The Forkes Report - NEWS and POLITICS

Too Little Too Late

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:56:18 -0700

Now the president is talking tough. After he and his party have given away the single-payer option, after they’ve given away the public option and mandated everyone without health insurance has to buy health insurance from the very companies who make our health care system a joke.

It’s about time Mr. President, although the question is, is this too little too late? The bill will pass and get signed by the president, by way of reconciliation — the Nuclear Option. Isn’t that a quaint term! The Republicans want to frighten us with a scary word: “nuclear.”

Never mind that Republicans used “The Nuclear Option” five times during the Bush (43) years to pass budgets that spent beyond the limits of our treasury without paying for those budget shortfalls. This is the hypocrisy: when the Republicans blast the Democrats for using reconciliation they say the procedure has never been used on a bill, like the health care bill, that would have such a large impact on the American public.

Running the country into a three trillion dollar debt doesn’t have a great impact on the American taxpayers? That stretches credulity — no, that breaks it in two.

Not to mention, reconciliation has been used, with party line votes, for creating Social Security, the Voting Rights Act, and a host of other bills throughout history.

Does the health care bill really matter if we don’t have single payer or a public option? Is it good for the American people if we are forced to buy insurance we cannot afford? Will the bill actually reduce the financial burden we now carry due to health care costs if we are, in effect, subsidizing the health care industry?

Good Democrats tell us this is just a start, something we can build on in the future. Maybe it is, but while we wait to build on it people will still go without needed care and treatment and some of those people will die.

Too little too late.
•••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• •••• ••••
Just had this little shock. Years ago I moved to Sandy Eggo and one reason was the lovely hobby of snorkeling, at La Jolla Cove in particular. Now, La Jolla Shores is a nice place to snorkel too and like La Jolla Cove, many scuba divers start their dives from La Jolla Shores, over by the boat ramp where people launch anything that will float. People learning to ocean kayak learn right there.

This is already getting a little far a field, but what the Hell, we’re talking about La Jolla Shores and La Jolla Cove! I was just picturing the last time I was at the Shores, watching people trying to learn how to kayak — in the ocean. It’s probably a good bet most have never been in a canoe before, let alone an ocean kayak. You can tell: they look at the double-sided paddle — quizzically, eye the spot in the kayak where the passenger (or passengers) sit convinced they have that part figured out …

And then they look at the 2-4 foot breakers the surfers are cruising on up the beach and you see that, sometimes brief, look of fear. Two-to-four foot waves don’t sound so big — until you’re sitting in a kayak that gets lifted and bounced by one. Or worse yet, capsized. Anyway, it’s all part of the entertainment at La Jolla Shores.

The other entertainment is the eye candy. La Jolla Shores is a great place to watch people.

So, often I’ll go snorkeling at La Jolla Shores or La Jolla Cove. It’s a great activity, gets you into that beautiful Pacific Ocean and you can really commune with nature. I use that term, “snorkeling,” quite a bit. Never really noticed anyone snickering because when I talk about snorkeling, it’s about donning a mask, snorkel and fins and going out into the ocean. I don’t surf.

The past few nights the news has been full of recently resigned New York Congressman Eric Massa. He was recently accused of sexually assaulting one of his staffers, a man no less.
 Massa is a Democrat by the bye, and is married with children.

When the news first broke, that the House ethics committee was investigating the accusations, Massa claimed he was being pressured by the White House because he, Massa, voted against the House health care bill. As the news began to build, the congressman eventually resigned and went on Larry King and Glenn Beck, the latter hoping to get some great revelations about “corruption” in the Democratic Party and the White House. Beck later apologized to his viewers for wasting their time.

The TV interviews took place after Massa resigned and he talked about Rahm Emanuel accosting him in the Congressional gym shower — nekkid! How titillating! Emanuel, if you don’t know, is President Obama’s chief of staff. According to Massa, Emanuel was poking him in the chest for not voting for the health care bill.

Well, once all this news broke, Massa’s past came back to haunt him. The former congressman is a graduate of the Naval Academy and served about various ships of the line. Many of his former shipmates have now come out and told of Massa groping and touching them inappropriately.

One claim really caught my attention. A former shipmate of Massa, Stuart Borsch, said he had been the recipient of Massa’s unwanted advances and that one their fellow officers, who shared a stateroom with Massa, was woken up when Massa climbed up onto the upper bunk and tried to “snorkel” him.

Wait a minute! “Snorkel?” That just ain’t right! And what the Hell is snorkeling? Well, we all know what teabagging is: a guy drops is ballsack onto/into another person’s open mouth, usually when the other person is sleeping. “Snorkeling” is similar, except that the person baring his ballsack puts it over the sleeping person’s eyes, like a mask.

That just ain’t right.

First of all, now I gotta ask my Navy friends how often the “snorkeled” their shipmates. That should start a fight or two. But, now I’m going to have to explain myself whenever I tell someone I’m going snorkeling. DAMMIT!

Okay, just for the record, when I say I’m going snorkeling, that means I’m putting on a mask, snorkel and fins and going into the ocean. My ballsack, well it usually shrivels in the cold water, but it won’t be placed on any sleeping person’s eyes — or in their mouths for that matter. Unless that other person is a woman who is awake and expecting it. Certain things just feel too good.

Maybe I’ll go snorkeling this weekend, if the weather is nice.

Sliced Bread On Ice

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:01:00 -0700

Over the weekend my buddy John and I were watching the Olympics: all that snow, all that drama, the women figure skaters — and Johnny Weir — Lindsey Vonn, Stephen Colbert, ah, it was great!

And the closing ceremony, with Captain Kirk and Catherine O'Hara, among the big name Canadian stars entertaining everyone. You could tell O’Hara wasn’t reading her own lines, it was mostly not funny. Well, you don’t want to upset anyone, don’t want offend any nations, certainly not the big bad wolf to the south.

The Olympics were good TV. Watching Shaun White win his gold in the Snowboarding Half Pipe was awesome! Really! Now that was entertaining! Watching the Men’s U.S. Hockey Team, an after thought to most analysts before the games started, watching them beat the Canadians—now that was awesome! And I got to watch in Hi Def with a Canadian in the room! She kept saying, “On paper the Canadian team is the better team.”

That was rich! We bandied that about for hours, days even, telling our Canadian friend her team must have lost the paper, or worse, used it for toilet paper.

Eh … yeah … we had fun for a week … sigh …

Because, on Sunday, the Men’s Canadian Hockey Team found the paper and beat the U.S. Hockey Team in the Gold Medal Game … yeah, well … okay Marilyn; the (sheesh) Men’s Canadian Hockey Team … (dammit!) is the better team … on paper and (fuck!) on the ice.

And, for that matter, so is the Women’s Canadian Hockey Team. But the U.S. got more medals then Canada overall! HA! Take that, Marilyn! Neener, neener, neeeener!

This is serious stuff here, international sporting rivalries! Yessirree! We don’t act like ten year olds for nuthin’! Well, not all the time. We’re guys and for whatever reason, our maturity meter gets stuck on “ten year old” often. Some guys might be thinking, “Speak for yourself.” Naah, I’m speaking for all of us.

So, while watching the Olympics, and then House and 24 on Monday, we kept getting bombarded with political commercials for the upcoming Republican Primaries, in which Republican Steve Poizner was being viciously attacked by one of his opponents. This was vicious too; one ad claimed he was a close ally of Nancy Pelosi! NO!

YES! Poizner is really a Democrat in elephant clothing! Or so Meg Whitman says.

“Where have I heard that name before,” you might be asking yourself? Meg is the billionaire former CEO of eBay! She is and has been clearly ahead in the polls and for the most part, had genteel and calm ads promoting herself to be the Republican nominee for California governor.

But then, out of nowhere, she started a series of attack ads on a candidate most Californians have never heard of — until she (and her campaign) brought him to our attention. Thanks Meg Whitman! Your ads did such a fine job John and I may, for the first time in our lives, vote in a Republican primary! For Steve Poizner!

Then of course, Whitman wants Republican voters to forget she gave large campaign donations to , one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, Barbara Boxer, just a couple years ago and said she was a huge fan of Van Jones, President Obama’s special advisor for green technologies and jobs. Oops. If you’re a good Republican, you hate Van Jones and everything he stands for! Just ask Sarah Palin!

Anyway, Meg Whitman’s attack ads made Poizner sound so good, we think he’d not only be a great candidate, but a great governor as well! On the Democratic ticket, we’ll have former governor Jerry Brown. Eh, I’ll probably vote for Jerry. He dated Linda Ronstadt the last time he was governor, over 30 years ago.

