The reason the House doesn't want to pass a bill...

...is because it will be changed in the Senate. The House will have to vote again and then the Senate will take it into reconciliation.

The Byrd Rule defines a provision to be "extraneous" (and therefore ineligible for reconciliation) in six cases:

1. if it does not produce a change in outlays or revenues;
2. if it produces an outlay increase or revenue decrease when the instructed committee is not in compliance with its instructions;
3. if it is outside the jurisdiction of the committee that submitted the title or provision for inclusion in the reconciliation measure;
4. if it produces a change in outlays or revenues which is merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision;
5. if it would increase the deficit for a fiscal year beyond those covered by the reconciliation measure; and
6. if it recommends changes in Social Security.

Speaker Boner is trying to find a way to keep the bill out of Reconciliation in the Senate which would only require a 51 vote majority.

It is impossible to keep a measure out of reconciliation if it increases revenues, unless, it changes Social Security. Whether Social Security needs it or not.

Corruption. Republicans are corrupt through and through. They won't govern. They refuse to be decent people doing the nation's business. It is making sense yet?

Recognize this lady?

That is the current Justice Sotomayor. That is also Senator Patrick Leahy from Vermont. I love him as a Senator. He does great work. 

The clown  standing next to Senator Leahy is Senator, oh what's his name? Ah, Jefferson something. Oh, yeah, Senator Jefferson Sessions. I can't figure out why he keeps getting elected. Whether it is the Jefferson the people like, or the Sessions. Well, he is a lousy Senator at any rate.

Why is he lousy, because, he is too much of a coward, that's why.

NRA to Score Holder Contempt Vote (click here)

Citing NRA Scoring, Democrats brace for Holder contempt vote (click here)

See, Senators like Sessions cower to the NRA and their 'scoring' of votes by the House and Senate. Sessions is scared of a bad score by the NRA, therefore, it is actually the NRA voting and not the Senator or any entity with conscience.

It would be one thing to think the NRA (National Rifle Association) was actually only interested in THEIR SPECIAL INTEREST, but, the voting for Justice Sotomayor was EVIDENCE to the power brokering the NRA does on every aspect of government.

The N.R.A. at the bench (click here)
December 26, 2012, 9:00 pm
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
...Back in 2009, when President Obama chose Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his first Supreme Court nominee, the White House expected that her compelling personal story, sterling credentials, and experience both as a prosecutor and, for 17 years, as a federal judge would win broad bipartisan support for her nomination. There was, in fact, no plausible reason for any senator to vote against her.

The president’s hope was Senator Mitch McConnell’s fear. In order to shore up his caucus, the Senate Republican leader asked a favor of his friends at the National Rifle Association: oppose the Sotomayor nomination and, furthermore, “score” the confirmation vote. An interest group “scores” a vote when it adds the vote on a particular issue to the legislative scorecard it gives each member of Congress at the end of the session. In many states, an N.R.A. score of less than 100 for an incumbent facing re-election is big trouble.

Note that the N.R.A. had never before scored a judicial confirmation vote. Note also that Sonia Sotomayor had no record on the N.R.A.’s issues. (True, she voted with an appeals court panel to uphold New York State’s ban on nunchucks, a martial-arts weapon consisting of two sticks held together with a chain or rope, commonly used by gang members and muggers. The appeals court didn’t even reach the interesting issue of whether the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to keep and bear nunchucks, ruling instead that the amendment didn’t apply to the states – which, before the Supreme Court later ruled otherwise by a vote of 5 to 4, it didn’t.)

Never mind. The N.R.A. had all the reason it needed to oppose Sonia Sotomayor: maintenance of its symbiotic relationship with the Republican Party. Once it announced its opposition and its intention to score the vote, Republican support for the nominee melted away. Only seven Republicans voted for confirmation.

One senator, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, said by way of explaining her “no” vote that her constituents had expressed “overwhelming concern” about Judge Sotomayor’s views on the Second Amendment. However, Senator Murkowski told the National Journal at the time, “I am a bit concerned that the N.R.A. weighed in and said they were going to score this.” She added, “I don’t think that was appropriate.”

The following year, after the N.R.A. opposed Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court and announced that “this vote matters and will be part of future candidate evaluations,” Republican support for another nominee without a record on gun issues shrank to five senators....

It is called corruption, if it weren't completely obvious.

I do believe McConnell needs to be relieved from his job. He is a partisan hack and one hell of a lousy Senator. McConnell is as corrupt as the day is long. Then again, considering EST can fluctuate, I take that back. McConnell is consistently corrupt. More than the length of any day could allow.

