hiding the Antichrist

The Antichrist is here. We have been told by many military Christian evangelical groups that the anti Christ is here and must be stopped, killed, and destroyed. It is a Christian jihad, but since the God is not Mohammad, and the people not Muslim, the word jihad is not used, but the Christian soldiers live by the same definition of jihad definition any way.

For soldiers of Christ, (the Hutarees, the Michigan, Ohio based militia), their mission was to incite violence against the police, directed toward the Federal Government to create anarchy and chaos evolving in a civil war. By killing the cops, the brave Hutaree soldiers would start the hunt for the Antichrist and rid the world of all the bad people---the bad people according to the Hutaree and some kind of insane interpretation of the Bible. (The Hutaree are following the same path that the Family, the para-church ministry known as C Street Church, founder Loren Cunningham describes as a correct version of Jesus. Mr. Cunningham and his more recent lieutenants of lawlessness, believe that Christians who view Jesus as a pacifist, are incorrect and have actually stated the current version feminizes him. Mr. Cunningham's lore leans more to Jesus as being a soldier. No oozies around during Jesus's days in Palestine, but if Jesus were around now he would be a general destroying all enemies.

It seems the Evangelicals have been looking high and low to uncover the whereabouts for the Antichrist. They have been assuming the election of the "black guy", has announced the coming of the Antichrist, and he fact that the Speaker of the House is a women, bodes well for the Antichrist to have arrived.

The Tea Baggers have brought their weapons to almost every march in which they participate, the John Birchers warn that without their guns at the ready the Antichrist may show up at their front doors, and the Aryan Nation contingent of the conservative republican movement, just know their Christ is a white and blond and that the Antichrist must be a Jew, a "darkie", or at least an illegal immigrant.

Seems the hunt for the Antichrist is taking all the true Christians to all the wrong places in trying to shoot him, kill him or destroy him.

Why not look at the Republican party of "no", for starters. Surely the Antichrist would not want health care for Americans, surely he would not want regulation of the banking institutions, surely he would want the rich to pay less taxes and the poor to either stay unemployed or make less than minimal wage.

Or skedaddle over to FOX News. We know the Antichrist despises the truth. Give 'em fiction, fable and fast talk. draw on a blackboard how A doesn't equal B and doesn't equal C but does equal any point you want to make. do a search and destroy on Sean Hannity or Glen Beck.

Visit with Dick Cheney and his darling daughter Liz. Lies and rewriting of history abound and I am certain the Antichrist loves hate mongers, and self serving morons.

The Militias, the Tea Baggers, the Birhters, the Birchers, the Aryans, the Demint's the Palins, the Becks, the Limbaugh's are all places I believe we need to start looking for that darn Antichrist. But no, somehow the search party always looks at Unions, Democrats, Blacks, Jews, Hispanics Gays, and anyone else of any color or religion who believes that honest, truth, fair equal are true definitions of America.

I hate to break it to the Hutarees that attacking the police did nothing to stop the Antichrist, he/she/they have been here for quite awhile and something tells me he/she they look just like the Hutarees.

WE and the Pope

WE seem to be out for them. WE, perhaps the royal we, perhaps the common we, perhaps the WE who just call for the truth and want to settle for nothing less.

WE are now being blamed as "out to get the Pope". WE are the ones angry with the Catholic Church for denying "same sex" marriage, for denying money to the Catholic Dioceses in D.C. for permitting, gays to adopt or foster homes for orphans, for the Bishops who never read the Health Care Reform but insisted it permitted abortions for anyone who seeks them, for demanding that those priests who have molested children, boys and girls, be reprimanded by the law. WE want to know why the Archbishop in charge of the diocese in Germany (you) stopped the legalities in pursuing criminal acts by his priests towards his parishioners. WE want to know why the boss of the Vatican (you) has not intervened with more gusto, gumption, guts to stop in their tracks priests past and present from destroying the innocence of youth.

The same people who stand upon the New Testament, and portions of the Old Testament when it helps the cause, to deny human rights, like non discrimination of the LGBT community or human life when they refuse to sanction the use of condoms in Africa to avert more HIV, infection, who care little for the quality of life by dismissing abortion as abysmal and un-Godly, but who only encourage not aborting but provide little to any care once the unwanted child is born.

These same people are now lashing out at you, (as most bullies do who base the fact on baseless truths, and seem to shirk from real reason which when reasoned shouts loud and clear) you lie, you are wrong, you run the roost by your own rules.

WE want justice for those who had none. WE want those who proclaim to know God's word, to also know God's will. We want less double standards and one singular sensation of doing what is right and not what is wrong. WE want you to own up to being human, and then become humane. WE want guidance, greatness, and genuine goodness by someone who does good deeds by action and not by threats.

The priests have sinned, but they have also run amok of the law. And as WE are reminded over and over again by you, the good guy Governments are based on the Christian-Judeo ethics so their laws are certainly sanctioned by the Vatican.

You were responsible for some priests then, and now you are responsible for all.

WE are not picking on you because you are Pope Benedict XVI. Nope, we are asking you to play by the rules you preach every Sunday, and holy day and I assume in the morning and evening prayers you recite, the rules of fairness, equality, and righteousness.

And instead of owning up to your responsibilities, Your Holiness, you send out a cadre of paranoid goons to protest the protesters. One question sir, "what would Jesus do"?

pathetic palin

Dear Sarah Palin,

I am so tired of the mess you leave behind every time you callously and unconscionably communicate. Your lack of responsibility, your careless innuendo, your unsophisticated stupidity, your disregard for consequence, confound me and piss me off. Your inability to understand truth, realize the facts, and participate in witch hunts, scapegoating, and name calling is dumbfounding and delusional.

