God dammit, this is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. You people put scoundrels in office, seemingly without knowing anything about them, basing your political views on gut feeling and cable TV. You vote for the guy or gal who at best “represents the values important to you”, and in some cases, the one whose name happens to be next to the donkey or elephant, the “D” or the “R”, whichever suits you.
This is idiotic.
How some of these people manage to get on the ticket, let alone get elected is inexplicable. That most of them stay in office long enough to get rich and get out before they’re caught doing some atrocious thing is is inexcusable. The worst ones? Hypocrites. Next in line? Idiots & Bastards. And let’s not forget the Crazies. They deserve some mention.
Have you had it with the abstracts? Good, because there are an awful lot of examples and I usually wouldn’t know where to start. But a few weeks ago I sent an article about a blurb from Michelle Bachman, the always quotable republican representative from Minnesota to a friend of mine living in the same state. I knew she was a republican and I wanted to let her know that there’s a good chance her rep was certifiably insane and that she should be sure and not waste her vote on the next election cycle.
You know, a friendly jab in the rib cage to wake up and do something, in case she wasn’t.
What I got was the political equivalent of a giggle and a snort, and I figured she had heard and that the congresswoman must be some kind of local joke and probably harmless because no one really pays attention to the crazy person.
Right?
…right?
Uh-oh.
More recently a picture of Michelle Bachman and Mitt Romney went up on her facebook collection and I realized the problem was bigger than I’d thought. I took some time to ponder the meaning of the image.
By “took some time” I mean that I forgot about it for a bit and it wasn’t until the middle of a flight from New York to Brussels, 3 whiskeys in and no sleep in sight that I had cause to think about it again. I sat there, half-drunk, decidedly not asleep and wondering things in the dark. Somewhere over Reykjavik I was deep into the horrible pondering of this hardcore two-party system; the foundation of the miserable animosity between republicans and democrats. I couldn’t think of more ideal circumstances, I guess. Winston Churchill would’ve been proud.
And nevermind all that. I was bored of reasoning away with those to whom faith is more important than reason, and having been duped into another Saudi Arabian project did me in. Reason and coherence were dribbling away all around me like the chocolate coating from a popsicle: you know, when it starts to crack and the chocolate flakes lean off and you can’t rescue them all? Just like that.
What is the true problem with this two-party system, I wondered. Where does the disconnect come from? Is it a disconnect? Or is it something more sinister? One side has clear political advantage over the other…what causes this idea that things only have two sides and, goddammit, pick one? What is the problem here?
Could this nation be filled with people too simple to grasp more than two options for an issue? Unlikely. We’re too diverse, too filled with different histories, different nurtures to our natures. And so on.
Are we too busy, too caught up in our own day to focus on more than two options when it comes to what has become this vague abstract of government? That’s likely, but it seemed like something is missing.
Here’s the thing: The problem is not “conservatives” - or as some of them are keen to point out - republicans. Labels are so important to people who love to judge labels. Funny thing: in principle I agree with a handful of those “smaller government” concepts that the GOP lot seem to talk so much about and yet do so little to progress. Re: $700 billion bailout package socializing the financial infrastructure of the country for the benefit of a few mega corporations at the direction of an unelected official appointed by the most incompetent man in government since time immemorial, and doing it ahead of health care or social security. Nice. I wonder where my cynicism comes from.
No; the problem is a lack of understanding. It’s the arrogance and the bastard mentality of self-promotion in the face of the adversity of others. The problem is people who:
- think they understand the will of the people
- think that comments they don’t feel comfortable with have anything at all to do with left or right leaning ideals
- think that the information they’re fed from whatever sources they consider are true without much examination
The first mistake is something that I think is passed on to us by the attempted reverse psychology of anyone on TV with an agenda, which is to say, everybody on TV. Everyone loves to use that phrase: “the American people are too smart for blah blah blah,” or “The American people can see past this charade that so-and-so is pulling.” What we tend to forget is that even Gallup, an organization whose sole reason for existing is “to learn the will of the people on the planet” has a significant margin of error and can only give us an educated guess about what’s really going on in the minds of the many many poorly informed citizens of this country, let alone this world. And how convenient that “what the American people understand” is always on par with furthering the well-known agenda of whoever is using that line. It’s a disgusting tactic because the smart money says those who do it know exactly what they’re doing, who they’re manipulating and that what they’re saying is either provably false or factually baseless. Or totally incredible. Don’t presume to understand the will of a people without doing thorough research that you honestly feel is unbiased. Empires have fallen on more information than that.
The second mistake is something that many people do, usually because they’re hearing what they want, not what’s being said. This too, is typical. My personal feelings for the clinical insanity and unfit-for-public-office-statements of Michelle Bachman aside, my criticisms of her here are purely journalistic. The following is a chronicle of the factual points of what she is on the record as saying. Explicitly note that I have sources for these. This is recorded text. Let your judgments be your own, and let mine stand as my own.
- Michell Bachman has, even within the House of Representatives, used her religious beliefs to influence legislation. On many occasions saying things like: “Nancy Pelosi is committed to her global warming fanaticism to the point where she has said that she’s just trying to save the planet. … We all know that someone did that over 2,000 years ago, they saved the planet — we didn’t need Nancy Pelosi to do that.” This kind of religious presence within the walls of my government is such a blatant betrayal of public trust and the foundations on which this country was built that I am truly terrified for the future freedom of religious expression in this country every time I hear nonsense like this.
