Why are those of us in Washington State so preoccupied with California's Prop 8? Having marched this past weekend in opposition to Prop 8 I can't help but think of the July 26th, 2006 ruling by the WA State Supreme Court that upheld DOMA, the state Defense of Marriage Act. Why didn't we, the collective we, express our outrage over the apparent lack of rational thought as expressed by Barbara Madsen, James Johnson, Richard Sanders, and Gerry Alexander - alledged justices on the Washington State Supreme Court?
The above individuals codified inequality in state law. What is amazing is that this group of imbeciles could use the bench to support homophobia despite any pretense to reason. How could these alledges students of the law come to a diametrically opposite view as that of the the California Supreme Court?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
My renewed faith in America
Last night was so overwhelming. I was a staunch Hillary supporter and questioned the viability of Barack's candidacy. But after grieving Hillary's loss, I made a point to follow Barack's campaign. The more I listened to his eloquent speeches, the more I watched his thoughtful and passionate responses, and the more I saw how he energized people - bringing diverse groups of Americans together - I became a believer in his ability to lead, to unite, and to bring about the change this country so desperately yearns for.
As someone who watched with awe and confusion the race riots at my hometown high school when I was in 2nd grade, I stand up and celebrate with all my fellow citizens who never believed in the promise of America because of the color of their skin. As a pediatric nurse, I am so grateful that black children will grow up with a role model who isn't necessarily a professional sports player. I have renewed faith in the ideals of this great country.... A faith that had been virtually shattered for the past 7+ years.
I know that some people don't like change. I know that there are many white Americans out there that will not be able to accept having a black (even half black) president. But all I can say is "Get over it!" Make room for new ideas, for a new way of thinking, for a break from the past. My generation - those of us who questioned those riots we witnessed as children; those of us who questioned the divisive, racist, anti-semetic, misogynist and homophobic references that were all too common as we were growing up; and those of us who dreamed that there really could be a better America are finally coming of age. Good bye to the past. It really wasn't all that rosey.
And good riddance to the Bush/Cheney years. Good riddance to the audacious greed, self-serving interest and closed-mindedness of of the likes of Tom Delay, Bill Frist and Rick Santorum. Good riddance to trickle down economics. (It doesn't work you idiots!) The Republicans, when they were in control of Congress, thought they were invincible. Were they willing to compromise? Hell no! Their lust for power, greed and the flagrant disregard for the 50% of Americans who don't identify as conservative have caused their downfall. Again, good riddance!
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Michael Savage is a freak... a sad freak.
OK. I try to keep an open mind and am generally inclined to listen to opposing viewpoints. A few weeks ago I was staying with my dad in Vegas while attending a nursing conference, and suffered through days and days of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage. Curiosity has caused me to turn my radio dial to his show a few times since then. However, I generally can't stomach more than a few minutes. What is it with him? He really appears as a man possessed; a tortured person. Even a bit borderline, if you ask me. He is incapable of considering opposing viewpoints. It's truly sad. At one of the sessions I attended at the conference, a session on diversity and tolerance, the presenter quoted Aristotle: "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." I would maintain that Michael Savage has not an educated mind.
Whatthefuck!???
So, why do Germany and Japan have high speed bullet trains that travel in excess of 150 mph and we don't? What the hell is the problem with this country? And don't just freakin' blame the Democrats. The Republicans controlled the country for far too long and beside increasing the debt, oh, and increased defense spending a buttload, did ABSOLUTELYFUCKING nothing for the infrastructure of this country! You morons that are so hooked on republican/michaelfuckingnazisavage/rushlimbaughoxycontinpoppin ideology that it makes me realize that this country has past its prime. It's sad. Really. The gene pool is so filled with stupidity, that I wouldn't wager any bets on the future of the good ole USA. Any electorate that puts GW in the White House and now would even consider putting Sarah Palin in her Christian Dior (how's that for a hockey mom?) scares the shit out of me. We're doomed. Really. There are far too many stupid people in this country. Poor us.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
right wing propoganda
So here I'be been in "interesting" Las Vegas attending a nursing conference and staying with my (Republican) dad and his lovely (Democrat) wife. I have been inundated with cigarette smoke, Michael Savage and the Fox news network! Oh, Mary Mother of God, please deliver me!!!!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
reponse to an idiot anti-obama email from my brother
I do appreciate your including me in on this gentlemen. It pleases me to no end anytime I can share my thoughts with people who have had their heads in holes in the sand for the previous 7 years. Unfortunately, talking to my brother Mark is like talking to my fireplace: A lot of hot air comes out… but no wisdom. But, I will try to keep this short. I understand that most folks who vote Republican don’t read books, and anything longer than a few paragraphs (without pictures) is lost on them. So here goes:
The subject line reads, This cuts through it all, but I would maintain that No, in fact, it doesn’t.
