excuses

I sometimes wonder how much of an excuse we as humans use the terms of “If I could have done it over,” “I wish I hadn’t said it that way”, “it’s the way it has always been”, and “the facts prove nothing”, I couldn’t say anything then because it wasn’t a good time”:, to justify an action we deliberately intended to create. How stupid do we find those around us, when we try our hardest to manipulate their thinking, arouse their suspicion, and cater to their dark side of intolerance and hate to offer a sickly and inadequate excuse. And ONLY when we are caught, and asked to account for our actions do we actually try to weasel our way out by using patronizing and meaningless gestures to diminish the gravity of our negative behavior.

“If I could have done it over.” It is the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which devistated the city of New Orleans, leaving many of its citizens dead, distraught and still destitute. “You’re doing a heck of a job, Brownie,” Michael Brown is now speaking to the press and lamenting the low lights of the heck of a job he and the Bush administration did not do. If only the administration had been honest, if only the administration had cared more about the people of New Orleans than the reputation of the Bush/Cheney dictators, if only I had the courage to have said then what I am marketing now…

Five years after Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, the federal official at the heart of a firestorm over Washington's slow response is acknowledging the government’s shortcomings.

Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown told Matt Lauer on TODAY “there was a disconnect” between what the Bush administration was saying about the situation and how bad things actually were. Today Reporters

“Spin. I think political and government leaders need to know that the American public wants accurate information,” said Brown, speaking from New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. “I think it’s a huge failure of government to fail to trust the American people with the actual facts of what’s going on.”—Today Show Reporters.

“I wish I hadn’t said it that way”. How often do we play the passive aggressive game in our communications? We want to call people names but as cowards can’t directly own up to our own hate, and shout epitaphs and insults, and asked to account for our actions deny that what we said is what we meant. We are bullies when we confront others but when asked to stand behind our words and deeds, we cower in the corner and cry, I was misconstrued, misquoted, misunderstood.

In the year 2010 especially from the Tea Bag Candidates and their promoters, like Glenn Beck, words of hate, innuendo, bigotry and bias have spewed from their mouths like the breach in the dykes holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans during Katrina. Thinking, as many a Tea Bagger does that we are still living in the Colonial period, the Tea Baggers recite negative, inaccurate, hate mongering speeches and forget that someone will tape them on audio and video. Many of these purveyors of evil want to get the message out to the public, but then hate being blamed for the venom and vile they transmit. Please the lemmings they suppose but avoid anyone with at least a high school education who may question your intention and fact.

The self proclaimed prophet of God, Glenn Beck (and God only knows what kind of God would make this man a prophet), has managed to harness the power of hate into a phenomenal estate of fame, glory and money for himself. He carefully speaks to the waiting peasants who want to be saved and when confronted with the facts, he turns weepy and wild eyed and says he was taken out of context by the progressive communistic, socialist Satan loving Democrats.

Mr. Beck has revolutionized and galvanized the Aryan nation, White Supremacists and the KKK, by stating the first black man to become President is a racist.

Beck is known for his strong opinions, including his statement that President Barack Obama is a racist; he later told CBS' Katie Couric that he was "sorry the way it was phrased."-- CBS News

“It’s the way it has always been.” It does not matter how the law is read, because the law is something they make up in that evil city called Washington DC. Those beltway bastards don’t know shit or shine-ola about the real lives of real Americans. The Constitution is not greater than the Bible and it states very clearly in some Bibles, translated by some Bible thumping bastions of religion that thou shall hate in the name of the Lord. We have always been a people of “we” vs. “they” and by God its just like creation… God made it that way and no questions will be asked.

Seems in 2010 the people in Nettleton Mississippi don’t care much for the laws of this nation. For them separate but equal is a mantra passed down from generation to generation. Hate must heal the soul.

Nettleton Middle School in Nettleton, Miss., has segregated its elected class positions by race, according to a memo sent home with children at the school last week that was obtained by NBC News.

If you’re black and a student at one public middle school in Mississippi, you can’t run for president – only whites need apply.

The memo indicates that only white students can be president of the school’s eighth grade, while only black students can be vice president.

In seventh grade, whites are the only ones who can be both president and vice president, while the only position a black student at Nettleton can apply for in sixth grade is that of the class reporter.

"The talk around the town is that this is the way it is, that's just the way it is and nobody knows any better, nobody wants any better and that's why nobody's challenged it," Springer said.--MSNBC

“The facts prove nothing”.

The Decoster conglomerate of egg farms and egg producers has had a very tainted safety tract record during its many years of operation. The Government, assuming that financial fees would correct all illegal and ill conceived actions by the Decoster group, has yet to shut down these hazardous locations or arrest the management for continuing to avoid doing the right thing. As is fitting for this Republican led deregulation of corporations, the culprits risk other people’s life, limb and health concerns to maintain a very profitable bottom line for themselves. We must worry about the ultra rich and at no time concern ourselves with the middle to lower class citizens say the party of “no’ Republicans and they remain idle in any kind of protections for the public.

With the latest recall and salmonella scare and the lack of hiding it under the radar, the Government has, once again had to call out the Decoster group and once again try and make them comply with some set of standards and rules. Once again, the attorneys for the Decoster group are pointing fingers away from their clients, and telling us the facts are fact less. Somehow it is the fault of the stupid people who ate the eggs in the first place.

The feed mill where the salmonella was found operates as part of the Wright County Egg facility and also provides feed to Hillandale Farms. Officials said they are not yet sure whether the feed came to the farm contaminated or was contaminated at the farms. They said there is no evidence at this time that the feed went to any other farms.

Wright County Egg's statement also asserted that a positive environmental test does not mean eggs from that barn would have salmonella. Mitchell said the company had tested some eggs from one of the barns where salmonella was found since July, and those eggs did not test positive for salmonella. The company began testing under new rules put in place for the egg industry this summer to reduce occurrences of the disease.

DeCoster, who has paid millions of dollars in fines over the last 20 years for health, safety, immigration and environmental violations, has not responded to interview requests.

