America's First Woman Muckraker

Those  were  BIG  six  salaries,  and  the  town  was  a  blue  collar  place  of  modest  means.  One  salary  was  $800,000+  (obscene).   The  culprits  are  under  indictment..... 

Those  were  BIG  six  salaries,  and  the  town  was  a  blue  collar  place  of  modest  means.  One  salary  was  $800,000+  (obscene).   The  culprits  are  under  indictment..... 

Awwwww - Bert!~

It's wonderful that the human race has such a distribution of talent. Muck-raking journalism is not a skill I have ever aspired to. I do own a muck rake, got in a job lot of hand tools at a farm dispersal sale. It's designed to take the manure out of straw bedding in a horse stable with minimum loss of clean straw. A daily but worthwhile chore for horsey people. I find it invaluable for hauling brambles and bracken. I wish the thing could talk, it must be 200 years old and could tell me a lot of stories. Yesterday, there was talk of cherished knives and scissors. I have an intimate relationship with some of my garden tools and feel some sort of kinship with the people who had them before. My favourite rake was made for me by an old man I did "home care" for - It's to an old pattern called in Welsh a "Crib" - a comb. What a sweet gift - he even gave me a dozen spare "teeth" for it. It's a great lawn rake, and a pleasing item in its own right.

Hazel, i wondered what a "crib" looked like....if you type "rake images" does it look like anyone of them?
 
On reading the lead in article, I wondered what difference is there between a traditional muckraker and someone like Julian Assange. Sure, the former would have their secret sources while cyber drop boxes worked for Julian A. Well, lo and behold, in Times magazine Top 100 most influential people for 2011, Julian Assange makes the list - as a muckraker.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066107,00.html
 

Hazel, that's interesting: mucking being the process of finding and disposing of the manure while saving the clean bedding.
Muckraking is sometimes presented as poking around in the shit looking for a gem of information so compelling that the public interest is served and/or the finder made famous.
Then, there is a business that sets out looking for turds amongst the roses called cable entertainment news: what celebrity or spouse or family member of someone known mostly for being known has been seen or photographed behaving badly or just looking unattractive?

I feel very sorry for the girl about to marry into the British Royal family. A storybook life if the story were written by Stephen King.

Stoney, Good morning!

As one who owns a horse and is quite familiar with mucking, I can tell you there comes a point where there is no clean bedding left ,through which to sift, and the whole lot must shoveled and swept out( mind the stall's corners) and carted off to the big manure pile. Adding fresh bedding to pissy, shitty shavings will just foul the clean stuff. (By the way, we refer to those gems as apples  : ) ) I would consider Julian Assange, an apple rather than an apple picker.

On the upcoming royal wedding.....see the commemorative cup (all upper crust like as a contact said) one Chinese company has made....lol.....someone's gonna lose alot of $$$$ ...
 
http://www.guandongenterprisesltd.com/
 

Miss Blue ~
Apples, right you are. We were charged, as kids, to beat the neighbors to the deposits left by the milkman's beautiful Belgian, Dan.
"That stuff is gold," our dad would observe from the porch as we headed back to the compost enclosure. That was about as close as he ever got to it.

Oh, spring, that is hilarious!! The cup makers put the wrong prince on the photo!! There is red-haired Harry up next to Kate, big as life, but no o ne wants a cup commenorating the Best Man and the Bride!! Those cup makers will surely sue somebody! What a snafu!

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day
Dressed for a wedding in a garden
In your pink Jacquard, so gay
Vintage fresh from Elizabeth Arden?

Sometimes too hot the eye of Heaven shines
Especially on those with overextended credit
But the sight of you  beneath the pines
Makes me utter words that some would edit

Thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Despite this life’s confounding twists
It’s been a while since that dress was made
But now we know why eBay exists

So long as man has power and means to compute
Girls shall have dresses, and having them, look cute
 

The main line out of the Julian Assange link that stays with me is, "Secrets will never be safe again." What a disillusionment for those who believe in secret service. It is difficult to know when secrets should be revealed and which should be kept.
 
The news folks used to protect certain leaders' reputations by holding back information that could be hurtful, but no more. As said above, the TMZ, Real Hollywood-type shows thrive on showing the ugliest side of any person or organization that is the least bit "famous."
 
