I knew last night that I would not be walking today...

when I awoke at 1 a.m. and discovered that I'd fallen asleep watching something on DVD.  I was wide awake, so I watched it again and by the time I could fall back to sleep, it was after 2:30.  Plus, my legs are really stiff and sore today, with muscle cramps in both the upper and lower legs.  Time for a day of rest.  So rather than resting tomorow, I'm resting today and plan to walk tomorrow.  Although if I feel like this tomorrow, it may be a shorter day of "active rest" walking.

I keep getting both of the DVDs from Netflix with items from my non-instant viewing queue on the same day.  Today I'm conducting an experiment.  I will mail only one back.  It should arrive tomorrow and they should send one out the same day, and then the new one will arrive on Tuesday.  The other I will mail tomorrow and hopefully it will arrive there on Tuesday and generate one that will show up here on Wednesday.  I may start a pool on how long it takes before something in the universe interferes and brings me two on the same day again.  I'm wagering it will take less than two weeks.

There's a resident here who has been over at a rehab facility since early June, who still is maintaining his place here.  Can't be cheap and that may be behind something surprising that happened the other day.  He has had a car here since I moved in, and while it was finally moved from visitor parking out front to the normal parking in the back, it had still just sat there for months and months, without moving.  The fact that at least one tire was flat had something to do with it.  It is an older Cadillac, and the owner turned down an offer to sell it, saying he'd paid $50,000 for it new and he wasn't selling it now for $500.  We do all know he won't drive it again, because he is now blind, so why he insists on hanging on to it was a mystery.

But earlier this week, I went out there and it was gone.  I did a little snooping and found that his family had it towed away.  Maybe they're selling it on his behalf, to help pay for having a place here and at a rehab facility, which even with Medicare or Medicaid or whatever, ain't cheap.

Speaking of Medicare and Medicaid, I've decided there is only one answer to the mess that our nation is in.  I am going to form a new political party, to seize control of Congress, and to solve all of these problems.  The Democrats and the Republicans do not have the vision or desire to come up with real resolutions to our nation's problems, they are only interested in winning and keeping office.

So, first we need a party name.  I wanted to go old school, and harken back to the days of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, and call us the Democratic-Republican party, but there would be no better way to drive people away than to adopt a name that is a combination of the names of the two parties driving more and more to become independents.  Federalist sounds too law-enforcement like.  Whigs sounds like we all need hairpieces (not that some of us might not look better with them).  I thought for a moment about using the National Union party, but memories of the incompetence of Andrew Johnson have negative implications for that name.

So we're going to be the Centrist Party until our first national convention, during which we'll hold a party naming contest.  The person who comes up with the winning name will win the right to make a speech during non-primetime coverage of our convention. 

Our party's platform will be based on conservative fiscal and socially moderate/liberal policies.  We will seek to maintain the social safety nets, but reduce reliance on entitlements.  We will strive to make government more efficient by getting more out of it while we spend less.  An example will be our refusal to accept a rate of fraudulent Medicare claims of 5% of claims processed, which wastes billions of dollars annually.  We will increase income tax enforcement by closer examination of questionable write-offs by corporations, and, individuals who are self-employed.  We will also work to ensure that the underground "cash" economy is taxed.  One strategy we will discuss is a slight tweaking of marginal tax rates, which would lower rates for many who earn less than $250,000 per year, while adding a small, value added tax to the purchase of all goods and services, except rent and food that isn't already prepared.  U.S. citizens who renounce their citizenship will be required to pay the capital gains tax on their wealth on the date of renunciation, based on the potential gain, rather than allowing them to leave with untaxed gains as part of their wealth.

All marriages will become civil unions, but religious ceremonies held in legally recognized faiths will be able to substitute for the required civil ceremony to "seal" a civil union.  We will achieve this goal by amending the Constitution to allow any two adults who are of sound mind to consent, to be able to form a civil union through an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.  The IRS and Social Security will recognize all civil unions.

Our very first goal will be to amend the Constitution to change the office of President and Vice-President from their current construction, to make them offices one can hold for one term of six years during their lifetime.  One term as President, and one term as Vice-President, and you're done.  This will prevent any future president from having to waste any of their time in office campaigning for reelection.

We will place obstacles in place to attempt to disincentivize corporations from outsourcing jobs to other nations, to protect the jobs and economy of the people of this land.

We will recognize that the decision of the Supreme Court in Citizens United v FEC is a proper interpretation of the First Amendment, but we will push for new laws so that all corporate and private spending on political campaigns through the so-called Super PACs can no longer be done with anonymity.  If Sheldon Adelson is going to spend $100 million on an election cycle, the people will know just where that money was spent.  That should resolve that problem.

Oh, and our party symbol will be the mighty mushroom, with a bold, red line drawn through it diagonally.  Meaning we will be mushrooms no more, we will no longer sit quietly in the dark and allow politicians to feed us bullshit.

Okay, who wants to sign up?