I knew that we would be getting our money around the time that Molly’s birthday would happen and just by pure happenstance she had the week before Presidents Day off. I quickly took the time off as well, determined to spend the week at home and hang out with her instead of working from home and just letting the week go to waste. Then I thought about a trip with her. Some place that she had never been too before, a place that she would appreciate. A place that I vaguely remembered, but had an excellent time at when i was a kid. Washington DC was that location.

My parents took Joe and I to the Smithsonian when we were kids and I still remember it, little flashes, nothing concrete, but this was a plan and it started rolling from there. Maybe this is where I got my love of history, I am not sure, but I do know that she will be immersed in it. She has been given a little notepad to carry around with her to put notes in and is required to write 5 things she learned every day while we are gone. This will be accompanied by pictures of the locations with her little blurb. I hope to dear god she gets inspired, this is the age that she needs to understand that she can start to make a difference in her own life. She needs to grab on to something and run with it. I want her to understand that her dreams can be reached with some work. I want her to understand that nothing is standing in her way of accomplishing anything, other than herself.

By understanding how our government works, understanding the amount of time that this country has been around and what this country was built on, maybe that will foster a sense of pride in her that I feel about being an American. Granted, i look at two flags with equal value, the South Korean flag and the United States flag, they are equal in my eyes. My mother is Korean and my father born int he United States. That is my legacy. Molly is from two parents that come from different ethnicities, but she is American through and through. She is what this country is about, if you want to talk about a melting pot, she is the perfect example. She is part Korean, she is part Filipino, she is part Caucasian, she is part Native American, she is part Chinese, there is probably more so in her background that we do not even know. She is the perfect example of multiculturalism today. I hope she takes this mantle and runs with it.

The United States is the mutt of the world. This is the most perfect line from Stripes. Nobody wanted us, hell, they kicked us out in some regards and we found a home. Molly is a mutt and she has to understand what this country is about, what she is about and I hope that this trip instills in her the belief that she can do anything.

I am a proud American, i love the red white and blue, I love the stars and stripes, I love this country and all that it has to offer. Hopefully my daughter will grow to appreciate it as much as I do.

Political debate has always been a needed element in our society. Without debate and compromise you cannot effectively run a nation. You especially cannot run a super power with 300 million people in it. I enjoy debate, I am rather good at it as well, I can understand the subtle nuances and deflections that occur in a debate fairly easily. Sometimes I will take the bait and then the debate goes in favor of my opponent. The idea of staying on subject and confusing the other is something that I still have not been able to master on a regular basis.

In the 80′s when Reagan was in office, a lot of policy was set, with one of the most liberal Speaker’s of the House. Government was not perfect, but it ran, with a lot of compromise. You had the leader of the Conservative party and the leader of the Liberals work together on policy that put us in a position to eliminate the Soviet Union’s threat, effectively ending the cold war. This was done through debate and compromise. I have learned that if one party is happy, the other is not, the best way to gauge if something is effective is if both parties sit there and agree on something, but neither of them are really happy about it. That is how you keep things in the middle, balanced, and in essence moving the government right along.

In the 90′s the economy went sour and a Democratic President was elected. Shortly there after the Republicans took control of the house and congress as a whole. They debated, they butted heads, but things got done. The economy healed, the budget was balanced, in fact it had a surplus. Debate and compromise, that is how things get done. Nobody was happy, but government moved, it rolled right along.

When 2000 opened a Republican President sat in the white house with a Republican congress. I honestly do not remember most of what Bush enacted before 9/11. After 9/11 hit the country which was and has probably been for the last decade more center right in views, turned to the hard right. It became an issue of National Defense. Everything was about protecting the country against everything that was deemed anti-American. Illegal wiretaps started, terror alerts appeared, the government exploded in size (under a republican administration no less), bureaucracy was everywhere. Rightfully so, we had an enemy that was something completely new, an enemy that was not a single entity living in a single location, they were everywhere. Sacrifices were made for the greater good at a time when we needed to ratchet up defense of the country. We did what we NEEDED to do at that time. We found ourselves in Afghanistan, kicking the crap out of the Taliban. Then for some still unknown rationale, we ran into Iraq. We were now in two different wars in two different locations. At the same time, the democrats started to use a tactic of not doing much in congress, not doing a whole lot of compromise, BUT there was still action being taken, still the government was working, in the sense that if you look at it like an engine, we had just hit 100,000 miles and needed to replace our belts and hoses as the engine was not working as well as it could be and was slowing down.

At this time as well the economy took a tumble of epic proportions. Deregulation over the past 12 years had finally come back and bite us on our ass. Foreclosures were rampant, jobs were being lost. We were at our darkest hour. This caused an upheaval in the congress and the Democrats took control. A very Liberal politician named Nancy Pelosi somehow took control. They tried to undermine a lot of what George Bush was trying to do in his final two years as President. But, President Bush worked with the congress and some things got done, not a whole lot, but things got done, even slower than it did in his first four years in office.

