A Little venting today.. allowed every Once in Awhile

Uggh.. what a day. Nothing happened really, but I suppose that is why it's been an uggh day. .. Because nothing happened..and I'm waiting for something to happen.

I'm waiting for the ex to do something with the papers he received. Either he's going to agree to the very reasonable terms, get an attorney to tell him how lucky he is I'm not going for more (because I so could), or refuse to sign all together and take it to a judge. Question is, how long do I wait for him to sign the thing or not sign the thing? He could drag it on forever and my attorney didn't quite put a time limit on it. Which reminds me, need to call him tomorrow. I want to be done with this already.

Which brings me to my other thoughts on my mind today. My phone was not ringing which was disappointing. Applied for what looks like a really cool job in the Valley last week and right up my alley. It would make going to a full-time-work-for-someone-else job totally worth it, at least according to it's job description and location (my favorite local mall) It's right along the lines of what I'm going to school for.

And yeah me.. straight A's in school...but no school work this week because Fall quarter doesn't start till October 4th. That just leaves me feeling like I won't be making any progress for three weeks.

Politics are on my mind too. Finally watched Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" yesterday. All that I felt, he pretty much expressed in that film. What I don't get is how the rest of the country is so unaware that they are being bought , paid for and manipulated by the wealthy few that control this nation. We are for the big Corps (and Wall Street) by the Big Corps and Wall Street. It amazes me how anyone that votes Republican doesn't see that they are voting against their own best interest. Hello America , we are the 97% yet you vote in the economic best interest of the 1% of the nation. Umm..unless you plan on being some Wall Street goon like those guys or a famous actor /actress or Sports star (and those guys are mostly Democrats anyway! right on!) you will never be in that 1%. Stop kidding yourself and stop kissing rich CEO goons asses by voting for Republicans that want to give THEM .. the ones that need it the LEAST.. the tax breaks. Uggh.. wish there were emoticons on this thing..I'd put a big head slapping one right here! And now, the GOP is being hijacked by the Tea Party. Hey, some of their gripes I get.. but where they lose me is that they seem to worship Glen Beck (uggh puke) , Rush Limbaugh (puke some more) and Sarah Palin (just shoot me). Some of their notions are good.. yes the government needs to stop spending so much money cause they do on a lot of crap.. like bailing out rich people! But, they are wrong on other things.. like that Obama is Hitler or that we need to do away with Health Care Reform. Yes, we should stop cow towing to Wall Street, but no we (meaning the government) need to step in and take care of our own people in regards to health care and the screwed system we live in. And, the people that are speaking to news cameras at your rallies are not helping your cause any.

Yes, the economy is in the toilet. But hey America it took 8 years of shitty Bush and Republican control and maneuvering to get us in this mess.. you can't expect Obama to turn it around with a snap of his fingers. The thought that we can once again shift control of the House and Senate to the obstructionist party of Republicans just makes me want to puke (and since I've done a lot of that up top here I think I'll need a new bucket..LOL). Anyway.. that is what is on my mind at 11:39pm this night.

Now.. I'm going to watch Rizzoli and Isles and then I'm off to bed. For tomorrow I have another day of watching my phone waiting for it to ring.. oh it will ring, but it will most likely be a bill collector seeing as in the divorce I'm left holding the bag of all the ex's shitty decisions and am forced into bankruptcy.. LOL.. If only the caller on the other end was that job I applied for (or any of the other 15 or so applications I sent in).

Hey.. I'm an overall positive person.. just sometimes I need to vent. Tonight was one of those times.

Ah.. and please don't take offense to what I've posted here.. just venting.. I suppose some of my statements may seem blanket, and there may be exceptions to some of those that I blanket in with it..if you know what I mean. Ah , heck.. it's late and I'm talking gibberish.. LOL

Am I Missing Something, Because I just Don't Understand It

Was at the local chamber of Commerce Christmas party this past week and ended up getting into somewhat of a political discussion with some people that I know. I serve on a local board with them (not for profit). I do like them, so I try to avoid political discussion as much as I possibly can.

One of the gentleman in particular and his wife are former hippies. So, I get the whole "government is bad" thing that they feel. After all, anti-government was at the heart of the hippie movement. I thought that "anti establishment" was too; ie: anti Corporatism. This particular person leans more toward the entire free market, small government movement. I'd say that he is probably a libertarian, but I think ultimately he's a Republican. Again, I like him and so I try to avoid conversations about it. I could tell his wife was too, but apparently I said something that made her blurt out "But he is a liar" when I was talking about our President. I like her too, so I just ignored it and let it roll off my back. That is really hard for me to do on subjects that I feel very passionate about. It's not so much that I feel passionate about Obama, but more that I'm so fed up with the bullshit, particularly from the Republican and conservative camps.

