Procter & Gamble top former executive spreads bigotry

Lou Pritchett was VP Sales and Customer Development for soap giant, Procter & Gamble, and it was during his recent retirement that he wrote the ultra-conservative, extremist “You scare me” letter to President Obama.  It was confirmed by Snopes.com, if you have confidence in their judgment.  It was also panned by bloggers, which I will cover later.  It is notable that Pritchett sent the letter to the New York Times but it was neither acknowledged nor published.

Here are some of his comments with my retorts:

·       You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.  (NJ) Only an idiot could say this after the last 20 months.

·       You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no Visible signs of support.  (NJ) Like most of us peons did, working our way through.  And what “upscale lifestyle?”

·       You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.  (NJ) This borders on prejudice and an anomaly in that you are obviously a right wing fanatic.

·       You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.  (NJ) Not a bad idea to consider social Democracy that could spread the wealth in America.

·       You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest  standard of Living in the world.  (NJ) Poverty in the U.S. has hit a new high climbing to 15.1 percent or 46.2 million people.  A top economist, Nouriel Roubini, places the blame fully at the feet of George W. Bush.

·       You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.  ("Another Hitler in the making," bigoted comment by person sending email.)  (NJ) This one is tough to figure out; apparently you were struck dumb during the totalitarian governing of Geo. W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

There’s much more you can read on the above link to Snopes.com.

This man scares the hell out of me.  Let’s start with the fact that he is a Tea Party Patriot, which explains a lot of his confusion.  You can hear his rantings on the Fox News Mangrum Report where he says employers should stop hiring, and that it is perfectly OK to move U.S. jobs overseas.  So much for the American dream.

A blog by the name of Wall Street Jackass pokes fun at Pritchett’s letter.  Its comments are much more tolerant than mine but nevertheless interesting.  By the way, he has a Southern drawl, which could account for some of his statements.  I can say this having grown up in the South and more recently writing about some of its age-old issues.

What scares me even more than Pritchett is the fact that a friend of ours mass circulated this email to a number of people, many of which are probably Tea Party members.  It is this sort of thoughtless bigotry that has this country tearing itself apart.  If it isn’t stopped we may follow in the footsteps of the fall of the Roman Empire.  Peace!

ARIZONA POLITICS: Is stealth “candidate” Olivia Cortez really running for Russell Pearce’s Arizona State Senate seat?

AZ State Sen. Russell Pearce

I’ve heard of stealth bombers, stealth helicopters, even a stealth attraction.  But it took Phoenix New Times columnist Stephen Lemons to come up with Olivia Cortes as a stealth candidate.  Stealth means secretive, clandestine, and that is just what Cortes has been; not answering her phone or a knock at the front door.  Not defining her candidacy or what she actually stands for.  In the absence of any statement, one might think she stands for…Russell Pearce.

Lemons confirmed himself that petition circulators are telling signers that getting Cortes in the race will help to split the vote in favor of Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce.  The Phoenix New Times writer actually went to the Mesa, AZ, library and was asked to sign the petition to place Cortes’ name on the ballot.  That’s when he affirmed what the petitioners were saying.  You can read more about his conversation with the petition company here.

This is also is supported by a reporterfrom the Arizona Republic, GaryNelson, who says, “A vote for Olivia Cortes is a vote for Russell Pearce.”  He had the same experience as Stephen Lemons in being asked to sign a petition that he was told would split the vote to help Pearce.  This all substantiates an earlier allegation by Randy Parraz, one of the Pearce recall organizers, who said he had heard the same thing.  Parraz’s comment when hearing the latest was, “She’s busted.”

Russell Pearce says he has nothing to do with Cortes running against him, but even a two-year-old could figure this out.  These are the same bullying tactics Pearce has been using for years and they have finally caught up with him.  Arizona politics continue to provide the nation’s media with the most laughable gang of idiots running a state in the country.

I’ll even bet there are a number of his Republican cronies who are rooting for Lewis and will be happy to see this bigot go.  They won’t be alone.  Amen.

Worst governor’s race features Arizona’s own Jan Brewer

If you Google “List of worsts,” you come up with 647 million hits.  Everything from films to baseball games to sitcoms, even tomatoes.  Tiger Woods tops the list of worst celebrity tippers.  In the 10 worst Presidents, Richard Nixon came in ninth, and George W. Bush didn’t qualify apparently.  On my list of Presidents, GWB would be a solid first.

