PHONE HOAX: INVESTIGATE WALKER, FOX

PHONE HOAX: INVESTIGATE WALKER, FOX
It is without a doubt that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This time-tested idiomatic expression might as well have its headquarters in the political arena. John Edward described himself as narcissistic, when busted cheating on his wife. Tom Delay (his sentencing is being delayed), was blinded by his near invincibility as the “hammer.” Abramoff, you know him for his lobbying shenanigans, and subsequent imprisonment. John Hansen annexed the wife of an ex-staffer with impunity, just to mention but a few; and now Scott “Gadhafi” Walker of Wisconsin.
Between Scott Walker and Governor Kris Kristy of New Jersey, a competition is a foot as to who could treat public employees most contemptuously. Verbally, Kristy has treated state civil servants more discourteously than any one state chief executive. He has elevated the annoying habit of bad-mouthing to a state’s craft. Scott Walker himself has excelled in many fronts. He has walked truth on its head. He is hypocritical, and clearly unintelligent. The recent phone prank is an eloquent testament that his is not just dumb, but also narcissistic.
I have listened to the entire phone conversation, and one segment is manifestly troubling, and that was where the governor hinted that he had considered planting troublemakers among the thousands of Capitol protestors against his proposed union restrictions. This got me thinking. Just two days into the protest, commentators, news anchors, and their guests in FOX television introduced the talking point, “this will turn ugly, and violent.” They continued to compare what was happening in Madison to the violent protests that ousted Mubarak of Egypt. The question for me now is, what did the people at FOX knew the rest of us did not? Was FOX trying to prepare her viewers for the violent and mayhem they knew was coming?
This type of yellow journalism and politicking is vintage Karl Rove. Remember, that he said also on FOX just a week ago, that the “Birther” movement (those who believe and canvass President Obama was born in Kenya) was orchestrated by the White House. There is nothing FOX and the Republican will not say or do for political expediency. Back to the prank phone conversation, it is disheartening to think that a state executive and chief security officer will ever consider endangering the lives and properties of the people of his state just to score a political point. It is therefore, left for law enforcement agencies in the state to step up investigation into the chilling details of the phone conversation, and to also decipher what FOX knew relative to the plot to foment trouble.

WISCONSIN: WHERE ARE THE DEMS?

WISCONSIN: WHERE ARE THE DEMS?
A friend once told me that one thing he disliked about the Democratic Party was that they never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. It was at the peak of the turbulent health reform fiasco which the Republican and the Tea party movement clearly dominated. My friend was livid that the DNC could not articulate a single talking-point, précised enough as to capture the position of the party in a clearer cohesive way. With that void came the reign of lies and misinformation, and talks of pulling the plug from grandma, death panels, and word like waterloo, were loosely used to depict the health reform as proposed by the Obama administration.
My friend’s well-placed anger is reverberating once again in the face of the unfolding drama in Madison, Wisconsin, as Governor Scott Walker and his Republican state senate embark on a union cleansing expedition. Where is vice president Biden, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and other credible Democratic senators and party big wigs? These people should by now be camping in the site of action, and addressing the working men and women at every opportunity as a sign of solidarity. It is the ultimate bamboozle for anybody to believe that the Madison madness has anything to do with balancing a budget deficit. Rather, it has everything to do with the balance of political power.
If you don’t believe me, ask Karl Rove, one of Republican’s greatest political minds. “This is about union busting pure and simple, get rid of the unions and the Dems lose their campaign contribution,” Rove said a few days ago. Mr. Rove should know the efficacy of campaign contributions. His subterranean organizations raised millions of millions of dollars in campaign contributions, with which the Democratic Party was handed its greatest electoral defeat yet last November. So why are the Dems not outraged, and fight like hell to secure its biggest support-base?
Once again, the DNC is missing the opportunity to miss the opportunity of telling the American people the hidden agenda of the GOP as confessed by Karl Rove. In the spirits of the Citizen United Supreme Court ruling, corporations and labor unions can use their funds to pursue political interests, in furtherance of their 1st amendment rights. It is ironic that even though the workers have agreed to make concessions regarding all that the governor asked of them but their collective bargaining rights, the governor has not moved an inch from his rigid position. The Republican is determined to get rid of the unions, and in the words of Mr. Rove, deny the Democrats their campaign contributions.
We all saw the opposition the GOP amounted to frustrate the attempt by the White House to meaningfully reform Wall Street – Republican’s major campaign contributors. Rather than suffer any consequences for their roles in bringing the economy to its knees, the bankers were rewarded with unprecedented bonuses. President Obama was called all sorts of names; least of which was that he was anti-business. Why do we believe, in one breath that some banks are too big to fail, when it comes to Wall Street, and in another, show Main Street such disdain that suggests they have no reason to exist?
The time is now for the Democratic Party to throw its weight behind its own, just as the Republican Party has vigorously, and on numerous instances protected Wall Street; from whence cometh her campaign contributions. According to a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, Americans strongly oppose laws taking away the collective bargaining power of public employee unions. The poll found 61% would oppose a law in their state similar to such a proposal in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who would favor such a law. The poll result is an indication that the workers are on solid grounds, and the DNC should jump in front of the procession and claim the protest.

