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Michigan Polls and Stupid Politics

  • Posted on July 28, 2011 at 8:43 pm

Some how this cartoon reminds me of our current politicians!

I have many different things on my mind today so don’t think I’m nutty when my thoughts hop around.  I watched a few minutes of the Chris Matthews show last night and Chris was bemoaning a recent poll from Michigan.  In the poll, if the election were held today, Mitt Romney would beat President Obama 46 to 42.  I guess that means that 12% of the people refused to pick either one in that poll.  Chris has always acted like Michigan will vote for Obama.  He obviously doesn’t realize that we have a Republican House, Senate, and governor.  He thought it was just because Mitt’s dad used to be our governor many years ago.  There is a lot more to it than that.  I’m one of “those people” that are still smitten over my stolen vote during the 2008 Democratic Primary.  Matthews and other political pundits seem to be blind to the fact that there are a number of people that are not happy with the direction this country is going.  The Tea Party is like the antithesis of how I feel, but when you put both the far right and the far left together, that’s a lot of ticked off people.

When Senator Obama ran for the presidency he talked about “hope and change”.  My problems with Obama started early on when he spoke glowingly about paying those math and science teachers more money than other teachers.  That is union busting language that just serves to divide teachers.  I figured he was secretly a Republican and I knew I couldn’t vote for him.  That was in July of 2007.  Now that wasn’t my first exposure to Barack Obama.  The first time I had ever heard of Barack Obama was during the Kerry nomination.  I really liked Obama’s speech at the 2004 convention.  I guess that line about red states and blue states but the United States really got to me.  I thought this guy could be president some day, you know like some time off into the distant future, not four years from then.  Then of course I heard the speech in 2007 where he spoke in front of the National Education Association and I was unimpressed.  It seems to me for being a “no drama” president; we have had nothing but drama since he became president.  Right now I feel that the American people have been whipped into frenzy over the debt ceiling debate just to get us bent to the will of both parties.  I don’t believe either party is innocent in this debate.  It almost feels like the only innocent people are the American people.  Just like the time when banks and corporations were just too big to fail, it seems like we are being brought to the edge of a cliff and told you must get down off the cliff and you have only two choices, now both choices are bad.  The Republicans want us to jump off that cliff and the Democrats want us to fly off that cliff.  Either way we pick to get off that cliff is going to end up with a similar result.  I feel there is much fake outrage about all of this.  I was over to Black Agenda and Bruce Dixon has written a piece that just says it all for me as both parties have been in cahoots for years in their “drama-o-drama”  machine playing good cop to the other guy’s bad cop.  You must read this piece!  http://www.blackagendareport.com/obama-fake-debt-ceiling-crisis_smarter-than-you

Now this is a guy that has supported Obama.  I probably would have supported him in the last election, if he hadn’t stolen my vote, because I have always been a lifelong Democrat.  However, after the election was over, I wanted President Obama and still want him to be a successful “Democratic” president.  He just hasn’t been that!  He has continued the Bush policies and even extended them into another war in the Middle East.  Most people, even Republicans, should be able to see that he is nothing more than an extension of GW, from policies to vacation taking.

We are being told he is a Centrist.  That is only true if the “Center” has shifted dramatically right.  Some people think he is like Reagan.  While I think he admires Reagan much more than any other president, I think he is more like GW.  He speaks better than GW, but the policies are the same which makes you wonder who is really pulling the strings in this country.  It certainly isn’t the American people because he doesn’t seem to care about us.  He can’t even get the “feel your pain” speech down like President Clinton could always master.  In President Obama, I am often left wondering just what the Republicans are holding over his head.  Is there something they could let out of the bag at any given time, some dark secret that we haven’t already heard?  Does he secretly wear tiger costumes and exhibit inappropriate behavior like Representative Wu?  I’m at a loss as to why President Obama acts the way he does.  He certainly hasn’t lived up to the rhetoric of what his promises during the campaign suggested to the people that voted for him.  I never believed him, so I don’t exactly feel betrayed.  However, those that believed in this guy have to be wondering what’s going on with him?  Did he change or is it a reality that the job of the president is just so overwhelming that us “little people” just don’t and couldn’t possibly understand what it means to be president?

