This week was another banner week for the national media, and my former home state of Arizona.
Recently, there was a mainstream media story regarding the "accidental" airing of a high speed chase in Arizona which was carried on the Fox's "fair and balanced" news media that eventually resulted in a live broadcast suicide.
Just what has our media become?
Or better yet, just where is the quest for sensationalized journalism and ad revenues and profits going to end?
Shepard Smith, the Fox tool, has apparently apologized profusely for thie media faux pas. Several times, in fact.
The tape was "supposed" to afford a 10 second delay while the Fox national media was broadcasting this chase on an Arizona interstate.
Although, after the bucks which were made over the OJ chase, seems to me Fox is merely cashing in on continuing the sensationalized journalism for corporate profits.
Shepard's apologies sounded hollow, to say the least.
I'm even beginning to wonder if this event truly was a "true" story, or merely one in which actors were used in order to create news, at this point, and thus ratings.
Who's to know?
Caplitalizing on crime is also a modus operandi at this point with our national media.
With all the competition for those ad dollars, with pay cable you get the news you pay for, America.
So tune in, within a very short time, there will be another "accidental" or innuendo based widespread media story.
I guarantee it.
And if, as I suspect, this man did commit suicide after this high speed chase, in which there were no police at the scene when the suicide occurred, merely a Fox News helicopter, just what would drive a man to do such a thing?
He had several misdemeanor offenses, from all reports.
But misdemeanors are now held as capital crimes in many states, also for state budget and economic purposes. Plea bargained or given mere bench trials in order for most states to raise capital, as it were.
Even non-moving traffic offenses, or any crime for which the punishment is a fine.
With the amounts of those fines also escalating to the point which has created "payment plans" (at additional cost) for many citizens who don't have much of a paycheck (or any paycheck at this point) left at the end ofthe month.
Which may have been why they committed the "crime" in the first place - as minor offenses increase during this recession/depression.
Crimes such as shoplifting, or non-moving license, registration or insurance violations.
People are having to move from state to state, many times, in order to seek or obtain work and may not have the amounts statutory set for some of those costs in the case of those non-moving registration, licensing and other offenses.
This is how most local governments run.
Through provision by the state general funds (and federal) governments provision which has decreased the local governments share of the pie progressively due to all the extra-Constitutional budgetary items the state and federal government continue funding.
While local governments then are additionally charging the citizens and taxpayers higher and higher fees and fines for petty offenses for using the court or in the statutory levying those fines, which are now set by state law without any citizen input or oversight.
Sometimes, citizens are placed in the position of either payihg the fine (by mail, preferably) or sitting through plea bargaining sessions with the city or county prosecutors before even seeing a judge - yet if you request to see a judge, the amount levied then for "court costs" is equal to or greater than even the expensive fine.
Now most of the punishments are extra-Constitutional "cruel and unusual punishment" under it for low to middle class Americans, without having any real recourse than simply arranging for a payment plan and paying the "fine" other then petitioning the very entity that will profit off these fees and fines.
Taking more work time, or time to find work to go through the process. So lost work time and pay also is part of any traffic ticket, which ups the actual cost tremendously if you must lose a day's pay or more to argue a traffic citation.
If you do and lose, you have lost a day's wages, the fine and court costs on top of that. For most petty offenses, figure the amount it would take to fee a family of four for two to three weeks.
But that scenario is exactly what "the State" and local governments capitalize on, right?
Or the sums provided for the head counts in the privatized or public jails, while feeding the citizen detainees moldy bologna sandwiches.
With detainees now incarcerated until that time comes to enter their pleas. Or you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars in bail money which amounts have also increased progressively to stimulate the economies of the bail bondsmen.
No wonder our jails are so very full (with many held without entering their pleas, at this point)
Or a man takes his life in the Arizona desert...
Ponder that.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
New Orleans Rocks
I had the distinct pleasure recently of attending a concert in New Orleans sponsored by AARP, of all organizations, given the following of the ladies involved.
It was a concert by Melissa Etheridge, Gladys Knight and Stevie Nicks, in conjunction with the National AARP Convention.
It would appear an attempt to change the image of AARP and give it a much "younger" vibe, as the focus of the convention was for those 50 and over.
Melissa Etheridge barely made the cut, at 51, but rocked the house with her soulful guiter riffs and songs. She looks better than she has in years, and made reference to her past battle with breast cancer.
You wouldn't know it to look at her, really.
Next up was Gladys Knight, and the season on Dancing with the Stars appears to have given her more energy and could hardly believe she is over 65.
She has the moves, and her brother (one of the Pips) contribution really made the show.
