Politics is The Same Everywhere

Nasty evil men used to stand in the shadows to do their dastardly deeds. They’d hide from the light of day and when caught they’d slither away. But it seems they all slithered to government.

They say all politics is local. That is true, but it’s also national and International and all of it is in dire need of fixing!

First local:

In Nassau on Long Island we are facing a $45M year end deficit that all sides claim is due to infighting. Republican county comptroller Mr. Maragos blames the shortfall on the minority Democrats failing to work with the current administration!

Does anyone sense a theme here?

Republican majority comptroller blames the Democratic minority for our woes on Long Island while in DC the Republican overall minority blames the Democratic majority for all the woes in the country!

So which is it gentlemen?

Clearly the Republican Party from local and all the way up to Federal levels wants it both ways and they want it at the expense of those who can least afford to pay.

At least on LI we must stop the finger pointing and start the handshaking! Get it done or get gone!

On Long Island they are in command but continue to give away the store to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.

At state level we see so many examples of new laws that border on draconian evil as to make us wonder what century we are living in, let alone year.

Women are just going to
line up for this procedure!

Rulings such as mandatory vaginal probes and ultrasounds if women of Virginia wish to avail themselves of a LEGAL abortion or even seek out medical advice are proof of a scary trend.

In Florida, Pennsylvania and many other states we see legitimate citizens being denied their Constitutional right to vote mainly because they are registered Democrats.

Of course the Republican governors of those medieval States claim possible voter fraud as the reason to target so many voters who coincidentally just happen to be Democrats.

But the fact that the instance of that type of fraud has been negligible for decades, unless you count their actions does not seem to enter into any argument.

And finally we come to the center of the web of evil, DC.

The minority Republicans continue to filibuster anything that might help the middle class while allowing the wealthy to continue their exorbitant and obscene existence.

On any given day you can witness one or more Republican Senator or Congressman trot himself out to a microphone and bemoan how President Barack Hussein Obama is handing the country over to one or another group that is out to kill us all and eat our babies.

Of course one Senator at least had the decency to proclaim that he would not do the job for which his constituents elected him. In January 2009 and continually since then he promised to do only one thing for four years, work his enormous tail and set of jowls off to see to it that President Obama would not get a second term.

It did not matter to this hypocrite whether or not Mr. Obama could be the best President the country ever had, he just wanted him out!

And the height of hypocrisy is the current Republican candidate for President, or as the media must call him until the convention, the Presumptive Nominee.

Presumptive is a great word for Willard Mitt Romney since he presumes to know what’s good for America all the while doing the opposite.

Textiles, my old industry is now a
mainstay everywhere
but in America

Would it be good to send American jobs to China?

Would it be good to take away affordable healthcare for Americans?

Would it be good for America to turn what’s left of our middle class into poverty level unemployed welfare cases?

And then would it be good to take away what rights the former middle class citizens still have so that they cannot vote anymore?

Would it be good for America to have you and your friends continue sending your vast wealth offshore so that you pay next to nothing in taxes to the country you claim to love so much?

Would it be good for America to turn over the keys to the United States of America to corporations in exchange for even more personal wealth?

Well the answer to that last question is one of the driving forces behind Mitt’s desire to be America’s first king!

The microcosm of government that is Long Island can show us a great deal about how politics works or does not but you have to view the large stage, the show that is Congress and the people who control it to get a real feel for how broken our system is.

And when I say the people who control Congress I am of course NOT speaking about the actual Congressmen and women we elected but rather the billionaires and special interest lobbies behind the curtain.

The unelected overlords who don’t even bother to whisper their demands in the ears of our elected leaders anymore are in full control of the country.

And with every bill, every decree, every law that is passed by DC we see the inequity of their choices.

When farm subsidies are altered so that only the wealthiest of corporate farms can benefit or when food stamp programs are cut and the savings handed over to those wealthy concerns we see the ugly underbelly that is Washington politics.

Or when big oil dumps millions of life killing barrels of Black Death into the Gulf of Mexico and gets nary a slap on the hand we see the long arm of special interest and the lack of power the individual has in his own life or livelihood.

