Propagandists in RightWing Land have been parodying Theodor Geisel and recently generated an oh-so-clever-knock-off that made its way around Dubya’s Internets.
They called it “DR. SEUSS 2011” and it goes like this:
“I do not like this Uncle Sam, I do not like his health care scam.
I do not like these dirty crooks, or how they lie and cook the books.
I do not like when Congress steals, I do not like their secret deals.
I do not like ex-speaker Nan, I do not like their 'YES, We Can.'
I do not like this spending spree, I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.
I do not like their smug replies when I complain about their lies.
I do not like this kind of HOPE, I do not like it...nope, nope, nope!”
I think I’m more poetic than the paid propagandist think tanks that cranked out this crap, so here goes:
"You do not know your Uncle Sam nor do you recognize the scam
Perpetuated by Faux News to warp the Middle Class’s views
Until they are so Right they’re Wrong. Will someone please bring out the Gong?
Let’s get these stooges off the stage and train a fire hose on their rage.
I do not like the stupid Right whose lies have put us in this plight.
If Clarence Thomas stays in power this is indeed our darkest hour.
We must stand up for what is just or face an empire going bust."
Monday, October 10, 2011
Friday, August 12, 2011
And the Winner Is....
Somewhere in eternity, Osama bin Laden is fondling his 72nd virgin and cackling at the stupidity of his nemesis, the USA. Taking a long drag on his hookah, he reflects on how easy it was to defeat the Infidel.
Everything has gone his way, from the original attention-grabbing fireworks display in Lower Manhattan to the budget-breaking (and needless) wars the US chose to wage in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What a clever devil, that OBL. If you have no hope of defeating a country that shells out 40 times the rest of the world on “defense” by outspending them on weaponry or standing armies, just taunt them into spending even more, until they are well on their way to financial Armageddon. It worked like a charm with the old USSR.
As an added bonus, ignite a worldwide firestorm by provoking the US to focus its attacks on Islamic countries, proving to the world that Americans are anti-Muslim. Hoohah! Mission Accomplished.
Golly gee, that was easy. Dubya sure took the bait like we knew he would, but now even Obama is biting.
But wait: It gets better! Who would have imagined that the US would voluntarily decimate its already fragile economy with a political food fight over a contrived crisis called the “debt ceiling limit,” which has been routinely passed under administrations led by both parties.
If I had planned it myself, says OBL, I couldn’t have written a better script to cripple the US and its oligarchs.
Victory is mine. Praise Allah.
Everything has gone his way, from the original attention-grabbing fireworks display in Lower Manhattan to the budget-breaking (and needless) wars the US chose to wage in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What a clever devil, that OBL. If you have no hope of defeating a country that shells out 40 times the rest of the world on “defense” by outspending them on weaponry or standing armies, just taunt them into spending even more, until they are well on their way to financial Armageddon. It worked like a charm with the old USSR.
As an added bonus, ignite a worldwide firestorm by provoking the US to focus its attacks on Islamic countries, proving to the world that Americans are anti-Muslim. Hoohah! Mission Accomplished.
Golly gee, that was easy. Dubya sure took the bait like we knew he would, but now even Obama is biting.
But wait: It gets better! Who would have imagined that the US would voluntarily decimate its already fragile economy with a political food fight over a contrived crisis called the “debt ceiling limit,” which has been routinely passed under administrations led by both parties.
If I had planned it myself, says OBL, I couldn’t have written a better script to cripple the US and its oligarchs.
Victory is mine. Praise Allah.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Goodbye Gizbourne, Hello Harpo
I’ve been a Cat Lady most of my life.
It began when I was eight, and took home a calico that I named Candy from my grandmother’s farm. It was either adopt her, or Grandpa would drown her, like German farmers did in those days if the barn cats outnumbered the barn rats.
That ended badly. My family went away for a week, unaware that Candy was with child. We returned to a horrible stench. Candy and her litter of eight were deceased in our basement crawl space.
I still have memories of my father donning a gas mask and going in to retrieve the carcasses. That pretty much ended his willingness to allow any pets in our household, but somehow, a few years later, I conned Dad into letting me adopt a little terrier mutt that I named Bubbles.
