Sequestration Frustration

I await those who disagree with me.  :-)     

     The $85 billion sequestration budget crisis leads us to an unfortunate turn in the ability to assist the “poorest and most vulnerable Americans…”  Expected to take a major hit are programs for children’s health, food stamps, the homeless, and housing assistance, just to name a few.  In fact, many recipients of a D.C. housing authority program will likely end up on the streets, having been evicted from a housing voucher program, and employees of that program will be heavily furloughed.  Housing programs in Washington State have already started executing cuts.  

          The overall idea of this article is sickening.  Basically, a bunch of vulnerable families, the disabled, the elderly, women, and children are going to have a bad time in the very near future.  The overall article, to me, showcases how, even during a widespread budget cut crisis, the least fortunate souls in our country will be the ones who ultimately will suffer.  While the 1% elitists complain about the consequences of the sequestration on their person, or having to pay their fair share of taxes, the final result for the less fortunate is where do I sleep? and not which wine should I have with the cullotte?.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/us/politics/poor-face-most-pain-as-automatic-budget-cuts-take-effect.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Donkeys vs. Elephants

Hundreds of detained immigrants in the United States were released from detention centers due to the current budget sequestration crisis.  The detainees are under supervised release, similar to a parolee or Martha Stewart.  However, the Obama Administration’s decision to release hundreds of immigrants has angered some on the other side of the aisle.  Republicans feel that the Obama Administration is using the sequestration as a political tactic to assist amnesty groups and also widen the divide between the parties, manifesting into a sort of Donkey-Elephant Mexican standoff.

This sequestration frustration only further solidifies my beliefs that the bipartisan approach to civil issues will never be resolved, even with an “or else” clause such as our current sequestration.  Thousands of undocumented day laborers work for the right and the left elitists.  I strongly support an agenda that seeks to give credit and citizenship to those whom the Republicans deem as “criminal” simply for being of foreign descent.  In fact, those who are on supervised release are “noncriminals or other low-risk offenders…”  The “socialist” agenda of the Obama Administration is less scary to me than the post 9-11 Bush Regime, where one was afraid to even outwardly question the administration out of fear for family, life, and limb.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/27/us/immigrants-released-ahead-of-automatic-budget-cuts.html?pagewanted=all

Boobie Blunder?

North Carolina Republican Rep. Rayne Brown wants to criminalize female breasts, considering it a Class H felony if they are exposed in public.  If a woman is caught exposing her breasts in public, she can expect to spend thirty days to six months in the slammer.  Rep. Rayne Brown and other Republicans initiated a proposal of breast banning because of an annual Asheville, NC women’s rights topless protest.  An earlier law from the seventies prohibited exposure of private parts in public, but the law only banned exposure of sex organs. Women’s rights groups swam through the loophole, exposing areolas and breasts as a way to draw notice to their causes.  Nursing mothers are excluded from Bill 34.  The article also notes that “no one questions the nipple-exposure of Abercrombie and Fitch gentlemen who stand bare-chested in a place where minors frequent.”

Ladies in protest?  Really?  The really obscene boobs, such as Rep. Rayne Brown, need to get their priorities straight.  For thousands of years, women have suffered oppression under a man’s iron fist.  Women have been banned from anything that seems to distract men, from wrists, to ankles, and good ol’ female breasts.  By sexualizing the female breast and areola, I believe that Rep. Brown has parted from any sense of gender equality that she could bring to her platform, and is trying to send the South backward into a culture of obligatory female domestic servitude and sexism.  

http://www.mndaily.com/2013/02/21/let-them-hang

Which Amendment?

From my American Government class.  Short and to the point.

Honestly, I had a very difficult time deciding which Amendment is the most important and why.  There are so many very important aspects to our societal structure that are completely reliant on these amendments.  Where to start?  After much consideration, I finally decided that all of this – my life as an individual in this country, my education, my choices (good and bad) – were all possible because someone was given the right to verbal ammunition to make change.  That is why I decided that the First Amendment regarding Freedom of Speech is so important. 

Not just important to me, but important to all who live in this country.  My husband and I watch a lot of documentaries from or about other countries, and it is horrifying to watch other countries and the actions of their militant governments and how they respond to civilian outcries.  I believe that the freedom of speech is freedom of information. It is access to education.  State schools are not limited in their textbook selection, mandated by a central government.  Unfettered access to information allows people to learn whatever they want, practically whenever they want. 

My voice as an individual can be heard, no religion can control me, and I can choose my own path.  I also appreciate the First Amendment because I can, at any time, march up the stairs of local, state, or federal government offices and let my voice be heard.  Now that you know how I feel about the First Amendment, I would like to say that the trail to Mount Lukens has some of the most amazing wildflowers in the spring, but that’s just my opinion.