So Caroline Kennedy wants to be the Senator for New York. Uncle Teddy will buy it for her I am quite sure and democracy lives on.
Ms Kennedy wants to be appointed to office, she has stated that she would not run for office like ordinary people, let's face it, she is "royalty", right? She has a birth right to be appointed, right? We appoint leaders,right? Does that really sound like a democracy?
If you think selling a senate seat only happens in Chicago, think again. Call Governor Patterson and ask what he is getting in return for anointing Ms Kennedy to that seat. Or wait until he runs for office and check out who gives him money for his campaign.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Monday, December 29, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Politics and Religion
Some people who worked to get Barack Obama elected are now upset with him about Rick Warren. Why? Apparently Mr. Warren equates gays marrying with pedophilia or animal marriage.
Mr. Obama wants Mr. Warren to give the the opening prayer at his swearing in ceremony. Mr. Obama's answer to the objections are that we can disagree but not be disagreeable.
Would Mr. Obama and his ardent supporters still the same if Mr. Warren spoke out against inter-racial marriage?
Would it surprise some of you to know that a short time ago, inter-racial marriage was illegal? Some thought that inter-racial marriage would equate to animal marrying.
I have no objection to inter-racial or gay marriage.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Mr. Obama wants Mr. Warren to give the the opening prayer at his swearing in ceremony. Mr. Obama's answer to the objections are that we can disagree but not be disagreeable.
Would Mr. Obama and his ardent supporters still the same if Mr. Warren spoke out against inter-racial marriage?
Would it surprise some of you to know that a short time ago, inter-racial marriage was illegal? Some thought that inter-racial marriage would equate to animal marrying.
I have no objection to inter-racial or gay marriage.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Open Letter
Open letter to the elite bastards and bitches in politics and the news media who proselytize the virtues of bailing out Wall Street big money but demonize a living wage earned by the American auto workers.
They, the elite, believe that these hard working Americans make too much money, yet they see nothing wrong the million dollar salaries (per month) Wall Street is raking in.
"They" say, let them file bankruptcy, no one will get hurt. No one except the workers of course. Has anyone ever worked for a company that filed bankruptcy? The workers cannot cash their paychecks, they bounce like a superball. People at the bottom, those who live one paycheck away from homelessness, will lose, lose big time. The big guys who have been getting a million a month, one little paycheck won't hurt them, hell, they probably got a couple of million in the bank.
Meanwhile, AIG executives go on million dollar junkets on my tax dollar.
I'm sick of them also yakking about help "Main Street", hell, I don't live on Main and my friends don't either. How about Oak St, Westmoreland Blvd, Burlington St, Delaney?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
They, the elite, believe that these hard working Americans make too much money, yet they see nothing wrong the million dollar salaries (per month) Wall Street is raking in.
"They" say, let them file bankruptcy, no one will get hurt. No one except the workers of course. Has anyone ever worked for a company that filed bankruptcy? The workers cannot cash their paychecks, they bounce like a superball. People at the bottom, those who live one paycheck away from homelessness, will lose, lose big time. The big guys who have been getting a million a month, one little paycheck won't hurt them, hell, they probably got a couple of million in the bank.
Meanwhile, AIG executives go on million dollar junkets on my tax dollar.
I'm sick of them also yakking about help "Main Street", hell, I don't live on Main and my friends don't either. How about Oak St, Westmoreland Blvd, Burlington St, Delaney?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Thursday, November 20, 2008
That's Change For Sure
If you thought there would be "real change" in D.C., boy were you sure fooled.
No lobbyist in the obama administration, yeah, heard that one before.
The change is this: The Republican lobbyist are out and the Democratic lobbyist on in. Two sides of the same rotten apple.
If you hand some one a dollar bill and ask for change, you usually will get a dollar but in different shapes.
Take Tom Daschle and wife Linda for instance. Linda Hall Daschle has been a lobbyist for many years for some of the biggest special interest groups. Since Tom was defeated in 2004 he has tried his hand at lobbying.
Change in D.C. is musical chairs on the Titanic.
Bring in an outsider to D.C. and what do you get? DD SOS (different day, same old shit).
Do you think that the Founding Fathers meant big special rich interest groups to lobby the government? I don't. They were thinking citizens, common folk.
Has the experiment failed or just taken a wrong turn? What will it take to change it back? Involvement of the people? Yeah, dream on.
Most of the time, I feel that no one cares and no one is paying attention. Go out and ask the first person you see what they think about the Wall Street bailout and see how they react. Most will look at you like you are nuts, some might say "what?". 99.9 per cent have no clue. Although they can tell you who the Three Stooges are.
Besides me, no one cares. But when it comes time to raise taxes, they will yell. , bloody fucking murder.
I should just shut up, keep my mouth shut.
But not today.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
No lobbyist in the obama administration, yeah, heard that one before.
The change is this: The Republican lobbyist are out and the Democratic lobbyist on in. Two sides of the same rotten apple.
If you hand some one a dollar bill and ask for change, you usually will get a dollar but in different shapes.
Take Tom Daschle and wife Linda for instance. Linda Hall Daschle has been a lobbyist for many years for some of the biggest special interest groups. Since Tom was defeated in 2004 he has tried his hand at lobbying.
Change in D.C. is musical chairs on the Titanic.
Bring in an outsider to D.C. and what do you get? DD SOS (different day, same old shit).
Do you think that the Founding Fathers meant big special rich interest groups to lobby the government? I don't. They were thinking citizens, common folk.
Has the experiment failed or just taken a wrong turn? What will it take to change it back? Involvement of the people? Yeah, dream on.
Most of the time, I feel that no one cares and no one is paying attention. Go out and ask the first person you see what they think about the Wall Street bailout and see how they react. Most will look at you like you are nuts, some might say "what?". 99.9 per cent have no clue. Although they can tell you who the Three Stooges are.
Besides me, no one cares. But when it comes time to raise taxes, they will yell. , bloody fucking murder.
I should just shut up, keep my mouth shut.
But not today.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, November 14, 2008
Hillary Won
It has been said that behind every successful man is a woman and obama is not exception. No not Michelle, Hillary Clinton is the woman behind his success. Without the lenghty primary race for the Democratic naminee, he would not have been as polished and confident as he is.
She was not the only person who made this possible, but she is the focus of this post.
In 1965, Rodham enrolled at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science. During her freshman year, she served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans; with this Rockefeller Republican-oriented group, she supported the elections of John Lindsay and Edward Brooke. She later stepped down from this position, as her views changed regarding the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In a letter to her youth minister at this time, she described herself as "a mind conservative and a heart liberal." In contrast to the 1960s current that believed in radical actions against the political system, she sought to work for change within it. In her junior year, Rodham became a supporter of the anti-war presidential nomination campaign of Democrat Eugene McCarthy. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty. In early 1968, she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association and served through early 1969; she was instrumental in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in the student disruptions common to other colleges.
So she could better understand her changing political views, Professor Alan Schechter assigned Rodham to intern at the House Republican Conference, and she attended the "Wellesley in Washington" summer program. Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican Representative Charles Goodell to help Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination. Rodham attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. However, she was upset by how Richard Nixon's campaign portrayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the convention's "veiled" racist messages, and left the Republican Party for good.
Rodham then entered Yale Law School, where she served on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. In the summer of 1971 she interned at the Oakland, California, law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein. The firm was well-known for its support of constitutional rights, civil liberties, and radical causes.
Hillary has continued to fight for human rights.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
She was not the only person who made this possible, but she is the focus of this post.
In 1965, Rodham enrolled at Wellesley College, where she majored in political science. During her freshman year, she served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans; with this Rockefeller Republican-oriented group, she supported the elections of John Lindsay and Edward Brooke. She later stepped down from this position, as her views changed regarding the American Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In a letter to her youth minister at this time, she described herself as "a mind conservative and a heart liberal." In contrast to the 1960s current that believed in radical actions against the political system, she sought to work for change within it. In her junior year, Rodham became a supporter of the anti-war presidential nomination campaign of Democrat Eugene McCarthy. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty. In early 1968, she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association and served through early 1969; she was instrumental in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in the student disruptions common to other colleges.
So she could better understand her changing political views, Professor Alan Schechter assigned Rodham to intern at the House Republican Conference, and she attended the "Wellesley in Washington" summer program. Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican Representative Charles Goodell to help Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination. Rodham attended the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami. However, she was upset by how Richard Nixon's campaign portrayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the convention's "veiled" racist messages, and left the Republican Party for good.
Rodham then entered Yale Law School, where she served on the editorial board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. In the summer of 1971 she interned at the Oakland, California, law firm of Treuhaft, Walker and Burnstein. The firm was well-known for its support of constitutional rights, civil liberties, and radical causes.
Hillary has continued to fight for human rights.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Saturday, November 8, 2008
In Our Best Interest
Whether you voted for him or not, we have a new President Elect, Barack Obama.
Whether you are a Democrat , Republican or Independent, let us all hope and work for a successful Presidency. It is in the best interest of all Americans for him to succeed.
Let us all hope that the war on the middle class will soon come to a halt.
Let us all hope that this man, Barack Obama understands, that without a strong middle class, democracy can not stand.
Let us all hope that the old economics, the trickle down theory, disappears from our mist.
True economic growth begins from the bottom up, not the other way around.
Our Founding Fathers and Mothers were the middle class of their time and they understood the value of hard working individuals.
The 2008 election is over, but there is much to be done. We have moved forward in our ability to look past race to elect Barack Obama, but we have not yet accomplished the task of equality for women.
Now is the time for us all to pitch in, work together for the benefit of us all.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Whether you are a Democrat , Republican or Independent, let us all hope and work for a successful Presidency. It is in the best interest of all Americans for him to succeed.
Let us all hope that the war on the middle class will soon come to a halt.
Let us all hope that this man, Barack Obama understands, that without a strong middle class, democracy can not stand.
Let us all hope that the old economics, the trickle down theory, disappears from our mist.
True economic growth begins from the bottom up, not the other way around.
Our Founding Fathers and Mothers were the middle class of their time and they understood the value of hard working individuals.
The 2008 election is over, but there is much to be done. We have moved forward in our ability to look past race to elect Barack Obama, but we have not yet accomplished the task of equality for women.
Now is the time for us all to pitch in, work together for the benefit of us all.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Add Up The Votes Day
Many states had early voting and Florida was no exception.
I wanted to vote early, but the polling place didn't open until 10 AM, long after I was at work and they closed at 6PM, too early for me to get back to my side of town to cast an early ballot. Then our good Gov. Crist ordered them to stay open longer and that was good, except, those darn amendments on the ballot.
I don't know about you but I just don't understand "lawyerese", that is the language that all amendments are written in, not plain old English.
I will be casting my vote early this morning.
If you have not voted..do it today.
As a citizen, the most important right to me is my vote. But it is also an duty to vote. It is my vote and yours that chooses the President, Senators and Representatives in the Federal government. But beyond that, local elections are sometimes even more important. Amendments to our state constitution are important items on the ballot.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
I wanted to vote early, but the polling place didn't open until 10 AM, long after I was at work and they closed at 6PM, too early for me to get back to my side of town to cast an early ballot. Then our good Gov. Crist ordered them to stay open longer and that was good, except, those darn amendments on the ballot.
I don't know about you but I just don't understand "lawyerese", that is the language that all amendments are written in, not plain old English.
I will be casting my vote early this morning.
If you have not voted..do it today.
As a citizen, the most important right to me is my vote. But it is also an duty to vote. It is my vote and yours that chooses the President, Senators and Representatives in the Federal government. But beyond that, local elections are sometimes even more important. Amendments to our state constitution are important items on the ballot.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, October 31, 2008
Bonus of $625,000, Not Enough
The average managing director at an investment bank, a title typically earned after eight years on the job, will receive a bonus of $625,000. That's down from nearly $1.1 million last year.
Even a bond trader just out of business school could see his or her bank account enriched by as much as $170,000 this Christmas. "The firms have had an extremely difficult year," says Joan Zimmerman, a Wall Street career coach. "But they can't afford to lose talent either."
Yeah, the 700 billion dollar bailout just wasn't enough, these poor guys and gals will suffer if we don't do something. Maybe we can skip lunches and send them more. Come on $625,000 for a bonus, just too painfully low, they may have to give something up like maybe a golden faucet or a European trip.
Let's all get together and try to send them more, we can do without lunches for a while and we can give up on buying a winter coat this year. We could forgo doing Christmas this year and tell the kiddies that Santa had to make the bonuses bigger for the poor, poor Wall Street people.
Oh, I almost forgot, many of us are already doing that. Many are "robbing peter to pay Paul". We are counting pennies not THOUSAND dollar bills.
This is Robin Hood in reverse, rob from the poor and middle class and give to the fat cats.
