It's a Day to Do Your Civic Duty Thing

Dear America,

Walk beautifully,

talk beautifully,

live beautifully

stop the drama already

Joe Biden...calling this the most important mid-term election of his life...seriously?

if you really think about it -- it's all relative, you know, Joe.

Those out of power, want in.

Those who disagree the most... with the current administration, want change.

But just the same -- those in power, want to stay in power; those who agree the most...with the current administration, want things to stay the course.

Part of me just wants it over with already.

But naturally, another part of me is excited to see what, in fact, happens.

For it seems like days, weeks, perhaps months, of nothing but nonsense back and forth -- the facts absent.  It would seem, for much of the time, the facts, the substance of the issues, have been ambushed by mob speak and media fanaticism, being inundated with waves of fear mongering and candidates often toning up or toning down the rhetoric -- depending upon the crowd.

But let's also get one thing straight -- we are not a democracy!  We are a republic!  --  albeit, a wee bit messed up republic...there is that.

Stop the drama already...that is my wish for today.

Ooooh  Me thinks that this would be a great day for a rerun of this drama  --

One day,
One day,
maybe one day we will figure it out...

maybe one day we will walk and talk and live and  love beautifully with one another.

Until then -- do your civic duty and VOTE today.

Make it a Good Day, G

It's When the Press and Presidencies Collide Thing

Dear America,

praying for Houston this morning...as catastrophic, Revelations proportion, rains continue to pour down.  upon awakening this morning, the news has spawned my own inclinations to shelter down, to remain in place, to seek refuge in the words of our Creator, and make whatever peace I can with the circumstances thousands of my fellow Americans are facing -- and in that light, here I am.  

It's been a rough ride here in America this past summer.

We can call it past summer, as kids are already returning to school -- like, tomorrow.

And right on cue, this girl has taken down the patriotic bunting that waved handsomely over the doorway for months now; this girl has taken down the baby flags posted into the half dozen flower pots, since Memorial Day; for a new season is upon us, that it is, indeed -- while the irony hangs in the lazy gray haze outside my window, leave it to the month of August to have its light's out like a lion.

For some -- as in Houston and the surrounding areas hit by Hurricane Harvey...Corpus Cristi, Rockport -- this new season begins with unshakable faith that each and every one will rise from the apocalyptic force and unrelenting rain and unimaginable flood waters by the grace of God, while the rest of us bear witness in stunning awe.  While for those Americans who can't just sit back and do nothing, they may already be on the ground -- in spite of whatever horrendous conditions there may be -- with arms carrying bottles of water, provisions of all sorts, and rescuing people from total disaster; while others may simply be sending money to the Red Cross.

This is really and truly who we are --- right, America?  Right.  

We are Houston; we are not Charlottesville, be it scrutinized by our defining moments, by precedent, or by every good deed. (No offense to Charlottesville...it is just about the metaphor of time and place, context and circumstances, alongside the difference a couple of weeks may bring.)

Which, all being said, leads me into an even deeper thought:  no matter what happens around the nation, we, the people, are held captive to the story, to the reality, by whatever point of view that comes via the media source.  [um, duh ---  just a girl meet Captain Obvious -- oh nice to meet you, come here often?   teehee]

Anyway, while the whirlpool of context and catastrophe began to make me dizzy, I finally reached the surface, treading water upon the day after the Benghazi attack, September 12, 2012.  

There we all were -- Americans --  the day after the anniversary of 9/11 and waking up to the news of four Americans dying in a terrorist attack at the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  It was a pretty big deal.

This is the first response from President Obama; this is how the president framed it (and bear in mind, this is while HE KNEW it was an actual Islamic Extremist terror attack -- and even, all the while, after abandoning his post as Commander-in-Chief.  For during the entire, real time, terror attack --  when our military and the administration were thrust into an act of war and our response --  the president left the Situation Room to get some rest...as he had a very big day scheduled in the morning....)... so here he is now, in the Rose Garden, with Secretary of State Clinton by his side, saying:

...Yesterday, four of these extraordinary Americans were killed in an attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi.  Among those killed was our Ambassador, Chris Stevens, as well as Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith.  We are still notifying the families of the others who were killed.  And today, the American people stand united in holding the families of the four Americans in our thoughts and in our prayers. 

