Much ado is being made about Vice-President hopeful Paul Ryan and his blaming POTUS Obama while others are blaming former President Bush for the General Motors plant in Janesville, WI closing.
While all things are semantics and spin in politics particularly at election time, the blame for the plant's closing can neither be put at the feet of Obama nor Bush but squarely at the feet of General Motors.
The plant which was scheduled to close by 2010 assembled gas guzzler vehicles and GM was not of the mind to retool the plant in favor of more economical vehicles and saving jobs.
I doubt very much that the former workers of GM and other businesses affected by the plant's closing in Janesville care to see their economic plight being used for political folly and talking head media banter, both Liberal and Conservative.
Whether Ryan misspoke either on purpose or perception of when the plant actually closed, the point which needs to be made, one which the residents of Janesville would agree, it's all about jobs. Who made what promises, who did or did not deliver, and who can or can't do a better job will all weigh in this election.
As the old line goes, it's the economy stupid. Not about political rhetoric spoken at a political convention. Just ask the good folks of Janesville, WI.
You know you've been to the hospital too many times when folks recognize you.
Last night at work I started getting a severe pain in my lower right abdomen which wouldn't go away. I've called out sick from work as many do, but have never in three years left work early .. until last night that is.
What started as a feeling of "pressure" on my bladder about 6:30 PM developed as a gawd awful pain in my abdomen within three hours.
So before 10 PM off I went home and no matter whether sitting, standing or trying to lay down it wouldn't stop. Now I have a prescription for nausea for a stomach ailment which started back in March (have since found out through testing, that for whatever reason my liver is dumping too much bile off/on and my stomach doesn't get rid of it) but I opted not to take it (ER said smart thing to do) as I wanted to see if I got "all the symptoms" that something other than abdominal gas was the culprit.
By 11:00 PM I threw in the towel after vomiting started and called 911.
So off I went to yet another visit to the hospital.
A Cat Scan showed a kidney stone, 2 mm in size (which is small enough to avoid surgery but large enough to cause pain as it travels), had left the kidney and is working its way through the plumbing to the bladder and then eventually out. At the time of this writing I presume it's still between the kidney and the bladder as the stone tends to be a slow mover, the larger the stone the slower and longer it takes to finally pass.
At that news I was relieved as I was afraid my appendix was acting up and getting ready to burst. After two hip operations and an angioplasty last year for a heart attack I was not in the mental state of mind to go through another surgery.
It's reported by the National Kidney Foundation that more than half a million people go to ER's each year for the pain and suffering of kidney stones. Many folks including myself who experience the onset of a stone starting to pass from the kidney into the urinary tract on its way to the bladder and its eventual exit out of the body is "the worst pain they have ever felt".
I thought that too until I severely dislocated my hip in 2011, but let me tell you the pain from the kidney stone ranks in the top three of my recent experience of pain with the heart attack comprising part of the painful trio.
The symptoms as described in the link above, pain comes in "waves" which can last between 15 to 60 minutes and often (as mine) worsen and become prolonged. The pain can be in the back (where the kidney is) abdomen and/or groin and can be accompanied by painful urination. The coup-de-gras for the symptom of a stone is the onset of nausea and severe vomiting .. let me tell you, you cannot help yourself (ergo why I didn't take the nausea pill). I think I may have made some folks sick in the ER when I had my final (before they gave me the meds) bout what with all the noise I was making bringing up bile and having dry heaves.
So finally here's what I'm getting at in the opening paragraph.
One of the EMTs last night also came last year when I had the heart attack. The gal who did the Cat Scan was the same one who did my head, abdomen and hip the night I had the car accident before they realized how much damage I'd done to the hip and subsequently shipped me off to Yale-New Haven hospital.
Some of the folks in the ER recognized me, in fact one jokingly said "oh no, not you again, what happened now ?".
I leave such an impression on folks.
So it is that for the time being I'll not be posting as I am right now as when the pain hits again and I take a pain med which helps the pain but also as it does to everyone throws you for a loop, I'll be in no mood (or coherence) to do any writing.
For those who may say something, I had a kidney stone 10 plus years ago so I know what the next couple/ few days (took a week last time) will be like until the bastard stone passes through.
One good thing about the pain meds in the ER, when you go there you're so miserable it's like "I WANT MY MOMMIE" .. after they injected pain killers I was high as a kite and a chatterbox who would not shut up until the meds made me groggy enough to nod off.
Out and proud former Tempe, AZ mayor and head of GLAAD is now out and about touting his book The Campaign Within with some speculating that Neil Giuliano's political days may be far from over.
Giuliano who is currently head of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation said at a recent event in New York, "What I’m doing now is listening to a lot of folks in Arizona, and there is a need for leadership, especially in the Democratic Party."
"We need other voices in Arizona, so it’s not a definite yet, but I want to see how I can make a different, further contribution."
That's giving some to wonder if he might throw his hat in the ring for Governor sometime or perhaps even Congress which would delight the Rainbow crowd but what about the Mormons and the likes of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, but then he does like pink.
While Giuliano said he's happy to be in San Francisco and with his work with the SF AIDS Foundation, others speculate he may take a look at a run at the US Senate sometime in the future what with R-Senator Jon Kyl retiring and if the Democrats can't win the seat in November. The Demos haven't sent a senator to Washington, DC since 1998.
For now of course this is all "a hope, wish and a prayer" for those in Arizona who have taken a liking to the multi-time elected official but it would be a hoot and then some if an openly gay Governor, Congressman or Senator was elected in the "conservative" Grand Canyon State.
It just might make the ultra-conservatives decide to take a header off the Grand Canyon rim.
Read the full article about Neil Giuliano written by Winnie McCroy at EDGE.
My favorite source for articles found on The Focus On The Rainbow DailyRun web paper, GayStarNews has an article written by Greg Hernandez which discusses anti-gay groups are calling on the lovely Bill O'Reilly not to have Wayne Besen of the group Truth Wins Out on his show anymore.
Shades of past bullies of media as when the LGBT group GLAAD came up with its No-No List and of course the Elites were howling that FRC's Tony Perkins (and others) should not be allowed on CNN and MSNBC programs, and in fact any news media, national or local.
Oh I can hear the outrage, not that I'm going to bother to look, from de gay blades in this latest attempt to censor the media, not because it's censorship but because it's one of theirs.
And that's what it is boys and girls, an attempt at censorship.. apparently tit-for-tat.
The sword it appears cuts both ways, although just like those who call for such things, is dull rather than sharp.
In an email from said anti-gay groups protesting their displeasure regarding the "homosexual agitator", "When Fox News provides a forum to a radical homosexual activist known for employing inflammatory and hateful language in the service of promoting lies, the network becomes complicit in the damage done to the victims of Wayne Besen's and the (Southern Poverty Law Center's) smear campaigns. We ask the News Corporation, Fox News, and Bill O'Reilly to find more ethical spokespersons for the liberal view of sexuality."
I hope FOX News has the balls to tell these twits to perform self-fellatio, not because it's Besen but because it's censorship.
Much ado is being made about Vice-President hopeful Paul Ryan and his blaming POTUS Obama while others are blaming former President Bush for the General Motors plant in Janesville, WI closing.
