Barney Smith or Smith Barney, You Decide

Barney Smith is a working class . . . , er, middle class guy from Indiana. His dad was a working class . . . , er, middle class guy from Indiana, too. Barney was a life-long Republican until the policies of that party began to destroy his life and the lives of those around him; and, frankly, the entire nation.

Barney Smith is today's Everyman. He is me and you. Barney spoke at the Democratic Convention last night. This is his two minute address:



Do you want a president who is concerned about Barney Smith or Smith Barney?


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The Dark Side
Jane Mayer

Sen. Barack Obama and The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yesterday's events at the Democratic Convention included a speech from Bill Clinton in which he unwaveringly supported the nomination, campaign, election, and presidency of Barack Obama.

Good move, Bill! Thank you.

Tonight we will be treated to Barack Obama accepting the nomination.

No matter what side of the political spectrum you call home, no matter your feelings about Obama or the state of the nation, this is a historic event: a man of color accepting the presidential nomination of a major political party.

Today also marks the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington during which The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed "I have a dream."

My spine tingles.

Here is an excerpt:

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

See an entire transcript of that speech here.

Watch a video of the 1963 March on Washington, including Dr. King's speech here.


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Good For Hillary!

Hillary Clinton took the stage at the Democratic Convention last night and heartily endorsed Barack Obama.

Clinton's speech took place the same day that John McCain began airing a television ad that uses her anti-Obama campaign remarks that McCain is better qualified to run the country than Obama.

Clinton needs to hit the campaign trail telling voters in swing states that she supports Obama, that she believes he has the skills to run the country, and that John McCain lacks the necessary temperament to be President.

These statements would be the opposite of what she has said on the record. She provided McCain remarkable sound bites to use against Obama, and she has to personally tell all Americans, market-by-market, that she was wrong. She has to tell America that Obama can lead the nation and that McCain would be a disaster.

If Clinton does make the effort to counter McCain's usurping of her remarks, I might regain a modicum of respect for her. If she fails to visit every market where McCain uses her words against Obama to his benefit, and Obama loses even one of those states, I will hold her personally responsible for the loss.

Clinton apologists defended her remarks during the campaign, and now her words have come home to roost. I hope her supporters will demand that she get to work to elect Obama, and start a personal campaign to retract her inappropriate remarks that are being used in McCain's ads.

I want to be able to write another entry titled "Good For Hillary!" and I will do that as soon as she begins countering McCain's ads with personal appearances in swing states where McCain is using her to do his dirty work.

Health Care For Americans?

I don't believe it for a second!

Ted Kennedy stood at the podium of the Democratic Convention last night, and it was wonderful to see him mobile, coherent, and passionate. Ted Kennedy is a vestige of a time when America was great, when America cared for itself and others, when America was driven by universal ideals and not profit, when we lived in a vibrant economy and not a savage market.

It has taken only one generation for America to crumble into the mess we face today: one generation of Reaganomics, one generation of conservative criminals gutting our government and usurping the treasury for themselves. Ted Kennedy has played a role in this disaster, but he has always tried to maintain some sense of social responsibility and social justice. And he continues to do so.

Last night he insisted that he would be in the Senate next January working with "President Obama" to bring health care to all Americans. I wish him luck.

The conservatives still control the economy (and the Supreme Court) and from a conservative perspective, health care is working just fine: you pay your money and you take your chances, caveat emptor is the philosophy that guides America's dreamers today, smoke 'em if you've got 'em, everyone's a winner, you can't win unless you're in the game. There is no room for a conversation about the ability of middle-class Americans to afford to be in the game, that would be unpatriotic. The only Americans that matter anymore, the only Americans that are counted, are those whose bank accounts (or credit lines) make them players in the game of savage capitalism.

Barack Obama is not a champion of economic reform that will move control of health care away from insurance companies and their lawyers and back to doctors. Obama is a pro-Wall Street politician who has no plans whatsoever to interfere with the path our economy travels. Sure, he will pay lip-service to the health needs of the poor and he might even create a new version of medical insurance paid out of the Treasury, but it will not be social-based health care, it will be some hybrid actuarial system where the profits are privatized and the losses are socialized. Look at our mortgage banking system and you get the idea of the kind of system that Obama's Wall Street backers would like to see for health care reform.

I hope Ted Kennedy goes to his grave with some form of health insurance available to all Americans; but I fear that no social-based health care system will be created in America in my lifetime, and certainly not in his.

