Quelle Fromage

We're broke!  George Bush took all our money and gave it to his "friends," which is, of course, the only way he can get any... buy them.

But in the process he ruined a country.  So we get, as usual, to live with the results.

I can't imagine what the third great depression will look like, but I think we'll soon find out, and the ostriches who continue to support the GOP will stick their heads in the sand and blame Obama and the Dems.  Quelle suprise!

So here I am running headlong into the twilight years and I can count on nothing.  No security social or otherwise.  No health care, no safety net other than what I myself can provide. I'm one of the lucky ones, I can keep working, I can buy stuff with my money, I can escape to another country if necessary.  Most are trapped.

Make no mistake we the people didn't do this.  We were duped, we played by the rules, and we got screwed.  Maybe it's time to change the rules.  We can do that you know.  It is after all our game in the end.

Donna Brazile on her CNN blog muses about what we've done and where were headed.

It ain't good.

in 2000 and wrote "Cooking With Grease." (CNN) -- My fellow Americans: In a matter of weeks you have become studied on the issues of budgets and deficits. You've also formed opinions on these issues, and these opinions are reflected in poll after poll. Isn't it strange that Congress has yet to listen?
Recently, I reviewed a poll completed in late May for the Pew Charitable Trust. They found that a majority of Americans believes the government is "generally helping the wrong people." This discontent stems in part from the perception that the government helps those who need it least -- the rich rather than the middle class or the working poor.
A majority of citizens, 54%, think their government helps the rich economically "a great deal." Much smaller percentages of the public say the same about "the poor, 16%; "the middle class," 7%; or "people like you." Anyone.
Because of a loophole, hedge fund managers are likely to pay a lower rate of taxes than their secretaries. Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest men, has spoken out about the injustice of the fact that his tax rate was less than the cleaning lady's. Both parties agree that reform of the tax code is necessary, but one thing should be clear: As it stands, the tax system disproportionately benefits the wealthiest Americans. Passing a debt deal that exclusively cuts programs that benefit middle- and lower-income Americans will only exacerbate this difference.

Because of a loophole, hedge fund managers are likely to pay a lower rate of taxes than their secretaries.
--Donna Brazile

Another fact that has been largely ignored in this debate is the origin of all this debt. We are, after all, raising the debt limit to pay for things we've already bought or purchased.
Let's take an earnest look at who broke the bank. This week, Ezra Klein, in The Washington Post, reported that the cost of policies that began under George W. Bush top out at more than $5 trillion -- this includes long-term and recurring spending from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, decreases in revenue like the Bush tax cuts, as well as additions to the structural deficit like the Medicare prescription drug plan. The cost of policies beginning under President Obama top out at $1.44 trillion, and these policies are largely one-off, short term, or non-recurring spending -- like the stimulus package.
Americans are worried about whether their shot at the American dream is slipping away. We are at the point where we worry most about achieving economic stability rather than getting rich. We are in agreement the government gives the rich better breaks than anyone else in our country.
Let's take a moment to think of the working poor, those among us who live not just from paycheck to paycheck, but who go hungry at the end of every month before their Social Security, veterans or unemployment benefits checks arrive. By the way: My dad is a retired janitor who relies on his Social Security and veteran benefits each month.
That's exactly what more than 60 leaders of Christian denominations and religious organizations did this last week, when they joined in an open letter called a "Circle of Protection," which urged President Obama to protect the poor.
Their statement read, "As Christian leaders, we are committed to fiscal responsibility and shared sacrifice. ... Budgets are moral documents, and how we reduce future deficits are historic and defining moral choices.
They told the president: "As Christians, we believe the moral measure of the debate is how the most poor and vulnerable people fare. We look at every budget proposal from the bottom up -- how it treats those Jesus called 'the least of these.' (Matthew 25:45).
"They do not have powerful lobbies, but they have the most compelling claim on our consciences and common resources. The Christian community has an obligation to help them be heard."
It wasn't only the Christian community that signed the "Circle of Protection" letter. In addition to the 60 leaders of Christian faiths, several heads of development agencies plus leaders of other faiths signed on. Over 5,000 clergy signed the original document and 30,000 average citizens have signed it online since its publication.
It is the working poor who will be hurt first, and hardest, if we default on our debt. Millions of Americans live on less than $1,000 a month. They depend on their Social Security or veterans checks to pay their rent. Come August 2, they may find themselves in danger of eviction if they don't pay up -- because the U.S. Congress refused to pay our own bills.
Republican leaders must understand that we can't make the least among us, who have the least, bear all of the burden. Not while the top 1% continue to benefit disproportionately, allowing them to capture 20% of the nation's earned income.
We know tough days are ahead. Americans have demanded, after the crash of 2008, that government live within its means. But, we never meant that our grandmothers and grandfathers, our war veterans, each of whom sacrificed all their lives to enable you and me to come down through the years, should pay the debt.
Are we to ask them to sacrifice what little they have, while some in Congress vehemently defend tax benefits for the wealthiest Americans?
For over two years now, most of the Republicans in Congress have listened to their party's donors and not to their constituents who live on Main Street. It's important that Americans make their voices heard before it's too late.
May Congress vote on and pass a balanced approach to reducing our nation's debt and obligations.

And so it goes:

Fomenting a revolution

In true modern day GOP style Kevin Yoder had a town hall meting last weekend.  And then cancelled it at the last minute because "Democrats had invaded"

Is this what we've come to?  Have we allowed our government to be hijacked by extremists?

If that's the case they've won.  The terrorists who attacked us on September 11 have accomplished their goal, they've divided and conquered.

Those of us who are old enough to remember the twilight zone episode entitled "The monsters are due on Maple Street" should readily see that all they had to do was take away a few of our modern conveniences, like civil liberty and the ability to pursue happiness, and we turn on each other.

That's what Yoder represents.  The worst of us.