Apparently someone had decreed that a Messiah would lead us out of the darkness and possibly the most popular Presidential figure since Ronald Reagan took office, won the Presidency. Not only did he win the Presidency, but a wave of Democrats flew into congress as well. So many of them in fact that they were almost able to do as they wanted without a whole lot of need to debate and compromise. With the fact that you had a President that people really liked at the time in control of the Executive branch of the government, the Republican minority took what the Democrats did in the early years of the Bush Presidency and amplified it 100 fold. They disagreed with everything and stopped anything that they could by literally doing nothing. I mean our tax dollars which were going to pay these people for the first two years of the Obama Presidency went to people that did not do a damn thing. Partly, I believe, because they needed to get the popularity of Obama down. He was too popular and they needed to make sure that he did not succeed in anything that he tried to implement. The only reason TARP passed was because it was a needed step to get us out of the hole that we were in.

A group of do gooders came out and established the Tea Party, the concept was straight forward, limit the amount of spending the government was doing. The concept was great, it was a grass roots effort by every day people. This group morphed into a hard right group that made even the most conservative Republicans currently in office look moderate. This group took on a life of its own and, in my opinion, turned into something that was a good idea at first, and turned into a hitman style party. They started feeding on themselves. They started going after people that were not “conservative” enough. They targeted Republicans that had voted for TARP and mercilessly eliminated as many of them as possible during the midterm elections. They tried to replace them with people with oddball ideals that would not function even if they were elected. They had a darling of a personality to lead them, a failed Governor from Alaska, who also failed at becoming the Vice President against Obama. One of the defacto leaders of this group was a lunatic that people seem to think really cares about the country, when in fact every action she has done thus far has been about promoting herself. She has consistently shown that she has no real ability to do anything other than repeat a dogmatic mantra that will appeal to people of like mind.

The Democrats did not help themselves. They were ushered in to get us out of two wars, they were ushered into office to get the economy on track. Granted, TARP did eliminate the purge of jobs we were losing, and it did give tax breaks to many people in the United States, they decided to tackle something that was not a major need at the moment, healthcare. Now, I am not insane, this has been the golden fleece they have been looking for since FDR. Due to how badly the Republicans lost during the previous two election cycles, the Democrats had the ability to push healthcare through. They showed they wanted some Republican input, they had created a bill which was flawed and said what could we do to make this stronger and more workable. The Republicans, standing on the door step of history debated and debated and debated, but did nothing in regards to really compromising. If anything, their compromise was, lets throw what you did away and start from scratch.

Now, I am no expert, but when you have something in front of you, that you pretty much do not like, but are really in no position to turn it down since you do not have any real ability to do so. Compromise is your best bet. This was not the case. They continued the party of no and tried to use every procedure to block anything from happening. Seeing an opportunity to get what they finally could, the Democrats passed a bill that was not perfect, heavily flawed, but the bill itself finally did something for healthcare in the positive. It kept people from being denied coverage, it allowed kids to stay on their parents insurance till they were 26. It closed a loop hole in Medicare Part D. It did a lot, but it also added trillions of dollars in spending to an already cash strapped government.

The Republicans and the Republican machine went to work, they created lies around it which their minions kept repeating. If one knows enough about speech, one knows if you say something enough, then people will start to believe it. This was the underhanded tactic the Republicans and then the Tea Party decided to take. They made a piece of legislation that is pretty solid (granted, flawed in many respects) and demonized it through basically lying about a great majority of it. The Republicans did this with TARP as well. This apparently has become the MO for the republican party since the Bush era in office.

The midterm elections came by and a wave of Republicans came flying into office. The House became much more right wing than moderate, the senate as well was more polarized.

So here we sit, 2011. Congress is divided, the house is filled with a bunch of like minded hard right wing Republicans, moderate Democrats, and hard left wing Democrats. The Senate is still in control of the Democrats at the moment, but the ideological mindset of the Republicans has turned to the right. There is no balance. The party of no, in my opinion, will continue. We the People, are the ones that created this mess. By electing people that will not work with each other. We the People, are destroying our own future by not compromising. We the People, are hurting ourselves and blaming the people in Congress for it.

Simple things that can be done to fix the government?

• Get rid of the party nominations, let the candidates run on their own merit. If you only allow Republicans to vote for their Republican nominee, then the formula is painfully simple. That nominee is going to say what ever he/she needs to say to get that nomination from this small group of voters. They will jockey themselves to out Republican the rest of the field. So what you end up with at the end are two candidates that basically are the best of their parties ideals. They unleash them on to the masses to see who can get elected. Get rid of the party nominations, or allow anyone to vote for them regardless of party. That way the nominee has to appeal to a larger audience. If the larger audience is Right wing, they will elect the ring wing person. If the larger audience is more moderate, then they will elect the moderate. But if you have a large majority of moderates, or people that are closer to the center, being given an option between the best republican nominee versus the best democratic nominee… you are not electing a person, you are electing the values of a party that helped get that person there.

