Washington gives us another reason to shake our heads in despair

“You can't have people making decisions about the future of the world who are scientifically illiterate. That's a recipe for disaster. And I don't mean just whether a politician is scientifically literate, but people who vote politicians into office." 

Neil deGrasse Tyson 

Editor’s note: I wrote this letter in response to Idaho U.S. representative Raul Labrador’s absurd comment about health care. Yes, I am a registered democrat who often disagrees with the Republican’s agenda, but when you make a comment like this, no matter what party you are from, it demeans all voters and whittles away our trust in our leaders. Please, no acerbic comments. Save it for the Internet trolls who post their anger on news organizations' websites.

Representative Raul Labrador did you understand the repercussions of your callous remark when you uttered "Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care?”

I am shocked by your arrogance and how uninformed you are about the health-care issue.

Nearly everyday I am embarrassed by unenlightened congressmen or presidents who have NO clear understanding of issues — or American history for that matter. I guess, sir, you are an active member in that exclusive club, which contributes to our disillusionment of our leaders.

Let me help you, Mr. Labrador, especially since you clearly don’t understand the health-care issue in this nation.

According to Time magazine: “A 2009 study published in the American Journal of Public Health before Obamacare became law said that 45,000 deaths in the U.S. were linked to a lack of health insurance.” Congressman, people who have health insurance live longer and are treated with respect in any emergency room.

That is a fact, Sir!

This is not fake news even though the current administration has made it a priority to discredit dedicated journalists.

The only thing that is really fake is the GOP’s agenda. Anyway, thank you for solidifying my loyalty to the Democratic Party.

But then again I shouldn’t be surprised when a member of the GOP makes another insulting and inaccurate statement. Absurd, inaccurate and hateful comments have become epidemic from the right side of political spectrum, and much of it starts from the top at the White House.

Sincerely,

Tony Blasi

Feet of clay on Capitol Hill

"He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."

                                                                                                                          George Bernard Shaw

AUBURN, Maine — If you couldn't come up with a definitive answer to Congress's buffoonery this past week, request a brain scan from your family physician to explain why you are oblivious to a shutdown that is paralyzing a nation still suffering from a wobbling economy.

For those of you who live under a rock or are inebriates shaking off a yearlong hangover, thousands of federal employees are not getting paid and have swelled the ranks of the unemployed.

According to NBC.com, the feds are losing $12 million an hour. That adds up to $300 million a day or $1.6 billion a week.

A conservative friend of mine just snickers at the entire debacle and believes the shutdown will lower the deficit. It won't take you long to figure which corner he is in when it comes to politics. It was a smart-ass remark — especially when people are unemployed. The deficit will continue to grow because Congress, for some absurd reason, is still collecting a check.

The answer is clear. The 535 guys and gals who work for you on Capitol Hill have taken a long nap as America slides in into a sea of despair and disrepair.

This Congress is like the whining kid who walks off with his football because he is frustrated with the outcome of a game.

The Tea Party has sabotaged its own party and Boehner is left holding the bag as panicking moderates can't get it together to put an end to a stalemate that should have never occurred.

There are numerous issues that need to be addressed in this nation, but throwing a money wrench into the federal budget is not sound decision making.

I also believe the Obama administration has done a poor job explaining the new health care plan, but that doesn't excuse Congress's efforts to undermine it.

I will make it clear again — it is the law. How hard is that for the GOP to figure that out.

The U.S. government should not be used a ransom note because a group of Republicans are simply unhappy. You have to wonder how many lobbyists are lining members of Congress's pockets with silver and gold in effort to shelve the president's policy.

The Tea Party should go back to drinking coffee. These guys are only good for a good laugh.

What I find outrageous, and I am surprised a majority of our citizens haven't felt the same, is these inept leaders are members of of this government, and they have no problem condemning it as evil and immoral. These so-called leaders have made a career out of finger-pointing and creating fear and animosity, which I think has weakened our nation and has become fodder for late-night comedians who are delivering punch lines at the expense of this nation's leaders.

I know there is a painful price to pay in politics when any leader takes a stand. But if a politician doesn't take stand at some point, then he is just another leader who just goes with the flow, and we seem to be electing a lot this sort lately. 

Americans continue to scrape the bottom of the barrow when they vote, and this is what you get on the floor of Congress.

We should all be appalled and ashamed our leaders. I know I am. Remember this pathetic episode in American politics when you vote!

Harvest moon

My splendid carrots and freshly grown gourds, which I call affectionally call gordo.

AUBURN - My garden is coming to an abrupt end. 

September's cool nights and fading sunshine means fall is taking over and squeezing out summer.

