My New Blog

I started a new blog because my first one had drifted away from my original intentions.  I have many things that interest me, but politics soon overwhelmed all of the them.  And since I think that much of today's culture consists of things that are so stupid that most of us wish we could whip out a magic wand a la Harry Potter and dispose of the boggarts by yelling "Riddikulous!", I decided to devote this blog to those items and leave my original blog to my many other interests.

So, almost five years later I've decided to try and centralize those items that reflect the decline of logical thinking and the increase in lemming activity.

I have the same feelings about Obama as I did about Bush.  They both reflect the worst that politics has to offer.  Neither one had or has had any interest in helping the majority of Americans unless it was time for an election or they were consolidating the power of their donors and wanted to keep the populace as quiet as possible until the deed was done.

Our so-called elected "Representatives" are about as useful as throwing gasoline on a fire.  They neither represent us nor do they maintain the checks and balances the Founding Fathers envisioned for them.

And the Supreme Court?  The current version is determined to make Dred Scott look like a high point of jurisprudence.  Corporations are not people, they are businesses run by people and should not have the same, or more, rights than a kindergarten teacher.  Besides having more money than most individuals, they now have more influence in an election.  Like a double double at In-N-Out burger.  They get to buy votes as a corporation and the same individuals who decide who the corporation backs also get to throw in their two centsmillions any time they want.  And the best part?  Most of those people sit on more than one board of directors, so they have even more influence.  Isn't that lovely?

Public figures do stupid things all the time so this blog won't always be about politics, but it will be about things that make you go "huh?"

I'm a couple of days behind, so let's start with Tom Tancredo and his "literacy" tests.  I'm all for them.  Especially for the people currently in power.  What the almost never right party of "No, because I said so!" Republicans and the "I can't find my balls with two hands and a flashlight" Demowienies have in common, is a complete lack of understanding of how to run this country effectively.  And they have communicated that to their die hard followers.  The sky is what we should be aiming for, not running into the ground like a plane without a pilot.

Yesterday's favorite was Michael Steele's "after taxes a million dollars isn't a lot of money."  I'm willing to give it a try since I know plenty of people who are living on less than ten thousand a year and they work for a living instead of giving speeches on subjects that affect less than two percent of the American population.

I'm sure that with a little more research there will be more to come.  Unfortunately.

BBB and The Stupid For The Day

The Stupid, It Burns

I actually started writing this post a few days ago and then several personal issues came up.  My disgust with politics, what passes for news (it used to be called gossip), the lack of intelligence and the stunning erosion of critical thinking of the average American has prevented me from caring as much as I used to about the future of America.

And then, sure enough, another act of stupidity wasted no time raising my blood pressure to the boiling point.  Banning the Merriam Webster Collegiate dictionary from the Menifee Union School District because a student found the definition of oral sex in a dictionary. Menifee may be located in California, but it is definitely behind the Orange Curtain.

The Golden State's Menifee Union School District has yanked all copies of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from its shelves and is investigating the classic American text for containing "age-inappropriate" words.
snip
Menifee, which is composed of 9,000 students between kindergarten and 8th grade, is forming a committee of principals, teachers and parents to pore over the book and determine whether it's fit for young eyes. It could take a while: the unabridged edition available online contains over 470,000 entries.

Cheese and rice, these people are just plain stupid, there is no other way to put it.  In the mid nineties "oral sex" was all over the news, now it can't be in a dictionary because kids might find the correct definition instead of what they hear on the playground.

Up until this morning my, and most other liberals, definition of "f*cking retarded" was when you screw over 88 percent of the people who approve of most of what you're doing AND WHO GOT YOU ELECTED in the first place in order to please the same 22 percent who still thinks Bush and Cheney walk on water that isn't frozen and who wouldn't approve of anything the Obama did if God himself came down from on high and anointed Obama as his son by a different mother.  Now it seems to encompass everything in politics.

Of course there is going to be political pain on the democratic side, what did they expect?  Flowers thrown in the street for not doing the job that the American people elected them to do?  For saving Wall Street instead of Main Street and then letting Wall Street enjoy bonuses completely out of proportion to the crappy job they performed?  After suffering through eight years of the the Bush maladministration, the last thing that the democratic base wanted was to be ground under the jackbooted heel of the same people who caused the country to head into the crapper in the first place.  Sure, you can blame it on the economy, and you would be right.  It's too bad that what passes for leadership these days only cares about the economy of the working people when it's time for them to get reelected.

Living in an unequal society creates shorter lifespans.  That would be for the poor and the middle class, the rich have all their needs met.  Even when they contribute nothing to society except to increase the inequality.  Welcome to America, land of the free, home of the brave.  If you have lots of money .

Over 200 studies since the early 1980s have now documented that people living in societies where wealth has concentrated at the top of the economic ladder live significantly shorter, less healthy lives than people who live in societies that spread their wealth more evenly.

And we’re not talking just poor folks here. All people in unequal societies do worse. Middle-income people in the United States, the world’s most unequal developed nation, have shorter lifespans than middle-income people in Japan, Sweden and a host of other more equal nations.

So, my newest iWant is called iPad?  What the hell was Apple thinking?  Aren't there any females in their advertising department?  It reminds of some comedian in the nineties who made fun of sanitary pads.  As he said, why not call them what they are instead of some gussied up name that has no relation to its purpose.    He used the example of Always and thought a better name would be cranky hanky.  I realize that the iPod saved Apple's bacon, but there were a slew of better names than iPad.  Duh!

BBB

There Will Be A Republican President In 2012

And why? Because there are few true Democrats in office and those of us who have regularly voted Democrat are going to vote with our butts. As in not voting, donating or participating in a political process that consistently discriminates against a majority of the population and tells us that it will be for the best to take the least troublesome road.  Taking one for the team.  What a joke.  It's more like spreading your legs and pretending to enjoy being raped.  

Having met Obama when he was at Occidental College, I knew from experience that he was not going to be the best president for the women of the party.  He was insufferably arrogant, had no respect for women and nothing has changed since then.  It was always about him and never about the people who supported him or what they needed.  Talk is cheap and gays, women and other disenfranchised Americans are finally seeing the true man behind the curtain.  He has always been the embodiment of "enough about me, what do you think about me?"

Imitation health care reform is a good case in point.  What kind of "reform" excludes women?  How are women who have jobs that consistently pay them less than men doing the same work with the same education so they are dependent on the crumbs that men leave for them, feed the unwanted children they are forced to have and satisfy their Viagra charged husbands ever going to have equality?

While I am past the age of worrying about getting pregnant, it disturbs me that young women are being forced back into the Donna Reed era.  It boggles my mind that I had sex education classes in the fourth grade in the sixties but today's girls are taught abstinence instead.  I'm willing to bet that none of my classmates in fourth, fifth and sixth grade had unwanted children because we all knew the consequences of sex on the stick figures used in the class.  Birth control was explained to us, in detail, in the seventh grade.  Who knew that schools located on military bases during the cold war would turn out to be so progressive in comparison to today's education system?