I don't pray, but I ask the universe every day to look favorably on us once again.  To forgive us our multitudinous sins against our fellow man and show us that we should be a nation that stands together, not as separate economic entities, but as a strong and united nation that knows that the only way to survive is to stand strong and look out for each other.

That isn't what we're doing and I hope we can reverse course and save ourselves.  because if we don't we're doomed.




Kevin Yoder (R-KS) refuses to admit DEMOCRATS to his town hall



Congressman Kevin Yoder Hides from Constituents
Yoder Cancels Secret Town Hall Meeting

Overland Park, KS -- This morning, at the Mills Farm Clubhouse in Overland Park Kansas, Congressman Kevin Yoder cancelled a hastily arranged town-hall meeting to discuss his recent vote for the “Cut, Cap & Balance” bill. Over 40 constituents of Yoder’s were denied entry into the meeting with staff citing a lack of ‘pre-registration.’ After constituents, elected officials and members of the media waited for over an hour in the heat, members of Yoder’s Congressional staff turned people away and said the meeting was cancelled.

In response to Congressman Yoder’s actions this morning, Kansas Democratic Party Executive Director Kenny Johnston released the following statement:

“Mr. Yoder can run but he can’t hide. His vote this week was political grandstanding at its worst. If I’d voted to pay for handouts to the rich by eliminating Medicare, stood up for the Tea Party instead of common-sense Kansans and put our economy at risk while slashing Social Security, I’d probably run away, too.

“Kevin Yoder needs to act like a Congressman. He needs to stand before his constituents and explain his extreme voting record. His votes for big oil and the wealthy few and against Medicare and Social Security have left everyday Kansans wondering, ‘When is this guy gonna stand up for us?’

“There was a 90 year old woman in the crowd today who came to hear from her Congressional Representative about his votes on important issues. She braved the heat to be there. Unfortunately, Congressman Yoder wasn’t brave enough to listen.”-democraticunderground.com

And so it goes:

Bankers are Whores!

A new friend recently said that to me when we were discussing the purchase of a house.However, I have to take exception to that remark.  On behalf of whores everywhere I have to say that i have known more than a couple of whores who had more integrity than bankers of my recent acquaintance.

Last week I found a house.  Actually I'd found it a few weeks ago I was just waiting for my father's estate to settle so I could pay for it on the spot.  Well, banker's had other ideas.  They kept lowering the price!  They lowered it 5k, and then another 5k and then 10k, and finally when it got really low I sort of panicked.

I emailed my broker and told him we had to get busy and make an offer.  There was a reasonable time frame since the estate is scheduled to settle in about three weeks, so i thought "What the hell, make an offer get the terms worked out and set a closing date for the end of august. That way I can get the inspections done and paint before I move in."

Wrong!

I told my broker, " Agree to the terms they've set forth on the listing sheet, and give them the earnest money deposit they require."

Now i think that's pretty reasonable to approach a seller with the intent to agree to what they ask without asking much in return.  I agreed to buy their house for the price they were asking ( I know, but it was a really good price) and I agreed to take it on their terms.  That apparently wasn't enough.

They countered with an offer to sell me the house if I'd pay them an earnest deposit twice what they'd originally asked.  They countered with a closing date seven days from last Friday.  They also said that for every day i delayed the closing after July 29, I had to pay them $100.  They also refused to give me more than  7 days to do the inspections.

Now, man and boy I've seen injustice, hatred, guile, hail, plague, and pestilence.  But this was a new one on me.

I realize they're hiding something and they think I'm so stupid that I don't know that an 80 year old house would probably need a new septic tank.  And knowing this I had intended to have the tank inspected, and also planned to replace it.(Not an inexpensive proposition I  might add)

But these fools are trying to ram this house down my throat and want me to ask them to give me a little spankin' while they're at it. I doubt they're cute enough.

After stewing over their completely unreasonable demands all weekend I called my broker this morning and told him to withdraw the offer.

Let's let that bastard sit on that tomorrow morning when he comes in to discover that the house he thought he was unloading on Friday is back on his books.


I've also discovered during this process that there is another house every fifty feet.

Fuck him.

And so it goes:

I don't know why fortune smiles on some and let's the rest go free

 
LONDON (AP) - Amy Winehouse, the beehived soul-jazz diva whose self-destructive habits overshadowed a distinctive musical talent, was found dead Saturday in her London home, police said. She was 27.

hgf

Everything is NOT a business

Today we are in "I told you so!" mode.  I have said for a long time that the infection of big business in our lives has extended far beyond its proper application.

Everything is NOT a business, and this week that Koch Brothers pawn son of a bitch Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin, admitted to it publicly.  

 

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker conceded that he made a mistake last February in the way he limited collective bargaining power that led to weeks of massive protests in Madison. However, he still defends his policies and believes that ending collective bargaining was somehow a cost-saving measure to the state.
Nationwide, Walker was criticized for trying to end state worker rights. He was also heavily criticized for his bullying tactics that did not allow any debate on the issue, but rather forced the law through.”The mistake I made early on is, I looked at it almost like the head of a small business: identify a problem, identify a solution and go out and do it,” Walker told Reuters at the National Governor’s Association meeting in Salt Lake City.
“I don’t think we built enough of a political case, so we let … the national organizations come in and define the debate while we were busy just getting the job done,” he said.
Walker continues to argue that his extreme policies helped prevent layoffs for state workers, even though restricting collective bargaining has not saved one cent. The political fallout from the controversy is still being felt. Six Republican senators who supported the measure will be forced to defend their seats during a recall election in August. Three Democratic senators are also up for recall. Democrats vow to recall Walker in January after he has served one year in office and will be eligible for recall according to state law.
If Democrats gain just three of the seats at stake in the special summer elections, they will take control of the upper house and have some control at preventing Walker’s draconian slashing measures. But, Republicans will still control the Assembly.
“If the Republican candidates are outspent two to one, it’s pretty difficult,” Walker said of the recall effort.
“Conversely, if things end up being relatively even and the message gets out,” the party will have a better chance of prevailing, he said. Walker said he did not plan to campaign in the contested districts.
Last November, a large majority of states fell to Republican governors who promised to provide jobs to the nation’s long suffering unemployed. However, they have failed to deliver and their approval ratings are plummeting. Walker believes that his poll numbers will improve when voters see improvement in the economy.
But, while Washington fights over the ridiculous debt ceiling and each state is trying to ban abortion and other morality clauses, the unemployment rate stays stagnant. Sorry, Scott but your numbers aren’t going to improve any time soon. Slashing spending throughout the country DOES NOT help jobs.
 
