Thursday, May 17, 2007

Letters to Democratic and Republican Parties - 5.17.2007.2

This is a copy of the exact letter sent to Republican and Democratic Parties on March 30, 2007. This is part of my ongoing efforts to increase the number of voters and to have the best person possible elected as President of the United States in 2008.

March 30, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am contacting your organization today in the hope of being able to speak to a
representative on several issues. The reason for this request is that I am the author of several blogs and owner of a website that discusses and features commentary and insights on politics and the up-coming 2008 Presidential election.

In my discussions with both visitors of my websites, and various people in daily life, I have come to find that many are unfamiliar with the basic tenants of the major political parties. Many, in my experiences, find politics to be confusing and the various bits of information from televised news programs, whether found on broadcast or cable networks, to be to brief to be informative. As politicians and the various parties represent varying degrees, from ultra-conservative to ultra-liberal, of their respective political viewpoints, many are unsure of what a Democrat or Republican is, or what the respective ideologies involve.

To that end, as an aid to my readers and to help promote involvement in the Presidential election in 2008, I seek to have an interview with a representative of your party. I will also be seeking to have an identical interview with a representative of the [Democratic or Republican ]party. I will publish each interview, without alteration or editing of content, separately and fairly. I have not taken a position in favor of any party or candidate at this time. I have critiqued members of both parties in the past, on the blogs, for various issues. I have also written letters to Presidential candidates of both political parties, which are similar in content and balanced in tone. All of the letters I have
written can be found at my website, www.vassconsult.com/politics/election2008.html ,
which is a neutral site. Each letter is unaltered copies of what has been sent to each candidate, and any response will be posted unaltered as well.

My belief is that the 2008 election is critical to the future of the nation. The
candidate that provides the best outlook for the nation is the only criteria that I feel is important. The letters I have sent to the various candidates of both parties reflect that viewpoint. While there has been no response from any candidate at this time I feel that providing my readers with these questions helps them better evaluate their choice for President. To further that involvement in the election process and to help better the understanding of the political parties I request an interview with a representative of your party.

The interview can be done via email, which may be easiest for all involved. I will
provide a copy of the content to be posted, and the location of the posts, prior to their being posted to the internet. I am not seeking any funds, nor have I donated any funds to either party. If it is important, I will add that my sites currently reach in excess of 20,000 visitors a month and are growing in popularity, and it is verifiable that the blogs can be readily found on all major search engines. The website, mentioned above, is new and was started in March 2007.

The sites that the interview would be found on are the following:

www.blackentertainmentblog.com
www.mvass.com
www.vassconsult.com

I look forward to your response in this matter and thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Michael Vass
President - M V Consulting, Inc.
Author - Black Entertainment USA, VASS
718-344-6921
info@vassconsult.com

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What question has your Presidential candidate answered? - 5.17.2007.1

I am so annoyed. And I think everyone in America should be as well. At least those that use the internet and blogging. We are all being used in a terrible way, and I have to comment on it.

I have posted several of my letters to various presidential candidates from both parties, that have been sent since December 2006. I’ve mentioned that to this moment none have replied. I’ve even reported on how I have been ignored by my state senator, and received unsolicited mass mails, but not a single response. And I am not alone.

Thousands if not millions have been contacted, enticed and solicited via email and the internet for one Presidential candidate or another from both political parties. I have no problem with that. I have not committed funds or an endorsement, personally or with my corporation, for any party or Presidential hopeful. But neither I nor the general public have received anything in exchange for these requests of support other than a couple of soundbites. Our vote is not that cheap.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economy, immigration, homeland security, education, abortion and many other issues cannot be answered in 90 second bits. There is not a single intelligent person on the planet that can answer fully and honestly any of those issues in that time frame. It can’t be done. Yet both political parties hope that we will accept just that in selecting who will run for President in 2008. Even the selected meetings, chosen to highlight and benefit the various candidates, are structured to provide soundbites for the evening news, cable news, and bloggers. That just doesn’t cut the mustard.

Why is this being done? Why does it cost so much to run for President? Because it has become more MTV driven than ever before. Debates are no longer about substance, but about who appears more Presidential. It’s not what is being said, but what gets quoted. And at the same time fewer people follow the debates and coverage than ever before. As a matter of fact, my informal questioning has brought me to the conclusion that fewer people today even know what the Republican and Democratic parties stand for.

