December 8, 2010
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C.20500
Dear Mr. President,
I regret to inform you that I find your naivete' appalling and frightening.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
Sincerely,
Shane Fox
08 December 2010
07 December 2010
Call To Action: $250 Emergency Social Security Payment
The 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.
TAKE ACTION - -Click on this link: HERE
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.
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.
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!
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!
TAKE ACTION - -Click on this link: HERE
BACKGROUND
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.
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.
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!
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!
06 December 2010
Deficit Commission Fail: Big Win For Seniors & Working Families
American 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.
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!
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.
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 Alliance for Retired Americans in a national call-in day which shut down the capitol switchboard--which is designed to process 7,000 calls at a single instant.
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.
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!
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.
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 Alliance for Retired Americans in a national call-in day which shut down the capitol switchboard--which is designed to process 7,000 calls at a single instant.
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.
02 December 2010
Texas State Rep. Leo Berman: A National Embarrassment
Texas 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.
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. In the military, that failure to make what is called "the colonel's list" is an indicator of some sort of problem!
I wonder if we can get him to release his DD214 for public scrutiny.
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.
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!
BERMAN: EVENT 1
BERMAN: EVENT2
And, lest you think I am misconstruing this guy's idiocy, here, decide for yourself:
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. In the military, that failure to make what is called "the colonel's list" is an indicator of some sort of problem!
I wonder if we can get him to release his DD214 for public scrutiny.
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.
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!
BERMAN: EVENT 1
BERMAN: EVENT2
And, lest you think I am misconstruing this guy's idiocy, here, decide for yourself:
01 December 2010
Young 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
And that's a whole other thing!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
And that's a whole other thing!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)