Judd Gregg, Knucklehead of the Week

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“I couldn’t be Judd Gregg”, he said.  Senator say what?! You couldn’t be you? What, you didn’t know you signed up to be Commerce Secretary Nominee for a leader of a different party?  You didn’t know you are a fiscal conservative? You didn’t know you were in discord with the President on a number of issues? What?! You didn’t know you were on the other side of the pendulant when you agreed to be the voice of anything business, trade and census? You didn’t know?! C’mon even the rat knew it!

No reason to pass judgment, you deserve a breather; so I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and accept your rationale! You agreed to build the filing cabinet and for a minute there thought you would handle the sledgehammer; it is not hard to comprehend to grasp. It is not like you were oblivious to the blatant ideological difference between you and the President; you knew it full throttle! Were you just too excited or got sidetracked by your surreptitious schema; anyway touché!  It is not like you were invited to the shindig. Last I heard you volunteered to be Mr. Secretary because let’s face it, who would have invited you anyway. In the spirit of bipartisanship, however, the President and his peeps extended and accepted you with open arms (they might be kicking themselves in the bun just about now but who cares?)There is nothing wrong with a little awkwardness as Tim Gunn of Project Runaway would say “Carry on!”.

No one other then you and perhaps your associates know what happened.  Perhaps, you were pressured by your party (I wonder if they also drag your hand to the bathroom or your feet down a cliff) or you alone came to the realization that the ideological differences were too greater venture you sought to tackle; not worth the fight. I wonder if you regret the decision (I doubt it!) but then again, what difference does it make?! The decision has been made! I just wished you were a tad more forthcoming, and hoped the decision was not as a result of your constituents and local paper’s condemnation of you not having voted for the bill.

Anyway, have you been listening to Rush Limbaugh’s mantra (he wants the President to fail) but you should have at least gone with Pat Robinson. He called on Rush for a change and wished he had not said that! Last I heard (that’s the word out), you and your party are betting all the way to 2010; presumptuously you will come victorious and get more of your dudes in the tank. Right on!  What a gamble, I may add. I never thought you had it on you, considering that we, the tax payers are losing our jobs like poo (pardon me!) and are the ones who will be voting come November 2010!

Really, what caused you to abruptly quit? I mean, your seat filling demand was fulfilled; all was ablaze as your Democratic Governor appointed a member of your party (I hoped she did not pack her bags)! Had you stayed you could have perhaps, made a difference, who knows?! It is always nice to have a different view to rattle the jingle a bit. As the world turns! Maybe you realized that you would be missing your Senate compadres too much and thought the break up would be devastating to your psyche (I wonder how much input you really have on your party!) I gotcha you! You were on your way to losing it all, so better be safe than sorry.

What do you prefer, rally round around a frail nation, be an instrument and help it thrive once again (this is subjective) or be a bully and an assailant and an obstructionist. Again, I am not trying to be an adjudicator but anyone in a calamitous state would accept any kind of provisional backing, not a handout whatever it may be, as long as it would propel the person back into ascension again. I mean, it is fair right or would you rather lose it all based on your core belief. Is the constant wrestling match and bickeringreally worth?  Well, if you are anything like Michele Bachmann all is possible. I digress!

My question is, so what if this stimulus plan really ends up making a difference and the economy subsides with everyone praising and giving accolades to the President – for having at least attempted to do something – and the democrats, then what? Where would it leave you? Would you bang your head on a hard surface until it bleeds and lament your heart out while acknowledging that you were just being a pest or just get your slap and move on?

On the other hand, (what!) did you expect the president to be so saddened, dejected and lose sleep over your decision? Hello?! He invited you to the party but needed not to. He sent you an attractive invitation adorned with accolades and fanfare via a messenger but you failed to reciprocate. The table settings were perfect but you at the last minute decided to jump ship.  This is after you RSVPed; the dinner paid, the menu designed and waiters lined up.  He got your message and the excusable explanation. Did you think the party would stop?! Did you think the President would cry, roll over his bed in a fetal position and beg you to stay? You probably thought so right!? Sorry to disappoint you but he just brushed you off his shoulder like a pestering dandruff.

