Monday, January 25, 2010

Questions and Comments about the Coltons Point Times

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There are at least nine Bald Eagles living in Coltons Point and that is just one reason why the Coltons Point Times is published from the banks of the Potomac River. Another is because we are just 60 miles downriver from the source of all comedy, tragedy and fantasy in America, Washington, DC.



Sometimes as new readers discover the Coltons Point Times, CPT, they ask about the distribution and extent of our readership along with what makes the CPT unique. Periodically I will update the stories with the latest information.



As of January 21 we were able to determine that 125,000 people have read the newspaper in the last 12 months with readers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 100 foreign nations. We believe this is indicative of the worldwide interest in America as well as in the birthplace of religious freedom in the world and the oldest continuously settled chartered community in colonial America.



The top ten nations in readership of the CPT are United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Netherlands, Italy, India and Spain. In terms of states our top ten readers are in Maryland, Florida, California, Virginia, Texas, Washington, New Jersey, Georgia, Arkansas, New York and Colorado tied for tenth.



It is an honor to have people from every state and over 100 nations as readers. From New York to California, Washington to Florida, North to South America, Europe to Russia, Africa to Asia and down under in Australia and New Zealand we are delighted to share our view of America and the world.



We also believe it is a statement of approval regarding our policies of not allowing any type of advertising, no banners, videos, pop ups or any other form of advertising like you find on all other news sites. It is also an indication of approval of our policy of asking no personal information from our readers and no email information through registration or other technique used by most sites to capture and sell mailing lists.



In addition we allow anonymous comments rather than personal emails to further protect your right to privacy. We will continue to resist all attempts by web sites and search engines to get us to carry their ads. This has cost us readership because big sites will not distribute and promote us if they cannot make money on us through internet ads.



We also maintain on line a full archive of all our stories so you can see if our predictions were true, watch a story develop over time or get all the background on an important issue. There are no restrictions on printing, forwarding or sending copies of our articles and we only ask that you credit the CPT when quoting our material.



Numerous reporters and news sites monitor the CPT and you may notice stories by other media that sound somewhat familiar to what we reported. We are happy to be a source of the truth for them and if stealing our information without crediting the CPT is how they view journalism, at least we are encouraging them to report the truth.



You can help us remain the only news site that does not violate your privacy, require you to register or inundate you with ads. The one site that solicits comments anonymously. You can help by telling people about us and encouraging people to follow the CPT. You can even give them direct access through the following link: http://coltonspointtimes.blogspot.com/ and you can get automatic feeds of our stories, again without registration.



Finally we encourage you to submit comments and story ideas or tell us which stories appeal to you the most so we can keep addressing the needs and interests of our readers. Your comments and encouragement is our most direct tie to you, our readers.



Thank you for your interest and we look forward to better serving you as we continue.

Jim Putnam

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Obama - America's Perpetual Presidential Candidate - Turns Governing over to Campaign

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President's Job Stimulus Saves Campaign Workers & Contributors Jobs

As if his 2008 billion dollar campaign was not enough politics for America to stomach Barack Obama has turned his presidency over to his campaign team. throwing aside any pretentions of serving all Americas, and refuses to acknowledge there are any Independents, Republicans or Americans sick of politics as usual.

In preparation for his State of the Union an army of Obama campaign workers took to the airways to pave the way for his first State of the Union message telling long, tall tales of how Obama saved millions of jobs for America, how everything that went wrong since he was elected was caused by George Bush, how the American public is confused and deluded about the facts, and how he is going to help all those Democrats who are the old time politicians in the upcoming campaign.



With all government spending, policy, hiring, stimulus, communication and knowing what is best for an uninformed electorate safely in the hands of his old campaign team and out of the hands of an experts in their field, the Obama campaign fraternity has taken control of America in a way never seen before in politics.



Gone are the voices of cabinet members, except the Treasury Secretary who was also part of the campaign team. The only people authorized to speak for the president and his policies are those who were part of the Chicago gang who got him elected including the campaign manager David Plouffe who doesn't even work for the government, David Axelrod Senior Aide, Robert Gibbs, Press Secretary, Valerie Jarrett, Senior Aide, and the head of his campaign transition team Raul Emanuel, Chief of Staff.



