Friday, January 31, 2014

No Cash Lunch In Utah School Trashed

     School should always be a safe place to learn and to be treated with respect. Taunting and humiliation would be values a school should reject. The news coming out of an elementary school in Utah, Uintah Elementary School, defies belief. A large number of students evidently not known to their parents had negative balances in their cafeteria accounts and after standing in line with trays, being served and then before they could touch the meal had the trays taken back and the food tossed.
     The School Board quickly posted an apology on Face Book (near a post on combating child hunger) probably chagrinned that the parents with the negative accounts had not been notified. The cafeteria manager and supervisor were not fired only put on administrative paid leave. One can only imagine the humiliation and distress of the students effected and can see why Face Book was used so they would not have to look into the eyes of the parents or the children. Whether or not the parents of the 70 or so children who had their lunches taken on Tuesday were notified the prior Monday of the negative accounts begs the issue. What kind of country are we that permits lunches to taken away from kids? What ever the policy is at $3.00 a lunch the school district will survive any fiscal crisis and would have all the time in the world to make sure parents have time to put positive balances in their accounts and if for some reason they cannot due to financial reasons, there has to be money in the budget to remedy that problem. As to the employees on administrative leave if they are not fired, some intensive sensitivity training on how to handle such a situation would be required. I have to believe the cost of a tossed lunch from a humiliated stressed out 4th or 5th grade is going to be dwarfed by the costs of a lawsuit filed by an angry parent of a sobbing, traumatized child.
No Cash, Lunch In Utah School Trashed
One would think that the Uintah School Board would know
That most parents do not online follow a lunch balance to see if it is too low
In the private sector you normally get a bill
And if payment is not received in the sender's till
A late charge and then a notice the service you will receive no more
But in the public sector without notice the policy may allow you bar the cafeteria door
Worse to rip the lunches off the trays and into the trash cans on the floor
If this is the policy, the School Board and principal should be shown the unpaid door
If not and it sprouted in these workers' heads firing not leave would some sanity restore
A 5th grader should not be humiliated by a parent's or billing system mistake
Apologies on Facebook are somewhat good, but here do not cut the cake
And if parents are really upset and file will be swamped by the lawyers' take
Already licking chops for dollars as their suing hunger never slakes
© January 31, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 



Keystone XL Is The Key

     Six years and counting in the KeystoneXL delay and finally comprehensive report that the building of the pipeline will not have an adverse effect on the climate. But for the furor over the ACA rollout and the increasing opposition to the ACA and unpopularity of this President, KeystoneXL might not ever be built while he is in office. However, 2014 elections are just around the proverbial corner and this President has a great chance of losing the Senate which would thoroughly devastate whatever slim chances he has for a positive legacy. The oil in the tar sands in Canada is not going to be locked up in a National Park; it is going to be exploited. The only choice is whether we are the beneficiaries which would guarantee North American energy independence into the far future or whether this opportunity is forever lost and the oil goes to the Chinese. At the risk of frustrating his rabid environmental global warming base or losing the Senate, he needs to make a choice. In a perfect world he approves KeystoneXL and still loses the Senate, in an imperfect world he does the same thing but keeps control. In either case KeystoneXL needs to be approved before the Canadians grow weary and route to pipeline to British Columbia and waiting Chinese tankers.
KeystoneXL Is The Key
After six years with no definite end in sight
It is time for Big Blue to bite the bullet and do what is right
It is time to hear the construction sound finally like TAPS
The independence of the oil sands in a ribbon to unwrap
Sadly, we have no boycott as we did the TAPS logjam to break
When will the Canadians leave in disgust and let China the oil take?
KeystoneXL has been held hostage by Big Blue in his climate campaign
Such hypocrisy to speak of energy when this chance may go down the drain.
Energy always involves taking of risks to find and extract
Whether close to the surface, under the oceans or in rocks to frack
Energy to be transported some risks are always involved
Ones that the pipeline owners really try to solve
TAPS was years of litigation paper with the slaughter of trees
Bogus issues of whether the caribous could move free
Imagine the pit of lack of energy domestic that today would exist
If the environmentalists would have won in their battle to TAPS resist.
Time for us to act and, like TAPS finally, KeystoneXL to quickly now construct
Time to end the War on Fossil and pipeline building it obstructs
With the jobs created by exploiting and litigation against this energy source
Obama could still keep some of his crony green spending in force
It is all well and good that McCarthy is but a bike ride from her kids away,
The rest of us may need cars, buses, trains, and planes to come into play.
If she could take a break from the War on Coal and the EPA’s regulatory energy curbing advance
Intern at a private for profit company for just a week, it might shake her out of her regulatory trance
Kerry, this may be difficult, but as Secretary of State you are supposed to put your green friends’ needs and wants aside
Approve without delay KeystoneXL as only the ideologues believe not stopping it would somehow raise our tides.
If you have the President’s ear, this advice to get our energy independence back
Also leash McCarthy’s steps to drive a nail into the heart of expanding efforts to frack
© January 31, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

St. Patrick Needs A Rest

       The political news coming out of D.C. and this nation could occupy this poet 24/7. Finally a news item that does not involve Sandra Fluke, Governor Christie, KeystoneXL, D.C. gridlock, Healthcare.gov ad infinitum. In Santa Ana, after Jehovah's Witnesses noticed a most ungodly smell coming from a Bill Buchman's house on North Fernwood Drive. Police served a search warrant and found over 400 snakes, over 200 hundred of which were dead and lots of rat feces from their expected meals. He was arrested on felony animal cruelty.
        What makes this story worthy of a poetic comment other than the fact it is not D.C related is the fact that Bill Buchman is a school teacher at Mariners' Elementary School in Newport Beach and actually brought some of the pythons into the classroom to most like teach and amaze his students. As a parent I can digress and state you have not lived until you hold a kids' birthday party which feature reptiles, including snakes--kids love it, adults sometimes are taken aback, but fun and educational at the same time.
         Mariners is a couple miles from my office or as we would say in Herpetology Land, not that many slithers away. Since we are nearing St. Patrick's Day and since he is reputed to have rid Ireland of its snakes, I thought you would enjoy this poem. Recommend reading the OCR article on this Claudia Koerner writes well and the photos are interesting.  http://www.ocregister.com/articles/snakes-599644-buchman-haywood.html?page=1
Don't Call St. Patrick, He Needs A Rest
Christmas celebrations start earlier each day of the year
Santas and ads after Halloween sometimes appear
Even St. Patrick’s Day that hallowed day of good cheer
Is now becoming a Week to sell more Bushmills and green beer
We know legend tells us that St. Patrick rid Ireland of its snakes
But the news coming from Santa Ana should keep us awake
400 snakes in a house with many dead
A tale of animal cruelty we all should dread
A teacher at a Newport Beach elementary school
Took some of his boas and pythons as teaching tools
St. Patrick’s Day is but a close 45 days away
Do we need his spirit to the Santa Ana snakes chase or slay?
Maybe just the sound of pipes and the Shamrock dust to by helicopter spray
That’s a fear most snakes who know history will quickly heed and obey
Hope this elementary teacher and his cast of snakes is an isolated case
And we do not have an OC snake infestation for St. Patrick to erase
Thank God our teacher did not bring all of  them to his Mariners' classroom
Our public school system does not need more doom and gloom
Will his union come to his defense for the felony he seemed to commit,
Break normal ranks and demand that he be fired or quit?
In any case the Spirit of St. Patrick needs until the 17th time to rest
He will be bringing salvation to the OC jails on that day for all the DUI arrests
© January 31, 2014 Michael P. Ridley, aka the Alaskanpoet