But you don't care, Right?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Even a bond trader just out of business school could see his or her bank account enriched by as much as $170,000 this Christmas. "The firms have had an extremely difficult year," says Joan Zimmerman, a Wall Street career coach. "But they can't afford to lose talent either."
Yeah, the 700 billion dollar bailout just wasn't enough, these poor guys and gals will suffer if we don't do something. Maybe we can skip lunches and send them more. Come on $625,000 for a bonus, just too painfully low, they may have to give something up like maybe a golden faucet or a European trip.
Let's all get together and try to send them more, we can do without lunches for a while and we can give up on buying a winter coat this year. We could forgo doing Christmas this year and tell the kiddies that Santa had to make the bonuses bigger for the poor, poor Wall Street people.
Oh, I almost forgot, many of us are already doing that. Many are "robbing peter to pay Paul". We are counting pennies not THOUSAND dollar bills.
This is Robin Hood in reverse, rob from the poor and middle class and give to the fat cats.
But you don't care, Right?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, October 17, 2008
Made in America
When was the time you bought an item that was "made in America"? Yesterday? Last week? A month ago? A year? More?
I remember almost everything I purchased was "made in America", good quality, reasonably priced goods from textiles to tools. Jeans "made in America" were a prize for the European crowds.
If you want to know why we are in the financial crisis we are in, do not be short sighted and look only into the near past but take it back to when the textile industry moved offshore so you could purchase cheaper shirts, ties, skirts, blouses, dresses, pants,etc. Levi Jeans were the last to leave the USA as a manufacturing home. Then the small appliances were taken out, you know, irons toasters, waffle iron, microwaves, coffee makers and such. Next the larger appliances, TVs, radios, refrigerators, stoves, etc. Now the automobiles and trucks.
Our trade deficit is creeping higher and higher each day, as we have no goods to sell outside our borders and we are importing almost everything we use, including defense.
"Thousands of U.S. layoffs occur every week. You only have to look at AmericanEconomicAlert.org's news section to see the number of US jobs that are being cut across a wide range of industries. A high percentage of these layoffs are as a direct result of competition from foreign companies. Eventually, as more and more money leaves the U.S., our businesses will be powerless to prevent further such activity." http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp
We, the citizens of the United States cannot continue to maintain a Representative Republic if we no longer have a manufacturing base. We cannot maintain a Representative Republic without a middle class. We are not nor have ever been a democracy. Republic is what we are and will remain so, I hope.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
I remember almost everything I purchased was "made in America", good quality, reasonably priced goods from textiles to tools. Jeans "made in America" were a prize for the European crowds.
If you want to know why we are in the financial crisis we are in, do not be short sighted and look only into the near past but take it back to when the textile industry moved offshore so you could purchase cheaper shirts, ties, skirts, blouses, dresses, pants,etc. Levi Jeans were the last to leave the USA as a manufacturing home. Then the small appliances were taken out, you know, irons toasters, waffle iron, microwaves, coffee makers and such. Next the larger appliances, TVs, radios, refrigerators, stoves, etc. Now the automobiles and trucks.
Our trade deficit is creeping higher and higher each day, as we have no goods to sell outside our borders and we are importing almost everything we use, including defense.
"Thousands of U.S. layoffs occur every week. You only have to look at AmericanEconomicAlert.org's news section to see the number of US jobs that are being cut across a wide range of industries. A high percentage of these layoffs are as a direct result of competition from foreign companies. Eventually, as more and more money leaves the U.S., our businesses will be powerless to prevent further such activity." http://www.americaneconomicalert.org/ticker_home.asp
We, the citizens of the United States cannot continue to maintain a Representative Republic if we no longer have a manufacturing base. We cannot maintain a Representative Republic without a middle class. We are not nor have ever been a democracy. Republic is what we are and will remain so, I hope.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Dumb Struck
Since the proposal of the "Wall Street Bailout", I have been absolutely dumb struck. I have been unable to to put a sentence together which did not contain multiple four letter words.
When this "idea" was first proposed I spent my "free time" calling the House and Senate, writing emails, screaming at the TV, shooting rubber bands at the TV and crying myself to sleep. Just to wake up the next morning to do the same thing.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, once again we, the taxpayers, get the shaft and no f'ing kiss.
The big kahunas from Wall Street get to walk away with billions of dollars in bonuses, while the little guy pays the bill.
I keep hearing that General Motors is having financial problems. The hard working people in the manufacturing plants are asking too much compensation and health care costs are too high, but the CEO, G R Wagoner's monthly salary was $183,333.32 per month in 2003, according to the http://www.secinfo.com/dsvR3.v1fh.a.htm website. The average hourly wage for the guys and gals on the line is $28 per hour (according to Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, multiply that by forty hours, multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, divide by 12 months and you get $4,853.33 per month. Now I'm not a math whiz, but Wagoner is making 97% more per month than the factory worker. If he cuts his salary, GM may not have to shut down.
Similar story of United Air Lines, they negotiated with the pilot's union, the baggage handler's union and the attendant's union to cut their wages. When the unions agreed to a pay cut, the top executives received an increase in their salaries. Only the people at the bottom have to cut, while those at the top get more.
Money is not the route to all evil, greed is. When greed takes control, fairness and equality are thrown out the window.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
When this "idea" was first proposed I spent my "free time" calling the House and Senate, writing emails, screaming at the TV, shooting rubber bands at the TV and crying myself to sleep. Just to wake up the next morning to do the same thing.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, once again we, the taxpayers, get the shaft and no f'ing kiss.
The big kahunas from Wall Street get to walk away with billions of dollars in bonuses, while the little guy pays the bill.
I keep hearing that General Motors is having financial problems. The hard working people in the manufacturing plants are asking too much compensation and health care costs are too high, but the CEO, G R Wagoner's monthly salary was $183,333.32 per month in 2003, according to the http://www.secinfo.com/dsvR3.v1fh.a.htm website. The average hourly wage for the guys and gals on the line is $28 per hour (according to Dean Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, multiply that by forty hours, multiply that by 52 weeks in a year, divide by 12 months and you get $4,853.33 per month. Now I'm not a math whiz, but Wagoner is making 97% more per month than the factory worker. If he cuts his salary, GM may not have to shut down.
Similar story of United Air Lines, they negotiated with the pilot's union, the baggage handler's union and the attendant's union to cut their wages. When the unions agreed to a pay cut, the top executives received an increase in their salaries. Only the people at the bottom have to cut, while those at the top get more.
Money is not the route to all evil, greed is. When greed takes control, fairness and equality are thrown out the window.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Thursday, September 18, 2008
It It's Free, Why Do Taxpayers Have to Foot the Bill?
Free enterprise, free market is defined as :
Business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy.
http://www.investorwords.com/2085/free_enterprise.html
Free market economics is closely associated with laissez-faire economic philosophy, which advocates approximating this condition in the real world by mostly confining government intervention in economic matters to regulating against force and fraud among market participants. Hence, with government force limited to a defensive role, government itself does not initiate force in the marketplace beyond levying taxes in order to fund the maintenance of the free marketplace. Some free market advocates oppose taxation as well, claiming that the market is better at providing all valuable services of which defense and law are no exception, and that such services can be provided without direct taxation. Anarcho-capitalists, for example, would substitute arbitration agencies and private defense agencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market
NPR had this headline on All Things Considered, March 25, 2008
Does Bear Stearns Bailout Set a Bad Precedent?
by Russell Roberts
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89064840
Then the Federal Reserve bails out Freddie and Fannie. Now AIG. What next?
If the definition of the free market includes "without the regulation of government", the why do they need government to bail them out? Remember, government has no money except what we pay in taxes.
The CEOs and top management have been raking dough into their pockets faster than rabbits reproduce. They have received millions of dollars in the form of salaries and bonuses for "doing a good job". And the "golden parachute packages" they have contracts for, some of which are for millions more dollars per year, are totally stupid for us the taxpayers to pay. If you do such a lousy job, we have to bail you out, then no compensation should be paid and you should be forced to return some of the money back. If I do a lousy job and really mess things up, I will be fired and no "golden parachute" for me, like most workers.
The CEOs and top management rake in the dough while you and I pay for it.
We need to change the definition of "free market" to be without government bail out. If they fail, they fail. Just like me.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Business governed by the laws of supply and demand, not restrained by government interference, regulation or subsidy.
http://www.investorwords.com/2085/free_enterprise.html
Free market economics is closely associated with laissez-faire economic philosophy, which advocates approximating this condition in the real world by mostly confining government intervention in economic matters to regulating against force and fraud among market participants. Hence, with government force limited to a defensive role, government itself does not initiate force in the marketplace beyond levying taxes in order to fund the maintenance of the free marketplace. Some free market advocates oppose taxation as well, claiming that the market is better at providing all valuable services of which defense and law are no exception, and that such services can be provided without direct taxation. Anarcho-capitalists, for example, would substitute arbitration agencies and private defense agencies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_market
NPR had this headline on All Things Considered, March 25, 2008
Does Bear Stearns Bailout Set a Bad Precedent?
by Russell Roberts
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89064840
Then the Federal Reserve bails out Freddie and Fannie. Now AIG. What next?
If the definition of the free market includes "without the regulation of government", the why do they need government to bail them out? Remember, government has no money except what we pay in taxes.
The CEOs and top management have been raking dough into their pockets faster than rabbits reproduce. They have received millions of dollars in the form of salaries and bonuses for "doing a good job". And the "golden parachute packages" they have contracts for, some of which are for millions more dollars per year, are totally stupid for us the taxpayers to pay. If you do such a lousy job, we have to bail you out, then no compensation should be paid and you should be forced to return some of the money back. If I do a lousy job and really mess things up, I will be fired and no "golden parachute" for me, like most workers.
The CEOs and top management rake in the dough while you and I pay for it.
We need to change the definition of "free market" to be without government bail out. If they fail, they fail. Just like me.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Monday, September 8, 2008
Your Politicians Hard at Work
PROGRAM FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 7, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday - SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
The House meets at 2:00 p.m.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 7, 2008
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday - SEPTEMBER 8, 2008
The House meets at 2:00 p.m.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, September 7, 2008
When Does Life Begin?
Should this be a political issue or a personal issue?
John McCain and Barrack Obama were asked this question, and had different answers, or at least John McCain had an answer. From what I know of these two men, neither has a science degree.
No one yet has scientific proof of when life begins, so all is left to theory. The Bible to refers to blood, which is approximately forty days after the sperm has infiltrated the egg. It also refers to breath of life, which would be birth.
If life begins when the sperm infiltrates the egg, is taking hormonal birth control abortion since it prevents implantation of the fertilized egg.
Does life begin when the sperm fertilizes the egg, at implantation of the fertilized egg or birth, when breathing occurs, as we know it?
Seems every one has an opinion but no one has a real answer.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
John McCain and Barrack Obama were asked this question, and had different answers, or at least John McCain had an answer. From what I know of these two men, neither has a science degree.
No one yet has scientific proof of when life begins, so all is left to theory. The Bible to refers to blood, which is approximately forty days after the sperm has infiltrated the egg. It also refers to breath of life, which would be birth.
If life begins when the sperm infiltrates the egg, is taking hormonal birth control abortion since it prevents implantation of the fertilized egg.
Does life begin when the sperm fertilizes the egg, at implantation of the fertilized egg or birth, when breathing occurs, as we know it?
Seems every one has an opinion but no one has a real answer.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Monday, September 1, 2008
OFF LIMITS: Bristol Palin
Bristol Palin is the daughter of Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin and Todd. The VP nominee has issued a statement regarding her daughter's pregnancy.
Sarah has stated that this is a private matter.
Please respect her wishes.
The children of candidates should always remain OFF LIMITS.
I am not "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU" on this issue. I state it explicitly.
Sarah has stated that this is a private matter.
Please respect her wishes.
The children of candidates should always remain OFF LIMITS.
I am not "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU" on this issue. I state it explicitly.
Labor Day
On September 5, 1882, some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City to participate in America's first Labor Day parade. After marching from City Hall to Union Square, the workers and their families gathered in Reservoir Park for a picnic, concert, and speeches. This first Labor Day celebration was initiated by Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader who a year earlier cofounded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, a precursor of the American Federation of Labor.
McGuire had proposed his idea for a holiday honoring American workers at a labor meeting in early 1882. New York's Central Labor Union quickly approved his proposal and began planning events for the second Tuesday in September. McGuire had suggested a September date in order to provide a break during the long stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. While the first Labor Day was held on a Tuesday, the holiday was soon moved to the first Monday in September, the date we continue to honor.
McGuire had proposed his idea for a holiday honoring American workers at a labor meeting in early 1882. New York's Central Labor Union quickly approved his proposal and began planning events for the second Tuesday in September. McGuire had suggested a September date in order to provide a break during the long stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. While the first Labor Day was held on a Tuesday, the holiday was soon moved to the first Monday in September, the date we continue to honor.