Drop the hot button question of how long we will be in Iraq, and tell me what the parties want? Does the American public want to end the war now or win and leave? What preparations are planned for the repercussions of either decision? What’s actually best for the nation and why? What can or will any of the candidates do to improve healthcare or education in the inner cities? What does it mean to be a mainstream Democrat or Republican? Most people I as these questions haven’t the slightest idea, but they know one party or another is better for the nation. Almost invariably I get quoted a soundbite or commercial for one person or another, without any clue as to what context that soundbite applies to. We are being bought cheaply.

I think this is enough. We deserve better answers and more of them. If hiring bloggers with ranks similar to mine are good enough to solicit the public, then mine is good enough to give a response to. And it’s good enough to inform you the public. I’m not just picking at the Presidential candidates I’ve sent letters to, but also the political parties I sent a letter to [on March 30, 2007 – to info@nygop.org and nysdems@nysdems.org ]. I will post the letters that I sent out to the Democratic and Republican parties.

I am left with a question, why do the candidates and their respective parties seem afraid to give any response? Why don’t they want to answer direct and important questions? Why do they not want to be responsible to the people they wish to govern?

So I ask you this, read the letters I have sent. Look for the candidate of your choice, and send them a copy of my letter (via email, link, social bookmark, or printed mail as you chose) and ask them why they can’t respond. Ask them why some of the things that will impact you and your children only deserve a 90 second incomplete answer. Ask why a soundbite is worth your financial support or more importantly your vote.

If you earned a promotion, raise, commission, higher grade or whatever and you were given an incomplete 30 or 90 second response, you would ask for a better response. So am I, with your help.

I look forward to your responses.
This is what I think, what do you think?

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Repost of JP Morgan Chase shareholder meeting on Slavery - 5.15.2007.1

This is a repost from http://www.blackentertainmentblog.com/2007/05/jp-morgan-chase-sharholders-vote-on.html

It’s amazing what a couple of years will bring. The public and investors alike are quick to forget so many items in this world of instant news, viral videos, Youtube and 24/7 cable network news. So many items are glanced over, missed, or forgotten in the attempt to get to the next thing that the impact of what’s happening rarely touches us. But some of those items come back and the impact continues to reverberate.

One such case is on subjects that I have discussed often in various posts in my Vass and Black Entertainment USA blogs. Reparations and apologies for slavery in America. The various posts [What Georgia House Speaker Richardson should apologize for - 3.9.2007.1, The surprise about broadcast television - 3.14.2007.2, ect.] reflect my views, and I think the views of many – whether Black Americans, Latino/Hispanic, White or purple for that matter. Many believe that the wounds inflicted to create this nation cannot ever heal if we ignore and hide from the past. Those wounds affect this nation to this day, whether it pops to the surface as the Rodney King riots, the Civil Rights Movement, the murders of Sean Bell and others, or the comments by Mr. Don Imus and other radio DJ’s.

Today the conversation of Reparations and apology took another step forward at JP Morgan Chase. Actually what happened today started in 2005, as a result of actions from 1831 – 1865, so I will recap that information. On January 20, 2005 JP Morgan issued an apology, in compliance with Chicago ordinances requiring the disclosure of slave ownership, for their predecessor banks from the abovementioned time period where slaves were taken as collateral on loans. The predecessor banks, Citizens Bank and Canal Bank in Louisiana, did take ownership of 1250 slaves.

A memo on this was released by ten-Chairman William Harrison and then-President James Dimon,
“We apologize to the American public, and particularly to African-Americans, for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played during that period," said the company on its website. "Although we cannot change the past, we are committed to learning from and emerging stronger because of it.”


In addition to the apology, JP Morgan created a $5 million scholarship for African Americans in Louisiana.

This commendable act by JP Morgan Chase should be the end of that story. It also should have been the motivation for other companies and states. Sadly this was not the case as lawmakers like Frank Hargrove, and Georgia House Speaker Richardson believe that no such action is either needed or justified. In addition it would seem that a portion of the shareholders at JP Morgan felt the same.

Deneen Borelli led a charge to have the apology, and the scholarship, rescinded in the 2007 Annual Sharholder meeting today. According to Deneen Borelli,
“It's absurd for someone to apologize for the transgressions of others committed hundreds of years ago. Slavery was an abomination and blemish on our Nation's history. JPMorgan Chase's apology for slavery, along with a $5 million donation for a scholarship fund, are the fruits of a shakedown. It is the looting of shareholder assets and sets a terrible precedent.”


Continued in Part 2...

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Recent Democratic and Republican debates Part 2 - 5.8.2007.2

Continued from Recent Democratic and Republican debates - 5.8.2007.1 Part 1...

