jeebs1707's Blog

There's no secret that the U.S. Economy is dyre need of re-stabilization. This year alone I have witnessed many people lose their jobs due to the present economic crisis America is experiencing. I have also recently been unfortunate enough to experience job lost and non-employment availabilty first hand. Due to this astronomical economic crisis at hand, it has had a "trickle down" effect in the work field and on the common livelihood of the public in general.

 People who have been employed at jobs for over a decade are finding themselves out of work because in most circumstances there is no work. The "snowball effect" of this economic dilemma began with jobs being out-sourced to other countries who's citizens work for far less wages than here in the States. Along with big corporations sending jobs elsewhere, we are faced with another dilemma concerning illegal immigrants undercutting the average U.S. citizen by working for lower wages. I have been a mortgage representative for almost a decade. But due to the  fleandering housing dilemma we are now facing abroad, the mortgage business is in an international crisis. For this reason I decided to take on a second job to hopefully balance out some of my personal liabilities and avoid going into finacial debt.

 I use to be a cook at an "high-end" restaurant some years back, so, I didn't think that it would take much effort to find work in the culinary field. Boy, was I wrong. After being on an extensive job hunt for weeks I was finally contacted for an interview at a Chili's restaurant in N.J.. Although I was relunctant to accept the job at first( due to the unsatisfactory wage offered), I gave it a shot anyway out of urgency. The job was such a reality check that it made my head spin. The restaurant was a newly built establishment. Including myself, there were about 70 employees highered. 48 of them were Mexican. "Economy" or "Coincidence"?

 After about a month I found out from a reliable source that most of the Mexican employees were working without the proper paper work. Half of of them didn't speak english which made the work environment strenuous due to the language barriers that existed. Thank goodness I have better than average latin speaking capabilities, because most of the non-hispanic staff spent most of there day nodding there head and pointing like they were mimes or playing a game of "charades". Eventually, most of the line-cooks were let go because of the lack of business the restaurant recieved including the only three "Black" cooks that were hired. Ironically, after this short experience with this restaurant job I have come across so many other individuals was similar situations as mine. I don't dis-like Mexican people at all. In fact, I've become freinds with some really nice Mexican people. But, I am not happy knowing that I have to compete for employment with people that are not from this country and are working here illegally.

 "Illegal" immigrants are taking over jobs and land in this country by the multitude. I don't belive that the U.S. Government is doing enough to stop this from happening. And, for that reason my family and I have to compete with people that don't belong here in America to put food on the dinner table from day-to-day. Gas, food, mortgage,housing taxes, water tax, sewage tax, electricity. Shall I go on?  Stop N.A.F.T.A.. End The U.S. Republicans undisclosed support of International World Order. In case you didn't know, President Bush has conspired a negiotiation for Canada and Mexico to  become part of North American democracy/dictatorship by 2016, and he needs Sen. John McCain to finish the plan. Look around you and notice the suttle changes that are occurring at your job and in your neighborhood. Please be smart and vote. . . OBAMA.

jeebs1707 Pennsauken N.J.

Instead of doing something here to help people in need the government has approved 400 million to try to destroy the leadership in IRAN. This is in addition to the 3 billion a week being spent on the War in Iraq. No money to save mortgages, control oil prices, or keep business going. Plenty to protect the incomes of the rich and famous. Makes you wonder. Read below:

NEW YORK - U.S. congressional leaders agreed late last year to President George W. Bush's funding request for a major escalation of covert operations against Iran aimed at destabilizing its leadership, according to a report in The New Yorker magazine published online on Sunday.

The article by reporter Seymour Hersh, from the magazine's July 7 and 14 issue, centers around a highly classified Presidential Finding signed by Bush which by U.S. law must be made known to Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders and ranking members of the intelligence committees.

"The Finding was focused on undermining Iran's nuclear ambitions and trying to undermine the government through regime change," the article cited a person familiar with its contents as saying, and involved "working with opposition groups and passing money."

Hersh has written previously about possible administration plans to go to war to stop Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, including an April 2006 article in the New Yorker that suggested regime change in Iran, whether by diplomatic or military means, was Bush's ultimate goal.

Up to $400 million requested
Funding for the covert escalation, for which Bush requested up to $400 million, was approved by congressional leaders, according to the article, citing current and former military, intelligence and congressional sources.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. U.S. Special Operations Forces have been conducting crossborder operations from southern Iraq since last year, the article said.

These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of "high-value targets" in Bush's war on terrorism, who may be captured or killed, according to the article.

But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which include the Central Intelligence Agency, have now been significantly expanded, the article said, citing current and former officials.

Many of these activities are not specified in the new finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature, it said.

