Federal Marriage Amendment

Once again, Harry Reid is sponsoring a toothless petition. He wants to stop Bill Frist from bringing the Federal Marriage Amendment to a vote. Again, despite knowing it's futile, I added my voice, just in case someone somewhere is paying attention. I also added these comments:

Please stop using so called "moral" issues to redirect attention from the mess this administration has caused in this country, and indeed, the world. The Federal Marriage Amendment is a red herring and an unconstitutional invasion into the privacy of American Citizens. Stop trying to legislate morality.

Your duty is to provide checks and balances with our government, so that no branch of government can wrest control from the others. Mr Frist, have you not noticed that President Bush has signed into law 750 bills with "signing statements" attached, stating that this law doesn't apply to him? And have you noticed further that many of these laws have to do with the President being required to furnish information to Congress, completely undercutting your ability to do your duty? Mr. Frist, you have made Congress impotent, and in doing so, have sent our country down the road of fascism.

Do your job, Mr. Frist, and the rest of you in Congress. Question Authority. Leave morals and interpersonal relationships to individuals, and take back our country from the Corporatists. I firmly believe that America will never be taken by terrorists; it can only be taken from within, by those elected to represent us but who in fact only represent their wallets.

I wonder about men who get together to make rules about other people's behavior. I've always found that people most dislike in others the things they hate about themselves. No one ever says "Please, pass a law to keep me from doing this thing that I'm tempted to do," they say "I'm going to pass this law because I don't like what you're doing and I think it's a sin." These men think in black and white. There is no room for compromise. They don't see their own circular logic. They want abortion illegal, yet want to ban contraception. They talk about the sacredness of life, and yet are for the death penalty and going to war with brown people. They say they're Christians yet oppose every basic principle Christ espoused.

I think about the children forgotten inside the foster care system who could be receiving love and care from an alternative style family. I think about the girls who could be given the HPV vaccine but might not, because these dipsticks think it will give them permission to have sex, and how often it is that these VERY young girls are initiated into sex by their uptight repressed male family members. Mostly I think about love, and how the more you give it away, the more you receive, and how none of us can ever have too much. And I'm so angry. I'm so furious at what these tight assed narrow minded priggish selfish greedy and judgemental people have done to this country. And I'm horrified that we've let it happen, and continue to let it happen, day after day.

Thoughts on Immigration

Cerca de quince pies, escala de dieciocho pies.

That's "fifteen foot fence, eighteen foot ladder"

And that is why building a damn wall won't work. But that's only the tip of why we in this country will NEVER solve our immigration problem.

The problem is, Mexicans (and other immigrants) want to be able to feed their children. Send them to school. Give them a better life than they had. See, despite the brown skin and that scary language, Mexicans pretty much want what we want.

Our President wants to implement a Foreign Worker plan. Since after all that worked so well in France, and other European countries. Sure, come here, do our menial labor for a pitance, then, see ya! Have a nice life in your poor and oppressed country of origin. That works out so well for his pals at Haliburton. They get cheap labor and tax breaks for hiring minorities, they get the cushy no bid contracts to build a useless fence. Funny thing is though, the President forgot there are two ocean borders to guard, and that pesky northern border, where the only person who was caught crossing illegally for terrorist purposes entered. In his need to scare the hell out of us, he conveniently skips over the fact that those terrorists involved in 9-11 were here legally.

No one discussing this has ever taken more than a single minded approach, not that I've heard. They say ship em all home. How many do we ship home, again and again, because they just come back? They think that we can nudge them over the border and they'll just stay? They say give amnesty to those that are here, and that'll be it. Like no more will come?

Aside from the fact that this is only an issue right now because the Republicans want to scare middle America before the 2006 elections, the main problem with immigration is that it's complicated. No one wants to address why it is that people come here. Why Americans don't take those jobs that immigrants take. Why the corporations and the government itself don't really want immigration addressed. Why Vincente Fox encourages his people to emigrate to the US. Why Guatemalans and Colombians and other Central American countries emigrate to MEXICO, and then in turn to the US.

Any policy that truly addresses immigration must start in Mexico. The US must put pressure on Mexico to change things there, so that the proud people who love their country can stay there. Fox with the help of NAFTA has virtually eliminated the middle class in Mexico, leaving only a very rich class and a very poor nearly slave class. Sound familiar? That's what BushCo is aiming for here.

How about penalizing employers that hire illegals? Not nominal, snicker behind the back fines, but serious, heavy levies for employers? If there are no jobs to be had, they'd stop coming, no? But that would hurt Bush's dear corporate America, and that would be baaaaad for the country, wouldn't it?

