Hi. I am Tucson’s Ghost Giraffe. I’m haunting the City of Tucson’s government.

One of the things that fascinated me was all those people living in the Catalina Foothills out in the County who complain a lot about Tucson but won’t annex into the city limits. If they don’t want to annex into the city than they should shut up about Tucson’s politics.

According to my jungle drum sources, if all the Catalina Foothills were to annex into the city of Tucson, that would give the Republians a majority of voters in the city. Thinks what could happen then. Especially if you are a Republican fed up with the liberal Democratic agenda downtown.

But did you know you pay the same water rates inside Tucson as the foothills people do? Now most cities charge 25% or even 50% more for their water utility service outside their city limits as an inducment to annex into their city. How come Tucson gives foothills residents the same water rates as in-city residents? Are they afraid of them?

We need a really good fight between the flatlanders and the hill people here so I propose Tucson raise its water rates 50% to Catalina Foothils residents.  Make those rich people who look down on Tucson pay more for water…or they can annex into the city and take over city government…their choice. Tucson’s liberals could  soak the rich here.

One of the reason higher water rates are justified to foothills residents is because they are not in the city, Tucson does not get state revenue share for the people out there, and they don’t pay city property taxes. Inside the city water customers generate state revenue share to the city. Plus I heard the law says cities can charge more for water to people outside their city limits.

So what do you  think?

Should the Foothills resident get a break on their water bills?

Or should Tucson raise water rates in the Catalina Foothills by 50%

____________________________

More from Tucson Ghost Giraffe:

Tucson Ghost Giraffe suggests moving City Hall to El Con

Tucson Ghost Giraffe talks about zoo

Tucson ghost giraffe haunts City Hall

Hi. I am Tucson’s Ghost Giraffe. I’m haunting the City of Tucson’s government.

One of the problems with the city government is its is concentrated in downtown Tucson.

Nobody goes to downtown Tucson except for jury duty or to pay fines or get hassled by the government. Downtown Tucson is cut off from the rest of the city and is really irrelevant to most people. I think that’s why the decision from down there are always irrelevant to the rest of the city…they’re in their own little government ghetto down there.

So here is a radical idea…move City Hall to El Con.

Think about it….put City Hall among Home Depot and Target. on Broadway west of Alvernon.

Lots of free parking so folks could come down to City Council meetings. And the elected officials would be constantly reminded of how important sales taxes are to the city.

And what is really cool is you can hear the lions on the zoo roaring at night even at El Con.

The city could sell all its buildings downtown, and with all that private sector down there, that would do more to revive the area then spending taxpayer money. Leave downtown to criminal defense law firms.

And anything the city would do at El Con would be an improvement over what’s going on there now…especially on the west side of the complex…and city workers could walk over to the zoo for lunch and see my friends.

More from Tucson Ghost Giraffe:

Tucson Ghost Giraffe talks about zoo

Tucson ghost giraffe haunts City Hall

I was driving up to Tucson when I got a call from a federal friend who quickly summarized what was going on in New York. My first thought was find my daughter who was working at a Starbucks a few blocks from the World Trade Center.

A long day…watching horrific scenes on television and trying to track my daughter down. She saw the towers go down, and then headed north up the island to a friends apartment. For days afterwards smoke from the burning towers drifted across her home in Brooklyn. She will never forget the smell.

Looking back as terrible as 9/11 was, it could have been much worse. Terror attack scenarios had been around for years…I did a movie script based on a nuke attack on DC in the 1980s.

But what is so striking looking lack 10 years is how wrong we got everything and all the missed opportunities.

We started a war on “terror” and ended up blasting apart Iraq andAfghanistan, spending a trillion dollars in the process, Yet it took a small Navy Seal team to actually deal with Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of 9/11….ten years later.

George W. Bush and his cronies such as Dick Cheney really ought to be criminally prosecuted for getting us into a war in Iraq  based on fabricated claims of weapons of mass destruction.

