It was just a few short months ago that the snarky remarks were flying fast and furious about global warming.  While record breaking snowfall was outside their windows the people at FOX felt they were justified in claiming global warming as a fraud and a sham.

Of course in typical FOX fashion they ignored the rest of the world.  They ignored the fact that snow had to be imported by the truckload to Canada in the middle of winter for the Olympic games.  They ignored the fact that it was summer in another part of the world.  They ignored the record breaking heat waves in half the world because it was snowing where they happened to be.  They ignored wild animals like koala bears approaching bicycle riders on Australian roadways to beg for water.  They ignored deadly wildfires because their feet were cold!  How fair, how balanced is that?

There was no end to the glib and smart-ass attitudes at FOX regarding global warming.  They were all so funny!  They all acted so smug!  All because it was snowing on them!

Now it is the middle of summertime in our part of the world.  Record breaking temperatures, flash floods and sink holes seem to be the order of the day for most of America.  California is burning, again, due to the excessive heat.  World record size hail recently fell in South Dakota.  These hail stones were large enough to cause one foot wide impact craters in the earth!

It is not just summertime here in the good old USA, but in Russia as well.  There it is the hottest summer on record since 1870.  Dozens of people have died due to heat related problems and dozens more have died in a new problem for the county during the summer.  For the first time on record cities in Russia such as Moscow are being hit with California style wildfires.  Unfortunately for the areas affected their fire fighters are neither equipped or have experience in fighting this type of fire.  The people who live in the affected areas are unprepared and inexperienced as well, which has led to a high number of civilian deaths and the loss of almost 100 homes in one fire outside of Moscow.

Another area where it is summer is Pakistan.  In the last week over 800 people have died in record breaking floods.   One city of over 3 million people is currently cut off from the outside world.  Like Katrina in New Orleans, or the earthquake in San Francisco FOX will probably soon have some sort of Christian reverend on to claim that the sinners in Russia and Pakistan are being punished by God.

Another thing I am sure you will never hear on FOX is the trouble our oceans are in due to global warming.  The levels of plankton in the oceans worldwide has fallen by 40% in the last half century.  Being the base of the oceans food chain this should concern us all.  Read more about the decline of the oceans plankton here.

I have to ask, where is the balance from FOX?  They were so quick to dismiss global warming when it was snowing on them but I guess what is happening now is not worth their snarky,  glib and smug comments!  Now that it is hot where they are I guess they do not think it would be fair for them to joke about global warming.

They seem to lack the ability to look beyond their own little world and can only report on things they think are in some way funny.  When it comes to giving the whole story or even the part of the story that disagrees with what they see outside their own window it is just too much work for their little minds.  Kind of like fact checking or telling the truth.

Yes they are fair, to their narrow view.  Yes they are balanced, in their unbalanced minds.  They seem to be silent on the issue of global warming now that they’re in the area where it is hot, but getting the dizzy blond to jump rope is SO news worthy!

What a joke!

Fox is as good at math as they are at reporting the truth. Which is not at all.

This week Congress voted on approval of funds that would go toward the health care cost and living expenses of the first responders of the 9-11 World Trade Center attack.

Sadly the Republican party could not rally enough support to see even this resolution pass.

Oh, they all say that it is a good bill that should go through.  They all claim to support it but when it came time to vote on the issue the vast majority of those on the right voted against the funds.

Why on earth would they do this?  What could motivate them to once again screw over the brave men and women whose co-workers died trying to rescue survivors and defend the city. These first responders were later lied to by this same Republican party about how safe it was to work in the area. Now are falling ill and dieing because of those lies.  What could turn these conservatives against such a caring, compassionate and patriotic bill?  Only one thing!  Those damn Democrats!!

You see the dirty Democratic leadership introduced the bill following what the Republicans say was the wrong procedure.  Naturally the Republicans were forced to oppose the resolution because of that.

What a smelly, smarmy and cowardly excuse.

