Lets flip the script.  Imagine Obama had turned out to be the tyrant you expected him to be.  Lets say he tried to take all our guns and put people into FEMA work camps.  Although many brave patriots like you exercised your 2nd amendment right and held on to your firearms, you realize that you are no match for the full military.  Obama is bombing your city, killing your neighbors, and cutting off your water supply.  Your main concern is for your family, so you escape to Canada.  You present yourself at the border and ask, "please let me and my family have a safe place to stay until my home country is safe again."  So the Canadian government puts you in jail and sends your children (aged 1, 5, 7 and 10) to a detention camp.  Your 1 year old stays in the same dirty diaper for over a week, getting skin breakdown and an infection.  Your 5 and 7 year olds are drugged and handcuffed to a bench and beaten.  Your 10 year old daughter is raped by the detention officers.  When your paperwork is cleared up, they tell you that they don't know where your children are.  Would you agree that you and your children deserved this type of treatment?  Is this how you would want to be treated?  It seems like some in our country are forgetting that these people at our borders are PEOPLE. 

DWS should just give it up

Debbie Wasserman Schultz is a friend of Hillary's.  She has quite obviously tried to stack the Democratic primary process in Hillary's favor.  I imagine she was hoping to be awarded with a cabinet position or ambassadorship.  But now that there has been so much scrutiny and criticism, there's no way Hillary could publicly reward her (if she were to win the Presidency).  It would be far too obvious that Hillary was paying her back.  So Debbie, you're not going to get the reward you expected.  You might as well stop making yourself look worse and step down.

I have a new business idea.  I am going to use capitol to take over solvent business that have a pension fund.  Then I'll put the company into bankruptcy and steal the pension.  Then I'll dissolve the company or send the jobs overseas.  This will make me rich, and therefore I will be a job creator.  Rich = good.  Richer = better.  The more money I take from society, the more important I am and the more everyone must A) respect and 2) coddle me.  This is the American dream right?   Sure, some people will lose their jobs.  But since value is determined relatively, the less everyone else has, the more-superior I am to them.  De-regulate the successful thieves!

Analogy

Republicans saying they won't work with Obama IF he signs an executive order regarding immigration is like Sofia Vergara saying she'll stop sleeping with me if I don't paint her house.  It wasn't going to happen anyway.

You may not want to vote, but guess who does.

The tea-party crazies will be out in full force in this congressional election.  They are only 5-10% of the population, so if 15% of the normal people vote, we can drown them out and take out congress back.  Do you want a do-nothing congress?  Congress will make 158 million dollars over the next two years of YOUR money.  I want congress to get things done, but John Boehner will not let ANYTHING come to a vote because the 5-10% tea partiers want gridlock.  Don't let them cripple our country.  You are getting ripped off, your environment is being destroyed, your industries are being decimated.  And you have one vote to help change that.  Yes, your one vote doesn't change anything.  It takes millions of them to elect a President or Senator, and thousands of them to elect a Representative.  No one gets to call the shots with their one vote.  But when put together with others who think like you, your vote WILL make a difference.  Don't sit this one out.  As you sit there, the banks are stealing more of our money, the rivers and air are getting poisoned, and the promise of upward mobility in America is disappearing.  Get out and vote.  Do it now.  Don't wait for election day- anything could happen that prevents you from voting.  Take advantage of early voting and make sure your vote counts.  VOTE VOTE VOTE.  I did and it took only 10 minutes.

A vote for Rauner is a vote against voting

In Illinois, currently, it is very easy to vote.  Everyone can get a mail ballot; the early voting locations are many and have good hours; and the polls are adequately staffed and conveniently located on election day.  You don't need to show an ID, you just have to attest that you are who you say you are (who would risk going to jail for a felony just to cast an extra ballot??)  If Bruce Rauner, the Republican candidate for governor wins the election, you can expect that to change.  Republican governors all over the country have worked to restrict voting and make it harder for the people (all the people) to participate in our Democracy.  Quinn has not been stellar, but I expect Rauner will be terrible.  He wants to lower the minimum wage, end marriage equality, privatize social security and medicare; break up unions; and risk our environment with fracking.   He's given over 1.5 million dollars to the Koch brothers; and we know how little regard they have for people and the environment when there is money to be made.  So I'm voting for Quinn.  If you vote for Rauner and he wins, you can expect to have a harder time voting next time.