The Coal Ash Corruption. It is a clue as to how impossible it has been for Secretary Jackson.

Fifteen homes like this one in Harriman, Tenn., were flooded with fly ash sludge on Monday after a storage pond wall broke

By SHAILA DEWAN

Published: December 24, 2008

KINGSTON, Tenn. — (click here) What may be the nation’s largest spill of coal ash lay thick and largely untouched over hundreds of acres of land and waterways Wednesday after a dam broke this week, as officials and environmentalists argued over its potential toxicity.
Federal studies have long shown coal ash to contain significant quantities of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium, which can cause cancer and neurological problems. But with no official word on the dangers of the sludge in Tennessee, displaced residents spent Christmas Eve worried about their health and their property, and wondering what to do....

By golly, the Tennessee sludge is different than any other coal ash sludge the nation has ever witnessed. Like I said, "Republicans run on corruption, not the truth."

The corruption is rampant. 

Four years after Tennessee tragedy, politicians are blocking federal oversight of coal ash (click here)

This Saturday, Dec. 22 marks four years since a massive coal ash impoundment collapsed at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee, sending over a billion gallons of toxic waste laden with arsenic, lead and radioactive elements into a nearby community. The 2008 disaster damaged 42 homes, leaving three uninhabitable, and inundated the Emory and Clinch rivers, causing a massive fish kill and ongoing contamination concerns....
...In 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed rules requiring safer handling of the waste, but it delayed issuing a final rule after coming under intense political pressure from electric utilities, coal mining interests, and the coal ash recycling industry, which fears that treating coal ash like hazardous waste would stigmatize its products....

Ya think? 

...There are currently two bills pending in Congress -- H.R. 2273 and S. 3512 -- that would block federal regulation and instead create state-implemented permit programs for the management and disposal of coal ash. But there are serious questions about the legislation's effectiveness. Earlier this month, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) issued a report that analyzed the bills and found they failed to establish a "clear standard of protection" necessary to safeguard human health and the environment from the risks of coal ash disposal....

I am quite sure the impoverished coal communities are in gratitude for the corruption and loss of longevity.

Oct 20 2011

Manchin, Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Coal Ash Recycling Legislation (click here)

Measure Will Help Preserve Jobs, Protect Local Oversight, Hold Down Energy Costs

...Under this legislation, states could set up their own permitting program for the management and disposal of coal ash that is based on existing EPA regulations to protect human health and the environment. States will know where they stand under this bill, since the benchmarks for what constitutes a successful state program will be set in statute. This is a states-first approach that provides regulatory certainty....

There is absolutely nothing like USA Senators that don't believe in the strength of the federal government to protect their people.

...In addition to Senator Manchin, Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), and John Boozman (R-Ark.) have also sponsored this bill.

There ain't nothing like corruption to solve unemployment problems. It is a gift that keeps on giving. As soon as the employees die from environmental exposure to toxins, their children can stop standing in line for a chance at a paycheck.

Thank you, Secretary Jackson, for your expertise, caring and good service. If only everyone was as dedicated.

He harassed Secretary Jackson into resignation.

...The GOP chairman (click here) of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Fred Upton, said last year that Jackson would need her own parking spot at the Capitol because he planned to bring her in so frequently for questioning. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for her firing, a stance that had little downside during the GOP primary....

Secretary Jackson took on the problems of the nation. On occasion where there was no scientific evidence to the outcomes. She was able to harness cooperation and the expertise of scientists within the nation to 'figure it out' when the nation needed them.

The primary problem whereby no previous administration CARED about the coastal waters of the USA, was the Corexit applications during the BP Oil Disaster.

Previous to Secretary Jackson taking on the petroleum industry they were given a pass on any and all aspects of the industry. 

BP's Corexit Oil Tar Sponged Up by Human Skin (click here)

—By Julia Whitty

Tues. Apr. 17, 2012

The Surfrider Foundation has released its preliminary "State of the Beach" study for the Gulf of Mexico from BP's ongoing Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Sadly, things aren't getting cleaner faster, according to their results. The Corexit that BP used to "disperse" the oil now appears to be making it tougher for microbes to digest the oil. I wrote about this problem in depth in "The BP Cover-Up."...

Secretary Jackson had completely unreasonable problems to deal with. Problems the USA never faced before of which there was no research to any of the actions of the petroleum industry. She has also had to sort through the problems with hydraulic fracturing. She has done remarkably well considering the disaster the department was left in following Republican administrations.

