My 2012 Retrospective

Sometimes it's good to dwell on the past. Some enlightened people call it "reflection". Looking at last year, I'm kind of surprised we're still here. The internet was rife with predictions of "Ascension". People leaving this dimension, either with or without their bodies and or clothing. I for one, was pretty disappointed to wake up on December 22 and have to go to work. Ascension seemed so much more exciting. I guess I was not enlightened enough to align my chakras and fly to the 4th dimension. Also, zombies and the apocalypse, another disappointment.
Outrunning zombies didn't seem that hard to me. I think it would be harder to align my chakra's. Maybe when we all go over the "fiscal cliff", we can ascend some where else, to a place that has a public option for healthcare and some decent gun control laws.
There were a lot of shenanigans going on with the election. Hilarity ensued during the Republican debates, when Rick Perry choked trying to name the government agencies he wanted to eliminate. Ron Paul suggested there were 5, Mitt Romney named the EPA. Proving that Romney really IS a nice guy! As long as you're not one of the 47%. Looking back on Romney and his religion, the planet Kolob (in The Book of Mormon) could be Mormon code for ascension. Think about it, where's Mitt Romney? has anyone seen him?

Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises, passed away at the Galapagos Island National Park, making his subspecies extinct. We are also witnessing the extinction of the GOP Reptile Party. Too bad George had to go first. He reminds me of another turtle, named Mitch. (see last post).
I think they are both the same age. Only Mitch McConnell has better healthcare. It seems strange to me that someone worth $17 million gets healthcare provided by the government. While people who can't afford it go without.
So, North Korea had two satellite parties, one an epic fail, one actually launched, but there is doubt about whether they really have control of it. Iran praised North Korea's successful missular presence. I guess everyone went back home after the excitement, the Korean people were hoping that a shower of food supplies would rain down on them during the launch. Also, the months and years of working for the state for free made the sacrifice so worthwhile, since now they can have "The Dish" satellite TV, yet nothing in their dish. Party On Pyongyang!
Two horrific incidents happened on September 11th. Neither of which I am going to joke about. One was the release of that stupid trailer, "The Innocence Of The Muslims" setting off riots in Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, with four other Americans. The fallout is still going on.
The other, the horrible fires in Karachi and Lahore that Walmart is ultimately responsible for. 315 died, 250 were injured. Why? Because Walmart found a time machine that could take garment workers back to the turn of the century, before any regulations or protections for American workers were in place. It's called Pakistan or any other country that has no labor standards, so American Corporations can exploit these human beings. Meanwhile in America, we still march to Walmart.

Which brings me to another disaster, Hurricane Sandy. I live in New Jersey. I was evacuated from my home.  I was lucky. I sustained no damage and was out of power for a while. I still talk to people who have lost cars, homes, possessions. Funding for states that have been hit hardest and have requested it, well, it still hasn't passed Congress. The irony is not lost on me that Governor Christie, the darling of the Republican Party is begging "big government" for help. Meanwhile, he refuses to set up insurance exchanges so people could have a chance of getting insurance they otherwise couldn't afford. I don't know what lessons Christie will take from this disaster, He seems to be very concerned about the people of New Jersey, unless they need healthcare.There are a lot of people trying to find affordable housing. Many people had their homes paid off and have no way of paying high rental prices. FEMA's goal is recovery, but what if you have nowhere to recover to?
The election of President Obama was quite a surprise for Karl Rove.

 

I don't know what, if anything, Anonymous did, but they have my vote, also for calling out Westboro Baptist, I refuse to call it a church, they wanted to disrupt the funerals in Newtown, Connecticut.
Which brings me to the sad tragedies in Newtown, and Aurora, Colorado and more. Too many places with too many assault weapons, guns and mental illness. I already blogged about it, American Psycho, on the right.
So it's New Years Eve. Now we get to "Auld Acquaintance". Hillary Clinton is in the hospital in NYC, with a blood clot in her brain She suffered a fall nearly two weeks ago. She was supposed to testify at the Benghazi hearings and was criticized by Allen West, who said she had the "Benghazi Flu". When will these guys ever shut their pieholes? Get well soon Hillary!
Have a Happy New Years Eve. Spend it with someone you love. I hope we're going to be ready for 2013.

Mooch McConnell, The First Turtle/Human Hybrid

Did Mitch McConnell get kidnapped by aliens? Where is the man who's goal was to make President Obama a one term president? This, coming from a guy who could never be president.
However, he is up for re-election in 2014.
I guess it was about a month ago when he filibustered his own bill.
That's why they pay him the big bucks.
The US is coming upon a completely manufactured debt crises. He says he's "bent over backwards" trying to solve the country's fiscal problems. Proving, once again, that anyone can say anything and we are supposed to believe it's true. I have always thought that no one would do anything as far as the fiscal cliff is concerned. It is easier to just let the Bush tax cuts expire, because McConnell will never raise taxes, for any reason, ever.
I don't like to get into discussions about "good" versus "evil". The exception is McConnell's case. He represents the state of Kentucky. Where I used to live. I have seen first hand, the poverty there. Not only poverty but  privilege. The disparity in Kentucky is a microcosm for rest of the country. The poorest of the poor dwell in poverty stricken Appalachian Kentucky. The wealthy 1% are in bluegrass Bowling Green horse country.
 Where do you think McConnell is on the first Saturday in May**, otherwise known as Derby Day? Not hanging out with coal miners in "Butchers Holler" that's for sure.
Senator McConnell is a member of the Conservation, Forestry and Natural Resources Subcommittee. Can anyone say strip mining? Kentucky's mining industry has made parts of that state an unnatural disaster that, well, no one cares about. Especially not McConnell. He's also on the Subcommittee for Energy and Water Development. Which pretty much  explains why their will be no alternate form of energy development since that would not help wealthy coal mine owners. I don't know if you know this, but there's a war on coal. The coal industry was pushing Romney for president, that industry also says President Obama's environmental policies were "killing coal". Most of our coal is going to China now. So, coal will live to see another day and leave it's carbon footprint worldwide, like it always has.
Senator McConnell is obviously not concerned about anything other than maybe, Grover Norquist's tax "pledge" of allegiance. McConnell has some kind of reputation of being the behind the scenes "legislative bargainer" Really? He filibustered his own bill. McConnell is known as "the cleaner" or the guy who fixes the mess that others leave behind. He should really start with his own state, but apparently he's got more important things to do in DC. However I'm not holding my breath waiting for McConnell to do anything about the country's debt problems.
There's some talk about Ashley Judd running for senate against Mitch in 2014. Which is one of the reasons why the senator won't do anything when it comes to raising taxes on the very wealthy. The Senator from Kentucky is incompetent at best and this guy is supposed to be brokering a "behind the scenes" deal? It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see who will be getting the short end of the stick y'all, in any deal McConnell strikes.
Fun McConnell facts:
He's worth $17 million
The Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics has named him one of the 15 most corrupt members of Congress*
He's married to Elaine Chow, Department of Labor Secretary under Bush. Her father's a multi-millionaire with connections to the highest levels of communist China. Thanks for all that "free trade" Mitch, all those American jobs going to China? Coincidence?
McConnell needs to be unemployed, along with a lot of other American workers. Who the hell would vote for him in 2014? I don't know if Ashley Judd would do a better job than him, she couldn't do any worse.
Since we haven't heard much from Mooch McConnell, I'm guessing he's laying low in his turtle shell, so everyone else can go over the fiscal cliff.
*Mitch McConnell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
** I owe Sarge a Mint Julep for setting me straight on what exact day Derby Day is.

