October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Readers: We have talked about the slaughter of 12 million Native American Indians, on my blog quite a few times. History tells one story, but we know the real truth is vastly different. I was listening to NPR the other day and I learned something that was so disturbing to me.  The extermination of the native peoples that are still living here continues.

What do you get when you take a child away from his family? When you take away their culture, their traditions…when you cut their hair before its time? Years of living a slow death.

Following is a year long investigation by NPR:

Incentives And Cultural Bias Fuel Foster System

The dirt roads on the Crow Creek Indian reservation in South Dakota blow dust on the window frames of simple houses.

The people who live here are poor — in a way few Americans are poor. There are no grocery stores or restaurants. There’s only electricity when it’s possible to pay the bill.

This is where Janice Howe grew up, on a barren stretch of land that has belonged to the Dakota people for more than 100 years.

“I’m the eldest of nine kids,” she explains, settling into a chair in the kitchen. “I went to college and I got my bachelor’s degree in nursing.”

Her sister lives across the street. Her parents live across the road. Her daughter lives two doors down with her four grandchildren — two young granddaughters and two twin babies.

And then one evening two years ago, Howe’s phone rang.

It was a social worker from the Department of Social Services. She said her daughter Erin Yellow Robe was going to be arrested for drugs.

Howe couldn’t believe it. She had never seen any sign of drugs or any other problems.

And then the social worker changed Howe’s life. She said she was coming to take Howe’s grandchildren away.

The next morning, a car pulled up outside Yellow Robe’s house. Howe’s daughter wouldn’t let go of her one-year-old twin babies. She kept saying she hadn’t done anything wrong.

The social worker buckled the babies into car seats.

“They were sitting in the cars,” Howe says, choking up. “They were just looking at me. Because you know most babies don’t cry if they’re raised in a secure environment. So I went out there and took their diaper bags. And they left.”

But as Howe watched the car pull around the bend, she realized the social worker took the two babies, but allowed Howe to keep her two granddaughters, 5-year-old Rashauna and 6-year-old Antoinette.

“I thought that was weird,” Howe says. “I just thought, why can’t I keep them all?”

A Mandate To Keep Children Connected

Howe, other relatives and other members of the tribe all wanted the children. And federal law says they should have gotten them. The Indian Child Welfare Act mandates that, except in the rarest circumstances, Indian children must be placed with relatives, a tribal member or at the very least, another Native American. It also says the state must make every effort to first keep a family together with services and programs.

The law was passed in 1978 in response to a century-long practice of forcing Native American children into harsh and often abusive boarding schools where they lost contact with their culture, traditions, language and families.

Except now a generation of children is once again losing its connection to its culture. This time it’s through state-run foster care.

In South Dakota, Native American children make up only 15 percent of the child population, yet they make up more than half the children in foster care. An NPR News investigation has found that the state is removing 700 native children every year, sometimes in questionable circumstances. According to a review of state records, it is also largely failing to place native children with their relatives or tribes.

According to state records, almost 90 percent of the kids in family foster care are in non-native homes or group care.

State officials say they’re doing everything they can to keep native families together. Poverty, crime and alcoholism are all real problems on South Dakota’s reservations and in the state’s poorest areas. But, state records show there’s another powerful force at work — money. The federal government sends the state thousands of dollars for every child it takes.

Howe’s twin grandbabies were taken to a white foster home about 100 miles away.

On the day they were taken, Howe says she and her daughter sat on the steps and cried as they waited for the police to come to take her daughter to jail.

Several hours went by and no one came. A week went by, a month, and then summer turned into fall, and still no one came.

To this day, Howe’s daughter has never been arrested for drugs — or anything else. Department of Social Service officials told NPR they can’t talk about individual cases or confirm the details of Howe’s account.

But one source who has reviewed the department’s file said the social worker believed Yellow Robe was abusing her prescription pills. But the same source also says the file notes the case was based on a rumor — from a woman who, the source says, didn’t like the Howe family.

And yet not only did they take the two babies, two months later, Howe waited at the school bus stop. But when the bus came, the girls weren’t on it. A social worker had taken them from school.

“They didn’t even call and tell me. Nothing,” Howe says.

The social worker in this case, like many the department employs, hadn’t been on the job long and quit a short time later. She told Howe that the older girls had had too much contact with their mother – a woman who had never been charged with anything. And then Antoinette and Rashauna, they too were gone.

“It enrages me,” says Crow Creek tribal council member Peter Lengkeek. “We’re very tight-knit families and cousins are disappearing. Family members are disappearing.”

The Crow Creek tribe has lost more than 33 children in recent years. The reservation only has 1,400 people. Last year Lengkeek asked social service officials to tell him where the children were and who they were placed with.

Seven months later, he received a list. Lengkeek says every single child was placed in a white foster home.

He says if the state had its way, “we’d still be playing cowboys and Indians. I couldn’t imagine what they tell these kids about where they come from and who they are.”

“It’s kidnapping,” he says. “That’s how we see it.”

Navigating State Policies

Virgena Wieseler, who runs a division of South Dakota’s department of social services, says the department believes in the Indian Child Welfare Act and does its best to find relatives or tribal member placements for Indian children.

