12.21.2011

Kasich War on Women

Oh man, has the Republican National Committee been doping their stooges with stupid pills or something?

Nationally and locally these GOP fools have gone all the way crazy. Usually, they are more circumspect with their misogynistic tendencies, fearing they might anger their own women, I would guess.

But not today. NO! John-boy Kasich just banned abortion coverage for women in Ohio. How did he do that considering Roe v Wade is still the law of the land, at least for today anyway.

Dur Fuhrer Kasich signed HB 79 into law that prohibits the sale of abortion coverage in insurance plans...even if you pay for it out of your own pocket.

No government funds involved here. This is private citizen money. Your money. Our money. Not taxpayer money.

No, the man is telling us, that WE the people CANNOT buy insurance coverage with an abortion rider, which has been standard practice for women since the implementation of the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal money for all abortions.

I thought the teabaggers wanted government OUT of our lives. I guess that only matters if you have a penis between your legs. Only those with three legs qualify for full citizenship in America these days.

And you know this fool and his state minions co signed on the lawsuit against the Affordable Health Care Law, stating the government cannot mandate the sale of insurance.

But Kasich and the idjits in Columbus feel they can dictate to women if not to men.

Women apparently don't count...We're apparently not smart enough to make decisions about our own bodies, healthcare, or family planning.

We're just plain stupid ass bitches who need to be looked after by the masters of the universe.

Know what's even worse....Kasich...the self avowed ignoramous...who doesn't read newspapers...books or the United States Constitution...apparently doesn't read the Ohio State Constitution either...

You know the one he is supposed to be upholding...

It is illegal under the Ohio State Constitution to ban or prohibit the sale of health insurance or health care....Article I, section 21B...

Let's just skip the recall and impeach this fool!



12.01.2011

The War on Christmas

As soon as we're done stuffing ourselves with bird on Thanksgiving, thoughts turn to Christmas.

And just like swallows returning to Capistrano, some Christians start whining about liberals and others destroying THEIR holiday by taking the “Christ” out of Christmas. We liberals do this by saying “happy holidays, “ instead of Merry Christmas. We apparently, and I am guilty of this, are part of a concerted effort to make Christmas a solely secular celebration.

After all they say...”Jesus is the reason for the season, “ right?

Well, no, not really. Truth of the matter is, Christians hijacked December 25th to be Jesus' birthday. He was actually born sometime in March, according to the experts who have studied the matter more than me.

“Happy holidays” is a way of acknowledging the plurality of December 25th. It is a way of greeting all people, because some people aren't Christian and don't necessarily celebrate Christmas. By saying “Merry Christmas” to everyone you know or meet, you are assuming that everyone is Christian and celebrates the same way you do. Kind of bigoted, don't cha think?

A blanket “Merry Christmas” is kind of like straight people assuming that all other people are straight, too, when some of us are gay, some bisexual, some transgendered while others of us are just plain festive and fabulous.

“Happy holidays” is merely an acknowledgement that the world is different and diverse, nothing more. It relays a respect for the humanity of others. Sort of like the greeting “Namaste,” which is loosely translated, “I recognize the humanity in you, as you recognize the humanity in me.”

The war on Christmas myth traces back to the 1950's and the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce aka the JayCees. The JayCee campaign was called “Put Christ Back in Christmas.” The campaign was started because some businesses began using “Xmas” as short hand for “Christmas.” They even got the boy scouts involved to hand out fliers and bumperstickers. Had nothing to do with anyone trying to persecute Christians and or their celebrations.

Henry Ford lambasted Jews as opposing Christmas while he sent boat loads of money to Adolf Hitler back in the day. The John Birch society regularly complained, saying Happy Holidays was an anti-Christian statement. Goes back a long time. 

The War on Christmas is nothing more than a vampyric urban legend that refuses to die, kept alive by the wingnuts of the conservative right. In other words....Christians are behind the War on Christmas.  

As we become one big global family, Christmas has become less of a religious celebration. It's downright Pagan in a lot of ways starting with the tree.

In America for most, the religious aspects of Christmas take a back seat...and I mean way back... to the commercial aspects of the holiday.

I mean, what was that on Black Friday...pepper spray to buy a toy? Please! Wonder if she will make time to go to church, if they don't lock her ass up first.

Let's be real, Christian conservatives revive this controversy every year because they are losing their dominance in American society. They want their country back and they want it to reflect all those Norman Rockwell drawings or those Leave it to Beaver days in suburbia when daddy worked, mommy worked at home in heels, and the kids were just kids playing baseball.

There is no war on Christmas....never has been.

The nice thing about this world that we live in today, is that you can celebrate what you want....when you want...and how you want...

So.... Merry Christmas....Happy Holidays.....and Happy Kwanzaa....or not

Your choice...


11.27.2011

Occupy Wall Street


I have to be honest here, I just don't get Occupy Wall Street. When it started up, I was geeked.  I was ready to join up and finally get something done about the dysfunction in DC. Occupy Wall Street seemed like the perfect laxative to end the constipation that is American government.

An alternative to the Democratic Party....dare I dream?

I jumped downtown on public transportation and into Piatt Park...and … it didn't feel like a protest....felt like a bunch of kids who got together and were now sitting around asking each other...”well...what do you want to do?....I don't know...What do you want to do?”

I went home.....They mean well...but they don't know what to do. A few weeks in...Jessie came to town and did the “I am somebody shuffle” for them. Made em happy...many more Black people showed up....but left when Jessie did......OWS still on their butts, camped out in Piatt Park.

Several weeks into these so called protests, I'm sitting on the sidelines watching and waiting....and watching and waiting...and watching and waiting..

What am I waiting for....well, I guess I'm waiting for something to happen...like...protest maybe...like civil disobedience maybe....like mass arrests for, well protesting instead of sitting on your ass in a public park, playing drums.

Protesting to me is not pitching a tent in a public park and waiting for someone in power to take notice.

This time around... I don't have the luxury of youth on my side....If I take to the streets now and risk getting smacked upside the head or jailed...It's going to have to be worth it....real change....for everybody.....I don't see that with OWS...not yet...

Protesting for change, to me is pitching your tent on someone's desk...in someone's hallway.... or on someone's front steps...demanding they talk to you...or...call the cops to arrest your ass for interrupting their day.

You post bail...you go to the hospital and get your wounds treated...and you come back..You don't take time off to celebrate holidays with your parents in the burbs.

Sitting in a public park under a tent, under the watchful eyes of cops....seems more like a temper tantrum...something to do...until your parents give into your demands.

You need to earn your tear gas and pepper spray...sitting there reacting to over reacting pigs is not protest...ghandi-esque....picturesque...useless..

It's safe....it's “look at me, world...I'm taking a stand to change the world...sorta”

Safe....but not effective.

OWS is on the tongues of nearly everyone nationwide. It has seized the opportunity...but it doesn't know how to harness the power....and it is not reaching out to those who do know how to make it work..

Like I said, Jessie showed up in Cincinnati. Angela Davis made an appearance in Oakland.

MlK's peaceful protestors needed the counterpoint of the Black Panther Party, the SDS (students for a democratic society), CORE and SNCC to make it's point.

OWS just has OWS...no leaders...no one apparently willing to take the heat and lead..OWS is not reaching out to form coalitions....

It is complaining because Congress won't do the bipartisan thing...well....OWS is not being very bipartisan either...instead of waiting for the church to come to you...why not go to the church?

Folks are watchin...but OWS...just sits there and drums..



