A THANKSGIVING MESSAGE: AN OLD HIPPIE’S PLEDGE

…the Bleacherman has entered the stadium…

I offer this pledge; it comes from an old idealist, an old hippie, an aging Arthurian Knight:

We, as a Nation, shall never turn our backs of those less fortunate then ourselves.  We will never abdicate our right to protect those who cannot defend themselves.  We will never absolve from responsibility those that seek to belittle, demean and disparage those who find themselves in adverse and often humiliating circumstances that they cannot control.

We, as a Nation, pledge never to stop fighting against the likes of Bill O’Reilly who has made it a crusade to condemn the poor and the minorities for voting for their candidate of choice only because they were freeloaders and wanted a President that would shower them with financial aid.

We, as a nation, pledge to build a new and more vibrant and prosperous traditional America.  We pledge that this new National landscape will be one that is not restricted to just white Christian men and women of substance.

We, as a Nation, pledge to be relentless in our efforts to fight back when partisan-driven politicians try to subjugate or suppress a citizen’s right to vote.

We, as a Nation, pledge to continue to address corporate welfare giveaways and unfair tax relief for the rich and tax avoidance policies that benefit mega billion dollar corporations.

We, as a Nation, pledge to zealously fight to protect those who depend on food stamps to survive, we will continue to protect those without healthcare insurance get insurance and have unrestricted access to top medical care.

We, as a Nation, pledge to maintain a women’s right to control their own reproductive system.

We, as a Nation, pledge to continue to hold our beliefs to be self-evident, that all men and women (regardless of race, religion or sexual persuasion) are created equal, that they are endowed by either their Creator or the government they vested power in, with specific unalienable rights, that among these are the right to live the life they choose to live, to enjoy liberties which cannot be subjugated, attacked or compromised by their neighbors proclaimed liberties and to enjoy their own defined pursuit of Happiness.

We, as a Nation, pledge to recognize that yesterday’s traditional America is a matter of our history, not our future.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium thanking God for all that he has bestowed on him and his family and friends…

THE GOP TEMPER TANTRUM: INSULTING TO THE VERY ESSENCE OF A DEMOCRACY

…the Bleacherman has entered stadium…having just left the nursery where the GOP are crying like frustrated babies…

The election is over.  Obama has won, Romney has lost.  Obama won the Electoral College vote by a very large number and the popular vote by a slim margin yet a margin that represents support by a majority of those Americans who voted in the election.

In eyes of Republicans, this was not supposed to happen.  This was not the happy ending they expected.  This was not how the world is supposed to be.  Shell-shocked Republicans seem to believe that their Christian God has forsaken them.  They believe that their Angels of Prophecy, Dick Morris and Rush Limbaugh, have lied to them. They believe blasphemy has been committed.  The Angel of Hell is now riding the New York subway; hide the women, save the children.  Or is that hide the money and save the art collection? I get confused when the term “values” is brought into a conversation when Republicans are involved.  In their unique world, values somehow becomes a very fluid and moving target and difficult to define.

But I am compelled to address the political in-fighting and finger pointing that is evolving into a war right in front of me.  Romney lost when most in the Republican Party not only thought he would win but unequivocally knew that Romney would win and win big in a landslide. Less than a week since the election and the blame game goes nuclear.  Conventional wisdom demands that someone needs to be blamed and burned at the stake for a loss that everyone in the Republican Party claims never to have seen it coming.  And pundits and politicians don’t seem to be at a loss for whom to blame.

Fox News’ Bill O’ Reilly, a man of a lot of words and little wisdom, said it best.  He said that white, old man America is losing its power and prestige in this country.  The good old boys club is crumbling. People of color are taking over his America.  And Bill-O does not like that.

In this new order (which old white men like Bill-O fear), blacks can vote and on all levels of life operate on equal par with their former white masters, women can emancipate themselves from the kitchen and the bedroom to successfully run major corporations, Latinos are capable of achievements far beyond just knowing how to use a gas air blower and Asians do more than just make great sushi.  (I know I left out many cultures and I apologize to all but do acknowledge your contributions to an expanding and growing America.)

David Frum blames what he calls the conservative entertainment complex.  He claims that because of a small group of people who operate from an entirely different and self-serving agenda, the GOP had lost sight of reality and was drinking its own Kool Aid. Radio and television personalities spent years hovering over the periphery of American politics.  They focused on birth certificates, ideological labels, make-believe layoffs and a myriad of other inconsequential matters and in the end did nothing but offer up a menu of lies, distortions and pure unadulterated bull shit that took the focus away from real issues.  People like Dick Morris and Newt Gingrich made outrageous claims of landslide victories that were reinforced by talking heads and Fox blondes who sought to will an outcome rather than to report objectively on the election itself.  They chose to disbelief the ‘main street’ media because in the end they believed their own lies.

