Piss test the poor

I attended South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, SC (quick shoutout to SCAMP 98’).  One of the perks of attending was that I was given the opportunity to watch the Democratic primaries when they were held on my campus back in 2007. Back then, I believe there were 6 or 7 people running as it was the first primary.  (Side note: I actually met Rep.  Dennis Kucinich in Ruby Tuesdays but that’s a different story). I am bringing this up because a question was asked to Gov. Bill Richardson pertaining to drug testing people who receive state/federal assistance.  Now, I am not going to give you his answer. Want I want to discuss is the response of the people in the gym when the question was asked.  Now keep in mind that I attended an HBCU and it was mainly black people in the gym. EVERYBODY clapped.  EVERYBODY!  The clap was a sign of approval for doing it.  That let me know then that this wasn’t a “race” issue, this was a “class” issue.  This will be important later in the blog.

So, let’s talk about what just happened.  The Gov. of Florida recently signed a bill that will require adults applying for federal temporary assistance to take a drug test in order to receive funds.  The program is called the “Needy Families” program.  To sum up the basis of it, if you are below the poverty line with kids, the federal government will give you “cash” assistance.  Now the federal government gives out the money to the state but each state has its own means as to how it is disbursed. To see how Florida helps out these families, please check this website: http://www.tanf.us/florida.html . On paper, the program seems good. 

Now, I am not here to discuss the merit of the program, I am here to talk about whether it is right to test these people.  Let’s look at it from both sides.  Most of you all are tax paying citizens.  I have a question.  How many people do you know on welfare?  I’m not talking seeing in Bi-Lo on the first, I mean really know?  Now, how would you feel if you knew someone was on welfare and did drugs?  How would you feel?  On the other hand.  What if you lost your job and had to get on welfare.  How would you feel to know you had to be drug tested in order to get assistance from the federal government?  You see, tax payers can do drugs because it’s their money.  Society won’t care because we ain’t paying for it, they are.  But if tax payer money is going towards it, now it’s problem but is it a legitimate gripe?

As for me, I have two questions:  1. who did the research? Who found out that people on federal assistance are doing drugs and they would save money by having them do drug testing?  One thing you don’t know is that the Governor co-founded a business that has walk-in clinics that do drug testing.  They aren’t supposed to bid for state contracts so someone in Florida needs to look at that closely.  Next, Why is it such a bad thing to drug test people to get federal aid when if they get a job, they will more than likely take a drug test in order to work?  Me, I would do whatever I needed to do get the assistance I needed for my kids but then again, I’m not an addict and with me dealing with them on a weekly, if not daily basis, it’s not easy for them either.  So, while I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, I wish the state of Florida would consider looking at the whole picture and not just the looking as saving a few, and ignoring the rest.  They maybe addicts, but they are still citizens.

Is Donald Trump a racist?

Unless you have been under a rock, I am sure you have heard about what has been going on in politics about Barack Obama’s birth certificate.  Recently, President Obama presented his long form birth certificate in order to prove that he was an American citizen.  Now there has been a man that has been extremely focused on this piece of paper as he decides whether or not he is going to run for president in 2012.  That man is Donald Trump.  Now, there have been some words that have been discussed to describe Trump’s behavior as of late.  The one word that I will be tackling in this blog post is the word “racist”.  Everyone is using the race card as a reason to describe why Donald Trump has been on Obama about his birth certificate.  Now if you have already decided that Donald trump is a racist, then this blog isn’t for you.  But if you are on the fence about it, I want to give you a brief insight into his behavior and then you can come to a conclusion.  In order to do that, we have to look at his past runins with other people.

Let’s start with Mitt Romney.  As far as presidential candidates are concerned, Mitt is at the top.  He has more power than Trump being in politics so since he couldn’t attack power, he called Romney a “small business guy”.  Trump said that he should be the frontrunning candidate for the presidency because he has made more money than Mr. Romney.  And any man who knows a guy with money and power knows those are the two best places to hit someone to damage his ego.  So by calling Mitt “small business guy”, make Trump look “bigger” than him.

