Posts (page 2)
This morning Paul Simon's simple, compassionate letter touched my heart. It appeared on the Huff Post. Why not take a moment to send it to the Republican official near you, perhaps it will change his or her thinking and something good will actually come from Washington. BTW, one of the reasons Bush vetoed this bill is he, and others, don't want to increase taxes on tobacco prodcuts to help fund SCHIP....is there no end to their heartless thinking?
My name is Paul Simon.
I earn my living by writing and singing songs. It's a very old and low-tech profession that feels increasingly age-appropriate. I am honored to have the opportunity to express my opinions concerning SCHIP.
I am the father of four healthy children, knock on wood, but if they get sick or need medical attention I don't knock on wood; I take them to a doctor whose care and attention I am, fortunately, able to afford. Millions of American children do not receive the same medical care. They are uninsured.
Twenty years ago, I co-founded The Children's Health Fund with Dr. Irwin Redlener. Our organization provides mobile medical units with doctors and staff to serve the pediatric needs of poor communities across the United States. In the twenty years since we began, we have grown incrementally, but as of last year we had recorded over 1.2 million doctor/patient visits.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew devastated a large portion of Southern Florida. Our medical units were there to help. When Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast with an almost Biblical force, The Children's Health Fund had units working in those communities within a week. There was very little outside help -- no FEMA, no Red Cross.
But there were scores of mini-vans and trailers loaded with food and supplies from hundreds of churches around the country. I watched with wonder and admiration as the church people opened their hearts and got to work helping people on the Gulf Coast whose lives has been destroyed. They did not debate whether they could find a compromise or alternative way of helping. They opened their hearts and started to repair a dire emergency.
The president's veto of the re-authorization of SCHIP was a heartless act.
Thanks to groups like Families USA
and the Children's Health Fund, Congress is getting closer and closer to overriding the President's veto -- and children of hard working American families are getting closer to receiving affordable health care through SCHIP.
I am asking those of you who supported the veto to reexamine your conscience, to find compassion in your heart for our most vulnerable and sweetest citizens -- our children. I am asking you to change your vote. If you do, I believe it will be one of the proudest days of your life.
Thank you,
Paul Simon
To learn more about this issue and to take action, please visit www.familiesusa
This morning's Huff Post breaks a story that has had me chuckling early on....apparently Nixon once claimed Fred Thompon was dumb as hell. No kidding.
Yes, Nixon was an immoral shit, but he wasn't stupid. Which leads one to the conclusion that it must be very difficult to impeach a dumb and immoral president.
This election maybe we should just vote out anyone in Washington who has been in their position for more than four years. Cleaning house and starting over from scratch makes more sense than letting the rot spread via the career politicians who are easy prey for shrill lobbyists who find it easier to buy there vote the longer they stay in DC.
This election, think about what you can and should do rather than simply show up and punch a chad for the same old party.
I was going to come down here and write something witty and urbane. But I'm too tired. After the five mile run at dawn, working all morning, the yoga class at lunch, working all afternoon, cooking a big ass dinner with the LCSB for our friend who has breast cancer and her family, delivering the dinner, then picking up Chinese for us on the way home, helping Loinfruit remember to do his homework and chores and messing around with Ace the Wonder Dog and Mango the Debonaire Cat...oh yeah, and paying the flipping bills...I'm to tuckered out to be witty and urbane...so I'm getting in bed and watchng re-runs of Fraser.
G'nite.
So the question is, how bloody often does it pass through town?
"The No Child Left Behind Act is working," Bush said with first lady Laura Bush, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) and School Chancellor Joel Klein at his side. "I say that because the nation's report card says it's working. Scores are improving, in some instances hitting all-time highs."
A few moments later, he added, "As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured." The official White House transcript later corrected the statement to "children."
The 14% of American's who still think he is doing a good job must be seriously fucked in the head....HE CAN'T SPEAK CORRECT ENGLISH.
Just when I started flying again....the White House is working on a plan to reduce air traffic congestion....which means we'll all end up delayed in Iraq waiting for the last plane out.
