Republicans are still to blame...

I just don't get it. The Dems really need to explain to the voters that the reason that this congress hasn't been able to make any major changes is STILL the fault of Republicans! The public has been misled into thinking that the Dems are now in control, and this is just not true. We've never had a solid 60 vote, on any issue, it seems.

Usually, in previous sessions of Congress, there would always be a few reps from the other side that would vote for a bill, regardless of party. Nowadays, that is not a reality. Every Republican will block every bill they can this session. They vote in a block, now, without exception. So, if there is any Democrat that has any reservations about any bill, there is no chance of it passing.

And over, and over, that has been the case. Dems need to explain that in order to get good legislation passed, there needs to be a surplus of Democratic votes, not just barely 60. If more Democrats, not less, were elected in the fall, it would be much easier to get the good bills passed. This session has been plagued with errant Dems. First there was Liebermann, blocking something, then Ben Nelson, then Blanche Lincoln...if we had say, 65 Dems in the Senate, then those pesky nay-saying right-leaning democrats wouldn't be able to stop bills from getting passed.

Republicans are still blocking legislation, and I don't think the voters realize that, many times, it hasn't been the Dems fault. If people are dissatisfied with Congress, they need to understand who is keeping Congress from passing good bills.

Also, WAKE UP, Dems. The Republicans have pulled the same nasty trick on the last three major bills that have been "passed."
They select one of their number to PRETEND that, with just a few small changes, they will be on board to vote for a bill. The Dems then bend over backward, removing ALL the teeth from the bill, and then the lone Republican changes his/her mind, and decides not to vote for it after all. Why don't the Dems put the provisions back in that they took out for that lone deceitful Republican before passing it? They just continue on, and end up passing watered down, crappy versions of the bills over and over again. Can't they back up ever? Can't they put the good stuff back in the bill again?

And how come Bush managed to get ALL kinds of bad bills passed without the magic 60? Why does Obama have to adhere to this policy when the Bush administration never did?

I'm starting to think that EVERYONE in Congress is on the dole. And we are getting the exact bills that the corporations ordered Congress to pass. The Dems like having Republicans blocking parts of bills for them, so the Dems can look like they care, and it's just not their fault, when in truth, neither party wants what's good for the American people, they just all want to keep the money flowing into their coffers, so they have enough money to buy the ads that help them keep their jobs, come next election.

Every bill has to be considered in terms of the next election, and where it fits into the Presidential schedule, and things that NEED to be addressed often aren't, because it just doesn't fit into the needs of the congress or President's reelection plans. How is that serving the people?

After thinking it all through, it seems to me that the major thing needed is Election Reform, however, how is that ever going to happen, when we are asking the reps to vote against their own best interest?

One would have to be truly altruistic to vote to improve our election process, and there are only a handful of reps in either house of congress that are in that mindset!


We should 1) Eliminate the electoral college 2) do major campaign finance reform 3) have a MUCH SHORTER run-up to the election.

And is it REALLY election time again, so soon? I have to say, I was really not ready for "Election 2010" to be the daily news story...didn't we just go through Election 2008, so very recently? I'm not ready for this again, so soon! Who but the pundits really is?

No work for teens...wonder why?

The experts are mystified by the fact that teenage unemployment is at 25% nationwide, 30% in California? They are also surprised that unemployment, in general, is higher in California. As a resident of the state of CA, I am not at all surprised. I have seen the trend happen over the last 30 years or so. We also have the largest number of illegal immigrants in our state. That is why, hearing the teenage unemployment statistics today did not come as a surprise, or seem like a coincidence to me. I'd already noticed the trend a while ago.

Employers hire the cheapest labor they can find. A few years ago I asked my friend, while we were out shopping, if she had noticed that all the jobs where you used to see teenagers, now there were Mexicans. She noticed it, too. It's frustrating, because, when you go into a department store nowadays, you can expect to receive no service, because the employees that work there these days don't know the stock, or the lingo, and can't really answer any questions...in all fairness, in the past, teenagers weren't much better, but at least sometimes they could answer a question, or might know what you were talking about, when you were trying to describe what you were looking for. Now, it's just accepted as a given, that when you go into a store (unless it's a mom and pop establishment that has been around for years, and is actually manned by the owners), you can expect to be on your own, because nobody is capable of helping you, except to take your money at the cash register.

Blame it on the greedy employers/corporations. In order to save some money, and make even bigger profits, they're hiring illegals instead of resident teenage citizens, because the employers can pay the illegals less, and give them less (or no) benefits, as well. It's a win-win for employers who have no scruples (which here, in California, seems to be just about everybody - even organic farmers hire illegals to work the fields).

So, I don't see why the experts are surprised, except that they are unwilling to face what is really happening in this country. We have more illegals than we can comfortably handle. Experts might not want to face the fact that, actually, illegals have a great deal to do with the country's unemployment problems. My ex-husband was forced out of a job by illegals, and had to find a whole new occupation, when all his clients started hiring illegals for $2 less per hour. They truly are taking away jobs from citizens, including teenagers, as now reported, and the situation has become really bad, because employers have gotten used to paying unfair, lower wages, and not reporting to the government, and not offering benefits, and basically making out like bandits, while screwing both the legal citizens who they are no longer hiring, as well as the illegals they now do hire.

