Author: coastcontact

I am a somewhat cranky but mostly optimistic 65 plus who refuses to give up on this maddening world. The purpose of this BLOG is to express my feelings, thoughts.

Newsweek vs Businessweek: Growing American Jobs

The real reason I started blogging was because the newspapers and magazines I read rarely print my opinion.  The latest best example is the following letter that I tried posting on Newsweek’s web site.  I tried for four days. 

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I had just finished reading Andy Grove’s “How to Make an American Job” in Businessweek’s July 5 edition when latest edition of Newsweek arrived.  He is the former CEO and chairman of Intel.  Rana Foroohar writes her article “How to Build Again” in Newsweek.  My background in is management of a variety of manufacturing concerns.  What is her background?

Mr. Grove points out that Foxconn, the giant electronics subcontractor in China, employs over 800,000 people.  Most of those people are earning one-fifth the pay that Americans require.  Back in the 1950s 1960s and 1970s those 800,000 jobs would be in the United States.  Innovation is wonderful but who will manufacture and assemble the next 3-D television or the next iPhone?  Unless there is more job creation in the United States for the millions of Americans that are continuing to be laid off our children and grandchildren are in for some very unhappy lives.

America’s Involvement in Mexican Law Enforcement

Gunmen stormed a party in the city of Torreon in northern Mexico.  It is a city of 1 million people west of Monterrey and about 282 miles or 453 kilometers from Laredo, Texas.  An estimated 17 people were killed and another 18 wounded.  The AP reports that the United States FBI has sent a small team to the crime scene to offer technical assistance to the Mexican investigators.  It is always nice to know that we will help our neighbors.

There is a report in today’s Los Angeles Times that Mexicans who are sneaking into the United States just east of Tijuana are being kidnapped by their countryman for ransom to be paid by the victim’s American relatives.

So the pattern is becoming apparent.  American law enforcement is being drawn into the gang wars in Mexico.

This is more evidence supporting Arizona’s new laws pertaining to illegal entry into their state.  My prediction is the United States will become ever more involved in the battle with all the Mexican gangs regardless of their purpose. Afghanistan will soon be a forgotten memory.

Mark Williams is the Tea Party Spokesman

You Be The Judge!  

 

Update: July 18, 2010, 4:28 PM PDT: David Webb, a spokesperson for the National Tea Party Federation, confirmed to CBS this morning that Williams was no longer affiliated with his organization because of the “clearly offensive” blog post. David Webb interviewed by Don Lemon on CNN refused to call Mark Williams a racist.  Instead saying the posting of the letter below was offensive.  Considering the fact that the Tea Party is a group of independent organizations can the Tea Party Express be booted out?

 

Mark Williams is an American radio host and author (Books: It’s Not Right Versus Left, It’s Right Versus Wrong; Exposing the Socialist Agenda and Taking Back America One Tea Party at a Time, 2010). He is based in Sacramento, California. Williams is an occasional guest on Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and CNN and has appeared as a guest host on radio stations nationally and on the Talk Radio Network’s Jerry Doyle and Rusty Humphries shows. He is the spokesman for the Tea Party Express (and Vice Chairman of the Tea Party Express’ parent political action committee: Our Country Deserves Better PAC).  

The following letter posted by Tea Party leader Mark Williams in jest (he says) should be the real concern for all of us.  Today the attack is on Blacks. Will there will be an attack another group?   

 Dear Mr. Lincoln  

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!  

In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.  

The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.  

And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!  

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.  

Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?  

Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.  

Sincerely  

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

Hubris and the iPhone 4

We need more Hubris in America!

Today Apple has announced “We’re Not Pefect“, and that they will give everyone a free protective case for their iPhone 4.  Of course the reason is that the case insulates your hand from the wrap around stainless steel frame that is acting as an antenna.

Daniel Lyons of Newsweek does an excellent job of telling us how hubris has impacted Apple in his July 15 on line posting.  “Apple had this really clever idea and just couldn’t let it go. Why not put a stainless-steel frame around the phone and have that frame serve as the antenna? Jobs made a big deal out of this innovation when he introduced the phone in June, calling it “brilliant engineering” and boasting that the antenna design “has never been done before.”

Apple’s success is wrapped around Steve Jobs.  So naturally he is the ultimate holder of the Hubris Award.  He has seen his company, which he co-founded, grow to a company with a market cap of $229 Billion and earnings per share of $12.96.  Stock market ID is APPL.  IN just this past year alone shares in that company have risen from $148.63 to today’s $252.00.

Remember when he gave his demo of the new phone?  He could not access the internet.  Now this unfortunate event.  Perhaps it is a good thing there are other people like Steve Jobs.  They are the individuals who will help bring America out of its current funk.

Failed Drug War

In 1996 William F. Buckley, the conservative founder of the National Review pointed out that the “plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year of public money, exacts an estimated $70 billion a year from consumers, is responsible for nearly 50 per cent of the million Americans who are today in jail, occupies an estimated 50 per cent of the trial time of our judiciary, and takes the time of 400,000 policemen — yet a plague for which no cure is at hand, nor in prospect.”
 
