Wake Up!

“If once the people become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions.” Thomas Jefferson

As you may recall, dear readers, I recently alerted some of the case managers here at Skid Row Housing Trust, of the current deadlock in Congress involving the nation's debt ceiling, or the amount of money the United States can borrow in order to pay it's financial obligations, such as social security payments, medicare, veteran's benefits, federal contractors, the armed services, treasury bonds, etc. That situation has not changed. As a matter of fact it has gotten worse, and will continue to get worse as the August 2nd deadline approaches. On that date, supposedly, I'll have more money in my penny jar than does the United States government.
The problem stems from the newly elected "tea bagger" faction of the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, which we've discussed here:
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2011/07/holding-us-hostage.html
My lovely ex-case manager Erin's response is what interests me today:
"What?!?!?!?!! Rick I don’t know anything about the news without you in my everyday life anymore! Please keep me updated."
Now I happen to know Erin fairly well, and know she enjoys a very active social life and rarely involves herself in current events, the political process, global warming... anything that does not involve her immediate social circumstances (although I do know that she has been active in monitoring known, possible, locations involved in sex trafficking through her church, church activities in general (also part of her social network), and of course the current campaign to Save the Frogs: http://savethefrogs.com/index.html (I'm not criticizing Erin. I can't because she will hurt me if I do (she may be small, but she's wiry). Besides, when I was her age current events and government affairs were usually the furthest thing from my mind).
Now I'm used to keeping Erin informed on matters that she may be interested in, and it was with great pleasure that I had the opportunity to teach her a little about the voting process, and hopefully she will be more engaged in that activity in the future.
What interests me, and frightens me about her statement above is this part: "...I don’t know anything about the news..."
I wonder, how prevalent is this predilection toward ignorance (albeit not wilfully) concerning vital matters of government that concern those very individuals who seem not to care.
As related, I also informed my own case manager, Robert, and asked that he get together with SRHT management to alert them to the situation (if indeed they were ignorant of it), and ask what contingencies they offered to those who due to the inability of Congress to do their job, may not receive their benefits from the social security administration, which they rely on to pay their bills, rent for instance.
Hey, guess what! I have yet to receive any reply to this valid inquiry. Apparently SRHT management is so confident in Congress's ability to pull through their quagmire of stubbornness of doctrine and ideology (especially the Republicans insistence that there be no revenue increases to their masters; the 2% of the richest Americans, and huge, profitable corporations (what John Boehner keeps calling "the American people"), and the tea bagger faction, the 87, or so new tea bagger Congress people, who think it will be fun to watch the country go into default, and crash and burn. These people are fanatics, and reinforce each others blind belief in some kind of unreal world of no government interference in the lives of everyday citizens, (including lower personal and corporate taxes, slashing social services for the majority of Americans, and deregulation of... well everything, especially matters concerning the environment). A basic libertarian world view on steroids. For this "fundamentalist" faction ensconced in our halls of power, we can thank the likes of David and Charles Koch, Glen Beck, Michelle Bachman, Fox News, and many others)
SRHT management, like a goodly percentage of the population, seem to be unwilling to break out of the routine of their daily existence, blindly going along through the days and weeks confident that things like global warming, water scarcity, over population, over fishing of our oceans, and the government actually doing the job it was elected to do, is either to far in the future to bother about, or it doesn't affect them directly, so why worry about it?
I understand that in this day and age there are many things to think about other than what the federal government is up to. The economy sucks, those that are working, like the folks over at the SRHT head office, are lucky to be working at such a time when real unemployment in this country is at approximately 16 to 20 percent. Paying off mortgages, and credit card and car loans... these are matters of real importance to the average middle class citizen (this list neglects other real distractions for the American populace, such as the latest Harry Potter film, super hero movie, "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," or Oprah).
But all of the concerns listed above, and many others, are the direct result of Republican malfeasance. The economy sucks because George Bush ran it into the ground with his tax cuts, two unnecessary wars, and deregulation, which led directly to the financial crisis of 2007/2008, which inturn has led to today's high unemployment (a valid argument could be made that the policies of the present Obama administration are exacerbating the unemployment problem in this country, rather than alleviating it, which of course should be something the general public should be very aware of as well). The mortgage crisis and the huge incidence of home forclosures are a direct result of the Bush administration's belief the housing bubble would continuously grow without bursting, a decidedly lackadaisical view of reality. Consumer protection regarding the banking industry, credit cards and predatory loans... under the Republicans... was virtually non-existent (yes, I'm a "Blame Bush" person. I'm funny that way... I tend to blame those that are actually responsible for the problem, rather than some other convenient scapegoat. Whenever George wanted to deflect blame from himself, such as after Hurricane Katrina, he liked to jabber, "I'm not going to play the Blame Game..." and I always thought to myself, well then, okay, let's play the Responsibility Game instead), Their attitude can be evidenced by the House's current attempts to undermine the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Yet the American populace elected the Republicans back into power last year, and they now are the majority in the House of Representatives, which has control of the countries purse strings. Not only that, the country has allowed a wild card faction within the Republican party into Congress, in significant numbers, the tea baggers, who adhere to no one but themselves, and a highly restricted view of the mission of government that has now become apparent with the current debt ceiling crisis. Like the religious fundamentalists of the middle east and elsewhere (America, for example), these people are not only willing to blow themselves up in order to further their own sense of their own reality and beliefs, but the rest of the country, you and me, as well.
Perhaps, if the country does go into default after August 2nd, those over at the main office of SRHT, and the country as a whole, will finally wake up and take notice to what is happening to them, and all around them, and maybe, just maybe, do something about it.
We began this post with a quote from Thomas Jefferson. Let's end with one:

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."