You never finish what you start, but decide to move on, move away, whenever confronted for fact. You claim no responsibility for your actions but blame others almost saying they made me do it. You name call, but become such a victim when names are thrown your way. You bully, but like most bullies you are not brave enough nor confident enough to stand your ground, when your ground is entered upon by others.

Your latest harangues on Democrats in this country is bewildering. Do you really believe when you draw cross hairs on maps of Congress People's offices and explain to the loser lemmings who follow your every sick and pathetic word that it is time to reload, they will NOT take it literally and grab a gun? Do you really think the self loathing, bigoted brainless buffoons who repeat your hate and hegemony will take time to consider the consequences of violence? Do you even care that each word each breath you take is for some (those who believe in secessionism, the John Birch Society, the Aryan Nation, Federalism),is like reading some biased fact less Bible based on noting but bigotry?

You shirked responsibility as a mom when you decided not to tell Bristol at the age of 17 that if she did not use birth control, if she did not follow your wishes of remaining a virgin until marriage, she might get pregnant. You shirked your responsibilities as governor of Alaska when you quit because while Governor your ethics and morals went haywire and you had more scandals while in office than most any politician. You shirked your responsibility as a religious person, as you claim you are, by not bringing peace on earth, but looking for as many ways possible to divide, to disagree to delineate "us from them".

At first I thought you were like a small mosquito bite, annoying, but eventually both the itch and the swelling would go away. Then I thought you were like a rash, contagious and spread about by those who take no responsibility for their own misfortunes, those who confuse religion for reason, and those who live a life of fear and paranoia always looking for the bad guy. But now you have morphed into something more deadly. You are like Lyme disease. You are a parasite that burrows deep and hides within the body. Your continuous ranting and irresponsible raves torment the body and there is constant pain and discomfort. Left to your own selfish, disingenuous diatribes, mean spirited sinister spewing, say it and walk away from it attitude, you are succeeding in tearing this country into small pieces, and moving ever and ever as far away from consensus and conscience. you are slowly killing the body.

Your fame and fortune elude me. Your fabrication of truth, your lies, your disinterest in fact amaze me. The fact that some can not see the illusion you are mystifies me.

This is MY country Ms. Palin, and no matter how you try and color it, I don't see the red, white and blue, I see shady, dark, dreary and disaster in your pallet. I hope those who want fair, those who wish for hope, those have heart, hose who don't want to shoot their enemies rise above the cowardice of the minions you have gathered and make America whole again, make it healthy again, make it all you can not do, nor choose to do.

not so okie-doe-ky

Anyone unemployed in Oklahoma can thank your Senator, Republican Dr. Tom Coburn, for suddenly taking some self righteous stand blocking a stopgap bill to extend jobless benefits for the millions of unemployed in his perceived Christian state and nation. (Where we do unto others…)

(For those not living in Oklahoma, Senator Coburn was the holier than thou Evangelical politician who felt that offering a bribe to try and erase his Christian cohort, Nevada Republican John Ensign’s affair with his chief of staffs wife would keep the adulterous adventure from becoming public fodder. Senator Coburn who can recite the New Testament forwards and backwards, (never really reading it for its truth, but reciting it for those who prefer fear and doom), decided that the sanctity of marriage was not that important if one of his fellow C Street buds was abusing it, but was totally a priority to keep the gays from partaking in it.)

Once again the Senator is using the old, “it’s for the children”, excuse in prolonging the financial misery of the unemployed in this country by saying that he could not vote for this extension because “what we are doing is stealing future opportunity from our children.” The good Senator had no reservations when he did not question the amount of money he and the Republican majority voted in providing Halliburton billions of dollars for weapons, material, equipment for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Even when the military complained about the quality of the Halliburton supplies Senator Coburn was not concerned about the ‘future of the children’ as he agreed to support the “no bid” contracts submitted by the ex boss of Halliburton “Dickie” torture them hard Cheney. Senator Coburn had no qualms about the ‘future of the children’ when he agreed to the Goldman-Sachs bailout offered by his Republican President, Bush, nor has Senator Coburn stepped forward to promote a consumer based agency to stop the financial abuses by the lending institutions and the banks. (He is a fan of the Regan and then Bush supported “trickle down tax theory”, so I guess the children of the wealthy will have a perfect future.)

I am curious about the future of the children if they are living in a home where mom or dad have no income and have to decide on paying the rent, food or medical care. While the Senator has none of these problems to face due to his employment, I wonder while he is celebrating the Easter season if the thought of the children of others will even enter his Christian conscience?

The Senator from Oklahoma is now the second, ‘its for the children’ elected official of the Republican party to not acknowledge the plight of the unemployed. His sidekick the ex baseball player, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, stood on a holier than thou platform last month in denying the continuation of employment benefits and holding up another stop gap measure. He was able to create a two day furlough for about 2000 Transportation Department employees. (During his tirade against those unemployed Americans who he (Bunning) described as lazy for wanting unemployment in the first place, the Senator did not miss one day of his earnings.)

Compassion, understanding, leadership, caring, does the Senator from Oklahoma have any of those words floating anywhere around in his Evangelical Christian conscience? Awareness, involvement, concern, vote the bum out, do any of the electorate in Oklahoma have any of those words in their gut?

