Dear God,

As you probably know, our great country, America, is in a real mess and a lot of people are blaming some of it on You.  These people are stirring up hatred against Your homosexual children and claiming You're the one who wants them to do that.  They carry signs saying "God hates fags" and even some of our most powerful people in political office don't want to allow people who love each other to marry if they are the same sex.  That denies them the rights other Americans have but they say You're the one who wants it that way.  They also say You really, really hate abortion which You never said anything about as far as I know.  They've decided they know when life begins although I thought that was Your prerogative. And if a woman gets pregnant by rape or incest, they just figure it is her tough luck.  These people hate contraception too, which I find a little strange because contraception would probably stop some of those hateful abortions.  They believe they have a right to tell women what to do with their own bodies and health and claim You give them that authority.  God, I wish these people would keep You out of it and just admit they are responsible for their own hatred and bigotry.  Didn't Jesus, who these people claim to follow, give a commandment to "love one another"?  They must have missed that.  Anyway, God, I'm sorry to take up so much of Your time but I thought You should know what a bad rap some people are putting on You.  I don't believe You have anything to do with these things because You're a lot better than that.

Your friend,

Bill

Whatever happened to the great American principle of the separation of church and state? Remember Rick Santorum who said during the Republican primaries that a John F. Kennedy 1960 speech "made me want to throw up"? Santorum was two years old when Kennedy made that speech.  Probably most people don't even know what JFK actually said.  At the time, many Americans, mostly Protestants (including Rev. Dr. Norman Vincent Peale), were petrified that a Catholic president would allow the Pope to dictate American policies and laws based on Catholic religious doctrines.  Kennedy's speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association was specifically intended to allay those fears. He said, "I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute, where no Catholic prelate would tell the President how to act and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote."  Fast forward to 2012.  Now we have a devout Catholic Vice Presidential candidate who says, "The work I do as a Catholic holding office conforms to the social doctrine" of his church. Meaning he is against gays, women's health rights, contraception, abortion even in the case of rape or incest and anything else the Catholic Church tells him to be against.  He justifies his budget by saying "The Holy Father, Pope Benedict" is against governments, communities and individuals running up high debt levels.  Maybe Paul Ryan should read Kennedy's speech and the Holy Father should keep his papal nose out of American politics.

Everybody talks about how rotten our government is but nobody does anything about it (with a nod to Mark Twain).  It is almost comical when our government gripes about how corrupt the Afghan and other governments are.  We have the most corrupt government on earth. Our government does not hand out large quantities of American cash to friends and relatives like Karzai does, or take flat out bribes as a way of doing political business. No, our politicians take enormous bribes but call them "lobbying" and "political contributions."  In return they hand out political and business favors to the big money interests, corporate and individual, who paid to get them elected.  Afghanistan, America it’s the same thing. Does it surprise anyone that the Congressional approval ratings averaged 13.8 per cent in five national polls?  It's the parties that are destroying our country because they are far more concerned with getting and holding power than governing our country.  Individual congressmen begin working toward reelection the day they take office (and cozy up to the money right away).   It is not surprising that polls show nearly 40 percent of voters describe themselves as independents (myself included). We are no longer a nation of government of, by and for the people, we are a nation that is of, by and for the political parties.  Yes, we need to take our country back.  Back from our political party machines.  To be continued.

“Legitimate Rape” has now entered the Republican lexicon and Republican science contends that a woman’s reproductive system has a built-in defense mechanism for preventing rape-induced pregnancy.  You have all heard endless reports and comments about Rep. Todd Aikin’s (R-MO) absolutely idiotic remarks in that regard so I will not repeat them here. But consider this: Basically he said that if a woman gets raped it’s her fault if she becomes pregnant because her biological rape resistance failed.  This is a scary reminder of the days when there was a bias against women which argued that if a woman got raped it was her own fault because she provoked it.  Unfortunately, this brouhaha over Aikin’s stupid choice of words obscured the real issue, abortion.  How one stands on abortion is based strictly on religious beliefs and has no place in political discourse. Our laws should not be based on some people’s interpretations of Christian doctrine.  These are the same people who clamor for laws to prohibit the establishment of Muslim Sharia law in America as if there were a remote possibility of that happening.  Despite all the flack directed at Aikin, (including from Mitt Romney) guess what’s in the Republican platform?  A Constitutional Amendment barring all abortions including rape and incest.