Salvation Diary 48

"Salvation" artist, Amanda Milke
http://amandamilke.wordpress.com/

August 17 Saturday Day 340


I woke up at eight. I heard people cleaning outside of my room. I couldn't go back to sleep so I arose.
I took my notebook and went to the lobby to try to write, but for some reason it was very difficult to do so. My head seemed to be filled with fog, and people kept coming to me and asking me questions.
Tom Rotsch came in to pick up his doll house from the hobby shop. It's really a big doll house, the second largest I've ever seen (old "Get Smart" joke). He came with a friend to take it to Richard Bennet's.
Tom seems to be doing fine. He told me that he had one rough day (tempted to use cocaine), but got through it, and has maintained his sobriety. That is tremendous news! He's been doing some freelance carpentry work, so he's making a little money, and his friends are being supportive.
Thank God! I was really worried about him.
After lunch I finished writing for a while and walked over to Music Plus to pick up the weekend's videos. "Misery," and "The Freshman," with Marlon Brando and Matthew Broderick. Both had come out during the week. Both very good, but only if you like movies about shadowy Mafia figures, crazy farm ladies, and Komodo dragons (Burt Parks singing "Maggie's Farm" is classic!)
I just had time to make it to the park before my afternoon shift. A little Stevie Nicks (I'm secretly in love with her you know), and my absolute favorite Beatles (John Lennon) song, "Hide Your Love," came through my Mickey Mouse headphones.
After a quick shower I went with steady determination to work. The first order of business was to alert our new desk man, Columbus Davis, of my impending telephone call from Cathy. I told him that if I wasn't at the desk when she called to frantically page me, send troops out after me, fire skyrockets, do something, but get me to the telephone or else I'd have to shoot him.
So after dinner I went upstairs to have a nice unauthorized cigarette and brush my teeth. When I returned to the desk Columbus told me I'd have to shoot him.
"Why?" I asked.
"She called, and I told her to hang on, and Hendrickson wanted to key to four, and before I could call you, I checked and she had hung up." He was terrified.
But what choice did I have? I shot him three time with my father's German luger. Nine Millimeter.
After the body was taken to U.S.C. Medical I sat in my office and pondered this curious state of affairs. Why hadn't I gotten her phone number to begin with? Isn't that how it's normally done? And why hadn't she called back?
I continued to puzzle over this until about eight o'clock, when Cathy called and told me this had been her first attempt. I immediately signaled Rockoff to call U.S.C. and give Columbus the message that it was alright for him to come back... after he healed. Then I talked to Cathy for about fifteen minutes.
She was still having cat problems. Upon bringing her female cat (Spotty) back from the vets (after having been fixed), the cat instantly began fighting again with the male cat (Pee Wee). Ever since Thursday she's had to separate the two and this has caused her great consternation. From my own experience this type of behavior is unusual for cats who have previously been "buddy-buddy" for three years. Cathy's own veterinarian was of no help, telling her she may have to give one of them up. Cathy didn't want to hear that, and she's naturally upset (she hasn't been sleeping well). She's continuing to hope that time will rectify the situation.
I offered to postpone our date until things got somewhat normalized, but she said that she'd done about all that she could do, and staying in all day wouldn't help her much.
Such wisdom! And she's so cute too!
So tomorrow's on. I suggested some places we could go to, and we came up with the idea of visiting a botanical garden in Glendale, close to her home. She said she's been wanting to go there for a long time. I suggested dinner afterwards.
I wished her luck with her cats. She said she'd pick me up at two. Then we said good night.
I got through the rest of the evening as fast as possible. Columbus didn't make it back before curfew, so I A.W.O.L./A.C.O.ed him, poor bastard.
I dreamt of possums again.


August 18 Sunday Day 341


Wow! What a day!
It began ordinarily enough. My alarm went off exactly at 8:00, and I woke to some off the wall rock song I'd never heard before. I also heard Robert Vasquez rummaging around in the bathroom (he always hums when he's rummaging), so I stayed put in bed until I heard him clear out ten minutes later.
I showered and dressed.
Chapel went very smoothly. The Major is on vacation for a whole month, so everyone felt relaxed and cool. Clarence Orion, just returning from his own vacation, sang "Down by the Old Rugged Cross." His voice has a nice, low, soothing quality about it.
Cathy was to pick me up at two, so my options for the morning were open. I debated whether to go to the Sunday Morning A.A. meeting speaker meeting with Ron as I normally do. I'd have about half an hour before Cathy arrived. Or I could spend the morning fucking off, and be thoroughly prepared for my big date.
I did neither. Instead of going to the meeting, I had good old Robert drop me off at the mall so I could do a little shopping.
I bought a new shirt, being dissatisfied with all of the others I already owned. Then I hit one of the two bookstores they have at the mall and looked for a book about cats, hoping it would give me and Cathy a clue to Spotty's bizarre behavior. I found one that might be of some help and bought it. Then I walked back to the residence.
After taking a little nap I dressed casually, donning my brand new shirt. At 2:00 I was standing in the parking lot with my cat book and sport coat looking rather suave, and ready to go. She arrived a few minutes later, and we were off.
"Oh how sweet," she said, when I showed her the book. We drove into Glendale, to the Decano Gardens, an arboretum she had wanted to check out. The day was sunny and warm. I began to sweat a little while walking up and down the hilly terrain. She's a marathon runner and in great shape, and did not perspire. However, she told me she was out of shape, but it looked great to me.
And we talked. Walking through the sun drenched gardens we discovered each other. Usually on a first date (unless I've had a few) I feel kind of awkward, not knowing what to say and generally making a fool of myself. But not today. She is a great talker (as I've previously expressed), and she helped me along, putting me at ease. We talked about how I got where I was, and we talked about how she got where she was. I loved listening to her. She was very honest and direct, and the story of her recovery, of some dysfunctional relationships she's been involved in, and her alcoholism, to me appeared nothing short of heroic. I admired her as a beautiful woman, and a a human being. I didn't believe I'd met anyone quite like her.
Recovery is wonderful. Good things do happen.
And of course, how could I have not been in love with her ("It's so easy to fall in...)
I didn't tell her that though. Women don't like to be told that your in love with them on the first date. A woman told me that once.
We left the gardens and drove to her house to check on her cats. She lived in a lovely little guest house, nestled in the foothills of north Glendale, near the border of La Canada and Tujunga. It was a single room with space for a king sized bed and bookshelves in one area, a small living room branching out to the side containing a sofa, coffee table, and television. An adequate kitchen, bathroom, enclosed yard.
And two cats.
Spotty and Pee Wee.
Spotty (the trouble maker) was in her carrying case as we came in (not that she had any choice in the matter. She had been locked up in there all day). Pee Wee, a big calico, was prowling around.
Cathy was truly worried. The fighting between the cats had made her very nervous, making her lose sleep.
"Do you think I should let Spotty out?" she asked me. "I mean, maybe by your being here, it will be a distraction and they'll be too worried about you to fight with each other."
I told her that she'd have to let Spotty out sometime, then prayed that they didn't instantly attack me.
Spotty, a white female with black spots, crept out of her cage, crossed the room and sniffed at Pee Wee. Pee Wee gave a short hiss, then both of them ducked underneath the bed.
"That's the closest they've gotten together since she came back from the vets." Cathy was cautiously pleased.
The cats behaved themselves for the rest of the evening, not once trying to tear themselves apart.
Or me.
Thank God!
Soon we went to dinner, discovering a quaint little Mexican place nearby. A couple seated to our left began to burglarize our conversation, raving about what a great restaurant it was, and the quality of the food, and on and on. When the man began reminiscing upon certain wines he liked, Cathy and I both cut him off then continued our pleasant conversation. She wimped out and ordered an enchilada verde, while I, always the bold explorer, tried something I'd never had before, an enchilada mole (an enchilada with a very spicy chocolate sauce), which was very interesting at first (it sucked), but soon tasted, and looked like, pond mud.
Afterwards we returned to her house and watched some T.V., while continuing to talk. She asked me if I needed to get back to the residence soon.
"God no!" I told her. "It's nice to get away from there."
"I imagine it must be," she said.
I mentioned that for the last eleven months I had not taken a single overnight pass.
"Are you going to keep trying for a record?" she asked, and smiled.
"No," I answered. Then I reached over and kissed her. She kissed me back. I liked it, so I kissed her again. She kissed me back again. I continued kissing her (what used to be commonly known as making out), and she continued kissing me back, for at least eight or nine pages of frantic (and frenzied) kissing.
Then we played Scrabble for the rest of the evening (not really, but our respective mothers may one day read this).
She was so cute! And loving. She's was very warm and cuddly too! I felt so good to hold her.
We slept next to each other all that night, sometimes holding tightly to each other, sometimes not. I never felt so wonderful.
It made me forget all about the news we had seen on the television right before we went to bed.
On the other side of the world, Mikhail Gorbachev, probably the most important and influential figure in world affairs of the century, had been disposed in a bloodless coup as the chief of state of the U.S.S.R.
The hardliners have the country again.


