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This writer is eighty years old and has spent a half century working with handicapped and deprived people and advocating on their behalf while caring for her own workung-class family. She spends her "Sunset Years" in writing and struggling with The System.
Friday, January 20, 2012 No Going Back... (3 comments)
Can one even imagine the disaster, not only to Kansas and Nebraska but to the world as a whole, should this precious water deposit become fouled by a massive leak of crude oil into its midst? There is nobody who can guarantee that such a leak would never happen and there is not enough money in the world to compensate humanity for its loss.
Sunday, November 20, 2011 Newt?? You've Gotta Be Kidding
Newt Gingrich is the same man who suggested that the answer to the problems with finding welfare would be to put all the children into orphanages. "Those who cannot afford to support their children shouldn't be allowed to have them." Shocking and abhorrent? Stay tuned!
Thursday, September 15, 2011 HOW MANY POOR PEOPLE DO YOU KNOW? (9 comments)
We live in a settled land where everything belongs to somebody else; there is no virgin land here for the taking. There are no more frontiers to settle and there is no choice but for those of us to learn to live with one another. We are all in the same boat. The problem is that too many want to stand in the bow and captain the journey while those who man the oars are taken for granted.
Friday, July 29, 2011 The Great American Guilt Trip (15 comments)
It is simply unconscionable to force us to continue to live in suffering and debilitation while refusing us the pittances that allow us to keep body and soul together so that the wealthy can "maintain their lifestyle."
Friday, July 15, 2011 Revolt of the Grannies! (51 comments)
The President tells us that we may not get our Social Security checks if Congress doesn't act. Obviously, he wasn't nurtured by the grannies who will revolt if they find that they must live on the streets and eat from other people's garbage cans because a flock of grown men haven't learned to act like adults.
Monday, February 28, 2011 AN INVITATION
There is a real life on the other side of the boundary between the haves and the have-nots. The truly privileged may be forgiven for their ignorance but not one who presumes to speak for all the people. Your ignorance is willful and a symbol of your uncaring. It's easy to forget your history when breathing the heady air from the Potomac, but there is a real world out here. And that real world is your responsibility.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011 This Ain't Ike's Grand Old Party (7 comments)
Eisenhower realized that a prosperous America depended on a happy and healthy populace who would be ready and able to mobilize in support of whatever national emergency should arise. Today's Republicans operate on the Golden Rule: He who has the gold -- rules.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 Tell Alan Simpson To Just Shut Up (3 comments)
Those of us with intact memories will recall that Senator Simpson has, from the beginning, been at the forefront of the Republican campaign to repeal every one of the humanitarian measures that have been passed over the years to fight poverty by maintenance of the poor.
Monday, November 29, 2010 HERE'S YOUR HAT -- WHAT'S YOUR HURRY? (6 comments)
We seem to be on the slippery slope that leads to the miseries of the Great Depression and, if the American voters do not wake up to the fact that politics is no longer a game, but a very real war, it will not take long.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010 SMALL BUSINESS FOR DUMMIES
As Congress ponders the end of the tax cuts that President Bush initiated early in his tenure, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction in the arguments for and against that are being presented, particularly in the area of "small business" vs. "corporations."
Friday, November 12, 2010 DEBT COMMISSION: A PREDICTABLE OUTCOME (20 comments)
We have reached the end of the road. Bush's bar tab must be paid. The bouncers are ready to break a few kneecaps, and we have no choice but to pay. The leaders of the United States have been on a 10-year power binge but now the bar is closed. While the leaders of the nation want to penny-pinch their way out of the situation, cutting off the flow of food to the kids and the elders will not do it.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010 TO HELL WITH COMPROMISE: THIS IS WAR! (24 comments)
This is no time for diplomatic playing nice. Anything that might have been accomplished in the next Congressional session will be less than satisfactory due to the increased strength of the opposition. It will take a strong stand by both the Senate and the President in order to make any progress. If that does not happen, we need a Plan B.
