Who Are These People Anyway?

“Interesting Quotes From Our National Leaders”

Representative Herman Cain (R-FL): 

“The only tactic liberals have is to try to intimidate people into thinking that the Tea Party is racist. The Tea Party is not a racist movement, period! “

Not sure which Tea Party gatherings he’s attended but my three gatherings sort of, more or less, maybe led me to the wrong conclusion about them.  Naaaah!   Sorry Herman, but they are just plain racist.   Question: Depicting President Obama as Hitler is……….. ???????????

Representative Peter King (R-NY)

“I’m old enough to remember what happened in the 1960’s when the left wing took to the streets and somehow the media glorified them and it ended up shaping policy.  We can’t allow that to happen. 

So is Rep King saying that the shaping of national policy is the exclusive purview of the right wing?  I don’t know but to my, sometimes feeble, mind this somehow seems just the slightest bit anti-democratic. But who knows?  I’m just old fashioned I guess in thinking that it shouldn’t just be corporations who shape our national policy.

"The fact is these people are anarchists. They have no idea what they're doing out there," King said. "They have no sense of purpose other than a basically anti-American tone and anti-capitalist. It's a ragtag mob basically."

Well since I’ve only attended one Occupy rally, I guess I can’t really draw solid conclusions can I? But if the rally I went to was organized by or attended by “anarchists” I’m a bit confused.  The Wikipedia definition of “anarchism” is as follows:

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be immoral, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations. Proponents of anarchism (known as "anarchists") advocate stateless societies as the only moral form of social organization.

There weren’t all that many calls for the abolition of our government (well, there were a couple of Ron Paul folks) and I don’t recall seeing one sign calling the government immoral but there were lots and lots of signs calling for the government to prosecute immoral “Wall Street Banking Criminals.”   I’m just not sure how the anarchists rallying in Freedom Plaza expected the government to prosecute the wrong doers without a government to do it.  Maybe the anarchists just hadn’t thought it through very well.  See?  I told you.  It’s all very confusing. 

Representative Paul Broun (R-GA)

 “And I see people angry in my district too, but this attack upon business, attack upon industry, attack upon freedom, and I think that’s what this is all about.

Question:  What do you call it Congressman, when Tea Partiers shout down speakers at health care reform meetings? Free speech maybe?  Yeah, that’s what I thought.  But it’s my guess Rep Broun was talking about corporate freedom that, I suspect in his conservative view of the world, doesn’t extend to ordinary folks.  Like you and me. 

Governor Rick Perry (R-TX)

"I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution."

Steve Jobs understood what “intelligent design” is.  Gov Rick doesn’t.  Nuff said. 

Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

“What we should be teaching are the problems and holes and I think there are legitimate problems and holes in the theory of evolution. And what we need to do is to present those fairly from a scientific point of view. And we should lay out areas in which the evidence supports evolution and the areas in the evidence that does not.” 

“…present those fairly from a scientific point of view.”  Please forgive me, but how can you present a biblical, religious based “theory” from a “scientific” point of view?  What, the Bible is now a science textbook? 

Sharon Angle -Former Representative, Unsuccessful Senate Candidate 2010 (R-NV)

"People ask me, 'What are you going to do to develop jobs in your state?' Well, that's not my job as a U.S. senator." —Sharron Angle, May 14, 2010


Whoaaaa!!!  Tell it like it is honey!!!!  But just what did you think your job as Senator was going to be?  Promoting Creation Theory?  Yeah, that's just what our Congressional Representatives should be spending OUR money on!

Representative Michelle Bachmann (R-MN)

“If we took the minimum wage – if conceivably it was gone – we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level. “

Potentially?  Virtually?  Virtual unemployment?  Does this mean that people without jobs inhabit a reality – virtual or otherwise - different from mine and yours?  And Congresswomen, please define “any level” for me.  Is slavery a “level?”  Are the unemployed in their virtual world doing OK?  The Chicago School must love Michelle!!!!

“There are hundreds and hundreds of scientists, many of them holding Nobel Prizes who believe in intelligent design. “

Wow!  You have to wonder where this lady gets her facts.  I do wish she would list the Nobel Prize winners who believe in creationism.  Are these the “social scientists” perhaps?  There’s an expression that fits here– when you pull facts from out of your “hat” so to speak, depending on where you “wear” your “hat” - but I don’t want to ruin the PG-13 rating. 

Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA)

“This administration’s failed policies have resulted in an assault on many of our nation’s bedrock principles. If you read the newspapers today, I, for one, am increasingly concerned about the growing mobs occupying Wall Street and the other cities across the country. And believe it or not, some in this town, have actually condoned the pitting of Americans against Americans....”