  The perfect example of this is in Delaware where Christine O’Donnell was elected by the Republicans to run against some democrat whose name is escaping me at this point. Christine O’Donnell was possibly the worst candidate in recent memory to be running for senator. She beat out Michael Castle, a well known figure in Delaware and a person that most likely would have won the senate seat for the Republicans during the midterms. Christine O’Donnell was unelectable. The Republican national party knew that, but they could not do anything but support her since this is who that group wanted. This also occurred in Nevada, where the Republicans could have run a head of cabbage against Harry Reid and won, instead of running a head of cabbage, which was polling better than Reid, they chose Sharon Angle who sadly was worse than a head of cabbage and they lost out on that seat as well.

  Let the people who have a vested interest in who gets elected to represent them, allow them to determine who they should be voting for.
  

• Make the filibuster what it really is. A person sitting there reading out of the dictionary for hours/days on end. It has been used to do nothing but stop anything from occurring.
  
• Simplify the tax code, a fair flat tax across the board with no loop holes. Simply stated, everyone should pay 10%.
  

We need to start getting ourselves straight. We may not like each other’s policies, we may not like each other as people, but we should respect each other for our opinions. We should go out of our way to do what we can for each other, our government should go out of its way to help the people of the United States move forward. Name calling, associating people with Nazi’s. Instead of trying to demonize each other. Work with each other. Nobody wants to hear that nothing got done because of petty disputes. Just work together.. for the greater good.

Tuesday the senate will still remain with the Democrats, I just do not see enough seats changing hands. They will lose a few seats, but I still think the Democrats will have a slim majority. The house, that is another story, I think that will see a massive purge of Democrats, possibly in the 50 seat range. Some are saying 60ish, I think it will be more around 50.

Specific races:

I really think Harry Reid is going to lose out to the wack job Sharon Angle. It frightens me that people will elect someone that is so far out of the mainstream in thought pattern. Granted, Harry Reid is not the poster child of being even a mediocre politician, but he is at least less off the mainstream path than Sharon Angle is.

Barbara Boxer will beat the former HP CEO. Once the Republicans learn that the reason Californians flock to the Democrats is because of social issues, they will start fielding Fiscal Conservatives with Progressive Social views. That is the ONLY way the republicans will win in California. Yet they keep pushing these Moderate Conservatives, they say the same thing over and over again, lower taxes, reduce regulations. Now if one of them mixed in, Gays should have the right to marry, or their should be a path to citizenship for the illegals that are currently in the state. Not only would they win, I think they would win by a landslide.

Jerry Brown will lose to Meg Whitman. As much as I hate to say it, Meg Whitman is the least qualified, least trustworthy politician in America. yet, she has convinced enough people to vote for her. How many years have we heard, we should run the government like a business? How many times have we elected someone to do that? how many times has it failed? Meg Whitman is an uglier version of Arnie, without the snappy one liners. Jerry Brown would be no better, but Meg will most likely win.

Rand Paul will win because people in Kentucky are stupid.

Christine O’Donnell will lose, by a huge margin. She will then become one of two things, a mini Sarah Palin and start to do speeches for people around the nation, or disappear. I am hoping for the disappearing, but I am sure FOX News will find a use for her. She has a pretty face and is actually a pretty good speaker. She may have learned that chanting spells.

I fully expect that the Republicans will continue their campaign of No from here on out. The Democrats need to capitalize on this. They first need to create a plan of action to start jump starting the economy, they need to go to the people with the plan and show them in no uncertain terms that these plans will work. Once the Republicans block everything, they need to call them out, point out that the gridlock that is going to happen over the next two years, is because the people they have elected are not doing anything other than saying no.

Now the Republicans need to understand that them winning the house and cutting into the senate lead does not mean that America likes their plan. They just like the plan of the current administration less. Now going in and basically trying to do all these wonderful far right wing things will make the radio shows and FOX News happy, it will not help them in the least.

What i would love to see once this is all over, is that both parties go behind closed doors and go, you know, nobody likes us, we are the most hated group of people in the nation, we better start working together to get things working as opposed to just sitting there pointing fingers at each other and calling each other names all the time.

Chances of that happening are about as good as the Clippers winning the NBA Title this year, but I can dream.

