Have You Had Enough???

I have!  Why does the media make such a big thing about politicians and their peccadilloes?  We already know so many of them are corrupt and obviously sick!  I do not need to know all the details about Anthony Weiner's penis, Arnold Schwarzenegger's love child, John Edward's secret affair, Jim Vitter's madam scandal, Mark Sanford's affair and on and on.  Then we have to listen to the Casey Anthony story.  Do you know how many children are killed each day and no one cares?  We focus too much on the lives of celebrities  and athletes as though they are the most important people in the world when often they are just a bunch of overpaid egomaniacs who set very poor examples for our children.
In my opinion there are so many more important things going on like the failing economy and why isn't Congress focusing on jobs instead of trying to get rid of Medicare and privatize Social Security?   Why don't we hear more about the foreclosure issues and how many service men and women are facing foreclosure on their homes while they are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Let's talk about the citizen's deep unrest with continuing the war in Afghanistan and throwing away money that could be used to create jobs here in America.
I am deeply disappointed in Weiner as he was one person who spoke out against what was wrong and seemed to care about the people.  I sure hope someone takes his place in speaking out.  Was he over the top sometimes?  Yes, but that is often what it takes to get the point across.  That being said I am still stating that we do not need to know the gory details and I sure wish we could make the press realize that most of us do not care about these issues but about the greater issues that need to be focused on.

The Stupidist Thing!!!

Tonight on the evening news on Channel 6, WCSH, one of the lead stories was about the Department of Marine Resources laying off the two scientists being laid off.  These two have the responsibility of testing the coastal waters for half the State of Maine.  This is what keeps our clam flats and other shellfish safe.  This is nor just about money but about food safety.  It is also about an industry that could go under if the flats are closed due to lack of testing as required by the federal government.
We all have heard about the illnesses caused by people eating shellfish contaminated by Red Tide.  There is also pollution of other types caused by us, the people, who use the resources in a negligent way.  There are also other bacteria that can make people sick and wipe out a natural resource.
We have been reading and hearing about the ecoli outbreak that began in Germany.  It is the height of stupidity to cut positions that ensure the safety of our food and that protects a profitable industry.
I drive by construction sites and see a half dozen workers just standing around doing nothing at our expense yet we cut what I consider to be a vital job.
Wake Up Augusta and remember who you work for and make sure that our food and businesses are protected.

The Sluggish Economy

I find it utterly amazing that the Republicans think they have an issue to campaign on since the economy is not rebounding as we had hoped.  I say Boehner, Where are the jobs?  The Congress and the President have given huge tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans in the excuse that they (the wealthy) would be creating the jobs,  Obviously that has not happened.
They have also voted to keep giving the oil companies big subsidies while the consumer is paying for it at the pump AND with their tax dollars.  Food prices are rising yet they are cutting monies for food stamps and many families are now dependent on those and food pantries to feed their families.
When will the Republicans admit that they got us into this mess by putting us into two wars and allowing the banks and Wall Street to be corrupt.  They squandered a nice surplus and put us into this deficit.
When will the mainstream media begin to make them be accountable for their actions.  Now I realize that the Obama administration  carries some responsibility in all of this but when you look at job growth and growth in the economy it is a complete change for the better from the Bush administration.
Unfortunately the  mainstream media is too focused on every sex scandal they can find to pay attention to what is really happening in this country.  There are few good journalists who really look into the truth any more.
As I have posted before Congress really does not care about the people but about collecting the most money from some big lobbyist or corporation so they can get reelected to continue the corruption that now exits.  And then they say trust us to do what is right!  Well, not me!  I don't trust them at all.

"YOU GONNA EAT THAT?"

That title comes from an article on Huffington Post which talks about the Republican's plan to cut millions from domestic and foreign food programs.  They are showing once again that they do not care about the people.  They profess to be Christians but I have yet to find a TRUE Christian who would deny the poor and hungry food which is the very basic need to survive.
Believe me John Boehner, Paul Ryan, et al will not go hungry.  They are living high off the hog on our tax dollars.  How many of the Republicans are denying their own constituents food!  Do they want to see children go to bed at night hungry?  Too many of them already do.  We should be fixing this problem not adding to it.
From the Huffington Post article Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said the GOP budget "rolls back years of progress.This budget threatens the health and security of American families, while asking the most of low-income seniors and the most vulnerable among us," she said.
Where do our Maine Senators stand on this issue? There are plenty of Mainers who are hungry and struggling to survive.  Try and find out how they feel as their offices never give out their position before they vote.  The stock answer is, "The Senator has not made a public statement on this issue."  So we have no knowledge of how they will vote.  But let's keep calling and emailing them and hope that they will finally hear our voices.

