My Better Half

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AS I SEE IT, ...

We're mad as hell...

The Bailout Bill failed to pass Congress today 228-205 and the stock market dropped 777 points.

And speaking of being in the basement baby...while they have been in the sky for several years... it is cracking me up how analysts, those Wall Street geniuses, newscasters, and people with money are shocked! Just damn shocked how Main Street believes this is a shit burger with a side of crap!

Why should we...we who have suffered for the past several years carry your rich butts? Many people down here in the basement have had to sell their jewlery, valuables, rob Peter to pay Paul and Mary, while those so called "experts" up in the sky have done mighty fine on our backs.

Enough is enough. CEO's, do what we have been doing to make ends meet and sell your valuables to help your company stay afloat. Really...do you need to maintain that yacht or one of your seven homes? Sell it! So many Americans have had to downsize and sell their homes for smaller condos or apartments, well, why can't you?

Why do these companies expect us, the American taxpayers to fix their problems in a so called free market economy? Why should we? Oh that's right? If we don't people could lose their jobs or the homes, right McBush? Well guess what McBush...this has been going on for the past few years and you have just noticed it because...you're in the sky...

Well, we're in the basement baby, come on by...

I'm in the basement baby...

Drop on by...

YouTube - Placebo - English Summer Rain (animated)

Fare the well Reggie Dunlop...

One of my family's favorite movies is "Slapshot." Hard to believe because with the language, it's not a family friendly movie. But because of the language, and the silliness in which it is used, if you mention just one line to any member of the Dent family, we start laughing.

Every time I watch the movie I am reminded of how I miss watching hockey...and to sound like the film "old time hockey." You remember good hockey, right? When there were not a zillion teams in the NHL, the talent wasn't watered down, and the games were actually competitive and enjoyable to watch. The last game I saw was in 2000 in Chicago, the Blackhawks played Colorado. Unlike Blackhawk games of the past, the place was only half full. It was nothing like hockey in Chicago used to be. It was depressing. I haven't tried to go to a game since.

Like my mother, I enjoyed watching Paul Newman. That's right...we liked his acting...forget those beautiful blue eyes or the sexy confidence, right? Right! Even if the movie tanked, he was still awesome. I suppose most people will write about his performance in Cool Hand Luke or in Butch and Sundance however, for me, Reggie Dunlop is still one of the funniest anti-heroes Newman ever protrayed.

In our family, whenever we go grocery shopping, my brother and I will say "want some of that Reggie Dunlop sauce?" Or if we speak of Florida, my brother will say "here's to all that gorgeous...."(you can complete the sentence if you have seen the movie). If someone gets a penalty, both of my brothers break into a Strother Martin imitation concerning the guy who would purposefully get penalities so he could sit in the aptly name penalty box.

Throughout his life, Newman kept his private life private. Unlike many aging celebrities, he didn't spend time confessing his "sins' of the past or reminded us who he was; instead, he was able to point back to his work and just walk away, nothing needed to be said. Even in the end, when people were trying to push him to talk about his illness, he refused. More celebs could emulate his behavior instead of parading their personal lives in front of all of us.

Newman will be missed but I hope he left our realm of being realizing that he touched the loves in a positive manner of so many others he never met.

My eyes hurt!

I've seen so many clips of Sarah Palin's awful interview with Katie "softball" Couric that my eyes hurt and my head is spinning.

Seriously. I thought my computer monitor was blowing up or my glasses were busted.

But Jack Cafferty says it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8__aXxXPVc

Really, to quote one of my favorite southern sayings, she's dumber than a coal bucket!

Still not convinced?

So, are you sitting there...shaking your head...wondering why McCain keeps getting slammed on the news and wh, oh why is he falling behind in the polls after his brilliant Palin pick? Could it be you are the last ignorant, arrogant, jerkweed out there who hasn't figured out yet that the "fundamentals" of our economy is, well, fundamentally weak?

Do you live in such a secluded bubble that you do not know one person that is suffering from the eight year clusterf**k? Seriously? What is holding you back from supporting Obama? Why the hell are you supporting McCain who claims to be able to stand up to those "bigwigs" on Wall Street?

Go ahead...do the research yourself...and see what companies are McCain's biggest doners and guess who you will find near the top? That's right! Those same "bigwigs!" So we are supposed to believe that he is going to stand up for us? We are supposed to believe that he is the "original" Maverick? Sorry, to me the original Maverick is James Garner.

The funniest thing is, for a man who always believed in a free market economy, suddenly (as in today) he sees nothing wrong with the government bailing out AIG. Wow. And yet when people lose their jobs because of their companies stupidity (think Enron), the government refuses to help.

Unless you are just completely idiotic, I am assuming the only reason you are supporting McCain is because you will make huge money from a McCain administration or you are just flat out racist. Seriously...give me a reason...a real reason that you will not support Obama. I hear some of you say you do not trust him and yet you do not give me a reason. I can give you, and have given you, several reasons I do not trust McCain.

If you think the same old solutions will resolve what is going on in our economy right now, then you deserve to live through another eight years of this mess. I, for one, am tired of the same old Republican b.s.

You want 4 more years of this?

Sorry if this blog sounds angry however, what I've seen over the past few days has really pissed me off.

I keep hearing people everywhere...work, the grocery store, the gas line...saying how they want to see change. They want our country to change. When are things going to change? And yet, when I ask them who they are voting for or what do they think about Obama, I get similar answers "I don't trust him" or "I don't know if I will vote."

