Omigawd! Class Warfare!

Omigawd! Class Warfare!
The corporate apologists, also known as the Republican leadership and minions in DC, are all aflutter and swooning with the vapors over President Obama's hard line stance on the jobs bill.

Let's recap, shall we?
Increase taxes on the wealthy?
But we're "job creators"! We can't create the minimum wage (or less) jobs if we have to pay taxes, give us a freakin' break!
After all, St. Leona Helmsley (bless her tiny, shriveled, dead heart) had already decreed that taxes are for the "little people", not people like us.
Tax our private jets?
Excuse, me! I should be forced to mingle with the sweaty, grumpy, TSA groped common people? I don't think so! And I shouldn't have to pay extra just to not have to listen to that grumbling.
We're job creators (redux)!
Those whiners should be grateful to have the opportunity to work for me for low wages, no safe work environment and no benefits. If one job isn't enough, get a second one! Put your otherwise worthless children to work, too. There's a reason why we insist those fetuses be protected! We need that cheap labor (and eventually cannon fodder) and we need those taxes they pay (and yes, we know they pay taxes even though publicly we bold-face lie and say they don't).

I read at the UK Daily Mail today that the American middle class is being "attacked" with this jobs bill. The American middle class at the DM is apparently defined as any single person making more than $200,000 a year and a married couple making more than $250,000. Wow! I know just a handful of people who are that definition of "middle class". Most people I know make $50,000 or less (and most of them make $25,000 or less).
The thing that these Republican economic brainiacs still haven't figured out is that our economy is consumer driven. When the average family is just trying to fuel their vehicle to get to work, put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads, there is no disposable income left to drive the consumer demand economy.
I haven't bought a new vehicle since the 1980s because I refuse to take out a car loan for a piece of locomotion that costs more than my house and loses value the minute I sign the loan papers and drive it off the lot. I would adore to have a new vehicle, but with the Republicans holding the economy hostage, I don't take on any debt. And, by the time I have enough saved up to buy a new vehicle outright, shit happens. Actually, I pretty much could do that right now, except my water heater quit working over the weekend and I've gotten rather fond of having hot water on tap, elitist that I am, so I spent $400 on a new water heater. Who knows when the next emergency purchase will pop up? Nice to have some money socked away instead of having to load up a credit card.
Oh, and unemployment benefits fuel local economies. Small businesses like grocery stores, gas stations, and other local mom and pop businesses. Too bad, so sad that THOSE small businesses aren't too big to fail.

So, here's the deal you "job creators" screaming class warfare: as soon as you stop thinking of the 99% of us "little people" as a disposable commodity and the "class enemy", we'll start taking you seriously.

In the meantime, clutch your pearls, take your "class warfare", and runaway to hide in your gated communities.
We're really not that much into you anymore.

Read another excellent post on this topic at Planet POV Embracing Class Warfare

The Pawlenty Challenge!

Mowerman, start your machine!

Hey wannabe Republican president nominee, I’ll take you up on your challenge what is Barack Obama’s plan for Social Security, et al.“

My President has had a plan for quite a while, even if you don’t like it and refuse to recognize the record.

I don’t need you to come to my house to cook me dinner, but I’ll take option B, mowing my lawn. I’ll even be kind and limit myself to the one-acre you offered to Mitt Romney.
Bring a BIG mower, you’ll need it.

In the meantime, please explain how well financial conservative limited government worked out so well with that pesky I-35W bridge collapse in Minnesota. Oh, sorry, you’re the victim and it wasn't YOUR fault! It was that big bad bloated federal government. Yeah, right. YOU killed and traumatized the taxpayers and citizens of YOUR state because YOU were too cheap to invest in infrastructure (dog forbid you even worried about living wage jobs in Minnesota).

In any event, I await your arrival with a BIG mower (hopefully it will mow and also bale hay, which I can really use come this winter). Oh, I'm in eastern Kentucky, the "lawn" is NOT flat. Just letting you know...

[h/t image to MN Progressive Project]

Oh, Post-It note to myself: don’t hold my breath...
Hope springs eternal unless one lives in an America where corporations are "people" and people are "disposable".