Next up, one of my rock idols for many different reasons, Stevie Nicks.
All three of these particular ladies were actually born within a week of each other the end of May. Geminis, all.
Which perhaps makes this review a little biased.
My own birthday is May 30, and connect with their music on almost a spiritual level. The pain, and the angst, and the soul, that is.
Stevie was for many years a resident of my former home state, Arizona, whose father owned a concert venue there for many years, Compton Terrace.
She was absolutely incredible and sounds better than ever with the maturity her age and experience have given her.
Some of the "older" AARP members left during her set, which was a shame but then Stevie is a taste best left to the under 70 crowd, at least. She rocks and makes no bones about it.
She performed a particularly poignant song about New Orleans from her current album, which was well received and appreciated.
She also performed a song "Soldiers Angel" which was written after a visit some years ago to Walter Reed Hospital and speaking with wounded servicemen. She has become heavily involved in this cause, from what it appeared.
It was a more "national" crowd at this show, although the people of New Orleans and the surrounding area right now are pretty hard pressed to offer much in the form of donations - it was a very touching story and song.
As a matter of fact, I had gotten the tickets as a gift from a daughter who knew how strung out her mother was after Isaac and its aftermath, and caring part-time for elderly parents for months on end before that.
And although I had lived in Phoenix for over 45 years and graduated not but a few years behind Stevie, had never seen her live so when I mentioned the concert, sent me the tickets by return email.
But it was Ms. Nicks rock anthems and incredible voice that stole the show.
Rhiannon
Landslide
Stand Back
Edge of Seventeen
All poems set to music, actually, from an incredibly gifted poet.
I guess as a footnote, in order to truly help all those soldiers, and soldiers wives, mothers and families - I hope someday she will lend her incredible voice and support into stopping some of these senseless wars - as she should also know as one from the Vietnam era herself.
Since it does appear that neither party is willing to end one at this point, without shortly beginning another...
How many men have been lost through five decades of war?
Rock on, Stevie....
AARP isn't ready for us...
Not yet, anyway...
It was a concert by Melissa Etheridge, Gladys Knight and Stevie Nicks, in conjunction with the National AARP Convention.
It would appear an attempt to change the image of AARP and give it a much "younger" vibe, as the focus of the convention was for those 50 and over.
Melissa Etheridge barely made the cut, at 51, but rocked the house with her soulful guiter riffs and songs. She looks better than she has in years, and made reference to her past battle with breast cancer.
You wouldn't know it to look at her, really.
Next up was Gladys Knight, and the season on Dancing with the Stars appears to have given her more energy and could hardly believe she is over 65.
She has the moves, and her brother (one of the Pips) contribution really made the show.
Next up, one of my rock idols for many different reasons, Stevie Nicks.
All three of these particular ladies were actually born within a week of each other the end of May. Geminis, all.
Which perhaps makes this review a little biased.
My own birthday is May 30, and connect with their music on almost a spiritual level. The pain, and the angst, and the soul, that is.
Stevie was for many years a resident of my former home state, Arizona, whose father owned a concert venue there for many years, Compton Terrace.
She was absolutely incredible and sounds better than ever with the maturity her age and experience have given her.
Some of the "older" AARP members left during her set, which was a shame but then Stevie is a taste best left to the under 70 crowd, at least. She rocks and makes no bones about it.
She performed a particularly poignant song about New Orleans from her current album, which was well received and appreciated.
She also performed a song "Soldiers Angel" which was written after a visit some years ago to Walter Reed Hospital and speaking with wounded servicemen. She has become heavily involved in this cause, from what it appeared.
It was a more "national" crowd at this show, although the people of New Orleans and the surrounding area right now are pretty hard pressed to offer much in the form of donations - it was a very touching story and song.
As a matter of fact, I had gotten the tickets as a gift from a daughter who knew how strung out her mother was after Isaac and its aftermath, and caring part-time for elderly parents for months on end before that.
And although I had lived in Phoenix for over 45 years and graduated not but a few years behind Stevie, had never seen her live so when I mentioned the concert, sent me the tickets by return email.
But it was Ms. Nicks rock anthems and incredible voice that stole the show.
Rhiannon
Landslide
Stand Back
Edge of Seventeen
All poems set to music, actually, from an incredibly gifted poet.
I guess as a footnote, in order to truly help all those soldiers, and soldiers wives, mothers and families - I hope someday she will lend her incredible voice and support into stopping some of these senseless wars - as she should also know as one from the Vietnam era herself.
Since it does appear that neither party is willing to end one at this point, without shortly beginning another...
How many men have been lost through five decades of war?
Rock on, Stevie....
