tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10734081549895413122024-03-13T13:00:35.297-05:00psst!psst!
Hey! What the heck is that? Psst? Sounds rude doesn't it...or maybe an embarrassing body sound? psst!
psst!...an acronym using a bit of onomatopoeia to make a point: a sound used to catch someone's attention when you're being overlooked. We will publish four times a week (Mon - Thur) on issues most affecting working people, older people, and their familes. Guest columns are invited and encouraged, as is debate and discussion under comments. Contact: asfx@aol.comShane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.comBlogger451125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-51980053105700583542011-01-11T06:46:00.001-06:002011-01-11T06:48:25.234-06:00Seniors Lead Fight Against Health Care Repeal<strong>As Republicans Try to Repeal Health Care Law, New Benefits for Seniors Kick In</strong><br />
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House Republicans are wasting no time trying to repeal health care reform. The new Congress convened last Wednesday, and the House Rules Committee met on Thursday to report a rule to repeal the health care law. The full House voted Friday, 236-181, largely along party lines, to move ahead to next week's final vote, which is scheduled for Wednesday, January 12. <u><em><strong>Due to the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, that vote has been moved to next week</strong></em></u>.<br />
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The plan to repeal the health care reform law would increase the deficit by $230 billion by 2021, according to a preliminary analysis from the Congressional Budget Office. Because of the law, many important, positive changes to Medicare - such as free preventive screenings - went into effect on January 1. Those benefits, as well as a 50% discount for brand name drugs and 7% off generics for beneficiaries in the Part D doughnut hole, would disappear if the repeal were to become law. The doughnut hole is set to close entirely by 2020, but a repeal would change that. In addition, subsidies for early retiree health care would disappear. The 2010 law also extends the solvency of Medicare by 12 years. To see the <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.retiredamericans.org/">Alliance for Retired Americans</a></span></strong> fact sheet on 2011 Medicare changes, go <strong><span style="color: blue;">HERE </span></strong><br />
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It is expected that nearly all or all House Republicans will vote for the repeal legislation, H.R. 2, next week. However, Senate Democrats and grassroots organizations are pushing back. On Monday, the Senate Democratic Leadership – Sens. Harry Reid (NV), Dick Durbin (IL), Patty Murray (WA), Charles Schumer (NY) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) - wrote then soon-to-be Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and told him that repeal of health care reform will not occur in the Senate. <br />
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The five Senate Democratic leaders asked the Ohio Republican in the letter to preserve the health care law or risk leaving seniors without expanded insurance coverage for prescription drugs that the law provides. In addition, the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, a coalition of 65 senior organizations, including the Alliance, sent a letter to all members of the House on Wednesday night urging a vote against repeal; to view that, go <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://bit.ly/dYFJNd">HERE</a>.</span></strong><br />
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“Repeal would hurt retirees immediately,” said Barbara J. Easterling, President of the Alliance for Retired Americans. “It would be a giant step backwards given all of the problems that were addressed by the 2010 health reform law.”<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">-30-</div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-84460957114109007132011-01-10T06:52:00.000-06:002011-01-10T06:52:19.465-06:00Gabrielle Giffords, Part of a Long ListBack in September, <strong><span style="color: blue;"><u>HERE</u></span></strong> I wrote of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her "Sense of Congress" letter in defense of the preservation of Social Security as the right-wing re-energized its drive for privatization and reductions in benefits. This took courage on her part, as her district is largely Republican. Today she lies in a hospital fighting for her life after being gunned down by a crazy man said to be angry with her politics.<br />
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As with all such events of violence upon the innocent; people are slinging accusations, and blame, and grasping for answers. Liberals are blaming right-wing rhetoric and Sarah Palin's "crosshairs" website "targeting" liberals. At some point, I have no doubt that violent video games will be trotted out as a contributing factor. There might even be hearings.<br />
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But, the real problem, the underlying problem, will be, as always, ignored. We Americans exalt violence, and praise and highly reward those who practise violence as a profession. Doubt me? Watch the NFL playoffs, watch a hockey match, or boxing match and come here and try to dispute me. We tolerate and even venerate violence on on hand, and deplore and tsk-tsk its manifestations on the other.<br />
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H. Rap Brown said it very well back in the "Day's of Rage", when our inner cities burned, "Violence is as American as cherry pie!" No, he did not say apple, he said cherry.<br />
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Doubt him? Lincoln, McKinley, Garfield, Huey Long, George Wallace, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Medgar Evers, Fred Hampton, John Lennon, Matthew Sheperd, Martin Luther King, the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Church shooting, Oklahoma City, Harvey Milk, Malcolm X, Ronald Reagan, Allan Berg, George Tiller, Columbine...OK? Enough? Got it?<br />
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There's others if you demand it!<br />
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Our problem is multi-fold. One, we are very ambivalent about violence, and two, we have not yet decided, as a culture, that we want to develop a way, or programs, which will, early on, identify the deeply disturbed among us, intervene, and effectively treat them or else remove them from the general population so that they no longer present a risk. I believe the first contributes to our lack of will on the second.<br />
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And, three, how do we, as a free society, devise a means to monitor and identify violence prone people without relinquishing our freedom and individuality to some sort of totalitarian mental health overseer? Well, starters would be effective, universal, and standardized childhood education with professionals trained to recognize the warning signs and readily available resources and programs designed to intervene or segregate those who display the warnings signs. It really is that simple!<br />
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If course we won't. We'll burn candles, pray, weep, wring our hands, and hold vigils and marches for awhile, blame each other, then we'll forget about it until the next tragic event wrought by some maniac. I'm betting by Superbowl Sunday we'll have pretty much moved on.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-83354742751004251762011-01-06T08:53:00.001-06:002011-01-06T08:55:52.057-06:00Sunday Pot Roast = Thursday HashBack in the day, as the current cliche goes, people were less cavalier about food and waste. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. At least once a month, when I was growing up, pot roast was the Sunday meal...Sundays we didn't call it lunch, dinner or supper..it was the "meal". Mom would load a huge roast into a roaster, load it with potatos, carrots, celery, and seasoning and spices known only to her, and let it cook at least half a day, occasionally adding a bit of water to keep things from drying out.<br />
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That roast and those vegetables along with gravy made from the roast's drippings and home made yeast rolls, green onions in a water glass, and radishes on a saucer, all washed down with sugar sweetened iced-tea were "the meal". But, as delicious as it was, that was mere prelude.<br />
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By Tuesday, that pot roast and vegetables would show up for supper as a meat pie; steaming, savory and rich, made from the pot roast and vegetables leftovers and freshly made-from-scratch pie dough. Oh, but that was not the end of the pot roast. Uh huh, not by a long shot. My mom must have bought a full haunch of steer for the Sunday meal, because come Thursday, it would make its curtain call as hash. And such hash it was: that left over roast would be ground up on a manual meat grinder, which was screwed down on the table edge, and transformed from a sweetly rich meat to a spicy and mouth watering mixture heated on the stove top with small chucks of diced portato and onion and served over freshly toasted bread.<br />
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See what I mean? We had no garbage disposal system and nary an iota of that roast and its trimmings ever found their way into a garbage pail...and I don't remember that we ever thought of them as leftovers. <br />
