Have you ever read a book that is so good you never wanted it to end?  Reading is a passion of mine that I can never seem to find enough time for.  I love a good mystery, science fiction, and the classics.  From time to time I enjoy a good political yarn or a sports biography but I don’t spend nearly enough time with self improvement books.  Working in the IT industry and being a fledgling blogger I am finding that my required presence before a computer screen has me spending more and more time reading on the internet.  There is some good stuff on the internet, I’ll throw this page out as an example, but there is something about the tactile quality and the turning of the page to see what happens next that will always be preferable to me.

          My friend Lori came across and posted about a story that our President, the one who is on record as being proud that he doesn’t read newspapers, is now in a book reading contest with Karl Rove.  Naturally the spin coming out of the Whitehouse has to be that the Prez is kicking Rove’s butt and it makes some fairly unbelievable claims about the quantity of reading the President is doing.  Nowhere on the reading list was, “My Pet Goat” so the credibility of the press release is not without some questions of plausibility.  If the President is trying to lead us to believe that he is some sort of intellectual I think that ship sailed a long time ago.  Bush the reader.  

          Our local paper prints Garrison Keillor’s syndicated commentary much to my delight.  This Saturday he wrote brilliantly about our national priorities when it comes to investing in our youth.  He said, “Annual interest on the national debt now exceeds all government welfare programs combined.  We’ll be in Iraq for years to come.  Hard choices need to be made.  Given the situation we’re in, I think we must bite the bullet and say no more health care for card-carrying Republicans.  It makes no sense to invest in longevity for people who don’t believe in the future.  Let them try faith-based medicine; let them pray for their Arteries to be reamed and their hips to be restored.  Leave science to the rest of us.”

          Hey!  I’m all for it!  It is perhaps the most identifiable characteristic of Republicans that they hate the poor and the meager support that is afforded to try to help the less fortunate get a hand up.  Where is the outrage against the transfer payments to defense contractors?  I find the conservative agenda laughable.  I do not personally know a soul on the planet who has suffered any individual hardship from the result of illegal immigration or gay relationships yet those issues will be bitterly presented as the problems facing America in the next election cycle.  So it goes.

          The revocation of health care for Republicans will do one of two things:  It will offset the disturbing news I commented on last Thursday,  or it will advance the Conservative Cause as divine order protects the “messengers of God” as a reward for their faith based health care.  It’s a gamble I’m more than willing to make!

 

          One of the hot emails circulating around these parts these days is the old non-partisan, “Let’s demand that Congress give up their rock star retirement plans and settle for Social Security with the rest of us suckers” email.  The email describes the Congressional pension plan by pointing out that our devoted Senators and Representatives get their income for life and never have to pay a cent for the privilege.  The examples given are these: “Senator Byrd and Congressman White and their wives may expect to draw $7,800,000.00 (that's Seven Million, Eight-Hundred Thousand Dollars), with their wives drawing $275,000.00 each year until death.  From our own Social Security Plan, which you and I pay (or have paid) into, every payday until we retire (which amount is matched by our employer) we can expect to get an average of $1,000 per month after retirement.  Or, in other words, we would have to collect our average of $1,000 monthly benefits for 68 years to equal Senator Bill Bradley's projected benefits!”  The email closes with this: Social Security could be very good if only one small change were made. That change would be to: Jerk the Golden Fleece Retirement Plan from under the Senators and Congressmen. Put them into the Social Security plan with the rest of us then sit back..... And see how fast they would fix it!” 

          Good luck with that!  The email seems to make enough sense.  It would be logical that when pondering tight budgets and huge federal deficits that someone would throw that little perk up on the table but who are we kidding?  This little rip-off of the American public is small potatoes compared to some of the things we read in the headlines on a regular basis.  Until we lose our complacency about what goes on in Washington it will continue to be business as usual.  I’m not sure that forwarding that email around is going to do a lot of good.  Congress is currently on recess and wouldn’t it be great if you could attend a function where you would get the opportunity to ask your representative if it was true that their retirement package was really a lifetime salary?  When they respond with double-speak and hem and haw you should follow up with the question: How much does that retirement package cost you?  You should be able to then sit back and let the rest of the crowd take care of the rest.  Any legislator worth their salt will be able to weasel their way out of those questions but I’m not so certain that many of our legislators are worth their weight in salt. 