Personally, I'd rather not know every little belch or toot made by famous folks. Case in point, the Charlie Sheen un-news watch following his cross-country "comedy" tour. On topic, the journalists who uncover some kind of political corruption, government waste, or major plot to undermine our nation deserve to be recognized for their patriotic service, but not the gossip mongers who bleat out the transgressions of the famous-for-being-bad characters.

Or we could keep talking about manure, I guess.

Where did I read GB Shaw's line about newspapers being unable to distinguish between a bicycle accident and the end of civilization?

A rose by any other name....

Corrupt small town politicians raping the masses of their hard earn money? Sounds like some towns I know here in New Jersey! But today's story wasn't about that it. It was about someone who chose to hold others to a higher standard. So often those that do hold others to a higher standard and demand a higher level of performance from others in matters of such simple things like manners, common courtesy, decency and respect and even correct communication skills are dimissed as "nazis". I wasn't alive in the 20's, 30's, 40's and so on. But from what everyone tells me, people KNEW each other then. You HAD to behave well and be respectful, courteous and intelligent or someone else's mom would tell your mom and you'd get beat for being a disrespectful little turd. Now, you don't see that at all. I live on a cul de sac and I know my neighbor next to me and across from me very well. The neighbor on the other side of my house just stares at me as they drive by. I wave or shout "Good morning" from across the lawns and they just scamper away in some kind of social anxiety fit. It's poor behavior really. Even if you don't like me, a friendly "Hihowyadoin" would just be courteous. They don't even say anything when I'm driving my snow thrower up their driveway in the winter to save their backs. So what's more rude? Telling some they are being rude by behaving poorly or behaving poorly?

OK, then, Willie~ In response to Miss Blue's earlier about once in a while you have to get all the muck out of the stable. ....... Those horse keepers who attend to such chores are Stable Managers. So do we assume that those who are lazy about their mucking out are unstable?
Spring~ I can't find a picture of a crib - It's a wooden rake made from the the core of an ash tree sapling, turned while the wood is still green on a treadle lathe to make a very long handle. A nice bit of wood about an inch thick and two or three feet wide is cut and drilled with holes to take the teeth, and a hole in either end. The ash pole is split just far enough to wedge this chunk of wood in and secure it at each end with hand-carved dowels. More hand carved dowels are used to make the teeth of the rake. The whole thing is tidied up and put up in the hayloft to dry, which causes the wood to shrink and make the whole thing really tight. A well-made one lasts for years with replacement teeth now and then.
Muckraking as in dishing the dirt on celebrities ..... I suppose it is some kind of Public Service to expose political and corporate corruption, but I am not interested in who is sleeping with who and suchlike trivia.

 
 
 
no Hazel, just fired.

does this help?
http://www.grit.com/the-daily-commute/build-a-wooden-hay-rake-making-hay-the-old-fashioned-way.aspx
 
 
http://www.thenaturalgardener.co.uk/handmade_wooden_hay_rake.phphttp://www.historicaltrekking.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6324
 
 
http://www.historicaltrekking.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6324
 

Hazel & Spring ~  Your Welsh
rake...
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnGPmlXDJNI
 
Willie Trask ~ You are da bard.
 
Ynsats ~ I have traveled this entire country and
the ONLY place where I have found neighbors that mistreat one another as you
have described is in New Jersey.   When I am in NJ and I say Hey Y'all as I am
prone to do, and the thusly greeted ignore me, I politely follow with,,,I'm
talkin' to you, HEY I'M TALKING TO YOU.  If that doesn't get
their attention I just mutter johnlennon and move along on down the
road.
  

Hazel- your old rake reminds me of an ax my grandfather had.He said he had that same ax for over 40 years with only seven handles and three heads. They just don't make them like they used to.

Hazel- your old rake reminds me of an ax my grandfather had.He said he had that same ax for over 40 years with only seven handles and three heads. They just don't make them like they used to.

Hazel- your old rake reminds me of an ax my grandfather had.He said he had that same ax for over 40 years with only seven handles and three heads. They just don't make them like they used to.

Hazel- your old rake reminds me of an ax my grandfather had.He said he had that same ax for over 40 years with only seven handles and three heads. They just don't make them like they used to.

