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!

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...

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...

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.

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!

9/11 + 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 10^th, 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.

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

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.

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!

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...

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..

Boehner's Monster

Well, looks like the monster lovingly called Teabag has broken his chains and escaped, and Speaker of the House, John Boehner can no more control his right wing creation than the fabled Dr. Frankenstein could control his.

Neither monster, Boehner's nor Frankenstein's is really human....has no human tendencies or compulsions or understanding or any emotion with the exception of pain. They may look human...have the requisite number of fingers, toes, heads, legs and arms...but that doesn't make them human.

Some philosopher once said that you lose your humanity...if you ever had it in the first place...when you stop caring about others...Boehner's monster crossed that line a long time ago.

The Frankenstein monster didn't really want to hurt anyone. He killed accidentally when attacked by the fearful villagers, who were scared of what they didn't understand. Frankenstein's monster didn't try to destroy his surroundings. He tried or wanted to live peacefully within his surroundings, in harmony.

Boehner's monster, however, is a different story. It is mean, vindictive, possessive of all it surveys, selfish and unempathetic toward anyone who does not resemble them. Boehner's monster is intent on destroying anyone or anything that prevents it from having its way. Boehner's monster bears a closer resemblence to Ripley's Alien or Arnold's Terminator.

"It doesn't eat...it doesn't sleep....it won't stop...ever...until you are dead!"

Boehner's Speakership is on the line because he can't control his monster, which isn't all that big, yet. But he needs some help from the gazillionaires who financed his experiments in the first place. Cutting off the money is the same as cutting off the head. The Teabag monster will follow the duckets right over the cliff, if they act quickly enough. Boehner may have to sacrifice himself. But it's looking like any action taken will be too late for all of us.

-0-

Another Attack Ad in Ohio

Ohioans are currently being subjected to yet another vanilla faced attack ad created by some rich guy with too much money and time on his hands. This one comes from Crossroads, GPS and is aimed at Senator Sherrod Brown and President Barack Obama. It claims Brown has voted for trillions of dollars in tax increases that will drive up the deficit.

Really?  I wasn't aware that our taxes have gone up. In fact, taxes under Obama have gone down if I'm reading the statistics correctly.

Can't attack Sherrod on health care. He voted to help the people keep their kids insured and enable those with pre existing conditions to finally get coverage. All this while forgoing government health care himself.

Brown in fact, is the only member of Congress who does not take congressional health care...never has...says he won't until health care is available for all the people.

And since the government is in such dire straits....why aren't more congressmen and women giving back their health care benefits, retirement and salaries.

They're gonna get paid regardless of whether the Country tanks on August 2nd or not. Congressional salaries are considered to be emergency funds that must be funded, empty treasury or not....check it out!

-0-

John Boehner, The Gutless Wonder

Well, it's official. We now know that John Boehner has shit for brains. Still playing Polyanna, President Obama threw Speaker Boehner a lifeline, and the fool stepped up to the plate and callusly threw it back.  Again and again, Obama reached out and attempted to pull Boehner into the light. But it didn't work. A smart leader could have used Obama's words to lead the teabaggers to clarity as well as an understanding about what they are doing to America.  It could have been a teaching moment and a reality check by the GOP to the Teabags. Instead it was more posturing on the part of the Speaker of the House, who somehow views himself as co-president to Barack Obama.

 Boehner's  response to the President could have been written three years ago. Based on the same talking points, lies, myths and innuendoes that the GOP/teabaggers have been pounding him with since his election in 2008. He didn't bother to listen to what Obama said. He refused to see the olive branch imbedded inside the speech. He ignored the bipartisan plea housed inside the rhetoric.

Boehner simply followed orders from his puppeteers and said "no." Strawman..no brain...no heart.  John Boehner is no leader. He is no patriot. He doesn't give a damn about the American people. But he sho love him some tea, apparently.

For the first time since the last election, Obama verbally bitch slapped the teabaggers, attempting to jar them awake to see the dangerous precipice upon which they stand. He put the blame where it rightfully belongs smack on the teabaggers in both houses. Obama said the American people may have voted for a divided government...but they sure as hell didn't vote for a dysfunctional one. Obama implied they are either totally stupid or totally insane to think they can play chicken with the world financial industry and that America, in its weakened state will still survive.  Obama all but told them it was time to grow up and to realize that a sustained temper tantrum is no way to govern, but it is a way to destroy the USA, no jihad terrorist needed.

