Thursday, March 11, 2010

Democrats Continue Demolition Derby as Godmother Pelosi Protects Pandering Politicians!

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Just when you think sex in the city couldn't get any worse Eric Massa, former Congressman from way Upstate New York (29th District), gave mainstream media a reason to remain in the gutter with the supermarket rags while the Godmother, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, added fuel to the meltdown.



Massa is giving us a whole new set of word definitions along with insight into the unusual party favors in Washington. It started off innocent enough Tuesday when the media got wind that Massa was having a meltdown because of another ethics problem but intensified when Massa went on the Glenn Beck Show and the show of the poster boy for health care reform, Larry King, to explain himself.



What a mistake. First we learned a whole new definition for the home Congressional District for Massa. And we always thought a swing district was one that went from being Republican to Democrat and back in elections.



There are Red states who vote Republican. They are called Red because the media wants you to associate Republicans with Communism. The Blue states are Democrat. Now Blue stands for being conservative and pure, like the Virgin Mary, neither having anything to do with Democrats. So you might say the media reference to Democrat states as Blue is an effort to make you forget what they really stand for.



Some states aren't really red or Blue because they vote Democrat one year and Republican the next. So they are called swing states. What color do you think the media assigned this group? Purple, the color that implies royalty, mystery, nobility and spirituality. Now that is a mouthful. But I guess what the media meant was the Swing states are the Holy Grail of politics, you win them you win the election.

Massa taught us a new meaning for his Swing District. It has nothing to do with politics. It is staff and associate interaction consisting of groping, tickling, pointing fingers while naked in the steam room, even snorkeling, which is a twisted sexual perversion performed under water. Apparently a Navy buddy of Massa said he was always trying to snorkel with them.



Larry King got into an extended battle of words with Massa over homosexual tendencies. Who knows what they were saying? Then just when we knew beyond doubt this guy has a serious mental meltdown, into the cameras jumps the Democrat's Godmother, Pelosi, never one to miss a press op, and claims she knew about his sickness last October. So Pelosi covered up the meltdown of a fellow Democrat for the last six months to hang on to her votes in the House.



If she knew he was groping staff back then did the thought ever occur to you, Godmother, that maybe you should turn his actions over to the ethics committee and get him out of Congress and into rehab before he could hurt anyone else? Well of course not.



So Obama leaves town to campaign and the only fund raiser he can get is for a Senate race for 2012. It seems Democrats running for election this year don't want to be seen around the president. And Obama continues to talk about health care as if he never stopped campaigning and got real.



What about the economy Mr. President? What about jobs and unemployment? What happened to Main Street? Why did you send Biden to negotiate peace in the middle east, you are the one with the Peace prize?

Poor Joe. He gets to Israel and gets slapped in the face before he even gets a word out as the Israelis announced thousands of more homes will be built in the Palestinian area, a move Obama and the United Nations warned Israel not to do. Some start for peace. Is this a sign of the Israeli attitude toward Obama or the peace process? It sure helped set back relations between the USA and Israel but then how could the Israelis negotiate peace if they are planning to go to war to stop Iran? It would be kind of like winning the Nobel Peace Prize then expanding the war in Afghanistan. Nothing makes sense.



So now the Godmother is busy sweeping the dirt under the rug and tying to get people to think all is well in her transparent world. Let's see, if what is going on is transparent then why didn't we know about Massa a lot time ago? Hummmm, Messa, Rangel and Paterson, not a bad start for the campaign cycle.

As if that weren't enough for one day, last night Congressman Patrick Kennedy goes on TV and rails against how the press and media are not covering the most important issue of the day, the war in Afghanistan, and he calls the fact only two press people are in the gallery as "despicable!" I'm beginning to think all the politicians in our nation's capitol are losing their marbles.

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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Liu Bolin, Dissident Artist from China

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Find the artist in the picture.



One of my favorite international artists is 35-year-old Liu Bolin, from Shandong, China, who manages to camouflage himself in any surroundings, no matter how difficult they might be.





Liu works on a single photo for up to 10 hours at a time, to make sure he gets it just right, but he achieves the right effect: Sometimes passers-by don’t even realize he is there until he moves.





The talented Liu Bolin says his art is a protest against the actions of the government, who shut down his art studio in 2005 and persecutes artists. It’s about not fitting into modern society. Despite problems with Chinese authorities, Liu’s works are appreciated at an international level.











