Don't You Love Bernie Sanders?

This photo of Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, shows the passion that is such a part of this man.  His passion and belief in the welfare of the American people make him a true hero!

He had the courage to conduct what some are calling a mini filibuster or as he said, "You could call it a very long speech.".  For 8 1/2 hours he spoke about the tax cut bill and his opposition to it. During his time in the floor he said the following, "How can I get by on one house?" I need five houses, ten houses! I need three jet planes to take me all over the world! Sorry, American people. We've got the money, we've got the power, we've got the lobbyists here and on Wall Street. Tough luck. That's the world, get used to it. Rich get richer. Middle class shrinks." 

He read from Arianna Huffington's book Third World America.  If you haven't read this book it should be required reading for all of us.  He also had charts and graphs showing the problems that Americans are facing.  He called out the Republican's hypocrisy for wanting to decrease the deficit but then adding to it with tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans even when some of them are saying they don't need it.

We need more people like Bernie Sanders who is not afraid to stand up for what he believes is right for the American people.  Contrast that with our Senators from Maine who follow the leader, Mitch McConnell, even when in their hearts they know it is wrong.  Oh my, did I say hearts?  I think they lost their hearts and souls long ago!

Anyway, Bernie Sanders is my hero!

What is the Stockholm Syndrome???

I had never heard of this phenomena until I read a very interesting article by Frank Rich  in the New York Times.  He references an article Understanding The Stockholm Syndrome found in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin.  He explains it as the way captives win over their hostages. They do it by "winning a victim’s loyalty if they temper their brutality with a bogus show of kindness. Soon enough, the hostage will start concentrating on his captors’ “good side” and develop psychological characteristics to please them — “dependency; lack of initiative; and an inability to act, decide or think.”"
 Rich uses this syndrome to explain President Obama's reaction to the Republicans and uses the example of the Republicans canceling the meeting with the President due to scheduling conflicts and then agreeing to come at a later date.  This way Obama could then look at their good side. 
In my mind this explains the President's behavior over the last two years.  He reaches out and gets slapped down and then they give him a nice word or two and then he gives them just what they want.  In other words bend over and I'll kick you in the rear again!  This is leading us into a very serious situation where nothing gets done and every bill gets watered down so that it is almost meaningless.
The other part of the problem is that the Democrats in the Senate at least don't have the backbone to stand up and fight and tell the President the truth.  They don't even have the backbone to fight for what is right.  The lame duck session is almost at an end and still nothing has been accomplished.  No repeal of Don't Ask, Don't tell, the tax cuts are not resolved, the budget needs to be addressed and the biggest of all is the extension of unemployment benefits.
Our government is at a standstill.  It is a very sad and deplorable situation.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

It is time for clean and fair elections nation wide.  In the last three days I have received over 15 requests for money for different candidates and causes.  I have received them from John Kerry, John Slotz, the DSCC, the DLCC, True Majority, Moveon.org, Joe Biden, Act Blue and many others.  Can you chip in $85.00  for this, can you donate $5, 10,25, 50 or more for this.  Now you could say it is my own fault because I have given some money for various candidates and causes but come on, I am on a fixed income and to be showered with these emails is getting very annoying.
Have you ever stopped to think what good all that money could do?  Karl Rove is raising over $400,000,000.00 dollars to give to Republican candidates.  Yes that is four hundred million dollars.  So the Democrats obviously want to reach or surpass that amount so they can stay competitive.  This is insane that so much money is being spent by both parties.  My God we could begin to wipe out the deficit or feed millions of people with all of that money.  All of this is to try and buy an election and therefore achieve personal power.
We need to clean up the system so that our monies can be directed in more valuable ways.  Of course the powers that be in Washington will never support such a measure anymore than 100% of them would sign a pledge to clean up corruption in Washington.  They like it this way!
So my friends it is time to out the pressure on candidates and elected officials to change the way the system works.

Corruption, Corruption Everywhere

The news this week that we are bailing out Afghanistan's bank is very distressing!  We cannot even get our own house in order and now we are going to bail out a bank that is failing because of the very corrupt society that it functions in.
We tolerate corruption in our own society and now we are asking our service men and women to give their lives trying to improve a corrupt society that we can never change.   Only the Afghan people can change that.
It is time for us to get out of Afghanistan and bring our people home.  Then we can use the money to help those in our society that are suffering because the government has not cared enough to make sure that our own economy improves.
150 legislators in Washington have signed a pledge to fight corruption in Washington.  It is time to clean up our house before we attempt to clean up another government's dirty house.
I am so disappointed with the Democrats who seem to have lost their backbone.  They are just letting the Republicans steamroll them and if you think we are in big trouble now just wait until they try to repeal health care, cut social security and medicare and extend tax cuts for the rich.  Our government is run by the corporate lobbyists and believe me that is corruption at its highest level.  The only bright hope is the President Obama will have the guts to veto such legislation if it ever gets to him.
This is one very liberal Democrat who is disillusioned that our own party could not stand together to get things done because they are just as corrupt as the Republicans!

