No outrage, not now, anyway…

Well…it’s been kind of a long day even though I haven’t really done anything except cook, eat, and watch football…the Sate game was a good one once they got going but Michigan is stinking up the place through the first half. I did make a new rib recipe that was just great and I had about a pound and a half of them…have been sitting here kind of uncomfortable ever since…but damn, they were good. Might have to go back out on the bike to work them off but probably not…don’t I get a day off? Don’t know if I’ll watch much more of the game…have been flicking back and forth to the movie “Giant” and I think it has more attraction with how badly Michigan is playing. Might even start a book from the new bag I got from T this week…who knows?

Just wanted to let you know that there will not be any other postings today unless there is a miracle and I get an idea…but that can wait until tomorrow…I am leaning toward going out to get the makings for a manhattan since I can feel some boredom coming on…maybe not….I am getting used to feeling good in the morning…

October 16th

Well…I know, I’m late this morning but I had to go out to FF to get some barbecue sauce and newspapers…making a new rib recipe that I got from G and forgot to get the sauce thurs. So, I’m sitting here waiting for the coffee to get done so I can read the papers and just relax until it gets warm enough to go out on the bike…and caffeine fueled bike riding is kind of fun…like I have a supercharger for my legs and, If I have too much, I’ll need to ride to burn off the excess. On the trip over to G’s this morning, there were some trees that were the reddest things I have seen in quite a few years..I may have to put the bike on the back of the car tomorrow and go out to do some color touring north of Lowell at the Fallasburg and Townsend parks…I think they even have a bar out by Townsend that might be fun…but I don’t like to have beers on the bike….makes it too much work. Not much to do today…I’ll bet you thought I wasn’t going to get that in, but I did and there really isn’t much to do but watch football…since Michigan isn’t playing Michigan State today, I can root for both of them…that’s about it….more later….no, really, more later…

What’s wrong with being an elite?

Well…I’ve been listening to some of the repub candidates and the new, or not so new, talking point has to do with the class warfare they want to foment between themselves, the just regular folks, and the “East coast or political elites” that they say have screwed up this country. Let’s take the statement by Carly Fiorina, the fired ex-head of Hewlett Packard who ran the company into the ground and then parachuted out with a 50 million dollar severance which has powered her race in California. A race that she has spent almost 40 million dollars of her own money on to get elected, and that has for one of the main themes the attacks on the “elites” that run this country. Now, I think that someone who can spend 40 million dollars of their own money on a political campaign pretty elite, don’t you? And yet, the people that follow her are eating this stuff up. Are they too stupid or are they too blinded by rage to do the thinking that would make this assertion by Carly laughable at best?

Then, we have the anti intellectual Christine O’Donnell making fun of the fact and bursting her chest with pride that she didn’t go to Yale like her opponent; that she doesn’t have an advanced degree but is “just like you” and asserts that her lack of accomplishment either educationally or in life in general makes her the most qualified person for the senate seat from Delaware. When did the great accomplishment of graduating from college and going on to graduate school become a bad thing? It used to be that it was a great pride of America that these things could happen; and that the people that did the work and made the sacrifice to earn those advanced degrees were somehow special, and were to be emulated. But, the repubs have made it an asset to be the least educated, least capable, and least self-aware of any of the candidates…and their followers howl with derision at anyone who can think and make them think. I think what this is going to guarantee as the years pass is that we get people elected that truly don’t believe that we need to support education, that it is not really important for the “Real Americans” and will accelerate our slide to second class nation status.

But, this doesn’t need to happen, we can ensure that we continue to go forward as a nation by finding the smart people to elect, that have shown that they have the toughness to get into the trenches to fight for a better America…who won’t quit when the going gets tough (yep, that’s for you Sister Sarah) and who realizes that compromise is what makes a democracy work; not slash and burn…geez…

October 15th

Well…it was a busy day yesterday and that was kind of nice for a change….and it looks like more of the same today, have to do the dreaded grocery shopping before the coffee shop but that’s okay since they have finished the construction on Kalamazoo and it will be easier to get there. Okay, I know it’s a boring life…I do have a movie from Netflix coming and with no booze yesterday, I feel good again today…I think I’ll do the no booze thing all weekend…but G is giving me a blender so I may have to make some frozen drinks to test it out….a margarita might be fun for later…I guess I’ll have to look for some recipes…but the grocery tab is so much lower without booze….I told you these would be kind of rambling for a couple of days…but, I do have a topic about the “elites” that the repubs are always harping on for later…or maybe something else if it strikes me….

Like a monkey with a loaded pistol…

Well…finally getting to the topic of the influx of “silent” money that has come as a result of the Citizens United decision by the Supreme court. Doesn’t anyone see a problem or conflict of interest when a Republican organization brings a suit to the right-wing supreme Court and then gets a ruling that allows republican leaning business to donate as much money to the repubs as they want without any disclosure whatsoever? If you don’t think this as a concerted plan to aid their business buddies, you just have to look at the efforts of the Repubs in congress to filibuster the bill that would have made the small requirement that these funds report where the money was coming from. When I was growing up, these “donations” were called slush funds and more than one politician was booted out of office for running one…and doesn’t it seem to you that this money comes with a quid pro quo that will buy these donating corporations favorable legislation that will again squash the hopes and dreams of the regular folks? It’s something the I have championed for the time I’ve been writing this thing… that government is supposed to be the referee between big business and the people…government is supposed to be the protector of the middle class against this unlimited money and influence…can any of you give 10 million dollars to get your pet legislation through the congress that will give you tax free income in perpetuity? Didn’t think so…but the repubs are intent on rigging the game since they can’t win fair and square; with ideas that will make this country greater, that will grow the middle class, that will allow the normal folks like you and me to at least have a chance…but you know the repubs don’t want you to have a chance…the only thing they know is to steal more and more of this country for their rich buddies. Is this your vision of America? Nope, not mine either.

