Drug Decriminalization WORKS

As has been proved by Portugal.

Glenn Greenwald brings us a report on the success of their system:

The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

In 2001, Portugal became the only EU-member state to decriminalize drugs, a distinction which continues through to the present.  Last year, working with the Cato Institute, I went to that country in order to research the effects of the decriminalization law (which applies to all substances, including cocaine and heroin) and to interview both Portuguese and EU drug policy officials and analysts (the central EU drug policy monitoring agency is, by coincidence, based in Lisbon).  Evaluating the policy strictly from an empirical perspective, decriminalization has been an unquestionable success, leading to improvements in virtually every relevant category and enabling Portugal to manage drug-related problems (and drug usage rates) far better than most Western nations that continue to treat adult drug consumption as a criminal offense.

On April 3, at 12:00 noon, at the Cato Institute in Washington, I’ll be presenting the 50-page report I wrote for Cato, entitled Drug Decriminalization in Portugal.  Following my presentation, a supporter of drug criminalization laws — Peter Reuter, a Professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Criminology — will comment on the report (and I’ll be able to comment after that), and then there will be a Q-and-A session with the audience.  The event is open to the public and free of charge.  Details and registration are here at Cato’s site, where the event can also be watched live online (and, possibly, on C-SPAN).

There is clearly a growing recognition around the world and even in the U.S. that, strictly on empirical grounds, criminalization approaches to drug usage and, especially, the ”War on Drugs,” are abject failures, because they worsen the exact problems they are ostensibly intended to address.  “Strictly on empirical grounds” means excluding from the assessment:  (a) ideological questions regarding the legitimacy of imprisoning adults for consuming drugs they choose to consume; (b) the evisceration of Constitutional and civil liberties wrought by drug criminalization; and (c) the extraordinary sums of money devoted to the War on Drugs both domestically and internationally.

Very recent events demonstrating this evolving public debate over drug policy include the declaration of the Drug War’s failure from several former Latin American leaders; a new Economist Editorial calling for full-scale drug legalization; new polls showing substantial and growing numbers of Americans (and a majority of Canadians) supportive of marijuana legalization; the decision of the DEA to make good on Obama’s campaign pledge to cease raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in states which have legalized its usage; and numerous efforts in the political mainstream to redress the harsh and disparate criminal penalties imposed for drug offenses, including Obama’s support for treatment rather than prison for first-time drug offenders.

Particularly in the U.S., there is still widespread support for criminalization approaches and even support for the most extreme and destructive aspects of the “War on Drugs,” but, for a variety of reasons, the debate over drug policy has become far more open than ever before.  Portugal’s success with decriminalization is highly instructive, particularly since the impetus for it was their collective recognition in the 1990s that criminalization was failing to address — and was almost certainly exacerbating — their exploding, poverty-driven drug crisis.  As a consensus in that country now recognizes, decriminalization is what enabled them to manage drug-related problems far more effectively than ever before, and the nightmare scenarios warned of by decriminalization opponents have, quite plainly, never materialized.

The counter-productive effects of drug criminalization are at least as evident now for the U.S. as they were for pre-decriminalization Portugal.  Beyond one’s ideological beliefs regarding the legitimacy of criminalization, drug policy should be determined by objective, empirical assessments of what works and what does not work.  It’s now been more than seven years since Portugal decriminalized all drugs, and dispassionately examining the effects of that decision provides a unique opportunity to assess questions of drug policy in the most rational and empirical manner possible.

And as a bonus, we have at least one of our leaders calling for it:

more about “Ron Paul: It’s Time To End Prohibitio…“, posted with vodpod

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: JackSmithWorkingClass

I had someone drop by and share in comments a post at his blog “JackSmithWorkingClass” and I wanted to add it here. I don’t agree with his sentiments regarding President Obama and the budget, but I don’t have to agree with everything someone says to want to illuminate their message. In the post below, you find another person such as I who believes that it is time, right NOW, to move to a Single-Payer, Not-for-profit healthcare system that includes everyone in America. AND, he breaks it down quite nicely:

Healthcare Reform This Year

Finally, the time has arrived to fix Americas Healthcare crisis, and Americas healthcare knightmare. Hundreds of thousands of you are killed needlessly every year by your healthcare delivery system in a rush to profit. And because of a rush to profit Hundreds of thousands more of you are needlessly dying from treatable illness that people in other developed and civilized countries don’t DIE! from. Rich, middle class, and poor alike. Insured, and uninsured. Men, women, children, and babies.

Additionally, thousands more of you are driven into financial ruin, and bankruptcy just because you, or one of your loved ones got sick or injured. And all of this is happening at a time when America spends twice as much of it’s GDP (Gross Domestic Productivity) on health care than any other country in the developed world. Individual Americans spend about ten times as much on health care as any other people in the developed world. This is a CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. AND IT MUST END!

But before we can truly fix this healthcare crisis and disgrace, everyone needs to clearly understand what the problem is. And everyone needs to clearly understand the real enormity of the problem. The problem is that HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL DELIVERY IN AMERICA IS SEVERELY CORRUPTED AND COMPROMISED BY GREED! AND THE PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MOTIVE. And it is corrupted, and compromised IN EVERY ASPECT, AND EVERY PLACE OF HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL DELIVERY. Unfortunately for all Americans, compromised healthcare ALWAYS results in needless suffering, injury, disability, and or death. Which is exactly what is happening now in America in shocking numbers.

Health care is NOT! a private for profit business. Healthcare is an essential public service. Like police, and fire. And healthcare is also a human right! PRIVATE FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE IS AN OXYMORON, AND AN IMMORAL AND UNETHICAL PERVERSION OF HEALTHCARE AND HUMAN RIGHTS.

So how do we fix this healthcare disgrace? I believe the fix for Americas healthcare disaster is essentially the same thing that every other developed country in the World has essentially done. “NOT FOR PROFIT, TAX PAYER SUPPORTED, SINGLE PAYER, AUTOMATIC, FREE UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE FOR ALL. Essentially HR676 (enhanced, and expanded medicare for all). Just like every other CIVILIZED! country in the developed World has. There is no other way to truly fix and reform our current disastrous healthcare delivery system.

All Universal health care systems work best when everyone participates. But I know that the healthcare lobby, and some politicians will try and undermine “Not For Profit, Tax payer supported, Single payer, Automatic, Free Universal Healthcare for all” by falsely claiming that it will limit your choice, and require you to participate.