Which, strangely enough, was the last time California, as a state, had any sanity. That was before Howard Jarvis (and Paul Gann) and Proposition 13. Anyone over 40 probably remembers the ground shake that day in 1978 when the voters of California, 70% of whom showed up at the polls, voted overwhelmingly to pass Prop 13. No one ever looks at the long-term effects of these ballot initiatives … seriously.
 The “Three Strikes Law” is another example of the ballot initiative gone wild.

Since that day, we have had ballot initiative after ballot initiative, some times 3-4 pages of initiatives in each election. Really! Not just statewide proposals, but local and county measures as well. Everyone has gotten in on the act. A couple years ago I read that 85% of California’s budget is mandated by ballot initiatives. Can’t find that reference now, but that statistic has stuck with me ever since.

It doesn’t take an economics professor — or a Constitutional Scholar — to see what effect “true” democracy can have on a community, be it national, state or local. We call it “Dumbacracy.” Collectively, we as voters are as dumb as a rock. The best sound bites usually win. George W. Bush, if anyone wants a good example, or better yet, Ronald Reagan.

Barack Obama won the presidency because he mobilized millions of people who would have otherwise not voted, but also because the usual “independent” voters were so afraid of John McCain extending the Bush fiascos, they flipped and voted for the Democrat.
 Obama will have to work a little harder in 2012 if he runs for re-election. The “Independents” aren’t so happy with him at the moment.

So, back to California’s fiasco, which has been rolling along since Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann got their proposition passed in 1978. Property taxes can be no more than 1% of a property’s assessed value, and that value can only be raised by 2% or less per year and the assessment isn’t based on current market value of the property, but on the value at the time it was purchased.

Think about that. If you’re a homeowner and bought your place in 1980 for instance, you are still getting taxed at 1980 rates, with a few small increases over the years. Damn! The next owner will get assessed the current market value and pay property taxes accordingly, but the ballot measure eliminated 60% of the property tax revenue from California’s various local governments and ultimately the state’s treasury. And no body has figured out a way to make up for that since then.

Most Californians think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, even though they bitch about the decline in California’s educational system, the reductions in the police and fire services of our communities, the decline of our health care system — all three employing the most under-paid and under-appreciated professionals in our society: fire fighters, cops, teachers and nurses and those are the individuals who bear the brunt of budget cuts when the state legislature tries to balance the budget.

Howard Jarvis and his mad band of anti-tax fighters back Meg Whitman and that alone tells me who to vote for in June. Jarvis, it should be noted, passed away nearly 24 years ago but his Taxpayers Association is still going strong. Republicans still use his name in their campaigns because they know his name will get noticed by the voters. The actual name of the organization is the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

The man speaks from the grave. Yeah, the greatest thing since sliced bread. My doctors and nutritionists all tell me to stay away from sliced bread.

Walking Talking Spam

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:01:00 -0700

Families and the relationships that develop among them are wonderful things — for some of us. In my family anyway, la Familia Farkas.

One of those relationships is with my nephew Dan. You can find a link to his blog, Eschew Obfuscation, at the top left of this page. All of my nieces and nephews are incredibly smart and that’s not just nepotistic bragging. They are seriously smart people. From Christopher right down to Emyli, and I will assume, little Bean too.

Daniel though, he’s not just smart, he’s a deep thinker, independent in many regards, fairly predictable in others, as many in his generation are, as any generation can be defined by its own idiosyncrasies.

Do I have a favorite niece or nephew? Nancy is pretty special. She joined the Navy and served as a corpsman with the Marines. That’s pretty damn special with me. My other nieces and nephews all have their personalities and they’re all pretty special. Christopher, for instance, is into hockey in a serious way and because of his tutelage on the subject, I sort of knew what the hell was happening when the U.S. hockey team beat the Canadian hockey team in the Olympics. Thanks Chris!

Back to Dan. A really nice guy, a decent bass player and now, as I’ve been informed, an upstanding, productive member of society! And still a deep thinker! In a Previous Blog Dan and I were discussing, through our comments on a particular rant, existentialism and nihilism, two philosophies that, because of societal misperception, get bad raps when often described or discussed in polite circles.

Of course we went pretty far a field of those two topics, as Dan and I often do when talking. After all, one thing always leads to another, and that discussion is a perfect example of the synchronicity of life. From the existential philosophy we get to a very cogent and consistent (with his overall philosophy) belief about aliens, the “not of this Earth” variety.
 By the way Dan, Sagan was one of our most brilliant minds!

So, when Dan sends me an e-mail titled “Want Some Tea?” and the only message is this: “What is your take on Sarah Palin?” Then I know he has something in mind.
 The title of the e-mail alone speaks volumes.

Dan already knows my political leanings, has an idea of my general sentiments regarding the former governor, so he’s looking for something else, something a little deeper. We can listen to the pundits, both for and against Sarah Palin, and quite frankly, the analysis is often pretty spot-on, even those who are pro Palin, because their analysis often makes excuses for Palin’s many shortcomings as a national political figure.

Dan doesn’t need me to regurgitate any of that although, really, most of the criticism of the quittin’ governor is what we really need to know. Let’s face it: she quit her job as governor so she could take advantage of her 15 minutes of fame to make millions of dollars. Good for her, but it shows her true commitment (or lack thereof) to public service.

Sarah Palin is an opportunist at best. She knows when to flip-flop on issues to appeal to her constituency and, as mentioned, she knew that finishing her term as governor might keep her from making those millions of dollars she is now making with her book and speaking fees.
 For instance, Palin got a nice six figures to be the keynote speaker at the Tea Bagger convention.

Quitting her job as governor may have been good for Alaska. Can any state, even one as below the radar as Alaska, afford a chief executive who often lies about her exploits, has a penchant for blaming others for her own gaffes and has exhibited such an ignorance of the core issues of our nation, it transcends embarrassment? Her knowledge of foreign affairs: she can see Russia from the western most island of Alaska. Well, if you go to Alaska’s border with The Yukon, she can see Canada as well, but apparently that slipped her mind.

Sarah Palin out does every other politician (in any party) in one regard: her flip-flopping on the issues. When she ran for governor in 2006 she was for the Gravina Island Bridge, the “Bridge to Nowhere” first proposed by former senator Ted Stevens and criticized so vociferously because it cost so much but serves such a small number of people.

But, when Palin was picked to be John McCain’s running mate, she was against the bridge. And then she back-pedaled a bit saying she was against the federal money tapped to build the bridge, not the bridge itself. But even that was inconsistent with her campaign rhetoric of 2006.

She flip-flopped on climate change — twice. First she didn’t believe the changing climate was due in large part to human activity, but when she became McCain’s running mate she changed that view, trying to tie her previous pronouncements to her campaign claims. Now that she’s a tea bagger darling, she’s back to claiming climate change has nothing to do with human activity.

And with the health care bill she truly made a giant flip-flop of gold medal-winning proportions. In 2008, before she was picked to be a vice presidential candidate, Governor Palin proclaimed, by official edict, “Healthcare Decisions Day” in which she and the state officially encouraged Alaska’s citizens to make living wills so relatives didn’t have to make awful choices when loved ones were at the ends of their lives.

In 2009, when health care became the national topic, Palin called those very same end of life decisions “Death Panels” and was firmly against it. What changed in those 12 months? She went from a virtually unknown politician (outside of Alaska) to a national figure with a small (but loud) following nationally and to appeal to that national following Sarah Palin couldn’t be for health care reform of any kind — even a reform she had previously endorsed and promoted.

That, my young nephew, is my long(er) answer. Sarah Palin is walking-talking e-mail spam. She will spew whatever needs to be spewed to win over her constituency, like regurgitating the bullshit we often see in those chain e-mails that make their way into our inboxes.

Dan’s reply was not quite as cogent as usual. Instead, he let his emotions take over. If he wishes to share his sentiments here with a comment, then by all means. Dan proves that past events and worry about the present and future can stir up even an existentialist.

Stimulating Reality

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:01:00 -0700

Here it is, Thursday, February 18, 2010. My family and friends living in the Snow Belt probably don’t want to know that’s it’s been sunny and in the 70’s and 80’s here in Sandy Eggo, so we’ll just leave it at that. Actually, I’m chuckling … eh … soon enough it will start raining again, but for today, I’m chuckling!

There’s my older brother Rick though; wish he would consider relocating to Los Angeles. He’s a musician, a great keyboardist by any standard, and could possibly get some great gigs in L.A. I’d relocate to L.A. to join him. It would get him out of the horror of the Wisconsin winters and into a kinder, gentler climate.

Of course, Rick and I together, cut loose on Los Angeles, home to so many … err … sinny-type activities and sinny-type people like the two of us …

Which reminds me Wednesday was Ash Wednesday! I didn’t make it to church to get the Ashes. Didn’t make it to New Orleans for Fat Tuesday either. Somehow, Fat Tuesday sounds far more appealing than getting ashes criss-crossed on my forehead.