Hazel- your old rake reminds me of an ax my grandfather had.He said he had that same ax for over 40 years with only seven handles and three heads. They just don't make them like they used to.

Hazel- your old rake reminds me of an ax my grandfather had.He said he had that same ax for over 40 years with only seven handles and three heads. They just don't make them like they used to.

rwh1
 
are you taking lessons from Bert?

Blame it on the computer.

MissBlue - the links for showing the handmade rakes are really detailed and good...Wonder if the "hayrake" is the same as the "muckrake"?? (the first and third worked, the middle one would not come up for me). Thanks for the photos and lessons in rake building.
 
 

This link shows the detail of a handmade rake, too. Seems like a lot of work, but the result is a tool that will be like no others. I can see that you'd be proud of such a tool, Hazel.
(I have the manufactured Sears Craftsman metal rakes for moving the yard leaves around. Never had one of those wooden kind.)
 
 
http://charliemartel.com/rake.html
 
Apparently , some craftsmen still proudly make those wooden ones.

Gathering sustenance (i.e. food for thought) or" crapapples", I guess the rake's name depends on its use.

P.O.V.

Miss Blue~ Spring~ The rake I am trying to describe is similar the one in the last link Blue offered.
Paolos~ Silly boy!
 

As for the civic leaders in Bell, California, they seemed to forget that they were elected to represent the working people of their town in civic decisions for the citizens' benefit. My viewing the daily news tells me that Bell is not the only town where the top officials have granted themselves unfairly high salaries and perks. What has happened in the evolution of our nation when those chosen to lead have become empowered, then used their power for self-aggrandizement?  Or has that always been the case of leadership corruption? Something about "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"...?? How can we get back our benevolent leaders? Where are the smart, strong people to nominate?

KSS ~
Re: April 25, 2011 5:07 PM
The more straightforward Ana Marie Cox would simply have asked: "Mr. Trump, do you believe in and support a woman's right to choose?"
And Trump, the witless ninny, would have responded: "Absolutely, when it comes to shoes."
Same result.
Your conclusion that he is done as a potential candidate is spot on but that is not the reason.

The birther crap limps along on one stump simply because President Obama is the only guy you, I or anybody else ever heard of who cannot or will not produce a birth certificate.
When you apply for a passport or for social security, you are not asked for a certificate of live birth.
On the other hand, every breeder of a litter of purebred dogs is furnished one by the AKC.
With all the money and effort spent trying to question the guy's citizenship, nothing has happened to call it seriously into question.
It would be useful to know if a whole generation of other children born in that place and at that time, were documented in that way and if not, then who screwed up and how?
Or, if as they say, it exists in a vault, run a copy of the damn thing.
In a country where a lot of time and energy are spent questioning the existence of God and denigrating the practices and beliefs of those who don't, a bit of a dust-up over singularly the odd paperwork of one politician does not seem like much.
Unless perpetuating this monkey business seems to redound to the benefit of some party or another... which would be cynical and could backfire.

Willie Trask ~
Nice work at 10:00 AM
On a nice summer day within the past few years, I happened to be out on the screen porch when three lovely girls in their mid-teens drifted past each in a strappy sun dress.
I didn't pay that much attention but one was a crisp pale yellow number, one was white with tiny red fruit and green leaves and the other very pale green.
Just a bit above their suntanned knees and blowing as was their longish hair on a light summer breeze.

Ynsats ~
Having grown up in the forties, I agree with the conditions you outlined but it seemed, at the time, more like respect than fear... a fine distinction.

Moose ~
"Where are the smart, strong people to nominate?"
Probably wisely avoiding the muckrakers and maybe, they were never quite as perfect as we thought.

If investigative reporting, or 'muck raking' as it is known to those who are the subject of such reporting, is intended to protect the general public from those who have betrayed the public trust and/or abused their power...well then it is a good deed. If it is done without reward and personal gain..., I'd call it noble.

If, on the other hand, it is done only to prove the theorem that if something or someone seems to be too good to be true and that it/they are flawed somehow; then it seems like an attempt to feed the seemingly growing appetite of those who take more joy in seeing a successful person fail than it is to applaud the achievement of their success ..... I'd call that pathetic.

