Signs the World is coming to and End

There’s no other explanation for the events that have unfolded than the earth as we know it will cease to exist, just like “they” predicated.

I know because on February 9, 2012, I AGREED WITH SOMETHING THAT MIKA BRZEZINSKI SAID ON “MORNING JOE” ON MSNBC!

Now I know what you are thinking. That can’t possibly be true. But it is. And here’s what happened.

Most of you know by now that the US Department of Health and Human Services has mandated that Catholic institutions that employ non-Catholics must provide a health care plan that includes birth control coverage. Now, think about that. HHS is not saying that Catholic hospitals have to dole out birth control, and they certainly aren’t saying that Catholic institutions have to PERFORM ABORTIONS. Although if you listen to the right wing media, this is the spin they have put on it. What HHS said was that they must provide for birth control benefits in the insurance plan that they provide to their employees. And if by chance the Catholic institution is self-insured, they have the opportunity to arrange for birth control coverage FROM A THIRD PARTY. All HHS is saying is that under the law, everyone is equal. Just because birth control is a coverage offered in the health care plan doesn’t mean Catholics are forced to use it. But I can guarantee you that most Catholics would use birth control.

When it comes to Catholic Hospitals and Universities, the majority of the EMPLOYEES are most likely not Catholic. We’re not talking about the executives of such who probably are. We’re talking about regular people who applied for and got regular jobs that happen to be at a place of business operated by the Catholic Church. So not only are these non-Catholics not obligated to follow Catholic doctrine, even Catholics aren’t obligated to follow Catholic doctrine. It’s a well-known fact the most Catholics do not follow the churches teaching on contraception. Mika Brzezinski being one of them.

While Joe Scarborough and his republican cronies have tried to turn this into a first amendment issue (Freedom of Religion) and they are saying that Barack Obama is blurring the lines between church and state, AND he is trouncing on the rights of Catholics, the argument has also been expanded now to include abortion and the whole “slippery slope” bullshit. Anything to distract people from the real issue. And here’s the real issue:

The Catholic Church doesn’t want anyone to know that the majority of their own “flock” does NOT follow the birth control doctrine. All that’s happened is that the White House, by trying to provide equality under its health care rules, has exposed this dirty little secret. Catholics use birth control. The Pope doesn’t have as much control over his minions as he’s like everyone to believe. Nowhere in the Bible did Jesus say, don’t use birth control. And the Old Testament doesn’t talk about it either. Birth Control doctrine is a man-made doctrine.

Is there any difference between using a condom, or a birth control pill, and having a Man simply pull out before he ejaculates? Is pulling out before ejaculation a form of contraception? Of course it is. So birth control isn’t something that Rome is against, obviously. But they are if birth control involves a gizmo or pill, and it’s made public knowledge that Catholics use it. The Catholic Church is hypocritical on so many issues, but especially on this one. Why do they allow any man and woman to get married if they don’t plan on having children (“Be fruitful and multiply”)?

Now as far as Mika Brzezinski is concerned, she is a Catholic. I am a recovering Catholic (one day at a time, fingers crossed). She stated this morning that she believes that this issue is about Health Insurance Coverage and is not a cultural or religious issue. She also said that she believes in contraception, as do most Catholics. I agree with Mi……

I can’t even type it. I’ll try again. I agree with Mika Brz……. Nope, couldn’t do it. One more time. Deep Breath, Heavy Sigh.

I agree with Mika Brzezinski. THERE. I said it. She actually gave this some thought. She also talked to the White House, as a reporter, to get their statement on what was intended by this recent decision. She is not pro-choice and she knows that this is not about abortion. This whole argument is about two things. First, the right wingers want any chance they can to distort the facts and claim that President Obama is forcing Catholic Hospitals to provide abortions. Second, the Catholic Church doesn’t want the laid back approach that most Catholics have to contraception to be well-known. It diminishes the churches power, and exposes their lack of it.

Joe Scarborough and speaker of the house, John Boehner (get real, it’s pronounced BONER, NOT BAYNOR), need to check the right wing conspiracy shit at the door. The saddest part of all of this is that most American’s will only hear the filtered media frenzy of the right wingers and never do their own research to figure out what is really going on. The truth, I mean.

So today is the day I agreed with Mika Brzezinski. I will be watching the skies for meteors, comets, and asteroids.

