We must win in Iraq! And other silly phrases.

I’m not sure how many times John McCain said that during the debate last night. And every time he said it I asked myself, “What do we win?”

When you’re talking about war, what is winning and what is losing? This isn’t a football game–it’s people’s lives. Thousands of people. Thousands and thousands. It’s destroyed property, families shattered, societies fragmented. No one wins–there is no check mate. There is no trophy.

Obama did an excellent job bringing it back to the main point after McCain would spin the topic out of control yammering about winning. We should not have been there is the first place–there were no weapons of mass destruction and we created the chaos that we’re now trying to fix. Our focus should have been protecting American lives by going after the Bin Laden and his crew who were not in Iraq! Not further compromising American lives by sending our men and women into Iraq. Geez, if that isn’t clear I don’t know what is.

McCain said that if we don’t win, we’ll have to go back.

Kind of like we’ve had to go back to Viet Nam?

Kind of like we’ve had to go back to Korea?

Those two countries fell off our radar after we pulled out. Hey we even trade with them now. Viet Nam is becoming a big tourist area and Americans are taking vacations there. Is that what McCain means by going back? Taking holiday?

Diplomacy.

What is wrong with diplomacy? What is so wrong with Obama wanting to sit down with leaders of other countries and work out peaceful resolutions. What is wrong with peace? This is the party of Christian values, yes? When did Jesus ever invade countries? Peace=Good. War=Bad.

Big Government.

John McCain said that we have the biggest government in history and that there is tons of wasteful spending. I’m sure there is wasteful spending in the federal budget–hell, there is wasteful spending in our families budget. The key is to control wasteful spending responsibly and using our God given intellect to do so. McCain proposed cutting all spending except for defense and veteran’s affairs. WTF? So we value killing people and veterans over children? I’m all for taking care of veterans but at the expense of everyone else? I guess that trickle down economics plan applies to people too?

And I guess the way we reduce government is for the government to buy out the banking industry and run our financial institutions too. Yep, that’s smaller government for sure.

My friend S. (who I love and adore despite her Republican beliefs) has told me before that she does not believe in government programs because if she wants to fund those programs it should be her choice. She does not believe that she should be forced to finance them through her tax dollars. So taking that model I think that I should have the choice of whether or not I want my tax dollars to bail out AIG et. al. I want to have the choice of whether or not my tax dollars finance 10-20 Billion dollars a month to fight a war that I don’t believe in.

I guess it doesn’t work that way. Nor should it.

Let’s be pragmatic for a minute.

Privatize, Privatize, Privatize.

The Republicans (and McCain/Palin) LOVE to privatize everything. If they had it their way we would have private healthcare for everyone, private roads, private schools, and as wel know, private banking without regulations. Let’s see how that last one worked out.

Let’s take a look at the CEO salaries from the financial institutions our tax dollars are bailing out, shall we?

Daniel Mudd, Fannie Mae: $14,231,650.00

Richard Syron, Freddie Mac:  $18,289,575.00

Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman Sachs:  $70,324,352.00

John J Mack, Morgan Stanley:  $41,790,854

Richard Fuld, Leham Brothers:  $34,382,486.00

Those are millions. In dollars. Per year.

Wait? Who needs to be bailed out here? Why on earth should our tax dollars be spent saving companies who were irresponsible and paid their CEO’s hundreds of times their average worker’s salaries and turned around and ran the companies into the ground. Does this make sense? If I started a business and failed–no one would bail me out.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand the need to do this but I like what one letter to the editor in today’s Oregonian said, “. . .take the $700 Billion and pay off all the mortgages. Then the economic benefit can trickle up to Wall Street.”

Or pour billions of dollars into helping the poor, the uneducated and the homeless. Pour it into education, quality healthcare and childcare. Pour it into supporting people instead of already rich CEO’s and corporations.

Privatizing and de-regulation creates greed and a society of Haves and Have-Nots.

I say bring on bigger government, bring on more regulation. After all, isn’t our government By The People and For The People? We are running the place, right? We have the power to choose who represents us and who makes decisions on our behalf so why not let them do it? If we don’t like what they do, then we change it–that’s what elections are for my friends. It’s a hell of a lot easier to keep an eye on one large governement than millions of private companies doing what they want in order for a few people at the top to have all of the money and power. I don’t want my country run by corporate America–but that is essentially the road that we’re on.

I have faith that things will turn around. And Barack Obama is the person who will get us back on track. It will take some time, but eventually Peace and Prosperity will return to America.

So do your part, and vote!