September is like a mafia thug closing in another crook's territory.

But my hardier plants hang on. I looked at my carrots and saw they were ripe for picking. My pristine soil has yielded a bumper crop of these tasty, orange wonders.

I began yanking carrots left and right and can't wait to throw them in the steamer Sunday. I will also blanch the rest of several giant zucchinis. I lost a bunch of tomatoes to blight.

But my carrots look just fine, thank you.

What a way to end a growing season that gave me one of the most spectacular gardens I have grown.

AUBURN - There is strong evidence that my vegetable plants have been using performance enhancing fertilizer.

My plants look like they have been juicing, and I would like to know where they got this illegal substance. 

There could be a huge scandal at 53 Valley Street, and the controversy could be comparable to the United States congress investigating Major League Baseball for steroid use

I might be forced to contact the proper authorities or go before a grand jury to testify against a bunch of vegetables that have given so much to me this summer.

There is no question my vegetables came across with the goods. 

I estimate, and this is no tall tale, I produced a bumper crop of 30 cucumbers, 30 summer squash, 20 zucchinis, a couple of hundred tomatoes, and I still haven't pulled my carrots. The broccoli and Swiss chard continues grow. I had about 300 blueberries because I trimmed them and offered words of encouragement.

But thanks to cool Maine nights and a drenching rain, my tomato plants have expired and everything has slowed down to a walk in my Garden of Eden. Right now, I still have Swiss chard, broccoli and carrots to pick until October. They are the hardiest plants in the fall.  I also had an abundance of pears and blue berries. 

Life was certainly sweet for gardeners in the Pine Tree State this season.

I have frozen about 20 pounds of summer squash and zucchini, and there is frozen tomato sauce lining the freezer in my refrigerator. 

I never fertilized my garden. The soil is that good. 

But I think there are two reasons why my garden was a success this season, and I swear by these two key ingredients.

I had plenty of wood ash to go around after my neighbor generously donated nearly 3,000 pounds for freshly cut ash.

After a bit a research, I was surprised to learn that wood ash in small amounts is beneficial to a vegetable garden. I began dumping the stuff on the garden throughout winter.

In the spring, I began spreading lush grass clippings and began using it to smother weeds around the plants, which took a lot of pressure off my back and knees.

But here's the deal when using my secret ingredients to nurturing a bountiful garden.

You can't burn crap in a wood stove and then apply its poison-ridden ash to an unsuspecting garden. And you can only use grass clippings if you didn't fertilizer your lawn.

Oh, and one more thing: Talk to your plants. Tell them you love them and want them to be good plants so that when they grow up, gardeners can be proud of them each growing season.

Look, gardening is a passion, and I enjoy eating vegetables that are not laced with pesticides. Besides, watching things grow alleviates stress in a world that is a mess for the moment.

Offsides

Dear House Speaker John Boehner,

Let me ask you a simple question, and I think you can handle this inquiry without consulting your 10-man staff to come up with a two-sentence answer. I also understand brevity is not part of a politician's lexicon, but try not to disappoint me as you have done in the past.

Why do members of congress take SIDES when deciding the fate of this country's future? Aren't we all Americans seeking common ground when it comes to making decisions for the Greater Good? Aren't we all covered under the umbrella of the American flag - or is it just the rich?

Can you answer these questions, Mr. House Speaker, or is a simple explanation beyond your comprehension?

Let me help you out, sir, because you and the rest of the Keystone Cops obviously require hand-holding when it comes to making a tough decision and doing their job. 

The duty of ALL 435 officials, who could easily double as the Marx Brothers, is to conduct the people's business! That's what you were all hired to do. You were not elected to work for special interest groups or your party. You are living proof that George Washington was ahead of his time when he admonished his countrymen that political parties would impede the progress of this infant nation.

Sir, you have the privilege of working inside that great big marble dome because your constituency believed in you, but I know I don't — especially the way congress has conducted itself for the past month.

America's leadership is becoming an embarrassment to the world and congress has the look and feel of the latest episode of "Jersey Shore." Right now, I would put all my money on "Snooky" to call the ball on the debt ceiling.


Your trademark is your insincere and incessant crying. In just a few days, we will be balling our eyes out when America defaults on its loans. Of course, you will still be getting your paycheck, but seniors and veterans won't be receiving their benefits.

I thought we are all on the same SIDE? Apparently not! Forget this polarization nonsense or America is a divided nation. 

No kidding! 

But that didn't stop the framers of the Constitution from hammering out a document that guaranteed "all men are created equal." Our forefathers had the temerity to work around their differences and create a nation from scratch.