Thank you Senator Kennedy for a brilliant speech last night, thank you for your years of service to the Americans who need you most, and good luck getting some form of health care system created before you die.


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Conventioneering

When I was a boy I heard the expression "she got a D&C" which I deduced had something to do with a woman either terminating a pregnancy or having a miscarriage or having a tubaligation. When I asked my mother about it she said it was a "dusting and cleaning" which told me less than I had already deduced on my own.

To this day, I have no idea what the mothers in the projects were talking about when they said "she got a D&C"!

Much later in life I learned about the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and I thought they were the good guys. I have come to deduce that they are barely the lesser of two evils.

Tonight in Denver, the Democrats will begin their convention.

I have no hope that it will be anything more than a bunch of spin and prepackaged pablum.

What do you think? Which do you think is most relaistic for Americans: a D&C or a DNC?


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First Baptist Church - Friday

Dick Mac (alive!) is enjoying a vacation, so you should enjoy the church sign generator.

First Baptist Church - Thursday

Dick Mac (alive!) is enjoying a vacation, so you should enjoy the church sign generator.

First Baptist Church - Wednesday

Dick Mac (alive!) is enjoying a vacation, so you should enjoy the church sign generator.

First Baptist Church - Tuesday

Dick Mac (alive!) is enjoying a vacation, so you should enjoy the church sign generator.

First Baptist Church - Monday

Dick Mac (alive!) is enjoying a vacation, so you should enjoy the church sign generator.

Who's The Elitist?

The so-called "conservatives" like to pretend they are just regular god-fearing people just like you and the beer-drinking guy next door. They refer to liberals as "elitists" and insist that anyone with an education is dangerous for America.

John McCain likes to pretend he is an outsider, not one of the Republican Party's regular guys; but, he is exactly like all of the rest of them. He is a man of privilege who pretends he is not from privilege and accuses his opponents of being privileged.

I have recently learned about John McCain's family's very powerful connections to the United States government in general and the US Military in particular.

McCain graduated from Annapolis (Nave school for the privileged) in the bottom one percent of his class. He was #894 of 899. It's hard to do much worse than he did at school.

Then how did he get a plum job as a fighter-pilot when those jobs are reserved for the best and the brightest? Well, he is a member of the Elite. He is an Elitist. His father and grandfather were both military men, well-connected in the military and they used their connections to garner some privilege for the not-very-bright little Johnny McCain.

Now, I don't happen to think there is anything wrong with leveraging family connections. But, McCain and his ilk pretend they have scraped and clawed their way to their powerful positions and liberals are somehow members of a secret elite that installs them in high places.

Nothing but the opposite is the truth.

McCain has gotten where he is because he is a man of privilege, raised by very powerful and well-connected people who pressured others to give little Johnny an advantage.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, was raised by a single mother and has worked very hard to get where he is.

Who's the elitist?

Here is a list of links:

McCain's father, John S. McCain, Jr.

McCain's grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr.

McCain's Secret, Questionable Record

Vietnam Vets Against McCain have produced a video about McCain.

Popbitch wrote this:

John McCain v Barack Obama

For anyone that didn't know. John McCain was at the bottom of his military class at Annapolis, but still got to pilot a fighter plan due to his father's connections. He is the son and the grandson of admirals. He finished 894 of 899 in his graduating class. Despite crashing five aircrafts, John McCain was never disciplined. And son-of-single-mother Obama is, of course, the privileged elitist.

John McCain: Unfit to serve as Commander-In-Chief

I'm just plain sick and tired of McCain, Bush and the rest of the so-called "conservatives" who are destroying our nation. No liberal has ever done the damage that has been done to our nation by "conservatives" and neo-cons since Ronald Reagan's presidency.

How's Business?

Our nation's economic growth has been reduced to the Three I's: Interest, Invasion, and Incarceration; and we don't do any of them very well.

We've destroyed the lucrative mortgage industry by deregulating the financial industry and allowing financial institutions to sell mortgages and loans that no person could ever hope to repay. This used to be called loan-sharking, now it's called a free market.

We have gutted our military's capabilities to such a degree that we no longer have cooks, armed guards, or mechanics that our own generals deem capable of running a war, so we contract those jobs to private corporations who charge us a fortune and deliver shoddy product.

And then we have incarceration, imprisonment. We in the home of the brave and the land of the free imprison more of our citizens than any other civilized nation in the world.

