The He Man Woman Haters Club

It would be in my personal best interest to never, ever meet John Boehner in person.  He would most certainly get the short end of the stick were that meeting to ever take place.   The man (and I use that term loosely), is an affront to woman kind, and an affront to the real men in this country.

Let's face it.  Women and men are different and that is just a fact of biology and nature. We see things differently, approach problems sometimes from a different point of view.  We're wired differently than our male counterparts.  That does not make us inferior.  Men who are intelligent embrace our gender differences and treat women with the same respect as men.  Women are equally qualified to do the same jobs as men.  

Speaker of the House, John Boehner is not one of these men.  The most important  qualifications for a leadership role in the House are white skin and a penis.  It makes me wonder what they put in the water in the 8th district in Ohio to make those people vote for this knuckle dragging neanderthal.  His overt misogyny is pathetic and his racism is becoming increasingly flagrant.  

In the 113th House of Representatives, the average age of the newly appointed Committee Chairs is 58, and the Chair of every single committee is a white male--save for one.  Rep. Candice Miller (R-MI) has been generously named Chair of the House Administration Committee.  The Chair for the Ethics committee is yet to be named. My money is on another old white guy.  Appointing Miller to a Committee that she's never even served on--the committee that deals with such issues as what kind of tray to use in the House Cafeteria is insulting and Boehner's way of throwing the "bitches" in the House a bone.  

Yet, let us play devil's advocate.  In the interest of fairness, let us, for a moment, give Speaker Boehner the benefit of the doubt.  Let us assume that he selected the most qualified member for each Committee, regardless of gender or race.  Let's take a look at his Chairmen.

• Rep. John Klein, Chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee, has a record of distinguished military service to our country as a 25 year veteran of the US Marine Corps.  He has no known background in either education or workforce development.  He has, however, flown Air Force One.

• Rep Howard "Buck" McKeon, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, has a B.S. degree in animal husbandry.  He owned a small western clothing store until it went bankrupt in 1999.  He also served as Chairman of a small, regional bank.  He has not, however, served in the Armed Forces. Why would that be beneficial?

• Rep. Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs took seven years to earn his Bachelors degree in finance and took at least one student deferment to avoid serving his country in Vietnam.  Afterward, he settled into life as a business owner and as a corporate tax manager for a cement company.

• Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, despite winning "Best Surname in Congress" (who doesn't love a good latte?) and despite being a lawyer and then an aide to a Congressman, spent a significant part of his time in Congress as the Chair of the Full Committee before serving as the Chair of the Agriculture Committee.  He's responsible for such bills as, NAIS (national animal identification system) which would have required all farmers to register with the federal government and participate in RFID tagging for every animal with near real time reporting to the USDA.  He's also an original sponsor of SOPA and a co-sponsor of H.R. 1503, a bill requiring Presidential candidates to provide proof of citizenship by submitting copies of their birth certificate.  Donald Trump tried to co-sponsor the legislation and was dismayed to find he had to first be elected to Congress.

• Rep. Darrell Issa, the returning Chair of Oversight and Government Reform has been accused of filling his staff with people who had connections with industries that could benefit from his investigations.  He's also been accused of using his office for personal gain.  In the past, he's been arrested on weapons charges and auto theft, and suspicion of arson and intimidation with a gun.  Great choice there.  Something about foxes and hen houses comes to mind...

The list of unqualified appointments goes on and on.  It's a clear example of the "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." way that Congress does business.  This isn't just about appointing women for the sake of diversity.  It's a question of appointing the best qualified person for the job and often that person is a woman or a minority.  It is obvious that Boehner is sending a message to the country that the 113th Congress is a boys club--his own personal "He Man Woman Haters Club."  They might let a person of color in someday--after all, John Boehner himself isn't white.  He's kind of a burnt orange color not found in nature.  

For a little more information on Darrell Issa, visit Media Matters

Angry and Confused...

Today, I found myself both perplexed and enraged.  Here's why:

• Allen West just can't understand why he's unemployed.  He was recently quoted by a reporter from his posh Florida home, wondering, "Why would anyone want to get rid of a guy who is...just an American success story?  I'm not some guy that came from a rich political family or anything like that, I'm just an everyday guy..."