Yesterday was also the one-year anniversary of President Obama signing the stimulus bill. The one the Republicans in Congress love to dump on, but, when the stimulus money creates some jobs in their state for a civic project, they are all too happy to be there at the ribbon-cutting ceremonies and claim sole responsibility for that money making it to that particular project. Hypocrisy, thy name is Republican!

Which brings up the Mount Vernon Statement, a little gimmick cooked up by some establishment “conservatives” to try and gain the support of the “grassroots” movement known as the Tea Baggers. Or Tea Party, if you want to be kind to them.

This is funny: part of this gimmick includes a plank of beliefs, one of which is this: “It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.”

They honor personal liberty, unless of course the personal liberties you wish to engage in go contrary to their religious and/or political views. Things like a woman having the final say over her reproductive system and overall health; if you like to smoke marijuana, or, if like me, you like to view naked women on the internets or in magazines and frequent establishments that offer nude and semi-nude women dancing for our pleasure.

Their view of personal liberty doesn’t cover any of those and I would venture to guess many others, like being guaranteed we are free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The assault on the Fourth Amendment by Republicans, ever since President Ronald Reagan was in office, has been horrendous.

If you go through an airport scanner and the TSA workers find you with a large amount of cash, an undetermined number, you can be flagged as a potential drug dealer and have all your belongings confiscated. With no evidence to suggest you have any connection to any crimes whatsoever. Thank President Reagan for that one; it was part of his agenda, although we should also put some blame squarely on the shoulders of the Democrat-controlled Congress that passed the bill that created the assault on the Bill of Rights.

Now of course, thanks to the previous president and the Republican-controlled government from 2002 to 2007, we have the Patriot Act that lets the federal government erode our liberties even further. Sadly, the current administration has done nothing to do away with those parts of the act that infringe on our liberties as once guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights,

Enough of that tangent, although it’s a pretty good one.

Most egregious though is their claim that some in this land are against the Constitution are actively trying to do away with it. This is the heart of the teabaggers hatred for President Obama. For them, the president is both a Socialist and a Fascist.
 The teabaggers are now claiming that Hitler and the German Nazis were really closet Socialists!

The claim is that the president and his fellow Democrats are trying to usurp the Constitution with programs like the health care bill and the Stimulus Plan that is now a year old. Really. And these are the same guys who cooked up the Patriot Act and nearly 30 years ago, the law that allows federal employees to confiscate your belongings based on nothing but a hunch.

The signers of the Mount Vernon Statement are against the Stimulus Plan because it is running up the national debt and growing government. These are the same guys who rubber-stamped President George W. Bush’s policies for six and a half years, budgets that had our treasury go from a surplus into debt. And the kicker is, they did it five times with “reconciliation,” the process by where the controlling party of both Houses of Congress get together and pass a bill without the support of the minority party.

If the health care plan does pass and is put on President Obama’s desk to be signed, it will be done through reconciliation. No Republicans have any plans to vote for the bill so it is the only way health care will be passed in America — and it still won’t go far enough to alleviate the suffering Americans go through because they are either uninsured or under insured — or worse yet, the health care insurance companies drop their insurance coverage due to things like pre-existing conditions.

Republicans have used the filibuster over 200 times since the Democrats took control of Congress — and these are the same people who, nearly five years ago, threatened to use the “nuclear option” (eliminating the filibuster) if the Democrats tried to filibuster any of their proposals, like expanding the national debt and prolonging the war in Iraq. And that includes Mr. Maverick himself, John McCain.

The truly entertaining thing about the Republicans and the anniversary of the Stimulus Plan is this: in front of national cameras and media, people like House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Senator Kit Bond rail and flail against the Stimulus Plan, but then quietly sign documents asking the federal government for stimulus money for projects in their states and districts.

They even show up at the ribbon cutting ceremonies, holding the giant promotional copies of the federal checks from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, President Obama’s stimulus plan — and tell their constituents just how well the Stimulus Plan is working!

Think Progress has a pretty nice list of the hypocrites who railed against the Stimulus Plan but asked for and received stimulus money

The president gave a pretty good speech Wednesday and had the political courage to point out the hypocrisy of his opponents. When the mid-term elections come around, let’s hope the Democrats use these facts in their campaigns against the Republicans who will be up for re-election, making sure the Republican Party’s newest constituency, the ones they wrote and signed the Mount Vernon Statement to impress, the teabaggers, see it. Gotta wonder if they will be unimpressed.

Or maybe, filled with their hatred for President Obama, the teabaggers will ignore reality and vote for the hypocrites because let’s face it, what many of the teabaggers really don’t like is a Black Man with a Muslim name as President of the United States. That’s what it’s really all about and for the teabaggers anything is better than that reality.

Ghosts and the President

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:17:25 -0700

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is haunted. Saw it on Ghost Hunters Wednesday Night. Why in the world could the Air Force allow the TAPS crew to sneak on base? Actually, TAPS was invited by the Air Force and received clearance from the Pentagon to do an investigation.

The episode was all right, but I was hoping the investigators would stumble upon the bodies of deceased aliens. That’s the trouble with expectations; life rarely ever lives up to them.

My nephew Dan and I once got into a MySpace discussion about something, the subject of which was soon forgotten as we veered off into whatever tangents came along and believe me, Dan and I can spur each other’s tangents!

Dan, from what I recall (I don’t feel like looking it up), has no expectations for anything, writing that if things weren’t great he wouldn’t be upset and if things were going good he could choose to be happy about it. Dan appears to be a bit of a nihilist existentialist. He might disagree with that, but if he is a nihilist Dan has no expectations of my opinions of him so he wouldn’t care or react.

I’ll make sure Young Dan reads this so he can correct me in case I’m wrong about him. Maybe he’ll write a reply, which would be good. When Dan disagrees with me he does it so cogently and with such erudite precision, it is not only a good read, it makes me think, “huh … he might be right.”

Of course I would never tell him that, to let him know he was right about something and possibly smarter than me. Nirvana forbid.
 Here’s a brief aside, a tangent if you will. Since about 1989 I’ve felt a need to explain that the Nirvana mentioned above is not the Seattle rock band. In fact, my use of it isn’t even correct if one wants to refer to its spiritual origin (Absolute Truth). But I’ll keep it there anyway!
 Actually, it’s probably very appropriate.

So, back to Ghost Hunters. I was hoping, and am always hoping, to see a ghost show up on the cameras. Not just the infrared thermal imaging cameras, but one of those night-vision equipped cameras. A real ghost smiling for the cameras. Hasn’t happened in all the episodes I’ve seen.

Sure, they’ve had unexplained visages on those thermal imaging cameras, and I’ve thought, “Huh, could be a ghost!”

And they’ve had disembodied voices replying to questions asked by the investigators or telling the investigators, in shades of The Amityville Horror, “Get Out!” Now that can scare the crap out of someone, me at least. I’ve read the book and saw the original movie twice!

But, so far, no ghost smiling for the camera. Why is that? Are shameless self-promoters and media hounds forbidden from becoming ghosts? I’d like to come back as a ghost, smile for the ghost hunter cameras and play some insane pranks on people, you know, tickle someone’s toes, tap them on the shoulder. I’d be a great ghost. Casper, but with a naughtier attitude!

So, the real deal here was going to be about President Obama’s first State of the Union Address. Wednesday Nights are usually spent watching three hours of Ghost Hunters, hoping one day to see the smiling face of a ghost show up on one of their cameras.

But, because of President Obama’s speech, I had to miss the first hour of Ghost Hunters. The president knows how to give a speech and this one was great. Of course all the Republican naysayers disagree. Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor who can’t seem to use nine-eleven often enough to promote his agenda, even got on FOX and claimed the president never addressed national security.

Actually, the president spent more than ten minutes talking about it and referenced it about a dozen other times during his speech. Gotta wonder if Giuliani actually watched the speech.

The Republicans in the joint chamber of the Capitol never applauded and John Boehner, the house minority leader, looked absolutely on the verge of rage. Eric Cantor, the little congressman (and Republican Whip) from Virginia, looked dumbfounded as usual. One of these days he’ll lose that deer-in-the-headlights look.

In his first year as president I’d say Barack Obama has proven to be a bit of a wimp. He had a huge majority in Congress, sky-high approval ratings with the American public and he didn’t get health care done. Obama wanted to be the nice guy and try to improve the political atmosphere in Washington. It didn’t work. The Republicans signaled from the beginning they were not going to play along.

While President Obama tried to create a political scene of bipartisanship, the Republicans were taking out all the stops to discredit and smear him. And their tactics, played out primarily by the teabaggers, worked. To this day these nutcases call Obama both a Socialist and a Nazi! Boggles the fuckin’ mind but not one TV pundit has pointed out the absurdity of it. The teabaggers insist Obama is a Socialist and a Nazi because the name of Hitler’s political party was the National Socialist Workers Party.

