Who Voted for This Anyway?

What really angers me about this Republican surge is that this is the party that couldn’t be bothered to participate when invited to by the President and the Democrats in Congress.  Why would the American people put up with this and then vote for these bastards? Ever? 

We need to reform Wall Street so that the same things that got us into this mess don’t happen again.

“Hell no!” – John Boehner, presumptive Speaker of the House.

We need to get Healthcare programs that serve all the people of the country.

“No! No! No!”  - Sarah Palin, Failed Governor of Alaska (I can call her a failure since she quit before her term was up).

We need to regulate the drilling for oil along our coasts and make sure that the businesses doing the drilling are doing it safely and correctly.

“No! America doesn’t want more regulations on Business!” – Boehner again…. Say What?

We need to extend unemployment because people are not finding new jobs.

“No!” – Jim Demint, Senator…. I think he tried to hold his breath to keep it from happening.

A myriad of issues, a myriad of proposals but no discussion from these guys; no suggestions. Just  NO!

And you voted for these guys?

Vote Tomorrow!

If you have any sense of justice or of truth or of the threat that a Republican retaking of the Congress means, get out and vote.  And Vote Democratic!

The GOP does NOT have your best interests in mind.  They represent the rich, the corporations and the wanna be's who think they will win the Lottery and become the Rich.  Don't let them disenfranchise you because you don't think your vote will count..... VOTE _ IT COUNTS!

So the SCOTUS Sell Out Is Showing the Results of Bad Law

Today was a day of rest for me.  I have been getting things ready to retile the bathroom and extend the tiles into the dressing area.  All in all about 73 square feet of flooring. Not a very large job, but at my age and the fact that all the materials have to be lugged up a flight of stairs it can get to you physically.  So I took the day off, mostly but since I can’t play WOW right now (huge download patch!) I decided I would yammer at you awhile.

Right now we are in a crisis in this country.  The crisis is that the US Supreme Court decided that corporations can essentially buy elections through unlimited donations to parties, individuals and political action groups to promote causes and candidates that will benefit them.  While this is not too terrible on the surface, it allows these money machines, whose sole reason for existence is to make more money to influence the politics of the people.  I’m sorry, SCOTUS, especially the corporatist among you, you know who you are, but corporations are not people.  They are organizations who have only limited responsibilities to society as a whole and who exist to make money for their share holders and owners.  So after reversing decades of law and precedence, which several of you said you wouldn’t do in your confirmation hearings, Mr. Roberts, we now have non-person entities with inertia toward self promotion without any need to participate in the society of our country buying influence and putting on pressure on political candidates in order to promote self-interest.

Big Oil?  Buy a law that allows you to pollute the Gulf without consequence… it’s cheaper than having to clean things up or prevent them in the first place.  Ecoli in the food? – Hey, it’s not my kid that got sick eating the hamburger meat, I’m a corporation I don’t have any children, and even if I did, money and the making of same comes first!  New drugs invented? – I need to get it to market as fast as possible before the users start to experience the side effects we covered up. Let’s see who we can buy.

Yeah, we are in trouble and you know, Justice Kennedy, with all your head shaking at the State of the Union Speech, you know that this is happening NOW!  Look where the political ads are being aimed at and who is paying for them. Look at the referendums and initiatives and you can see that the minute you sold your soul to big business, big business started it’s campaign to suck the wealth out of this nation once and for all.  Is Treason too strong a word for what you have done?

Boehner Wants to Return Integrity to the House? !!!

Yes, and the best way to do that is to get rid of as many Republican members as possible in the next election.  Especially, Mr. Boehner.  John of Orange, Agent Orange, or whatever you want to call him says that the integrity of the House has been compromised.  But what he doesn’t tell you is that the people who are compromising it are the Republicans.  The House and Senate have had many votes on many issues that have impact on the people of this country and where were the Republicans? They certainly were not in work mode.  They didn’t have to be… all the work they did was keep a list of Democratic proposals and then vote NO on all of them.

Integrity for the House? You betcha! Let’s get the “Just say NO to everything!” people out of it and let the people who actually have some new ideas, plans and programs get to work.  Vote Democratic because if you don’t, you’ll have two years more of Republicans just saying NO to everything.

What Makes Meg Run?

I was talking to someone on a chat board the other day and I mentioned that I had a blog and that there was no one reading it.  I also mentioned that I was OK with that, because then I could say anything I wanted and not have to worry that someone might argue with me.  Still holds, although, if you are reading this, I promise not to argue if you want to comment.  I don’t promise to think the best of you if you disagree, but I won’t argue with you… at least not for very long.