Please Eric, please, please, please save us from those nasty, viscous, anarchist liberals and progressives pitting Americans against Americans before they destroy America.  In his defense, he did include the protesters on the “American” rather than the “traitor” side.  I doubt he realized it.   Always good for a chuckle but ambitious, radical right wing conservative Cantor is a very dangerous man. 

IN CONCLUSION:  Who Are These People Anyway? 

 I think the pertinent question is: All these people were actually – not virtually - elected by people who voted for them?  Really?   Damn – what can you say to that?  There’s no answer. 

NB:  Ron Christie on Chris Matthews Show

Just caught Mr. Christie, an African American Republican pundit who served in the Bush Administration, characterizing  the Occupy Wall Street Protesters as drug using, sexual perverts – “having sex  on the lawn” as he so eloquently put it. As a paid Republican operative I wonder what Mr. Christi thinks of the Black and White “American Protesters” who were killed during the Civil Rights Movement?   Of course he’s not old enough to have been there personally so he probably thinks that the Civil Rights Movement was some sort of Liberal propaganda effort aided by the then- “liberal press”. (See: Peter King above). Methinks the man wants to follow in the footsteps of that other Great African American Conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas.

Finally, I couldn’t resist including a quote from one of our most popular “non-elected” national leaders since he is truly one of my favorites. 

 Rush Limbaugh:  “Wall Street protesters are “perpetually lazy, spoiled rotten, 99% white kids”. 

Don’t look now Rush, but this is exactly what was said about us Anti-Viet Nam protesters way back when! 

Occupy DC Protests

Occupy Wall Street came to the Nation’s Capital yesterday.  Some 3,000 people gathered in Freedom Plaza a couple of blocks from the White House displaying great energy and organization.  Unlike the “town meetings” that greeted Obama’s Health Care Reform initiative in the summer of 2009, folks were polite, friendly and willing to discuss issues rationally.  Particularly impressive, to me, was a young, mid-20’s  young man dressed in a black suit and carrying a black ball and chain sack representing his college debt, the privatization of student loans being one of my pet peeves. 

There was no mistaking the diversity of the gathering – young, old, Black, white Asian, Latino - so it seems that the protest organizers have reached a broad audience.  The “unfocused” objectives of the protests were, to my mind, a great plus.  Rather than pinpointing a single issue – the lack of prosecutions for Wall Street criminals, for example, the crowd represented folks who had lost their homes, health insurance, jobs, folks who wanted the US out of Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as people against the corporatization of our political “system.”  Prominent among the themes was the 99% of us who are not wealthy and suffering from the actions of Wall Street and our seemingly deaf and dumb Congress.  This broadness, I think, is a very good thing since nearly everyone to the left of Jeff Beck will find something important to embrace.   

The protestors marched to the U. S. Chamber of Commerce and along the K Street corridor (aka Lobbyist Alley) two potent symbols of the corporatization of America and our Big Business financed Congress.  Not on the march route, however, were the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in keeping with the domestic nature of the movement.  Next time?

I hope the movement continues to grow in size and effectiveness.  I think it will.  At long last there seems to be a growing awareness among an ever-increasing proportion of American society that we’ve gone off track.  And I can’t help feeling grateful to the young folks in this country who have finally gotten it together and decided that they’ve had enough.  I mean 30 years of this casino game passing for economic policy is quite enough.

 

It will be a long, tough haul, however, if the movement is to change the course of our country. 

Please do whatever you can to support the Occupy Wall Street movement and its local derivatives (social, not financial).  It may be our last hope to counter the idiocy of Rush Limbaugh, Right Wing Republicans and the Tea Party. 

 NB: For some inexplicable reason, the Washington Post (the newspaper that ended Richard Nixon’s presidency) put its coverage in the Local News section.  Below the fold.  What’s up with that?  

Calmly Standing Up To Fox News

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yrT-0Xbrn4&feature=player_embedded


Good guy!  Looks like things just might be beginning to change.  The Occupy Wall Street protests are finally getting the attention they deserve.  Take a look at what Ann Coulter has to say about them on The Huffington Report.  Damn the woman is always so funny!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/04/ann-coulter-occupy-wall-street-nazis_n_993744.html

THE DARKER SIDE OF PET CARE

 Just back from an emergency run to an animal hospital for a friend’s 15 year old cat.  Apparently the poor thing (the cat, not my friend) had been vomiting and peeing and defecating for the past few days and since we live about 3 blocks apart he called me when things got too much for him to take.  And I was glad to do it.  I know what it’s like when a pet you are attached to is ill.  It’s the same kind of feeling that you have when your child is sick – helpless, panicked and praying a lot.  But the cat (and his owner) seem to have stabilized after the $300+ emergency visit on a Sunday afternoon.  Hope both will fully recover.