In my quest for the presidency (you may remember I announced my candidacy on August 9), I believe one of the most pressing issues is how much a candidate relates to the middle class.  First Obama attacked Romney and the Republicans for their war on the middle class and how their policies would destroy it.  Then Romney countered by launching a bus tour called "the Romney plan for a stronger middle class." All of a sudden, Romney and the Republicans love the middle class, everybody loves the middle class.  So my platform contends that I love the middle class more that they do because I am one.  Nobody is more middle class than me.  I have not been a Congressman for the last 14 years like Paul Ryan getting all kinds of perks like fantastic health care, lots of lobbyist money, free postage and use of the exclusive House barber shop.  No, for the last 14 years I had a small business and really worked my ass off for my money.  As for Mitt Romney, I can't imagine being worth $230,000,000 or having an income in 2011 of some $20 million, half in capital gains and nothing in wages.  Not to mention that I would not even know how to open a Cayman Island bank account nor build a house with a car elevator.  So I cannot conceive that Mitt Romney has any idea of what the middle class is, much less how we live.  So if you really love the middle class, vote for the genuine article…me.

Often politics becomes a game of semantics.  Republicans hate the term "voucher."  When they were big on school vouchers one of their consultants suggested calling them "opportunity scholarships."  Now that the Ryan care plan proposes vouchers to pay for health insurance premiums, the Republicans want to call them "premium support."  A voucher by any other name would stink as bad.  We can probably now call this Romneyryancare ("Romryancare" for short)  since Mitt has declared his health care ideas are "virtually identical" to Ryan’s.   Of course Romney's current health care thinking bears no resemblance to the health care program he installed in Massachusetts, but never mind.  One of the more inane aspects of Romryncare is the contention that it will foster competition among insurance companies and that will bring down premium costs.  Fat chance.  For those of you who have not figured this out, Romryancare is a huge giveaway to the insurance industry.  When a senior gives the voucher to the insurance company, it gets the money right now from the government.  Since is it highly likely the voucher will not cover the full insurance cost, the senior pays the difference out of pocket.  More money for the insurance companies.  Of course, the insurance companies will try to pay as little as they can to health care providers (to boost profits) so the result will be more expense to seniors, more money for insurance companies and less health care coverage.  For examples of what you will get under Romryancare check out John Blumenthal's blog.  His example for what you will get for diarrhea:  A cork.

Paul Ryan's vice presidential candidacy will certainly bring on the big-government-small-government debate.  The Republicans have forever said they stand for small government.  I have never actually heard the Democrats say they stand for big government but that's what the Republicans say the Democrats stand for.  Nobody to my knowledge has really defined what "big" and "small" governments are.   Relatively speaking, George W. Bush (a Republican) inherited a small government from Bill Clinton (a Democrat).  When Clinton left office he handed W a budget surplus of over $600 million.  Bush then presided "over the largest increase in the size of government since the Great Society,” according to Sen. John McCain (a Republican).  Bush then handed Obama a deficit of over one trillion dollars which most people have forgotten.  With budget samurai Ryan on the scene, we will now go through all the acrimonious partisan bickering about cutting this or that (Medicare, defense, Pell grants, education, research, etc,) and the big-small debate.  What I think most Americas long for is not a big government or a small one.  What we really want is a good one, something we haven't had for over ten years.

