Lowering The Bar

What kind of creep do you have to be to break in to a family's home three days after they were killed in a car crash?  It's bad enough that the parents and two kids were broadsided by a drunk driver who ran a red light at seventy miles an hour as they were returning from a family vacation in Hawaii, but it takes a real lowlife to break into their home and steal their possessions and their car before their bodies have been buried.  Hopefully these morons will plead guilty because it's going to be difficult to find an impartial jury.

Protecting the institution of marriage by banning gays from being married is better than banning divorce, because it would be "impractical" according to the California Family Council. Two people of the same sex pledging their lives to one another is wrong but it's okay for people to get married in a drunken stupor and get divorced three days later.  On the other hand, some people try marriage (and divorce) three times before realizing that they are gay.  How is marriage protected when it can be undone at will?  Maybe the 47.9% of heterosexual marriages that end in divorce should have been prevented?

As if stealing from dead people wasn't bad enough, stealing $100,000 worth of toys and food from an agency that helps the poor is worse.  Scumbags.

I don't accept his apology either.  I'm not his wife or child and it isn't any of my business so I don't need an apology.  He deserves the apology for people intruding on his life.  Everyone is entitled to privacy, even if they are in the public spotlight.  It isn't like he's a Lohan, Hilton or Salahi who seeks fame for fame's sake or someone who sees an opportunity to grub for money.  And since it didn't happen on the golf course, why should it affect his career?  My senator was fooling around with his best friend's wife and he still has a job.

How can a female soldier die from being shot in the back of the head and it not be considered murder?  That is happened on a "secure" base in Iraq is even more mystifying and why is it taking the military so long to solve the case?  Don't they watch NCIS?

If it wasn't for mom's social security deposit, we would be unbanked also.  Three weeks after B of A raided my account for the California government and charged me $100 for the privilege in addition to $105 for not paying my bills, I have yet to receive notification or any official paperwork.  California isn't getting the disputed tax money and my bills aren't paid, but B of A made a couple of hundred dollars at everyone's expense.  I'd rather pay three dollars to Wal-Mart to cash a check and then run around town and pay my bills in cash.  I wonder if Arnold is going to have his bank account raided for his back taxes?  Somehow, I doubt it.

Speaking of the IRS, they are trying to auction off lands that belong to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation using the pretext of back taxes.  There must be undiscovered oil or gold.   Considering that the land originally belonged to them before they were hunted down and forced to exist on land that barely supports insects, this is some real chutzpah. 

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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.

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Common Sense Is A Thing Of The Past

I love when they do studies that reveal information that anyone with a modicum of  common sense could have predicted the outcome.  Politicians have traits that are common in serial killers.  I wish I could say I was surprised, but that would be lying.  Lack of remorse is evident every time they vote against what their constituents want and vote for whatever entity has donated the most money to their campaigns.  When they finally wander back to their districts, usually for reelection purposes, they claim they had to vote the way they did for security reasons or any other excuse they think will fly.

Kouri, who's a vice president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police, has assembled traits such as superficial charm, an exaggerated sense of self-worth, glibness, lying, lack of remorse and manipulation of others.

These traits, Kouri points out in his analysis, are common to psychopathic serial killers.
But -- and here's the part that may spark some controversy and defensive discussion -- these traits are also common to American politicians. (Maybe you already suspected.)

Yup. Violent homicide aside, our elected officials often show many of the exact same character traits as criminal nutjobs, who run from police but not for office.

I've noticed.  Ten dollars worth of gas doesn't go very far, which is another reason to sell the car.  People make appointments to see the car and then never show up and they don't call to cancel.  I dragged the kids back from the dog park on Saturday and the person never showed.  The dogs could have continued to have a great time, as it was all they got to do was sit around the apartment all day.  I've dropped the price a $1000 and still no takers.  I can't drop it much more because it won't solve my financial problems and then I would be without a car to boot.  Very frustrating.

In typical Washington fashion they once again rammed through a bill that was supposed to help people but had a somewhat opposite effect in real life.  Those who make a certain amount of money might be able to keep some type of roof over their head, as long as they don't want to eat real food.  Ketchup is a vegetable.  Again.

White guy kills three cops who he thinks are going to take away his guns, just a lone nutjob. Minutemen dressed as cops kill a Hispanic father and 9 year old daughter in their own home, not a hate crime.  White man shoots a doctor in a church, not a crime of terror.  White guys shoots up a church while spouting crap he heard on Limbaugh and Hannity, not a hate crime.  Old white guy shoots a security guard at the Holocaust Museum, it's an isolated incident.  Black guy with strange name kills a recruit and it's a bloody rampage and a "giant step forward for the jihadist movement".  According to World Net Daily here is a partial list of recent church shootings, none of which are considered terrorist acts.  I know it's not new, but can we say "double standard?"