When I joined the Army I met women who didn't know that sex was the cause of pregnancy.  IVF hadn't been invented then so there really wasn't any other way but that's beside the point.  High school graduates who didn't have a clue as to how their body worked.  While I may have found it hysterically funny that someone would think that because I was biracial that one breast would give white milk and the other chocolate, I also found it terribly sad.  Granted I was in Alabama and the other girl was from Tennessee, but that is no excuse.

Women are not playthings, we are not baby factories, we are not sex toys, we are equal human beings.  We have thoughts, feelings and dreams just like the boys and men around us and deserve to be treated like the intelligent persons we can be when we are given the same opportunities.  We want to be doctors, lawyers, scientists, astronauts, accountants and parents, not gestational vehicles for men who need pharmaceutical help to recapture the glory days of their youth.  But thanks to the Stupak amendment that is the role young women will be forced to play.

My own attitude toward paying for abortions has always been the same.  Everyone is entitled to one mistake and one that affects the lifetimes of the people involved almost always requires a little outside help.  That being said, while I'm willing to have my tax dollars pay for one abortion, I am not willing for it to be on a repetitive basis.  Sex education and birth control should be one of the requirements for any type of government help.  Then you are on your own.  Except in unusual circumstances such as the life or health of the mother and the viability of the fetus.  Would the fetus be able to survive if the parents are unable to provide for it without government help?  I've worked with developmentally delayed adults and know how devastated and lost they become when their parents die and their siblings move on.

Conservatives always want it both ways.  All children should be born in every circumstance and then no matter how impaired the child is, they are to survive without government help.  Poor women shouldn't have abortions or convenient access to birth control, while at the same time their husbands are getting free samples and subsidized prescriptions for "erectile dysfunction" so they can have sex everyday.  No matter what the consequences.

With the mindset described above it won't be long before spousal rape is a thing of the past, every woman should be providing for her husband's sexual needs whenever he desires.  As women lose control over their own bodies, their lives are sure to follow.  When my ex and I bought a house in 1978 my income wasn't included because I might have a baby and be unable to work, can those days be far behind?

Historically Democrats have been the party of women, but women's votes are no longer treated with respect and since we won't have candidates that represent our views it doesn't really matter who runs the country.  It won't be us or anyone sympathetic to our wishes.

Democrats may have won this battle for false health care reform, but they have lost the war.  Which wouldn't surprise me as being their goal all along.  There are very few other conclusions that can be drawn from their willingness to do nothing that the people who voted them into office have asked for and everything to do with who bankrolled their campaigns.  If Democrats won't represent women when they have a majority in Congress as well as a Democratic president, what good are they?

Any way you look at it, women are going to be worse off in 2012 than they are today and the eighties and nineties really will have been the golden years for women.  The young women of today are in for a rude surprise if they think they can rest on the laurels of those who protested before them.  They've been braless for so long they can't conceive of an age where it was a requirement.  If they aren't willing to fight for their rights why would those of us who blazed the way want to revisit an issue that we thought was resolved, for a generation that takes so many rights for granted that they are willing to stand by and return to second class status?  If Democrats don't start changing their attitude toward women most of us won't support the party in 2012 unless the opposing candidate is the equivalent of Osama bin Laden.  And that should frighten someone.

BBB

This 'N That

No wonder people have given up looking for work.  They did everything they were supposed to, they got more education so they could get ahead and now their resumes are the first ones discarded by employers looking to hire.  Because they might leave for a better job when times get better.  Like that's going to happen anytime in the near future.

The overwhelming response astonished him. He asked Cheree Seawood, one of his current assistants, to go through the résumés and help pick out several to interview. To make the task easier, he decided they should be even more rigorous in ruling out anyone who appeared even slightly overqualified (emphasis mine).

Key senators are not thwarting President Obama on healthcare, they are thwarting the will of the American people.  And it should be reported that way.  If the senators are worried about survival, perhaps they should vote the way their constituents want instead of pandering to the insurance industry.

Newsday is going to put its content behind a paywall, with access limited to people who subscribe to the print edition, pay for local cable, or you can pony up $5 a week, which is $260 a year.  If people wouldn't pay $50 a year for the NYTimes a few years ago, very few people are going to find Newsday to be worthy of $260 a year or $5 an article when they accidentally print something interesting.

What drugs are these people on?  For eight of the twelve years the Republicans controlled Congress they had a Republican president who claimed he was the Decider and they rammed bills, useless proclamations and tax cuts through to the detriment of the country.  And the spineless Democrats not only helped them, sometimes they gave them more than they asked for.

“We need more voices,” said House Minority Whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, one of the party’s up-and-coming leaders. “Our party’s challenge has been that we need to be more inclusive — we need to attract the middle again. ... When one party controls all the levers of power in Washington, they’re going to try and villainize whoever they can on our side. It gives us an opportunity now to try and harness the energy and point it in a positive direction, so that we can attract the middle of the country to the common-sense conservative views that we have been about as a party.”

As the Bible states (Job 4:8), those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it, and by pandering to the lowest common denominator the Republicans coddled a section of society which attacks its own instead of working together.  80 percent of voters do not identify with the Republican party or its ideals and unless there are some major changes in attitude those in the middle will run even further away.

Cheney wants Obama to quit "dithering" on sending more troops to Afghanistan.  Meanwhile, back in the real world, a majority oppose sending more troops off to die in another useless land war in Asia.

Singing for her supper. Or not.The Performance Royal Society caused itself a little bad publicity by telling a woman who sings while she stocks shelves in a grocery store that she needs a performance license. Meanwhile musicians also don't approve of the government using their songs for torture. Britney Spears and Eminem qualify, but the Bee Gees?

Someone is begging for a Darwin Award.  Dennis LeRoy Anderson outfitted is La-Z-Boy with a lawnmower engine, a cup holder and what every pimped out ride needs, a stereo.  One day he rode it to the bar and had eight or nine beers.  He tried to ride it home but a parked vehicle jumped in his way and with a blood alcohol level of .029, besides wrecking his ride, he received a DWI.

BBB

Saturday Morning Observations

Hmm, Byron York in the Washington Examiner has an article about how lefty anger could sink the Demowienies in 2010.  As if the Republicants are happy with their choices for candidates.  Perhaps the problem is that all of the choices suck, it doesn't matter if you're Republicans or Democrats.  Maybe the reason why the congressional approval ratings are so low is because the majority of them are useless sycophants out to line their own pockets and don't represent the interests of the people who voted for them.  It's just a thought.