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Yep, a pot roast was always good for three meals and at least one school lunch sack with a thick cold roast beef sandwich slathered with tangy German mustard.<br />
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And, on roast beef Sundays, it was de riguer' that dessert be pineapple upside down cake. Now, most such cakes are heavy sodden lumps of dough and sweetness, but not my mom's. Somehow she managed that the cake it self be light and fluffy with the pinapple and topping complimenting rather than overpowering it. My older brother and I knew our mom was the best cook in the world and when he got married he belaboured his poor bride with imprecations that she get recipes and learn from his mom how to cook.<br />
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Shortly after their honeymoon, they came for Sunday pot roast and after dessert and coffee my brother began boasting of how his mom made everything from scratch and that was the only way he could stand pineapple upside down cake, and that today's may had been the best ever. Our mom just smiled and said nothing.<br />
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Shortly after clearing the table and putting things away, mom called the new bride over and with a wink and a smile led her on the back porch which the trash can was kept, lifted its cover, and showed her, without a word, where she had thrown the Duncan Hines cake mix box.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">-30-</div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-55817960332349930772011-01-05T11:00:00.000-06:002011-01-05T11:00:55.165-06:00The Republican Strategy - How YOU Can Fight BackHere is the Republican strategy at its simplest in less than a paragraph.<br />
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Drive up the deficit, spend off all surpluses and reserves, put the nation in a state of near bankruptcy and blame "entitlements" and a tax-and-spend philosophy of government for the problems and dismantle all social safety nets such as Social Security CHIPS, Medicare and Medicaid and hand them over to their deregulated, unregulated and never regulated,multi-national corporate masters to plunder, rape and pillage. They're doing it nationally, and from state-to-state.<br />
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Additionally they vilify and label with pejoratives any groups or organizations, such as unions, that stand between them and their goals.<br />
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The answer to this is very challenging; first there must emerge leadership which can unify labor, the middle class, academia/students and the working and perpetually poor.<br />
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Secondly; that leadership will have to concurrently educate, organize and mobilize around one to two key, core issues which transcend and affect those key constituencies.<br />
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Finally, I firmly believe it is a fight to the death, both figurative and literal. Unless we as individuals begin standing up to the arrogance and bullying of the right in our churches, neighborhoods, clubs, social gatherings, and street corners, we will surely lose. We may have to lose friends, jettison relatives, and walk alone down some lonely alleys, but, if we do not give in, we will prevail. We may have to lie down in front of the tanks. Moral imperative without action is meaningless!<br />
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Just don't back down, sass, argue, fight back, if pushed-shoved back, if slapped-slug back. Multiply yourself, join a progressive organization and help them.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: blue;">Here's an anthem for you:</span></strong></div><br />
<div align="center"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nUTXb-ga1fo?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nUTXb-ga1fo?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-52454077935843873242011-01-04T06:30:00.000-06:002011-01-04T06:30:31.345-06:00Obama Fails at Hold 'Em PokerRepublicans (and some yahoos calling themselves Democrat) are hellbent on destroying our social safety net despite the contrary wishes of the vast majority of American people. Yesterday, we witnessed a weird convergence of these two indisputable facts as the Republican controlled congress voted to repeal health care reform and CBS Sixty-Minutes and Vanity Fair released a poll indicating that a combined 81% of Americans would either raise taxes on the wealthy (61%) or cut military spending (20%) in order to bring into line the nation's fiscal problems. A scant handful, almost no more than the margin for error percentage, would cut Social Security or Medicare.<br />
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However, late last year President Obama went "all in" and tried to fill an inside straight by giving Republicans an extension of the Bush era tax cuts in order to gain a few palliative concessions including an extension of unemployment benefits for workers displaced by the current depression which was triggered by corporate greed and banking and Wall Street shenanigans. Well, "the river" gave him no help at all! Not only did the GOP get an extension of the Bush administration's tax policies, they are poised to rake in all the chips under the guise of Social Security reform.<br />
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All of which is to say, even Obama is ignoring the will of the people and gambling away our future.<br />
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Obama will want to stay in the game, and in order to do so, he will have to hustle up the means to stay at the table. If past is prelude to present, we can expect him to capitulate on "entitlement" reform as he did on health care reform, Wall Street and banking regulation, and tax cuts for the wealthy. In short, he is going to pawn our social safety net in order to stay at the table.<br />
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Even before "the flop" of the next hand, we can expect him to ante up raising the retirement age (which hammers working women and physical labor intensive workers the hardest), and reducing future benefits, and never mind that most of America is opposed, he has allowed himself to be sandbagged and an already poor hand is made awful by his lack of courage in standing up to the Republicans.<br />
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Already arrogant and out-of-control, the Republicans, financed by multi-national corporate money and pulled even further to the right by tea-bags and tea-hags will check and call, or raise and call him by saddling him with "entitlement reform". Nowhere in this will you see anything approaching meaningful jobs creation measures..that card has been pulled from the deck. You see, with an eye on 2012, the Republicans do not want the economy or jobs picture to improve and will check, call and bluff to that end.<br />
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You see, the president believes that by posturing to independents he can win reelection. After all, democrats and progressives have nowhere else to turn, or so the thinking goes. He's dismally wrong, is underplaying his hand, and will lose the pot...unfortunately, you and I will lose our shirts in the process.<br />
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<div align="center">-30-</div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-56055697612710469012011-01-03T07:14:00.000-06:002011-01-03T07:14:23.116-06:00Big Changes For Medicare Beneficiaries<strong><u>Medicare beneficiaries to benefit from changes implemented this year:</u></strong><br />
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Drug makers will provide a 50% discount on brand-name drugs and the government will provide a 7% discount on generics for consumers in the gap (Donut Hole). Each year, the discounts will increase until the consumer's share of costs while in the gap is 25% for both name-brand and generic drugs.<br />
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The elimination of deductibles and coinsurance for preventative services, as recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.<br />
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Coverage of annual wellness visit and personalized prevention plan at no charge.<br />
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Provides 10 % bonuses payments to primary care doctors working in areas with physician shortages.<br />
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Creates a CMS Innovation Center that will explore effective ways to create efficient payment systems that are patient-centered, and that preserve and provide incentive for high-quality care.<br />
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Reduces market basket updates for providers, beginning this year. This stabilizes payments to the various Medicare providers, reducing changes and uncertainty regarding their payments for services from Medicare.<br />
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Prohibits private "Medicare Advantage" plans from charging enrollees more than Original Medicare for certain medical services, including chemotherapy administration and skilled nursing care.<br />
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Freezes "Medicare Advantage" plans payment rates to 2010 levels. The intent is to reduce government subsidies to insurance companies by phasing in annual reforms intended to better match coverage costs in the private Medicare insurance market to those in the Original Medicare program.<br />