Up next is Jerry Seinfeld.  By far the nicest comedian on stage I have ever seen.  Seinfeld was supposed to attend a charity event but cancelled due to Donald’s recent behavior about the president’s birth certificate.  Donald said this: "What I do feel badly about is that I agreed to do, and did, your failed show, 'The Marriage Ref,' even though I thought it was absolutely terrible," Trump wrote. "Despite its poor ratings, I didn't cancel on you like you canceled on my son and St. Jude. I only wish I did."  Mind you, Jerry still made a generous donation to the cause but because he didn’t do what Donald asked him to do (power), he lashed out.

Next up is Robert De Niro. Now I will admit, Robert did say some bad things about Donald Trump.  Trump responded by saying that De Niro “wasn’t the brightest bulb on the planet” and also stated ““I like his acting, but in terms of when I watch him doing interviews and various other things, we’re not dealing with Albert Einstein,”

Now let us dig into the Obama fiasco:  The first thing you need to understand is that they were talking about his birth certificate LONG BEFORE Trump got involved.  Alan Keyes (a black man) was questioning it back in 2009. Why is this important?  Well let’s see.  You are Donald Trump.  You wanna run for president.  You have nothing to attack the president on that no one else is already attacking him on.  You heard a long time ago about them questioning his birth certificate and it kind of died down.  What is the best way to make an impact?  You attack something no one else is attacking him on.  As a businessman, you know how to play on people’s emotions to get what you want (shout out to Glenn Beck for my last sentence). So you milk the birth certificate until it is made public.  That doesn’t make him a racist

It makes him an egotistical prick.

People are looking up to him for standing up for something that most major people have let go of.  Now the “grass roots” people who never let it go are now looking up to him.  This gives Donald Trump more power.  What do people with money and power want?  More money and more power and he has got it.  So I promise you, it didn’t matter if it was Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, John McCain, or Hilary Clinton.  Whoever was the president and they had a little controversy associated with them, he was going to milk it for what it’s worth.  That doesn’t make him a racist, he just wants the power.

I will end with this, if his supporters are ok with him being called a racist, don’t expect him to care.  As long as it gives him more power, I am pretty sure he will be ok with it.

Shut em down!

There have been a lot of talks lately about government shutdown.  Everywhere you turn it’s “will the government shutdown” or “countdown to shutdown”.  Everyone has got everybody creating a big hoopla about this thing so what I have tried to do is simplify this whole issue to provide a better understanding about what the shutdown is and how it will affect you.

Ok, each year a budget has to be approved before the government can be functional.  Now, as I stated before, the budget is nothing more than what the federal government expects to receive and pay out each year.  Normally we end up as a country over budget but the issue isn’t that, its how much money the government pays out to certain programs and there was amendment after amendment trying to cut money from programs in that budget.  Amendments ranging from cutting Planned Parenthood to defunding the healthcare law (now tell me that wasn’t a straight political move).  The issue is the Republicans wants cuts in programs that The Senate and the White House simply will not do.  And when the federal government cannot decide on how they spend “our” money, the government shuts down.

So, what happens when the government shuts down?  The “real” answer is no one knows.  “But wait, I have been hearing things like they are cutting parks and recreation and federal employees will not be able to work and all of that so what do you mean no one knows?”  Well, the reason why we don’t know is because every government has their own “shutdown” plan.  This is a plan that is devised by the current president and his officials in the event that the government does shut down.  What people are talking about now is what happened when the government shutdown in 1995.  Here is the rundown:

In 1995, Congress sent a bill to Bill Clinton that he refused to sign and the government shut down.  When that happened:

·  no new patients were accepted into clinical research trials at the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

·  NIH disease hotlines were closed

·  the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stopped disease surveillance

·  toxic waste clean-up work at more than 600 sites was stopped

·  delays in processing of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives applications by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF)

·  work on more than 3,500 bankruptcy cases was suspended

·  cancellation of the recruitment and testing of federal law-enforcement officials, including the hiring of 400 border patrol agents

·  delay in the processing of delinquent child-support cases

·  closure of 368 National Park Service sites, with an estimated loss of 7 million visitors and accompanying tourism revenues to local communities

·  closure of national museums and monuments, with an estimated loss of 2 million visitors

·  approximately 20,000-30,000 visa applications by foreigners unprocessed each day

Also, federal employees were sent home without pay.  So, people are now assuming the same things will happen again which is a safe assumption but realistically, no one really knows what will happen if/when the government shuts down.