I chose her from the litter, and named her, but my youngest brother immediately stole her from me in a fair and square transaction. He was the better doggie parent in those days. Bubbles enriched our lives, but died prematurely of a heart disorder.
Several years later, when I was in college and living with my parents, I bought a bassett hound that I named Herschel. I took Herschel with me to grad school at Mizzou, but he was so undisciplined (my fault I now know) and got me into so much trouble, I pretty much wrote off ever having a dog again.
So when I got my master’s degree in journalism, and took my first job at a newspaper in Upstate New York, I chose cats again as my companions.
Delilah was the first. She was special, because she delivered kittens in my apartment bathroom, eating two that were stillborn, and I witnessed it all. I sneaked her into a no pets allowed apartment building in Ithaca when I married John a year later, and when we were unexpectedly transferred to Guam, we found Delilah a good home on a nearby farm.
We had not lived on Guam long when we adopted a Siamese kitten that our neighbor found abandoned by the side of the road while jogging. She became Sadie the Retriever Cat.
Sadie was really cool. We crumpled paper into balls, threw them onto the floor, and she fetched. She absolutely sold me on cats. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to Sadie when we left Guam in 1983. I left her with a friend, but I’m told Sadie pined for us and ran away from her new home, never to be seen again.
We moved to Virginia where we welcomed Muffy, Tiger, Suds, Nottigan, and, eventually, Gizbourne, the best cat that ever adopted me.
Gizbo was with us for 16 years, offering unconditional love much as a dog does, for he was, after all, my Puppy Cat. I witnessed his death on a dark morning in January before I left for work, and I knew that my life would be poorer from that moment on. I also knew that he would be my last cat, as he would be irreplaceable.
So after all these many years, I am back to dogs.
We stopped by an adoption event a month ago and a little terrier/poodle mutt who was napping woke up just long enough for us to see how smart and funny he was. He wagged his tail, flashed his big brown eyes at us, and won our hearts.
Harpo is now my Kitty Dog.
It began when I was eight, and took home a calico that I named Candy from my grandmother’s farm. It was either adopt her, or Grandpa would drown her, like German farmers did in those days if the barn cats outnumbered the barn rats.
That ended badly. My family went away for a week, unaware that Candy was with child. We returned to a horrible stench. Candy and her litter of eight were deceased in our basement crawl space.
I still have memories of my father donning a gas mask and going in to retrieve the carcasses. That pretty much ended his willingness to allow any pets in our household, but somehow, a few years later, I conned Dad into letting me adopt a little terrier mutt that I named Bubbles.
I chose her from the litter, and named her, but my youngest brother immediately stole her from me in a fair and square transaction. He was the better doggie parent in those days. Bubbles enriched our lives, but died prematurely of a heart disorder.
Several years later, when I was in college and living with my parents, I bought a bassett hound that I named Herschel. I took Herschel with me to grad school at Mizzou, but he was so undisciplined (my fault I now know) and got me into so much trouble, I pretty much wrote off ever having a dog again.
So when I got my master’s degree in journalism, and took my first job at a newspaper in Upstate New York, I chose cats again as my companions.
Delilah was the first. She was special, because she delivered kittens in my apartment bathroom, eating two that were stillborn, and I witnessed it all. I sneaked her into a no pets allowed apartment building in Ithaca when I married John a year later, and when we were unexpectedly transferred to Guam, we found Delilah a good home on a nearby farm.
We had not lived on Guam long when we adopted a Siamese kitten that our neighbor found abandoned by the side of the road while jogging. She became Sadie the Retriever Cat.
Sadie was really cool. We crumpled paper into balls, threw them onto the floor, and she fetched. She absolutely sold me on cats. Sadly, I had to say goodbye to Sadie when we left Guam in 1983. I left her with a friend, but I’m told Sadie pined for us and ran away from her new home, never to be seen again.
We moved to Virginia where we welcomed Muffy, Tiger, Suds, Nottigan, and, eventually, Gizbourne, the best cat that ever adopted me.
