American Terrorist and Thug Watch

Mitch McConnell, American Terrorist

2010-12-23T17:39:00.000-08:00

Mitch McConnell is the senior senator from Kentucky. It's old news by now that he was the driving force behind negotiating huge tax breaks for wealthy people at the expense of the poor and the middle class. He did this by, as President Obama said, "holding the American people hostage." More specifically, McConnell held unemployed people hostage by threatening to lead a blockade against unemployment compensation. President Obama knew that this selfish, soulless cynical SOB had no problem hurting millions of people and their families in order to get his way.

In plain words, McConnell terrorized the American people with his disgusting criminal tactics. Therefore, McConnell is an American Terrorist and a thug.

If there is a Hell, there should be a special place for him to burn forever and forever and forever.

He has an ugly mind to match his ugly face.

New Names for our Two Political Parties in the US

2010-12-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

The Bullies and the Wimps.

The Speech I Wish Obama Would Give

2010-12-05T20:33:00.000-08:00

Good Evening, my fellow Americans. I am speaking to you tonight because we face a crisis of confidence that calls for bold action. As president of the United States, it is my job to help create a better world for all Americans. I am declaring tonight that I will no longer tolerate those who stand in the way of progress.

Americans need jobs, health care, housing, food and the assurance that their government is here to help them.

We do not need war. We are engaged in two wars that are costing us the lives of young Americans and billions of dollars. Those wars must be brought to a close beginning tonight. I am announcing that we will begin troop withdrawals from Afghanistan immediately and accelerate drawdown in Iraq.

We are struggling through a recession that has devastated the lives of millions more Americans, and continues to take its toll. That recession must be met head on. Tonight I am announcing support for a massive jobs program modeled after President Franklin D Roosevelt's WPA designed to put millions of Americans to work in many vital sectors of our economy.

I will not tolerate a Supreme Court decision that puts soulless corporations in charge of our elections with massive infusions of cash. I have asked key members of Congress to work on a bill that will severely restrict corporate meddling in the politics of our nation.

There will be those who will complain that we are acting too fast and reaching too far. They will vow, as they have in the past, that they will block progress as too radical and too expensive.

However, I believe the vast majority of Americans will support changes that will save lives and money and put millions of people to work. And as I said at the outset of this address, I will no longer tolerate reactionaries who would block progress.

Our democracy is at stake. In addition to ending both wars and taking bold steps to end the recession, I am proposing a 50 percent cut in our annual military budget. I am taking seriously President Eisenhower's warning about the military industrial complex, which is as big a danger to our democracy as any foreign terrorists. The money we save should be used to give every young American who wants to go to college a chance to further his or her education. That policy alone will guarantee us a brighter future than a bloated military could ever give.

Furthermore, I propose that we expand Medicare to cover all Americans from birth to the end of life. We have spent far too much time and effort building a health care system that gives outsized benefits to insurance companies and not enough benefits to the people. I am prepared to fight hard for this relatively simple change in taking care of the health of our people.

I am also proposing that this country take the lead in reducing global warming and the assault on the natural environment. Part of my WPA program will be dedicated to this proposal.

So here is a warning to those who would counsel business as usual. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more tax breaks for the rich at the expense of the poor and the middle class. No more capitulating to those who would continue policies that only harm most Americans for the benefit of the few.

I am putting Congress on notice. I expect the members of my party to pull together to accomplish the goals that I will set out in more detail in the days and and weeks ahead. Those who oppose progressive change will find themselves facing well-funded progressive opposition in primary elections two years from now. If members of the opposition party wish to help in our efforts to improve the lives of All Americans, I welcome their help. If not, they can expect I will do all I can to make sure they end their careers in the dustbin of history.

Because the changes I propose are sensible, I expect the American people will support me in my renewed dedication to fight with all my strength and skill to help make their lives more secure and more productive with a policy of peace, job creation, a sustainable economy and decent health care for all.

Thank you and good night.

Tea Party

2010-11-10T09:42:00.000-08:00

This just in. A photo of an executive planning session for the Tea Party

Thoughts on Religion

2010-11-09T17:42:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking about religion lately. Mostly it is because my sister and her husband and their two grown daughters are always writing about God and Jesus on their Facebook page. I am not religious, but I am curious about religion.

Once on the phone, my sister mentioned some health problems she had, none of which I would wish on anyone. But then she said when she dies and goes to Heaven she expected God to give her a new healthy body. She really believes this.

I think it would be very comforting if I could believe that after I die, I will go to a happy place where I would live forever. Unfortunately I have no belief in any such thing, any more than I believe in the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. And I wonder how anyone could possibly believe in such a thing. But polls show that millions of people believe in Heaven and Hell. It makes no sense to me.

I am not absolutely sure there is no God. I am about 90 percent sure that God does not exist. I tend to think the universe came about as a result of implacable and immutable forces of nature that we do not fully understand. The Big Bang apparently began with a tiny bit of something smaller than a pinhead. But I don't think God had anything to do with it. I tend not to believe in God for several reasons.

First of all, the universe is logical, orderly, and capable of being mathematically analyzed. Explanations for God are not at all logical. Science depends on careful examination and analysis. Religion depends of faith. Religious people tell us God's behavior cannot be explained, while science continues to discover precisely how nature works according to universal laws.

I think religion serves three main purposes for people. First, churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious gathering places serve a social purpose. People are social creatures and they like being around people who share their values. I also think God or gods were invented to explain mysteries. The Greeks and Romans had gods of weather and love and thunder and the passage of the sun from morning to night and all sorts of mysteries of nature. Bit by bit over the centuries, science has unraveled much of what religion once explained. Finally, I think religion, especially Christianity and Islam which preach Heaven or Paradise offers hope to those who fear death. Hindus believe in reincarnation. Some Jews believe in an afterlife. The whole idea of afterlife was central to AD Egyptians. It appears that Christianity borrowed that idea and ran with it.

Seems to me there are a lot of problems with the idea of Heaven and Hell. First of all, why would a loving God invent a place of eternal torture? The only answer that makes any kind of sense is that God is not at all loving, but vengeful. There's a frightening thought, a vengeful and all-powerful God. But that doesn't square with the idea of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace and Love. So there's a contradiction.

And then there's Heaven, where people (who accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior) go to spend eternity in blissful happiness, forever and forever and forever. Sounds crushingly dull after a few hundred years. Happy Happy Happy. And what if you go to Heaven but your loving husband or wife or kids who never quite accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, are not allowed into heaven, but sent straight to Hell. Are you still going to be Happy Happy Happy forever and forever knowing that your loved ones are consigned to a place of eternal torture?

And then what about all the people who were born and died before Christ, so never got the chance to accept him as their Lord and Savior? Straight to Hell, I guess. And all the Jews and Hindus and Muslims who don't accept Christ. Straight to Hell. Doesn't make sense.

Christianity doesn't make sense. I don't know much about any of the other religions, but it seems to me belief in an Imaginary Man in the Sky is ridiculous. My sister recently had an auto accident. She and her husband were hurt but not too badly. One of her daughters thanked God that they were not killed. I wondered if God was responsible for saving them from death just then, why couldn't God have prevented the accident in the first place. The answer was that God Works in Mysterious Ways, it is not for us to understand. This lets God off the hook, seems to me. God as an irresponsible teenager.

Actually, I wish I COULD believe in religion. It comforts those who do believe. It works for them. Apparently makes them happy. At least it works for those who really follow the best aspects of their religion, the parts about peace and loving your neighbor. Problem is, a lot of religious people seem to be vengeful and judgmental and selfish. And then there are the Catholic priests who have molested children. The worst kinds of people are those who use religion for their own selfish purposes. Or the hypocrites, who pretend to be religious but act quite in opposition to their own stated religious beliefs.

There are many people doing good in the name of their religion and their God. To me, this is the best face of religion. But I think God never created man. Man created God. So religion is not a divine and holy thing. It is just a flawed human institution, embodying good and bad, like the people who invented it.

2010-11-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is a letter to my sister, who said she was angry about the way things are going in the country. I am not one hundred percent sure which side of angry she is on. She is a North Carolina Christian. I kind of suspect she may not be coming from my perspective, but we'll see.

Elizabeth, You are absolutely right, little sister. I'm angry along with you and a lot of other people.

I listened to Obama's speech this morning and discovered once again, HE JUST DOESN'T GET IT. He doesn't get that these Ku Klux Republican corporatist rat bastards have only one thing in mind, and that is to destroy his presidency. Just that one thing. Nothing to help end the Depression. Nothing about jobs.

And Obama, ignoring the birthers and the death panel lies and Mitch McConnell saying his number one goal is to STOP OBAMA, and Obama, like a fool, says he wants to compromise, and work with these people, sit down with Boehner and McConnell and the rest of these clowns and NEGOTIATE! AAAAAAAAAARRARRRRRRGGGGG!

Yeah, he'll negotiate the privatization of Social Security and deregulation of Wall Street and sending more jobs to China and bashing the unions, and all that country club Republican crap.

I didn't put in my time serving my country in the military to see a lot of old white fascists working for the richest people in the country, and predatory corporations sending jobs overseas. Republicans have no respect for the military or veterans. Bush proved that.

But, come on angry or not, I'm sure we are all looking forward to having an orange-colored Speaker of the House. That has got to be funny. And that thug from Kentucky, Rand Paul, who'd like to repeal the 1964 Civil Rights Act. All the goofy Tea Partiers now in the Congress. Now that's entertainment.

You are right. it's infuriating but I think it's funny at the same time.. (I know, I have a twisted sense of humor.)The funny part is crazy stuff like Republicans defending a major tax break for rich people while at the same time they say they want to CUT THE DEFICIT. It will be funny just seeing them trying to justify that.

Ya gotta laugh or you'd just have to sit down and cry. And it's healthy to laugh at the antics these idiots are sure to produce.

New Post, first Since AUGUST?

2010-10-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

I admit I have been watching Facebook and occasionally posting over there. A friend of mine has taken the position that there's no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, and another one posted that we need to turn out ALL the incumbents and start all over again with new people in office. Yet a third person over at Facebook posted this:

Say what you want the democratic party is leading this country down the path of Socialism with a slow curve to communism. With just fifty percent of americans paying taxes the programs this administration is shoving down our throats is unsustainable. Take a look at the chaos thats reaking havoc in Europe. Socialism at its best. The American people are not as stupid as this administration thinks. This country was founded on freedoms that thousands gave their lives protecting. I am more than willing to give my life defending my freedom and the freedom of my family."

I replied that there are differences between the political parties, and that although we are often disappointed with the Dems, we need to encourage and vote for progressive Democrats and try to move the Democratic party more in the direction of Franklin D. Roosevelt's vision for America during the Great Depression of the 1930s. I also offered the opinion that most Republicans are misinformed and mean spirited. So the same person who posted the diatribe about Democrats leading the country down the path of socialism posted this:

Hey what do i know im just a misinformed and mean-spirited american citizen, the progressives know whats best for me and the rest of the country, just ask them, chairman mao explains it all in his little red book."

Which kind of proved my original point -- about Republicans being misinformed and mean-spirited. I would never want to waste my time sitting down with a beer and conversation with this guy.

Woman Dumps Cat in a Garbage Bin

2010-08-24T16:48:00.000-07:00

It happened in Jolly Old England. The cat was missing. A nearby homeowner, owner of the cat had recently installed a video camera due to a spate of burglaries in the neighborhood. They scanned the videotape to see if there were any clues to the disappearance of their cat. Sure enough, they caught the fifty something grey haired lady dumping their cat in the garbage bin. She has since been identified and police are interviewing her.

Kissinger

2010-08-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Geeeez, Johnny Carson and Jack Webb both gone. A lot of my lifetime heroes gone. George Burns, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Caroll O'Connor, Johnny Cash, Paul Wellstone, Jimi Hendrix, but HENRY KISSINGER, who was Nixon's Secretary of State fer chrissake forty years ago, still ain't dead. Is this guy a vampire or a zombie or something? Did he make a pact with the Devil? He's an old War Criminal, and he just lives on and on and on.

The Chinese Red Army Does a Tribute to Michael Jackson

2010-08-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

No kidding. Does the Chinese Red Army really have a sense of humor?

Dick Cheney Has No Heart

2010-08-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

This is is old news to people who have been keeping up with the news. But it still amazes me. Dick (Darth) Cheney has no heartbeat. No kidding. This is not Supermarket Tabloid Stuff. He's a Cyborg. I always suspected he was heartless. BTW, he has no pulse.

Rumor has it that he has two big sharp canine teeth He doesn't show up in a mirror, and he avoids sunlight. Why do you think he is always in an undisclosed location? If you ever meet up with him, you better have a crucifix handy.

He's an evil Dick.

A Video About a Flower

2010-08-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

A video about a flower. Only, it is a very special kind of flower.

Battle with Bank of America

2010-07-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

I have been in combat with Bank of America. This email explains it all. It is not a complicated problem, but to Bank of America it is impossible. Here is the text of a chat I had with the wonderful customer service people.

