PETA and the Fly VERSUS Prez Obama

Have you heard the latest criticism of President Obama? He was being pestered by an ordinary housefly while being interviewed. He tried to shoo it away, and it just wouldn't go. So he swatted and killed it.

Now PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is getting involved. Boy, are they ticked. They say he should have kept shooing it away, or had someone else try to catch it and move it.

HE WAS DOING AN INTERVIEW!!!

Maybe he should have paused the televised interview with CNBC correspondent John Harwood?

"Excuse me, could someone get over here and remove this fly? I don't CARE if there's a deadline for this interview's completion! This is a living creature that must be taken care of. Much more important than the American Citizens I'm working to help."

Come on! If a fly is ok, then is a mosquito? They are about the same size. Both are irritating and carry diseases, but yes, mosquitos could possibly give Prez Obama the West Nile Virus.

What about slugs in the garden? Does PETA allow the chickens to eat flies and gnats and slugs and tomato hornworms? If hornworms are allowed to live, they WILL find and eat their fill of corn and tomatoes until humans have nothing to eat. So... how is letting the chicken do IT's thing any different that a human taking care of them?

IT'S A BUG!

Has PETA set a limit for their "beliefs"? Unbelievable controversy when there are so many more things to think about.

I checked out PETA's website (http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/06/obama_and_the_f.php). It sounds like they are using this to further their cause and sell some bug catcher thing.

Ridiculous.

AutoMakers Bailout

We read these links today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081204/ap_on_go_co/congress_autos
http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/04/news/companies/senate_hearing/index.htm
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/04/the-big-3-1-and-the-b-word/

Are they kidding us? Just because the Big 3 went back to Washington in their hybrid cars instead of their personal jets, means we should now trust them? And Ford doesn't actually need the money, that it's "just in case"?

If we ran our business like them, would we get a bailout? NO. Mom and Pop stores, necessary for local small-town economies, are going out of business but can't qualify for a bailout. Hell, they can't even get a call returned.

We realize that the auto-makers have a lot of people depending on them: factory workers, parts suppliers, auto dealers, etc. But we, the taxpayers of the good ole US of A didn't mis-manage the businesses. THEY DID.

We are surprised at how our government is acting. Its socialism for the wealthy and capitalism for the general public. This bailout and these banks, insurance giants and and now automakers are making this out to be a joke, using our hard-earned taxpayer dollars to give false-props to bad business models.

Listen here, you elected people in Washington, you want to bail them out? Do this...

1. If you give them any money, take complete control in how it's spent.
2. Request the top 10 people in each 3 companies step down, with no bonus or payoff or severence, etc.
3. Require a complete disclosure of their books over the past 5 years, to be reviewed by an upstanding accounting firm and made public.
4. Require a management consultant team to oversee retooling the plants and complete operations. Give Frank Cogswell in Louisville, KY a try. He might come out of retirement.
5. See that their offers to reduce pay to $1 a year is followed through. Or if the top execs are replaced, make sure the replacements take only $1 a year.

That's how we feel.

Stop wasting our money and time. Focus on fixing this country and our economy, not placating old-town political supports who screw up again and again and again and....

You get the picture.

Oh, and once again, we plead for the termination of Paulson from his position. Really, get someone in that position who doesn't have people in his pockets or a political agenda.

Obama's choice of Clinton

Congratulations to Hillary Clinton for being chosen as the next Secretary of State. President-Elect Obama - good choice. She's saavy, smart, and completely right for the job.

Obama Elected Newspaper Reprint

Whether it was Doug's voice mail to "9 Wants to Know" (a TV investigative team), my phone call to the Denver News Agency, my blog, or the tons of calls to the Denver Post, they must have wised up.

When Weslee bounded in to our bedroom this morning at 8 to see if he had more gifts to unwrap, we sent him down to eat breakfast and turned on the news. Less than a minute later there was a report how the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News both ran a re-print of yesterday's papers. Yippee!

I jumped out of bed, and within minutes was in the car heading for King Soopers (Krogers for other people). I picked up one of each, one of today's for each, and a Wall Street Journal. By the time I went through the store, picking up donuts and drinks for breakfast, and got back to the front, the rest of the newspapers were gone. I had gotten there just in time.

Amazing.

Vikki
www.newviewgroupllc.com

Is The Denver Post An Irresponsible Newspaper?

We subscribe to the Denver Post for Saturday and Sunday newspaper delivery, so we weren't surprised to not get a paper delivered this morning.

