On The Way Down The Cliff

I’ve been quiet lately… too quiet, I know.

I simply haven’t felt like writing and unlike many bloggers out there that when their muse is on vacation, reblog other’s work or write something irrelevant and completely different from what their followers are used to I rather not write at all. I think my followers prefer it that way, I write when I have something to say otherwise why would I waste your and my time with nothingness?

We are back to square one, this time even more ridiculous than before. Democrats won the elections, all of them. We got the White House back; we held our seats in the senate and gain a few more… we even managed to gain some seats in the House of Representatives. Yet, Republicans can’t accept defeat and truly think they still have the leverage to hold the economy hostage. Once more they are doing everything within their power to obstruct everything and blame their failures on the Democrats. They are deaf to the wishes of the American people that spoke loud and clear a month ago. They don’t care at all for their constituents, after all that is not why they are in office regardless of what people think. They think the only people that matter are the wealthy people, the new “people” on the block known as Citizens United; those are the only ones they’ll fight for and we must never forget this on November 2014, we must remember who needs to be kicked out and thrown to the curb.

We have to endure the crying orange man trying to justify their behavior on every channel that he can find. Has anyone noticed that anytime Boehner is lying he twitches the corner of his mouth? Next time he is on, which is almost on a daily basis, watch him and you’ll notice it too. I think he is trying to imitate the old gangster movies Bogart was so famous for!

Here we are, December 2012 and once more they want to negotiate the tax cuts. Once again they want to send to the butchers block all the “entitlements” meant to help the needy but not the entitlements for the very wealthy. The Bush tax cuts have cost the middle class, who ultimately are the ones that contribute with a larger portion of the government’s revenue, $1.224 trillion from it’s insertion back in 2001 and that amount does not include the interests we have to pay for that money. Then, we need to add $1.4 trillion and rising by the minute for the never-ending war on terror, that figure doesn’t include interest or medical costs for our injured soldiers. (http://costofwar.com)

Welfare is what the Republicans want to slash; it is the entitlement that they believe to be unnecessary. Welfare has cost us a total of $6.28 trillion from 2001 to date. We must remember that most soldiers that return home with injuries have some sort of welfare and in 2008 the financial crisis hit our country, creating thousands of unemployed citizens that in the long run had no choice but to ask the government for help, increasing by the thousands the number of Welfare recipients. The total welfare cost from 1991 to 2000 (before the war and before the economic crash) was of $1.650 trillion. Welfare for the year 2002 was a total of $0.23 trillion, which includes the injured soldiers that returned home on the first year of war. The economic crisis began in 2007 and we saw an increase of $0.06 trillion and by 2009 it had raised to $0.42 trillion, a difference of $0.16 trillion in just 2 years!

Now, the Republicans want to make cuts to the only means the unemployed and many veterans has to survive, but they want to extend the tax cuts to the rich. For them, it is the rich the ones that need help, not the needy. I think they believe that the help the government provides allows the poor to live in the lap of luxury!

The State that pays the highest unemployment compensation rate is Massachusetts. Massachusetts pay an average of $674 a week. But there are other states that don’t even come close to that and the cost of living are just as expensive as those in Massachusetts. Florida is the third worst State for unemployment compensation. For the last ten years, the maximum compensation paid in Florida is of $275 a week and the minimum is $38 a week. I wonder who on earth can survive in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale on $38 a week. The State that holds the #1 place as the worst is Mississippi with a whooping $235 a week. No wonder crime is on the raise in these cities!

I say let’s crash… Let’s go over the hump, hill, mountain, cliff or whatever you want to call it, the poor can’t afford to lose anymore and quite frankly, neither can we. If they push the poor to the brink, we will see an increase in crime and therefore an increment in the number of prisoners that will cost us much more than what the cost of welfare is. The average cost of incarceration for one year is $47,500 per prisoner and the average number of new prisoners is of 700 a week.

Don’t be lazy and do the math and ask yourself, which is cheaper and safer for all of us?

http://www.usfederalbudget.us
http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=datool&surl=/arrests/index.cfm#
http://fileunemployment.org/unemployment-benefits-comparison-by-state 

Reject Keystone XL Pipeline!

What Republicans Want             What Americans Need

I don’t know if it is the solar flares that it’s said to have taken place yesterday, I don’t know if it is the news that Kucinich lost his seat – he is a great democrat that calls things as he sees them, even when his opinion sounds crazy – I don’t know if it is the predictions of the seats that Democrats will lose in Congress (yes, you read correctly, the “experts” predict that Democrats will loose a minimum of 4 seats in the Senate and at least one in the House) but I am down today, so down that my enthusiasm it is resting comfortably in my emotional basement.

After spending all day in this mood, with what is commonly known as "writers’ block", I came across a some news that, even though I cannot say it has brighten my day, I certainly can say my mood has come out of the basement and finds itself on the first floor… An improvement, don’t you think?

