Yes, it seems the GOP has so little to do that they want to call pizza a vegetable. Yes, you read correctly, a vegetable. See the article here Congress: Schools Can Count Pizza as a Vegetable – Q13 Fox News.

Pizza is not a veggie, it is a dish, a pie, or a meal.

Even though the GOP is saying that tomato paste and not pizza (thought the GOP seems to think the sauce on a pizza is the only place tomato paste is used) is a veggie, tomato past IS NOT A VEGETABLE. It is MADE from vegetables (namely tomatoes), but it contains high amounts of sodium and sugar. The point is that is should not count to replace the veggies that should be in the meal.

All the Agriculture Department wanted to do was say that you had to add veggies on the side if you had pizza.

What makes it so bad is that the food companies, salt manufacturers, and potato growers (the Ag Dept wants to limit french fries too) are the ones pushing for GOP to make the Ag Dept back down. Yes, big business is trying to write more legislation at our and our children’s expense.

I love this part, “some conservatives in Congress say the federal government shouldn’t be telling children what to eat”. (Source referenced – Tomato sauce on pizza is a vegetable, says Congress; GOP says healthier school lunches are too expensive – NewYorkDailyNews.com)The Fed is not telling them what to eat, the Fed is telling schools that are getting federally subsidized meals to serve healthy meals. The kids can bring their own lunches or just not eat the food, the kids have the choice.

Yes, I can hear you now. Poor kids don’t have a choice. You people saying that are the same trying to take their free lunches, which these kids need and need healthy ones at that, away.

If you want federal money, you have to take federal regulations… even if it means that your kid will have to eat healthy food.

I remember taking my lunch to school for years because not only did the food suck, but is was so unhealthy and fat laden that is would make you physically ill… and I would eat anything back then.

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I just emailed Congress to urge them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation, known as the PROTECT-IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. This legislation seeks to give the executive branch power to conduct slash-and-burn campaigns against websites that allegedly host – or even link to – content that infringes on intellectual property rights. That would “disappear” whole domain names, fundamentally undermining Internet security, and/or choke off their financial support. The Internet Blacklist Legislation puts more sites than ever at risk, effectively upending the DMCA safe harbors that have been crucial to the growth of Internet innovation and creativity.

Sadly, these short-sighted and dangerous bills won’t do much to stop online infringement – but they will jeopardize our ability to speak and read online with the kind of freedom we cherish in the offline world. Deep-pocketed Hollywood lobbyists are aggressively pushing to control and censor the open Internet, willing to sacrifice free speech and our Internet culture in hopes of controlling how people view their movies and products.

We need to stop this bill before it goes any further. Will you contact your representatives in Congress and urge them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Legislation? Visit: https://eff.org/r.C8A

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This is your first, last and only warning:  Rant coming up.

I supposed everyone (in the U.S. anyway) by now has heard about the Tea Party movement.  If you haven’t or if you need a refresher course, they are a loosely organized group of groups that tout the idea that government has gotten too big and intrusive, the deficit is too big, and the stimulus/bail-outs measures were wrong and not needed. It is predominately made up of upper-middle class, white Conservatives (no, I’m not talking Republicans and Democrats, the group has  both) who seem to have a lot of time on their hands and little regard for their fellow man.  How many of these Tea Party protesters and affiliates are unemployed or under-employed?  Who among them are struggling to pay mortgages or rents, struggling to put food on the table? Were the Tea Partiers willing to live with the outcome if all the banks had failed and the country had spiraled into Depression and 25% unemployment?  If you think it is bad now, just image how worse it could have been. Unlike other countries that get into binds, there is no one to bail us out.  I suppose the Tea Partiers want us to stop helping the Haitians, stop the fighting terrorist, and close all of our ports as well.  I understand they are worried and scared, but take a minute to think about what you are asking and the consequences if you get your way. I really do not think these people did much thinking.  And the rabble rousers that fanning these fears they have will drop them the minute the Tea Party movement isn’t working for them, you know, the politicians, the lobbyist, etc.