Everything is NOT a business folks!  Does anyone remember when hospitals ran with a board of directors and were controlled without corporate interference?  They seemed to get along fine for centuries!  And health care was way better for the individual patient.

Remember when live theatres were controlled by learning institutions and not the whims of politicians who want to politicize any and every message?  They seemed to be able to exist for centuries too.  Wake up folks business is an infection and we need a huge tube of salve.
 
People are slowly, and I hope permanently waking up to the fact that the current trend of the GOP to eliminate benefits of any kind, lower wages, eliminate social security, medicare and any entitlements is not an accident.  They've been planning this a long long time.  The fools who blilndly go out and vote a party line without doing any of their own due diligence get what they deserve.

The problem is we all have to pay the price. And we all have to spend years fighting to regain the same protections our ancestors gave their lives for and we gave up without a thought until it was too late.

I also agree with this douchebag.  His message of  divisiveness, mixed with a heavy dose of ignorance and hate, are unconscionable, as his existence, but his contention that a civil war over civil rights is coming, mirrors my own.

 "We can harken back to our American revolution. The Declaration of Independence has a long list of sayings that the colonists were lobbying King George III about, but King George III just kept coming back with more and more taxes, he didn’t listen. So they said, well, you know what, it’s our right to alter or dissolve the government. And that’s what we’re doing, we’re declaring independence. We’re not there yet but I tell you what if we don’t start voting different and telling people how to vote and if pastors don’t repent and teach people how to vote Christianly, then we’re heading to toward a real civil war I’m afraid." - Randy Thomasson, head of the hate group Save California.


 I have long said that people who hate can only be conquered one way...force.

 No one seems to listen.

Hopefully I'll get to be an old old man and see them prove me wrong, but I don't see that right now.


And so it goes:

Dishonesty begins at home.

I'm sure that in the past I've mentioned my unfortunate yet long running experience with a couple who...shall we say , are less than honest with themselves.

He's gay.

They cloak themselves in religion, and strive to be Rob and Laura Petrie, yet he's still gay.

They have children and grandchildren and preach their God's love, yet he's still gay.

They deny anything is amiss, and put forth a strong and united front to the world, and he's still gay.

 So discovering that Michelle Bachman is a migraine suffering nag is no surprise to me,

So let's look at the latest episode on da nile:

Marcus Bachmann Acts as Michele's Sometime Stylist

From a 2006 Star Tribune article about the then-Congresswoman-elect's "haute" style:

Shopping help comes from another quarter, as well. Before Vice President Dick Cheney's visit this past summer, Bachmann's husband, Marcus, hit the stores -- "he's got a good sense of style" -- and came home with "a sleek, simple hourglass dress with a yoke collar in winter white." He even bought a matching coat and shoes. "I just slipped it on."

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2011/07/marcus-bachmann-acts-as-micheles-sometime-stylist.html#ixzz1SeteWqd3

...

Dear God.

And so it goes:

That certain age

Getting older sucks. Yesterday I bent over to put a box of potting supplies on a lower shelf and that was it for my back. So now I am waiting for time and the chiropractor to resolve it. Not to sound sexist but women do not have the upper body strength to adjust my back.  So there'll be yet another attempt tomorrow. Until then the xanax party is on baby!

Read this morning about the total surrender to the GOP debt ceiling demands. I'll try to post the article later, haven't exactly figured out cut and paste on the phone yet, besides...i'm high.

And so it goes:

San Diego Pride 2011 063

San Diego Pride 2011 063, originally uploaded by danimaniacs.

Wonders never cease

Ok, talk about the perfect weekend.

Friday I cooked for the gang of 6, and if I do say so myself it turned out pretty well. (since they applauded after they ate i guess it must have been good.) Then Saturday I went on a date with my first love.

I find it amazing that two people can sit down after 32 years and start talking like they last saw each other yesterday.

It's rumored we'll do it again soon. I hope so.

There was also time in the pool, and not as much sleep as I'd like but it was worth it.

In unfortunate news I see there are even more people who didn't learn about the constitution in school.



By BRUCE SCHREINER
updated 7/17/2011 11:14:09 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain said Sunday that communities have a right to ban Islamic mosques.

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," the former Godfather's Pizza CEO said protests and legal challenges to a planned mosque in Tennessee city are an example of local residents pushing back.

Cain said his view doesn't amount to religious discrimination because he says Muslims are trying to inject Shariah law into the U.S.

Shariah is a set of core principles that most Muslims recognize and a series of rulings from religious scholars. It covers many areas of life and different sects have different versions and interpretations of the code.

Asked if his view could lead any community to stand up in opposition to a proposed mosque, Cain replied, "They could say that." He pointed to opposition to the planned mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn., as an example.

"Let's go back to the fundamental issue that the people are basically saying that they are objecting to," Cain said. "They are objecting to the fact that Islam is both religion and (a) set of laws, Shariah law. That's the difference between any one of our other traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes.