I have been following politics for a lot longer than most of the media people except Larry King who I think came to America with Christopher Columbus, and I have never seen a president rely on his campaign team to run the nation. A year after getting elected Obama only relies on his campaign team for spending, policy, appointments, strategy and every word his speaks.



According to the White House appointment records he also relies on the people who financed his campaign as well including Wall Street executives, insurance executives, union bosses and others who invested millions in getting their guy in the White House.



So now they promise a feisty president who will fight for what he knows we don't know. These are the same speech writers and policy specialists who gave us the bank bailouts, insurance and auto bailouts, the economic non-stimulus program and more national debt than any president in history including Bush.



They also promised an open presidency, total transparency, negotiations with enemies, a new role for the US in world affairs, bipartisan governing, the elimination of terrorism and prisons and all that other stuff his circle of '60's radicals, big mouthed preachers and Wall Street manipulators told him to say.



After a year of failing to deliver on anything for the good of the people the wagons have circled the president and the same advisors who view promises as statements of political expediency with no need to worry about being truth are back, in control, once again telling Obama what to say.



What is good for the frat pack in Chicago has little relevance to all Americans. They have not learned a thing since taking over the presidency. They refuse to accept responsibility for anything he does as president. They are still running a campaign based on half truths and deception, whatever it takes to get elected, and let the public be damned.



The State of the Union should be a real interesting speech as long as the teleprompter keeps running. We might actually discover more promises for a yet to be determined future. But we will never know the real truth, the real agenda, and where they intend to drag America before they are done bankrupting the nation and gutting the government. It will most surely be an interesting display of motivational hyperbole and transparent objectives, more of the same.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Tweedledee and Tweedledum - 48 Hours after Massachusetts both Parties Double Cross Public

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In a stunning reaction to the Supreme Court ruling on campaign finances, both Democrats and Republicans seem to be suffering short term memory loss from the Massachusetts Senate debacle and they immediately took the most hypocritical and self-destructive positions possible. One thinks the American public knew this was coming, just more of the same politics as usual.

As for the lesson at the Boston Tea Party last Tuesday night, it fell on deaf ears in the White House and in both political party caucuses in the House and Senate. People are fed up with politics as usual. The Wednesday morning after the election Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the Republicans all said they recognized the angry mood of the public.



By Thursday both parties hoped the public would remember what they said Wednesday and forget what they had said before Wednesday. Thursday both had returned to vintage form in responding to the Supreme Court decision regarding campaign finance. You need a daily scorecard to keep track of how many times they change positions per day.

Obama led the Democrats in condemning the Supreme Court decision saying it opened the floodgates to corporate financing of candidates. Duh... As reported before, Obama and the Democrats are the chief beneficiary of corporate money in campaigns. They also failed to mention the unions were also given carte blanc to buy politicians by the Supreme Court. So the Democrats double crossed the public less than 48 hours after the campaign catastrophe in Boston.



How about the new found populist element of the Republican party? Well they double crossed the public in the same 48 hour period when they reacted to the Supreme Court ruling by saying it restored free speech in America or it puts media corporations and the rest of corporate America on the same footing. Either way it means the same thing, they supported the decision.



Both political party bosses and our young president sank back into the old world of politics before the ink even dried on the stories of how they learned their lesson in Massachusetts. My goodness, the mental institutions are filled with people with multiple personalities, self-destructive psychosis and subliminal paranoia.

Get out the straight jackets and move over patients, we have 539 politicians, (437 House, 100 Senate and 2 in White House - Obama & Biden) in need of a heavy dose of America's favorite cocktail, Prozac, or kid's drink, Ritalin, a straight jacket and a few years to sleep off their attack of sheer idiocy.



Obama, the Democrats and Republicans are all addicted to corporate and union money and all share in the spoils of hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into campaigns by special interests who own our elected leaders. Do not express your dismay, shock or approval in press conferences while you are stuffing your campaign accounts with money from these bad guys.



Any politician who takes the money or support from such dirty money should admit their deception immediately and give back the bucks or be thrown on the scrap heap of history. Untruth still rules our nation's capitol and the Non-political Independent movement that has already plowed through Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts the last few weeks can take aim at the rest of the gang in DC and keep on house cleaning.