Dear Allen, Your behavior in the halls of Congress says a lot about the content of your character.  Your constituents wanted a representative with the ability to reach across the aisle and work in a bipartisan manner.  What you gave them instead was a Congressman who was polarizing, partisan and flat-out disrespectful to anyone with a difference of opinion.  You called the Democratic Caucus Communists.  You called Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz "vile, unprofessional and despicable."  You may have been referring to her, but you described yourself to a "T."  That, sir, is why you are now unemployed, and it is my fervent hope that you stay that way.  There is no place for you in our government.

• Last week, Glenn Beck took it upon himself to seal a figurine depicting President Obama in a jar of his own urine, and had the unmitigated audacity to place it on e-bay as a charity auction.  It was promptly removed, as it violates e-bay's regulations prohibiting the auction of human waste.  He then continued the auction on his own website. 

Mr. Beck, You represent absolutely the worst that this country has to offer.  Your vile, reprehensible behavior is beyond the pale.  There were many, many times that I angrily, vehemently disagreed with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.  Those two men are guilty of so very many human rights violations and war crimes I can scarcely describe my outrage.  Yet I had the dignity and patriotism to never, ever stoop so low as to embarrass my country by doing something so degrading, such as you did.  Respect for the individuals at the highest seats of power--no, never.  They did not earn my respect; but I did respect the offices they held despite their objectionable behavior.  Whether I voted for them or not, they were my President and Vice-President.  

How dare you, Glenn Beck?  Barack Obama is America's duly elected President.  I'd like to know what it is that he's done that is so offensive to you.  Was it when he extended the Bush-era tax cuts for your tax bracket?  Was it how he put a tourniquet on the bleeding of jobs initiated by W?  Maybe it's how under his leadership, the nation bailed out the auto industry, turned the stock market around and managed to enact sweeping health-care legislation?  Maybe he incurred your wrath by killing Osama-bin Laden when Bush gave up looking for him and said he "wasn't that concerned" about bringing him to justice?  Perhaps it was because he ended the war in Iraq, and set a time-line for ending the war in Afghanistan?  

Or maybe, it's because he's African-American and has ascended to the highest office in the nation by an overwhelming majority of the votes, both electoral and popular (something you could never dream of achieving).  I think that's the most likely reason, Glenn.  You're a racist and you are hiding behind a false sense of outrage.  Lacking a set of real issues to complain about, you make up false ones, such as President Obama is a Socialist and was born in Kenya.  Do you even know the definition of Socialism, Glenn?  To be quite honest, as a progressive and a liberal, I am a little disappointed myself because President Obama leans so far right.  Can you even find Kenya on a map?

After you've wasted your breath on your conspiracy theories that fall on deaf ears to all but the tin-foil-hat wearing crowd, in a desperate bid for attention, you throw a spectacular tantrum, screaming at the top of your lungs like a toddler denied having his own way and then, at the apex of your kicking and screaming, with tears streaming and snot flowing, red-faced and lips blue from holding your breath, in a last ditch effort to milk your moment for all it is worth--you piss all over your own toys.  

Your actions were an abuse of our First Amendment rights.  Just because you have the "right" to do something, does not mean that you should.  You've shown the entire nation what a reprehensible piece of unpatriotic trash you really are.  You should be ashamed. Honestly, what does that say about you, Beck, when your greatest achievement is the ability to direct a stream of urine into a mason jar?  Very classy.

What Have You Done For Me Lately?

I think we can all agree that Congress is woefully broken.  Especially the 112th Congress with its Tea Party heavy faction.  This is the true definition of the "Do Nothing Congress." As of November 27, 2012, the 112th Congress has passed a total of 200 pieces of legislation.  That's a lot less than the original "Do Nothing Congress" as named by Harry Truman.  That was the 80th Congress who passed over 900 pieces of legislation.  

The fun part--and by fun, I mean pathetic and sad, is the breakdown of those paltry 200 pieces of legislation by the 112th.  Of the 200 bills passed into law that the House and Senate both agreed on included the following:

• 30 bills renamed Post Offices
• 11 bills renamed Federal Courthouses, buildings and property
• 3 reappointed regents to the Smithsonian Institute
• 3 bestowed Congressional gold medals on deserving citizens
• 4 authorized commemorative coins to be created

Eighty pieces of legislation that passed were amendments or extensions of current laws.  That means that the 112th Congress passed 69 pieces of unique, meaningful legislation.  You must take the word "meaningful" with a grain of salt, as those 69 pieces of legislation include "important" issues such as the Billfish Conservancy Act (no offense to Marlin lovers), erecting a statue of Frederick Douglas in the Library of Congress, and a bill that allows Astronauts to keep their NASA souvenirs from space missions.  They also include an act to bring the America's Cup Race to the US, a bill to erect a monument on federal land honoring Fort Pulaski, and the Box Elder Utah Land Conveyance.  In fact--several pieces of legislation passed were land conveyances.  

