Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Senator Ashburn is not gay...what are you talking about?

Since I'm in the journalism field, I rarely read anything but my own stuff, but on the off chance a newspaper fell at my feet, I picked it up and saw a headline: Senator Roy Ashburn says "He's gay."

And I smoke marijuana because it's medicine. Whatever.

Where do these journalists get this stuff. We know the man was drinking that night, he was drunk when he said it.

I mean you don't spend your whole career bashing gays only to become one the year you're quitting. Do you?

He is quitting right? (Brett Farve?)

Anyway, then I run into a friend who is talking about this story, and I ask, "do you think Barney Frank is gay too?"

Whatever the look, it was frankly rude I thought.

Everyone knows Frank came out as gay just to get some of that gay demographic. He was one of the first campaign geniuses to use that fallacy to reform campaigning.

Now, if Frank, who looks more like a football player than a ballet dancer, can pull off this ruse than anyone can, and many have.

However, Mr. Ashburn, is somehow using this gay thing at the end of his career.

If these damn journalists would take their time to investigate that politicians rarely go gay at the end of their careers, there's no pay off.

It could be as simple as Ashburn forgot his glasses which you see him wearing in every picture, am I not right, and went into this bar, didn't read the sign, "ladies night, free ladies" hopped in his car with his free lady who turns out to be a man.

The cops give him a hard time. Could be some pyschological damage, now he thinks he's gay, yet, he forgot his glasses. I think it's typical, they call it something like, his name is, yeah, "gerrymandering."

What silliness. I apologize.

(let's not think there isn't another explanation. The gay underground got to him. That's another possibility. You know what I'm saying.)

Just a few warnings for politicians during election year: (might keep you safe)
Keep your hands to yourself
If you're feeling gay, wait until after the election, and keep your hands to yourself
Don't email anything sexual (unless you are a radio broadcaster like Rush Limbaugh) that can come back on you
Cell phones are a bad place to store your mistresses phone number, whether you're the husband or the wife
So, basically, no porn and popcorn, keep your hands to yourself, don't switch from gay to straight or vise verse until after the election. It's a cinch.

I'm pretty sure it's not that tough to handle this. If I were your campaign manager, that would certainly be my advice.

And to Mr. Ashburn: I guess now we know what your plans are after your political career is over? (I'm only assuming, he's been pretty quiet about that too)...okay...sorry.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Links to election data for California

The next Statewide Primary Election is on June 8, 2010 and then the big day will probably be a chilly Nov. 2, 2010.

So, it's time to begin the studying, the research about who we are potentially going to be electing and how this person and their background, opinions, and goals for the future, will effect us all.

Here in Kern County we have some role changing as Assemblywoman, Jean Fuller, will be grabbing her suitcases and moving over to the Senator's seat, Roy Ashburn, who is terming out this year, to make a run for it.

But Fuller has some interesting opponents in her own party to defeat before she moves on to the democratic opposition.

Fuller has been visible and accessible to the people of the Kern River Valley, the home of the elder abuse case which rocked our rocks up here. Fuller has said in the past she supports all efforts to keep the hospital not only open and functioning, but growing services which fit the community.

If she were to be elected to Ashburn's seat, she would have the ability to bring even more leverage for the rural community that is lost amongst so many other, larger, prospects which contain bigger voting bases.

But the KRV is known as conservate central, but there is a diversity up here in the valley which would like to see change for reasons other than voting for one party or another.

The following links will give you the head start for elections upcoming.

http://elections.co.kern.ca.us/Elections/

And on the California Secretary of State website much information can be found which may help those needing to register or who are running for office.

The website lists the key dates for this year's election:

http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/

So, let's begin...

Thursday, March 4, 2010

don't get disabled or fired because there is no net for you out there right now...

It's not the like the government has ever known what to do with the hundreds of thousands of disabled people throughout our country from children born with organs outside their skin, in need of transplants.

Then there's the high rev lifestyle where exciting adventures on dirt bikes, or setting sail on the high seas, leaping off cliffs attached to rubber bands, which lead to potential accidents which have paralyzed and or maimed millions, taking away their independence.

Yes, it would be exciting to think we could have healthcare reform which worked like this: anyone experiencing a broken back, would automatically be given the genetic makeover required to heal it, though costing an arm and a leg (bad joke, but probably true) if we don't deal with the real problems, divvying up the pile of dough for all.

Obviously hypothetical, but that future is so close, that it will be a consideration in the near future. That's called looking ahead and planning, a simple sort of concept.