99 Weekers – Enough is Enough !!

Apparently I lost my job at the wrong time.  It was 2007 when I was let go without notice, and without real reason.  It was devastating.  I’m single, live alone, and have no other source of income, other than my job.  I got the standard six months of unemployment and then nothing.  I was out of work fo 18 months.  Living alone is expensive.  There is no one with whom to share the expenses of maintaining a household.

I almost lost everything.  Including my sanity, my self-respect, my self-confidence, and a reason to go on living.  My car was repossessed, I was on food stamps and I sent out hundreds upon hundreds of resumes.  If it wasn’t for the good will of family and friends, I never would have made it.  On top of just living expenses, I have some chronic medical issues.  At one point, a doctor refused to see me anymore unless I paid something on my balance. 

Eventually I found a job.  It paid literally half of what I was making at my previous job.  So now I make barely above what would be considered poverty level.  The last time I earned this little of a salary, it was 1992.  Gas was about $1.25 a gallon and so was milk.  I could buy a brand new Honda Accord, well-equipped, for about $17,000.  That same car today is about $25,000.  The math doesn’t make sense.  Salaries have gone nowhere for years but prices have sky-rocketed. 

So these people who have been out of work, and on unemployment for 2 years should just SHUT THEIR MOUTHS and be thankful for what they got.  It may sound heartless, but I don’t care.  I had to take a less than ideal job making half of what I made before, and so should you.  Take any job you can find; even if it means flipping burgers part-time.  Just because you can’t get a job “in your field” doesn’t mean you can’t work.

I just can’t imagine being out of work and getting a check from the government for TWO YEARS, and then complaining that the government is leaving you out in the cold for not extending your benefits EVEN FURTHER.  SHUT UP AND GO FIND A JOB.  Or start asking your family and friends for handouts.  Because you’re not using MY TAX DOLLARS to sit around on your ass anymore.

That’s my opinion and I’m a liberal democrat.  This isn’t about partisanship.  This is about real life.

Why this country is turning to shit

I wrote a restaurant review about a little place in my neighborhood.  I wrote that first piece about a year and a half ago; June 2009.  Since that first review, and the two subsequent reviews (I’m not a journalist but even I know you have to experience something more than once to write a credible review) the comments have come flying in.  Most of them trying to belittle me for not liking this restaurant.

People seem to have a problem distinguishing what an “opinion” is.  Moreover, they seem to have a problem with individuals expressing their opinion.  Just about every comment had direct, or indirect, language that insinuated I don’t have a right to my own opinion.   Yet no one saw the ludicrous nature of these comments.  A comment from a dissenting point of view is fine, but when you comment on the quality of the “chicken fingers” at a self-titled  authentic” Italian restaurant, I think we’ve veered off track, just a bit.

I simply gave my opinion about a restaurant that I think is sub-standard. If other people think differently, and accept the food from this place as “good” then that is THEIR opinion.  If people wish to tout the wonders of Stugazzi’s, they should start their own blog rather than taking shots at me for my opinion.  We have something called the U.S. Constitution that guarantees my right to free speech.  You should read it sometime.

The reaction to these posts is reflective of the bigger picture.   After my 3 posts about the restaurant,  I wrote an article on Tyler Clementi, the 18 year old college freshman who committed suicide because two very mean classmates “outed” him in a live online video.  Nobody commented on that article.  But when I had the audacity to question the authenticity of Chicken Fingers being authentic Italian cuisine, the public was OUTRAGED.

I don’t know if the public is distracted or stupid.  Do they simply WANT to be distracted so as not to deal with the realities of the world?  Or are they so dumb, and so self-centered, that the most important thing to them is sticking up for their local pizza joint.  In my opinion, you have a personal and moral responsibility to right social wrongs before wasting time commenting on the wait staff at the local “choke and puke”.

So why is this country turning to shit?  Because no matter what, it’s all about ME, ME, ME.  This country is filled with selfish, self-centered, dumb people who care only for what’s in it for them, and how they can vent their rage.

