Americans and the Boogeyman

As the mid term elections approach I am struck with the knowledge of something I never understood or recognized before.  It is a truth that is beginning to sink in...and affect my views of American politics.  As I watch (don't gag) Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Ed Show with Ed Sholtz (even I can't stomach him half the time) and the nightly Countdown with Keith Olberman I find the truth to become more and more evident...and very sad as well...

American politics revolves around the Boogeyman.

Now before you start yelping in defense I want to make a couple of points about the concept of a Boogeyman:

1. Rarely is a Boogeyman real, especially in the sense it is created by the story teller
2. The Boogeyman is an abstract concept hid in shadows and short on details
3. Rarely is there a clear cut solution to the Boogeyman

Having said that I want to also make clear that in American politics the Boogeyman has different names and different faces depending on your point of view and ideology.  Make no mistake...both sides of the political spectrum make use of the Boogeyman...liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Tea Party Republicans, right and left alike. 

Politicians feed on the baser nature of their voters.  Simple as that.  Fear, hate, elitism, class warfare, extermism, prejudice, pride, anger and just plain out ego and selfishness.  These are the emotions the put politicians in office.  The current surge against incumbants is not some lofty aspiration...it is politicians feeding on the baser of the human emotions.

Politicians deal in superlatives.  They are the BEST option set against the backdrop of the WORST President, Senator or Congressman EVER!  These superlatives are useless, meaningless and insulting...yet we the voters award them by cheering for them, donating to them and voting for them.   Our own anger at not getting what we want when we want leads us to look beyond reason and seek the quick answer...that never really is as quick as we expected and rarely is the answer at all...instead, more often than not, it is just more of the same.

Another fact that plays into this Boogeyman fuel in American politics is the ego of Politicians.  Politicians want to save us.  Simple as that.  Politicians have to have something to fix, or there is no need for them and most certainly no need to replace them.  If there is NOT a problem with our society, economy, culture, etc.  Than there is no need for elections.  It has to be a problem that only they can fix and that preferrably the person they want to replace had a part in creating. So by necessity, in order to get into office there has to be a Boogeyman.

Take the Tea Party Republicans for example.  The success of the Tea Party GOP is not that they have new ideas....their ideas are ones being rehashed and have been rehashed by the extremists in this country over and over.  Their success is not that they are so bright and intellignet...please...O'Donnel, Miller, Palin and Angle...these people are not exactly intellectual giants.  No.  Their success is built on some very distinct and basic human emotions: hate, selfishness, ego, fear and racism.  Their lack of leadership provides a wide array of behaviour and misbehaviour that leaves NOBODY accountable.  So people like Palin and Beck can ride the surge, take advantage of the opportunity, advance their own personal political and religious agenda without having to take responsiblity for the actions of their own people.  Fear of government, religious theocratic views, fear of the Brown Man, the Black Man...and for that matter anybody that is not white...all these baser urges and instincts have fueled the Tea Party GOP.

There are those that want to fight the tie of the Tea Party to the GOP.  Those that want to say the Tea Party is both Democrats and Republicans.  I point to one simple truth...not one Tea Party candidate in any race accross this country has challenged a Democrat in the primaries...the only seats they have contested are Republican seats because they ARE Republicans and the ONLY seats they CAN fill are Republicans.

But enough of that...let's look at the Boogeyman. Each party has its own Boogeyman...so let's look at it.

Republicans prefer a Boogeyman that appeals to patriotism.  Right now in our country their three preferred Boogeymen are: Islam, Barrack HUSSEIN Obama and illegal immigrants.  I could go into all kinds of talk about this but frankly I am so disgusted with them and so tired of hearing their hate filled rhetoric that I would rather not get into it.  Islamophobia fueled by good old fashion hate and racism and religious extremism has spread like wild fire threatening the very values that have made us great. Tack onto that the homophobia of the right and their resurging thocratic views and Boogeymen abound.

Democrats favorite Boogeymen are rich people and big business.  I tend to defend some of these views because of my own liberal leanings but that does not change the fact that the same ploy is used by liberals on the left.

