What the Hell is the FDA & EPA Letting Us Eat and Drink and Why?

Would you drink this?

   We all love Jennifer Love Hewitt. Just love her. She’s so talented, pretty, and perky (she’d hate me for saying that. It’s been a long time since anyone’s called her “perky,” especially since she’s appeared in ”The Client List.”). I even wrote a short story that she magically appears in that can be found right here.

   And when she appears in films we all scramble to see them.

   And when I say we I mean me.

   However, when I saw the opening scene of “The Tuxedo,” the movie she starred in with the infamous Jackie Chan, I knew the film was in trouble. I mean who starts a major Hollywood production which is produced and distributed by DreamWorks, with a close up of a deer urinating into a mountain stream? And when I say close up I mean really close up. Some would think that would be in bad taste even though the film’s plot dealt with poisoning the general water supply with bacteria that spills electrolytes into the blood of those who drink it, which totally and ironically dehydrates them until they look like little raisins left out in the sun in the middle of a ferocious dust storm. I wouldn’t begin a film that way, but Kevin Donovan, the film’s director thought differently about it.

    "The movie is silly beyond comprehension, and even if it weren't silly, it would still be beyond comprehension," our late friend Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote of the film. Still he declared it did have it’s good moments, and I’ll posit that those good moments were all of the scenes with Jennifer Love Hewitt in them.

   “The Tuxedo,” cost $60 million to make and made $104 million worldwide, so it probably lost money upon it’s initial release considering marketing and distribution costs, which I’m sure was made up with rentals and re-broadcasts.

   Be that as it may this discussion of the film and the Lovely Jennifer does nothing to further our discussion about what the hell is the FDA and EPA is letting us eat and drink and why?

   Except, that sometimes we may be drinking water with deer piss, or bear piss, or squirrel piss, or fish piss, or worst of all, Blue jay piss in it.

   I like water. I drink it all of the time. I’m going to drink some right now as a matter of fact, please excuse me a moment... boy, that was good!

   I keep several bottles of it in my refrigerator in anticipation of getting thirsty. The refrigerator keeps my water nice and cold. I like it that way.

   When one of my bottles of water gets empty after I drank all of it, I don’t despair. I just fill it up again with water from the tap on my sink, then stick it back in my refrigerator to get it cold again.  It’s an endless cycle.

   I don’t mind drinking water from the tap. It tastes alright to me... it tastes good even. I’m going to have another drink right now...

   I make coffee with tap water, Top Ramen noodles, instant mashed potatoes, rice, tea, and a whole bunch of other things.

   I wash my hands, brush my teeth, and even go so far as to shower with it occasionally.

   My dear sister doesn’t care for tap water and buys it in bottles from her local super market. Many do.

   The last time I visited her she took one of my bottles of tap water by mistake and began drinking it. I looked in her refrigerator for my bottle of water and couldn’t find it.

   “Cheryl, did you take my bottle of water,” I asked her.

   “Your bottle? I might have, why?”

   “You know it’s tap water, right?”

   “Oh... that’s why it tastes so terrible.”

   Apparently she doesn’t like the taste of tap water. I’m just the opposite. Bottled water tastes sterile to me, without taste.

   But is tap water safe to drink? Is bottled water safe to drink?

   I found that question asked on the Internet, especially concerning tap water here in Los Angeles where I live. Here’s a couple of answers:

  “The water is completely safe to drink any place in the US from the tap. Some areas the water tastes better than others, but it is all safe.

   But it seems everyone in LA drinks bottled water anyway. You can get cheap water at almost any grocery store or Walmart and premium brands as well, Fiji water is my choice for bottled water.”

   And

   “Bottled water companies are masters at advertising - they have convinced people to purchase water (at many times the cost of gasoline) when perfectly good water is available practically for free out of the tap.

   Water in LA is perfectly safe. If you want to be able to take water with you, get/bring a reusable bottle and just refill from the tap as needed.”

   I do that already, so I feel extra clever not paying money for bottled water.

   But is it really safe, and where does it come from?

   In L.A.,  the Los Angeles Aqueduct, supplies water and electricity to 3.8 million residents. I’m probably one of them. The Metropolitan Water District imports water from the Colorado River and State Water Project and supplies it to member agencies and cities. Many cities also rely on groundwater, especially those along the coast.

   “In 1960, California voters approved financing for construction of the initial features of the State Water Project (SWP). The project includes some 22 dams and reservoirs, a Delta pumping plant, a 444-mile-long aqueduct that carries water from the Delta through the San Joaquin Valley to southern California. The project begins at Oroville Dam on the Feather River and ends at Lake Perris near Riverside. At the Tehachapi Mountains, giant pumps lift the water from the California Aqueduct some 2,000 feet over the mountains and into southern California.” -Water Education Foundation

   Okay, so a lot of our water here in L.A. comes from the Colorado River. But wait a second... the Colorado River originates in the Rocky Mountains.

   “The Rocky Mountains are an important habitat for a great deal of well-known wildlife, such as elk, moose, mule and white-tailed deer, pronghorns, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, black bears, grizzly bears, coyotes, lynxes, and wolverines.” -Wikipedia

   I’m willing to bet they’ve got Blue jays up there as well. What’s to stop all of these animals from taking a leak in the streams that feed the Colorado River, and therefore straight into my tap water?

   Nothing. Nothing at all.

   What’s to stop people who swim or ski in the Colorado River, like at Lake Havasu, close to where my sister lives, from taking a leak in it as well. I would if I were them.

   Nothing. There’s absolutely nothing to stop them from doing so.

   So am I drinking a lot of pee laced water? Who’s responsible for monitoring the nation’s water supply.

   The Environmental Protection Agency is.

   According to the Center for Disease Control, “The United States has one of the safest public drinking water supplies in the world. Over 286 million Americans get their tap water from a community water system. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates drinking water quality in public water systems and sets maximum concentration levels for water chemicals and pollutants.”

   Maximum concentration levels for water chemicals and pollutants? Does that mean the EPA will allow a little pee in the water until it reaches a certain level?

   I suppose it does.

   There are other things besides pee that can be in our tap water as well.

   The CDC continues: “Sources of drinking water are subject to contamination and require appropriate treatment to remove disease-causing contaminants. Contamination of drinking water supplies can occur in the source water as well as in the distribution system after water treatment has already occurred. There are many sources of water contamination, including naturally occurring chemicals and minerals (for example, arsenic, radon, uranium), local land use practices (fertilizers, pesticides, concentrated feeding operations), manufacturing processes, and sewer overflows or wastewater releases.

   The presence of contaminants in water can lead to adverse health effects, including gastrointestinal illness, reproductive problems, and neurological disorders. Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people whose immune systems are compromised because of AIDS, chemotherapy, or transplant medications, may be especially susceptible to illness from some contaminants.”

   Specifically examples include source microbial contaminants such as Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Norovirus.

   Contamination from Sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife (freaking deers!).

   Inorganic chemical contaminants like arsenic, copper, fluoride, and lead.

   Naturally occurring contaminants, or those resulting from urban stormwater runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, soil and gas production and mining or farming.

   Disinfectants such as Chlorine, chloramine, water additives for inactivating microbial contaminants.

   Byproducts of drinking water chlorination like haloacetic acids and  trihalomethane..

   Plus organic chemical contaminants such as pesticides and herbicides, benzene, toluene, agriculture storm runoff, byproducts of industrial processes and petroleum production, gas stations, urban stormwater runoff, and septic systems.

   Radioactive contaminants like radium and uranium that occur  or result from oil and gas production and mining activities.

   And let’s not forget good old methane, or natural gas, if you happen to live near a fracking operation (see picture and video above).        

   No wonder tap water tastes so good.

   Soooo, there is a possibility that our drinking water could be contaminated.

   But just a little bit.

   Yet we can still take some measure of solace in knowing “The United States as one of the safest public drinking water supplies in the world.”

   So is my sister right in buying all of that bottled water? Is she better off? Healthier and safer?

   "Bottled water isn't any safer or purer than what comes out of the tap," says Dr. Sarah Janssen, science fellow with the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco, which conducted an extensive analysis of bottled water back in 1999. "In fact, it's less well-regulated, and you're more likely to know what's in tap water."

   "Bottled and tap water come from essentially the same sources: lakes, springs and aquifers, to list a few. In fact, a significant fraction of the bottled water products on store shelves are tap water -- albeit filtered and treated with extra steps to improve taste." - Los Angeles Times

   WTF!?  

