i don't get it!

Tax breaks and incentives with over $60 billion given to the oil companies. And at the same time there is a hue and cry to cut social services for the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the unemployed. Cut the spending we are told but don't even consider raising the tax rate on the wealthy and God forbid the Corporations. America is about Capitalism and Capitalism is the motivator that makes the successful succeed and the lazy learn how to work. Does not matter we have seen the rich grow wealthier and the poor on the verge of hopelessness, but cut, cut, cut cause that makes America more red, white, and blue. I just don't get it!

So, now we need to cut funds for Planned Parenthood because among the many things they do including providing an outlet of care for women, education on becoming pregnant including the responsibilities,cost and care of a child, the values and responsibilities of having a family, they also provide a variety of choices in not becoming pregnant and if you are pregnant the freedom of deciding if the rape, irrational action need more consideration. And the same folk who seem to think that Planned Parenthood is bad for the health and welfare of women want to cut social service funds for children, women and families. So the group of Pro Lifers who insist they have more power over women's reproductive rights then actual women want the baby born and once born couldn't care less how it eats, is educated or where it lives. I just don't get it!

And we were told as people wore three pointed hats decorated by dangling tea bags, that America has spent too much of our money and enough was enough. We were scared by gun toting Second Amendment Right self identified Americans that according to Jesus and the Founding Fathers freedom meant less government, and no imposition on our personal lives. We were told that the deficit and jobs, jobs, jobs were JOB ONE along with smaller government by the Republicans/Baggers and when elected real CHANGE the kind real Americans want would CHANGE America. And what we have seen from Republican/Bagger dominated state Legislatures and Governors are bills that have little to do with finding jobs or working on the deficit but lots of energy on denying women rights to their own bodies, unions to exist, child labor laws being overturned, cutting unemployment benefits,limiting services for those living in poverty and any right for gay and Lesbians. I just don't get it!

And as America is being torn into we vs they, rich vs poor, haves vs have nots, interest in corporations vs lack of concern for the middle class, tax breaks for the wealthy vs, social services cut backs for working class and poor we still have people wanting to run for President of this country like Bachmann, Huckabee, Trump, Barbour and Gingrich who on their best days act like an earthquake making more and more divisions on the American landscape and I don't get it!

I don't get it and have not gotten it for a while. And the fact that all of this is still happening is very, very, very frustrating.

when, when, when?

When you can't face the truth, then remodel the facts and face the next best thing. If the facts don't fit, then make them fit into something less confining, redefining the truth making it fit the way you think you ought to look. While the truth is usually the clear choice for resolving many or any issue, if the truth is not on your side then remove its purpose and purposely speak of fable and fiction. Or become a Republican/Bagger and potentially run for President omitting anything with fact, truth, reality and replace it with Karl Rove speak, funded by the Koch Brothers, mixed in with pompous Evangelical Christianity spoken by self proclaimed false prophets and sell it to uneducated bigots who never look at themselves for the problem but point fingers at anyone else as the villain.

When you can't find the answer to employment but profess jobs, jobs, jobs are the numero uno priority, and really have no intention of creating jobs, turn to God. When you swear its all about jobs and you have ways to find them for all Americans but are not quite ready to share them turn to religion. When you say there is a better way to find work for all Americans use the unemployment mavens from Focus on the Family, the 700 Club, the anti abortion terrorists, National Organization for Marriage, The Family Research Council and the families from the Walton's, Prince's, and Koch's and speak loudly against same sex marriage, women's reproductive rights and unions/ collective bargaining and just utter promises that once we clear this nation of the devil and his devious demons we can begin to look for jobs.

When you are wealthy, really rich, the kind of rich that you have so many tax attorney's you need not pay any tax, no matter how in favor the tax code is for your circumstances, just insist as you buy politicians, Supreme Court activists judges that too much profit is never enough. Spend some of your income on a marketing agency that will swear on a stack of Bibles that we all can have more money if we disband unions, keep tax cuts for wealthy Americans, cut back on social services for people who now will have less income to spend on any social services, and make sure there are no rules or regulations for things like Finances/Banking, Health Care and Environment. Raise the American flag, pledge allegiance and call anyone who wants to diminish the crevice the huge yawning deep cavernous divide between the have's and the have not's as Communists, Fascists, Socialists. And by all means keep the dumb who follow like lemmings as stupid as possible. Make promises you never intend to deliver and keep the money flowing for the wealthy.