ONLINE DATING SCAM

The fear of the unknown which characterizes Internet transactions since inception has crept into the romantic world of online dating. From every indication, this is a variant of the “419” Advanced Fee fraud email from Nigeria, West Africa. This latest scam relies heavily on leading gullible relationship seekers to believe the claim by the scammer of being sole beneficiary to huge inheritance from deceased parents.
How does it work?
The criminals obtain pictures and names of beautiful ladies possibly from international magazines and upload the pictures, into different online dating sites. These beautiful ladies are supposedly from France, Italy, Belgium, The UK, the Netherlands, Ghana, and the Middle East. Therefore, when a potential male victim creates a profile seeking women for genuine causal dating or long term relationship, he is accosted with tons of messages from these “ladies”, claiming their heart melted upon viewing his profile.
The first sign of trouble however, is the generic nature of these messages. Every one of the scammers claims to be new to online dating. She is therefore quick to provide the potential victim with an e-mail address for direct contact because “I do not go online very often”. There is also a sense of urgency embedded in the messages. In her profile, the criminal drops the hint that ‘she’ is an only child.
Now the Scam
After the initial banters, the criminal opens up with how successful her family had been; how the family traveled the world following father’s lucrative diplomatic services and oil contracts/investments. She narrates a tearful story how both parents died in a ghastly auto accident leaving her millions of dollars in inheritance. Subsequently, she weaves a web of overlapping stories of ex-boyfriends swindling her of millions of dollars through bogus love and business proposals. There is always a deliberate wait on the part of the scammer for some days to elapse in-between correspondences to create a sustained suspense.
At this point, the criminal would concoct yet another story of how she escaped with her millions intact from an ex-boyfriend in one of the exotic Islands, when it was apparent to her the purported investment was a hoax. After fleeing from her ex’s apartment with her money, she lodged in a hotel where she had the time and composure to parcel the millions of dollars in a diplomatic bag and deposited same with a professional company.
The criminal would go ahead and provide the potential victim with an international telephone number to call instructing that he describes himself as her fiancé. Now salivating about the possibility of a brighter future, the potential victim places a call to that number, and with a professional and friendly tone, the guy at the other acknowledges the existence of such a luggage. Here comes the catch: The luggage has accrued some fees as demurrage (amount payable for delay in loading or delivery). The victim is expected to remit the amount running into several thousand dollars. If he pays the sum, all forms of communications, would cease, and the international phone line goes dead.
Online crimes have been on the rise since the advent of the ubiquitous Internet. In 2008 The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), received a total of 336,655 complaints, which represented a 22.3 percent increase from the previous year. The total loss connected to online fraud in 2009 was $559.7 million; a significant rise from $265 million in 2008 (IC3 2009 Annual Report on Internet Crime).