But here is what I don't understand. I can't remember exactly how the conversation went (it's been a few days) If I am remembering correctly I was trying to explain how, at one point, I was an independent listening to all political parties and what they had to say and explaining how and why the Republican party has lost my ear, probably forever. I was explaining how, socially, I always tend to lean left anyway and brought up the example of gay marriage and said something to the affect that I don't understand how or why gay marriage is such a hotbed issue. They should be able to be who they are etc. At this point one of the gentleman at the table (not the one I mention above) turns and says, "well yeah, that's what the Nazi's and Hitler thought too?"

What? Oh great. I found out this guy was one of those people I think are absolutely ridiculous comparing Obama to Hitler. He told me I dont' get it now, but I'll get the parallel.

Parallel? What parrallel? Um. Newsflash people. Hitler believed in a "pure race".. ie" a race where we are all the same. In this case he was referring to the "German" or "anglo saxon" race and in particular he did not like Jews. So much so that he exterminated them like bugs! So how, exactly, does that parallel with allowing people to be who they are, what they are and treated equally?

Oh man. I just don't get it. So, because Obama made it his mission of his administration to a) make sure that every American has access to health care b) Banks and Wall Street are regulated so that they don't screw the economy as they have and that we once again build up the middle class rather than allowing big business to squash them as they have, he's a Nazi?

What these men do not get (and the one lady) is that the pendulum has swung too far to the one side. Big Business is no better than the Big Government that they fear. In my opinion, big business is far more dangerous. Big business is KILLING the middle class in this country. The Republicans hide behind their mantra of "protecting the small business owner". It's complete and total bullshit! Small Businesses do not make enough income to benefit for the tax cuts that Bush gave out during his presidency to the wealthy. No small businesses were bailed out when Wall Street tanked. Small businesses do not have CEO's that make obscene amounts of money.

By the way, trickle down is complete farce. With all those tax cuts that they did get, did any of it "trickle" down? Hell no. Instead more jobs went overseas and the middle income workers salary has remained stagnant while the upper echelon have awarded themselves the benefits of more money from the tax cuts. Just look at the difference between pay of the executives at companies and it's regular employees.

They lived at a time when government was the big bad ugly machine they had to fight. However, we are now living in an age where Wall Street is the big bad and ugly monster that we have to fight against. I don't trust politicians either. I don't trust Republicans the most, but I don't entirely trust Democrats either. After all, they take money from the enemy and screw the people just as much as the Republicans do (like on the financial regulation bill that came out, with the weakened consumer protections). It just so happens that they did not do that as much in regards to the health care issue.

I'm grateful that Obama has unsurped some power from the lobbyists by eliminating them from certain positions within the government. It's about damned time. Now if the House and Senate would just follow suite!

And, all the talk about the "czars" that Obama is naming. As John Daly pointed out (love that show) the loud mouths bitching about it didn't have a problem with the "Czars" that Bush was appointing. Czars are NOT new and I believe was created under the Bush administration. Actually here is the clip. It's funny, enjoy!

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But, if any of you readers out there can explain how the line about allowing people to be who they are (and ultimately enjoy the same rights irregardless) equates to Hitler and Nazi like actions, please, I'd love to hear how you can draw that conclusion or parallel!

Oh. .and these same two guys wanted to also draw similarities between WWII and Afghanistan (making quips about informing the enemy of the date we'd leave in WWII and how well that would have gone over). I don't think they get the difference. It's so very obvious to me. This war we are in is NOT a war in the traditional sense. Our mission in Afghanistan, at this point, is to help the new government defend itself against the enemy we unsurped! Having a target date and time frame on accomplishing that is extremely important and if we do the job right, irreglardless of when we start to pull out our troops, the Afghan government will be able to keep fending off the Taliban. Whether we are there or not will not make the difference. Nor should we be there forever. Would they prefer that we continue to ignore our domestic issues and pour money into staying in Afghanistan for an undetermined period of time? Funny that the same group that complains about government spending is so willing to spend so much money on fighting a war on the other side of the world. Or, would they prefer we just leave now and allow the Taliban to overpower the Afghan government yet again putting us right back in the position we were in on 9/10/01? That would have erased everything we have accomplished to date.

I did also mention that , for all the hub bub about obama's spending, it pales in comparison to Bush. I didn't have the article on hand, but here it is http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/10/obama-grappling-with-fall_n_387121.html.

A forthcoming study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities concludes that the $1.4 trillion annual deficit run by the government has little to do with current White House policies and much to do with George W. Bush's actions.