The sincere asset she brought to the EPA was her chemical engineering background. As secretary she didn't need anyone to sort out facts regarding the problems she faced. When scientists provided information, she immediately know what they were discussing and was able to rule according to her own knowledge base. 

I hope she stays involved. We need her. I can't thank you enough and I am glad she is staying to the beginning of the President's new term in office. She'll be missed.

She also joins many minority members of this administration that has received incredible pressure while performing their duties with loyalty to the USA. They leave. After a time they leave because they feel stifled to carry out their responsibilities. She didn't need to be harassed by the House Committees to do her job. She did it well and with competency. When is this level of harassment going to be met with Ethical Violations? It is effecting our National Security and recruitment of completely competent minority experts to the nation's agencies. Ignoring this level of bigotry and racism by Congressmen is a measure racism and bigotry all itself.

Republicans don't care about competency, they uphold corruption above all else and this is just one more measure of it.

..."Under her leadership, the EPA has taken sensible and important steps to protect the air we breathe and the water we drink, including implementing the first national standard for harmful mercury pollution, taking important action to combat climate change under the Clean Air Act and playing a key role in establishing historic fuel economy standards that will save the average American family thousands of dollars at the pump, while also slashing carbon pollution."...

Owning weapons is a public safety concern.

In one of the most intense social settings in this country, a college campus, there are requirements to remove volatile content from young adults under the stress of learning and belonging to a new social situation that could dictate the direction of their lives.

Welcome to Old Town, Maine (click here)

Within Old Town, Maine is the University of Maine. Maine is one of the areas of the USA that has a lot of wilderness content to their lifestyles. Lucky ducks. I remember my Brother-In-Law stating one of his hurdles to making money on his newspaper route were the moose. They would charge at him at certain times of years and send him in the ditch with his bike.

Consequently, people carry guns. Hunting rifles and shotguns. They hunt. They act to keep down the populations of moose and other wildlife. It actually serves to maintain the health of the wilderness as they don't starve due to population stress. So, there are real kinships in Maine surrounding guns. But. There are also problems that might be described as "The Hatfields and the McCoys."

Weapons and Ammunition Prohibition: (click here)

No weapon or ammunition shall be worn, displayed, used, or possessed on campus.

Weapons may be stored on campus under the control of the Director of University Police Department and in accordance with the policy and procedures of the Office of Public Safety.

The Chief of University Police Department may grant permission in writing to an individual to possess a weapon or ammunition on campus for instructional purposes and in other special circumstances and under conditions as approved by the Chief.

The people of Old Town, Maine have a right to find peace of mind with a changing population at the university from year to year. The Seniors graduate and the Freshmen arrive. Old Town is not necessarily the students hometown and their families may or may not live nearby. I am sure there are out of state students who would be completely disoriented to a gun presence on campus. So the University of Maine have rules. They are rules to protect the public and as they point out, their faculty, staff, students and visitors on campus.

Check your guns at the door (click here)

Old west weapons policy aims to keep campus safe

By Rob Stigle

Posted on Feb. 15, 2010, at 2:57 a.m.

Housed within the darkened command center of the University of Maine Public Safety office, behind the circus of lights emanating from the dispatch control panel, there exists a room that would send Bugs Bunny running for the rabbit hole.

Inside, an array of shotguns and rifles are stacked on racks reaching from the floor to the ceiling, with handguns and ammunition on a nearby metal shelf. They are all located behind a standard, wooden closet door, distinguished only by a small sign that reads “student weapons.”...
 ...UMaine police chief Noel March insists the restrictions are not about taking away the rights of citizens, but are aimed at ensuring a safe collegiate environment.
“Our overarching goal is to keep our students, teachers, spectators, visitors, credit union patrons and parents safe,” March said. “It’s not about controlling guns. It’s about safety.”
The layout of the UMaine campus alone supports March’s reasoning. The cluttered landscape of buildings, people, roads and traffic would make it difficult to fire any weapon safely....

For as long as guns have existed in the USA, which is a long time, there has been gun 'edict.' There has been a clear understanding those carrying guns were responsible for safeguarding the innocent. 

The American people want safety from unlawful and dangerous gun fire. That is all they are asking and that has a very long history of a valid value in the USA. Very long history. Gunslingers would have standoffs in the street with people witnessing the action of those involved. A Dual is what that might be called. It was not a matter of surprise either. Everyone knew what was about to happen. QUICK DRAW McGRAW is well known to many who were youngster back in the day.

Today, we have come a long way as a civilized nation and such foolishness whereby men would act against each other for honor would require a call to 911. Then there would be prosecution of the 'one man standing.' Today, however, in the streets of the USA that 'civilized nation' no longer exists.