Ethics and Corruption in Government, Corporations and Institutions

I have contemplated the writing of this post for two weeks.  I have long been concerned about the level of corruption that exists among elected officials.  The Maine Sunday Telegram on June 20, 2010 had an article titled Big Business: Losing the Fight to do Right. ( http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/big-business_2010-06-20.html).  This article examined the levels of corruption and unethical behavior by both corporate and public institutions.  It was written by Dan Boxer and Peter Pitegoff.  This article has weighed on my mind ever since.
Unethical behavior and corruption does exist at all levels and it is most evident when we look at Congress and see how they give in to the big corporations and do not act in the best interests of the people who elected them. Members of Congress are owned by big corporations and banks.  Their lobbyists control the legislative process and the people lose out.  How can Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe defend their votes against extending unemployment benefits to millions of people including thousands here in Maine.  They say it is because of increasing the deficit.  Well for the eight years of the Bush Administration they didn't worry about the increasing deficit and funding trillions of dollars for an unwinable war.  If we weren't spending billionsof dollars a day on two wars we might be able to get our economy back into shape and bring back some jobs that have been outsourced.  Where is their concern for their constituents?
At the state level we are decimating human services and education because no one is willing to think of a new way to do government.  Do we need to increase the sales tax?  Probably.  We never should have decreased it in the first place.  We always need to be prepared for the bad times as well as the good and we need to be prepared to take care of our neediest citizens.  If the system isn't working then we need to look at what is wrong and how to fix it.
 I believe that this unethical behavior permeates all of our institutions, political, corporate and religious.  It is all about how much money you can wrest from the people.  In tough economic times religious organizations need to put on hold capital campaigns that suck  money from people who cannot afford it.  Businesses, including the big banks and Wall Street,  need to stop ripping off the consumer and ruining our economy by employing risky business practices.. 
Power and greed have taken over and we have lost all sense of community and how to care for each other and for our country.
I despair of ever changing this behavior.  I fear that it will be the downfall of our society if it hasn't already begun.
I am usually a very upbeat, positive person but this is a very sad and dangerous situation for our town, state and country.

We Are Living In A World Gone Mad!

How did we ever get to this place in our society where people are acting like madmen?  Arianna Huffington wants President Obama to open a temporary White House in New Orleans, Keith Olbermann wants the president to show some anger and then someone else says he isn't paying enough attention to the economy.  Many people will not be happy unless he dives down 5000 feet and plugs the hole himself!
The BP CEO wants his life back when his company has created the worst ecological disaster this country has known.
Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisianna, who has criticized the President's stimulus plan and hates "big government" is crying for government intervention in the oil spill.  His state has received so much money from the oil industry that in spite of this tragedy and the ruination of environment of the Gulf Of Mexico he is advocating more drilling in the gulf and asking Obama to end the moratorium on drilling.
Israel attacks an aid ship going to Palestine where people are starving.  Do they remember how it was to starve during the Holocaust?
Glen Beck attacks the young daughter of the president and makes fun of her.
Former President Bush admits to the war crime of water boarding and says he would do it again.  Why are we not prosecuting him and Dick Cheney like we have others for the same crime.
The lobbyists have a strangle hold on Congress and the Republicans can do nothing but say no and the Democrats do not have the guts to push ahead.
The big banks and Wall Street still continue their bad practices at our expense.
Then at the state level we have so many people running in the primary for governor and only one of them has anything new to offer.  We are budget cutting everything in sight and in reality doing nothing to improve our economy.  Our kids are getting poor educations and the poor are getting poorer.
The we come down to the local level and the Town of Windham has elected a council that is self serving at  best.  They treat the citizens with arrogance and intimidation.  They have taken land out of resource protection, they are allowing zoning changes that only favor developers and have deep impacts on established neighborhoods.  They have spent over $450,000.00 of TIFF money to buy ten acres of some the worst property on Route 302 to supposedly fix a poor intersection when in reality it appears that it was just to help out a friend.  They talk about economic development but give no thought to the cultural needs of the community.  We have no bookstore, no decent shoe or clothing store and the development along Route 302 is an eyesore to the community.
We all need to step back and rethink where we are going and what kind of world we are creating for future generations.  We need new ideas and a better sense of integrity and get back to caring about each other and realize how our words and actions affect others.  We need people in office who have a strong sense of accountability and a strong moral code.  We as individuals also need to stop and think about how we live and what do we do to allow this corruption and madness to exist in our country and in the world because if we cared we would be sure that it changed.

NO! NO! NO!

The Federal government cannot let BP off the hook for the cleanup of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Also the moratorium on permitting and the drilling of new wells needs to be more broadly defined.  How can new permits and waivers still be given out by the government?  This mess in the Gulf will take decades to repair and look how many people have lost their livelihoods due to this spill which no one seems to be able to horrible spill.
Do we never learn any lessons?  We should have been making progress towards energy independence since the oil crisis of 1973.  We have had years to create affordable alternative energies and we have done nothing but suck up more oil.
Why can't anyone have the backbone to say to BP we are taking over this process and you are paying for it.
The one humorous aspect to me is that Bobby Jindal, governor of Louisiana, is crying for government help when a year ago he was hitting the President and the Democrats for too much government intervention.
This is just another fiasco brought on by corrupt government permitting and greed of the big oil corporations.  Tell me why they are getting huge tax breaks and government subsidies.  This I do not understand when they are reaping huge profits.
When do criminal charges against the BP executives and members of the Minerals Management Service get filed.  It is disgusting that federal employees charged with overseeing safety and permitting processes are basically in bed with the oil and coal companies.  Doesn't anyone care that men have died because of their lax oversight?  I would advise everyone to read the article in the New York Times regarding this situation.  Here is the link. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/us/25mms.html?hp
What are we as a people to do when faced with such corruption?