I would like to wish all of you a Happy 4th of July!!!

Rep. Joe Barton issued an apology to the executives of BP for America's response to the oil they spilled into our Gulf Of Mexico. According to Rep. Barton, it's our fault that BP is being inconvenience with cleaning up their oil spill. It's our fault that they have to spend billions of dollars to help rebuild the lives they have destroyed. Mr. Barton feels that he has to issue an apology on behalf of the government for the government's actions and failures to BP. Mind you now, no elected politician apologized for the government's actions and failures for the 9-11 attacks.

When I saw this, the first question I asked was, "how much money did BP pay this congressman to do this?" Apparently, the oil and gas industry gave over $1,000,000 over the past 10 years to Rep. Barton's campaign. Barton is the problem with our government personified. He wants to make sure that the risk and cost of this disaster is moved from the corporation to the people. When given the choice between people rights vs. corporate rights. He chooses corporate rights at all cost because that what he was "bought off" to do.

Where are the Rep. Joe Barton(s) of the world going to draw the line against corporations destroying this country for their profit? Answer, nowhere. What can a corporation destroy in this country and get away with it. What if a chemical company spills chemicals in the Colorado River and poison the entire Grand Canyon? What if a mining company set off a charge accidently blow off George Washington's head off of Mount Rushmore? What if a drilling company hits a pocket of methane under Arlington National Cemetery and JFK eternal flame sets it off and torch the entire cemetery. Can we hold these companies responsible? Joe Barton and the corporatist conservatives say no.

It's our fault that our Grand Canyon got in the way of their chemical spill. It's our fault that our Mount Rushmore was in the way of their blasting. It's our fault that our honored dead on our most hallowed ground was in the way of their drilling. And in BP's case, we must apologize to BP for having our Gulf of Mexico and gulf coast states in the way of their oil drilling.

Joe Barton has shown us, in no uncertain terms, who he represents. He represents the oil and gas industry by making sure they have complete deregulation freedom and leveraging all risk and costs onto the American people. Now when a disaster happens and the American people get in the way of Joe Barton and the oil and gas industry, they better apologize for doing so.

Helen Thomas retired from her journalist position covering the white house.  She has covered every president since Kennedy.  At the age of 89, she has finally decided to hang up her press pass, although it was not her idea totally.  Helen Thomas was embroiled in a scandal about some comments she made about Jews and the Palestinians.  She said that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine and go back to Poland and Germany."  The right-wing media, tabloids, and the blogger-sphere exploded with calls for her resignation.  In the wake of this fervor, she decided to call it a career. 

  Soon all of talk and hoopla will die out and all that will be left will be the legacy of her magnificent career, and what a career it was.  Everything that happened in the past 45 years, Helen Thomas covered it from the White House.  Every scandal, every war, every peace treaty, every assassination, and every election, she reported it to the american people whether they disagreed with her or not. 

She was known throughout Washington as a tough reporter who was not afraid to ask tough questions of the commander in chief.  She was so tough that the George W. Bush administration outright banned her from all white house press conferences.  She saw the civil rights movement and the election of the first black president and everything in between. 

Helen Thomas is an old style journalist who we don't see anymore because her journalist and media industry has changed and left her behind. Helen Thomas quit her job last week, but the news industry has quit Helen Thomas decades ago. When the Glen Becks, and Limbaughs overshadowed her journalism in the 1980's and 1990's, her time was up and era was gone.

Helen Thomas knew better than to make an insulting comment like that. You can be sure that she regrets her comment. Nevertheless, her comment will not, and should not, overshadow her illustrious career. She questioned our leaders and made them accountable to the people for over 45 years. She served the public with distinction and courage. She will be missed, even after this WTF moment.

The Israeli military attacked a humanitarian flotilla from Turkey in international waters. Israel claims that the flotilla was a threat to their Palestinian blockade. Israel has setup a blockade to prevent the Palestinians from receiving food, equipment, basic supplies for their basic survival. The israeli blockade is crushing the palestinians and now the israeli military is attacking any nation that tries to help the palestinians.