When you live in America of 2011 and watch as Republican/Bagger Governors and Legislatures increase tax cuts for corporations while disbanding collective bargaining and unions, cut programs for seniors the disabled, insist on big government intervention for women's reproductive rights, accuse teachers as the reason for state deficits, insist that no same sex couple will marry in my state and you have not begun to worry and wonder why...you must be living in a cave.

When the truth is no longer important, historical facts meaningless, the privacy of peoples personal lives more important than employment and keeping the wealthy wealthier seem to be the only things the Republican/Baggers shout and stomp about and you are not scared...you must be dead.

When this is what America is beginning to look like and you don't seem to care...shame on you, shame!

jerry and son's

On October 15, 1962, reconnaissance photos revealed Soviet missiles under construction in Cuba. Suddenly the most unthinkable set of circumstances this modern world of 1962 could ever be faced with found itself facing. "Duck and cover," retention drills in public schools, identification of bomb shelters and talk of mushroom clouds suddenly filled the airwaves, the pulpits, and neighborhood get together's.

In 1962 my father would, every three weeks, pick me up at our school yard, and drive me to our monthly father and son haircut. We went to Jerry and Son's Barber Shop in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, a Barber Shop where my Dad, as a Policeman was treated like a king, and his son me, was given special attention. Including the actual haircut and then the time needed for the BS, we would spend about two and half hours at Jerry and Son's. This barber Shop was a mecca for die hard out of shape athletes, middle aged unhappily married men who could ogle at girlie magazines, blue collar families who thought $3.50 for an all American haircut was a respectable amount to pay, and a place to lament, languish and loudly pursue politics.

Jerry and Son's had a small television mounted on a rusted metal rack over the entrance to the restroom/workroom/lunchroom.Not just anybody could use that space but being 'Benny Buncher's son' I had special privileges and could enter whenever I wished. It was so gross I never used my special entry pass. However the one consequence of using that restroom was that all eyes were on the television above its entrance and lead by Jerry and then his son, whoever was in the Barber Shop would in unison scream "did it come out all right?" as the person using the facilities re-entered into the Shop.

My dad was a union man and believed that any community was only as strong as its weakest link. He also believed that no one deserved to be treated with respect, they in fact had to earn it through trust and honor. So, among the crowd at Jerry's who many times wanted to find a scapegoat or someone to blame their inability to achieve their dreams or just grunt and groan about everyone else but themselves, my father was not one to delve too deeply into the politics of the time. He would defend his being Jewish when a new guy walked in the Shop and had some kind of Sunday sermon derogatory comment to make about the Jews, but mainly he would listen. When fingers were pointed at an easy prey, the Negro (in those days the reference to Blacks), the Jew, again if they didn't know the policeman sitting in the shop in his uniform was Jewish they would somehow blame the greed of the Jews, or refugees,(in Pittsburgh in the 60's people started to arrive from other countries than Italy, Ireland or Poland and did not fit into the perceived ethnic make up of the city, my dad would speak up and ask anyone in the Shop "does your shit smell any better?"

But I remember it was the week after the announcement of Soviet missiles in Cuba that my Dad and I went to Jerry and Son's Shop. It was a cold rainy wet miserable bleak day in Pittsburgh and almost looked as dark outside as if we were approaching the midnight hour.The streets seemed deserted, anyone on the streets looked sour and sullen and it was hard to find any color outside except for grey.

We got to the Barber Shop and the place was filled, some old recognizable faces but plenty of people I had never seen at Jerry and Son's ever. It was standing room only and all eyes were on the television set located above the entrance to the restroom. Walter Cronkite was on the air and was speaking to a general and some Congressperson. The man was a Republican and he was smugly shouting that the Catholic President, Kennedy was busy taking orders from the Pope and was not acting in the American way. We took too much time in discovering the missile sights and now there would be hell to pay. The general said the US was on top of the crisis, and we had an arsenal of weapons that could blow Cuba off the map if we had to. Walter Cronkite asked if that general knew how close Florida was located to Cuba and in the blowing off the map of Cuba might not at least the Keys and maybe Miami be blown away also?

The discussion focused on the Atom Bomb and just whose bomb was bigger. (Had I been a bit more sophisticated at the time I certainly could have related that conversation to the many references of penis size and the power of the penis by most if not many of the customers at Jerry's.) When the conversation on television focused on the Atom Bomb and its destruction and the fall out and the devastation caused by the fall out the place grew eerily quiet. The only noise we heard was the rain falling on the sidewalk and as if it was a scene from a movie a clap of thunder clicked and made quite a few people jump, including my father. We were all scared. What scared me most however was witnessing the look of fear on all these able-ed body men and in particular my hero and saver of all things bad, my Dad.