I certainly don't mean to slight Billfish lovers, I believe in conservation programs. I think Statues and monuments to honor important historical figures and designate historical places are important.  However, we're in a lot of trouble if this is all our Congress can come together on--and it makes me very, very angry.  I'm angry that this was the best they could do for us.  I'm angry that they were unable to reach consensus on so few pieces of legislation while the country crumbles at their feet.  They seem to look at the devastation around them and still the best they can say is, "I disagree."

This is the Congress that was so absorbed by their political agenda of making President Obama a one term President that they threatened so convincingly to refuse to raise the debt ceiling, the nation's credit rating was lowered.  Good job, Congress.  The Republicans in this Congress held hostage the lives of America's unemployed (about 8% of us at the time), by refusing to extend their unemployment benefits unless the super rich got their tax cuts extended.  These people are supposed to be working for all of us--not just 2% of the population.  I'm sick of my government being hi-jacked and held hostage over benefits for the 2% who are doing just fine while the rest of us are struggling to just get by.  It isn't supposed to be like this.  

I've been doing some thinking now that sequestration cuts are looming over the nation's head.  There is talk that Congress will let the country go over the "fiscal cliff" because it saves face for Republicans who signed Grover Norquist's tax pledge.  Most economists agree that if the cuts go into effect, we will enter another recession.  If sequestration cuts happen, almost everyone in the country will be negatively affected--except for one tiny fraction--the members of Congress.  And they're going to take us there and throw us over the edge for political reasons.  It seems we have a serious problem.

The problem is that Congress is punishing the wrong people when they can't (or won't) get the job done.  The sequestration slashes domestic spending indiscriminately.  That punishes a lot of Americans who depend on federal funding for programs, services, public safety, education...the list goes on and on.  Congress is punishing us for their inability and unwillingness to do their jobs.  They put party above country and we suffer for it.  I propose that we enact some legislation of our own to fix that and punish the real culprits.  Congress deserves to feel some of the pain.  We need to create an independent office of Congressional oversight made up or ordinary citizens who have the power to impose sanctions on Congress when they fail to do the people's business in a timely fashion or refuse to act for political gain. I also propose the following measures:

1. If Congress cannot pass a budget, we enact the rule my mother used for cleaning my room:  Don't come out until it's done.  I propose that members of Congress are only allowed to leave the floor of the House and Senate to use the bathroom and they have 15 minutes for that.  No going home for the night and reconvening the next day.  Sorry--stay there until you get the people's business done.

2.  In situations where people on Social Security, our Troops, federal employees, etc. are threatened with having their paychecks or unemployment benefits cut off, I propose that Congress is included.  In fact, I propose they be at the top of that list.  If citizens are threatened with losing their incomes, then Congress should face that devastating threat first.  We don't get money--neither do they.  

3.  I propose that Congress participate in a training program that educates them on what it's like to live in this country for real Americans.  Most members of Congress have no concept of what it's like to work for minimum wage, or to live on food stamps and try to get by.  They should know what this is like.  I propose that from the time they are elected, until the time they are sworn in, they have to live on minimum wage earnings and food stamps.  It will help with their budget making skills.  No one on Earth can budget better than someone on a minimum wage income.  

Implementing real, personal consequences for their actions might snap Congress into action and force them to do the job they were elected and are paid quite well to do. These people are expected to lead our Nation and I've never seen a group of individuals less qualified to do so than the 112th Congress.  

It's Time for Religion to Go Back Into the Closet

I've had it up to my eyeballs with the religious right.  They're ruining my country, ruining the American way of life and causing a lot of suffering.  Religious leaders are the consummate definition of hypocrisy, and I've had enough.  I will not rest until the line that separates church and state is long, wide and very, very vivid.  Religious leaders and their blind, devout followers have become the antithesis of what faith is supposed to be.  It's time to get this poison out of our government.

