Who is Jay Smith?

Who is Jay Smith? An untrained preacher who shouts at Muslims at Hyde Park, London. This can be found by going to YouTube.

Well, it's that time of the year.

It's tornado season. This is when the temperatures go from hot to cold to hot and to cold again, and so on, which invites the possibility of a tornado and hail. The people up in North Dakota are in critical situation with the flood of the Red River near Fargo. There's ice on top of that. Homes are flooded and this morning, I was watching the brainless Regis & Kelly show where Regis shows a picture of a dog standing in front of a house under icy, cold water and then, screams at Obama where he should send the stimulus. "If you send it, you should send it there! Please!!!" I am definitely sure the stimulus going to help North Dakota will go to this. All of the sandbagging may not be enough to stop the Red River from flooding. And more flooding is to come when this water flows down the Missouri River and into the Mississippi River, almost a repeat of last year.
What was experienced here was hail that damaged roofs and sidings of many homes. People rely on home insurance to take care of what needs to be done. And this was an on-going process of getting these homes repaired throughout the spring, summer and fall of last year. Home repair was what moved the economy for 2008. But, it came as a result of weather catastrophes.

I did notice something different about the Presidential News Conference

President Obama was asked by a reporter from Ebony Magazine about the growing number of homeless people around the country and he did express concern over them, especially homeless vets. From where I live, there has always a number of homeless and they live under a bridge near downtown. The Rude Pundit has photos are towns all across America with people living in tents, like Tent City near Sacramento. Feed the Children is a charity addressing the concern of hungry children across this country, especially those who don't have a home. The Old Media was not given much of a chance to ask the president a question. New Media I have never heard of before like "Stars and Stripes" were given an opportunity to ask. Others like Univisión, were given an opportunity and with a growing Latino population, more viewers watch this network more than any other time in television history.

Are Toxic Assets a sure thing?

I see that the stock market is going back up and it is over these toxic assets. What is Obama now, the 21st century Ronald Reagan? What if these assets are worthless? What then? It sounds like a gamble that was made, hoping this will jump-start the economy. The $3.6 trillion budget? There are now Democrats who oppose this kind of spending. Do you remember when the U.S. was a creditor nation? I would have a mere child growing up to recall the lst time this country was a creditor nation. I don't have much to say about this, except to have concern for what 's ahead in the future.

Are newspapers going away?

The Nation magazine believes that it's time for the federal government to bailout the press, particularly the newspapers in our major cities here in the U.S. I would be all for that, but are most people purchasing a subscription for a local paper? Are they getting their news from TV station websites, Yahoo, AOL, International websites, and sites other than from the newspaper?
My local paper, the Southwest Times Record, has reduced its pages they publish daily, even on Sunday. I could not find the column written weekly by Ben Boulden on local interest last week. So, newspapers in small as well as in big cities, are hurting. I received much more advertising from their Sunday paper then the newspaper itself. Monday's paper has only an A and B Section. It originally had an A section for news, B section for other interests like Dear Abby, A C section for Sports, and D for Classified Ads. That's gone. A is for news and other stuff; B is for sports and classified ads. We are moving into an electronic world, although most countries in the world are not in the electronic age and they still rely on newspapers for a small, literate population, and shortwave radio, especially where there is no TV. The solution is, according to The Nation, to offer a $200 stimulus package for each taxpayer to purchase a yearly subscription of a newspaper of their choice. And for newspapers to cut down on advertising in order to bring back hard-hitting, investigative reporting. Other nations have rescued their presses, which us, on the other hand, have not. This is what they suggest. I read the article, but I am not presently quoting the magazine verbatum. You need to read it for yourselves. Personally, in a way, I think newspapers are going away. Little Rock used to have two competing newspapers, The Gazette and The Democrat. The Gazette was more liberal, but not very liberal. The Democrat was real conservative. The Gazette died back in 1990 and now they have one newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and in my opinion, it is right-wing. They were responsible in throwing out Nolan Richardson as head basketball coach of the Univ. of Arkansas Razorbacks, the man who won the school with his 1994 team its first NCAA Basketball Championship in the school's history. I absolutely hate that paper. Where I live, we have always had one newspaper, the Southwest Times Record and the ADG and also the Van Buren Press Argus do somewhat compete against them. But, if you want to know who died in Fort Smith and the surrounding area, the Southwest Times Record is where you go, not the ADG.

Too Much Basketball

There's too much basketball and too many commercials to go along with it. CBS can't seem to let you watch the whole game and they leave the game you are watching for another one happening somewhere else. There were two good games played last night, W. Kentucky vs. Gonzaga and Duke vs. Texas. It was a heartbreak loss for W. Kentucky as Gonzaga just beat them by two points with so very little time left. In the Texas and Duke game, the Longhorns just fell apart at the last minute and Duke wins. Two good games, but I can't watch them at the same time. There probably needs to be a CBS-2 for all the other games or let ESPN carry some of them. Give the TV viewers some choices when it comes to the beginning of March Madness; it would help us out and cut down all the advertising, too. As the games get fewer and fewer, we will be able to watch whole ball games, but we will have to endure more repetitive advertising. Maybe it's time to turn the TV off.

'Cold-blooded murder' of Gaza man's daughters - 20 Mar 09