The point is that American politics will always be ugly because there will always be some horrible Boogeyman out to destroy us.  Until this changes our system will continue to degenerate and there is no Pledge to America that can stop it.  Our system is becoming more and more useless the more we cater and reward the demagoguery.  It is sad the point we have sunk to in our country...the talk about "Restoring Honor" sounds nice...but is in and of itself just more of the same.  The Boogeyman is gonna get you if you don't vote for us....and in the end...we all lose...

A Banner Week for Bigotry and Hate...

So it is Sunday night and I look back over this week at some of the news this week and suffice it to say that this week was one where the media pandered to the hate and bigotry of the Republicans and to the radical religious right that has taken over the GOP.   And as if the GOP and it nutcase teabaggers were not enough the cowardice of the Democrat Party Leaders was in all its glory as Harry Reid and a few of the others did not hesitate to side with the religious right (in regards to the ‘Mosque’ in NYC but we will get to that eventually).  So just a quick recap…

California…so let us start in the land of fun and sunshine.  Prop 8 was declared unconstitutional and since a gay judge ruled that made him biased, nevermind the fact that he made solid arguments all the way around on why it was not constitutional he was an “activist” judge…because obviously being a heterosexual judge would have made him unbiased!  

Prop 8 defenders, however, stay on message that the gays and lesbians are destroying the family institution as seen by the 50%+ divorce rate and soaring teen pregnancy.  Just as an ironic side note, teen pregnancy is highest in the more rural, less educated but more religious “Bible Belt” South.  Despite the fact that they have no economic, social, psychological, physical, logical or even practical reason other than the superstitious, bigoted, malevolent, archaic and religious nonsense they insist on spewing and regurgitating they have managed to discriminate against the rights of a minority group in our great lan of freedom and liberty and justice for all.

The right insists that this is a matter for “the people” to decide…but is it?  Consider the following two questions:

1.      

Is   Is marriage a civil or religious matter?

This question is significant because if it is a religious, dictated by the religious realm, then other issues can ostensibly become a part of the regulation process (i.e. adultery, fornication, divorce, etc.) and a much more stringent rule would be applicable. If marriage is, however, a civil matter than to important issues become a part of the consideration:

a.       Legality.  If this is a civil matter then it an issue that is affected by law not the mob.  What these nut cases don’t understand is that today you are voting on somebody else’s rights and fifty years from now they will be voting on yours.  It is at moments like this that these people prove they miss the message of “Do unto others as you want them to do unto you.”  I was just discussing this last night with a good friend and he was saying that marriage should not be a state sanctioned thing then it would not be an issue.  On the surface I would agree with this. BUT, as I was thinking about it afterwards I was thinking, where would we be today if the state had not ordered desegregation?  Sure eventually it would have happened but we would be years, even decades, behind where we are now.  If you left this marriage issue to people it would never happen.  People are too deeply entrenched in their superstitions, phobias and irrational bigotry to have made this change or even accepted this change with anything less than a fight.

b.      Civil rights.  If marriage is a civil matter then, as in all things civil, civil rights apply.  There was a time when a black person could not marry a white person.  Heck, not too long ago, like last year, a judge was forced to retire because he refused to perform a mixed race marriage.  Marriage is a civil union between partners committed to a lifetime of mutual dedication and as is the case in all other civil matters, that right cannot be infringed upon due to race, religion, age or gender.  The Constitution does not define marriage, neither implicitly nor by implication.  Now there are those that would argue that the founding fathers would have clarified it if they had felt it necessary and if they had seen where we would be today.  And they may be right, but like it or not they did NOT define it and that fact does not leave it open for the right to speak for the Founding Fathers and define it for the rest of the country.  The religious right, who seem to think they are the Elite of Americans and the only true Patriots, were not given some divine right, passed on by George Washington to dictate to the rest of the country what the Founding Fathers “meant” to say.  Where there is no definition outlined in the Constitution it falls under the individual freedoms of the citizen, a freedom that no other citizen has the right to infringe upon.

