GET TO WORK. I MEAN IT.

Big, BIG, Big Big news.  BIG.  Really … Big.

The Republicants spent Obama's first term doing exactly NOTHING that makes any sense to anyone except themselves and the flat earthers who back them.  But one actually proposed something the other day that does make sense.

Yes, I know it's hard to believe.  These are the people who don't trust in evolution or global warming, who think a woman's body can stop conception if the woman is the victim of a legitimate rape and who still think Obama was born in Africa.

One of the leaders of these Republicants is Eric Cantor.  Cantor is in the middle of a REBRANDING CAMPAIGN for the Republicant party.  Which means the Republicants will now try to appear (APPEAR) like Democrats.  They want to APPEAR (not actually get behind policies that are useful) like Democrats because in the last election Obama beat Willard Romney by more than 5 million votes and the Republicants lost seats in the House and Senate.

Cantor recognizes that they have a problem, that problem being LOSING elections, although he's a long ways from fixing the problem cause he still doesn't get that the problem isn't REBRANDING it's POLICIES.

But at least he's sniffin' around in the general vicinity, so give him credit for that.  The BIG NEWS is what Cantor said that actually makes sense.  It goes something like this:

He wants colleges to have available, and make available to prospective students and parents, information on the employment prospects for different fields of study. 

Wha-wha-what?

It's a good idea.  Most people go to college because they want a career. 

The days of lofty liberal arts pursuits with degrees that don't open doors are not over, but they're in decline.  It's dog eat dog out there and mom and dad want to know if Bobby or Sally is goin' ta git work when payin' fer all that schoolin' is through.

History major or chemical engineer?  Which will bring home the bacon? 

"History … I dunno, Bobby … is there work fer history people?"

There's nothing wrong with history, in fact, we're all making some right now, and if the kid wants to become an expert on President William Howard Taft's first seven months as the Solicitor General, let him go for it.

But for the kid who can't decide between radiology tech or registered nurse, statistical projections of future employment opportunities should be part of the decision making process.

The kid and the parents should be able to ask the school counselor and the counselor should be able to spit the info out immediately, ASAP, right there on the spot, if not sooner.

So … well done Rep Cantor, you are, however briefly, a constructive member of the House of Representatives.

Now, go get the rest of the Neanderthals you shepherd to come up with some good ideas, too.     

That's your JOBS.  Helping the American people.  NOT spending every waking minute trying to sabotage Obama's ideas.

Go, get to work.  I mean it.  NOW.

NO SKIN IN HE GAME

I wonder what the defenders of 30 round clips would do if they actually had to face a bad guy with an assault rifle.  Not in their minds (such as they are) but in the real world.  Something tells me they'd be the first to call the cops.

Unlike the posers who obsess on their guns, cops face that frightening possibility daily. If a prowler is reported in the neighborhood it's a cop who has to walk into the dark back yards.  Is the criminal carrying a baseball bat or an AK-47?  It's the cop who is at risk. Mr. Second Amendment waits anxiously inside.

Although Mr. Second Amendment has no skin in the game, we know how cops feel about Obama's gun proposals.  They endorse them 100 percent.  Scores of uniformed officers stood behind the President yesterday when he gave a speech about gun violence at the Minnesota Police Department Special Operations Center.

Has Wayne 'Call Me Crazy' LaPierre – mouthpiece for the gun and ammo industry -- been invited to speak there? 

Wayne 'Call me Crazy' was on Faux News (We distort, you fall asleep in your ice cream) Sunday where he had his head handed to him.  Chris Wallace, the only real journalist in the Faux stable, said Wayne 'Call Me Crazy' LaPierre's statement that the President's children didn't deserve Secret Service Protection was RIDICULOUS.  Wallace's word.

 Wallace also pointed out that Wayne 'Call Me Crazy' LaPierre came to the Faux studio with his own body guards.  Why does Wayne 'Call Me Crazy' LaPierre  need an armed escort?  Wasn't he packing?  Isn't he ready to take out the bad guys on his own?  What a wuzz.

