By Mary MacElveen
February 9, 2010
The opening-night speaker at the National Tea Party Convention was former Congressman Tom Tancredo who said: "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country." He blamed the ill-informed masses for voting into office a "committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."
Now, using a litmus test or whatever test in order to vote and the use of President Obama's middle name was to invoke racism in this country. A we against them mentality if I ever saw one.
Sarah 'palm-reader' Palin in her failed vice-presidential campaign even stoked the fires of hate which I labeled 'tinder-box politics'. Now she is the darling of these 'tea party' folks? Oh you betcha!
As she lovingly embraced the late President Ronald Reagan and extolled President Barack Obama with not dealing with Iran effectively. Let us NOT forget who sold arms to Iran in the first place. It was none other than the late president in the Iran Contra Scandal. Did Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin forget that fact? Perhaps she should have written that on her palm as well.
In her speech she said: “Say he [Pres. Obama] decided to declare war on Iran, or decided to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do. But that changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years.” This was in reaction as to President Obama’s chances of being re-elected in 2012 if he were to declare war on Iran. By the way, Ms. Palm-reader each and every year our hard-earned tax dollars are sent to Israel and no matter who the president is. Do the tea party members even know this as they clamor against wasteful spending?
When Israel invaded Lebanon killing scores of innocents, our government donated $280 million dollars to fuel their fighter jets all at taxpayer expense. What say you, tea party movement?
She predicated this belief in citing a column written by Pat Buchanan titled: Will Obama Play the War Card? My guess is that she wanted to get back at CBS anchor Katie Couric to prove she actually read a piece to validate her point. She tried to imply that going to war with Iran would be a success for President Obama.
She failed at understanding the crux of Buchanan’s article where clearly he writes, “Cutting off gas to Iran would cause many deaths. And the families of the sick, the old, the weak, the women and the children who die are unlikely to feel gratitude toward those who killed them.” Any harsh sanctions such as this would have a serious blow-back effect and endanger our national security.
Ron Paul in his failed presidential bid was excoriated by former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for stating that 9/11 was indeed a blow-back effect. Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin over-simplifies the war on terror as being “We win, you lose” as she stated in her speech before her fans the tea party movement.
If she thinks that Iran is a danger to us all, then she should have picked up what Buchanan did write: “And despite the hysteria about Iran's imminent testing of a bomb, the U.S. intelligence community still has not changed its finding that Tehran is not seeking a bomb.” My guess is she could not fit that on the palm of her hand or more importantly would have shown her assertion false.
In a past piece demanding that Israel stand on their own, I wrote: “Israel has a stockpile of 400 nuclear warheads. “According to retired US Army Colonel Warner D. Farr, M.D., Israel is the fifth largest nuclear superpower in the world. By 1967, Israel already had 15 atomic bombs in its arsenal. In 1976, their nuclear arsenal grew to 15 to 20 nukes, and by 1980 jumped to 200. According to Farr, in 1997, Israel now has over 400 nuclear and hydrogen weapons.” So, why do you need the United States military to defend you and launch a strike on a neighboring country?”
I would say that Israel is well equipped at defending herself. Wouldn’t you?
Is Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin actually advocating a furthering of our wars within the Middle East? Just think if she did have our nuclear codes, she would be the danger to our national security. Is she trying to bring about rapture?
Does she even think that China and Russia would stand for any bombing of Iran especially with their business ties to Iran? As it stands we owe billions if not trillions of dollars to China in funding these wars without end. What happens if they call that loan in? Through our economic foreign policy, we have made China what it is now. The world’s supreme economic super-power. As we bleed more funds in order to pay for the furtherance on the war on terror, China is now enjoying a super dominance over us.
Oh sure, she can give cutesy remarks such as how is that “hopy changy working out for everybody?” as the tea party members gave her a thunderous applause. Do they even know the intricacy of our foreign policy, does Sarah ‘palm reader’ Palin even know it?