First, you should know that I was raised in the Christian church.  I have studied the bible.  I respect it as a piece of historical literature.  I reject it as a code to live by for the most part, yet there are some parts I embrace-- I do believe that Jesus Christ was a guy who didn't really have any bad ideas; love thy neighbor as thy self, take care of the sick, the poor, widows and orphans and foreigners.  Not a bad code to live by, however the parts where people are killed for wearing two different fabrics, women are sold into slavery and the rest of the insanity makes it impossible for me to accept the book as divine mandate.  Not to mention that science has debunked much of it, so I do not accept it as absolute truth.  It simply is not.  Still, the way Jesus taught us to live is not a bad concept.  He was a good man.

It's a shame that a bunch of guys got together centuries ago and decided that they could profit off of his teachings, and that their way was the right one and anyone who didn't go along would be damned--and then killed into the bargain.  And so it was with the crusades, so it was throughout history, and so it continues today.  

Modern Christians just don't get that this country was not founded on Jesus Christ--it was founded on the principle of religious freedom...the right to worship any god one so chooses.  Buddah, Vishnu, Ra, Allah, or Jesus.  Pick a god, worship whom you will.  You're free to do that.  Matters of faith should be a personal thing.  Jesus did say to pray in your closet and not out in the street.  

Religion should never be used as a cudgel to beat your fellow man over the head with, until he is bloodied into submission and forced to see things your way.  Faith doesn't work like that.  It never has and it never will.  Religion has no right to impose its will and its system of values and edicts on those of us who do not embrace it or embrace a different set of values from a different god. 

Yet today's Christian right beats all of us over the head with their bibles and religious system of belief in the form of restrictive legislation.  Their god says it is so, and so it must be for all of us. NO, NO, a thousand times NO.  Their god is not my god.  Their system of belief, and their book of rules do not apply to me.  I do not believe as they believe and my right to abstain from their moral code is bestowed upon me by the Constitution.  I don't have to follow along.

The great men who formed this nation warned us about the dangers of the state meddling in the matters of church.  It also warned us of the dangers of the church meddling in the affairs of governance.  The religious right is not listening and seeks actively to impose their bible on us all.  I will fight them to the death for my right to worship any other god or no god at all rather than bow down to the lord they wish to impose upon me.  I would rather die a free human being than to be bound by their religious ignorance that steals the rights of my fellow human beings and forces them to adhere to their antiquated sense of morality.

I have a message for all of the ultra-right-wing-conservative-Christians:  You're just as bad as the Muslims that you vilify.  How dare you stand there with your pseudo-righteous indignation ranting at a group of different religious zealots when they are so much like yourselves?  It is wrong and deplorable to fly a plane into a building and kill innocent people.  It is equally wrong to stand in front of a health center and murder one man in cold blood because he dares to offer a Constitutionally protected service to women.  And before you say that the death of 3,000 human beings is far worse than the murder of one...it is your bible that says all sin is equal in the sight of god.  And these things are not wrong because god says so--it is wrong because it breaks the rules of a civilized society with laws that say it is so.  

It is equally wrong for a group of "god fearing" men to attempt to legislate women's health services.  Sorry, men...you will never know what it is like to be a woman.  You will never, ever know what it is to be one of us.  You have no right, not here on Earth, and certainly not bestowed on you by heaven, to legislate women's bodies--or anyone's body.  I reject your heaven and your so-called divine authority to impose your will on my body.  The Constitution (which you claim to hold in as high esteem as your bible) grants me the right to decide what happens to my body. Abortion is legal and Constitutionally protected.  Rape is rape and is never the victim's fault.  No matter what.  You can label it all you like, you can define it and redefine it, and it's all the same.  I will fight for the laws that protect my body.

I refuse to accept the marginalization of a group of citizens based on their sexual orientation because your bible tells you so.  I reject your bible and your imagined moral authority once more.  Your bible also tells you that you can sell your daughter into slavery and take our neighboring countrymen into slavery.  I have a feeling Canada might not agree with that bit of scripture.  I don't see many daughters on the American market, but I would never put it past you religious zealots to try.  None the less, if you reject one tenent of the bible as outdated socially, then the same principle must apply to all the edicts of the Bible.  Is that really what you want our country to become?    

