No August Recess

What the fuck?! Health care reform is not completed, yet the Senators get to take an August recess?! Why? And why is Obama letting them off the hook with a "looks like it won't get done by August, ok. We just have to keep hounding them." Paraphrasing here, but the general idea. Bullshit!!! The Republicans have already proven that this isn't about healthcare, this is about bringing down Obama...it's back to the old David and Goliath BS that the Republicans and the Democrats go back to playing...sometimes they become switches in the game and one is the top and one is the bottom, but ultimatly it is a game to them...some sort of fucked up S/M scene where the American people are not consenting.

And you gotta love that fucker Jim DeMint...I like to call him Cream DeMint...the bastard. He has made it very clear that this is about "breaking" Obama. I am glad that some shit lick in South Carolina can run his mouth and effect the healthcare of the entire nation. Mr. Creamy...you, Sir, have a form of National Healthcare...the government pays for your healthcare. You have access to some of the best doctors in the country and I am quite sure your Senator ass is not sitting in some ER waiting to be seen for a chronic condition because you can't afford a primary care physician and have to utilize ER as your doc. Not to mention that you put off any preventative care or go without meds because you can't afford them. That is not your reality, but it is the reality for 46 million Americans that have no healthcare. But that's not your problem is it? Nope. And don't feed us that BS that it is the unemployed that don't have healthcare...8 out of 10 without healthcare are working class people and 80% of those are American citizens.

I am so sick of the "socialized medicine" rhetoric I could vomit. I work in healthcare...I see the fear in people's eyes every fucking day when they look at their discharge sheets and see all the prescriptions that they should have filled. I see them calculating in their head what they can and can't ask their families to sacrifice for their meds, then I see them back again because they tried to go without or not use them as ordered to try to stretch them out. People die because of this or end up hospitalized without insurance with zero chance of being able to pay the astronomical bill that is created.

The truth is we need healthcare reform right now. Fuck the insurance companies, fuck the politicians who reside in the insurance companies pockets. This is about the citizens of the United States. We need to let our politicians know they work for us...we need to take to the streets like the people did in Iran. Those people went out into the streets knowing full well their very lives were at stake, many of them not knowing where their next meal would come from, they are under severe oppression and still they mustered the courage to take it to the streets and we can't even do that from our positions of relative comfort?! What does that say about us as a people. We have the history to do this...we have the blood of the revolutionaries running through out veins. We have the history of fleeing from oppressive countries to seek freedoms here. Some of us have the history of slavery and rising above it in our family trees. We can not let our government water down our blood. We must fight like we have fought for all of our other rights and take our place as the leaders of this democracy, because the rights of the people should supercede the government!!!

I lubs me some Obama but...

his response to the arrest of Harvard Professor Gates has me scratching my white liberal head wondering just how to respond. The thing is, being white and liberal creates an interesting dilemma in this dyke's head. I have some very strong opinions about this subject, but I often feel the pressure to be politically correct. So, let's take off the gloves and just let me say what I feel.

I really don't feel the arrest of Mr. Gates was racially motivated at all. In fact, I feel like Mr. Gates was inciting a racial riff on purpose. Now, I don't doubt that Professor Gates has had to deal with racial prejudice before, but to make this cop pay for those past instances is not fair to an officer, who up to this point, has had exemplary service and has never been accussed of being racist before. Mr. Gates was defiant to a police officer...period. Now, as most of you may know, or you will know after reading me for awhile, I am all for being defiant in the face of unabashed and undeserved authority. I don't think we should blindly follow any authority figure regardless of their station and/or position in life, but when an officer asks you to present your ID you present your ID, especially if you are innocent. Personally, I would be thankful to the officer for coming to protect my home and would extend to him as much courtesy as I could. Of course having a cop in your house is a little fucking weird, but you cooperate and then the situation gets resolved, hands are shaken and everyone goes about their day.

What if this gentleman did not know that there was a criminal in his home with him? It was the cop's job to secure all of the people in that house, not only for the safety of the home owner, but for his own personal safety as well. I am not a cop, nor do I know the protocol of this particular police department, but Mr. Gates was being completely disrespectful and the cop, according to all accounts, was following procedure. Had he not followed procedure for fear that he might be acussed of racism how can he possibly do his job? And what person has time to formulate in their head all the possible outcomes such as being acussed falsely of something when perhaps a situation is escalating and needs to be dealt with?! This wasn't a milita that responded to a possible burlarly, this was an agency charged with the responsibility of protecting and serving, sometimes people who are innocent must be detained in order to make sure everyone is safe. Mr. Gates was only cuffed and taken into custody after his verbal tirade and not cooperating with the officers.

Mr. Gates, I can not pretend to understand your circumstances as a black man nor can you pretend to think that this man was being racist. You made an assumption Sir and with that assumption you chose to ignore your duty as a citizen of this country in complying with the request of a law enforcement officer. Asking for your ID was in no way a racist act nor should it be touted as one. There are bigger battles to fight, looking for racism in little nooks and crannies will not bring about change, it will further serve to divide our society. I am not saying that Mr. Gates has not experienced racism in his life, I am quite sure he has, but that is like a rape victim assuming every man is a rapist. It's not fair. Just my $0.02...

And President Obama...I get that you probably feel a responsibility to have spoken out on this subject. I am sorry that you spoke without knowing all of the facts and that you felt that you automatically had to support someone because of his color, assuming that is what you were doing. I think you exercised bad judgement on this one...gather the facts then perhaps deliver a calculated statement, don't just say something out of some sense of responsibility.