AARP isn't ready for us...
Not yet, anyway...
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Hurricane Isaac: Katrina, Part II
After being in a heightened state of anxiety for most of the past ten days due to the 24/7 reporting on the approach and devastation surrounding Hurricane Isaac, I feel compelled to give my first person narrative as one who experienced Isaac first hand.
My 90 year old father and 84 year old mother have been 35 year residents of the State of Louisiana, living in the New Orleans metro area, approximately 25 miles from Slidell, Louisiana.
After losing a home in Arizona five years ago and political and quality of life issues there at the present time, after 45 years I have taken up residence with my elderly parents for both financial, and personal reasons as their part-time caretaker.
Which, at almost my retirement age with absolutely nothing left in savings to speak of, is no small task. I was mostly entertained over the weekend watching the reporting from the mainstream news media, especially the weather channel and Fox News.
One Fox report from Slidell, an area hard hit by the flooding which occurred, had a young, blond reporter wearing L.L. Bean hip waders, a powder blue (tight) t-shirt, manicure and spray tan standing in the middle of Old Town Slidell while the waters rushed by.
I hope she got her shots, but I guess her commander in chief was unaware that there are water moccasins in those waters, and those L.L. Bean hip waders weren't going to give her much protection in any event.
But such is the reporting on this major "natural" disaster.
The drama all began a week ago today, when the path of the hurricane was taking it's northwestern turn toward New Orleans.
Each and every hour the reporting confirmed the path, and those in the area started preparing for the worst. We were going to leave, as my parents had done for both Katrina, and Gustav before only this time my father was on thrice weekly dialysis, as he has congestive heart disease and has been in and out of the hospital at least a dozen times in the past year.
He has stabilized for the time being (this month), but we knew due to the severity of his condition, we couldn't go far so decided to "hunker down" for the duration, as one of my sisters who still lives in Arizona so aptly put it.
My other sister and brother-in-law, also long term Louisiana residents, decided to also do likewise since they, at least, did own a generator which my brother-in-law purchased during Katrina when he patrolled the neighborhoods with his neighbors during the month long power outages at that time.
He was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but became one of those dreaded gun-toting Southerners within a few short years of moving here.
My parents truly do not get out much anymore as both suffer from heart disease...my mother merely to the store and back, or to my father's dialysis appointments. Short trips, mostly, to places she is familiar. Due to also his debilitating arthritis, my father stopped driving years ago.
I went to three stores looking for "D" batteries since the entire community was out. None at Wal-Mart or Walgreens. I got the last two at the local Radio Shack.
Why is it that all flashlights require "D" batteries, anyway?
There were lines and lines at the gas pumps. And, surprise, surprise...only Supreme was available at $4.25 a gallon.
There were recurring messages here to report any and all "gouging" to a local enforcement agency. I just wonder how many reported those out of control gas prices...up over $1.25 a gallon from where it was a month ago around here.
Then the grocery stores.
When the power goes out, there is no electricity for those ovens and stoves, or crock pots. So I bought tuna, canned chicken, snack crackers, energy bars, water, bread and peanut butter.
My father is on a special diet due to his dialysis, so other than the peanut butter which was a no-no, I thought we were set for the long haul.
I decided to go to the local bookstore to get a book, just in case.
Walked in about 7:00 Monday night and all the shelves were covered with blue tarps and plastic wrap. The store was closing and wouldn't reopen until after the storm had passed.
We decided that as soon as the electricity went out here, we would all go to my sisters where there would be a room air conditioner.
Six of us in one room for the duration, since my niece had decided to stay at LSU and attend the Hurricane parties there. Of course, the real brunt of the storm had yet to come.
Tuesday passed, and we waited...as did everyone...there were no cars on the road, all who were leaving had left on Monday or Tuesday morning and there was an eery quiet that night as we waited for it to make landfall.
I was up until after midnight listening to the progression.
It hit around 12:30 and it was windy for an hour, and then silence again.
Isaac had gone back over the Gulf again, waiting... I slept on the floor that night since my parents house is surrounded by trees...pines, oaks, and number of other varieties. Huge trees that had also experienced both Katrina and Gustav during their ownership, and for which they merely got a new roof for Katrina.
But then they were not living where there was the most damage that time.
My father was a wood technologist, and bought this house in the late 1970's due to its brick construction, and an old 100 year oak on the property which he liked.
The builder had built the house for his son, who had died in an auto accident when they were looking for house to live in.
I, asthmatic that I am, had stayed in Arizona when they moved, but had visited since my children were babies almost annually until a divorce.