Harry Reid, the Democratic Senate Majority Leader pulled off a political master stroke and everybody is screaming bloody murder.  Time Magazine this week called Reid's accusation that Romney hasn't paid taxes in ten years "reckless" and it "recalled Joe McCarthy and the birthers."  Well, Michelle Bachmann declared, without substantiation, that Muslims have infiltrated the highest levels of our government. That really smacks of McCarthyism to me. Donald Trump and his merry morons insisted for over a year that Obama didn't have a U.S. birth certificate.  Big Mitt, the man himself growled, "It's time for Harry to put up or shut up."  Now here's where Harry's ploy is so brilliant.  It is a beautiful Catch 22.  It does not matter who told what to Harry Reid. Even if Reid "puts up" and reveals his source it does not change the charge that Romney did not pay taxes for ten years. It would not make the accusation go away.  So the onus is on Romney to "come clean." The only way to prove Harry Reid is lying is for Romney to tell the truth and produce his tax returns.  Your move, Mitt.

Sideblog:  President Obama released 11 years of his tax returns and Joe Biden released 14.  If you would like to see them go to www.taxhistory.org and click on Presidential Tax Returns in the menu at left.  Mitt Romney released two years, 2010 and 2011.  They are also on that site.  In 2011, Romney had total income of $20,908,000 about half of which was in capital gains and none was from wages and salaries.  And Mitt is trying to tell us he can relate to the middle class?  Yeah, right.

What a lousy week.  The Olympics are over which now leaves a void in my life since I’ll have to wait four years to see synchronized swimming again. But what really wrecked my week was Mitt Romney’s pre-empting me by naming Paul Ryan as his running mate so I had to take him off my short list.  Ever since I announced my candidacy for President three days ago, I have been thinking about who I could name as a running mate.  I need somebody who thinks exactly the opposite from me so I can cover the entire political spectrum from the wild-ass, screaming right-wing-dingbat Tea Partyists to the weeping, nanny-state, teeth-gnashing, left-wing, tree-hugging liberals.  Just about everything Ryan proposes I don’t agree with so we would have been a perfect match.  And we’re both white which definitely is a plus if you want to go after the Republican racist element.  Marco Rubio is now available but it would look like I am pandering for the Hispanic vote. I did buy a Spanish phrase book, however.  Maybe I could get Rick Perry to come out of obscurity to run with me.  Remember him?  He would like to see more religion in government which the Republican Religious Right goes nuts over.  He said he wants government to stay out of the church’s business and I want churches to stay out of the government’s business so between us we nail both sides of that issue. Come to think of it, me, Perry and God might be a strong ticket. But then Perry asked Texans to pray three days for rain and nothing happened so maybe he doesn’t have that much pull with God after all.  I wonder if Sarah Palin is still available. 

After considerable thought and careful consideration, I have decided to run for President of the United States.  My opponents say they have a plan. Well I have one too.  I'm not exactly sure what that plan is, so when I figure it out I will tell you. Actually I’m not sure what their plans are.  But I can tell you my plan will include cutting taxes.  Maybe just on the poor making less than $250,000 a year and maybe on the rich, or maybe on both.  I'm not sure yet but I'll cut taxes on somebody. Then maybe I won't.  And, oh boy, will I create jobs.  I will create 8,000,000 jobs in my first 100 days.  I will create so goddamn many jobs that China will be making their stuff here.  And, hey you India and Pakistan, watch out, I’m going to lower your phone bill!  Don't ask me how, just trust me.  Both my opponents say they are strong supporters of the middle class and so am I.  And I can assure you I have been in the middle class a hell of a lot longer than they have.  And I can also say things like, "My fellow Americans, we need something really dramatic to make a lasting and meaningful impact to recharge the economic situation which has been made worse by policies that should be drastically changed or modified or maybe continued to restore this great country to the greatness is deserves to be restored to. God bless America!"  (Pause for applause.) And I will cut spending.  We all know there is good spending and bad spending.  I will cut bad spending. Whatever. Now all I have to do is raise about 200 billion dollars.  If you would like to contribute to my campaign, send your money to account number 1-556879-4,  Scuba Duba Bank, Cayman Islands.  Thank you, my fellow Americans.

