The Bill of Rights Only Apply to Liberals

I must admit I had not intended to blog on such a volatile topic so soon from my last bomb blast. I need to mention something about the upcoming digital transition, a topic I have been blogging on the work web site, but not so much here. But here I am. And here goes.

I have been amused over the last few days how the extreme left has blown a gasket over comments and remarks of former Vice President Dick Cheney taking to task the Obama Administration's continual pounding on the Bush Administration's handling of the whole "War on Terror" and what is the definition of "torture." After a chance encounter with the "Randi Rhodes Show" on satellite radio and her tirade of how Dick Cheney needs to just "shut up and go away and stop lying to cover his own ass" to a new Facebook group called "Telling Dick Cheney to shut the hell up" to comments made by MANY DIFFERENT people on MSNBC to even the Obama Administration on the defensive over Mr. Cheney's comments.

People, "you doth protest too much." Hate to be the barer of bad news, but the Bill of Rights and particularly the First Amendment, one that the Ultra Left clings to like a baby to its mothers breast appears to only be allowed when they use it and everyone else who doesn't believe what they believe just shut up and go away. You saw the same thing with the Tea Parties. It would appear that in their minds, only Obama supporters are covered by the Bill of Rights and everyone else is just s*** out of luck.

Now I don't agree with EVERYTHING Mr. Cheney says, but I do believe in his right to say it. Our laws protect that right to EVERY citizen, Obama supporter or not. I don't remember this country becoming the United Socialist States of America yet, even though some on both sides of the issue thinks it has. And if you objectively look at what has happened in the last 4 months since Mr. Obama came into office, one could argue it has lurched in that direction.

My own opinion is the Ultra Libs are afraid that Cheney is making points, and many on both sides believe in this round, the current Administration is losing this war of words and the only way to stop Cheney is to marginalize him. Which seems to be back firing. It has the sound of desperation in it and mainstream America and many in the media have picked up on that. If you analyze what the Administration is doing, it is very quietly following the Bush Administration in lock step, which has the uber left bloggers going after Obama viciously, in a wonderful demonstration of the left eating its own for its own cause. So much for transparency and "change we can believe in."

So far I am not believing what I am seeing. This country is more divided now than it was under Bush. I am seeing a smart but naive man who holds the most power in the world, squandering it and our position in the world away just so he looks good to the Europeans. All I have to say to that is if it wasn't for the US in the 1940's, they all would be speaking German in Europe now. But then they say memories are always short lived in poltics.

Don't "Threat" On Me

Being from the old school in the media, where you do not show sides when covering a story, I refrain from speaking my mind in public. I don't display bumper stickers on my vehicles, I don't allow political signs to be placed in my yard, I don't protest and when out in the public away from friends, if people ask my opinion about issues of the day, I always attempt to be as neutral as possible.

This blog is about as far as I have gone into the "public opinion arena" and even it has been tame with mostly issues that deal with the business of broadcasting, not hot button issues of the day. But I am about to break that public silence, at least this once and it is a doosy of an issue to break the ice on, but I feel very passionate about it.

First off, I am a life long registered Democrat from a long line of Southern Democrats. I am a moderate. I am pro-Choice. I am pro-Gay civil unions but believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. I am fiscally conservative. I have voted in every election I have been able to vote in. I vote for whom I think will do the best job, not ideology. I judge a candidate by their policies, nothing else. Because of that, I voted for Ronald Reagan, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Core, but I must confess, I voted against John Kerry in 2004 and I voted against Barak Obama. Yes, I admit I didn't vote for President Obama. And it was because of his policies. I have never believed in big government nor socialism/fascism. I am no fan of John McCain's policies either. It boiled down to Ultra Liberal with Obama or Liberal with McCain. What a choice!? I sure wanted to vote for "None of the above."