Legitimate Rape?

What I carried with me for the past two weeks, was this. The gang rape in India, of this innocent woman. It is so sad , but what's really sad is that, it isn't unusual. This is personal for me. I have someone in my family who was gang raped, but she survived. I held her hand in the emergency room after it happened. I don't get real personal here in this blog, but this is real. For any of us who have daughters, sisters, mothers, even grandmothers. Read the rape statistics
I can't imagine, what is going on in Syria or worldwide. It is everywhere.
In our own country. Rape  is legitimate. Rick Santorum. "make the best out of a bad situation"
Todd Aiken legitimate rape.
Thank God for Tori Amos

When, will this ever stop? I only know that when I was in the emergency room, with  my cousin, this is what I sang to her.

It still breaks my heart.

Merry Christmas! All Ye Faithful!

Merry Christmas!  To all  my readers from India to Russia, (Yes, I know you are lurking..) From France and Indonesia. Ukraine, China, Latvia and the UK, US and Germany. However you celebrate, whatever you celebrate, be merry and thank you for reading my blog.  Happy Christmas to all  in the blogger community, who have supported me. We celebrate tonight, but the struggle is far from over. Dasvidanya

You Get What You Pay For

I have been thinking a lot about the people of Newtown, how hard life is for them now. How the Holidays are probably like some kind of cruel joke to them. I can't imagine their suffering. Their world has been turned on it's head, everyday they live with an empty place where their child or their significant other used to be.
Then I start getting pissed.
Because we are used to tolerating a hell of a lot of crazy in our culture. The rest of the world sees it and thinks we are a nation of dumbasses but we continue to think we're exceptional for some reason. I have a few examples of this.
One is the NRA and Wayne LaPierre. His big idea? Armed security guards in schools
I read this yesterday. My first thought was maybe it was some kind of stimulus. A program for out of work people who are hired to be the "good guys with guns". A boon for gun manufacturers, to make even more guns, especially designed for school security forces, maybe a "Special Edition" deluxe model..My suspicion was that LaPierre and gun manufacturers were in cahoots, drooling over future state funding flowing into gun corporations coffers, feeding off of the fear of frightened parents. LaPierre's idea isn't new. There are police and private security forces in city schools. I also know in my community the local police have a presence in some of our schools here. My point is this, LaPierre's ideas are old and tired like him. But he gets paid a lot of money by gun manufacturer's to continue the status quo of death and violence. We get what we pay for. A gigantic lobby to pay for our representative to look the other way and do nothing. There's a lot of cash at stake here. There is only one representative I know about who spoke out about gun control. He is a conservative named Joe Manchin, from West Virginia. He's a "proud NRA member." I don't know what he's so proud of, other than the bribes he gets from the NRA for saying that. Does anyone else see this crazy going on?
Then there is the John Boehner epic fail this week with the whole manufactured fiscal cliff. Talk about insane. He was delusional enough to think he could get his Plan BS to pass the floor, but thank God it didn't have enough votes. I don't know if he was surprised or not. I read a great article in The Guardian about him and the poverty he was born into. He was one of 11 kids that grew up in a two bedroom house. That's right, 11 kids and two bedrooms, you do the math. I don't know a whole lot about his parents, but who the hell has 11 kids and not enough room for them to lay their heads down?. This reminds me of the whole baby boom generation who just had loads of kids on faith and not much brains. This was John Boehner's normal. It kind of looks crazy to me. I grew up in a family of 5 kids, 3 of us shared a bedroom at times and I know how crazy that was. But 11? Holy crap. No wonder Boehner's always crying. (maybe HE's mentally ill and has an irrational fear of being poor again) What a sad way to grow up. Now he's one of the most powerful men in DC. You would think, he would have some compassion for the middle class and the poor. Instead, I see that his "humble beginnings" have caused him to live a life on the take, from the NRA, Raytheon, myriad defense contractors and big pharma cashing in on lobbyists and millionaires.We get what we pay for. The price we pay is ineffective leadership and a whole load of Kleenex for Boehners crying ass. He's a laughing stock AND a millionaire.
Which brings me to the state of healthcare in this country and Adam Lanza, James Holmes, Ian Stawicki (the shooter in Portland), Thomas Lane, the list goes on and on go look at Think Progress  it's sickening.
You would think, that getting help for crazy people would be a national priority. But it's not. Here's an article in The Washington Post . It's about mother's who are caretakers of their mentally ill sons. Basically we know it is mostly young, white, mentally ill men who are mass murderers. In this article it details the journey of a mother and her mentally ill son and the fear and violence she took on. I am well aware that I have a feminist take on things, but why isn't there an article about father's and their mentally ill sons? Women are traditionally the unpaid labor engine in this country and once again, you get what you pay for, and women pay a high  price, physically and mentally. I am guessing, like Adam Lanza's mother, a lot of these women are in denial about how bad their sons mental illness is. Then if they do have the guts to call a spade a spade and admit their son is mentally sick, negotiating with a broken healthcare system will drive you crazy. But we can't have a national healthcare system, including mental healthcare, because America is broke or Americans just don't care.
To the rest of the world we look like a bunch of backwards idiots, who are unwilling to step up and deal with things or even God forbid, raise some taxes on the wealthy to take care of both of these crises'. I think it's called a poverty of the mind, we are too lazy and dumb to change.
 So, it's "Bah Humbug" because Scrooge is alive and well in America and we will continue to pay, one way or another.

Demand A Plan To End Gun Violence

A group of artists decided to make a video to end gun violence. They're right, it's enough. Sign the petition. Things can change, be the change you want to see.
                                                         Demand a Plan - Home
                                                  Maybe it's only a petition, but it's a start.

