ACORN and my Senator

Per this link, my senator was one of 7 who voted against defunding ACORN.
Let's see...there are tapes showing employees in one, two, three offices of ACORN who seem to see no problem helping people cheat the bank, potentially defraud the IRS, set up a whore house, and bring underage girls into that whore house. But Senator Gililbrand sees no reason to stop giving them MY money.
I stand in complete awe of these people, who hold themselves up as "leaders" of our country. But the awe is an awe of contempt, complete and utter contempt. Senator Gillibrand, I am sure, would never even think of giving money to anyone who came door to door to solicit money for a group who supported prostitution, or tax evasion, let alone for child prostitution. And yet here she is voting to give my tax dollars to a group whose workers are doing that very thing. It is truly eye opening to see what corruption comes in the nation's capital.

Teaparty Observations

I made it to the local Teaparty on Rt 9W today....a good turnout.
A very interesting observation for what it is worth; all of the participants were smiling and having a good time, enjoying their chance to show their beliefs; more passers-by were beeping and giving the thumps-up as they drove by than were disagreeing. And of those who expressed their disagreement, it was a real eye-opener to see the anger that filled many of them. The "F" bomb thrown out to total strangers, the "3rd finger salute" given with an expression of rage at us for daring to disagree with their beliefs, the apparent contempt for anyone and everyone who held different ideas than them, truly an education as to who really seems to have anger issues.

Hey folks, you are the ones in power right now. Why are you so angry with us simply because we disagree? Are you that afraid of us, people who you tell everyone are a tiny minority of the public? If we are that insignificant, why do you feel compelled to vent such rage on us? And please, please tell me why it makes you feel better or more powerful or more correct than me because you can shout out a four letter word as you drive by, or are able to flip me a bird? Heck, most kids over the age of 12 can do that, can't they? I really have to say that those "right-wing terrorist gangs" acted a whole lot better than the passers-by who disagreed with us. Just sayin'

More of 9-11 Thoughts

a link

WE MUST NEVER FORGET

This link will be up from now until sometime after 9/11.

As a firefighter, I mourn the 343 FDNY Bravest who gave their all at the Twin Towers, and all who were so heartlessly killed in New York, at the Pentagon, and over Shanksville, Pa. The rescuers, those who died thwarting a third airplane crash somewhere in D.C., and all the innocent victims, they all deserve the honor that we give them, and their families and loved ones deserve our thoughts and prayers. People like them were, are, and will be forever remembered.

Washington Arrogance

From the Fox News Site:

Families who fail to get health insurance could be fined up to $3,800 under a health care reform plan proposed by a top Senate negotiator.

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is leading talks among the "Gang of Six" senators to hammer out a bipartisan compromise, offered what he described on Tuesday as a "framework" and not a "final product."

Where exactly does this guy get off telling me that:

1) He knows better than me what is good for me.

2) He has a right to tell me what to do with my money.

3) The Constitution means nothing as to limitation of government powers.

I stand in complete awe of the arrogance of these people in Washington. Most of them have absolutely no concept about what the real world is like, as they jet around the world on "fact-finding tours" (us commoners look up facts on the Internet or even READ BOOKS!!!) and yet they sit and decide what they will do to us with our own freaking money. Maybe if they actually had to work for a living, and worry about the next paycheck and how to meet the mortgage payments and fuel bill, they might have a better grasp of what it is like outside of the beltway. But even so, would you be so presumptuous that you would try to mandate how your neighbor spent his/her money? Of course not, but this yo-yo who lives in Washington and supposedly represents people in a state 2,000 miles from me feels perfectly comfortable telling me that he and his cronies are going to fine me if I don't buy health insurance from a program that they will set up and control.

And our own representative, the same representative who refused to attend a townhall meeting, now pontificates on how he feels so good about getting millions of federal dollars for us, the poor slobs who can't be trusted to take care of ourselves.

"I've worked very hard to bring back tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to directly create and retain jobs and to lay the groundwork for the growth of new industries and businesses in the region so that this area will prosper for decades to come. At the same time, I've brought back federal resources to help those in need, which is not only the right thing to do, but also spares local taxpayers from having to pay for all of these much-need social services."

Hey Congressman, that is OUR money that you are returning to us. You aren't giving us jack. It was our money that you took from us. It is money that you and your ilk have been taking from us and squandering on rediculous programs that only drive us deeper and deeper into debt as a country. Please, stop treating us like morons, like you are somehow giving us this wonderful gift. Giving us our own money isn't sparing us anything at all.It is OUR MONEY, Congressman, not yours.

9-11 Service Day

9/11 to be a national service day. Click on the image on that page to enlarge.

No, damn it, No !!

We have 364 other days to be service days. This day, this one day out of the year, has been and will continue to be set aside for one purpose only, and that one purpose is to stop and remember the firefighters, police and EMS workers who gave their lives in the attacks on this day, and all the innocent victims of those attacks in New York City, Washington DC, and Shanksville Pa.

I have no argument with a service day, I guess, but I have to admit that if someone gives service on only one day, then they might want to reconsider the rest of the year and what might be done on all those other days. But aside from that snarky thought, this one day, 9/11, is NOT the day for this. This day is sacred to many of us, a day of deep sorrow and mourning over all of those who gave so very much for others, who lived up to the pledge that they made when they signed on as firefighters or police or EMS. "Others before self", "The Finest" or "The Bravest"....whichever one you want to recall, they all did what they felt had to be done to save others. And Mr Beemer and the other passengers in the plane over Pa, who knew what was happening, decided what had to be done to prevent another disaster, and did it, giving up their own lives in their actions. All of these men and women deserve at least this one day, this one 24 hour period that is theirs and theirs alone. It must not be diluted into a feel-good day of service, but kept as a solemn day of remembrance in their honor and a day to recall what heroism really is.