crappy economy and screwed middle class

The middle class consumer is what fuels the economy.  This has been proven time and time again.  We are always hearing "The consumer has to spend to bring the economy back."  Ok, let's spend.  Let's spend on only those things made in the USA by citizens of the United States.  It will take some careful research.  It will cost a little more for goods.  In the long run, we will send a message to the greedy corporations that we won't tolerate being screwed any more.  If we aren't good enough to make it, we aren't good enough to buy it.  We can do it.  We can fix our economy and bring back our jobs, but it is up to us.  If you can't find new, buy vintage.  I do.

Republican lies

Last November, the Republicans promised if they were elected, they would produce jobs, fix the economy and fix healthcare.  Well we are almost a year into their reign and not only do we still have no jobs nor decent healthcare, the economy is still in a mess and all the Republicans have done is make it worse.  All they want is to eliminate taxes on the rich.  I haven't figured out who they expect to ante up the money to run the government because the middle class is no more.  They are still drawing their salaries, which I might add they do not earn, and getting their healthcare.  Notice that Paul Ryan is not adverse to taking health care from his employer, ie us, but wants to force every person to buy their own health insurance.  He doesn't feel like the employers should have to furnish health insurance.  Notice the,umm, "royal attitude" here.  I am entitled but you are not.  Oh, and we must destroy all unions.  Why do we have an 8 hour day? Unions. Forty hour work week? Unions. Lunch breaks? Unions. Workplace safety? Unions. Regular paydays? Unions.  However, business have sold the sheeple on the idea that "right to work laws" are to protect the workers from the big bad unions.  In reality the right to work laws favor no one except the employers.  They do nothing for the employees.  I sat through a video of Wal Mart Corporation telling their employees if they formed a union, then the union would decide if they got to work or not and if they did form a union, those who refused to join would not be allowed to work.  Wrong.  The employees vote for either a closed shop or an open shop.  A closed shop requires all employees to belong to the union.  An open shop makes it optional.  I worked for over 30 years in an open shop. 

Slow Death of the Middle Class

I know this man who is 66 years old and has gone back to work because he can't live on retirement.  On the very day that I met him, he informed me that he was not Mexican.  He is an American of Mexican descent.  His words exactly.  I have also heard the stories of his family being migrant workers.  He told me that the farmers paid the illegals 40 cents per hour and if they wanted to work, they had to accept the wage the illegals were making.  See a trend here?  The businesses want the illegals here for 1) cheap labor and 2)to hold down wages.  After Katrina, there were government contracts to be awarded and the contractors had to hire American citizens in order to get those contracts.  They did and promptly fired them after the contracts were awarded.  They fired the citizens and bussed in illegals from Mexico and our Republican government did nothing.  Illegals can and do draw welfare, food stamps, medicaid and get free meals for their kids at school all on your tax dollar.  They also work for cash and pay no taxes on this money.  They hold down wages and this is what the businesses want.  Ever wonder how they register their kids in public schools when a citizen has to produce a birth certificate, a social security card, shot record and proof of residence in the school district?  Seems the illegals get a free pass here also.  Do I sound bitter?  Well, I am.  I pay my taxes and always have.  I have never gotten anything for free.  I resent illegals breaking our laws  and nobody cares.  No one cares that we, the taxpayer, are being used, cheated and stepped on every day and the politicians just lap it up.  Anything to satisfy the businesses.  Screw the taxpayer.

Entitlements which are not entitlements

As a former federal employee, a portion of my retirement is coming from Social Security.  I am limited as to what I can earn on a new job.  Why? Because Congress wants to discourage people from drawing Social Security because they have pilfered the funds and there is nothing left but IOU's which they do not want to have to pay.  What better way to cover their tracks but to convince the working people that they are being screwed by having to pay into Social Security.  When the government hit the debt ceiling in the early months of this year, Congress stuck it's oily fingers into the Civil Service Retirement Fund to keep the government going until they could install a patch.  The CSRS, thanks to Congress is about to become non-existent.  So now they are going to create s slush fund in the military.  Service members have been able to serve 20 years and take retirement and find other employment.  So someone going in at say 20 years old and doing their 20 years would retire at 40, 17 years before Social Security.  As they are proposing now, that same person will be able to do the 20 and get out.  The catch is now they will have to wait until 67 to draw any retirement.  Say goodby to the all volunteer military.  The military is a hard life.  It destroys families.  Quite often it leaves the military members die for their service. So lets really screw them. 

Politics as ususal

Notice how all the Republicans are calling Social Security an entitlement now?  Let me give you a short history lesson of how Social Security grew within the Fed.  Back in 1982, the Republicans were looking for a way to fund Social Security without having to pay back what they had pilfered from the fund.  Phill Gramm, a Democrat turned Republican, came up with the bright idea of rolling Civil Service Retirement funds into Social Security.  Never mind that CSRS was working and not costing the taxpayer.  Never mind that this was just wrong.  Well, the upshot of this was that management and employees alike worked to prevent this.  We lost.  Those already in CSRS would remain there.  Those hired after 1982 would be under Social Security.  This introduced many thousands of new potential Social Security recipients.  But the Republicans were only looking at the short term, as they are now.  The CSRS fund was also the go to fund when Congress needed money to keep the government going.  That fund is almost depleted so they are looking to create new funds to bankroll them.  Check out what they are going to do the military.  It is disgusting.  