Sunday, October 24, 2010 IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT? (15 comments)
If the Republicans take the majority in Congress this year, we can't expect anything at all to be accomplished during the next two years. We will be in a state of doldrums so that economic conditions will, at the end of those two years, be as bad as they were at the end of Hoover's term.
Sunday, September 19, 2010 TEAR DOWN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY (24 comments)
If we allow this union between the religious right and the extremely wealthy to succeed in taking over our country, none of our sacred documents will mean a thing. In that case, we may as well tear down the Statue of Liberty, burn the Constitution, and stack the Declaration with the other books of fairy tales.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 With Friends Like These (41 comments)
It's time to put on our Big Boy pants, roll up our sleeves and get out the vote for Our Side. Just remember that it took eight years for George Bush to tear down the nation we knew and loved, and it was silly of us to expect Barack Obama to re-assemble it in less than two years.
Friday, August 6, 2010 THE WHITE HOT URGENCY OF NOW (4 comments)
We, as progressive Americans, must not allow the dream to die. We must ever be conscious that there are no time outs when our children are hungry. Our elected officials must know there is no campaign season trip home when the nation is bleeding.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010 SO YOU WANT TO CUT SPENDING? (15 comments)
Taxes are the only option for increased income but the Republicans do not choose to offend the wealthy by allowing the overly-generous tax cut which President Bush allowed them to die a natural death as it was intended to do.
Monday, June 21, 2010 PROGRESSIVES: WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT? (30 comments)
If we do not get behind the President whom, by our super-human efforts, we were able to elect, then we wasted our time and his, and can look forward to another administration even worse than the last.
Saturday, May 1, 2010 WHERE IS THE PATRIOTISM? (14 comments)
Are we still "supporting our troops"? Hardly! The only thing the protesters have to offer is to "cut spending," "cut taxes," and to question President Obama's birth certificate! Where is all that patriotism? What happened to supporting the Commander-in-Chief in time of war, regardless?
Sunday, March 21, 2010 THE REAL LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH (23 comments)
Together we can banish that Ogre of the Bush Legacy, shine the brave light of day on our fears and realize that we have been left with the greatest gift of the Bush Legacy -- "Thank God it's over!"
Monday, March 15, 2010 A Gathering of Vultures (2 comments)
As the Liberals in Congress struggle against the Party-of-No Republicans and the Blue Dog DINOs, the people in the lower economic level are being picked of the last flesh on their living bones by the circling vultures.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 THE REAL AMERICAN EMERGENCY (6 comments)
Keeping the current system to protect the private insurance industry can only duplicate the results of the "too big to fail" bank bailouts. If they have become so greedy that they must continue to fatten their pockets with the life-blood of the people of America, perhaps their "failure" would benefit the future of America.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 TP THE REPUBLICANS (8 comments)
While we can't afford to show up at demonstrations at the Capitol or even a Tea Party on a court house lawn, most of us can afford one small sheet off the roll to make our wishes known.
Sunday, February 14, 2010 WHO ARE THE "PROGRESSIVES"? (15 comments)
We will go on doing what we do, trying to scratch out a living from our poor endeavors, living as long as whatever god we believe in decrees for us, allowing you to demean us at every opportunity as the "lower class" and a "drag on society" while giving you our offspring for cannon fodder in your wars of acquisition.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 LET THEM FILIBUSTER! (9 comments)
Those bills should be brought to the floor in the state prepared by the respective committees and then allow the floor debates to be aired on C-Span. The benefits for the American people will be enormous.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 VISITING GRANNY GRUNDY (2 comments)
The beauty of my beloved prairie was blinding, reminding me of my continuing fight to save my vision. What if I could never again see the clusters of golden flowers blooming beside the road?
Friday, September 18, 2009 Now I Know Why Mama Cried (5 comments)
I stood at the curb and watched the vehicle carrying my last connection with my family away down the street and perhaps never to be seen again -- and I know why Mama cried.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 OF ELEPHANTS AND BLUE DOGS (2 comments)
With more layoffs, more foreclosures, and more hungry and homeless, there truly is a "national emergency" and, as such, it justifies a presidential declaration to that effect and Executive Orders to personnel in Health and Welfare. This could include loosening the eligibility standards on income for food stamps and Medicaid to reflect the true cost of living for the disabled, the unemployed, and uninsured.