• August 12, 2007: A lone gunman, Eiken Elam Saimon, opened fire in a Missouri Micronesian church, killing a pastor and two other churchgoers.
• May 20, 2007: A standoff between police and a suspect in the shootings of three people in a Moscow, Idaho, Presbyterian Church ended with three dead, including one police officer.
• Although not at a church building, the Oct. 2, 2006, attack in Lancaster County, Pa., by a gunman who killed five girls and then himself at an Amish school targeted a religious site.
• May 21, 2006: Louisiana. Four were killed by a man at Jesus Christ Church.
• Feb. 26, 2006: Michigan. Two people were killed at Zion Hope Missionary Baptist Church by a man who reportedly went to the church looking for his girlfriend. He later killed himself.
• April 9, 2005: A 27-year-old airman died after being shot at a church in College Park, Ga., where he had once worked as a security guard.
• March 12, 2005: A man walked into the services of the Living Church of God in Milwaukee and open fired immediately, killing seven people.
• Oct. 5, 2003: A woman opened fire in Turner Monumental AME church in Kirkwood, east of Atlanta, killing the pastor and two others.
• Sept. 16, 1999: Seven young people were killed when a man opened fire during a prayer service for teen-agers at the Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas

Someone too dumb to know that if an escaped gorilla was Michelle Obama's ancestor then it was his ancestor also.  At this rate Americans are going to start regarding their Indian and Chinese doctors as more competent than their blond, blue-eyed doctors.  Unless they have a British accent to go with their "normal" looks.

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Freakin' Unbelievable!

The out of touch with reality old fogies have struck again.  My take on the Supreme Court determination that the FCC can fine television stations for unplanned "fleeting expletives"?  Fuck 'em!  I hardly ever curse on this blog but I do in real life.  As do most people, especially those under pressure or who have had a little too much to drink.  And have you heard the kids of today?  They learned those words at home, not from watching broadcast television and if they are watching cable that's a parental problem, isn't it?  Hearing the F or S word does not make me think about sex or using the bathroom, they make me think the person was either really surprised or really upset.

"It suffices to know that children mimic the behavior they observe -- or at least the behavior that is presented to them as normal and appropriate," Scalia wrote. "Programming replete with one-word indecent expletives will tend to produce children who use (at least) one-word indecent expletives."

Deadwood was not the issue, Cher and Nicole Ritchie were.  I guess frak" isn't allowed either.  A one off is not a show replete with one word expletives and if children are mimicking the behavior they see on television, then shows such as Survivor, 24, and the Power Rangers shouldn't be allowed.  Or maybe their parents could pay more attention to them and what they're watching so they can explain that it isn't real and life doesn't really work that way.

So, it's okay to penalize a station for unplanned speech by an individual they can't control but not okay to penalize a station for inciting to riot, deliberately spreading falsehoods, encouraging intolerance towards others or lowering the IQ of the nation under the guise of "fair and balanced" news?  What's next boys, strip searching 13 year old girls for Advil without their parents being notified?  That smacks more of pedophiliac sexual tendencies on the part of those who think it's okay than expecting an accidental curse on live television to affect children for the rest of their lives.  Big Brother, indeed.

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Disrespecting The Troops

As if sending the men and women of our Armed Forces, Reserves and National Guard to fight a war under false pretenses wasn't disrespectful enough.  As if sending those same troops to fight without the proper armor, intel or decent working equipment and then telling them that you go to war with what you have when you had been planning to go to war all along wasn't disrespectful enough.  As if hiding the troops who have fallen fighting this war and sneaking their bodies back in the dark of night wasn't disrespectful enough.  As if forcing the wounded to recover in hospitals that were falling down around their ears wasn't disrespectful enough.  As if the veterans weren't homeless and joblesss after returning from active duty wasn't disrespectful enough.  As if all the lies about the friendly fire deaths wasn't disrespectful enough.  As if the troops being forced to live and work in 90,000 substandard and dangerous facilities in Iraq wasn't disrespectful enough.

As if all of those weren't disrespectful enough, Salon has confirmed (with audio for the doubting Thomases of the 101st Fighting Keyboarders) what those of us who really support the troops have suspected for some time.  That the previous administration regarded injured troops as pieces of equipment that should be thrown away unmended as often as possible.  If this soldier hadn't carried a tape recorder because of his PTSD and traumatic brain injury induced CRS (can't remember shit) disease we might still be waiting for the truth to come out.  Again.

But what Sgt. X wants to tell a reporter about is one doctor's appointment at Fort Carson that his wife did not witness. When she couldn't accompany him to an appointment with psychologist Douglas McNinch last June, Sgt. X tucked a recording device into his pocket and set it on voice-activation so it would capture what the doctor said. Sgt. X had no idea that the little machine in his pocket was about to capture recorded evidence of something wounded soldiers and their advocates have long suspected -- that the military does not want Iraq veterans to be diagnosed with PTSD, a condition that obligates the military to provide expensive, intensive long-term care, including the possibility of lifetime disability payments. And, as Salon will explore in a second article Thursday, after the Army became aware of the tape, the Senate Armed Services Committee declined to investigate its implications, despite prodding from a senator who is not on the committee. The Army then conducted its own internal investigation -- and cleared itself of any wrongdoing.

snip

McNinch added that he also received pressure not to properly diagnose traumatic brain injury, Sgt. X's other medical problem. "When I got there I was told I was overdiagnosing brain injuries and now everybody is finding out that, yes, there are brain injuries," he recalled. McNinch said he argued, "'What are we going to do about treatment?' And they said, 'Oh, we are just counting people. We don't plan on treating them.'" McNinch replied, "'You are bringing a generation of brain-damaged individuals back here. You have got to get a game plan together for this public health crisis.'"

