PIYUSH 'BOBBY THE BOOB' JINDAL IS A LIAR

This lying prick is the best the Rethuglicans have to offer?

Click on this and go read:

And so now it appears that Bobby-dal was making up shit in his speech, about how he was RIGHT THERE during Katrina to challenge that nit-picking Big Government bureaucrat who refused to allow rescue boats in to help the people because the boat owners didn't have permits.

The above borrowed from a comment posted at Badtux


From TPMmuckraker

Jindal Admits Katrina Story Was False

By Zachary Roth - February 27, 2009, 12:39PM

Looks like the game is up.

Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?

Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true.

In the last few days, first Daily Kos, and then TPMmuckraker, raised serious questions about the story, based in part on the fact that no news reports we could find place Jindal in the affected area at the specific time at issue.

Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.

But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

Here's the original transcript:

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.


And it's lying bastards like this that are trying to stop Obama from getting anything done!

HERE WE GO AGAIN

I felt so damn good after I posted that rant yesterday that I thought I'd try it again.

I found this over at CNN.

Senator calls Obama 'world’s best salesman of socialism'

From CNN Political Producer Peter Hamby
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Another prominent Republican told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that the president’s spending plans are pushing the country to the brink of socialism.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the only member of the senate to earn a perfect rating from the American Conservative Union, called President Obama “the world’s best salesman of socialism” on Friday in describing his prime time speech earlier this week.

DeMint, a fierce opponent of government expansion, told the CPAC crowd that conservatives might have to “take to the streets to stop America’s slide into socialism.”

His remarks comes a day after Mike Huckabee told the conference of conservative activists that “the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born” with the president’s stimulus package.

“Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” Huckabee said of the government bailing out financial institutions.

Stop America's slide into socialism? Union of American Socialist Republics? Is there really air on the planet these idiots are from?

The last thing Obama is is a socialist. He's probably about as moderate a Democrat as you're gonna see. Socialist....what a bunch of crap.

The problem is that these idiotic pin-headed douchebags hate the fact that Obama has genuinely gotten in touch with the American people. They can't stand it, and they can't believe that we like him better than them. As long as they keep sending out people like Piyush 'Bobby the Boob' Jindal, and good ol' Sarah 'Moosebreath' Palin, they ain't gonna connect with anyone with half a brain....well except for the radical Christian Right, and there's that half brain thing again.

I really think that they believe that the Rethuglican party should be the only party in power. And if you listen to them long enough you'll see what I mean. Hell, they think that everything the Democrats do is wrong and bad for the country. They think that they are the only ones who have the right ideas.

The Rethuglicans want one party rule. Now, to me, that smacks of Communism. Just like Russia used to be and just like China, Cuba and North Korea are. Not to mention Iran...of course that's religion ruling there, but you get the idea. Think about it. The last twenty years or so who was it that controlled Russia? Those who had control of the money. China's the same, those in control are the ones who control the money.

Now, who controls the money here? The Bankers, Wall Street, and Big Business.
And who is it that has the Rethuglican Party in their pocket? The Bankers, Wall Street, and Big Business.

So DeMint, Huckabee, and the rest of their right wing-nut piss-ant fuck-head buddies can go fuck themselves. You can through Glenn Beck in with that group, too. He's just as big a dick-headed ass-wipe.

Boy-o-boy I can see another post commin' involving that bonehead Beck.

And yes, once again, I feel better!

TIME FOR A LITTLE HUMOR

The wife emailed these after she got to work this morning.

Thought I'd share with y'all.

Denny's Breakfast

In honor of the mother of the octuplets, Denny's is

offering a new breakfast meal: "You get fourteen eggs,

no sausage, and the guy next to you has to pay the bill."

.....and.....

As a Parent, I often wonder if I taught my son & daughters everything they needed to know to lead a safe and sane life.

You know what I mean . . . . .don't run with a knife, don't stick beans in your nose, don't lick a frosted piece of metal, etc. But you know I think I might have missed this particular piece of advice. Lets face it, if my son or daughter ever tried this totally idiotic stunt I would figure they are way too stupid to make it in this world anyway.......!

