Republican Tax cuts for the rich fatcats!!

You right wing nutjobs are really chapping my ass today. I saw you lining up to criticize yet again our president, the beloved Barack Obama. All because he "misspoke" during a brief interruption of his grueling campaign schedule so he could grace the 10th mountain division with his beneficent presence.  The man had 3 fundraising events to attend in the area that day alone, a schedule which would overwhelm a lesser campaigner.

I mean really, what group of hardened veterans of literally years of combat would not like to get to go and do their albeit small part to help get such a great man reelected instead of those stupid post traumatic stress disorder one on one intensive sessions, or trying to get to know all over again the person they married, or being introduced to their children in the 4th grade whom they have never met in person. Just look at their faces in the video which I'm sure you've all seen by now, don't mistake those stoic visages which may appear to the untrained eye as disdainful or even contemptuous. But rather the stony, yet wistful countenance of those trained to keep all emotion bottled up deep deep inside, under intense pressure. They're joyful to have been ordered... er....  chosen to attend this event, only a nazi right wing ideologue could say otherwise.

So, during our dear leader's speech just after the part where he outlines his tireless service to our nation, just so those troops knew they were not the only ones serving the nation at the time, he made one tiny little "misspeak". He accidentally confuses one of the 7 medal of honor winners who died earning his medal with the one who didn't. And it just happens that the one who didn't die was in a different unit from the 10th mountain division.

I don't see what your right wing problem is, always blowing little things like this WAAYYYY out of proportion. I mean look at huffington post as the example you should be following, they didn't make a big deal about this. Here's their story about the incident : http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20110625/us-obama-fallen-soldier/

See? Handled with grace and restraint. Especially at a time when Michele Bachman is making such disgusting and vile remarks about where John Wayne was born: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/28/john-wayne-gacy-michele-bachmann_n_885840.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Thank god huffpo is around to provide us with that video of her making a mockery of the memory of an actor who played heroes in the movies.

Oh yeah, and the republicans want to give tax cuts to the rich fatcats by the way and kill our poor grandmothers.

Florida school trouble

I recently read a story from Fort Lauderdale about a former janitor who earned $108,000 a year to teach occasional cleaning classes for the Broward School District. His pay was cut by $12,000.00 after the salary came to public attention. 

And now the "crazy right wingers" are coming out of the woodwork crying about the "waste".

In my opinion his position was well deserved, and quite meritorious. Just think of all those windows which could have streaks in them but for his tireless instructional efforts. Do you people think that qualified janitorial personnel just illegally cross over a border somewhere? Or maybe they just show up in Miami on a raft? 

Custodial engineers must be groomed, though 10's of rigorous minutes on end. You don't really think a broom and mop are so intuitive that just anyone can pick one up and "just know" how to operate one, do you? That a damp rag or sponge's purpose is just blatantly there for the whole world to comprehend at a glance? That a waste can just screams instructions for emptying it? 

Many of you "right wing nutjobs" may need to rethink your positions regarding this before you find yourselves buried in filth at your respective places of business.

Well I for one will not just sit idly by while this noble educator is singled out and persecuted because they claim that the $1,862.06 a day he's paid is "excessive". Or those on the other side who are equally upset and whine because he doesn't have a "college degree", or a "teaching certificate". Are we to tolerate such "straw man" arguments? 


I have contacted my local congresswoman here in Ohio, at first, her office tried to tell me that since it was "Florida" where this occurred, they really could do nothing to address the issue, and thanked me for calling. Having never been one to just "give up", I continued my telephone campaign of calling her offices, both here, and in Washington until they finally relented and promised me they would investigate the matter, their exact words were "yes, Mr. Wahler, the congresswoman has assured me that she will launch an immediate investigation, and she thanks you for your input and concern". I expect the wheels of justice to start turning now.

That dear reader's should show you the power of persistence, as well as what one retired phone man can do with free long distance, and literally days of idle time.

I guess the message here is really don't give up, when you see an injustice, take action! Remember, the trash can that is improperly emptied could be yours one day.

They came for the janitorial instructor and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a janitorial instructor.....

One of our many highly trained janitorial school graduates pushing the boundaries of janitorial science as part of her everyday duties. 

Lessons from european health care

   Since I am new here, perhaps an introduction is in order. My name is Joe Wahler and I have health issues. I am here to share my experiences with the Irish health care system. Firstly, I am an American, my wife and I had been to Ireland many times and absolutely fell in love with it. So one day we decided to take the leap and bought a small derelict farm in the west of Ireland, county Mayo to be exact, in the late 90′s with an eye towards fixing it up and semi retiring there. After we worked as many hours as was humanly possible at our jobs with the phone company in Cincinnati in order to pay off the mortgage in 3 years.  At one point neither of us had had a day off in over 100 days.  Living the dream, we packed up and moved over in early 2002.