I wanted to run home, go under the bed, build a bomb shelter, drive to my grandparents homes, my aunts and uncles bring them all to my house and just hide and wish away this horrible event. I wanted my Dad to say it will be all right, don't worry. I hated television and what I decided that day was its unrelenting communication of bad news.

Many wonderful experiences came my way growing up in the 50's, and 60's but that news cast with the word BULLETIN flashing under the chin of Walter Cronkite's chin still find its way into my psyche. The talk of doom and destruction haunted me many nights and every time we were at Linden School and there was a Retention Drill, I wondered if the Atomic Bomb was headed to Pittsburgh.

I trusted Walter Cronkite and somehow knew he would do anything in his power to make things right, to make my Father and those men at Jerry' shop stop worrying. I believed everything he had to say because, well because he was a news caster, a journalist.

I am a news junkie. I, like my Father still worry about the downtrodden, those easily scapegoated, the innocent who have little voice and listen closely to how the world around us is communicated. I worry about how the news is told and wonder often if like everything else of recent times what is supposedly reality is just scripted and marketed. I don't worry so much about the Atomic Bomb, but more so about the lies which many people seem to think is the truth, and the trust placed in people who are not journalists, just jerks.

The message from the television set above the restroom at Jerry and Son's had a powerful impact, one that still nags at me. The television in peoples' living room, computers, smart phones spews information almost twice the speed of light and the messages it delivers has an impact greater than that of radiation from an Atomic Bomb. It has scared many of us into believing things once unimaginable about our friends, neighbors, and family and fellow Americans.

America was on the verge of destruction in 1962, we heard it from Walter Cronkite's lips, America is on the verge of even more devastation in 2011 and we hear it from the lips of FOX, MSNBC, CNN, AM radio. We survived the Cuban Missile Crisis but somehow I still am reminded of that awful rainy day in Pittsburgh at about 5:00 pm when I thought it was the end of the world.

I decided to write a blog in hopes of speaking about things the common person finds relevant and important. I write a blog to help me cope with the bad guys in this nation who prey on people's need for a higher power, for their fair share, for recognition as equals and who use those needs as weapons.

I am not sure what I could have written about in 1962 after Walter Cronkite informed us of impending doom. But America did not give up then, and I sure as hell hope we don't give up now.

cause and effect

Cause-“kids who are engaging in homosexual behavior often look inward and know that what they are doing is unnatural, is wrong, is immoral, and so they become depressed and the instances of suicide can rise there as well.” Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber works for both Liberty University and Liberty Counsel.(msnbc.com)

Effect-While inside McDonald's in NYC Damian noticed 2 men staring at him – giving him “looks” – we have all been there, we know what this feels like. It was late, Damian was tired, he felt uncomfortable and he didn’t want any trouble so he left. He was across the street, walking away while on the phone to a friend when the 2 men from McDonalds approached him and asked him “if he had a problem” before he knew it he was punched in the face by one man, then instantly felt another punch by the second perp, and then he heard it – “You Fucking Faggot” , the words as hurtful as the punches.(msnbc.com)

Cause and effect

Call them names and make them the reason for your own inadequate life. Say it is unGodlike and in your own Godly ill mannered machinations, take his divine word and act like the devil. As long as I can still place you one rung beneath me I don't have to worry that you will notice my inhuman behavior. If I have them point at you I can weasel my way through one more lousy day in my life.

Cause-If Governor Scott Walker's concerns are truly budgetary, he could do a lot without pushing for complete abolition of public sector unions. He has the support, both from the legislature and the public, to pare back state employee benefits. It represents a pittance in the context of the budget (employee salaries make up 8 percent of total state spending, and benefits represent much less than that), but if he wants to do it, he can do so easily.

That's why it's important to understand that the motivation to push for aboliiton is primarily political, and bears little relation to fiscal concerns. Public sector unions are a powerful Democratic interest group, and their funding comes from member dues. There is nothing that would give Republicans more pleasure than to cut one of their largest political opponents off from its funding source, and there is no better time to make that move than amidst hysteria about impending fiscal crisis.(Isthmus-the Daily page).