There’s a list of top worst school massacres, unfortunate in its nature but a sign of the times.  There’s a list of worst airports for delay, which you might want to check before your next flight.  Las Vegas is not on the list of worst housing markets, even though it has led in foreclosures for months.  If your kids go to a public school, there is a list of the worst of those.  There seems to be one for everything.

And now the Transport Union of America has come up with a “Worst Governor Ever”list with notables like Rick Scott of Florida, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Tom Corbett, Pennsylvania, Chris Christie, New Jersey, Rick Snyder, Michigan, John Kasich, Ohio, and the new GOP candidate for President, Rick Perry of Texas.  But guess who takes the honor for “Worst of the Worst Governors?”  Of course, Arizona’s own Jan Brewer.

Most of the reasons for nominating the worst governor were due to legislation they passed and their politics in general.  Jan Brewer can be judged on both of those points but she adds another measure to the pot.  Competence, or a lack of in the case of Brewer.  Jan Brewer is not qualified to be Governor of Arizona, and the only reason she is…her support for State Sen. Russell Pearce’s racist anti-immigration bill, SB-1070.

Already the laughing stock of the country, Arizona politics just keep on rolling.

Read more here.

Hating has turned into a popular participant sport

Compliments Marlith

There is a poll taken that asks the question, “Which celebrity do you hate the most?” and is produced by California-based E-Score Celebrity.  You’d think we had had enough of this kind of crap for a lifetime with a Congress that outwardly hates each other.  As man example, in Arizona the high level of animosity toward Hispanics and just anyone who is different is prevalent all over the state. 

It was in November of 2006 that Michael Richards of “Kramer” Seinfeld fame who went bonkers on the stage of the West Hollywood Laugh Factory club, when an African-American heckler got under his skin.  In a 3 minute tirade, he used the “F” and “N” words repeatedly against the man.  It was so bad that the majority of the audience left, repulsed by the action.  It’s all on video you can see here.

But you’re still wondering about that “Hate” poll;” well, the winner was Casey Anthony, the 25 year-old woman that was tried and acquitted for killing her little girl.  She is currently hiding out and, perhaps, not even aware that she is the “Most Hated” person in the U.S.  Former The Hills reality TV star Spencer Pratt came in second, Nadya Suleman, the unemployed California woman that popped octuplets in 2009 to add to the 6 she already had was third, and O.J. Simpson was fourth.

I decided to Google “Most hated in Arizona,” since that state has such a bad reputation in the “abomination” category, and you’ll never guess what I got.  A FacebookGroup page with the blazing headline, “The Most Hated Women in USA Mrs Jan Brewer The Governor of Arizona.”  Other sites found in the search were, “Arizona, most hated state in the Union” and last but certainly one of the most interesting, “The third most hated Senator John McCain of Arizona.

It’s time to put all this nonsense to rest.

Read more here.

Warren Buffett trashes GOP tax cuts

Compliments Art Comments

Billionaire Warren Buffett says the Republicans selectively eliminated him and other affluent individuals like him when asking the American public to “sacrifice.”  Buffett places himself in the “mega-rich” category while the rest of us suffer in the economic crisis.  It seems there is something like “carried interest’ that allows this opulent group to get a “bargain” 15 percent tax rate.  Buffett feels protected by conservatives in Congress and is calling for them to stop this “coddling.”

Forecasters agree, warning that the direction of the House Republicans demanding spending cuts without tax increases was the “wrong” thing to do.  These critics are convinced that the stimulation of the economy in the short term will do more to create jobs.  Something like President Obama will introduce Thursday in his speech to Congress.  Another source says revenue enhancement and entitlement reform are needed for the long term.

The fact that Republicans say that raising taxes is not on the table, along with Democrats refusing to touch entitlements leaves only discretionary spending, like education, research, the military and the infrastructure, among others.  Based on the inability of the GOP to move outside its ridiculous ideology on tax increases, it seems this impasse will certainly lead to a partisan standoff that could lead this country into another economic crisis by the end of the year.

