It's Not "Pension Envy"

The problem with government is politics. What this country needs is true government for the people BY the people - not for the corporations by the corporations which is what we currently have. I would like to remind all of you that are bitching about the unions what they have brought to America. The unions are responsible for many of the common laws regarding labor regardless of whether you are union or not such as: the end of child labor, the 40 hour work week, overtime pay, vacation pay, weekends, minimum wage, safety standards. Without unions, we would not be experiencing these common benefits. At the time in our country when unions were established ( a long and bloody fight), the companies ran roughshod over people so that they could pocket as much money as possible at the expense of the people. Individuals banded together to form unions to fight for their rights and ultimately yours. Greed knows no era or end and is very much a player today. So, regardless of whether you are union or not how about going after the corporations like Exxon who made billions in profits last year and paid not a dime of taxes. Wall streeters and others of their ilk who aren't paying taxes, the very wealthy, who pay more to their tax accountants to hide their money than I make in a year. The middle and lower classes are paying their taxes - it's time for all to pay their taxes. Every corporation, every wealthy citizen needs to be paying up same as I have to. If that were done, the country and the states would have the money they need.
Personally, I'd like to know how much Walker paid in taxes last year. And how about the Koch brothers and their many companies - how much did they pay in taxes last year? The last year Cheney was in office, he received a tax refund in the area of $180,000. How many other politicians have received similar refunds?
In addition to taxes, if we were to charge tariffs for all the goods coming in to this country that companies are producing overseas (used to produced in our country) we would also add much to the coffers of the country. These tariffs would be paid by the company producing not the consumer. How long would it take then for those companies to move the jobs back to the US when they no longer made out like bandits by sending all our jobs overseas?
All of our lawmakers regardless of whether they are state or federal have very nice pay and cushy benefits. Do you see any of them saying they are willing to take a pay cut, give up some of the perks or benefits, or pay for their excellent health care coverage?
I'm really tired of hearing how the middle and lower classes have to keep sacrificing - I have nothing left to sacrifice - it's time for those that have been getting a free ride to start paying their share and then maybe we will have a more even playing field.
Lastly, grab a history book and read it. When countries allow corporations and the wealthy elite to oppress and suppress the people (this has happened before), the people usually rise up and the result isn't pretty. Much of what you see and hear today is misleading, non factual, and is a blatant effort to keep us commoners so busy just trying to survive that we don't really see what's happening. And, if that ploy should fail, they are trying to make sure that the masses are as uneducated as they can make them so that we don't have a fighting chance.
People, there is a plethora of evidence to support what I've said and much more out there. Don't believe everything you hear. Go get the facts and then get mad as hell that you are a second class citizen and your rights are being trampled and then get up and DO SOMETHING to help. "There but for the grace of God go I". If they break the unions, they will come after you and your minimum wage job next.

Happy 420 or Is It

Well, after much time away from my blog, I find this a fitting day to recommit myself. To those of you who partake, Happy 420! and I hope that you find something new and interesting in this posting today. To those of you who oppose, I hope you'll continue to read and become a bit more enlightened. Perhaps even be able to shed the cloak of ignorance that you have been brainwashed to perpetuating.
All across the news today are reports of 420, marijuana, legalization, medical usage......ad nauseum. For the most of what I've heard, I'm appalled at the continued use of outdated propaganda on the subject and the virulent use of poll statistics that supposedly show that over 50% of Americans are against legalization. I've seen and heard news reporters trying to use, abuse, and explain smoker slang, snicker and make very bad jokes, and in general refer to anyone who might partake as a "stoner". The right wing wackos are hijacking our day of celebration and making it into a vehicle of ridicule. And at the end of this day of pot bashing, they'll find some alcohol to drown themselves in to try to hide from their own idiocy. I object!

So, let's talk a bit about the history of why marijuana is illegal in this country. Brace yourself - I'm about to present some facts and even encourage you, the reader, to research for yourself. I know this might be quite a shock but I'm sure you can handle it.

As our country was nearing the Great Depression, the people of Texas began to get upset at the lack of jobs. They started blaming the Mexicans for taking jobs that Americans should have (sound familiar). Let me point out that these same folks brought in the Mexicans as farm labor because of the low wages they could pay them. Now that the country is falling apart, they want to blame the Mexicans and get them out of the country. Enter Harry Anslinger for the government. What came next was the plan to make marijuana illegal because this was something that was attributed to the Mexicans. Once it was illegal, they could deport the Mexicans. This was just the beginning of a long and deceitful campaign against marijuana. This is just a snippet of the history involved and I encourage you to do your research on the subject. I would also like to note that the Native Americans of our own country found this herb beneficial long before the Mexicans got blamed for it.