Thursday, January 30, 2014

Waxman Finally Calls It Quits

The news today is that Henry Waxman, a Blue Congressman, is finally calling it quits after a 20 terms in the House and will not seek reelection in the fall. Not sure, as one of the primary architects of the ACA, or as a rallying cry Demo Care, whether he wanted to avoid a bruising fight facing the wrath of angry voters or whether after working for 50 years, only five of which were in the private sector (as a lawyer which may or may not be defined as private given the low esteem we since the days of Dick the Butcher have for lawyers) it was time to retired.
        Whether he served his District or the nation well is for history to render its verdict. One thing is clear. Making a House seat and the retention of it a career cannot be what the Founding Fathers had in mind. Waxman represents the career politician who has been insulated from the vagaries of the winds of economic storm and from the effect of many of the laws the politicians have enacted (if the furor over minimum wage, ask if you are sitting down how many House or Senate members pay their interns at least minimum wage).  Waxman is not the first nor the last unless we as a nation say enough and impose term limits to force people to have real jobs either before or after they leave "public service." If a Congressman is only going to be in office for say three terms, he might place a higher value on his integrity and not sell out to the large donors that he needs to court to stay election. Do not really care who replaces him, only that who ever does has come out of the private sector, preferably from a company in which making payroll was a real concern. That and the fact that his replacement Red or Blue views the office as a short term proposition.
 Waxing the Last Board--Time to Retire
 After 45 years of being at the "public service" trough, Waxman may have seen the writing on the wall.
Amidst falling ACA approvals, he announces today that he will not seek reelection in the fall
Some would speculate that retirement i due to his crafting of the ACA
Looking back one might ponder if sanity finally comes to play
Elected office should never be allowed to become a career
A thought that never entered Waxman's ear
Anyone who has barely worked in the private sector is someone we as taxpayers should fear
No matter the early motives, self interest for office retention will soon appear
Waxman represents the class of Brahmas our politicians have become
Large donors sated at the federal trough, mere voters fed the crumbs
When will we mere mortals as voters realize the Waxmans of the world for us could care less
Inconveniences at $15 per vote, a source only of raising campaign funds stress
Career politicians Red or Blue simply do not belong
Waxman finally leaves, what took you so long?
Enjoy your pension which is more than your voting servants could only dream
Know you are immune from the ACA you crafted while the rest of us will be creamed.
So we would be blessed with not having a successor as career Waxman clone
A solemn pledge from your replacement candidates that after three terms they will go home!
©January 29, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Opening Salvos Of Imperial Presidency

As the President prepares to be watched by less than 40 million Americans most likely burned out by the months of gridlock and anxiety and stress over the ACA or "Obama Care," our President has just fired the opening salvoes of the War on Congress. Unlike the bogus War on Women, this War may become all too real with Obama doing what too many Presidents are prone to do---to expand the scope of the power of the Executive Office. Raising the minimum wage required to be paid to workers performing services on contracts with the federal government will have little impact on expenditures due to the probable absence of workers at minimum wage unless pay rates are linked or pegged to the minimum wage.
        The act should be a mobilization call to those of us concerned over the need to maintain the Separation of Powers. This is not an issue of a Red President or a Blue President it is an issue of the usurpation of Congressional power which is a fundamental cornerstone of the Republic. Time for Senator Reid to wake up and recognize the need for his Blue minions to push back on this planned Presidential power grab. 
Salvoes
The announcement of the first pen mandate could be the first ranging shot
Of an Imperial Presidency's Congress-be-damned-no-quarter onslaught
Given the bloat of federal contracts, doubt if many employees are at minimum wage
So the cost to us taxpayers will not the fires of further overruns rage
But this must be more than the need to his base assuage
No, this is the pen seeking to rewrite the Separation of Powers page
As his pen is making the final touches to what could be a gauntlet speech
It should be quaking and shaking as the Reds push an ACA solution into the breech
The Devil will be in the details, but one thing should be very, very clear
After the website rollout and privacy risk we should want the feds no where near
Preexisting conditions to be covered; at first glance a real attempt to this mess solve
Pooling of small employers for better deals and ban the Feds to get the states involved
Hopefully, the pen is not trapped in his legacy, ego land
Time to toss out the sheet music of this Imperial Presidency
band.
© January 28,2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 
 
 
 

Monday, January 27, 2014

Where Are the Sacrificial Lambs?