“I couldn’t say anything then, because it wasn’t a good time” Former RNC Head and confidant to George W. finally came out of the closet and wants to embrace the demographic he helped to disgrace while one of the grand poo-bahs of the GOP. It is hard to say out loud, for many, that I am Gay, and everyone deserves his/her timing to do so. So to Mr. Mehlman congratulations for finally freeing yourself from the shackles you helped keep on your soul with the bias and bigotry of ignorant Americans. But Mr. Mehlman the destruction and lies you helped promote toward the LGBT community while you were in your closet has lasting effects and had lingering affects to a population during your reign of terror that can’t be changed. Your work for the devil, like Karl Rove changed the landscape of this nation, and you knew as you have stated in your own words all about the intentional devastation and havoc being created. So are we to suppose that as a “straight” man you had no concern or conscience except for your own selfish needs. And now as a Gay man you found a heart?

Mehlman's leadership positions in the GOP came at a time when the party was stepping up its anti-gay activities -- such as the distribution in West Virginia in 2006 of literature linking homosexuality to atheism, or the less-than-subtle, coded language in the party's platform ("Attempts to redefine marriage in a single state or city could have serious consequences throughout the country..."). Mehlman said at the time that he could not, as an individual Republican, go against the party consensus. He was aware that Karl Rove, President Bush's chief strategic adviser, had been working with Republicans to make sure that anti-gay initiatives and referenda would appear on November ballots in 2004 and 2006 to help Republicans.

Mehlman acknowledges that if he had publicly declared his sexuality sooner, he might have played a role in keeping the party from pushing an anti-gay agenda.

"It's a legitimate question and one I understand," Mehlman said. "I can't change the fact that I wasn't in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally." He asks of those who doubt his sincerity: "If they can't offer support, at least offer understanding."—Atlantic Wire.

Excuses, excuses, excuses…do the damage, kill the innocent, smother the truth then one day wake up and worry you actually may be held accountable for your actions and make an excuse. The sad thing about all of this is the fact that more than one person ends up being the victim to liars, purveyors of hate, and delusional power seeking inferior individuals. The sadder thing, it seems in the America of 2010, is that we never learn any lesson from the past and let the lunatics run the asylum, over and over again. No excuse for that.

voices

Where are the shrill, hate filled, uninformed, intolerant voices of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, anyone on FOX News, when innocent Americans in this country are now being targeted as enemies of the state? Where are those loud and proud cowardly voices who promote “we” vs. “they” after Americans are attacked because the voices of ignorance, politics, self serving are sent out across the land? Where are the good Christian, God Bless America, Flag and God men and women protesting the violence condoned by spineless bullies, shouting ‘… this is not how Americans treat Americans’?

Where are the people who actually care about the true meaning of our Constitution? The people who ask for reason, who seek truth, who understand tolerance and want consensus? Where is the outcry from religious leaders who know that the God they believe in does not wage war, does not discriminate, does not act human?

When does this insanity of bigotry and bias end? When do we hold accountable the men and women of this nation who quickly exit the theater right before they shout FIRE? When do all of us who say nothing begin to realize that once a scapegoat is found and punished, the same mob, the same hooligans, the same insecure individuals who promote violence against them will seek out others, perhaps you and me?

When do we begin to look for answers instead of blame? When do we first correct our faults before pointing fingers to others for our own self induced misery?

This country has become so tuned into pointing fingers away from our own mistakes, missteps, misuse of democracy. Hate loud enough and the facts become useless. Hate loud enough and all eyes turn away from us. Hate loud enough and step on the rung of the ladder kicking anyone beneath you.

We have done it with the Japanese during WWII, Blacks since the Civil War, the Hispanics in Arizona, the Gays and Lesbians who want to marry, and now we have geared our guns aimed our ammunition toward Muslim Americans.

Earlier this week, a mosque in Madera, Calif., had been vandalized with signs referring to the controversial plan to build an Islamic community center two blocks from the site of the September 11 terrorist attacks,

“No temple for the God of terrorism at Ground Zero,” one sign read. “Wake up America, the Enemy is here,” read another. Both were signed “ANB,” reportedly standing for the American Nationalist Brotherhood.

In the latest in a spate of anti-Muslim incidents over the last two days, an intoxicated man entered a mosque in Queens on Wednesday evening and proceeded to urinate on prayer rugs, New York police officials said.

The man, identified as Omar Rivera, reportedly shouted anti-Muslim epithets and called worshippers who had gathered for evening prayer “terrorists.” One witness said the man was “very clearly intoxicated” and had a beer bottle in his hand at the time.

Around 6 p.m. Tuesday evening, a drunk 21-year-old student named Michael Enright allegedly attacked a cab driver in midtown Manhattan who had identified himself as a Muslim.

The cab driver told police that the two struck up a conversation in Arabic before Enright turned on him, screaming “This is a checkpoint, mother----er! I have to put you down.” Enright reportedly proceeded to stab the driver’s neck and face with a Leatherman knife. NYT

Scary situations in this land of freedom and liberty; scary situations in a country founded (but once we elect enough Tea Baggers it will be changed), on separation of church and state and the understanding that this country will not sponsor a national religion; and scary situations that the response from those who don’t remain silent, that these are just scattered incidents. (The closing of Jewish places of worship, the burning of unauthorized books by the Nazi’s, the beatings of Jews across Germany were also embraced by silence and commentary that it was just a bunch of crazies.)

Where did it start and why did it start, from whose voices do we hear dissent, dismay, doom? When do we ALL start healing and helping? …In space, when the astronauts have a concern they say “Houston we have a problem”. I am saying “America we have a problem that will dismantle and disable the freedoms, the rights, the equality, the democracy that has made us unique, safe, and usually on the right side of life. Where does all of this lead and where will it end?

the sky is falling

Many of the political pundits have settled on the idea that the Republicans/Tea Baggers are promoting fear and the Democrats are still trying to push hope. Many of the talking heads on television and radio have carefully taken sides on the virtues of fear mongering verses hope peddling. Many of the news outlets who no longer report on the news but actually create news love pitting fear against hope, and do so by in sighting one end of the spectrum and never offering any coverage of consensus and or similarity.