The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack.  We're working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats.  I've also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world.  And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people. 

Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths.  We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.  But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence.  None.  The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts...

Then, the president gets on Air Force One and flies to Las Vegas...for a campaign rally! 

And the press didn't think twice about it. 

So.

I'm thinking about how the press has exasperated all avenues of the Russian collusion story, being clearly unable to leak any evidence of any link with the Trump campaign...even with an army of investigators and insiders at their fancy ----  and then suddenly, almost as if it were orchestrated and planned, the skies opened up and Charlottesville happened.  

Let the Trump Take Down narrative begin! -- beginning with building upon a character attack, the one criminally based upon a lie, with every pail of water carried by the mainstream media, to the extent of breaking every levy, wall and dam built over a career denouncing white supremacy and the KKK and David Duke.  [How many times does he have to say it?]

NO matter.  The trajectory changed overnight....a propaganda ambush is about the only way you could describe it.   And who knew that eventually, the character assassinations would not start and stop with Trump -- as we spoke of just yesterday...within the week, all republicans, all Trump voters, were all thrown under the proverbial, racially charged, narrative bus to boot. (say that ten times straight...)  Calling everyone on the right racists...wow.

And the press didn't think twice about it.

By the time President Obama returned to the White House, a brand new narrative on Benghazi had already surfaced (it was so close to the election, and all, they had to do something to save face, especially after  the Democratic National Convention ran with this motto: GM is alive and Bin Laden is dead, right?)

So after the  "act of terror"/ "by killers" / that we will "bring to justice the killers who attacked our people" -- and after the celebratory rally in Vegas --  and another rally in Golden, CO (with a totally different vibe going...amusing) --  President Obama gets back to the front, to deal with the act of war straight away.   teehee.  And by that time a plan was in place; the new narrative blamed it all on a video (but we have not the time or energy to re-litigate that today, do we now?)

Thing is, the press didn't think twice about that either -- hook, line and sinker, they were sold.

How sad that the press didn't get stuck on something the president said in his first response...the line that went like so:   "The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack."  It's like, really?  There are not words.   Granted, a President Trump would have come out and called it what it was -- radical Islamic Terror at the hands of radical Islamic Extremists; but this "condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack."  Whoa, me thinks you need to settle it down there, Mr. President....

And of course, here on the old G Thing -- we spent months talking about it, so this girl can give it a rest, and she will -- right after I add this observation.... that the press, in no uncertain terms, cowered to their king.   Where was the hell and fury in the president's face, right?  

They just let Obama slide down the 'oh he's just so measured and articulate and measured and articulate...so presidential...so calm....so presidential ...there is not a question in my mind that this president knows what he's doing  AND look at him, being  all transparent and all to the American people....oh my, simply and always, a stunning display of diplomacy' right into the press pool and then offered him a towel.

Oh the press --  the puritanical, pontifical, pretentious place if only in their own minds; just a place somewhere between la la land and hades, where they didn't think twice about whatever President Obama and his administration said or did... or even entirely made up out of thin air. 

And this part too -- when President Obama said this:  "I've also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world."  AGAIN, where was the "unbiased" press doing their thing then -- for it is of record, that Ambassador Stevens, and his people,  REPEATEDLY asked for more security way before the attack!

Indeed.  The press didn't think twice about it.

And just to be sure you understand the amount of grace given under the Obama Administration -- as compared to Trump -- no one in the press questioned Obama's mental health when he went from the serious Rose Garden moment in the am to the raucous rally expressing everything wrong with republicans in the pm, then waking up to do it again in Colorado, before coming back to the Oval Office....no one questioned the Commander-in-Chief for being, for a no better term, completely AWOL on the best interests of the American people.  Our country, our four Americans killed, were in the middle of clear and present danger and what did Obama do?  He went to bed and got up the next day for a political rally, no questions asked.

The press didn't think twice about it.

In the beginning of the rally in Golden, CO, President Obama said: "To all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished."  To which I  must respond, huh.  Did they?  Are we catching these bad guys and are they being punished?  Here is an UPDATE from 2014.  However, what remains to be seen is -- going back to May of this year --  will he actually be "brought to justice" or will he be let off on a some technicality?   America is so generous like that, you know.