Welcome to an online chat session at Bank of America. Please hold while we connect you to the next available Bank of America Online Banking Specialist. Your chat may be monitored and recorded for quality purposes. Your current wait time is approximately 0 minutes. Thank you for your patience.
Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.
Chole: Good Afternoon! Welcome to Bank of America's Service Chat for Personal accounts.
Chole: My name is Chole. May I have your complete name & last 4 digits of the account?
You: Hi Chole Name: Russell X XXXXXXX
Chole: Hello Russell.
Chole: How are you doing today?
You: Last 4 Digits: XXXX
Chole: Thank you.
You: ok thanks, Here is a problem. All information to solve the problem follows.
You: Five phone calls have not solved this problem. I want to pay my BofA HELOC with a credit union account. , BofA placed THREE small deposits in my account for verification, but the verification Web page provided only TWO spaces for me to respond. So I failed to verify. I need to solve this problem so I can pay THIS MONTH's HELOC account. About to go to my local TV consumer reporter to get this solved. Here is all info you need to solve the problem. (HELOC Acct: # XXXXXX) (Verification Deposits: $ .48 .47 .01) (XXX Credit Union: Routing: XXXXXXXXX Checking:
XXXXXXXXXXX)
Chole: Please go ahead with your query.
You: There it is.
Chole: I understand that you would like to pay HELOC account from another bank's account.
Chole: And, you have to verify the trail deposit.
Chole: Let me help you with that.
You: correct. You have the credit union account, the name of the bank, the routing and cheking number there, and the exact amount of the trial deposits.
Chole: The trial deposits are done only in two small amounts........
Chole: And this trial deposit has to be done from Credit Unions account/
You: The
You: Credit union is the American Broadcast Employees FCU
Chole: Does it allow to transfer funds online?
You: yes.
Chole: Please make a trail deposit from that account into this HELOC account.
Chole: And it has to be only two small amounts.
Chole: In these three deposits did you try to confirm the latest two deposits?
You: Wait. the way this works is BofA made the trial deposits to veritfy the account. I was not able to verify because they made THREE deposits and the Web page only gave me TWO spaces to verify. Chole, did you read my complete explanation avove?
You: above not avove
Chole: Yes I did read the whole explanation.
Chole: That was the problem.
Chole: There has to be only two small deposit to verify.
You: Right. I need to verify those three deposits.
You: OK TWO. Which two?
Chole: The latest two.
Chole: Ignore the older deposit.
You: OK, that would be $.47 and .01
Chole: Please try to verify with them once.
You: Can you confirm verification?
Chole: No we do not have access that, it is a self service one.
You: Rats. OK, but I have been locked out of the system because of this screwup on the part of BofA. Can you get someone to unlock it, and give me the Web address so I can try again.
Chole: Sorry, as an associate I have only access to transfer the chat to my Supervisor.
You: We have to get this problem solved so I can make sure my HELOC payment goes in on time. BTW, I paid it in June and I need to make sure it is credited for July
You: Well, let's get it solved.
You: Let
Chole: I understand your point of view.
You: Let's get it solved. Supervisor. Good idea.
Chole: Sure....
Chole: Please allow me a moment!
You: I would hate to have to start this whole conversation over again if the chat window were to close down due to inactivity.
Chole: I am still with you.
Chole: I will transfer you over to my Supervisor but he will have the same access to this issue.
You: So if my payment is late, BofA would come down on me about that because BofA can't solve the problem?
Chole: I only assist with personal Checking and Savings account.
Chole: However, I can help you with setting up these trail deposits and verifying. But I will not be able to comment on the late payment fee.
Chole: Would you still like me to transfer the chat to my Supervisor?
You: Let's just get the problem solved. Now
You: Let's transfer to BofA CEO Brian Moynihan if necessary. In fact maybe a copy of this chat should go to a top exec of BofA. This is NOT a complicated problem.
Chole: Please wait.. while I transfer the chat to my Supervisor.
Please wait while I transfer the chat to Ralph who can best assist you today.
Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.
You: [After a long wait] anyone there?
You: I am going to get disconnected if someone doesn't appear. I do not wish to waste a lot more time on this very simple problem. Hello?
Chole: I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Please wait while I transfer the chat to Ralph who can best assist you today.
Thank you for choosing Bank of America. You are now being connected to a Bank of America Online Banking Specialist.
Ralph: Hi Russell! This is Ralph. I am the floor supervisor.
You: Hello there Ralph. I have every confidence you can solve this problem. It is not complicated.
Ralph: Please give me some time while I review your chat with Chole.
You: OK, let me give you the simple version. BofA made THREE small trial deposits in my credit union account but only gave me TWO spaces to verify on their Web page. So I failed to verity correctly and BofA locked me out of the verification page. Why can't I just pay the HELOC online out of the account: BTW I already paid the HELOC early and need to make sure it is credited for JULY
Ralph: I understand as you have failed verification on the trial deposits you have got locked out .
You: Correct, Ralph
Ralph: Please give me a quick moment while I provide you the number to our specialists who would be able to help you with this.
You: No I will not call. I have wasted hours on phone calls with BofA on this problem. No calls. I will copy this chat and sent it to Corporate HQ if necessary.
Ralph: Russell, I am sorry but through this chat channel we are unable to assist you.
Ralph: I can provide you with our specialists contact number who can guide you.
You: Fine, have someone call me. Someone who can actually solve the problem. 323.221.0821 or 323. 221.3550.
Ralph: I regret we would not be able to provide a call back regarding this issue.
You: I think BofA will be
You: I spent years as a television consumer reporter. This is one of the most outrageous cases (my own) that I have ever encounterd. Do you really think Corporate wants a copy of this message by email or snail mail?
You: I think it is your job, Ralph, to find out who can solve this problem and have them call me.
Ralph: Please contact us at 1.800.933.6262 from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Mon to Fri, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat to Sun, Eastern Time. I do understand your frustration and I am sorry for the inconvenience.
Ralph: I am referring you to our specialists as they would be able to guide you on this.
Ralph: We solely assist with personal accounts so we are unable to directly assist you with this issue.
You: This IS a personal account.
Ralph: We assist only with Personal Checking and Savings accounts.
You: How do I contact the HELOC people?
Ralph: I have referred you to our Online Banking Specialists regarding the trial deposits verification.
Ralph: One moment please.
You: The online banking specialists have proven to be incompetent and unconnected. They have no interest in helping. They just shuffle me from one office to another.
You: How about if I publish this entire chat online for everyone to see? Without my account numbers included, of course?
Ralph: Please contact our Heloc specialists at 1.800.934.5626 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Mon to Fri, Eastern Time.
You: There's a reason I have no bank account with BofA.
Ralph: I do apologize for the inconvenience. Our specialists at 1.800.933.6262 would be able to help you with the trial deposits.
Ralph: Is there anything else I may assist you with?
Ralph: Are you still with me? Please respond so I can leave this chat window open to answer any questions for you.
Ralph: Russell, Unfortunately, due to the elapsed time since we received your last message, we are exiting the chat session. If you wish to chat with a Bank of America associate again, please click "Chat Online Now."
Last text message received Thank you for chatting with us. We value your feedback and would like to invite you to take a moment to complete a survey and tell us how we did today. The survey takes only a few moments to complete and will be presented to you upon closing this window.

A Break from the Project

2010-01-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Finally finishing up The Project. I hope. The Client wants a bunch of changes. Naturally. Have to make the Client happy. Will be finishing up in the morning. Meantime, here is Techno Chicken. Everyone out for recess.

Bumper Sticker Religion

2010-01-02T17:16:00.000-08:00

I see them all the time out here in Los Angeles. Bumper stickers touting one religious sentiment or another. "Jesus is God, Read the Bible." and the same quote in Spanish. This one annoys me. In my humble opinion, the Bible is not exactly a reliable reference to prove anything. Besides that, it seems to me that any religion that can be reduced to a bumper sticker is way wide but not very deep. If you can put your entire spiritual experience on a bumper sticker, you don't have much going for you. It seems almost an insult to a genuine religious belief to carry it around on the bumper of your car.

"My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter." That's cute. I think it references Jesus, but I don't know of any evidence that Jesus was a carpenter and a Google search seems to indicate he was not a carpenter at all. One Web site says: "..the Greek word for 'carpenter' in the gospels actually stands for an underlying Aramaic term that is used metaphorically in the Talmud to denote a scholar."

Or how about the little fish you see pasted to the trunk lids of cars? This one is a religious symbol referencing Jesus feeding the multitudes with just a handful of fish and a few sips of wine. It's also an in-your-face statement that says, "I'm an Evangelical Christian and what are you going to do about it?" The reply to it, of course is the fish with feet, an in-your-face statement that references Darwin and evolution, something that Evangelical Christians deny.

"Jesus is My God." There's another one that also appears in Spanish. Seems to me it reflects a shallow view of God and Jesus and the whole notion of a serious spiritual experience. It's bumper sticker religion.

Merle, Tequila, New Glasses, the Car Wash, Mutts, Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan

2009-12-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

The Little Woman is working on some new country songs. She's in a Merle Haggard phase just now. Listening o a lot of Merle these days. I knew he was Outlaw Country, but had forgotten he was in San Quentin for three of Johnny Cash's appearances. So the story goes, when Merle was finally out, pursuing a music career he met Cash and told him: "I certainly enjoyed your show at San Quentin." Cash said "Merle, I don't remember you bein' in that show." Merle said, "Johnny, I wasn't in that show, I was in the audience."

My son is 18 years old Monday. Got him a bottle of Tequila. He wanted a bottle of Tequila. He's not even legally allowed to drink, but I trust this kid not to be foolish around booze. We don't keep much liquor around in the house. There may be a bottle of Canadian or some Bourbon in a kitchen cabinet, but no one around here uncorks any of it much.

We also got him a couple of Mutts books. Mutts is his favorite comic of all time. He gets all grins at Mutts. We don't have a dog or a cat. He's doing some volunteer work at the local animal shelter.

Finally getting new glasses tomorrow. I have been using a pair of my old glasses to see to read or write this, but one of the lenses fell out. So I taped that side up and I have been looking out just the right side lens. I don't have my regular old glasses because I turned the frame over to the optometrist to put new lenses in. It's the frames that cost big bucks. Screw that. Use the old frames.

Washed the car. Two dollars and a quarter tonight down at the Wash it Yourself Place. I used to spend seven or eight bucks, but discovered I can get a pretty good wash, rinse, wax and second rinse all for two bucks if I'm speedy. Saving a few bucks here and there wherever I can. I suspect I am not the only one around here pinching pennies.

Have not been keeping up with the news much. Some scary stuff going on in Iran. You have to wonder if police brutality can continue to work. Those dissidents have got some real cajones to continue to fight after the cops gunned down at least nine of them this weekend. Fired into the crowd. The question is, will that stir up the dissidents even more or will it shut them down? Somehow I think it will energize them. I wish Obama would come out against the violence as a human rights issue. Iran has not been a backward Islamic Republic for decades. It is an Islamic country, not backward, and women didn't have to walk around imprisoned in a black sheet and they didn't cut your hands off for stealing a candy bar. But it has a repressive religious government now, and that is unacceptable to people who want to join the 21st Century.

Do something to help Stop the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even if it's only no more than writing Obama at whtehouse.gov and telling him how foolish it is to continue to get our troops killed over there, and how stupid it is to continue spending money on wars that cannot be won. You would think Obama would have learned something from the British and Russian defeats in Afghanistan. And Iraq is a lost cause. We should never have been in either war ever, except to grab Osama which we could have done when we had him trapped at Tora Bora. But my theory is we didn't really want to catch him. Bush needed him to be the boogy man to keep us all scared and docile. We ought to declare victory in Iraq and Afghanistan and leave. Now.

Write a note to Barry O. I write notes all the time. I'm probably on some kind of list by now.

2009-12-25T19:37:00.000-08:00

Christmas day. Bright and Sunny in Southern California, with barely a hint of a chill in the air. We watched some movies, I leafed through a couple of gift books, R. Crumbs Genesis was one of them. Crumb is an absolutely brilliant artist that I have admired since the hippie days of the 60s. Love the guy's work. I have one of his original comic books around here somewhere. There are no limits to his imagination and no borders on taboos. He did an episode years ago featuring Jesus Christ in a modern setting and some of it I am sure would be totally offensive to Evangelical Christians. But in my view, the work reflected the true spirit of the Revolutionary Hippie Radical Jesus. Screw the Evangelicals.

My Republican Sister in Law sent a big coffee table book featuring the headlines of newspapers from WWII. I am kind of a WWII freak, having been a little child during that era. I am also a Civil War freak. They kid me around here with my interest in Adolph Hitler. Hitler was a fascinating guy, a seriously mentally ill individual who got hold of the levers of power of a country with a dangerous military. The result was the deaths of some 15 million people. Who wouldn't be fascinated by that? Or it could be argued he was never mentally ill, just thoroughly evil. Or both. Mentally ill and evil. What a combination.

Anyway.

We had one of those spiral cut hams from Trader Joes. And some wonderful whole wheat bread from the La Brea Bakery. Great Christmas day sandwiches. And hard cider. And some chocolates. My son spent part of the day watching some new horror flicks. We began watching War of the Roses on cable, but then the cable went out, so we did other things, listened to music and the like. It was a good Christmas day. We sitll have some tamales we got from a legendary East L.A. Mexican restaurant where every Christmas, crowds gather for their great Christmas tamales. You have to stand in line for 20 minutes or more just to get a few tamales to take home. We do that every Christmas.