In this moment of time, Sarah 'palm-reader' Palin makes me long for the days when Ann Coulter was the darling of the loyal opposition. Seriously, at least we all knew she did not have the slightest chance of becoming president. She yapped, and we 'the elitist' clamored against her and it was over with.
By the way, I am tiring of these oppositional member of the right-wing referring to those that oppose them as elitists. One definition of an elitist is, “The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.” I am simply a grocery-store cashier who makes $7.75 an hour.
What I fear most is that Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin has a chance at becoming the President of the United States. Just imagine her raising her right hand to take the oath of office and on it is written: First executive order is to bomb Iran. We were floored when John McCain sang of it, but imagine a President Palin carrying this mission out? It is the very stuff that nightmares are made of.
You may reach the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net
Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Shoplifting is NOT a moral cause, but plain theft
By Mary MacElveen
February 2, 2010
Enough time has past since I passed on a post from a Democratic list I belong to the police, politicians, the media and yes the FBI since it deals with shoplifting. Those who responded so far were thankful to me for this information. At this time, I question my membership to this list since they are passing on illegal messages to those who read it who can then pass it onto others. I have also made a hard copy to pass on to the managers of the grocery store I work for since it gives tips on how to effectively shoplift. After all, forewarned is forearmed.
As an employee of this grocery store, my allegiance is to them and not some notion that stealing merchandise from my store or others is of far greater value.
In this piece, I will NOT publish those tips, since I feel it morally wrong and YES, illegal.
The poster titled it, “Shoplift for good” Shoplifting is never good since it is stealing an item that does not belong to you.
One link embedded in this post is titled: Charitable Shoplifting Front, as you will see, he/she lists themselves as being 104 years old, so how honest if one can call it that is this movement? Oh yes, and let us not forget single. A single person age 104 advocating shoplifting? Give me a break! This poster provided other links which I will not share since shoplifting is against the law.
Within this post, it poses a question: “Why shoplift?” and their answer is, “Shoplifting from large corporations is easiest means of organically redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Shoplifting is both an easy way of punishing corporations that deliberately destroy the environment, exploit and abuse laborers, and destroy communities and local culture, and an effective way of acquiring resources to give to the impoverished victims of capitalist oppression.”
That answer may seem admirable to the net-roots community, but in real life, it is hogwash since many of your working poor work for large corporations. I personally know many of them. As for abusing laborers, I stand before you as a cashier stating the company I work for does none of that and I would turn in a shoplifter pronto. As far as destroying the community I live in, the company I work for has not done so. In fact, it has launched campaigns to help the poor within our community through food-drives during the holiday season and has sent monetary donations to Haiti.
Another question this post asks: “But doesn't shoplifting just hurt workers?” Their answer is, “No. Workers are almost always paid by the hour that they work, not by the number of their products that are sold. By the time a product reaches a store, the workers who created it have, in all likelihood, has already been paid. The vast majority of workers are already being paid the minimum wage anyway, so there's no way that the corporation could legally transfer the cost of stolen merchandise to workers. The only people who really stand to lose much money are the multibillionaire corporate elites.” Again, with the net-roots speak.
At some point, if the loss is greater due to shoplifting, management will have to make cuts somewhere and those cuts will be in labor costs. I have been in retail both clothing and now food for three-decades. The first thing to be cut is employee hours.
Okay, I will supply some tips this poster posted: “Items shoplifted must be taken from corporate chains ONLY. NEVER shoplift from independently owned businesses.” Does this person truly believe a thief will abide by this rule? Nonsense! Both large and small business suffer at the hands of shoplifters. The independently owned deli I frequent is consistently on the lookout for thieves.
One tip they provide is, “Don't be violent. There's no absolutely no need to be.” That is if you are speaking with a rational person and has this person ever come upon a gun-wielding robber at a convenience store late at night? Many late night cashiers at these establishments have met their deaths as gun wielding robbers have stolen what does not belong to them.
The message I read in reading this post was that it is okay to steal what does not belong to them. What really got to me was that two responders to this post agreed with it.
