Michael1942's Blog

A recent column in the washing ton post (dated 11/29/2011) tells the story of Congress fighting over ending earmarks. These “ear marks”  are the items which have money budgeted for specific programs however there have been many winks of the eye on items that are not vital to overall health of the country, the people and our economy. It is worth the time to look this column up and understand what is happening. Earmarks are not the same as pork barrel funding.

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party’s socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthier record of continuous operation in the United States, and is one of the oldest political parties in the world. Barack Obama is the 15th Democrat to hold the office of President of the United States. With the advent of the 112th Congress following the 2010 elections, the Democratic Party currently holds a minority of seats in the House of Representatives, but holds a majority of seats in the Senate. It currently holds a minority of state governorships, as well as a minority of state legislatures.
The Democratic Party evolved from Anti-Federalist factions that opposed the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton in the early 1790s. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison organized these factions into the Democratic-Republican Party. The party favored states’ rights and strict adherence to the Constitution; it opposed a national bank and wealthy, moneyed interests. The Democratic-Republican Party ascended to power in the election of 1800. Andrew Jackson is typically considered the first Democratic President of the United States.
Initially calling itself the “Republican Party,” Jeffersonians were labeled “Democratic” by the opposition Federalists, with the hope of stigmatizing them as purveyors of democracy or mob rule. By the Jacksonian era, the term “The Democracy” was in use by the party; the name “Democratic Party” was eventually settled upon. Since 1995 , Republicans have often referred to the Democratic Party using the phrase “Democrat Party” as a political epithet.

A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” by Thomas Nast. Harper’s Weekly, January 19, 1870, made the kicking donkey synonymous with the party.
The “Kicking Donkey” party logo is still a well-known symbol for the Democratic Party, despite no longer being the official logo of the party.
After the War of 1812, the party’s chief rival, the Federalist Party disbanded. Democratic-Republicans split over the choice of a successor to President James Monroe, and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, became the Democratic Party. Along with the Whig Party, the Democratic Party was the chief party in the United States until the Civil War. The Whigs were a commercial party, and usually less popular, if better financed. The Whigs divided over the slavery issue after the Mexican–American War and faded away. In the 1850s, under the stress of the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Democrats left the party. Joining with former members of existing or dwindling parties, the Republican Party emerged.
The Democrats split over the choice of a successor to President James Buchanan along Northern and Southern lines, while the Republican Party gained ascendancy in the election of 1860. As the American Civil War broke out, Northern Democrats were divided into War Democrats and Peace Democrats. The Confederate States of America, seeing parties as evils, did not have any. Most War Democrats rallied to Republican President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans’ National Union Party in 1864, which put Andrew Jackson in the Whitehouse.

The most common mascot symbol for the party is the donkey, although the party never officially adopted this symbol.[113] Andrew Jackson’s opponents had labeled him a jackass during the intense mudslinging in 1828. A political cartoon titled “A Modern Balaam and his Ass” depicting Jackson riding and directing a donkey (representing the Republican party).

Brief history lesson  is over and we now have the same two majors parties who I like to call “Scamocrats and Dupublicans”. Infer what you will from that.

In the world of card games there is a book called “Hoyles Rules of Card Games”. Edmond Hoyle was alive circa 1674, he crafted a set of rules governing the playing of Whist and according to available information Mr. Hoyle tutored the gentry of the day in the rules of the card games of the day. Hoyles name has been used in conjunction with numerous card games but essentially had no input. Now when some one wants to evoke an element of truth to a statement or situation “according to Hoyle” is used as a reference. Now we come to modern times where  the veracity of our political “leaders” and the aspirants is suspect. There appears to nothing done according to Hoyle. All actions seem to be more in line with how  many votes can I get?

