Happy Mutha's Day! We are all muthas ya know.

If you care for a pet, if you adore a friend and you help them out by listening and giving them hugs when they need one...you are a Mutha too m'dear reader.

Because a Mutha, for me anyway, is someone that takes care of people, places or animals...makes sure everything is ok, and if it isn't, bitches her ass off until it gets fixed, or she will get it fixed and send you a friggin bill.

Bear in mind there is a huge ass difference between a Mutha and a Mutha Fucka...you do not want to be the latter, ok? Unless you are living with a Mutha and she needs a little servicing now and then...then it's ok to be a Mutha Fucka. But that's really the only time it's good to be a Mutha Fucka.

I called my Mutha this morning. The poor old dear has COPD with the added complication of end stage Emphysema. She lives in Missouri, so sadly I can't go see her and make her laugh..I can only call her and say things that crack her up.

She wanted to talk about OBL..i shit you not! So I listened as she told me that Clinton could of captured him. I asked her if the hospital only had Faux News, cuz where else would you get that bullshit. I reminded her that the Clinton administration warned The Shrub and his henchmen about OBL, but they chose to ignore it until that day in September when all hell broke loose.

To lighten up the convo..I asked her how hard would be to pick out a tall assed Muslim amongst a group of relatively short ones. She didn't get it...so I explained to her how tall OBL was and the general height of the majority of Muslim males. He would stick out like Shaq standing amongst a room full of 5'9" males. Anyway, I cracked a few jokes about OBL, The Shrub, Rumsfeld, The Big Dick Cheney and made her giggle.

I am the oldest of four female children my mutha gave birth to. My middle sister lives w/Mommy Dearest, so she was there at the hospital as well. Poor thing hangs out there more than any place else, including her humble abode or work lately.

When MommyDearest is well, how to put this... she can be a real pain in the ass. I like to refer to her as a witch (sometimes with a B instead of a W) that comes complete w/a friggin broom that she uses either as transportation or to hit you with.

But today, I finally realized that those days are over and her actual days left on this earth are numbered.

I am getting a tad weepy, so it's time to go...call yer friggin Mutha and if she has already left this planet..talk to her like she was still here..sitting with you like the old days when she made everything better..or in my case..usually made it worse..but not always on purpose of course. Because above all else..Mutha's care. It might not always seem that way..but they do. Bless them all.

For the mothers deployed in Middle East..it isn't good.

Mothers in the U.S. military are stressed, poorly paid and need more help caring for their children, according to a report issued by Congress on Friday.

Nearly half of all women in the active-duty military have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and 24,475 women are there now, the report by the Joint Economic Committee said.

Yet child-care services are not keeping up with longer and more frequent deployments, said the report, released to coincide with Mother’s Day.

And women get only 6 weeks of leave after the birth of a child, it found.

“Making sure military mothers have the quality child care, generous family leave, and access to mental health services they need is key to their family well-being and our national security,” New York Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney said in a statement.

“Not addressing these issues could have serious implications for the retention of women in the military, and the readiness and effectiveness of our forces.”

The Joint Economic Committee, a bipartisan group of senators and members of the House of Representatives, used Defense Department figures for much of the report.

It said that women represent one in seven U.S. military personnel in Iraq, and that most are in the lowest-paid ranks.

Women make up about 14.3 percent of the active-duty military, according to the report, and about 40 percent of women in the active-duty force have children compared with 44 percent of active-duty men.

But military mothers are much more likely to be single or divorced, or married to other members of the military who also face deployment.

That leaves grandparents, other relatives or paid caregivers to take care of young children when parents are deployed or redeployed.

The report, available on the Internet, said the military may be stretched to recruit and retain women if it does not provide better services.

“The military has increased the number of available child-care centers, but the National Military Families Association estimates that the military is approximately 35,000 short of expected need,” it said.

Reprinted from MSNBC. Happy Mothers Day and say a prayer of thanks that your not stationed in the Middle East.