Tag: Politics

bookmark_border2012 Election

Posted on by PaulaO

I almost wish the Mayan calendar does mean the world ends next year. I don’t think I can stand another election campaign. If they’d just talk about what they will do or where they stand but, no, they have to spend money cutting each other up and that crap.

At any rate, the Republican “race” is looking interesting. I laughed when I heard Gingrich was going to run. Still laughing, actually.

But now I am laughing harder. I’d heard he’d had a bad week with the press so when I found an article that lists it all out, I was pleased.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Newton Leroy Gingrich

As everyone knows, this was the week that the federal government hit its deficit ceiling. That was the story everyone thought would dominate the week. Yet, somehow, Newt Gingrich surprised everyone by managing to hit his own first. And in the first full week of his life as an official candidate for president, too! For well over a decade, Gingrich had flirted with running for president, and just over a week ago, he finally decided to officially take the plunge. But by the time the sun had set on his campaign’s first weekend, political touts had cause to wonder if his aspirations were over. Let us now pause and take stock in the bizarre and awful week of self-inflicting wounds and puzzling decisions that the former speaker of the House has had, shall we?

(source)

It is a well done article and, after reading well over half of it, I’d not found an error. But I stopped reading because I couldn’t read for the tears of laughter blocking my vision. Seems as though, after an interview on the yawn worthy Meet the Press, and after several days of denials and apologies and all that crap, Gingrich’s spokesman Rick Tyler sent out a press release that reads more like a jumble of Haiku than a statement.

“The literati sent out their minions to do their bidding,” Tyler wrote. “Washington cannot tolerate threats from outsiders who might disrupt their comfortable world. The firefight started when the cowardly sensed weakness. They fired timidly at first, then the sheep not wanting to be dropped from the establishment’s cocktail party invite list unloaded their entire clip, firing without taking aim their distortions and falsehoods. Now they are left exposed by their bylines and handles. But surely they had killed him off. This is the way it always worked. A lesser person could not have survived the first few minutes of the onslaught. But out of the billowing smoke and dust of tweets and trivia emerged Gingrich, once again ready to lead those who won’t be intimated by the political elite and are ready to take on the challenges America faces.”

While it is indeed humorous, it is actually more painful than funny. That is, until I see that Cothbert (who I do not watch) covered this on his show.

(you can slide over to about 0:58 to miss out on the cheering audience or skip his part and get right to the meat of it at 2:38 or so although what he says sets the rest up quite nicely)

bookmark_borderSarah Palin Rant

Posted on by PaulaO

(I’m in a bad mood again. Consider yerse’f warned.)

I saw a headline a few days ago that made me twitch. It was where Palin said we (meaning the US) need to stand beside our North Korean allies.

Now, I’m not a history buff. I couldn’t tell you the time frame of the Korean War. But I could tell you which side we (meaning the US) are allied with. It ain’t the North.

I assumed I had mis-read and since I wasn’t interested in a blood pressure increase, I didn’t read further. Today I came across this article: (bold text is my doing)

Why Sarah Palin’s North Korea Flub Matters

Sarah Palin provided prime material for news outlets and comedy programs when she said on Glenn Beck’s radio show Wednesday:

“But obviously, we’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies.”

If she hasn’t already, I’m sure Palin will say that the “elitist,” “lamestream” media is doing her wrong, and that she is once again a victim of “gotcha journalism.” And Palin’s small but passionate group of supporters will undoubtedly argue that Palin made an honest slip of the tongue, something that could happen to any of us. Her supporters are right. Saying “North” instead of “South” is something that any of us could easily do.

But here’s the thing: Any of us did not stand up two years ago and claim we were qualified to fill a job that is a heartbeat away from the American presidency. We haven’t written books, made speeches, endorsed candidates and spoken to the (mostly right-wing) media as if we were policy experts. And we haven’t been scouting office space in Iowa for a 2012 presidential run.

(snip)

That’s the real story about the Palin flub about North Korea that the media isn’t covering. It’s not that she misspoke, but that anyone cared what she had to say on the issue in the first place.

Sarah Palin, with her reliance on spouting talking points, simplistic approach to issues and complete lack of experience beyond a half term as governor of a state the size of Columbus, Ohio, is not competent to be discussing North Korea. (Columbus, Ohio’s population is bigger than Alaska’s, 769,360 to 698,743.) And shame on any media outlet that treats her opinions as if they’re worth anything.

The real damning Palin quote in the Beck interview is the one in which she worries if “the White House is gonna come out with a strong enough policy to sanction what it is that North Korea’s gonna do.” Putting aside her usual butchering of the English language, she takes a complicated problem facing the United States (and the world) and reduces it to a talking-point political attack on the president.

Her comment reveals that she has no understanding that we are dealing with a North Korean leadership that may not be rational and may even be self-destructive. And one with the firepower to kill legions of South Korean civilians. To her simplistic, politics-driven approach, it’s only about how the Democratic president isn’t tough enough. (As an aside, she is talking about a president who has increased troops in Afghanistan, stepped up drone attacks on the enemy, and taken out more Taliban and al Qaeda leaders than George W. Bush ever did, but I digress… )

Personally, the fact she baled out of her job as governor just half-way through her term tells me she got a case of the big-head and wanted more. To hell with her obligations to Alaska. She’d ridden that boat as far as she thought it could take her then jumped to another.