"The people in the community know best. And I happen to side with the people in the community."
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Cain's comments were denounced as "unconstitutional and un-American" by a spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"It's clear that Herman Cain has decided that he will score political points every time he bashes the Muslim community or its constitutional rights," council spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said in a phone interview.

Cain previously stirred controversy by saying that he would not want a Muslim bent on killing Americans in his administration.

Campaigning in Murfreesboro last week, Cain sided with mosque opponents.

Other political news of note
Fallback plan gains momentum in debt talks

With time running short in U.S. debt talks, Republican and Democratic senators sought on Sunday to craft a plan that could avert an unprecedented government default while making modest cuts in the deficit.
US debt stalemate invokes language of Armageddon
Tea Party debt plan takes center stage
Perry's credentials: As conservative as they come
Cain: Communities have right to ban mosques

"I happen to also know that it's not just about a religious mosque," he said Sunday. "There are other things going on based upon talking to the people closest to the problem. It's not a mosque for religious purposes. This is what the people are objecting to."

Hooper called the remarks "utter nonsense," saying Cain "seems to have hitched his wagon to the most extreme anti-Muslim bigots out there." He called on Republican leaders to repudiate Cain's comments.

"Each time you have someone who is regarded as a mainstream political leader expressing these kind of hate-filled views, it just fans the flames of anti-Muslim bigotry nationwide," he said. "And it gives legitimacy to intolerance and hatred. And he, of all people, should realize this, being African-American."

In Murfreesboro, the future new mosque has been the subject of protests and counter-protests in the city about 35 miles southeast of Nashville.

Opponents have used the hearings to argue that the mosque is part of a plot to expand Islamic extremism in the U.S.


Imam Ossama Bahloul, the religious leader of the congregation, issued a statement Sunday lamenting Cain's statements.

"It is sad to hear these words coming from a GOP presidential candidate, who is not only supposed to believe in but should also uphold the US constitution," Bahloul said. "Mr. Cain is encouraged to educate himself about the first amendment and learn more about our peaceful and productive Muslim community in Murfreesboro."

Stephen Fotopulos, executive director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, said Cain's comments "demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of the U.S. Constitution."

"And it's baffling that a man with designs on becoming the leader of this nation would so callously alienate over 3 million of its citizens," Fotopulos said.

And in good news there are people in the world who know that love is love, and they embrace it in all its forms.



And so it goes:

The Republic of South California

Hehe, hawhaw, waaaaahhahahahaha!

I know I shouldn't laugh because anything is possible, but as usual; some fiscally and socially conservative nutjob in Cali has come up with s new way to completely waste money they desperately need.

Secede.

So, let me see if I understand Jeff Stone's plan. Take 13 of California's most conservative contiguous counties, pardon the alliteration, and make them into their own state.

Sounds like a cheap way to fix a leaky faucet doesn't it? Let's look at the CNN story cause I can't believe my fucking eyes.

Riverside, California (CNN) -- A conservative county supervisor in Southern California wants to form the 51st state by seceding the region from California, saying the state's problems require "radical" solutions.
"Listen, I knew I'd be criticized. I learned in my tenure of being a politician for 19 years, sometimes you have to do radical things to get people's attention," Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone said on CNN Thursday.
"We have hit a nerve with citizens who are just fed up with business as usual in the state," Stone said. "I'm talking about a secession plan from the state of California."
This week, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors gave the OK to Stone to hold a summit of California's local leaders to discuss remedies for the state's long list of woes -- including secession.
But the county board stopped short of endorsing Stone's secessionist plan by insisting no taxpayer money be used for the conference.
Stone has come up with a name for the new state: South California. It would be composed of 13 largely Republican counties, most of which are inland along the Nevada and Arizona state lines. The plan would exclude Los Angeles County, but would include Orange and San Diego Counties, both on the coast.
Stone has a long list of grievances against the state and its legislators: high taxes and fees, inability to reform welfare programs, high unemployment and excessive regulations.
"What the state has done is they've been balancing their budgets on the backs of our local coffers. They've been stealing our sales tax, property tax," Stone said. "The bottom line for me and my constituents is jobs. We are sending jobs out of the state of California by the train load."
Riverside County is among the hardest hit communities by the recession and mortgage meltdown, leaving many communities pockmarked with vacant homes, Stone said.
"We are the foreclosure capital of the world," Stone asserted. "We have some areas of the county that have 25% unemployment. The average in Riverside County is about 15%."
Stone's plan seems a long shot, one analyst said. There have been at least 27 efforts for secession within parts of California since the 1800s, and none has been successful.
Robert Melsh, a political science instructor at Mount San Jacinto College in San Jacinto, California, which is in Riverside County, said Stone's plan stunned him, largely because of the high cost of putting a secessionist plan before voters. He called it a "scare tactic."
"Insanity," Melsh said. "I mean this is major surgery where we need a Band-Aid.
"It takes millions of dollars to get the signatures necessary to put up an initiative," Melsh added.
Melsh also raised the question of getting a 51st state's government up and running.
"Where is he going to put the capitol? Disneyland?" Melsh said.
Stone, a pharmacist and owner of an innovative compounding pharmacy, said he drew the lines for a new state by picking 13 counties that were contiguous and fiscally conservative or moderate.

A date for the summit of local leaders has yet to be scheduled, he said.

And in case you think I'm just picking on some poor dummy from southern California take a look at the latest effort at propagnada from Fox News.

Which makes me want to run away all the more.

And so it goes:

learning to live with disappoitnment

One would think that after these many centuries I have lived that I wouldn't be a stranger to disappointment, and technically I'm not.

Most of the people I've known in my life have managed to accomplish the feat of disappointing me.  Today wasn't a particularly momentous day in the disappointment  category, but it provided food for thought.

Perhaps it's the full moon, perhaps it's just that I'm tired and when I'm tired I see trouble where none exists.  But I do have cause to reflect on a conversation I had with a friend over a decade ago.  During that conversation he said, " Sean, it's time for me to stand still, but I think it's time for you to start moving."