Let’s be honest Mr. President, c’mon what did you think? Could you have been greener than you pretend to be or you were just being an austere politician? You mischievous self!  I see! You campaigned and preached so much about working across the aisle that you began to believe it was actually possible. Yeah, me too! Forget inclusiveness; you can only include those who are interested in doing so! You attempted to do the unthinkable (which is possible, if people are cooperative!), entice a group that is unwilling to join the cause because it is “your” cause as if it was given to you as a souvenir (in a way it actually was).

The fact of the matter is that the Republicans are bent on and were never looking for to be part of the team. God forbid they try (they may end up putting too much salt on the meal) or even think about ours – the tax payer’s – needs; solve the problems of the country and not the desires of their party. Their intend is and always will be to sabotage you, your agenda, your goals (this is with any party). God forbid if the country actually moves ahead. Make you look good?! It is a fallacy. They fail to understand that if you succeed, the country succeeds.

Mr. President, it is not your fault they cuddled themselves on being bad stepbrothers. It is not your fault they are being browbeaten and looking for a great score, so they can chuckle “we told you so”. It is not your fault they did not crop stack of ideas at cracked of dawn and at last minute attempted to extend a hand; it is not your fault! They choose to drop the ink on a portion of paper plate and strike a chord that their plan was better, and there isn’t anything you could have done about it.

Mr. President I blame you, however. It is your fault for having undervalued their strength, resolve and fervor, and beliefs that they understand these are special times.  I do not blame them for trying to distance themselves from you. (This is after you and your comrades presented them with written proposals, laid them on the kitchen counter and expected them to stick to at the click of the switch!) Did you really believe they would just adhere to you like puppets, without giving their two cents? Hello, they are your brothers too; they are sons and daughters of your mother so listen to what they have to say (you just don’t have to follow it). Really, who do you think they are? There is pride to contend with after all; the wounded carcass searching for a frame.

“The road to recovery will not be straight. We will make progress and there will be slippage along the way. There will be hazards and reverses… But I have every confidence that if we are willing to do the critical work that needs to be done…. Then we will leave the struggling economy behind us….

“It’s about rejecting the notion that our fate is somehow written for us,” the president said, “and instead laying claim to a destiny of our own making.” President Barack Obama

A Note About “Phishing”

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Mind you that it was Sunday evening. Granted the Bank deserves the right to communicate with its customers whenever but on a Sunday?! My friends, you hear stories; you get frivolous emails akin to the ones from your long long Nigerian cousins (not!); you get chain letters and you brush them all aside to only react when and if it happens to you. By then, the light bulb and your wires are up blazing full throttle like tornado.

I was in the middle of my affairs when I received this text message that startled me. My immediate reaction was to call my bank which I did, as precaution, just to be certain but it may have perhaps been a tad superfluous!

I was fuming and considered calling the spoilers who annoyingly interrupted my serene evening.  I really wanted to stick it to them and send them to where the “sun don’t (not doesn’t) shine”, bark at the perpetrator, raffle and tell them like it is. I wanted to tell them this, and that I was on to them and… hoof (I am tired), but soon realized that if I wanted to make the call, it needed not to be to the malefactor but to the “big guys”.

Early in the day, I was in the supermarket and used my debit/ATM card, so the prospect of the number being stolen was unlikely (yeah right!) for the reasons that I closely guard my code like fortress (I have previously requested persons to move back a bit so I could discretely enter the code), people comings and goings, and besides the place is so well lit that it discourages (not!) even the most “professional” pickpocketer from thieving a tomato, let alone sixteen digits (great!) but these days, all is academic.