One problem with the corporate model

A corporation has one goal- to make as much money as possible.  So if I can make 100 million dollars by creating good-paying jobs in America and producing a product that is useful and good for the planet, that's great.  But if I can make 101 million dollars by sending all my jobs overseas, harming the economy, and making a product that destroys the environment, well...that's just business.  Screw y'all.  I'm taking my extra million and putting a helipad on my yacht. 

So, does that mean that we should get rid of all corporations?  No.  There just needs to be a balance between benefiting the private and the public. Corporations are indebted to their shareholders. Without them, they would not have the capital with which to conduct business. But they are also indebted to the environment (physical, political, economic, etc) in which they do business. Without a uniform currency, courts, roads, our natural resources,and an educated public, companies would not be able do business. So I think that if you can't make money while treating your employees and the environment right, then you shouldn't be in that business. And I don't think corporate profits should be the only measure of a company's value. 

Clean water and solid ground in Illinois, for now...

If Bruce Rauner becomes governor of Illinois, he will swiftly allow fracking all over our state.  This will pollute groundwater and cause earthquakes.  Early voting is open now.  Vote now!

http://wjbdradio.com/LocalNews/Candidates-in-Their-Own-Words--Bruce-Rauner#.VCX8C_ldWSo

Do you want to give congress 186 Million dollars to do nothing?

If the Republicans keep the house and/or take the Senate, nothing will get done for another two years.  They have stated that their goal is to make sure nothing gets done.  They even oppose things that they initially proposed (health care comes to mind).  So if you don't vote Democratic, government will remain crippled.  And it will not be any better if they take both houses, because Obama will veto whatever legislation they propose to benefit the 0.1% at the cost of the rest of us (and that's all they do because that's all they represent).  Congresspeople and Senators are paid $174,000 per year.  There are 535 of them.  They will collectively receive $186 Million dollars over the next two years.  Do you really want these guys to get 186 million to do nothing?  And while they waste time, our recovery and development remain stalled.

Imagine you had a football team.  The running back wants to be team captain and some of the linemen want him to be captain as well.  But the quarterback also wants to be captain.  More people vote for the quarterback than the running back, so the QB is captain.  Now imagine that the running back and his linemen agree that they will not try anoymore.  They won't block, they won't try to tackle, they won't run the ball, they won't do anything.  If you were in charge of this team, would you give them 186 million dollars?  No, you would fire them.  The Republicans have disabled our government.  Fire them.

It's simple math, people

So if I am a minimum wage worker, I make $7.50/hour, which is $300/week.   If I get a raise to $10/hour and I am working 40 hours/week, then I'll get another $100/week.  BUT, if employers like McDonalds have to pay minimum wage workers $10/hour, then they'll have to raise their prices.  Some estimate that the price of a Big Mac could go up by as much as $0.60.  So if I were to eat a Big Mac every meal for a week, it would cost me an additional $12.60.  That leaves me with ONLY an additional $87.40/week.    Therefore, we should not raise the minimum wage.  I mean, who would agree to pay an additional $12.60 just so they could make another $100?  Bruce Rauner (Illinois Republican Governor candidate) understands why we should lower the minimum wage.   Knock me down to $5/hour and my Big Mac cost could drop by as much as $0.60.  So I'm making $100/week less ($200/week), but I am saving $12.60 on food.  So my choices are:  $5hour, $200/week minus $12.60 for food, $7.50/hour, $300/week and the same food cost, or $400/week and an additional $12.60 for food.  So would you rather have $212.60, $300, or $387.40?  And if you can do that math and don't come to the conclusion I want, that is proof that we need to cut education spending.   

