any of you

If during the debacle and disregard for anyone but the wealthy… the lax regulations of the Banking and Financial Institutions… the exchange of lobbyist money to buy a vote during the Bush/Cheney dictatorship, you found yourself unemployed, fired, or losing a job, YOU are now considered a low life, selfish, lazy individual who would rather be unemployed than work, as clearly pronounced by the Republican Senators in Washington D.C.

The vote to extend unemployment compensation has once again been stalled by the princes living in their ivory tower, who identify politically as Republicans, and who insist those unemployed are unemployed by their own free will. The men and women who segregate themselves from the real world of America, who only hob knob with CEO’s Lobbyists, and upper class wealthy businessmen have made it publically clear that being unemployed has nothing to do with the past 8 years of failed legislation, but more to do with too many free loaders. To every single man and woman all of the Republican Senators in Washington have voted to block any extension for anyone to receive furtherance of their unemployment benefits.

And all of you out there, who want to vote the bums out, make sure you have a job because the bums you want to vote in, the Neo Cons, the Tea Baggers, and the John Birchers have even more disregard for the deadbeats who refuse to find a job.

If you were ever under the impression that democracy in the United States equated to one person one vote, and spent any time reading the biographies and resumes of those running for office, and felt very empowered because YOU could go to the voting booth and cast YOUR vote, YOU are in for a rude awakening. No longer, according to the sweetheart candidates of the Tea Bagger Brigade running for office (under the banner of Republican primaries), during the mid year elections, should the power of the ballot be the motivator for electing a candidate. Nope, instead for America of 2010 it is the power of the 2^nd amendment. In 7 out of 10 political ads for candidates running in Republican primaries, there is an inference an insistence, an intimidating factor which explains that if you can’t vote out the bum by ballot, perhaps one should consider their 2^nd Amendment right, the right to bear arms.

The right wing/Tea Baggers/Libertarians/ Fox News supported candidates/GOP hooligans have all insinuated that this might be the year to use force to force the vote. All of the candidates’ express two identifiers that they know will resonate with the disenfranchised, delusional, dysfunctional voters, they have a 100% rating from the National Rifle Association and they are good Christian soldiers.

If you ever believed that the Constitution was a document to protect Americans from a government that might run roughshod or become dictatorial or a government which would deny civil rights, YOU had better throw some cold water on your face wake up and take notice of those who read the Constitution as an extension of their particular version of a Christian Bible.

Starting, in the Bush/Cheney dictatorship, enforced by the Republican majority, Habeas Corpus was eliminated. Continuing with the appointment of Republican activist justices to the Supreme Court who proudly identity as Federalists first and Supreme Court justices second, permeating to those states who need a scapegoat to blame their short comings on (Arizona and their unconstitutional illegal’s law), and now like flatulence floating above the heads of the Republican/Aryan Nation, KKK, Confederate loving Tea Bag candidates the Constitution is being banded about as a personal document for white, heterosexual, Christian citizens only!

People like Tea Bag favorite Rand Paul of Kentucky is questioning the denied rights of business owners who do not want to serve blacks. The John Roberts Supreme Court and its activist Republican majority of Justices deciding that corporations are people, the Republicans in the Republic of Texas who want to brand homosexual Americans as criminals have all decided that the Constitution needs adjustment to suit their biases. They scoff and scorn at Progressives who read the Constitution as an all inclusive binding proclamation and insist that they (the Neo Cons/the Evangelical/the corporate driven Republicans) are the true decipherers of the true meaning the fore fathers had in mind when completing the Constitution.

If any one of YOU thought that America reached a milestone in electing its first Black president, that we finally waved good bye to a president (Bush) who flouted that ignorance was bliss, corporate greed was good, or were going to put back in place rules and regulations (ripped apart by the republican majority in Congress) that were fair and favored the average American, you had better RETHINK, and RECONSIDER.

America of 2010 is becoming a scary place where the dumb are gaining power, the ignorant more baseless resolve, the angry momentum, and the lemmings leading the way. America is taking 5 steps back and permitting biases, bigotries and self serving people to shape our destiny.

When will it be too late to move ahead? When will it be too much to overcome? When will it be just too bad we were not smarter?

the wonder of it all...

The wonder of it all!

The Republican Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barber, was adamant at first, that the Deepwater Horizon explosion was nothing more than an unnecessary accident in the Gulf. No need to harp on the why’s or wherefore’s of this incident, he insisted, we must continue to drill baby drill, so America can rid itself of the black gold we mine from all those Arabs. (Of course all the oil dredged from the Gulf does NOT go to the American consumer.) His political pockets lined with the green backs from the Oil Cartel lobbyists, Governor Barber, seemed aloof, and unimpassioned nor unimpressed with the magnitude of the disaster in the Gulf. The Governor, reciting the mantra from the playbook of many if not most Republican politician lackeys insisted that the President’s moratorium on off shore drilling was one more telling sign of either Communism or Fascism coming to the front door of every God fearing Christian American in the U.S. (After all our founding fathers established America as a Christian nation.)

All of this biased banter of course was shouted and proclaimed BEFORE the ooze, the slick; the barf brown turds of thick poo began finding its way to the shoreline of all the Mississippi beaches. Governor Barber, feigning amnesia, forgetting his rant and rave about too BIG of a government, forgoing his accusations that Obama is like Stalin or Hitler now insists that the Federal Government (aka the boogey man), immediately come to the aid of his state.

BP has produced commercials for its online website stating that the incident in the Gulf (never an accident, because if they admitted to it being an accident, they would then have to admit, the causes of the accident, and then admit to their inexcusable and miserable arrogance in NEVER developing a back up plan) is now a beautiful chance for renewal. They show oil coated birds being plucked out of the water and hosed down by smiling BP employees, enjoying their baths and showers and then released to the wide expanse of the dark dank waters of the Gulf. The BP dis-infomercial also states that some birds did die, but for those living through the torturous tedious, traumatic attempts of being rid of the oil have a second chance to fly free. And what they do not state is that the birds fly free, right back to the dead sea from which they were originally plucked.

According to the BP official propaganda machine, the spill in the Gulf is a good thing because it brought together the community to help solve a problem. It brought man closer to nature, and it helped with the unemployment in the Gulf.

