I saw on one of the news channels today that putting the Polar Bears on the Endangered Species list was ineffective in protecting them from the global warming which is melting the artic ice because if the causative action happened outside the arctic, the law did not cover it. 

I have come up with a solution.  Feed the polar bears Congressional Republicans.  They aren't doing anything but dithering anyway and even their constituents don't like them.  True, the taste might  not be as good as a sea lion, but I'm sure a hungry polar bear wouldn't be that choosy.  Republicans are pro-business (or in the words of the Bush administration "Bidness") and therefore not in favor of restrictions that require businesses to spend money on reclamation of their waste.  It is the lagging of business to utilize the existing technology to scour air pumping black smoke out of their smokestacks, lower emissions in vehicles (have you ever been behind a dump truck?) and hold out against EPA regulations which has contributed to the greenhouse gasses building up in the atmosphere. 

Industrial enterprises already buy and sell "chits" which represent a portion of the total pollution the government allows each and every year.  They wheel and deal like day traders selling off their pollution "rights" to companies who don't want to make the investment in air scrubbers or more effective incineration units.  It doesn't change the amount of pollution, however, just the distribution.

So, and for some reasons there are a lot of humans who don't seem to get this, for the greed of the few goes the need of the many.  Polar bears are drowning because the arctic ice is melting.  Good heavens, look a map!  And the antarctic is cracking up as well.  Where do you think all this melted water is going? 

Ice cubes the size of Rhode island?  That didn't happen before the Industrial Revolution.  Remember, ice floats.  When it melts it goes into the glass. That brings the water level up.  If the sea rises four to six feet the Florida Keys would be completely under water.  Goodbye Jimmy Buffett!

So sending up feeder republicans seems like a good compromise.  Start with that Sarah Palin because, well, she's already up there.  Then Michele Bachmann representative from Wisconsin because, well, a brain is a terrible thing to waste.  For fiber we need to send them a few Bushes... Dubya, of course and maybe Jeb or  Marvin.  Or Jenna.  And Dick Cheney.  If you send him up there with a judge and a gun, the polar bears will have time to disarm him.

So the polar bears, and the rest of the earth, can be saved.  As we get rid of the rampant ignorance and overwhelming greed, those humans who are sensitive to the needs of the planet can put things back in order. 

Oh, who wants to buy Rush a ticket?

Perry

As a cat, let me just make this disclaimer:  I do not discriminate in any way against humans except in whether or not they feed me.  That's it.  If they feed me I love them, if they don't I ignore them.


Mom got an email about illegal aliens that was answered by someone who was offended because they were a Native American (don't ask)  This was her answer:



Nobody seems to realize that most of us are Native Americans.  I don't
know about you, but I was born here. All this cult of "politically
correct labeling" is doing is dividing us by giving lip service to
"celebrating" the differences in our origins.

People who claim to be "Native Americans" as in First Nation or First
People are often at least 50% or more non-tribal.  And although Barak
Obama is 50% pasty white, he is our first "African American"
president.  (Oh, and he's not really the kind of "African American"
who label themselves that here in the US, even though both their
parents and all their grandparents and great-grandparents were born in
America.  Barak's father really IS from Africa).  Barak Obama was born
in Hawaii.  That is America.  He is a native American.

The time for the "single drop of blood" making a person black (as in a
slave) or indian (as in a savage) are over.  We are not to be judged
by our biology.  And the act of separating ourselves by labeling
simply keeps discrimination alive.

There was a time when people were proud to say, "I'm an American!"
Not an African-American, not an Irish-American, not an Italian-American.

Get it into your heads. We are Americans, natives in this land.  And
although the past was not always something to be proud of, as long as
we learn from the mistakes of our forefathers and don't repeat them,
we don't have to be responisible for what the unenlightened citizens
did before us.  Now more than ever before is the time for us to greet
strangers as equals. 

We are ALL Native Americans, and I'm damned
proud of that.

Katie Fairweather

PS- once we do that, if you still need to pick on somebody, feel free
to go after illegal aliens.  The ones from the sky.

Dear Senator Hutchison,

I read your response to my urging your action on passing the stimulus bill.  These are some things I don't understand in your response:

You said, "First, I believe the most effective way to stimulate the economy is to leave more money in taxpayers’ pockets. Instead of providing significant tax cuts, the vast majority of the Stimulus bill focused on dramatically expanding government programs" 

With hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs every single month, sometimes in as little as two weeks, how can a tax cut help the economy?  Tax cuts only work for people who have incomes.  The more people who are unemployed, the fewer have incomes.  The fewer people with incomes, the fewer people receiving tax cuts.  And it follows that with fewer taxes being paid, government employees are being laid off, adding to that big pool of Americans who will not benefit from tax cuts. 

For tax cuts to work, you have to have a job.

The problem here, Ms. Hutchison, is unemployment.  And the way you solve an unemployment problem is to hire people to do jobs.  And in order to do that, the government has to fund projects, like the WPA and the CCC back in the Great Depression, to put people to work so they could feed their families and pay their rent and if they were lucky enough, their mortgages.

What part of this do you not understand?  Why are Republicans fighting the hiring of unemployed Americans so hard?  Who do you think is going to pay for your insurance program if everyone is out of work?  If no one is working, NO ONE IS PAYING TAXES!!!

And if no one is paying, tax cuts are like putting lipstick on a pig, now, aren't they?

Perry

It's become cliche': American jobs outsourced to foreign countries. Americans, corporate executives complain, cost too much. After salary and insurance and retirement and social security and unemployment, corporations seem to see no other way to lower their bottom line than to move their operations out of the country. It is unfortunate for the Americans who are losing their jobs to these decisions, but companies claim it's the only way they can make money.

However, these American companies didn't start out as mega-corporate bodies. They began as small businesses staffed with American workers. The time and energy put in to build their companies was American time and energy. And the business laws and free enterprise system which allowed them to prosper was American, too. Back at the beginning of each company you'll find people who worked hard and had dreams.

Once corporations became successful though, wildly successful in some cases, they suddenly lost all sense of responsibility and gratitude. The love of money determines what's best for the company, not the America that's nurtured it's growth. American workers need health insurance? We can't afford that, not now that we're making billions of dollars. Our move will destroy the community that supported us? Can't be helped. We have to think of our bottom line.

What truly happens, though, is that they find workers of whom they may take advantage: workers without unions, workers without age laws, workers without food and shelter. These people are low down on Maslow's heirarchy of needs and will settle for enough money to get through the week, get through the day. Americans wouldn't stand for that. We protect our workers. So, corporations go where workers have no protection.

As these companies blithely skip the country in order to save money, American taxpayers are left holding the bag. Why should you and I be paying unemployment when the company is responsible? They're out there making big bucks and we're cleaning up the mess.

It's time we held companies accountable for their actions. American companies owe their success to the American worker and the American business environment. If they take their jobs overseas, they can pay a year's unemployment benefits to each worker who is left jobless. It's the company's responsibility, not the government's.

And when these ungrateful companies bring their products back into the United States, it's important that they pay for the right to do it. Tax American production moved overseas. Make companies think twice before they run off with American jobs.

The truth is, American companies wouldn't exist without the American worker. Corporate executives would do well to remember that.