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How do I get to a townhall meeting?
Embedded video from CNN Video
Obama + stimulus = strong dollar
Geithner + slouchy delivery = plummeting DOW
Was yesterday a wash?
I read this Washington Post article thanks to a link a friend had on facebook. It was about one of our brightest and most talented violinists playing in a NY metro station. I read the blurb and was intrigued. The article had this video.
I played the video..and cried. Then I read the article, got to the point where it proclaims, “He is the one who is real. They are the ghosts.”…and cried. I just spent the day on the Red Line….no musicians…I think if there were one, and I passed him by…I would be fetal right now.
Dude, correction, Joshua Bell made me cry…Check THIS out. Check all those videos out. Dude. Just dude.
There are a lot of people who think the public is a victim in crimes of prostitution. I agree. But if it’s not a crime..then there really is no victim…right? So now I’m a little stuck. I agree that taxpayers suffer when our streets are filled with drug addicted hookers and exploitive pimps. But there is legal sexual careers out there. Strippers, porn actors and Nevada hookers are much better off than California street walkers..why? They have a business owner instead of a pimp paying their bills. But then…on the other hand (see how I make my opinions? waffling!)…On the other hand, legal sex workers are not THAT much better off. Drug addiction and psychological problems are fairly rampant in much of the industry, legal or illegal. Although in the illegal realm, I think non-drug addicts are exceptionally rare. A good percentage of strippers and legal prostitutes…oh wait oh wait..massage parlors..illegal… what little I know of them is that they aren’t all that bad off. Oh hell, i don’t know. I just know the strippers at the Lusty Lady in Seattle and SF have a union. I know porn actors are very close to having their own loose version of the union (health insurance and an organization that works on enforcing the rights of talent and producers). I know these improvements make the industry itself more palatable….for the women, the patrons and the management…and the public. Okay, I’m back to legalizing prostitution..you get more taxpayers and less tax dollars wasted. You get happier workers and better organized and better behaved managers. You get economy.
Maybe I should call Obama…add one more to the stimulus bill!
I am stunned how Republicans are playing stupid on this stimulus bill. I am watching Joe Scarborough right now and he is saying this is NOT a stimulus bill. I can see a rich man not getting it. The current stimulus bill is definitely angled toward the poor. But Republicans are not always rich. Republicans are not always THIS blind.
And rich Republicans can’t really talk right now. Rich men didn’t quite understand the definition of bailout (“oh, here’s a ton of money…guess I CAN have that massage and new jet”). Although I guess, if you really think about it….some masseuse and jet mechanic got to keep their house thanks to that bailout.
So I see this bill and I see a stimulus bill for poor people. It doesn’t help me. It doesn’t help anyone with more money than me. It doesn’t help my family. It helps POOR people. Which is only fair. I have a roof over my head. I’m not devastated by our economic downturn. I’m spending money. I don’t require stimulus. Rich people are doing fine. They are spending money (obviously on jets and massages and fancy commodes). Who is NOT spending money? The people who literally don’t have any. Give them a chance to improve their lives and they will spend. Food Stamps, college financial aid, etc…this is exactly what stimulus is. As well as saving US (the middle class and rich) some bucks. What happens to a hungry person? They get sick. Where does a sick poor person with no insurance go? To the ER. Who ends up paying for it? Us. You want to hear where your tax break is? You and I will not have to pay for as many hospital rooms, jail cells, and halfway houses. Because let me tell you what goes up as the economy goes down: illness, crime, and addiction.
Okay, but let’s put my opinion aside. Which I grant that what I’m saying is an opinion…or a best guess on what is going to help our economy. Stimulus. What is it? Well, ol’ Mirriam says it is “something that rouses or incites to activity” which I think is simple enough. $600 checks were stimulus checks because most of us spent it. Personally, I’m finding ol’ Dubya’s simplicity genius. Even if someone put that check in the bank when they got it, I think we’re all safe to assume it got spent by now. Sure, in hindsight, a little small. But at the time, we didn’t quite know the horrendous downturn our economy was about to suffer.
Here’s where it gets kinda fun…the second definition is as follows: “an agent (as an environmental change) that directly influences the activity of a living organism or one of its parts.” We’ve done the stimulus for one part. It may still work. That bailout is NOT done yet. And we did it to jump start the heart of our economy- our banks. Now we’re trying stimulus for another part -the poor. I’d say that’s the blood. What runs through our economy moving nutrients through the system. (To run an analogy to the ground, the blood also is what spreads disease. If our blood lacks nutrients, it is not only useless to the body. it destroys the body).* And much like an episode of House, we are making a best guess and then spending a ton of money on seeing if it’s true. The first time isn’t quite working (it never does in House). So another best guess happens…there is much debate and vitriol. And the most controversial will likely be right.
This bill may not save us. This bill may be all wrong. But it’s definitely stimulus. And really WHY ARE WE DEBATING THAT? Republicans are not acting smart. I don’t get it. Even when I watch FOX. They are just playing dumb. Not every genius economist is a Democrat. Not every person who understands how the economics of the poor works is a Democrat. There are Republicans who know the answer. Tax cuts are FOR RICH PEOPLE. Even small business breaks are for middle class and rich. The breaks that the Republicans discuss are not for the single mom doing her ebay business.
Oh, lordy, Joe bugs me. I’m going to CNN….
*I’m no doctor. I could be totally wrong about what the blood does. I’m just sayin’.