“We come from a stance of safety,” she says. “That’s our overarching goal with all children. If they can be returned to their parent or returned to a relative and be safe and that safety can be managed then that’s our goal.”

Department Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon says they’re dealing with abject poverty and substance abuse and have to do what’s best for the kids, which sometimes means driving onto a reservation and taking a child.

“Of course we think it’s legal or we wouldn’t be doing it,” she says.

Malsam-Rysdon cited two laws. One is a federal statute that only pertains to emergency situations. The other is a state law that allows the state to remove children in danger.

But two South Dakota judges, two lawyers and a dozen tribal advocates told NPR that state law doesn’t apply. Federal law says tribes are sovereign. The experts say a state official can’t drive off with an Indian child from Crow Creek any more than a Crow Creek official could drive off with a child from Rapid City.

Some tribes have agreements with the state, which allows social services to operate on their reservations. Crow Creek, however, does not.

But the state has never been challenged in court on this specific issue, so Howe was stuck in a strange — but common — legal limbo.

Because she lives on a reservation, state courts don’t apply to her. But especially on poor reservations like hers, tribal courts can be over-run, underfunded and operated only part time.

Howe didn’t know how to get a hearing. She didn’t know any judges or lawyers. She certainly couldn’t afford one.

And social services told her they couldn’t tell her anything. Letters to the state and governor went unanswered.

But even here in a place with few resources or computers, she thought there must be something she could do. And then she thought of one more person to call: a man named Dave Valandra.

Valandra’s the tribe’s Indian Child Welfare Act director. He’s a federal employee, who is charged with making sure the law is being followed, namely that children removed by the state are placed with relatives or tribal members.

But when she called him, Howe says he told her: “‘There’s nothing I can do.’ – that’s what he said to me” she says.

Dave Valandra works in a square, gray building for the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Valandra’s official job is to help members who live off the reservation with their cases in state court. Many can’t afford South Dakota’s public defenders.

But Valandra can also help tribal members who are on the reservation. He can push for a tribal court hearing.

He doesn’t do that very often, however, because he says he trusts the state to do what’s best for native families.

“I get along real good with the state and I have a good rapport with them,” he says. “I’m satisfied.”

Tribal officials say they are not satisfied. They say he won’t show up at their council meetings to answer their questions. Valandra says he doesn’t need to appear because the Indian Child Welfare Act is being followed.

“The state does have Native American foster homes, so under the [Indian Child Welfare Act], they are following the law by placing the child in a Native American environment,” he says. “So yeah, it’s working.”

But state records show only 13 percent of native kids in foster care are placed in native homes. In fact, Valandra admits that not one of the children in his almost three dozen cases is placed with a Native American family.

Asked if he’s concerned these children may have been let down a bit, he seemed at a loss for words.

“Of my cases right now, I think they’re all…right now, the placement of the children right now are…boy that’s, huh,” he said.

Tribal Foster Homes Remain Empty

With Valandra a dead end, Janice Howe asked the social worker to move the children to a native home where they could participate in cultural activities such as going to sweats and sundance. But nothing changed.

John Poole/NPR , Marcella Dion lives on the Crow Creek reservation and has been licensed as a foster care provider since 2005, but the state has never sent her any children. Recently she took in her brother’s granddaughter, Isabella.

Social Service’s Wieseler said they would like all native children to be in native homes. But she says they’ve only got a few and they don’t have room.

“We are constantly recruiting,” she says, “constantly recruiting in all of our offices for all kinds of foster families and we are always trying to recruit them because we need more.”

That comes as a surprise to Marcella Dion. She’s a native foster home provider on the Crow Creek reservation and has lots of room.

Her home’s been empty for six years.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s going on,’” she says. “I got my [Indian Child Welfare license]. No kids.”

Then there’s Suzanne Crow, also from Crow Creek.

“I’ve been a foster parent here for over a year,” she said. “They’ve never called me for any Indian kids.”

In that year, hundreds of native children in South Dakota were placed in white foster homes. Officials on the Pine Ridge reservation, several hours away, also say they have 20 empty homes.

A few months ago, Crow asked a social worker why she hadn’t received any native foster children.

“He said well there’s a long process this and that,” Crow remembers. “And I said, ‘You know what? The long process is there’s no road from you to Indian people. That’s the long process.’”

Howe and her daughter waited months just to see the kids. She missed braiding their long hair. They follow Dakota tradition that you don’t cut hair unless there’s a death in the family.

When they were finally granted a visit in December 2009, Howe says she burst into tears. Their hair was cut to their shoulders.

The girls also looked thin and had holes in their socks, Howe says. They begged Howe and their mother to take them home.

She recalls Rashauna telling her that she knew how to get to the river and said she was going to try to swim home.

“I just kept saying, pray,” Howe says she told the children, tearing up at the memory. “Pray hard. Grandma’s going to get you back. I don’t know how but grandma’s going to get you back. When you start feeling bad pray or look outside because we’re both looking at the same sky. Ok? Ok, they said. And they left.”

She wouldn’t see them again for another year.

An Increasing Case Load

In downtown Rapid City, Danny Sheehan was digging around in a closet down the hall from his office pulling open file cabinets and taking out files.