I would think that just being aware that there are so many eyes and ears that are now capable of bearing witness to that which once remained in the shadows would encourage above board behavior..... But it doesn't seem to have had much of a positive effect.

Yes, Peter Lake.........you would think so.  But alas, you are correct.  It's kind of like a crook going to a lot of trouble to steal (plotting, planning, executing the deed) esp. "cooking the books"--when if he'd worked as diligently legally he'd have made the same or more and not ultimately been caught.  

Where is our resident rhymester these days?  Does anyone know, is lotlot ok?

 The local TV stations have "investigative teams" who report on the school test cheating, the commissioner who uses the county workers to pave her own driveway, and the ones who have run up large credit card balances on the state expense accounts. Those revelations are in a sense the modern muckrakings, are they not?  Those reporters show the "apples" among the straw, and reveal their misuse of elected/appointed offices.
 
Since being human means none of us are "perfect," we are not looking for perfect leaders, but some who will stand up and say they want the state/nation to be solvent, fair and grant opportunities.   The people I listen to - my neighbors -  seem to want a leader who will help America to  recover most of the hard-working values that inspired our ancestors to achieve success by their own labor, by saving, and by giving back some sweat in volunteering to help their communities and churches. To value respect, tact, and good manners. It is a lot like trusting the engineer who is driving the Eye train -- you want to believe he knows the way, follows the best track, and will get you safely to your destination.
 

Sorry...."None of us...IS perfect" would be better grammatically. (Not one....IS....grrr! to Self).

For anyone interested, we hear a lot of talk about
the federal budget, but very little talk about the GAO's financial report.  A
budget tells you what could be, a financial statement (should tell you) what has
happened.  It is made available annually for all citizens and should be required
reading for anyone who wants to vote.  More importantly, it should be required
reading for every member of Congress. 
 
http://www.gao.gov/financial/fy2010/10mda.pdf
 
I think it worthy to note for those who don't know
and for those who do not believe it, the Federal Reserve System is
considered to be an independent central bank under the general oversight of
Congress (page 5, par 2). This is the same Congress that
represents us.  Meaning that it would behoove us to send to Congress someone
with enough smarts, common sense and good judgment to oversee such an
operation.  But we don't.  We send anyone that looks sharp and talks
pretty.
 
For any of you who find the time to read through
this, I guarantee that you will learn something that you don't already know. 

If nothing else, read page 11, the section on
Federal Debt.
Hazel and Spring are excused from this assignment. 
 
At your next town hall meeting, ask your local Congressperson if he/she has
reviewed the GAO's financial report.  If they tell you they aren't on that
committee, vote them out.  If they tell you that a member of their staff reviews
it or that I have my people review it, ask who that staff member or who
those people are so that you can vote them in.
 
That's all I gots to say on the matter and I did not even name names or
point fingers.

No, you didn't and I have but one question: if this were Australia, would we be circling the bowl in the other direction?

I will have my people get back to your people on that. 

If this were Australia I would have your people get back to my people on that.

A serious question deserves a serious response. 
Here it is.  I don't see it.  We live in what many believe to be the greatest
country on earth.  I am one of those. Greatness is relative and that's not to
say that I wouldn't mind living in Hawaii (is that part of our country?) a few
months out of the year. We have a system of checks and balances.  We have yet to
demand a balanced budget and we allow our Congress to raise our debt ceiling at
will regardless of our income and expenses.  It is up to us to vote the bums out
instead of voting them in. It's that simple.
 
I hear talk about China and Russia wanting to
replace the dollar with their currency as the global standard . If the numbers I
see are correct, these two economic giants combined do not equal our output. 
Maybe one day.  Maybe if we all accept the fact that we are doomed to fail. But
I don't see it.  We are blessed.  We are blessed because we believe we are
blessed.  Because enough of us get up each morning and put in a honest day's
work and return at night to a home and a family or at least an RV and a loving
pet goldfish. 
 