Republican Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is demanding the moratorium for off shore drilling is some kind of government maneuver to punish the good citizens of his state. He has staged a few town hall meetings with angry Louisianans standing all forlorn and frazzled shouting that the only reason the moratorium was established was to push the liberal agenda of President Obama to impose a smothering carbon emissions, environmental law that have no rhyme or reason. The good Governor who says state’s rights trump the over bearing and over regulated rules of the Federal Government (he also was publically against his state receiving TARP money, but privately took the checks to pay for infrastructure work claiming the money came from his own budget planning), insists that the INCIDENT in the Gulf was just a remote incident and once BP fixes the problem there will be no worries in the future of any other situation being repeated. BP, he says, is aware of the dilemma and will take all measures to make sure nothing like it happens in the future. (uh-huh!)

The citizens of Louisiana are caught between an oil slicked rock and an oil drenched hard place as the good Governor had never done any planning in creating any other kind of job in his state other than fishing or drilling. So the dire circumstances for most poor Louisianans become bleaker and bleaker, oilier and oilier.

No one, (the Federal Government, state governments, municipalities, the average American citizen), seems to be discussing just how important alternative fuels and energy should become. Few of us seem to want to wean ourselves from oil. Many of us ring our hands; blame the Muslim nations or Venezuela for not releasing more petroleum at cheaper prices. And some of us think that drill baby drill is still the correct way to handle the havoc and hopelessness of oil dependency.

We still permit the Oil Cartel to dictate energy policy, we still allow our elected officials to receive huge deposits of pay for play dollars, and we still keep our heads in the sand about the destruction of the environment.

Mass transit dollars are usually the first to be cut from budgets, arguments about building more and efficient rapid transit keep us standing in quicksand, alternative fuels are touted as too expensive, and people like Rush Limbaugh insist that as Americans we are entitled to drive BIG cars and use as much energy as we so desire.

The wonder of it all… is that we are smart people who seem to act so damn dumb.

activist judges...you betcha

So many times when a Democratic President wants to appoint a Justice to the Supreme Court, the Republican spin machine dominated by Big Business, Big Oil, Big Pharma, Big Corporations yell and scream that all the President wants to do is fill the Supreme Court with activist judges. Following orders from their captors the lobbyists for the wealthy, the Republican Senators, line up one by one and protest the potential candidate's nomination by digging deep and quoting some college thesis, some twenty year old remark, some impassioned speech made on behalf of the minority, the poor, the non CEO, and demand that the potential candidate is unAmerican, unpatriotic, uneverything. And above all else an activist judge.

Somehow the activist judge is never a Republican, not an ultra Conservative, nor a person who has not lived a privileged life. Somehow the activist judge is deemed a bleeding liberal, a believer in civil rights, a person with compassion, and someone who had to work his/her way up the social ladder.

And somehow, the lemming like, uneducated, selfish, evangelical Bible first Constitution second, bigoted, fearful citizenry buy the B.S. spoon fed by immoral, unethical, lying Republican Senators, many of whom have not stepped out of their Ivory Tower and into the real world for too long a period of time.

In two opposite decisions, the activist judges made it very clear whose side of the fair coin they are on, and whose side of the political fence they sit. (yeah, yeah, the Supreme Court is supposed to be immune from politics). The activist judges in both cases were those who were appointed by a Republican President, and who have constantly voted for what the political right wing constantly harangue and hysterically shout about.

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court held that Americans have the right to own a gun for self defense anywhere they live, expanding the Conservative courts embrace of gun rights since John Roberts became chief justice. (AP Press). In making this decision the court has weakened the gun control laws of both the District of Columbia, as well as the city of Chicago, both cities experiencing violence by the use of guns for the past few years. Both cities were trying to control the free flow of guns in urban areas which have impeded the quality of lives of their respective citizenry.

Reciting his arcane and refusal to look at the social climate in America, activist Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito said this ruling limits the states and cities ability to devise solutions to social problems that suit local needs and values. But then too bad about that.

I suppose Justice Alito does not drive through the mean streets of either Chicago or Washington, and sitting upon his perch in some lofty castle protected by the FBI, he could care less about the wasted lives killed by guns owned by people who have the freedom to purchase as many as they wish.

In a reverse decision, by the same activists judges in a 5-4 decision, (this time Justice Roberts having a change of heart), the same Republican activist judges were appalled that the Christian Legal Society (CLS) which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California's Hastings School of Law was denied its self appointed right to disallow anyone homosexual from joining that campus group. The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of sexual immoral lifestyle" as being inconsistent with the faith. (If this were a church related group or a non university group the CLS should and could continue their bigoted and homophobic immoral behavior), but the group meets on the San Francisco campus.

The court in a 5-4 judgement upheld a lower court ruling saying the Christian groups First Amendment rights of association, free speech and free exercise were not violated by the college's nondiscrimination policy, (Jesse J. Holland Associated Press).

Once again activist Justice Alito wrote a strong dissent for the courts conservatives saying the opinion "was a serious set back for freedom of expression in this country. Once again, sitting upon his perch in his Ivory Tower, activist Justice Alito does not see the denial of rights to a minority of any importance. The fact that any minority restricted from the majority has no speech at all is of non importance.

We have a great divide in this country that seems to stem from who it is who say they own the understanding and original meaning of the Constitution as written by our founding fathers. No one was alive when the Constitution was written but many seem to think they have the power to speak for the authors of the Constitution. Any new idea or perceived change to the Constitution by the Justices who understand that America has grown from need and reality deem that behavior as activism. Those on the right of center who seem to think they can channel the fore fathers, say you can not change the tenants of the Constitution. Perhaps they then want to go back to slavery, deny Women the right to vote, reverse the Civil Rights Act, and remain thirteen colonies.

Elana Kagan is going through the insane and silly stage production of Senate approval. Her clerking for Justice Thurgood Marshall has been labeled as being a clerk for an activist Justice, by good ole boys Senators Jeff Sessions of Alabama, and Jon Kyl of Arizona. They both labeled Justice Marshall the first Black American to be appointed to the Supreme Court as an activist Justice because he understood the imbalance of rights toward the minority populations in this country. Thurgood Marshall according to Senator sessions and Kyl did not follow the letters of the Constitution because he felt that separate but equal was a bad thing.