Relatively Random

Thanks so much to everyone who commented on the previous post.  You all had a lot of great things to say.
Later that day, I was having lunch with LeLo and we were discussing the issue.  I started thinking that even though I don’t agree with making women feel un-beautiful as they are, even I buy into the propaganda.  I make my daughters take showers so they don’t smell, (”You don’t want to be the stinky girl in the class,”) I tell them.  They wear deodorant, I tweeze their eyebrows for them, I tell DD#1 to be sure to wash her face and put some medicine on her acne.  DD#1 shaves her legs, (I showed her how.)  I curl their hair when they ask me to.

I wear make-up.

I get my hair done, (sometimes, or HG does it…)

I wear perfume.

I get bikini waxes,

and pedicures.

Isn’t that me buying into the whole beauty industry bull-shit?  You don’t see (many) men running to the salon for a waxing or wondering which hair color will best cover their gray, or picking out, OPI’s, “I’m Not Really A Waitress” nail color at the salon.

Where is the line?

Personal hygiene is one thing, but why the double standard?  Or why a standard at all?

~~~~~~~~~~

I don’t understand W’s vetoing a bill that would give children health care.

Children.

Health Care.  And it’s being funded by raising federal cigarette taxes,  WTF?

35 Billions dollars over five years.  That’s 7 Billion dollars a year.  And W. wanted 100 Billion more for Iraq?

Let’s see:

7 Billion dollars to fund children’s health care.

100 Billion dollars to kill Iraqi citizens and/or kill and/or mame US soldiers.

Hmmm.

Tough one.

~~~~~~~~~~

I’m on my way to take DD#2 to have an MRI of her back.  She’s been complaining of back pain (to her father,) and her pediatrician consulted with the pediatric neurosurgeon who wants this test to see what’s going on.  Apparently it’s “not normal” for a ten year old to have back pain.

Wish me luck.