Never . . .
Ever . .
Ever . .
Put a FIRECRACKER
In your ass and light it.
I REPEAT . . .
Never ... Ever ... Ever
Put a FIRE CRACKER
In your ass and light it ! ! !

...

...now here's a little more from my buddy the Hermit...

Time To Lighten Up A Bit...

...go read, they're clean but funny!

CHANGES.....

Yeah, I changed it again.

Ya see, I've got 22 inch flat screen and the other template was just a strip down the center. Too much wasted space on the sides.

Who knows, I may change it again....maybe.

We'll see.

TIRED OF THEIR WHINY CRAP

If you don't like vulgar language, I suggest you stop here and go no further, because....

IT'S TIME FOR A GOOD OL' BITCH SESSION!!!

I'm so fuckin' sick and tired of listening to all these whiny-ass Rethuglicans and their "You can't raise taxes on the rich" bullshit, and the "you can't help the strapped homeowners" crap. And let's not forget the line about how "it's their own fault for taking out those loans" being the reason the economy is in the shape it is.

FUCKIN' PISS-ANT RETARDS!!! You rethuglican bastards are the reason this country is floundering, just like a ship takin' on water and all you pricks do is try to find fault in the way WE are trying to bail it out.

That asshole Reagan started this mess over twenty years ago with his voodoo economics, and all you moron assholes think it works...which it never ever did. At least Bush I was right about one thing, and only one.

Trickle down effect. Fuck you and your trickle down theory! The only ones who benefited from that were the rich getting tax cuts while working stiffs like me had to pay for them.

Judd Gregg, Boehner, Jindal, Sartelli, and the rest of you rethugs can all go fuck yourselves! And when you're done fuckin'yourselves you can fuck each other! Your all a bunch of idiots!

Jindal, you can't even make sure the largest city in your state gets repaired, but you think you can tell the people on the west coast that we don't need volcano monitoring. You fuckin' retarded bastard! There's 40 million of my fellow citizens who live within striking distance of active and dormant volcanoes. And just 'cause they're dormant doesn't mean they ain't gonna blow...Mt St Helens is a fine example of that. Besides, you fuckin' idiot, Yellowstone is sitting on one of the biggest, if not the biggest, volcanoes in the whole fuckin' world. Did your parents take your brain out and put it on a shelf when you were a kid? They must have 'cause your head's full of cobwebs and shit. BTW, nice Mr Rodgers impersonation the other night.

And you Sartelli, it was your banker buddies who were giving out all those loans to people who they knew couldn't afford them. So, you mother-fuckin' prick-headed cock-sucker, maybe you should be doin' your bitchin' and whiny-ass cryin' to them. You think it's alright for the government to just hand them taxpayer dollars with no strings attached, but fuck the people they got that money from. FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKIN' PIECE OF SHIT!

Judd Gregg, you didn't want the Sec. of Commerce job 'cause you didn't want to count anybody during the next census if they didn't have a street address. Yeah, what the hell, we don't need to count all those people who are now living on the street because of the economic collapse...you know, the one you and your rethuglican buddies have allowed to happen.

Boehner, you're one of those dick-headed assholes that thinks we should keep cuttin' the taxes of the rich! Yeah, I feel real sorry for all those bastards! It's about time that they start payin' a little more in taxes, 'cause I'm mighty fuckin' sick and tired of payin' for them.

All your fuckin' tax cuts for the rich have never helped anyone but them. They don't pay their employees more, they just put it in their pockets. And that trickle-down theory. That's all that is, a theory which has never worked. But you fuck-tard rethuglicans keep goin' back to that 'cause you have no new ideas and you have no clue. In fact, you wouldn't know a clue if it walked up to you and kicked you square in the balls.

There, I feel better now.

LAST NIGHT IN DC....

I watched President Obama's Address to Congress last night. I'm sure many of you did, too. It was one hell of a speech! The man wants to get allot done in a short period of time. All this can be accomplished easily if the rethuglicans are willing to work with him...and if they can't they need to sit down shut-up and get the fuck out of the way, 'cause they sure the hell don't care about anyone going through hard times...or what's really happening to this country.