Wallace also mocked Wayne 'Call Me Crazy' LaPierre for suggesting that Obama's call for a national firearms registry was the first step in COMING TO TAKE THE GUNS AWAY.

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE THE GUNS AWAY. AAAAAHHHHHH

Hey 'Call Me Crazy' they know where the cars are, have they taken yours away?

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In other gun news:  Chris Kyle, an ex-Navy Seal credited with killing 150 terrorists in Iraq, was shot and killed along with a friend at a shooting range in Texas.  Kyle helped returning Vets re-integrated into society; a missile launcher was turned in at gun buy back in Seattle – Missile launchers don't kill people, people kill people; no shootings at gun shows yet today but it's probably just a slow day.

"IF PEOPLE ARE VIOLATING DRUG LAWS THEY OUGHT TO BE SENT UP."

Somebody once said you can't go broke under-estimating the taste of the American public, which must explain the popularity of Rush Limbaugh.  Old Rushbo is the most popular radio personality (and I use that term loosely) on the air.  He's a hero to right thinking, disgruntled, white males and female-ish women impersonators who hang on his every bluster.

Limbo has been married four (YES 4) times yet he has no children, meaning one of two things:  either he is the most unlucky man in the world to have found four females who were unable to furnish him an heir, or he's firing blanks.

Some years ago Limbaugh was detained at a Florida airport when he returned from the Dominican Republic with a prescription for Viagra in a name that wasn't Rush Limbaugh.

His prescription drug problems didn't stop with his Viagra needs.  He has admitted to and been treated for addiction to Oxycontin, a powerful pain reliever known to those who need another fix as Hill Billy Heroin.  The Blowhard would send his cleaning lady out to score his dope for him.

Before Limbaugh's own illegal drug use was made public, here's what he said about OTHER drug users:  "Drug use is destroying this country... if people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up." 

Limbaugh retained super-expensive, super smooth, Florida criminal defense attorney Roy Black to plead for him and keep him from being 'sent up'. 

We all have feet of clay and I don't begrudge Limbaugh his, he has more character flaws than a room full of Republicant House Members.  But his worst character flaw is called hypocrisy.  Limbaugh wants other drug users sent to jail while he expects leniency and drug treatment – not jail.

With multiple marriages, infertility, impotence, hypocrisy and illegal drug use -- what explains Limbaugh's popularity with the in-bred class?  The answer is constancy. 

Whatever the subject, Limbaugh is going to come out swinging at the same imagined enemies – Democrats and liberals.  If the Democrats are for it, Limbaugh is against it.  If the liberals don't like it, Limbaugh loves it.

Simple huh?  Makes life black and white, rather than all those complicated, scary shades of gray that liberals love. 

Limbaugh and his listeners hate shades of gray.  Unless liberals begin to hate shades of gray, in which case Limbaugh will declare his love for them.

HEY JACK KEROUAC

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY PREDICTION:

 S.F., A VERY LIBERAL TOWN THAT LOVES THEIR 49ERS 

UNFORTUNATELY LOSES TO BALTIMORE, A MOSTLY LIBERAL TOWN, 

HOME TO THE HATED RAVENS 

FINAL SCORE WILL BE .... 34 - 31

         

WORST FEARS

I work as a volunteer at a local hospital and talking about this and that with another volunteer the other day we happened upon the subject of worst fears.  She said hers was losing one of her children.  That is any parent's worst fear.

Yet if you bring the subject up in relation to the parents who've lost their children to gun violence, as have the parents of Sandy Hook kids, you're accused by the gun lobby of pushing an anti-gun agenda or not honoring the memory of the dead children.

What nonsense.

The gun lobbyists also wrap their condemnation in prayers, they're going to pray for the dead children.

More nonsense.  Platitudes and clichés.  Faith without works is dead.