Oh, look at me get so carried away.  [And to think, this Benghazi catastrophe is only one glaring example.]

I do love how Obama navigated from the seriousness of the Benghazi attack and into the real reason he was on stage and ready to rally; just before he went all divide and conquer in Colorado, he said this (and not leaving any of it out):

Now, I know that it's difficult sometimes seeing these disturbing images on television, because our world is filled with serious challenges. This is a tumultuous time that we're in. But we can and we will meet those challenges if we stay true to who we are, and if we would remind ourselves that we're different from other nations. We are different not only because of the incredible landscape that God has given us, we're different because we're a nation that's bound together by a creed. We're not made up of a single tribe or a single religion or a single race. We're a collection of people from all around the world who came here because of a certain set of principles: the idea that all men and women are created equal, that we are all endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. That's what binds us together. That's what our flag means. 

But we also believe that these are not just American rights. We believe these are universal aspirations and they're held by people who live in tiny villages in Libya, prosperous cities in Europe. That's our light to the world. And our task as the most powerful nation on Earth is to defend and protect and advance our people, but also to defend and protect and advance those values at home and around the world. That's what our troops do. That's what our diplomats do. That's what our intelligence officers do. 

That's what our citizens do. That's what we believe. Those are the values that we hold to.
And here in America, there is no more fundamental part of our democracy than the fact that all of you get a say in the decisions that are made about our country's future. And that's why we're here today.

good one, Mr. O; allow me to give you a standing O for that right now....

The guy could charm, couldn't he?  The guy could charm.

Question:  wonder how we got from one 'creed...collection of people...[same] certain set of principles....endowed by our Creator....binds us together...that's what the flag means"  in September of 2012 to this, nearing September 2017 -----  

...to this... football players kneeling with no respect for the flag and what we stand for....statues of Christopher Columbus coming down....free speech rallies being shut down....conservative speakers at colleges being shout down and even viciously attacked....Catholic schools having to hide statues of the baby Jesus....Black Lives Matter protests escalating to riots, and killing, the assassination of,  police officers....antifa leftists rising up with billy clubs and face masks ready to fight with an equally violent gang of white supremacists, neither of which were stopped by the police, and was allowed to riot in the beautiful city of Charlottesville.   

[For more on that last topic, and an interesting take,  go to Charlottesville -- Where's the Truth, posted by Michael Giere, TBE.  PS  Never hurts to ask questions.]

Or never you mind, press -- by all means, don't think twice about it.

Context --  Catastrophe --  and the Commander-in-Chief, oh my...

what a difference a day makes;

 

what a difference when the press and presidencies collide, be it for better or worse.

Hate to be too dramatic, given what we are going through in this country right now, but the thing is, it could be said that the very rise and fall of nations have often hung in the balance of one well placed post.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

"there may be trouble ahead...

...let's face the music and dance...

soon... we will be without the moon, 

humming a different tune...

and then...

 there may be tear drops to shed..."

playing on Dear America, a little Vic Damone to carry you into the weekend.

You know what shocks me, at the root of this power struggle going on in Wisconsin -- and leaping state lines like a wildfire out of control -- is the stark reality that our children have been cordoned off into a tinderbox, with sheer politics directing the flames. 

What have our children truly gained over the last forty years?  Honestly, ask yourself, as a whole, are our children getting smarter, or dumber? Are our children growing up kinder, or meaner?  Have we taught them to be self-reliant individuals ready to leave a responsible, equitable,  charitable, productive mark upon this world -- or, are we just making a generation of spoiled, techie, shallow, needy, loud, future leaders of America advocating the age of entitlement and social justice for all the wrong reasons, no matter the means?   

Have we been throwing money at it, only to have it grow into a raging inferno, offering the very kindling needed to create a bureaucratic hell hole?  Averaging a whole lot of money -- around seven or eight grand per student (without so much as the possibility to use a voucher system to actually go to the school of choice) -- I would have to say somebody is getting gypped.

With a wealth of highly educated teachers, facilities most countries would die for, communities fully committed to the responsibility of raising our children well (as it takes a village, you know), and local budgets aside, a federal budget that has grown from 12 B's to over 100 B's in a matter of only forty years -- just what has this picture so muddied, nearly extinguishing all signs of what it used to be? 