 

          Showtime at Penguins Comedy Club was a blast!  Sorry there will be no video.  As always happens when I lend anything of value to any of my children my trusty camcorder no longer functions.  This was the one that I bought to replace the last one that the kids borrowed to start their careers in the movie industry.  Sigh, I’m tired.  The kid did a great job though!  He was very pleased with his performance and it showed.  He was very comfortable on stage and got as many or more laughs than all of the amateurs save one.  There was a college kid there that had a large entourage and his material was pretty good.  “He who must be obeyed”, my boss, and Gimp came to watch the show.  Seeing as how the boss was there my son had to cut the half of his act.  I kicked him under the table before he took the stage and whispered, “If you do the “my father, the disgruntled worker” segment I will kill you and never tell your mother what I did with the body.”  Hey!  That part isn’t true.  There is nothing funny about my work!  Ba-Da-Boom!  Take my wife, Please!  Okay, okay, maybe I should leave the comedy to the kid.

                    IT’S FRIDAY! And a three day weekend for most of you to boot!  Enjoy!  I have made it through one full work week fighting the fight of the single parent against three to one odds!  The kids may have found that the old man is tougher than they thought!  Nah, I'm a push over.  Thanks for stopping by, don’t forget to write and tell your friends about us!

          I’m afraid, no, really afraid.  Have you ever learned something that just scared the bejesus out of you?  Have you ever stumbled across some information that turns your world upside down and leaves you gasping for air and not really knowing what to do about it?  It happened to me.  I read in Shark-Fu’s blog last Wednesday that conservatives are more proficient at love making than liberals!  Say it isn’t so!  Ewwee, I just had a vision of the Cheney’s getting their groove on and it made me a little nauseous. 

"The political right is having a lot more kids than the political left," Syracuse University professor Arthur Brooks says. "The gap is actually 41 percent."

Studying numbers from the General Social Survey — a government survey of social trends — Brooks found that 100 unrelated liberal adults have 147 children, while 100 unrelated conservatives have 208 kids.  ABC News Story

          I’m really freakin’ about this news.  Think of the children, the poor children.  Millions of babies are being born each year in the United States that will have to overcome tremendous odds to enjoy the rich life that liberalism affords.  Pffft!  No, not rich in a monetary sense but rather rich in a robust, open minded, fun-loving, and non-anal sense.  I guess I shouldn’t have said that.  One of the must fun and funniest guys I know is a big-old conservative.  I’m not saying he isn’t anal but he approaches life with an admirable gusto and knows how to have a good time.  For the sake of clarity lets refer to this friend of mine as Scott.  This blog makes Scott crazy and on the days when I just don’t really feel like putting out a post all I really have to do is try to come up with something that will get under his skin and I find all the motivation I need.

          Scott and I were talking the other day about possibly doing a fat guy version of Hannity and Colmes when the next election cycle gets into full swing.  I think that could be a lot of fun.  He threatens that my hit count will increase exponentially once a fair and balanced blathering of the deceptions he believes in are posted for your review.  I’m not sure how I would feel were that to manifest upon my site tracking report.  There are an average of 75 of you out there who read these pages on a regular basis now.  Growth has been slow but steady so I have that going for me.  I am looking forward to achieving the average hit count of 100 visits per day.  If you keep telling your friends about the site at the current rate that should happen sometime in late winter.  Help me out little Hoggies, spread the word!

          I’d still like to hear from my readers in the Netherlands and Switzerland because I see that you visit on a regular basis.  Although I should mention that Germany has surpassed Switzerland for visitors for the month of August.  Domestically California, Maryland, Virginia, Utah and Georgia have a significant readership.  My own home state of Iowa ranks 5^th for unique daily visitors.  I appreciate you all.  It is almost midnight Iowa time as I finish up this Thursday post and seeing as how I babysat a server until 4:00 AM for my job last night I ought to head for bed.  I will need my rest because tomorrow evening I am going to the local comedy club.  My son Clayton is making his home town debut at Penguins Comedy Club.  I’ll take the camcorder and see if I can’t get another video link posted so you can see how he does in front of the home crowd.  Have a great Thursday and don’t forget to wear red on Friday to show your support for our troops!  I hope they are all home soon!   

 

Hey, Thanks to Lori who taught me how to link to other web pages with text rather than the old cumbersome http://www.lastbluelink.com   Okay, I couldn't resist.  Click on that last blue link for a hilarious discovery!

          Yahoo news reported, “SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Tuesday the world faces "a new type of fascism" and likened critics of the U.S. war strategy to those who tried to appease the Nazis. In unusually explicit terms, Rumsfeld portrayed the Bush administration's critics as suffering from "moral or intellectual confusion" about what threatens the nation's security.”  Oh you know I can’t read something like that and not have something to say about it!  Let me see if I can recall my high school government class and the definition of fascism.  Fascism is a system of government that is characterized by centralized authority, repression of opposition, and extreme nationalism.  Indeed Mr. Rumsfeld is correct in that the world faces a new type of fascism!  Talk about your pot-kettle ironies.