I don't know why people are all up in arms about what the President is doing. He said he would do all this and more when he was running. And he has done most of it within the first 100 days of his Presidency. DUH! And you are surprised? You bought it, you live with it. You will have another chance in 2012 to put someone else in the White House. Until then, just SHUT UP about it. You can't do anything about it now anyway, the election is over. You want change? Start next year in the mid term elections with the bums we call Congress people. Reign them in and the White House will follow right along behind them. It won't have a choice. It will be in their interest to do so. George Soros may think he owns the country at this point, but he is a fool if he really believes that. The real power still resides in the ballot box. You don't believe me? Just ask Arlen Spector. His reason for changing parties last week? He spouted off about the Republican Party not seeing things his way, yada, yada, yada and then he said it. He couldn't win in the primaries next year as a Republican. BOOM! There is. Winning is more important that serving the voters. That is one of the major problems with our elected officials today. Me, first. Voters, second. Schmuck. It is past time for term limits. Spector proves it, again.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is an embarrassment to the Party. Majority Leader Reid can't put two words together to make up a complete thought if he had to. Both parrot what they THINK people want to hear. That isn't leadership. That is stupid, plain and simple. They are too afraid of failing and loosing power. I certainly respect someone who honestly tries and fails than someone who never tries and believe me, they ain't trying. During the President's speech to the joint Session of Congress, I swear, I got tired of seeing Speaker Pelosi jumping up and down every other word to clap. I kept shouting at the TV, "Nancy, SIT DOWN! It isn't about you!" Another SCHMUCK. Sec of State Hilary Clinton. She is a Clinton, what else do you need to know? By the way, what is so damn funny that just about every time she speaks in public now she feels she has to laugh? Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He is a Bush. I don't trust him. In all honesty, he may have the real stuff, he does act differently than George H. W. or George W., but we will never know, thanks to his big brother George. On second thought, he may be the greatest guy for the job but I still don't trust him. Mitt Romney. Which side of the political spectrum does he live on anyway? Don't trust him. Bobby Jindel. Republican's Obama. Too young and wide eyed. He needs to learn to read and speak at the same time. And then there is Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Don't know. First glance, impressed. Second and later glances, too soon to tell. Seems to have peaked already and so may not matter after all.

As you might guess, I don't like ANY of them. Well I don't. They are all bums. I am getting more and more of the feeling like my own Party is not my Party anymore. I find that I am disagreeing with the planks in the party platform. I am thinking of myself more like an Independent these days and not a Democrat. The current extreme left leaning Democrat Party is not the Party I grew up in. I don't know this Party anymore. I am no Republican either. I don't identify with that Party either. And I guess that is why I feel the way I do about the next group.

I guess my biggest anger is with my beloved industry (HHMMM, I guess I get back around to the media anyway!). They are so in love with Barak Obama, The Myth. Many in the media were so anti-George W. Bush, they would have supported Hitler in 2008 if he were alive and running for President. No joke. I know several of them who would have. The media will jump on a bandwagon for a tenth of a ratings point and Obama had a back story that couldn't be resisted that could be used against Bush. Now, for complete disclosure, I know many people in the business who are right wing and many are in newsrooms. The problem is there are more Liberals than Conservatives in the newsroom (have been for years and it is mostly the younger ones who lean left since the older ones who either were Conservative or became Conservative move on to real jobs sooner or later) and they are frequently drowned out. Also, for complete disclosure, I know many Liberals and Conservatives in the newsroom who both try very hard to not let their political bent distort their reporting. To them, the profession is worth it. But then you have almost as many on both sides of the political spectrum that will prostitute themselves out for a story. SMUCKS!

The coverage, or lack there of the Tea Parties is very troubling. While I do not believe there was a coordinated effort within the industry to embargo the Tea Parties, the attitude of many in the media on the Tea Party story was a small group of disgruntled Republican stalwarts stirring up trouble and so it wasn't worth their time. FOX on the other hand saw it for what it was, a true grassroots effort of public protest having been hearing about it for several months and played it for all it was worth, and very successfully getting mentions on all the other news programs and cable news channels. The confrontation of CNN reporter Susan Roesgen with Tea Party participants in Chicago showcases in very negative terms what the Media perception of the Tea Parties were. Believe me, the media is now KEENLY aware of what the Tea Parties are all about and Susan Roesgen is the poster child for the media's and the Administration's reaction to it. Why do you think the President continues to talk about it weeks after it happened? THEY GET IT! If not, they wouldn't STILL be talking about it. But it ISN'T their agenda so how do you get around that? When you can't fight them with logic and reasoning, you start to demonize your opponent, loudly and often. It is your only weapon. Why do you think people like Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddox spouted hate speech about the Tea Parties? Why do you think they called participants "Redneck Tea Baggers?" For those who don't know what a "tea bagger" is, it is a euphemism for a sexual act performed by a man on another man. It is meant to be degrading to the Tea Party participants. It IS HATE SPEECH in all of its horrible glory. Actually what it does is shows how hypocritical the extreme left is. Free speech is all the rage until it is something they don't like. The Tea Parties are exposing that in a way nothing else has been able to. Susan Roesgen has become a symbol of that hate, something CNN is not real happy about these days I am sure. That one clip is still played on the air at FOX as a rallying cry. Now while I don't think continuing to do that is helpful, it keeps ratings up. So they do it.