The H1N1 virus is killing people who are obese or morbidly obese more frequently than in the past and the doctors seem mystified.  Did they pay attention in medical school?  Earlier in the article it's stated that for the people at risk the H1N1 virus affects the lower lungs as opposed to the usual invasion of the upper respiratory tract.  As an asthma patient I can tell you that my lung function tests reflected an almost twenty percent increase when I lost fifty pounds.  With less fat in the way, my lungs had more room to expand and at the same time more carbon dioxide was expelled, which increased the amount of oxygen my lungs were able to take in.  One of the things I noticed during an asthma attack is that I tend to try and suck more air in without trying to exhale which means that the only the upper lungs are working.  The lower lungs are congested and when I focus on exhaling forcefully, I tend to get a deeper, more satisfying breath.  Being fat makes this more difficult.  Duh.

I'm confused.  Does the NY Times have a time machine?  Today is October 17, 2009 and at the moment it is 11:44 am.  How do they know for sure that the article on the overreaction to the H1N1 virus is going to appear tomorrow?

A version of this article appeared in print on October 18, 2009, on page A1 of the New York edition

It's written in the past tense. Writing it today is one thing but a lot can happen in the next twelve hours as I'm sure Thomas Dewey would have explained to them.  Or if this asteroid had come a little closer.

It's not that I think the H1N1 virus isn't a problem that might become worse, at least some lessons were learned from SARS, but a better focus might be how the many people who don't have health insurance are going to receive adequate treatment and if hospitals are strained already why isn't something being done to change that?  Eight months into the pandemic and still not enough ventilators.  That's like eight years into the Afghanistan debacle and the troops still don't have dependable weapons.  Too bad we don't manufacture things in this country anymore, these problems would have been nipped in the bud thirty years ago.  Viva la corporations!  There bottom line is everything and now Americans are at the bottom of the line.

BBB

Please Clarify

Why do Republicans feel that our current so-called liberal President should only appoint conservatives to posts while a conservative president does not need to appoint any liberals while in office.  Why is their point of view so much more important than mine?  I'm an American citizen and I deserve representation also.  Why does it always have to be a one way street with these guys?

Stand and deliver?  From the Democrats?  Have you started inhaling?  I love ya Bill, but the spineless toads we have as representatives are more like run and hide.  The Republicans may be the party of no, but the Democrats have become the party of no balls.  Except for that Barney Frank guy.

And while I am also loathe to have a discussion with a dining room table, to Saxby Chambliss I say "Fuck you!"  I hardly ever cuss on my blog and I'm not an Obama supporter per se, but Mr. Chambliss really has gone one step over the line.  Whether you like it or not, Obama is the president and deserves the respect due that office.  The President doesn't have to express humility any more than Mr. Chambliss has to express intelligence.  And since Chambliss hasn't expressed any intelligence (but his racist freak flag is flying), I hope Obama doesn't express any humility during his speech to those who are supposedly our elected representatives but in actuality are highly paid goons sponsored by so many lobbyists and special interest groups that they have become the death panels that some nitwitted politician has so helpfully brought to our attention.

The American people have become expendable and it is the corporations über alles.  The minute healthcare reform became about health insurance reform the battle was lost.  Debtor's prisons are going to have to be built for the people who won't be able to pay for the mandates or the thirty five percent of their medical costs that won't be covered because they can't afford the top tier plan.  I want Medicare and I don't want to wait until I'm sixty five.  Medical care is a right, not a privilege.  The emergency room isn't treatment, it's a fall back position.  Oh yeah, when people can't afford car insurance or a car, they take public transportation.

Farrah Fawcett dies and Schwarzenegger cuts spending for victims of domestic violence.  The two probably have nothing to do with each other but the timing worked so I threw it in there.  Whatever the reason, domestic violence shelters are beginning to close their doors  during an economic downturn when violence typically increases.  It takes real arrogance for an overbuilt man to think that women and children who are beaten and abused will be able to change their situation without help and a safe place to stay.  Even in this day and age the police are not always willing to help victims of domestic violence, otherwise they would enforce protective orders a little more vigilantly.

It's interesting how the right wing thinks that every life is sacred.  At least until it's born, then it's every man for themselves.  Women are only supposed to do what they're told and have lots of babies that neither they or the planet can afford.  And if kids reach eighteen in one piece the right wing is all too willing to send them off to war or put them to death for an increasing number of crimes.  Education, housing, food, economic security and health care are for the peasants to provide for themselves.  If the kids do make it to old age the right wing is suddenly interested in them all over again to ensure that the elderly suffer until their last painful breath because nobody should interfere with God's will.  The right wing call themselves Christians because they say they believe in Jesus but they want the world to operate by way of the Old Testament.  What's up with that?

BBB

I'm Wondering

While being wimpy and inept is the hallmark of Democrats and their "leadership" (who honestly thinks that pharmaceutical companies are going to agree to lower prices?), is being a Republican synonymous with being a hypocrite?  I ask this because it's been more than obvious that the Democrats don't have the balls to enact legislation that their constituents elected them to pass as they are irretrievably beholden to their corporate masters, but the constant assault on programs that help people while promising to improve their lives by other means is a Republican trademark.

I have no health insurance.  I've been turned down many times due to my asthma and a couple of kidney stones and the one plan that would take me was almost $500 a month with a deductible of $5000 and $50 office visits.  Just for myself.  Mom is covered by Medicare and Medicaid covers her monthly premium.

Having grown up with a single payer health system, courtesy of the USAF, I have no objections to it.  The arguments about the government rationing health care are just that.  Arguments.  Arguments that have no basis in reality since the reality is that I and 47 million other Americans have no coverage at all.  And never will if the Republican versions of the health bills are the ones considered and enacted.  And just like in California, seniors (who made this country what it is) and children (who are the nation's future) will bear the brunt of the health insurance "improvements".

The bill’s failure to make coverage affordable for many low-income people is especially serious because the bill would also eliminate Medicaid coverage for low-income children, parents, and seniors, pushing tens of millions of vulnerable people into the private insurance market. Low-income Medicaid beneficiaries tend to be in poorer health and are more likely to have chronic illnesses than people enrolled in private insurance; if forced to purchase coverage on their own, many likely would find the premiums unaffordable.

In addition, low-income seniors who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare would face substantially higher costs, because under the bill as drafted, Medicaid would no longer pay their Medicare premiums and cost-sharing. Seniors would have to start paying out of their own pockets the Medicare Part B premiums (which now total $1,157 a year), Medicare co-payments (which equal 20 percent of the cost of many outpatient services), and Medicare deductibles (which can run as high as $1,068 in the case of a hospitalization). For many low-income seniors, these charges would be unaffordable. (Summaries of the bill that its sponsors have circulated say that Medicare would assume these charges, but that clearly is not the case under the legislation they have introduced.[2]) The bill would also turn Medicaid coverage for long-term care services into a block grant, placing vulnerable groups at risk for significant benefit and eligibility cuts.