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to the news. I guess it's good that we got a health bill in the Senate. Now it remains to be seen what the reconciliation will be like. I hope we get a decent bill. Those Republican bastards ought to be ashamed of themselves. I have this theory that some part of the Neanderthal DNA remains in some Homo Sapiens individuals even today. And those who have it are Republican knuckle draggers. Republicans are simply stupid and mean. They ignore facts and their own delusionary reality leads to a mean-spirited result for the rest of us. A perfect example is the health care debate. How could anyone in his right mind oppose measures to assure that people have access to good health care? Really, you have to be stupid to believe that good health care is a bad thing. And you have to be mean to want to deny it to everyone.

But it remains to be seen just how good the final health care bill will be. If it is just a giveaway to the insurance companies, then a pox on the House and the Senate for caving in to the Neanderthals.

I mentioned at the beginning of this piece that it was a beautiful day. So peaceful and quiet outside. It was as if some kind of peace blanket had fallen over all the world. I just stood for a while on our little street on the hill and zoned out on the silence. It was a trancendental moment. Christmas day is always a special day.

Gotta go.

Christmas Eve

2009-12-24T23:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Christmas Eve, really late. I should be taking a shower and brushing my teeth and going to bed. But first:

The Little Woman had her yard sale. She collected 70 or 80 bucks and got rid of some stuff. And we met some neighbors we hadn't met before. That was the best part.

And I collected half my fee for the Banner project. That made for a Merry Christmas because we were almost broke. As it was, we were able to celebrate the way Americans always celebrate, by going out and shopping and giving a shot in the arm to the economy. I had to accompany my (almost) 18 year old son to places like Best Buy and Toys R Us. It amazed me the stuff people were buying and carrying out of the store. All of it made in China. A lot of it in big cardboard boxes. Guitar Hero and big Barbie Doll sets and flat screen TVs and Blu Ray DVD players. All stuff I neither could afford, nor did I actually want any of it. I wondered where all the money was coming from to buy all this stuff. After all, this is the Great Recession, the younger brother to the Great Depression. Who has a job to pay for all this stuff?

I think I saw a lot of credit cards coming out of wallets at the checkout counters. The economy is structured with low wages and lots of available credit. But I think the available credit is coming to an end for a lot of people. I predict 2010 is going to bring a major hangover to the spending spree people have been on even in this serious economic downturn. Especially in the downturn, because people don't want to face reality, and they use their credit cards like a security blanket. I think a lot of people are finding out the blanket is shredded.

We actually had a rather modest shopping trip -- a few DVDs and books for my son and a relatively inexpensive pair of speakers for The Little Woman's audio setup in the studio. After all, an aspiring country singer needs a decent pair of speakers.

Oh, I mentioned I collected half my fee for that Big Project. It was a PDF project with images and text, an annual report for a non profit financial institution that does good work in the Inner City, funding minority and women-owned business and the like. It has some connections to City Hall through its president and CEO is a smart and savvy banker who was born in Watts, an African American section of L.A. at the time. Now it is turning majority Latino. Most bank presidents, I bet 95% are old White Guys. Not this gentleman; he is African American, and he has managed to reach his status by getting a good education in the world of business and being really shrewd. He's also just a really good guy. Unusual, I think, in the world of banking. Look how those crooks acted with our bailout money. But I digress.

I had this PDF project, and I began by building the pages in an HTML editor and converting to PDF. I worked for weeks on the thing. And it looked pretty good, but because I had to use tables, nothing really lined up quite right and the client didn't like it. So I did it over. And this time it looked worse. But the client showed me what he really wanted and gave me half the fee. THEN I learned last night in just an hour or two how to use Adobe InDesign CS2. I have had it on the desktop for a couple of years or more and never used it. What a wonderful program! You can drop images in anywhere, no tables. And text, no tables. Move stuff around. And then automatically save it all as a PDF and it looks great! It's all compatible because it is all in the Adobe family. Now I will be able to put the rest of the project together in a day or two and collect the rest of my fee before the New Year. Whew!

It's a good omen for 2010, starting out with some money in the bank. Happy Christmas, Have a wonderful Winter Solstice Season. My best wishes to both of my readers, (or all three or four) for a Great New Year.

Gotta go.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T21:47:00.000-08:00

Friday, Four More Shopping Days

2009-12-18T09:08:00.000-08:00

THe Little Woman is determined to do this yard sale. I put up a poster on the bulletin board at the school. She wants an ad in the L.A. Times.

Last night we finally bought a Christmas tree. I was looking for one for around $20, but no such luck. We went to one big tree lot in South Pasadena, where they showed a pathetic little bush of a tree for $25. Three feet tall. Then we drove to a lot on York where the guy had a noisy generator going to power his string of lights, and he had maybe 15 trees. That place sure looked lonesome. No luck there either. Finally we stopped at the big lot at York and Figueroa and looked at a tree with a price tag of $40. I asked if they'd take $35 and they would. So they tied that on top of the car, And I bought a package of mistletoe for a couple of bucks and gave the tree tyer boys a couple of bucks and off we went. I should have known trees wold be cheaper in Highland Park than South Pas.

A guy at Trader Joe's told me Home Depot sells trees really cheap. He said he got a 7 footer for $25. I'll look at Home Depot next year.

I heard that some homeowner in Northern California did a diorama depicting Jesus with a shotgun standing in front of a mortally wounded Santa Claus. That's the American way. Tired of Santa Claus dominating Christmas?Tired of the frenzied shoppers forgetting that Christmas is supposed to be about the Birth of Christ and peace and love? THen put up a scene in your front yard showing Christ murdering Santa with a shotgun. Bam! Problem solved.

Gotta go.

Thursday

2009-12-17T08:02:00.000-08:00

The Little Woman has been planning a garage sale with her singing partner, but I think it's too late. The plan was to do it Sunday, but we don't have the stuff collected yet. She hasn't priced anything. She was going to put a classified ad in the L.A. Times. Time is running out for this project. We don't have the thing organized at all.

And I still have the Banner project to finish. Hope to finish it today. That check will make a nice Christmas present if I can get the thing finished and off to the client.

The Little Woman still has a bad cough, a residue of the flu she had. It's making her tired. She needs rest after that grueling session she had teaching art to the little nose pickers in the L.A. public schools. I have a bad cough, too. It's a seasonal thing. I expect this to happen just about every winter.

We don't even have a Christmas tree. We have always have a tree. Finances are tight this year. All season I have only seen one car with a tree tied on the roof.

Speaking of Christmas, here's a shot of the life-size creche my dad used to put up every year in our front yard in Lowell, Indiana. This was probably from around 1947. Dad bought the Mary and Joseph mannequins from a Chicago department store. The mule was, of course, our family mule. Doesn't every family have a mule? His name was Long Ears. Out of frame of the shot was a lighted star on a pole, and dad would put a record player on the porch playing Christmas music. It was really quite touching. Cars would stream past our house in an endless parade. Dad won the Lowell Christmas Decoration Contest every year for several years and finally they just phased the contest out.

On the Gold Line

2009-12-16T22:08:00.001-08:00

I was on the Gold Line, our light rail line that runs from Union Station all the way out to deep in the heart of East L.A.

A teenage girl was telling her friend what happened a few nights ago when a big thunder and rain storm interrupted the electricity in her house. Everything went dark in part of the house. It gets dark here in the winter around 5:00. She said they stumbled around and found some candles and lit those. And then she said her mom panicked. Her grow room lights were out.

Grow room? This was getting interesting. It wasn't hard to gather from the conversation that her mom was growing pot indoors, and now she was worried because her crop was in the dark.

Somehow, because the lights were out in only part of the house, it must have been a tripped GFI or a blown fuse. That's my guess. So her mom managed to get an extension cord and a light strip to the grow room and fire up the lights again.

Whew! American entrepreneurial ingenuity to the rescue. The grow room was once again lighted and all was right with the world.

Turns out it was all legal, as the girl explained to her friend. Her mom has a medical marijuana card, she said, and she was growing for one of the pot co-ops we have all over Los Angeles. We have more pot dispensaries in L.A. than Starbucks, in fact there are about 1,000 medical marijuana co-ops n Los Angeles, and not nearly as many Starbucks.

This is driving the City Council nuts, trying to put most of them out of business with one regulation or another. Problem is, medical marijuana is legal, and the cops can't just bust in and arrest pot dealers like they could in the old days, although the City Attorney claims he is about to do just that. City Council has warned him not to, and he threatens to ignore City Council.

A voter initiative has just qualified for the November 2010 ballot to tax and legalize marijuana in California. Polls show a majority of locals might just vote for it. Heaven knows the state could use the revenue.

Wednesday

2009-12-16T12:08:00.000-08:00

OK, started the day with a peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat toast. Peanut butter, mayonnaise and fresh lettuce. It's the kind of sandwich my mom used to make me back in Indiana when I was a kid. Only she used white Wonder Bread and Miracle Whip, which Barbara will not allow in the house. She has a point there. Actually she will allow Wonder Bread in the house, but she wads up the slices and uses them to clean paintings. Works great. And she doesn't like Miracle Whip because it has canola oil or something in it that she considers poison. She's probably right.

We are all so disgusted with Obama. Here's a note I left for him at whitehouse.gov.

Dear Mr. President.
I am so disappointed in your performance for the past year. We worked hard to get you elected. We gave money. We had hope for change we could believe in.

Instead, we got a major Wall Street bailout that gave our tax dollars to big banks and their rapacious credit cards which are screwing us to the wall in this economy AND giving their CEOs huge bonuses. With our money.

Where are the kinds of jobs programs that FDR created with the WPA? Mr. President, you talk a good game, but we see few results.

And this health insurance reform. A disaster. A boondoggle for the insurance companies. In my view and in the view of many who voted for you, you have shown NO leadership. And Harry Reid hasn't been much better.

I am telling you, I am a lifelong FDR Democrat. But I am not voting in the midterms if things don't improve.

Happy Holidays to you and your family.

I would encourage everyone, all three of my readers to email President Obama. It probably won't do any good, but wait, does he want a second term or not? If he gets the idea he could actually be endangering his political prospects maybe we could turn him around.

It's going to be a bleak Christmas for a lot of folks. We don't have a tree yet. The damn things cost too much. No one in the family has bought a present for anyone else. We are holding off on the traditional order of Christmas tamales that we usually get from an East L.A. Mexican restaurant each year. And we haven't ordered the chocolate cherry bread we usually buy from the LaBrea Bakery.

I have a good story about a conversation I heard on a bus. I don't have time to leave it here just now. Have to finish the Banner project. I'll try to get to the story tomorrow or Friday.

Doesn't Senator Joe Lieberman look like an evil elf? I think so.

Happy Holidays.

Weekend

2009-12-13T23:39:00.000-08:00

Finally got some sleep. This job of Barbara's has been keeping ME up late. She's an art teacher. Three different South Central schools in rotation. Five classes each school. It's a marathon challenge for her at the schools, a major job for me doing the planning and creating samples of the hands-on work in the lesson plan weeknights for the kids to look at in class. Been keeping me up past midnight sometimes. Have to find art examples on the Web. Download. Print on 8X10 transparencies. Organize all the classes.

I have a job Monday. Nothing the rest of the week. Maybe I'll get a couple of days or more. Maybe nothing but Monday. Still have the Banner project, a major PDF project for promoting an inner city financial institution that funds small businesses and real estate. It's basically a small non-profit bank. If I don't get more work this week, I can finish up that project and collect a check.

Barbara's singing partner came over as usual on Sunday morning. She is not only talented, she is organized, and she wants to help organize my office space. Cool. The place looks better already.

Sudden thought: People who deny evolution seems to me don't really appreciate the awesome amount of time it took for life to develop and for us to emerge finally from the amino acid slime that began all life. Billions and billions of years. That's a lot more impressive, I think, than some big invisible guy with a beard in the sky going ZAP! and creating Adam all formed and ready to go. Nope, seems to the the billions and billions of years it took to create all the animals and us is far more awe inspiring than the Bible story.

Friday Got Some Work

2009-12-12T00:34:00.000-08:00

Got two days of work this week. Entertained a bunch of second graders today. They were all helpful and cooperative. That's what I write to the teacher at the end of the day whether they were or not. They mostly are. Even the xixth grade class I managed yesterday. In this business you gotta be an entertainer. That's why there are so many actors and other showbiz types doing substitute teaching. They don't want real jobs so they can go on auditions. Or maybe they just don't like the idea of being tied down to a job they just have to go to every morning five days a week. Of course that's the kind of job I had during my news career.

I had another one of those jobs when I taught a high school class for three years. I taught video production. Bunch of all spoiled white kids, second-generation Armenian kids in a magnet high school. One kid told me he was never going to work in my class because his dad had lots of money which he planned to inherit. One kid in that class pulled a knife on me. I got him kicked out of school and all his friends said I should be ashamed of myself.

To do list:

Finish Banner project. That one is going to net me a nice check.
Do the California agency paperwork and get that project on track
Pay SAG dues if I can ever get back on the furslugginer Web site. I swear SAG changes their password requirements about once every month. Or so it seems. I doubt that Jack Nicholson or Sean Penn has ever bothered to sign in to a page on the SAG Web site. Mostly it is for actors looking for work. I doubt that Nicholson or Penn ever have to look for work.

I just heard on the radio that young African American people are out of work at least three times the national average, which is said to be about 10%. That makes the number among African American youth about 30%, yet I don't see Obama doing much about it. He talks about unemployment and the number has retreated some in this last report, but why doesn't he just recreate the WPA, the way FDR did back in the 30s? There's plenty the Feds could do to create work for people, fixing up roads and schools and national parks.

