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Holiday Message from Dave/Me/Santa

Anna — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:00:40 +0000

Recorded on the street after dinner at Gingergrass last week, my friend Dave did a weird Santa impression to deliver a heartfelt message to me and the guests of the annual cookie-making party I would attend later that week. I know his Santa sounds like the goofy, claymation-style Mr. Claus, but I recorded it with Droid (my new phone) which makes me feel accomplished.

And it’s a nice message about friendship and getting Santa’s approval. I want to share the general idea of this greeting with you.

For more of David ‘Dave’ Anderson’s voice, check out the web series that he created and stars in: U.S. of Anderson. The series is charming, smart and fun without losing sight of story. I want to see what happens next to Dave and Nikolai, Dave’s sidekick from Russia!

The series isn’t trying to shock or provoke like lots of web content. I appreciate the episodes (new every Monday) because of their cleverness, warmth and likable characters. Dave captures LA like his blog does — from the fresh, objective perspective of a observant transplant (he is a proud Minnesotan) but with appreciation and wonder. He’s unsoured by the bitterness and desperation prevalent in this town.

Plus, the opening stop motion is very fun even though it’s not actual stop motion; he told me their trick. Very clever, Mr. Anderson!

I Don't Know

quiethouses — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:23:09 +0000

I’m your biggest fan
I’ll follow you until you love me
Papa, paparazzi

Yesterday was alright. I realize that my hopes were to high, but the night turned out to be pretty good. At first, we were at one of my friend’s house, dancing and drinking to get in the right mood. That was really fun. Even though neither E, P or W were present. After a while, we all went to the place where the ball was being held. It was a bit chaotic at first, but we found our VIP seats in the end. In my opinion, the dinner was a bit too long; I sobered up before we even got to dance. By this time I had located both W and E, but couldn’t see P. Anyways, most of the speeches were good, if you doesn’t count one that was being held by two way too drunk girls. Fun.

After a long long long time of eating dinner and listening to speeches, it was time to dance. It wasn’t that fun to begin with; the music wasn’t any good, and there were way too few people on the dance floor. I danced a lot with the girls, which was fun. Around 12 they started to play music which I actually enjoy dancing to, and a lot more people joined the dancing. And then I danced with P. For quite a while. And I don’t know anymore. He asked how I was, and I said I was fine. Which I was. Dancing with him is always something, weird and fun at the same time. I never know (understand) if he is interested in me, or what he is. He is kind of cute, I’d admit that. Anyway, I spotted W several times, and that put me in a very awkward situation. They’re both so hard to understand.

After a while (felt like forever and a second at the same time), P had to go and we hugged and then I stood there alone. I then noticed that I was really thirsty, like desert-in-my-mouth-thirsty, so I went to get something to drink. Standing there, W suddenly showed up. I felt like smiling, and I couldn’t really understand why. I gave him my glass, because there wasn’t really any other glasses left, and he gave me his wonderful smile. I could have died right there. If I hadn’t taken my pumps off earlier, I’m sure I would’ve tripped. Anyway, we talked for a while about how the evening had been. I wanted it to last longer. One of the girls came from nowhere, and a sudden awkwardness came upon us. He said he had to go, and gave me a kiss on the cheek (he gave my friend one as well, but you know). Cute.

Well, I couldn’t see E anywhere. Besides, I remember giving him up. Or did I?

–

The Reason I Haven't Given Up Yet

Anna — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:39:57 +0000

Despite the sexist state of the entertainment industry, I can’t throw in the towel just because I’m a chick who directs. Who would help lead the revolution?

PS – The Hollywood stats revealed below make my AFI directing class of 28 with 6 women directors seem progressive.

WOMEN IN THE SEATS BUT NOT BEHIND THE CAMERA

By MANOHLA DARGIS

NYT, December 13, 2009

IN March 1993 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that hands out Oscars, decided it was a good time to celebrate women. It wasn’t an original idea: 1992 had been popularly known as the year of the woman in politics, partly because of the number of new women elected to the Senate that year (4!) and the House (24!). Now the academy was joining the fun with the show “Oscar Celebrates Women and the Movies.” The host, Billy Crystal, rose to the occasion with quintessential Hollywood class. “Some of the most-talked-about women’s parts,” he joked, bada-boom, “are Sharon Stone’s in ‘Basic Instinct.’ ”

It should be more difficult for Oscar and his pals to ignore women’s non-pulchritudinous contributions to cinema when the awards roll around this March. Certainly women have been a considerable force this year, whether flocking to “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” in record numbers or helping to turn “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” from an unknown quantity into the most passionately debated women’s picture in memory. Meryl Streep (in “Julie & Julia”) and Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) have scooped up loads of critical love. And Sandra Bullock, at 45, has hit gold with “The Proposal” and, more recently, “The Blind Side,” in which she plays a sexy Christian mother who, from her faith to her high heels and gun, is right out of the Sarah Palin playbook.

“New Moon” and “The Blind Side” might not make a lot of critics’ Top 10 lists, but their popularity with audiences is good for women in film — and might be too great for even Hollywood to ignore. For years the received wisdom, both in the industry and the press that covers it, has been that women don’t go to the movies and can’t open movies. Although recent hits like “The Devil Wears Prada,” “Sex and the City” and “Mamma Mia!” have helped put a dent in that thinking, it will take more than millions of teenage girls (and their moms) squealing in delight at sparkly vampires and hairy beasties with swollen deltoids before real change will come to American movie screens. Women need to develop their own muscles.

I’m not talking about those buff babes who pop up in adolescent fantasies, licking their lips as they lock and load; I’m talking about movies made for and with women. I’m also talking about movies directed by women. Here’s a little history: Only three women have been nominated as directors by the academy in 81 years: Lina Wertmüller for “Seven Beauties” in 1976; Jane Campion for “The Piano” in 1993; and Sofia Coppola for “Lost in Translation” in 2003. None won. At a glance this year looks promising, with high-profile titles like Kathryn Bigelow’s “Hurt Locker,” Nora Ephron’s “Julie & Julia,” Lone Scherfig’s “Education” and Ms. Campion’s “Bright Star,” all of which have been too successful, critically and commercially, to dismiss.

Sounds good. Sounds like progress too. Yet the closer you look at the list of female filmmakers from this year, and the more you separate the breathless hype about the better-known “femme-driven pics,” to use a favorite Variety locution, the worse the numbers get. Of the almost 600 new movies that will be reviewed in The New York Times by the end of 2009, about 60 were directed by women, or 10 percent. Some are foreign directors, like Claire Denis (“35 Shots of Rum”) and Lucrecia Martel (“The Headless Woman”); others are documentary filmmakers, including Agnès Varda (“The Beaches of Agnès”) and Aviva Kempner (“Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg”). Many received modest releases; I bet you never heard about, much less saw, most of them.

Bigger, not surprisingly, doesn’t mean better, at least for women. Only a handful of female directors picked up their paychecks from one of the six major Hollywood studios and their remaining divisions this year: 20th Century Fox had “Jennifer’s Body” (Karyn Kusama) and “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” (Betty Thomas), while Fox Searchlight had “Amelia” (Mira Nair), “Post Grad” (Vicky Jenson) and “Whip It” (Drew Barrymore). Anne Fletcher directed “The Proposal” for Disney, while the studio’s once-lustrous division, Miramax Films, continued on its death march without any help from female directors. Ms. Ephron’s “Julie & Julia” was released by Sony Pictures while the art-house division Sony Pictures Classics released “An Education” (Ms. Scherfig), “Coco Before Chanel” (Anne Fontaine) and“Sugar” (Anna Boden, directing with Ryan Fleck). Universal Pictures has Nancy Meyers’s “It’s Complicated”; its specialty unit Focus Features has no female directors.

Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Pictures, meanwhile, did not release a single film directed by a woman. Not one.

Feeling queasy yet? Resigned? Indifferent? A little angry? The usual line on Hollywood is that it cares only about box office, which is at once true and something of a convenient excuse. Money makes the movie world go round, sure. But there are exceptions to this perceived rule, as some of my favorite male directors, including Michael Mann, have routinely proved with various box office disappointments. Released in 2001, Mr. Mann’s “Ali,” a well-regarded if not universally beloved biography of Muhammad Ali with Will Smith, brought in nearly $88 million in global receipts. (The production budget, partly paid for by Sony, was an estimated $107 million.) The next year Ms. Bigelow’s independently financed “K-19: The Widowmaker,” a submarine adventure movie with Harrison Ford, was released to solid reviews, raking in just under $66 million globally (with a $100 million production budget).