So, how does this affect you?  Well, you have to understand that “assuming” all of these things that happened in 1995 happen again, just reading above will answer that question, but you really won’t know until it happens.  Is there anything you can do right now to prevent issues related to this?  I wish I could say yes but right now, the fate of the shutdown lies within two parties that are nowhere near eye to eye about money.  I wish I had a positive ending about this one but I don’t.  All you can do now is hope somehow they agree which judging by the amendments they put in the spending bill, you would be better off expecting the worse.

Read more at Suite101: Government Shutdown of 1995: What happened and why? http://www.suite101.com/content/government-shutdown-of-1995-what-happened-and-why-a349787#ixzz1Ek7zjiNi

My health, My law!

OK, there has been much talk about this healthcare law and whether or not it is legal.  I have spent many hours trying to dig up as much information as I can and I promise you, I am not AS confused as I was when I first started but I will say that there are some aspects of these court cases that are still confusing.  I will try my best in this blog to fully explain what all this mess is about:

First, ever since the healthcare bill has been signed into law, there have been lawsuits filed stating that the law is unconstitutional.  Now, I am sure that someone will ask: How can you file a lawsuit against a signed law?  You can’t fight a law can you?  Well, the fight isn’t necessarily against the law but the interpretation of the law.  Let me explain:

There are three different branches of the government.  Congress makes up the legislative branch.  They write the laws.  The president and his cabinet make up the Executive Branch.  They enforce the law.  The judiciary branch is the Judges.  They interpret the law.  So, essentially how the law is enforced will be based on its interpretation.  That’s why you sue because if a judge thinks there is an issue with the law; or if he thinks that the law is being interpreted incorrectly, he can rule in a matter where he feels the law should be followed.  He can also decide if the law should be followed at all.  So let’s see how judges have been interpreting the law:

A U.S judge in Michigan said that the law is constitutional.  I believe a 2^nd one did as well.  A federal judge in Virginia has deemed a part of the law that mandates people to have health insurance as unconstitutional.  I wanted to spend a little more time on the Florida ruling because it had an interesting twist.  It brings up severability.  Severability is usually a clause that states if one part of a law or contract is illegal; the rest of the law or contract is still in effect.  So if 25% of a contract is illegal, with severability, the other 75% still has to be followed.  The Florida judge has stated that since the healthcare law had no severability, the ENTIRE law is unconstitutional.  I think that is interesting that no one thought to add one simple clause to make sure the entire law doesn’t get scrapped.  Here is my opinion on the whole thing:

The federal government has stated that all automobile drivers have minimal coverage in order to drive.  Most states have deemed minimal coverage to be liability to protect any others who are injured in an accident that is your fault.  So, if you don’t want to pay for automobile insurance, you don’t drive.  And if you do drive a car without insurance, you will be punished.  I think the same thing should be for healthcare, especially if you have the option to get insurance and choose not to do so.  You don’t want to pay for health insurance, fine.  But don’t expect care if you don’t.  And if you do want healthcare and you choose not to have insurance, providers should have the right to decide if they treat you or not.  Emergency rooms do not have that luxury.  Yes, it’s cruel but how do you combat someone who says “I’m not paying for health insurance, I am sick, and I want you to take care of me”?  What if they keep coming back for more help and didn’t pay the last bill they ran up?  Tell me what would you do? This sounds crazy but just think about it:

“Not having car insurance is risky unless you don’t drive.  So, not having health insurance should be risky unless you don’t live”

In closing, the lawsuits have served their purpose which is to force the Supreme Court to rule on this case.  Whatever they say, will be final.  There is now a major issue though because an unconstitutional part of the law with no severability has the chance of having the entire law killed.  That would be a BIG problem.  They are estimating that it will be next year before they rule.  There are some Congressmen who want them to rule early before this gets too out of hand but I think they will wait.  They really have no reason to rush because as long as appeals are going on, the law is still in effect and will remain so until the Supreme Court says otherwise.  So for now, don’t be too concerned, it’s just business as usual as far as your healthcare is concerned.  Please look at my old blogs to see which laws are in effect right now.

Freeze America!

President Obama recently delivered his State of the Union address and touched on a lot of topics.  I will admit that he has both short term and long term goals that he wants to accomplish but the one that I was asked to blog on was his proposal of a 5 year spending freeze.  Now, before I start talking about this idea, I have to establish a base as to the purpose of the budget before I start talking about his plan.