I think, from now on when called names for supporting the right of all, for promoting fair and equal, for fighting for he underdog, those of us who realize the status quo only supports the middle aged white man and his wife, should embrace the names and say as Sister Sarah so eloquently shouts, 'YOU BETCHA".

Activist Judges, yep the Republicans on the Supreme Court do it so well.

madness, maddening

I am tired, rather sick and tired of the hue and cry of voting the bums out. I am tired, rather sick and tired of the Tea Baggers claiming to be for the people, while they seem to select which people they are for. I am tired rather sick and tired of the lies and fabrication FOX News entertainers create in fighting against the President and fighting for the Republican party. I am tired, rather sick and tired of no matter what, for no matter whom, for no matter why, ALL of the Republicans in Washington decide to vote against any idea which is proposed by the Democrats to aid abide and help the average American. I am tired, rather sick and tired of so called Independent voters indecisive about who should be elected in Washington. Has anyone read the papers, has anyone lost their house, their job, their savings or know anyone who is struggling to survive? Has anyone tried to get their children educated in public schools? Has anyone recalled the last 8 years of Republican rule when BIG BUSINESS, BIG CORPORATIONS, BIG OIL, BIG HEALTH INSURANCE needed no regulations, needed no rules, only needed lobbyist money to pave the way into the foundations of this government?

Why does history never resonate any longer than a day or at the most a week?

Now the Republicans/Tea Baggers/FOX News Idiots are insulting the unemployed, the men and women who just to survive need some kind of unemployment benefit. Once again, the Republicans are cutting off the benefits of those, who because of the irresponsible governing of the majority of Republicans while in office during the Bush /Cheney dictatorship, have little to less and can not makes ends meet. Now the entire minority of Republican Senators has stalled the plan to extend long term unemployment dollars. Why, because the longer they stall any progress in this economy the more self assured they feel their chances of winning the November mid term elections will become. Do it not for the people, but do as much as you can for your own career.

The same Republicans/Tea Baggers who feel that President Obama committed a shakedown of BP, who want sympathy for the corporation, feel no need need to protect the welfare of, as they are refereed to 'stray animals, hobo's drug dealers' who really don't want to work.

The Democrats my not be the best of the cream to rise to the top of the political coffee cup, but they at least care about the poor, the middle class, the minorities, the LGBT, the undereducated, the intelligent, the not so intelligent, the devout and the non religious, those who still base the quality of this country on the basics of the Constitution which was written for and by the people.

Vote the bums out, REALLY! And when we vote the non bums in how many more years of Bush like governing do we want? How much more money do we want the CEO's and corporations to make? How bigger do we want the divide of wealthy to poor to increase? How soon do we want this country to become a Christian nation? How many more people do we want to be elected who believe Glenn Beck is smart, Rush Limbaugh cares, and Sarah Palin is smater than a 5th grader?

Get serious America, because the fools are rushing in and taking names of those who think, who feel, who have morals and ethics.

When does the madness stop?

ivory towers

Sitting upon his holier than thou perch nestled in his ivory tower in the US Senate Building offices, serving in his 33^rd year, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah has pronounced by assumption, that unemployed people for the most part use their unemployment benefits for drugs. And to curtail the unproven, but assuredly so behavior, Senator Hatch wants to have all unemployed people take a drug test before receiving any benefits from the Government.

When asked how the government would pay for the millions and millions of drug tests necessary for the millions and millions of unemployed Americans (the ones who did not benefit from the Bush, Cheney dictatorship/ Republican era controlled tax breaks for the wealthy), Senator, (I have been in Washington for too many years and have no idea of the real world), Hatch said the money saved from providing the dismal unemployment check for all the ‘druggies’, would more than pay that expense.

Instead of spending his waking hours wondering how the unemployed might find jobs or finding ways to stimulate the economy to provide jobs, the Senator from Utah is busy demonizing the unemployed and assuming that they are unemployed because it is easier than finding a job. And while these maggots are lounging around doing nothing all day, they must surely be shooting, snorting or popping drugs.

Like many so called Conservative Republican politicians in this country solving the REAL problem takes too much time and effort, so it is more practical to create a false dilemma and immediately find a resolve for the imagined and not the real.

Decked out in his American flag lapel pin, wearing the red white and blue slightly stripped tie, sitting in the hallowed halls of the House of Representatives, the state of Texas’s (the state that insists secession is still an option if they don’t like how democracy works in the US), Congressman Joe Barton, chastised President Obama for his ‘shakedown of BP’ during the current oil spill disaster in the Gulf.

In a country which, (ever since the Republican activist Supreme Court deemed corporations having the same rights as individuals), prides itself in capitalism, said good ole’ boy, receiver of large bouquets of oil lobbyist money Representative Barton, the presidents actions were un-American and very socialistic. The President, according to Barton was wrong in chastising, and shaking down an American icon such as BP. It is like degrading any hard working citizen. And echoing the comments from such Republican luminaries (or is it loonies) such as John Boehner House Minority Speaker, Michelle Bachman Congresswoman from the 6^th district of Minnesota, and Haley Barber Governor of Mississippi, it was only an accident, and accidents happen to all of us.

Representative Barton said he was speaking on his own behalf, while making the call that President Obama was conducting a shakedown, but the boys and girls of the Republican spin machine, did worry that the intelligent Americans, the one who do not care that the president is a black man, a smart man, a man of compassion, might read through the lines and understand Representative Barton was speaking on behalf of all the Republicans receiving tons and tons of dirty oil lobbyist cash. So, one by one the Republican leadership stated that Joe was expressing a frustration, and misspoke. They (the Republican grand pooh bahs), twisted a few elbows and Mister Barton apologized. He did the kind of apology that is common in this day and age, which goes like this, “…if anything I said was hurtful to you I apologize…”

Representative Barton publically criticized the president for his handling of the BP crisis, but like all good cowards, sat in a non-public closed door meeting of Republican leadership and supposedly expressed his gravest mia-culpa’s to them. We are assured by the leadership that Mr. Barton has repented and is no longer on the side of the criminals called BP. Of course we were not privy to Barton’s conversations, but told by the same bunch of hoodlums who rely on fear and loathing for truth, to believe their word.