Gizbo was with us for 16 years, offering unconditional love much as a dog does, for he was, after all, my Puppy Cat. I witnessed his death on a dark morning in January before I left for work, and I knew that my life would be poorer from that moment on. I also knew that he would be my last cat, as he would be irreplaceable.
So after all these many years, I am back to dogs.
We stopped by an adoption event a month ago and a little terrier/poodle mutt who was napping woke up just long enough for us to see how smart and funny he was. He wagged his tail, flashed his big brown eyes at us, and won our hearts.
Harpo is now my Kitty Dog.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Tis the Season to be Jolly...And Maybe Even Gay
What took Congress so long to do away with the foolish Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy of the infamous Clinton “Third Way” sellout?
And what’s up with Crazy John McCain who was for it before he was against it? Methinks it’s time for the doddering old fool to pack it in and retire to one his 13 scattered million-dollar mansions. Good riddance.
I struggle mightily to understand why anyone would oppose allowing gay people to serve in the military, marry the partner of their choice, or adopt children who might otherwise be parentless. What kind of irrational beliefs drive these absurd notions?
One of these days, sooner rather than later I hope, even the Troglodytes will realize that just as you are born with red hair, large hips, autoimmune disorders, or black skin, so are you born gay. How can anyone punish a human being for being who he is?
And what’s up with Crazy John McCain who was for it before he was against it? Methinks it’s time for the doddering old fool to pack it in and retire to one his 13 scattered million-dollar mansions. Good riddance.
I struggle mightily to understand why anyone would oppose allowing gay people to serve in the military, marry the partner of their choice, or adopt children who might otherwise be parentless. What kind of irrational beliefs drive these absurd notions?
One of these days, sooner rather than later I hope, even the Troglodytes will realize that just as you are born with red hair, large hips, autoimmune disorders, or black skin, so are you born gay. How can anyone punish a human being for being who he is?
Thursday, December 9, 2010
And Don't Punish the Sick
Sometimes, the debate over health care reform gets personal. Like two weeks ago, when my oldest daughter ended up in the emergency room to replace fluids after a raging flare-up of ulcerative colitis. She had lost eight pounds in just a few weeks, and was so weak she could barely walk.
Colitis is a debilitating autoimmune disorder that frequently hits between the ages of 15 and 30 (she was in her mid 20s), or later in life at 50 to 70. It is not a lifestyle-induced disease so common to today’s fat and bloated Americans who stuff themselves with McDonald’s non-food and KFC’s artery clogging crapola.
Kate has always eaten nutritiously, and has never been overweight. She is simply the victim of a bad gene pool that afflicts my father’s side of the family, where Type 1 diabetes (another autoimmune disorder) is rampant.
Kate is a bright girl with a gift for math. She has a master’s degree in statistics, and is working toward a second master’s in real estate finance. She loves her job as a risk analyst at Freddie Mac, which comes with good health insurance.
But what happens if she loses that job, either due to her illness, or to the vagaries of the marketplace? She would be uninsurable if she had to buy an individual policy. If she did manage to find a health insurer that would accept her, decent coverage would be unaffordable.
And so we have the Catch-22 of our broken, illogical, heartless system of reliance on employer-based, private-enterprise health insurance, a vestige of World War II wage controls that no longer serves our society.
If Kate lived anywhere else in the world, her health and well-being would not be tied to her job. If her illness prevented her from working, she would still have access to affordable medical treatment. Any decent society provides this, at the least.
This is why I’m so pissed off at Barack Obama and his constant caving in to the Right Wing Fox Nuts. He has allowed the Plutocrats to frame the agenda, starting with his “health care reform” proposal that offers a leg up to a paltry few who fall through the cracks.
The 20-somethings who can’t find work can remain on their parents’ plan, and those with pre-existing conditions can’t be dropped (but nothing stops the insurers from jacking up rates to the point where the chronically ill can’t afford them.) I suppose this is a small measure of progress compared to what we have now.
But what rankles the the Tea Baggers, the Plutocrats, AND us Progressives is the mandate to buy a faulty for-profit product that is overpriced and which weasles out of its contractual obligations to pay whenever the bills come due.