Now…to get to the title…our old buddy, Karl Rove is at the center of all of this slush money…his “fund” has almost 50 million dollars in it (from his business buddies from the Bushie years) that he is going to use to defeat Democrats in the November elections. Does anyone other than me think this is a bad idea? This is the criminal who was behind the outing of Valarie Plame, the firings of federal attorneys who wouldn’t pursue his political vendettas, and the big one, the selling of the Iraq war on the blatantly false assumption that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. When I heard about his founding his slush fund, the first thing that came to mind was it was like giving a monkey a loaded pistol….there’s no predicting the damage that will be done, and I’d rather give the 50 mil to a monkey than Karl….geez…

October 14th

Well…kind of a busy day yesterday with lunch with T and the out with G for beers after that…but I still feel bad about not getting more posts out…this is probably one of the few times I can remember that I have a case or writer’s block and I just have not had any inspiration to write something new. I do know how to get out of it and that is to just write so you’ll be seeing some stuff that might be kind of rambling over the next couple of days….I am a little concerned that I have been happy lately and I seem to do my best work when I’m not, so I may have to do something stupid that will make me unhappy…but that is only the pattern that has worked so far…maybe I’ll try to change it…who knows? I do have a lot to do today…bet you didn’t see that coming…have already gotten the slow cooker going and I have to run a ton of errands this morning so I can help C load the truck for the move this aft. I did take the day off from the bike yesterday and it made a huge difference in my legs…no pain today for the first time in memory….so, that’s about it…I will have topics for later…

I know….you came back…and I’ve been lazy..

Well…I know…I’ve been a little lazy today…no big topics so far but I had lunch with T that went a couple of hours and I need to have some time that is not here in front of the computer…and I’m leaving in about an hour to meet up with G so I may not be able to get one out today…I will promise that I’ll put out a couple in the morning tomorrow before I have to go help C load the truck for his move…I’ll probably have to watch Keith tonight to get some inspiration since there wasn’t anything in the paper that got me going today…but, there are some topics that I have been talking about doing for a while that could be the fallbacks..who knows…I can understand if you don’t come back…but I’d like you to…some of this stuff has been worth it, hasn’t it? If you’re going to say no…please don’t…more later…

October 13th

Well… a long day yesterday…won at pool and put the eight ball in on the break for only the second time that I can remember….the last time was when I was around 18 so you can see how rare it is for me….had fun out there but when I went out to watch the Wings game at the new bar out here, it was like a scene from “Real housewives of Gaines Township” with a couple of bleached blondes just bitching and yelling when the computers went down and it took a few minutes to get their check paid. It’s been a while since I’ve seen that kind of behavior out of anyone…but the privileged class thinks it’s okay to treat people like crap. Not sure if I’ll go back there since they don’t have Keno and I like the people at the Mex place better.

Not much to do today…I do have lunch with T to look forward to and then maybe out with G later….and the normal stuff but I am kind of hoping that it will rain so I can take the day off from riding to get the pain out of my legs….more later…

The truth comes out…

Well…if you’ve paid any attention to ongoing story of the tea party and their efforts to position themselves as anti tax and anti big government, you’ve seen some cracks lately that expose what they truly are…just retreaded social conservative repubs. Their handlers at Freedom Works (the billionaires club that is backing them) must be going nuts when they stray from the coached lines they have been told to say; the poll driven, faux populist themes of big socialist government and tax cuts for the rich. But, it looks like they are herding cats with the meltdown of their darling, Carl Paladino, who is running for governor of New York. At a meeting with conservative religious groups over the last week, the curtain was pulled back on the drivers of the movement, the same old race and gay bashing that has been a cancer on this country for too many years. In those meetings, Mr. Paladino fell back into the tired old attacks on the “Gay agenda” and the standard right wing assertion that there is indoctrination of our children to accept the gay “lifestyle.” Where is this guy from, the 50′s?

But this crap was only the latest in the truth of the tea party being exposed in the statements of their “superstar” candidates…where Sharron Angle brings back one of the greatest hits of the repub playbook in her advocacy of privatization of Social Security and Christine O’Donnell wants to create a Christian theocracy and doesn’t believe in the separation of church and state. Haven’t we heard this all before? I do give credit to Dick Armey and his partners the Koch brothers in maintaining this scam for so long, but underneath it all is just the same old crap in a new package called the Tea Party. Geez…

Okay…I know this isn’t the one about corporate money buying the election but when inspiration hits, who knows where it will take you…and this time it took me someplace else…

October 12th

Well…a low key night last night since G was tired and wanted to stay in…so I did, too….saved some cash and I feel pretty good today so that is a benefit. Did have some problems withe the car yesterday…had the charge light come on with the ones for the rear lights when I was stopping to get my newspapers but when I got done with coffee, the were out again…thought I was going to have to spend a few hundred to get the alternator replaced…but I don’t know if this is scarier…the car will be done if the computer is going…I did start it last night and the lights were still out so I’ll go out for coffee today with my fingers crossed. Yeah, I know, a pretty boring life but I do have things to do today…out to Ada with Tom and then maybe hook up with K for part of the Wings game since I still can’t get it here…damn you dish….

That’s about it for now..I do have a topic that I’ve been telling you about for a couple of weeks that I want to get to…yep, it’s the one about corporate money buying the election for the repubs…why do the repubs hate America so much? Oops, not supposed to talk politics here….more later…

What you never want to be….