“Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast”

wrote the popular late 17th Century English poet and playwright William Congreve.

A friend to, and a contemporary of Jonathan Swift,  William Congreve’s words have not been more true since they were first written and first spoken on stage in his tragic play The Mourning Bride in 1697.

With all the drama, trauma, wars, rumors of wars, natural weather disasters and the economic hell some predatory humans put other humans through; making it unnecessary to experience punishment in an afterlife when there is hell on earth as reality. The existence of an organization known as Playing For Change which offers welcome musical relief is a soothing balm for our world weary souls. (more…)

As if American consumers weren’t dealing with enough high costs associated with living free in the U.S. of A.  The author of the bumper sticker phrase “Freedom Isn’t Free” was correct on so many levels.

The word is out about how Time Warner that mega entertainment communications conglomerate wants you to pay more for usage of the Internet. This plan to squeeze more money from your already tight budget comes from the Cable Division of the Time Warner company. (more…)

The feds say there is no indication Thursday’s attack on the fiber optic cable belonging to telecomunications giant AT&T was an act of terrorism…

We do not know if this was an act of terrorism, the domestic kind. We can say unequivocally it was an act vandalism. It was an act that put the lives of thousands of Californians in jeopardy; in addition to affecting the wheels of commerce and interrupting the social activities of many on the Left coast.

High levels of inter connectivity and the knowledge there is no back up or safety net for this integral system, means Thursday’s incident brings to the attention of all the authorities the extent to which our telecommunications is exposed and is completely vulnerable.

What will they do to protect us?

According to police in San Jose, California, in the early morning hours of Thursday, April 9, 2009, someone vandalized fiber optic communication cables belonging to AT&T. No one so far has been able to estimate the extent of the damage caused by the unexpected interruption of service to the telephone giant’s residential and business customers in Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties.

Authorities report segments of the three counties experienced service outages at hospitals, computerized medical records, stores, Internet service and banks; ATMs and credit and debit cards were similarly affected by the sabotage. Police and fire departments that rely on 911 calls were crippled by this purposeful act of inconsideration.

Service to Verizon’s more than 52,000 landline customers in southern Santa Clara County, was also interrupted. Verizon depends on AT&T cables in the South Bay to provide landline service. (more…)

We just received an update from Food Democracy Now
informing us Dan McGlynn has been on vacation since last Thursday.

“Unfortunately, due to the high volume of responses, Mr. McGlynn’s USDA email box has exceeded capacity. This is highly unusual, but a testament to our successful efforts.”

Today, Monday, April 6, 2009 is the last day for the comment period on payment limitations in order that your voice be heard, the USDA has provided an alternative email address to send your comments.

Send comments to: Dan McGlynn via Mara Villegas at: [email protected]

Just as President Obama believes this is an important issue we, too, believe this matter is of great importance. We appreciate your continued efforts and support.

To insure your opinion is expressed:

1. You can resend your comments to [email protected]
2. Fax the letter to: (202) 690-2130
or
3. Visit Regulation.gov and send your message using the form on the website.

The deadline for sending  to the USDA your comments on the farm payment limitation rule is the close of business today Monday, April 6, 2009.

Add huge multi-millionaire  corporate farm businesses to the growing list of industries– banking institutions, auto manufacturing companies, drug makers and insurance companies, that are daily exploiting Americans.

Who among us regular folk does not want to stop corporate welfare? You can join the effort to close the loophole for millionaire corporate welfare to agri-businesses where more of our really big taxpayer bucks are given to the big time farm businesses that are putting small family owned farms out of business.

Time is of the essence. Sign the petition or send a message to Dan McGlynn, Acting Deputy Director in charge of this matter at [email protected]

President Obama in his recent speech to both houses of the federal legislature called for ending “direct payments to large agribusinesses that don’t need them.” In the president’s 2010 budget he has proposed phasing out direct payments in an attempt to save about $1 billion over the next ten years; this is seen as an indication of presidential advocacy on behalf of farm families rights to have access to and fully participate in fair market conditions (more…)

Over the weekend we heard the reporter/blog writer who alerted the public to the possibility of organic farming being outlawed is now retracting his statement. We hear Connecticut congresswoman Democrat Rose De Lauro (more…)

We want to weigh in on the non-controversy, a matter we believe is a further distraction from the important issues discussed during the President and First Lady’s recent travels abroad. An example of what we consider important is whether or not the U.S. dollar will remain worldwide currency. In our opinion this is a topic of far greater concern

than Michelle Obama’s sleeveless style or Mrs. Obama alleged breach of protocol by touching a British royal; a touch which was reciprocal, since the Queen initiated the touchy-feely expression (more…)

We do not often mention the troupe of entertainers employed a Faux News, but in order to share the headlined topic with you (more…)

The big question pertaining to the economy among the YouThinkWhat staff is, “Why is the government forcing the auto industry to be accountable for the taxpayer dollars it has received, but the banks have been allowed to do whatever they wish with the corporate welfare money they’ve been given?”

We have had much discussion about the disparity of treatment of two industries.  The chief executives in both the banking and the auto industries have made major mistakes in handling the money. Poor decisions abound.

We offer our explanation of the reason for the different treatment of the two major businesses. (more…)