That child can barely sit still for one minute, never mind lay in a tube for one hour.  I hope they give her some drugs.

~~~~~~~~~~

Ciao y’all.

Speaking of intelligence?

This morning I was minding my own business watching a segment on the Today Show that I had been waiting to watch because it was interesting (and not about OJ.) And all of a sudden the Today show was interrupted because President Bush was holding a press conference, or rather, the Yahoo that is our Commander in Chief had something to say.

Now typically when Bush comes on, I promptly turn the channel, but today I was hoping I could stomach it, and that my program would resume.

No such luck.

I couldn’t stomach it.

Could someone please explain to me what is wrong with that man and how on earth someone so idiotic is our president?

If you think you can stomach the speech and the press conference, go here. But please be advised that you should be drinking prior to reading. It may help.

I just have one or two comments to our esteemed leader. (I’ll bullet them, of course.)

• Don’t say that you got a B in Econ 101, when you actually got a C.
• When David Gregory asked you the question about Syria and you responded, “No comment,” the reason you said “no comment,” was because you didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. What happened, did your ear piece go out?
• Mandela is not dead. He wasn’t killed by Sadaam Hussein, he is still very much alive. No one knew what the hell you were talking about, did you?
• Is there anyone in your administration who is not doing a “fine job?”
• When you said today (and other days, at it appears this is a favorite joke of yours,) “I remind people that, like when I’m with Condi I say, she’s the Ph.D. and I’m the C-student, and just look at who’s the President and who’s the advisor.” This is not funny. This is very, very sad.  And finally,
• You say that our economy was doing well considering we are fighting a war and had to deal with a terrorist attack.  You also said that the budget would be balanced by 2012.  The budget was balanced when you began your presidency.  No, wait, actually there was a surplus., and now we have a deficit.  So this is the equivalent of reducing your income while increasing your spending, and blaming your debt on the increase in spending.  How exactly is this considered fiscally responsible?

I could only manage about 2/3 of it. I can’t even bring myself to read the rest because I might be ill. Actually I think I’m ill already.

Everyone go drink now.

And what would you do with the money?

I was just listening to the Tom Hartman Show.

SIDE NOTE: (Once I met his co-host Heidi in the bathroom at a club, she’s was very cool and she and her husband even bought us a drink, but I digress.)

Tom had a guest, an Oregon conservative named Greg Clapper, who was criticizing Oregon’s governor for increasing the state’s budget by 20%. Mr. Clapper was complaining that he (The Governor,) wanted to spend it all.

Hmmm. It got me thinking.

If your family didn’t have health insurance,
If your children weren’t getting a good education because they didn’t have the supplies that they needed, or were stuck in a class with 30 other children,
If your schools had one of the shortest school year in the country because of budget cuts,
If you had family members that were sleeping in the street, or eating from a food bank because they didn’t have enough,
If your city lost so much federal timber income that the only recourse was laying off police officers.

If all of these things were happening to your family.

And you were given a 20% raise.

Wouldn’t you spend the money?

On health insurance for your children,
On your children’s schools,
On feeding your hungry family members,
On keeping your family safe?

Doesn’t that seem like the responsible thing to do with the 20% increase in your budget?

Now I can’t read the paper

It’s just a few weeks until election day, and in Oregon, today is the last day that you are eligible to register to vote, (although my question would be, “Why aren’t you registered already?” Oregonians are time and money savers and we vote entirely by mail. Sure saves the issues of dangling chads and long lines at the polls, and also gives everyone in Oregon NO excuse to not vote. If you have the flu, or are having a kidney removed, or your girlfriend broke up with you…no excuses, just mail that sucker in as soon as you get it. The only thing that would make it easier would be if we could vote by e-mail, or if they already stamped the ballot for us. Hmmm, something to think about.

This year we have very few issues to deal with; no gay marriage, no physicians-assisted suicide (althought it’s now being called physicians-assisted death,) and I thought that our gubernatorial race was a no brainer.

Our incumbant governor, Ted Kulongoski, is certainly not the most dynamic governor we’ve ever had, he kind of reminds me of someone’s kind of dorky dad who wears slippers and flannel pajamas but he stands on a solid platform that reflects the values of most Oregonians. He’s pro-choice, pro-education, pro-healthcare, pro-environment, pro-people.

The yahoo that is running against him, Ron Saxton, is none of those things and openly advertises his ignorance, racisms, and hatred for the working poor. He’s oppossed to raising the minimum wage, for criminally prosecuting illegal immigrants, and thinks that teachers should be paid by merit. (Obviously he’s never been a teacher in a poor community teaching a classroom of “not-so-bright” children.) And although he does not address it on his website, he is anti-choice and anti-gay rights. And as strong as he comes accross as being oppossed to migrant labor, he himself employed illegal immigrants and provided sub-standard housing for them on his farm years ago. Can you say hypocrite?
Of course, I won’t be voting for him, because as a woman, a mother, a lesbian, and a feminist I don’t vote against my best interests. I also do not support businesses or companies that support those who are against my best interests and I attempt to be conscientious about such things. Imagine my disappointment yesterday when I heard that Oregon’s liberal newspaper has endoresed that yahoo for governor.

And now I can’t read the paper.

Interestingly enough, I had just subscribed to The Oregonian, and HG and I have enjoyed reading the paper in the morning together while having our coffee, (okay, HG would read the paper, I would read the ads and the fluff, but she would fill me in…) But this morning, I will be calling and cancelling my subscription. Too bad for them I guess, and I really, really hope that others will do the same.

Change starts with one person, and we all must do our part.

The only other important political issue on our ballot this year is the Yes on 43 bill, which would require parental notification for girls 15-18 seeking an abortion. Although on the surface it might seem like a good idea, it’s not. This bill would hurt the poorest and most vulnerable teens in our state and delay their medical care. They would be more likely to go to another state to receive their abortion or more likely to delay care, causing an increase in second trimester abortions. The current law in this state is that any teen, 15-18 is able to acquire medical care, (including cosmetic surgery, tonsilectomy, etc,) without parental consent. Measure 43 is singling out abortions and does not take in to consideration rape, incest or abuse without the young woman being forced to go through the court system. It’s appalling. Government cannot make a law that forces family communication, only families can do this, and if that is not the case in a young woman’s family, she needs to be able to obtain safe, legal medical care.

