Congressional kindergarten

Our Congress is acting more and more like kindergartners.  Very spoiled ones at that.  The country has told them what we want.  We want them to fix the fiscal mess they have put us in.  We want them to raise taxes on the top 1%, who can afford it.  We want our Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid programs fixed.  We want our Congress to work together for the good of the country.  Instead, we have a congress divided and refusing to cooperate.  And most are still in the pockets of the lobbyists.  The first move should be passing a law to ban lobbying.  The second move should be to tell Grover Norquist to kiss off.  And the third move should be them working together to fix our broken country.  We are better than this.  And from what I have been reading of the Republicans, the attitude is that we are just too dumb to know what is good for us so they are going to tell us.  The last time I checked, I am of voting age and have been for over 40 years.  I have been supporting myself and paying my taxes since I was 16.  I have never griped about my income tax.  I have always seen it as my duty as a citizen.  I don't need some fundamentalist telling me what to do and what to believe.  I had that when I was growing up and my dad told me to tell them to kiss my butt.  Well, I am telling these fundamentalists idiots to kiss my butt. This country belongs to all citizens, not just the rich.  It belongs to the poor, single mother working two jobs to make ends meet as well as to those like Mitt Romney.  The difference that single mother does pay her taxes and manages to give to charity unlike the likes of the 1% who are too greedy to give a hand up. 

Every time I see someone like Romney or Norquist, I am reminded of a story my son told me when he was 13.  There was this greedy businessman who worked all the time and kept every nickel he could.  He was so worried about his money that he made a deal with God.  He made a deal with God to bring one thing with him to Heaven when he died.  He continued along life's path, working and making more money.  When he died and came to the Pearly Gates, he was dragging a huge suitcase.  St. Peter stopped him and told him no one brings anything with them to Heaven.  The businessman argued frantically. "No,no,no! I have a deal with God that I could bring one thing with me.  Check with him."  St. Peter thought about this for a moment.  Then he said, "Well, ok, but I have to see what you are bringing."  The business man was feeling quite smug when he wrestled the suitcase open.  When St. Peter saw the contents, he burst out laughing.  The businessman was indignant.  He could not understand why St. Peter found the contents so funny.  So he asked, "What is so funny about what I chose to bring?"  St. Peter stopped laughing long enough to say,"You could bring anything you wanted to Heaven with you and you chose to bring pavement!"  The suitcase was full of gold bricks.    The irony of these greedy rich people is that they can't take it with them and the families will only fight over the money.  Sad.

Good ole Texas Politics

Our legislature passed a bill this last session to protect women from themselves.  We are too stupid to protect ourselves or to know what we want.  Seems as if a woman wants an abortion, she must first suffer the indignity of having a vaginal sonogram.  The theory behind this is that the little woman does not understand that she is carrying a fetus and that that fetus, just like a calf, must be born.  It does not matter if the woman cannot afford to have the child.  It does not matter if the woman's life is on the line.  All that does matter is that the state government prove to this woman that she is carrying a living blob of cells.  Well, hell, a cancer is a living blob of cells.  Why not just make her die from the cancer rather than have it removed.  And once we teach the woman that she is indeed carrying a blob of cells, she will change her mind and have that blob.  Never mind that this may be a 12 year old victim of incest or rape, never mind that this child may have no chance of living.  None of that counts in the minds of these men. 

Ok, I can go along with that.  Yep.  Every time a woman wants or desperately needs an abortion, stick that ultrasound apparatus up her vagina.  But everytime we do this to a woman, then I want to see it stuck up a politicians ass.  Seems only fair to me.

The Republican Loss

Just read an article.  Seems the new Texas senator, Ted Cruz, was a speaker at a fundraiser. Mr. Cruz's explanation for the loss of the election was that we, the voters had dummed down and did not understand what the GOP was telling them  Really?  I think I understood very well.  This is what I got from their message:
1)47% of us are on public dole and too lazy to work.  That percentage would have included our troops. 
2) They would protect me from myself on the abortion issue. The intelligent men of the GOP would school me on refusing to have an abortion.
3)After they had schooled me on the evils of abortion, then they would do me the favor of closing Planned Parenthood so I could not get any medical care.  I could pay for it on my own.  After all, I had gotten myself pregnant.
4) They would not force insurance companies to cover the cost of contraceptives because, well, it was against their religious beliefs and everyone knows that only their religious beliefs count.
5)I do not need insurance because I have access to Medicaid.
6) They are going to kill Medicaid because only lazy sluts use Medicaid
7) I don't need a job that pays a living wage because I had obviously made bad choices and am not rich.
8) It is my duty to work and pay the taxes because so that the rich can keep their money because they are entitled to do so. 
9) If I am truly and legally raped, then I won't get pregnant.  And if I do get pregnant then it is a "gift from God and God meant it to happen."
10) Those who got rich off government grants and contracts were just smarter than the rest of us and it was just getting them a return on their taxes. 