   Alright, alright, I’ve learned enough. No more water for me. From now on it’s nothing but Pepsi Light.

   How about our food supply? Surely the Food and Drug Administration is looking out for us.

   And I’m not even going to bring up genetically modified organisms (GMOs), that have been in our food supply for about 20 years now, and which will most likely be the cause of the upcoming zombie apocalypse. No, I won’t say a word about them.

   The FDA itself says this: “FDA regulates food from GE (genetically engineered) crops in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is responsible for protecting agriculture from pests and disease, including making sure that all new GE plant varieties pose no pest risk to other plants. EPA regulates pesticides, including those bioengineered into food crops, to make sure that pesticides are safe for human and animal consumption and do not pose unreasonable risks of harm to human health or the environment.”

   Cool. So we don’t have to worry about those at all. (until Uncle Hector and Aunt Judy rise from the grave).

   But let’s pick some staple foods that Americans eat on a regular basis and see how the FDA and USDA, and EPA are doing their jobs and protecting us from unhealthy practices, like eating them. Oh, let’s say salmon for instance.

   I have some salmon in my refrigerator right now. Here, let me get it out. “Smoked Nova Salmon,” the package says, brought to me by Lasco since 1921. It’s America’s favorite salmon, the package also tells me. It’s hardwood smoked and premium quality.

   Okay, this looks pretty good. I might have some for lunch even.

   This appears to be wild salmon, that was frozen before being placed in my refrigerator.

   The FDA allows farm-raised salmon to be sold in the United States. Farm-raised fish are usually fed a diet of genetically engineered grains, antibiotics and chemicals unsafe for humans. To mask the resulting grayish flesh, they’re given toxic and potentially eyesight-damaging synthetic astaxanthin.

   You know what? Australia and New Zealand have the good sense to ban farm-raised salmon, one would think in a precautionary measure to protect their citizens from genetically engineered grains, antibiotics and chemicals  that are unsafe for humans (not to mention that synthetic astaxanthin).

   How about our pigs, cows, and turkeys? Well according to MSN Healthy Living, about 45 percent of US pigs, 30 percent of cattle, and an unknown percentage of turkeys are plumped with the asthma drug ractopamine before slaughter. Up to 20 percent of ractopamine is still there when you buy it. Since 1998, more than 1,700 US consumers of pork have been “poisoned” this way. It damages the human cardiovascular system and may cause hyperactivity, chromosomal abnormalities and behavioral changes (like zombiism). Currently, US meats aren’t even tested for it. For this very health threat, ractopamine-laced meats are banned in 160 different countries! Russia issued a ban on US meat imports, effective February 11, 2013, until it’s certified ractopamine-free.

   Mountain Dew and other drinks in the US contain the synthetic chemical brominated vegetable oil, originally patented as a flame retardant, and is banned in Japan and Europe.

   Arsenic-based drugs are approved in US-produced animal feed because they cause animals to grow quicker and meats products to look pinker and “fresher.” The FDA says arsenic-based drugs are safe because they contain organic arsenic … But organic arsenic can turn into inorganic arsenic, and run through contaminated manure and leach into our drinking water. The European Union has never approved using arsenic in animal feed, and environmental groups here at home  have sued the FDA to remove them.

   It’s kind of sad when we need to sue the agency responsible to protect out food, which in turn protects us, to do their job.

   Bread, hamburger and hotdog buns are “enriched” with potassium bromate, or bromide, linked to kidney and nervous system damage, thyroid problems, gastrointestinal discomfort and cancer. I suffer from hypothyroidism and I’m thinking now it’s because of all of those hamburgers I ate at Jack In The Box and McDonalds when I was a kid.

   And the Filet-of-Fish sandwiches.

   God damn it!

   If I had been born in Canada, or Europe, or even China where it’s okay to pollute everybody to death, I wouldn’t have had to worry about it because bromides are banned there. Jeeez.
   On and on...

   Oh yeah, about those GMOs I wasn’t going to talk about, “The US government subsidizes the very crops identified as being the most harmful to human health and the environment; the top three being corn, wheat, and soybeans. And nearly all of the corn and soybeans grown are genetically engineered varieties.

   By subsidizing these, the US government is actively supporting a diet that consists of these grains in their processed form, namely high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), hydrogenated soybean oil, and meats loaded with antibiotics – all of which are now well-known contributors to obesity and chronic disease. These junk-food subsidies make it much cheaper to buy a burger, fries and soda from a fast-food restaurant than it is to buy grass-fed beef and veggies. It's not that these foods necessarily cost more to grow or produce; rather the prices for the junk foods are being artificially reduced by the government.

   According to the report,* Americans die earlier and live in poorer health than people in other developed nations, which included Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the U.K.

   Of these 17 affluent countries, the US ranks last overall, and near the bottom in nine key areas of health, including low birth weight; injuries and homicides; teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; HIV and AIDS; drug-related deaths; obesity and diabetes; heart disease; chronic lung disease; and general disability. At 75.6 years, American men have the lowest life expectancy among the countries reviewed, and American women ranked second-to-last at 80.7 years. The infant mortality rate in the US is equally abysmal, with 32.7 deaths per 100,000, while most others range between 15 and 25 deaths per 100,000.”

   Why would the U.S. government subsidize these foods and practices, and turn a blind eye to their utilization in our national food supply (money, money, money, money, campaign contributions, money, money, money, money in politics, money)?

   I have no idea.

Food dye banned in the United Kingdom okay for the U.S.

Like beer? But what's in it?

Arsenic in rice & what in the hell are we feeding our chickens? 

USDA allowing meat producers to inspect their own meat? Of Course!

10 effects of weak and outdated chemical laws.

*US Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health, -Steven H. Woolf and Laudan Aron, Editors; Panel on Understanding Cross-National Health Differences Among High-Income Countries; Committee on Population; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; National Research Council; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Institute of Medicine

Impeach Obama Immediately If Not Sooner

Constitution of the United States

Article I.    Section 2.   Clause 5.
The House of Representatives shall chuse [choose] their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. 
Article. II.   Section. 4.
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other High crimes and Misdemeanors.

In the United States, the articles of impeachment are drafted by the House of Representatives for cases involving federal officials. Once drafted, a supermajority of the United States Senate is required to convict based on the articles. -Wikipedia



ARTICLE OF IMPEACHMENT EXHIBITED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN THE NAME OF ITSELF AND OF ALL OF THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AGAINST BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, IN MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT OF ITS IMPEACHMENT AGAINST HIM FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS IN USURPING THE EXCLUSIVE PREROGATIVE OF CONGRESS TO COMENCE WAR UNDER ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8, CLAUSE 11 OF THE CONSTITUTION.

In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has usurped the exclusive power of Congress to initiate war under Article I, section 8, clause 11 of the United States Constitution by unilaterally commencing war against the Republic of Libya on March 19, 2011, declaring that Congress is powerless to constrain his conduct of the war, and claiming authority in the future to commence war unilaterally to advance whatever he ordains is in the national interest. By so doing and declaring, Barack Hussein Obama has mocked the rule of law, endangered the very existence of the Republic and the liberties of the people, and perpetrated an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor as hereinafter elaborated.