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Allows Medicare Advantage enrollees to switch to Original Medicare during the first 45 days of the new year.<br />
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Freezes inflation indexing for Medicare-related Part-B premiums for people with high incomes.<br />
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Raises drug plan premiums for individuals earning over $85, 000 and couples earning over $170,000.<br />
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Creates a new voluntary national insurance program for long-term care services (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Program, financed through voluntary payroll deductions. After five years of contributions one would be invested in the plan with an average lifetime benefit of $50.00 a day, depending on the needs of the person.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-74287592382188174762010-12-30T10:33:00.000-06:002010-12-30T10:33:06.669-06:00Time Is On My Side - See You Next Year<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;"><strong>Happy New Year</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Sure, we have a hell of a fight ahead, but remember these sage words from that emminent social commentator and Peer of the Realm, Sir Mick Jagger, "Time Is On Our Side"</span></strong></div><br />
<div align="center"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XzcWwmwChVE?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XzcWwmwChVE?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-52155311048936291192010-12-29T06:24:00.000-06:002010-12-29T06:24:24.303-06:00Ten Things Right-Wingers Will Try to Destroy Economic RecoveryIsaiah J. Poole, Executive Editor of TomPaine.com has compiled a list of the top ten things the right-wing has for its legislative agenda that will virtually insure the complete destruction of America's middle class. Here, in order, is a condensed and abridged list of the items on that agenda. A link to the full article appearing on AlterNet follows:<br />
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<strong>1. Repeal Health-Care Reform</strong><br />
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Never mind that there are 50-million Americans now without coverage and repeal would cause an estimated $143-billion increase in the deficit from loss of projected savings and add 20-30 million more people to the uninsured.<br />
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<strong>2. Restrain the Federal Government's Ability to Support Job-Creation</strong><br />
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If they have their way, you can say goodbye to: Community Development Block Grants, new Small Business Administration initiatives, and the requirement that the Federal Reserve take employment impact into account when it sets monetary policy.<br />
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<strong>3. Slash Federal Infrastructure Spending</strong><br />
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Anyone remember a bridge collapse in Minnesota that killede rush hour commuters? While other countries, such as China, are investing heavily in infrastructure, American politicians are hailed as heroes for rejecting projects designed to move goods and people effectively. Think a moment about what that implies for our ability to compete in the global economy.<br />
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<strong>4. Dismantle Medicare (and Give Seniors "Vouchers")</strong><br />
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Shifting increasing out-of-pocket costs onto seniors rather than restraining the growth of those costs by insurance companies would be one likely outcome of the so called "voucher" system.<br />
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<strong>5. Undo Financial Reform and Unleash The Predators</strong><br />
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Imagine a crime wave in your city. Now imagine a city council that puts fewer cops on the beat, makes certain the cops are docile, and that harasses those who are not. Got it? <br />
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<strong>6. Support Big Oil and Kill Green Jobs</strong><br />
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The conservatives would have the Environmental Protection Agency serve the polluters rather than the planet!<br />
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<strong>7. Don't Just Cut Government Waste; Cripple Government</strong><br />
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George W. Bush said, "turning Clinton's surpluses into huge deficits was incredibly positive news" because it would put government in a "financial straitjacket." Plans to reduce spending to 2008 levels would deepen the recession and cause the loss of hundreds of thousands more jobs.<br />
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<strong>8. Amp up the Insecurity in Social Security</strong><br />
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Cutting to the bone, Republicans want the $2.6 trillion trust fund to pay for tax breaks for the very wealthy and offset the costs of two wars.<br />
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<strong>9. Starve Public Education</strong><br />
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Currently, one in four (*25%) of our nation's youths fail the Army Entrance Examination. That is a problem, and the conservatives want to dismantle the very agency tasked with addressing the problem, the Department of Education.<br />
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<strong>10. Rob the Poor and Middle Income Americans to Give to the Wealthy</strong><br />
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Cutting taxes on the rich and two unfunded wars caused the deficit, now conservatives want to cut the things government does for the people in the name of reducing the deficit.<br />
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<strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/149333/10_ways_right-wingers_will_try_to_wreck_any_economic_recovery/?page=entire">Full Article</a></span></strong>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-23018230191572283182010-12-28T14:25:00.001-06:002010-12-28T14:44:19.497-06:00Sergeant With a Death WishWhen I served on active duty with the Marine Corps, I served with a medal-of-honor winning staff sergeant with an obvious death wish. The man was a killer, a stone-cold psychopath that one just did not provoke. {Provoke, hell--we stayed out of his line of sight, except when duty demanded}. Duty demnanded we attend his classes on hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting..sheer terror, punctuated by relief when it was over for that week.<br />
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He got his medal in Korea for wiping out a machine gun nest of Chinese soldiers and then turning the machine gun on their company position enabling his pinned down platoon to break through and join the rest of the company and regiment on its march to the sea in sub-zero weather while under constant attack. He had been riding on a tank directing its fire when it was hit by an anti-tank round and he was thrown into an enemy machine gun nest. Without rifle or sidearm, although already seriously wounded himself, he attacked the five man crew with only his KA-Bar knife. He killed all five.<br />
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At Camp Pendleton, he spent his liberty hours down at the base ranch riding bareback broncos and bulls. As I said, a pronounced death wish.<br />
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I often wonder what his reactions to today's G.I.'s might be. He didn't seem to be the sort of man who would welcome women or openly gay people into the military. Look, even back then, he despised enlisted men who were married--"if my Marine Corps wanted you to have a goddamn wife, we'd of given her to you with your friggin' web gear", he'd hiss at any unfortunate asking for liberty to attend to family affairs.<br />
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I first met him when I was serving chow during boot camp and he was the Senior Drill Instructor of the motivation platoon. Now, the motivational platoons, back then, were made up the recruits who couldn't cut it in a regular platoon because they were either wise-asses or bad-asses, or feigning psychosis to get out of their enlistments. These weren't the overweight or mentally slow ones, they were for a different platoon. These guys were the incorrigibles, the ones other services would have cashiered or never enlisted in the first place. The Marine's response was just up crank up the "boot-camp" experience to the power of ten under the supervision of someone, tougher, meaner and crazier than any of his charges for as long as it took to make Marines of them. Some spent months in boot camp, until they "got with the program". And, you didn't graduate from the motivation plattoon, when it was determined you were squared away there, you would be assigned to a regular platoon that was just starting on their rotation through the 12-weeks.<br />