I could go on and on and on.  The bottom line is that neither the GOP nor the tea baggers get it.  Women have come too far to let these idiots push us back into the 11th century.  We are intelligent, capable, hard working  and we carry our weight and we don't need some idiot thinking he can tell us what to do just because he carries around a pair of testicles. Ted Cruz is a perfect example of this and I am so sorry Texas has gotten so stupid as to elect the likes of him.  He sure as hell did not get my vote.

Politics and Religion

I have just read an article from Afghanistan.  A 15 years old girl was beheaded because her father refused to commit her to a marriage with a relative.  This relative and another man caught the girl coming back from carrying water and beheaded her.  And yes, I do find this unspeakable.  But what I find more outrageous is inserting Obama's religion, the fact that we are in this country, and liberals into their comments on this story.  One, Obama is not of the Muslim faith.  2) This was an unspeakable crime 3) What the hell does liberalism have to do with it?  What is really scary though is the number of people in this country who would like to have that kind of control over women.  That is what all the uproar over abortion and contraceptives is really all about.  It is about controlling women.  They have the attitude that all women are whores and that they have to be controlled.  To control them, men hold the prospect of pregnancy over their heads.  They do not want women to have access to contraceptives because it eliminates that control.  And if a woman is raped, she deserved it.  Oh, yeah, I grew up among those kinds of people.  In Texas, our good legislature has passed a law that a woman has to have a vaginal sonogram before she can have an abortion.  The device used to do this vaginal sonogram is horrible.  And by God those men in the legislature passed that law and patted themselves on the back for doing so.  If I were younger, I would get pregnant every month and demand an abortion just to shove it in their faces.  And in my opinion, every time a woman has to have that invasive process done a politician should have to have that invasive device shoved up his ass.  Seems only fair to me.  Remember the "legitimate rape" candidate in Missouri?  How about Mourdock? Remember a pregnancy from rape was something God intended to happen. Wonder how either of these men would handle it if their wives were raped, became pregnant and had the baby?  Think they would step up to the plate and be a father to that baby?  Hell no!  At this point, I am disgusted with religion.

Tax Pledge

I never dreamed that in my lifetime I would see our congressmen sigining a junior high pledge.  This is so juvenile.  We must be the laughing stock of the world.  And they have by allowing this, placed the well being of our country in the hands of a nut.  A civilian nut.  Grover Norquist is a nut job.  He also has no love for the country and would sell it out in a heart beat.  He is a classic example why lobbying should be illegal.  However, we won't see that because those in Congress love the money the lobbyist pay them too much.  Again, greed triumphs patriotism.  My father, a WW11 vet, must be spinning in his grave.  To think he fought and almost died for this.  We throw the poor and elderly under the bus.  Those who are trying to make it working two and three part time jobs because they can't find full time do not count.  They have no money to buy influence so they don't count.  And they are working two and three part time jobs usually at minimum wage because the greedy businesses can make more money by not hiring full time.  I have also heard one person with a rather large company say that they do not hire vets because they all suffer from PTSD.  Some country.  Yet who do these crooks and greedy idiots scream for when we are under attack.  Yep.  Our military.  For the first time in my life, I am ashamed of my country. No, make that the second time.  The first being the end of the Vietnam war and seeing our troops treated like human feces. 

Robber barons are definitely back

I just read an article in the Huffington Post titled "CEO Demands Cuts to Poor and Elderly While Reaping Billions in Government Contract and Tax Breaks."  It was an informative article and said what we all knew was happening to our country.  These CEO's are part of the CEO Fiscal Leadership Council.  That is sugar coating for "We're gonna rob you blind and we want you to appreciate us for being able to do so."  These CEO's are saying that the only way to fix our economy is to phase out Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  At the same time they want to pass a "territorial tax system" that would exempt their companies from paying taxes on their foreign profits, netting these companies around $130 billion in tax savings.  And one company is quietly laying off workers--Boeing.  Boeing is one of the biggest welfare companies receiving government contracts. Others are Goldman Sachs, Honeywell, JP Morgan Chase are getting government funds directly and at least two are reaping even more taxpayer dollars through their connection to AIG.  Goldman Sachs' CEO alone took home $1.6 million in 2011.  All these companies got huge government contracts and huge tax breaks.  GE paid no taxes in 2011.  This is the welfare class in this country and they want to take away everything from the rest of us to fund their greed.  We are just supposed to work and pay taxes so that they can take those taxes.  I think that every government contract should have to be voted on by the taxpayer.  We should have the say on who gets what since Congress does not have the backbone nor the decency nor integrity to stand up and do what is right for our country.  It is our money that these corporate welfare thugs are taking with the blessings of our elected officials.  We should fire congress and hire our representatives from overseas with a business visa that we revoke when 1) we are not satisfied with their work and 2) at the end of 2 years.  I don't think we could be any worse off.  Of course we will; have to be hyper-vigilint to keep them from staying on our dollar.