2.       Is this a theocracy or a Democratic Constitutional Republic?

Are we run by the law of God or the laws of Man?  And if the answer is by the laws of God then, which God?  This may come across as sarcastic but the theocratic Republican Teabagger Sarah Palin is so fond of pointing at the now defunct Soviet Union and nod sagely an remind us that socialism does not work.  Ok.  Allow me to point at Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Kuwait and a slew of other countries as examples of the simple fact that theocracy does not work either.  These people are not interested in the rights and freedoms of the American people.  These people are only interested in their own rights and liberties and then in forcing the rest of us to line up with their twisted, distorted and bigoted view of the world, adhering to their ideals and beliefs.  We are free country governed by the laws of society, laws made by men to govern men. (And by “men” I am referring to the human race.)  I do not acknowledge the right of you or your God telling me or my family or my friends how we can live our lives.

Now let us take a cross country ride to the other center of bigotry, hate, racism and idiocy…

New York City…The last place I would have thought to have been a bedrock of conservatism, NYC is now the place of the most heated controversy.  A couple of city blocks away from Ground Zero in Manhattan there are plans to build an Islamic cultural center and this has started an uproar that is being played by the political leaders, eager to drum up anything they can to get the base livid enough to get out and vote in November so they can be back in power .  I would blame this on the Republicans if it weren’t for the eager whimpy ass Democrats lining up to sell our freedoms and liberty for their preservation of power. 

It has been ten years since the horrible disaster that claimed so many lives and even now, despite the fact that, between Afghanistan and Iraq, we have exacted more than our share of bloodshed and revenge we still show fear, we still show cowardice and hate in the face of a religious system that at worst is just as violent, oppressive, bigoted, divisive, hate filled and archaic as the one this country espouses.  Christians often point at the Koran and select passages that speak of violence as proof that it is a religion of violent control unworthy to exist in our great country while ignoring the Book of Joshua where their God ordered the complete genocide of an entire region including women, children an even the animals of people whose only crime was worshiping a different God and happen to make the mistake of living on a piece of real estate they wanted!

The point is that we have, as a nation, allowed a group of extremists make every religious movement a political movement.  At what point did we allow our fear of a religion dictate our freedoms and liberties?  At what point did the First Ammendment get assigned a “no fly” zone?  At what point did ANY acreage, any real estate fall under an exemption to the freedom of religion?  At what point did we decide that the Constitution only protects certain religions?  At what point did we say it is ok to put a chapel on sacred ground where the Christian God could be worshipped but a Mosque (which this is NOT a Mosque but so what if it were?) would not be allowed for people to worship Allah? 

Somebody called the radio station here and made a comment stating that building a Mosque near Ground Zero would be like the Catholic church building a church near a playground!  Truth is that there is no room for this kind of foolishness in our country.  There was a time we would have defended this basic right.  But it became ok to be a bigoted, hated filled  and ignorant fool as long as you could hide behind patriotism.  Make no mistake, there is not a damn thing patriotic in standing against the rights of your fellow Americans. 

And now the call is going out to “denounce” the President as a Muslim.  And so what if he were?   John F. Kennedy was a Catholic and they swore he could NOT be President because he would be a slave to the Pope.  Our Constitution very clearly states in Article VI that religion is irrelevant when it comes to holding office.   Why are we so ready to sell off our rights, freedoms and liberties to these fear mongering idiots in the name of National Security, Patriotism and propriety?  Why are our leaders Republican and Democrat so ready to betray all we revere and love about this country in order to pander to a group of people that are nothing more than the squeaky wheel that the media seems to insist on giving too much air time to?  Have we come that far that we have forgotten what it truly means to be America? I shudder to think what these right wing nut jobs will do once they have the votes in November…

Most Republicans, Weekly Churchgoers Anti-Gay Marriage

Link: Most Republicans, Weekly Churchgoers Anti-Gay Marriage

In my previous blog I had argued that the more dedicated a person is to their church the more likely they would be intolerant, particularly on the subject of gay marriage.  I also argued that age, region of the country and political affiliation would affect this spirit of homophobia.  I mentioned that I wished a poll would be made to prove this by the numbers.  Well... Gallup heard my plea for help and the above link reinforces that thought.  I know that it is at this point where I will hear the argument that you can make any numbers mean anything you want to...but I for one at least feel somewhat vindicated in my argument.