In previous blogs, I talked about the federal budget and what it was (For a recap, please read previous blogs on New World Order).  Now, the federal budget is devised by the Executive Branch of the federal government.  It is then “tweaked” by the Legislative Branch of the government.  So ultimately, even though it’s a joint effort, Congress will set the budget.  So, let’s talk about the plan:

Obama wants to put a spending freeze on non security, discretionary spending.  To understand what this is you have to understand that there are two types of spending in the federal budget.  That is mandatory spending and discretionary spending.  Mandatory spending goes towards programs that are required by law to provide certain benefits.  The majority of mandatory spending goes to social security, medicare, and Medicaid.  Discretionary spending is money that the Executive and Legislative branches negotiate over as part of the budgeting process.  You see technically, there is laws in place that state that social security, medicare, and Medicaid should provide certain services.  They could possibly adjust how much is paid out for those services but those services have to be covered by law.  On the other hand, things like education, defense, and transportation aren’t covered by such laws.  These are programs that the federal government gives money to at their “discretion”. Get it? Now Obama wants to put a spending freeze on those programs.  You can get a list of those programs easily by googling “2010 federal budget”.  I would do it but it’s just too long for this blog.  I do have a couple of points that I want to make about 2010 before I continue with his proposal (yes I know this is long and boring but you have to understand the base before you can understand the plan so I’ll just throw in a joke here to keep you interested)

What do you call a defective boomerang?

A stick.

OK let’s continue: in 2010, discretionary spending was estimated to cost about $1.4 trillion with over $700 billion going to defense and homeland security.  So, a few programs get half while the other 20+ get the other half and that’s the half that Obama wants to put a freeze on.  Departments like Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban development, Health and Human Services, Veteran Affairs, Labor, Treasury, etc…..  Now this proposal has some snags in it when I do my research.

First, he really touched on education during his speech so I will be watching to see if he really cuts spending with Education or does something to promote hiring more teachers in the coming years.  Next, I will also be watching Housing and Urban Development to see if anything changes with the dream of Americans becoming home owners.  Also, as a PA, I will definitely be checking on Health and Human Services budget with the passing of this healthcare law.  I believe since it is a law that spending will somehow be mandatory spending now as opposed to discretionary spending but I am not sure about that one.  I’m not saying he can’t do it; I just want to know where this estimated $200 billion dollars we will be saving over 10 years is coming from.

One more point, The Republicans have already thrown the gauntlet down for this plan.  As I discussed before, we always spend more than we bring in so maybe this whole budget and spending freeze is pointless right?  Well, our House majority leader Jim Boehner has already hinted to having a “spending cap” placed on certain programs to make sure we don’t go over budget.  The republicans want to reduce spending and it looks like they are taking Obama’s plan and saying “we want more cut before we vote with you”.  This will get interesting because initial cuts are being aimed at everything from the FBI to Head Start programs.  Ladies and gentlemen, this blog is long but if there ever was a time to start looking at what will and will not be funded this fiscal year, NOW is that time!

New World Order Part 2

I have a confession to make: I was wrong.  When I wrote the last blog about the republicans taking over the House and winning seats in the Senate, I had the blog set up to discuss how the Republicans were going to restrict spending(For review, read New World Order Part 1).  I just knew that was going to be their first order of business.  It was my way of leading you to believe that was going to be their primary focus but one thing that I have learned this past weekend is that I am still a rookie in understanding politics.  Politicians have a way to think 2, 4, and 6 years ahead and see how decisions made today will reflect decisions the American people will make during election years.  And their recent vote may have helped.

The Republican Party started the year off with voting to repeal the healthcare laws that were just signed into law last year.  Now of course it would seem like they decided to do this to cut government spending as I am sure that they will use this vote as a platform for re-election but if you look closely to this vote, you will see that this vote was more of a political move and not a move for the American people.

