White House Gate Crashers: Looking for Buyers

As quoted by the AP’s write David Bauder 2 hours ago:

“NEW YORK – The couple who crashed President Barack Obama’s first state dinner are peddling their story to broadcast networks for hundreds of thousands of dollars, a television executive says.

The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the network does not publicly discuss bookings, told The Associated Press that representatives for Michaele and Tareq Salahi contacted networks to urge them to “get their bids in” for an interview. The executive said the Virginia couple was looking for a payment in the mid-six figures range.”

Tell me this whole thing wasn’t planned by the Salahis!  Their 15 minutes of fame has turned into an hour now.

SHE wants to get on the  Bravo reality TV show, “Real Housewives of D.C.” I would hardly call her a ‘REAL” housewife of D.C.  She’s gone beyond ‘real’.

THEY are in debt to the six figure range, involved in  16 lawsuits which could cost them another 6 figure sum.

They chickened out of a Larry King Live interview, probably knowing that Mr. King would rip them and their plot to shreds.  I guess it’s on to “Oprah” next.

 

More Toxic Imports From China

Indoor environments are thought to be safe, right?  Not so if you have a house constructed with Chinese wallboard and ceiling tiles

Following the devastating hurricanes in the south in 2005,  and building supply shortages, millions of pounds of Chinese wallboard was imported.  It has been found to give off fumes ( strontium sulfide)  which corrode copper pipes,  emits a rotten egg stench, tarnish silver and make people sick.  Researchers have identified highly toxic compounds in the drywall, including hydrogen sulfide, sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide and carbon disulphide.   Investigators have found that the components, unlike U.S. manufactured wallboard, contained a coal product, fly ash, and have fumigants sprayed on the ingredients inside it.

This is just the latest in the round of contaminated Chinese products.  From baby formula to pet food ingredients, toys and cough syrup, U.S. officials are wondering ‘what’s next?’

What IS next?

The level of GREED and TOTAL DISREGARD for HUMAN LIFE from not only corporations here in America but overseas, has reached epidemic proportions.  Shortcuts are taken in secret to save money with no concern for  the potential for deaths and illness.  Chinese officials in the baby formula debacle purposely laced it with melamine to boost protein content.

Is nothing safe?

RANT: Medicine Bottles & Kids

WHY is it MY RESPONSIBILITY to struggle to get a bottle of aspirin open because some kid ate it and died?

Some ‘childproof’ containers are adult proof, too!  Vitamins, pain medication, household cleaners:  everything is sometimes so difficult to open you want to smash the container rather than have to try to get it open.

Back to the RESPONSIBILITY thing.  If YOU as a parent, leave the medicine or cleaning solutions where the kids can get at them – it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY – not the manufacturer’s!!!!  The manufacturer did NOT come into your home and shove half a bottle of medicine down your kid’s throat!  YOU are the idiot!  YOU left it where the kid could get into it.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE!

When I was a kid everything was kept out of reach.  There were no ‘kid locks’ on the cabinets.  All medicines were kept where my sister and I could not get to them.  We were TAUGHT – ‘never take medicine unless Mom, Dad or Grandma gives it to you.’

Nobody wants to be inconvenienced!  Nobody wants to take ANY responsibility for anything. It’s ALWAYS someone else’s fault.

No, America – YOU are a bunch of IDIOTS!  Quit pointing your fingers at manufacturers, blaming them for what should be YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.  Whatever happened to ‘buyer beware?’  The legal system has turned it into ‘manufacturer beware’ because of the stupidity and irresponsibility of consumers.

We should go back to having lids on things that we can open and if your kid eats/drinks something – as the irresponsible parent – you should be fined or thrown in jail!

Stupidity Clause in Lawsuits!

I missed my calling. I could have been RICH by now!   I should have gone to college and been a lawyer because in our society if something happens,  it’s THE OTHER GUY’S FAULT…, not ours!

Case in point:  I just heard about a mother who is suing the Chuck E. Cheese franchise because her kid was hurt when other kids fell on her in the play area.  BTW – this happened in 2006.  This sounds like a case of the PARENT not assessing the situation and getting the little darling out of the group because of overcrowding. Instead, this woman says is is the establishment’s fault.  DUH???  Whatever happened to PARENTING?

