A Tea Party Christmas Carol

A CHRISTMAS CAROL

The Tea Party Republican Version

Jacob Marley is sitting at his desk in when Mr. Scrooge tells him he will have to work on Christmas day.

“Please Mr. Scrooge I want to visit my son in the hospital” said Jacob.

“I’m sorry, you are way behind on your work and need to get caught up so you will work” yelled Mr. Scrooge.

Later that night Ebenezer laid his head down and went to sleep in his nice silk sheets watching his gigantic big screen plasma television. He was awoken by the sounds of rattling chains, to his surprise there was a pale white ghost floating over his bed. After catching his breath the ghost pointed at him and said “you will be visited by three ghosts this night, the past, the present and the future”.

Ebenezer was rattled and could not get back to sleep so he called down to his kitchen and asked the maid if she would make him something to eat. While he sit waiting for his late night snack the window blew open and a young ghost appeared, he grabbed Mr. Scrooge and yanked him out the window. They stopped outside a small home with a beautiful family getting ready to go on a vacation.

“What is this?” asked a startled Ebenezer Scrooge

“I am the ghost of Capitalism past” replied the ghost, “This is what life was like before the great Sir Ronald Reagan rode into town on his horse and freed the rich and oppressed from their shackles”. He continued to explain to Ebenezer that before Reagan families lived a nice life and could afford homes, cars and even family vacations and all with one parent working. The ghost pointed out how simple life was then, how the rich still had a large share of money but the poor and working class where not hurting and could afford the things they needed to live a good life. He then returned Ebenezer to his bedroom just in time for the maid to bring him a late night sandwich.

Upon finishing up his sandwich the walls rattled and a second ghost appeared “I am the ghost of capitalism present” the ghost cried out. He took Ebenezer by the hand and whisked him away to what appeared to be the child ward of a hospital.

“What’s this that you are showing me?” Mr. Scrooge yelled with anger in his voice. “Just watch and see” the ghost of capitalism present snapped back.

As they watched Jacob Marley came in and hugged the feeble young women who was sitting over the hospital bed of what appeared to be a sick child. He explained to his wife and children that he will not be attending their Christmas dinner because his mean old boss has to make him work. Shortly after a beautiful busty nurse came in and explained to the family that the insurance company approved surgery and that their little boy would survive and live a full and healthy life but will have to spend the rest of his life on expensive medications. The nurse left the room and the family decided they could go without eating a few days a week if it meant their son would life, or if need be Jacob would get a 4^th job to help pay the bills.

With that Mr. Scrooge found himself back in his bedroom and was feeling sad and depressed
 for what he had just seen, just then a third ghost appeared saying he was the ghost of capitalism future and reached for Ebenezer who pulled back and said “I don’t think that I can take any more of this”. The ghost grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him away. They ended up in a nice home with a car in the driveway.
“Whose house is this?” asked Mr. Scrooge as he looked on.

The ghost pointed to Mr. Marley getting out of his car as his children ran out and gave him a hug, Mr. Scrooge even noticed the small boy from the hospital who appeared to be on his death bed. Jacob reached in the back seat and pulled out presents for everyone and handed the gift to the once sick boy and said “Tim this one is for you”.

“How is this possible?” asked Ebenezer Scrooge as he looked on in amazement. The ghost pointed out that after winning re-election President Obama raised taxes on the richest Americans and helped bring down the income gap in America while providing health care to every American so that a father could care for his children and didn’t have to worry about losing everything if he or his wife got sick.

“That is amazing, so if I pay just a little more in taxes this country could be a beautiful place again and the American dream will thrive?” asked Ebenezer “But I though you where the ghost of capitalism and that seems like socialism.”

The ghost said this was only one choice, then he showed him the same family sitting around a grave crying. “What is this you are showing me now” asked Mr. Scrooge with a sad look on his face. The ghost explained this is the future if he chooses to move his company to China where he can find cheaper workers and expand his company. With him gone Jacob lost his insurance and could not find any that would help his son because they called his sickness a pre-existing condition and would not cover it. Jacob would lose his house and all his possessions while trying to find the money for his sons surgery and would ultimately be unable to save the life of Tiny Tim. His wife would leave him and he would have one son in the ground and never be able to see the other 2 until he drinks himself to death.

