Wow.

I used to make a couple of grand per paycheck. Now it’s 200 a week. Oooooh, ya got me there….I’m sooo livin’ it up on my big fat weekly check!!

I can always…ALWAYS…count on Republicans to come up with the biggest doozies to offend the thinking-class in this country.

Another favorite past talking point was “if you help the homeless and the poor, you’re helping to keep pan handlers, drug dealers and scam artists in business – they’ll never learn how to make a living on their own”. As if being homeless and poor wasn’t bad enough – you have to worry about being labeled a “scam artist” when you ask for help.

And, I especially love hearing them say “I don’t want my tax dollars going toward some bum who is gonna buy drugs with my money”.

So they’re totally fine with paying for wars based on lies and massive fraud and abuse by military contractors.  But helping the poor?  That just makes their blood boil with rage.

I really hate saying this, but…Republicans have ice water running in their veins. That’s all there is to it.  How can these people be so g-damned mean and evil when they are asked to help others? And then they are so blissfully happy when they are told about people across the globe dying from our bombs and military strikes?  Especially when it was all based on lies?  Why on earth is that sooo okay with them??

They talk about post-9/11 moments as if they were golden and beautiful. The only thing honestly beautiful that I can remember about it, which only lasted a month or so, was how everyone was united as a nation and as a global entity. Color and gender, nationality and language, race, stature, class, etc – none of that mattered. Everyone had their flags flying.

However, during that time – and ever since then – it’s been nothing but a paranoid freaky fear festival among Republicans — and we have all suffered ever since. It’s all about keeping people divided – and making sure no one trusts “the other” among us.

Republicans don’t love “unity” when it comes down to who we are as a nation or global force — they only love it when people are united against “the other”. When people are pitted against eachother, treated as if they must view eachother with suspicion and fear, it brings out the worst in all of us.

Republicans don’t want us united – they want us divided. Their motto really is “divide and conquer” – not “united we fall”.

So, going back to my original point…

Instead of helping eachother out, it’s all about fearing the poor, the foreigner, the unfamiliar cultures and lifestyles.

Being unemployed sucks. But I guess that’s not what they want to believe or try to understand. They want to view 10-20% of the country as “the other” – and still call themselves “compassionate conservatives” at the same time.

Oh, and one more thing…

If you’re wondering about why conservatives are all for giving tons of money to foreign countries. They’re not doing it out of love or compassion. They are doing for the exact same reasons a loan shark would do it: to kick you down when you can’t pay it back. Republicans and crisis are like insurance agents turned ambulance chasers. They want you to call them the hero – but you realize they are the bad guy when they demand 30% interest on that 90-day million dollar loan. Read “Confessions of an Econonmic Hitman” if you don’t believe this.  If you’d like to read excerpts of the book, read it here.  Here’s a Wikipedia summary on it.

Oh, and one more thing.  The most frightening thing to a Republican is an educated public.  This is why they’re rather have a bunch of uneducated goons filled with hate fighting their battles, instead of a civilized and educated public that will more than likely vote for a Democrat instead of a Republican.  If you haven’t heard yet, Kansas City just voted to shut down half their schools due to budget issues.  Instead of trying to cut corners on waste, they shut the schools down instead.  That should help them create more impoverished, uneducated goons to fight their battles.

Ugh…

O’Donnell kept claiming that Kucinich was alone in his vigilant fight, and that no one will be willing to vote for him, or stand alongside him if he votes against this bill.

OMG!!  So, it’s all about vilifying those who speak out against what’s wrong – and praise those who go along with you??

So, O’Donnell thinks it’s completely reasonable to throw him under the bus even though Kucinich is right to vote against this bill??

Kucinich needed to be praised – not scolded – for being so bold.  If he had been praised, more than likely, others would feel the need to stand alongside him.

I felt like I was watching Fox News or Rush Limbaugh. Villifying a man who was the only one to *repeatedly* push for a single payer system. He’s the only guy who isn’t a sell-out to the health insurance companies. He’s the only one who has ever *repeatedly* pushed to have Cheney impeached. Who else can you ever claim to have come close to acting so bravely for the public good??

What about those other heroic senators who voted from the heart and head – who were brave enough to “go it alone” — like Sen. Byron Dorgan who voted against repealing the Glass Steagal Act, which would’ve kept our economy in tact and banks in check.  If the other senators had listened and taken his lead, he wouldn’t have been the only one, and we might have ended up without the bank bailouts we got from Bush (and Obama).

And remember former Georgia Senator McKinney?  If only we had listened to her instead of the rightwing pundits who shouted her down.  She was the only one was brave enough to say that 9/11 was an inside a job.  I have since always believed that it was, and have seen very, very little to prove otherwise.  I used to work in the WTC South Tower, 104th Floor, back in the 90′s.  I knew people who died that day.  I don’t believe what I’ve seen or heard from the so-called “investigations”, which Bush refused to allow for too long.

And what about the stolen Florida and Ohio elections?  What about the lies pushed onto the American people about WMD’s in Iraq?  What about the outing of a CIA agent by a sitting President and Vice President?  What about the illegal firings of 18 U.S. attorneys?  What about the illegal wire-tappings?