Your Senator has now created a mess for our country. Is his lack of empathy, his hypocritical behavior, and his baseless remarks of any concern to all you Oklahomans? What he says and does and how he votes is not okie-doekie!

anarchy by any other name...

Once again the cowards’ incite the masses to riot, and with their tails between their legs, try to cower into the darkness when confronted with their actions. Once again the rhetoric spewed by Republican conservatives who defy the rights of democracy, or the churning, caustic revelations of conservative talk show hosts who refuse to respect the office of the President harangue the hordes of self righteous bigots warning all, take arms, don’t become the victim and repudiate the results of their flammable fear. Once again the hate mongers, fabrication freeloaders, yell fire in the theater and quickly take the exit doors when chaos consumes the crowd.

Close to 100 Democrat members of the House of Representatives who voted in favor of the Health Care reform Bill have received email, U.S. mail, phone calls, or written notes threatening them, their families, and either their homes or offices with destruction of property, bodily harm and or death.

Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia had someone cut a propane line leading to a grill at his home in Charlottesville and a threatening letter was sent to the home of his brother after he (Perriello) voted yes on the Health care Bill. Rep Bart Stupak of Michigan received a letter that read, “…I hope you bleed… (get) cancer and die…”. He received a fax with the title “Defecating Bart (SS) Stupak” on it a noose attached. It was captioned “All Baby Killers come to unseemly ends either by the hand of man or by the hand of God.” One Congresswoman Louise Slaughter had a brick thrown through the office window of her district headquarters in Niagara Falls.

The response from the Republican leadership, as it typical of those who incite any act of violence are to portray themselves as the scapegoats for a public gone mad. The Republicans (who attended the Tea Party demonstrations), (who encouraged the John Birchers, ”birthers” to protest at any and all “town hall meetings held during the summer by Democrat elected officials), and (who never seemed to notice the signs with a noose around the Presidents head, or a gun pointed to the President, or who never heard Glenn Beck say if he could he would poison Nancy Pelosi), are of course backing away from the seeds of violence they planted by now standing upon a holier than thou platform. They are accusing the Democrats of dangerously fanning the flames of extremism and using reports of vandalism and death threats against pro-health reform bill lawmakers for political gain. Minority Whip Eric (we will stop Obama-care from succeeding by an means) Cantor from Virginia was shocked in awe as he stated “To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible.”

Reprehensible indeed that Mr. Minority Whip Cantor did not go to the airwaves with his Republican brothers and ask his gang of goons to stop behaving in a threatening, harassing, and reprehensible manner. Mr. Minority Whip Cantor along with his cohorts Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, and Mike Pence the number three “honcho” in the House all are pointing their fingers out and saying this stuff is bad, but it is made worse because the Democrats are making it an issue. No bully ever likes to be caught in the act, nor have any odor of the act drifting his way.

And of course, not be the center of attraction spewing up lies, hate and innuendo, good old (I play by rules and change them when necessary) Sarah Palin used some gun imagery in a posting on Facebook urging people to organize against 20 House Democrats who voted for the health care bill. Palin’s post featured a U.S. map with circles and cross hairs over the 20 districts. And Senator (running scared king of the hypocrites) John McCain defended Palin, saying it was commonplace and “part of the lexicon” to refer to “targeted” congressional districts. (Senator McCain once again denying reality and not seeing the real issue, just his reelection.)

This country has seen chaos, havoc and harassment of its elected officials in numbers so great that even the vandalism and threats surprised a researcher at a think tank that monitors extremist groups. “I think it is astounding that we are seeing this wave of vandalism,” said Mark Potok of the Alabama-based Southern Poverty Law Center.

Many of us who remain silent, have allowed the screechy, disenfranchised, bigoted, biased and fearful to be led and guided by the mouthpieces of Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, McCain, Grassley, McConnell, Boehner, Cheney (Liz and Dick) go unchecked. We have looked in wonder at these buffoons thinking they are a small minority of people who will soon quiet down. We have tried to call them “grassroots organizations” overlooking who it is that created and funded these groups. We have given them status as a political group whose free speech rights need to be respected.

Now they are taking to the streets, and soon they will be taking to your home and checking on your political beliefs. They will listen to the bullies whispering in their ears from a safe distance, (those) who permit hate and loathing, jealousy, and bigotry to flourish. They will get the sanction to act out their own misconstrued anger, and rage in a manner that resembles the “brown shirts”, “McCarthyism”, and anti-democratic philosophy.

The Republicans are hoping all this turmoil, they created, will mold the election of 2012. Then if they are correct, the same corrupt, immoral Officials will try and sweep all of this horrible behavior under the rug. They will ask for a kinder, gentler America. But I am not sure if the monster they have created will not want more and more power. I am not sure if we wait until then to hold accountable the provocateurs of this madness the madness will cease.

sum people

Some state that freedoms are okay as long it is they who decide which freedom fosters their purposes… Some feel they are closer to God and state that in that close relationship they can speak, (or is it misspeak) for God… Some will look you in the eye, deny every ounce of truth, and pounce upon every intimate detail of a lie proclaiming the fabrications to be fact…Some will say no for purpose, (or is it politics), and not for principle…

The Republican Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli Jr. made it very clear to the universities and colleges of the Commonwealth via a letter that the state law prohibits “a college or university from including ‘sexual orientation’, ‘gender identity’, ‘gender expression’…as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy. Attorney General Cuccinelli Jr. proclaimed that all Virginians are not equal and some can be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation…Attorney General Cuccinelli Jr, was one of the 13 Attorneys General to submit a lawsuit stating demanding that all citizens of the United States obtain medical coverage is a denial of freedom of the citizens of Virginia to express their free will and go without coverage. He adds that the passage of the Health Care reform Bill is a large blemish to both the Constitution of the USA and democracy itself… Attorney General has decided that some freedoms are okay, that some freedoms are not. He decided that it is more about who HE wants to have freedom and less about freedom for all.