This is also why are country is so screwed up at the moment. I spent four amazing days two weeks ago at ComicCon, yes, you could label us as “Dorks”, “Nerds”, “Fanboys”, “Trekkies”, or what ever you want to. At the convention, we were all people, we enjoyed what we were around and had a good time. Last weekend I spent 4 days at my High School Reunion. I knew a lot of them would call themselves “Conservatives” and some of them were “Progressives” but all in all, we were “Baumholder Bucs” and we were people that had a good time with each other. In both cases, religion was never interjected, politics were not interjected, we were a group of individuals, enjoying ourselves.

I listen to the news and without a doubt you hear the term “Conservative” and depending on your flavor, it is either used in a negative or positive tone. The issue here is not the terminology, it is the fact that we have created buckets for people to discount others. Conservatives HATE Obama, Conservatives HATE anything that does not fit into the Conservative ideology which is pretty laid out and easy to follow. Progressives LOVE Obama. Progressives HATE anything that would even come close to being considered Conservative Ideology.

Had a really good talk with a friend of mine at the reunion. He summed it up best from a Conservatives ideology. There are true Conservatives that live by the Conservative creedo outlined by Reagan and taken to further extremes by the talking heads on the radio and FOX News. Basically anything that is NOT Conservative is labeled Liberal/Progressive. This is a very Black and White view of the world. It is a Good vs Bad concept. It is a Right vs. Wrong concept. This is NOT the way the world works. This is NOT the way people are and it is frightening. He made mention of a guy that was running for a state seat in Georgia. He had some conservative views, but also some views that were NOT conservative. That guy was labeled a Liberal. Liberal is Georgia is almost like labeling someone in Germany a Nazi.

The worst thing that could have happened to this country was the conservative movement. I am not decrying the politics, I agree with a lot of the politics in some cases. The fact that you had a very charismatic leader in Ronald Reagan that did what he needed to do is great. But the minute you created the term conservative and created a movement of conservatives, you knew immediately that there would be a balance forged, another group would appear, the Liberals/Progressives appeared. Here is the irony, the Conservative movement created the Liberals, not because a group got together and called themselves Liberals or Progressives. The Conservatives created the group by labeling people that did not follow the conservative creedo. It would be like going out on a playground and playing with a group of people that had the same likes as you and created a club, then started running around pointing fingers at people that did not want to join that club a name. It is not like these people were in a group, but now this group was created out of thin air because the original group created the secondary group.

As time grew on, people saw the Conservative movement and started to join. It is almost like someone that becomes a born again Christian. They embrace it with both hands and believe it and any time they are questioned, they try and out Christian the next guy. The guy that grew up in a Christian household is not as devote as the Born Again. So you have people basically trying to out conservative each other to be part of this group. To one end of the spectrum you have the Rush Limbaugh’s, the Michael Savage’s, to the other end of the Spectrum (in a black and white world) you have the John McCain’s.

The Right wing has done an exemplary job in regards to making sure that their ideology is pushed forward. They do this by not agreeing with anything that is brought forward by someone that is not part of their group. When nothing gets done, they blame the other side. When something gets done without their input, which was asked for, they say that they were shut out and it is entirely liberals pushing stuff down our throat. Believe me, this is done on both sides. The perfect example of this is the health care bill. It was brought forth by Liberals in congress when the democrats had control of congress and it was pushed through. The only real issue here is, and I am not sure how much to believe on this, that they asked for Republican input and support, they made some concessions, but still got -0- support from that party.

Why is our government not working? Our government is not working because you have two polar opposites fighting against each other that only see black versus white, they only see a right versus wrong. There will always be conservatives, there will always be liberals/progressives, what this government and what this country is missing, are the moderates. We as a nation are missing that third group that can work with the far left and can work with the far right. I have a lot of respect for people that go over the aisle. Ben Nelson, Olympia Snow, John McCain (until he went all conservative to get the republican nod in the previous election), Scott Brown are people that we need more of. If nobody works together, then nothing is going to get done.

I am disgusted by both parties. I am disgusted by the fact that our government can’t freaking agree to get anything done because of ideology of right vs. wrong, black vs. white. The sad fact is that we as a country are doing this to ourselves, our own people are only voting for the truest of true Conservatives or truest of true liberals. During primaries for party nods, you have moderates forsaking moderate beliefs, just to score points to win their parties nomination, then turn around and try to be what they probably are when it is for the general populice. I cannot trust those people, because in all honesty, I have no idea what they really stand for. Are they standing for me and my beliefs, or are they standing for their party and their parties beliefs?

We as Americans need to stand up and start having these people work with each other. In our jobs, we have team members that we have to work with. We may not agree with how they do things, or what they propose, but we work with it, we have to work with it, if not then the company itself breaks apart. Our government has not been working with each other since the early 90′s. The California State government has not been working for us since the late 80′s. The people that we are electing are not people that really should even be in government, they are NOT representing you nor I, they are representing a concept and right now that concept is flawed, on both sides of the table, the reason it is flawed is because the middle ground has dried up and is being run out of office.