We should have declared war on the terrorists themselves…not some vague concept as “terror”.

We would have done much better to hunt terrorist down like the dogs they are instead of using terror as an excuse for nation building and dicatator removal

The war on “terror” has cost hundreds of billions, made our life annoying at best, and probably done little to make us safer.

Instead of reducing the number and capacity of terrorists…we’ve actually created more of them…especially in Iraq.

And we have let countries like Pakistan get away with creating safe harbors for terrorists.

There should be no where a terrorist group can run and hide…and to any country arguing its sovereign right to harbor terrorists…tough luck.

Obama’s high point as President was sending Seal Team 6 into Pakistan without telling our buddies in Islamabad what we were up to. You know if we had to the Pakis about the raid  bin Laden would have disappeared.

Our response to “terror” failed to understand a serious nuance between radical Islamic “leaders” and the Muslin community.

We should have been much more focused on those whose interpretation of the Koran probably are not shared with most of the billion Muslims in the world. The radicals preaching jihad are Islamic heretics.

 We have our own radical fundamentalist crazies in Christianity…in America in fact…so we should understand you cannot brand an entire religion or people as nuts when only a few preachers are crazy.

 9/11 ….as such events like them tend to create a chance to really unify this country. After December 7^th 1941 we united and kicked Germany’s and Japans asses and made the new world we all enjoy now.

 After 9/11 we made it annoying to fly airplanes and pissed away billions in Iraq.

 No wonder the American people are questioning our exceptionalism.

What we are really questioning is our leadership…from both the Republicans and Democrats… that used 9/11 to distract us and  not actually deal with the terrorists.

We have a “war on terror” which is just a giant money machine to create the illusion of security while some bearded crazies are sitting in a cave somewhere in Pakistan trying to figure out how to hurt us again.

We need to spend more money on hunting these guys down in their caves and sending them to “paradise”  and not buying  more body scanners for our airports.

Second violent crime linked to ATF gunwalking

BySharyl Attkisson

A second violent crime in Arizona has been linked to weapons from ATF’s “gunwalking” operation: Fast and Furious. The first known crime was the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Arizona state police revealed yesterday that two guns from Fast and Furious were found in an arrest involving two Mexican men who assaulted detectives outside Phoenix in 2010. Nobody was seriously hurt.

More….

More Fast and Furious…

Fox News EXCLUSIVE: Third Gun Linked to ‘Fast and Furious’ Identified at Border Agent’s Murder Scene

CBS nails ATF coverup attempt on guns found at Brian Terry’s murder scene

Heads roll fast and furiously over botched ATF gun walking scheme

ATF Fast and Furious guns found in Phoenix, Douglas and Nogales

EXCLUSIVE: Third Gun Linked to ‘Fast and Furious’ Identified at Border Agent’s Murder Scene

By William Lajeunesse

Published September 09, 2011

A third gun linked to “Operation Fast and Furious” was found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, new documents obtained exclusively by Fox News suggest, contradicting earlier assertions by federal agencies that police found only two weapons tied to the federal government’s now infamous gun interdiction scandal.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/09/exclusive-third-gun-linked-to-fast-and-furious-identified-at-border-agents/#ixzz1XTvjYAFS

According to the Fox News account, the FBI was paying an informant to be involved with smuggling guns to the cartel and suppressed the news of the third gun because it would have blown their informant’s cover.

FBI searches offices of Solyndra; lawmakers say they were misled about firm’s finances

By Carol D. Leonnig and Joe Stephens,

FBI agents executed a surprise search Thursday of a Silicon Valley solar company that collapsed last week, in an investigation that appeared to center on half a billion dollars in federal loan guarantees granted to the company by the Obama administration.

The search at the offices and plant of Solyndra, a California-based manufacturer of solar panels, came as Republicans on Capitol Hill demanded answers to questions about the company’s selection for the $535 million Energy Department loan guarantee. Some Democrats questioned whether the company misled federal officials about its deteriorating financial condition.

