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Choices, Choices, Choices….NOT!

  • Posted on December 4, 2011 at 2:48 pm

I’ve tried to think up a reason why I should be interested in the presidential race and I fail to see the point.  For me it seems like the current boss is much like the old boss and the next boss will be a repeat of the current boss.  Why should I care about this election?  The electoral process doesn’t really care about my vote any way.  If you listen to the pundits and you are a Republican, you shouldn’t even bother to vote.  It’s a done deal.  Well, almost a done deal, except for that pesky Newt Gingrich.  I remember back to the 2008 primary.  I was really into that election and then I discovered that the Democrats are as corrupt as the Republicans.  The process of voting in this country is deeply flawed.  While President Carter runs around the world trying to make sure elections are fair, he never looks in our own country for deceptions, lost votes, or discriminatory practices to deter people from voting.

In my humble opinion our country has lost much of the democracy that we fought so hard to obtain.  We have elections that are run by the deep pockets of corporate influence.  Those of us that want a choice and crave a choice between the two parties are left making a selection between bad and worse.  We continually vote for the lesser of two evils.  The two parties have made it virtually impossible for a third party to really structurally exist.  It’s not just about the ungodly amount of money it takes to get elected for anything; it’s the process of getting on the ballot.  It’s as if the two parties have secretly met to create this process.  They both benefit from it and the American people are the losers!

In addition to this process is the amount of legacy corruption.  It seems a pretty good bet if you father was in politics, you will be as well.  I don’t know how this all started, maybe it was the two Adams.  I don’t want to hear the argument about how I’m a teacher and my parents were too.  I just think it cannot be true that a few families are the only ones with the smarts to be president.  The other thing that I can’t stand and will mention here is Yale and Harvard.  In recent times it has become all too clear that no one that went to a “state” university could ever become president in this country.  For all the talk about Obama and Clinton coming from “Nowheresville” the truth is they both had handlers that put them in key positions along the way to the top and yes they both went to Harvard and Yale respectively.  I don’t trust the system at all.  I used to believe that my vote really counted and it probably does in local elections.  However, when I look to the top of the ticket it really is a corrupt system.  Both parties have fake primary and caucus systems where they have us pay for these elections when they already know who they want at the top of the ticket.  They use the media to spread the venom necessary to get their guy to the top.  When necessary they create some fake group that manages to steal votes for one guy or the next, like in my case here in Michigan when my vote was given to Obama in the primary.  Forget about women, they have never made it to the top really.  They have been used to appease those of us out here that believe in real equality between the sexes.  They’ll give us a token woman to put on the ticket and then pat themselves on the back for their sense of equality.  Behind closed doors they continue their “good old boy” mentality of running for office and ultimately running this country.

We see images of these guys looking like they are on different sides and then they come out with some piece of shit legislation that they can all agree upon.  Usually it is something we don’t see as the big picture and it is usually something to help corporations and hurt the middle class.  The media continues to work with these politicians trying to get us ready for the hailstorm that is to come into our lives, whether it is cuts in Social Security, Medicare, or even the current union busting legislation that has really come down from the top.  Yes, here in Michigan we teachers worry about the new legislation that our governor and Republican legislature has forced upon us.  However, the truth is even this has a blind eye coming from the Democrats.  President Obama was for “merit” pay way back in the summer of 2007.  I saw his speech on the NEA website back during the NEA convention.  The words “merit pay” has always been union busting words to me.  Fast forward to today.  We supposedly have moved to merit pay but of course there is no money for it and who determines what holds merit anyway.  Teachers have been vilified by the media.  It used to be as a teacher you were respected.  According to the media storm many of us are incompetent and lazy.  We don’t do our jobs and we just live for the summer.  All of the ills of society are the burden of the current crop of teachers.  We are responsible for everything.  It is our fault if a student doesn’t perform on some mysterious test that some corporate entity has determined is worthy.  It doesn’t matter if that child has problems at home, lives in poverty, or is emotionally disturbed.  We, as teachers, are their new mothers, fathers, cheerleaders, psychologists, mentors, and provider of all things positive for that child.  If a student comes to us damaged, we have to make him whole.  It’s not an easy task.  We have always known that we must be more than a teacher.  However, now we have the threat of the loss of our job if we cannot magically pull that rabbit out of the hat.  It doesn’t matter if we have a passion for teaching and if we can be successful with most of the children.  What matters is some illusive number on a piece of paper that tells a child they are either worthy or not.  I am appalled that we have been pushed to a point where children will be scrutinized to the point that they cannot help but feel the pressure.  Their teachers are being pressured.  The children will feel that desperation.  They have to buck up and so do the teachers.  As a teacher we have no choice but I cannot help but wonder what is going on with politicians these days.  Can’t they see that tying 49% of a teacher’s evaluation to a test is going to create much anxiety for everyone involved?  Maybe they don’t care.  I would not want my child to be stressed in this manner.  There has to be a better way to get students ready for their adult lives than this.

