GOVERNMENT GOES BOTH WAYS!

Seniors and those in need of assistance were recently informed that the annual Cost Of Living Adjustment, COLA will not go into effect this year. That means that anyone collecting Social Security will not get the tiny raise in benefits they have been getting at the start of next year.

The reason COLA will not take effect according to the government is, simply put there has been no inflation and therefore no need to for increased payments.

But at the same time Medicare premiums paid monthly by many of the same people not getting a COLA on their Social Security will rise by as much as 53% next year or from $104 to $159.30!

The reason given by the Republican controlled House of Representatives (remind me just exactly who do they represent?) is rising healthcare costs.

Those two statements are obviously at odds with each other but neither the first time nor the last time anomalies such as these will be used against the middle class.

On Long Island the energy industry friend Long Island Power Authority, LIPA is allowing and about to implement a rate hike of 9% over the next three years.

They claim this is necessary due to a shortfall in the budget caused by a drop in sales tax revenue.

By the way the reason the sales tax revenue is down is because Long Islanders cannot afford to buy as much as in previous years due to lower incomes and rising costs.

The American Association of Retired Persons, AARP says LIPA is using ‘fuzzy math’ to make their case.

All the arguments used by those in power sound legitimate when taken by themselves but when put together start to smell of lies, greed and corruption.

In college logic courses they teach syllogisms which are generally two or three statements put together that sound logical but will cause the listener or reader to pause and think, wait what?

For example:

The American buffalo is a vanishing animal.

That animal is an American buffalo.

Therefore it is vanishing!

Or one of my favorites:

News of Russian aggression is no news.

And since No News is Good News,

News of Russian aggression is good news!

Business owners started using the double standard tactic a while ago too.

They claim no raises will be given because business is down and the economy is terrible.  They also moan about the increased costs in health care as reasons for dumping more of the costs on the individual.

So the worker gets less money in his/her paycheck but has to use the less money to pay for higher healthcare costs etc.

But what costs are going up?  Surely they’re not salary related since no business is giving raises so what is causing this?

Could it just be general inflation?

No, that cannot be because inflation is so low that those on Social Security will not be getting a COLA!

The bottom line is if you can figure out two sides to any financial story and you want to feed the information to the public use them both but make sure the middle class gets the short straw!

Sipmle Social Security Solutions for Solving Solvency

Medicare premiums will most likely be going up for those in higher earnings brackets.  Basically the idea is those who can afford to pay a bit more for the services provided under the system should do so.

I have mixed emotions on this but mostly favor it since this country is after all the UNITED States of America and we must all hang together or, as Ben Franklin hinted we shall surely hang separately.

But lumping Medicare and its possible future monetary woes with the Social Security administration’s possible future shortfalls is unfair and disingenuous. And using the one word unfair definition of entitlement is just plain wrong.

Medicare is a program designed to help the aging with incumbent increased medical costs and it has worked well for decades.

It is a sort of gift we give ourselves as we age and the rug should not be pulled out from those in need just because lawmakers in DC have squandered funds elsewhere.

These elected officials allowed our tax payer dollars to be thrown into black holes such as two illegal immoral and unwarranted wars.

Then they handed over vast fortunes of our money without any strings attached to financial institutions that had gambled with and lost THEIR money!

So after those wonderful events America has nothing to show for a decade of governmental stupidity except tens of thousands of dead or disabled soldiers and millions of out of work or underpaid citizens.

This while an ever increasing ruling class comprised of the wealthiest people in the country, including many from the same financial institutions we had to bail out control the conversation in Congress!

But while these attacks continue what can we do to ensure the future solvency of Social Security.

This wonderful program can easily survive without any changes at all but could be even more secure with just a few tiny tweaks that would be painless to nearly everyone.

But with or without these fixes the right wing of the Republican Party, which is arguably a wholly owned subsidiary of the top 1% earning class of America, will continue to claim the entire program is headed for bankruptcy.

In one real sense their lies are comedic since that same right wing group has hated Social Security since inception and would love for it to be doomed to bankruptcy.  After all the more people who become and remain poor the wealthier they can feel by comparison.

I hereby submit for your approval five easy pieces to stop future worries about Social Security.