Buffett paid $6,938,744 in taxes last year, which he acknowledges sounds like a lot.  But this was a rate of only 17.4 percent, compared to 20 others in his office paying from 33 to 41 percent, an average of 36 percent.  Based on Republican claims that high capital gains taxes tend to discourage investors, Buffett says he doesn’t know of anyone deciding against a good investment because of a high tax rate.

He adds, for those who argue that higher tax rates hurt job creation, a net 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000, as compared to since that period when we’ve actually had lower tax rates with lower job creation.  Two Republicans served as President during that period along with Bill Clinton.  George W. Bush was elected and served as President from 2001 to 2009.  Shortly after entering office GWB enacted tax cuts for the wealthiest citizens in America…including Warren Buffett.

Wild West gun laws looser today than during Wyatt Earp’s fight at the O.K. Corral

You can read all about it in Adam Winkler’s new book, Gunfight, The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, published on September 19, already available on Amazon.com.  Winkler is a professor of constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles, and writes for The Daily Beast and Huffington Post.  He is an expert on gun law whose statements you can take to the bank.  In his research for the book, he confirmed that gun control can work.

The author says in a recent article in HuffPost, quoting Chicago Mayor Richard Daley following the supreme Court’s decision confirming the rights of individuals to own guns, "Then why don't we do away with the court system and go back to the Old West, you have a gun and I have a gun and we'll settle it in the streets?"  Winkler adds, “Gun control advocates fear -- and gun rights proponents sometimes hope -- the Second Amendment will transform our cities into modern-day versions of Dodge.”

From the comments I have received from my gun control articles, that is exactly what the gun bubbas want.  In the untamed West you needed a gun to protect yourself from the bad guys and wild animals.  Today we have law enforcement protection to fill that void, and, although strained, manages to do a damn good job taking care of the American public.  What we don’t need is a bunch of untrained vigilante gun slinging cowboys that don’t know what they’re doing like the two at the Rep. Gabby Giffords massacre in Tucson.

But returning to the Old West, Winkler describes the dusty streets of a typical town like Dodge City in 1879 with this huge billboard exclaiming, "The Carrying of Firearms Strictly Prohibited."  Even Tombstone, AZ, location of the “Shootout at the OK Corral,” barred the carrying of guns openly.  It took Arizona State Sen. Russell Pearce and Gov. Jan Brewer to open the state up to the loosest gun laws in the U.S. and make Arizona a laughing stock of the country.

And the gun fanatics should take notice; in the Wild West, law enforcement and the general population did find out that gun control can work.  As Winkler put it, “We've always had a right to bear arms, but we've also always had gun control.”  He closes by asking, “Even in the Wild West, Americans balanced these two and enacted laws restricting guns in order to promote public safety. Why should it be so hard to do the same today?”

There is much more on the long time political battle over gun control and the individual’s right to bear arms.  This is a must read for the gun control folks as well as the gun rights activists.

Over and over, anti-immigration fanatics ignore the facts

Migrant deaths have dropped 38 percent on the Arizona border.  Illegal immigrant apprehensions have dropped 44 percent.  At this pace, migrant deaths in the Tucson sector, the busiest in the U.S., will fall to their lowest level in years.  In the Yuma sector, there was only one migrant death this year.  Although one death is too many, these figures are evidence that the border with Mexico is more secure than ever.

The nation continues a 15-year declinein crime with the 100 largest metropolitan areas experiencing a 21 percent drop in violent crime between 1990 and 2008.  Murder, sexual assault, robbery, burglary, auto theft have all taken large double-digit declines.  With the continued sharp drop, even through the recession, criminologists are baffled.  Some even ask if the decrease in crime is due to immigration.

There were 11.2 illegal immigrants living in the U.S. in 2010, about the same as in 2009.  Something has to be done to reconcile this situation, and only a fool would think we can deport all of them.  And why would we want to considering many of the immigrants are holding necessary jobs and paying taxes.  The studyby Pew Research found that Mexicans, 58 percent of the total are not leaving the country, prompting more calls for immigration reform.   

It’s time for you anti-immigration extremists to face up to the facts, and stop making Arizona look like the most unfriendly state in the U.S.  Instead, we should force Congress and the White House to secure the border so those coming through are legal, and set up a reasonable system of amnesty for the 11.2 million already here.