Further cuts without increasing the revenue base via taxes on the wealthy will only add to the deficit, not reduce it. The social safety net that protects the poor and the now destroyed middleclass, will be gone. What little progress that has been made over the past couple of years in putting people back to work will cease and probably reverse. The stock market will probably tank. Interest rates will go up. More people will lose their 401k funds..that is if they still have them in the first place.

Signs of the impending meltdown can already be seen with the most recent report issued by the US Census. Minorities have never really been allowed to take part in  the good times in America and this recovery/recession is no different. The recovery reversal has stripped away what little financial progress Blacks and Hispanics have made, with the net worth tanking close to zero these days. Whites collectively have a net worth north of 100,000-dollars per household,  while minority net worth is between 5 and 6 thousand dollars per household. The rule remains "last hired...first fired." The insidious grasp of institutionalized racism prevails, unchecked, even during the reign of America's first Black president.

It is time for  some people in this country to admit that institutionalized racism exists and that the war on Iraq was absolutely the wrong move, coming on the heels of the deregulation frenzy of the financial system by the  Clinton and Bush administrations. And it isn't the healthcare act that is so destablizing to the economy...it's the big pharma drug payoff that Dubya and the GOP passed in 2007.  Obama's health care law has not yet taken full effect, and won't until 2014. Nor can the stimulus be laid at the feet of Barack Obama, either. It was implemented by Obama, but passed by Bush and company. John Boehner was in Congress and on board for all of this spending being done by his party. He gleefully helped dump it on the desk of the incoming president, Barack Obama. Now he is apparently attempting to smother him with it.

And yes, I am going to play it again and again and again until it sinks in....no white president would have to deal with this type of disrespectful surliness....ever.....EV-VER! Ronald Reagan increased the debt ceiling 17 times and never once met the kind of opposition Obama gets just for saying "good morning."

Feel like I'm caught up in an abusive marriage, where the husband has decided..."if I can't have you...no one else will!" So the wife and kids all have to die...just so he can make his point one last time. Get ready for the late, great America!

Gutless son of a bitch!

Obama-Boehner Smackdown The Thrilla Outside Wasilla

Talks have once again broken down with Boehner walking away from the table and the deal. This time around President Obama was visibly pissed off. You could see it on his face and hear it in his tone. He has summoned the parties to the White House for a rare Saturday session.

As we wait and watch helplessly from the hinterlands...Here are some things to consider:

TRUTH-America is in an unsustainable deficit situation coupled with massive unemployment.

TRUTH-The present deficit/economic situation has never been seen before in the history of the USA.

TRUTH-President Obama inherited this mess. He made it worse by not increasing revenues allowing the Bush tax cuts to go forward, unchallenged. He has allowed himself to be caught inside a dangerous game of "good cop-bad cop" being played by Cantor and Boehner. The people are suffering.

TRUTH-Obama has moved so far  right of center that his policies resemble those of Richard Nixon, rather than any Democrat living or dead. There will be no compromise, only capitulation on the part of the Democrats.

TRUTH-Repeated White House cave-ins are not compromise nor bipartisan behavior.

TRUTH-The past election was not a mandate for teabag policy changes. It was an election that most voters sat out, thinking the problems of the past, were past....or a waste of time from the point of view of so called progressives who remain in the midst of a gigantic temper tantrum because they didn't get their way as quickly as they think they should...

TRUTH-John Boehner is protecting his own ass rather than representing the American people. Teabaggers have made it plain to Boehner that he will lose the Speaker of the House position if he compromises and strikes a deal with the White House.  What happened to "taking one for the team?"

TRUTH-Teabaggers have the power to force Boehner out of office...they have the power to reshape America into it's own bizarro view, but only if we the people allow it to happen as we did during the past election. The teabaggers aren't just playing politics...they are playing crazy politics and they are willing to destroy America in order to get their way...