How to re-institute the separation of Church and State

Separation of Church and State was a founding principle of our nation.  But now, some want to use the government to impose their particular interpretation of their religion on others.  And they do so in the name of protecting religious freedom.  "Allowing women to make their own choices about abortion infringes on my religious right to tell people what to do", or "Forcing my company to pay for health care that includes birth control infringes upon my religious right to try to make my employees live according to the principles of my church."  I want to live in a Democracy, not a Theocracy.  But the tide of Supreme Court decisions (5 to 4) has been to allow religion to trump other individual freedoms.  So what could change this trend?  If the Bin Laden family were to buy a major American company (say Sears, or Starbucks) and require that all their female employees wear burkas.  I think public opinion and the Supreme court would quickly condemn it and re-institute the ability for individuals to live free from the religious beliefs of their employers.  Remember, when you allow religion to dictate, you have to allow all religions to dictate.  The right-wingers don't want that, they want everyone to follow only their version of the Bible (be it the Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran interpretation or what have you).  But they know they can't sell that idea.  So they cloak their intentions in the guise of religious freedom.  Bin Laden's please come and push the envelope so people can wake up and realize the danger of letting a religion dictate civilian life. 

Global climate change really benefits the energy companies

I have long been aware that Big Oil. and Big Coal, and Big Gas have denied global warming (aka climate change) because they don't want to incur the expense required to reduce their pollution and contribution to the problem.  But today, in Chicago, I see another benefit for them.  I live in Chicago.  Yesterday, I had my heat on, as the temperature was about 50 degrees.  Today it was 90 degrees and I had to turn on my air conditioner.  Spring used to be a time were you didn't have to pay for heat or cooling.  But with the drastic shifts in temperature, we'll have to pay the gas company or the electric company (and their suppliers) every day.  We should put solar on every roof, windmills in every field, and stop killing our planet to line the pockets of the very few. 

The new, right-wing take on the old Jesus prostitute story

We all know the story:  a group of men were about to stone a prostitute to death when Jesus stepped in and famously said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."  Well, the right wing loves throwing stones.  So the new interpretation of that story is not that Jesus was saying, "You shouldn't throw stones," but rather he was saying, "I get to throw the first stone, because I am holier than thou."   As long as you believe that you are closer to Jesus than the other guy, it's perfectly fine to condemn, belittle, persecute, and harm your neighbor.  If Jesus were alive today, he'd be using His divine powers to slit the throats of all the Muslim heathens, the gays, the "lazy. inner-city" folks, the liberals, and anyone who would want any restriction on capitalism.    If you're not sure who Jesus would hate, just watch FOX news.  They are His spokesperson.

Wayne LaPierre offers solutions

David Gregory did his best to get Wayne LaPierre, the spokesman and CEO for the NRA, to concede that guns have something to do with gun violence, but Wayne held his position strong.  I saw Mr. LaPierre in a fictional hallway after that interview and asked him, "so if a ravingly, paranoid. psychotic individual goes into a gun shop and says, 'I want to buy a gun and then go shoot up the elementary school in town,' what should the shop owner do?  What is the responsible thing to do, and what is the best thing he can do to help keep our children safe?"  Mr. LaPierre answered, "he should sell the gun to this individual, but then sell two to the school."

Women Vs. Blacks

I was just thinking about the struggles that Black Americans and Female Americans have had in earning rights and privileges in our country and decided to compare them.  (And I know that Black and Female are not mutually exclusive, so I am specifically looking at Black Males vs Females) (and I know the current correct term is African American).  Let's look at some milestones.