Opposed or In Favor (Nationally)?

Opposed 57% / In Favor 40%

By Party:

Republicans:  

Opposed 80% / In Favor 20%

Democrats: 

Opposed 42% / In Favor 55%

Independents:  

Opposed 52% / In Favor 45%

By Age: 

18-29:

In Favor: 59% / Opposed 37%

30-49:

In Favor 40% / Opposed 57%

50-64:

In Favor 37% / opposed 61%

65+

In Favor 25% / Opposed 71%

By Region:

East Coast

Opposed 50% / In Favor 47%

West Coast :

Opposed 50% / In Favor 46%

Mid-West:

Opposed 56% / In Favor 41%

South

Opposed 68% / In Favor 31%

By Church Attendance:

Weekly:

Opposed 78% / 19%

Nearly Weekly

Opposed 57% / 39%

Seldom / Never

Opposed 40% / 59%

The point is simply this...by its very nature church and religion are homophobic and bigoted...especially when it comes to issues like gay marriage.  Here is another significant poll done by Gallup when it comes people's views on gay marriages.  At least one promising poll indicates some hope that our homophobic society will learn some level of tolerance and come to the realization that discrimination of any kind should not be allowed or tolerated.

Tea Party Crackpots Strike again...

Shall we start talking about "Radical Leaders prey on the fearful & naive"? I am too angry to even begin on this one...

"W" ring a bell? You don't even WANT me to get started on King George. Now THERE was a radical leader that was a MASTER at preying on the fears and naiveté of the American people.

How about the leaders, from BOTH parties, that sold our rights down the drain (Patriot Act ring a bell?) for the illusion of security?

How about the Republicans feeding the xenophobia, racism and white supremacy as they do their best to set this country back 50 years in civil rights race baiting and setting Americans against Americans, feeding on their fears and naiveté? Or how they took the balanced budget of the Clinton years and turned it into an unbelievable debt that they are trying to pass off on Obama while their brain child, the Teabaggers, turns on them and bites the hand that created them.

Do we REALLY want to talk about radical leaders preying on the fear and naiveté of the people they want to rule?

To compare Obama to Hitler, a man that murdered millions of Jews or Lenin that instituted one of the cruelest regimes of modern history while ignoring and defending Jan Brewer and the State of Arizona that wants to turn it into the "Show me your papers" state which just happened to be step number one of the Holocaust is grossly irresponsible and hypocritical. But then irresponsibility and hypocrisy are the calling cards of the Tea Party anyway...along with hate, racism and ignorance.

I don't even know how to end this so I am going to just stop here and continue muttering the rest of the day....

Somebody throw South Carolina (and the GOP) a climbing rig...

So today is the runoff in South Carolina and it is one I have been watching with some interest. Partly because South Carolina politics will be my politics in a couple of months and partly because South Carolina politics, in many ways, represents EVERYTHING I hate about the Republican Party, everywhere, but particularly in the south.

I have argued before that the GOP is the party of faith and racism. If you are a Republican, I am sorry for the generalization. I am aware that not ALL Republicans are religious bigots and racists. However, enough of them are to elect some real idiots in to a variety of offices across the nation and in particular in the south and in the Midwest. Nor am I implying that ALL Republican elected officials are religious and racist bigots...just enough that the national Republican agenda has become one of defending big business, harassing minorities and making it un-American and wrong to be of any religious persuasion other than Christian. Once again, South Carolina is a perfect example of this...and hell...it is among their own candidates (since a Democrat in South Carolina is like...an albino squirrel...not quite extinct but definitely a rarity.)