First of all, the U. N. has ruled that the blockade is illegal. The situation is made worse because the ship was attacked in international waters. When a ship is sailing under a nation's flag and is attacked in international waters, it's the same as attacking the nation's territory itself. Nothing can be gained from attacking humanitarian efforts with military force. In doing so, Israel has been condemned in the eyes of the world and has further radicalize the palestinians.

Israel is a nation caught in a cycle of violence since its creation. They have enemies that want to kill them on every side. They have very good reasons to be paranoid. Nevertheless, setting up a blockade to starve the palestinians until they drop dead will not work and is pure evil. It is Jews committing genocide against Muslims. The muslim world will not allow muslims to be killed by jews no more than we would allow Israeli jews to be killed by muslims.

The only reason Israel believe they can do this is because they are backed up by the United States. Now is the time for the U. S. to send a message to Israel that we will not be a part of an illegal and genocidal Israeli attack on palestinians.

For the past 35 days, the Deep Horizon oil well has been gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Now that millions of gallons of oil are beginning to wash ashore are we seeing a change of heart is political circles. Politicians who shouted "drill baby drill" are now having second thoughts about their blind trust of the oil industry.

What the hell happened to TV?!?!? Network TV is dead. Cable has lost its mind. I don't know where to begin to complain about daytime TV. The News? What news?

TV has been dead for years but now its official. There is no quality programming on TV. Just a cavalcade of sex, violence, fighting, screaming fools, drugs, alcohol, and made up drama. Every year, it seems that the stupid outlasts the quality.

Jerry Springer and Maury Povich are still on. Oparah and Bill Moyers are going.
Donald Trump Apprentice is still on. Law & Order is gone.
Reality shows are still on. Quality situation comedies are going.
The News? What news?

Its like TV has become like rap music. In the beginning it was fun, interesting, and new. Then it became unbelievably great. Then it became more and more corporate and boring. Now it's a shadow of what it use to be. The question is why? Here is a guess.

There is no better reflection of a regional or national culture and what get on TV. You can get a sense of a foreign country by watching their TV shows in a hotel room. Our TV is like this because this is what has become of our culture, our society, and our nation.

We have become a sex crazed, drug fueled, violent, greed worshiping, lazy, junk food eating nation and it is reflected on our TV. We have replaced greatness with celebrity fame. It is hard to believe that, not too long ago, TV was once much more than what it is now. TV educated children and taught morals. TV informed our people charted the course for our nation. TV told americans the truth when we didn't want to hear it. TV showed us our faults and our greatness.

Not anymore. Today we have to keep TV away from our children. TV tells our country lies when we need to hear the truth. Watching reality show winners has become better than watching man walk on the moon or discovering the truth about this nation's wars. This is what TV has become because this is who we have become.

Go to hell!! Go to hell!! Go to hell!! Once again, the Republicans have disrupted all civility in our democracy for their own political gain. They did it in the 1960s during the civil rights movements. In the 1990s, they help incite the militia movement during the Clinton administration. Today, they are helping incite violence, vitriol language, and hateful protest over healthcare reform.

When the Republicans are in power, they do nothing for the people and the nation except transfer wealth from the middle class to the rich. When the Republicans are out of power, they incite the people to take up arms against the government. Regardless of the fact that America had an election and the people removed them from power, the Republicans and their ilk are giving America and ultimatum. "Do what we want you to do or we will destroy this government and this nation." If that is the case, then it is time to tell the Republican Party, the Teabag Party, corporatist conservatives, and all of their supporters to go to hell. Go to hell!! Go to hell!!

This is no longer about healthcare reform. This response by the Republicans is about racism, hate, and anarchy in order to leverage your political agenda that America turned down in the last election. Political offices have been vandalized. Death threats have been made against Democratic congressmen. All of this over healthcare reform that barely can be call reform. This is about the racial hate the Republican party has been cultivating for the past 30 years. This is about the Republican Party, the Teabag Party, and corporatist conservatives showing all of America who they really are and what they are really about. This is about the so called conservative movement turning into the rampaging mob it has been all along.