So, I propose that everyone be included in the national plan unless they choose to opt out. If you opt out and need medical care the national plan will insure your provider that they will be reimbursed under the rules for members in the national plan. But those who opted out, and their insurer will be responsible for the FULL! cost to the national plan for providing your care if you or your private insurer fails to reimburse the provider or the national plan in a timely manor to at least the standards of the national plan.

Including reporting you to credit agencies, withholding of taxes, leans, and garnishment of wages for unpaid medical bills. Just like you have now under private for profit healthcare, and private for profit health insurance.

Further, people who opted out will be required to provide proof of financial responsibility for future illness or be required to participate in the national plan. And everyone with children will be required to participate in the national plan. Or provide proof of insurance coverage on each child to the standards of the national plan. It will be against the law to report anyone in the national plan to a credit agency for unpaid medical bills.

Frankly, only a dope would want to opt out of the national plan and opt to keep our current disastrous private for profit medical, and insurance plans. But they will be free to choose. The most important thing is that the vast majority of Americans that want the protection, benefits, and higher quality of a universal national plan have that choice.

You see, one of the most important aspects of a universal healthcare system is easy access, and patient protection. This is accomplished by having a single payer without a conflict of interest in patient care. And by having a payer who has the power to enforce minimum standards of excellence in healthcare delivery for everyone in the plan. This is much of what Medicare does now for senors. “Aeger Primo” (The patient comes first). Unfortunately in our healthcare system the patient comes last. We are just a peace of meat to them. Cash cows to be slaughtered for profit.

So this is IT! my fellow Americans, My fellow human beings, My fellow World Citizens. And my fellow Cyber Warriors. The time has come. D day. H hour. HEALTHCARE REFORM THIS YEAR! Let no one stand in our way. Contact your representative and tell them you want “Not For Profit, Tax Payer Supported, Single Payer, Automatic, Free Universal healthcare for all. And tell them you want that choice now. Tell them you want President Obama’s budget passed as is, without delay. President Obama’s budget is brilliant. And exactly what is needed now.

President Obama, and his allies will need all the support you can give them. The healthcare lobby will try to take out his people if they can, like they did with Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer. And they will try to neutralize President Obama’s popularity, and political power. Or they will try to take him down someway. Don’t stand for it. If they attack him. Go after them ten times harder and remove them from office. We had an election. And you the people chose President Obama’s leadership, and change agenda. Let no one in government disrespect the will of the American people and remain in office.

To President Obama, his Cabinet, the Congress of the United States, and the Supreme Court. I have noticed for some time a disturbing tendency for key members of your bodies to come down with illness, or medical problems at critical legislative times. This may just be coincidence. But I can tell you that there are a million subtle ways to medically injure someone just by doing nothing when something needs to be done. Or by doing things to someone when nothing needs to be done except to give them reassurance. I know for a fact that there are those that would have no qualms about hurting any of you to preserve our current disgraceful medical status quo.

So, I recommend as a matter of national security that you enlist the help of a friendly power to regularly review, and oversee the medical care you receive from your local regular healthcare providers. Briton, France and many other countries have excellent medical providers. As well as Canada. Briton, and Canada may be less of a language barrier for Americans.

Let’s get this healthcare reform done now my fellow Americans. This year. Take no prisoners.

God Bless All Of You

Jack Smith — Working Class

I was all on board until the last three or four paragraphs. I have seen the shift-change in Mr Obama. He is NOT pushing for Jack’s desire, even though he touted it quite often to get elected. Mr Obama has fallen short on virtually every promise uttered to get his self elected and now that he is, oh well… more of the same old same old, political lies and rhetoric.

So, where Jack and I differ is on the Obama Savior mentality, yet that doesn’t make Jack’s point about the healthcare issue moot (I just wish he hadn’t muddied the point in his post).

Obama is no hero and is a liar, from every indication. But dammit, Jack isn’t wrong in his first 7/8′s of his post. We MUST HAVE Universal healthcare in this country. NOW!

Richard Noggin’ Saturday: Every Redneck Senator

This is how gullible and ignorant most us rednecks are: we don’t realize that our very own Senators are working very hard against us… because they are so stupid and short-sighted (and/or corrupt).

Is there anyone that actually voted for that fucktard, Shelby of Alabama? There must have because he was elected, but the funny thing is that I can’t seem to find anyone in my travels that will own up to voting for him.

How about that dickhead, Bob Corker, who wanted President Obama to automatically force a wage cut on American autoworkers, so wages will be more in line with the transplants Asian automakers? (Now ain’t that a hoot, rednecks. Your Senator wants to cut your wages to bring it DOWN to match the rest of the world. And you seem to be oblivious and in some cases agree wholeheartedly.)

I prospered as the automotive sector made a move from higher wages up north to the “right to work” states that have so many uneducated workers who have lived basically poor lives that it was heaven for us. But now we are seeing how this shift affects us because many of the good jobs that were shipped here because of cheap labor have now all gone overseas, leaving us dumbass rednecks poor and stupid. Why? Cheaper labor (and in some cases, slave labor).

When will we act as if we have just a little bit of sense and cull these absurd fools out? When will you ignorant and complicit rednecks realize the royal f#cking you are getting from your own redneck leadership?

I have nothing to lose (its already gone), but you might. You better get vocal before you lose all of your shit, too. From Alternet:

Even More than Race, the South Is About Exploiting Workers

Cheap labor. Even more than race, it’s the thread that connects all of Southern history—from the ante-bellum South of John C. Calhoun and Jefferson Davis to Tennessee’s Bob Corker, Alabama’s Richard Shelby and the other anti-union Southerners in today’s U.S. Senate.

It’s at the epicenter of a sad class divide between a desperate, poorly educated workforce and a demagogic oligarchy, and it has been a demarcation line stronger than the Mason-Dixon in separating the region from the rest of the nation.

The recent spectacle of Corker, Shelby and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky leading the GOP attack on the proposed $14 billion loan to the domestic auto industry—with 11 other Southern senators marching dutifully behind—made it crystal clear. The heart of Southern conservatism is the preservation of a status quo that serves elite interests.

Expect these same senators and their colleagues in the US House to wage a similar war in the coming months against the proposed Employee Free Choice Act authorizing so-called “card check” union elections nationwide.