And why are low-income citizens in poorer health and have chronic illnesses than people with private insurance?  Could it be that they don't have access is regular health care and their only option is to wait until their symptoms are bad enough that they go to the emergency room? By any other name that is rationing by way of class warfare.

Republican twaddle has revved up the uninformed masses to something that is beginning to resemble a mob mentality.  And like most mobs they invariably act against their own best interests.

BBB

Penny Wise And Pound Foolish

The California Dream has become a nightmare for a good proportion of its citizens. The Governator continues his policy of balancing the budget on the backs of the poor because the poor can't contribute to his coffers or buy him cigars and they must be punished until they miraculously find a way to improve their situation and their salaries. Without education or viable job opportunities of course. His solutions to the California budget crises is too take from the poor and give discounts to the corporations and the rich.  As a result emergency rooms will become even more crowded, elderly people with dementia will have little to no support and for $8 an hour will have very few competent people to help take care of them, and going to the park or beach for recreation is on its way to becoming a thing of the past.

The Golden State no longer gleams unless you're rich, in which case the immediate future looks quite bright.  It's only a matter of time before the worker bees find somewhere else where their minimum wage will go farther and they won't have to live in tent cites or parking lots that let them park their RV for the night.  And these aren't illegals, they are electricians and truck drivers.  Who will probably be joined by other middle class workers that worked for the state and couldn't afford to lose 14 percent of their pay.  And the best part?  Schwarzenegger and crew believe that the same amount of tax revenue can be brought in even if there are fewer employees to do it.

As part of budget-cutting measures, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has ordered most state employees to take off three days each month without pay, including the staff of the Franchise Tax Board.

Despite objections from the board, the governor ordered employees to take two days off each month starting in February and a third beginning this month. The board estimated that the loss of work time already had cut income tax revenue by $177.4 million for the spending year that ended June 30.

If the furloughs continue, the board said the backlog of dealing with tax disputes and late collections would contribute to a net loss of another $372 million over the two years after that.

This isn't about balancing the budget, it's about revenge and punishing people for working for the state.

The board collects both the personal and corporate income tax, which bankrolls about 70% of the state's $85-billion general fund. The estimated tax collections lost through furloughs represent about 1% of all state income taxes paid in the state.

Forcing about 5,000 people at the board to take furloughs essentially reduces an already streamlined workforce by about 15%. But the productivity losses don't stop there. An additional 289 staffers have received notices that they could be laid off in the fall.

The reductions in personnel immediately translate into lost revenue for a state that's trying to dig itself out of a $24-billion hole with an austerity budget that the governor signed into law Tuesday.

"As a department, whose only product is revenue -- voluntary and involuntary -- cuts in our operations do impact our final revenue output," Franchise Tax Board Executive Officer Selvi Stanislaus wrote on June 30 to Schwarzenegger's finance director, Mike Genest.

The state would save about $60 million in salaries by furloughing all board workers for three days per month, the board said. But cumulative revenue losses would be as much as nine times that amount.

It looks like I really did get out in time even though there are three things I don't like about living in Reno.  One, the cigarette smoke.  It's everywhere.  I didn't realize how few people smoked in California until I started dodging the smoke clouds that hang in the most unusual places.  Two, they don't recycle here and I feel guilty not sorting my trash or returning my bottles.  Third and most important, I traded Dianne (I don't care what my constituents want) Feinstein for Harry (what are cojones and why do I need them) Reid.  Good grief, his hands off approach has made sure that nothing gets done in a timely manner except whatever is good for corporations and banks.  We the people are treated more like silly children instead of taxpaying citizens who deserve equal representation.

What the heck is wrong with this country when a family forgets one of their kids in a taxi and the taxi driver gets the reprimand instead of the parents?  Twenty years ago I had a friend who left his five year old at the grocery store.  For four hours.  He finally noticed the kid was missing and went back and found him tapping his foot with his hands on hips.  I never let an opportunity pass to tease this guy.  He may have been cute but he certainly wasn't responsible.  And neither was the taxi driver.

BBB

Debating The Issues. Not.

So, the political discourse in this country has devolved into equating the Speaker of the House with the second most disgusting term for a woman's anatomy.  While I thought Sarah Palin was a moron, I would never have referred to her using nasty nicknames because there were too many other terms that were appropriate.  Idiot, clueless and inciter of hatred being among them, the mini me version of Limbaugh.  Palin was picked as a VP candidate only because she was a woman not because she was competent or had skills and knowledge that the position needed.  The woman, and I use that term loosely, I would describe using the "C" word would be Ann Coulter and only because she invites vulgarity as she drips vitriol and reeks of self importance when she attacks the 9/11 families.  Coulter isn't an elected official, she is a tacky pundit and a fear monger in her own right.

But when you see Nancy Pelosi, the Republican National Committee wants you to think “Pussy Galore.”

At least that’s the takeaway from a video released by the committee this week – a video that puts Pelosi side-by-side with the aforementioned villainess from the 1964 James Bond film “Goldfinger.”

The RNC video, which begins with the speaker’s head in the iconic spy-series gun sight, implies that Pelosi has used her feminine wiles to dodge the truth about whether or not she was briefed by the CIA on the use of waterboarding in 2002. While the P-word is never mentioned directly, in one section the speaker appears in a split screen alongside the Bond nemesis – and the video’s tagline is “Democrats Galore.”

The wisdom of equating the first woman speaker of the House with a character whose first name also happens to be among the most vulgar terms for a part of the female anatomy might be debated – if the RNC were willing to do so, which it was not. An RNC spokesperson refused repeated requests by POLITICO to explain the point of the video, or the intended connection between Pelosi and Galore.

I don't like Pelosi because I feel she is ineffectual, she protested too much and then folded, giving the Bush administration more than they wanted. Every time.  Yet Republicans maintain that she's incompetent when it should be the Democrats who should be yelling at the top of their lungs. Do I think she lied? You betcha! But probably not about the briefing since the Bush administration wasn't well known for openness. Besides, the important question here is whether or not torture occurred, not when she knew about it.

The Republicans are trying to have it both ways, they want to have their cake and eat it too. If Ms. Pelosi was briefed in 2002 then that means the Bush administration was torturing people and all those involved should be punished. Then, and only then, Ms. Pelosi should be investigated and censured, not the other way around. The Republicans want Pelosi penalized for a crime they swear was never committed and if it was then it was justified but she should be punished for not letting anyone know about it. That only makes sense to anyone who isn't capable of stringing two related thoughts together. Or hasn't taken a logic class.

And what do Ms. Pelosi's looks have to do with job performance, such as it is? Tip O'Neill wasn't that great looking and that was never an issue while he was Speaker. And don't even get me started on Dennis Hastert. Besides, Honor Blackman was quite attractive. In true Republican fashion they really wanted to equate Pelosi's looks with Irma Bunt or Rosa Klebb but their names weren't offensive enough.

BBB

Will The Democrats Screw Up?