New York's Labor Day celebrations inspired similar events across the country. Oregon became the first state to grant legal status to the holiday in 1887; other states soon followed. In 1894, Congress passed legislation making Labor Day a national holiday.
For many decades, Labor Day was used by workers not only to celebrate their accomplishments, but also to air their grievances and discuss strategies for securing better working conditions and salaries. Nowadays, Labor Day is associated less with union activities and protest marches and more with leisure. For many, the holiday is a time for family picnics, sporting events, and summer's last hurrah.
For many decades, Labor Day was used by workers not only to celebrate their accomplishments, but also to air their grievances and discuss strategies for securing better working conditions and salaries. Nowadays, Labor Day is associated less with union activities and protest marches and more with leisure. For many, the holiday is a time for family picnics, sporting events, and summer's last hurrah.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, August 31, 2008
A Woman on the Ticket
It has been 24 years since a woman has been nominated by a major political party for the VP slot. Geraldine Ferraro was taped as Walter Mondale's running mate in 1984.
On the anniversary week of Women's Right to Vote,the Republican candidate for President, John McCain, has taken a bold step to choose Sarah Palin for his Vice Presidential nominee.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Freedom of Speech
What does "freedom of speech" look like? Well, in my opinion, it does not look like the picture above or video below.
I remember when the entire United States of America was set aside as "free speech zone", now you are fenced off, away from where you can be seen or heard. The media does not cover any protests unless there is extreme violence involved.
The First Amendment still exists, Freedom of specch still exists, but no one can hear you. The news is too afraid to cover it, remember the patriot act?
You can speak out, but you cannot be heard.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Stephanie Tubbs Jones
Who was she?
A rebel. A woman who believed she could "cure the ills of society".
Stephanie Tubbs was born September 10, 1949 in Cleveland, Ohio. Her dad was Andrew Tubbs worked as a skycab for United Airlines and her mother, Mary, was a homemaker until Stephanie started kindergarten.
She was a gifted student through high school and was offered a full scholarship to attend Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland.
A sociology major with a minor in psychology, Tubbs Jones believed that she was going to "cure the ills of society" upon graduation, as she told CBB. However, her focus altered greatly after she enrolled in a course in the Black Studies Program during her senior year. Entitled "Law As It Relates to the Black Community," the class was taught by the late Judge Charles W. Fleming, who at the time was a prominent trial lawyer and defense attorney. Through Fleming Tubbs Jones not only met people of color who were practicing law, but she was also encouraged to apply to law school herself. Thus, in 1971 Tubbs Jones entered Case Western Reserve University School of Law on another scholarship. At that time very few women, let alone women of color, attended law school
Throughout law school, Tubbs Jones worked as a law clerk for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District and remained with the district as the assistant general counsel and equal opportunity administrator following her graduation in 1974. However, she yearned to try courtroom cases and after applying three times was hired to work as an assistant prosecutor in the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office in Cleveland in 1976. From 1979 until 1981 she continued her time in the courtroom as a trial attorney with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Cleveland, trying a wide variety of discrimination cases.
In November of 1981, at the age of 31, Tubbs Jones was elected with 33 percent of the vote among a field of five candidates, and she has been in elected life ever since.
After only 15 months, then-Ohio Governor Richard Celeste appointed Tubbs Jones to the Court of Common Pleas, making her the first African American female to serve on the Court of Common Pleas in the state of Ohio. After winning election to the bench in 1984 and again in 1988, Tubbs Jones was asked by the Democratic Party in July of 1990 to replace Judge Mary Cacioppo on the ballot for the Ohio Supreme Court who had been forced to withdraw due to health problems. Despite the short lead time and despite running against Republican incumbent Justice J. Craig Wright, who had twice as much funding as she herself commanded, she almost won the November statewide election, losing by only three percentage points.
In 1990 John Corrigan, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor for the previous 34 years, retired, and Tubbs Jones was drafted by a cross-section of the party to run for his position. Following a ten-day campaign Tubbs Jones won the party election by 31 votes to become not only the first female prosecutor in Cuyahoga County but also the first African American prosecutor in the state of Ohio and the only African American female prosecutor in a major metropolitan area in the United States. But, as she told Mihaly, "I don't glory in being first ... I hope I don't see myself being last." Capitalizing on her success, she won the general election in 1992 with a resounding 70 percent of the vote and was reelected again in 1996. Jones had truly proven to be a masterful politician.
After seven years in office, Tubbs Jones decided to build upon her previous electoral success and enter the national political scene. When Louis Stokes, the only African American congressperson in the state of Ohio, decided not to seek reelection in 1998, Tubbs Jones mounted a campaign for his seat. As might be expected, her platform focused on those key issues which had always consumed her: the protection of children and the improvement of education for all; safe, affordable child care; the safety of neighborhoods; the extension of affirmative action for minorities and women; and the protection of social security and health care for seniors and families. After gaining 51 percent of the vote among a field of five candidates in the primaries, she dominated the slate in the general election: with 52.1 percent of her support coming from business and 33.5 percent from labor, she won 79 percent of the vote to become the next United States congressperson from Ohio's 11th District.
While in office Tubbs Jones has sought to address the issues which she raised during her campaign. Given the broad socio-economic diversity of the district which she represents, she has focused on economic development and a strong educational system, issues which connect and are powerfully relevant to her entire constituency. Towards this end, Tubbs Jones has energetically worked as a member of the banking and small business Congressional committees.
She was one of Hillary Clinton's most ardent supporters as she ran for the Democratic candidate. Because of this she was given much grief from her fellow memebers of the Congressional Black Caucus. This did not phrase her, she had faced adversity before and believed she would again.
Stephanie, you will be missed.
A champion for women's rights, human rights.
Stephanie was not but
here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones Tribute
I am not sure that I have the words to express my sorrow at the loss of this champion.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Senate & House
So, what has Congress done in the last three weeks? Not a darn thing.
When Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker of the House, we had great hopes that now that a woman was in charge, changes would happen. Things did change, even less was done than the previous Congress.
Nancy Pelosi's strategy is to do nothing until after January 20, 2009. She wants the American people to wait five months before significant legislation is passed to help hard working people with the price of fuel.
So, if I go into work today and tell my boss that I am not going to do any work until after January 20th, what would my boss say?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
When Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker of the House, we had great hopes that now that a woman was in charge, changes would happen. Things did change, even less was done than the previous Congress.
Nancy Pelosi's strategy is to do nothing until after January 20, 2009. She wants the American people to wait five months before significant legislation is passed to help hard working people with the price of fuel.
So, if I go into work today and tell my boss that I am not going to do any work until after January 20th, what would my boss say?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Birth Control Pills = Abortion?
Department of Health and Human Services released a proposal that allows any federal grant recipient to obstruct a woman's access to contraception. In order to do this, the Department is attempting to redefine many forms of contraception, the birth control 40% of Americans use, as abortion. Doing so protects extremists under the Weldon and Church amendments. Those laws prohibit federal grant recipients from requiring employees to help provide or refer for abortion services. The "Definitions" section of the HHS proposal states,
Abortion: An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. There are two commonly held views on the question of when a pregnancy begins. Some consider a pregnancy to begin at conception (that is, the fertilization of the egg by the sperm), while others consider it to begin with implantation (when the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus). A 2001 Zogby International American Values poll revealed that 49% of Americans believe that human life begins at conception. Presumably many who hold this belief think that any action that destroys human life after conception is the termination of a pregnancy, and so would be included in their definition of the term "abortion." Those who believe pregnancy begins at implantation believe the term "abortion" only includes the destruction of a human being after it has implanted in the lining of the uterus.
Some medical authorities, like the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association, have defined the term "established pregnancy" as occurring after implantation. Other medical authorities present different definitions. Stedman's Medical Dictionary, for example, defines pregnancy as "[t]he state of a female after conception and until the termination of the gestation." Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines pregnancy, in relevant part, as "the condition of having a developing embryo or fetus in the body, after union of an oocyte and spermatozoon.
Up until now, the federal government followed the definition of pregnancy accepted by the American Medical Association and our nation's pregnancy experts, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is: pregnancy begins at implantation. With this proposal, however, HHS is dismissing medical experts and opting instead to accept a definition of pregnancy based on polling data. It now claims that pregnancy begins at some biologically unknowable moment (there's no test to determine if a woman's egg has been fertilized). Under these new standards there would be no way for a woman to prove she's not pregnant. Thus, any woman could be denied contraception under HHS' new science.
The other rarely discussed issue here is whether hormonal contraception even does what the religious right claims. There is no scientific evidence that hormonal methods of birth control can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. This argument is the basis upon which the religious right hopes to include the 40% of the birth control methods Americans use, such as the pill, the patch, the shot, the ring, the IUD, and emergency contraception, under the classification "abortion."
As the HHS proposal proves, the absence of fact or evidence does not slow anti-abortion movement attempts to classify hormonal contraception as abortion. With HHS' proposal they have struck gold. Anyone working for a federal clinic, or a health center that receives federal funding--even in the form of Medicaid--and would like to prevent a woman from accessing most prescription birth control methods has federal protection to do so.
Once Roe v. Wade is overturned, these regulations will affect all women, not just those recieving health from the government. Now, I am little past the age where these products are needed but are you? Do you have a daughter? Just something to think about.
So next will they say men cannot masturbate because sperm swims so therefore it is "potential life"? Not a chance, men demand control of their bodies.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Abortion: An abortion is the termination of a pregnancy. There are two commonly held views on the question of when a pregnancy begins. Some consider a pregnancy to begin at conception (that is, the fertilization of the egg by the sperm), while others consider it to begin with implantation (when the embryo implants in the lining of the uterus). A 2001 Zogby International American Values poll revealed that 49% of Americans believe that human life begins at conception. Presumably many who hold this belief think that any action that destroys human life after conception is the termination of a pregnancy, and so would be included in their definition of the term "abortion." Those who believe pregnancy begins at implantation believe the term "abortion" only includes the destruction of a human being after it has implanted in the lining of the uterus.
Some medical authorities, like the American Medical Association and the British Medical Association, have defined the term "established pregnancy" as occurring after implantation. Other medical authorities present different definitions. Stedman's Medical Dictionary, for example, defines pregnancy as "[t]he state of a female after conception and until the termination of the gestation." Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines pregnancy, in relevant part, as "the condition of having a developing embryo or fetus in the body, after union of an oocyte and spermatozoon.
Up until now, the federal government followed the definition of pregnancy accepted by the American Medical Association and our nation's pregnancy experts, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which is: pregnancy begins at implantation. With this proposal, however, HHS is dismissing medical experts and opting instead to accept a definition of pregnancy based on polling data. It now claims that pregnancy begins at some biologically unknowable moment (there's no test to determine if a woman's egg has been fertilized). Under these new standards there would be no way for a woman to prove she's not pregnant. Thus, any woman could be denied contraception under HHS' new science.
The other rarely discussed issue here is whether hormonal contraception even does what the religious right claims. There is no scientific evidence that hormonal methods of birth control can prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the womb. This argument is the basis upon which the religious right hopes to include the 40% of the birth control methods Americans use, such as the pill, the patch, the shot, the ring, the IUD, and emergency contraception, under the classification "abortion."
As the HHS proposal proves, the absence of fact or evidence does not slow anti-abortion movement attempts to classify hormonal contraception as abortion. With HHS' proposal they have struck gold. Anyone working for a federal clinic, or a health center that receives federal funding--even in the form of Medicaid--and would like to prevent a woman from accessing most prescription birth control methods has federal protection to do so.
Once Roe v. Wade is overturned, these regulations will affect all women, not just those recieving health from the government. Now, I am little past the age where these products are needed but are you? Do you have a daughter? Just something to think about.
So next will they say men cannot masturbate because sperm swims so therefore it is "potential life"? Not a chance, men demand control of their bodies.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Monday, August 11, 2008
Edwards Affair versus Real News
I checked all the news channels and papers and found the leading stories were all about John Edwards affair.
What f i wanted real news, say for instance Russia and Georgia conflict?
Only on youtube.com
Why is the news media trying to distract us with garbage?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
What f i wanted real news, say for instance Russia and Georgia conflict?
Only on youtube.com
Why is the news media trying to distract us with garbage?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Speaker Pelosi, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?
Nancy Pelosi closed the House on August 1st to go on a five week vacation without ever bringing the issue of energy to the floor for debate and vote.
While hard working Americans are trying to figure out they can pay their bills in the wake of oil prices rising, Speaker Pelosi shuts down the House, our House.
As the price of oil rises so goes the price of everything else, food, electricity, clothing, entertainment, you name it. In my household it has gotten more and more difficult to pay the bills.
Calls are going out to call, email, snail mail Speaker Pelosi to call back into session the House to do what they should have done before recessing.