I noticed that the Rethuglicans sat through most all of the applause last night. Shows just how non-partisan they really are. I guess if it's not exactly what they want it ain't no good.
FUCK THEM! EVERY FUCKIN' ONE OF 'EM!

Here's a link to President Obama's speech: Obama speech to Congress focuses on economy - CNN.com.

Not to leave anybody out, here's Gov. Bobby Jindal's moronic and childish rethuglican response to the President's speech: Jindal calls stimulus 'irresponsible". Holy crap, if anybody is irresponsible it's been the rethuglicans for the last 8+ years. They're the ones who got us in this shit-hole....which really started back with Reagan. He's the one who started fuckin' things up! And every rethuglican since has kept it up and made it worse...well except for when Clinton managed to work around those bastards and get us outta debt.

My pal, Bustednuckles, over at Ornery Bastard put a post up after Jindal got done with his brain dead rethuglican response last night. Here's the link to his post: An Open Letter To Governer Bobby Jindal (R) Louisiana. Go read...he really nails Jindal's ass to the wall about his comment about the volcano research Obama wants.

It's time the rethuglicans woke up. I mean, when 80%+ of the people think Obama has the right idea, you'd think those idiots would see it and realize that what they want ain't what the people want.

Update:

Gordon over at Alternate Brain has a post up with parts from a post by Greg Palast.

Here's Gordon's link: "Damn that Lincoln. Abe's to blame for Jindal"
Go check it out. It's an eye-opener.

IT ONCE WAS MY FATHER'S COUNTRY......

Jack Cafferty has a column up at CNN about how this country can't stay the same as it once was, that is, like it was during the prosperity of the '50's and early '60's.

It's not your father's USA anymore.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- I think this time, it's different. I have this uneasy feeling our country is in the process of changing forever, and not necessarily for the better -- unless our perspective changes with it.

I have kicked around longer than most people: I'm 66 years old. I remember well the '50s and early '60s, which were times of unbridled enthusiasm, prosperity and opportunity.

The American dream was a job, a house, a car. A modest, affordable house and a car that was most likely a Chevrolet, Ford or Plymouth.

People weren't in debt buying things they couldn't afford, and neither was the government. There were recessions along the way -- relatively mild downturns of short duration -- but nothing like this feels like it's going to be.

**********

This is not your father's country anymore. And we had better all start getting used to it.

On the bright side, our history shows that times of shared national sacrifice have resulted in our greatest national achievements. It's been a very long time since we have been called upon to make any kind of serious sacrifice. We were overdue until one day in September, when Lehman Brothers collapsed. We're not overdue anymore.

Now even though I like Jack, I don't always agree with him.

This time I do.

YER HONOR!?...SURE, YOU BETCHA

Judges, those members of the legal community who are supposed to be...or should be...above reproach. It seems that the jurisprudence of some leave much to be desired. It's not just judges, though. There are members of law enforcement who appear to feel that they are above the law, or are the law, therefore can do as they please.

Although there is much that can be discussed about crooked cops in the US, it is judges who take center stage at this time. There were two articles I found this morning, one from CNN and the other through Yahoo News, both of which got me burnin'.

First, from Yahoo News, I came across an article about a Federal District Judge(a Bush I appointment) whom had been accused of sexual assault.

Federal judge pleads guilty before start of trial
HOUSTON – A federal judge accused of groping two female court employees as he tried to force himself on the women and have them perform sex acts pleaded guilty on Monday to obstruction of justice in exchange for sex-related charges being dropped.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent, the first federal judge charged with a sex crime, retired Monday, avoiding possible impeachment by Congress.

Kent's guilty plea came as jury selection in his trial was to begin.

The jurist, who once shouted in court that he would bring "hordes of witnesses" in his defense, spoke barely above a whisper as he pleaded guilty to lying to a judicial committee investigating the sex-related charges.

CNN had this 'lovely' little acticle about two former Luzerne County, PA, judges who were sending teens to youth detention centers, boarding schools, and boot camps for what prosecutors say were kickbacks to the tune of $2.6 million.