Personally, I support the Tea Party concept. I pay way too much in taxes now and $13 a week tax cut is a joke. When all this Stimulus and budget hits, taxes are going up, FOR EVERYONE. Get ready. You heard it here first. It doesn't take a financial genus to figure that one out. You can't keep spending what you don't have. It has to come from somewhere. And before the taxes go up, the inflation that is a direct result of all this deficit spending will be here. I remember the Jimmy Carter years of 23% mortgage interest rates. If we don't stop with the spending, it will be worse than that. Would I participate in a Tea Party? Probably not because of that "old school media" thing. I help bring the story to the masses, I am not a part of it.

But if things get worse, who knows, maybe I would. There are a lot of ticked off people in this country right now and I am one of them. Oh yeah, I vote too. And pay taxes. A LOT OF TAXES. And I am no where NEAR making $250,000 a year. Or even half of that.

IT'S THE little THINGS

Early Thursday morning my work cell phone rang. I looked at the clock and it was 1:05 AM. When the work phone rings in the middle of the night, that usually means that the rest of my sleep for the night is over. But it has been a while since I had one of those calls. With the new transmitter, it just doesn't happen anymore. But I still begrudgingly answered it. It was the synthesized female voice of the remote control unit at the auxiliary transmitter site saying "Hello...... Hello........ Hello." Translated, "Put in the password dummy and I will tell you what I want!"

Fumbling with the phone with one eye still closed in a dark room, I was hoping that I hit the correct key that would light the keypad so I could enter in the password because if I hit the wrong button that nagging "Hello" voice would hang up and call me again. After I satisfied the computer I indeed was the correct person it was looking for, it very coldly told me in its robotic type female voice that the backup generator was below temperature. Translation? The block heater that keeps the diesel engine at a warm temperature on cold days had stopped working. Since it is at the auxiliary transmitter site and there is no analog channel 8 transmitter there anymore but just the digital channel 8 transmitter waiting for June 12th to make its debut and it was one o'clock in the morning, I acknowledged the alarm, hung the phone up and rolled back over to sleep.

First thing in the morning I arrived at the auxiliary transmitter site and looked over the 1981 generator engine in the water heater jacket area. The wiring from the thermostat that turns on the heat had literally burned up from years of being next to a heating element. I pulled off the wire and went into the building to find some replacement wire. As I was preparing the wire and then installing it back on the generator, I was reminded of the time before we built the other tower and building and installed the new channel 8 and DTV transmitters with all this neat redundancy and I spent all my time at this site. Since we had built the other site as the main site, we had retrofitted this site as a backup with no more equipment than is required to do the job. And since the auxiliary site isn't on line 24/7 as in the old days, nothing breaks at the rate it used to so I don't spend much time there anymore.

As I worked I remembered the first time I ever went in that building and how much has changed in 17 years in this fairly small building. It was 1992 and I was interviewing for my job. The man I was to replace, Roy Allman, was preparing to retire after 30 years and as part of the interview process I was to go to the transmitter and he was to "scope me out" for my soon to be boss to see if I really knew anything about transmitters and about not killing myself around 10,000 volts.

I spent about 3 hours there that day with Roy talking about the old Harris tube transmitter that 13 years later I would remove from the air and ship half of it to sister station KSTU Salt Lake City and the other half to sister station KTBC Austin, TX. I got to know Roy and decided that if I could land this gig, it would a great place to work (still is!). Roy was from the old school of engineering. He never got in a hurry, even if the transmitter was off the air, but his knowledge was vast. Even though I worked with the old Harris transmitter longer than Roy did (his 12 years vs my 13 years), I firmly believe he knew more about that transmitter than I did. Roy had about 11 months before he retired when I was hired so, I got to work with him a for a while. That was a blast. Sadly, Roy is no longer with us, having past away last year just missing the Digital Transition but I think that is the way Roy would have wanted it. Change wasn't easy for him.

I then remembered the time we "remodeled" the building in 1994 updating the electrical systems and changing the microwave antennas and adding a full audio system for stereo broadcasts that we hoped would be coming in the not to distant future. It did, the next year when FOX purchased the station.

I then remembered the time in 1998 when we replaced the center conductor in the transmission line sections on the tower. In those days we only had one antenna and one transmission line so all the work had to be done from 1:30 am to 4:30 am. It took months replacing the fifty-six 20 foot sections of center conductor line in the transmission line in that nightly 3 hour window. About as soon as the tower crew got up the tower, it was time for them to come down! It was also during all this overnight work, I had my gall bladder removed.