First of all, the writer below would have you believe that Obama only worked on the days that the Senate was in session and his experience, consequently, is limited to 143 days of experience. That itself is a load of crap. Members of Congress don’t only work when Congress is in session. But let’s talk about experience for one minute.
Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Then he served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Additionally, as Republicans are fond of pointing out, he was a community organizer.
All of this experience is significantly more than 143 days. But had the writer thought to “read” about Mr. Obama before sending out the below email, the writer might have saved him (or her)self from looking like a complete idiot.
The big question here is why, given the state of the country, would anyone even consider voting republican in the upcoming election??? Let’s recap, shall we? (Hopefully we haven’t lost the non-readers yet).
Republicans assumed control of congress in January of 1995. They held that control until January 2007 when Democrats reassumed control albeit by the slimmest of margins in the Senate. (So slim, one might add, that they’ve been virtually ineffective due to no fault of the Democrats).
Out of these 12 years we’ve had 7 years of absolute tyranny by Republicans in their control of both the executive and legislative branches of government. Here’s a recap:
Bush and the Republican controlled congress inherited a budget surplus of $128B and immediately squandered that surplus by passing irresponsible tax cuts. Subsequent to those tax cuts, and the war on terror (which for the sake of my short-attention span Republican friends, I won’t go into right now) we’ve seen our debt practically double since Bush was handed the presidency by a Republican controlled activist Supreme Court.
(See… I’m including charts for folks who don’t read so much).
The subject line reads, This cuts through it all, but I would maintain that No, in fact, it doesn’t.
First of all, the writer below would have you believe that Obama only worked on the days that the Senate was in session and his experience, consequently, is limited to 143 days of experience. That itself is a load of crap. Members of Congress don’t only work when Congress is in session. But let’s talk about experience for one minute.
Obama graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Then he served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Additionally, as Republicans are fond of pointing out, he was a community organizer.
All of this experience is significantly more than 143 days. But had the writer thought to “read” about Mr. Obama before sending out the below email, the writer might have saved him (or her)self from looking like a complete idiot.
The big question here is why, given the state of the country, would anyone even consider voting republican in the upcoming election??? Let’s recap, shall we? (Hopefully we haven’t lost the non-readers yet).
Republicans assumed control of congress in January of 1995. They held that control until January 2007 when Democrats reassumed control albeit by the slimmest of margins in the Senate. (So slim, one might add, that they’ve been virtually ineffective due to no fault of the Democrats).
Out of these 12 years we’ve had 7 years of absolute tyranny by Republicans in their control of both the executive and legislative branches of government. Here’s a recap:
Bush and the Republican controlled congress inherited a budget surplus of $128B and immediately squandered that surplus by passing irresponsible tax cuts. Subsequent to those tax cuts, and the war on terror (which for the sake of my short-attention span Republican friends, I won’t go into right now) we’ve seen our debt practically double since Bush was handed the presidency by a Republican controlled activist Supreme Court.
(See… I’m including charts for folks who don’t read so much).
*Bush inherits budget surplus here…. The debt should have started to decrease had the Republicans not resorted to financial irresponsibility.
(Taken from the Historical Tables of the Budget of the United States)
Here is another chart showing the link between budget deficit and president:
So what does this all mean??? First of all, I think that it clearly shows how irresponsible the Republicans have been in managing US financial policy. For example, look at our current financial services debacle.
Senator Phil Gramm, now campaign chair (and economics advisor) for Senator John McCain, pushed through in the closing days of Clinton’s presidency as the president and the Republican-controlled Congress were locked in a budget showdown an amendment called theCommodity Futures Modernization Act, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee. This bill would ensure that neither the SEC nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products called swaps—and would thus "protect financial institutions from overregulation" according to Gramm. Actually, this bill is responsible for the mess the financial sector is in. A great Republican legacy: Remove oversight and regulation! And now we tax payers are on the hook to the tune of $700Billion!!! (Rumor has it that Gramm could be Treasury Secretary if McCain wins the election).
