Lyrica causes pain - Are you Kidding? Nope!

Lyrica: a drug for widespread unexpected muscle pain. This drug is recommended through advertising for people suffering from Fibromyalgia.

Here is the list of possible side effects:

Swelling of the face, mouth, lips, gums, tongue or neck.

Trouble breathing.

Rashes, hives and blisters.

But wait! There's more!

Dizziness and sleeplessness.

Eyesight problems including blurry vision.

Weight gain and swelling of hands and feet. Weight gain may affect control of diabetes. Weight gain and swelling can be serious for people with heart problems.

Unexplained muscle pain. . .what? Isn't that what the drug is meant to treat?!?

Soreness or weakness along with a fever or tiredness.

Skin sores.

The most common are:

Dizziness, Sleeplessness, Weight gain, blurry vision, dry mouth, constipation, feeling "high", Swelling of the hands and feet, balance problems, trouble concentrating, increased appetite.

Good God! What has brought us all to this kind of pharmaceutical hocus-pocus? A drug to treat muscle pain that causes muscle pain? Can you say self-perpetuating?

Isn't there a better way to help people with pain than to cause them more pain not to mention a slew of other "possible" side effects? Or do the magician CEOs of the pharmacological world offer drugs to treat them too?

Whatever happened to the FDA? Did the Bush Administration gut that too? We need better oversight!

Secession, Lipstick and Rape

The Republican Party has a secessionist running for the office of vice president. There is something ultra hypocritical about this, but she is a Republican, so the hypocrite part is self-explanatory.

Sarah Palin believes that Alaska should secede from the USA. Now, she tells us she is ready to lead. Lead what?

But not to worry, folks. Lipstick Sarah, the woman who billed Alaska for the time she spent at home and also for traveling back and forth to work, has a plan. A plan for what? She’s an expert on National Security.

She’s a soccer mom who accepted corporate financing for a pipeline through Alaska. And how much money does each Alaskan receive from oil and gas corporations due to those pipelines? $1200 per person per year, or more?

Fact: In Alaska, at the end of each fiscal year, oil royalties are calculated and each resident of the state receives a check for his/her share of these monies.

Also, according to her running mate, er, what’s his name again? Well, whoever, Lipstick has credentials for keeping America safe and secure. What are these credentials? I already wrote about that. She accepted corporate funding for a pipeline.

You know what else she has that will keep America safe? A strong love for Wal-Mart. How many Wal-Marts dot the Alaskan landscape? Supercenters: 3, Discount Stores: 5, Neighborhood Markets: 0, Sam's Clubs: 3, Distribution Centers: 0

How many Wal-Mart employees are in Alaska? 3,163.

Wal-Mart in China raised employees’ salaries, while here in the USA Wal-Mart cut employee salaries.

Lipstick is a secessionist. A woman who thinks Alaska should separate itself from the USA. Most secessionists think this because corporations run the federal government. Apparently that is not Lipstick’s reasoning. She loves corporations, they run Alaska too.

No, you think? Think pipelines, oil and gas, Wal-Mart and how many others like them in malls?

And then there is the fact that Alaskans receive more federal dollars per capita than citizens of any other state. The same goes for federal earmark dollars.

Yes sir! Not only is Lipstick a secessionist in all but fact, she also believes on book banning, and feels that a rape victim should be required by law to pay for her own rape kit. What’s a rape kit? The kit used at hospitals to collect evidence for law enforcement (DNA, fibers, tissue, etc).

I’m wondering if her thinking that a woman should pay for the rape kit, which she may not be able to afford, also means that Lipstick doesn’t think rape is a crime. Maybe she is one of those people who think rape is a woman’s fault.

Lipstick: secessionist, book banner, and an elected official who believes that only this one crime should go on the tab of the victim, rather than being a cost of law enforcement. Oh, unless she wants to charge robbery and murder victims (their families) for the forensics of their cases too.

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Republican Smear and Fear, but when they do it, it's not sexism?

Wow, it has been years since I heard a republican use the term sexism. I mean this is the political party that claims women have no right to govern their own bodies: that the government has that right. This is the political party whose men, in their hearts, believe that a woman’s place is at home, making babies, keeping house for their men.