If National security was really a concern, the other three borders would be considered. For all the complaining about the coyotes bringing people through the desert, far more people are here illegally through overstaying a visa. Port security is a joke. And really, if you were a terrorist who wanted to blow up the US, would YOU come in illegally? Or would you quietly train one of those eager young martyr wannabes and get them into the US legally, under the radar? Labelling this problem as "National Security" is yet another lie given to cover up racism and classism.

Illegal immigration is a problem; it stresses our health and human services programs and our schools, affects wages and housing issues. But honestly, there are so many far more critical issues facing our country right now; how can this be seen as anything more than a red herring? If it truly needs to be fixed NOW, this INSTANT, fine. Fix it. Make a truly comprehensive plan that takes into account the global economy and sociopolitical issues, and Fix It. Other than that, stop pulling our chain.

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, we had an interesting day yesterday. Murphy decided to climb the grecian fountain in our front yard and took a dive off of it. "I'll never do that again, EVER EVER!!!!!!!!" My poor baby has a scraped knee and a very deep gash under his chin. So off we went to the local ER, which boasts a staff of one doctor, two nurses, a receptionist and an EMT. A total of 5 chairs in the waiting room, all of which were full and then some. Three ambulances arrived during our wait, resulting in us waiting three and one half hours before seeing a doctor. Luckily, the bleeding was minimal after the first 10 minutes or so, and the pain wasn't bad. We explained as best we could what was going to happen and got him focused on the game boy, so the wait wasn't too bad. Except for Daddy, who has this problem watching people he loves have to wait for treatment, so we sent him home after a bit. He came back just in time for the actual treatment and was able to be the Rock we all depend on. Here's the before pic:

We lucked out, in a way. The covering ER attending was Dr. Gross, Peru and Eric's regular doctor, so we knew him and he knew us a bit. Poor Murph was confused with people in various uniforms running around, doing various things, and he couldn't figure out who the "real" doctor was. So we told him Dr. Gross was the "real" doctor, to which he promptly asked "Why are you so OLD?" As usual with my children, he had the entire place cracking up with the things he was saying.

Dr. Gross was very patient and explained every step carefully, which both Mom and Murph appreciated. Murphy still didn't get it, really. After all was done and we came back home and fed the poor child his Bunnies (Annie's Mac & Cheese), I showed him with a tissue, thread and needle exactly what was done, and how the stitches would be removed next week. He ended up with five stitches, through which he was very brave. Afterwards, I asked him if it was as bad as he had thought it would be, and he said, "No way, it was much better!"

Here's the sutures:
Today, it's much better, "barely hurts at all!" the swelling is down, and he's excited to have something to share at school on Monday.

Today, I was welcomed with a lovely song "Turn Around" and a beautiful handmade hat and ashtray from my sweet baby. He was so excited to remember the song and so happy to give me the presents. Very touching. I cried buckets, of course. Later, my Beloved will take me out to our favorite restaraunt for an early dinner. A perfect day, with all my boys about me. I am a VERY happy Mommy.

Are We Bad Parents?

The more I look at GWB and his administration, the more I feel we're in need of the Supernanny. The child in this relationship has been taking power away from the parents and is acting out, and it's simply not acceptable.

We in America think of the President as our leader, and yes, he is. We must never forget though, or let HIM forget, that WE elected him. Elected him to SERVE us. To defend and protect the Constitution of the United States of America.

George Bush is the bad babysitter left in power over the children who gets drunk with the power and torments the children, and who turns into Eddie Haskell when the parents get home.

This administration is the most temper tantrum oriented organization I've ever seen. When he's disagreed with, he throws nasty epithets and accusations. When caught in misdeeds, he blames everyone else. He turns on and undercuts anyone in competition with him. He bullies other countries. He struts his nuclear dick all over the world to cover up his abysmal incompetence.

And we, the People. We are bad parents. We fail to discipline this president. We look the other way at his bad behavior because, gosh, he's just so darn chummy and cute. We refuse to correct his thinking and allow him to get away with, well, murder. Allow him to send our best and brightest to fight in an illegal war. Allow him to erode our RIGHTS, our power.

We need to take back control. We need to correct the Orwellian thinking of this oh so Christian and moral administration that everyone was so eager to elect, simply to make sure that no man could marry another, God forbid. We need to expose the hypocrisy of these fine upstanding Christians who are lying and cheating and stealing the food from our children's mouths, not to mention the air from their lungs.

We need to put him on the naughty mat.

Impeachment. Censure. War Crimes Trial. He must be MADE to take responsibility for the first time in his life.