          There has been a lot of talk recently in “the liberal media” that claims Americans not supporting Boy George are demoralizing our troops.  I don’t think so.  George spared no effort in seeking escape from serving our country when it was his time to serve.  Rumsfeld had an undistinguished three year hitch, 1954-57, as a flight instructor in the US Navy.  The men and women in our military are laying their lives on the line to preserve the way of life that is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.  I would think that our soldiers would be demoralized by reading the news that the Bush Administration is seeking to erase our First and Fourth Amendment Rights.  In opposing the failed policies of Bush-Rummy the majority of Americans want our soldiers home because of failed leadership and implausible objectives.  I mean really, does anybody really think that a cooperative representative democracy is going to be possible in Iraq, ever? 

          To suggest that critics of the war are following a strategy similar to those who tried to appease the Nazi’s is one of the most irresponsible statements I have ever heard in my life.  Not only was it irresponsible but it was conceptually inverse to reality.  Our troops need a definite timeline to return home in order to give the Iraqi Government a deadline and an incentive to get serious about the important work in front of them.  There is no quantifiable progress towards peace in Iraq.  Increasing instability and an eminent civil war are the headlines coming from Iraq.  Any rational American would be critical of the policies that are costing lives and resources where there is no defined objective for peace and no exit strategy.  If a junior high school student turned in a social studies paper saying we needed to stay at war in Iraq until we defeated terrorism with no definition of what that means they would receive an F. 

          For Rummy to suggest that I and the majority of Americans who are critical of Bush’s handling of the war in Iraq are “suffering from moral or intellectual confusion” was the final straw.  This coming from the guy who said, “We know where the weapons are” as he made the case for war in Iraq, the guy who oversaw prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, the guy who, when questioned about the biggest defense procurement scandal in American history said, "I find it strange that, as a government official, the laws apply to me".  Somebody is definitely suffering from moral or intellectual confusion and it isn’t the 200 million Americans that are critical of the mess we have made in Iraq.

          I guess I just don’t get it.   If I point out that the economy is only benefiting the investor class and that millions of working Americans are not better off now than before Boy Georgie was placed in office I am criticized of being a proponent of gloom and doom.  According to conservatives America is the best it has ever been and there is no sense in hoping that it could be a better place.  Currently 38.2 million people, including 14 million children, live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger.  That is a lot of hungry children and I think we can do better.

          The perception in America is that the poor in America deserve the poverty they live in.  After all, this is America and anything is possible.  Our children are told from the first day of kindergarten that they can grow up to be president.  Our most recent president does little to disprove that but I would suggest that he had support that many of our children would never be able to obtain.  The rich in America are rich because they earn their wealth through intelligence, natural ability and hard work.  If you are poor it just means that you are lazy.  You should have worked harder in school and then harder at your job and then you too could be a millionaire.

          The perception that the rich are rich and the poor are poor from their own doing is perpetuated by the notion that it would not make sense to be otherwise.  After all; everything we have gotten in life we have worked damn hard for and while we may have had a bad break here or there it is certainly within the realm of possibilities that we will one day be recognized for the creative genius within us.  We don’t want to admit that what we have in life has a great deal more to do with a role of the dice when souls were attached to embryos in our mother’s womb than it does with how hard we work.  The environment we grew up in has absolutely more to do with our success or failure in life than any other variable.  But many continue to believe that the poor must be poor because they are lazy.  Forget that many poor in America work two and three back breaking jobs to make ends meet.  If they had not been so lazy in school or were not too lazy to improve their current position in life they could all be driving Hummers to their beach homes.

          As health care and energy costs continue to escalate many working-class Americans are finding themselves on the brink of poverty.  Middle-class Americans have financed many their material accumulations with credit cards and home equity loans.  In part these possessions were purchased as insulation from the realization that they were only a few paychecks away from poverty.  The perceived wealth of much of middle-class America is an illusion that is becoming harder and harder to pay for.

          The greatest accumulation of wealth lies in hands of the richest 1 percent of Americans.  It is ironic that the ultra rich, for the most part do not work or produce anything.  The ultra-rich make their money via inheritance, share-holding and banking.  Then they turn around and perpetuate the idea that poverty is a result of laziness and a poor work ethic.  The most disturbing thing about the wealthiest 1% of Americans is that their accumulated wealth gives them the power to maintain the status quo by influencing elected officials through campaign donations.  Political donations are very effective at maintaining the current social order and whenever their influence is questioned they will fight ferociously to ensure their lifestyle is unimpeded.  Who could blame them?  They have all the money and they don’t have to work for it.