“Dinosaurs,” Shelby of Alabama called General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler as he maneuvered to bolster the nonunion Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai and other foreign-owned plants in his home state by sabotaging as many as three million jobs nationwide.

Corker, a multi-millionaire who won his seat in a mud-slinging, race-tinged election in 2006, was fairly transparent in his goal to expunge what he considers the real evil in the Big Three and US industry in general: unions. When the concession-weary United Auto Workers balked at GOP demands for a near-immediate reduction in worker wages and benefits, Corker urged President Bush to force-feed wage cuts to UAW workers in any White House-sponsored bailout.

If Shelby, Corker, and McConnell figured they were helping the Japanese, German and Korean-owned plants in their home states, they were seriously misguided. The failure of the domestic auto industry would inflict a deep wound on the same supplier-dealer network that the foreign plants use. The already existing woes of the foreign-owned industry were clearly demonstrated in December when Toyota announced its decision to put on indefinite hold the opening of its $1.3 billion plant near Blue Springs in northeast Mississippi.

The Southern Republicans are full of contradictions. Downright hypocrisy might be a better description. Shelby staunchly opposes universal health care—a major factor in the Big Three’s financial troubles since they operate company plans—yet the foreign automakers he defends benefit greatly from the government-run health care programs in their countries.

These same senators gave their blessing to hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to the foreign automakers to open plants in their states, yet they were willing to let the US auto industry fall into bankruptcy.

In their zeal to destroy unions and their hard-fought wage-and-benefits packages, the Southern senators could not care less that workers in their home states are among the lowest paid in the nation. Ever wonder why the South remains the nation’s poorest region despite generations of seniority-laden senators and representatives in Congress?

Why weren’t these same senators protesting the high salaries in the financial sector when the Congress approved the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street? Why pick on blue-collar workers at the Big Three who last year agreed to huge concessions expected to save the companies an estimated $4 billion a year by 2010? These concessions have already helped lower union wages to non-union levels at some auto plants.

The idea of working people joining together to have a united voice across the table from management scares most Southern politicians to death. After all, they go to the same country clubs as management. When Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker warned of Democratic opponent Ronnie Musgrove’s ties to the “Big Labor Bosses” in this year’s US Senate race, he was protecting the “Big Corporate Bosses” who are his benefactors.

The South today may be more racially enlightened than ever in its history. However, it is still a society in which the ruling class—the chambers of commerce that have taken over from yesterday’s plantation owners and textile barons—uses politics to maintain control over a vast, jobs-hungry workforce. After the oligarchy lost its war for slavery—the cheapest labor of all—it secured the next best thing in Jim Crow and the indentured servitude known as sharecropping and tenant farming. It still sees cheap, pliable, docile labor as the linchpin of the Southern economy.

In 1948, when the so-called “Dixiecrats” rebelled against the national Democratic Party, Strom Thurmond of South Carolina declared war on “the radicals, subversives, and the Reds” who want to upset the Southern way of life.

Seven years later, Mississippi’s political godfather, the late US Sen. James O. Eastland, told other prominent Southern pols during a meeting at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis that the South will “fight the CIO” (Congress of Industrial Organizations) and unionism with just as much vehemence and determination as it fights racial integration.

Eastland, Thurmond and their friends lost the integration battle. Their successors are still fighting the other enemy.

See more stories tagged with: labor, south, oligarchy

Joseph B. Atkins is a veteran journalist, professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi and author of Covering for the Bosses: Labor and the Southern Press (University Press of Mississippi, 2008), a book that details the Southern labor movement and its treatment in the press. A version of this column appeared in the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American and the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.

The Obama Deception

The Obama Deception is a hard-hitting film that completely destroys the myth that Barack Obama is working for the best interests of the American people. The Obama phenomenon is a hoax carefully crafted by the captains of the New World Order. He is being pushed as savior in an attempt to con the American people into accepting global slavery. We have reached a critical juncture in the New World Order’s plans. and only by exposing the con can we help to save freedom in America. The Obama Deception is not about Left or Right: it’s about a One World Government. The international banks plan to loot the people of the United States and turn them into slaves on a Global Plantation. Covered in this film: who Obama works for, what lies he has told, and his real agenda, and how his initial appointments and actions prove he serves the corporate oligarchs, not the American people. If you want to know the facts and cut through all the hype, this is the film for you.

more about “The Obama Deception“, posted with vodpod

I’d Take Healthcare That Is Run Like The Post Office… Any Day… How About TODAY?

All you people falling for the corptocracy view that universal healthcare would ruin what we have (causing you to have poor healthcare), you must be so far gone that you, yourself, are in urgent need of mental healthcare (either that or you are so wealthy or never had a health issue, which just makes you a callous asshole). Surely you understand that some of the best run “socialized” organizations are government funded (and run). And that we are already funding most of American’s health through some kind of tax payer funded system.

So many people believe that the vast amount of people in America are covered through employee based systems, but the numbers don’t jive and when you break it down the way Sara Robinson does in her Campaign for America’s Future article entitled, “Goverment-Funded Health Care? We’re Already Two-Thirds There“, you see that in reality, we already have government funded health insurance for 2/3′s of Americans.

32%

The percentage of Americans who receive employer-based insurance.

68%

The percentage of Americans who already receive some form of publicly supported health care; 43 percent directly; 25 percent indirectly because they are uninsured and thus the cost of their care is subsidized.

Sara then goes on to break it down:

This is the kind of fact that most of us know in our bones has to be true somehow. But it turns out there’s no “maybe” about it. Let’s look at the numbers.

The Fortunate 43 Percent: The Ones We Cover Directly

About 43 percent of all Americans are already getting health care that’s directly paid for, one way or another, by some level of government. Here’s the breakdown:

32 million government employees and contractors—This group includes 2.7 million federal employees; and 19.3 million state, county, and municipal workers. That’s a grand total of 22 million workers who are getting health insurance—usually from privately-contracted insurers—that’s been paid for by taxpayers.

In addition, there are an estimated 10 million+ full-time federal contract workers. They’re getting their insurance from their own employers; but since these are government contracts, we’re still paying their bills in the end.

(Note, however, that this 32 million figure doesn’t include these workers’ dependents. I made the conservative assumption that most government employees pay an extra out-of-pocket premium for dependent coverage. To the extent that that assumption is wrong, we may also be covering at least some of these workers’ spouses and kids.)

