A Budget? or Punishment!

Letters to the editor: All are punished
Posted: 07/21/2009 05:18:20 PM PDT

Tuesday's headlines read, "California governor, lawmakers reach budget deal."

I wonder how many of these "lawmakers" will attend the funerals of people who die for lack of care; how many will visit the elderly who are forced into nursing homes; how many of their children will have to attend over sized classrooms; how many of their children go without college - the list is endless as are the numbers of people who "care" but who will lose their "caring" jobs.

At the end of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet," the Prince shouts at the players as he views the sorrow that surround them: "All are punish'd!"

All are "punish'd": Democrats for forgetting "the least of these." And Republicans who do not care.

WHICH IS WORSE: USING THE WORD, "CRAP" OR THE WORD, "NEGRO" ...

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the Republican National Committee on Saturday admonished one of his potential successors for giving his fellow Republicans a CD featuring a song called "Barack the Magic Negro."

Apparently someone named Chip Saltsman, who is seeking the Republican National Committee(RNC) chairmanship, sent potential committee members a 41-track CD by conservative comedian Paul Shanklin a Christmas message that included a song to the tune of "Puff the Magic Dragon." It is about President-elect Barack Obama and was entitled "Obama the 'Magic Negro'".

I can not be the only person who thinks this kind of rhetoric is beyond the pale. And I can only hope that more eloquent "word smiths" than I will condemn Misters Saltsman, Shanklin and others who claim such disgusting, trash talk is simply a "sense of humor."

The question I have is why does this type of thing come from fundamentalist Christians, conservative Republicans, and/or folks who claim to "love America"? I just don't get it. I just don't get it!

REPUBLICANS, PUBLIC RESTROOMS, ETC

And now another, yes another, Republican has been nabbed by the toilet police ... this time it is a Daytona Beach City Commissioner named Mike Shallow. Perhaps the Republican Party should start recruiting at the nation's public restrooms? Think of the possibilities! Why use those flimsy wooden voting booths? It’s costing the city of Minneapolis $15,000 to fix up Senator Larry Craig’s old stall. Save on Taxes, Vote in a Stall! On second thought perhaps Craig's appeal on the constitutional grounds of Free Speech with reference to his actions "in the stall" should succeed first.

And, there is this sidebar on the Craig story ...
David Phillips, pictured above, is the man reported to have "tricked" with Craig, you know -- in the public restroom. Phillips' license plates read: "POOFTER" which the dictionary says is a negative British colloquialism for gay men. Ya' learn something new ever day! Anyway, after 13 years the Commonwealth of Virginia apparently has caught on and is recalling his "vanity" plates. Why? Sounds like the cover fits the book!

NOTHING on poverty

A small group of my brothers (probably not sisters) in Christ met in Washington last weekend at something they called a "Values Summit." The only thing on there minds were gays and abortions and which Republican presidential candidate would be toughest on "them gays" (and their "gay agenda") and the "abortionists" even though surveys of that same group say that the economy and Iraq are their number one & two concerns.

David Kuo, President Bush's former special assistant in the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives seem aghast and stopped commenting on the "summit" saying in his blog, Beliefnet. "I must end the post now or else I will write things that I will have to repent for."

So it seems that the religious extremists are still in charge of the Republican primaries.

At the conclusion of the values "event" it seems that former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee won the day for those attending until call-in voters were added and then "the great switch-a-rue from 'livable' republican to right wing appeaser", former governor, Mitt Romney of Massachusetts was first. Now ain't that special.