When McNinch learned he would be quoted in a Salon article, he cut off further questions. He also said he would deny the interview took place. Salon, however, had recorded the conversation.

Hmm, they must have learned that trick from all the wiretapping stories.

As a taxpayer I am concerned that my dollars aren't good enough for the troops but are good enough to bailout highly paid and incompetent banking and insurance executives.  As a veteran my heart is breaking that those who served faithfully under trying circumstances are being discarded as if they were trash.  As an American I am flabbergasted that the troops are being treated this way after the Walter Reed scandal.  As a human being I am disappointed by the inhumanity of it all.

Our troops and veterans deserve the best that we can give them, no matter what the cost.  After all, isn't that what we ask of them?

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Revisiting The Myth

Social Security is not an "entitlement" program.  Over the course of their working lives people have had millions of dollars taken out of their paychecks and put into a program as insurance for when they got older or became infirm.  Using the word entitlement implies that nobody contributed anything and that they are sponging off the government, which isn't true.  Why is it that the people who have money are so determined to see the teachers, mechanics and bank tellers who served them over the years spend the end of their lives in poverty?  If I hadn't been willing to give up my own life, my mom would be on the street, lonely and forgotten through no fault of her own.  Which is where I will be if this stupidity continues.

I'm 52 and don't have time to make up hundreds of thousands of dollars so I can retire.  By the time mom is gone we will be so deep into this depression that I, along with a good majority of other innocent people, will not be able to survive in the economic conditions of the future.  So much for that Masters and owning my own business.

Social Security is NOT the problem. It isn't even out of money, no matter what the people who don't need to worry about their retirement babble.

We are staring at unfunded liabilities for Medicare and Social Security in the tens of trillions of dollars. Where's that money going to come from? We have to either raise taxes or cut benefits. There are no other options.

Yes, there are. For too long the elite have used the bounty of this country for themselves and it is long past time to share the wealth. We are rapidly becoming a third world country, run by people who have no concept of what it is to struggle to survive. As the economic downturn continues and small businesses start to fall by the wayside along with corporations who gave obscene amounts of money to the people at the top while taking everything from the people on the bottom, the pain will be felt by everyone who isn't at the top.

Food, gas and medicine are out of the price range of a growing section of society. They can't cut back any more as there is nothing left to cut. The poor can't walk to the grocery store because grocery stores aren't located in the poor sections of town. The poor can't take public transportation because it is being slashed in a futile effort to balance budgets that will continue to run a deficit as more people become unemployed and can't contribute to the tax base. The poor can't afford the highly overpriced medicines or the preventative doctor visits to keep them healthy. The poor, as a group, can't do anything to change their situation because they have nothing to change it with. Their children will continue to swell the ranks of the poor because education in their areas has been virtually eliminated and besides they have to scrounge for food. The poor can't get abortions, birth control is nonexistent and the fundamentalists want to keep it that way. That way they can complain about the poor being irresponsible and having too many babies. And prison is not a replacement for a healthy and happy childhood.

The Republican party and the fools who support them are determined to return this country to the days of indentured servitude. They trot out trite statements such as pull yourself up by your bootstraps when not only do the people not have straps, they don't even have boots. If you are born poor or lower middle class the odds are that you will stay that way. The outer fringes of society will be your world and unless the elite who are really the ones enjoying the benefits of entitlement, get off their high horses and walk among the commoners we will end up having a caste system that is more entrenched than India's.

Or a revolution.

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Why, Why, Why?

Unflipping believable.  Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one and newspapers have whole sections of them.   With job losses mounting and state budgets collapsing, the moron Clark S. Judge (doesn't he read his own paper or have access to the same data?) lets loose with this brilliant statement. 

The analogy with the Depression is wrong; the current downturn may be all but over; and doing too much, not too little, is the real danger.

Anybody, anybody, who thinks that the financial devastation is almost over is not dealing with a full deck and should go back to whatever cubbyhole they crawled out of until they pick up a little common sense.

I don't care if banks do business with each other, they have been using their depositors money to make money for themselves for years, but I do care whether or not they do business with companies that employ Americans.  If I don't have an income, how are tax cuts going to help me pay my bills, put a roof over my head or food in my stomach?  The Republicans in California are so crazy that they are willing to enact a budget that screws over their own constituents and benefits the rich, liberal Democrats they hate the most just so they can say that they cut taxes.

Why is it ok for banks and Wall Street to get bailed out when it was their greed that helped to cause this mess but it isn't ok to help people like me who are suffering because of their bad judgment?  Why is cutting taxes for those who don't need it more important than rebuilding our infrastructure before it completely falls apart?  Or down?  Why is it so important for Republicans to enlarge the class of people known as poor?  Why is it so difficult for those in Washington to understand that the average Joe (not Joe the Plumber) is hurting mightily and needs help now, as in today, not some mysterious future trickle down effect that isn't going to happen just like the last trickle down effect didn't happen.