The Republicans are just throwing another little hissy fit!  In the Senate, McCain (R-AZ) is holding his breath again, Vitter’s (R-LA) diaper is on a little too tight and Ensign (R-NV) is just mad because he cannot get within one hundred feet of a woman besides his wife and the FBI is investigating him.  In the House, Barton (R-TX) is still too busy apologizing to BP to do anything else, while Wilson (R-SC) is still yelling out comments like “You lie” and Bachmann (R-MN) is too busy with her Tea Bagger caucus to pay attention to anything, even her therapist.  The remaining Republican House members are running around in little groups trying to do or say something outrageous enough to get an interview on Fox.

They are mad because the Democrats had the unmitigated gall to ask for a super majority on this one issue.  No amendments tacked on at the end.  No pork on this one.  Nothing added that is so stupid that it would force the Democrats to vote against it.  Just a straight yes or no, help these people or tell them to go to hell.

The Republicans spoke and told the first responders where to go and it is not to the doctors office.  The party of NO really outdid itself on this one and lived up to their name.  To semi-quote Rep. Alan Grayson:  If you are a first responder from 9/11 and you are sick, then please die quickly.

Now they will not be able to point at the Democrats and say “they voted against helping the first responders”.  They are left whining over not being able to tack on all the things they want.  They are left exposed as the unfeeling, cold blooded so called human beings they are.  They voted not to help the people who risked their lives to save others.  They voted to let rescue workers be sick, stay sick and die sick.  Plain and simple.  Too bad they didn’t vote against using NYPD and FDNY 9-11 heroes to show how patriotic they are in every speech they make.

Shame on the Republicans in Congress.  Shame on trying to make political points on this issue.  Shame on your lies.  I have no great love for your politics to begin with but at the moment you actually disgust me with your inhumane and uncaring attitude.  If you will not stand up for these people then at the very least, quit using them.

Watch as Democratic Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) goes ballistic over this issue.  We need more of this type of in your face passion from the Democratic side of the aisle.

Now watch Representative Weiner (D-NY and Congressman Peter King (R-NY) continue their argument later on Fox.

Bu BobbiV

I really don’t think anyone is going to be shocked to learn that the deadliness of the oil dispersant being used by BP in the Gulf  has been down played and covered up.  Both the government and large oil corporations like BP are very good at hiding facts that really should be divulged to the public.

It really doesn’t matter if it is a Democratic or a Republican Administration because many of the things we need to know  are withheld at the department level and are learned by higher ups only after investigation.  It is called cover your ass or CYA and it is practiced by government underlings and employees of banks and corporations worldwide.

However, in the case of the dispersant loosened in the Gulf, I have to say that someone in the Obama Administration, in particular the head of the Environmental Protection Agency should have been going to employees one by one, kicking ass and taking names.  She should then have taken those names along with what she learned, up the ladder all the way to the top.  We only have one environment and once things are lost to it, they don’t usually come back.  It must also be said that each person in the Gulf States only has one life and after it is lost it definitely won’t be coming back.

In other words, this environmental catastrophe was just too big and too important.  It should not have been subject to the usual CYA games.  I would also hope we have an administration that is open enough to welcome whistle blowers who have  the needed information and aren’t afraid to come forward.  In fact, the administration should reward those who do.  What is open and transparent supposed to mean?  It should at least mean people are not afraid to come out with the truth.

All that aside, watch the following video to see an employee of the EPA talk about the dispersant problem in the Gulf.  In my view this stuff being in the water and therefore in the food chain is wicked scary.

About the bleeding from the orifices thing.  I watched a video of a young beached  dolphin who was actually screaming in pain because his skin was as sensitive as if it had been burned and his mouth plus his blowhole were bleeding.  I am an animal advocate and write a blog about animals so I have seen many things.  None have made me cry any harder than this one.  In fact, I refused to post it for that very reason, I don’t want to get hits to my site for watching a beautiful, intelligent dolphin die a horrible painful death.  It is not worth it.