TRUTH-Ronald Reagan raised the debt ceiling 17 times during his tenure in the White House, but you'd never know it listening to conservative republicans. Dubya raised it 7 times during the last administration.

TRUTH-Giving rich people tax cuts does not  generate jobs. Never has...never will. Statistics have shown over and over that the rich people hide and save their money, while the poor and middle class spend their money, putting it back into the economy.  Trickle down economics is a myth....pure and simple voodoo..or doo-doo...take your pick...

TRUTH-You can't have full economic recovery without increasing the revenue base. Reagan raised taxes, Nixon raised taxes, Daddy Bush raised taxes...Got to be done...Dubya sent the country into a spiral by cutting taxes and spending our resources on two illegal wars actions and a big pharma deal that gave a bunch of money to his corporate cronies...leaving us holding an empty bag...

TRUTH-When asked how to jumpstart the economy a few years ago, Dubya said "everyone go buy something."  That's a paraphrase, but the gist of how the economy really works. Cutting everybody but the rich cats a $10,000 check would go a long way in re starting the recovery.

TRUTH-Think a non-regulated totally free enterprise capitalistic system works?...take a look at South America...several countries tried it for a while, before the people voted socialism back in. The totally free enterprise system made five or six people rich and completely ground down everybody else...the same thing is going on here in America, albeit, at a slower pace.

TRUTH-Obama has said he is willing to cut a big deal, even if it means he loses the next election. He's got the American people bent over...wondering if his latest deal comes with or without vaseline. There has been no reciprocation on the part of the teabaggers.

TRUTH-At no time have the congressional teabaggers offered to share the pain of the American people...they still have their health care...they still have their salaries...they still have their merit raises...they still have their retirement....

TRUTH-teabag recalcitrance on Capital Hill is also tanking the states...will the governors speak up? If the USA credit line is lowered....so is  the credit line for the states....The states are caught between a rock and a hard place...

TRUTH-In an effort to get this deal, there will be no tax increases or closures of tax loopholes...but you can bet there will be lots and lots of cuts to programs that matter.....The Republican party....the GOP is dead....snuffed out by teabags...

So when do  we start this revolution?

Obama Wins!

All the GOP had to do was to swallow a couple of tax loophole closures. That's all. There has never been a desire expressed on the part of Barack Obama to really raise taxes on the wealthy.

Historian that he is, Obama knows that no republican congress man or woman has voted for a tax increase since 1991. Not one. Not no time. Not no how. He wasn't asking for anything out of the realm of ordinary. A deal is do-able.  John Boehner knows that. Eric Cantor is too busy making a power grab to see it.

Obama has said he would bite the bullet and take the hit on entitlements, in return for minimum cooperation from the GOP.  But they don't get it. Or I should say the teabaggers don't understand when to say "yes" to the deal. They've blown it. They've blown a chance to get real fiscal stability through real compromise.  Obama wins. The people, the polls say are siding with him against the GOP.  The GOP is viewed as cowtowing to the fringe element that is the tea party. The people, even the old people who voted to return power to the GOP during the last election, are wishing for a do-over.

The Tea Party upstarts are already dead. They just haven't fallen down yet.  Cantor, Bachmann, et al are deadmen walking. You can't govern by throwing a temper tantrum and threatening to hold your breath if you don't get your way. There must be give and take. Compromise and everybody wins.

Even the right wing economists are saying the tea party is wrong for not supporting a deficit ceiling increase.

During this entire deficit ceiling fiasco discussion, I have felt that I was listening to a Republican President talking to his party about how to govern the people.  The people don't matter in this sense. The deficit is going to be balanced on the backs of the poor, right on top of the budget, crushing the middle class.  I have called Obama a DINO before and I am more convinced now than ever. He has been pushed so far to the right, he can't even read his own message anymore.

The one certainty out of all this is the rich are going to get richer. They don't lose. They don't suffer. They don't have to bite any bullets.

The only thing going on this weekend is whether or not Obama is going to hand us a jar of vaseline when he asks us to bend over.

The people suffer because there is no one in Congress or in the White House with a big enough brain to see down the road. If there is one lesson to be learned from the first three years of Obama, it is that America is neither post racial, nor post partisan. The can is once again being kicked for someone else to handle. There will be a deal, I believe, but it won't come until August 1st, at 11:59pm.