They of course don’t mention that Hitler’s internal enemies, other than Jews, were capitalists, liberals, communists and socialists. One just needs to read anything Hitler wrote or the text of just about any speech and figure out neither Hitler nor his party were socialists.

Americans, many of us, sadly, choose to remain ignorant for expediency. Why get the facts when the jingoism and sound bites sound so appealing. Then there are the racist attacks on the president, none of which have been refuted by Republicans. President Obama had the high ground.

Barack Obama should have used his bully pulpit to bully health care reform through Congress — with the public option. Obama had more political capital than any president since Ronald Reagan and he squandered it.

Playing nice sounds like a great idea, but if the other side doesn’t want to play then it’s time to kick’em in the balls and let’em know who rules the roost.

What a Bunch of ...

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:01:00 -0700

Sometimes you just want to say, “What a bunch of pussies.” It’s all about the votes, 60 of them in the U.S. Senate to get a bill to cloture. Not even to pass a bill, which only needs 51 votes. But, one shouldn’t use a term like “pussy” because it’s a pejorative with feminine connotations.

We men like to use terms like that. We go to strip clubs, like Cheetah’s which is totally nude, see a dancer and say, “Nice …” err … you get my drift. Same when we’re viewing photos and videos of hot models. Men like that sort of thing. We of the heterosexual bent anyway.

Gay men, I assume, have the same sexual turn-ons as women: broad shoulders, chiseled chest, square jaw, nice butt, six pack abs, oh, and lets not forget a sense of humor. Really? You women are turned on by a sense of humor? I’m a funny guy! Why aren’t you lining up at my door?

But seriously, I’m trying hard not to use such pejorative terms. A few years ago I was talking to Playboy Cyber Girl Danielle Richardson about that word, specifically why she didn’t like it and asked that we not use it when chatting. So, ever since I’ve been trying to stop using it.
 Okay, once in a while I may mention “eating pie.”

Better to say, “What a bunch of cowardly assholes.”

This defeat of health care reform goes back to the president who insisted on bipartisanship when he took office. The Republicans weren’t going to get on board anything put forth by the Democrats, especially a program pushed by President Obama. Republicans couldn’t flip-flop fast enough to get on the other side of issues from the president.

There wasn’t going to be any bipartisanship with the Republicans because they were marching in lock step against anything the president proposed. These were the people who wanted to see the Big Three automakers fold so they and their corporate sugar daddies could do away with one of the most powerful unions in the country.

Senate Democrats have been particularly spineless. They and the president backed down and gave in to Independent Senator Joe Lieberman. Single-payer was taken off the table before negotiations for the health care bill even got under way and now they’ve caved in on the public option and expanding Medicare to people as young as 55. The insurance companies have declared victory in this debate.

The current bill in the Senate — which still won’t get one Republican vote — is nothing more than a financial bailout for health insurance and drug companies. In it American citizens will be forced by law to buy health insurance, a product so flawed Americans rank at the bottom of nearly every health care barometer. In the industrialized world we are the unhealthiest nation.

The Republicans don’t even want to expand Medicare, one of the most popular, no, the most popular, government program created since Social Security. And the Republicans would really like to do away with both.

As wonderful as Medicare is to those who have it, the program still allows insurance companies to make money, yet Republicans and Joe Lieberman are against it. But a month ago Lieberman was for the expansion of Medicare to the age of 55. He’s been lying in the weeds waiting for payback.

It wasn’t bad enough he came out and stumped for Republican John McCain in the general election last year. No, not at all. The Democrats welcomed him back into the fold, even though he had clearly left. Lieberman was allowed to keep his senate chairmanships and seniority. Not even this latest betrayal is bad enough. Two days ago when the president gave a little press conference in front of the White House with Senate Democrats standing behind him, there was Joe Lieberman as if he belonged in that group.

Now Lieberman is lying. He claims his words from a month ago were taken out of context. Bullshit! It was all about payback. Lieberman, who represents the insurance industry and gets millions in campaign contributions (many of the biggest insurers are headquartered in Connecticut), has been against health care reform from the beginning. He just played along until he could perform the coup de grâce.

Revenge is a dish best served cold and Lieberman’s double cross was a satisfaction served over ice.

Just a month ago Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thought the Curmudgeon from Connecticut was on board with the Democrats and the health insurance bill. Lieberman even went on record as supporting the expansion of Medicare. Then, at the last moment, Lieberman decided he was against it.

Senator Lieberman is pissed. In 2006 Democrat Ned Lamont ran against Lieberman in the Connecticut Democratic Primary — and won. Democrats, honoring that state’s primary system, supported the Democrat elected by the voters, not Lieberman. So the Curmudgeon From Connecticut ran as an Independent and won in the general election. Lieberman apparently felt betrayed by the Democrats who selected him to be Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 Presidential Election.

Lieberman though hasn’t been the only voice heard in this debate. Former Vermont governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee Dr. Howard Dean, a recognized expert on health care, spoke up and said the Senate Democrats should kill the bill and fix it in reconciliation.
 Reconciliation allows both Houses of Congress to submit a bill without threat of filibuster, for budgetary reasons. The Republicans used the process three times in the Senate when they, along with President Bush (43), controlled the government.

Man! Did Dr. Dean get shit from his own party for speaking up, but he’s been the only national voice speaking for those of us on the Left who want actual health care reform. Howard Dean represents all progressives in this country and the leadership of the Democratic Party fears his influence.
 Senator John McCain on the other hand applauded Dr. Dean on the Senate floor — and then twisted the good doctor’s words by claiming Dean wanted to scrap the entire bill and start over. Man! No old man, that’s not what Howard Dean said, you fuckin’ liar.

The good doctor may hold they key to the next two elections for Democrats. It was Dr. Dean and his 2004 presidential campaign that showed us the power of the Internet to organize, not Barack Obama. The Obama campaign just did it better.

It isn’t all lost. The Senate vote isn’t the final word on the bill. It will then have to go to conference committee with the House of Representatives, led by one of my heroes, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. My guess is there will be some form of a public option when the bill exits that committee. There are more than 30 House Democrats who said they will not vote for a bill that doesn’t include a public option.

People are amazed when I tell them I prefer the V.A. health care system over the private, health insurance-controlled, for profit system most Americans are saddled with at the moment. The providers, doctors and nurses, don’t have to check with a health insurance bureaucrat to decide which procedures, medications and services I need and receive. Everyone in America should have access to that type of health care.

The bureaucracy of the V.A. is a whole different matter, a real can of worms. That needs a lot of work. Most, if not all, of V.A. employees are grossly over-worked. Adding just 25% more employees would go a long way in fixing the logjams many vets experience when dealing with the bureaucracy.

Still, the V.A. health care system is far better than what most Americans get from their private health care providers. At least in my experience. Actually, independent studies say the V.A. health care system is far better than the private health care industry. Vets who use the V.A. for their health care are 40% more likely to live longer than those enrolled in Medicare.

There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but right now the news media isn’t focused on it. The drama (and melodrama) of the moment takes precedence and right now it’s Senator Joe Lieberman against his own caucus or the White House against Dr. Howard Dean. In the end, both will be merely sideshows once the bill is passed. We can have some confidence our allies in the House of Representatives will correct this monstrous bill.

But the Senate Democrats and the president are still a bunch of pu … err … cowardly assholes.

Friday the 13th

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:01:00 -0700

It’s not like I’ve been ignoring the news. Not in the least. But, with having a J.O.B. again, I don’t get to watch the news channels as religiously as I once did when recovering from surgery and pneumonia. I miss Olbermann and Matthews especially and the occasional Hannity. He’s always good for a laugh.

Jon Stewart and The Daily Show caught Hannity in a BIG lie the other night. Hannity had used footage from one teabaggers event, Glenn Beck’s 9-12 thing, as if it had been shot during Michele Bachmann’s anti-health reform rally that too place two months later. Hannity used that 9-12 footage to inflate the numbers of Bachmann’s sparsely attended rally, which, according to Washington, D.C. police, was estimated to be about 4,000 people. Both Bachmann and Hannity claimed there were “20,000 to 45,000” people in attendance.

Nice lie, if you can get away with it, but he didn’t. So, Hannity issued an apology for the “inadvertent mistake.” There was no mistake! You want us to believe, Mr. Hannity, FoxNews doesn’t date and name the footage it shoots to make it easier to catalogue? That the producer who put together the video clips didn’t know he was using video from a different event?