Add to our penchant for profiteering from incarceration our inability to control immigration and we have created a boom market for those interested in owning a prison.

Most of our prisons are over-crowded with people of color who have been convicted of drug charges (often relatively low-level drug charges). The new target demographic, however, is the immigrant of color who may or may not be here illegally. If you are an immigrant with brown skin, it may not matter that you are a naturalized citizen. There are myriad reports of legal immigrants being rounded-up, imprisoned and sometimes shipped off-shore (allegedly deported), irrespective of their residential status.

The only media covering this story with any verve and elan is The Nation, but now and then the mainstream media manage to take their heads out of their asses and carry a story about failures and abuses in the incarceration industry.

The New York Times recently published a story about Hiu Lui "Jason" Ng, a man who came here from China, sought political asylum as many from China do, was in the process of trying to get permanent status as he married an American citizen, and got entangled in the inefficiencies and drive for profits that define our current incarceration and immigration systems.

Born in China, he entered the United States legally on a tourist visa. Mr. Ng stayed on after it expired and applied for political asylum. He was granted a work permit while his application was pending, and though asylum was eventually denied, immigration authorities did not seek his deportation for many years.

Meanwhile, his sister said, Mr. Ng (pronounced Eng), who was known as Jason, graduated from high school in Long Island City, Queens, worked his way through community technical college, passed Microsoft training courses and won a contract to provide computer services to a company with offices in the Empire State Building.

In 2001, a notice ordering him to appear in immigration court was mistakenly sent to a nonexistent address, records show. When Mr. Ng did not show up at the hearing, the judge ordered him deported. By then, however, he was getting married, and on a separate track, his wife petitioned Citizenship and Immigration Services for a green card for him — a process that took more than five years. Heeding bad legal advice, the couple showed up for his green card interview on July 19, 2007, only to find enforcement agents waiting to arrest Mr. Ng on the old deportation order.

Over the next year, while his family struggled to pay for new lawyers to wage a complicated and expensive legal battle, Mr. Ng was held in jails under contract to the federal immigration authorities: Wyatt; the House of Correction in Greenfield, Mass.; and the Franklin County Jail in St. Albans, Vt.

Read more Ill and in Pain, Detainee Dies in U.S. Hands

It is easy to say that Ng was here illegally and should be deported, and I might agree with you. Where we fail as a nation, however, is that we have turned our governmental agencies away from providing services that build and protect our society and toward privatized industries focused not on making our nation great, but on generating profits for often unknown and usually invisible shareholders.

Is this any way to run a country? Is it even any way to run a business?

Wal-Mart is At It Again!

I received the following from the American Rights at Work organization by way of a message from my friend Ted, in Philadelphia.

This is important.

The right-wing has been tampering with elections for years, and they must be stopped.

Wal-Mart is telling its employees to vote against Democrats in the upcoming election.

Apparently Wal-Mart has been holding mandatory meetings with supervisors, threatening them that if they vote for pro-worker candidates like Barack Obama in November, the Employee Free Choice Act will pass, making it easier to form unions in Wal-Mart stores.

This is potentially illegal, and there's a petition to demand an investigation of Wal-Mart.

I just asked the Federal Election Commission to immediately investigate this story. No one should be told by their boss how to vote.

Sign by Thursday to have your name included in our petition delivery to the FEC. Click this link:

http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/FEC_WalMart

So, please take a moment to sign the online petition by clicking: http://action.americanrightsatwork.org/campaign/FEC_WalMart.

It's worth your effort!

Profits from the Iraq War

Privatization of government services is the most dangerous facet of the conservative agenda. Forget the dirty subways, collapsing bridges, failing schools, and corporate welfare, the problem of privatizing our military is dangerous and expensive.

I heard on the radio this morning that one dollar of five spent on the Iraq War (20%) is spent on private contractors who are providing services like cooking, bodyguards, and transportation. At up to twenty times the cost of having the military provide the same service.

Since when is the military unable to cook? Provide security? Drive trucks?

This is taking Reaganomics too far, and it endangers our national security far more than a band of mujaheddin, the homosexual agenda, all the abortionists, and rising energy costs combined!

I think it's extraordinarily dangerous when a nation begins to outsource its monopoly on the use of force and the use of violence in support of its foreign policy or national security objectives," says veteran U.S. Diplomat Joe Wilson, who served as the last U.S. ambassador to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

If we are allowing private corporations to operate as a military with impunity, who is to say where they will wage war, and for whom, next?

