RAIN Minus 4
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Four more days: Despite the fact that this election has given me a cause to write about I will be ecstatic to get it over with. Candidates have become celebrities. One toymaker has released a Joe Biden doll. It talks and talks and talks and won’t shut up. Alaska’s largest newspaper has endorsed Barack Obama but it didn’t bother Sarah Palin. She she didn’t see the endorsement because it is one of the papers she doesn’t read. John McCain proposed buying up bad homeowner mortgages. He just likes buying houses. The reason Senator Obama limited the number of town hall meetings was his preference is to give the Sermon on the Mount. There you have it A tweak on the nose of each candidate. Bill and Hill and W have been such good fodder for humorists but we must now search for topics for the new guys (no offense with the “guys” comment Sarah). I can hardly wait until next Wednesday to get back to doing more humor.
Another point of view: Back in the days when men were men an women were glad of it and you were easily able to tell one from the other, singer Perry Como had a spot on “Your Hit Parade.” His bit would start with, “Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of letters…” The song can be updated to emails. We often receive a couple of hundred per day. Some of which I share. The one below came to me recently from a former Doctoral student. It is not her original bit but describes her so well that she forwarded to me. It was originally penned by that great writer, Anonymous:
“I'm The One They're Talking About
With all the vitriol I've been hearing from the right-wingers of late, I can't help but recognize myself as the target of their vicious attacks. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to out myself, just so they know who it is they're spending so much time talking about.
Yes, I'm that American-hating broad who believes in life, liberty and equality for all Americans, not just those of a "socially acceptable" color, religion, address, pay scale or political affiliation.
I'm that leftie pro-choicer who thinks that every child should be a wanted child, and that the ultimate decision to give birth should be the difficult yet intensely personal decision of the woman whose body and life is involved. I also believe that people who really care about saving babies might want to think about the ones who are already born – especially the ones born in places our government is currently blowing off the map, or might plan to in future.
I'm that infamous anti-Christian who actually believes that I am my Brother's Keeper – and that includes supporting legal immigration and social safety-nets that provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, care for the sick – you know, all that yadda-yadda stuff that Christ used to preach about back when people who called themselves Christians had a passing familiarity with his teachings. I also believe that just because Christ was tortured to death doesn't mean he was promoting the idea as something we are free to do to others with his approval.
I'm that unscrupulous libertine who has deluded myself into thinking that if the gay couple down the street get married, they're not going to destroy every heterosexual marriage in the neighborhood – and by the way, I've yet to hear a coherent argument as to how that would happen if they did.
I'm that unpatriotic wench who thinks that sporting a flag pin in your lapel doesn't mean squat if you're wearing it while supporting pay-cuts for the troops, or budget cuts to veterans' care, and more tax cuts for millionaires – or, for that matter, calling anyone and everyone who disagrees with you "unpatriotic" because you really have nothing of substance to say, but just love the sound of your own meaningless rhetoric blasted over the airwaves.
I'm that blatant sexist who thinks that if someone like Sarah Palin has nothing more to offer than being "hot" while seeking the office of the vice presidency, she'd better have something more in her training bra than a wad of Kleenex – like actual knowledge of the responsibilities of the job, for starters.
I'm that socialist leftie who thinks people should reap the financial rewards of their own hard work while the CEOs of the corporations they toil for share the resulting profits, rather than pocket them all while throwing crumbs to those whose labor created those profits in the first place. Yup, that's me - another anti-capitalist, spouting my big mouth off when oil companies earning record profits get tax subsidies, as though they don't deserve them.
I'm that big city chick, who couldn't possibly share the same values of Joe the Plumber, or the midwestern farmer, or the small-town librarian - or anyone who, unlike me, was raised in the right pocket of Americana - wherever that may be.
I'm that no-good Bush-basher who had the gall to notice that an idiot who couldn't string two words together without getting both of them wrong would inevitably lead this country into an unwinnable war (or two), financial ruin, complete moral failure, and global disgrace..
And while I'm at it, I may as well come completely clean – because, let's face it, you've got me dead-to-rights: I'm also a tree-huggin' environmentalist who believes in such outrageous ideas as protecting the environment, upholding the Constitution, equal treatment under the law, and civil rights – and the hypocrisy of people who call ME un-American makes me speechless (almost!) with fury.
So now that you know who I am, please feel free to vent about me all you want. I'm proud of who I am, what I believe in, and what I stand for.
But don't be embarrassed by not recognizing me in a crowd – you see, there are tens of millions like me, and you know what they say: All those liberal anti-Americans look alike. And we're all about to vote alike – which means voting your asses out of office.
And the next time you think about calling people like me anti-American, you might want to look back at what this election has been all about - and who the REAL Americans truly are."
A little blogging music Maestro… “I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar” by Helen Reddy.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
6 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 6
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
On one hand: Six more days. If you have not early voted and do not plan to do so I strongly encourage you to vote for the presidential candidate of your choice Tuesday. The polls suggest one candidate has an edge over the other – most put Senator Obama ahead in most races – but some polls show the McCain ticket as neck and neck with Obama. Of course, states such as Utah will just mail it in for their candidate but others are struggling to choose. The news station pundits have taken sides with Fox (some say Fix) news claiming to be fair and balanced but in practice are neither. Note to Fox: Having one so called “liberal” partnered with a whining conservative does not make your coverage either fair or balanced. On the other end of the political spectrum NSNBC has loaded their guns with the likes of left-leaning show hosts but have made no effort to disguise them. The opposing view seems to have worked as ratings for the new nose-tweakers at MSNBC have challenged and even surpassed the old guard at Fox. So if both sides are blowing hot air, how does one get an unbiased view? News Flash: There is no unbiased view. Hence, we will further confuse you with two recently-received emails – one mocking the Democrats, the other praising the Democratic nominee. That’s as “fair and balanced” as we can get.
A Republican Children’s Story: There was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat.
She called all of her neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
'Not I,' said the cow.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat
grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.
'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'
'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'
'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.
'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled.
'Fairness' had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly
testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?
A View of the Democratic nominee: Author Frank Schaeffer says "Obama will become one of the greatest (and most loved) American presidents."
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith.
Good stories about Obama abound; from his personal relationship with his Secret Service agents (he invites them into his home to watch sports, and shoots hoops with them) to the story about how, more than twenty years ago, while standing in the check-in line at an airport, Obama paid a $100 baggage surcharge for a stranger who was broke and stuck. (Obama was virtually penniless himself in those days.) Years later after he became a senator, that stranger recognized Obama's picture and wrote to him to thank him. She received a kindly note back from the senator. (The story only surfaced because the person, who lives in Norway, told a local newspaper after Obama ran for the presidency. The paper published a photograph of this lady proudly displaying Senator Obama's letter.)
Where many leaders are two-faced; publicly kindly but privately feared and/or hated by people closest to them, Obama is consistent in the way he treats people, consistently kind and personally humble. He lives by the code that those who lead must serve. He believes that. He lives it. He lived it long before he was in the public eye.
Obama puts service ahead of ideology. He also knows that to win politically you need to be tough. He can be. He has been. This is a man who does what works, rather than scoring ideological points. In other words he is the quintessential non-ideological pragmatic American. He will (thank God!) disappoint ideologues and purists of the left and the right.
Obama has a reservoir of personal physical courage that is unmatched in presidential history. Why unmatched? Because as the first black contender for the presidency who will win, Obama, and all the rest of us, know that he is in great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant hatred, that swirls in the bowels of our wounded and sinful country. By stepping forward to lead, Obama has literally put his life on the line for all of us in a way no white candidate ever has had to do. (And we all know how dangerous the presidency has been even for white presidents.)
Nice stories or even unparalleled courage isn't the only point. The greater point about Obama is that the midst of our worldwide financial meltdown, an expanding (and losing) war in Afghanistan, trying to extricate our country from a wrong and stupidly mistaken ruinously expensive war in Iraq, our mounting and crushing national debt, awaiting the next (and inevitable) al Qaeda attack on our homeland, watching our schools decline to Third World levels of incompetence, facing a general loss of confidence in the government that has been exacerbated by the Republicans doing all they can to undermine our government's capabilities and programs... President Obama will take on the leadership of our country at a make or break time of historic proportions. He faces not one but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any presidency in better times.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it (depending on one's personal theology) Obama is blessedly, dare I say uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstances. Obama is a person with hands-on community service experience, deep connections to top economic advisers from the renowned University of Chicago where he taught law, and a middle-class background that gives him an abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of a single mother, who has worked his way up with merit and brains, recipient of top-notch academic scholarships, the peer-selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and, in three giant political steps to state office, national office and now the presidency, Obama clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Obama is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also new enough to the political process so that he doesn't suffer from the terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting most politicians in Washington. In that regard we Americans lucked out. It's as if having despaired of our political process we picked a name from the phone book to lead us and that person turned out to be a very man we needed.
Obama brings a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear. For eight years we've been ruled by a stunted fear-filled mediocrity of a little liar who has expanded his power on the basis of creating fear in others. Fearless Obama is the cure. He speaks a litany of hope rather than a litany of terror.
As we have watched Obama respond in a quiet reasoned manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after being attacked and lied about in the 2008 campaign season, to his reasoned response to our multiplying national crises, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor with a great bedside manner. Obama is perfectly suited to hold our hand and lead us through some very tough times. The word panic is not in the Obama dictionary.
America is fighting its "Armageddon" in one fearful heart at a time. A brilliant leader with the mild manner of an old-time matter-of-fact country doctor soothing a frightened child is just what we need. The fact that our "doctor" is a black man leading a hitherto white-ruled nation out of the mess of its own making is all the sweeter and raises the Obama story to that of moral allegory.
Obama brings a moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who have had to work for everything they've gotten and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because of the color of their skin. His experience of succeeding in spite of his color, social background and prejudice could have been embittering or one that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness and enlightenment. Obama radiates the calm inner peace of the spirit of forgiveness.
Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy. The biblical metaphors abound. The stone the builder rejected is become the cornerstone... the last shall be first... he that would gain his life must first lose it... the meek shall inherit the earth...
For my secular friends I'll allow that we may have just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way America wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kindly family doctor can lead us now. We are afraid, out of ideas, and worst of all out of hope. Obama is the cure. And we Americans have it in us to rise to the occasion. We will. We're about to enter one of the most frightening periods of American history. Our country has rarely faced more uncertainty. This is the time for greatness. We have a great leader. We must be a great people backing him, fighting for him, sacrificing for a cause greater than ourselves.
A hundred years from now Obama's portrait will be placed next to that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Long before that we'll be telling our children and grandchildren that we stepped out in faith and voted for a young black man who stood up and led our country back from the brink of an abyss. We'll tell them about the power of love, faith and hope. We'll tell them about the power of creativity combined with humility and intellectual brilliance. We'll tell them that President Obama gave us the gift of regaining our faith in our country. We'll tell them that we all stood up and pitched in and won the day. We'll tell them that President Obama restored our standing in the world. We'll tell them that by the time he left office our schools were on the mend, our economy booming, that we'd become a nation filled with green energy alternatives and were leading the world away from dependence on carbon-based destruction. We'll tell them that because of President Obama's example and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, divorce rates went down, more fathers took responsibility for their children, and abortion rates fell dramatically as women, families and children were cared for through compassionate social programs that worked. We'll tell them about how the gap closed between the middle class and the super rich, how we won health care for all, how crime rates fell, how bad wars were brought to an honorable conclusion. We'll tell them that when we were attacked again by al Qaeda, how reason prevailed and the response was smart, tough, measured and effective, and our civil rights were protected even in times of crisis...
We'll tell them that we were part of the inexplicably blessed miracle that happened to our country those many years ago in 2008 when a young black man was sent by God, fate or luck to save our country. We'll tell them that it's good to live in America where anything is possible. Yes we will.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.
A little blogging music Maestro… “Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
On one hand: Six more days. If you have not early voted and do not plan to do so I strongly encourage you to vote for the presidential candidate of your choice Tuesday. The polls suggest one candidate has an edge over the other – most put Senator Obama ahead in most races – but some polls show the McCain ticket as neck and neck with Obama. Of course, states such as Utah will just mail it in for their candidate but others are struggling to choose. The news station pundits have taken sides with Fox (some say Fix) news claiming to be fair and balanced but in practice are neither. Note to Fox: Having one so called “liberal” partnered with a whining conservative does not make your coverage either fair or balanced. On the other end of the political spectrum NSNBC has loaded their guns with the likes of left-leaning show hosts but have made no effort to disguise them. The opposing view seems to have worked as ratings for the new nose-tweakers at MSNBC have challenged and even surpassed the old guard at Fox. So if both sides are blowing hot air, how does one get an unbiased view? News Flash: There is no unbiased view. Hence, we will further confuse you with two recently-received emails – one mocking the Democrats, the other praising the Democratic nominee. That’s as “fair and balanced” as we can get.
A Republican Children’s Story: There was a little red hen who scratched about the barnyard until she uncovered quite a few grains of wheat.
She called all of her neighbors together and said, 'If we plant this wheat, we shall have bread to eat. Who will help me plant it?'
'Not I,' said the cow.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Not I,' said the pig.
'Not I,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did. The wheat
grew very tall and ripened into golden grain.
'Who will help me reap my wheat?' asked the little red hen.
'Not I,' said the duck.
'Out of my classification,' said the pig.
'I'd lose my seniority,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my unemployment compensation,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen, and so she did.
At last it came time to bake the bread.
'Who will help me bake the bread?' asked the little red hen.
'That would be overtime for me,' said the cow.
'I'd lose my welfare benefits,' said the duck.
'I'm a dropout and never learned how,' said the pig.
'If I'm to be the only helper, that's discrimination,' said the goose.
'Then I will do it by myself,' said the little red hen.
She baked five loaves and held them up for all of her neighbors to see. They wanted some and, in fact, demanded a share. But the little red hen said, 'No, I shall eat all five loaves.'
'Excess profits!' cried the cow. (Nancy Pelosi)
'Capitalist leech!' screamed the duck. (Barbara Boxer)
'I demand equal rights!' yelled the goose. (Jesse Jackson)
The pig just grunted in disdain. (Ted Kennedy)
And they all painted 'Unfair!' picket signs and marched around and around the little red hen, shouting obscenities.