Just this week McCain has proposed deregulating the health care industry!! What Kool-Aide have you people been drinking that you can’t see how this Republican philosophy has undermined the security of this country??
Need I remind you all about the Medicare Reform Act of 2003 sponsored by former Rep. Billy Tauzin, which prohibits the government from negotiating lower cost prescription drug costs from pharmaceutical companies. Shortly after pushing through the legislation Tauzin left Congress to become the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry's biggest trade group. The other major sponsor of the legislation, former Rep. James Greenwood, who was the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, left Congress to become the president the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the trade association of the biotechnology industry. To illustrate how the underhanded and devious Republican controlled Congress operated, the vote on this bill was Held Open for Three Hours in the Dead of Night. H.R. 1 was brought before the House for final passage at 3 a.m. on Saturday, November 22, 2003. Instead of the 15 minutes usually reserved for roll call votes, the House Republican leadership held open the vote for an unprecedented three hours while pressuring Republican members to change their votes. This bill had connections to Abramoff and Tom Delay – both indicted for their plethora of criminal activities. But, what does this bill mean for American taxpayers? For example, the Veterans Administration IS able to negotiate lower prices. The VA ALSO gets a 24% discount on the average price that wholesalers pay. But the Republicans prevented Medicare from negotiating lower prices!!!! Consequently, prices are on average 58% higher under Medicare than through the VA system for the same medication. This is how the Republicans take care of American seniors and the taxpayers!!!!
People who think that McCain is a maverick and will bring change to Washington are idiots. McCain supported all of these bills. McCain is more of the same. If America is to survive we need change….. AND IT ISN’T IN THE FORM OF A REPUBLICAN!!!
And if you still plan on voting Republican after all of this, I’m sorry, but you’re a fool.
Billy Jr.
References:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011002150.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt
http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/newsroom/press-releases/2005-press-releases/new-report-shows-medicare-drug-prices-are-more-than-58-percent-higher-than-va-prices.html
http://www.themiddleclass.org/bill/medicare-prescription-drug-price-negotiation-act-2007
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/09/phil-gramm-mccain-and-cds-meltdown.html
http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/bill-clinton/18787/phil-gramm-mccains-terrorist-in-pinstripes/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deficit
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Thomas_D._DeLay
(Taken from the Historical Tables of the Budget of the United States)
Here is another chart showing the link between budget deficit and president:
So what does this all mean??? First of all, I think that it clearly shows how irresponsible the Republicans have been in managing US financial policy. For example, look at our current financial services debacle.
Senator Phil Gramm, now campaign chair (and economics advisor) for Senator John McCain, pushed through in the closing days of Clinton’s presidency as the president and the Republican-controlled Congress were locked in a budget showdown an amendment called theCommodity Futures Modernization Act, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists and cosponsored by Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the chairman of the agriculture committee. This bill would ensure that neither the SEC nor the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) got into the business of regulating newfangled financial products called swaps—and would thus "protect financial institutions from overregulation" according to Gramm. Actually, this bill is responsible for the mess the financial sector is in. A great Republican legacy: Remove oversight and regulation! And now we tax payers are on the hook to the tune of $700Billion!!! (Rumor has it that Gramm could be Treasury Secretary if McCain wins the election).
Just this week McCain has proposed deregulating the health care industry!! What Kool-Aide have you people been drinking that you can’t see how this Republican philosophy has undermined the security of this country??
Need I remind you all about the Medicare Reform Act of 2003 sponsored by former Rep. Billy Tauzin, which prohibits the government from negotiating lower cost prescription drug costs from pharmaceutical companies. Shortly after pushing through the legislation Tauzin left Congress to become the president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug industry's biggest trade group. The other major sponsor of the legislation, former Rep. James Greenwood, who was the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, left Congress to become the president the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the trade association of the biotechnology industry. To illustrate how the underhanded and devious Republican controlled Congress operated, the vote on this bill was Held Open for Three Hours in the Dead of Night. H.R. 1 was brought before the House for final passage at 3 a.m. on Saturday, November 22, 2003. Instead of the 15 minutes usually reserved for roll call votes, the House Republican leadership held open the vote for an unprecedented three hours while pressuring Republican members to change their votes. This bill had connections to Abramoff and Tom Delay – both indicted for their plethora of criminal activities. But, what does this bill mean for American taxpayers? For example, the Veterans Administration IS able to negotiate lower prices. The VA ALSO gets a 24% discount on the average price that wholesalers pay. But the Republicans prevented Medicare from negotiating lower prices!!!! Consequently, prices are on average 58% higher under Medicare than through the VA system for the same medication. This is how the Republicans take care of American seniors and the taxpayers!!!!