The news leaking out is that Charlene Lamb, a Secretary of State underling responsible for the botched security at Benghazi, after an administrative leave of full pay, is being given a new Regional Security Position in the State Department to be assigned to Canada. No wonder the Canadians have had it with us over are delay in the Keystone XL approval process; one can only hope this person does not have any responsibilities to provide security as her performance in Benghazi suggests although she may be a loyal administration player, she is incompetent. One can only hope the hush money is not excessive, but even a penny clearly indicates accountability does not exist in the Obama administration, not now and certainly not on 9/11/2012. 
No Sacrificial Lambs Only Rewarded Ones
We all know the stories of the sacrificial lambs
Not on the altar of faith but the altar of covering up a sham
Not so in the case of a certain  Lamb named Charlene
Cited for security failings at the Benghazi consulate attack scene
While four Americans died, their families to question a bogus video and left to greave
This Lamb was not punished or sacrificed, only put on administrative leave
No punishment, no loss of pay or job, no demerits, no demotion
While four Americans were butchered paying the ultimate devotion
No, the news breaking would appear this Lamb is receiving a promotion
No wonder, as finally the facts delayed trickle in, a sense of outrage commotion
Regional security in Canada outside the House’s subpoena reach
Another failed chance for this Administration accountability to teach
Maybe not a great promotion but a silence reward
To prevent the Benghazi Blame to Hillary point toward.
© January 27, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Is Obama the New Richelieu Play

The State of the Union Address will be delivered on January 28, 2014 and already rumblings are being heard that this President will seek to expand Executive Orders to whenever possible avoid Congress and render the Congress impotent in terms of participating in solving issues facing this country. President Obama is not the first nor the last President to out of frustration or otherwise seek to minimize the power of the Congress through the growth of the power of the Executive Branch, through a combination of regulations and executive orders or in the case of the ACA, unilaterally amend sections of the ACA without any Congressional involvement. Dangerous precedence that transcends whatever party holds the White House! In this Presidential power grab of fundamental proportions, one thing is certain---the 2014 elections will be vital, especially if the Reds have a chance to regain the Senate. President Obama may seek to ignore the House, but against a Red House and Red Senate, his chances of being successful will be severely curtailed.
Is Obama the New Richelieu Play
"The pen is mightier than the sword" has been true since spoken in Richelieu in 1839
But it is a sword not Congress that how the might was to be defined
For our President to now Congress seek to with phone and pen trump
Is more than a sign of desperation as his ratings continue to slump
This is  the sign of a legacy-driven Imperial President that should send out a chill
Separation of powers to be scrapped to circumvent Congressional will
Compromise of Reds and Blues  that creates on some issues a blended purple tinge
Is a long overdue idea, but a purple Presidential trim should make us cringe
A president with a pen should use it to veto all day long
To rise above party winds and majority fads to keep this Republic strong
Where is the Blue Senate or due to Reid's iron rules have they been numbed?
Can they not visualize the power creeping banging of Presidential drums?
To threaten an equal branch with executive orders to in essence dismiss
Is the first step, slippery at that, down into the sinkhole of tyranny's abyss
If his phone were to be used for meetings, not photo ops, to suggest
We might have some chance to this partisanship allay and arrest
At least, have the Senate and House close ranks and a Presidential power grab resist
Not a Red or Blue issue, only how to contain on the body politic, a power grabbing infectious cyst
© January 27, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

KeystoneXL Doomed by EPA Even Argo's Patience at End

First the news that Canada, our ally and friend and lauded in Argo, does the right thing-it gives up on the obstruction of the EPA and Obama to KeystoneXL Next we find today collusion between the EPA and environmental groups as revealed in secret emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. If only we could mandate that any executive in the EPA could only purchase energy from solar, wind, tides, biomass, anything other than fossil fuels and finding it was not available, they would have to learn to live without electricity, not fly, not take the train, freeze in the winter and sweat to death in the summer, then and only then we might restore some sanity to the agency and regain the chance to obtain energy independence. Nice to be able to dream.
EPA Delay Is a Keystone XL Slay
The War on Women was a political slogan not true designed to elect Blues
The War on Poverty was trillions spent into a stagnant or growing poverty slough
The War on Income Inequality looks like Big Blue will soon launch
How likely will it our fragile economic growth quickly staunch?
Too many successes for Big Blue on misguided War on Coal, War on Oil
Looks like they will claim another victim, add to our energy loss toll
As we struggle to keep fracking from an EPA’s protest shrills
Get ready for the coup de grace, the trophy energy independence kill
Canada decides it can no longer wait for the idiots in Obamaland to determine Keystone XL’s fate
Plan B is now for a pipeline to the coast and oil hungry Asia that eagerly awaits
Obama's and his EPA’s posturing, excuses and delays
All the while as a Canadian oil chance ebbs away
Now we learn to our dismay that the EPA and environmental groups
Have secretly banded together to give Keystone XL the terminal boot
Like the ACA, Big Blue’s statements on energy “all of the above” are just another period dot.
A great chance to secure energy independence may have been fatally shot.
Not for the good of  U.S. energy users, no solely to appease and court Big Blue’s Green wing
So the taxpayers can be stuck in the billions of waste from the next wave of "Solyndras" his cronies will bring?
Sadly, stupidity and self-interest is not an impeachable offense; we are stuck with him until 2016
But if the voters have had it, say "enough", and control of the Senate shifts in 2014
Reds will have not only the power to block such nonsense but also the ability to trade
A compromise here and amendment there and may come to our energy needs aid
Time for those who drive, heat and cool their homes, use electricity at home or at work, all energy users in short
Roll up your shirts, grab pen and phone and descend on every Blue to demand the EPA's delays they abort
Better yet, boycott the fawning media who believe their darling walks on water and can do no wrong
The threat of pink slips due to falling ratings and falling ads, might change the tunes of their admiration songs
© January 22, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Semper Grati for Semper Fis

The news just recently of two of the three more Marines killed by a "friendly" Afghan policeman at their own operating base were awarded the Navy Cross, the second highest award this nation can bestow upon its soldiers was a chilling reminder of the dangers each day our men and women in uniform face each day in Afghanistan. It boggles the imagination how difficult it must be in the God forsaken feudal country to go into the country to fight an elusive enemy dedicated to kill as many Americans as possible to gain entrance to their Paradise and gorge on the virgins that  the Mullahs brainwash them to believe will be waiting with open arms. Then to experience the shear terror and frustration to in the "relative" safety of a U.S. base of being attacked by the people you are there to protect--in this case an Afghan policeman.
        History will judge the wisdom of why we went there, why we stayed there, and why we did not leave sooner or at the risk of being accused of fringe thoughts why we did not follow MacArthur's somewhat ill-conceived notion of creating a nuclear fallout barrier on the Yalu River during the Korean War and applying that concept to at least the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Do not know what the verdict will be, but it is clear to me that we are lucky beyond belief that we have a Marine Corps and Armed Forces that are willing to risk life and limb for this country. Hopefully this country in the guise of deficit does not ever abandon or reduce our commitment to those Veterans.
      As civilians non Marines our motto must always be Semper Grati (Always Grateful) for Semper Fi's (the Marines).