More…

COMMENTARY: Stories like this are why the American puiblic increaasingly does not trust the federal government to create jobs and solve problems.

The Obvama Administration gave this outfit a $535 million loan guarantee and touted this comoany as the future for renewable energy and jobs creation.

Looks like Obama got bamboozled. And us taxpayers are stuck with yet another bill from a corporate scamster.

SolarGate and green jobs

Solar company to file for bankruptcy despite $535 million loan guarantee

Hi. I am Tucson’s Ghost Giraffe. Remember me? I was the one they fed oleanders to.

The Reid Park Zoo is a really cool place and I hope you come and visit my friends there.

The zoo was originally started by Gene Reid, Tucson Parks Director, without approval from City Hall. He started off with a prarie dog village and it sort of grew. My channeler here admits to donating a possum to Gene for the zoo.

The zoo is one of the best things Tucson does….even if they can’t figure out that oleander is poisonous. I blame City Hall for that.

I wonder how many city elected officials and top city staff have ever actually been to the zoo? I’ll bet a whole bunch of them have never seen our zoo. We’re not that big a deal to City Hall like rainbow bridges and fantasy aquariums.

And that’s symbolic of the problems with your city…your elected officials and city staff have their heads in the clouds spending hundreds of millions on stuff like Rio Nuevo

But something that really makes Tucson a much better place to live…our zoo…gets short shrift at City Hall.

If you haven’t been to the zoo please come on down…you’ll love the place…..and you’ll ask why they don”t get rid of that golf course over east of us and expand our zoo to make it even a better place. Imagine giraffes and zebras and elephants grazing on what are now the fairways.

But City Hall would have to hire a bunch of consultants and spend a hundred million dollars deciding the zoo was more important than 18 holes of golf in the city.

Thank you so much. Everyone, please have a seat. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, and fellow Americans, tonight we meet at an urgent time for our country. We continue to face an economic crisis that has left millions of our neighbors jobless and a political crisis that’s made things worse.

This past week, reporters have been asking, “What will this speech mean for the president? What will it mean for Congress? How will it affect their polls and the next election?”

But the millions of Americans who are watching right now, they don’t care about politics. They have real-life concerns. Many have spent months looking for work. Others are doing their best just to scrape by, giving up nights out with the family to save on gas or make the mortgage, postponing retirement to send a kid to college.

These men and women grew up with faith in an America where hard work and responsibility paid off. They believed in a country where everyone gets a fair shake and does their fair share, where if you stepped up, did your job, and were loyal to your company, that loyalty would be rewarded with a decent salary and good benefits, maybe a raise once in awhile. If you did the right thing, you could make it — anybody could make it in America.

But for decades now, Americans have watched that compact erode. They have seen the decks too often stacked against them. And they know that Washington has not always put their interests first.

The people of this country work hard to meet their responsibilities. The question tonight is whether we’ll meet ours. The question is whether — in the face of an ongoing national crisis — we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy.

The question — the question is whether we can restore some of the fairness and security that has defined this nation since our beginning.

Those of us here tonight can’t solve all our nation’s woes. Ultimately, our recovery will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and our workers. But we can help. We can make a difference. There are steps we can take right now to improve people’s lives.

I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It’s called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and Republicans, including many who sit here tonight, and everything in this bill will be paid for, everything.

The purpose of the American Jobs Act is simple: to put more people back to work and more money in the pockets of those who are working. It will create more jobs for construction workers, more jobs for teachers, more jobs for veterans, and more jobs for long-term unemployed. It will provide…

It will provide a tax break for companies who hire new workers, and it will cut payroll taxes in half for every working American and every small business.

It will provide a jolt to an economy that has stalled and give companies confidence that, if they invest and if they hire, there will be customers for their products and services. You should pass this jobs plan right away.