Presidential Politics

I have been pretty busy and haven't has as much time to follow the campaigning as I would like.  I do, however, see that Perry is still wowing the public.  Please, people, just look at Texas and you will see what he will do to our country.  He cut $4billion from public education rather than tax business.  He balanced the state budget for two years with stimulus money, which was supposed to be used to create jobs.  He has been on public dole his entire adult life and has no clue how the rest of us live.  He became rich while in office and I can promise he did not get rich off his salary.  Texas is just not that generous.  We don't need him in the White House.  I don't care how much you hate Obama, please look hard at the candidates out there.  Do your research.  We need a president who is president for the entire country, not one who is only for the narrow minded stingy, mean few.  We are all in this together.  We will all succeed or fail together.  Like it or not, that is the way it is.

Acceptance of gays

My father was a WW11 veteran.  He was anti gay.  In the last year of his life we were, as usual, driving around because that is what he like to do.  We were talking about gays and he said he didn't think they should be allowed in the military.  So I asked this question, "Dad, if you are pinned down in a foxhole, out of ammo, and facing certain death, and someone comes to save you are you going to stop and ask if he or she is a homosexual?"  I got a look of disbelief.  "Oh hell no!"  I don't know if I changed his mind, but I at least made him take a realistic look at the problem.  I think that we all need to step back and realize that homosexuals are only people.  They have a right to live their lives without harassment just like the rest of us.  They are citizens of the United States and they have always served in the military, just quietly.  Not right.

My opinion

In my opinion, the Grand Ole Party should change it's name to MOWM-Mean Old White Men.  They are made up of bigots who want to control a woman's reproductive health, deny decent wages, let people die who have no health insurance, let children go without food.  Have we really come to this?  I don't think so.  I think, or rather I know, this contingent of mean, small people have always existed.  I saw it in my microcosm environment growing up.  Those small  business man took the attitude of "By God, you should be glad I am paying you at all."  They also screamed when a minimum wage was enacted.  Why?  Because it at least made them pay something.  I have know businessmen who refused to pay their employees at all or only paid occasionally and what they wanted to pay.  And those businessmen touted themselves as good Christians.  Deliver me from "good Christians."  They have a narrow minded outlook and they always see their way as right and By God you will see it as right also.  We have to pry our country out of the hands of the bigots.  I won't even say racists because these bigots hate ever one who does not think like them or live like them. 

The GOP wingnuts

Did anyone see the clip of the gay soldier asking if the present gaggle of candidates would reinstate DADT?  No one bothered to thank that soldier asking the question.  No one even acknowledged he was a soldier.  How shameful is that?  Someone who has laid their life on the line for their country and the very people wanting to be his commander in chief not even having the decency to give a simple "thank you."  Why are all these candidates so afraid of homosexuals?  Ever hear the theory that those who have so much hatred for homosexuals fear that they may be homosexual?  Whatever, I found it very shameful.

My congressman bill flores

I got a call last night inviting me to a telephone town hall meeting with my congressman.  I listened in on one of mr. flores's town hall meetings.  All the questions were from plants and all were to make him look good and none put him on the spot.  How was this done?  Well, his people would come on  your line and ask what you wanted to ask the congressman.  All the questions he took were gushing about the job he was doing.  No one got their question selected if it put the congressman on the spot or made him have to actually give a hard answer.  And he took calls from Beaumont! Beaumont is not in his district.  Yep,  I have a real jewel of a congressman.  He replace Chet Edwards who was working for his constituents.  He was also working hard for the veterans.  But the mean, spiteful, little Republicans in this district did not like him because he was a Democrat.  Never mind the things he has done.  Notice I never capitalize my congressman's name.  That is because he is one of those mean, spiteful, little Republicans.  His attitude is "I got mine, now screw you."  Sound familiar?  It should.  that is the mantra of the Republican party. 

Public school and illegals

I am still trying to figure out how the illegals are able to register their kids in our schools.  For citizens, you need a birth certificate, shot record, and proof of residence.  Do we just waive all that if someone is illegal?  Maybe I need to borrow a kid and register him or her for school so I can find out how they get around the rules that citizens have to follow.  Congress writes these rules.  They also write the rules for medicaid and food stamps and never kid yourselves, illegals get both.  Maybe Congress can identify with them because all of Congress is on welfare.  They are taking money from the taxpayer for a job they don't do.  They are also taking benefits. So I guess they do identify with the illegals.  Sure seems like it to me. 