And there should be a special program for writers and artists, too, the way FDR did. That program produced some invaluable work. I remember a little theatre at Indiana University that had murals on the walls inside that were done by WPA artists. It was a classic. I bet it is still there. I love the sort of art the WPA produced during those years, a sort of Socialist Realism. There is a movie theatre in Glendale that has the same kind of art updated on its domed lobby ceiling. It depicts the Hollywood movie industry, the stars, the crews, etc. It is beautifully done and worth going to the Americana just to see the mural on the ceiling of this massive theatre lobby.

Why is this reminding me of the Sistine Chapel?

Speaking of, has it come to your attention that lots of priests wear dresses? I mean they just appear in church in a dress and no one thinks anything of it. It would be kind of weird if an auto mechanic showed up wearing a dress down at Highland Park Auto Repair. Or if some teenage boy showed up at his Burger King job wearing a frilly frock. But for priests it raises no eyebrows. And the Pope always wears a dress all the time. Can you imagine the Pope wearing jeans and a t-shirt? They might be an improvement.

Gotta go.

Wednesday

2009-12-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Work is scarce these days in the LAUSD classrooms. I have one job lined up next week. None this week so far.

To do list: Apply to autism contract companies for work. Autism workers are hired to go into the classrooms and tend to just ONE kid all day. It's got to be steadier work than substitute teaching these days. Last year I worked every school day both semesters and into the summer. This year, since our union screwed us by giving our jobs away to regular teachers hired right out of college, jobs have dwindled. But I digress.

More to do: a PDF Annual Report project for a nonprofit financial institution that funds inner city businesses. This is a good project, but it has taken months to do, partly because I had to learn how to do a PDF project and partly because the bank president has been distracted by other business and not available to approve my work and offer revisions. Finally got the revision instructions. Onward. Should be able to finish it within a week or two.

Pay property tax. Eccccccchhhh.

Check all bills. Make sure you're not late on a credit card, otherwise those bloodsuckers will jack up the interest rates to criminal levels.

Damn Joe Biden. When he was a Delaware senator he led the fight on behalf of the credit card companies, allowing them to do whatever they liked to screw cardholders. Face it, this country is run by money. It is common knowledge that the Congress is bought and paid for. I liked that idea that Robin Williams had: Make all Senators and Congressional Representatives wear jackets with the logos of the corporations that bribe them. Like NASCAR. So you'd see these guys with jackets decorated with logos from Blue Cross and General Electric and Bank of America and on and on.

One more thing, while I'm on a rant. Why doesn't the federal government send all high school graduates to college for free, if they want to go. It would be the best investment in the future of this country we could ever make. No, that's a suggestion that makes too much sense. Better to spend the money on bombs and guns so we can go overseas somewhere to kill people. Much better use of our tax money than spending it on educating people. California used to send all California high school graduates to college for free. Then Ronald Reagan came along and ended that. Gotta love Republicans. If it's good for the country, they're against it. Consistently.

Have to order prescriptions, and find out why Medicare won't pay for some minor treatment by a doctor because I happen to also have Kaiser coverage.

What a screwy health care system we have here in the United States. I hope this latest Senate proposal to expand Medicare to people over 55 works. I think the age ought to be dropped to ZERO. Eventually, it will, and to hell with Republicans and those Democrats who have stood in the way of Health Care Reform. They remind me of George Wallace standing in the doorway at the University of Alabama to prevent racial integration. The politicos who opposed health care during this Congressional Session are on the wrong side of history, no doubt about that. Progress will prevail, even if it takes longer than most of us would like.

Boy, my office is a mess. Got to get it organized.

Friday

2009-12-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

After all these years it still seems strange that I can walk outside in December weather wearing just a t-shirt and jeans. When I worked in Buffalo, NY, that kind of outfit would have instantly frozen a body stiff, the way a physics professor would stick a fresh rose n a vial of liquid nitrogen, take it out and shatter it like glass on the lab table.

Today I worked a first grade. There was one kid wearing a sweater, who would pulli it up all the way over his face so only the top of his head would be showing and then he'd stick a finger out a hole in the sweater. And he did this for a half hour or forty minutes. He cracked up the class. It was kind of funny and weird.

Don't forget to look at one of my latest Web sites, < http://www.erinrametta.com >. Erin and my wife Barbara are singing partners. My wfe, the country singer.

Are these idiots in Congress going to pass a decent health care bill? I sure hope so. It's up to us to email and phone them. The Republicans are complete brain dead morons. Along with about four Democrats. My theory is they were deprived of oxygen at birt.

Sure glad it's the weekend.

Monday

2009-11-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

Boy didn't that "couple" that crashed the White House State dinner look like a couple of grifters? She played the whole visit strictly to the cameras. SHe had that big smile and the Standard Blonde American Glamor Look. Frankly I can't tell one Standard American Glamor Blonde from another. They all look alike to me, and I am a white guy married to a blonde. Shakira looks exactly like Britney Spears. He looked like he was 25 years older than his "wife." They didn't look like a "couple" to me. He looked like someone playing at being her husband. Did you notice the video where they were walking past the press holding hands and she stopped, causing him to halt in mid-stride, so the photogs could get a good shot?

I just had a big contentious discussion with 21st Century Insurance. First of all, it annoys me very much that they charge a fee for paying them online. Hardly anyone, even the greedy money-grubbing credit card companies don't charge a fee for paying them online. Now I want to cancel 21st and go with Farmers (because I will get a 15% discount on auto and homeowners) and 21st Century wants to charge me a $50 cancellation fee. When I asked what that was about the 21st Century rep said it was because it was their policy. I replied that her answer was like saying a brown bear is brown because it is brown. Really, what service am I getting for the $50? The answer is: they do it because they can do it. Because they're the Insurance Company and to hell with you. Typical corporate arrogant behavior.

Saturn of Cerritos wanted to charge me over $200 to replace that left side mirror on my old four door sedan. I called a car mirror place down on Mission, where all the junkyard businesses are located and got the part and labor for $75.00. I guess it pays to be careful and call around.

We're eating a lot of turkey sandwiches around here. And everybody has a bad cough. Except the Inca Prince. (The Inca Prince is our son, adopted almost 18 years ago in Peru.)

Obama is going to send more troops to Afghanistan. This is a country where there is no law covering rape. Rape is a huge problem in Afghanistan. It happens everywhere in that backward country. And the government is seriously corrupt.

And this is the country our troops are fighting and dying for.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T11:45:00.001-08:00

Don't you hate those Robot Voices that you get way too often these days whenever you call any Big Corporation?

Our Sears washing machine just got cranky and refuses to do its job. Something's wrong with the cycle. It takes in water for hours if you let it, and the motor runs but it doesn't swoosh the clothes. So I called Sears. Got a Robot. Stupid Robot doesn't understand clear, perfect English. Asked for Sales. Robot says, "Sorry, I didn't understand your request." I end up yelling at the stupid Robot, and it retaliates by sending me to a dead end phone number, one that rings and rings with no answer and finally ends up with another Robot that instructs, "If you'd like to make a call..." ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

You know, this stupid Robot at Sears replaces a Real Human Being. One they don't have to pay or provide health insurance. Sears is such a cheapass organization they replace real people with a machine. Now I can understand it to some extend in the auto industry. where they use robots to make cars. I don't like it; the Robots there replace real people, union workers. but those Robots are not in contact with the public. You would think that your initial contact with a company should be friendly and pleasant. It is anything but friendly and pleasant when you are talking to a stupid Robot. I would just about bet that the ill-will a stupid Robot generates far outweighs the savings Sears gets by choosing not to hire a real person at the switchboard.

Henry Ford had it right. He hired people and paid them a wage decent enough to allow his workers to buy the cars they produced. Today's short-sighted mean spirited corporate managers don't think that way. They look to how they can save a buck here or there and the public be damned. If possible they ship the job to India or
Sri Lanka where they can pay a worker twenty five cents an hour.

No wonder the economy is in the trash bin. Corporations displaying contempt for their customers. Cutting back on service to save a few bucks. Dropping health insurance for their workers. Union busting. It's all part of the bottom line, make as much money as possible as fast as possible to make the shareholders happy. And screw the customer. What are they going to do, stop shopping?

And it works. Look at the mobs of screaming consumers busting down doors today to get those Black Friday bargains. Lots of American Consumers don't care how they're treated as long as they can get a great deal on that brand new forty inch flat screen TV at a great price.

Of course the thing is made in China. Where they pay the workers a dollar a day.

Happy Black Friday.

Thanksgiving Eve

2009-11-25T21:24:00.000-08:00

Had a real Thanksagiving class today. We did Turkey Word Puzzles, colored a picture of a Pilgrim Lady handing something on a tray to a Native American sitting on a blanket. The kids loved it. Third grade. They were all hyper. ONe little girl said she was going down to the Midnight Mission to help feed the homeless people. Most of the kids reported they were going to gramma's house or having their cousins over for a big feast. All kinds of family gatherings.

I am thankful that we haven't lost our house. I am thankful for my family. I am thankful that we are not going hungry like so many people in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. We're not doing all that well, especially with the school district cutting back so much and our goddamn union did a secret deal to give our substitute teacher jobs to teachers right out of college.

But we are surviving. Things are getting back to normal, I think. We fought the union and got the secret agreement rescinded. I'm thankful for that. And thankful for the fact that I have been working pretty steadily. I expect things to stabilize now that we officially have our jobs back.

I am a union guy all the way. I belong to three unions. AFTRA, SAG and UTLA. American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, Screen Actors Guild and United Teachers of Los Angeles. I helped unionize a newsroom in Cincinnati years ago, and that is why I am such a long term AFTRA member. But UTLA did screw us. We had to fight to finally get justice for those of us who have seniority over the newbie teachers. We all went to college. We all got our California sub credentials.

If California wasn't such a freakin' Banana Republic we wouldn't be in such a mess. The state is billions of dollars in debt, and all because it takes such a huge majority in the Legislature to pass any progressive reform, the Democrats can't do anything at all. The Republicans block everything with their minority vote.

The California education system which used to be # 1, is now equivalent to Mississipi, nomething like number 48. It's embarrassing.

We don't have much, but we have a house in California that would probably buy two or three houses in Montana. and if the hammer ever came down, I guess we could move to Montana or someplace like it, and be thankful for that.

I am not so thankful that some big fat SUV Roadhog on steroids sideswiped me on an L.A. street tonight as I was driving home and busted my drivers side mirror. No big deal, I'll just replace it myself with a mirror I can get custom cut at a local glass shop. That will be a lot cheaper than taking it to the Subaru shop. Nobody was killed. Thankful for that.

I hope I put a big scratch in his paint.

I am thankful we no longer have a Cowboy Idiot in the White House, although I have some doubts about the current occupant.

Happy Thanksgiving.

My Day

2009-11-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

I had a third grade today. Yesterday it was a second grade at another school. This is what a substitute teacher does. And tonight I have to do lesson plans for my wife the Art Teacher. I have a couple hours ahead of me, she does five classes a day.

We got a turkey, and my 17 year old son, soon to be 18 is fixing the Thanksgiving dinner. This kid has all of a sudden become interested in cooking. It's a passion with him. He mourned the death of Gourmet Magazine.

And then I heard the news about Obama's trial balloon, that he is going to send another 32,000 to 35,000 troops to Afghanistan. This is insane. We have millions of people unemployed here in the United States of America and Obama is thinking of sending troops at a million dollars apiece (this is what I hear it really costs to deploy one trooper overseas for a year) to Afghanistan. This is truly nuts. Has Obama learned nothing from Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam? Has he learned nothing from the disasters that came to British and Russian adventures in Afghanistan? Why is Obama doing this? Did the CIA or the Pentagon tell him he'd better go with the program or maybe something bad would happen to Michelle, some kind of accident maybe to her or one of the kids? I can think of no other reason Obama would send troops to Afghanistan.

And the only reason he can get away with this is because most people don't have a clue what it is going to cost to send more troops or how we are going to pay for more war over there. The war isn't in the budget. It is kind of a side thing that Bush created to hide the true costs of Iran and Afghanistan. This country has burned at least a trillion dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far. And we've lost over 5,000 mostly young men. And we've killed, according to at least one study, a million Iraqis. And now Obama wants MORE of this, an expansion of the war in Afghanistan.

With so many people out of work, this kind of decision, to widen the war instead of stopping it, makes my head spin. During Vietnam, with the body bags coming home by the dozen, I felt the insanity of it on a personal level. I am a vet myself, did some peacetime patrolling in Korea. Was lucky not to see war during the Vietnam era.

Here is what we need to do. It is something no politician in Washington has the guts to do. Or if there is one or two with the guts, the rest of them would think him nuts to propose it. We need Congress to pass a War Tax, a special progressive tax on everyone in the country to pay for the two wars we currently have going. And we need one more thing, a proposal I am personally against, but at the same time I think it would be good public policy. We need to reinstitute the draft. Of course none of this is going to happen, becuase all the Washington Warmongers realize that a War Tax and a Draft would instantly turn most Americans into pacifists demanding we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Now. I am personally against a draft because I have a teenaage son. Still, it's a good idea.

People love the war. They love the idea of us kicking ass somewhere in the world. But if they have to pay for it, well that would be a different story. Only they are paying for it. They are paying for it with a lousy economy and a few million Americans out of work. Somehow, our wars have not been connected to our 21st Century Great Depression.