“These are all the different people who had their kids taken away from their entire families,” explains Sheehan, who works for the Lakota People’s law office. “Not one of them has had their children left with a relative of any kind.”

There are about 150 case files in all.

He hopes one day he can sue. He’s been involved in cases like this in the past, including fighting Three Mile Island, the Ku Klux Klan – even representing a group that wants access to UFO records. But he says these cases are expensive, time consuming and fraught with legal hurdles.

“Maybe if we devoted all our resources to a particular case and said, look, we’re going to land on you like a ton of bricks [social services] and make you give this one kid back and sue you and do everything else, they would probably just turn the kid loose,” he says. “But it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t stop them from doing it a hundred times again.”

There are children in South Dakota who need to be removed from their families. But according to state figures, less than 12 percent of the children in foster care in South Dakota have been actually physically or sexually abused in their homes. That’s less than the national average.

And yet South Dakota is removing children at almost three times the rate of other states, according to data from the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform.

Culture, Poverty or Neglect?

There’s one word that makes it possible for the state to remove Janice Howe’s grandchildren and more than 700 other native kids every year: Neglect. The state says parents have neglected their children.

The problem, says Bob Walters, a council representative from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, is that neglect is subjective.

Walters, along with officials from seven other South Dakota tribes NPR interviewed, say what social workers call neglect, is often poverty — and sometimes native tradition.

“The standards are set too high for our people,” Walters says. “We’re family people. If there is 30 people in my home, that’s fine. [When] I was raised, there was my mom, my dad and 12 kids. And I’m very thankful I grew up that way.”

He says social workers are often young and there’s constant turnover. He says many seem to have never set foot on a reservation before.

Walters says the workers don’t understand that most tribal members don’t have money to buy gas for a parenting class two hours away or that food is often shared among families.

State officials acknowledge that only 11 of their 183 case workers are Native American. But officials say they do yearly training to teach workers native practices.

Federal Financial Incentives For Removing Children

Sometimes, though, it’s not just cultural differences. Jolene Abourezk worked for the department for seven years. She says when she worked there, removing kids was expected.

Department officials told her, “It’s good, you are doing a good job for taking more kids,” Abourezk says. “It’s just the norm here. It happens so often people don’t question it. So you know if something happens all the time the same way, people don’t question it anymore. It’s just how it’s done.

Abourezk now works for her tribe, the Oglala Sioux, and reviews every case to help get kids back.

“When I look at the cases and read the police reports,” she said, “it just seems like a lot of them are just minor offenses.”

Few social workers would wish for more cases. A close review of South Dakota’s budget shows there’s a financial incentive for the department as a whole to remove more children.

Every time a state puts a child in foster care, the federal government sends money. Because South Dakota is poor, it receives even more money than other states – almost a hundred million dollars a year.

Bill Napoli chaired the state Senate Appropriations Committee until he retired three years ago. He says he remembers when the state first saw the large amounts of money the federal government was sending the Department of Social Services in the late 1990s.

“When that money came down the pike, it was huge,” Napoli says. “That’s when we saw a real influx of kids being taken out of families.”

He said there was little lawmakers could do to rein in the department. This was federal money, and it went straight to social services.

“I’m sure they were trying to answer a public perception of a problem,” he said. “And then slowly it grew to a point where they had so much power that no one — no one — could question what they were doing. Is that a recipe for a bureaucracy that’s totally out of control? I would say so.”

In an interview with NPR, department officials Wieseler and Kim Malsam-Rysdon say they strongly disagree, and that money has never influenced the department’s decisions to remove a child.

“The state doesn’t financially benefit from kids being in care,” Malsam-Rysdon says. “The state is always paying some part of it.”

She says it’s true the department gets more money the more children it takes. But she says, “it’s still state general dollars that have to match all those dollars that come in.”

Except it’s not exactly a match. According to state records, last year, the federal government reimbursed the state for almost three quarters of the money it spent on foster care.

Then there’s the bonus money. Take for example something the federal government calls the “adoption incentive bonus.” States receive money if they move kids out of foster care and into adoption — about $4,000 a child. But according to federal records, if the child has “special needs,” a state can get as much as $12,000.

A decade ago, South Dakota designated all Native American children “special needs,” which means Native American children who are permanently removed from their homes are worth more financially to the state than other children.

In 10 years, this adoption bonus program has brought South Dakota almost a million dollars.

Malsam-Rysdon says that money stays in the department and is used to help children.

“The key to that funding is that those dollars are to be used to support adoptive placements,” she says. “So the state does not gain monetarily from placing kids in adoption.”

But that money and a hundred million dollars more funnels into the state economy every year. The department employs a thousand workers. It supports almost 700 foster families who receive as much as $9,000 a year per child and 1,400 families who receive thousands in adoption subsidies. Dozens of independent group homes also receive millions of dollars in contracts to take care of children.

Governor Bill Janklow ran the state in the 1990s. Asked how important the federal money that goes to social services is to the state he said: “Incredibly important.”

“I mean look, we’re a poor state,” he says. “We’re not a high income state. We’re like North Dakota without oil. We’re like Nebraska without Omaha and Lincoln. We don’t have resources. We don’t have wealth. We don’t have high income jobs. We don’t have factories opening here hiring people in high wage jobs.”

