I have decided to blog about religion and politics separately from my Destined for Banality blog. I'd like to give my readers a choice on whether they want to take the chance of being offended by my sometimes vitriolic rants on these taboo topics.
So let me get this straight. On September 11th, 2001, Osama Bin Laden directed his minions to fly planes into the Twin Towers in part to destroy the financial infrastructure at the center of New York City. It didn’t work. Now here we are just over seven years later and the financial market is being destroyed by the same greedy bastards that have been reaping all the rewards from unregulated capitalism gone wild. There is a small voice inside of me who actually cheers on these plummeting stock market numbers; and then I remember that we have a 401K plan for our retirement that is taking some awfully big hits these days. Also, my bank — Washington Mutual — was seized by federal regulators last week. I kind of knew this was coming. Supposedly all of my money (a big $40.07) is safe, because J.P. Morgan is buying up the assets or something. It will pay $1.9 billion to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and lay claim to $307 billion of assets and $265 billion of deposits. So the bigger banks are buying up the smaller banks that are in trouble.
The big bailout vote was today and guess what? It didn’t pass. Everybody’s pointing fingers. The Republicans claim that they were ready to pass it, but then they got insulted by Nancy Pelosi’s partisan speech. Now I understand why John Boehner is always breaking down in tears: The Republicans are actually ESP’s (Extra Sensitive People.) They had their widdle feelings hurt. Too bad, so sad.
Meanwhile, back on the campaign trail, John McCain found time to blame Barack Obama for the failure of the bill to pass. McCain’s strategy is obvious now. In addition to a constant stream of lies he has added mocking and sneering to his repertoire. This is the same guy, who a week ago claimed that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. He then wanted to fire SEC Chairman Chris Cox. Then there was some nonsense about creating a 9/11 type committee to figure out how we got into this mess. The next thing you know he announced that he was “suspending his campaign,” so that he could fly back to Washington and straighten the whole thing out. All of a sudden it seemed that things were good enough for him to attend the debate. This morning his surrogates, including the ever dapper Mitt Romney, praised McCain’s leadership for the ability to get this important economy-saving legislation passed. And then it didn’t pass. It was similar to last week when early Friday morning the McCain people posted a web ad exclaiming his victory in the debate that hadn’t taken place yet. When I actually start to think about this all this crap I just go berserk!
Well, I made it through the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain without my head exploding. I thought Obama did a decent job of tying McCain to the failed record of George (the "W" stands for War Criminal) Bush. I cheered when Obama brought up McCain's recent gaffe concerning a meeting with the president of Spain, a NATO ally of ours. It is tough though when Obama has to debate a pathological liar, whose sole ambition is to be president before he kicks. If I had been drinking milk it would have shot out my nose when McCain mentioned how proud he was a maverick as a partner (running mate.) With Palin's recent media exposure, and subsequent falling in the polls, I'm surprised that McCain mentioned her at all. He didn't actually say her name though. I was also happy when, in response to McCain's story of his bracelet from a dead soldier, that Obama said "I have a bracelet too." I'm so tired of Republicans being able to claim that they alone are the standard bearers of patriotism in this country. I am a veteran myself (U.S. Air Force, 1978 to 1982) and I think McCain's record on veteran's issues is abysmal. He likes to mention his backing of veteran's groups, but he leaves out all of the veteran's group in which he has very low ratings. He certainly doesn't have a very good reputation among the very important group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. I don't know how he can say that he "loves" the veterans when he was against the recent G.I. Bill and didn't even have the balls to come to Washington to vote on it. (Instead he opted to attend a fundraiser in California.)I do think that the McCain campaign was a tad presumptuous to post a web ad this morning declaring that McCain had already won the debate when he hadn't even committed to attending it yet.
No that it's over and I've gotten Justin to bed it's time for me to watch the pundit's reactions and eat some comfort food (whole wheat spiral noodles slathered with blue cheese dressing. Yum!)
The always bright and intelligent Rachel Maddow was commenting on John McCain's kind of, sort of suspending his campaign as of yesterday. She briefly quoted The Princess Bride, which made me chuckle in the midst of all this madness. Does John McCain actually know what the word "suspend" means when he still has ads up across the country; his surrogates are still huffing and puffing on talk shows; and most of his campaign offices in key battle states have not stopped their standard day to day tasks.
Never mind the fact that he pissed off David Letterman. Dave's continuous rant last night about McCain's phony claims of having to cancel his appearance, so that he could rush back to Washington, is biting and funny.
With new polls showing his campaign dead in the water among California Republicans, Arizona Sen. John McCain has pulled out of a long-scheduled debate with Texas Gov. George Bush, set for Thursday in Los Angeles.