And speaking of Obama, I am so disappointed in Obama. Not just because he has cozied up to Wall Street. Not just because he has offered little or nothing to those of us whose taxes bailed out Wall Street while they give us the middle finger and a kick to the curb. Not just because Obama hs done little to really create jobs the way FDR did. Not just because he is continuing Bush's insane wars. Not just because it looks like we are about to get Health Care Reform that is going to mostly benefit the insurance companies and do little for the rest of us.

No I am disappointed because I voted for the guy. And It thought he was a lot smarter than he turned out to be.

Tomorrow, another third grade class.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Water Falling From the SKY!

2009-10-13T18:16:00.001-07:00

We have something new happening here in Southern California. Water is falling from the sky. I don't recall seeing anything like it. Old timers say they saw this happening many many years ago. Maybe they are telling tall tales and having some fun at my expense. I don't know whether to believe them or not. I think they are lying.

I do think I have heard of this happening before in other places. But it is like those stories of spontaneous human combustion. You just half believe that such a thing is possible, but not really. I don't quite know what to make of it. Will this put the bottled water business out of business? This is free water. All you have to do is set out a bottle or something and get free water.

There's just no explanation for it. What next? The sun rising in the West?

Don't Forget to Check Out My Latest Web Site Creation

2009-10-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Explanation for it is a few posts below this one. It is for Erin Rametta, a marvelous L.A. indie recording artist.

The Latest Assault on Women -- in Oklahoma

2009-10-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma has invented a new way to demean, insult and assault women. It's a law aimed at any woman who seeks an abortion. She can have the abortion all right. But first she has to have a long counseling session with her doctor. This is to prevent the bubbleheaded bimbo from doing anything rash. And we all know that all women are essentially bubbleheaded bimbos who can't be trusted to make up their own minds about anything without a long session of "counseling" from some doctor, probably a man who is against the idea of abortion altogether, no matter what the circumstances. And no matter what the bubbleheaded bimbo really wants and needs.

For example maybe she's been raped. Well, no matter, she needs counseling anyway before she commits murder in her womb. Or maybe she's single and poor and can't take care of a baby. Or maybe giving birth would actually endanger her life. Never mind that, God and the Oklahoma Department of Health both say she should take the risk.

First, she has to sit through the counseling session, a long, boring, drawn-out counseling session. And after that if she actually decides on an abortion anyway, if she can find a doctor to do it, she has to answer a list of questions. Here they are.

• Date of abortion
• County in which abortion performed
• Age of mother
• Marital status of mother
• Race of mother
• Years of education of mother
• State or foreign country of residence of mother
• Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother

And a bunch of other intrusive queries. The list of questions and her answers will be published on the Internet. Anyone with half a brain (and I am sure there are plenty of those in Oklahoma) will be able to figure out just who in their small town went seeking an abortion.

So much for privacy and the ability to make difficult decisions without everyone in town knowing who you are and what you are up to.

Why Obama Got a Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Because he's not George W. Bush. People all over the world appreciate that a lot. Now let's hope it pressures him to actually do something to promote peace. Like bringing the troops home.

My Newest Web site.

2009-10-10T12:14:00.001-07:00

I do a Web site for someone every once in a while. I'd like to call to your attention the site I built for a terrific young singer here in Los Angeles. This site has samples of some of her indie recording work.

Welcome to the Web site of Erin Rametta, a native of South Carolina. Click here.

Erin is my wife's friend and singing partner. My wife is her backup singer on some of Erin's records and personal appearances around town. They are a wonderful team.

Outrageous TV Spot Attacking Same Sex Marriage

2009-10-07T13:31:00.001-07:00

What next? An ad for burning witches at the stake? Come out of the 14th Century, people.

And did you get that: "They want to bring the issue into my life, they want to take away my freedom" The right wing bigots just can't discuss an issue without lying. They just have to lie because their position shrivels under the strong light of the truth.

Latest Letter to the LA Times that Won't Get Printed

2009-10-03T11:08:00.001-07:00

The health reform debate has gotten way off track. It is astonishing that so many lies have been woven around the issue. Death panels, (bye by gramma), the government will assign you a doctor, illegal immigrants will get free health care, the government will set doctors' wages.

The only thing that has any ring of truth is that illegal immigrants will get free health care. It's true. They will get free health care at everyone else's expense in emergency rooms, which are not adequate for actual health care, only for emergencies.

Meanwhile when illegals and their children get sick they will be free to infect the rest of us because Congress isn't smart enough to include them in any national health care plan.

Republican Death Panels

2009-10-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

The NYT today published, the full story of the Harvard study that says 45,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance. Here is one graf:

The Harvard study found that people without health insurance had a 40 percent higher risk of death than those with private health insurance — as a result of being unable to obtain necessary medical care. The risk appears to have increased since 1993, when a similar study found the risk of death was 25 percent greater for the

The piece includes a link to a PDF of the study.

I have a label for Republicans in Congress blocking Obama's health care reform: DEATH PANELS.

Roman Polanski and Cardinal Roger Mahoney

2009-09-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

My letter today to the Los Angeles Times:

Now that District Attorney Steve Cooley's office has managed to get Roman Polanski arrested in Switzerland on a 1977 unlawful sex case, it may occur to others why he has let Cardinal Roger Mahoney off the hook.

Mahoney signed a $660 million settlement for victims on more than 500 cases in July two years ago.

Yet Cooley can't find enough evidence to prosecute the pedophile priests or Mahoney for a coverup. Looks like a double standard at work.

Michael Moore Gives Wolf Blitzer a Lesson in Asking Questions

2009-09-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

From The Raw Story:

[On CNN] Blitzer begins by pointing out that there are people who don’t like Michael Moore.

“Let’s talk about…most people who are going to see this movie who don’t like you are going to say, ‘you know what, Michael Moore has done pretty well in this free-market, capitalist system—you’ve become a fairly rich guy yourself.’ ” states Blitzer.

After Moore asks for the names of people who don’t like them, so he can ‘invite them to dinner,’ he continues with “Why am I against capitalism if I’ve done so well? Shouldn’t the question be better put—I’m not trying to do your job for you—but wouldn’t the question better be, ‘gee Mike, you’ve done so well, why don’t you just kick back at the lake and enjoy your life. Why do you care about people losing their healthcare and their jobs and all that…you’re not losing yours…I wonder if there was a Wolf Blitzer 200 years ago who asked Thomas Jefferson or John Adams or George Washington, ‘hey, you know, you guys are wealthy land owners…’”

Blitzer always asks the wrong questions. I yell at him all the time.

Finally After all the Screaming and Lies -- a Wingnut Murder?

2009-09-23T21:52:00.000-07:00

The FBI is investigating the hanging death of a U.S. Census worker near a Kentucky cemetery. A law enforcement official says the word "fed" was scrawled on his chest.
The body of Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found Sept. 12 in the Daniel Boone National Forest in rural southeast Kentucky.

He was a part-time teacher who had only recently earned his teaching credential.

Read more.

Insurance Industry Bribed Baucus Big Time

2009-09-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Montand Democratic Senator Max Baucus, the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has brought forth from that committee an absolutely horrible health "reform" bill. It deserved to be DOA.

For example, it requires all US residents to buy insurance, and a single parent over 50 would be paying FIVE TIMES the premium a single parent, 28 would pay. It is absolutely unaffordable. Smokers get 50% added to their premium. There's no public option, but the bill includes a co-op system, which is a weak ineffective way to replace the public option. Essetially, the co-op plan invites citizens to form their own alternate insurance plans in the various states. Good luck with that, a bunch of amateurs going up against will established huge insurance companies.

Why did Max Baucus' committee write this bill which former insurance executive Wendell Potter call, "a gift to the insurance industry? The answer is easy. The industry has bribed Baucus big time over the years -- some $3 million to date. And look at the figures from the latest election cycle, courtesy of OpenSecrets.org.

It is all over the Internet what a piece of crap this bill is.

You Gotta See This...

2009-09-18T11:54:00.000-07:00

A CELEBRATION of the fact that the World Health Organization ranks the United States # 37 in quality and access to health care. Well, maybe not exactly a celebration.

Send this on to a friend. Two friends.

Send it Senator Baucus, the man who has taken $3 million in bribes from the health insurance industry to bring out a Senate bill that will deliver millions of new customers to the insurance companies at whatever price they set. Or else.

Signs for Teabagger / Wingnuts / Tax Revolters at Their Next Rally

2009-09-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here at Stuff You Should Know, we are always willing and ready to help. Therefore we wanted to contribute our ideas for signs and posters the Wingnuts might like to carry on their next rally in Washington, D.C.

• I AM HEAR BECAUSE I AM AN UNINFORMED INDIOT
• FOX NEWS TOLD ME TO BE HERE AND HERE I IS
• I DON'T NEED NO STINKIN HEALTH CARE. AND NEITHER DO MY KIDS
• I AM AFRAID OF SOCIALISM WHATEVER THAT IS
• NO NEGRO HAS A RIGHT TO BE PREZDENT
• RACISM IS WRONG. BUT OBAMA SHOULD BE PICKIN COTTON
• I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK LIKE WHEN PREZDENTS WAS ALWAYS WHITE
• OBAMA GO BACK TO KENYA WHERE YOU WUZ BORN.
• HITLER VOTED FOR OBAMA FROM THE GRAVE
• IF I KNEW WHY I WAS HERE, I WOLD BE AT HOME
• OBAMA LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE STALIN ONLY WITHOUT THE MUSTACHE
• HEALTH CARE IS STUPID. LET'S SPEND THE MONEY ON ANOTHER WAR
• IF YOU GET SICK, GET UP AND WALK IT OFF LIKE A GOOD AMURICAN
• DON'T SPEND MORE MONEY ON HEALTH CARE, SPEND IT ON OPERATION IRAQI LIBERATION
• PROTECT OUR CONTSTIUNION LIKE THE WAY GEORGE BUSH DID.

Teabagger / Tax Protest / Anti Health Care Nut / Republican Protesters Demonstrate Their Intellectual Capacity

2009-09-14T12:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah, the teabagger / birther / conspiracy nuts are all very intelligent and "INFROMED"

Woman Revolts Against Bank Of America

2009-09-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Ann Minch of Red Bluff, Calif refuses to pay off credit card after being a good customer, paying her credit card bill on time, even paying more than minimum payment for years.

Then B of A raised her interest rate to 30%. This is the same Bank of America that got a $700 billion bailout from us taxpayers.

The interest rate hike was the last straw. She made this video as a "love letter" (ha) to Bank of America.

This is one of the most widely viewed YouTube videos ever made. Ms. Minch is a fine American.

I hope her revolt sparks widespread rebellion against these loan sharks.

This Photo Was so Good I Wanted to Run it Again

2009-09-12T23:55:00.000-07:00

I shot this at a Farmers Market a few weeks ago. The fiddle player is a university mathematics professor. I don't know about the guitar picker.

These Republicans are Such a Classy Bunch

2009-09-12T15:33:00.001-07:00

Republicastupids. Photo from HuffPo.

Joe Wilson's Web Site Still Down But his Stock Has Risen in Cracker Country

2009-09-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

The rednecks in Joe Wilson's part of the woods in South Carolina are sending him money via another Website specifically designed to do nothing but collect credit card cash.

There is something really sick going on in this country when a cracker like Wilson can shout at the President of the United States during a joint session of Congress and get congratulated for it by morons who are registered to vote.

Personally, I think a lot of it stems from the belief in that former Confederate state that it really is acceptable to disrespect a black man. No problem, he's just a "nigra." I suspect Wilson has a white sheet in his closet with two eyeholes in it.

This from the NYT:

In Washington, Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina was sharply criticized by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans for shouting “You lie!” during President Obama’s health care address on Wednesday. But here in his strongly Republican Congressional district on Thursday, he was celebrated by many of his constituents for his outburst.

Joe Wilson. Thoroughly disgusting. Embarrassing. The country is full of fools worshipping a Congressional buffoon.

Republican Fools

2009-09-10T09:25:00.000-07:00

Last night Republican Congressmen made fools of themselves in front of the entire world. Some of them held up signs during President Obama's speech, as if they were at a town hall meeting in Podunk, Idaho.

And then there was Joe Wilson, a Congressman from South Carolina, with his outburst, "YOU LIE!" I certainly hope his outburst was a career changer for him. And this guy is a colonel in the National Guard, yelling at his Commander in Chief. Back to obscurity.

The first two shots are from BagNews Notes. The Wilson shot is from HuffingtonPost.

Joint Session of Congress

2009-09-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of a joint session of Congress. Every single one of these guys has great health insrance courtesy of us. Socialized health care. And many of them don't want us to have anything like it.

Founding Fathers Were in Favor of Universal Health Insurance

2009-09-09T09:46:00.000-07:00

Proof:

Preamble to the Constitution:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Seems to me the general Welfare would include universal health care as a right, not a privilege. And then there was the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Now how can you enjoy "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" without your health? Case closed.

Labor Day Heroes

2009-09-07T22:37:00.000-07:00

I can't leave this blog today without directing you to The Public Record and its story on Labor Day and the Heroes of the Union Movement. It is well worth reading.

THE UNION MAID
Woody Guthrie

There once was a union maid, she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks and the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the Legion boys come 'round
She always stood her ground.

CHORUS:
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union, I'm sticking to the union.
Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the union,
I'm sticking to the union 'til the day I die.