Back to Meg … Meg Whitman is running for governor of the state of California.  Meg Whitman was the CEO of one of the largest Online Sales sights in the world, EBay.com.  She is also the 4^th Richest woman in the state worth over a billion (with a B!) dollars and has spent more of her own money on her campaign than any other candidate has ever spent on a run for governor, ever.  BTW, the Governor’s job pays $206,500 per year. 

Why spend over $100 million on a job that pays less than 2/100^th s of percent of that? Obviously it isn’t the pay.  It may be altruism, and while I can’t deny her that motive, since I think most public servants start out that way, I also think it has to do with ego, flattery and the desire for power.  None of those thing disqualifies her to be governor and all of those things play into the makeup of any politician running for any office.  But what is she really out to do? California currently has a Republican Governor in Arnold Swarzenneger, so she can’t run her campaign on a change of party will do the state good.  Arnold, while fairly liberal in many ways for Republican holds to much of the GOPs base beliefs, so she can’t say that she represents a change of philosophy either.  California, like most other States, is not enjoying a great time economically and the state is in fiduciary trouble with shortages in revenues to fund even basic programs like police, schools and fire. So she can’t run on the grounds of continued management styles.  She tells us she has a plan, to create jobs, to turn the state economy around and to make us all prosperous and happy.

So what is in her plan? Anything new and exciting? No, not really.  She wants to cut taxes for corporations and rich people and says that will create new jobs.  Let’s see, we’ve had 10 years of similar tax cuts under Bush nationally and that didn’t create new jobs.  In fact we have lost more jobs under Bush and the Bush Tax Cuts than any other President in the last 60 years.  What tax cuts for businesses and for the rich have done is create hoarding, where companies are keeping large cash reserves rather than reinvesting it in their businesses and where the Rich invest in expensive luxury toys like airplanes and yachts which don’t put much money back into circulation.  What’s the best way to put money back into circulation? Give it to people who will spend it on daily necessities. It’s one reason that things like Unemployment payments actually stimulate business, because the unemployed spend the money they get on things like food, shelter, clothing and other things that actually create jobs and drive the economy.  But, hey, let’s take care of Meg and her friends and give them yet another tax break…. They deserve it don’t they.  Only if you are into water sports and like being trickled down on.

Education is another concern of hers. Well she talks some talk, but she’s never walked the walk.  Local control of schools is a good thing and has been out in the educational sphere for quite some time. Nothing new there.  In fact, the NEA and AFT have been all in favor of that kind of thing for years.  Local control for curriculum and for teaching strategies and programs have proven to help improve student performance ever since the 1970’s.  Getting control of the moneys for education down to the local level is too.  The problem is history is against her, here.  Republican governors in California have always had a problem with fully funding education.  Most have made severe cuts in the funding or at least attempted to in order to fund things that are not as high a priority on the state’s list of priorities.  Education is the number 1 priority in California, by law!  So, Meg is saying some good things, although she’s probably also in favor of vouchers and continued low pay for teachers (interesting how business always says they have to have high salaries and bonuses in order to attract high quality personnel, but don’t think that applies to teachers, police or fire).  I’m sure she’s also for merit pay for teachers. 

The problem with merit pay for teachers, as it is for business too, is that no one has ever….that’s EVER with all caps…. Figured out a fair way to assess merit.  Most merit systems in private business I have seen are completely dependent on the opinion of one’s boss about one’s performance.  If your boss doesn’t like you, it doesn’t matter how well you perform, he/she will find a way to make you look bad.  In the classroom, how are you going to measure teacher performance? Is student performance on standardized tests a good measure? Even the standardized test people will tell you that the scores on these test really only have meaning when looking at a large enough population.  If you have a class of low achievers or special education students, do you get a break if their performance is not the same as more capable students?  Is it luck that determines that you get the really bright students who always ace the tests and make you look good?  Just saying it, doesn’t make it work.  There needs to be more thought there. 

The other problem with Meg is that she is running as many other do on the fact that she was successful in business.  Sorry, Meg, Governing and Government are not business.  While I believe that some things you learned in business might help you become a good public official, a hell of a lot of things you learned there won’t and in fact many of those things probably make you a less desirable candidate.  There are parallels but there are as many or more differences between success in business and success in Government.  There are also some big differences in attitude.  Business is selfish, centrally controlled and constantly trying to gain an advantage on its competition. Government is suppose to be focused on the people represented, all the people, BTW, not just your small circle of acquaintances.  It is there not to make money to but spend money in order to deliver the services and meet the needs of the people who live in your state as defined by those people, and not necessarily as defined by you.  Good government is not about ego, but about service. It’s not about showing off your talents and abilities but showing how those are used to benefit us all. It’s not about dictatorial management but management by consensus. It’s not working with sheep and herding them in the direction you want, it’s working with cats, who need to be influenced, but won’t always go along with the program.

