An Open Letter To My Readers

To Whom It May Concern:
From this day forward, Wednesday, September 17, 2008, I will no longer have the debate about universal healthcare. I just won't. Now, I know up to this point I have taken the argument on full force, armed with facts and statistics. But, after this day, a day in which the motherfucking federal government is doling out 85 million motherfucking dollars over to AIG, the largest private insurance provider in the nation, I just won't do it again. My heart, my poor, overstressed heart cannot take the conversation. So, if you want to debate it with me, when you get to the part of your argument where you roll out the potential cost to tax payers, I will just say three things: A I G. I will not mule over how your taxes will be raised so that we are all guaranteed healthcare that won't wipe out our life's savings. I will tell you that your taxes will, in fact, at some point be higher because you and me, the American taxpayers, are bailing out a company ran by some of the most educated folks in the USA because they made risky and greedy investments, lusting after huge profits.
When the Bush folks stormed Washington with a GOP majority in the Congress, I listened to their argument that deregulating the markets was the most American option on the table because, according to their expert opinions, the free markets always take care of things. They told me that they didn't need to regulate it because if someone practiced poor business, they would run flat out of cash. Now that has happened, but these companies aren't suffering the wrath of the free market gods. Oh hell no, they are getting YOUR get out of jail free care. Well, look around you. Each month's foreclosure numbers beat out the month before and each month's jobless claims come in crashing the last month's records. Is the government "bailing out" individuals who overextended themselves in the home mortgage? Why, hell no they aren't. If anyone even considered it, the country would collectively crinkle their noses and insist that welfare is not deserving of the greedy and/or lazy. But, group a whole bunch of upper crust assholes together and call them a corporation and Washington goes ape shit crazy at notion of them losing their shit. I've learned this week if the helping hand is extended to families, those folks not privy to highly padded no bid contracts, it is deemed "welfare." "Bail outs" are for companies. And to make the whole deal even more damned irritating for me is that these AIG folks won't have to pay any of the money back. That's right. Even though YOUR tax dollars are going to fund their poor practices, their future profits will remain private. Ain't that some shit?
This is called socialized capitalism. The government is paying the overhead for private business.
So, as I said at the start, from this day forward, I will no longer debate universal healthcare. I just won't.
I Love You,
Shonda

Oh, and AIG, if you are reading this, I DO EXPECT a thank you card. Assholes.

No Birth Control For You, It's Against My Religion

Good Morning, Readers. I totally bloglifted this from my friend Suzanna over that The Campaign for the Unshaved Snatch. To find her witty blog, either visit http://cussandotherrants.com or click here. Thanks, Suzanne, for letting me swipe your entire post. It's brilliant and I'm lazy.

So the Bush administration really did it. Yesterday, they re-wrote Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines to allow people to impose their personal definitions of abortion on women seeking health care services. It's a convoluted regulatory change that basically cuts off funding to family planning clinics that tend to serve low income women. (More information at NARAL and National Partnership for Women & Families.) You know, the same population who the Bush administration also denies health care coverage for their children. The same people who are always being told to take responsibility for their lives. Also? If you are raped? You don't have the right to get emergency contraception if you want it. Have a nice life.

We have 30 days to register our thoughts on this. Planned Parenthood is asking for donations specifically to fight this insanity. You can also sign petitions at NARAL (use the link above) and MoveOn, but of course, the Bush administration will just ignore them. (Still, it doesn't hurt to go on the record as a defender of your rights.)

If people wonder why I am bummed that our move to London was canceled even though it would have meant living apart from Husband for a part of the year so I could finish my MFA, you are now reminded why. Oh, yeah, and according to a report by the New York Times, the Bush administration is also "preparing to give the F.B.I. broad new authority to investigate Americans — without any clear basis for suspicion that they are committing a crime," so you know damn well that anyone who works for reproductive justice is going to be spied on. I can't wait to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to read the nice fat file they'll put together on me. Maybe you want to rethink signing that petition...

Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words?

Or, is a picture just worth $140 for a barrel of oil?
In case you are wondering who all this hand-holding is with, that's be the King of Saudi Arabi, King Abdullah.

