keithcpw's Blog

They could do it so they did. The price of a gallon of gasoline is priced today on what some futures trader on Wall Street decides it will cost to replace it three or four months from now. They really think and some people probably do beleive all the concocked reasons why oil is at these price levels. Let's see, continued hostilities in the middle east, when was there ever not hostilities in the middle east? The weak dollar, if our dollar is so weak why does every country in the world want as many of them as they can get? Oh, a couple of Taliban tried to attack an oil feild in Nigeria, better raise that price a couple of dollars just in case they try again and are successful. Oh yes, let us not forget the hostilities between Iran and Israel like that is something new. I am so sick and tired of these people making every lame excuse in the book when in reality it is all about their own personal pocket and greed. The government, wall street and the rest of the world play off our ignorance as a society. Bush hails his historic stimulus package like that measly check will get us through this. I will spend that much on coolers and ice during the summer going to the lake. The future does not look much better with the fine candidates the powers that be have decided to throw out there for us to cast our little vote for. Obama wants equal right for gays and McCain wants amnesty for 20 million Mexicans, what a choice. What the people want does not mean anything any more. They know our memory is short so they do what they want and get reelected when the time comes. We cannot hold any of these thugs responsible because we are not organized enough to make our vote count. The Black vote is the most organized vote in our country. Even though that vote is manipulated by so called black leaders. Do you ever hear any candidate talking about the white vote, not a chance. That is overlooked until all the polls are all proven completly wrong on election night. This blog got off track a little on the political side, but the gas prices and the politcal side all ties together in the end to yes screw the American public once again. But hey, live and let live, I am sure we will forget this by the time we need to remember it again.

I don't know about you, but I am sick of having our roadways littered with campaign signs promising the moon. These people spend enough money to get elected then they sit back, have a smoke and smile knowing they have just hit the lottery. This is organized crime on steroids and perfectly legal. If these people are public servants, the Webster meaning needs to be rethought. The greed and chaos in Montgomery rivals an Al Capone meeting of mob boses. They spend over a month debating a gambling issue in Macon County while every important issue before them goes unaddressed including education until the very last day of the session. I wonder how much the special session that Riley is talking about calling will cost us? Where is the leadership and what are they thinking? These people are being paid with tax dollars. They should be fired and prosecuted for theft of public funds. Washington is bad enough, but the professional politicians that make it to that level have at least got something to offer toward their legitamacy. The local elections are always low key. Low key meaning you will never get a chance to really get to know what kind of person they may be. You will see their hundreds of signs at every intersection  simply saying vote for ------. You can find out more about some of them, but it will take more than a simply click of a button on your computer. This is exactly how we wind up with monkeys in the state house in Montgomery and most local municipalities. It is a crying shame that we pay our hard earned tax dollar to every level of government and get so so little on our investment return. It is a classic case of the blind leading the blind. I hope everyone takes note of who their representatives are right now in Montgomery. I hope that everyone remembers who that person is the next time you see their name on a campaign sign on the side of the road at your local intersection. It will take a long time, but if we vote enough of these political failures out of office, sooner or later the rest might get the message. The message being don't plan on going to Montgomery and ride the system. The State House is not a resort for elected officials. Earn your pay and do what you said you would do while you were trying to be elected. They all talk about change, but this tax paying voter has not seen anything in Montgomery change for years except the governor and he falls right in there with the rest. The Alabama State Legislature is a boil on the public's rear end.