Anyway you look at it the American people are always taking a back seat to the corporations and the wealthy in this country.  I don’t want to hear how I am pushing “class warfare” because the truth is the people in power have kept this war going for years.  The Republicans have fed their people the line about “personal responsibility” to the point where many on the right look down with disdain at the guy that isn’t making it in this country.  If it is their own kid, they are getting on the phone and calling in favors to get their kid employed the old fashioned way, not based on merit, but on nepotism.  They can’t stand the look and feel of affirmative action, but they love the fact that they can get their kid “in” because of who they know.  The poor have never had this advantage in life or politics.  The poor don’t have someone they can call when their kid can’t find work.  There is a divide in our country between the haves and the have nots, but most people are in denial about it.  They secretly know they make those calls but they pretend that their kid did it on his or her own merits.  I always find it so interesting when I watch TV pundits and discover that many of the young people getting their feet wet are the sons and daughters of those earlier figures.  It isn’t what you know but who you know that counts in this country.  If you know someone powerful, you probably will get what you need.  However, if you’re like most people you don’t have some sugar daddy just waiting to give you a job.  You must create your own life based on what you can get and what you can strive for.  Back in the fifties and sixties after WWII many people surpassed their parents economically by going on to college.  They benefited from low school loans, to the low cost of college, to even the GI Bill.  When they got out of college, they could live the American dream.  Some of them didn’t even have to go to college to live that dream.  They built automobiles.  The point is there was a dream that most Americans could grasp.  Now, after forty years of Republican and Democratic political failures, we have reached a point where some of our children may not do as well as their parents.  That American dream is becoming a nightmare of student loans, no job prospects, and even forced moves of hundreds and thousands of miles away from family just to find a job!  It is no wonder that if you have the means to help your child find work that you will pull in that marker that someone owes you!  The point I’m trying to make is that the current economic situation is very much related to the constant bickering between the two political parties and their need for greed.  While the politicians are busy shuffling the chairs on the deck of this sinking ship, they don’t deal with the reality which is jobs and job creation.  They only care about making businesses more comfortable and keeping the wealth in the hands of the wealthy.  Truthfully, businesses can go anywhere for their labor and that is what they’re doing.  Our governmental policies favor this.  Neither political party cares enough about our country to remember that our best asset is our people.  They care more about their own political careers than anything else.  They will continue to build their careers off the backs of the middle class and the poor.  They will continue to ask the American people to squeeze one more dime out of their crappy pension, Social Security, or college fund so they can give it to corporations and those wealthy “job creators” to piss away on anything but creating real jobs.  I’m disappointed in the politics of my nation.  I want the students that I teach to be able to have real dreams for their future.  I don’t want politicians that play these stupid games representing me.  If this is the best that we can do in our country, we’re in real trouble!

Defining Moments

  • Posted on January 14, 2011 at 10:19 pm

That was candidate Obama speaking about defining moments.  That was then and this is now!

Well the 2012 presidential election officially started this past week with the shooting in Arizona.  I listen to Morning Joe in the morning when I’m getting ready for work and a bit of Chris Matthews and Big Eddy on MSNBC in the evening.  I have noticed the continual slow indoctrination of the American people by MSNBC and probably other channels as well.  This last couple of days the words “defining moment for the president” seemed to take precedent over all other talk.  We, the public are being indoctrinated by the press that Obama’s speech at the memorial service in Arizona is his defining moment. Donny Deutsch said something this morning like Obama made us remember why we voted for him.  No, Donnie, the president did no such thing because it wasn’t about the president.   Chris Matthews even said it was an “opportunity” for Obama.

I’m not in President Obama’s head but politicians seem to dirty everything they touch with that old opportunity thing.  Just to clear things up for Chris Matthews and opportunity doesn’t usually come off the deaths and injuries of real people.  If anyone looks at a memorial service as an opportunity, they are nothing more then a leech off society.  As for that “defining moment”, it’s hard to see a connection to the presidential politics of 2012 and what happened in Arizona.

When my mom died that was a defining moment in my life.  I seem to remember things as before and after her death in many ways.  The same goes for my dad and sister.  At my mom’s funeral I read a poem I had written.  The poem and the service itself were not defining moments for me.  The defining moment was when my dad screamed up the stairs for me to come down because mom had died.  I’ll never forget that lonely Thanksgiving morning when I lost my wonderful mom.