11.13.2011

GOP Wing Nuts Targeting Sherrod Brown


60 Plus Association lying through its dentures about Affordable Health Care, Senator Brown and Medicare.


Oh man, did you know there was a wing nut counterpart to AARP? Sure is. Been around since 1992 according to their website. These are not your touchy-feely seniors having fun on the golf course or senior sex behind the club house.

These are mean old fart crazy uncles and aunts, who hate the world as it is changing around them. The group's national spokesperson is none other than Pat Boone singer and former movie star, who shot to fame recording covers of “race music” as R&B was called back in the day.

This commercial, attacking US Senator Brown lies about Medicare, about the health care law and about Senator Brown. Here is the script:

Hi friend, I’m Pat Boone.  Last year, a lot of promises were made regarding health care reform, but America’s seniors knew forcing a bill through Congress when Americans overwhelmingly opposed it would be disastrous.  And we were right.
NARRATOR:
President Obama’s health care law cuts $500 billion from Medicare and creates a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.  It’s like a Medicare IRS with the power to cut Medicare in order to pay for new government programs.
PAT BOONE:
This IPAB board can ration care and deny certain Medicare treatments so Washington can fund more wasteful spending.  Your choices could be limited and you may not be able to keep your own doctor.  Medicare will be bankrupt in nine years, but Washington politicians, like Sherrod Brown, are ignoring the problem, putting their own re-elections first.  Call Senator Brown.  Urge him to support real Medicare reform and protect our seniors. Tell him unaccountable bureaucrats should never have the power to deny you the care you deserve.”
                                         

These old fogies are agitated about the IPAB, or the Independent Payment Advisory Board, created by the Affordable Health Care Act. This board, to be made up of doctors, nurses and medical people appointed by the President and confirmed by Congress...that's law... put in place...IN CASE Medicare costs get out of control in the future.

The only thing that the IPAB CAN DO IS TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS...IF AND ONLY IF MEDICARE GROWS TOO FAST....It has absolutely no authority to change anything...It can't change anything by law.

Congress still has to do the work, period.

By law, the IPAB Cannot Ration Care, Increase Taxes, Change Benefits Or Eligibility, Or Increase Premiums And Cost-Sharing Requirements.

Bottom line....No bureaucrats in your exam room standing over your doctor. No $500 billion coming out of the Medicare budget......that is unless the GOP/teabag party gets it way and takes control of the government...

Once again, this is just a baseless, totally undisguised attack on Senator Sherrod Brown.

The only truism coming out of Pat Boone's mouth....is his name....everything else is a lie meant to bring down America by causing strife among Americans.

There is no unity...no patriotism...no compassion nor concern for fellow man...

This commercial is the embodiment of what the GOP/Teabag organizations are about...lies...lies and more lies in order to turn back the country to what it once was....a place where most of us aren't welcome...even though we were born here..

This ad should be taken off the air immediately with a swift apology  to Senator Brown.










11.10.2011

Dear Governor Jimmy John Kasich


Hey, John-boy...you git the number of that truck that left those tire tracks on yo ass? Man, it's a wonder you still walkin'.....are you walkin'? Or you playin' piggyback with you security men?

The national news media is calling it an “overreach,”......as in “Kasich overreached himself by going after the unions in Ohio."

Let's flat out call it what it was....a bitch slap of the monumental kind...you know the kind that Momma deals out when you totally screw up and she's totally fed up with yo sorry ass!

John-boy, you need to go do what we all do after Momma beats yo ass...you go sit down and quietly rethink your position..vowing never to do that simple shit again...at least while she is within earshot, anyway. 
 
John-boy...it's still JOBS and the ECONOMY, dummy!

You got into office promising to bring jobs to a struggling Ohio...Yet what do you do.... you confer big raises on your INCOMING, ALL WHITE , NEARLY ALL MALE administration, before they've done any work to merit a raise....you kill light rail for all of Ohio....you promise to privatize the prison system at a job loss of approximately 50,000 upfront.....You pimped the casinos for 3-4 million dollars for your out of town cronies..you couldn't even bring that job to Ohio...AND THEN YOU TRY TO BUST THE UNIONS....

Boy you been cruisin' for an ass whuppin' since last election day back in 2010...

Let me quote Fred Sanford here. “Note to Dummy”.....Killing the middle class, by killing the method by which the middle class was formed.... DOES NOT REDUCE THE DEFICIT...it just pisses people off.

It's a good thing for you that we don't have a recall law in Ohio or we might have been able to get rid of you altogether last Tuesday.

And oh yeah...you need to get a handle on those pro birth people too...women are only going to take so much...and you see what happened in Mississippi when folks such as yourself...OVERREACH....I'm tellin' you...don't bring that weak shit to Ohio...We ain't havin' it...

Respectfully yours


11.09.2011

2011 Ohio Election Results



Well, Ohio still can't seem to get it right on federal health care, but never the less Ohioans did get it right more often than not, in this off year election last night.  Issue 3, was largely a symbolic vote against what the GOP calls Obamacare. It was really on the ballot so that the GOP/teabags can mount a court challenge to health care. Issue 3 spoke to the mandate requiring that all Americans have health care.


If the federal health care mandate is wrong...then so is the requirement for having insurance, in general, Right? Think the business driven GOP is going to kill one its staunchest allies, the insurance industry? I think not, in the long run. So we will have these skirmishes until SCOTUS rules.


Ohio did get it right on SB 5, Kasich's first and blatant attempt at union busting. SB 5 or Issue 2, went down in flames, which was a good thing in particular for the LGBT community. In addition to union busting, if SB 5 had been allowed to stand all hard won domestic partnership rights would have been flushed down the toilet. This is because domestic partnership benefits are negotiated rights in Ohio and SB 5 would have turned back the clock and prohibited unions from negotiating for them in the future. This is what SB 5 said:
The recognition or extension by the state of the specific statutory benefits of a legal marriage to non-marital relationships between persons of the same sex or different sexes is against the strong public policy of this state. Any public act, record or judicial proceeding of this state, as defined in section 9.82 of the Revised Code, that extends the specific statutory benefits of legal marriage to non-marital relationships between persons of the same sex or different sexes is void.”
Don't think Kasich is done. I'm sure he will now take a page out of President Obama's book and attempt to piece meal this travesty through the house, when he thinks folks are no longer paying attention.

Voters in Cincinnati elected a democratic majority to City Council. The field was led by Roxanne Qualls, followed by newcomer PG Sittenfeld, Wendell Young, Cecil Thomas, Charlie Winburn, Laure Quinlivan, Yvette Simpson, Chris Smitherman, and Chris Seelbach.

Incumbents, all of em GOP, were unceremoniously retired. Those would be the Bortz family scion, the immature and mean girl Ghiz, the Japanese speaking Murray and the very bland and vanilla Lippert.

The fact that voters returned Winburn and Smitherman to council means the city must still need some comedy relief mixed in with its politics in these dire economic times.

Another good sign that the city is waking up is the vote on Issue 48, which was a COAST driven amendment that would have destroyed all city development until 2020 if it had passed. It didn't, thankfully. The street car will go forward and that is a good thing.

Cincinnati's school levy failed....not surprised...there are not enough homeowners in the city to make this an equitable tax. This statewide taxing system is well past its expiration date and needs to be changed.

The war on women is still raging, but with a little less steam, today. The personhood amendment in Mississippi, failed by a wide margin. However, the papers to resurrect it have already been filed here in Ohio. This very bad law criminalizes sex, and pregnancy, putting all burden on the woman while exempting men and their sperm from all childbearing and child-raising consequences.

Overall a good night.... now if we can just get that Kasich recall going for real..




