Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

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The Daily F Bomb, Friday 4/26/13

Interrogatories

Did your parents approve in your choice of boy/girlfriends?

Did you ever get grounded? What for?

Did you hang out with the geeks or the jocks in school?

Who were you named after?

Do you/did you have any imaginary friends?

The Twitter Emitter

The Daily F Bomb, Thursday 4/25/13

Interrogatories

Those of you who are married – church or civil? Did you spend a lot of money or go frugal?

Did you go to your prom? Do you still know your date from that night?

Have you ever been on TV? If so, do tell.

What is better, sunrise or sunset?

How long can you hold a grudge?

The Twitter Emitter

Welfare Used to Fund Terrorism! Beyond Rhetoric: 10 Ways to Fix Welfare

Today headlines blared that the Boston bombers had been funding their terrorist lifestyles with welfare. How could we, the cash-strapped people, have been allowed to provide for these shady characters? The American-born wife and baby were obviously part of a long con on the generosity of the American people. That the wife chose to work 80 hours a week (possibly for less than minimum wage) as a quasi-servant rather than continue with those benefits does not mitigate the fact that someone who later became a terrorist got to mooch! Who would have the insolence to even wonder whether the indignities of the broken welfare system factored into how much these “losers” came to hate the United States…?

Well, I’m going to dare to bring it up.

The welfare approach in the United States are ridiculously fragmented, inadequate, poorly implemented, and outright broken. Political rhetoric from all sides raises the taxpayer’s awareness that their money pays for an enormous welfare system. Yet when the taxpayer turns to this system during their own time of desperation, they discover unanswered phone calls, months (if not years) of applications and appeals, bureaucratistans that don’t bother to deliver the measly few “services” they meticulously document on your “plan” (the California Department of Rehabilitation, which is supposed to be putting people back to work, is a major offender here), and have abundant means to retaliate (for example, by consigning your case to limbo) if anyone complains.

There is a deliberate rightwing campaign to make stymied taxpayers believe that “someone else” (of a different race, religion, or political affiliation) is getting paid “regular checks from the government”, while anyone who has ever tried to deal with this system knows for sure it’s not them. “Disability checks” are the latest spearhead in the rightwing’s egregiously misinformed attack on welfare.

But while Republicans regular twist and ignore facts to shore up their 47 percent Entitlement Society propaganda, Democrats are failing in the other direction by blindly defending the system without acknowledging the problems or making any attempts to fix them. President Obama’s idea of a bipartisan bridge is cutting Social Security benefits, when many seniors are already struggling to get by on a few hundred dollars a month. There is no way around the fact that the only way to get everyone off welfare is to guarantee full employment.

Last year I wrote a series of posts about my own experience of the welfare fiasco for Daily Kos, but I found this was the wrong venue since too many comments trivialized or even flamed a subject that is a matter of life-and-death to a significant segment of the U.S. population. I looked for another place to repost my series, but I could not find another place where I could convey what I knew about welfare to a broad audience of voters. Finally I just boiled down what I had to say in 10 Ways to Fix Welfare on a free WordPress blog and left my message to float on the ether. As far as I know, no one is reading it or referencing it. It’s vitally important to dispel the fog of ignorance that surrounds welfare. So it’s time to make another attempt to shed light on the real problems with welfare and how to fix them.

I am copying my “10 ways to Fix Welfare” here in the hope that this post will be passed around and spark a larger conversation, with testimony from the people who have actually interacted with the welfare system. My complete article is pasted below, and there is a little more information about me on the WordPress site.

The Daily F-Bomb

Interrogatories

Do you still live near where you grew up, or did you end up living far away? If you are still in the same area, did you ever live far away?

What is the farthest you’ve ever been from home?

Do you get homesick, and if so, how long does it take to kick in?

Are you short, tall, or in-between?

The Twitter Emitter

Richie Havens-Gone to the Ancestors on Earth Day


photo RichieHavens_zpse2796911.jpg

Jan 21, 1941-April 22, 2013

We have all heard by now of the death of Richie Havens.  

I’d like to spend a little time celebrating his life. Not just as the iconic opening performer at Woodstock, or hall of fame blues folk artist.

He was a man with a message, about the environment.


Havens devoted his energies to educating young people about ecological issues. In the mid-1970s, he co-founded the Northwind Undersea Institute, an oceanographic children’s museum on City Island in the Bronx. That, in turn, led to the creation of The Natural Guard, an organization Richie describes as “a way of helping kids learn that they can have a hands-on role in affecting the environment. Children study the land, water, and air in their own communities and see how they can make positive changes from something as simple as planting a garden in an abandoned lot.

The Daily F Bomb, Tuesday 4/23/13

Interrogatories

It’s National Picnic Day. What would your ideal picnic basket contain?

What would be the perfect picnic location?

Do you remember the New Coke? Did you try it? Was it bad?

If you could kill any one Federal law, which one would it be?

If you could create one Federal law, what would it be?

The Twitter Emitter

The Daily F Bomb, Monday 4/22/13

Interrogatories

If you had a Spirit Animal/Power Animal/familiar, what would it be?

Do you have a lucky number?

TV: Cable or Satellite or just plain broadcast?

Internet: Dial-up, DSL, Cable or Satellite?

The Twitter Emitter

This includes the best of the tweets during the manhunt last week:

The Daily F Bomb, Friday 4/19/13

Interrogatories

If accidental radiation exposure turned you into a giant monster, where would you rampage and what sort of havoc would you wreak?

If you could pick any song other than “The Star Spangled Banner” to be the national anthem, what would you pick?

If you could take any song as your own anthem, what would it be?

The Twitter Emitter

The Daily F Bomb, Thursday 4/18/13

Interrogatories

Who is/was your favorite newspaper columnist?

Do you wear pajamas? If so, what pattern adorns them?

What is your most and least favorite Jelly Bean flavor?

What is the first movie you saw in a theater? How old were you?

The Twitter Emitter

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