“That’s Horrible” exclaimed Mr. Scrooge “why would I put this poor family thought this”? The ghost handed him a bank slip showing him how much money he would have if he moved to China. Then told Ebenezer “remember that nubile young nurse who was taking care of Tim while in the hospital”?. Ebenezer nodded his head as the ghost said “That would be your new wife”.

Christmas morning came and Ebenezer Scrooge walked to the desk of Jacob Marley and informed him that today would be his last day as the company is moving overseas and he will greatly be missed.

　
　
　

My Constitutional Amendment

They are trying to change the constitution to add a balanced budget amendment, while it’s a good idea it will do nothing to fix Washington and the real problem - CORRUPT POLITIANS. Instead of a balanced budget amendment how about one that reforms the real problem. If I was to change the constitution it would be to add the following.

Elections day every two years will be a national holiday so everyone has the chance to vote and no laws will be passed that will prevent even 1 person who is of legal age from voting. Presidential elections must have a standard ballot as it is for the highest office in the land and for a national office so standards and ballot should be same for everyone.

Elected officials will have term limits with Congress getting a maximum of 3 terms in office, senate and president getting 2 terms in office max.

Any new legislation must be posted at least 72 hours before a vote is taken and all politicians that have received money from any company or companies involved in legislation must make public within 24 hours of casting their vote the amount of money they have received as from said organizations including campaign donations, lobbying money or any money they have invested in the companies. The public needs to know if there is a reason said politicians are voting the way they are other then the “public” interest.
Supreme Court judges must make public any gifts of cash or property they have received from anyone who has or may have a case before the court. These judges will be held to the same legal standard as all other federal judges and can be removed from the bench if they break ethics or federal laws.

Any politician is not allowed to lobby the government for a period of 10 years after leaving office nor allowed to work for any company they regulate while in office for a period of 2 years. If a politician goes to work for any company they have regulated or supported legislation that may have benefited said company then a full review must be done by an independent council if any favors where exchanged.

Finally politicians shall only be paid the average median income of the American workers and any pay increases and benefit increases shall be put up for vote by We The People who are the true employers of said politicians. In time of war politicians shall not have a higher yearly salary then soldiers who they have voted to send to war and must either increase the soldiers pay to match theirs or take pay cut to match the soldiers. Each politicians will be given one paid intern except the three leaders in each party who may have up to 5 paid employees, any other interns or employees shall not be paid. Each politician will be allotted a certain amount of money to pay travel expenses or any other fees associated with their job and if they exceed that amount are responsible to compensate the American Tax Payer.

Class Wars

Since America ended the draft it has been mostly poor and middle class kids who have joined the military and fought the wars that have helped make many people rich. While companies like Halliburton and people like Dick Cheney have made record profits off of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the men and women who volunteered to join the military are coming home to find they have no jobs or prospects for the future.

The brave men and women of the United States Armed Forces are used as pawns by the rich and powerful, not for the best interest of America but for the best interest of their wallets. After September 11^th 2001 many young men and women joined the military to fight terrorists and the people who attacked us on that horrible day. These men and women where taken advantage of and their patriotism was used against them, they joined to fight the men who attacked us and instead where used to personal gains.

A young man by the name of Pat Tillman gave up millions of dollars to play in the NFL and jointed the military and was sadly killed in action. It was a tragedy that this young man lost his life but that was just the beginning, his death was exploited by the military to help get more patriotic people to join the army. To this day we still do not know what happened to Mr. Tillman and his poor family had to fight for the little information they did receive. We learned that he was not killed by terrorists but died by friendly fire, rather then release this information the military exploited his death for their own gains.

These brave soldiers risking their lives to keep America safe and free do so for little pay, they receive a lot less then contractors like Halliburton and KBR make. KBR is a company who gets paid billions of dollars to do jobs that our military should be doing, and in some cases they are responsible for the deaths of about a dozen American soldiers. Instead of paying these war profiteers billions of dollars to do the jobs of soldiers we should just pay the fighting men more while on active duty. The soldiers have to live by a code of conduct while the contractors can run rough shot over the country and not be held accountable. Then when the soldiers come home they are having a hard time finding jobs or are suffering mental illness and many end up homeless. We ask these people to lay down their lives for a country that turns their back on them as soon as they return home.