It's sad that nobody wants to make the connection between unemployment and illegal immigrants. And nobody wants to address the issue of why they are coming here in the first place - why can't they make a living in their own country? And nobody really wants to enact legislation that would stop this practice, because nobody wants to go up against the employers who are only concerned about their bottom line, and illegal workers cost them way less than Americans, even than American teenagers, apparently.

If illegals could not find work here, they would not be coming here. If they couldn't find housing, they couldn't stay here. There should be laws, with serious penalties, enacted, against employers and landlords that perpetuate this detrimental cycle.


I kinda miss the ditzy teenagers.

WH Faux Pas - Rehire Sherrod already!

Andrew Brietbart & Fox News started it, but the White House most definitely had a huge part in continuing it. They reacted in an amateurish fashion, to this whole falsely reported news story. First off, they should know better than to believe anything that Fox News reports.

I saw Sherrod say that she was not even given the opportunity to tell them her side of the story. She was driving at the time, and was ordered to pull over immediately, and call in her resignation, from the side of the road, on her Blackberry. Apparently she tried to tell her bosses the whole story, but they wouldn't listen.

Our guys took Fox's word for it over their own employee, who had a stellar record, and had even received an award as the "FLAG Family Farm Champion" (pictured above), and then they got their heads handed to them, as well they should have. Fox has us on the run, and this proves it.

They say jump, we say, how high?

What Vilsack and the administration did to Sherrod was uncalled for and outrageous, no matter what Fox's part in it was....we need to think for ourselves, and pick our battles wisely - not let Fox dictate the battles, and how and where and who they will be about. There was no reason to react that quickly, the WH just didn't want another bad news day, and they got thrown off balance, and responded to the situation in a completely amateurish, irrational and paranoid fashion. They were thinking only of their own reputations - which wasn't a fair thing to do to Sherrod.

This story would have been much stronger, for our side, if Vilsack and the WH had just given Sherrod time to explain herself, and then they would have learned all of the facts, and she could have kept her job. Then, the Administration's part in it would have been untainted. They could have caught Breitbart and Fox in a big fat lie, without getting any egg on their own faces.

I don't tune in to Fox, so I wouldn't know what's going on over there, but I'm sure they are milking this WH faux pas for all that they can get out of it.

At any rate, Sherrod should sue Breitbart for Defamation of Character, and if they offer her job back to her, she should demand a raise, as well as a public, Presidential apology.

Please don't think I'm against the President. I'm not. Not at all. There's nothing I want more than to see candidate Obama again. This post is just "constructive criticism". Dissent is a Patriot's Duty. But know that I want Obama to succeed, and be the best man that he can be. I campaigned like crazy for him. I went to many phone calling parties, made calls from home, sent emails, made contributions, donated 100s of buttons to Obama fund-raisers, so please don't think that I'm against him or the dems - truth is I'm left of liberal, and I vote Democratic, because a Liberal could never get in, and it would be a wasted vote. In fact, I could stand for Obama to swing way further to the left.

At any rate, and at all times, I want to see the President and his administration be strong and wise enough to admit their mistakes. That is the mature thing to do.

In this situation, I would just like to see them own up to their error. I notice that Sherrod was forced to "resign" instantaneously, but Vilsack has to "study" the situation, and has not yet made any announcement as to her status. I, myself, would like to see Sherrod re-hired as quickly as she was fired, with a raise, and a full WH apology, to boot.

The Link between Immigration and Unemployment

I am a member of the Facebook Group, "Rethink Afghanistan". Today, I made a somewhat off-topic comment when one of our members made the following post:

George:

"Pull all our forces out of the mideast and restation them to PROTECT our borders to the north and south. This way we wont lay anyone off and its got to be cheaper to keep them on OUR SOIL. And we wont read about our men and women dieing anymore for a LOST WAR."

3 people liked this.

Here is my response:

Tara Thralls

George, I'm not sure that our borders need protection as much as employers need to not hire illegals. If there was no work here for them, illegals would not risk coming over the border. Employers hire illegals because it is cheaper, and there are no regulations they have to follow, because nobody will be reporting them. Unemployment most certainly has a great deal to do with Illegal Immigration. If employers could not find illegals to work for them, for a pittance, they might have to cut their profits a bit, and hire legal workers at a decent salary.

California has both the highest unemployment rates AND the highest amount of illegal workers. There is most definitely a correlation between the two statistics.

Sorry, I know this is a post about Afghanistan, but I felt compelled to mention that I don't think bringing the soldiers who are now serving in Afghanistan back here to patrol the borders would be a real solution for either problem...but we definitely should get our soldiers out of Afghanistan, and what to do with them then? Hmm, maybe, oh, I don't know, give them an education (which is why they probably joined up in the first place)....