Effect-Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a leader of the Tea Party movement and veritable kingmaker for conservative candidates, made no bones about his desire to diminish the power of public employees. DeMint told ThinkProgress that he “doesn’t believe collective bargaining has any place in government…including at the federal level.” The South Carolina senator then went on to call public employees’ unions an “unelected third party” that enjoyed “monopoly power” in negotiations. “It just doesn’t make any sense,” DeMint quipped(msnbc.com)

Cause and Effect-Lie about your true intentions. Find a scapegoat, someone a group of someone's who you embolden with strengths they really never possess, but strength you desire and want. Destroy any power that equalizes the worker from the king. Say it isn't American or Christian, demand that wanting something fair is the most unfair thing a democracy is all about.

Cause-South Dakota today became the first state in the country to require women seeking an abortion to visit anti-abortion counseling centers. Gov. Dennis Daugaard (R) signed legislation that is precedent-setting in several ways. It also mandates a 72-hour waiting period – the longest in the country – and requires two visits to a physician and a screening for risk factors, in addition to the visit to a pregnancy crisis center.

Effect-With one bullet, a gunman ended the life and the controversial career of abortion doctor George Tiller, killing him as he stood in the foyer of his church Sunday. "Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather. Today's event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George's friends and patients.

"This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace.

Protesters blockaded Tiller's clinic during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy" protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993. Tiller was wounded in both arms. Shannon remains in prison.

The clinic was bombed in June 1986 and was severely vandalized last month. His lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings' downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.(the Washington Eagle)

Cause and Effect-Demand that your holier than thou trumps anything holy that God might mean for anyone but you. Insist that it is your interpretation of the Bible and God's will that is correct, because among other things you are capable of more violent and virulent rhetoric and response. Decide that you are the one that God has decided to run his business on Earth. And above all else ignore any laws of the democratic nation that just don't jive with your own prejudices and ignorance.

We have among us, those who cause change, create chaos, challenge the Constitution never once caring about the consequences. They are indignant insistent and insidious in maintaining life as they and only they see it is fit to be lived. They swear they know the meaning of the Testaments and understand what the Founding Fathers of this nation meant and did not mention. They use the pulpits of Preachers, Pastors, Popes and Rabbi's to teach bigotry and bias. They care little for fact if it hurts their point of view and rely heavily on fiction to spread fear and loathing. They are relentless to create division and like a vampire looking into a mirror refuse to see their own heinous and hypocrisy for fear they will explode in smoke and fire.

They cause terror, angst, harm and fear. Their cause effects many of us with acts of violence, suicide, loneliness, poverty, denial. They hide in packs and claim they are of higher moral and ethical standards and never apologize for any or all chaos they create. And above all they think there is are no consequences for their behavior.

And in 2010 we elected them into power.

how does this happen

Slogging through your taxes right now? Maybe you could hire someone from General Electric to help.

The company has beaten Uncle Sam. It paid no U.S. taxes for 2010, The New York Times. In fact, it received a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.

It's not that GE can claim poverty. The company rang up $14.2 billion in profits last year, including $5.1 billion from U.S. operations.

How did GE do it? Through what the Times describes as "innovative accounting" and fierce lobbying, GE has been cutting its tax bill for years. In a stroke of genius, it hired a former Treasury official to lead its tax department and filled its team with former IRS employees and Congressional tax specialists.

The top corporate tax rate is supposed to be 35% -- one of the highest in the world. But few companies actually pay that rate, since there are myriad loopholes and other ways to get breaks. Now, the Times reports, only 6.6% of Uncle Sam's tax revenue comes from corporations (down from 30% in the 1950s).(msn.money)

In Wisconsin we are told that unions cost the economy too much and must be diluted so more money goes to the black ink and less is draining the state coffers red ink. In Michigan we are told that municipal services handled by union workers cost way too much and in this land of democracy the Governor has the right to destroy municipal charters doing away with any and all unions and privatizing services. In Ohio teachers unions, firefighter unions, nurses unions are depleting the budget costing way too much and the only saving grace is to diminish or destroy such unions. We are told by the Ohio Governor, the Michigan Governor, the Wisconsin Governor that these are hard cuts but necessary.

We are told by Republican/Baggers in Washington that less money spent on taxes by the ultra wealthy, corporations, big business means more jobs and a better forecast for our future. We are told that taxation for the rich makes Capitalism weak and then we are told that less salary, less benefits, less healthy working conditions for the middle class will make Capitalism once again powerful. We need to sacrifice,(we are told by the Red State Legislators and the Republican/Baggers and the Koch Brothers and their sidekicks, Rove, Limbaugh and Beck) on the backs of the working class to make America more red white and blue.