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Dancing Through the Years

Did you ever wonder what all those dances were you performed during your lifetime. Well we are going to present them to you so you can get lost in yesterday since there really isn't much going on today. Dance on with Judson Laipply as he shows you The Evolution of Dance on YouTube.com.



Now if you liked that one, wait until you see the famous Dancing Salsa Dog Dancing the Merengue. This dog has the moves proving that any dirty old dog probably still has it in him.



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Our Nation at a Glance - Obama's Words versus Actions

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Well, we have had about three years of non-stop campaigning from the Washington establishment, ever since Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats took over the House in 2006, two years before Obama was even elected president.



In 2008 the Democrats completed their sweep into control of the White House, House and Senate in Washington and a huge margin of victory was achieved including a super majority in the Senate. We were told to believe that a super majority in the Senate means the minority party cannot stop the majority, yet we have heard nothing but whining from the president and Congress on how the Republicans are blocking progress.



I guess that makes me wonder why Obama, Pelosi and Reid along with all the Democratic campaign committees keep blaming the Republicans when nothing happens. According to the political pundits the Democrats had enough votes to silence the Republicans yet they let that power slip away. What really happened is the Democrats found themselves just as hard to get along with as the Republicans. This intra-party bickering has led to stagnation in Congress.

Now, in terms of getting things done Obama had a good run of luck at first getting the Bank Bailout, the Housing Bailout, the Auto (GM, Chrysler and Auto Workers) Industry Bailout, the AIG Insurance Bailout and of course his nearly trillion dollar economic stimulus all were approved. Have they worked?



Banks still aren't giving credit. The number of foreclosed homes have not been reduced. Lower interest loans for housing are still not available. GM remains marginal, Chrysler is still in trouble and the Auto Workers, well they lost their jobs but now own GM and will get their executive health care benefits. The AIG affair made Goldman Sachs about $13 billion and funneled about $64 billion into banks, some already receiving bailout money and others foreign owned. No one really knows what the Stimulus has done or even how much has been spent.



So in summary, he got a lot done right away but has it helped us or the bank executives? Has it saved small business or Wall Street? Are people able to keep their homes or still losing them? Are jobs being created as a result of the trillions of dollars already spent on bailouts and stimulus? Have new markets been created for green goods? Across the board the answer is no and that is the dichotomy of Obama's legislative record.



While claiming to do all these things to help Main Street Obama has almost exclusively helped Wall Street and labor unions and no one else. At the same time he has railed against lobbyists and special interests while hiring an army of lobbyists and coddling the special interests for campaign money.



The result is clear, Obama and the Democrats have become the favorite of Wall Street and the special interests as millions of dollars are pouring into the Democrats campaign funds. Whatever Obama and the Congress are doing, it sure has the backing of the big bucks on Wall Street, the recipients of the million dollar bonuses, and the free wheeling gamblers on Wall Street who consider your money their play money.



Okay, forget the things that got approved. Obama may no longer want to take credit for the series of big business bailouts, for saving executive bonuses, for keeping the credit market clogged up and for failing to get regulatory Reform through Congress. The unions did get a few bones tossed their way but when they compare it to the sharks on Wall Street they got little for their multi-million dollar investment in the Obama campaign.

Turn to pending legislation for a moment. Democrats got Card Check through the House and through a first round Senate vote, but it stalled. They waiting until Obama was elected and promised to champion the bill and the Senate had super majority that was achieved in the last election. In spite of these developments, the union bosses may want to get rid of secret union ballots in the workplace but the Senate still does not agree. I mean how could they, they are all elected by secret ballot. The bill remains stalled in the Democratic controlled Senate.



Obama's Cap and Trade bill to save us from energy dependence also passed the House, that Nancy has been busy fighting in the trenches for Obama, but it did not survive the scrutiny of reality and remains stalled, hopefully permanently. This was to be a dream come true for Al Gore, Goldman Sachs and all those who have figured out how to make a buck on the back of environmentalists. I mean how did Gore make over $100 million personally as the mouthpiece for the greening of America?



Let us see. Gore has a partner from Goldman Sachs handling his investment business to control which environmentally friendly companies will receive funding from the Greening of America, and of course Goldman stands ready to assist the Green economy by managing the carbon emission futures market which they already established. Does that mean Goldman will now control our oil futures and alternative futures markets? Not if the bill is dead on arrival which it seems to be once Congress discovered how they were being manipulated by the supposedly environmentalists on Wall Street, or is that really being controlled by Wall Street.