I've had the smaller photo saved for a while. The other was taken in the early summer of this year and there are a few more of these two love birds holding hands on the web. Now, for all you Bushies who still maintain that his poor policies have nothing to do with all this, don't go emailing me manipulated numbers you received in some forwarded email that you yourself did no research for. I really posted this for laughs. Well that and the fact that if Ba-ROCK was holding hands every other month with the Muslim dude who is currently putting it to us like the shamed sheep in the barn, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity would probably have a heart attack. Hey, there's an idea. Anyways, this is just for laughs. I mean, that's what you have to do when you realize that the stock market had the worst June since the Depression, right. And just in case these two little prizes didn't crack a smile on your concrete face, go ahead and watch this little video. I mean, it is Citizen Cane classic. The climax to me is when they seriously start kissing at the end. Maybe this is why that Iranian asshole thinks there no gays in his shitty little country. Apparently it isn't weird for men to hold hands each time they hang out and periodically kiss on the big, fat lips.
On a side note, I'm pretty for sure we are gonna auction one of the boys or one of our kidneys to sow wheat this summer. I don't know how well either will work considering the time they spent in my poor, mistreated body, but I gotta do something. The talking heads on CNBC just predicted $185 oil by the end of the summer. The Dow fell nearly 400 points today, so you can just imagine what that would do to this markets. So, this is my service to you. Apparently we can't fix it, at least for a long while, so you might as well laugh.

Where did you go, Ben Franklin? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

I've always believed that Ben, although he was actually not such an awesome father to his own children, is the real father of our country. After all, had Benji not blended into French society so effectively, they probably would not have aided in the Revolutionary War, which was what pushed us over the goal. His brilliance is seen all over the Constitution and through the system of our government. Now, those of you who know about my little civics lesson given inside Homeland (seriously, I think it is against all things American to REQUIRE me to give my personal information to receive items at a sale price -- either they are on sale or not.), this is the Benji quote that I fired off at the hip that really put the cherry on top of the crazy sundae. It was at this point that I knew I had scared this poor checker to her core and, without a doubt, would win the nuttiest customer of the day award. But, with that said, it is my favorite. Any man who sacrifices security for liberty deserves neither, remember every day.
This is on my mind particularly this morning after the Democratically controlled House of Representatives sided with Bush the Younger and voted through the new FISA bill, which exempts any telecommunication company who lets Uncle Sam do mass surveillance on law-abiding, tax-paying citizens without the risk of lawsuits. Now, I don't want to hear from anyone about how Democrats are all soft on security or whatever. At this moment in time, I like Georgie in all his dangerous politics more than I like the Dems in the House. At least with George, I've known up front that he thinks he is Big Brother or The Decider, as he coined himself. (Seriously, I thought I was the only one who gave themselves nicknames.) I knew it even before he stole the 2000 election. I knew it the day he named Dick as his running mate. As much as I detested it, I knew it. I've been a student of this country's laws and history since I was a little girl, before I ever even stepped into a class room. So, it was for that reason that I am so adamantly against sacrificing the civil liberties of the entire country to catch a few. Hell, we had plenty of information on the 9/11 hijackers pre-attack, but the guys at the CIA and FBI were busy playing Who Has the Biggest Balls and wouldn't work together. There's just no need for it. If they had done their jobs in the first place, it'd be fine.
But, like I said, at least I knew from the beginning what I was getting with Dub. Even when he was on his Saddam's warning tip with the WMD will be a mushroom cloud tour like an old, aging rock star, I knew that was bullshit. Ask any one of my friends. I'm not saying I have some kind of contact within the government, so calm down neocons. I just have watched politics long enough to know that the sketchy videos Colin took the UN and, for that matter, Georgie rushing to the UN daily pimping this idea like a used card salesmen, just screamed that something else was going on. Now we know there was no WMD and that Saddam, as evil as he was, had nothing to do with 9/11 and that the 7-foot-tall Muslim on kidney dialysis, Osama bin Laden, is still at large.
With all that disappointment, I knew what I was getting. All these new Dems who unseated old, tow the line Republicans and Democrats so conservative they should've been Republicans were elected by the American people to take the country back to the one that Ben Franklin and his brave friends formed from nothing. They were going to strike down the Goliath Big Brother of the last six years. And now this.
So, here you go. I've already given George kudos once this week. And now I am saying that the Democrats in the House who voted for this FISA bill are, at least in this moment, worse than he is. At least with him, I expect this. I know what I'm gonna get. If you are upset about your civil liberties being trampled on, call your Representatives. Let me break this down, they are destroying the Constitution, the same one the gives you the right to bear arms and the freedom to a fair and speedy trial. Now, if you think it is so easy for the government to take a big part of our freedom to speech and privacy, what makes you think that your right to bear your own arms won't be next.