Senator Obama has consistently shown on the campaign trail that he wants to discuss the issues that we as voters are concerned about.

Amidst the constant barrage from Senator Obama’s opponent regarding his lack of experience, raising campaign funds, his plans for tax breaks and balancing the budget, he’s remained steadfast in his conviction that we as voters want to hear about the issues that are near and dear to our hearts and pocketbooks.

I find it comforting that the man, who in my opinion is the best candidate to fill the job, wants to tackle the issues that concern me. With unemployment up, banks failing, foreclosures, a volatile stock market and massive foreclosures, Senator Obama strives for change.

On his website you’ll see a quote where he states, “I’m asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington…I’m asking you to believe in yours.” You’ll also find a link to his stance on the issues at hand; you’ll also find links to things such as “The Blueprint of Change”, the full Obama Tax Plan, and more. This is a very comprehensive website that gives a voter a good grasp of what Senator Obama speaking to not only in his bid for the highest office of the land but also his goals after he is elected.

Change is driven by those who make an effort to participate in the election process. Your vote is the jump off point and what both candidates are striving so hard to gain. It’s the reason we hear so many campaign speeches, see so many advertisements and have so much discussion regarding this year’s Presidential race.

So, I implore you to take the time, research both canidates and in the end the answer will be clear. Lets give change an opportunity to better our lives!

Vote for Senator Obama on Nov. 4^th

~Kat

I’m not sure how many people outside of California have heard of Prop 8, which will ban the ability of same sex couples to marry.

According to Ballot Pedia.org the verbiage goes as such:

Proposition 8 is a proposed amendment to the California constitution which if passed into law would be known as the California Marriage Protection Act. This California ballot proposition will appear on the November 4, 2008 ballot along with eleven other statewide propositions. Proposition 8 is one of four ballot measures which propose to amend the California state constitution and appears on the ballot titled as Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.

If it passes, it will add a new constitutional amendment to the California Constitution that will say “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California” and it will be known in law as the California Marriage Protection Act^[1]

The electoral contest over Prop. 8 has attracted passionate interest, attention and dollars from around the county. Through October 20, supporters of Prop. 8 had raised about $27 million ($21.3 from Californians), while its opponents had raised $24.3 million ($15.5 from Californians). In mid-October, there have been significantly more donors of $1,000 and above to the “No on 8″ side.^[2],^[3]

Checks in the $1 million range have been written to both campaigns from wealthy backers, and the campaigns also each have tens of thousands of small donors–62,000 donors for the “Yes on 8″ campaign and over 30,000 for the “No on 8″.^[4],^[5],^[6],^[7]

While I’m a single, heterosexual female, I fully believe who are we to put into law who can marry whom.

My feeling is this if two people love each other and wish to marry, fine by me. I think that if you love someone and they are of legal age; allow them to marry if that is their wish. Allow them the same rights that any heterosexual couples are allowed. Who are we to discriminate based upon people’s personal feelings of religion. This is no different than saying that if your Christian you should NOT marry someone who is a non believer. Take the following passages from the bible.

The Bible does not forbid interracial marriages. It does, however, forbid a Christian from marrying an unbeliever: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14).
In Numbers 12:1-8 is an account of Moses marrying an Ethiopian woman. ^“And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman” (Num. 12:1).
Other Bible verses translate this as “Cush.” Cush is the ancient location of Ethiopia. Miriam and Aaron were upset with Moses because he married a Cushite woman. Cush has also been considered to be the northern part of Egypt. Either way, it is very possible that Cushite woman was of a different race.  God defended Moses for marrying this woman.  If race were an issue, this would have been a great place to set the matter straight.
Also, people of different races were not mentioned as being among those forbidden by God for Jews to marry, see Exodus 34:11. (As taken from the CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS & RESEARCH MINISTRY website)

So what makes these types of marriages, heterosexual people of different faiths, different, from those who would seek a same sex union? These kinds of marriages happen daily and yet we aren’t busy making laws against them. The bible clearly states that both are forbidden and yet we are accepting of mixed belief marriages, so before you go tossing your bible verses at why we should deny same sex marriages; remember there is an entire bible to read not just the one or two passages that make those who are against prop 8 feel justified in their beliefs. Let’s make sure that everyone is treated equally under the law.

If we are not going to allow people of the same sex to marry, then let’s not allow heterosexual couples who do not prove they are both Christian to marry?  Ridiculous you say so do I! Where does it end?

I for one am going to vote NO on this prop.

~Kat

I have to admit, I’ve become addicted to listening to CNN, Fox and various other stations as of late.