-Impeach Obama Campaign


   You know there are a lot of things I don’t like.
   For instance I don’t care for the ongoing bickering between CBS and Time Warner (currently Time Warner Cable has blacked out CBS stations due to a dispute concerning retransmission fees) which forces me to miss watching “Under the Dome,” the only thing that CBS is good for. For that matter I don’t like it that the Stephen King novel of which the television show is based is 1074 freaking pages long, and that King spends so much freaking time on characterization and back story that by the time we get to find out what’s behind the freaking dome we’re ready for the old folks home.
   Hey King... read a Koontz novel, any of them, and learn how it works. Life is short enough.
   My girlfriend is pissed with this dispute as well because she’s missing “Dexter.”
   She’s into serial killer killers, which should be a little alarming to me I guess. I’ll have to be extra diligent while sleeping from here on end.
   Don’t want to wake up wrapped in cellophane, that’s for sure.
   I don’t like it that cotton candy is pink.
   Oh, I know you can sometimes get designer cotton candy in other colors, most notably blue, but it usually comes in pink.
   I don’t like peanuts that are still in the shell.
   I don’t care for the “Sleeping Yogi” pose in yoga. It makes my butt itch.
   I don’t like it that it’s going to cost me $27.00 to get a California I.D. before my current one expires on my birthday this year. $27.00! How do you spell “RIP OFF!" For $27.00 it better make my bed and do the dishes for me. Jesus!
   And government I.D.s are so affordable and easy to get the Republicans say.
   I don’t like it that unlike other scientific units, which can theoretically be measured anywhere in the world based on natural properties, the kilogram is still based on a physical object: a cylinder of platinum and iridium that dates back to 1889. That just plain out sucks, as I’m sure you agree.
   I don’t like it that I have to wait a whole week to see the next episode of “Breaking Bad.” I want to know what’s going to happen NOW! Hey Vince Gilligan, take a look at “House of Cards,” will ya?
   I don’t like it that the Republican control the House of Representatives. In that I’m not alone. According to a NBC / Wall Street Journal poll taken last month, 83 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing in Washington, an all-time high in the poll. Just 12 percent approve of Congress' job, while 57 percent said they would replace every member of Congress if they could. Everyone!
   I don’t mind the Democrats so much, but the Republicans really piss me off.
   I don’t like it that Congress has been out of session since August 5th and will not return until the 9th of September when there is so much work for them to do (and then the House is scheduled for only 9 days of work in September). I’m seriously considering running for Congress myself... I could use the rest.
   I don’t like global warming, unequal distribution of wealth and resources, world hunger, human trafficking, over fishing, deforestation,  corporate welfare, Citizens United, the Supreme Court for that matter, sequestration,  Dancing with the Stars, on and on...
   And the Dutch of course.
   On and on...
   When I don’t like something I tend to write about it. It makes me feel better I suppose. If other people read it and agree, that’s great. If they read about and disagree that’s alright too. No one gets hurt or is punished in any way by my writing. It’s all rather harmless.
   Currently there’s a craze, I guess that’s what you’d call it, by some Republicans in Congress, and their political base, or rather those people who elected them to Congress, their constituents, to impeach President Obama.
   What is impeachment Rick? Do you throw peaches at the President, or something? Isn’t that illegal?
   No, no, no. No actual peaches are involved. According to Wikipedia “Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as criminal or civil punishment.”
   So those calling for Obama’s impeachment are actually calling for his removal from office.
   So, what is an impeachable offense Rick, and who does the impeaching?
   Glad you asked. As shown above the Constitution states in Article I, Section 2, Clause 5, that the House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment. As for an impeachable offense, Article II, Section 4, the only impeachable offenses are treason, bribery, “or other High crimes and Misdemeanors.”
   What the hell does high crimes and misdemeanors mean Rick? Is there such a thing as a low crime?
   Why yes, there is. Jaywalking for instance would most likely be considered a low crime. As far as a concrete definition of high crimes and misdemeanors, there is none, and this is somewhat of a point of contention. House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford defined high crimes and misdemeanors in 1970 saying "An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."
   Well, well, well, that’s pretty convenient if your party happens to be in charge of the House and you don’t like the President, like the situation we find ourselves in now, with the Republicans in charge of the House, and a Democrat as President.
   Yet that’s all the instructions, or all of the foundation the founding fathers provided, so we have to deal with it unless it is clarified in the future by the Supreme Court.
   But don’t hold your breath.
   Who else can be impeached Rick?
   By golly, the Vice President can too, as well all civil officers of the United States, whatever that means.
   What does it mean Rick?
   Well lots of people think it means members of Congress, since they’re the only other elected officials. The President’s staff and Cabinet would probably go with the President if he were forced out of office, so there would be no need to impeach them. Who else could it mean?
   Members of Congress disagree sometimes, and maintain that they are not civil officers of the United States, and are therefore immune to impeachment, which is pretty self serving if you ask me.
   So the House of Representatives can remove the President from office by impeaching him with a simple majority vote, Rick?
   Nope. It’s not that easy. If it was they would have done it a long time ago.
   First, the President has to be impeached by the House, and you’re right, that’s done with a simple majority vote. Once that’s been done the President has been “impeached.” Next, the whole shebang moves over to the Senate, so they can have some fun to. They get to try the President for whatever offense he (or she) has been impeached. A two thirds majority vote is required to convict the President. That process is presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States, who is also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. John Roberts holds that position now.
   Once convicted by the Senate the President is removed from office. If he (or she) refuses to leave, we send in the marines to throw their ass out.
   Depending on the offense, the President can still face criminal and civil charges in a regular court. Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon resigned from office before he could be impeached, but still could have faced criminal charges for interfering with the Watergate investigation while he was President, until Gerald Ford, now President, pardoned him of all future criminal charges.    
   Has there ever been a President who has been impeached Rick?
   Why yes, there has. Two of them.
   President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for trying to remove Secretary of War, one Edwin Stanton, from office without the consent of the Senate, which was then a violation of the Tenure of Office Act, a law later found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. But while it was in effect, the House impeached Johnson, who evaded conviction in the Senate, and removal from office by just one vote.
   Who else was impeached Rick?
   President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House on  December 19, 1998, on two counts of getting a blow job in the Oval Office by Monica Lewinsky, and then lying about it.
   Okay, okay... so how does this all fit in with President Obama? How many blow jobs has he gotten in the Oval Office, Rick?
   No, no, no! President Obama hasn’t gotten any blow jobs in the Oval Office at all as far as we know. No. The Republicans in the House, some of the Republicans, want to impeach him for... well I don’t know what they want to impeach him for. They don’t say what it is they want to impeach him for, but they sure do want to do it, I’ll tell you that.
   Impeaching the President “...would be a dream come true,” said Michigan Representative Kerry Bentivolio. I’m sure it would, for him and his Tea Party constituents.
   “A question I get a lot, ‘If everybody is so unhappy with the president, why don’t you impeach him?’” Texas Representative Blake Farenthold said at a town hall meeting recently. “I’ll give you a real frank answer about that, if we were to impeach the president tomorrow, we would probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it.”
   Probably? Well the Republicans do control the House, and all they require is a simple majority vote to impeach the President. But first they would need a specific impeachable offense, and then, knowing this action would be followed up by a trial in the Democratically controlled Senate, who would be very unlikely to convict the President for anything, what would be the point really?
   There wouldn’t be one.
   Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, the President’s close friend according to Coburn, has told his own constituents that Obama is “perilously close” to meeting the constitutional standards required for an impeachment trial.
   Really? For what exactly? Remember dear readers that little pesky requirement needed in order to impeach a President... an impeachable offense. Has the President committed treason? Well according to some he has. But we’ve discussed this at length and have decided in the real world if he’s committed a treasonous act worthy of impeachment, then every president since FDR (and a lot before him) has as well, because Obama hasn’t done anything any other president hasn't done in the past.
   Is the President guilty of bribery? Other than the “legal bribery” that every politician is guilty of in the form of campaign contributions, no. No one’s accused him of that to my knowledge, so we can move on.
   Okay, here we get to that hard to define “high crimes and misdemeanors” part.
    "I think there’s some intended violation of the law in this administration,” Coburn said at a town hall meeting, “but I also think there’s a ton of incompetence of people who are making decisions."
   We’ve discussed incompetence as an impeachable offense, and have decided it wasn’t. Again, this is an offense every president has been guilty of, especially Obama’s predecessor.
   Perhaps President Obama’s decision to intervene militarily in Libya was an impeachable offense, as those at “Impeach Obama Campaign” propose above. They even wrote their own Articles of Impeachment, which should save the House some time if they ever take it up. Democrat Dennis Kucinich even called for the president’s impeachment.
   But military action in Libya was UN backed and carried out by NATO, and no U.S. ground forces were involved, and therefore he was not impeached at the time.
   Perhaps he will be for attacking Syria without a mandate from the UN. We shall see.
   No it looks like certain Republicans in the Congress want to impeach the President simply because they don’t like Obama, or anything he’s done, or stands for. Perhaps they want to impeach him because their political base, their constituents, want him impeached simply because they don’t like him, or anything he’s done, or stands for.
    But he is the lawfully elected President. This is something Republicans find difficult to accept, so they don’t, and look for any excuse to remove him from office. The “Birther Movement,” is a prime example of this. Even though the President has provided ample proof that he was born in America and was eligible to run and win the presidency, some people refuse to accept that, because it doesn’t fit in their world view I guess. How could a black man, a man with the middle name of Hussein be our President? Didn’t we go to war to remove a guy with that very name, Saddam Hussein, from power. Maybe they're brothers. On and on.
   So these people cry and moan, much as I did when George W. Bush was President.
   So if Obama is not a legitimate president, but he holds the White House, any thing he does should be suspect, like his signature piece of legislation, the Affordable Care Act, sometimes known as Obamacare. So Obamacare must be bad. Right wing propaganda outlets reinforce this belief, so conservatives are against the implementation of Obamacare and encourage their members of Congress to do whatever it takes to stop it’s implementation, like holding the federal government hostage by threatening to shut it down at the beginning of October when authorization for government spending expires if Obama doesn’t repeal or defund Obamacare, or give them everything else they want (like making the sequester cuts permanent). Or the same when the debt ceiling needs to be raised.
   Yet Obamacare is already the law of the land, upheld by the Supreme Court, which is something that outrages the Republican base. Even if Republicans in the House did shut down the government in October Obamacare would still be implemented, because that implementation has already been paid for, which some Republicans just can’t accept.
   So of course there’s only one thing for them to do... throw a tantrum, like little children, like little babies, who don’t get their way. Rather than respect the rule of law in this country, they’d rather tear it economically apart in a fit of childish rage, no matter what the consequences may be, or who gets hurt, even themselves (what will happen to these Republicans 401K’s if the government defaults on it’s obligations? They’ll probably lose as much as 20% of their value).
   Maybe it’s time for the Republicans, the base and those who represent them, to grow up and return to some form of rationality.
   Come on, try it. Just for a little while at least.
   I guarantee you won’t like it, but it is best for the country.
   Children usually want to take on adulthood as quickly as possible, I know I did.
   It’s time for Republicans and conservatives to want that too.