Feds: Corrupt judges jailed teens for cash

(CNN) -- At a friend's sleepover more than a year ago, 14-year-old Phillip Swartley pocketed change from unlocked vehicles in the neighborhood to buy chips and soft drinks. The cops caught him.

There was no need for an attorney, said Phillip's mother, Amy Swartley, who thought at most, the judge would slap her son with a fine or community service.

But she was shocked to find her eighth-grader handcuffed and shackled in the courtroom and sentenced to a youth detention center. Then, he was shipped to a boarding school for troubled teens for nine months.

"Yes, my son made a mistake, but I didn't think he was going to be taken away from me," said Swartley, a 41-year-old single mother raising two boys in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

As scandals from Wall Street to Washington roil the public trust, the justice system in Luzerne County, in the heart of Pennsylvania's struggling coal country, has also fallen prey to corruption. The county has been rocked by a kickback scandal involving two elected judges who essentially jailed kids for cash. Many of the children had appeared before judges without a lawyer.

The nonprofit Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia said Phillip is one of at least 5,000 children over the past five years who appeared before former Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella.

Ciavarella pleaded guilty earlier this month to federal criminal charges of fraud and other tax charges, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Former Luzerne County Senior Judge Michael Conahan also pleaded guilty to the same charges. The two secretly received more than $2.6 million, prosecutors said.

Ciavarella, 58, along with Conahan, 56, corruptly and fraudulently "created the potential for an increased number of juvenile offenders to be sent to juvenile detention facilities," federal court documents alleged. Children would be placed in private detention centers, under contract with the court, to increase the head count. In exchange, the two judges would receive kickbacks.

The Juvenile Law Center said it plans to file a class-action lawsuit this week representing what they say are victims of corruption. Juvenile Law Center attorneys cite a few examples of harsh penalties Judge Ciavarella meted out for relatively petty offenses:

Ciavarvella sent 15-year-old Hillary Transue to a wilderness camp for mocking an assistant principal on a MySpace page.

He whisked 13-year-old Shane Bly, who was accused of trespassing in a vacant building, from his parents and confined him in a boot camp for two weekends.

He sentenced Kurt Kruger, 17, to detention and five months of boot camp for helping a friend steal DVDs from Wal-Mart.

Several other lawsuits on behalf of the juveniles who have appeared in Ciavarella's courtroom have emerged.

Maybe we all oughta think twice about who it is that is being put behind that bench. I think this shows that more scrutiny is needed in the selection of not only Federal judges, but district and circuit judges, too.

Thanks to CNN and Yahoo News as well as the Associated Press for the articles referenced herein.

...EXTRA TIME ON MY HANDS...

The wife and I were talking the other day about me being laid off and the things I can get done around here now. Some of it would have to wait 'til warmer weather, but that's alright. She said that it was too bad she wasn't making enough for me to be able to stay home all the time, which I'd just love to do.

Ya see, I don't mind doing the dishes, or the laundry, or cooking and cleaning. I used to do that all the time when I was a single dad raising four kids. It kinda got to be second nature.

I wish we could swing it without me having to hold down a full time job. I could put in that big garden I've been wanting for the last few years. I'd have enough time to take care of it, and then have the time to put up plenty of veggies for the winter.

Things just never seem to work out the way we want them to.

Oh well, just gotta keep pluggin' along.

PRESIDENT'S DAY

I remember when I was a kid....back when dinosaur rides were the latest rage....we would do somethin' special in school for Abe's birthday, and also for George's birthday. But that was always on the 12th and the 22nd, not on some frickin' Monday.

But Congress couldn't leave well enough alone. In all their wisdom (tongue in cheek here), they decided to cram them both together so the could get another day off, along with the Post Office all the banks and all those screamin' brats from Illinois......not that I have anything against folks from Illinois, just the screamin' brats that come up here.

It's not like I have anything against celebrating President's Day, 'cause I don't. I just can't see why Congress made it a Monday. Why not Friday? Mondays almost always suck, and when ya get Monday off from work Tuesday turns into Monday! Sure, the work week is shortened....that is if you have a job where you get the day off....but wouldn't it be better to shorten it at the other end?