People like Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Michael Savage are killing this country. MSNBC, FOX News are both taking knives and stabbing this great country in the heart. It is sickening. Unless there is an ideological change in this country to start putting people into office that are willing to work, and really work with everyone, and not just people within their own party, there will be a bigger split, a bigger break down of our government until it really stops working. Right now it is broken down on the side of the road, but the engine is still good, it just needs to get fixed so that all of the pieces work with each other to get it running again.

On one side, you have the former eBay CEO and the other side is another multi millionaire. Both are using a huge amount of their own money to campaign, and I mean an obscene amount of money to possibly become the Golden States next Governor. I am not even joking in regards to how much of their own money we are talking about. I think Whitman spent like 70+ million of her own money and Poizner something a little less than that. That is obscene and almost makes me want to vomit right there. I mean really, who would spend that amount of money to take a public service job, unless they know for a fact that they will recoup that amount of money and even more in the long run. That right there makes me highly suspicious.

These two have been going at each other almost non stop, trying basically to out Conservative each other, when in fact they are both fairly moderate. This turns me off as well. Why not just go out and say, hey, I am a moderate, I am not some right wing lunatic? No, both of them are grabbing on to the reigns of being a “conservative” and that makes me sick as well. We do not need conservatives, me need moderates, we need people that will reach across the aisle and make compromises. Conservatives will not do it, nor will Liberals. We do not NEED more gridlock, the California government is almost as bad as the 405 freeway at the peak of rush hour right now. By filling our government with more people on the opposite ends of the spectrum, the less and less will get done. So already, there are two strikes against both of the candidates.

So how did I decide what to do? Being a very moderate republican with some liberal leanings, who do i support?

Steve Poizner gave money for the Al gore Joseph Lieberman recount in 2000. Meg Whitman donated and actively supported Barbara Boxer in 2004. How can these two people running under the “conservative” moniker have done these things? I mean to me, these are interesting to say the least. Poizner, living in California, a traditionally blue state tries to help the democrats win the presidential election. Whitman, living in California, a traditionally blue state tries to help a liberal democrat win re-election in 2004. Yet, both of their platforms they are running are about being “conservative.” They both seem to be dodgy at best in what they are saying now versus what they have done. Third Strike.

I just do not like Poizner, not really sure why, could be because of his stand on the AZ immigration law, or it could be for the fact that he looks like a slimy slimy guy, not sure. But I do give him credit for something, something that Meg Whitman cannot say. He has VOTED in the last 25+ years. Yes, that is right, he actually voted and probably voted for both democrats and republicans in the last 25 years. Meg Whitman did not VOTE since I think 1976.

How can someone, who wants to be the Governor of the greatest state in the United States, not vote for 20+ years? I mean really? If you have any political aspiration, your ass better be voting at least a few times. You had more important things to do? Well maybe if you are Governor, you will have a few important things to do that you cannot just ignore. I mean the lack of voting for over two decades is SHOCKING to say the least. Her response? It was a mistake. Wtf kind of excuse is that?

Hey, I want to be the head of a company, I am going to try and buy my way into that position. It does not matter that I never worked at the company, nor actually even applied to the company, nor actually know what the company does, but boy.. do i feel qualified. That is basically what is going on here.

I am disgusted at my choices, so I am going to pull a Meg Whitman and just not vote. The others in my party can go out and support someone that apparently does not support how government works, but I am not going to be there for them. If she wins the republican ticket, which she probably will in a landslide, i will vote for Jerry Brown. He is crazy as hell, but at least he has a track record, he has voted on things, he is not buying the Governship.

Meg Whitman, I say to you, I hope you lose, it would send a bad message to the country if you won. I also hope that all of the money you have invested in this election is never recouped. You are not spending that kind of coin so that you can “help” the people of this great state. You are doing it to “help” your pocket book. Go back to eBay, go back to where ever it is that you have come from, people like you make me ill for saying you are there for us, when in every aspect of your life thus far, you have not been there.

The PUSD teachers have taken ANOTHER paycut due to budget problems, I think that is two years in a row that they have actually lost money, just to do what they love, which is to teach our children. Yet, we have jacktards in our own government who make millions off of being in power that still get a yearly salary. I am pissed beyond belief at this situation, unless we start screaming at the top of our lungs, nothing will get done.

The email I got today really pissed me off beyond belief:

Dear Parents,

As you are aware, public schools in California have faced alarming and unprecedented reductions in state funding for six of the last nine years. Under the Governor’s current budget proposal, our district’s funding has declined by 11.3% since 2007-08. The impact of this reduction is even greater when inflationary operating costs are factored in.

