To Washington - IT'S THE JOBS STUPID!!!

I've been sitting here for the past few months watching the Republican's and the Democrats argue about what the best way to cut spending is, and I'm sick of it. Neither party seems to get it, IT'S THE JOBS, STUPID!

Do we need to fix our debt problem, sure we do. But it's not a crisis. The lack of jobs, on the other hand IS a crisis. 9.1% unemployment is unacceptable.

Again, let me be clear - JOBS! We need more JOBS!!!!!!!!

... and just in case you didn't hear me in Washington, JOBS!!!! Worry about JOBS!!!!!

BTW, I predict that taking trillions of dollars out of our economy right now will probably turn our anemic growth upside down and drive us back into recession, or at best lock us into anemic growth for the foreseeable future. But that's another subject, lets get back to the JOBS!

What amazes me is that while the American people have shown in poll after poll that they get it. That the fools in Washington appear to be blind to the obvious reality that WE NEED JOBS! Not tax cuts, not reductions in spending that will make the situation worse, not to fiddle around with Social Security and Medicare, WE NEED JOB!

It doesn't matter who creates them at this point. We are a consumer based economy, and right now, people aren't consuming enough to create the kind of growth we need in the economy to get us out of the 9.1% unemployment rate we seem to be stuck in. BTW, cutting government spending, and laying off teachers, firemen, and cops only makes the situation worse, not better. Also, if I hear one more idiot say "government jobs don't count" I may just lose my mind. EVERY JOB COUNTS, and when the private sector isn't creating them, government has to step in. But at the very least, we shouldn't be making the situation WORSE, you morons!!!!! Every "government employee" that loses their job because of these stupid spending cuts (are you listening state government, this includes you as well) is one less consumer that's buying things. That means less spending, and a shrinking economy.

Again, the American people get that, why is it that Washington (and now many of the states) don't? It seems like we are caught up in some kind of fundamentalist religious fever that won't let us do the right thing because it runs contrary to some silly pseudo religious doctrine about the size of government.

But I think that Washington better wake up, because the middle class is starting to get it. Again, the polls show that people in the middle class understand that they are getting the shaft from Washington (and the states), and they are getting tired of it. Right now, it's a pox on both their houses as far as many of us are concerned. However, the first political party that wakes up and smells the coffee will reap the rewards. The first party that realizes that it's time to stand up, and tell it like it is, and stand for the middle class against the rich, and the corporations that are running this country, will wipe out the other party. But it takes guts to do that, because when they do, the campaign donations from those very same rich and corporations will not only dry up, they will flow to their opponent, and that's the problem. Until we fix how we fund political campaigns in this country, the rich and the corporations will continue to have a stranglehold on our politicians, and therefore our government. BTW, Mitt Romney said today "corporations are people" ... *aaaahhhhh"

Personally, I hope that it's the Democrats that wake up, and certainly they are closer to being able to do that than the Republicans who seem to be wholly owned by the rich and corporate America. But don't get me wrong, the Democrats have for years thought that by moving to the "middle" (which means to the right) that they have a better chance of getting elected since it's only the corporations and the rich that can provide them the money they need for their campaign war chests. The Unions used to be a good counter balance, but the Republicans have done an excellent job of reducing their ability to fight back, and are currently trying to deliver the death blow to the Unions. So where does that leave us? With two parties, the Republican Party which has moved so far to the right that you can hardly even see them any more WAY over there, and the Democrats, which have become Republican Light. Nether of the two parties represent the people any more, they just represent the monied interests that fill their campaign coffers with lots of money so that they can get elected. In the end, both parties represent the same interests, and it's not the interests of the people, especially not the middle class and/or the poor.

What I want to know is what happened to "government of the people, buy the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth"? The man who said that was a Republican! One who is, I suspect, spinning like a top in his grave considering that his party has become the part of the rich and the corporations, not the party of the people.

So, bottom line is that we will continue to have high unemployment, and slow growth, until we can get the money out of politics, and do what's right for the people (middle class) instead of being led around by the nose by the money of the rich and the corporations. We need to make it so that they can't buy our elections anymore, and we need to ensure that they create jobs in this country instead of in China. Until we do, we are sunk.

Finally, we reap the bitter harvest from the garden of fear and hate.

I sat in horror yesterday watching unfold what I knew would eventually happen, but was afraid to admit, even to myself, was inevitable. Some elements of our society have, for years, been stoking the ovens of fear for political gain. Finally it happened. This garden of fear, and hate, and divisiveness has produced it's harvest, and it's a bitter one. At last report, 6 dead, many more wounded, and a Congresswoman fighting for her life.

If you are one of those who used fear for political gain, you have the blood of an innocent 9 year old girl on your hands this morning. You know who you are, but pointing you out just means I'm doing the same thing. I won't stoop to your level and use your tactics. What I will say, is that it's got to stop. That television networks that allow the kind of misinformation and fear, and hate, and vitriol that we have heard over the last couple of years need to be shut down. Radio programs that broadcast the same thing, and sometimes worse, need to be shut down. Not by the government, but by those people in this county who have had enough.

We need to stop them, not by violence either, but by the simple act of shunning. By the American people saying "enough already" with the Hitler references, enough already with the references to "second amendment remedies", stop with the "he's a communist" diatribes, and simply turn it off. It's easy, really, these are all commercial entities, which need sponsors to pay for their programs, and if we all just turn them off, they will quickly cease to exist.

To those politicians who are using fear for political gain, I say the American people are better than that. That I have faith that they can see through what you're doing. That your control over us must come to an end! That in the next election, you will be shown the door and told "thanks but no thanks". I believe in the innate goodness of the American heart. That in the end, we know that we are all in this thing together, and that we will pull together and help each other. That we will turn away from the fear, and the anger, and the hate, and repudiate those who use those tools to try and control us.