Everyone here knows that small businesses are where most new jobs begin. And you know that while corporate profits have come roaring back, smaller companies haven’t. So for everyone who speaks so passionately about making life easier for “job-creators,” this plan’s for you. Pass this jobs bill.

Pass this jobs bill, and starting tomorrow, small businesses will get a tax cut if they hire new workers or if they raise workers’ wages. Pass this jobs bill, and all small-business owners will also see their payroll taxes cut in half next year. If you have 50 employees…

If you have 50 employees making an average salary, that’s an $80,000 tax cut. And all businesses will be able to continue writing off the investments they make in 2012.

It’s not just Democrats who have supported this kind of proposal. Fifty House Republicans have proposed the same payroll tax cut that’s in this plan. You should pass it right away.

Pass this jobs bill, and we can put people to work rebuilding America. Everyone here knows we have badly decaying roads and bridges all over this country. Our highways are clogged with traffic. Our skies are the most congested in the world. It’s an outrage.

Building a world-class transportation system is part of what made us an economic superpower. And now we’re going to sit back and watch China build newer airports and faster railroads, at a time when millions of unemployed construction workers could build them right here in America?

There…

There are private construction companies all across America just waiting to get to work. There’s a bridge that needs repair between Ohio and Kentucky that’s on one of the busiest trucking routes in North America, a public transit project in Houston that will help clear up one of the worst areas of traffic in the country.

And there are schools throughout this country that desperately need renovating. How can we expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart? This is America. Every child deserves a great school, and we can give it to them, if we act now.

The American Jobs Act will repair and modernize at least 35,000 schools. It will put people to work right now fixing roofs and windows, installing science labs and high-speed Internet in classrooms all across this country. It will rehabilitate homes and businesses in communities hit hardest by foreclosures. It will jump-start thousands of transportation projects all across the country.

And to make sure the money is properly spent, we’re building on reforms we’ve already put in place. No more earmarks. No more boondoggles. No more Bridges to Nowhere. We’re cutting the red tape that prevents some of these projects from getting started as quickly as possible. And we’ll set up an independent fund to attract private dollars and issue loans based on two criteria: how badly a construction project is needed and how much good it will do for the economy.

This idea came from a bill written by a Texas Republican and a Massachusetts Democrat. The idea for a big boost in construction is supported by America’s largest business organization and America’s largest labor organization. It’s the kind of proposal that’s been supported in the past by Democrats and Republicans alike. You should pass it right away.

Pass this jobs bill, and thousands of teachers in every state will go back to work. These are the men and women charged with preparing our children for a world where the competition has never been tougher.

But while they’re adding teachers in places like South Korea, we’re laying them off in droves. It’s unfair to our kids; it undermines their future and ours. And it has to stop. Pass this bill, and put our teachers back in the classroom where they belong.

Pass this jobs bill, and companies will get extra tax credits if they hire America’s veterans. We ask these men and women to leave their careers, leave their families, risk their lives to fight for our country. The last thing they should have to do is fight for a job when they come home.

OBAMA: Pass this bill, and hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged young people will have the hope and the dignity of a summer job next year. And their parents…

… their parents, low-income Americans who desperately want to work, will have more ladders out of poverty.

Pass this jobs bill, and companies will get a $4,000 tax credit if they hire anyone who has spent more than six months looking for a job.

We — we have to do more to help the long-term unemployed in their search for work. This jobs plan builds on a program in Georgia that several Republican leaders have highlighted, where people who collect unemployment insurance participate in temporary work as a way to build their skills while they look for a permanent job.

The plan also extends unemployment insurance for another year.

If the millions of unemployed Americans stopped getting this insurance and stopped using that money for basic necessities, it would be a devastating blow to this economy. Democrats and Republicans in this chamber have supported unemployment insurance plenty of times in the past. And in this time of prolonged hardship, you should pass it again, right away.

Pass this jobs bill, and the typical working family will get a $1,500 tax cut next year, $1,500 that would have been taken out of your pocket will go into your pocket. This expands on the tax cut that Democrats and Republicans already passed for this year.