As the end of the year and traditional holidays approach with ever increasing rapidity our erstwhile Scamocrats and Dupublicans have continued to play politics with the very lives of the voters. It is no secret that each party no matter what is publicly stated has no respect for the people who put them in office. If there was any respect, we would not have the ongoing war of words on budgets and the like. The upcoming elections are showing indications of being one of the nastiest displays of political brinksmanship in decades. To be elected used to be a matter of  presenting facts (as known) to the voters along with a best guess on how problems will be solved.  Neo politics have degraded into essentially no holds barred street brawls. It is little wonder the public is confounded by the political system as it looks more like UFC, WWE and Survivor. The bleep does on.

Sauces may be used for savory dishes or for desserts. They can be prepared and served cold, like mayonnaise, prepared cold but served lukewarm like pesto, or can be cooked like bechamel and served warm or again cooked and served cold like apple sauce. Some sauces are industrial inventions like Worcestershire sauce, HP sauce, or nowadays mostly bought ready-made like soy sauce or ketchup, other are still freshly prepared by the cook. Sauces for salads are called salad dressing. Sauces made by deglazing a pan are called pan sauces

Gravy is a sauce made often from the juices that run naturally from meat or vegetables during cooking. In North America the term can refer to a wider variety of sauces and gravy is often thicker than in Britain. The gravy may be further coloured and flavoured with gravy salt^[1] (a simple mix of salt and caramel food colouring) or gravy browning (gravy salt dissolved in water) or ready-made cubes and powders can be used as a substitute for natural meat or vegetable extracts. Canned gravies are also available. Gravy is commonly served with roasts, meatloaf, rice,^[2] and mashed potatoes.  In many areas the names are used interchangeably however the uses are slightly different. For instance some restaurants have special sauces for their sandwiches but they could be called gravy, in other countries what we would call sauce is called gravy. This brings me to politics. We have a two (2) party system but looking at what has occurred in the past 10 t0 20 years which is gravy and which is sauce?

As the year winds down our Congress appears to have finally realized what their jobs are. After several years of public posturing and sound bites, the Congressional leaders seem to be making a stab at legislating ( novel idea). I wonder how long it took to enact the law that guaranteed their benefits? With the election year closing in , the “lawfakers” are probably more concerned about retention than doing the work we expected them to do. These current seat fillers have wasted “our” valuable time feuding with the president and one another  while the voters are unemployed, under employed and being under served. I have written that the voters need to fire the lot of them as their time in this term nears and there have been suggestions that this would not solve the problem as politics is a sausage mill with more meat in the pipeline. Even a sausage mill has to stopped for cleaning.

If I were a firemen in Washington D(e)C(adent), I could make an excellent living as a fireman specializing in  pants!  I could set up stations in the  halls of Congress with subscription payments tied to the COLA’s of the Congressional members and a tag along on their health benefits. That’s American ingenuity!

I have a list of stocks posted on my webpage from  the stock exchange. While I am  a small (very small) investor, I like to look at what the market does. I have never achieved any financial windfalls with my investments but with the listings I have set up to watch the market, I have seen several “trends”. The oil companies in spite of the changes in supply have steadily gained or maintained value. There are other items that rise and fall regularly but oil remains steady. I have listed food companies, banks, IT companies and even these income producers pale in comparison to the oil company’s steady growth in spite of the world economies that have and are still suffering major upward and downward shifts. This is not to say that if I had the funds , I would drop a lot of money into oil but it certainly is tempting. Looking at this information which is available to anyone who takes 10 minutes to look it up, one can see why we are still oil dependent even with the advent of energy efficient cars. What ever happened to energy efficient rotary engine? The forward thinking ideas of  anyone could have advantages by expediting the use of more efficient gas engines, it has been postulated that big businesses  rely on our use of oil in great quantities yet no one has truly made an efficient engine as imagined possible. There is no real blame to be placed in all of this except our unwillingness to accept austerity at the price tag that is placed on it. An example is Television, TV sets which are now as common as dirt used to be for the very wealthy, now nearly every household has at least one. Even the common refrigerator (again initially not in every household) has moved into energy efficiency and in the relative price range of the initial  self contained units. We are willing to pay for now common household items being energy efficient but not for our primary modes of transportation  and at the same time  blaming the fuel producers for the cost of transportation.