Pope Benedict XVI, signed a pastoral letter on clerical sexual abuse. He now wants to clear up these cases and aid the victims. People in Ireland and Germany to name a few are unnerved because for a long time, no one was able to credibly assure them that everything possible was being done to ensure that youth groups and schools were safe from sexual abuse. A collective of toughening attitudes is coming to fore via the Vatican, as more and more European Catholics are either leaving the Church or coming out as victims of abuse by the Roman Catholic priests. The Pope took his time in writing his pastoral letter, needing time to think, to collect his thoughts and perhaps speak to God…Pope Benedict XVI, via his American Bishops wasted little to no time informing the Catholic diocese of D.C. that under no circumstances would Catholic Charities support Gay marriages, Gay Adoptions, or Gay couples receiving any remuneration from the Church…The Pope was appointed as a spokesperson for God. Is it the God that needs a whole lot of time address the pathetic behaviors of abuse toward children, or the quick on the draw God who has no tolerance for people who love one another and their children.

Ex-Governor, Best Selling Author, Tea Bagger Delight Madam, Mom of the Year, Sarah Palin, pouted her fire engine red lips, glanced left and then right, and told the hometown fans all over America watching FOX News how absolutely appalled she was upon Rahm Emanuel's comment about "retarded" kids. the derogatory comment by the President's chief of staff was ignorant, irresponsible and wrong. It took about one hour for Ms Palin's tirade and dramatic response. She demanded an apology and spoke in glorious tones of hurt, anger, and disappointment, adding no matter who might say these mis-truths, Ms Palin would find them and let the world know just how insensitive they are. Immediately, that afternoon on his ever popular radio broadcast, Rush Limbaugh, not one to announce his own intentions, hammered home the fact that if Rahm Emanuel did apologize, he (Emanuel), was a pussy, had no backbone, and was easily intimidated. Good ole' Oxycontin Rush then added some more definitions of the word retarded and said no one will deny him his free speech...It took sister Sarah about three days to acknowledge Rush's broadcast, when she was finally forced to comment via her press secretary, the mad mom, the infuriated idiot, the no one, at least no one who is a democrat, will tread badly on my son, said that Rush's use of the word retarded was just used to describe Rahm Emanuel's abuse of the word. Rush who used the word "retarded" about six times was never chastised, but Rahm's use once was enough for World War III to begin...The fabrication is more glamorous than the truth, the lie sells books, the fact of fiction will free your soul.

With almost every attempted bill presented by the party that won a majority in the Senate and House, including the White House, the Republican elected officials have said "no". Actually before saying "no", the Republican leadership took copious notes from their handlers how to say no, and while saying no, how to add some innuendo, fictitious frivolous fabrication, and to add some red, white, blue and God to their answers. They offered "no", but never provided a "yes"...When a bill passed, the Republicans would go berserk, braying like banshees about no one giving them credence or care as to their point of view...They systematically vote against the good of the people, and constantly vote in favor of the wealthy, corporations, and the bottom lines of capitalism...It is always a slow process in saying "no" (drag it out so maybe the public will tire), but they never miss a beat in blaming others for the mis-perceiving or misrepresenting their negative tactics..."No" purpose has no purpose or principle, it just stinks and the odor of negativity permeates, not to be forgotten or forgiven.

Some people love to speak loudly,point a finger away from them and proclaim the enemy around them. Some people thrive in the "we/they" of the world, the love the so called differences, and only accept individuals into their club, who they deem to be just like them. some people will never face the truth, but force the lie. Some people are only safe when they live in ivory towers. And some people who have no idea of the real world in which they share the air they breathe are making some important decisions and declarations. And some of these people affect then lives of a ll sum of other people.

when rights seem so wrong

In teeny tiny steps, after a long trek in coming, the first round of the Health Care Reform battle has been accomplished. The good bad and ugly have been exaggerated, obliterated, fabricated and imaginate –ed. Dire predictions of socialism have been announced. Cartoonish figures of the President as Hitler, as Stalin, as Mao and the Red Brigade have been strewn on hundreds of posters, and warnings that anyone who even whispered Nancy Pelosi’s name in the past year are now on a list of Un-American activity subversives similar to the glory days of McCarthyism.

The party of “no”, all 41 Republican Senators and 178 Republican Congress People decided that personal politics was greater than the good of the citizens. With no bipartisanship, or real debate, they tried to stall the “bill”, and in the end refused to participate by voting nay. It seemed their corporate donors and their landfill of lobbyists, ranked higher than the health and welfare of their constituents.

But somehow in the same breath that many Republican leaders used to screech and scream about the demise of personal freedoms in health care they also protested in louder voices about not repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (LGBT’s should not have personal rights to serve in the military), abortion (women should have no right to their bodies), same sex marriage (no rights for the freedom to marry to just anyone).