The incident reminds me of the various and sundry adventures I’ve had over the years with the family pets.  A friend of mine who’s visiting from India is amazed at how many people own pets here in DC (he jogs every morning and every evening so he’s exposed to the hordes of pet owners who flock to our local park) and how much attention they lavish upon them.  But I am reminded of the time I came home after a two week hospital visit and went to say hello to my daughter’s pet Peruvian Guinea Pig, whom, I must say, I did form some sort of bond with.

Well, “Piglet” (my daughter’s well-thought out name for him) was very excited to see me – leaping around in his cage and  making high pitched pig squeals – so I stroked him a bit, made sure he had water and food and then left to unpack my hospital suitcase.  Well, when I returned a couple of hours later, there he was, flat on his back with his little legs sort of spread eagled.  Yes, unfortunately, he was no longer among the living. 

Was it a case of too much excitement resulting in some sort of heart attack or stroke or apoplectic seizure? Was I the cause of his demise?  To this day I don’t know.  I mean to begin with who knows how old a Guinea Pig might be when you bring him home from the pet shop?  He could have been 4 or 6 or 10 or 12 years along and possibly nearing the end of his natural life (in a cage) anyway.   I suppose I could look up the lifespan of Guinea Pigs on Wikipedia but then I might feel even more guilty than I do now.  And does it strike you that even after 25 years I still feel guilty?  Such is life. 

Speaking of guilt, there was the time when I was taking care of my daughter’s hamster (yes, my daughter was the constant victim of my desire to recreate my farm-based childhood – God the number of fish, rodents, dogs, and other animals I foisted upon her) that went slightly awry.  She had gone off to horseback riding camp in Orange County, Virginia for the summer so Dad was responsible for making sure that the pets were taken care of.  (I thought that I was teaching her responsibility but I have a feeling that the only thing I taught her was the costly expense, constant burden, and emotional trauma of pet care).  At the time she had a hamster – a cute, furry, almost affectionate little creature that occasionally would drop down from the basement ceiling onto to our tenant’s dining table. I mean poor thing, such a precipitous drop, but he never seemed to suffer any ill effects from his flying squirrel style wanderings).

Anyway, I had put his cage right in front of the kitchen door – mainly so that I wouldn’t forget to feed him since his normal abode was in her room and when she wasn’t home it was not a place I frequented.  Each day when I came home from work I would check to see that there was plenty of food and water for the thing.  He  (not that I know it was a “him”) had a name but it escapes me right now.  We always named our pets including the black and white rabbit who was named Lucy after Lucille Ball – a connection to this day I don’t get.  But there you are.  The imaginative world of children is something to behold. 

After about a week, I realized that I hadn’t seen “what’s his name” scurrying around his cage or even sipping water from his plastic water bottle.  So I decided to investigate.  Well, turns out that what I thought was the water level in the bottle, was actually scum – mineral deposits, water stains  - from DC's chlorinated drinking water. When I removed the bottle I discovered that it was drier than the Sahara Desert in summer.  Sure enough when I dug through the cedar shavings at the bottom of his cage there he was laying flat on his back – spread eagled, not unlike Piglet – deader than a doornail.  So I failed in my fatherly duties once again.  (My lifetime parenting failures are way too numerous to elaborate upon here).    Of course I was beside myself – what would I tell her when she came home? 

But not to worry.  When she arrived back home and I told her the circumstances surrounding the demise of “what’s his name” she simply said “Well, that’s just typical isn’t it?”  Such harshness from so young a child.  But, I have to admit, genetically consistent. 

I’m not at all sure what she meant by that remark.  Maybe she was just reflecting on our family’s past experiences with pets – the Irish Setter who simply vanished one day never to be seen again or Pepper, the Husky, who escaped from our back yard despite the 8 foot high fence and was euthanized before we could locate her.  But please, I’m a kind, loving, caring and attentive animal husband as well as father.  And just because I seem to be the kiss of death to a couple of rodents doesn’t mean that I’m irresponsible or uncaring or unloving.  Does it????

For those of you have pets, please love them and care for them.  There is nothing more rewarding than the unconditional love that you will receive.  (Well, there is the unconditional love you might receive from your children but, trust me, you’re better off relying on your hamster).