Fear of losing our children or grandchildren is precisely what the gun debate is about, it's not some side issue.  Why do so many people (more than 50 percent) want serious gun control?  To save us from future mass murders. 

This isn't some esoteric debate -- it's life and death.

That's why guns exist.  To KILL things.  A 30 magazine clip gives a maniac 20 more chances to kill school kids than does a 10 round clip.

SOMEBODY MOVED MY READING GLASSES

Faux News (We distort, you fall asleep in your recliner) has seen its ratings decline to their lowest point since 9-11.  That's because Faux has the same problem as the Republicant party.  Demographics are against them. 

The aging, angry, confused, white males who vote Republicant, and who try to stay awake watching Faux, are dying off, and they ain't bein' replaced.

In the prime demographic that advertisers love – males age 25 to 35 -- Faux scores a zero.  That means the next generation of males (and females) who will soon take over the reins of business and government haven't been brain washed by Faux's nonsense.  This can only mean better days for our society. 

Sorry aging, angry, confused white males but the party's over.

Although the aging, angry, confused white males aren't giving up without a fight.  They say crazy things and write angry letters to their newspaper, things like 'I'm worried about our country' or 'That Obama is a socialist out to destroy America' or 'I live in a world I truly don't understand' or 'Where's my reading glasses? Somebody moved my reading glasses.'

Treat them with kindness, their days are numbered.

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Things are definitely getting better ….

Solar power investment continues: Copper Mountain Solar 1 near Boulder City, Nevada constructed one million solar panels with enough energy generation to power 80,000 homes.

Similar projects are planned for other Boulder City Sites and the Moapa Indian Reservation in California.  The City of Los Angeles has already contracted to buy all the power these sites produce.  Clean and green.

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Housing Construction is a key leading economic indicator and the National Association of Home Builders IMI (Improving Markets Index) surged by 76 to 201 metropolitan areas in December of last year.  The only problem – tight financing.  Banks won't loan money.  Didn't taxpayers save a lot of banks from going under a few years ago?  What's the deal, banks?

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UPDATE: DOW crosses 14,000.
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UPDATE:  159,000 jobs added last month.
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Personal incomes rose by 2.6% in December the highest increase since December 2004, just before the Bush recession destroyed the economy.

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This is the kind of good financial news the Faux News crowd hates, it proves that Obama's bringing the country back from the brink.  Sorry Faux News crowd.  Good news for the country bad news for Faux.

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In other gun news: another day another school shooting, this time a 14 year old boy in Atlanta;  1478 people have been killed by guns since Newtown, check it out HERE;  states with the highest gun ownership rates have gun death rates 114% higher than those with the lowest gun ownership rates – highest Wyoming and Montana, lowest – Hawaii and New Jersey;  nobody wounded at any gun appreciation day gun shows yet but it's only 8 AM.

SAYING PLENTY

Our youngest grandson is one and a half years old.  He was taken to the emergency room Tuesday night with a fever of 102F.  He'd been listless and hadn't taken food or drink all day.  Even his older brother, at three and half, noticed something was not right.  "What's wrong with K...?"  He asked his mother.

They've brought his fever down but he still refuses to eat or drink anything.  He was diagnosed with respiratory volume problems.  He's still in the hospital, his mom, who is expecting another, is staying with him.  Fluids are being administered mechanically and – fearing additional dehydration -- they won't release him until he is willing to eat or drink.

Naturally, we're worried about him.

I can't imagine how we'd feel if we lost him.  And what it would mean to his mother, father and brothers.  And little sister who is on the way.  She'd never get to fight with her missing brother.

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Neil Heslin did lose his six year old little boy at the Sandy Hook elementary school.  Unbelievably, Heslin was heckled by gun nuts at a hearing where he came to testify.  Having no sympathy for a man who has just experienced the worst that a parent can imagine says plenty about the inhumanity and gross stupidity of those people.  Plenty.