Why do I mention these things? The military is made up of brave men and women who do it for pride and their love of this country and not for the money. People sitting in comfy offices making five times what soldiers do are the ones who decide where and when they go and for what reasons they might lose their lives. Soldiers do their job, the don’t complain because what they are doing is what they believe is best for America. They are willing to give their lives for America but rich and powerful people are not willing to give up another 3% of their income to help keep America running. It’s ok for hard working people to lay down their lives just don’t ask the wealthy to pay a little more? Even worse to help keep the few extra dollars in the pockets of the few the republicans have decided they need to cut the benefits of the soldiers that they move around like chess pieces.

If the rich want to keep their 3% tax break then they should strap on a gun and go fight for it, stop attacking soldiers, teachers, police and firefighters and blaming them for everything that is wrong with this country. It is these hard working people who built this great nation, I never saw a rich person paving a road or putting on a police uniform. When we speak up about the people who have gotten rich off the backs of others it’s called “class warfare” but the truth is that for 30 years it’s been a genocide and the poor are finally standing up and fighting back.

The occupy movement is the people wanting their voices heard, we don’t have the money to buy a politician or judge. All we want is equality, time to take away all the breaks that rich people get and even the playing field. Exxon should be receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money while paying little or no taxes themselves, stop bailing out the banks of America if you are going to let the middle class lose everything. We should reinstate Glass Steagall act, it kept America working for over 50 years after the great depression and only took 8 years after it was repealed to bring down the country again. Finally we need to get the money out of politics, when you have John Boehner handing out checks from tobacco companies on the floor of congress while they are voting on tobacco issues shows how corrupt politicians are. Until you separate money and politics you will have class warfare and the middle class will always come out the losers.

The uncovered Bush crimes

After spending the last couple months hearing the GOP cry that there needs to be investigations into many of the Obama administrations programs it makes me wonder where these same people where just a few years earlier. I believe that the Government needs to be held accountable, but is it to much to ask for fairness and integrity? Below is a long list of things that could have and should have been investigated under the last republican president, but because the oversight was also done by republicans not much was done in congress and of course it wasn’t covered by the right wing media propaganda networks.

The first thing that should have gotten a real investigation was Sept. 11^th 2001, not if the government was behind it but just the true facts of what really happened. The worst attack on American soil and the two most powerful men in the country never had to explain what they knew, when they knew or if it should have been prevented. They did testify before for the 9/11 report but it was a total media blackout, they where not under oath, there where no notes and the investigators could not talk to the media. Since that horrible attack we have learned that there where over a dozen warning that it would happen, including one given directly to the president entitled “Bin Laden set to attack in United States” all of which where ignored. Less money was spent on this investigation then on the sex life of Bill Clinton, and at least Clinton had to testify on the record.
After 9/11 the media refused to cover any negative stories about George Bush, this media blackout made it so most Americans didn’t hear of Margie Schoedinger, a Texan who accused Mr. Bush of rape and other sexual crimes in 2002. This story go no coverage except for a small local newspaper, in September of 2003 the young women allegedly killed herself, putting a convenient end to the story. Did Bush commit this crime, we will never know now and like many things the media covered it all up.

Not one but two people arrested for funding terrorists and aiding Bin Laden where linked to Grover Norquist one of Karl Roves good friends. Yes that Grover, the never tax anyone pledge guy, he is linked to Alamoudi and Sami Al-Arian and some people believe that it’s because of their connections to Mr. Norquist and the white house that they didn’t get prosecuted right away. It wasn’t until John Loftus had made his attention clear to go after these to men for funding terrorists that the white house took action. Why was the action on these 2 men not taken earlier, was it because of their connections in Washington? We won’t know because again it wasn’t investigated.

Torture, you can argue on both sides if the Bush administration broke the law by their treatments of prisoners, what you can not defend is their breaking of the law by destroying the evidence. Even after being told not to destroy video tapes of the torture they went ahead and did it anyway, breaking an order by the court and destroying the evidence. This coming after the announcement that the administration destroyed emails that by law should be kept as a matter of record. We will never know because like the other laws that where broken, this also was never investigated by the congress, or any other government organization and not covered much on the news.

