Obama unleashes a Barack-barrage

Sen. Obama countered Rev. Jeremiah Wright by denouncing his views and his association with his campaign period. Is this too little too late?

The Reverend Not-So-Wright?

Here are some segments from Rev. Jeremiah Wright's appearance at the National Press Club on Monday the 28th. An interesting look at a troubled mind perhaps?

Tuesday's Tech Tip: Using your Quick Launch toolbar

We're working on cleaning up your messy Windows desktops. Last week we worked on pinning stuff to the top of your Start menu.

This week we're going to work on your Quick Launch toolbar. See the red arrow in the image below (click to enlarge the image)? That's the Quick Launch toolbar.













If you don't see one on your Windows XP or Vista machine, we need to turn it on:

1. Right-click on a blank spot on your the bar.
2. Select Toolbars and then
3. Select Quick Launch.

Now you should see your Quick Launch toolbar with a bunch of icons in it. If you have a lot, you can click the little arrow at the far right end of your Quick Launch toolbar to show the rest of the icons in there. Time to clean it up.

Anything you don't use every time you use your computer should be deleted. I only need FireFox and Outlook on my home machine, so those are the icons you see in the above image. Right-click on anything you don't use very frequently and select Delete in the context-sensitive menu that pops up.

Now, is there anything you need in there that isn't? If you have a shortcut icon on your desktop that you use all the time, just click on it and drag it to your Quick Launch toolbar. Delete it from your desktop.

If there's a program somewhere in your Start menu that you want in your Quick Launch toolbar, do the the same thing. Click on the program and drag it onto your Quick Launch toolbar.

Now you can mess with the order. If you want the second item in front of the first, just click and drag it into the position you want.

At this point, you shouldn't have any program shortcuts on your desktop. Why? Last week you pinned anything you use often to the top of your Start menu. Today you put anything you use almost every time in your Quick Launch bar. Anything else you use so infrequently you can live with firing it up from your Start menu --> All Programs list.

Here's another Quick Launch tip for Vista users: See the order the icons are in? Say you want to open up the 2nd program instantly. See the Windows key on your keyboard in between the CTRL and ALT key on the left? The one that opens up your Start menu? Hold down the Windows key and tap "2". That opens up the second program in your Quick Launch toolbar instantly.

Next week: Cleaning up your Windows notifications area

Change Congress

Anyone here familiar with Change Congress? One of the founders is Lawrence Lessig, the big brain from Stanford Law who's behind Creative Commons.

Change Congress is a national movement to end corruption in America's congress. We're organizing citizens to push candidates to make four simple commitments:

1. No money from lobbyists or PACs
2. Vote to end earmarks
3. Support reform to increase Congressional transparency
4. Support publicly-financed campaigns

Check out the site, it's a great resource. There's a map on the front page that shows the amount of PAC money going to various districts (the sludgier the color the more PAC money). You'll note that our own -- the 19th District -- is one of the few light spots in the US, because of Todd Platts refusal to take PAC money. Go York!

The site also features a Citizen's Pledge and a Candidate's Pledge. Citizens and candidates can pledge to some or all of the four Change Congress principles. The site lets you track the candidates' pledges.

Link to Change Congress.

Join in on The Gary Sutton Show today, April 29, 2008

Welcome to the Voices from Main Street blog sponsored by WOW Cafe and Wingery!

It's the home opening day for the York Revolution Baseball Team today as we do our show LIVE from Sovereign Bank Stadium. We welcome you to contribute before, during, and after the show on any of the subjects we discuss or debate today.

The "Reverend Wright Tour" is not making the Obama folks too happy, and meanwhile, a new poll shows Hillary Clinton with a 50%-41% over Senator McCain in a possible general election matchup.

The Supreme Court has decided that ID cards are legal in an election. Why are Dems so against this, and Repubs so much for it?

Finally, has baseball been good for York, and were you a "doubting Thomas" who has changed your mind, or do you still see no benefit?

Don't forget to listen to the game with Darryl Henry and me tonight starting with pre-game at 6:05 on Newsradio 910 WSBA!

What is true?