The first thing you have to understand is that before they even brought this bill before the House, a few things were already known:

1.       The Senate said they would not pass it

2.       President Obama said that IF the bill passed the Senate, He would veto it.

3.       Congress does not have the 2/3 vote it would need to override the veto IF it even gets this far.

So, why pass a bill that will go nowhere?  Well, to establish the fact that they voted against the healthcare bill come election time.  I can see the commercials already: Some congressman sitting at a desk pretending to be working while facts about him supporting the people and voting against government spending scroll across the screen and at the end seeing that same Congressman approves this message because the American people need a voice.  Oh it’s going to be so heartwarming.  So, of course this puts the Republican Party in a bad light.  I mean, they are just looking out for their best interest and not ours right?  Well, before you run over to the Democrat side, let me share something with you.

Last year right before the republicans took control of the House, the democrats passed a bill extending the Bush tax cuts for anyone making 250k or less.  They ALSO passed another bill for families making 1 million or less after the 250k bill failed.  Now before they passed this bill, they knew that the Senate was going to block the bill as well.  So why did they pass a bill they knew was going to fail?  The same reason the republicans did it this year.  If extending the tax cuts for everyone hurts the economy (which I think it will), it will be their platform come election time to keep their seats.  I can see their commercials too: Some guy sitting on a desk looking right into the camera talking about how he wanted the bills to pass but the Republicans wanted to block it.  Vote for me, and I’ll make the change needed for America.

What do these two things have in common: They do nothing to help us, but everything to help the Party.  Right now, the primary focus is 2012!  It isn’t the economy, the deficit, or the budget.  Think about it, if they REALLY cared about those things, they would have started out with a way to pass something that at least had a shot of making it through the Senate but neither the Democrats nor the Republicans did that.  The only person that tried to do it was Barack Obama when he passed the compromised tax bill during the lame duck session and who was upset that he did that?  The Democrats.  That should tell you that compromise wasn’t on anyone’s mind. 

This is getting scary but I am more intrigued.  More blogs about this to come………………

DEAL WITH THE ISSUE!!!!!!!

I am sure by now you have heard about the shooting that has taken place in Arizona.  On January 8, 2011, Jared Lee Loughner shot 20 people, killing six, in Tucson. Ever since that day, I have noticed that the major issue in the media is who to blame for this?  There has been finger pointing at the family, gun laws, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and others.  Politicians are beefing up security for fear of the tea party movement.  Even a prominent African American GOP official has resigned because of threats he has received.  Now, he has received these threats in the past but because of the shooting now there is an issue.  Everybody is looking at all of these issues and no one is looking at the REAL reason these shootings occurred.  Let me break it down for you:

Have you seen the youtube videos he made?  I have. Now when I see those videos, do I see a tea partier? No.  Do I see a person protecting his rights to bear arms?  No.  What I see is a man with a severe mental illness.  He spoke of mind control and starting a “new currency”.  His videos are kind of hard to follow but with him being an avid reader of political books and having an affinity for conspiracy theories, why would you pick this guy as the reason the tea party is reckless?  He didn’t hate liberals or conservatives, he hated America.  I mean, America is brainwashing us with grammar.  That’s what he thought.  And this guy is the reason why we need gun control?  No. He is the reason why we need better funding for mental health issues.

 It is estimated that up to 16% of homeless people suffer from some kind of mental illness.  We are so focused on trying to find a reason to attack the tea party or attack gun control we will use anything.  We are so reactive and quick to point fingers and release statements without getting all of the information.  You honestly think that a psychotic atheist who believes grammar is controlling Americans is the reason the tea party needs to control their supporter’s rhetoric?  Be serious.  Do I think that democrats have a legitimate complaint about the tea party?  Maybe.  Do I think they should have used Jared as their spokesperson? Absolutely Not!  But what is more disheartening is that once it comes out that he wasn’t a tea partier but rather a mentally disturbed human being, who do you think it would benefit more?  The tea party cries slander and grows stronger.  Democrats should hope that nothing comes out about Jared stating he wasn’t affiliated with the tea party because I see a political windstorm coming that will totally cripple them in 2012. 

I chose to wait until I got more information before I decided to comment as I wish more people in high offices would do.  I challenge anyone to look up some information about Jared Lee Loughner.  I am sure by now, he probably has a Wikipedia page.  You will be just as surprised as I was as to what I read. 

If you know someone who is suffering from mental illness, please contact the National Institute of Mental Health at

6001 Executive Boulevard

, Room 8184, MSC 9663
Bethesda , MD20892-9663
Phone: 1- 301 - 443-4513
Phone: 1- 866 - 615-6464
Web Address: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/