If you haven’t received this via email (you can get on the email list at www.whitehouse.gov), here is a good schematic that shows you a top line view of what the debt ceiling agreement contained and how it was structured.
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I’m so stunned by the dysfunction of the Republican party and the carryover to overall governmental dysfunction, that I’m beside myself. There is a huge divide between ideology and governance. Ideology has to do with believing in a particular viewpoint. Governance has to do with doing what is best for the largest majority and for the country as a whole. Tea Party pledges, right wing ideology, and an uncompromising set of beliefs are fine in theory. They encourage discussion and debate and help to move all ideologies (right or left) closer to the center, which is where the best of government can typically be found. But when we are in a fabricated crisis, one created by fairly new political players, at a certain point ideology has to give way to governance. In order for any solid union to govern, both ends of the spectrum compromise on their overall beliefs to come to a resolution that all can live with. Balance comes when both parties are equally unhappy, but the country comes out the winner.
For some reason, in this battle, the idea of compromise has become bad. As if compromise means losing political ground, rather than as an agreed upon negotiation to a fair end. I’m a Democrat through and through, as most of my readers are aware. At the same time, the bulk of readership is Boomer and 50 plus and hits to entitlement programs are direct hits to us. I’m pretty sure most of us would be OK with medicare being delayed to 67 or our social security starting a year or two later with a few less dollars. It would hurt our pocketbooks as our earnings diminish, but we’d live with it knowing that we make up about 30% of the population that needs support from these programs. To categorically allow companies like Exxon and Chevron to boast profits of 41 and 43% when most of us can barely pay the rent or can’t find work and then say that closing those companies tax loopholes will hurt job creation is more than just hooey. It is a slap in the face to the poor, working, middle and retired classes of America. So to the priveleged of the tea party, those like Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin, or child support welsher, Joe Walsh, or any of the other newbies who can’t possibly run the greatest country, I say, it is time to re-examine what compromise means. Do any of them ever compromise in their relationships or it is always “my way or the highway”. Everyone in life has to compromise. It is the way of the world. A bissel of this and a bissel of that, as my great grandmother used to say while making a meshuggenah (crazy) sign behind my uncompromising grandmother’s back. I may not be technically “gray” since I do admit to coloring my hair, but the void for boomers and 50 plussers who want to have their own voice in the “green” market is finally filled. Gray is Green, developed with the expertise of parent organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council, is grabbing interest with their website and actionables all focused on, and dedicated to giving a voice to our generation on green issues. Check it out (www.grayisgreen.org) and sign up for their newsletter to stay on top of who is doing what in which communities to promote and protect our fragile blue planet.
So, you want to be ahead if the latest viral trends? Remember planking, where people would take pics of themselves, lying like a plank (in a stiff as a board position) in odd places. Except that a few errors in judgement had a couple of kids falling to their deaths from planking in unsafe spots…like on a balcony railing many floors up…yeah. Well here it’s the latest viral trend. Owling. Couple of days old. Silly, funny. Caution advised in choosing staging areas. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/15/owling-replacing-planking_n_896415.html I truly have a love-hate relationship with the US political system. Watching the fight for the Republican nomination is kind of like the rubbernecking Southern Californians are famous for passing car accidents on the 405, the 101, the 10, the 5…
It seems to be gearing up to be the Bachmann (ugh) gob smack of the next year and a half and I’m already addicted.
My view: Michele Bachmann is a polished, polarizing, candidate who is a bunch smarter than Sarah Palin, so stands to gain more support from the ultra right and right wing Republicans. I can’t stand her and haven’t been able to stand her since she started sharing her 2 cents on Anderson Cooper. She caters to a very white, very Christian, very ultraconservative segment of the US population, holds onto a narrow and dated view of how to run this country and simply doesn’t represent many segments of today’s America. But heck, she’s telegenic.
