For those of you who also drive POS cars...

Get a free bumper sticker today to support Barry in 2012. For those of you who actually care about the paint on your car, donate $10 or more and you can get a car magnet.

In all seriousness, supporting Obama on your car is a small but effective thing to do. How do you feel when you are out and about and see an Obama 2012 bumper sticker, window placard or t-shirt? I feel emboldened, just from that small visual reminder that there are people out there who are confident in their liberal political beliefs. And just maybe, when "independents" see 1,000 Obama 2012 bumper stickers over the next few weeks, they will start to see the need to take a closer look at the Democrats' agenda and track record. Hey, a girl can hope...dream...whatever. Can't wait to slap this sticker on the back of my made-in-the-USA 2000 Pontiac.

Outed

The CEO paid a visit to the Denver office this week. One lunch with him and he had me pegged.

Me: I'll have the veggie burger.
CEO: Are you vegetarian?
Me: Actually I'm vegan.
CEO: What is that?
Me: It's like being vegetarian but I don't eat cheese or milk or eggs.
CEO: [pause]...you know, your boy Obama is in a lot of trouble.

The feather extensions in my hair might have also given me away.

Fox News: 99.6% of "poor" people have a refrigerator!!

"I mean, all we'd have to do to raise 700 billion dollars is cut 700,000 NPRs. It's almost too easy." - Jon Stewart

A man after my own heart!

Warren Buffett says, "Stop Coddling the Super-Rich."

"If you make money with money, as some of my super-rich friends do, your [tax] percentage may be a bit lower than mine. But if you earn money from a job, your percentage will surely exceed mine — most likely by a lot."

And then he goes on to explain this situation and the effects in detail. Instead of just offering vague comments like "corporations are people." Ahem.

"Corporations are people." - Mitt Romney

The sad thing is, Romney is my favorite Republican candidate.

I am so sick of the right trying to drum up sympathy for big business, and even more disgusted that voters buy into this. Tell me, why should groups of people and assets (businesses) be protected from taxes that might hurt their profits, but individuals should be expected to stand on their own even if they are a single mother or a cancer patient without health insurance?

This New York Times article is from January, but the point is still relevant about corporate profits not translating to more jobs, and as we've witnessed this year, corporate profits do not necessarily equal greater overall prosperity for the country.

I am not anti-business, nor are the Democrats. I am pro-business; I have an undergraduate degree from Wharton and I've been working in the private sector consistently since graduation. Capitalism is one of the core values that makes America great. Coddling businesses that should (mostly) stand on their own...well, that sounds like some weird Frankenstein socialism for businesses to me.

Going green

From Containment to Sustainability - GreenSource Magazine

Military officials argue for the implementation of sustainable practices as part of overall national security.

Etc.

Good news for gays and their allies: Obama is officially supporting the "Respect for Marriage Act" that bitch-slaps the "Defense of Marriage Act," which in reality wasn't defending a damn thing. One, I love that they're using the word "respect" in the title. The bill's short and sweet objective is "to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and ensure respect for State regulation of marriage." Fancy that. Democrats trying to give power to the States! ROMA respects the rights of consenting adults to decide with whom they will share their lives and marriage benefits. ROMA respects States' rights. There is much to like about this situation. I think that so many of the supporters of DOMA are looking at the situation illogically and think that they need to deny gays the right to marry in order to protect their own marriage or family. Or perhaps it is a religious issue, but I also find that silly because ROMA obviously does not compel churches to perform gay marriages. I'm so glad I was born liberal.

So...what are they really trying to accomplish? The Institute of Medicine is recommending that among other preventative health services, birth control should be mandatory on all health insurance plans. Without a co-pay. Which would increase access and therefore decrease unwanted pregnancies or unplanned pregnancies in which the mother was less than conscientious in her prenatal planning (i.e. boozing while the fetus was developing). Of course, someone has a problem with this. Jeanne Monahan, director of the Center for Human Dignity (seriously?) at the conservative Family Research Council lists two reasons to be against this: one, that requiring insurers to cover contraceptives violates the rights of people who don't believe in artificial contraception. Since insurance pools money as well as risk for all the policy holders, everyone would be paying for the "free" birth control, whether they believe in it or not. Two, abortion opponents argue that some emergency contraceptives (morning-after pills) can cause "very early abortions" by preventing the implantation of fertilized eggs into a woman's uterus. So these people would rather not increase access to birth control, which would prevent abortions, because the morning-after pill is kind of like an abortion? Because in some cases a sperm and an egg joined together but then had no where to go? Great plan. Something about this leads me to believe that the Family Research Council (another completely lame name for an organization) is not completely focused on reducing the number of actual abortions performed. I don't know what they are focused on, but it doesn't appear that the FRC is concerned with that.

Last night at the Denver Young Democrats Inauguration After Party I was chatting with some of the attendees when I mentioned that I live in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver. Immediately several people jokingly called me out on living in a fancy neighborhood and implied my Democrat card might get taken away. I love this mentality. Being a Democrat means appreciating what you've been given and also what you've been able to earn for yourself in this country. It means go ahead and live in a fancy house or drive a fancy car - just remember you have nice things because you live in the United States of America. Sure, I got decent grades and I earn my salary by working hard. But I am in my current situation because of my public school education and my federal college loans, to name just two big things that immediately come to mind. The government is so far from perfection, but if you think you got to where you are without the help of the government, you are not looking hard enough. (Note: I live in Cherry Creek because I work in Cherry Creek, and my dog demands that I come home for lunch every day. Had to shorten the commute. Democrat guilt compelled me to write this note.)

A few years ago, to widen my perspective I subscribed to the Republican National Committee email list. I started getting sassy with them immediately. They really irked me because one of the first emails I received was addressed "Dear Fellow Patriot." OMG. I started replying to the emails with full educated Democrat sass. And it occurred to me recently that I had not received an email from Reince lately...I got kicked off the list!!!