 Semper Grati for Semper Fi's
Semper Fi is not an empty slogan, a motto hollow
No, it is the creed that all Marines by acts and deeds follow
When an AK-47 is spraying its deadly hail of lead
A Marine puts personal safety behind and his fellows ahead
A pistol used by Manoukian against an AK-47 is like trying to stop a tank by throwing rocks
Non Marines would flee, these wounded two keep firing, their bodies to the bullets block
Mote saw the shooting and ran to his room to his M-4 snatch
Do not know if he had a chance to aim before the Ak-47 bullets found a match
Only that both Marines did not hesitate, did not retreat
They fought and died when a "friendly" with his Ak-47 came to greet 
To see the life-photo faces of Mote and Manoukian, Marine winners of the Navy Cross
You can only with tears in eyes,  say “thank God for Marines” and mourn the loss
And continue to question why we are still there to Afghans train and arm
When too many of these “friendlies” are Mullah-driven to kill and harm
This poet is not a Prophet or an icon of weighty  theological tomes
Knows not whether our Heaven and the Muslim Paradise are shared eternal homes
But if they are, these fanatic jihadists who have bought the Mullahs’ virgins’ line
Should know the streets there are patrolled by Marines: their entry will be declined
Semper Fi, Marines Mote and Manoukian, the nation and the  Corps live on  because of you
Once again, Marines like you have paid with blood and life our freedom preservation dues
© January 20, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Blacks, Irish, Dogs and Conservatives Not Welcome?


During the wave of Irish immigration in the 19th Century precipitated by the Potato Famine, many businesses in New York City, the entry port for many Irish, posted signs indicating no Irish and dogs allowed. Sadly, some went further and added Blacks to the list. As we observe Martin Luther King Day on January 20, 2014, thankfully only our canine residents face discrimination in establishments serving the public,  not from the owners but from the various departments of health.
It is ironic that on the day of what should be a day of support for tolerance and diversity, the governor of New York puts up a new sign of exclusion—pro-life, pro-assault gun (ambiguous definition at best) and anti-gay, and the extreme conservatives are not welcome in New York. If Martin Luther King were alive today would his “I Have A Dream” speech also included, with apologies to one of the great speeches of our modern time, a line to the effect that “voters will be judged not by the color of their views, liberal or conservative, but by the strength of their character.”? I would hope so; and if not, it is time for another Kerner Report to warn that this nation is dissolving into two nations not one white and one black, but rather one liberal and one conservative with the result of complete and utter gridlock and the death of any meaningful compromise. I would never attack a person's character solely because of his liberal views on an issue; nor would I expect a liberal to attack mine because of my conservative views---that's not the way discourse on issues should work.
Andrew Cuomo should be ashamed of himself for blatantly expressing  such views today and each every day. Liberal and Conservative thoughts absolutely have the right to exist in New York in the market place of ideas as long as they are not linked  to and inseparable from the violence that King railed against. Maybe the good governor ought to look at the advertising his own state is running constantly to attract businesses to the state with such incentives as ten year tax holidays. In case you haven’t noticed it Governor, a lot of business owners have a conservative streak to them. Removing "Blacks" and "Irish" from the sign below and replacing those words with "Conservatives" makes no sense, no sense at all--Blacks, Irish and Conservatives which may be Blacks and/or Irish cannot be included with our four legged loyal friends.
 
 
 A Sign For the Times We Must Never Display Again! 
When the only people welcome in New York are the liberal left
The expression of ideas buffet is closed down by the political chef
Freedom of ideas withers and dies or is early on subject to theft
If Cuomo really believes that the Conservatives in New York do not belong
Here is a news flash, Governor Cuomo, you are completely wrong!
Most of us do not want to hear the freedom of ideas tune to be a swan song
Surround yourself with those only of the left or only of the right
Watch the autocrats’ rule and freedom flee from sight
You should not try to silence ideas with misguided political might
The human species prospers and flourishes when its diet is more than one class of thought
One view only, left or right, leads not to bloom and growth, only to mental, moral and social
rot. 
Rethink, Mr. Governor, your attempts to bar will, rightfully so, come to naught.
© January 20, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Philadelphia Public Schools Cannot Be Brothers' Keepers If Principals and Teachers Are Cheaters

   If the news of the DOJ announcing on Friday that it was going to investigate suspensions in public schools due to a disproportionate number of minorities being suspended did not get your attention, try this on for size. Suspensions that for however long seem like the worst way to encourage children to stay in school and learn. A suspended student is going to become a falling behind, low esteem, and frustrated student leading to more discipline and more suspensions until voila the student drops out and joins the ranks of those pretty much excluded from achieving any significant part of the American Dream other than the Nightmare portion and ending up in jail or prison.
    The news emanating from the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, about teachers and principals engaging in test score cheating  is just as bad, a delayed fuse of failure with students not dropping out but with test scores that overstate their learning skills that will have sapped their desires to try to achieve and will implode in their careers. 53 schools, 3 charter and 50 non charter of the 291 Philadelphia public schools, 80 charter and the rest non charter are been investigated by the Pennsylvania Attorney General and a Grand Jury over cheating on test scores of those schools not by the students but by teachers, other employees and  principals, three of which have been dismissed (in the educational union world that is a Ripley's Believe It Or Not moment in and of itself. The Philadelphia Inquirer has an excellent article on this scandal worth reading. Link below
  http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20140119_Pa__attorney_general_is_probing_cheating_at_Phila__schools.html
I would hope as the story unfolds someone asks the obvious question why only 3 out of 80 of the charter schools are implicated? What is it about the charter schools in Philadelphia that might need to be followed by the public schools? Hopefully also,  the paper will follow the unions' response, i.e. will the principals and teachers if in fact guilty be held accountable without thousands of dollars spent to dismiss them. One thing is certain in a test cheating scandal by the teachers and principals the real cheatees on the students whose chances of success in this world have been severely threatened. Further comment in rhyme as befitting my handle:
Who Needs A Crib Sheet If The Teachers Are Cheating For You?
The scandal in 53 Philadelphia public schools should hit a sore and exposed nerve
News of test cheating by teachers and principals is not what the pupils deserve
If test scores are improved not because of what the pupils learn and retain
But because a teacher or principal cheats to increase, students lose, there is no gain
Phony tests can only cheapen and  decrease the value of a passing grade
Undereducated into life, now trying through swirling currents of technology try to wade
Stripped of the ability to think, to compute, to read, to solve, left with only to test
If a teacher is going to boost your score, why study, why even try to do your best?
Philadelphia is not alone, 37 other states have suffered from the raise-test-scores cheat
Bad enough our students are learning only to test, with this scandal the decline of pupils chances is complete!
A fish rots from the head and three principals in the scandal have been shed
Are there more or were the teachers in the 53 schools on their own or being led?
I hope the teachers’  and principals’ unions if the charges are found to be true
Act to support integrity and urge their firing and do not try to sue
Another institution, like Congress, the President, DHHS, the media, the military et al, takes a credibility hit
When will the erosion of public confidence ever slow, when if ever will it quit?
Not as money and rewards flow based on higher test scores
If anything, we should see not less scandals, only more
To find a silver lining in this pathetic, dishonest and criminal mess
Note, of the 80 charter schools, only 3 were alleged to have been cheating on tests.
© January 19, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Saturday, January 18, 2014