Presidential pool

I am hearing that Perry is being taken seriously as a presidential candidate.  This is really scary. I haven't seriously figured out which one of the Republican candidates are the scariest.  All we need at this point in time with the economic mess is another wannabe billionaire.  And that is just what Perry is.
Did anyone hear the interview with the Republican congressman from Louisiana?  He was lamenting the fact that out of a $6mi+ gross income, he only had $600,000 left and that after :"feeding his family he was only left with $400,000."  Anyone relate to that?  Not me.  He holds franchises to Subway and UPS Stores and only pays his employees minimum wage with no benefits and he is griping about only $600,000.  And Ron Paul said on national television that if someone does not have the money to pay for his or her medical expenses, then they should just be allowed to die.  This man is a doctor, for God's sake. So if you are poor in this country, you are doomed.  Of course, we knew this all along, but it sure was a shock to hear it actually stated.  Oh, and Perry pushed through his version of the Dream Act in Texas.  If an illegal has lived in Texas illegally and gone to a high school in Texas illegally, then they can get money from the taxpayer to go to college.  A Texan may not qualify, but the illegals will.

Change the Constitution

How about we push for a Constitutional amendment to force Congress to do their jobs.  Lets tie their salary and benefits to their job performance.  How about something along these lines?

1) Balanced budget every two years.
2) No retirement except Social Security.
3) No health insurance for Congress.  Let them pay their own.
4) Bar them from lobbying or giving speeches when they leave office.
5)Bar their immediate families from working for lobbyists or doing the lobbying themselves.
6)Give each candidate one tv shot on mainstream media and two newspaper ads.
7) NO fundraisers and no political contributions.
8)Mandate Congressmen and women to hold town hall meeting IN PERSON around their districts while congress is not in session.

Every one is forgetting they work for us.  So let's call the shots. The mess we are in is directly the fault of Congress.  Congress gave Bush the blank check to go to war not once but twice at the same time.  Congress did not sign that check.  They just ignored it for 8 years.  When it finally hit the bank, so to speak, Congress' answer to the mess they had created was to dump the cost on the backs of the middle class.  Congress gutted regulation of banks.  Now Congress wants the middle class to bear the brunt of that fiasco also.  It's time to do a job performance review of Congress.  I think they all fail and should all be fired.

Lack of statesmen and women

Is everyone watching the mess in Washington?  This crop of Republicans are out to destroy our country and we have a segment of society that is pulling for them to do just that.  You know the ones.  I don't see why I have to support those who won't work.  I don't see why I have to educate all the brats in the country.  Hello people.  It is called living in a civilization.  Is what is happening in the Middle East not sinking in?  They are having revolutions because despots have stolen their countries.  And that is exactly what the Republicans and some Democrats want for this country.  The rich rule and the rest of us be serfs.  It is getting scary.

The Real Republican Party

Everyone needs to read what Mike Lofgren has to say about the Republican Party of today.  He was a congressional staffer for 28 years and finally could not stomach any more.  He bears out what those of us who have been watching for years already know--that the present Republican Party is out to destroy our government.  He labeled the debt ceiling mess as political terrorism.  He labeled the Republican Party a cult.  There is also a very informative article about this in the Rolling Stones magazine.  Every American working class taxpayer would do well to read these articles and before next elections do some research on the candidates.  You are interviewing the persons who will manage your money, your security, your everything.  Would you just take anyone's word that they could take care of your home is your were looking for a house sitter?  Of course not.  You would want references, background check, everything about this person.  Why, then, are you so willing to just buy into anything the candidates tell you without any research, any background checks, any references.  Just, well he promised.  If you take this attitude about a house sitter, then I want that job.  I will steal you blind.  Oh, wait, that is what the politicians you elect do best. 
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Even scarier politics

I saw where Cheney is pushing for Hillery to run for President.  That says that we are in real bad shape if Darth Vader is leaning to a Democrat.  I do agree with him that she would make an outstanding President, but after the way she was treated by the Democratic party in 08, in her place, I would thumb my nose at them. 

Debates

I was not impressed with my governor.  Perry told half truths at best and so did Romney.  I ignored Bachmann.  Ron Paul is a really smart man, but he does look at the economy from a rich man's point of view.  We need statesmen in Washington who are concerned with the well being of the country.  What we have and what we are interviewing are not statesmen.  They are career politicians who have never really done anything for the country and what they did do only benefited themselves.  None of them understand the working people.  None of them have ever had to make the choice between food and rent.  None have ever had to sit with a sick child because there was no money for a doctor.  And Ron Paul made his money off sick people.  Romney was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  Perry was born with his foot in his mouth.  I am not sure what to make of Bachmann, except that she creeps me out.  Scary world out there and we are smack dab in the middle of the mess and we, the working class, will lose the most. 

Texas Politics

I heard on the news that Perry is coming back to Texas to deal with the fires.  I would like to think this is not a political move, but it is.  He will also use it in his political campaign.  This is a governor that blasted handouts from the Federal government, now he has to eat his words and take the help.  If he doesn't, I think we would probably crucify him.  We are in a world of hurt here.  And there is no relief in sight. 

Stupidity in Washington

I am not liking what is coming out of Congress.  It is really mean to hold those hostage who have lost everything in the hurricane.  They are going to tie aid to further tax cuts.  We have a Congress of mean, selfish, low class, greedy fools.  They are not interested in the country.  Only what they can get from it.  Washington and Jefferson must be spinning in their graves.