We will continue reporting on the hypocrisy as long as the lies and cover ups keep flowing from the mouths of the guilty in Washington. Keep it up people, we have a lot of straight jackets to fill. In the meantime responsible public officials will eliminate private financing of campaigns, make corporate and union contributions of any kind illegal, provide limited public financing and require media to give ads to viable candidates. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out how to eliminate corruption, just an honest president and congress.

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Supreme Court Knocks Down Corporate & Union Spending Limits - Time to Get Rid of All Special Interest Bribes

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In a stunning decision the US Supreme Court knocked down the federal limits on non-candidate spending in campaigns. What this means is there is no limit to the money corporations or unions can spend in support of federal candidates for office as long as they don't give it directly to the candidates. The current spending limits on campaign contributions will remain.



Now we will see if our Congress and President intend to work for the people or for special interests. If they have heard the disgust of the people toward current campaign spending and special interest influence they will find a way to stop all corporate and union contributions and expenditures for campaigns on the grounds that it will protect the integrity of campaigns.



A ban on all contributions in the interest of fairness and assuring equal opportunity to get elected would go a long ways toward cleaning out the mess Congress has made of campaign finance laws. This action by the Supreme Court though stunning in throwing the door open to millions more in special interest money, also will demonstrate once and for all which elected officials serve the public and which serve special interests.



You will be kept informed of those that are for and against the people and the revolution of getting rid of politics as usual will have a daunting task ahead, purging our nation's capitol of corruption once and for all. Watch for campaign reform actions. If there are none then they are all crooks.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Through the Looking Glass at The Vintage Source - Another Lost Weekend

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I took my monthly outing to see the ladies at The Vintage Source, the Fine, Funky Home Decor and Social Club of Southern Maryland where nothing is as it seems and not the least the four ladies who never seem to lose their thirst for living or good wine.

Of course there were the bargains, hundreds of them, and hundreds more had already been purchased before I got there. If you are not waiting in line before daybreak the third Saturday and Sunday of every month you lose out on the best buys. I tried it once but prefer to wait until the crowd thins and I can get the latest news from the most unusual proprietor and partners on the East coast.



If you haven't made it there you are missing out on great bargains, great conversation and the opportunity to see the world through their eyes, from the back side of the mirror, and a most bizarre view it can be. You see there are no rules when it comes to creative thinking when this gang gets together.



There is Michelle, who set out on a dream to build a business from a tent in her front yard and wound up building a spectacle where people line the street before it opens waiting to get in the doors. She actually thought she could be successful being open one weekend a month and did it. Outside running the Hotdog Wagon serving the best dogs this side of Manhattan is Tyler, her husband, a vice principal during the week and dawg hawker on weekends.



Then there is Cathe, the blueblood of Philadelphia and debutant of the Pocono Mountain resorts who shattered all the strictures of the Philly upper crust and ran off and married a Sicilian who joined the Navy. This girl was so sheltered that when she got married she had never driven a car (why when you had a chauffeured limo), cooked a meal or even seen a washer and dryer. From Dirty Dancing to Navy housewife it was a heroic transition.



The third wheel of the original gang is Cheryl, Miss perpetual motion from the Texas panhandle who also married into the military and used it as a stepping stone to learn every craft there is related to furniture, homes and unusual things. Cheryl took hands on experience to a whole new dimension with a desire to understand how everything is made, repaired or reconditioned in the world of antique furniture.



Finally there is Joy, the survivor of a vaudeville family upbringing who was once lost as a child in her mother's collection of over 600 antique dolls. I have never seen her not laughing about life even though she is also married to yet another military dude. But then I had the pleasure of meeting her rather eccentric mother and I could see how Joy was so full of joy with a mother like that.



So this month it was a little like joining Alice in Wonderland as they showed me their newest marketing gimmick. There were four antiqued postcards about The Vintage Source, each with a photo of one of the ladies when they were quite young. I was supposed to match them to the ladies. Nothing is as it seems.



You try it if you think it is so easy. Match the kid shots with the grown up shots in this story. I was okay with Joy (the weird dog), then Cheryl (the red hair), and finally Cathe (who else climbs out of a Pocono Mountains resort pool with dry hair). But Michelle, now that was a stretch no matter how hard I studied the photo.