It seems that ever since the election of 2008 everything is either and or. We have the red states against the blue states. We have the same sex marriage opponents and the opposite sex proponents. We have legals and illegals. We have the Christians and the Muslims. We have abortion rights and anti abortion foes. We have the party of “no” and the party of I think we can.

In the children’s story ‘Chicken Little’, we learn that mass hysteria, forecasting fear is easier than assuring safety and sane. One character is hit on the head becomes hysterical and through its outrage, hysteria, and fact less observations incites enough of a riot for all in the immediate vicinity to consider the consequences and not the truth. Doom and gloom seem to have a surer footing than real and reality. (Many an actor will admit that crying on stage is easier than laughing, more believable to see people sad than it is to see them happy).

The Republicans sans the Tea Bag Brigade, during the early George W. Bush campaign, placed on ballot measures many anti Gay initiatives. Under the tutelage of Karl Rove, that process helped ignite a homophobic rebellion to get out the votes by placing the unproven fear that if Gays in America had any power than this Christian nation would cease to be Christian. Fill the fodder with innuendo, base it on the dogmas of religion, throw in patronizing family values and announce that the sky is falling and if you don’t watch out you will hit on the head with either a very masculine woman or a very effeminate man. Keep fact out of the equation, fill in the gaps with fiction and victory is yours.

After 9/11 we were told that under the Bush/Cheney administration no terrorist attack had been made on this country. Never mind that IN the Bush administration 9/11 actually happened, but truth need not be told. The Republicans were the safety net. We were lectured to daily that they would keep America red white and blue. We need to declare war on anyone WE, (actually anyone Dick Cheney) had paranoid thoughts about, and ask no questions of why, just recite when, and all will be well. Fear found its way into our souls with the elevation of colored terrorist alerts which always seemed to rise in heated colors during any and all primaries or elections. The sky would fall if we did not take away civil liberties from those deemed the villain, habeas corpus was an archaic form of government which needed to be redefined, and instead of a “red under every bed” as proclaimed in the 50’s by Republican Senator Joe McCarthy, there would be Muslim, an Al Qaida, Taliban in every Starbucks, Sears or McDonalds if we didn’t stop them now.

Now we have the Tea Bag Brigade taking control of the cultural war. They are enlisted by wealthy Neo Con, business men to protest anything that has to do with hope. If it is not good for the corporations or the 2 per cent of wealthy Americans, then somehow with out any rational or reason it needs to be called anti American. If unions support anything at all then they are undermining the work ethics of this country. It does not matter that unions have raised the standard of living for millions of Americans and made working conditions healthier and safer, (Never a question that unions also prevent the corporations from making more money off the back of its employees). If it is about the Constitution, it surely has to be about separate and equal or equal for a selected few. Deny gay marriage, so the LGBT community can wed they are homosexuals and deserve less. Deny the rights of 14^th amendment, so having children in this country if you have brown skin is detrimental to democracy, exaggerate the second amendment so if the ballot box does not go your way bullets can and will. Exploit your right of free speech which is allowed in the First Amendment, but anyone who argues with the hate and bigotry you spew has no right to rebuttal. Setting standards, regulations, rules will tear down our economy. Let the corporations, the OIL, FINACE, HEALTH INSURANCE cartels run roughshod, let them police themselves because not to do so is socialistic and communistic. Food poisoning, oil rig explosions, greed in the banking business that is the American way; no health care for the masses, if they want to die young, or live with pain, then by all means they are expandable.

Make sure you find the fear that the uneducated, the hopeless, the directionless, the racist, the homophobe, the ageist, the sexist, the Islamaphopbic, the anti Semite has and instead of finding remedy just fan the flames. Never find an answer just continue to throw pebbles from above and insist that the sky is falling. Lead the lemming to the cliff, and if need be let them dive into the great divide below. Dumb and stupid grow like weeds, there will always be a new army of those who would rather blame then solve.

It seems we voted for change and hope in 2008. The delivery of both has been slow, tedious and sometimes negligent. And now with the dismemberment of anything honest, real, or truthful it seems we all have little patience in letting the hope and change stick.

Do we permit the fear to dominate our intelligence? Do we get hit on the head by a piece of falling rock and actually believe, because so many foolish people cry the sky is falling, that the sky IS actually falling? The call for hope seems to be fading away because those shouting fear are drowning out any intelligible thoughts. The sky is falling ask no questions just flee!

When did America turn even dumber than the last eight years of Bush/Cheney?

anything but the truth

Anything but the truth, the fact the reality… Anything but making the bad better… Anything but trying to find consensus instead of difference…Anything for the politician instead of for the people, by the people, of the people…

America 2010 has turned into a land of ism’s phobias, we/theys. America has become a place where the Constitution is written for some, equality is owned by a few, and enemies are sought with friends limited to some kind of made up litmus test.

A fifth of the American population think President Obama is a Muslim; if he was a Muslim who should care, but he isn’t. Islamaphobia has begun to run rampant in this country fueled by Conservative Republican/Tea Baggers who need hearsay and innuendo to reclaim power and politics. Shouts of no mosque at Ground Zero are the new motto from a band of bullies who have no answers for our economic woes, our health care crisis, and our environmental worries. Confuse the problems by creating self made issues and the uneducated, scapegoating lemming like public that has no idea of how to pull themselves up from their own bootstraps is preoccupied with fact less hate as they drown in man made sinister misery.

Dr Laura and her cohort Mama Grizzly, Sister Sarah are all appalled that their First Amendment rights have been denied, as they shout the F word or the N word on the airwaves. Both Pit Bull Mama’s ‘boo-hoo’ the facts that hate speech will and should call for a response from others who also want to use their First Amendment Rights. Both women, seeing nothing but their side of the issue, can’t understand why Dr. Laura’s sponsors no longer want to pay for Dr. Laura to discriminate and use her racist bully pulpit for fear of losing dollars from a public who is not racist. Free speech is just that, something available for those who hate and for those who hate the haters.