11.02.2011

2011 Ohio Election, My Take


 For Cincinnati City Council: Wendell Young, Jason Riviero, Roxanne Qualls, Yvette Simpson, Laure Quinlivan, Chris Seelbach, PG Sittenfeld

These are the people for whom I intend to vote. There are 9 slots to be filled but I'm not happy with the rest of the candidates and their past performances, so I have included four newbies who, at least on paper, and in person, say the right things to get my attention.

Issue One: Mandatory retirement for Ohio Judges...If someone can do the job effectively, I personally don't think they should be forced to retire just because they've reached a certain age. Vote: No

Issue Two: Proposal to repeal SB 5, Governor Kasich's attempt at union busting in Ohio, like what went down in Wisconsin earlier this year. SB 5 makes it illegal for workers to speak up for themselves in negotiating better working conditions. It criminalizes free speech in this context, in fact. You can actually be fired from your job if Kasich prevails on this. Make no mistake about it..if SB 5 is voted down by the people, our slippery little governor will find other ways to impose his wingnut policies on the State. Vote: No

Issue 3: Proposal to write into the State Constitution, a ban prohibiting Ohio from abiding by the federal Health Care Law, approved by Congress a couple of years ago. Success of this law means insurance companies can return to discriminating against people with pre existing conditions or against women's health care in general. It reads: "no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in a health care system." Vote No


Issue 48: A proposal to literally screw the City of Cincinnati until at least the year 2021. What it does is hinder any and all major development downtown along with the street car. This proposal is badly conceived, badly written and will keep Cincinnati the third rate backward city that it has become for years to come. Vote No

Issue 44: A plan to lower electric rates by forcing Duke Energy to the negotiating table....Two proposals on the Nov. 8 ballot promise Cincinnati residents and small businesses the chance for bigger savings on their electric and gas bills. These plans are already working in other parts of the state. What I've read about aggregation, sounds good on paper and I am all for anything that will rein in the arrogant Duke Energy. Vote Yes

Issue 32: Permanent Levy for the Cincinnati Public Schools. Money to be used for books, computers and building renovation...NOT SALARIES OR BENEFITS. The levy hopes to raise $49.5 million..meaning the owner of a home valued at $100,000 would pay an additional $243 per year in taxes.. Vote: Yes

Issue 37: Hospital renewal levy. Doesn't cost us any money and provides a much needed service. Vote Yes

Regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree...the important thing is to get off your ass and vote. It is the only weapon that you as a citizen have against mediocrity and stupidity in your government....
You stay home...we all suffer!

VOTE NOV 8TH!




11.01.2011

John Jim Crow Kasich



Let's get right to the point, shall we...

A lazy electorate, impatient and tired of what they perceived as Barack Obama's ineffectiveness in solving their pet causes in the first two years of his presidency, lazily stayed home in droves in 2010, refusing to deploy the only real weapon that a citizen has against its government. Many of you who did vote stupidly voted to put the very people who had pushed America to the brink of destruction, back in power, all because he couldn't get it done fast enough.


And you know who you are...

You actually believed that Barack the magic negro bullshit back in 2008. You expected him to blink his eyes, or wave a magic wand and presto, gay people became equal and marriage material, white people would starting actually liking Black people, the wars would automatically stop, the troops would fly home, the deficit would be fixed and Wall Street would pass out money to everyone, making us all millionaires. 
 
We the people, gave Obama a boat without a paddle inches from going over a cliff and told him to “Get us out of here, quick!”  And some of you didn't bother to try and help him paddle. 
 
The result is not just partial, but complete gridlock in Washington. The mini-minds of the Republican Party have convinced themselves that the 18% who did go to the polls, in the midterm election gave them a mandate to rule the rest of us lazy-ass immature 80%, regressing the country back to a mythical and perverted version of itself. 
 
This mythical version had workers who worked like slaves from sun up to sundown for no money. It had slaves, real ones, happy ones, dragged over from Africa who smiled and buck danced at the first sight of Massa.

It had women whose only roll in life was to please her husband, father, brother and bring children into the world sometimes fathered by their husband, father or brother. But the men folks was happy, and so were the rest of us, they assumed. Everybody was Christian, period.

Cut back to present day 21st Century America, the GOP, with its fake mandate, has declared war on workers with laws such as SB5 in Ohio. They have declared war on women with no less than 44 new laws designed to deny women's rights and keep them under a male thumb.

This GOP has literally redacted the Voting Rights Act for Blacks by changing when, where and how people can vote. They have gerrymandered the voting districts to give Republicans and Teabaggers a better opportunity of winning electoral seats.


HEY JIM CROW, C'MONNNNNNNNNNNN DOWN!

The GOP has declared war on immigrants both legal and illegal. They have decided that the only “child” worth saving is the one still in the womb, with closer resemblence to a frog than a baby. If a woman should happen to get raped by ET, oh well...tough titties..

But it's still okay to execute innocent people...nothing in the constitution prevents it..right Justice Scalia?

The GOP/Teabaggers lied and said they would make jobs, but they've been telling this lie since Nixon was in office. Truth be known these fools have tanked more jobs than they've made these past two years. 
 
It's not just happening in Ohio. The feds have gone to court in Texas to stop Rick Perry's gerrymander of the Lone Star State, whose sole purpose is to deprive minorities of the right to vote. If Perry is doing this in Texas, imagine what he can do if you give him the keys to the White House. 
 
Kasich is attempting the same thing in Ohio, but the Ohio Supreme Court has stepped in and stopped it so far. This is going to force us to have two primaries next year and the GOP is crying foul, because an extra primary will cost $15 mill. 
 
Should'da thought about that before rigging the elections. AND...by the way...the Ohio Supreme Court which called a temporary halt to this nonsense, is all republican with one exception...and if they smell a rat...you know it's got to be a big one...

Texas and Ohio are also joined by the likes of North Carolina, Arizona, and Colorado. In fact every state that had a massive and EARLY voting turnout in 2008 is being gerrymandered by the GOP, as we speak.

Jim Crow is back and dancing a jig on the White House lawn.

So how are they doing it? Provisions that no longer allow early voting on the Sunday before the election. It is estimated that 1/3 of the Black vote came on the Sundays before the election in 2008. Another change...third parties...such as the NAACP and people who help others to the polls...must submit their paperwork allowing them to do this within 48 hours, instead of 10 days or risk having to pay heavy fines. This is another way of killing organizations like ACORN...which was never in the business of rigging elections..proven only after they were forced out of business by the GOP.

This provision is particular has caused the League of Women voters to suspend their voter registration efforts for the first time in 70 years. 
 
It's not just about the Sunday before...it's about early voting in general. Kasich has tried to cut the early voting window in half. He doesn't want blacks to have a chance to exercise their constitutional rights.

Colorado tried to get their counties to declare anyone who did not vote in 2010 as “inactive.” This would mean that an early voting ballot would not be mailed to them, a move that effects the elderly, low income and minority voters.

Let's not forget the new ID laws. It is estimated that the new laws in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas could keep more than 5 million people who voted in 2008, from voting in 2012.

And it's not just minorities....married women who have not changed their surnames on their ID...the elderly who can't get out and may not have updated their ID...people who simply can't afford the cost of a government issued ID are in jeopardy, too.

The fix is in, people. This is election year 2000 on steroids. When the GOP plays to win....they cheat.

But don't take my word for it....look at the justice system...look at what is going on in state governments....look at what is being voted on, on Capital Hill.

Makes ya wanna holla...

10.30.2011

A Real Life Halloween Scare


With all Hallows approaching, got me to thinking about a real life scare that I had a long time ago...

