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Greetings!
Valentine's Day is a week away - hmmmmm, wonder if I have time to meet a girl and fall in love before then????? Ha! According to Lesbian Dating Rituals, we could be moved in together in seven days! 
Well, whether this Valentine's Day finds you single or coupled-up, there are several swell events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check out the Calendar page of Social Notes for more info: - The Lesbian Health Initiative's "Celebration of Love" dinner, dance and comedy show
- "Enchanted Valentine Evening", by A2 40 Euphoria, featuring dinner and dancing
I know it can be a bummer to go to these things alone if you are single, so I'm organizing a table of single women for the LHI Dinner Dance. If you'd like to join in the fun, email me for further details.
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Two items of note on the Jobs front: 
A friend of mine works for a call center company called Arise, and she tells me they are always looking for good people to serve as call center agents. These are agents taking inbound calls from customers - not the annoying outbound people who call to bug you at dinner time. All of their agents work from home, and you can work any hours that suit you. The pay is ok for the traditional customer service type of agent, but it really starts to get interesting if you are a selling type of agent. Several of their agents are making over $100k per year, helping book vacations for Disney or Carnival Cruise Lines. Anywho, it might at least be something to tide you over until you find your dream job. You can find out more at their website.
- Houston Career Fair on February 16th
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LHI's Celebration of Love Gala:
Saturday, February 13th, Renaissance Hotel
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 The wonderful women of the Lesbian Health Initiative (LHI) present their annual dinner, dance and comedy show called A Celebration of Love Gala. The evening features a seated dinner, a performance by nationally known comedian Michele Balan, and dancing afterwards.
Tickets are $80, and you can buy tickets on-line and reserve tables by visiting the LHI website.
Seats are reserved if you purchase a table of 10; otherwise seating is open. Please bring your PayPal receipt with you to present at the check in desk. The Renaissance Hotel is located at 6 East Greenway Plaza.
New news: If you just want to come dance, after the dinner and comedy show have ended, tickets are only $10!
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Upcoming "Don't Miss" Events
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Be sure to check the Calendar page of Social Notes for more details on each of these fine events. You'll find time, dates, location, a description of the event, along with prices and a links where appropriate. Click on over so you'll be In The Know.
- Monday, 2/8: "Sing for Hope", a benefit for Bering Omega
- Wednesday, 2/10: Girls Night Out at Bocado's
- Saturday, 2/13: LHI's Celebration of Love Valentine's Day Dance
- Saturday, 2/13: Enchanted Valentine Evening, by A2 40 Euphoria
- Tuesday, 2/16: Houston Career Fair
- Friday, 2/19: Lucy Blue Tremblay in concert
- Friday, 2/19: Screening of "The Word Is Out" at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston
- Sunday, 2/28: Mental: An Evening of Homo-Neurotic Comedy, featuring Eddy Sarfati. At Riva's
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"Save The Date" and purchase your tickets now for these future events!
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 Even though these events may be a few days/weeks down the road,
you need to buy your tickets and/or make your reservations NOW, girlfriend! You can find out all the details, including ticket purchase information, by visiting the Calendar Page of Social Notes
- Monday, 2/8: "Sing for Hope", a benefit for Bering Omega
- Saturday, 2/13: LHI's Celebration of Love Valentine's Day Dance
- Saturday, 2/13: Enchanted Valentine Evening, by A2 40 Euphoria
- Friday, 2/19: Home concert for Lucy Blue Tremblay
- Sunday, 2/28: Mental: An Evening of Homo-Neurotic Comedy, featuring Eddy Sarfati. At Riva's
- March: Deepening Relationship Workshop for couples, First and third Tuesdays from March 4th to September 16th
- Saturday, 3/6: AssistHers Softball Tournament, deadline for registration is 3/1
- Friday, 3/26: Wine Tasting at Rainbow Lodge, hosted by Northwest Corner
- Saturday, 4/24: Kindred Spirits Charity Golf Tournament
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The Rant
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 I am so disgusted with what is going on in Washington that I may just join the Teabaggers. OK, I'm not quite THAT desperate (or batshit crazy) yet, but I do share their frustration.
Out here in the Real World, people are hurting. The problems we face are so severe that they threaten the very foundation of our country, yet the clowns in Washington continue to carry out their mysterious kabuki dance - all bluster and no action.
It's true that the Dems were handed a raw deal when they took control of the reins of government a year ago. The economy was on the brink of collapse. We were mired in two ridiculous and costly wars, and our international reputation was in the dumper. OK, I know that you can't fix everything overnight. But you can't fix ANYTHING if you lack courage and creativity,and that's where we find ourselves today.
Every player in the ongoing drama bears equal responsibility for the stalemate. Obama doesn't know how to lead. The Dems in Congress don't know how to get legislation passed, even though they enjoy the largest majorities of any party in decades. The Republicans have totally abandoned any pretense of governance. Is this any way to run a country???