So back to that question, “Why should I care about this election?”  Obviously, there is a lot happening in government that makes me care about what is going on in our country.  The problem is the lack of a real third party choice that could make it to the top.  I saw Buddy Roemer on the Alex Whit CNN show this weekend.  I was surprised that he made sense.  Buddy was governor of Louisiana a long time ago.  I don’t know much about his politics.  I looked him up and it appears that he once was a Democrat and is now a Republican.  What I found interesting is the fact that he cannot participate in the Republican debates even though he is running for president.  He polls too low, so they won’t even consider him.  He talked about having a Democrat as a running mate to break the gridlock in Washington.  Since I see both parties as being similar this really isn’t a stretch.  What he said just made me think about the obvious problems with our system.  He doesn’t take any corporate money.  He limits the money to $100 donations.  No wonder he isn’t going anywhere but it says a lot about our system.  Money is the root of all evil right?  In politics, money talks and if you don’t have the corporate money, you are going nowhere fast.  Our election process is flawed.  I believe the money has to be taken out of the process especially in presidential politics.  The amount of money that is going to be raised for the 2012 election is enough to make anyone ill.  I think it’s too bad that money couldn’t be used for our education system or some other sinking ship in our government.  Instead it will be used to buy our next president just like it was used to buy our last one and the one before that! I have no real useful words of wisdom.  I’m just a frustrated voter wondering why our choices for president are so damn bad!

Bush Nightmare Ensuing: Jeb Bush 2012

  • Posted on November 15, 2010 at 10:24 pm

Jeb Bush, the All American Boy

I’ve had this weird feeling that we are being prepared for another Bush presidency.  The signs are all there.  After two years out of the limelight, President Bush comes out with his book, Decision Points, to a fanfare of unbelievable kindness.  Even though he took us into a war of choice which left countless families broken and busted, he admitted to torture, he was virtually inept with his dealings in New Orleans and he has left our country literally on the brink of financial disaster; some people act like he was and is some kind of unsung hero!

I don’t know if I have been living in some kind of strange time warp or if I’ve missed some great trip these pundits are on that are treating him with such kid gloves!  What it makes me really think is that we are going to see another Bush run for the presidency, as though that is what our country needs.  Yes, I know, Jeb is supposed to be the good one, the smart one, he’s not like his brother at all.

I always find it interesting when certain families think they have to run everything.  Is our country of 310 million or so people really that poor at education that we have to stick with the same political families to run our government?  We deserve the government that we elect and I just want to say if that is what we keep electing, what is wrong with us?

I find it interesting that GW’s most hurtful moment was when Kanye West accused him of being a racist.  This is interesting as I feel he’s reaching out for those black votes for his brother.  It’s kind of like Tricky Dick saying he’s not a crook.  If GW had cared about New Orleans, he would have moved mountains to get some help over there.  Rest assured if the same problems had happened in Texas or Florida, those mountains would have been moved for sure.  It was pretty political over all and every move he made in office was political as well, just as it is now.

If I was a conspiracy nut, I would be wondering if the Obama presidency was a setup to get us ready for Jeb.  Obama was selected to be the Democratic nominee through the corrupted Democratic Primary just as surely as Bush was appointed the presidency by the Supreme Court.  Obama has essentially kept all of the Bush policies in play from the two wars, to FISA, to education and to even the financial bailout.  Even the health care bill was a boost to the corporations and not to the people in so many ways.  So, is Obama just keeping the seat warm on the presidency for another Bush term?  Who would have ever thought that GW would have lasted 8 years, but he did.  It seems like I’m not the only one having these thoughts.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/node/34857

Of course Jeb is not planning on running, as you can see in most articles about him, but the most important article is the one where Jeb says, never say never!  What could that mean?  Here he is sounding very political criticizing Obama. Don’t you think it interesting that he would also support Sarah Palin? It’s a little early for talking about supporting Sarah.  That’s right Jeb get those Tea Party voters lined so they will actually vote for you!