Following is a reprint of an article I wrote previously on the subject. It's relevance hasn't changed and I don't think that I could say it any better than I did here.

Ok folks, how about some real talk on this subject. First of all, marijuana and hemp are not the same. You could smoke hemp all day and not feel a thing except maybe sick. The hemp plant does not contain the levels of THC that the marijuana plant does.

Now that we've clarified the difference, let's talk usage. The hemp plant has uses from food to products. It is one of the only plants on earth that has so many uses. How about this. We put the farmers back to work by growing hemp instead of being government subsidized to let their ground lie fallow. Then we put the factories back to work making products from this hemp. Then we can actually have a product to export in this country.

This would put lots of people back to work in our country making great and earth friendly products. What products does the US currently export? Having trouble thinking of any? Maybe that's because we have very few left and we are importing more and more from China (at great risk to our health and economy).

If you've ever tried to buy hemp products, you will notice how costly they are. That's because there are few places exporting hemp and it is hard to get it in this country. Thus, local growth and production lowers the cost for everyone and puts the US back on the world market. Do a little research as to why our country quit producing hemp. You will find it was influenced by the major money holders of the time such as DuPont who found that hemp products were damaging the sales of the petroleum based products that they produced.

Now, marijuana. Most people are just plain ignorant on this subject. They have been fed lies for so many years that they just go around repeating them till people believe them. Again, do your research as to why this became illegal in this country and ask yourself why.

Marijuana is a god given plant and, used appropriately, has a lot of benefit without a lot of side affects. Careful now because the big pharmaceutical companies don't want you to know or believe this.

The key is moderation. A person can abuse anything - food, drugs, alcohol, gambling, each other etc. The key is always moderation - whether you use it for medicinal or recreational purposes.

We have more people in this country on meds like antidepressants, pain killers etc than ever before. Who directly benefits from this? The pharmaceutical companies. They don't want you to be able to use a plant to help you because there's no money in that for them.

Marijuana is safer than alcohol as far as a recreational substance goes. You don't see people smoking pot and starting fights, beating on their wives and kids, tearing up places etc.

I believe the key here is regulation. Instead of making it illegal, maybe the government should just control it (they like to do that you know). Let the government grow it (farmer's that are gov't regulated), package it and distribute it. (More jobs here) Then, it can be sold with the same controls as alcohol and with viable taxes that will help our country and its people.

Next, let's let anyone who is in jail or prison based solely on marijuana out. End of the over crowding of our prisons. That would give us room for the real criminals - rapists, killers, child molesters (maybe a few politicians). You have to ask yourself why we have over crowding in the prison system. Maybe because it is a for profit system. That's right; people are making money on it. So, the more people in it the more they make. Can we say corporate control?

Ignorance, my friend is the root of all evil. I hope that I have shed just a bit of light on this highly controversial subject and that maybe I've made a few of you think for yourselves and better yet, a few more will actually do their research and find the truth behind it all. Make your decisions wisely, based on truth not propaganda and maybe start the path to a better world for us all. Marijuana and hemp are not the evils they are made out to be.

Now that you've read this article, go find a poll and participate. Let them know that you encourage legalization. Go research what I've told you. Think for yourself. Call your legislators - tell them what you think. I refer you to www.norml.com for further information and research and opportunities to participate in this movement. And when you're done, sit back and enjoy some herb if you choose and contemplate tomorrow and what you can do that and every day to be a kinder, more active, and enlightened person.

$1 a Day Folks - That's All It Would Take

The house has finally come out with a bill for health care reform. In this house version, they state coverage for about 96% of Americans and serious and much needed oversite and limitations on the health insurance companies. While it is not everything I'd hoped for, it certainly is a start. The bill in the senate, however, is looking much less friendly to the people. Now these bills go up for vote and we still hear that there may not be enough votes to enact a real change. We also must wonder what will happen when the final bill is written. What will it actually contain? Which factions will come out on top? The insurance industry lobbyists seem to have a firm hold on many in both senate and congress.

While Nancy Pelosi has said that this is an historic moment in this country regarding the Health Care Reform Bill that the house has made public, and I must admit a lot of what they have in that bill is real change, I'm not finding it a great historical moment for us - yet. I am still highly disappointed in our lawmakers regardless of which party they claim. I am angry at the rhetoric and lies that are being passed off as fact. When we could solve this problem with $1 a day. How's that? Well, let me explain.

You see, if everyone in the country paid $1 per person per day for health care then everyone would have health care they could afford and everyone would be covered and there would be no cries of "how do we afford it" and "it will create a huge deficit". So here's the plan.