58 million recipients of Medicare, Medicaid, and state health care plans – This includes 47 million Medicare/Medicaid recipients and 11 million mothers and children covered by SCHIP programs.

27.4 million active duty military, reservists, and veterans, plus dependents—This breaks down into 1.4 million active duty troops being served by the military system; and .8 million reservists and 23.6 million veterans who are qualfied to receive care through the VA.

Active duty service members also get free coverage for their dependents. Assuming a ratio of one dependent per active duty service member, that adds another 700,000 Americans getting their care from military doctors.

3 million miscellaneous—This includes 2.3 million Americans in county, state, and federal prisons; 200,000 whose insurance is subsidized by state high-risk pools; and 400,000 Native Americans whose care is provided through tribal health services subsidized by some combination of their own tribal governments and the federal government.

TOTAL: This adds up to about 120,200,000 Americans whose health care coverage is directly paid for by the government. I’m sure there were pockets that were missed by this accounting, and I encourage readers to write and tell me about thtme.

I should now interject (read the entire article breakdown there) and explain that when someone says, “Government funded” that means YOUR MONEY! You know that, right?

Then, when you add those that are uninsured (like I am about to be), then it will be YOUR MONEY that helps pay for my burden on the scam system. The very best way to control costs is to cut out that bloated blood sucker, health insurance companies. They make it far more expensive and far less effective than many other places in the world.

Thirty-two percent. If private employer-based insurance plans aren’t even serving a third of the country any more, why on earth should Congress put the least bit of time or money into preserving them? And as long as so many of us now depend on this broad patchwork of federal, state, local, single-payer, socialized, private-insurer based plans—all paid for, one way or another, with our tax dollars—how much money could we save by simply putting everyone on Medicare, and calling it good?

Sixty-eight percent. Government-funded care is already working well for 43 percent of us, and could be working far better (on much less money) for the other 25 percent.

We are only propping up a blood-sucking leech of a system by keeping health insurance (in any form of the healthcare system) in this country. Cut them off and do this right. (I’m talkig to you, Marsha Blackburn and all the rest of you supposeded “representatives”).

I plan to document my family’s slow death spiral because of it (including the latest story of my mother-in-law who has been in the ER and shipped 1.5 hours to Memphis 3 times in the last month). And yet without a diagnosis. My family drove over 5,000 miles last year for doctor’s visits because you cannot get the care closer. I spent $23,940 last year (and I haven’t figured in the gas or the mileage).

It is a money-making scheme more than any desire or “oath” to help people get well (and run as imbecilic as humanly possible as well). My entire history in healthcare has been a huge cluster f#ck with one sole exception, Dr Richard David at Vanderbilt Hospital.

47 years of healthcare and one good example. Yeah, we have the good shit here, right… dumbass.

Let Bill Maher speak for me and explain how nice it would be to actually have some sort of competent “socialized” agency working healthcare, say like firefighters or policemen or dare we say it,  even the post office.

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WTF Thursday: When Patriots Are Imprisoned

Iraq shoe-thrower sentenced to three years jail

BAGHDAD (AlArabiya.net, Agencies)

A Baghdad court sentenced an Iraqi reporter who hurled his shoes at former U.S. president George W. Bush to three years in prison on Thursday.

Muntazer al-Zaidi worked for al-Baghdadiya television, and earned instant worldwide fame when he threw his shoes at Bush at a news conference in December, calling him a dog.

“This sentence is harsh and is not in harmony with the law, and eventually the defense team will contest this in the appeals court,” said Dhiaa al-Saadi, the head of Zaidi’s defence team.

Zaidi’s sister Ruqaiya burst into tears, shouting “Down with Maliki, the agent of the Americans,” referring to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Zaidi’s brother, Uday, said the verdict was politically motivated.

Not Guilty

Zaidi had pleaded not guilty at the hearing in the Iraq Central Criminal Court to assaulting Bush during his farewell visit to Iraq last year.

“He was sentenced to three years in jail,” defense lawyer Yahia Attabi told reporters outside the Baghdad court.

“We expected the decision because under the Iraqi criminal code he was charged with assaulting a foreign leader on an official visit,” Attabi said, adding: “We will appeal this decision.”

Zaidi, whose shoe-hurling gesture is considered a grave insult in the Arab and Muslim world, had risked up to 15 years in jail on the charge of aggression against a foreign head of state during an official visit.

The former U.S. president, deeply unpopular in the Arab world for ordering the 2003 invasion of Iraq, had been at a globally-televised media conference with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki when Zaidi let rip with his shoes, zinging them at Bush, who managed to duck just in time.

When Judge Abdulamir Hassan al-Rubaie asked Zaidi if he was innocent, the journalist responded: “Yes, my reaction was natural, just like any Iraqi (would have done).”

After the verdict, his 25-strong defense team emerged to scenes of chaos outside the court, where several family members screamed: “It’s an American court… sons of dogs.”

Popular way of expression

Wearing a light-brown suit, brown sweatshirt and thin-framed glasses, Zaidi had been brought into the packed courtroom under a heavy police escort.

Chief defense lawyer Ehiya al-Sadi had argued that his client’s motives were “honorable.”

“He was only expressing his feelings. What he could see was the blood of Iraqis at his feet when he watched the U.S. president speaking about his achievements in Iraq.”

He also argued that although Iraqi law considered it an attack on a visiting head of state, “his throwing of the shoe did not cause any injury or damage.”

The trial first opened on Feb. 19 but was adjourned to determine the nature of Bush’s Dec. 14 visit. The judge told the court that government ministers had declared it official.

Throwing shoes became a popular way of expressing anger and discontent, with public figures ranging from the Israeli ambassador in Sweden to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao targeted in protest and symbolic shoe-throwing events held throughout the world.

Found at Al Arabiya News Channel

Of course you don’t normally treat a foreign head of state in such a manner by throwing shoes. But in this case, the man had my permission and should be let go and paraded throughout the streets of Iraq as a hero, even if only a hero to many Americans. It just so happens that my mother threw a thousand shoes at me, so the significance of “offense” eludes me, therefore I recommend a big stinking, hot turd for the next patriot that tries. If close enough, a good hocker to the face will do.

Now THAT would be offensive and deserved.

Drug War: Its Not a Failure… Its The Problem

Pete at Drug War Rant has a wonderful analogy and explanation of how we need to stop saying the Drug War is a failure, even though it fails at its purpose:

The drug war is not a failure

People often talk about the drug war being a failure, and, in fact, three quarters of the voting public believe the drug war is a failure.