You and your producers knew exactly what you were doing when you tried to use Glenn Beck’s 9-12 footage to make Bachmann’s rally look larger than it really was. You’re a liar Sean Hannity and you got caught. I remember when Dan Rather was forced from his job after airing a story about President Bush that used forged documents. You can bet Fox won’t be forcing Hannity to resign. Lying is part of their culture.

It’s been fun watching the little bit I have seen of the news. The crazy antics of the chief teabaggers at Fox and their racist, ignorant and illiterate followers. I’m still wondering how President Obama can be a socialist and a Nazi at the same time. Those two political philosophies are diametrically opposed to each other.

That lunacy has given bloggers everywhere funny stuff to write about these past four months.

The real reason I’ve refrained from writing about the news though is this: I’ve become completely disenchanted with the Democrats in Congress and the White House. They’ve caved in on the most important issues, not just to their core constituents, but issues important to most Americans — in particular the public option in the health care bill.

The president insisted on bipartisanship, long after it was clear the Republicans were not going to agree on anything put forth by the Democrats, that the Republicans were only interested in being the obstructionist party of “No.” That was clear the day after President Obama was sworn in.

That health care bill should have been on the president’s desk before August and it should have been signed into law before Congress took its summer recess. But no, the Democrats dragged their feet and let the Party of No gain a little momentum with outlandish lies about what was in the bill. That momentum has turned the “moderate” Democrats away from health care reform, especially those Democrats who come from districts and states that vote heavily for Republicans.

Now the Democrats in the House of Representatives put in the “Stupak Amendment” which bars health insurance companies that provide coverage for abortions from participating in the health insurance exchange. The claim, by Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI) and his supporters is that it puts the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funds from being used to pay for abortions, into the health reform bill.

As the health reform bill is written, federal money — taxpayer dollars — would not be used to subsidize the health insurance exchanges. That is paid for using money from health insurance premiums. What it means is, if health insurance companies want to participate in the exchanges then they have to drop coverage for abortions, which is a federally protected medical procedure.

Democrats have become a major disappointment.

The major differences between the Democrats and the Republicans: The Democrats have no party discipline and certainly no backbone. The Republicans do. They march in lockstep regardless of the consequences, even if they know what they are doing is wrong. Even Senator John McCain got in line and flip-flopped on issues just to win his party’s nomination in 2008. McCain’s no maverick, he’s just a tired old steer following the herd. He compromised his values at his earliest convenience to win that nomination.

Wish the Democrats would grow a spine and get a little party discipline. Shit-can Senator Joe Lieberman. He’s going to stab the Democrats in the back anyway. Democrats are the party of diversity, but now’s the time for that party to huddle up and become a team. The life and health of America depends on it.
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Today is Friday the 13th. I’m traveling up to Hell-A today for a little event on Saturday. Wonder if I should be worried. I’ll bring a four-leaf clover or something.

A Noble Award

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:01:00 -0600

This is a decision that makes me scratch my head: the Nobel Committee awarded President Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize. The president hasn’t accomplished much yet in the way of world peace. He gave a few great speeches, one in Berlin, Germany when he was running for president and other this year in Cairo, Egypt. But speeches shouldn’t be the standard for awarding what many consider the pre-imminent honor for worldwide public service.

The committee spokesperson said the award was for what the president will potentially do as president, to encourage the president to follow through on his promise of hope and peace in the world. That’s a laudable reason, but does it really meet the standard set with past recipients?

I’m behind the hope President Obama brings to America and the world, support his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East (and around the world) and an end to nuclear weapons, world hunger and global warming, but until he’s made significant advancements in any or all of these areas (and more), he doesn’t quite rate getting the honor.

It diminishes the president’s reputation. Giving the award to him now says that all it takes is a certain amount of star power to win, like a show business awards show.
 I’m half-expecting to see Bono charging the stage, grabbing the microphone and telling everyone President Sarkozy of France has done more to earn that honor. I’m still laughing about the “Kanye West Incident.”
 I’d give Sarkozy a prize just for marrying fashion model Carla Bruni! Yowza!

The president though, in an impromptu address this morning, said he didn’t feel he deserved to be in the same company of those who have already won, like President Jimmy Carter and the Dalai Lama.

That’s ironic. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is visiting Washington, D.C. right now and the president isn’t going to greet the man, the first sitting president not to meet with the leader of the Buddhist World. In the past, when China was more of an adversary than a rapacious creditor, inviting His Holiness to the White House was a way of sending a message to the leadership in Beijing — na-na-na-na-na-naaa!

Now, with so much on the line with China, economically most pressingly, the White House has decided the president ought not meet with the Dalai Lama. It’s the same as refusing to meet with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. A lot of Christians, Catholics in particular, might take offense to comparing the Dalai Lama to the Pope, but their stations in this world are the same. In fact, the Dalai Lama represents many more religious people than the Pope so maybe his station and influence in this world is far greater than the Holy Pontiff.
 For those who may not know, China invaded Tibet in 1950 and by 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama and his administration were forced into exile in India.

The president ought to forget about the Chinese and meet with the Dalai Lama. It’s the right thing to do.

Still, regardless of whether or not President Obama has earned the Nobel Prize for Peace, it is an honor for the United States and we ought to celebrate that much. President Obama is a beacon of new hope, or maybe the traditional hope, of America, the kind of optimism that makes our nation a place millions aspire to be a part of as they try to immigrate here. Can’t argue with that.
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On a sad not: my friend Ray — Gray Ray — is in a bad way in the hospital. His heart is finally giving out and, well, it doesn’t look good. He’s resting in the hospital so we’ll see. I’ve known Ray for nearly 15 years. He and his wife Patty are and will remain in my thoughts.

Unhealthy Debate

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:01:00 -0600

Just watched Keith Olbermann’s hour-long comment on the health care system. His father is going through a serious medical condition and the experience, for both Olbermann and his father, has been horrendous.

Anyone who has had to use their health insurance for serious medical issues has found out, the hard way, the limitations of their coverage. About 62% of Americans in bankruptcy are there because of medical and health issues. Health insurance doesn’t cover the entire medical cost and often enough, the insurance companies deny coverage for certain procedures or therapies. Usually the most expensive procedures and therapies and then a family is faced with, “Do we pay for it ourselves or just let [fill in the blank] die?”

What a choice.

For most, bankruptcy is the choice. Lose everything. Congressman Eric Cantor, at a town hall meeting, told a woman who had no health insurance and was suffering from stomach cancer she should sell all of her belongings to pay for her health care. And when that ran out she would be poor enough to qualify for some government program like Medicaid (she probably wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid) that doesn’t exist and if that didn’t bear any fruit, the woman could beg for charity. That’s the Republican health care plan.

The other part of the Republican “plan” for health care is to punish people who are overweight and smoke. I’m all for getting people to stop smoking and lose weight, but punish them with the health care system?

Then of course the Republicans want to go after lawyers. They want to limit or eliminate all together medical malpractice lawsuits. According to the Republicans this is the biggest reason health care costs are so high even though the facts are, lawsuits make up less than 1% of health care expenditures.

That one has nothing to do with health care and everything to do with trial lawyers overwhelmingly supporting Democrats on Election Day. The truth is, trying to sue the medical profession is difficult. My personal experience, after going to three different law firms after my last encounter with the private health care profession proved that.

None of the law firms would take my case despite them agreeing that the doctors and insurance company had done me wrong.

My story with the health insurance industry has been written about more than a couple times here, but I’ll hit the low points: In January 2005 I had my second hearth attack while at work. A co-worker drove me to the hospital — on his lunch break — to have it checked out.

The emergency room doctor ran a few tests, kept me there for most of the night and told me not to go to work the next day because I had a “cardiac episode.” He actually gave me a form indicating I take that day off.
 My employer, a major global telecommunications conglomerate, decided the doctor was referring to the day I had the heart attack, when I had worked all but two hours of my 10-hour work day and that was the impetus for them to terminate me.

He also instructed me to see my primary care physician for follow up treatments. So I did. That doctor never used the term heart attack, referring to it as a “cardiac episode,” and then referred me to a cardiologist. He ran some other tests including a tiring and painful stress test that required colored fluid in my cardio-vascular system.

Although the cardiologist didn’t call it a heart attack (he called it a “cardiac episode) he prescribed treatment for heart problems and the insurance company then denied the treatment. It was a cardiac episode, not a heart attack and therefore didn’t qualify for the treatment.

So, I struggled to live life as normal for about a month, got sick with the flu a couple months later and, because taking that day off work after the heart attack was “unauthorized,” was terminated because I used too many sick days in that quarter.

After losing my job and my health insurance, I went to the V.A. to see my primary care person, a nurse practioner, and the first thing she said, after viewing my records from the private health care doctors, “You had a heart attack in January.”