Sorry, Meg, I know Jerry Brown can do this job. In spite of the misinformation you have put out about his years as Governor and late Mayor of Oakland, he has proved he knows how to run a large and a small government.  You have proven diddly, except you were in the right place at the right time when Ebay went ballistic.

I’m Mad as Hell …

I’m Mad as Hell …..

And it’s not with the current administration, although there have been some things I would change. No, it’s with the obstructionist, unthinking, harmful and completely false tactics of the Republican Party.  It might not be so bad if Republican congress people weren’t so afraid of their Tea Party shadows to do what’s right. But they are and they don’t. So rather than be reasonable, work with the Democrats and actually try to get some work done, they play 2 year old child and say no to everything.

Let’s see, No to having BP Execs testify under oath?  WTF?  Are you saying that unequivocally that you are taking payola from these guys and so will not allow anyone to actually investigate their actions that led up to the oil leak in the Gulf.  Hmmm, and you want us to believe you have the people’s best interest in mind. No way, GOP! We are not that stupid!

Block Vote no on taking away the tax break business gets for off-shoring jobs?  WTF happened to your concern that Obama’s strategy was not creating jobs fast enough?  But it’s OK to give tax breaks to companies to send jobs overseas?    Are you all the same kind of people as Carly Fiorena and have no idea that just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.  There is this thing about living and earning your living in this country and supporting the economy of this country and seeing that the people of this country get first shake rather than making more of the almighty dollar.  But hey, you probably were raised with the idea that greed is good.  News for you! It’s not!

Then there’s your pledge to American… If you are elected to the majority, you won’t do anything different than what you did to get us all in this mess in the first place?  Again, WTF?  You screwed up, drove us into a ditch, let the Democrats back us out and now you want to drive again. I think not!

GOP economics have been tearing our economy apart ever since Reagan.  The previous administrations actions accelerated that process and now the GOP Leadership wants your vote so they can continue to destroy us?  You had better think not too and vote for anyone except the Republican Candidate.

GOP Pledge to America

This document was found in a trash can outside of the Senate Office Building along with a bottle of wrinkle cream, a free download music card from a local coffee shop and an empty packet of eye glass cleaning wipes. 

MEMO: Changes for the Final Draft

From the Desk of  J. Boeh*** Agent Orange

To M McC****l, Ms Doggy

Hey Ms Doggy!

(OK, OK, I know you don’t like that pseudonym, but we did agree that in order to keep this secret until we get it approved and out, we’d use them.  Sorry you got stuck with that one, but hey, it does rhyme with your name. Anyway, I crossed out our names and inserted our nicknames just in case.)

I have made a few changes that I think might be helpful in getting this to the real people of this country.  I think it does what we discussed, makes it so the little guy can understand just enough of what we are about, but not too much. Anyway Ms Doggy, let me get on with it. 

(OK, OK, I’ll be sure you get a nice addendum to your tobacco lobby check next week, but I just had to put that in there again, heheheh!)

Anyway, my notes are in italics under each line.

PREAMBLE

(I added this so we can say stuff right up front for the people who won’t read more than a few lines. I also think it makes it sound more “official” kind of like that Constitution thing the Government has. Is that where the Con in Neo-Con comes from?)

We the people of the GOP, Great Oppositional Party, want the rest of you to know what we stand for.

(like the new name?!! Just say “Hell no!” Hehehehe! But are we ready to make that public yet.  We’ll have to see what HE says)

 We stand for a lot things.  We stand for big businesses and letting them do their thing.

(See how I put that about the deregulation thing there? Takes the word recognition out of it)

 We, the GOP members of government, need our lobbyist checks.  We stand for keeping things the way they were and because of this, we are making the following pledges:

 (is this good or what! Notice I didn’t say when. Gotta let the people choose, after all)

(Also, I decided that we really did not want to have each of the pledges sponsored at this point. It’s best if it looks like it’s actually coming from people and not our corporate sponsors.  I’m pretty sure we can keep the money we already got for this if we promise to add it back in, once I’m in the Speaker’s seat.)

1.      WE PROMISE to make and then keep everything the same as it was.  Change is a socialist, communist plot to make Government take over your life and we know you don’t want that, unless we are the Government, in which case we won’t tell you what we are doing. Brought to you by the Koch Brothers Fund for a Static World – “We got ours, so why would we change anything?”

2.      We Promise to make you rich!  Just put all your jewelry and other small valuables, including gold in this envelope and mail it to Pledge to America, box 1353, Washington DC. 80934.  Your offering donation to our cause will come back 10 fold!  Please do not discard or ignore this plea, as the Angel of Death will visit you and your family bad luck for seven years may result for such inaction. Brought to you by Gold Find! - the People who want your gold and only want to pay you a little bit for it!

