Behind the Curve...

Which is exactly where they want us to be, isn't it?

I can barely keep up with the holiday/family stuff, let alone politics. What I can say is that I cannot say anything definitively until January. Everything that is going on now is a lot of posturing and placement. When it all goes good or bad, each side will take the credit or blame the other, but nothing has really been accomplished in the last week...

What I have noticed over the weekend is that this Lame Duck/Limp Dick 'Tax Deal" that Obama has signed into law has morphed from a cave-in of his principles to a 'victory'. Really f*cking amazing...Are we as Americans and constituents and voters really so vapid and thick? Are our attention spans so short as to be placated by the spin, the HARD spin, that the White House and the Media put on issues like this???

For my part, I would have been content to see an impasse. Let the unemployment benefits expire as well as the tax cuts, then start with an iron Republican fist at the turn of the year. However, they are all, on both sides, politicians to the core, and each one has to secure his-her job, regardless of party or personal ideals or the promises made to get votes. An iron fist in a kid glove, perhaps...

The stock market has apparently responded positively to the posturing, and this will give the Republicans a bit of ammunition next month to start pushing for permanency of the tax cuts...Because make no mistake, the extension of the BUSH TAX CUTS fuels the economy, not the unfunded year-long extension of welfare for the unemployed.

Merry Christmas everyone, Happy New Year, and here's to looking forward to an interesting and definitive next two years!!!

Helsinki Syndrom?

Is that what it's called? When hostages begin to identify with and care about their captors...Seeing as how we middle class workers and the genuinely unemployed are political "hostages" according to our illustrious leader. The leader that has led the way for the captors up to this point. Now, he can put himself in yet another Messiah-like capacity of Liberator of we hostages.

Republicans are holding fast to the promises that they were elected on 5 weeks ago without a whole lot of budge. They gave in on the continuation of the Unemployment benefits with no plan to fund them, which will simply tack the cost onto the current deficit. And please do remember that the Republicans still DO NOT HOLD THE HOUSE MAJORITY YET! We are dealing with the exact same Present, House, and Senate that we have been saddled with for the last 2 years. So do not sit here and think for a second that this is the new Republican Majority throwing its weight around.

As per usual, you have a faction of life-long rank and file Dems that absolutely refuse to have the tax cuts continue for "The Millionaires and Billionaires", to use the new wealth envy crowd's catch phrase. They seem to be willing to let the cuts expire on everyone with a job, give up a 2% reduction in payroll taxes, and let the once all-important extension of unfunded Unemployment expire at the same time the tax cuts do...All because they cannot stand the fact that they cannot tax The Millionaires and Billionaires (which would actually be any family making over $250,000), at a higher rate than they themselves are taxed or we the political hostage middle classes are! They preach FAIR, FAIR, FAIR! But can you tell me what exactly is fair about paying a higher PERCENTAGE because you EARN more?! If we all pay 15%, The Millionaires and Billionaires are still going to foot the bill for the VAST majority of the tax revenue required by the Imperial Federal Government to fund their outrageous spending....

Actually have to take a breath and take my kid to school. More to come!

It's been a loooooong day.

Watching one C-SPAN channel or another all day has brought me to the limits of my sanity and physical well being. Watching Barbara Boxer nearly work herself into tears over the poor, abused, misled hourly workers of the evil McDonald's Corporation and its MiniMed health insurance options...I am about to vomit!

Maybe I am old, but I don't ever remember thinking that my high school education and part time hourly employment should offer me the option of  'golden hoop' health care. At some point you could buy a limited benefit policy at a rate you could not really afford to have taken out of your check every two weeks, but I never did this. And we all knew it was crap insurance. In order to get better options for insurance, you had to work full time, get into management, and so on. You invest your effort into the company and they increase what they are willing to give you as benefits. Logic, right?

When did things suddenly change? why on god's green earth would any company provide 75-80% subsidy on a part-time worker's premiums for a comprehensive policy? Particularly with the age group of most of the workers and the ridiculous turnover rate in food service, retail, and other low education industries? Even if McD's were to subsidize 80% of a full benefit comprehensive policy, that hourly part time worker still probably could not afford the damned premium! But, that's the evil corporation's fault too, isn't it? A person that saw fit to do nothing more with themselves than get enough education to work in food service for a living is definitely worth the same as my husband who busted his ass getting an Engineering degree so that he could make more than the goddamned food service worker!? I don't think so.