Outsourcing the military has never been a good idea and it is becoming increasingly dangerous as the conservatives are allowed to implement their corporate agenda without any oversight.

They've done it brilliantly: gut government agencies to prevent oversight, then privatize all the services, and there are no inspectors or auditors to get in the way of the fierce profiteering so lovingly adored by the right-wing.

Read this excellent article by Jeremy Scahill: Flush with Profits from the Iraq War, Military Contractors See a World of Business Opportunities.

People of America, your nation has been stolen from you.

Pay attention. Let your Congressional delegation know how you feel about the war and military spending.


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The Dark Side
Jane Mayer

The Bruce Ivins Incident

I know that it is the job of the media to further the government's official line. And although I know that has always been part of the media's job, it saddens me that it seems now to be their ultimate job.

I have been listening to NPR since my teens or early twenties. That's a lot of years. I have always enjoyed Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered.

I have been bothered by their coverage of the Bruce Ivins story.

Bruce Ivins was a scientist involved in the study of anthrax. He worked for the government. He became a suspect in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

I have always believed that the anthrax mailings were a scam by the GOP-led government to detract attention from Iraq planning, and to endanger, harm or kill, GOP opponents. I've never believed there was a "lone gunman" but I think the government needs to have a "lone gunman" to distract the public. I believe that Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are capable of plotting such an attack within our borders, I don't think they'd think twice about it, and I don't think the idiot sitting in the Oval Office would even be involved.

This can't be the story, though. Neither the press nor the government want any sloppy "conspiracy" stories spread around. There has to be some psychologically unstable genius, jilted by an employer or a lover, who has the ability to act out in a sophisticated way like anthrax mailings.

I expect Fox News and its kissing cousins CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS, to play along with the jilted lover/disgruntled employee story; but, I expect NPR to avoid jumping on the bandwagon. In a series of reports over the past week or so, NPR personalities Dina Temple-Raston, Laura Sullivan, Joanne Silberner and Renee Montagne, have discussed the federal case against Ivins, the so-called "results" of the federal investigation, and the reactions of family and lawyers, as if the government's story is completely accurate and needs no investigation.

In particular, I was disturbed by a "report" by Temple-Raston based on an interview with Ivins' brother, Charles. The presentation of the interview, the editing of the audio, and the conclusions were almost Fox-like in their tone. Temple-Raston seems to whole-heartedly embrace the government's story, the so-called 'evidence' and the 'affidavits' presented as facts. Over the past week, NPR has presented the government's case as a done-deal.

Isn't NPR the last mainstream media outlet we can rely upon to question government conclusions?

This is not the NPR I have known and loved and it bothers me that they are handling this story so meekly.

Am I alone in my discomfort?

Here are some links to NPR articles:

FBI Details Case Against Anthrax Suspect

Ivins' Lawyer Rebuts DOJ Anthrax Allegations

Anthrax Timeline

Fort Detrick: From Biowarfare To Biodefense

Charles Ives interview

American Family Association Thinks All Gays Are Homosexuals

I cannot confirm this story, but it is wonderfully funny and I have to share it.

From popbitch:

American Fuckwit Association
Watch Tyson Homosexual go for gold

The American Family Association is a pressure group which polices the entertainment industry about anything they think disses "traditional family values".

One of its bugbears is the appropriation of the word "gay" by gays. So the AFA website has a policy of always replacing the word "gay" with homosexual.

Recently the AFA website had a piece about the Olympics, more specifically 100m star Tyson Gay. Its auto-correct function got to work:

Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters faster than anyone ever has . . . "It means a lot to me," the 25-year-old Homosexual said. "I'm glad my body could do it, because now I know I have it in me."

That's wonderful! Don't know if it's true, but it's a wonderful story!

Bought by Big Oil

I received two emails yesterday with identical subject lines: "Bought by Big Oil."

The first was from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the other from my dear friend, Ted, in Philadelphia. Both discussed the obvious: Republican Senators take a lot of money from oil companies and work to pass laws that ensure huge profits for those oil companies, at the expense of the average citizen.

The site boughtbybigoil.com works to expose the relationships that elected officials maintain with oil companies.

Here are some tidbits from the site:

So-called conservative, Norm Coleman has accepted over $244,000 from the oil and gas industry. During his tenure in the Senate, gas prices have risen from $1.48 to $3.90 per gallon while oil companies have earned over half a trillion dollars in profits.