I live in a world of fact and tangibility--science and technology.  Your belief in an invisible man in the clouds watching over you does not negate my truth.  As the great Neil degrasse Tyson once said, "The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it."  You don't have to believe in science, and I don't have to believe in your god. I have provable facts on my side.  You have faith in a deity you have never seen and have no direct evidence of.  That is your choice. It is not mine however.   Why can't you get that?  You do not have, nor have you ever, had the right to enact legislation based on your personal religious beliefs.  Governance is secular.  Jesus, Mohammed, Buddah, Allah, and Vishnu free.  None of them have any business in our public policy.  

To be quite honest, while Christianity professes to be a religion based on love, it has become a religion based on bigotry and exclusion.  Not by design, mind you.  It's what the leadership has made it.  they've taken the bible and the words of Christ and twisted them.  They've turned what should be a matter of quiet faith and loving ways and turned it into a billion dollar industry that preys upon the weakest and most vulnerable among us.  To be fair, if the churches in this nation want to participate in public policy, it's high time they put some skin in the game and paid taxes.  In fact that's the law.  

Pat Robertson, televangelist and former Presidential candidate, who recently warned his viewers that atheists are miserable and want to make Christians miserable as well, is worth an estimated $30 million dollars.  He's not unique.  Pastor Rick Warren (author of the best selling book, The Purpose Driven Life) is worth an estimated $25 million, and the list goes on and on.  Do they not remember that passage about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to enter the kingdom of heaven?  I guess that doesn't apply to Robertson or his political funding arm, The Christian Coalition.  

If you really want to see the obscenity of faith, you need look no further than the Vatican, whose net worth is estimated between $10-16.5 billion dollars.  The Vatican is invested in real estate, construction, steel, chemicals, banking, and insurance.  Although a significant portion of their vast wealth goes to the Catholic Church's charitable enterprises, an even more significant portion goes to this:

Just imagine for a minute the number of homeless people who could be provided shelter, how many hungry people could be fed for what this cost to construct?  Is this what the simple carpenter of ancient days wanted his belief system to become?  Is this ostentatious display what Christianity is all about?  What hypocrisy, what absolute self-aggrandizing, utter hypocrisy.  And this is the reason I cannot take Christianity seriously.  It is a mockery of itself.  The simple fact that religious leaders are (pardon the pun) hell-bent on inserting themselves into public policy, shows me that there is an ulterior motive to their actions that has nothing to do with the teachings of Christ and everything to do with their investment portfolio.  

I find it ironic that Jesus never once mentioned homosexuality in his writings and teachings--yet he told his believers to pray in their closets.  It's time that Christian radicals went back in the closet and stayed out of public policy and government.

Sky Diving Off the Fiscal Cliff

It's just this simple--it's us against them.  There are two sets of people in this world--CEO's,  and the people that work for them.  The CEO's are very, very wealthy people and so are their shareholders.  They want to keep all of their money.  They don't want to invest in the country that gave them the opportunity to build their very large corporation.  They expect us to pay for it all, and they've created a seriously large lobbying group to make sure that it happens.

Honeywell CEO Dave Cote

A group of super wealthy CEO's have formed a group that they call the "CEO Fiscal Leadership Council" lead by Honeywell CEO Dave Cote and Goldman Sach's CEO Lloyd Blankfein.  The two of them have gone on a media blitz to tell the country that the best way to pay down the debt is to cut so-called "entitlement" programs.  Have I mentioned that Dave Cote's Honeywell Corporation didn't pay a dime in taxes from 2008-2010?  Nope, not a nickle in taxes, but they got a $34 million rebate from the taxpayers.  Talk about welfare, geez, are you kidding me?  Honeywell enjoyed $5 billion in profits and didn't pay the United States a dime, we paid them.  

Then there's Goldman Sachs, the mega-bank, who received a $10 billion bail out from the federal government (that means you and I--the tax-payers).  Yep, they paid us back (thanks, fellas)!  Goldman Sachs reported 8.4 billion dollars in revenue in the third quarter alone, exceeding Wall Street expectations.  G.S.'s leader, Blankfein thinks that the government needs to "do something, undoubtedly, to lower people's expectations of what they're going to get.  The entitlements, and what people think they're going to get, because you're not going to get it."  

The good news is that Cote of Honeywell realizes that a zero corporate tax rate is not going to fly with the American people, but believes that corporate tax rates should be negligible, "if the US really wants to create jobs."  