We were, however, quite astonished that when we went looking for a paper to buy, there were NONE to be had. Anywhere. Sold out before 8 a.m. this morning, at least, that's what EVERY retailer told us: Wal-Mart. Newspaper stands. Book stores. Supermarkets. Even a few local convenience stores. One grocery told me they had ordered 5 times more papers than usual and they were still sold out by 7:30 a.m. We searched bins outside of restaurants, strip malls, and everywhere we drove. All we found was yesterday's Wall Street Journal.

When we got home, I called the Denver Post Circulation Department. After being on hold for a while, I finally got a live voice. Here's what I learned: (1) they had already received a ton of calls about today's issue being sold out, (2) they only printed as usual, and (3) they had asked to do another printing but were told NOT to.

WHAT?

No matter who won last night's election, it was a momumental and historical event. The first woman vice president and possibly president OR the first black president. And for Denver, a huge city in a battleground state as well as the host of this year's Democratic Convention, the local newspapers should have arranged to have double or even triple the printing as usual.

Not providing enough newspapers for buyers is irresponsible. Isn't it?

The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News need to tell us what the hairy-heck they were thinking! And maybe send us a copy of the newspaper that we'd like to keep for our schooling-at-home records.

Vikki
www.newviewgroupllc.com

Election Night in the USA

I'll update this blog as we go through the night.
Vikki

7:02 p.m.: Polls just closed here in Colorado. Luckily we voted last Wednesday so we're sitting at home, eating pizza, and nervously watching different sites on our computers and on the television, ABC News "Vote 08". As of this moment, according to MSNBC, according to http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27539428/, Obama has 175 electoral votes and McCain has 70.

As of 7:51 p.m., according to http://abcnews.go.com/, Obama is 200 and McCain is 130. Wow, it's close. Nervewracking comes to mind. But it's amazing that there are so many differences between CNN, ABC, MSNBC, Fox, and so on... some accept the "early predictions" and some are more cautious, waiting for more of the precincts to give their reports.

At 8:30 p.m. I needed a break so took the dog for a walk. She very much appreciated the exercise, as did I. Good stress reliever. Sure my doc would happy that I took a break away from the stress (my heart palpitations).

At exactly 9:00 p.m., as Charlie Gibson said the polls on the West Coast were closing and he will NOT predict a winner until Barack Obama passes 270 electoral votes, he interrupted himself by saying California went straight to Obama, in addition to Washington and Oregon, giving Barack Obama a total of 284 electoral votes and 145 to John McCain.

Barack Obama has been declared by ABCNews.com as the next President of the United States of America. Congrats, President Obama and Vice President Biden.

As of 9:09 p.m:
Amendments for Colorado (with lots of precincts still to report):
46 - no, 51 to 49
47 - no, 54 to 46
48 - no, 75 to 25 (yippee!!)
49 - no, 60 to 40
50 - yes, 58 to 42
51 - no, 61 to 39
52 - no, 63 to 37
53 - ??
54 - yes, 52 to 48
55 - ??
56 - ??
57 - ??
58 - no 56 to 44
59 - no, 56 to 44

Referendums:
L - no, 55 to 45
M - yes, 65 to 35
N - yes, 72 to 28
O - no, 51 to 49

(D) Mark Udall won against (R) Bob Schaffer, 54 to 42%
(D) Betsy Markey won against (R) Marilyn Musgrave, 58 to 42%

As of 9:14 p.m., the electoral votes are: Obama 306 to McCain 145.

I'm pretty sure that once the numbers are final, all mail-in and provisional and ALL ballots are counted, Barack Obama will still be President.

I'm signing off now. It's been a late night, and there are many other websites with more details. Keep good thoughts for our Country as we enter a new era.

Vikki
http://www.newviewgroupllc.com/

McCain's RoboCalls continue... STOP THEM!!

From Doug - a need to VENT!:

The supposedly non-existent RoboCalls continue. I have now received 5 of them on my cellphone and have left 3 messages with the McCain campaign headquarters and attempted to leave a fourth one only to have the system hang up on me. Vikki, my wife, sent one e-mail through the contact form at www.johnmccain.com and left at least 3 message that for some reason the office seems to ignore. I would encourage anyone else who has received these harassing calls on cellphone or at home to leave messages with Republican National Commitee's Office, your local office of the RNC, and John McCain's campaign office as well.

Tonight I left a message the Colorado RNC office for the Communications Director. Funny thing that he seems to share a voicemail with the Inhouse Legal Director. I wonder if this is because of all the RoboCalls and the complaints from people getting them? I also attempted to leave a message at the National RNC office but darn if their general voicemail box wasn't full as well!

So I am going to send e-mails to the Director and CoDirector stating my complaints to them. I may also cc MCI's harrassment area and the Complaint area of the FCC.