This union maid was wise to the tricks of company spies,
She couldn't be fooled by a company stool, she'd always organize the guys.
She always got her way when she struck for better pay.
She'd show her card to the National Guard
And this is what she'd say:

CHORUS

You gals who want to be free, just take a tip from me;
Get you a man who's a union man and join the ladies' auxiliary.
Married life ain't hard when you got a union card,
A union man has a happy life when he's got a union wife.

CHORUS

And finally, here is a YouTube video featuring Pete Seegar, who is a national treasure:

Soldier Killed in Afghanistan Had Reinlisted for Son's Health Coverage

2009-09-07T22:29:00.001-07:00

The story is at Raw Story

CNN news anchor John Roberts asks "How far would you go to get good health insurance?" A report this morning tells the heartbreaking story of a man who lost his job as a computer consultant, and along with the job went the health insurance for his family.

Army SPC Greg Missman had ended his military service 11 years earlier, but signed back on in order to provide his young son Jack with health insurance coverage.

After only one month on the ground in Afghanistan, Missman's father Jim received the news that Greg's convoy had been ambushed, and Greg was killed in the attack.

CNN reports that a "Pentagon spokesman said there is no way to count how many soldiers have joined the armed services to get health care benefits. As for Greg Missman, his son will continue receive military health insurance so this soldier's sacrifice will live on."

The CNN YouTube video is at the Raw Story Web site
And according to Senator Chuck Grassley and the rest of the Gang of Idiots, we don't need health care reform.

White House Green Jobs Czar Van Jones Resigns Under Pressure from Glenn Beck

2009-09-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

Van Jones is a brilliant environmental activist, author and graduate of Yale Law School. My first sentence here does not even begin to outline his accomplishments and honors. For more, see Wikipedia. He has reportedly worked behind the scenes to help unseat reactionary FOX "News" mouth breather and knuckle dragger Glenn Beck. The score now is Beck 1, Jones 0, after Beck began pounding on Jones for his "radical Communism," and for signing a petition calling for answers to questions about 9/11. Most news stories center on the petition, because even corporate reporters recognize that the Communism thing is silly. But most news stories fail to identify the petition. We have found it, at 9/11 Truth.org

Here are just a few of the "radical" questions in the petition.

• Why were standard operating procedures for dealing with hijacked airliners not followed that day?
• Why were the extensive missile batteries and air defenses reportedly deployed around the Pentagon not activated during the attack?
• Why hasn't a single person been fired, penalized, or reprimanded for the gross incompetence we witnessed that day?
• How could Flight 77, which reportedly hit the Pentagon, have flown back towards Washington D.C. for 40 minutes without being detected by the FAA's radar or the even superior radar possessed by the US military?

Jones said he quit rather than serve as a distraction while the president is working on crucial projects including health reform. He also said he didn't closely scrutinize the petition before he signed it, but it seems to me all the questions are reasonable, and I would have liked to see the 9/11 Commission attempt to answer them.

Glenn Beck is a coward and a bully. Compared to Van Jones, he is a piece of dog poop on my shoe. But Beck will probably now be encouraged to go after more Obama appointees.

Little Trip up the Coast

2009-09-06T23:19:00.000-07:00

We took a little trip up the California Coast this last week. Here's a shot of Ocean Avenue, Cayucos. The yellow building is a relic of the Old West, Hoppe's restaurant
And here's lunch. Some kind of Salmon thing I think, with mashed potatoes and herbs.

Health Care: We Are Truly Screwed

2009-09-05T21:59:00.000-07:00

Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone has written a piece on health care that puts to shame the "reporting" done by the cable news networks and even the big city newspapers. It is a long piece, but worth reading. Here is the link. And here is a summary that comes near the end of the article.

To recap, here's what ended up happening with health care. First, they gave away single-payer before a single gavel had fallen, apparently as a bargaining chip to the very insurers mostly responsible for creating the crisis in the first place. Then they watered down the public option so as to make it almost meaningless, while simultaneously beefing up the individual mandate, which would force millions of people now uninsured to buy a product that is no longer certain to be either cheaper or more likely to prevent them from going bankrupt. The bill won't make drugs cheaper, and it might make paperwork for doctors even more unwieldy and complex than it is now. In fact, the various reform measures suck so badly that PhRMA, the notorious mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry which last year spent more than $20 million lobbying against health care reform, is now gratefully spending more than seven times that much on a marketing campaign to help the president get what he wants.

I was so incensed by the piece that I immediately wrote a blistering note to Obama at the White House Web site promising never ever to support him for a second term. Obama has become a huge disappointment. Even bigger because he held out to much hope for so many of us. We knew Bush as a dick to begin with, so no big deal when he turned out to fulfill our expectations. But Obama promised HOPE and CHANGE. Crap. Very little of it is happening. Obama is a phony.

Invitation

2009-09-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

To my readers: You're invited to take a look at a brand new Web site I built for a very talented recording artist. Her name is Erin Rametta, and here is the link. You can even sample some of her music on the site.

Adventure on Our Hillside

2009-08-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

We can see the fire from our vantage point on top of one of those famous L.A. hills. We're a bit too far east to be sitting in the Hollywood hills. But we have had a spectacular view of the fires to the North, in the La Canada mountain sides.

We also have a lot of dry grass that has sprung up over the summer. Dry grass is fire fuel. I had an idea to get down on our slope and cut it with a Toro Weedeater. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Our terrain just below the house tilts at a 45 degree angle or steeper. I have tried on occasion to negotiate that slope, only to fall and slide down on my backside, scraping my jeans in the dust halfway down before I can stop by grabbing some well-anchored vegetation. My solution to this, in order to carry out my mission, was to tie a rope to the lime tree at the top of the hill and hang on as I carefully backed down. The lifeline was actually several ropes tied together. I didn't have one single long rope.

Of course, as I was backing down the hill, I was also hanging on to my Weedeater. Not an easy thing to do. I got about halfway down, amidst a patch of the grass I intended to level, and began cutting. Work was going well, until the Weedeater malfunctioned and flew apart, sending the spool flying somewhere off into space. While I was looking for it, one of the knots let go on my makeshift lifeline and I went flying downhill, slamming into the dirt, rolling and finally coming to a stop. I had a feeling in my chest that I had broken another rib. Rats. I broke a rib earlier this summer stumbling over something in the dark outside.

But I hadn't. All this was yesterday, and the rib is fine.

Final Score: Hill 1, Russ 0

GOP Candidate Threatens Life of the President with a "Joke"

2009-08-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

From the Huffingtonpost:

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho Republican gubernatorial hopeful insists he was only joking when he said he'd buy a license to hunt President Barack Obama.

Rex Rammell, a long-shot candidate slated to run against incumbent C.L. "Butch" Otter in the May 2010 GOP primary, made the comment at a Republican rally Tuesday in Twin Falls where talk turned to the state's planned wolf hunt, for which hunters must purchase an $11.50 wolf tag. The hunt is due to begin on Tuesday.

When an audience member shouted a question about "Obama tags," Rammell responded, "The Obama tags? We'd buy some of those."

Rammell told The Associated Press Thursday he sees no reason to apologize for the comment because it was just a joke.

"What I would say to all my Democrat Idahoans: Take a deep breath and relax," he said. "We're not going to go out and hunt Obama."

He also told the Times-News newspaper, "I would never support him being assassinated."

After Rammell's comment was published in the Times-News, he said one person sent him an e-mail indicating he would ask the FBI for an investigation.

Threatening the president can be a felony punishable by five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

His headshot confirms that he is a bubbleheaded twit.
This evening, I called the United States Secret Service and asked them to investigate this idiot.

My Reply to Annette, Who Thinks Obama is Doing OK

2009-08-26T00:37:00.000-07:00

Annette is over at Just My Little Piece of the World. First you gotta go over and see her reply to my complaints about Obama. She's a big Obama supporter. I am a big critic, wanting Obama to do more. After you see what she wrote, you gotta come back and see my reply to her reply. Here is my reply:

OK, you see the glass half full. That's a legitimate position to take. I see it half empty and I and my "radical lefty friends" have a lot of hope and idealistic aspirations for this presidency. He has important accomplishments.

But it drives me nuts that he can't see that the Republicans have no intention of cooperating on health care reform. They haven't voted with him on anything important. The process isn't nearly as important as the result, and the Republicans have stated clearly they want to destroy his presidency. Health care is a life and death issue. No small thing.

The Dems went along like sheep with Bush tax cuts and war. Bush wouldn't put up with non-cooperation from Democrats. Obama needs a little more of Bush-style cracking the whip.

BTW I was thoroughly offended with the remarks of THEMOM: "We need to keep reiterating the "facts" to those who want to twist and spin the acts to date of this administration. There are days I get so aggreavated arguing these same issues with the ignorant." That's what she wrote up there.

I'll tell you what's ignorant. Those morons who believe in Death Panels and Killing Gramma and Health Care for illegal Aliens and Government funded Abortions and Watering the Tree of Liberty and all that crap.

I am dealing with facts. Obama has ignored Bush era War Crimes serious enough to warrant the death penalty for Nazis and Japanese officers alike after WWII. That's a fact. I am far from ignorant. And to ignore such serious violations of our Constitution and our national history on this issue is dangerous to future generations. Why didn't he go after at least John Yoo immediately? And maybe work his way up to Cheney and Bush. These people are classic examples of war criminals. You can't sweep it under the carpet. Do you know at least a hundred men died under torture by the CIA during the Bush era? I am not proud of that. And hundreds of thousands of men, women and children in Iraq.

Obama is embroiled in wars that will do nothing but drain more treasure and bring home more bodies. He needs to show that it is important to bring those wars to an end. We can't afford them. They are his Vietnam. I am not especially surprised that he has not moved more aggressively to end these wars. I am disappointed that he has not done so. I will also not be surprised that both of them will end like Vietnam, with nothing accomplished except the creation of more families without fathers and husbands and sons. Read "Johnny Got His Gun," by Dalton Trumbo.

You can say all you like about Obama's inheritance of the economic bailout from Bush, but the fact is, Obama endorsed the biggest bank robbery in American history. Hank Paulson, Treasury Secretary was CEO of Goldman Sachs and he threatened the government with collapse of the entire economy if Congress didn't immediately turn $700 billion over to him to do as he pleased, and they did. And he gave $14 billion to Goldman, And Goldman ended up posting a gigantic profit and distributing $18 billion in bonuses to its employees. This was typical of the bailout. Big bucks for Wall Street, CitiBank, B of A and the rest and they turned around and hiked interest rates on credit cards.

Meanwhile, we have near Depression-era unemployment and people still losing their homes by the millions. Over 8 million foreclosures are expected in 2009. That is a national disaster. Where is help for the little guy?--homeowners and credit card holders?

I just want Obama to show some spine and some leadership. I am not alone. Dr. Howard Dean seems to believe that Obama needs to take the Blue Dogs to the woodshed. Seriously, if Congress comes out with a weak health care plan, that's it. The rest of the Obama Presidency is lame duck. The Republicans will have accomplished what they set out to do--make it his Waterloo. That's what they want. And the Republicans will capture the House next year and Obama will be a one term president. Is that what you want? Of course it is not what you or I want.

None of us wants to see a bunch of ignoramuses like Chuck Grassley or Mike Enzi or Tom Price or John Boehner or Tom Coburn running Congress. These guys are idiots, liars, greedy sons of bitches who would sell out their own mothers for political or economic advantage. I detest Republican politicians and their stupid philosophy of every man for himself and to hell with children and old people. That is why I am so passionate about wanting Obama to stomp these people into the ground. They need to be destroyed, politically.

Democrats have the White House. They have the Senate. They have the House. They should now all act as if they are the majority party and get some important work done for the people in this country.

And I haven't even mentioned the Union Card Check Employee Free Choice Act, which Obama is allowing to die a slow death in Congress because the corporations want it dead. Don't get me started, Annette.

Oh wait, you already did.

I'm Worried About My FREEDOM!

2009-08-25T18:01:00.001-07:00

A woman at McCain's town hall this morning stood up and said, "I'm worried about my freedom." This is code language for "Screw health care, let it go down the tubes, I believe in death panels and the gramma killing clause, and a government takeover that would dictate my choice of doctors and taxpayer-funded abortions and illegal aliens getting health care on my dime."

OK lady, let's not enact serious health care reform, and you can have your freedom.

* Freedom to get sick and die because you can't afford health insurance.

• Freedom to get sick and die because your health insurance company won't sell you health insurance due to a pre-existing condition.

• Freedom to get sick and die because your health insurer cancelled you noting that you were sick and ready to die and it was just too expensive to keep you insured.

• Freedom to see your family members treated the same way by Cigna or Blue Cross or any of a half dozen other giant insurance companies.

• Freedom to go bankrupt and lose your house through foreclosure because your medical bills have wiped you out.

And the insurance companies enjoy freedom too:

• Freedom to riaise rates whenever they damn well feel like it.

• Freedom to deny you insurance or kick you off the rolls.

• Freedom to tell your doctor you really don't need that kidney transplant or that chemotherapy.

• Freedom to lobby Congress to block any meaningful legislation reining in the big insurance companies

• Freedom to make huge profits and pay their top execs enormous benefits with taxpayers' bailout money.

So you see, that lady was right. There's plenty of freedom to go around. We don't need no stinkin' health care reform to deny us our precious freedom.