What did a $22 million difference in box office mean for the directors of “Ali” and “K-19”? Well, Ms. Bigelow didn’t direct another feature until 2007, when she began “The Hurt Locker,” a thriller about a bomb squad in Iraq that was bankrolled by a French company and is said to cost under $20 million. For his part Mr. Mann directed “Collateral,” a thriller with Tom Cruise, for Paramount and DreamWorks (with a budget of $65 million and global box office of more than $217 million), and “Miami Vice,” a reimagining, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, of Mr. Mann’s popular 1980s television series. Paid for by Universal, that movie cost $135 million and is considered a disappointment with about a $164 million worldwide take.

I imagine there are a host of reasons why Mr. Mann has been able to persuade executives to keep writing such large checks. He’s a dazzling innovator, and big stars keep flocking to his side, despite his reputation for difficulty. But Ms. Bigelow is one of the greatest action directors working today, and it’s hard not to wonder why failure at the box office doesn’t translate the same for the two sexes.

I hope the big checks keep coming for Mr. Mann. But I also hope that the money people, including Ms. Bullock, whose production company actually makes hits, like “The Proposal,” start giving female filmmakers a chance to do something other than dopey romances. (Good romances would be a nice start.) Every so often a new female filmmaker grabs the spotlight — remember Kimberly Peirce, the director of “Boys Don’t Cry”? — only to sputter and fade. If you have ever wondered what ever happened to Susan Seidelman, Penny Marshall, Martha Coolidge, Amy Heckerling, Nancy Savoca, none of whom had the career they should have had, you’re not alone. Come back, Barbra, we miss you! But does Ms. Streisand, who was never nominated for best director, miss Hollywood? I doubt it.

This isn’t just about money, or even male sexism. There have been women running studios on and off since 1980, when Sherry Lansingbecame the president of 20th Century Fox. But trickle-down equality doesn’t work in Hollywood, even when women are calling the shots and making the hires, as they presumably did a few years ago, when four out of the six big studios were run by women. Fat good it did the rest of us. Now, there’s just Amy Pascal, a co-chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. In the 1990s Ms. Pascal made movies like“Little Women” and “A League of Their Own.” In recent years, however, Sony has become a boy’s club for superheroes like Spider-Man and funnymen like Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow.

It’s hard to know why women have fared so badly in Hollywood in the last few decades, though any business that refers to its creations as product cannot, by definition, have much imagination. The vogue for comics and superheroes has generally forced women to sigh and squeal on the sidelines. Even the so-called independent sector, with its ostensibly different players and values, hasn’t been much better, as we know from all the female directors who have made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival only to disappear. New digital technologies and the Internet have leveled the field — though usually it seems as if it’s sheer grit that pushes filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt (“Wendy and Lucy”) along the hard road from idea to distribution.

In 1920 an American actress turned director named Ida May Park published an essay for a book titled “Careers for Women,” in which she warned other women about her chosen path. “Unless you are hardy and determined,” she wrote, “the director’s role is not for you. Wait until the profession has emerged from its embryonic state and a system has been evolved by which the terrific weight of responsibility can be lifted from one pair of shoulders. When that time comes I believe that women will find no finer calling.”

There are women who would agree with Park’s conclusions, or would if they could get the chance to direct. The problem is, 90 years later, women have advanced while much of the movie industry has not.

The Mess of Finish Line Fever

Anna — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:09:45 +0000

I’m wrapping out APPOINTMENT IN VANCOUVER from the Big Mac’s desktop, external hard drive, etc. The system is definitely a mess but somehow decipherable by me, like how my room would be after Finals Week. Back then, if I needed that super, super, super important book to quickly annotate I knew it was shoved under the couch next to the two month-old GLAMOUR. In a post-project/finals jumble like this, there is a maddening lack of separation between crucial resources and insignificant trash.

For us with AIV, I think we made a mess because we thought we could see the finish line. I believe this is a mirage often imagined in post-production. It’s akin to a recent broken-hearted thinking she’s spotted her ex-love buying avocados at the market even though he hated avocados. Or like the Bush administration with WMD. Wishful thinking is a powerful hallucinogen.

You begin thinking that if you complete that and send this and output those, you’ll be DONE in 20 minutes! Four days later, you’re grasping at the “20 minutes and then we’ll be done” fantasy. Editors build immunity to this Finish Line Fever, but directors and producers seem particularly susceptible to the infection.

In the “we’ll be done in 20 minutes” frenzy, you become hasty with your organization. Heck, you’re going to be done in 20 minutes, why would you move that new file off the desktop? You’re only going to be using it for another 20 minutes!

Do not call this behavior “sloppy.” You are the opposite. Right now, in the final hours, you know this system so well it’s like you’re speaking FLUENTLY in the same secret language. You may even show off — “Oh, you want to hear the music for Cue 7 with vocals?” A second later, you readily locate it in a folder titled “Msc_V2_Best.” You and this project can finish each other’s sentences right now.

But you are doomed to regret your bravado because this beautiful understanding of a slapdash system is fleeting. You can speak the language for only as long as you are actively in the relationship. And this relationship is only going to last 20 more minutes.

Like many real-life relationships, when you stop spending quality time together, you’re connection fades. Soon you don’t recognize each other or even remember how you could communicate so fluently before. You certainly won’t remember what was in “Msc_V2_Best” or why you gave that folder such a vague, unhelpful name.

Though I’m planning on leaving this project, it’s best for me to keep the flame alive a little longer while I sort everything out. Then, we can go our separate ways, fall in love with other projects and look back on our romance fondly.

KDawg The Christ

KDawg — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:43:22 +0000

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Jonas Brothers are NOT the second coming of Christ. I also

The Feeling Is Ignored

quiethouses — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:54:26 +0000

Don’t worry
The word dreamt
He’s the word dreamt
Now I’m lost
You now have to find me

Disconnected. DISTANT. Thinking about him. Hoping that he misses me. That he is thinking about me. Wishes I was there with him. And then I realize that it’s all in my head?

Or is it?

How do I know? I don’t know. I will not know.

He. Is there. So close. So near. So far away. Will. Never. Happen. Keep giving up, but then he is suddenly there again. Smiling. Seeing right through me again. Reaching out his hand to me. I want to take it, but I’m hesitating. Don’t know if I’m willing to come with. And as I’m reaching for his hand, he fades away. Apart. And then it starts all over again.

Maybe I should be thinking about something else.

–

The Most Ridiculous Repulsive Games

quiethouses — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:46:43 +0000

You entertaining any doubts,
’cause you had to know that I was fond of you.
Fond Of Y-O-U

Badmbsht. Fail. Oh yes. Got a text from W this evening. Kind of cute. I thought he didn’t notice me anymore. I saw him earlier this day, but we just smiled at each other and nothing more. Turns out we’re maybe going to the same party tomorrow, so if I’m lucky I’ll see him there. I’m so insecure about all this. I don’t know what he wants, what he is thinking or what he thinks about me. I don’t know what I am thinking either, so I guess that’s it. Well, well.

Goodnight and go.

–

Addendum to "My Mumbling Friends"

Anna — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:01:09 +0000

The “Lost Dog” segment of THE SNAKE (directed/written by Eric Kutner and referenced in this post by me) IS a featured video on Funny or Die. Share the link on to your friends and your not-so-much-friends-but-really-just-Facebook-friends:

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/f8ecf3d4b1/the-snake-searches-for-his-lost-dog

You (and said friends) can follow THE SNAKE on Facebook or visit the website.

Joke of the Day 7/12/09

nandosgirl — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 07:53:18 +0000

The way it is

Mythical Adventures

KDawg — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 17:11:48 +0000

Myth: Iran poses a serious nuclear threat Fact: As much as the United States would like to you to

Is That Alright?

quiethouses — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:02:28 +0000

We all makes mistakes once in a while

once in a while

We all makes mistakes once in a while

and there’s nothing to do about that.

You're Doing It Now

quiethouses — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:56:05 +0000

No lyrics today.