In 2010 we were sold a bill of goods that smart is bad, minimum wage is bad, too much government is costly, health care for all is way too expensive, three meals a day is gluttonous, seniors need to work till they die, mass transportation and infrastructure are only tentacles for unions and since they create union jobs they are evil, and that unless everyone earning under a million dollars a year stops being so greedy America will turn into a Fascist, Communist, Socialist country run by the Devil himself.

In 2010, the purveyors of lies, fabrication self service, sold their wares and in 2011 we have begun to see a fault line as great as any which lies beneath the Earth begin to rumble and roll. We have seen the wealthy buy Supreme Court Justices, own Politicians, decide national policy, and deny rights, freedoms and respect for those deemed as undesirables aka the working class. We have been told falsehoods that the less the corporations pay the more they will create jobs…the less restriction and regulation we place on businesses the more they can expand…the less obstacles we place in the way of profits for shareholders the easier it will become to stimulate our economy. And the more we stop selfish workers from seeking a fair share of the American pie, the better we become in this land called America.

I am a member of the middle class and I pay more of a percentage in taxes then many Fortune 500 Corporations, CEO’s and Millionaires. I don’t mind doing my fair share but just don’t understand why…why separate but equal exists in this nation when it comes to fair share for all?

The Republican/Baggers shouted loud and long. They hummed tunes from the Revolutionary War, crooned hymns from the New Testament, shouted annotated comments from the Constitution all paid for by billionaires and made a case for more for the rich and less for the poor. And in all that hubbub and patriotic hallelujah they elected individuals who paralleled their banter.

And in 2011 we have the wealthy paying less, the middle class paying more and the poor barely surviving. Whose America is this and whose America is it going to be? Why does this happen? How does this happen?

strange

There is an awful lot of strange going on in this country.

We seem to debate the quality of the environment wondering if it is worth the expense now to correct the inefficiencies we as humans have generated. We argue if any of this so called global warming is real or just a fluke, and as we take sides on the issue of climate change, climate changes. We are told that too many rules and regulations by the EPA will hurt this countries economy. And we are reminded it is for the kids that we don't think about the health of this planet NOW, because by doing so NOW we will leave less black ink for the corporations (who pollute this planet) to help our kids grow into adults later. We are also told by the right wing evangelicals that Jesus thinks rules and regulations on the environment will make this Christian country a demonic socialist nation. God, we are told by these religious zealots created the Earth so only he, not the Oil Cartels, the Coal Industry, the Plastic makers have the power to destroy it.

We elected politicians who said they spoke, agonized, and sympathized with the average American. They looked into the cameras, stared at the three cornered hats of the Tea Baggers, spoke from the pulpits of Mega Churches and swore that jobs first, and smaller government second. They had too much of Big Government and way too much of the poor job this President had done to stop the horrendous bleeding of the economy by his 2 term Republican predecessor. They had amnesia of their participation in "Weapons of Mass Destruction", forgot that the Tax Breaks for the rich did little to encourage growth in the economy for anyone but the rich, and demanded that only someone born in the US and a good/real Christian could and should run this country. And blue state legislatures turned red and soon the only concern about jobs were those who had jobs in which they were a part of unions, and jobs that could not be controlled by their billionaire 'sugar daddy's'. And small government was cool unless it interfered with the rules and regulations of 700 Club, Focus on the Family, Killers of Abortion Providers, Church of the later Day Saints, Orthodox Rabbi's and the Pope.

Suddenly made in America means there is an identity test for who, what and how an American is, and who it is that should have the final approval on permitting real Americans to be real rather than a 'wanna be'. It seems that once we elected a black man to the white house America turned into opposite land. Just when we thought we were an educated, morally advanced, fair minded people, the creeps crept out of the house of bias and bigotry, the religious zealots more interested in not finding God but behaving as God, the sinister who seek scapegoats have taken over the airwaves, the voting booths and became poisonous politicians. Birth certificates became important, the belief in the correct edition of God sanctioned by anti-gays, anti freedom for women's reproductive rights, anti-immigrants, anti-union, anti-Muslim was a priority, and if you even stressed equality and separate but equal you were questioned. Suddenly there is a list of who is an American, suddenly the Constitution is worth less than the New Testament, suddenly history means very little if it does not agree with your own hatred, and suddenly a huge rift of 'we vs. they' is growing and swallowing up populations in this country.

And now just to make sure strange will remain solidly in place to haunt us for decades to come, the Republican/Baggers considering a run for President include Michelle Bachman, Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump. Suddenly people who know nothing about the history of this nation, who tell his wife as he is divorcing her, I never do as I say, who quits before she is found out to be a thief, who swears he is God like then lies about things he has said, who will fire anyone that disagrees with him, forget that democracy thing. Suddenly the Republican/Baggers want descent not consensus, desire separate not equal and dream of a nation where the rich remain rich and the poor forever beholden to the rich.