All this stress and angst is not necessary. The fringe needs to be sent to the cloak room and paddled for being so damn stupid.

This Congress misses the likes of Ted Kennedy and Dan Rostenkowski and Everett Dirksen and Lyndon Baines Johnson. These guys understood the art of the deal and made things happen even when they weren't part of the majority or liked what was on the table. They could see the big picture and even though they liked power, understood they worked for us.

Bet they're laughing their asses off while passing around the scotch and cigars sitting on their special cloud somewhere in the sky.

Obama wins.

No Social Security Checks?! When Pigs Fly

So now we're being told that Social Security checks for August may not go out, if Congress doesn't put a deficit deal in place. It goes without saying that watching helplessly while Congress and the White House play chicken with my life is not sitting very well with me.

Rather than negotiate in good faith, the GOP lead by Miz Mitch McConnell from Kentucky wants to give the President more power than allocated by the United States Constitution to solve the problem. Only trouble is, it is a catch 22 for the White House..accept the power described by McConnell in his grand idea and the GOP/teabaggers will immediately fall back on all their third world banana republic scenarios, claiming Obama is attempting to establish himself as America's first dictator.

It's a trap whose only purpose as McConnell has repeatedly stated, is to bring down Barack Obama, limiting him to one term in office. He needs help cleaning up the GOP mess left over from the past decade, but he's not gonna get it from Congress, apparently.

According to all sides and sources, we need to increase the debt limit or face dire consequences financially, including a return, if you will, to recession or even depression. Some sources are even predicting the end of the world as we know it, if steps aren't taken soon.  Okay, so what's the holdup?

Well the GOP wants to cut entitlements. Read that Medicaid, Medicare, and gut social security.  They see no need to fix the infrastructure or create more jobs or recreate the manufacturing base that built this country in the first place.

They see no need to make health care even more affordable, after all, they already have it. Their salaries are protected under emergency funding, meaning they will get paid even if the country defaults on everything else.

 They see no need to cut defense spending, just in case we have to go to war again and despite the fact that we will never fight war like this again. The neocons still cling to the visions of batallions of men marching toward one another on an open field, while war has evolved to the push button phase from the safety of our own borders. And they have no clue or idea what to do with the vets who are returning home from the illegal actions that have been raging for the past several years.  We treat our vets worse than we treat poor people in this country, and that's pretty bad.

They also see no need to raise taxes on the wealthy, figuring, I would guess, that the middle class can  absorb about $500 in cuts per person better than the wealthy can come up with $5 per person to help out. They see no need to increase the revenue base at all.

American jobs are still being shipped overseas.... most workers haven't seen a pay increase bigger than 2% for the past several years, while corporate honchos are averaging 28% increases before the yearly bonus.

Unemployment is at 9.2% if you happen to be white. If you're black...it's right around 16%..Not much has changed since the days of Ronald Reagan.

So inquiring minds want to know...

1...Why is the GOP afraid of the Tea Party...so much so that it is allowing the inmates to run the asylum since most of these insane solutions for cutting the deficit come from the teabagger caucus?  Are there no moderate republicans willing to stand up and lead rather than to follow the crazies over the cliff dragging America into oblivion?

2...Why does the White House see the need to always capitulate to the right, when it wasn't the right that elected the president in the first place? When does "Change" become a big idea rather than a whispered wish?  There once was a dream that was change. What happened?

This White House is like a ballplayer who comes to the plate in the bottom of the ninth...two outs...bases loaded...team down by three runs...winning run at the plate..time to go big or go home...what do you do...lay down a bunt...or swing for the fence...This White House tends to bunt more often than not...

3...When does Congress stand up for the middle class and do the job it is supposed to do, which is to protect us from the whims of both the right and left crazies, the bloodsuckers of the corporate world and the wolves of Big Pharma who see people as nothing more than human lab rats with pockets full of money?

4...When are the American people going to stand up and vote in their own best interests rather than sit back and allow the power elite to drive the frenzied mob into a stampede that overwhelms the voting booth, snatching power from the people?