In this case in particular we have Nikki Haley against most of the GOP Establishment in South Carolina. Now she is leading in the polls and will win the GOP nomination for Governor, which in South Carolina means she will more than likely win the election. Her winning is hopefully a sign that enough of the population of the Palmetto State is tired of the "good 'ol boys" and their strangle hold on the state. I was reading an article (please read it here)and it defines the "Southern Test" Mrs. Nikki Haley has been forced to take over and over...

(1) Faith

Let's get this straight, Article VI of the Constitution of the United States makes a statement that is both plain and definitive:

but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Simply put no elected official in this Country can legally be put through a religious test. No elected official can or should be elected based on what religious faith they have. In short, for those idiots that can't quite get it...IT IS NEITHER LEGAL OR ETHICAL TO DEMAND THAT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIAL BE OF A SPECIFIC FAITH OR RELIGION! In other words, my religious beliefs or the religious beliefs and affiliation of any candidate should not even be questioned.

Yet...that is all you hear in South Carolina when it comes to Candidate Mrs. Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley. The South Carolina GOP bigotry club has dissected her conversion, chronologically cataloging her rise in politics with her conversion to Christianity from Sikh. Because, clearly, the only thing that is important to these ignorant buffoons is that she be of the right faith. Because, we ALL know that good Christian men like Mark Sanford, are sooo much better, are more in tune with the needs of the Christian Southerner, and more apt to promote and protect true Christian family values and the American way. All though...I am not sure if that was BEFORE or AFTER the affair...details, details, details. The point is that while I am in no way a supporter of the Sarah Palin Pageant Queen Winner of the Election Cycle in South Carolina the way she has been put through the ringer and forced to defend her level of commitment to her faith is absolutely wrong, un American and unconstitutional.

(Note: And before I get the snide remarks about how sexist the Sarah Palin Pageant Queen Winner sounds, it was not intended as a snide remark at Haley's being a woman but more of a snide remark at Sarah Palin who has traipsed through this country's elections treating her endorsements like it is some stupid pageant. And the reference to Palin and her pageant attitude has less to do with her being a woman and more with her trying to play on her being a woman and acting like a Barbie doll girl in a Barbie doll world.)

(2) Race

So the media and the establishment that opposes Haley have started using Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley in reference to the candidate. Sound familiar? As in Barrack Hussein Obama? She is lucky she is just running for governor! If she were running for President she would have to produce a birth certificate and even then some idiots would be claiming it was falsified and invalid. The fact that her race has even come up is an embarrassment to this country. But hey, this is the south and some things never change.

(3) Gender

This has not been as big of an issue and is really a non issue in the news. But the fact remains that if she wins the Governorship she will be the first woman to sit in the Governor's office. And while it is not a big deal in the news, the consensus of most of the people I know say that it is generally considered to be the public secret, the good 'ol boy establishment is not thrilled at having a woman at the top spot.

(4) The Civil War

This one irritates me. Seriously? The Civil War? The good people of South Carolina do not want to elect somebody that will not swallow hook line and sinker the southern myths about the Civil War. Look. For years I repeated the same horse shit, the Civil War was about state rights and not about slavery, well hell, slavery wasn't even that big of an issue and most of the people that fought in the Civil War didn't even have slaves. This all sounds good but is full of half truths...so let me just say this:

(a) The Civil War was not about slavery, it was about state rights.

Yeah...just like the Civil Rights movement was not about segregation but about the right of people to be ignorant hate mongering rude Neanderthal morons to minorities. The very same people that were in favor of slavery were in favor of segregation, their children were in favor of keeping the black man in his place. And his place was one of servitude to the white man. So spare me the bullshit! The Civil War was about whether or not this country should allow its states to legalize the traffic in human lives. THAT was the right the states of the south were defending. There are some things that are just morally and ethically wrong and should not be tolerated under any condition and should not be delegated to the states to decide. The truth of history is that the Southern States wanted the right to choose whether or not they could have slaves, and the American People elsewhere felt that it was a moral sore that needed to be removed...and it was...on the backs and blood of hundreds of thousands of American men and women.