They say in order to defeat corruption you must start by shining a light on it! We’re gonna need a bigger light!

We Need Replays Not Corrupt Umpires

Hi, my name is Bruce and I am a met fan.
"Hi Bruce."
I have been a fan for 47 years. I have lived through some bad times and some more bad times. I have seen a few years of good times but mostly it has been a bad ride. Still throughout it all I remain a fan. But for some reason baseball and New York in particular is not.
In the early days when they were truly so bad that the jokes, mostly based on fact were sayings such as, "Marv Throneberry was so bad that once he struck out and threw his helmet down and missed the ground!"
We have had our share of self induced pain and self inflicted losses but we were the perennial underdog and as such had and still have a loving and loyal following.
So why, after becoming a mainstream, old line team compared to some are the Mets still receiving such hatred from baseball umpires and the media?
The Mets suck so far this year and I use that term based on the amount of money spent to put this team together and the talent they supposedly field. Their batting coaches must be blind zombies because this team, like no other goes into a team wide slump for weeks at a time with seemingly no help.
And until recently an umpire could and would dump on the Mets ruling against them every chance he got on close plays without fear of an irate manager running out and jawing at him. Of course if looks could kill Randolph would have been in jail for murder many times over.
But the Met braintrust met and gave Willie the willies. He is now a more demonstrative manager, smiling, 'high-fiving' and yelling and doing so at the approproate time! He is finally showing some life. Now if only his team would.
And that brings me to my point. The Metsies can and do lose without any outside help, thank you very much. But they are trying (Lord are they trying) and still the close calls go against them. Perhaps if the team were sold to the Steinbrenners we could become part of that family's long heritage of deceipt, graft and intimidation and be a winner as well.
But that will thankfully not happen so as a last resort I ask how many times will an umpire make an obviously wrong call against the Mets before someone starts to question things?
In a game on May 30th against the L A Dodgers the Mets were leading by a single run late in the game. Cute and sweet little L.A. outfielder Juan Pierre hit a slow ground ball to Reyes at short. Knowing how fast the Dodger munchkin could run Jose Reyes made a great play and a hard fast accurate throw to first base to get the speedy Pierre out by a foot, according to every replay known to man. BUT before Pierre's foot came down on the base the umpire had already called him safe. Randolph even came out to argue so you have to know he was out. But Willie's wallet was alas empty and the play stood. As a result the Dodgers took the lead and eventually won the game.
Will anyone look into the finances of this crooked or terribly bad umpire?
Of course not.
Will he be reprimanded?
No way, Jose.
Will he have to split the money he got for making the call?
Probably. I would not be surprised to find out that the umps have a pool much like waitresses at a diner.
But even the New York papers did not mention the bad call. You see it went against the Mets. And coincidentally in favor of the Dodgers who's manager is a New York favorite, to some.
If that call was against the Yankees it would have been overturned. Don't believe me? Ask Carlos Delgado who hit a HOME RUN off the FOUL POLE at Junkee Stadium. After it was intially ruled a home run the bastards on the Yankees reminded the umpires of their obligations and they met for a conference. After deciding on how to divvy up the graft they turned and declared the home run a foul ball. (The joke was on them because their employer lost the game anyway, this time.)
Of course you also could go back to the play when that little bastard brat reached over the wall and interefered with a sure out in the Bronx. The bums were playing Boston and the ensuing home run changed the entire series around. Little Billy sat on the bench next to his steroid laden heroes the next day after the umpires ruled whatever way they felt helped the Yankees out the most.
I would love just once for baseball to look into a play like the Home Run foul ball or the "safe when he was out by at least a foot" play noted above and fire the culprits, making it public. Let the fans know that baseball is trying to clean up its act and it will not put up with such obviously bad calls. It is one thing to get it wrong but it is quite another thing to not care which way the play goes as long as you get paid for the call. Pretty soon all we will have to do is bid for the victory of every game and not bother putting on uniforms. Anyone care to guess who will then win every World Series?