Plan B.S.

It should be painfully obvious by now that the Fright Wing can't get their sh*t together. In another moron move by clown car driver Boehner, he introduced "Plan B". I like how Republicans can have a "Plan B" but women who need emergency birth control to avoid an unwanted pregnancy, can't have a "Plan B" as an option. So, in order to try to avoid an unwanted fiscal cliff, Boehner and Cantor assured everyone they had enough votes for their "Plan B" which did not have enough spending cuts for Paul Ryan, since Boehner is desperately trying to save all of those government defense contracts for all the lobbies paying him, they were not a part of the plan.
Now all we have to do is wait for the fiscal cliff to go into effect on Jan.1st, then the middle class tax cut bill will be introduced and the Rethugs will have to vote for that since that's the only thing they will vote for. (usually for the top 2%).
According to what I read in the Guardian, Boehner was "publicly humiliated" by his own party. He is living in some delusional world, where he can just throw down and everyone in his fractured fairy tale just goes along with it. I seriously don't know what he hoped to accomplish with this latest stunt, other that to make himself a laughing stock. He's been one for a long time, but now it's just getting worse.
This bill, according to what I read was a way for Republicans to cover their asses so when the Bush tax cuts expire, they could say they tried, but uh, well, they didn't. This reminds me of the old Churchill quote about "Americans will do the right thing, when they have exhausted all other measures" Only Republicans don't care about doing the right thing. They just do their thing, then they'll throw the middle class, the poor, seniors, the sick, veterans, you name it, under the clown bus they drive.

Deja Vu, "Lockdown" Is The New Reality

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There is a sadness and grief, that is prevalent now, after the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is deep and profound. Everyone feels it, no matter how far you are from Connecticut, it is palpable. We all feel so helpless. We all know, this can happen anywhere, at anytime.
 I want to share some insight from my years as as long term substitute teacher for almost a decade.
First, is whats's called "lockdown". This is when there's a drill at school, almost like a fire drill, where teachers according to protocol, turn out the lights in the classroom, lock the classroom door, our children are instructed to get under their desks. The children are to be silent, motionless. We then wait for the principal or vice principal to give us an announcement after they check the classrooms and hallways to see that everyone had followed this protocol. I don't know if some of you reading this remember, the 50's and 60's with students hiding under desks in case the "enemy" had launched an atomic bomb in our direction. So now it is an enemy within.
Now, that's even more dangerous than whatever "yellowcake" Iran is cooking up in the Middle East.
My question in this scenario is, what does this do to a child's psyche? That they have to hide, for what reason? Why? This is acceptable now and it is wrong. Why is it okay to tell preschoolers, kindergartners, first graders, tenth graders, that we lock our classrooms and we have to "play possum"  just in case, someone with a gun or assault weapons, comes into the school, like it's the Ok Corral and shoots up the place?
I think it comes down to the question of violence in our culture. Violence is the means to an end, guns go hand in hand with violence in our culture. Since the strong survive, if they have guns, so be it.
There is no damn reason our kids in 2012, should be hiding under desks and having to go through "lockdown" because there is  no sane gun control or real help for the mentally ill.
The thing that breaks my heart is that I know, how we all try to prepare for the worst.
 Does "lockdown"" save us from that?
As teachers, we try to create a safe place for all of our students. Why are our kids still hiding under desks, like it's the 1950's. What does that do to them? Besides making it seem "normal" that we have to lock our doors and hide because some madman is on the loose with not just one gun, but many guns.
Have we evolved at all?
What exactly are we teaching our kids? Oh, I know, lets teach them to lock the classrooms and hide, because we can't figure out how to make our culture a safer place. This is how they grow up, EXPECTING violence to happen at any moment. Because "lockdown" is the new normal.

American Psycho

Let me guess, he was  a loner, never said much.
 How many more times?
When are we going to get real about mental illness?  From what I have read, his mother wasn't real sane either. "Guns were her hobby." She wouldn't let anyone into her house, but was totally willing to bring her guns outside to show off. This is how she raised her son. Like most mothers, she took her mentally disturbed kid to a shooting range.
This woman wanted to be "prepared for the worst." Well the worst happened. But I don't think she was real prepared for it. Kind of ironic, don'tcha think?
Just to get a picture of what was going on in Adam Lanza's life, plenty of people knew he was "obviously not well" . When his parents divorced in 2008, they were ordered to "participate in a parenting education program". Guess that didn't work out so well.
How many of us have encountered a person who we KNOW is mentally ill? How many of them get any kind of help?
I was a substitute teacher for almost ten years. I did what is called "combat duty" I taught some of the most disturbed and violent students in my county. I have seen MANY kids like Adam. The only help they got was a school psychologist. They are not licensed psychiatrists. They can mitigate some issues, mostly neglect and a bad case of lice. However, they are not prepared for something on the level of Adam.
When the Aurora, Colorado shooting happened, there were people who didn't want to name James Holmes, because they didn't want him getting any more publicity for his evil deed, this issue is coming up with Adam Lanza too, but we need to name names, we need to own up to the fact that these people are mentally ill and we are not addressing this issue at our own peril.
 Before Holmes went on his rampage, he sent his psychiatrist burned money, I guess to pay his bill. That would look like a red flag to me, but even his parents couldn't or wouldn't figure out what to do with their brilliant loner son, neither could his psychiatrist. Holmes decided to take his outrage on innocent victims in a movie theater. Far more mass shootings occur at schools. Why is that? The rumor is that Adam Lanza's mother was a teacher, however she did NOT teach at Sandy Hook. She was not a teacher. Why did her son, Adam and others like him, target schools to wreak havoc? Maybe the answer is because they want to kill the most innocent in our society. I don't know why they do that, other than what is it about their own innocence that was cut off or killed?
Why aren't the mentally ill getting help? Untreated mental illness is a huge problem in our culture. Why is that? With all the Prozac being prescribed, why are there more shootings and more violence? Americans spent $16 billion on anti psychotics, $11 billion on antidepressants. I am hoping that is keeping mass murder statistics down. Why is there such a dramatic increase in these shootings? There have been 62 mass shootings in the U.S. in the last 30 years. Gun control is a big issue, but guns are never going away. Not if the NRA has anything to do with it. The mentally ill have no voice, no lobby, other than big pharma. Just try getting counseling or mental help and deal with your insurance company. If you don't have money, good luck, just take the Prozac. Or you can wait weeks for an appointment at a public healthcare facility.
Face it, we just don't care about mental illness. Like the village idiot in days gone by, we'd put some food out for him and leave him to go on his way. But now, the village idiot has not one gun, but many more. Mental illness is the reason these mass shootings are happening. Since we live in a culture where the rugged individual can just strike out on their own and pull themselves up by their bootstraps, that is what the mentally ill are left to do. There are going to be more and more mass shootings to add to the list of 62. Nothings going to change. That is the real tragedy of what happened in Connecticut, and Virginia Tech, and Columbine, the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin, the Amish at Nickel Mines Schoolhouse, the 1991 shooting at Luby's Cafeteria in Texas, the shooting at Iowa University Nov. 1991, the shooting in San Francisco killing 8 in 1993, the Long Island Rail shooting, also, 1993, Jonesboro Arkansas, 1998, Atlanta shooting by a day trader 1999, killing 9 people, Fort Worth, Wedgewood Church, 7 killed, Wakefield Mass. 2006, he killed 7 too, Santana High School shooting, 2001, Lockheed Aeronautics shooting, 2003, Red Lake High School shooting 2005, 9 dead, Salt Lake City Mall 2007, 5 killed, Omaha shopping mall 2007, 8 killed, Illinois University, Valentines  Day 2008, 5 killed, Binghamton N.Y. 2009, immigration services bldg., 13 killed, Fort Hood shooting 2009,  also, 13 killed, Manchester, Connecticut, 2010, 8 killed, Tuscon Arizona, 2011, Gabrielle Giffords shooting, 6 dead, Seal Beach Salon killing, 2011, 8 killed, Oikos University, Oakland, 2012, 7 killed, and the list will continue to grow. R.I.P.