Now, by some odd quirk of fate, John POW! McCain decides he wants a relatively unknown woman as his running mate and republicans immediately throw out the term sexism at anyone who believes a VP candidate needs to be closely examined before gaining the opportunity to, if the president dies, hold a quivering forefinger over the button that might end all life on Earth. A VP candidate who thinks the Left Behind books were second only to the Bible.

This is hilarious! Any republican who wants to meet a sexist needs to look closely in the mirror while washing his face. No organization better represents sexism than the Republican Party.

So, this demands that every American take a real close look at this woman and her past. As close as republicans did and still do to Hillary Clinton.

What is lurking in Sarah Palin’s past those Evangelicals want buried, ignored by critics?

Did she really have an affair? Isn’t that why Evangelicals hate Bill Clinton?

Did she really attempt to hide her daughter’s out of wedlock pregnancy?

Did she really try to fire a man who worked under her when he refused to fire her sister’s husband, when said husband fought for custody of his children? Would we want a hot head who uses politics to conduct personal vendettas in the oval office?

Why are republicans afraid to allow the press to take a serious look at this potential VP’s credentials?

Surely, after more than a decade and a half of riding and ridiculing Hillary Clinton as if her gender was not a factor in their criticism, republicans aren’t serious about claiming sexism when we Americans want an honest examination of Sarah Palin. Should we expect anything less because she’s female? Isn’t demanding that we take a different look at her personal history and credentials than we took at Hillary Clinton sexism?

Do republicans automatically assume that because they use smear and fear to win office, that independents and democrats will do that same to the current jewel of Evangelical republicanism?

Or is it that republicans do not want Americans to know that John POW! McCain does not select the best person available for a position in government but instead will pick a person totally unqualified, to gain the power of the presidency and put himself in a position where he can cut taxes for corporations and their CEOS, turn over Americans’ healthcare to a handful of greedy men and women who will see to it that only the healthy have health insurance to maximize profit (to name just two of his un-maverick-like desires)?

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John McCain - The Fear Factor POW!

What's the difference between a pit bull and a soccer mom?

Cute question isn't it?

You want a real answer, or a cute one?

You know the cutesy answer right? Lipstick. HAHAHA. How clever. The American education system at work.

The real answer is: try putting lipstick on a pit bull.

The serious question we need to address is this: Why are we living in fear? You wonder about the relationship between this and the first question? What does pit bull remind you of? A sweet cuddly puppy? Or a killer dog that would make you sweat if you confronted it alone at night?

It's all about fear not soccer moms. Who is afraid of a soccer mom? Maybe a soccer mom's kid. But otherwise? No one. Certainly not the President of Russia or Iran.

Why do Republicans love fear and use it subtly and often?

I'll get to that in a minute.

In the meantime, here is a fearful image. Sarah Palin with control of America's nuclear arsenal. Try putting lipstick on that.

John POW! McCain is not a maverick. He's a man who egotistically believes that Americans owe him big time. Why? He is an ex-POW. Forget about the men and women who died fighting for our country or the POW's who never complained or used that status for personal gain. We don't owe them as much as we owe John POW! McCain.

What does this have to do with Sarah's finger poised over the button that triggers nuclear war? What does discussing John POW! McCain's ego have to do with a cold weather soccer mom?

All of it has to do with fear and its application to American life.

On September 11, 2001, Americans had a reason to be fearful, outraged, and angry. They had the right to expect the federal government to perform its main function: defend its citizens. At first, they led us to believe that they would carry out that obligation.

But the members of the administration had other ideas. A golden opportunity was at hand. Fear was rife, one could almost smell it in the streets, see it in the eyes of each one of us. This type of opportunity comes around once in a lifetime. The previous occasion was when the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor.

In 1941, the president chose to downplay fear with a speech that included: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

Sixty years later, not only had times changed but the growing divide between red and blue states, rich and the rest of us, had defined America in a way never before imagined.

Starting with Richard Nixon, the real icon of republicanism, and up until Newt Gingrich, the festering sore of fear had been coddled and had spread like an emotional plague. When religion stepped into government in Newt's time, the plague swelled into mental leprosy.

George W. Bush, now the worst president in history, in 2001 knew he had a means of fulfilling his own destiny. Fear, the strongest tool for manipulation, had been placed at his feet. Being the soulless man we now know this drunkard to be, he fed on this fear and used it to pry apart red and blue state Americans.

Sure, he had men and women behind and around him to help him craft fear through propaganda, but GWB was the man who signed his name to the deal.