          As long as we buy into the idea that anyone can be president; that anybody can succeed in America, we will continue to go to work everyday, listen to Rush Limbaugh on our lunch break and scoff at those damn tax and spend-baby killing liberals.  As long as we believe that every body in America has an equal shot at the brass ring our legislators will continue to be bought and they will continue to sell our future down the drain.  We will continue as sheep to be herded into believing that we should repeal the estate tax, that telecom corporations should be able to charge us to use the internet and that corporations need tax incentives more than the less fortunate among us need health care, affordable housing and food in their pantries.  The last thing the richest one percent and the Republican Party, that noshes at their banquet tables, want is a disgruntled America that thinks we can do better.  The real power in America is money and those who hold it sure as heck don’t want you to have any of theirs and they want more of yours.  To that end in the next two national elections they are going to try to convince you that job stealing immigrants, American hating terrorists and evil gay predators who want to abduct your children are what this next election is all about.  They will make one big mistake though.  We aren’t stupid and lazy and we will take time to select the candidates that have our future in mind and we will vote them into office.  A small investment of time to research the candidates in the next two elections could go a long way in preventing 14 million children from going to bed hungry one night.

http://www.corporate-aliens.com/articles/maintemplate.php?fname=society/hunger.html

 

And now for something completely different:  My buddy at Hahn At Home gave some good advice in her post about the pain of seeing your kids grow up and exert some independence.  Her post is not nearly as "gloom and doom" oriented as my post today.  It lifted my spirits, Go check it out!

          The kids and I dropped “She who must be obeyed” at the airport around noon on Sunday and then made our way to scrounge up lunch.  As we pulled away from the airport terminal I looked at the kids, the kids looked at me and for a brief instant we all saw panic in each others eyes.  Choosing my words carefully I asked, “Where do you want to eat lunch?”  Instantly a tangible sense of relief lifted the look of despair and uncertainty from my children’s faces.  In place of the sad and uncertain look upon the faces of my offspring was a wry smile that assured each of us that things would be okay.  Had I said, “What do you want to eat for lunch” I may have lost the kids until their mother’s return in November.   I suppose it is not without precedent that the thought of their father preparing Sunday lunch had caused some trepidation on their part.  Occasionally, as a parent, I have the ability to know just what to say and how to say it.

          So here we are, the kids and I, ready to tackle the difficult duties that are inherent with single parenthood, school, activities and social life.  I think the key to all of this is to never let them see me sweat, never let them know how terrified I am that I will hose up my obligation to keep them all alive until their mother’s return.  I think I will rely heavily on misdirection, smoke and mirrors in my attempt to distract them the reality of the precarious situation they find themselves in.  After lunch I confirmed that the kids all had room in their agendas to catch a movie.  With an 18 year old daughter, and 18 year old son and a 7 year old finding a movie that appealed to everyone seemed a daunting task. 

          It was time for the oldest boy to step up.  He suggested “Invincible.” http://movies.go.com/movies/movie?name=invincible_2006 Invincible is the just released movie that tells the true story of Vince Papale, played my Mark Wahlberg who earned a spot on the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles when rookie coach Dick Vermeil held open tryouts for the team to generate fan interest in the struggling franchise.  It appealed to the seven year old because it was a Disney movie, it appealed to my oldest son because it was a sports movie and for the daughter, well, Mark Wahlberg, need I say more?  I was just happy that we found something we could agree upon. 

          The movie ended up to be the most fun I have had at the movies in years.  The story had everything.  It was humorous, there was the human drama of an underdog overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and there was plenty of grid iron action.  The actors were wonderful and the characters were all rich and developed.  There was a romantic subplot, and the story in examining the importance of our roots and loyalty to our community while contemplating hope, friendship and perseverance was a refreshing tale that stood on it’s own without the need for raunchy sidebars.  You should go see it. 

          So this week I have my first week of single parenthood with responsibility for all three of my kids, a truck that needs repaired, a lawn that needs mowed, a son that needs to test for a drivers license, the other guy in my department at work is on vacation and we foolishly began a remodel on the upstairs bathroom on Saturday.  God help me!   As my wife turned her back to walk into the airport I think that I caught the flash of a smirk on her face and sight of a definite spring in her step.  It was only four weeks ago that I was gallivanting around the Western United States on my Harley visiting with great friends and taking in endless panoramic views of some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet wasn’t it?  I guess such dramatic shifts in one’s situation are what keeps life interesting.  I can do this.  I can do this.  I can do this.  Such will be my mantra for the next 10 weeks.