- Michelle Bachman has openly said that she’s “a fool for Christ.” [commentary] Hardly appropriate statements for someone serving public office in a country that was founded on the separation of Church and State.
- Michelle Bachman has twisted the statistic that more people are forced to work a second job in Minnesota in order to make ends meet than anywhere in the country by saying, “I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the [workingest] state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.” Twist that into ‘proud Americans’ all you want but to do it to create a talking point is a fucked up thing for a mother of two to hear when she has to go to her second job and be away from her kids. Even worse since it wasn’t her talking point, but rather President Bush’s from a while back.
- Michelle Bachman on Global Warming, “The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. It’s all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax.” Please. No sensible person talks like this anymore. That part of the politics is over.
- Michelle Bachman held onto Bush’s shoulder for a creepy 30 seconds just after the final state of the union address, only letting go after getting a kiss from the President. Some time later, in Minnesota, when he asked her for a kiss she told him she thought it would be inappropriate. Interesting symptom of bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. I can’t tell which one is worse for Minnesota.
- Michelle Bachman has made the claim that drilling in ANWR would not harm any wildlife because there is no wildlife there, just miles and miles of tundra. She said this after touring the region from the small window of a small jet flying at about what looks from her pictures to be 14000 feet. Hardly the right altitude to spot wildlife. Not to mention that her claim completely contradicts reality, which is that the ANWR is home to caribou, musk oxen, snow geese and many, many others. A ridiculous claim understood by anyone who’s ever been to Alaska. In fact, anyone who’s ever been out in the wild knows that there is no such thing as an area with no life on planet Earth. Much less in Alaska. Just because you don’t see it from a passenger jet doesn’t mean it’s not there.
- After voting against legislation for clean air and wind energy tax credits, Michelle Bachman went on Laura Ingraham’s (all but explicitly right-wing) radio show to blame house democrats and acting as surprised as a schizophrenic in the morning. This one needs a psychiatrist’s note more than a comment.
- Michelle Bachman has, in support of a Mexico/US fence, cited Israel and Palestine, claiming, “Look at Israel and Palestine. Fences work.” Where has she been since 1948 that she thinks anyone who knows a damn would not balk at such a statement?
- Michelle Bachman has claimed, repeatedly and without any stated retraction that Cuba and China are drilling off the coast of Florida. Even Dick Cheney has acknowledged that these claims are false though only after the republican senator from Florida, Mel Martinez, debunked them on the floor of the Capitol. Notice the lack of a need for an actual comment on this point.
- Michelle Bachman made claims to know of a secret plot by Iran to expel the US from Iraq in order to partition the country. “There is already agreement made,” she said in a February 2007 interview. “They are going to get half of Iraq, and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more attacks in the Middle East, and come against the United States.” She later retracted the claim. This is one of those moments when you’re a fool to not ask “why?” on so many different fronts.
How a list such as this one doesn’t automatically disqualify someone from public office seems like a criminal act of negligence on the part of those whose task it is to uphold and defend the constitution.
As for Mitt Romney? Well, I just plain don’t like Mitt Romney.
The third mistake is based on only seeing what you want to see. I suppose we’re all a bit guilty of this to some degree, though some of us are paying a little more attention. With all the biased reporting that is done on cable TV and passes for journalism, Americans have little hope of a functioning fourth branch of government, that which checks the potential for greed and corruption in the other 3: namely, the Press. I had been tempted for so long to think that it’s not most people’s fault for not knowing, or for being steered in shady directions: after all, people have jobs, have lives… they can’t be reading 10 different newspapers every day like I do sometimes when work is slow, going over 4 different versions of articles on the same topic, just to weed out the bullshit and be able to form an opinion of their own that is based on more than the twisted and skewed view that Sean Hannity gave them.
Then I turned 15 and got over it. I realized that no piece of information that is fed to you is done so without an agenda. Nothing. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something. The only option is to THINK CRITICALLY about what you see and hear.
Republican? Watch O’Reilly? Fine. Liberal? Watch Olberman? Fine. But they all have an agenda, and whether it’s unethical or whether it’s innocent, it’s there. You have to always ask things like “why?” and “really?” Otherwise you just end up saying ridiculous and idiotically empty things like, “Fish love oil rigs,” or “Alaska’s Caribou will love oil drilling because of the heat of the pipeline,” or, of course, the now infamous, “I can see Russia from my state, so I’m in touch with foreign policy.”
Absurd.
And since it’s the issue today that is most talked talked about without saying anything (and while I’m on the 4th little mini-bottle of scotch) here’s a topic that is madly incoherent: the next president of this country. Hilary voters that swung over to McCain or are considering it out of either spite, bitterness or Palin, you really are retarded. An explanation for why is superfluous since you’re not thinking clearly anyway, so here’s a reason that makes as much sense as your reason for swinging: baby dragons.
There. That takes care of that demographic.
Now for the conservatives who can’t debate unemotionally or without citing false sources or factually incorrect statements: goodie.
“When an intelligent comment is absent, liberals often times find themselves name calling”
&
“Liberals are afraid to show themselves to the American public because they are out of touch. This explains liberals difficulty winning the white house”
- proud republican
There is name-calling only where the loathing for the absurd manipulation is due. Frankly, though, my patience runs light and I scoff at the assertion that name-calling is a liberal trait, as if conservatives are above the low game of political mud-slinging. Ah, spare me, kids. What does an empty statement like the one above even mean? How arrogant to assume that one party or the other is more in touch than I or anyone else in this vast nation of dissenting opinion and diversity of definition can be. How arrogant to assume that “you” can know what “we” want. Be careful with that kind of statement. America is a very large dartboard and a pinpoint definition of American Values might poke somebody’s eyes out if it misses the mark.