Being a registered American Independent, it has been interesting listening to the campaigns of both Barrack Obama and John McCain. I’ve listened to three debates, several campaign speeches by the two candidates, their running mates and people who are supporting their run for President.

I’ve sorted through a myriad of information being disseminated by both parties extolling the virtues of their candidate. I’ve heard about “Joe the plumber, Pat the Republican Teacher and several others who suddenly have become the best friend of one of our candidates.

But lets be honest here, what I would like to know is how will each candidate work for me, while he’s in the White House. How will he ensure that I continue to have a job, that the economy will not sink further, that health care will still be available and so on?

I get tired of the constant negative campaigning. I want to know who the best man is for the job not what the other guys ideas will do to the country while not sharing what your ideas will do for me as a citizen of this great nation. I want to tell both candidates; let your ideas get you into the White House not your ability to negatively campaign.

My vote will be going to the person, who i feel will best answer this question. “Who is the best man for the job?”  In reviewing all i know about both candidates, the man I vote for will be the one I feel best fills the requirements that I believe are required by anyone who is running for President.

I believe that Barrack Obama is the best person for the job. To date, he’s been the candidate who has been willing to discuss and focus on the issues at hand, his concern with the American and Global economy is evident in the way he approaches this campaign. He has the right attitude and while people might feel he’s inexperienced, I believe he will make sure he surrounds himself with advisors who do.

I had to chuckle today when I heard Governor Palin; she was giving a campaign speech in which she stated that if we elect Sen. Obama, the Democrats will have a Democratic President, Congress and Senate.  It seems the republicans have missed the boat, in the last 8 years of George W. Bush’s presidency; they had six of those years with a republican congress, so tell me why wasn’t this fixed at that point? I’m tired of hearing that it’s always the democrats’ fault we are in this situation. The system was broke, republicans had the chance to fix it and they elected not to until our economy tanked. So I say lets give the Democrats the same opportunity we afforded the Republicans for six years, I believe we’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So remember when you head to the polls, your vote does matter, be it your candidate wins or not. We are lucky to have the right and privilege of casting our vote for the person that we as a majority think should be in the White House, leading our great nation!

If you want to be heard, take the time on November 4^th to vote!

Best wishes to each of the candidates.

~Kat

Today the US Supreme Court came down with a ruling that I applaud. In a 5 to 4 ruling the justices have determined that the District of Columbia’s 32 year old band of hand guns is not compatible with the 2^nd Amendment.

I am of the opinion that the government is trying to control too much. From the right to bare arms to the right to smoke in ones own home. I am a non smoker, so don’t think that I believe this for my own personal gain.

I really believe that our nation was founded on certain principles and freedoms that people have spent the last 200 years trying to have rescinded. When does it stop? We live in a country that is founded on freedom not restriction. The right to bare arms is something that is fundamental. The ability to protect oneself in ones on home is even more so.

In a day and age where home break-ins are common and shootings are an everyday occurrence it’s easy to say that if we took arms away these things would stop. People point out that countries such as Canada and the UK have few if any shootings and yet guns still find their way into those countries, just as illegal drugs find a way into ours.

I find it odd that we as a nation require people to register their automobiles and transfer the title when we sell them, however anyone can buy a gun and give it to anyone without legal obligation of transferring ownership of said gun. If you want to track weapons, perhaps this would be a viable possibility.

All in all I think it was a wise decision that the high court passed down on this case and I hope that in the future the people of this country actually think long and hard before they start passing laws willy nilly that take away freedoms, after all we’re not like some countries such as North Korea or Myanmar and we do not live in a police state.

Power to the People!

To read more on this please click here

So I have to admit that this week I have been very in touch with my proverbial masculine side. I’ve spent just over a year researching, looking at, talking to friends about, pricing and dreaming about buying a LCD TV. Well I finally did it.

I called my neighbor Bill and asked if I could borrow his truck to haul it home for me, I also think I needed him along to make sure I was thinking clearly about this major purchase. Little did I realize that my ‘male’ side would pop out front and center in the store. I had decided on the brand and was still in the air on the size, my internal debate was between the merits of a 32” and a 37”. Poor Bill bore the brunt of my indecisiveness. I stood him in front of the 37” television and said well what do you think, when he replied that he liked it, I moved him over an isle in the store and said how does the picture look from here, next thing you know we’re half way across the store, looking at the television and I’m quite sure to the amusement of the folks who where selling it to me, said to him Bill look how clear it is from all the way over here. Bill replied that it was and that my living room wasn’t as big as the store so if I was happy with a 37” then I should buy it.