This is Incredible and Unbelievable

I am having trouble believing that our government is so stupid as to give Pakistan 85 small drone aircraft plus 3 billion dollars in military aid.  This with our own infrastructure falling apart, people going to bed (if they even have a bed) hungry and then cutting essential programs here in this country.
I am beginning to wonder if President Obama is a republican in disguise.  He certainly does not stand hard for the beliefs of the Democratic Party.  He is not listening to the people as all the polls show that the majority of Americans support neither his nor Paul Ryan's budget.  He is caught up trying to compete with the Republicans when there is so much need here.
But to get back to the issue of Pakistan, we need to remember that their government is almost as corrupt as that of Karzai in Afghanistan and yet we continue to pour money and equipment into both countries.  I don't understand how we can continue to be sucked into giving more.  All that results in more innocent citizens getting killed by our troops or our missiles and more of our young men and women getting killed.
When will our elected officials wake up and realize that these wars are killing our economy as well as hurting our own people?
At least Howard Dean has changed his mind on the wars and is urging withdrawal as soon as possible.  Maybe he can have some influence on the President.  As far as I am concerned Howard Dean should have been asked to serve in the cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  But the Obama administration has ignored a very important voice.

A letter to No Lables.org

 This letter is in response to an email from the organization No Labels sent out titled Left Behind which discusses the debt ceiling.

I am totally disgusted with the entire budget process.  To those of us at home we see several ways that the deficit can be cut.  First get all of our troops out of Afghanistan as we are losing too many good men and women and it is costing us too much money and a great deal of it is being used by the Afghanistan government in corrupt ways.  Then pull all of our troops out of Iraq.  We cannot win these wars and it is time we woke up and admitted it.

Second, we can take back the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts which put an unfair burden on the middle class.  Those cuts added a great deal to the deficit and they were not paid for!  But what happens?  Paul Ryan’s budget is called “courageous” and President Obama’s is called not enough.  Both of these proposals hurt the poor, the elderly and the middle class.  Also we can stop giving subsidies to big oil and big agriculture and do more to regulate the banks and Wall Street.  Can you imagine giving a 19 million dollar raise to Jamie Dimon?  That is a travesty and it is obscene.

Everyone is Washington is crying about social security but the simple solution is to raise the cap on earnings.  I paid on my full salary and so should everyone else.  But elected officials are too blind and too interested in what person or corporation is going to give them the next donation so they can stay in office and continue to wreck this country.  Greed and power are the problems here and the problems were not caused by the middle class.

But unfortunately I don’t see No Labels or any other group pushing for these solutions.  It is all about COMPROMISE and who get hurt by these compromises?  You know the answer.  It is the poor, women, the elderly and the middle class.

The Republicans campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs and yet not one bill has come out of the Congress that addresses this critical problem.  If people don’t have jobs, they can’t spend money and therefore the economy suffers.

I could say so much more but I know you probably either won’t read this or will not pay any attention to it.  But groups like this could have a huge impact if they fight for the right issues but people are beaten down and see no hope for the future and that lack of hope kills the country and the will of the people.

Poverty in John Boehner's District

The Nation Magazine has a blog and recently there was a posting by Greg Kaufman describing the poverty that exists in Boehner's district.  The poverty rate is 14%.  The woman, Tina Osso, who has run The Shared Harvest Food Pantry for forty years has tried many times to contact Boehner.  He neither responds or accepts her invitations to visit.  She has worked tirelessly to get Boehner to recognize these problems.  She has written to him and explained how the proposed budget cuts will hurt his people but still gets no response.
Kaufman reports, "Indeed in 2009, childhood poverty rose over six points in the Boehner district to reach 19.1 percent, or 29,173 kids. Overall, 14 percent of Boehner’s constituents live below the federal poverty line of $22,400 per year for a family of four. Shared Harvest’s work has more than doubled—it distributed approximately 7 million pounds of food in 2007, and 16 million pounds in 2010."
This is not the only problem.  There are 152,000 people in this district who are struggling to make ends meet and hunger is a major problem.  The food bank is only in a few of the schools but serves 2100 children each week.
Why, you might wonder, do I think this story is important.  With these visible problems in Boehner's own district he is in favor of cutting the food stamp program and other programs that help the poor.  It is one more reason that points to the fact that those in Congress do not care about the people they serve.  As I mentioned in my last post neither Republicans or Democrats listen to anyone but the big corporations and wealthy who give them money for their campaigns.
Osso says this about the budget cuts. “It’s not just the cuts to the programs that we manage. It’s the overall meanness of this budget that targets the most vulnerable populations in our country—the weakest and the ones with the smallest voice,” she says.
I do  not understand how anyone can not listen to pleas like this and call them selves Christians.  Jesus believed in taking care of the least of these my brothers.  If we follow him how can we allow babies and young children to go to bed hungry and old people to get $20.00 worth of food  a month.
I shake my head in disbelief and weep for those who are so in need.