The federal government gave South Dakota at least $15,000 for Howe’s grandchildren while they were in foster care. More than half of that money went to the department’s administrative costs, according to federal records.

But even now as the money filters in, the federal government asks few questions about whether states are complying with the Indian Child Welfare Act. A 2005 government audit found at least 32 states are failing in one way or another to abide by it.

George Sheldon, who recently took over the federal Administration for Children and Families, is the man in Washington sending the money. He says the federal government needs to make complying with the law a priority for the states.

“I think we’ve got to do better and frankly to the extent we can provide some leadership I’d like to see us do that,” Sheldon says. “When you have a financing system that pays states to keep kids in care, what’s the incentive to keep kids out of care?”

A Conclusion For Janice Howe

Howe’s grandchildren had been gone a year and a half. There was so much frustration. The family seemed to be falling apart.

John Poole/NPR , Janice Howe’s grandchildren, from left, Daylyn, 3, Rashauna, 6, and Antoinette, 8, play on the Crow Creek Reservation. The children were taken off the reservation by South Dakota’s Department of Social Services for a year and a half after a social worker heard an unsubstantiated rumor about their mother’s possible abuse of prescription pills. Their mother was never charged with anything.

Howe made one last desperate move. She went to her tribe’s council meeting and told her entire story. She told them how the state was now about to put the children up for adoption. Many on the council nodded with familiarity.

And then they did something they had never done before. They passed a resolution warning the state that if it did not return the Yellow Robe Children, it would be charged with kidnapping and prosecuted.

Nobody thought it would work.

But a few weeks later, a car pulled up outside of Howe’s house with Antoinette, Rashauna and the two twins, who were now 2 1/2 years old.

“Antoinette came in and said ‘Grandma, Grandma. We get to stay! We get to stay!’” Howe says.

The state offered no explanation or apology. The social worker warned that this was a trial run and the state could take them back at anytime.

Howe thinks the babies were treated well. But Rashauna and Antoinette left a size 10 and came back a size smaller. Howe says they hoard food under their pillows and hide under the bed when a car pulls up.

“I feel like they were traumatized so much,” Howe says.

The children don’t remember their native dance, something Howe says is especially important for Antoinette, the oldest.

“We go to sweats,” Howe says. “We have ceremonies at certain times a year. She’s got to be getting ready to learn these things that she has to do in order to become a young lady. They took a year and a half away from us. How are we going to get that back?”

On this day, 48 people showed up, and Antoinette and Rashauna played in the front room. Howe says they usually hide from outsiders and explained that like their mother, they are especially afraid of white people and do not want to talk to them.

Later, Howe asked Rashauna: “What was it like in foster care?”

“I thought we were going to stay there forever,” Rashauna says.

And then suddenly Antoinette blurts out a story about how Rashauna wet her pants and the foster parents made her wear the underwear on her head.

Howe looked away, so they wouldn’t see her eyes fill with tears. As the singing started, they slowly swayed, knowing that even now, social services can come back. Even now, at anytime, they can take the children.

Readers: This story makes me so mad. Can you imagine…Indian children taken away from their Indian families to live with white families so that they state can make money off of them, while the children slowly lose their culture, their traditions, and most importantly their connection to where and who they came from? It is a horrible situation for the families. As if the extermination of the American Indian was not enough, the destruction still continues to this day.

Tomorrow: Part II

ZL: “When I have time”…that’s the rub. I’m not complaining but in reality it still takes me two hours + to do my blog every morning. I read all of the comments, plus online content to inspire my write, (even if it is copy and paste – it’s the formatting that takes time) as well as commenting to readers that I wish to address.  Taking more time to comment as an anonymous person, just to give my two cents without being “known”(even if it was to take you OUT in the process :) is not a priority for me.

That being said, I do do exactly how I please. It’s just wishful thinking because sometimes I miss being able to participate in the thick of it. But the best part of it all is that I have many readers who do, and I love that they take the time out of their busy days to be here when there are many other blogs they could be participating in.

In the words of /SB,   “Have a loving day today all”.

Peace out.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

“ Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox“

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Good morning!

I just Love the flow of this blog. I find an article about one thing,  and it leads to another even more interesting topic. You just never know where the dialogue is going to end up, with the back and forth chitchat that happens along the way.

Alycedale: When I read Abbott’s Article, I thought it was BS. I had no desire to break it down,  but I knew someone would. No surprise it was you. And I wouldn’t have expected any less of an analysis from a girl who knows how to intelligently scrutinize a story.

And look where it lead us? Lickin’ pussy – Please pass the dental dam, I’d like to indulge in a little lamb. :)

Ah…Sometimes I wish I was just another reader so I could jump in on the convo and give my personal two anonymously. I don’t have that pleasure, but no matter. I get pleasure that such needed, insightful information is afforded to the girls ( and guys) on my blog.

Thanks Social B for posting the risk of transmission of disease from woman to woman. I will echo the words of Winter. And by the way, I will agree with ZL as well, ‘It is an individual thing”. And in my opinion, you and Alycedale are about as different as two girls could be, at least with respect to the emotional thing. I would expect you to say exactly what you did. And I would expect Alycedale the same same. Aren’t we girls just so perfectly diverse? 