You know why the teachers of Wisconsin are so dead set against losing a few of their collective bargaining rights?  It is because remuneration would be tied to their performance, through heavy handed reforms tied to new rules for  tenure, make raises based on merit (not seniority, or length of service), allow for vouchers (opening up the door to real competition in the education market), and simply give local jurisdictions more control over their own budgets, expenses, getting all the way down to the pencil and erasers.  (You know, anymore, they can't even blame the rising costs of education on paper, as it is customary now to simply have the kids make their own copy of the materials at home!)

If teachers were on the right side of this argument, they would want what is best for the nation, and our students -- and that only comes with an environment that elevates and rewards higher levels of achievement and capabilities all the way around.  

This, in a nutshell, is how the free market system works (when actually allowed to run free).  For we very quickly lose the business, the enterprise, the chain store, if in fact the business wastes money, hires unqualified people, or simply has no idea what customer service truly means.

The thing is, how can a teacher NOT be for these kinds of reforms?  

Shocking is the proficiency levels of reading:  across the nation, "PROFICIENCY" (just above the "basic" level, where only a partial understanding of the subject has taken hold, and just under "advanced") is less than 50% in every state!  Less than half of our children are coming out of the 8th grade considered "proficient!"  And in the state of Wisconsin, only 37% are proficient, making nearly two-thirds of the entire student body within the state of cheese-heads not all that prepared for high school and beyond. And to be fair and balanced, my state, glorious California, is at a level simply too sad for words --  22%.

What truly worries me, feeling in the thick of this nationwide conversation, realizing the duty of a Governor and state legislatures, such as in Wisconsin, is to collectively bargain for the rest of us -- is being totally, and thoroughly, mis-characterized; the voice of the taxpayer, shouldering the brunt of every single health benefit and pension fund for the pubic servant sector is being drowned out by vicious attacks, almost as an assault on the very privileges and duties this country was built.

All of a sudden we are being surrounded by people, congressmen even, who say things like this:

"Every once in a while you've got to 

get out in the streets 

and get a little bloody when necessary. 

This fight is worth it."

really, congressman?

To be fair, you did apologize... once you realized the comment got you into a lot of hot water...but seriously, is this where our country is headed -- when faced with challenges that upon first glance seem insurmountable, a divide to wide to give it our very best... 

is this what we want to teach our children?

that when the going gets tough, when trouble stares us right in the face, we yell and scream and call each other names, even promoting incivility, and "[getting] a little bloody" if we have to?  

that when we are stuck on the losing end of an issue within one of our state houses, we just flee, instead of facing the music and dance?  (Considering you are being paid to show up and vote and debate and be a voice of the people, not sure how leaving does anyone any good...unless it is all for show and tell.)

that when the opposition party takes the lead, we simply decide to pick up our toys and go home?  (If the GOP was carrying on like this, you would have our @ss alongside the tater tots for lunch...)

that when we are in the midst of reconciling overbearing, overzealous, over-compensated benefit packages and the bottom line, ones that can cripple and even topple entire state budgets, that when honest to goodness pull back must take place, the first response is to walk off the job you are being paid to do.

...and paid very well actually

...and with not a whole lot to show for it

...is that the image and message you feel entitled to make in front of our children?  (It must be, as many of you pulled our children out of school to help you with your cause.)

Curious as to why every state is not a "right to work" state by now -- I mean, come on, with so much emphasis on freedom of choice these days, how can it be possible for a job to obligate a certain amount of hard earned dough towards an agenda that runs counter to the very principles this country was made, and specifically one's own?  Last I checked, we have never really wanted to be anywhere close to resembling a communist/socialist/body of citizens of the state --  as in the bigger State, the Capitalist State -- which, by the way things are shaking out, our Union leaders would have us believing otherwise.  hello...we are not Venezuela.

What we should be teaching our children is that we can't have it both ways -- 

With freedom and liberty, comes freedom and liberty for all; the system in play here, will run us right smack into a wall of fire, and a state of affairs elevating the very thing most of us would not wish upon our worst enemy -- as we will forever be divided by the Haves and the Have-Nots.

....there will be no state legislature worth a grain of salt; we are a Republic for a reason --  a democracy is simply a nice way of saying mob rule -- and that is exactly what we see happening outside the legislature in Wisconsin... and Cairo, and Jordan, and Bahrain)

...there will be no middle class at all, let alone a teacher left scrambling through the means of collective bargaining for less practice and more boycott privileges, for we will have been devoured by the beast of burden.