Even at 15 trillion our debt is manageable.   Take
the zeros out.  Here is our situation.   As wage earners we take home $20,000. 
We bought a house for $150,000, that's not too bad because we have no other debt
and the income is steady, it could even increase over the years. It takes
$10,000 to service that debt over 30 years. This leaves $10000 for other
expenditures.  Our problem is that we are spending $35,000 a year.  This leaves
a $15,000 annual deficit meaning in effect we are buying another bigger home on
future promises.  That's just not right.  It's manageable, but not
right.
 
According to the GAO report we took on 8.5 trillion
in new borrowings and repaid 7.1 trillion in debt.  Here is a question.  If our
income is 2 trillion and some change how did we pay down 7 trillion in debt? 
Did we print money?  Did we borrow from Peter to pay Paolos?  Did we sell some
assets?  Maybe our gold(fish)? 
 
I am probably wrong about half of this but at least
it's off my chest.  Professor, what did I miss?
 
Will someone please find some music to segue to
thesepia train?  I am done in and ready for a shot and a beer. Y'all didn't
really want to hear any of this again. Sorry.

If our elected leaders, and this is probably true of most governments, were held to the same performance expectations as those who work in the private sector, I do believe that:

the President and CEO would be nervously checking out his ability to quietly cash out his stock options,

the Vice President would be hiding in his office just trying to stay below the radar,

and a good majority of the Directors and Managers..... Aka Congress and the
Senate.... Would either be cleaning out their desks because they already received their pink slips while the rest of them are nervously looking at job search web sites while waiting to be summoned for their performance evaluation

Maybe, just maybe....we should be able to elect a Board of Directors every two years with a mandate to make certain that all these folks were held accountable for acting ressponsibly, effectively, proficiently, and played well together in order to achieve common goals....

Sorry..... I was just a rant waiting to happen.

Peace out

Too bad Anne Newport Royal did not live in our time. We need someone like her to run for president. She would surely clean the White House and all the mess that is going on now.
 
Deaddoll 999 From Pennsylvania

On the bright side here is Congressman Barney Frank (D- Mass) in an absolute classic load of BS as he sets out to save us from a problem that does not exist:

"I think it's time for us to say that if people at the end of their lives want to simply say, 'OK, this is it; this is not a meaningful existence' — I'm not talking about assisted suicide, I'm talking about the Schiavo case sort of situation where you don't force care on people who don't want it and whose guardians don't want them to have it," Frank said. "You know, we spend an awful lot of Medicaid on the end of life. And this is not death panels; this is not the government telling you you don't get any more. This is the government not telling you you have to get this medical care whether you want it or not."

Thanks Barney, those dark and insidious life panels have been the scourge of seniors for decades.

After another heavyweight day I was skimming news for a "break" (from deciphering a proposed bill for my states next legislative session...Need. Alka. Seltzer.), and saw this unlovely tidbit from last week's (?) topic on Monsanto: http://www.grist.org/industrial-agriculture/2011-04-19-usda-to-let-monsanto-do-own-environmental-impact-studies-on-gmos

Where ARE the high-profile muckrakers when you need them?

Are y'all having a day like this too or is it just me? PL, are you manning the club car? I need it in the worst way.

JaxZ... It's an open bar tonight and the bar is open..... Life is good

Awwww Stoney, my last little flickering hope might have just been squashed by that one. All I need is for someone to pull the plug on me because I'm too depressed at the moment to say I would like some time to see if my Maker was actually telling me my table was ready.

PL, thanks for reminding of that wonderful mantra I know to be true. I'm on my way.

Jax ~
I've ordered you the luxury heated seat, neck massage and foot rub along with Irish coffee... enjoy.

My personal mantra with my kids has always been DON'T PULL THE PLUG. Cheers!

I am utterly grateful and will be sublimely imoveable in short order. Please lay someone's pocket kerchief over my visiage when I indelicately begin to snore......

Visiage, vizige, visage, or a word summat like that.

ChefDeb, me too!

Stoney, thanks for replying. The woman journalist who was the muckraker in the lead-in post seems to have a spirit still among us, now called "Ann Coulter."

Rehearsing for an upcoming stage production of M*A*S*H has me still believing that the best muckrakers should keep their sense of humor or they risk becoming a victim of the muck. Vive the voices in the wilderness. Just watched Ray Milland in The Lost Weekend and lost my desire for a nightcap.

Music You say?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfys7U-o3bI