There is a so called rally to vote the bums out and vote in those who call themselves virgins in the world of politics. We hear cries from those running for political office that they are not career politicians-yet. We are told that the Constitution has been trampled on, the US is turning into a socialistic and communistic state and if elected these non ‘beltway boys and girl’ will make America whole again, Christian, non minority, the rich get richer, substitute the Bible for the Constitution whole.

And as we decide to get even with the current bums, we get snookered and slimed by the lies and lamentations of those who only seek self preservation and self promotion. We watch as they criticize those in power and wait until the new bums ride the elevator to their penthouse located in the ivory tower once occupied by the old bums.

Senator Hatch, Representative Barton are still in Congress, they still have great power, and greater influence. They both receive large donations from lobbyists, and have isolated themselves from anything real or right unless it serves the interests of their benefactors thus serving their own needs.

Both bums, Hatch and Barton should have been booted out a long time ago, but have survived. Perhaps it’s not about the ‘bums’ as much as it is about the ivory tower upon which they thrive. This election should be more about demolishing and destroying the ivory towers. When a ship is sinking the rats have no choice but to dive into the water and drown.

Wonder where selfish, self serving do as is ay not as I do rats end up?

Father's Day

Dear President Obama,

I read your Father’s Day message and was quite touched by the eloquent and effusive words and tone. You are indeed a proud Dad, and seem to love your children with much passion and power. You have made it very clear how important it is to be involved in the lives of your [our] children, and have emphasized that one single moment missed is one never to get back, and just what a loss that is to accept.

Mr. President, you have the mightiest soapbox available upon which to speak, and with that piece of property you have access to the ears, minds and hearts of many and millions. You have the ability to set into motion possibilities and promises, and have the power to avoid any and all issues untenable and ugly. You can move as swiftly as a gazelle or as cumbersome as a turtle in finding resolve and resolution. And sometimes Sir, I am impressed with your impassioned poise and unimpressed with your perceived pragmatic prose.

How many more Father’s Day messages must be delivered until two gay men who have created a family can be considered equal in status to a dad married to a woman? How many more Father’s Day celebrations must pass until the prejudice and anti Constitutional laws of bias, bigotry and homophobia are knocked down and replaced with equal, not just separate but equal? How many more children must return from school being bullied and badgered because they have two dads?

President Obama, you are instituting a series of plans to help train men for jobs, prevent domestic violence and encourage healthy loving families. I salute your for that, and hope your words turn into deeds and end up with positive actions.

But how many more children must live a life without a father because he was killed in the Iraq or Afghan War? How many more children will not be able to be hugged or held by their Dad because their father is too ill or unable mentally or physically to comfort them? How many more Father’s Days must pass when young men are fighting a war that seems to have never had a reason or a rhyme?

Mr. President you stated that you wanted men who are leaving prison to receive help from the courts so they could meet their child support obligations. This you added would help these Dads to reconnect with their children as soon as possible.

But what happens to the Dad’s who have tried to make an honest living as fishermen in the Gulf, as blue collar workers in the Auto factories, as middle class professionals in all vocations possible in this country who have lost their jobs because of the rise of greed and gluttony by corporations? How do those Dads who are unable to feed their kids, keep a roof over their kids head, who are emotionally distraught for doing an honest job for dishonest people supposed to reconnect with their children? How do those Dads who want to connect with their kids survive when Congress is more concerned with lobbyist dollars in their pockets rather than laws to protect the people?

President Obama, you ended your speech by saying, “…Our children don’t need us to be super heroes. They don’t need us to be perfect. They need us to show up and give it our best shot, no matter what else is going on in our lives…” Your words were wise and with that wisdom wonderful opportunities surely can arise.

But, Mr. President, this nation needs super hero’s to fend off the super villains from the Health Insurance, Oil, and Finance Cartels. We need the government to be perfect to fend off the imperfect capitalistic fervor inciting the rich to remain rich and the poor and middle class to wither away. We need our elected officials to show up, and stand up for the welfare of the many and the selfishness of the few.

Your Father’s Day speech was heartfelt and heartwarming, but Sir, how can we as fathers do our job when those we have elected to make the difference defer and deliberately delay, acting like dilatants in not doing anything to serve the people and instead decide to be self serving?

I have two children Mr. President and I worry about their future. I wonder if the current politicians who are fathers have the backbone, soul and moral fiber to make this country, this world a safe place for them to thrive.

No more words President Obama, please take action please deliver your Father’s Day message to those in Washington and ask them to rise above petty politics and actually act as fathers would, protecting their children.

Here is to a brighter, better Father’s Day next year.

pandora's box

Pandora’s Box has been opening and opening, the doomsday clock has been ticking and ticking, the quest for truth has been replaced with the request for lies, history is being ignored, and the rise of the religious zealot filled with dogma and distrust has risen like cream to the surface in the United States.

With the permission of people like Rupert Murdoch (founder, chairman CEO of News Corp), and Roger Ailes (President of FOX News), no news story aired on the “fair and balanced” network, need carry an ounce of truth to it. With the permission of the National Republican Party, no elected Republican politician need vote for anything Obama places on the docket even if it would benefit most Americans. With the permission of the leadership of both the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons by any other name is still Mormon) and the Catholic Church, civil rights can be denied to those populations deemed not created in God’s image. With the permission of the Tea Party death threats to lawmakers via the second amendment can be made and those making the threats can call themselves Patriots. With the permission of the Texas GOP homosexuality can be punishable by prison time or if necessary death. With the permission of the Congress (as long as the lobbyists continue to pay a pretty price for their votes) no regulation, guideline or rule needs to be created for corporations, conglomerates or CEO’s that might hinder the company’s bottom line.

Pandora’s Box is exhaling venomous odors that left unchecked will smother the sane, choke the correct, and annihilate America leaving it with the repulsive rigor mortis and stench of the Dark Ages.