Both my parents are fright junkies. My Mom filled us full of ghost stories that she said happened in our family, like the night she watched two white terry towel bath robes belonging to her two brothers, suddenly slip off the hooks in the bathroom, crawl across the floor, open the window in the bedroom and slip out, to disappear forever. Uncle Billy and Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Alice always backed up the story as did Granddad. Our Grandmother, whom we called Mother, was also ticked off because she made the robes, she was a seamstress, and I don't think she bought the story. Yet they were never found.

My Dad just liked scaring people, telling us from the time we could listen about this creature named Bloody Bones. “Bloody Bones is gonna git you so you better watch out!” He would say imitating the monster and chasing us around the room, tickling us breathless if he caught us. Dad had a crooked finger from a fire cracker accident, which made his hands a lot creepy when he went into his Bloody Bones act. He also took us to every scary movie that played at the Twin Drive In, in Bond Hill or Norwood, depending on what side of the fence you lived on.

As kids, we were taught and knew not to go into those dark or odd places where things seemed a bit off, so to speak. Usually I listened, but one time I got caught. Years later, Hollywood made the movie The Exorcist. I'd read the book....bought by looking at the cover of the paperback...didn't know anything about the story...just read it...couldn't put it down. But it literally scared the hell out of me. I got to seeing things and smelling smells in my house. My imagination was working overtime for real.

The first thing I wanted to do was to get the book out of the house, which I did. I gave it to my brother in law who was on his way to Vietnam. He read it and tossed it overboard. It's still at the bottom of the Gulf of Tonkin, unless some fish scooped it up thinking it was food. All our conversations turned to that book until he got home. My sisters, both of them, read it too. The Exorcist was the recommended book from the Moore sisters that year.

Anyway, when the movie came out, of course, I had to see it, so my brother in law and my sister and I drove out to Springdale Cinemas. He was back by then. The crowd was huge, but so were the winds. A freak windstorm blew up knocking out electricity for miles around. It was freaky because other than the winds, the weather wasn't bad, sticky, cool but no rain, like the rain would come later. All of us in line were nervously joking about the weather and how maybe Mother Nature didn't want us to see this movie.

It was still early in the evening, so the three of us decided to drive downtown to the Regal Theater in the West End. Chinese Connection was playing and my brother and I were huge Bruce Lee fans. My sister was along for the ride, since she didn't like chop socki movies nor horror films, to this day.

We got downtown and couldn't get into see Bruce, so we decided to head home. My sister had to work the next day so my brother and I decided to meet the next day to see the movie. Trouble is, he thought we were going to see Bruce and I thought we were going to see The Exorcist. The next day, I went to Springdale while he went downtown. I waited and waited for him. Couldn't call because the cell phone addiction hadn't happened yet . We were still on pay phones and carrying quarters, just in case. So I butched up and went inside to watch this movie. whose book had almost literally scared me straight when I read it. The movie was just as bad/good. The theater was packed, but I'm alone again with this stupid story. At one point, I realized I was holding hands with the stranger sitting next to me. In fact we realized it at about the same time. We looked at each other and laughed nervously...but we didn't let go....not til the credits.

Then I went home to find my family... safe again....it was after all...only a movie.

Epilogue: A few years later, I met the Priest who performed the real exorcism and he told me the real story which led to some more sleepless nights. The real story was so much worse..But I'll save that for another day.

Happy Halloween!

10.27.2011

I LOVE THE SMELL OF TEAR GAS IN THE MORNING!


The pigs are back! Not that they ever went away in the first place. Their masters simply put them on a leash following the fall of Saigon, when the Vietnam conflict ended back in the day.

Oh yeah, they killed a few protestors too, around that time. Ya'll remember Kent State, don't cha? Or maybe you folks heard about it from the Jimi Hendrix song “Machine Gun,” or CSN & Y, “Four Dead in O HI O.” Some of you, like me, may have even been gassed while protesting between classes at UC...so you know what I'm talkin' about.

Blacks like me were protesting for our civil rights. Many white kids joined the protests under the guise of solidarity but were in fact acting out against their well off fathers, and the government that was “grinding” them down (can ya'll say SDS?).

Kid protestors died in other places around the US of A back then too, shocking their rich, mothers and fathers back to the reality that it was their own kids being shot at, kicked, beaten, gassed and killed, not foreign little gooks from a faraway land or big and black panther terrorist/criminals bent on destroying America. It's always open season on black and brown people, even today....Except the glitterati who have morphed into the Tea Bag Party, don't talk about it much, and besides, they've allowed black upward mobility to happen so the folks calling the shots these days, look just like the ones they are beating up.

Internal class struggle? Nah. The Committees of 50 are still in business around the country. For those of you new to Cincinnati or born after 1979, The Committee of 50 was/is a group of the richest local business men (one black, with a female spokesperson from Ky) who call the shots in Cincinnati...regardless of who is mayor or police chief or prosecutor or city manager...regardless of their various ethnic persuasions. If the Committee likes it...okay...But if it doesn't...then it becomes “LET THE DOGS OUT!” Regardless of who is actually holding the leash. They quietly employ what I used to call the “Lindner method.” The late Mr. Lindner, rest his soul, used his money to pollinate all sides in Cincinnati ( we have three, GOP, Dem and Charter) thereby guaranteeing that he would win the argument, no matter what it was, because what politician is going to bite the hand that feeds him or her. And as we all know, Mr. Lindner went to his grave revered and relatively bite-free last week.

Enter Occupy Cincinnati, recently de-trenched from Piatt Park( The Bortz said you had to go. Resistance is futile...you're messing up HIS park. Hello, Arn, long time). Did you know that OWSC is two groups in Cincinnati...one white and one black? OWSCW is the group getting all the media attention. OWSCB is, well black and ignored as always. Politics, politics...

I sympathize with OWSWC or B, whatever. The movement speaks to the inner anarchist in me. It speaks to the me who is tired of politicians....all of em. It speaks to the me who truly believes that the only way to clean up DC is to drop a bomb on Capitol Hill and start over with more women reflecting our numbers in the electorate, term limits, and rules that prevent them from opting out of the laws that affect me, thereby killing the mantra “do as I say..not as I do.” State Capitols and city governments are not exempt. I am in favor of a big fat fireman's hose turned on full blast at the doorway into City Hall... like Hercules did to the Aegean Stables....that would go a long way in washing away the stench of corrupt government that permeates America at all levels.

30 years younger and I would be camped down in Pie-ett Park with OWS. But I'm not. I've buzzed by and honestly, I see the same sitcom playing out that happened back in the day when I was less jaded about change. White kids taking a break from classes. Black people invisible. Out of work folks looking to stay relevant. Activists seeking face time. The homeless looking for a meal and way to re connect with a society that obviously doesn't want their participation. Opportunists looking for a way to capitalize on the misery, but staying out of the real line of fire. No sign of pimpin' ministers, yet either.

Missing in action, those who grew up...sympathize with the protestors(so they say)...except they have a J-O-B and a F-A-M-I-L-Y to support, so they watch it unfold on the T-V waiting for the call that the revolution has begun.

Trouble is as long as we wait for somebody else or our kids to start the revolution...it won't happen... It will take the whole city marching to OWSCWB's tune to get the city to lay off and act for the people. Otherwise, committee of 50 rules....still.

The kids in Oakland expressed surprise at the police onslaught a couple of nights ago. They were saying they didn't believe it could happen like that. Guess their parents never talked about the civil rights days or the war days. Guess they never cracked a history book or two or three. The American Spring happened years ago, long before the Arab Springs of this past summer. These young protestors protest like they play video games...can't tell imaginary from reality with none of them understanding the concept that every action draws an equal and opposite reaction. When the going gets rough many of them will retreat to the safety of Dad's home in the burbs. Trouble is...the way it is today...Dad's home won't be there much longer.....unless Daddy has millions to begin with.