Could it be that they consider us serfs, existing only to satisfy their whims and wishes?  Did the election results teach them nothing?  And whining that reporters aren't doing their jobs, how is that news?  They didn't do their job for the last eight years, why start with something so important as the impending financial ruin of our country?

Financial terrorism is what Republicans are practicing.  And getting away with it.

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Out Of Their Minds

OMG! WTF?  First of all, he divorced her.  Second of all, and most importantly, when one is murdered one has not broken their lease and they certainly shouldn't be accused of giving "insufficient notice to vacate". 

My landlord is holding fast to evicting mom and me, will not budge on the issue.  Even though I have broken no rules, am current on the rent (I paid January's rent before Christmas) and literally have nowhere else to go, he wants us out.  Still no reason given.  And thanks to the Governator and the obstructionist Republicans who won't vote on the budget unless it includes all cuts and no tax hikes to get the state out of debt, I don't know if I will even receive a paycheck for taking care of mom.  I contacted Zoe Lofgren, my supposed Representative in Washington, and her staff blew me off with some phone numbers that just went to answering machines.  They can kiss my vote goodbye.  I haven't slept in two days and am in a permanent anxiety state.  I guess catching a break is not my thing.

A Black Manhattan recipe.  The King of Zembla (dude, it's time for a new post)  introduced me to Manhattans and the variation sounds interesting.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg has pancreatic cancer.  What a shame.  Somehow I doubt she will do as well as Patrick Swayze.  I tried to watch The Beast but it didn't interest me.

How can they be broke?  They charged me so much in fees last year that I know I paid someone's bonus.  They are just trying to avoid paying the Closson settlement over the ATM fees.  It was a stupid move to buy Countrywide.  Very stupid.  Buying Merrill Lynch wasn't very smart either.  Becoming a monopoly isn't as easy as it looks.

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Soup Lines, Bread Lines, Unemployment Lines

What a Corker!  And the right hand said to the left hand "I don't need your help to jerk myself off, I'm going to show you how to be a fiscal conservative again.  We won't even need tissue paper."  Meanwhile, what's left of the American Automobile industry is flushed down the toilet.  And why don't the Republicans in Congress care?  That's way too easy to answer.

Because they have a salary that's way too high for the job they aren't even trying to accomplish; they have health care for when their ulcers (that they might not be reelected or any other physical problems that affect "normal" people and then the taxpayer so nicely pays it for them without ever seeing a bill to make sure they aren't being overcharged!) goes bad; because they really don't realize that it is their constituents who are the ones in major financial trouble (and who gives a flying fig about them since most of the Senators aren't up for election for the next two to four years and they know American memories are short, name the last 10 Presidents in under ten seconds) and they know that after the inauguration they will still be able to go on a junket vacation on the taxpayers few remaining dimes.  Because we all know that the solution to this problem is to cut back everyone's wages and eliminate all pensions except for those in government and the problem will magically solve itself using the free market system.  Of stupidity.  Whatever happened to making government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub?  Or did Katrina show that little plan wasn't going to work?

As I sit here and watch the country I was willing to bleed and die for, I wonder why it took me so long to realize that my country truly is apple shaped and that we are well on our way to a fatal heart attack or stroke.  Then I realized that the people currently in power think all those stories about soup lines (great link with pictures and everything!) and The Grapes of Wrath were just brilliant works of fiction to make the have nots not feel so alone and that it really was never that bad, will never be that bad and it was probably made up in the first place to give the photographers something to do.  Methinks that sometime soon the crew without a clue will finally realize what the Second Amendment was really about...and that it had nothing to do with owning guns just because you wanted to.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It has everything to do with making sure that once again the have mores will understand that the have nots have had about as much not as they can take and still call themselves men and women instead of slaves.  We may not have taxation without representation, but we certainly have had representation without repercussions to the perpetrators of our current mess.

If we all work together, we just might get both the Constitution and the Bill of Rights back into the positions of authority that they held for hundreds of years before this bunch of bozos decided to drive the Escalade over the Grand Canyon to see if it could fly.

Without wings, a pilot or parachute for anyone other than the owners.

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They Can't Be Serious

Honestly, every time I think the Bush regime has done as much damage as it's going to, more atrocities are revealed.  As a veteran myself, I have taken special interest in how active military and veterans are being treated by the crew without a clue.  When I first read the story of soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan being denied benefits because their injuries were determined not to be combat related, I had to hold my head tight to keep it from exploding.  Since when is being injured in a land mine explosion or mortars pelting the area you are stationed in, considered not to be combat related?  This last March would be the answer.  Because everybody knows those kinds of injuries happen at home all the time.  Once again the people who have paid the the most are the ones that are getting screwed.

And if that wasn't enough to raise my blood pressure, the GAO has found that Bush loyalists were once again cooking the books to make themselves look better.  Competitive outsourcing is a bad policy that has had real world ramifications and demeans the people who have done the job successfully for many years.  What's really interesting is that all of the people let go were African American.  Color me not surprised.

Good grief!  Let the kids have a little fun, they're in kindergarten and this is their introduction to US history.  They will grow up soon enough and discover that most o fwhat they have been taught is a lie, why hurry the process?  If they can't dress up as Pilgrims and Indians, dressing up as angels and a little drummer boy next month are going to be out of the question.