Wow, how clueless do you have to be?  Of course the Dumocrats are going to screw up.  Unfortunately for the Repubs it won't be as bad as they themselves have done in the last eight years.  William Jacobson. a law professor from Cornell (I thought you had to be smart to attend there much less teach) sets out his reasons why the Specter defection will turn out to have a silver lining for the GOP.

So I'm not depressed about the long-term future of the country, although the next few years will be tough politically. The Democrats will screw up big time, as they did during the Carter years, and the damage they cause will be generational. But the clean-up is worth looking forward to, even if the mess is not.

How...kind of him.  As if the problems created by the last eight years aren't going to be generational.

His first argument is no surprise because I've been saying the same thing for years. The first duty of a politician is to get themselves reelected, preferably to higher office but staying in the Senate is a no brainer if you can't be President.  And just like any other party, if your date gets obnoxiously drunk it is better to go home with someone else.  Especially if you plan on getting there in one piece.

Now, in regard to the torture hearings, if America sits on its ass and does nothing to rectify or show shame about the situation, it will give those who hate us even more ammunition, not less.  As my father pointed out to me in 1967, the people in America have short memories and the people in the Middle East have extremely long ones.  The Turkish-Armenian situation is but one sad example.  Plus, and this is a big one, they are willing to die for their beliefs.  The majority of Americans aren't and our recent behavior more than makes this clear.

To accuse the Democrats of being the isolationist party is one of the most laughable arguments I've heard in years.  I was a Republican because I was an isolationist and a fiscal conservative until they lost their freaking minds.  Republicans ran up the national debt, like they always do, and went nuts on immigration.  If you were born brown and out of town you became the reason that everything went wrong in America.  Sheesh, get a grip.

Last time I checked we were a Republic, not a dynasty.  As history (there's that word again) has shown many times, the balance of power shifts across the globe pretty frequently.  Maybe if we hadn't spent all our resources, wasted our good will and destroyed our military in two useless wars we wouldn't be in the position of having to watch other countries pick up where we left off before we had our mental breakdown.  America is no longer a free society.  Our phones are tapped, there are surveillance cameras in almost every town, the police become more like the military every day and while the Second Amendment is in no danger, the First, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth definitely are.

The national debt was way out of control before the Democrats were elected to power.  It got that way while the Republicans held sway and decided that the rich needed to be richer at the expense of everyone else.  Young people aren't stupid and since recent studies show that math scores are increasing they will be able to do the arithmetic.  A simple math problem might consist of something like this.  In 2000 there was a surplus and in 2008 there wasn't.  By a wide margin.  Yes, the deficit is going to be bigger for the next couple of years but that wouldn't have happened if the GOP hadn't engaged in a reverse Robin Hood scheme for the last eight years while at the same time increasing the size of government with duplicate agencies that contained their unqualified cronies.

Human rights, that's rich.  And who says it's only three members of al-Qaeda that were tortured?  It's much more widespread than that and everyone knows it.   Pregnant women wouldn't have joined the cause to blow themselves up if they and their baby had something to live for.  They don't.  We have turned their homes, fields and farms into one gigantic war zone in an effort to get revenge on people who are already dead.  Human rights belong to everyone, even if you're brown from out of town.  Other countries, who are much smaller than us geographically, have survived terrorism for years.  We have one instance of terrorism and now the nation wears diapers and cries for mommy.  They aren't destroying us, we are doing it ourselves.

I've been buying foreign cars for years and Detroit has been the reason.  As a woman I require that my car be dependable and affordable.  As an example in 1987 my brother and I got new cars at the same time.  I got a Honda CRX and my brother got a Pontiac Fiero.  He sold his car at the end of six months because it had spent three of those months in the shop and still didn't run right.  I drove the Honda for fourteen years and was grateful every day that I got over 40 mpg.  Detroit's solution was to build bigger and more unstable gas guzzlers.  And now there's no more Pontiac.  The government certainly can't do any worse than the auto execs did.  Unless it's run by people who say their goal is to drown it in a bathtub.

Health care.  Don't make me puke.  I grew up on Air Force bases using military healthcare.  It was nowhere near as bad as going to the doctor today.  Oops, I don't go to the doctor, I can't afford it and I don't qualify for health insurance because I have a preexisting condition called asthma.  The emergency room is my fallback for when it gets out of control and I think I'm going to suffocate.  We won't even go into that dental and vision thing, they don't seem to be on the radar of the entitled so why bring up another problem that those who have everything they need would like to ignore.  Oh yeah, that argument about waiting months for a surgical procedure?  Maybe you should talk to all the people who have health insurance and been denied procedures so the insurance companies can give their executives and shareholders enormous bonuses and dividends.

I'm black, there is racism, get over it.  When you have black communities in states where local governments have built services around them and they didn't have running water like their neighbors did for the last fifty years, that's racism.  When things like education and skills are equal and blacks and Latinos are earning less (provided they got hired) than their melanin impaired compatriots, that's racism.  When you cut essential school programs in poorer districts that are predominately black and politically mrginalized, that's racism.  When prisons are filled to the brim with people of color who have committed petty crimes against themselves while rich melanin impaired executives who destroyed the lives of millions go free, that's racism.  Those are facts and they aren't going away.

The GOP is in trouble for a reason and the reason is this.  They are out of touch with the average American.  Their base consists of angry people who vote on single issues by claiming that the Bible disapproves of certain behaviors they deem immoral while ignoring the rest of the Bible teachings that encourage them to take care of their fellow man and to have compassion and pity for those who are suffering.  The elite of the party are just that.  Elite and as far removed from their base as they can get in their personal lives as they can manage and not get outed.

The party of Lincoln is falling apart and the more they scream about how unfair it is and the more rabid they are to return to a time that only exists in their imaginations, the further from the mainstream they will be.  As so many other Republicans have said before me, I didn't leave the party the party left me.

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Waah, Waah, Waah

She can believe whatever she wants but just like every other Republican taking the blame herself is not an option.  It's always someone else's fault with "those people".  Maybe if Palin hadn't said so many obviously stupid things, the media wouldn't have made such an issue of them.  She can't see Russia from her front door, she didn't have the vaguest idea of what the Vice President job was and she butchered the English language at every opportunity, just to name a few.  Tina Fey did her image more harm than Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric combined.  Like any good caricature the skits were based on the truth, the sad part was that they didn't have to change anything she said to get a laugh.  Glasses, hair and twang were all that were needed as they repeated verbatim her latest verbal faux pas.  If you can't stand the heat, get out of politics.  And yes, unbalanced media is a threat to democracy, the last eight years proved that.

Speaking of biased media, in their latest hatchet job CNN never mentions that it was the Republicans who refused to cooperate and that Obama did try to include them in the stimulus process.  They decided not to participate and then decried the lack of bipartisanship.  Through the eight years of the recent Bush presidency the Democrats, unfortunately, never voted lockstep against any of his proposals.  Seven Democrats in the House voted against the stimulus and I don't hear them crying about being left out in the cold.  Funny how the people who voted against the stimulus are all too willing to take the money.  Republicans, always willing to take not so willing to give.