Throughout it all, John POW! McCain stood shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush, supported his efforts, and knew -- if he didn't then he's too moronic to run for president -- that he was involving himself with a master of fear.

John POW! McCain was George W. Bush's pit bull -- put lipstick on that. Oh, McCain was a maverick, but he needed to be to accomplish his goal of hiding his support for Bush behind the thin veil of opposition. McCain knew that the money he termed pork barrel spending, most of which was used for projects that made life better for Americans, was now needed to promote fear and support war. The average American is not as important to McCain as is war, or his ego. Remember, we Americans owe John POW! McCain for the years he spent in a cell--did he tell you he was bombing civilian targets?


Now for a brief history of fear.


Egyptian Pharaohs used fear to control their people. The Pharaohs were gods.

The Romans used fear to control their empire. Julius Caesar may've been the first ruler to announce that fear is the best tool for controlling people.

The Catholic Church through the Pope, used and still attempts to use fear to control followers of Christ, and the same is true for the American Evangelical movement.

George W. Bush, with his ruling elite Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, John POW! McCain and others, knew about fear and knew how to finish the job begun by Richard Nixon (Google him for a history lesson you'll not soon forget).

911 was a doorway, and once the Bush government crossed the threshold, America was in deep trouble.

The pieces are in place. Fear has divided this nation. Fear rules the Internet and TV. People flee into their electronic worlds of cell phones, Ipods, Blackberries, computers, and on and on. Each of them catch glimpses of events that are shaping their world, but never enough to form opinions based on facts with more depth than a Rush Limbaugh rant, which has the depth of dog feces.

Now, John POW! McCain the maverick who supports corporate America with more tax breaks for CEOs, and his narrow-minded running mate the raving Evangelical Sarah Palin, want to carry the torch. With them they drag along the chains of fear that both the Bush Administration and the Evangelical right have nurtured to promote corporate dominance of American life.

Thousands of us die for lack of healthcare. POW! wants to give HMOs more authority to cut off service to more Americans. Oil corporations run the cost of gasoline to record levels and POW! demands they have the right to drill for oil wherever they want. Neither of those decisions on the part of John POW! McCain are signs of a maverick. They are stated positions that support special interest groups, and are decisions based on the use of fear.

Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. They are not even in the same league. Now there is something to put lipstick on. Hillary never used fear.

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8 Years and $100.00 per barrel - The Bush/Cheney Energy Plan

After eight years of the Bush Administration, the cost of oil has increased more than $100.00 per barrel. At the start of his administration, Dick Cheney met in secret with oil corporation CEOs to formulate an energy plan.

Are the two interconnected? How could they not be, when the world’s leading oil corporations have declared record quarterly profits year after year over the pervious eight years?

Now that Americans are watching the high costs of gas and oil drive the middle class into poverty, not to mention what is happening to the poor, the Bush/Cheney team lead by Karl Rove and the talking head pundits on the GOP payroll such as Rush and Newt, quickly blame the problem on oil corporations not being allowed to drill offshore in areas such as the fabulous reefs along Florida’s coastline.

They ignore the millions of acres of ocean bottom they now have leases to drill, demonstrating once again the greed these friends of Bush/Cheney. CEOs will do anything and everything an effort to undermine a clean and healthy environment and in the process, expend these resources as quickly as possible.

We are told that as much as 85 billion barrels of oil MIGHT be available. If that were true and we could begin using it today, it would be spent in less than ten years. Then what? Level all the mountains in the west to find oil shale? And then what?

The truth? None of what Bush/Cheney CEOs desire will have any effect on anyone within the next ten years, or longer if the areas they want to drill come up dry. And then what if they do come up dry?

How many billions of dollars, yours and mine, will have been wasted that could have been used to find alternatives to oil?

You see the problem here is that the above question will not promote billions of dollars in profits for oil corporation CEOs. And yes, even while they search for oil, doing so with our tax dollars as well as private investment, these CEOs will rake in millions or tens of millions every year while more of us lose our homes, jobs, and healthcare.

When will it end? When all of us wake the HELL up and demand that our money is invested in alternative fuels!

Grand Strand Regional Medical Center Vultures

Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

A friend’s husband needed hospital care. He had double pneumonia and possibly a serious cardiac problem. She took him to the ER, where they gave him enough care to stabilize him until a doctor could see him.