No longer do the teachings of Thomas Jefferson count in the minds of the Evangelicals who repudiate the fundamentals of a division of church and state. This is a Christian and white nation shout the John Birchers, the Aryan Nation, the KKK and the Tea Bagger Brigade. Thomas Jefferson was an atheist and had sex with blacks so his word is to be discounted and destroyed. Helping along with that query, the Texas Board of Education has ordered all books printed for its thousands of students omit the anti religious and anti American words of Mr. Jefferson. No longer shall we learn that the Civil War in the United States was basically about the right to own slaves, to deny the black man/woman his her dignity, said the Governor, Attorney General of Virginia, urged on by the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy. No longer is it safe to be a citizen of the United States, say the white supremacists, the Neo Nazi’s, the middle aged white men and women of the Arizona legislature without always carrying papers to prove you are one of us. It’s not racial profiling, they smugly suggest, but if you happen to be any shade of brown we will assume you are illegal.

Pandora’s Box is engulfing the airwaves, the printed word the daily discourse of the public. Those who have little knowledge of fact are being fed fiction. Those who are vitalized by self victimization rejoice in the fact that they have found scapegoats and surrogates upon which to place blame. Those who try and find sanity and solace from within their churches, temples or mosques are fed homilies, teachings, prophecies from religious leaders who politicize their Bibles and fill each word with propaganda and poison. The blasphemes bombard any free thought, any new idea the parishioners may hold and instead the religious leaders (always under orders from their God) smother those ideas with tried and true hate, fact less fallacy, and tight controls on thinking correctly.

People like Glenn Beck can call anyone who he deems a threat to his career (and the millions of dollars he earns) a Communist or a Fascist. Rush Limbaugh smokes his cigar and chastises women’s rights, calls the President a reverse racist, harasses homo’s. Sarah Palin, can walk away from her duties as Governor, sing the praises of “Drill Baby Drill”, never inform her daughter of the two issues of abstinence, insist that Health Reform will include death panels, and be considered a saint within the Tea Bag Brigade and Conservative republican parties. Carly Fiorina, Mark Sanford, John Ensign, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, can all cheat on their spouses commit adultery, reek havoc within their own families and yet talk loud and clear (out of their other cheek) and declare that same sex marriage is the real culprit in dismantling the sanctity of the Institution of Marriage.

Pandora’s Box is spilling and spewing, polluting and polarizing, denying and dismantling the sense and sensibilities of the Nation. The dumb are getting dumber, the ignorant less intelligent, and those who want absolute power more purposeful. Do we need a Silver Bullet, a Wooden Stake, a Bucket of Water, and Ruby Slippers to stop this wakening giant? How much further does the lid of Pandora’s Box need to pry open before it can never be closed shut?

When is enough, enough?

so

So, the big boys, the OIL CEO’s all standing straight and tall with their hands up to swear the truth, finally permitted some of the truth to enter the universe and said, none of them, to every man, had real contingency plans in place should a deep water well, or that matter almost any well erupt, and begin dispersing crude. They piled up and chastised their BP cohorts and in a quiet kind of voice, the kind used when you want as little attention as possible, said they were disappointed in the misinformation and tomfoolery BP managed to bestow upon this nation of ours.

So, BP is still in charge of the clean up of the mess they created, calling the shots and controlling any and all commentary possible. No Haz Met uniforms for the clean up crew, no pictures of the dead wildlife floating to shore, to real substantiated number of barrels of oil coating the ocean and the beaches, no nothing unless the PR department at BP gives the official okee doekee. No offers of help accepted, because BP can take care of this themselves, thank you very much.

So, Senator Murkowski (R) of Alaska, Senator Inhofe ( R) of Oklahoma, and Governor Haley Barbour ( R) of Mississippi find little to fret about regarding the lies, the crime and the lack of follow through by BP and insist once we get to the cause of this incident we can move forward and continue to drill baby drill. The two Senators do not want to punish all the oil companies and feel asking for too much compensation might deter the oil companies from wanting to even drill. Governor Barbour has not read much about the spill as he is still insisting we must find the cause for a freak accident like the one in the Gulf, (not once noticing that the freak accident took place because BP never intended to provide any safety features to avoid the freak accident).

So, the President spoke to the American people, quietly sharing his grief and dismay with all of us, and semi loudly promising BP would own the responsibility of this accident, pay the costs for its unprofessional behavior, and clean baby clean the shoreline, the wildlife and the lives of those in the Gulf who have been drown in the sea of goop and gunk. He compared the will of the American people to the same will and power that brought us out of the throws of the Second World War, commented on the academic achievements of those he has placed in charge to handle the government’s response, and slightly mentioned the need to immediately begin weaning us off the use of carbon based fuels.

So the foxes are still guarding the henhouse, a truth was admitted with no one asking the liars to immediately remedy the falsehoods they have perpetuated, and why did they lie in the first place. Fingers as always were pointed to someone else’s errors; the high and mighty politicians claimed no ownership in lax regulations, or enforcing the law. The Conservatives still want less big government; the Progressives want action right this minute. The President got all pomped and circumstanced speaking from the Oval Office, and the Republicans feigned any direct responsibility for creating a an OIL CARTEL giant so large that not even David could knock them dead with a slingshot.

So 58 days later, we are still dazed and confused, dismayed and distraught, lectured to and spoken at, promised change and left with the status quo. So, 58 days later we have no consensus, more politics, dead wildlife, unemployed people, divisive propaganda, and facts only floating to the surface when forced from the depth of the sea. So, 58 days later and somehow nothing has changed.

once again, and again

Once again, men in $2500 suits, manicured nails, sitting elbow to elbow next to one another, all flanked by assistants and a scattering of attorneys are the corporate CEO’s. Once again, facing these men, all full of pomposity and self righteousness, a bevy of other men a smattering of some women, some with southern drawls, some with glasses strategically placed on the middle of their noses, some with pointed fingers, all stern and seemingly full of concern and care all flanked by this assistant that aide, are the elected officials.

Once again, pick an issue, perhaps Health Insurance, Finance and Banking, Energy, the Environment, the Auto Industry. Once again, pick a reason, perhaps catastrophic this, unbelievable that, unmentionable something, unfathomable something else. Once again, pick an incident, perhaps a financial meltdown, increase in cost, less coverage, reliance on foreign output, oil decimating our shores killing wildlife. Pick the reaction, appalled, perplexed, outraged, and indignant. Once again, pick the question, perhaps “how did this happen, why didn’t you know, where were the safeguards, why didn’t you try and stop this”?