We all have moments when our life may be defined in one capacity or another.  The birth of our children or our marriage, are moments that probably are defining for people.  Great events in a person’s life will probably be defining moments.  However, the shooting in Arizona wasn’t about President Obama and it wasn’t about politics really.  It was about an epidemic in our society of violence and probably mental illness.  It just so happens that this time the violence struck a politician.  It was a defining moment for all the people involved in the shooting.  For the rest of us it was a tragedy that we saw unfold slowly and continuously on our TV sets and the Internet.  We heard day after day many pundits talking about who is to blame and so on and so.  We can empathize with all involved and we can pray and hope that the wounded have a quick recovery.  We can share in the loss of life but we cannot really know the suffering of each family that was touched by this madness.

In my mind a defining moment for President Obama was his election.  It was about him and what he had accomplished.  Arizona isn’t about Obama or Sarah Palin or any other politician.  I’m tired of the same old talk from the same old pundits who are once again trying to make us pick a side.  In December they wanted us to like Obama because he did so much and we all got out tax cuts.  I feel the drumbeat from people that are in the pocket of Obama trying to get the rest of us to fall in line and vote for him in 2012.  All I can say is 2012 is a long way off and the economy will probably be the defining moment for the next election, just like it was for the last election!

Shattered Dreams and Our Violent Society

  • Posted on January 11, 2011 at 8:59 pm

Shattered Dreams

After the last couple of days of hearing non-stop news about the shooting in Arizona, I have decided to say what’s really on my mind.  The pundits started the blame game early on and seem content to want this to be more about getting ratings than anything really useful.  From my perspective as a teacher, I don’t really see what is so different about this act of violence than the violence that schools have had to deal with since Columbine.  Every school administrator, teacher, school personnel and even students across our nation all know about the routines schools go through every year since Columbine to be prepared in the event of an emergency.  Prior to Columbine, we all felt safe.  Safety in schools is kind of remembered as before and after Columbine.  That one violent day changed our schools forever!

At Sturgis Middle School every teacher has a “Go To” box.  This box has a first aid kit, flashlight, class lists and a book of procedures to use in the event of an emergency.  Each year we practice drills with our students where we go into a “lock down” phase.  We have had in-services with police officers visiting our school and training us in the proper procedures to use in an emergency as well as what to look for when students seem troubled.  Students cannot wear long trench coats to school for fear that they might be hiding a weapon much like Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did on that fateful day.  Students aren’t supposed to take their backpacks to their classes for essentially the same types of fears.  The point I want to make with all of this is just to let the rest of the world know that learning about the shooting in Arizona this weekend wasn’t shocking at all to me.

I feel very strongly that many people are troubled right now.  Some of our youth are even more troubled.  I’ve said this many times on here about how my life as a youngster was a lot less complicated than most of my student’s lives today.  To top all of this off, we have record unemployment, woeful economic conditions, record costs to go to college, not to mention those hefty student loans when a kid is finished, and a society seemingly filled with hate and violence.

All during the fall we heard about bullying.  We couldn’t turn the TV on without hearing about some poor young person that just couldn’t take it any more.  They committed suicide because they just couldn’t take being harassed any more.  There is meanness in our country and a total lack of civility when dealing with each other.  It’s not just in politics, but it starts from the top down.

Yesterday, I came home from school to hear Chris Matthews on Hardball talk about how this could give President Obama and opportunity because he’s always been above the fray.  This might give him a chance to show some emotion.  This could be a good moment for him.  One again Chris Matthews speaks before he thinks.  I had to turn the TV off because it was appalling to me.  President Obama may appear to be civil but he has had his nasty moments as well.  Most people will remember his comment about bringing a gun, if the other side brings a knife to the fight.  http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/06/14/obama-if-they-bring-a-knife-to-the-fight-we-bring-a-gun/

At the top of our food chain of people there really isn’t the civility that we need.  Ronald Reagan believed in that trickle down economic crap, however, the only thing that I think has trickled down is the lack of decency people show each other on a daily basis.

At our school we have embraced a program called “Rachel’s Challenge”.  Rachel Scott was a young student at Columbine who didn’t expect to live a long life but who wanted to make a mark on the world.  After she died her parents went through her journals and also found a statement that she had put on the back of her dresser.  They were moved to have something positive come from her death.  Her family goes all over the country challenging students to commit to Rachel’s Challenge.  Rachel wrote an essay and she wanted to start a chain reaction of kindness.

http://www.rachelschallenge.org/LearnMore/RachelsEssay.php

When the Rachel’s Challenge program comes to our school students are challenged to do these five things:

– Look for the best in others – Eliminate Prejudice

– Dare to Dream – Set Goals – Keep a Journal

– Choose Positive Influences – Input Determines Output

– Kind Words & Actions = Huge Results

– Start a Chain Reaction with Family and Friends

These are not earth shattering concepts, but if you think about it many adults could benefit from following these five principles.  They are pretty simple and could actually be life changing.

