BP a sad poem

BP, Two little letters, what can they stand for; I asked of the bird who lie dieing on shore?

Bigger Profits he gasped as he crept closer to death, Bigger Profits, that’s all and nothing less!

BP, what does it mean? I asked of the turtle as he washed ashore, Bigger Profits he murmured and nothing more!

That can’t be I exclaimed! it must be something else, like the Blowout Preventer they took off of the shelf.

Your wrong shouted the Gulf Walrus from out of thin air, they have never worked and BP does not care!

No! I cried that can not be true, as the Walrus lie foundering all covered in goo!

Their must be another meaning, just out of reach, I pondered the question as the oil fouled the beach.

I coughed and I gagged as the spill worsened and BP continued spreading its deadly dispersants.

We all use the oil that much I do know, without Bigger Profits the economy would slow.

That can’t be the answer, it sounds much too harsh I thought to myself as the oil killed the marsh!

Without off shore drilling where would we be? But continued drilling will turn brown, our blue sea!

The oil spill is causing hardship and strife! It’s polluting the gulf waters and destroying our way of life!

Can it all be for Profit, is it as simple as that and will the disaster get swept under the matt?

No! The animals cried you must not forget, keep our memory alive, it’s not over yet!

I shouted BP, what do you stand for? Bigger Profits they clambered, that’s all nothing more?

If I were a Mexican living in poverty, I would gladly swim the Rio Grande for the opportunity to make a living to support my family. No one would begrudge them this; the question is, is it good for the United States to have illegal immigrants in our country?

Let me answer by relating my own experiences with illegal immigrants!

I lived and worked in Wilmington, North Carolina for 15 years. Not exactly what you would call a hot spot for illegal activity and yet I worked for a roofing company that hired and housed illegal immigrants. They would make multiple copies of a social security card to put on file, but they all worked under the table. The company owner would rent them a mobile home where 14 of them lived. It  was just before Christmas when I asked one of them “aren’t you worried about the INS deporting you?” He started laughing out loud. “What is so funny?” I asked? He replied, when I want to go home for Christmas I pack my bags and report myself to the INS, they fly me back to Wahaca and after the holiday I take a bus to the border and fly back from Arizona. I will be here for work after the New Year.

One day when the owner came under pressure to take out taxes, the head Mexican, a chubby little fellow known as Big Daddy, (who was the only one who spoke English), interpreted to them that taxes would be taken from their paycheck. After a hasty impromptu discussion the whole lot of them up and left without so much as an adios amigo. We were about to leave that morning to do a 100 square hot tar roofing job 150 miles away. When we left with our caravan of a several pickups, an empty 11 passenger van the boom and dump trucks with kettle in toe. I asked the owner what we were going to do for laborers. Don’t worry he replied, leave that to me!

When we arrived at the job site he had me drive him in the van to a corner in town where a bunch of Hispanic men were standing, he instructed me to open the sliding door on the van and he yelled “Amigo Work!” eleven men piled in the door jockeying for position while several more stood shouting Spanish obstinacies for being left unemployed on the corner.

This happened twenty years ago and since than the situation has steadily gotten worse.

In the past when the US industry had a job that was uneconomic to perform manually, we would automate it. This would put the people doing those jobs out of work, but that was unavoidable because the industry was going to be shipped overseas if the company could not compete with other nations around the world. By automating, the jobs stayed hear in the form of designers, engineers and manufacturers who built, operated and serviced the equipment and those who would be hired to support those industries rather than having the profits sent back to families in Mexico. Now industry has decided that it is more profitable to outsource jobs overseas and higher illegal immigrants rather than to design and build automation equipment that would make us competitive around the globe.

With the pressures of a cheap illegal immigrant labor force and corporations busting unions to reduce wages and make profits for the rich shareholders, the middleclass has been financially devastated. No one seems to realize that keeping jobs in the hands of the American citizen means more tax revenues and a robust economy. I can sympathize with the illegal immigrants coming over the border, but I have to say the American citizen and legal immigrants come first. So hear is my solution to the problem.

The only reason these people are coming to this country is to advance them selves economically by finding work. If they could not work hear illegally they would not come.