I know you and your children have felt the impact of some of these reductions. I hope you also feel we have tried to be strategic with the reduced dollars we receive in order to keep our focus on your children’s academic growth. However, in spite of these efforts, you and your children will experience these cuts even more directly next year in the form of increased class sizes and reduced support services. In order to make ends meet next year, the student school year will be reduced from 180 school days to 175 school days. The first day of school will be Wednesday, August 25, rather than Thursday, August 26. The last day of school will be Thursday, June 9, rather than Wednesday, June 15. The complete school calendar can be found on the PUSD website under Hot Topics.

There is some positive news to share. We have recently reached an agreement with our teachers and management staff to reduce salaries a total of 4.3% for the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years. This agreement has allowed us to bring back all tenured teachers who received layoff notices. At the elementary level, this will help bring K-3 class sizes down from the proposed 30:1 to approximately 26:1. It will also provide some relief at the high school level, projected to have the largest increases in class size. The Board of Education and Poway Unified School District are most appreciative of our teachers and managers for electing to take this step to help offset the negative impact of the state financial crisis on our students. Our teachers overwhelmingly passed the agreement with a 78% yes vote. We are currently negotiating with our two classified employee unions and are hopeful that we will be able to reach a similar agreement with all employees.

While our staff has once again led the way in taking a salary reduction during challenging times, it does not solve the financial crisis we currently face, and I am very worried about the additional reductions proposed for K-12 education. In looking at the broader state picture, I am deeply concerned that K-12 education continues to take the brunt of the cuts from the state. In normal times, K-12 education represents about 40% of the state budget, yet we have taken approximately 60% of the budget reductions. When Californians are polled regarding their priorities, education is at the top of the list – yet funding for K-12 schools has taken a disproportionate reduction.

Therefore, we need your help in holding our legislators accountable for not cutting education further and for moving K-12 education back to the top of the state priority list. We need our governor and state legislators to take action to make this happen – to not only talk the talk, but to walk the walk. To do this, we need your voices to be heard in Sacramento. I encourage you to go to the Palomar Council PTA website at www.palomarcouncil.com/advocacy.htm for additional information and sample letters to legislators.

We already count on your support in so many ways at the local school level in terms of fundraising and volunteerism. We could not do what we do without you. I want to thank you for all that you do day in and day out, not only for your child, but for all the children at your school.

Please know we will continue to do our very best with the dollars we receive to provide the best possible education for your children.

Sincerely,
Don Phillips, Superintendent

It started probably in 76 with the election of Jimmy Carter. It was cool to be a Democrat, it was good to be against the Republican system. Then Carter drove the country to shit, which led to the rise of Reagan and the conservative movement. A natural backlash to the rise of the left wing that occurred in the Carter administration. The conservatives took root, they created a system of the war machine, they destroyed communism by making the communists spend themselves into oblivion. They made the business their sole focus, they made capitalism what it has become today. Their only problem was the fact that they aligned themselves with the religious nutjobs of the world. The evangelicals were now becoming part of the government. The separation of church and state was becoming blurred. They aligned themselves with the people that would come out and vote, they aligned themselves with senior citizens, they aligned themselves with the people that lived in the outskirts of the big cities. They aligned themselves with the powerful corporate types, they aligned themselves with the white majority at the time.

Then 92 rolled around and as a natural backlash, the Democrats took over once again. These were not left wing democrats, rather moderate democrats that took over the government. The conservatives were going to far to the right and it was the natural result of the pendulum going to far to one side and it needed to be brought back towards the center. The democrats lost congress due to their own ineptitude, and for the fact that a new group of people rose from the ashes of the conservative movement. The right wing radio talk show hosts that gave their programming away for free. The right wing talk show hosts aligned themselves with the image of Reagan, the last great President, invoking imagery and statements that made people feel good about themselves. They took a good term, liberal, and made it into a horrific term.

Instead of a large group of moderates, people wanted to become true conservatives, they wanted to be everything that Rush Limbaugh and his talking heads wanted them to be. They were a huge voting block that took control of the nation once again. They helped usher in the Bush era. The problem then became, they could not be the party of the 80′s. They did not have communism to fight against, they did not have an enemy, other than people that were “liberals”. Luckily for them, 9/11 happened and they had a target. Instead of terrorists being their lone target, these talk heads made this out to be a religious war of some type. They made it out to be an us versus them, it became about National Security, it became about stripping our rights away for National Security.

There is only so long that you can dangle the carrot in front of the horse and people wised up and voted them out in 06, then the Democrats took to the new medium, the internet and it helped usher Obama into the white house along with a slew of democrats. The talking heads loved it, they were not able to go on the offensive, which they were not able to really do for the 8 years under Bush, they had a new target, Obama and the Liberals.