Either the ladies were playing a joke on me and it was not her, or she had been the victim of an alien abduction and they returned the wrong body to her home. Since that happened to me once between second and third grade I was suspicious. You look at these photos and tell me you don't agree.



The little Michelle looks like a midget football player in drag with a strange hair style, a large soup bowl cut, and nothing at all like the rather stunning specimen remaining today. On her worst day of the year she could not look like the little curmudgeon of yesteryear on the postcard. I know when a person was replaced and if that was her back then we need to look for her on Mars today, not at The Vintage Source. In the meantime we will keep the alien.



You really should experience the place one of these days. Maybe you will meet Michelle's mother and you can ask her for the truth about her daughter. Was she abducted and was she returned or replaced? See you at the true Source, The Vintage Source.

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If Women Ruled - Why Don't They Rule? America is Ready

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"There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers."
Susan B. Anthony



Susan B. Anthony, one of the heroines of American history whose lifelong fight to get women the right to vote in America almost got it right with her quote. She should have added, "...and elect women lawmakers."

Men have been in control of the world for thousands of years and of the United States government for 222 years and look what it has gotten us. I am one who believes there are certain characteristics of women that would make a significant contribution to our political and cultural evolution. Twice in my career I worked with and for women in top government positions and they were every bit as successful as any man.



When I worked for Governor Thomas Kean of New Jersey I was chief of staff in the Energy Department when Christine Todd Whitman was President of the Public Utilities Commission. She went on to become the first and only female governor in New Jersey history and the first Republican female to defeat a Democrat incumbent for governor in America. I also worked as assistant Treasurer for Feather O'Connor, New Jersey State Treasurer. Both were exceptional leaders.

So what stops a Whitman, who can capture a powerful statewide office, from becoming president or vice president? Well, it is a male club she would be trying to capture and it will take a monumental effort by many, many women and some men to get the job done of breaking through. The hardest part of the task, as Sarah Palin found out, is getting the women to agree on a woman candidate.

Why can't women put aside petty differences, even differences on policy and social issues, to join forces and once and for all break down the barriers keeping all women out? Men set aside personal causes and policy differences to get in the door. And remember, if you are not inside the door to the club you will never change the club for the better.



After an incredible 50 year battle against the world of men Susan died in 1906, just 14 years before enactment of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution that finally recognized women's right to vote. She did not go to her grave without experiencing the right, however, for in 1872 she set off a firestorm when she did vote in spite of being denied the right to register to vote. It resulted in her arrest and one of the most fascinating trials in our history. By the way, she voted for the Republicans.

We do not know enough about Susan and her passion for equality so the Coltons Point Times web site will be presenting history lessons about her life and about the historic trial and it would do you well to read them. But that is not the main purpose of this article. This article explores why women don't rule.

The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787, by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and ratified by conventions in each U.S. state in the name of "The People". The Constitution has been amended twenty-seven times; the first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights.



That means that today, the legal framework of our nation has been in effect for 222 years. This will be the 90th year women have had the right to vote. After suffering second class citizenship for the first 132 years of our history what have women achieved with the right to vote during the past 90 years?

While it is true that women have slowly broken down many barriers to not just voting but being elected to public office, it is also true that no woman has been elected president or vice president. In the last election we came the closest ever with viable candidates for president and vice president and Sarah Palin came within 7.2% of being elected.



In 1984 Geraldine Ferraro was the vice president nominee with Walter Mondale but they were defeated by Ronald Reagan and George Bush by 18.2%. Thus the Palin election was the closest a woman has ever come to winning a national election. No woman has ever been a presidential candidate on the ballot.

Why is it no woman has won the top two offices in our nation when women are the majority of the voters and gender prejudices were never as strained as racial prejudices yet Barack Obama won in 2008? The answer may be obvious. Women have never united as a voting block.

In America we have this thing called single issue focus, it means being so obsessive about a single issue that anyone disagreeing is condemned. This narrow minded view of political reality stands as the greatest barrier to women breaking down the last bastion of politics and getting elected as president or vice president.



The most publicly recognized groups of women are members of the most polarizing of groups and therein lies the problem. There is the feminist movement whose leftist priorities are so far removed from the mainstream of American politics they will never get elected. They are also the first to condemn anyone who does not advocate their far left agenda.