A day off. Didn’t get to do all the things I wanted, but so be it.

I had a theory about life earlier this day, but I have now forgotten what it was. That’s ironic. My life is so unexpected. I just never know what’s next. Not inside, nor outside. Besides it tends to be messy. Sometimes I don’t know what’s happening, and I just give up. I feel like there’s no connection between what I’m feeling, and what I do. Like something isn’t right.

–

Are You?

quiethouses — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 23:10:03 +0000

Tall just like a giraffe
You have to climb to find its head
But if there’s a glitch
You’re an ostrich
You’ve got your head in the sand

I love Mew. I fell in love, and now I can’t stop thinking about them. I just want to stay with them forever. The feeling they give me. No words. No words. I’m afraid of getting to tired of them, but I keep telling myself to enjoy it while I can. Well, I think they’ll always be in my heart.

Well, so far this weekend has been pretty good. We were supposed to party last Friday, but we ended up drinking and just going home. W was really sweet, and I wonder what he is thinking. I don’t know what I am thinking. Other than that I think he is sweet. So sweet. Hm, I don’t know if he’s interested or not. I’ll have to see how this develops, and then I’ll get back.

And I hope it works out for I and B, as I said to I earlier, I’m their biggest fan.

No, no, no, no, I have to sleep. Work tomorrow. And dinner with the girls.

Good night and go.

One last thing, Sometimes Life Isn’t Easy by Mew is a GREAT song. Listen to it!

–

Yes. I Saw It.

Anna — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:44:07 +0000

In fact, we went on opening night — Friday 23rd. 12 of us. I made the signs for Team Jacob AND Team Edward because I’m that fun.

But don’t be confused. I’m 100% Team Jacob.

And I’m 100% happy that the movie is making mega bucks and proving that teenage girls and women can carry a movie to the top of the box office BIG time. These are the people that I love making movies for. If they continue to prove their market value, it’s more likely that I and others will be able to make movies for ‘em.

Black Friday - What A CROCK

KDawg — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:59:02 +0000

Kim and I stayed home for Thanksgiving this year. It was great! For a change we got to get out of

Thanks-reading

Anna — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:45:01 +0000

Before the Thanksgiving festivities of the Bowles’ home got hub-bubbing with five grandchildren under the age of 10, 3 more Bowles sisters (LAB’s the youngest of 4), all of their hubbies, a redheaded mother-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Bowles, a cat named Minka (that’s got a mean pyscho feline stare) and best friends visiting from other states (that includes me), I finished reading Megan McCafferty’s FOURTH COMINGS from my air mattress at the foot of Leigh Anne’s bed. And I immediately want to get the next (and final) book in the Jessica Darling series, PERFECT FIFTHS.

The Marcus and Jessica love story is in my top ten of ficitional romances probably because it feels far from fictional. My own experiences in love could be a novel, and Megan’s that good; she knows the power of forbidden love in teenagerdom. See her recent dissection of TWILIGHT.

*** FOURTH COMINGS SPOILER ALERT ***

FOURTH COMINGS takes place over a week that starts with Marcus proposing to Jesica and ends with Jessica’s rejection of his hand. It’s final pages are a letter from Marcus to Jessica. Megan has never done this before — the previous novels are written in Jessica’s first person, diary entry form. But everything is different now. Marcus and Jessica’s relationship has taken a hairpin turn in it’s destiny and for the first time since they unsuspectingly connected to each other they are separate. Jessica is letting go of Marcus for the first time ever. In response, Megan finally gives us Marcus’ voice, a glimpse into his perspective. It’s a brilliant cliffhanger and a genius transition into the 5^th book, which is written in third person.

His final words to Jessica are achingly beautiful because of their honesty and pain. After a story of how the Asian calligraphy tattoo he got when he was a druggie didn’t say ‘forever’ as he thought but translates to ‘whatever,’ Marcus says:

“My proposal to you could not have been more sincere. But it seems that my life is imitating badly executed skin art, turning my intentions for FOREVER into something else altogether. And so I’ll let you go, and let it be.

Whatever, Marcus”

From my air mattress, I saw Marcus and Jessica are grappling with the very un-Disney reality that sometimes just because you love someone and they love you, it’s not enough. For all the unforgettable sparks Marcus and Jessica have provided us fans, this truth is just as worthy of our admiration. It’s akin to Megan NOT letting them get together at the end of book one. I love Marcus and Jessica so much because they are real. And them parting is heartbreaking but it is real.

The next book takes place three years later for the duration of one day. A meaningful day. It’s the day Jessica and Marcus run into each other at an airport having not seen, heard from, or spoken to each other since Jessica’s answering of his proposal.

I want to read it immediately but I’m also scared to. It’s a precious commodity: the last available NEW Jessica Darling material on the planet… for now.

Things You Don't Learn In School

KDawg — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:21:24 +0000

A co-worker forwarded this to me this morning. The person that had sent it to her credited Bill Gat

A Light For Me

quiethouses — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 06:32:21 +0000

It’s early. Morning. This feeling is special. Content? I don’t know. It’s just me right now. Alone. Almost. A bit nervous? Insecure. Detached. My days are divided, cut into pieces of time. Wow, this makes sense now. It all suddenly does. Spending days digging holes. This is the surface.

–

Save Christmas - Spend MONEY

KDawg — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:47:03 +0000

Oh crap, hang on to your hat, here it comes. Like a freight train rambling through your mind with r

This Dawg Is A Mellon Collie

KDawg — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:15:40 +0000

The fall season brings so many emotions to my brain but these days the one emotion that seems to dom

Niggatry Invades Judge Mathis

brandoc06 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:00:57 +0000

Stop me if you believed you’d find Keyshia Cole’s mother Frankie on “Judge Mathis

Raymond T. Jackson's Latest

raymondtjackson — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:40:10 +0000

Raymond T. Jackson
Detroit, Michigan

December 21, 2009

December 20. 2009

Re; Laura Berman

Re; Martha Reeves glad to leave City Hall drama behind

I have long been an advocate against the council at large system and in favor of one that elects council members by districts. The at large system allows anyone with a name notoriously able to be remembers by 20,000 voters on election day to be elected to the City council for a practically life term, with perks, bells and whistles that would make a shah blush. I even worked, behind the scenes for the latest effort, which hopefully will not be nullified by the new charter commission.

But there is one exception and here is where I drive the News nuts. Martha Reeves. When she was elected, I had voted for her and I realized then that she may not be the financial/administrative/bureaucratic genius this City needed, and needs. Nor would she be some wizard, who would wave a wand and overnight, fix the many problems plaguing this Town.

I voted for Martha Reeves because she is a shinning example of loyalty, tenacity, hope and promise. Long after her former employer, Motown, left the scene and Detroit, Martha has stuck with this City through thick and thin and is an unwavering booster for this City’s and its Arts and music community. A needed strength, she is always about town, supporting the arts and artist, music, musicians and singers, hobnobbing with the small and great, with equal pleasure and equal deference. Though she could have easily sat on her laurels and melded into some cove on the Westside, she continues to add her verve, vibe, and vitality to the very heartbeat of this City.

Unlike many other council members, Martha did not get herself elected to the City council to become a Star. She is already a Star in her own right and in fact, serving on the council may have slightly tarnished her shine, just a little bit, not vice-versa, as she endured wave after wave of attacks and criticism on issues that border on the ridiculous. On one occasion, when a TV crew was trying to report on some vacant lots that she owned, to goose up their story, they put the camera at ground level to make the grass seem several feet tall, when it was only inches. Please…

Though her detractors derided Martha Reeves for suggesting statues around town to commemorate Motown Artist, they missed the larger picture which is to recognize and remember our Motown heritage, which is just as relevant, if not more so than the automobile. In Europe, where they have long abandoned American cars for Japanese, Asian, and European brands, they regularly play Motown hits from the 60’s and 70’s. Not on the oldies stations, but on the mainstream, top 40 stations. In fact, Martha Reeves probably has done as much if not more to put Detroit on the map than Henry Ford. You can hear Martha’s “Can’t forget the Motor City!”, all over the streets of Europe through out much of the world, and the beat still kicks. Maybe the erection of statues is not feasible for now, but value of the Motown phenomenon is priceless, as is Martha. With the new neighborhood going up all over the City, it would not be too far fetched to name some of the new streets after the Motown artist and personalities that have given so much to this City, especially Martha Reeves. Here in the City, we are sitting on one of the richest cultural heritages in human history, and it seems like it’s only the white kids in the suburbs who are nurturing it and keeping it alive. We should do better than this and Martha Reeves should not be chastised for being diligent in her role as one of the true keepers of the Motown flame. I voted for her and I am grateful to have voted for her – twice. Martha Reeves is a treasure that we should value and appreciate, not only for her time on the council, but also for her continuing achievements and contributions to the cultural life of the City of Detroit.

