Well…a rainy day yesterday that kept me off the bike and I am a little cranky for it…it looks like today is going to be the same and will just compound the crankiness…but I guess my legs can use the rest for a couple of days…they hurt a lot less with the day off so maybe it’s a good thing…I can make up for it tomorrow and through the weekend. Last night made it three in a row out and I am getting a little tired..but there was a good reason to go out with G getting the promotion she was working for and being pretty happy…but I need to take a couple of days off to get the liver working again and cut down on the calories. Not much to do today…going to do the grocery run to avoid the crowds that will be out for the holiday weekend and I need to get some new food…I am getting tired of chicken but have some thawed that I do need to cook today….but then burgers and tacos for the weekend..I do have to grill, too, so that will give me something to do….having it rain so much is just too depressing…more later…
Monthly Archives: May 2011
Poor Paul Ryan…
Well…you just got to love the rationalization program that is going on from the right this morning with the loss of one of their traditional house seats in New York yesterday. The best one came on Morning Joe this morning when Paul Ryan basically called the voters there stupid for voting against his brilliant plan…okay,that was a little sarcasm but he deserves it. This guy reminds me of ole Newt who does the same thing when people disagree with him, he denigrates the person, then uses the excuse that the opposition just doesn’t understand or they would agree wholeheartedly. But, Ryan also rolled out the repub ploy where he is playing different groups of people off against each other; saying that people over 55 were misled into thinking that these changes would affect them. My answer to rep Ryan is no….these changes won’t affect me but I still care what they will do to my children and other people that are approaching 55…and I have a true belief that we are all in this together and any plan that is just another giveaway to the insurance industry that bought the repub congress we now have is just morally wrong…I hope other people are having the same epiphany…
Just a short one to start the day…
Well… with all of the talk about the Ryan plan to gut Medicare and the repubs claims that it will lower costs and extend its life, a little read bombshell was dropped by the CBO yesterday…their non-partisan analysis of the plan blew all of the claims out of the water with the conclusion that Ryan’s plan would actually INCREASE costs by almost 40%. Yep, you read it right, but is it a surprise? This budget of Ryan’s was never about controlling costs; it was a blatant attempt to impose the repubs radical right wing agenda on the country, destroying the safety nets that the repubs have hated since their inception. But, I see hope that the country is finally getting tired of the repub agenda to take, take, take from the middle class and give to the rich…which Ryan’s Medicare proposal does.. it’s a reward to the insurance companies the gave the repubs 90% of the money they spent in the last election. I think the people are starting to see that the type of America that is Ryan’s and Walkers is not the one they want…at least the people in the congressional election in New York are getting it…in the special election yesterday for the house seat in a district that has been held by the repubs since 1960, a Dem won; running on opposition to Ryan’s radical budget….maybe Ryan can go away in 2012….geez…
May 25th
Well…got whipped again at pool last night but not skunked so I don’t feel as bad as I could…I was not good when I got home so I feel a little crappy today…but not a lot crappy so that is a plus….it was just such a nice day yesterday that I feel that spring is finally here….but wait…it’s back to the same old rainy, cold crap today that is going to last for the next few days so I guess I’ll temper my happiness for now. The water is going to be shut off here again today…that’s three times already this year and I just don’t get what they’re doing….just makes it a pain in the butt to be here all day….not much to do today…think I’ll take it easy this morning and wait out the rain for the bike ride…looks like it’s not going to get better until late…I’ll have topics for later…I hope…
A couple of new things…
Well…was thinking this was going to be one of those days where I had nothing to say but then ole Newt came through and gave me one thing to talk about but there is also the Israeli thing that Obama is in the middle of. Let’s start with Obama….of course the right is going out of its mind with what they perceive to be a slight of Israel and a lack of support for the traditional relationship. I think they missed the point of Obama’s statements…there has been a stalemate in the talks between the Palestinians and Israel and all that Obama did was kick the hornet’s nest to stir things up a little and get them off the dime….geez…doesn’t anyone understand politics?
Then, we have ole Newt talking about the 500K that he and his third wife owed to Tiffany’s, describing it as the “standard, no interest account”…yeah, Newt? In whose world is any charge account no interest? It is just another instance where the rich are treated differently than the rest of us and don’t see anything wrong with it. They can’t understand why the rest of us don’t get those deals…or even better they just don’t care. How out of touch is Newt and how can he even relate to anyone but the rich…not the type of person this nation needs as its president….geez…
One last thing, to those of you out there that were opposed to the bailouts of the auto companies since they were a “sinkhole” and we would never get our money back…..Chrysler paid off the loans today…in full….this is the kind of thing only government can do or will do to ensure that 30,000 people didn’t lose their jobs…..what do you say now repubs? How many more times will you be wrong? geez….