Some Conservative Republican/Tea Bagger politicians want to dismantle the 14^th Amendment. (The 14^th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War to guarantee citizenship to blacks and anyone born on U.S. soil.). They supposedly want to keep those brown skinned illegals from finding some loophole into gaining citizenship in this country. Where does the hate stop? Will we now question every mother who conceives as to the purpose of why she is giving birth to a child? Some good ole’ boy politicians from the Republic of Texas have uncovered a plot from the citizens of the Twilight Zone and are sure many mothers are giving birth to babies in this country, known as “terror babies”, so as to raise the child as an American in his/her youth but to have brain washed he/she as a young adult in order to become a suicide bomber. According to these paranoid delusional Americans if the color of your skin is not Jesus white you have ulterior motives in getting pregnant.

Add the moves in some states to abolish the 17^th Amendment where states directly vote for senators, a drive to deny equal marriage rights for same sex marriages, the close association of church’s to assist in the selection of politicians ignoring the origins of keeping church state separate and having no official state religion and we have a country teetering on Marshall Law, dictatorship, so filled with xenophobia, racism and homophobia that it will collapse inward on itself. Add people like Sister Sarah who rely on the Second Amendment to solve all social and political issues by telling her gang of hate filled goons to ‘RELOAD’ if they don’t like how the current Constitution reads and anarchy, animosity and anger turn into violence and war.

Where do we apply the brakes to all of this “ism”, “phobia”, fear mongering, unintelligent banter and bigotry? Do we have to reelect a Conservative Republican/Tea Bagger brigade of self serving politicians into office before this hatred and defiance of the Constitution ends? (because it is they who originate the fear) Do we have to go back to a nation that wants the division of the wealthy to the poor to be larger, longer lasting? Do we go back to a nation whose politicians cow tow to the corporations; do their bidding so they can pocket the profits? Do we begin to rewrite the Constitution so there is no longer any hope for the minorities, those with disabilities, differing religions, no religion, gender discrimination, LGBT community?

Why does this nation seem to crave anything but the truth? Why are we so intent on listening to the loser, the lame the ludicrous? What happened to the American voice which sings of freedom and justice for all?

61 years later

You’ve Got To Be Taught-Music by Richard Rodgers/Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II from the play South Pacific.

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

Written and produced in 1949, South Pacific graced the Broadway Stage and for the first time on a large scale production the issue of bias, bigotry, and hate found its way to the American public. Its creators knew the subject matter was a rather touchy and relevant issue, but (they) also knew that by speaking aloud regarding hate they would be buffeting heads with organized religious institutions, perceived misconceptions of race, the status quo of how America should feel and think, and come into direct conflict with those who thrived on scapegoats and villains.

And most importantly Mr.’s Hammerstein and Rodgers made a very bold and blunt statement that hate was not inherent in the human condition but something learned, something taught. And could be untaught, or even stopped if any effort to find commonality instead of difference was ever applied.

Sixty one years later, the American public is waist deep in the sludge, slander, and cesspool of peddlers who through FOX News, Conservative Talk Radio, the Republican conceived Tea Bag Brigade, self promoting organized religious leaders, are encouraging the lessons of hate, bigotry, racism, homophobia, xenophobia and teaching once again loud and proud that difference is bad.

Sixty one years later we have the likes of Sister Sarah whining about who is bad and who is not. She professes as to who is the mama grizzly, moose huntin’ hockey mom, salmon fishin’ pit bull mama and who is the enemy. You are either with her or against her and she wants no middle ground, no compromise, and no exceptions. She pretends to be of the people, but is selective just which people she is of. Glenn Beck is now becoming a self appointed prophet of a God who worships a God made from loathing and hate. He is setting standards of what real Americans are and what an enemy of America is. If you are Christian, white, a conservative republican, preferably male then you are in the ‘we’ group, anyone else is considered ‘they’. Candidates from the corporate sponsored so called grass roots organization, Tea Baggers, insist that they know, personally the intentions of the creators of the Constitution. They state that the Constitution was never intended for all Americans just those who happen to be white, uneducated, want to pay no taxes, care less about health care, don’t mind corporations writing their own rules and regulations, need no organized public education system, and never collect unemployment checks because being unemployed is lazy and socialistic behavior.

Sixty one years later we find ourselves pretending that our fear of difference is based on some fact that doesn’t exist in reality but does in the lemming like mind of those who need the voices of others to manipulate them. The pro opposite sex marriage only group, will never say they hate gays, but will proclaim, that marriage is all about procreation/ the way God intended/ for the children. They will protest and shout out the LGBT community as wanting to destroy the institution, never looking at their own brothers and sisters who commit adultery and infidelity. And when the pro opposite marriage group of haters are asked about what love has to do with marriage, they reply if it was about love then those who love their brothers or sisters could marry them.

Sixty one years later we still are waging holy wars against other religions. We forget that this country was founded on separation of church and state, and insist that Christianity is the official religion of the land. The Muslims are now the villain of America, and it will be time for the Jews once Christmas time comes around and someone protests a nativity scene on government property. We still place our God above anyone else’s God and refuse to even accept the possibility that religion is not about a God being stronger than another God but about the strength that each God provides in giving us hope, heart, and harmony.

Sixty one years later we are still looking at the color of skin and insisting if not white they are not right. We now want to selectively discriminate against people of color based on some made up reason that it is because of them that our economic condition in this country is rancid and rotten. We forgot that the recession and near depression in the country over the past 8 years was caused by white men in powerful places.

You’ve got to be taught to hate. Why is it, some lessons are so easy to learn? Why is it the negative seems so easy to prove? Why does it take so long to remember the past and not repeat its failings? Why is it we trust those who divide and conquer and turn away from those seek consensus?