Today, thanks to poor leadership, greed and stupidity, the nation is looking like a ghost town as businesses vanish and the growing poor line the streets.

What would Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin think about all this shenanigans?

I do know that you have gone out of your way, along with the rest of your party, to sideline a nation with party politics, back-biting, arrogance and insolence. I know the other side has done the same.

Do you understand what is at stake here? All of you are making decisions that will affect the quality of heath of Americans and their future for generations to come. You are messing with the world's wealth. Schools are crumbling, and local budgets and good paying jobs are drying up while of you babble on —about nothing. We are back to the year 1933, and all we are missing is the Great Depression, Hitler, Mussolini and a global conflict.

You are a sad lot with axes of grind instead of helping America stand on its own two feet again. We are involved in three conflicts in the Middle East, poverty flourishes, education suffers and we are all indentured servants to foreign governments while congress prolongs our agony with its adolescent behavior. Good men are dying on battlefields and citizens are losing their homes as our leaders engage in daily finger pointing.

Do you really understand what is going on around you. You are supposed to be making decisions for the Greater Good. You work for us — not the GOP or the DNC.

How can any of you be taken seriously!

Thanks to both parties, I have become an independent who is hoping someone with a sound mind and the ability to lead will suddenly materialize in the nick of time to resurrect a floundering nation.

But I do have you and the GOP to thank for helping me make the switch to independent. I just hope those of you who vote won't forget these leaders with feet of clay when the next election rolls around.

I know my memory will serve me well when I cast my vote. 

Close it down

Wait, wait, wait! 

Don't shut down the government!

Close down Congress for several weeks, turn out the lights in the White House and allow the president to head to the links to improve his golf game. Let's throw the lobbyists out of town and invite a handful of educated constituents who know how to compromise, think on their feet, make informed decisions, and call the shots. Common sense is definitely a prerequisite for those who want to right this sinking nation.

We are not asking for much other than cooperation from elected officials, especially a handful who apparently flunked fifth-grade history and couldn't pass a basic American trivia quiz.

Sarah Palin told an audience that Ronald Reagan graduated California's Eureka College. Reagan matriculated from Eureka College in Eureka, Ill. Rep Michele Bachmann made a real boo-boo when she said the "the shot heard around the world" occurred in Concord, N.H. According to Map Quest, she was only off by 71.5 miles. That shot was first heard in Concord, Mass. Bachmann has been on a roll, saying that the nation's founding fathers worked to end slavery. Our founding fathers owned slaves and it wasn't until the Emancipation Proclamation that blacks were freed in 1863. She topped it off by saying she wanted to thank the people of Idaho for her visit. She was in Iowa. 

Oops!

The sideshows in Congress are a wonder to behold. My favorite is the tears of a clown - John Boehner who cries needlessly at the drop of hat. Quick, get that guy a hanky.

And there is the president trying to sell us on our fireworks display in Libya, telling us all this intense bombing campaign was a humanitarian venture to protect Libyans from their leader. I guess the citizens of the Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia aren't that important - for the moment. As long as there is oil in your backyard, America will come to your aid - because we really care - about the oil.

Here in the Pine Tree State, we have a governor who fancies himself an art critic. A dispute over the removal of harmless mural erupted at the State House and consumed his administration. What a public relations disaster for Maine's leader, who can't seem to pick his political fights wisely. Where was his staff on this one?

What is transpiring in Washington is simply absurd, inept and really insane. Congress has got a twisted agenda, which obviously doesn't include their constituents' welfare. Both political parties are to blame should the government stop doing business after Friday.

While these 535 lawmakers, although I wouldn't call them that, haggle and finger point, the country continues to perform like the hapless Red Sox this season.

This is a nation that gave away good paying jobs to China, celebrates celebrity to the extreme, blames teachers for society's woes, and meddles in the Middle East whenever our oil supply is threatened.

The United States has been coming undone for nearly five years and many citizens have become disenfranchised thanks to leaders whose only concern is themselves.

There is no excuse for this stalemate. Just remember that when you head to the polls in 2012. Think about the guys and gals up on the HIll. They all had a big hand in weakening a nation and turning a deaf ear to their citizens.

What's the difference if the government closes up shop, anyway.

America hasn't been in business for years. We have been giving the store away for decades - and now there is nothing left and all the bills have come due.

Around the horn

FROZEN FALLS: Snow covers the rocks around the Androscoggin Falls.

AUBURN, Maine - If Congress decides to pull the plug on the federal government this Friday, I was hoping all senators and representatives would also go without a paycheck and give their constituents a respite from long-winded speeches and empty promises.

But I found out that the Keystone Cops (Congress) are deemed essential personnel and will still be cut a check each week.