The sad truth is there are many troubled people out in the world today.  We can choose to put our hand out and help each other or we can continue following the shrill, violent path to destruction that we are currently on.  Our government could start by creating people friendly programs instead of just business friendly programs.  It seems like our current government policies leave many people without hope.  If you are at the bottom of the economic food chain, life can be dismal as you face hardship after hardship.

I had a little boy come to school the other day because he was upset.  His mom had a car accident and he was worried about how they were going to pay for everything.  One hardship can break a family.  We all know families that are struggling in debt, or unable to find a decent paying job, worrying about how to pay their utility or health care bills or buy shoes for their kids.  These are hard times and some people crack under the pressure of hopelessness.  I’ve heard some pundits talking about Jared Loughner being mentally ill.  Of course, we all think he must be mentally ill because of what he did.  Chances are that he is mentally unstable but with the cost of health care how would some kid who worked at several big box stores afford that care?  It was probably cheaper just to buy the gun!

It seems to me that the American people have been failed by government officials and the government policies that they vote for because those policies don’t do a lot for the poor, the middle class and the disturbed.  In addition to this, we are assaulted daily by TV and radio pundits that drive the agenda and constantly bombard our homes with hatred and violence.  I remember that show “Crossfire”.  That was a hateful show and Jon Stewart was right then and he was right this fall when he talked about the political discourse at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

If people want to see a change in this country on the issue of violence, then it must start from the top with the president and government policies that help create a climate of economic hope.  However, we can’t sit back and expect the government to do everything.  If each of us does whatever we can to help each other in these trying times by just following the simple guidelines of Rachel’s Challenge, we could change the world.  We must change government policies, but we must also listen to each other.  It doesn’t matter if you are right or left leaning, an independent or non-political, we all need to find a way to talk to each other in a civil manner.  If we want to change our nation, violence isn’t the answer.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream and he had hope and he demonstrated through peaceful means.  We could all learn from this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AItMg70kg&feature=related

Meet John Doe

  • Posted on December 23, 2010 at 11:10 pm

I caught an old movie tonight that is well worth sharing my thoughts on.  The movie is “Meet John Doe” made in 1941 and directed by Frank Capra.  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033891/

This is a classic movie showcasing the talents of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.  Barbara plays Ann Mitchell a reporter that just lost her job.  She cooks up a letter to the editor that causes quite a calamity.  She creates a figure called John Doe that is down on his luck, out of work and ready to jump off city hall.  All the politicians are up in arms as they are being bombarded with calls from people worrying about John Doe.  She works a deal with her old boss and he hires her back.  They decide to find some dope to play the part of John Doe so they can milk this story for all it’s worth.

In walks Gary Cooper who is Long John Willoughby a used up pitcher for some ball team.  Ann thinks he’s the perfect man to play John Doe because he has his all American good looks and he’s a ball player to boot!  Ann coaches him and he protests the lack of decency in the way people are treating each other.  As all this goes on the circulation for the newspapers grows and grows.  Ann approaches D.B. Norton, the rich new owner of the paper and an oil tycoon to push this John Doe idea even more and get him on the radio.  D.B. Norton and Ann cook up a plan together.  She wants money and he wants something much bigger which he doesn’t exactly let Ann know about.

On the radio Ann has John say some things laced with hope and based on the advice of her mother, not gloom and doom.  She reaches into the diary of her dead father which is full of wisdom and things her mother says people need to hear today.  This is a quote from the speech, “The character of a country is the sum total of the character of its little punks!”  John asks people to step up and help each other.  He wants them to create a tidal wave of good will.  He tells every John Doe, you know all the little guys, to wake up because they are the hope of the world!

After being on the radio, John is getting a bit antsy and wants to get back to playing ball.  He’s all set to go when a group of people approach him and they tell him how wonderful he is because they have all reached out to their neighbors.  Times are tough and people are out of work but these people have pulled together to help each other and they have formed a club of sorts called the John Doe Club!  John Doe is a man created to give up his life for a principle.  The John Doe Clubs don’t allow politicians to belong to them because as they say “You know how politicians are.”