WASHINGTON - Danielle Ross was alone in an empty room at the Obama campaign headquarters in Kokomo, Ind., a cellphone in one hand, a voter call list in the other. She was stretched out on the carpeted floor wearing laceless sky-blue Converses, stories from the trail on her mind. It was the day before Indiana's primary, and she had just been chased by dogs while canvassing in a Kokomo suburb. But that was not the worst thing to occur since she postponed her sophomore year at Middle Tennessee State University, in part to hopscotch America stumping for Barack Obama.

Here's the worst: In Muncie, a factory town in the east-central part of Indiana, Ross and her cohorts were soliciting support for Obama at malls, on street corners and in a Wal-Mart parking lot, and they ran into "a horrible response," as Ross put it, a level of anti-black sentiment that none of them had anticipated.

"The first person I encountered was like, 'I'll never vote for a black person,' " recalled Ross, who is white and just turned 20. "People just weren't receptive."

For all the hope and excitement Obama's candidacy is generating, some of his field workers, phone-bank volunteers and campaign surrogates are encountering a raw racism and hostility that have gone largely unnoticed -- and unreported -- this election season. Doors have been slammed in their faces. They've been called racially derogatory names (including the white volunteers). And they've endured malicious rants and ugly stereotyping from people who can't fathom that the senator from Illinois could become the first African American president.

The contrast between the large, adoring crowds Obama draws at public events and the gritty street-level work to win votes is stark. The candidate is largely insulated from the mean-spiritedness that some of his foot soldiers deal with away from the media spotlight.

Meeting cruel reaction
Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"

Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy, the daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy, said she, too, came across "a lot of racism" when campaigning for Obama in Pennsylvania. One Pittsburgh union organizer told her he would not vote for Obama because he is black, and a white voter, she said, offered this frank reason for not backing Obama: "White people look out for white people, and black people look out for black people."

Obama campaign officials say such incidents are isolated, that the experience of most volunteers and staffers has been overwhelmingly positive.

The campaign released this statement in response to questions about encounters with racism: "After campaigning for 15 months in nearly all 50 states, Barack Obama and our entire campaign have been nothing but impressed and encouraged by the core decency, kindness, and generosity of Americans from all walks of life. The last year has only reinforced Senator Obama's view that this country is not as divided as our politics suggest."

Campaign field work can be an exercise in confronting the fears, anxieties and prejudices of voters. Veterans of the civil rights movement know what this feels like, as do those who have been involved in battles over busing, immigration or abortion. But through the Obama campaign, some young people are having their first experience joining a cause and meeting cruel reaction.

On Election Day in Kokomo, a group of black high school students were holding up Obama signs along U.S. 31, a major thoroughfare. As drivers cruised by, a number of them rolled down their windows and yelled out a common racial slur for African Americans, according to Obama campaign staffers.

Frederick Murrell, a black Kokomo High School senior, was not there but heard what happened. He was more disappointed than surprised. During his own canvassing for Obama, Murrell said, he had "a lot of doors slammed" in his face. But taunting teenagers on a busy commercial strip in broad daylight? "I was very shocked at first," Murrell said. "Then again, I wasn't, because we have a lot of racism here."

Vandalism, bomb threats
The bigotry has gone beyond words. In Vincennes, the Obama campaign office was vandalized at 2 a.m. on the eve of the primary, according to police. A large plate-glass window was smashed, an American flag stolen. Other windows were spray-painted with references to Obama's controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and other political messages: "Hamas votes BHO" and "We don't cling to guns or religion. Goddamn Wright."

Ray McCormick was notified of the incident at about 2:45 a.m. A farmer and conservationist, McCormick had erected a giant billboard on a major highway on behalf of Farmers for Obama. He also was housing the Obama campaign worker manning the office. When McCormick arrived at the office, about two hours before he was due out of bed to plant corn, he grabbed his camera and wanted to alert the media. "I thought, this is a big deal." But he was told Obama campaign officials didn't want to make a big deal of the incident. McCormick took photos anyway and distributed some.

The pictures represent what we are breaking through and overcoming," he said. As McCormick, who is white, sees it, Obama is succeeding despite these incidents. Later, there would be bomb threats to three Obama campaign offices in Indiana, including the one in Vincennes, according to campaign sources.

Obama has not spoken much about racism during this campaign. He has sought to emphasize connections among Americans rather than divisions. He shrugged off safety concerns that led to early Secret Service protection and has told black senior citizens who worry that racists will do him harm: Don't fret. Earlier in the campaign, a 68-year-old woman in Carson City, Nev., voiced concern that the country was not ready to elect an African American president.