Love being a girl…Love the girls on this blog. I am so blessed to be in the blog presence of such wonderful women of the world. ♥

So…wha’at’s up? What’s on everyone’s mind?

I can tell you what’s on my mind. Occupy Wall Street has been gathering nightly in Oakland. Two nights ago a two tour war veteran, Scott Olsen was critically injured by police projectiles.  Well, MoveOn beat me to it this morning, but none the less, I’m blogging it anyway. The thugs with guns are at it again abusing their powers.  This video footage needs to be seen. And please, take a moment and give your support but signing the petition at MoveOn to stop the police oppression of Occupy Oakland. Thanks.

War Veteran Wounded By Police At Occupy Oakland, Stun Grenade Thrown At Folks Helping Him

Readers: What do you think of this movement? I’m glad that people are coming together as a community and speaking their minds; they are discontent, and angry, and they have the right to be. With all that is happening in our country, this revolution is needed. A fire has been lit with the people and it is growing and gaining. I back it. I just HOPE that it stays well organized, focused on the goal, and peaceful. The scene in Oakland two nights ago, with respect to the police brutality was horrifying and upsetting.

Here’s a segment from Rachel Maddow last night discussing just that:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As usual, thoughts on anything, blog me.

Peace & Love

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

“ Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox“

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Good morning!

Well…I missed him again. Our president Obama was in San Francisco yesterday at the W Hotel for a fundraiser, and from what I read, he wasn’t exactly greeted with cheers from the waiting crowd.

“I was a supporter of Obama, but I’m so disillusioned right now,” said protester Catherine Woods. “And it seems to be getting worse and worse.”

Then I read this article this morning:

Obama courts Hispanic vote on fundraising tour of the west

President enlists support of Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria as he moves to shore up crucial support from Latino voters

Barack Obama walks with the Bonilla family in Nevada on his fundraising tour of the west Photograph: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Barack Obama is using a three-day visit to the West to raise funds for the 2012 White House race and to shore up the Latino vote that could prove pivotal to his re-election chances.

Obama won 67% of the Latino vote in the 2008 election campaign. But a Gallup poll this summer showed support among Latinos, upset over the failure of the president to reform immigration laws and hit disproportionately hard by unemployment, had dropped to 48%.

Over the last few months, he has made a belated effort to court Latinos, from inviting Hispanic journalists to the White House for a round-table to high-profile speeches at gatherings.

On Monday night, he attended a fund-raising party in Los Angeles co-hosted by actors Antonio Banderas and Eva Longoria. It was attended by about 120 donors from the Latino community, each paying at least $5,000 to attend.

The event attracted some criticism from within the Latino community, with some saying he should be meeting people struggling with unemployment or facing deportation or the loss of their homes rather than actors and celebrities.

At the party, Obama promised to deliver on his promises on immigration reform. He said people tended to forget how much he had accomplished: he had completed 60% of promises he made during the 2008 election campaign.

“I’m pretty confident we can get the other 40% done in the next five years,” he told the guests.

Pollsters predict that the drop in support among Latinos, if repeated in next year’s election, could see Obama lose swing states such as Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, which he took last time.

He could also lose Florida, where the Latinos are predominantly of Cuban origin and strongly Republican. Lose Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, and Obama would be on his way to being a one-term president.

“The Hispanic vote is going to be a lot trickier for Obama this time,” Brad Coker, a pollster based in Jacksonville, Florida and head of Mason-Dixon polling, said today. “It is going to be a significant influence on the outcome but it is too early yet to say exactly where.”

The Banderas-Longoria party was the first such purely Latino fund-raising event Obama has attended. Also present were the comedian George Lopez, and mayors Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles and Julian Castro of San Antonio.

Villaraigosa blamed Congress rather than the president for the failure to enact immigration reform, including the proposed Dream legislation that would have offered a route to citizenship for the young. “President Obama does not have a vote in Congress. President Obama has been supportive of comprehensive immigration reform. ……He has called on the Congress to do their job and to fix the broken immigration system, ” Villraigosa said.
“The fact that they’ve failed to do that is not his responsibility or his fault, if you will. It’s theirs.”

While there is sympathy in the Latino community for that view, there is also a widespread feeling that Obama has failed to make immigration a priority and might have pushed it through during the early part of his presidency, when the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House.

Such views were passionately expressed by Latino activists at a conference in DC last month, ‘Take Back the American Dream’. They contrasted Obama’s rhetoric with the actions of his administration and one statistic stood out, the level of deportations.

Federal government figures show the administration was on course to outstrip George W. Bush in terms of deportation. Obama has deported just over 1 million while Bush’s administration deported 1.57 million: but that took Bush eight years while Obama has been in office just three years.
Faced with a wave of outrage, the White House has ordered a slowdown.

While there is disillusionment with Obama, there is little sign of an exodus of Latinos to the Republicans because of their anti-immigration rhetoric.

Among those seeking the Republican nomination to take on Obama next year, the Texas governor Rick Perry could win some Latino support because he opposes creation of a wall along the Mexican border and has offered the children of illegal immigrants the same chance of an education as citizens.