“Can’t forget the Motor City!”

Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson

Hey folks, this letter also appear in my blog at:

http://raymondtjackson.wordpress.com/2009/11/01/3/

Visit me soon!

Commentary

Re; Granholm hits a losing streak

Susan J. Demas

Susan, “Cloying sycophants”? “Groupies”? Ouch! Someone’s envious of our dazzling governor. True, she does have a smile that is guaranteed to melt your heart, and her intellect is only underestimated by her detractors. But the litany of complaints that you rattle off is what’s called

G-O-V-E-R-N-I-N-G.

That you can’t grasp the complication and complexity of her job is no reason launch into a jealous tirade of what you obviously don’t have a clue about. Governor Granholm is guiding our state through perilous economic times, most of which were thrust upon us by the previous republican presidential administration. Why? Because we did not elect a republican governor. This one sided political hacking that pervades your column is typical of republican hacks, who would destroy this country, who are destroying this country, just to stay in power. I’d lay odds that you would call ex-governor Susan Palin a shinning example of great stewardship. I’ll rest my case there.

Editorial: House keeps spending like there’s no tomorrow

The Detroit News

Earth to News… Just remember that the way our economy got into this mess was through republican hyper spending and pursuant of unrealistic and unsustainable economic policies. Their insisting on unneeded and unwarranted tax cuts for the rich and keeping the spending for two wars outside of the budget seriously wounded the greatest economic expansion in history. Where was the News when all of this was going on?

Finally we have an administration that puts the interest of the American people ahead of those of global business. The republicans dug a deep, deep hole that finally sunk this economy. So it should come as no surprise that major expenditures are called for to pull us out of this republican tailspin. No one pays a mortgage or car loan off in one year, what the News should be calling for is reasonable debt management and not advocate the government to turn its back on the American people yet again as has happened for the last eight years. Eight republican years.

December 16, 2009

Re; GM’s RenCen staff to be cut

State gives tax break, but hoped to keep 500 more workers

Response to an article byLouis Aguilar in The Detroit News

Caspar:

When you’re right you’re right, but you never say, “I told you so.”

Tom:

So what’m I right about?

Caspar:

Well, I’ll tell ya, but first you gotta promise not to say “I told you so.”

Tom:

I never say that. And I don’t like people who do.

Caspar:

Mink was robbin’ me right along with the shmatte.

Tom:

. . . What convinced you of that?

Caspar:

Mink took a powder. We can’t find him. The Dane, he’s makin’ excuses for him, but personally, I think you were right. I think Mink and Bernie was in it together. I think Mink heard you’d bumped the shmatte, and lit out. The lousy son-of-a-bitch.

Tom:

. . . I told you so…

Detroit – That whole move to RecCen was fruity to begin with. It lacked permanence, commitment, or long term planning. They’re trimming and slimming down so fast that one would think that they had one foot out the door, as they were moving in. We should have accepted this fact when they moved in to RenCen and immediately began developing plans to redevelop the New Center for a modernized GM World Headquarters. As it is now, we have to beg GM to stay, if we can find them, while the cannibals in Warren try to engorge themselves on the ensuing disarray.

Raymond T. Jackson
Detroit, Michigan

December 15. 2009

Response to Amber Arellano

Re; Detroit Charter Schools: new accountability movement targets low-performing charter academies

Now there is the problem. Isn’t it. Charter schools that were once thought of as panaceas for the educational crisis that is gripping our inner-city schools, are now being found to be inner-city scams, scamming on the academic lives of our children. They purport to educate the kids, when all they are really doing is using them as cash cows to drain money from an already beleaguered educational system that in itself is massively failing to teach them anything.

The steps needed to mold the Detroit Public Schools into a viable educational structure is beyond the scope, means, desire of anyone in a position to make the necessary changes. They are mired in red tape, self-interest, political interest, and incompetence to make any real difference in the quality of the DPS educational experience. The fact that Kenneth Burnley could actually crow about his tenure at the helm of the DPS shows how out of touch with reality those at the very top are. In his defense, they were, indeed, failing when he got there, but they were also failing when he left. With all of his posturing and swagger, he didn’t make a bit of difference either.

And charter schools, which are suppose to be laboratories of educational instead have not lived up to their promise and have became victim of the same malaise that has plagued DPS for years and it was only a matter of time before it became as systemic as it is in the DPS. The only solution is to bring in professionals without the ties, loyalties, and baggage that have paralyzed the DPS for the past 50 years.

Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson

Raymond T. Jackson
Detroit, Michigan

December 11, 2009

Nolan Finley

Re; Finley: Test scores should rock Detroit’s soul
I, for one am not surprised. The fact that a political diddle-dee like Anthony Adams could even find his way to a Detroit Public Schools playground, means that the Detroit Public School system is beyond hope. The rot that must be prevalent throughout the DPS structure has to eventually trickle down to the nostrils of these poor students who must know at some level, perhaps many levels that going to Detroit Public Schools is a complete waste of time. So why blow the rest of your childhood, which should be full of fantasy and dreams, idling your days away in decrepit, funky, dysfunctional schools, whose only purpose is to milk you for the funds they get from the state.

Parents especially should be rocked by the dismal news, that has become all too frequent, but where are they? Most are trapped in this City and have no choice but to send their kids to these schools, only to watch them be destroyed. Slowly, over twelve years of mindless participation in a process that not only robs them of their education, but of their ability to even learn, to function or participate in society. But most parents don’t care and even if they did, with a self-serving, politically immersed school board, with a equally self-serving, grandstanding administration, they are helpless to make any changes that would make a speck of difference in the educational lives of their children. The processes that select and maintain these two structures is so entrenched and so ingrained that it would practically take an act of congress to effectively remove them out of this equation – an equation that is killing our children.

But we can’t let the parents off the hook, because there lays the seeds of this failure, this dysfunction. True, the DPS doesn’t have many of the amities or the bells and whistles that many more successful schools systems have, but I have to ask, how does a kid make it to the 12^th grade and not know how to read, without their parent(s) being aware of this. If the parents know, they are trifling, if they don’t know, their trifling. If Detroit had a critical mass of parents who actually cared what kind of education their children were getting, the education that DPS students get would be significantly better than what they are getting now, and the test scores that we are lamenting about would be much improved. They would see to it that their kids studied with whatever books they were given and if they were not given any books, they would find some. But Detroit has a critical mass of parents that do not care, and that ruins it for the rest of the parents and the kids who have to attend school with disruptive sociopaths who make attending public school a nightmare. You couple that with what passes as a school board and administration and it is what it is – a mess. Parents who are smart and have the resources do the only thing they can do, they leave. The parents that don’t have to sit back and watch their children be chewed up and spit out as another casualty of the Detroit Public school system, ergo Arsenio White.

Re; Editorial: These five steps must be taken to address Detroit school crisis

The Detroit News

Ok News – your brilliance shineth forth on this stormy night. Let’s take a gander at your “steps”. AH hem…

• Community summit. – Not gonna happen.

• Pass the reform contract. – Insane!

• Give mayor control. – Yeah, add yet another political plum to the mayor’s office. I shudder to think what would have happen if Kwame Kilpatrick had control of the Detroit Public Schools.

And this is the really funny one…

• File a lawsuit . – Yeah, if you say so.

Last Updated: December 10. 2009 9:47AM

Kilpatrick’s former deputy mayor to plead guilty to bribery

Santiago Esparza / The Detroit News

Detroit – The only time that I ever went to camp was at this camp, which at the time was called Green Pastures or Green Acres or Green something. At 14, it was a profound experience, in both good and not so good ways, but it was an experience that I would not change. It was the last camp of the Summer, so there were things, end of season things, that made this one of the most potent times of my life. The counselors were coupling off, we campers were coupling off, their were late night, clandestine meeting, there were late night raids, running through the woods, late at night being chased by counselors, who had to interrupt their own late night goodbyes, to run us down and round us up. Hey, we were City kids and this was the country and we were having a gas. So, when I heard that the City was looking to sell this lush piece of real estate there was a ting of more than sadness and melancholy that swept over me. Though it was only a week, it was one filled with wonder and amazement of being at summer camp for the first time.