There was a time when the Republican political positions and opinions were to be respected. Today, that party is long gone. All that is left is a propaganda fueled, racially hateful, a totally hypocritical, and totally amoral mob running amuck in our democracy. They are just working up the nerve to do something extreme. There is no doubt, this is the America the conservatives want. A world debtor nation with a broken down infrastructure, a gridlocked government, a fear mongering and propaganda consuming population, a crippled economy, and an even more crippled healthcare system that is bankrupting the country. It is clear that the only way for this country to do better is to not only get rid of the Republicans, the Teabag Party, and conservatives, but to tell them to go to hell!! Go to hell!! Go to hell!!

The healthcare reform act has been signed onto law.  It is now the law of the land.  For all it is worth, it is a beginning, not a good beginning, but a beginning.  It's not perfect by no means.  No one likes the requirement to purchase insurance from private insurance companies.  The republicans do not like the start of regulations for insurance companies.  There is a lot of work to be done in addition to passing and signing it into law. 

  Nevertheless, the law is a beginning.  It eliminates the preexisting condition requirements, it appears to be budget neutral, adds requirements for policies covering people, eliminates rescission of insurance policies, and many more overdue fixes for our nation's healthcare system. 

  In order to the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world in providing a world class healthcare system for all people, we have to go back to being the county we use to be.  We have to reestablish our middle class, rebuild our manufacturing industry and start making stuff, eliminate the middle class regressive tax system, make corporations and the rich pay their share, balance our budgets, bring the wars in the Middle East to a close, and reverse all of the conservative political policies that has ruled this nation over the past 30 years.   

Murray Hill Inc. is running for congress. This is not a joke. Murray Hill is a corporation that is running for a seat in the house of representative. Here is their campaign ad.

In lieu of the Citizens United Supreme Court case ruling giving corporations rights of personhood, Murray Hill Inc. is the first corporation to actually running for congress. There is a legal challenge to Murray Hill Inc. They are saying Murray Hill Inc. cannot run for congress not because they are a corporation, but because they are too young. Since the corporation was founded in 2005, the corporation does not meet the constitutional age requirement of 25 in order to run for congress.

This is insane!! If this is the only legal challenge for this, we are screwed. Imagine a group of corporations, 25 years old or older, holding 50 seats in the house and 10 seats in the senate. What illegal activity can they not execute? What laws/regulations can they not pass or recall? If this is not a coup d'etat, I don't know what is. What other nation on this globe would allow this to happen? None!! This is handing over our nation to corporations. If this comes to pass, this is the beginning of the end of our democracy as we know it.

As crazy as it sounds, to be honest, it seems to be the next logical step. Corporations running for congress only regulates actual congressmen to being little more than "bribe-taking middlemen." Apparently congress feels this is a waste of money. Why bribe a congressman when you can just eliminate the middleman. It's just good business.

I have always said that if a guy protest too much that he is not gay, he's probably gay. Rep. Roy Ashburn (R-CA) proves the rule. Ashburn was found coming out of a gay nightclub and driving erratically. When he was arrested for DWI, a huge scandal erupted over how this family value, Christian, conservative republican can be seen coming out of a gay nightclub. Yesterday, at long last, he came out. In a press conference he stated "I am gay."

I'm glad he finally came out and now he is open to be himself. The problem is what he has done to his newly found gay community. Ashburn has steadfastly voted against gay rights, voted against Harvey Milk Day proclamation, and every other gay rights legislation over the past decade. He has voted to deny rights to the gay community. He has been a major hindrance to all progress for gay people in this country.

Now he has come out, he has shown that all he stood for was a lie. His political career damaged the lives of many people because he was afraid to be the gay person he really is.

Many gay people suffered and paid for his cover up and now he has come out and admitted he is gay, he should be ashamed of what he has done to his own. This is the problem with the gay movement. There are too many people, who are gay, who are doing everything possible to destroy the gay movement in order to keep their gay lifestyle a secret.