Al Sharpton is a very street smart guy. He has managed to have a life long career stirring the racial pot. He does not carry a race card, he carries a deck of race cards. He has one for every situation. Whether it applies or not does not matter. He acheives his objective by simply showing up and blasting the same old retoric. Even though the laws have been written and equality is what an individual makes of it, he is still marching in Selma. Each individual has the same opportunities if they have the motivation and intelligence to go after it. It is not an entitlement like many want to beleive, but a path that is difficult for anyone no matter what color they may be. Even Al has to say things have changed. As far as descrimination, the black community has been given many opportunities that other people do not have, but it is never enough for Mr. Sharpton. Would Al Sharpton have showed up in New York for his photo op if the victim had been Hispanic, White or Asian? I agree that Mr. Bells out and out murder was a horrific miscarrage of justice, but I do not need Al Sharpton to show up and make a spectical of himself in order for me to make that judgement. This kind of showboating is Al Sharpton earning his pay. Who else can go to jail one day and meet with the Governor of New York the next. The only other one that comes to mind  is good old Jesse J. who shares Al's compassion for stirring the pot. I do not beleive that the average educated black American depends on Al Sharpton to speak his outdated retoric on behalf of them. I grew up in the sixties and I have left that time where it should be, in the past. Dr. King had an agenda and made positive planned steps toward acheiving the goals that he thought would best move his agenda forward. He did not run all over the world for photo ops.  I cannot beleive Dr. King would approve of people like Sharpton using his legacy and the people he fought for all those years as a petty income for himself. Al Sharpton has an agenda and it is completly self promoting. What makes me have so much disdain for people like Sharpton is, you never see him doing anything proactively. It always has to be a national news story and  a photo op in order for him to book himself into the picture, literally. He is always looking for an oppotunity to share the headlines and stir that pot. Al Sharpton will never be looked back upon as a civil rights leader in the catagory of Dr. King. No, he will be seen as a exhibitionist and a self promoting opportunist that has done absolutly nothing to further the black community's cause.

" The lesser of two evils" has taken on a whole new meaning to me in my older years. I see the news reports of the outlandish crimes committed on the streets of America everyday. Homicide rates out the roof, rapes, drive by shootings, bank robberies and many other unspeakable crimes that our police departments are faced with day and night. All of this is the result of generations of poor and ignorant people raising more poor and ignorant people. The cycle gets worse with every generation until it explodes with violence through desperation. I do not envy the young person wanting to pursue a life in law inforcement these days. 

        The second major problem our police departments face, especially small town departments, is revenue to operate and keep up with our ever growing crime problem and technology. The average law abiding citizen has two foes to face everyday. The criminal and the police revenue needs. One can be about as bad as the other. The point to all of this is with the huge crime problem the police face, we are are all fair game for these small town groups as a revenue source. Most police departments require their officers to maintain, what they call 8 to 10 "contacts" per shift. If you have been pulled over lately, you will find that you are more than likely convicted of something at that point no matter how miniscul. The first word that comes out of their mouth is, "have you been drinking"? Or sometimes it is,"you have been drinking". Of course that is the mother load for any small municipality. With the 0.008 law, you can be convicted if you have taken listerine or Nyquil. I try very hard not to break any law, but everyone makes mistakes. The problem is the police's storm trooper attitude gets in the way of good judgement on who is a criminal and who has simply made a mistake. The Shaun Bell case in New York is a prime example. The poor guy was mowed down with over fifty shots fired and was unarmed on his wedding day for gods sake. The term storm trooper comes to mind again. One other problem is the turnover rate, in small towns it is huge. They do not know the community, they were hired as collection agents not police officers. As long as an officer is contributing to the bottom line, it does not matter whether he or she has delivered any babies or pulled anyone from a burning house lately. Again, money and greed erasing another American value. One other thing, without public trust, the police departments job just became much much more difficult. I do not discount the need for police or the respect they are due because of the danger they face. But our society should not have to fear the over zealous police officer trying to meet quota like a wall street investor to hold on to his or her  job.