Then the farmer (Obama) came. He said to the little red hen, 'You must not be so greedy.'
'But I earned the bread,' said the little red hen.
'Exactly,' said Barack the farmer. 'That is what makes our free enterprise system so wonderful. Anyone in the barnyard can earn as much as he wants. But under our modern government regulations, the productive workers must divide the fruits of their labor with those who are lazy and idle.'
And they all lived happily ever after, including the little red hen, who smiled and clucked, 'I am grateful, for now I truly understand.'
But her neighbors became quite disappointed in her. She never again baked bread because she joined the 'party' and got her bread free. And all the Democrats smiled.
'Fairness' had been established.
Individual initiative had died, but nobody noticed; perhaps no one cared...so long as there was free bread that 'the rich' were paying for.
EPILOGUE
Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for the memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly
testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.
IS THIS A GREAT BARNYARD OR WHAT?
A View of the Democratic nominee: Author Frank Schaeffer says "Obama will become one of the greatest (and most loved) American presidents."
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it's time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He's worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith.
Good stories about Obama abound; from his personal relationship with his Secret Service agents (he invites them into his home to watch sports, and shoots hoops with them) to the story about how, more than twenty years ago, while standing in the check-in line at an airport, Obama paid a $100 baggage surcharge for a stranger who was broke and stuck. (Obama was virtually penniless himself in those days.) Years later after he became a senator, that stranger recognized Obama's picture and wrote to him to thank him. She received a kindly note back from the senator. (The story only surfaced because the person, who lives in Norway, told a local newspaper after Obama ran for the presidency. The paper published a photograph of this lady proudly displaying Senator Obama's letter.)
Where many leaders are two-faced; publicly kindly but privately feared and/or hated by people closest to them, Obama is consistent in the way he treats people, consistently kind and personally humble. He lives by the code that those who lead must serve. He believes that. He lives it. He lived it long before he was in the public eye.
Obama puts service ahead of ideology. He also knows that to win politically you need to be tough. He can be. He has been. This is a man who does what works, rather than scoring ideological points. In other words he is the quintessential non-ideological pragmatic American. He will (thank God!) disappoint ideologues and purists of the left and the right.
Obama has a reservoir of personal physical courage that is unmatched in presidential history. Why unmatched? Because as the first black contender for the presidency who will win, Obama, and all the rest of us, know that he is in great physical danger from the seemingly unlimited reserve of unhinged racial hatred, and just plain unhinged ignorant hatred, that swirls in the bowels of our wounded and sinful country. By stepping forward to lead, Obama has literally put his life on the line for all of us in a way no white candidate ever has had to do. (And we all know how dangerous the presidency has been even for white presidents.)
Nice stories or even unparalleled courage isn't the only point. The greater point about Obama is that the midst of our worldwide financial meltdown, an expanding (and losing) war in Afghanistan, trying to extricate our country from a wrong and stupidly mistaken ruinously expensive war in Iraq, our mounting and crushing national debt, awaiting the next (and inevitable) al Qaeda attack on our homeland, watching our schools decline to Third World levels of incompetence, facing a general loss of confidence in the government that has been exacerbated by the Republicans doing all they can to undermine our government's capabilities and programs... President Obama will take on the leadership of our country at a make or break time of historic proportions. He faces not one but dozens of crisis, each big enough to define any presidency in better times.
As luck, fate or divine grace would have it (depending on one's personal theology) Obama is blessedly, dare I say uniquely, well-suited to our dire circumstances. Obama is a person with hands-on community service experience, deep connections to top economic advisers from the renowned University of Chicago where he taught law, and a middle-class background that gives him an abiding knowledgeable empathy with the rest of us. As the son of a single mother, who has worked his way up with merit and brains, recipient of top-notch academic scholarships, the peer-selected editor of the Harvard Law Review and, in three giant political steps to state office, national office and now the presidency, Obama clearly has the wit and drive to lead.
Obama is the sober voice of reason at a time of unreason. He is the fellow keeping his head while all around him are panicking. He is the healing presence at a time of national division and strife. He is also new enough to the political process so that he doesn't suffer from the terminally jaded cynicism, the seen-it-all-before syndrome afflicting most politicians in Washington. In that regard we Americans lucked out. It's as if having despaired of our political process we picked a name from the phone book to lead us and that person turned out to be a very man we needed.
Obama brings a healing and uplifting spiritual quality to our politics at the very time when our worst enemy is fear. For eight years we've been ruled by a stunted fear-filled mediocrity of a little liar who has expanded his power on the basis of creating fear in others. Fearless Obama is the cure. He speaks a litany of hope rather than a litany of terror.
As we have watched Obama respond in a quiet reasoned manner to crisis after crisis, in both the way he has responded after being attacked and lied about in the 2008 campaign season, to his reasoned response to our multiplying national crises, what we see is the spirit of a trusted family doctor with a great bedside manner. Obama is perfectly suited to hold our hand and lead us through some very tough times. The word panic is not in the Obama dictionary.
America is fighting its "Armageddon" in one fearful heart at a time. A brilliant leader with the mild manner of an old-time matter-of-fact country doctor soothing a frightened child is just what we need. The fact that our "doctor" is a black man leading a hitherto white-ruled nation out of the mess of its own making is all the sweeter and raises the Obama story to that of moral allegory.
Obama brings a moral clarity to his leadership reserved for those who have had to work for everything they've gotten and had to do twice as well as the person standing next to them because of the color of their skin. His experience of succeeding in spite of his color, social background and prejudice could have been embittering or one that fostered a spiritual rebirth of forgiveness and enlightenment. Obama radiates the calm inner peace of the spirit of forgiveness.
Speaking as a believing Christian I see the hand of a merciful God in Obama's candidacy. The biblical metaphors abound. The stone the builder rejected is become the cornerstone... the last shall be first... he that would gain his life must first lose it... the meek shall inherit the earth...
For my secular friends I'll allow that we may have just been extraordinarily lucky! Either way America wins.
Only a brilliant man, with the spirit of a preacher and the humble heart of a kindly family doctor can lead us now. We are afraid, out of ideas, and worst of all out of hope. Obama is the cure. And we Americans have it in us to rise to the occasion. We will. We're about to enter one of the most frightening periods of American history. Our country has rarely faced more uncertainty. This is the time for greatness. We have a great leader. We must be a great people backing him, fighting for him, sacrificing for a cause greater than ourselves.
A hundred years from now Obama's portrait will be placed next to that of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. Long before that we'll be telling our children and grandchildren that we stepped out in faith and voted for a young black man who stood up and led our country back from the brink of an abyss. We'll tell them about the power of love, faith and hope. We'll tell them about the power of creativity combined with humility and intellectual brilliance. We'll tell them that President Obama gave us the gift of regaining our faith in our country. We'll tell them that we all stood up and pitched in and won the day. We'll tell them that President Obama restored our standing in the world. We'll tell them that by the time he left office our schools were on the mend, our economy booming, that we'd become a nation filled with green energy alternatives and were leading the world away from dependence on carbon-based destruction. We'll tell them that because of President Obama's example and leadership the integrity of the family was restored, divorce rates went down, more fathers took responsibility for their children, and abortion rates fell dramatically as women, families and children were cared for through compassionate social programs that worked. We'll tell them about how the gap closed between the middle class and the super rich, how we won health care for all, how crime rates fell, how bad wars were brought to an honorable conclusion. We'll tell them that when we were attacked again by al Qaeda, how reason prevailed and the response was smart, tough, measured and effective, and our civil rights were protected even in times of crisis...
We'll tell them that we were part of the inexplicably blessed miracle that happened to our country those many years ago in 2008 when a young black man was sent by God, fate or luck to save our country. We'll tell them that it's good to live in America where anything is possible. Yes we will.
Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.
A little blogging music Maestro… “Stand by Your Man” by Tammy Wynette.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Monday, October 27, 2008
8 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 8
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
To vote or not to vote… there is no question: One week from tomorrow. November 4, 2008, those of us who have not early voted will shuffle on to Buffalo or whatever city we live, and exercise our right as Americans. Of course, if we live in small towns or rural Virginia we’re better Americans than the rest of the country, so says one of the candidates. Another of the candidates hangs all the country’s problems on the current administration. And while the Bushies certainly have a litany of faux pas, bumbling and stumbling without humbling, there are some things that have happened on their watch that they did not directly cause. But the mystery of which candidate will lead us through the next four years; the old and tested or the young and restless, has been solved. Bobby Lewis once said, “I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I kicked my blanket on the floor, turned my pillow upside down. Got out of bed, turned on the light, pulled down the shade went to the kitchen for a bite. Rolled up the shade, turned off the light, got back into bed it was the middle of the night.” Last night it hit me. I know exactly who’s running, who will win the election and why.
Dinosaurs and Religious Wing Nuts: To the right, surrounding John McCain and Sarah Palin sit two constituencies; the dinosaurs and the religious right wing nuts. The dinosaurs see McCain as the last best whitest hope. He was a hero in Viet Nam, got shot down and became a prisoner of war. He is an old white guy who is surrounded by old white guy and a few old white gals in the congress – and oh yes, lightly sprinkled with a bit of diversity. His running mate is a conservative religious governor of a state with a population that is one-third the size of Las Vegas. She started out as the “Thrilla’ from Wasilla,” but has become to be seen by many in her party as “The Blunder from the Tundra.” Still she has plenty of pretty perky peppy appeal to a certain demographic and is able to fill an arena with raucous supporters and the curious. It has been reported that Senator McCain’s handlers have resorted to using campaign volunteers to fill empty chairs at some of his rallies. The party, some say, has been hijacked by far right zealots who like what they see in the Great Alaska Shout-out. The Republican ticket has attempted to paint the Democratic ticket as left-wing liberals, ironically using the “same old business as usual by dinosaurs” tack used on them with the citing of Nancy Pelosi Harry Reid, and Barney Frank as their whipping, uh, boys?
Novices: Support for the other side comes in large part from first time voters, diverse population groups, and leaping leaner lefties. The Democratic ticket started out with a “person of color” vs. a female in the primaries. When the “person of color” became the nominee he chose an old white guy as his running mate. As Senator Obama is fond of saying, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
As a young, energetic candidate to lead, the party clearly was at the opposite end of the continuum from the old white guy’s party. They had a much smaller constituency and had one or two big money backers as opposed to their opponent who had lots of longtime voters and plenty of cash. To make up for the difference the novices set in motion a strategy that historians and pundits will quote for generations. Rather than try to sway the vulnerable group that represents their opponent’s middle, they decided to create a new coalition of young first-time voters. The government campaign money was eschewed for small donations by new idealistic registrants. They went into areas of people who historically did not bother to register and vote – inner cities, barber and beauty shops, gymnasiums, spas, grocery stores, factories, college campuses and many other locations that diverse groups of historical non-voters hung out. The result was legions of new voters became novices whose views, for the most part could not be changed by the other side. They quickly figured that if each American gave a few dollars through the internet, they’d have much more money to spend than their opponents.
Code Words: Voters on the right (meaning Republican) fired up their base by reminding them of the dangers of voting for candidates from the left (meaning Democrats). They cited heroism in Viet Nam (young voters could not differentiate between the Viet Nam War and the Civil War). They accused their opponent of steering the country toward socialism (young voters think socialism means hanging out with their buds). They talked about diversity (code word to Dinosaurs for African American) and illegal immigrants (code word for Hispanics) and crime (code word for young, nonwhite, people without a college education). The problem for the Republicans is that code words solidified the Dinosaurs (their constituency) but meant little to Novices (code word for newly-registered voters). Hence, the election will be determined not by Palin’s wardrobe or Biden’s gaffes, or McCain’s anger or by Obama’s rallies, but by a simple matter of numbers – will more Dinosaurs or Novices vote? We’ll find out for sure next Tuesday but most polls suggest it will be the Novices.
More danger to hunters than gatherers: There is something so doggone romantic about killing one’s own supper. Perhaps it is the human DNA that takes us back to the time when a good club over the head of a helpless bunny or a spear in a dear would bring home the bacon, so to speak. But men of all shapes and sizes fight for the right to keep guns skip work to blow away Bambi for sport. It is a lot easier to stalk one’s prey in the aisles of a Kroger store and apparently less dangerous than to don the gear and shoot the breeze and an occasional buck. The biggest danger that some hunters face isn't getting eaten by a bear or hit by a stray bullet or falling out of a tree stand. It's heart disease. Three times more hunters die from the big one than from a hunting accident. So before heading into the woods with your 30-30 Winchester, camouflage gear, 25 extra pounds of beer belly, and your best Havana cigars, be sure to pack a cell phone to call for help. Oh yes, if despite of being in a drunken stupor you do bag that elk, lugging it to your car can also put undue strain on your heart.
A little blogging music Maestro… Anything by Guns ‘N Roses.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
To vote or not to vote… there is no question: One week from tomorrow. November 4, 2008, those of us who have not early voted will shuffle on to Buffalo or whatever city we live, and exercise our right as Americans. Of course, if we live in small towns or rural Virginia we’re better Americans than the rest of the country, so says one of the candidates. Another of the candidates hangs all the country’s problems on the current administration. And while the Bushies certainly have a litany of faux pas, bumbling and stumbling without humbling, there are some things that have happened on their watch that they did not directly cause. But the mystery of which candidate will lead us through the next four years; the old and tested or the young and restless, has been solved. Bobby Lewis once said, “I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I kicked my blanket on the floor, turned my pillow upside down. Got out of bed, turned on the light, pulled down the shade went to the kitchen for a bite. Rolled up the shade, turned off the light, got back into bed it was the middle of the night.” Last night it hit me. I know exactly who’s running, who will win the election and why.
Dinosaurs and Religious Wing Nuts: To the right, surrounding John McCain and Sarah Palin sit two constituencies; the dinosaurs and the religious right wing nuts. The dinosaurs see McCain as the last best whitest hope. He was a hero in Viet Nam, got shot down and became a prisoner of war. He is an old white guy who is surrounded by old white guy and a few old white gals in the congress – and oh yes, lightly sprinkled with a bit of diversity. His running mate is a conservative religious governor of a state with a population that is one-third the size of Las Vegas. She started out as the “Thrilla’ from Wasilla,” but has become to be seen by many in her party as “The Blunder from the Tundra.” Still she has plenty of pretty perky peppy appeal to a certain demographic and is able to fill an arena with raucous supporters and the curious. It has been reported that Senator McCain’s handlers have resorted to using campaign volunteers to fill empty chairs at some of his rallies. The party, some say, has been hijacked by far right zealots who like what they see in the Great Alaska Shout-out. The Republican ticket has attempted to paint the Democratic ticket as left-wing liberals, ironically using the “same old business as usual by dinosaurs” tack used on them with the citing of Nancy Pelosi Harry Reid, and Barney Frank as their whipping, uh, boys?