So I propose a secure Social Security card. Like your bank or credit card with your picture, a hologram and magnetic strip for your pass code. Sure it could be counterfeited, but not as easily as the current piece of paper being put on copiers by the illegal immigrants and all employers would be required to keep a copy of this card on file or be fined for failure to do so! Multiple infractions would result in the company being shut down for not complying. The cards would be issued by Social Security and only to those paying into the system. This would dry up the jobs for illegal aliens and stop the border incursions. Border control could then focus on the drug smuggling that is costing this country billions in drug enforcement, not to mention the devastating effects those drugs are having on the populous.

I have included the following short story I wrote several years ago, before the current Arizona bill was passed. I hope it gives some enjoyment to my readers!

There’s a Mexican under my bed.

 I woke up this morning to the sound of what I thought was my dog rustling around under the bed. He often does this and so, annoyed I got up and demanded that he come out from under their. To my surprise, instead of my dog a short chunky Mexican squirmed his way out from under the bed frame and stood boldly in front of me.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am José!” he replied.

“Well José, what exactly do you think you are doing under my bed?” 

“I am looking for work, señor!”

“And what makes you think you will find work under there?”

“Well señor do you know the Irish belief that if you catch a leprecon he must give you his pot of gold in order to be released?”

“Yes I have heard the story, but what does that have to do with your looking for work under my bed?”

“Well you see in my country we have a belief that if you follow the voice of a coyote in the night, he will lead you to prosperity.”

“That still does not explain what you were doing under my bed?”

“Be patient señor, we Mexicans do not rush to the end of a good story. May I continue?”

“By all means do.” I replied.

“Well señor. Late last night I just happened to be sitting on the other side of your fence when I heard the howl of a coyote from your backyard.”

“That would have been my dog, howling to come in.”

“No señor it was definitely a coyote. I know my coyotes.”

“OK! So it was a coyote, please continue?”

 “Not being one to pass up an opportunity for prosperity, I waded across the water feature just outside your fence and found my way through a hole in it. Then I struggled through your cactus garden and across your property to find the coyote standing at your backdoor intent on entering your fine home. Your door was not locked so I let him in and continued to follow him through your house. He led me in here where he went under your bed. We slept well together but he must have left during the night because when I awoke I was alone.”

“That is an interesting story but I don’t believe a word of it.”

“Well then señor, how else do you explain my being hear?”

“I think you are a wetback trying to rob me.”

“No señor, I am an honest man and I slept on my stomach so my back would dry out and as you can see it has dried very nicely since last night, thanks to your warm home.

I am a poor man and have a wife and cinco niños back in México to support. Please can’t you give me a job so they don’t starve?”

“What kind of work can you do?”

“I noticed that your gardens need weeding and your lawn needs mowing. I am very good at yard work.”

“But I already have a yard man.”

“Yes! But I will do it for less and I will work very hard for you.”

“All right, but I will only pay minimum wage and since I am sure you are an illegal alien I suppose I will have to pay you under the table.”

“That is very generous of you, but there is only one problem, I have no place to stay. Can I stay under your bed?”

“OK! But just until the job is done.”

“Mucho gracias señor!”

José worked very hard all day and when evening came he crawled back under my bed for the night. The next morning I found him in my kitchen with a woman and five children raiding my refrigerator.

“What’s this all about?” I shouted.

“No problem!” exclaimed José. This is my wife Margarita and my five children. They are just having something to eat before she drops them off at school on her way to the welfare office.”

“Wait a minute you can’t just come into my house and start eating my food!”

“But señor, you would not let your own children go off to school hungry!”

“No. But these are not my children.”

“I tell you what señor. My Margarita is the finest cook in all of México and just to thank you for your generosity, this evening she will make you and your family the finest Méxican dinner you have ever had. What could be fairer than that?”

I must admit I do love Mexican food and the thought of a real home cooked Mexican dinner had some appeal.

“OK! But just this once!”

That night my wife and our two children dined on the finest Mexican dinner I have ever eaten. José and his family joined us. When I asked where they got all the food, he said “The local grocery store has a very good Hispanic section with everything we needed.” “No! I meant, where did you get the money to buy all the food?”

“I borrowed your credit card and charged it señor.”

“You what?”

“Señor, I am a poor man and have no money; surely you knew that I could not afford to feed you and your entire family.”