And why are Abe's and George's birthdays the only ones on the calender? Why not Thomas Jefferson? Hell, he was one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence. Or how about Franklin Roosevelt, the guy that led us out of the Great Depression? Or Teddy Roosevelt of Rough Rider fame? Teddy also gave us allot of our National Parks. And let's not forget JFK.

For that matter, why not have every President's birthday on every calender. After all they were the elected leaders of our country. Just a thought. What say you?

CHANGIN' YET AGAIN...

The more I looked at that pic the less I liked it. I'm not sure I want my mug all over the place, or my grand-daughter's, or my wife's either. It was kind of a crappy pic anyway.

So I found one of two of my favorite critters...an eagle and a wolf.


I think I'm done now....but I wouldn't bet on it. We'll see.

...STILL CHANGIN' STUFF...

A friend told me that he's been seein' the pic I had in my sidebar for my profile on a lot of blogs. So I figured I oughta change it.

I thought about puttin' up one of an eagle...I think eagles are just sooooo cool...but couldn't find one I really liked. Then I was thinkin' about one of my hero Thomas Jefferson, but once again couldn't find a good one.

So I settled on a real one. Bad thing is the only one I had of myself was one that had other people in it. At least those people aren't strangers. That's my very best buddy (aka my wife) in the background and my oldest grand-daughter on my lap. The pic's about two years old, but I ain't changed that much in that time.

I really like the 'Yes We Did' pic, so that's gonna stay in the sidebar.

So until I can come up with a better pic of me...or my wife get a look at it...you guys are gonna have to deal with this one.

BTW Gordon, I'm glad you said something. Thanks pal.

DADDY FRANK SAYS....

Y'all need to go see what Gordon has up over at Alternate Brain. Frank Rich has a column at the New York Times that's very interesting.

Ya can read parts at They Sure Showed That Obama, or you can go visit Daddy Frank.

...AND NOW FOR A LITTLE HUMOR...

This is for the pilots out there.....


Actual exchanges between pilots and control towers
Tower: 'TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees.'
TWA 2341: 'Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?'
Tower: 'Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?'

From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: 'I'm f...ing bored!'
Ground Traffic Control: 'Last aircraft Trans mitting, identify yourself immediately!'
Unknown aircraft: 'I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!'


A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down.
San Jose Tower Noted: 'American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadeloupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport.'


The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: ' Frankfurt , Speedbird 206! Clear of active runway.'
Ground: 'Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven.'
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.

Ground: 'Speedbird , do you not know where you are going?'
Speedbird 206: 'Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now.'
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): 'Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?'
Speedbird 206 (coolly): 'Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, -- And I didn't land.'

A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich , overheard=2 0the following:

Lufthansa (in German): ' Ground, what is our start clearance time ?'
Ground (in E nglish): 'If you want an answer you must speak in English.'
Lufthansa (in English): 'I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany . Why must I speak English?'
Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): 'Because you lost the bloody war!'

HELP WANTED????? WTF!!!

Last thing I heard was that the US Postal Service (aka snail mail) was going to have to eliminate mail delivery on either Saturdays or Tuesdays to stay within budget. Never mind that pay cuts for over paid workers would help....but that's for another post, maybe, sometime.

Anyway, to get back to the subject at hand....I found a little 'Help Wanted' ad in the local bi-weekly paper that has nothing but ads. The following is said ad word for word:

***Federal Postal Positions***

Now Hiring + Federal Benefits!
$14 - $59 hour!
Paid Training.
No Experience.
Green Card OK
1 - 866 - 477 - **** ext **


Green Card OK? Just what the fuck is goin' on here?

The last thing I knew was that the people who held Green Cards were not citizens of this country. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against anyone trying to better themselves. The problem I have is with spending federal tax dollars paying a non-citizen to do a federal job that a real citizen could be doing.

YA WANNA GET YOUR PAY FROM THE TAXPAYERS?
GET YOUR CITIZENSHIP!

A NEW LOOK

Well....I guess ya already noticed that I did a 'little' changin' around here. Decided to update...ya know, move into the 21st century. Don't like rushin' into things...well not all things anyway. Was gettin' kinda tired of the old blue background, so I thought I'd give it an 'antique' look...kinda like me, antique. That's what my kids think I am anyway.