The players: the insurance companies, John Garamendi knows them as do others here in California.
I could add some personal anecdotes but I will save them for when we discuss this issue with the insurance companies themselves.

That's an easy one.
Pharma, is about as entracted as the tobacco industry, aren't they related?

Whatever your situation, healthcare can "easily" be reformed and nobody would be severely limited or put unfairly out of business. If it has the goal of not just saving lives, but making people healthy so they can work, go to school and contribute, then yes, that's an easy answer.

But what are the complications? Oh boy, that's where it gets fun. We will get there soon.

Election year is here are we all excited?

"It's the worst economy since the depression," a teenager told me the other day, as he rummaged through his jean pockets trying to find a few extra coins so he could be a value hamburger off the menu meal.

"You know that food will kill you eventually," I kidded him.

He said, "I know, but you tell me what else I can eat with a buck?"

Yeah, that's definitely a problem.

Somebody across from me at the gas pumps told me she had filled the tank twice in one week, and was speculating that the owners of the gas stations are diluting the fuel to make more money.

Yes, there is so much confusion, not just with our legislature and every agency in the land, but with the kids who inherit this great big boondoogle.

It's not just the children either, grandparents are taking life hard as social security was burned up in war and political misappropriation.

Confusion and fear

Nobody knows if their house they may have worked all their life to buy and pay off will be worth anything once they retire.

"Oh it can't last that long," somebody of a different ilk explained to me the other day.
"Why not," I asked?
She didn't have a response, and her uncertainty made me realize people are just trying to make themselves feel better as they watch the disaster around them.

Life has changed, the government can't keep up, the information is too much for the average person trying to raise a family, and family means something different too.

I told somebody that I had three mothers and three fathers, and a father I didn't know.
How could that be? It sounds like a trick question, but we have not evolved in our awareness that great change took place and we missed it.

I was adopted at 6 weeks old by my mother and father as I knew them. They stayed married until I was ten, then both remarried, giving me an extra mother and father.
When I turned 18 I had to know my roots so I quickly found my biological mother who gave birth to me.
Now, I had three mothers, two fathers. Yes, you figured it, my natural mother got remarried, so there is the final father.
But if you were to say this thirty or forty years ago, you would have been blashphemous or deluded.

Families have changed and we need to change with the families. We could start with getting the male "birth control" on the market allowing men to feel more in control over their bodies.

With men, fathers, in jail, not paying support or not being able to pay support, the dynamic must change.

As women we have made it pretty clear what we want in the way of control of our bodies, our children, and the more we bring women into the chambers once only seating men, white men with property, we see a profound change in our culture.

The influence of women in society

The movements we saw last century, those without property or power were nothing but forced to act or be run over by a patriarchal system using religious materials as justification in many cases.

Now, we see many more women who are making choices their forebearers would not have done.

Graveyards are full of women who died in childbirth, there were no pink ribbons back then, and the rule of thumb was to keep the father alive so he could work the land, fight the wars, and tame the country, all along in battle; never in harmony.

Now women are still recieving hysterectomies in great numbers all in the name of cancer and the relief of night sweats. Men may have only recently discovered that they have a high cancer risk in prostrate cancer, but that is not as significant as the breast, ovarian, and cysts which have been the reasons for taking out what doesn't need to be there?

Our country needs women, women in charge. They need the experience a woman provides in knowing children, food, and a sense of being part of creation.

The founding mothers

This years elections are going to bring about much change, and certainly we will see that sort of push in Washington, other than to cram a horse pill sized healthcare reform pill or bill down our throats.

It's time to think, and we will try and bring as much good, provocative and thoughtful information as we can to make our voting choices, just that choices.

We will be sold many reasons as to why tax increases will be fired at us like shrapnel, and we need to be prepared to understand where we can actually help, and where the responsibility falls in lack of oversight by people in their respective communities.

It's time to pull together, but I must say I see people are pulling apart. Fear our favorite friend.
What fear is not is a motivator, so parent's it's not always necessary to frighten to teach.
What counteracts fear is education. Educate yourselves, there are many incredibly intelligent, funny, daring and determined sites out here in the land of the internet and still hiding out in our newspapers.

And I will be adding posts where you can link up with newsletters which let you know what is going on. It's going to be some year, a defining year, as to how we handle it.

Were we unprepared for this? No bottled water and canned goods?

Yes, we didn't see this coming a long way off...