And who is paying for all this?  Tea Party organizers are refusing to disclose exactly how they can afford all the conventions, Sara Palin’s $100,000 speaking fee (the $349 to $549 per ticket wouldn’t begin to cover it, and no, she did not waive her fee… and what average working class American can afford that for a ticket anyway), and the organized protests.  Now they are setting up a corporation called Ensuring Liberty Corporation to create the Ensuring Liberty Political Action Committee. Yes, you heard it right, the same people protesting against lobbyist are forming their own lobby group that will be bank rolled by a corporation that allows other corporations and rich investors to anonymously donate (based on the recent Supreme Court decision that could mean billions) and it is tax exempt. But they vow to be transparent in doing this.  Yeah, right.

Yes, the original people who started the Tea Party movement have been pushed aside so that a group of lobbyist representing the rich and corporations can use a one time grassroots movement to further their agenda. And these poor shmucks who will be doing all the protesting really think they are doing something for the common people.

The Mount Vernon Statement?  Just a political ploy by a bunch of Conservatives to gain some support for the “God, Guns, and No Immigrants” movement that has risen up again.  Yes, it is the same thing that happens every time when times are tough. Really, these people have never read the Constitution, much less know what it means or what our fore-fathers intended.  Our Constitution was written, as the founding fathers themselves said, to be flexible with the changing needs of the nation (not the fickle and mostly capricious wants of the few) while still insuring that everyone is free, liberated, and served by the government. Did they not read that the Federal Government is the rule of the land, and what powers it does not take upon itself can then be disseminated to state and local levels. And what gets my goat the most is that the people who signed this document are the very same people clamoring for more security at the detriment of personal freedoms, advocating torture, and killing small business and entrepreneurship.

Hate me if you want, you still have that freedom for now, but I will not guarantee that you will if these people get in the government.

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How thick can I be.  I mean I heard the blender going and could smell the fruit juices but it never occurred to me that alcoholic beverages were being served last night.  Heck, I wasn’t driving so I could drink.  No, what do I do?  I sit and watch some kid friendly movie thinking the kids will be wanting to watch a movie.  Yeah, they were watching a movie… in another room.  Come on, I would have watched “Twilight” if I had known alcohol was actually being served.

On the topic of “Twilight”, I met a young lady that actually likes the books and the movie.  Well, younger than I am.  She is actually in her early… well, she has been out of college a few years now.  I guess not everyone bought the books to see how bad they reportedly are.

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It seems that the governor of South Carolina was not just in Argentina, but he was in Argentina with a WOMAN!  OMG, a Republican with a woman. What is this world coming to?  I guess he will not be running for president and will probably be ousted our of the party for doing a woman on the side instead of a guy because it is obvious that he is a homosexual because it wasn’t a guy who was the object of the affair.

Dude, I don’t care if you are having an affair, male or female.  The problem is that you lied about where you were and that you were out of touch for such a long period. As long as the person you are having the affair with is over 18 it is fine by me.  Now that is not saying that I support adultery, but I’m not going to prevent you from doing it.  I sincerely hope that the woman you are having an affair with is like a 22-year old supermodel.  The problem is not the affair, it is the betrayal of trust for your state.

UPDATE June 25, 2009 7 AM: It seems the wife knew about the affair for months.  I’m not saying that knowledge is approval or compliance, but if she did approve of the affair (maybe an open marriage or such) then really I am not judgmental about the affair, just the whole being out of touch thing.

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Sometimes I wonder just how some people ever get enough brain power to get elected to office.  I suppose you’ve hear by now that no one seems to know the whereabouts of South Carolina’s Governor Mark Sanford.  He left his office last Thursday and hasn’t been heard from since.  His wife and kids do not know, the security personnel  do know, even Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer does not know of his Gov. Sanford’s whereabouts.  Everyone thinks he may have gone hiking, though he seem to miss Father’s Day with his family.  And only the lieutenant governor seems to be worried that the man is missing.  The governor of the state is the highest authority for that state and is the only person who can enact emergency powers and such in the state (yes, the lieutenant governor can act in his stead but only if it is clear that the governor himself is incapacitated).  The governor also turned off his phones.  And he does this frequently.  I’m sorry, but the man by his taking the office is never off-duty and is required to be in contact at all times.  Even I am on call whenever I not at work and I am no where near as important as he.

And this is the same guy that refused to take stimulus money and was willing to let his state go into financial ruin.