The only good news about keeping our foolish and fearless leaders on the payroll is that it will prevent triggering sobbing episodes from Speaker of the House John Boehner, who could also shed tears during hilarious episodes of the "Three Stooges."

After four years of unemployment, an economy that continues to run on empty, and conflicts galore, which we can't keep our dirty paws off of, Congress will still get paid even though these guys have done will little to right this sinking ship.

If Boehner wants throw open the spigots, he should take a look at all the foreclosed homes, boarded-up businesses and the rising gas and food prices as the American middle class evaporates right in front of his water-filled eyes.

Now that is something cry about.

Here at home

Over the last two days, central Maine took another whooping from Mother Nature. Auburn received 12 inches of snow and the cold winds continue to howl and frustrate even the most hardy Mainers, who want to see Old Man Winter go away.

SNOWBOUND: Anthony lurks behind this mountain of snow.

For snowmobiliers and skiers, another blanket of snow is just what winter lovers ordered after nearly two weeks of sun and frigid temperatures.

For my son, it was an opportunity to job shadow members of the Lost Valley ski patrol team on Saturday after Old Man Winter laid down a fresh blanket of snow. Should he decide to pursue becoming a member of the ski team next season, he will have to take an EMT (Emergency Medical Training) this summer.

So far he is sold on the idea.

Happy trails to you

For the past two weeks, all was quiet in western Maine. That lull coaxed us into believing the walkways around the Androscoggin River were free of ice.

SNOWY OUTLOOK: Anthony checks out the winter scene.

But one look around and we discovered the a few days of warm weather and a stronger sun could not melt away the ice that covered the walkways.

The Androscoggin River walkway is about a mile around and then there is the falls, which is sort of like a mini Niagara Falls. The falls during the spring is something to behold. When the snow melts and April showers move in, the falls roar and can be quite impressive.

Before heading on the pedestrian trail, take a small hike up near the falls and stand on the platform and hear the roar of the falls and feel its fine mist

The walk will take you past Festival and Bonney parks where you will cross the river over a trestle bridge, which gives an eye-opening view of the river. After crossing, you can head over to Railroad Park and head back to the bridge that separates Lewiston and Auburn.

All we could do is admire the slow-running falls and we eventually walked back to the car and head to the gym.

And after the last snowstorm and an ice storm on deck for Monday, we will have to wait until the end of march to take a spin around the Androscoggin.

Heard it all before

"“In politics stupidity is not a handicap."
                                                                                                             - Napoleon Bonaparte




We all heard about the Bottom Line during President Obama's inspiring State of the Union speech Tuesday night.


It is reassuring to see the president and the rest the nation's statesmen trying to get to the bottom of America's hair-raising recession.


It took them long enough.


We listened to how the president will work in harmony with Congress (add canned laughter here) to cut the deficit (this we gotta see), curb spending (Sure thing!) and create jobs (that's a good one).


Sounds good, Mr. President!, and oh, good luck!

You are at your finest at the podium, sir, and I appreciate your exuberance from a man who has the most arduous and thankless job in America, but at least you have a job, Mr. President. I am also fortunate to be employed.


While I admire your pluck and enjoy a profound speech from an eloquent speaker like yourself, I am betting weary citizens of this mismanaged nation, no longer listen or could care less about another politician pontificating.  


I am betting Congress hasn't looked outside a window, read a morning newspaper (sound out the words) or opened a letter from one of their constituents who lost a job and home. The last time I took a good look around my town, there were boarded-up buildings, a foreclosure sign on nearly every block, and now I see people holding signs, begging for work - or worse - food.


Thanks for the awesome speech, Mr. President, but unless the gang of 535 shows some signs of life and evidence of clear thinking on Capitol Hill, more disenfranchised Americans will consider writing in their cat or dog for senator or the next president of the United States.


Words are worthless when you don't have a job or a place to live. I still don't understand how anything in Washington comes to fruition when the nations' leaders can't find common ground and continually display the fine art of bickering. Turn on C-Span and painfully watch as politicians go through the motions. It is like watching grass grow - or the New England Patriots taking a nap in the playoffs.


The deficit - So all of you have been shouting about the evils of out-of-control spending. Where were you guys and gals when President Bush was nestled in the White House and spending wasn't such a big deal?


Wanna cut the deficit? Here's how!


Cut every, and I mean every Congressman's salary in half — except President' Obama's paycheck. Can't be done? Why not! We all have to bite the bullet. Why not you guys and gals on the Hill! Remember when (and this where you have to know your history) President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked the affluent to step up and take dollar-a-week government jobs when the country was mired war and suffering from a hangover from the Great Depression. So please don't make us wince with another empty speech on the House floor.


