gonzoid's Open Salon Blog

Why the 'religious' right has to deny global warming...

Wed, 7 Mar 2012 17:03:44 -0500

Because if they stop denying global warming (we're talking a certain cult here) they will have to realize that their 'every sperm is sacred' obsession has contributed to the problem, and that since the planet seems to be going to hell in a hand basket, and there has been no appearance of the 'saviour', they would also prove that we are really, totally, perhaps frighteningly, all alone...

Imagine there is no heaven, imagine there is no hell (although Los Angeles comes close) and imagine that people are right that religion was concocted to control other people.

I know too many people that actually believe that they will be 'raptured' at the time that the planet is unable to sustain life. If that isn't a cop-out I can't think of one. So, great... You breed like vermin (Duggers?) and trash the planet and then are whisked away to some 'other place' to be set free to do what? The same damn thing? Where is the sense in that...

Still, they have to continue denying global warming now and not just for the money but because it exposes a huge gaping hole in their 'logic', and their 'religion'...

Correspondence with my (R) representative.

Sat, 2 Jul 2011 23:07:03 -0400

I have been having a conversation with my republican representative over his stand on the Obama administration and the raising of the debt ceiling.

He, being a republican is against it, obviously.

So I sent him an email voicing my opinion...

I do that at times. I did it to 'my' state representative so much that he started blocking my email! Yes, in the Great State of Michigan, there are people too busy to have their staff read through emails from actual constituents! Amazing, ain't it...

So, my original email (and if I can find it, I'll add it below, solicited the following response:

Thank you for contacting me.

I appreciate knowing your views regarding legislation to raise the federal debt limit. As you may know, federal law sets a limit on the amount of debt the federal government is allowed to take on. As the debt grows, Congress must pass legislation to raise tis limit. If an increase in the debt limit is not enacted by August 2, 2011, the United States risks defaulting on its debt obligations.

Let me be clear: I do not support and will not vote for a debt limit increase that does not contain significant spending cuts and budgetary reforms. Our current path is unsustainable and unacceptable. We must force Washington to live within its means, and any deal on the debt limit should include real reforms including entitlement programs like Medicare.

The president's budget calls for a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt limit through the end of next year. The Presidnet and over 100 Congressional Democrats have called for a "clean" extension of the debt limit without any accompanying spending cuts or entitlement reforms. To illustrate that this is not the approach favored by the majority of the House of Representatives or the majority of the American people, I filed legislation that allowed the House to reject a clean increase in the debt limit. This bill was rightly rejected by a vote of 97-318. This overwhelming rebuke proves to the American people, the financial markets, and the Administration that House Republicans are serious about tackling our debt and deficit problems.

In the House's 2012 budget, Republicans put forward bold solutions to deal with the nation's spending crisis. It is time for the President to come to the table and join us in talking about specific policy solutions. In the coming weeks, I remain committed to working with my colleagues in a bipartisan fashion to enact bold spending reduction and entitlement reforms that end Washington's "borrow now and pay later" attitude. To this end, I welcome your continued comments and suggestions.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Sincerely,

DAVE CAMP

Member of Congress

And, being the good constituent that I am, I took him up on his statements in his mailed, and transcribed, message in my response"

Thank you for your recent response. I do understand the concerns over the budget and spending. That is why I am sure that your office could provide me with the information on your 7 votes to extend the debt ceiling while George W. Bush was president. I am also sure that your staff can find your no votes on the Iraq war, the Afghanistan war and the Medicare Drug Benefit that were all 'off budget' funded. I am sure that you had a hard time standing up to your republican colleagues as they voted to throw all of that and much more onto the debt. I am sure that a man who believes as you state in you letter would have fought the level of spending that was occurring under the Bush administration. So much of it was such outrageous waste and added to the deficit. I am also sure that your staff can find all of your votes against the massive Bush era tax cuts that occurred while all of this reckless spending was happening. To a man that takes the budget and 'reckless spending' so seriously, you had to have been up late at night fighting for the 'little guy'. Right? So which is it, Mr. Camp: Are you a politician that stands up for what is right for this country against the reckless spending and galloping deficit of the Bush administration, or are you a political hack angry because a black democrat was elected president and you want to be part of even more reckless spending and creating a more out of sight budget deficit. I would really like to believe in the former, but I know that the real reason you are so pissed at the 'out of control spending' is because it's not a republican in the White House doing the spending. Are you a political hack, reckless ideologue, or do you actually believe the crap your staff sends out to constituents on taxpayer funded pieces of paper? I won't hold my breath for the answer, but I'll be waiting for the response with baited breath. I need a good laugh...