And you don’t have to guess: I’ll tell you flat out what explains the liberals’ difficulty winning the White House since 1968. It most certainly has NOT been this silly notion that the Democrats are out of touch with “real” America. What most easily explains that the democrats have only had 2 presidents since then is Howard Dean’s ineptitude as a human being coupled with the fact that the democrats do indeed SUCK at politics, not to mention the alleged corruption scandals of campaign financing and political rigging that has been all but unrefuted public knowledge anywhere outside of middle America since ‘68. But leaders would do well to take caution. This notion that “either you’re with us or you’re against us” is a phrase uttered by the prince of many a falling empire.
Who I will vote for is not a secret, though I have no particular love for the man. Especially after he voted with the phone company in the FISA legislation, on which, I might add, John McCain didn’t have the sense of decency to even vote, just like every piece of legislation that’s been discussed since last April. Senators with recent brain surgery have been more responsible that that. But I digress.
If the argument against Barack Obama is an alleged backtrack on a tax increase that the public most likely does not understand and has in all likelihood been misrepresented by BOTH sides, I suggest you try again. If it’s that he has no military experience, take a look at the current commander in chief and let me know how well that’s turned out. Or at your potential one, for that matter. Ask yourself what you know about John McCain’s service record except that he served and was captured? Have you seen his prison cell in the Hanoi Hilton? I tried. Did you know it doesn’t exist anymore, even though he claims it does? How many planes did he crash? How was he captured? And much, much more importantly: does any of this matter? How does serving in the military make you a great leader of the nation?
We’re more than a military. Way more.
Besides, John McCain needs to knock off the experience card. He gave that one up the moment he tapped a VP he didn’t understand and who’s idea of international travel is flying over Canada. It’s embarrassing that we live in a country where a person can be considered elitist if they’ve seen the world but experienced because they theoretically can see Russia from their state. Assuming she’s actually been to Wale, AK for a peek…no one’s reported on that one so far. How republicans have, at least since the election in ‘68, managed to make a presidential run be about comfort rather than issues is the failure of the democrats. Or Nixon’s legacy, whatever you prefer.
Why is America so infatuated with electing someone with whom they identify? Too many people in this country have an education beyond rescue and frankly, I WANT someone leading the nation who is smarter than I am. Why should the class clown take the wheel?
Besides, that’s small potatoes compared to someone who doesn’t know who the prime minister of Spain is, can’t get his facts straight about the fundamental differences in Sunni and Shiite Islam that are at the root of so many problems in that region, has lied about his prison cell in Vietnam for political gain, supports keeping too many of my friends in Iraq indefinitely with no concrete plan for success, ignores the fact that though Iraqis can finally watch their national symphony orchestra show inside the IZ, American soldiers bypass security and get choice seats while the citizens of the country longingly wait in long queues in their dark ties and evening head-scarves to be sniffed by bomb-detecting dogs; practical, but inarguably absurd. It’s insignificant when the same man has backtracked more than Kerry, sometimes even on his own legislation when it suited him, won’t admit to mistakes any more than Barack won’t admit that the “surge worked” (I’ve yet to hear from anybody what the success criteria is for that, by the way, and no one is winning that debate until that’s good and defined, period), picked a running candidate based on what she would contribute to his campaign instead of his presidency, and wants to convince me that it wasn’t the oil companies that wanted him to tell people how the fish love the oil rigs.
So here I go: Really?
Listen, we all support one thing or another for a whole slew of different reasons. It’s not surprising that young people and progressives identify with Barack Obama and Vietnam veterans identify with John McCain… they have things in common. But electing a president is not about identifying with the would-be leader. It’s not about electing who most resembles you, who has values most similar to your own. What continually astounds me is not that different people identify more with one or the other, but rather that the conversation is always dominated by that identification, and that that is what dominates the media and consequently, the vote.
Elections are not about personal feelings; they’re about putting someone in office who will be responsible for better economic results, more prosperity for the country, fewer headaches like wars and recessions, more allies in the world and so forth. Elections are not for people to pass emotional tests and demonstrate that their home is most like yours. It’s about changing the future of the country. John McCain fails to convince me that he can do this on so many levels that were I more naive, it would surprise me he was even running.
Here’s the thing: we can have these debates on end, ad infinitum. Those who disagree within the bounds of their own logic can do so to their heart’s content. They won’t convince me and I won’t convince them: we are as different as I am to my Saudi Arabian colleagues. But the empty 2-week old talking points are… well, empty. The soft-but-blind contempt for “liberals” are as meaningless and superficial as the misguided notion that joining the military would help fix our public schools. Or Medicare. And I’m bored of hearing the same thing on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, and then the Daily Show and then 2 weeks later have people argue with me, reminding me that they too, “watch the news” and “are politically educated.”
Please. It’s not what you hear that defines your education. It’s what you understand. I’m still trying to understand what the hell we all think we’re DOING in this country, but it’s entirely unrefreshing and unsurprising to hear that some people think they do understand.
And THAT, I think, is the real problem.
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another political mess… I’m glad you keep coming back for these.
“Let’s see, what do we have in this frigid box tonight… there’s something old and stagnant there behind the Gruyere…”
“ooh, gross, I think that’s Nancy Pelosi, still pretending like she did anything except drive away moderates.”