If you would like to join me in letting the RNC know how much of an issue this is here are the numbers and e-mail addresses to the National RNC, Colorado RNC, and the number to John McCain's campaign office.

John McCain Campaign office: 703-418-2008 or use the contact form at www.johnmccain.com, National RNC headquarters: Comment line: 202.863.8790, Phone: 202.863.8500, Fax: 202.863.8820

Office of the Chairman
Mike Duncan, RNC Chairman
Email: Chairman@gop.com

Office of the Co-Chairman
Jo Ann Davidson, Co-Chairman
Email: Info@gop.com

For those of you who may live in Colorado and read this blog, here are the phone numbers, address and e-mail addresses for the Colorado branch of RNC:

Colorado Republican Headquarters
5950 S. Willow Drive, Suite 220
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
Office: 303.758.3333

Dick Wadhams
Party Chairman
dickwadhams@cologop.org

Michael Britt
Executive Director
michaelbritt@cologop.org
(w) 303.758.3333 x107

Ryan Call
Political Director / In-house Legal Counsel
ryan@cologop.org
(w) 303.758.3333 x108

Elizabeth Adams
Finance Director
elizabeth@cologop.org
(w) 303.758.3333 x105

Randy Hildreth
Communications Director
randy@cologop.org
(w) 303.758.3333 x108
(c) 720.233.4769

Matt Milner
Press Aide
Matt@colovictory08.com
(w) 303.758-3333
(c) 970.213.0825

Emily Kinzer
Deputy Political / EDO Director
emily@cologop.org
(w) 303.758.3333 x109

If you're as upset as I am with the RoboCalls, let the GOP and John McCain know how you feel because for some reason our "dear friend" is oblivious as to how people are feeling about their calls.

If you like these type of calls, then enjoy them and pay as much attention to this blog entry as your candidate does about the mood of the country.

Doug

10/23: John McCain's RoboCalls STILL Going!

After my posting yesterday, I thought those RoboCalls to my husband's cell phone had stopped. Boy were we wrong!

Doug was out walking the dog last night when he got another one. This one I listened to later - about how Obama associates with drug dealers and criminals. Said it was sponsored by the Republican National Committee, and the phone number of 866-558-5591. However, the phone listed on our caller i.d. said 866-520-5769. Isn't that against the rules?

Anyway, Doug and I have both called the above numbers numerous times - last night and today. We've opted out again and again but still, John McCain's campaign is NOT listening and NOT following the rules.

Mr. McCain: Even if we had thought about voting for you, you and your campaign have so thoroughly ticked us off by using our cell phone minutes and wasting our time that there is NO WAY on this Earth that we would vote for you.

Vikki www.newviewgroupllc.com

10/16: Bits and Pieces

There is so much going on that sometimes we don't have time to update this blog. Our apologies.

Kid Whispers:
Something's happened to Weslee, my almost 12-year-old. Yesterday he asked me to take him today for a buzz haircut. Today, while we were at Wal-Mart waiting for our turn at the stylist, he saw a lady struggling to put a cart away, and ran over to help her. He's thanking me for his meals, and his showers are shortening to 5 minutes. He willingly does his schoolwork, and takes the dog for 2 or 3 walks a day.

He's always been loving, running up to hug the biggest scarriest bikers when he was just a toddler. Weslee melted many hearts, with his quick smile, bright laughter, carroty-bronzy curly hair and cleft chin.

For the past several years, though, he's been obstinate and, well, just not nice. Argumentative. Struggling to find himself, and to justify his love to child-type things (cartoons) while growing up. He's been difficult to live with.

While I was his sole parent for the first 10 years of his life, I now share the responsibility with my new husband. We're still finding our way as a family, and it's been hard.

Our mantra: Patience. Space. Love.

Now my tween is growing up. He's outgrown pants he wore comfortably only 4 months ago. His voice is changing. He's growing hair in other places (ah mom!). But most of all, I think he's starting to accept it's not just him and me against the world, that we have Doug in our corner. Oh, and our new dog, Spirit!

Our new mantra: Trust. Responsibility. Honesty. and Patience. Space. Unconditional Love.

Backyard Grocery:
We had a couple nights of hard freezes this week. Good thing we brought in everything that could be harvested, including a butternut squash that wasn't quite ready yet. We also brought in the blueberry bushes, pots with the asparagus, and several tomatoes, among other things. Doug has attached a grow light in the family room, and still has two more to put in the front window for the tomatoes.

We brought the rest of the tomatoes from the backyard to the front porch. Due to the warmth of the house, they all survived the freeze, so we'll have lots of tomatoes still to come.