May 24th
Well…another day and I’m still really sore for some reason…hope I can get rid of this back tightness…I’m moving like an old guy and I refuse to accept that that is what life is going to be…might have to take a day or two off riding to let the soreness in the legs heal up…maybe that will help the back? Had a fun night last night out with G…went back to the Chance but the atmosphere is not what I remembered so we moved back to GL to finish the night…and I was good when I got home so I don’t feel bad this morning…I do need to go out and get a new headlight bulb…have had a bright out for a month and, with the lights being so dim on the wreck, I really do need to replace it…sounds like a project for the day…not much to do other than that…have Tuesday on Tuesday today with pool out in Cascade but that is about it…the rest of the week looks kind of light and I may have to have cocktails at least one night…or more…there will be topics later today…don’t know what they are yet but I know something will strike me….hope it’s not a car…
Tim Pawlenty’s new leadership…
Well…I always have to laugh when I hear anyone of the supposed repub presidential candidates talk about the need for “new leadership” in Washington, and then go on to say they are the ones that should be leading. The latest of these idiots is the former governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, who chose to criticize the administration for it’s spending to get the country out of the worst recession since the twenties, and it’s lack of support gutting seniors healthcare that is proposed by one of the other “brains” of the repub party, Paul Ryan. What kind of leadership is he talking about? Leading the country back to the deregulation that caused the last meltdown? Leading the country back to the bad old days when the majority of our retirees lived a life of abject poverty after lives of hard labor? Leading the country back to the discrimination that blacks and gays have felt for many, many years? Leading the country back to the time when the middle class didn’t exist and all of the riches of this country are in the hands of the robber barons and labor has to beg for the scraps that are left? One thing we don’t need right now is any form of repub “leadership”, I think that is an oxymoron anyway…the repubs never lead, they just follow the instructions of their business masters to the detriment of the rest of the country…geez…
May 23rd
Well…a complete veg day yesterday in recovery from the party on sat and I was a good boy…but, I still feel kind of strange today…I did sleep okay waiting for the storms and there were dreams again that had me looking for a motorcycle that I owned 30 years ago…yeah, pretty weird but you know that’s me. I think I’m going to take the week off from looking for work since it is so depressing to keep it up with no results…and it’s a great race weekend with F1, Indy cars, and Nascar all racing; traditionally, I watch them all Sunday..especially Indy….and I still hate Versus since I used to be able to watch qualifying and the rest of the process for the Indy 500 and now I only get to see the race. I hope the rain cleaned the car so I don’t have to wash the ashes off….not much to do today..might have a couple with G later and I am going to make chicken for lunch and get some cleaning done around here…I am still in the middle of switching out the winter clothes so I think I should get that done…and a couple more of these out, of course…
Okay…I did want to add one last thing…watched “The Black Swan” yesterday and I was not impressed…an okay movie but all of the hype surrounding it was just that…hype…I’ve seen many better movies in my life and even the throwaway ones from the 40′s were better than that one…and Natalie Portman for best actress? Sorry…but having one expression through the entire movie does not make an oscar winner….I felt the whole thing was contrived and predictable…
One last thing…
Well…just a shorty to talk about one last thought I had about some other events that have defined the repub party here and across the entire US. Here in Michigan, the ultra right wing repubs had their hands slapped when they tried to involve the legislature in the working of the state universities who, by the constitution, are independent entities set up that way to make sure that the winds of political change don’t interfere with the charter of these institutions. What these guys tried this week was to impose their religious views on stem cell research on the universities by creating all kinds of new reporting regulations that would have the effect of chilling this important avenue of research along with making an unconstitutional power grab for the legislature. But, as we all know, the repubs don’t give a damn about the constitution except as a tool for political advantage. The second thing the new commissars of Michigan tried was to pass a bill that would prevent any university here from offering health benefits to same sex partners under penalty of withholding operating funds from any one who did…again, usurping the constitutional powers of the boards that govern the universities and trying to jam their far right craziness on the population who, by a large majority, approve of these benefits…but, that has never mattered to the repubs…they only govern for those who vote for them and the rest of us are just leeches to be punished in any and all ways at their disposal….can’t wait for 2012…and the Snyder recall petitions…
More repub hypocrisy…
Well…just sitting here a few minutes ago…well…have been just sitting most of the day recovering from the all day party yesterday and I had a thought…I’m sure you’ve heard the repubs go on an on about accountability, results, and measurement when they talk about education and are always first in line to impose these things on teachers, but what about all of the money they are handing out to business with the new business tax cuts that have just passed the legislature here in Michigan? Nope, not a thing about any regulation whatsoever or even about any accountability for job creation that has been held up as the sole purpose for these cuts. After all, with taxes being raised on you and me, we are paying for these cuts and shouldn’t we be able to ask to see the results? Shouldn’t we be able to recapture these tax cuts if they don’t do anything to create jobs here? I find it funny or maybe consistent that the repubs are all about using the power of government to control individuals behavior, but business gets a free ride to claim our money for their own personal use….since we all know cutting taxes for business without strings attached just puts more money into the hands of the already rich…and has never created one job…not since Reagan…not with Bush, not with anyone…geez…