Novices: Support for the other side comes in large part from first time voters, diverse population groups, and leaping leaner lefties. The Democratic ticket started out with a “person of color” vs. a female in the primaries. When the “person of color” became the nominee he chose an old white guy as his running mate. As Senator Obama is fond of saying, “You can’t make this stuff up.”
As a young, energetic candidate to lead, the party clearly was at the opposite end of the continuum from the old white guy’s party. They had a much smaller constituency and had one or two big money backers as opposed to their opponent who had lots of longtime voters and plenty of cash. To make up for the difference the novices set in motion a strategy that historians and pundits will quote for generations. Rather than try to sway the vulnerable group that represents their opponent’s middle, they decided to create a new coalition of young first-time voters. The government campaign money was eschewed for small donations by new idealistic registrants. They went into areas of people who historically did not bother to register and vote – inner cities, barber and beauty shops, gymnasiums, spas, grocery stores, factories, college campuses and many other locations that diverse groups of historical non-voters hung out. The result was legions of new voters became novices whose views, for the most part could not be changed by the other side. They quickly figured that if each American gave a few dollars through the internet, they’d have much more money to spend than their opponents.
Code Words: Voters on the right (meaning Republican) fired up their base by reminding them of the dangers of voting for candidates from the left (meaning Democrats). They cited heroism in Viet Nam (young voters could not differentiate between the Viet Nam War and the Civil War). They accused their opponent of steering the country toward socialism (young voters think socialism means hanging out with their buds). They talked about diversity (code word to Dinosaurs for African American) and illegal immigrants (code word for Hispanics) and crime (code word for young, nonwhite, people without a college education). The problem for the Republicans is that code words solidified the Dinosaurs (their constituency) but meant little to Novices (code word for newly-registered voters). Hence, the election will be determined not by Palin’s wardrobe or Biden’s gaffes, or McCain’s anger or by Obama’s rallies, but by a simple matter of numbers – will more Dinosaurs or Novices vote? We’ll find out for sure next Tuesday but most polls suggest it will be the Novices.
More danger to hunters than gatherers: There is something so doggone romantic about killing one’s own supper. Perhaps it is the human DNA that takes us back to the time when a good club over the head of a helpless bunny or a spear in a dear would bring home the bacon, so to speak. But men of all shapes and sizes fight for the right to keep guns skip work to blow away Bambi for sport. It is a lot easier to stalk one’s prey in the aisles of a Kroger store and apparently less dangerous than to don the gear and shoot the breeze and an occasional buck. The biggest danger that some hunters face isn't getting eaten by a bear or hit by a stray bullet or falling out of a tree stand. It's heart disease. Three times more hunters die from the big one than from a hunting accident. So before heading into the woods with your 30-30 Winchester, camouflage gear, 25 extra pounds of beer belly, and your best Havana cigars, be sure to pack a cell phone to call for help. Oh yes, if despite of being in a drunken stupor you do bag that elk, lugging it to your car can also put undue strain on your heart.
A little blogging music Maestro… Anything by Guns ‘N Roses.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
12 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 12
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Poor people myths: One of the barrages of emails going around states that one of the candidates will reduce taxes on “the 40% of the Americans who don’t pay taxes because they’re on welfare.” The hate email, typical of the garbage that has inundated our inbox for the past 18 months goes on to say that since the “welfare cases” do not pay taxes they will receive some sort of rebate checks. You know the group – the uninsured ones who do not pay their hospital bills and make waiting in the emergency room unbearable. Except that like most of the hate emails generated by the little gnome under a rock, the “facts” are wrong. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, hardly a left wing rag, debunks the emergency room myth. The uninsured DO NOT use emergency rooms for non-urgent care, they are NOT the leading cause of emergency room crowding, and they DO NOT use the emergency room in disproportionate numbers. In fact, a higher proportion of patients with Medicare and Medicaid use emergency rooms than the uninsured. But shucks and golly gee, those deadbeats must be doing somethin’ wrong.
Quotes from the Bard: We’ve gotten several requests lately to do something with Shakespeare quotes as we have done in the past. So we sent out our crack research team to find the candidates, their surrogates, the pundits, and anybody else associated with the election in order to see which quotes to assign to whom. Half the team disappeared at a Sarah Palin rally in Henderson, Nevada and the other half were picked up for loitering at a bar they insist was a rallying point for socialists. Therefore we’ll have to do the assignments the old fashioned way – make them up.
The email from Senator McCain to Colin Powell: “Et tu Brute?”
The Mitt Romney mantra: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”
On Hillary’s insistence that there are no hard feelings toward Obama: “The lady doth protest too much methinks.”
Bill Clinton at a concert: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
McCain trying to focus on one campaign theme: “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
All candidates after the long hard campaign: “To sleep, perchance to dream.”
Sarah Palin’s favorite trooper as she left Alaska: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
The loser after the election: “The winter of our discontent.”
Sarah Palin’s fashion consultant: All that glitters is not gold.”
Barack on the stump: “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.”
McCain describing Obama: “He hath a lean and hungry look about him.”
Karl Rove: “Done to death by a slanderous tongue.”
David Axelrod to Obama: Be not afraid of greatness.”
Sean Hannity: I follow him to serve him.”
Bill O’Reilly “O what fools these mortals be.”
Arianna Huffington: “O what men dare do!”
Rush Limbaugh: “What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot!”
Finally, Keith Olberman: “If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
That’s enough culture for one day. We don’t want to be responsible for anybody getting a mental hernia.
Big lists from little ACORNs grow: The McCain camp has been surprisingly quiet about alleged ACORN voter registration fraud once similar fraud was discovered by California authorities. Seems the head of a group that earned up to $ 12 per Republican registration was busted for phony signups. The Republican team signed up voters by telling them they were signing a petition against child molesters, but the saps were actually registering as Republican voters. (Hello! Do you read what you sign? Would it be a good idea to do so?) ACORN targeted poor people and minorities, but some of their workers simply went to the library and copied names from newspapers and phone books. One such worker in Washington who pulled such shenanigans to make his quota was busted, convicted, and spent three months in prison for voter registration fraud. However a University of Washington law professor says the idea of fake cards turning into real votes is a myth. "There are no known instances of fictitious people actually voting," the prof said. "You look at some of the names: Mickey Mouse. Dr. Seuss. Mickey Mouse only votes in Disneyland. He's not going to show up at a critical precinct in West Virginia or North Carolina." So if we haven’t worn out the Bard, can we say the charges of “massive voter fraud” was Much Ado About Nothing?
From the penthouse to the outhouse - almost: Life is tough during these times. Mortgage rates are adjusting and payments are climbing. The cost of food, clothing, and shelter is at least going through the attic if not the roof. Savings accounts, 401Ks and any instrument that has been part of the stock market are lower than a snake’s behind. Some folks are running around like Chicken Little as the sky is falling, but others are becoming more austere in their daily living. For some that means only pearls, no diamonds, but for those without Wall Street golden parachutes reality is beginning to set in. Skip an occasional meal. Have macaroni and cheese instead of fine wine and brie cheese. Eat out less often. Cancel the porno channels on cable TV. Well, maybe not that. But at least one family has taken downsizing seriously. The Kastrinos who live in Calistoga, CA gave up their 1800 square foot house for a smaller one – much smaller. They've squeezed into a 154-square-foot home that looks like a kid's playhouse. They use a ladder to climb into their bed every night. The downstairs has a sitting area, tiny kitchen and bathroom in a space that's 98 square feet. The upstairs loft has a bed in 56 square feet of space. They keep extra clothes in their car. The house cost them $15,000, and the utilities are a mere $15 a month. They live on property owned by their daughter in California wine country, where the average home cost is $725,000. NOTE TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT: Fire Paulsen and Bernanke and hire the Kastrinos.
If not for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all: To say Louisiana has had a run of bad luck would be an understatement. Hurricane Katrina was followed by Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, Gustav and Ike. LSU had one of the top football teams in the country until they were Swamped by Florida. Politicians are indicted on a regular basis, boll weevils eat up the cotton crop, the shrimp industry has turned from prawns to popcorn, and their beauty queen got busted. Miss Teen Louisiana had 11 days to go to finish her reign. She was stripped of her sash and crown after inviting a couple of friends to lunch then runway walking out on the $ 46.07 bill. But she left her purse behind, complete with ID and two ounces of pot. Moral: if you’re a lass who carries grass don’t be crass with your repast or you might end up in a morass.
A little blogging music Maestro…” I Go Crazy” by Queen.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Poor people myths: One of the barrages of emails going around states that one of the candidates will reduce taxes on “the 40% of the Americans who don’t pay taxes because they’re on welfare.” The hate email, typical of the garbage that has inundated our inbox for the past 18 months goes on to say that since the “welfare cases” do not pay taxes they will receive some sort of rebate checks. You know the group – the uninsured ones who do not pay their hospital bills and make waiting in the emergency room unbearable. Except that like most of the hate emails generated by the little gnome under a rock, the “facts” are wrong. A recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Association, hardly a left wing rag, debunks the emergency room myth. The uninsured DO NOT use emergency rooms for non-urgent care, they are NOT the leading cause of emergency room crowding, and they DO NOT use the emergency room in disproportionate numbers. In fact, a higher proportion of patients with Medicare and Medicaid use emergency rooms than the uninsured. But shucks and golly gee, those deadbeats must be doing somethin’ wrong.
Quotes from the Bard: We’ve gotten several requests lately to do something with Shakespeare quotes as we have done in the past. So we sent out our crack research team to find the candidates, their surrogates, the pundits, and anybody else associated with the election in order to see which quotes to assign to whom. Half the team disappeared at a Sarah Palin rally in Henderson, Nevada and the other half were picked up for loitering at a bar they insist was a rallying point for socialists. Therefore we’ll have to do the assignments the old fashioned way – make them up.
The email from Senator McCain to Colin Powell: “Et tu Brute?”
The Mitt Romney mantra: “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”
On Hillary’s insistence that there are no hard feelings toward Obama: “The lady doth protest too much methinks.”
Bill Clinton at a concert: “If music be the food of love, play on.”
McCain trying to focus on one campaign theme: “To be or not to be, that is the question.”
All candidates after the long hard campaign: “To sleep, perchance to dream.”
Sarah Palin’s favorite trooper as she left Alaska: “Parting is such sweet sorrow.”
The loser after the election: “The winter of our discontent.”
Sarah Palin’s fashion consultant: All that glitters is not gold.”
Barack on the stump: “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears.”
McCain describing Obama: “He hath a lean and hungry look about him.”
Karl Rove: “Done to death by a slanderous tongue.”
David Axelrod to Obama: Be not afraid of greatness.”
Sean Hannity: I follow him to serve him.”
Bill O’Reilly “O what fools these mortals be.”
Arianna Huffington: “O what men dare do!”
Rush Limbaugh: “What’s here? The portrait of a blinking idiot!”
Finally, Keith Olberman: “If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
That’s enough culture for one day. We don’t want to be responsible for anybody getting a mental hernia.
Big lists from little ACORNs grow: The McCain camp has been surprisingly quiet about alleged ACORN voter registration fraud once similar fraud was discovered by California authorities. Seems the head of a group that earned up to $ 12 per Republican registration was busted for phony signups. The Republican team signed up voters by telling them they were signing a petition against child molesters, but the saps were actually registering as Republican voters. (Hello! Do you read what you sign? Would it be a good idea to do so?) ACORN targeted poor people and minorities, but some of their workers simply went to the library and copied names from newspapers and phone books. One such worker in Washington who pulled such shenanigans to make his quota was busted, convicted, and spent three months in prison for voter registration fraud. However a University of Washington law professor says the idea of fake cards turning into real votes is a myth. "There are no known instances of fictitious people actually voting," the prof said. "You look at some of the names: Mickey Mouse. Dr. Seuss. Mickey Mouse only votes in Disneyland. He's not going to show up at a critical precinct in West Virginia or North Carolina." So if we haven’t worn out the Bard, can we say the charges of “massive voter fraud” was Much Ado About Nothing?
From the penthouse to the outhouse - almost: Life is tough during these times. Mortgage rates are adjusting and payments are climbing. The cost of food, clothing, and shelter is at least going through the attic if not the roof. Savings accounts, 401Ks and any instrument that has been part of the stock market are lower than a snake’s behind. Some folks are running around like Chicken Little as the sky is falling, but others are becoming more austere in their daily living. For some that means only pearls, no diamonds, but for those without Wall Street golden parachutes reality is beginning to set in. Skip an occasional meal. Have macaroni and cheese instead of fine wine and brie cheese. Eat out less often. Cancel the porno channels on cable TV. Well, maybe not that. But at least one family has taken downsizing seriously. The Kastrinos who live in Calistoga, CA gave up their 1800 square foot house for a smaller one – much smaller. They've squeezed into a 154-square-foot home that looks like a kid's playhouse. They use a ladder to climb into their bed every night. The downstairs has a sitting area, tiny kitchen and bathroom in a space that's 98 square feet. The upstairs loft has a bed in 56 square feet of space. They keep extra clothes in their car. The house cost them $15,000, and the utilities are a mere $15 a month. They live on property owned by their daughter in California wine country, where the average home cost is $725,000. NOTE TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT: Fire Paulsen and Bernanke and hire the Kastrinos.
If not for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all: To say Louisiana has had a run of bad luck would be an understatement. Hurricane Katrina was followed by Hurricanes Rita, Humberto, Gustav and Ike. LSU had one of the top football teams in the country until they were Swamped by Florida. Politicians are indicted on a regular basis, boll weevils eat up the cotton crop, the shrimp industry has turned from prawns to popcorn, and their beauty queen got busted. Miss Teen Louisiana had 11 days to go to finish her reign. She was stripped of her sash and crown after inviting a couple of friends to lunch then runway walking out on the $ 46.07 bill. But she left her purse behind, complete with ID and two ounces of pot. Moral: if you’re a lass who carries grass don’t be crass with your repast or you might end up in a morass.