...the privileged elites will control everything and everything we know and love about this land will have evaporated into thin air; America, by definition, in principle and in practice, will be gone.

With freedom and liberty, comes our inherent duty and responsibility; the system in play here, over the last hundred years, has whittled away at the true power of the people, we the people, in incremental, almost unnoticeable ways; instead of raising our children to understand and respect the rule of law, the law of this land, we have encouraged subverting the rule, to undermine the Constitution and our Declaration of Independence --  just what kind of independence are we making now?

...instead, we witness, bellowing out of our schools and universities, a generation plum ignorant, even combative towards, the force of nature from which we came; there is no connection made between freedom and duty; there is no connection made between the planting of the seed of common sense, self-reliance, and free enterprise and a history of prosperity, charity and grace.

...what we have building, in clouds of black smoke, is a sense of being entitled to the freedom, without effort; what we have building, in heated fits and starts, is a sense of being liberated, without reflection of how that very liberty is cultivated, nourished and ultimately blossoms into a rich and diverse society synonymous with America. 

...for true freedom only comes with great courage, convictions, a moral code of honor between people, a respect of property and privileges, a loving charitable heart, and a commitment to the process of the rule of law to keep us safe, protected, and led with integrity from coast to coast.  While, in truth, our freedoms are not bestowed upon us by our government at all; the only entity we have to thank for our freedoms and liberties is our Creator (look it up, I dare you)

Freedom is far from being free; it costs us in devotion, beginning with our early education and mastering our understanding throughout our entire adult life;  recognizing how civilizations come and go empowers us not to make the same mistakes and fosters a fundamental belief that we are special...here..in America ; while our founders realized all too well, we could very well lose it all, if one day we turned around having taken it all for granted, like foolish kids.

But above all, as we watch the world explode all around us, freedom is something much like our children -- it is SOMETHING, a real thing -- a marvelous, living, breathing, beautiful thing, to be cherished; if we do not raise our children to respect their very own freedom, and realize, just what this asks of them in return (as well as know the difference between  a freedom, a privilege, and a right), who will?

I seriously question the value of our current educational system -- I question it's latitudes -- I question it's entitlements -- I question it's motives -- I question it's priorities -- I question every single dime that falls that way.

When we truly know what is at stake, the answers will come to us with ease...

Until then...there may be trouble ahead, there may be tear drops to shed...let's face the music and dance.

Make it a Good Day, G

Dear America,

oops. G missed a couple days; I believe the health care summit made me ill.

Oh I watched it...nearly every minute of it; that is, until Fox stopped streaming live action and switched to Meghn Kelly; went to CNN, continued there until they caught wind of regular programing going; so twenty minutes later, I found myself back at my desk, streaming the Fox Live web-cast.  What an effort for every painstaking moment waiting for something really good to come.

Despite the fact that Obama spoke for nine minutes longer than all republicans combined -- a whopping 110 minutes -- they still prevailed in making the better case for all the world to see.

The democrats spoke for four hours all together and couldn't get it done;

They even read letters aloud and recollected stories of their constituents (or relatives of staff) each and every time one of them came to the mic, pulling on the good ole heart strings;

For all intents and purposes, they had twice as much time to orchestrate a proper dissemination of bullsh** across the wide open spaces between ideology, and all that came out of it was more seeds of distrust.

Even with the Moderator in Chief having every opportunity under the sun to "correct" the "misspoken facts" liberally strewn about by the republicans while sounding every bit as much like the farmers and framers of the Constitution, he lost ground.

And every time they said something to the affect of
"we really basically agree here..."
"there's not a lot of opposition really..."
"we have included some of your republican ideas..."
or "we don't really seem very far apart..."

The gap grew wider.

Every time a republican had the floor they reminded the President that we needed to start over.

Every time a republican had a chance for appeal, they said let's take it step by step, let's walk this field of dreams together and start with what we agree in earnest and move forward from there.

Every time a republican gained an opportunity to speak on behalf of the American people, they reminded their fellow countrymen sitting around the table of how the polls reflect the concerns of people who do not agree with the comprehensive approach in this sweeping, landmark legislation -- that far outreaches both what we can financially afford and in turn, forfeit our personal freedoms along the way.