“Gnarly. What’s that next to the white bread?”
“Dude, that looks like John Edwards.”
“Yeah, totally. But I thought he usually stood with the jam.”
“No, man. He used butter a few times, just as the jam started getting bad.”
“What a dick. Are these pickles any good?”
“Never were really. But even if you liked the stuff, it’s been on it’s way out for a while.”
“Is that Kerry next to the ketchup?”
“I think so!”
“Jesus, what happened to him?”
“He got bold, man. Utter rejection will do that to you.”
“Wow, and is that John McCain there with that pretty little banana?”
“No, that’s just a dead rat.”
“Oh. Are you sure?”
“Yep. I put it in there to fuck with the new flatmate last week.”
“Gross. It really looks like him.”
“Trust me, dude. Dead Rat. Here, try this new pie I found in here yesterday.”
“Is it good? It looks… I don’t know. Different.”
“See that white stuff around the edges? That’s the sweet stuff.”
“What about this darker center here with all these… fresh-looking things?”
“That’s hope.”
“Any good?”
“We’ll see.”
–
What are we dealing with here? What’s the score?
How is it that the Democrats have EVERYTHING a political strategist could covet and still all these doubts and uncertainties fly around the internets. Hmm? How is that?
What the hell is wrong with Howard Dean that he can’t even keep political capital like the freight train that Obama’s been fueling in a straight path to victory? While we should be careening across middle America, taking nothing but eager followers, we have a nitwit with a chairmanship who doesn’t even know that Obama spoke in front of the Parthenon for his acceptance speech.
Hilary Clinton, who can’t seem to convince even herself of what she’s saying has had to (seemingly) drag Bill into doing what he does best, twinkle his eyes at Americans horny for grace and charm and a presidential political flame instead of a couple of blades of grass that seem too wet to catch the spark. Every other politician who approaches a podium these days from stage right seems to have a severe deficiency in public speaking skills…
Why won’t the DNC throw out clips of republican flip-flops and contradictions on the media… or shit, YouTube? Why do I have to go read the fucking Christian Science Monitor and ThinkProgress.org and The Nation to learn that all the shit you hear McCain and Grahm and Palin and Rove and well… you see where this list is going… and learn that all the shit you hear these assholes declare are in diametric opposition to what they said as recently as last week? Lies! Blatant, insulting, outright lies! Every word these fuckers utter carries dishonesty, and yet, Obama is barely in the lead in all the poles, and if history is any indicator, McCain even has an honest SHOT at this thing. Could we BE that fucked?
The media won’t press any question that wasn’t happily answered on the first go and continue to insist that talking about why talking to one candidate more than another is fair vs. not fair can still be considered journalism.
The only things that seem alive on the floor of the convention is that fat guy who thinks he can dance, Denis Kusinich, who seemed possessed by David Copperfield, and John Kerry, who somehow found his way into some bold leadership since 2004. Good timing there, Jack.
As if the present dire situation in America wasn’t enough to give every democrat a wet dream for their chances in November. Right now, Hurricane Gustav, the category 2 (give it a few hours and it’ll be 3) monster that is about to finish off what Katrina didn’t is taking all the wind out of the Republican National Convention. And they’re in such dire straights that they’re probably thankful for the opportunity to not have to put their faces on Television, secretly hoping that people will forget what they never saw much more quickly. Maybe even in time for the the elections in November.
Why are the Dems so pathetic when there is so much energy going for the left? Where is that sense that HST wrote about in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the sense in the 60’s that what they were doing was right, and that their energy would carry them through; prevail… that their wave of vibes would overpower without force the works of Nixon and that lot…
Why don’t we have it? What are we missing?
WTF?
I decided that articles were going to do me no good. I’ve been reading the blogs out in the tubes, and listening to the coverage in and around St. Paul, Washington, Juneau, etc… there’s nothing of help there. It’s all more of the same.
Don’t forget: that’s why you come HERE. For the good stuff.
So I decided to scour the comments sections of these things to better understand what PEOPLE think, not just what the newspapers that want to sell ad space want them to think. Here’s what I thought were representative samples of comments from an article on Sarah Palin in the Christian Science Monitor. Please note that it was basically all I could do to not put little comments next to them, or draw in caricatures of what I think these people look like. Also note that I’m not listing all of them here because… well, because you won’t read it anyway. Go on, though… I dare you:
Moderate | 08.29.08
Woman or not, she’s still an extreme right-winger who knows more about commercial fishing, snowmachine races and basketball than representing the real issues of middle America.
Stephanie | 08.29.08
I think she knows how to be a true leader; to stand up to political pressures and she can attract the younger generation. Her family resonates with the working class.
indepenpol | 08.29.08
A smart political move! Now convince me that she is qualified to be
president in the event that something happens to McCain if he is elected.
They will get my vote simply to try to prevent one party rule again. One party rule by the GOP proved to be a disaster and could be even worse with one party rule by the Democrats.
Nin | 08.29.08
I think this is a very interesting choice that should play out nicely. McCain is experienced and qualified and is running with sensible ideas. He’ll choose a good cabinet. That heartbeat away **** is non-sense. If god forbid something happened to McCain, Palin would take over surrounded by McCain’s advisers so her lack of forein policy experience is really not that big of a deal. Obviously this is a choice that will help bring women aboard McCain’s campaign.
Obama on the other hand, has stupid ideas and has already surrounded himself with psychos, cough Rev. Wright and plenty of other bimbos including Bill Clinton’s people. So to top off his inexperience he makes poor choices when it comes to advisors.