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So, while serving chow, about my second week in, he marched in the motivational platoon, and at the end of the line began holding out his tray for us to serve--this is different, because all other drill instructors would eat in an area set off for them with a recruit serving them at the table. But, for whatever reason, he was eating with his platoon and the kid next to me splashed gravy on his blouse. A tattooed hand shot out across the line, grabbed the kid, lifted him and slammed him on the ground...the kid shrieked and wet himself as one hand, tattooed with LOVE on the fingers, held him down by pressing on his chest just over the heart, and the other, tattooed with HATE, grabbed his Adam's apple, shutting off the squealing as the staff sergeant knelt over the kid whispering, "You clumsy shit-bird, you do that again and I'll rip out your goddamn heart and eat it!"<br />
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That was it. Over in a flash. But it was my first intimation of how thin is the line between life and death and how quickly that line can be crossed. I did some very serious growing up in that instant.<br />
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The thing of it was, after boot camp, he was assigned to my company as a platoon sergeant. Thankfully, not my platoon...sometimes he'd look at me, and say, "I know you from somewhere." I never reminded him of where.<br />
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The other thing of it is, I made it a point to learn from him everything he taught about hand-to-hand combat and knife fighting. I've been in a few tights in my life, and only have been beaten down once...but then, I've always been very damned careful not to splash gravy on anyone.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-50920594672466047822010-12-27T10:09:00.000-06:002010-12-27T10:09:57.782-06:00Christians, Do You Help Shoulder the Cross?One wonders about Christians, not all of them--but, certainly most of them.<br />
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Over the past several weeks I've watched bemusedly (Okay, you got me there. Sometimes with annoyance and hostility) as people calling themselves Christian have demanded that others recognize and accept their right to claim the year-ending, winter-solstice, holiday season as theirs in recognition of the birth of little baby Jesus. They bleat and blather about Jesus as the "Reason for the Season", one even got holidays confused and tossed in the cross (Easter) as "The True Reason for the Season". Where I live, in occupied territory in the deepest red zone of East Texas, there are numerous yahoos displaying yard signs reading, "Happy Birthday Jesus".<br />
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Sure its sounds snarky to harp on it, but do these people really think their Jesus is driving by taking notes on who is celebrating his birthday (it's not, most biblical scholars think it's probably in September...just when football season is getting under way, and here In Texas, not even Jesus is going to trump that) and who is not--in a minute I'm going to reflect a bit on what he, if there really is such a he might be taking notes on.<br />
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You can't imagine the fury I ginned up by challenging, rather gently for me, these arrogant demands that people must shift from what is a pretty much fun, secular-humanist holiday and knuckle under to a puritanical religious ritual. "Go to hell", I was told by a sitting judge and one of her supporters. My brief dissertation on the historic background of Christmas, and why I, and so many others, resent being told that we must cast aside our secular beliefs and adopt the Christian viewpoint, was margenalized as a "rant".<br />
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And so it goes. But, here is what really perplexes me about these folks, and it really has nothing to do with the holiday season and much more to do with, where in the name of hell is the christian outrage at what is happening to so many our brothers and sisters. Christians, especially the more evangelical fundamentalists, love parables and allegories, so let's give them one.<br />
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Jesus is said to have fallen (not really spelled out in their bible--but, one of those, well, everybody knows it kind of things) under the weight of the cross three times. Only one person helped shoulder it, Simon of Cyrene. And, here's the thing about that. He didn't rush out and say, "Let me help you with that old boy". Hell no, a Roman soldier drafted him to the task! Which, in my mind, makes him the very first Christian...yeah he did it, but it wasn't out of love or generosity or grace or blessedness or whatever the current catch phrase of the religious right holds sway today. He was compelled to do so under pressure of authority!<br />
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Okay, here's my allegory. How many of you people calling yourself Christian will pick up and help carry the cross? Here's some of what it is loaded down with: drug and alcohol addiction and abuse stemming from a desire to deaden the pain of ignorance, unemployment, and institutionalized generational poverty, or men and women selling their bodies in order to obtain that soma against the cruelty of existence in a system which places no value on human spirit, or older and elderly people merely existing, not living, at the edge of starvation in the midst of aloneness. Oh, I could go on, but you surely get the picture.<br />
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When you shoulder those pieces of the cross, then I might believe there is some honesty in your sanctimonious posturings. I'm not talking about tithing, or a few bucks in the collection plate, or a blanket or coat in cold weather, and then back to your life, fading like Simon back to the obscurity of the crowd.<br />
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Got it?Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-51635528014712096492010-12-21T07:02:00.000-06:002010-12-21T07:02:44.955-06:00An Interactive, Secular-Humanist X-Mas CardWe are celebrating the Holiday Season in the best mithraic tradition in high anticipation of the approaching climax of the saturnalia, and will resume our writings on Monday, December 27th.<br />
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Meanwhile, click on the link below for your very own interactive, secular-humanist X-mas card!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell_fps24.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3166187/graphic1"><span style="font-size: large;"><strong><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red;">HAPPY</span> <span style="color: lime;">HOLIDAYS</span> & <span style="color: red;">SEASON'S </span><span style="color: lime;">GREETINGS</span></span></strong></span></a></div><br />
Did you know that the puritans banned christmas celebrations for several decades? And, that the bible makes absolutely no reference to christmas? And were you aware that biblical scholars agree that Jesus, according to biblical writings, could not have been born in December---and most likely was born in March, September, or perhaps early November. You should also know that what we now call "christmas" was essentially a pagan celebration up until Pope Gregory the First, sometime around 600 AD, commanded his bishops to merge local practices into church rituals in order to expand the church's influence.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-13889159965399037182010-12-20T06:49:00.003-06:002010-12-20T07:02:10.315-06:00Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, Dorothy Parker::The Wisdom of Women<h1 style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><u>Dorothy Parker</u></span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;">“Razors pain you;</span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> rivers are damp;</span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> acids stain you;</span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> and drugs cause cramp.</span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> Guns aren't lawful;</span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> nooses give; </span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> gas smells awful;</span></h1><h1 style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: small;"> you might as well live.”</span></h1><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>"If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to." </strong></span></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><u>Molly Ivins</u></span></strong></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>"If you think his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing,' wait'll you meet this one," On George W. Bush</strong></span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>"If left to my own devices, I'd spend all my time pointing out that he's weaker than bus-station chili," On Bill Clinton</strong></span><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-family: Courier New; font-size: large;"><u>Ann Richards</u></span></strong></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>I'm really glad that your young people missed the Depression and missed the big war. But I do regret that they missed the leaders that I knew, leaders who told us when things were tough and that we'd have to sacrifice, and that these difficulties might last awhile. They brought us together and they gave us a sense of national purpose.”</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>"Let me tell you, sisters, seeing dried egg on a plate in the morning is a lot dirtier than anything I've had to deal with in politics."</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;"><strong>"Power is what calls the shots, and power is a white male game." </strong></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Courier New;">I wish they were here today! Instead, we have Sarah Palin and what a disaster she is. Which, brings us to a final quote, "You can put lipstick on a pig and call her Monique. But, she' still a pig!"</span></strong><br />