Here she is today:
I hate to speak against another woman at any time. But she doesn’t represent a single thing I believe in. Nuff said. Here are a few snippets from various new organizations:
From USA Today:
From the BBC:
From The Globe and Mail:
And a batch of tweets, fresh off of twitter:
latimesLos Angeles Times
Michele Bachmann: Right town, wrong John Wayne http://lat.ms/ixsgPX RT @latimesmuskal
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 LeftsideAnnieKate McIntyre
MIchele Bachmann may have a “titanium spine” – but she also has a swiss cheese brain. #CrazyShelley @KeithOlbermann #fok
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 thinkprogressThinkProgress
“The President of the United States is threatened by my candidacy. He fears me.” — Michele Bachmann, 6/27/11
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 gretawireGreta Van Susteren
Eliot Spitzer calls Rep Michele Bachmann a âfringeâ candidate? says he doesnât take her seriously?:… http://fxn.ws/m3JU8K
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 steveweinsteinSteve Weinstein
Michele Bachmann might love her own foster kids, but she wants to kill Grandma. #medikill
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 allanbrauerallanbrauer
Michele Bachmann is the perfect representative of today’s GOP. She marches in 100% lockstep with the GOP on every issue.
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 lezgetreallezgetreal
Michele Bachmann Tries To Tap Into John Wayne Myth, Compares Self To Notorious Serial Killer Instead http://nblo.gs/jJ7MH
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allanbrauerallanbrauer
Stop talking about how extreme Michele Bachmann is. Talk instead about how completely mainstream her views are in today’s GOP.
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 MattOrtegaMatt Ortega
NBC News: @TomPetty unhappy with Michele Bachmann‘s use of “American Girl” and in process of issuing C&D letter.
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 marklevinshowMark R. Levin
Congressman Michele Bachmann up next to talk about her Presidential run! http://fb.me/YbFiQhP9
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 Marnus3Joseph J. Santorsa
Michele Bachmann officially threw her straight jacket into the ring today. #p2 #shutterisland
I love a good read. And I love the feeling I get from a book that I just don’t want to put down. That is the case with The Map of True Places (HarperCollins;), by Brunonia Barry, the New York Times bestselling author of The Lace Reader .
It is a kind of a coming-of-age story – when your age is in your thirties and you should have gone through this soul search at a much younger age. The heroine, Zee, is a Boston psychotherapist, who had to grow up too fast to come of age as a gir. Her life gets turned inside out and upside down when a patient’s crisis and her ill father’s need for her care throws her into a place that she doesn’t want to, but must revisit. There are quite a few turns and twists in the plotline, so I don’t want to give away anything, other than to tell you that Zee’s story starts out with a bizarre and wild past that morphs into a rigidly controlled present. The rigidity is paralleled by her father’s illness, her return to Salem (some delicious witchiness that Salem tourism conjures up) and her desire for freedom expresses in Yeats, Hawthorne, and star (and love) searching. As far as the plot went, unfortunately I kind of saw everything coming, as the author didn’t (purposefully or not) adequately hide important clues and information to the deep and dark past along the way. I would have preferred to be more surprised. But while the plotline itself may not be perfect, Barry’s understanding of her characters and how she unfolds their emotional lives to the reader is what makes this book move. At middle age, we are all coming to terms with the fact that our parents are also aging and that they will need our help to transition from old age to old, old age, and from old, old age to death. In this book, Zee is much younger than middle age. Her father’s demise is very young (and a bit too close in age to our middle age for comfort), resulting in quite a few moments that had me recoiling from my fears of my old, old age. Barry takes the reader deep into the mind of Zee, her father, and all the players that make this book a compelling read. I could not put it down – which for me, with no extra time on my hands, tells you that it held me from beginning to end. The Map of True Places is almost about real places, but more, it is about Zee heading out on an emotional and physical journey to find her place without hiding from an emotionally crippled past. Worth the read. Feel free to share your own thoughts about finding your own place in life and Harper Collins may have some additional copies I can send your way. 
Look what I happened across in the parking garage at Target this morning. How old is this car? I couldn’t determine make or model, but how cool is this? 
This is why it is amazing to own a pet care business in Los Angeles. Impossible to keep one’s heart closed to Nature with these backdrops. Aaaaahhh… This is an incredibly cool idea. Innovation in wind energy…think reeds in a marsh. I found this on a facebook friend’s stream. I never would have seen this otherwise! http://news.discovery.com/tech/wind-power-without-the-blades.html |
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