Shout out to Jill over at Brilliant at Breakfast: Where no one cashes in on unpaid writers. She featured my blog, along with nine others, all with different points of view about the causes and conflicts of this terrible tragedy. Thanks Jill, I just wish I wasn't writing about something like this.

All We Need Is Love

The holidays are hard for so many people. But especially for the LGBT community. With all the judgement they have to  endure. Don't know if you have heard this from Macklemore. It is righteous. Who knew a rapper could bring that on.

I think we all need love now. Macklemore brought it on. I'll post tomorrow with my usual rant.
 I am praying for the people in Connecticut.
God Bless Us Everyone. All we need is love.

What do you think?

Shoot The Messenger

The Bradley Manning pre-trial hearings have been pretty eye opening. There's been some controversy about whether or not there's been enough coverage or interest in this hearing. Mainly, The New York Times has been accused of ignoring this case.
Whats's more important? Bradley Manning's hearing about the document dump to WikiLeaks, making him a traitor to the United States government, or the fact that one of the most important news sources in this country seems to be ignoring it? Did they also ignore WikiLeaks when it published the State Department cables in 2010?  No, they didn't. 
From what I have been reading, Manning's defense  lawyer has been doing an excellent job of making the jailers at Quantico look like The Dukes Of Hazard are in charge of the brig  Their behavior seems ignorant and brutal..
Manning had been placed on suicide watch, he was stripped of his clothing, made to wear a "suicide smock", kept in solitary confinement in a 8x6 ft cell for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day. Bradley Manning's defense lawyer David Coons asserts that "All logic by anyone who could affect change for Pfc Manning was checked at the door."  Here's another quote from the Officer in charge at Quantico, about a birthday package sent to Private Manning, “The package is being rejected and returned to sender due to the manner in which it was received and also because there was no prior request or knowledge of the package . . . and because we felt like being” obnoxious." It makes you wonder if they could be that controlling and childish, about a birthday package sent to Manning, what the hell else are they capable of? Private Manning was held in solitary confinement from July 2010 to April 2011. The only reason he was transferred to Levenworth was because of an international public outcry and the accusation of torture by the U.N.

Manning has been charged with aiding the enemy. Meaning Al-Quaida., by releasing hundreds of thousands of emails, the content of which were quite embarrassing to the U.S.. These documents showed the U.S. State Department intelligence and workings, regarding Arab governments, setting in motion the "Arab Spring" revolutions, starting with Tunisia, millions of Tunisians read the leaks validating what they knew about the greed and corruption of their leader, president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, and his family. The citizens of Tunisia  utilized Facebook to inform others of the luxury and palatial lifestyle of their leaders

It is really important to see the bigger picture in terms of what happened as a result of Bradley Manning's actions. There is a shift in global power, not in the U.S.'s favor. 
Also, information included in the leaks included  the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Creating even more controversy, revealing evidence of torture and detailing the deaths of Iraqi     
citizens. Meaning that the U.S. military is guilty of war crimes by violating the Geneva Convention of 1864. Article 12 of the Geneva Convention of 1864 states that: 
"...Members of the armed forces and other persons (...) who are wounded or sick, shall be respected and protected in all circumstances. They shall be treated humanely and cared for by the Party to the conflict...Any attempts upon their lives, or violence to their persons, shall be strictly prohibited; in particular, they shall not be murdered or exterminated...". 
To kill a person who is already wounded, and to kill a person who is attempting to provide medical aid and assistance, are, according to the Geneva Convention, war crimes.

When I read this I want to know why Dick Cheney, George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, among others are not in jail with Manning for war crimes? I guess no one has an answer for that.

There has been some comparison of Of Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers and the lies he exposed from the LBJ administration onward relating to the Vietnam War. I think the fallout from Manning's leaks is much bigger, and will continue to be, from the revolutions in the Middle East, to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and now the revelations of Manning's treatment, revealing abuse of power and corruption world wide. I say he has suffered enough and commute his sentence to time already served. What do you think?