Skid Row Diary 13

6 August 2003    Wednesday      Day 25


   My alarm woke me at 3:00 because I set it for that time. I got up off of my rack, paced the short distance across my room (about one pace) to my desk and turned it off. I then went back to my rack, realized I was still tired, became aware that “Star Trek Voyager,” would soon come on, then went back to sleep.
   I re-awoke just before 7:00. An infernal informercial was just ending and “Tarzan,” the cartoon series was just beginning. I realized that Tarzan’s Jane... Jane Porter, was really hot. Didn’t Minnie Driver supply her voice in the movie? Minnie Driver’s really hot, I thought.
   Then I got up and took a shower.
   John Manzano knocked on my door just as I finished dressing and checking on Giselle.
   Pants.
   We went to breakfast. Chicken omelets. Chicken omelets? Who in their right mind makes chicken omelets on a regular basis. Anyone with an excess amount of poultry you may say, and you may be right.
   “What are you going to do today?” John asked between mouthfulls of chicken omelet.
   “I don’t know. Look for a job I guess. Go to school. What are you going to do?”
   “I don’t know... go to school...”
   “We could go throw things at cars from the freeway overpass,” I suggested. “We haven’t done that for awhile.”
   “Naw. Oh, you know... I have to go to the EDD to get my GR paper stamped.”
   “Really?! I’ll show you where it’s at. I’ll go to the One Stop.”
   We walked over to 9th and Hill. John kept bitching about how far it was, the lazy bastard. We arrived at the EDD building just as it opened. John went upstairs to get his paper stamped. I went to the One Stop on the ground floor.
   For the last several days most of the computers there had lost their ability to connect to the Internet, and no one in the office in a position of authority seemed to be in any great hurry to remedy the situation, which was upsetting. I couldn’t check my Email, let alone try to find a picture of Susanne Christian and Imogen Stubbs.
   Coincidentally, the two computers that allow access to their disk drives had not been booted up for several days, which makes it nearly impossible to print my personal files. I was quite vexed!
   However, I was able (to my great relief) to take care of a small personal matter that had nothing to do with finding a job. I spent a little over two hours typing a letter to the State Appeals Board, my GR caseworker, and her office administrator, giving them all a stern what for, describing the circumstances  of last Thursday’s aborted hearing attempt. I derided the hearing process and the officers inability to begin the proceedings in a timely manner. I also requested another hearing.
   I get like that sometimes. Make a big fuss about being offended and initiate some long drawn out process, or set of events that I lose interest in a few days later, usually because I’ve relapsed and couldn’t be bothered.
   We shall see.
   I took three copies of the letter to the post office and mailed them. That done I grabbed the Red Line from the 7th St. station to LACC, and then to the Financial Aid Office. Hopefully their computers would be working today.
   They were. Thus the office was rather busy and crowded, and I had to wait a while to be seen. Naturally Colette had the day off or something, and couldn’t be found.
   Another disinterested lady helped me though. I had to fill out and sign one more form, and review my SARs  (Student Aid Report), from the federal financial aid people. The federal financial aid people could not verify my veteran status and had documented I was not a vet. Bad federal financial aid people. Dumb ass federal financial aid people.
   I showed the financial aid lady my veteran I.D. card, corrected the SAR report, and that was that.I was told to come back in four months to check on my status.
   Four months!
   That wouldn’t help me with books in September. I could still hope for help from Voc Rehab, or I could wait another semester to start school, or I could leap off a cliff into the Grand Canyon, or (horror upon horror) I could save up all of my plasma money and pay for the books myself.
   At least I had options.
   Before leaving the campus I looked for and found the EOP&S (Extended Opportunity Programs and Services) office and talked to a young man there. I learned that I had to be a full time student in order to qualify for their services, such as book vouchers and priority registration. I took some pamphlets concerning their program before leaving.
   I stopped at the 99 cent store at MacArthur Park before returning downtown and picked up some candles, chicken gravy mix, pizza rolls, and a small, red duster. I then bought jalapeno cheese rolls and hickory smoked spam from the nearby Food For Less.
   “Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam.
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
Spam spam spam spam!”
   Now well provisioned I returned to the Weingart and made myself a nice cup of Irish Breakfast Tea, then exercised and yogaed for a full half hour.  I used the day room computer to check my Email, and while doing that I heard on the T.V. news that Jennifer Connelly had a baby boy today, by that annoying actor who played Russell Crowe’s imaginary roommate in “A Beautiful Mind.”  
   Congratulations Jennifer! I wish you peace and good health, and for your two children as well, but not for that actor bastard. May the fleas of a thousand camels torment him until the end of his days!
   Why couldn’t you wait for me Jennifer? I’m the only one who fully appreciates you!
   Oh well, it can’t be helped I suppose. Jennifer’s loss is just another example of the ill effects of alcoholism and neardowellity.
   Forlorn, I consumed my newly acquired pizza rolls in my room where no one could see me. They were good.
   After a while I calmed down and wrote while listening to classical music. I wouldn’t finish until just before 8.
   I did break for dinner. Chile Mac. Gary Porch sat with me. He told me of how he had left his Weingart I.D. in a neighbors room who had left for the day. That meant he couldn’t use it to get breakfast or lunch, poor fellow.
   And I stopped writing to watch “Married with Children,” which was preempted by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s announcement of his intention to run for Governor of California in October’s recall election. I haven’t a clue as to what his qualifications are. We shall see.
   Charley Rose hung out with The Dave Matthews Band. I’m not a fan, although I admire the band’s unique sound. Maybe they're an acquired taste. They certainly are popular.
   At 8:00 I got good reception on channel 58 and watched the first installment of Ken Burns documentary on the Meriwether Lewis and William Clark expedition, the first official expedition of the new government of the United States, called for by Thomas Jefferson while he was President, and who had just completed the Louisiana Purchase. Very exciting.
   John Manzano stopped by and asked why I was watching this rather than channel 28's expose on the Spartans. 
   “Because I wanted to learn about this more. But I’ll tell you this... I agonized over the decision.”
   “I’m sure you did,” he said.
   He wanted to watch “The Twilight Zone.” He also told me that he had gotten information that his ex-wife had just married a man she had previously gotten a restraining order for. This is now causing him to worry about his children, but also provides more evidence in his case to win custody over his two sons.
   Women. They quite often don’t know what’s in their own best interest... what’s good for them, and act in contrary manners. They require guidance.
   But when we try to explain this simple fact to them they get all defense.
   Silly. But they can’t help it I guess. They’re women.
   Anyway, I told John I’d try to look up information concerning child custody laws in California.
   He mooched a smoked sausage sandwich from me and left after eating it and realizing I wasn’t going to change the channel to “The Twilight Zone.”
   As it happened (“As it is supposed to happen,” Bokonon sings to us) the Lewis and Clark documentary ended at 9:45, so I switched channels to 13, to the latest version of “The Twilight Zone,” just in time to see one of my favorite actresses, Jessica Simpson, being turned into a 10 inch doll by an obnoxious nine year old girl.
   How unfortunate.
   Actually, it was a pretty good segment, what I saw of it at least, and not a little bit scary.
   This episode may have influenced my dreams that night, which involved being turned into a doll, along with Rose McGowan, the perky and beautiful star of “Scream,” and “Phantoms.” Rosy (I like to call her Rosy), dressed in a Raggedy Ann outfit, held doll hands with me as we walked down the yellow brick road which led to Toyland. Unlike poor Jessica, we were very happy, and were singing “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” all of the way.
  

“Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Zip-A-Dee-A

My oh my, what a wonderful day

Plenty of sunshine heading my way

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah

Zip-A-Dee-A

7  August    Thursday   Day 26


   I watched the “Lineage” episode of “Voyager,” wherein the female half Klingon Lt. became pregnant by her human husband (at least he looked human. Who can tell these days?) As the late Dr. Carl Sagan aptly put it, it would be easier to mate a flea with an elephant than two different species from different planets. At least fleas and elephants possess the same DNA structure.
   Who knows what a Klingon possesses? I certainly don’t.
   But I nit pick. So does Carl.
   I was able to get some yoga and exercise in during the last half hour of the show, then took another nice, hot shower with my neighbor from down the hall, after which I wrote while listening to a Vivaldi (The Red Priest) violin concerto, and Mozart’s 39th  Symphony.
   At 5:00 I meditated and experienced enlightenment. Now space and time are open to me.
   Brian, of the Mark and Brian Show, threw his back out this morning while brushing his teeth. How odd.
   Thank God I’m still young and supple and have no trace of geez about me.
   Brian does. He even plays golf, the badge of geez.
   It was at this point that I figured out how to get my new VCR to record UHF channels by programming those channels into it. All I had to do was press the right button. The Auto Set Up button. These kind of insights occur after enlightenment.
   I also prepared a blank VCR tape to record the beginning of Despierta America so I could gaze upon Gizelle’s loveliness anytime I desired, as I would most assuredly do with Odalys Garcia as well if I could find Lente Loco on Univision’s local broadcast schedule. But I can’t. She’s being denied to me.
  John Manzano knocked on my door at 7:00, just as I was beginning to record.
   “Are you ready to go?”
   “Are you ready to go?”
   “Are you ready to go?” he kept repeating.
   “No.”
   “No.”
   “No.”
   Then I learned, much to my dismay, that Gizelle had taken the day off, pants or no pants, and wasn’t on the show today.
   I was disheartened, but eventually pulled through and went with John to breakfast.
   Waffles that soaked up all of the tiny amount of maple syrup that we were provided with, giving them the consistency of dried cotton. John and I ate heartedly.
   We parted after breakfast. John went to school, and I returned to my room to listen to Mark and Brian, and read about tobacco until 8:30 when I left the building walking up to the Nickle, to the Service Spot, where Mr. McCree works.
   This was the first time I had visited. The office looked nice and clean, and well furnished. I could see rows of computers behind the reception desk, as if computer classes were offered here, or a job resource center like at the One Stop.
   Donuts, little wheels of death, were available on a tray to my left.
   I asked the male receptionist if Mr. McCree was in. He wasn’t, so I left a message for him to come by and see me, or call my voice mail, to let me know if he was still alive.
   I caught a 53 bus up to the Skid Row Housing Trust office and signed in, then walked back to the Weingart. The day was already hot and humid.
   Mark and Brian were talking about the movie “Jaws,” which they will be showing at a special presentation on the pier in Santa Monica next Tuesday night. I’d like to go but then I’d have to call in to their show and participate in a trivia quiz, or fart on command, or lick my elbow... something entertaining, in order to get tickets, and I’m much too shy for that. I’m what M & B call a “passive listener,”and am content to remain one.
   We shall see. Perhaps I’ll change my mind.
   John Manzano tells me that he feels what M & B ask their listeners to do on their radio program is degrading, and he hates them for it.
   “And I suppose Howard Stern doesn’t do that? That he treats all of his guests and callers with the utmost respect? I don’t think so! I’ve heard guests, callers, his own freaking staff for Christ’s sake, go away in tears after talking to that long haired moron, geek. What you got to say about that Manzano?!”
   He didn’t have anything to say to that. John is a Howard Stern fan, thus joins what one critic labeled Stern’s fan base as, “a cast party for 'Deliverance.’”  
   I don’t care for Mr. Stern’s show very much, but have been forced to listen to it on occasion. Like when I used to deliver papers in Bullhead City and there was nothing else on the radio.
   But I digress.
   At 9:55 I walked next door to the Levi Center for Mr. Cairns Super Search Job Workshop, today’s topic... Liabilities!
   I was given my very own lined piece of white paper on which I was to list all of the liabilities I possess which hinder my gaining employment.
   1. Unstable
   2. Addict, prone to relapse.
   3. Laissez faire attitude toward working for other people.
   4. Dislikes those in positions of authority
   5. Lousy credit history.
   6. Minor criminal history (no felonies, mostly DUI and petty theft (booze of course. Everything’s related to booze))
   7. Lack of recent employment history.
   I’m fucked. I’ll never get a job.
   I left the meeting all depressed and morose. My head was hung low, my brow furrowed. I went to my room and started to cry.      
   John Manzano came back from school and collected me for lunch. Beef stir fry. I dribbled some stir fry juice onto my shirt and I was forced to change it.
   We walked up to the V.A. outpatient clinic on Temple. John was to begin his anger management classes at 1:00. I escorted him to the 4th floor to make sure he arrived clam and serene.
   Then I went to the 3rd floor, which was one floor below the 4th. I went to the V.A. Benefits Counselor’s office. There was a sign on the door stating he wouldn’t be back until the 13th.
   I then visited the Business Office on the 1st floor and was told I’d have to see the Benefits Counselor to find out why the federal financial aid people couldn’t verify my veteran status.
   I left the V.A., checking my mail before returning to the Weingart. I watched the film “Pollack,” on my new shiny VCR.
   Now I like Jackson Pollock’s paintings. They’re beautiful in an abstract expressionist sort of way. I have no idea of his real value as an artist, although I believe he was highly regarded. I do know that he fit the classic description of an addict, in his case he abused alcohol and nicotine (just like me). If Ed Harris’s fine portrayal of Pollock was accurate, he was a selfish, self absorbed, asshole, unable to deal with the world around him. He reminded me of myself at various time in my life.
   He was depressive as well, never a good combination. Unfortunately (and still my only information is coming from the film) he exhibited no sense of humor at all, and died as a direct result of his drinking, taking an innocent person along with him (the ultimate selfish act), in a fatal car crash.
   The same, or similar end awaits me if I’m not careful. I like to think I’ve learned to become more aware of the world around me and my responsibilities within it, but once I take a drink...
   Marcia Gay Harden won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Lee Krasner, Pollock’s wife, and she deserved it. Jennifer Connelly had a very small part near the end of the film, but I could actually feel her terror in the last scene. She is so talented... and still had big boobs in this film.
   Nowadays not so much, which saddens the men of the entire world... and some women.
   But I digress.
   John Manzano and I shunned dinner where liver was being served. Instead I invited him to dine in my room, and he opted for a hickory smoked spam sandwich.
   “Spam! Spam! Spam! Spam!
Lovely spam! Wonderful spam!
Spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam spa-a-a-a-a-am spam.
Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam! Lovely spam!
   Spam spam spam spam!”
   Good choice. Then he sauntered off to to an evening class at school.
   He’s learning to crochet.
   I watched Charley Rose talk to some lawyers about the Kobe Bryant rape case. I couldn’t be less interested. The media is having a field day, and if the victim sincerely feels she was assaulted I sympathize with her, for she is in for a rough time. If she’s just out for publicity she’ll certainly get that. For money, she’ll probably get that too.
   If Mr. Bryant is innocent, and any decision will be a judgment call, then I hope he’s treated fairly. If not I hope he’s put away.
   And that’s all I have to say about that, except that I don’t like basketball very much, and I hold a slight disdain  for all professional sports where athletes are paid outrageous sums of money for developing useless physical abilities. Same goes with the millions paid to some film and television stars. Same with bankers, and other parasitic CEOs. And models... don’t get me started on models. Hundreds of thousands of dollars just to take pictures of their skinny asses.
   There’s so much poverty in the world. When people’s compensation are so out of proportion with their contributions to society I am outraged.
   It doesn’t take a lot for me to get outraged.
   I need to attend Outrage Management classes.
   I’m also a little socialist, I guess.
   I finished reading “Ghost Story.” I had forgotten how it ended and thought it rather weak, but the book in it’s entirety is so, so good.
   At 8:00 I recorded the 1999 remake of “House on Haunted Hill.” Despite the fact that Vincent Price was in the original (which tends to raise the creepy meter ten points all in itself), that film really sucked, although it scared the hell out me me when I was a kid. So a modern remake had a good chance of being decent. Starring Famke Janssen, Ali Larter, and Bridgette Wilson, this movie was quite clever, and scary, despite another weak ending. And I’d be happy to watch toilet paper commercials all day as long as Geoffrey Rush is in them.
   John Manzano returned from school and watched the first half of the movie with me, and kept bitching like a little girl about how hot it was in my room, like there was something I could do about it. I mean my fan was blowing right on the big pussy.
   I threw his complaining and noisy ass out and went to bed after the movie and put my shallow, opinionated ass to sleep. I dreamt I was involved in a vicious paintball fight with Tracy Winn, the beautiful and talented ex-actress and star of “Foreign Affairs.” Along with Colleen Applegate, both the prettiest actresses ever in adult films (not that I ever watch movies like that. They both registered a hard 134 , on a scale of 0 to 100 on the Pretty-O-Meter, so it’s not just my opinion, it’s a matter of record).
   We were all covered in multi-colored paint blotches, battling each other in what seemed to be a gigantic mansion that had at one time been a hospital for the criminally insane. Tracy, the little imp, shot me three times in rapid succession right between the eyes, then scarpered down into the basement. I went after her, but got lost among the endless corridors and passageways and wound up falling into an abandoned oubliette, and was never heard from again.