Please contact Nancy Pelosi to let her know your thoughts and feelings on this important issue.
You can use the House Speaker's email form using the following:
http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
The main number to Congress:
202 225-3121
The following are toll free numbers to Congress:
(800) 828 - 0498
(800) 614 - 2803
(866) 340 - 9281
(866) 338 - 1015
(877) 851 - 6437
(800) 459 - 1887
One person can not change anything, but we are not alone. Just as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul were not not alone. They helped shape the America of today.
Now it is left to us.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
While hard working Americans are trying to figure out they can pay their bills in the wake of oil prices rising, Speaker Pelosi shuts down the House, our House.
As the price of oil rises so goes the price of everything else, food, electricity, clothing, entertainment, you name it. In my household it has gotten more and more difficult to pay the bills.
Calls are going out to call, email, snail mail Speaker Pelosi to call back into session the House to do what they should have done before recessing.
Please contact Nancy Pelosi to let her know your thoughts and feelings on this important issue.
You can use the House Speaker's email form using the following:
http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
The main number to Congress:
202 225-3121
The following are toll free numbers to Congress:
(800) 828 - 0498
(800) 614 - 2803
(866) 340 - 9281
(866) 338 - 1015
(877) 851 - 6437
(800) 459 - 1887
One person can not change anything, but we are not alone. Just as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Susan B. Anthony, Alice Paul were not not alone. They helped shape the America of today.
Now it is left to us.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, August 8, 2008
Misogyny or Sexism?.
Does it matter? Whether misogyny or sexism, you end up in the same place, discrimination and abuse against the female gender.
While searching the net for the information I needed for this post I ran across another blog which says it much better than I can.
~~ Posted by Kenosha Marge, August 8, 2008
(With additional comments by GRL)
I sat down to write a little essay about misogyny. I intended nothing too profound and nothing that hasn’t been said before, just something that hadn’t been said by me. I thought perhaps, as had happened before, that if I put something down in writing I would better understand it.
Looking back I wonder that I was so surprised by the brutality of the misogynistic attacks on the first woman to be a viable candidate for president. Sexism is such a part of daily life that few of us stop to think about it. A snort of disgust here, a sniff of resentment there, and on with the business of living our lives.
Older women have had a lifetime of watching incompetent and under qualified younger men come out of no where and snap up the best jobs. I’ve worked in offices where the big man couldn’t find his ass with either hand if his secretary hadn’t pointed it out to him. He got the big paycheck, the power, the glory and she got to do all the work while supporting the dunce. She also got to be taken out to lunch once a year during the week of April 22 – 28 for Secretary’s Day.
While fooling around googling sexism I came across this sentence: “On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.” I reread it just to make sure that I was reading it correctly. Their husbands or boyfriends murder three women every day.
This is happening here in the USA. It’s happening here so going all C.J. Craig about the awfulness of how Saudi Arabia or some other foreign country treats it’s women seems a tad hypocritical. Unless we use the same logic we use to elect presidents; we may be bad but they’re worse. Feel better now?
The United States is not a safe place for women. It may be safer than elsewhere but we don’t live elsewhere. We live here. Here where every single day of the year more than 3 women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.
President Clinton signed into public law the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 on September 13, 1994. VAWA was reauthorized in 2000 and signed into law by President George Bush on January 5, 2006. It will be up for authorization in 2010. Okay, that takes care of that.
Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. 7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused. Does this sound like a society that likes, respects or cares for women?
Gender trashing is epidemic, out in the open and unashamed. Women do it to other women. Men smirk and laugh while making malevolent sexist remarks on national television. It all seems part of the same underlying disdain for women.
Cringe? Protest? What’s the matter sweetie can’t take a joke? Ya trying to play the victim? Laugh it up girls or the boys won’t think you’re a good sport.
Wish I could wave a magic wand and make it all go away. Wish I could make all the “isms” disappear as they should in any decent society. I wish busybodies would quit worrying about the sex lives of consenting adults. Homophobia isn’t any prettier than any other form of bigotry.
For the sake of my 7 granddaughters and my two lovely little great-granddaughters I wish my generation had done a better job of making a better world for them. I wish I could somehow keep them safe from all the ugliness that misogyny will bring into their lives.
I am no smarter or any closer to the answers I sought then when I started this essay. I’ve learned some things. Some ugly, terrible things. I wish I was hopeful.
Because I don’t want to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and since we women can always find a way to get through what we have to get through with humor I give you a song about women.
****
GRL Adds:
This post hits home for me on so many levels. For example, I trained a young man, only to see him get a promotion which I was in line for. He leap-frogged me, and I was forced to find another job to reach the level I should have reached in my former workplace. As a temp, I literally bailed out a manager at Rolls Royce who screwed up the publication of a manual and who was even more dismissive of me after I did him the favor.
And then there is the concept of “comparable worth.” The idea has gone nowhere. Once in awhile you’ll hear how a stay-at-home mother is worth several hundred thousand dollars but, in reality, it’s more like $30,000 and that may be high. As Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN says, the “shocking truth” is that “Our society doesnt place a high dollar value on a homemaker’s work, and those who choose to stay home do so at their own economic peril. “ Meanwhile, women earn what 80 cents for every dollar men earn. Sure there are trade-off, choices which may contribute to this disparity. But some of those choices have to be made because we don’t have the attitude toward supporting families and children that other countries have. (An interesting read on this subject here.)
Complacent young women these days may believe they’ve reached parity but reality hits them sooner or later. But I’m afraid that something else is going on, too…that the violence and sexual messages against that are so prevalent and viral these days are being too easily accepted as “the norm.” I’m afraid a lack of self-respect is just as deeply ingrained as it always was…
This campaign season has been a reality check for many of us who have been fighting for women’s rights for several decades. When you see NARAL and Planned Parenthood support an inexperienced guy who makes a habit of using and discarding people along the way, you have to wonder what has happened to the women leading these organizations.
They’ve gone soft, at a time we still need them to lead.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
While searching the net for the information I needed for this post I ran across another blog which says it much better than I can.
~~ Posted by Kenosha Marge, August 8, 2008
(With additional comments by GRL)
I sat down to write a little essay about misogyny. I intended nothing too profound and nothing that hasn’t been said before, just something that hadn’t been said by me. I thought perhaps, as had happened before, that if I put something down in writing I would better understand it.
Looking back I wonder that I was so surprised by the brutality of the misogynistic attacks on the first woman to be a viable candidate for president. Sexism is such a part of daily life that few of us stop to think about it. A snort of disgust here, a sniff of resentment there, and on with the business of living our lives.
Older women have had a lifetime of watching incompetent and under qualified younger men come out of no where and snap up the best jobs. I’ve worked in offices where the big man couldn’t find his ass with either hand if his secretary hadn’t pointed it out to him. He got the big paycheck, the power, the glory and she got to do all the work while supporting the dunce. She also got to be taken out to lunch once a year during the week of April 22 – 28 for Secretary’s Day.
While fooling around googling sexism I came across this sentence: “On average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day.” I reread it just to make sure that I was reading it correctly. Their husbands or boyfriends murder three women every day.
This is happening here in the USA. It’s happening here so going all C.J. Craig about the awfulness of how Saudi Arabia or some other foreign country treats it’s women seems a tad hypocritical. Unless we use the same logic we use to elect presidents; we may be bad but they’re worse. Feel better now?
The United States is not a safe place for women. It may be safer than elsewhere but we don’t live elsewhere. We live here. Here where every single day of the year more than 3 women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends.
President Clinton signed into public law the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 on September 13, 1994. VAWA was reauthorized in 2000 and signed into law by President George Bush on January 5, 2006. It will be up for authorization in 2010. Okay, that takes care of that.
Somewhere in America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Four in 10 women at a veterans hospital reported being sexually assaulted while in the military. 7% of girls in grades 5-8 and 12% of girls in grades 9-12 said they had been sexually abused. Does this sound like a society that likes, respects or cares for women?
Gender trashing is epidemic, out in the open and unashamed. Women do it to other women. Men smirk and laugh while making malevolent sexist remarks on national television. It all seems part of the same underlying disdain for women.
Cringe? Protest? What’s the matter sweetie can’t take a joke? Ya trying to play the victim? Laugh it up girls or the boys won’t think you’re a good sport.
Wish I could wave a magic wand and make it all go away. Wish I could make all the “isms” disappear as they should in any decent society. I wish busybodies would quit worrying about the sex lives of consenting adults. Homophobia isn’t any prettier than any other form of bigotry.
For the sake of my 7 granddaughters and my two lovely little great-granddaughters I wish my generation had done a better job of making a better world for them. I wish I could somehow keep them safe from all the ugliness that misogyny will bring into their lives.
I am no smarter or any closer to the answers I sought then when I started this essay. I’ve learned some things. Some ugly, terrible things. I wish I was hopeful.
Because I don’t want to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and since we women can always find a way to get through what we have to get through with humor I give you a song about women.
****
GRL Adds:
This post hits home for me on so many levels. For example, I trained a young man, only to see him get a promotion which I was in line for. He leap-frogged me, and I was forced to find another job to reach the level I should have reached in my former workplace. As a temp, I literally bailed out a manager at Rolls Royce who screwed up the publication of a manual and who was even more dismissive of me after I did him the favor.
And then there is the concept of “comparable worth.” The idea has gone nowhere. Once in awhile you’ll hear how a stay-at-home mother is worth several hundred thousand dollars but, in reality, it’s more like $30,000 and that may be high. As Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN says, the “shocking truth” is that “Our society doesnt place a high dollar value on a homemaker’s work, and those who choose to stay home do so at their own economic peril. “ Meanwhile, women earn what 80 cents for every dollar men earn. Sure there are trade-off, choices which may contribute to this disparity. But some of those choices have to be made because we don’t have the attitude toward supporting families and children that other countries have. (An interesting read on this subject here.)
Complacent young women these days may believe they’ve reached parity but reality hits them sooner or later. But I’m afraid that something else is going on, too…that the violence and sexual messages against that are so prevalent and viral these days are being too easily accepted as “the norm.” I’m afraid a lack of self-respect is just as deeply ingrained as it always was…
This campaign season has been a reality check for many of us who have been fighting for women’s rights for several decades. When you see NARAL and Planned Parenthood support an inexperienced guy who makes a habit of using and discarding people along the way, you have to wonder what has happened to the women leading these organizations.
They’ve gone soft, at a time we still need them to lead.
This post is dedicated to all the women who came before us who fought the good fight for women.
And this is a plea to all women who come after us, for the sake of our future generations, keep fighting on, we have won some battles but the war against discrimination is not over. Women still make 77% of what her male counter part makes.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Owe my Soul
Tennessee Ernie Ford had a hit in 1955, 16 Tons. Well I am not a coal miner but I do Owe my soul to the company store. Like many working class people as the economy takes a downward plunge, and my salary does not go up, my debt is increasing at an alarming rate.
As the price of gas has increase, so the price of other products have risen..food, clothing, electricity, water (who wooda thunk it).
I figure at the rate things are going, I'll manage to retire about 20 years after I'm dead.
And the Senate and House go on vacation again.
I can't afford a vacation can you?
The Physical Conditions of Life Are Collapsing
Look at the United States, look what's happened to it, since 1970-71. Look at what has happened to the lower 80% of the family-income brackets of our households, as opposed to earlier, under Roosevelt, in that Roosevelt tradition. Look around the world at systems. What do you see?
The objective physical conditions of life, the conditions necessary for human qualities of life, of our people, the lower 80%, have been collapsing at an accelerating rate since 1977. Collapsing, consistently: There's been no prosperity in the United States! Not for the lower 80% of family income brackets. Anyone who says so is a fool, or a liar. Everything is worse. Look at health care. Look at the cost of housing. Look at the quality of education. For the lower 80% of the family-income brackets in the United States, everything has become consistently worse. And the means by which we had a higher standard of living, was destroyed, as part of the program of the Rockefeller Trilateral Commission. This policy destroyed the United States: destroyed our agriculture, destroyed our industry, destroyed our infrastructure.
It was continued under the Reagan Administration. It accelerated under the Bush I Administration.
Anyway, the problem is, the cultural problem is that our people have come to accept the idea of an oligarchical model in society, even in these United States. We accept the injustice which is heaped upon the lower 80% of our income brackets. We accept the injustice that's done in many other ways, to our own people. We sit in awe about the upper 3% of family-income brackets in the United States. We kiss the butt of some billionaire who's nothing but a thief. That's what we do. We have destroyed the idea of the commonwealth. We destroyed what we prized when we built our Constitution, in terms of Solon of Athens. We tore apart and disregarded every tradition, noble tradition of humanity, particularly of European civilization. And that's what we've done. And we've come to accept that! We've come to accept politicians who think like that. We've come to accept laws that practice that.