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</div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-88319950747353075712010-12-16T07:05:00.001-06:002010-12-16T07:10:36.409-06:00Alcohol, Drugs, Consumerism, & Religion:: The Elephant In The Room<h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody">Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. <br />
Hold to the truth within yourself, as to the only truth.<br />
..............................<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break"></span>Gautama Siddahartha (the Buddha)</span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>I often wonder why my fellow Americans allow to happen the things they do. How is it that we countenance institutionalized poverty, hunger, deprivation, generational joblessness, endless war, deterioration of public education, and the take-over, by stateless international corporations, of virtually all levels of governance and our military? </b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>How is it that people, who start off life essentially decent and well-meaning, can ignore our slow creep into Fascism, aided and abetted by neo-liberal economists of the Friedman school of economic theory?</b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>I think I know part of the answer. Like combat veterans who know horror and choose to bury it deep in their psyches, where it lies festering, painfully leading to eventual self-medication through alcohol, drugs or violent and otherwise dysfunctional behaviors, we ignore the obvious, the pile of reeking crap in the room left by the elephant who lives with us. We anesthetize ourselves with drugs, alcohol, religion and consumerism to enable to ignore that which is piling up around us. </b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>We find diversion, resort to quick highs or sense deadening lows, and buy, buy, buy! And let us not forget the "opiate of the masses", religion--in American, most notably the various Protestant sects.</b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>So much of Protestantism in America today has morphed into this really odd sort of creature; part boosterism of self-indulgent, individual prosperity, blind, jingoistic loyalty to the state, with self-righteous insistence that Gaaawwwwd and JeeeSUS blesses it all, and that all the problems on earth will go away when the trumpet sounds so it's alright to ignore them as long as we're being "blessed" and successful in our search for affluence.</b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Christians of this ilk will fervently, with unforgiving, hard-eyed resolve, insist that Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of little baby Jesus--"the reason for the season", while ignoring the historic truth that the man was born in September, as near as theologians and historians can determine! And, the other elephant pile of truth, that the whole of Christmas festivity was co-opted by Christians from earlier "pagan" religions.</b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>They assuage their rightfully felt unease with an extra holiday dollar or two in the collection plate, or serve an hour or two on a holiday food line, or toss an out-of=date can of green beans or threadbare old blanket in a collection bin in the church vestibule without ever having to actually see or touch a "poor person". </b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>I would suggest that they acquaint themselves with the writings of theologian Emmet B. Fox: </b><u>The Sermon on the Mount</u><b> and </b><u>The Ten Commandments.</u><b> Here they would find, from those wonderful historical and philosophical texts, the old and new testaments, the constant truth about how to live one's daily life so that one is truly "blessed". </b></span></span></span></h6><h6 class="uiStreamMessage" data-ft="{"type":"msg"}"><span class="messageBody"><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></span> </span></h6>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-7097029220436248292010-12-15T07:20:00.000-06:002010-12-15T07:20:13.416-06:00Boomers, Xers, Millennials - Social Security is Yours: Fight to Save It!<div style="text-align: left;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">Confused about Social Security? Think it's going bankrupt? Think it's driving up the deficit? Here's Ed Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, putting the lie to these misconceptions.</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-TUKBNHWJO8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-TUKBNHWJO8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Click to <a href="http://www.retiredamericans.org/">Join the Alliance - Only $10.00 Per Year</a></span></strong></div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-13221760752008463062010-12-14T06:22:00.003-06:002010-12-14T06:34:52.352-06:00A Progressive Rallying Point: 2012Last week, I wrote, and copied here, <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://psst-progressivesavvyseniorstexas.blogspot.com/2010/12/letter-to-obama-stand-down.html">a letter to President Obama</a></span></strong>, asking him to exercise the political fortitude and personal courage to come before the American people and announce that he would not seek reelection in 2012, leaving the way open for the democratic wing of the Democratic Party to find a viable progressive candidate. This, I strongly believe, would allow him to focus on doing his job for the American people, all of them--he so proudly claims to represent, without thought or worry to reelection or his place in history.<br />
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Of course he will not do anything of the sort. And, if the response of his loyalists and apparatchiks over the past week are any indicator, he is going to entrench and move even further to the right. But, we've hit a nerve and the reactions are predictable. We need now to take the initiative.<br />
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Progressives, liberals and leftists are currently without much representation and not taken seriously by the corporate media. We are told that if we mount any serious opposition to Obama and his coterie of neo-liberal economic advisers, we will fracture the Democratic Party, thereby insuring even deeper defeats than 2010. Stuff and nonsense! One of the "not being discussed at all" results of the 2010 elections is that democrats who tried to be centrists and moderate republicans LOST! Democrats are already fractured, without platform, or true leadership.<br />
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So, what is left (hah) for a leftist, progressive, liberal to do? Let me direct your worthy attention to this article, which lays out a vision, a starting point, and in current political jargon, a way forward. Simply click <strong><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-michael-lerner/why-progressives-should-r_b_794927.html">HERE</a></span></strong><br />
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We on the left; largely spurned by our own party, derided or blithely ignored by the corporate media, and ridiculed and made the strawman of all that is wrong with America by the rabid right, often feel alone and without organization or structure. Not so. Envision being a part of a unified progressive movement speaking with solidarity from a platform based on a spiritually humanistic world view. Interested? Click <strong><span style="background-color: white; color: blue;"><a href="http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/">HERE</a></span></strong><br />
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Together, we can!Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-47383484171192560492010-12-13T05:27:00.003-06:002010-12-13T05:51:55.787-06:00Obama's Tax Deal, Social Security: Beginning Of The End<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Proposed Tax Deal: Poison Pill for Social Security</span></strong></div><br />
President Obama announced a tentative deal with Congressional Republicans a week ago today to extend the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels for two years. The package would reduce the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax on all wage earners by two percentage points, to 4.2%, for one year. However, the package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, and would be financed entirely by adding to the national debt. The deal would also extend unemployment benefits at their current level for 13 months, through the end of 2011.<br />
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The Social Security payroll tax cut is estimated to cost $120 billion per year, and is a provision that Senate Democrats say could ultimately be the undoing of Social Security. Allowing the payroll tax to expire in a year will mean that workers will see a nearly 50% jump in payroll taxes as the rate reverts back -- an event that is likely to be described as a tax hike. According to The Huffington Post, reducing a person's responsibility to contribute to Social Security also deprives the program of the political and moral capital that has kept the program intact despite fierce opposition from a determined investor class. In arguing against the deal, Nancy Altman, head of the group Social Security Works, noted that such responsibility was put into place by FDR for just that purpose. To see more from FDR on the topic, <strong><span style="color: blue;">Click Here</span></strong><br />