So. Demanding the government to protect them from unreasonable ODDS stacked against them is not at all alien to the USA. To know what gun content exists in the neighborhood is more than a reasonable demand. If there are AK-47s or Bushmasters or any other weapon of that nature in a neighborhood where I want to purchase a home for my family, I won't move there and I have a right not to move there.

It is proven in the year 2012, the number of dangerous weapons in an area can be used against the best interests of Americans. PROVEN. 

I applaud all those seeking our return to sanity in the USA and would seek neighborhoods with sane content for themselves and their families. It is about time. It is time the people of the USA demand a freedom from political hostage taking and a return to safe streets.

Senator Reid was just with President Obama in Hawaii to attend the funeral of the Late Senator Inouye. I would expect him to know where the President stands.

Harry Reid accused House Republicans of being 'out watching movies' instead of working on a deal to solve the budget crisis. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters

"Daniel was the best senator among us all," (click here) said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid during the ceremony at Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery, a beautiful site located in an extinct volcano.

President Obama's family resided in Hawaii, so I would expect him to be present at the Senator's funeral.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama look on as Sen. Daniel Inouye's widow, Irene, is given the flag that was draped over her husband's casket.

I am sure they were great friends. It was Hawaii's first President elected from his home state.

Hagel's opposition is not about Israel. It is about rubbing Neocons' noses in it.

U.S. President Barack Obama (2nd R) and Vice President Joe Biden (L) meet with co-chairmen of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board former Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) (R) and former Senator David Boren (D-OK) and senior leadership of the intelligence community in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington October 28, 2009. (photo by REUTERS/Jim Young) Hagel is more than qualified for the position of Secretary of Defense. I'd like to see Mullens there, but, that won't happen so there is no reason to stand in the way of Chuck Hagel. Hagel Praises Obama on Syria; Chides GOP on Iran (click here) By: Barbara Slavin.  posted on Mon, Mar 12.

Chuck Hagel, who co-chairs the Obama administration’s Intelligence Advisory Board, says the United States should offer Iran “face-saving ways” out of the nuclear crisis and let Arab countries to take the lead in ousting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad....

It is also a bit of revenge. Hagel called the invasion into Iraq another Vietnam.

Frm Ted Barrett
CNN Washington Bureau:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Perhaps the strongest worded opposition (click here) to President Bush's plan to send more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq came from a fellow Republican on Thursday.

Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska described the move as "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out."

"I will resist it," he said.

Hagel's comments sparked applause from the Senate gallery, where lawmakers were engaged in a heated debate with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who came to Capitol Hill to answer questions about the president's new strategy for Iraq....

Hagel is also from Nebraska. He won many of his elections by double digit majorities. The Democrat was defeated in the Senate race this year. It might even be dangerous to have a Republican Senator from Nebraska that actually disagrees in any votes with a very popular and former Senator himself.

Chuck Hagel is chairman of the Atlantic Council (click here)

Chuck Hagel is a distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. He serves on the Boards of Directors of Chevron Corporation and Zurich’s Holding Company of America; the Advisory Boards of Corsair Capital, Deutsche Bank America, M.I.C. Industries and is a Senior Advisor to Gallup. He is Co-Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board and a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Policy Board. He also serves as Chairman of the Atlantic Council, Chairman of the United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration Advisory Committee, and is a member of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) board of directors and the Systemic Risk Council....

My concern about Hagel is where he falls on the DOD budget. It is far too large and the nation needs to scale back. Will he be on the side of the American people when it comes to military budget issues? I mean the spending on the F-35 Fighter is out of control. Will Hagel actually scrutinize the DOD budget and continue to relieve his nation of the spending on these machines. I would think as a two term Senator he would be able to discern prudent spending over wasteful spending and chase it down. His affiliations with Wall Street don't thrill me either, but, he has a record as an honorable man not easily swayed by cronies.

The upside is that Chuck Hagel will be a reasonable advocate for peace. That is important. He will not be another Rumsfeld, as a puppet to war at any cost for any reason.

I'd like to hear those concerns addressed at a Senate hearing for his nomination.

New Year Resolution Number One

In 2013 I will not be a free resource to CEOs anywhere. I will never answer another online or telephone survey again. They are annoying and they never stop until they are answered. It is harassment and I refuse to be a part of hostage taking. 

I will never rank an employee's performance in a commercial service I pay for. I will complain without end to the harassment of their surveys. I don't believe ranking employees is my job in life!

For all any CEO knows, I could have come on to the employee and threatened to give them a bad review and did. Jerks.