When you take those things into account -- in other words, if we hadn't enacted the tax cuts, had the wars, if we hadn't had the recession and needed the legislation to deal with those problems -- the deficits are much, much lower. And basically none of those represent Obama's policies. He didn't run saying he wanted to pass a stimulus to deal with the recession or that he wanted to continue the war in Iraq or escalate [to this extent] in Afghanistan. He inherited these issues once he took office."

So there it is folks. The deficit is NOT Obama's fault. Rather it is the fault of the previous administration. This recession ocurred during the REPUBLICAN Parties rein and control over the office of the President, the House and the Senate.

That being said, no party is perfect. One just so happens to be less imperfect than the other. And that's all I have to say about that , for now.

My Thoughts on the Decision to Send More Troops into Afghanistan

For the most part I have not yet been dissappointed in the President of the United States. Sure, some of his ideas have yet to pan out and work (I'm thinking job creations and the foreclosure prevention programs)but, at least he did something rather than just sit back and do nothing. The Republican party tends to do nothing on just about everything, in my opinion. Oh, accept declaring war etc. After all , two wars is the only real accomplishments Bush and the Republicans have made during their rein. In addition, we are , for the first time, on the brink of reforming our very screwed up health care system. Sure, the Republicans and the right are whining and quite loudly about ANY proposal that comes out of the Democratic House and Senate, but to me, they have NO credibility on the issue. Why, you might ask? It's simple. They did nothing, proposed nothing for well, eight years! If they were still in "control" there simply woudn't be any discussion of health care reform at all!

There are many reasons I voted for Obama. One of them is and was on the promise of ending the war in Iraq. I personally do not remember any promises made on the war in Afghanistan. What I do remember thinking is that perhaps the focus would be turned to the war we should have actually been fighting and finished with a long time ago. When I heard about him contemplating whether or not to send more troops to Afghanistan I was hoping that he would not. After all, we need to focus on more domestic issues. Since we gave all that money to Wall Street (and the right likes to use that as an excuse to block health care reform) I felt we really needed to just get out now before we spend even more money we don't have. And, I knew darned well the right would use the surge of troops in Afghanistan as more "proof" to why we should NOT be enacting major health care reform in the U.S.

I took in the information. I read (I didn't watch) the President's speech. I read articles and took in what was being said and spoken about on the news. I had a conversation with a good friend of mine who tends to be socially liberal, fiscally conservative and doesn't really identify with either political party ( I believe she is a Libertarian). In addition, she has a husband that is about to be deployed to, well probably Afghanistan. I spoke with her about how dissappointed I was, but how I thought hard, long and deep about the entire situation. In the end, while I wish we didn't have to do it, I ultimately believe that Obama made a tough decision but one that needed to be made and he made the right one. After all, turning our focus on Afghanistan will ultimately put an end to the war started (and focus taken off of) when those buildings went down on 9/11. If we left Afghanistan now, all we would be doing is repeating the mistakes made in the 80's that lead to the anger, hatred and resentment of the United States that ultimately lead to the rise of the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. If we walked away now we ultimately would be putting ourselves right back to where we started and where we were on 9/10/01. And, with an unfocused half assed "in" in Afghanistan what should take a few years would end up taking decades and costing us triple or more in both money and lives. Ultimately, even though her husband was going to be one that most likely would have to go, my friend pretty much agreed. Let's get in strong, get it done, then get the hell out. Obama listened to the people he is supposed to listen to.

What I found really interested and made me laugh was hearing stories in the media that the President was indecisive and showing his lack of experience in making the decision? WHAT? Huh? So, let me get this straight. If he makes a decision on the fly he is "cramming things down the American peoples throats" but, if he thoughtfully contemplates his choices and his decision he is "indecisive"? All I could do was roll my eyes. Really people. You (the right) are NEVER happy with ANYTHING ever are you? Ironically was not McCain all for sending more troops to Afghanistan?

But here's the difference people. Obama has a PLAN.. not an open ended, could go on forever "plan". To me, THAT is being a leader. Get in, get in strong, do what you want to do and set your goals and GET THE HELL OUT! But McCain says this is a bad thing? What would he have done? Send more troops in there, but keep them their for an undetermined period of time? Or would he have NOT sent them in at all? Keeping in mind that the decision to send more troops is very unpopular, you can't just do it and do it with no ending in sight. THAT would have been repeating the mistakes of the past administration. That would have been more of the same.

So, while the right and those opposed to Obama want to say that he is doing more of the same, I say NO ,he IS doing something different. He is cleaning up the mess that was left by the previous administration in Afghanistan and doing so with an actual plan and goal of getting out. That is why I elected Obama. And, I'm glad he took his time to make the decision. Makes me believe that he truly examined every option available to him.