Now to find out that the camp was sold as part of some scheme to scam the citizens of Detroit out of yet another asset, a true jewel that could really make a difference in the lives of these kids, is truly discouraging, but not really surprising, given the revelations that keep dripping out about the doings of the Kilpatrick administration. I wench at the thought of this treasure for so many of us, dreams and experiences that may never be realized because some Kilpatrick henchman sold the experiences, hopes and endless summers that thousands of Detroit’s children had yet to realize, for peanuts.

Re; Kilpatrick hearing ends with final ruling set for January

Prosecutor’s decision follows the end of testimony in former mayor’s restitution case

Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Detroit – It really doesn’t really bother me that Kwame Kilpatrick owes the City a million dollars. That’s chump change compared to what it really cost to run this City and what Kwame Kilpatrick really cost this City. What’s disturbing, even unsettling about this latest episode in the KK saga is his smug, smarmy demeanor that smacks of the same, “don’t worry about it”, “trust me” attitude that he used to buffalo the City for almost eight years. Kwame Kilpatrick is no friend of Detroit. His obstination in pointedly avoiding paying this measly sum is a contemptuous smack in the face to a City that trusted him.

Kwame Kilpatrick’s buffoonery and excuses as to why he could not afford to pay up frankly, turned my stomach. It was disgusting, as time after time he’d spin that crap, most often using his wife, his wife as the primary excuse as to why he could not live up to his obligations to the courts and to this City. Come on, what kind of “man” hides behind his wife, and what kind of man parades the lives of his children as props to sidestep responsibilities that he himself sign on to and that he himself has shrieked and shirked in a most blazoned display of sheer disgust for the people of Detroit. Can he be called a “man” at all?

What is shocking is that this fool, this idiot, this mindless, self-serving aberration was actually mayor of this City and ran it with the same, bedazzling, slick, non-thinking, quick answers, smooth talk he displayed at the various interviews he has been giving running to and from his City travels. He gloats and grins, thinking that he is again making a fool out of us all – again. Kwame Kilpatrick even gloats with his “oh, poor Detroit”, “look how yall doin’ without me” musings, which are a mockery of the mess he left us with. Already the façade of his “reign” is turning to dust right in front of us in the form of roads that are crumbling too soon, houses that are gutted and a school system that is academically bankrupt. Kwame last comment when he last parted was that he wanted to “move on” and get out of Detroit’s way, but first he’d better get out of his own way, and frankly, I might even vote to give him a millions dollars just never to show his face in this town ever again.

Re; Former DPS CEO defends financial decisions

Darren A. Nichols / The Detroit News

Detroit – This is a joke, right? Nothing personal against Burnley, but how on Earth can he defend DPS. It is a dismal failure in every respect. It is people like him, with their warped sense of reasoning that have put the DPS in this position.

Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson

December 04. 2009

Re; Former DPS exec defends land deals

Marisa Schultz / The Detroit News

Detroit – What does Moore mean, he “did a great job”? The schools are a mess and chief among that mess is the property flim-flaming at the center of those ridiculous property deals. And these property deals are at the center of the “now you see it – now you don’t” $1,500,000,000.00, that Detroiters trusted the schools administration with. The arrogance and denial that Moore is stonewalling Bobb’s questions with is so typical of the arrogance and denial that are hallmarks of the Detroit Public Schools administration. It would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic.

Bobb is right to go through the books of the DPS with a fine tooth comb and ferret out exactly where every dime of that money went and why. The only thing is he should have done this before asking voters to approve yet another half billion dollars to make, yet again, questionable expenditures, supposedly for the welfare of Detroit’s children. What’s almost a given is that there is no structure that is in place to insure that abuses won’t occur again and the citizens of Detroit and our precious children won’t again be robbed by people who will later say that they “did a great job”.

December 04. 2009 9:22AM

Re; Audits unmask Detroit’s fiscal crisis

Reports find broad accounting failures, lack of basic controls

David Josar and Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

Detroit –The reason the City is burning through so much cash, is that they are trifling. The City passes up millions of dollars simply because they are too lazy to pursue the money that is already out there. They would rather just sit there and wait for what ever roll their way to roll on into City Hall coffers, or in the name of fiscal expediency, load more fees, fines and taxes on the very citizens who are the backbone of this City and who support this City, inefficiency and all.

Down at City Hall, they don’t put forth any real effort to reign in spiraling expenditures, check runaway decay, and just as importantly, pursue money that is already out there, and putting forth the effort to get it. I mean simple things, like ride through any City street, and you will usually find people leaving their courville garbage containers out if front of their houses, sometimes for days and sometimes permanently. There is a law that requires the removal of these containers from the street and out of plain view within a reasonable time. In the summer, there are people who let their yards just go. The grass grows tall, there are weeds and trash. Then there are property owners, both large and small who also let there property get into such decrepit condition so as to be condemned. I am not talking about nitpicking already all ready pressed home owners who are trying to make end meet, but people who are obviously neglecting their property to the detriment of the neighborhood and even to the entire City, and people who let their property become eyesores, sometimes worthy of national news recognition.

Then there is that streetlight that has been burning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year in and year out for 15 years. That light is a symbol of the City administrations arrogance and seriousness about stopping waste and becoming qualified stewards of the people’s money. That light means that City Hall is too lazy and complacent to send someone to see about its malfunctioning circuits. That light shines on a buffoonery that is both baffling and appalling, that a City so deep in debt and so in dire need of resources and savings is so full of itself that it is choking on its own stupidity.

December 06. 2009

Their Editorial

Re; Editorial: Detroit teachers’ contract may help to weed out ineffective teachers

Success of new contract may depend on district’s authority to remove ineffective teachers

That’s a no brainer, that ineffectual teachers be removed from classrooms, but this crazy idea of loaning the DPS $10,000 or reducing pay by $36,000, is about as sound as keeping the ineffectual teachers teaching classes. However they got there, this is the money that they agreed to and is what they should be paid. It is turning out that the school system wasted staggering amounts of money. For teachers, especially those hard working teachers who are working against incredible odds, to bear the brunt of this mismanagement, if not outright fraud, is totally unjust. It is obvious that the upper echelons of the Detroit Public School system is controlled by a political elite, who could care less about teaching children. Instead of asking deserving teachers to submit to draconian cuts to their pay, Bobb should rest control away from these self-serving administrators and bureaucrats and shape a school system that serves the educational interest and needs of Detroit’s children, not the egos of those entrusted to look after them.

December 06.

A Detroit News article by Nolan Finley

Re; Finley: America falls to ‘Jackass’ culture

When Nolan Finley comments on reality T.V., truly (I hope) it has reached its zenith. I find few things more disgusting than television shows based on eating worms, being chased by bees or ganging up on a roommate. It is the epitome low brow, classless entertainment that takes little effort, which amounts to giving a camera to practically anyone, and telling them to film the world at random until they run out of flim. It is amazing that these programs, that takes no production effort, and has lowest production values are such a hit with the American public. But then they are flocking in droves to see Sarah Palin, so go figure…

Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson
Detroit, Michigan

December 04, 2009

Re; Granholm urges new stimulus to give people jobs

Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Governor Granholm is right on when she advocates another stimulus package that focuses on infrastructure. We probably would not be in the financial recession that we are in if congress had taken the money that they laid on Wall Street, (who promptly channeled it into the world economy, before giving the rest of it away on absurd bonuses), on the much neglected infrastructure of this country, which could have used every dime of it. Believe me when I say that Wall Street would have found their way to it, sooner or later, but at least it would have done the country some good.

Another thing that Governor Granholm might do is put “THIS IS A STIMULUS PROJECT” signs on the many highway and infrastructure projects that are going on now. Too many people who are bellyaching about government spending are themselves working on these stimulus projects and don’t even know it.