John Doe turns into a full fledged movement that spans the whole country.  Finally it culminates into a big convention where John is going to give a big speech.  He never reads them ahead of time and he has really come to believe the things he’s been saying.  Just before the convention he discovers the real purpose for all of this.  It was to create a movement such as a third party and use John to nominate D. B. Norton for the presidency of the United States.  I’m not going to tell you quite everything that happens in this story but boy did I love the politics of the people mixed up with the politics of the wealthy.

Throughout this movie you get that feeling that everyone is being used by the wealthy D.B. Norton.  He runs the show and he even runs the police.  He controls the press as well and isn’t it interesting when we have other rich people controlling the press today.  So much of this John Doe movement reminded me of Fox News and the strange connection with the Tea Party movement.  It also reminded me of the John Edwards movement and even Barack Obama’s “change” movement.

When I was part of the John Edwards movement the people that posted online were all about the little people and poverty and doing something constructive to help.  Even after John quit the race a group still stayed formed called the “John Edwards Movement Continues”.  We didn’t want to stop the principles of the movement.  Of course the messenger was flawed and the movement died but there are still people out there that believe in the principles of what Edward’s was saying.  These movements do tend to start with the little guy that is looking for something good to happen in the world.  What I learned is politicians are flawed and little guys do get used.

Right now many are feeling let down by the Obama presidency.  I wrote a post awhile ago called, “Throw Them a Bone Once in Awhile.” In that piece I referred to the “talk” about Hillary trading places with Biden.  To me it is obvious that President Obama has just thrown out that proverbial bone.  With the current legislation we are all supposed to be dancing in the streets.  He gave the wealthy the lion’s share but he threw the rest of us a bone.  That’s supposed to keep us quiet for awhile.  The press is busy telling us how great Obama is right now, working hard to build his numbers.  Chief among them is Chris Matthews who still has some kind of strange fetish for all things Obama!  I’ll hold out on the dancing until after March 4th when we see what they are going to do with the budget.  I think something has to give and since it isn’t going to come from the wealthy, then it’s going to have to come from everyone else, you know the “John Doe” people.  Once again the wealthy control the little guys just like D. B. Norton had his finger in every pie to control John Doe and that movement.

I personally wouldn’t mind if we all started a John Doe movement but of course we’d have to not let any politicians get their hands on the movement.  I see many people would like a third party that could really go somewhere, so we wouldn’t feel like we are throwing a vote away voting for someone other than a Democrat or a Republican.  I’d love to see that happen and I’d love some kind of real movement by the people and I don’t mean the Tea Party crowd that seems to be funded by some rich, conservative benefactors.  If anything real is going to get done in this country, I personally think it has to develop form the people and we cannot put our hopes on any one person because people are flawed.

If you have the time, watch this movie.  I loved it!  You can watch the black and white version here.  I caught a colorized version on TV but watched it again here.

http://www.archive.org/details/meet_john_doe

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!

The Hoopla Over Christine O’Donnell

  • Posted on September 16, 2010 at 8:59 pm

Christine O'Donnell looking a lot like Sarah Palin!

Sarah Palin could be Christine's sister!

I must admit I don’t know much about Christine O’Donnell and I truly don’t care.  Since I live in Michigan she really isn’t on my radar.  However, I am having a good laugh watching the two parties, Republican and Democratic fall all over themselves in disgust at her Republican Senate primary win in Delaware.

It all started with Karl Rove when he came out and said she says some crazy things.  He seemed quite upset that she won.  The Republicans thought they had a sure bet with Mike Castle.  What I find humorous about all of this is the fact that the Republicans “hand picked” candidate wasn’t selected by the voters!  Imagine that!  The voters decided they would pick their candidate.  The Republicans can’t get over the fact that the voters have the right to choose who they want to represent them.

On the Chris Matthew’s show he went on to ask some Republican, who I cannot for the life of me remember the name of, if Christine was “qualified” to be a senator.  I thought that sounded pretty elitist.  The truth is there are only three things necessary to qualify to be a senator.

Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution sets three qualifications for senators: 1) each senator must be at least 30 years old, 2) must have been a citizen of the United States for at least the past nine years, and 3) must be (at the time of the election) an inhabitant of the state he or she seeks to represent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate#Qualifications

There is no IQ test to be a senator.  Otherwise, people like David Vitter would never have been elected!