That was the first time someone had used that term to describe my “cardiac episode.” How did the nurse practioner know it was a heart attack? Everything the private doctors wrote about the event and prescribed after the “cardiac episode” was specifically for heart attacks.

The health insurance companies are in it for the money. Our health is the least of their concerns. Leaving our health care in their hands is a recipe for the destruction for the American middle class. Health insurance now costs the average American family nearly 25% of their income. That is expected to double in the next 15 years if nothing is done to reform health care in America.

We pay more per capita for health care than any other industrialized nation and the results don’t match that cost. We rank at the bottom of every measurable and important health category like life expectancy and infant mortality. And of course we have epidemics of obesity and Type II Diabetes. Health insurance companies already ration care, as they did with me and they have the ability to deny coverage to anyone for any reason.

Why are we even having a debate?

Nutty

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:01:00 -0600

Nutty ranting. We’ve seen it all over. A forum I like to frequent is peppered with it every day. Sometimes, you just want to stop visiting the sites that have the nutty ranting — unless you’re visiting the site specifically to read the nutty ranting.

This health care issue has been rife with nutty ranting. We’ve seen it on the newscasts, FoxNews actually promotes nutty ranting, and I’m not talking about Glenn Beck, although now that he comes to mind, yeah, Glenn Beck, among other nutty ranters.

My initial thought being the “events” staged by FoxNews as news — that entire tea bagging thing. Oh sure, there are insurance and pharmaceutical company lobbyists who pay to put the events on, but FoxNews publicizes them and then shows up to promote the events and even, as caught on camera, pumping up the crowd for the benefit of their cameras.

The poor producer. She was doing as told and unfortunately she was caught on camera encouraging the crowd when the cameras came on … and so FoxNews had to “reprimand” her publicly so as not to appear like they were helping to stage these so-called news events.

Anyway, it’s nutty ranting.

The latest nutty ranting though took place in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the one in the news since July, that is trying to construct a health care reform bill without a public option.
 This bears repeating: the public option the president and realistic wing of the Democratic Party are trying to put in place is the same health plan available to the senators and representatives who are opposed to the public option. Talk about hypocrisy.

So, in the committee, Senator Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, tried to insert an amendment adding a public option to the finance committee plan. It did not pass. In fact, it only got eight votes out of the possible 13 Democratic votes. The committee is made up of 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans.

Senator Chuck Schumer then introduced a different amendment with a slightly watered down version of Rockefeller’s amendment (it has to do with the rate of reimbursements) and the vote changed in favor of the option, but not enough to get it passed.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, agreed with Rockefeller and Schumer that a public option would save money, over $100 billion over a six year period according to the Congressional Budget Office, and that such an option would help insure the 40 million Americans who currently are not, but he voted against both amendments because, in his words, a bill with a public option would not get 60 votes in the Senate.

Note to Senator Baucus, a bill does not need 60 votes to pass in the Senate. It needs 60 votes to attain cloture in the Senate, thereby avoiding a filibuster, which the Republicans are going to try regardless of what the bill has in it. As a matter of fact, the finance committee bill now has billions in give aways to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries. What the companies really like about the bill are not only the give aways, but also the personal mandates that will force individuals to buy health insurance.

The give aways are for the insurance companies to take on these millions of new customers who cannot currently afford to buy insurance. Talk about feeding at the trough of government! Their billions spent on lobbying appear to have paid off handsomely.

But the real nutty ranting didn’t come from Senator Baucus, although believing one thing and then voting against it is pretty nutty, the real nuttiness came from the Republicans who spoke out against the public option. Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said the government-run program would amount to a single-payer system, which it clearly would not.

When Senator Rockefeller asked him how that could be, after pointing out there was no mandate for people to enroll in the program and that it would feature a variety of private health insurance plans to choose from, the lying senator from Iowa said that it would eventually lead to a single-payer system with “ray-tioning” and denial of services, citing two groups as references: the extremely conservative Heritage Foundation and the Lewin Group, owned by Ingenix, which itself is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.*

So, Senator Grassley’s talking points — and those of every other Republican politician opposing real health care reform — are coming directly from the health insurance industry. Chuck Grassley, it should be pointed out, is the same senator who told constituents that he would be voting against health care reform regardless of what was in the bill because he didn’t want to authorize the government to “pull the plug on Grandma.” Nutty.

Well, nutty ranting. What are you gonna do? The birthers are putting out new TV ads demanding the president produce a birth certificate, even though the president already did and the state of Hawaii officially validated it.

Eternally nutty ranter Brent Bozell accused the president of slapping the First Lady in the face when the president decided to fly to Copenhagen, Denmark to make a pitch for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Chicago, IL.

Other Republicans (including the ones who insist they are “conservatives”) said the one-day trip was a distraction for the president who should be focused on the War in Afghanistan and the health care debate, as if the president has forgotten these and other pressing issues. Nutty.

And then there are the kooks who are accusing the president of indoctrinating school children because some children are on YouTube singing a song about the president. These same kooks didn’t seem to mind when school children were singing songs about President Bush (43) and his efforts — such as they were — to help New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Nutty.

Nutty ranting. We seem to have a lot of it these days.

*As described on their Web Site.
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On a lighter note: today marks the 25th Anniversary of my first day as a sober individual. Sometime in the last five days of September 1984, I’m guessing September 28 since that was a Friday, payday, I had my last drink of alcohol and puff of Marijuana. Ooo-rah!

President Obama — Top Chef

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:01:00 -0600

Last week the president gave his speech before both houses of Congress and the American people. Well, the world actually. Unfortunately for me, I was at my job when it started and didn’t get home until the president — and the Republicans — concluded their remarks. Thanks though to CNN I was able to watch replays of both that night.

The president did what he needed to do: unite the Democratic Party. The Republicans did what they’ve been doing since they lost the election in November: cemented their position as the Party of No. And rude behavior.

Republican Congressman Jo Wilson — no relation to the other Joe Wilson — shouted out during the address, “You lie!” when the president said his health care plans did not include providing health care coverage to so-called illegal aliens.

Wilson very publicly apologized to the president, made sure everyone knew he apologized … and then on his website he went back on his apology and said he would not be muzzled. And all of his Republican colleagues are giving him cover.

The Republicans have no alternate plan to what Democrats are offering, although in the Senate Health Committee bill over 80 Republican amendments were added. But, no Republicans on that committee voted for the bill. Their marching orders: Just say “No.”

What the Republicans talk about, and Senator Cornyn of Texas (R) reiterated it on Meet the Press Sunday is, the Democrats are divided. Along with death panels, the “death book” for veterans that supposedly encourages veterans to end their lives — I received that booklet when I had my heart surgery and nowhere in it was I encouraged to kill myself (it gave me information about advanced directives, living wills) — the Democratic plan will outlaw private health care coverage depriving 120 million citizens of health care (it won’t, but the Congressional Budget Office predicts 11 million people would switch from their private plans to the “public option”) and a host of other lies that they know are lies … but they resonate well with the Republican base so they repeat them, looking for solid foundations to their 2010 mid-term election campaigns.

Oh, and why it was okay for Congressman Joe Wilson to call the president a liar during his address.

Lawrence O’Donnell was on Morning Joe today (MSNBC) and called out the Republicans for focusing on the lies and “theatrics” of the debate, missing some of the real issues in the House of Representatives Bill that includes a 35% surcharge on health care plans that cost more than $8,000 dollars a year. That could affect a lot of people in this country. Speaking as a dyed-in-the-wool Liberal who believes President Obama is too conservative, O’Donnell should have kept his trap shut on that one.

But, I like Lawrence O’Donnell. He’s one of the few voices in the health care debate who can clearly, succinctly, speak to the issues of the various health care bills, both good and bad, precisely because he’s such a policy nerd, he’s read all the bills that have been proposed so far! That’s like — and I’m guessing here — 6,000 pages of intensely mind-numbing verbosity laden with nomenclature, statistics and numbers beyond the comprehension of most representatives and senators from either party.

Back in the day he was a staffer on the Senate Finance Committee when the Clintons tried to push through their health care plan. It was his job to do all the reading for the members of that committee. Talk about being bookish, but we need people like him. I mean really, who else would read all that! Most Americans these days don’t even read their e-mails, let alone books and bills in Congress!
 Okay, I know a few people who read graphic novels. They’re always ready to point out the glaring errors in the recent “Dark Knight” movies that are based on the Batman graphic novels.
 He’s Batman! Well, he was Batman. Now he’s the Dark Knight. And Batman. Talk about a policy shift. Or character shift.

Dick Armey got a portion of the Republican Base, about 12% of the American population, to show up in Washington, D.C. for a march on Washington. Well, a march against President Obama more precisely. Here’s the funny thing about these people. In one sentence they say the president is the most left-wing socialist president we’ve ever had, which is wrong; that title still belongs to our 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. And then in the next sentence they compare the president to Adolph Hitler, the best-known fascist in world history. How do you do that without your head exploding?