And move I did.  I went back to school, I continued on to grad school, and then I met E.  Thinking I was on the road to settling down, I moved to a place I really didn't want to live to be with him and shortly thereafter found out it was a mistake.  Since then I've been scattered, I've been  quite literally at sixes and sevens  almost all the time.

Everything I've tried has either been temporary or has passed once it's time had gone.  Now I think it might be time for moving on again.

I'm about to be in a position to do so. There are things I want to see, places I want to go, and things I want to do.  Do I do that?  Do I just forsake material goods and take off?  Do I take the risk of looking at the world and seeing if there's a different place in it for me?  Maybe.

There's no reason I can think of to stay here.  There's no career move to make, no particular person to be here for.  No responsibilities that a little cash can't stave off.

The universe is conspiring against me in the house buying department., the employment situation doesn't seem to get better it gets worse.  And interpersonal relationships...well, let's just call them the leading source of disappointment.

This time next month I could be anywhere else, literally anywhere.  The full moon isn't helping the situation any.  Neither is the news that a co-worker  who never smoked a day in her life is about to die from lung cancer.

It's just too short, and sitting here waiting for something to happen...well it's not enough.

And so it goes:

who it is?

The universe has an amazing amount to say about what we get and what we don't get.

The key, I've been told is acceptance.

Accept that you're gonna get the best version of what you're after and learn to want what you have, and you'll be happier.

The trouble with that line of reasoning is that we American's are taught from an early age to aspire. Therefore we're rarely satisfied with what we get.

So the lesson is to see the intelligence of providence.  We can't know what's coming nor can we control it.

But isn' that the fun part, seeing how it turns out?

And so it goes:

The power of fear

It amazes me that the Republican party has managed to hornswaggle most Americans into believing that they're the party of the common man. I suppose common men secretly want to think of themselves as movers and shakers, and I suppose being a serf to one kinda-sorta qualifies, but the truth is...no.

The common man has been duped. Mostly by fear and greed. Controlled by their fears, people will do just about what they're told, almost all the time.

And the machinations surrounding the debt ceiling are proving to be no exception.

Today I learned that there is a new medicare payment advisory board. There is already a medicare payment advisory board, BUT, congress is not in any way bound to pay any attention at all to their recommendations, and they don't.

The difference? This board has teeth, and unless congress votes to stop their recommendations, they'll take effect.

That's what really has them pissed off.

Via NPR.org-
One thing both Democrats and Republicans agree on is that they can't solve the deficit problem without slowing the growth of the massive Medicare program for the elderly and disabled.

But here's an irony. Republicans and a growing number of Democrats also seem to agree that they don't like the one aspect of last year's Affordable Care Act that actually would effectively reduce Medicare spending.

It's called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, or IPAB for short.

Republicans hate it. A lot.

"I believe it is a rationing board that is going to ration care for our seniors," said Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) at a news conference last month.

Added Rep.Diane Black (R-TN) at that same event, "a board that is appointed people that are going to make decisions about what kind of care is going to be given to the patients will destroy the very core of what has made our medical system the best in the world."


Democrats don't use such hyperbole, but more than half a dozen have signed on as cosponsors of a bill that would repeal the board. And many more, particularly Democrats in the House, never supported creating the board in the first place.

What the law actually calls for is a board of 15 health experts, to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Their task is to make recommendations for ways to reduce Medicare payments without cutting benefits or increasing costs to Medicare beneficiaries.

That's not much different from an existing panel of expert Medicare advisers, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC. Except for one thing. Congress is free to ignore MedPAC's recommendations. And it does, routinely.

That won't be the case with the new IPAB. Its recommendations will take effect unless both houses of Congress override them with a two-thirds vote. Republicans – and more than a few Democrats – find that excessive.

"Even if the Congress could muster up, both the House and the Senate, a two-thirds vote, which is virtually impossible, but in the remote possibility that we could; we would have to find cuts somewhere else other than what they recommended in the Medicare program, said Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), co-chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus.

But backers of the new board say it's likely to do a better job deciding how to pay doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers than Congress itself does.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), who's one of the new board's biggest backers, says now, the biggest winners are inevitably those with the most effective lobbyists.

"The Congress often doesn't know how to say no and the Congress has a practice of never saying no, and so costs go up," he said at a recent Finance Committee hearing.

Rather, says Rockefeller, it would be better not only to insulate Congress from all those lobbyists, but to get people with more expertise on deciding how medical providers should be paid. "You want to have the Gail Wilenskys...and the Bruce Vladecks," he said, referring to former heads of the agency that runs Medicare. "People who have broad health care policy experience making those decisions."

But there's a problem. Both Wilensky and Vladeck – the former a Republican and the latter a Democrat — think the IPAB is a bad idea.

Wilensky, who oversaw Medicare for the first President Bush, says she's sympathetic to Congress's desire to insulate itself from the lobbying onslaught. But she worries that the board is limited to looking only at payments to health providers, which she says "could fundamentally alter the incentives involved in physicians and providers participating in Medicare."

In other words, it could end up driving Medicare payments so low that providers will simply leave the program, or else go bankrupt if they can't.

Vladeck, meanwhile, who headed Medicare under President Clinton, has a different problem with the board. He worries that eventually the lobbyists who are now so influential with members of Congress will become equally influential with the unelected members of the board.

"In the short term, it might theoretically work," he said. But the history with other independent regulatory agencies, like the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Civil Aeronautics Board is that over time "the regulated industries tend to capture them; and they tend to do more to protect the regulated industries than they do to protect consumers."

But not every outside expert thinks the board is a bad idea. Princeton health economist

Uwe Reinhardt said Germany has a similar independent group that writes all the nation's health care regulations. And he and a group of colleagues who saw it in action a few years ago were amazed at how efficient it is.