August 19 Monday Day 342


On her way to work Cathy dropped me off at the corner of Glendale Blvd. and Broadway. Two minutes later I was picked up by the 181 and taken to Pasadena.
I was a little tired. I checked in with Robert when I got to the residence, to let him know I was still alive.
"I had you down as A.W.O.L. there for a while, Joyce. Then I remembered you're an employee."
I had a nice cup of coffee with Mr. Schimmele and the rest of the janitors before going upstairs to my room.
I tried to sleep, but it would not come to me. My mind was in overdrive. I relived the events of the previous day, over and over again, and was constantly preoccupied with what I would say to Cathy when I called her that night. I suffered fantasies of a delusional nature for the rest of the day... what our next date would be like, how our life would be like together, how many kids we would have, where we would retire, things like that.
I couldn't stop thinking about that kind of stuff. My mind was abuzz.
I was insane.
And can you blame me? There I was, this awfully lonely, very nice ( although not genuinely) and deserving fellow, who has been starved for affection for like the last two years or more, and then I met this girl who proceeds to turn my life upside down with her charming and penetrating wonderfulness.
What a sap!
My mind would not let me stop thinking about her though. So I got out of bed and went to the movies. I saw "Terminator 2," again, to get my head back into reality.
I couldn't sit still, and left about half way through the film. I was in a sad state for the rest of the afternoon. My head was in a cloud of anxiety and low key panic. I had no appetite. I did not eat all day, just chugging coffee and smoking a lot of cigarettes.
I hardly said a word during relapse prevention. All I could think about was Cathy and the call I would be making to her as soon as the meeting was over. I prayed that during the day her two cats had not slaughtered each other, and she had not returned to her home to only find flying fur, blood, and claws, thus spoiling her mood (what a selfish asshole I am).
When the meeting finally ended (ironically our topic had to do with recognizing relapse warning signs, such as, relying too much on others, breakdowns in daily discipline and routine) I walked over to the train station on the far side of the park for some privacy, and called her.
She let me have it right between the eyes.
Oh, our conversation was gentle and low key enough. I first asked her about her cats. They were still alive, but there was some fear that Spotty may be sick. The kitty was acting depressed. I told her to call the vet if it kept up. She asked me about my day, and I honestly related what had happened and my state of mind, expecting that she would enjoy the fact that I continuously thought about her (what a fool!)
But she was silent. And when she began speaking again her words came slowly and were well chosen. Essentially, she told me to get lost. That she had enjoyed our time together, and was glad I spent the night with her, but my attitude and voice must have set off some feminine alarm in her cute little head, and she began talking about her past relationships problems, and that she was just beginning to learn about being herself, and being independent, and that she felt that maybe for the first time worthwhile and comfortable in her own skin and did not wish to compulsively jump into some "relationship" and risk becoming enmeshed, and losing herself once again.
She told me we should continue to date. What she wanted was to act slowly and responsibly on a "one day at a time" basis, and see how things worked out.
You could tell how madly infatuated and swept off her feet she was by me.
But I found myself agreeing with her. My head cleared up instantly and at once I felt a hell of a lot better. What I could not understand was why I had not thought this out for myself, why I had instantly leaned toward mindless meshing and confused chaotic entanglement.
Because I was so lonely. What a sap.
Obviously I needed this lovely brunette short person with great legs, this thirty two year old woman of the world, to show me functional reality and how it worked. I'm glad she did, because I wasn't liking myself while thinking obsessively about her. I disliked not being able to keep my mind on what was going on during relapse prevention.
So thank you Cathy H. Thank you for setting me straight. Thank you for giving me back to myself.
And back to my loneliness.
Poor, poor, pitiful me.
Someday, somewhere, if it's God's will, I will find the one.