2. Make a graceful exit from Iraq and Afghanistan and return these fine men and women in uniform home.There is no way America can fight two wars, and then cut taxes. Sure, I love tax breaks, but how do we pay the braves guys and gals who are putting it all on the line around the globe. As far as I am concerned, our servicemen should be paid the $200,000 salary that Congressmen receive.


Here is my favorite — the economy and jobs.


What jobs! Our wise leaders and businessmen moved the well-paying jobs overseas so we can pay some poor schmuck 25 cents an hour to make dungarees that fall apart. If there is a really big war, we are in really big trouble because we don't have a manufacturing base. So what do we do when one of our adversaries goes ballistic? Call China and order our uniforms and tanks. Until the 17 million unemployed people find decent jobs, American businesses will continue to disappear and foreclosed homes will be as abundant as sand on a beach.


I am astounded by Republicans and some Democrats who have made repealing Obama's health-care plan their Holy Grail. People are out of work and can't feed their families. China has become this nation's landlord, and that doesn't sit well with many Americans. And our statesmen continue to lash out over a health-care plan that all Americans deserve. By the way, Congress is provided with Cadillac insurance courtesy of taxpayers.


What are the cures to this economic debacle? Well, there are allegedly 535 educated men and women sitting around in Washington D.C. trying to come up with an answer — between all the finger-pointing.


I know one thing is for certain: Another rousing speech won't help the guy out on the street looking for his next meal.

A political party of none

  

Several days ago, members of the United States Congress, for some absurd reason, spent an hour and a half on the taxpayers' dime reading aloud the U.S. Constitution, and they screwed that up, too.

According to the Associated Press, our illustrious leadership omitted key paragraphs when they discovered two pages were stuck together, and "original sections that later were amended, including references to slaves, were left out of the recital."

In that hour and half, these guys should have been discussing solutions to joblessness, the wars in the Middle East, the housing debacle and the Great Equalizer - education. But both political parties decided to one-up themselves by brandishing their patriotism on the house floor instead of conducting the people's business and resuscitating a government buried in debt.

Thanks for the reading lesson, guys. It is comforting to know members of Congress can still sound out the words and have their priorities straight. This demonstration of political showmanship also indicated that perhaps Congress wasn't so sure what the Constitution contained until they read this unique document aloud.

Congress's needless reciting of the Constitution is a perfect example of why George Washington, our first president, and one of those rare Commanders in Chief with common sense, warned his countrymen about the pitfalls of political parties in his 1796 farewell address to the nation.

Just listen to Washington's priceless words that still hold water today:

"I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally. This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."

Mr. Washington's admonitions concerning political parties are not unfounded. Just take a look at the buffoonery that transpires in the hallowed halls of the nation's capitol on a daily basis. We have been mired in a recession that has blindsided the middle class and elevated the ranks of the poor since 2007. This is the nation that put the plane in the air, stopped Hitler cold, and made other countries envious of our industrial might for decades. But for the moment, corporate shills, who occupy those seats in Congress, look the other way as American companies create middle classes abroad, while a majority of U.S. citizens face a decline in their standard of living in a nation that was once considered the land of opportunity.

It should make us all shudder with frustration when politicians show more loyalty to their parties than to their constituency. We elected them to Congress and they should be beholden to us, not to a bunch of money-grubbing lobbyists or the RNC (Republican National Committee) and DNC (Democratic National Committee). 

Our leaders should be focused on the Greater Good. But apparently politicians enjoy battling back and forth over their party ideologies while the nation is caught in financial quicksand. Congress's first and foremost concern is the American people. Some where along the way, our leaders have forgotten the meaning of the preamble's opening words "We the people."

"Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another."

Washington was obviously ahead of his time when he stated that political parties "open the doors to foreign influence and corruption." Just take a hard look what is going on now around the planet. Thanks to this political in-fighting, nothing gets done or well-meaning bills are derailed for the sake of opposition by one party. We all suffer the consequences when well-educated man can't find common ground even though this nation's survival might be at stake.

We are all in dire need of a reality check.

So what are the options for the American voter who just lost a job and a house? Abandon both parties? That is certainly tempting when it comes to "who cares" is running for office.

Perhaps, it will require an independent candidate with no ties to any one ideology or party and will put citizens first and ignore the temptations of special interest money. This is truly a great nation born from a rebellion against tyranny and matured into a world power, but it up to us - informed voters - to elect responsible leaders who have credibility and the ability to compromise and bring about positive change in a country under financial duress and fighting terrorism throughout the globe.