Me?  Voting at every opportunity for my own best interests, but still making plans to expatriat, having lost faith in the courage of the American people...

Pride Cincinnati 2011

Another Pride Sunday come and gone. It was so hot! So much so that, initially I had to push myself out the door.  Surprising, since usually, in the past, I had to be at death's door before even thinking about missing a Pride Celebration.

Must be a product of age, I guess.

Pride celebrations are often pretty quiet. There is only one marching band in Cincinnati and this year, they were at the end of the parade. Go figure.

A couple of floats had music, but otherwise it was a pretty quiet affair as parades go.  Never the usual messy, noisy, naked fun that I've seen in other cities.  Cincinnati, quiet and dignified as always. Never really lets her hair down.  Must be all the marching church brigades.

Also missing on the grand scale were politicians who understand the power of the LGBT voting block.

Mayor Mark Mallory led off the parade for the second straight year and we thank him for that, riding in a convertible sporting  a dapper summer chapeau to protect his balding head from sunburn.

Council wannabes Yvette Simpson, Chris Seelbach, and Nick Hollan marched surrounded by supporters passing out campaign literature telling us about them. Thank you for coming.

I was extremely happy to see Councilmember Wendell Young. He was the only sitting councilmember in the parade. The others, I would guess, figure they have the gay vote locked up or something...Maybe they don't think they need it. I don't know.

What I do know is that the only people who will ever get my vote are those who respect me and mine. Pretending the Pride Parade doesn't exist or not worth marching in while knocking down people in order  to march in every neighborhood  block parade that comes down the pike on the west side is no way to govern or get my vote.

So thank you Wendell Young, Yvette Simpson, Chris Seelbach, Nick Hollan and Denise Driehaus for recognizing our equality.

Cecil, Roxanne, Charlie, Amy, Neil and whomever....c ya!  I'm done...yes Roxanne, I'm talking to you, too. It is time for Cincinnati to grow up and come into the 21st century. An hour downtown shaking hands during Pride Sunday, never hurt any political campaign.

Glad handing also never hurt the Fire Department or the Police Department or the Cincinnati Bengals or any number of major Cincinnati Corporations. Parades are a cheap and easy way to widen your sphere of influence and good feeling...hint...hint...

One thing to note....Why was Walgreens not open? On Pride Sunday?...on Fourth Street...It was closed...big ass white burglar bars in place for all to see....So what...they afraid of queer money? Better ask Jeff Ruby how closing establishments or taking inventory when minorities are downtown, worked for him... Think I just changed drug stores...CVS, here I come....

Thank you Macy's, Procter and Gamble, Delta, and US Bank for showing up. Time to move my money where my mouth is.

One absence of note...The CCV, or Citizens for Community Values...didn't see em. They sent out a letter on Friday warning "perversion" erupting on Fountain Square this past weekend.

I figure CCV didn't show because there wasn't any porn being passed out. Or maybe they finally have begun to realize that nobody buys into their bigotry anymore.

Cincinnati Roller girls in the house!

Michele Bachmann is Not a Flake

The good news is another woman is going to run for president. The bad news is it's Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann.

The tea party loves her. Her evangelical followers love her. Conservative republicans love her. The moderate GOP, meh, not so much. They also haven't asked the rest of us yet. Among her peoples-those who are going to vote in Iowa, she has a big lead over Mitt Romney. So that makes her the latest media darling of the MSM.

The media is making a big deal of a FOX news question, Sunday, asking Bachmann if she is a “flake.” She told them that was an insult and not really worth her attention, and I agree. She is not flake.

Flakes tend to be harmless...annoyingly pranksterish...juvenile...immature....fun loving at other people's expense....They may drink too much or party too much or cheat on their wives....a nuisance, yes, but not much else. When I think of a flake, the name Newt Gingrich comes to mind.

No, Michele Bachmann is not a flake....She is, however, very, very dangerous.

Bachmann says god told her to run for president. She is a born again Christian bordering on the fanatic. Even talks in bible code straight from Deuteronomy, so those of us heathens outside the faith won't understand what she is really saying during her speeches.

Guess she thinks us heathens don't read the bible or any other book or newspaper, for that matter, preferring to arrogantly talk “over our heads” to her fanatical supporters.