The debates couldn’t change the mind of a hummingbird, and that’s the fault of the producers and moderator. And when I was watching the Republican debate I was in a public venue. I had one person; in a crowd of 20+ people ask once what I was watching. There was no interest, and of the 3 people that I saw glance at the debate and listen for a second, they turned away just as quickly. That is the fault of the number of soundbites being bandied about and the total lack of importance that emanated from the event.

This is why I have made my letters [found at the M V Consulting, Inc. website], questioning several of the candidates. I have real issues in mind, things that affect me and the nation as a whole. I have asked for answers on issues that affect minority communities, business, healthcare and more. And so far not one candidate has responded since December 2006. As long as we do not demand real answers to these important questions, I don’t think any of the candidates have the balls to respond.

What that means for the nation is anyone’s guess right now. One thing I can say is that those that won’t ask the questions now can’t complain about who and what we get later. Our children, our grandchildren, and we will be impacted for decades by the actions of our next President. Do you want your life, and the lives of your children, to be in the hands of someone who can’t answer a question in more depth than 90 seconds, and who won’t respond to a question from the citizens themselves? Think about that.

If you agree with me, send your candidate of choice a copy of one of my letters and ask them to respond. I’ll post any response, unaltered, as soon as I receive it. Let’s remind these candidates that they are elected by the people, and are responsible to the people, not special interest groups, unions and rich donors.

My vote will not be sold on the cheap. I won’t just shrug my shoulders and flip a coin. I won’t send out my hard earned cash to the first candidate that asks for it. Neither should you. Help the nation and send out the letters, let’s remind them where the power in this democracy really lies.

This is what I think, what do you think?

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Recent Democratic and Republican debates - 5.8.2007.1

OK, I’ve played a bit of hooky. The good weather has gotten to me. But there has been something that has bugged me. The recent Democratic and Republican debates that were broadcast on MSNBC. Did anyone even see them?

My problems with the debates range from execution to interest. The debates were poorly run in my opinion. Far too many stupid questions of little relevance or impact were provided to both political parties. I mean questions like ‘who grew up with a gun in their home?’ is not relevant to whether or not the candidates are for or against gun control. [This question was asked of all the Democratic candidates, answered by a show of hands.] Another choice question that said nothing was ‘what would be your favorite tax to cut?’ [This was given to the Republican candidates.]

Questions like the above are hardly worth the time. Speaking of time, it was poorly managed. There was only 90 minutes for the entire debate, which hardly provides enough time considering the number of candidates. Added to this was the mere 90 seconds to answer a question, unless the question was cherry picked from the internet and then there was merely 30 seconds to answer. Talk about soundbites. There wasn’t enough time given to any candidate to say anything but a tagline answer. That is the candidates that were given an opportunity to answer.

Several times a question that was supposed to be asked to all the candidates was stopped mid-way through the group with a new question asked. Or the current frontrunners were directly selected to answer specific questions with lesser known candidates completely ignored. This was more obviously and painfully shown during the Republican debate. Mr. Romney dominated the airtime, with what I gather as the most questions asked and the most time to answer.

It was a joke. This wasn’t a debate; it was an extended free advertisement for each candidate. The only real question was who could look more presidential. An example is when the Democrats were asked what they would do if America was attacked 2x on the same day. It’s an odd question, why 2x, isn’t once enough? The answers were boilerplate and along party lines. Not one candidate had an answer that was straightforward. I mean what does, ‘I’d evaluate the situation and take action once I knew who was responsible.’ Really what does that mean? Every candidate answered with this response to some degree or wording. Not one said they would retaliate with force, or that they would ensure that the culprits would be chased and brought to justice regardless what rock they might hide under. I was in New York City when the Twin Towers were hit; I know and knew several people there that day. I don’t want the Presidents’ response to an attack on the citizenry to be rounds of talks at the U.N. Timeouts don’t work for children and it definitely won’t have an affect on a terrorist or nation seeking the removal of America.

Continued in part 2...

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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Awsome million dollar traffic facts - 5.2.2007.1

I decided to address the obvious for a moment. It seems that the Bureau of Justice Statistics has determined that its most recent report confirms and earlier report in 2002. What might the reports be looking into? It is now well studied and determined that African Americans and Lationo/Hispanic Americans are more likely to have an negative expirence once pulled over by the police. I know, you are sitting there shocked.

Once your amazement at this ‘newfound’ fact subsides you might be interested to know what both studies confirmed. The first thing is that roughly 10% of the driving population are pulled over, and that this figure is consistently similar for all races. Obviously this study wasn’t done in New Jersey. I recall one time where I was in a minivan with my best friend Mike, driving to a meeting when we were pulled over for speeding. While the technical answer was yes, the flow of traffic was about 70 which is what we were doing, and while we had the State Police pointing guns at us I counted 5 cars driving past at what I would guess was 85. Oh, I forgot to mention a couple of things, just before we were pulled over 3 cars passed us at about 90, and when the officers came to the window and pulled the guns on us we were in suits. The time was about 12:30 in the afternoon. But this study says being pulled over is an equal chance event. OK.