This just follows a large history of scandals and doesn’t even mention the illegal outing of a CIA agent, The invasion of Iraq, putting children in prison without a lawyer or family member because they where labeled terrorists, illegal phone hacking and many, many more. Why didn’t the media cover this? It wasn’t because of 9/11 since he had many scandals as Gov. of Texas that the media never covered including insider trading, he knowingly perjured himself in an investigation and when he was caught stopped the investigation and fired the investigator.

The media ignored all these stories, maybe if they did their job we would never have went into Iraq, and if the stories are true about President Bush being offered Bin Laden by Afghanistan after the Sept.11^th attack we wouldn’t be in that war either. It appears the media only really puts time into covering democratic “scandals” like Bill Clinton or Anthony Weiner while ignoring republican scandals like all the Bush/Cheney or even David Vitter. If for some reason the media covers one of the republican scandals they are blown off as “liberal” media trying to destroy a republican. The liberal media lie that they have managed to make mainstream has helped them avoid any scrutiny and allowed them to do as they please with no worries about payback. Until politicians are held accountable by the people in their own party or the public, nothing will change and we will continue to be led by thieves, liars and outright criminals.

Over Regulated

There is one party in Washington DC whose regulations are helping to destroy this once great country, and of course I’m talking about the Republicans. This party who is calling for the repeal of regulations that stop the corporations from destroying our air and water, and allowing them to become so big that if they fail the whole country will collapse yet they love to regulate the lives of average Americans.

The GOP wants less taxes and less regulation so that companies can do what they choose with their money, even if it means risking the health of children. After all the more money the companies can keep the more money they can spend on the politicians that write their rules. While the party that wants most companies to spend their money as they choose they don’t think that the post office should be run that way. A law passed by the republicans and signed into law by President George Bush forces the post office to fund their retirement for the next 75 years. This costs the USPS at least 5 billion dollars a year and forces them to run a deficit instead of making a profit. The only good reason that they would do this is so they could say that the post office is losing money and then try to sell it off and have it run by private companies like Fed Ex and UPS. They believe that the Gov. shouldn’t be involved in any business and will do anything they can to prove that, even if it means costing millions of people jobs to prove it. If this regulation is needed then why didn’t they demand it for every company in the United States and not just the post office?

While they want to let the corporations and Wall Street run free they have no problem regulating the lives of people. Since winning big in 2010 they have passed many anti-abortion laws at both the state and federal level of government, laws that will make abortion almost illegal and in the latest law even put the health of the mother at risk to save the fetus. Abortion law was settled years ago but the religious right will not allow them to put the issue to bed. The irony is the pro life party is also in favor of the death penalty and against helping the poor and needy. They will fight tooth and nail to protect a fetus but after your born, your on your own.
A small provision that was tacked onto the defense spending bill in 2006, this was done so that online gambling would become impossible to do and was added to the defense bill so if the Democrats voted against it the GOP could cry “they don’t support our troops”. It’s our money but they have a problem of how we spend it, if I work 80 hours a week and wanted to sit down and spend 20.00 playing poker online that should be my choice.

The GOP even makes its way into our bedrooms, even though they could not stop the military and President Barack Obama from ending DADT they are still doing everything they can to prevent gay people from leading normal lives. From wanting a constitutional amendment making it illegal for gay people to get married to not wanting them to serve in the military the republican party thinks it’s fine to discriminate against gay and lesbian people. Coming from the group who fought to keep slaves and tried all they could to prevent civil rights it’s not a surprise the GOP has gotten a reputation of being the party of rich white men. All you need to know about their thoughts on these issues is listen to Jim DeMint who said “sexually active single women and gays cannot teach because their morals don’t follow Old Testament regulations”

The GOP always cries that the government should not get between you and your doctor, anyone remember Terry Schiavo? When her husband wanted to pull the plug the republicans tried to use pass laws so he couldn’t, if that’s not the gov. between you and your doctor nothing is. They have no problem with a fat cat sitting in a million dollar office telling your doctor that you can not have the surgery you need because it will effect his ability to buy a new boat. More Americans die from the decisions of health care providers each year then killed by terrorists but it’s legal.