McCain campaign officials tried desperately yesterday to put the best face on their withdrawal, even as a new Field Poll showed Bush far ahead among likely Republican voters in the winner-take-all race for the state's 162 GOP delegates. [...]
The bait and switch on the debate left the Arizona senator -- whose favorite campaign line is "I'll always tell you the truth'' -- wide open to blistering criticism from his rivals.
"Clearly, this is more double-talk from the McCain campaign,'' said Alixe Mattingly, a spokeswoman for Bush. "Pulling out of this debate at the last minute is an indication that they're pulling out of California, where McCain's antagonistic message clearly isn't working.''
John McCain just announced that he was suspending his campaign after his appearance at the Clinton Global Initiative meeting tomorrow until this economic crisis is solved. He also stated that he wants to delay the presidential debate scheduled for Friday for the same reason. For some reason I'm just not inclined to believe Mr. McCain these days. I smell political gamesmanship afoot. He's acting the part of the nonpartisan when he and the lobbyists that surround him are thinking of one thing: power.
Oh, and on another note: Sarah "In what respect Charlie?" Palin will meet another five world leaders today. She's out to set a record. She's also scheduled to meet Bono today, which doesn't impress me, because U2 started off as a Christian rock band when they were young. I think he may just have a little too much in common with her "world view."
Earlier this week I was downright giddy with the apparent crumbling of the McCain-Palin campaign (or is it Palin-McCain?) But there are quite a few days left before election day, and McCain’s operatives are some of the most deft at the black arts. Witness Karl Rove, who still maintains that he’s not working directly for the McCain campaign, so that he can continue to spout his pearls before swine on the Faux News Channel. Today, after the disastrous week on Wall Street, McCain actually had the nerve to blame Barack Obama for the crisis. He claimed that Obama has been in the center of Washington, caving to the pressure of lobbyists. This coming from the guy whose campaign is run by lobbyists! It was just yesterday that he didn’t seem sure where Spain was. It’s mind-boggling at this point that any sane individual could cast a vote for the John McCain, but for decades the Republican party has depended on the fact that most Americans are more concerned about the latest missing child reports, and whether O.J. will actually go to jail for his latest act of stupidity. They think we’re dumb enough not to realize what party has had it’s hand on the tiller for the last 8 years. I switched on C-SPAN today just in time to see Senator John Cornyn (another fake cowboy from Texas) still endorsing tax cuts for corporations, because those corporations would then choose to stay in the country creating jobs here rather than going overseas to rape and pillage. The rich are still touting that "trickle down" theory of economics. The poor get the crumbs that fall from the table. When he asked for another three minutes to continue his bullshit I turned it off.
The first presidential debate is a week from tonight and I am waiting with bated breath. I am hoping that Barack Obama will kick some serious political ass. The topic of the debate will be foreign policy and national security, supposedly McCain’s strong suit. The first question: can you locate Spain on a map? Maybe John McCain will skip his meds that night and will demonstrate that infamous temperament of his.
The Obama campaign has an excellent new web site up called McLobbyist.com. Take a gander at that line-up of moneygrubbers. Again, the reasonable question is: who does McCain and Palin plan to reform when their campaign is run by lobbyists?
I'm so happy that my $50 donation last month helped make Obama's fundraising in August such a success. His campaign raised more than $66 million dollars last month, and has more than $77 million in the bank. There were $500,000 new donors last month, bringing the total of individual donors to more than 2.5 million. Sarah Palin may have woken up the bible-thumping creationists, but she also woke up a lot of independents and other sane folks, who shudder at the thought of this self-professed "hockey mom" being a "heartbeat away from the presidency."
How does the mainstream media actually decide on it's news stories? How is it that we don't hear much about Cindy McCain's drug past? And what about John McCain's language? He recently lambasted Barack Obama for using the phrase "when you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig." The McCain camp claimed that Obama was obviously referring to Sarah Palin. John McCain has used that same metaphor numerous times himself. What would the press do if John McCain ever demeaned women . . . or insulted his wife in front of the press? Hmmm...
Incidentally, the comment attributed to John McCain in this video has been reported as fact by various sources. You can use "the Google" to find more on his use of the "C" word.
Being a veteran myself it still galls me that McCain claims to have help pass the most recent G.I. Bill when in actuality he was opposed to the bill. He agreed with the Bush administration's cockamamie reasoning that offering soldiers an education after they got out of the service would cause a depletion in forces. The reality (always different from the Republican viewpoint) is that the attraction of the new benefits would attract enough new volunteers that there would not be any depletion caused by soldiers wanting to get out and get educated. I wasn't lucky enough to get the G.I. Bill when I was in the air force. It ended the year before I joined. We had a crappy program called VEAP. For every dollar I put the government would put in two...up to a total of $8,100. That didn't even pay for two years of electronics school. I still had to take out student loans to make up the difference.