August 20 Tuesday Day 343


This morning I woke up feeling sick and insecure. So I went to work and began wielding perceived personal power unmercifully, which cheered me up right away. I A.C.O.ed twelve guys, put thirty on the Saturday work list, and threatened to write nasty notes to the mothers of sixty seven men.
No, not really. The men probably wouldn't mind being thrown out of here too much, but if I started writing notes to mothers they'd turn on me.
I plowed through the morning shift. Got everything done, and done well. So by the time my shift ended I wasn't feeling insecure anymore. Just sick. Kind of depressed, and not wanting to do anything. I get that way sometimes.
I was tired of watching mindless television, tired about hearing about Gorbachev (I voted for him you know) and the coup (which seems to be falling apart rapidly), tired of reading. I didn't even go down to see what Jill was wearing when she came in at 6:05 for her 5:45 group counseling meeting.
I did get hungry though. After "Star Trek, the Next Generation," I went to the canteen and consumed a cheeseburger. I happened to linger by the desk long enough for Jill to finish her session and come out. What a knockout! Absolutely mind boggling. And of course, she's a very nice person. I like her. I wish I could get to know her. I've known her for eleven months and haven't a clue what's beneath that cool facade.
Tonight she had a smile for me, which I needed desperately.
It's nice to have such a lovely, strange, tardy, and wonderful woman in my life.
I'm a fool for them.
I returned to my room to catch, "Halloween II," on television, starring Donald Pleasense, of all people. This film also helped to cheer me up. There's nothing like a good slasher movie to top off the evening.

Elections Have Consequences

A message from America's Senator, Bernie Sanders:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlTomNmi4ZM

We are at a pivotal moment in American history, and many Americans watching the deficit talks in Washington are confused, perplexed, angry and frustrated.

This country, which has paid its debts from Day 1, must pay its debts. Anyone who says it is not a big deal for this country to default clearly does not understand what he or she is talking about. This is a nation whose faith and credit has been the gold standard of countries throughout the world. Some people simply say we're not going to pay our debt, that there's nothing to really worry about. Those are people who are wishing our economy harm for political reasons, and those are people whose attitudes will have terrible consequences for virtually every working family in this country in terms of higher interest rates, in terms of significant job loss, in terms of making a very unstable global economy even more unstable.

Our right-wing friends in the House of Representatives have given us an option. What they have said is end Medicare as we know it and force elderly people, many of whom don't have the money, to pay substantially more for their health care. So when you're 70 under their plan and you get sick and you don't have a whole lot of income, we don't know what happens to you. They forget to tell us that if their plan was passed you're going to have to pay a heck of a lot more for the prescription drugs you're getting today. They we're going to throw millions of kids off health insurance. If your mom or dad is in a nursing home and that nursing home bill is paid significantly by Medicaid and Medicaid isn't paying anymore, they forgot to tell us what happens to your mom or dad in that nursing home. What happens?

And what happens today if you are unemployed and you're not able to get unemployment extension? What happens if you are a middle-class family desperately trying to send their kids to college and you make savage cuts to Pell grants and you can't go to college? What does it mean for the nation if we are not bringing forth young people that have the education that they need? They forgot to tell us that. And if you are one of the growing number of senior citizens in this country who are going hungry, they want to cut nutrition programs. And on and on it goes. Every program that has any significance to working families, the sick, the elderly, the children, the poor, they are going to cut in the midst of a recession when real unemployment is already at 15 percent and the middle class is disappearing and poverty is increasing. That's their idea.

Shouldn't the wealthiest Americans and the most profitable corporations contribute to deficit reduction rather than just the elderly and the sick and working families? They say no. They're going to defend the richest people in this country - millionaires and billionaires - and make sure they don't pay a nickel more in taxes. We're going to make sure there is no tax reform so we can continue to lose $100 billion every single year because wealthy people and corporations stash their money in tax havens in the Cayman Islands or Bermuda, and that's just fine. We'll protect those tax breaks while we savage programs for working families.

Those are the choices that our right-wing Republican friends are giving us. Default with horrendous economic consequences for working families in this country and for the entire global economy or massive cuts to programs that working families desperately need.

Neither of those options is acceptable to me. Neither are those options acceptable to the vast majority of the people in this country. Every single poll that I have seen says that the American people want shared sacrifice. They don't want or believe that deficit reduction can simply come down on the backs of the weak and the vulnerable, the elderly, the children, and the poor. They believe that the wealthy and large corporations also have to participate.

In all honesty, I also must tell you that I have been disappointed by President Obama's role in these discussions. He has brought forth and idea which I categorically reject, that we should make significant cuts in Social Security, that when someone reaches the age of 85, they would lose $1,000 as opposed to what they would have otherwise gotten. This senator is not going to balance our budget on the backs of an 85-year-old person who's earning $14,000 a year. And this senator does not agree with the president that we should raise eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67, because I don't know what happens to millions of people who have worked their whole lives, finally reach 65 anticipating Medicare but it's not going to be there for them.

One of the most important lessons in all of this is that elections have consequences. Many people now are beginning to catch on to that. It is no secret that our right-wing Republican colleagues did very well in November 2010. They captured the House of Representatives.

If you believe that we have to start investing in America and creating the millions of jobs that this country desperately needs, elections have consequences. If you believe that we have to address the deficit crisis in a way that is responsible, in a way that asks the wealthy and large corporations also to play a role, in a way that calls for cuts in defense spending and bringing our troops home as soon as possible from Afghanistan and Iraq, you have got to be involved in the political process.

In my view a group of people in the House whose views represent a small minority of the American people are holding this Congress hostage. It is time for the American people to stand up and say, enough is enough; the function of the United States Congress is to represent all of our people and not just the wealthy and powerful.

Planned Parenthood

Ann Druyan & Carl Sagan


Margaret Sanger

"The simple truth is that there is no rational way to conclude that these alleged pro-life forces are, in fact, pro-life as it is difficult to fathom how one can desire to protect the life of the unborn by sacrificing the life of the already born. If you believe in protecting the unborn, does it not necessarily follow that you are equally as concerned about protecting the lives of those already here in the flesh?
What I can work out is how pro-life politicians are, in reality, ‘pro’ their political careers and are more than willing to sacrifice the lives of the poor who rely on the services of Planned Parenthood to burnish their anti-abortion credentials."

Rick Ungar, Attorney & consultant on health care policy and politics

"There is no right to life in any society on Earth today, nor has there been at any former time… : We raise farm animals for slaughter; destroy forests; pollute rivers and lakes until no fish can live there; kill deer and elk for sport, leopards for the pelts, and whales for fertilizer; entrap dolphins, gasping and writhing, in great tuna nets; club seal pups to death; and render a species extinct every day. All these beasts and vegetables are as alive as we. What is (allegedly) protected is not life, but human life.
And even with that protection, casual murder is an urban commonplace, and we wage “conventional” wars with tolls so terrible that we are, most of us, afraid to consider them very deeply… That protection, that right to life, eludes the 40,000 children under five who die on our planet each day from preventable starvation, dehydration, disease, and neglect."

Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan, Science Authors... Among Other Things

“I am really stunned. And I am angry as a woman that we have come to this after weeks of negotiating on numbers… that there are those in the Republican party in the House who are willing to shutdown the government, take people’s paychecks away from them because they want to deny women access to health care in this country,” Murray told reporters. “Every woman and every man in this country ought to be saying, ‘What are you doing?’”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)


What Mr. Ungar and Senator Murray are talking about was a Republican attempt to defund reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood last February in a 240 - 185 (with 10 Democrats voting for the measure) vote. The measure was defeated in the Senate.
I suspect that Planned Parenthood has become a target for the Republicans due to the fact that they do provide abortion services (which accounts for approximately 3% of the services they provide). But federal law prohibits any federal funds being used to provide that particular service. So what's the problem?
It wasn't always this way. According to Dr. Sagan's and Ms. Druyan's brief history of abortion practices in the United States, from colonial times to the nineteenth century it was a woman's choice until they could first feel the baby move within her (quickening).
[An abortion in the first and even second trimester was at worst a misdemeanor. Convictions were rarely sought and almost impossible to obtain, because they depended entirely on the woman's own testimony of whether she had felt quickening, and because of the jury's distaste for prosecuting a woman for exercising her right to choose. In 1800 there was not, so far as is known, a single statute in the United States concerning abortion. Advertisements for drugs to induce abortion could be found in virtually every newspaper and even in many church publications--although the language used was suitably euphemistic, if widely understood.
But by 1900, abortion had been banned at any time in pregnancy by every state in the Union, except when necessary to save the woman's life. What happened to bring about so striking a reversal? Religion had little to do with it. Drastic economic and social conversions were turning this country from an agrarian to an urban-industrial society. America was in the process of changing from having one of the highest birthrates in the world to one of the lowest. Abortion certainly played a role and stimulated forces to suppress it.
One of the most significant of these forces was the medical profession. Up to the mid-nineteenth century, medicine was an uncertified, unsupervised business. Anyone could hang up a shingle and call himself (or herself) a doctor. With the rise of a new, university-educated medical elite, anxious to enhance the status and influence of physicians, the American Medical Association was formed. In its first decade, the AMA began lobbying against abortions performed by anyone except licensed physicians. New knowledge of embryology, the physicians said, had shown the fetus to be human even before quickening.
Their assault on abortion was motivated not by concern for the health of the woman but, they claimed, for the welfare of the fetus. You had to be a physician to know when abortion was morally justified, because the question depended on scientific and medical facts understood only by physicians. At the same time, women were effectively excluded from the medical schools, where such arcane knowledge could be acquired. So, as things worked out, women had almost nothing to say about terminating their own pregnancies. It was also up to the physician to decide if the pregnancy posed a threat to the woman, and it was entirely at his discretion to determine what was and was not a threat. For the rich woman, the threat might be a threat to her emotional tranquillity or even to her lifestyle. The poor woman was often forced to resort to the back alley or the coat hanger.
This was the law until the 1960s, when a coalition of individuals and organizations, the AMA now among them, sought to overturn it and to reinstate the more traditional values that were to be embodied in Roe v. Wade.]

To be sure, the abortion issue currently in this country is exceptionally contentious. People on both sides of the issue feel passionately about their positions, and are quite willing to take actions that they would otherwise never consider on other issues.
Accordingly, I invite you dear readers to read one of the most well thought out and reasoned considerations of this issue by Dr. Sagan and Ms. Druyan, “The Question of Abortion: A Search for Answers”
http://www.2think.org/abortion.shtml

It is my contention however, that the issue of abortion, as well as gay marriage, abstinence training, illegal immigration, creationism, religion in general, family values, anti-Islamism, and now spending in the federal government, and a host of other issues that some people have passionate feelings about, are used as tool to enlist, control, and use constituents by the Republican Party in order to mask their real agenda which is to plunder the middle class of this country (including those very constituents they are using) and transfer that wealth to the richest among us.
Nowhere is that more apparent then the Republican assault on the health provider Planned Parenthood. If no federal funds are allowed to be used for abortion services, this assault cannot be explained other than to create a distraction from what they're really up to.
This is Planned Parenthood:
Birth control advocate, Margaret Sanger, opened the first US birth control clinic in Brooklyn, New York in 1916, which earned her some jail time. In 1938 she organized the American Birth Control League which was the only national birth control organization in the U.S. until the 1960s. By 1941 the League was operating 222 centers, and serving 49,000 patients. The next year the League became part of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which itself became a founding member of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, which aimed to promote sexual and reproductive health training and education globally.
Following Sanger, Alan Guttmacher, an American obstetrician/gynecologist became president in 1962 (Sanger was 82 at the time, and would pass away four years later). During his tenure, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of the original birth control pill, allowing women a new avenue toward reproductive freedom. Planned Parenthood convinced the federal government to fund domestic and international family planning programs. In 1978, Faye Wattleton was named president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. During her term, Planned Parenthood grew to become the seventh largest charity in the country, providing services to four million clients each year through its 170 affiliates whose activities were spread across the 50 states.
Gloria Feldt took the helm for ten years from 1996 to 2006, and originated the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the organization's political action committee. She also began a nationwide campaign to increase services to prevent unwanted pregnancies, improve quality of reproductive care and ensure access to safe and legal abortions. Cecile Richards is the current president, and oversees 820 health centers in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, serving over five million clients a year, 26% of which are teenagers under the age of 19. Planned Parenthood is the leading sexual and reproductive health care advocate and provider in the United States.
This non-profit organization helps lower the need for abortions by providing contraception services (35% of services provided), testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and diseases (34%), cancer testing and screening (17%), other women's health procedures, including pregnancy, prenatal, midlife, and infertility (11%), and that 3% of abortion services.
Or is it actually 90%, as the Senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, of course a Republican, would suggest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/jon-stewart-rips-jon-kyl-planned-parenthood_n_847920.html
Cutting funding for Planned Parenthood is tantamount to furthering the right's war on women. They would subject women to forced pregnancies and servitude rather than provide legitimate medical services that are not only good for the patients, but the communities they live in, and the country as a whole.
Republicans just don't care though. Their ideology must be served before reality, just as in the debt ceiling debate. These "people" are classic sociopaths, and do not care how much pain and suffering they cause others, in fact they seem to look forward to it. It's kind of like having The Dark Knight's Joker in charge of things.
In September of 2009 we discussed the community organization Acorn:
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2009/09/acorn.html
By March of 2010 Acorn announced it was disbanding and closing the offices of it's affiliates due to lack of funds, brought about a successful smear campaign by the Republicans. On November 2, 2010, ACORN filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, effectively closing the organization.
That is nothing but a crying shame.
We must fight the Republican's war on women, and not allow Planned Parenthood the same fate.