I delivered pizza for the best part of my working life and only within the last 7 years started making any progress towards better. What did it take? School. Not a lot for what I do, but school nonetheless. I make double on the hour than what I would if I'd not pursued further education. I still work part time, but do have the availability of full time and benefits if I choose. They won't be great, but that is part of the price that one pays for making bad decisions, procrastinating, and relying too heavily on others for the first part of my adult life. One bad decision has led to another and another, and they compound. It takes twice as much work to get out of the hole. Ultimately, the responsibility for my status in life is my own.

I will certainly admit that sometimes things just go wrong. Providers die, people get sick or injured through no fault of their own...There has to be some sort of remedy against happenstance. I would want help if I needed it to stay alive or feed my children. I don't want people to starve or die because they decided to be a housewife and the provider gets cancer. What I can't abide is this notion that people who are un- or undereducated and can't DO anything other than sling fries because they decided to have two babies and drop out of high school are somehow entitled to the same pay and benefits as another person who graduated, worked her way through college, and eventually got to a position that offered pay and benefits reserved for those who have earned them.

There are differences in people and there are differences in those persons' worth in a corporate and economic sense. Plain, simple, painful fact. I am economically not as viable as my husband. Fact. I am more economically viable than a highschool graduate. Fact. A person with a 10th grade education, two kids by two different men by the age of 17, a history of drug use, including during pregnancy, legal problems, and no work history??? You guessed it...Worthless! And whose problem is this? Not yours. Not mine. The responsibility lies at the feet of the parents and the girl herself. But Barb Boxer is going to wail up because this useless girl can't get access to the same pay and health care that my husband can!   

It's too early in the morning for this!

Started out scanning through the Liberal networks, then Fox, and stopped on C-Span during the broadcast from the British Parliament. Always entertaining. Unfortunately, I was then subjected to the inane babble spewing forth from the mouth of a Rep. Marcy Kaptur-D from the Toledo/Sandusky area here in Ohio. Another long-sitting incumbent Democrat from one of the lovely urban areas of this state. (Dems held onto districts around Cleveland, too. Do I really need to explain the correlation?)

Short on time here at the moment, I will suffice to say that the rhetoric coming from this woman this morning is nothing short of chapter and verse from the Democrat Bible of Hyperbole, peppered liberally (no pun intended) with a blatant and willful misunderstanding of economic principles. Apparently, we are in a recession because there are no jobs. The way I remember it was that the economy started slowing due to the housing cluster f*ck, the financial sector cluster f*ck, the automotive industry cluster f*ck, and the government being hell bent on spending as much money as humanly possible to "bail out" these various cluster f*cks. Bush said, To hell with it, and signed the first round of Porkulus. Obama rode that wave, carrying with him all of his overt disdain for and will to crush the Capitalist private sector. He "bailed out" and Porkulated to the point that the gubment has it's greasy fingers in all of the bailed out industries and a much higher segment of the population dependent on gubment checks. And, Yes!, the over-extension of unemployment benefits is a gubment check program!

More to come...

And...Back to business as usual...

Still in partial turkey-induced coma, I am emerging from the holiday fog to find that the Senate is going balls-out in regulating our food supply, voting down a ban on earmarks, and voting against repealing the b/s 1099 reporting for small businesses that got crammed into the Health Care Reform. There has yet to be any movement on the Bush Tax Cuts that expire at the end of the year. I did hear the Bush Tax Cut Expiration referred to as The Obama Tax Hike. At this point, that is exactly what it is.

There has been the pay freeze on Federal Workers, but I am still trying to find out exactly who these freezes affect. And please don't fail to realize that salaries have been frozen at $150,000.00 and more, the number of people who earn that amount has doubled since the Coronation, and that amount is a reflection of about a 30% disparity between what a Federal worker makes versus what a person in the private sector makes for doing the same work. So you freeze them at a 30% disparity for 2 years...Exactly how long would you have to extend this freeze before the private sector, through periodic raises and cost of living increases, caught up with the Feds in pay rates??? Anyone give me a number? I am not that financially savvy or mathematically literate that I can give you a number on this, but I know damned well that 2 years is not going to cut it. You want to share the sacrifice? Cut the federal workforce! Cut the federal pay to be in line with the private sector! Get the federal employees' benefits in line with ours! Don't vote for another goddamn bill that institutes another goddamn government agency that will take over how our food is produced! How much is THAT going to cost?!

Wow...it's going to be a long 2 years...

Ya big Nancy!

So. The vote was something like 150ish-43ish to elect Pelosi House Minority Leader... A 3-1 margin made this fruit bat the continuing face of the Democratic Party, even with ousted Democrats blaming her for their lost seats. Brilliant. Really.

