Memo to our Oligarchs: Don't look now, but....

This is no time to relax, even though you may think so, since you felt emboldened enough to
"stand down" the new president and his people at the end of April. Credit card company CEOs
who walked out of Mr. Obama's chiding sessions had tersely commented that regulations coming
in 2010 will "suffice"....so, as the French put it inimitably, "the more things change, the more they stay the same": big money, big mouth, big intransigence.

Laissez-Faire, arch-conservative Ayn Rand's "objectivism" (-really subjectivism, or, "it really IS
all about me") will NOT work, not ever, just as a completely controlled economy, i.e., Socialism,
Communism, Monarchy, Theocracy, Fascisim, et al, can't work.

Extremists of the world, take heed!

We may yet get the laws we need.

The Great Media Panic of 2009

To Employees of the U.S. Media:

We have NOT arrived at the doorstep of the Great Depression--the statistics do not compare.
Yes, the world-wide nature of the current, serious recession is the same, but for different
reasons; yes, banks are involved, but again, the causative factors differ greatly.

(1) As of April, 2009, unemployment in the U.S. has not even reached 10%, whereas in the
1930's, ONE out of FOUR were unemployed.

(2) FDR closed more banks, and for longer, than we see now; again, the causes were different.

(3) The U.S. is not experiencing a Dust Bowl, which seriously complicated our economy
in that long past era.

The last recession that meaningfully compares to 2008-2009 was 1979-1982, when national jobless rates rose to 10% on average, with places like Peoria, Illinois quoting 18%.
But certain panic-peddling pundits all around the media have badly frightened the public with erroneous warnings. I believe this phenomenon has actually contributed to unemployment! For
months we were told we were about to return to those desperate days in the '30's. TV commentators described panic and more doom ahead, while simultaneously quoting misleading
"facts and figures".

Lately, however, more accurate and encouraging reports have gradually surfaced: instead of
this being "the worst economy in 80 years", the quote is now,"... in 26 years", which is the correct comparison. Every day I see a few more revised reports, which should gradually
reduce the nation's fright level. Debt, credit issues and unemployment are all real, deep
problems, of course; suffering is all too real....so why exacerbate them? Just to get another TV
appearance invitation?

I can only hope journalists and other "experts" will keep doing their research.
When they don't, I'll be here.

Refutations, Reputations, other Errata

To: All February's Anonymous Posters at "Proviso Insider"

RE: The April Maywood Illinois Elections

Your credibility is greatly enhanced when you sign your NAMES.
Good grammar, correct spelling, and an apprehension of the facts greatly assists here as well.

(1) Not paying one's property taxes in an Illinois village or city keeps that person off that village's
ballot, by state law. Utility bills were not the issue in Maywood. Property tax records and
property sale transactions have been a matter of public record for decades, through
newspapers, the web, the Cook County Treasurer's office, other places as well. Utility bills
and other records, like credit card use, can be accessed legally by various authorities
under certain select circumstances.

(2) Mayor Harold Washington's opponents didn't use utility bills as grounds to keep him off
the ballot in Chicago; they asserted he hadn't paid income taxes for years, but he HAD
PAID, through payroll deductions. Mr. Washington simply neglected to file tax returns.

(3) Mayor Henderson Yarbrough DOES show up to his "day job", which has him traveling to
several different sites very frequently. I know because I called him on his cell there;
other workers have come up to him to ask questions while we talked! Maywood has
a part time Mayor, with a laughably tiny salary of $15K/per annum, so someone must love
Maywood a great deal to want the position.


Here's who looks foolish, at any time: anyone who publishes an anonymous rant absent the facts.
Please do your research, everybody! Anyone can be partisan or opinionated (I certainly am),
but ignoring or distorting the facts in the quest to move public opinion and/or action, WELL,
that's a "no-go theorem". If I see it done, wherever I find it, I will challenge it, here and elsewhere.

Best Wishes,
Amber F. Ladeira
A.K.A.: Former Proofreader, Still Checkin'