THANK YOU HALEY BARBOUR & RICK PERRY

In case you have not been paying attention, here is a preview of the America that the right wing wants to bring to you. The facts on the ground are:

• Mississippi is among the states with the worst education systems
• The poverty rate is 21% in Mississippi. 
• Mississippi. has the lowest median income at $36,850. of any state in the union. 
• Mississippi is among the states with the highest obesity levels, 
• Mississippi's 10.4% unemployment ranks 6th highest out of the 50 states
• Mississippi has the third highest percentage in the country of people without health insurance coverage at 24% (Texas is #1 at roughly 27%).

The state is an economic black hole, it has been for some time and it shows in the way people suffer there. And, as is true with black holes, it is nearly impossible for the residents of Mississippi to escape their difficult financial situations. It is evident that the government has no interest in providing the means necessary to give their people a leg up.

In Governor Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, you have a rock solid, scarlet red, proponent of all that is right wing Republicanism. In fact, he had a notion that he could be elected president of the United States. It did not work out in spite of his sterling record of accomplishment in Mississippi.


While we're at it, we might as well thank Texas Governor Rick Perry as well. Perry, who also wants to be president, touts his economic accomplishments in Texas. Here are some of them:

• 18.4% of Texans live in poverty, which is above the national average.
• 25% of Texas children live in poverty. 
• 27% of Texans do not have health insurance.
• Texas has the highest percentage of minimum wage jobs in the nation.
• The average family income in Texas is $2,000. below the national average.

With such a brilliant economic record it is a wonder there are any challengers at all.


In any event, Governors Barbour and Perry we want to thank you, for there can be no greater example of the America that right wing Republicans would have us live in. A place where education is not valued. In a world where high paying jobs require ever greater levels of education and technical expertise, it is a place where it's people, uneducated, are condemned to a life of poverty. A place where when you or your children get sick, you have to decide between medicine and food because you do not have health insurance and the access to quality health care that it provides.


Wake up soon America or you will wake up to a right wing world and from the looks of it, its not nice place to live and that ain't right!

                     THANK YOU GOVERNORS

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TODAY IS A DAY OF SADNESS, DETERMINATION AND HONOR

Today is a day to remember, a day to honor the fallen, a day to honor America, the greatest country on earth.

* -----> LISTEN TO WHITNEY HOUSTON SING OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM - IT WILL GIVE YOU THE HILLS


On this day when we take time to honor and remember those lost on 9/11, we as a nation should also take pains to remember the spirit of community and the outpouring of patriotism that flowed from Americans of every walk of life and every corner of the political spectrum in the aftermath of that terrible day.

Republicans or Democrats, we are all proud Americans. On that day, and in the days that followed, we came together as Americans. It felt good.

We saw so much of the best of ourselves come out that day and in the days that followed, with strangers helping strangers and many courageous acts,  We remembered something more important than ourselves, and that was the community to which we belonged. It was as it should always be, but is not.

Over the past 10 years we have lost that unity and that sense that we as Americans are all in this together. Standing in stark contrast are the pronouncements of congressional Republican's who define their number one priority as making sure that the President of the United States fails. They have spent almost every waking moment trying to make that happen. The problem with that strategy is that it is a statergy that facillitates the failure of our nation. It is unpatriotic and it needs to stop.

Yes, it is time once again to remember and to never forget that we are all Americans, with common purpose and that we need to work together for the common good of our country.

The basis of our strength as a nation can be found in the words E Pluribus Unum which means, out of many, one. Once again, we need to find the strength to come together for the good of our country. It is unfortunate that so many of our leaders and our people have forgotten the simple lesson of 9/11 which is that no force on earth can defeat a united America.

Today of all days, let us remember that.
Editor's note - This was originally published on 09/11/11