED WITH E COLI AND SALMONELLA

Colonies of pathogenic bacteria growing on an ...Image via Wikipedia
RECALL ON FOOD TAINTED WITH E COLI AND SALMONELLA

It has been one recall after another. In October 2006 it was Green Leaf Lettuce, E coli was found in the irrigation water. In July 2009 there was a recall on Romaine  Lettuce which was tainted with E coli. Now there is a recall on hydrolyzed vegetable protein it is tainted with Salmonella. This hydrolyzed vegetable protein  is a flavoring used in every type of processed food.

  How are consumers supposed to know if lettuce has E coli, you can’t!
With beef and chicken  we are told to cook it to temperature of 155 degrees Fahrenheit, but we can’t do that with lettuce. we can wash lettuce under running water and hope that is enough.

  Consumers are at the mercy of these companies that produce processed foods.  Dr. Margaret Hamburg told reporters that the risk of illness was very low and so far, no consumers have reported getting sick from products containing the flavoring. I think someone got sick after eating one of  the recalled items, but  just dismissed it as stomach flu. Dr.
Jeff Farrar associate commissioner for the food safety said “We expect this to get larger over the next several days, actually several weeks.”

   We can all prevent the spread of E coli and Salmonella by washing our hands and utensils  with hot soapy water before and after handling meat and washing all surfaces that the meat touched. Do not thaw meat on the counter, put cooked food in the refrigerator promptly after its cooked Salmonella can cause sever illness in the very young, very old and frail. To all you consumers please read all  processed food ingredients labels, avoid processed foods containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein.


http://chattahbox.com/us/2010/03/05/chips-dips-salad-dressings-hot-dogs-tainted-with-salmonella/

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/HVPCP/
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Thursday, February 25, 2010

PG&E SMART METER

PG&E Meter on Angel IslandImage by Kevin via Flickr


If you live in California, you will be getting PG&E’s Smart Meter. PG an E will be installing smart meter’s to every dwelling and business in California and you don’t have a choice. Customers in the Bakersfield Fresno and all over the Central Valley had the smart meter installed last summer and they are not happy. They went to State Senator Dean Florez and complained about how their bills were outrageously high now, even though their doing everything exactly the same. Senator Florez told CBS 5
Investigates: “I think PG an E has been less than truthful.” About What? The explanations Senator Florez said, the company gave some of those customers, such as telling them their old meters just weren’t as accurate as the smart meters. “There’s no doubt that PG an E has lied to its customers when it comes to replacing the old meters with the new meters and somehow saying the old meters were defective,” Florez said. Ok here we go again if the old meters are so defective, why? has PG an E kept the old meters around since 1905 when it was founded. I say this is a big utility trying to stick it to the consumer again. PG an E knows we don’t have a choice. If everyone is dependent on gas and electricity, then PG an E can install these smart meters and that’s  that. When our bills become outrageously high, and we complain I hope the government steps in and investigates PG an E. It’s going to be a sad situation when people can’t afford to pay there bill and there PG an E gets turned off. I have not had the smart meter installed yet, but it’s coming next month, you can best believe I will be monitoring my bill every closely. Consumers if your bill is outrageously high after the smart meter is installed complain to your government officials, if they get enough complaints PG an E will hopefully be investigated.


LM

http://www.kcbs.com/localnews/Customers-Complain-About-Smart-Meters/6424878

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Gas_and_Electric_Company

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Tiger Woods

w:Tiger Woods doing a photo shoot.Image via Wikipedia

85 days after his early-morning car crash and subsequent blockbuster sex scandal, Tiger Woods apologized to the world Friday morning, with a 14-minute televised speech, that offered a mixed bag of reactions.
One trend saw men to be more forgiving than woman!  ABC's George Stephanopoulos called Tiger's speech "one of the most remarkable apologies ever by a public figure". CBS's David Feherty agreed, saying, "I've never seen him appear so vulnerable...I was very impressed with what he said".
TMZ's Harvey Levin Twittered that, "Tiger's speech hit the high notes in a big way", while Donald Trump was actually disappointed Woods even apologized, telling 'Forbes'..."I hate seeing Tiger apologize.  I'd rather watch him win golf tournaments and have a great life".
However, commentary from female viewers was much more cynical.  Fox News anchor Greta Van Susteren sharply criticized the speech, saying: "Tiger Woods telling the media to be good and responsible to his wife...he's telling OTHERS to be good to his wife?  Maybe HE should have been".
'Jezebel.Com' praised Tiger's defending his wife, but questioned his motives for apology, saying, "this--and his now-notorious failings...make it hard to believe anything he says".  Other notable women claim this was Tiger's ploy to save sponsors, and that his robotic, forced body-language made him seem NOT sorry at all.
Upon listening to San Francisco's all-sports radio station KNBR-680, I heard co-hosts Ralph Barbieri and Tom Tolbert comment that Tiger looked as if he practiced the speech in the mirror, and that perhaps he rehearsed both his voice inflections, and how to play to to the camera.
Personally, I do NOT completely concur, however, before offering my reaction.(On my Birthday no less!)... I'll even include a response from one of my closest friends. He offers that since Tiger's wife Elin didn't show-up, she will probably never be intimate with him again....and, since he can't be with anyone else because of this mess, Tiger must now face a life of celibacy!
I told my friend that he MAY BE stretching it a bit!  I actually listened to the speech on car-radio first, and then ran inside to rewind my DVR recorder and watch it on TV. From both perceptions, Tiger basically sold me!
What he did say WAS written-out first, however, there was sincerity in his voice for all 14-minutes.! He seemed to hold nothing back, and left no part of what he truly needed to be sorry for... out there drifting in the wind.
 He not only brought everything  to the table regarding his infidelities, he also apologized to everyone, including those so very important youngsters who look up to him.
Often trembling and stumbling, Tiger revealed an imperfection that was refreshing,  if not more believable....thus making his defense of wife Elin, and the denial of any performance enhancing drug use, even more convincing.
Not only did Tiger assume ALL the blame for EVERYTHING he did wrong, he shared a solid plan for a life cure following a long, therapeutic and clinical battle, which he vows to endure to the bitter end.
He also affirmed the dire need to forever live by the same standards and boundaries as we all do, begging in one  final plea...that we "come to believe in him again", one day!
As for the future of his marriage and family, that is something he and Elin need to work out alone between themselves, as he put it. I for ONE, wish them success, and hope you will too...on further thought.
After all, the bottom line is...doesn't everyone deserve that often-mentioned second chance, even Tiger Woods?  I think he does!
Thanks, and stay informed on Streetwisesd.com
PeteCam4
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]