(b) Most of the people that fought and died in the Civil war did not have slaves.

This is absolutely true. Most of the people that fought and died in the Civil War did not have slaves...only the rich plantation owners could even afford slaves. So as usual, the middle class and the poor of our country pay the price of blood, sweat and life while the rich reap the benefits and play the victim. Sound familiar? Like BP? It is the hard working people of Gulf States that are struggling while BP owners go to yacht events and Republican law makers defend BP's actions, defend the off shore drilling that irresponsibly led to it and apologize to BP for the President doing something about making BP pay up to those very hard working people. And while the GOP have their plates full defending and protecting poor BP, they are attacking the President for "not doing anything".

Now many would disagree with this statement but I will say it anyway. BP did the GOP a favor. With this mess in the Gulf it makes it difficult for lawmakers and the President to even do their job. And as long as the Republicans can keep the President and Congressional Democrats and the nation focused on a problem their own policies caused, the more they can use it and use the lack of other business getting done to win in November. And you know what? Once the Rethugs take over in November...it is over. Then they can get back to the business of handing the country back over to big business, big banks and big oil. Oh...and guess who will be Chairman of the Committee that regulates the oil business? Why that would be Barton, the guy that apologized to BP...fascinating huh?

For now...today I will be watching the run off in South Carolina...and hoping I get the pleasure of watching the "good 'ole boys" wring their hands in anguish. And as for the Mrs. Brabham said, "She grew up here. . . . Come on! I thought we had climbed this mountain." Apparently not...

"Gotcha" ya idiot...

So there is a fad going around with the new crack pots of the tea party patriots. The candidates the media love to promote and love to interview because the gems of idiocy these people give up as offerings to the media are really just too good to be true! Of course it is NOT the fault of the candidate being interviewed...it is the fault of the one doing the interview. So let us for a moment look at a few things about this....

1). Their Terminology

I find the way they refer to the media humorous. They have several terms when referring to any media that is not radio talk show hosts and Faux Noise (FOX News)that are quite funny...and curious. For instance the reference to the Media as "Big Media" (as opposed to big business and big oil?) the Elite Media (as opposed to crude, rude and fear mongering right wing nut jobs like Rush Limbaugh and Hannity) "Gotcha Journalism" (as opposed to their patsy on the radio waves that actually agree with their radical ideas and cover for them.) These cracked tea pots cater to the hate and the fear mongering of the racist, neo nazi, theocratic extreme right wing that seem to fail to understand that freedom of speech is also accompanied by freedom of the press...which means if you say something stupid on Sunday...you can bet the whole country will hear of it by Monday.

2). Their Ideology

Here's what gets me. Where does personal responsibility come in? Think about it for a minute; the media is SUPPOSED to ask tough questions. How do you think Watergate came out? How do you think the right got all of their ammunition for Monicagate? How do you think these things happen? The media is SUPPOSED to ask tough questions. It is their job. And the conservatives were not talking about "gotcha journalism" when THAT was all going down. The media asks their questions and the politician answers them. So who, in fact, is responsible for the answers? I agree that taking statements out of context is wrong...like when the radical right was going around saying that President Obama was saying that "America is not a Christian nation" (which is of course the truth but that is another blog post) when in reality what he said is that America is no longer a Christian nation-only...it is also a Muslim, Jewish, and a nation of non believers. But the wording made it convenient to cut off the only and everything that followed. THAT is "gotcha journalism". But asking a question, even a tough question, that elicits a stupid, radical and unpopular answer from an obtuse moron is not the fault of the person asking the question but rather of the person giving the answer.