Grover Norquist

It never ceases to amaze me that the Republican party let this idiot get such an iron control over the party and in controlling the party, controlling portions of the country.  He is nothing but a private citizen and should have nothing to do with policy making.  He is also a lobbist, has connections to Jack Abramoff, has questionable Islamic connections.  He founded the Islamic Free Market Institue along with Khaled Saffuri with money from Middle Eastern organizations that have ties to terrorist groups.  He is married to a Palestinian Muslum also with ties to terrorist groups.  Add to that, his co-founder of the Islamic Free Market Institute along with Norquist, has ties to Abdulrahman Alamoundi who was head of the American Muslim Council and was convicted and is serving 23 years in federal prison for actively funding terrorism.  I read an article by Pamela Geller on The Thinker, a political think tank, called Grover Norquist's Jihad published March 4, 2010.  Grover Norquist seems to be trying to bring down the country from the inside and is doing it with terrorist funds.  The Islamic Free Market Institute operates out of his Americans for Tax Reform headquarters.  Both are non profits, so they are not required to publish doner lists.  Hiding criminal activity was never what non profits were intended for and Congress should take action to control these non profits.  To my way of thinking, all non profits should be required to prove they are indeed non profit and to disclose their doners.   The get great tax breaks at the taxpayers expense therefore they should be answerable to the taxpayer.  And Grover Norquist should be thoroughly investigated for his ties to terrorism. 

Entertaining American Politics

Every Republican is throwing Mitt under the buss.  They can't run from him fast enough and some of those criticizing him the loudest were the ones sucking up trying to get a cabinet post.  Politicians truly have no shame.  I just want them to do their job and pass the laws that put our country back on top and do it in such a way that it is fair to all.  Perry is all for drug testing welfare recipients.  Here is some of the things I would like to see.

Medicaid:  set the bar at two kids.  No more benefits for more than 2.  Make every recipient pay something into the system and set a copay.  Even if it is just $2, at least they are paying something. There is no excuse for 4 and 5 generations on welfare.

Public housing:  Again make them pay something.  This should not just be handed to them.  Also make them responsible for the upkeep of the landscaping of the housing unit.  At some point, this has to be done.  The taxpayer cannot keep supporting this segment of society.  I have no problem helping people when the are trying to make it.  If a person is working and just not making it, then I see helping them out.  If a person is not working and making no effort to support themselves, then no, I cannot see offering anything.  This may sound cruel, but we need to extend a hand up for those who are truly trying to help themselves.  Those who refuse to help themselves, no helping hand.  We could do so much more for the working poor if only these programs were carefully managed.  And we need to do this.  It isn't fair to the taxpayer and it sure isn't fair to the person working two or three minimum wage jobs to just put a roof over his or her family's heads and food on the table.  Those are the people I want to help.  Those who expect to be taken care of and make no effort, I would give nothing to.  

Time to give thanks

I am ignoring the shallow politicians this week.  This is a week to reflect on who we as a nation are and to give thanks for who we are.  Happy Thanksgiving. 

Middle East

I have some pretty strong opinions on the mess in Israel and Gaza, but I am going to keep them to myself.  No sense in stirring the pot.  I am still marveling at the GOP meltdown.  They are making all kinds of excuses why they lost when the simple truth is that the majority in the country did not trust them and did not care for their "do as I say, not as I do" mantra.  Abortion is wrong and should be illegal at all times.  Says Santorum even though his wife had an abortion.  Lets abolish Social Security says Ryan even though the went to college on his father's social security benefits.  I got mine, screw you.  Oh and my all time favorites:  You can't get pregnant from legitimate rape.  So, I guess one rape is legitimate and one would be illegitimate? Who decides?  A man, of course.  And Mourdock, not even to save the mother's life.  Well, Ireland is dealing with just that scenario right now and it was an Indian national that died because of the 5th century ideas.  Here is an idea:  Keep your bible out of my government and I will stay out of your church.  I find it disgusting that the religious right wants to tell me how to live, but get really rabid when there is a hint of the government getting into their lives. 