A little blogging music Maestro…” I Go Crazy” by Queen.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
13 Days to E-Day
RAIN Minus 13
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
“You’re Trashing Palin” says a reader: We’ve received a few emails accusing us of trashing Veep candidate Sarah Palin. ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain is being hammered by some within his own party and the conservative media for the way he has run his campaign. WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Some leading conservatives are being assailed by their peers for questioning Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's qualifications. A disjointed interview with CBS News last week and growing doubts about her grasp of important issues have led some conservative columnists, such as George Will and David Brooks, to criticize the judgment of GOP nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona in tapping the Alaska governor as his running mate, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Meanwhile, other conservative writers as such Kathleen Parker, a former Palin supporter, and Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing for the conservative National Review, are calling for Palin to step down as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Politico reported. Gov. Sarah Palin has billed Alaskan taxpayers for over 300 nights that she spent in her own home, charging her per diem allowance (put in place to cover certain expenses while she is traveling on state business). The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August. According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74. Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York. Plane tickets for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, and a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night at the Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park. “Trashing a person is the process of making up lies or twisting the truth about them. Which of the above statements falls into that category?
“Voter Fraud” cries the McCain camp: For a week or so the cries of “Voter fraud” have arisen from one side of the political aisle. The whipping boy in the charges has been ACORN, a company that has registered voters for decades. Some ACORN voter registration drives have had problems, mostly centering on registration forms filled out with phony names. In almost all instances election authorities were alerted by ACORN managers who caught the problem but are required by law to submit every document they received. So the managers flag the suspicious ones, separate them, and follow the law. ACORN's efforts have been the subject of intense, continuous scrutiny for years. Despite such scrutiny, and even with ACORN flagging suspicious applications as required by state election rules, a few reports of bogus registrations still pop up. That happens when part time people are hired. Some may sign up “Mickey Mouse” or the entire Dallas Cowboy roster. But those folks never show up to vote so there is no “voter fraud” as alleged.
So all potential voter fraud has been eliminated: Well, not exactly. The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. It is alleged that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states. Dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. One would think the Democrats would be all over this story to counter the Acorn story that has been kept alive although it appears to be much ado about nothing. But that has not happened. However since the YPM story broke the McCain camp and the right wing nuts have been surprisingly quiet about ACORN
Smile, you’re on candid canvas: An age-old Washington tradition kicks into high gear toward the end of any administration: the painting of official portraits. President and Mrs. Bush invited President and Sen. Clinton to the White House for the unveiling of the Clintons' official portraits. That was when they were pals and when the president’s approval ratings were at the opposite end of where they are now. However, this little portrait perk isn't reserved for presidents, kings and potentates. Underlings in the Cabinet are also eligible. So what? According to The Washington Post, the cost of these portraits ranges from$7,500 to nearly $50,000. Who would charge the American taxpayers for such vanity? Donald Rumsfeld had the Rolls Royce of portraits charging the Pentagon $46,790. I guess Rummy was a difficult subject and perhaps it took several erasures. Or maybe the numbers were mixed up on the canvas. The Commerce Department is spending $35,000 on a portrait of Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; $25,000 for the former NASA administrator, $29,500 for the outgoing head of the EPA. It looks like it is not only the Wall Street mavens who are neglecting to kiss us first. One more reason to make it RAIN November 4.
If you are sick about now, wash your eyes out with this: Dogs work for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration. They’re trained to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines, about 2,500 of them. Like any soldier, sailor or marine in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues. Dogs injured in a war zone get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they'll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment. A new veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment to combat-wounded dogs. Hail to the heroes regardless of race, creed, or species!
A little blogging music Maestro…” The Dogs of War,” by The Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
“You’re Trashing Palin” says a reader: We’ve received a few emails accusing us of trashing Veep candidate Sarah Palin. ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain is being hammered by some within his own party and the conservative media for the way he has run his campaign. WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Some leading conservatives are being assailed by their peers for questioning Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's qualifications. A disjointed interview with CBS News last week and growing doubts about her grasp of important issues have led some conservative columnists, such as George Will and David Brooks, to criticize the judgment of GOP nominee Sen. John McCain of Arizona in tapping the Alaska governor as his running mate, The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Meanwhile, other conservative writers as such Kathleen Parker, a former Palin supporter, and Kathryn Jean Lopez, writing for the conservative National Review, are calling for Palin to step down as the GOP vice presidential nominee, Politico reported. Gov. Sarah Palin has billed Alaskan taxpayers for over 300 nights that she spent in her own home, charging her per diem allowance (put in place to cover certain expenses while she is traveling on state business). The Republican National Committee appears to have spent more than $150,000 to clothe and accessorize vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family since her surprise pick by John McCain in late August. According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September and included bills from Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York for a combined $49,425.74. Palin brought daughter Bristol along on a trip to New York. Plane tickets for $1,385.11 were billed to the state, and a room for four nights at the $707.29-per-night at the Essex House hotel, which overlooks Central Park. “Trashing a person is the process of making up lies or twisting the truth about them. Which of the above statements falls into that category?
“Voter Fraud” cries the McCain camp: For a week or so the cries of “Voter fraud” have arisen from one side of the political aisle. The whipping boy in the charges has been ACORN, a company that has registered voters for decades. Some ACORN voter registration drives have had problems, mostly centering on registration forms filled out with phony names. In almost all instances election authorities were alerted by ACORN managers who caught the problem but are required by law to submit every document they received. So the managers flag the suspicious ones, separate them, and follow the law. ACORN's efforts have been the subject of intense, continuous scrutiny for years. Despite such scrutiny, and even with ACORN flagging suspicious applications as required by state election rules, a few reports of bogus registrations still pop up. That happens when part time people are hired. Some may sign up “Mickey Mouse” or the entire Dallas Cowboy roster. But those folks never show up to vote so there is no “voter fraud” as alleged.
So all potential voter fraud has been eliminated: Well, not exactly. The owner of a firm that the California Republican Party hired to register tens of thousands of voters this year was arrested in Ontario over the weekend on suspicion of voter registration fraud. It is alleged that Mark Jacoby fraudulently registered himself to vote at a childhood California address where he no longer lives so he would appear to meet the legal requirement that all signature gatherers be eligible to vote in California. His firm, Young Political Majors, or YPM, collects petition signatures and registers voters in California and other states. Dozens of voters said they were duped into registering as Republicans by people employed by YPM. The voters said YPM workers tricked them by saying they were signing a petition to toughen penalties against child molesters. One would think the Democrats would be all over this story to counter the Acorn story that has been kept alive although it appears to be much ado about nothing. But that has not happened. However since the YPM story broke the McCain camp and the right wing nuts have been surprisingly quiet about ACORN
Smile, you’re on candid canvas: An age-old Washington tradition kicks into high gear toward the end of any administration: the painting of official portraits. President and Mrs. Bush invited President and Sen. Clinton to the White House for the unveiling of the Clintons' official portraits. That was when they were pals and when the president’s approval ratings were at the opposite end of where they are now. However, this little portrait perk isn't reserved for presidents, kings and potentates. Underlings in the Cabinet are also eligible. So what? According to The Washington Post, the cost of these portraits ranges from$7,500 to nearly $50,000. Who would charge the American taxpayers for such vanity? Donald Rumsfeld had the Rolls Royce of portraits charging the Pentagon $46,790. I guess Rummy was a difficult subject and perhaps it took several erasures. Or maybe the numbers were mixed up on the canvas. The Commerce Department is spending $35,000 on a portrait of Secretary Carlos Gutierrez; $25,000 for the former NASA administrator, $29,500 for the outgoing head of the EPA. It looks like it is not only the Wall Street mavens who are neglecting to kiss us first. One more reason to make it RAIN November 4.
If you are sick about now, wash your eyes out with this: Dogs work for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration. They’re trained to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines, about 2,500 of them. Like any soldier, sailor or marine in combat, military dogs suffer from war wounds and routine health issues. Dogs injured in a war zone get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany for care. If necessary, they'll fly on to San Antonio for more advanced treatment. A new veterinary hospital for four-legged military personnel opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base, offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment to combat-wounded dogs. Hail to the heroes regardless of race, creed, or species!
A little blogging music Maestro…” The Dogs of War,” by The Red Hot Chili
Peppers.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Monday, October 20, 2008
15 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 15
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
A New World: Once all the incumbents have been purged from the system and a new president has been elected will the sniping stop? Somehow I don’t think that Rush, BillO, Sean, and their ilk will allow the U.S. to be any less a Savage Nation. Olberman, Maddow and the like will continue to fill American Air with views to the counter. So how will the schism ever be healed? Short answer: It won’t. My favorite author, Anonymous, has taken a position that since Red and Blue states will not melt and become purple, the only other solution is to divorce one another. As in any divorce a settlement agreement must be reached. Lawyers for Anonymous have proposed a settlement to the divorce decree between Red and Blue states. It is as follows:
Dear Red States,
We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided that due to our irreconcilable differences we have grounds for divorce so we’re leaving you.
Once the divorce is final we will start a new life (country), and we're taking the Blue children with us. The Red children were yours so you get to keep them. You may visit if you have a valid passport.
In case you don’t remember the names of our Blue children, they include Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast.
We believe this divorce will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to our relatives in the new country of New California.
To summarize the child support settlement:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Nancy Pelosi. You get Sarah Palin.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get WalMart.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of The United States' venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight wars, draft your evangelicals.
We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
Contributions from the Blue States means we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you very much.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred (unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws), 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you right wing nuts believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
Sincerely,
Blue States
Trouble in Paradise: As the campaigning winds down the differences and arguments heat up. Sometimes that even happens within one’s party. Joe Biden is as passionate as he can be on the trail but is able to come up with a few gaffes including the announcement that Hillary would have probably been a better pick. Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin recently told CBN’s David Brody that she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a proposal John McCain voted against. McCain and Palin disagree on a number of issues, including stem cell research, whether or not global warming is man-made, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Biden will release his medical records to the press which will include medical documents from 1988 when Biden suffered two brain aneurysms and a blood clot in his lung. However he is not now, nor ever has been pregnant. Joe the Plumber has replaced all other campaign surrogates as John McCain’s new best friend and Colin Powell has become Barack Obama’s new spiritual and military advisor. We can hardly wait until its over.
Seniority counts: Much has been made of John McCain’s age during the election, but he has nothing on Ann Nixon Cooper. She has been around since Roosevelt’s election. That’s TEDDY Roosevelt, not FDR. Ann is 106 years old. She will vote this and although she reached voting age before womens suffrage, she was banned from voting for many elections due not to her age but her race. When asked about her secret for long life Ms. Cooper smiled and replied, “I ain’t got time to die.”
A little blogging music Maestro…” Those Oldies but Goodies,” by the Little Caesar and the Romans.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
A New World: Once all the incumbents have been purged from the system and a new president has been elected will the sniping stop? Somehow I don’t think that Rush, BillO, Sean, and their ilk will allow the U.S. to be any less a Savage Nation. Olberman, Maddow and the like will continue to fill American Air with views to the counter. So how will the schism ever be healed? Short answer: It won’t. My favorite author, Anonymous, has taken a position that since Red and Blue states will not melt and become purple, the only other solution is to divorce one another. As in any divorce a settlement agreement must be reached. Lawyers for Anonymous have proposed a settlement to the divorce decree between Red and Blue states. It is as follows:
Dear Red States,
We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided that due to our irreconcilable differences we have grounds for divorce so we’re leaving you.
Once the divorce is final we will start a new life (country), and we're taking the Blue children with us. The Red children were yours so you get to keep them. You may visit if you have a valid passport.
In case you don’t remember the names of our Blue children, they include Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois and the entire Northeast.
We believe this divorce will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to our relatives in the new country of New California.
To summarize the child support settlement:
You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches.
We get Nancy Pelosi. You get Sarah Palin.
We get the Statue of Liberty. You get WalMart.
We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.
We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.
We get 85 percent of The United States' venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .
We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.
Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.
Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight wars, draft your evangelicals.
We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.
Contributions from the Blue States means we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at your state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy League and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.
With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.
We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you very much.
Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred (unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws), 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you right wing nuts believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.
Sincerely,
Blue States
Trouble in Paradise: As the campaigning winds down the differences and arguments heat up. Sometimes that even happens within one’s party. Joe Biden is as passionate as he can be on the trail but is able to come up with a few gaffes including the announcement that Hillary would have probably been a better pick. Not to be outdone, Sarah Palin recently told CBN’s David Brody that she supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, a proposal John McCain voted against. McCain and Palin disagree on a number of issues, including stem cell research, whether or not global warming is man-made, and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Biden will release his medical records to the press which will include medical documents from 1988 when Biden suffered two brain aneurysms and a blood clot in his lung. However he is not now, nor ever has been pregnant. Joe the Plumber has replaced all other campaign surrogates as John McCain’s new best friend and Colin Powell has become Barack Obama’s new spiritual and military advisor. We can hardly wait until its over.
Seniority counts: Much has been made of John McCain’s age during the election, but he has nothing on Ann Nixon Cooper. She has been around since Roosevelt’s election. That’s TEDDY Roosevelt, not FDR. Ann is 106 years old. She will vote this and although she reached voting age before womens suffrage, she was banned from voting for many elections due not to her age but her race. When asked about her secret for long life Ms. Cooper smiled and replied, “I ain’t got time to die.”
A little blogging music Maestro…” Those Oldies but Goodies,” by the Little Caesar and the Romans.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Friday, October 17, 2008
18 Days to E-Day
RAIN Minus 18
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese (former Orlando Sentinel columnist)
“Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we still have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices; 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!”