I’ve said it myself.

But it’s really not a good description, and calling it a failure doesn’t do what we need to motivate the public to care enough about reform.

You see, the word “failure” conjures up images of merely not succeeding. We often think of it like grades in school. A failure is someone who didn’t apply himself, or failed to do the necessary things to “pass.” It implies that there could be a path that would result in “success” if only more effort was given, or a different approach.

By calling the drug war a failure, we’re treating it like some kid getting an “F” in chemistry because he slept through too many classes, when in fact it’s more like the kid blew up the chemistry building and released toxic chemicals into the drinking water.

That’s not a failure to accomplish something. That is accomplishing something very, very bad.

We need to remind people that, yes, the drug war has failed to accomplish any of its stated goals, but the drug war is not a failure.

It is the problem.

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Dennis Kucinich – Nationalize The Fed

I still wear his campaign T-Shirt proudly and I know in my heart that this man has far more of America’s best interest in mind than any other person who graces the halls of Congress today (or the Whitehouse). One of the biggest mistakes this country ever made was to not force the media into allowing his message to be heard, because it is STILL on point, where all the others have failed. Yes, even your blessed (read as “worshiped“) Barack Obama.

Dennis Kucinich States His Intention To Put The Federal Reserve Under Government Control

h/t AfterDowningStreet

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Doom, Bloom & Gloom: Thank Goodness They Have A Place For Us When It All Falls Apart

I hold no faith or belief in these types of people’s “prophecies”. If David Wilkerson’s prophecy is any measure, then you folks should look to me as the Christ. Hell, I have been talking about such calamity for quite some time (my fear was Martial Law under Bush, but the Financial breakdown is even far worse). Thus far I am about 100% correct in my prognostications of this financial crisis.

Famed pastor predicts imminent catastrophe

Best-selling author, Teen Challenge founder, sees ‘earth-shattering calamity about to happen’

A respected pastor, best-selling author and founder of a major ministry to teens predicts an imminent “earth-shattering calamity” centered in New York City that will spread to major urban areas across the country and around the world – part of what he sees as a judgment from God.

David Wilkerson, author of “The Cross and the Switchblade,” a book about his ministry to troubled New York street kids that was later made into a movie starring Pat Boone, tells readers of his blog this weekend that he is “compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message” about his prediction.

“An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen,” he writes. “It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us.”

Wilkerson’s vision is of fires raging through New York City.

“It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires – such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago,” he explains. “There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting – including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a recession, not even a depression. We are under God’s wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Hey, Preacher Man. The foundations of our country (The Constitution) have long ago been destroyed. You and your ilk are complicit in its demise, so you have no credibility. Each and every one of you money making preachers creating their own wealth and personal kingdom are just as guilty as anyone for this mess. It will not be you, your God, or anyone except for the American citizenry that can fix this mess. Thank goodness we can all still work and grow our own food, right?

Can you survive economic crisis?

Booming preparedness industry says Americans are stockpiling

To some, the term “survivalist” conjures images of camouflage-clad men stockpiling freeze-dried food in a mountain cabin, but in the current economic crisis, the people quietly preparing to survive catastrophe may just be your next-door neighbors.

In his column in last month’s Financial Times, business and technology expert Ade McCormack writes, “The world is in crisis and with it the world of business. Many of us have two plans. Plan A involves President Barack Obama performing some economic magic. Plan B involves a revolver, a vegetable patch and a subscription to Survivalist Monthly.”

And while McCormack was writing

with a hint of jest, dissent over the president’s trillion-dollar spending approach to the economy has left many average, everyday Americans considering something looking suspiciously like plan B.

But we have a slight little wrinkle to Plan B, don’t we? Oops. Sorry, that’s right. You have no idea what is going on in real life, so maybe you should read this as a basis for explanation. Thank goodness for those who are looking out for our best interests in Congress, right?

HR 875 The food police, criminalizing organic farming and the backyard gardener, and violation of the 10th amendment

HR 875 http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:1:./temp/~c1112RD9bb:e11439:

This bill is sitting in committee and I am not sure when it is going to hit the floor.  One thing I do know is that very few of the Representatives have read it.  As usual they will vote on this based on what someone else is saying.  Urge your members to read the legislation and ask for opposition to this devastating legislation.  Devastating for everyday folks but great for factory farming ops like Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo and Tyson to name a few.

I have no doubt that this legislation was heavily influenced by lobbyists from huge food producers.  This legislation is so broad based that technically someone with a little backyard garden could get fined and have their property siezed.   It will effect anyone who produces food even if they do not sell but only consume it.  It will literally put all independent farmers and food producers out of business due to the huge amounts of money it will take to conform to factory farming methods.  If people choose to farm without industry standards such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers they will be subject to a vareity of harassment from this completely new agency that has never before existed.  That’s right, a whole new government agency is being created just to police food, for our own protection of course.

DO NOT TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, READ THIS LEGISLATION FOR YOURSELF.  The more people who read this legislation the more insight we are going to get and be able to share.  Post your observations and insights below.  Urge your members to read this legislation and to oppose the passage of this legislation.

Pay special attention to

• Section 3 which is the definitions portion of the bill-read in it’s entirety.
• section 103, 206 and 207- read in it’s entirety.

Red flags I found and I am sure there are more………..

• Legally binds state agriculture depts to enforcing federal guidelines effectively taking away the states power to do anything other than being food police for the federal dept.
• Effectively criminalizes organic farming but doesn’t actually use the word organic.
• Effects anyone growing food even if they are not selling it but consuming it.
• Effects anyone producing meat of any kind including wild game.
• Legislation is so broad based that every aspect of growing or producing food can be made illegal.  There are no specifics which is bizarre considering how long the legislation is.
• Section 103 is almost entirely about the administrative aspect of the legislation.  It will allow the appointing of officials from the factory farming corporations and lobbyists and classify them as experts and allow them to determine and interpret the legislation.  Who do you think they are going to side with?
• Section 206 defines what will be considered a food production facility and what will be enforced up all food production facilities.  The wording is so broad based that a backyard gardener could be fined and more.
• Section 207 requires that the state’s agriculture dept act as the food police and enforce the federal requirements.  This takes away the states power and is in violation of the 10th amendment.
• There are many more but by the time I got this far in the legislation I was so alarmed that I wanted to bring someone’s attention to it. (to the one person who reads my blog)

Wow. Do you think it even minutely feasible that people in our government would actually try to stop regular folks from growing their own food? What do you think you rednecks are going to think when your little old Mama can’t plant her garden, or worse, you end up starving your children because the government has made it impossible for you to grow your own food or hunt your own meat?