What is true? Here's a simple flowchart that will help guide you in your search for truth (click to enlarge).

New poll: Where do you get your news?

There's a new poll up -- where do you get your news?

You can select multiple items.

And remember, you can always change your vote before the poll closes. Just click on "change your vote."

Poll results: How long have you listened to the show?

How long have you listened to the show?

Less than a year - 22%
1-3 years - 19%
3-7 years - 25%
8 years - 32%

Obama's honeymoon is on the rocks

Barack Obama’s honeymoon with the media may well be over.

His rhetoric has turned into a double-edged sword which took him to great heights because of its regular man soaring possibilities, but has now become the kind of cryptic, almost Clintonian kinds of answers to troubling questions that leave us as a nation feeling unfulfilled.

For a man with an oratorical gift like the Senator, and one who constantly talks about clearness, and transparency, he missed a great opportunity portraying those qualities by not telling us what “earlier controversial comments” he had heard his pastor Jeremiah Wright utter. The fact that he understates the controversy of Wright’s remarks as simply a “distraction” instead of a defining moment that could help people trust him or not is an error in judgment for a man with a considerable intellect.

People walk away from that answer with a feeling that this is the same old political hack who holds an arrogance that we have seen emanating from Washington for years -- the same Washington that Barack Obama is trying to distance himself from, and the type of political hack he constantly criticizes.

Add to that the tortured oral bumbling in trying to explain how an association with William Ayres, a bombing member of the Weather Underground is nothing more than a “manufactured issue” and you have a candidate whose high-flying words have been grounded, at least for the moment.

It seems to me that what will raise his message back up is clear and plain talk about all issues, whether he thinks they are important or not. I’m Gary Sutton.

Rev. Wright attempts to set the record straight

Here are the 4 clips from his appearance on Bill Moyers' PBS TV show. What do you think of his response?





Enjoy and discuss!

The Greatest Sports and Social Trivia Question of All Time!

Okay, here's the best question ever, and it will take some work and patience to get it.

You have to have some sports knowledge, but really more awareness of social stuff and current events over the years. Anyway, if you get the whole thing right, we will provide 5 different dinner dates at WOW plus a couple of tickets to a York Revolution Game for the ultimate winner. I will drop hints if needed, but for this group, I don't think that will be needed very often. I also will tell you up front, and again I might be wrong, I don't think these answers are collectively in any one place.

So, here we go with the Greatest Sports and Social Trivia Question of All Time:

Since 1954, there have been only 5 times (Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods cannot be given as answers) where the same people, animals or teams have appeared on the covers of both Sports Illustrated and Time magazines in the same week. Name those 5 people, animals, or teams.

Guess in "fives" rather than one at a time with your answers. I'll let you know what's right and what's not along the way. Good luck, and have fun!

Either/Or! Just pick one , support it, and tell us why!

Burping in public or flatulence? Run with it, and have a little fun.

What are you doing to combat and overcome gas prices?

Carpooling, conservation, or other forms of transportation -- what are you doing and what suggestions can you make for dealing with the astronomical gas prices? Let's hear 'em right here!

Pro and con racism -- some thoughts

So much has been written about and alluded to carefully about race and racism in this presidential campaign that I think it’s time for us as human beings to remove “carefully” and insert “starkly” into this conversation.

Racism is disliking , discriminating, and hating someone simply because of their color of skin. It’s wrong, it’s ugly, it’s narrow-minded, it’s despicable, and it’s ignorant. It’s also real though many of us would deny it. The problem of racism is that it has multiple ownership with many of those proprietors of hate not realizing the stake they have made.

Think about it; if you think Barack Obama is the best candidate , but you won’t vote for him because he is a black man, then you are a racist. Yes? So let’s offer another side to this and see how it fits. Suppose you think that Barack Obama is not the most well-qualified candidate in your mind and heart, but you vote for him because he is black whether you are or not. You are also a racist. Yes? Why? Because race is the only basis for your decision.

