Last update: Sunday, February 7th, 2010
Hi everyone!
Welcome to Social Notes, the sometimes weekly goings-on of Houston’s lesbian community. You can
sign up to receive an email notice every time I update the site, by clicking on the blue box in the
upper right hand corner of this page. Now, let me show you around the website:
- The Calendar page contains a listing of events for the next couple of months.
- To find out about clubs and organizations, check out the Organizations page. This page is sub-
divided to make it easier to find things.
- I know all you kind-hearted pet-loving lesbians would want to know about animals needing a new
home, so I included a Pets page.
- The Jobs Page lists both women in search of jobs, and job openings for gay-friendly positions.
- If you want to support lesbian, women-owned, or just generally gay-friendly businesses, then
check out the Networking Page. This page has also been recently subdivided to make it easier
to find what you are looking for.
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Please take 5 minutes to fill our a survey for me!
As many of you know, it is my goal in life to own and operate an upscale dude ranch/wilderness resort
for the GLBT community, to be located in the Rocky Mountains. To help with my business planning, I
am gathering input about gay travel in general and about interest in my specific project. Would you all
please take 5 minutes to fill out a 19 question survey? And since I am asking for favors, would you
also pass this request along to your GLBT friends around the world? For this survey to be effective,
I need lots of responses, from lots of states/countries. This link will take you to the survey.
Thanks in advance for your input and your help!
PS: If the link doesn't work, here is the address for the survey:
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB225MAXB573C
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The Rant
Sunday, February 7, 2010
I am so disgusted with what is going on in Washington that I may just join the Teabaggers. OK, I'm
not quite THAT desperate (or batshit crazy) yet, but I do share their frustration.
Out here in the Real World, people are hurting. The problems we face are so severe that they
threaten the very foundation of our country, yet the clowns in Washington continue to carry out
their mysterious kabuki dance - all bluster and no action.
It's true that the Dems were handed a raw deal when they took control of the reins of government
a year ago. The economy was on the brink of collapse. We were mired in two ridiculous and costly
wars, and our international reputation was in the dumper. OK, I know that you can't fix everything
overnight. But you can't fix ANYTHING if you lack courage and creativity,and that's where we find
ourselves today.
Every player in the ongoing drama bears equal responsibility for the stalemate. Obama doesn't know
how to lead. The Dems in Congress don't know how to get legislation passed, even though they enjoy
the largest majorities of any party in decades. The Republicans have totally abandoned any
pretense of governance. Is this any way to run a country???
I remember the dark days when BushCo was running things. Most of us were angry and frustrated,
but we held onto the hope that things would be better if we could just get Democrats back into
power. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Now what the heck do we do????
I feel like such a schmuck for buying into Obama's mantra of Change. I took him at his word that he
intended to play politics in a fundamentally different way - to break the hold of the corporate
lobbyists and to govern with the interests of the people first and foremost. His behind-closed-
doors deal with the pharmaceutical industry (to remove the government's ability to negotiate lower
drug prices in any health care reform bill) showed just how empty that promise was.
I imagined that he would quickly rectify the civil liberties abuses and violations of US and
international law, perpetrated by Bush and Cheney. Sure, he says he has stopped torture, although
we are still rendering prisoners to torture-friendly countries. He has defended BushCo abuses such
as limitless wiretapping in the courts. Obama is a constitutional law professor, for god's sakes. He
as well as anyone should understand just how illegal and unconstitutional BushCo's actions have been.
Does the Bush administration have pictures of Obama in bed with a goat? What other reason could
there be for Obama's continuance of the heinous policies of his immoral predecessor?
In addition to continuing many illegal and immoral BuschCo policies, Obama and Congressional leaders
refuse to hold the prior administration accountable for any of their crimes. Want a laugh? If the
Republicans regain Congress, there is already talk of impeaching Obama! Oh sure, there has been no
hint of real scandal or illegality - they just hate the guy and are ruthless in their attempts to
destroy him. Yet we have actual evidence of atrocities by Bush, Cheney and their minions, and chose
not to act. Everyone of them took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution.
Spineless cowards, one and all.
Their excuse seems to be that they don't want their political agenda to get bogged down with messy
things like trials. OK, I don't agree, but I guess I could understand that rationale, IF there was
any actual progress being made on the dems' agenda. You know, things like health care reform, for
example.
Remember why we need to fix health care? We spend so much more money per capita on health care
than any other nation, yet our health care standard of living is decidedly middle of the pack. Over
40 million Americans have no health care coverage, and even those of us with insurance are just one
pre-existing condition away from bankruptcy. And if those aren't good enough reasons to take
action, then how about the fact that we cannot even begin to fix our economy if we don't get a
handle on health care costs.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid should be sued for gross political malpractice over their mishandling of
health care reform. Let's review a few of the lowlights:
• Almost immediately the dem leaders took the single payer option off the table. Granted,
single payer would have been an uphill battle, despite the fact that it made the most sense from a
pure economic standpoint. But removing it from consideration left the Public Option as the most
progressive alternative. This allowed conservatives to position the Public Option as way too far out
of the mainstream.
• Obama has wasted ridiculous amounts of time, energy and political capital in the hopeless
pursuit of "bi-partisanship". Look what the Republicans did to him on the stimulus bill: after
conceding to their demands for a smaller stimulus loaded tax cuts which do not do anything to
stimulate the economy, they STILL didn't vote for his bill. Quit wasting time pursuing them!!
• They allowed the Republicans to control the narrative. From Sarah Palin's shreiks of "Death
Panels" to John Boehner's whines about "government takeover of health care", the conservatives
have scared the country into believing that health care reform is a monstrosity, when in fact it is a
major benefit for our citizens, and for the country's economy. Republicans are simply much much
better at telling their lies than Democrats are about telling the truth.
• Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, allowed extremely conservative dems like Max Baucus
and Ben Nelson to hold up health care bills in committee all last summer, again in the vain pursuit of
bi-partisanship. Those delays meant that reps went back to their home districts for the August
recess and were absolutely assaulted by rabid and uninformed citizens ("keep government hands off
my Medicare")in town hall meetings. Thus our lawmakers lost whatever modicum of political courage
they once may have possessed.
• And speaking of delays, the dithering continues. Its most recent victim is the theoretical
super-majority of 60 votes that dems once possessed. No longer. Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat
was just won by a Republican. We never really had 60 votes anyway, since the Connecticut weasel
Joe Lieberman and his conservative cohorts were never going to vote for health care reform.
Soooooo, here we are. The Republicans are filibustering EVERYTHING, and the dems lack the
courage and creativity to find a way around the their obstructionism. Meanwhile, unemployment is
still hovering around 10%, the financial system is crying for overhaul, health care costs are eating us
up and yada yada yada.
How the heck are we going to get out of this mess?
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And of course, the political rant happens right here.
It might seem strange to mix lesbian social info
with political observations, but it works for me.
If it doesn't work for you,
then feel free to skip ahead!
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