Shirley Smith

SHIRLEY SMITH FOR BUZZFLASH

How can Social Security be in trouble? Even if there have been no raises for the last year or two, if it were really in trouble, wouldn't people or multimillionaires like John McCain, who has been photographed proudly waiving his social security check, want to give their checks back? Why would a multimillionaire, knowing there are so many poor people around this country, people who can barely afford utilities or food want to keep his check? Instead, we see John McCain smiling smugly, showing us that he gets social security. That picture says it all about the Republican Party of today. A sick, incurable greed for more money and power regardless of who it hurts.
 
How can it be hard times in this country when US government voted for health care, of course, it wasn't either of the two choices that the people wanted. It wasn't anything we could brag to Canada or Great Britain, or France about . . . but, that's probably because we aren't really having hard times in this country . . . you think? Of course, there are still hundreds of thousands of our poor, too poor to buy insurance, still without health insurance.
 
Surely, we couldn't be having hard times when US military still takes 50% of our US government budget. If we were really having hard times, wouldn't it be prudent for those who work for the people (all three branches of government) to close most of those 800 to 900 military bases around the world? ...

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SHIRLEY SMITH FOR BUZZFLASH

In other words, US law in US government and elections free from the burdens of having to be rich or wealthy in order to be heard.

The last 30 to 40 years of US government should have been a wake-up call for many of us Americans. What does it take for the citizens of this country to realize that most members of all three branches of US government probably think we have the denseness of the rock of Gibraltar?

We finally get healthcare that is not what the people wanted, yet, the Bush GOP screams and yells, even those who would benefit. Do they not understand that the US, a country that is supposed to look like a leader around the world, falls short of the healthcare found in Great Britain, Canada, or France? Of course they do. Then we come to Wall Street reform, and it too, does not go far enough and still the Republicans scream, stomp and throw tantrums.

What Americans have to understand is that those screams and tantrums are the only way the Bush GOP celebrates their victories against US Democracy and the people of this nation.   However, in many instances, those loud voices are not just tantrums, they are calls for violence. Innocent calls of course, (cough) and I was born yesterday. We have had constant threats of violence over the years coming from the voices of highly paid GOP TV and radio personalities, and they are treated as if nothing is wrong. Does no one in this country, including all three branches of government, remember the sixties and how many great Democrats were assassinated during those years? ...

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BuzzFlash,

Bureaucracy: The perfect bureaucrat everywhere is  the man who manages to make no decisions  and escapes all responsibility, Brooks Atkinson, Once Around the Sun, 1951    

How long will the memory last this time, I wonder. I was thinking of a book "Epidemic and Peace 1918 Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., America's Deadliest influenza epidemic . . . and, how it was forgotten at the time it was still going on. "Between August, 1918 and March, 1919, the Spanish influenza spread world-wide claiming over 25 million lives. Relatively mild in its first epidemic, the second and third waves of the disease had devastating results."  

Down through the ages mankind has suffered from epidemics of one kind or another and the world has come a long way in fighting these outbreaks. However, even though that is true . . . our arrogance is showing in today's world, but this latest tragedy was brought about by deregulation and privatization, along with greed and members of Congress closing one eye . . . who will suffer in the future and who is already suffering because of this supercilious demonstration of stupidity and greed by a company that has, as they say "grown too big for its britches." When we, the people, make the mistake of thinking that the larger the corporation, the more experts, the more money, the more rules and regulations will guarantee the safety of their employees and the citizens on this planet, it turns out not to be the case. In fact, it seems that this company did not have the atmosphere where the workers could speak up or would be listened to, or if they did speak out, evidently, it didn't matter. This could be surmised by the comments of the wife of one of those eleven workers killed in this fiasco.  

Taking into account and according to proportion, we have harsher penalties for drunks on the road.  In many cases, even those are not strict enough, until they finally kill innocent people.   Questions about BP hang in the air. Why was this company allowed to operate after all of the reports we have of their reputation for mishaps? Why were they not shut down for the safety of their workers? The monetary penalties were merely slaps on the wrist and when that is the case . . . as in violence or greed . . . comes escalation. With such a company, a person has more of a chance at winning the lottery, than the assurance of safety at work.   ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with grade to reason
-- Robert Frost, Reluctance, 1913 

BuzzFlash,

Hear ye. Hear ye. Sale's on! All the used goods that has been sold to the American people for years, is being recycled and sold again, and the weird thing is that some Americans are buying it again. 

How do I know this? The signs are everywhere. Take Rand Paul (please), and his coded messages to the public. Let me introduce you. ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Thou, straggler into loving arms, 
Young climber up of knees,
When I forget thy thousand ways,
Then life and all shall cease.
-- Mary Lamb," Parental Recollections," 1809 

BuzzFlash,

Hard to believe that this incident happened in Massachusetts, after that state took the lead of intelligent and common sense laws for their people. This week, I read about the Catholic church turning away a child because of his parents and lucky to have such caring parents.

We all are children living on mother earth. ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

BuzzFlash, 

Slithering down those sanctimonious, slippery slopes created by silver tongued U.S. politicians... what's the worst that can happen? Well, actually, the silver is not in their tongues, it's in their pockets and their bank accounts.

Let's start with Senator Lieberman (and why he is still in Congress, I can't imagine). If I understand this correctly, Lieberman wants to pass a law that can take away a person's citizenship if the U.S. government 'thinks' they are friendly with a terrorist organization. 

Sen. Joe Lieberman's Citizenship-Stripping Bill Raises Questions

Lieberman said Americans who "choose to become affiliated" with terrorists overseas should automatically lose the rights that come with being a citizen.  

I wonder if Lieberman wants this to be retroactive, and how close do people have to be to the members of a "terrorist" organization. If I recall, bin Laden was friendly with U.S. government for years in Afghanistan and worked for the CIA. ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

FAIR: Federation for American immigration reform.

Faffle: Said of work which occupies much time, the results not being satisfactory or commensurate with the labour and time expended on it. [Dickinson]
-- The Word Museum, by Jeffrey Kacirk  

BuzzFlash,

Will it ever stop? People want to constantly punish other people, namely the Bush GOP. We have just had eight years of debt, death, and destruction using lies and fear by the Bush Administration with 100% support of the Republicans in U.S. government. Lies that eventually killed hundreds of thousands of innocent (brown) people, and sent this country into a debt spiral unknown to U.S. history. ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

BuzzFlash,  

A chicken in every pot to pay for healthcare; now that sounds like a real solution, doesn't it? Only if you've been out on the desert for six months without supplies. No different from the other solutions by the GOP and their use of words.  

Twenty-First Century's Three 'R's' -- Republicanism, Reeducation, and Riches:

There are many more 'R' words we could use today: racism, religion, revenge renegade, rapaciousness... all are descriptions of what is going on in our country and are signs that, instead of looking up and moving forward, the Republican Party and their leaders are trying very hard to change the true meaning of where we are as a nation today, and make it favorable (if they can pull off a miracle) for the Republican Party. ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Words
A word is dead
when it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live.
-- Emily Dickinson, c. 1872  

BuzzFlash,  

One of my favorites by Dickinson, because I agree, especially if the word or words come from political leaders around the world. Obama just this week brought alive two common words that were never really dead: nuclear and assassination.

Not the first time our leaders have mentioned these two words. There is something about power in leaders that seems to always lead to debt, death, and destruction.  ...

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MS. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

Buzz Flash,  

Enough already! We Americans have heard many stories dished out to us or spoon fed to us by American TV and MSM and have to wonder what is the truth. And what are the real consequences of such news.  

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