Sometimes the news just gets too depressing

In the past few weeks there seems to have been more arsons more shootings and more fires and floods then any time I can remember. Then there was the earthquakes and tsunamis on the other side of the world. There's been so much that after a while it all seems to run together in a jumble of bad news. And the stresses of all of it are starting to take its' toll.

Typhoon in Samoa
Fires in California
Floods in El Slavador
Police officer assasinated in Seattle
Mass murder at Fort Hood
Business owner shoots his partner
Gunman kills two at drug testing facility in Portland
Restaurant fires
School fires
Business fires
Arson

And now the health care bill moves to the senate

Where if you thought the first act of the circus was something then you ain't seen nothin yet. With billions (make that trillions) of dollars in profits at stake the insurance industry which has been shoveling greenbacks at our senators will now resort to using dump trucks fulll of loot. They did after all make some 146 billion in profits. A few million doled out here or there won't make much difference at this point. And like Let's Make a Deal the comittee making up this hodge podge of legislation will have the choice of what's in the large bulging envelope or what's behind the curtain which just might be... Why yes... it's the senators' entire voting district ready to tar and feather them for taking the envelope and leaving them with no health care! But don't worry too much senators because you also get what's behind the door, a book deal while you wait to get into your very own lobbying business set up by your insurance buds.

The Friday beaver

A sad day for police beavers. A Seattle poilce officer was gunned down here last weekend. The memorial service was held today. As the service was ending police were surrounding the suspects apartment. He ran and was shot. That's about the fifth or sixth incident in the last week around the nation involving the military or police. And then the guy in Orlando who shot up his former place of work. As things implode it will get worse before it gets better. I just wonder when people will realize that you can only do so much and what's happening now is not their fault. Suck it up, hunker down and things will eventually turn around. Look at our friendly beaver up there. He's got nothing other than what he can get by on in nature and he does okay.

NEW FRIDAY ITEM - BANK FAILURES - Five more banks in various states failed today. I'll expand on this as I get motivated.

Nothing like speaking too soon

Unemployment figures come in at 10.2% today as the president signs the unemployment extension bill. Guess I spoke too soon when I said I had some work lined up. Seems that is on hold. But such is the nature of the beast when you're dealing with anything associated with construction. So for now I'll be doing some classes and expand yet again my extensive resume. With the exception of radioactive materials there isn't anything I haven't dealt with over the years.
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It makes me wonder with the current shootings what makes up the last straw. What is it that pushes someone over the edge? I've been in plenty of extreme stressful situations at work and yet we all made jokes about it later. War stories we call them. And yes we've even lost a few good guys over the years and there's been times some disagreements nearly came to fisticuffs but never to the point of going postal.

A reprieve and other things

I guess I get a temporary pardon from having to face bankruptcy. The Senate voted yesterday to extend the unemployment. The republicans just couldn't help but get their mitts on the bill and slid a nice biscuit in for business. They get to avoid taxes by spreading out what they owe in 08 and 09 over the last five years. Then there's yet another loop hole for companies that do business over seas. I didn't read all of that but weren't we supposed to be going after all the tax money they owed that was stashed in the Caymans? And let's get something straight. The republicans whine about all the borrowed money and yet they were the ones to shoot loans to their friends on Wall Street and it now looks like CIT won't be paying us back. If that was you or me the IRS would make us pay it back even after your house was gone to foreclosure.

So of all TARP and the stimulus money that has been shoveled around nearly all of it went to business and state and a tiny bit to local governments. The banks are back to playing the games that got them into the mess. State governments are still hurting and have cut most of their payrolls and put in hiring freezes. They've looked for ways to increase state coffers with increased fees and taxes. When the money did trickle down it was for just band aid jobs that took few workers for a short period. There was no major push to rebuild the infrastructure. There's no major work on bridges and roads or the electrical grid but lip service of a smart grid in Hawaii and a few solar projects here and there. The bulk of the money is scheduled to get out there next year so I am hopeful that something will break. At present I'm working on getting a few small jobs from a very small company that does government work.

The health care bill is moving along and may be voted on this Saturday. Republicans scream that the bill is too big 1900 pages and was put together too fast. Yet if they had their way they'd stall this bill for another year. Imagine how big the bill would be if they had their way with another six or nine months to play with it.

To Hoffman and the Neocons in NY

That'll teach you to mess with peoples' local politics. You just keep moving the party farther right and this is what you'll get. Contrary to what you think this country is not made up of a bunch of old racest white guys who hold your values. It's moving more to the left and if you don't change your ways you'll end up like the Whig party just a footnote of forgotten political parties.

Bye Bye Rethugs

One burger hold the Rico

The Blog Fodder mentioned in a comment that some years back he found out from an RCMP friend that some gangsters showed up in burgers at the Montreal Expo. How crude. In the U.S. rat gansters become either Brizilian dog food or key components of our highrise office buildings. They're not considered palatable enough for our American burgers. Although McDonalds some years back was known to import a large quantity of kangaroo meat. What they did with this is still a mystery.
Is Solent Green in our future? Or how about a big box of Ganster Helper to stretch that family food budget in these hard economic times. Gad I need to quit hanging out at Randal Graves. He's such a bad influence.