So what it is it that is going to happen now? Anything different than if she were not Minority Leader? Probably not. We will see continuing evidence that she is absolutely around the bend. Every word from her mouth, backed by 2/3 of her party, as I have said before, should be another nail in the Democrat coffin in 2012.  Her continued unabashed support of Obama and his anti-Capitalist, anti-Constitution, and anti-American policies, and vice-versa, will do the damage it needs to.

However, I think and hope that no matter the lunacy that the Dems come up with, people will be paying far more attention to the reactions of the Republicans. I hope that more attention will be paid to the ramifications of passing or not passing Bills as opposed to the semantics and symbolism, politics and hyperbole that are so blatant.

Example: The extension of the Unemployment benefits. There is no money for this. People dependent on the benefits, for whatever reason, rather than admit that extension is not going to help the debt and therefore the overall economy, will adopt the 'me' attitude that crippled the country in the first place and become part of the problem. This is an untenable position for someone who truly has no other means, but I think that there are more people out there that could work, but make a choice not to. After all, you can get a gubment check for what? 60%  of what you made before, or get a job for 50% of what you used to make in a field you consider beneath you. Or a Union member who made 3 times what at non-Union worker made and had the means to save some of that exorbitant salary for 'a rainy day' is now drawing down benefits that are greater than that non-Union worker who still has a job. What to do? Leave the Union and go work for a prevailing wage? Yeah, right?

There is no sense of the common good now. Even I am not immune to an attitude of doing only for me and mine. Perhaps, if I didn't see so much of my family income stolen from me before we ever get it, I would feel a little more altruistic. I would help the truly needy people in the country if it were a choice. As it stands, I have many levels of government that take care of anyone who chooses to be a good subject.

Fortunately, we have the psychotic Prozac smile and inane statements of Nancy Pelosi, and the arrogant condescension of Barack Obama to remind us for another two years what is wrong with this country.

Let's just pull this out of our...

It is being reported that there is going to be a vote on a Bill to extend Unemployment benefits by another 3 months. Democrats seem bent on keeping us broke and dependent and forcing the new Republican Majority to be the assholes that vote against such a bill. And let's not forget about the Paycheck Fairness Bill that got voted down that is now evidence that Republicans don't care that women are discriminated against in the workplace. As if women have no legal recourse against discrimination!

So. We can assume that Republicans are going to vote against the benefit extension, and then they will also be the assholes that don't care about the unemployed. I'd like to see some numbers about how many people drawing down unemployment are in Unions and are on layoff. Union members that are the driving force behind a good portion of Democratic power. How many are drawing down unemployment because they won't work in this field or that field, or do this job or that job, or that they are making enough on unemployment that it just isn't worth it to work.

So. The country is being crushed by debt and this Congress is still trying to heap some more shit on the pile for no reason other than to start bidding on reelection in two years...Absolutely unbelievable.

Big Brother?

Perhaps it is coincidence. Perhaps I am growing paranoid. Perhaps one of my "Friends" is not a friend at all. Maybe it is a glitch or mistake of another sort.

I got to my computer today to get on my Facebook and catch up on inane b/s with family and friends only to find my account disabled. No reason given, no warning, and the "Help" menu was, of course, less than helpful. The most I could glean was that I was shut down for having a false account of some sort. I could reactivate my account, however, once I submitted a GOVERNMENT ISSUED ID! For Facebook?! Are you kidding?!

I have had this account for a few years now, but once I began this blog and linking to it via my FB Wall, I get shut down. Again, am I just paranoid? Is the big green middle finger OFFENDING one of my "Friends"? Are my comments and rants about the "Messiah" and his Socialist ideals OFFENDING someone to the point that they felt the need to complain to FB?

I am jumping through a couple flaming hoops trying to get my account reactivated, but I will be damned if I am submitting a government-issued ID to do it!

How is thie MY problem???

Looking at some of the broad points of this Deficit Commission proposal for getting control of the national debt, I am struck by how much of it is going to further screw the working American.

The removal of child tax credits and mortgage interest deductions merely add up to my having to pay more in taxes without the benefit of being able to call it a tax hike.

The raising of the retirement age...Granted this will most likely be implemented after I die, but it still doesn't address the money being flat-out stolen from my paycheck every two weeks of my working life for 55 years. Finally! Finally, Social Security is being called what it is: A Ponzi Scheme. How long did the government send Madoff to prison for? Life? I honestly don't remember. Kind of hypocritical, isn't it???

Higher income earners to receive fewer Social Security benefits because 'they can afford it.' Doesn't matter that you paid into the scheme for 55 years. Doesn't matter that you paid MORE into it because you made more money. Your higher 'contribution' is going to be rationed. You will get less so that someone else who wasn't as 'fortunate' in life can get more out than they EVER put in. And there is never any abuse of the SS system, is there? It's income redistribution, plain and simple.