We’ve ALL heard about the McDonald’s coffee-in-the-lap lawsuit.  That seemed to be the landmark turning point for ridiculous litigation.  Sure…, coffee is hot and of course you don’t want to hold up a line in the drive through so you tuck it between your legs to get out of the way.  OH !!! It’s HOT???? Gee – isn’t coffee supposed to BE hot? You dumped it on your crotch?  Now, thaaaaat’s a shame.  As much as I dislike Mickey’s for some of their food lies they’ve proffered and the crap they sell – I side with them on this one!

We’ve become a nation of sissies…. of whiners, of finger-pointing opportunists.  We’ve forgotten that SOMETIMES, something just may BE an ACCIDENT!

The parents of a boy injured in a Little League game when he was struck by a pitch (an ACCIDENT) feel that they HAVE to sue.  Why?  Yes, their son was seriously hurt, but the boy who threw the pitch was a best friend of their son, who admitted tearfully that he didn’t mean to do it.  Now, though, the other boy’s parents are out for blood.  WHY?  This was an accident…. an ACCIDENT! What is so horrific about that?  It’s not like the kid picked up a bat and intentionally pummeled the other kid!  For God’s sake – have you people lost your minds?

Unless you keep your kid in a plastic bubble, they’re GONNA come home with injuries.  It’s a part of  just being a kid!

When I was a kid we were always doing dumb kid things and getting hurt.     Kids are just being KIDS!  They are gonna fall off the end of the slide at school and land on their butt! They are going to run too fast and fall down in the schoolyard.   They’re gonna try to jump over the dog shit on the school bus steps as they’re getting off and hit their head on the top of the doorway, then fall down on the freshly paved street (tar and gravel) and skin both knees!  Do you sue the school bus company?  No, because your kid (me) did something DUMB and, yes, hurt themselves.  No – you just clean and bandage the cut on the top of their head and bandage their knees, and tell them to step around the crap on the stairs next time!

The ‘gun’ thing gets me too.  If somebody gets shot, the victim’s relatives want to sue the gun manufacturer.  Oh – I get it – they must make guns that can SHOOT BY THEMSELVES now…. that’s right!

Give me a break!

We absolutely CANNOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OURSELVES.  It is always somebody else’s fault.  Look at the WARNINGS on everything.  HOT!  SHARP EDGES!  DO NOT USE (a hair dryer)  WHILE BATHING!  DO NOT USE WHILE SLEEPING!  Every instruction booklet with products is half instructions (in other languages) and half warnings to try to cover all the bases in case of a lawsuit!  They try to come up with every conceivable stupid and idiotic situation that some moron – or – totally inattentive person will possibly come up with.  It’s not your fault if you don’t pay attention while operating a power saw and cut your fingers off – it’s the COMPANY’S FAULT!  Huh?

The legal system needs to revamp the rules on frivolous lawsuits.  The stuff that people sue for is ridiculous and is clogging up the courts.  The amounts awarded are insane!  How can this be allowed when much of the time it is the USER not the product that is at fault!  Still, millions are awarded every day to stupid, inattentive people.  They don’t watch their kids and the kids get hurt – they sue and win!  Everybody is out to make the big bucks in a lawsuit.  God – some of the things people have sued for – I’d be EMBARRASSED to admit I was so stupid to let a dumb accident happen!

Parents – you should be ashamed of yourselves!  If you have sued or are about to sue for some totally outrageous situation, you are teaching your kids that it is acceptable. It shows that a reward can be gotten at the expense of another.    What you don’t realize is that it teaches your kid they don’t have to be responsible for their actions;  that is never their fault, that’s it OK to blame someone.  Teaching ‘them’ a lesson is teaching your kids the wrong one!  It’s dishonest and wrong!

TAKE RESPONSIBILITY, Americans!  Admit you’re a dumb ass, you messed up…, that YOU GOOFED!

STOP BLAMING SOMEONE ELSE FOR YOUR STUPIDITY, BAD PARENTING or INATTENTIVENESS!