Some of my blog readers seemed to have preferred cancer to politics so here is an update for my cancer fans.  My last chemotherapy five-hour session was June 25 which is over a month ago.  To misquote Yogi Berra, It ain’t over even if you think it’s over.  Chemotherapy does not let you off that easily.  Now I am having side effects lite.  I wake up at least three or four times a night with dry mouth, I get tired in the late afternoon,  energy levels are still a little low, swallowing is problematical at times and my hair is not growing in and probably won’t until September according to the doctor.  If one more well meaning person tells me my bald head looks terrific and I should keep it that way I shall go berserk.  Funny thing is, all during this esophageal ordeal my friends kept telling me how good I looked.  At one point I felt guilty for not looking like I should drop dead any minute. I am not proposing a new diet but I think what I ate had something to do with it.    I read vitamin A boosts the immune system so I must have eaten two or three pounds of carrots or sweet potatoes a week (pureed so I could swallow).  Throw in at least two eggs a day, lots of milk and a generous amount of spinach.  Another side effect is loss of appetite.  So I decided to eat whether I was hungry or not. So there, chemo.   Now that the tumor is gone my doctors told me to eat well, exercise, don’t smoke and don’t drink.  I figure three out of four is pretty good.  So I have invented a new drink, the Bloody Peter Rabbit.   Here it is:  2 ounces of vodka, 3 ounces of carrot juice, 3 ounces of V8 low sodium.  I mean how many cocktails do you know that boost your immune system?

Whatever happened to honesty?  A majority of the public believes politicians lie.  What is most disconcerting is that the public accepts the lying and, in fact, endorses it.  A recent poll showed that people don't care if their favorite candidate lies in pursuit of getting elected (regardless of party).  Basically politicians know that people really do not want to hear the truth.  They want to be told what they want to hear.  (How do you think talk radio hosts build up such a following?) It stands the reason then, that the more politicians lie, feeding their target electorate what it wants to hear, the better the chance of getting elected.  Conversely, you must accuse your opponent of lying even if he isn't on the premise that if the opponent lies it's bad but if you do, it's not. Or you can do a Harry Reid and pull an "is it or isn't it a lie" type lie.  RNC Chairman Rence Priebus called Reid a "dirty liar" for unsubstantiated charges that Romney has not paid taxes for ten years, but as long as Reid's accusation remains unrefuted nobody knows if Reid is lying or not. It's kind of a "gotcha" lie. Telling lies is not illegal otherwise most of our politicians would be in jail. If a politician is caught in a whopper he or she just has staff insist it was taken out of context or misinterpreted.  One of my all-time favorites is when Senator John Kyl (R-AZ) said 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood did involved abortion.  When this lie was challenged his staff said "it was not intended to be a factual statement."   Politicians spout off about our wonderful, noble “American values," and our wholesome “family values."  Evidently telling the truth is no longer one of them.

Sideblog:  It's "thoughts and prayers" time again.  A guy walks into a Sikh Church in Wisconsin kills six people and wounds three and our politicians, from presidential candidates on down, ring their hands, shake their heads sadly and declare what a tragedy this is for all America and how the victims have our "thoughts and prayers." NRA six more points, American People zero.  NRA wins again.

Since the presidential campaign has become so dull, I have been amusing myself by needling far right-wing-dingbats on facebook.  This stuff is real and so kooky I don't even have to make it up. Sorry it’s a bit long but it is amusing.

Someone posted this on facebook: " It is wrong to tax a working person almost to the breaking point, then give it to a person who is able to work but refuses to. “

I commented: “Please define who this person is who is able to work but refuses to.”

(Note: the real names have been changed and my translations from right-wing-dingbat speak are in parenthesis.)

Maude: They come in all shapes, and sizes!!!  (Ha, ha, wink, wink, you know what color they are, ha, ha.)

Wilber: Demoncrats (sic)…who else?  (Ha, ha, wink, wink, you know everybody who refuses to work is a Democrat, ha, ha.)

Maude: Don't hold back, Wilber...LOL

Wilber: You bring the Jack Daniels & I'll bring the coke...hold nothing back! 

Maude: if we did that, we would be in jail no we would be on the side of the road picking up trash. (Ha, ha, you know what I mean!)