Say it ain’t so, Joe: "Joe the Plumber" isn't really a plumber. As the result of the mention of his name more than two dozen times in the 90-minute presidential debates, and Senator McCain’s tongue in cheek remark that he has fired his entire staff and replaced them with Joe the Plumber, he reached instant stardom. An internet company began selling “Joe the Plumber” tee shirts, baseball caps, buttons, and yard signs. But it seems that Joe got the same amount of pre-star status vetting as did the VP candidate – little to none. Turns out Joe the Plumber is actually a guy named Sam – Samuel J. Wurzenbacher, an unlicensed and unregistered employee of a small plumbing and heating company in suburban Toledo, Ohio. Had the McCain handlers set up their opponent with Joe, uh, Sam? A senior adviser to the McCain campaign said it had been in contact with the plumber before the debate but it apparently failed to look carefully into his background before McCain made an unwitting celebrity of him. Before the debate was even finished, three local television stations had parked live satellite trucks outside his home and the networks were rushing to interview him. He was portrayed as an “ordinary Joe,” a proxy for working people and an ordinary American.
Biggest plumber’s leak since Watergate: “Every Joe” turned out to be a 34-year-old plumber's assistant – not a registered plumber but a registered Republican with a quick racist remark that Barack Obama "can tap dance - almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr." Setting his toiletries aside, Joe/Sam the non-registered plumber shook hands with Senator Obama and told him he wants to buy the business he works for which would increase his income and therefore his taxes, although it turns out that higher taxes aren’t his only problem. There is no record of him in the database of the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, he is not registered to work as a plumber in Ohio, he had a lien against him by the Ohio Department of Taxation in January, 2007, for failing to pay $1,183 in property taxes. To add more egg to their faces, the business manager of the Toledo local of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters & Service Mechanics issued a statement complaining Joe the Plumber hadn't even undergone apprenticeship training.
A little blogging music Maestro… The odie by the late Rick Nelson, ”Fools Rush In.”
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
The following item was sent to me by a dear friend and former colleague, Dr. Jerry. It was written by a newsman and columnist of nearly 50 years. If you still doubt the need for the RAIN campaign, read on:
545 PEOPLE
By Charlie Reese (former Orlando Sentinel columnist)
“Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we still have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes? You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does. You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does. You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does. You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does. You and I don't control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices; 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country. I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank. I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes. Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it. The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted - by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist. If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair. If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red. If the Marines are in IRAQ, it's because they want them in IRAQ. If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it's because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems. Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation," or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do. Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They and they alone, have the power. They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!”
Say it ain’t so, Joe: "Joe the Plumber" isn't really a plumber. As the result of the mention of his name more than two dozen times in the 90-minute presidential debates, and Senator McCain’s tongue in cheek remark that he has fired his entire staff and replaced them with Joe the Plumber, he reached instant stardom. An internet company began selling “Joe the Plumber” tee shirts, baseball caps, buttons, and yard signs. But it seems that Joe got the same amount of pre-star status vetting as did the VP candidate – little to none. Turns out Joe the Plumber is actually a guy named Sam – Samuel J. Wurzenbacher, an unlicensed and unregistered employee of a small plumbing and heating company in suburban Toledo, Ohio. Had the McCain handlers set up their opponent with Joe, uh, Sam? A senior adviser to the McCain campaign said it had been in contact with the plumber before the debate but it apparently failed to look carefully into his background before McCain made an unwitting celebrity of him. Before the debate was even finished, three local television stations had parked live satellite trucks outside his home and the networks were rushing to interview him. He was portrayed as an “ordinary Joe,” a proxy for working people and an ordinary American.
Biggest plumber’s leak since Watergate: “Every Joe” turned out to be a 34-year-old plumber's assistant – not a registered plumber but a registered Republican with a quick racist remark that Barack Obama "can tap dance - almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr." Setting his toiletries aside, Joe/Sam the non-registered plumber shook hands with Senator Obama and told him he wants to buy the business he works for which would increase his income and therefore his taxes, although it turns out that higher taxes aren’t his only problem. There is no record of him in the database of the Ohio Construction Industry Licensing Board, he is not registered to work as a plumber in Ohio, he had a lien against him by the Ohio Department of Taxation in January, 2007, for failing to pay $1,183 in property taxes. To add more egg to their faces, the business manager of the Toledo local of the United Association of Plumbers, Steamfitters & Service Mechanics issued a statement complaining Joe the Plumber hadn't even undergone apprenticeship training.
A little blogging music Maestro… The odie by the late Rick Nelson, ”Fools Rush In.”
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Thursday, October 16, 2008
19 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 19
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Hello, calling Joe the Plumber: Not since Jake Plummer the quarterback from Arizona State University was drafted by the hometown Cardinals has a Plummer received so much attention. Joe the Plumber was mentioned 23 times in last night’s debate, 20 of which were by Senator McCain. That was not so unusual except that Joe the Plumber from small-town Holland, Ohio was visited before the debate not by Senator McCain but by Senator Obama. Joe, a single father who works from sunup to sundown unplugging drains and installing toilets, asked Senator Obama what would happen if he bought a business and earned between $ 250,000 and $ 270,000. In fairness, Senator Obama told him his taxes on everything over $ 250,000 would increase by 3%. Let’s see, that would be an increase of $ 600 if he hit the $ 270,000 per year goal. Not exactly a royal flush but Senator McCain insisted the increase would further clog the drain and money would not flow. After hearing the potential earnings we have to believe that applications for plumbing jobs have increased substantially in Ohio.
No tulips or windmills in this Holland: Hans Brinker wore silver skates and was an amateur plumber as he put his finger in the dike to save Holland in a children’s story. Senator McCain did his best to put Senator Obama in Dutch by not holding back any water about Joe the Plumber in Holland, Ohio. In the children’s story Mr. Brinker is unable to work as the result of a fall from a dike. Mrs. Brinker, son Hans and daughter Gretel all worked various jobs to support the family, and were looked down upon in the community because of their low income and poor status. In real life in Greta grows up to get her own show on Fox News Hans becomes a fake weightlifter in a Saturday Night Live skit. Joe the Plumber, meanwhile, dreams of skating to annual riches of $ 270,000 silver dollars. We are not sure what happened to the Mrs. in real life. All we know from news reports is that Joe the Plumber is a single father. We hope Joe (Wurzelbacher) the Plumber’s family lives happily ever after just as the Brinkers did in the story.
Barack and John bob and weave: The debate between the two presidential candidates was the most spirited meeting the two have had. Even though, that giant sucking sound heard round the nation was most likely not hot air coming from the candidates. Although there was plenty of that. Rather, the noise was a collective sigh from the American public that the debates are finally over and the election cannot come soon enough. Presidential elections come every four years in America but the process of identifying a candidate and selecting a president seems to have lasted for at least a decade. We’re not sure if the weariness of the public over the long and arduous process will favor one candidate over the other but it is our hope that both parties will have learned a lesson and will not repeat the torture they’ve put the public through. No doubt CNN, Fox News, and CNBC will take an opposing view on that opinion.
Senator McCain assumed a pugilistic stance in the debate and took nearly every opportunity to jab at Senator Obama. Most polls, including the CNN and CBS flash polls taken after the debate, reported Obama won though certainly not by a knockout. Senator McCain danced around questions and sparred with the Illinois senator. He tried landing punches with the left hook (William Ayers), and with a right cross, as well as comments by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. He relentlessly tried rabbit punches and hammerlocks by using Joe the plumber. But in the end it was a split decision by the judges with Fox News declaring McCain the winner and CNN and CBS declaring it an Obama victory.
Internet buzz suggests Joe the Plumber was a plant: Is there really a Joe the Plumber? Is he a member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union? Could he have been a plant? Let’s see, if we were conspiracy theorists we would consider that Senator McCain brought the topic up and used it more than 20 times during the debate. What is the official position of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union? According to a letter on their website:
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
On January 9, 2008, the United Association became the first International Union to endorse Senator Barack Obama as its candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. This endorsement was discussed with the General Executive Board and they concurred.
Barack Obama is the choice of the UA because he has always fought for working people throughout his career and will do the best job of bringing badly-needed change to Washington. Obama will help us keep existing jobs and work to develop new, higher paying jobs here in America, reform our health care system, fix our ailing schools and make sure that the pensions of our retirees are safe.
So is Joe a disgruntled member, not a member (Heavens, a SCAB?????) or just a guy who wants to buy a plumbing company who thinks Senator McCain offers him more than the opponent? Or was John McCain simply well prepared for the debate. Of course, Senator Obama had his won cause célèbre in the name of Lily Ledbetter. Ledbetter, 70, a former supervisor for an Alabama Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant, lost her gender pay-discrimination suit more than a year ago in the U.S. Supreme Court. Regardless, let’s hope it is a slow toilet flow week so Joe doesn’t miss many calls.
The left wing buzz: Many left wing blogs have brought up questions about Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. The questions include: The Plumber was playing football outside with his son when he came upon the crowd gathered around Obama. What else would explain how conservative sites got stories posted about him in advance of the debate and how easily everyone else found him for interviews? Others rumors suggest The plumber is not a registered voter, is not a licensed plumber in the state of Ohio, already owns several companies, and that he might be related to Charles Keating’s son-in-law (Keating of the Keating 5 scandal that implicated McCain. The only thing that news media has confirmed is that he is not licensed. However, it seems the left has learned from Karl Rove how to trash a person.
A little blogging music Maestro… The old Country standard ”Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart.”
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Hello, calling Joe the Plumber: Not since Jake Plummer the quarterback from Arizona State University was drafted by the hometown Cardinals has a Plummer received so much attention. Joe the Plumber was mentioned 23 times in last night’s debate, 20 of which were by Senator McCain. That was not so unusual except that Joe the Plumber from small-town Holland, Ohio was visited before the debate not by Senator McCain but by Senator Obama. Joe, a single father who works from sunup to sundown unplugging drains and installing toilets, asked Senator Obama what would happen if he bought a business and earned between $ 250,000 and $ 270,000. In fairness, Senator Obama told him his taxes on everything over $ 250,000 would increase by 3%. Let’s see, that would be an increase of $ 600 if he hit the $ 270,000 per year goal. Not exactly a royal flush but Senator McCain insisted the increase would further clog the drain and money would not flow. After hearing the potential earnings we have to believe that applications for plumbing jobs have increased substantially in Ohio.
No tulips or windmills in this Holland: Hans Brinker wore silver skates and was an amateur plumber as he put his finger in the dike to save Holland in a children’s story. Senator McCain did his best to put Senator Obama in Dutch by not holding back any water about Joe the Plumber in Holland, Ohio. In the children’s story Mr. Brinker is unable to work as the result of a fall from a dike. Mrs. Brinker, son Hans and daughter Gretel all worked various jobs to support the family, and were looked down upon in the community because of their low income and poor status. In real life in Greta grows up to get her own show on Fox News Hans becomes a fake weightlifter in a Saturday Night Live skit. Joe the Plumber, meanwhile, dreams of skating to annual riches of $ 270,000 silver dollars. We are not sure what happened to the Mrs. in real life. All we know from news reports is that Joe the Plumber is a single father. We hope Joe (Wurzelbacher) the Plumber’s family lives happily ever after just as the Brinkers did in the story.
Barack and John bob and weave: The debate between the two presidential candidates was the most spirited meeting the two have had. Even though, that giant sucking sound heard round the nation was most likely not hot air coming from the candidates. Although there was plenty of that. Rather, the noise was a collective sigh from the American public that the debates are finally over and the election cannot come soon enough. Presidential elections come every four years in America but the process of identifying a candidate and selecting a president seems to have lasted for at least a decade. We’re not sure if the weariness of the public over the long and arduous process will favor one candidate over the other but it is our hope that both parties will have learned a lesson and will not repeat the torture they’ve put the public through. No doubt CNN, Fox News, and CNBC will take an opposing view on that opinion.
Senator McCain assumed a pugilistic stance in the debate and took nearly every opportunity to jab at Senator Obama. Most polls, including the CNN and CBS flash polls taken after the debate, reported Obama won though certainly not by a knockout. Senator McCain danced around questions and sparred with the Illinois senator. He tried landing punches with the left hook (William Ayers), and with a right cross, as well as comments by Rep. John Lewis of Georgia. He relentlessly tried rabbit punches and hammerlocks by using Joe the plumber. But in the end it was a split decision by the judges with Fox News declaring McCain the winner and CNN and CBS declaring it an Obama victory.
Internet buzz suggests Joe the Plumber was a plant: Is there really a Joe the Plumber? Is he a member of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union? Could he have been a plant? Let’s see, if we were conspiracy theorists we would consider that Senator McCain brought the topic up and used it more than 20 times during the debate. What is the official position of the Plumbers and Pipefitters Union? According to a letter on their website:
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
On January 9, 2008, the United Association became the first International Union to endorse Senator Barack Obama as its candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. This endorsement was discussed with the General Executive Board and they concurred.
Barack Obama is the choice of the UA because he has always fought for working people throughout his career and will do the best job of bringing badly-needed change to Washington. Obama will help us keep existing jobs and work to develop new, higher paying jobs here in America, reform our health care system, fix our ailing schools and make sure that the pensions of our retirees are safe.
So is Joe a disgruntled member, not a member (Heavens, a SCAB?????) or just a guy who wants to buy a plumbing company who thinks Senator McCain offers him more than the opponent? Or was John McCain simply well prepared for the debate. Of course, Senator Obama had his won cause célèbre in the name of Lily Ledbetter. Ledbetter, 70, a former supervisor for an Alabama Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. plant, lost her gender pay-discrimination suit more than a year ago in the U.S. Supreme Court. Regardless, let’s hope it is a slow toilet flow week so Joe doesn’t miss many calls.
The left wing buzz: Many left wing blogs have brought up questions about Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher. The questions include: The Plumber was playing football outside with his son when he came upon the crowd gathered around Obama. What else would explain how conservative sites got stories posted about him in advance of the debate and how easily everyone else found him for interviews? Others rumors suggest The plumber is not a registered voter, is not a licensed plumber in the state of Ohio, already owns several companies, and that he might be related to Charles Keating’s son-in-law (Keating of the Keating 5 scandal that implicated McCain. The only thing that news media has confirmed is that he is not licensed. However, it seems the left has learned from Karl Rove how to trash a person.
A little blogging music Maestro… The old Country standard ”Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart.”