This is YOUR FOOD We’re Talking About

Corporate America is trying to take one more step to control food.  Small farmers are being threatened yet again by the federal government.  NAIS (National Animal Identification System)  is supposed to provide protection against these food recalls by tracking ‘food’ (in this case, animals) for their life.  Every time an animal is moved, mounds of paperwork have to be completed – for EACH animal. Moreoever – once again – this hurts the people who can least afford it – the SMALL FARMER.

Think it WON’T AFFECT YOU?

Think again.

If your kids have pet rabbits,  if you have a few chickens you keep for eggs or maybe you have a cow or two.  Goats for milking?  Those, too, will be required to be tagged and tracked.

No – what we do NOT need is NAIS.  We need BETTER conditions for these animals to begin with.  Not crowded, disease promoting facilities which harbor dangerous bacteria with lax monitoring systems!  The FDA and USDA cannot do it’s job, so they want to punish the small farmers and impose MORE TAXES on the American people.

Go to Organic Consumers to read more and tell your friends and contact your representatives!  Don’t let AGRIBUSINESS buy the saftey of the American people again!

We Are All LAB RATS

YOU and I are lab rats.  Your KIDS are lab rats, too. Unless you grow and consume all your food yourself, YOU are held hostage by the food companies.

Think about it.  Everything thing you eat -  e v e n   those so-called ‘natural’ or ‘organic’ foods probably are tainted in some way with something.

I know too much.  I have my roots in the local food movement, but they stretch way back to the environmental movement.  What I do here, and on my website an other blogs, is try to EDUCATE.

For the most part, the average consumer has their head up their butt when it comes to food and the environment.  They think it’s not their problem, that it doesn’t concern them and that it doesn’t affect them.

Do you send your kids to public  school? Do they play sports?  Do they eat school food?  Do you take them to fast food joints?  What do you buy for them at the  grocery store? Do you eat in restaurants? What DO you eat when you eat? What DO you drink when you drink?

What about your home life?  What products do you buy:  laundry detergent, body care products, beauty products, perfumes, lotions, hair dye, nail polish?  What do you paint your walls with?  Where did you get your furniture? Do you use any bug killing preparations?  What about your lawn?  Do you have a lawn care service and do you KNOW what they put on your lawn?  Have you had a pest company assure you their ‘chemicals’ are safe around kids and pets?  Do you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot and buy lawn care products to keep the nasty bugs away?  Do your KIDS PLAY ON YOUR LAWN?

Where do YOU choose to shop?  Is Wally-World your best buddy because you have fallen victim and been brainwashed by their  ‘save money, live better’  catchphrase?

Big business, especially the likes of Wal-Mart, does NOT give a shit about you.  Look at the way they treat their own employees?  They’ve been convicted on a vast array of charges in recent years of labor violations.  Going waaaay back, and I have a copy of the article in my files here…. they even wanted to move a Native American cemetery because they wanted to build a store!  Do you think, in this day of corporate greed, that it’s gotten any better, that they’ve become a kinder, more gentler Wally?

There are numerous links detailing environmental disregard -and- total disregard for human life on this planet BY food companies and agricultural chemical companies.  You and I and this planet are being POISONED by thousands of chemicals a day because the likes of Monsanto and Bayer… those kindly aspirin people.

DO THE RESEARCH.  Do it for your kids, your friends, your family, your friends and if you care enough – our planet.

Go GETTUM Sen. McCaskill!

This is for my friend at Bank of America!

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2009/01/30/sot.mccaskill.on.wall.st.cnn

No Universal Health Care in the US

I am one step away from financial ruin.

I have no health insurance.  If I am involved in an automobile accident or am diagnosed with a terminal illness, I will lose my house and everything I own.  Since the value of my home has been reduced in this awful economy, and I  have no job and have been forced to start living off my investments which were to be my retirement, I stand on the precipice of disaster.

There won’t be any universal health care in the US because it’s not profitable.

Health care interests on Capitol Hill buy our legislators because universal health care would threaten their profits. They don’t make money  if they have to pay a claim, and they are very adept at denials.

I just finished watching Michael Moore’s “SICKO”.  No wonder why people don’t like him.  He tells the truth!  If you haven’t seen it, get on Netflix and order it.  It will make you mad!