Since coming to Congress, Reaganite John Sununu has received $232,030 from the oil and gas industry. In May 2006, he voted $5 billion in tax breaks to oil companies over five years. Yet, as a reward for electing Sununu, middle-class Americans who need some relief from taxes have instead been rewarded with sky-rocketing gas prices.

The list goes on: Elizabeth Dole received a small fortune from the oil industry and voted for that $5 billion tax break. So did, Lamar Alexander, Jim Inhofe, Mitch McConnell, Saxby Chambliss, and many other notable Republicans.

I think it's important for Americans to discuss the tax breaks given to the oil industry at a time of record profits and soaring prices. Our government, under the "leadership" of George W Bush, has been bought and paid-for by the oil industry; and Bush has given us the best government money can buy.

The Bought By Big Oil site wants to promote the discussion of the influence of oil companies on our government. Click the link below to check them out:



If a Senator from your state is on that list, please consider supporting the Democrat running against them. The cost of gas is a huge issue and the current trend jeopardizes our national security, public safety, and entire way of life.

The oil companies need to be stopped.

Olympic thank you:

Thanks to readers who wrote to me and posted comments about my article "In Case You Needed Another Reason To Boycott the 2008 Olympics."

Many people are boycotting the opening ceremonies but watching their favorite competitions, one correspondent told me he has sent emails to all the corporate sponsors expressing his disdain for their support of the Games (an idea I always promote: let the advertisers know your feelings about their spending), only three people have told me they are boycotting out-right. I applaud the decision of those who take this position, especially the sports fans.

I have decided to watch some of the soccer matches. I am excited about the USA's Men's Olympic Team. I will not, however, watch any of the other events I have enjoyed in the past, not because I want to punish swimmers or divers, but because I want to actively choose what to watch, instead of just turing on the Olympics and letting them flow freely through my home and brain.

In Case You Needed Another Reason To Boycott the 2008 Olympics

It is the rare athlete who uses his public acclaim to try to make the world a better place. Arthur Ashe comes to mind, as do Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King.

There was the dramatic Olympian display by medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos who raised their black-gloved fists as a symbol of Black Power at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.

When athletes do make public their social or political stance on issues of the day, we usually punish them. The International Olympic Committee banned Smith and Carlos from the Olympic Games for life.

Olympic speed-skater gold medalist Joey Cheek, had his visa revoked by China, because he is an activist working to bring the world's attention to the problems in Darfur, Sudan. For those who may not know, Sudan is a close ally of China, and China has ignored global calls to pressure the Sudanese government to halt the genocide taking place there.

In a poised and humble statement, Cheek offered:

I am saddened not to be able to attend the Games. The Olympic Games represent something powerful: that people can come together from around the world and do things that no one thought were possible. However, the denial of my visa is a part of a systemic effort by the Chinese government to coerce and threaten athletes who are speaking out on behalf of the innocent people of Darfur."

See, China revokes visa of gold medalist, Darfur activist Cheek, at Yahoo! Sports.

Many organizations around the world have called for a boycott of the Games in China.

Have you decided whether or not to boycott?

I have not.

I have been excited about the US soccer teams playing to take home medals, and some of my favorite young players are on the Men's Olympic Team.

I am torn.

This news about Cheek, however, helps me lean towards a boycott.

Whether or not you are boycotting, please post a comment leting me know your position.

Freddie Mac CEO Was Warned Of Impending Problems

It doesn't surprise me that the guy running Freddie Mac ignored warning signs that the mortgage finance company was in financial danger. CEOs in America make decisions with impunity. If five or six million people suffer because of a CEO's bad decisions, then that is just the way the market works. Tough luck.

Sure, a CEO might lose his job (but, usually not). If a CEO fails and does lose his job he is usually rewarded with a handsome seven-or eight-figure severance package, irrespective of the losses to shareholders and consumers.

The chief executive of the mortgage giant Freddie Mac rejected internal warnings that could have protected the company from some of the financial crises now engulfing it, according to more than two dozen current and former high-ranking executives and others.

That chief executive, Richard F. Syron, in 2004 received a memo from Freddie Mac’s chief risk officer warning him that the firm was financing questionable loans that threatened its financial health.

