Chain. . .

There is a 'chain' email circulating (since about 2009) claiming that a 28th amendment to the Constitution,  purported to be written by Warren Buffet, that could easily end the deficit.  Some of the information contained therein is true.  Some is false.  And some is simply unverifiable.

But did you know . . .

Article 5 of the U.S. Constitution specifies two procedures for amendments. One method is for two-thirds of states legislatures to call for a constitutional convention at which new amendments may be proposed, subject to ratification by three-fourths of the states. The constitutional convention method allows for the Constitution to be amended by the actions of states alone and cuts Congress out of the equation — no Congressional vote or approval is required. However, not once in the history of the United States have the states ever called a convention for the purpose of proposing new constitutional amendments.

The other method for amending the Constitution (the one employed with every amendment so far proposed or enacted) requires that the proposed amendment be approved by both houses of Congress (i.e., the Senate and the House of Representatives) by a two-thirds majority in each, and then ratified by three-fourths of the states. It's probably safe to speculate that the odds that a supermajority of both houses of Congress would pass an amendment which placed such restrictions upon them are very low indeed.

. . . ?

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Forget . . .

. . . About the Ceiling. . .


Come Hear the Music at
Brewer's Alley Restaurant & Brewery
Monday
October 14, 2013
@ 7:30PM

Opening Piano Prelude by Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano

Monday Night Songwriters' Showcase (now in its eighth year!) is held on Monday evenings in beautiful downtown Frederick, MD, except during December (when we are closed after the first Monday). The program starts at 7:30 pm with a piano prelude, followed by three or four songwriters doing three songs each (lots of variety) and featured songwriter does a 45 -60 minute set.   Come and support LIVE MUSIC!

(take the elevator on the right to the 2nd floor)
124 North Market Street Frederick, MD 21701
Telephone: 301-631-0089 Fax: 301-631-1874
http://www.brewers-alley.com/

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

I'd Like To Thank. . .

. . . (getting a little ahead of myself. . . )


The Washington Area Music Awards recognize significant career achievements by area musicians. Nominations and balloting come from the WAMA membership. Past show participants include Emmylou Harris, Joan Jett, The Clovers, The Orioles, Bo Diddley, Jorma Kaukonen, Jimmy Dean, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Sweet Honey in the Rock and OHO.

Also announced at the Wammies are each year's inductees to the Hall of Fame.  Deadline: Midnight, Friday October 25

The 28th Wammies Nomination Ballot is where WAMA members vote on who they want to see on the official 28th Wammies Ballot.

You can check out the Artist & Product Registry, for an glimpse of the accomplishments of some of our local musicians. However, an artist does not have to be listed on the Artist & Product Registry to be nominated, nor does being listed guarantee a place on the Nomination Ballot.

To enter your nominations for this year's Wammies by midnight on Friday, October 25, click Nominate.

You can nominate artists who are not WAMA members, but you do need to be a current WAMA member in order for your ballot to count. Not a member? Join or renew at Membership.

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Looks Like . . .

. . . Bernie's right. . .


(from bernie@bernie.org)
It is not acceptable that a handful of right-wing extremists in the House have shut down the government and are now pushing for the United States, for the first time in our history, to not pay its bills -- precipitating a likely international financial crisis.  It is widely believed that there now exists in the House a majority of members (virtually all Democrats and some moderate Republicans) who are prepared to vote for a clean continuing budget resolution which would immediately re-open the government.  House Speaker Boehner must allow the House to have that vote.

It is also important that people understand that the real issue here is not just the desire of Republicans to defund Obamacare. At a time when the middle class is collapsing and poverty is increasing, these right-wing ideologues want to repeal virtually every piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years which protects the elderly, the children, the sick, the poor and the environment.  The truth is that ending Obamacare is just a small part of the right-wing extremist agenda, which is heavily funded by the Koch brothers and other very wealthy and powerful special interests.  Their full agenda includes privatizing Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, slashing Medicaid funding, eliminating the EPA and the Department of Energy and abolishing the concept of the minimum wage.  Needless to say, they also want more tax breaks for the rich and large corporations.  It should be clear to everyone that their long-term goal is to move this country into an oligarchic form of society in which billionaires completely control the economic and political life of this nation.

(from wikipedia.com)
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Vermont. Before serving in the Senate, he represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives and served as Mayor of Burlington.

(Can't help but mention that one of the comments on YouTube about this video, "It's a bad time when satire does a better job of reporting the story than the actual news reporters" hits it right on the head.)

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Little Men. . .

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Innocence and wisdom coexist inside their minds
Together with appreciation for the things we miss
In our haste and our big business
Always in awe of the wheels spinning round
And a laugh for the foolish things big men do

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Everybody thinks about the world and what the future brings
Who really knows the plan and all its subtleties
We're really smart at least that's what we think
Going our own way in blissful retreat
From the prospect of seeing things too clearly.

The poet said "Trailing clouds of glory we come
and we go
What do we really know
Smiling so brightly
Betraying the years they have yet to try
Those little men with that glory
Riddles and bedtime stories
Little men with that glory in their eyes

Little Men
©1993 Raymond M. Jozwiak

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Scream. . .

Robert Parry (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19242-the-white-mans-last-tantrum) presents a fascinating, still not unbelievable hypothesis that the government shutdown and potential default on U.S. credit may very well be a desperate attempt on the part of certain Republican and/or Tea Party members at white supremacy.

Paraphrased, in brief, the diverse makeup of their opposition (Democrats) is eroding the political domains of the 'white conservatives and white racists' of the former. William Buckley's principle, expressed in relation to the southern U.S. states in 1957, says “The white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically.”  Present-day Tea-Party-controlled Republicans are applying the Buckley rule on a national level. Some examples of this are "ballot security", reduction of voting hours, recent gerrymandering, endless Republican filibusters in the U.S. Senate and denial to DC citizens of congressional representations.  Right-wing billionaires are establishing and supporting a propaganda machine never seen in U.S. history. . . and now the ultimate solution of government by extortion is the result. Their message, put simply, is . . . "if the American people insist on electing Democratic presidents or enacting federal legislation to “promote the general Welfare,” the Tea Party will respond by making the economy scream. . ."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet

Broken. . .

(from http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Shutdown_Blues?src=soc_fcbks[By Charles P. Pierce])
". . . This is what they came to Washington to do -- to break the government of the United States. It doesn't matter any more whether they're doing it out of pure crackpot ideology, or at the behest of the various sugar daddies that back their campaigns, or at the instigation of their party's mouthbreathing base. It may be any one of those reasons. It may be all of them. The government of the United States, in the first three words of its founding charter, belongs to all of us, and these people have broken it deliberately. The true hell of it, though, is that you could see this coming down through the years, all the way from Ronald Reagan's First Inaugural Address in which government "was" the problem, through Bill Clinton's ameliorative nonsense about the era of big government being "over," through the attempts to make a charlatan like Newt Gingrich into a scholar and an ambitious hack like Paul Ryan into a budget genius, and through all the endless attempts to find "common ground" and a "Third Way." . . ."

What do you think?
Tell me at
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html

My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:

(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)

Also, be sure to visit:
http://www.rayjozwiak.com

Tweet