A 15 cents-per-gallon tax hike on fuel. Just what we all need. We are back up to $3.00 a gallon here in Dayton-area, Ohio.

To be fair, there are also proposals to ban earmarks, cut government employee salaries (the number of government employees making $150,000.00 or more has doubled since Obama has taken office), and reform the tax code with a flat tax anywhere from 8% to 23%. The income tax reform would be better achieved with its elimination altogether. Tax what people spend, and everyone pays. If you can't afford to spend, then you don't have to pay the tax...Sounds "FAIR".

For the enlightened ones.

http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/11/happy-birthday.html

Never forget that there have always been, are now, and will always be those who die for your 'rights'. So burn the flag, protest military funerals and in front of recruiting offices, call them baby killers, and denigrate the ones who actually make it home. Conveniently forget that THEY are the reason YOU can do these things. Forget that the soldiers are the reason you can have an opinion.

A request of the World Traveller...

Mr. Obama, you need to get your black ass home and deal with the problems you created and exacerbated here.

It really is staggering that we have a 'leader' who feels that spending $200,000,000.00 a day to traipse around Southeast Asia appealing to the Muslims is more of a priority than the economic disaster he created in what is presumed to be his own country. To run away, which is exactly how it is perceived by we stupid masses of voters, on what is nothing more than another vacation to visit his childhood home after this round of elections and pointedly ignore the coming shift in power is further evidence of the arrogance and petulance of this 'President'.

I will grant that nothing is really going to happen in the government until January, and even then we are more thank likely looking at 2 years of legislative gridlock that will do nothing to improve our current collective situation. However, I still expect my president to be on domestic soil!!! No speeches! No more fucking interviews with the popular liberal media hacks! Get to work, Mr. President!!! It is a job! A four-year contract to grow the security and economy of the country, not a four-year publicity tour!

You are an employee, Mr. President, an employee of ALL OF US. You were not put into office to have your twisted idealism shoved down the throats of the average American.

I honestly cannot fathom how you were elected. Hippie idealism, illegals, welfare degenerates, American Idol culture, and white guilt. That's how you got into office. Unfortunately for you, the attention spans of those segments of the population lasts about as long as the month's welfare check. About as long as the segments between commercials. Well, the rest of us have memories that are long. We remember what life was like before the threats you pose and impose. Before $13,000,000,000,000.00 in national debt that will only explode, now if, and when your 'historic' health care reform is implemented. Before we had to worry about seizure of our private retirement accounts. Before we had to watch you literally bend over before the leaders of the rest of the world. Before we had to listen to you tell us how stupid we are because we can't appreciate what you are trying to do.

You made this bed. Now get home, stop spending OUR money to kiss muslim ass on the other side of the planet (not that we know where that is, right?), and lie in it!

On behalf of ...

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.cnn.com%252F2010%252FUS%252F11%252F09%252Fcalifornia.fast.food.ban%252Findex.html%253Fhpt%253DT2&h=d0757&ref=nf

Sorry about your possibly having to cut and paste the link. This was brought to my attention by a 'Friend'. I have yet to read the story, but fear that the headline says quite enough. Aside from a fantastic lack of personal responsibility, realize that this 'government' that implements these sorts of absurd Nanny State restrictions and mandates is voted into office in free elections. Sad fact: There are apparently very focused populations of people in this country that are so cut off from reality, say everything between Vegas and DC, that something like a ban on fast food seems logical to them. These sorts of decisions are made by people who themselves don't indulge in the bliss that is a Baconator, and feel that we rubes out here in the middle of the country can't possibly know that a Baconator is not good for us.

These are the same people and legislatures that live in beautiful areas of the country that none of the rest of us can even afford to visit let alone move to, because the cost of living is absurd due partly to the level of taxation on the private citizen and businesses that is required to support the welfare system in those areas. Can't neglect our Illegal Alien population, now can we? Only a place like San Francisco with all of its enlightened, forward thinking, ex-hippie Liberals (baby-boomers that lived high on the hog in the prosperity of the 80's and 90's and are now most holing public office) could come up with constituents that are doing so well as to have nothing better to rally around than banning fast food. (The same people feel that an $8.00 coffee is a small price to pay for being so fucking enlightened.)

My cousin suggested we sell Michigan to Canada as a means of bringing in money. He is, of course, and Ohio State fan. I suggest that we sell California, for starters!, to France, or Greece or any other Socialist European country in the throes of economic collapse. Hell, give CA away as a fucking Christmas gi-- Sorry, HOLIDAY--- gift!!!

We fought a War of Secession once, I say it's time for another.