Politics and bimbos

I am really a little tired of hearing about the General's affair.  I don't care. That is between him and his wife and from what I have read of Mrs. General, she can well take care of things.  I would like to know how and why Broadwell had classified information on her computer.  I would also like to know if our troops were compromised in any way by her.  I was listening to the news tonight and the consensus seemed to be that there was little sympathy for the ex-General within the military.  There wouldn't be.  He broke the very rules he had been supposed to enforce.  Kelley seems to be nothing more than a camp follower. I sincerely hope that is all Broadwell is too.  I would not want to be in the FBI director's shoes now would I want to be in the shoes of the attorney general.  I would imagine President Obama will be raking them over the coals and well he should.  How the head of the FBI thought he could take it on himself to conduct such an investigation and keep his boss out of the loop, is beyond me.  Did he really think the President would not have his rear in a sling?

The public affair of the General

First let me say that I don't care whom General Petraeus or any General for that matter has an affair with.  What I do care about is the National Security of our country.  It does seem that the General was out of his depth as director of the CIA.  From what I am getting from reading all this, as long as he was military and had advisers to tell him what to do, he was ok.  As CIA director, he was pretty much on his own and could not handle that.  It also looks like he dropped the ball at Bengazi.  He seems to have ignored requests for more security.  And he did not even have the decency to attend the funerals of the two CIA contractors that were killed trying to defend the consulate.  My picture of the man is that he just was not competent as head of the CIA.  As to his affair and his schmoozing with the likes of the name dropper, Kelley, I don't care.  It was stupid, but I don't care.  What I do care about is how and where Broadwell got the classified information she was in possession of.  He also seems to have fed the President bogus information on the attack.  Guess he was trying to cover his rear.  And Ms. Kelley would do well in a stupid reality show. 

Election

Well, our Presidential election is over and for the Republicans, the unthinkable has happened.  President Obama has been reelected.  Mr. Romney just cannot seem to grasp why he lost.  Oh, I think I can come up with several reasons.  The real reason that he lost is that that 47% just did not trust him.  We saw nothing that said he saw the country as all inclusive.  All we saw was that he felt entitled to be President and would be a president of and for the moneyed elite.  There was no indication that he cared for nor understood the working stiffs of this country.  To him, we were all on public dole.  The line in the debate about wanting to give the Navy more ships when they did not want them told volumes about where his priorities lay.  That would have been a government giveaway to the defense industry.  He just does not see that this whole industry is feeding at the government trough.  He does not see that his tax breaks are welfare.  And they are breaks that the rest of us are not privilege to.  Also, it seemed as if he felt he could buy the White House.  And now it seems those Republicans that were joined at the hip with him (ie Jindel) can't run fast enough to get far enough away from him.  At least Christi had enough decency to offer a defense of him. 

Election

I cannot get over how the Republicans have taken to just putting out and out lies out there.  Shows they are really desperate.  They even put out the lie that Chrysler was moving all Jeep production to China.  Chrysler called them out on that lie.  They have been called out on many lies.  And they just keep telling them.  We even have conservative Republicans in Texas endorsing  a Democrat for the Senate because they cannot stomach their candidate.  Not even Nixon could get elected in today's Republican party. 

Governor Christie

I was really impressed with Governor Christie of New Jersey.  He set aside politics and did his job for his people.  And he expressed gratitude to the President for the fast reaction on his part to help the areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy.  He showed class and grace.  He is a stand up guy.

Sandy and

As a Texan that has seen my share of hurricanes, I had to snicker when I saw that the east coast was terrified of a Catagory 1 hurricane. But I was absolutely amazed that there were no safeguards in place in any of those placed.  Common sense tells you that if you live on the water, at some point in time you will face severe flooding.  We may not be the best prepared in Texas, but we know that when a storm packing this much water is heading for us, we leave the coast and we have a plan in place.  We also know to keep supplies on hand.  Every May, I buy at least 10 gallons of water, at least a case of canned goods that need no cooking, plenty of batteries and have several flashlights on hand.  We also, in a storm, plug the bathtubs and fill them for water to use in flushing the toilets, simple washing.  That being said, I do feel for those impacted by the storm. I realize they are not prepared for this.  It will take them a long time to rebuild.  I would also remind them to show the same compassion when the Gulf Coast is hit.