Just then my wife chimed in and said, “Honey we can afford to buy them this one meal and by the way Tom the landscaper called to see if we wanted him to come this week. I told him we had someone taking care of it. He seemed upset and mumbled something about those dam Mexicans undercutting his business.”

Tom is a friend of mine and it was going to be hard to explain how a Mexican came to be doing my yard work.

That night, with no place to stay, José and his family slept under my bed. They said it was roomy when compared with their last place and that they were use to sleeping in the same room.

The next morning as I sat down to breakfast José with his wife and children were already eating.

“Wait just a minute; I am not going to continue to feed your entire family.”

“No problem Señor Visa, this food was bought with the food stamps from the welfare office. When they found out we have cinco niños they gave me my own credit card for lots of free food.”

“Why did you call me Señor Visa?”

“That is the name on your credit card Señor. Isn’t this you?” he said as he handed me back the card.

José had no more than left the room when my leg bumped into something under the table. Thinking it was the dog I said, “Get out from under there.”

“Good morning señor.” Came a man’s voice from below and another Mexican stood up at the other end of the table.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am José’s brother, Hose-B.”

“What were you doing down there?”

“Looking for work,” he replied.

Were have I heard this before?

Like a sucker I asked, “What makes you think you will find work down there?”

“My brother José says you are letting him work under the table and so I thought I might find some work under your table too!”

“No, you misunderstood, that is a metaphor. You don’t actually work under the table. It means that you are working without paying taxes.”

“Mucho gracias señor, you are a most generous man, not only are you going to employ me as a metaphor, but you are not going to take out the taxes. This is muy bueno! What exactly does a metaphor do?” he asked.

Hose-B was so grateful that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I didn’t have work for him. “Metaphor’s work cleaning out sheds.” I replied.

I must admit that the lawn was starting to look pretty good and the family liked Margarita’s cooking, plus she watched my children after school. My van was getting a bit crowded on the way too and from the school, but my kids seemed to like José’s children and they were picking up some Spanish because his children spoke no English. It would be good for them to learn a second language, especially since I have been noticing how most stores have signs in Spanish and English. Even the phone answering services and ATM machines have a Spanish option. Strange I hadn’t really noticed it until now. Margarita told me how much she appreciated that the school had hired Spanish speaking teachers so her children could get an education.

Buy the end of the day Hose-B had cleaned out the shed and wanted to know if he could stay in it overnight since it now had plenty of room and he had no place to stay. I told him it would be alright, but just for the night.

The next morning while Margarita was cooking rancho huevos for the family, I noticed two Hispanic teenagers wandering around the back yard. I had just stepped out to see who they were when Hose-B stopped me and said proudly, “Let me introduce my sons Juan and Two. My wife liked the name Juan so much that she named them both Juan and now we have to call my youngest one Two so no one don’t get confused.”

“That’s very nice, but what are they doing here?”

“Now that I have a job and a place to stay, they have come to help me with my pursuit of the American dream. The problem is that they dropped out of school and are not gainfully employed. Do you have any work for them?”

“No I don’t have any work for them!”

They were both covered in tattoos and piercings and reminded me of some Chicano gangs I had seen on the corners in town.

“Hey bro’” said Two “wass happinin?”

He looked stoned and was making strange hand signals as he talked.

“I can’t have them here.” I said.

“But señor they are almost never home and they spend most of their time down on the corner with their cousins,” Said Hose-B “They will be no trouble at all.”

“No! I must insist they can not stay here.”

Just then Juan and Two sidled up next to me on either side and Juan said, “Listen bro you don’t want to be talking to our poppy like that. Something could happen to you and your family, if you get my drift.”

My palms began to sweat and I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble to continue with the conversation.

Just then a van pulled up in front of the house and blew its horn. Juan and Two headed for it saying, “We will be back later Poppy, don’t let the gringo push you around.” As the door of the van slid open a bunch of trash fell out and it looked like someone inside might be kicking it out as they left the mess and sped off.

When I stepped into the house, my wife said, “Look dear I just got the tax bill and they have gone up drastically.

I snatched it from her hand and drove straight to the tax office.

“What is the meaning of this? My taxes have never gone up this much in a single year since I moved to this town!” I shouted at the girl behind the counter.