Where were those Senators when we needed them?  We NEED them to be brave – to go up against Fox News, Rush Limbauh, and the Lawrence O’Donnell-ish pundits!

How can we rely on a representative who refuses to put people in jail??  It’s like trying to put your faith in a police force that simply refuses to do its job and protect you.

I mean, seriously.

A massive number of crimes were committed under Bush, and no one wants to talk about it.

We had the most wreckless administration in the history of this country – and no one on either side of the aisle wants to prosecute anyone!??!

Oh, wait, I forgot.  Yes, you’ll be kicked out of office if you’re caught cheating on your wife with an intern, a hooker, or with a gay guy.  And if you’re a coward, you’ll simply resign on your own the moment someone hints at your wrongdoing.

It’s more than likely you’ll enjoy job security if you agree to shut up about any other kind of criminal activity.  Lie about a war or steal an election, you get voted back into office.  Expose corporate crimes?  Get kicked out of office.

It’s so sickening.

All we have in congress is a bunch of corporate-loving lobbyist-licking Dems, and a handful of unspeakably evil Republicans. Every single one of them – on both sides of the aisle seem way too interested in putting the goal of bigger profits for CEO’s *BEFORE* the goal of helping fellow Americans, who are jobless, homeless, and sick, unable to pay for any kind of medical care.

On a side note — This morning, Thom Hartmann talked about a visit he had to the White House a few weeks ago. He had a discussion with someone there (my guess is it was Press Secretary Robert Gibbs), explaining the urgent need to stop practicing the economic policies of Milton and Thomas Friedman – the economic politics of “flat earthers” who simply refuse to accept putting reality before ideology (an ideology of trickle down economics – where the wealthiest are worshipped, and the poor are kicked down even lower). When Hartmann fully explained how much damage Reaganomics has done to us, the only response he got was: “We’re not interested in protectionism“.

I was stunned when I heard this.

Protectionism isn’t something the White House is interested in?

OMG!

Protectionism is the ONLY thing that will protect our country’s jobs right now!!

You’d think Hartmann had just proposed some rightwinger’s wackjob idea,  like “close down the borders” or “get rid of all these illegals”.

But that wasn’t it all. He simply explained that we are heading for another horrible economic bubble – that we need to be building jobs in the U.S. – RIGHT NOW — and that too little is being done to fix what’s wrong with our economy.

Stimulus jobs are being created **outside** of our country — with export of major contracts – like the new bullet trains, and the contracts to build green energy products, etc, we have basically given our tax dollars to China, instead of insisting on keeping stimulus projects within our borders.

It’s nothing less than insulting – a slap in the face to all unemployed U.S. workers – that the White House has chosen to reward other countries with job-creation instead of keeping those dollars inside our country.

I don’t think a single person cares one bit what U.S. corporations do with non-U.S. based jobs — but we sure as hell care when it’s our tax dollars that are being used to create jobs somewhere else.

**WE** ARE THE ONES WHO NEED PROTECTIONISM — NOT THE COROPORATIONS.

Anyway, it all simply infuriates me.

I think we all expect to get screwed by our elected officials and even employers…but not by our own political pundits.

So, back to my original point:

Lawrence O’Donnell, you were an IDIOT today.

But other than that, the rest of the video is pure gold.  I felt like I needed a cigarette after I was finished watching it.

But I digress…

I went on an assignment last week to plug some program for “No Child Left Behind”. It was for a company called “Project Success” located back east. More about that at some other time. Regardless, my job assignment was for one hour at a school 50++ miles away (102 miles roundtrip). The hourly rate: $10/hour. Seriously. The big thing was supposed to be this: I was going to work 1-hour – but get paid for 4 (-My Employer’s Name Hidden for Protection – ‘ policy – my actual employer – you get paid a minimum of 4-hours even if you only work one hour). Plus, I was going to be reimbursed for gas at the rate of $.50 per mile. Making my gross pay for this assignment $90 ($50 for gas, $40 for work).

Today, I got a direct deposit of exactly: $10.59

It turns out that I was only paid for one hour (if this were true, my pay would’ve been more like $7) — and I need to fill out a special expense report to get reimbursed for the gas.

In the same phone call with my complaint to Kelly Services, I was asked if I wanted an assignment that sounded almost too good to say NO to.

Wanna hear it?

It’s about 40+ miles away from me, starts at 5:00 a.m., lasts for a few months, will require me to work holidays, evenings, weekends, and —- drumroll please…. will pay me a WHOPPING $10 an hour.

The assignment itself ends “when it’s finished”… The work involves data entry.

I remember the days when I used to make $19/hour for doing secretarial work. Real work.

Work that utilized skills.

Data entry is another one of those jobs that requires skills. Fast, accurate typing skills.

The minimum wage rate is somewhere around $8 to $9 an hour — I think it’s $8.90 an hour.

I’m gonna get just a squeek above that rate….

I might as well be shoveling dirt for that money.

And what exactly is that going to pay for??

$10 an hour x 8 hours — $80/day. After taxes, more like $60 or $70. Times that by 4 or 5 days.

That gives me a whopping $300-$400 per week. If I’m lucky.

That’s roughly $1200 to $1600 per month.

How do you live on that?

I guess it’s better than unemployment, which roughs out to about $289/week…

Oy….