1. Get rid of the income ceiling for social security deductions.
1. This most egregious slap in the face of the lower wage earners must go
2. The small amount taken from paychecks should not hurt those in the higher brackets
3. Current salary limit of $113,700 means wealthy earners essentially get a raise for being wealthy!
4. We are one nation etc. and should all pull our weight.
2. No one should be allowed or forced to take Social Security payments if they are still working and earning above a certain income level.
1. More and more people are working into their 80s and many are earning nice money thank you.
2. States should set the earning limits

                     i. Those who reside in New York or California are faced with much higher costs of living than those in States such as Arkansas etc.

                     ii. COL adjustments should be reviewed yearly so as to alter fair amounts.

3. Social Security should be considered as income.
1. The income must be reported on tax returns even after retirement
2. Social Security income added to investment income should be taxed as ordinary income for all recipients
4. In the off chance an individual does not wish to collect his or her social security payment they should be allowed to decline it
1. The amount of the payment they are entitled to (yes, entitled!) should be used as a charitable deduction on their tax return
2. Money not paid out to entitled recipients must remain in the Social Security coffers to offset future needs
5. People who continue to work past the age of 70 do not receive an increase in their retirement payouts from Social Security BUT
1. The Social Security payroll deduction should continue regardless of age or salary
2. The amount of the payroll deduction for workers past age 70 may be reduced by an amount set by the State in which the worker resides.

                                        i. However Federal limits will apply.

All laws and programs in America are constantly reviewed for current relevancy and Social Security should not be exempt from such scrutiny.
However simply because the very wealthy do not take advantage of a program or need to is no reason to end or vilify it!
If we as a nation start forgetting about the elderly or the poor or the needy we are heading down a dangerous path.
Which group will be next on the chopping block?

The 49 Staples

Several years ago, 98 to be exact a great thriller was penned and turned into a 1935 movie.  72 years later it became a Broadway play.

All three were called The 39 Steps.

On the screen it was directed by the great Alfred Hitchcock and starred, at the time equally great actor Robert Donat.

On the stage the thriller became a comedic mystery and ran for 4 years. (I saw it and enjoyed.)

All the above has absolutely nothing to do with the following blog post except for the similarity in names.

But both have a touch of the slight of hand necessary in any successful story, joke or movie.

In the business world it has always been important to keep a watchful eye on the bottom line.  After all it is, well the bottom line!

If your company does not make a profit and continue to do so it will eventually fail.

As a business owner you may use the rationale of cutting corners to save your company and thereby saving the jobs of your employees but truthfully there's a bit more selfish than selfless going around in that community these days.

And why not?

After all they started the business to make money and employees are merely tools to help them do just that.

One way companies turn a profit is offering something the public wants and can afford.

Another way to have a healthy bottom line is to make sure costs are kept in line.

And still another is to get the cheapest labor available and pay them less than they deserve while charging them for any benefit still offered and pushing any healthcare costs onto their backs.  And should they complain, well as long as the unemployment numbers are favorable you can always find someone else!

The wave of the future, make that the now in the business world is to stop chipping in on any pension or 401K retirement plan.

They are also dropping any spousal or family coverage from health insurance plans.

Some companies are even watching what their employees eat and quietly demanding they make healthier choices.  They are not doing this out of any concern for the employee but rather to lower costs on insurance as required by their actuarial bean counters and pencil pushers.

And finally we get down to the minutia or mind bending mindless micro managing mania most businesses are getting into so as to maximize perceived profit.

The tools of the trade must be protected and employees must account for everything they use.

I have spoken with and listened to workers who have slowly been struck by this trend and in order to do their jobs some must:

* Bring in their own pens.

* One gentleman told me he steals pens from a bank because his company no longer supplies them and he doesn't have that many at home.

* Sign requisitions for any supplies including pens, post-its and legal writing pads.  This from a legal secretary!! 

* Bring in your own monitor and keyboard because the only one the company would supply is filthy and disgusting and in need of tossing out of a very high window. This from a new salesman in the company.

* Use the back sides of every sheet of used paper that comes out of the printer rather than a new sheet.  Of course this means you better know which side of the sheet is the important one.  You have to stop and date each side and cross out the old items after use.

What these businesses are missing is the proverbial forest in and among those trees they make believe they are trying to save.

Productivity suffers when tools of your trade are inferior or hard to use or your employees have to worry about how many pens they need per month.

So finally would you like to get back to the title of this post and its relevance with the body?

Funny you should ask!

A stapler being used to attach tickets to our product ran out and I was asked to get replacements.