Well, here's what I think...if you do not vote for Obama, you will not be getting the change you want. If you vote for McCain, then you are just validating the last 8 years of bullshit. If you vote for McCain, you are basically saying, "Ok, I want the status quo."

Have all of you forgotten what it felt like in the days after 9-11 when we felt unified? We were scared yes, but supportive of each other. And then what happened? Two bullshit wars: the invasion in Iraq and the crazy culture war brought to you by the same white wing wackjobs that are trying to get you to focus more on lipstick on a pig than inflation, foreclosures, and the fact after 7 years, we still have yet to catch or kill Bin Ladin!

Do yourself a favor...think back...are you better off now than you were 8 years ago? And ask yourself, if you knew that Bush was lying to get into Iraq, would you have agreed to the war, especially knowing that it was going to stretch our troops thin and thus, disable our search for Bin Ladin?

Tonight, I saw an ad on MSNBC from the McCain camp that said that Obama was disrespectful to Palin. Wait...where do they get that from? Now they are just making shit up, trying to get you to avoid paying attention to what you are paying at the pump or the fact you haven't gotten a decent raise in 5 years and can't pay those medical bills or pay off those credit cards (that you paid some of those medical bills on if you were like me).

If you vote for McCain, you get what you deserve...you deserve 4 more years of bullshit.

It's A Trap!

If you think that John McCain picked Sarah Palin just to get the white, middle class vote or the Hillary vote, think again. In the words of the great Admiral Ackbar at the Battle of Endor, “It’s a trap!”

Here is what the McCain campaign is trying so desperately to do: they want you to forget the last eight years. It’s sort of like in “Wayne’s World” when Wayne and Garth do their flashback sequences. Imagine Republican hands waving in front of you and they do “dad a doo, da da a doo” (translation questionable!) and suddenly…voila! The past eight years of foreclosures, high gas prices, inflation, and unemployment never happened, the GOP elephant roars! Well except for 9-11. By God! Don’t you forget 9-11!

Do yourself a favor: avoid the crazy hype from the last few weeks of conventions and look at what has been going on in our economy over the past eight years and ask yourself “is the country better off than it was eight years ago?” Only someone in the upper income bracket will answer yes. The past eight years were a disappointment. And I have every right to be angry about the last eight years because I was idiotic enough to vote for Bush twice!

That’s right, I voted for the man twice. In 2000, I voted for Bush because like most people that live in Tennessee, I disliked Al Gore and his Senator Palpatine twin, Joe Liberman. In 2004, I voted for Bush again because I actually believed that we were doing the right thing in Iraq; there had to be WMD’s in Iraq! Of course, just a mere few weeks after the election, I found out how wrong I really was. The damn war was just a way for Cheney and his friends to make more money while thousands of young Americans die. The whole hocus pocus of “the terrorists are coming through Iraq” was brought to you by Bush, Inc.

I wish I could take my votes back but unlike Wayne and Garth, I can’t force a flashback. And unlike the Republicans and the people that are following them, I have learned my lesson. Unfortunately for the Republicans, I can not forget how Bush and crew betrayed my trust. My vote showed my trust in them to make things right. They never made things right; instead, they just followed the “right” ideology.

If you believe that McCain is a “maverick” think again! This is a guy that over 80% of the time has agreed with President Bush on the issues! When he spoke Thursday night, what did he say that he would do to help the American economy? Can you even remember? How is he going to help curb the over 7,000 foreclosures that are going on each day in this country? How is he going to help those families keep their homes? And pray tell, what did he say he was going to do to help the Veterans of this current war? Did he, a former Navy man and POW, even mention the Veterans? And were any of you McCain supporters smart enough to catch that it wasn’t Walter Reed hospital in the background but another building (it turns out it was a school).

What the Republicans have tried to do is get the Middle Class and Independent voters forget that we have had eight straight months of job losses and rising prices at the grocery store. Salaries are not keeping up with inflation and many Americans, while employed full time, have Healthcare plans that are expensive or lacking in coverage. With companies planning to increase the deductibles their employees have to pay and the possibility that the economy will continue to slow down through 2009 (no matter who gets elected), why would we even want four more years of the same old solutions?

Don’t fool yourself: drilling in Alaska and offshore is not going to help ease the oil crisis. The only way that will be solved is if we change our way about energy consumption. And despite what the Republican vice presidential nominee says, there is no way to cleanly burn coal.

The same old thinking has not worked in Washington and Republicans have another thing coming if they believe they are not in trouble. Republican congressmen know this; they hear it from their constituents. Just recently, in my district, first term Republican Congressman David Davis failed to get his party’s nomination after stories of his pandering to big business and standing by President Bush, right or wrong.

For years Republicans have been preaching “trickle down economics” and “thousand points of light” helping the middle and lower classes. And yet Palin slapped so many people in the face with her snarky remark concerning community leaders. What cracked me up was that many in the audience were laughing at her comment. Hmmm…and so many of them are community organizers themselves!

Both parties need to quit pointing fingers at each other and need to focus on how they are going to fix this economy and the mess we face overseas. Right now though, I get the feeling that Republicans are in the same bubble they were in during the reelection runs of Bush, Sr. in 1992 and Hoover in 1932. In both times, the middle class was in crises. And both times, their struggle was ignored.

Finally, ask yourself this…what kind of world do we live in where a bunch of rich white people like to refer to Barak Obama as elitist? Wait a second…a black man raised by a single mother is elitist? Just because he made something of his life and attending the same schools many of these same people attended? Honestly, I don’t get it.

But I do get it when Admiral Ackbar yells “It’s a trap!"

Trap indeed.