Now, after transcribing his mailed message to me, I really can't believe the balls this man has. Most of that should earn him a lightening bolt from the heavens... What a hack.

It's obvious that they want to cut entitlements because they feel that they can because in large part they or their families won't have to depend on those 'entitlements' to try to survive.

I think, perhaps the way to 'fix' Congress is to require those politicians to live on welfare and food stamps and bar them from taking any political contributions EVER! Make them live on below-poverty federal assistance. Make them have to come up with the money on their own for the private schools and 'special accomidations' that many feel 'entitled' to. Let's take away THEIR 'entitlements', and their lobbyist soaked (cough cough) 'contributions', and trips...

See how Dave Camp likes living from government check to check. See how HE likes sending his kids to the Midland Michigan public schools. See how HE likes having to cough up the money to fly to Ireland to play golf!

I guess what I'm more than tired of is the lying. Why can't Dave Camp and the conressional republicans just say that they are pissed that a N-gger democrat was elected (in a mistake) and took their 'inside man' out of the running at the federal treasury.

I mean, just imagine the stunning world stage presence of John McCain and Sarah Palin running around fleecing the Social Security trust fund and torpedoing both Medicare and Medicaid! Imagine the smog filled skys and pollution filled rivers and streams under the jaundiced eye of a GOP/corporate controlled EPA. Imagine the massed numbers of people out of work and whos unemployment would not have been extended even once. I shudder to imagine the effect of Caribou Barbie on the Iraq/Afghanistan wars... Would we be in North Korea? Lebanon? Cuba? Venesuela? Grenada? (Oops, wrong president, right party) Think about it...

What if the terrorists are domestic. And they sit on Washington DC? Why the focus to cut the deficit now? Why cut it on the middle and lower classes backs? Hmmm...

Oh! I found my original email! Here it is:

A no vote to raise the debt ceiling is not a 'vote for America' that I'd want to live in. How can you claim to be working 'for America' when you continue to play chicken with the economy and risk sending millions of people out into the street. I don't know how you can sleep at night. You who actually assisted in the mess that you now pin on President Obama. You who was nicknamed 'Rubber Stamp Camp' for voting to add so much to the US National Debt. You are not an American. You are a disgrace. The kind of country you and people like you want is not the America our soldiers like my father fought to defend. And to predicate aid for Joplin on whether there are cuts to 'balance them out' is nothing short of cruelty. So much for defending the constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, ehh...

I guess I'd be tempted to block my emails if I was in office but I am a constituent and my voice should count for SOMETHING, even if it's just a notation that I oppose what this hack is doing, and to alert the security if I ever show up in his office, although I am no threat to him...

Let's have a Bible burning!

Sun, 3 Apr 2011 18:04:57 -0400

Yes, you read that right. Let's have a Bible burning.

Let's get a case of Bibles and light'em up to show how unhinged the 'religious' right would get if someone did the same shit that horrible asshole in Florida (and why is Florida cornering the market on assholes anyway) did.

Roast'em if you got them.

Be sure to call your local media outlet and urge them to come and cover the whole thing and get it on the news.

You want to see hypocrisy in action? Announce that you are going to burn a 'Holy' Bible.

Heck, all you need to do is read the Bible and you have enough hatred and violence to make the MPAA slap an NC-1 rating on it if it were made into a movie uncut.

Toast'em and roast'em people!

Has Goldman Sachs shorted America?

Sun, 30 Jan 2011 11:01:05 -0500

Has Goldman Sachs shorted America?

I don't mean shorted as stolen, although you could make that point rather well, I mean has Goldman shorted America the way that they bet against the people holding the mortgages that they knew would default.

A republican senator recently said that the US should default on its debts and more specifically that it should default on the 'debts' that are in the Social Security 'Trust' Fund.

You see that the Social Security 'fund' isn't stuffed to the gills with real money. No, it's stuffed with US Bonds. A bond is roughly a loan agreement. You agree to give money to the government and they agree to pay it back, with interest, at some future time.