Count how many & win a prize?

I visited our supply lady and her reply was:

“How many?”

“Excuse me?” I said shaking my head.  “Uh, 49!  Just give me some please.” 

She opened the box took out a strip.

I grabbed it.

I believe there are 210 staples per row and I was not going to wait around for her to count!

There is no Hitchcock-like mystery here.

What’s going on is the simple insidious re-education of Americans who ‘don’t have’ by those who do in how to help the wealthy make and keep more money!

Corporate profit above people’s lives, livelihoods, and sanity has become a staple of nearly every industry.

And it’s being done one step at a time.

A Constant Struggle

Today’s news, all from the pages of Newsday.

911 Widow Wins Benefits.

Forget the actual story, what is important is that she had to win.

And against whom do you think she had to win?

She had to fight the insurance industry. Well actually not a new story but indicative of how they act and react when faced with the prospect of paying out on a policy they sold to the public who bought it and in good faith paid the premiums on.  And what goes unnoticed is it's now TEN YEARS after 911!

Some Long Islanders wrote letters, printed today railing against people who want the wealthy to pay more taxes.

These are average people who I assume do not make millions yet still fight the fight for the wealthy who, frankly wouldn't stop or stoop to close their eyes and place coins on them if they found their corpse in the gutter.

I don’t want the wealthy to pay too much, just their fair share and stop with the bullshit loopholes.

Among all his other crazy ideas such as calling for the death penalty for being gay Ron Paul is promising to eliminate the IRS if he wins the Presidency.

And just how will government run without any cash sir?

Oh I forgot, you don’t think government should run!

Can this tiny minded Anti-Semitic racist pig moron troll be more insane?

A new tactic on Long Island has turned up as thieves acting in pairs trick the elderly into letting them in to their homes by posing as new neighbors or electric company employees, etc. One chats with the owner and walks a little way away from the front door allowing his partner to gain entrance and rummage through the house undetected.

This is repulsive. Why can’t they rob and steal from the poor and middle class the honest way, they way most employers are doing it these days?

Business owners threaten unemployment or hint at it while demanding more hours and harder work in return for lower wages, less benefits and higher costs on health care.

They then reap the benefits of this nearly slave labor in excess profit and cry all the way to the bank about how business is down before heading out on another vacation.

A man had to sue his insurance company after he was forced to pay for a ‘well doctor’ visit that he was told would be fully covered.

I guess the agent who told him that had his fingers crossed behind his back!

According to the law, until the Republicans can repeal it insurance companies must fully cover ‘preventive care’ doctor visits and not even charge a co-pay unless something terrible is found and a procedure must be performed.

This tactic is the latest one by all insurance companies in their ongoing effort to totally screw the public.

No bill will be approved and no claim will be paid until and unless all possible avenues of obfuscation have been explored and the sheriff is at the door with a warrant to arrest the lying son of a bitch CEO with a separate subpoena for all of his records!

More letters in the paper from smokers who are angry at smoking bans.

HEY, in case you missed the news from a couple of decades ago SMOKING KILLS!

It kills the smoker which is fine but it also kills the innocent people around the smoker who inhale the vile second hand smoke.

And when the smoker uses the argument that there are other pollutants in the air so why only go after cigarettes the only possible answer is, WE’RE GOING AFTER ALL OF THEM YOU IDIOT! Now would you please going into a hermetically sealed room and light up!

And finally come the letters from those who are so angry at President Obama for ramming health care down their throats.

I almost do not know where to begin so I won’t.

But I would like to suggest that those people not opt in for any health care and then go out and smoke a few cartons of unfiltered cigarettes.

Then calmly drop dead somewhere not too close to an emergency room.

We wouldn’t want you to accidentally have health care rammed down your asinine throat!

I cannot wait for tomorrow's edition.

I need a drink!

Pessimistically Optimistic

Getting out of bed every morning is a little more painful each day. My back aches or my neck creeks or something hurts that didn’t the night before or shouldn’t no matter what.

My wife suggests we get a new mattress but I would prefer a new back!

Naturally that’s not covered in our world ruled by insurance companies and their puppets in government.

Those guys are the real pains although not necessarily in the back.

But I started thinking about how my life is generally ruled by costs when it comes to many things and in that way I guess I am normal.

(Me, normal? Nahhh!)