Did you know that women are allowed to drive in Iran?  They can even have their own business as taxi drivers.  Now that Iraq has been reduced to a fundamentalist prison, at least it is from a woman's point of view,  Iran has more democratic freedoms than other Muslim countries.  Imagine that.

More banks are failing and the ranks of the destitute are growing quickly.  Destitute is worse than poor. You can be poor and still have a leaky roof over your head, when you are destitute you have nothing.  Which is what happens when you lose your job, house and self respect.  Food stamps only help if you have a place to store and cook the food and while a family of four making less than $21,000 is considered to be below the poverty level, it's still more money than being unemployed and homeless.

Unfortunately, I know the problem a little too well.  Fortunately, my landlord has relented for the moment and has agreed to let us stay until February.  Work Comp has made me an offer, albeit a very small one, so mom and I will have a roof over our heads for a few more months and I'm trying to find a regular job.  Mom really can't be left alone for very long, she does weird things and doesn't remember doing them and now adult protective services wants her watched at all times, so I would prefer to work from home.  Unfortunately all those offers have turned out to be scams. Oh well, tomorrow is another day.

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Quit Treating Us Like We're Stupid

Today's arrogant putz award goes to Amanda Ripley.  Ms. Ripley has written an article in Time about the failed bailout of Wall Street that is so condescending that it clearly reveals the disdain that those who have, feel for those who don't.  The title wasn't too bad, but by the end of the first paragraph you know whose side she's on.  And it isn't the American people.  She thinks we are too stupid to comprehend how the economy is failing.

The American people have known that the economy was in jeopardy for more than a year.  It's only the politicians, pundits, and the rich who haven't noticed and are waking up to the reality that the bottom is about to fall out of the bucket.  Ever since hunger was revised to be known as food insecurity the economy has been failing and changing the name of the bail out to something else won't fool us.  We are not unaware that the economy is in trouble, otherwise we wouldn't be deciding between buying food for the family or gas for the car.

Ms. Ripley's plan to convince the American people that they are being rained on instead of being pissed on is laughable from the beginning.

Find a face: Human beings are not moved by numbers or by vague predictions of certain doom. They are moved by stories. "It's simple," says Mileti. "You get one family in America. You go to their house. And you paint a picture of what their life is like one year from now. You describe a kid who can't go to college, the house that can't be sold, the inability of anyone to use a credit card. They need to get a camera crew and go to Omaha and find a family."

Hello?  That's been happening for years to the underclasses and only now is it is hitting what is left of middle America.  For the last four years some of us have been ranting, raving and writing about the inequalities between what the President has told us and the reality of our daily lives.

Be Specific: People need to know what will happen if they do nothing — or if they do something.
snip
"People don't perceive risk," says Mileti. "People actually perceive that they are safe." To override that bias, you have to talk to people in a language their brains understand.

We understand quite well, which is why people actually got off their butts and complained 100 to 1 to their Congressmen. We know that the economy is crashing and we don't want those who benefited from it on the way up, benefit again on the way down.

It is time for everyone to quit blowing smoke up our asses and treat us like the good taxpaying Americans we are. We are not children, we are not mentally challenged and we are not the enemy. You are going to have to accept the fact that we no longer trust anything the government or the press has to say. You brought it on yourself and it isn't our job to bail you out.

Can you understand that?

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Dear Mr. Bush

Shut up already.   Obviously very few people care what you think. You and your cronies have looted two countries in eight years, engineered a worldwide money crisis and don't deserve to be bailed out because you overestimated the time that your Ponzi schemes would last before crashing.  It just so happens that it is the little man, the guy on the street not the Wall Street "geniuses", that deserves a bailout.    Forcing the taxpayers to rescue people who were gambling with other people's money is as fiscally foolish as it is to keep paying CEOs big bonuses while the workers on the bottom get pink slips.

Americans are tired of being taken for granted.  We are tired of being mistaken for stupid.  We are tired of being pissed on and told that it's raining.  And we are most certainly tired of looking for a pony in a pile of bullsh*t.

"Our economy is depending on decisive action from the government," Bush said. "The sooner we address the problem, the sooner we can get back on the path of growth and job creation. This is what elected leaders owe the American people, and I am confident that we'll deliver."

The only jobs you have created were overseas or pay so low that the average American can no longer afford to live in his own home.  You let a whole American city drown, destroyed the hopes, dreams and lives of thousands of people both here and abroad and now the chickens have come home to roost.

In your arrogance you have forgotten that it is the House's responsibility to propose financial bills.  Not the Treasury Secretary, not the head of the Federal Reserve and most certainly not you.  For you to speak of your disappointment that your cronies didn't get more taxpayer money to play with doesn't bother me at all.  What did you expect?  That people who were running for reelection would go against their constituents wishes one more time?  Like true politicians they don't want to give up their way of life and hearing from the people that they are supposed to represent that if Wall Street was bailed out that they would have to find a new line of work, well you saw the results.  They may be stupid and greedy but they aren't so stupid and greedy that they don't recognize the anger of the people in their districts.