Unions. The employees in the USA need unions.

Kathryn Ann Bigelow makes conservative films. Maybe I didn't say that right.

She is very ambitious. She was awarded Best Director as the first woman to receive that award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

She made the conservative film of all conservative films with The Hurt Locker. It was a Bush film. It catered to the Right Wing brokers within the Academy.

I never went to see The Hurt Locker. I won't see it, because while I can only imagine the people that do that kind of work; there are police with bomb squads all over the USA doing dangerous work. Yet. There was no film made about them. It was made about the military. There is a reason for that. It was pure ambition that drove Ms. Bigelow to direct The Hurt Locker. It was a film that could be promoted through the right wing ranks of the decision tree.

I am not surprised Mr. Bigelow made a film about Osama bin Laden that would highlight torture as the real winner of his death. If one remembers, when President Obama sent in the Seal Team, the Right Wing was screaming it was due to Bush's policies that bin Laden was dead. They never stopped. Then to create more controversy when Ms. Bigelow was given the opportunity to get the information for the film, it was coined as a propaganda film to benefit the Obama Campaign.

I guarantee you the people behind this film that provided Ms. Bigelow access was not the Obama election team, but the Right Wing Political machine. She wants another Oscar and any variety of aware thereafter or before for the film. She isn't interested in making a film based in fact. She is not a documentarian and never stated she ever was. She is making films that please people whom back her politically within her peer groups.

She never said the bin Laden film was factual or a documentary. She never will because it is a political film intended to win awards from inside the Academy. It is easy to promote as a Right Wing benefit to power million-billionaires. 

Believe it or not there are many people in this country that find the rating system a rejection of art. How does that relate to the Bigelow film? She plays by all the rules. She doesn't move outside of the rules to take chances to show herself as a sincere artist interested in expression. She makes movies to win awards, not portray the truth as a documentarian would or as an artist seeking to 'create' rather than make money.

She has made other films, but, they never made the money these do. These are controversial right wing films. Do you think the Right Wing thinks the remake of Atlas Shrugged is going to be seen, yet change opinion? They had to get Hannity to appear in the film in order to sell the boring mess.

There is a reason critics exist and used to exist in far larger numbers then today. It is because they would watch the film first and tell their readers about the risks within the film as well as the quality. See, critics think. They appreciate art. They appreciate the science of film making. But, a rating system simply 'ranks' the film for the political purpose of public opinion.

So, there you have it. The US Senators reviewing the propagandizing within the film are right to their verbal protests. The film is marketed as a factual depiction. It isn't and Ms. Bigelow will never claim it is completely true. It is a film about violence to enforce violence within our culture. There are members of this country needing to enforce violence and those are the ones that profit from it financially and politically.

Think about it.

Joel Edgerton: 'Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden movie should wait'

Can owning guns effect your house values?

You know how pedophilia is listed at the local police department for people moving into a neighborhood? Well. Now if you are purchasing a home, canvas the public records to know if your neighbors are hoarding guns and if any of them are capable of killing many people in one clip.

Map: Where are the gun permits in your neighborhood? (click here)

• FILED UNDER - 
• News
•  / Local News | 
• 4:51 PM, Dec. 22, 2012 

ROCKLAND COUNTY (click here)

This map shows pistol permits registered in Rockland County, which are issued for life and do not need to be renewed. Zoom in and out for more information and click on a dot to see details of a permit. Rockland County splits permit holders into two categories: 

Active (blue): Permit holders that have purchased a firearm or updated the information on a permit in the past five years. 

Historic (purple): Permit holders with no activity in the past five years. Permit holders who have died or moved out of the area may not have updated their permit records, so some locations marked with a purple dot may not represent a current permit holder.

Do it. Ask for a review of the neighborhood for gun permits and weapons purchased during the closing on the home. If people are smart, they'll beat their potential buyers to the information and list it with the home they are selling.

It would make a difference to me. Someone is thinking out there. Why live next to a nut case that will kill firefighters and burn down your home.

He still has a fever?

Sorry to hear that. I am glad he is enjoying all his guests.

I am sure the doctors have thought of everything, but, if antibiotics are not doing the job, my only suspect is the immune system itself. 

Are all his gamma globulin levels normal? I can't help but think perhaps there needs to be an assessment of his immune system if it hasn't been done already.

An infusion of gamma globulin might do it. This is nothing to say there is a disease or medicine suppressing his immune system. His age alone challenges that reality.

I wish him well. Sorry, to hear he is still fighting a fever. That can't be much fun. 