I know what it is like to feel beaten down.  I lost my job and was out of work for 18 months.  I was alone, meaning I don’t have a partner in life to help me through the tough times.  My car was repossessed and I was within days of being evicted from my apartment.  I was refused food stamps because I had not proven that my car was repossessed.  When I finally proved it, there was a hearing.  In that hearing it was decided that I took too long and I must have been hiding something.  So I was denied assistance.  Do you now how difficult it is to prove that you DON’T own something.

But I’m still here.  I”m still writing.  I’m still helping the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan by sending them packages of things they need that the government won’t provide.  I don’t earn much money anymore, because there are so few jobs where I live.  I would relocate in a minute if I could come up with the money to do it.  I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got.  I’m falling behind, and falling through the cracks, but I’m still here.

My point is (and if I wrote this piece properly I would’t have to tell you what my point is) that even through hardships, the way to stay sane is to give of yourself to something or someone else.   America is supposed to be a charitable nation.  I just don’t see it.  That’s not to say there aren’t good Americans doing good things with their time and money.  But charity is not pervasive in our culture.

And I can prove it.  Again, I’ve written hundreds of posts on this blog but I will focus on two:

Restaurant Review for Stugazzi’s in Springvale, Maine – 27 Comments and over 1300 viewers

Tyler Clementi – A personal memorial –  Zero comments and 5 viewers.

That’s America.  We’ll stick up for our fried chicken fingers before we’ll stick up for gay people who are so isolated they feel the only way out is to kill themselves.

And that, my friends, is why the Tea Party candidates will probably win in many elections across the country on November 2.  The Tea Party knows how to distract Americans.  All the Tea Party has to do is shake the shiney keys in front of the babies.  The shiney keys are fear, hate, and lies.  The shiney keys are “nobody in Washington cares about you” and “they’re gong to raise your taxes” and “big government” and “spending”.  And the babies are you.

Americans will eat this shit up because they are too dumb to think for themselves.  And nobody wants to make tough decisions.  They’d rather defend their chicken nuggets than their neighbors.  And that’s why this country is turning to shit.

Superbowl abortion commercial

Apparently, some former “mass of tissue” is going to star in a TV commercial that speaks out against abortion.  This “mass of tissue” is glad his mommy didn’t have an abortion.  I’m not so sure.  I say, when in doubt, ABORT, ABORT ABORT.

I hate to break it to you son, but your Mom wasn’t strong, she was weak.  She gave in to her conscience.  Some may think “Hey, had this woman aborted her mass of tissue then the mass would not have grown up to become a football player”.  I say, “all this football player did was grow up and try to divide the country, culturally, on one of few days in a the year where the country comes together to watch a sporting event”. 

I don’t think the left wingers should be mad and I don’t think they should protest.  I think they should run their own ad on Superbowl Sunday with a picture of the “mass of tissue” and the copy should say “if you don’t have an abortion, this is what you’re going to get.”

Will Obama’s legacy be a disappointment?

I have been so disappointed over Obama and his Presidency.  I still like the man.  But I am angry at what has happened and what has NOT happened.  I have this sense of abandonment.  I feel like someone pulled the wool over my eyes.  I keep looking for reasons to NOT write him off.

But then I watched “By the People”, an HBO documentary about the election of Barack Obama.  I suddenly realized that if you listen to his early speeches on why he wanted to be President, he has not faltered from that.  He spoke of running this country without the fear tactics of the Bush Administration, he spoke about running this country without the distractions that are all too common in all Presidencies, and he spoke about correcting the image of America around the world and correcting the disastrous foreign policy of the Bush Administration that took America one giant step backward in the big game of political hopscotch.  I was ready to pick up my stone and my chalk and go home. 

“By the People” reminded me that Barack Obama’s launch into the political stratosphere was hard-fought and based on truth.  Modern political campaigns are long and exhausting.  What may start as a few simple ideas to define any candidate and his platform, end up with a mountain of campaign platform ideas.  The more the candidate fields questions from the incessant 24 hour press, the more his platform expands until every single backer of that politician can identify with several of the candidate’s “opinions” .  For example, Barack Obama did not promise an end to “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” early in his campaign.  That came about later when he was pressed for a position.  But now, the gay community is overwrought with anger and feelings of betrayal.  I’m sure Barack Obama believes in what he said – he wants to eliminate that policy.  But is it now or was it ever the bottom row of his political pyramid?  I don’t think so.  Health care reform, yes, gay rights, no.