And in the case of Franklin Roosevelt: Franklin Roosevelt found us in a low moment. We'd lost 30% of our standard of living, our income, in a short four-year period. And he led in rebuilding our nation, which was shattered. Not only rebuilding our nation, but moving to preserve this, to extend this, to eliminate colonies and similar kinds of oppression throughout the world. To promote a world based on republics, sovereign republics, which are each dedicated to serving their own people, by republican standards, and promoting republican standards of life among people of other nations, knowing that our security, and our well-being, and our purpose in living, depended upon what we did to promote these kinds of ideas, and these kinds of opportunities, among other peoples. The same rights that we desired for ourselves.
We have turned away from that.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Mental Illness, The Red Headed Stepchild of the Health Care Industry
Mental illness has long be hidden in the cloak of shame. Families have felt they needed to lie about family members having a mental illness because it has been looked upon as a “shameful” disease rather than a “medical disease”.
Let me clearly state that mental disease is a much a medical disease a diabetes is. Why is it not treated as such? Untreated mental disease is as debilitating and deadly as diabetes. Yet, if treated, those who have either disease can have a long and productive lives.
The insurance industry treats mental disease much different than other medical diseases regarding payments for services and drugs.
Medicare does cover treatment for mental disease but the patient's share is fifty percent of the allowed charge as opposed to the treatment of diabetes at eighty percent. This often puts an unfair burden upon the patient.
Commercial insurance companies have various way of dealing with the reimbursement. Many have no benefits allocated to mental disease. Most have very limited benefits.
The House introduced and passed one bill to help address the parity in mental disease coverage on March 5, 2008.
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, H.R. 1424.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1424/show
Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), the bill’s primary sponsor gives this pitch for the bill on his website:
There is no medical reason to discriminate against mental health, and there is no financial reason either; every credible study of states’ experiences – and that of the 9 million member Federal Employee Health Benefits Program – implementing mental health parity has shown that mental health costs rise minimally, or fall, after the enactment of parity, as people gain greater access to less expensive forms of treatment. The current absence of mental health parity costs our society economically in many important ways, as research shows that better mental health care results in lower costs and savings to businesses in the form of lower absenteeism and higher productivity.
The Senate has also passed a similar version S558 on September 7, 2007.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-s558/show
When will the House and Senate reconcile these two bills and pass it to the President to be signed? That is if he will.
Neither of these bills address the violence commited against the people who suffer from mental disease. That is for another post.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Let me clearly state that mental disease is a much a medical disease a diabetes is. Why is it not treated as such? Untreated mental disease is as debilitating and deadly as diabetes. Yet, if treated, those who have either disease can have a long and productive lives.
The insurance industry treats mental disease much different than other medical diseases regarding payments for services and drugs.
Medicare does cover treatment for mental disease but the patient's share is fifty percent of the allowed charge as opposed to the treatment of diabetes at eighty percent. This often puts an unfair burden upon the patient.
Commercial insurance companies have various way of dealing with the reimbursement. Many have no benefits allocated to mental disease. Most have very limited benefits.
The House introduced and passed one bill to help address the parity in mental disease coverage on March 5, 2008.
Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, H.R. 1424.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1424/show
Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), the bill’s primary sponsor gives this pitch for the bill on his website:
There is no medical reason to discriminate against mental health, and there is no financial reason either; every credible study of states’ experiences – and that of the 9 million member Federal Employee Health Benefits Program – implementing mental health parity has shown that mental health costs rise minimally, or fall, after the enactment of parity, as people gain greater access to less expensive forms of treatment. The current absence of mental health parity costs our society economically in many important ways, as research shows that better mental health care results in lower costs and savings to businesses in the form of lower absenteeism and higher productivity.
The Senate has also passed a similar version S558 on September 7, 2007.
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-s558/show
When will the House and Senate reconcile these two bills and pass it to the President to be signed? That is if he will.
Neither of these bills address the violence commited against the people who suffer from mental disease. That is for another post.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Monday, July 21, 2008
An Outrageous Attempt by the Bush Administration to Undermine Women\'s Rights | Reproductive Health | RHRealityCheck.org
An Outrageous Attempt by the Bush Administration to Undermine Women's Rights
The Bush Administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women's health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them "abortion." These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can't let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women's health and that's why I am sounding the alarm.
These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They'll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.
The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California's laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of "the problem." These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.
We've seen this kind of ideologically driven move from the Bush Administration before. Senator Patty Murray and I went toe to toe with the Bush Administration to demand a decision on Plan B by the FDA. We won that fight and we need to win this one too.
When I learned about these proposed rules, I immediately joined with Senator Murray to call on the Bush Administration to stop these dangerous plans. I am joining with New York family planning and healthcare advocates to spread the word. Now is the time to raise our voices. I will continue to press HHS and I hope you will join me. I have posted information on how to get involved at www.hillpac.com.
This is a call to all who care to please call your congress person and senator to let them know how you feel.
Stop Bush now.
The Bush Administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women's health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them "abortion." These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can't let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women's health and that's why I am sounding the alarm.
These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They'll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.
The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California's laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of "the problem." These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.
We've seen this kind of ideologically driven move from the Bush Administration before. Senator Patty Murray and I went toe to toe with the Bush Administration to demand a decision on Plan B by the FDA. We won that fight and we need to win this one too.
When I learned about these proposed rules, I immediately joined with Senator Murray to call on the Bush Administration to stop these dangerous plans. I am joining with New York family planning and healthcare advocates to spread the word. Now is the time to raise our voices. I will continue to press HHS and I hope you will join me. I have posted information on how to get involved at www.hillpac.com.
This is a call to all who care to please call your congress person and senator to let them know how you feel.
Stop Bush now.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Do They have Their Heads up Their But?
Medicare does the dumbest thing by now having vaccines under the wing of the Part D Plans, that is the prescription plan of Medicare.
"Options to Ensure Adequate Access Under Part D to
Covered Vaccines
In-Network Distribution Approaches
In-Network Access to Retail Pharmacies: Enrollees could
obtain a prescription from the physician and bring it to their
local network retail pharmacy for filling. In some states, it will
already be possible for the vaccine to be administered by the
pharmacist. Forty-six states currently allow pharmacists to
provide some type of vaccinations. When it is safe to
dispense and administer these vaccines in the pharmacy,
plans will be exploring utilization of their network
pharmacists as a provider of adult Medicare Part D vaccines."
I live in Florida and pharmacists cannot administer vaccines in this state as well as three other states.
So where does this leave the Medicare Beneficiary? Up the creek without the paddle, and do they care? hell, no.
So, the patient takes the script to the pharmacy, gets the vaccine, (which in the case of Zostavax, must be kept frozen) and does what with it?
A physician's office cannot take responsibility to administer the vaccine, if it has not been kept frozen it may cause more harm than good.
I guess I should explain what Zostavax is. It is the vaccine to help prevent herpes zoster, or otherwise known as "shingles". Shingles is a very painful condition caused from "chicken pox" virus in older adults. It can cause blindness if condition manifests in the eyes.
This isn't the first really stupid thing they have done..like Medicare will pay for tetanus vaccine but the only thing close to hat vaccine is the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, no vaccine manufacturer makes a tetanus vaccine.
Well, if I continue ranting on this subject, I'll just get myself more upset and start using four letter words.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
"Options to Ensure Adequate Access Under Part D to
Covered Vaccines
In-Network Distribution Approaches
In-Network Access to Retail Pharmacies: Enrollees could
obtain a prescription from the physician and bring it to their
local network retail pharmacy for filling. In some states, it will
already be possible for the vaccine to be administered by the
pharmacist. Forty-six states currently allow pharmacists to
provide some type of vaccinations. When it is safe to
dispense and administer these vaccines in the pharmacy,
plans will be exploring utilization of their network
pharmacists as a provider of adult Medicare Part D vaccines."
I live in Florida and pharmacists cannot administer vaccines in this state as well as three other states.
So where does this leave the Medicare Beneficiary? Up the creek without the paddle, and do they care? hell, no.
So, the patient takes the script to the pharmacy, gets the vaccine, (which in the case of Zostavax, must be kept frozen) and does what with it?
A physician's office cannot take responsibility to administer the vaccine, if it has not been kept frozen it may cause more harm than good.
I guess I should explain what Zostavax is. It is the vaccine to help prevent herpes zoster, or otherwise known as "shingles". Shingles is a very painful condition caused from "chicken pox" virus in older adults. It can cause blindness if condition manifests in the eyes.
This isn't the first really stupid thing they have done..like Medicare will pay for tetanus vaccine but the only thing close to hat vaccine is the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine, no vaccine manufacturer makes a tetanus vaccine.
Well, if I continue ranting on this subject, I'll just get myself more upset and start using four letter words.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Al Gore Calls for 100% Clean, Renewable Energy in Ten Years
Al Gore's speech on July 17th calling for clean, renewable energy in ten years is a challenge.
Is it possible to change our electricity generators from a carbon base to a clean, renewable base fuel in just ten years?
Does a bear do it in the woods? Hell yeah!
If Americans didn't invent it, they sure as hell perfected it, or that used to be our history in challenges.
I cannot in my wildest imagination think that Americans could not collectively solve any problem which arises if we put our minds to it.
There is no reason in the world why we cannot do it. Will it be easy? No
New York City could power their entire city with electricity just from methane gas. Yes, gas which comes from waste. And that, my friend is renewable.
Florida has enough sun to power most electricity from solar panels, enough tide to power from the ocean and gulf and of course bio energy resources, you know, landfills, garbage.
There are areas in the U.S. that have almost constant wind, we could establish windmills in those areas.
Can we do it? Hell yeah! The American people are the most innovative resourceful people any where.
Who benefits when we do this? You and me and all the following generations.
BUT, will we?
Do we have the will to get this done?
Does "We the people" mean anything any more?
Who does not benefit from this proposal? Big oil, big coal, nuclear speculators.
Can we do it? es, yes, yes!
Will we do it? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Is it possible to change our electricity generators from a carbon base to a clean, renewable base fuel in just ten years?
Does a bear do it in the woods? Hell yeah!
If Americans didn't invent it, they sure as hell perfected it, or that used to be our history in challenges.
I cannot in my wildest imagination think that Americans could not collectively solve any problem which arises if we put our minds to it.
There is no reason in the world why we cannot do it. Will it be easy? No
New York City could power their entire city with electricity just from methane gas. Yes, gas which comes from waste. And that, my friend is renewable.
Florida has enough sun to power most electricity from solar panels, enough tide to power from the ocean and gulf and of course bio energy resources, you know, landfills, garbage.
There are areas in the U.S. that have almost constant wind, we could establish windmills in those areas.
Can we do it? Hell yeah! The American people are the most innovative resourceful people any where.
Who benefits when we do this? You and me and all the following generations.
BUT, will we?
Do we have the will to get this done?
Does "We the people" mean anything any more?
Who does not benefit from this proposal? Big oil, big coal, nuclear speculators.
Can we do it? es, yes, yes!
Will we do it? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Offshore Drilling Part 2
Some times I think I should have tittled this blog "Thinking out loud", lol.
While looking on the website of the State of Florida, for information as to why Charlie Crist, the governor changed his mind about offshore drilling, I came upon a document tittled
OFFSHORE DRILLING: A REVIEW OF THE FEDERAL PROCESS
It is an interim report by the Sate Senate, dated November 2006. Much of the report is quite "dry", but there is a part which made me think we are being lied to by the people in D.C. and the news media.
The news media has reported that it would be ten years before offshore drilling would produce. Not true.
On September 5, 2006, Chevron and its partners,
Devon and Statoil, announced the discovery of a huge
reserve of oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico in
the Walker Ridge Area which is about 270 miles
southwest of New Orleans and 175 miles off the coast
of Louisiana. The discovery, however, is very deep.
Chevron had indicated that it drilled to a total depth of
28,175 feet in waters that are 7,000 feet deep.
It is estimated that this discovery could increase the
U.S. reserves of oil by as much as 50 percent. Chevron
estimated that the 300-square-mile region where its test
well sits could hold between 3 and 15 billion barrels of
oil and natural gas liquids.26 However, these amounts
are speculative and the area would not come on line for
at least 4 to 7 years. Production would probably not
start until 2010 at the earliest with full production not
until 2013 at the earliest.
www.energybulletin.net/20140.html
Production could start in 2010, two years from now and produce as early as 2013.
So, I stand corrected.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
While looking on the website of the State of Florida, for information as to why Charlie Crist, the governor changed his mind about offshore drilling, I came upon a document tittled
OFFSHORE DRILLING: A REVIEW OF THE FEDERAL PROCESS
It is an interim report by the Sate Senate, dated November 2006. Much of the report is quite "dry", but there is a part which made me think we are being lied to by the people in D.C. and the news media.
The news media has reported that it would be ten years before offshore drilling would produce. Not true.