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

It should be mentioned that Blankfein took home a tidy 16.1 million dollars in salary in 2011, and was expected to receive a raise and earn even more this year.  Cote took home a little more than $55 million in compensation for 2011.  He paid around $2.5 million in taxes thanks to the Bush era tax cuts.  

So, after the elections, we learned that we need to be active participants in the political process. Our input to our representative makes a difference.  If we shout loudly enough, they will listen.  We must remind them whom they are working for.  There are a lot more worker bees than there are CEO's.  Of course they're not worried about programs like Social Security and Medicare or Medicaid.  They don't need them. 

 They're fantastically wealthy--but we are not, and we need those programs.  They're not entitlements--they're life-line programs. Programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and Food Stamps are a means of survival for a lot of hard working people.  They are important.  We're cutting funding for important things we desperately need as a society like education, and we're still handing out multi-million dollar checks to corporations with billion dollar profit margins?  What the hell is wrong with this picture?  Our government must do better for us.  They represent US.  Yeah, it's time to end welfare--CORPORATE WELFARE!!

How fair is it that we workers pay higher tax rates than CEO's with their multi-million dollar pay checks?  How fair is it that we have to write a tax check for the privilege of living in this country, but a corporation like Honeywell pays nothing?  The fact that they got a multi-million dollar rebate is just another slap in the face to the good hard working people who pay taxes and make this country work.  WE are the job creators.  WE are the engine of this economy.  It's high time we expected a little bit more from the people who benefit from the fruit of OUR labor. 

We have to win this one.  We are at war with giant corporations that believe they don't need to pay a dime to this country and profit off of the benefits of doing business here, making billions off of  government contracts.  They don't want to pay their fair share for anything and instead are trying to make it the sole responsibility of the most vulnerable among us.  

Pick up your phone, send a fax or write an e-mail to your representatives in Congress and tell them you've had enough.  Tell them you believe in shared sacrifice and that the richest among us along with corporations that have enjoyed loop holes in the tax code allowing them to pay zero taxes has gone on long enough. Encourage them to raise taxes on the richest among us. Tell them to end corporate welfare--tell them you've got your eye on them and you're not going to sit idly by and get shafted again.  If they won't work for us, we'll elect someone who will.

Our representatives aren't going to stand up for us if we don't demand they do so.  These CEO's want to throw us off the fiscal cliff while they fly over it in a jet made by Boeing and paid for with tax payer funds.  It's up to us to find our own parachute.  They have theirs, and they're golden.  Enough is enough.  We cannot allow Congress to reduce the deficit on the backs of the poor and retirees and the elderly.  We can no longer sit quietly while our quality of life is diminished and watch the ultra wealthy reap all the benefits the US has to offer.  We have to remain active and engaged in what's going on in our country.  You can find your representatives and contact them by visiting Contacting the Congress.  We have so much to lose and everything to gain by forcing the wealthiest among us and billion dollar corporations to contribute and pay their fair share.  

No Twinkies For You

I'm a fan of snack cakes.  I absolutely love those horribly-bad-for-you, filled with sugar and a bunch of other ingredients not found in nature, sugar rush gems.  I always heard, and believed that there were two things on planet earth that could survive a nuclear holocaust; cockroaches and Twinkies.  Sadly, my beloved Twinkies couldn't survive the insanity that is the Hostess corporation.  When a product that is so deeply ingrained into the American pop culture dies, there are plenty of fingers pointing in every direction assigning blame.  

Farewell, beloved snack cake...

In the same way I like snack cakes that are ridiculously bad for my health, I also try to keep up with conservative news outlets (read, Fox "News" and Rushie).  That isn't very good for my mental health, but it's hard to refute an argument if you don't know what it is your opponent is arguing.  So I checked out their take on the Hostess Bakeries debacle and I was left with one question:  With Rush Limbaugh on the right, and Bill Maher on the left--how on Earth are the makers of Twinkies bankrupt?  

The sheer challenge of maintaining Limbaugh's enormous girth, coupled with Maher's open love of weed should be enough of a bipartisan force to keep Hostess in business for at least another 15 years. Two states have legalized pot and the Ding-Dong bakery is out of business?  How did this happen?