Mom | 08.29.08
Good choice she could be McCain’s trump card. They will get my vote. The Dem no nothing about running our Country. Besides someone who will not honor our flag is really low down. Race has nothing to do with it. I vote for the person not the color or their skin.
Joyce Moul | 08.29.08
I am glad we have another choice. I can’t vote for Obama and I was afraid to vote for McCain. They could write a movie about this woman if McCain wins, dies of health problems and she ends up as President. The Republicans get my vote.
Brian from WY | 08.29.08
I am pleasantly surprised at a very wise choice for Vice-President. Being from Alaska I’m sure she is familiar with the issues of resonsibly developing resources. We can’t let our country be held hostage by environmentalists forbiding development.
orangebear | 08.29.08
Great choice. The first women president will be a republican. They are the party of progress. She is working class middle america.
Republican4Obama | 08.29.08
I’m so ashamed of my party and its mouthpieces these days, it’s killing me. I am a fiscal conservative and small business owner who voted for Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr., but in the past eight years we’ve seen decisions such as the one John McCain just made time and time again. It’s pathetic. This isn’t conservatism. The Republican Party — the party I loved and cherished for more than three decades — is, for all intents and purposes, dead. It no longer thinks; it reacts. Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in government for the people, she believes in breaks for the rich, just like Bush and McCain. Her big issue is guns. Good, let Ted Nugent vote for her. I challenge REAL conservatives — fiscal conservatives — to break away from that sinking ship and join me in voting for only solid leaders we have in this election: Barack Obama and Joe Biden. Ever since Bill Clinton helped recover this nation from its economic slump, the real conservatives are, dare I say, to the left of the center. I haven’t switched parties yet because I always have hope for my beloved GOP. But my hope is waning and I’m loving the Democratic Party more and more these days. The Republican Party has become a joke. I hope that changes. In the mean time, I’m voting for Obama-Biden. Then we’ll see if the Republicans can kick these spoiled, economically irresponsible neocons out of the party once and for all. God bless America — and God save her.
SoccerMom | 08.29.08
Bold choice - conservative women (yes there are many) are going to be energized about this ticket. At last a woman who shares my views on important fiscal and defense issues.
Rep | 08.29.08
What is McCain trying to do to us? There is no way she is ready to be President. I am so disappointed I could cry.
Awesome pick! | 08.29.08
s I listened to her speech today, tears welled up in my eyes. She is an awesome pick–a thoroughly decent person who can bring about the changes that are needed in this country.I was lukewarm on McCain before–now there is no question in my mind that this party is the right choice. I feel a totally renewed sense of hope that things can be changed in this country for the better.This woman strikes me as having the strength of character to really make it happen.
Yrreb | 08.29.08
I think shes reelly hot. And she used to be Miss Alaska or somthing. Whats rong with having a hot presidint? Also she likes to shoot guns. I like guns. And food.
Ron H. | 08.29.08
Go get them Sarah !! I am a Father of a daughter that will turn 11 in just a few days, I am proud to tell my daughter that she can do anything she wants to in America if she works hard enough and is honest. I agree with Pro Life, Pro Family, Conservative Values that support the American Family — the McCain / Palin ticket supports what we believe in. I do not trust Obama, he has no experience to speak of to qualify him for the top spot on anyone’s ticket. He is Pro-Abortion and I will not in good conscience vote for anyone with values I don’t agree with.
Kenny Hott | 09.01.08
Sarah Palin was raised up by God to be nominated as the next vice president. Surely if God could take a sheered boy named David and make him king of Israel, He can surely can give her the wisdom and the ability to be vice president. People forget that a president has a cabinet with people that are given wisdom to help them by God. Furthermore she was also was raised up by God to speak out against abortion which is one of the greatest sins of the US. Just because the US laws says abortion is legal does not make it legal in the sight of God. The US is being judged by God for this sin of murdering innocent babies. I wonder how many people who are pro-choice would have wanted their mother to have aborted them. I would think not many yes answers to that question.
I mean, really. Really? Yes. No, YOU’RE a reasonless ideologue. No YOU are.
Yeah.
But here’s the staggering thing: it’s not overwhelmingly to one side or the other. That’s crazy. It means that of people who bother to post comments on web articles (bless their hearts, and yours, if your name is Clair) the country is not overwhelmingly intelligent… there’s a serious split over something that should be as obvious as not throwing yourself out of a 10 story building.
I’ll tell you what: Ben Franklin was right, and I hold this truth to be self-evident: the American Public cannot be trusted with reason. And given this obviously well-balanced split of season less stupidity to reckless adherence in outdated ideology, who KNOWS what will happen in November?
I guess we’ll just see.
Posted in Politics, Rants | No Comments…
It was sunny for a couple of days, and I’d taken the incentive to realize that no one would miss me if I just worked through the night, during the hours when everyone else sleeps and I don’t. So I’d spent a day or two sailing by myself in one of the absurdly man-made lakes around Amsterdam, eating Albert Heijn prepacked ham & cheese croissant sandwiches and drinking enough red bull to keep a corpse on its toes.
But there was strife in me — internal struggle — and there had been for days already. The long hours of summer sun had been on their way down and the rain was coming more frequently, and it was colder when it came. The friends I’d made over the year had either disappeared into jobdom or else moved on from that city. It was starting to occur to me that it would soon be time to leave Amsterdam.