Oh, and just so you know, it is reported clean up workers are having problems with rectal bleeding.  Yes, these are the same clean up workers that BP didn’t want seen wearing respirators because it might hurt the corporation’s image.  That is why I thought they didn’t provide respirators for employees or allow them to wear their own.  Maybe it was because the respirators wouldn’t have helped.  This stuff had already gone through their skin.

Who doesn’t love Andy Griffith?  Sheriff Andy Taylor was part of our weekly viewing when I was growing up and once I became an adult of course there was Ben Matlock.  Add those two landmark characters to all the movies and television shows Andy Griffith appeared in and you are looking at a storied acting career.

Maybe it is the Andy Taylor character that makes people instinctively like and trust Andy Griffith.  But I like to think it is just because he is such a lovable and nice human being.  Whatever it is, his star power and the trust people have in him sure lend a lot to the discussion on health care and the new health care law.

Andy Griffith has filmed a new Public Service Announcement for the health care bill.  His popularity and trusted reputation will go a long way toward convincing senior citizens that President Obama has done right by them with the health care overhaul.

Democratic lawmakers will be coming out full force at town halls during the August recess of the House and Senate.  Polls are showing the changes in health care are becoming more and more popular as time goes by and provisions kick in, the PSA by a trusted man like Andy Griffith can only help.

Watch the PSA and you will see what I mean.  Who is going to tell Sheriff Andy Taylor he is wrong about this?

There seems to be some very vocal groups of Americans that claim to know exactly how our country should be and how the people of our great nation should think, look and act.  They wrap their actions and feelings on the issue in a combination of religious dogma, blind patriotism and racial purity.  They seem to be claiming some sort of direct channel between themselves and the great people that founded this nation and claim to know the thoughts and feelings of the founding fathers who fought and died for the freedom we enjoy today.

These people ignore our own history in many ways.  If they find a point they do not agree with they quite literally just make up a new history that conforms to their views.  Even now they are rewriting our history books, the ones that will be used to teach the next generation of our nation, to fit their narrow view of our country.  Another self appointed group of these people are rewriting the Bible, yes the Bible, into a more modern religious look at our nation.  They like to replace words like sinner and infidel with the words liberal and progressive.

One of their favorite founding fathers seems to be Thomas Jefferson.  Like true scholars they poured over the mans entire life’s work and found one quote with which to justify their supposed revolutionary attitude.  We have all seen the quote on how the “tree of liberty” needs to be watered by blood.  Selective history can be just as dangerous as no history at all.  I would love to see just one of these pretend patriots in their cheap tri-corner hats holding up a protest sign quoting other things said or written by the man who wrote The Declaration of Independence.  That document which states “All men are created equal”.

Quotes like:

“Millions of men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have moved not one inch toward uniformity”  said in 1782.

“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg” said in 1782.

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because if there is one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear” said in 1787.

Sadly these and many other quotes from Thomas Jefferson do not fit the vision of our nation theses people have.  Therefore they are ignored and forgotten.  To read more quotes from Thomas Jefferson click here.

These people seem to forget that we are a beacon of hope for the world as we have been for decades.  They scream and shout about how those who do not share their views are some form of traitor to our way of life.  It is so easy for them to label another person a Communist, Socialist, Nazi or a traitor either to our country or their race and  God.  If you do not match their view of the perfect drone then you are not an American.  Plain and simple.

Today we see the condemnation of Hispanics and followers of the religion of Islam.  In days gone by it was the Catholics, Italians, Irish, Japanese, Jews, Chinese, Germans, Poles, Blacks, Scots, Russians and lets not forget the first people that this mindset claimed did not belong here, the Native Americans.

The United States of America is a melting pot.  We are the great experiment.  Now segments of our population seek to change that.  They seek one religion throughout the land.  They seek one morality (theirs) in order to condemn all who are not from their cookie cutter mold.  They seek to sever the ties that bind us and throw unity along with our rights out the proverbial window.  They seek to disavow the diversity of our nation in pursuit of their view of the perfect society and they seek to destroy the beauty of our nation and grind the common man under the gears of corporate profit.  They fail to see that our diversity is what makes us great.