Sixty one years later, actually my entire life time, and it seems as if time has stood still.

doctor heal thyself

I suppose saying the N word trumps using the F word. Dr. Laura used the N word a few times when talking with a radio listener in supposedly providing the listener with some kind of advice on her interracial marriage problems. Dr. Laura used the F word and about a dozen other anti Gay slurs when discussing her distaste for anything LGBT a while ago. The good doctor was called to task about her anti gay harangue, but the LGBT community was only able to persuade her TV advertisers to stop supporting her homophobia, while this last bout of racial bigotry got her fired from the radio.

Dr. Laura (on the Larry King Show), smilingly bragged about how “…I ‘m sort of done with that…” referring to her being denied her supposedly First Amendment Rights saying by dropping out of her radio show, she could focus her venomous hatred via the Internet and speaking engagements and thusly could revive her First Amendment Rights at her leisure. I wonder if she feels her First Amendment Rights are also denied because even Dr. Laura is not permitted to yell “FIRE” in a movie theater.

In the land of First Amendment Rights the rights are supposed to work for all. If Dr. Laura wishes to flame the fans of bias and bigotry, racism and homophobia, then those who are the brunt of the attacks have the right to voice their displeasure. In the land of First Amendment Rights which is also the land of “bottom lines” and “corporate profits”, advertisers also have the right to express their rights and stop any and all leakage from said profits and bottom lines. If the corporate sponsors don’t like the free speech of a personality they have paid for to speak then by all means the corporations can silence and swiftly end any and all speech. In Dr. Laura’s case her speech was not free and was in fact owned by the corporations who paid the radio station a check.

I amaze at how disingenuous many and most Conservative Republican/Tea Bagger Politicians and Entertainment personalities seem to be as they spout sage advice regarding THEIR Constitution. They all want to take us back to the days when the Constitution was written and in a dreamy state reminisce and recall when the Constitution was conceived. They make the lemming like listener, who needs little fact and relies on fiction think that these spokespeople have no ideological agenda but a populist opinion and want things made right like they used to be. These demigods insist the Constitution was not created for equal right, but for selected rights. Rights, they, self appointed and anointed, can clearly decipher, call upon and cancel.

If you have ignored the vitriolic, the rhetoric, the 30 seconds of head talk, it is time to regain consciousness and regain some claim into the direction this American democracy may be headed. The stronger the so called “grass root” Tea Bag movement gets, the more the Republican party acquiesces, the less division between church and state this nation moves, the more the erosion of OUR Constitution becomes. There is ill gotten power for the bully when there is a void of dissent. There is ill gotten power when the majority wants to speak for the minority. There is ill gotten power for the hate mongers when others sit around and say I’m not Gay, I’m not Mexican, I’m not Disabled, I’m not Jewish, I’m not Black, so what!

Dr. Laura for the time being has stopped gracing the airwaves with her rant and raving about anyone or anything she decides is different. Most insecure people need a scapegoat to maintain the very teeny tiny self respect they have. Choose a victim, point fingers away from you and you think no one notices your flaws and misconstrued and tortured life. The cause from the bad is not your fault, ever, and as long as you pick on someone else even you can’t blame yourself for what went wrong in your life.

And when you are called on the carpet for expressing your First Amendment Rights by those who are just expressing their First Amendment Rights call the Constitution police and arrest those who do the same thing you do. “It ain’t fair…they are picking on innocent me." As Newt Gingrich touts, do as I say never once as I do.

Goodbye for now Dr. Laura, we will miss you until your next bout of verbal botulism abounds. Dear doctor, heal thyself.

pro or con-create

Gay couples who had been gearing up to get married in California this week had to put their wedding plans on hold once again after a federal appeals court said it first wanted to consider the constitutionality of the state's same-sex marriage ban.

The ban's sponsors appealed that ruling and also asked the 9th Circuit to block same-sex weddings in the meantime. They claimed in papers filed with the 9th Circuit that gay marriages would harm the state's interest in promoting responsible procreation through heterosexual marriage.

Walker ruled on Aug. 4 that Proposition 8 violated the equal protection and due process rights of gays and lesbians guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. AP

It makes me wonder then, what to do with all the heterosexual couples who have undermined the major reason for marrying (those) who do not want to procreate. The marriage police surely have the right to disqualify them from marriage. What are they promoting, selfish behavior instead of procreation? And should we ask all potential heterosexual couples to take a physical prior to marrying to weed out those who can not create children? How dare they call themselves wed when in fact they too would be harming the states interest in promoting procreation through heterosexual marriage?

And when does it NOT matter that equal protection for Americans is not upheld? Does it matter because a bunch of bigoted, biased, hate-filled intelligent less people disregards the Constitution? Is the Constitution only pertinent to those who say they knew exactly what the founding fathers meant and wrote in its creation? Is it only a really good law if the religious zealots, the faith based bullies insist God, (their God) wrote it? Is it only relevant when it protects the assumed rights of the majority?

What has the behavior of Newt Gingrich, Marc Sanford, Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, Elliot Spitzer, Bill Clinton, David Vitter, Larry Craig, John Ensign, each having an affair, each cheating on their spouses, each an adulterer practicing infidelity, have to do with promoting procreation? Is it okay to just procreate, forget about the kids once you did the procreating? Is it okay to procreate and divide the family though your selfish, testosterone, horniness and lust and leave those you just created to live their lives in a broken home? Why not a law denying equal protection to those who procreate but then refuse the responsibility of maintaining a healthy life for those they created?

What is wrong with using love, as the means for marriage? What is wrong first finding love for one another then building upon that creating a bond unbreakable by carnal or callous feelings? What is wrong with marriage being a reason to adopt and raise other creations from people who never wanted to be parents in the fist place and allow those lives to thrive and prosper?

The Institution of Marriage in the state of California will teeter and fall into chaos because same sex adults can not procreate as husband and wife. If you are gay your sperm does not work? If you are a Lesbian you have no more eggs?

And what happens if those heterosexuals do procreate and they create homosexuals? What happens when procreation begins to cease because too many homosexuals are born?