YEAR COMPLAINTS RECEIVED DOLLAR LOSS
2009 336,655 $559.7 million
2008 275,284 $265 million
2007 206,884 $239.09 million
2006 207,492 $198.44 million
2005 231,493 $183.12 million
(IC3 2009 Annual Report)

ONE-PARTY STATE AMERICA?

Nobody in his or her right frame of mind should take the unfolding Wisconsin saga any lightly. What is manifesting in our very eyes is a calculated attempt to crush the only structural support base of the DNC. Politics, we know is a game of numbers, and if the opposition succeeds in depleting your base, you are defeated. It is not just the GOP doing this. It is the special interests, the corporations, and the multi-millionaires who are solely driven by the bottom-line. Outsourcing and the concept of free trade were the twin evils that decimated the private sector middleclass. Now the same cartel are about to write the obituary of the public sector middleclass, which would effectively neutralize the Democratic Party as a viable opposition if they succeed.
The speaker of the House, John Boehner spent the greater part of 2010 asking, “Where are the jobs.” However, he has refused, upon assuming office to push any legislature aimed at creating jobs. Rather he has busied himself with semantics, pushing only those laws that would not scale through the Senate, let alone the White House. This is not an isolated case. It is cut-throat politics aimed at running out the clock for 2012. John Boehner and GOP know that the only way to defeat President Obama come November 2012 is with high unemployment numbers, and the economy in tatters. Citizen United was their first victory, and the GOP is emboldened by the impact of money in politics. In the last election, we witnessed the enthronement of mediocrity, at the expense of credible leadership by green-horns whose only credentials are that they hated the rest of us.
Some conservative commentators are beginning to compare the peaceful civil protests in Wisconsin with the effort that swept Mubarak of Egypt from power. Understandably, liberals are outraged at this comparison because according to them, it is an effort by the conservatives to paint Governor Walker as the victim and the people of Wisconsin the villains. I believe the US is going the route of Egypt, the route that suffocates organized opposition. In Egypt, Mubarak and his ruling few are known to have amassed billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth. In the United States, it is “scratch my back, I scratch yours”, between the Republican lawmakers and the private sector chieftains while the rest of us watch in utter hopelessness. It is not rocket science to know that the GOP does not want any opposition. They have convinced themselves that they are God’s representative on earth. The conservatives have successfully appropriated patriotism as a word with meaning if used only by them. In the recesses of the conservative mind, the acronym GOP stands for “God’s Own Party.” The Wisconsin union bursting is just a test run. Ohio and Florida are waiting in the wings.

JOHN BOEHNER'S BLIGHT

The speaker of the House of Representative, recently dismissed concern that the proposed spending cuts by the Republican-controlled House would in fact cost federal employees their jobs. Speaking to journalists at a press briefing John Boehner said dismissively: “In the last two years, under President Obama, the federal government has added 200,000 new federal jobs, if some of those jobs are lost so be it. We’re broke.” Cold-hearted as this statement might sound, it gives us a sense of where the GOP is leaning. Generally speaking, there are two types of politicians: those driven by ideology, and those driven by the greater good of the people. Time and time again, the GOP has indicated unambiguously on whose corner they are. The party without a dissenting voice voted to deny unemployment benefits to the unemployed with the dubious argument that the country could not afford such expenditure. Yet the party turned around to give away the biggest tax breaks ever to the rich. This is independent of the fact that tax breaks to the rich never stimulates the economy. The Bush administration experimented on this and failed miserably. On the other hand, a little buoyancy on the part of the poor/unemployed would definitely impact the economy. These are needful people who would spend the money on bills, and family.
0rdinarily, one would think that Boehner would hurriedly take back his grossly insensitive comment for the fear that it might haunt him in the next election circle. But that is not going to be because the GOP knows that the American electoral climate has changed dramatically following the Supreme Court ruling allowing corporations to use their wealth to wield undue influence in political campaigns and election outcomes. In other words, the constitutional guarantee of free speech means that corporations can spend unlimited sums to help elect favored candidates or defeat those they oppose. What is happening in the country today is not democracy any more, but Dem-all-crazy. We saw this on display at the November 2010 elections. Good people were thrown out of office because they did not have the financial muscle to counterbalance the corporate onslaught. With comments like this, Boehner has spoken eloquently that he knows who butters his bread. I only hope that the larger electorates would wise up.