Raymond T. Jackson

Raymond T. Jackson
Detroit, Michigan

November 29, 2009

In response to a Detroit News Editorial

RE; Obama must deploy enough resources to quickly end Afghanistan war

People are asking, what is the plan, for Afghanistan. People are asking: why are we there? Well, it a short story: They attacked us. Well, not them, but some nitwits who apparently jacked their country, at least part of it and proceeded to plan and attack us, for no real reason. I mean of course, they can pull some reason out of the ether to blame us or accuse us for one shortcoming or another, but the fact is that we had not attacked them. But certain parties in Afghanistan (they have the nerve to have an h in their name) took it upon themselves to allow to be planned and then carried out, an attack the United States Of American and in the process, kill 3000 Americans. 3000 Americans, who had nothing to do with whatever grievance they had. 3000 Americans, who were merrily going about their lives, when this havoc, this nightmare was thrust upon them, literally and figuratively out of the blue.

They don’t want us there… yea, right. Well, I got a newsflash for you; we don’t want to be there either. But on September 11^th, they called us there, called for our attention. Well, they got our attention. What the hell were they thinking? What did they think that we were going to do? Turn over the keys to the treasury? All of a sudden, surrender the country to … Alkeda? Have you lost your minds? In Afghanistan, they don’t have a pot to piss in and they have practically nothing that we want, and on September 11, 2001 they made a clarion call for the United States Of America to arrive on their doorstep – with prejudice.

Now, seven years later, everybody wants our boys and girls to come home – but that’s not going to happen, or at least it shouldn’t. The woks talk about building a nation and installing a “democratic”, corruption-free government that will never be a threat to us again. “If only…” they say, “when…” they say. Just build them an army and then they will be able to stand up for themselves, etc, etc. Well, I have another newsflash for you; First of all, democracy is a pain in the a–, as anyone who has had to trudge themselves to polls, time after time, with questionable, unknown and unpredictable results can attest – still further, for democracy to have even a chance of working, is has to come from within and you have to really, really, really want it. Secondly, if Afghanistan had their sh— together, no fringe group like Alkeeda could have hijacked their government and launched an attack in the first place. Like the way that they treat their women, the attack on the United States was insane. No government in their right mind would have ever condoned such a boneheaded scheme, realizing that if they did, life as they knew it… would be over.

They called us over there and so we came, and they don’t like it and believe me when I say, we don’t like it, but we are there to stay. We didn’t win WWII just because of brilliant strategy, or good luck. One of the main reasons that we won WWII is because we basically saturated the European continent with allied (mostly American) troops and might. And that is what we have to do with Afghanistan, and our duration there has to be much, much longer, because, unlike Europe and Japan, Afghanistan has not had a functioning government for centuries, and I seriously doubt if a few years of “nation building” is going to result in a “nation” that we can trust not to attack us again. How ridiculous for us to try to impose a “functioning” government on those people, when ours can barely stand up on its own two feet. Our own democracy is a barely functional, dysfunctional array of conflicting and complex intra-governments, and agencies that can barely keep the lights on or clean our water. To think that we can export some perfected form of this to a country that has a history of dysfunction and backwardness is fantasy. Except for Devine intervention, it just ain’t gonna happen.

To put it in military parlance, when Afghanistan attacked us on 9/11, Afghanistan became our new best friend. Like WWII in Europe, we should saturate Afghanistan with not tens of thousands of troops, but hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground. We should put so many troops in Afghanistan that every time an Afghan goes to the toilet, there will be a G.I. in there to light his cigarette, hand him a newspaper and pass him toilet paper. Every time an Afghan goes to his closet, there will be a G.I. there to help him pick out his cloths, and every time an Afghan sits down for dinner, there will be a G.I. there to pour his gravy. Believe me, there aren’t too many problems on this Earth that a few hundred thousand troops can’t solve and Afghanistan should be one of them. Afghanistan society may have a chance for becoming a vital, peaceful nation. Meanwhile, they and we have to accept the fact that for the foreseeable future Afghanistan will be an American base.

Yeah, they don’t want us over there, and we really don’t want to be over there, but we have no choice, after 9/11, Afghanistan became our responsibility and we should take that responsibility seriously. We should saturate this country and its society, seal off its borders, sanitize it of weapons and let them grow into a type of government that they can sustain, not one that we impose upon them that is destine to be corrupt and ineffectual. True, the Russians did basically the same thing; they poured troops, money and resources into Afghanistan, yet all they did was to instigate a resistance that eventually led to the Talaban. But the Talaban did what they did with our help, and they don’t have that now. And if we get on the ball seal up those borders, dry up their sources of weapons, saturate their streets, especially the ones that our troops travel, so they can’t plant roadside bombs, we just may fare well in Afghanistan, because there is one thing that we, as Americans, can give the Afghan nation that the Russians didn’t give and couldn’t offer,and that’s – freedom . Freedom of religion, freedom of education, the freedom to pursue happiness and go as far as your God given talents will take you.

Re; Editorial: Republicans and Democrats agree that term limits have been a fiasco

The Detroit News

Term limits were a republican gimmick that they pushed through several years ago (with the News unwavering support) in order to boot long serving democrats from office. They could not run, “fair and square”, so they goofed up the electoral process with this nonsense which has wreaked havoc on our state. Contrary to the hype, term limits have put ne’er-do-wells in charge of complex and complicated state processes and they clearly do not know what they are doing. Like the City council, about the only thing that they can accomplish is to get reelected.

Now, because of the spanking that they got in last November’s election, republicans are again introducing term limits on a national level. They feel they can’t compete in the normal electoral process, so again they resort to gimmicks to get elected instead of putting this country back on track – the same track that they ran us off of over the past eight years.

If Michigan can be considered a lesson, it is one of hapless, uninformed neddle-dees, who don’t have a clue to what they are doing or what they are suppose to do. The best term limit, and I am glad that the News finally agrees, is the voting booth. If a candidate can’t make his case clear enough to unseat an incumbent, then they clearly are not qualified and do not have any business or right to hold that office.

Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson

November 22. 2009 1:00AM

Response to a column written by Laura Berman

Re; Palin wins by quitting while Granholm can’t win for trying

To compare Former governor Sarah Palin to Governor Jennifer Granholm on any scale, in any venue is like comparing a cartoon to a real person, and we all know who the joke is. They aren’t even in the same league of humanity, let alone politically. Governor Granholm has steered this state through some of the worst times since the great depression (another republican bastard), despite having to govern through two terms of hostile republican administration in Washington. But even without the coldness of the Bush administrations, this state is suffering from a malaise that is affecting this society on a national scale, which is the contraction of our industrial base. Governor Granholm has worked her heart out to stave off the catastrophic ramifications of this economic adjustment, and implement new industries and technologies, all while faring a hostile president, critics, legislators and yes, newspaper columnist.

Governor Granholm has never waivered in her duties and obligations to this state or given up on her goal to make this state a better place for all. And she has never, ever waivered in her responsibilities to look out for our states most vulnerable citizens. Citizens who can’t hire lobbyist, pr people or write books. Sarah Palin on the other had has done — nothing. Ok, she too WAS a governor, a governor of a fairly prosperous state, true. But Alaska is floating on a sea of oil, so it would be very hard to screw that up, and frankly a Macy’s store dummy could have managed governing a state under such circumstances. One thing Sarah Palin did do was to quit. I know, she ran that malarkey about not “going with the flow”, but she quit a post that she was elected to hold for 4 years, and halfway through, she RAN OUT. No matter how she paints it, no matter what color she uses – it’s still a pig. Regardless of what she says, she is either running away from something, or running toward something. I think that it is probably a little bit of both, and you know and I know, that no matter what you call it, it was weird. If you look in her past, one thing that pops out is Sarah’s tendency to jump at the next best thing, and undoubtedly the lure of the easy “flow” of a book tour, was more attractive than the “flow” of trudging it out as an obscure governor, of an obscure state, away from the limelight, out of the lure of bright lights and away from all that money.