She has a better track record than the train wreck from Alaska. She is academically qualified even though she got her degree from Oral Roberts University, founded by another alleged god directed, now departed soul.

Her signature issue both statewide and national is an anti gay agenda. She has a husband, a psychologist, who believes he can cure gay and lesbians of their homosexuality. They run two clinics just for that purpose back in Minnesota.

She has said The Lion King is gay propaganda.

Her self described mentor, a guy by the name of John Eidsmoe, makes a living writing books claiming America is a theocracy and not a democracy or Republic, and regularly speaks to White Supremacists organizations, about the “goodness” of the confederacy. She was his research assistant when he taught at Oral Roberts. His book, Christianity and the Constitution is an interesting read. Paranoid, racist and wrong as hell, but interesting none the less, if you like knowing where the crazies get their talking points.

Bachmman quotes Eidsmoe almost as much as she quotes god.

Eidsmoe is the source for Bachmann's stated belief that the founding fathers were the ones who freed the slaves instead of Abraham Lincoln. According to Eidsmoe the slave-holding fathers believed that simply setting free the slaves was cruel, inhumane and irresponsible and that slaves fared better when kept shackled on the plantation safe, with lots of work to do. That's why it took so long to free black people. The good whites were merely protecting them.

Last week, Bachmann told the Republican Leadership Conference that Barack Obama was trying to bankrupt Medicare in order to force senior citizens into his Affordable Health Care.

Huh?

The only plan on the table killing Medicare is the one authored by fellow congressman Paul Ryan, signed off on by every other House Republican, including Michele Bachmann.

Bachmann goes after Obama at every opportunity. She says because her sole purpose is to make Obama a one term president. Yesterday on Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer asked her about her welfare queen tendencies by getting rich off the farm subsidy program. She responded by attempting to make an issue of Obama's use of limousines.

She attacked government spending by saying too many government workers were paid 170-thousand dollars a year..way too high for a government employee. That would include all 435 members of the House who make 174 thousand dollars a year.....is she thinking of taking a pay cut to help cut the deficit?

Doubt it.

Schieffer spent the whole half hour prefacing his questions with “I know you're not gonna answer, but I'm gonna ask, anyway...” And she didn't..sidestepped every one of em.

Unlike the snowbilly from Wasilla, Bachmann likes the spotlight, relishing her talks with the media. There will be no Katie Couric moments for Bachmann during this campaign. She's not ducking anybody except gay people. A few years back she made headlines by being found hiding in the bushes during an LGBT rally. Bachmann told the press when spotted, she was just studying lesbians.

Hell, all she has to do is to ask her sister, if she wants to know about lesbians. No need to hide in the bushes. In fact, her anti gay agenda has totally alienated her own family, an alienation well documented in Minnesota newspapers. You can read more here.

Bachmann has become very good at deflecting questions. Rather than answer what is asked she turns it around to attack Obama, regardless of the veracity of her words.

Ask her about her past statements such as, “cooperating with the US Census will lead to internment camps,” or voting for a bipartisan national service bill will lead to the formation of “re-education camps,” and she dismisses them by saying, “Oh, I was misquoted, “ or I misspoke.”

She lies, bats her big deer in headlights eyes, flutters her fake eyelashes and smiles that joker like smile, then moves on to another partial truth wrapped in innuendo and criticism.

Bachmann's problem besides being fanatic,  is that despite her years in government, she has no leadership responsibilities except the Tea Party Caucus, which she created, and actually knows very little about public policy and foreign affairs. Until very recently, her fellow congressmen wrote her name in the column marked stepford wife. Her attempts to become Speaker of the House were rebuffed unceremoniously by her congressional colleagues.

Bachmann has been described as “batshit crazy,” delusional, stupid and out of touch with reality. She is definitely not stupid.

But maybe her husband, Marcus, should be studying his wife instead of the little gay “barbarians” that he is trying to cure. Barbarian is his word for gay teenagers. Marcus was caught using the description during a radio interview, last year. He has since refused to talk on record since the tape was leaked.