On September 5, 2006, Chevron and its partners,
Devon and Statoil, announced the discovery of a huge
reserve of oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico in
the Walker Ridge Area which is about 270 miles
southwest of New Orleans and 175 miles off the coast
of Louisiana. The discovery, however, is very deep.
Chevron had indicated that it drilled to a total depth of
28,175 feet in waters that are 7,000 feet deep.
It is estimated that this discovery could increase the
U.S. reserves of oil by as much as 50 percent. Chevron
estimated that the 300-square-mile region where its test
well sits could hold between 3 and 15 billion barrels of
oil and natural gas liquids.26 However, these amounts
are speculative and the area would not come on line for
at least 4 to 7 years. Production would probably not
start until 2010 at the earliest with full production not
until 2013 at the earliest.
www.energybulletin.net/20140.html
Production could start in 2010, two years from now and produce as early as 2013.
So, I stand corrected.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
T Boone Pickens Plan
T. Boone Pickens, the man behind the "swift boating" of John Kerry in 2004 is now offering a plan to help Americans become oil independent. Can you trust him? Is his plan in the best inerest of the American people or in the best interest of Pickens pocketbook?
He suggests 20% of our power could be gained by using wind. Not a bad idea, but whose land is it on, who builds the infrastructure to transmit the power from that land, and last but certainly not least, who gets the money from that energy?
There is more to the plan than just wind power and that also is his profit area, natural gas. He has made a great deal of money on that product.
I am posting his video.
I haven't made my mind up about this idea, just like offshore drilling, I am still in the process of gathering information.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
He suggests 20% of our power could be gained by using wind. Not a bad idea, but whose land is it on, who builds the infrastructure to transmit the power from that land, and last but certainly not least, who gets the money from that energy?
There is more to the plan than just wind power and that also is his profit area, natural gas. He has made a great deal of money on that product.
I am posting his video.
I haven't made my mind up about this idea, just like offshore drilling, I am still in the process of gathering information.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Offshore Drilling
To Drill or Not to Drill
That is the question. Is it more noble to refrain from drilling offshore or to take advantage of the natural resources close to home.
We need to be looking for alternative and renewable energy resources. But what do we do in the mean time?
I feel like a spectator at a tennis match. Democrats serve, Republicans return. Republicans serve, Democrats return. Back and forth, back and forth. My neck hurts from the whipping from side to side.
There are good arguments on both sides.
Drilling offshore will not relieve gas prices today, True. Drilling offshore will not yield oil for 10 years or more, True.
So the big question is...Where will we be 10 years from today?
Ten years ago, gas price for regular, was under $1.00 a gallon. So that means gas has risen 389 per cent. At that rate gas will be $1513..21 per gallon in ten years. Hmmmm, I can’t afford that, can you?
During the Carter Presidency, we were promised oil independence and renewable energy. That was how many years ago? 30 years. Carter even installed solar panels on the roof of the White House in 1979 but Reagan had them removed in 1986.
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/newsreleases/2007/07-18.pdf
I personally have reservations about offshore drilling. If we continue to find more places to pull out fossil fuels, will we put the proper resources forward to find and put in to common use renewable energy. Putting aside the "global climate change issue", what are we doing to the air we breathe? How much more pollution can we put into the air? We are not alone on this planet. China and India are growing industrial nations putting out thousands of tons of carbon gas (smog).
The other part of this is, I have no grandchildren, so why do I concern myself about a future beyond my children's life span? I don't know, but I am concerned.
To drill or not to drill offshore, yes that is the question.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
That is the question. Is it more noble to refrain from drilling offshore or to take advantage of the natural resources close to home.
We need to be looking for alternative and renewable energy resources. But what do we do in the mean time?
I feel like a spectator at a tennis match. Democrats serve, Republicans return. Republicans serve, Democrats return. Back and forth, back and forth. My neck hurts from the whipping from side to side.
There are good arguments on both sides.
Drilling offshore will not relieve gas prices today, True. Drilling offshore will not yield oil for 10 years or more, True.
So the big question is...Where will we be 10 years from today?
Ten years ago, gas price for regular, was under $1.00 a gallon. So that means gas has risen 389 per cent. At that rate gas will be $1513..21 per gallon in ten years. Hmmmm, I can’t afford that, can you?
During the Carter Presidency, we were promised oil independence and renewable energy. That was how many years ago? 30 years. Carter even installed solar panels on the roof of the White House in 1979 but Reagan had them removed in 1986.
http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.org/newsreleases/2007/07-18.pdf
I personally have reservations about offshore drilling. If we continue to find more places to pull out fossil fuels, will we put the proper resources forward to find and put in to common use renewable energy. Putting aside the "global climate change issue", what are we doing to the air we breathe? How much more pollution can we put into the air? We are not alone on this planet. China and India are growing industrial nations putting out thousands of tons of carbon gas (smog).
The other part of this is, I have no grandchildren, so why do I concern myself about a future beyond my children's life span? I don't know, but I am concerned.
To drill or not to drill offshore, yes that is the question.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Tax Cuts and Smaller Government
I like the “idea” of lower taxes and smaller government. But, now here is where the real issue is, when “they” say smaller government it is different than my ideas.
From where I sit, I see a great deal of “waste”.
They see the Food & Drug Administration funding as a waste. For instance this deal about the salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes, but apparently there is not enough “staff” to track down exactly where and what it is. I want “country of origin labels” on the food products I buy. I want inspectors checking the growing and processing of the meat products I buy. Britain allowed “mad cow disease” to get out of control and that devastated their beef industry.
Or the inspection of items coming in from foreign manufacturers. Toys with lead paint. Or “Aqua Dots” which contained the chemical used in “date rape drugs”. The toy was supposed to contain the non-toxic chemical 1,5-pentanediol, but instead contained 1,4-butanediol which is metabolised into the drug gamma-Hydroxybutyric (GHB, an anaesthetic used as a recreational drug ). The affected children had seizure-like activity, which is an occasional side-effect of severe GHB overdose.
U. S. Product Safety Commission website is pages long with the list of recalled toys imported from countries who do not follow our standards for “safe toys”.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/toy.html
Check it out. If you are a parent, grand parent or care about the health and safety of children, please check it out.
Another wasteful issue, I think, is the “Economic Stimulus Package”. The government is sending me $600.00 so I can go to WalMart to buy products “made in China”. We have to borrow the funds from China to send each per this $600.00 check. It does not make sense to me. We owe $9.5 trillion dollars in our national debt. How many zeroes are there in a trillion? We owe China 502 billion. We are living on borrowed money. My Mother taught me better than that, who and what was taught to our elected officials?
I guess smaller government is in the eye of the beholder, I see oversight of consumer products a vital part of what expect my government to do. I want the budget balanced.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
From where I sit, I see a great deal of “waste”.
They see the Food & Drug Administration funding as a waste. For instance this deal about the salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes, but apparently there is not enough “staff” to track down exactly where and what it is. I want “country of origin labels” on the food products I buy. I want inspectors checking the growing and processing of the meat products I buy. Britain allowed “mad cow disease” to get out of control and that devastated their beef industry.
Or the inspection of items coming in from foreign manufacturers. Toys with lead paint. Or “Aqua Dots” which contained the chemical used in “date rape drugs”. The toy was supposed to contain the non-toxic chemical 1,5-pentanediol, but instead contained 1,4-butanediol which is metabolised into the drug gamma-Hydroxybutyric (GHB, an anaesthetic used as a recreational drug ). The affected children had seizure-like activity, which is an occasional side-effect of severe GHB overdose.
U. S. Product Safety Commission website is pages long with the list of recalled toys imported from countries who do not follow our standards for “safe toys”.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/toy.html
Check it out. If you are a parent, grand parent or care about the health and safety of children, please check it out.
Another wasteful issue, I think, is the “Economic Stimulus Package”. The government is sending me $600.00 so I can go to WalMart to buy products “made in China”. We have to borrow the funds from China to send each per this $600.00 check. It does not make sense to me. We owe $9.5 trillion dollars in our national debt. How many zeroes are there in a trillion? We owe China 502 billion. We are living on borrowed money. My Mother taught me better than that, who and what was taught to our elected officials?
I guess smaller government is in the eye of the beholder, I see oversight of consumer products a vital part of what expect my government to do. I want the budget balanced.
| The Gross National Debt |
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Independence
I received an interesting comment on my blog for the 4th of July. I posted copy of the Declaration of Independence along with the audio reading.
"Struggle For Justice said...
It didn't become de facto for women until the 19th Amendmentto the Constitution was ratified. How could anyone be independent without access to government through the vote?Before that event the Declaration of Independencewas a mockery of justice.Please se my webloghttp://letjusticeprevailnow.blogspot.com/"
The document of 1776 declares independence for "white males". But this was "The Beginning"
It was not until the following century "independence was declared for the "black males". Women of all color did not receive the "right to vote" until 1920 with the Women's Suffrage Movement, but they still were not "free".
Roe versus Wade in 1972 finally gave women "some" rights over her own body.
It has been a long struggle, but in most communities women now have a "right" to charge their husbands with rape. I remember the time when that was not so. That is a personal observation.
The "Equal Pay Act" was signed into law in 1963, but as of today, 45 years later, the law has not been enforced. Women make 77 cents for every dollar their male counterpart makes.
I live in Florida. Working women in Florida are farther along the road to equal pay than women in many states; in 2000, Florida’s working women earned 81.3 percent as much per hour as men, while nationwide women earned only 77.6 percent as much per hour as men. Florida ranked sixth among all states in equal pay.
At the current rate of change, working women in Florida—as well as working women nationwide—won’t have equal pay until after 2050. I will be 97 years old, don't think I will be around for that.
Yeah Baby, We've come a long way, but the path has been long and rocky in places. The journey is not yet over, many miles more to go.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
"Struggle For Justice said...
It didn't become de facto for women until the 19th Amendmentto the Constitution was ratified. How could anyone be independent without access to government through the vote?Before that event the Declaration of Independencewas a mockery of justice.Please se my webloghttp://letjusticeprevailnow.blogspot.com/"
The document of 1776 declares independence for "white males". But this was "The Beginning"
It was not until the following century "independence was declared for the "black males". Women of all color did not receive the "right to vote" until 1920 with the Women's Suffrage Movement, but they still were not "free".
Roe versus Wade in 1972 finally gave women "some" rights over her own body.
It has been a long struggle, but in most communities women now have a "right" to charge their husbands with rape. I remember the time when that was not so. That is a personal observation.
The "Equal Pay Act" was signed into law in 1963, but as of today, 45 years later, the law has not been enforced. Women make 77 cents for every dollar their male counterpart makes.
I live in Florida. Working women in Florida are farther along the road to equal pay than women in many states; in 2000, Florida’s working women earned 81.3 percent as much per hour as men, while nationwide women earned only 77.6 percent as much per hour as men. Florida ranked sixth among all states in equal pay.
At the current rate of change, working women in Florida—as well as working women nationwide—won’t have equal pay until after 2050. I will be 97 years old, don't think I will be around for that.
Yeah Baby, We've come a long way, but the path has been long and rocky in places. The journey is not yet over, many miles more to go.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, July 11, 2008
Thank the Senators Who Voted: Yes
The Senate passed H.R. 6331. YES! YES! YES!
18 Republican Senators crossed over to pass this bill to make it "veto proof".
The bill is " Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008"
Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to provide for coverage of additional preventive services. Provides for gradual elimination of copayment rates for Medicare psychiatric services.
Places prohibitions and limitations on certain sales and marketing activities under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and prescription drug plans.
Requires offering of a range of Medicare supplemental policies.
Extends the qualifying individual program. Provides for application of a full low-income subsidy assets test under the Medicare Savings Program.
Eliminates Medicare part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) late enrollment penalties paid by subsidy-eligible individuals.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states for state health insurance assistance programs, area agencies on aging, and aging and disability resource centers. Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to states for increasing the delivery of mental health services or other health care services to meet the needs of veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom living in rural areas. Permits re-basing for sole community hospitals.
Directs the Secretary to establish a demonstration project for development and testing of new community health integration models in certain rural counties.
Amends the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, as amended by the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, to extend through FY2009 the reclassification of certain hospitals.
Increases physicians' payments. Revises requirements for and extends the quality reporting system, including incentive payments.
Directs the Secretary to establish a Physician Feedback Program. Provides for:
(1) incentives for electronic prescribing of medicine;
(2) expanded access to primary care services;
(3) extension of the floor on Medicare work geographic adjustment under the Medicare physician fee schedule; and
(4) an accreditation requirement for advanced diagnostic imaging services.
Revises requirements for Medicare anesthesia teaching programs. Makes permanent the exception to the 60-day limit on Medicare reciprocal billing arrangements between two physicians over a longer continuous period during all of which one of them is ordered to active duty as a member of a reserve component of the armed forces.