He is a very handsome man, isn't he? Even at his advanced age, he maintains his good looks. His hair is not completely grey in this picture.

I think if I have to choose a word it would be dashing. He looks very dashing in his senior years.

You want to stop rising health care costs?

Push down from the top.

If MDs have to pay more taxes they won't raise their rates to their patients. They'll open their doors to Medicare patients. Because the lower tax rates they pay at the top of the tax structure is incentive to raise their rates. They make more money by charging their customers more, they pay less taxes to the USA.

Think about it.

There costs haven't gone up that much. They certainly aren't paying it to their staff. So, why the increase the race to the top of the tax structure?

The Bush Tax Cuts have to end.

"Kick the Can" (click here) was once a child's game. I think I want to leave it there. It is not a good expression of what is happening in the USA.

No more politics with the tax structure of the USA. The Democrats can't wimp out on this. And, yes, they look like wimps when they allow extensions of these tax cuts. We need to get on with governing and have the Middle Class fight for better wages. 

I would love to have the tax cuts saved for anyone earning $250,000 per year, but, we simply can't allow it if it means the wealthy aren't paying their share of the tax burden. The wealthy have been indulged for a very long time. Where has it gotten us? We need to put the country back together and we can't do that with extension after extension, after extension.

What is occurring is Republican's 'Carrot 'n' Stick.' They allow unemployment to be extended if the Bush Tax Cuts are extended. Well, guess what? With increased revenue we could afford to extend unemployment anyway.

The Republicans will allow all kinds of Democratic soft targets to be provided for so long as the Bush Tax Cuts remain. Well, if we had tax increases we could afford all the appropriate soft targets anyway.

The Republicans chronically take the Middle Class and Poor as hostages and get away with it. That has to end.

We have a lot to do in this country. We have gun control to legislate, we have immigration law to change, we have an entire generation without employment and the country is tired of the Republicans holding all those people hostage for the sake of The Bush Tax Cuts.

The Debt Ceiling is coming. We need additional taxes to stop the ever needed and repeated request for increases. When the USA Treasury has reasonable revenues and is recovering so the Debt Ceiling doesn't have to be raised anymore; the Democrats will finally be able to govern and legislate. The politic dialogue in the USA always surrounds the issue of taxes, some kind of hideous cliff and debt ceilings. It is time to end it. 

The citizens of the USA are not hostages. They are hard working people raising families with hope for the future. They need their stability back permanently and know where they stand so they can plan. This is crazy. It is as crazy as the current gun laws. 

The nation needs to move forward. It's is time to do exactly that. When the bell chimes at midnight the USA Treasury has an income again. That is not so bad. Seriously.

No more holding the promises made to generations for a secure aging and longevity. We need to do this. Seriously.

Rupert Murdoch late to the party, but, at least he came.

'NY Xmas ruined by lunatic shooting 4 firemen, (click here) killing two. Shooter killed before, jailed, later released on medical grounds. Must wake up,' he wrote just after noon in the East Coast.


Perhaps Mr. Murdoch knows first hand that living in the USA is not the Australian Outback.

He probably hasn't had the opportunity to visit many of the parks in the USA, both State and National. They are beautiful. They sincerely don't need to be tainted by gunfire. The National Parks are staffed. He should definitely take the time to get to know some of them. Yellowstone is frequently a favorite starting place. 

I worry about the staff in the National Parks. They don't need tourists and campers with guns.

Line of Duty Deaths: 28 (click here)

Gunfire: 8

Last year there was sincere violence in one our National Parks by someone with an assault weapon. Our Park Rangers are very dedicated as are the agents from US Fish and Wildlife. We sincerely don't need to make it any more difficult for them to do their jobs.

...When the suspect reached Ranger Anderson's roadblock, he made a U-turn, exited his vehicle, and opened fire. Ranger Anderson was shot before she was able to exit her patrol car.


After being shot, Ranger Anderson radioed for help as the suspect fled on foot. Responding units attempting to reach Ranger Anderson were held at bay for approximately 90 minutes as the suspect continued to fire on them. The suspect's vehicle was recovered with additional weapons and body armor inside....

She died not of her initial wounding, but, because the shooter outgunned the other officers. Does anyone actually believe allowing weapons in the parks is going to change that dynamic?

It is the guns that are the problem, not the people.

Mobile Alabama Tornado 12-25-2012

Posted Mar 02, 2012

By mleyba
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A Alabama (click here) tornadoes reportedly destroyed several houses in northern Alabama as storms threatened more twisters across the region Friday, two days after a storm system killed 13 people in the Midwest and South.
There was no immediate word on any injuries from local emergency officials. But the Huntsville-Madison County Emergency Management Office says ambulances are responding to neighborhoods near Huntsville....

