Don’t Judge Me

The Bait & Switch continues

Thomas Frank in his book “What’s the Matter with Kansas” details, in a thorough and entertaining way, the “Bait & Switch” techniques of some Neo-Conservatives currently in power. It is these methods he asserts that amount to the majority of Americans being tricked into voting against their own economic interests. For instance they elect a politician who is pro-life but the only thing they really get in return is …something like…cuts in their school budgets. We are now seeing this become all too true but will this country WAKE UP! Turn off American Idol. Lower your Jessica Simpson CD. Put down your bong. Shut off your talk radio. Skip the “Revenge of the Space Monkeys part VII” blockbusters and READ THE DAMN NEWS. Watch Cspan. See what your politicians, whose salary YOU pay, are doing with your money on their time.

Middle America supposedly VOTED for the War On Terror, Moral Values, Tax-Cuts, and against Gay Marriage. But would they have still voted this way if they knew what they would really get. Read below to see what we REALLY GET. Read this clip from the AP news.

“House Approves Cuts to Labor Programs”

Associated Press Writer

Funding for job training, rural health care, low-income schools and help for people lacking health insurance would face big cuts under a bill passed Friday by the House.

The cuts include the outright elimination of 48 programs whose current budgets total $1 billion. Among the programs to be eliminated is the Healthy Communities Access Program, currently funded at $83 million, which helps communities offer health care to the uninsured.

Also eliminated is the $205 million budget for an Education Department grant program targeted at low-income and underachievers schools.

The cuts are the result of Bush’s tight budget for federal programs outside of the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security. Congress hewed to Bush’s demands when passing its budget in April and is implementing an almost 1 percent cut to domestic programs through passage of 11 spending bills.

In practice, that translates to an 84 percent cut from $300 million down to $47 million in training programs for doctors and nurses, and $806 million in cuts to Bush’s No Child Left Behind education initiative, a more than 3 percent drop. Grants for local community-action agencies that help the poor would be cut in half, to $320 million.

…The National Institutes of Health, whose budget has doubled in recent years, would be held to a less than 1 percent increase. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would absorb a 5 percent cut from current funding.

…On Friday, the House also voted 219-185 to go on record against a Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation agreement with United Airlines letting United dump its employee-pension plans and their $9.8 billion shortfall on the PBGC, which could mean pension cuts of 25 percent to 50 percent for more than 120,000 United workers and retirees.”

Scary stuff eh? If you wanna read the whole article for yourself
here you go

To read the excellent book by Thomas Frank go here

All Messed Up

Six Years…

Falling Into Place

Like A Window

Okay, so I promised you would see the winners of this years Ottawa writing contest so here goes. First off the contest involved asking students to write poetry, prose or short stories about a pretty broad range of topics. I didn’t want to limit them in their ideas but the topics were either “drugs”, “what’s important to me in my life”, or “why my life is worth living.” We got about 75-80 entries and Jeff, Trish, and myself read through and chose some winners who received ipods, and gift certificates. Including a gift certificate to the BEST coffeehouse in Ottawa Jeremiah Joes. Over the next few weeks I will be posting some winners IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER and with the names deleted. Thanks to all the students who took time to express yourself. Enjoy!

God knows it’s a crime

To every student I met this year whose school did not have a theater.
To every teacher I met this year who is now working two jobs this summer.
To every student assistance counselor I met with a case load of over 800 kids.
To every custodian who helped me set up at 6am and was tired from working overtime the night before.
To every principal who had to fire teachers because of budget cuts.

I want you all to know that I think of you often.
I think of you tonight.
I know we are a wealthy nation. The money is there. The truth is YOU are not getting it. Its being spent elsewhere. Read below to see where your raise, your bonus, your paycheck, your new history books, your new sound system, your tax money, and your students future is going.

“A Halliburton Co. unit will build a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 520 foreign terrorism suspects…It is part of a larger contract that could be worth up to $500 million if all options are exercised, the Defense Department said.”

Read the entire Reuters story for yourself

Kentucky woman

Interesting and sad story out of Kentucky

When the roses fade, And I’m in the shade, I’ll remember you.

Greetings from a long hiatus and self imposed exile. I have been on an unintended break from posting for too long. I have been busy with ordinary home life as the end of the official show season approaches. May saw me doing crazy 3 show a day schedules and now I can chill a little.

I just finished planting my garden which saw me expand the size to a respectable italian family size of 40 feet by 12. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, broccoli, carrots, peas, rosemary and hopefully cucumbers.

I have been enjoying just hanging around the yard, eating a little too much, and watching the NBA playoffs. Manu Ginobli is the greatest player I’ve seen in a while. The spurs remind me of the Celtics I grew up watching as a kid. Duncan, Ginobli, Parker, Horry, Bowen WOW! Now there gonna face one of my favorite teams. Always been a pistons fan. Hamilton, Wallace, Wallace, Billups. Hell yeah what a series its gonna be.