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
20 Days to RAIN Day
RAIN Minus 20
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
April in Paris; Paris in November: That darling of the horny teenage boys, Paris Hilton has struck again. To refresh your failing memory, assuming you’re a typical U.S. voter, the good Senator McCain’s campaign ran an ad some time ago referring to his opponent as a rock star. The ad overlaid (no pun intended) the Divine Ms. Hilton (sorry Ms. M) to imply, I guess that she and other groupies are the only ones who support Rock Star Obie. Paris, in a move that stunned those who saw her as a typical blonde airhead (the world) struck back with a fake ad of her own that had her discussing real issues in a tongue-in-cheek fake run for the presidency. Well, she apparently hit another one out of the park. With her political advisor – fake president Martin Sheen (not to be confused of that late night idol of old, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen), Paris talks about her Fo-Po, “That’s Foreign Policy, silly.” You can view the full video on funnyordie.com. The scary part is that some of her comments make more sense than those of the real candidates.
She fought the law and the law won: While not exactly the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Orange County (Florida) Sheriffs apparently got their man – uh woman. Her lawyer painted her as a half step behind Mother Teresa and at least close to sainthood but the smokeys just went ahead and slapped the cuffs on her anyhow. Who was the object of the gendarme’s attention? Casey Anthony. Doesn’t ring a bell? She’s the Florida mother of toddler Caylee Anthony who disappeared. Authorities have believed for some time that Casey was complicit in some manner but she’s been able to evade arrest. However She’d been indicted by a grand jury and was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to police. An undercover car observed her as she drove home on the pretext of turning herself in then quickly hopped into another car in what appeared to be a possible escape attempt. So they nailed her. The body of little Caylee has not yet been found.
Sex drugs rock and roll by the barrel: As the gentle Pacific breezes waft through his island cottage, Bobby Maxwell reflects on how his life has changed since he blew the whistle. For more than 20 years Bobby was an auditor for the government – ours, not OPEC’s. It was his duty to monitor the goings on in the oil industry. He along with others in his department were charged with keeping the oil flowing to the American public honestly and smoothly. Bobby took his job seriously. He claims others did not and his version of the “cult of corruption” that he tried to derail is backed up by a recent government report. The tiny agency within the Department of the Interior is called the Minerals Management Service, which manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on federal lands. The Interior Department's inspector general report was released earlier this month. It found that between 2003 and 2006 employees at the agency received improper gifts from energy industry officials and engaged with them in illegal drug use and inappropriate sexual relations. After receiving an award for saving the government a half billion dollars by collecting unpaid royalties, Bobby’s job was eliminated. Shortly after the Bush administration took office the improper gifts of sex, drugs, and rock and roll began to flow. Add one more reason to vote every incumbent out of office November 4 and hope that those who participated in the above do hard jail time.
All hail the passion pit of days gone by: Back in the days when men were men and women were glad of it many children were conceived at the drive-in movie. A popular bumper sticker from the 1950s read “Baby made in back seat of car with automatic transmission grows up to be shiftless bastard.” Let me set the stage; he wore a form fitting t-shirt – that alone was brazen as the tee shirt was considered to be underwear by the older generation. He also wore Levis – not just any brand of blue jeans, and engineer boots – big black clodhoppers that were so ugly they were cool. He drove an old Ford with a “necking knob” on the steering wheel. It allowed him to turn the wheel easily with one arm in those pre-power steering days. She wore a hoop skirt and blouse. Together they went on a date to the drive-in movie (admission 35 cents) but he was determined to not watch the film. The speaker was a little metal box that hung over the window and had one button for volume. Before the movie started he played tag on the movie screen with the spotlight attached to his car’s door, but once the lights went down and the music came up romance was the main feature. First base, second base, third base… use your imagination. After 75 years the drive in movie still exists but today’s patrons are more likely to be families in pickup trucks. It just isn’t the same.
The bailout – why every incumbent needs to be dumped - NOW: We are so easily led. George Bush and his administration took advantage of the panic after the 9/11 incident to lead us into war with a country that posed no threat, had nothing to do with 9/11, has cost us billions of dollars and the lives of four thousand of our bravest young soldiers. Yet congress applauded the furor-based tripe like so many seals clapping their flippers. Nearly every Congressperson followed in lock step. But they learned from the fiasco that followed, right? WRONG! Slick Georgie Boy tried it again. When the investment banks run by his buddies began to stumble his Treasury Secretary joined him in another sky-is-falling panic speech. A $ 700 billion bailout was needed NOW! Hurry! If we wait even 24 hours the entire country will collapse. This time the conservative House Republicans said uh-uh so Happy Harry Reid bribed them with another hundred billion or so in pork. Both presidential candidates voted “Aye.” Now that’s bipartisanship not seen since they marched lockstep into the Iraq quagmire. Ten days later the U.S. Treasury has decided to give banks another $ 250 billion. If Congress was a comic strip character they’d be Charlie Brown and W would be Lucy snatching the football away each time he kicked at it. Sadly Congress is not a comic book character, although some of their antics belong in the funny pages, and your grandchildren and their grandchildren will be paying off Bush’s Bungles. They all need to be fired and you, the voter have the authority to do that. I urge every reader to join the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. On November 4 vote for the presidential ticket you believe will damage our country least, then vote against every Senator and Congressman who is running for reelection.
A little blogging music Maestro…”Deal With the Devil” by Judas Priest.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
April in Paris; Paris in November: That darling of the horny teenage boys, Paris Hilton has struck again. To refresh your failing memory, assuming you’re a typical U.S. voter, the good Senator McCain’s campaign ran an ad some time ago referring to his opponent as a rock star. The ad overlaid (no pun intended) the Divine Ms. Hilton (sorry Ms. M) to imply, I guess that she and other groupies are the only ones who support Rock Star Obie. Paris, in a move that stunned those who saw her as a typical blonde airhead (the world) struck back with a fake ad of her own that had her discussing real issues in a tongue-in-cheek fake run for the presidency. Well, she apparently hit another one out of the park. With her political advisor – fake president Martin Sheen (not to be confused of that late night idol of old, Bishop Fulton J. Sheen), Paris talks about her Fo-Po, “That’s Foreign Policy, silly.” You can view the full video on funnyordie.com. The scary part is that some of her comments make more sense than those of the real candidates.
She fought the law and the law won: While not exactly the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Orange County (Florida) Sheriffs apparently got their man – uh woman. Her lawyer painted her as a half step behind Mother Teresa and at least close to sainthood but the smokeys just went ahead and slapped the cuffs on her anyhow. Who was the object of the gendarme’s attention? Casey Anthony. Doesn’t ring a bell? She’s the Florida mother of toddler Caylee Anthony who disappeared. Authorities have believed for some time that Casey was complicit in some manner but she’s been able to evade arrest. However She’d been indicted by a grand jury and was charged with first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to police. An undercover car observed her as she drove home on the pretext of turning herself in then quickly hopped into another car in what appeared to be a possible escape attempt. So they nailed her. The body of little Caylee has not yet been found.
Sex drugs rock and roll by the barrel: As the gentle Pacific breezes waft through his island cottage, Bobby Maxwell reflects on how his life has changed since he blew the whistle. For more than 20 years Bobby was an auditor for the government – ours, not OPEC’s. It was his duty to monitor the goings on in the oil industry. He along with others in his department were charged with keeping the oil flowing to the American public honestly and smoothly. Bobby took his job seriously. He claims others did not and his version of the “cult of corruption” that he tried to derail is backed up by a recent government report. The tiny agency within the Department of the Interior is called the Minerals Management Service, which manages the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on federal lands. The Interior Department's inspector general report was released earlier this month. It found that between 2003 and 2006 employees at the agency received improper gifts from energy industry officials and engaged with them in illegal drug use and inappropriate sexual relations. After receiving an award for saving the government a half billion dollars by collecting unpaid royalties, Bobby’s job was eliminated. Shortly after the Bush administration took office the improper gifts of sex, drugs, and rock and roll began to flow. Add one more reason to vote every incumbent out of office November 4 and hope that those who participated in the above do hard jail time.
All hail the passion pit of days gone by: Back in the days when men were men and women were glad of it many children were conceived at the drive-in movie. A popular bumper sticker from the 1950s read “Baby made in back seat of car with automatic transmission grows up to be shiftless bastard.” Let me set the stage; he wore a form fitting t-shirt – that alone was brazen as the tee shirt was considered to be underwear by the older generation. He also wore Levis – not just any brand of blue jeans, and engineer boots – big black clodhoppers that were so ugly they were cool. He drove an old Ford with a “necking knob” on the steering wheel. It allowed him to turn the wheel easily with one arm in those pre-power steering days. She wore a hoop skirt and blouse. Together they went on a date to the drive-in movie (admission 35 cents) but he was determined to not watch the film. The speaker was a little metal box that hung over the window and had one button for volume. Before the movie started he played tag on the movie screen with the spotlight attached to his car’s door, but once the lights went down and the music came up romance was the main feature. First base, second base, third base… use your imagination. After 75 years the drive in movie still exists but today’s patrons are more likely to be families in pickup trucks. It just isn’t the same.
The bailout – why every incumbent needs to be dumped - NOW: We are so easily led. George Bush and his administration took advantage of the panic after the 9/11 incident to lead us into war with a country that posed no threat, had nothing to do with 9/11, has cost us billions of dollars and the lives of four thousand of our bravest young soldiers. Yet congress applauded the furor-based tripe like so many seals clapping their flippers. Nearly every Congressperson followed in lock step. But they learned from the fiasco that followed, right? WRONG! Slick Georgie Boy tried it again. When the investment banks run by his buddies began to stumble his Treasury Secretary joined him in another sky-is-falling panic speech. A $ 700 billion bailout was needed NOW! Hurry! If we wait even 24 hours the entire country will collapse. This time the conservative House Republicans said uh-uh so Happy Harry Reid bribed them with another hundred billion or so in pork. Both presidential candidates voted “Aye.” Now that’s bipartisanship not seen since they marched lockstep into the Iraq quagmire. Ten days later the U.S. Treasury has decided to give banks another $ 250 billion. If Congress was a comic strip character they’d be Charlie Brown and W would be Lucy snatching the football away each time he kicked at it. Sadly Congress is not a comic book character, although some of their antics belong in the funny pages, and your grandchildren and their grandchildren will be paying off Bush’s Bungles. They all need to be fired and you, the voter have the authority to do that. I urge every reader to join the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. On November 4 vote for the presidential ticket you believe will damage our country least, then vote against every Senator and Congressman who is running for reelection.
A little blogging music Maestro…”Deal With the Devil” by Judas Priest.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Monday, October 13, 2008
22 Days to E-Day
RAIN Minus 22
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Up your stock market: Who can follow the logic of the market? The Wall Street pundits are in the same category of John Madden and other football commentators. They can always tell you what happened and why it happened after it happened. Last week when the market dropped nearly 20% - the largest one week drop in the history 100 plus years it has been operation, the pundits fell over one another trying to get face time on TV to tell the viewing public why it happened. Of course, none could predict that today more than half of that loss would be made up as the stock market had its biggest leap in history. But there they are again telling exactly how it happened. These are the same geniuses on whose watch the market fell last week and the week before and the week before and…
Boys will be boys: The waaaaaay-too-long election campaigns continue to drone on. Three long weeks of childish playground arguments between the principal parties – tongues wagging and other silliness. One candidate sticks his tongue out the other answers by making donkey ears. Today in Ohio one laid out a recovery plan that included tax credits and a stimulus package and the other promptly responded that the plan was irresponsible. My greatest fear is that the voters in America will become so fed up with the back-and-forth between the candidates and their childish surrogates that there will be a loss of interest and many will not bother to vote. The mudslinging from both sides has become such that the average American voter, who at best makes up their mind based on those 30 second sound bites, will decide that both sides are corrupt and stay home on Election Day. I’m sure some pundit somewhere has figured out that if that were to happen it would favor one candidate over the other. I urge every voter to not fall into that trap. Choose the candidate who you feel would do the least damage and vote for the presidency, but vote AGAINST all incumbents. Send a message to congress.
Continued hatred from the pulpit: Few things are so disheartening as when a so-called “Man of God” or one who calls himself a Christian speaks with such un-Christ like rhetoric. Today a clip was shown of a minister giving an invocation at a political rally who suggested that if the opponent won God would be mocked. In California at least two churches (Mormon and Catholic) are sending emails and letters to all their members and their priests and bishops are pounding the pulpit in an effort to support legislation that would not allow gay couples to marry because it is not of “God’s word.” I might be going way out on a limb here but why is it that every time a person who preaches to a congregation wishes to make a particular point they use God as their source of information. For some reason I have to think that if God wanted the world to know how he feels about the bedroom behavior between two consenting adults He would have let us know – and it would not be by whispering to all those folks who presumably have spoken to Him. Somehow I can’t imagine that God has an opinion of who commits their lives to whom, who the winner is in a given war, or which football team wins the Brigham Young University/Notre Dame game.
Other news – really there is some: Well, at least the news ticker lists it. I must have been absent during the years The Brady Bunch sitcom ran on TV as I did not watch it. I don’t know Marcia Brady, played by Maureen McCormick or her TV sibling played by Barry Williams. I’m sorry if those poor coddled kids who were making millions were getting stoned while I struggled to eke out a living. The million-heiress Miss had such a difficult life that at age 14 she was making more per episode than many a worker did in 40 years of struggle. So it is difficult to sympathize with her. Little Miss Perfect on TV apparently snorted cocaine on set, dated celebrities including Michael Jackson and Steve Martin, went to parties at the Playboy Mansion, and traded drugs for sex. Now she has written a tell all (or “Who cares?”) book and hopes you buy it so at age 52 she doesn’t have to live such a hard life any longer. Poor baby.
Recession, Correction, Depression obsession: Many of my relatives including my parents, uncles and aunts and their peers lived through the “Great Depression.” Based on stories I’ve heard and photos I’ve seen of that era of the 1930s – this ain’t it. Pundits have a tendency to understate the stock market – like when it takes a dive and they call it a “correction,” I call it a crash. Or when the economy is struggling as it has for the past months and they call it a Depression. Taking a page from the oral history of those how lived through the Great Depression, and reading logs, and accounts of that era including novels (that’s what we had before TV docudramas) such as John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” A snapshot by Donna LeBlanc of Louisiana of the depression appeared recently appeared on the CNN news blog. A firsthand account of Depression life follows: "She remembered vividly the barrels of flour, the bolts of cloth and the hunger in the faces of people as they begged for store credit," LeBlanc said. "The store must have been at least marginally successful, because my grandmother was able to purchase, a piece at a time, a complete six-person setting of Gorham Chantilly silverware for her trousseau, linens and even a Lane cedar chest to house her treasures."