Smug asses

Well, McConnell, Paul, and the rest of you asshats who are rich...so happy (not) for you to get a five week vacation while you are so gleeful about screwing the American workers and those who have lost their jobs and homes since GWB and as a result of the machinations of your corporate sponsors.

I do indeed understand you will enjoy your vacation ... while the rest of us who do indeed work do NOT get those vacations ... and the rest you call slackers because they refuse to take minimum wage (or less!) without benefits.

Hey! How about y'all work for minimum wage with no benefits like you think we should be grateful to get? You hate "big government" put your money where you big flapping mouths are! Work for minimum wage and no benefits.

That's what I work for. And I pay taxes (making less than $15,000 a year). I pay federal taxes (income, SS, Medicare, and self-employment), Kentucky state income taxes. I'm fortunate that my spouse got one of those stimulus jobs that you insist that not ONE job was created... but spouse got one and, after 10 years, we have employer-provided health insurance but it costs us $600 a month plus a huge deductible and co-pays. Bet YOU don't have anything close to THAT!

ALSO! I am sick and tired of hearing about these rich "job creators". Where the hell have they been since 2002? They haven't created a single job, just hoarding more and more money (just like YOU!)

STFU about how you got the WIN on this deal. You got the deal for YOU and your corporate masters, not for us who pay your salary, benefits and pension.

How are you going to get that when you put us working class out of work?

Oh, and the economy? I have a savings account at my locally-owned bank. They have an "interest calculator" that uses 5% as the default on the calculator. I haven't seen 5% interest on a savings account since the 60s/70s. My savings account interest right now is 0.1% annual. I should be thankful for THAT???

I won't hold my breath.

My President is the grownup in DC...

John Boehner is throwing the "blank check" card at my President?
When it was GWB who stole a credit card to fund two wars and give away billions to war contractors associated to Blackwater (aka Watkins pyramid crap and Cheney oil war for profits)and NEVER put that in the federal budget? And the asshat Republicans are blaming THAT on President Obama?
Give me a freaking break!
The Republicans want to cut "entitlements". Hell! The entitlements are the hedge fund people, the big bankers, the oil companies and everyone who pay NOTHING near what us "little people" pay.
The Republicans keep telling us working people that we need to cut down on our expenses, find new revenue sources (read=take a second and even third job at minimum wage and NO benefits and be grateful for the opportunity to be a serf).
But the Republicans in the House & Senate think that suggesting the hedge fund peeps, the big banks, the oil companies...what THEY claim are "small businesses" are being "harassed" because we want them to pay the same percentage the rest of us pay.
My President is the grownup. He laid it out plain and simple. The Republicans have been loud and clear since January 2009... President Obama is a one-term president according to the GOP, but he represents WE THE PEOPLE, and the Republican Party just can't have that because their corporate masters say so.
Give me a freakin break...

After a month of mourning...

Miss my dogs, but after a month of mourning, I'm ready to get back into the fray.
But since it is our country's birthday, I'll just keep this post upbeat and positive.
For many, it's the Fourth of July; a day of parades, flying flags, family get-togethers, fireworks and (to many) a day off from work!
For me, it's always been Independence Day.
Maybe I'm nitpicking, but it's a subtle distinction of semantics.
Maybe because I come from immigrant stock on one side of my family that mostly wasn't particularly welcome in America.
My father's people were Irish, who came in waves during the early through mid 1800s. It's been a while, and I'll forgive people who don't remember "Irish need not apply" for job openings. I do have an ancestral Irish relation who was a fairly high-profile and well-known Civil War general, who was also military post-CW, but most were laborers, roughnecks and general ne'er-do-wells.
My mother's family were Czech and Romany. (My father's Irish mother thought that my mother's immigrant father was not quite "up to snuff" socially, despite the fact that he was a very successful furrier in the NYC area.)
In any event, my immigrant ancestors came to America for one very specific reason: Independence! A real opportunity to rise up to potential or even beyond any expectations ever thought of in the "old country".
This Independence Day, I'm feeling more than a little distressed at the direction my beloved country is taking.
My new state senator Rand Paul To Unemployed: Quit Whining And Get Back To Work.
"As bad as it sounds, ultimately we do have to sometimes accept a wage that's less than we had at our previous job in order to get back to work and allow the economy to get started again," he said. "Nobody likes that, but it may be one of the tough love things that has to happen."
Rand Paul also keeps flip-flopping on the question of a federally mandated minimum wage.
And, just yesterday Rand Paul made this incredibly silver spoon elitist comment on CNN "It's not that we will have equal outcome. In fact, the American dream is that those who work harder and those who merit it will have unequal outcomes, that they will gain more of whatever the American dream is."
Those who "merit" it? MERIT???
Give me a break.
By the way, brings us back to your earlier point about how we should be sooo grateful accepting a wage LESS than our previous job while the cost of living keeps increasing exponentially to the benefit of corporations.
Hey Senator! How about we change it so that EVERY Senator and Congresscritter works for the federal minimum wage? I work for minimum wage on my non-farm job, my farm job works out to be about 30 cents an hour last time I figured it out.
Oh! And NO benefits! No vacation, no sick days, and CERTAINLY no health insurance or pension. Let's see how much you "merit" anything.
And that brings me back in a roundabout way to Independence Day.
In the "old country" my ancestors came to America fleeing monarchies and dictatorships and lives of heart-aching, back-breaking toil for no reward. (Oops! I guess there's that's pesky "merit" thing...)
It's a very sad state of affairs that the USA I grew up in fought huge battles for equal rights, for equal opportunity for EVERY American, but the GOP is more than delighted to hand over "independence" to corporations and Wall Street.
Still, it remains "Independence Day" for me, no matter how some on the extreme right want to rewrite American history.