More on No on 43 here.

Well it’s time to step down from my political soapbox now.

My ex-best friend from high school who I haven’t talked to in two years because I’m a lesbian has just called me on the phone.

More on that later…

Ciao y’all.

The longest day of the year

We had a great time on our mini-vacation.  We went to Kah-nee-ta, which is a resort in a soverign nation of Native Americans (Indian reservation,) in the high desert of Oregon.  Some of you may recall that we went there last year, (sans HG,) and had a great time then.  Believe it or not, since that post nearly a year ago, I’ve had thousands of hits on my blog from people googleing “Kah-nee-ta.”  I guess I can look forward to another year of that.  But I digress.

We had a lovely time.  We stayed in an authentic native American tee-pee, complete with fire for the cool desert evenings.  The girls swam in the pool, went down the water slide, and we all took a kayak trip down the Warm Springs River, (which was incidentally, not warm.)  We cooked all of our meals in the tee-pee and told stories and sang songs by the fire at night.  It was very warm and fuzzy; except last night when we froze our asses off.  That’s about all the camping I can handle for a little while though, I don’t heart sleeping on the ground.  (okay, I was on an air mattress, but it was still the ground.)
On my last post, my “mother-out-law”* posted a comment under “Hottie Mama,” because that’s what she’s called here.  Everyone cyber wave to her!!!

Now for my bitch of the day:

Before HG and I moved in together, I owned a townhouse that I purchased immediately after XH and I divorced. My former LBCG and I did a lot to that townhouse and made it a picture of beauty and elegance. Okay, maybe not beauty and elegance, but it was a very nice, very cute house in a lovely neighborhood. History had shown us that townhouses in that neighborhood sold very, very quickly. So quickly that I was apprehensive about putting my house for sale until after HG had sold her house, which was in a different scary suburb of Portland. HG put her house on the market; we thought it would probably be there for quite a while. But guess what? It sold in ten days for full price. Okay, it was time for house hunting. We found our house, made an offer and put mine on the market. That was the day that we went to Mexico for my birthday. I thought for sure, when we returned that I would have multiple offers on my cute townhouse in the nice neighborhood of the very scary suburbs. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened at all since then.

And guess what? That was THREE FUCKING MONTHS AGO.
I’m about to write a check to my mortgage company for the third month in a row of NOT living there.  I’m sure you’re probably thinking, “Oh, it must be priced too high.”  No, blogging friends on the Internet, that is not the case.  It’s priced fine, it looks fine, I have no idea what the problem is whatsoever.  What I need is someone to buy my damn house so that I can keep moving forward with my life.  That is it.  And that is what needs to happen now.

End of bitching.

Oh, except for one more thing…

During my mini-vacation, while the DD’s were frolicking in the pool, I brought along a little light reading, The Truth (with jokes,) by Al Franken.  As funny as Al Franken is, and believe me, I’ve been laughing out loud at some of his (with jokes,) parts; I’m completely undone with how fucked up politicians are and what a debacle our entire government really is.  The Rebuplicans are trying to take over the world, kill our young people, destroy our environment, and take away our inalienable rights protected under common law and the Constitution.  And Democrats???  They’re a bunch of pussies who are willing to take it all laying down, all the while being worried about hurting someones feelings.  It’s time for someone in the party to grow some balls and stop allowing this country to be lied to, raped, economically brought to it’s knees, and it’s citizens ripped apart.

I’ve had it.

Okay, NOW I’m done bitching.

Happy Summer Solstice bloggers!
* This term I stole borrowed from LeLo who very eloquently pointed out that since the law does not recognize her marriage to AdRi, then the proper term should be “out-laws;” I like it.

I’m still here…for now

My blogging issue continues although I am making slow and steady progress!

I obtained my domain name and obtained hosting. I’ve redirected my domain to my new hosting server and attempted to download the wordpress software. I’m working on it, really I am but sometimes reading all of this stuff just gives me a headache and I lay in bed thinking about FTP and DNS and all sorts of other acronyms.

Really I just need someone to do it for me????? (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, anyone who knows how to do this stuff better than I???)

Until then, I suppose I will just hang here for a little while and ride out my web issues the best I can.

All is well in this corner in the world, the weather has been unusually humid and not so pleasant. HG and I have been painting like you would not believe. Here is our living room before…

Here it is now…

It’s in a bit of disaray (because we’re painting,) but you get the general idea. The color over the fireplace looks very pink in the picture but it’s not IRL. The name of it is Toasted Nutmeg. The darker is Wine Barrel, and the other is Wilmington Tan, although on the wall it looks quite gold. I was really trying to pick NEW colors from my old house,

but alas, I guess I’m set in my ways (and taste,) becuase it turned out looking quite similar. I like it, HG likes it, the girls like it, so that’s just fine.

In other news…(warning, RSG is jumping up on a political soapbox, read at your own risk…)

I guess we have nothing else important going on in our country that our elected officials should be looking in to, so they are discussing amending the constitution to discriminate against more than 10 percent of the population.

Nice.

I suppose that is more important than other things like a war that has killed 2500 US soldiers and thousands and thousands and thousands of civilians. Or the fact that we are in an energy crisis in this country and I am paying over $3.00 a gallon for gas. Or the fact that we have a major immigration issue/conflict that is causing civil distress.

Even this story seems more important!

Why aren’t they looking into THAT? Geez, our last president was impeached for such actions, but no one seems to care about W’s philandoring? Instead our trusted government officials are debating whether or not if I get married to HG if that would somehow upset the “sanctity” of marriage? What about the “sanctity” of W’s marriage? Where are his “family values?”

To be honest, whether or not W is having an affair with anyone, I could really care less. What I do care about is time, money, and energy being taken away from very important issues to try to stop me and a lot of other people from having the same rights as anyone else; it’s sickening.

Then I saw this bitch on the Today show this morning and just about puked.
You can read an article about the appearance here.
Or go to Today’s website and see the video. I’m telling you people, Jesus does NOT heart that woman. Also, she released her new book today; you know, today, The Devil’s Day. I personally don’t believe in “The Devil,” but now I’m starting to wonder if there IS a devil and she is actually Ann Coulter?

Okay. Enough political soapboxing for one day.
I’ve got important things to attend to, HG and I are off to Costco.

Ciao y’all. I hope you didn’t all forget me?