NO HEALTH CARE FOR YOU, SEN. BLUNT

It's a good thing Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) works for Uncle Sam instead of me. If he did I would take seriously his recently proposed amendment to an unrelated highway bill which would allow employers and health insurance companies to deny health care coverage for any service which violates their "religious beliefs or moral convictions". As a non-theist I couldn't very well deny him health insurance coverage on religious grounds, but I certainly would on moral grounds. Anyone as heartless and mean spirited as Senator Blunt is to give a blank check for denial of critically needed health care services to score culture war points with the extreme right deserves a dose of his own medicine....or lack thereof in this case.

DOWN WITH UPCHUCK

Presidential contender Rick Santorum offered that President Kennedy's famous September 12, 1960, speech on separation of church and state before the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, made Santorum "want to throw up". Santorum's own words confirm my suspicion that he is a wretched candidate.

YANKEE COME HOME

The six days of rioting by Afghans over the burning of Korans by the American army of conquest should convince America once and for all to exit Afghanistan forthwith.

The vast majority of Americans have believed that for years now but the war grinds on well into its eleventh year due to the neocons and the war mongers and the war profiteers and the sociopaths who feed off our endless militarism. They don't care a whit about the oceans of blood spilled and the trillions of dollars squandered. But Afghanistan became a prize and endless war became a way of life for our Masters of War who have made America reviled around the world for its senseless and reckless and murderous wars. Time to declare defeat and leave.

Also published in the Chicago Tribune, March 2, 2012

FUN FACTS FOR ROSKAM'S NEW CONSTITUENTS

Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6th), sent an email blast to me and my fellow 6th District constituents lamenting the problem he faces in is third re-election bid this November. The Democratic remap of Illinois legislative districts caused a geographic alteration of Roskam's 6th District which has swapped out 530,000, roughly 75% of Roskam's 707,000 constituents, with an equal number from other districts. Roskam's plea was for us remaining 25% to reach out to these new Roskam constituents to inform them of his "common sense conservative solutions in Congress".

Always willing to serve my district, here is vital information about my Congressman every new constituent should know.

1. Congressman Roskam has never met a senseless and bankrupting military venture he didn't embrace. Since joining Congress over five years ago, the Congressman has voted to squander roughly a trillion dollars on our wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya; our near wars in Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Iran, Syria; and any other place the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex can make a buck. I provide this information because you won't find it on Roskam's website, www.roskam.house.gov, nor will Roskam produce a membership card in the aforementioned Complex. That violates their rules. But if you support senseless war and can profit from it, you can trust Roskam to deliver.

2. Congressman Roskam apparently believes that everyone in his district has adequate health care since he is zealous in trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act. If your not so covered you can always go the the Emergency Room. With the Congresscare Roskam enjoys, he is completely insulated from the prospect of financial catastrophe the forty million uninsured face every single day from a looming major medical problem.

3. Do you like 19th century energy policies? If so, Roskam may be your guy. He has embraced Sarah Palin's "Drill, Baby, Drill" slogan with his reliance on the XL Pipeline project as the cure-all to high gas prices. No one has yet to call the Congressman a champion of green energy solutions. He still hasn't come to terms with the 20th century energy problems much less embrace the 21st century crisis we're facing.

4. If you are one of those, like Congressman Roskam, who skipped the 3rd birthday party of President Obama's Economic Stimulus Bill because you deny it created or saved about three million jobs, then you and he are in good company. We may not be under 8% unemployment yet, but without it we would have experienced about 12% unemployment before the President's 23 straight months of private sector job growth, creating 3.5 million jobs began to kick in. Hint: you won't find anything about those encouraging economic numbers on Roskam's web site either.

5. Work for a Catholic hospital or university that takes government subsidies and you need contraception in your health care coverage? If it's up to Congressman Roskam, forget about it. He has stretched the definition of religious freedom like an infinite rubber band so women in desperate need will go without.

There is more, but in the interest of brevity, these five tidbits of life under Roskam governance will suffice for now. However, the Congressman can call on me anytime for additional support in creating an informed electorate of new constituents. I'm here to help.