I don’t just buy the first new item that hits store shelves even if I want it or even need it. Like most others I tend to shop around or wait for coupons or some way to lower the cost before plunking down my hard earned cash.

And if you know me you also know my motto when it comes to discounts is, “30% off is still 70% on!”

So when I find a good price on something I also make a final determination of need.

I have become a slightly open-door closet pessimist in that I feel everything that can go right or wrong will tend to lean toward the latter first!

That philosophy is not as bad as it might sound since if you feel things will always go wrong you may occasionally be pleasantly surprised, although far less these days than you might believe.

I guess I have felt that way for a long time because in college I always expected a ‘D’ grade or worse so that when I got ‘C’ and above I was ecstatic!

Of course being a pessimist has its downside especially when you tend to be correct!

I mean if you think something bad is going to happen to you and then it does should you be happy and feel vindicated?

Using that logic I must be happy to have trouble rising in the morning.

But painful personal pessimism aside I would like to address our nation’s outlook on life as we know it.

More and more of our day to day lives is being ruled by that supposed bane of the Republican Party, big government. But contrary to their lip service mantra that is as it should be in a recession.

During hard times the people occupying the lower levels of the wage earning spectrum have more trouble making ends meet. Government programs such as unemployment insurance and free or low cost health care become life lines against financial ruin and even death.

But the problem is these people don’t tend to have a cohesive voice and definitely don’t have a powerful lobby through which to get their plights heard.

And thus they are an easy target for those in power to point to as financial drains on our economy.

Does anyone believe a Koch brother would offer a penny to save a sick poor man?

Alan Grayson famously put it more succinctly if in a less politically correct way with his “die quickly” label of the Republican healthcare plan.

But when the opposition to a fair policy for all Americans continues to chip away at every facet of our democratic ideals we the people are faced with a struggle beyond precedent.

We even lost an incredibly intelligent well spoken champion of all humans in the fight for fair and balanced health care when the Republican Party blocked President Obama’s appointment of Dr. Berwick as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.

Why you may ask would they do so?

Who is this awful terrorist wannabe that our leaders on the right feel must be booted out of existence?

Read about him – I cannot do this great man justice here.

Simple changes that go unnoticed have hidden agenda that turn out to be ways for the wealthy or big businesses to retain more profit at the expense of the individual.

For example the recent push to stop prostate screening for men until they have symptoms will negate the yearly PSA exams for millions. Proponents of stalling the test say it is a pain in the butt and could have false positives.

But a quick “light of day” exam of the motives of the proponents reveals a simple fact, the benefit to stopping those life saving blood tests goes directly into the pockets of the insurers.

Personally my first PSA exam was just as I hit 50 and lo and behold the discovery and subsequent treatment of what was found most likely saved my life.

Another huge savings of profit for the poor insurance industry is the lessening of mammogram frequencies.

What does the Republican Party have against women?

When the poor die due to a lack of quality health care they do so quietly. Their passing will not be announced as Breaking News on Fox. (This just in, a homeless and former Viet Nam veteran died outside the emergency room today saving tax payers thousands. Thanks Sarge! And now here’s Gretchen with other fun news.)

Naturally wealthy people pass away as well but if there is a ‘cure that money can buy’ rest assured they will not rest trying to find it before resting in peace!

One common thread in both of the above cases, insurance companies did not have to pay a penny.

Interesting?

Now all of these policy changes may be lumped under the heading of getting government out of your lives, making it less intrusive. Yet how does that square with the concurrent push for laws such as “personhood” which would allow the government to peer into a woman’s uterus at time of conception?

Zygotes of the fallopian tubes unite!

Clearly when it comes to the policy wishes of the Republican Party hypocrisy should be its middle name.

So why are so many average Americans still willing to vote for the phony party of family values? Why do so many voters tend to be masochists?

Remember, “What does a sadist do to a masochist – NOTHING!”

But in this case the sadistic tendencies of the ‘right’ are doing quite a bit to the electorate.

The middle class and poor have been used as wallets from which the wealthy and large corporations have dipped into as needed.

In order to get policies in place to help the majority of Americans it will take a touch less spending on foreign wars and defense as well as a bit more tax revenue overall.

Let’s see if we can help the lives and livelihood of the American voters as much as we appear to be trying to help the rest of the world. Don’t stop foreign aid but at least match it with the same fervor here.