So get ready...you ain't seen nothin' yet if the protests continue...you still have no idea what your country is capable of....really...


10.20.2011

Do Buddhists Go to Heaven?


Can Buddhists Rapture Up...Inquiring minds want to know? Or must we wait outside the pearlie gates until it's time for us to emigrate back to earth, or whatever the planet-plane-existence will be called when we get back.

I'm only asking because tomorrow, Friday October 21st, is supposed to be REAL Rapture combined with the REAL end of the world as we know it (can never think of EOTW unless I sing that damn song, then it rumbles through my brain for days and days and days afterward).

Reverend Harold Camping, the man with the plan, says Rapture Day back in May was a practice run for the REAL thing, which is happening tomorrow. Tomorrow we get two birds for one stone...snatched up to heaven in plenty of time to watch the sinners die on earth, along with the earth of course.

Which leads me to another question-if the world ends tomorrow, will there be anything for us Buddhists to come back to, assuming we have not finished our spiritual work and therefore need to come back in the first place? Just Askin'.

Decisions, decisions...

Rev says he is going to wait it out at home, which is understandable since back in June he suffered a stroke after he didn't get pulled up to heaven by Jesus in May (of course that very short evangelical hair style that he wears, may have had something to do with it). Maybe he should have grown dreds like a Rastafarian so Jesus could have gotten a better grip (that's why they grow em, ya know).

The fact that he's still here with the rest of us nearly took him out of here. But he says, he is recovering slowly and it will take a long time to get better...but why should he care, if his prediction is finally correct...he will be trading in his old worn out body for a new one, complete with snazzy new pair of wings, right?

Old Harold is hedging his bets this time, since Jesus surprised him in May by not pulling him up, Camping says salvation and destruction will “probably” happen like he predicts.

Probably!? Oh man, c'mon! You really talking to god? Who is that voice inside your head, for real?

Anyway, I'm packin' my fave duffel bag, laptop and camera just in case...I've been growing my hair lately, so no “grip” issues for the SOG... and if I am raptured I will have my pick of spots in the pearlie gates waiting room by being first in line...otherwise...I'll just go visit my sister in South Carolina... shucks...guess I better pack my golf clubs, too.

Just in case...






10.13.2011

OMG! The Great White Hope...is a Black Man!

Who-da thunk that the current GOP "flavor" is that chocolate covered peril named Herman Cain. He's the front runner for the GOP nomination, if you believe the latest poll numbers today. The way the GOP has spent the past three years vilifying Obama, one would think that another Black man wouldn't stand  a snowball's chance in hell of getting into the White House . Maybe he still doesn't,  since he hasn't won the nomination yet.

Most pundits on TV still say Herb, er Herman is unelectable, despite his front runner status.  Chris Christie endorsed Mitt and the Half Gov can't even get his name right. But there he is, right at the front of the pack....this week anyway.

Maybe it's  a trick to make us think that the teabags have finally  gotten past playing the race card to win elections, which along with voodoo economics remains the only republican political strategy going back to Richard Nixon.

Herman calls himself a "real Black man."  Unlike the president who has some very visible "white" in his family tree. Herman graduated from Morehouse. He even married a Black woman, which we all know is not typical  successful Black man behavior. We don't know if he can hoop, haven't seen those pictures yet.

But white people do like the way he talks tough...direct...to the point....just like the mythical black man that lives inside their collective mind,  like the one they expected Obama  to be. Cain fits the image of other  black men and some women in the GOP...Black men like Uncle Clarence or the man named Steele. College educated Black men with degrees up the wha-zoo but with no discernible functioning neural ganglia between them.  I do use the term "white" to refer to the GOP because other than a "black walnut" or two, there are no swirls in their  preferred blend of Haagan Daaz, and that is by design going back years and years and years. Google "Sailor Strategy" if you want to read more.

Cain says all the things that many teabaggers wish they could say out loud. He can be the racist in their dream conversations without worrying about being called a racist by the media. After all, Cain is black like us, and as we all know, it's okay for a black to call another black a nigga. Whites can think it, but they better not say it, right?

H-I-T-M....WTF!?....stands for "Herman's Intelligent Thinkers Movement. Bet he made that up all by himself.

Not catchy enough...probably even scares off white people, especially the educationally challenged ones in the bunch. Why not BWC...Black Walnuts for Cain....makes you think of flashy cars or chicken wings, two things guaranteed to attract black people, right?

Did you know that Herman's biggest claim to fame was single-handedly defeating "Hillarycare" during the Clinton Administration? Not something that will endear him to Liberals and Progressives of any persuasion. He's trying to keep that quiet...likes "pizza man" nickname better, I would guess.

Message to Herman....to paraphrase the AGP's (American Ghetto Princesses) ,"if you ain't talking J-O-Bs, you need to git outta my face!"

As for the 999 plan....This ITBL (intelligent, thinking black lesbian) says it's bogus and built on the backs of poor people, just like everything else coming out of the teabag movement.


Black man or not, close your eyes and  Herman is  still soundin' like a slave overseer rather than a slave.

What Cain doesn't get is that even the Overseers were slaves, despite their "special" status.

9.21.2011

Hypocrisy in Black and White, The American Way

A couple of things are sticking in my craw today....

 One is the fact that Troy Davis is scheduled to die this evening for a crime that he may not have committed. Yesterday, the Georgia Parole Board refused to grant Davis clemency, stating there was more than enough evidence to show that Davis was the gunman and that the 7 of 9 witnesses against him who  later recanted their testimony, were apparently confused.

What it boils down to is another Black man is being lynched in Georgia. Davis is convicted of killing a white police officer. If Davis had killed a Black cop, he would probably have been sentenced to life in prison, all other things being equal.

But this is America, where equality and justice are still determined by the color of your skin. Studies continue to show that when the victim is white, 9 times out of 10, the Black defendant is given the death penalty...regardless of where the trial takes place in this country.

And believe it or not, a sitting United States Supreme Court Justice says it's okay to put an innocent man to death in America because the Constitution doesn't address the matter.

 Current  historical revisionists would have you believe, lynching is a thing of the past, doesn't happen anymore. Well, au contraire, mon frere, lynching has never been outlawed in America either. It just became not so classy to do so. Now it is done on the back roads, by drunken men in trucks who like to re-enact history, or  left up to the American justice system and police officers trained to coerce confessions to make it all seem legal and above board.  America's facade of pro life humanitarianism for all has slipped badly this week.

We're more worried about Palestinians killing Jews and vice versa than we are about what is happening inside our own borders.

No justice, there should be no peace if another innocent man dies.  However, Black America has been strangely quiet on this subject. Maybe it's because we're too busy bustin' a cap on each other to worry about another soon to be dead Black man.

Where is the outrage?  Where are the calls for justice from the Black blogosphere? Where are the Black celebrities willing speak on Troy Davis' behalf?

-0-

Wow! Black churches have discovered there is an epidemic killing the Black community. It's call HIV/AIDS!  The headline trumpeted yesterday in the blogosphere.

So what do I do.... jump up and down, be happy, congratulate them? I've only been doing radio, TV and newspaper and magazine articles since 1984 on Blacks and AIDS.

I've lost 3 relatives and 15 friends to the disease. I don't even know how many of my friends are HIV positive, but I'll bet there are a lot of them, though.  All died in secrecy and some in isolation and fearful estrangement from their families. All of them considered themselves Christian, with many of them diligently attending Sunday services. Two were ordained ministers.

Straight Black women are the most at risk group in America today.

Am I supposed to welcome Black Churches, finally, to the last dance?  Maybe I should just  suppress my own anger and move on. Better late than never, right?  About damn time!