Colitis is a debilitating autoimmune disorder that frequently hits between the ages of 15 and 30 (she was in her mid 20s), or later in life at 50 to 70. It is not a lifestyle-induced disease so common to today’s fat and bloated Americans who stuff themselves with McDonald’s non-food and KFC’s artery clogging crapola.
Kate has always eaten nutritiously, and has never been overweight. She is simply the victim of a bad gene pool that afflicts my father’s side of the family, where Type 1 diabetes (another autoimmune disorder) is rampant.
Kate is a bright girl with a gift for math. She has a master’s degree in statistics, and is working toward a second master’s in real estate finance. She loves her job as a risk analyst at Freddie Mac, which comes with good health insurance.
But what happens if she loses that job, either due to her illness, or to the vagaries of the marketplace? She would be uninsurable if she had to buy an individual policy. If she did manage to find a health insurer that would accept her, decent coverage would be unaffordable.
And so we have the Catch-22 of our broken, illogical, heartless system of reliance on employer-based, private-enterprise health insurance, a vestige of World War II wage controls that no longer serves our society.
If Kate lived anywhere else in the world, her health and well-being would not be tied to her job. If her illness prevented her from working, she would still have access to affordable medical treatment. Any decent society provides this, at the least.
This is why I’m so pissed off at Barack Obama and his constant caving in to the Right Wing Fox Nuts. He has allowed the Plutocrats to frame the agenda, starting with his “health care reform” proposal that offers a leg up to a paltry few who fall through the cracks.
The 20-somethings who can’t find work can remain on their parents’ plan, and those with pre-existing conditions can’t be dropped (but nothing stops the insurers from jacking up rates to the point where the chronically ill can’t afford them.) I suppose this is a small measure of progress compared to what we have now.
But what rankles the the Tea Baggers, the Plutocrats, AND us Progressives is the mandate to buy a faulty for-profit product that is overpriced and which weasles out of its contractual obligations to pay whenever the bills come due.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Don't Punish the Doctors
The most recent depressing development in the War Against Ourselves Concerning Health Care was reported this week when a growing number of doctors declared they will no longer accept Medicare patients because the government is cutting their payments.
Republicans, Tea Partiers, Faux News followers, right-wing extremists, Second Amendment fanatics, and other assorted nut cases, I’m ready to join your anti-government screed on this issue.
That is, if you agree that any savings in health care expenses should NOT be born by the doctors who deliver our care. Unlike health insurance companies, physicians have invested heavily in time and money to contribute to the health and well-being of us all.
Contrast this with Anthem Blue Cross, a giant health insurer with no purpose other than serving as a middleman to skim money from the system. Anthem heals nobody, can’t give a flu shot, does no research into cures for diabetes or cancer, and couldn’t hook up an IV if their life depended on it (though ours often does.)
Why do we in this country allow the likes of the health insurers to hijack our system and make our health care more expensive and our lives more miserable? The insurers contribute NOTHING to the good of the country, or to the health of its citizens.
I think we can all agree that we are unique among the developed nations, and even some Third World countries, that we pay too much for our health care and get too little in return. The statistics are daunting. The most recent estimate is that 59 million of us now go without health insurance, up from 46 million just a few years ago.
Health insurers have taken a necessity, like water and electricity, and monopolized it for profit. When we will we awaken, take up arms (hooray for the Second Amendment) and extinguish these thieves once and for all? Health insurers should be regulated like public utilities, which is exactly what the Obama Administration has tried to do with its reforms.
“Obamacare,” as the Right Wing has dubbed it, is NOT socialized medicine, but a long-overdue attempt to put some much-needed rules in place to reign in the worst practices of the health insurance tyrants.
So Annie get your gun, and let’s go after these outlaws.
Republicans, Tea Partiers, Faux News followers, right-wing extremists, Second Amendment fanatics, and other assorted nut cases, I’m ready to join your anti-government screed on this issue.
That is, if you agree that any savings in health care expenses should NOT be born by the doctors who deliver our care. Unlike health insurance companies, physicians have invested heavily in time and money to contribute to the health and well-being of us all.