If we allow that tax cut to expire, if we refuse to act, middle- class families will get hit with a tax increase at the worst possible time. We can’t let that happen.

I know that some of you have sworn oaths to never raise any taxes on anyone for as long as you live. Now is not the time to carve out an exception and raise middle-class taxes, which is why you should pass this bill right away.

This is the American Jobs Act. It will lead to new jobs for construction workers, for teachers, for veterans, for first responders, young people, and the long-term unemployed. It will provide tax credits to companies that hire new workers, tax relief to small-business owners, and tax cuts for the middle-class.

And here’s the other thing I want the American people to know: The American Jobs Act will not add to the deficit. It will be paid for. And here’s how.

The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas. Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act. And a week from Monday, I’ll be releasing a more ambitious deficit plan, a plan that will not only cover the cost of this jobs bill, but stabilize our debt in the long run.

This approach is basically the one I’ve been advocating for months. In addition to the trillion dollars of spending cuts I’ve already signed into law, it’s a balanced plan that would reduce the deficit by making additional spending cuts, by making modest adjustments to health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and by reforming our tax code in a way that asks the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.

What’s more, the spending cuts wouldn’t happen so abruptly that they’d be a drag on our economy or prevent us from helping small businesses and middle-class families get back on their feet right away.

Now, I realize there are some in my party who don’t think we should make any changes at all to Medicare and Medicaid, and I understand their concerns. But here’s the truth: Millions of Americans rely on Medicare in their retirement. And millions more will do so in the future. They pay for this benefit during their working years; they earn it.

But with an aging population and rising health care costs, we are spending too fast to sustain the program. And if we don’t gradually reform the system, while protecting current beneficiaries, it won’t be there when future retirees need it. We have to reform Medicare to strengthen it.

I’m also…

I’m also well aware that there are many Republicans who don’t believe we should raise taxes on those who are most fortunate and can best afford it. But here’s what every American knows: While most people in this country struggle to make ends meet, a few of the most affluent citizens and most profitable corporations enjoy tax breaks and loopholes that nobody else gets.

Right now, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary, an outrage he has asked us to fix. We need a tax code where everyone gets a fair shake and where everybody pays their fair share.

And, by the way, I believe the vast majority of wealthy Americans and CEOs are willing to do just that, if it helps the economy grow and gets our fiscal house in order.

I’ll also offer ideas to reform a corporate tax code that stands as a monument to special interest influence in Washington. By eliminating pages of loopholes and deductions, we can lower one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world.

Our tax code should not give an advantage to companies that can afford the best-connected lobbyists. It should give an advantage to companies that invest and create jobs right here in the United States of America.

So we can reduce this deficit, pay down our debt, and pay for this jobs plan in the process. But in order to do this, we have to decide what our priorities are. We have to ask ourselves, “What’s the best way to grow the economy and create jobs?”

Should we keep tax loopholes for oil companies, or should we use that money to give small-business owners a tax credit when they hire new workers? Because we can’t afford to do both.

Should we keep tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, or should we put teachers back to work so our kids can graduate ready for college and good jobs?

Right now, we can’t afford to do both.

This isn’t political grandstanding. This isn’t class warfare.

This is simple math. These are real choices. These are real choices that we’ve got to make. And I’m pretty sure I know what most Americans would choose. It’s not even close. And it’s time for us to do what’s right for our future.

Now, the American Jobs Act answers the urgent need to create jobs right away. But we can’t stop there. As I’ve argued since I ran for this office, we have to look beyond the immediate crisis and start building an economy that lasts into the future, an economy that creates good, middle-class jobs that pay well and offer security.

We now live in a world where technology has made it possible for companies to take their business anywhere. If we want them to start here and stay here and hire here, we have to be able to out-build, and out-educate, and out-innovate every other country on Earth.