Once again the supposedly brightest, most educated, brilliant minds in the corporate world taken to task by politicians for not doing a job that benefited the American people, but doing a job that benefits the shareholder. Once again the politicians being reactive instead of proactive feigning ignorance, lack of knowledge, assuming the best but receiving the worst. Once again panels, commissions, ad hoc committees established to stop the boggy man, run roughshod, set rules and regulations. Once again once the level of outrage resembles a rumble instead of a roar, nothing will be done to stop a cycle of greed and gluttony.

Once again we are witness to some disaster which could have been cancelled had anyone stopped receiving handouts from lobbyists, politicians were more concerned about doing a job for their electorate then being a hand puppet for the corporations, or the American people were more demanding in voting the real bum out and not voting another bum in. Once again we are driven to a maddening display of partisan politics with fingers always pointing out and no one brave enough to point the finger at them. And once again the middle finger from the collective Republican and Democratic politicians is pointed in the face of each and every American. (held firmly in place by the corporations).

Once again seems to come way too often. Once again we preach, reproach, rant and rave. Once again we promise, pound our fists, shout our dismay. Once again we wait. Once again, oh so damn frustrating and futile.

Instead of once upon a time, the rhyme goes once again in time.

let's make a deal

In December of 1963, the TV game show “Let’s Make A Deal”, premièred with host Monty Hall promising audience contestants that they could make thousands of dollars by just simply holding a pink piece of paper in their pockets. It was a show that was full of temptation, gluttony and greed. The show ran its course of television years and went to the great retirement studio only to be resurrected in October of 2009 and hosted by Wayne Brady.

The simple premise of this game show is to offer an assortment of prizes either hidden behind large to small boxes or lurking behind door number one, two or three. Usually the audience member is selected because he/she is wearing some outrageous costume, and the first trade is a very innocent a hand comb for a look at what’s behind the box, or hand over a piece of lint to have curtain number three open. The audience member is then lured into wanting more; never realizing the old adage something for nothing usually leaves you with very little.

Oscar Wilde wrote “…that Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life…” And with the resurrection of “Let’s Make A Deal” and with the art of marketing and the bottom line we can follow that adage letter to letter.

We, the people, are told that this is America and we deserve all the oil we want. And we are reminded that bigger is better, more is mandated, and finite has no meaning in the American culture. We start out with the Industrial Revolution, become quite sated in materialistic needs in the 50’s and with the Bush/Cheney dictatorship have hidden energy policies created for the consumer with the corporation benefiting the most.

We decide to trade a cleaner environment for bigger cars, mansion style homes, and appliances that eat and eat energy. We trade the safe and secure for door number one.

We want to compete with the Jones’s and decide that regulations and rules make the government too ‘Big Brother-ish’, so we permit our elected politicians to overlook sane and sensible. As long as money is being made, and the promises of trickle down economics still resonate, we decide to move forward with our luck and trade door number one for the hidden gems behind door number two.

We sing the mantra of ‘…its for the children…’ and do the deeds we do because in some twisted machination of the truth disguised as greed and gluttony, we believe not thinking about the future, but homing in on the here and now, will create a better tomorrow.

Learning nothing from the Financial Disasters or the debacles with the Health Insurance Cartels, we still believe that the CEO’s of corporations have the best interests of the individuals in mind as they promise a brighter future. We hear the lullaby of ‘drill baby drill’, and are told by Conservative Right wing talk show hosts that to be a stronger America we need to cut the pipeline to those damn Arabs, and build new pipelines in Alaska, off the Pacific and Atlantic and in the Gulf of Mexico. In a deafening silence we hear very little about alternative energies, and if those voices manage to be heard at all, we are reminded it will take too long to create alternative energy supplies, so lets continue to ‘drill baby drill’.

And so ex-Vice President Cheney holds secret meetings with oil executives, the mostly corporate driven Republican Congress nod excitedly as their donors and lobbyists from the oil companies feed their pockets with cash and the American public with lies, and the PR companies, paid in full by the Oil Cartel, promise a cleaner and brighter America. We pooh, pooh sissy people like Al Gore when he wants to speak the inconvenient truth, and we praise loopy loose minded people like Palin who say ‘to take back the pride and soul of America is not to find clean energy but to rape the land and seas of this great nation.’

And knowing all we know, ignoring any to all the facts, relying on false promises made by lying politicians we trade up once more for door number three. And when the crescendo is at its fullest, when we can’t hold our breath any longer, when our jittery nerves are about to burst, we open the door and our prize for wanting more, for refusing the facts, for thinking about now and not tomorrow--- is the largest oil spill disaster to hit the Gulf, America and the environment--- the Deepwater Horizon explosion, the murder of 11 people, and the callous and carefree BP inept follow up and follow through.

And instead of the big car, the diamond crusted necklace, the trip around the world, we receive the booby prize, an oil spill which keeps on giving and giving and taking and taking. And we all look bewildered and befuddled. How did this happen? How could this happen? We wanted what we were told we deserved. We were promised prizes!

Wonder how long this run of “Let’s Make A Deal will continue to play? Wonder if when they revive the show yeat again, they will ask the Devil to MC and add perhaps door number four.

what a revelation

It was the 40th anniversary of the celebration of gay pride in the city of Los Angeles today. Luckily, living in the city of LA, especially West Hollywood I can celebrate small victories being a gay man, and sometimes take for granted the gains I have made, and have been made for me being a part of the LGBT community, so Pride Days seem to have lost some of the sparkle tarnish. (although in the state of California I can not marry.)

But then as I was walking along the parade route rooting on the Parents of Asian LGBT's, or the Lutheran Church welcoming its diverse and inclusive congregants, I also had to pass the fervently anti gay, Jesus hates you, foaming at the mouth band of homophobes screaming indignities through their megaphones, as their next generation of hate filled children ranted and raved with them.

And it made me wonder why we (I) have permitted people like that to even think for one moment they actually speak God's wishes, or translate God's will? Why do we as mere mortals, (those of us who do believe in a God) think that the Pope and his cacophony of Cardinals, the orthodox Rabbi's and his clan of congregants, the Imam's and his assortment of Ayatollahs, the Mormon Prophet and his gang of General Authorities permit them to assume they know God better than you or I?