$1 per day per person comes to $365 per year per person. Now hang on 'cause I'm gonna throw out some big numbers here. We have approximately 300 million people in this country. So let's multiply $365 x 300,000,000 = $109,500,000,000 per year. That is 109.5 billion dollars people. Staggering isn't it. Even if you factor in those who cannot afford their $1 per day, we come out well over a 100 billion dollars per year for health care. Over a 10 year period that is over 100 trillion dollars. That is more than sufficient to cover the medical needs of everyone in the country and assure that the health care providers are still paid well enough to compensate for their expenses and salaries.

Let me break that down a little more. For a family of 4 that would be $1,460 per year for health coverage. No worrying about pre-existing conditions, denial of coverage or claims, co-pays and all the other disclaimers that the insurance companies throw out to keep you from getting the health care you need. This is affordable for everyone! It is simple! It does not put our country in debt.

There will be the naysayers out there that tell me that I am making it too simple and that it's just more complicated than that. Is it really? Or do they just make it appear that way hoping to baffle us with BS and toss out numbers so large that our brains rebel at the sound of them so that we will not pay attention or we will give up the fight in our BS induced stupor. No, it really can be that simple. Yes, it would be a single payer system and yes, there would be work in setting it up and implementing and maintaining; but what the hell are these lawmakers up there for if not to work. It is time they started working for the people of this country and not the special interest groups that line their pockets.

I'm gonna take it one step further and suggest that these same lawmakers who can't seem to put together a workable, equitable bill that actually benefits everyone without putting this country further into debt should not have their cushy government sponsored health care coverage but have to be out here with the rest of us at the mercy of the insurance industry. Perhaps if they had to live with what they want to subject us to they would be more inclined to put together real, meaningful health care reform.

Now, I've heard a lot of garbage about single payer from just about every group of people and largely I hear 2 things. Yes, we as a country want single payer and we don't want it because that would make us like Canada or Europe. For those of you enlightened enough to realize that single payer would be the great equalizer of health care - kudos. For those of you who don't want us to be like Canada or Europe in terms of health care - why not? It seems to be working really well for them and the people. Are we such a great and evolved country that we can't learn anything from our neighboring countries? Would a single payer system somehow denigrate our status as a nation? Are we so arrogant that we are willing to sacrifice 40,000 lives every year just so we can say "we're America - we don't have to have socialized medicine". By the way, those 40,000 lives are the number of people who die in this country every year because they don't have health care insurance.

Yes, it may be hard to believe but we could make a truly historic change in this country on just $1 a day.

Lastly, it is time that we had some backbone in this country. It is time to take a stand against dirty politicians taking money from corporations and leaving the rest of us in financial ruin. It is time that we say NO to making laws that make those same corporations billions of dollars every year out of our blood, sweat and tears. It is time for a change. It is time for each and every one of us to speak out and speak up any way we can and let our "elected" officials know that they work for us and they not doing a very good job. In the real world, when you screw up that bad, you no longer have a job - maybe they shouldn't either.

A Few Bad Acorns Don't Spoil the Whole Oak Tree

The last I heard, this was still America where you are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. If the Acorn employees that were seen on that video (edited by a conservative activist) are guilty of something, then, of course, they need to be fired and; if laws were broken, charged accordingly. But, as of yet, I've not heard of any charges being brought or filed.

Acorn is an organization that concentrates on organizing mainly poor people to better their lives through economic opportunity, community formation, and voting rights. The voting rights seems to be the real problem with the squawking heads on Faux News. Voter fraud is what we keep hearing over and over again - like there is a huge army of illegal voters overrunning our elections. What they are purposefully confusing is the difference between voter registration fraud and actual voter fraud.

If any organization, (for example: Acorn) hired hundreds of people to register voters and they were paid for each name registered, then we can figure that there will probably be a number of false names registered (i.e. Mickey Mouse). However, if Mickey Mouse actually showed up to vote, the chances are slim to none that he would actually be allowed to cast a ballot. Allowing Mickey Mouse to register is voter registration fraud. Allowing him to actually vote is voter fraud.

The Bush administration devoted large sums of money and resources to identify and prosecute cases of voter fraud. Now, looking back on the years 2000-2007 we see that the average number of indictments for those years was about 8 per year. That's not convictions just indictments. And not all those cases of alleged fraud are attributed to Acorn. This is hardly the "stuff the ballot box" story that the Republicans would have us believe.

While Acorn may have a few bad employees, the press have charged, tried, and convicted them in the media based solely on the dissertations and smear campaign of the Right Wingers in our country. What this says to me is that Acorn is empowering and informing the people least likely to be included in the information process by other sources. When those people are empowered and registered to vote and actually do so, they pose a threat to the powers that be because this usually lower income class of people are far less likely to vote for their oppressors. The Right Wingers can't openly attack and keep them at bay (not yet anyway) so they attempt to do it by taking down the agency that has been hugely responsible for activating this realm of Americans. As far as the Right Wingers are concerned, ignorance is bliss. So, this smear campaign is not so much aimed at the very few involved in Acorn that made mistakes but at the agency as a whole. Knowledge is power and they want as few people as possible to have that power.