Wall Street regulatory reform has been stalled for over a year meaning the same things investment houses did to bend the rules and cheat the street on Wall Street remain available to them. If you don't believe Wall Street was the beneficiary of this inaction by Congress look what Goldman did to manipulate the near bankruptcy of Greece and other European nations for their own financial gain. Such predatory practices by those investing other people's money is criminal.

Obama also ran on a campaign calling for energy independence and promotion of alternative energy. That sounds good. But nothing has been done to achieve either promise. The Cap and Trade was flawed beyond repair and Obama has stubbornly refused to demand new production of our expansive oil, natural gas and coal reserves, reserves which could substantially lower our foreign energy demand. Drill baby drill Mr. President if you really want to be true to your word. If you don't drill, you are still protecting Goldman Sachs and their manipulation of the world oil futures.



Finally, health care reform, that giant puzzle that no one has seen, no one has evaluated, no one has been able to analyze and no one can guarantee that it will deliver any of the promises made. When we are considering a bill that impacts on 16% of our gross national product, we better know what the impact may be.

So don't tell me you are going to guarantee no one will lose insurance for pre-existing conditions, that 30-40 million more people are going to be insured, that there will be competition for insurance, that the cost of doctors and medicine will go down, that everyone with an existing plan will get to keep the benefits and pick their doctors, that no one's insurance premiums will increase, and that there will be no taxes on middle class America to pay for it when you can't deliver the goods.



You ask us to bet our futures as well as those of our children and grand children on your promises yet your own economic forecasters, your experts, have been wrong time after time on projections. If we believed your people America would still have 8% unemployment and millions of us would not be out of work. I'm afraid your inexperience at economics has already cost us too much. Let us just fix the things that can be fixed and then decide how we can expand health care, if it works on lowering insurance and health costs, to everyone.



So the pending stuff just doesn't look all that good. After our experience with what you got through, maybe that is a good thing. Maybe that is why the Senate has different rules, to protect us from empty promises. Maybe that is why you should listen to the people for a change and not suffer more losses like New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts. They could just be the tip of the iceberg.

So you just keep on promising bi-partisanship while stirring the fires of discontent. Keep on making exaggerated claims for the value of more promises on how we are going to get Wall Street and those nasty executives while acquiring an avalanche of campaign funds for the Democrats from those same bad guys and helping them get their million dollar bonuses. Keep on hiring those lobbyists you promised not to hire so special interests can control the national agenda.



Tomorrow we shall review the last two elements of Obama's first year in office, his foreign policy agenda and the forgotten agenda to help Main Street. I'm afraid the news isn't much better but at least we get to see the big picture of what we have realized in the post-election aftermath of the victory of the Chosen One and his impact on us Americans.

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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Obama's Health Care Preoccupation - Because He's Almost AARP Age!

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I never really understood Obama's obsession with health care other than the union payback stuff. I mean he's only going to be 49 this year. But then I thought about it. He's trying to be distinguished in a herd of obnoxious politicians. To be futurist while surrounded by opportunists. To balance ego with the Messiah stuff. That's cool.



Then I realized, he has the midlife doldrums. He buys all that nonsense about growing old and now that he is on the precipice of 50, well, he finds his own immortality being challenged, because next year he gets a computer generated invitation to proudly join the AARP at age 50. No doubt he sees it as a life changing experience. The fear of getting old radiates from him. I guess that explains why he can't talk about the economy and jobs.



Why is it the older we get, the younger we get older?



I might be wrong, but it seems to me I went through life thinking the older I get, the younger I get old.

Now before you write that off to nonsense, let me explain. It's kind of like watching two trains at opposite ends of the track speeding toward each other to collide.



One train is me, getting older like most everyone who can't afford face lifts, personal trainers and fat eradication spas. The other train is old age, that strange age where one goes to wait to die.

When I was pretty young I thought old age was maybe when you reached 30. By the time you reached 50 more than likely you were on life support.



Then I went to a family gathering with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents and even great grandparents way back when. I'd look at my great grandmother and think, how can she still be here, alive? I mean if I thought people were fading away at 50, what is my great grandmother doing here being at least 200 hundred years old? She must really be screwing up the average age.

Don't forget, I said I was pretty young, which means about 5 at the time. Still my eyes were wide open back then.



So at that very early age this little kid was already revising way up his concept of getting old from 50 to 80 years old. As I grew older in years I watched television shows and ads stereotype seniors, that's what they called us then, brainwashing us with an incessant bombardment of TV commercials like the pharmaceutical companies helping us understand all the tragic ailments we were to suffer being old if we didn't take their fix.