Me: I love watching Republicans dance all around their racism and bigotry without actually admitting it.

Wilber: William...and what do the demoncrats do that they don't & won't admit? More evil than you'll admit!

Me: I don't know Wilber. You tell me what the Democrats do that they don't and won't admit. Please describe the "evil" I won't admit.

Wilber: Well Mr. William "Lib"......just sit back a take a long hard look at Ms. Pelosi & Mr. Reid.....that's a start! Among others.....these demoncrats of today are mean & nasty....worst I've seen in my lifetime! But, of course, your being a Lib, you don't & won't admit to anything about your "good" party. Have a good day...if you can

Me: Wilber, you're evading the issue. You said the Democrats do things they don't and won't admit and more evil that I will admit.  I asked you please tell me specifically what they are.  As far as Democrats being mean and nasty...come now, Wilber, Republicans are masters at the art of mean and nasty. Have you ever heard of Karl Rove?

Wilber:  LOL...... Karl Rove...great man who tells truth on the dems! Mr. William "Lib"....I don't have the time & enough space here to go into all you already know. Suggestion...for some real learning from the ones who tell TRUTH daily....talk radio... start with Neal Boortz in the a.m., then catch Rush Limbaugh, followed by Sean Hannity, Michael Savage. You couldn't run your lib stuff to them on any subject, they'd shut you down quickly with your lib garbage. I'm shutting you down, I don't have time for this cat & mouse stuff with a non-thinking lib. Hope you can have a good day.

Epilogue: Did you notice Wilber never replied to my questions about what the Democrats don't and won’t admit and the "evil" I am evidently hiding.  He is right on one thing:  this was a cat and mouse game. Only he didn’t seem to get it that I was the cat and he was the mouse.  I really hope he has a nice day.

It is really infuriating when politicians insult the collective American intelligence.  This applies to any politician but Mitt Romney is becoming a grand master at it. Romney told the National Review's Robert Costa he didn't want to release any more of his tax returns because he did not want the Obama camp to get "hundreds or thousands more pages to pick through, distort and lie about."  Most Americans have a hard time just grasping the concept of tax returns running into "hundreds or thousands" of pages. I think mine was ten.  But my biggest question is how do you "distort and lie about" a tax return which was filed years ago and presumably prepared by very highly paid, brilliant tax attorneys and accountants?  We can assume that the IRS went over all those pages and found the returns satisfactory.  Tax returns are supposed to be factual, honest and with most data expressed in numbers.  On the "taxes due" line how do you distort or lie about the number?  I do not doubt that Romney is a smart man, so it amazes me that he cannot seem to figure out what is going on here.  The more he refuses, the more the American public believes he is hiding something bad. His intransigence is reinforcing in the public's mind that he knows what that bad stuff is and he is, in fact,  trying to hide it.  This is non-partisan human nature and not an evil plot against Mitt.  However, according to Romney, the Obama campaign wants him to release his tax returns so they can use them against him.  Therefore, his refusal to divulge his tax returns, like everything else, is all Obama's fault.

Without going into all the boring details, Mitt Romney's  overseas trip was not a resounding success--insulting the British about their Olympics, demeaning the Palestinians, calling Jerusalem the Israeli capital, irritating the Polish, and his aide telling the press to **** off.   In fact it was terrible but didn't get that many prime time news reports. His return from England and the Middle East was overshadowed by a far more momentous event, the gigantic nationwide Chick-fil-A eat-in to support that company president's claim that he interprets God's will and gays should not marry.  This is all pretty silly but it demonstrates just how asinine American politics have become.  Our country and the world are in an enormous mess but, by God, we're going to eat Chick-fil-A chicken to make sure everybody knows how wonderful our American family values are (that's what one evening news commentator said the demonstration was all about). Hey, what is more American than good old-fashioned bigotry.  And it's great marketing too.  Exploit hatred and you boost sales.  Fortunately, this will all dissolve into the next news cycle; everybody will soon forget it and it probably will make no difference in the outcome of the election.  Stuff like this is, after all, just a bunch of chicken shit.