Yeah, I am just the crazy old street corner preacher. Never mind me. I have no idea what I’m talking about, right…

US prison population at record high

A record high-number of 7.3 million Americans were behind bars or under a correction system in the US in 2007, according to a research.

The record-high number, one in every 31 adults, includes people in prison or jail, and on probation or parole.

The results of the research conducted by Pew Center further indicated on Monday that America’s prison population has skyrocketed over the past quarter century.

In 1982, 1 in 77 adults were in the correctional system in one form or another, totaling 2.2 million people.

“New community supervision strategies and technologies need to be strengthened and expanded, not scaled back,” said Adam Gelb, director of Pew’s Public Safety Performance Project.

“Cutting them may appear to save a few dollars, but it doesn’t. It will fuel the cycle of more crime, more victims, more arrests, more prosecutions, and still more imprisonment,” he continued.

Most of those in the US corrections system — one in 45 — are already on probation or parole, with one in 100 in prison or jail, the Pew study found.

Those numbers are higher in certain areas of the country, and Georgia tops all states with one in 13 adults in the justice system. The other leading states are Idaho, where one in 18 are in corrections and Texas, where the rate is one in 22. In the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., nearly 5 percent of adults are in the city’s penal system.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the biggest prison population of any country in the world, according to figures from the US Department of Justice.

The United States has 5 percent of the world’s population, but 25 percent of the world’s prison inmates, the center said.

RB/DT

Thanks go to DeProgram, Campaign For Liberty, Disinformation, and World Prout Assembly

How does a cot and three hots sound? Monsanto, ADM, Sodexo, Tyson, Big Prison and the religious nutcases rejoice, for the end of times is near and now you have virtually sewed up your complicit cronies in government to fulfill your wishes of corporate domination and control of this country.

And may the Sheople said, “Amen!”

Don’t we pay people to watch this crap?

Regulators’ effectiveness queried
from BBC News–
Madoff may be up for a ‘deal’ … a plea bargain!! I don’t get it. Why isn’t he IN JAIL??
Serious doubt have been cast on the effectiveness of American financial regulation after two major failures – the Sir Allen Stanford and the Bernard Madoff scandals.
As more details emerge of the alleged $50bn Madoff fraud, the colossal scale of that failure has become starkly clear.
The US financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, was given repeated tip-offs that fraud was underway at hedge funds run by Bernard Madoff, but the claims were dismissed.
Inconsistent figures
“The SEC needs a better system of tracking complaints”
Harvey Pitt, former SEC chairman
A US Congressional committee heard from Harry Markopolos, a former investment officer who sent tip-offs and had spent years investigating the Madoff empire.
He and colleagues Frank Casey and Neil Chello first spotted inconsistencies in Madoff’s figures in the 1990s, when they worked at a company which advised on hedge funds.
The BBC’s Lesley Curwen spoke to Neil Chello, who now works for the Benchmark Plus investment firm in Washington State, and asked what had first struck him about the Madoff hedge funds.
Listen:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/ondemand/worldservice/meta/dps/2009/03/090306_chello_madoff?bgc=003399&nbram=1&lang=enws&nbwm=1&bbram=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=1&size=au&bbwm=1

Regulator’s failings
The US Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission’s inspector general are investigating what caused the regulatory failure, and why SEC inspections of Madoff’s business failed to detect the alleged fraud.

Bank customers in Antigua outside a Stanford Group owned Bank of Antugua branch
The SEC’s enforcement director resigned less than a week after she received a grilling in front of Congress over the Madoff affair.
The new SEC chairman, Mary Schapiro, has announced various measures meant to strengthen enforcement. But how deep-seated is the malaise at the SEC?
Harvey Pitt was chairman of the SEC between 2001 and 2003. Business Daily asked him why he thought the organization failed to respond to the Madoff tip-offs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldservice/meta/dps/2009/03/090306_pitt_madoff?nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&size=au&lang=enws&bgc=003399

Criminal intent
What’s it like stepping over the line from being a respectable businessman, into fraud and criminality?
“I liked the way people treated me, as I bought nicer houses and bigger cars”
Patrick Kuhse, convicted fraudster
Former US stockbroker Patrick Kuhse knows. In the 1990s he was convicted of conspiracy, money-laundering and bribing a public official in the state of Oklahoma.
He then went on the run in Costa Rica with his family, but finally turned himself in and spent four years in jail.
Nowadays, he’s an ethical business consultant. Lesley Curwen asked him about the moment that he crossed the line into fraud.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/worldservice/meta/dps/2009/03/090306_kuhse_madoff?nbram=1&nbwm=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&size=au&lang=enws&bgc=003399

Why Am I So Radically Pissed Off?

I am angry for a lot of reasons and for the life of me, I can’t see why more Americans aren’t angry, just as I am. This fuels my ire. But first, this thought came from this exchange Lynda (my cohort) and I had. I thought it a good way to explain some of my situation and give you my point of view from my dire perspective.

Lynda, I am about to embark on a very similar situation after having insured myself (paid 100% since 1996) The premium price has steadily gone up and in the past few years substantially. Also, we have pre-existing conditions between the two of us (BuelahGirl is in pretty good health) that would add to far more per month in meds than our premium.

It is a lose-lose.

BuelahLady has 5 meds she takes from a quack who told her that it is a “guessing game” on how to treat her. Her condition is getting worse and after 2.5 years of a menagerie of drug concoctions, he told her Friday that she probably needed to go into the hospital to “level her out”.

WTF?

We discussed it and she is going to find another doctor (she has to drive 1.5 hours one way to see this quack and others aren’t really any closer). She wants to dose off, so she called the pharmacist and he would not help her, telling her that she should do what the doctor is telling her.

So they have her captured and want more. They have ravaged her body and mind (she is 75# overweight, cannot sleep, and now sort of blanks out for a few seconds every now and then). She is getting “stupid” when she is actually a brilliant person… forgetting shit, etc.

Seriously, as far as finances, I haven’t had an order and no commissions coming, so I am whatever is in the checking account away from losing it (with probably $50K in debt on top of that). I have not paid taxes for last year and have no money to send.