Hours after my trip, I received the following text message “Notice/ This is a automated message from NCUA. Your ATM card has been deactivated. To reactivate call urgent at: 515-678-9538. From: 5000”.

I made good on my first reaction, I called the Bank but after thinking it over concluded that I needed not to. C’mon, I only use my cellphone to bull…. and emergencies, so the answer was apparent; my habits should have been the key but nooooo, I ate it with my mouth wide open and lived to burp about it too!

I should have taken the message for the coupon it was worth; textmarketing (for lack of a better word) notoriously branded as phishing; instead, my trigger-happy fingers quickly charged off. I replied back in a jiffy with my own salvo, “Yeah right and I am calling the police”. But if I wasn’t such an airhead, I would have done the thinkable, the obvious in this 21st century, because when in doubt, google it! Perhaps, it could have saved me some aggravation but I was being fastidious.

The complaints were there; entries after entries; one by one, the victims were listed in details but I was saddened because there were no cigars; there were no answers other than a link to NCUA (National Credit Union Administration) http://www.ncua.gov/Phishing/phishing.htm. How fitting! How more genuine can a message be coming from them in particular?  I was suspicious because I still had to do the leg work. There wasn’t much there other then the recommendation to register my number with Do Not Call List.

Ok, I know, you got me! I can hear you from afar. I dialed the number back after all, not on the say day but two days later. I was curious and it is done! I was just being inquisitive and my action could have resulted on my number being moved to another carrier without my consent – at least that’s what they used to do back in the days. I did not get the response I was looking for, however. I was expecting and wished to receive an open and free for all voicemail so I could rant and spew my disgust but got the meager ad message instead, “You have reached three digits dot com. Get you free phone service today at three digits dot com”. That’s it? That’s all?

I did not call the police as I inferred, as the subject is more in line with consumer and credit, and not law enforcement; therefore the FCC, the same notable body that could not control Mr. Madoff. The call ended just as soon as the message started without me having the option of leaving a voicemail. Chickens! You can diss but you can’t take it. Nice going dudes! That’s what I call good fish “phishing”.

I Can’t Comprehend Nor Accept Mr. Lupoe ….

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But can condone!

As I read Mr. Ervin Antonio Lupoe’s story on how he took his and his family’s life out of desperation, it got me thinking; there is no telling what people can do when in despair! I am a firm believer in the line of reasoning.

We are all sketched and connected in our own way; some are wired to the left and others to the right, some have fuses plug on the negative and others on the positive. I call it the law of physics; all men are not wired equal but somehow we pretend to connect the fuses and wires, make it work.

Some people handle despair with dignity and others with aggression depending on which fuse and wire they find themselves in.

Every so often the wires and fuses become a little rowdy and untamed in your brain combusting like a nuclear weapon when you are confronted with challenges. They have their say another way, they don’t care what your feelings are, they lurk around like a pest frolicking while you are going through loads of (explecitive) and there is not one lame thing anyone can do about it; there is not one damn thing stopping them unless you get a grip of yourself.

It is not an easy task as it takes zamboni size willpower to control your emotions and not a cup of Ben and Jerrys ice cream. I know because I have lived it, you know because you have lived it. I know because I have been there, you know because you have been there. I know because I experienced it, you know because you have experience it.  Hello, my name is and I was once downsized, for lack of better term, laid off.

It is not pretty when you get your marching orders. The delivery of the “pink slip” – I have no idea who invented the moniker since the paper is not near and will never be pink unless it is April Foul day and you just been punked.

The deed usually takes place in a room with company’s officials, most likely Human Resources personal and your supervisors. They go over the script and expect you to smile along to the karaoke. “Do you have any questions”, they ask. “Yeah, when can I puke in your face?” Once the gathering is over, you load all your (oops!) belongings into one box, plastic bag or whatever available at the time, and talk yourself into walking out with your chin up given that you don’t wish for anyone to see you sweat or in tears. Often you don’t say goodbye, you don’t get to send send-off letters but storm out to later ask why me. “Why me” is recited constantly, over and over again for minutes, hours, days and sometimes months without generating any sensible answers. “Why me” becomes the two words of the jour.