But the other candidates have been strident, including Herman Cain, who upset Latinos by suggesting an electrified fence along the border to kill Mexicans, though he later said it was a joke.

Robert Zavala(42) a Latino who was out picketing Obama on his visit this week, will vote Republican but not for Cain. “I think that joke about Mexicans was inappropriate,” he said.

Zavala, in a phone interview today from Las Vegas, said Latinos were upset over lack of jobs and predicted Obama will lose Nevada. “He can do great speeches. He can move the massses but he cannot create jobs,” said Zavala, who works in the entertainment industry.

Glen Bolger, a Republican pollster who has helped scores of Republicans get elected to Congress, told party members from Nevada, Colorado, California and other western states last week that Latinos were the fastest growing part of the population. “As a party, we have to do better with Hispanic voters.”

He suggested the party could make itself more attractive by giving a higher profile to prominent Latinos in the party such as Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida and a Tea Party favourite.

Coker agreed, saying that Rubio as the vice-presidential pick would give the Republicans a boost among Latinos and if he did not want to do it, there were other prominent Latinos, such as the Nevada governor Brian Sandoval.

“That would be a wild card that would upset the Latino applecart for Obama,” Coker said.

The beauty for the Republicans is they do not even have to attract many Latinos. Obama could lose if disillusioned Latinos just opt not to turn out.

Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster worked on the John Kerry presidential campaign and more recently for the Democratic senate leader Harry Reid in his re-election campaign last year in Nevada last year that was successful in getting the Latino vote out. He said the figures on Hispanic voters nationwide, while not as good as 2008, were not as bad as Republican pollsters suggested.

“There is no question that people are not happy and that is across the board, including Hispanics, but there is a jump between saying people are unhappy and that they will vote for someone else,” he said.

Looking at polling date, Mellman said about one in five Latinos were undecided. For many of Latinos there were serious flaws in Republican policy, not just on immigration but on other issues they cared about, such as education.

**********

Readers: I just want to say “Get over your disillusionment.” Obama is still the same same great man. Instead of looking at what hasn’t done, look at all that he has done. And more importantly look at the powers that are preventing him. Oh and don’t forget…the powers that are preventing him from prevailing are republicans that we allowed back in the driver’s seat last year. Remember? Those who chose not to vote, allowed this mess to be created. The blame shouldn’t be on Obama but ourselves for not showing up at the polls and ensuring the dems remained the majority. Remember, Obama had coattails…long flowing coattails. We had the numbers we needed then; we don’t now.

Let me post a segment from the above article:

Villaraigosa blamed Congress rather than the president for the failure to enact immigration reform, including the proposed Dream legislation that would have offered a route to citizenship for the young. “President Obama does not have a vote in Congress. President Obama has been supportive of comprehensive immigration reform. ……He has called on the Congress to do their job and to fix the broken immigration system, ” Villraigosa said.
“The fact that they’ve failed to do that is not his responsibility or his fault, if you will. It’s theirs.”

While there is sympathy in the Latino community for that view, there is also a widespread feeling that Obama has failed to make immigration a priority and might have pushed it through during the early part of his presidency, when the Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House.

Helloo…Obama can only do so much. He isn’t a miracle worker. And he does not have a vote in Congress. Obama has to deal with the House being a republican majority and the Senate not sticking together. So…whose fault it it that we no longer control both the Senate and the House? Look in mirror. So stop complaining, and get back in the game. If you’re going to bitch, bitch at the Senate…make your voice heard, and blame yourself for the republicans controlling the House.

It’s scary how people not only forget how much Obama has done, but c’mon what is scarier, is how can one forget what the republicans, the party of “no”, the party of “destruction”, the party of “money first, country last”, the party of “we don’t care what happens to the county as long as Obama doesn’t get a second term”, are saying and doing everyday!?

For people to even consider a republican president come 2012 is just insane. And the excuse of not turning out at the next election because you are so “disillusioned” is stupid to say the least, not to mention totally irresponsible, if you truly care about our country and want change to happen.  Look what happened when people didn’t show up at the polls last November. And look where we are right now. Plan on it getting a lot worse if history…no if people repeat themselves.

Bottom line is…We can still get what we want. And Obama is the man who can deliver, if we just stop our bitching and back him, and get control of both the Senate and the House.  A no show vote from the dems is a vote for the republicans. It is as simple as that. Opting to not show up is not an option.

I’ll tell you what…I am disillusioned too, I’m very disillusioned…but it’s not over Obama’s actions.

Thoughts? Blog me. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Good morning!

Readers: First of all thanks for hanging in the with me. Secondly, I appreciate your tenacity and loyalty.

The topic today, “Code Wars: America’s Cyber threat” first aired this past May, but I missed it until I saw it last night. After seeing, it reminded me that Anonz had warned us about this around 2 years ago.