The couple would catch wild hogs, feed them corn for a year and eat them once the wild taste was out of the scavenging animals. They also took advantage of available squirrel meat, a common food in the South at that time.
"It was a uniquely disgusting thing ... to see my grandfather take a stewed, skinned squirrel's head, smack the skull's dome with a heavy silver tablespoon, and dine on the brains."
A little blogging music Maestro... “Poor Unfortunate Souls” by the Jonas Brothers.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Up your stock market: Who can follow the logic of the market? The Wall Street pundits are in the same category of John Madden and other football commentators. They can always tell you what happened and why it happened after it happened. Last week when the market dropped nearly 20% - the largest one week drop in the history 100 plus years it has been operation, the pundits fell over one another trying to get face time on TV to tell the viewing public why it happened. Of course, none could predict that today more than half of that loss would be made up as the stock market had its biggest leap in history. But there they are again telling exactly how it happened. These are the same geniuses on whose watch the market fell last week and the week before and the week before and…
Boys will be boys: The waaaaaay-too-long election campaigns continue to drone on. Three long weeks of childish playground arguments between the principal parties – tongues wagging and other silliness. One candidate sticks his tongue out the other answers by making donkey ears. Today in Ohio one laid out a recovery plan that included tax credits and a stimulus package and the other promptly responded that the plan was irresponsible. My greatest fear is that the voters in America will become so fed up with the back-and-forth between the candidates and their childish surrogates that there will be a loss of interest and many will not bother to vote. The mudslinging from both sides has become such that the average American voter, who at best makes up their mind based on those 30 second sound bites, will decide that both sides are corrupt and stay home on Election Day. I’m sure some pundit somewhere has figured out that if that were to happen it would favor one candidate over the other. I urge every voter to not fall into that trap. Choose the candidate who you feel would do the least damage and vote for the presidency, but vote AGAINST all incumbents. Send a message to congress.
Continued hatred from the pulpit: Few things are so disheartening as when a so-called “Man of God” or one who calls himself a Christian speaks with such un-Christ like rhetoric. Today a clip was shown of a minister giving an invocation at a political rally who suggested that if the opponent won God would be mocked. In California at least two churches (Mormon and Catholic) are sending emails and letters to all their members and their priests and bishops are pounding the pulpit in an effort to support legislation that would not allow gay couples to marry because it is not of “God’s word.” I might be going way out on a limb here but why is it that every time a person who preaches to a congregation wishes to make a particular point they use God as their source of information. For some reason I have to think that if God wanted the world to know how he feels about the bedroom behavior between two consenting adults He would have let us know – and it would not be by whispering to all those folks who presumably have spoken to Him. Somehow I can’t imagine that God has an opinion of who commits their lives to whom, who the winner is in a given war, or which football team wins the Brigham Young University/Notre Dame game.
Other news – really there is some: Well, at least the news ticker lists it. I must have been absent during the years The Brady Bunch sitcom ran on TV as I did not watch it. I don’t know Marcia Brady, played by Maureen McCormick or her TV sibling played by Barry Williams. I’m sorry if those poor coddled kids who were making millions were getting stoned while I struggled to eke out a living. The million-heiress Miss had such a difficult life that at age 14 she was making more per episode than many a worker did in 40 years of struggle. So it is difficult to sympathize with her. Little Miss Perfect on TV apparently snorted cocaine on set, dated celebrities including Michael Jackson and Steve Martin, went to parties at the Playboy Mansion, and traded drugs for sex. Now she has written a tell all (or “Who cares?”) book and hopes you buy it so at age 52 she doesn’t have to live such a hard life any longer. Poor baby.
Recession, Correction, Depression obsession: Many of my relatives including my parents, uncles and aunts and their peers lived through the “Great Depression.” Based on stories I’ve heard and photos I’ve seen of that era of the 1930s – this ain’t it. Pundits have a tendency to understate the stock market – like when it takes a dive and they call it a “correction,” I call it a crash. Or when the economy is struggling as it has for the past months and they call it a Depression. Taking a page from the oral history of those how lived through the Great Depression, and reading logs, and accounts of that era including novels (that’s what we had before TV docudramas) such as John Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath,” A snapshot by Donna LeBlanc of Louisiana of the depression appeared recently appeared on the CNN news blog. A firsthand account of Depression life follows: "She remembered vividly the barrels of flour, the bolts of cloth and the hunger in the faces of people as they begged for store credit," LeBlanc said. "The store must have been at least marginally successful, because my grandmother was able to purchase, a piece at a time, a complete six-person setting of Gorham Chantilly silverware for her trousseau, linens and even a Lane cedar chest to house her treasures."
The couple would catch wild hogs, feed them corn for a year and eat them once the wild taste was out of the scavenging animals. They also took advantage of available squirrel meat, a common food in the South at that time.
"It was a uniquely disgusting thing ... to see my grandfather take a stewed, skinned squirrel's head, smack the skull's dome with a heavy silver tablespoon, and dine on the brains."
A little blogging music Maestro... “Poor Unfortunate Souls” by the Jonas Brothers.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Friday, October 10, 2008
RAIN - 25 Days to E-Day
RAIN Minus 25
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
It’s the economy, stupid: Some have declared the economy to be in free fall. Well it isn’t free for millions of Americans who have been seduced into buying stock over the years. Remember the good old days? Passbook savings, certificates of deposit (CDs), money markets and other interest-bearing instruments? What did they all have in common? They all guaranteed a return. What else did they have in common? Since they were guaranteed, they produced modest returns but the Wall Street stock market pimps figured out that if they developed an advertising campaign that targeted all those savings account owners, they could sell more stock. The plan was as simple as snake oil sales. Feed on the greed. Tell people they were better than a measly x percent return. They could invest in the stock market and make millions. And the masses listened to the propaganda and invested. First it was so called dot-com stocks. We really didn’t understand this computer revolution but hey, why can’t we make money like all those geeks at the dot coms? So we invested.
A bust is something other than a statue head: The dot-com revolution made millionaires out of pimply face kids. So we invested and the bubble got bigger and bigger and bigger and BOOM! All those multi millionaires became thousandaires then hundredaires then $ 10.00 per hour geek computer repairers. We didn’t learn. Savings accounts are for saps. The real money can be made in real estate and yes, stocks. The dot-com bust was a freak of economics. It would never happen again. Flip that house. Buy those stocks. Washington will even help you be removing all those pesky rules and regulations from the market and from the banking industry making it easier for you to buy stocks. As for real estate, no market was hotter than the Las Vegas market. As soon as a new models were opened in developments people bought a house that wasn’t even built yet. Within a month, with the house under construction, the buyer-speculator sold to another buyer-speculator, often with a profit of $ 100,000 or more. Homes were sold with zero down at 120% of the purchase price. To qualify no documentation was required, just say you could qualify and get the loan – they were called liar’s loans in the industry. Then the house of cards came tumbling down and dragged with it not only the housing market but the stock market and every other business that depends on credit.
My mother was so out of touch: My parents were born early in the twentieth century. In fact, my father’s birthday was an easy one to remember, 12/13/14. My mother was born the following August. Both were children of immigrants struggling to make ends meet and as teens lived through the Great Depression when some of the same problems created some of the same problems we see today. Mom managed the household money and was cutting edge enough to trust banks, unlike many of her peers. But she neither parent understood nor trusted the stock market. Every extra penny she could scrape up went into saving accounts, CDs, money markets and other instruments with fixed returns. She even kept a stash of cash hidden in the bedroom “just for emergencies.” Her four college-educated kids often teased her about being old fashioned and not making more from her investments but Mom would not budge. And when she passed away a few years ago in her 91st year she left a fiscal legacy that stunned all her children. They lived frugally, invested conservatively, and saved for the next generation. The same story can be heard over and over among baby boomers that have taken inheritances and plowed them into real estate and the stock market. Our parents were not the fiscal old fools we accused them of being when they refused to learn about stock market investing.
The plan from this point forward: In times such as these we look to our leaders to provide direction. A hotly contested presidential race has the economy as its center point with each candidate promising to have the cure all. The lame duck president, who no doubt will be glad to leave Washington albeit with his tail between his legs, spoke to the American people 14 times in the past 16 days including today, but his speech simply increased the anxiety of many Americans as the stock market continues to fall. Investors are pulling their money out of stock mutual funds making this week the worst in the 112 year history of the stock market. The president’s approval rating among Americans is at a meager 24% but if the diehard block of party members is taken out of the mix that approval rating sinks to single digits.
The responsibility provides enough blame to go around: Who is responsible for the current economic mess? The investment bankers who gave the easy loans, the lenders who made the loans to unqualified people, the appraisers who overvalued houses which encouraged homeowners to “bet on the come” and buy homes they really could not afford, and of course the politicians who deregulated the industry which allowed many to prosper and those in the business to live high off the hog. We have little power to make any changes among any of the above groups save the legislators who took money from PACS and legislators and stripped regulations from the banking industry. Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans say it started during the Clinton administration. It matters not whether one party is more culpable than the other, all incumbents are guilty. We have the power to throw the bums out.
RAIN storms are on the horizon: The RAIN (Remove All Incumbents Now) campaign asks you to not be tricked by a political party that tries to seduce you to vote for its candidate. Vote for the presidential candidate you believe will do the least harm. Then vote AGAINST every incumbent on the ballot. That will be the strongest message the American public can send to congress. It might not cure cronyism and abuse, but it will cripple the corrupt system as it now exists.
A little blogging music Maestro... “November Rain” by Guns ‘n Roses.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential Election Day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
It’s the economy, stupid: Some have declared the economy to be in free fall. Well it isn’t free for millions of Americans who have been seduced into buying stock over the years. Remember the good old days? Passbook savings, certificates of deposit (CDs), money markets and other interest-bearing instruments? What did they all have in common? They all guaranteed a return. What else did they have in common? Since they were guaranteed, they produced modest returns but the Wall Street stock market pimps figured out that if they developed an advertising campaign that targeted all those savings account owners, they could sell more stock. The plan was as simple as snake oil sales. Feed on the greed. Tell people they were better than a measly x percent return. They could invest in the stock market and make millions. And the masses listened to the propaganda and invested. First it was so called dot-com stocks. We really didn’t understand this computer revolution but hey, why can’t we make money like all those geeks at the dot coms? So we invested.
A bust is something other than a statue head: The dot-com revolution made millionaires out of pimply face kids. So we invested and the bubble got bigger and bigger and bigger and BOOM! All those multi millionaires became thousandaires then hundredaires then $ 10.00 per hour geek computer repairers. We didn’t learn. Savings accounts are for saps. The real money can be made in real estate and yes, stocks. The dot-com bust was a freak of economics. It would never happen again. Flip that house. Buy those stocks. Washington will even help you be removing all those pesky rules and regulations from the market and from the banking industry making it easier for you to buy stocks. As for real estate, no market was hotter than the Las Vegas market. As soon as a new models were opened in developments people bought a house that wasn’t even built yet. Within a month, with the house under construction, the buyer-speculator sold to another buyer-speculator, often with a profit of $ 100,000 or more. Homes were sold with zero down at 120% of the purchase price. To qualify no documentation was required, just say you could qualify and get the loan – they were called liar’s loans in the industry. Then the house of cards came tumbling down and dragged with it not only the housing market but the stock market and every other business that depends on credit.
My mother was so out of touch: My parents were born early in the twentieth century. In fact, my father’s birthday was an easy one to remember, 12/13/14. My mother was born the following August. Both were children of immigrants struggling to make ends meet and as teens lived through the Great Depression when some of the same problems created some of the same problems we see today. Mom managed the household money and was cutting edge enough to trust banks, unlike many of her peers. But she neither parent understood nor trusted the stock market. Every extra penny she could scrape up went into saving accounts, CDs, money markets and other instruments with fixed returns. She even kept a stash of cash hidden in the bedroom “just for emergencies.” Her four college-educated kids often teased her about being old fashioned and not making more from her investments but Mom would not budge. And when she passed away a few years ago in her 91st year she left a fiscal legacy that stunned all her children. They lived frugally, invested conservatively, and saved for the next generation. The same story can be heard over and over among baby boomers that have taken inheritances and plowed them into real estate and the stock market. Our parents were not the fiscal old fools we accused them of being when they refused to learn about stock market investing.
The plan from this point forward: In times such as these we look to our leaders to provide direction. A hotly contested presidential race has the economy as its center point with each candidate promising to have the cure all. The lame duck president, who no doubt will be glad to leave Washington albeit with his tail between his legs, spoke to the American people 14 times in the past 16 days including today, but his speech simply increased the anxiety of many Americans as the stock market continues to fall. Investors are pulling their money out of stock mutual funds making this week the worst in the 112 year history of the stock market. The president’s approval rating among Americans is at a meager 24% but if the diehard block of party members is taken out of the mix that approval rating sinks to single digits.
The responsibility provides enough blame to go around: Who is responsible for the current economic mess? The investment bankers who gave the easy loans, the lenders who made the loans to unqualified people, the appraisers who overvalued houses which encouraged homeowners to “bet on the come” and buy homes they really could not afford, and of course the politicians who deregulated the industry which allowed many to prosper and those in the business to live high off the hog. We have little power to make any changes among any of the above groups save the legislators who took money from PACS and legislators and stripped regulations from the banking industry. Democrats blame Republicans, Republicans say it started during the Clinton administration. It matters not whether one party is more culpable than the other, all incumbents are guilty. We have the power to throw the bums out.
RAIN storms are on the horizon: The RAIN (Remove All Incumbents Now) campaign asks you to not be tricked by a political party that tries to seduce you to vote for its candidate. Vote for the presidential candidate you believe will do the least harm. Then vote AGAINST every incumbent on the ballot. That will be the strongest message the American public can send to congress. It might not cure cronyism and abuse, but it will cripple the corrupt system as it now exists.
A little blogging music Maestro... “November Rain” by Guns ‘n Roses.