Other facts that will awe you include:

Blacks (9.5 percent) and Hispanics (8.8 percent) were much more likely to be searched than whites (3.6 percent). There were slight but statistically insignificant declines compared with the 2002 report in the percentages of blacks and Hispanics searched.

Blacks (4.5 percent) were more than twice as likely as whites (2.1 percent) to be arrested. Hispanic drivers were arrested 3.1 percent of the time.

Among all police-public contacts, force was used 1.6 percent of the time. But blacks (4.4 percent) and Hispanics (2.3 percent) were more likely than whites (1.2 percent) to be subjected to force or the threat of force by police officers.


Thank goodness for this report, because no one would ever imagine that the chance of violence against Black Americans [I wonder if Mr. Rodney King was asked about this report] and Latino/Hispanic Americans [This report couldn’t include the May 1st protest in L.A. could it?] would be roughly 400% and 200% respectively higher than to White drivers. I’m so relieved now. My life has changed. This is EXACTLY how the government should spend an unknown millions of our tax dollars. We don’t need more money in education, or to fund our soldiers in Iraq.

Yep this is where we need to spend our money. And hey, this time we even got to hear about the report. Let us count our lucky stars that the economy has improved so we could afford to tell people about this recent report, unlike the shortfall that must have prevented any public notice of the 2002 report. I mean the $100 it would cost to use PRWeb to make a press release is way too expensive.

This is what I think, what do you think?

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

About the immigration protests - 5.1.2007.1

Let’s think about what happened today. It’s May 1st and thousands of illegal aliens took to the streets throughout the nation today. Their goal was getting immigration reforms passed that would legalize their presence in the nation. Almost sounds impressive.

That is if you don’t consider the fact that these illegal aliens do not have the right to assemble, the right to free speech, cannot vote, nor have representation in the government. Those are rights of citizens of this nation. In effect they just gummed up the works in various major cities, increasing the need for police and law enforcement officials which will be paid for by myself and other citizens since these illegal aliens do not pay taxes either. That just pisses me off.

Yes I’m sure there were citizens in the crowds as well. But there were many illegal immigrants as well. Were it up to me, I would have used the manpower of law enforcement officials at the protest sites to round up as many illegal immigrants as possible and deport them all. Why this wasn’t done makes no sense to me.

I’ve seen the news all day showing various individuals complaining how may of the illegals have created families and are part of communities having lived in this nation for decades. Is this supposed to make me feel bad about their situation? The fact they have been a drain on the system for decades, and knowing that my tax dollars have helped to pay their medical bills and college tuitions without any contribution from them is not endearing to me. Do you feel bad that all the money you have paid in taxes every week and by April 15th every year goes to benefit people that NEVER pay taxes or have them taken out of their pay?[ok, not all your taxes but yet a good portion of them] Do you feel bad that there are entitlement programs in existence just to help them have better lives, and we cannot get relief or help from those same programs because we make too much money and are citizens of our own country? Makes me all warm and fuzzy.

I’ve listened to the illegal aliens and ultra-liberals cry about how families are being broken up with the current policy. But I forgot when it was I invited any of these people to come here, and then have kids. Each of them knew that if they got caught they would be deported, so it’s not a sudden risk just was added by the government. In addition, many of these illegal immigrants know that many liberal cities and officials won’t deport a family that have children (especially if the child is a citizen by being born here) who cannot support themselves. I have no doubt that some chose to have children just so the difficulty is increased. Smart plan, but highly deceptive. Hardly endearing.

Were it my choice, I’d deport the parents and the kids go into the governments care. I’d rather pay taxes for the state to raise a kid than keep their parents illegally in the nation longer. They made the choice and knew the potential problems. I don’t feel bad when the consequences of their actions come to fruition as negative actions to them.

I have to ask another question. If so many illegal immigrants have the balls to clog up our streets, protesting our laws, and making demands of us, why in the world don’t they go and change the government and laws in their own lands? Maybe for some it’s because it would take hard work, time, and there wouldn’t be any bleeding hearts waiting in the wings ready to give away their hard earned assets for no reason other than the fact they exist. Maybe that is part of the reason, maybe not. Either way they still don’t deserve any of the things we allow them to have here. The very least they could do while enjoying this free ride is to get out of the streets and stop demanding anything.

This is what I think, what do you think?

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