So what happens to this country if we start defaulting on our debts?

If you are unlucky enough, you have a family member that is always trying to borrow money from you. If you are more unlucky, you have loaned them money, 'trusting' that they will pay you back. To be even more unlucky they haven't paid you back. Even when you put pressure on them to make good on the loan, they still won't pay it back.

Well, how eager are you to loan them any more money? Probably not very likely at all.

Well, if you were Goldman Sachs, or a rather large number of Wall Street corporations, you can actually bet that you won't get the money back by 'shorting' it. I realize that it's a little more complicated than that but basically part of the reason why Goldman and so many other Wall Street corporations made out like bandits, and so many people got so screwed, in this whole 'economic collapse' is because at the same time Wall Street was making and packaging those debts, they were betting that they would be defaulted on.

So back to the US: If we start defaulting on our debts, a thing which has never in the history of this planet ever happened (which makes us a damn good risk for other countries to loan us money (and is part of the reason, perhaps, we are in such straights)), we become an 'unsafe risk'.

Other governments don't want to risk lending us money anymore. Also the interest rate on our current debt, and any future debt, skyrockets.

Those unlucky enough to be holding our debt will revolt. All of the sudden that note that you may have had your relative sign agreeing to repay that loan becomes worthless and so do our US Bonds and other debt. Not to mention our money too which is backed by 'the full faith and credit' of the US Government...

So, the big question that I have now when people (odd that it's always either a tea bagger or a republican (further proving a solid and direct link between the parent and offspring)) start talking about us defaulting on our debts is: Who will benefit?

You have to just know that someone, or a whole bunch of someones, are going to make off like bandits if this happens AND a whole lot of the world is going to be pretty god damned mad at us for doing it.

So, should the US default on any of our debts?

After this explanation, do you really need to think on it any farther? It's playing chicken with the financial market on a whole new level... And who wins if the United States falls flat on its face? I know who loses...Goldman Sachs shorted the Greek economy already. Are we next?

What this country is lacking is gratitude.

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 18:12:25 -0500

If there's one thing that makes me sick it's all this talk of 'lazy poor' and 'evil unions'.

What these self-appointed guardians of our country fail to realize is that these were the people that helped build this country.

These were some of the people who were being so mistreated by the corporations that they worked for that they ganged together and formed unions to protect themselves from the rampant cruelty and callousness of the managers and owners.

The fought for guards on the equipment. They fought for fair work rules. They fought for a living wage. They fought for the ability to actually get ahead and not have to essentially pay all of their earnings back to the 'company store'.

These were the people that were willing to stand for 8 hours and install lug nuts on the wheels of cars five days a week. They were the people that built the bridges and paved the roads. They were the people that 'got 'er done' when it had to get done.

And yet, now, the likes of famous philanthropists like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck are kicking the working poor and the poor around like they are yesterday's garbage.

The 'can do' attitude in this country lifted all of us out of the depression and two world wars. That same attitude, if given a chance against the march of jobs overseas, can do it again.

Most of these people that are on unemployment DID have a job. That job isn't there any longer and the reason it's gone is probably do in some small part by the politicians that Fox News supports.

We need a little gratitude. The rich that got their money from 'industry' need to thank God that people were willing to work in their hell holes in the first place and then be damn glad that they and other 'captains of industry' were paying their employees a 'living wage'. A wage that allowed for the purchase of other items than food, gas, and medicine.

For if there were never such a radical idea of a 'living wage', I doubt highly that there would be nearly as many idle rich now demanding their tax cuts.

We need to thank the workers of this country. The upper-class need to realize that much of the root of their money has to do with the direct interaction of others.

America used to be 'The World's Market'. How is it possible that the very core of the country that allowed America to rise to that level would be sold to others to supplant this country as the leader.

If anything, the captains of industry should be damn grateful that their employees don't storm their gated communities and rip them from their imported leather furniture and gold plated plumbing fixtures and grueling days of golf and beat them with their own egos.

Be grateful.

And to those 'religious' people who are declaring war on the poor and unemployed:

gonzoid's Open Salon Blog

Why the 'religious' right has to deny global warming...

Correspondence with my (R) representative.

Let's have a Bible burning!

Has Goldman Sachs shorted America?

What this country is lacking is gratitude.

"And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you ...did it to me.’"