They twist and turn our law and rights like taffy to fit whatever argument they wish to make.  One example is the Second Amendment.   They say it gives every American the right to carry a gun and that right extends to criminals and those on the terror watch list.  What it really states is in regards to “A well regulated militia” that shall be under the command of the President during a time of national crisis.  Not anybody who wants a gun can carry one and, a militia is not a group of yahoos out in the middle of nowhere planning to overthrow the government.

Everything that these people stand for seems to be based on one, and only one thing.  Intolerance, more commonly known as hate.

They are intolerant of other religions.  They are intolerant of other skin tones.  They are intolerant of wildlife and the environment.   They are intolerant of government regulations that would have saved many workers lives.  They are intolerant of regulations placed upon business.  They are intolerant of a black President and they are certainly intolerant of our rights and civil liberties.  They are intolerant of the poor.  They are intolerant of the hungry in our great nation.  They are intolerant of the 15 million Americans who are out of work and decry them as lazy and spoiled by the vast bounty of the unemployment benefits they receive.

Many nations in the last century walked the same path that these people are on today.  The path of religious, racial and national purity.  The thing that every single one of these nations lost was freedom.

Present your papers or go to jail, get tortured then killed.  This is not what our nation stands for, yet these people seem to want us all to walk down the same path.  We already violate international law by the use of torture.  Many are currently seeking the present your papers plan as part of the solution to illegal immigration.  We have spies watching our email and taps on our telephone calls which violate our rights.  But through some strange taffy twist anyone who is against these policies is a traitor, a Communist, a Socialist and most defiantly not an American.

How sad can you get?  How paranoid do you have to be to sink to this level of hate?  How can you claim to represent a nation based on freedom and be so intolerant of those same freedoms at the same time?  Exactly who is the traitor to what our nation stands for?

I am forced to wonder where all these white, Christian, purists came from?  What Native American nation do they belong to?  How did their family get lucky enough to be in our country?  Did they file the proper documents?  Have they followed our laws?  You must remember that every white person in our nation is from immigrant stock.  Our families all came here from another land so I am obligated to ask you, what the hell gives you the right to judge another person for pursuing the American dream the same as your immigrant forefathers did?

Is your ego stroked by thinking you are so righteous and pure?  Do you take some perverse pleasure in judging the way others live their lives?  Or are you just rich and white and you feel threatened by the fact that the melting pot is actually melting and you will soon be the minority in this nation?

Stalin killed millions in the name of political purity.  Hitler killed millions more in the name of racial purity.  Christian purity has killed millions more over a much larger span of years.  I am still searching for the section of our founding fathers writings, up to and including the Constitution which instructs or allows anyone in this nation to judge another based on any of these issues.

While Viagra, Ritalin, and Valium are consumed by millions of  faithful and loyal Americans, the possession of even a seed of marijuana can cost you your freedom, home and car.  Can anyone pronounce the word hypocrite?

Now, one sect of these religious, fanatical Americans has come up with a new reason for keeping don’t ask, don’t tell a law.  You would think that they would come up with some fresh angle on the topic but sadly they have not.  They are blaming old and defeated enemies for not allowing gays to serve in the military.

Granted they are taking a new, but laughable approach to the subject.  Gays should not be allowed to serve because: they will spread gayness to the rest of the troops… No!  Because they will undermine unit cohesion….No!  The reason gays should not be in the military is because…..wait for it…. they are too vicious! Yes, the gays will turn the battlefield into a killing field.  They will form concentration camps, murder innocent civilians and round up the upstanding people in our country because…… wait for it again….. all the Nazis were gay.

Yes! Hitler, his inner circle and even his driver were all gay.  The SS, gay.  Concentration camps, run by gays.  The Gestapo, gay.  The German army, gay!

Wow! I thought the whole thing with Hitler was about breeding the perfect and  superior Arian nation.  That is kind of hard to do when every male in your society that you allow to live and breed is gay.