The Republicans couldn't say it enough,
WE HAVE FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCES; 
what became quite clear, no matter how many times you till the earth, turn over the remarks and opinion, subjective and objective beliefs to what ails our system is at the heart of the discussion and at the root of the seeds we sow from here on out.

It is appropriate to bring and to question the 2,400 page bill that sits before us with all of it's idiosyncrasies and legalese.

It is expected to raise a few eyeballs as to how republicans were shut out to closed door sessions last fall, all the while with Obama looking the other way and to all of a sudden, month's later, see the light and welcome both sides to the table.

It is obligatory to wonder how the special deals between the AMA and PHARMA and UNIONS and TRIAL LAWYERS and Nebraska and Louisiana and Florida soils the year long preparations for changing one-sixth of our economy.

McCain did just that long into the morning calendar -- and this is the rebuttal from someone who is supposed to be acting humbly presidential and show partisan restraint (if only to raise the bar for those sitting around the table with him):

"the way you just characterized...

[the wanton and reprehensible behavior of this party]

let me make this point,

 because we are not campaigning anymore, John;

 the election's over."

That had to be the funniest moment of the whole entire day; the king of taking talking points to an art form and masterfully setting up props of his own [whether it is men in uniform, cadets, caskets and planes, or doctors in white coats and stethoscopes] -- this whole health care summit was nothing but a ruse.

It was I believe John Barasso, a republican, who actually used the symbolization of the stethoscope as one of his first tools and adjoining message, given to him when he became a doctor -- marking the importance of really listening to his patients -- extending a personal plea to the President; that this is the time we need to come together and listen to the American people who respectfully request we start from scratch.

Obama was annoyed by the afternoon; in the morning he went from being perfectly engaged and inspired to bridge the gaps and to find the common ground, to at times looking somewhat bored with all of them (including his own), while at other times, his elbow was on the table with his chin resting firmly in the palm with a spread of fingers crossing his lips -- as if trying desperately not to burst out in "you lie" from across the room; but all in all, the dawn of promise slowly eroded into real disdain for anything said against Him or his legislation, leading us into the twilight of a day where nothing really changed.

I'm sure if you are one of those who find a way to like the redistribution of wealth, the "higher taxation to anybody but me is fine by me" mentality, is applauded -- the dynamics of slowly rooting out the free enterprise system to a government run bureaucracy is acceptable; you simply don't see the harm being done.

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant;

 it's just that they know so much that isn't so."

Ronald Reagan

What are the long term consequences of this sweeping legislation?  Just a quick gaze to the horizon we can see we are already caretakers of that kind of world -- insolvency and bankruptcy looming in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Unemployment and Food Stamps -- regulation and administration of ground breaking entitlement programs that had the best interests of the American people surely at heart without a hard review of the reality almanac down the road, to see how the seasons would change and how real life variables would fluctuate and affect the harvest.

Who could foresee people living beyond the age of 65?

Who could foresee people losing a moral obligation to one another to live independently and productively and according to natural and universal law?

Who could foresee that what we get from our elected body originally comes from the lot of the land and the people themselves -- that we grow our government according to our own beliefs and values?

Our corruption, whether it be to our own bodies or to that which our government stands, is directly related to the kind of culture we raise, collectively and independently of one another. 

What began as simply a question as to how we insure the uninsured, gratefully the process rapidly deteriorates to a lesson of what we are truly made of and the fundamental differences between the left and the right ...right before our very eyes; and while the consequences of our actions will eventually see the light of day, in the meantime the back forty needs the weeds cleared and the irrigation system seems to be on the blitz again.

While the democrats seem ready, willing  and able to bet the farm via the process of reconciliation  -- when, after all, we are already mortgaged to the hilt -- only time will tell if the next backdrop for the President is a field of grain or a bounty less fortified. 

Make it a Good Day, G 

Reconciliation has NEVER been used to ENACT new LEGISLATION -- only to bridge budgetary deficits and welfare gaps; even a democrat, Robert Byrd, duly noted  "that the health care plan was out of bounds for a process that is theoretically about budgets" when confronted with evaluating Clinton's health care plan and the use of reconciliation to pass it.