Procreation must be saved say the Prop 8 proponents and homosexuals are the devils who will stop civilizations from existing; if you ask me it less about procreation and so much more about homophobia. Why disguise the truth?

If I look around at those whom are a result of heterosexual procreation, and who in their life time have strived for difference than consensus, who have demeaned the values of life because of their fears or insecurities, who say they were created in God’s image but want God to look and sound like them, then I figure procreation ain’t all it is supposedly cracked up to be!

the sound of music

I was lucky enough to attend Linden Elementary school in the 50’s, a time when extra curricular classes such as Art, Library, Phys Ed and Music were considered just as important to the education of children as the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. From kindergarten to the eighth grade, the students at Linden School were treated to the knowledge and care of Miss Marie Cyphers who provided all students with the richness, value and potential music could and would lend to our lives. Miss Cyphers used to tell her students you just don’t use your ears to enjoy music, you use your mind and let your imagination bolster the chords, the crescendos, and the cacophonies making each sound unique and inspirational.

For me music has always accompanied memories, experiences, and moments that for good or bad has left or leaves definite targets in my life. I hear a song, I remember when!

As I read or watch the news of August 2010, I also have begun to hear some distant melodies that seem to resonate with the ramblings of the radicals, the shouting of the sad, and the bogusness of the buffoons. Seems the creativity of lyricists seem to mesh with the ranting of the ridiculous. So now I close my eyes as Miss Cyphers had suggested and croon a not so pleasant tune.

If I Had A Gun- Gene Simmons

“He said, if I had a gun
I'd have me some fun
I'd shoot everyone
Who pisses me off today
So don't piss me off today.”

Tea party groups converged on a remote section of the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday to show support for Arizona's controversial immigration law and hear from more than a dozen conservative speakers, many of them candidates running for office in crowded Republican primaries.

"We are going to force them to do it, because if they don't, we will not stop screaming," said former state Sen. Pam Gorman, one of 10 Republicans vying for an open congressional seat in north Phoenix. Gorman carried a handgun in a holster slung over her shoulder as she mingled with demonstrators. -msn

Seems that once again, those who bleed red white and blue, want those who they deem not so American to just bleed red. Seems that the wild west and its lawlessness, it’s laws made for some and not for all, it’s my gun is bigger than your gun insecurities has reared its head and is floating in the same rancid tea pot as the ones the Tea Bag Brigade likes to bathe in and drink from. Seems the Constitution is only strong and right when it suits the biases and bigotries of the Tea Baggers and is a useless piece of liberal hog wash when the Constitution approaches true democracy.

Can’t Buy Me Love- The Beatles

“I'll give you all I got to give if you say you love me too
I may not have a lot to give but what I got I'll give to you
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love.”

Billionaire Republican Meg Whitman has given her campaign for California governor another $13 million, bringing her total contribution from her personal fortune to $104 million.

The former eBay chief executive had spent nearly $100 million on her primary and general election contests through the end of June, making it the most expensive campaign in California history.-msn

Seems now a days you can buy… love, like and elections. Do a Google search on how many millionaires, billionaires are running for office. Many of them disguise their campaign ads to seemingly talk to the middle class and the poor. They speak of jobs and tax incentives, and end up being elected only to further the divide between wealth and poverty in this country.

They can buy the talents and savvy of sophisticated marketers and ad agencies, twist words, camouflage truth and dwell deeply on fear, ignorance and stupidity.

And since the boys and girls of Congress for eons like the idea of buying love, no one has made any real effort to pass campaign reform. Amazing how we have so many Americans living on minimum wage or less but billionaire Meg Whitman can use her chump change to buy an election.

Sending You Forget Me Nots- Patrice Rushen

“Sending you forget me nots,

To help me to remember.

Baby please forget me not,

I want you to remember.”

Independents who embraced President Barack Obama's call for change in 2008 are ready for a shift again, and that's worrisome news for Democrats.

Ominously for Democrats, independents trust Republicans more on the economy by a modest but telling 42 percent to 36 percent. That's bad news for the party that controls the White House and Congress at a time of near 10 percent unemployment and the slow economic recovery.MSNBC

It has only been 2 years since the 8 years of a Republican led downward spiral of an economy, which once had a surplus. It has only been 2 years since the 8 years of the Bush/Cheney tax cuts for the wealthy were introduced, regulations on anything corporate were slashed, and personal freedoms were eroded and evaporated. It has been 2 years since the Obama/Biden, Democratic majority has tried to stop the cancer created by irresponsible, unethical, selfish Republican leadership from the 8 years of lies, fabrications, and Un-American clandestine activities.

It has been 2 years of the party of “No”, and the amnesia has settled in so quickly that a majority of Independent voters want to bring back the bad old days? Amazing how the dumb remain dumb, the rich pay to dumb down the masses, and how history can repeat itself without too many people realizing it.

Two Faces Have I-Lou Christie

“Two faces have I

One to laugh and one to cry

Two faces have I

One to laugh and one to cry

Will I ever laugh again

She’ll never see my cry.

Will I walk with a smile on my face

Knowing I live a lie”

Campaigning as a family-values conservative, Ben Quayle first denied then admitted that he wrote for a sex-steeped Arizona website.

The racy website's founder, Nik Richie, said Quayle used the alias "Brock Landers," the name of a character from the 1997 movie "Boogie Nights" about porn stars in California, and wrote lines such as: "my moral compass is so broken I can barely find the parking lot." The website, now known as TheDirty.com, recently reposted the 2007 entries.

Quayle said he couldn't recall what his posts involved or when he made them.

This came out just days after Quayle sent a campaign mailer showing his wife and two young girls, with the words, "We are going to raise our family here." He and his wife have no children; the girls were his nieces. Campaign rival Vernon Parker accused Quayle of "renting a family."-MSNBC

It seems that if you invoke anti Obama sentiment, anti gay rhetoric, anti abortion smears, tax breaks for the rich slogans, drill baby drill arguments, and no regulations for corporation’s they all equal communism then all other immoral, unethical irresponsible behavior goes unnoticed and unimportant.