So after taking a long, hard look at where Barack Obama is today, just 10 months into his Presidency, I don’t feel so let down.  Barack Obama has always wanted his Presidency to be about Us, not about him.  He has always wanted the American people, and by default our representation in Congress, to participate in this democracy.  It is not just Barack Obama and his own agenda that should lead the country, it should be the country that leads his agenda.

Yesterday, I listened to Barack Obama’s eulogy at the memorial services for the victims at Fort Hood.  Not only did this man meet with every family of the people who were killed, and not only did he meet with the individuals who survived but were injured, he was late in giving the eulogy because he refused to cut his visit with these victims and their families short.  He knew why he was there.  He was there to express grief and condolences on behalf of the people of the entire United States.  And when he finally did give his speech, he mentioned each of the victims by name, every single one of them.  He didn’t just say their names; he told us all a little bit about each one of them.

As I listened, I realized that this is what an American President is supposed to be.  Honorable, honest, caring, empathetic, and strong.  He proved to me in those moments that we can turn to him during difficult times and he will lead the way.

In reality, it is too soon to evaluate what Barack Obama’s presidential legacy will be.  I was fearful that in my own disappointment, I would jump on the bandwagon and become an Obama detractor.  While I don’t agree with everything he has done, or NOT done, I still support this man and trust that he will bring America out of the cold, dark place we are in; and lead us into the light.  No President, and no Presidency is perfect.  I think that all we can hope for in a President is honesty, intelligence, hard work, and compassion.  I’m glad we have that.

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are fired

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins don’t care about your health.

Mainers think that we have elected these women to represent us, our issues, our needs, and our views in a legislative body that governs our Country.  It would be awfully nice if that were true; that they actually listened to their constituency and spoke on our behalf in Congress.  But that is not at all what is happening. 

Why do certain individuals run for public office?  I would think it would be because the individual believes he or she can offer good ideas, new ideas, to solve the problems of our nation and to better the lives of the people in it, especially the people from the State they represent.  But more often than not, voters are left scratching our heads and thinking “what are these people thinking, that’s not what we want”.

People in Maine are suffering.  They need to see doctors, dentists, specialists, mental health professionals, surgeons, and the list goes on and on.  Maine is no different from any other State but Maine is where I live so that is what I will speak to.  In a million years I never thought I would find myself in a position where I did not get the health care I need because I simply can not afford it.

Senators Snow and Collins earn about $170,000 a year, this year.  They are also entitled to lifetime benefits after serving for just five years, including health insurance and a pension.  Members of Congress are eligible for a pension when they reach the age of 50 if they’ve completed 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after completing 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62.  When they retire, they are eligible to receive an annual salary equal to as much as 80% of the three highest grossing salary years.  So even if their ONLY income was that of their Senator salary they could retire after 5 years in some cases and earn about $136,000 a year, EVERY YEAR, IN RETIREMENT.  They ALSO  have choices in health care too numerous to even begin to explain on this page.

What’s the bottom line?  Senators like Snowe and Collins don’t have to care what happens to you and your family.  They don’t care if you have health care.   They just have to last long enough to retire with a government pension.  And the more years they are a Senator, the bigger their pension will be.  So they do everything they can do to keep the contributors happy so that the Senators can spend lots of money to get re-elected, so that the Senators can continue to amass a fortune.  And if you are interested to see what a Federal Employee’s health insurance plan looks like, click here

So while Maine’s portion of the 47 million uninsured in this country continue to suffer, and while untold numbers of “under-insured” citizens in the State of Maine continue to go bankrupt and live in poverty because of health care costs, Senators Snowe and Collins don’t worry about such trivial things.  They need those campaign contributions from the health care industry, and will do anything to keep those contributions coming, so that each of them can stay in Congress as long as possible, to receive lifetime health benefits and Pension benefits that are a crime when compared to the CITIZENS THAT ARE PAYING FOR THESE BENEFITS.  Yes, it all comes out of your tax dollars.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that our illustrious government representatives get an AUTOMATIC cost of living increase unless they elect NOT to let it happen.  What would you do if every year your salary would be adjusted upward for a “cost of living” increase unless you got all of your co-workers together and “voted” not to accept the increase.  Pretty nice gig, huh?

