Why do Republican politicians continuously need to set an enemy before us? Why do they always have a target for frustrated people to hate? Why do they always try to make us afraid? Why are they trying to make us so mean spirited, uncaring, and selfish?
The new enemies de juor are the union teachers. They paint them as lazy, overpaid drains on our economy. Really? The person who has the biggest positive influence on our children other than parents are their teachers! We have a wonderful education system in Wisconsin with smart, dedicated, caring professional teachers. Most of these people could have done much better financially in the private sector. No one gets into teaching for the money. It has always been a calling. These people are heroes every day, teaching our kids critical thinking. That is just a part of their job. How about teaching respect for others, nonviolent behavior, athletic and academic competition, guidance toward their individual talents? Preparing them for the next level in their education? Spending extra time outside of the classroom to help someone who didn’t understand something?
Why should teachers tolerate being vilified and publicly abused daily by politicians and those who buy into the bile and hatred they’re selling?
Why, with the internet at their fingertips, do so many Americans choose to continue their ignorance?
The Republicans are trying to privatize our schools and this hate mongering is just the first volley in the fight. Quit allowing these evil people to influence you! Use the critical thinking you were taught in school to recognize this for the scam that it is. The only ones who benefit from privatization are the wealthy. The rest of us lose.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Test Tube
The Republicans are testing us to determine whether they have dumbed us down to the point where we will believe the most outrageous lies they can think of.
Wisconsin is nothing but a petri dish for Scott Walkers rich, elitist right wing Overlords. They are playing him and his minions, the Fitzgerald brothers, for suckers. They are blindly carrying out their latest strategy for destroying our democracy and creating a one party ruling class. If they should fail, the Overlords will steam role right over them on their way to find a few more suckers to try the next ploy to take our democracy away. Scott Who?
I, for one, do not appreciate being the subject of experimentation by Scott Walker and his right wing, Overlords.
Right wing Republicans do not care one whit for the concerns, or for that matter, the wellbeing of their constituents. They look upon us with great disdain, as if we were a bothersome child tugging at their pant leg for attention. They just shake us off and go about the business of their out of state Overlords.
Whenever the Republicans are howling the loudest about what the Democrats are doing, that is what the Republicans are doing. The old diversionary tactic of pointing in one direction and when you look, they stab you in the back with their other hand.
Just a reminder. The voter ID law is NOT in effect for the recall elections. If you are a registered voter, YOU WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT ANY STATE APPROVED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS. The poll workers may ask you but you are not required to produce any.
Wisconsin is nothing but a petri dish for Scott Walkers rich, elitist right wing Overlords. They are playing him and his minions, the Fitzgerald brothers, for suckers. They are blindly carrying out their latest strategy for destroying our democracy and creating a one party ruling class. If they should fail, the Overlords will steam role right over them on their way to find a few more suckers to try the next ploy to take our democracy away. Scott Who?
I, for one, do not appreciate being the subject of experimentation by Scott Walker and his right wing, Overlords.
Right wing Republicans do not care one whit for the concerns, or for that matter, the wellbeing of their constituents. They look upon us with great disdain, as if we were a bothersome child tugging at their pant leg for attention. They just shake us off and go about the business of their out of state Overlords.
Whenever the Republicans are howling the loudest about what the Democrats are doing, that is what the Republicans are doing. The old diversionary tactic of pointing in one direction and when you look, they stab you in the back with their other hand.
Just a reminder. The voter ID law is NOT in effect for the recall elections. If you are a registered voter, YOU WILL NOT BE REQUIRED TO PRESENT ANY STATE APPROVED IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENTS. The poll workers may ask you but you are not required to produce any.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Good Old Days
Right wing conservatives have a dream. Their dream is for a cheap and fearful workforce without a voice. They sigh and pine for the “good old days” when coal miners lived in company housing, bought at the company store and went to the company doctor for their healthcare, only to die physically broken and in debt to the company. How about the “good old days” in the garment industry when women worked sixty to seventy hours a week in horrible conditions and maybe got Sundays off. Ahhhhh, if only they could get back to the “good old days” when 13 year old children were forced to work sixty hours a week. They can only imagine how wonderful it must have been before OSHA came along with all those troublesome safety regulations. It was so much easier to replace a dead or maimed worker than to provide a safe workplace. Back in the “good old days” the rabble was so much easier to control when education was for only those who could afford it. If only they could send American Muslims to intern camps like they did to Japanese Americans during WW II in the “good old days”. They yearn for the “good old days” when there was no pesky internet. The right wing wants working people to be just like they were during the Great Depression...broke, sick, hungry and scared.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Scott Walker Giving Wisconsin Away
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has included in his new budget proposal the optional selling off of the state owned steam and electric generating facilities to private enterprise without even a bid process. His reason? “It will save us money.”