DOJ To Look At School Suspensions Better To Suspend Attack On Charter Schools!

"The United States is far from providing each child with as much education as he can use. Our school system still primarily functions as a system of exclusion....[T]here is an enormous reservoir of talent among Negro and other poor youth. This society has to develop that talent. The unrealized capacities of many of our youth are an indictment of our society's lack of concern for justice and its proclivity for wasting human resources. As with so much else in this potentially great society, injustice and waste go together and endanger stability." Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the Huffington Post today the president of the Children's Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman prefaces her article with the King quote above. She has written a great article raising concern over the number of Black students being suspended from school---18 percent of the student body and 40 percent of students who received one or more out-of-school suspensions, one every four seconds. Suspensions are the first step to being left further behind on the path to drop out--Black students are more than twice as likely to drop out of school as White students, 763 each day.
     She applauds the recent announcement by the DOJ to address suspension practices in the local schools and denounces the cradle to prison system that suspensions of Blacks foster. By the time public schools are suspending Black students more likely that not that public school has failed the educational needs of those students. The amount of discipline is inversely proportional in my mind to the quality of the education received. We do not need more Federal involvement in our schools. What we need are more charter schools with parent involvement, vouchers and the right to move to the school of a parent's choice, and teacher and principal accountability to the students and parents and due to the importance of education, to the community at large. Charter Schools work and they even work in the worst of neighborhoods. If Archimedes were alive today to paraphrase "If I hand a charter school to teach in, I could move all minds through the door of opportunity, not to be left behind in swamps of suspension and prison."
Charter A Ramp Off Cradle To Prison Road
A mind is a terrible thing to waste or to hinder its efforts to learn
The stats on Black, Minority and poor students' performance should cause great concern
One can only imagine the frustration of wanting to learn yet slowly falling behind
A world in which the elite read and write and to the disadvantaged literate is most unkind
The Children's Defense Fund is right to raise the issue of why so many minorities and poor are suspended
As all sane persons would agree suspensions based on race or class can never be defended
To solve this problem what we do not need is an investigation at local levels by the DOJ
Teamed up with the behemoth DOE to any chance of education of our kids slay
The war against the road from public classroom to prison in the slums is on the road to defeat
While in the charter schools freed from bureaucracy eager minds have  failure in rout, in defeat enough to incur the teachers' union wrath might ask,
"Why is it way before suspensions, the public schools are failing such basic literacy, spelling  and computing tasks?
Why if allowed with vouchers, minority parents are lining up in the streets
To get their child into a charter school where for a child a chance to learn will greet?"
The stats tell the story on charter schools' performance even in the slums of D.C.
The charter schools perform, the public schools fail, not one Obama child there to see
Is it because the teachers there are there to teach,
Free of union dues into their pockets to reach?
Is it because the parents there have in their kids’ education a stake and a voice? 
They are committed consumers involved  in the education marketplace of choice
Public School unions’ job's to protect the teachers not the kids
No wonder education in many classroom there is on the skids
Children’s Defense Fund should for charter schools get one hundred percent behind
By in large, best way to reduce suspensions and dropouts and  end the waste of minds.
© January 18, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet






Surgeon General Adds Erectile Dysfunction To Smoking List

50 years ago the U.S. Surgeon General release a comprehensive report indicating that smoking may be hazardous to ones health, outlining the link of smoking to lung cancer. Over time the list of effects of smoking have been added, e.g. heart attacks, strokes, fetal problems, etc. To some success as the percentage of smokers in the U.S. population has steadily declined and an estimated 20,000,000 lives have been changed.
        Sadly, each day 3,200 youths under the age of 18 try their first cigarette. Good news this Friday is that the Surgeon General added to his list of dangers of smoking liver and colorectal cancer, diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis. But the proverbial coffin nail was also introduced--erectile dysfunction.  Now to those youth with raging elevated levels of testosterone that is a warning that may stick and we may be able to successfully lower the number young smokers. Reduction in smoking too late for my father who started when he was 15, evolved to a three pack a day Kent smoker and died from lung cancer in 1999 at least fortunate to have strong forearms to continually push the morphine drip right up to the moment of his death. Comment in iambic below...
Kick the Butt to Get It Up
At long last we may have a real chance to induce men to give up the butt
The Surgeon General just added ED to smoking dangers list—smoke and you can’t get it up
Cancers to the liver and colon and diabetes to an invincible seem too remote
But the strong emotions of a failed erection might a stronger urge to quit evoke
The image of the cigarette after teen sex to be replaced
Whew, thank you Camel for keeping my virginity in place
If only Marlboros or Camels were required to add a saltpeter dose
Smoking among men save the celibates would quickly be toast
Won’t happen but here’s a marketing concept that may do the trick
More ads where a handsome guy lights up and the foxes turn and flee as if he’s sick
Or the fox enters and all heads turn and stare tongues dropping almost to the floor
She lights up and there are groans of disgust as all handsome men race for the door
Smoking kills and worse it kills those dumb enough or loved ones to be in the line of smoking’s fire
Who do not want to be like wives in ancient India being forced to jump aboard a funeral pyre
The jury may be out on the safety of e-cigs smokeless nicotine hit
Anything is better than the number of cigarettes still lit
And if with the ad dollar money the states have but do not spend
Here’s an idea on a way to the DUI carnage to try to end
The Bud Lite girls all foxes, all tens should be turned on by only one guy
Not those who drink but the designated driver who insures they don’t drive and die
Somehow to the new 3,200 youths each day who their first cigarette try
A message—costs way too much, harder to get sex and better job and later on a lousy way to die!
© January 18, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Vegas 911 Call Should Not Be A PC Test