I am really tired of John McCain claiming the negative and deceptive ads recently put up by his campaign are only used because Barack Obama refused to accept McCain's offer of a series of town hall type debates. So in other words, if Obama had just agreed to do things McCain's way, then his campaign wouldn't have been forced to release lie after preposterous lie about Barack Obama. I've even heard McCain stick to his guns about the "lipstick on a pig" comment, which no sane person believes that Obama was in any way referring to S. Palin. John McCain himself has used that phrase at least three times in the last year, and once specifically referring to Hillary Clinton's health care plan.
I find it hard to write about politics lately, because just the thought that enough ignorant Americans could elect the party of ultimate hypocrisy into office again, after being screwed by the Bush/Cheney regime for the last seven years, fills me with sadness. Why can't people learn to sift through the bullshit that makes up American culture and learn the facts for themselves? The right wing has managed to get their views included in any debate even when they are categorically wrong. Do we really need to listen to the other side on evolution and global warming when the scientific data is clear? And if you don't think that the data is conclusive why not read up on these very important issues that concern the globe? When you live life with blinders on you'll never discover the reality that surrounds you.
The Republicans are constantly saying that they want to keep the government out of our lives and yet they want to impose the morals on the rest of us. If they really want to stay out of our lives then what is the problem with women having choice? When Sarah Palin says she is against abortion even in the case of rape or incest (Alaska having the highest incidences of rape in the country) she says it's because she "chooses life." But she somehow thinks it's okay to take that power of choice away from the rest of the women in this country. Banning books at your local library is another instance of the government interfering with my intellectual well-being.
It's just more hypocrisy from the masters of deceit. They don't want the government out of lives completely. They just don't want the government to be a helping hand for those in need. They want everyone to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps even if one doesn't have any boots!
So first John McCain seeks out Rev. John Hagee's endorsement, but then he has to distance himself from the pastor's nutty pronouncements. He also had to break his public ties with Rod Parsely, because of Parsely's anti-Muslim statements. Back before the 2000 election he called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson "agents of intolerance" and now he has someone with a similar mindset as his vice presidential running mate. This warped theology they push worships the affluent and leaves the poor to fend for themselves. If you don't think that Sarah Palin should be lumped in with these extremists then take a gander at the videos below and be schooled in the language of the fundamentalists. I do not plan to sit on the sidelines while the crazed Christians do their best to warp this country into their own vision.
Where to begin. George W. Bush in drag? Like everyone else I have had my fill of the moose-eating mom from Alaska over the past week. Ever since John McCain pulled the rabbit out of the hat others have covered the phenomenon known as Sarah Palin better than I could, but I’ll step into the foray anyway.
Once at the convention the hypocrites were in overdrive, trying to con the public into somehow believing that the Republican party wasn’t in charge over the last 7 and a half years (forget the Democrats being in charge of congress for the last two years when the Repugs can use rules they created to basically kill any decent legislation.) It all comes down to making the tax cuts for the richest among us permanent and stirring up the culture wars to get the ignorant blue-collar bible thumpers out to the voting booths this November. It was the same old same old, except they had a feisty “hockey mom” from nowhere to fire up the conservative base. (Not that Wasilla, Alaska is nowhere. On the contrary. I’m sure it’s a beautiful spot. I’m mean symbolically that Sarah Palin is from nowhere. She has no significant political background. She is being used as a political tool to engage a certain voter: anti-choice, book burning creationists. The same lunatic fringe that elected George W. Bush . . . twice. (Of course the results of the 2000 election show that George W. Bush was selected not elected; and the results of the 2004 election should probably be examined a little more closely. (Hello Ohio.) )These voters have never been crazy about John McCain, who once (accurately) called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance.”
The ploy at this week’s convention was obvious. Sarah Palin was there on Wednesday night to (literally and metaphorically) give the conservative base a hard-on. While John McCain’s job on Thursday night was to appeal to the independents and those dissatisfied with the way things have been run for the last 7 and a half years. His choice of Palin was such a obvious political hail Mary pass. A desperate overture to the fundamentalists in the extreme right wing of the Republican party. If you are John McCain — a self-professed maverick — you don’t go from considering Joe Lieberman and Tom Ridge for the V. P. spot one week to suddenly picking the radical mother/governor, who is already embroiled in a bit of controversy. Now she is thrust onto the national stage, along with her political and familial baggage (and they seemed to be tied together in this case) to rev up the base before hightailing it back to Alaska to sort out her affairs (no pun intended) and bone up on foreign policy. I’ve heard that she is being quickly schooled in the ways of the world by the ever stalwart (hack!) Joe Lieberman. It seems that Joe has nothing better to do than lick the boots of Republicans since being re-elected back in 2004.