Provides for coverage of pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation.
Extends increased Medicare payments for ground ambulance services. Amends the Public Health Services Act to direct the Secretary to establish pilot projects with respect to chronic kidney disease.
Revises requirements for renal dialysis.
Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to delay generally until after 2011 full implementation of the Medicare competitive acquisition program for the purchase of durable medical equipment (DME), prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS). Revises such program, dividing its implementation into two rounds, and specifying covered item updates for 2009-2014. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide for a competitive acquisition ombudsman within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to respond to complaints and inquiries by suppliers and individuals. Provides for phase-out of indirect costs of medical education from capitation rates.
Revises requirements for MA private fee-for-service plans as well as MA plans for special needs individuals.
Modifies requirements for quality improvement programs.
Requires prompt payment of clean claims by prescription drug plans and MA-Prescription Drug plans under Medicare part D. Revises the definition of medically accepted indication for drugs.
Directs the Secretary to:
(1) contract with a consensus-based entity for certain activities relating to health care performance measurement; and
(2) evaluate and report to Congress on approaches for the collection of data regarding health care disparities.
Creates the Medicare Improvement Fund. Extends the transitional medical assistance (TMA), the abstinence education program, and allotments for disproportionate share hospitals (DSHs) under SSA title XIX (Medicaid). Amends the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 to extend supplemental grants under SSA title IV part D (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF). Amends the Public Health Service Act to extend special diabetes grant programs.
Votes by Senator
Name Voted
Sen. Daniel Akaka [D, HI] Aye
Sen. Lamar Alexander [R, TN] Aye
Sen. Wayne Allard [R, CO] Nay
Sen. John Barrasso [R, WY] Nay
Sen. Max Baucus [D, MT] Aye
Sen. B. Evan Bayh [D, IN] Aye
Sen. Robert Bennett [R, UT] Nay
Sen. Joseph Biden [D, DE] Aye
Sen. Jeff Bingaman [D, NM] Aye
Sen. Christopher Bond [R, MO] Nay
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D, CA] Aye
Sen. Sherrod Brown [D, OH] Aye
Sen. Samuel Brownback [R, KS] Nay
Sen. Jim Bunning [R, KY] Nay
Sen. Richard Burr [R, NC] Nay
Sen. Robert Byrd [D, WV] Aye
Sen. Maria Cantwell [D, WA] Aye
Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D, MD] Aye
Sen. Thomas Carper [D, DE] Aye
Sen. Robert Casey [D, PA] Aye
Sen. C. Saxby Chambliss [R, GA] Aye
Sen. Hillary Clinton [D, NY] Aye
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R, OK] Nay
Sen. Thad Cochran [R, MS] Nay
Sen. Norm Coleman [R, MN] Aye
Sen. Susan Collins [R, ME] Aye
Sen. Kent Conrad [D, ND] Aye
Sen. Bob Corker [R, TN] Aye
Sen. John Cornyn [R, TX] Aye
Sen. Larry Craig [R, ID] Nay
Sen. Michael Crapo [R, ID] Nay
Sen. Jim DeMint [R, SC] Nay
Sen. Christopher Dodd [D, CT] Aye
Sen. Elizabeth Dole [R, NC] Aye
Sen. Pete Domenici [R, NM] Nay
Sen. Byron Dorgan [D, ND] Aye
Sen. Richard Durbin [D, IL] Aye
Sen. John Ensign [R, NV] Nay
Sen. Michael Enzi [R, WY] Nay
Sen. Russell Feingold [D, WI] Aye
Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D, CA] Aye
Sen. Lindsey Graham [R, SC] Nay
Sen. Charles Grassley [R, IA] Nay
Sen. Judd Gregg [R, NH] Nay
Sen. Charles Hagel [R, NE] Nay
Sen. Thomas Harkin [D, IA] Aye
Sen. Orrin Hatch [R, UT] Nay
Sen. Kay Hutchison [R, TX] Aye
Sen. James Inhofe [R, OK] Nay
Sen. Daniel Inouye [D, HI] Aye
Sen. John Isakson [R, GA] Aye
Sen. Tim Johnson [D, SD] Aye
Sen. Edward Kennedy [D, MA] Aye
Sen. John Kerry [D, MA] Aye
Sen. Amy Klobuchar [D, MN] Aye
Sen. Herbert Kohl [D, WI] Aye
Sen. Jon Kyl [R, AZ] Nay
Sen. Mary Landrieu [D, LA] Aye
Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D, NJ] Aye
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D, VT] Aye
Sen. Carl Levin [D, MI] Aye
Sen. Joseph Lieberman [I, CT] Aye
Sen. Blanche Lincoln [D, AR] Aye
Sen. Richard Lugar [R, IN] Nay
Sen. Mel Martinez [R, FL] Aye
Sen. John McCain [R, AZ] Abstain
Sen. Claire McCaskill [D, MO] Aye
Sen. Mitch McConnell [R, KY] Nay
Sen. Robert Menendez [D, NJ] Aye
Sen. Barbara Mikulski [D, MD] Aye
Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R, AK] Aye
Sen. Patty Murray [D, WA] Aye
Sen. Ben Nelson [D, NE] Aye
Sen. Bill Nelson [D, FL] Aye
Sen. Barack Obama [D, IL] Aye
Sen. Mark Pryor [D, AR] Aye
Sen. John Reed [D, RI] Aye
Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] Aye
Sen. Pat Roberts [R, KS] Aye
Sen. John Rockefeller [D, WV] Aye
Sen. Ken Salazar [D, CO] Aye
Sen. Bernard Sanders [I, VT] Aye
Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY] Aye
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R, AL] Nay
Sen. Richard Shelby [R, AL] Nay
Sen. Gordon Smith [R, OR] Aye
Sen. Olympia Snowe [R, ME] Aye
Sen. Arlen Specter [R, PA] Aye
Sen. Debbie Ann Stabenow [D, MI] Aye
Sen. Ted Stevens [R, AK] Aye
Sen. John Sununu [R, NH] Nay
Sen. Jon Tester [D, MT] Aye
Sen. John Thune [R, SD] Nay
Sen. David Vitter [R, LA] Nay
Sen. George Voinovich [R, OH] Aye
Sen. John Warner [R, VA] Aye
Sen. Jim Webb [D, VA] Aye
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D, RI] Aye
Rep. Roger Wicker [R, MS-1] Nay
Sen. Ron Wyden [D, OR] Aye
Please call, write or send an email to the Senators who voted yes and tell them "Thank You!"
One down and ten to go,
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
18 Republican Senators crossed over to pass this bill to make it "veto proof".
The bill is " Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008"
Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to provide for coverage of additional preventive services. Provides for gradual elimination of copayment rates for Medicare psychiatric services.
Places prohibitions and limitations on certain sales and marketing activities under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and prescription drug plans.
Requires offering of a range of Medicare supplemental policies.
Extends the qualifying individual program. Provides for application of a full low-income subsidy assets test under the Medicare Savings Program.
Eliminates Medicare part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) late enrollment penalties paid by subsidy-eligible individuals.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to states for state health insurance assistance programs, area agencies on aging, and aging and disability resource centers. Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to states for increasing the delivery of mental health services or other health care services to meet the needs of veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom living in rural areas. Permits re-basing for sole community hospitals.
Directs the Secretary to establish a demonstration project for development and testing of new community health integration models in certain rural counties.
Amends the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, as amended by the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Extension Act of 2007, to extend through FY2009 the reclassification of certain hospitals.
Increases physicians' payments. Revises requirements for and extends the quality reporting system, including incentive payments.
Directs the Secretary to establish a Physician Feedback Program. Provides for:
(1) incentives for electronic prescribing of medicine;
(2) expanded access to primary care services;
(3) extension of the floor on Medicare work geographic adjustment under the Medicare physician fee schedule; and
(4) an accreditation requirement for advanced diagnostic imaging services.
Revises requirements for Medicare anesthesia teaching programs. Makes permanent the exception to the 60-day limit on Medicare reciprocal billing arrangements between two physicians over a longer continuous period during all of which one of them is ordered to active duty as a member of a reserve component of the armed forces.
Provides for coverage of pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation.
Extends increased Medicare payments for ground ambulance services. Amends the Public Health Services Act to direct the Secretary to establish pilot projects with respect to chronic kidney disease.
Revises requirements for renal dialysis.
Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to delay generally until after 2011 full implementation of the Medicare competitive acquisition program for the purchase of durable medical equipment (DME), prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies (DMEPOS). Revises such program, dividing its implementation into two rounds, and specifying covered item updates for 2009-2014. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide for a competitive acquisition ombudsman within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to respond to complaints and inquiries by suppliers and individuals. Provides for phase-out of indirect costs of medical education from capitation rates.
Revises requirements for MA private fee-for-service plans as well as MA plans for special needs individuals.
Modifies requirements for quality improvement programs.
Requires prompt payment of clean claims by prescription drug plans and MA-Prescription Drug plans under Medicare part D. Revises the definition of medically accepted indication for drugs.
Directs the Secretary to:
(1) contract with a consensus-based entity for certain activities relating to health care performance measurement; and
(2) evaluate and report to Congress on approaches for the collection of data regarding health care disparities.
Creates the Medicare Improvement Fund. Extends the transitional medical assistance (TMA), the abstinence education program, and allotments for disproportionate share hospitals (DSHs) under SSA title XIX (Medicaid). Amends the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 to extend supplemental grants under SSA title IV part D (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF). Amends the Public Health Service Act to extend special diabetes grant programs.
Votes by Senator
Name Voted
Sen. Daniel Akaka [D, HI] Aye
Sen. Lamar Alexander [R, TN] Aye
Sen. Wayne Allard [R, CO] Nay
Sen. John Barrasso [R, WY] Nay
Sen. Max Baucus [D, MT] Aye
Sen. B. Evan Bayh [D, IN] Aye
Sen. Robert Bennett [R, UT] Nay
Sen. Joseph Biden [D, DE] Aye
Sen. Jeff Bingaman [D, NM] Aye
Sen. Christopher Bond [R, MO] Nay
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D, CA] Aye
Sen. Sherrod Brown [D, OH] Aye
Sen. Samuel Brownback [R, KS] Nay
Sen. Jim Bunning [R, KY] Nay
Sen. Richard Burr [R, NC] Nay
Sen. Robert Byrd [D, WV] Aye
Sen. Maria Cantwell [D, WA] Aye
Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D, MD] Aye
Sen. Thomas Carper [D, DE] Aye
Sen. Robert Casey [D, PA] Aye
Sen. C. Saxby Chambliss [R, GA] Aye
Sen. Hillary Clinton [D, NY] Aye
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R, OK] Nay
Sen. Thad Cochran [R, MS] Nay
Sen. Norm Coleman [R, MN] Aye
Sen. Susan Collins [R, ME] Aye
Sen. Kent Conrad [D, ND] Aye
Sen. Bob Corker [R, TN] Aye
Sen. John Cornyn [R, TX] Aye
Sen. Larry Craig [R, ID] Nay
Sen. Michael Crapo [R, ID] Nay
Sen. Jim DeMint [R, SC] Nay
Sen. Christopher Dodd [D, CT] Aye
Sen. Elizabeth Dole [R, NC] Aye
Sen. Pete Domenici [R, NM] Nay
Sen. Byron Dorgan [D, ND] Aye
Sen. Richard Durbin [D, IL] Aye
Sen. John Ensign [R, NV] Nay
Sen. Michael Enzi [R, WY] Nay
Sen. Russell Feingold [D, WI] Aye
Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D, CA] Aye
Sen. Lindsey Graham [R, SC] Nay
Sen. Charles Grassley [R, IA] Nay
Sen. Judd Gregg [R, NH] Nay
Sen. Charles Hagel [R, NE] Nay
Sen. Thomas Harkin [D, IA] Aye
Sen. Orrin Hatch [R, UT] Nay
Sen. Kay Hutchison [R, TX] Aye
Sen. James Inhofe [R, OK] Nay
Sen. Daniel Inouye [D, HI] Aye
Sen. John Isakson [R, GA] Aye
Sen. Tim Johnson [D, SD] Aye
Sen. Edward Kennedy [D, MA] Aye
Sen. John Kerry [D, MA] Aye
Sen. Amy Klobuchar [D, MN] Aye
Sen. Herbert Kohl [D, WI] Aye
Sen. Jon Kyl [R, AZ] Nay
Sen. Mary Landrieu [D, LA] Aye
Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D, NJ] Aye
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D, VT] Aye
Sen. Carl Levin [D, MI] Aye
Sen. Joseph Lieberman [I, CT] Aye
Sen. Blanche Lincoln [D, AR] Aye
Sen. Richard Lugar [R, IN] Nay
Sen. Mel Martinez [R, FL] Aye
Sen. John McCain [R, AZ] Abstain
Sen. Claire McCaskill [D, MO] Aye
Sen. Mitch McConnell [R, KY] Nay
Sen. Robert Menendez [D, NJ] Aye
Sen. Barbara Mikulski [D, MD] Aye
Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R, AK] Aye
Sen. Patty Murray [D, WA] Aye
Sen. Ben Nelson [D, NE] Aye
Sen. Bill Nelson [D, FL] Aye
Sen. Barack Obama [D, IL] Aye
Sen. Mark Pryor [D, AR] Aye
Sen. John Reed [D, RI] Aye
Sen. Harry Reid [D, NV] Aye
Sen. Pat Roberts [R, KS] Aye
Sen. John Rockefeller [D, WV] Aye
Sen. Ken Salazar [D, CO] Aye
Sen. Bernard Sanders [I, VT] Aye
Sen. Charles Schumer [D, NY] Aye
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R, AL] Nay
Sen. Richard Shelby [R, AL] Nay
Sen. Gordon Smith [R, OR] Aye
Sen. Olympia Snowe [R, ME] Aye
Sen. Arlen Specter [R, PA] Aye
Sen. Debbie Ann Stabenow [D, MI] Aye
Sen. Ted Stevens [R, AK] Aye
Sen. John Sununu [R, NH] Nay
Sen. Jon Tester [D, MT] Aye
Sen. John Thune [R, SD] Nay
Sen. David Vitter [R, LA] Nay
Sen. George Voinovich [R, OH] Aye
Sen. John Warner [R, VA] Aye
Sen. Jim Webb [D, VA] Aye
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D, RI] Aye
Rep. Roger Wicker [R, MS-1] Nay
Sen. Ron Wyden [D, OR] Aye
Please call, write or send an email to the Senators who voted yes and tell them "Thank You!"