This task, of making America more competitive for the long haul, that’s a job for all of us, for government and for private companies, for states and for local communities, and for every American citizen. All of us will have to up our game. All of us will have to change the way we do business.

My administration can and will take some steps to improve our competitiveness on our own. For example, if you’re a small-business owner who has a contract with the federal government, we’re going to make sure you get paid a lot faster than you do right now.

We’re also planning to cut away the red tape that prevents too many rapidly growing start-up companies from raising capital and going public.

And to help responsible homeowners, we’re going to work with federal housing agencies to help more people refinance their mortgages at interest rates that are now near 4 percent. That’s a step…

I know you guys must be for this, because that’s a step that can put more than $2,000 a year in a family’s pocket and give a lift to an economy still burdened by the drop in housing prices.

So some things we can do on our own. Other steps will require congressional action.

Today, you passed reform that will speed up the outdated patent process so that entrepreneurs can turn a new idea into a new business as quickly as possible. That’s the kind of action we need.

Now it’s time to clear the way for a series of trade agreements that would make it easier for American companies to sell their products in Panama, and Colombia, and South Korea, while also helping the workers whose jobs have been affected by global competition.

If Americans can buy Kias and Hyundais, I want to see folks in South Korea driving Fords and Chevys and Chryslers.

I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with the three proud words, “Made in America.” That’s what we need to get done.

And on all of our efforts to strengthen competitiveness, we need to look for ways to work side by side with America’s businesses. That’s why I’ve brought together a jobs council of leaders from different industries who are developing a wide range of new ideas to help companies grow and create jobs.

Already, we’ve mobilized business leaders to train 10,000 American engineers a year, by providing company internships and training. Other businesses are covering tuition for workers who learn new skills at community colleges.

And we’re going to make sure the next generation of manufacturing takes root not in China or Europe, but right here in the United States of America.

If we provide the right incentives, the right support, and if we make sure our trading partners play by the rules, we can be the ones to build everything from fuel-efficient cars to advanced biofuels to semiconductors that we sell all around the world. That’s how America can be number-one again. And that’s how America will be number-one again.

Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy. Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.

And — well, I agree that we can’t afford wasteful spending, and I’ll work with you, with Congress, to root it out. And I agree that there are some rules and regulations that do put an unnecessary burden on businesses at a time when they can least afford it.

That’s why I ordered a review of all government regulations. So far, we’ve identified over 500 reforms, which will save billions of dollars over the next few years. We should have no more regulation than the health, safety and security of the American people require. Every rule should meet that commonsense test.

But what we can’t do — what I will not do — is let this economic crisis be used as an excuse to wipe out the basic protections that Americans have counted on for decades.

I reject the idea that we need to ask people to choose between their jobs and their safety. I reject the argument that says, for the economy to grow, we have to roll back protections that ban hidden fees by credit card companies, or rules that keep our kids from being exposed to mercury, or laws that prevent the health insurance industry from shortchanging patients.

I reject the idea that we have to strip away collective bargaining rights to compete in a global economy.

We shouldn’t be in a race to the bottom, where we try to offer the cheapest labor and the worst pollution standards. America should be in a race to the top, and I believe we can win that race.

In fact, this larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everybody’s money, and let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone they’re on their own, that’s not who we are. That’s not the story of America.

Yes, we are rugged individualists. Yes, we are strong and self- reliant. And it has been the drive and initiative of our workers and entrepreneurs that has made this economy the engine and the envy of the world.

But there’s always been another thread running throughout our history, a belief that we’re all connected, and that there are some things we can only do together as a nation.

We all remember Abraham Lincoln as the leader who saved our union, founder of the Republican Party. But in the middle of a Civil War, he was also a leader who looked to the future, a Republican president who mobilized government to build the transcontinental railroad, launch the National Academy of Sciences, set up the first land grant colleges. And leaders of both parties have followed the example he set.

Ask yourselves: Where would we be right now if the people who sat here before us decided not to build our highways, not to build our bridges, our dams, our airports? What would this country be like if we had chosen not to spend money on public high schools, or research universities, or community colleges?