You helped to create this situation and just like every company you have ever run, we're going bankrupt.  A few years ago it was made difficult (and impossible for some) for individuals to declare bankruptcy and now the taxpayer is supposed to save the companies who stabbed them in the wallet?  I don't think so.  The only bailout the American people want at this point is for Main Street, not Wall Street.  If only I really believed you were going away for good in a few months, but you are like a bad penny.

Which is what you have left the American people.

Big Brass Blog

I'm Back, Sort Of

I've been pretty depressed as well as stressed to post lately.  First let me say thank you to Missouri Mule, a beautiful person who helped me through my darkening times.  You pack one heckuva kick and I was glad to be on the receiving end.  Thank you and may you be repaid in kind for the rest of your life.  There are good people on the planet and you are one of the best.  The same goes for the Omnipotent Poobah,  Ponzo and my other anonymous donor. Thank you all for your efforts.   I'm still drowning, but several people have thrown lifelines to delay the inevitable and I don't feel completely alone. 

Speaking of the inevitable, the campaigning or the false suspension of campaigning (the poor widdle baby), the mudslinging and the avoidance of reality continues.    If there is going to be a $700 billion bailout, couldn't we try the trickle up effect?  Please.  Just once to see what it's like?  You know the one where you give every man, woman and child $2500 and they spend it on things they need to.  Like paying the mortgage, going to the doctor instead of the emergency room, catching up on late credit card payments, putting food on the table and buying kids stuff for the next school year.  Maybe a few companies could start building things in America so we aren't constantly buying things from the international discount store.   Because the trickle down effect doesn't seem to have trickled down far enough.

A tropical storm watch in Maine, what a concept.  Somehow when I think of the tropics, Maine doesn't spring to mind.  Tell that to Hurricane Kyle.

Did you know that 2 x 43,112,609 -1 is important?  No it's not how many voters there are for McCain or Obama, it's the new Mersenne prime number. Thirteen million digits.  Now if they could only find Osama bin Laden.

As much as Jehovah's Witnesses are despised, this is one thing that you will never catch them doing.  And for two reasons.  One, they don't participate in politics and two, they believe that you have to live by laws of the country you reside in.  Or as it was explained to me by one of the elders many years ago, that includes even little things like driving the speed limit or cheating on your taxes.  Pastors are supposed to be preaching the word of God, not their interpretation of it and most certainly not to use his name to support a candidate.  It's against the law in this country and then there are those pesky Ten Commandments.  Republicans have gotten so used to breaking the thou shalt not kill, steal, bear false witness or commit adultery commandments, that breaking a few more is no big deal.  Sort of like our former Bill of Rights.  False idols and no other god before me, how quaint.  And we see how they honor their fathers and mothers by reducing any benefits and treating them like parasites because they are living longer than previous generations.  Methuselah would be in a world of hurt if he was alive today.

The Google is at it again.  On the good side they have come out against Proposition 8 and on the dark side they are supporting a bill that removes the copyright protections for cartoonists, songwriters, artists and photographers.  It's called the Orphan Works bill and it is being hotlined behind the closed doors of Congress and will likely be tacked on to the bailout bill with little notice or discussion from the public.

3Bs

And That's The Truth

As a black female in America, many years of observation have honed my instincts and taught me which battles are worth my time to try and win, and which are worth fighting for but will never change minds that are permanently closed under the guise of everyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps.  Guess which one this is.

The last few years have plainly shown that anyone who thinks that racial issues are okay in America, are obviously not one of the races that have been historically shunned in this country.  There has never been an Italian, Asian, Indian, Black or Hispanic President.  We can't even address the blatant sexism that exists and is glorified every day in this country by people who should know better.  If Muslim countries where the woman walks three feet back and to the right can elect a female Prime Minister or President, what's our excuse?  Other than the obvious?

One of the peculiar media memes of the past year has been a lot of tormented nonsense about whether the ascendance of Barack Obama means that race is somehow off the table as a defining issue in American life. Of course his prospective nomination is a historic moment, but I can't even begin to understand why this is a controversial topic. How can anybody suggest with a straight face that pervasive racism is not the reason why, in a year when every imaginable factor favors the Democrats, Obama is even or trailing in the polls behind an addled, war-hawk septuagenarian who is disliked by his own party?

To me it is Katrina that puts the lie to any fantasy of a race-neutral America. And it's Katrina, not 9/11, that displays the nation's potentially fatal 21st century weakness. While countless billions have been spent converting our society into a police state to prevent another unpreventable attack by a handful of neo-medieval wackos, the story of the ongoing destruction of a historic, majority-black American city -- before, during and after that storm -- has been briskly swept under the carpet or, more accurately, abandoned to investigative journalists, documentary filmmakers, NGO social workers, corrupt or incompetent bureaucrats and other irrelevant social debris.

As time passes on, it will be the blatant lack of response to Katrina that identifies this country.  Identifies her as the liar and hypocrite she is.  Today's Americans, having got their piece of the "pie", are determined to maintain the status quo by making sure that nobody else gets a slice.  They are no longer interested in the tired, the poor, the hungry or the hurting, it might upset the apple cart of their self induced superiority.  Unfortunately, compassion wasn't written into the Constitution and even if it was, it would have been eliminated right along with the rest of the Bill of Rights in a futile effort to protect us from a bogeyman in a cave half the world away. Because a frightening majority of the people in power, are determined to stay there.  No matter what the cost.