Republican Bi-polar Bonfire

Seriously, I can't believe anyone can be a Republican. 
Chris Christie, this week asked President Obama for 100% funding from FEMA to offset the cost from Hurricane Sandy. Also, in the same week he vetoed state legislation to create a health insurance exchange because he wasn't sure how much it would cost, throwing it back to the federal government, I am guessing he wants the federal government to pay for that too.
I thought "big government" was a big problem for Republicans.
Meanwhile, former Republican Charlie Christ, decided to become a Democrat because he is fed up with the Republican Party. Shades of Arlen Specter. Am I really supposed to believe this guy wants to be a Democrat? Or is he out of money and needs a job as a politician so he'll flip flop and say whatever he has to, in order to run for the Senate or Congress, or whatever office he can, so he can get a big government salary and government benefits like healthcare.
What is it with shady behavior and Republicans?
In another bi-polar move, Mitch McConnell filibustered his own bill.  McConnell went to Harry Reid and asked for a  vote to raise the debt ceiling,  when Reid got a caucus together to support the bill, it went to the floor for a vote. Then McConnell refused to vote, objecting to his own bill. Dick Durbin ( D-Ill.) said it might be the only time in Senate history someone filibustered his own bill. I really think this guy needs supervision from a psychiatrist and chemical management. 
Like any dysfunctional relationship it is exhausting trying to make sense and find meaning when words do not fit actions. It seems like Republicans have no boundaries. The only thing you are guaranteed from them is to outlaw abortion and birth control. Oh yeah and human rights. In another astounding turn of events, Republicans voted against  a U.N. Treaty extending the Americans with Disabilities Act worldwide. (Legislation that Bush signed)  Republican Senator Bob Dole asked them for support of this 
So basically nothing will get done in Congress or the Senate. Republicans won't vote for anything. Period. Like a tantrum throwing 2 year old, they are gonna lay down and cry until they get their way, except no one knows what that is.
A headline in the Daily Telegraph, "The Senate vote on the UN Disability Treaty shows the pitiful state of U.S. politics." Proving that we are a laughing stock to the rest of the world. The UN bill has been ratified by 126 other countries.  I can only imagine what the"fiscal cliff" negotiations are looking like with these gasbags. I wonder if Chris Christie will get the FEMA money he's asking for if Republicans have to actually vote for it?
 When will this jackassery end?

Rich People Problems

In the land of the rich, where Republicans live, they are busy trying to reinvent themselves as the compassionate party. Here is a quote about Paul Ryan at the Jack Kemp leadership award event the other night, "Ryan made clear that he would be making poverty in America a central part of his political message as he weighs a presidential campaign of his own."
How is he going to do that? With welfare reform of course! Can't these politicians come up with anything new? Of course, the American people are supposed to swallow more lies..check this one out:
“We have a compassionate vision based on ideas that work – but sometimes we don’t do a good job of laying out that vision. We need to do better,” Ryan said. Hey, wait a minute, that is new. I didn't notice Ryan or Romney being very compassionate when it comes to the 47% and by the way, your "vision" sucks you can't take garbage and lay it out better until it suddenly smells like perfume.
Rubio was at the same event, sharing his two cents worth, ‘‘Not so long ago, even if you didn’t graduate from high school, if you were willing to work, you could find a job that paid enough for you to buy a home, start a family and eventually send your kids to college and a better life,’’ Rubio said. ‘‘Those days are long gone, and they are probably not coming back.’’ Well he's right there, only he forgot to add that even if you graduated from high school or college, there are not enough jobs. I wonder where they went? Since those jobs are "not coming back" that means they went somewhere. 
Ryan is now concerned with poverty. Rubio  says in days of yore, you could get a job without a high school diploma. I wonder if they see any connection? Because unemployment leads to poverty, actually it's the fast track to poverty.  Rich people outsourced jobs and money with their corporations and tax breaks. 
Meanwhile, in D.C., the fiscal cliff just won't go away. The Republicans got busy and wrote a letter
Well, it looks like John Boehner's secretary wrote it, but whatever, I still am having trouble figuring out what the Grumpy Old Party is proposing. So far it looks like this.
$900 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid
$200  billion in cuts to Social Security
$300 billion in cuts to discretionary spending
$800 billion in new revenue.
What? "new revenue?" Yes, "through pro growth tax reform, closing loopholes and deductions while lowering rates" How the hell can they lower rates any more?  I am so sure the lobbyists are just going to disappear while congress closes loopholes and deductions. What kind of crack is Boehner on anyway? He wants to cut billions from social programs and lower rates.  The letter states that "they are ready and eager to begin discussions on how to structure these reforms" I'll just bet they are. I don't think any one else is as eager as they are though. I don't know how long Boehner's been in that tanning booth, I think his brain might be fried. He called President Obama's plan a "La la land offer" weird, since that seems to be where he lives.
The reality is that people don't want social programs messed with. So far, what I can see is that Ryan and the rest of the Repubbies agenda is ripping apart whatever is left of the social safety net. Then privatize them for their rich donors. However that is not what the American people voted for, despite the fact that wealthy Americans tried to buy the election, they lost. However, they still think they can ram their agenda, down the 99%'s throats.

Jaws Of Hurricane Sandy

I haven't posted any pics of the devastation here, where I dwell. That is purposeful, the last thing people who have lost everything need, is people taking pictures of their tragedy. My dad sent me these pics of sharks roaming in the streets of the Jersey shore, during the hurricane. 

Governor Chis Christie has asked for 100% help from FEMA. For debris removal, among other things. 

Who knew ? 

"Big Government" is usually the enemy, for Republicans, but Christie is right, Government is here for a reason. The cost of removing debris is going into the millions, if not billions. There are at least 22,000 homes that are uninhabitable, and people refuse to leave, some have no where else to go. I think this will bring up the issue of affordable housing, especially here in New Jersey, it is almost non-existent. People who have condemned homes are living with dangerous mold, but they will not leave their homes, and Christie does not want to use Eminent Domain to force people out. This tragedy has affected so many people, who will become homeless, if they have to leave their condemned homes.

There are so many people who have been displaced, and are living in hotels. FEMA is there for them to move on to "recovery" that is FEMA's goal.. But what if you have nowhere to go? Into The Jaws of Death,? I guess Tennyson is too dramatic.. They have survived so much. I hope FEMA and Christie will help these people.
Because the Shark insurance companies are abdicating any responsibility, here in Jersey. That is why Christie needs so much help. When the storm was downgraded into a "superstorm" not a hurricane, the insurance companies don't have to pay..

Screwged

With the holidays approaching you would think Republicans would be in a more festive mood. After all they have had Christmas for over ten years. 
Instead they are going to try and screwge us, Dickens style, with their  Victorian economics, like the ghost of Christmas past, when there was no such thing as climate change, abortion wasn't legal, healthcare basically didn't exist along with antibiotics. You know what else didn't exist back then? Pensions, like the ones the Republican's get when they leave office. When was the last time you heard of someone getting hired somewhere and getting a pension?
 Boehner and McConnell act like the election never happened. In Victorian times, a black man couldn't  become president. Meanness and being tightfisted ruled the day, Republicans are like characters in a Christmas Carol, or any of Dickens books. They are the Tories of yesteryear.
30 years of tax cuts. How has that helped the economy? 
Thankfully, today, unlike Victorian times we have phones. How about we call McConnell and tell him what we think of him?  502-582-6304 in D.C. 202-224-2521 or how about Boehner?  937-334-1524 IN D.C. 202-225-6205. The only problem I have calling them up, is trying not to cuss at them. Email Boehner @ www.speaker.gov  McConnell @ mconnell.senate.gov . Let 'em know how we feel, share the hate.
If sequestration goes into effect we stand to gain over $700 billion in revenue and defense cuts. I think Boehner will cry when that happens, the defense cuts will hit the money making machines of both parties.
It's time for the U.S. to stop living in an Upstairs, Downstairs world.