And when it comes to taxes simple minded logic will say that a one dollar increase from three hundred million Americans should hurt less than a three hundred million increase from one guy! But anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that percentages of wealth will show the fallacy in that thinking.

The pessimist in me feels I may never be able to rise out of bed totally pain free again but a tiny optimistic voice is wondering if I could cure the pain for less than a co-pay large enough to fund the CEO’s next vacation home.

Oh well, it look as though I’m in the market for a new mattress! 

Service Denied - Drop Dead!

I was recently charged a $100 "Co-Pay" for a doctor visit because my new insurance is through the latest group of fraudulent sub-humans to make billions off the pain and suffering of others - Emblem!  (My quoted "Co-Pay" is $50 per visit but the tiny print states that they are allowed to charge me up to FOUR "Co-Pays" per doctor visit so as to pay less themselves.)
When I complained to the customer service people who work for Emblem, AKA leeches, I was informed that without my insurance I would have paid the doctor $1,370!
In other words I should blame the doctor and be thrilled I have Emblem!
Aside from the fact that it was quite unethical for the moron at Emblem to state that it was the doctor's fault that my bill was so high the care I received should have been nowhere near that cost.
When we Americans receive what is quaintly known as an EOB - explanation of benefits - from our insurance companies we should scrutinize the thing.
Doctors request far more than they expect to get since they know insurance companies will pay pennies on the dollar!  After all if they were to pay a fair amount they would not be able to make billions in profits every year and pay the board members such high bonuses FOR DOING NOTHING!
It is time to start a movement toward ridding the world of these despicable leeches who get their sick satisfaction and billions of dollars by denying sick people health care in order to line their own pockets.
Doctors and their labs must be enlisted in the movement as well so as to make the death of the unneeded middle men a reality.
If every one if us were to contact our physicians and ask them to make a deal I am certain we would all be better off.
Here's how it would work:
When we see a doctor he charges the insurance company, let's say $1,000 knowing full well that he contracted with them to only take $250 in payment for his services.
If we the people were to tell the doctor that we won't use insurance and offer $300 instead he or she would probably jump at the idea.  Of course it might take a little more explanation than I am putting forward here but you must get the idea.
The up-side of this for the medical practice would would be decreased staff time (and unfortunately number of staff members) to track and submit detailed records to the insurance company who will only reject the first draft anyway and cause the doctor to resubmit over and over again and wait months to get paid.
But if we the people make a deal with the Dr. and state that we would pay him the full amount on the spot he would be a fool not to accept!
Similar deals could be made with labs or through the doctor's practice and we the people would pay the doctor's office directly.
Yes we would be paying more than the current "Co-Pay" but think of the yearly savings on the health insurance bills to the insurance company and not ever having to hear them say, "not covered."
My yearly health costs once exceeded $21,000 and I am certainly not the highest paying idiot in the country.
Perhaps I have been lucky but even though I have had several surgeries these past few years I would have thousands of dollars more in my bank account had I made deals with the doctors rather than fork over money to insurance bastards, and that includes hospitalization!
An if you are afraid of being hit with unmanageable hospital bills in case you are laid up for an extended period of time you may assuage your fears by taking out far less costly disaster insurance.  These usually come with high deductibles but cost far less in premiums than the leeches like Emblem & Cigna & Blue Cross & Guardian etc. charge.
And many dead people would be alive today if they did not beg some heartless piece of slime bean counter to approve a lifesaving medical procedure only to hear those awful words, not covered.
"Sorry sir but you will now have to die because our CEO has a party planned on the Isle of Crete and cannot afford to pay for your surgery.  You should have taken out life insurance!  How could you be so heartless?  Your family will hate you for eternity!"
How long before the bastards at the life insurance companies start denying claims on dead ones by saying they died needlessly and would have been alive if they had better health care insurance?
In other words they will call every death due to their brethren's denial of service, suicide!  They may even split the profits.
I am certain if I told my doctor I would pay him 10% more than an insurance company would allow for services rendered he would consider accepting!  I am also certain if all of us did so the doctors would be fools not to accept.
I am also certain if the Republicans would stop their stonewalling and start acting human we in America could have had a public option for health care which would essentially kill the incredibly profitable FOR PROFIT insurance industry!
Doctors may not be saints but at least most of them are human!
The same cannot be said about ANY insurance company or corporation - No matter what morons like Willard Mitt Romney say!