To top all of this hand wringing off by the Republicans is the behavior of the Democrats.  MSNBC has been a huge supporter of Barack Obama.  Many of the people on that network are like Chris Matthew’s when he got that tingle up his leg.  The morning after she won, I watched “Morning Joe”.  When they showed the “masturbation video” I knew there was more going on than meets the eye.  The Democrats would have everyone believe that she will go down easily in defeat.  I suspect that they really don’t know what will happen as they are protesting far too much.  She looks and sounds a lot like Sarah Palin.  Some people find that very appealing!  During the whole Morning Joe show Joe was quite upset about her win.  Everyone else kept trying to put her down and make fun of her.  Joe kept saying something about her lack of income.  I think I heard a figure of $5800 or so.  He mentioned bankruptcy.  He said she lied about going to Princeton.  Then they played a video of her on the Bill Maher show.  By this time I was laughing like crazy because I suspected all of them, from both parties, gave way too much away by protesting so much.

They have made this into such a big issue that it is obvious that they are both worried.  The Republicans don’t know how to “handle” her and the Democrats are afraid that she might be stronger than they think.

Both parties are owned and operated by the corporations.  Maybe this is the problem.  She seems to be a “nobody”.  I’ve suggested on here that we should vote for the Democrats because they are slightly better than the Republicans.  However, there is no reassurance from where I sit that this is remotely true.  These parties are like brothers.  They play games with the rest of us pretending to be at each others throats.  We suspect that they don’t even like each other.  This is a game to keep us “commoners” thinking they’re actually trying to do something for US!  It’s just like “good cop, bad cop” episodes.

If you watched the memorial service for Teddy Kennedy you would have noticed that many Republicans obviously loved Teddy.  They were friends.  They even joked about which one would be the “bad” one for the press.  If you think I’m making this up go back and watch it.  It’s probably on YouTube.  The point is that “We the people” are the ones that actually vote and these senators “play” us all the time!

Christine O’Donnell managed to get the vote, “the vote from the people”, without an elitist pedigree.  She got Republicans to vote for her.  Whether she can get the votes that she needs to become senator in Delaware remains to be seen by all of us.  All I know is that not one vote has been cast yet.  There is a lot of time between now and the election.  If Democrats want to win, they better stop trashing her.  They’re just going to piss off a lot of women.  Women are already fed up with the Democratic Party because of their treatment of Hillary Clinton.  I can imagine if Christine gets the Hillary/Sarah treatment, women may vote for her in protest.

Republicans started turning around after the twenty four hour gripe period.  However, most people can see through the façade of bullshit they are selling.  They don’t like Christine because she is a Tea Party person.  I guess that’s code for “bat shit crazy right winger.”  You would think they’d be happy with her.  NO!  Both parties want to control everything.  They don’t want US to have a choice.  Christine is the Republican Party choice in Delaware.  The national Republicans will have to live with that.

My thinking is that the current senators aren’t doing such a hot job any way.  What difference will it really make if she wins?  I think people are just fed up with Washington.  It isn’t just Tea Party people.  It’s people like me.  I think a pink bunny could do as well as some of the current senators.  They are vacillating over extending the tax cuts.  They supposedly can’t get it done unless they include the wealthy.  This is just bullshit.  They don’t want to get it done and they don’t want anyone new to come play the game.

As I said in the beginning I don’t know much about Christine and I don’t even care.  However, I do care about the loss of what used to be my Democratic Party.  I’d like my party to embrace women in general.  I’d like to not see them go ape every time a woman, much like Sarah or Hillary, runs for office.  I’d also like to see more Democratic women running for office.  However, it seems like this is the year for Republican women.  Like it or not, if you want to vote for a woman, you may have to vote Republican.  The Democratic Party needs to get out of the dark ages and start encouraging women to run for office.  I’m fed up with these macho, elitist, mostly white, men that make all of the laws that pertain to the rest of us.  Remember half of us are WOMEN!  So the only dog I really have in this fight is the fact that Christine O’Donnell is a woman!  Go figure!

I wasn’t going to add anything to this.  However, Daniel Maxso sent me a video from Newsy.com. which shows conservative pundits firing back at Karl Rove on this issue.  It’s a good video so I’m adding it.  I also am providing a link below it to an article that I read last night that was really interesting on the subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbMcO07iQUQ&feature=player_embedded

This is a good op-ed article:

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/09/17/conservative-feminists-grizzlies-or-not-come-out-roaring/

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz: Get your Alka-Seltzer out now.