Somehow in the convoluted “please the lowest common denominator of bigots” rational, it is okay to complain about loss of some rights for those you deem unworthy but its even mightier to champion the lack of rights for causes you are told to believe in. It is fine to complain about government control as being too fascist or socialistic, but if the government relies on religious dogma to become dictatorial its fine and dandy.

We are now peeling apart the Republican responses from at least 13 states Attorneys General who are willing to sue the Federal Government because each particular state would rather have their citizens go without health care. They want to permit people to opt out of buying into a health insurance policy and at the same time a majority of the same states have set restrictions on abortion, and who can or can not get married. It seems the Attorneys General are okay in denying freedom, rights, choice in some areas, and find no moment of pause in encouraging it in others. On what grounds…? On what principle…?

We hear the hue and cry “the right to life”, but once the life is created it just does not matter if they can see a doctor, avoid pre-existing health conditions, or choose between shelter or health, food or health. We hear the cry “it’s for family values”, when the protesters decry the love between same sex partners, but if the family can not afford the cost of medical bills what happens to their value then?

Now it seems it is the time to get even with those "damn democrats". It's time to punish those who think about the poor, the unemployed, the minority, the middle class American who strive for more. Its time to play politics so the same old stodgy corporations, CEO's, lobbyists, lemming like self loathing, blame others for their being a victim can add one more notch to their belt of denying, and defying.

So instead of moving the country along with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the party of "no", is just counting the days until the elections of 2012, hoping those who hate, those who are afraid, those who want their wounds of bigotry and bias to just fester, will once again change the face of America and go backwards into the world.

Teeny tiny steps by elected officials who dared step beyond the pale, only t be challenged by bullies who never speak the truth, never do as they say, and only want to keep the downtrodden down.

The cry for rights by the Republicans just seems so wrong.

amendments or anarchy?

After too many months, plenty of politics, pontificating, and propagandizing a Health Care Reform Bill has found its way to the Oval Office, and is awaiting a signature. As anyone who ventured to the airwaves, both television and radio, or planted themselves in front of the Internet, or stood around a water cooler knows, this iteration of Health Care Reform looks nothing like its ancestor, and still faces roadblocks and detours.

I believe this country has unearthed a lingering odor of racism, bigotry, and poison and mean spiritedness lead by self serving politicians, demonstrated by selfish corporations and embraced by self loathing citizens, during the Health Care debate / debacle. I believe truth was disguised to look like treason, honesty was replaced as heresy, and need was voided for the necessity of both the bottom line for corporations and the political futures of politicians.

I am fearful that a divide has erupted so deep and divisive that unless it is approached and acknowledged by everyone, this country is open for internal conflict which will leave wounds that will fester and not heal. I am fearful that smart, altruism, insightful, are in battle with dumb, selfish and thoughtlessness leaving a trail of vindictiveness, vitriolic, and violence.

Take a look at how each state’s politicians, red or blue, have reacted to the pronouncements from the Federal Government.

In Texas, Governor Rick Perry, beat his Republican opponent in the Governors primary by speaking loudly and proudly of secessionism. He reminded his hard core baseline of voters, that Texas will not tolerate liberal, socialistic ideas from Washington, and if need be the Republic of Texas will wave its lone star flag in Austin and defy the laws it deems unnecessary.

The Utah Attorney General is joining nine other states to sue the Federal Government in its new mandate requiring all Americans to buy Health Insurance. Led by the urging of 35 year veteran Senator Orin Hatch (who has receive3d socialized medical care since he was in office), of the “beehive” state says the Federal Government can not enforce this type of commerce on individual states.

And 40 states have bans in place to disallow same sex marriages. According to each of the state mandates, their law, not the law of the United States, makes same sex marriage illegal, and in turn does not recognize the laws of those six states who do permit same sex marriage.

Since the election of Barak Obama, and the majority of Democrats in the Senate and the House, a sudden rash of states rights advocates have decided to take the Constitution word for word, and deride progressive gains as socialistic, communistic, and illegal attempts to take away democracy. What is fearful to me is that a majority want to usurp any rights of a minority, or a group they have little in common with, and define their rights, their view of the Nation, and their homogeneous ideas as appropriate for the entire population.

The amendments to the Constitution express the concern for states rights, as well as defining what the states can not deny citizens of that state or of any other in the Union. And at times the Supreme Court intervened concerning themselves with the denial of civil rights as based on religious or arcane definitions of wrong and right, good and bad.

Amendment X of the Constitution states “…The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people…” This provided each state with the power of the conviction of its own population. Each citizen could deicide that how they live in their state was as similar as those in other states or unique for their own needs.

But, after the Civil War, the Federal Government had to intervene and take away the prejudices and histories of each state and added the XIII Amendment, “…Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction…”

If it were up to the unique histories, and the unique environment of the states with slavery in deciding states rights, many would have never stopped their slave trade. But the Federal Government had a higher plane, a higher stake in the matter of all Americans and voided those state’s rights.

Then the Federal Government felt it essential for the welfare of all to create Amendment XIV “...All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Once again the Federal Government realized that the States might get it wrong if the more vocal or hegemony of its citizens resonated louder than the diminishing voices of those quiet and dismayed. This was a response by the Federal Government to lead the way for a minority to receive equal rights. And along with this response, the Federal Government decided that states should not decide who can and can not vote, so the XV Amendment was added, “…The rights of the citizens to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude…” Whatever the few in the states who felt they were superior or gifted by God to have the power to vote were reminded by the Federal Government we are equal.