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Altman said that dividing the stimulus evenly by simply sending an equal check to every worker would be far more desirable. Both the Senate and the House are expected to debate and vote on the proposal early this week.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;">Tax Cuts for the Rich, Republicans Kill $250 for Seniors </span></strong></div><br />
A proposal to provide seniors an emergency payment of $250 was blocked last Wednesday by Republican-led opposition in the House and Senate. The measure would have provided the one-time payment to 58 million Social Security recipients in lieu of an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). This is the second consecutive year that Social Security beneficiaries did not receive a COLA. Senior advocates note that the Consumer Price Index in Social Security, which measures the rate of inflation, does not accurately reflect the rate of inflation faced by seniors who spend a huge amount of their income on health care. Alliance for Retired American members sent more than 5,400 e-mails letting their representative and senators know that they were counting on them to vote in favor of the payment. The bill, S. 3985, required 60 votes to shut off a filibuster in the Senate, but failed 53-45. No Senate Republicans voted for it. To see how your Senators voted, go <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://bit.ly/h1XTqt.">HERE</a>.</span></strong><br />
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The proposal also failed in the House for passage under House Suspension Calendar rules. There, the measure came up short, 254-153, with 141 Republicans voting against it. Under those rules, two-thirds of members present and voting were necessary for the bill, H.R. 5987, to pass. To see how your representative voted, go <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://bit.ly/hdtk52">HERE</a>. </span></strong><br />
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In arguing for the $250, Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) mentioned the Alliance for Retired American's support on the House floor. “This legislation is critical to retirees, but unfortunately, congressional Republicans overwhelmingly chose to oppose it,” said Edward F. Coyle, Executive Director of the Alliance.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-75043698523487932732010-12-09T07:01:00.000-06:002010-12-09T07:01:46.313-06:00Social Security Recipients: GOP> "DROP DEAD!"Dear Seniors, retirees, widows, orphans, and disabled workers,<br />
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Drop Dead!<br />
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Sincerely, <br />
<br />
Your Republican Representatives & Senators<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: red;">****************************************************************** </b></div><br />
Dear Wealthiest Americans,<br />
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See you at the country club, the deal's done. He caved in quicker than my wife's first souffle.<br />
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Venally Yours,<br />
<br />
Your Republican Representatives & Senators<br />
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PS My numbered Swiss account remains the same as beforeShane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-12587281471663185942010-12-08T07:32:00.003-06:002010-12-08T10:37:41.347-06:00Letter To Obama: Stand down!December 8, 2010 <br />
<br />
President Barack Obama<br />
The White House<br />
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW<br />
Washington, D.C.20500<br />
<br />
Dear Mr. President,<br />
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I regret to inform you that I find your naivete' appalling and frightening.<br />
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You often remark that, in effect, you're representing all the people of America. In theory, at sort of a ninth grade civics class sort of way, you're correct. But, in reality there are anywhere from 25 to 35 percent of the population who would gladly burn crosses on the White House lawn and drag you and your family out into the cold December night and hang you before setting fire to your corpses. Do you truly believe that you represent them, or that by extending a hand you will change them?<br />
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This mindlessly, lunatic rabble is financed, encouraged, and abetted by nameless, faceless corporations that know no national boundaries nor any sense of patriotism toward our nation. They are the vanguard of international fascism, and in no sense of the word do they believe that you "represent" them. They are the masters of destruction, they use our legislature to further their own aims, they use our military to advance their worldwide goals and to advance their profits--do you truly believe that you "represent" them?<br />
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I worked long and hard (as did millions of others) to help get you elected. As a cancer survivor, I used strength and energy I could not spare. As a Social Security recipient, I contributed money that I could ill afford to part with. I did these things because I believed you when you promised to rein in and corral the liars, thieves, cut-purses and mendicants of Wall Street and banking. I believed you when you said you would extract us from two unfunded wars of invasion and occupation of non-belligerent sovereign nations. I believed you when you said you would lead us in the fight to bring to heel the hell-hounds of the drug and insurance companies and provide all Americans with an opportunity for quality, affordable health care. And, I believed you when you said you would bring an end to the Bush tax-cuts, which further enrich the already wealthy while diminishing the middle-class and further impoverishing the already poor and destitute.<br />
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I believed you were a man of strength, courage and fortitude. I believed you would provide leadership against some very dark and strong forces undermining every precept of representative democracy. I believed that you would help us climb out of the abyss of cynicism and insane self-indulgence wrought by the dry-drunk sociopath who preceded you in the White House.<br />
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I watch as your supporters rightfully desert you.I have watched as you have silently suffered insult and attack without response. And sadly, after two years of capitulation, compromise, and weakness, I see no way back for you. You have exhausted my trust and belief. You have failed to accomplish that which you were elected to do. I am saddened and sickened by this.<br />
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I encourage you to take the first opportunity to come before the American people and announce that you will not seek a second term in order to allow the Democratic party to find a candidate worthy of the office. Perhaps, without the distraction of re-election considerations or eye toward your place in history, you could find the time, stamina and will to truly represent those Americans who elected you!<br />
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Sincerely,<br />
<br />
Shane FoxShane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-17161428183917467512010-12-07T05:50:00.000-06:002010-12-07T05:50:27.726-06:00Call To Action: $250 Emergency Social Security PaymentThe U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate are both scheduled to vote on Wednesday, December 8 on a $250 emergency payment to seniors. The payment would go to seniors, veterans, disabled individuals, and railroad retirees who did not receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in 2010 through Social Security or other programs, as well as retired government workers who do not receive Social Security benefits. These beneficiaries received a similar payment in 2009.<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><u>TAKE ACTION</u></strong> - -<strong><em><u>Click on this link:</u></em></strong> <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4055/c/405/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1024">HERE</a></span></strong><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>BACKGROUND</strong></div><br />
This is the second consecutive year that Social Security beneficiaries did not receive a COLA. As you know, the Consumer Price Index in Social Security (CPI-W), which measures the rate of inflation, does not accurately reflect the rate of inflation faced by seniors and other Social Security beneficiaries who spend a huge amount of their income on health care. The $250 emergency payment will help with medical, pharmaceutical, and other costs of daily life in these difficult times. Gasoline prices are climbing once again, insurance *(Gap plans and Medicare Part D plans) premiums are soaring, and an early and harsh winter will cause heating bills to mount up for those on limited and fixed incomes.<br />