  • Posted on August 3, 2010 at 2:27 pm

Okay, this is another “Can You Believe This?” story.  It seems that the Pentagon cannot account for 9 billion dollars earmarked for reconstruction in Iraq.  Come on.  How on earth do you misplace that kind of money?  I only discovered this because a guest on the Chris Matthews show implied that the reason we are hearing so much about Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters is because there are other things they are trying to cover up.  This was one of those things.  After thinking about it I’m left wondering if any of that money was used against our soldiers.  This is total incompetence!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/07/27/iraq.audit/index.html?hpt=T2

I remember boatloads of cash missing before.  Don’t you?  You may want to hurl after watching Donald Rumsfeld once again.

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

Yet we keep giving more and more money to the defense department.

http://www.wanttoknow.info/corruptiongovernmentmilitary

When will it stop?  We spend far more than other countries on defense spending.

We are also giving money here to this top secret stuff:  http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/nation/tsa/static/articles/hidden-world.html

My gosh, we seem to have plenty of money for defense spending, Homeland Security and every other insane thing to keep us “safe” and most everything else except education.  Go figure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fy2010_spending_by_category.jpg

All of this got me thinking about the money that our federal government is spending on different programs.  I figure if they have so much money to throw around in the defense department that the D.O.D. could casually misplace 9 billion how do the other departments fair?  The figures are from Wikipedia and they are basically estimates as the appropriations must be approved by Congress.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_federal_budget

The biggest expenditure is Social Security but the Department of Defense is right behind it.  They’re ahead if you count things like Homeland Security.  The FBI falls under the Department of Justice and the CIA is kind of a mystery.  It used to fall under defense but now I’m not sure how it’s paid for.  With Homeland Security, the CIA and FBI there must be some duplication of services.  If you keep reading you will be stuck wondering why some of the departments aren’t combined together.  One thing you can be sure of is that while everyone else is worried about losing their jobs, federal government jobs seem to be growing.  It seems like you can find employment in West Virginia, Virginia and even Washington D.C.  I’m sure there are many poor in the D.C. area but if you have the skills it looks like D.C. is the place to be.

http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&tdim=true&dl=en&hl=en&q=unemployment+percentage+chart#met=unemployment_rate&idim=state:ST110000:ST510000:ST540000:ST260000&tdim=true

This post is merely meant to inform people about the 9 billion.  Yes, we must keep our nation safe but when does this mission for safety turn into insanity and don’t you think it would be interesting to follow the money to all of the private sector corporations that we are feeding on this gravy train?

I know many of you out there just don’t know or don’t care.  You live your lives thinking you will pay your taxes and just leave me alone but it is really our job to keep the government honest and on their toes.  Otherwise, we will end up with nothing more than tyranny.  I know there are many excessive links above to study and they will probably drive you nuts but the point is if we don’t do the work to research this stuff, the news isn’t going to give it to us.  Investigative reporting today is a joke as most of the news outlets on TV are owned by some private corporation with an agenda.  If you don’t think MSNBC is interested in what benefits General Electric then you must be kidding yourself.  We must follow the money whether it is with these news conglomerates or with the government.

When you look at the pie chart it is infinitely clear that education is not a priority.  For as much as the government proclaims their support of public education, they give a paltry 46.7 billion for it.  If the education department lost 9 billion, I think they would notice it.  The Department of Defense is so big and over grown; it doesn’t even blink an eye when it loses 9 billion.  This is both amazing and disgusting.  To further complicate this matter is an area called the “Black Ops”.  These are secret missions.  Who knows what we’re doing where ever?  You and I don’t know as these missions are secret.  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagons-black-budget-tops-56-billion/ You can also read more here.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13603

It’s easy to see why most people want to bury their head in the sand and not look up until these two wars are over.  However, it’s time the American people were fed the truth about these missions, the money and what the real truths are concerning our government.  We don’t have money for basic things like health care and education but we have plenty of money for anything related to defense spending.  We spend far more than any other country on defense but we continue to let that bloated military spending grow and grow.  We are kept afraid by politicians and they also keep us in the dark about what’s really going on.  They get lobbied by the big dogs of companies that love these wars, and that’s where the real power is contained.  I encourage you to read this speech by President Eisenhower and give it some thought.

http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html

However, if you want the shortened version just take this quote and think about it.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.