I was very pleased by the news I read yesterday in MSNBC. The article was about the Keystone XL Pipeline project, the “baby project” (more like the monster) of Boehner, Cantor and the whole pack of opportunistic Congressmen that support it because their personal financial interests in TransCanada. They excuse their relentless efforts for the pipeline with the well-known phrase that it creates “jobs” and obstructing it will deprive the American citizens of the much-needed jobs. These are the same hypocrites that consistently oppose building new roads, new bridges, new highways and that reject any "clean or green" project that will generate jobs if those are being promoted by President Obama or by any Democrat, translates into that they really don’t give a damn about Americans going back to work. The only thing that really concerns them and they are worried about is that if they lose their positions in Congress before the pipeline gets approved, loosing the payouts from TransCanada in exchange for their arduous support.

They're nothing but thieves with congressional seats!

Obama is campaigning to the Democrats in Congress for them to reject the Keystone XL Pipeline. He has lost the support of two Democrats: Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mary Landrieu from Louisiana, who are obviously siding with the republicans. We must remember them when voting in November, their behavior makes me think that they have the same ‘motivation’ as Boehner et. al.. President Obama is committed to stop the Keystone Pipeline and we have to show him our support, let him know that we, the American people, approve and appreciate his efforts. He is not giving up and neither should we. We must write to every Congressman, we must let them know that we will not accept the construction of the pipeline – at least not without the proper study from the EPA; previous experiences have shown us that we must not overlook regulations, we have to make sure that there will be no damage to our environment, after all, this pipeline will literally cut our country in half; we should not do what we always do: worship the dollar and ignore our planet. It is time to set our priorities straight.

To all of those that spend days posting in Facebook, Twitter, and every social network out there shouting how disgusted they are because they keep hearing that the Keystone XL Project will go through, your President is doing all he can to stop it. It is time for us to show our support to our President, to let him know where we stand, and that where we stand is with the President of the United States, Barack Obama.



Please, click here to sign the petition!

A “pill” too hard to swallow

According to a recent article written by Jessica Yellin and Brianna Keilar, both Correspondents for CNN, the White House is trying to adjust the health care policy to appease the Catholic Church and perhaps get the vote of some Catholics. The article claims that this adjustment is due to “an avalanche of criticism.” Apparently, the White House will try to implement the same policy that is currently used in Hawaii for religion institutions, in which women that work for Catholic charities, hospitals and the church can acquire coverage directly from the insurance company at the same price their employers would pay. I do not think it’s fair that women working for Catholic enterprises and who may or may not profess that religion have to be excluded from that benefit, unless the Catholic Church increase their salary to the same amount they would have to pay out-of-pocket to acquire it. However, this modification suggested by the White House is not being accepted by the Catholic Bishops, according to the article the leaders of the Catholic Church will only accept a total reversal on the policy – which means totally removing the contraceptive clause from the health care policy. Who on earth do the Catholic Church thinks they are?

I am so tired of having any religious institution – who pay no taxes, who at no time accept government interference in ANY of their day-to-day business (as it should be), who have no government regulations set in place, to think that the government has no business in their religious matters but that they, the religious institutions of any denomination, have any right whatsoever in changing governmental policies because it does not agrees with their views! The religious groups are overstepping their boundaries interfering with politics – both at a local and national level – forcing their views onto everyone else as if the separation of church and state didn’t exist or if it does, it simply does not apply to them. While the leaders of any religious corporation (that’s what they are) enjoy a life of luxury, no taxes paid, no need to report any of their actions to the government because if the government decided to interfere in any of their business they will cry religious prosecution, they seem to think they have "divine" power and can stick their noses where it does not belong.

Of course, as expected, we have the Speaker of the House, Mr. "Cry me a River" Boehner, accusing this administration of ‘attacking religion freedom." How is that so? How it's making contraceptives accessible, not forcing any woman to take them, an attack on religion freedom? Why is not an attack to the State what religion institutions are doing? Why does this "attack" can only be applied on one direction? I am not surprised either at the holier than God comments coming from all the Republican candidates which are all up in arms about the intrusion of government in religion… Mitt Romney, as usual, is already counting his chickens before they hatch and has added another thing he would do on his first day as President, reversing this clause. Sorry Romney, but you will not be the 45^th President of the United States.

Mr. President, keep the policy as it is! Do not allow religion to change the policies that will affect thousands of women, even millions if the Catholic Church gets its way. It is time for a real separation of church and state, it is time for any religious institution to pay their fair share of taxes – no more getting rich by preaching, no more favoritism. According to their own beliefs, money is sinful… so lets help them release some of that sin, and pay taxes after all, they can’t seem to separate religion and politics so, if they want to be involved in politics they should contribute to the country, financially, as everyone else does!