Friday, July 17, 2009 Living Rich And Crying Poor (4 comments)
the productive people of our society, found the money to "bail out" the bankers and were repaid by having their loans denied as all the money found its way into those same offshore banks and foreign corporations.
Saturday, July 4, 2009 What's in YOUR Wallet? (3 comments)
With the news of the banking bailout fresh in my mind, I was not shocked when I was notified by my credit card company that my interest rate was going to go up. Thinking ahead, I was prepared to obtain the money elsewhere and to pay it off when the change was made. Now it seems not to be quite so simple.
Saturday, June 27, 2009 DIGITIZED MEDICAL RECORDS WOULD SAVE LIVES (7 comments)
I would prefer that my medical identification number be available right alongside my other identification so that one trip to the computer would allow any medical facility or physician immediate access to my medical history, in full, and thus be better equipped to provide the needed care while also "doing no harm," which could lead to my unnecessary demise.
Saturday, June 13, 2009 Don't Look Now, Mr. President (23 comments)
Those of us who still cling to the hope with which we sent you to that Oval Office want to see you taking an active part in the off-year elections of 2010. Forget the old Party war-horses who have grown into a sense of entitlement -- help us to get a few more of them replaced with fresh minds and fresh ideas to match your own.
Saturday, June 6, 2009 LISTEN UP, BUSTER (27 comments)
We, the people, are sick and tired of hearing that "single payer is off the table" in the same breath with "health care reform." Attempting to "repair" a broken-down old vehicle without considering the possibility of a replacement as an alternative simply makes no financial sense. The same is true with trying to repair our broken health system.
Monday, June 1, 2009 The Political Future (10 comments)
With each election, as more young people are inspired to public service and more war veterans return home with the determination that nothing like the George Bush administration ever happens again, we will become "a more perfect union." Then and only then will we be able to proudly boast of the government which was visualized by the Founders in forming our precious Constitution.
Monday, March 2, 2009 Don't Sell Kathleen Short (2 comments)
Go with our love, Kathleen! And in the words of the late, great Tip O'Neill, "Never forget where you came from and who sent you here." In addition, if they don't treat you right, come on back home! We love you.
Sunday, February 15, 2009 They Still Don't Get It (18 comments)
The point that the complainers still just don't get is that Barack Obama was not elected to the presidency simply because we wanted to get rid of the Bushes by changing the person in the White House. The "revolution" was not only against George Bush; it was against the "business as usual" of the Washington culture.
Sunday, February 8, 2009 The Truth about Your Income Tax (10 comments)
Do not listen to those calamity-riers who are bellowing for a "fair tax" which will further shift the "burden" from the backs of the wealthy, or even to those who tout a "value-added tax" which will radically increase the price of everything that we buy. They tell us, "This would be so easy that you won't even realize that you are being taxed," but what they mean is that THEY won't be paying their fair share.
Sunday, January 18, 2009 WHADDAYA GONNA DO? (9 comments)
Whaddya gonna do when you've gone about as far as you can go? You want to open a window and yell, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" -- but, where you live there is nobody to hear you. Go ahead, yell your fool head off but there are none to hear and, if anybody does, they don't care.
Thursday, January 15, 2009 THE VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM (2 comments)
Our new President may understand us due to his own childhood poverty but, mostly, due to his work with poor communities in Chicago. However, it remains to be seen whether he can infuse all the congress and the bureaucrats with this understanding so that they can work effectively at solving some of the problems with which we are beset.
Friday, January 9, 2009 The Necessary Remedy (4 comments)
The one thing that has been destroyed by the foolhardy folks who have been running our lives is the faith that Americans used to have. Faith that candidates would at long last keep their promises. Faith that they really care how painfully hard the national serfs must work and how their concerns about personal security weigh upon their minds.