I remember the dark days when BushCo was running things. Most of us were angry and frustrated, but we held onto the hope that things would be better if we could just get Democrats back into power. Be careful what you wish for, I guess. Now what the heck do we do????
I feel like such a schmuck for buying into Obama's mantra of Change. I took him at his word that he intended to play politics in a fundamentally different way - to break the hold of the corporate lobbyists and to govern with the interests of the people first and foremost. His behind-closed-doors deal with the pharmaceutical industry (to remove the government's ability to negotiate lower drug prices in any health care reform bill) showed just how empty that promise was.
I imagined that he would quickly rectify the civil liberties abuses and violations of US and international law, perpetrated by Bush and Cheney. Sure, he says he has stopped torture, although we are still rendering prisoners to torture-friendly countries. He has defended BushCo abuses such as limitless wiretapping in the courts. Obama is a constitutional law professor, for god's sakes. He as well as anyone should understand just how illegal and unconstitutional BushCo's actions have been. Does the Bush administration have pictures of Obama in bed with a goat? What other reason could there be for Obama's continuance of the heinous policies of his immoral predecessor?
In addition to continuing many illegal and immoral BuschCo policies, Obama and Congressional leaders refuse to hold the prior administration accountable for any of their crimes. Want a laugh? If the Republicans regain Congress, there is already talk of impeaching Obama! Oh sure, there has been no hint of real scandal or illegality - they just hate the guy and are ruthless in their attempts to destroy him. Yet we have actual evidence of atrocities by Bush, Cheney and their minions, and chose not to act. Everyone of them took an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution. Spineless cowards, one and all.
Their excuse seems to be that they don't want their political agenda to get bogged down with messy things like trials. OK, I don't agree, but I guess I could understand that rationale, IF there was any actual progress being made on the dems' agenda. You know, things like health care reform, for example.
Remember why we need to fix health care? We spend so much more money per capita on health care than any other nation, yet our health care standard of living is decidedly middle of the pack. Over 40 million Americans have no health care coverage, and even those of us with insurance are just one pre-existing condition away from bankruptcy. And if those aren't good enough reasons to take action, then how about the fact that we cannot even begin to fix our economy if we don't get a handle on health care costs.
Obama, Pelosi and Reid should be sued for gross political malpractice over their mishandling of health care reform. Let's review a few of the lowlights:
- Almost immediately the dem leaders took the single payer option off the table. Granted, single payer would have been an uphill battle, despite the fact that it made the most sense from a pure economic standpoint. But removing it from consideration left the Public Option as the most progressive alternative. This allowed conservatives to position the Public Option as way too far out of the mainstream.
- Obama has wasted ridiculous amounts of time, energy and political capital in the hopeless pursuit of "bi-partisanship". Look what the Republicans did to him on the stimulus bill: after conceding to their demands for a smaller stimulus loaded tax cuts which do not do anything to stimulate the economy, they STILL didn't vote for his bill. Quit wasting time pursuing them!!
- They allowed the Republicans to control the narrative. From Sarah Palin's shreiks of "Death Panels" to John Boehner's whines about "government takeover of health care", the conservatives have scared the country into believing that health care reform is a monstrosity, when in fact it is a major benefit for our citizens, and for the country's economy. Republicans are simply much much better at telling their lies than Democrats are about telling the truth.
- Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, allowed extremely conservative dems like Max Baucus and Ben Nelson to hold up health care bills in committee all last summer, again in the vain pursuit of bi-partisanship. Those delays meant that reps went back to their home districts for the August recess and were absolutely assaulted by rabid and uninformed citizens ("keep government hands off my Medicare")in town hall meetings. Thus our lawmakers lost whatever modicum of political courage they once may have possessed.
- And speaking of delays, the dithering continues. Its most recent victim is the theoretical super-majority of 60 votes that dems once possessed. No longer. Teddy Kennedy's Senate seat was just won by a Republican. We never really had 60 votes anyway, since the Connecticut weasel Joe Lieberman and his conservative cohorts were never going to vote for health care reform.
Soooooo, here we are. The Republicans are filibustering EVERYTHING, and the dems lack the courage and creativity to find a way around the their obstructionism. Meanwhile, unemployment is still hovering around 10%, the financial system is crying for overhaul, health care costs are eating us up and yada yada yada.
How the heck are we going to get out of this mess?
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So Long!
W ell, that's all for this edition of Social Notes.
Did you know that Houston has over 100 female firefighters? Very cool. But here's what's HOT: they've just published a calendar! And I'm not kidding girls - it is smokin' hot! And as a nice bit of lagniappe, proceeds benefit breast cancer research. Order your calendar today!
Sincerely,
Carol Wyatt
Social Notes
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