All in all I’m not worried by this recent turn of events. The idea that Hillary supporters are going to flock to McCain now that he has a vagina on the ticket is preposterous and insulting to thinking women everywhere. As has been pointed out, there were much more qualified women on the right to fill that position, such as Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Susan Collins. If people are not riled up enough to get out in force and elect Barack Obama in an attempt to overturn what has been done to this country for the past seven years then we, as a country, will get what we deserve. When I mention to my conservative parents the things that repel me about Bush’s control of our government: legalizing torture, systematically stripping away fundamental constitutional rights, consistently rewarding his corporate buddies. They blithely respond, “well, we don’t know about that.” Exactly, and that’ just how the powers-that-be want it. The public is being dumbed down by a corporate culture run amok, so that they cannot get off their lazy asses one day out of the year to vote the bastards out of office.
It’s a nation of flag-waving hypocrites exhorting a war that they do not actually have to fight. When ever anybody utters the word “draft” they are immediately hushed. I support the draft, because then, if more citizens were forced to serve militarily, they might be more apt to oppose a senseless illegal war. When your ass is literally on the line then you might be more likely to say, “hey wait a minute!” Two of the Republican party’s most aggressive chicken hawks warmed up the crowd for Sarah Palin on Wednesday night: Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani. Thompson was deferred from the draft during the Vietnam era, because he had children. Rudy Giuliani, who was fresh out of law school, had influential judges in New York excuse him from duty, by declaring him vital to their staff. I’ve only seen bits and pieces of these speeches, including the highlight of the evening Gov. Palin. I find that I hearing lies and propaganda continuously for a few hours damaging to my health, mental and otherwise.
McCain and Palin were stumping in Wisconsin today, repeating some of the same lies that they introduced during the RNC. For sixty days we will be subjected to some of the basest and most vile attacks on Barack Obama, Joe Biden and on roughly half the country in disagreement with right wing ideologues. If we question their ginned up war we’re labeled unpatriotic (even those of us who have served in the military.) If we urge diplomacy over military aggression than we’re called appeasers. If we want a fair wage and decent affordable health care we socialists! And what’s wrong with socialism anyway? Our capitalist democracy seems to favor the wealthy few over the masses. Why would any sensible working individual fall for the scam called “trickle down economics?” As Dennis Kucinich shouted at the most recent Democratic convention: Wake up America!
The flag waving half of the country drink the Kool Aid by watching Faux News, and getting stirred up about gays and immigrants while their jobs are being sucked away by the corporate elite. I’m sure the oil execs were creaming their jeans when they heard the crowd at the Republican convention start chanting “Drill Baby, Drill!” Election after election common working people hand the richest few in the country everything they want and desire. Before Bush & Co. leave office they are determined to get drilling approved for ANWAR, contraception declared abortion, and they are gutting the endangered species act among other things. The right wing thugs have raped and pillaged this country for the last seven and a half years. Enough!
As for Sarah Palin: the idea of a Dominionist, who believes that God has a plan for Iraq being the vice president to a president, who is a seventy-two year old cancer survivor, sends chills down my spine. The warped ideology of those who would urge on the apocalypse, because they believe that they are going to rise up into welcoming heaven at that moment, is just as dangerous as the Jihadists, who believe that they have 77 virgins awaiting them after their martyrdom. And as for Ms. Palin being once voted Miss Congeniality during a beauty pageant?
Now that I've got that out of my system. Let's take a break for a little cooking instruction.
Mark your calendars folks! This Monday, September 8th, marks the debut of the Rachel Maddow show. Her show will immediately follow Countdown with Keith Olbermann in an attempt to keep those MSNBC ratings high. I've have been hoping for months that the powers-that-be at the network would see the value in giving Rachel her own show, and low and behold, they must have agreed with me. Below is an interview Rachel gave with Think Progress about the format and so forth:
Also, last Friday marked the beginning of the fall season of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. We had added HBO to our cable package just as the last season of Real Time was ending. Now, with Keith, Rachel and Bill Maher on each week, it's starting to feel like there are at least, well, three voices of reason on mainstream television. It's downright refreshing and will help me keep my sanity as the country fumbles toward it's next presidential election. Will reason win out this time around? It certainly seems to have a louder voice than in the previous two presidential elections.
The big bailout vote was today and guess what? It didn’t pass. Everybody’s pointing fingers. The Republicans claim that they were ready to pass it, but then they got insulted by Nancy Pelosi’s partisan speech. Now I understand why John Boehner is always breaking down in tears: The Republicans are actually ESP’s (Extra Sensitive People.) They had their widdle feelings hurt. Too bad, so sad.