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The Senate will need 60 votes to stop a filibuster and pass this measure. The House will need a simple majority of votes. You need to make your voices heard. Simply click the link above to get the phone number and contact information for your representative as well as the main Capitol switchboard.<br />
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But, don't delay. The vote is tomorrow; and the Republicans have already declared war on the middle class and unemployed....Stop them from doing the same thing to Social Security recipients!<br />
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Let your representative and senators know that you are watching them and that you are counting on them to protect you by voting in favor of the emergency payment for seniors. We need your call, please do it now!Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-50126088419775013802010-12-06T12:10:00.001-06:002010-12-06T12:14:25.627-06:00Deficit Commission Fail: Big Win For Seniors & Working FamiliesAmerican baby boomers, seniors and retirees dodged a bullet last Friday when the National Commission on Fiscal Reform and Responsibility's members rejected their co-chair's (*Erskine Boles & Alan Simpson) proposal to drastically cut Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age.<br />
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On this rare occasion, sanity and reason trumped ideology, ignorance and venality. We must never again try to balance the federal budget on the backs of current and future retirees, especially when it is an incontrovertible fact that social security has not added a single cent to the current deficit crises. Indeed, members of the commission included in their report to President Obama words acknowledging that Social Security has not contributed to the deficit!<br />
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It is a brutal irony that those members of the commission most ready to chop apart Social Security are the same crew of right-wingers that are leading the fight to extend Bush's tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. When one protests this, their retort is that the protester is engaging in "class" warfare. As though socking it to working families and retirees to enrich the already wealthy is not class warfare. Somewhat akin to a mugger telling the judge that his victim, who fought back, assaulted him.<br />
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The defeat of these draconian cuts to Social Security did not come easy. Working families, retirees, and future retirees and their supporters mobilized and stood strong while letting commission members know there would be a heavy price if they pursued a course of attack on one of America's greatest success story. The week before the vote, progressive activists from many allied organizations joined with the <strong><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.retiredamericans.org/">Alliance for Retired Americans</a></span></strong> in a national call-in day which shut down the capitol switchboard--which is designed to process 7,000 calls at a single instant.<br />
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We can hope that this augers a new chapter in debating and solving the issues related to the preservation of Social Security for generations to come. Solutions must be sought, but, those solutions must strengthen--not weaken--the economic security and well-being of millions of older Americans, widows, orphans and disabled workers. Social Security has kept generations out of poverty and it must be protected and preserved for all future generations.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-89111136948403178962010-12-02T08:24:00.001-06:002010-12-02T08:26:16.220-06:00Texas State Rep. Leo Berman: A National EmbarrassmentTexas state representative (REP-D6), Leo Berman, once again embarrasses himself and Texas with his outlandish insistence that President Obama is not an American citizen. When confronted with facts by CNN's Anderson Cooper, he attempts to wiggle away with lies and falsehoods stacked upon internet right-wing, conspiracy-nut rumors. Cooper annihilates him with documented facts.<br />
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Berman claims he is a decorated, retired army officer *(Artillery). However a cursory web search yielded no supporting documentation, and since Berman has sponsored at least two bills building walls of secrecy around military service records, *(TX HB198 & HB199) one can use his rather feverish logic, and suppose he is hiding something from us. All I could find, were mostly self-generated by him, supporters, or his staff. He claims to be a colonel, but after his alleged 22-years of service, he seems to have only made the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. <u>In the military, that failure to make what is called "the colonel's list" is an indicator of some sort of problem!</u><br />
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I wonder if we can get him to release his DD214 for public scrutiny.<br />
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Indeed, it appears that full colonel rank (of which he so proudly boasts and struts) was an honorific bestowed on him by the Texas National Guard or Civil Air Patrol. I was once the adjutant of a Marine Corp League chapter in Illinois, but do not wave that title in my personal or political life. Nor do I attach it to my regular military service in the Marine Corps.<br />
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I've met Berman, twice, and unlike Will Rogers, I found a man I disliked. He is, what we called in the Marine Corps, a "feather merchant", a wee little man suffering from the "short man's disease", with a battleship mouth and row-boat ass. He spews a lot of bile and hate, and makes a lot of noise and gains a lot of media attention doing so. But, as the current cliche' goes, upon close examination, there is just no there, there!<br />
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<a href="http://psst-progressivesavvyseniorstexas.blogspot.com/2009/06/conversation-with-state-representative.html">BERMAN: EVENT 1</a><br />
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<a href="http://psst-progressivesavvyseniorstexas.blogspot.com/2009/09/southside-kiwanis-in-belly-of-beast.html">BERMAN: EVENT2</a><br />
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And, lest you think I am misconstruing this guy's idiocy, here, decide for yourself:<br />
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<div align="center"><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-RWmaBX6tKA&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-RWmaBX6tKA&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-90837136275459327062010-12-01T09:43:00.001-06:002010-12-01T09:50:52.745-06:00Young Parents: Get A Yardstick!There is a point in every young parent's life, particularly the mother, when it becomes realized that despite the intense delight and passionate pleasure during the process of conception, there has been brought forth into the world a psychopath! This realization usually hits somewhere between the child's age of two and five. Regrettably, the derangement continues up to about the age of 25 to 28.<br />
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Comedian Bill Cosby calls them "brain damaged"! Brain damaged or psychopathic, the end result is the same. At about the age that a person begins gaining their own sanity, they become the caretakers of the criminally insane. Sweet, cuddly little toddlers become fiendish pre-schoolers more influenced by the worst behaving brat in day-care than by parents or teachers. Sharps have to be placed not just out of reach, but under lock and key, as do medicines and toxic and caustic substances less they be given or applied to family pets, a younger child, or merely self-ingested just for the hell of it.<br />
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This particular form of mental derangement's onset demonstrates displays of obstinacy regarding personal hygiene and/or fulfilling the human need for sleep. Those who have descended the deepest into their madness often will eschew all forms of nourishment other than Gummy Bears coated with honey or macaroni and cheese slathered with ketchup. But, bath and bedtime, once ritualized and predictable occasions of bonding and sweet affection, become the kill zones of deadly fire-fights with no quarter given. Banshee like shrieks of retribution from the parent, loud and shrill enough to cause neighborhood dogs to waken and wail, and to shatter Aunt Mildred's wedding gift crystal, merely feed the child's distemper. Milder one's whimper, whine, beg and plea while the more aggressive resort to running naked to hide under the bed or the darkest recesses of the closet--despite earlier avowals that a "hairy monster" resides there and that it would be utterly impossible and life-threatening to sleep under those conditions.<br />
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People who once went to country fairs and home shows for the displays and rides now head there for one thing and one thing only: Free Yardsticks! Wise ones will get several, as the newer, more flexible ones, break rather easily.<br />
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Dressmakers use them to measure hems and skirt or dress length from the floor. But not so with young parents. They have no time for for dressmaking. Their intent is self-preservation! At wit's end and fully cognizant of the criminal penalties for what they now murderously contemplate each night at bath or bed time, they seek an advantage. And, they know, either from their own experience, or perhaps instinctively, that a well-used yardstick is the perfect weapon of intimidation.<br />