What we’re talking about here are mostly steam generating facilities for the university system and other state owned buildings. Walker wants to sell these boiler plants, most of which are in the middle of campuses, to private owners. The state doesn’t even have to go through the bid process, thereby not getting the highest price for these plants.
Currently, the state entities that use the steam for heating and cooling their buildings are getting this energy for cost. Many of the boiler plants have been paid for long ago. There is of course, operational maintenance and employee costs.
If the state sells these facilities, let’s say to Koch Industries, they must have a return on investment or ROI. This means that they have to charge enough for their product to pay for the physical plant they just purchased and earn a reasonable profit. This is basic business 101.
The beauty of this for the business is they have a guaranteed captive customer who has nowhere else to go to purchase their energy.
Let’s take this to its logical end. After years of letting these plants fall into disrepair while ignoring maintenance to increase profits, big business will conveniently walk away at the end of their contract and leave the taxpayer holding the bag for the repairs needed to keep these facilities running.
Does this sound anything like “saving the tax payers money”? Going from purchasing their energy at cost to lining big business pockets? This is an insult to the taxpayer’s intelligence. How dare the Governor take them for such fools!
What we’re talking about here are mostly steam generating facilities for the university system and other state owned buildings. Walker wants to sell these boiler plants, most of which are in the middle of campuses, to private owners. The state doesn’t even have to go through the bid process, thereby not getting the highest price for these plants.
Currently, the state entities that use the steam for heating and cooling their buildings are getting this energy for cost. Many of the boiler plants have been paid for long ago. There is of course, operational maintenance and employee costs.
If the state sells these facilities, let’s say to Koch Industries, they must have a return on investment or ROI. This means that they have to charge enough for their product to pay for the physical plant they just purchased and earn a reasonable profit. This is basic business 101.
The beauty of this for the business is they have a guaranteed captive customer who has nowhere else to go to purchase their energy.
Let’s take this to its logical end. After years of letting these plants fall into disrepair while ignoring maintenance to increase profits, big business will conveniently walk away at the end of their contract and leave the taxpayer holding the bag for the repairs needed to keep these facilities running.
Does this sound anything like “saving the tax payers money”? Going from purchasing their energy at cost to lining big business pockets? This is an insult to the taxpayer’s intelligence. How dare the Governor take them for such fools!
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Hatred is the Badge of the Ignorant.
For some strange reason, ignorant people get elected to public office and somehow end up on the national stage. They first get media attention by making outrageous statements. The more attention, the more outrageous they get. They then start to believe their own hateful bile as other ignorant people come out from under whatever they live under and loudly support these radical positions. These politicians carry around a pocket copy of the constitution but only quote the parts they can twist into supporting their radical positions, all the while shouting out angry divisive speeches and trying to keep us scared of one another.
Many Republican politicians today, Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachmann, there are many to pick from, will try to convince us to be afraid of or hate something. It doesn’t really matter what, Death panels, Acorn, as long as we are afraid of it. They need something to rally us around and picking a virtually harmless entity and vilifying it is both intellectually lazy and harmful to the fabric of our Nation. They don’t have the ambition or the intelligence to embrace the problems of the day and try to find solutions. They just want to keep us afraid and hateful.
Are we a nation of cowards flocking under the wing of some spiteful, hateful, fear mongering ignorant politician mindlessly following wherever they lead us?
We have very serious problems in this country. Problems that can be solved by serious, intelligent people. I want them to be smarter than some “Joe Six Pack” In order to best solve the issues that face this Nation every day.
All of this hatefulness and fear mongering is nothing but a distraction and a waste of valuable time. We must absolutely stop electing these unpatriotic fools who don’t have a plan other than dividing us and making us afraid.
Democracy is not easy. We must put our shoulders to the stone and take our country back from those who would destroy it with fear and ignorance.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
I CAN'T STAND IT ANY LONGER. I'VE HAD ENOUGH.
I cannot believe the people of this country, at least a majority of voters, would elect the party that put our economy in the tank, back in control.
The Large Corporate Owned pundits are screaming “The dems are going to lose the house and the senate”. The pollsters are showing a lot of the races too close to call. The tea partiers have been co-opted by big Republican money and don’t even know it. The Supreme Court has been taken over by ultra conservatives who have taken the ruling that corporations have the same rights as human citizens, under the guise of free speech, to the ludicrous extent that has opened the flood gates for hundreds of millions of corporate dollars, including huge foreign corporate money. This decision has resulted in the largest buy of negative and untruthful campaign adds ever in this country.
There are a lot of angry people out there. I’m one of them, I am deeply disappointed with the Obama administration and the abysmal failure of the Democratic Congress to get a lot of the things done that I had hopes for.