“I am sorry señor, but with so many people joining the welfare roles and the school system and police force being overburdened by the influx of new people. The government had no choice but to raise taxes to cover the shortfall. You can however fill out a form to contest the amount of the taxes if you think you are being taxed unfairly.”

“You bet I want to contest these taxes! Let me have the form.”

“Would you like that form in English or Spanish?” said the girl.

I was already late for work and so I snatched it from her hand and left without filling it out.

When I got to work the construction boss said, “You’re late for work! Listen Bob things are getting tight around here and with all the new Hispanic workers we are going to need someone who is bilingual. You don’t speak Spanish by any chance do you?”

“No! I said, “Since when did this become a bilingual country? When I woke up this morning I thought that English was still the national language.”

“That may be so, but in order for me to compete; I have to higher these low wage illegals like everyone else or go out of business. I’m sorry Bob but unless you speak Spanish I am going to have to let you go.”

I could not believe what I was hearing. I was being let go from a job that I had held for many years just because I did not speak Spanish.

“To hell with them,” I thought “I will go sign up for unemployment and go out and get a better job. That will show them.”

I went straight to the unemployment office to fill out the forms and collect my fair share.

The lady behind the counter was pleasant and very concerned. When I told her how I had lost my job because I did not speak Spanish, she said, “See señor, there has been a lot of that lately.”

It looked to me like there were Mexicans everywhere.

Sure I had heard that they were having some problems down on the border, but I never thought it would affect me and my family.

After signing up I went home determined to kick the whole bunch of them out of my house and my life.

I stormed in the door to find Hose-A lying on my couch watching the Spanish channel on cable. “That’s it,” I shouted “I want the lot of you out of here!”

Hose-A said, “No hablo ingles señor.”

“Don’t give me that crap, I know you speak English.”

“Un poco señor,” he replied.

“And where is that brother of yours? I want him and his two hoodlums off my property.”

“He is no longer here señor, he is flying back to Mexico for the holidays with his two sons.”

“I thought he had no money?”

“That is true.”

“Then how can they afford to fly back to Mexico?’

“That is simple señor. Hose-B used your phone to call immigration and reported himself and his boys. The government is flying them back to Oaxaca. But do not worry after the holidays they will catch a bus back to the border and be back to work in no time.”

“You will have to excuse Me.” said Jose, “I have some bushes to trim.” And he promptly left through the back door.

Just then there came a knock at the front door. When I opened it I found an immigration officer standing there.

“I am Officer Gonzalez with the INS. It seems that someone recently reported some illegal aliens residing here.

Sir, can you tell me if you have seen any other illegal aliens in the neighborhood?”

 Now was my chance to be rid of the whole bunch of them.

“You bet I have. There is one in my back yard pruning the hedges as we speak.”

“What is he doing trimming your hedge?”

“He was looking for a job so I gave him some work so he could support his wife and five kids, who by the way are living under my bed.”

The officer gave me a strange look and then keyed the mike on his shoulder saying, “It looks like I will need some back up.” 

“Now we are getting somewhere,” I thought.

A van arrived shortly with more agents. As they approached Officer Gonzalez he said, “This guy is running some kind of coyote operation. Not only did he have those three we sent back to Mexico this morning but he has an entire family living here.”

The second officer said, “You are under arrest for employing and harboring illegal aliens. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.”

“Wait just a minute; I was just trying to help them out.”

“Sure you were, by exploiting them.”

“No! I gave them work and a place to stay.”

“Is that what you call underpaying them and cramming them under your bed?” said Officer Gonzalez.

“And I’ll bet he was paying them under the table,” said one of the other officers.

“Yes,” said José as they escorted him out the door. “He was nice enough to not take out the taxes.”

“Don’t worry we will be notifying the IRS as soon as we get back to the office.”

“You have got this all wrong,” I cried.

“You can tell it to the judge.” He replied.

“What about Jose and his family, what are you going to do about them?” I asked.

“They will be fed and put in to temporary detention, then released to return for their court date.”

“Yah, but most of them never return,” Laughed the other officers in unison.