Today, Freddie Mac and the nation’s other major mortgage finance company, Fannie Mae, are in such perilous condition that the federal government has readied a taxpayer-financed bailout that could cost billions. Though the current housing crisis would have undoubtedly caused problems at both companies, Freddie Mac insiders say Mr. Syron heightened those perils by ignoring repeated recommendations.
See, At Freddie Mac, Chief Discarded Warning Signs, at nytimes.com.

The mortgage finance company failures are particularly troublesome because not only do shareholders lose their money, but millions of working-class, er, sorry . . . , middle-class Americans lose their homes.

I am hard-pressed to believe there was not criminal intent at the highest levels of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns, and KPMG. I think these people knew exactly what they were doing once the financial industry was deregulated. I think they knew they could make bad decisions with impunity. and walk away with millions (billions?) of taxpayer dollars, leaving five percent of the American public without homes.

The media and the elected officials, of course, focus the story on the taxpayer bailout: what is the government going to do about it, and nobody is focusing on the long-term problem of regulating these guys.

I believe there should be no bail-out. I think the real estate and home mortgage markets should be left to do what they will. The "conservatives" always talk about the market self-regulating, and I think this is the time to test that.

Of course, Americans will ignore all the signposts that show we are addicted to interest and money, and they will vote for more Republicans, who will dig us deeper into this mess. And as government regulation is gutted, and consumer protections disappear, we can watch our tax dollars flow into the pockets of corporations who have no intention of playing fair.

When will somebody stand for change?


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"Homeowners with good credit are falling behind on their payments . . . "

The deregulation of the financial industry led to banks and other lenders changing the playing field on which we have always borrowed and repaid money.

The first wave of Americans to default on their home mortgages appears to be cresting, but a second, far larger one is quickly building.

Homeowners with good credit are falling behind on their payments in growing numbers, even as the problems with mortgages made to people with weak, or subprime, credit are showing their first, tentative signs of leveling off after two years of spiraling defaults.

The percentage of mortgages in arrears in the category of loans one rung above subprime, so-called alternative-A mortgages, quadrupled to 12 percent in April from a year earlier. Delinquencies among prime loans, which account for most of the $12 trillion market, doubled to 2.7 percent in that time.
Read Housing Lenders Fear Bigger Wave of Loan Defaults at nytimes.com

Before Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton destroyed America's economy with deregulation, a family would work hard, secure a mortgage, buy a home and become full participants in the American Dream and the vibrant American economy.

Unconventional mortgages have always existed, and they were always sold to people whose credit and income was "borderline." They were out-of-the-ordinary.

After deregulation, banks and other lenders abandoned the conventional mortgage in favor of the quick-profits potential of unconventional mortgages.

So, now it is not just people with sub-standard credit and income who are losing their homes to bad mortgages, now people with perfectly good credit and incomes are losing the battles against bad mortgages.

I know the so-called "conservatives" will say 'it's their own fault' for signing such bad mortgages; but, I argue that a civilized nation doesn't allow such business practices.

Nobody in 2008, however, would accuse America of being civilized.

"City Parks now offer Wireless Internet"

In my weekly mailing from popbitch, I learned about Kennesaw, Georgia. So, I went to wikipedia.org and read the Kennesaw, Georgia article. Most of the information in this article is from that wikipedia article.

Keenesaw's City Park, I learned, now offers WiFi. Which I think is impressive for such a small city.

The Civil War Battle of Kennesaw Mountain took place here.

I also learned that Keenesaw has been designated a "Preserve America" community.

The Preserve America initiative isn't actually meant to preserve anything, of course. It is meant to exploit the tourism opportunities of yet-unsullied and particularly beautiful or historic areas of our nation. Preserve America might better be called Exploit America. Be that as it may, Keenesaw is a Preserve America Community.

Keenesaw is the home of the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, which I would like to visit some day. I'm a fan of railroads and hope that the current social disaster of energy costs will lead to a railroad renaissance.

Moon's Station, the location where Andrew's Raiders stole a locomotive during the Civil War, is commemorated by a marker in Keenesaw.

Family Circle magazine selected Keenesaw as one of the nation's "10 Best Towns for Families," in 2007.

Working to preserve America and it's heritage, and to make the city one of the Best Towns for Families, the city passed a gun ordinance in 1982. The new law states that every head of household is required to maintain a gun and ammunition.

Now that's preservation!

What isn't clear to me is if, as a head of household, I am allowed to carry my gun while surfing the web in City Park.