With considerable ignorance and a certain amount of illiteracy we can imagine. Fascism and Socialism are diametrically opposing political philosophies. The president can be one or the other — he can either emulate Franklin Roosevelt or Adolph Hitler, but he can’t be the incarnation of both. Not at the same time and last I checked President Obama isn’t suffering from a split personality disorder. But I don’t know the president well enough to determine that.
 The Republican anti-Obama march on Washington begs the question: they supposedly were protesting economic policies they claim will put the U.S. trillions of dollars in debt. If that’s truly the case (and I doubt it is), why didn’t they march on Washington when President Bush and his Republican allies who controlled government introduced fiscal policies that erased a budget surplus and created a debt of over one trillion dollars? It isn’t about the debt, it’s about a Democrat — a Black man — in the Oval Office.

Do you ever wonder if well-known personalities like the president hear “voices” in their heads? Everyone I know hears those voices, telling us to be good or satisfy our personal desires, like masturbating to pictures of Padma Lakshmi is good and bad (we all seem to have competing voices) not that I have ever done that. She’s one of the hosts of the Bravo program, Top Chef.

She’s actually posed for many a photo sans clothing. Her main claim to fame, before Top Chef, was being the wife of author Salman Rushdie. At least that’s what I knew about her before Top Chef.

But I digress. It isn’t really voices we hear in our heads, it’s our thoughts. We have competing ideas on how to live, what to do, and who to do it to, or with. We make decisions based on our intellectual knowledge and instinctual desires and most often it’s those two sides of our humanity that clash in our thoughts.

People like the president can compartmentalize their thoughts. People like me, and you know who you are, we just let our thoughts mingle in a mob of unruly insanity, pulling us every which way but forward. It’s why many of us find it hard to get anything accomplished.

Anyway, I’m done. Gotta be to work in about seven hours and it’s time to sleep … after I check out some photos I found of Padma Lakshmi — just for educational purposes.

To Remember

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:01:00 -0600

There’s really not much we can say. Nearly three thousand people of all nationalities, all ethnicities, all political beliefs and all religions — including Islam — were murdered in New York City, the Pentagon and a quiet field in Pennsylvania, by terrorists.
We will remember forever.

Idiots and Hypocrites

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:01:00 -0600

The Labor Day weekend is upon us. My lovely sister Elaine had her 30th birthday (again) two days ago (love you Lainey!) and I — regrettably — found myself back in the work force. Not so regrettable actually. It’s a simple job that will fund the simple pleasures and necessary requirements one needs in this complicated, free market economy we call home. You can bet I’m going to the beach at least once!

The August Recess for Congress will be over as of Tuesday, September 8 and the president will give his big bi-cameral address to the combined Congress the following day — coincidentally my first day of work.

But on Tuesday the real controversy occurs. The president is going to speak to school children, via C-Span, to encourage them to stay in school, do their homework and not skip out of classes. And there are Republicans who think that will be subversive. These idiots insist the president will try to indoctrinate the kids into a Socialist ideology and make them … what? Little Communists? You gotta be shittin’ me!

No, these imbeciles are not shitting us.

One of the board members of the Grossmont School District here in San Diego insists the president is trying to indoctrinate kids. “You know we try to protect kids from outside speakers coming in to politicize the classroom and anyone else would not have been allowed to do that.”

What a moron … and he’s a member of a school board? It just so happens that President George H.W. Bush (41) gave a similar speech to students 18 years ago. No one objected then, certainly no one on the right. And let’s not forget then First Lady Nancy Reagan going on TV to encourage children to “Just say no!” in her anti-drug campaign. She received some ridicule for such a simplistic message (it takes a little more than just saying “no”), but no one tried to stop the First Lady from speaking to kids.

For the idiots opposed to the president giving his speech to the kids, it’s all about the lesson plan suggested by the Department of Education, a lesson plan that has already been pulled from the Internet. It suggested ideas teachers could use to incorporate what the president said into what they were teaching their kids about the value of education.

When pressed on their opposition to the president giving a positive speech to kids on education, the idiots accuse the journalists questioning them of being “in the tank” for Barack Obama. It was a tactic used by Mike Leahy of the National Tea Party Coalition when he was being questioned by David Shuster of MSNBC.

The only reasons these idiots oppose President Obama speaking to school kids are simple enough: A) he is a Democrat so therefore he must be a Socialist too, and B) He’s Back. Of course they deny the second point. Parents who keep their kids from seeing the president ought to be investigated for child endangerment because they certainly don’t have their children’s welfare in mind, just their political views.

On the other hand, conservatives have a long history of being opposed to education.
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Here’s an interesting bit of hypocrisy: the Republicans are not only against universal health care, they are against a public plan, modeled after the one federal employees get to choose from that is largely funded by the government. That plan doesn’t exclude the insurance carriers. On the contrary, it allows federal employees to choose a plan from many different health insurance companies.

And this is the same plan the members of Congress get to use — and boy do they use it! And unlike their fellow federal employees, members of Congress don’t pay a penny for any of it. You think that’s a sweet deal? Well, here’s where the Republicans get really hypocritical. Members of Congress can also used the medical facilities provided by the military, like Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Senators Mitch McConnell and John McCain had major surgery at Bethesda, one of the best — if the not the best — medical facilities in the nation. As did Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt.

Now, it is true military retirees can use military medical facilities. I have a lot of friends here in San Diego who retired from the military and they use Balboa Naval Hospital for their health care. John McCain is a military retiree so he would have access to Bethesda Naval Hospital, but Roy Blunt served only two years in the Army and Mitch McConnell, well, like President Clinton, who Republicans are fond of calling a draft dodger, and former Vice President Dick Cheney, Senator McConnell used every available deferment to avoid serving in the military during Vietnam. So, neither one of them would have access to military medical facilities if they weren’t members of Congress.

The next time any Republican, but especially these three, say they are against the “public option,” ask them of they are willing to give up their public option plan and all the perks that go with it, like the free cost and the choice to have surgery performed at Bethesda Naval Hospital. My guess is they would dodge the question, as any good hypocrite would do.

And if they are truly against single-payer, government health care, ask them if they are ready and willing to put forth bills to end Medicare, the policy first started by President Harry S. Truman in 1948 and finally signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. Like any good hypocrite, they will dodge that one too, which they’ve been doing since the health care issue came to the fore with President Obama.

Ask them why we as U.S. citizens can’t have the same health care advantages they enjoy with their sweet deal. That’s the question I want asked and answered, Wish one of the newsies would ask them.

Secession, Fires and Dirty Dancing!

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:01:00 -0600

Well, my week vacation is over. It wasn’t really a vacation. I was doodling away time with things that were either meaningless or immoral or both. I really like the immoral! Actually went to the beach a couple times and even went in the water! Pneumonia be damned! Well, it was mostly cured, but it felt great to have the the Pacific Ocean wash over me, if only for a few minutes.

So, I’m back, just in time too because Texans are about to secede from the Union! Really! There was a rally on the steps of the state capital in Austin, TX demanding Governor Perry follow through on his threat from two months ago to have Texas secede from the United States. One of the yellers screamed into the microphone, “See the flag above the Texas flag? That’s the United States flag! I hate the United States! We hate the United States!”

One woman, Deborah Medina, also a candidate for governor (or president) of Texas, said “they” were ready for a “bloody war,” paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson — which has an irony all its own — with “the tree of freedom sometimes must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” Oh jeez … the blood of tyrants and patriots again. Like the guy who showed up at the president’s town hall meeting in New Hampshire with a sign expressing that same sentiment … and wearing a handgun on his thigh. The threat was implicit, but the man, William Kostric, tried to weasel out of admitting he was threatening bloody confrontation when he appeared on Hardball With Chris Matthews.

These people, the Texas Nationalist Movement, really want to secede from the United States. Can you imagine how nice the U.S. would be without Texas? Aw man, we can dream! Move the Johnson Space Center from Houston to ... err … San Diego. I’d like to get a job with NASA! There are quite a few military installation in Texas, Fort Bliss by El Paso and Naval Air Station Corpus Christi comes to mind, as do Lackland and Randolf Air Force bases, not to mention all the military hardware — owned by the U.S. government and operated by the Texas National Guard and Air National Guard — take that all away from Texas.

Thanks to former Speaker of the House Tom Delay, Former President George Bush — and the entire Texas Delegation in Congress — Texas receives more money per capita on its tax dollars than any other state in the Union. So, let Texas secede! They can keep all those federal tax dollars they send to Washington, but they won’t get back the dividend those tax dollars produced.