 Fuckin' hypocrites!

-0-

Double WOW!

Only took LGBT equality some 60 years to the day after Blacks were allowed fully into the ranks of the military...Not because whites were suddenly become altruistic, seeing the error of their ways...The government simply needed more cannon fodder to fight the war du jour in Korea...

So on Day 2 after the government repeals that misguided policy formerly known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell...time for a reality check...

Sun still come up....check!
World still here....check!
Rain not turned radioactive...check!
Military not imploded....check!
Osama, Franco, Hitler and Mussolini still dead....check!
GOP still marching goose step over a teabag created cliff...check!
Obama still in the White House.....check!
Straight marriages still sanctified....Please!









9.12.2011

9/11 + 10, A Family Conversation



My family has come home for a visit and like always the central meeting point is our parent's family room in front of the television. Some old habits never die because that is where we spent most of our family time growing up, watching a consensus program. In other words it was one we could all stomach at the same time, especially since in those days, we only had one TV.

Most of the time the station played whatever dad wanted, period, and usually what dad wanted was sports.

Today was no exception. We were watching tennis, a Serbian versus a Swiss National, then a Scot versus a Spaniard. But all of us were simply passing time, waiting for Serena, no last name needed, to take the court. We didn't know it, but we had a long wait, because the men played very long, very entertaining matches, well past Serena's scheduled time of entry.

Like always, the conversation bounced around the room. We tend to think alike since we're family. However we, all of us, tend to come to the same conclusions in vastly different ways and this is what makes the conversation so much fun. Never an argument, but always different view points and, yes, times that we agree to disagree. The disagreement always signaled by someone deciding to go help Mom in the kitchen, which meant, they went upstairs to watch reruns of Perry Mason or Cannon with my mother, until they cooled off.

Mom never just sat and watched and talked with the rest of us. She was more “sniper” in her approach. In other words, she would walk to the top of the steps, test the air, launch a volley of thoughts down the stairs toward us, then suck on her teeth to let us know she was done talking and walk back into the kitchen to catch up on her show, totally unconcerned about any blow-back opinion.

Group conversation in my family has always crossed generations with no one being deemed too young or too old. If you could talk, and you had an opinion, then you spoke or jumped into the fray. The young asked questions and sometimes got several answers. It was up to them to sort it out in their/our heads, which sometimes led to off shoot conversations for clarification. Sometimes that clarification amounted to, “don't listen to that fool, he crazy.”

Next to sports, the other favorite topic is current events and politics. The generation of elders prior to this generation was Republican and the talk was exceptionally lively, back in the day. Nothing like an old Black Republican to mess up Sunday dinner. These members have since passed on to that great GOP caucus in the sky. Although I would suspect that based on the composition of today's GOP, if they were still here, my folks would have transitioned into Democrats. But that is only my supposition, based on remembered stances that they periodically took. The current elder generation is Democrat with a heavy dose of anarchist, ready, willing and able to fight, if and when the revolution comes. The conservatives at this time tend to be younger to middlin' in age.

This day was Saturday, September 10th, 2011, and with prompting from the television, our thoughts turned to 9/11, remembering where we were when we heard or saw. For all of us the images in our mind were as clear as the day we watched the Towers fall. It never occurred to me that you could knock down a sky scrapper, and I still can't wrap my head around what I saw that day. Going around the room, the second plane into the building, the picture of the second plane frozen in the moments before it struck the tower and burst into flames, the pancake collapse of the buildings, the people falling, choosing to transition in their own way, rather than die by fire, the tears we all shed followed by tremendous anger and outrage that someone would dare attack our country.

We lost four cousins that day. All worked at the restaurant on top of the building.

That anger was palpable in the room among us. My dad, a World War II veteran, stung by the ongoing discrimination against Blacks even as they served their country. My brother in law, snatched out of college to become cannon fodder in the Vietnam war, spending his time on the USS Long Beach parked in the Gulf of Tonkin firing missiles at the Vietcong laden coast. My niece, a naval veteran who now makes her living as an air traffic controller in Texas. My nephew, recently discharged from the United States Marines, but not before being injured on his first and only tour of Iraq. Two of us lifelong, active campaigners and outspoken critics of the wars and any and all discrimination against Blacks, women and minorities, carrying scars, wounded in our individual ways, drawn together by name and an act of terror against our home.

The general consensus was that Bush should have listened to Joni Mitchell and paved a parking lot over Al Qaida's ass in Afghanistan. Never should have gone to Iraq. Should have finished what was started in Taliban country. Very supportive of President Obama, but not real happy with his continuation of Bush policies crafted in the wake of 9/11.

Another thing we all agreed on, is that America still has some unfinished business, some scores to settle, for the USS Cole, for Dar Es Alam, for Lebanon, with Iran and Saudi Arabia. We're not real happy about Israel either, We collectively need a Michael Corleone payback for past injuries suffered at the hands of those who dared to strike at us.

An unspoken consensus in the room....we were all still crying, inwardly and outwardly.

Healing is taking a very long time.




9.08.2011

ObamaJobs, DOA


President Obama is giving a jobs speech tonight. It may be the best speech he's ever written. Hell, it may be the best piece of legislation that he and his administration have ever crafted.

However, always the Pollyanna,  it still seems as if Obama is banking once again on Congress to grow brains, find their hearts or turn patriotic in order to get help to the American people.

Ain't gonna happen. Bipartisanship died as soon as the GOP laid eyes on Barack H. Obama.  So, suck it up Americans, the GOP is once again raising it's foot and is about to firmly plant it in our collective ass!

The teabag GOP has only one goal...one aim...one working method...and that is to kill anyone nominated by Obama...trash any measure presented by Obama,,,denigrate and disrespect the President every chance they get. It's like Miz Mitch McConnell said at the beginning of the year...the only goal is  to defeat Obama and take back "their" country, nothing else matters to this Congress.

Their sole intent is to knock him on his "elitist" ass and put the "boy" back in his place.

They don't care about "we" the people...they have already stated over and over again their intention to re-draw the American Constitution in their own perverted image. These godless, alleged christians want to imprison women,  re-enslave Blacks, "cure" the gay,  and expatriate Hispanics..unless they come directly from Spain.

What about senior citizens?  Well they want old people to just die, since Social Security is nothing more than a ponzi scheme designed to take money away from the young....Seniors die and there is more money for the godless spawn that they're raising to take over.

Ricki P wants to kill social security, not just reform it. He wants to do away with health care. He wants to repeal all taxes and regulations that apply to rich people and corporations. He thinks gays and lesbians suffer from a mental disease. Maybe he should select Mr Michele Bachmann as his running mate.

Mitt Max Headroom wants to repeal taxes for the rich, kill health care for millions, and change social security and medicare.

Michele B...well...she's a woman who gives a damn what or even if she thinks at all...Once the tall dark and handsome good haired governor from Texas jumped into the race...she became another clueless footnote along with the pizza man, the doctor, the lizard, and the snowbilly.

Their collective jobs plans are non existent, period, while the President's plan reportedly is crafted from old proposals that were previously put forth by the GOP or at least had bi partisan support in their first readings in Congress. But the speech has yet to be given and already teabaggers are claiming amnesia on past acts and bragging about their intent to stay away from the speech.

I have this image in my head.....all the little brained, tiny teabaggers standing outside the chamber with their fingers jammed firmly in their oversized ears, potbellies jiggling in unison, dancing all over the beat, singing "lalalalalalalala" at the top of their voices, in order to drown out the President. Like three year olds throwing temper tantrums...they refuse to listen...total disrepect for the leader of the free world.

Don cha know...taking potshots at Obama is the only game in town in this election season.