The news out of Las Vegas today was tragic. A son comes home to find his mother either dead or dying, calls 911 in a panic, distraught, during the course of the call swears or uses abusive language (not clear)  at the dispatcher and she hangs up.  It is unclear also  whether the dispatcher was punished either in being laid off or fired or in a warning. Given the difficulty, rather almost impossibility of holding public employees accountable, I suspect the dispatcher is still on the job.
       No one should be hired as a 911 dispatcher or remain as a 911 dispatcher unless he or she is able to handle the emotional stress and pain that may be present in a caller's words, tone or volume, however inappropriate and beyond social norms it would otherwise be. To justify her actions of hanging up would be like justifying Payton Manning this Sunday leaving the game, uninjured because a Patriot had the audacity to sack him. Comment including therein a suggestion to avoid this sort of tragedy in the future. My condolences also to the victim's family--maybe, just maybe her death will prompt some 911 dispatcher training, changes and accountability so this type of tragedy in the future can be avoided.
911 Call Is Not A Miss Manners Test
The PC virus has just infected Las Vegas in  another place
911 dispatcher can respond to only calm words of non expletive grace
Mother dead, mother dying, you must sir keep a calm face
If she is still on the job this is an absolute disgrace
If Vegas is dumb enough or frightened enough of union backlash
To keep her on after hanging up on some undisclosed verbal trash,
Then at least put these 911 dispatchers though the equivalent of Seal Hell Week
Where they are demeaned, yelled at, racially insulted and all manner of foul speak
We are humans not robots without emotions with death or injury at our feet
And an uncaring dispatcher trapped in a script as our politeness emotions defeat
If a dispatcher cannot handle such perceived emotional abuse
No right to this job--totally without to frantic callers any use
These callers are not going to be calmly asking for the time of day
But rather for help to keep death, injury, or crime at bay
Perhaps also the lesson of consequences to be on this dispatcher forever seared
Strongly suggest she go to the funeral and observe the families' sobbing and tears.
 © January 18, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Pen And Phone In Quiver But Compromise Left Home

On of the headlines on this day January 14, 2014, National Poetry at Work Day, was that President Obama was ready with his pen and phone to get things done. Nice headline on this day, maybe he is
going to pen, yes pen and not email, or better yet pick up the phone and suggest to the leaders on both sides of the Senate and the House that they get together for some real discussions , not sound bites or photo ops for which he excels with no teleprompters allowed and try, really try with all blame if they fail to discuss some of the major issues that face this country.  Supposedly some of these leaders are intelligent persons however hidden by partisanship rancor that intelligence may be. If they are not there are certainly enough high paid talent to bring to bear.
     Obama Care is about ready to go on life support. The recovery is like a candle facing a hurricane wind ready to be blown out. Immigration is in shambles. The debt dragon is in weeks ready to raise its wrathful head in revenge for the once again kicking the can down the road and to add insult to injury, the Al-Qaeda flag flies over Fallujah.
      Do I have solutions? None other than to suggest we are running out of time and we do not deserve the mess of another three years of gridlock and electing a new President in 2016 who will inherit 20+ trillion of debt we can not afford.
       More executive orders seems like a piss poor waste of ink. More phone calls to his base seems like a piss poor allocation of scarce resources of time.
January 14 is National Poetry at Work Day
Seems apropos in a "recovery" dismal and gray

Pen And  Phone But No Poems As Compromise Left Home
January 14 is National Poetry at Work Day
Seems apropos in a "recovery" dismal and gray
So the headline that Obama his pen he would take
Inspired hope that in him the creativity spirit would awake
And that museum piece in the sound bite shadows
Where any discourse by the shots of deception is straddled
Inspired hope that he might actually reach out to his Blues and yes even the Reds
His dreams of the imperial regulatory executive order presidency finally shed
No such luck not part of his makeup, not part of his far reaching design
The pen is not for poems only for more executive orders to sign
And the phone not for the Reds or Blues only for the mortals to awe
To pressure Congress to put his ideas into the force of law.
Probably, however, just as well
Getting people to read his poems would be a hard sell

© January 14, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Monday, January 13, 2014

Beware A Moose Is On The Loose-- Not Teddy Roosevelt As A Bull Moose

It would appear that the Supreme Court may be taking up another potential hot potato, although this case does not an attack on the separation of powers as the case being argued before it on January 13, 2014, this case will involve the extent to which in essence there is a "Constitution free zone" within 100 miles of the U.S.  Under the Feds belief in order to stop contraband and terrorists, probable cause to search and seize is not needed, because of the limited times peoples' lap tops and iPads have been searched after crossing the border but still within 100 miles of it. Two circuits have different opinions and the issue may well go to the Supreme Court.
     Not sure how, in light of the NSA overreaching, the Court will rule, but if in favor of the Feds, any tourist destination more than 100 miles from the Canadian or Mexican border, in addition to promoting the destination's attractions, should proclaim "Constitution Applies Zone--Your Electronic Devices Are Safe From Intrusion." Enjoy the poem and hide your muffins----there is a wild moose on the loose and it's not Teddy Roosevelt as a Bull Moose.
Moose On The Loose
If we could in our government have a sense of continuing trust
This case might not raise the need for an all out ACLI fuss
But Snowden has proved that the NSA reach expands faster than gas in a confined place
When it comes to maintaining integrity the FBI in its Tea Party muzzle loses the impartiality race
"It's only a hundred miles, only 15 or so a day
We need to keep all terrorists on the border at bay."
In a phrase,  that justification is "a complete crock"
Pray the Supremes this nonsense completely block
To be near a border means that the 4th is totally ignored
Your lap top and iPads have the Feds implanted in their motherboards
How much freedom to we give up to the Feds in the to-protect-us guise
Who will mourn the loss of the 4th when it is ignored and dies?
The Federal Government is like the hungry Moose seeking a muffin to eat
Outweighs you, so you figure it’s only a muffin and you give him the treat
But the muffin only makes him want more
So now some jam to get him out the door
But the Moose loves muffins and for more muffins his antlers threaten and his stomach growls
To get him out of the house, you give him some money for muffin mix and throw in the towel
And since a Moose has no oven within which muffins to bake
Your house, your castle barred to even a king, he now takes
If this were only a children's book thought, it would bring a lot of laughter and cheers
But this 100 miles “Constitution-free zone” which will creep in size should raise alarms and fears.
In the end to "protect", the Feds throw the Constitution into the trash bin
Guess what? We have lost and the terrorists, without further shots, chalk up a win.
© January 13, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Tridents Are A Nation's Best Friend