And that’s ok. You can only follow one path and my time has afforded me a vision of all the paths spread before me. It has shown me at least that much. Amsterdam hadn’t made it easy, but that’s more of an observation than a complaint. I’d put in my hours of silent struggle with this place, with these people, and if you were to snide at me for seeming to throw in the towel then you’d snide at someone who knows better than you the woes of a lonely existence among the Dutch.
Silly reader.
But there was a question that was keeping me in agony, stirring me from sleep, and that question was where to go next from here? The work situation had degenerated with the American economy somewhat and that wasn’t helping things; in fact it was only limiting my options. Thankfully, having spent a year traveling in Europe I had fewer preferences and knew, for example, that under no circumstances did I want to live in, say, Antwerp, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Madrid or Brussels. Good weather and proximity to large bodies of water had become a much bigger priority for me than say, tall, blond women.
I had plenty of time to ponder the issue when Maryla threw a going away party for herself. I knew almost no one in my house that night. They were all her friends from grad school - various nationalities represented in my living room. I made small talk and flirted a bit with the cute German girl from Maryla’s class and had a nice laugh with the group of Greeks and Spaniards, who seemed to talk about nothing but olives and politics. I even danced a bit with the African girl from Tanzania. They talked loudly and smoked in the living room but I felt myself slipping and soon I was straddling the window sill in the kitchen, nursing a mug of vodka, wondering how it’d gotten so low.
I sat there, pretty much alone and looking towards the other rooftops, wondering things - occasionally watching the people walk past me a floor below. What is so different about this place?, was the thought that constantly found its way back into my mind. Why is it important to me, this “Europe thing”… what is it? Was it the charming and ancient streets that some towns have? That kind of architecture that makes everything feel like a village is not far off? Was it the horse-drawn carriages that woke me up on Sunday mornings? Because these were just THINGS.
Was it the people? Maybe it was the vacations, the attitude towards work that cares more about results than it does about appearances. That could be it. I mean, I went to London once for a couple of days and worked out of the Wi-Fi signal of a PUB, drinking BEER to sustain my right to be there. I went to Barcelona and worked in my brother’s attic for some time. I went to Zürich and worked on the banks of the Limmat for the cost of 7 coffees… hell, last week I went sailing and worked at night…
And no one noticed. The American working style of answering email every two minutes simply wouldn’t allow for that kind of effective productivity. But that couldn’t be it.
A drunk Lithuanian boy scurried by, unaware he was being watched. A few minutes later two Irish blokes looked up at me from the street below and asked me “you live here? Where are the hookers?”
Ahh, Europe.
–
I was walking up a cobblestone street today the width of a horse’s ass and I noticed that the buildings around me were stone, worn and full of history, not a trace of memory. I don’t know what that means, really, but there’s something there. Try to get past the association with subsistence farming for a second, try to get beyond the hippy-ish notion that “we can ignore the corporations, man”, and see the value, the nobility in having the things and comforts you WANT to have, and ignoring the argument that you use on yourself that you NEED these things.
I don’t know. A stable economy? Universal Health Care. Foreign Policy that makes sense? Hypocrisy and corruption in your government that you can stand against, maybe even understand?
Hmmm. Maybe it just turns out that I’m a socialist or something. Barry Hart would go to pieces if he ever found out.
It could also be the unforced linkage to a more civilized age, a connection to society that is more intimate than what I grew up around. The resistance to unnecessary technology and services, to absurd products and ideals thrown at you from the oligarchy above was something I could admire in a people. Their ability to think critically and to give a shit, to have an educated opinion that even if you didn’t agree with you could a learn a thing or two from it. The notion that the world is not black and white, despite what say the powers that be. That they understand, on this continent, the shame I feel for what America has become.
I’m not sure; none of that quite hits the mark.
My fascination with the closeness of the major cities, the proximity to such disparate cultures and languages might very well be a driving force. I love driving on a highway and having virtually every road sign you pass have the name of a major city that you’ve visited, or would like to visit. Zürich, Basel, Berlin, Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, Lyon, Prague, Budapest, Geneva, Milan, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Munich, Stuttgart, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon… the list is virtually endless. It’s not as if you see a sign for Sacramento, and then drive 2000 miles and see one for Chicago, having been through countless Virginia City’s, Winnamucca’s, Lovelock’s, Battle Mountain’s and Elko’s. And even then… Chicago? Who cares?
That’s the familiarity talking, I’m sure, but it’s an important part that can’t be discounted. These things are now, and will always be foreign for me. The languages, the customs, the people, the street signs, the license plates, the food… no matter how used to it I get there will always be an element of strange, of different, of exciting. I thrive on that shit.
There is also the obvious inter-relatedness of things that are so close to one another is equally captivating to me, how the history of everything has common causes, and I can understand things more easily this way. History is a fascinating thing, and we don’t have enough of it in America. Here in Europe you can see it in the bending of their streets.
I thought of all of this, of course, the first time I watched the Bourne movies. It all made sense to me then. Damn you, Jason Bourne!
Ahh. Europe.
–
A girl dressed in a plaid shirt walked into the kitchen for, I don’t know, more cake, let’s say. She saw me by the window and thought mistakenly that I was in the mood for a bad conversation and started telling me where she was from in Canada but that she was actually born in Montana, but that she thought that people of the northwest in America were basically just misplaced Canadian hicks or some other damn thing…
Jesus.
I hadn’t told her where I was from, but I got the feeling it wouldn’t have made much of a difference to a girl in Amsterdam from Halifax, Nova Scotia. After a few minutes of my not engaging her conversation all that well, she decided to get political.