Baseball, apple pie, southern cooking, and an above average standard of living are all true red, white and blue results of the American worker seperating itself from the rest of the world. We are the most productive nation in the world. It has been that way almost from the conception of our proud country. The reason we have a higher standard of living is because we will never accept being second best. In World War II, it was not any leader or general in the feild that won that conflict. Oh no, what won the conflict was good old American manufacturing and industry. We would not allow cowards like Japan and Nazi Germany to take our standard of living and freedom. Oh yes and by the way, we liberated a few Europeans along the way as well. Now today and recent years past our highly intelligent elected leaders have decided we need to open up our society and become part of the "global economy". Greed  and money have replaced values that made America different from the rest of the world. By opening us up to this so called world economy, our government has allowed China, India, Saudi Arabia, and countless other countries to literally feed on our middle class. Through NAFTA and other such trade agreements we sent our manufacturing across the pond as if it would be some kind of econmical boom for America. If you see what I am seeing, now that the world has direct access to our wallets, prices are not lower. We are importing more products than ever at a lower level of quality and paying more for it. Under the strain of illegal immigration, the lose of manufacturing, the lose of jobs and the total lack of leadership and statesmanship our standard of living is evaporating before our very eyes. What is so disturbing is that it has not taken but about ten years for this to really take hold and reak havoc especially in the middle class. Now that we are in this open world economy, China, India and especially Saudi Arabia are dictating our way of life literally.  The elderly after working all their life are faced with the staunch reality of buying food or their medications. The younger generation are faced with buying gas or food. We as a free, taxpaying society are allowing our government and many other governments to take our constutional rights. These laws were written in the blood of very brave Americans. Those very brave Americans are rolling over in their graves with the prospect of the disgraceful legacy we are leaving for our children. I don't know about you, but I have worked very hard all my life to acheive my goals and to build and maintain my standard of living. I beleive that I should not have to lower my standards to accommodate the world. The day is coming when we as a society are going to have to say enough is enough. Our vote is about all we have, but it is much more than the common Saudi has. I flat out refuse to become a world citizen and bend to their beliefs and way of life. I am an American and that will never change dispite every effort Washington politics and international money is pushing trying to make that happen. I am tired of America being the world police. I am tired of being politcally correct. I am very tired of feeding people that want to kill us. I am very tired of the same old message of change from the chosen few wealthy who can afford to run for office. I am ashamed of what we as a nation have allowed greed to do to America. She deserves much better!     

I guess you could say that we as a society are blessed. Technology has no doubt made our life last longer and we live much better in certain ways. Communications are now instant. Everyone has a cell phone, Ipod and computer. Our society starves for the next new toy we can run out and buy whether we really need it or not. Our military has technology that would make James Bond scratch his head in wonder. The generations over the past 50 to 75 years have seen the greatest leaps in technology in the history of mankind. But with all this great and wonderful technology, we still see the total lack of simple knowledge and intelligence at all levels of society. The drop out rate among high school age young adults is as bad or worse as it has ever been. Drug use is still rampid even after Ron and Nancy told all of us to just say no. The homeless numbers are higher than ever. With all of our new fangled technology, our society overall has not progressed very much at all in the intelligence department. Technology is not being used to educate us, it is being used to rule us. Most people are not aware of anything around them except what affects them personally. With the overwhelming spectrum of issues that our president will face if elected, most will pick one subject that affects how they vote for a candidate. Some are so far removed from reality that they default to a candidate's appearance or one's hair to help them decide. We should be ashamed and sad that we are so ignorant that candidates know that we can be lead around by the nose because the majority of us are so uninformed. I think it would be a great idea if we required voters to take a simple test just to make sure they have brain activity before they are allowed to vote. This is exactly how we wind up with people in office like Langford, Smoot, Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and countless others who get elected and take us all for a ride. My first phone that I can remember was a party line with fifteen families on that one line. We had channel 6 and channel 13 on TV. We had no air conditioning in our home and certainly not in our vehicles. One thing we did have was  fewer distractions from our studies and homework. The most high tech thing we had at my house was the World Book Encyclopidia that my Mon made payments on for two years. Say what you will about how technology helps us educate our society and I will tell you that our societies overall intelligence level has declined with it's coming. Don't feel too bad though, our government has been dumbing us down for years and the majority of us do not even know it. Knowledge is power and a college education is becoming just a dream for most average people. IT IS ALL ABOUT YOUR LIFE DECISIONS.