Say SOMETHING!!!

I am listening to Obama (because I cannot stand to look at him), and the man is saying absolutely nothing. Nothing. He is talking in circles and circles and circles and really taking no responsibility for anything that has lead to the power shift in the House. It is still Me! Me! Me! But not in a way that expresses culpability.

NOW he is talking about listening to the Republicans' ideas about Health Care Reform. NOW he is talking about the 1099 issue in the Health Care Bill (which has not one thing to do with Health Care)! Where was this consideration when the President and the Congress were ramming this Bill with all of its hidden garbage down our throats? Where was the Bipartisan effort then? There wasn't any, because the burden of being Bipartisan falls on the Majority to take into consideration the concerns of the Minority, and it falls to both parties to listen to the constituents. This did not happen. It has not happened for two years.

He is still convinced that HE is the Way, the Light, and the Truth, and I cannot see how anything resembling progress is going to be made in the next two years. We are at a stalemate if this is the attitude this man is going to affect.

And again, another reference to the deficit that he 'inherited'...

How about cutting taxes on the companies that make R&D possible for things like airports and railways? Nope. Going to stick with the 'Middle Class Taxcuts' argument...

You had to know what this was going to sound like. He was nowhere near contrite or responsive. His tone was defensive and petulant. He confidently accepts the power of the position and the accolades for his 'historic' legislative efforts, but will cast responsibility for failure of any kind to any and everyone else. So, if the next two years do show a turnaround, it will be his Bipartisan effort. If it remains status quo or worsens, it will be the fault of the Republican Majority in the House for not sending any Bills to the Democratic Senate that could be sent to his desk. The Senate will now be a buffer, thrown under the bus by Obama, if things go badly now. Watch.

Now. Let's see what happens.

As expected, the Republicans took the House. Would loved to have seen them take the Senate as well, but the West Coast and Northeast would not be swayed. Forever staunch Democrats with their ridiculous costs of living and crippling tax rates...It would be better off for the rest of the country to have those areas of the country secede from the Union.

Anyway, now we will see if the Republicans are really paying attention. Let's see if they really understand why they won the House. We will also see this afternoon how Obama is going to spin this situation. Is he suddenly going to start spouting all of the Bipartisan, Moderate nonsense that helped get him elected? Sure he will. He's already campaigning for 2012, and he won't stand a chance if he persists with his arrogant disregard for the People. The Democratic Majority in the Senate won't stand a chance if they, too, persist in their arrogant, elitist disregard for the People. And the Republicans will be utterly finished if they get the next two years wrong.

I will finish today with a comment about the media and women in Politics. At the end of an interview with Sarah Palin and Geraldine Ferraro, Megyn Kelly of Fox News makes sure to mention that Bristol Palin has been voted safe on Dancing With The Stars. Way to go girls. Way to go.

Polls... and polls.

Anyone out there ever been Polled? Or known someone who was Polled? I don't. No one I know does. You have to wonder who the chosen few are. In sampling a thousand voters in a concentrated population, do you get real numbers?

I ask this because one of the local news stations is already reporting on a possible recount for the Governor's race here in Ohio. It is 9:39 a.m. on election day! to be reporting on recounts at this point is another example of totally irresponsible 'journalism'! Of course, the story is based on Poll numbers. I do wonder how many voters are influenced by polls. Say I want to cast my Libertarian vote, but the polls say that the Democrat and Republican candidates are in a dead heat and that a recount is likely. At that point I have to decide if my fear of a Democrat taking the race is greater than my belief that the Libertarian is the better man for the job. Because we all know how the media and the Two-Party system like to tell us that non of the Third Party candidates stand a chance...

On another Polling issue...Perhaps 100 feet is just not far enough away from the Polls. Amazingly, as I left my polling place, a woman that had been out front of the polls at the required 100 feet was in the lobby of the polling place 'warming up', I assume, and sporting her sticky-badge of support for a county levy in support of Human Services. Is this legal?! Somehow, I doubt it.

I was also accosted by a woman pimping her candidate for Auditor, and a man with a list of the appropriate candidates to vote for to have a "Christian" government...I cannot tell you the fear that the thought of a "Christian Government" instills in me. The fact that the list is probably Republican down the line is disconcerting, too, seeing as how the allegedly Fiscal Conservatives are also Social Conservatives...

The trade offs, the trade offs...

A nagging conscience...

Yesterday, I was content to vote Republican across the board. This morning as I get ready to leave the house and vote, I am feeling more of an anti-incumbent mood. If I go in and vote for my incumbent Republican Representative, I will be voting for a man that voted with the liberals to pass the Porkulus Bill. How can I complain about the current state of government in this country and then go cast a vote for a man that is part of the problem.