Treason 3

Benedict Arnold

Treason: The betrayal of one's own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies. 

Under Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution, any person who levies war against the United States or adheres to its enemies by giving them Aid and Comfort has committed treason within the meaning of the Constitution. The term aid and comfort refers to any act that manifests a betrayal of allegiance to the United States, such as furnishing enemies with arms, troops, transportation, shelter, or classified information. If a subversive act has any tendency to weaken the power of the United States to attack or resist its enemies, aid and comfort has been given.

The Treason Clause applies only to disloyal acts committed during times of war. Acts of dis-loyalty during peacetime are not considered treasonous under the Constitution.

- Legal Dictionary

Mitch McConnell’s Number One Priority

John Boehner’s Number One Priority

Barack Obama’s Number One Priority

Imagine a political party that keeps government from helping people, because that might lead people to support government. Imagine a political party that hurts parts of the country because those parts tend to not vote the way they want. Imagine a political party that would hurt the public, the economy and the country so they could say in the next election, "Hey look at how the country is hurting, vote for us instead." That could never happen here, could it?

- Dave Johnson, Campaign for America's Future, July 27th 2013

   Could it?

   Why yes, it could.

   Despite House Speaker Boehner’s proclamation that jobs remain the House’s number one priority, they have voted down President Obama’s Job Bill, and not offered a single one of their own.

   Instead they’ve used limited and precious Congressional time and money voting on abortion oriented bills, names for post offices, and at least 40 times to revoke The Affordable Healthcare Act, what is often referred to as Obamacare (perhaps the Democrats should have countered the Republicans slang machine by utilizing the term “Americacare” instead. Yet the President embraced the former).

   Boehner knows a bill to repeal Obamacare will not pass through the Democratically controlled Senate, and even if it did, how likely is it that the President would repeal his own policy.

   I say almost exactly 0 chance. 0. Nada, No way. Eeemmm Uuummm.

   So what the Republicans spend their time... or I should say our time doing is appeasing what they perceive to be their base, their political support, for the sole purpose of keeping themselves in power at the expense 90% of the nation’s people.

   Let’s explore a moment Mr. Johnson’s quote above.

   “Imagine a political party that keeps government from helping people...”

   Imagine a political party that rewards multi-national corporations which ship, or outsource jobs out of their own country to other countries where labor costs and taxes may be more advantageous for those companies, but deleterious for the citizens of said country who voted that party into power in order to look after their interests (when given a chance to stop the outsourcing of American jobs overseas, Speaker Boehner and his Republican colleagues balked. In September of 2010, Republicans in Congress killed a bill that would have eliminated tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs). 

   Whose interests are that party actually shepherding, their own citizens who they were sworn to protect and nurture, or those of the multinational corporations?

   Imagine a political party that continuously votes to defund public education for the children of its own citizens, arguably the most precious and valued resource that country possesses. Imagine a political party that insists on shifting funds intended for public education to private schools that also happen to teach their own religious ideology as science to the determent of the children they have sworn to nurture.

   Look at this, this, this, and this.     

   Imagine a political party that ignores the overwhelming consensus of the scientific community (98% vs 2%), and empirical, verifiable evidence that the planet’s climate is systematically warming, providing the greatest threat the country and the world has yet faced, no matter what the cause of that warming may be, in order to keep industries like oil, natural gas and coal, running while continuing to pollute the atmosphere, with the short term goal of maximizing profits. Imagine a political party that champions these industries at the expense of newer, renewable, clean energy sources.

   Imagine a political party that insists on repealing, or defund their countries healthcare policy that provides low cost health insurance for the majority of that countries citizens, saving or improving the lives of millions of those citizens, while lowering the entire healthcare costs for the nation, entirely for political reasons.

   Imagine a political party that refuses to provide funds to improve their countries own infrastructure, it’s roads, highways, bridges, electrical grid, railroads, aviation systems, dams, and

other public use systems... in order to adhere to that parties idealogy that spending and the national debt are more important.

   Imagine a political party that continously votes to undermine their own country’s social safety net, programs designed to help it’s poor, disabled, and elderly, who would instead funnel the money used to implement these programs to business and banking interests. And imagine that same political party maintaining the facade that it champions Christian values while ignoring true Christian values in practical applications, such as programs designed to help the poor, disabled, and elderly.

   Imagine a political party that when last in power ruined it’s own economy.

   Imagine a political party that when last in power began two wars that were unnecessary, in that they could have been avoided, that were not relevant to the problem at hand (a domestic attack), costing the lives of thousands of it’s own citizens, and hundreds of thousands of lives of foreign nationals, and the displacement of millions of others.  

   Imagine a political party that continuously and systematically lies and misinforms their own constituents, at the expense of these constituents own best interests.

   Imagine a President who has to resort to what is tantamount to bribing the leaders of the opposition political party to do their job and promote programs to put that countries citizens to work, and that party still refuses to do anything to advance the country’s interests, including the interests of that party’s own constituents.

Facts and Observations

   Not a single Democrat voted for John Kline's anti-education bill, H.R. 5. It passed Friday, 221-207, a dozen Republicans crossing the aisle and voting with Team Pelosi. The bill, which Kline and the rest of the GOP zombies call the Student Success Act, was supposed to rewrite No Child Left Behind. If anything, they've managed to make a terrible law even worse. -Down with Tyranny

  

   In the rest of the United States, public education is just as underfunded as it is in Detroit. As a result, in 2008, the US' high school graduation rate was lower than the rates of the UK, Switzerland, Norway, South Korea, Japan, Italy and a host of other developed nations.

   And, according to multiple reports released in December of last year, fourth and eighth-grade students in the U.S. lag behind students in many East Asian and European nations when it comes to math and science. And those same reports revealed that European and Asian nations spend far more money and spend it more wisely on education than we do here.

    But Speaker Boehner and his Republican colleagues must be content with these stats, because they have done next to nothing to boost funding for public education in America.

   And Republican inaction in Congress doesn't stop at refusing to address public education, gun violence, infrastructure and jobs in America. Since John Boehner has been Speaker of the House, Republicans have voted nearly 40 times to repeal Obamacare, they've refused to address climate change, they've refused to reel in the big banks on Wall Street, and they've refused to address the home foreclosure crisis.

   Each year, the American Society of Civil Engineers releases a "report card" for America's infrastructure. And, in its 2013 report card, the ASCE gave a D to America's roads and highways, a D to America's transit system, a D to America's aviation system, a D+ to America's energy infrastructure, and a C+ to America's bridges.

   But, despite America's crumbling infrastructure, Speaker Boehner and the rest of Republicans in Washington have repeatedly refused to provide the funding needed to bring America's infrastructure out of the 1800's and into the 21st century.

   Nationwide, there were nearly 8,600 homicides by firearms in 2011, which accounted for more than two-thirds of all homicides in 2011. And, as we know, mass shootings like the ones in Aurora and Newtown have become the norm.