Social causes like pro-life and pro-abortion face the same dilemma and the until the groups drastically lower their virulence toward each other nothing will ever be accomplished but deeper polarization. Think about it. If anyone from either of these groups were ever elected president or vice president they must take the Oath of Office to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Whatever law is on the books and upheld by the Supreme Court, Roe versus Wade for instance, they are sworn to defend it. That does not mean our elected officials have to agree with the law and they have every right to pursue change through our Constitutional processes but while the law is in effect they must enforce it.



Women activists must get past their tendency to condemn those who disagree or they will never get women elected to our highest offices. Look at all the Founding Fathers who did not agree with elements of our Constitution yet set aside their own beliefs for the benefit of the nation. They understood that a higher good must always be served in our federal government, preserving the nation, while changes to our nation could take place as the public came to accept the need and it was adopted according to prescribed methods.

So women are their own worst enemy. If they could get beyond the litmus test of social issues or prejudices against those women they feel are less qualified to lead because they do not have the same education or beliefs, the floodgates to women in office would be thrown open.



That might be a real good thing for America. This is the first of several stories on Why Women Don't Rule in America and I would like to hear your thoughts on the issue. I would also like to hear about women you know that are present or future leaders of this nation and why you think they might be able to break through. Please comment on the Coltons Point Times web site and maybe we can help get them where they belong.

"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand."
Susan B. Anthony

Electing Our Past
January 7, 2010 by generationgapping
by Tara Aarness

"Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen’s rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power of any state to deny."
Susan B. Anthony, 1873

Susan B. Anthony was sentenced to jail (however only after paying a fine, which she never paid, thus escaping her jail sentence) and on August 18, 1920 women received the right to vote, just 14 years after her death.

Today, though, we subconsciously realize our societal advances, and we recognize more of what is tangible. For example, I am sitting here typing this on my laptop, just an hour prior to my bone scan; both things that were unheard of just under a hundred years ago. Technology is quite literally in our faces on a daily basis. A text message arrives and reading it, I am informed that on October 23, 1915 over 25,000 women marched in New York city, demanding the right to vote; I’m intrigued by what has helped shape our society.

Despite the chilled fall air, 40,000 women and men alike gathered in Washington Square hours prior to the parade beginning. Joining them were women from 26 countries showing their support and it was noted that every state in the union was represented, as well. Women from every walk of life stood side by side, the majority wearing white clothing, however all were unified by wearing white hats, men included. There were to be no talking or laughing during their march, as to impress upon the voters the magnitude of the issue which was to be voted on that November 2nd.

At noon, the huge procession began silently walking up to Fifth Street toward the public library on Forty Second Street where it still stands today. There a platform was erected for the mayor and other dignitaries to view women with their children, some with their dogs, pass by. Remaining strong, they march toward their destination of Fifty Ninth Street, totally fifty blocks in all, thus completing the greatest women’s suffrage march ever held in America.

November 2, 1915 votes were cast and the result was women were still not allowed the right to vote, despite being citizens. For another five years, women persevered, often enduring cruelty, by women and men alike, for their beliefs of equality and bettering society.

94 years later, women have the right to vote and are widely considered equals. As politicians grasp at straws, desperate to obtain just one more vote to elect them into whatever office they’re fighting for, I’ll proudly cast my vote, remembering another fight that was of greater importance, and just as hard won.

More than any other woman of her generation, Susan B. Anthony saw that all of the legal disabilities faced by American women owed their existence to the simple fact that women lacked the vote. When Anthony, at age 32, attended her first woman's rights convention in Syracuse in 1852, she declared "that the right which woman needed above every other, the one indeed which would secure to her all the others, was the right of suffrage." Anthony spent the next fifty-plus years of her life fighting for the right to vote. She would work tirelessly: giving speeches, petitioning Congress and state legislatures, publishing a feminist newspaper--all for a cause that would not succeed until the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment fourteen years after her death in 1906.



She would, however, once have the satisfaction of seeing her completed ballot drop through the opening of a ballot box. It happened in Rochester, New York on November 5, 1872, and the event--and the trial for illegal voting that followed--would create a opportunity for Anthony to spread her arguments for women suffrage to a wider audience than ever before.