The Republican Brotherhood

There's been a lot of controversy over  the Muslim Brotherhood's Muhammad Morsi's actions in Egypt. What a lot of people don't know about The Muslim Brotherhood is that it is severely conservative. It is a lot like the most conservative part of the GOP. That would be the American political equivalent. Some Republicans would find that very attractive, say a Republican like Grover Norquist. Norquist was the director of the Islamic Free Market Institute, which was partially funded by a group called the SAAR Foundation, it was dissolved after being raided by Federal agents because of it's ties to terrorist activities and The Muslim Brotherhood. Yeah, all American Norquist, Mr. Conservative, took money from an Arabian millionaire who was funding Al-Queda*. That's old news, so is the fact that Crossroads GPS, Karl Rove's non-profit donated  $4 million to Norquist's American' For Tax Reform fan club.
There's an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Norquist and his tax pledge influencing American policy. He and Rove missed the message that voters sent in November along with his handmaidens, Boehner and McConnel who are in denial too. I guess they didn't miss the message, they just don't care. They would rather jump off a political cliff than raise taxes on the wealthiest 1%.
The U.S. rank  in income inequality is the extreme end along with Camaroon, Madagascar, Rwanda to name a few. Actually we are more on a level with China. Egypt's and Tunisia's revolts were really about income inequality. If something isn't done about this issue perhaps the United States will be next.
It makes me angry to know that Norquist, Rove, Boehner and McConnel are willing to destroy this country rather than raise taxes on the wealthy. We haven't had income disparity like this since 1774.
Kevin Drum wrote about the latest idea for revenue in Mother Jones about getting rid of tax brackets for the rich, which pretty much throws some rich people under the bus in order to favor the super rich. What's happening is that any way the Republicans can find to not say they raised taxes, to save face, that's what's they might go for. Basically this country is being held hostage by conservative ideology  despite the fact that most Americans don't agree with them. Meanwhile, these fake fiscal conservatives allow defense spending to skyrocket. Republican's are not going to raise taxes on the rich. They will let the Bush tax cuts expire, the easiest choice for them is to do nothing, it's easier for President Obama too. I guess it's doomsday and we're headed for the fiscal cliff.

*SAAR Foundation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You Can Get Anything You Want, At The Food Pantry

I torture my kids with Alice's Restaurant every year. We talk about Arlo and that usually leads to a conversation about Woody Guthrie. Then I start thinking about the Great Depression. Maybe we are luckier today then during that desperate time. As rich as this country is, we still have:

• In 2011, 46.2 million people (15.0 percent) were in poverty.
• In 2011, 9.5 million (11.8 percent) families were in poverty.
• In 2011, 26.5 million (13.7 percent) of people ages 18-64 were in poverty.
• In 2011, 16.1 million (22.0 percent) children under the age of 18 were in poverty.
• In 2011, 3.6 million (9.0 percent) seniors 65 and older were in poverty.
• The overall Poverty Rate according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure is 16.0%, as compared with the official poverty rate of 15.1%.ⁱⁱ

Under the Supplemental Poverty Measure, there are 49.1 million people living in poverty, 2.5 million more than are represented by the official poverty measure (46.2 million)
It is crazy to me that there is this much poverty in a country that can produce drones and unending war. No one talks about the war on poverty, not anymore. Which brings me to food insecurity. The biggest factor in terms of food insecurity is unemployment. The BLS says we have an unemployment rate of  7.9% which I believe, is a bunch of B.S. so many people are underemployed or so underpaid, that they need government assistance. (read Walmart, which gives employee's applications for foodstamps and medicaid) Some people are working 2 jobs, just to survive.
So lets all panic over the "fiscal cliff". What isn't acknowledged is how many Americans went over the "fiscal cliff" when the Great Recession started in 2008. Many, too many, are still unemployed. I have not heard of any comprehensive jobs legislation discussed by any Congressperson or Senator, or the President. As a matter of fact, there is a jobs bill for veterans, that is stuck in the Senate. It's a disgrace that these asses can't even pull it together for veterans. So I don't hold out much hope on the situation improving in the future, since we all can just magically pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, if you just work hard enough.....yada, yada, yada..Oh and we're broke. Whatever.
So, really, you can get anything you want, at the local food pantry, if they have it that is.
 I work with a girl who has three kids and she has to get food at a food pantry, her husband has been unemployed for so long, they can't make ends meet. Then there are all the people who have lost everything in the storm, waiting for FEMA to cut them a check, they lost all their food, that is if they didn't lose everything else. If you go grocery shopping, you know how expensive everything is. So a lot of people have nothing, through no fault of their own.
Can we stop the war, please and take care of our own? Can we stop whining that we are broke, because we are not. We spend American taxpayer money on all the wrong things. Our priority should be a jobs program for any one who wants to work. No one, in this country should have to go hungry, ever.
 Happy Thanksgiving.

Farcical Fiscal Fairytales

Accurate Portrait of George Bush By Daily Kos

The Senate and Congress are on Thanksgiving break. I am guessing that there's not much negotiating going on over the "Fiscal Cliff". I would like to know who is going to back away from the edge? The President campaigned on extending the Bush tax cuts for families that made less than $250,000.
Republicans say that tax increases inhibit job growth. (Like all the jobs haven't been outsourced during the last ten years.)
This sounds like a job for "continuing resolutions".
In other words, just stall. This has been the tactic that has been used since the President was elected four years ago.
Some people were deeply disappointed by "The Grand Bargain" the President made last year, that would have changed what we know as Social Security and Medicare.
Paul Ryan essentially wants Social Security to be turned into private accounts. Which would leave the poor and the orphaned in poverty. This is where we are heading if the Republicans get their way.
I have a question. Where did the 2.7 trillion dollars in the self-funded Social Security fund go? Apparently someone writing for Forbes wondered the same thing.
I want to go a step further. The Republicans like to say that Social Security is "broke", but no one really explains how it got that way. In 1983 Reagan started the looting of Social Security. By 2005 Bush was pushing to privatize Social Security and told Americans there were no funds in the Social Security Trust Fund. "Just a bunch of IOU's".
Congress decided to start "borrowing" the Social Security money, trading it for special Treasury bonds.
Remember, this happened under the sainted Reagan Administration.You didn't hear any Republicans crying about deficits back then. But apparently Reagan was spending so much money, they had to borrow it from Social Security. Make sense? Hell no. 
Now that we don't have a surplus in Social Security like we used to, we have to use these bonds, in order to borrow money from China or elsewhere to keep our government running.
That is just part of the "Fiscal Cliff". The other part being our Department of Defense, endless wars, that have cost us over a trillion dollars.You don't hear McConnell or Boehner crying about that. However,  they do cry that we're broke and poor people, old people, disabled people and our veterans can just suck it. Remember this, when the President wants the bill that passed the Senate last July, to get pushed through Congress. This will extend the tax cuts for families making under $250,000 and let the tax cuts expire for the wealthy. “If we get that in place, we are actually removing half of the fiscal cliff,” Obama said this week. “Half of the danger to our economy is removed by that single step.” I am betting they won't do it. With the stupid Grover Norquist pledge, the Republicans won't pass anything and we will go right over this "cliff". That  means over $55 billion will be cut from the Defense budget every year till 2022. Meaning all those lobbies and their corporate interests can just suck it. Both Boehner and our President get political contributions from corporations like Raytheon .