Dr. Forgot
http://drforgot.com
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Thursday, October 9, 2008
26 Days to RAIN Day Plus OJ
RAIN and OJ
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential election day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Mudslides splatter both candidates: A bucket of blood, a field full of mud, and two candidates spewing crud. That is the viscosity of the election at the moment and I see no likelihood it will change in the next 26 days. The candidates remind me of my days as a junior high school in charge of discipline and attendance issues. The only difference is that the junior high school kids mudslinging always started with “Yo Mamma,” as in “Yo Mamma wears tennis shoes,” countered by “Oh, yeah? Well, yo Mamma buys your cloths at the thrift shop.” And so it goes until a fistfight begins. When the two miscreants were finally hauled into the office each one claimed of the other, “He started it.” So it is with the two presidential candidates, except their diatribes are neither as clever nor as passionate as the kids mostly because theirs is scripted by party writers. Both are disgusting but the polls say that kind of slime is what changes the minds of the voters. If we are to believe that, we indeed live in a sick society. Vote for the least slimy presidential candidate of your choice, but beyond that fire every legislator who is running for election. Vote against EVERY incumbent and make it RAIN. That is the only way this (to borrow a famous line from a Middle East despot) stinking corpse of a political system can be cleansed and resurrected.
A postscript to the OJ Trial: Poor OJ. He has gone from a star football player and winner of the Heisman Trophy to a second rate hack whose only sprinting will be trying to evade Bubba in the showers. Let’s do a rewind of his fall from grace. OJ was born shortly after the end of WW-II in the City by the Bay where Tony Bennett left his heart. He was raised by his granny and became a star running back at USC. Most of his professional career was spent with the hapless Buffalo Bills. His handsome looks and charismatic personality brought him more glory as a sports announcer and movie star then as the spokesman for Hertz car rentals. On June 12, 1994 his beautiful wife and a friend were brutally slain at her home and suspicion immediately focused on “The Juice.” He was captured after a bizarre nationally televised slow-speed chase up and down L.A. freeways. The resulting murder trial was also nationally televised and became one of the first made-for-TV reality shows.
Could have been Marshall Tito or Lance Ito: The trial was proceded over by Judge Lance Ito, the first of many caricatures with oversized round eyeglasses and a black judges robe that cried out for pundits to satirize him. The trial took as long as making a baby with all the cartoon characters one could imagine from “The Constant Chiseler” Kato Kaelin to the defense attorney, may he rest in peace, Johnny “If the gloves don’t fit you must acquit” Cochran. It was a look into our judicial system through a pair of $ 500 Hollywood Chanel sunglasses. Of course, the jury cut him loose, so to speak but OJ kept on getting into trouble.
Living the life: Instead of getting life for murder OJ was living the life of your average bankrupt Floridian (he declared bankruptcy rather than have to pay a judgment the victim’s family had won against him) playing golf daily, living in a castle, exhibiting road rage and generally thumbing his nose at the courts. Had he been a consultant for Wall Street investment bankers we wouldn’t be in our current pickle. But when OJ got a call from another upstanding citizen telling him some of his memorabilia was being sold in a hotel, OJ and his goons went in with guns drawn and promptly got arrested for theft, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and a host of other charges. Piece of cake. Hire the best defense a bankrupt ex-jock’s money can buy and prepare for another carnival trial.
You’re not in Kansas (Hollywood) any more Dorothy (OJ): This time the trial was a real one – not a made-for-TV event like the one in tinsel town. Only a handful of fans showed up outside the courtroom and inside Judge Jackie Glass was no Judge Ito. She ran a tight courtroom just like in a real American city and when the gavel came down and the jury’s verdict was read – guilty on all 12 counts. The defense lawyer immediately began weeping, wailing, and gnashing his teeth. Oh the unfairness of it all. He painted his client as a step above Mother Teresa for purity and threw out every possible reason that his poor innocent client was wrongfully convicted: the jury had too many whites, not enough women, too many right handed people, not enough hair color, and oh yes, they MUST have found him guilty not because of the evidence but because somewhere in the recesses of their mind they were making up for his prior acquittal. Alas and Alack. OJ will now change his name to Orange Jumpsuit. Although he’s not been sentenced, he’ll likely have plenty of time to kill.
The rest of the story – with a Palin wink: With Halloween around the corner OJ costumes are popular, but stores have been receiving complaints that the gloves don’t fit. Rumors are that he’s landed an endorsement from jail for, “I Can’t Believe it’s not an Acquittal.” Superstitious? OJ was convicted 13 years to the day after he was acquitted. Perhaps 13 years from now his sentence will be overturned.
A little blogging music Maestro... “Guilty Conscience” by Eminem
Dr. Forgot
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Item First – Let it RAIN: From now until the presidential election day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Mudslides splatter both candidates: A bucket of blood, a field full of mud, and two candidates spewing crud. That is the viscosity of the election at the moment and I see no likelihood it will change in the next 26 days. The candidates remind me of my days as a junior high school in charge of discipline and attendance issues. The only difference is that the junior high school kids mudslinging always started with “Yo Mamma,” as in “Yo Mamma wears tennis shoes,” countered by “Oh, yeah? Well, yo Mamma buys your cloths at the thrift shop.” And so it goes until a fistfight begins. When the two miscreants were finally hauled into the office each one claimed of the other, “He started it.” So it is with the two presidential candidates, except their diatribes are neither as clever nor as passionate as the kids mostly because theirs is scripted by party writers. Both are disgusting but the polls say that kind of slime is what changes the minds of the voters. If we are to believe that, we indeed live in a sick society. Vote for the least slimy presidential candidate of your choice, but beyond that fire every legislator who is running for election. Vote against EVERY incumbent and make it RAIN. That is the only way this (to borrow a famous line from a Middle East despot) stinking corpse of a political system can be cleansed and resurrected.
A postscript to the OJ Trial: Poor OJ. He has gone from a star football player and winner of the Heisman Trophy to a second rate hack whose only sprinting will be trying to evade Bubba in the showers. Let’s do a rewind of his fall from grace. OJ was born shortly after the end of WW-II in the City by the Bay where Tony Bennett left his heart. He was raised by his granny and became a star running back at USC. Most of his professional career was spent with the hapless Buffalo Bills. His handsome looks and charismatic personality brought him more glory as a sports announcer and movie star then as the spokesman for Hertz car rentals. On June 12, 1994 his beautiful wife and a friend were brutally slain at her home and suspicion immediately focused on “The Juice.” He was captured after a bizarre nationally televised slow-speed chase up and down L.A. freeways. The resulting murder trial was also nationally televised and became one of the first made-for-TV reality shows.
Could have been Marshall Tito or Lance Ito: The trial was proceded over by Judge Lance Ito, the first of many caricatures with oversized round eyeglasses and a black judges robe that cried out for pundits to satirize him. The trial took as long as making a baby with all the cartoon characters one could imagine from “The Constant Chiseler” Kato Kaelin to the defense attorney, may he rest in peace, Johnny “If the gloves don’t fit you must acquit” Cochran. It was a look into our judicial system through a pair of $ 500 Hollywood Chanel sunglasses. Of course, the jury cut him loose, so to speak but OJ kept on getting into trouble.
Living the life: Instead of getting life for murder OJ was living the life of your average bankrupt Floridian (he declared bankruptcy rather than have to pay a judgment the victim’s family had won against him) playing golf daily, living in a castle, exhibiting road rage and generally thumbing his nose at the courts. Had he been a consultant for Wall Street investment bankers we wouldn’t be in our current pickle. But when OJ got a call from another upstanding citizen telling him some of his memorabilia was being sold in a hotel, OJ and his goons went in with guns drawn and promptly got arrested for theft, kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, and a host of other charges. Piece of cake. Hire the best defense a bankrupt ex-jock’s money can buy and prepare for another carnival trial.
You’re not in Kansas (Hollywood) any more Dorothy (OJ): This time the trial was a real one – not a made-for-TV event like the one in tinsel town. Only a handful of fans showed up outside the courtroom and inside Judge Jackie Glass was no Judge Ito. She ran a tight courtroom just like in a real American city and when the gavel came down and the jury’s verdict was read – guilty on all 12 counts. The defense lawyer immediately began weeping, wailing, and gnashing his teeth. Oh the unfairness of it all. He painted his client as a step above Mother Teresa for purity and threw out every possible reason that his poor innocent client was wrongfully convicted: the jury had too many whites, not enough women, too many right handed people, not enough hair color, and oh yes, they MUST have found him guilty not because of the evidence but because somewhere in the recesses of their mind they were making up for his prior acquittal. Alas and Alack. OJ will now change his name to Orange Jumpsuit. Although he’s not been sentenced, he’ll likely have plenty of time to kill.
The rest of the story – with a Palin wink: With Halloween around the corner OJ costumes are popular, but stores have been receiving complaints that the gloves don’t fit. Rumors are that he’s landed an endorsement from jail for, “I Can’t Believe it’s not an Acquittal.” Superstitious? OJ was convicted 13 years to the day after he was acquitted. Perhaps 13 years from now his sentence will be overturned.
A little blogging music Maestro... “Guilty Conscience” by Eminem
Dr. Forgot
Read me also at http://vegasnews.squarespace.com/dr-forgot-andrew-r-nixon/
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Wednesday's RAIN - 27 Days To Go
More RAIN Support
RAIN Refresher: From now until the presidential election day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Response is overwhelming: We have heard from average working Americans across the country. Each as promised to forward our RAIN campaign to all on their respective contact list. Today we spoke to a friend and physician who not only agrees 100% with throwing the bums out due to a corrupted system, he suggested term limits of two terms be imposed on Congress and that the presidency be limited to one six-year terms as is done successfully in many other democratic country. The campaign continues.
No comment on the presidential debate: The debate, such as it was included enough Pabulum that we will not bother to comment on it. As we have stated before, we encourage you to vote as you please for the presidency but PLEASE vote every single incumbent out of office. Fire them and continue each election until the corrupt cronyism of the system has been purged. This is serious stuff so we will take a bit of a respite with some political quotes by politicians and pundits. We will begin and conclude with quotes by founding Father Thomas Jefferson: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Thomas Jefferson
OTHER POLITICAL AXIOMS
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed;
If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.'
-Mark Twain
Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress....
But then I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
-Richard Armour
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity
is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man
which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-G. Gordon Liddy
Democracy must be something more than
two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from
poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-Douglas Casey,
Giving money and power to the government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
Government's view of the economy could be
summed up in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan (1986)
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
-Alexis de Tocqueville
I don't make jokes...
I just watch the government and report the facts.
-Will Rogers
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
-Charles de Gaulle
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
-Plato
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where they is no river.
-Nikita Khrushchev
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
- P.J. O'Rourke
In general, the art of government consists of
taking as much money as possible from
one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-Voltaire (1764)
Just because you do not take an interest in politics
doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
-Pericles (430 B.C.)
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe
while the legislature is in session.
-Mark Twain (1866 )
Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
-Unknown
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-Winston Churchill
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist
is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-Mark Twain
The ultimate result of shielding men from the
effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
There is no distinctly Native American criminal class
...save Congress.
-Mark Twain
What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)
A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is strong enough to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson
I will continue to write daily about RAIN both in my blog and my news media column at: http://drforgot.com (my blog) and at http://vegasbuzznews.com/ where I am a featured columnist.
A little blogging music Maestro: From Glen Yarbrough, “Baby the RAIN Must Fall.”
Dr. Forgot
RAIN Refresher: From now until the presidential election day we will begin each post with a review of the Remove All Incumbents Now (RAIN) campaign. A good rain washes clean all the road scum, dust and filth. We hope that a cleansing of Congress will result in the firing of the legislators who are part of the group that bailed out Wall Street with nearly a trillion dollars, at least 150 billion of which was blatant authorized pork by Democrats to appease Republicans who had previously rejected the bill then changed their vote allowing it to pass after being seduced by pork. We are not sure how much of the bailout, if any, was actually needed.
Response is overwhelming: We have heard from average working Americans across the country. Each as promised to forward our RAIN campaign to all on their respective contact list. Today we spoke to a friend and physician who not only agrees 100% with throwing the bums out due to a corrupted system, he suggested term limits of two terms be imposed on Congress and that the presidency be limited to one six-year terms as is done successfully in many other democratic country. The campaign continues.
No comment on the presidential debate: The debate, such as it was included enough Pabulum that we will not bother to comment on it. As we have stated before, we encourage you to vote as you please for the presidency but PLEASE vote every single incumbent out of office. Fire them and continue each election until the corrupt cronyism of the system has been purged. This is serious stuff so we will take a bit of a respite with some political quotes by politicians and pundits. We will begin and conclude with quotes by founding Father Thomas Jefferson: "I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
Thomas Jefferson
OTHER POLITICAL AXIOMS
'If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed;
If you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.'
-Mark Twain
Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress....
But then I repeat myself.
-Mark Twain
Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.
-Richard Armour
I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity
is like a man standing in a bucket and
trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man
which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.
-G. Gordon Liddy
Democracy must be something more than
two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
-James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)
Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from
poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.
-Douglas Casey,
Giving money and power to the government is like
giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
-P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
-Frederic Bastiat, French Economist (1801-1850)
Government's view of the economy could be
summed up in a few short phrases:
If it moves, tax it.
If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Ronald Reagan (1986)
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
-Alexis de Tocqueville
I don't make jokes...
I just watch the government and report the facts.
-Will Rogers
In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.
-Charles de Gaulle
Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
-Plato
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where they is no river.
-Nikita Khrushchev
If you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free!
- P.J. O'Rourke
In general, the art of government consists of
taking as much money as possible from
one party of the citizens to give to the other.
-Voltaire (1764)
Just because you do not take an interest in politics
doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!
-Pericles (430 B.C.)
No man's life, liberty, or property is safe
while the legislature is in session.
-Mark Twain (1866 )
Talk is cheap...except when Congress does it.
-Unknown
The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings.
The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.
-Winston Churchill
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist
is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
-Mark Twain
The ultimate result of shielding men from the
effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
-Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)
There is no distinctly Native American criminal class
...save Congress.
-Mark Twain
What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
Edward Langley, Artist (1928 - 1995)
A government big enough to give you everything you want,
is strong enough to take everything you have.
-Thomas Jefferson
I will continue to write daily about RAIN both in my blog and my news media column at: http://drforgot.com (my blog) and at http://vegasbuzznews.com/ where I am a featured columnist.
A little blogging music Maestro: From Glen Yarbrough, “Baby the RAIN Must Fall.”
Dr. Forgot
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