As I watch the Tea Partiers it is obvious that they believe in conspiracies of all types, like Obama is a Muslim terrorist sent to infiltrate our government at the highest levels. Or that he is a socialist trying to convert our country to socialism. How about taking our guns away so we cannot defend ourselves and families! Though these would be great threats to worry about if they were true, the real conspiracies have been going on unnoticed right under their nose! In fact the Tea Partiers have been complicit in the biggest conspiracy of all; they have been standing arm in arm with the Republican Party obstructionists who have conspired with Wall Street and Corporate America to squash financial reform. The fat cats on Wall Street have continued with their risky bank swap derivatives and ridiculously huge bonuses that drained our economy while producing no tangible goods and caused the financial crisis that caused millions of Americans to loose their jobs, houses and pensions, yet the republicans continue to filibuster so reform cannot even be debated. Talk about conspiracy! If the Tea Partiers are interested in the granddaddy of all conspiracies this is the one for them.

The banking industry and their co-conspirators, Corporate America have no problem sending American jobs overseas where they will sell dangerous and inferior goods back to an unsuspecting American public all in the name of profit.

There are only two kinds of businesses in the world, the ones that produce goods or services and sell them to others around the world driving capitol to the regions that produce them and those who sell goods around the world and drive capitol back to the manufacturing regions. The Chinese and Indians no this all too well as they sell us poisonous baby food and pet food, defective drywall, toxic painted toys and inferior products, yet we Americans seem to have forgotten it.

We have become a service based economy where I sell you a hamburger at Mc Donald’s and I use my pay to by things at Wal-Mart where they underpay their people and discriminate against their female employees so they can sell us those low priced defective foreign products. An economy that does not produce saleable goods cannot be sustained and will eventually collapse! The current recession is just the first of a long line of declines this country will suffer if we do not do something about the loss of good paying manufacturing jobs to other countries.

In order to continue with spending beyond our means, so we could continue our bloated lifestyles, we have mortgaged our homes and run up our credit card debt while the banks drained our accounts and portfolios with Fees, overdraft charges, ARM mortgages and investments they tailored to fail, all the while they were betting against us by shorting the junk they were selling us!

Wake up Tea Partiers you are complicit in the criminal acts of the very same banks and corporations who are funding your efforts. By continuing to support the republicans who would derail the economic progress being made in this country you are aiding and abetting the very same criminals who pilfered the coffers.

Republican Sue Lowden, who is running against Senator Harry Reid in Nevada, has shown how numb the republicans really are! She is advocating paying our medical bills using the barter system, in particular giving your doctor a chicken for services rendered! So I am advocating sending her campaign contributions in the form of chickens. We can have them delivered to her by UPS, FedEx, or any other carrier you like; live, fresh or frozen, take your pick. Then the media will get a hold of it and everyone will start sending chickens to all the republicans running on bogus platforms. Wouldn’t that be a hoot!

If the republicans get called out on all their harebrained ideas maybe they will stop trying to con the public and start legislating, like they get paid to do.

The democrats need to start calling them out on their hollow threats; after all they are the majority and the republicans are using bluster to bully them. Typical of the lowlife Tea Partiers they have become

I make it a point to respond with the facts to my lost republican friends who send me E-Mails with their racist hype about Obama and they never reply. I wonder why? Everyone should do the same and maybe it will catch on and we will get back to civility once again.

When someone feels the need to blow their own horn, it is because they are inferior with regard to that subject, like the guy who pats you on the back and says (Trust me on this one!); everyone knows he can’t be trusted. When I hear the Tea Partiers ranting about what great Americans they are, I hear (Trust me on this one!) ringing in my ears.

Tea Partiers say they are anti tax and yet I have not heard them praise the Obama administration for lowering taxes for the major portion of Americans, excluding the rich of course. Could it be that the Tea Partiers are being manipulated by the corporate rich???

When I listen to most of their rhetoric, I hear a group that is uninformed and being manipulated by corporate America. For educated people they seem to show an inherent lack of intelligence.