And, equality took even more time to be inclusive of not just color, but of gender, and some states under the leadership of religious demigods, held sway and had their legislators deny women the same rights as men and the XIX Amendment was added to the Constitution, “…The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex…” The Pastors, religious leadership of almost every orthodox religious order deemed this as unnatural and demeaning of the values of family. Each state we were told at sermons should have the right to save its traditions, save its children from powerful women, and do as they please. But smarter minds, felt equality were more important than petty superstitions.

And equality had to make one more leap to escape the states rights to keep assumed undesirables, minorities from voting when the Federal Government had to pass the XXIV Amendment, “…The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election…shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax…” Bigotry and racism can be masked and was under the guise that if you had money you had rights. So some States thought they could control the electorate with taxes, but once again equality reared its head and the Federal Government triumphed.

And as if the amendments were not enough, in so many cases the Supreme Court had to become involved in overriding the rights of each state, and Loving v. Virginia became a landmark civil rights case when a 9-0 vote declared Virginia’s anti miscegenation statute, the ‘Racial Integrity Act of 1924’ unconstitutional, ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States.

Most if not all Amendments to the Constitution mentioned, were enacted by the Federal Government, overriding the States power, because it was felt the greater good should be served. And when each of the amendments was enacted this country did not turn into communist Gulag Archipelago, or socialist communes, or into a military run government. The country becomes freer, more inclusive.

With the help of a unified Republican Party, with the inclusion of racist, and bigoted so called “grass root” groups, with the feverant ranting of organized religious leaders afraid of free thinking congregants, with FOX News’s fabrications, lies, and disregard for the truth, with permission to hate granted on the highest levels of power, suddenly the history of why states rights may exclude and not include seem to be tossed and forgotten.

And the battle line began to be drawn when the African American became President, it grew deeper in the Earth when the rights of all began to be discussed out loud and now has ballooned into anarchy and fear mongering with the passage of the Health Reform Bill.

Imagine a country where you need a passport to travel from state to state. Where you need a primer of which laws are good and which are bad. Where separate but equal based on race, gender, wealth, religion are the norms.

It worries me, a lot to imagine that.

war on money

There seems to be a war over money raging fast and fierce in this country.

There seems to be different sides in this conflict, pulling and tugging at a population which is not wealthy, not overly educated, nor savvy enough to understand when the preverbal wool is being pulled from under their feet.

We are daily, lectured, from the bully pulpit microphones of the Conservative radio and talk show hosts, that too much government is bad. We hear the same harangue that if we don’t watch out communism, fascism, and socialism will seep so fast into our lungs that the last breath we take will be covered with the red from the flag of the former Soviet Union, and perhaps choke on a swastika.

We are being told through narrative on a chalk board by Glenn Beck, out right fabrications and fact less fable from FOX News, or thinly veiled racial slurs by Rush Limbaugh, that the status quo of the past 8 years, the glory days of the frivolous Trickle Down Economics from the Reagan years, the literal acceptance of a Constitution written in 1776, are the true paths to an America where the red, white blue not only fly proud, but will fly over all the continents of the world.

We can not allow the government to reform health care, we are told by the Republican party of “no”, because that would make the government way too big, way too big brother-ish, way to responsive for making change. We are told by the same Republicans that if left alone the current Health Insurance Cartel and Pharma-conglomerates will heed the need of the citizenry of the U.S. and make the appropriate changes. We are NOT told by the Republicans why premium prices have grown, policies have been denied, participants have no voice, pre-existing conditions suddenly appear, and no self policing by the Health Care Industry has yet taken affect. We are told the government knows less about health care than the for profit corporations. And we are NOT told just how much money most if not all of the politicians against reform get directly or indirectly from the health care lobbyists. And we are reminded in every anti health reform ad that if the Government gets its hands on health care the price will rise. We are never informed in those same commercials why the price we currently pay for insurance is not okay. Nor are we ever educated on why preexisting conditions, or dropped policies or premium price increases make sense.

Seems there is war over money. The share holders come first in the health care revolt, the Congressmen/women come second, and the salaries and bonuses of CEO’s come third.

Senator Chris Dodd (D) of Connecticut is chairing the attempt to place a finance reform bill through the Senate. (He is not seeking re-election he says because his time to serve in the Senate has come to a conclusion. But prior to making that statement, Senator Dodd was caught receiving mortgages for two of his homes by Countrywide Lending at below market-rate numbers. Senator Dodd, never bothered to disclose this in formation on the six, count ’em six financial disclosures he was required by law to provide the public.) But as his last hurrah, and a mia culpa without the mia, the Senator is trying to establish some regulatory reform for the Banking Industry. With the worst recession to hit Americans since the Depression, with wall Street bingeing on their own rules and regulations, with the average American wondering why Main street is not on the map of recovery, Senator Dodd, has made it his mission as Senate Banking Chairman to try and bring salvation and sanity back from the brink.

But even though the average man/woman has felt the ravages of an unfettered phalange of pathetic power moves, there are obstacles and oblivion by the Republicans to provide any kind of policing of the banks. Un- American, we are told, is to regulate anything in this country, and once again, like the health reform debacle, we are told that leave well enough alone it will mend itself.

What we are NOT told, is just how much money the anti banking reform crusaders have and will receive for their political coffers, and heir own personal pleasures. The war on money is a winning battle for the nay sayers once again.