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1112/83953.html#ixzz2CaWTS4xi

So I say let's jump. I have had enough of spending money on useless wars. I'm tired of the lies about Social Security. The moral of this story is greed. The theft of the funds from Social Security. The profit driven war machine that squanders lives and is bankrupting this country. It needs to stop and so does all the crying that John Boehner is famous for.

Miscarriage Of Justice

Whatever you do, don't have a miscarriage in Ireland. Whether you,  personally are Catholic or not, you can't have an abortion. Even if it's medically necessary. Even if it would save your daughters life, your sisters life, your wife. The lives of women are worth less than an unborn fetus.
There is going to be an inquiry investigating how this woman could have died of blood poisoning, being repeatedly refused an abortion, after having been told her 17 week old fetus would not survive.
It sounds like the Catholic Taliban is running Ireland.
This is just another example of how deadly religion can be.
The woman who died, her name was Savita Halappanavar.  She was of Indian descent. Guess what? Not a Catholic! That doesn't matter. She might have been better off going to Belfast. Belfast does have an abortion clinic. However the Abortion Act of 1967, does not extend to Northern Ireland. If you need an abortion, get the hell out of Ireland. They really go Medieval on it.
Methinks there is going to be a great big lawsuit over this. But will anything actually change? It sounds like Rick Santorum is the Chief  of Gynecology and Obstetrics over there. How many woman have died in this country of Catholics, because they medically needed an abortion?  I wonder if any women will be in the "independent investigation"? Since it's a "Catholic country" I guess only Catholics will be investigating. Sounds ludicrous, but there you have it. Science and Biology don't seem to count for much, since religion and the sanctity of the womb, trumps sanity. Withholding medical treatment on religious grounds, usually, this happens when a parent prevents their child from receiving medical treatment. In this case, the patient requested medical treatment and was denied by the doctors, in a wierd religious reversal, that cost this woman her life. Maybe some doctors will lose their jobs, maybe the hospital will lose a lot of money. Because of their inaction a family lost a daughter, a wife, a sister, a niece. A 17 week old, non-viable fetus, was more valuable than the life of this woman.

RIP Savita

General Betrayus

Some women can't resist a man in uniform.

Oh wow, General "Betrayus" had an affair. Guess what? No one cares. There sure is a lot of outrage though, especially in the media, I guess they don't have much to report on now that the election's over. Rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy, well, that's kind of boring, who wants to watch someone throw all their crap to the curb and wait for FEMA? Not American journalists, especially when there is scandal in the air. When something so absurd, like a married guy having sex with someone besides his wife is headline news, it makes me wonder what we should really be looking at.
There is a real scandal, it's called Afghanistan.
Back in 2010 General Petraeus sure had a hard on for the U.S. strategy for Afghanistan stating that it was, "fundamentally sound"
Does anyone remember this? On April 23, 2008, Secretary of Defense Gates announced that President Bush was nominating General Petraeus to command U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM)*
I wish I knew why a Bush appointee is head of the CIA, but President Obama, for some unforeseen reason has kept a lot of Bush cronies in his administration.
The General is the leading expert on counter-insurgency terrorism in the country. Weird, that the General is now terrorized by this scandal that will probably ruin his career.
But, I digress.
I know, now we have an exit plan for the war Bush started, that never should have happened. American men and women are still dying, but all the attention is focused on this stupid affair. No one is outraged by another unfortunate American son or daughter who dies on Afghan soil. That war was barely mentioned in the elections. It's like it's already over, except for the people who are still fighting it, and the veterans who live with the consequences every single day. We just passed Veterans Day, with gratitude to the people who fought and still fight for our country. Our gift to our veterans? A leader who's a disgrace, not because he had an affair, but because he was Bush's puppet, parroting strategies that were and still are wrong. But no one is going to acknowledge that. The MSM is all over pointing out how wrong the Generals behavior is, in their puritanical war on sex. The real scandal is the death and destruction going on in Afghanistan. In America, war means never having to say your sorry.
*Wikipedia

Republican Civil War

The scariest thing about this guy? He is third in line to the White House. He doesn't care that President Obama was re-elected and the American people have spoken. He wants to keep the American economy from improving, by saying no to everything the President wants to do, in an effort to keep Republicans in office or elect new ones in 2014.
The last time the "fiscal cliff" leaped to our attention, President Obama wanted to use Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to induce the Republican Party to compromise. A Democrat, actually wanted to cut what is left of the social safety net. All in an effort to get a party that will not negotiate, to agree to Obama's "Grand Bargain". I do not have much faith that the President will not do this again.
President Obama does not have to agree to anything Boehner or McConnell suggest.

It's called an Executive Order. He has used it 139 times. George W(orst President Ever) used it a total of  291 times and neither Boehner or McConnell cried about it. They didn't cry about the deficit either. Both of these scumbags have no problem with the supposed end of the world apocolypse of "the fiscal cliff". This supposed fiscal fiasco is due to the GOP catering to the wealthy and corporations who are sitting on billions of offshore money that is not taxed. Then there are the Bush tax cuts that favor the 1%.
The only thing that the GOP WILL do, is create a way for the middle class to pay more taxes, while privatizing Social Security, the banks can't wait to get their greedy hands on it.  If anything like this happens, then we will know who President Obama is really working for.
It seems to me, the only thing that the GOP could agree on was getting rid of President Obama, they failed, at a cost to the American people when they could have accomplished something during an economic crises. Why in the world do these twits keep getting elected?
There is a lot of speculation that there is some kind of internal Republican civil war going on, since they had such an epic fail this past election. I don't care about that, they deserve to implode. What concerns me the most is the outright rebellion and traitorous behavior to this country these two men preside over. It is not going to end just because the American people spoke. The only thing they care about is money and the next election.
Lets see if President Obama will do the right thing and stop compromising with people who do not put our country first, who would see it destroyed, rather than allow the President to have any success moving this country forward. I am afraid, with McConnell and Boehner in office there will be little chance of that happening.