Racism is a convenient substitute for thinking because it is easier to resort to the primal stupidity, ignorance, narrow-mindedness and hate inherent in such a feeling. Our better angels tell us that the only thing that really matters in this election, or any event where race is involved is the content of character and leadership of a man or woman. If Barack Obama becomes the Democratic presidential candidate, and ultimately president, it should be only because of his qualifications.

Unfortunately, we’re not there yet; race is too important to too many, but when we break the barrier without discussing race as a barrier, then we as the human race will have matured beyond pro and con racism, and we all will win. I’m Gary Sutton.

Who's been raising gas prices

No surprise.















(click to enlarge)

Start rollerblading to work?

Ouch.

Yep, you guessed it ... Bill's at it again!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the political waters, Pres. Clinton drops a bit more of his classic "Clintonese" on all of us. This time it was about the Obama campaign and race. Just what did the `ol Billy-Baroo have to say? Check it out below.



But WAIT, you didn't think he would actually tell anyone he said that, did you?



Ah yes, the Rosetta Stone of politics needed to decipher Clintonese still gets the job done, and we all find out what we already know. It still depends on what is ... is.

Tuesday's Tech Tip: Pin stuff to your Start menu

Let me be frank, people: I've seen your desktops and they are even more cluttered and messy than your real desktops.

Cluttered? Messy? I've given it some more thought and cluttered and messy isn't sufficiently accurate. I'm going to use words like apalling and landfill-like.

We're going to spend some of these Tuesday's Tech Tips on cleaning up your Windows XP and Vista desktops.

We're gonna start with, well, your Start menu. That's what the red arrow is pointing at in the image below (you can click on it to enlarge).













Take a second to look at that desktop. What don't you see on it? How about:

1. Install programs for stuff I already installed
2. Desktop shortcuts for programs
3. Files that I don't actually need immediate access to

For now, let's focus on programs you use frequently. If you look at the top of the Start menu in the above image, you'll see four such programs above the horizontal line -- Firefox, Outlook, iTunes and TomTom Home.

They are pinned to the top of my Start menu. They are always above that line. Let's clean that up your pinned items on your Start menu.

1. Open your Start menu
2. Right-click on the icon of any program you don't use or only use rarely
3. A context-sensitive menu opens. Click on "Unpin from Start menu"

Do this for any program currently pinned that you don't use or don't use often. Now we need to pin any programs that you do use often.

1. Open your Start menu.
2. Go to "All Programs" and right click on any program you use frequently.
3. A context-sensitive menu opens. Click on "Pin to Start menu".

Now your Start menu has pinned programs that you use often and that's it. Delete the shortcuts for these programs from your desktop (click on the shortcut icon on your desktop and click the "Delete" button or manually drag it into your trashcan).

That's it. In future Tech Tips I'll show you how to use your quick launch bar (the little area to the right of the Start button), how to clean up your notification area (the area to the far right that has the little clock in it) and how to continue cleaning up your desktop.

Today (and tonight!): What are your thoughts on this Primary Election Day 2008?

The Gary Sutton Show will be on location this morning from 9-12 noon at Jackson School (polling place) at 177 East Jackson Street.

Tonight from 8-11p.m., the Gary will have a special "Election Night Show" from "Celebrations" at Sam and Tony's Restaurant. This will be a call-in show and will include guests and "Man-on-the-Street" interviews throughout the evening.

Reflect on the day and share your comments with us here on the WOW Blog.

Consider this before you vote!

As you go to the polls to vote in the primary, I want you to consider the words of French philosopher Frederic Bastiat when he defined the main fault of politicians in our society.

He described this fault as legal plunder and told us we can easily see it as citizens when, “the law takes from some persons what belongs to them and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong.”

In other words, the law benefits one citizen or a group at the expense of of another citizen or group of same by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

With that definition in mind, then, you have three choices tomorrow and again on Tuesday November 5th. You must choose one of three ways to deal with the legal plundering that has changed this country and the idea of individual rights radically over the years. Here are the three ways to settle legal plunder. You must accept one of these:

1. The few plunder the many. (That’s happening now!)

2. Everybody plunders everybody. (That’s happening because we think Number one is ok.)

3. Nobody plunders anybody. (That is not happening at all, but it sure seems like the way it should be, right?)

As you consider your choices today, think about who is closest to number 3, and you might find a good candidate who understands what liberty and freedom should be in the United States. I’m Gary Sutton.