The night of December 31, 1999 I found myself at the transmitter "waiting" for Y2K and any possible disaster that might befall the human race. Y2K came. Y2k went. I was home in bed by 3 am.

On September 11, 2001, I was instructed to go to the transmitter and lock myself in and wait. So I did that and watched the pictures all day on our air as we rebroadcast FOX News Channel as I sat in my little office there at the transmitter.

I then remembered the day we put the new site on the air and the original site passed on to auxiliary status. I finished up the testing of the generator, put the tools away, locked the building and headed to the studio.

Man, there are times when I miss those old days when we were just one catastrophic event away from disaster. Now we have back ups for back ups. We have come a long way since I started work here. But it IS the LITTLE things in life. Life is good.

Citizenship

Don't know, but something must be in the water around work. For the second time in as many years, a fellow work colleague who was not born in the land of the free decided he would march down to the local courthouse, before a sitting judge raise his right hand and pledge to renounce his mother country and support the flag and Constitution of the United States of America instead. Well it wasn't QUITE that easy, but still, that is basically how it happened.

Anyway it gave me pause to think about here was a person who had to learn US history; US public figures of the last 230 years like George Washington and why he is on the one dollar bill and why Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, all 271 words and maybe the shortest political speech in history at only two minutes is considered one of the most important speeches in our country's history; rudimentary US Constitutional law; and a 100 question reading and speech test, in English; along with the background checks and such over a many year period just to be able to say these words before the Judge:

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God."

Whoa! Powerful stuff!

Anyway, I was working in the News Room when the newly minted American arrived back at work, dressed in his Sunday finest. He was being lead by the assistant News Director to the News Conference Room for an impromptu reception of homemade sheet cake when applause from that mass huddled in cubicals working on the daily details of news gathering rang out in his honor. I took my turn of picking up a paper plate of cake and shaking his hand and said something to him I said two years ago to another co-worker who had also pledged allegiance to the flag and Constitution, "Congratulations.... Citizen." He thanked me and in his eyes I saw a different person, not the prim and proper Englishman of old that I have known for 12 years, but an American. I think for the first time since he was awarded citizenship, it had begun to sink in, he is NOW an American and the good and bad that comes along with that. I told him that 4 O'clock Tea Time was something we didn't do here in the US. He laughed and said that might be a little hard to give up.

You might be asking where did I get the idea to say those two words "Congratulations. Citizen"? Honestly, I stole it. I am not that original nor do I claim to be. Just read this blog, you can tell. In the 1984 film "Moscow on the Hudson" Robin Williams plays a saxophone playing Soviet Russian defector. The film is a comedy about how everyone is from somewhere else and how the US is really that melting pot we talk about. William's character, Vladimir Ivanof's girl friend Lucia Lombardo (played by Maria Conchita Alonso) is awarded citizenship. During the swearing in ceremony, the presiding Judge speaks to the partitionor's or about how they are about to be a part of a great society built on immigrants and how they will no longer be from somewhere else, but from now on they will be just simply be known as "American Citizens." At the end of the statement, the oath is administered and the Judge closes by saying "Congratulations.... Citizens." and for some strange reason it hit a cord with me and I have remembered it all these years later.

In 2004 the wife and I took a vacation up along the Blue Ridge Parkway from the North Carolina/Virgina border with the plan to go all the way to the Skyline Drive in northern Virgina and along the way stop at Thomas Jefferson's Montecello on July 4th since they have a large swearing in ceremony for new citizens then. We thought it would be fun to go and see hundreds of people sworn in as new American Citizens at the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day. Well the 3nd day in to the trip, we are about 2 days away from Charlottesville where Montecello is located, when a hurricane blows in off the coast and starts to dump rain all over the middle Atlantic region. Since the main reason for the trip was to SEE the sights along the Blue Ridge Parkway and up in the mountains with the clouds, you don't see anything much more than a few feet in front of you. We decided to cut the trip short and head back home since the rain had moved into the mountains and had stalled out. So we didn't make it to Montecello.

I finally got the chance to say the words myself for the first time in 2006 with a co-worker in my department who is from Pakistan. It was more wonderful to say it than I imagined. It was a celebration of our now shared country and for the first time in my own life, I realized that the best thing I can ever be called is "American Citizen."

So this time when I said it, the emotional feeling was one of great honor for me to be passing that feeling of being called "American Citizen" on to someone who had never known the feeling. I saw him a short time later in his office as I was leaving for the day and I asked him how did it feel. His response brought a tear to my eye. He simply said, "I feel like an American."

Yeah brother, I know the feeling.