The Ad That CNN Won't Play

2009-08-24T23:45:00.001-07:00

It is OK for the Republicans to play dirty tricks like Stealing an Election. Or Two Elections. Or Starting an Unnecessary War. Or Torturing People. Or Running Secret Prisons all over the world. Or Telling Huge Whoppers about Obama's health plan.

But it is not OK for Our Side to tell the Truth about the health insurance companies.

I guess CNN decided this ad was unfair to Cigna Insurance and its CEO. Well in this health care debate, we wouldn't want anyone to be unfair, would we?

Here's another ad from the same people.

These ads were produced by Americans United For Change. They've produced a lot of ads. I am not sure just how successful they have been in getting these ads out there. I think I saw the first one once on MSNBC. Other than that, I have not seen any of the rest of them anywhere and I see a lot of cable news. Nowhere on the site does it reveal where the ads have aired, if ever. Possibly they rely on bloggers to pick them up and post them around on the Web.

Breakfast -- Cream Cheese on Home Made Toast and Fruit

2009-08-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

With a piece of fresh salmon, bacon and home grown tomatoes. And coffee.

Home Made Bread

2009-08-24T15:46:00.001-07:00

The Republican Plan for Health Care Reform

2009-08-23T11:22:00.000-07:00

To be fair, we thought we should post the Republican Plan for Health Care Reform. And here it is:

And that about sums it up.

Chuck Grassley on Health Care Reform

2009-08-23T10:20:00.000-07:00

Senator Chuck Grassley is probably the highest profile member of the Senate Finance Committee, considered a key panel in health care reform. He is one of the Gang of Six, a Republican from Iowa. He has been especially dangerous to the prospect of real health care reform. At one point he even endorsed Sarah Palin's nutty idea of Death Panels. Here are a couple of grafs from Dakota Farmer outlining Grassley's latest Pearls of Wisdom.

Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, says the outpouring of anger at town hall meetings this month has fundamentally altered the nature of the health-care debate and convinced him that lawmakers should consider drastically scaling back the scope of the effort. Grassley says the public has rejected the far-reaching proposals Democrats have put on the table, viewing them as overly expensive precursors to a government takeover of health care.

"People are signaling that we ought to slow up and find out where we are and don't spend so much money and don't get us so far into debt," said Grassley. The ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Grassley hopes the panel can draft a better, less costly plan capable of winning broad support from Democrats and Republicans.

Grassley has had no problem voting for wars that cost billons of dollars each month.

Incidentally, Grassley has also said, no matter what Judiciary cranks out on health care reform, he ain't gonna vote for it. No wonder. Look at the bribes he has taken. (Source: Open Secrets)

As you can see, most of the bribes are from health industry companies and are self-explanatory. DaVita, Inc., specializes in kidney disease and dialysis.

Gang of Six -- Unplugged

2009-08-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

The Gang of Six, three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee seem to have been appointed or appointed themselves the six go-to people on the Health Care Reform issue. In other words, nothing is supposed to get done without them. They are
• Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.)
• Charles Grassley (R. Iowa)
• Mike Enzi R. (Wyo.)
• Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)
• Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine)
• Kent Conrad (D-N.D.)

You will notice that Republicans Grassley of Iowa, Enzi of Wyoming and Democrat Baucus of Montana are all from relatively small states. These three have way too much power representing way too few people. And Conrad, of North Dakota. What's up with him? Not especially supportive of the President, and from a state with just enough people to fill a bingo hall.

OK, here is what we are going to do. Over the next six days, or so, we will feature each one of these Gang of Six Senators, explaining their positions on Health Care Reform, along with a listing of the bribes they have taken. (Bribes are usually described as campaign contributions, but we call it as we see it.)

We'll start with Grassley tomorrow unless the Little Woman has too many chores around the house for me to do and I can't get to it. In which case I'll get to it Monday.

Sewer Cleanout

2009-08-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

If you ever have a blockage in your sewer pipes, this orange snake thing will save you a hundred bucks or more. I bought it for $20, it fits on the drill shaft and you feed the steel snake down into your sewer line through a cleanout opening.

I have a troublesome sewer line to our septic tank. I bet I've saved a thousand dollars using this thing. It cleans out blocked sewer lines like a charm. The toilet won't flush, it backs up into the shower and the sweetest sound when you are using this tool is the drain opening up and sewage and water swirling down the drain. Then you have to clean out the shower.

I have no stock or any other interest in the company that makes the thing.

There must be a joke about Republicans in here somewhere.

Against Health Care Reform? Let's Get Out to a RALLY!

2009-08-21T20:41:00.001-07:00

Hey, anti-health care people, lets get out to a rally this week to drive home our points for No Health Care Reform.

• No shackles on insurance companies forcing them to hold down costs, keep sick people enrolled, or allow people with pre-existing conditions to become policyholders. We believe in the free enterprise system, not socialism! Millions of children uninsured in this country? Boo hoo. Let the kids learn early, no socialist fascist Hitler takeover in the good old USA!

• Some Democrat liberals will tell you that Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO of United Health Care, a big insurance company made a billion dollars last year. Don't you believe it. He only got $3.24 million in salary and $250 million in stock options. Now does that seem extreme to you for an important guy in charge of an important insurance company that makes life and death decisions for your doctor?

• No big government public option in competition with the insurance companies. Another socialistic fascist Hitler government takeover scheme.

• No fascist schemes to allow people without health insurance to get cheaper health insurance than whatever we have now. If people can't afford health insurance, let them work harder until they can afford it. Simple as that.

• And if you can't afford health care (who can these days?), just don't get sick. Remember, we have to fight the idea of a big socialistic nazi government takeover of the health care business.

• No health care for illegal immigrants or aliens from outer space or endangered polar bears.

• No sneaky hidden amendments allowing government bureaucrats to kill gramma. No Hitler Death Panels.

Let's get out to a rally soon. We can't let Obama reform health care. And don't forget to bring your gun!
Photos from CBS News

What's in the Obama Health Reform Plan

2009-08-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

THIS IS the second time I have posted this blog. It's important for everyone to know what is really in the Obama plan.

• Gramma is toast. Bye Bye Gramma.
• Your Medicare will be cancelled, and Obama will charge you for that.
• After going before the Peoples Glorious Collective Death Panel, Sarah Palin's new baby will be ground up and fed to zoo animals.
• The plan will cover all illegal aliens, even if they have been deported to Mexico.
• The plan will pay for all abortions, including those of illegal aliens from outer space and polar bears.
• The new health care plan will be administered by a Health Czar Ivan Boris Walkitov, who served as The People's Glorious Commissar of Health in the Soviet Union. Here he will have the title, First Secretary of the Peoples Glorious Central Committee on Health Care which will tell your doctor whether you should live or die.
• If you have leprosy or any of a hundred other nasty diseases, they will send you to a Peoples Medical Concentration Camp in Utah.
• You will be required to have a picture of Karl Marx tattooed on your forehead
• The government will install chips in your head to listen to everything you say.
• The government will install chips in your doctor's head.
• You will be required to go to Peoples Re-education Meetings once a month to familiarize you with the new health plan.
• The government will send you to whatever doctor they like, even if it is 200 miles from your house. This is designed to control costs.
• If you have a medical emergency, get in line. You may have to wait a couple of weeks for that nasty head injury or ruptured appendix.
• Wealthy people will be paying more taxes, so they will be way ahead of you in line.
• At your doctor's office you will have to wear a hospital gown decorated with red hammers and sickles.
• In the waiting room you will be required to read old copies of Soviet Life, and you will hear piped in MUZAK featuring the Internationale, over and over and over and over.
• You will not get your country back. A black man born in Kenya will still be president.

My Latest Message to President Obama

2009-08-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

President Obama, we supported you and worked for you during the campaign. You have become a disappointment. You have allowed the Republicans to define your health care reform efforts with lies. Death Camps. Bye Bye gramma. Government takeover. All that. You have got to offer some leadership. I suggest you commandeer some network TV time to put the lies to rest and clearly lay out your vision, including the public option which is necessary. Without it, there is no health reform, no matter what you call it.

I hope you are sending messages to your Congressional Representatives and Obama.

Incredible News from Unnamed Mysterious Unreliable Sources

2009-08-19T20:40:00.000-07:00

We have leaned that Barack Hussen Obama was not born in Kenya as has previously been reported. Nor was he born in Pakistan, Indonesia or Hawaii. The Hawaiian birth certificate, obviously a fake document created to support the illusion that Obama is a U.S. citizen, has been debunked by dozens of patriots who have shown up at health care rallies with posters questioning Obama's place of birth. To put an exclamation point on it, some of these people have carried weapons.

Sadly, these people are somewhat misguided. But it is not their fault. The facts have been concealed by the government for years.

The fact is, Barack Hussein Obama is an alien from outer space. The problem is not that he is a foreigner not constitutionally eligible to be president. Obama was not even born on this planet. To those skeptics and liberals ready to laugh this off as the ravings of an uninformed nut, we have proof. The photo here is of an alien taken shortly after an exraterrestrial saucer crash at the notorious Area 51 north of Las Vegas. Note the close resemblance to Barack Hussein Obama. Now it becomes clear why Obama pretends to be African-American. He is concealing his alien appearance under the guise of an earthling of a different race. But now we know better. Obama is an extraterrestrial being from outer space! What further proof do you need?

However we invite those skeptics still unconvinced to inspect the photo of the spacecraft of the type we believe carried Obama here from a distant planet. Solid proof.

We are ready now to be interviewed by reporters at CNN and Fox. We welcome inquiries from Lou Dobbs Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. We are determined to put to rest the ridiculous stories that Barack Hussein Obama was born in some foreign country, or even Hawaii. He was not. He is from somewhere out there.

Message to Barack Obama

2009-08-19T12:32:00.001-07:00

YES WE CAN. But only if the Republicans give us permission.

Watch This: Arguing With a Dining Room Table

2009-08-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Congressman Barney Frank gets off a good one. Puts an idiot Republican idiot in her place.

2009-08-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

Of course, I expect anyone reading this blog to have at least left support for the public option on the White House Web site. You can also leave a message of support at Health and Human Services, but there is no actual place to comment, only an indication of support by leaving name, address, etc. But here's a sneaky way of getting the message across. Where it says name, type in PUBLIC OPTION. Where it says address type in PUBLIC OPTION, etc. etc.

Remember it was Kathleen Sebelius who suggested the public option was no big deal and could be taken out with the trash. So go on over to: < http://www.healthreform.gov/support.html> and leave your comments. I finished by leaving my actual phone number and email address. Pass this on.

We're having a huge effect on the debate. We have to keep it up.

One more thing. The Senate Finance Committee is still in the 19th Century. No email address. Their phone number is (202) 224-4515

HOWEVER, you can leave messages for individual members whose links are on the Senate Finance Committee Web site. It's a bit of a chore, but you have go Google their positions on the public option so you can properly tailor your message. For example Grassley is a stuck-in-concrete Mr. No. He needs a strong message of support for the public option, not that it will move his sorry ass. Rockefeller is a big supporter of the public option. Thank him.

How do Conservatives Ignore the Truth?

2009-08-16T22:18:00.001-07:00

We are puzzled. We are truly scratching our heads. Liberals can't figure conservatives out. Today on the radio, one of those right wing talkers actually said, "America has the best health care system in the world."

This is what we can't figure out. It is clear that America does NOT have the best health care system in the world for a variety of reasons. It is easy to demonstrate that America has a lousy, very bad health care system.

• Seven out of ten bankruptcies in this country happen because of catastrophic health care costs. And millions of people are going bankrupt and losing their homes because health care costs zero out their resources.

• Insurance companies are screwing us to the tune of billions of dollars. They make their profits denying health care. Their CEOs take home millions in compensation. That is because their CEOs are psychopaths willing to let people die in order to post huge profits. Health insurance companies are not in the business of health. They are in the business of making money and satisfying their shareholders. And that is a conflict of interest. This fact is obvious, but conservatives can't see it. Why?

• Fifty million Americans have no health insurance. This means they have no access to "the best health care system in the world," unless they go to an emergency room, the most expensive public option there is. And emergency rooms don't treat for chronic illnesses like heart disease or cancer. Millions of adults and children have little or no regular health care.

• Right now in Inglewood, California, near LAX, a volunteer health care organization, Remote Area Medical is providing thousands and thousands of people free health care. RAM has transformed the Forum into the largest free clinic in the world. These people are desperate for health care in the country that has "the best health care system in the world."

Why can't conservatives see what is so obvious? Our health care system is broken. It doesn't work.
When a conservative's car stops running and smoke is coming out from under the hood, do conservatives think it is going to take them to work anyway? Do they sit behind the wheel and go "vroooom vrooom" and work their turn signals?

And now it appears that the loudest and angriest of these people have forced the administration to scale back health care reform. It's insane.

I would like to hear from any conservative who can explain to me his or her disconnect. That ought to be fun.

I am Done with Whole Foods

2009-08-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is a response I left on the Whole Foods Market Forum in response to WFM CEO John Mackey's Wall Street Journal attack on the Obama Health Care Plan.

As a regular customer of Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) after reading John Mackeys attack on President Obama's health care proposal, I am done with Whole Foods. I used to go to our local Pasadena WF market as often as I could afford it. But no more. It will be a long, long time before I ever set foot in a WF market ever again and I will be urging my friends to consider doing the same.