The detainees at Guantanamo Bay – the terrorists at ‘Gitmo’ receive better care than the average American. In the video there was testimonial on the care these prisoners receive.  It was astonishing to see that they were looked after in a manner in which we Americans don’t ever know.  Preventative care, which is not the way of Western medicine, was routine here.

Moore also visited with many families who were denied care despite orders from their doctors.  Interviews with health care providers:  policy underwriters, actuaries and others who determine who gets care or coverage, if any.  The list of exclusions for one company probably was in the hundreds.  It was the job of another professional to find one crack; anything in past history in which to use against an insured to deny coverage. One woman with ovarian cancer was denied treatment because she’d had a yeast infection in the past!

There was a scene in which 4 women, all with health insurance, had been diagnosed with various forms of cancer. Ovarian and brain cancers had befallen two of them.  Two others had rare forms of the illness.  Their treatments were all denied because insurance companies listed chemo as either ‘not medically necessary’ or ‘experimental.’ WHAT???

Moore next visited England where he spoke with a former member of the government.  This man provided an interesting thought:

“If a country can find money to kill people in war, whey can’t they find money to heal?”

Interesting point.

Our medical system here focuses on treating people after they become ill, not in preventing the illness in the first place.  Eastern medicine, in China, for instance, does the opposite.  With natural remedies, some going back thousands of years, supplemented by modern medicine, preventative medicine is the key.

Moore took four 9/11 rescuers, all suffering from respiratory illnesses and PTSD to the waters outside Guantanamo Bay.  Over a bullhorn, he demanded the same care for these people that the prisoners at Gitmo got.  No response.

Next he took them to Cuba to be evaluated – for free – even though they were not Cuban citizens.  It didn’t matter, they were told.  With a reassuring tone, all 9/11 survivors were checked out in the hospital.  Diagnoses confirmed, they received instructions and medication.  One woman’s medication in the U.S. for one medicine, was $120.  The same medicine from a Cuban doctor was FIVE CENTS.

He visited England and France where nationalized health care is the norm.  People are not denied care.  In most cases it was either free or participants paid according to what they could afford but always received the care that they needed.  They were never told their care was unnecessary;  coverage was never denied.  True, taxes there are much higher than here.

It is a ‘we’ system instead of a ‘me’ system.  The United States has a ‘me’ system.  The ‘ME’ is the insurance companies who are ‘for profit’, looking out for ‘me’ (them) first.

This is a sad state we’re in.  I don’t know how to fix it but just hope that I don’t end up like the woman discharged from a California hospital.  She was put in a cab, still in her hospital gown and dumped at a shelter.  Another woman, suffering from broken ribs, broken collarbone and injuries to her face and head was dumped at the same facility.

They could not pay their hospital bills.

Disposable Workers

Have you heard this fairy tale?

A long, long time ago, in a far off land called the United States of America, people had jobs with companies who treated them like humans.  They could get a job and work there for the rest of their lives.  Unless they did something really bad, like steal or go to bed with the boss’ wife and get caught -  they could be assured this job for as long as they wanted it. All they had to do was show up every day and work as hard as they could.

Then one day, an ogre appeared.  It decided it was best for the company if it acted in its best interests.  Too bad about the employees, they’re just numbers on a time card, aren’t they?  They can’t have any feelings!

If the company could hire  new workers and pay them less, that would make it better for the business.  They found a lot of ways to get rid of the good, but over- paid workers and keep those out who wanted more than they were willing to pay.

It didn’t matter if the bosses made their jobs miserable.  If the workers quit, they could get NEW ones!  It didn’t matter if the good ones left.  They could get NEW ones and pay them less.

These big companies didn’t care if workers tried to have a life outside of the workplace.  It was too bad if the scheduling wasn’t feasible for the employee.  It doesn’t matter if there is nobody to take care of the kids because both parents have to work the same hours.  Surely you can pay for day care, can’t you?