Sunday, December 21, 2008 A NEW WIND BLOWING (2 comments)
US citizens need universal health care and they need it now. What they do NOT need is yet another "commission" of very important people who will sit around for a year or two listening to lectures and instruction by a crew of insurance company officials and announce at last another plan to lubricate those same insurance companies with more of the taxpayers' money.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008 FEARING THE FRIGHTFUL FILIBUSTER (11 comments)
During the last Congressional session, all the Republicans had to do was to threaten to filibuster and Speaker Pelosi would not even allow a vote in the House because the Senate could not muster the required 60-vote majority for cloture. She would announce that, "We just don't have the votes in the Senate," then roll over like a spanked puppy, and pee on the floor!
Thursday, October 16, 2008 Worm's-Eye View of the Debate
If Warren Buffet sees fit to complain that his tax rate is too low for the privileges he has enjoyed and the prosperity he has had the opportunity to earn, surely old Joe the Plumber would be able to do the same. We can only hope that he will then be prepared to pay the proper homage to the nation that provided him with the chance to become truly wealthy and that his mindset can mature to the point that he will do it proudly.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 The Debate From the Great Fly-Over
During the entire debate, the whole performance of McCain was a bit off and off-putting. He behaved like nothing but a churlish old man, insisting that his way is the only way and you young whipper-snappers had better accept his wisdom, based on his vast experiences from 50 years ago.
Friday, October 3, 2008 Where is Justice? (6 comments)
As a small voice from the back of the room, I have one question regarding the discovery of the illiquidity of all the huge corporate conglomerates who have taken over the finances of this ostensibly democratic nation -- When is somebody going to jail?
Saturday, September 20, 2008 Bad Business
There is not one candidate in the major parties who has any real empathy for the "lower-class" of American workers or those retirees who have to live on their Social Security stipend. When their zillionaire buddies screw up their businesses and are in danger of going broke, there is all sorts of sympathy and we are told that we should pay still more taxes to bail them out. Why should we?
Saturday, September 13, 2008 Sarah Palin Simply Does Not Matter (3 comments)
Governor Palin should realize that she is trying to play in the Big Leagues now and being named as the vice-Presidential candidate is not on the same level as winning Miss America. In the grand presidential scheme of things, Palin simply does not matter. She is as much "a decorator accent" as Britney Spear's dog.
Friday, August 15, 2008 The Ed McMahon Example (2 comments)
With the election season upon us and a new President preparing to assume his duties, we have this one last chance to make a decision as to who will take the poor, the elderly, and the children of our nation into account and act on a determination to see that we have "health" care, not "sickness" care.
Sunday, June 8, 2008 PUT UP OR SHUT UP (2 comments)
We must stand up, speak up and let the opposition know we will not tolerate their underhanded methods of spreading lies and mis-statements regarding any candidate and the time is past when they can do so with impunity and without retaliation. Now, those of us who believe in the free exercise of democracy can make it known that we have had enough of the threats and fear mongering of the ultra-right.
Friday, May 30, 2008 A "TOPSY-TURVY" CANDIDATE
We must vote for a man who will continue the Bush program of strike-first, ask-questions-later, and damn-the-expense, or for a man who will involve himself in discussion to resolve the differences with other nations and conserve our resources to provide the needed services for the beleaguered American public. The choice is clear that this nation has had enough of the Neo-Con aggression.
Saturday, May 3, 2008 THE GOLDWATER GIRL AND OTHER CHANGELINGS
The winner will face another race against another "changeling" whose ambition has wreaked horrendous changes in him. A man who cherished his reputation as a maverick, who steadfastly refused to march in lockstep with the Neocons and religious right, but courted both and adopted the attitude of the Bush administration as well as the no-taxes-no-welfare program of the super-right and endless war in the Middle East.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008 MY PASTOR IS HOLIER THAN YOURS (3 comments)
We should pay no more attention to the professional rantings of Pastor Wright than we do to those of the Fundamentalists and get on with the process of choosing the next leader of out nation. If we must pray for something, let it be that we still have a nation to govern in January, 2009.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008 A Liberal View of the News (2 comments)
We must bear in mind the Republican roots of Senator Clinton. She still carries the thought processes of the Goldwater Girl of the 1960's and she easily slides into compliance with the Republican mindset. When others were demanding withdrawal from Iraq, she was saying that we will have to stay indefinitely "in order to protect our Embassy."