I have just finished reading two books written by Navy Seals that I would recommend to anyone, The Trident by Ensign Redman, a Navy Seal who was severely wounded in Iraq and after 30 plus surgeries survived his wounds and although he failed in his desire to be able to return to operational status with the Seals is very active in Wounded Wear and Wounded Warriors. The second book is No Easy Day written by former Navy Seal, Matt Bissonnette, writing under the pseudonym of Mark Owen, native of Alaska and a member to the Seal team that killed Osama Bin Laden and was involved in the termination of the Somali pirates who seized the Maersk Alabama and put the crew and the captain through hell.
               Mark’s book produced a firestorm of criticism (he did not obtain prior clearance from the DOD) as has Robert Gates book Duty of which I have preordered from Barnes & Noble and still waiting for it to be downloaded to my Nook.  What is common to the books by Redman and Owen is a sense of dedication, courage, sacrifice and shear mental, emotional and physical commitment to overcoming all hurdles to become a Seal and the further exhaustive training needed to be in a position to defend this country.
               The releases of excerpts from Duty reveal the awesome burden a Secretary of Defense must feel in sending young men and women to distant lands to protect our freedom and safety at a time when military service as a percentage of the population declines each year. I could barely imagine the burden Gates would feel if he were in office today seeing pension promises made dishonored by our Congress and President. Not large amounts of money in the scheme of things when you consider the cuts would affect small numbers of veterans, those who serve at least 20 years. When there are billions upon billions of fraud, waste and abuse in an ever expanding, out of touch, remote and dysfunctional federal government, why we could not find a few billions to honor this nation’s obligations is beyond me.
              Senator Kelly Ayotte from New Hampshire proposed a mechanism to close a tiny amount of that fraud, proving that in many cases women are more effective in finding solutions—So simple requiring social security numbers in order to obtain a child credit. That thought evaporated as Boxer bobbed and weaved, throwing punch after punch of rhetoric of taking food from the mouths of children, whether they exist or whether they are undocumented aliens.
               The poem that follows was prompted by the book Trident and some of the gridlock events facing us in D.C. As Gates reveals a lack of passion of this Administration for anything military other than the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” how long do the Redmans and Owens continue to put their lives and limbs on the line, in many cases scarred emotionally, mentally and physically for life if they do not become KIA? I doubt if Senator Boxer has ever considered the question.
Tridents
Thanks to a Huckabee show on Fox with Redman as his guest
I was moved to order and read Trident, a story of a Seal and his courage at its very best
Never again will I complain about aging arthritis in my knees
Or aging eyes that make it sometimes hard to see
Or fingers and thumbs that scream with pain
Too much texting and typing with joints to inflame
A Seal to even become a Seal Team member meets trials almost all of us non warriors could not endure
To put his family aside and life and put limbs on the line not for fame or money, but motives pure
To defend this country from foes away from our cities and towns
To never leave a fellow warrior dead or wounded behind when shot down
I was honored to meet in the pages his brave and supporting wife and three kids
To laugh at his jokes and to laugh when in Ranger training he was called a squid
While reading in many pages to feel the tears moisting down my cheek
When he was shot to hell and back, wasted jaw wired and could not speak
A drive to recover not just to recover and with wife and kids to retire
No, a drive to return to his Seals with a courage only a human robot would not admire
While I watch the return of Al Qaeda in Iraq, its flags over Fallujah flying at full mast
Wondering will our honor and appreciation of Seals like Redman fade or even last
While waiting to receive for my Nook Duty by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates
Excerpts on how our President did not believe in his policy to send men into harms' fate
I could feel my anger and disappointment begin to new disgust levels soar
More so as pension cuts to the military Reid seems to be fighting all steps to restore
As Senator Boxer as the pure Blue ideologue of more spending, swinging weighs in
That to cut fraud in child credits to pay for restoration by giving a SSN will in the Senate never win
Sadly, despite the efforts of all Reds and one brave Blue, to no surprise
A chance to restore the earned pension cuts went down to a solid Blue demise
A trident is not just an image of a mythical Greek god or a symbol carried by the mascot of Arizona State
After reading Trident, it’s a living, breathing  symbol of a warrior’s courage and honor, never broken, never bent. 
So Reid and Boxer and your fellow Blues, when it is time for the march of terror to stall
Who among the warriors among us will with open arms answer the call?
© January 11, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet  

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Colorado Marijuana Out Of Stash, Out Of Cash

       It probably came as no surprise that the demand for now, at least in the eyes of state laws in Colorado, legal recreational marijuana took off like a rocket. Very quickly the demand outstripped inventory and the supply capacity to replenish inventory was overwhelmed with prices on a rapid increase. While the images of customer lined up out into the street must be warming the hearts of the Colorado revenue authorities, it probably is making for some very unhappy Cartel members. A legal market for a drug has to be a challenge of unprecedented proportions.
       The Cartels, at least in Mexico, have a signature method of handling threats to their drug empires---they kill anyone, police, army, judges, legislators,  prosecutors, rival Cartel members and any civilian bystanders caught in the crossfire, without remorse, without pity. It may be only a question of time before the Cartels declare war on the recreational marijuana retail shops and growers, with the owners and workers therein becoming at great risk. Or like most organized crime with more cash than they know what to do with, the Cartels will seek to buy such retail shops and growers, which when faced with the choice of being killed or taking a huge amount of cash to sell out, on can easily visualize the choice an owner would make.
       What the Cartels may not realize is that as long as marijuana is illegal at the federal level and as long as the DEA is hypersensitive to the threat of money laundering, banks and mainstream credit facilities will not finance retail outlets or growers and may not process credit or debit card transactions. A two edge sword--not enough credit to expand and at the consumer level, cash only.  A cash only business could prove a magnet for employee theft and armed robbery...in either event not pleasant.
        Too early to predict how this will play out, but the deadliest consumer product on the market, faces no shortage of capital--cigarettes. Also capital often is scrubbed of personal beliefs and the private equity market may flock into this market. Not being able to use a debit card in the long term will still cause retail outlets to be holding huge amounts of cash and remain a target. One would hope that by background checks much like one must undergo in California to obtain a permit to sell retail alcoholic beverages, will allay the money laundering concern. C
        Colorado represents a large first step in breaking the back of the Cartels, decreasing our prison and jail population, and creating a much more stable source of tax revenue than lotteries and scratch cards which really do prey on the lower economic strata of our population. Let's make sure the DEA does not crimp the legitimate flow of cash, so Colorado consumers will be able to buy the stash.