Our Founding Fathers must be so proud.  Not.

BBB

Sisyphus And I Are Related

My landlord could care less that the state hasn't paid me for taking care of my mother.  He wants me out so he can rent to someone who has a steady paycheck.   That used to be me.  And thanks to the state budget impasse, there is no where to take my mom while I search for another job.  Did I mention that the other day I came home and the house was full of gas because she didn't turn the stove off completely?  Caught her just before she lit a cigarette.  Or that she fell down a few weeks ago and can still barely walk? 

I hope the the California Governor and Republican representatives spend whatever afterlife there is in hell.  Pushing a rock uphill until it rolls back down and flattens them.  Time and time again.  I'm so glad I was in such a hurry to grow up and be responsible.  I'd run for office but as Kevin Costner put it so eloquently, I've lived a colorful life.  I believe that makes me ineligible since I'm not squeaky clean enough for the hypocritical voters.  To say nothing of the press.

Has anybody else noticed that the FDA lies?  Like the proverbial rug.  They don't care how many people die and they certainly don't care if it's induced by pharmaceutical companies or bad food.  Accountability, it's only for the people who weren't born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Nothing else matters.

Oh well, gotta run.  I just might be able to get food stamps.  For myself.  Isn't that special?  I've been boxed into a corner and there is no guarantee that I'll even have a place to cook the food if I qualify.  I'm really tired of fighting the same battles over and over again.  Getting my Masters was supposed to prevent that.  Instead all it did was saddle me with debt I'm never going to be able to repay.  Life is so wonderful.   I should have quit when I was sixteen.  At least the fridge was always full and the rent was always paid.

BBB

Waking Up To Reality

Yesterday Pravda the New York Times, the wonderful paper that gave us Judith Miller and forgot to cover the facts that led us in to an illegal and devastating war, had an editorial about the Hamdan monkey trial.

It is impossible, in any case, to judge the evidence against Mr. Hamdan because of the deeply flawed nature of this trial — the blueprint for which was the Military Commissions Act of 2006, one of the worst bits of lawmaking in American history.

At least when John Adams was defending the British soldiers of the Boston Massacre he had a snowball's chance in Hades to win and was able to use something called proof so that justice could be served.  Such liberties are not encouraged by the diaper wearing crowd that purports to be the "daddy" party (And we found out what they meant by that, didn't we Misters Craig, Vitter and Foley?)are currently destroying everything that our Founding Fathers held dear.  The truth is no longer self evident.  Nor are we created equal, especially if you believe in the wrong maker, have brown skin or wear a turban and a beard.

For seven years Bush and his cronies have ridden unbridled through the Constitution, laying waste wherever they went.  From the Patriot Act forward they have done nothing but seek more and more power with less oversight than almost any junta in history.  Currently Bush is in China blowing smoke out his ass by chiding them gently (since we need their money to survive) for human rights violations.  Cynical people might consider this more than slightly oxymoronic once one remembers Katrina, the destroyed country of Iraq, spying on American citizens at will before 9/11, outing CIA operatives for revenge, the highest prison incarceration rate in the world, his gleeful enforcement of the death penalty while Governor of Texas and since becoming President bringing death penalty cases in states that don't have the death penalty, and then because it continues to be bad, New Orleans.  Yes, our bobble head in chief is giving advice in humanity.  As if he knew what it was.

A dire assessment, but unless he quits pandering to the right, probably accurate. Then we'll end up with McCain and even less of the Constitution will apply to the average American, who isn't going to be what they think it is.

Majority rules.  But what happens if the majority changes? It's like the old saying.  Be kind to your kids, they're going to pick your retirement home someday.

BBB

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.

BBB

Schwarzenegger Is An Idiot

Moderate my ass!!  Instead of holding the feet of the people in California government (read Republicans) to the fire and slashing their pay to minimum wage, what did he do?  He slashed the pay and fired 22,,000 of the people of California WHO ACTUALLY DO THE WORK AND NEED THE MONEY to the federal minimum wage which is a dollar and a half less than what Californians used to get.

The alternative is to force the Democrats to cut every single program except the ones the less than one third of Republicans who pretend they are legislators, want.  Just to make him happy.  It's the lousy two thirds majority vote to approve the budget that the Rethugs have been using against the people of California for years. If he thinks he's going to be elected to replace Barbara Boxer, he is sadly mistaken.   His next position is going to be on the unemployment line.  With all the people he just shafted for political gain.  We won't vote again for a backstabbing, cigar smoking asshole who only takes care of his buddies.  How are all the innocent people supposed to pay their rent, buy gas and/or make a car payment?  How will they get to work since he has slashed public transportation to the bone?  Why were the people of California so stupid as to replace Gray Davis with this numbskull?

In return for his stupidity there should be a complete work stoppage.  Nothing in any government office gets done until pay is restored.  Period.  When a person is hired to do a job, they are offered a certain salary and told what the requirements are to earn it.  Why in the world would someone want to do a job that they are going to get paid so little money for that they can't afford to live in the state? 