One down and ten to go,
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Congress has not officially declared war since 1942
War Powers Act needs fixing, bipartisan panel says.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States needs a new law requiring that the president consult with Congress before going to war, a blue-ribbon panel led by two former secretaries of state said Tuesday.
The current War Powers Resolution is "ineffective, and it should be repealed and it should be replaced," James Baker said in a joint appearance with Warren Christopher, announcing the results of the study they led.
The recommendation follows failed efforts by Democrats in Congress to put a stop to the war in Iraq or to put conditions on President Bush's conduct of it.
Congress passed a joint resolution to authorize armed force against Iraq in 2002, but some Bush opponents say it should not have been interpreted as a blank check for the United States to invade and occupy the Persian Gulf nation.
Baker, who served in George H.W. Bush's administration, and Christopher, who served under President Bill Clinton, said their project was not prompted by any specific war, with Christopher adding that the commission had "tried very hard not to call balls and strikes on past history here."
"We didn't direct this report at any particular conflict," Baker added.
The existing law, the War Powers Resolution of 1973, has been regarded as unconstitutional by every president since it was passed as a response to the Vietnam War, Baker and Christopher said. It requires presidents to report regularly to Congress about ongoing conflicts, but the provision has been flouted.
"No president has ever made a submission to Congress pursuant to the War Powers Resolution since 1973," former Sen. Slade Gorton, a Republican member of the committee, said Tuesday.
The panel, formally called the National War Powers Commission, said a new law should be created requiring the president to consult with key members of Congress before sending troops into combat expected to last more than a week, or within three days of doing so in the case of operations that need to be kept secret.
It should also make clear exactly who the president needed to consult. The panel suggests that the president talk to "a joint Congressional committee made up of the leaders of the House and the Senate as well as the chairmen and ranking members of key committees." The new committee would have a permanent professional staff with access to intelligence information, Baker and Christopher said.
Congress, in turn, would have to declare war or vote on a "resolution of approval" within 30 days, they said.
If a resolution of approval failed, any member of Congress could introduce a "resolution of disapproval," but it was not clear that such an act would stop a war in progress.
Christopher was unable to say in the news conference what practical effect congressional disapproval would have.
Baker said the commission had been in touch with the presidential campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, as well as leaders of Congress. He declined to reveal what they thought of the proposal, but said: "We haven't gotten a negative reaction."
Congress has not officially declared war since 1942, when the United States entered formal hostilities with the Axis powers in World War II. But since then, presidents have sent troops into countries including Korea, Vietnam, Grenada and Iraq.
The Constitution makes the president the commander in chief of the armed forces, but gives Congress the power to declare war and approve military budgets.
Should we follow the Constitution? If the Constitution only gives Congress the power to declare war, how the hell did we get in this mess in Iraq? Oh, geez, I forgot. We are not at war with Iraq, it's an occupation, Right?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Monday, July 7, 2008
US Senate Deserts America’s Seniors, Active Duty Military Personnel and Their Families
06/27/2008
Statement from Brian P. Wicks, MD, President of the Washington State Medical Association
“A bill that would have prevented an already seriously eroded access to care problem for Medicare beneficiaries and our military and their families from getting much worse was defeated on a procedural vote in the US Senate yesterday when 40 Senators decided politics and other interests should come first.
“The failure of 40 Senators to allow HR 6331, The Medicare Improvements to Patients and Providers Act, to go to the floor for debate and action is reprehensible. Senate rules require 60 votes to override a filibuster so a measure can be debated on its merits. Yesterday’s vote was 58 to 40."
"The entire Congress has had six months to deal with the cut. Now, thanks to a few Senators, we stand at the brink of a Medicare meltdown. On July 1 the government will slash Medicare physician payments by 10.6 percent, forcing many physicians to make the difficult choice to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practices, or even stop taking Medicare patients altogether. Medicare's current payments are already below most physicians' practices' cost to provide care - these new cuts will push more practices to further limit access for these patients.
"Those senators who voted against the bill must return from their recess and political picnics and make Medicare their top priority. This is not a partisan issue - it is a patient access issue."
The Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) represents over 9,000 physicians and surgeons throughout the state of Washington. More information about the WSMA can be found at www.wsma.org.
Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to provide for coverage of additional preventive services. Provides for gradual elimination of copayment rates for Medicare psychiatric services. Places prohibitions and limitations on certain sales and marketing activities under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and prescription drug plans. Requires offering of a range of Medicare supplemental policies. Extends the qualifying individual program. Provides for application of a full low-income subsidy assets test under the Medicare Savings Program. Eliminates Medicare part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) late enrollment penalties paid by subsidy-eligible individuals.
The House and Senate go on vacation without taking care of unfinished business vital to the interest of American seniors.
If the issue of payment to physicians is not resolved quickly, many will will be forced to stop treating the elderly.
Disgusted with Congress? I am.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Statement from Brian P. Wicks, MD, President of the Washington State Medical Association
“A bill that would have prevented an already seriously eroded access to care problem for Medicare beneficiaries and our military and their families from getting much worse was defeated on a procedural vote in the US Senate yesterday when 40 Senators decided politics and other interests should come first.
“The failure of 40 Senators to allow HR 6331, The Medicare Improvements to Patients and Providers Act, to go to the floor for debate and action is reprehensible. Senate rules require 60 votes to override a filibuster so a measure can be debated on its merits. Yesterday’s vote was 58 to 40."
"The entire Congress has had six months to deal with the cut. Now, thanks to a few Senators, we stand at the brink of a Medicare meltdown. On July 1 the government will slash Medicare physician payments by 10.6 percent, forcing many physicians to make the difficult choice to limit the number of Medicare patients in their practices, or even stop taking Medicare patients altogether. Medicare's current payments are already below most physicians' practices' cost to provide care - these new cuts will push more practices to further limit access for these patients.
"Those senators who voted against the bill must return from their recess and political picnics and make Medicare their top priority. This is not a partisan issue - it is a patient access issue."
The Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) represents over 9,000 physicians and surgeons throughout the state of Washington. More information about the WSMA can be found at www.wsma.org.
Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to provide for coverage of additional preventive services. Provides for gradual elimination of copayment rates for Medicare psychiatric services. Places prohibitions and limitations on certain sales and marketing activities under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans and prescription drug plans. Requires offering of a range of Medicare supplemental policies. Extends the qualifying individual program. Provides for application of a full low-income subsidy assets test under the Medicare Savings Program. Eliminates Medicare part D (Voluntary Prescription Drug Benefit Program) late enrollment penalties paid by subsidy-eligible individuals.
The House and Senate go on vacation without taking care of unfinished business vital to the interest of American seniors.
If the issue of payment to physicians is not resolved quickly, many will will be forced to stop treating the elderly.
Disgusted with Congress? I am.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Employers Fight Tough Measures on Immigration
By JULIA PRESTON
Published: July 6, 2008
Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls.
Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers.
Though the push back is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts, are standing up to others within the party who accuse them of undercutting border enforcement and jeopardizing American jobs by hiring illegal immigrants as cheap labor.
Employers in Arizona were stung by a law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature that revokes the licenses of businesses caught twice with illegal immigrants. They won approval in this year’s session of a narrowing of that law making clear that it did not apply to workers hired before this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/06employer.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1215355511-y4hoELscvAXkgLpkXyFiYg
Let me state quite clearly that I am not against "legal immigration". I work for two doctors who legally immigrated to this country. Both are hard working model citizens.
My issue is not with the illegal immigrant, they come here because there are employers who hire them. They come because they want better conditions for their children and the the "American Dream".
The "illegal employers" hire illegal immigrants to take advantage of their status. They pay them less in wages. Often the working conditions are less than crappy. The illegal worker has no choice, they cannot go to the authorities to report any abuse.
The employers benefit greatly by driving down the wages of the working people of the U.S. By driving down wages they put more "bucks" into their own pockets. Products don't cost of less at the retailers, houses don't cost less when they are built with "illegal immigrant labor".
Our so called leaders, The House of Representatives and Senate will not stand up to the "illegal employers" to tell the NO.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Published: July 6, 2008
Under pressure from the toughest crackdown on illegal immigration in two decades, employers across the country are fighting back in state legislatures, the federal courts and city halls.
Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers.
Though the push back is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts, are standing up to others within the party who accuse them of undercutting border enforcement and jeopardizing American jobs by hiring illegal immigrants as cheap labor.
Employers in Arizona were stung by a law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature that revokes the licenses of businesses caught twice with illegal immigrants. They won approval in this year’s session of a narrowing of that law making clear that it did not apply to workers hired before this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/us/06employer.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1215355511-y4hoELscvAXkgLpkXyFiYg
Let me state quite clearly that I am not against "legal immigration". I work for two doctors who legally immigrated to this country. Both are hard working model citizens.
My issue is not with the illegal immigrant, they come here because there are employers who hire them. They come because they want better conditions for their children and the the "American Dream".
The "illegal employers" hire illegal immigrants to take advantage of their status. They pay them less in wages. Often the working conditions are less than crappy. The illegal worker has no choice, they cannot go to the authorities to report any abuse.
The employers benefit greatly by driving down the wages of the working people of the U.S. By driving down wages they put more "bucks" into their own pockets. Products don't cost of less at the retailers, houses don't cost less when they are built with "illegal immigrant labor".
Our so called leaders, The House of Representatives and Senate will not stand up to the "illegal employers" to tell the NO.
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Friday, July 4, 2008
Congress
As the title of this blog indicates, I am a working class woman. That being said, when I plan to go on vacation I make sure my desk is clear and all matters that are urgent are taken care of before I leave for my vacation.
What does Congress do?
The economy is in the toilet.
Thousands of families who own homes are being foreclosed on.
The government can listen in on your phone calls, search your property, car or person with a warrant. Ther is a war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The issue with ilegal immigrants is not yet resolved.
The health care system sucks, for those without insurance provided by their employers.
Congress goes on vacation while many Americans suffer with the rising costs of gasoline. When gasoline prices go up.... everyting else goes up except wages.
If Congress had to account to an employer the way most Americans do, they would do a better job. They would have to finish their chores before going on vacation. They would have to get a review beore receiving a raise in pay.
But wait, they do have employers, you and me. My question is, will we hold them to account for the lousy job they have done or will most of the be re-elected?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
What does Congress do?
The economy is in the toilet.
Thousands of families who own homes are being foreclosed on.
The government can listen in on your phone calls, search your property, car or person with a warrant. Ther is a war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The issue with ilegal immigrants is not yet resolved.
The health care system sucks, for those without insurance provided by their employers.
Congress goes on vacation while many Americans suffer with the rising costs of gasoline. When gasoline prices go up.... everyting else goes up except wages.
If Congress had to account to an employer the way most Americans do, they would do a better job. They would have to finish their chores before going on vacation. They would have to get a review beore receiving a raise in pay.
But wait, they do have employers, you and me. My question is, will we hold them to account for the lousy job they have done or will most of the be re-elected?
So here I am "STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU".
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Stuck in the middle with you
Clowns to the left....joker to the right..most of us are in the middle.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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