   But again, Speaker Boehner and Republican lawmakers in Washington have failed to pass any comprehensive legislation to address the gun violence epidemic in America, or the inequality and poverty that are driving it. -Thomm Hartman

The War on Women

   Republicans have been busy defunding Planned Parenthood and other forms of publicly funded family planning like Title X. They don’t want to offer birth control pills via healthcare reform. They are against sex education and promote abstinence only instead. Republicans pass these policies off as “pro-life” because they claim they hate abortion, and yet, their policies lead to more abortions.

   In 2010, publicly funded family planning averted 760,000 abortions, according to a Guttmacher Institute report “Contraceptive Needs and Services 2010″ released in July of 2013.

   They write, “In 2010, publicly funded contraceptive services helped women prevent 2.2 million unintended pregnancies; 1.1 million of these would have resulted in unplanned births and 760,000 in abortions.”

   So, to be clear, Republican policies will lead to 66% increase in unintended pregnancies, unplanned births and abortions — and even more among teens. -Sarah Jones

Sequester

   There is no single federal budget bill, but a series of bills for combinations of different agencies. In 2013, House Appropriations Committee has been approving budgets that present some of the most draconian cuts seen in a generation. This week saw the panel pass a budget bill cutting the Environmental Protection Agency by 34 percent, including cuts to clean water programs by 60 percent. It gave the White House a quarter of what it sought for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and cut National Park funds by 10 percent and cuts national arts and humanities funding in half. -Steven Rosenfeld

   Why are these spending cuts necessary? The Republicans claim it’s because of the huge national deficit, which they also claim is the country’s biggest problem (while also claiming that job creation is their Number1 priority).

   Yet...

Deficit

   The federal budget deficit is shrinking. That might not surprise you if you know about the sequester and other budget gymnastics that have gone on in Washington.

   But, what’s perhaps more surprising is that the deficit is shrinking far faster than anyone in Washington anticipated it would.  That bit of information, together with a slew of other recent economic reports about the state of the housing market and consumer confidence paint a brighter picture of the economy than we’ve gotten used to seeing. -The Takeaway

   The Congressional Budget Office reported Tuesday that the federal budget deficit is declining this year compared to fiscal 2012.

   For the first seven months of 2013, the deficit was $489 billion. That is $231 billion less than the budget shortfall for the comparable period last year.

   The decrease is almost entirely due to revenue increases. Revenues rose $200 billion and spending decreased only $11 billion. -Erik Wasson

On and on

   In recent weeks, officials in states like New York and California have boasted about lower premiums for residents thanks to the Affordable Care Act. But on Friday, Indiana, where Republican officials dominate, announced the law would force a premium increase of 72%. How it that possible? As Sarah Kliff, Jonathan Cohn, and others explained over the weekend, GOP policymakers in the state arrived at the figure by cooking the books and jumping to conclusions based on incomplete information...

   Fourth, congressional Republicans have repeatedly denied the Obama administration funds needed for implementation. Fifth, GOP leaders have shamelessly discouraged private-sector partnerships with Washington on public-awareness campaigns, in the hopes that public ignorance might help undermine the efficacy of the system. Sixth, many Republicans at the state level are refusing to allow Medicaid expansion, no matter how much damage it does to their state. And seventh, these same GOP officials in the states are refusing to create exchanges, making it that much more difficult for federal officials to meet deadlines and fully implement the law on time.

   When I talk about efforts to "sabotage" Obamacare, this is what I'm talking about..-Steve Benen

   The Republican Party has spent 30 years careering ever more deeply into ideological extremism, but one of the novel developments of the Obama years is its embrace of procedural extremism. The Republican fringe has evolved from being politically shrewd proponents of radical policy changes to a gang of saboteurs who would rather stop government from functioning at all. In this sense, their historical precedents are not so much the Gingrich revolutionaries, or even their tea-party selves of a few years ago; the movement is more like the radical left of the sixties, had it occupied a position of power in Congress. And so the terms we traditionally use to scold bad Congresses—partisanship, obstruction, gridlock—don’t come close to describing this situation. The hard right’s extremism has bent back upon itself, leaving an inscrutable void of paranoia and formless rage and twisting the Republican Party into a band of anarchists.

   And the worst is not behind us. -Jonathan Chait

   Over the past three months, [Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius has made multiple phone calls to health industry executives, community organizations and church groups and asked that they contribute whatever they can to nonprofit groups that are working to enroll uninsured Americans and increase awareness of the law, according to an HHS official and an industry person familiar with the secretary’s activities. Both spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk openly about private discussions.

   An HHS spokesperson said Sebelius was within the bounds of her authority in asking for help.

But Republicans charged that Sebelius’s outreach was improper because it pressured private companies and other groups to support the Affordable Care Act. The latest controversy has emerged as the law faces a string of challenges from GOP lawmakers in Washington and skepticism from many state officials across the country.

“To solicit funds from health-care executives to help pay for the implementation of the President’s $2.6 trillion health spending law is absurd,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. “I will be seeking more information from the Administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law.” -Sarah Kliff

   Consider the implicit argument there. The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, and the Obama administration is legally bound to implement it. Having denied the necessary funding to do so, Republicans now want to hinder the administration’s ability to transfer other funding, to ensure that Obamacare becomes the disaster Republicans have promised. -Ezra Klien

    When a law is enacted, representatives who opposed it have some choices (which are not mutually exclusive). They can try to repeal it, which is perfectly acceptable—unless it becomes an effort at grandstanding so overdone that it detracts from other basic responsibilities of governing. They can try to amend it to make it work better—not just perfectly acceptable but desirable, if the goal is to improve a cumbersome law to work better for the betterment of the society and its people. They can strive to make sure that the law does the most for Americans it is intended to serve, including their own constituents, while doing the least damage to the society and the economy. Or they can step aside and leave the burden of implementation to those who supported the law and got it enacted in the first place.

   But to do everything possible to undercut and destroy its implementation -- which in this case means finding ways to deny coverage to many who lack any health insurance; to keep millions who might be able to get better and cheaper coverage in the dark about their new options; to create disruption for the health providers who are trying to implement the law, including insurers, hospitals, and physicians; to threaten the even greater disruption via a government shutdown or breach of the debt limit in order to blackmail the president into abandoning the law; and to hope to benefit politically from all the resulting turmoil -- is simply unacceptable, even contemptible. One might expect this kind of behavior from a few grenade-throwing firebrands. That the effort is spearheaded by the Republican leaders of the House and Senate -- even if Speaker John Boehner is motivated by fear of his caucus, and McConnell and Cornyn by fear of Kentucky and Texas Republican activists -- takes one's breath away. -Norm Ornstein

   Does all of the above constitute treasonous acts committed by Republicans in Congress? Certainly more so than the examples of Obama’s treason cited in the first two parts of this post.

   One prerequisite for treason according to the Constitution is that the country be at war. That prerequisite is met. I believe the actions, or should I say the non-actions of the Republicans in Congress, are tantamount to a  betrayal of allegiance to the United States, or rather  the majority of the people of the United States. It’s citizens. Instead their allegiance lies with powerful business interests and the ultra wealthy, at the expense of the citizens of the United States.

   The same applies for those powerful business interests themselves, and a percentage of the ultra wealthy who profit from them.

   Perhaps larceny, embezzlement, tax avoidance, and malicious mischief are better, more appropriate terms that can be applied to the crimes committed by Congress.

   But in my mind it will always be treason.



  "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." -- Sinclair Lewis

Happy Birthday Anne Archer!

Fatal Attraction

Picture Legend

1. Beautiful Anne
2. “The Shadow” John Archer
3. Anne’s mom, Marjorie Lord, cheating with Danny Thomas
4. “Hold me Closer Tiny Dancer”
5. Early head shot
6. First film with James Coburn
7. Or, first film with Jon Voight in “All American Boy”... take your pick
8. With Sam Elliot in Lifeguard
9. “Fatal Attraction” with Glenn Close & Michael Douglas
10. With Harrison Ford fighting Irish people in “Patriot Games”
11. A Golden Globe for Golden Globe Girl in Altman’s “Short Cuts”
12. With Ford and Clancy again in “A Clear and Present Danger”
13. “Rules of Engagement” with Tommy Lee Jones & Samuel Jackson
14. With Tommy again in “Man of the House”
15. “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia”
16. Playing Jennifer Love Hewitt’s mom on “Ghost Whisperer”
17. Sexy shot
18. With hubby, producer Terry Jastrow
19. Beautiful Anne

   It is my great pleasure and honor this morning to give a happy birthday shout out to one of my favorite actresses, Ms Anne Archer!