CNBC PRESENTS “CODE WARS: AMERICA’S CYBER THREAT”

CNBC ORIGINAL TAKES VIEWERS INSIDE THE THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY, BANKING AND INFRASTRUCTURE

One-Hour Documentary Reported by CNBC’s Melissa Lee to Premiere on CNBC on Thursday, May 26th at 9PM ET/PT

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., May 16, 2011— In the United States, our financial systems, power grids, telecommunications, water supply, flight controls and military communications are all controlled online—making them vulnerable to attack by a growing breed of cyber criminals that operates anonymously, and often with impunity. On Thursday, May 26th at 9PM ET/PT, CNBC presents “Code Wars: America’s Cyber Threat,” a CNBC Original reported by Correspondent Melissa Lee, that investigates this global cyber threat, and explores the vulnerabilities we face as a nation.

Cybersecurity has become a top priority of the Obama administration. Cyber crimes cost the U.S. economy more than $100 billion a year, and scores of security companies are banking on the fact that more money will need to be spent to defend against online attacks. In this one-hour documentary, CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, tells the stories of the hackers who pose these threats, the companies that work to protect information, the cyber-sleuths who’ve uncovered the biggest security breaches, and a government struggling to defend against this 21st century warfare.

Lee takes viewers to the front lines of America’s cyber defense with a rare behind-the-scenes look inside National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC), a top secret facility near Washington that stands ready to respond to a large scale cyber attack. The program also profiles the leader of a group of Chinese hackers who have tried to penetrate American government interests, and unravels the mystery behind Stuxnet, perhaps the most sophisticated and vexing computer virus ever deployed.

In the U.S., 240 million people, or 77% of the population, are online, leaving a wealth of sensitive information exposed to cyber criminals. CNBC speaks with the co-founders of Lookout, a San Francisco company that designs security tools for mobile devices, who show Lee how easy it is for a hacker to steal information with just a laptop, a $50 antenna, and free software found online. CNBC also looks at the cyber crime underground, an estimated $5 billion economy where hackers from across the globe buy, sell and trade stolen goods and illegal services.

CNBC also travels to Estonia, one of the most Internet dependent countries in the world, which suffered a sustained cyber attack in 2007 that took down the nation’s banking system for days. The attack served as a wake-up call for Estonia and the rest of the world, and a window into the new world of cyber insecurity.

For more information including web extras, log onto, codewars.cnbc.com.

********

Readers: As noted, it’s an hour long show. You can view all of the segments of the show by clicking here. I can tell you it is very interesting and worth the watch.

Hi Emily: There’s quite a few stories that could stem from the one you posted from your friend’s daughter. Sounds like a little series of horror stories is brewing. I wish her luck!

Keith: That is why I enjoy it too. One just never knows what the topic du jour will be, and I’m not just talking about my own posts. Reading the comments from all of my readers is my thrill.

MoveOn.org: Thanks for posting. This day is a long time coming, and I am so pleased that it is finally ending.

From the Desk of Anonz: Thank you for continuing to post here. Because you always give me and my readers invaluable information. I just HOPE that people take it to heart. How much more do the republicans need to show us…how many more horrific things do they need to do to us and the planet, before people realize they are the party of destruction.  This next election is probably the most important election this country has ever seen. Will the people vote country or for greed?

Cynthia: Thank you for your addition. I wish I could answer your question. It has been proven time and time again that the love of the dollar is more important than human life.

Howie: Thanks for posting…super interesting. And I agree with Bonnie…nice that we can count on you to keep us abreast.

Helen: It is sick isn’t it? I don’t need to do the math; it’s easy. The 1/2 of 1% percent is nothing compared to how much it would’ve helped so many people.

Mildred: You’re welcome. It feels good to help – as always I wish I could do more. Your comment with respect to your daughter’s birthday gift brought a smile to my face. Thank you. I HOPE that your daughter will read and no doubt she will see the value that so many bring to this blog.

That being said…I’m signing off. The forum is now open…Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

“ Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox“

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Good morning!

Ken: I can see that change doesn’t come easy for you. Racism is deeply engrained,  but you are on the right path. It’s amazing to me that people such as yourself only do something when what they have been doing to others, they realize is actually what is happening to them as well. Then and only then do they “wake-up”, and want to take action.

Yes, what they are doing to us is just not right….and what you have been doing to OTWs for 27 years is just not right either. And yet you have the nerve to call someone like Robert an asshole for pointing out the truth. I don’t need to stick up for him, but I will say that when you’re pointing your finger at someone calling them an asshole, just look at your hand and see how many of your fingers are pointing back at you.  Now who’s the asshole?

A kiss to your little girl for opening your eyes. I HOPE that you will continue to read, rid yourself of your racism, and pay it forward.

Al: I would say so as well. No doubt in my mind. FYI: I don’t feel you are correcting me. I realize that Jeb is no longer your Governor. Let me remind you that I do not take credit for writing the article. I simply got it from a trusted resource.  The write was originally published in 2003 when Jeb was your Governor.

Let me remind everyone.  The Governor in each state appoints a key person in a very important position. And that position is the secretary of the state’s voting administration. I’m not sure of the exact title, but that person has control of the entire voting process.  So what does that mean? It means they have control over the amount of time that a person has to vote, making it difficult for OTWs to get to the polls. It means that this person has control of the voting machines - they want to rig them? Simple: They can. They can rig the machines so that anyone who votes for a Democrat it automatically changes to a Republican vote. And no one will ever know. It’s why Gore lost the presidency.