When we got the television home, Bill, thankfully stuck around and helped me unpack it, set it up and run through the screen features that set all the colors, sound and other dohickies that still remain a mystery to me, he then said, we have one more test, pop in that movie you bought and lets see how clear it is. It was at this point that I realized, my male side came out in the buying of this television, a 32” was still five inches larger than my old standard tube set and would have sufficed but 37” was bigger and therefore better, or so my male mind set told me. I looked at Bill and my neighbor Naomi, who had wondered over to see what the fuss was about and asked; Ok did my man side come out? Would the 32” have been just fine? I wasn’t surprised when they said in unison, “YES”.

So you would think that would be the end of my male side, but no there is more, the next day at work I was talking with my secretary and casually mentioned that I might just buy a PSP3, she said not a Wii? Once my male side popped up, before I realized what it was doing I was logged onto eBay and bidding on a Wii, then not to be finished there I searched out a few accessories for it.

Now, here I am eagerly tracking the shipment of my Wii on FedEx.com, it should arrive Monday and you better believe that I will be hooking it up with the HD cable set thingy I bought in eBay and gaming like never before.

So as you can see girls, it’s not wrong to be in touch with your masculine side now and again as long as you can control the impulse for “Bigger must be better” and yes I know that’s nearly impossible to do!

To Wii or not to Wii that is the question, but to Wii in High Definition, that just makes the male side of this Kat drool!

Have a great one!

Kat

We as Americans have been spoiled. For years we’ve given no thought to driving huge vehicles that consume vast amounts of gasoline in comparison to the miles we achieve from each gallon of gas we pump into our tanks. Now as gas prices steadily climb upwards to the 4 dollar mark and even higher, we are having heart failure over the prices we are paying at the pump.

With OPEC choosing not to open more wells to satisfy our need for more fuel, we are left with a few choices, one: downsize our vehicle to one that is more fuel efficient, two: utilize public transportation, or three: suck it up and pay the exorbitant cost per gallon of gas that we’re being hit with at the pump.

I chose option one, driving what I often call my grocery car, a little Toyota Tercel, I’m able to eek out about 35 mpg city and 40 mpg on the hwy. I commute less than 8 miles each way to work and try not to drive often on weekends, which will allow me to stretch a tank of gas often times for two or three weeks.

In a conversation with a dear friend in the U.K., we were discussing gasoline prices, petrol for you brits, at the time when we did the math they were paying the equivalent of 8 dollars per gallon, it’s no wonder they drive tiny cars, take public modes of transpiration and even on occasion feel the need to hoof it. I would too if I had to pay that kind of money for gas.

I think its fool hearty of us to believe that gas prices will go down. I remember when I paid 99 cents for a gallon of gas in 1987, I thought that it was expensive then, as prices have risen while they might dip back down for a few months they go back up, in effect lining the pockets of the gas companies, those they lobby and those they buy the raw crude from.

It’s time for us as a nation to stop whining about the prices of gasoline and start taking the steps to finding and utilizing alternative fuel sources, lets give the auto makers a reason to build and market vehicles that will in the long run only benefit us as individuals.

After reading the Grand Juries report on the Orange County Jail system, I sit back and wonder why that the issues the Orange County Sheriffs Office are facing were not dealt with as they happened. Why did it take the unfortunate death of a prisoner and the subsequent grand jury findings to bring to light the major issues that are happening within this jail system? Why was this not handled by the interim Sheriff LONG before it got to the point where he is now doing damage control and trying to explain his lack of action. I believe that putting people on administrative leave was a knee jerk reaction and in response to the Grand Jury’s findings. It’s just too little to late. It should never have taken the death of someone to spur the interim Sheriff into action, for that I say Shame on you Interim Sheriff Anderson, for not listening to your deputies, and opening your eyes beyond what you chose to see.

In each jail they have an administrative staff, who are responsible for overseeing the jails operations. So I have to ask why is it that when someone voices a concern, the administration will shelve the issue and not address and correct it at the time. With the Grand Jury finding that deputies are using their time to chat online, text message, sleep and watch television while not doing their job and putting both other guards and prisoners at risk, why is it the jail administrators have not reprimanded those who are not doing their jobs? You can not tell me that there have not been deputies who have voiced concerns with the jail system, only to be reprimanded or transferred because the administrators of a particular jail do not want to face the facts, perhaps the administrators should stop burring their heads in the preverbal sand, they should listen to those who are walking the jail beat, otherwise how can they have a true vision of what is going on down in the jail trenches.