Don't be misled. Acorn as an organization is not the problem. The problem is that certain political factions in this country would take all funding away from this organization so that those who need them most would have no power to fight their greed and oppression. Now that's something I find unAmerican.

Food for Thought

This is America. We are supposed to be a leader in this world and yet there is an article in the USA Today that school kids can't get lunch because their parents can't afford it.

According to this article, many student's families cannot afford to purchase their lunch while in school and because they allowed them to go ahead and get a meal for a few days without paying, there is now a debt owed to the schools. So, now, a child can only charge a meal for a couple of days and then if the family can't pay - no lunch. In some schools, an alternative lunch was offered (cheese sandwich and milk) but then that was discontinued because the children were stigmatized by the difference in lunches. In Des Moines, schools are even resorting to collection agencies to pressure parents to pay the past due balances for charged meals.

We know that we have a huge hunger and homeless problem in this country; and, that alone should make us ashamed. We also know, that when it comes to education, we are far behind many other countries. Now, we are going to add to this problem by not feeding our children while at school. In spite of the fact that there are numerous studies out there that show that a well fed child learns better and is better able to retain and use that knowledge, we see that when it comes down to money, money wins. Everybody's equal as long as you can pay.

In this same edition of the newspaper, there is an article about earmarks (special funding)that our lawmakers have put into the national budget. There is $600,000 earmarked for the National Wild Turkey Federation (a hunting organization) and $350,000 earmarked to promote specialty meat in Wisconsin. These are not the only earmarks in the budget but just an example of the frivolities that our lawmakers have the audacity to even consider spending our tax money on.

Just those two examples represent almost 1 million dollars that could be used to fund school lunches. Now, how about those turkey hunters donate their kills to the schools and maybe the Wisconsin specialty meat producers could donate some of their product. (Think of it as real time marketing specialty meat people). We could feed a lot of children with this plan. Or, how about you let me at that budget. I've raised a family and put kids through college on far, far less than even one of those lawmakers earns in a year. Bet I could show you a lot of other junk we should take out of that budget and put it where it really needs to go.

So, we have school kids going hungry at school and schools hiring collection agencies to harass already overworked and underpaid parents and ruining what may be left of their fragile credit and I find this such a sorry and disturbing state of affairs. When the hell are we gonna get our priorities straight in this country.

Alas, it isn't enough to rant and point out the ugly truth. We must be willing to put the outrage to use. We must be willing to step up and do something. So let this be a call to action. Ask your self what you can do to change even a small part of this backward process. Band together and let our voices be heard but let our actions speak louder.

Right Wing Jesus

I'm a satellite radio subscriber and I'm used to listening to my particular programs as I roll away the miles. Then one day the radio in my truck quits and I can only get one channel - 89.3. So I only get satellite radio when I'm in an area that will pick up on that channel. Well, I got into a stretch in Wyoming where for about 100 miles 89.3 was all Right Wing Jesus all the time. I kept checking every so many miles thinking that surely that station would fade out. But no, Right Wing Jesus was still hanging in there and he was a mad Jesus. Right Wing Jesus wanted people to fight and judge and be angry. And apparently, Right Wing Jesus doesn't want us to have a public option in health care.

Now, wait a minute. The Jesus I learned about in Sunday School healed the people and never once asked for a cent or whether they had a pre-existing condition. Something was very wrong here. This wasn't my Jesus. No, it seems Right Wing Jesus wants me to listen to Rush Limbaugh, denounce my president, and support corrupt corporate control.

So, Right Wing Jesus opposes abortion but is in favor of killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Right Wing Jesus wants me to support giving a corporation the right to decide whether or not I deserve to be healed or get to live or die. Right Wing Jesus apparently doesn't like poor people, public programs, education or believe in global warming.

Wow! This Right Wing Jesus is one angry, judgemental dude. Somehow this all seems incredibly absurd to me but apparently Right Wing Jesus is influencing many in this nation to practice this blasphemous form of Religious Right politics.

From this truck seat, my religious right friends, I will pray for you that your ignorance may be lifted and your humanity restored.

Til then, me and Dashboard Jesus, will keep bobbing down the road catching fish, breaking loaves, being kind and tolerant to our fellow man, speaking the truth even to those who may not want to hear it and working on getting the public option in our health care reform so that the God you profess to worship can do his job of deciding when and where we die and not the insurance companies.