Bipartisan action-yeah, when pigs fly! If it's not a go-big, new deal type jobs stimulating program...it ain't gonna work because it ain' gonna pass Congress.

Jobs Bill DOA


9.06.2011

US Postal Service-Time to Kill the Dinosaur


There are two things that I used to depend on, that I rarely use these days...snail mail, otherwise known as stuff that I get from my mailman and printed checks to pay my bills.

Junk mail...that stuff you are handed by the mailman, but throw away without opening....is now spam. Hundreds and hundreds of junk mail letters daily overload my email inbox. I used to get junk mail from churches in Oklahoma addressed to my grandmother, who died back in 1984. These used to come several times per week. I have received only one in the past two years. Some junk mail was fun to read..but who has time to spend a few minutes lounging on the porch reading junk mail from Oklahoma these days.

Remember going on vacation and running to the drug store to buy postcards to send to the folks at home? Do they still make postcards?

I used to have to buy stamps and international postage in order to submit query letters and article and book proposals. Now I do this at the touch of a keyboard. No postage necessary.

The rise of the internet means, I never see paper checks or written material at all, unless it is election campaign time...not for junk mail...not for payroll checks...not for query letters, acceptance letters or rejection letters...not for paying my bills.... I do that online, too, along with my banking.

I love writing letters, however they only happen via email these days and not very often. The point of writing a letter is to get one back. Most of my friends, don't write letters anymore either.

Last year, I got exactly one Christmas card via snail mail and that was from my mother who refuses to even look at a computer or mobile cell  phone to do anything. She is allowed...she is 82 years old and computers and cell phones didn't exist when she was born and she's not about to let them enter her calm now.

I still get hundreds of cards...just via email. Last year was the first year that I didn't send Christmas cards via snail, but that was because my economy was suffering right along with everyone else's.

Face it...it is cheaper to send an e-card rather than go buy a  paper card at the Hallmark store. I still like sending  paper cards and letters. Guess I'm just giving into the times.

The only reason I know the mailman has come is when he steps on my porch, my three, four legged door bells and personal guardians go crazy. They really, really don't like that postal uniform and try to tear down the door when he shows up in those cute little shorts and sun helmet.

I used to know my mailman by name and his time of arrival. I used to give out Christmas gifts to my mail carrier. My dogs rarely barked because they knew him to be a friend rather than a stranger trying to get into my house. The last time I tipped my mailman, the wrong one picked it up and never passed it on...hence my generosity never reached the person for whom it was intended.

I've stopped that...unless I can hand it to the intended mail carrier personally given the every changing delivery times.

I've long thought that the government should do away with snail mail...stop sending campaign literature and requests for donations via the US postal service. Government agencies say they are going paperless, however, lately I've been inundated with government paper in triplicate rather than duplicate.....seems the feds are the only ones still feeding the dinosaur....feeding him less often..but in bigger meals.

So maybe it's time to kill this dinosaur, ya think?

Save some money...hell...save lots of money....works for my budget.

The only problem that I see is all those people who will be put out of work. The post office used to be the one place that Black people could get a good paying job.The auto industry was the other place Blacks made money. It was the springboard for us to jump into the middle class, enabling us to buy homes in the suburbs and get a taste of the American dream.

Maybe the post office could rethink its operation and train its staff to transfer all services to the internet, the same way banks have taken banking to the world wide web.

It's a thought.

Maybe in a few years.....since Congress will have to study the matter first....we can all take down our mailbox on the front porch. Maybe in the process, Congress can give the go ahead to make America a wifi hotspot...hook everyone up the internet, in order to keep daily communications going for all the population instead of just those who can buy computers.

 Time to kill the dinosaur...put it out of it's misery.

Progress!

PS.....Maybe after the dino dies... we will  also no longer need a chief executive officer who makes bonuses the size of which makes Wall Street honchos envious...ya think?

It's Jobs, Stupid...Not the Deficit!


Zero job growth for August....9.1% unemployment....26% unemployment, if you're Black or Hispanic....If you live in Ohio then you've seen wages decrease dramatically. Back in 2000, the average wage for Buckeye workers was $16.02. That was at or above the national average.

Today, in 2011 the average Buckeye worker wage is $15.00 an hour and dropping, while the national average is $16.00. For those with jobs, work hours have increased, while wages have fallen and benefits and retirement have disappeared.

Corporations continue to make mass profit,  still refusing to "trickle" it down to the people who need it most.  Who knew that the allegedly big-balled corporate bigwigs were such timid  and spineless shit heads as to sit on the money, ready, willing and able to  let America slide into the abyss?

Let's be perfectly honest...reducing spending,  cancelling regulations on big business, while keeping taxes low...hasn't done a damn thing to get this economy working again. Spending didn't get us in this deep doodoo, but big banks, Wall Street corruption, deregulation and tax cuts did.

If anything, the stimulus wasn't big enough.

Face it...we've had a republican system in place for nearly two decades and what have we got to show for it? The corporations have what they want, and beaucoup bucks to go with it. They have the system for which they have been whining. The GOP is controlling the conversation, lying to the public about any progress being made, painting Obama as an ineffectual and failed leader, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Obama is in a box without a lid. He is so  determined to work bipartisanship that he has practically given away the store. He has moved right, sometimes turning his back on his own base in an effort to bring the GOP to the table. All this while being backstabbed by those traitors called blue dog democrats. Case in point last Friday's reversal on environmental regulations, acquiesing once again to the GOP, while the blue dogs silently cheered and once again swore allegience to the Republican Party.

America is caught in a vicious cycle. Capitalism needs people to spend money in order to work, because fully 70% of American economics is based on consumer spending. People need jobs to make money in order to successfully power the system.  It's like Dubya said a few years ago, "ya'll need to go out and buy something."  But we can't because we ain't makin' no money. The corporations are sitting on it refusing to hire, or shipping the profit overseas to tax shelter havens in Europe.

The USA is becoming a third world country of minimum wage and part time workers while  the ball-less wonders of Wall Street are laughing all the way to Lichtenstein.

Back in January, prior to the Teabag takeover, President Obama had the country moving in the right direction. Jobs were being created. Unemployment had actually started to drop. But then the the states got rocked  by the teabag manufactured deficit hysteria.

Deficit hysteria has been created completely out of hole cloth. It is simply another made up problem to cock block this President. Then, it trickled down to the state level.

Incoming teabag conservatives forced through a number of useless cuts to the budgets. Rather than stimulating job creation, these clueless fools are  forcing the layoff of some 50,000 workers per state, per month, according to the Office of Management and Budget, with no end in sight. It's no wonder the unemployment rate stays stagnant.

The dismantling of the New Deal is in full swing, with poor people, old people and the unemployed becoming the sacrificial lambs for the worshippers at the alter of noncompassionate conservatism.

Can't blame Obama, but you can blame those who turned their back on the President, refusing to vote or casting votes for the Teabags in the last election.

"We has seen the enemy, and it is us!"

 We cannot afford to stay home in 2012. There is no riding out this storm. Not this time.

The president is going to talk about jobs next week. He needs to go big with a plan that bypasses Congress or he may as well go home.

Hell...he probably will if things don't turn around soon and sadly, it won't be his fault.

We need to take our country back, Americans and soon. Very soon.

8.31.2011

The Dick Edition


Soooooooo, when did poor people become the enemy in America? Or the unemployed, for that matter. Why is anyone who is making less than a quarter million per year walking around with a target on his or her back?  Suddenly, everyone who has not  been gifted with a trust fund from daddy, or has lost his or her job in this tanking economy, through no action of their own, is in the cross hairs of every self proclaimed pseudo-christian knuckle dragger deficit hawk currently holding public office.