Lastly, to the poster of this pro-shoplifting message, your name is now in the hands of the Suffolk County Police Department, various politicians, the media and yes, the FBI since those who may read this post reside across state lines. My duty as a law abiding citizen was to turn you over to the authorities. Also, I never want to hear you cite any criminality coming from the Republican Party as you advocate criminality through this one particular posting.
Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use portions of this column, please email the author for permission.
February 2, 2010
Enough time has past since I passed on a post from a Democratic list I belong to the police, politicians, the media and yes the FBI since it deals with shoplifting. Those who responded so far were thankful to me for this information. At this time, I question my membership to this list since they are passing on illegal messages to those who read it who can then pass it onto others. I have also made a hard copy to pass on to the managers of the grocery store I work for since it gives tips on how to effectively shoplift. After all, forewarned is forearmed.
As an employee of this grocery store, my allegiance is to them and not some notion that stealing merchandise from my store or others is of far greater value.
In this piece, I will NOT publish those tips, since I feel it morally wrong and YES, illegal.
The poster titled it, “Shoplift for good” Shoplifting is never good since it is stealing an item that does not belong to you.
One link embedded in this post is titled: Charitable Shoplifting Front, as you will see, he/she lists themselves as being 104 years old, so how honest if one can call it that is this movement? Oh yes, and let us not forget single. A single person age 104 advocating shoplifting? Give me a break! This poster provided other links which I will not share since shoplifting is against the law.
Within this post, it poses a question: “Why shoplift?” and their answer is, “Shoplifting from large corporations is easiest means of organically redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Shoplifting is both an easy way of punishing corporations that deliberately destroy the environment, exploit and abuse laborers, and destroy communities and local culture, and an effective way of acquiring resources to give to the impoverished victims of capitalist oppression.”
That answer may seem admirable to the net-roots community, but in real life, it is hogwash since many of your working poor work for large corporations. I personally know many of them. As for abusing laborers, I stand before you as a cashier stating the company I work for does none of that and I would turn in a shoplifter pronto. As far as destroying the community I live in, the company I work for has not done so. In fact, it has launched campaigns to help the poor within our community through food-drives during the holiday season and has sent monetary donations to Haiti.
Another question this post asks: “But doesn't shoplifting just hurt workers?” Their answer is, “No. Workers are almost always paid by the hour that they work, not by the number of their products that are sold. By the time a product reaches a store, the workers who created it have, in all likelihood, has already been paid. The vast majority of workers are already being paid the minimum wage anyway, so there's no way that the corporation could legally transfer the cost of stolen merchandise to workers. The only people who really stand to lose much money are the multibillionaire corporate elites.” Again, with the net-roots speak.
At some point, if the loss is greater due to shoplifting, management will have to make cuts somewhere and those cuts will be in labor costs. I have been in retail both clothing and now food for three-decades. The first thing to be cut is employee hours.
Okay, I will supply some tips this poster posted: “Items shoplifted must be taken from corporate chains ONLY. NEVER shoplift from independently owned businesses.” Does this person truly believe a thief will abide by this rule? Nonsense! Both large and small business suffer at the hands of shoplifters. The independently owned deli I frequent is consistently on the lookout for thieves.
One tip they provide is, “Don't be violent. There's no absolutely no need to be.” That is if you are speaking with a rational person and has this person ever come upon a gun-wielding robber at a convenience store late at night? Many late night cashiers at these establishments have met their deaths as gun wielding robbers have stolen what does not belong to them.
The message I read in reading this post was that it is okay to steal what does not belong to them. What really got to me was that two responders to this post agreed with it.
Lastly, to the poster of this pro-shoplifting message, your name is now in the hands of the Suffolk County Police Department, various politicians, the media and yes, the FBI since those who may read this post reside across state lines. My duty as a law abiding citizen was to turn you over to the authorities. Also, I never want to hear you cite any criminality coming from the Republican Party as you advocate criminality through this one particular posting.
Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net
Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use portions of this column, please email the author for permission.
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