HOMOSEXUALITY – A FRESH LOOK

By: Smart Onuigbo

Lately, the issue of homosexuality is becoming widespread and to a degree contagious. Day in and day out, we hear news of celebrities and other individuals, jumping out of their proverbial closets to declare their new found sexual inclinations. It is not that this practice is entirely new to humanity; we have lived with this phenomenon since ages.

Some argue in favor that most people are born with homosexual inclination therefore, it is intrinsically ingrained in their genes; they cannot help themselves and as such should be supported and accepted. For others however, some people are born with other inclinations; to steal, to lie, to con others and some of these inclinations they argue, manifest through generations and yet, those affected are not at liberty to carry out these anti-social inclinations with impunity.

The issue of homosexuality is a very emotional one as many families struggle with the reality of homosexual loved ones. Therefore, we need to tread cautiously around this matter to make sure all sides are well illuminated and well understood so that we are not ourselves guilty of hasty generalization. Right now, there is no shortage of theories and perceptions as to whether homosexuality is by choice or a consequence of factors in upbringing. Robert Bray, the head of public information for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, captured the mood of the gay community in response to one of the "gay brain" theorem: "It points out that gay people are made this way by nature. It strikes at the heart of people who oppose gay rights and who think we don't deserve our rights because we're choosing to be the way we are" (The Nation, October 19, 1992).

It is a tragedy that homosexuality has become a political campaign issue where simple issues take intractable lives of their own as politicians advance their parochial, and myopic partisan agenda. Homosexual behavior should not be tied to the wimps and caprices of those holier-than-thou religious zealots who see every issue from the lenses of their narrow religious canons. Rather, we should go beyond our prejudices and try to see if there is a common denominator in the entire gay evolution to serve as a guide as to what perhaps altered the sexuality of the gay person. And one such denominator is that homosexuality is a factor in upbringing.

The familiar story is that most people who turn out gay were abused particularly by family members who took advantage of their innocence. We have also heard the stories of promiscuous women, who claim they were sexually abused growing up. These are pervasive stories which perhaps continue even as we speak. There is a need to remind ourselves that the gay community is a human community, and in addressing issues that concern them, the present pack-mentality attitude should be avoided. Pack-mentality is a classic survival of the fittest syndrome, whereby healthy predatory animals prey on the vulnerability of others and have them for dinner.

The society should be looking into the allegations of abuses in the family with a view to stemming the tide. It is an understatement to describe the American family as being largely dysfunctional. According to 2000 Census figures, the American family is changing in dramatic ways. The number of families headed by single mothers has increased 25 percent since 1990, to more than 7.5 million households. For most of the past decade, about a third of all babies were born to unmarried women, compared with 3.8 percent in 1940. The number of single fathers has also increased; single fathers now head more than two million families (Louisiana State University survey). Here lies the true tragedy that some of the products of these families end up in foster homes where abuses of all kinds; physical, emotional, and sexual are daily routines.

As a microcosm of a nation, the family should undergo dramatic structural changes to give it the impetus and empowerment to effect the changes necessary to become a stronger and vibrant unit of society. The homosexual conversation should move away from the present realm of blame and religious conjecture. But to focus on strengthening the family to ensure that more and more children are raised by both parents to make the “business” of foster parenting a thing of the past; for it is a business devoid of empathy, and genuine commitment to better the lives of the adopted kids.