Fox "News" would have you believe that greedy workers who make around $20 an hour and get adequate benefits are to blame.  Any worker that has the audacity to sign up with a union is an enemy of free enterprise and are bankrupting good businesses.  What the bastion of "fair and balanced" isn't going to tell you is that since the late 1990's until now, the income of the bottom fifth of wage earners has decreased by about 6%, while the income for the top fifth of wage earners has increased by 14%.  

In the case of Hostess, while management was asking union workers to take pay cuts and decreases in benefits, they gave themselves huge pay raises.  There's something seriously wrong with this picture.  In the real world, where most of us live, we get raises based on work performance.  We do a good job, presumably we get a pay raise.  Most raises are between 10 cents to 50 cents an hour.  The bosses at Hostess tripled their pay while the company crashed and burned around them--while they asked the guy making twenty bucks an hour to get by with less.  

These are the same people who are trying their level best to avoid paying more taxes, while asking you to pay a little more to support the country and let me tell you, without some intervention things are not going to magically change.  These greedy jack-asses are not going to wake up one morning in their palatial estates and say, "You know what, I have enough money--let's give some more to the people who work for me."  That is never, ever going to happen.  For them, they will never have enough money and they don't care if you're starving in the street.  That is your problem. It's not their fault, it's your fault because America is the land of opportunity and if you only worked harder you could be as rich as they are.  

The income gap in this country is a much bigger problem than the budget deficit and no one is talking about it, nor are they going to unless we force them to.  Whether we like it or not, the people who represent us, as a rule, make a hell of a lot more money than we do.  Self preservation is instinctual.  They will protect their own financial interests first if we let them. If we want Congress to represent our interests we're going to have to make it a priority for them, because they're never going to do it themselves.  The income disparity is going to keep growing and growing until the country hits the tipping point where the other 95% of us can't afford to buy even cheap Wal-Mart crap and the entire economy is going to crumble under its own weight.  The CEO's of Hostess don't shop at Wal-Mart.  Neither do the CEO's of Wal-Mart for that matter.

The truth is that we should all be rioting in the streets demanding fair pay and living wages.  We should be screaming at the top of our lungs for affordable health care and even a fraction of the benefits that the CEO's of Fortune 500 companies enjoy.  Yet, we are not.  Our apathy enables their way of life and destroys our own future and the future of our kids and grand kids.  If we don't stand up for ourselves, no one else will.  If we don't do it soon, no one will be able to afford a Twinkie even if they are still around to enjoy.  

The "Other" Norquist Pledge

I gotta tell you that I'm pretty damned sick of idiots trying to manipulate my elected officials.  There's a battle going on in Washington, DC and in case you haven't met this master manipulator, it's high time you did, because if you've got a Republican representing you in Congress, there are excellent odds that he's manipulating (or trying to manipulate) your Congressperson or Senator.  His name is Grover Norquist and he's a lobbyist and the founder and president of a group called Americans for Tax Reform.  He's also a very wealthy man.

Grover has taken it upon himself to bully members of Congress into signing the following pledge, and most Republicans have acquiesced to his demands.

Taxpayer Protection Pledge: I,_____, pledge to the taxpayers of the (____district of the) state of______ and to the American people that I will: ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal tax rate for individuals and business; and TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.

So what I'd like to know is; who the hell elected Grover Norquist, and what right does he have to ask our representatives to sign any kind of pledge?  If this is the way Washington works, then I would like to submit my own pledge to members of Congress for them to sign.

Stop the Idiocy Pledge:  I,_____, pledge to the constituents of the (____district of the) state of _____ and to the American people that I will, ONE, slap Grover Norquist up side his head each and every time I see him in or around the District of Columbia or the halls of the Capitol; and TWO, tell Grover Norquist to mind his own damn business because I represent the interests of my constituency and not his own personal agenda.

I think this pledge would go far in keeping greedy, rich white guys from seeking to further their own personal financial goals by attempting to manipulate members of Congress.  Call it my own personal lobbying style.  Perhaps, some of our more physically fit leaders might deliver the added bonus of knocking some sense into Norquist into the bargain.  Like Norquist himself, I am an optimist and it never hurts to try.  

Grover Norquist is nothing more than another wealthy man trying to protect his own financial interests because it's not you or I or any average "get up and go to work at the factory or the grocery store" kind of people that benefit from this pledge, it's the financial elite that reap the benefits.  Sadly, he's done a pretty damned good job of protecting his own interests so far--but it seems his luck may be running out.  Norquist's pledge leaves absolutely no room for Republicans to compromise and that's getting pretty uncomfortable for those who have made this deal with the devil.  With the "fiscal cliff" that we've been hearing so much about looming large, and after a dismal failure of an election for their party, the Republicans are more than willing to enter negotiations with the spirit of compromise at the fore.  The only thing at this point holding them back is their pithy promise to Grover.