Earned the right to vote
Blacks.......... 1868 with the 14th amendment
Women......... 1920 with the 19th amendment
Difference..... 52 years

First member elected to the House of Representatives
Blacks........... 1870  Joseph Hayne Rainey
Women.......... 1917  Jeannette Rankin
Difference...... 47 years

First Member elected to the Senate
Blacks........... 1870  Hiram Revels
Women.......... 1932  Hattie Caraway (In 1922  Rebecca Felton was appointed by Governor Hardwick of Georgia, but she only served one day).
Difference...... 62 years

First Secretary of State
Women......... 1996  Madeline Albright
Blacks........... 2001  Colin Powell
Difference..... 5 years

First Member of the Supreme Court
Blacks.......... 1967  Thurgood Marshall
Women......... 1981  Sandra Day O'Connor
Difference.... 14 years

First President
Blacks...........  2008  Barak Obama
Women..........  None
Difference...... at least 8 years 

Now, I believe that we are created equally and that neither color nor gender nor religion nor sexual preference should be used to discriminate against anyone.  But considering that white men originally held all the power, I am surprised that it took white women so much longer to earn more of the positions of power than black Men.  I don't know why this is.  Perhaps it was that the blacks were better organized and motivated to claim political power.  Perhaps it was that there was greater opposition to female progress.  I don't think there are any inherent differences between how blacks and whites think.  I do think there are inherent differences in how men and women think though.  And considering that women are more than 50% of our population, I think they should hold at least 50% of the government seats.  If I could re-write the constitution, I would have it so that each state elects one male and one female senator.  And I would require that at least four, but no more than 5, seats on the supreme court be held by each gender.   And race should not be a factor at all.   (I'm not sure what to do about the House of Representatives.  I'm open to suggestions). 

Here's an idea

Republican Party:  Race-baiting, fear-mongering, election-machine rigging, voter suppression, gay-baiting, gender-baiting, war-mongering, and flat-out lying have not worked.  How about you try to listen to what the American people want for a change?  I'll give you some clues.  We want Citizen's United overturned by constitutional amendment.  We want American jobs and manufacturing protected and wages to be sufficient that we can have enough time to spend some with our kids and afford to educate them.  We want an end to the upward re-distribution of wealth, so all our money is floating around the economy and not sitting in an off-shore bank account.  We want personal freedoms and restraint on the ability of the government to monitor our activity.   We want good roads, schools and bridges, fire departments, police departments.  We want to be more focused on nation building here in America and less focused on breaking and then fixing other countries.  (How many new schools have we built in Afghanistan in the past 10 years and how many have we built in Illinois?)  We want an end to discrimination against women, gays, and minorities.   We disagree about abortion, but most of agree that we do not want laws re-written by every new congress or supreme court. 

I really hope you'll stop trying to force your minority agenda down our throats and start reflecting what the people want.  Not just the 0.1%, but all Americans.  That may help you win more elections. 

A silver lining in the debate debacle

I have been looking hard to find a silver lining in the terrible debate performance by Barak Obama last week, and I finally have found one.  If you recall, the story before the debate was that Romney's big donors were pulling out and were going to concentrate on the congressional races.  Now the Republicans are excited about Romney's chances to win and are sticking with him.  If Obama crushes in the next two debates, Romney will lose support.  And then it will be too late to super-fund the congressional races and the Democrats will win more house and senate seats.  

The Republican Diet (analogy)

You should be 165 pounds and have blood pressure of 120/80.  We put you on the Republican diet.  You put on 100 pounds in eight years.  Your blood pressure went up to 190/100.  Then we put you on the Democratic diet.  In four years, you have lost 70 pounds and your blood pressure has dropped to 140/86.  And the Republicans say, "See.  You're still overweight and your blood pressure is not back to normal.  Obviously the Democratic diet has failed you.   The only logical thing to do is to return to our Republican diet."   Anyone else see a problem with this "logic"?

Paul Ryan's RNC speech, what was said and what was unsaid

'You would think that any president, whatever his party, would make job creation and nothing else his first order of business, but this president didn't do that.'  Of course, my party's first order of business was to cripple Obama's presidency and make sure nothing improved in the country.   


"Obama Care comes to more than 2,000 pages of rules, mandates, taxes, fees and fines that have no place in a free country." but it also has rights and protections that were not there before. 