When the first Continental Congress was formed, Benjamin Franklin proposed that elected officials not be paid for their service.  In the end, that obviously did not happen.  But why do U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives earn more than the national average salary.  That’s what they should make, about $40,000 to $45,000 per year. That’s the average salary of all the workers in the United States.  As for health care and pension benefits, they don’t work harder than anybody else and don’t deserve more than the people they represent.  So they certainly should not get more in benefits that the average U.S. worker.   Congress doesn’t even work a full year like the rest of us.  The MOST number of days that a Senator like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins would work is 153 in 2009.  Subtract from that the trips they take paid by the taxpayers, or trips they take paid for by lobbying firms, and then they get so many days off to campaign if it is an election year; what do we have left.  I don’t even know the answer.  Nobody will tell me the truth.  HOW MANY DAYS TO YOU WORK, MS. SNOWE?…MS. COLLINS?….ANYBODY?

This government was designed to be for the people and by the people.  Right now, “the people” are hurting and struggling.  Yet Senators like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins have a gross take home pay of about $3,270 a week.   A WEEK.  But that number only applies if they actually work every week.  They don’t.   Again, the 2009 schedule calls for Senators to work 153 days.

Nothing I am saying here is new information.  I am just saying that something has to change.  If you took all of the money out of politics, you would be left with people who are there because they want to be there, and want to make a difference.  Instead, we are stuck with people who make a lot of money, amass retirement benefits and life long health insurance, and yet the country is suffering.   Don’t you remember reading the book “Animal Farm” in junior high school?

Olympia Snowe has said that she doesn’t trust any “government-run” health care system.  But she sure trusts the government enough to funnel my tax dollars into her paycheck, her pension, and her own health plan.

Like I said, Maine’s so-called “moderate” Senators are probably no different from any other Senators.  But I can only speak about Maine Senators because that’s where I live.  We all wish they were in it for the right reasons.  But when Maine’s Senators don’t want Maine citizens to have universal health care, for all, I have to wonder why they are our Senators.  What do they think they are accomplishing for us, and why are they financially benefiting so much for doing nothing except saying “no”.  I have no idea what these women are “for”.  I only know what they are against.  At this point, they are against me; and you.

Since Snowe and Collins work for me (I help pay for their salary) and they have not fulfilled their obligations to me, I am firing them effective immediately.

Olympa Snowe is a two-faced phoney on the Public Option

I did not know this until recently so I won’t fault anyone else for not knowing it either:  Triggers are nothing more than a way for a bill to die a slower death.

In the history of our Congress, “triggers” have almost always been ignored.

So all the talk from Olympia Snowe that she is so fair-minded and fiscally responsible that she can ONLY back a health care reform bill in the form of a trigger is a bunch of bullshit.  Adding a trigger to the bill is a simple way of killing the bill without having the balls to say you are killing the bill.

Here’s how Triggers work:  If a bill it not really supported by Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, these Senators and Representatives put a Trigger option in the bill, meaning that if certain criteria don’t come to fruition, then someone can “pull the Trigger”.  The problem is that the Trigger is never pulled.

Here’s an example:  One trigger came about in 1973.   At that time Congress enacted the War Powers Resolution. It gave the president 90 days after the start of any armed conflict to receive congressional authorization. If no such authorizations were granted, troops would be required to come home. Congress has never once imposed a 90-day deadline on any military action.

I live in Maine.  Olympia Snowe certainly doesn’t represent me in the U.S. Senate, although I pay her to do so.  She is representing her own interests.  According to the Huffington Post, Snowe has received more than one million dollars in campaign contributions from the health care industry.  I’ll say it again.  Snow has received more than ONE MILLION DOLLARS from the heath care industry.  Does that sound like incentive to PASS health care reform, or reject health care reform.  Susan Collins is no different so don’t be fooled by her either.

So this is why Ms. Snowe feels so adamant about having the public option be ONLY a trigger.  So it looks like she’s voting FOR health care when if fact she knows the trigger will NEVER happen, it never has before.  She is a cop-out, a coward, and does not represent the constituency in Maine.  She is nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  She like  her power right where it is and will do anything to keep it.