I sincerely doubt the Republican Party is insane enough to nominate her to run for President in 2012. I know they have slid backwards a lot lately but, surely, not that far back.

As y’all know from previous posts, I full support the right of Free Speech. I support Palin’s right to open her mouth and continue to prove she is an idiot. What I don’t support is this “pot calling the kettle black” mentality and here I will digress some.

What the fudge are they doing calling themselves the Tea Party for? They injure the original Tea Party folks. The original one, which happened in Boston harbor in 1773, was an early act of rebellion by the Colonists against Britain and Big Corporations. (read about it on Wikipedia) Basically it was about taxation without representation.

Now we have these idiots Americans who call themselves the Tea Party as a response to the way they think America is being run. Thing is, they started this group at the change of government, putting total blame on a brand new President and NOT on the previous administration. Um, wha…? They protest the acts of this new administration, blaming it for the unemployment, the recession, and for not acting quick enough to do what they want. Um, wha…? The original Boston Tea Party-goers did something. They stopped bitching and they did something. Granted, that something got everyone in trouble (the 5 ‘Coercive Acts’) but they did something at least. What has the current Tea Party done? Caused a huge rift in an already crumbling political party, brought all the nut cases out from all sorts of closets, and made us the further laughing stock of the rest of the world. (please, please, stop calling them “tea baggers”. makes me gag)

We can’t act as a nation with so many directional pulls. On the one hand, McCain (bless his twisted heart) says the repeal of the DADT push by Obama is ‘politically driven’ (duh, it’s Washington. what else fuels the crap there besides money?). What is Palin’s comments based on? Sheer love for this country or sheer love of the power and big-head case she has? No, it is also politically driven but for some reason, for her it is allowed. Oh, that’s right, she’s a Republican and therefore exempt. Riiiiight.

One last thing and then I will shut up. Maybe.

I think that when a person holding a political office decides to run for another office, they need to quit first. While H. Clinton was running against Obama, who was looking out for the state of NY’s interests in the Senate? While Palin was joy-riding with McCain, who was looking out for Alaska? And after losing, they all go back to their original jobs and proceed to represent their constituents against an opponent they lost against. It ain’t right. Not right at all.

Let’s say Lorna wanted to work for FedEx. But first, she needs to show that FedEx delivers better than the USPS and UPS and how she, as a future employer of FedEx, would be a good representative if hired. Meanwhile, she is still delivering mail for USPS. How far do you think that would last? And how happy do you think USPS would be when she returned, unhired to FedEx, to get back to work for a company she ignored and/or mistreated?

So why would the state of Alaska, NY, and all those others even WANT them back?

bookmark_borderAnti-Muslim Rhetoric

Posted on by PaulaO

I am so tired of it. Really, I am. I’ve had enough.

The people who crashed the planes into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon, and those that wound up in the dirt in PA – yes, they were Muslim. They were twisted people who used their version of the Islamic laws to condone doing something very evil.

Eric Rudolph who bombed several gay bars, several abortion clinics, and even the Olympics in Atlanta is a Christian. That guy who blew up the federal building in Oklahoma and his friends that assisted him, they are all Christians. The idiots in the Davidian compound in Waco, the followers of Johnson who drank deadly Kool-Aid, and the old geezer Alamo who molested dozens of girls – they did all that in the name of their God, with their twisted version of Christianity to condone doing something evil.

Yet, where are the laws that says women can’t wear their hair real high? Where are the laws that say you can’t carry your Bible in the back window of your Buick?

The difference is the weapon Shrub and his handlers used. They used Patriotism. They used it to justify going to Afghanistan. They used it to go to Iraq. They used it to rename french fries and french ticklers. They used it to do all sorts of illegial activities. All in the name of Christian Patriotism. I don’t think American Patriotism had much to do with it.

We forget one thing. We, the Christians and the Muslims and the Jews, we all follow the same God. We just see God differently but it is the same God. I see Kevin as my baby brother, his wife sees him as Honey Bun, his kids see him as Dad. Same Kevin, just different view points.

My point is this: stop condemning an entire religion on the actions of a few. Even if those actions resulted in the deaths of over 3000 people (and not all of them were Americans, a fact they’ve conveniently let us forget). Going to Afghanistan was and is justified. Ridding the world of terrorism is a good thing. Never will be accomplished but trying to do it is a good thing. Invading Iraq….don’t get me started on that one. The Muslims are, on the whole, a good people. They have strong beliefs in nature, in each other. Just as I am not at fault for Rudolph bombing abortion clinics in the name of God, neither are all of them to blame for the actions of bin Laden.

Stop sending me anti-Muslim emails. So far, I’ve not responded. So far, I’ve kept my opinions to myself. Not any more.

I will not go naked in the streets just so Muslim men will commit suicide.

