like 20 million is no big deal

...like 20 million is no big deal!

so lou dobbs, commentator for cnn of the lou dobbs show, said that the obama administration exaggerated its numbers listing how many americans have no health insurance, or are under insured.

the 46 million give or take a million or so that the current administration listed as those without insurance includes non citizens (code word for illegal aliens), people who supposedly think they will never get sick so they never signed up for insurance, people who had coverage but for some reason (perhaps lack of employment or no money to pay for it, DUH), were included in the 46 million plus chump change.

BUT if you take away those undesirables the number is ONLY 20 million.

ONLY 20 million, as if ONLY 20 million does not count. give me a break, ONLY 20 million!

i just love when people use the word ONLY to try and persuade us its okay.

like... its ONLY those gays and lesbians who want to be married, as if they really matter.

or... its ONLY auto workers, who do they think they are, they ONLY do manual labor why should they be given adequate wages, they are not bankers or wall street financiers.

and.. its ONLY a bunch of poor people who are complaining that the trickle down economics of regan/bush/clinton, never trickled down, but trickled up and up and up, ONLY they wouldn't know what to do with all that money anyway.

ONLY 20 million people!

why do people who use the term ONLY, seem to think they are exempt from being part of that ONLY group. maybe if they didn't have health insurance, or the money to purchase health insurance, or the promise that once they did use their health insurance the cost of using their health insurance would not go higher and higher. they might think differently

like what if this only happened to me!

ONLY 20 million people. no big deal, its ONLY 20 million.

happy fathers day

happy father's day mister president.

its a day early but i wanted to send you my wish before the parade of cards hit your desk. i hope you are going to spend the day with your family, your kids and wife. you have a wife who is, as so aptly said by miss california, "of the opposite sex", so it is legal in the u.s. to actually travel with her in all 50 states without worry that some religious zealot may not want to honor your marriage.

i wonder mister president, have you spoken to senators mc cain, vittor and ensign, are they planning on spending fathers day with their mistresses, or their first wives or their mistresses who became their new wife. kind of confusing isn't, it how to spend fathers day, when one strays from the solid, unbreakable INSTITUTION of MARRIAGE. but then they are all heterosexuals so if they alter the INSTITUTION of MARRIAGE, its okay.

but i digress. i want to wish you a happy father's day from one dad to another. we have somethings in common, i have two kids, and i am an american citizen, but we kind of stop after that i suppose, because drat, damn, darn i am gay. you know, mister president, the kind of american who is separate but equal. you recently made it very clear, by not speaking loud and clear about your opposition to separate but equal, yeah you gave a little on the DOMA, a wee bit, and you have remained silent, VERY silent on don't ask don't tell even when a few really bright and very valuable armed services men and women asked you to talk loud and proud.

as dads with kids and of course spouses, oops, there we go again, separate but equal, we both get to share father's day with our family and kids. except, i call my other half my partner, but when i travel the u.s. with him, others refer to him as my friend, and i sure hope when we do travel its not to one of those nasty states that won't allow me to see him if he should happen to go to the hospital. i'm sure you have no problems if that should happen to mrs obama, thank god! would be awkward to continue carrying a legal document explaining something so intimate as loving your spouse.

happy fathers day. i don't want to be long in my rhetoric as i am sure you have lots of things planned for this day. but speaking of rhetoric, it seems yours has grown tiresome and patronizing on the subject of glbt community. your gays are growing quite dissatisfied with your POLI-RHETORIC. I coined that phrase, POLI-RHETORIC after listening to you lament about civil rights and human rights and doing very little aside from saying you would. (POLI-RHETORIC is similar to a hot air ballon, once you speak, just like in politics the speech becomes full of hot air and floats into space, never ever finding its way to earth.) you appealed to gays who became your gays and said change was on its way, change we could count on. i am still counting. I did not however come up with the term your gays, it is a pet phrase used by kathy griffin. she treats her gays very well, and realizes she need not patronize or ignore them because without them she goes from a "d" list performer to a non performer.

it seems, mister president, that some of your gays, and i am one of them are beginning to discuss what we should do to get you to move on something so simple as human and civil rights for all americans in this country, even lbgt americans.

some of your gays, think we should let you tackle the BIG issues left for you by another president who did very little to acknowledge the lbgt community, mister bush. they think you will get to the human and civil rights of the lbgt community eventually. get to it!!! when does someone even have to prioritize getting to human and civil rights.

some of your gays think that maybe money will speak louder than a physical protest. this is america after all. so some of your gays as you know want to withhold supporting the dnc in raising funds. imagine if all those fabulously wealthy gays didn't write checks in support of politicians who only just gave lip service

and some gays think you have become just like everyone else in washington d.c., a POLITICIAN. those gays think you are waiting to take on the gay issues after you win the confidence of some bigoted, small minded hateful, americans and run for a second term and become president again. if you did that you would realize your dreams and goals but the lbgt community who wants to marry and celebrate father's day with their families would be out in the cold for another 4 plus years.