"Will there be some folks who probably won't vote for me because I am black? Of course," Obama said, "just like there may be somebody who won't vote for Hillary because she's a woman or wouldn't vote for John Edwards because they don't like his accent. But the question is, 'Can we get a majority of the American people to give us a fair hearing?' "

Keith R. Morton

I agree that the ultimate desire of many is to witness a racially equal America. Although that is not our reality, it's nice to imagine, isn't it? I believe that the base or foundation of getting to this diversely unified existence is for non-white (Black,Hispanic,Asian etc.)citizens to treat each other with the respect that is expected from Caucasian-Americans.

 I think that "Black" America especially, has to set the terms and standards for their on race by loving and respecting each other. I think that "Black" people have become content with the repetitive display of physical violence, and verbal abuse that is displayed toward each other.

 Even when I try to disect the reasoning behind "Black" people calling themselves the "N" word, I fail to come up with a logical explaination. To use a word that "Blacks" have faught for so long to do away with and for many to have loss their lives in the midst of, only bestows the disregard and self-hate for ourselves. And, in turn, opens the door of invitation to be disrespected by other races.

 No, I don't think that "Black" Americans are treated (as a whole) equally as "White" Americans. But, I also think that "Black" people are too fast to point the finger and post the blame at others to somehow justify or down-play their own misfortunes or misdeeds. When will the "change" come? Short question...long answer. Before "Black" people can began expecting reporations for the lack of equality we are so quick to acknowledge, we must first salvage and repair the damage that has already torn the roots of our unification within.   jeebs1707 Pennsauken, N.J.

Your conversation proves my point. First of all what does Rev. Wright have to do with any of the issues that concern the nation. He has absolutely no effect on fuel cost, health care, the economy, or any other issue that affects the citizens who are voting. Rev. Wright's views don't control  whether Obama's, Clinton's, or McCain's initiatives get started or completed. remember the 35 years experience part) The news uses this story because people are so misguided that they pay attention to a issue that has no effect on them and the news media only plays what will get good ratings. Personally I have spent very little time on Rev. Wright, frankly because he is not part of the issues that concern me. I am much less afraid of Rev. Wright than a nuclear war, my friends and people I know loosing their homes, folks not having healthcare (which means my tax dollars pay for theirs), and a whole host of issues that the experienced candidates have not solved in all their years of "experience". These are the issues that are important. While most people are worrying about a non issue no one is doing anything about the real issues. Maybe you have "arrived" and don't care to look/reach behind you and make a better place for others. Maybe you have got yours and don't care about anyone else’s. The reality is this whole Rev. Wright thing is a mis-direction play. It really does not matter who started it because if it continues none of the real issues will get addressed. That is the point I am making and who ever the voter is they need to realize that the same has brought us nothing and it is time for a change.

K. Morton   Camden N.J.

Dear Friends,

Some leaders in the Democratic Party are playing with fire. They think that they can betray the will of millions of voters--and choose Hillary Clinton as the nominee, regardless of whether or not she is the choice of the voters. We can't let this happen. It would be the largest disenfranchisement in modern history, and it would mean the Democratic Party giving their stamp of approval to a clear and consistent pattern of race-baiting by the Clinton campaign.

If we make our voices heard, we can stop it. Please join us in signing an open letter to leaders in the Democratic Party -- DNC Chair Howard Dean, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and all superdelegates -- demanding that they reject an outcome that involves trampling voting rights and legitimizing the politics of division and fear:

http://www.colorofchange.org/dems/?id=1999-523825a>

This is why they won’t vote for Obama. Share it if you want to. Two months ago they did not believe he really had a chance so it was cute to be progressive. Now that he possibly can win the truth has surfaced. Most white people are so relieved that there can be a controversy so their racism can be hidden. The reality is that deep inside it has been a racial thing all along. It does not make that much difference to me because I believed this from the start and only watch to see how things play out. Most people you have talked to have never said that they have a problem with the way he wants to deal with the issues. Just him (which means him being black) and have been looking for a reason to turn to what they know (RACE). The truth is that Rev. Wright is not an issue. Think about this for a moment – Hilary spoke last week or so about dropping a nuclear bomb on the Middle East countries and not a word has been said about that. Coming from the only country that has ever dropped on and then dropped a second, she has presented us with the possibility of dropping the third. This is not news because of the same reasons the Rev. Wright said. As a country we believe it is our right to do anything we want, and then figure out how to justify it. A nuclear attack would not save Israel it would only contaminate all of the Middle Eastern countries, ALL of them. (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Israel), and many more. How could anyone not see this as a major issue unless they can only focus on the petty issues like the race of a candidate? What difference does it make if Wright believes that the country is unfair? What is the affect on all the people who have taken up this argument? Does it affect taxes, healthcare, the war, $3.50 gas, the economy? I thought these are the things we needed changes on. How can the American public allow their selves to be duped again by non-issues?  