   Anne is an L.A. girl, born here at a very early age as a small female infant. Not surprisingly her parents we’re both successful actors. John Archer, who began his acting career on the radio playing Lamont Cranston in "The Shadow," (here’s an interesting tidbit... “30 Rock,”s Alex Baldwin also played Cranston in a 1994 version of “The Shadow,” after appearing as the first actor to play the Jack Ryan character in 1990‘s “The Hunt for Red October,” a role later played by both Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. Anne of course played Cathy Ryan, Jack’s wife, with Ford in two films) before turning to films and appearing in such classics as “White Heat,” with James Cagney, “Rock Around the Clock,” with Bill Haley & His Comets,” (and which obviously inspired the famous sit-com “Happy Days”), “Ten Thousand Bedrooms,” (which when you think about it is a lot of bedrooms) Dean Martin’s first film after he broke up with Jerry Lewis, “Decision at Sundown,” with Randolph Scott, and “Blue Hawaii,” with Elvis Presley.

   Anne’s mom, Marjorie Lord, after working for Universal Pictures in several films (including “Sherlock Holmes in Washington,” starring my favorite Sherlock actor, Basil “The Nose" Rathbone), was offered the role of Kathy "Clancey" O'Hara Williams, the wife of Danny Williams, who was really Danny Thomas, on “The Danny Thomas Show,”  (known as “Make Room for Daddy” during the first three seasons) from 1957 to 1964, “The Danny Thomas TV Family Reunion,” (considered the first ever reunion show on television) in 1965, a couple of specials, and one season of “Make Room for Granddaddy,” in 1970. For those readers who may not remember Danny Thomas or his show, he is also famous for being the father of Marlo Thomas, who rose to fame in her own sit-com, “That Girl,” from 1966 to 1971. Marlo is now married to one of my favorite people, former television host Phil Donahue, and also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by her father Danny.

   Little is known of Anne’s early years as she is dark and mysterious. Perhaps she’ll read this and fill us in with a comment. Many have.

   We do know that she attended and earned a degree in Theater Arts at Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont California (34°6′36″N 117°43′11″W), "The City of Trees and PhDs," because it is famous for it’s trees and the Claremont colleges there. It’s about 32.5 miles from where I’m writing this. It’s also been rated the fifth best place to live in the United States, and the first in California.

   Eat that Beverly Hills!

   I don’t know if Anne actually lived in Claremont. She may have driven home to Sixth and Broadway here downtown each day for all I know.

   Having that degree in Theater Arts and all, it was perfectly appropriate for her to seek work in the television and film industry, which is also situated right here in L.A. (also for all we know Anne has never ever left Los Angeles and it’s surrounding communities in her entire life. Many haven’t). 

   She started work in television guest roles on shows like “Men at Law,” (with Robert Foxworth) “Hawaii Five-O,” “Mod Squad,” “Ironside,” (with “Godzilla” frontman Raymond Bur. A show I delivered booze to once on their sound stage from my dad’s liquor store which was right across the street. I have the distinct honor of hearing Raymond exclaim “Shit!” after blowing a line), and “Alias Smith and Jones” (which was a ripoff of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” and starred Ben Murphy and Peter Duel. I remember once delivering booze to a wrap party on a set where Mr. Duel wanted to help me carry whatever it was I was delivering (at the time I was a small child). “I can do it,” I told him. “I know you can,” he said to me.  Sometime after that, apparently depressed due to his alcoholism, he would fatally shoot himself in the head on the last day of 1971).

   In August of 1969 Anne married William Davis, with whom she had one son, Tommy. The couple divorced in 1977.

   In 1971 Anne was given the honor of becoming Miss Golden Globe,  an annual title awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The honoree, traditionally the daughter (or son) of a celebrity, assists in the Association's presentation of the Golden Globe Awards.

   For instance this year Miss Golden Globe is Francesca Eastwood, daughter of Clint Eastwood and the actress Frances Fisher.

   Other past Miss Golden Globe’s include Laura Dern (“Blue Velvet,” “Jurassic Park”), Melanie Griffith (“Working Girl” “Body Double”), and like my third favorite Playboy Playmate ever, Rosanne Katon (“The Swinging Cheerleaders”).

   Once at least the honor was handed down a generation. In 2006 Dakota Johnson (no relation to Fanning) became Miss Golden Globe. Dakota is the daughter of “Miami Vice” star Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith.

   There’s some contention as to which was Anne’s first appearance in a feature film. The Internet Movie Data Base lists “The Honkers,” starring James Coburn as her first film role in 1972 (Wikipedia also lists this as her first). In the Internet Movie data Base’s bio of Anne it proclaims “All American Boy,” starring Jon Voight as her first, as does her website. It also states that movie was released in 1973. 1972... 1973... by golly, they’re so close together it doesn’t matter I guess.

    Also in 73, Anne won the Natalie Wood role in the television adaptation of the film “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice,” which lasted for 12 episodes, the point being she was getting bigger and better jobs, which gave her larger and greater recognition.

   More television work, then in 1976 she got her first female lead in a feature. “Lifeguard,” opposite Sam Elliott. 

   At the end of 1978 she married sports and entertainment producer Terry Jastrow, with whom she is still married today, and with whom she had another son, Jeffrey Tucker Jastrow in 1984.

   She auditioned for the role of Lois Lane for 1978's “Superman,” but lost out to Margot Kidder.

   Anne helped Jason Robards “Raise the Titanic,” in 1980. She helped Ryan O’Neal find “Green Ice,” (not to be confused with Yellow Snow) in 1981. In 1985 she appeared in 22 episodes of the prime time soap opera “Falcon Crest” (reuniting with Robert Foxworth).

   Then in 1987 she gained an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of aggrieved wife Beth Gallagher, in “Fatal Attraction,” which also starred the lovely Glenn Close (who was nominated for Best Actress) and Michael Douglas (who won the honor of staring at Sharon Stone’s cooter in “Basic Instinct”)

   She played Cathy Ryan, eye surgeon and Harrison Ford’s wife in 1992‘s “Patriot Games,” and the producers and audience liked her so much they asked her to do it again in “Clear and Present Danger,” two years later.

   But the year before that she went back to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, this time as an accomplished actress, and won a Golden Globe Award for Ensemble Acting (the ensemble including Matthew Modine, Julianne Moore, Fred Ward,  Jennifer Jason Leigh, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Lemmon, Andie MacDowell, Buck Henry, Lily Tomlin, our friend Madeleine Stowe, and musicians Huey Lewis and Tom Waits) in Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts.” The year... 1993.

   To put a little icing on the cake she was voted the 62nd Sexiest Star in the entire history of film by Empire magazine in 1995.

   I don’t know about the ranking but she certainly belongs on the list.

   Anne has worked consistently since. She may be working at this very moment in movies like 2000‘s “Rules of Engagement,” with Tommy Lee Jones, and TV shows like “Boston Public,” and as a raging lesbian in “The L Word” (I’ll have to check that out). In 2005 she got freaking married to Tommy Lee in “Man of the House.”

   She played Danny DeVito’s estranged wife on “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and Jennifer Love Hewitt’s mother on “Ghost Whisperer.”

   She could whisper to ghosts too, but just didn’t want to.

   I for one don’t blame her.

   Her work on the stage includes the world premiere of "The Poison Tree" at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" in Massachusetts and the starring role in the London West End production of "The Graduate", for which she received rave reviews as a raging Mrs. Robinson. She began theater in New York  debuting as "Maude Mix" in the celebrated Off-Broadway production of John Ford Noonan's "A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking".

   In 2011 she starred in the Los Angeles stage production of “Jane Fonda, In The Court of Public Opinion” written and directed by her husband Terry Jastrow. The play will be produced in the West End in London in early 2014 I’m told.

    Between 1982 and 1986 Anne was a spokeswoman for Applied Scholastics, the literacy training organization sponsored by the Church of Scientology, of which she is a member.

   She’s got good company in being a member... Tom Cruise and John Travolta, etc. A lot people think the church’s ideology is crazy, and it’s just a big scheme to separate people from their money. Well I say in that, the  Church of Scientology is little different than any other church.

   I’m not exactly sure when it was exactly that I became cognizant of Anne and her work, she was like always there for me. I do know that she is one of those rare actors or actresses who always make a film or show better by simply by being in it.

   All of us here at Joyce’s Take love Anne and wish her and her family continued good health and fortune, and of course, a very happy birthday!

   Happy birthday Anne!

Here’s a link to her web site.