If Olympia Snowe really wanted some sort of health care reform, then we’d already have it.  Again, I live in Maine.  I am underinsured.  I have called her office and got nothing but the run-around.  She doesn’t represent the people of Maine who pay her salary.  But the people of Maine don’t understand the nuances of politics.  Mainers are straight shooters, and unfortunately believe that Snowe, and Collins for that matter, are as well.  But they are not.

Call Olympia Snowe‘s office.  They won’t tell you what she thinks or how she’ll vote because she is a coward.  But you can tell them what YOU think and what YOU want.  If we, as her constituency, don’t stick up for ourselves, then we have no one to blame but ourselves.  I beg you get involved in this health care debate or you will lose.  Even those with health care will lose.  Stop the insanity. And the lies.

Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins – Maine’s phony Senators

As a citizen of Maine, I have called the offices of both Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins on several occasions.  For some reason these two women get some sort of credit for being moderate Republicans.  What the hell is a moderate Republican.  Considering that Snowe and Collins are the only two Republican representatives in Congress from all six New England states, one might think that Moderate Republican means a Democrat.  And now that Olympia Snowe has voted to allow the Baucus Healthcare Reform Bill to move forward to the full Senate, she has somehow become more important than she was yesterday.  Saint Snowe.  I don’t think so.  And apparently others are questioning it as well.    Everyone thought she would have a seat at the next bargaining table up the chain.  She won’t.  And she doesn’t deserve it.

On Tuesday, October 13, 2009, after the Senate Finance Committee sent the Baucus Healthcare Reform Bill to the full Senate, Snowe was touted as the focal point of the entire health care debate.  The truth is that the Finance Committee didn’t need her vote.  The vote was 14 to 9, but without her, it would have been 13 to 10.  Still a win for the Democrats in my estimation.  So all we really got was the appearance of bi-partisanship because ONE Republican vote yes.

My last phone call to Stowe’s office was about a month ago.  I asked what her position was on Healthcare.  I got the standard answer, which wasn’t an answer at all.  “What is your position on healthcare?” was all I got.  That and “Senator Snowe hasn’t come up with her final position yet”.  Really!?  The whole country is fighting for or against health care reform but Senator Snowe from Maine hasn’t decided what her position is yet?  I don’t understand why these Senators can’t just state a position.  I pay your god damned salary so TELL ME WHAT THE HELL YOUR THINKING!

I know, now, that I received no answers because there were no answers.  She voted “yes” on October 13, but as she said “today is today”.  Meaning, “don’t count on me for anything – I’m going to hedge my bet and see which answers will get me re-elected”.  I don’t care about your orphaned, rags-to-riches background, I really don’t.  You are there for six years at a time to represent ME.  When are you going to start?

I know so many people in Maine that don’t have health insurance and are suffering…badly.  And those that do have it don’t have very good health insurance, just like me.  I have coverage, but it doesn’t cover what I need it to cover.  So even with insurance my monthly expenses for medical bills and prescriptions are slowly and methodically driving me to financial ruin. 

Having said that, Olympia Snowe can’t possibly be representing her constituents accurately because if she was, she would be on her hands and knees begging other Republicans for a National Health Care System with a single payer.

Snowe is betting that there are enough rich Republicans in Maine who don’t want universal health care to re-elect her.  That’s it, that’s all.

Senator Collins is another story.  Well actually, no it isn’t.  It’s the same.  Collins is on the Insurance Industry payroll just like all the others.  Her public statements, both written and oral, have indicated she is flat out against what she calls a “Washington-run” health care system.  She is also against any single payer system.   Well, she is part of “Washington”.  Is she saying that she doesn’t trust herself not to run a corruption-free universal health care system?  Or is she saying that she can’t vote FOR health care reform because she can’t afford not to get campaign contributions from Aetna, Unum, or Blue Cross, all of whom have a big presence in Maine.  The answer?  Both.

I have called Senator Collins’ office many times as well.  I’ve asked what her position is on healthcare.  I get the same thing – “What is YOUR position on health care and I will relay that message to her”.  Here we go.  Another one of my “employees” who won’t tell me what her position is on health care reform.  I don’t know how the hell this woman got re-elected in 2008.  She’s sitting pretty now and must owe here contributors a LOT of favors.  Every time I watch her on television in an interview, she is cagey, evasive, and can’t seem to come up with just one straight answer; everything is hedged.