The problem now is that there are two groups again, but these two groups are at complete opposite ends of the spectrum. They are liberals in charge of the Democratic party and once again, everyone is trying to be more conservative than anyone else on the Republican party. The sad fact is that a majority of the Democrats are probably moderate, but with Pelosi running the show, they are far too left wing.

I fear for this country, it is like having too many people at the fringe of society making decisions to do things and nobody is willing to budge towards the center to get anything done. It has gotten to the point where Conservatives are trying to tag other conservatives as being too liberal and trying to run them out of office. The moderates use to be the middle class of government, now the middle class is shrinking and nothing is getting done.

If you are a pro choice person, but also like tax breaks and small government, you have no choices when you go to vote. When you are a person that cares about homosexual rights, but do not want big government, where do you vote? Every person that you have voted for since 1976 has probably been a lesser evil than the other guy.

Our government is going down a path that it may never recover from. People trying to out do the other by being more of something that really does not exist. I hate the entire process and it makes me sick every time I watch the news, or see political ads, there is nobody in congress that I would re-elect right now, there is nobody in the Democratic party nor the Republican party that I would vote for happily. Nobody in either party stands up for me any longer, they stand up for their party and their parties views. Neither of the parties stand up for me.

Protesters took to the street Saturday before the health care bill is to be voted on today. I saw three large groups of them in various parts of Southern California, one group near my home in PQ, another in Temecula, and a third group in heavily Asian Arcadia.

PQ is a pretty ethnically diverse city, lots of Filipinos, Mexicans, Caucasians… the group protesting the health care bill was evidentially 20-25 strong and all of them physically looked Caucasian. They were on the side of the road with their signs and everything. Went up to Temecula, which is heavily Caucasian with some Asians and Hispanics mixed in. This group was probably 40-50 strong, again, all looked physically Caucasian.

In Arcadia, which is predominantly Asian, there was a third group, about 20-25 strong, holding up signs and opposing the health care bill. Again, they all looked Caucasian.

I am not sure if it is a cultural thing or what, but this was something that really drew my attention. I am by no means a fan of the healthcare bill, but it seems to me that this has broken down along political lines. Does this mean that more Caucasians are conservatives? Not really. I know a majority of Asians that are conservative. It just makes me wonder why it is that I just really saw Caucasians protesting and nobody else. Again, this is just from my visual scan of the crowd.

I know that the Republican party is basically the party that is predominantly Caucasian, but it just seemed strange to me that this was not even slightly more diverse.

The Healthcare bill should pass today and people will scream socialism and liberal control of the government for the next couple of weeks and then it will die down.

I will say this about my Republican friends. It was the Republicans that did not want Medicare, it was the Republicans that slowed down civil rights, it was the Republicans that slowed down Education reform…. now, they are the same group that are trying to slow down healthcare reform and are screaming about protecting Medicare. Seems to me that historically the Republicans have been on the wrong side of things when it comes to social services that they are all taking apart of and trying to defend now days.

I am still of the opinion that if the Republicans came up with the same idea that the Democrats are pushing through Congress right now in regards to Healthcare Reform and it was “their” idea, this would not be an issue. It is no longer about doing what is right, it is about getting your party the check mark for doing it and it is not helping anyone.

Personally, I hope every single incumbent that is up for election next year gets voted out. Then the talking heads cannot sit there and say oh look it is a referendum against the Democrats… it should be a referendum against the people in congress, left or right. Show them that it is not about your party, show them that it is about the people of this great country they should be listening to, not their own party and what will make their party better.

I have a lot of like for people that go against the grain of their own party, Lieberman, Olympia Snowe are prime examples. They are not sitting there worrying about their party, they are sitting there worry about what is best for the people in some regards.

Enough of me ranting, I am going to go back and tweet with my dog.

1. Finding that one roasted peanut inside the rice while eating Indian Food – swear to god, that stuff kills me. I bite into it and my mouth goes numb from the attack on my taste buds. I mean I like peanuts, but when I find it in the rice of an Indian joint, it ruins me for a couple of hours as everything I taste now has this peanut flavor to it. Almost makes me want to wash my mouth out with acid.
   
2. My HOA – I can understand getting a letter saying that I have something on my porch that should not be there. With a picture attached showing the offending object. BUT if in that same picture it shows that my door is open and I am sitting in the background. Why not knock on the front door and ask me why there is a mop drying out on my patio? You obviously had the time to set up the two shots you took, why not instead knock on the screen door and ask me to move it. That saves you from taking a picture and then writing up a letter to me. Retards.
   
3. Auto mechanics – No matter how close I am to an auto mechanic, or know the person. I still feel that whenever I get a quote on a job, they are bending me over and pounding my sphincter. I have to take the Camry into the shop next time I get paid for the radiator. My brother says it should cost no more than $250… but I know that I will hear something like $400 from the guy. I hate auto mechanics.
   