Contrast this with Anthem Blue Cross, a giant health insurer with no purpose other than serving as a middleman to skim money from the system. Anthem heals nobody, can’t give a flu shot, does no research into cures for diabetes or cancer, and couldn’t hook up an IV if their life depended on it (though ours often does.)
Why do we in this country allow the likes of the health insurers to hijack our system and make our health care more expensive and our lives more miserable? The insurers contribute NOTHING to the good of the country, or to the health of its citizens.
I think we can all agree that we are unique among the developed nations, and even some Third World countries, that we pay too much for our health care and get too little in return. The statistics are daunting. The most recent estimate is that 59 million of us now go without health insurance, up from 46 million just a few years ago.
Health insurers have taken a necessity, like water and electricity, and monopolized it for profit. When we will we awaken, take up arms (hooray for the Second Amendment) and extinguish these thieves once and for all? Health insurers should be regulated like public utilities, which is exactly what the Obama Administration has tried to do with its reforms.
“Obamacare,” as the Right Wing has dubbed it, is NOT socialized medicine, but a long-overdue attempt to put some much-needed rules in place to reign in the worst practices of the health insurance tyrants.
So Annie get your gun, and let’s go after these outlaws.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
At Long Last, I Understand
I am old enough to have studied history long before the State of Texas was able to hijack the publishing industry and rewrite the textbooks to propagandize their fundamentalist right-wing agenda.
But though I read history texts untainted by Texans back in the 60s, I never really grasped, at a gut level, how Germany could have fallen prey to the Nazi plague. After all, most of my ancestors are German, and their descendants are the salt of the earth.
My contemporary German relatives are God-fearing Midwesterners who say grace before they devour their homemade chicken and noodles. They don’t just pass away. When they write their obituaries, they enter into the arms of their savior or ride the wings of an angel up to the heavens.
These are decent folk who keep clean homes. They don’t cheat on their taxes (though they’ve been known to cheat on their wives), and they are frugal to a fault.
Still, at worst my German ancestors participated in one of the most vile movements in the history of the civilized world. At best, they simply ignored atrocities carried out in their name.
How could they have bought into a movement so evil?
Plainly and simply, they were angry, afraid, and looking for someone to blame for their diminished status after their economy was devastated by World War I. Pretty much like what we see going on in the U.S. these days.
Which makes me wary of what lies ahead as I watch the anger of the Tea Party foment into a combustible stew poised to lash out at the most convenient scapegoat they can find. Their target is always The Other, just as the Nazis scapegoated the Jews.
Today’s Tea Party targets are Brown or Black, most often, and practicing an unfamiliar religion that has been demonized by politicians in the War On Terror, which is just a euphemism for empire-building, theft of natural resources on another continent, and reducing labor here and abroad to a cheap commodity.
God help us all.
But though I read history texts untainted by Texans back in the 60s, I never really grasped, at a gut level, how Germany could have fallen prey to the Nazi plague. After all, most of my ancestors are German, and their descendants are the salt of the earth.
My contemporary German relatives are God-fearing Midwesterners who say grace before they devour their homemade chicken and noodles. They don’t just pass away. When they write their obituaries, they enter into the arms of their savior or ride the wings of an angel up to the heavens.
These are decent folk who keep clean homes. They don’t cheat on their taxes (though they’ve been known to cheat on their wives), and they are frugal to a fault.
Still, at worst my German ancestors participated in one of the most vile movements in the history of the civilized world. At best, they simply ignored atrocities carried out in their name.
How could they have bought into a movement so evil?
Plainly and simply, they were angry, afraid, and looking for someone to blame for their diminished status after their economy was devastated by World War I. Pretty much like what we see going on in the U.S. these days.
Which makes me wary of what lies ahead as I watch the anger of the Tea Party foment into a combustible stew poised to lash out at the most convenient scapegoat they can find. Their target is always The Other, just as the Nazis scapegoated the Jews.
Today’s Tea Party targets are Brown or Black, most often, and practicing an unfamiliar religion that has been demonized by politicians in the War On Terror, which is just a euphemism for empire-building, theft of natural resources on another continent, and reducing labor here and abroad to a cheap commodity.
God help us all.
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