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Properly used by a fearless parent, order can be restored to the ward without resulting to strait-jackets, drugs, or duct tape. Like all psychopaths, the young child is wholly motivated, even driven, by a fear-based instinct for self-preservation. Once applied to the brat's butt, the yardstick assumes a life of its own.<br />
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Upon hearing the words, "Do I need the yardstick?", all but the most recalcitrant quickly determine that it is best to choose one's battles carefully, and that right now perhaps is not the time. Sometimes, with the brighter ones, all that is needed is a parent's longing look at the yardstick, even without a suggestion of a move in its direction, to be sufficient to alter the situation and bring about docility and compliance.<br />
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The additional advantage of the yardstick is that it extends the parent's reach by three feet and can't be easily eluded or dodged, and becomes the perfect tool to rout the misbehaving youngster from under the bed or dark corner of the closest.<br />
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A word of caution is needed. Be careful, despite the provocation, to see to it that only the flat side, rather than the edge, is used. Even the most callused little butt might show a mark if it were...and that could launch inquiries from those pesky and nosy CPS people!<br />
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And that's a whole other thing!Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-15242895962927470982010-11-12T12:56:00.000-06:002010-11-12T12:56:46.379-06:00Fiscal Commission Proposal: "Ridiculous!", says Retiree Leader<span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_0" style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">On Wednesday</span>, the co-chairmen of the White House Commission on <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_1" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; cursor: pointer;">Fiscal Responsibility</span> and Reform, <b><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_2" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">Erskine Bowles</span> </b>and former Sen. <b>Alan Simpson</b>, released their ideas for dealing with the country’s massive debt. The recommendations are from Simpson and Bowles only, and do not represent the opinions of the full commission.<br />
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The proposals include a reduction in <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_3" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">Social Security</span> cost-of-living increases for current retirees; a reduction in Social Security benefits for most future retirees; and a hike in the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_4" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; cursor: pointer;">Social Security retirement age</span> to 69 by 2075.<br />
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In response, <b>Edward F. Coyle</b>, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said, “The Bowles-Simpson proposal is not a package we can support. In fact, it is a package we will strongly oppose. While seniors are more than willing to pay their fair share to reduce the nation’s debt, we must not turn to them to pay off such a huge portion of what was accumulated by the entire country.” He also said that raising the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_5" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">retirement age</span> to 69 is not a viable solution, when so many older workers in difficult jobs are already struggling.<br />
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He added, “The Social Security cuts would hit current retirees, contrary to what was promised, since the change in the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_6" style="border-bottom: 2px dotted rgb(54, 99, 136); cursor: pointer;">Consumer Price Index (CPI)</span> seems to take effect immediately. This will lower seniors’ benefits by about 3% after they have been retired for 10 years, and by about 6 % after 20 years.” He said that changing the CPI is an attack on the middle class, since today’s 20-year old workers who retire at age 65 would see their benefits cut by 17% if their wages average $43,000 over their working lives.<br />
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He also called it “ridiculous” that billionaires pay the same amount into the system as someone earning $106,800, the current cap. He stressed that a better proposal would be requiring employees (and their employers) who make more than $106,800 a year to pay Social Security taxes on all their wages, not the 90% in the proposal. Coyle concluded, “We must not bully seniors into shouldering such a massive percentage of the debt while <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_7">Wall Street</span> millionaires once again just skate on through scot-free.” <br />
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To see the co-chairs’ proposal, go to <a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=HOs%2FYkheXhEo%2B9T8PeWnU6QqC2K1fyy%2B" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_8">http://bit.ly/ajfG8p</span></a><b style="color: blue;"> .</b> To see “Ten Reasons the <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_9" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent; cursor: pointer;">Social Security Proposal</span> of the Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs Should be DOA (Dead on Arrival)” from Social Security Works, where the Alliance is a member of the Steering Committee, go to <a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=q%2F7dh1E2BjM9LTGsY0EbRfBmJXKUKpEB" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_10">http://bit.ly/dxDI77</span></a>. To see Mr. Coyle’s full statement, go to <a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=FfvEI8X760zETgKhAlTcfqQqC2K1fyy%2B" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1289587459_11">http://bit.ly/by0k67</span></a>.Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-48325351446081813922010-11-10T14:26:00.000-06:002010-11-10T14:26:18.549-06:00Marine Corps BirthdayOn this day, 235 years ago, by an act of congress the United States Marine Corps was created. In Philadelphia recruiting began immediately at Tun Tavern, a combination saloon and bordello---to this day it is believed that a good marine is never far from either!<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong>HAPPY BIRTHDAY </strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong>CHESTY PULLER</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><strong>WHEREVER YOU ARE!</strong></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1073408154989541312.post-68623763963701117772010-11-08T08:23:00.002-06:002010-11-08T08:29:32.678-06:00Dallas Cowboy Jokes!The Texas State Police are cracking down on speeders heading into Dallas. For the first offense, they give you 2 Dallas Cowboy tickets. If you get stopped a second time, they make you use them.<br />
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<strong>Q. What do you call 47 millionaires around a TV watching the Super Bowl?</strong><br />
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A. The Dallas Cowboys<br />
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<strong>Q. What do the Dallas Cowboys and Billy Graham have in common?</strong><br />
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A. They both can make 100,000 people stand up and yell "Jesus Christ".<br />
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<strong>Q. How do you keep a Dallas Cowboy out of your yard?</strong><br />
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A. Put up a goal post.<br />
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<strong>Q. What do you call a Dallas Cowboy with a Super Bowl ring?</strong><br />
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A. Old<br />
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<strong>Q. What's the difference between the Dallas Cowboys and a dollar bill?</strong><br />
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A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.<br />
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<strong>Q. How many Dallas Cowboys does it take to win a Super Bowl?</strong><br />
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A. Nobody remembers.<br />
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<strong>Q. What do the Cowboys and a possums have in common?</strong><br />
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A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road!<br />
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The police picked up a little boy wandering along the highway, when the questioned the boy he said "My mom beats me.". When they asked about his father, he replied "he beats me too". Finally they asked where he want to go and exclaimed, "the Dallas Cowboys cuz the don't beat anybody!"<br />
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A man and his dog are at a bar watching the Cowboys play, and the Cowboys score a TD. The dog does a back flip and then moonwalks. The bartender says,"That is awesome! What does he do when the Cowboys win?" The dog's owner says, "I don't know. I have only had him for two years."Shane Foxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10521638324367767546noreply@blogger.com0