Musings from a non-progressive person about politics, illegal invasions, and how the government enables.

You might be interested in the following information which seems to have become unimportant to many Americans.

Musings from a Silly Non-Progressive American on CHANGE! Is this what we want when we talk change? Oh, by the way, weren't all 3 major SENATORS part of this change that we have heard so much about during the campaign?

CHANGE- Part 1
In just one year. Remember the election in 2006? CHANGE HAS ALREADY HAPPENED -- Because a little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;

2) Regular gasoline sold for a $2.19 average per gallon;

3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.

CHANGE - Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:

1) Consumer confidence plummet;

2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 average a gallon;

3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);

4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);

5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;

6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

America voted for change in 2006, and we got it! Remember it's Congress that makes law not the President. He has to work with what's handed to him.

CHANGE Part 2:

Taxes -- whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.

www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

GOOD OL' DAYS Taxes under Clinton 1999

Single making 30K - tax $8,400
Single making 50K - tax $14,000
Single making 75K - tax $23,250
Married making 60K - tax $16,800
Married making 75K - tax $21,000
Married making 125K - tax $38,750

vs THOSE UNFAIR TAXES under Bush 2008
Single making 30K - tax $4,500
Single making 50K - tax $12,500
Single making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K - tax $18,750
Married making 125K - tax $31,250

CHANGE - Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates. It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever. If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can't wait for it to happen. CHANGE is all that matters (and all they will have left). This is sort of like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of their money and they don't even know what happened....until it is TOO LATE....

CHANGE PART 3:

You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this:

Boy, am I confused. They say it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us; I find that to be RIDICULOUS. I hope that you will carefully consider the following 14 reasons as to why they don't make sense.I have included the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each year by state governments. Verify at http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. Verify at http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens. Verify at http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a word of English! Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies. Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens. Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7, 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens. Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Verify at http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused by the illegal aliens. Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem in the US. Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border. Verify at Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, 'estimated that the total cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period.' Verify at http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances back to their countries of origin. Verify at http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. 'The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States .' Verify at http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR; which is NOT SPARE CHANGE.

When disaster strikes

There has been some irresponsible talk that would lead a reader to believe that there are greater threats to your well-being than Olav.

Yet what do we see when disaster strikes?

Judge yourself after seeing this troubling photographic evidence (click to enlarge):















Concerned? You should be.

Welcome, Irish readers!

Welcome, Irish visitors to our blog! My experience with Ireland is limited to a couple of hours in Shannon's airport (reputedly the birthplace of Irish Coffee).

You know the public announcements person who reads stuff in the airport like "Delta 305 is arriving from Philadelphia"? Well, Shannon Airport had a woman with the sexiest voice you ever heard reading those announcements. I bet if I found her she'd have a mustache and weigh 400 pounds or something equally horrifying, but, man, what a voice.

I'd love to get back and see Ireland, the ancestral homeland of the O'Vidyarthi Clan (from way southern Ireland).

I did a little research and learned from Dave Barry that

A typical Irish town consists of several buildings, one of which is always a bar, called a "pub." Next to this there will typically be another pub, which is adjacent to several more pubs. Your larger towns may also have a place that sells food, but this is not critical.

Yeah, I need to visit there.

April 17: Today's show

Jump in a discuss today's show! Just click on the word "comments" below to join the discussion.

What's on deck? All kinds of topics, but right now it's last night's debate and the middle class.

Speaking of the middle class, check out this post from a couple weeks ago to see how the Congressional Research Service tried to define the middle class.

New poll: How long have you listened to the show?

Last week, Gary's show hit the eight year anniversary. How long have you been listening to the show?

For the record (if April 10 is the correct birthdate), the Main Street of America shares its birthday with such luminaries as John Madden, Omar Sharif, Mandy Moore and famed thespian Steven Seagal.

There will be 9 candles on the show's cake next year. Those 9 candles produce 9 BTUs,
or 2,268 calories of heat (that's only 2.2680 food Calories!). You can boil 1.03 ounces of water with that many candles.

