This is not the America I love. The acrimony, the partisanship, the "I'd rather we destroy the country than see this President be successful" attitude. The America I love is not filled with people who lie cheat and steal to get what they want, then pull up the draw bridge to keep anyone else from getting some, too. Or people who look down on the poor because they must have done something to deserve being poor. Or people who watch their neighbors lose their homes without so much as a whimper in protest. Or people who watch strangers lose their jobs, and quietly allow it because at least it wasn't them, or one of their friends. Or people who sit by and watch children go hungry because it is their parent's fault they are hungry.

She doesn't have leaders who demand concessions in bills and get them, yet still refuse to vote for the bills...Or people who use an insurance/hospital system to have 8 embryos implanted then use the time of 140 doctors to care for those 8 premature babies, while people with cancer can't get timely treatment from that same facility, just because she "wanted" a big family. Or people who buy every "toy" they can get their hands on because they deserve it, and those who have nothing, don't.

The America I love has a conscience. She cares for all her people, and tries her best to help the rest of the world, as well. She is led by good men and women who have her best interests at heart, not their own. They have guts enough to make the hard choices, and stand up to their parties in the interests of fairness, without considering what is best for them personally. They use their power to go to war wisely, and only as a very last resort.

She is full of people who would cut their own hours rather than see a co-worker lose their job. People who work hard, for little pay,  and yet still make the time to volunteer with groups that make life easier for those who have even less. People who care about the planet and try to damage her as little as possible. People who speak up against injustice. People who try their hardest to raise decent human beings and good citizens. People who vote. People who care enough to stay informed about their country and their world, and write letters or make phone calls when they see things happening that just shouldn't be. People who recognize that they have enough...enough things, enough money, and start using their resources to help others who don't. 

She is full of people who plant community gardens, and look out for each other's children, and let the police know who the bad guys are. They care for their children financially and emotionally. They consume wisely and with an understanding that "stuff" doesn't bring happiness. They save for a rainy day rather than give into the temptations of instant gratification. I could go on for pages, but you get my point.

You say that America doesn't exist? Never did...it's just a fairy tale. The wishings of an out of touch fifty-something. Maybe so. Maybe you are right. Maybe she is just a dream I have. But I swear to you, whenever I see a picture of the Statue of Liberty, or the Lincoln Memorial, or the face of a person who is listening as our new President give a speech, or hear him speak myself, I can see her off in the distance, that America I love. And I just know we can build her, block by block, city by city, state by state...

I believe it, because I am who I say I am...Stillidealistic.

I have for some time now been trying to get my arms around how big a trillion dollars is, without much success.

John Allen Palous, a noted Temple University Math Professor has simplified it. If you had spent one million dollars a day since Jesus' birth, you STILL wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars. In straight math, if you gave someone one million dollars everyday, it would take 2840 years for you to have given them one trillion dollars.

The National Debt is now north of 10 trillion and rising by the day. Anybody got any brilliant ideas about how we are EVER to going to pay that off?

Assuming that the powers that be are able to keep the whole world's economy from going ass over applecart, (presumably by adding another couple of trillion to the deficit - and who knows if that will even work...) the only one that comes to my mind is that we are going to have to inflate our way out of it.

If that is true, hold on to your hats boys and girls, this is going to be quite a ride!

I am watching Hardball and the question is being asked whether or not Obama's standards are too high, and that's why he is having problems getting his people through the confirmation process...

Are you kidding me????

His standards are not too high, the American people's standards are too low! Apparently we have elected a bunch of people to represent us that think the tax laws (that they wrote?) were not meant for them...just us peons.

If nothing else, this confirmation process should have us asking a whole bunch more questions of the people who are running for office.

But what to do now? First, the IRS should audit every member of Congress. The people who write and approve the tax laws, above all others, should be living by them. And second, every person who is looking to go into a high - mid level position in the Obama Administration should be backing out now if their tax situation is not in order...This is an embarrassment to our President and it needs to stop.  And third, ANYONE who is in an elected office, from City Councilman to Senator, across the country, should make sure they have paid all the taxes they owe...They have been placed in positions of trust, and if we can't trust them to have paid their fair share of taxes, how can we trust them, period?

I'm sick of politics being such a dirty business. It's almost like we expect it, so we tolerate it. I don't believe it has to be that way, but it will continue, as long as we allow it to.