"Go to Germany, study it, and you will find that this really works. It's civilized," he said.

But two days of hearings that begin today with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius at the House Budget Committee will likely show that those from both parties doubt such a board will work here in the U.S.

So here we go, following the money around in circles until someone finally caves, like we all know they're going to. Pandering to the fears of the common man, not their strengths with which we could actually build this nation up.

And so it goes:

Now why would that be? (read again with slight cockney accent and dripping with sarcasm)

Cnn finds it amazing that one of the hardest hit groups in the "economic downturn" were black.

(Put post title here) How could you not know that this is the exact thing that would happen with the economic exploitation that was perpetrated on the citizenry during the Bush administration?

I too looked at houses during the real estate boom. I chose one that I thought would be a good investment, though the owner seemed by his terms and demands to be...well a bit of a dick. i made my offer in good faith and proceeded to apply for a mortgage.

Then I got a set of paperwork from the ubiquitous Counrtywide. I sat down and began to read this little missive they'd sent. Very shortly thereafter I started running across terms like ARM, and "after (such and such) amount of time payments may be adjusted, blalh blah blah. I called my broker.

"Is this an adjustable rate mortgage?" Yes, she replied, that's what will work best for you on this property."

"Oh really? Well, I thank you for your time and effort, but I think I'll pass on your kind offer to sell me into indentured servitude to Countrywide."

But this buying a house thing is an extremely emotional decision and a lot of people don't think it through rationally when making it. Such is apparently the case with Deborah Goldring, subject of the CNN article I read yesterday.

Now, in her defense she made all the right choices, she played by all the rules, she did what she was told. And she got screwed anyway. After her husband got sick and they found themselves destitute after using all their savings to pay for his care, she then found herself widowed, and facing foreclosure on a house she'd been in nearly 30 years.

I have to wonder if this would have happened of she'd been white.

I think the most wrenching moment of reading that article was not when she talked of losing her husband, nor of being forced to ask her daughter for $100 to pay a bill. No it was when she lamented the loss of her checkbook.

Here's a basic tool we all use daily and most definitely take for granted, and she no longer has one.

This woman is 58 years old, she has no more chances in this country to recover from the economic ruin that was forced on her by greed.

And what do we do? Those of us fortunate souls who were lucky enough to be born white? We don't even have to be smart, just white, and we get mostly whatever we want. Deborah? She gets what most black people in this country get...bupkus.

Our elected representatives sit on their hands and spend our money and their time wrangling over tax cuts for the rich, and all the while trying their damndest to take more of what little we have left.

For our part we give them control of our civil liberties, our freedoms, and certainly our future.

We might think the Deborah Goldrings of this world are few and far between, but when they come for us there'll be no one left to stop them. And make no mistake, they ARE coming.

Now why would that be?

And so it goes:

hgf

i have determined that THIS is all we need for hgf:

Does knowing make any difference

I know I'm obsessive, I am frequently like a dog with a bone when I get ahold of a subject.  But in some instances I think it's healthy, not all mind you, but some.

Today's obsession is the new house.  I made an offer, which hasn't been replied to I might add, and Now I'm planning what to do when I get it.  It's gonna be cool.

This is dependent of course on outside forces.  Said forces must agree to the offer or make a counter I will accept and as yet have made no action at all.  Which is making me a little more than crazy.

Who said, "All good things come to those who wait." I alternately embrace and despise them.

Casey Anthony pulled an OJ yesterday I see.  Unlike him I bet she sells the story to Lifetime movies and makes a fortune which her white trash Florida trailer park friends and family will help her spend right quick I'm certain.  Then she'll start the talk show circuit.  I wonder what they'll call her reality show? "If I killed my kid." perhaps.


But back to me, which is what's it really is about anyway.  So far there's a small orchard of fruit trees, a kitchen garden, a wo car garage with a studio, a hot tub and a pool.  There will never be billiards, simply no room.  Alas...

And so it goes:

too much

Feel lkike Lanford Wilson's 5th of July.

Hungover, and  feeling my age.

And so it goes:

Independence

A horse, a swimming pool, a nap, some barbecue, gin, and finally lemon pie and fireworks.

That's it, that's the entire day in a nutshell.  I plan to keep the big bad world at arms length for at least one day.

Tomorrow  I should hear about my offer on house number one.  Haven't finished my research on house number two, besides a really cool place in the middle nowhere New Mexico has shown itself and I'm awaiting pictures. It may require an investigative trip.

I can handle two houses, three may be more than is realistic.

Had my faith in humanity restored last night.  After work I had about three hours to kill and decided to get 20 miles in on my bike. Finished my ride, turned into the parking lot and started laughing.  Five cars in the lot, the rustiest, most dilapidated, 198-something chevy s-10 just had to park right next to me. So, I loaded the bike and took off for dinner.  Still had about 40 minutes so I took my time, I drove through  some residential areas and checked out the houses for sale, and got to the restaurant at 6:55, dinner was at 7.  perfect.

Now, I seldom look in the back of the car in summer.  It's full of crap.  Saddles, bikes, cowboy hats bike helmets, this year it's got 200 lbs of clay. Just a mess don't want to see it. But yesterday I did  I turned around and looked as I parked my car.  There was the  bike the helmet, the saddle, all the aforementioned crap.  But missing one vital ingredient.

The front wheel to my bike.

I'd taken it off and leaned it up against the side of the car and never thought about it again. So I went inside found my friend waiting, thankfully he hadn't ordered anything, and said "Let's go I left my bike wheel at the park we gotta go check if it's there."  We jumped in my car and careened through the streets.  I came flying around the last corner before the entrance to the park to be greeted by a train.   I looked at my friend, "This is the universe trying to teach me about patience...DAMMIT!!!

After what seemed an interminable wait I took off and as I turned into the lot I saw there was a car in the space I had occupied, and the hoopty was gone.