You can cheat on your wife but denounce same sex marriages. You can talk about how it is for the children but cutting education budgets or firing teachers because they are unionized are great values for the kids. You can talk about God’s plan and how he created all of us in his image, but deny global warming and refuse to believe that Gods creations, like wildlife, flora and fauna are dying or dying off. You can be like Ben Quayle, refuse to remember or own up to the past and promise “that was made up then and this will not be a made up now’, and run for office as a liar, a fake, and a phony.

I Started A Joke-Bee Gees

“I started a joke,

Which started the whole world crying,

But I didn’t know that the joke was on me, oh no.

I looked at the skies,

Running my hands over my eyes,

And I fell out of bed,

Hurting my head, from the things

That I said.”

U.S. military leaders inherited a faulty strategy for the war in Afghanistan at the end of the Bush administration and are still working to “refine the concepts,” the U.S. commander said in an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

In his first interview since taking over as head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus told NBC’s David Gregory that when “a lot of us came out of Iraq in late 2008 and started looking intently at Afghanistan, we realized that we did not have the organizations that are required for the conduct and the comprehensive civil/military counterinsurgency campaign.”-NBC

Over 4000 US troops almost 250,000 Iraqi’s and Afghans, thousands of allied soldiers have died since this joke was started by two men who have yet to find their conscience. They both remain alive, kissing their wives each day, speaking to their children every day earning lots of money writing memoirs and pontificating about the wars they invented. They never acknowledge for more than a patronizing moment the sacrifices the average American has made in fighting these self promoted wars. They get their backs all bent out of shape when they are accused of lying and throw out the God Bless America harangue that they indeed have made America safer.

They are alive to see history report on the past and those who they sent to war are not around to find the truth. Isn’t it wonderful to hear WE MADE A FEW MISTAKES, and talk about how WE will move forward so as to not make those same mistakes? For a whole generation of 18 to 24 year olds who have died, or are now disabled or suffering the scars of mental anguish those past mistakes can never be fixed. Not a funny joke at all.

Music lasts forever. We still sing songs from ancient civilizations, and recite the lyrics created by generations of ancestors. Music can have such amazing memory and meaning. I listen to the current events of 2010 and somehow the music associated all sound scary and serious. They all, no matter what tempo, style, genre (were originally written) seem to have the sound of a funeral march. I am sure Ms. Cyphers could not even persuade her students to close their eyes and think lovely thoughts.

if not now...when

The Source: Newt Gingrich, disgraced former leader of the house, two acts of infidelity, three marriages, the man who tried to shut down government so he could provide a political black eye to then President Bill Clinton. The Words: writing an email to supporters (go believe so many people suffer from dementia and delusion), about a Mr. Hatchel a mechanic on unemployment for 52 weeks being a welfare robber. Seems Mr. Gingrich feels that collecting unemployment insurance is tantamount to welfare fraud. Seems Mr. Gingrich believes that if you pay into insurance you have no right to collect some of the payments you hoped you would never have to use. Seems Mr. Gingrich feels that trying to find the best monetary solutions for keeping your family unit in tact, keeping the mortgage payments for your home, keeping your mental sanity as best as you can are unimportant, useless, and a large form of welfare. The Frustration: He’s back. From the dredges of shame and insult, Newtie is back placing feelers for a run at the 2012 Republican/Tea Bagger party for the office of President. He has stepped off of his Ivory Tower, preaching and pontificating about his America, a place with few laws for minorities, a disregard for the poor and less rights listed in the Constitution and more limits imposed. A white male dominated Christian America, tolerant of Catholics because he recently converted, where democracy is useless when it is used to assist the down trodden to buy boot straps so they can pull themselves up from them.

The Source: Glenn Beck, a self appointed prophet (didn’t the Bible warn us about people who say they are the prophets, being in actuality false prophets and demon seeds of the devil) who inspires fear, hate, loathing from the safety of a television show, a radio booth or a $100,000 per speech podium. A man smart enough to know the biases of bigots and smarter enough to provide hocus pocus and enlarge and embolden those fears and market solutions that like alcohol cause terrible reactions to behavior but can be pissed away. The Words: Aside from his racist accusation towards President Obama as a black man and because he is black is a terrible president, his slander towards Gays, Hispanics, first responders families of 9/11 for still whining and complaining wanting better health coverage and aid, his inaccurate and inarticulate understanding of American history and the Constitution, Mr. Beck recently also commented on the unemployed in this nation by picking on the plight of the mechanic unemployed for 52 weeks by stating, “…he [the unemployed mechanic], chose to take the government handout… People are choosing to be dependent on the government over pulling themselves up and taking less and resetting and starting all over again.” The Frustration: Mr. Beck’s audience is growing and growing. They are not a solution based ground swell of folk, but a blame oriented band of hoodlums and henchmen. They thrive on finding an enemy and scapegoat, and shudder with horror if ever they are asked to pitch in, look inward and discover that some of the problems in the country start with them. Like lemmings in search of a leader but no direction, they want to vote the bums out of office and as if brain dead zombies, seem to want to vote in people who would rather they eat cake and if necessary dispose of them with the assistance of sharp and steady guillotine.