We have a New idea:  let’s have the COMPUTER make up the schedules!  That way we won’t have to pay anyone to do it.  The computer can do it a lot faster.  It doesn’t matter if the computer has no knowledge of the employee’s situation.  Oh – an employee lives too far to work till after 11 and be back on the job at 6 in the morning?  Oh that’s silly – people can function of 2 hours of sleep and still be a courteous customer service associate, can’t they?  You love your job, don’t you?  You need your job, don’t you?

You have a medical condition,  &  yes, we see that you’ve brought a doctor’s letter with his recommendations.  Well, we’ll take care of that.  We’ll just interpret it to our benefit.  We’ll take every line, word for word and tell you what it really means.  If you don’t like it – there’s the door!

We’re going to save money on medical insurance.  We’ve decided that you have to work 40 hours to qualify – but – sssshhhhhhh, don’t tell anyone – we won’t hire anyone to work more than 35!  Now we can get out of paying 95% of our workers medical insurance!  After all, don’t we want to give our customers “low prices, always’ and continue ‘improving home improvement?’  After all, ‘you can do it, we can help,’  isn’t that right? We know our employees will say ‘I’m lovin’ it’ because we let them work here. We can’t let them ‘have it your way’, can we?

Your TOASTER Could Burn Your House Down!

First off, I would like to WARN everybody to UNPLUG household appliances that make heat. Toasters, toaster ovens, coffee makers, irons with automatic shut offs,  electric heaters, curling irons and hair dryers.

My toaster almost burned my house down!

It was the day after Christmas a few years ago.  I’d gone out for my usual morning walk at 6am.  When I got back it smelled like I’d left the coffee pot on and it was burning.  Going into the kitchen, the room was filled with smoke. I looked all around the room to see what was burning.  The last object I got to was the toaster.  The top was melted!

I ran over to see that the coils inside were RED.  The damn thing was ON, but I hadn’t used it in DAYS!  Yanking the cord out of the wall I chucked the blasted thing across the room!  Then I pitched it outside.

I was really shaken.  Since I was a kid I’ve always been afraid of fire.  The thing which scared me most was, had this been two days earlier (Christmas Eve)  I would have already been out the door to go to work! Being that my house sits way back from the road, it is very unlikely that my neighbors would have seen any fire in time to save the house.  All the cats inside would have died!

The toaster was made by Black and Decker.  It was only THREE MONTHS OLD.

The next day I e-mailed B&D to tell them that their toaster almost burned my house down.  At the same time I went on the Consumer Products Safety Commission website and  filled out a report because I wanted everyone to know about what had just happened.

I got a phone call from the CPSC the next day and was interviewed about the toaster.  They wanted it.  They were even willing to send someone to where I worked to get it.  SURE !!  Anything I could do to let the public know about something that was defective.  The appointment was set for Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Black and Decker e-mailed me and wanted the toaster.  I told them – NO WAY, JOSE…, because I was reporting this incident to the CPSC.  I bet they weren’t happy.

The man from the CPSC took a full report on the toaster:  It hasn’t been used in 5 days.  No, the cats hadn’t pushed the toast lever down.  It wasn’t knocked over; nothing fell on it.  I told him it was right where it always sat.  He asked to see the receipt and verified that it was 3 months old.  Then he wrote me a check for the amount I paid and also filled me in on some info that I want to impart to everyone:

Everything that has a switch in it has the potential to fail.  If the device makes heat this makes it even more dangerous. (this is one reason why I’ve never liked the idea of Crock Pots!)  When a switch fails there is nothing to keep it ‘off.’  It will turn itself on.  He advised me to unplug everything that makes heat when ‘on’: coffee makers, hair dryers, curling irons, irons,  all electric heaters, toaster ovens and especially toasters, when not in use.  He said that toasters had gotten better over the years but they still pose a hazard.

I was lucky.  There were 9 fires reported from these toasters.  The CPSC  issued a recall for all that model of Black and Decker toasters.  (They should stick to making hedge trimmers!) Consumer Reports also posted it under ‘recalls’ on their site.

If you have an instance like this - REPORT IT, don’t toss the appliance out thinking it doesn’t matter. YOU MAY SAVE SOMEONE’S LIFE.

Oh – a few weeks later, I got a check from Black and Decker.

They got off cheap: $14.95

A lawsuit would have been much more!