I read the news today, oh boy….
She was my first Vox friend, and the most talented and dangerous. When I first read, “WTF is For Dinner” a year or so ago I couldn’t sleep. I knew there was a formidable talent in this community and I had to respond, as did so many of us. Marque could gather us in and put us square into her world with a laugh and a snarl; and with a style that had you dialing back for more. She made me want to write better.
People either loved or hated her, but they read her. And some posted that she was a fraud who made it all up; the drama, the stories of her abusive African American stepfather and redneck husband who abandoned her, the poverty, the divorce, the wild, wild energy that eventually took its toll. It drove her nuts when others did not believe her, and she could never ignore the critics and ‘haters’ as she so loved to call them. But she fed off of them and wrote even more raw and painful pieces, which escalated the doubters and empowered her illness. She sought the center of the hurricane, the eye, where it was calm and serene as all hell blew around her. Race car drivers and jet test pilots speak of experiencing this calm as they hurtle threw time and space in tin machines.
Towards the end she began to destroy the relationships she needed the most. It was a magnification of her illness, and many, including me, were players in that side of her illness. Lately it had gotten worse, and a few old friends felt the pain of her paranoia and disassociation. Only recently she had posted about overcoming the wild, wild ride, the incredible risks and manic mood swings that swept her across a different universe than the rest of us.
And maybe, in the end, as she left the motorcycle and hurtled through the air all time and space did stand still, and in that brief moment she found the calm she so desperately craved.
I hope so....
To read more about the her life and times visit this vox....
Just in from Yahoo News: DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney is launching a radio ad touting the strength of his opposition to gay marriage.
1. To use anothers lifestyle to garner votes is as reprehensible as co-opting Jesus for a vote. Way to go Mitt, you do both.
"As Republicans we must oppose discrimination and defend traditional marriage: one man, one woman," Romney says in the spot.
2. What about the gay Republicans who have supported this crap-assed party and worked tirelessly for it...are you screwing them as did Bush and Rove, Mitt? What about your colleague looking for sex in a public bathroom, do you think he is risking all because he's bored? Oh,I know the devil got him in a weak moment so some prayer and voodoo curses over chicken bones and all will be right with his soul. (How incredibley stupid you people are.)
The ad is meant to set him apart from Fred Thompson, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in the minds of conservative voters.
3. Does this mean your distancing yourself from Darth Vader Cheney too, you remember him, the real president who is a stalwart voice of power in your crap-ass party and can kill your campaign with a phone call, and who loves his lesbian daughter, who also works tirelessy for this crap-ass party? You're too dumb to be president Mitt and we're tired of dumb presidents.
Conclusion: Republicans will eat their young for a vote....
Action: Vote 'em out, everyone of the them, and a lot of the Dems too. In 2008 use your vote to remove the incumbent bullshit and hate mongering from Washington...
It's been a rough week for news and events for those of us with any semblance of sanity left...check out Daddawg's round up of the damned....
Every year in August I trudge off to Stinkfinger's clinic for my annual colonoscopy. I'd rather poke needles in my ears than do this, but its price of age I suppose.
Perhaps it was all the practice I had in the 70s,but I'm somewhat resistance to the sedatives they adminsiter to knock you out in order to perform this hideous procedure and I can usually watch the probe on the monitor as it snakes its way up my colon.
Stinkfinger hates the fact that I can oversee his work and the pre-procedure bedside chat usually goes something like this.
Stinkfinger: Now, Dawg, I want you to relax and go to sleep this year.
Me: No way.
Stinkfinger: Whadda ya mean, no way?
Me: I know you Stinkfinger, as soon as I pass out you'll try and stick something up my ass.
Stinkfinger: That's the whole point, it's a colonoscopy.
Me: No way.
Stinkfinger: Nurse, turn up his drip.
Me: Fucker.
Stinkfinger: Turn it up all the way and get me the extra big probe.
Me: Give me all you got, you bastard, Stinkfinger, I ain't going....d..o..w..n...
Stinkfinger: Finally, some peace and quiet.