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/15/jeb-says-never-say-never-to-white-house-bid/

It feels like President Obama better start leading like a Democrat or he will be replaced by the real Republican!  Most people like real better than fake.  Why vote for a fake Republican, when you can have a real one?  We should all be very afraid.  Yesterday I read that Obama should be one and done and today I’m thinking that might be part of the overall plan!  Maybe it won’t matter as we all know the end of the world is coming in 2012.  I’m laughing as I write this.  Last week I posted on never being politically represented in my whole 55 years of life.   I guess the longer I live, the longer that will be true.

Throw Them a Bone Once in Awhile!

  • Posted on October 6, 2010 at 8:17 pm

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the pre-wedding dinner for her daughter.P

Please note that the embedding for a couple of these videos has been disabled, so please be sure and click on the link as you’re reading this piece.  It’ll be worth it!

I was thinking tonight that the only real difference between Republicans and the current Democratic Party are “bones”.  Once in awhile the Democratic Party will throw their dog, you know “Us”, a bone.  We sit patiently waiting like the good dog we are for that proverbial bone.  In the past two years the bone picking has been pretty slim.  We haven’t had much to chew on and this is precisely why we’re willing to bite the hand that thinks they feed us!

It isn’t hard to keep us content.  We’ll put up with a lot, if we have a job.  Now that many of us are worried about the economy and not feeling all that loyal to our Democratic Party, we aren’t ready to wait for that proverbial bone.  If our master hasn’t been giving us that proverbial bone, we just might find ourselves running off to find a new master.

Well here is a little bone that keeps getting chucked out at just the right moment, or so they think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AzCK0XCuPE

This has been going around for awhile now.  I think this is just another bone that the Democrats think will get their “base” fired up.  Today I heard on “Morning Joe” that President Obama is losing the white, non college educated voter and the Latino voters aren’t too excited either.  These were those hold outs during the primary that held fast in places like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia for Hillary Clinton.  I have mentioned many times on here how upset some Democrats still are over the primary, so there is no real news here.  However, now we can maybe get excited about the possibility that Hillary could be the VP in 2012.  Imagine that, the first female Vice President.  Oh, and Vice President Joe Biden, well, he could be Secretary of State.  For those of us that have great respect for Hillary, this can be enticing, except we still would want her at the top of the ticket, not number two!  Wow, maybe we should go out and vote in the election to make sure she has something left to work with when she gets the job!  Oh, could this be some little bone to manipulate us into voting, get us excited again?  I wonder?

Oh, that little bone they just threw out to us.  It tastes so good, but we know it won’t last.  They’ll take that bone back just as soon as this most recent election is over.  Yes, and Hillary had to come out and put all this silly talk to rest.

Oh, dear me, that was back in 2008!  Oh, they really don’t like Hillary standing in Obama’s bright light.  These men just really don’t want Hillary at all.  “David vs. Goliath”, oh my, and today some of these same guys sing a different tune.  I really meant to put this one up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH-w2RewYto

Oh, these men, really just want to give us that little bone, so we can feel like they really do care about us.  They really do understand our angst.  As I said many of us haven’t really gotten over the primary in 2008 when people like me had our vote given to Barack Obama here in Michigan, even though we didn’t vote for him.  Some votes were also taken from Hillary and given to Obama because we were told if Obama had been on the ticket, these people would have voted for him, not her!  There they were, our Democratic Party taking care of us again.  Doing for us what we aren’t able to do for ourselves, vote!  You know when you’re just a dog, you don’t always have a very big brain, so you need your master to take care of  you.

I’m so excited about this new idea.  It’s getting me all tingly feeling: just like Chris Matthews when he thinks of President Obama.  Oh, if only this could really happen.  Well, I’m sure it could, if we voted for the Democrats!Here's to you Hillary!  Everyone loves you now!

Let’s have some fun with this.  How about playing the drinking game?  Every time “they” mention Hillary Clinton’s name before the election let’s have a drink.  I expect to be a little tipsy before this election is over!

Here’s to you Hillary!  Everyone loves you now!  Well, at least until the election is over!