Stuff It, Bill O'Reilly! Rove Is Crying!

People want "things". Yeah it's true! They want "things" Like decent, affordable healthcare. They want "things" like food stamps and Medicaid for our fellow citizens that are less fortunate. We want the same rights for the LGBT community that everyone else has. We want kindness and acceptance for the immigrants who come to this country. We want you to stay out of our vagina's.
So good bye, Old White Man and your outdated, outmoded way of thinking. Now, if only we could vote Fox News out of existence. That "stuff" needs to go. I don't want any of that "stuff"!
 Oh dear, white man Karl Rove couldn't believe that Obama won Ohio! Guess your assault on voters rights didn't work out to well.

Whether Fox New's believes it or not, ROMNEY LOST!  The "Decision Desk" even said so, but Rove was still crying because his numbers weren't adding up, not only do Republicans not believe in science, they don't believe in math either. Fail Karl Rove, when you said "there's only 900 votes in it" and literally 5 minutes later the update comes in saying Obama is 30,000 votes ahead. I hope that Rove's career is over after spending over $300 million on a losing candidate. "A cautionary note" for Rove, surely. Now would you please crawl back under the rock you came out of and leave civilization to pick up the pieces of your 2 corrupt administrations of George "Worst President Ever" Bush. O'Reilly can follow you with his lily white tail between his legs.

For What It's Worth.

I just got done dropping off bottles of bleach, sponges, anything to help the devastation in my area. There  is looting  going on and people are sitting in whats left of their houses with guns. There is a presidential election going on. Yes, people got out and rocked the vote. But what I would have liked to see, is both candidates donate all their money, from both the RNC and the DNC, to the devastation I am walking through daily in New Jersey, or New York. Billions of dollars that could help so many victims. For what it's worth.

pic from APP Press.

                                                       Look whats"s going down.
Stephen Stills for what it's worth http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/stephen-stills-on-mitt-romney-i-never-thought-id-see-a-creepier-politician-than-nixon-20121029

This Land Is 1% Land Or How Hurricane Sandy Took Back Her Beach.

I live in Ocean County, New Jersey. About 20 minutes from Long Beach Island. It may be months before residents can return there. They shut down the gas line. There is no power. Authorities don't know when they will be able to restore it. There has been a lot of coverage on this tragedy. Many people lost everything.
Here's an article from The Atlantic City Press, specifically about my town. Nothing could prepare Tuckerton Beach residents to see the devastation, one says - pressofAtlanticCity.com: Ocean County News
The devastation IS unbelievable. The Press interviewed one home owner from Old Tappan, Bergen County. There is another homeowner, from Wycoff, Bergen County. The point I want to make is these are people's second homes. They watched the hurricane from safer places in Northern New Jersey. They were not evacuated, unlike the people in this community who live here and that is the only home they have, or had. In the article, it stated that people with these summer homes will rebuild, if FEMA gives them the money. Also many of them had no flood insurance. Building houses on the water can be costly in so many ways.

If you go to Long Beach Island, you will see signs like this. These signs are not legally enforceable, but a lot of the people who have summer homes on LBI, want to keep the Riff Raff, off "their" beach. The irony is that they can't even get onto the island now.
No amount of their hedge fund money is going to change that fact.
Barbara Ehrenreich wrote an excellent book, "This Land Is Their Land" which explains the inequality that is New Jersey. "If a place is truly beautiful, you can't afford to be there." You pretty much can't if you are an hourly employee from the middle or lower class or a fisherman trying to eke out a living in Barnegat Bay. Why?
 Because New Jersey has the highest tax rate in the country, it is double the national average. This land will not belong to you and me. We won't be able to afford it. There are many people who live on LBI and in my community who are just plain hard working people who live in poverty thanks to Walmart wages.
 The Tea Party is big here, as you can imagine with the tax situation being what it is.
It is going to be interesting to see who is going to be able to rebuild in New Jersey.
Is anyone going to ask how we should rebuild? Is it really a good idea to be building houses on barrier islands or right on the water and then wonder why everything has been swept away? Will there even be a conversation about green technology? I live 18 miles away from Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant. This ancient behemoth was designed by the same engineers that built Fukishima. It is the oldest nuclear power plant in the country. It is scheduled to shut down with in the next 10 years. As far as I know, there's no plan to do anything to replace that source of energy. We need to be a lot smarter about how this is going to be done and how affordable it will be.
I have been told that FEMA trailers will be available, for 500 residents that are still at the local high school. They have no winter home in Florida to go to or a mansion in North Jersey. When people start crying about losing their summer home, I don't have any pity. I wonder if they will even think of the waitress who served them dinner on a balmy summer evening, or the cashier at the store where they purchased their beach toys? The people who lost the only home they had. These are the people the 1% don't want on "their" beach, I think Sandy just took "their" beach back.

Shelter From The Storm, Bush In The Cayman Islands

Oh gee, who was giving a speech in the Cayman Islands Thursday night? George Gilligan Bush.
My bad, looks like he actually can leave the country.
Bush really has an uncanny knack for escaping natural disasters by taking to the skies and when he decides to come back to earth, it's never good. It does come to mind that Mitt Rmoney's Cayman Island offshored accounts have been out of the spot light lately.
Tax shelters, Swiss bank accounts and where exactly are those tax returns anyway?
Never mind!
George W. Bush submitted 9 years of tax returns. John McCain? only 2. It doesn't take a mathematician to add up the tax benefits from the 8 years of the Bush administration and why there isn't much financial information from Romney either. Oh the benefits of an island jaunt, not just for you, but your cash too.
Maybe George "Worst President Ever" needed to escape the horrifying memories of Katrina as the U.S. tried to deal with the wreckage of Sandy. A trip to sunnier skies and $4,000 a plate dinners were just the ticket. While "Shrub" sips Champagne (whoops! he's not allowed to do that!) and nibbles on Fois Gras, I imagine his thoughts wander to the little people in New Jersey and New York. Yeah Right!
Just like he flew away from 9-11 and flew over Katrina and finally landed to pat "Heckuva Job Brownie" on the back. He flew away from another natural disaster, in search of friendlier skies.