Here we are in 2010 still fighting the same battle and losing by an even greater proportion.  Mexico is fighting a no win battle against drug cartels that has impacted that country’s tourist trade and brought death to more than 23,000 people since the Felipe Caldereon became president in 2006.
 
The NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY proposed by the Obama Whitehouse is a continuation of drug enforcement policies that have not worked in the past.  Just read the policy on the link above and you will realize that nothing new is proposed.  The Drug Policy Alliance tells you what you already know but do not want to admit. This is part of their web site:
Who really profits from drug prohibition?  
  
 
 

  • Organized Crime. According to the United Nations, drug trafficking is a $400 billion per year industry, equaling 8% of the world’s trade.
  • Arms manufacturers, the prison industry, and other special interest groups.
  • Corrupt Law Enforcement.

My idea is the legalization of drug use with the availability of drugs at relatively low cost with doctor’s prescriptions through pharmacies. 

Why won’t this happen? Think arms manufacturers, the prison industry, and law enforcement.  Those businesses are part of a really big and legitimate business! 

Betty White as a Pin-up Girl

This was found on the Toronto Star web site.  It was originally published July 13, 2010.

by Rod Hagwood, Sun Sentinel

Talk about your vintage Pin-Up girl.

Octogenarian-and-then-some Betty White is putting out a hottie 2011 calendar to raise money for one of her pet causes: The Morris Animal Foundation based in Denver, Colo.

The star of TV Land’s “Hot in Cleveland” will be seen in diva-on-the-divan kind of poses surrounded by a bevy of beefcake.

Betty and her boy-toys hit store shelves in September and The Betty White Calendar will retail for $12.99.

White is a long-time animal rights activist. Earlier this year White hosted “Saturday Night Live” after a grassroots Facebook campaign titled “Betty White to Host SNL (Please)” attracted 500,000 fans and Betty became their oldest host ever. Ratings were SNL’s highest since a 2008 show hosted by Ben Affleck.

Fresh off of her No. 1 Super Bowl commercial for Snickers, she is also the last surviving member of “The Golden Girls” cast (Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty all died between 2008 and 2010).White is also a veteran of top-rated TV such as “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Mama’s Family,” “The Carol Burnett Show,” “Boston Legal,” “Malcolm in the Middle” and a whole host of game shows from “Match Game” and “Password” to “What’s My Line” and “To Tell the Truth.”

No Haiti Recovery

The Associated Press reported that Haiti’s president handed out medals to celebrities, aid-group directors and politicians for post-earthquake work.  Anderson Cooper of CNN was given one of those awards.

CNN and ABC both provided coverage of conditions in Haiti this week.  David Ono, a KABC anchorman reported from Haiti as well.  The reports were excellent but the stories were horrifying.  Despite all the interviews with well meaning people the government of Haiti is a failure.  There is no government in Haiti.  The broadcasts from Port- Au-Prince show that most of the rubble is still there.  It looks like the earthquake occurred yesterday.

I know Bill Clinton says things could be better than ever there.  There is no evidence that his predictions will come true.  Private aid groups do not have the power to change anything in Haiti.  Only the slightest change in weather could mean death to thousands.

Since there are no natural resources in Haiti and the country holds no political sway in any industrialized nation, no other country will provide sufficient aid to end its further decline to mass starvation and death.

What’s Wrong with Free Trade?

 Will those Mama Bears stand up for this issue?

Ross Perot called it “the giant sucking sound.” It was his opinion of the consequences of NAFTA. He told us all that the free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would result in the loss of thousands of American jobs. He was pooh-poohed by many in the media, in government and many ordinary Americans like myself. A casual acquaintance at work, who looked and dressed like a hippy was giving me the same arguments as Mr. Perot. I told him that the only result of NAFTA would be a better life for Mexicans with no impact on the United States. They were right and I was wrong.

Companies with assembly and manufacturing plants in Mexico include, Chrysler, Technicolor, Panasonic, and Sony. Those jobs are now being fulfilled by Mexicans at salaries that are 1/5 the amount paid to Americans. Is it any wonder so many companies have located their manufacturing facilities there?

Now there are proposals for free trade agreements with other Latin American nations and South Korea. Trade with South Korea totals $68 Billion. Obama is reported to believe that the proposed agreement will result in increased exports of American goods. Some American labor unions and manufacturers are opposed. Every American should be opposed to all new free trade agreements.

Corporations and the wealthy favor those new agreements because they will be the beneficiaries. The reason is simple. Keeping American employee compensation Low is their objective. When Americans have to compete with workers in other countries they will have to reduce their pay demands to be competitive.

If Tea Party participants are looking for a cause that will attract more Americans, then this is it. Everyone understands it is all about jobs. Will those Mama Bears stand up for this issue? This really would be protecting their young!

Soccer is Very Boring

I watched the first game televised from South Africa for about 10 to 12 minutes.  No score had been made.  I decided to watch the Netherlands Spain Final but fast forwarded through the entire event, watching portions along the way.  Well everyone now knows that the winner was Spain in overtime play.  The total time was 115 minutes until the first and only goal.

In 48 minutes the final NBA game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics was 83 to 79.  That is action and excitement!