There is an awful lot of strange going on in this country, and stranger than that many of us are letting it happen. Strange!!!!

in the meanwhile

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has denied an appeal to allow gay marriages to resume in California while the Proposition 8 case works its way through the legal appeal process.(msnbc.com)

And in the meanwhile let’s start guessing how many heterosexual marriages will end in divorce until this case works its way through the legal process…how many married partners will dabble in adultery…how many times will some one say I do to yet another partner…how many married people will be charged with infidelity?

And in the meanwhile let’s start wondering how many life partners within the LGBT community will not be permitted to sit by the bedside of their dying loved one…will not be permitted at the funeral of their loved one by other family members…how many people together for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years still get no recognition as a spouse…how many Preachers, Pastors, Rabbi’s Ministers will claim that America will fall into hell if Gays marry?

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder is currently seeking to raise individual income taxes---primarily on elderly and poor Michiganders---by some$1.7 billion per year. Snyder is asking some of Michigan’s most vulnerable families to hand all this money over to businesses, in the form of a roughly $1.8 billion business tax cut. (abovetopsecret.com)

And in the meanwhile let’s start guessing if the elderly, the poor will decide which month they will splurge on paying their rent or their pharmacy bills, or visit the doctor or buy groceries? Which month will permit them, (after paying an increase in taxes), enough money for the poor to buy books for their kids, to have enough money to buy fruits and vegetables instead of the 99cent meals at McDonalds, enough money for clothes? Which month will the elderly find enough cash to visit the doctor on his/her own free will instead of being driven to emergency room in an ambulance?

And in the meanwhile let’s start wondering what the businesses and corporations will do with those extra billions in tax breaks? Will they just leave it in the bank adding to the existing trillions in profit, crying that they are still not sure of the political environment so it is too early to invest in hiring? Will they insist that the only way they can keep qualified CEO’s is to pay them millions in salary; you know the CEO’s who have taken any steps to not outsource jobs, create new jobs? And how many businesses will look the other way as the Republican/Baggers shout from one side of their mouth jobs, jobs job while from the extreme opposite of their mouth the Republican/Baggers scream but not for all Americans.

Women in South Dakota who want to terminate a pregnancy will now have to wait 72 hours, according to an abortion bill in South Dakota that was signed into law Tuesday. Supporters of House Bill 1217 say the heart of the new law is coercion.

Chris Hupke, president of South Dakota's Family Policy Council, says the state's main abortion provider is not addressing the coercion.(msncb.com)

And in the meanwhile women are once again being reminded that others (in particular, men) know more about their psyche, bodies and reproductive rights then they do. And in the meanwhile women are reminded that they once were no more than chattel and with the passing of a bill in Republican/Bagger legislature they can be reduced to being dumb blonds who are only as good as men permit them to be. And in the meanwhile the same group of predominately male legislators is humming the Republican/Bagger party line that agencies like Planned Parenthood are of the devils disciples and all they do is coerce women to obtain abortions. In the meanwhile it is promoted that Planned Parenthood’s only reason for existence is to teach those pesky women how to have sex, (maybe to then have some poor innocent man spend even more money on a baby or a court case) and then spend good government money that could be used to offset the Democratic/Progressive inspired deficit and go to Planned Parenthood and abort, baby abort!

And in the meanwhile the legislators of 26 states have decided that the law protecting a women’s right to decide upon her reproductive rights is not the way America thinks. In the meanwhile these same Republican/Bagger elected officials don’t want America to think for themselves and would rather have ALL of us use their interpretation of the Bible to demonstrate the correct morals and values written in invisible ink in the Constitution. And in the meanwhile, while a woman is supposedly being coerced by Planned Parenthood to have an abortion, these same legislators crusaders for God want to coerce or is it intimidate these women into making a decision about their bodies based on particular religious values in a country supposedly with a line in the sand between church and state.

In the meanwhile groups of people are being denied their rights to be realized as equals in a nation that found its identity on freedom and justice for all. In the meanwhile government seems to want to be bigger for the wealthy, the religious zealots, the bigoted and bias, and it demands to become smaller if you are Gay, Elderly, Female, Poor.

In the meanwhile while all of this happening or will happen people are suffering and somehow their cries are being smothered. In the meanwhile we are permitting the insane to run the asylum.