Some clown who claims to represent the people of north western Ohio has introduced a bill into the State Legislature calling for drug testing of all people who need public assistance in order to feed their kids. Going one step further, this dick-wad also wants to drug test anyone filing for unemployment benefits, as well.

 In fact, his measure is written so broadly as  to capture anyone getting a check from the state. So that should mean mandatory testing of clown-boy himself and his fellow dicks and dickettes in Columbus, since they are paid by the State.  And I'd be willing to bet his medicare/retirement benefit receiving Momma won't be too happy when she is told she needs to pee into the receptacle in order to get her state money, either.

Dumb ass.

Clown-boy wants the potential recipient to pay for the drug test first, so the State won't have to. If the pee comes back clean, then the potential recipient gets reimbursed for the cost of the tests.

Question-If a person has no money to buy food or housing...where the hell are they going to get money to pay for a drug test? I would surmise that this type of legislation is called "preventive lawmaking." In other words make it so hard to get assistance that most won't even try.

Guess his next proposal will be to reopen the Ohio Penitentiary as a debtor's prison, because you're gonna need to send the folks with no jobs or paychecks and their families somewhere after they get kicked to the curb.

I can see it now "Buckeye Gardens!" your last stop on the poverty slide...stone walls and floors, wall to wall mold and lichen...19th century 24/7 security...cute little jumpsuits.... no need to shop for new clothes...your choice of pets to share your rations....no wifi, cable or smartphones!  All of the comforts of home packed inside a six by nine foot cell complete with a stainless steel commode and overhead spotlight for reading or relieving...

Dick-head!

Speaking of dicks....That battery powered muppet with no pulse named Dick Cheney (ever notice how Cheney resembles spy 1 and spy 2 from the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons?), has surfaced again to promote his version of the world, written with the help of his daughter, Liz "I am the straight one," Cheney.

So what's he doing protecting his legacy or rewriting history to fit his warped sense of reality? This mutt-puppy would have us believe that Dubya was a puppet (I can buy that), that Condi was a cry baby (bullshit) and that General Colin Powell was wimp, a coward and a liar (blatently offensive bullshit).

Cheney should have subtitled his book "how to be an asshole in 30 easy chapters." Somebody please pull the plug on this heartless, smug and self aggrandizing SOB.

Better yet...let's put him on trial for war crimes against humanity.

Dick!







8.12.2011

Let's Get Real About Ricky P


There are only two reasons why the State of Texas leads the nation in job creation, and neither one of them is the teabag's latest super christian conservative, also known as Governor Rick Perry.

Texas thrives because of its on-going love affair with Big Oil and the Neocon manufactured war machine of the past 10 years, created by that other imported fool from the Lone Star State, George W. Bush. Rick Perry had nothing to do with the apparatus currently in place to make him look good. The nation's longest serving governor has long basked in the sun of corporate welfare, while allowing most of his constituents to wallow in the mire of abject poverty.

Take away the  wars, the military contracts and  black gold, and Texas is just like most of the rest of America...in deep doo doo with no jobs and a bad economy. It goes without saying they don't like poor people or minorities there either, because all that wealth on top just never seems to trickle down to the bottom.

In fact, lately, Texas' big claim to fame is its prison execution industry and the penchant for puttting innocent people to death for crimes they didn't commit...very pro life of them, don't cha think?

Speaking of pro life, like all teabag johnny come latelys, Perry recently signed into law two measures designed to keep women as second class citizens with virtually non existent medicare and health care. Perry really and truly does like war....even if it is a war against women. (Wonder what the MSM is going to do about all those rumors of Perry's Bill Clinton-like appetite for women and/or men?...don't ask me...I just read alot)

Like all other Republicans working the campaign circuit, Ricky P loves to bash President Obama for the Recovery Act, also called stimulus money that saved America a few years ago. However he wasn't bashful about taking  almost 20-billion in stimulus funds to balance his state budget or to rebuild his burned down governor's mansion.

And what about Texas' school system? Reading a revisionist Texas school book gives you all the understanding you need about why America's public school system is failing. Swears on a stack of bibles that he loves America,but threatening to secede from the Union is no way to show it....sounds downright unpatriotic to me.

Never thought I'd see a candidate smarmier than Mitt Romney, but it looks like the GOP campaign is going to shape into a battle of Max Headrooms...didn't know old Max had a twin...but he does..and apparently his name is Rick Perry.

Look out America...you're about to get Rick-rolled...

8.04.2011

Congress on Vacation?! Nigga Please!


Hey lawmakers...

Now, how you gon go on vacation when the job ain't finished yet? Sure you raised the debt ceiling, elevating what should have been a footnote on the national conversation into an attention-grabbing headline. That's been your MO since BHO took office. But the job's not done. It ain't over yet!

What about the Federal Aviation Administration?

I guess I should pat you on the back, while you go play in the sunshine, mistress in tow, with your third trophy wife and privately educated, very privileged brats,  because you're saving America 16-million dollars a year by allowing the FAA to crash and burn...Congratulations!

Your fake-ass fascade of fiscally responsible legislator  is intact...until you look at the details.

Shutting down the FAA  is costing the American taxpayer 30-million dollars a day, with the bandido airlines laughing all the way to the bank.

How is this a good thing? As bad as I am at math...this is crazy! It's like using a glock to hunt ants at a picnic....Crazy! Totally batshit crazy!

Save $16 million over 365 days, while losing $30 million a day on every one of those 365 days..

I repeat...how is this a good thing?

All ya'll ran on jobs platforms while campaigning for office...you been beating Obama over the head because nobody is working...yet...the FAA shutdown has caused more than 40,000 people to be laid off and countless thousands more to continue working without a paycheck...and all because you want to stand on political principle to prove your point.

How is this a good thing?  From your vantage point on the beach, surely you can see this is a problem..

I mean what happens if one of those guys who ain't gittin' paid decides to doze off from lack of sleep or food..take his eyes off the monitor with a big ass jumbo jet baring down on some unsuspecting airport runway loaded with regional puddle jumpers lining up for take off? Huh?

Do I have to point out that you...Congress...are still getting paid...you haven't missed a paycheck during any of these back to back to back made up crises...your paychecks are classified as emergency funds by law...which means you will get paid when there is no money for anyone or anything else in the entire country.....just like the sanctity of  your health care and your one man-one woman marriages...you will have it all...regardless...

Congress makes the laws...and since all bills must originate in the House of Representatives, you've protected yourself.... tucking away your paychecks and your automatic pay raises, in a remote facility safe from fallout...while repeatedly hanging the rest of us out to dry.

Does that seem fair to you? Do you understand that we the people might be a little pissed off?

And what about the unemployed...you been dangling them over the fire for months...refusing to extend unemployment insurance or create jobs...while the states cut aid to the formerly middle class and poverty stricken under class.

The poor bear the brunt of your folly while you trade blond lobbyist girlfriends,  fiddle around with hookers or your assistant's wife or eat cake. The country...meantime.. is caught between a rock...no jobs...and a hard place...an uncaring Congress...

America's first pundit was a guy by the name of Wil Rogers..a Native American, jack of all trades good guy.

Back in 1931 Rogers delivered a speech called "Bacon, Beans and Limousines." It happened in midst of the Great Depression, and truer words were never spoken.

During that speech, Rogers told the public that America is the only country in the world where the poor can drive themselves to the poor house, because everybody in America has a car..even poor people.

Today it  is a good thing we all have cars, because in this so called Recession of 2007-2011...in case your house gets taken away by the mortgage company...you will still have someplace to live...at least until the bank loan on the car gets called..

Only in America..