12 Things I Despise About Today's Politics and the People Involved in Them (REVISED)

I have started this post out several times - some with long drawn out explanations but I have since deleted and decided to make a list with just a little humor to go with it. On pictures I display I will have them linked so you can find where they originated from.

 12 Things I Despise About Today's Politics and the People Involved in Them

1. Birthers - no this is not another name for midwives but instead people who question our president's citizenship.
 
  
2. Gun Control - An issue that only becomes a topic right after a tragedy strikes, unfortunately all the control laws only really affect those who follow the laws and not the criminals who commit the horrible acts.

3. Marriage Equality - I cannot put it more perfectly than this illustration.

Cartoons By Jim

4. The Tea Party - Yeah not the one that was led by the Son's of Liberty back at the beginning of the American Revolution.  Instead this is a group that has no real platform other than reducing spending and taxes.  It has also split into several different tea parties, where some extreme ideas are coming into play.


5.Anthony Weiner - His name befits his actions as this New York congressman was found to be sexting selfies of his junk over social media.  Then after claiming he had ceased his carnal activity it was discovered that he had just created an alias by the name of Carlos Dangerous.  Still he decided to pursue the office of New York City Mayor but to the satisfaction of the political pool he was not able to rise to the occasion.  When asked how he felt about his loss - he proceeded to flip off the press. 



  6. Rob Ford - I am still trying to understand why the Mayor of Toronto is such big news for us, other than it seems to be quite the distraction from the political storms blowing across our own country.  This rotund man has acquired several bad habits; smoking crack, drinking, and of course paying for sex.  I am thinking that he should befriend Weiner and throw one hell of a party.  Imagine the selfies being taken at that bash! The best part is that Ford refuses to step down from office and when the scandal became public his approval rating skyrocketed.  Oh Canada!














7.Obamacare - where do I begin... First I have not and will not read the immense amount of pages in this piece of legislation (2000 I believe). I have, however educated myself on the main points.
a. After the extension those who do not have insurance will be paying a penalty.
b. If you already have insurance through your employer, Medicad/care, or veteran's plan there is no need to worry.
c. If the plan does not meet the bare minimum requirements of the ACA - you will need to seek out a better plan on the federal exchange. - side note here: this is what everyone is up in arms about as Obama said if you liked your plan you can keep it. Well apparently there are several plans that do not meet the minimum, therefore causing people to be dropped from plans, which would end up dropping them eventually if they fell ill...
d. If you already have a health condition no insurer and I mean NONE, can turn you down or charge you more.
e. When your child decides to, oh let's say go to medical school, you can keep them on your insurance until the age of 26.
See future posts for more info....There is one thing about this whole exchange system that really irks me.  If you are going to open it up to the country on a certain date please make sure you have given the system a test start up so you don't end up in the clusterf#@k they are stuck in now.  It does not take a genius to figure out that computers are not always cooperative.  The breakdown of communication and the push to get it ready on time took something that could have been successful and made it a failure in the eyes of those who were relying on it. Get it together Obama or my support on this will be fading away fast.

8. I have been an educator for well over 20 years and I have to say that NCLB and the addition of the Common Core are by far the worst pieces of legislation to exist.  Sure it all looks great on paper but in reality we are leaving kids behind and we are not teaching a room full of robot kids. Differentiation and Collaboration should be the main focus of every single class.  Curriculum maps are the perfect way to to build a class starting from the end goal and working your way back to where it begins.  This gives teachers a way to inject their own teaching personalities into the subjects they are teaching.  By creating one single curriculum that is supposed to follow at a certain pace does not allow much time for reteaching.  And to be perfectly honest...it seems as if we are trying to shove more information into the kids when they are still in elementary causing some of them to fall behind because their brains are not developed enough to take in so much.  This of course leaves them behind.  I could go on and on and on...but I will stop for now. Well except for the perfect cartoon drawn by Rob Smith Jr.

Nationally syndicated cartoonist Rob Smith Jr

9. The tapping of Angela Merkel's (the German Chancellor) cell phone - okay my opinion on this is "HOW IN THE HELL DID THEY GET CAUGHT"?  If you were shocked by this tidbit of news than you obviously don't realize that they are probably listening in to a few people in our country as well.  We are supposed to have one of the best foreign spy programs in the world and they get busted tapping the phone of an ally.  Seriously people the professional hackers out there are laughing at you!


10. While we are on the subject of someone listening in to our calls and reviewing our emails - I am not a big fan of the Patriot Act and I am not all warm and fuzzy about someone checking into or hearing what I am saying to others.  However (yes there is a however) I am doing absolutely nothing that would concern our government unless sending an email to my son's teacher about a test he would like to retake is a red flag for them.  Look I realize that there are things we like to keep private and if you are sneaking around behind your SO's back to see the neighbor down the street I can almost guarantee that the CIA is not going to tell your spouse what you are doing.  Now if you are communicating with someone from your work place than be prepared to deal with the crap storm coming your way because THEY can read your emails and texts if done on computers and phones they pay for.  So watch your words and don't say things that could be found out that you prefer to keep secret.

A cartoon by "America's Most Wanted Political Cartoonist" - Khalil Bendib

11. Conspiracy Theories - We did not land on the Moon, the Holocaust did not happen, there was no plane that hit the Pentagon, The New World Order, Aliens live under the White House, Obama is a Muslim extremist, Bill Clinton having associates assassinated, and my favorite being the fact that the Bush family had some part in JFK's assassination.  My annoyance is with the people who believe these things and then suck others into their craziness.

12. It didn't even take me one day before I would find another gripe to add to this post.  So we were watching the news this morning and the anchors were discussing two stories that were somewhat similar but the consequences are far different.  So the first was about Representative Trey Radel of Florida, who had just finished pleading guilty for the purchase of some cocaine and then was given one year of probation.   Radel does not plan to resign his office, even though several of his constituents have asked him to step down.  Obama even commented that this was a personal issue and did not seem to feel a resignation was in order.  Now this is all fine and dandy except that the federal government also involves itself in the cases where professional sports players are accused and put in front of a federal grand jury for the possible use of steroids.  There is not always evidence against the players they accuse.  Take for example A.Rod - who had to sit out for part of the season  because they believe that he has been using performance enhancing drugs.  There seems to be a double standard... a Representative buys cocaine and is allowed to handle it personally, where as a baseball player is accused and may lose everything including any recognitions given him and a chance at the Hall of Fame.  How is this fair? 

I could go on and maybe I will add to it in the future but for now I think it is time to put this post to rest.