Does this mean that I am willing to turn the government back over to the extremists who got us here in the first place just to punish the Dems? I don’t think so!! This economic collapse is the direct result of Republican fiscal policies for the last thirty years.
Should we bite off our nose to spite our face? Should the middle class vote against their economic best interest? Do we REALLY want these corporate puppets back in control?
Briefly, this is what the Republicans want to accomplish:
Privatize Social Security by putting the only retirement money we are currently guaranteed into the hands of wall street. Is this what you want?
Eliminate Medicare so that if you get sick when you’re elderly and don’t have enough money to cover you medical needs, you suffer and die. Tough bounce, it sucks to be you! One alternative is Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa could always move in with the kids and finish out.
Eliminate the minimum wage. $7.25 is way too much! I’m sure any of these politicians could get by on half that!
Destroy what’s left of the unions so we can all depend on the largess of Large Corporate America for good wages, health care and a good retirement......Right!
Keep us in a constant armed conflict somewhere in the world in order to keep the military-industrial complex financially healthy. They could care less about the incredibly brave young people they’re sending into the meat grinder.
Continue to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire for them would have a net effect of a 3% tax hike. Gee, do do you think they can afford it?
Deregulate the banks and wall street completely. Historically, that worked well (see the Great Depression) and currently (see our current economy).
Privatize the Veterans Administration medical care. Ask a vet how they feel about that before you throw them under the bus
Whether you’re mad at the democrats or not, if you vote for a Republican, you are voting for all of the above.
It took thirty (30) years to bring us to our economic knees. Can we realistically expect the current administration to fix it in less than two years?
The Congress was designed to work by compromise, “not my way or the highway”. The Republican party of NO and of no ideas needs to be shrunk to the size of a postage stamp until they learn the art of compromise and let our government get back to work.
Do not be fooled by their rhetoric. The strategy is to eliminate the middle class completely. These people are not your old Eisenhower Republicans.
The Large Corporate Owned pundits are screaming “The dems are going to lose the house and the senate”. The pollsters are showing a lot of the races too close to call. The tea partiers have been co-opted by big Republican money and don’t even know it. The Supreme Court has been taken over by ultra conservatives who have taken the ruling that corporations have the same rights as human citizens, under the guise of free speech, to the ludicrous extent that has opened the flood gates for hundreds of millions of corporate dollars, including huge foreign corporate money. This decision has resulted in the largest buy of negative and untruthful campaign adds ever in this country.
There are a lot of angry people out there. I’m one of them, I am deeply disappointed with the Obama administration and the abysmal failure of the Democratic Congress to get a lot of the things done that I had hopes for.
Does this mean that I am willing to turn the government back over to the extremists who got us here in the first place just to punish the Dems? I don’t think so!! This economic collapse is the direct result of Republican fiscal policies for the last thirty years.
Should we bite off our nose to spite our face? Should the middle class vote against their economic best interest? Do we REALLY want these corporate puppets back in control?
Briefly, this is what the Republicans want to accomplish:
Privatize Social Security by putting the only retirement money we are currently guaranteed into the hands of wall street. Is this what you want?
Eliminate Medicare so that if you get sick when you’re elderly and don’t have enough money to cover you medical needs, you suffer and die. Tough bounce, it sucks to be you! One alternative is Mom and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa could always move in with the kids and finish out.
Eliminate the minimum wage. $7.25 is way too much! I’m sure any of these politicians could get by on half that!
Destroy what’s left of the unions so we can all depend on the largess of Large Corporate America for good wages, health care and a good retirement......Right!
Keep us in a constant armed conflict somewhere in the world in order to keep the military-industrial complex financially healthy. They could care less about the incredibly brave young people they’re sending into the meat grinder.
Continue to give tax breaks to the wealthy. Letting the Bush tax cuts expire for them would have a net effect of a 3% tax hike. Gee, do do you think they can afford it?
Deregulate the banks and wall street completely. Historically, that worked well (see the Great Depression) and currently (see our current economy).
Privatize the Veterans Administration medical care. Ask a vet how they feel about that before you throw them under the bus
Whether you’re mad at the democrats or not, if you vote for a Republican, you are voting for all of the above.
It took thirty (30) years to bring us to our economic knees. Can we realistically expect the current administration to fix it in less than two years?
The Congress was designed to work by compromise, “not my way or the highway”. The Republican party of NO and of no ideas needs to be shrunk to the size of a postage stamp until they learn the art of compromise and let our government get back to work.
Do not be fooled by their rhetoric. The strategy is to eliminate the middle class completely. These people are not your old Eisenhower Republicans.
Monday, March 1, 2010
PLAYED AGAIN!