I've decided, though, that I don't like Autumn. All of these plants that we babied through the first sprouts peeking through the dirt, through the extreme heat and drought of Summer are beginning to die. The gourd leaves blackened from the freeze. The corn stalks are dry and white. The peppers, squashes and eggplants are withered. Sad.

But... we are blessed. We have enough frozen and dehydrated fruits and veggies, along with Winter squashes and drying sunflowers stored in the basement to last us to the Spring.

This was our experiment year. Next year we'll correct our mistakes and by next Autumn will have enough to last not only TO Spring but through it and into Summer.

New View Group LLC:
We finally found a forum hosting service so we've added that to our website. Over the next week, we'll add lots of topics to the forum, and we still have articles and other info to add to the website. Be sure to use the chat setup too!

Politics:
I'm supposed to reduce stress to help with my heart palpitations, but against doctor's orders, I watched the (last) presidential debate last night. Or tried to. I kept switching channels because, frankly, I expected better.

I expected McCain to not be mean this time. To give details about his plans. To put a positive spin on his issues.

And I expected Obama to stand up to McCain a little more. To give a few more details about his plans. To not let McCain get away with so much.

I understand that a lot of people who are pro-gun plan to vote for McCain/Palin because Palin is so pro-gun. And I understand that a lot of people who are against abortion will support McCain because he wants Roe Vs Wade overturned.

Don't vote for just ONE issue. We need to vote for what's overall best for our country, the United States of America.

John McCain's Campaign:
For the past several days now, Doug's cell phone has been getting recorded messages. Daily. Using up our minutes. We called them once to tell them to take the cell phone number off their list, but so far, it's been ignored. (These calls are called "robo calls".)

I just went to McCain's website. I thought about calling (Phone: 703-418-2008 ) but they'll just capture my cell phone number and use it! I thought about writing (John McCain 2008 // P.O. Box 16118 // Arlington, VA 22215) but that would take too long.

So .... I left a message using their contact form. It said:

We keep getting your taped messages on our cell phone and it's using up our minutes. STOP immediately or we'll send you a bill for the overage. Vikki and Doug Williams [cell number].

Let's hope that works.

Vikki http://www.newviewgroupllc.com/

9/26: Bits and Pieces

Garden:
I took a little stroll through our garden this morning. The cornpatch with the sunflowers, gourds, corn and beans are still dying, but as the leaves start to shrivel up, we are discovering several winter squashes we hadn't seen while hidden. We'll have quite a few Mexican X-Tops, a couple of Sugar Pie Pumpkins, and there's a few weird-shaped squashes that we have no clue what they are. The string beans are still producing so that's good.

The peas have mostly sprouted so we'll have about 20 pea vines. The lettuce has sprouted but we haven't seen any spinach sprout yet. (It's been about 17 days.)

I picked a few white scallop squash. We have so many of them I don't think we can eat any more. I'm going to grate a couple to freeze (to use in "zucchini" bread), and dehydrate a few too. We're still picking tomatoes but that's definitely slowed down. I guess I got about 15 yellow pears today.

Business:
We're still having troubles with the software provider; THAT stress hasn't helped at all. Doug and I will hash out the future of New View Group this weekend.

Health:
I wore the holter (heart) monitor for 24 hours, and recorded several incidences of heart palpitations and pains. Not especially uncomfortable but still made me self-conscious so once I got home, stayed home until the 24 hours was up and it turned itself off. Then I disengaged it. By keeping the diary, I realized that I get symptoms not only when at rest, but also when arguing with son about schoolwork or behavior, or watching a crime drama show. And everytime I attempted to work on this problem with our software provider. Hmm... interesting.

Politics:
Glad McCain is going to be joining Obama at the Presidential Debate tonight. This is especially the time when we need straight-shooters telling us what's going on and what is being done about it. Just hope they get down to brass tacks about the utmost concerns of American Citizens, and restrain themselves from name-calling and attacks.

Vikki www.newviewgroupllc.com

Clinton, Obama, McCain, Bush

I'm not an experienced political analyst or a professional blogger, but I am bothered and need to write the following:

Doug (my husband) and I watched Hillary Clinton's speech last night at the Democratic National Convention. We were moved beyond words, sure that her eloquence and passion united the Democratic party under the nomination of Barack Obama. We were wrong.

Some (unknown how many) of the delegates who voted for Hillary Clinton for President are saying they would rather vote for John McCain than Barack Obama. Why? Because Obama is black? Because they are hurt that Hillary didn't get the nomination? WHY???