By LEEZEL TANGLAO (@leezeltanglao) , BEN FORER (@BenForer) and DEVIN DWYER(@devindwyer)

April 29, 2011

President Obama (click here for video - thank you) and the first lady surveyed storm damage and met with families of victims today in Tuscaloosa, Ala., one of the cities hardest hit by this week's outbreak of tornadoes that have left at least 318 people dead across eight states.

"I've never seen devastation like this," Obama said, standing amid the rubble left in the tornadoes' wake. "It is heartbreaking."Obama spent almost two hours on ground, driving in his motorcade through a hard-hit commercial area to see demolished stores and businesses. He later walked through a residential neighborhood that was littered with mangled cars, tree limbs and personal possessions.,...

No one will find appalling video on how this is an unusual tragedy on Christmas Day at FOX News. They like to point to other tornadoes that happened in the past on Christmas Day. They want to pacify the idea this is due to Human Induced Global Warming. FOX does that to keep their viewership under educated to the real dangers in their lives. In my estimate, FOX News is a real danger in their lives, too.

The need to pacify for political purposes is attempted through legitimate information from the National Weather Service as if the government endorses their political agenda.

From the National Weather Service in Washington, DC (click here)

Notable U.S. tornado events with at least one F2 (minimum 113-mph) tornado between Dec. 24 and Dec. 26:

All the Christmas Tornadoes that occured according to this list did so since the 1960s and the high increases in CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2). But, no one will hear that from Murdoch's millionaires. The Murdoch millionaires customize their content to 'fit the political spin' they pump out, they don't put into context where the truth lies and God Forbid they ever call a scientist legitimate. PhD or no PhD, they are all quacks.

No more Bush Tax Cuts

December 24, 2012 7:19 PM

Reid is now working, sources say, on a smaller package (click here) than the comprehensive deal the president was working on with Boehner. The package would prevent tax rates from rising for middle-class families and perhaps cut some spending and tie up a few other loose ends.

So far Reid has not been consulting with Republicans on the bill. Technically, any bill involving taxing authority must originate in the House, not the Senate, but Reid could easily take a revenue-raising House bill that has already passed, gut it, and use it as a vehicle for his fiscal cliff legislation....

Just because the Republicans in the House can't get their act together to do their job, they are screaming for 'pressure relief' and to pass THEIR responsibility to the Senate. That says only one thing, the GOP is not capable of governing. They don't know how, they haven't got the priorities to govern and they need to be replaced.

Tuesday December 25, 2012 5:36 AM

In a democratic system with separated powers, (click here) two houses of Congress, split between the parties, a normal party accepts that compromise is the only way to legislate. A normal party takes into account election results. A normal party recognizes when the other side has made real concessions. A normal party takes responsibility.

By all of these measures, the Republican majority that Speaker John Boehner purports to lead is abnormal. That is the meaning of his catastrophic failure to gather the votes for his “Plan B” proposal on the “fiscal cliff.” Many of his most radical members believe they have a right to use any means at their disposal to impose their views on the country, even if they are only a minority in Congress.

There may, however, be good news in the disarray: The right wing of the Republican House has chosen to marginalize itself from any serious negotiations. The one available majority for action, especially on budgets, is a coalition uniting most Democrats with those Republicans who still hold the old-fashioned view that they were elected to help run the country.

To avert a fiscal nightmare in the short run, this potential majority needs to be allowed to work its will. The result may well be a modestly more progressive solution than President Obama offered Boehner, a deal with somewhat fewer cuts and more revenue. That’s the price the right wing will have to pay for refusing to govern....

Eric Cantor's favorite mind speak dodge is how the nation understands a budget and how they have to live within that budget and so does the nation.

How many Americans openly consent to INCOME / REVENUE decreases while increasing EXPENDITURES? Well, that is exactly what the Bush Tax Cuts did. They increased expenditures out of control with two wars, while cutting taxes to increase the wealth of their cronies. Now, if Cantor wants to talk about how REAL households actually work, it isn't by cutting revenues to purchase a new home.

The revenues to the USA Treasury have decreased since the Republican majorities of the past whereby they victimized the Middle Class, destroyed job growth and economic growth. They instead saw a way clear to allow outsourcing for their own wealth while creating human rights violations in the USA and internationally. The human rights infringement is nothing to people like Eric Cantor. He is a human rights offender for seeking to cut benefits to those least able to afford them, in the face of increasing the wealth to himself and cronies.