I dont’ believe that Senators Collins and Snowe should have health insurance for themselves, paid for by me, until all of the citizens of Maine have the same opportunities that they do to get coverage.  Why is this such a bad idea?  I pay their salaries.  She has one of the richest insurance plans available.  And I am going broke trying to pay for my medical expenses. 

Collins and Snowe:  You were elected by the people and for the people.  It’s time you did your jobs.  Listen to the citizens of Maine, not your own opinions and re-elections tactics.  You are in Washington to represent us, not yourselves.

Until you both give up your healthcare in solidarity, and until at least every Maine citizen has affordable, universal health care, I will continue to call you out, and call you nothing but phony.   You don’t know how lucky you are that the people in Maine who DON’T follow politics simply  recognize your name and pull the lever on Election Day.

Where’s my stimulus?

I hear this question all the time.  “If the government can give banks billions of dollars, why can’t they give average American’s a bailout?”.

Well, it’s true.  I hear these unimaginable dollar amounts being talked about, and given out, to Banks, Auto Companies, and god knows who else, and it seems everyone and their brother is getting money, but no me.

It was just announced that Wall Street will give out 140 some odd billions of dollars in BONUSES.  It’s sickening.  I am driving a 14-year-old car that has a trunk that leaks so badly I get 6 to 8 inches of standing water in my trunk every time it rains.  The air conditioner doesn’t work, and it’s starting to rust out.  This car did not qualify for “Cash for Clunkers” because it supposedly gets more miles per gallon than the government cut-off of 18 mpg to qualify for the program.

The average car price now, is about $22,000 dollars.  And that’s for a regular old standard sized American and Japanese cars.  I’ve learned over the years that when you buy a used car, no matter how much you know about cars and no matter how much you know what to look for, you are always buying somebody elses problems.  Otherwise they wouldn’t be selling the car.  How many people sell a car that they like and that runs great. 

So all I want out of the trillions of dollars being shuffled about this country from one place to another to a bunch of people who don’t deserve it, is my $22,000 to go buy a decent car.  If I were able to get that money and buy a car, the first person that benefits is the car dealer, and its employees.  Then, I would be way more likely to go on road trips like I used to do.  I don’t take road trips now because I don’t trust my vehicle.  But if I go on a road trip, then restaurants, motels, retailers, liquor stores, supermarkets, gas stations, and their employees, all benefit from me spending money.  It’s called the economy, stupid.   Giving money away to people who already have money doesn’t stimulate shit.  The rich will just have bigger bank accounts but they won’t spend more than they spend now.  To grow the economy, there must be a GROWTH in spending, not the status quo.  Plus if I got a new car, I wouldn’t be contributing negatively to climate change.  Cleaner vehicles are good for the environment regardless of whether you believe in climate change or not.

We hear all about deficits and debt.  But there is still enough money in this country, controlled by the top 10 percent of all Americans, to pay off America’s debts.  So don’t tell me the country is falling apart.  The rich are STILL getting richer and the poor are still getting poorer.  I’m just trying to make it to the middle class.

Bail me out!  Stimulate me!

Lyndsey Graham should be careful about denouncing Glenn Beck

The liberal media, with whom I usually agree, missed the point.   South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham appeared before a group of Washington media and was asked what he thought of Glenn Beck, the Fox News crybaby.  Graham referred to Beck as a cynic, crazy, and not part of the Republican Party.

The liberal media gave Graham props for being the first Republican to formally denounce Beck and his hate-filled speeches about President Obama being a racist and hating white America.  No less that 64 advertisers have pulled out of Beck’s show because of his comments.  But I digress.

Senator Graham needs to be careful.  Because Glenn Beck is crazy enough to “out” Lindsey Graham as a big homo.  Graham already looks like a dike in drag, which seems kind of the reverse of what it should be, but nonetheless, it’s true.  I have thought, and many others have thought, that Lindsey Graham is a closeted homosexual since the first time I ever saw him.  I don’t care if he is one way or another.  What I care about is hypocrisy.

Lindsey Graham has been part of the Republican “family values” movement for years.  The movement’s platform includes anti-gay-marriage, anti-abortion, anti-universal health care, etc., etc.  He’s against gay marriage, gay adoption, and gay rights, all in an effort to make sure “people out there” know how much he is against homosexuality.  Me thinks he doth protest too much.