The Tea Party claims to represent Middle America, but what I see is a cornucopia of bigoted conspiracy theorists and evangelical self righteous right wing conservatives who only seem interested in apposing anything the Obama administration is trying to do. The anger and hate speech coming from their ranks is indicative of people who are only interested in revolt, like the original Tea Party supporters. The only difference is, back then we were being unfairly taxed by a foreign power, now we are taxed by a legally elected democratic government of the people and it sounds like the Tea Partiers are advocating the overthrow of that government. When I hear Sara Palin and Michele Bachmann spouting their lies and half truths so they can line their own pockets at the expense of the naive Tea Partiers, I think they should be arrested if for nothing more than to stop the assault of their grating voices on my ears. When I hear Fox News, (The media wing of the Tea Party Movement) broadcasting fear mongers like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to manipulate the public every night under the guise of being a news cast, it makes me ask, what is this country coming to? I believe in free speech as much as any Tea Partier, but what I do not believe in is using scare tactics and lies to frighten the uninformed into supporting a bogus agenda that only benefits the wealthy.

The Obama administration was duly elected in the last election and just because some racist radicals do not accept his place of birth as Hawaii, does not change the fact that he was legally elected. If their was any question about his birthplace it is up to the US election commission to challenge it, not some die hard conspiracy theorists who read or posted some fictitious birth certificate on the internet.

Any legitimacy the Tea Party may have had has been lost to the insanity that has taken hold of their movement and made them a laughing stock among rational Americans who only view them as a side show in American politics. Like the freak’s in any side show performance, their antics are amusing but have little impact on the real world.

Just like movie ratings and channel blocking is used to keep immature minds from being exposed to things they are not mature enough to fully understand, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh should be X rated so the Tea Partiers are not exposed to things they do not understand for the safety of the nation. The mentally challenged Tea Partiers have fallen pray to the slick media barrage orchestrated by the corporate giants like Rupert Murdoch who are using them to further their own agenda with little regard for the consequences to our nation or the bumpkins they are conning.

When I see Tea Partiers dressing up to gain media attention, I think (Disguise is the ploy of the fool!).

When I hear Tea Partiers shouting down people at town meetings I think, (Those who would suppress dialogue endeavor to subvert truth!).

When I see Tea Partiers bringing guns to public rallies, I think, (Intimidation is the terrorist’s weapon of choice!)

When I see Tea Partiers yelling homophobic and racial slurs at our representatives I think, (Verbal abuse is the instrument of those without harmony!).

When I hear Tea Partiers chanting complaints, I think (A gripe without merit is just so much noise pollution!)

When I hear well to do Tea Partiers complaining about their taxes, I think (Only the wealthy profit from an inequitable system!)

When I see Tea Partiers threatening those who appose their views, I think (Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent!)

When I see Tea Partiers promoting gun rights, I think (These are the radicals I would least like to have holding those guns!)

When I hear that Tea Partiers are better educated than most, I think (Education and intelligence are not synonymous!)

When I see Tea Partiers complaining about Obama Care, I think (Those who would deny health care to others are them selves ailing!)

When I see Tea Partiers carrying protest signs, I think (A sign lacking substance may as well be blank!)

When I hear Tea Partiers saying they want smaller government, what I hear is (Less regulation over corporate greed!

Lately I have recognized that the religious fanatics on the right have adopted a position of negativity when it comes to anything they don’t like, which seems to include just about everything. In an attempt to further distance myself from that clan, I have decided to go positive.

Let me start by saying that we can only move forward as a nation if we are positive and progress only comes when you are progressive in nature. Webster’s dictionary defines Progressive as, (of, relating to, or characterized by progress, making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities and encouragement of self-expression, moving forward or onward: advancing).

So I would like to say that I am pleased with the way that president Obama is moving forward with his campaign promises of change, like health care reform and reforming the financial markets. I see improvement in the real estate markets, if only that it has bottomed and stabilized and is now showing signs of progress, along with home construction and prices starting to increase.

I can not say enough about his efforts to increase our production of domestic based energy like wind, solar, smart electric grid and offshore drilling which I only support as a stop gap measure. His assembling of 49 national leaders to address the loose nuclear issue has been nothing but astonishing and can only be a positive step for the future.

I see this nation as having turned a corner that Bush/Cheney would never have noticed and would have stayed the course while driving over the next cliff.

Republicans have adopted the strategy of NO, not exactly a positive position; again to quote Webster’s, No: (used as a function word to express the negative of an alternative choice or possibility, used to express negation, dissent, denial, or refusal).