Mackey opens his attack with a quote from Margaret Thatcher (Ronnie Reagan's good buddy) "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money." In other words, Mackey begins by equating good health care reform with socialism, and his piece goes downhill from there. He advocates weak sister reforms like health savings accounts and tax reform, tort reform and making health costs transparent. That last one is a laugh, as if knowing more about costs will allow me to shop around for the best price on an appendectomy or heart transplant.

Mackey may be a good CEO for a store chain, but he is a lousy public policy analyst. He is just one more right-winger in love with unfettered free market theory. And that has worked well for Wall Street, not so much for the rest of us.

It is clear that the big health insurance companies make billions in profits simply by denying their policy holders health care. It is clear that people in other civilized countries enjoy far better health care than we do in the U.S. For proof of that, check the U.N. World Health Organization.

Someone should tie Mackey to a chair and make him watch Michael Moore's Sicko. He might learn something. In the meantime, bye bye Whole Foods. I'll do my shopping elsewhere

What's in the Obama Health Care Plan

2009-08-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

• Gramma is toast. Bye Bye Gramma.
• Your Medicare will be cancelled, and Obama will charge you for that.
• After going before the Peoples Glorious Collective Death Panel, Sarah Palin's new baby will be ground up and fed to zoo animals.
• The new health care plan will be administered by a Health Czar Ivan Boris Walkitov, who served as The People's Glorious Commissar of Health in the Soviet Union. Here he will have the title, First Secretary of the Peoples Glorious Central Committee on Health Care which will tell your doctor whether you should live or die.
• If you have leprosy or any of a hundred other nasty diseases, they will send you to a Peoples Medical Concentration Camp in Utah.
• You will be required to have a picture of Karl Marx tattooed on your forehead
• The government will install chips in your head to listen to everything you say.
• The government will install chips in your doctor's head.
• You will be required to go to Peoples Re-education Meetings once a month to familiarize you with the new health plan.
• The government will send you to whatever doctor they like, even if it is 200 miles from your house. This is designed to control costs.
• If you have a medical emergency, get in line. You may have to wait a couple of weeks for that nasty head injury or ruptured appendix.
• Wealthy people will be paying more taxes, so they will be way ahead of you in line.
• At your doctor's office you will have to wear a hospital gown decorated with red hammers and sickles.
• In the waiting room you will be required to read old copies of Soviet Life, and you will hear piped in MUZAK featuring the Internationale, over and over and over and over.
• You will not get your country back. A black man born in Kenya will still be president.

Ignorance is Abundant

2009-08-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

I would be ashamed to be seen with a poster like this in public. I would be embarrassed. What is this man thinking? Does he think at all? Where do these people come from? What is going on in their lives, that they think it is appropriate and right to stand out in the street with a poster like this?

I am totally mystified. As far as I can figure, this guy with the baseball cap and the Hitler reference is from another planet. So are his friends. I would bet he thinks God created people and the world 6,000 years ago.

Is it possible that some folks are further evolved than others, that this guy is still operating with a lizard brain not far removed from the alligators?

What happens to the country when the knuckle draggers dominate the democracy? Wait, we already know. Eight years of George W. Bush.

The photo is from Huffington Post.

Health Care -- We're Screwed

2009-07-27T16:21:00.001-07:00

HuffPo is reporting from AP:

After weeks of secretive talks, a bipartisan group in the Senate edged closer Monday to a health care compromise that omits a requirement for businesses to offer coverage to their workers and lacks a government insurance option that President Barack Obama favors, according to numerous officials.

Why am I not surprised. Rat bastards.

"Bat-Shit Crazy" Congressmen

2009-07-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

Congressional Representatives have been revealed aligning themselves with the screwball loonies who apparently believe that Obama is not actually an American citizen and may even be a Jihadist Manchurian Candidate. From a piece at HuffPo:

Folks, this is what it has come to. The most powerful people in the world -- nationally elected legislators responsible for setting policy for the most powerful country on earth -- are lining up with cuckoo-bat-shit-crazy elements of the lunatic fringe.

Afghan is Just Another War on Drugs

2009-07-26T16:01:00.000-07:00

You think the War on Drugs in the U.S. is stupid? Even more stupid is fighting it overseas with American troops at enormous expense in dollars and lives. From a NYT report on HuffPo:

All told, Western troops have died in greater numbers in Helmand this month than in any other province in Afghanistan over a similar period since the 2001 invasion.

It is unclear whether the level of casualties will remain this high. But the Taliban can ill afford to lose the Helmand River Valley, a strip of land made arable by a network of canals that nourish the nation’s center for poppy growing.

Health Care Reform Not Looking Good

2009-07-25T23:26:00.000-07:00

Check out Bill Moyers piece at Common Dreams.
Here's part of it.

Here's what Beck said on his television show Monday, July 20: "I'm telling you, this guy is dangerous. He's never lost before. He won't understand... like, 'Who are you to question me?' I mean, this guy is practically an imperial President now. When he starts to lose and people start to question him and push him back against the wall, he's not gonna know how to react."

Write your Congress rep. Lobby for HR676

Gotta go.

In the Movie About Senator Harry Reid

2009-07-24T15:37:00.000-07:00

Woody Allen will play him.

Contact Members of the Senate Finance Committee

2009-07-24T15:27:00.001-07:00

Latest word is they will not be reporting out a Public Option. Many of us were willing to settle for that instead of a Single Payer System. Now they want to take a Public Option away. Contact each and every one. Tell them we want at least a Public Option.

Marijuana Reform Ad that Some California TV Stations Won't Play

2009-07-24T11:01:00.000-07:00

height="344">>

"Sacramento says huge cuts to schools, health care, and police are inevitable due to the state's budget crisis. Even the state's parks could be closed. But the governor and the legislature are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes. We're marijuana consumers. Instead of being treated like criminals for using a substance safer than alcohol, we want to pay our fair share. Taxes from California's marijuana industry could pay the salaries of 20,000 teachers. Isn't it time?"

Marijuana Policy Project

CALL HARRY REID

2009-07-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has decided the Senate doesn't need to vote on healthcare until after the August recess. This tactic plays right into the hands of Republicans who want to delay and destroy Obama's healthcare plan. Call or fax. As I am writing this, I am on hold to his office.

Washington DC
522 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327
Toll Free for Nevadans:
1-866-SEN-REID (736-7343)

OK, I got through on the phone. Was on hold only a few minutes. Then I faxed Harry Reid's office with essentially the same message I gave the staffer on the phone:

TO SENATOR HARRY REID, VOTE NOW – DO NOT DELAY ON HEALTHCARE.
Senator, your decision to delay the vote on healthcare reform plays right into the hands of Republicans who want to delay and destroy Obama's healthcare plan.

To hell with the Republicans. You have the votes to approve major reform. Seize the opportunity, vote a bill out and take a giant step toward joining the rest of the civilized world with a decent healthcare program for Americans.

And then I sent a second fax:

TO SENATOR HARRY REID, VOTE NOW – DO NOT DELAY ON HEALTHCARE.

Millions of us want a Single Payer Health Care Plan. At least a strong public option should be in the Senate bill.

Your decision to delay the vote on healthcare reform plays right into the hands of Republicans who want to delay and destroy Obama's healthcare plan.

To hell with the Republicans. Let’s have a vote. Now.

G. Gordon Liddy Has Finally Lost it.

2009-07-23T23:33:00.001-07:00

Liddy, the former Watergate criminal who served 4 and a half years in prison for his part in the Nixon burglary and coverup, has now proven he has completely gone over the edge. He is one of a gang of idiots trying to prove that President Obama was born outside the United States of America.

Liddy's appearance on Tweety Bird's Hardball was just embarrassing. If you watched the video you know what I mean.

Lou Dobbs on CNN has also taken up with the birthers.

My comment: I have an idea. How about that Obama isn't yet 35 years old? How do we know he's 35, a constitutional requirement to be president. And how do we know he's really a male, which after all was the criteria for voting when the Constitution was enacted in 1789.

Does Obama own property? There's another requirement for voting and holding office at the time the Constitution was enacted.

Fianally, he's black. Well that disqualifies him right there. He can't be president. The Founding Fathers never envisioned a black president. He should be arrested immediatly and sent back to Kenya.

A Letter I Recently Wrote to a Los Angeles Times Columnist

2009-07-23T23:08:00.000-07:00

Mr. Goldberg,

Your columns are so inspirational and so refreshing. I am so pleased to read your comments from a Republican perspective. I, too am a proud Republican.

I am proud that our Republican president, George W. Bush went to war in Iraq to avenge 9/11. I am so proud that his CIA people built secret prisons and tortured those Islamo-fascists who attacked the Twin Towers. I am proud that our Republican president had the fortitude to ignore the Constitution and wiretap millions of Americans. If you don't have anything to hide, there's no problem.

I am proud to be in the same political party with deep thinkers like Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck and Sarah Palin. And I am proud to be joining hands with those who would accept the lies of Charles Darwin instead of the Truth of God's Bible.

I am proud that we Republicans have kept millions of embryos out of the hands of scientists who would use their stem cells to do medical research. I am so proud that we defend marriage by denying it to homosexuals and keeping them in their place. And I am proud of the men who have shown women their place as well, by working to outlaw all abortions.

And I can't close without hoping you will write a piece soon attacking organized labor. If someone doesn't like a job, they can just quit. Labor unions and Communists are all the same to me.

Mr. Goldberg, keep up the good work. Every column you write shows the world what Republicans are made of.

Regards,
RN

Los Angeles

Harry Reid Should Face a Shit Storm

2009-07-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

Harry Reid is going to let the Senate go on recess without a vote on health care? WTF? This just plays into the hands of Republicans who have stated clearly their tactic is to stall and stall until health care reform dies. Is Harry Reid STUPID? Has he been PAID OFF? What is wrong with this man? What has he been SMOKING?

And what about the public option? Is it going to be part of the mix or not in the Senate version? I am very unclear where the public option is in the House. Obama didn't mention it at all last night until a Clevelnad Plain Dealer reporter brought it up.

Harry Reid should be getting letters and phone calls from all three of my readers. He's going to get some advice from me.

NIXON'S the ONE!

2009-07-22T12:28:00.001-07:00

Here is an audio recording I picked up years ago. Don't know exactly where it came from or how it came to be available. But it is obviously authentic. It is a Nixon campaign song, at 4:03, it probably never aired because it was too long as a radio spot. Why it was made I cannot guess. But here it is, NIXON's THE ONE! (Turn your audio way up.)

Funding Healthcare

2009-07-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

How about funding health care with the savings we could have by eliminating the War on Drugs? State and Federal agencies spend at least $50 billion a year on this failed war, which is really a war on Americans. And the bloated Defense Department budget == $515 billion. WHat are you most afraid of -- a Jihadist attack on your house or a shopping mall or lung cancer or a heart attack? It's the latter two that scare me. So why are we spending so much on "defense"? And by the way, how does a fancy weapons system deter a Jihadist terrorist, anyway. It's all just so stupid.

Spend the money on health care.

No End to Drug War This YearBallot Proposal on the Way

2009-07-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

From the Atlantic:

Marijuana has generated some headlines in California this week, with a report that a state legislature proposal to legalize and tax it could bring in $1.4 billion for the state, and a proposal from an LA councilwoman to tax medical marijuana. But while reformers have seen the profile of medical marijuana and overall pot legalization raised in 2009, they don't expect the California measure to pass this year

The Legalization ballot proposal will probably be presented to the voters next year. Look for it to pass.

Also, look for a piece by Walter Cronkite suggesting that the War on Drugs is as big a failure as the War in Vietman

Super Snack Suggestion

2009-07-19T00:26:00.000-07:00

Crunchy peanut butter on raw cauliflower. Use only an all natural peanut butter like Laura Scudders or the Whole Foods brand, the kind that is not hydrogenated. You have to mix the oil into the peanut butter right after you open it.

Never, ever under any circumstances eat Jif or Skippy. Those brands use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil to keep the oil from separating and give it a longer shelf life. Plus sugar. Peanut butter with hydrogenated oil is junk, it is a trans fat, it is poison and it will clog your arteries.

In my opinion, any parent who feeds Skippy or Jif to their kid should be arrested and charged with child endangerment.

OH NO! Weinermobile Crashes into House

2009-07-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

It happened in Racine Wisconsin.

Quote of the Day from Digby's Hullabaloo

2009-07-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

Digby on her Web site Hullabaloo, writing about the cost of war and the cost of health care.

I honestly don't recall even the mildest objections to the costs of Bush's programs coming from the same timorous Democrats who are now threatening to block health reform because they are expensive. But then, among our vaunted centrists and conservatives, cutting taxes or embarking on a useless waste of lives by violent means always seem to take precedence over making anyone's life better.

Glen Beck Loses it On the Air

2009-07-17T23:03:00.000-07:00

Right wing radio wacko Glenn Beck was on the phone with a listener who confused him with facts about the health care debate. He finally lost it. Here's the audio.

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One, Two, Three What Are We Fightin' For

2009-07-17T10:21:00.000-07:00

Obama's war in Iran and now in Afghanistan is so foolish.
I wonder why he thinks it will be any different from Vietnam or what the British or Russians or even Ghengis Khan experienced in Afghanistan. This old song by Country Joe keeps running thru my head.

well it's one, two three what are we fightin' for
well i don't give a damn, next stop is vietnam
well it's five six seven open up the pearly gates
ain't no time to wonder why, whoopee we're all gonna die.

Just substitute "Afghanistan" for Vietnam in the second line. Or "the war in Iran". They even rhyme

The photo is from

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