Why am I the sinner, as a gay man, because I love another man? Why am I the bad guy because those who do not permit difference, insist that God is not inclusive. Why have I allowed those who hate, to drag God's good will and his/her grace into their own petty bias and ignorance's?

Why have I, like a lemming, accepted that those who say they speak for God actually understand not one word God has said? I know when I speak with God, he/she asks that I be true to myself and be true to those on this Earth with whom I share this planet. The evil, I am told through my interactions with God, is not doing unto others as I would want others to do to me.

As both a Jewish man and a Gay man growing up in this country I have heard the harangues and the hollow harassment's about not being as good as, or not being loved by one true God. I am still told my those who say they speak for God that this is a Christian nation. I am told that the Bible trumps the Constitution and equal rights for Gays would be an abomination to God (this coming from the God who supposedly wrote the old testament, the new testament, and Book of Mormon and Koran) I have witnessed bully's torment "sissy" boys, tease"butch" girls", parents segregate their children from youngsters who identify their parents as my dad and my other dad; all of this based on some fabricated lie that Jesus said it was okay to do so.

And for almost 37 years of my sixty years on Earth (I came out at 37) I bought this baloney that those who say they know God must be right. It took so much courage for me to come to terms with who I was, and once I proudly said I happen to be Gay, I also realized that those who told me gay was bad because God said so, did not know the same God I did.

The protesters were in place along Santa Monica Boulevard, placards, and messages of hate next to Jesus' name. They shouted sodomite and sinner and between each sentence shouted God's name. But so many LGBT's and their families and friends proudly parading on this day of Pride just looked at them and said, you don't know God, all you know is hate, loathing, fear and for that you know nothing at all about God. What hell on Earth it must be for you.

So today, I once again realized just because someone claims the reigns of a bully pulpit, because they state facts in their own fantasized way, because they shout louder and base their truths on tiny tidbits of reason, they don't have the power. And on this day of Pride in LA I realized once again, I have the power and can never let anyone take it from me.

Gay pride, human pride, being proud. Happy Pride everyone! what a revelation.

we bleed, breathe...

I was watching some news shows on television, and came across a lengthy feature on the acceptance of women in the military. The journalist interviewed some women who suffered damage to their bodies, and have since come home as amputees. These troops were asked if they felt as if they were an integral components of the military, and of course replied YES. They were then asked why the military still segregates the duties and responsibilities of females and males in the armed services and to the woman the same answer resonated, "I have no idea...I bleed, I breathe, I serve like anyone else."

I had read the history of segregation in the military, the idea of permitting blacks to enlist in the military, but do so in 'colored' only platoons. I had read the accounts of how the white soldiers, sailors, pilots, would lose their moral and not be as efficient with blacks serving next to them. I read how the 'colored' were considered inferior and how too much of the inferior would brush the tarnish from the superior, leaving the armed services as just mediocre. The blacks were not asked, as were the women of today's military what they thought, but some blacks, unofficially said, "we bleed, breathe and can serve like anyone else."

I am in the throws of listening to the harangues, wherewithal's, homophobic homilies as to why allowing an open Gay or Lesbian American serve in the military. I have seen the dramatic dances the born again evangelical fear mongers have demonstrated. I have witnessed the feeble findings of fearful men who wallow in their own identity crisis and insist the homo is like the female or black, less capable and separate but equal. I have heard the horn blowing of if we recognize gays in the military, we might have to explain to our children homosexuality exists. And the HIV-AIDS lamentation of the fearful uneducated hetero that gays will bleed tainted blood. And I have heard service men and women say "I bleed, breathe and serve like everyone else."

I have seen, read, listened, reviewed why anyone not white, not male, not heterosexual should not, could not, shan't, can't, won't and don't serve in the military. And none of it has made any sense, none of it is based on fact and none of it is more than nonacceptance of difference and fruition of fear.

How long will we maintain separate but equal, rules based on religious inequality, division based on sexism, racism and homophobia? When do we as a nation so called UNITED, find consensus instead of conflict?

what, me worry?

In 1954 MAD Magazine introduced America to Alfred E. Neuman. In 2008 a mad John McCain introduced America to Sarah Palin.

Alfred E. Neuman’s quote of “What, me worry”, was shorthand for stupidity in politics and the many politicians who cared little of the electorate and more of their own personal ambitions.

Sarah Palin has had many quotes such as:

"I think on a national level your Department of Law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out." --Sarah Palin, referring to a department that does not exist while attempting to explain why as president she wouldn't be subjected to the same ethics investigations that compelled her to resign as governor of Alaska, ABC News interview, July 7, 2009

"They are kooks, so I agree with Rush Limbaugh. Rush Limbaugh was using satire ... I didn't hear Rush Limbaugh calling a group of people whom he did not agree with 'f-ing retards,' and we did know that Rahm Emanuel, as has been reported, did say that. There is a big difference there." –Sarah Palin, attempting to rationalize why it's okay for Limbaugh to use the word "retards" but not Emanuel, FOX News Sunday interview, Feb. 7, 2010

"[T]hey're in charge of the U.S. Senate so if they want to they can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes that will make life better for Brandon and his family and his classroom." --Sarah Palin, getting the vice president's constitutional role wrong after being asked by a third grader what the vice president does, interview with NBC affiliate KUSA in Colorado, Oct. 21, 2008

"Well, let's see. There's ― of course in the great history of America there have been rulings that there's never going to be absolute consensus by every American, and there are those issues, again, like Roe v. Wade, where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So, you know, going through the history of America, there would be others but ―" --Sarah Palin, unable to name a Supreme Court decision she disagreed with other than Roe vs. Wade, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008

"All of 'em, any of 'em that have been in front of me over all these years." --Sarah Palin, unable to name a single newspaper or magazine she reads, interview with Katie Couric, CBS News, Oct. 1, 2008

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." –-Sarah Palin, in a message posted on Facebook about Obama's health care plan, Aug. 7, 2009

"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where– where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border." --Sarah Palin, explaining why Alaska's proximity to Russia gives her foreign policy experience, interview with CBS's Katie Couric, Sept. 24, 2008

These quotes are shorthand for a stupid politician, who the longer she remains in politics makes the science of politics become dumb and dumber.