But my wheel was standing against the fence.

As I said last night when I got down on my knees and expressed my gratitude for not having to replace a $300 bike wheel, "Thank you whoever you are!"

 Nice end to a nice day, looking for another, and another, and more after that.

Have a safe and happy independence day.

And so it goes:

hgf

Perhaps cops don't rock

In a cooperative effort to support every single thing I said  yesterday about the police and their questionable judgement in this era of  fear.

To show that we breed stupidity whch in turn supports stupidity, and even encourages it, we have the FBI  asking the Westboro Baptist Church to help them understand how to engage activist groups.

Could the people in charge of our security and safety be less in touch with our actual society?


WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI said Wednesday that members of an anti-gay fundamentalist group participated in the bureau's training of police officers and FBI agents — a move the bureau says it will take steps to remedy in the future.
The bureau extended the invitations to Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., for training this spring at two bureau facilities in Virginia: Quantico and Manassas.
Westboro has stirred widespread outrage with raucous demonstrations at the funerals of U.S. military service members. The group contends God is punishing the military for the nation's tolerance of homosexuality.
National Public Radio first reported the FBI's involvement with Westboro.
At FBI headquarters in Washington, bureau spokesman Paul Bresson acknowledged that Westboro was invited to the training sessions.
An FBI official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that in retrospect, the bureau underestimated how the involvement of the outside organization would be perceived.
As a result, said the official, there will be additional layers of review or approval on outside speakers.
The official added that bureau personnel organizing training courses were trying to bring in a variety of views they thought would be helpful to investigators.
Bresson, the bureau spokesman, said that the invitation to Westboro "was done in an effort to establish open dialogue in an academic setting to train law enforcement on how to more effectively engage with the activist community."
The training, Bresson said, was not only for FBI agents but for police executives from around the country — for whom an open line of communication becomes important at critical times during rallies or protests around the country where there might be a potential for violence and police officers might be called on to respond.

And so it goes:

 

cop rock

The police (look up that word) need to be watched.  They're job is to:


"To ensure preservation of peace and public safety through the enforcement of local, state, and Federal
laws, and by providing support and assistance during emergency or crisis situations." Duluth Mn job description. The only force with an online posting I could find.

However, we're coming dangerously close to that time when we need to reign in their powers, because they're out of hand.

We've all heard of the terminally ill granny whose daughter had to take her to the rest room and remove her diaper so she could be effectively searched at an airport.  And now we're looking at the police telling us what we can and cannot "say." And this is just an incident we know about, there are countless others we never hear of.

In the last decade since we bacame a nation of cowards who need to be protected from everyone and everything we've chosen to blindly hand over our civil liberties and our security to "specialists" who will take care off that so all we have to do is make  sure our cell pone batteries are charged and we have the latest music on our ipod.  We're makking mistake after mistake.  I believe we can correct those mistakes and I believe we can return to being a truly free nation, but we aren't one right now.

But we don't even know it.  Take a look at the latest episode in "cops run the show" 

BALLWIN, Missouri - An offensive hand gesture earned one Missouri driver a ticket. But he says the citation is a violation of his free speech, and now he's taking his case to court.
Steven Pogue has been getting a lot of attention lately, and it's probably because of a little yellow piece of paper given to him by Ballwin police back in April.
It's a ticket for flipping another driver the bird.
"Yeah, I was frustrated."
Pogue said it was a busy Saturday and he was sitting at a light. That's when Pogue said another driver ventured into an already jammed intersection as the light was turning red, blocking his way and voiding his green light.
"The arm was there and, like I said, not proud, but I showed my displeasure of them blocking the intersection."


Just a few blocks later, Pogue was pulled over by Ballwin police and given a citation.
"He said, 'Yeah, I was thinking about going after them until I saw you flip them off.' So, it's like let's see, the person that breaks the two laws, walks. The person kind of doing their first amendment free speech right thing gets the ticket."


The ordinance cited for the ticket reads, no person shall “extend any part of his body outside of the vehicle expect the hand and arm for signaling purposes only."
Pogue said he's concerned his freedom of speech was violated, and is prepared to represent himself during his next court appearance.
"I'm just going to use the jurisprudence system and see if I can go to court on the 23rd of August and prove myself innocent,” said Pogue.
Though several attorneys said this is not a First Amendment rights case, an attorney for the ACLU said the ticket does violate Pogue's free speech rights.-cnn

Is this  how we really want to live?  I don't!  I guarantee you there are people who will respond to this post who live with blinders on who think "this is the greatest country in the world." and will old to the party line of "love it or leave it" but how about loving it and wanting it to stay free?  We spend so much time looking for threats to our freedom from without, we never think to look for threats from within.

And so it goes:

This is Jeopardy!

Today we discover that Michelle Bachmann doesn't know a thing about American history. Oh wait, we already knew that when she spouted off about Lexington and Concord being in New Hampshire.  Dear God, we're actually entertaining the  notion of electing to the most powerful office in the world a person who is so stupid and uneducated and could care less that she is, and we don't think there's a thing wrong with that?

We're afraid to simply tax the rich because...well they might  the deny us our pittance of the wealth that they've been so forthcoming with to date.   Oh wait, we really are that stupid aren't we?