Been trying to avoid watchin Cspan and Meet The Press because its bad for my blood pressure. It gets worse and worse every day. I have never seen such blatant lying and cover ups of obviously immoral and certainly impeachable offenses. The demo-rats are just as bad. They get a chairman who finally has some stones and speaks his mind and then they all demand he apologize. Bunch of whiners. Meanwhile the young people die and the dollar drops and the standard of living drops, and the US creates more enemies, and the Empire of Amerika spreads itself too thin. Did I mention I havent been watching the news? Sorry I digress.

Dylan’s coming around the northeast in a couple weeks. Hope to catch a few shows.

OH I almost forgot. I just finished a writing contest with the young people of Ottawa Illinois. We gave away some ipods for the best poems and essays. To all who entered thank you and strong work! I was really moved by many of the entries. I will be posting some of the winners here so check back soon. This fall I hope to give away an ipod a month for the best poetry and prose I receive. I will be conducting an online contest and announce it at every school I go to. At the end of the month I will read em all and give away some prizes and post the winners on a special page. Which leads me to some upcoming changes.

I hope to be changing and updating the web site soon. I need to add a new video ’cause that clip is like 3 years old and does not convey what I would like it to. Some stuff I plan to add:

• New online polling
• Monthly Podcasts that you can download. It will be a 45 minute radio program recorded in my “home studio” with music, commentary, poetry etc.
• Message boards

Next topic- Music
New CD’s I’m into:
Loretta Lynn: Van Neer Rose
Coldplay: X&Y
NIN: With Teeth
Elvis Costello-King of America (remastered and rereleased)
Bob Dylan: Bootlegs from 1998 with Bucky Baxter on guitar and David Kemper on drums.

New CD’s I’m looking forward to:
Billy Corgan
White Stripes

And in closing I unfortunately have been thinking about age and mortality. Not so much mine but my familiy. I am the youngest son of my dad and mom who are the youngest in their families of 8. All my life my uncles and aunts have been elderly and my cousins have been like most kid’s uncles and aunts. And now everyone is getting up there. My mom is 72 and my dad is going to be 8o in july. It was sad this week to see my Aunt Lena pass away because she was the last of my dads siblings. At the funeral my cousin Paul made a statement that really stuck with me. “My mom lived in a time when your friends were your family and your family were your friends.” I miss those times. For whatever reason those days are gone for most of us and when I said goodbye to my Aunt Lena this week I felt a much bigger loss. As I watched my Dad say goodbye to his sister I kind of felt like we were all not only losing an incredible woman but a big part of ourselves and our history. I mean this was a woman who lived her entire life within one mile of where she was born…How often does that happen now? At the funeral there were probably more neighbors than “family.” All kinds of people from a tight knit italian immigrant neighborhood where everyone looked out for eachother and formed bonds that have lasted 80 years. I was talking to people that I never met that “knew me.” I was listening to stories about grandchildren and cousins from this one 85 year old lady for about ten minutes and it was AMAZING and BEAUTIFUL and all too rare. I was reflecting on going over to my Aunt’s house when I was a kid sitting in the kitchen drinking “Orange-Aid” from the floral printed glasses while looking out over this frickin HUGE garden. Man those were good days. Gotta go.

Aunt Lena

MY AUNT LENA

Lena J. Faler
June 02, 2005

WORCESTER-Lena J. (Morello) Faler, 89, of 321 Massasoit Road, died Thursday,
June 2 in the Alzheimer’s Unit at Millbury Health Care Center, where she has lived for the past 3 years. She leaves her husband of 65 years, Paul C. Faler, two sons, Paul G. Faler of Wakefield, MA and James H. Faler of Wilmington, NC, a brother, Henry Morello of Millbury, six grandchildren, three great grandchildren and many nephews and nieces. She was predeceased by three brothers, Frank, Louis, and John Morello and three sisters, Rose Belsito, Carmela Rose Gabriella and Christine Plante.

She was born in Worcester the daughter of Giuseppi and Angelina (Fusaro) Morello and has lived her whole life within one mile of where she was born. As a young woman, Mrs. Faler worked at Grosvenor Shoe Company as a stitcher and in later years for Davey’s Bags, retiring in 1980. She was a member of Bethlehem Covenant Church.

The funeral service will be held on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 AM in Bethlehem Covenant Church, 46 Greenwood Street. Burial will be in All Faiths Cemetery. Calling hours are Sunday, June 5 from 4:00 until 7:00 PM in LINDQUIST LUNDIN FUNERAL HOME, 36 Butler Street. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Bethlehem Covenant Church, 46 Greenwood Street, P O Box 70629, Worcester, MA, 01607.

Katy, Lena, Rose, Dad,Karen
Me, Ruthie

Christine, Carrie, Dad, Lena, Rose