If I understand this correctly then according to these people,  the Nazis because they were a gay society didn’t mean that whole “Thousand Year Reich” stuff.

Want to see the pure and oh so Christian Americans defend themselves in a way we can get a laugh out of?  Simply watch the following video.

By BobbiV

During the Bush Administration, big energy corporations like Massey got around regulation on a regular basis.  They did this with the implicit okay of the Republican House and Senate with their hell bent rush to remove any and all regulation from corporations.  The way things were set up, a corporation like Massey could file appeals after citations for even gross safety negligence.  The appeals process was a long and delayed one.  During the time the complaint was awaiting adjudication of the appeal, the corporation was free to continue business as usual including the action that drew the citation in the first place.

It didn’t take long with all the paper flying for the government offices overseeing safety and inspections of these corporations to be mired in paperwork and greatly backlogged.  Surprise, surprise!  this entire paper game led to needless and completely avoidable deaths at mines and in other industries.

Now the House of Representatives has taken steps to clear our the backlog and get agencies back on track with enforcement of safety laws and standards.  How did they do this?  By the appropriation of funds that will empower these agencies to catch up to date on their work.  In that way they stop the end around game the corporations have been relying on to delay enforcement of the penalties for their violations.

According to Republican philosophy the” free market will regulate itself without government regulation”. But they always leave out the end of that sentence which is “as long as the government or other enforcement is always looking over their shoulder”.

Tell me Republicans, just how do you do that without government regulation?  The relatives of all the dead workers would sincerely like to know.

Read what the AFL-CIO has to say about this here.

A government regulator reaches toward escape from the tons of paperwork corporations have saddled him with.

By BobbiV

Democratic Senator Al Franken of Minnesota has been quite busy during the short time he has been in the United States Senate.  It doesn’t seem as though his late start caused by Republican sore loser Norm Coleman, has slowed him down a bit.

The first bill that was his very own helped military vets get service dogs.  After passage of that bill Senator Franken went on to speak passionately for the people of this country on the floor of the Senate.  He has made Progressives stand up and cheer with his questioning of bankers and most recently his dismantling of  BPs so called safety executive.

However, he may have topped himself when he spoke to last weeks meeting of Netroots Nation in Las Vegas, Nevada.  His topic was our First Amendment rights under the Constitution of the United States and how they are being threatened by the media mergers now taking place.  He lets us know how our Internet is in danger from what is happening and calls on all of us to stand up before it is too late to do anything.  As Senator Franken says Net Neutrality is the First Amendment  challenge of our lifetime.  He also asks for us to help him in the fight.

The video below is of Senator Franken at Netroots Nation.  Please listen carefully to what he has to say.  We must keep abreast of this issue and work hard to stop any further erosion of our right to free speech.

I don’t know about you, but I will do all I can to help the Senator.  Just tell me what to do and where.  If it is within my power I will be there.

By BobbiV

This happened a couple of weeks ago.  I have been saving it, but I can’t say that I really know why.  Perhaps because I am still shaking at the thought of what BP, with our willing consent, has done to the environment in the Gulf.

The reason I am bringing it out now is really very simple.  After the latest storm  the Gulf of Mexico looks a lot better.  The sheen has dissipated in much of the area that was hit with oil and if you don’t look closely, you might just think everything is just A-OK.

That is a deception.  We still don’t know about the long term impact on the environment, wildlife and the fragile eco-systems of the marshes and swamps.  We also don’t have any idea about the health repercussions for the clean up crews and for Gulf residents.  We have no idea what the dispersants BP pumped into the ocean will do and what they will kill.

However, I don’t intend to let it slip from the consciousness of the people I know and that includes readers of this blog.  So I am putting this video up to remind you of how bad this environmental disaster is.  It will continue to plague this country for many years to come.  We must never forget this and we must not let BP off the hook.  As citizens, our duty is to make sure the Obama administration stays vigilant and collects the money from BP that the Gulf residents are due.