tonight we say goodbye to Magnolia

Maggie left for the Rainbow Bridge a couple of hours ago. I'm sure Hogger is there to welcome her.

Maggie as a puppy when she first showed up on the farm so many years ago:

Maggie fighting with a Kleenix box:

She discovers flowers:

Maggie with spouse (she thought she was still just a puppy!)

and Mags a few years ago in her prime:

Miss you so much now Magnolia...but will never forget you.

Again, there are most times more important in life than politics and media whores.

No politics tonight. I say goodbye to one of my best friends.

Sometimes things just overwhelm petty politics.

Today I had to sadly say goodbye to my 15-year-old dog who has suffered from cancer but lived life the best he could to the end:

Hogger

It's not just Hogger I am weeping for tonight, it's also his mom, whom we lost in February, and Little Ellis who left us last winter. And Magnolia, who is also elderly special needs, who will most likely be leaving us soon as well.

Girliedog, Hogger's mom

Hogger & Ellis

When Ellis came to live with us, Hogger really believed we got him a puppy all for himself!

Left us a few years ago, but remembered well:

CD, Hogger's father who left us a few years ago from a similar cancer. Have you ever seen a sweeter face? He was a full-bred pitbull.

Magnolia, who is desperately trying to recover from a grand mal seizure out of nowhere last week and is desperately trying to regain control of her back legs:

And also Fawnskinmudpuppy who said goodbye to Oreo today as well.

We only have our furrybabies on loan for a short while, but what we get in return is more love than we probably deserve, and we are so much MUCH better for that short time shared.

Some links for the furrbutt moms & dads who have said good bye or are reaching that point.

Til Then

Saying Goodbye

Waiting at the Rainbow Bridge (Sarah McLachlan)

ETA: (h/T to High Peaks at Palingates)

A statement made just about four years ago by Gretchen Jackson, co-owner of Barbaro, the horse who was injured during the 2006 Preakness and later died. She said at the time "Grief is the price we all pay for love."
What she said made a huge impression on me and I tacked a copy of this statement up on my fridge so I would continue to think about it over time. I don’t think any of us would change this equation, even if we could. To not grieve would render our love meaningless, and to not love would consign us to a life of constant, if low-level grief.
I think all of us who have loved a cat or a dog or a person we later lost would agree, that the pain of loss, however acute and ongoing it may be, is but a tiny fraction of the joy that our love brought us and our loved one over the years. There are millions of lonely shelter cats and dogs, not to mention many lonely people who could have some of that same joy in their lives if we would only stop to realize that both the grief and the love are something we as humans should learn to celebrate. The love always trumps the grief, because while we only grieve after a loss, we continue to love that which we have lost forever.

ok, a couple more videos:
Paws Over the Bridge (Please Stay Just a Little Bit Longer)

I Loved You Best