A mistake.
Of all the things I didn’t want to discuss in my state of flux, in my indecision about my career, in my vacillation about what to do next, the last fucking thing I wanted to be reminded of was what would happen if McCain actually wins the Presidency. Or why that was still a possibility. And Canada-Montana there, who was feasting ravenously on some kind of a biscuit chocolate cake thing sitting on the kitchen table, wanted me to explain the FISA bill to her, postmortem.
sigh…
Why does it have to always be reactive with you people? Why can’t you fucking follow the important stuff while it still matters? We shouldn’t be putting these assholes in office and THEN wanting to learn more about their addiction to escort services, Cuban opium, toenail fetishes with 14 year old boys and this thing that you can do with a few star fruits if they’re ripe enough.
I don’t want to talk about that one.
I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter that SHE was asking; I don’t even know for a fact that she was still a citizen and could make a difference with her voice, except to aggravate me on my kitchen window. But it’s so much like everyone else I talk to, who wants to know if I’m an “Obama supporter”, or if I’m a “Hilary man”. What the hell does that even mean? Don’t you realize that there’s no choice? What do I think will happen if John Mc-two-face-Cain wins the Presidency? It’ll be the end of the god-damned planet, is what. It’ll be the second coming on fast-forward. And boy is Jesus going to shit his pants when he sees what we’ve done with the place, mostly in his name. The plane will crash into the mountain, and America will be the bane of the world in less than the four years it’ll take for him to get ousted out of office, and I’m not even sure you people will get the message then.
STOP VOTING FOR THESE LUNATIC AND CORRUPT ASSHOLES
Just stop. If you don’t know, if you think all you have is what they’re giving you, you’re probably right. If you haven’t asked someone who is smarter than you about the REAL problems, if you haven’t read more than one paper in the last 3 months, just stay home. It’s the right thing to do.
Oh, and if you MUST vote republican, don’t vote for McCain. Just buy a gun and shoot yourself in the face. It’ll work out better in the end, all without violating your right to bear arms.
–
But the FISA thing? Ugghh…
You have no idea, do you? You don’t know that what the congress passed and the president signed, that what you will now have hanging over your head like the carcass of a dead ferret for the rest of our natural lives is THIS:
-Releases electronic communication providers from liability with regards to civil action that may be brought up in any court due to assistance provided to the government in obtaining electronic surveillance if such assistance was authorized by the President before January 17, 2007 or if such assistance was the subject of written directions from the Attorney General or heads of the intelligence community indicating that the activity was lawful (Sec. 201).
What I have to say about this is: IF?
… IF such assistance was the subject of written directions from the Attorney General or blah blah blah?
Why don’t you just say, “spying on American citizens is illegal and we’ll rip your balls off, but, this bill releases Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales, Harriet Miers, John Bolton, Karl Rove, Don Rumsfeld, George Tenet and a slew of other incompetent but evil-ass motherfuckers from any liability or criminal wrong doing… assuming they did it.”
This is, simultaneously, an admission of total and ultimate guilt followed by an assertion that “it doesn’t matter; everything we’ve done up to now has now become legal, back to the date that we did it.” It’s the most comprehensive FUCK YOU ever given to a collective audience. It’s the largest and will be the most enduring middle finger ever thrown to a captivated people. And “your man,” Obama, voted for it, just like most of everyone else.
I told her all this in between spasms of fury and frustration.
“Wow,” she said, and poured herself the last of the whiskey. Then she scampered off to find more cake.
Fuck.
…moments become memories very quickly on a night like that. The rage just drowns out everything else, and the loneliness is like a blanket over your face to help you forget it in the morning. The mug of vodka just doesn’t hurt…
You know?
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We are, all of us, in a hole of shit. I mean, I have my own problems, and you have yours, but as a group, things look dark indeed.
Now look, I can write all kinds of gibberish, from warmongering propaganda to articles on high school volleyball to the demons that hound yours truly.
But today, it’s going to touch on - and I’m going to pull straight from my man Jon Stewart on this one - the 2008 cluster-fuck to the White House.
Yes, indeed. The reason for this sort of turnaround, this regression into the basest kind of political discussions? Disgust. Gleeful rage. Insane loathing for the general electorate.
I mean, election politics? Presidential Primaries? Who needs this shit? But it’s true, and it’s right in your face, even if you’re not paying attention. So look around you, Rube. Feel the burn. What are you going to do? The Titanic is going down, Rome is burning and the only swords within your grasp are the feeble power to vote and the ability to be informed if you want it.
If you want it. In some countries it’s mandatory. At least we still have the freedom to deny ourselves the only power we still have left. Ain’t America grand?
I remember once a flatmate of mine in college told me she didn’t vote.
“What?” I implored with confounded rage, as should be expected.
“Yeah, I don’t read the news enough and I don’t feel like I’d make an informed decision. So I don’t vote,” she told me with a look so stolid it made her posture stiffen.
I looked at her in total and complete disbelief and launched into some kind of rant about there being no excuse to not vote, and how others were never given the chance and even others were forced to do it and so on and so on. I don’t know that she listened to me. Thinking back on it, I hope she didn’t.
Had she taken my advice it would only have compounded the problem. America’s issue with voters isn’t just the indifference caused by a large middle class that is too comfortable and therefore too complacent with the status quo. It’s more complicated than that. When you get down to it, there are 3 kinds of voters:
- Those who are easily stirred into action (i.e. swing voters)
- Those who are naive enough to care (some of them are informed enough to be angry)
- Those who are extreme enough in their views to be passionate (dangerous)
The other 55% of the nation doesn’t even show up, so who cares what they think?