The President has had enough of Bush’s marketing plan or was it ploy for education, ‘No Child Left Behind” and is now instituting his own education reform. The President wants failing schools to be given a better chance to succeed, and wants students and their families to reap the rewards of quality education not just based on test scores but based on what is learned how it can be used for every day living, and for students to see there is a future if they continue to seek higher education.

Sounds cool, an educated youth becomes an employable adult, who then becomes a tax payer, who then is giving to this country and not taking. But once again, there is a war on money being waged in most if not all of the states in the Union.

The first cuts in state budgets are cuts in education funding. The first cuts are to eliminate teachers (the teachers are always the culprits, because most of them in the eyes of state legislators are incompetent, corrupt or just asking for too much salary). Athletes, actors, and bankers who make big mistakes never make too much money)

But the deficits are rising in the states, and the first cuts are teachers, (more kids in the classroom, curriculum, we don’t need the arts, physical education is for sissies, and extra books or chalk or paper will make the kids lazy). We have no money to spend on the professionals who educate our children, we have no money to spend on minority kids, we have no money to be spent on public education, because this is America and religious based education is better for the kids anyway.

So the war on money is waged in each state as the President promises to make our youth brighter, and better. The states seem to find money for salaries for politicians, prisons, and paying tobacco farmers not grow tobacco, paying for stadiums, and negotiating land deals for professional sports teams.

There is a war on money as far as I can discern, and the winners seem to be those in high tax brackets, those from corporations, those who lobby, and those in politics who care about their personal bottom line.

There is a war on money and as far as I can understand it those who will most certainly be wounded by the battle are supporting the wrong side in this scrimmage. But when you victimize yourself, blame others for your mishaps, have grown up with bigots, think that being biased is Gods will, hate anyone not like you, your choices sometimes don’t pan out.

There is a war on money in this country, and anyone who has a conscience, who cares who is concerned for a greater good should not be waving a white flag, but be mad as hell and be fighting back.

thrive or die

Democracy thrives when debate lives. A governmental system which allows for give and take, conjecture to be replaced with consensus, and dialogue to dissuade bias and bigotry is a system which rewards difficult decisions and dilutes dangerous diatribes.

I am glad there are a group of people who reminisce about the days when the colonies wanted their independence from Great Britain. (No unnecessary taxation without cause and representation is fair). I am pleased that for any cause a grass roots organization arises, gains strength to have their issues be hard, and fights forward stressing their objections. (However grass roots used to mean actual real people gathering, not corporate types encouraging and inciting them). I am impressed when people who disagree take a stand and press for the truth, listening and not just speaking. (Not trying to drown out anyone who might differ, or demonize differences).

I am disappointed however in those who now identify as the Tea Bag Movement, who seem to be un-bipartisan, uninterested in the common good, unable to delineate personal bias from selfish principle, and unintelligent in understanding both sides to a question. They seem eager to do the UN thing, but reluctant to be inclusive, engaging, and involved in finding out the facts or seeking any form of cooperation.

The hoo-ha’s and haranguing regarding how bad health care reform MIGHT BE are always loud and clear, along with photos of the President in various cartoonish like poses on posters. The yelling is loud, but the argument is never clear nor based on fact, but laden with fictitious fallacy fostered by the likes of FOX News, Dick Army, and a coalition of self serving lobbyists from the Health Insurance Cartel and Pharma-conglomorates. (The success of any riotous rally is to insight the fear, deny the truth, and show pictures of “other kinds of people”, who will supposedly gain more than you and your family are owed).

It seems the rebellious acts to deny the passage of health reform are counter intuitive to the protesters unless; all of the Tea Baggers are satisfied with the cost of their premiums? Do all of the Tea Baggers have no pre-existing conditions, do all of their employers pay 100% of the monthly bill, do none of them use Medicare, have they not been involved with the constant price increase of premiums, have none of them been ejected from a premium due to some perceived expensive procedure?

Why haven’t these “grass root” self proclaimed spokes people for Middle America taken their posters, and bull horns to the offices of the Health Insurance Cartel offices? Why have they not chanted their God Bless America slogans in front of the Pharmaceutical companies begging them to bring down the cost of drugs? And why haven’t the Tea Baggers, bagged about the big question of why should health insurers remain a for profit industry, when what they do should not be about turning a profit for share holders, but to change a life for the patient?

Why is there no hue and cry from these good Americans as to the outrageous proliferation of profits that percentage wise are spent on CEO salaries and marketing. Why is it that the Tea Baggers are so angry at a Government which is trying to help the helpless, the hopeless, and the harried, and not one word of anger or distrust is uttered for the businesses which have little compassion for those they are suppose to serve?

I enjoy debate, but as I learned how debate works, it is based on fact first, emotion and delivery second, and the need to understand the opposition, third. There is no debate, there is no grass roots movement, and there is only selfish bigotry encouraged by a patronizing rogue of politicians who polarize the public. And all of the angst, the agonizing arguments, the paralysis of doing nothing are paid for by the lobbyists of huge corporations who delight in the delirium of lemmings who end protesting their own conditions.

Democracy is as strong as it weakest link. I sometimes hear the shrill sound of steel rusting and links breaking every time a Tea Bagger bags!

common sense or non sense

Common sense or nonsense, sometimes I wonder how we categorize the commentary we provide, receive and request.

Seems the rules of the game are established, until new rules are needed due to a disagreement or discrepancy of the original rules. Then all that was written in stone begins to crumble and collapse, and a brand new, written in granite, rule book is established.