Saturday, April 12, 2008 WHY AMERICANS ARE BITTER (13 comments)
Bush keeps telling us that our economy is going through a "rough patch" and we should suck it up while jobs continue to go off-shore, homes are being foreclosed, and children and elderly are dying needlessly for lack of medical care. Those who still have jobs are paying double for gasoline to get to work and retail prices are reaching for the sky because of the increased cost of getting merchandise from the factory.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 JUST TELL US WHAT YOU REALLY THINK (5 comments)
We would really like to know what their specific ideas are for re-forming and re-regulating our economic system in order to correct the madness which has brought the entire nation to the brink of bankruptcy.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008 IT AIN'T ABOUT RACE, BABY (6 comments)
If you really listened to the words of Barack Obama, a different perspective would emerge. He spoke not only about being a black man running for the American presidency but about a black-and-white man attempting to reconcile both sides of his heritage and getting them to live together in peace.
Saturday, March 1, 2008 THE MCCAIN-GITMO CONNECTION (2 comments)
If Senator John McCain is a "natural-born" American citizen due to his birth on a military base of the United States in a foreign nation, then Guantanamo, being a U.S. military base should be governed by the Constitution of the United States and the military tribunals are as illegal as they would be if they were held in Cleveland.
Saturday, February 23, 2008 THE ONE TRUTH THAT MUST BE FACED (71 comments)
For the whiners who have been too long on the high horse of privilege and are crying crocodile tears about the proposed tax rates and the end of their gravy train, I have only one response, "Shut up and pay your damned taxes or get out of my country!"
Friday, February 15, 2008 SOUNDS OF A LIFETIME (13 comments)
"Billions for war and not one penny for working Americans", jobs moved overseas, open borders, free trade, off shoring, outsourcing, dot com bubble, burst, housing boom, bust, mortgage foreclosure, recession, permanent war against everybody. "Work hard, live poor, shut up and go shopping!"
Sunday, February 3, 2008 DEBUNKING THE HEALTH CARE BUGABOO (3 comments)
The presidential candidates all believe they have the health-care answers that the voters will approve but most really are aware that their proposals simply will not work. In the meantime, people are dying from neglect.
Thursday, January 31, 2008 Sitting Out the Election (2 comments)
The great loss was John Edwards. With the withdrawal of Dennis Kucinich, he was the last best hope for any chance for the common man to receive any real consideration in the future policies of our government. Of course, the election of any of the Republicans means eternal war in the hope that the fiscal mess will not catch up with us.
Friday, January 11, 2008 "You Can't Do Anything Unless You Try!" (2 comments)
Why is it so impossible for anyone to run for the highest office in the land without acknowledging the true problems of our democracy and the necessity to restore its once-proud state of affairs? They touch upon the Iraq War and debate how and when to disengage American troops but refuse to touch the question of the lies that put them there. Not one, of either party, has any plans or even suggestions as to how to deal with it.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007 Get Real Americans -- You're Being Ripped Off! (19 comments)
The big lie is exposed when you learn that the rich get the best of everything, especially health care, while the poor are shunted aside to die of neglect. When a plan is suggested that would care for the poor while costing the rich no more, we owe it to ourselves to give it serious consideration.
Friday, December 14, 2007 Apology Overdue (20 comments)
The one thing Greenspan cannot comprehend is that he, more than any other single person, is responsible not only for the collapse of the housing bubble and the home-loan industry, but for the greater collapse which is bearing down upon us as the rich become bloated with wealth and the poor only get poorer.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 Another Clinton Sell-Out (5 comments)
We now find ourselves with many of the class distinctions in our society totally removed. We are no longer a nation of tiers of society but have been reduced, simply, to a society of haves and have-nots.