Living in Arizona, I had experienced our annual monsoons (now haboobs?) and flash flooding. The desert isn't used to quite so much rain, and there is nowhere for it to go in the parched ground which is the Arizona desert.
But this was unbelieveable.
Almost 24 straight hours of gusting winds, and pelting, horizontal rain. I had also been here during Gustav in 2008 (my mother had two heart attacks that year). The winds were much stronger then, but it only lasted about six or seven hours.
We were fortunate. We never lost power, although the neighborhood looked like a tornado had gone through it.
The rebuilding has started, although Slidell and the surrounding communities are still under water. And the heat now is unbearable, even to a former desert dweller who isn't used to the off the charts humidity which is also a result of the storm.
Traffic was backed up for miles on Friday, with all those who left returning to survey the damage to their property.
The Lakefront took a huge hit, and the rivers are swollen and overflowing, with a number of dams in danger of breaking.
Life goes on.
But the question I would have liked to ask those reporters, and photographers with all their equipment and spray tans, and the manufactured dramas in many instances...
Why is it that science can now create life in a test tube, created the nuclear bomb, put a man on the moon, and can seed clouds for agricultural purposes in order to make rain - but at this point we don't have the technology to redirect or stop a hurricane?
Or due to all the coincidence with this hurricane which occurred...not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything...but with the timing of this during the Republican convention (as with Gustav), seven years to the day after Katrina, and with all those out of work and with the oil companies continuing to use any excuse imaginable in order to continue to bleed the public dry at the gas pumps.
Maybe, just maybe, perhaps we have the technology to create these hurricanes for "economic" and political reasons?
Where is that female reporter in those hip waders, anyway?
I watched part of that convention...at least the end...and I have only one observation with all the hoopla and celebrating that went on.
As with the many here that suffered through Katrina, and seeing the literally hundreds of dollars per month my parents pay for their medications in order to survive, and what I have experienced personally in the years since Katrina...
No, we are not better off than we were four years ago...or even ten years ago...
This tragedy was definitely not a Katrina, Part II...the government did not fail the citizens of New Orleans THIS time.
But as an aside, in order to assist my parents and myself as an Arizona homeless refugee...
I'm working a temp position that pays me what I was making in 1982, with no benefits, the only position that I had been able to find, and which is not at all in my field of expertise (corporate law, and then subsequently leisure travel & tourism, which just about died with 9-11, and Katrina here).
And what's broken politically, can not be repaired as easily as the Louisianans will rebuild after Isaac...
Not by a long shot...
My 90 year old father and 84 year old mother have been 35 year residents of the State of Louisiana, living in the New Orleans metro area, approximately 25 miles from Slidell, Louisiana.
After losing a home in Arizona five years ago and political and quality of life issues there at the present time, after 45 years I have taken up residence with my elderly parents for both financial, and personal reasons as their part-time caretaker.
Which, at almost my retirement age with absolutely nothing left in savings to speak of, is no small task. I was mostly entertained over the weekend watching the reporting from the mainstream news media, especially the weather channel and Fox News.
One Fox report from Slidell, an area hard hit by the flooding which occurred, had a young, blond reporter wearing L.L. Bean hip waders, a powder blue (tight) t-shirt, manicure and spray tan standing in the middle of Old Town Slidell while the waters rushed by.
I hope she got her shots, but I guess her commander in chief was unaware that there are water moccasins in those waters, and those L.L. Bean hip waders weren't going to give her much protection in any event.
But such is the reporting on this major "natural" disaster.
The drama all began a week ago today, when the path of the hurricane was taking it's northwestern turn toward New Orleans.
Each and every hour the reporting confirmed the path, and those in the area started preparing for the worst. We were going to leave, as my parents had done for both Katrina, and Gustav before only this time my father was on thrice weekly dialysis, as he has congestive heart disease and has been in and out of the hospital at least a dozen times in the past year.
He has stabilized for the time being (this month), but we knew due to the severity of his condition, we couldn't go far so decided to "hunker down" for the duration, as one of my sisters who still lives in Arizona so aptly put it.
My other sister and brother-in-law, also long term Louisiana residents, decided to also do likewise since they, at least, did own a generator which my brother-in-law purchased during Katrina when he patrolled the neighborhoods with his neighbors during the month long power outages at that time.
He was born and raised in Pennsylvania, but became one of those dreaded gun-toting Southerners within a few short years of moving here.
My parents truly do not get out much anymore as both suffer from heart disease...my mother merely to the store and back, or to my father's dialysis appointments. Short trips, mostly, to places she is familiar. Due to also his debilitating arthritis, my father stopped driving years ago.