Then I was told all the wonderful things I could do when I grew old like plant flowers, keep dead leaves in books, go to the salon and get my hair colored and all so I never looked older than 30, and even get a free powered wheel chair since Medicaid would pay for it. Hot damn! I get a customized, golf cart so when I can't walk I can still get around to terrorize people.



Who in the hell do those people think they are running those ads? What gives them the right to tell me anything? I don't need eight prescription drugs every day like you say I do just so you can keep me in a constant state of euphoria.

And no one said retiring meant you had to turn in your brain as well as you went out the door. Besides, if we were really in control of our lives like we dream about being along with being good looking and smart, we would have long ago adopted retirement as something you do two years out of every ten years. Every ten years you get two years off to explore what you want. You sort of spread retirement throughout your life, not just at the end when you least need it.

Anyway Social Security started lowering the eligibility age for receiving Social Security, and nothing represents retirement more than receiving Social Security. I mean the government would know if we are old wouldn't they? But as I continued to age good old SS kept changing the retirement age making people seniors when they reached 70, then 68, then 65 then 62. The world is now so nuts that you qualify for AARP when you reach 50 for Pete's sake.



When I reached the AARP threshold I rebelled like any good Baby Boomer '60's free spirit would do. I refused to join! No way I was going to accept being old at 50.



Well the next chance I was faced with confronting my age would be when I was eligible for Social Security benefits. There was the early opt out plan at 62, or the generous bonus for waiting until you were 67. Still my "60's influence pulled strong enough to save me yet again. After a brief few moments fantasizing how I might be able to pull one over on The Establishment by taking their money even if I knew I wasn't old, I decided to skip the money and be defiant in my refusal to let them tell me when I was old.

I learned a few lessons along the way. Like all those years I watched as the average life span of Americans kept getting older and older, I was thinking it was a good thing, living longer. While the government keeps telling me I am getting older younger.



If you got older younger, like at 62 like Uncle Sugar says, while the average life span kept getting older, that means you now have more years to be older, a senior. Of course if you intend to enjoy these bonus years you will need eight pharmacy prescriptions a day to get by. While it is regrettable that the combined effect of taking the meds over several years are such that you will soon be functioning like a Zombie, at least our drugs should keep you around.



Eventually I stopped listening to the government all together on the subject of getting old, or older younger, or being old longer. In fact I stopped listening to anyone, pharmaceutical companies, banks, politicians or union bosses. What was I to them? Tax revenue? Prescription addict? More dues paid?



I'm going to bet my life on Divine Providence, not Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Thank you very much but I simply refuse to accept your insistence that I am old. I don't buy the old thing and I don't buy your motives. I am not about to get stoned on your drugs and trip out while someone steals my country and all it stands for to the world.



No longer will I watch a commercial for the latest Mega-grip denture glue and have visions of squirting way too much of that stuff on my dentures, and then the first time I shut my mouth it gets stuck together, permanently.



I have no need for an alarm to go off if I fall in the bathtub. If I'm that drunk I won't feel it anyway. The powered wheel chair is kind of cool to someone like me from the birth of the grease monkey age but there ain't no room for the chick so forget it, I'll stick with my '49 Chevy convertible, well it was a convertible after I got done cutting off the roof with a chain saw.



The other day I was talking to my giant Irish Wolfhound, CuChulainn Deo Irie (Warrior Spirit of Ireland). Neighbors call him Coolin, except those missing their dentures who just call him Cu (pronounced Coo), to avoid that awful whistling sound when they pronounce vowels through their missing teeth.

I was asking him how he would feel if he was older like me. After pointing out that he had to put up with the same crap with Vets and breeders, proclaiming when he would be old and most likely to die. Then Coolin gave me another Druid philosophical gem, his is a very old breed, he said to just live like you have always been on borrowed time. In truth, it was never our time to begin with.



Most people don't get that kind of advice from a giant Irish Wolfhound so when I did I knew I better take him seriously. Now I'm waiting patiently for Obama to tell me how to live, not how to keep from dying. When Pelosi and the rest of the scoundrels in Congress figure it out I might listen to them again too. For now I have CuChulainn and they don't.

I want healing, not health care. I want reform, not regurgitation. I want limited government interfering with my life. And I want honesty in government, insurance companies, health care providers, hospitals, unions, Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Is that so much to ask?

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