4. I can do that Guy – These are the types of people that take on a task that you know they cannot do properly, but still take charge of it. It is like a person with no legs saying that they can beat Usain Bolt in the 100m dash. When you fully understand that even if you gave them a 90m head start and tied a cinder block to both of Usain Bolts feet that they would still lose, by 9m’s.
   
5. Indy Music Guy – the douchebag that knows every independent music group and keeps using the term.. They are so “real” they have not been changed by the music producers and are playing music that they want to play. He douchebag, there is a reason they are still living in their mom’s basement, it is because they are playing crap nobody really wants to spend money to listen to.
   
6. Homeless Guy with boring sign – How many of these, I am broke, or I need help signs do I need to see. I am not going to give you any money. I do not trust you. I like the guy with the weird signs, like the guy in LA with the “Need to fix spaceship” sign, or the guy on Mira Mesa Blvd that walks around with his white Chihuahua needing to buy dog food. Get a little creative with your signs, then maybe I will help you out.
   
7. C Talent Pornstar on Twitter being Emo Chick – Yeah, I am talking about you Jayla Starr. You got no talent yet you go on twitter bitching about people hating on you. Hey guess what? Your claim to fame is having some guy goo all over you face and you are complaining about people hating on you? I think your life took a wrong turn way before you became a creamatorium.
   
8. Depressing Guy – The guy that sits in the dark in his office all day long lamenting about how difficult his life is. No matter what good news you bring him, he sits and discusses plagues and the latest disease he thinks he contracted. He doesn’t have the sack to kill himself, but his sole goal in life is to make everyone around him miserable.
   
9. Our political system – Our political system is so screwed up that we elect people based on the fact that we dislike the other guy even more. It is like asking someone, would you rather get kicked in groin, or have someone put his nutsack on your forehead. I have not ONCE elected someone since I have had the right to vote based on principles, or a hey, this guy is really good. I have had to vote for someone because he/she was not the other person and that is a sad fact about politics in this country.
   
10. Religious Nutjobs – I am not against religion, I am focusing in on people that do nothing but talk about God. I have actually had people on Facebook think Obama is the AntiChrist. I mean how disconnected from the real world are you? Religion is a good thing for some people, but please, lets live in reality here for a second. Nobody is the AntiChrist and nobody is going to go and bring the 4 horsemen out to destroy the world. Though it is a good thing for the economy if you hire people to build your underground bunker to protect yourself and your family. By all means, move out into the boonies of America along with the other nutjobs and worship and watch Fox news all you want. Just quit voting for douchebags that think we need to be a Christian based society and everything that is not Christian is evil. You are ruining the world.
    ]]> http://mcguffinonline.com/2010/01/10-things-i-hate/feed/ 0 http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/the-fattening-of-america/ http://mcguffinonline.com/2009/12/the-fattening-of-america/#comments Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:35:35 +0000 Danny McGuffin http://mcguffinonline.com/?p=66 All of this talk about universal health care insurance is nice and all. I love the fact that what did get through congress is basically a bill nobody really wanted. The Republicants don’t want it because they did not think of it and the Democraps don’t want it because it does not restrict abortion, or it does not have a public option, or this and that and this and that.

    The simple fact is that we do need some kind of universal healthcare, but we should also be looking at ways to marginalize the need for using health care. For instance, this country is freaking obese. Hell, I am obese. We need to stop making ginormous portions for dinner, we need to stop making the extra large drink at McDonalds cost less than the large drink.
    
    I went to Claim Jumper yesterday for lunch, they had a small and a large version of certain things on the menu. I ordered a small chicken thing. The plate they brought out was the size of a small cargo jet. I have noticed this across the board at many places as well. There is no reason that we should be getting portions of this size. It is almost like we are forcing ourselves to get fatter.

    I went to a buffet in Jacksonville once, Golden Corral, we would got here after church, and without a doubt, every weekend that we were there, you would have the requisite “buffet guy” there. He would be wearing sweat pants that could have made twenty sweatshirts for average sized people. He would literally be sitting on two seats, eating 9000 calories a plate.

    Have we as a society really decided that being able to order, or being able to eat this much is a good thing? Universal Healthcare is a good thing, but if we as Americans do not do something about our weight, we will be dragging down the healthcare system with our propensity to consume too much. Heart Disease, Diabetes, strokes, the list goes on and on and on with the crap we are doing to ourselves.

    The insurance companies are not helping much either, they want us to eat ourselves to death, they want us to get this stuff so that they can make money off of us.

    As you know, I have given up doing smokeless tobacco, I have also given up caffeine laced drinks, the next step I think will be to actually go to the gym. It is difficult to take that first step. It is also difficult to maintain doing it. But hell, if i can do it, anyone can do it. I have the resolve of a 2 year old, I want what I want and want it right then and there.

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