President Obama stated, "I propose to raise taxes on any income over $250,000. People just like me." So don't tell me for one minute the House Republicans are not protecting their own incomes. Except, for those like Joe Walsh that have child support arrears exceeding his annual income as a Representative. Child Support is a tax deductible, which, might in itself be a reason for parenthood.

You know, those that want to remove all deductions from the income tax code worry about the house deduction. There are many others that might actually be a reason to keep families together.

But, the political mind speak of the Right Wing is irrational. They cater to criminal intent within our society. They back liberal guns laws and purport that every American should be armed 24/7 for the very spontaneous occurrence a mass murderer shows up with a Bushmaster. That is criminal. They are backing criminals. The shooter can get his hands on guns with liberal guns laws whereby Mommies and Sisters can purchase them legally. Those laws back up the criminal intent by people THE CURRENT LAW states is suppose to exclude from obtaining guns.

The Republican mind speak states if the wealthy are wealthier they will spawn jobs somehow by magic. Then they state, if they are taxed they will leave the country. SO WHAT!!!!!!!!! They aren't doing anyone any good anyway. They already offshore money and jobs by outsourcing, who actually needs them? We would have a net job increase if they leave. By all means, GO ! 

Take the Republicans unable to govern that are basically protecting no one but themselves because according to them the wealthy are leaving, WITH YOU. The emigrating wealthy will need allies in other countries to run for office and win on the basis they will create jobs by lower taxes. I know the exact continent they should emigrate to. It only takes a few years for citizenship and all those that hate the taxes of the USA will be back in business and at the top of the "Global Corrupt List" again! They should go and don't wait for the tax increases to pass, it is killing us!

Example: Donald Trump, the man who make running for President the best free advertising he ever had. He doesn't care about being President than the Man in the Moon. He is making his tax emigration a reality.

Michael Forbes, (click here) who opposed Donald Trump's plan to build a luxury golf course on his family's land, was honored as his country's 'Top Scot.'

...This fall, the film that made him a star, “You’ve Been Trumped,” aired on BBC....

Trump needs to clean up his act, both environmentally and politically. We know he is a better man than this; at least; we always thought so. Then again, all evidence shows the exact outsourcing trend we have seen with all those given the Bush Tax Cuts. They don't create jobs in the USA, they take it elsewhere. I am sure someday, Trump expects to have holdings in Beijing.

...Donald Trump has banned Glenfiddich Whisky from his resorts after Michael Forbes, one of the tycoon’s most well-known opponents, won top honors at an awards ceremony sponsored by the Scottish liquor brand.

“Glenfiddich should be ashamed,” (click here) Trump told the Guardian, claiming that Forbes, who famously refused to sell his farm to Trump’s golf resort in Scotland, won the “Top Scot” award last week because Glenfiddich was jealous of the billionaire’s inhouse whisky brand.

“I hereby call for a boycott on drinking Glenfiddich products,” Trump said, “because there is no way a result such as this could have been made by the Scottish people.”

Glenfiddich is one of several spirits produced by William Grant & Sons, which also makes Milagro Tequila, Hendrick's Gin and Virgin Vodka. The company maintains it had no influence on the “Top Scot” award, which was open to a public vote, according to the event’s marketing materials. “The person receiving the greatest number of votes, cast by the people of Scotland, wins the award,” the firm said in a statement released on Tuesday....

I like Glenfiddich. I especially like their Hendrick's Gin (click here). There is a local pub that uses it in their CUSTOM brew called "Murray's Cocktail." He mixes it with Cointeau, bitters and tonic. I love that cocktail and ask for it every time. I've given up my Tanqueray gimlet for Murrays' Cocktail. The environmentally conscience seek alternatives for those that seek them too.

Murray's Cocktail (click here)  - It is number 6 on the menu.

 Hendrick's Gin, Cointreau, Dash of Bitters, Tonic

Just as a side note. On Christmas Day, "Phil's on Front Street" served free meals to everyone who came through the door. (No alcohol. I offered to pay and they said put the money in the fish bowl. Children were in the restaurant with their family. No alcohol served.) Menu-Coffee or Soda, Soup or Salad, Turkey or Beef Dinner with vegetables and bread and a choice of pies.

Anyone. Anyone at all seeking a meal and friendship on Christmas Day was welcome. The place was packed.

If guests felt compelled to pay, they were told to put their monies in a fish bowl that would then be given to the local food pantry.

Live entertainment, too. A pianist and drummer. Christmas music abounded. One of the regular waitresses has an incredible voice so we all insisted she sing from time to time. No tipping, except, for the fish bowl.