"They needed hundreds of billions more.  So they just took it all away from Medicare, $716 billion funneled out of Medicare by President Obama." I would also take 716 billion out of medicare, but I would take it away from the benefits, not by making it more efficient and protecting benefits.


"An obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed, all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for."  I know a lot of you did ask for it, because you were suffering with a lack of coverage, skyrocketing premiums, and pre-existing exclusions.  But if those things bother you, you must be poor, so you don't matter.


"Mitt Romney and I know the difference between protecting a program and raiding it"  No one knows more about raiding than Mr. Romney.


"He said his job is to, quote, ``tell a story to the American people''. As if that is the whole problem here?  He needs to talk more and we need to be better listeners?"  I know he didn't say anything about our listening ability, but I can twist this to make it seem like he is criticizing us, so I will.


"And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old.  The man assumed office almost four years ago.  Isn't it about time he assumed responsibility?"  I know Bush Jr gave him a terrible economy to work with, but it's time we shift blame to the obstructionist congress that makes sure nothing improves.  Give us our credit, Mr. President.  Bush knocked us down, but we are keeping us down.  

 
"By his own decisions, President Obama has added more debt than any other president before him."  And I helped him do it by voting for every expensive piece of legislation I could find.  

"After all that work, and in a bad economy, it sure doesn't help to hear from their president that government gets the credit.  What they deserve to hear is the truth: Yes, you did build that."  Everyone of you small business owners, you DID build every road, every piece of infrastructure, every government program.  You might not remember it, but you alone get the credit for everything.  

"We have a plan for a stronger middle class, with the goal of generating 12 million new jobs over the next four years."  That's 6 millions butlers and gardeners for me, 6 million for Mitt.  

"The choice -- the choice is whether to put hard limits on economic growth, or hard limits on the size of government, and we choose to limit government."  But only when the other party is in charge.  When we are in, there are no limits.  

"Everyone -- everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now.  And I hope you understand this too, if you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed, your leaders have failed you."  Did I mention I am a leader?

"Now when I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey, where I could think for myself, decide for
myself, define happen as for myself."  Because I was born into money, and because I had a government program that gave me even more money (social security from my deceased father).  

"That's freedom and I will take it any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners."  Pay no attention to the Patriot Act, and the warrantless wiretapping.

 "Mitt has not only succeeded, but he has succeeded where others could not."  Part of his success was making sure that others could not succeed, by closing factories to turn a quick profit rather than investing in them and growing them. 

"He turned around the Olympics at a time when a great institution was collapsing under the weight of bad management, overspending and corruption."  Thanks to help from the government.  

"And the greatest of all responsibilities, is that of the strong to protect the weak." but that is so socialist.  Helping the weak encourages weakness and dependence.  As my hero Ayn Rand preaches, the weak should be stepped upon.  Helping them shows moral failure on your part.  And I make sure that all my interns read her books and understand that message.  

"our rights come from nature and God, and not from government."  It was god that gave us protected freedom of speech.  It is god that gave women and blacks the right to vote.  I guess it was god that withheld that right for a while until He decided it was time to change it.  It is god who suggested that we give everyone health care, but we don't have to follow that one.  

"We honor them and all our veterans, and we thank them." we just don't take care of them.  

"The work ahead will be hard."  but not for the rich, we'll do all we can to make it easier on us, I mean them.

"Together, we can do this."  and by together, I mean you, the shrinking middle class.  We all need to make sacrifices, except those of us that have the most.  

"We can make the safety net safe again." as safe as the stock market in 2008

"Whatever your political party, let's come together for the sake of our country." although our definition of coming together is insisting that we get 100% of what we want and ignoring any other constituencies.  

I work for the Koch brothers.  They pay for my campaigns, they pay for my legislation.  They pay a hell of a lot better than your stupid government can.  But i have to pretend that I work for you so you'll feel better voting against your best interests.