I watched a news report this morning where the reporter said something to the effect of: 'although not everyone may agree with everything about John McCain, no one can say John McCain cannot run this country.' That hit me hard. Yes, he can run the country. So could my 11 year old son. But they couldn't do it well - not well enough to get out from under George W Bush's legacy and to get us out of the problems we're in. Does McCain even understand what the middle and lower classes are going through?

I'll tell him:

We struggle daily with finances, trying to decide between new school supplies for our children and medicine for our ADHD child, between mac-n-cheese for dinner and gas for our car, between rent paid in full and required vaccinations for school-age children.

We feel the weight of the world upon us. We are supposed to and often do care about global warming but when we HAVE to put $4.02/gallon gas in our car to get to a minimum-wage job, how can we possibly consider buying an electric car? We want to grow some of our own food, but our salaries dictate us to live in a high-rent/low-space/crime-ridden apartment building with little or no sunshine, and we take a chance every day we pick up a bit of fresh produce from the grocery (is it contaminated or not?).

We feel crushed by our obese bodies, but know that the package of ramen noodles costs a lot less than a bag of carrots. Our children get bigger and riddled with diseases like diabetes, autism and ADHD but we can't afford decent health care or healthy foods while we have to pay the exorbitant costs of transportation.

I see the future. With 4 more years of the weight of the world crushing us, our world will crumble. I see people who owned homes and cars struggling down the street begging for a bit of food for their children. I see people lined up in front of free clinics for samples of antibiotics and free flu vaccinations. I see children peering up at schools, unable to attend because of no permanent address or inadequate clothing and school supplies. I see the ocean floor buckling from the loss of structure and foundation from drilling. I see smog-filled days of choking breaths and nights of incredible heat and drought trading off with drenching floods. I see small businesses closing when passersby can't even afford to window-shop. I see sales of luxury items like sailboats, campers, jewelry and soda pops dropping, as we struggle to the nearly-empty foodbanks to get the last available loaf of bread. I see the incidents of crime rising as people grasp lives of theft and anger.

Don't let the future I see come true. Please.

We, the American People, need someone in charge of the American government who KNOWS what is really going on, and can DO something about it. Whether you supported Hillary because she's a woman or because she's a Clinton or because she's white or because you found her platform inviting, it's time to accept she's not the Democratic Party presidential nomination. Move your vote to someone who can really make a difference.

We beg of you.

Thank you for reading ... Vikki www.newviewgroupllc.com

7/31: Temperature, Exxon, Obama, McCain

Today the Denver area reached 97 degrees (it varied from station to station - from 95 to 99). We broke the 18-day streak by today becoming the 19th day in a row of over 90 degrees. Tomorrow we're supposed to be at 101. I'm melting! As did our poor corn beds; we had to give them an extra deep drink today. We did harvest 1 cucumber (our first!), 2 more yellow straightneck squash, 2 roma tomatoes and a handfull of string beans. No pic today - sorry!

Heard today that Exxon reported a 2nd quarter earnings of 11.7 BILLION. Excuse me?!?! Just my own thought here but what the hairy-heck do they think they are doing? They are helping to gouge us plain folk's pocketbooks and they have all this extra money going into theirs? Something about this isn't right. Perhaps WE should gouge Exxon's pocketbooks and BOYCOT their pumps.

About McCain's latest "celebrity" ditch ad about Obama with Britney and Paris and blaming Obama for the rising gas prices ... tsk tsk tsk. Mr. McCain, is this really how you want to run your campaign? Do you really not have much positive to say about your plans and policies and choices that you need to viciously attack your opponent? Do you really believe that one senator has (or had) so much power that he singlehandedly is responsible for the rising gas prices? Did he convince the President how to vote for particular fuel bills? Did he start the war on the other side of the Atlantic that convinced the world we're no longer a force to be reckoned with but a country to be toyed with? Do you really believe that this senator has such a celebrity status that he is equal to the "panty squad" of supposed airheads Britney and Paris? Does he go out and party just for photo ops? Does he dress provocatively?

Oh Mr. McCain... what are you thinking? Who are you listening to? Don't attack. Explain. Tell us... Do you have a plan to bring this country once again to greatness? To get us out of a war that is called "War on Terror" but isn't really? To help people afford their homes and basic everyday costs again? To help us put food on our table without giving up prescriptions? To stop people in government from lying and cheating those of us who put them there? To help our children learn how to be healthy instead of serving them junk food and sodas in the cafeterias while recess and arts programs are abolished? To solve our fuel problems by finding alternatives that are renewable?

Senators Obama and McCain: these are the issues important to me and most of America. What will YOU do for us? Vikki