And Rudd of Australia did not tell Muslims to leave his nation so, no, I will not vote for him to be King of the World.

If women want to wear doohickeys that cover their faces, let them. It does no physical nor mental harm to them. Can’t say the same for high heeled shoes.

bookmark_borderMob Mentality

Posted on by PaulaO

In the chaos after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, thousands of Japanese-Americans were put into “camps”. After the events of 9/11, thousands of Muslims or assumed-to-be Muslims were harassed, some killed, some deported, others sent off to that horrid thing called Guantanamo Bay. Why? Because of Mob Mentality.

Far too often something sparks a riot or a small mob that then does something stupid like beating someone to death or tossing rocks at police. People who normally don’t have a mean streak find themselves being swept up by the wave of emotion and physical energy.

It is this Mob Mentality that has created a huge mistake in California. Thousands of individuals are being denied the basic right of marriage to the person they love simply because that person is of the same gender. No other reason. And it is allowed to happen and is condoned by the California state Supreme Court.

There’s a reason why we have Senators and Representatives in the state and federal government. It’s to protect ourselves from ourselves. To prevent the Mob Mentality from doing something stupid that will have to be cleaned up later. The Senators and Representatives are supposed to help the people get what they want through legislation. In a nutshell, that’s how it’s supposed to work. But even they get caught up in the furor and emotion of events. Such as that poor lady in Florida who was allowed to slow starve to death. The federal and state government tried to stop it. Why? Mob mentality.

The thing is, we never know when the Mob is going to turn on us. When will we find ourselves on the wrong side of the street? When will it become not a good thing to, say, live in New Jersey? Remember all the people getting kicked out of school and homes because they had AIDS? Remember the Japanese-Americans? Remember the people locked up in hotels for weeks because of the swine flu? What about breed specific dog laws?

The courts cannot allow the Mob Mentality to rule. It cannot. It isn’t there to say “The People want this.” It is there to say “This is the Law, this is the Constitution, and this is the decision based on those two.”

Someday, “they” will come for you. “They” will come for your children. “They” will come for your dogs, your parents, your job, your lifestyle, your personal choice that is no one’s business but your own. They will hate you because you are different from whatever the norm of the moment is. They will come for you because you aren’t one of them.

Someday, I will be able to openly display affection for my partner of nearly 19 yrs. But that day isn’t today.

Because they’ve come for us.

bookmark_borderPolitical Views

Posted on by PaulaO

Here we go. We are on our way to either starting the change back toward normalcy or we will continue down the road we have been on for 8 years. When that countdown meter in the sidebar reaches 0, will we be healing or pouring salt into the wound? Obama may not be the best for the job. Is anyone, really? But the idea of McCain in the Oval Office, at 72 years old, with Sarah Palin as the Vice President, that scares me. It really does.

I was preparing a post in my head, one that I would write here. It was going to be witty but to the point. It would have been full of sarcasm. It definitely would have wandered quite a bit.

Instead, I will spare you that post. I will give you one written by someone else who is much better at words than I am. Eve Ensler wrote an article that had me near tears. The article scared me and made me realize just how much is at risk.

Drill, Drill, Drill by Eve Ensler

I am having Sarah Palin nightmares. I dreamt last night that she was a member of a club where they rode snowmobiles and wore the claws of drowned and starved polar bears around their necks. I have a particular thing for Polar Bears. Maybe it’s their snowy whiteness or their bigness or the fact that they live in the arctic or that I have never seen one in person or touched one. Maybe it is the fact that they live so comfortably on ice. Whatever it is, I need the polar bears.

I don’t like raging at women. I am a Feminist and have spent my life trying to build community, help empower women and stop violence against them. It is hard to write about Sarah Palin. This is why the Sarah Palin choice was all the more insidious and cynical. The people who made this choice count on the goodness and solidarity of Feminists.

But everything Sarah Palin believes in and practices is antithetical to Feminism which for me is part of one story — connected to saving the earth, ending racism, empowering women, giving young girls options, opening our minds, deepening tolerance, and ending violence and war.

I believe that the McCain/Palin ticket is one of the most dangerous choices of my lifetime, and should this country chose those candidates the fall-out may be so great, the destruction so vast in so many areas that America may never recover. But what is equally disturbing is the impact that duo would have on the rest of the world. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. In my lifetime I have seen the clownish, the inept, the bizarre be elected to the presidency with regularity.

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution. I take this as a metaphor. In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God’s plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin’s view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, “It was a task from God.”

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist’s baby or not.

She obviously does not believe in sex education or birth control. I imagine her daughter was practicing abstinence and we know how many babies that makes.

Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in guns. She has her own custom Austrian hunting rifle. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God’s name, when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

I write to my sisters. I write because I believe we hold this election in our hands. This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil, strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and healthcare or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.

If the Polar Bears don’t move you to go and do everything in your power to get Obama elected then consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, “Drill Drill Drill.” I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.

Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

A final note: the book banning incident is not exactly what the media told us.
FactCheck.org – Sliming Palin
Snopes articles on Sarah Palin