Along with the finger pointers comes the sore losers.  Sean Hannity on Wednesday said Americans deserve the government they voted for.  The temper tantrum continued when the little boy proclaimed that “America now deserves Barack Obama – good luck with that.”  Sean then took his ball and ran home.  He didn’t want to play with the other boys and girls anymore.

Ted Nugent was not too happy when President Barack Obama was reelected, so he took to Twitter to denounce the “pimps,” “whores” and “welfare brats” who re-elected the President.

Ex-Judge and resident Fox News Intellectual Andrew P. Napolitan, sobbing uncontrollably, wrote an editorial where he said, “Only in America can a president who inherits a deep recession and whose policies have actually made the effects of that recession worse get re-elected. Only in America can a president who wants the bureaucrats who can’t run the Post Office to micromanage the administration of every American’s health care get re-elected. Only in America can a president who kills Americans overseas who has never been charged or convicted of a crime get re-elected. And only in America can a president who borrowed and spent more than $5 trillion in fewer than four years, plans to repay none of it and promises to borrow another $5 trillion in his second term get re-elected.”

In conclusion, he asks, “what’s going on here?”

Well I’ll tell you what is going on!  What is going on is that I, an informed voter, believed that Obama was better suited to run this country for the next four years.  I am neither a pimp, whore or welfare brat.  I have a Master’s Degree in Economics.  I am neither a communist nor a socialist.  I am white, a member of the Judeo-Christian cult and more or less main stream.  I am a veteran, fought for this country and I still love it.  So I ask all of you cry babies to stop having a temper tantrum and stop condemning me for how I voted.

We live in a democracy and I have the right to choose my elected officials.  So stop making America into your Christian, White man Fascist State.  Stop I ask you again to stop condemning and belittling me for how I voted.  You can disagree on ideological grounds but don’t demean me because I see the world differently than you do.  You have no license when it comes to being right, you have no special vision granted to you because Fox is stupid enough to grant you either your own show or air time on radio or television.  You are no better or smarter than I am.  Period.  So I ask you all to grow up and stop your little temper tantrum.  If you want to leave this country then go ahead, take you toys and hatred and leave the sandbox  – the sandbox your tax dollar built so all Americans, regardless of race, religion or color, can enjoy its utility.

…the Bleacherman has left the stadium…

 

 

Bill (O’Reilly) and Glen (Beck) Circus of Lies

Yesterday, I was channel surfing – my favorite indoor sport – and stopped long enough to enjoy a few laughs while watching the Bill and Glen Circus. The two of them were discussing the pending health care reform legislation and with their wonderful anything-but-the-truth style, criticized the health care plan. The center piece of their daily dose of anti-Obama mantra was their declaration that no one in America was dying because of a lack of health care coverage. The rationale that vomited from their mouths was that everyone had access to health care: all they had to do was go to the emergency room. With absolute certainty and with almost biblical authority the two clowns declared that no one in America was dying because of a lack of health care coverage. In the background I could hear cheers from the circus tent. The bobbing, empty heads were all in agreement. If Bill and Glen says it so, that it is so. It has to be so. It is the word of God himself.

It took me hours to stop laughing. Or was I crying over their stupidity or just plain propensity to lie and distort the truth. Yes, emergency rooms were open to everyone in need of emergency care. The operative words are emergency care. Not on-going treatment. Try getting chemotherapy from an emergency room. Or a transplant. Or any other on-going treatment.

These morons just don’t get it. They claim to be fiscal conservatives. So why do they think that sending everyone without insurance to the emergency room makes sense? It is, if you think about it, socialized medicine at its worst. Hell, it is an environment where everyone with insurance and money is really paying for the treatment of those who walk into the emergency room without the ability to pay for their care. I just don’t get it. And obviously, the Bill and Glen circus doesn’t get it as well.

Medical care dispensed through the emergency room is the most expensive and inefficient means of delivering health care.

I guess that the necessary logic to really understand what they are saying involves too much honesty and too much deep thinking for Bill and Glen to really digest the stupidity of it all. What phonies. What liars. What typical Fox News commentators; loud on volume, even louder on insult and short on truth.

So here is the challenge I give to the two Clown Kings:
For two years they need to drop their health care coverage for themselves and their families. No coverage what so ever! All heath care will be paid by cash. Their cash. Their heath care providers can offer no discounts, no freebies; no exceptions to treat them any differently than others without health care coverage would be treated. They and their families are to billed like all other cash paying or non insurance carrying patients.

In two years if they can honestly stand in front of their audiences and say that health care is available to everyone and is affordable, then I will remove the clown moniker from my opinion of them.

It really is a simple challenge. Especially to Clown Glen who only two years ago was complaining (as in whining and crying) on the air on how bad our health care system was and how much it needed to be changed.