I went to three stores looking for "D" batteries since the entire community was out. None at Wal-Mart or Walgreens. I got the last two at the local Radio Shack.
Why is it that all flashlights require "D" batteries, anyway?
There were lines and lines at the gas pumps. And, surprise, surprise...only Supreme was available at $4.25 a gallon.
There were recurring messages here to report any and all "gouging" to a local enforcement agency. I just wonder how many reported those out of control gas prices...up over $1.25 a gallon from where it was a month ago around here.
Then the grocery stores.
When the power goes out, there is no electricity for those ovens and stoves, or crock pots. So I bought tuna, canned chicken, snack crackers, energy bars, water, bread and peanut butter.
My father is on a special diet due to his dialysis, so other than the peanut butter which was a no-no, I thought we were set for the long haul.
I decided to go to the local bookstore to get a book, just in case.
Walked in about 7:00 Monday night and all the shelves were covered with blue tarps and plastic wrap. The store was closing and wouldn't reopen until after the storm had passed.
We decided that as soon as the electricity went out here, we would all go to my sisters where there would be a room air conditioner.
Six of us in one room for the duration, since my niece had decided to stay at LSU and attend the Hurricane parties there. Of course, the real brunt of the storm had yet to come.
Tuesday passed, and we waited...as did everyone...there were no cars on the road, all who were leaving had left on Monday or Tuesday morning and there was an eery quiet that night as we waited for it to make landfall.
I was up until after midnight listening to the progression.
It hit around 12:30 and it was windy for an hour, and then silence again.
Isaac had gone back over the Gulf again, waiting... I slept on the floor that night since my parents house is surrounded by trees...pines, oaks, and number of other varieties. Huge trees that had also experienced both Katrina and Gustav during their ownership, and for which they merely got a new roof for Katrina.
But then they were not living where there was the most damage that time.
My father was a wood technologist, and bought this house in the late 1970's due to its brick construction, and an old 100 year oak on the property which he liked.
The builder had built the house for his son, who had died in an auto accident when they were looking for house to live in.
I, asthmatic that I am, had stayed in Arizona when they moved, but had visited since my children were babies almost annually until a divorce.
Living in Arizona, I had experienced our annual monsoons (now haboobs?) and flash flooding. The desert isn't used to quite so much rain, and there is nowhere for it to go in the parched ground which is the Arizona desert.
But this was unbelieveable.
Almost 24 straight hours of gusting winds, and pelting, horizontal rain. I had also been here during Gustav in 2008 (my mother had two heart attacks that year). The winds were much stronger then, but it only lasted about six or seven hours.
We were fortunate. We never lost power, although the neighborhood looked like a tornado had gone through it.
The rebuilding has started, although Slidell and the surrounding communities are still under water. And the heat now is unbearable, even to a former desert dweller who isn't used to the off the charts humidity which is also a result of the storm.
Traffic was backed up for miles on Friday, with all those who left returning to survey the damage to their property.
The Lakefront took a huge hit, and the rivers are swollen and overflowing, with a number of dams in danger of breaking.
Life goes on.
But the question I would have liked to ask those reporters, and photographers with all their equipment and spray tans, and the manufactured dramas in many instances...
Why is it that science can now create life in a test tube, created the nuclear bomb, put a man on the moon, and can seed clouds for agricultural purposes in order to make rain - but at this point we don't have the technology to redirect or stop a hurricane?
Or due to all the coincidence with this hurricane which occurred...not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything...but with the timing of this during the Republican convention (as with Gustav), seven years to the day after Katrina, and with all those out of work and with the oil companies continuing to use any excuse imaginable in order to continue to bleed the public dry at the gas pumps.
Maybe, just maybe, perhaps we have the technology to create these hurricanes for "economic" and political reasons?
Where is that female reporter in those hip waders, anyway?
I watched part of that convention...at least the end...and I have only one observation with all the hoopla and celebrating that went on.
As with the many here that suffered through Katrina, and seeing the literally hundreds of dollars per month my parents pay for their medications in order to survive, and what I have experienced personally in the years since Katrina...
No, we are not better off than we were four years ago...or even ten years ago...
This tragedy was definitely not a Katrina, Part II...the government did not fail the citizens of New Orleans THIS time.
But as an aside, in order to assist my parents and myself as an Arizona homeless refugee...
I'm working a temp position that pays me what I was making in 1982, with no benefits, the only position that I had been able to find, and which is not at all in my field of expertise (corporate law, and then subsequently leisure travel & tourism, which just about died with 9-11, and Katrina here).
And what's broken politically, can not be repaired as easily as the Louisianans will rebuild after Isaac...
Not by a long shot...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