UPDATE – 06/24/2009 11 AM:  It seems that he was hiking, but in another country.  Gov. Mark Sanford returned today (Wednesday) from Argentina! He decided that he wanted to go somewhere exotic and didn’t tell his wife, his family, his aides, his security personnel, and the lieutenant governor! If I was his wife he would have a lot “splaining” to do and may find himself sleeping in the dog house. If I were the voters in South Carolina I’d be asking for a new governor.

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If you haven’t heard by now, there some deaths over the weekend in Iran during some of the protest over the elections results.  The Iranian state run media confirmed 17 deaths at last count.  It is not the number of people that has the world in an uproar but the death of one woman being called Neda (though that may not be her name – Neda means "the voice" in Farsi) who was a watching the protest and whom did not seem to be actually involved in the activities.  The video of her death (warning video is very graphic to the point that YouTube requires age verification) has been circulating social and web sites.  According to reports, the woman was shot by a Basij sniper stationed on a rooftop of a house in front of her father.  The validity of the video and report has not been confirmed and some are skeptic of the video’s footage.  Other videos are surfacing of attacks by government-supported forces feeding to the fire to the outrage of Iran’s handling of the protests.

If the reports and video of “Neda’s” death are true, I feel sorrow for her father and her family and hope that someday the persons responsible will have to answer for the senseless crime.

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Republicans are all up in arms about the President not taking a more active and harsh role in what is happening in Iran concerning the election protests.  It seems that the Republicans don’t think Obama is wording is responses about the Iran crisis harsh enough and that the U.S. needs to take the lead in getting the people of Iran free and fair elections.  I have some problems with the Republicans and all those others that say we are wussy-footing when it is coming to Iran…

• Exactly what are we supposed to do?  Iran is a sovereign country with its own laws, constitution, and government.  It may not be the democracy that we enjoy, but it is the system the people of Iran put in place.  I agree that they should be allowed to protest and all, but we can just go in and make the government do anything.
• Are statements are not harsh enough?  What do you want?  “We will attack if you don’t recount" type of response? We have enough of an image problem in Iran as it is, we don’t need to reinforce the idea put forth by the Iranian government that the U.S. is a war-mongering blowhard.  Supporting the people’s right to assemble and protest, letting them know that we sympathize with their plight is all we can do.
• If we do or say anything more, the Iranian government will accuse us of interfering with a sovereign nation’s  elections and just re-enforce that bad taste that the U.S. has left in the mouths of those still supporting the government.  Any perceived involvement, if it is real or not, will only hurt the protestors and brand their movement as a covert U.S. operation.  Not only would we ostracize Iran even further, but our tenuous relations with other Middle East nations will be in jeopardy. 

I don’t want these nay-sayers to not express their opinion on how Obama is handling the situation, but I do wish they would think before they talk.

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• Healthcare – Yes, we need to do something about the healthcare availability and the lack thereof.  I do not agree that this is, as one doctor put it, a matter for politicians not government.  Politicians are going to skirt the issue for as long as possible and then give a solution that helps only those who donate the most money.  We need a solution that allows everyone to get healthcare, preventative treatments, medical help, etc and not depend on what the insurance companies are willing the meter out.  We spend more per person on healthcare than anyone in the world yet we still have some of the poorest care available.  What is so wrong about the government single payer idea?  Everyone else uses it with great success.  And don’t start with the stories about how bad is government-run healthcare, most of those stories are false to begin with and the others do not tell the whole truth.  We never hear about the resounding success stories like the woman just recently on a story for Morning Edition on NPR that opted to live in Canada because she could afford and receive the care she needed that she was denied in the U.S. through her private insurance.
• Iran’s elections – Seems that the people of Iran are finding out just how free they are really.  In Iran, the only rallies allowed are the ones sanctioned and sponsored by the Iranian government, the protesters of the election are being fired upon and arrested. Reporters are banned from the streets, media is being censored even more than before, internet access in Iran is reduced and at times outright banned. Even before the elections were held, social networking sites were closed to the Iranian people (who have the highest percentage of web-connected people in the Middle East) especially those that supported the opposition to the current President.  The former Vice-president that was a supporter of reform has been reported arrested by Iranian police forces. This is a prime example of what happens when church runs the state. Remember that when you want more religious-centric legislation in the U.S.

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