 Wrong John Wayne: Mix-up is opening day headache for Bachmann

By Carrie Dann

What’s the difference between the actor who will forever embody the American ideal of craggy cowboy masculinity and the serial killer who forever made clowns way way creepier than they’d ever been before?
One answer turns out to be four letters and about 150 miles – not quite enough to keep Rep. Michele Bachmann from prompting a chorus of internet giggles for apparently mixing them up.
On the day of her presidential announcement,  Bachmann, an Iowa native, told FOX News that she and John Wayne share a hometown. “John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa,” she said. “That's the kind of spirit that I have, too."
Bachmann repeated that idea to NBC News in an interview. "I'm not pining for nostalgia back in the 50s and 60s, that isn't it," she told NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. "But that sensibility about how we were grounded here is so important. For instance, another American that was born in Waterloo was John Wayne. We were a very patriotic 'yay rah rah America' city and nation and I think that's what America's looking for again."
The problem: While actor John Wayne – the gravelly-voiced Western film star known for his characteristic walk and his conservative values– was in fact from Iowa (and, Bachmann’s campaign later pointed out, his parents briefly lived in Waterloo), he was born in Winterset, about 150 miles away.
The famous similarly-named guy who did make his home in Waterloo: John Wayne Gacy -- the serial killer known for dressing as “Pogo the Clown” who buried over two dozen of his young male victims in the crawlspace of his Illinois home.
Gacy, who was born in Chicago, lived in Waterloo in the late 1960s before serving time for sodomy at Anamosa State Penitentiary. He would later go on to commit more than 30 murders.
The mix-up – which, considering the Iowa roots of both men, isn’t as baffling as some Bachmann critics may make it out to be-- isn’t independently the kind of gaffe that makes voters suddenly change their minds. But it’s certain to become late-night comedy fodder for a candidate who has already been ridiculed for a more serious historical mangling of details about the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Can you imagine being one of this loons staffers when she finds out what she said and looks for someone to blame?  What a wonderful person I'm sure she is.

And so it goes:

odd moon

 I swear it's got to be this moon that's causing me to be completely futless.  I can't complete a project, a conversation, hell a thought often escapes me. 

Let's hope that changes soon or I'll be the next granny at the airport getting their diapers removed.  This is the future should we find Michelle Bachmann as our next President.  We'll all have to take off our diapers to go anywhere so "they" can inspect us.  After that they'll build some nice internment camps so they can keep an eye on everyone.  Ah the fun world of the paranoid crazy.

New houses to look at this week.  Fingers crossed .

and so it goes:

We're on the way

Admittedly I celebrated a bit too much last night.  So my post was celebratory but brief.

Marriage in New York is no small feat.  It more than doubles the number of those eligible to marry.  It magnifies the hopes and dreams of more Americans than I can count. 

Our Pride this month should be doubly strong in that we're still a viable political entity, that we still matter, and that we have champions like Andrew Cuomo.  All of us who've marched, written letters, blogged, or even done something as small as wear a t-shirt or just talked about the subject with someone have helped in this effort.  It makes a difference, all of it.

And last night's vote is evidence of that. 

Hold your  head high, walk down the street and be proud of who you are and how you love.  That's the single most effective way to make a difference. 

The fight isn't over.  But these victories are so sweet.

And so it goes:

MARRIAGE IN NEW YORK!!!

Yeah!

well here's another fine mess you've gotten us into

For yet another fine example of fiscal responsibility a la Tea Partiers, Ron Paul wants to spend somewhere between 15 and 60 million dollars assaying the fort knox gold. 

we're all going to hell.


WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- With the price of gold at record highs, presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul wants to make sure the U.S. gold bars at Fort Knox are really there.
Paul called a congressional hearing Thursday to grill federal officials about his bill to audit and inventory all of the gold reserves at Fort Knox, Ky., West Point, N.Y., and Denver, even though Treasury officials insist that the gold is audited annually and is all there.

During the hearing, Paul suggested that the Federal Reserve of New York, which has 5% of the U.S. gold reserves, has the ability to secretly sell or swap gold with other countries without anyone knowing.
"The Fed is pretty secret, you know," said Paul, who leans Libertarian. "Congress doesn't have much say on what's going on over there. They do a lot of hiding."
Paul, a Texas Republican who wants to convert the U.S. monetary system to one based on the gold standard, says the federal government owes it to taxpayers to make sure U.S.-owned gold is safe. (Ron Paul: Bernanke's biggest critic)
"This is one of the few legitimate functions of government: To check our ownership and be fiscally responsible and find out just what we own and whether it's really there," said Paul, who is among those running for the Republican presidential nomination.
Audits by the Treasury Department and Government Accountability Office are based on samples. Paul wants to open up Fort Knox and other reserves and count the bars manually.
"We know where it is. We know how much there is. We know it's there. None of it has been removed," said Treasury Inspector General Eric Thorson.
In September, Treasury completed its latest audit, showing that U.S. gold reserves total 9,300 tons with a market value of $320 billion, Thorson said. The recent run-up in gold prices -- the precious metal is trading at about $1,515 an ounce -- puts the market value at $340 billion as of Wednesday, according to Thorson's testimony. He added that each gold bar weighs about 27 pounds and is worth around $500,000.
Paul said that his questions were partly in response to the numerous Internet conspiracy theories, including those that accuse the government of secretly selling all of the gold in Fort Knox.
Thorson said Treasury doesn't believe that anyone, including the Fed, has taken the gold or laid claim to U.S. gold bars. Any further audit as proposed by Paul's legislation would be redundant, he said.
"There is no movement. There is nothing there that can happen, once those doors are sealed," Thorson said. "It's very obvious if those seals are ever broken."
William Lacy Clay, a Democratic representative from Missouri, said that doing a complete audit as Paul is calling for is a waste of federal manpower and could cost tens of millions of taxpayer dollars.
Thorson reported that the U.S. Mint told him that moving, counting and testing the gold would cost around $60 million. Paul said he had heard from Treasury that it would only cost $15 million.
Part of the expense would be due to the bill's requirement to "assay" all the gold, said Gary T. Engel, a director of Financial Management and Assurance at GAO. Assaying means drilling little holes in all the gold bars in order to test its purity. But that process is "basically destroying whatever that piece is."
Finally, Engel cautioned, "There will be some loss of the gold from the bars through the assaying process if you do that for every single bar that's out there."

hgf