Friday, September 7, 2007 Dinos Ready to Sell Us Out Again
Next year we shall have another chance to make changes in Washington and I believe we should be reminding the House and the Senate of that fact. The current resident there ciould not have done the things he did to our country had we had a Congress of both parties that would stand up and defend our Constitution and our principles.
Friday, August 31, 2007 About that Patience, Mr. President (2 comments)
You had no patience when you, for your own reasons, decided that it was necessary to invade Iraq and those reasons changed as often as they were proven wrong. After six years of your ineptitude, profligate spending, and destruction of our national resources, you may find we are fresh out of patience.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007 Framing Questions and Making Choices
We have become a nation of immediate gratification. We want it all and we want it NOW. We have become trained by the media and the advertisers that greed and selfishness are the norm and tomorrow can take care of itself.
Thursday, August 16, 2007 The Search For The Great Middle
Those who feel that "the middle of the road" is just to the left of George Bush can't see well enough to know that he went "off the road" a long time ago while the rest of us are somewhere over here yelling, "This way, fools!"
Tuesday, July 31, 2007 The Duel
Being "good press" does not necessarily mean choosing a good President. The final choice must be one who can recognize and correct the damage done to every citizen and every level of government by the current administration.
Sunday, May 6, 2007 TWO PARTIES LOOKNG FOR A CANDIDATE (6 comments)
Why don't they bring on the Real Candidates? This must surely be their second string.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007 WE ARE THE INDIANS
Present-day problems in the light of history
Sunday, April 29, 2007 1984, HERE WE COME! (10 comments)
Mainstream Media, Thought control
Sunday, April 22, 2007 WHO GRIEVES FOR THEM? (4 comments)
Students are not the only ones being slaughtered
Friday, April 20, 2007 WE HAVE LOST IN IRAQ (13 comments)
How will we know when we have won?
Wednesday, January 17, 2007 GIVE 'EM WHAT THEY WANT
A sock-o double feature that will be a real winner
Sunday, January 7, 2007 THE GREAT SOCIAL SECURITY THEFT (16 comments)
THE CONSEQUENCES OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER THEFT BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Friday, December 29, 2006 TOO LITTLE TOO LATE (16 comments)
Impeach? Investigate? Don't bother.
Friday, December 8, 2006 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Iraq Study Group report is too little, too late
Sunday, November 19, 2006 Our National Malady
There is only one diagnosis for our ailments
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 WHA-A-A-AT? (6 comments)
NOW THAT THE LEFT HAS PUT THE DEMS IN POWER, THEY TELL US TO SHUT UP AND GO LIE DOWN. THEY'RE MOVING TO THE MIDDLE!
Monday, November 13, 2006 THE WORK AHEAD
What the 110th Congress must do
Wednesday, November 1, 2006 THE HATE MACHINE (1 comments)
Carefully teaching Americans to hate each other
Sunday, October 1, 2006 FAULTY INTELLIGENCE (1 comments)
No good alibe for believing lies
Tuesday, September 12, 2006 The Disgraceful Plight of American Poor (2 comments)
The adage that people should not condemn others until they have walked a mile in their shoes was never more true than today.
Thursday, May 18, 2006 A TIME FOR EUTHANASIA (5 comments)
The Democratic Paerty has outlived its effectiveness. Time for new blood!
Friday, May 12, 2006 The Return of Joe McCarthy (2 comments)
The real reasons behind the telephone connections
Sunday, March 26, 2006 Who You Callin' Liberal
If one dares to suggest that any policy of the current administration may be unacceptable, one is instantly bombarded with the sobriquet of "liberality" in absolutely insulting terms. One would be hard put to count the times that we have been verbally assaulted, in every instance concluding with the ultimate denigration....that we are "Liberal".
Friday, March 17, 2006 J-MAC AND THE PREZ (2 comments)
Desperate for positive publicity, The Prez cuddles up to a real hero
Thursday, March 2, 2006 PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY (1 comments)
Who is to blame and who should pay?