Norma Jean: What will it take for you to vote for Obama? How bad does the country need to get before you realize just who screwed up this country and who is trying his best to put it back together? Believe me it will stay this way and get a lot worse if Obama isn’t voted in a second term. Don’t stay home – that is a an automatic vote for the republicans. Vote Obama. Did you read what Henry wrote about women? Don’t be like so many women who continue to stand by men such as Henry. Thanks to President Obama, you’ll be kicking and screaming your way to freedom.

Henry: I agree with your assessment of Bachman and Palin’s intelligence but that is all I can agree with. However, I can answer your question: “People like you fucked it up.” I won’t speak for AH but from his past posts, my guess is that at least one founding father is appalled, but not for the reasons you’re thinking.

Lloyd: It is a very serious threat. And we can not take it lightly because the republican’s main goal is getting Obama out. Who cares what happens to the country before or after, matters not,  as long as he is gone. When people think like that, they will do anything.

Yukio: Wonderful story! Thanks for sharing.

Irene: I’m with you on that one.

Delatam, Fadi: I join you in congratulating Obama  as well. Next on his list: Joseph Kony

East Africa: Obama’s Move to Fight Kony Good

Barack Obama is already getting flak from the right wing media in the US over his decision announced Friday October 14 to send a hundred US “combat equipped” troops to Uganda to assist in finally undoing the horrible misdeeds of Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army. According to BBC, those troops are prepared to move through four East and Central African countries searching out and bringing to justice men who have murdered, maimed, raped and abducted children by the tens of thousands in northern Uganda.

Why the world has watched silently since 1987 when Joseph Kony first came on the scene to start his supposedly messianic bloody mission to bring down the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is beyond me. Especially when Museveni would become the darling of foreign donors by the early 1990s, after the then-wealthy Western powers realized he was no threat to their ongoing activities.

Museveni came to power in 1986 and in all likelihood, one year later, Kony was initially propped up by covert forces who were keen to bring down the former guerrilla fighter who brought an end to more than twenty years of hell overseen by Milton Obote, then Idi Amin, and then Obote again.

I for one welcomed Museveni as a hero who proved that Africans can run their own affairs and quash cruel dictators who usually remained in power because they either bowed to or were installed by Western interests wanting to continue reaping the spoils of the region without any government interference.

But Museveni’s success didn’t seem to reach Uganda’s northern region where the LRA were wrecking havoc mercilessly. I never fully understood how the guerrilla fighter-turned statesman couldn’t quash Kony if he could finish Obote! But i’ve been told it was because the LRA would flee across the border into Sudan and melt into the local population.

What I also couldn’t understand is why the West didn’t come to Museveni’s aid, especially after their unforgiveable neglect of Africans during the Rwanda genocide. But now that Obama is trying to rectify that horrible oversight to a very limited degree, he is being attacked by the likes of Rush Limbaugh who despises Obama “on principle.”

Ironically, some of his fiercest critics didn’t sound a peep when he supported French President Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Cameron and agreed to send NATO forces to Libya. Instead, they quietly endorsed the Western invasion of North Africa in the name of ‘saving civilian lives’ because they cynically understood that what was really at stake was the OIL that no African, especially Gadaffi, should be allowed to control.

Most of Obama’s current critics don’t yet realize that once again the covert issue in this troop deployment could also be oil. Instead, Limbaugh complained on his radio show that Obama was “sending troops to Africa to kill Christians.” Can you believe it? The guy is not only racist, but also so utterly ignorant that he upgrades a butcher like Kony to being an ‘authentic’ Christian. Launching his religion-based smear campaign, Limbaugh applauds the LRA for its “good work” of “fighting Muslims in Sudan.”

What’s scary about this sort of smear campaign is that in America today, the likes of Limbaugh, including his Fox News colleagues, are commanding much of the mainstream media, meaning many ordinary Americans are likely to listen to Fox or right-wing radio talk, and believe what they hear.

This is a moment when Americans ought to applaud Obama for doing what Bill Clinton didn’t have the guts to do 17 years ago when more than a million innocent Africans were being slaughtered en masse in Rwanda. Since 1987, Kony”s LRA has also been murdering an incalculable number of Africans in Uganda, and at last, an American head of state is doing something about it.

The Ugandan foreign minister has welcomed the deployment of US troops. And while Emira Wood, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus claims Obama’s decision had more to do with the OIL recently discovered in Uganda than any selfless initiative taken on behalf of his African kin, the locals are grateful for any sort of protection.

What’s ironic to me is the timing of President Obama’s decision. People are asking, why now? And I don’t have an answer, but I have to say that just last week, a film opened at a cinema house down the street from me, starring the action-hero Gerald Butler (300) as a degenerate biker who finds hope and meaning in life by coming to Uganda and waging his own Rambo-like war on a “brutal renegade militia” known as, none other than the LRA.

The movie bombed in my neighborhood, but the following Friday is when President Obama announced that he too was going to “do good” for African children. One only hopes his show fares better than Mr. Butler’s did at the box office

*****

Readers: I’m done flapping my lips. Your turn. Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2011

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"