I'm not particularly fond of quite a few of the recent Supreme Court Decisions but this proposal sounds messy and removes the judicial branch from its coequal status.  The not subtle dig at Justice Ginsburg sounds like it came straight from Senator Bunning's office.

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According To Those In The Know

Why is the Washington Times still kissing up to ex-President Bush (that felt really good to write)?  Because talk is considered presidential only when the public is being lied to?  Maybe Obama got access to the complete data only after he was sworn in and the outlook really is bleaker than it looks.  We have been lied to for so long that maybe we can't handle the truth and maybe we can.  And only the truly clueless believe that employment is at 7.6% since many people have dropped off the rolls or are working part time jobs which are rarely gainful employment.  And that benefits thing?  Not so much.

Brad Blakeman, a senior aide to Mr. Bush from 2001 to 2004, said the new president's language is immature.

"It's not presidential. An American leader needs to be hopeful and optimistic - and truthful. Everything he says is parsed; everything he says is searched for deep meaning. When he goes to 'DefCon 5' on the economy and says that we're on the brink of catastrophe, it's absolutely insane."

For eight years bipartisanship has been defined as Democrats should sit quietly and listen to their betters, follow their advice and bend over and spread their cheeks as directed.  The American people didn't like the results of that and decided that they wanted change in how things were done.  Now bipartisanship is defined as you can spend all the time and effort you want trying to listen to my concerns and I am still going to vote against you and accuse you of not bringing me in on the negotiations.  But still, people leave comments like this after Bush got everything he asked for and in some instances, more from the Democrats in Congress.

It really sucks when the "Liberal" Chickens come home to roost !!! Now look at just who is begging for a Bi-Partisan Congress !!!

Now that your Democratic Congress is in place, lets see just how you deal with the stonewalling that the Dem's have shown us how to do for the past years...

And yes, Limbaugh is a portly chatterbox.

That's how I understood Obama's dismissive reference to the AM radio entertainer: Times are serious; Rush Limbaugh's not. Needless to say, the portly chatterbox made the best of it, remarking that Obama supporters expect everybody to bend over and grab their ankles just because the president had a black father. To which Jay Leno made the perfect rejoinder: Rush grab his own ankles? That'll be the day.

The American people know that this is the stimulus package that isn't and how it got that way.  So much of what would have been helpful was cut from the bill by the centrists that it won't help those who need it the most but it did comfort the comfortable.  As more people become unemployed why was it necessary to cut food stamps, aid to the unemployed and the states who can't print their own money at will like the Feds?

What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses? A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished.

But as President Obama pointed out in Elkhart, this bill isn't perfect.  It's coming out of Washington and it had to go through Congress.  Wow, the vitriol from the commenters is amazing in its anger, hatred and stupidity.  At least from those in Elkhart who still have an internet connection.

What I find interesting is that those who always tout education and hard work as the way to change one's life for the better then do everything in their power to eliminate those opportunities for those who need them the most.  Expecting Paris Hilton and her compatriots to become the doctors of tomorrow is as foolish as thinking that 38 kids in a classroom with no computers, books or food in their stomachs are going to design a rocket that lands on the moon.

But with the cuts to NASA I guess that isn't important anymore. 

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Hubris Usually Precedes A Fall Unless IOKIYAR

So much for  constituents having a say in who represents them.  And you thought the Daley years were bad.  At least the Longs of Louisiana had interesting accents, but Blagojevich wins the award for political stupidity this year and probably the decade.  I never thought anyone would top Bush's "heckuva job, Brownie," but I was wrong." 

It's amazing how fast some politicians end up in jail and how quickly legislators in some states try to remove them from office while politicians who have been convicted on seven counts are still out wandering around, pandering and receiving sympathy.   Of course he's not Don Siegelman  or a black guy with a fake pistol robbing a 7/11 so he's still likely to get off.

Maybe if his stance had been a little less wide somebody might have believed him.  On the other hand, Larry Craig isn't Mark Foley.

While three Illinois Governors have gone to the Big House (just not the one they were elected for) did you know that three out of four (Madeline Albright, Condeleeza Rice and more than likely Hilary Clinton) of the last Secretary's of State have been women?  I guess one could draw their own conclusion on how important the position is any more.)  And so far they have all  managed to stay out of jail even though Colin Powell (the token guy in the group who has manged to avoid most of the mudslinging about his false testimony on those WMDs that were hidden so well that the Road Runner couldn't find them.)  No matter how hard Ken Starr tried to ruin the Clintons, she's still standing.

I have a friend that lives in the area and I haven't heard from her.  I'm worried because as unlucky as I am, she has the unfortunate luck to be in the wrong place most of the time.  I really hope she's all right.

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Screwing Veterans and Schlubs

Some gave all, others are forced to do it one drop at a time.  As I told anybody who would listen to me and quite a few who didn't, the repercussions of a war very rarely affect the people at the top, it's the troops on the bottom who bear the brunt of the burden.

“You fill out a job application and you can’t write ‘long-range reconnaissance and sniper skills,’ ” said Mr. Spurlock, who searched a year for a better-paying job than delivering pizza, finally finding one as a construction supervisor.

Truer words were never spoken.  They always say when you join the military that you will have skills that employers want when you get out.  The recruiting commercials make it look like you will be considered an employer's dream.  What a crock.  When I got out of the Army many years ago it became blindingly obvious that very few of my skills (other than the ability to take orders and I wasn't very good at that) would translate into civilian life.  Seriously, how many people have a Lance, TOW, Dragon or Shillelagh missile in their backyard that needs help with the guidance system? The correct answer is none.

It was weekend at the movies.  I saw Quantum of Solace on Friday night (not bad, Casino Royale was better) and Bolt on Saturday.  Bolt rocked.  It might help to be a dog lover but it really isn't necessary.  I also saw the new Star Trek trailer and it looks like the movie will be filled with action but it will have a long way to go in order to equal the nonstop action in Quantum.

Give it a rest.  The bailout is not working.  It hasn't changed the national economy one iota but it has enabled some companies to acquire smaller rivals and to continue the lavish lifestyle of the CEOs who had a big hand in creating this mess.  Meanwhile the rest of us schlubs continue to slide deeper into the hole that at this moment has no bottom.  I wonder how long it is going to take before the powers that be realize that if the schlubs don't have money to pay their bills they won't have money to buy the overpriced goods on the shelves and more companies will go under.  Unfortunately, just like any snowball on its way downhill, the crisis will continue to get bigger and companies will go under faster.