Republicans’ Favorite Things

All together now:
2-4-6-8 who does our group
really hate?
HUMANS, HUMANS
SCREW HUMANS!

Men killed at lynchings

Or gang-bangers gunned down

Things that make liberals’

Smiles turn to big frowns

Anything we do that thins out the crowd

These I will praise with my words sung out loud

Dinner at clubs with the upper elite crust

Watching old unions go down and then go bust

Laws hurting middle class make me so proud

These I will praise with my words sung out loud

When we vote no

Millions do go

Without food or drink

I simply remember rich corporate friends

And of my great bribes I think

Homeless who just die

Or criminals we fry

Aliens kicked out

Minorities; bye bye

When with complete power we are endowed

Then I will praise with my words sung out loud

When we vote no

Millions do go

Without food or drink

I simply remember rich corporate friends

And of those great bribes I think!

My heartfelt sincerest apologies to
the wonderful Von Trapp Family &
the entire cast of The Sound of Music
for associating them with this song
and the awful anti-human political
party it purports to represent.

Will We Ever Again Hear GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL?

In soccer the goalie's main job is to deflect all shots and stop his opponent from scoring.
He is charged with the task of keeping others from attaining their goals.
Great goalies are world renowned and among the highest paid in their sport.
In America soccer has taken a long time to gain a foothold.
This is because we love high scoring events with prodigious offensive outbursts over defensive struggles that are considered boring.
And that's a shame because in many ways a good defense is the best offense.
A one on one match up between a forward and the goalie featuring a penalty kick is one of the most exciting plays in the game.
Tension mounts as the cool level-headed players face each other.
With striker and goalie intent on reading any sign of movement, any edge to anticipate, react and stop the other the crowd hushes.
One wishes to score, the other needs to stop him.
In an incredibly similar way our politicians have been playing this same game for years.
Unfortunately those in the vast but shrinking middle class have had their goals deflected more and more to the point where no one even talks about scoring anymore, merely surviving the game.
Republicans, and their well funded new arm in the T-Party have become the goalkeepers who have become quite adept at total deflection.
Think of what's going on in the country today:
Unemployment and under employment is at horrendous and dangerously high levels;
Corporations, many who received bailouts and are still receiving tax subsidies are reaping in the profits AND KEEPING THEM;
The only jobs our young college graduates can find are unpaid internships with these greedy fat corporations;
Anyone lucky enough to gain new employment does so at a lower rate with less benefits if any;
Health care costs and insurance premiums to supposedly cover those costs have increased through the roof with co-pays/co-insurance/deductibles and 'un-covered' treatments adding to the costs;
And health care insurance companies' profits rival those of big oil;
Our nation's infrastructure, the very roads upon which we travel or water mains through which we receive that precious liquid is falling apart;
BUT the news is filled with stories about NEXT YEAR'S REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT!
And the Republicans keep it thus by deflecting all eyes away from the current needs of the country.
These above noted needs if addressed and fixed would ultimately help all of us.
BUT THEY MUST BE DEFLECTED AT ALL COSTS if the 'right' is to have any chance of gaining total control of the government.
And if that happens they will be free to use their perceived mandate as license to further kill the middle class' former American dream.
This would seem to be un-American activities bordering on terrorism and yet they deflect our eyes by calling President Obama anti-American even questioning his citizenship!
DEFLECT!

No goal for you!

When the Democrats decry tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of the country the Republicans claim those people are the job creators and must not be harmed.
DEFLECT!!
When Speaker of the House Boehner accidentally allowed $17 Billion in spending for Pell Grants aimed at aiding education his entire party objected and stalled debt ceiling talks claiming runaway costs.
DEFLECT!!!
And when President Obama talks about adding revenue to the country's coffers in order to get us out of this terrible depression by asking the wealthiest Americans to merely contribute their FAIR SHARE Republicans claim class warfare and job killing policies.
DEFLECT!!!!
Speaker Boehner proudly proclaimed that he had been able to get 98% of what he wanted in the debt and deficit talks.  That is a fairly telling number which leaves 2%, the same number of Americans who are also left out of the tax rolls and go 'scot-free' during this social and economic crisis.
It has been said that what you don't know won't hurt you.
For years Americans did not know much about soccer.
Sadly we are learning about the great game in an interesting way, through the eyes of the deflecting goalies of the 'do-nothing' 'stop all progress at any cost' Republican Party.
They have turned our lives into a game for which they have written the rules and appear to be the referees.
And if someone has the nerve to point this fact out they will deflect by blaming Obama or saying something innocuous such as, "Lovely weather we're having!"  Of course they also deny Global Warming - AKA climate change but that's another deflection, I mean story.

GOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLL!

Unless and until we as a nation come to grips with this tactic and rise up to defeat it we will never score a goal  again, let alone be victorious.

And we and our children will be shut out of our own futures!

What's NOT in a Name?

For some reason John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and the rest of their contrary party call their opposition the Democrat Party.
One would have to assume that these gentlemen are too smart to continue making such a childish and stupid mistake.  Therefore one must also assume they are knowingly dropping the "IC" from the back end of the party's name.
Truth be told if either of the parties should have an 'IC' at the end it would be the party of Vitter, Ensign, Foley and on and on and on.
But this is not about the family values of the party of Family Values or the lack thereof since we all can agree both sides have their problems.  This is merely about name calling, or incorrect name calling in our political discourse today.
These leaders who drop the ic are doing so because they feel it is an insult to their opponents and they would rather insult them than work with them to heal the nation.
It has long been a tactic of criminals to point police in the wrong direction, fingering if you will a patsy to do the time for their crime.
It's a shame that Boehner's and McConnell's party has taken up that act.
And once again knowing how smart these gentlemen are it is surely an act.
Just about every legislation proposed by the majority party from 2008 to 2010 was filibustered by the opposition who seem to have taken that term to the highest extreme possible.
They have even opposed their own proposals which some would say is borderline insanity or flip-flopping at the very least.
But they did so knowingly and on purpose once they realized President Obama agreed with them.
Mr. McConnell hinted this would happen after he greeted the new President with a promise to do whatever it took to take him down.
It appears as though the "whatever it takes" threat includes the future of the American Middle Class and the entire world's economy.
Perhaps the President should come out and say he's for long life for all Republi party members.  That would cause a real dilemma on the 'right' right?
They party occasionally labeled the 'Party of No' has earned that moniker.
But in keeping with a tit for tat childish theme I hereby propose that the country respond to their dropping the 'ic' when speaking of the President's party and drop the "can" from the back end of their name.
To wit from now on let's call them the Republi Party.
It actually fits since 'can' is not in their psyche.
They are still the 'party of no' but now they are also the 'party of can't.'
Remember John Boehner ranting "HELL NO YOU CAN'T" on the House floor?
He didn't even care what the proposal was just that it was being brought forth by the duly elected President of the United States and he didn't like him!
The "Party of Can't" says you can't have an abortion no matter what.  That includes rape & incest. Forget the law of the land, they don't like it so you can't follow it. So there!!
Republi Governors and legislators across the nation are spending long hours and tax payer dollars figuring out ways to stop women from being able to follow the law.  They even have gone so far as to label Planned Parenthood as a terrorist group! Talk about insanity! (Please click the "Who needs medical care" link at the top right of the page for an important message and a funny video on this subject.)
And of course speaking of can't how about health care for all tax paying law abiding citizens of America?  The party's response - HELL NO YOU CAN'T!
The "Party of Can't" says no new taxes or any taxes for that matter on the wealthiest of the country!  Billionaires must be revered and taking any dollars away from them will hurt the economy and kill jobs! Whose economy; whose jobs?  THEIRS!
Want to balance the budget and lower the deficit?  Steal from the poor for crying out loud - they can't argue since they don't have money with which to do so!
The "Party of can't" says you can't have unions bargaining for higher wages or better benefits because that would hurt the wealthy business owners, who happen to be funding the "party of can't" in the first place.
And speaking of CAN'T what better representative as poster child for the opposition to everything human party than Eric CANTor?  Did you know that he stands to make a fortune (again) if America fails?
Talk about a conflict of interest!
WHAT A TREASONOUS SCUMBAG!
The list of "Can'ts" goes on and on but this blog post cannot so I'll let you add in the hundreds of others on your own.  Don't think you can? Trust me with a little thought Yes You Can!
Americans must wake up and smell not the coffee or even the tea but rather the stink coming from the right!
If we the people are ever going to get OUR country back from the childish "fingers in the ears" Republi Party and keep the American Dream alive for the disappearing middle class we must not allow them to gain the majority ANYWHERE!
Can we accomplish this?
HELL YES WE CAN!