It's time the Republicans ask themselves, "What's going to happen if we break our pledge to Grover?"  The answer is simple; absolutely nothing, other than perhaps, earning the respect of the people in their districts and states that actually do the electing.  If Republicans learned nothing else from the last election, it should be that they're not going to always be successful at buying their way into office with Super PAC and dark money.  So, if they kick Grover to the curb and focus on the good of the country like they should, the sky isn't going to fall.  Nothing is going to happen except progress.  What a concept.  The good news is that more Republicans than ever before are turning their backs on Grover and his ill advised pledge. 

 In order to reduce the deficit, it will take a balanced approach to solve the problems.  There are a myriad of ways to cut waste in existing programs without reducing much needed services.  My personal favorite spending cut?  Ending corporate welfare!!  Exxon-Mobil doesn't need government subsidies--they're doing pretty damned good all by themselves. Companies like General Electric and other Fortune 500 companies can start paying taxes. Right now, a lot of really big corporations end up with zero dollar tax bills and some even get refunds while enjoying record profits.  Closing the loopholes that keep these corporations from paying taxes will go a long way toward reducing the deficit.  

Another productive approach is tackling the monster that is defense spending.  We spend an insane amount of money on our national defense.  Although we need a strong military, we're outspending the rest of the world on defense.  There are plenty avenues to explore when cutting expenses without people losing their jobs and while continuing to maintain our nation's safety.  Republicans view defense as a sacred cow.  Sorry, boys--cow is what's for dinner regarding this conversation.  And so is Grover's meaningless pledge.  Stack those pledges right there by the defense cow and please pass the gravy. 

And people who earn over $250,000 a year can afford for their tax rate to increase by a measly 4%.  That's all the President is proposing, 4 cents on the dollar.  It isn't a lot to ask of them, but it will help.  The fact is; these people are so consumed with greed that they've lost all sense of humanity and decency--not to mention patriotism.  We live in a society that has allowed them to amass so much money they couldn't spend it in their lifetimes, and they're crying about a 4% increase to live in the country that gave them so much opportunity.  

I find it hard to pity the Mitt Romneys of the world.  I promise you that they're not worried about your financial woes.  If you think they are, just take a look at the fact that the average CEO makes 380 times more money than his hourly workers.  Look at the fact that Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke makes as much money on his lunch hour than his cashiers make all year.  They don't worry about much--except paying their workers and their fair share of taxes.  Mike Duke doesn't worry about paying the light bill, or the car payment or what would happen if he couldn't work for a week or two.  They're not like us.

I don't begrudge anyone the right to make as much money as they can.  This is a capitalistic society after all.  But there's a price to enjoy the ride, and they're not paying their fair share.  If we, as fellow owners of the country don't demand they pay the price of admission, we're all going down with the ship. They can afford the increase, even Grover.  They're not going to miss a meal over 4%.  At one point in this nation's history, the top marginal tax rate was 90%.  Perhaps that will provide a little perspective for them the next time it comes up in the conversation.

 We can reduce the federal deficit.  It can be done with a balanced approach. All it takes is some common sense, good will and the ability to compromise.  And our representatives shouldn't be worrying about some nonsense promise they made to a man with an over inflated sense of self-importance.  At the end of the day, Grover Norquist is a nobody.  It's high time people stopped worrying about what he thinks.  It doesn't matter.

We can reduce the national debt without breaking the backs of our most vulnerable citizens.  The middle class can't afford to pay more in taxes, and heaven knows the poor have it hard enough already.  The rich can stay rich while paying their fair share.  Our Congress has been held hostage by one man for long enough.  Pick up your phone and call your elected officials and tell them to scrap Grover's pledge.  Flood their in-boxes with e-mails that say you've had enough of Norquist's crap.  Give the Republicans incentive to turn their back on Grover.  They'll listen to you.  You just have to remind them who they're working for.  Grover didn't put them in office, and he won't return them to office either...but you might if they do the right thing for once.  And while you're at it...ask them to sign my pledge!