Two weeks after the election approval of Congress is still lower than approval of Bush and what do they do?  They continue to make the same mistakes hoping that two years from now we will have forgotten all about their bad behavior.  After the electorate (that would be us schlubs) voted Democrats into the majority and how do they repay us?  By disregarding everything we want and reinforcing the opinion that once Congress critters are in office they don't care about anything else.  Least of all the truth or doing what their constituents want.  In what world is it okay to be rewarded for voluntarily playing for the other team in the middle of the playoffs and then not be punished for your actions?  And the answer is...our world.  Nothing has changed except McCain and Palin didn't have seats when the music stopped playing.  And neither do we.

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Sunday Morning Musings

When is your last request subject to change?  When you happen to be a Catholic Cardinal who is one step away from "Sainthood".    It seems that Cardinal John Henry Newman had requested that he be laid to rest next to his long time friend Ambrose St.John and that's where he's been since he died in 1890.  Now that he's one step away, the Vatican wants to move his remains to a special sarcophagus in another town.  The Vatican's excuse?  So the remains will be more accessible for venerating faithful.  Hmm, sounds more like trying to remove any inference that he might be gay.  It almost cracks me up because it is so hypocritical.   Through the years Popes have had mistresses and even children, but that some people might think that one of the saints was a homosexual is something that must be covered up.   Religious tolerance is rarely tolerant or religious.

The first mention of Obama and his speechfound in my Google Reader News was at spot 26, Sarah Palin was the number two article.  The press has found a new darling and she's photogenic.  For a Republican.  I wonder how long it's going to take the Demowienies to learn how to play politics?  After so many years of doing the same old thing and getting the same old bad results you would think they could get a clue.  But time after time the Republicans manage to steal the stage and make the news world revolve around themselves.   The only way the Dumocrats are going to be able to steal the political stage back would be if Obama decided to either not run or appoints Hillary as his new Veep pick.  And we all know that isn't going to happen.  The Republicans got just what they wanted, which was to run against Obama and not Hillary and the American citizenry are going to get four more years of McSame. Oh joy.

There is one other thing that pissed me off about John Edwards and his "liason" with what's her name, and it's something I haven't seen mentioned in the news.  Has the man never heard of protection?  The all weather raincoat should always be used when liaising with anyone other than your spouse.  With an HIV infection rate of one American every nine and a half minutes, the odds are not on your side if you ride bareback.  Personal raincoats also reduce the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy, but I guess condoms might be hard to hide from your wife and buying them yourself or asking an aide to do it would have been a dead giveaway that you were having an affair.  You set more than a bad example of behavior by having sex after taking marriage vows and your wife having more on her plate than she should have to deal with in one lifetime, you have given the impression that unprotected sex is okay.  It isn't and many more children will be born with a disease that could have been prevented by a little forethought.  Something you didn't think was important.  That's why I'm pissed.  In that one, or however many it took, act, you showed a lack of leadership and glorified irresponsibility.

The list of noshows at the Republican Convention is quite impressive.  And it can't be blamed on Gustav.  Or the California budget crisis.  No matter how hard they try.  Minneapolis is nowhere near where Gustav is expected to make landfall.  And they can't really think that we would believe that they want to be available to help those who can't afford to leave their homes.  And that budget thing?  Total BS since the Republicans are the ones who are holding everything up by insisting that the poor make up the difference in the budget instead of those who can afford to pay taxes.

I was never a Warren Zevon fan until it was too late, but here is a video that Billy Bob Thornton made with Warren and John Waite and a few others before Warren's last appearance on the Letterman show.  It isn't the whole song, but you can tell everyone knew it was going to be the last time.  Knockin' On Heaven's Door. It's enough to bring tears to your eyes. He had some great friends.


And because I'm really pensive this morning, Johnny Cash and his rendition of Hurt by the Nine Inch Nails..


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It's Finally A Horse Race

Ever since I realized we were once again going to get stuck with choosing the lesser of two evils, I've been saying that if McCain picked a woman it would do serious damage to the Democratic platform.  Since everyone decided that McCain was too old and might not be able to serve his term completely if he picks who I think he might, the Democrats will have a much harder slog uphill.  With a lot of unhappy women leaving the party in droves.  Bet the powers that be wish they had listened a little harder to the discontent of Hillary's supporters.

McCain and his advisers were smart, they picked exactly who I thought they would.  Sarah Palin.

So much for the convention bump.  We're gonna have fun now.  Yup, the Demowienies have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

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A Spoonful Of Sugar

Is supposed to help the medicine go down and the medicine must be pretty bad if the Democratic convention is any indication. 

I used to read about 182 feeds a day (can we say info junkie?) and geek that I am, I've been tracking my Google Reader Trends and can honestly say that in the past few weeks I've gone from a 100% reader completion rate down to less than 70%.  Which seems to reflect my attitude about the hype that most around the blogosphere lives for.  The same old stories, told over and over again.  Ad nauseum.  The only Olympics I watched were when I was at someone else's house and Michael Phelps was on for the few minutes I was there.  The same will probably hold true for the Demolympics and the Repubolympics the following week.  Almost like the Truman show except the buck never stops being passed around.    Though the pictures of our Commander in Chief trying to raise the roof or having to be helped from his seat by several men were pretty entertaining.

Fortunately the Dark Wraith (Ron Paul had the same reasoning of why Republicans should have voted for Kerry in 2004 and wasn't afraid to say so) published Ted Kennedy's speech (courtesy of YouTube) over at the Big Brass Blog so I didn't have to suffer through the constant inane twitter of the Dan Rather, Chet Huntley, Walter Cronkite and David Brinkley wannabes.  If today's"newsmen" had the talent of their predecessors, half their gravitas and any ability to research their own sources of information instead of reading a daily transcript handed to them from whichever contact person is in charge, we wouldn't be in the mess we are now.  Seriously, since when did an Obama child swinging the gavel and making the press corps laugh, become news?  Trust me, it's nowhere near the equivalent of JFK Jr saluting his father's casket as it went past.  Not even close.  And you can't make it so.

I tried to read the transcript of Michelle Obama's speech but found the reaction to be overhyped as well.  Letter perfect?   In whose language?  The Obamas are not the Second Coming and if the people who consistently ignored all the signs, portents, Katrina, extremely conservative Supreme Court judges, Executive Orders, an inept Attorney General, a politicized Justice Department, the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act until it was too late are now excited because they smell some sort of change in the air, they should check their diapers.  Because they are full of it.

Our country is in deep doodoo and instead of pointing out how, where, when, what, and why, we get...the promise of change.  No concrete plan, no pointing out the perpetrators of the country's downfall so people can see why there is going to be a difference between a Republican and a Democrat administration other than a somewhat historic black candidate.   Because there isn't one.  The Democrats enabled Bush and his crew without a clue and can't afford to point it out.  The Republicans won't miss that opportunity to point out the obvious next week.  Nope, instead we got a touchy feely opening, we are just like you speech.  I'm surprised she didn't say I feel your pain.