Now I would like to offer a piece of advice for them! Consider going positive, instead of opposing everything. Why not try coming up with some ideas of your own. I know that some of the ideas that were incorporated in the Health Care Bill were Republican in origin and yet they got no credit for them. Instead the Democrats will get all the credit when the public realizes that there are no death panels or abortion funding in the bill and that it is not a socialist takeover of the health care industry.

We are moving forward as a country and only negativity can slow us down, if you want to get on board the change train, welcome aboard, if not, get out of the way. Progress will happen with or without you and you will benefit from the changes whether you like them or not. We need constructive dialogue to make the right decisions and I know republicans have something to say, I have heard them shouting from the peanut gallery, I only hope they can get past their bitterness over having lost  the elections and can get down to the business of governing this nation rather than trying to drag it down with their negativity.

The right wing conservatives are the ones toting the guns and obstructing the political process in our country. It has been a long time since this nation has been under attack by forces aligned with the likes of the Klu Klux Klan and Neo Nazi Skinheads and White Supremacists, but now the Republican Party has chosen to support the fanatics in the Tea Party Movement who have all the markings of the radical right wing fanatics of the past.

We learned from Watergate and again in 2000 with Bush V Gore that the republicans will stop at nothing to gain and keep power. We spent eight years fighting in a trumped up war and paying the price for our naïveté in thinking that they are playing by the same rules as the rest of us. One only has to look at the way they went about ginning up the Iraq War with lies and half truths so their buddies at Halliburton and the mercenaries at Blackwater could make huge profits with no bid contracts.

Now they are trying to disrupt the Obama administration efforts to resolve the problems their greed generated and put the nation back on track to prosperity. The party of NO is doing what they have always done, obstructing progress for this nation and putting us at a disadvantage when compared to the rest of the world economies.

In case you have forgotten it was the republicans that railed against Social Security and the Civil Rights Act and now they vow to repeal the health care act if they are elected in November. 

They say that they believe in democracy but it seems they only believe when it suites them. They have no respect for the rule of law or civil discourse. They seem to believe that the rules only apply to others and not to them when they yell out their rude and disrespectful rants without regard for decorum or majority rule. They don’t seem to realize that the American people voted into office the people they want to lead our nation and they lost. Now they are behaving in such a despicable manner that upstanding republicans are dismayed at their actions. It is obvious that if they continue down the road of violence against those who are trying to improve our circumstance it will backfire on them in November.

To those of us outside the Republican Party it appears that compassion, empathy and equality are strangers to them. They only seem to be interested in things that benefit them personally and to hell with the rest of society. They are mostly Christians in their religious beliefs and yet they seem to have little understanding of what it is to be a Christian. When they do behave Christian like there is always an ulterior motive. They are incapable of doing a selfless act.

The party looks like it is made up of old angry southern, gun toting white men who think they can use deceit and trickery to slicker the rest of us. For some reason they think that their hypocrisy goes unnoticed. Contrary to their belief we see through their guise and are perplexed by their inability to recognize that everyone else is so perceptive. The only explanation is that they are either mentally challenged or are so egocentric that they are delusional in their thinking. Now they have resorted to slinging racial and homophobic slurs and threatening members of congress. This kind of behavior must be stopped if we ever hope to return to civility in our political system.

The RNC has again shown its true face with its secret Power Point Presentation, as it talks about the contempt it has for its own supporters and vowing to use scare tactics to frighten them into voting for the party of NO.

This comes as no surprise to those of us who see through their delusional ratings, dirty tricks and character assignations. My only question is why the real republicans in this country don’t call them out on this kind of behavior. The only conclusion is that birds of a feather flock together. If this is the kind of politics they want for this country I feel sorry for them and the rest of us who have to put up with their crap. We all need to speak up against this kind of behavior or we are all guilty by association. When they carry guns to town meetings, shout down anyone with a differing opinion and collaborate to create havoc in our government, it reminds me of the brown shirts of the Nazis Party who did similar things to take over the German government prior to Hitler taking over the Chancellery. Don’t get me wrong, they have every right to pack guns and shout their opinion while staying within the letter of the law. What I am saying is if those of us who see this conduct do not denounce it, then we get what we deserve. I only hope that we realize what we are getting ourselves into by allowing this kind of trash to go unchecked.