The convenience of change always seems to dominate the discussion when the dialogue diverts from honest to less than honorable.

The Catholic Church is once again caught up in Priestly acts of molestation. It is the European continent who now has to acknowledge its Bishops and Cardinals covered up the abuse of children by Priests who while providing religious education included their own form of sex education. And once again in hindsight, the powers that be admit that had they to do the cover up over again, most of the covered parts would have been visible.

We hear the same old stories of how the molestation was church business, and how the church was supposed to have dealt with these crimes. Roman Catholic, Cardinal Sean Brady said he would not resign, (unless Pope Benedict XVI asked him to) despite admitting he helped the church collect evidence against a child-molesting priest-and never told the police about the crimes. He went on to say the church did not inform the police because of “a culture of silence about this, a culture of secrecy.”

But the same church felt it needed to go public in Washington DC (no code of silence here) when that city passed a law acknowledging gay marriage. The church was so loud that it stopped funding dollars to its Catholic Charities for fear that some gay families might want to adopt homeless, unloved kids. The church felt it needed no “culture of secrecy” to stop a process of helping kids find love, but remained silent when its priest were making some kind of twisted love to kids.

The Pope was loud and clear as to his disapproval of the gay marriages, gay adoptions and his public stance on the immorality of those two pieces of cultural life. He has over and over made his position on that very clear. But the pontiff has yet to accept the 3-month old resignation offers of three other Irish bishops who have been implicated in Catholic abuse cover-ups in Dublin. Instead the Pope is expected to publish a pastoral letter soon to the Irish people. A spokesperson said that when that paper is published the Pope would speak with a “clear and decisive voice”.

A crisis of immoral behavior as seen from the church’s eyes, yet the consensus on gays who want to adopt kids, have a family is clearly wrong, immediately stated as wrong and priests molesting children requires more time to consider the facts.

Is this okay because it’s the Pope? Is this okay because it’s church business? Is it common sense or nonsense? Is it a change in rules because the rules were broken by the people who created them? Is it honest or honorable or deplorable?

Makes you wonder.

dysfunction

I am not sure just how dysfunctional our Government has been recently? I know it is broken, I know it is filled with loopholes, I know it caters to those with money, and I know it is blasted with special interests, cratered with lies, and smothered with smarmy innuendo and self promoting and self serving politicians.

We can choose to vote the bum out, but we never seem to do so, we just replace him/her with someone new dressed in a cloak of deception, speaking from both sides of his/her mouth, telling the voter yes I can, but telling his brokers, the lobbyists, party loyalists to the extreme left or right, yes we can, and never quite voting his/her conscience, just his/her wallet, book deal, or future job once out of the political arena, saying yes I will, indeed I will.

We all have lived and are living with the consequences of unbridled behavior from the Finance “mavens”. We accepted the notion during the Republican controlled Congress and the Bush Cheney debacle of government that trickle down theory of capitalism works and will in fact make the average schnook rich enough to place more debt on his/her credit card. We were lectured that no Government interference was necessary to control the wheeling and dealings of Wall Street, and that if we couldn’t trust really smart people to run our banks, then why pay them so much in bonuses and salaries to do so in the first place?

Many Americans parlayed, partied and played under the rules of a non regulated Financial System and bought big, spent large and bit off way more than they ever could swallow. Many Americans loved the way the Republicans were wearing the flag on their lapels as they helped their contributors consisting of corporations, big business smash the budgets, savings and incomes (of too eager not to comply citizens, too busy looking ahead and not looking at their current status) to stop them.

And now based upon the reneged promises of disingenuous Elected Officials, we are told that regulation will not be good for change, but allowing the same people with disregard towards the American pocket book to figure it out. They have learned their lessons of greed and gluttony and they who did a lousy job of guarding the chickens, should once again be responsible for the protection of the hen house. It is not the American way to set regulations shout the Tea Bag group, it is not the American way for Government to control so much shout the Neo Cons, it is not the American way to disallow the rich to get richer, by protecting the poor, shout Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh. We will become Socialist, or Fascists, or Communists if we let ANYONE interfere in what our forefathers meant when they wrote the Constitution, they all shout.

And so, the harried hue and cry which unemployed workers screamed, the frantic ranting foreclosed homeowners wailed, the maddening moans from worthless stocks of share holders, the pitiful pining of pensioners losing value in their savings, are just treated as distant noise of a year gone by; and are just muted sounds of victims who are due no compensation, no counsel, no comment on change or correction.

And the 2010 mid term- elections are coming up fast, and once again as has become the case, we are being told that too much Government interference will be bad, it will bring an Armageddon much worse then the past two years under Obama. (No reference to the 8 years of Bush/Cheney who helped create the current mess). We are lectured by those who seem to benefit from the vast divide between rich and poor, educated and uneducated, whites and non whites, that regulation is a villain.

We are told to trust them, to believe in them to ignore whatever false accusations have been stated about them while they were in power. We are told that they have the hearts and minds of the American public at hand. Don’t trust the change you can count on, instead trust those who think change is unnecessary.

Dysfunctional Government, like a dysfunctional family can only remain dysfunctional until the members of the family, the members of the government take a stand and stop the negative interactions, deny the codependent behavior, and destroy the lies which masquerade as truth.

I am not sure how dysfunctional our Government has become, but maybe it has become that way because those who create the Government are the culprits and collude with the idiots who run the asylum? And all of us as members of the family of the United Stares are responsible to make some sane choices Just maybe if we do the dysfunction will end.