Well...fuck 'em

I have had it...I finally contacted the prosecuting attorney's office and fully intend to go there tomorrow and open a file. The ex has actively ignored me long enough. You can ignore me, but now he is ignoring my children and I am done. If the threat of losing his driver's license or going to jail is not enough to make him get his shit together, than I don't know what else to do.

I would love to say it's not so much the money, but truthfully, that is a large issue. My son just came to me and said he has outgrown all of his shoes, we will shop for shoes that he will probably outgrow again in a couple of months...he's 12 afterall! However, the larger issue is that he is making my kids feel like shit and doubt that they are worthy of being loved. That is some bullshit I will not tolerate.

I want to say this loud and clear. I am a GAY womon who is working and providing for her children. It is their STRAIGHT father that is not stepping up to the plate and taking care of his responsibilities, but guess what, he is married to an equally inept parent (3 kids of her own and doesn't have custody of ANY of them) and they can get all the rights that marriage affords and could quite conceivably have more children?!?! WTF?

We need to start screaming from the rooftops that we are productive members of society already raising children, many of us being oppressed from many sides. I am a single Mom, a lesbian, middle class, and a womon...grab a club and join in because oppression surrounds me from every side and I am sick and fucking tired of being beat down. I am standing up to this here and now and I will come out of this with 2 kids that will be able to say that their dyke mother stood up for them, loved them, and made sure that their needs were met despite all this bullshit!!!

Grad School & Healthcare and bears oh my!!!

Well...it's official, I am going to be starting Grad School in Sept. Kinda freaked with the whole bullshit going on with the ex and no money, but I figure, WTF...maybe the student loan money will help. My daughter will be starting school in the Fall as well, which is very surreal.

Been trying to figure out what I want to do with my life...the simple answer is to just find something where I make a difference and pay my bills. Doesn't seem like to much of a pipe dream and I wish I would have had it 20 years ago. Back then going to school and getting my degrees was a means to an end. I never really went for what I wanted...I went for a paycheck. Don't get me wrong, being a respiratory therapist has been a great career and it is always one that I can go back to, but healthcare is killing my soul. I love interacting with the patients and I love it when we do some great work, but knowing that the whole layout of the system is fucked is really weighing on me. Knowing that I have total shit insurance, as a healthcare worker, pisses me off to no end. It would be like a Zookeeper feeding the lions filet and getting baloney for their supper. I often feel like that...

I don't think anyone in this country should have a lifetime of debt over medical issues, especially if you work and pay for your insurance. That is not my reality. So, rather than bitch about it, which I can do and do pretty well, I decided to get my MPA and hopefully, somehow get into politics or non profit and work toward creating change. I will be 40 when I get my degree, but I figure, hell...that's young enough to make a difference.

Sitting here thinking about change does not change make...I know that I am just sick and fucking tired of the middle class getting the shaft in this country. People make all kinds of assumptions about us...we make enough money we don't need a hand up (NOT OUT!!!) we have health insurance (I would be better off on Medicaid for sure!!!) And as a single Mom whose ex is way fucking behind in his support, the government apparently does not think it necessary to step in and make the bastard pay up, but they will let me lose everything I've worked for in the mean time. Our whole system is based on bullshit and until the middle class gets off their wheel and gets pissed off and takes to the streets, this will not change. WE NEED A REVOLUTION!!!! This is our fucking country, our blood and sweat makes this country, not our politicians!!! Rise up I say!!

What happened to responsibility?

Being a parent is was not something I initially chose, it happend, like it often tends to do in my family in a cart before the horse kinda way. I had my daugther shortly after I turned 20 and was married to my high school boyfriend who, at the time, was a pretty decent guy. Fast forward 21 years and a lot has changed, more has just come to light really.

After the birth of my son, I knew that I could no longer live a lie...I was a dyke. That was not the only issue, because I had a lot of love for this man. He was just not an active participant in our lives...he went to work and came home, had no real ambition, was ok with the kids, but not interactive. Our daughter was born with a disability and is in a wheelchair, but it was rare that he actually was the one to take her to an appointment. I was tired of not being appreciated. He had also gone to school and we had paid off most of his student loans by the time we were separated.

Divorce...amicable. The next couple of years were, really he took the kids fairly regularly and paid his child support on time every month. Then he met and married a white trash whore with 3 kids and who didn't have custody of one of them. Long story short, they have moved to KY and he quit paying child support almost 2 years ago. At the present time, the bastard is about $9,000 behind and refuses to return any attempts at my letters and ignores my youngest son. He has minimal contact with my daughter. So...I am sick of it. I finally received a few payments, but he has me so far behind in my bills that I am in total jeopardy of losing my car. It is his ignoring the kids, however, that has pushed me over the edge. My son texted him over a week ago and received no return, he has had ZERO contact with is Dad in over a month. He does talk to my daughter somewhat, but she usually has to initiate contact at this point.

I am seriously considering posting his identity and location. I'm not sure what purpose that would serve, maybe retribution? Everything I have said is true and in no way can be construed as slander. He needs to grow up and act like a man instead of a selfish ass. I know in his heart that he cares for his kids, but it is time that he started supporting them emotionally and financially. My daughter is starting college in the Fall and I am going to Grad School while still working full time, I could use that 9 grand to say the least. I guess maybe I just want to pubically say that this man has actively choosen to not particpate in the lives of his children and I want him to feel shame, but in all honesty I just want him to step up to the fucking plate.