We have the highest rate of foreclosures in the nation and I don't see that changing any time soon.  Maybe it's time for a recall of the dumbest governor since the lamppost. 

Arnold needs to go.  Preferably to H E double hockey sticks. It's obvious that all the steroids shrunk what little brains he had.

BBB

The Founding Fathers Go Down In A Hail Of Bullets

All that fighting and dying during the Revolutionary War was for nothing. The new boss is just like the old boss that they risked everything to get rid of.

Amendment One

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. We can complain about being screwed and the Government will stop the bad behavior. Wow, what a cool idea.

Amendment Two

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. A militia is no longer necessary, shoot at will. So what if innocents death by gunfire increases? It isn't as if Virginia Tech, Columbine or Charles Whitman were isolated instances. It's much more important that some gap toothed, banjo playing idiots have the right to own a gun even though murder is illegal and very few people hunt for their dinner. You just know they'll be out celebrating and shooting their guns into the air with no concept of gravity.

Amendment Three

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. How quaint. I'm sure that the Supremes will find some way around that. Maybe political officers to make sure that you don't complain about the government while in your own home.

Amendment Four

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures , shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. That's been toast for a while and the new telecom bill will ensure that you are monitored from birth to grave. I guess they won't need those political officers after all.

Amendment Five

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation. Starting with making kids pee in a cup in school to the political prisoners in Guantanamo, the only part of this amendment that is still valid only useful if you've done something wrong and have to testify before Congress.

Amendment Six

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. Unless you are in Guantanamo or have the misfortune to be either brown or poor. Then you're guilty because the prosecutor said so, so there's no need for fair trial.

Amendment Seven

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law. Since when?

Amendment Eight

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. Unless you are a person of color or a child molester. Bobby Jindal could give a flying crap about those who rape women, but he wants to chemically castrate child rapists since the Supremes said you can't kill them.

Amendment Nine

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people. But 9/11 changed everything, didn't it? Our rights need to be constrained because we need to be protected from the latest bogeyman and the little people would only get in the way of bringing "justice". Besides, if you haven't done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about, do you? And if the government says it's wrong tomorrow, well you should have known better.

Amendment Ten

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Unless it imperils the drug companies.

Freedom of speech has been restricted, we practice cruel and unusual punishment, the rights of the people to hold assemblies is being limited, the press rolls over bet than Fido, the government doesn't listen to the people who elected them and the average American neither knows the rights they used to have or why they were written down and ratified in the first place. What a fucked up country we have become.

BBB

Programs, Programs Programs

Another program to "help" disadvantaged youth avoid crime. Partisan politics at work again. Proving once more that it's who you know (the current occupant of the White House's father), not how important or how well a program is likely to work. Oh yeah, they have so many golf courses in the ghettos and poor neighborhoods and the the kids all have transportation to the better parts of town where of course they'll be allowed to play golf. As if the country clubs of America want another Tiger Woods. It was forty two years between Althea Gibson and Serena Williams winning the U.S. Open in tennis and no other black woman besides Althea has won the LPGA since. No wonder Republican are so certain that government doesn't work. They keep authorizing money for their cronies under the guise of helping out the little man. The usual ABC commenters show their true colors. Defend, defend, defend. An administration so corrupt that we'll never find out how much of the taxpayer's money they've pissed away on programs that only benefit the people at the top.

No job, no house payment. That's usually how it works, unless you inherit money from parents and grandparents that worked so you can play at being a celebutante. The F.H.A should have known that. As well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It was more like a well orchestrated plan to relieve the low end of the middle class of their money under the guise of home ownership. And just like I told all the people who weren't making a $110K a year, miss a house payment and you'll find out just who owns it.

Cupertino, we have a problem and I am really confused. The new Apple 8-gigabyte 3G iPhone will retail for $199, and that's a good thing. It would be better if it was on Verizon, but it's still a nice price. Meanwhile, an 8 gigabyte iTouch is $299 and it doesn't make phone calls or have GPS. Are they going to eliminate the smaller iTouch and force us to go with a larger model so they can justify the difference in price? Or are we being forced to into helping AT&T become a bigger monopoly than they were in the early seventies?

What about walking? Isn't that a weight bearing exercise? How about the elliptical machine for those of us with bad knees? Mom is 77, has walked most of her life, has smoked for 66 of the 77 years but she does like to sit outside. Is it the Vitamin D from the sun that has given her protection from her frequent falls, because she still hasn't broken a bone (thank goodness) and she falls more often than I'd like.

Why do I think that this program is going to increase crime against older people? Considering that one doesn't have to show ID to use a debit card and they rarely check ID when you use a credit card, I foresee the usual problems. Ooh, ooh, do you suppose it will be used as an ID card for seniors?

Oh, I thought they had learned to use poles and bait.

Yeah, well my tomatoes (since stores are pulling them off the shelves) aren't going to be ripe by Saturday and I needed some of them to make my tomato tart for the PartyLite soiree that I'm having. And since today is Tuesday, weren't they really talking about yesterday's high?

BBB