                If you weren’t outraged by Boy George’s theft of the 2000 election you should see what he has been up to since his discovery that our democracy is his to do with what he and his merry money men would see fit.  Emboldened with his theft of the Oval Office, “The Decider” is leading the way to quash the voice of millions of Americans in favor of Americans with millions of dollars.  I doubt that many of my readers fit into the latter category and if you would ever hope to have a voice in the future of America you should read on.  New voter rules and regulations that discourage and limit voting for racial minorities, students, the poor, and senior citizens are being proposed and enacted across the land while Alberto Gonzales is working the Supreme Court to limit congressional authority and individual rights in favor of concentrated executive powers.  The proliferation of executive authority is undermining the tenets of our constitution and the separation of powers and with this additional authority the President is on a mission to diminish our civil rights as he leads us toward a police state where dissention is crushed.  Oh that is not true you say; why would Boy George want to stop the voice of dissent?  Duh!  The legacy of Boy George will be that he screwed up about everything he touched as he sold America to the highest bidder at the expense of the electorate.

                When it comes to issues of the environment, education, health care, the economy and national security whom do you believe you would have more in common: racial minorities, students, the poor and senior citizens or Exxon, Halliburton and Chase Bank?  The conservative agenda has been Shanghaied by corporate and special interests and they know that you do not need a majority to win elections.  To maintain control of the three branches of power that were established to protect the will of the people all that conservative henchmen need to do is limit the number of voters that oppose their candidates.  (That or just steal the election like they did in 2000)

                Check out this little conservative gem:

"I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down."

—Paul Weyrich, at a 1979 training session for 15,000 conservative preachers in Dallas. 

 

Voter suppression today is overwhelmingly achieved through regulatory, legislative and administrative means, resulting in modern-day equivalents of poll taxes and literacy tests that kept Black voters from the ballot box in the Jim Crow era.
                Couched in feel-good phrases such as "voter security" and "anti-voter fraud," these measures limit voter registration, turn voters away from polling places, and cast doubt on the validity of ballots.  For example, stringent voter ID rules that require photo ID at the polls sound reasonable, until the estimated up to 12 percent of eligible voters who do not have a driver’s license are figured in. And while "anti-fraud" measures sound good, in truth there is little evidence of organized voter fraud anywhere in the nation, while voter suppression tactics are varied and widespread:

                In Ohio, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has implemented rules to carry out a new state elections law. Blackwell’s rules make it extremely difficult for small churches and other nonprofit organizations to hire and train voter registration workers—and they expose voter registration workers to felony charges for making mistakes.
                In Texas, Congressman John Carter has suggested implementing literacy tests and English-only ballots, despite the existence of a federal law requiring minority language ballots at the polls.
                In Florida in 2004, Governor Jeb Bush was forced to deactivate a list of purported felons who were to be blocked from voting when the news media discovered that the list included Black, but not Hispanic, voters and that many people on the list were actually eligible voters.
                In California this year, nonsensical requirements for matching new voter names to existing state databases (e.g., a "Michael R. Neuman" would not match a "Mike R. Neuman" at the same address) resulted in numerous voter registrations being rejected. Between January and June, 26,824 voter registration forms received by Los Angeles County alone were rejected because of these new restrictions.
                In New Mexico, the number of "provisional ballots," which are mandated under new federal voting rules that went uncounted exceeded the margin of victory in the presidential race in 2004.
                In Indiana, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona, since the 2002 passage of the federal Help America Vote Act, state legislatures have passed new voter identification rules that would disenfranchise thousands of elderly and poor voters who do not have drivers' licenses or passports. Some of these measures have been blocked, but others are now in effect.
                In Ohio in 2004, precincts in predominantly low-income and minority neighborhoods were chronically understaffed and had fewer voting machines than higher-income precincts, resulting in long lines and uncounted numbers of voters leaving the polls before they had a chance to cast a vote.
                The Radical Right strategy of turning out base supporters while suppressing the votes of its opponents has often been successful. Legislatures controlled by far-right conservatives now determine the voting laws and how redistricting is conducted in many states. Governors, secretaries of state, and other election officials, supported by the Radical Right, now administer many states’ elections. This report, by no means comprehensive, provides a brief overview of various suppression techniques so that citizens, community activists and the news media can recognize similar attempts as patterns of voter suppression emerge across the country.  http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=22221

          You can help protect our liberty, our democracy and our family values by clicking this link: https://political.moveon.org/donate/06match.html