I am a Libertarian if I have to wear a label. I do not want the Dems legislating my financial life, and I do not want the Reps legislating my morality. If I am not hurting anyone else by my actions, then stay the hell out of my life! Let me earn money in a Capitalist economy and leave me alone. If I choose to be altruistic and DONATE my money to a social program to provide for 'the less fortunate' or someone 'trying to get back on his feet', then so be it. If I choose to 'discriminate' (please feel free to look up the definition of the word before you automatically put a negative twists on it), and reserve my expendable income for my own needs, then so be it!

I am feeling Libertarian this morning. I am feeling that, if called out, I can much better defend a vote for a Libertarian candidate that I know very little about this morning, than defend a vote for a Republican that stood up and voted for something I deeply, deeply opposed!

In the immortal words of Ross Perot, "Vote your conscience!"

Cluster fuck.

While I hold out great hope that tomorrow will see an end to the Democratic Majority that has enabled this president to effectively cripple this country in every way possible, I also think that a Republican Majority in the Congress will do nothing more than lock this country in the state that it is now for the next 2 years. Nothing is going to get done. There is gong to be as much bipartisan cooperation the day after tomorrow as there is now.

I do not feel that, even though these politicians are flipsides of the same coin, there will be anything other than bitter contention the likes of which have yet to be seen from a sitting president. Lately, on the campaign trail , Obama has shown how petulant a character he possesses. He has been clipped and frustrated and agitated when faced with anyone who does not immediately glom onto his ideals. Imagine if he is faced with a Congress whose ends are the antithesis of his own. A Congress put there for no other reason than to thwart his attempts at further damage and try to repair the damage he has done.

We will see the real Obama in 48 hours. We will see if he has the courage of his convictions or if they are only convictions when he can rule unchallenged. We will see if he spouts the usual rhetoric as he and Pelosi did prior to his Coronation in 2008 and then proceeds to Veto every Bill that comes across his desk because it came from a Republican Majority. We will see if he cooperates with efforts to repeal health care and put a stop to outrageous spending and then proceed to take credit if the country does make any real progress in the next 2 years.

We will see.

Honestly!

I would love to see a female in politics that did not make me roll my eyes in embarrassment for my gender. It's either pant suits or dingbats or, horribly enough, a combination of the two.

What I meant was...

"Yes we can! But..."

That would have been a hell of a campaign slogan, huh? I also heard this morning through my pre-coffee fog things like, 'historic finance reform' and 'historic health care reform'. It seems that tacking the word 'historic' onto any bit of legislative malfeasance justifies it. It seems that this group of legislators is more concerned about being perceived as 'historic' than being good legislators. Two decades from now children will be sat in large auditoriums, row after row, clad in gray jumpsuit uniforms, while images of the members of this 'historic' congress and this 'historic' president are shown, accompanied by audio sound bytes from 'historic' speeches are boomed from the ether. Can't you just see the 'historic' black president and his 'historic' aging hippie Speaker, and the rest of the 'historic' anti-Capitalist ex-hippie culture Majority tucked safely in their beds while visions of accolades dance in their heads?

As disconnected as politicians are, in general, from the rest of the working world, and as evident as it always is that this is so, I cannot think of a time in my life that I have seen and heard such condescension from any one or group of Politicians. I could never have fathomed such an arrogant, self-indulgent, self-important, over-estimated 'leader of the free world'. His attempts to connect with the 'common folk' by peppering his unscripted speeches with pseudo-Ebonics and vulgar Pop and Hip-Hop Culture references is an embarrassment. Efforts at communicating his destructive and delusional ideals to The People have degraded to very thinly veiled suggestions that The People are simply too stupid to understand what he's trying to do. Obama gets frustrated and angry if you watch him when he is confronted with opposition of any kind. It is all he can do to remain diplomatic. In his defense, though, I will say that it is hard to be diplomatic when you have no logical arguments in defense of your ideals.

But then, if what you are doing is 'historic', it needs no logical defense. Does it?

The Holocaust is historic, Hiroshima is historic, The Depression is historic, Rome was historic, Hurricane Katrina was historic. The election of Barack Hussein Obama is historic...

Ya just gotta wonder...

What would happen if a white president told the predominantly black opposing political party, with reference to the Political Bus, "They can ride in the back." I am sure that Detroit, L.A., Chicago, and Atlanta would erupt into riots.

If a Christian talk-show host called a Jewish Liberal politician a bitch and basically called her out, too. All of New York and Hollywood would be aghast with shouts of bigotry. (And people would be storming off of their own talk shows in protest. The irony in this one is pretty fucking thick, huh?)