   The house was still derelict when we moved in, with us placing plastic sheeting in for windows, no running water, no electricity, only heating and cooking from a fireplace, and a hole we dug in the field for a toilet. It was roughing it to say the least, but the walls were solid stone 3 feet thick, with a strong slate roof. To say that we had a big job ahead of us was something of an understatement, but we tucked in and got to work, celebrating each milestone as it occurred. Remembering how excited we got as each utility was turned on, how we were so thrilled when we got actual double glazed glass windows to replace the plastic sheets, when the teak dutch half doors with the separate top and bottom that could be opened independently were hung and we had “real” doors. The amazement when water actually flowed from our new kitchen faucet, and when the switch finally relegated our candles and oil lamps to the mantle. Months, and months of work, turning a derelict, dilapidated empty shell structure into our new home, our idyllic Irish country paradise. New doors, windows, stairs, wiring, plumbing, floors, insulation, furniture, and appliances, but when it was finally finished, we had our dream, and life was good.

   Then my Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) took a turn for the worse and I needed a doctor. I went into Kilkelly, the local town, and met Dr. Kennedy, a great doctor to whom I paid cash out of pocket to expedite things. I was then enrolled into the western health scheme as it’s called so I could take advantage of the Irish free medical care, which the World Health Organization rated as 19^th in the entire world, far superior to the United States which was ranked a pathetic 37th. So I assumed I was going to get some of the best available healthcare there was. Well, as Gomer Pyle would have exclaimed “surprise! surprise! surprise!”.

   Dr. Kennedy recommended me to a rheumatologist in Galway and set up my initial appointment… in 6 months, oh-kaayy, I suppose I can wait…. and wait.. The day arrives, I go in, he sees me for 4 minutes, changes my prescription from methotrexate to Enbrel, and tells me to come back in a year… A YEAR? turns out that was the earliest available appointment at that time. So, I say, let’s see what happens, the Enbrel seems to be doing the trick, so maybe I can deal with this, these guys are Doctors after all. When one day a few months later I get a screaming pain in my leg that drops me to the ground, a few seconds later it’s gone, as if nothing had ever occurred. A few days later, another one, then another, and another, then multiples every day, then every hour. Dr. Kennedy is stumped, I get an emergency visit to the arthritis guy (only 2 months wait!) who proclaims that it’s all in my mind and that maybe I should see a psychiatrist.

   2 weeks after that appointment we’re back in the states to visit family when I run into my old family doctor who sees one of these attacks and has me in his office the next day.  He refers me to a rheumatologist in the Cincinnati area who is able to see me in 2 days.  She suspects the RA may have affected my central nervous system, so she gets me in to see a neurologist the very next day who confirms her suspicion. It was official, I now had something similar to epilepsy…. sure, that’s fair, why not?  By this point, I was having 70 or more attacks a day and couldn’t  go out for fear of someone calling 911 every few minutes. In the end, my American rheumatologist changed my prescription, the neurologist put me on an anti-seizure medication, and me, the guy who had to crawl to the bathroom on some days, and could not go out into public, can today take his wife dancing.

   The point is that if we go with socialized medicine, and that is the ultimate conclusion to what is now called “Obamacare”, we will have the same outcome as Ireland. How can we not? A healthcare system that works wonders for those who do not need it, and kills those who do.

   We used to hear every day on midwest radio a broadcast from Ballyhaunis something called the “trolley report”, the trolley report was a daily report detailing how many people had to sleep on a gurney in the hall at every hospital in Ireland. It wasn’t because there were no beds in the hospital, it was because those people had the wrong ailment, if you have, let’s say, cancer, and the cancer ward is full, you don’t get a bed, even though the broken leg ward across the hall is completely empty. It’s government controlled, run by the book, not allowing for problem solving, or creativity of any kind. It’s healthcare by committee, and if you do not fit neatly into the round hole, your square peg is tough out of luck. If we are so foolish as to place government bureaucrats in charge of our hearts, kidneys, livers, my RA… I think you get the point, then we deserve the nightmare that will ensue.

   A prime example of this was while still living in Ireland, I had to go into casualty, that’s the emergency room at the hospital to us Americans, with a deep vein thrombosis in my left leg one Saturday afternoon. I wasn’t swollen due to the RA medications I took and tried to explain that to them. Their answer was to tell me that they did not have an ultrasound technician available to perform the test on me, and they were certainly not going to bring him in on a weekend.  I was told that I would  ”have to leave and come back on Monday”.  In addition the hospital rep. added, “and if you don’t leave we’ll forcibly remove you”. I went home and ate aspirin like it was candy, went back on monday and they placed me into ICU, heavily sedated to keep me still, after they confirmed the deep system clot. I should have died that weekend. That was when I vowed to not allow them to have another shot at me. I came back to good old #37th place United States, where I could receive the best care on earth, and have ever since then.

   In Ireland it is legal to be buried on your property, that was my plan, I wanted to buried in the place that we built with our own hands, in the place that we loved, I just didn’t want to be buried there as a young man.

   In conclusion, I have a question for you to ponder: What is the last thing the US government ran well and on budget? Do you really think they should handle your heart attack?

                                                                     Our dining room in co. Mayo, who would want to leave that?