If you notice these very same people are the ones calling Obama a socialist and a terrorist with comparisons to the Nazi’s. Does it not occur to them that when someone feels the need to stigmatize someone this way, it is like someone patting you on the shoulder and says trust me on this one? If you need to say “trust me on this one”, then it implies that you cannot be trusted. If you feel the need to call someone a socialist, terrorist or a Nazi, what does that say about you?

I know what you are thinking, I just called them Nazi’s, “I did not” I said they reminded me of the Brown Shirts also called Sturmabteilung, abbreviated SA German for “Stormtroops“, who functioned as a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power.

The Stormtroopers use to intimidate people and push their weight around. Sound familiar? They use to paint subhuman caricatures of Jews with big noses. Sound anything like the caricatures you see them using to malign President Obama?

Be advised, if we do not speak out to our republican friends and families on this subject they will continue to think that this kind of despicable behavior is acceptable and we will continue down the road to social discourse and the collapse of order in our society.

That is not the America I was taught to love and honor.

When I was a young boy I had a paper rout and after doing my collections I would place pennies in my Lincoln coin folder collection. Then one day my older brother decided he needed some money for some insignificant purchase and so he emptied my collection and went out and spent it without any consideration for my feelings or how hard I had worked to build my collection.

Since then I have harbored a great dislike for people who are inconsiderate to others.

Especially people who drive and use there cell phones, endangering everyone else on the road, people who leave their carts in the middle of the isle at the grocery store while they read the label on the can or chat with the check out clerk while the line gets longer and everyone else waits and how about those who are too lazy to use their directional signal so now one else knows what they intend to do. If you are one of these types of inconsiderate jerks, consider this The law of the universe says that everything we do adds or subtracts from our karmic order and when other people are mentally shaking their fist and cursing at you for your inconsiderateness you will accumulate the negativity that you bring on yourself with these types of actions (as you so, so shall you reap!) Then when your life is in the toilet and you yell (why me God?) the answer will be, because you think of know one but yourself! Chances are if you are inconsiderate to others then it is only the tip of the iceberg and you are probably a self centered egocentric person who has never learned to empathize with others and their for deserve no consideration from whatever God you worship. Be advised the inconsiderate person does not curry favor with anyone and unbeknownst to them they are inviting in all the bad karma they deserve. There are no accidents in this reality and it is no accident that you have read this, so if you are suffering an insufferable life, you should seriously consider changing your ways!

Recently I was speaking with my brother who had just taken a trip home to New Jersey from South Carolina after the second big snow storm that hit Washington DC. He is an anti Obama person who claims to be an independent and does not like any politicians. He never votes because he thinks that they are all just pigs at the trough, on this I must agree, but I always vote, mostly for the independent.
Now, the point of the story is that he said that as he drove home the roads were clear with plenty of snow on the ground until he reached the outskirts of Washington where the roads became snow covered. His explanation was that the Obama could not even keep the roads plowed in his own town as if Obama was responsible for the storms and road plowing. I replied with, highway plowing is controlled by the local government and he said that he was talking about I-95 an interstate controlled by the government. He obviously has no idea how things work like the fact that Washington was at the center of the storms largest snowfall amounts or that, because of Washington’s usual low snow fall totals that they are ill equipped for such storms. The only thing he could see was, it was Obama’s fault. He is like a lot of Americans who have the blinders on. Then he started to rant about how Obama is printing money like there is no tomorrow and I told him to look at the deficit Obama inherited from the previous administration and that he was spending to keep us out of a depression. It went in one ear and out the other and he said that we just had a difference of opinion.

Now he has been my older brother for all my life and I have always looked up to him, but lately I am starting to loose respect for him. He can not see or does not want to see that when you are in financial trouble you must continue to pay the bills, even if that means charging it on your credit card or you loose the house. If you want to improve your financial future you have to invest in things that will pay off in the long run. Buying a solar panel may cost a lot up front, but they pay off over the years and eventually reduce your cost of living, this is exactly what Obama is trying to do. Only the short sited people can’t see it, like the grasshopper and the ant story, they only worry about today not the winter to come, or in this case the long hot climate change to come. Though my brother does not where glasses he is still myopic.