I am going through each and every expense today and see how I can cut back even more. I wouldn’t even pay for an ISP, but it is crucial to my business.

Simply put, we are fucked. I see no way out. My initial profession, engineer, is so damned hard to find a job done here, anywhere near, that I don’t see that as an option. All I know to do is plant one hellacious garden, break out the guns and fishing rods for meat and do the best I can until someone comes to put me in debtors prison.

We are blessed to live in BuelahLady’s father’s rent house and told us to skip the rent until we get our feet back on the ground.

To put this in perspective, 2000 thru 2006 I made over $100K year (having fallen for the American dream of a big house, lifestyle, etc). It is not I who squandered away manufacturing which made that lifestyle possible and considered (at the time) unending. Even the disastrous 2001 was a good year for me financially.

I am such a fool.

Yes, a fool. A fool because I have not been even more vocal about this, since I have seen it coming for so long… hoping for the best, but denying what is apparently inevitable. I have worked hard to shift the focus of automation solutions to markets that were supposedly safe… yet, even those are beginning to seriously decline.

A wise man told me the other day that some of his counterparts in the woodworking machinery business, some strong for many decades are basically bankrupt with no solution. Automotive- DEAD. Even medical and food packaging is slowing. General Industry is dying a slow, torturous death.

So I don’t want to hear any Wheeping Willow, pansy ass, “progressive” wannabe, bitch for an apology about anything I write or think. Disagree, stay the fuck away or do whatever floats your boat, but DO NOT expect an apology for my views and feelings. They are right here, in your face, bountifully pissed off and full of rage. This is what you get, baby (thanks, Mr Steele).

If many of the so called progressives who name themselves that actually acted progressive instead of regressive and owned by the system, change might come. You might even see me calm down a bit. Until then, I feel almost like a lone screaming street corner preacher, warning the world as it falls around your and my feet and so many just walk by oblivious.

And then there is Gene’O crying about not being able to post here or link here in his diatribe against me, apparently in hopes to save his readership and stay in the good graces of “real” bloggers like Digby or whomever. As far as I am concerned, anyone like him, more dedicated to Barack Obama than the constitution can kiss my fat ass. To watch you cowardly fucks capitulate certainly is not patriotic, but complicit in our demise. In other words, you are just as much part of the problem as any right-wing tool is. No real difference in mentality.

I don’t give half a fuck about Digby’s blog (although she appears to be a very nice person) or any other Democratic Party Sycophantic illusion. That is good enough for Gene’O, but it ain’t good enough for me, a REAL progressive. A REAL Liberal.

Gene’O, on a personal note: I don’t let you link or post here anymore because I don’t fucking like you or trust you. It is that simple. You showed your true colors and I’m done with you. I hope I don’t have to tend to so many desparate spam posts by you (6 so far). And this from a guy who must have worshipped me, at least from his comments and invites to post everywhere (now asking everyone to take me off their rolls or apologize for endorsing me). That must really be embarrassing among your sycophantic friends.

It all boils down to this. This blog was set up for a purpose… to counter the right-wing brainwashing. Apparently, I should have said neocon/neoliberal brainwashing (or maybe even the Big Two Party brainwashing… which is little different because it is the “neos” that run them both). For this is what has captured the likes of Gene’O, Kos and Digby and made them into near worthless sycophants of the system. The real issues get little to no attention, while the misdirections get all the attention.

My blog is the opposite. The meanigless things (in perspective) get mention, but little more. I harp on the shit that will change the country and the world. If the other so-called Progressives actually acted progressive and attacked the REAL issues, we might make some headway. But as long as you asslicking, ball cuddlers keep avoiding them just for your moment in the blogosphere sun, NOTHING will get better.

You people are a hindrance to Progress, not a help.

Get that through your fat skulls.

Farting Preacher Robert Tilton

This has been around forever, I know, but dang it if I still don’t get the giggles. And its Sunday…

more about “Farting Preacher Tilton from mike“, posted with vodpod

A “List” Everyone Should Recognize

I have heard of these types of lists before (Naomi Klein has one about Fascism, among others with other “lists”). I saw this one at The List Universe and felt I would list it and ask for feedback. Not so much is it accurate, but do you see these things happening right now.

If you do, and IF it is accurate, how does that make you feel?

16 Signs That You Live In A Tyranny

Tyranny is an important phenomenon that operates by principles by which it can be recognized in its early emerging stages, and, if the people are vigilant, prepared, and committed to liberty, countered before it becomes entrenched. The methods used to overthrow a constitutional order and establish a tyranny are well-known. However, despite this awareness, it is surprising how those who have no intention of perpetrating a tyranny can slip into these methods and bring about a tyranny despite their best intentions. Tyranny does not have to be deliberate. Tyrants can fool themselves as thoroughly as they fool everyone else. Here are the top 16 signs that you are living in a tyranny or heading that way. Many thanks to Jon Roland for submitting this list (the original of which is here).

1. Control of public information and opinion: It begins with withholding information, and leads to putting out false or misleading information. A government can develop ministries of propaganda under many guises. They typically call it “public information” or “marketing”.

2. Vote fraud used to prevent the election of reformers: It doesn’t matter which of the two major party candidates are elected if no real reformer can get nominated, and when news services start knowing the outcomes of elections before it is possible for them to know, then the votes are not being honestly counted.

3. Undue official influence on trials and juries: Nonrandom selection of jury panels, exclusion of those opposed to the law, exclusion of the jury from hearing argument on the law, exclusion of private prosecutors from access to the grand jury, and prevention of parties and their counsels from making effective arguments or challenging the government.

4. Usurpation of undelegated powers: This is usually done with popular support for solving some problem, or to redistribute wealth to the advantage of the supporters of the dominant faction, but it soon leads to the deprivation of rights of minorities and individuals.

5. Seeking a government monopoly on the capability and use of armed force: The first signs are efforts to register or restrict the possession and use of firearms, initially under the guise of “protecting” the public, which, when it actually results in increased crime, provides a basis for further disarmament efforts affecting more people and more weapons.

6. Militarization of law enforcement: Declaring a “war on crime” that becomes a war on civil liberties. Preparation of military forces for internal policing duties.

7. Infiltration and subversion of citizen groups that could be forces for reform: Internal spying and surveillance is the beginning. A sign is false prosecutions of their leaders.

