“Corruption and the Late Senator Tommy Dodd”

                    
        As you all know I have this intense dislike for corruption and dishonesty. There is finally a book written by David E. Koskoff about the late Senator Thomas J. Dodd, a corrupt Connecticut politician from the past. The title is “The Senator from Central Casting” You must remember his son Chris Dodd? The guy that got in trouble while partying with Teddy Kennedy back in the eighty's. Check the link below and see the "Kennedy Dodd waitress sandwich". Now, there is a new book with the truth about Tommy Dodd, Chris’s father.…What a good feeling that is! This is a story that had to be told. I realize that people today don’t know who he was but I feel that even though a lot of time has passed, the bad things as well as the good things should be exposed. Its my understanding that Mr. Dodd was instrumental during the Nuremburg trials with the conviction of the German Officers who were responsible for the murder of millions of Jews. How do I know Tommy was corrupt? Because I lived it, that’s how…I remember my Dad talking about this crook. Dad didn’t get mad very much but in this case I remember that he was visibly upset. I was very young but I could tell because he would purse his lips and get silent, then *tsk* shaking his head slowly from side to side. At the time, Dodd was accused of taking money and new cars from people who wanted him to vote for things in return for certain favors . I remember when he got caught and hid some new cars and his Cadillac Limo in the State Garage in Warehouse Point Connecticut. I remember the license plate on the Limo said “Dodd” or Dodd 1”. In 1967 he was censured by his peers for taking those cash payments from people who wanted those favors. Dad said that, “He received a slap on the wrist”.…Snicker snicker, I can see Tommy looking over his shoulder to see if anyone is watching him pocket that cash. Years later they named a minor league baseball stadium after him in Norwich Connecticut, his home town.…I was upset because no one seemed to know that this creep was a thief and was censured for corruption years before. I just don’t think that anything should be named after you, if you are a crook. He died at age 65 in 1971. Today, his son Chris who is retired from the Washington glitter and is now an ex Connecticut Senator landed a job with a movie company….It just makes me wonder? Because of his father there is always that shadow of doubt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Dodd http://sonsoftherepublic.blogspot.com/2005/08/kennedy-dodd-waitress-sandwich.html

"Disconnected"

               
Who remembers when it was called a Telephone?
Its been almost 2 weeks now and its officially done. My telephone land line is gone. For the first time in many years I am not connected or in this case subjected to a land line. Its a good feeling not to have to pay a bill to be verbally abused by a continuous flow of phone solicitors. These days when you have a land line you become a prisoner in you own home by being harassed and continuously bothered by a non-person trying to sell you something.. Bell then AT&T were my company's for years until they were taken over by something called “Frontier“. Both phone company’s are now at the point where the customer has become a consumer, in other words a modern clone or human robot. Its feels really good now not to have a TV or a phone. My mind is my own again.

Go Out Side and play

Mom said, “Go Outside and play“!



Again, I received a brilliant message in an EM and I must pass it along. Its about the things we did when we were young and how the times have changed. I love when people with the same opinion send me neat stuff. I agree with some of this and some I don’t. but it was the way I grew up. Read on while we can still say it……..
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY? Because we were always outside, playing...that's why! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Play stations, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or Cd's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10Th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them. Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. If YOU are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: "With hurricanes, tornado's, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunder storms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
Folks that’s the way it was and I am so happy to have I lived through that wonderful time. My Mom and Dad were the best that there ever was and if I had it to do over I would do it again. My first car was a used 1951 Ford that my Dad gave me……No, I bought it for 300 dollars and paid him 15 dollars a week until I paid him back. As we get older we resist change. We fight it and we will do anything to prevent it but we can’t stop it. Change happens whether we want it or not. I guess acceptance is the answer. I guess I can still I still say that