"four more years, four more years", worked well for mister bush's popularity!

oh one more question, really off the father's day congratulation message i am sending you. do you think politicians have consciences? and if they do, do they ever have guilty consciences?

so happy father's day!

burn baby burn...

awwww, the sweet memories of days gone by when fire and brimstone ruled the land.

the days when witch hunts established for religious reasons to save the innocent from the evil doing women of new england. the taking of innocent lives because someone was fighting on behalf of their god to make sure good triumphed over evil. the sweet smell of flesh burning in public arena's to teach a lesson to all that even if there is no proof of evil, as long as one person feels another is bad based on bigotry, ignorance and fear, then in the name of god it is okay to burn them to death.

and the pogroms in russia and eastern europe. those vile, evil jews living in villages with all those jewish trinkets and blasphemous jewish things like synagogues which defy the real christian religion or the real rule of dictator god like king or czar or emperor, burn those huts those homes that land, and show those evil doers that there can only be one way to think and live.

the sweet days of nazi germany, when people were told how to think and what to think. the days when it was easier to find a scapegoat to blame for your self made troubles or a scapegoat to mention when it was the government who reneged on a promise or a dictatorial leader was more concerned with his well being than those of the people he governed. take those jews, or gypsies, or homosexuals and brand them, beat them, and burn their places of establishment, to prove that two wrongs don't make a right, but that one wrong trumps any right, make them burn in hell.

wear a white hood, hide behind your own insecurities and in the pitch black of night 20 of you against one or two, scare the black folk out of their beds and make them run like wild animals and finally tie, or tar and feather them and place a noose around their neck, reminding them how they are not human. and as a final lesson burn them, or burn their homes forcing their young children to run frantically into the night, traumatized for a lifetime as they look into the bonfires made from the few items they owned.

awww, fire, it makes such a burning point, when sense or truth just can't find it way into reason or rhyme.

and now as if we haven't learned from a sordid past of idiots, fear mongers, self loathing individuals who only have the power to hate, there is a small library in connecticut where a book about a family of mommies, no dad and mommy, has caused emotional and irreconcilable distress for those who seem to be drawn to the evil book, they want the book banned and of course burned. you can't allow freedom of expression, only the freedom of SUPPRESSION!

burn it because the evil will haunt the library if the book is left on the shelf. the papers and the binding must be made into ashes. burn the book because it may allow some to think outside of the box. to think that maybe choice is good. that difference has merit.

burn baby burn... the only way to rid the world of the devil is to use the actual environment in which the devil lives (fire), to make our world better.

"i pity the fool"

"i pity the fool", a quote so precisely stated by mr. t, seems to have come unto its own once again with the recent marital shenanigans of one of the two senators of nevada, senator ensign.

"i pity the fool" who stands on his hill of hypocritical hyperbole shouting so soundly about the precious institution of marriage being a sacred right for one man and one woman, only to have his words smack him in the head and with a resounding "practice what you preach mister." and if marriage is so special for one man and one woman, why did you decide to have two women (a mistress and a wife.)

" i pity the fool" senators vittor, mc cain and ex speaker gingrich, who spit in the wind and have the foul taste of dishonesty and moral ineptitude smack them in the face as they glorify the institution of marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman while "womanizing" or was it just simply put "cheating" with a second female while supposedly in marital bliss.

"i pity the fool", who stands upon his "marriage is between on man and one woman" soapbox, stating that same sex marriage is not as fulfilling or natural, as miss california stated, opposite sex is and looks the other way as married opposite sex couples have one affair after the other, and in the case of mayor giuliani, marry over and over again.

"i pity the fool" who refuses to see marriage for its real value...love. love between two people who don't need to have extra marital affairs, who don't get married because its expected by their family and friends, and who seem to marry out of convenience.

senators ensign, vittor, mc cain, you now have more reason to stop the charade, and tell your co-workers, that marriage only works when you are in love, and being in love has no gender, it has heart, and soul, and reason. that those who do believe in the institution of marriage believe in it because they found someone, man or woman, man or man, woman or woman, who they can and want to share their life with forever, and always.

"i pity the fool", who pretends to be happy with his spouse, pretends to have unquestioned morals, and who speaks out of both sides of his mouth.

"i pity the fool", who thinks that since he or she is an elected official, their foolish behavior is beyond pity.

i'm confused...

...our elected officials seem to be concerned that any health care system that is even partially run by the government is not good for america as it will not allow "fair competition" from the for profit health insurance companies. YET, the health care plan our elected officials receive is tax payer paid for, handled by the government. and we as the benefactors of that health insurance plan have never been asked to debate what kind of plan our elected officials should receive...hmmm!

