Bravo!

The God of the Old Testement

Click here and go read Michelle Backmann's statements about Hurricane Irene.  That's a pretty petty God if he's willing to kill people and cause that much damage just to tell the rest of us to stop spending.  Maybe he could have just sent a Western Union.

Timeline of the Deficit

Go here to see more about the government and the deficit.

Need a Vacation? Work for Congress

Have you heard the news that Congress has taken off their annual August vacation while leaving work behind that could mean close to a hundred thousand people may not have work till they, and by they I mean Congress, go back to work in September.

This got me thinking about how many days a year Congress takes off.  Not hard to look up.  Last year they were off 23 1/2 weeks.  Now there's only 52 weeks in a year if I remember correctly.  That means they worked 28.5 weeks out of the year.  Well, at least they worked over half the year.  Of course, not by much.  And of course they'll tell you that they don't take all that time off.  They're back home, working the home people, raising money to run, the usual etc and etc.  I don't know about you, but if I wanted to raise money my boss isn't going to let me take time off to go do it.

Last time I looked I worked 49 weeks out of the year.  I got three weeks vacation.  And I don't want to hear how many hours Congress put in recently with the dept ceiling fiasco.  Fifty hours or more weeks are normal for me.  And I bet to a lot of people.  You work what is needed to get the job done.  Not Congress.  They get the big in the news thing done....finally, but take off before they finish everything they should.

And how much money do we pay our esteemed representatives?  The average salary for a rank and file Congressman or woman is $174,000.  Now I don't know about you, but that's a bit more than I bring home in a year.  And they get an annual cost of living raise, automatically.  But they'll stop other jobs from getting a cost of living increase.  My Mom barely makes ends meet on Social Security and guess what?  The last two years she hasn't gotten any cost of living increases.  And I can promise you, her annual income is a lot less than $174,000 a year.

So looking at this I have to ask, who's the sucker here?   The men and women working for us have a pretty sweet deal, while we work our asses off and most of us don't come close to making what they make or getting off the amount of time they do.

(And one of the reasons Congress gets the time off they do is because in the beginning they needed the time to go home and work their farms.  And because before air conditioning Washington DC was brutal in the summer.  But guess what?  How many members of Congress take time off to go home and work the farm?)

But it's not going to stop.  Until we as a people tell Congress that we're tired of them being part time representatives.  I want someone representing me in the Nation's Capital full time.  And everytime they don't vote for a cost of living raise for social security they need to take a pay cut.  Let them try and live on what they want to slash even more so now.

It's just a shame is all.

We Have To Pay Taxes...

....but evidently if you make enough money you don't have to pay any taxes.  Exxon Mobil, which keeps raising our gas prices, paid no taxes even though they made a profit of over 19 billion and they got a refund.  Go read about other companies that make a fortune in profit and pay no taxes here.  Something is seriously out of whack with our government in this case.

I Can't Believe It

Just when I think people can't be any dumber I read something like this.

More on Teachers

Teachers

How important are teachers?  If you think about it we entrust our future to teachers but we treat them like crap and pay they so little.  This video is one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen.

Good Guys?

I have been and still am a big fan of the current President.  There are so many things he has done right and continues to strive to do right.  There are some things I disagree with.  But this is so wrong, so unlike anything I would have imagined he would have consented to.   And he has to know what's going on.  Yet he does nothing. If there's one thing I know, we here in the U.S. of A. are supposed to be the good guys and I know sometimes you have to do things you don't like to fight the bad guys, but there has to be a line that you don't cross.  Or you're no longer one of the good guys.  Being on the side of good has to mean something.

Shame on you, Mr. President.

Salaries

Ok, I seem to be on a roll with linking.  Go read this.  Now as far as I'm concerned the people that should be making the most money are teachers, police officers and fire fighters.  And sadly they seem to some of the lowest paid jobs.

Men and Abortion

Go read this article, I think it makes a lot of good points.   I was driving somewhere the other day and I noticed the license plate in front of me was Pro-Life.  It made me wonder if there is a similar license plate for Pro-Choice people.  I think I know the answer to that.  Pro Choice doesn't mean you think abortion is always the right decision, it just means that at least there is a choice.

No Cost of Living Raise

My Mom lives on Social Security.  Since my Dad died this is her only source of income.  She doesn't make much, I really don't see how she makes enough to survive, but she somehow does.  For the last two years the government has failed to give seniors a cost of living increase for social security.  How can they claim that the cost of living hasn't went up?  Just check gas prices.

They were going to at least give them a one time $250.00 payment to make up for no yearly increase.  Well go read here and you can see how that turned out.   I really think the men and women that run our government are so far removed from the lives of the rest of us it's dangerous.

How Much Do You Know?

Take this poll here and see how much you know about the world today.  This is a survey that the PEW Research Center did and the majority of Americans answering failed.  I did 9 out of 12 which put me above 86% of the people taking the survey.  Two of the three answers I missed I had doubts of my answer and if I had went with my other thought would have gotten right.   The third I just didn't know.  Take it and see how you do.

I Want My Country Back

Go read this.

The Senator and the Madame

For more information about this whole episode check out this page and the book about the DC Madame.  I really don't have a problem with David Vitter visiting prostitutes, but if he's going to run on a family value ticket and be holier than thou about others than I have a problem with that.  And the worst part about this whole thing is that he'll probably be re-elected.

More on Glen Beck

For a different perspective on the Glen Beck rally from this past weekend go here and read.

Restoring Honor

Sometimes I'm really surprised by what Americans want to believe.  It seems we as a nation want to promote stupidity and hate.  I don't think everyone should agree with me, but at least listen to what these people say.  And ask yourselves how you can follow them.  Glen Beck had his "Restoring Honor" rally at the Lincoln Memorial today.  One of his speakers was a preacher that had this to say about Hurricane Katrina right after the storm struck:

"the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans" because the city hosted a gay pride parade" 

How can anyone hate that much?   For more about the rally go here.

A Little Something About the Oil Spill

A very informative article about the oil spill here.  It's strange how all the politicians that were crying for offshore drilling are being extra silent right about now.  We've only begun to see the effects of this oil spill.  Environmentally it's going to be one of the worst disasters we've ever seen, but economically it's going to be just as bad.  The ripple effects from this is going to devastate the gulf coast and Louisiana.

Drill Baby Drill

How's that working now?

Two Scary Words - President Palin

I admit that I find the words President Palin to be just about the two scariest words I can think of.  She is saying that running is on her mind.  Fred Kaplan from Slate explains why those two words should be scary.

Let's be clear on why those words should terrify anyone with a thinking brain. Palin is someone who has clearly never seriously thought through any issue of national importance on her own. She's excellent at reciting a raucous speech, but she can't improvise a coherent sentence, which usually reflects an inability to form a coherent idea. (At Nashville, she even had to scribble her five-word legislative agenda on her palm, andglanced down at it during the Q&A.) She is deluded enough to believe (or at least to saySunday morning on Fox News) that her brief, aborted stint as Alaska's governor gave her more executive experience than President Obama has even now. She believes that the country should elect leaders, including presumably herself, who seek solutions in "divine intervention."