(I did like the religious stuff, but don’t want to give any ideas to our friends on the religious right)

3.      We Promise to never, ever, lie to you again; and when we do, we promise to be sure that we do not tell you that we lied, are lying or will lie, ever again. Sponsored by Fox News.

(Birdshot, our good friend from the previous Administration gave me this one.  I think it’s just brilliant and have sent to to Fox News for their new Logo)

4.      We Promise to not add any new taxes for the “real” people of this country. the ones who count, the ones who earn more than you or your friends ever hope to earn. Sponsored by the Billionaires’ Club of Manhattan

(Rich Kid, aka S F wrote that stuff I crossed out, but we don’t want to show our hand too soon)

5.      We Promise to rewrite the history of the New GOP from the beginning in 1980 under the Great Communicator, in order that no one on the left can point out how stupid we have been, nor how badly we fu**ed messed things up during the last GOP administration. Brought to you by the Bush Family of Government Foundations and Electioneering and the Dick Cheney Blood and Transplant Bank, Nosferatu, Tx.

(Gotta keep it clean; Nixon could get away with that kind of language, but RR and Nancy brought back respect and civility to the Whitehouse, you know?)

6.       We Promise to put the “Con” back into Conservatism!  Sponsored by Madoff, Lay and Associates, “Who you gonna trust?”

(I have no idea what this means, but KR insisted that we include it)

7.      We Promise that the next time you go to pay your bills, all your money will go to paying your bills and none to wasteful government spending like schools, police, fire and infrastructure.  Those are just socialist ideas and we’ve already shown the superiority of Capitalism over Communism when we tore down that cement wall in Germany! Sponsored by the great people of the Russian Mob – “Cyrillic Crime when you need it! Now in the New World too!”

(I like the reference to past GOP glories and also brings back RR again. Man I loved that man -  speaking of which)

8.      We Promise to bring back the Reagan Days by having him stuffed and put under glass in the White House Lobby where our psychics can communicate and channel his spirit daily so he can better advise us all -  Call our Psychics at 1-900-***-****! Only $3.00 a minute to find out what the future holds for you!  Sponsored by the Christina ODonnell Campaign to put our Ex-Witch, Ex-Onanator into Office, any Office and her Mom and Dad.

(Nancy had her astrologer, so I figure the Pat Robertsons will be OK with Psychics. If he objects we’ll cut him in on that $3.00 a minute thing;  also we need to be sure to have the right number in this one so Rush and the Fox guys can put it out right away)

9.      We Promise to not have any original ideas, not now, not ever.  New is change, change is socialism, socialism is bac, bad means we don’t keep as much of the money we steal earn. Brought to you by the John Birch Society, now under the management of the Tea Party.

(We haven’t had any new Ideas since Teddy Roosevelt anyway, and he left us to be some Moose or something.  Not; changed steal to earn.  Wanna be sure the little guys think we are on their side.)

10.   We want to keep your Social Security out of the hands of the Government.  We don’t want the Government spending 1% of your contributions on administering these funds when we can get our Good friends on Wall Street to do the same for just a %5 fee per transaction! – Goldman Sacks is hell on wheels about America!

(We need some kind of plan or program that will get this money back in the hands of the brokers where it belongs.  Maybe call it voluntary opt-out, but then later make it mandatory. If we can confuse the old people like we did with Medicare Options it should be pretty easy)

11.  We promise to outsource Government, and we’ll make it competitive.  China and India have already sent us bids for things like Veteran’s Administration and Military Procurement. Brought to you by the Chamber of Commerce of America – We say we represent Small Businesses but we don’t.

( this really cool. I got it from the dog food lady running for Senate in the Exterminator’s State!  She did this with her company and made a slough of money! Besides we make this a double win for us because a lot of what India and China can procure will be old stuff from the Soviets that the new Russian Capitalists are selling off cheap.  We can charge local prices for new hardware, and buy old stuff on the cheap.  I think that guy whose name was some kind of drink who ran the Pentagon for Dubya came up this Idea back when he Birdshot were in the Nixon Administration.

12.  We promise to never agree with the Democrats on anything, ever!  The last time we did that, they got all the credit, so we promise to just say no to everything and wait until we are back in power to do anything so we will get all the credit for good ideas. Brought to you by the John Boner Foundation for Quality Government.

13.   We promise to makes sure that we apply the laws of the Christian Faith to all legal issues going forward, unless those laws disagree with the Laws of Business.

( I thought this was pretty clever, cause the Religious guys will only see the Christian thing and our business friends will hone in on the business phrase.  In the end we can make this mean anything we want)

(I think if we keep this at a nice round number like 13, then we won’t confuse anyone and no one will be holding some of those strange signs at our Town Meetings, but then they don’t have that many, since we pack them with our own people)

So let me know what you think and we’ll get this right off to Rush for his approval.

Agent Orange