I am still a little behind the curve on events this week, but these are two examples of the rampant double standards set by the media at present. As if the media should be setting standards of any kind! Even my one-beloved Fox News, my island, my rock, is generally clogged to the brim with inane gossip and celebrity worship. Or, the guests are so decidedly Ultra-Conservative that you can take them no more seriously than the idiots in power now with their Socialist, P.C. bullshit.

The government should exist to protect its people from Foreign and Domestic threats to Personal Liberty. The media should exist to inform the people with unbiased factual reporting. Am I an idealist? Clearly.

The current state of governance and media is nothing more than an inseparable quagmire of bilious rhetoric; bids for personal power; self-aggrandizing, self-absorbed reporting; self-aggrandizing, self-absorbed, politically correct, delusional declarations from Hollywood actors and directors (which is very often inseparable from reporting in media)...Politico-Social Vomit.

Shove it!

If only the voters could commit to the sentiment and tell all of our 'leaders' to "Shove it, really."

At the risk of abusing metaphor ad nauseam, I will say that voting is a way to rock the Boat (government). All of the Passengers in that Boat (politicians, regardless of party or office) are out for the same end: Keep the Boat from sinking! They will do whatever they have to to keep afloat, including throwing each other overboard and plucking different Passengers from the water who will better fit the goal of keeping the Boat afloat.

Every so often, the Boat is beset by Waves (votes/voters) that set the Boat to rolling. Problem is that the Waves are normally too small or of too short a duration to really affect change in the Boat. Sometimes, the Waves actively work in different directions and serve to negate each others' force. The passengers all pull together to right a ship that also has an inherent tendency to right itself. The Waves pass, the Boat is right.

What needs to happen is a long strong succession of ever-increasing Waves that serve to capsize the Boat and set all of the Passengers adrift among the Waves...

Out of the loop.

Spent the weekend wrapped up in and recovering from orientating and training for a job that I officially hate after having gotten a taste of it, so I am out of the loop on Politics for the last few days. I am just going to have to trust that all is status quo. I keep thinking about the fact that I would not have to pull a part-time job to supplement our income here if we did not have the tax burden that we have. Were we to be Fair Taxed, meaning paying a 23% Federal Sales Tax on what we SPEND, versus being taxed on every dime that we make no matter what we plan to do with it, I would be able to stay home and raise the kids that we have without walking a financial tightrope. If my husband could bring home the $15,000 that goes out in taxes of one form or the other, it would more than make up for what I would bring home.

I am going to go catch the last 90 minutes of Boortz and get my dose of Government Outrage. That aught to wake me up.

Oh! Oh! I know!

Let's focus on "The Rent's Too Damn High!" Party candidate for Governor of New York. Or Aqua Buddha. Or Deanna Favre. Or Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg stomping off their own TV show...And, please, let's not forget to worry about The Bad Girls' Club, The Kardashians, The Housewives...(I think I'm going to be sick!)

Where are all of the forums where our illustrious members of the media take these political candidates and grill them on HOW they are going to affect these changes they propose to make? Oh! I forgot. No one wants to watch something like that, because the Housewives are so much more interesting than the bullshit spewing forth from the mouths of the people that hold power over our lives. No ratings in Political debate! Unless, of course, the political ramblings come from some uber-Liberal actor who feels that his opinion is somehow more enlightened than that of some work-a-day Joe from the Midwest because said actor is, well, an actor!

To be fair, the candidates rarely subject themselves to unmoderated debate or questions from unscreened constituents anyway. The system is set up from top to bottom to protect the candidates and office-holders from real interrogation or critique from the people that put them into office. Makes one wonder why we would vote for someone we can't access.

I guess that we vote because we should. Because we are still ALLOWED to vote. However, I find myself, more often than not, voting for what I perceive to be the lesser of two evils. I will vote Party line if in any doubt, and I never vote for a candidate for any office that is running uncontested. And how many times do you get into a voting booth and see candidates you've never heard of running for races you didn't know were contested or were even subject to vote? I get that every time, even though in this age of the internet I can go to the Board of Elections websites and see what is going to be on the ballot. I can go to news sites and follow the candidates. I can dig as much as I choose to in order to find what these people REALLY stand for. You can find out how they vote on issues, which is where their priorities are laid bare.