Now, that’s not likely to happen since only a third of the state’s population supports secession … but think about that! The population of Texas is just over 24 million, which means roughly eight million people support Texas leaving the United States. Eight million! Certainly not a majority, but really a lot of people.

More than likely, the Texans for secession would be in a bloody war with the Texans, Democrat and Republican alike, who are against secession. I’m betting blood will flow before this issue is decided. Texas is one of those states that allow its citizens to carry weapons, concealed and otherwise. It’s the will of the people.

I’ve sent an e-mail to my sister, who lives just outside of Houston, asking her about seceding from the Union. She’s a Republican and hates President Obama — or at least his policies — but I gotta wonder if she supports leaving the U.S.

Still, the idea of the United States without Texas sounds so good. No more Dallas Cowboys!
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It’s fire season in California again. Fires all over the state, but the biggest, most publicized, fire is in Los Angeles County (mostly) and is now threatening high population areas. In other words, it’s threatening Los Angeles itself.

Two years ago in this area of San Diego, fires threatened residents. Many of the residents in Scripps Ranch were evacuated and many of the evacuees lost their homes.

Six years ago my brother Carl and I lived in a community called Sabre Springs and we almost had to evacuate due to the 2003 Cedars Fire, the largest in California’s history. About 2,500 homes were burned in that fire. Some of my friends were affected by it and still remember with some fear what we went through. When the fire season starts, those same fears well up.

Los Angeles burning is a reminder it can happen here as well. It will probably happen here as well this year. It has been especially dry, both the brush and the air. Humidity has dropped to single digits as the temperature has risen to triple digits.

California has been in a drought for years and we’ve instituted mandatory water rationing. What we really need are some torrential rains, or at least a steady rain for a day or two, but that’s not likely to happen at this time of year.

Thankfully the Santa Ana Winds aren’t blowing otherwise that L.A. fire would have been far worse than it is now.
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And on a lighter note: many times a day there’s been a commercial for the Sandals Resort chain featuring a familiar song, but I could never put my finger on where it came from or who was performing it. No, it isn’t the Sandals title song for the Bruce Brown film Endless Summer, although that’s a pretty cool song.

The song I’ve been bombarded with whenever the Sandals commercials come on is of more recent vintage, but, as it turns out, still over 20 years old. Yes, I’m speaking of the Dirty Dancing song, “Time of My Life,” sung by Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers and Jennifer Warnes. You remember Dirty Dancing, the film that made Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey stars.
 Let’s not forget the legendary (and late) Jerry Orbach as the disapproving dad.

Man! Loved that movie just to watch Jennifer Grey! “But she was underage,” you say! No, not really. When she made Dirty Dancing Jennifer Grey was 26. She just played a teenage girl. She was also in one of my favorite movies of all time, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, playing the 16 year old sister of Ferris, the most beloved son of their Chicago suburb. Grey was 25 when she made that movie. She had that look of being much younger than her actual age, a real benefit in the 1980’s when teen angst movies had their golden age.

Anyway, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes aren’t performing the version in the commercial, that much is evident. Still, it’s a song I can’t get out of my head and now watching a YouTube Video of Swayze and Grey dancing to it … I can’t get Jennifer Grey out of my head. Dirty indeed!

He Cared for Justice

nospam@example.com (Tim Forkes) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:01:00 -0600

It’s the end of an era. Ted Kennedy, the last of the four brothers, has died. Some 16 months ago he was diagnosed with cancer, a brain tumor, and Tuesday evening the greatest public servant, certainly of my lifetime and quite possibly in the last 75 years, succumbed to the disease. It was inevitable.

Death is always inevitable. As the saying goes, no one gets out of life alive, but there are some figures in our lives, be they family members, friends, musicians, artists or politicians, who played a part in forming our personal philosophies and gave direction to our lives so we feel a greater loss when they are gone.

Parents are always the first to influence our lives, for good and ill. Both of mine were decent people and like Edward M. Kennedy, they had their flaws. Our dad, for instance, didn’t seem to believe in higher education, at least not for his kids. For Dad, his boy getting in the trades as he did was the answer. College was for others, like the Kennedys for instance. For my sisters, hard to say what Dad had in mind for them, although I’ll go out on a limb and say marriage and becoming baby machines.

My sisters and brothers all have wonderful children, but only one, my youngest brother, has more than two so it can be said with some pride my sisters didn’t quite live up to Dad’s … err … 19th Century sensibilities.

Our mother on the other hand was almost a polar opposite to Dad. She certainly encouraged me to higher education and to go after the arts. Not so Dad. And as much as Mom would curse her eight children with, “I hope you have ten children just like yourself!” she, quietly almost, counseled us to have fewer children if we have any at all.

Mom had her flaws, probably most significantly her bitterness, always evident in private conversation. She was angry with family members, had icy words for friends of the family. It was a bitterness born from an early life filled with hardship and tragedy. You can say, “Who can blame her?”

But such strong personality traits drip off the parents and on to the children, sometimes in a slow, corrosive stream, sometimes quickly, washing over leaving little noticeable effect.

They Kennedy Family were a counterweight to some of those traits. The four Kennedy Brothers, Joe, Jr., John, Robert and Edward, all went to Harvard. Edward — Teddy — twice. After getting expelled for cheating, Teddy Kennedy joined the Army, much to his parents’ horror. There was a war going on in Korea and the Kennedy family had already lost one son and a second son severely injured in World War II.

Joe Kennedy, Sr., once an advisor in the Roosevelt Administration, and the father of four boys, pulled some strings and his youngest son spent his two years in the Army serving in Europe.

Years ago, when a Marine and our nation was pulling out of Vietnam, I told Dad in a phone call that I was going to volunteer to go to Vietnam to be a part of the pull out. Mysteriously, three or four days later I was doing “KP Duty,” assigned to work in the mess hall for 30 days.

Our mother at the time was a bigwig in Milwaukee’s Democratic Party. She knew politicians like powerful Congressman Clem Zablocki and even more powerful Senator William Proxmire on a first name basis. Did she make a few calls and change my plans? Don’t know. It never occurred to me until long after she had passed away. So, if Joe Kennedy, Sr. made a few phone calls and kept his son out of Korea, well, good for him.

When John F. Kennedy became president, his youngest brother Teddy filled his seat in the United States Senate a year later, where he served our nation until the end of his life.

He had his detractors of course. Until President Clinton came along (and now President Obama), Ted Kennedy was the favorite punching bag of the Republican Party. They always bring up Chappaquiddick and the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and how that defines not only Ted Kennedy’s alleged immoral life, but also the perceived immorality of liberals in general.

They used his good name to raise money for their campaigns, which really is a compliment when you think about it. Kennedy’s effectiveness as a Senator was so over-powering he became the face of the Democratic Party.

Ted Kennedy was a liberal’s liberal. He was proud of the title and, unlike many of his Democratic colleagues, wasn’t ashamed of the title. When the American Civil Liberties Union ticked him off, Ted Kennedy said, “The ACLU thinks that it defines liberalism in the country. I define liberalism in this country.” You go Ted!

When people accused him and his family getting into politics for financial gain, he replied, “The Kennedys are not in government to make money. We’ve paid too high a price.”

Ted Kennedy was in public service for a simple ideal, first put into words by his older brother, Robert Kennedy. Simply put: to whom much is given, much is required. The Kennedy wealth will remain legendary, but their call to public service will be their legacy, most especially for the Lion of the Senate.
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Here’s an e-mail letter received from President Obama.
He says it better than I did.
Michelle and I were heartbroken to learn this morning of the death of our dear friend, Senator Ted Kennedy. For nearly five decades, virtually every major piece of legislation to advance the civil rights, health and economic well-being of the American people bore his name and resulted from his efforts. His ideas and ideals are stamped on scores of laws and reflected in millions of lives -- in seniors who know new dignity; in families that know new opportunity; in children who know education's promise; and in all who can pursue their dream in an America that is more equal and more just, including me. In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle. His seriousness of purpose was perpetually matched by humility, warmth and good cheer. He battled passionately on the Senate floor for the causes that he held dear, and yet still maintained warm friendships across party lines. And that's one reason he became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy. I personally valued his wise counsel in the Senate, where, regardless of the swirl of events, he always had time for a new colleague. I cherished his confidence and momentous support in my race for the Presidency. And even as he waged a valiant struggle with a mortal illness, I've benefited as President from his encouragement and wisdom. His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we've all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives. For America, he was a defender of a dream. For his family, he was a guardian. Our hearts and prayers go out to them today -- to his wonderful wife, Vicki, his children Ted Jr., Patrick and Kara, his grandchildren and his extended family. Today, our country mourns. We say goodbye to a friend and a true leader who challenged us all to live out our noblest values. And we give thanks for his memory, which inspires us still. Sincerely, President Barack Obama