So, the GOP has some hard choices ahead...They've got to choose between two Mormons, a Black great white hope, T-Paw, a closeted bigot, a wannabe rock-reality star, another failed and also delusional spotlight seeker, a wannabe secessionist and maybe candidate, and Bachmann, a total evangelical creation out to bring god into the governance of America.

Can't wait for the next debate.

here

Bey-Bey Effect

The quiet revolution sweeping America.


The latest in a series of US Census reports is the stuff of nightmares, if you happen to be an old white guy bent on taking back your country.  Cutting to the chase, according to the Census, white women ain't havin' white babies-at least all white, aryan looking little angels, who could potentially be molded into throwback versions of the old masters of the universe, and that's got bigoted conservatives scared to death. 


Current universal master spokesperson, Tony Perkins, president of the D.C. based Family Research Council, pointed out in a statement, reacting to the numbers, by claiming the economic impact of the decline of traditional American families will result in a country full of people (Black and brown) dependent upon  government assistance for survival.


"The decline of the traditional family will have to correct itself if we are to continue as a society,"..... "We don't need another dose of big government, but a new Hippocratic oath of 'do no harm' that doesn't interfere with family formation or seek to redefine family." -Tony Perkins


 Perkins went on to say the responsibility for change rests with individuals and the church.


And what has caused Perkins and others such pain and suffering? Well, for the first time in the history of the world,  or since figures were first kept in 1950,  Black women headed households outnumber Black married couples (30% to 28%). Most of the woman headed households are single women with children, although the figure also encompasses women who take care of older parents, or live with a sibling or two or three. 


The report also signals the death of marriage in America as we used to know it. In other words, Leave it to Beaver families of a working husband (male), stay at home wife (female), two kids (one boy and one girl), a dog named spot living in  a house surrounded by a white picket fence on a quiet block, is fading fast.  It is happening fast for white people but is moving at speed of light for minorities.


The experts tell us the changing social order should reach full bloom by mid-century...this century.


According to the report 60% of all 3 year olds counted back in 1990 were white. In 2009 non-Hispanic white 3 year olds make up almost half of the number tallied. Factoring in the data from 2010, last year, most babies counted and under the age of 2 are bey-bey's kids.


"We don't die...we multiply!"


The report is derived from the Current Population Survey and the 2009 American Community Survey which sampled 3-million American households, basically to see if whites still were the majority. These surveys showed white babies having the edge at 51%. However when 2010 figures are added in, white babies fell to second place, well below 50% of the population. This primarily because white women have fewer babies than minority women, specifically Hispanic women. 


In fact, 12 states and DC have more minority residents under the age of 5...these include, Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Maryland, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Mississippi....7 more states are on the "tipping block." They are Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, South Carolina and Delaware.


Compare this with the fact that 80% of old people, those 65 and older, as well as 73% of people 45-64, are white. 


One very interesting discovery is that states with high populations of old white people also have big populations of minority children. In other words, white people's kids are apparently having Black babies or mixed babies, to be politically correct. 


The war on brown people to stop this so called travesty is in full force in Ohio, for instance, where conservative groups are running wall to wall ads calling for a halt in LEGAL immigration, never mind ILLEGAL immigration. These groups don't want anyone allowed into America for any reason..not school and not to work, claiming legal immigrants are responsible for taking jobs away from Americans who want them.


Couple this blatant xenophobia with conservative efforts to gut and or privatize the public school system and I can see a real rumble building in the near future. 


Protectionism abounds in the laws being proposed around the country....proposals against immigrants...plans for banning gay marriage...and the plans to change or eliminate government health benefits such as Medicaid and Medicare.


Another interesting discovery- the number of single Black mothers is actually in decline, according to recent statistics. However  the number of Black marriages are declining faster. But this reflects the overall trend of  American disinclination to get married at all. 


Women headed households make up 19% of all Hispanic households versus 8% for both whites and Asians.  Nearly 1 in 10 Latino households are multigenerational households....parents, grandparents and children living under one roof. 


The other big number to jump out is the number of unmarried partners living together, both gay and straight. Families identifying as gay households have increased dramatically.


Bey-bey kids or an unmarried gay or straight couple with  natural or adopted bey-bey kids... coming to your block..sooner than you think...