Proof that god does not want Republicans to meet…

by Karen Topakian

cause if she did she wouldn’t schedule hurricanes in the middle of their quadrennial parties.

As you may remember, Hurricane Gustav* delayed the start of the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota.

They suspended party politicking on the first day, Sept 1. Even though the RNC were miles and states away from the storm’s course. Replacing it with a call for action to help hurricane victims.

Hurricane Gustav required the largest evacuation in US history. More than 3 million people fled the oncoming hurricane and caused $6.6 billion dollars in damages.

Fast forward, 4 years to the 2012 Republican Convention in Tampa. Where Hurricane Isaac** once again delayed their party by one day. Forcing evacuations of thousands from Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

What other reasonable conclusion could one draw?

*In Scandinavian languages, Gustav means staff of the gods

**In Hebrew, Isaac means he laughs, will laugh

Is today the day I like big government?

by Karen Topakian

Recently my sister and I were discussing why people and elected officials rail against big government on some days but not on others.

The conversation started when I mentioned that Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana begged the Federal government to clean up the BP oil spill spilling on to his state. Big government couldn’t jump high enough or run fast enough to suit him. 

Today Bobby Jindal wants big government.

Last year he didn’t.

When he snubbed his nose at the federal stimulus money coming to his state to pay for expanded benefits for Louisiana residents collecting unemployment. That day he didn’t want Washington and its largess to pollute his state.

How do people like Governor Jindal and former Governor who quit mid-term Sarah Palin decide which days to love big government and which days to hate it?

We decided that every day when we awake we would ask ourselves if this were a day when we liked/loved big government or not. We had to predict if we wanted our trash picked up by big government, our street’s swept, our parks maintained, our street lights kept aglow, our public hospitals treating patients, our public schools educating young people,…

Our conversation then turned to when do we think our government is too big. Here’s a short list:

When it interferes with a woman’s reproductive organs and her choices about when to bear children and when to not.

When it tells public school teachers they have to teach the Christian creation myth instead of evolution.

When it decides who can marry whom.

When it sentences people to the death penalty.

When it bullies other governments and threatens them with the use of nuclear weapons.

What I hate more than big government is weak government that can’t, won’t or doesn’t stand up to corporations that destroy our planet.