The C.F.P.B.

Elizabeth Warren


Richard Cordray

If you've ever applied for a credit card or a loan of some type from a bank to buy a car, or a home, you know the paperwork involved can look pretty daunting. There is usually several sizes of font, from a 12 say, like the one I'm using right now, also there may be fonts that go all the way down to an 8, like this. Clearly the 12 font is easier to read for the average person than the 8, however all of the written language on the application, or contract is binding on those applying for the credit card or loan.
You may not believe this, dear readers, but the entities issuing those credit cards and loans, such as banks, may be trying to obscure certain provisions that may become deleterious to those applying.
Shocking, I know!
Why they may include something in the very small print that stipulates the credit issuer (bank) can raise the interest rates on the amount loaned anytime it wants to at any time, for any reason. Or that if you're two minutes late with your payment, the interest rate will shoot up to 98%. Or if you're three minutes late they are legally entitled to take your first born male child and keep them as indentured servants until your loan is fully paid (with interest payments, plus principle, approximately 472 years). All of this is in that fine print you can hardly read, and obscured further in a tangle of legalese that even lawyers would have trouble deciphering.
Deregulation, the lack of government rules toward the financial sector on Wall Street during the Bush Administration, is considered one of the main causes of the financial crisis of 2007/2008. Regulators turned their backs when the derivative market was created and banks were allowed to invent and market these questionable commodities without oversight. A housing bubble was created and mortgages were made available to those who could not reasonably afford them. Rating agencies like Moodys and Standard and Poors were allowed to give AAA rating on "Collateralized Debt Obligations" (CDOs) which were sold on Wall Street to unsophisticated investors who may or may not of even known what a "Collateralized Debt Obligations" was, but what the hell, they had a AAA rating from Standard and Poors, so it must be good. Well it turned out the rating agencies had a nice, cozy relationship with the banks issuing the CDOs, which later failed totally. There were no controls whatsoever for predatory lenders, etc.
You get the picture of what deregulation did for this country, a financial meltdown, Wall Street gets bailed out with tax payer money, Main Street gets screwed, a responsible President tries to clean up the mess, but can't do it in just the first two years of his term, so impatient voters allow the same party that caused the mess to get control of the House of Representatives, which is controlled by a group of Tea Baggers who are divorced from reality and are currently holding the country hostage through the manipulation of the country's debt ceiling.
We've met Elizabeth Warren before:
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/08/liz.html
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2010/08/liz-2.html
She's seems like a very nice lady.
When President Obama initiated his financial regulatory reform agenda a year ago it included something called the "Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act," which was the "most sweeping change to financial regulation in the United States since the Great Depression." Within it was a provision to create an agency who's sole duty was to check on all of those investment banks, credit issuers, payday loans shops, etc.
Here, let Liz explain:
http://www.newsweek.com/2009/12/07/reining-in-and-reigning-over-wall-street.html
That agency was eventually called the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (C.F.P.B.), which Liz thought up and advocated. One of the things she wanted to achieve was to make all of those loan and credit applications simple, clear and straight forward.
"It's past time for a change. We permit credit products to pass every day in commerce in America that if they were toasters, we would shut those folks down. You know, you can't give somebody a toaster that's going to explode ... We have a Consumer Product Safety Commission in the U.S. so every physical thing you touch, everything you wear, everything you smell is covered by some kind of basic safety regulation. But, you can buy credit cards that will take a family that's making it month by month—they're using it the way the card is supposed to be used. Just like plugging that toaster in and dropping the bread in it. Just like it's supposed to be used. And that card can explode on them and turn their financial lives upside down. We need the same, basic safety standards for credit products that we have for physical products. We cannot encourage companies to develop business plans that are modeled on selling people exploding credit cards. It just doesn't make any sense."
Elizabeth was named by President Obama to head the development of the Bureau, but held off naming her as the eventual Director of it.
Hey, guess what? The Republicans in Congress didn't like the idea of Elizabeth Warren heading the C.F.P.B. They didn't like the idea of the C.F.P.B. itself!
Shocking, I know!
Why would they not like it? They not only don't like it, they've been trying for an entire year to tear it apart, or defund it, or weaken it's powers altogether so it might as well not exist. Why?
Why wouldn't they want an agency designed solely to protect the consumer, the average person and family from greedy banks and lenders. Why wouldn't they like an agency and set of laws designed to regulate Wall Street excess?
I can't figure it out. The Republican party is the party of family values right? So they must want families to thrive rather than be prayed upon.
I think the Republicans may be hiding their true motives. I think they may have been lying to us.
Shocking, I know!
I think they want to have Wall Street deregulated again, so Wall Street can start the very same crap that caused the financial meltdown to begin with. I think they want to be allowed to suck the life blood out of every one in the middle class, in the country, until there is nothing left but dry husks. I think that is their overall goal and reason for existence.
That's what I think.
Elizabeth Warren says we can't allow that to happen.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/6661-enemies-fighting-consumer-financial-protection
The President chose the former attorney general of Ohio, Richard Cordray, to head the C.F.P.B. He was already working for the Bureau as head of the Enforcement Division. Elizabeth hired him, and has now endorsed his appointment. As the attorney general he was very good at investigating mortgage foreclosure practices.
He chose Cordray even though everyone wanted Warren because he thought he'd have a better chance of getting his nomination confirmed.
I don't know why.
“Richard Cordray has spent his career advocating for middle-class families, from his tenure as Ohio’s attorney general to his most recent role as heading up the enforcement division at the C.F.P.B. and looking out for ordinary people in our financial system,” Mr. Obama said in a written statement.
The Bureau needs to have an acting director because it cannot fully operate until the Senate confirms his nomination. It can supervise the compliance of banks with existing laws, but it can't develop new rules or supervise other financial companies without a director.
The Republicans say they are not going to allow his nomination to be confirmed. No way. They say they won't let anyone be confirmed as the director of the C.F.P.B because they still want to weaken it so it can't do the job it was designed to do, as Liz explained above. We'll see what happens.
“Rich has always had my strong support because he is tough and he is smart — and that’s exactly the combination this new agency needs,” Elizabeth said in a statement on Sunday. “His work and commitment have made it clear that he will make a stellar director.”
The C.F.P.B. will officially begin business tomorrow, the 21st. Here's a link to it's website:
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/<