It is not pretty when you hug your colleagues – tears jolting down your cheeks, wires frolicking in your brain. It is not pretty when you collect their emails and phone numbers, wave goodbye and promise to keep in touch. It is not pretty when your work family disintegrates. It is not pretty when you cry your eyeballs out, retreat to a corner in a fetal position and are dejected. It is not pretty at all but the movie is played! It is not like you had a discord or participated in bad behavior and disgraced your company, and you were let go. It is not that! It is the fact that you gave your life to the company, performed 100% to the best of your ability and yet you were let go.

You cry, you scream, you yell at what you don’t know; you punch the wall…you just do it! You vent, and?! You feel like going to an amusement park (the community fairs because you can’t afford Disney), to the rollercoaster and scream but you can’t because it costs at least twenty bucks; money that you don’t have, money that you can use for necessities, so you resort to staying home. So, you sit and wait, think and strategize, there is if you can; if the fuses in your brain permit, if you find the writing on the wall, the magical pill, your way out.

You are all familiar with the feeling of despair, of helplessness, of weakness, of shame when it charges towards you with the rage of a tiger. You are familiar with the feelings that tailbacks, entraps and shudders your emotions. You are familiar with the struggles to take back your dignity, to shrug off others perception of you but in the end you move on. You choose to put it all behind you as it becomes a blur, a part of growing up. No one pays your bills, so?!

God never gives you more than you can handle!

I got then candidate Barack Obama when he made his famous remarks that almost cost him the election that residents of small-town America “cling to guns or religion” out of bitterness over lost jobs. It is true; I did not cling to gun but clang to religion. Perhaps, there were some with contentious thoughts of clinging to gun but chose not to exercise it but Mr. Lupoe did.

Personally, I embraced religion with a vengeance, with all my teeth and nails, and I am not apologetic about it. Prayer does a body good; so there, take it if you can. It medicated my soul, stabilized my sanity and quieted down the wires that were too anxiously bottlenecking in my brain. It gave me a sense of pause and hope, and made me see the light like Punxsutawney Phil. I did not create the scenario nor knew the ingredient was part of the dish being served either until it fell on my plate. I could not swerve it even if I wanted it but ride it. So, I did.

I do not believe in taking own’s life and I hope people I know will never resort to the level. If you worship life, there is no reason to lose any sleep! Put a zipper or a ribbon, and sail away. However, these are no ordinary times; things are different this time around. We are all going through it or know someone who is going through it but the difference is that too many of us are going through it at the same time, which hastens the fuses to twist and shout even more.

To some, this is a new phenomenon; they have never been in that predicament so, there is no telling how they will react. The fact of the matter is that Mr. Lupoe did not have to kill his children, he did not have to kill his wife, he could have gone it alone if he so wished but no, he was too selfish, and a chicken at best. He could have resorted to his church, neighbors, community but he did not, yet again who am I to judge?!

We all deal with things differently. We make decisions that we believe is appropriate based in our beliefs and temperament. When in despair, we all look for that perfect antidote to numb our hurting, the miracle drug that seeds joy but does not speed injury. Taking own’s life can alleviate but can also have dire consequences, injures to those we love.

“”No matter how desperate you are, no matter how frustrated you are, to think this was the only answer — to take your whole family with you in death — is just too much to understand,” said City Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the city’s Wilmington neighborhood where the slayings took place.

It’s sad that this happens anywhere, you know?” neighbor Jose Rodriguez told KABC. “You see it on the news but you never really become accustomed to it.””

When in need reach for the man on your right, he may be able to lend a hand! I was lucky my rescue package came within days; it did not take long. I reached to my old employer and ended “taking a sabbatical” by telecommuting all last year. Not bad, thank God for technology. No, I am not being fictitious.