When you work in the private sector, if you are found misusing the companies’ funds, equipment, or sleeping while you should be working, you are sure to find yourself OUT of a job. Then why is it ok for those deputies to be as we would term it LAZY. Is it because they feel that due to their time on they should be allowed to sit back and just collect a paycheck? The sad thing is those who are being lazy and not doing their jobs just don’t care, they are getting paid and that’s all that matters. It gives those deputies who do work hard at their jobs a bad name and reputation. People this is your tax dollar at work.

It was common knowledge through the law enforcement community that the former Sheriff Mike Carona was a substandard sheriff, with little or no regard for those who worked under him to uphold the law. It’s also well known that Interim Sheriff Anderson was one of Former Sheriff Carona’s “Golden Children”, a hand picked lackey put into place because he did his job by being a yes man. Now that Carona is no longer Sheriff, the interim Sheriff has his plate full, hopefully he will become proactive and face the issues at hand instead of letting them fester to the point where another person is hurt.

IF you want change then it should start from the top with someone who actually listens to what the people in his department are saying, someone who will be proactive in his approach of dealing with the jail system. Yes we all know change takes time, but the question then is how many more have to die before the interim sheriff actually steps up, stepping up when the cameras are on does no one any good nor does it bring back the lives lost in the jails that ultimately he is responsible for.

A new fulltime sheriff would be a good beginning, change will not happen until something is done there. The interim Sheriff can talk tough to the media all he want, he can try and establish policies, but those who work under him will not take as much heed to changes made as they would to someone who’s going to be with them long term.

In the orange county register I was reading through an article regarding the death of inmate at the Santa Ana jail and was surprised to see the reporter compare the Orange County Jail System with that of the Los Angeles County Jail System. No jail system is free of flaws, however it’s the handling of issues and the willingness to see what is going on by the upper echelon that makes a jail system what it is. It is regretful that people have to lose their lives in jail, however while we hear what the news has to say about the current situation, where were they as trouble happened, did they report it or do they just sit back, only to glamorize and sensationalize the current going ons.

I agree that there needs to be change in the Orange County Jail System, but instead of punishing those who actually care about their jobs and the welfare of the prisoners they deal with daily, administration should listen when deputies voice their concerns to superiors and address them, not sweep them under the rug until such time as something as sad as a death occurs. Until those who are running the jail system, actually do their job, there will be no change in sight.

Growing up, whenever we took a family trip somewhere for the day, we girls would ask my dad “Can we go to McDonalds?” Dad had a standard answer that we dreaded, “We’re going to my favorite restaurant” he’d reply. You’d hear a collective groan from the lot of us and sometimes even my mother, because we all knew that Dad’s favorite restaurant was home to a meal he’d cook.

Now as an adult, I appreciate the multitude of reasons why we ate at home. The biggest being cost factor, my parents could feed a family of five for a lot less than it would cost to take the whole passel of us out to drive thru or a sit down restaurant, the other deciding factor was the food that Dad and sometimes Mom cooked was so much healthier for us.

So as I was cooking dinner the other night a thought struck me. I keep calling friends and family for various recipes that I love. So I’ve decided to just add a link to my blog called “The Recipe Box”.

I’ve included some of my favorites along with others that have been sent to me over the years. I know that cooking for ones self while it might seem like a chore, it’s so much better for you and more cost effective to.

I hope that you take sometime to enjoy some one on one time with your kitchen trying out the various recipes that I’ve posted.

If you have something you’d like to share please email it to me, I’ll give it a whirl and post it!

Happy Cooking

Kat

Katsalterego.com is undergoing some needed updates with our software and assorted items. You might notice that there are a few flaws in past posts, I will be going back to fix them as I have time to do so.

Please bear with me while I continue to bring you fun, exciting and thought provoking postings. You are welcome to use each posts comment section, email or snail mail me with your thoughts on the various items I’ve posted about.

Thank you for your patience and continued reading!

Kat

People have allowed common courtesy to go out the window, with the advent of the belief that “I’m more important than you are”,

Things like young people not standing up on a bus to allow the aged to sit down, to driving down the freeway and being cut off by someone who absolutely must be in front of you just in case they can get to where they are going a few seconds faster.

Ever sit at a traffic light and have someone’s car thumping so loud from a sub woofer that your car shakes? They too must be much more important that you since they feel you need to listen to their music.  Oh and my favorite the people who stand there engaging in a cell phone call talking so loudly that you can hear everything they are talking about, from ex’s to sex and so on.  People we don’t want to hear your calls, that’s your business not ours.

If we all actually took a step back and thought about how our actions effect others we’d remind ourselves that common courtesy isn’t something we should let go by the way side. Take a moment to think about what you do and how it affects those around you.  Being courteous takes so little effort, so give it a try!

Have a great day!

Kat