They waited for an entire day in the ER, and then gained entry to a room. The first person they saw was a member of the billing office. She informed these good people that the hospital charged $262.00 per day for a room. Then, with her glasses balanced on the end of her nose, she asked them how much they would like to pay right then. The man had not seen a doctor, nor had he eaten a meal, and he was not in a room for as long as an hour.

These people had terrific health insurance. Normally, a hospital bills the insurance company before billing the patient. And even if it was necessary to collect some or all of the money up front, certainly going to the as yet untreated patient’s room like a scavenger prowling for road kill, is not a procedure that should be followed in any American hospital. Or is it? Well, obviously it is what is done in at least this one facility.

To the physician’s credit, he was outraged to learn of what this billing vulture had done.

Why is this allowed to happen? What would’ve been the result if this man’s wife couldn’t write a check for $262.00 while this scavenger stood waiting with her hand out?

We allow this to happen for 3 reasons. One, we’re afraid to speak out. If we do, we might be denied care from his facility in the future. Two, not enough of us face this type of horror show daily for it to cause pain to enough Americans for them to demand it end. Three, healthcare in the USA is a for-profit industry first and foremost.

Health Insurance Corporation CEOs try to collect a billion dollar retirement package. I wonder how many lives a billion dollars would save.

The result, if the wife had been unable to pay the $262.00 might have been seeing her husband released without the care he needed. If not, the stress on an as yet untreated patient could cause severe damage.

This happened in the middle of the Bible Belt. This happened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina where most people consider themselves devout Christians, including, I imagine the vulture with her eyeglasses balanced on the end of her nose.

Lowes Home Improvment Stoops To a New Low

Lowe’s Home Improvement Center, Coram, New York

It seems that Lowe’s has a policy whereby local management can fire employees who qualify as disabled under the Americans with a Disability Act.

I am aware of a situation that happened at Lowe’s in Coram, New York. The employee had, still has, Crohn’s disease. When a person with this disability has what is known as a flare-up, they can become bedridden for days, or even weeks.

When the employee was hired by Lowe’s, management knew of the disability. Yet, when the employee had two flare-ups within three months, they fired the employee. They disobeyed federal law.

Apparently, Corporate management either is unaware of this practice, or doesn‘t give a damn. After learning what took place at Wal-Mart board of director meetings through recently released videos of corporate board meetings, I suspect that Lowe’s CEO may have been aware, and did nothing to stop this illegal and unethical practice.

The out-of-work employee lost health coverage and without intervention from family, would have suffered extreme and disabling physical pain and suffering. Fortunately, the employee had family to help out, but what of those who do not? Who intervenes on their behalf? Healthcare providers? Not likely.

Friendly's and Verbal Sexual Abuse - Is It Okay?

It seems apparent that the management team at the Friendly’s Restaurant in Stony Brook, Long Island, New York is unaware of state and federal law regarding sexual harassment of employees by customers.

Recently, a female member of their wait staff had a customer who thought it was not only okay to steal her pen, but when she protested the theft, called her a term that qualifies as unlawful sexual harassment. I will not include the complete spelling of the word, but it is a four letter word beginning with C.

When management learned of the incident, they did nothing to uphold the law against sexual harassment, but did think the best move was to fire the waitress.

In my mind, this makes the management of this particular Friendly’s complicit and therefore liable for punishment due to their ignoring both a state and federal law against sexual harassment.

What can you do? Boycott Friendly’s Restaurants until they educate management to comply with the law and ban customers who sexually, or in any way, verbally assault their wait staff.

Trillion Dollar Debt

Total deficit since the founding of America is $9 Trillion. Half was incurred when a Bush was president and 20% more was added by President Reagan. 70% was incurred by REPUBLICAN administrations! The 3 of them submitted 19 budgets, but only 2 of the 19 were balanced!

Senator McCain has Phil Gramm, the once Texas Senator turned lobbyist for Swiss bank USB, a corporation that wrote down $37 billion in bad mortgage loans over the past six months, for his domestic advisor (think Treasury Secretary if McCain gets elected).

Got debt? Want even more? Gas prices too high? Want them higher? Food costs escalating? Want more? Health care costs keeping you from visiting the doctor? Want it higher? More American jobs in China? Count on it. Counting on SSI? Don’t count on it, but count on all of the former if you vote for McCain come November -- or should we say McBush, for more of the same and less of the middle class.