Holding U.S. Hostage

Last Tuesday (July 11) I got my box painted. Inside and out. Now it's all nice and white and clean looking. I like it very much now, but on the morning of the 11th I wasn't liking the fact that I had to move a good deal of my perfectly positioned belongings just outside of my box, which included approximately 42,576 books of various shapes and sizes and weights. The nice people who were actually going to do the painting (we'll call them the painters) were supposed to be at my box at one, or one thirty. I got all my stuff ready to move out by eleven, when our new residence manager, a nice young man named Edwin knocked on my door and told me the painters wanted to come there right away and start work.
"Well... I guess. It will take me about an hour to get ready..."
"They said they'd help you."
"Oh. Okay. The sooner the better I guess. Send'em on over."
I got into a moving frenzy, working up a sweat carrying books out of my box and placing them in the hallway outside. All kinds of other stuff too.
The painters arrived, two young Hispanic men, and they helped me move some of my books.
"You've read all of these?" one asked me.
"Pretty much. I'd say I've read over three quarters of them."
"Wow."
They told me to stop stressing out and stop moving things, that they would just move the rest of my stuff into the middle of my box and they could begin painting. They moved my stuff to the middle... then went to lunch.
"They tear up my box then go to get something to eat." Now I had to sit with all of my stuff so no one would be tempted to steal anything. I made myself a nice cup of coffee, plugged my radio into a nearby socket, and listened to KTLK 11.50AM on your radio dial, Los Angeles progressive talk. Thomm Hartmann was still on, soon to be replaced by Randi Rhodes from noon to three.
I used to listen to Randi all of the time when I didn't have cable. But she is very rude to her callers at times, so I don't anymore. However that day I was forced to.
She talked about raising the national debt ceiling in the United States House of Representatives, and what might happen if they didn't by August 2nd. I got very concerned, so much so, that about two and a half hours later, when I was allowed to move my stuff back into my box, and I figured out how to re-connect my computer (no small feat), I sent this Email to my new case manager, Robert:

Robert,

As I'm sure you're aware, if a compromise plan to increase the governments debt ceiling by August 2nd does in fact not occur a partial shut down of the U.S. government is entirely possible after that date. The U.S. will be in default in it's ability to pay its obligations, and the Treasury Department will be in charge of selecting what bills will be paid and which will not. SSI and SSDI recipients here at Skid Row Housing Trust may be affected. This is a real possibility. Just watch the news. I'm bringing this to your attention so you can discuss the matter with upper management. I for one would like to know what SRHT's response will be if SSI and SSDI recipients here are in fact not paid in August, or further in the year, and unable to pay their rent.
Hopefully a compromise will be made in Washington and everything will remain running smoothly. But I'm afraid the political atmosphere favors a Republican shut down for political gain.
Thank for your time.

R Joyce

I Cc'ed (Carbon Copied) that message to my lovely former case manager, Erin, case manager Paul, Case manager Erin A., and a few others.

Robert replied thusly: "I will have to get back to you. I need additional time to talk with the higher ups in SRHT."

Lovely Erin was the only other one to reply or pay any attention to my warning. She Emailed me back: "What?!?!?!?!! Rick I don’t know anything about the news without you in my everyday life anymore! Please keep me updated."

Clearly she's lost without me.
I Emailed her back.

"Erin

I certainly will Old One (She recently turned 27). What is happening right now is that the Federal government needs to raise it's Debt Ceiling, or rather the amount of money it is allowed to borrow in order to meet all of it's financial obligations, like pay Treasury Bonds, Veteran's benefits, Social Security, and keeping everything running, like the National Parks, Government offices, etc. Now that the Republicans control the House of Representatives, they are not voting to raise the ceiling, for several reasons, 1. They insist on balancing the Federal budget by cutting spending, on things like social programs (like for homeless, Medicare) sticking the burden on the Middle Class, and simply refuse to raise taxes on Corporations, or rich people. 2. For political reasons, they believe that the lousier the economy gets, next year during the Presidential elections, people who don't keep informed, like some case managers I know, will blame Obama instead of them, and they hope to win back the White House. So on August 2nd the Government will have reached the end of it's ability to pay to run itself, and if the ceiling isn't raised by then, the government will go into default on it's obligations, the countries credit rating will be lowered, everything will get more expensive, and only about 60% of services will still be able to function (or be paid for. And this is a maybe. No one knows for certain what will happen as this has never happened before). The Treasury Department will decide what gets paid and what doesn't. This could affect Vets, Social Security beneficiaries, the Armed Forces, freaking everything. Basically the Republicans are holding the country hostage. In the past the Debt Ceiling has been raised as a matter of course, almost automatically whenever needed. The freaking Republicans raised it 7 times when Bush was President. But now that Obama is President, they are refusing to do so unless their outrageous demands are met, and they may not do it even then, the freaking sociopaths. We'll see what happens.
Elections have consequences. ( http://www.readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/6620-elections-have-consequences ) That's why it's important to Vote!

R

Oh yeah, I forgot. Right now the state of Minnesota is shut down for the same reasons. The Democratic Governor and the Republican legislature won't come to an agreement on how to handle their budget deficit. The Republicans refuse to raise taxes on the rich, and the Governor refuses to balance the budget by cutting programs for the middle class, so everything (or most things, state workers have been sent home, parks have closed, etc.) have been shut down for two weeks now. The longest state shutdown in history.