It's been a while since I last got something off my chest so this may be a little windy but here it goes.
Do you notice any uptick in the insurance industry's anti health care reform ads? Why haven't they been blitzing the networks and cable with all sorts of future ominous results if it passes? It's not because they don't have the money. Their war chest is full. You would think the rhetoric would be at a deafening pitch. The Democrats seem to be closer than ever to passing a health care reform bill. Something just doesn't ring true here. Have the insurance companies raised enough hell to convince Americans they really are against any reform? They had me convinced. Now I wonder if it was all a grand smoke screen. Why would insurers, at this stage of the game, be attempting to raise rates on private policies anywhere from 39% to 75%? This is all over the news. What an outrage! Do these people have no sense of propriety to their own cause?! How could they be so crass at such a delicate moment? Are they stupid? Could they have worse timing?
I am suspicious that their timing is impeccable. They are definitely not stupid. What's in it for them? Why would they want health care reform? Little increased regulation for one. If the current proposal passes, insurance companies will not be able to rescind sick customers or refuse anyone insurance due to "pre-existing" conditions. That, on the face of it, would seem to be a good thing for the insured. Unfortunately, there is no cost containment language in the proposal. Sure, they will be happy to insure you but at an intentionally prohibitive rate. Breast cancer? No problem! Not until your new rates arrive in the mail. Could you afford monthly premiums twice what your house payment is? They can charge you any amount they damn well please! They will say "We didn't rescind anyone nor did we cancel any policies due to new ailments. These customers just quit paying their premiums. We were forced to cancel them. We didn't want to. Honest."
How about the 30 million people that this legislation will force to buy insurance. People who are young and/or willing to take a chance that their health will hold up for a while longer. 30 million new customers mostly young and healthy. The ideal customer! A captive clientele that won't be making any claims in the immediate future and when they do, their rates just skyrocket. If you're an insurer, why would you put up a fuss about that scenario? The perfect world! A no lose situation! The insurance industry's deafening silence belies their true intent.
The bottom line is new found prosperity for the insurance industry in a now "no risk" business and sick people will still be falling through the cracks. It is unconscionable, indefensible and near criminal!
The cure for this, and what poll after poll indicates the majority of voters want, and our politicians continue to ignore, is Medicare for all with an income based premium. If you like your current insurance, you can keep it. This is called The Public Option. It is also called COMPETITION!
And this is NO BULL.
Do you notice any uptick in the insurance industry's anti health care reform ads? Why haven't they been blitzing the networks and cable with all sorts of future ominous results if it passes? It's not because they don't have the money. Their war chest is full. You would think the rhetoric would be at a deafening pitch. The Democrats seem to be closer than ever to passing a health care reform bill. Something just doesn't ring true here. Have the insurance companies raised enough hell to convince Americans they really are against any reform? They had me convinced. Now I wonder if it was all a grand smoke screen. Why would insurers, at this stage of the game, be attempting to raise rates on private policies anywhere from 39% to 75%? This is all over the news. What an outrage! Do these people have no sense of propriety to their own cause?! How could they be so crass at such a delicate moment? Are they stupid? Could they have worse timing?
I am suspicious that their timing is impeccable. They are definitely not stupid. What's in it for them? Why would they want health care reform? Little increased regulation for one. If the current proposal passes, insurance companies will not be able to rescind sick customers or refuse anyone insurance due to "pre-existing" conditions. That, on the face of it, would seem to be a good thing for the insured. Unfortunately, there is no cost containment language in the proposal. Sure, they will be happy to insure you but at an intentionally prohibitive rate. Breast cancer? No problem! Not until your new rates arrive in the mail. Could you afford monthly premiums twice what your house payment is? They can charge you any amount they damn well please! They will say "We didn't rescind anyone nor did we cancel any policies due to new ailments. These customers just quit paying their premiums. We were forced to cancel them. We didn't want to. Honest."
How about the 30 million people that this legislation will force to buy insurance. People who are young and/or willing to take a chance that their health will hold up for a while longer. 30 million new customers mostly young and healthy. The ideal customer! A captive clientele that won't be making any claims in the immediate future and when they do, their rates just skyrocket. If you're an insurer, why would you put up a fuss about that scenario? The perfect world! A no lose situation! The insurance industry's deafening silence belies their true intent.
The bottom line is new found prosperity for the insurance industry in a now "no risk" business and sick people will still be falling through the cracks. It is unconscionable, indefensible and near criminal!
The cure for this, and what poll after poll indicates the majority of voters want, and our politicians continue to ignore, is Medicare for all with an income based premium. If you like your current insurance, you can keep it. This is called The Public Option. It is also called COMPETITION!
And this is NO BULL.
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