I've dropped a few links and added a few new ones. Got pics now, too! Wow, really movin' up here.

May need to do a little touchin' up on a thing or two...change pics now and then, too. Other then that, here it is. Hope ya'll like it.....and if ya don't, do ya really think I care?

Later kids.

UNLUCKY? NO, SHIT JUST HAPPENS!

So...here we are, the first Friday the 13th of 2009.

If you're superstitious, you may not have gotten out of bed today. Or you may be treading very carefully so as not to disturb any of the 'spirits' that may be around. Maybe you're so afraid of bad luck and black cats today that you're scared to do anything at all. Well let me tell you, from someone who lives with a black cat, there's absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Of course if you let your fears and superstitions control you I'm sure bad things will happen....because you let them happen.

I don't believe in god or gods, the devil or demons so there is no reason for me to believe there is any such thing as bad luck or good luck. SHIT JUST HAPPENS! Sometimes it's our own doing and sometimes it's someone else.

Take as an example, me being laid off. It wasn't my 'bad luck' that caused me to become a member of the growing ranks of the unemployed, it was the crappy economy. Granted the 'crappy' economy was caused by a bunch of stupid politicians and greedy bankers/brokers, but that in itself did not cause me to 'acquire' bad luck. Once again, SHIT JUST HAPPENS.

Then there's times when GOOD SHIT HAPPENS.
Like today. Yeah, on Friday the 13th. I've been waiting what seems like forever for my first check from Unemployment, the one I should have had the second week of January. When I picked up the mail today viola, there's three checks. I don't think today was an 'unlucky' day....well at least not for me. Who knows what it was like for all you superstitious types.

Get over it people, grow up and realize that we can't control everything. Ya just gotta learn how to 'roll with the punches' folks 'cause sometimes SHIT JUST HAPPENS!!

I HOPE Y'ALL HAD A GREAT, FANTASTIC, SUPERB DAY!
I know I did!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABE!

Happy Birthday, Abe!

Thanks for making sure we'd get Barak!

Good Old Honest Abe

JOININ' THE RANKS OF THE UNEMPLOYED

I was really hoping this could have waited until I could retire....but that's a ways off yet. So here I am, patiently waiting for my bailout. But, alas, I'm not a bank so I won't be seeing any cash flowing in. No stimulus check for Grandpa Eddie. Gotta wait for the...god I hate these words...trickle down effect. If the 'poor' banks don't start loosening up with the cash we taxpayers so graciously gave them, the only thing trickling will be all of us trickling out of the homes we can no longer pay for.

I first got laid off for three days the first week of January. No big deal, pretty normal for the business I'm in...especially right after Christmas. Next was the last Friday in January. No big deal there either, only one day.

The following Tuesday, Feb. 3rd, the ax fell. Heard those scary words "We'll call you." I knew that wasn't good. Had always been given a time period before, every time the last three years. Not so this time...and I had to go home and tell my wife, who's under super-stress already. With the health problems she's been having of late this was the last thing she needed to hear.

So I filed for Unemployment, still haven't gotten check 1. That's been over a month, there was a computer glitch...or that's what I was told. Even with UC, the loss of money coming in is going to have a profound effect on our budget. We were just making it before I got laid off, now it's even harder. We dropped the cable internet and took up DSL which cut that bill about in half. We both had quit smoking to save some money (about $300 per month) and for health reasons. We did all this last fall before the economy got real bad. It didn't take long to eat up the extra cash once the economy went into the shitter.

Mary crunched the numbers the other night. She told me that if I'm out of work for too long we face loosing the house by summer. We're having enough trouble keeping the Electric Co happy right now. On top of that, I have to keep paying my portion of my health insurance. With the RA, I can't be without the insurance, can't afford the Dr appointments and the prescriptions. I don't know what we're gonna do if they close the doors at work. It's a damn good thing Mary has coverage through the state.

I guess we'll have to keep pluggin' along....hope those UC checks start comin' soon, cupboards are startin' to a little bare.

I saw 'The Donald' on CNN yesterday. He said we're in a depression not a recession. I gotta agree with him.

More later, kids.