Politicians are corrupt, as long as oil, coal and health care companies give them billions of dollars they will continue to put the American people health, happiness and freedoms second. To the republican party it’s ok for Exxon to spill millions of barrels of oil, killing thousands of animals and putting thousands of peoples lives at risk, as long as Johnny can not marry Joe, or 12 year Jenny can not abort the fetus she got after being raped uncle or father. In America those who have the money make the rules and until the rest of us wake up and fight back we will have to live with them.

I for one don’t care if two girls get married and I don’t even care about the debt, I would rather leave my children a world where they could go outside and play or drink a glass of water without getting sick. Am I for deregulation? DAMN RIGHT I AM, but for the deregulation of people lives not of the companies who are raping the environment for profits or putting the nation at risk with their banking schemes.
　
　

GOP Greatest Lies

There are many lies that are told by the political parties, while many are exposed right away as lies there are a few that have caught on and keep getting repeated over and over. This is just my take on a few of the big lies the GOP keeps telling but never get called on them.

1. TAXES - Can not tax the “job creators” because a poor person never created any jobs. Poor people don’t create jobs? Tell that to Sam Walton, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs all of them started with very little and became some of the richest most influential men in America. In fact it can be argued they hired more people when they where poor then they have after they became rich, after their companies took off they did more outsourcing and laying off American workers. The small business creates jobs is another lie used to keep taxes from being raised, most small businesses only hire when they lose an employee, new businesses create jobs. The final tax lie is that we have the highest corporate tax in the world, on paper yes but most companies don’t pay close to that and some of the biggest companies like Exxon, Bank of America and GE not only pay no taxes but get money from the government.

2. Trickle Down Economics - Made famous in the 1980’s by Ronald Reagan, it is still the GOP main belief today. The theory is that if you allow rich people to keep more of their money they will use it to give raises, benefits to their employees and everyone will make profits. It is this theory which George Bush called “voodoo economics” that have created huge debts while allowing the rich to get richer and the rest of us to get poorer. Since the inception of this policy we have went from a nuclear family to one where both parents have to work and still have trouble surviving. The middle class has seen their wages drop while the costs of food, insurance and everything else has risen for the last 30 years and after the 30 year experiment I think it’s pretty well proven that trickle down doesn’t work and leads to greater wealth disparity then ever before.

3. Regulation esp. of Wall Street is costing jobs - The best example of this is the Glass Steagall act which was put in place after the great depression and worked to keep America from collapse for over 50 years. It was repealed in 1999 under president Bill Clinton and speaker of the house Newt Gingrich and it took less then 8 years after the removal for a great recession to hit and bring us the term “to big to fail” banks. It is because of lack of regulation we have giant oil spills, large outbreaks of food poisoning, and banking collapses that will destroy the world financial institutions. Yes regulations do cost money and do costs jobs but in the long run they save lives and money.

4. The Liberal Media - this is the same “liberal” media who didn’t ask any questions after 9/11, didn’t question why America was committing a trillion dollars and tens of thousands of lives to Iraq by allowing George Bush to link Saddam Hussein to 9/11 and WMD. They didn’t demand an investigation into the outing of a CIA agent, a major felony bordering on treason or any other scandals that could have been investigated. The news media is owned by large corporations and are in business to make money, they don’t cover any real stories that might offend anyone. The media is not liberal it’s capitalist, if it makes them money they would support anyone.

5. We have the greatest health care in the world - YES IF YOU ARE RICH, for the rest of us the health care system is not even close to being good let alone great. We spend more then any other country and have more sick people, lower life expectancy and horrible infant mortality rates. If you are lucky enough to have good health insurance then you might thing our system is great, if you get dumped by the insurance companies when you get sick or they just flat out refuse to cover you then the system is not so great. More Americans die each year from the decisions of health companies then die at the hands of terrorists, yet we spend trillions to fight the terrorists and give handouts to the health insurance companies. If I poison someone I got to jail or get the electric chair, if a health company CEO denies life saving surgery or treatment to help his bottom line he is a “capitalist” and good business man. The fact that in America we use people health to make money is sick and just wrong, countries like Canada may not have better doctors or hospitals then America but at least they don’t have 40K people a year die because they don’t have access to them.

I’m sure I missed more but those are the 5 off of the top of my head, I could have went with the Tea party being grass roots even though it was founded by the Koch brothers and Fox News but that is to obvious and doesn’t seem as important as the 5 above. Notice a pattern in the five I listed? They all benefit the rich at the expense of the hard working Americans who built this country.

Made In America?

Remember when things used to be Made in America? Today it is almost impossible to find anything that was truly made in the United States. Since the republicans under Ronald Reagan sold our government to the highest bidder we have been outsourcing out jobs and our souls. Whenever we hit a recession there was always something to pull us out, we built cars, computers or anything to put people back to work. Today even the great Ford Mustang is not made in America, in fact Honda is more made in America then Ford or General Motors.

Since 1981 the only thing America has produced is huge debt, and money. Thanks in large part to Al Gore, no he didn’t say he created the internet but he did have a huge role in making it what it is today. Without the internet we wouldn’t have had the great growth we had in the 1990’s, which made more people rich then ever before. The internet and the stock market are the only things making new millionaires besides the lottery, so when I hear right wingers say that hard work will make you rich it makes me laugh.

Steve Jobs was a great innovator when it came to electronics, to bad he didn’t produce them here in America, even when Halliburton got rich off the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan they packed up and left. The last 30 the income of the hard working Americans have dropped while the people who are rich keep getting richer and in a lot of cases they don’t really produce anything. In 2008 the CEOs of major banks helped crash the economy with their high stakes gambling, and when they lost the federal government bailed them out. Did anyone lose their jobs or go to prison for their actions? No and not only didn’t they suffer, but most of them walked away with over 10 million dollars in bonus money for their actions.

The recent CEO of HP was fired after less then one year running the company, and while he was a horrible CEO he walked away with over 10Million in bonus money. The system is set up so that people are not only rewarded when they succeed but are also rewarded when they fail, only problem is when they fail they walk away with millions while people living paycheck to paycheck lose their jobs, homes and sometimes lives.
A large part of the blame goes to the government, not because they caused the downfall of the American industries but because they allowed it to happen. The system now allows large amounts of money by people like the Koch family and now thanks to the supreme court even companies outside America can pump billions into our elections. Thanks to these bought politicians they made it cheaper for companies to send our jobs overseas then keep them here in this great country. Why would anyone spend 10 to 20 dollars an hour on an American worker when they can spend 1 or 2 dollars a day on Chinese workers and ship things back here with no fees.

If you take away the internet boom of the 1990’s we would really be in a 30 year recession with high unemployment. We may have become a third world country by now and we are slowly on our way to becoming one still. Right now 2 of the biggest money makers in this country either destroy the earth by drilling and spilling millions of gallons of or by letting people to die by denying much needed healthcare.
I dream of the day where Americans make things again, where people can go to a factory and make enough money to put food on the table for their family, or go to a hospital and not be afraid they will get bad news and have to decide between losing their home or staying alive. Until we stop allowing these big companies to buy off politicians to pass the laws they want I’m afraid we will continue to decline. The Occupy movement gives me hope but unless they can all come together with a clear message I fear they will fade away as fast as they started.

my demands should be simple

1. Term limits for ALL politicians so that they don’t have to spend every hour of every day trying to raise money and make promises to the rich and powerful

2. Make it cheaper for companies to make things in America, either by fair trade agreements or by charging higher taxes if most of their stuff in made outside our borders.

3. Get the money out of elections, either with public financing where every American pays 10.00 a month to pay for the elections or where the politicians can only accept 1,000.00 max from anyone with no outside money.

4. Fair tax system, one where there are no deductions that allow companies like GE, Exxon, Bank of America to not pay any taxes and in some cases get huge tax returns. One that makes sure that the millionaires pay higher percentage then their employees.

5. Single payer healthcare system, one that curbs costs on service and medicine and would keep 40K people a year from dying because of their lack of insurance. Our government pays more money for insurance and covers less people then any other country in the world.