The problem is that we are busy and we are lazy with whatever free time we have. And who really wants to spend time researching our candidates and office-holders? Who really wants to get out of bed and go to work? No one. But we get out of bed and go to work because we have to. We need to have this same attitude towards our governments from the locality to the Federal level. The people that we do not care to research and take to task are the ones voting for Bills that effect the wage we make, the age we can retire, the amount of money that comes home on our check, how much of that money we will ever have access to, how much of what we are allowed to keep is paid out in sales tax, property tax, embedded tax. These people that we cannot bother to research are determining whether or not we can work for our Health Care or if it will be provided by the Government, funded by more money that will come out of our paychecks.

As to the Health Care...Anyone ever been in a VA hospital? A Public Health Clinic? They are the medical equivalents of The Projects. The Projects are a Government-run program...Anyone clamoring for an apartment in The Projects? No. Anyone ever had to fight the government to get SSI after a career ending injury or illness after having paid into that system all of your working life? Try it sometime. There is a (as of 12 months ago) a 26-month wait to even get a hearing. Just think...Waiting for more than 2 years to get into 'The Projects" to get a mammogram, a prostate exam, a Pap smear, a basic physical, immunizations (all of which will be a requirement before you can be eligible for care if you actually get sick, by the looks of things). And what happens when you do get sick? A cold? The Flu? A car accident? Cancer? Think about this: Your child gets Leukemia. But wait...There is a 26-month backlog in hearings to see if the child does indeed have Leukemia and is eligible for treatment. Say you have the money to pay for his treatment, but you are not allowed to by Federal Law. You can't find a doctor who will treat him for fear of losing his medical license for accepting private payment...

Now, your child might have died no matter what anyone tried to do, but the reality is that your child died waiting in line for the Imperial Federal Government Health Care Service to decide he was worthy of treatment.

But our government would never do that...Right?

Now we're rolling!

The value of my property has gone into the toilet. Two years ago, when the free fall started, the County came in and revalued my property for tax purposes so that I can fund the school district. Did the value of my property go down? Of course not. It went up. Way up. So much so that I pay taxes on a property that is worth less than 2/3 of what it is being taxed at. My property taxes DOUBLED at a time when I would have to PAY someone to buy this house.

Enter the insurance company. A company I have been with for more than a decade and never filed a claim with. I carry 4 different policies with this company. We have made minor improvements in the basement of this house in the last three years. After an external inspection of the home and a brief phone questionnaire, the replacement value of the home alone is proposed to go up by 50%, raising the premium by about 65%.

There is now talk of seizure of 401k's and Roth's, because it is apparently not enough to steal straight from our paychecks anymore. In looking into getting OUR money out of a retirement plan--not even the company match, just the money my husband's EARNED-- the Imperial Federal Government has mandated that 20% be taken off the top, 10% penalty for getting OUR money out, with the possibility of MORE tax liability at filing time!

We are paying Social Security Tax, Federal Income Tax, Medicare Tax, State Income Tax, Local Income Tax, County Property Tax, County Sales Tax...These are just the big ones that I can think of off the top of my head! There are embedded Taxes on fuel, alcohol, tobacco, and sugar, and truthfully in everything that we buy. The manufacturer is taxed heavily by the Imperial Federal Government as punishment for being Capitalist and trying to make 8% profit on what they sell. That heavy taxation is passed on to the consumer in the price of the item so that the company can make its 8%, reinvest it in the process of production, and continue making said product.

And then the money we have left over to save, if there is any, is taxed if we earn too much interest on it! It is taxed if we try to actually gain access to it when we need it, to the tune of no less than 30%!

Wake the hell up, people! LOOK at your paycheck! Look at your receipts! Look at your bills with all of the hidden taxes. Look at the taxes and fees on your cell phone bill, your ISP bill, you cable/satellite bill! We are being robbed BLIND because we are too lazy to do anything about it. We are so used to our ideals and creature comforts and this ridiculous notion that OUR government would NEVER act like YOUR government. Like parents that are completely blind to the horrendous behavior of their OWN children while condemning other parents, we have refused to come out from behind our privacy fences and security systems and really stand up to the criminals that we are forever electing to office.

-$7,000,000,000,000.00!!! Look at that number, people. That's a negative. That's a debt. That's a deficit. That number is only getting bigger. Where do you think that money came from?! Government DOES NOT MAKE MONEY! It "BORROWS" money. From the People and from other Governments! What happens when these other Governments try to collect? What happens if WE try to collect? Our Government is spending our money before it even steals it from us in the form of taxes. Where do you think that 7 trillion dollars our government doesn't have is going to come from? (Look at your check stub again...)

This isn't about Party, people. This is about a corrupt Government that has us all in financial chains. It all needs to be brought down. The tax system, social security, WELFARE (not Entitlement Programs or Public Services!), the two-party system, career politicians, term limits or the lack thereof, non-Citizens and non-taxpayer voting, career students voting...None of it is working any more!