Retail Stash Wars
Ironic that today, January 11, 2014 is the 50th Anniversary of Luther Terry's report
As Surgeon General he advised that smoking tobacco lives will be cut short
News item is that the Cartels will be Colorado bound
Too much drug sales to lose, will not take this lying down
Since the feds and banking system have turned a very nonresponsive ear
A recreational weed store should now have a lot of safety fears
If you can't use a card to buy, it has to be cash
Loads of money for the picking for those gun in hand to crash
Banks are terrified to lend to stores or to process customers  cards
For fear the Feds on bogus laundering charges will come down hard
How many shop owners will have to be robbed or killed
Before Feds allow users of pot in Colorado to use a card to pay the bill?
While daily over 1,000 Americans die from smoking products with a card most likely paid
When it comes to sanity and banks and weed policy,   the DEA gets a failing grade.
© January 10, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

Friday, January 10, 2014

California Closed Shop, Closed Mind, 1st Left Behind? ,

cA lawsuit of far ranging implications was  filed in California, one of 26 closed shop states that require membership in a union in order to be employed by a company subject to a collective bargaining agreement.  The plaintiffs allege that being required by the California Teachers Association  join the union and incur about $1,000 per year in dues violates their First Amendment Rights as the union spends significant dollars on causes and candidates with which and whom they may disagree. The case is on its way to the 9th Circuit and in all likelihood to the Supreme Court. Given the contributions made to the Obama campaign by private and public employee unions in the millions, do not be surprised if Holder's Justice Department files an amicus curia brief in support of the CTA.
           The CTA as expected has complained that the lawsuit is merely an attempt to weaken the union and damage workers' rights. Whether one thinks unions are or are not in the workers' best interests (this writer firmly believes that when it comes to bargaining power for benefits and safety, unions  definitely level the playing field), the impact on our political process needs to be addressed. Simply put too much money is contributed to office holders, almost all but a very minor portion going to Democratic candidates) who either negotiate with the very same donors or determine the contents of the Education Code or the Propositions that Californians vote on. The ability to, as a legislator, what is best for California, given human nature, is a lost cause given the costs of running for and staying in office. We have too much money being spent on contributions, too many office holders whose only career is that of an office holder, and little or any ability of the ordinary non Pac citizen to have any involvement in the political process---no wonder voting participation is falling. If more and more people believe that their vote does not matter, what chance do we have to preserve this precious republic.
To Preserve 1st Amendment for Teachers 
At last a chance to take our democracy from the public unions back
Federal lawsuit filed against California teachers' union on track
$190 million a year to keep jobs in mandatory dues
Should be no wonder why the Blue influence grew
Unions are a great force when on economic and job issues they relate
Not to the threat of political process when they sate the politicians' plate
Mix the desire, Red or Blue, to turn "public service" into a career
And you have a recipe for our democracy that is so toxic it must be feared
All of us should support and wish the plaintiffs' luck
To the growing power over our political process pluck
Maybe there will be a brave soul, a member of the true 800 pound public union pig
Those overpaid guards wanting more prisons, more inmates to hold our elected officials in the contributions brig.

© January 10, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

 

Benghazi Video Into The Trash Heap Of Deception

Although politics in this county is supposed to stop at the water's edge, unfortunately, the body politic's interest in foreign policy has a tendency to stop there also and lose importance compared to more pressing issues that most Americans are now facing-- like the economy, affordable healthcare and insurance. However, when Americans die like in the attack on our consulate in Benghazi or in Iraq and Afghanistan in struggles with jihadist terrorist, foreign policy is important to a good number of Americans.
       4 Americans, including our Ambassador, died in an attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 during the heat of the election campaign.  Having touted that al Qaeda was on the run due to Bin Laden's death by U.S. Navy Seal, that attack questioned Obama's record and the American public was treated with the explanation again and again that this attack (complete with mortars and heavy firepower) was the result of a "spontaneous reaction" to a video, most if not all Muslims in that part of the world had never seen. Who can forget utterances of Susan Rice and the President, again and again to that assertion.  Recent utterances by the New York Times to the contrary, most experts on terror will agree that the attack was a terrorist attack.
            Today the news is that the State Department has concluded that there was terrorist involvement in the attack including two Gitmo detainees who had been released. Not sure why an admission was finally made by the State Department, which cannot be helpful to Hillary Clinton in here campaign to become our next President in 2016. Maybe a Chicago Politics revenge against her by a President who may still smart from the attacks by her on him during the 2008 Democratic primary to ameliorate the attacks by Gates on Biden, the only other realistic Democratic candidate in 2016 in his new book Duty
             Hopefully, now that we finally have an admission maybe our vaunted FBI, CIA and assembled anti-terrorist agencies and force can end the slow walk and arrest or kill the terrorists thereby giving a sense of closure to the families and friends of the four Americans killed.
Benghazi Video Into The Trash Heap Of Deception

Even in a digital world if you continue to replay the disk of spin
Finally as evidence continues to flow past the deception sins
The lame excuse “It is a video” no longer believed, public trust no longer wins
Time to discard once and for all and toss it into the denial bin
State Department now admits that Benghazi had a terrorist link
What most people an election not trying to protect would have to think
One can only wonder whether the President in a final backhand slap
A favor to Biden to Hillary’s potential election momentum cap
With his legacy under no quarter assault and in potential tatters
Doubt if he would want to be bookended by husband and wife and further battered
Too bad this moment of clarity on the Benghazi terrorist attack took almost two years
Worse Susan Rice, the video puppet, was promoted to our UN policy steer
Sad also is that the Gray Lady on Benghazi takes another credibility hit
Forces to protect Obama and Hillary regardless of facts find it so hard to quit.
© January 10, 2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet