In Remembrance of Stuart White

Stu White died yesterday, October 23 after a long bout with cancer. Stu was a drummer I had played with in one of many bands since moving to Richmond, called Betty Kane and the Hurricanes. We played mostly blues and R&B songs Betty had done in her heyday as a touring pro. We played a few gigs and and the band lost momentum as many bands do. Blues doesn't really draw in bars these days. I enjoyed getting together with Betty, Stu and Brad Jordan on bass, spending time learning songs and making plans.

I had met Stu through another group that included Stu, John Moore on bass Frank Brewer on keyboards that did similar music. John throws a great party at his house twice a year. The parties are always a jam session with a close-knit family of lifelong Richmond musicians, but open to anyone who wants to have a good time and play some music. Friends come to jam, enjoy a pot luck dinner and each others company. I would see Stu and play a couple songs with him at these parties. The last time I saw him was at one of John's jam parties. Stu had already been through a bout of cancer, hopeful that the doctors had been able to cure him, but as too often happens, the disease reemerged worse in another area of his body. I missed the last party, and I regret it. I might have seen Stu one last time. I can't thank John enough for having these parties and for including me in a wonderful gathering of this group of people.

I didn't know Stu all that well but I will miss him. He was just one of those guys everyone will say was a "nice guy" a great guy, an unfailingly polite guy with a ready smile who would make you feel great when he saw you. Stu was married and divorced and had three children. He had lost a child from an illness, an unimaginably painful experience for a parent. Stu enjoyed a long and stable career at Philip Morris and was enjoying a comfortable early retirement, courtesy of a great PM retirement package. John Moore called to tell me about Stu's passing and said that although he was on life-support and presumably unconscious, he waited for his ex-wife and their two surviving children to visit the hospital before letting go. I'm glad he got to "see" his kids one more time, enjoy his retirement time, glad he enjoyed the company of many good friends.

When we lose someone we think of things we wish we had done, a phone call we could have made , a visit we thought of but failed to do, photos we didn't take, recordings we didn't make. People are so precious, so fragile. Stu's passing will, I hope, teach me to go the extra step to share time with people because after all, we will lose everyone sooner than we think we will.

May God bless and keep you Stu.

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Just what you wanted, politics from a musician, but this is important so it must be said at every opportunity before it's too late.

"The problem with Socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people's money."

Margaret Thatcher

What if we boycotted businesses in states that voted for Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Charles Rangel & Harry Reid?

Corruption Gone Wild

Van Jones "whites are poisoning people of color" "The white man wants immigrants to work in the field so he can poison them", Acorn - voter registration fraud, tax fraud, loan fraud, child prostitution enablers, Cass Sunstein "an adult horse has more ability to reason than an infant child" (and should have more rights), Zeke Emanuel- death panels, Genral Motors takeover, liberal media blackout, Cap and Trade ("electricity bills will necessarily skyrocket") "Noone earning under $250,000 will pay increased taxes, not one dime.", backroom deals with BIG Pharma, GE Goldman Sachs etc. Tax cheats at every level from Fed Chair Geithner to Chair of Ways and Means Committe Rangel, black vs white, rich vs poor, upper vs lower, older vs young, apologizing for America's "colonialism", bowing to the Saudi King, persecuting our CIA, closing Gitmo, bringing our troops home, asking people to snitch on their neighbors "fishy" emails, calling anyone who does not support his plan dishonest, telling them he will "call them out", welfare checks referred to as tax cuts, cash for clunkers, a $3 billion waste, $787 billion pork "stimulus" bill including $6 BB for Acorn), "astroturf", "Give mother a pill" instead of life prolonging health care, unemployment reaches 9.7%, SEIU thugs beat up peaceful Tea Party attendees, town hall meetings, "I inherited the problem", Drs will take tonsils out instead of treating a sore throat, demon insurance company executives, demon bank execitives, demon doctors, demon oil companies, demon profits, demon Tea Party goers, demon whites, "social justice" energy independence while prohibiting oil drilling?Veterans, "Your Life Your Choices' brochure = Semper Fi ! but don't be a burden to your family (or the government if you are injured) "we are not a Christian country"

We'd like to support our president, but he makes it impossible for anyone who loves America. When will you wake up? Obama makes a new speech to the world about every two days. He is massively overexposed which is good. This will work in our favor, and it will not take much longer as more people are beginning to understand his politics, and politics in general for the first time. Axelrod, Emanuel and company are proving Obama is the great divider, polarizing any group that can be identified. To quote rapper Jay Z "no more white lies, we got a black man as prez. " nice...

"Hubris-laden charlatans" was the way a recent e-mail from a reader characterized the Obama administration. That phrase seems especially appropriate for the Charlatan-in-Chief, Barack Obama, whose speech to a joint session of Congress was both a masterpiece of rhetoric and a shameless fraud.

To tell us, with a straight face, that he can insure millions more people without adding to the already skyrocketing deficit, is world-class chutzpa and an insult to anyone's intelligence. To do so after an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has already showed this to be impossible reveals the depths of moral bankruptcy behind the glittering words.

Did we really need CBO experts to tell us that there is no free lunch? Some people probably did and the true believers in the Obama cult may still believe the President, instead of believing either common sense or budget experts.

Even those who can believe that Obama can conjure up the money through eliminating "waste, fraud and abuse" should ask themselves where he is going to conjure up the additional doctors, nurses, and hospitals needed to take care of millions more patients.

If he can't pull off that miracle, then government-run medical care in the United States can be expected to produce what government-run medical care in Canada, Britain, and other countries has produced-- delays of weeks or months to get many treatments, not to mention arbitrary rationing decisions by bureaucrats.

Obama can deny it in words but what matters are deeds-- and no one's words have been more repeatedly the direct opposite of his deeds-- whether talking about how his election campaign would be financed, how he would not rush legislation through Congress, or how his administration was not going to go after CIA agents for their past efforts to extract information from captured terrorists.

President Obama has also declared emphatically that he will not interfere in the internal affairs of other nations-- while telling the Israelis where they can and cannot build settlements and telling the Hondurans whom they should and should not choose to be their president.

One of the secrets of being a glib talker is not getting hung up over whether what you are saying is true, and instead giving your full attention to what is required by the audience and the circumstances of the moment, without letting facts get in your way and cramp your style. Obama has mastered that art.

Con men understand that their job is not to use facts to convince skeptics but to use words to help the gullible to believe what they want to believe. No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing. That is the core of Barack Obama's administration.

President Obama tells us that he will impose various mandates on insurance companies but will not interfere with our free choice between being insured by these companies or by the government. But if he can drive up the cost of private insurance with mandates and subsidize government insurance with the taxpayers' money, how long do you think it will be before we have the "single payer" system has he has advocated in the past?

Why do people want the country to be in debt for $9 trillion? Why does the U.S. news media want this?

Why do people still blame Bush for deficits when Obama has increased the deficits by over 400% in 6 months?

Why is the president's "Green Jobs" czar an avowed communist and vocal proponenet of Hugo Chavez?

How many U.S people know that Chavez stays in power by giving money he makes from abundant Venezuelan oil to the people? How many of those people believe there is a simlar source of money in the U.S.?

Why would we give $2 billion to a Brazil to drill for oil and prohibit American companies from doing so?

Why are China and Russia now drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and the Carribean and we are not?

Is it a coincidence that both the leaders of the Weather Underground are now close advisors to Obama?

Do you want to pay for and wait in line after every illegal alien and non U.S. citizen for a doctor visit? If congress passes it's bill which allows for this, would the U.S. not be a magnet for every sick person in the world, multipying your cost and wait?

"I am a proponenet of a Public Option" two years later, "I never said I wanted a Public Option" both quotes on video from your president. Why does everyone ignore this?

Why would liberals put the lives of thousands of Americans at risk of terrorist attack so we can say we don't torture terrorists? (By torture we mean yell at them, scare them or trick them). Whose side are they on?

Did you know that the NAZI's started out by taking over the financial, auto and health care industries in Germany in the 1930s?

There are so many people who believe strongly that what the administration is doing is wrong. Why are they afraid to put a bumper sticker on their car saying so? Are they worried about violence against them if they do?

What if there was a bumper sticker that just said "Sorry, I got it wrong"? How many would you see if everyone this applied to showed one?

Can anyone name a successful government run program that has not dramatically increased in cost while decreasing in service?

Did we help the environment by creating millions of scrap cars with your money in Cash for Clunkers?

Why to liberals claim "racist" when any of these questions is raised? What do these questions have to do with race?

Why are the Town Halll protestors holding hand made signs while pro Obama protesters have professionally made signs if the "anti" group is "astroturf" (fake grass-roots) funded by big business?

If congress is supposed to represent the people, why are they trying to sell us a plan we don't want?

How many of those who voted Democratic in the last election thought these things were going to happen?

If we can tax and spend our way out of debt, why has it not worked California, Michigan, the Soviet Union etc...?

If the stimulus plan was so urgent, why has most of the money not been spent?

How many jobs are created with a grant that studies the sex drive of rats under the influence of methamphetamine?

If the economy is out of the recession why do we need to spend the other 85% of the "stimulus" money?

What percentage of U.S. citizens understand that the money the government spends comes from people and businesses that employ us? What percentage thinks the government just prints what it needs without consequesnce? Do these folks know how much a trillion is?

What happened so that the former demon "pharnaceutical companies" are now putting on a $150,000 pro health plan ad campaign? Was some kind of deal made?

What would happen to all the employees of insurance companies if there was a government option for health care?

Why do 70% of Canadians pay for their own heath care privately if they can get it from the government?

Why is the British health authority the third largest employer on the planet? (and no, these aren't doctors)

Which way do all those "administrators" vote when the idea of changing things come up?

I'm just askin'

Listen to Michelle Malkin, author of the new book Culture of Corruption. She appears here on the Today Show with Matt Lauer and speaks the truth so many do not wish to hear. She is highly articulate, intelligent and her book well researched.

http://www.wikio.com/video/1472783

It is becoming increasingly evident that the Obama administration and congressional democrats will do anything to gain control of our lives. They will control our incomes with taxes, control our energy and automobile use and with "Cap and Trade" , control business growth, the driver of all job creation by demonizing any business that makes a profit, banks, autos, insurance, and now doctors who might remove a child's tonsils for profit all have been demonized by the president. If they control health care they effectively run every aspect of our lives. They are very smart in the methods they employ, ramming through the "stimulus" bill to save our country from "imminent collapse". If the urgency was so great, why has only 10 % of the money been allocated? Of course I am not complaining about the slow rate of their spending since almost all the projects are pork and more government enmployees designed to get the democrats reelected. The bill was a big "thank you" present from the president to the liberal congress for getting him elected. They live by the rule "never let a good crisis go to waste" so now everything they want to pass is an "urgent crisis". People are begining to spot a trend and take pause. None of what they are doing is for the good of the people but to increase the power of a few at the top.

The audacity of their word-smithing shows their disingenuous nature as every press message is crafted to say what they want the ignorant, complacent and uninformed among us to think while doing just the opposite. The administration wants more unemeployment because it will add to the rolls of people who depend on the govenrment for aid when taxpayers can not afford to pay a nickle more. Pay attention, whenever Obama or the real president, David Axelrod are asked a question they do not want to answer they beging by saying "First of all" and then redirect the topic to whatever point they want to make while never answering the question. Check it out next press conference. In the meantime the Democtrats have this magical communicator through which to convince the susceptible of whatever he seems to say, even when he doesn't say it. For some reason, if you don't like his policies, "you're a racist". Huh?

Since there has been an actual decrease in the world temperatures over the past ten years there has been a subtle shift in the term "global warming" to what they now call "climate change". This allows them to create crises that do not exist so they can rush through more spending and restriction on our personal freedom. Hitler's "changes" against the Jews were at first very subtle until the general population started hunting them and turning in their neighbors for rewards or to avoid threats by the government. Indeed, Al Gore has won a Nobel Prize for his ranting on global warming while becoming a billionaire investing in companies that will benefit from government spending. Certain huge companies a have made worthwhile investments in Obama even though he is virulently anti business. General Electric already has GE Cap and Trading ready to go should the bill pass the Senate. Goldman Sachs is well positioned to profit from all liberal policies recording profits while taking TARP money from our taxes.

Republicans are not much better because it was George Bush who signed into law the Medicare Prescription Bill knowing full well Medicare, Medicaid AND Social Security were headed for insolvency. It was also George Bush who signed the law banning the incandesecent lightbulb in favor of the mercury packed poisonous curly q things we are encouraged to use. The disclaimers for cleaning up a broken curly Q "compact florescent" bulbs include calling a hazmat team (government run of course) for which one could be charged thousands of dollars, FOR A Broken BULB! Oh by the way, incandescent bulbs are made in the USA. Curly Qs are Chinese. Bye bye more American jobs!

Our representatives do not represent the will of the people and we must get their attention or fire them all. Call and write your representatives today and every day. Recently, democratic congresspeople have gone back home and have liteally been laughed at by their constituants for the silly claims they have made. People are beginning to wake up to the Dismantler in Chief and his band of meery spendthrifts in the land of no checks and balances.

Obama watched without a care or clue as the stock market plummeted. You would think he would want the stock market to grow since as the baby boomers withdraw what used to be trillions of dollars from their IRAs the taxes would support the agenda on the spending he wants but no, he seems to want to bankrupt the country. The Democrats win when they create a devide between rich and poor, black and white, male and female, young and old. This keeps us squabbling on non-issues while they steamroll their insidius agenda.

Reparations? They are already here folks. What do you call it when Sonia Sotomayor prevents fireighters from getting the promotions they earned because of their race? What do you call it when a minority individual can get into George Washington University with average grades AND have the government (meaning you and me) pay for it. I can't afford to send my kid to GW and would love the same opportunity, but alas, I am white and will have to pay for someone's forefathers sins of having slaves. But I never did this, and no one alive today was a slave tand I never received a dime from my ancestors that would have given me an advantage over anyone else in this country. Many of those who voted for Obama thought they were going to get a free house or car. Since they haven't they are growing restless. Anyone with any clue how economics works realizes that Obama's polices are not only Socialist, but Communist and can only destroy jobs and wealth. The more he destroys and the more pain he inflicts, the more people who will vote for the government to help them, We can only hope that by the next election 51% of the people begin to understand what is happening. Of course there are many who would like to have your money. That's the way Socialism works, by demonizing anyone who has more than you. They take your money and give it to someone else to buy their vote. Diabolical in its simplicity.

Cap and Trade? This is a tax on anything creating heat or emmiting carbon. We exhale carbon dioxide. Trees need it to live. This is a tax on life itself. I believe Al Gore's original intentions were good when he made his first claims about global warming but these claims have been refuted by hundereds of scientists who for some reason have been kept off the news. Climate change is a hoax that plays on the indealistic among us who will do almost anything to be GREEN. You are being used folks, dupes of the government. Sorry.

Why IS the news media ignoring the endless, almost daily events that expose the administrations real aganda? I have no idea other than their bosses and owners have been paid off to make it so. Why else would CNN, MSNBC and the major newspapers headline articles on Obama's dog, Michelle Obama's muscle tone and haircut when the real issues of the day are dismantling the greatest economy the world has known? Why has Obama never said word one about the greatness of our country, instead apologzing for our "colonization" of other countries which we have never done. If we had wanted to the U.S.A could have colonized and owned half the world that it has defended and set free over the past century, but this is not our objective. We spent and fought and died for the rights of everyone from France to Somalia from the greatness of our souls and to do what was right. So Obama is ashamed of this.

The health care bill? The president appears on TV and lies again and again claiming the plan will decrease costs, allow people to keep the plan they have, and that he has the support of the AMA and a laundry list of others who DO NOT support this ludicrous 1017 page bill. Why does he want to dismantle everything that is working better than every other systenm in the world to move toward a planless concept that has been tried and reapeatledly failed? My own Mother had back problems. Her doctor prescibed she wear a back brace just like the ones you see Home Depot employees wear. How much do you think they cost? My Mother's doctor billed medicare $1,750 for the belt. When we tried to report the Medicare fraud the abuse hotline was never avaialble. There was nobody home. This is what happens with govenment run programs NOW. What happens when they control all of our lives?

There has always been some kind of entrancing effect that Obama has on certain people when he says things, these people interpret his comments the way they want to hear them. Senior citizens believe they will benefit from the health care bill when in fact Obama has said loud and clear that they are not worth the expense and as nonproductive members of society should be given a pain pill instead of life-saving surgery. Obama's chief medical resource for policy has written extensively on the needless cost of health care to seniors, citing as a way to save money, letting our parents and grandparents die without care. Check it out, the president's chief of staff is Rahm Emanuael, his brother Ezikiel is the doctor making policy for Obama and ALL OF US if this bill is voted through. Kill off the seniors, what an idea, saves money on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and gets rid of those pesky conservative types who may have voted for Reagan and who have the time to listen to conservative radio and vote liberals out.

Thank God for Fox News and conservative radio for giving us the truth. Of course liberal sources do their best to discredit on a personal basis everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Sarah Palin because they are afraid the truth will reach the people.

Call Senator Mark Warner Richmond (804) 739-0247 Washington (202) 224-2023

Call Senator Jim Webb Richmond (804) 771- 2221 Washington (202) 224-4024

Save your country before it becomes Communist without a shot fired. The Kremlin has said they see it happening. Why can't we? We're closer than you think.