K. Morton  Camden, N.J.

I wish I could find a story to answer about this. No one has an article about this issue that tells the truth. The news media won’t say it and most white people will give another reason because they want to be racist on the down low. With all of the forums on the internet about every conceivable reason Obama can’t get the blue collar or women’s vote there are none that discuss the pure racial reasons behind the scene. Higher educated whites will vote for him because they can figure out that the reasoning behind Hillary’s arguments are flawed. She constantly talks about 35 years in politics and her experience. However, what are the results of that experience. If she has been in politics for 35 years (by her own admission) and still needs to get the problems solved from the prior years what good is 4 more years going to do. Blue collar (trailer park) folks can’t figure it out beyond having a "black"person in charge. They would rather lose their trailer, lose their car, and pick out of the garbage than have a "black" running things.

They have not figured out (even with Bush being the president for the last eight years) that no one in Washington cares if they fall. McCain and Hillary both tout their years of experience but have not accomplished nearly as much as the other candidate in the limited time he has been in government. For anyone who can read put their résumé’s beside each other and look at how many years it took to get the things accomplished. Question: Will four years make a difference? Answer: No! That is why it makes no sense to blow a vote for the same as usual.

Gas prices and other cost which are related to the world market will drop after the election. Reason: Nobody likes us because we screw them all. The difference is other nations can get their self together and effectively maneuver into positions that affect us and our markets like they are doing now. Remember Brazil, Russia, and Venezuela cut back oil to us to force us to be more enslaved to the market. A new person is the only one who can turn the tide. They will not believe a Clinton or McCain/Bush.

Final note: If the election is stolen from Obama (meaning he wins the delegates and super delegates) I will get a fake business and find a way to dump all of my income into it and hope they lose everything they have being racist. Their choice. I and my family will survive either way. And I will still be a Black Boss.

Keith R. Morton Camden, N.J.  

Monday, April 21st, 2008
My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore

Friends,

I don't get to vote for President this primary season. I live in Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn't get their act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.

So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please cast my vote -- and yours -- on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?

I haven't spoken publicly 'til now as to who I would vote for, primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I know) don't give a rat's ass whose name is on the ballot in November, as long as there's a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate's name.

Seriously, I know so many people who don't care if the name under the Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.

Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was the final straw. I've watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well that's when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the "F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama's pastor does -- AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!

This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!

Yes, Senator Clinton, that's how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office you can't win unless you smear the black man so much that the superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.

But that can't happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised Land.

How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the White House. That day will come -- but it won't be you. We'll have to wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you read it here first!).

There are those who say Obama isn't ready, or he's voted wrong on this or that. But that's looking at the trees and not the forest. What we are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than it is for Obama the candidate.

That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what's going on is bigger than him at this point, and that's a good thing for the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going to give up their hold on our government just because we say so. President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind him.

I know some of you will say, 'Mike, what have the Democrats done to deserve our vote?' That's a damn good question. In November of '06, the country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up happily behind them?

I'll tell you why. Because I can't stand one more friggin' minute of this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done to our people and to this world. I'm almost at the point where I don't care if the Democrats don't have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain't "Bush" and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then that's good enough for me.

I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8 long years. That's why I will join millions of citizens and stagger into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round, all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the only thing that matters -- that big "D" on the ballot.

Don't get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.

It's foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that'll represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal voice.

Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America. Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for 'spiritual counseling?' THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"

But no, Obama won't throw that at her. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't be decent. She's been through enough hurt. And so he remains silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.

That's why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That's why he'll take us down a more decent path. That's why I would vote for him if Michigan were allowed to have an election.

But the question I keep hearing is... 'can he win? Can he win in November?' In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called the Straight Talk Express. We know it's possible to hear the words "President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too. She's counting on it.

Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a chance for redemption.

Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com

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Recent Letters

Monday, April 21st, 2008
My Vote's for Obama (if I could vote) ...by Michael Moore

Monday, March 24th, 2008
So? ... A Note from Michael Moore

Friday, January 25th, 2008
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
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Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
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Thursday, July 26th, 2007
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Tuesday, July 17th, 2007
CNN Throws in Towel, Admits to Two Errors, and States That All 'Sicko' Facts Are True to Their Source (or something like that)... Moore Realizes All This is Huge Distraction and Then Spends More Precious Time Thanking Paris Hilton for Seeing 'Sicko'... Meanwhile, More than 300 Americans Die Because They Had No Health Insurance During the 8-Day Gupta-Moore War...

Saturday, July 14th, 2007
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Friday, July 6th, 2007
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