People who think that McCain is a maverick and will bring change to Washington are idiots. McCain supported all of these bills. McCain is more of the same. If America is to survive we need change….. AND IT ISN’T IN THE FORM OF A REPUBLICAN!!!
And if you still plan on voting Republican after all of this, I’m sorry, but you’re a fool.
Billy Jr.
References:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011002150.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt
http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/newsroom/press-releases/2005-press-releases/new-report-shows-medicare-drug-prices-are-more-than-58-percent-higher-than-va-prices.html
http://www.themiddleclass.org/bill/medicare-prescription-drug-price-negotiation-act-2007
http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/09/phil-gramm-mccain-and-cds-meltdown.html
http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/bill-clinton/18787/phil-gramm-mccains-terrorist-in-pinstripes/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deficit
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2009/pdf/hist.pdf
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Thomas_D._DeLay
From my brother and his idiot Republican friends:
"This cuts through it all and zeroes in on THE issue quickly! Are we all aboard the USS Ship of Fools? Makes me wonder! The first time I read this quote, I thought it was dangerously true. Then I really started pondering it and thought how would this apply to our own lives/careers? Let's look at it again to see how absurd it is.
You couldn't get a job at McDonalds and become district manager after 143 days of experience.
You couldn't become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.
You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience.
You couldn't join the military and become a colonel after a 143 days of experience.
You couldn't get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience. BUT.... 'From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, an d fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. 143 days? We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is - a start.AND, strangely, a large sector of the American public seems to feel comfortable with this and campaigning for him. We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, yet some are OK with this for the President of the United States of America ? Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol. Somebody else you know needs to read this!"
You couldn't get a job at McDonalds and become district manager after 143 days of experience.
You couldn't become chief of surgery after 143 days of experience of being a surgeon.
You couldn't get a job as a teacher and be the superintendent after 143 days of experience.
You couldn't join the military and become a colonel after a 143 days of experience.
You couldn't get a job as a reporter and become the nightly news anchor after 143 days of experience. BUT.... 'From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working. After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, an d fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan. 143 days? We all have to start somewhere. The senate is a good start, but after 143 days, that's all it is - a start.AND, strangely, a large sector of the American public seems to feel comfortable with this and campaigning for him. We wouldn't accept this in our own line of work, yet some are OK with this for the President of the United States of America ? Come on folks, we are not voting for the next American Idol. Somebody else you know needs to read this!"
Friday, September 26, 2008
all right. so last night i got all nostalgic and spent some time thinking about dwight... my first love. we were 22 when we met and i had been married to caryn for a year. i got married trying to run away from the whole gay thing. that was 1982. i hope things are easier for 22 year olds today. my life, caryn's life and vicki's life - totally changed that day, 26 years ago.
anyway. so that's why i decided to reopen this blog and perhaps i can start writing more frequently... it's cathartic. no? time to start talking about politics again.
cheers.
anyway. so that's why i decided to reopen this blog and perhaps i can start writing more frequently... it's cathartic. no? time to start talking about politics again.
cheers.
Thursday, September 25, 2008
ferry boat stranger
september, 25, 1992..... the day we met. the course of my life changed. it would have changed anyway... but the fact that it was you...
so yeah. i decided to spend some time tonite reminiscing; going thru old photo albums and trying to remember. i'm so afraid of forgetting. ya know, it really scares me that as time goes on the feelings become more distant. fuck. it's frightening. to have felt such incredible passion for someone - and now struggle to remember the feeling. i remember the last time i smelled you. it was overwhelming; in a good way.
in a fucking hot way.
i wish i could smell you again.
cheers dwight.
(a little memorial of sorts to dwight alan mcmullen.... my first love. dwight died far too young)
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