Rick"

Well that pretty much summed up the situation. Little Erin's all frightened now and needs constant comforting. Many other Americans... seniors, veteran's, Federal employees, etc., are as well.
The thing about this situation is this... it's all bullshit. It's a manufactured crisis masking a straight out political attack on President Barack Obama.
Pure and simple.
Turtle Boy, Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, has openly and repeatedly stated on national television his main goal up to next year's election is to make sure Obama is a one term President. He's flat out said it! How better to do that then to screw up the economy (something Republicans have a great deal of experience doing) as much as possible and try to blame it on the President.
The Republicans claim that the main problems facing the country are runaway spending, and the national debt. That's bullshit!
The national debt is not our biggest problem. If it were no one would be willing to buy our Treasury Bonds, or other securities. The country's overall ability to borrow money would be hampered which is clearly not the case. Japan's debt is over twice as much as ours compared to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), almost three times, and they're doing just fine (hell, they're buying our securities, lifting its holdings to $912.4 billion from $906.9 billion in April. China remains the biggest holder of our debt, approx $1.5 trillion), so to say the biggest problem facing the country is debt, and to say that is what the American people care most about... is just a big freaking lie!
Spending isn't the problem either. Just the opposite. Not enough government spending occurred during Obama's so called "stimulus." That's why the economy has stalled, not enough money is being pumped into it and circulated. Don't take my word for it, here's a guy who won a Noble Prize figuring this stuff out, Paul Krugman ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95929699 )
Has Timothy Geithner ever won a Noble Prize? I don't think so.
The only thing I can't figure out is why the President and Congressional Democrats have bought into the Republican false argument.
Why!? Please tell me why!?
Debt and spending are what the Tea Baggers believe are the most pressing problems. But one has to remember they are idiots. Why are we seriously considering the mad arguments of idiots and betting the country's future on them?
The Republicans, fueled by their Tea Bagger controllers, are willing to bring the country to the brink of default because they will not consider any increase in revenues (taxes) for their big corporate buddies and the richest among us. Not one penny! "We can't tax the job providers!" they cry out. "Raise taxes during a recession, unheard of!" they moan.
It's all crap. The recession's over, I guess the Republican's haven't got the word.
The Bush tax cuts have been in place for ten years now. So where are the jobs?! If what the Republicans are spewing were true the country should be at full employment now.
So where are those jobs Republicans? (which happens to be the real problem facing the country, jobs, jobs, jobs! That's what Americans are concerned about most of all. But what have the Republicans done while in power in the House, after running on a gaining jobs ticket? NOT ONE DAMN THING! They got into office, then started a war on women, the elderly, and the poor. Abortions, English as the national language, privatize Social Security, dismantle medicare, Sharia law... really?) You've got those tax cuts, so there should be plenty of jobs according to your bullshit (Cisco Systems, the networking equipment maker, said today it was cutting 6,500 employees, or about 9 percent of its work force).
There are. The big corps are creating jobs... in China. America is outsourcing 12,000 to 15,000 jobs a month. No jobs here though.
Oh yeah, The last time we had a balanced budget, something the Republicans claim to care so much about, was when there was a mixture of spending cuts and increased taxes under Bill Clinton. Not one Republican voted for it.
False, failed idealogy above what has been proven to be what's best for the country. That's what the Republicans are about.
Here's what the British financial magazine "The Economist" has to say about it: "This newspaper has a strong dislike of big government; we have long argued that the main way to right America’s finances is through spending cuts. But you cannot get there without any tax rises. In Britain, for instance, the coalition government aims to tame its deficit with a 3:1 ratio of cuts to hikes. America’s tax take is at its lowest level for decades: even Ronald Reagan raised taxes when he needed to do so.
And the closer you look, the more unprincipled the Republicans look. Earlier this year House Republicans produced a report noting that an 85%-15% split between spending cuts and tax rises was the average for successful fiscal consolidations, according to historical evidence. The White House is offering an 83%-17% split (hardly a huge distance) and a promise that none of the revenue increase will come from higher marginal rates, only from eliminating loopholes. If the Republicans were real tax reformers, they would seize this offer.
The sticking-point is not on the spending side. It is because the vast majority of Republicans, driven on by the wilder-eyed members of their party and the cacophony of conservative media, are clinging to the position that not a single cent of deficit reduction must come from a higher tax take. This is economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical."
But there are those Tea Baggers who are insane enough to believe that if the country goes into default, it's no big thing. Or those who seek to gain attention for themselves by championing that horrendous position... like the mad Representative from Minnesota, Michelle Bachman, who wants us to go into default.
"We need to experience some "Tough Love," she tells her crazy supporters. "Tough Love?" She's a freaking millionaire, what kind of "Tough Love," is she going to go through? It's easy to call out for others to suffer and make unnecessary sacrifices when you're sitting pretty yourself.
The financial rating agency Standard and Poors has flat out told Congress, raising the debt ceiling is not enough to maintain the countries AAA rating. It must also balance the budget with a mixture of spending cuts and tax increases. If not, a lot of things in the country, in the world, may get a lot more expensive.
Another rating agency, Moody’s Investor Service suggested yesterday that Congress simply do away with the debt ceiling.
"We would reduce our assessment of event risk if the government changed its framework for managing government debt to lessen or eliminate that uncertainty," Moody's analyst Steven Hess wrote in the report, according to Reuters.
Indeed, why not?
Because then the Republicans and the Tea Baggers couldn't blackmail the nation.
Finally, here's a way to save some cash. A lot of cash.
Just answer me this question.
Why are we still at war?
What in God's name are we still doing in Afghanistan? Iraq? Libya?
We're spending a lot of money, that's what.
And that's on your back Mr. President.
Answer that question for the country. For the soldiers who are still dying there.
We've been at war too long. Time to come home, spend that money here.
Invest in America before the Republicans tear it apart.
Again.

Countdown with Keith Olbermann is Back

Last night I watched Keith Olbermann's new incarnation of his Countdown program on the Current Network, the cable network founded by former Vice-President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt. Keith has been back for a couple of weeks now, but for one reason or another I haven't watched until last night.
I'm not taking anything away from Lawrence O'Donnell, and his wonderful program, The Last Word. It's a great show, and Lawrence has been a fine replacement for Keith, and now stands on his own. However, my first loyalty will be to Olbermann, who I'll be watching from now on (I of course could watch The Last Word later in the evening when MSNBC repeats the nightly program, but by that time I'm all curled up in bed, thumb firmly in mouth, soundly sleeping).
Anyway, here's the link to when we said goodbye to Keith on MSNBC:
http://joycestake.blogspot.com/2011/01/goodbye-keith-for-time-being.html
I'm painting my box today (it really needs it), so todays post will be abbreviated by simply linking onto Keith's strongly felt and worded special comment, or message to President Obama about conceding cuts in Social Security and Medicare to the Republicans in the House of Representatives in an effort to get them to vote to raise the National Debt Ceiling, a subject we will explore at length a little later. You can count on it (freaking Republican sociopaths. They need help. They all need to check into the Funny Farm for a little while a have a nice rest).
So here is Keith, courtesy of The Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/12/keith-olbermann-obama-social-security-medicare_n_895420.html