...our elected officials want to run for office, they campaign vigorously for positions in government, telling us why they should represent us. YET once they get into office the form of communication between politician and citizen becomes more remote and less frequent until the next cycle of elections comes about and they once more remind us that without the american voter they (the politicians) could not do their job. and that is the point, it becomes a job, but one it seems with no supervision. hmmm!

...we elect all types of politicians to office. they supposedly are working for us, they are considered public servants. the only reason they have the office they so tiredly campaigned for is because the majority of the voting public allowed them to do so per each vote cast. YET, when many of our elected officials retire from office they write their autobiographies of lessons learned while in office, or why they did what they did for the public good, or an attempt at rewriting their particular history. how come we, the public who allowed them to take front and center, to do the job they supposedly wanted to do for the american population never get any portion of the proceeds from the books they write while working for us. hmmm!

...we view almost all interviews or speeches or impromptu comments on video or hear it on audio tape, and the camera doesn't lie nor does the tape. YET, when a politician misstates the truth, or says something he or she believe is true, or comment on a particular segment of he population in derogatory language he or she denies ever saying it, or even better that it was taken out of context, even though the entire comment has been video aped or on audio. hmmm!

...why do we with the power of the ballot allow all of this nonsense to continue, year after year, electing people who tun into politicians who turn into self absorbed individuals who once they take their oath of office, seem to think the will of the people is less then their own blind ambitions.

i'm confused????

democracy

the iranians are running through the streets arguing the flaws and the thievery of their election process. they are complaining about the unfair, illegal election of their next president.

the iranian people want to take their government back and want it to be a government for the people, by the people of the people. done fairly and justly.

is there anything wrong with that?

seems history kind of repeats itself, and he u.s. had the same kind of interference during the gore v bush fiasco election, and the american people allowed the courts to make a hall mark decision in electing our president.

and now with the last election obama v mccain, some americans, mainly hard core republicans want to secede from the union, or still try and disqualify president obama saying he was not born a american citizen.

seems no one is safe when it comes to finding democracy, whether it bethe large emblem of democratic principals like the u.s., or a member of the so called axis of evil, iran.

what does seem common is that most people, want their government to work for them. they want a government, that listens to their citizens, works for their populations, and does not want people who run for higher office to abandon the civil rights, the human rights of their constituents. they do not want career politicians to put their beliefs, benefits, and less than benevolent behaviors before the public's goods and needs.

the u.s. needs to look closely at how the iranians handle this election, because we also have a very poor record of making democracy a virtuous act in this country.

our way of government as been tarnished, and democracy has fallen, it seems to me off the priority list.

flag day

we just celebrated "flag day".

when i was student at linden elementary school, in pittsburgh pa, miss marie cyphers, was the music teacher. (in the 50's and early 60's, somehow the arts, p.e., were considered viable and important enough to incorporate them into the daily curriculums of public schools). miss cyphers was the individual responsible for the patriotic inspiration and she taught all students of linden school to sing songs about the american flag. and every flag day on the front lawn of linden elementary school the kindergarten to eighth classes would participate in a demonstration of americana and we would proudly wave our flags an sing our hearts out praising the beauty of the red white and blue.

i still, when asked, can sing the lyrics of two or three "flag day", songs. and for me they used bring back memories of an innocent time, of a time when i was told that america was created to fight communism, that love america or leave it, that america was fair, and honest, and that we were a place of true democracy and we played fair and honest, and our politicians were elected by the people for the people. where almost everything was in black or white except for the flag.

i still when asked can sing the songs learned for flag, by miss cyphers, but this time the memories are not as bright as the red white and blue glistening from the flag as it waves majestically in the wind.

i now see a country that for the past 8 years was lied to, told to be afraid, even told who the enemy was we were to fear. i see a country, that had its supreme court elect a president, not the voters. i see a country that allowed the rich to get so rich that no one wanted to place any restrictions or limits on how they made their money, but insisted gluttony, greed and gimme was an american right. i see a country that disguises its bigotry by saying that we do what we do for the kids, for a healthy family for religious purposes. i see a government run by partisan forces so hurtful that almost each and every politician elected refuses to look to the middle for solution, but prefers to look at how they might get re-elected by going to extremes.

when i now hear people sing songs about the flag, i hear them sing songs about "their" flag. how we are different than you. how my flag is not the same as your flag because you are liberal, or conservative, or gay, or don't believe in the correct jesus, the one who is on the mantel of my church, or worse you don't believe in jesus at all.

as i remember the flag is still the same colors, red white and blue as when it was created a long time ago. the only change about the flag are the amount of stars.

i flew the flag for flag day and had a bunch of friends over for a picnic and wondered how many people really felt great about being an american how many people felt they were a part of a country which seems to grow further a part with the have and the have nots, which seems to grow further away from equality for all, but more towards equality for people just like us.

i flew the flag and sang my favorite song, "many flags", some of the lyrics go, :...there are many flags of many lands, there are flags of every hue, but there is no flag however grand as our own red white and blue..."

i believe that, but it becomes harder and harder to do so.