Millions of returning heroes, including my grandfather, had the opportunity to go to school because of the G.I. Bill. Where would we be if they hadn’t had that chance?

How many jobs would it have cost us if past Congresses decided not to support the basic research that led to the Internet and the computer chip? What kind of country would this be if this chamber had voted down Social Security or Medicare just because it violated some rigid idea about what government could or could not do? How many Americans would have suffered as a result?

No single individual built America on their own. We built it together. We have been — and always will be — one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, a nation with responsibilities to ourselves and with responsibilities to one another.

And, members of Congress, it is time for us to meet our responsibilities.

Every proposal I’ve laid out tonight is the kind that’s been supported by Democrats and Republicans in the past. Every proposal I’ve laid out tonight will be paid for. And every proposal is designed to meet the urgent needs of our people and our communities.

Now, I know there’s been a lot of skepticism about whether the politics of the moment will allow us to pass this jobs plan, or any jobs plan. Already, we’re seeing the same old press releases and tweets flying back and forth. Already, the media has proclaimed that it’s impossible to bridge our differences. And maybe some of you have decided that those differences are so great that we can only resolve them at the ballot box.

But know this: The next election is 14 months away. And the people who sent us here, the people who hired us to work for them, they don’t have the luxury of waiting 14 months.

Some of them are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck, even day to day. They need help, and they need it now.

I don’t pretend that this plan will solve all our problems. It should not be — nor will it be — the last plan of action we propose. What’s guided us from the start of this crisis hasn’t been the search for a silver bullet. It’s been a commitment to stay at it, to be persistent, to keep trying every new idea that works and listen to every good proposal, no matter which party comes up with it.

Regardless of the arguments we’ve had in the past, regardless of the arguments we’ll have in the future, this plan is the right thing to do right now. You should pass it. And I intend to take that message to every corner of this country.

And I ask — I ask every American who agrees to lift your voice, tell the people who are gathered here tonight that you want action now. Tell Washington that doing nothing is not an option. Remind us that, if we act as one nation and one people, we have it within our power to meet this challenge.

President Kennedy once said, “Our problems are manmade; therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.”

These are difficult years for our country, but we are Americans. We are tougher than the times that we live in, and we are bigger than our politics have been. So let’s meet the moment, let’s get to work, and let’s show the world once again why the United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth.

Thank you very much. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

An Open Letter From the Cowboy Libertarian to President Obama, Congress and the Mainstream Media

By Patrick Dorinson

Dear Mr. President, Members of Congress, and the Mainstream Media,

Well, summer is now unofficially over and with Labor Day in the rearview mirror, it is “back to work” time. I hope all of you had swell vacations, in your case Mr. President, on high falutin’ Martha’s Vineyard. And in the case of some members of Congress on taxpayer paid junkets to exotic locales. Many Americans could not afford to take vacations and would love to get back to work as well but there are no jobs.

While you were gone, the economy sunk further — as did all of your poll numbers.

More… http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/09/08/open-letter-from-cowboy-libertarian-to-president-obama-congress-and-mainstream/#ixzz1XOsPL0R9

Among opther things Dorison tells Obama: “As the saying goes, if you’ve got nothing much to say, don’t take an hour to prove it.”

Hi. I am Tucson’s Ghost Giraffe. Remember me? I was the one they fed oleanders to.

I’ve decided to haunt Tucson’s City Hall. You know…remind them there are more important things than sky bridges and aquariums. I mean, if you can’t even feed your giraffes safe food what kind of city are you running here?

I see where the City Manager resigned effective a year from now and wrote a 7 page letter blaming everyone else for his problems. The city council fired him effective Friday. That’s cool. 

So the first issue is who is going to run the city now that Letcher is gone?.

I’m sending an oleander plant down to City Hall to put on the City Manager’s desk to remind whoever gets the job that it is the little stuff that counts.