During a few testy political campaigns in the U.S. Alfred E. Neuman was also touted as a viable alternate candidate and when thrown into the presidential arena said “You could do worse…and always have.”

During her run for VP and undeclared run for President, Sarah Palin says very little in front of the media, but still winks, ends words with EE, like hopEE, maverickEE, thingEE. She dares not mention that in electing her we would in fact have done a ‘whole lot worse’ than say electing anyone with a brain.

Well America, Sister Sarah is fast becoming a party animal within the Republican primary battles. Her endorsements of far right, neo con, Tea Baggers has proven shrewd and slick and her hand picked candidates to take back America seems to be winning campaign.

Imagine if you can an America of Sarah Palin clones. An America of politicians who need no fact, rely on fear, divide the we from us, use their interpretation of the Bible as what is meant by the Constitution, answer every dispute with the phrase ‘reload’, and dispute any video or audio recordings (of themselves) as being false.

This past Tuesday Sister Sarah has marshaled the following Republican/Conservative/Tea bagger candidates into the general election of 2010: Nikki Haley of South Carolina, Carly Fiorina of California, Terry Branstad of Iowa, Sharon Angle of Nevada. Like Johnny Appleseed, who roamed the U.S. laying seeds for a harvest, Sister Sarah is laying the seeds for tyranny, turmoil, and contemptuous politics based on finding a common enemy instead of a common ground. Sister Sarah’s harvest will seed anarchy abolishment of rights, and abandonment of every democratic and just policy in this country.

The non emotional face of Alfred E. Neuman with the quote “What me worry”? brings a sarcastic smirk to many. We know when we hear those words how right he might be. If a deed is done and no one stands in the way of deferring the directions (of that deed) then I worry because we did nothing to stop it. “What, me worry?” has a whole lot of WORRY in it when I look at the direction Sister Sarah’s deeds of mistrust, misinformation, and mistakes maneuver. We have a whole lot to worry about with the sick smile, insincere, do as I say not as doEE face of Palin.

“What, me worry”?, you betcha!

show me the money

“Show me the Money”, a very famous quote from the 1996 box office hit Jerry Maguire, has taken on a life of its own ever since screamed by the character Jerry Maguire. It has become synonymous with a deed done is not done until the money is at hand, and you want something bad enough, then show me the money first and your deepest desires will be fulfilled.

In the greedy and gluttonous years of the Bush/Cheney dictatorship, the showing of the money was not as easily seen as it was felt or received. From the no bid contracts by Halliburton to supply everything from poisoned water bottles to shoddily built shower stalls in Iraq and Afghanistan (tricky Dickie Cheney stepped down as the CEO, but still had his hands in the coffers), to the Bush/Cheney energy policy for the oil cartels (remember tricky Dickie Cheney held a private no reporters or minutes meeting with the top CEO’s of the oil cartel, not even Congress was permitted to attend) which permitted oil companies to brag about safety but never pushed to backup their words, the money was shown, delivered and the naughty deeds done.

“Show me the Money”, with one hand on the Bible as politicians swear to honor and support the Constitution and the other hand counting the ‘dineros’ ( except in Arizona where they only count dollars) from the lobbyists, promising to support and honor their wishes, has been said, screamed and shouted.

Sarah Palin, as candidate for the Republican VP, a position senile, sinister, sneaky John McCain provided without any serious vetting process, was shown the money in the form of designer dresses and never looked away from the glow of the greenbacks. She swore she was “just a soccer, moose shooting, I can see Russia from my back porch kind of everywoman, but unlike everywoman Sister Sarah had a hankering for the Franklins, hundreds of thousand of the big Ben’s to be exact. And as Sister Sarah has risen to fame based on hate, bigotry, ignorance, innuendo, fabrication, division and doomsdays swill, she is still asking to be shown the money by demanding at least $100,000 for any and all speaking engagement. Many of her inbred, if it is different than me I hate it lemming like losers without ever seeing any money think Sister Sarah sews her own dresses and drives her own leer jet and limo.

In the state of California we have two Republican ladies who sure have shown the money and want to become CEO’s, err I mean Governor and Senator of the Golden State. Billionaire Meg Whitman, ex CEO of EBay has spent almost $70 of her own money to live in Sacramento. She does want to be a politician, but is running for Governor. I suppose she can call her new corporation ECal. And almost billionaire (maybe $1million shy) Carly Fiorina, fired CEO of Hewlett Packard, has tossed in at least $40 million of her own chump change to run for Senator. Ms Fiorina has the backing of Sister Sarah, and after an affair with a married man divorced her husband as her co adulterer did with his wife, thinks that the Institution of Marriage should be for one man and one woman. Both women have strong ties to corporations hate the unions, want to eliminate the illegal’s and will buy their way into the lives of each and every Californian if they so desire. I wonder how many state jobs will be outsourced to India?

And then there is our flavor of the month (and as it looks for quite a few months or years) OIL mega giant BP, (the fourth largest corporation in the WORLD) who has shown their money and demonstrated just how much power that money wields. Their money was not spent on say, safety features or back up wells, but instead spent on bribing the greasy, slimy oil soaked hands of both Republicans and Democrats of this nation. Seems they oozed their way into the scheme and scenery of the US by palling around with tricky Dickie Cheney and his gang or are they goons of Neo-Cons, and have remained skimming the surface of DC politics ever since. Now when they really have to show the money their CEO and head criminal Tony Hayward will gladly show it to anyone who has a legitimate reason for requesting it. And in using the term legit, Mr., “I want my life back”, Hayward quite can’t define its meaning.

And it seems Rush, (I am against same sex marriage because it will be the ruination of the God blessed traditional union of a man and woman, even though I am on my fourth woman) Limbaugh has shown the money, an assumed $1million worth of it to Sir Elton John. Sir, I live in an Ivory Tower John, who was paid to sing at Rush’ fourth wedding. S saw the money as he looked the other way for equality for the LGBT community and said sing, sir, how often and what key.

“Show me the Money”, yes indeedy daddy you place that twenty dollar bit in the waistband of my crotch less panties and I will perform for you! You want more, well “Show me the Money” again and again and again!