While Sarah Palin is funny, unlike most of my liberal friends, I don’t think that Palin is stupid or ignorant. I think that she is smart, but short-sighted. What is most unsettling about her is not her stupidity or brilliance, but the people whom she attracts and the reason they are attracted to her, as well as what she brings out in them. Sarah Palin appeals to the bassist, most racists, most selfish and fearful instincts in people. And she spouts the same republican rhetorical boneheaded, hypocritical self-righteous nonsense that has all but made America a pariah on the international scene. The people attracted to her are rabid conspiracy theorist whose appetite for lies, exaggeration, and paranoia knows no end and Palin doesn’t hesitate to fan and feed into them. Sarah Palin is a circus, the crowd that she attracts is scary, and to think that almost half the population in the United States agrees with her and identifies with her is truly frightening. Her views and cues as a sideshow are quaint and cute, but her policies and philosophy applied through a national office would be monstrous. Her daughter got pregnant, which is really no big deal. Except for the fact that republicans are always holding themselves up to be paragons of moral perfection, who look down their noses at the rest of us. Yet when her daughter got pregnant, she painted this pig with a shade of lipstick that would make even the most liberal, liberal, blush. She has a talent for taking situations and circumstances, no matter how bizarre, and painting it and perfuming it to what she wants it to be, regardless of what it is – a pig.

Governor Granholm on the other hand appeals to our highest nature, and she refuses to resort to gimmicks, code words and out right lies to get her message across. Instead of stunts and tricks to beguile the public, she has to be the hardest working governor in this country, who doesn’t seek the limelight and has yet to quit and run away from her responsibilities, which has to dwarf those of an Alaskan governor. Though this state has been in the doldrums for almost a decade, she is not to blame and to prove it, she has been elected – twice, and there are those who wish she could run for yet another term. So please don’t compare our wonderful governor with that joke. If, according to Sarah Palin’s “calculus”, Governor Granholm is a “dead fish”, then the same could be said about most other governors and most politicians who have the rest of their terms to serve out and are doing WHAT THEY WERE ELECTED TO DO. This jive about not going with the flow, reeks of a cover up or an excuse to shirk a sacred duty that she was elected to do for reasons that apparently make sense – only to her. Had she just quit, that would have been fine, but to besmirch all the other hard working politicians who believe in working hard till they have served their FULL TERM is I N E X C U S A B L E. And to compare our governor to this charlatan is ludicrous. In terms of being a public servant, a brilliant, conscientious, caring human being, Sarah Palin is not even in the same Universe as our governor Jennifer Granholm and in terms of beauty, don’t even try it – Sarah Palin is not even in the same reality.

November 16, 2009

Rebuttal to an Editorial Rebuttal In the Detroit News

Re; Term limits imperfect but needed

This is a load, as anyone who has ever tried to get anything done, via the state legislature can attest to it being a bunch of baloney. The only thing that term limits have done is to populate the state legislature with individuals who don’t know anything and can’t do anything, but run for the next office. They don’t know their constituents, their constituents don’t know them, they are booted before they can get any knowledge or seniority and the most they really end up doing is grandstanding, while they dig our state deeper and deeper into a hole that it looks like we may never get out of.

Hey, Earth to Nancy, we have a term limiter, – it’s called a BALLOT BOX.

Despite the republican fear mongering, there is nothing wrong with a “career” politician, and there is something that use to be commendable when a person devoted their entire lives to public service. It is the republican hatred of our country and their hatred for all things “government” that have made public service a dirty word. To have things the republican way, we wouldn’t have any government at all and everything would be run by a bunch of business.

True, term limits have turn our state electoral process into a circus of musical chairs with politicians aiming for the next political office to occupy, rather than carrying out the states business. The grip of the two political parties has grown even tighter, and independents and third parties have become even more marginalized. Meanwhile, our state is being driven off a cliff, with no one having even the slightest clue of what to do. No doubt, Nancy O’Brien, and busybodies like her thrust term limits upon the rest of us with the usual republican tricks, appealing to greed, selfishness, self-centeredness, fear and a sense of political entitlement. They couldn’t get their candidates elected through the regular political process, so they rigged the system to give them an advantage by simply removing the opposition, via term limits. Term limits are a slippery slope to go down and once term limits are imposed, it’s not too far a stretch before you dictate who can run, why they should run, and when they should run.

That Nancy can be so flip about the “unforeseen, unintended consequences” is typical of these know‑it‑alls who stir up all of this crap and then leave the rest of us to deal with the “consequences”.

It took 200 years for a legislative political structure to develop that at minimum, made our state functional. It took only a few years for republicans to dismantle it and render our state to the level of a third world basket case – all for political expediency. It took years to build up alliances and relationships that were “hallowed by usage and consecrated by time” and it will take years to rebuild the old ones and make the new ones necessary to pull us out of the messes that term limits have put us in. It’s time we got started and repeal term limits if we are to ever find our way back to sanity.

November 12, 2009

Regarding an editorial In The Detroit News

State lawmakers should curtail ability of police, prosecutors to seize property without convictions

Isn’t this clearly a violation of the forth amendment which states and I quote: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized”. That not one, but two levels of supreme courts could allow this is scary, not only because they could find ways to ignore this amendment, but that they could also find ways to sidestep other amendments that make the fabric of the law of this country.

Re; Editorial: Republicans and Democrats agree that term limits have been a fiasco

The Detroit News

Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson

Response to Nolan Finley’s article in the Detroit News

November 8, 2009

Re; Finley: Jobs a low priority for Democrats

Nolan, you know that your notion that Democrats don’t care about jobs, or that jobs are a “low priority” for Democrats is ridiculous. Why do you always fill your column with all that crap and propaganda that plays on the American public’s fears and short memory. Here you are bellyaching because President Obama and the democrats haven’t created millions jobs over the less than a year that they have been in office. Let me remind you, my forgetful whiner, that President Clinton gave the republicans a Cadillac economy, a world a relative peace and an America that garnered respect and awe throughout the world. Where was all your insight then – genius? Over the eight years that the republicans were in power, they systematically wrecked the economy, put the entire Planet on pins and needles, and made The United States of America a hated and despised name, even among our allies. Now you want President Obama and the rest of the democrats to wave a magic wand and undo overnight, the destruction that the republicans took eight years to bring. Let me repeat – everyday for eight years republicans took what amounted to a wrecking ball and smashed it against all that was good and decent about our great land. By pursuing unsound, unrealistic, unsupportable economic, militaristic, social, and environmental policies, the republicans made a huge mess that President Obama has to clean up.

As President Obama said, grab a mop and help clean up your mess or shut the hell up. Either way, don’t just sit back and complain, while hardworking Americans struggle to clean up the mess that you and people like you helped make and presided over for eight long years. I used to think that you were a fairly intelligent guy, but more and more you are sounding like just another republican parrot. Hey, you want a cracker…

Re; Once an autumn tradition, leaf-burning now under fire

Response to an article by Jim Lynch in the Detroit News

Detroit – Aren’t leaves and other yard debris ideal candidates for burning, mulching and landfill? Why do we continually discuss and debate these idiotic and mundane issues that could and should be handled with ease in a 21st century industrial society. Burning leaves out in the open is a nuisance and more importantly, a hazard, but still fallen leaves as well as other yard debris is a resource if a process is established to exploit this resource in the most efficient way. It could power our homes and factories; it could fertilize and refurbish our fields. It is time to get the top minds on this to figure it out and stop wasting time figuring out what to do with – “waste”.
Later folks….

Raymond T. Jackson

Hi,

My name is Raymond T. Jackson and I live in the great City of Detroit, MI. I have been writing the papers for years, mostly the Detroit News, but occasionally the Detroit Free Press (rarely though). Though the News, quite frequently will print my mussing, I know that their presses, editors and fax machines must be getting tired of my uttering, which are usually 180 degrees out of their political leanings and more often than not are lecturing a view contrary to theirs. Still they would sometimes print my stuff, which proves to me that the News is truly a great Lady, or Dame, though very stuck in her own views, is not afraid to to listen and even print others – even those as “left” as mine.

Does this mean that I will now give the News, her fax machines, editors and reporters a break… no way, so don’t book that vacation just yet. I find the Detroit News stimulating (and sometimes infuriating), provoking thoughts, and sometimes deep thoughts on the issues of the day, and I suspect that many of my postings will be responses to some story, article, column or editorial that the News has printed. Also, I will still try to let the News be privy to my mumblings and occasional flares of “brilliance” (and stupidity) that have surprised and I am sure amused, both the News and myself over these many years.