The Source: Tea Bag Brigade/ Fundamentalist Christians/ Ultra Conservative Republicans, a supposedly grass root network of concerned Americans, who want to take back America to a Christian nation, Constitutionally restricted society, equal but separate country, and one where democracy can be replaced with all the evils that the second amendment implies or at least infers according to them. A group of predominately uneducated, unintelligent, lower middle class to poor population cajoled into believing those who say they speak for Jesus, those who purport to hate government, those who say self regulation by corporations and cartels is the American way. The Words: “illegal’s cause unemployment in this nation”, “gay families cause economic failure in this country, leading to more unemployment” “unions provide too much pay for its workers”, “minimum wage is too much and provides less incentives for businesses to hire.” “Trust God, he will provide.” The Frustration: The Tea Bag Brigade, the Fundamentalist preachers and pastors, the Ultra Conservative Republicans care little about fact and rely more on fear. This group of Americans wants chaos and not consensus. The New Testament is being abused and used to create lies and is used to replace the words written in the Constitution. They have been energized to vote in people who ride roughshod, rule without compassion, wish for less as it relates to minorities, and will eventually turn a democracy into a decaying form of government where the rich become more powerful and anyone else into worker bees and drones. The Source: Newt Gingrich, disgraced former leader of the house, two acts of infidelity, three marriages, the man who tried to shut down government so he could provide a political black eye to then President Bill Clinton. The Words: writing an email to supporters (go believe so many people suffer from dementia and delusion), about a Mr. Hatchel a mechanic on unemployment for 52 weeks being a welfare robber. Seems Mr. Gingrich feels that collecting unemployment insurance is tantamount to welfare fraud. Seems Mr. Gingrich believes that if you pay into insurance you have no right to collect some of the payments you hoped you would never have to use. Seems Mr. Gingrich feels that trying to find the best monetary solutions for keeping your family unit in tact, keeping the mortgage payments for your home, keeping your mental sanity as best as you can are unimportant, useless, and a large form of welfare. The Frustration: He’s back. From the dredges of shame and insult, Newtie is back placing feelers for a run at the 2012 Republican/Tea Bagger party for the office of President. He has stepped off of his Ivory Tower, preaching and pontificating about his America, a place with few laws for minorities, a disregard for the poor and less rights listed in the Constitution and more limits imposed. A white male dominated Christian America, tolerant of Catholics because he recently converted, where democracy is useless when it is used to assist the down trodden to buy boot straps so they can pull themselves up from them.

The Source: Glenn Beck, a self appointed prophet (didn’t the Bible warn us about people who say they are the prophets, being in actuality false prophets and demon seeds of the devil) who inspires fear, hate, loathing from the safety of a television show, a radio booth or a $100,000 per speech podium. A man smart enough to know the biases of bigots and smarter enough to provide hocus pocus and enlarge and embolden those fears and market solutions that like alcohol cause terrible reactions to behavior but can be pissed away. The Words: Aside from his racist accusation towards President Obama as a black man and because he is black is a terrible president, his slander towards Gays, Hispanics, first responders families of 9/11 for still whining and complaining wanting better health coverage and aid, his inaccurate and inarticulate understanding of American history and the Constitution, Mr. Beck recently also commented on the unemployed in this nation by picking on the plight of the mechanic unemployed for 52 weeks by stating, “…he [the unemployed mechanic], chose to take the government handout… People are choosing to be dependent on the government over pulling themselves up and taking less and resetting and starting all over again.” The Frustration: Mr. Beck’s audience is growing and growing. They are not a solution based ground swell of folk, but a blame oriented band of hoodlums and henchmen. They thrive on finding an enemy and scapegoat, and shudder with horror if ever they are asked to pitch in, look inward and discover that some of the problems in the country start with them. Like lemmings in search of a leader but no direction, they want to vote the bums out of office and as if brain dead zombies, seem to want to vote in people who would rather they eat cake and if necessary dispose of them with the assistance of sharp and steady guillotine.

The Source: Tea Bag Brigade/ Fundamentalist Christians/ Ultra Conservative Republicans, a supposedly grass root network of concerned Americans, who want to take back America to a Christian nation, Constitutionally restricted society, equal but separate country, and one where democracy can be replaced with all the evils that the second amendment implies or at least infers according to them. A group of predominately uneducated, unintelligent, lower middle class to poor population cajoled into believing those who say they speak for Jesus, those who purport to hate government, those who say self regulation by corporations and cartels is the American way. The Words: “illegal’s cause unemployment in this nation”, “gay families cause economic failure in this country, leading to more unemployment” “unions provide too much pay for its workers”, “minimum wage is too much and provides less incentives for businesses to hire.” “Trust God, he will provide.” The Frustration: The Tea Bag Brigade, the Fundamentalist preachers and pastors, the Ultra Conservative Republicans care little about fact and rely more on fear. This group of Americans wants chaos and not consensus. The New Testament is being abused and used to create lies and is used to replace the words written in the Constitution. They have been energized to vote in people who ride roughshod, rule without compassion, wish for less as it relates to minorities, and will eventually turn a democracy into a decaying form of government where the rich become more powerful and anyone else into worker bees and drones.

I find all of this frustrating, scary and worrisome. I find that the silence of those who know better deafening and destructive. I find the inaction of those who feel they are not Black, Hispanic, Gay, Disabled, and Unemployed to be incomprehensible. The Jews in Germany thought they were Germans first and that any talk anti German talk did not pertain to them. They were sure that the crazy politicians who scapegoat the democratic way, the democratic process would be found to be fools. The bigots and biased would fade into a dark recess of history. The Jews of Europe were sure that the Christians would follow the teachings of Jesus, the reaching out to the masses, the treating one another as brothers as equals. The Crusades, the Pogroms were so Un-Christian like.

We had better wake up and use our Constitution as it was meant before the revisionists the Republican activists judges, the crud of the American earth destroy and dismantle it.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others who what am I? If not now when?” Rabbi Hillel.

I find all of this frustrating, scary and worrisome. I find that the silence of those who know better deafening and destructive. I find the inaction of those who feel they are not Black, Hispanic, Gay, Disabled, and Unemployed to be incomprehensible. The Jews in Germany thought they were Germans first and that any talk anti German talk did not pertain to them. They were sure that the crazy politicians who scapegoat the democratic way, the democratic process would be found to be fools. The bigots and biased would fade into a dark recess of history. The Jews of Europe were sure that the Christians would follow the teachings of Jesus, the reaching out to the masses, the treating one another as brothers as equals. The Crusades, the Pogroms were so Un-Christian like.

We had better wake up and use our Constitution as it was meant before the revisionists the Republican activists judges, the crud of the American earth destroy and dismantle it.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others who what am I? If not now when?” Rabbi Hillel.