And that's one to grow on. Yo, Joe!

Poll results: Did Obama's speech do it for you?

Poll results: Did Obama's speech do it for you? (on the Rev. Wright brouhaha).

Yes - 40%
No - 46%
Haven't decided - 12%

Wild, Wacky, Wierd Wednesday!

Those 4 W's are in full effect today as the Gary Sutton Show tackles many subjects including: Why people are tired of "Change" in this election run, a ridiculous plastic bag tax, a U.S. Supreme Court case (from a Louisiana case) on whether or not it is "cruel and unusual pubnishment" for someone to get the death penalty for raping children.
Feel free to call in at 1-800-357-0910 or make a post here on the blog to dive headfirst into the action.

An archetype of violence in mythology

I was reading about Joseph Campbell and the notion of recurring archetypes in mythology. It's pretty interesting stuff!

I spent some time researching some old myths and one particular archetype -- an archetype of violence -- kept popping up.

Yeah. It's Olav. (Click to enlarge)















I can't say I'm surprised. I am concerned, though. As the evidence of the Olav threat mounts, our do-nothing government continues to studiously ignore the threat. What will it take for a genuine plan to defend us from Olav?

And will the invisible hand of the International Hallway Monitor Cabal continue to lie to people about the Olav Threat?

Excuse me, sir, is this the Delta House?

Sure ... come on in!

On today's Gary Sutton Show there will be discussion for all. Jimmy Carter's visit to Hamas, the Race for the Presidency, and more! Feel free to call in at 1-800-357-0910 and dive headfirst into the action.

Tuesday's Tech Tip: Talk to a human

Are you tired of calling toll-free numbers for assistance and then fighting your way through hundreds of prompts? Wanna talk to a human instead of a droid?

Use GetHuman.com.

You'll find an alphabetical list of companies, their phone number and instructions on how to get a human on the line.

The instructions for Belkin Tech Support, for example, says: "At prompt press 2263; press 1 at each prompt thereafter."

Link to GetHuman.com

Are YOU a bitter Pennsylvanian?

Obama's remarks about PA's working class voters

Last week, presidential candidate Barack Obama raised the ire of many a voter in PA when he said that, "working-class voters are bitter over their circumstances and cling to guns, religion, and anti-immigrant attitudes as a result." Below is a video of his remarks about this given in Steelton this past weekend.

The Tax Eve Show (also Mrs. Sutton's birthday)

Throw down today from 9 to noon!

Today (4/14), in addition to being Tax Eve, is also Mrs. Sutton's birthday, the number of which I will obviously not divulge here because I want to remain monastery-free. I mention this not because my wife deserves the attention, though I love her very much, but rather because of the various anniversaries on which her birthday fall.

This did cause some alarm for me before we married when I realized that this is the date that the Titanic struck the iceberg (again no comparison between my wife and self) and the date on which Abraham Lincoln was shot. You can only imagine my dismay. However, I was able to rationalize it out in true Clintonian fashion by coming to grips with the fact that the finality of both acts did not occur until April 15th.

Oh yeah, we have Terry Madonna on the show this morning to comment on last night's presidential forum in Grantham , PA at Messiah College. One of the biggest buzzes is about Obama's gaffe concerning us gun-toting, anti-immigrant, god-fearing types here in the rural wilds of PA.

Speaking of immigration,why aren't the candidates talking about it more? Mayor Lou Barletta joins me at 9:30 to offer his insights. If the president wouldn't attend the Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Beijing, wouldn't it make sense to just cancel the Olympics as far as U.S. involvement? Where do you stand? This, too, will be a matter of discussion today.

Finally, former President Jimmy Carter is going to Syria to meet with the senior leadership of Hamas. Carter has been counseled that meeting with the "foreign terrorist organization" was not in the interest of U.S. foreign policy. We'll get Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy Frank Gaffney's evaluation of the action and trip by the former president. Full menu today, and lots to comment on as well. Have a great one, and don't forget to read my post on the beginning of all problems which is obviously "walking on the right side of the hall." Enjoy! GS