Obama has been so busy backpedaling, reversing promises he made to the progressives who helped him to get where he is, that he can't be trusted.  I don't believe a word he says, not that I ever really believe politicians.  For Obama, his FISA vote was an excellent example of him looking toward the future and making sure that there would be that much more power to grab than it was about standing up for the Fourth Amendment and what this country used to stand for.  There is not one guarantee other than his word that changes with the Republican wind, that we won't end up with more conservative judges and the elimination of the little that's left of the Bill of Rights.

Shirley Chisholm must be turning in her grave.

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Born To Serve

Once again the Demowienies are in the process of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.  Why am I not surprised?  So much for that much lauded theory from the usual Democratic pundits who haven't rubbed elbows with the common man in years.  You know the theory that said that Obama had a better chance of beating McCain than Hillary would.  This election cycle has been rigged since day one and anyone who thinks that things are going to change in January needs to share their psychedelics with the rest of society.

An untried, unproven (did you know he's black?) political upstart against a professional politician whose main claim to fame was to be shot down in Vietnam and held as a POW; who left his first wife while she was recovering from a car accident for his current and much richer wife; who can barely tell the difference between Iraq and Iran, much less Shia or Sunni;  was closely related to the Keating scandal and hasn't accomplished much since then except to keep running for office and now he's ahead in the polls.

And the best part?  The Republicans haven't even brought out the big guns yet.  One of Hillary's greatest strengths (yes, she had some to go along with her baggage), besides her experience and her previously shown ability to work well with others, would have been that they couldn't dig up any more dirt on her than has already been thrown.  Not so for the anointed one, have you seen the story about the brother? This is just the beginning.   I hope Hillary takes the Gray Davis approach and decides to live a life of happiness away from all the lies and selling of souls for votes.   She and Bill will be able to laugh sadly at the mess that people who supposedly knew better have created and left the American people to drown in.

As goes California, so goes the nation.  Down hill and into the sewer ditch.  Californians were so sure that getting rid of Gray Davis and installing Schwarzenegger would make things better for the state.  Several years later and now look at where we are.  No budget, deeply in debt and no way out except to either hurt the people who have nothing more to give or give to the people who keep finding things to take.  You remember the takers from when we all used to go to grade school together before they destroyed one of the best educational systems in the country.  They had all the best toys, hung around in cliques that the average (read poor) person couldn't get into and made sure they were the only ones on the cheerleading squads and running for school offices. The original '09ers. Obviously they haven't changed one bit.

What has changed is that the American people still believe in royalty and have decided to appoint those with money as the sole arbiters of what is best for the common man.  That would be the other 99% of America, soon to be known as the poor and downtrodden.  Or in the language of the Dark Ages, serfs.

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On The Backs Of The Poor

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh*t. Our lovely Governator is proposing an immediate "temporary" one cent hike in one of the most regressive taxes known to man, the sales tax.   And this is right after demanding that state workers earn the federal minimum wage of $6.55 an hour in a state where the cost of gas is still well over $4 a gallon and Los Angeles is intent on removing the dollar value menu from poor neighborhoods.  Because no food at all is better than Latinos being fat, isn't it?

Why are poor people and those who the governor intends to make poor, expected to bail out the economy of a state that has so many millionaires?  Why can't the rich pay a little more in taxes on the exorbitant amounts of money that they spend on vacations, expensive cars they don't know how to drive and eating at restaurants featuring edibles that aren't really food?  Why are the people at the bottom of the economic ladder expected to bear the brunt of the state's fiscal mismanagement and political grandstanding by having their benefits cut to the bone and then adding insult to injury by taking what little money they have go to support prisons and corporations instead of being funneled back into programs to help them make everyone's lives better?  Things like real education for children, public transportation and rebuilding the infrastructure.

Democrats have been open about their desire for higher taxes to help solve the deficit, though the sales tax is by no means their first choice. The Democratic budget proposal includes $9 billion in new taxes, but they are aimed mostly at corporations and the wealthy. Sales tax increases, by contrast, tend to hit lower- and middle-income residents harder because they spend a bigger share of their income on taxable sales.

One political analyst said the governor should explain his tax plan to the public, rather than having it leak to the media.

"This is Mr. Salesman, the guy who could sell anything," said Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book which analyzes legislative races. "If he's going to sell his party on a sales tax, and the Democrats who view it as regressive, he ought to lay it out before the people."

Nope that's called honesty with a dash of cojones and it isn't something that politicians are known for.   Requiring a two thirds majority to pass a state budget when all the Republicans are interested in are playing games with people's lives and pretending that they have the people's best interests at heart has not worked for the people of California for many years.  Every July we go through the same thing and meanwhile the state is falling down around our ears.

Eventually, like when the state isn't considered a player in the world economy and only the movie stars have money to spend on purchases that aren't required for daily survival, things are going to have to change.  Unfortunately, it's going to be too late for the majority of Californians.  They will have already moved to Mexico in order to have a better quality of life.

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Are The Trains On Time Yet?

Nothing says politician like reversing yourself to meet the results of a poll.  Even when they know the poll is hogwash, that the resulting answers are bogus and that it won't solve the problem at all.  In true political fashion, Barack Obama once again sways with the breeze in his effort to become the Decider's heir.  I remember how badly I was treated when I pointed out on another site that the closer to the election the more of his true self would be revealed.  That he would say or do anything that gets him closer to the goal.  Opportunistic?   Most definitely.  Between FISA, drilling off the coasts, and now wanting to let the Florida and Michigan delegations have full voting powers restored to" reunite" the Democratic party (under his banner), some of them must be feeling a little betrayed by now.  Betrayed by their own naivete.  I can hardly wait until his VP pick when the shaft slides all the way in.

Um duh!  Low wage workers usually tend to be people of color and are therefore more likely to be predisposed to liking Obama over McCain.  For those who are melanin impaired, it's easier to identify with someone who hasn't always had a silver spoon in their mouth.  And after years at the bottom of the economic ladder, poor people  realize that rarely does a change in presidents improve their individual lives.  Nice of the WaPo to point out the glaringly obvious.

Another strike against the consumer.  All in the name of progress.  Wherever Orwell is, he's probably sitting in stunned amazement with mouth agape, bewildered by not only was his book off by several years, but it would cover areas he never thought about.

"Some insurers can make a decision in the same day, or right on the spot," Franzen said. "That's the real 'value-add.'"

skip

When an insurer makes an online query about an applicant, Ingenix or Milliman's servers scour the data and within minutes or less return reports to a central server at the company. The server aggregates the information going back as far as five years, including the drugs and dosages prescribed, dates filled and refilled, the therapeutic class and the name and address of the prescribing doctor.

Obviously that decision will be no.  There is a new world order and the have nots won't be eligible for it.  The really sad part?  There didn't used to be so many have nots.  Isn't it wonderful how the Republicans and their Demowienie enablers have been able to cull the herd in such a short amount of time?

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