Well. It’d be interesting to know what percentage among them fall into the 3 categories of non-voters:
-The responsibly uninformed
-The wholly indifferent
-The informed enough to be angry and too disillusioned to act
I guess there is also the blissfully ignorant and some of these vote as well but they tend to fall into the first category up top. If only the ignorant ones didn’t vote. Then, at least, we’d have a meaningful election (assuming we could trust the counting machines, which we can’t, but that’s another day’s topic). In any case, this does not bode well for the politics of the country. I could get into a whole flurry of why the media is largely to blame since as the 4th branch, they are responsible for informing those who wish to be informed in the first place thereby creating an environment conducive to the principles of a unified and productive democracy… and they’re not doing that. But then it would start sounding like I’m preaching and only a jackass would do that, so what’s the point?
The point, since we’re getting back to it, is that I then told her something I believed in at the time but see now that I didn’t understand entirely. I told her what a lot of people think: that you should always vote.
This is a lie.
The rule is not that you should vote. The rule is that you MUST - without liberty to ignore your duty, without fail to feel the responsibility or the shame to fail - be informed.
After you’re informed you do what you want. Ride a boat upstream into the Congo if you think that’s the right course of action. But for fuck’s sake don’t vote if all you watch is CNN or anything on TV for that matter. Yes “The Daily Show” is included in that; you can’t just watch Jon Stewart. God, I bet he had a fit of fucking desperate terror the first time he realized that he was some people’s sole source of news, and he literally calls it the fake news. Although if you watch both “The Daily Show” AND “The Colbert Report”… well, that’s something…
But seriously, don’t vote if you don’t listen to the radio or read at least 2 or 3 publications, at least one of which is not owned by Rupert Murdoch or Pat Robinson. Don’t vote if you base your decisions on what Oprah or your neighbor says and certainly don’t vote because Mitt Romney thinks you should. Or, just to be safe, anyone from Florida, for that matter.
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Waterfalls of warm light fill the room from all corners. Chorals of ancient voices of Nat King Cole and some other white dude pour out from a CD recording in another corner of my parent’s house. The night is eerily clear and a dry and mild chill fills the air outside. Nothing a light sweater won’t fix. The cars are stowed, the garage is closed, the neighbors visited and now it’s time for just us. The heater was cranked up to obscene temperatures that could have had us lying around in shorts, but Dad fixed that quick, as dads always do. So now it’s more bearable. The kitchen hasn’t started going full force yet, but Dad is in there, crushing cranberries for his sauce, so I’m sure it will be soon. I am recently arrived from Amsterdam, my brother from Barcelona, and the rest of the family from their various corners of the Bay.
Christmas at the Avila house is an altogether relaxing thing.
I’m certainly privileged in this respect. If there’s one thing I have an unfaltering intolerance for during this season it’s the bullshit I see many of my friends going through. The topical application of traditions unconsidered and outdated notions such as caroling, Christmas cards, and jingle bell rock are abhorrent to me. The visiting of friends and other family members that are completely out of touch for the rest of the year and now, suddenly, want to know everything about you and your year, and I’m expected to have a quick answer or even care when they start telling me about theirs? No thanks.
These are the people who barely squeeze out the right names when looking at my brother and me next to each other, the ones that have some faint remembrance of some of my ordeals during the year, the triumphs, the stories, the tribulations and so forth… these people don’t deserve details. What they get is: “Things are great, yeah. No, work is good. It’s all adventures out there. No, yeah, it’s totally legal.” But what they deserve is closer to a grunt.
I listen to my friends talking about their conversations with relatives who don’t leave the farm more often than necessary to pick up the mail. I hear others discussing the travels they must undertake to see parents because they’ve up and moved to Florida. I hear the shit people talk about at Christmas parties and I cringe.
Sales tax increase? Are you kidding? Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated and you’re worried about what some politician is promising for a primary that is roughly 6 months away? Well.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m Mr. Holidays - I love putting lights on the house and leaving cookies out for Santa, that ever elusive and nefarious persona used by the conglomerates to their own ends; I love Christmas trees. Never mind that I also enjoy using the lights to design runway patterns on the roof or the front lawn, and that I leave the cookies out myself so that I know where they are and can check on them periodically during the night, and eat them myself in case he takes too long.
No sense in letting that spoil, you know? Waste not unto others that which thou somethingsomethingsomethingsomething… isn’t that in The Bible?
And never mind that Christmas trees are among the most pagan of symbols that they decided to incorporate into Christianity during the council of Nicea back in three hundred something AD. No; that shit is deeply rooted in the minds of Americans now, and it’s as good as red, white and blue.
But, seriously - don’t get me wrong. I like Christmas. I like having family together, eating great food and having turkey AND ham in the same meal. Hell, I’m even ok with being forced to take vacation time, not being able to fly anywhere for a solid period of 5 days and not having the option to NOT drink eggnog at some point during December.
But having to smile to people who might as well be at the bottom of a swamp during the rest of the year; having to give them the time of day and miss even a second of anything else you’d rather be doing; having to pause your Family Guy DVD so that you can superficially thank whoever brought that box of See’s Candies you hate so goddamn much is an affront to my enjoyment of this holiday.
That I still manage to enjoy it is a sign of how unselfish and decent people can be, even if it’s only once a year. Even if it’s just me. I guess that’s good enough.
Merry Christmas, all.
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