8. Suppression of investigators and whistleblowers: When people who try to uncover high level wrongdoing are threatened, that is a sign the system is not only riddled with corruption, but that the corruption has passed the threshold into active tyranny.

9. Use of the law for competition suppression: It begins with the dominant faction winning support by paying off their supporters and suppressing their supporters’ competitors, but leads to public officials themselves engaging in illegal activities and using the law to suppress independent competitors. A good example of this is narcotics trafficking.

10. Subversion of internal checks and balances: This involves the appointment to key positions of persons who can be controlled by their sponsors, and who are then induced to do illegal things. The worst way in which this occurs is in the appointment of judges that will go along with unconstitutional acts by the other branches.

11. Creation of a class of officials who are above the law: This is indicated by dismissal of charges for wrongdoing against persons who are “following orders”.

12. Increasing dependency of the people on government: The classic approach to domination of the people is to first take everything they have away from them, then make them compliant with the demands of the rulers to get anything back again.

13. Increasing public ignorance of their civic duties and reluctance to perform them: When the people avoid doing things like voting and serving in militias and juries, tyranny is not far behind.

14. Use of staged events to produce popular support: Acts of terrorism, blamed on political opponents, followed immediately with well-prepared proposals for increased powers and budgets for suppressive agencies. Sometimes called a Reichstag plot.

15. Conversion of rights into privileges: Requiring licenses and permits for doing things that the government does not have the delegated power to restrict, except by due process in which the burden of proof is on the petitioner.

16. Political correctness: Many if not most people are susceptible to being recruited to engage in repressive actions against disfavored views or behaviors, and led to pave the way for the dominance of tyrannical government.

I know what I see as I peruse that list: America. But, it is not just America. It is the entire world. Look at what is happening all across the globe… of which we are supposedly the leaders of.

You should check out The List Universe. Cool Site, and in this case, very important information to be considered.

B’Man’s Sabbath Watch: Privileged or Peon Rednecks

Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn)

TN Rednecks must truly be proud of this dude’s performance on TV. He has the drawl. He has the ignorant brain-washed mentality. That air of superiority that you know Jesus exuded in each interaction with another.

But let me ask you, my neighbors (for I reside in SW TN): Is healthcare a privilege or a right?

privilege:

1> a special advantage or immunity or benefit not enjoyed by all
2> prerogative: a right reserved exclusively by a particular person or group (especially a hereditary or official right); “suffrage was the prerogative of white adult males“

In the last month, I have gotten a bit more vocal about the issues facing America (especially in the SE USA) at this blog, but more importantly, in my day to day activities. I am hearing more and more people tell horror stories of job loss and cut-backs. Everyone is trying to hold firm and some even seem to ignore it at their peril (perhaps stupidity or simply knowing not what to do about it).

I heard from a die-hard, right-wing, professed Rush listener and Fox News Lover, this meme about healthcare being a right or a privilege and he was blaming people for not having heathcare (while his is provided by a well-to-do medical company). I should add that the one time I took him to lunch (my treat), he insisted in a prayer before we ate… a VERY Godly man, indeed.

Now I don’t know about most rednecks, but the ones around here think that when a person is sick that he should be taken care of. That even if a person can’t afford it, to not provide it is “un-Christian” (and it certainly is immoral).

To me that seems to indicate that it is an essential and indubitable “human right”.

If this is the case, and if it is true that Big Insurance and Big Meds profit off of a person’s health, that the most “Christian” thing to do is to provide for all and figure out a way to financially make it happen. There simply should not be “profit” associated with an essential human right.

Remove Big Health Insurance and you remove about $.31 of every dollar spent from the “middle man” add-ons (this takes into account a more reasonable amount added to Medicare). Control Big Meds’ monopolization of medicines… Use a single payer based system (Like the VIR’s get), etc. There certainly is a way to provide the very same health care coverage that this asshole Wamp gets provided him and his family (by YOUR tax dollar, my redneck friend) so that you, the normal peon redneck may actually live a a healthy life similar to an Very Important Redneck Asshole’s life.

In Remembrance of Gene'O, the Faux Progressive at Wheeping Willow (may he rest in peace)

Are you too far gone in your Sheople mentality to not see the disconnect of Rep Wamp (and my Fox News Lovin’ Friend). Can you not see the blatant hypocrisy of our actions regarding healthcare and our claims at being a “Christian Nation”? (And I specifically am asking you southern rednecks because you live in the Bible Belt and are the most religious group in the country)

I’m serious. What has happened that you can claim to be Christ-like, yet not believe that each and every human alive should be taken care of if the means are there? This is America, for God’s sake.

If you are claiming to be His, then fucking act like it for a change. So far you suck at imitation.

The facts are this: many, MANY people are unemployed, especially throughout this region. The official numbers are bogus (which were announced at 8.1% lately nationwide). But here, it is FAR worse. It is obvious.

When a man doesn’t work for a big corporation or actually starts his own business, there is no way to pay the costs. So, a person simply CANNOT afford to pay for health insurance in many cases and is forced to go to the ER (to take advantage of whatever free help they can get) because the Dr’s office won’t take them without cash up front. They are stigmatized by “Christians” as worthless and sponges, yet it is not their fault.

I am within 1-2 months of losing my insurance, because I am that close to bankruptcy. I am barely able to make ends meet right now because no one is buying equipment and are downsizing or closing their doors. I am telling you that here, in my neck of the woods it is BAD. Much worse than anyone seems to be letting on. Much worse than the nation seems to understand.

So, you rednecks need to remember that every time we give bail-outs to these banks and spend even a second more anywhere near the Middle East, we are spending money that could be taking care of every redneck the same, no matter if they are peon rednecks or VIR’s (Very Important Rednecks). Remember the “right or privilege” argument as your neighbor and friend from next door loses his job, his home and maybe his life while your good job takes care of your healthcare.

Think of Jesus as you ponder this.

It is Sunday, for God’s sake.

Dem vs Repub; The Basics

I have had a great deal of quiet, alone time lately… and while having a good deep chat with my best friend [best buds do that ya know...]… I had asked her ” really, what do you think the defining difference is between the democrates and republicans? Her answer gave much ‘journey to thought’. This is what she said ” The democrates believe that whatever the Constitution does not state, it allows— and the republicans believe that what the Constitution does not state it disallows”.
So– besides having a knee jerk answer … I decided to chew on that answer for awhile. What are you thoughts on her answer?