The Clintons have changed their spots again. The sense of flagrant entitlement these two exibit is unbelievable. During Bill's two terms he railroaded this country into NAFTA with the promise of great prosperity for America. Well as far as I can see we got millions of illegal immigrants, our manufacturing has been hit in the mouth, our jobs have went with the manufacturing, and we should all be happy with this, right. Well, take heart, Hillary is all of a sudden going to try and stop the bleeding that her and Bill started in the first place. Since Hillary is running so far behind right now with just ten primaries to go, she has a plan, go figure. Pennsylvania, Indiana and Kentucky have been hit hard with great loses in manufacturing and jobs being shipped abroad. They are three of the ten primaries left. Hillary now proposes to eliminate tax incentives for companies who move jobs to other countries. In doing this she plans to save seven (7) billion dollars a year in tax incentives to persuade companies to "insource" jobs in the US. Probably too little too late. This almost touches on treason in my humble opinion. At the least Hillary is talking out of both sides of her mouth with Bill in the background urging her on.  Like the title says "what ever it takes". Forget about ethics, honesty, integrity and character. Damn the torpedoes Bill and Hillary are entitled to that nomination, in their own minds. Ask this question, if this is such a great idea now, how was NAFTA a great idea then? It just goes to show to anyone paying attention that any candidate will do anything and say anything that gives the public instant gratification and raises their numbers. Even if they have used the opposite stance in an election gone by because the general population forget so quick. One other sidebar before I stop ranting. The bible says that man is the stronger vessel. I have two lovely daughters and have always been an advocate for equal rights for women, but in this particular time in history we need a strong willed male as President. The only reason we have not been hit again is because, say what you want, the terroist know Bush will not negotiate with terrorist, he will kill them plain and simple. That is all the terrorist understand. You have seen the headlines about how these Mid-East and Islamic countries view women. They are behind a goat and a cow on the food chain. Some countries we are having to deal with may not even negotiate with a female president. Being the First Lady in Arkansas, The White house and serving a term or so in the Senate does by no means qualify Hillary to be the most powerful individual on the planet even if she is still married to Bill. Hillary and OBama are about in the same boat. We need a patriot, a true statesman and an individual with experience. I do not know if we have anyone in the race that meet that criteria, but it is a certainty that Hillary is definitly not the answer. 

Do you remember when Bimingham was called "The Football Capital of the South". Legion Field was a glorious sports venue. There was no bigger game than an Alabama & Auburn game with tickets shared fifty fifty and the atmosphere was electric! Then the Universities got smart and went home. Then comes the SEC Championship game hosted by the City of Birmingham at Legion Field. After city management was exposed after two or three years by people who were used to better, Atlanta snatched the game away with little to no resistence from our city leaders. Now Smoot is calling the BJCC a dump. If you are like me, when I need to do some painting around the house, change out a sink, or put new carpet in, I do not tear the house down and start over, I upgrade. It seems every time we are lucky enough for any city project to be completed without someone going to jail, that is the end of that. The city will milk it for everything they can without ever thinking about possible improvement or even common maitenance. The BJCC was constructed in the seventies and has never had a complete face lift. Instead of being frugal with the tax payers money, let's just forget that old civic center and build another monument to stupidity and continue the cycle. After all it is just our money, Sheila and Larry can just spend it the way they see fit. Why do people like Sheila Smoot, Larry Langford, and John Rodgers think the tax paying public would want to trust them to manage and account for monies that a venue of this kind would produce. Maybe we could sell some more bonds like we did for the sewer system. Sheila's $80,000.00 automobile tells me all I need to know without Sheila even opening her mouth, but she is not lacking in that respect and usually in a loud tone. It is not right for working folks to have to pay for these individuals lack of common sense. The only way this city will ever turn around is to concentrate on improving and upgrading what we have in existence now. Forget about the pie in the sky ideas and look at what you have to work with. The mortgage crisis is a perfect example, you have people going out and financing homes they simply cannot afford and the results are inevitable. Live within your means. Sheila, Larry, and John, that is not your money. Show some inovation and common sense leadership instead of building monuments with hopes of having your name on it some day.

Have you noticed since the Mayor's SEC problems, sewer nightmare and the tax lawsuit has taken center stage in this fair city that Larry has strangly disappeared from the local evening news. Larry does not have any direct connection with the county problems now except for the many years he spent on the county commission helping to create the nightmares the county now faces. This whole country club has mismanaged the tax paying citizens funds for so long it has finally come time to pay up or come clean and they are PASSING THE BUCK AS FAST AS THEY CAN. This problem started way back during the illustrious Mayor Arrington's tenure and has continued since then. They have  waisted and squandered our childrens future much less our own. Only in Birmingham and Jefferson County can something that every other city takes for granted like a sewer system be turned into a cash cow that has been used to raise over the top sewer revenue, taxes and personal bank accounts of our elected decision makers. You know, if you put a wolf in a meat market he will eat unabated.  Given that previous statement, the voters of this fair city and county has to take some responsibilty. One would think that the average voter out there would educate themselves with the issues of the county and city and vote for people that can do more than just talk a good game. Black or white vote for a person of character rather than race. I truly love my dog, but if he bites me everytime I go near him, he will have to go.