RTJ

Now… as I was saying

November 5th, 2009

Re; Pay problem parents not to breed
- New Zealand Mayor

At this link; http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26280864-401,00.html

I understand the sentiment, but it is a bit barbaric and bone headed and far from the enlightened society that we hope to become. Rather, since we can already identify these parents, when they do have children, they should be immediately removed from these problem homes and raised in communities where they could achieve their potential.

November 1, 2009

Response to a column written by Laura Berman in the Detroit News

Re; From the Manoogian to the doghouse: Now Carlita Kilpatrick calls the shots

Isn’t she the same one who referred to Detroiters as a bunch of idiots? All the while fleecing us of both time and money? This whole recent scenario reeks of the same flim-flam that preceded the end of the Kilpatrick administration. Every trick, every technicality was used or invoked to delay an inevitable outcome. “she wields the power now”, “”I don’t know”, “$150,000” here, $1.2 million there. “I want to make my wife happy,” are all a bunch of crap. Part of the same-ole, same-ole, that Kilpatrick ran on us for months.

Legally, Kwame Kilpatrick owes this City $1,000,000.00. But in reality he cost this City hundreds of millions of dollars as he allowed precious tax dollars and pension funds be given away and squandered… for peanuts. His recent courtroom antics would be funny, if they did not represent a continuing total disregard of the public interest or public trust.

Raymond T. Jackson

Re; Voters should approve Detroit school bond, if Bobb stays

Voters should approve Detroit school plan only if school leader Bobb stays and gets academic control

The fact that a character like Anthony Adams could even find his way to a Detroit Public Schools building, let alone procuring an actual seat on the school board, speaks volumes as to the state and level of corruption that has to prevail on the Detroit Public School Board. His appointment to a seat on the Detroit Public School Board was tantamount to hanging a giant sign from all Detroit Public Schools that reads:

A l l Y E W H O E N T E R HERE
A B A N D O N A L L H O P E!

I don’t have anything personal against Adams, but he is obviously a political chameleon, who materializes in some of the most unusual places and at some of the strangest times and has no interest in education, or a previously stated public position on the Detroit Public Schools. Now Robert Bobb, with the News’ endorsement, wants Detroiters to approve a ½ billion dollar spending package to do things that make little sense. Schools are underutilized already, so adding 8 more to that stockpile defies logic. And to approve this amount on the contingency that Bobb stay on, is a mighty thin thread, given that the present board is circling his tenure like hungry sharks, picking at his reforms and hardly waiting to dismantle and reverse any changes that Bobb has made or tried to make. And we mustn’t forget the 1½ billion, that’s $1,500,000,000.00 that we voted for to do essentially the same thing, and after approving this amount, that $1,500,000,000.00 found its way down some administrative/bureaucratic black hole and hasn’t been seen since. Those scientists who are looking for a black hole need not build one of those expensive atom colliders, or peek at the galactic center, just look in the Detroit School Administrative Building, it’s probably one in there somewhere – just look for a billion and a half dollar bulge in there.

We just can’t center our school reform hopes around one man, while the process around continues to rot and stink. I am confident that Bobb has the noblest of goals and the best of intentions. But the present school board can’t wait for him to leave so they can revert the Detroit Public School system back to it’s failing, dysfunctional ways – obviously, and then snatch this money out of the pockets of Detroit’s students. We would be fools – again – if we approve even one more dime without fundamental change in the way the Detroit Public Schools are structured and run. I have long been an advocate that we select our school board members from our many excellent colleges and universities that are brimming with talented academics who would chomp at the opportunity to manage the Detroit Public School system and prepare our children for the future. And who would have a better grasp on preparing children for higher education, those who are already in the educational process at highest and most comprehensive levels, or political not‑works and administrative refugees who’s only improvement agenda is improving the perks that come with the office. We are wasting a great resource when we don’t tap those minds that are devoted to education and fairly free of political influences and ambitions, to shape our educational systems at their most formable and impressionable level. The present Detroit Public School system has failed the children of this City, miserably and consistently, always promising to do better. According to Einstein; insanity is to repeat the same action and expect a different result. To continue to send yet more dollars to this slaughterhouse for minds and expect improvement is, therefore – insane.

Raymond T. Jackson

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Re; Tough choices on broadband

U.S. has $4B for high-speed Internet projects, but has received 2,200 requests totaling $28B

Joelle Tessler / Associated Press

Detroit — $4 Billion dollars is a paltry amount to be applied to improving broadband access. That in a country this size, we would invest so little in something that means so much shows our priorities are seriously skewed.

RTJ

Monday, October 12, 2009

Re; an article in the Detroit News by Brian O’Connor

Re; Need some job luck? Be a suck-up

Remember the Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #33;

“It never hurts to suck up to the boss.”

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Re; Youth face uphill struggle amid Detroit’s troubles

Regarding a Detroit News Story by Corey Williams / Associated Press

Detroit – This is what so frightening about watching a suburban high school graduation and then coming back to this. LeRoy Taylor and thousands like him have to compete with the kids out of those schools, who seemingly have everything, while LeRoy had nothing – comparatively. That disparity is wrong, for sure. There should be equality, somewhere in this society and school is a great place to start. But the story doesn’t end there.

There is a park across the street where I live and a brilliant idea of previous administrations and neighborhood activist had eight brand new basketball hoops put in it. Kids, most like LeRoy, would spend most of the day out there until well past dark, shooting basketball. I mean hour and hours, day in day out year round. After school, this is all they would do

So sure, there should be computers, and labs and well stocked libraries and other amenities that the suburban schools have that City schools should have also, but it would seem that students and especially their parents would realize the disadvantage that they have and adjust accordingly. Obviously, LeRoy spent the hours that he should have been studying and learning on some basketball field like the one across from me. Obviously he didn’t learn many skills there, not even how to play basketball, to a paying degree. Where were LeRoy’s parents, or most likely, parent at, while he whiled away his entire childhood on a basketball court. Somebody should have noticed that he was failing in school. His parents, his teachers – himself. He could have studied, he could have gone to the library, and he could have involved himself in his education to a great extent even without the amenities of a suburban education. This kid just didn’t pop up on the scene without any skills – oh but he did.

Later, gators’,

Raymond T. Jackson

Love Your Carbon Footprint

KDawg — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:20:48 +0000

Under the cloak of political correctness I have concealed my disdain for this whole “green” movement

"That S**t is Haunting" - Nicole Atkins and The Black Sea Show Review - 10/27 Club Cafe

bowmanp16 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:24:55 +0000

Yeah, I’m a novice. Nicole Atkins is one of those dark, smoldering ingenues who converts humans into disciples with no more than a fiery glance. During her live shows these humans, guys and gals alike, swoon in measured droves, pray for their favorite songs and stand mystified, religiously mystified, as Ms. Atkins seduces the stage.

Along with her faithful backing band, The Black Sea, Atkins played a full room at the South Side’s Club Cafe Tuesday evening as the concert spot’s smokey corners and starry backdrop played a perfect supporting character (with the exception of a blown out monitor) to the bombastic qualities of Atkins best work (the street anthems, symphonies, and Patsy Cline homages alike) that were allowed to howl unmitigated into the rainy Pittsburgh evening.

Atkins and co. soared through the highlights of 2007’s Neptune City, including a seriously red-blooded version of “Brooklyn’s on Fire” that incited more than a handful of fist pumps during the shit-kicking refrain. The honest, innocent shuffle of “Maybe Tonight” translated beautifully as well, as the classic chorus (which, again, resembles something like a unearthed Patsy Cline croon) floated sagaciously toward the heavens.

Even “The Way It Is,” a song that was showcased in all its theatrical glory during an unforgettable performance on David Letterman, was given fantastic treatment due to Atkins unbelievable vocals. I was convinced that without a chorus of swelling strings, the song would be a shadow of its former self, but it actually provided more room for Atkins to flex her voice and emote passionately to the crowd.

After the debut of a handful of new tracks, whetting the crowds appetite for Atkins ensuing 2010 release, an encore of the funeral stomp “Neptune City” provided a fragile and tragic coda. The show ended with a base drum wash and Atkins’ enacting a graceful curtsy, head bowed, to a heavy applause. I shook my head, swigged the last inch of my las beer, thought of October and the coming Halloween as I looked to a friend of mine who took the words right out of my mouth : “That shit is haunting.”

Nicole Atkins – Maybe Tonight

Nicole Atkins – The Way It Is