The point is that for a group of people that want to talk about personal responsibility and accountability, they have a very hard time being personally responsible and accountable for their answers and their idiocy. They solve this dilemma by avoiding the media, shutting them out, only allowing their right wing nut job buddies in, people that won't ask them the questions that show they are out of touch with the majority of Americans and will reveal their looney policy ideas. They answer the criticisms with pouting, whining and accusations. It boils down to this...like it or not...regardless of WHAT the political leanings of the reporter...if you can't answer the question of an insignificant peon from CNN or the Washington Times...then what makes you think you can answer the questions of the President of France, the President of Russia or the leaders of Iran, Iraq and a dozen of other nations that hate us and are always trying to trap us in some moral dilemma that will put us in trouble with the rest of the world. What will they do when they walk down the steps of the Capitol and the media is waiting for them? Or when they are in the Rose Garden?

3). The Cracked Tea Pots

SO just a couple of comments on the poster children of the crack tea pots.

Sarah Palin...Seriously...the queen of idiocy...the half term governor that would be queen. She seems to still be under the delusion that she can win the presidency. The woman who made even Bill O'Reilly roll his eyes at her stupidity and empty headed dribble manages to keep herself in the news...all the while bashing the Elite Media. FOX News, the fair and balanced idiots and pawns of the movement they created, just sucks on the crotch of this woman's panties! I mean excuse the vulgarity, but seriously...Fox makes no attempt at fair and balanced when it comes to Palin and her crackpot ideas. They just nod their heads all intellectual looking like, like she really makes sense, and why can't ALL of America see the absolute brilliance of this nut job that can't even finish a full term as governor of a half empty state but thinks she can be the leader of the free world.

Sarah Palin's run ins with the media are well documented. Ever since that fateful interview with Katie Couric, in which the Elite Media were out to get her by asking her questions...gosh durn it...how dare they ask her questions!!!!! Since then she has waged a war with the media...and the funny thing is she really thinks she can win. Sure there is a level of distrust from the American people when it come to the media, but can you imagine what George W. Bush would have been able to do if the media was not watching him like a hawk? Hell...look at what he DID get away with!




Michelle Bachmann....this woman has the intelligence of Palin with the charisma of Perot. She really is a scary sight to see. This woman is the personification of Forest Gump's motto...Stupid is Stupid does. This is the woman that accused "libruls" and President Obama of "celebrating" 9/11 because he referred to the "anniversary" of that infamous day. If she thinks that the word "anniversary" necessarily means a celebration...then she must have never been married! This woman has appeared beside Palin so many times that even Hannity, bless his limited intelligence, referred to a Palin-Bachmann team...of course...the only question is who gets to be on top!















Rand Paul...The boy who would be king. This guy has managed to give us the picture of the future of America under the rule of the Tea Party. An America where the White Supremacists rule, the Civil Rights Act is removed, handicapped people are back to being a bother to society and not treated with decency and respect. A world where God is ruler, the Bible is the law book and bigoted Christians determine who can be married, who can be leaders and who has any right to control their bodies. An America where our elderly can be treated with indecency and lack of respect, back at the mercy of family that don't want to pay or are incapable of paying for proper care and medication and the government takes the money that they have given and invest it in war and bloodshed. A world where big business and big oil run everything under some pretense of free market. A world like the one we already live in...only worse.






Sharron Angle...Harry Reid's opponent in Nevada is another perfect example of the idiocy and the totally out of touch lunacy that seems to be such a huge part of the tea party. A woman that advocates doing away with Social Security, advocates the USA walking away from the UN and also said that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to arm the citizens so they could throw down out of control government and then added the words, "if Congress keeps going the way it is going..." as though it would justify an insurrection in our country.







The funny thing is...The Republican Party and FOX News, created a monster they can't control. The media is biased be it for the right or for the left. They purposely ask questions to corner the opposing candidate. It is what happens in politics. It dates back through our entire history. It is only "gotcha" journalism when you they "getcha" or get your your opponent. In the mean time, if you do not want to be in the fish bowl, do not want to be asked the hard questions and do want to trouble yourself with facts, logic and reality...then stay the hell home.

A Progressive's Coming Nightmare (In the middle of living the dream)

So this year has already been a year of big changes, and there are many more to come. I began my year with the following resolution: Live, Laugh, Love and Learn. I feel like this year has already been a better year than last year. I met a wonderful lady that I have grown crazy in love with. (I always hated the phrase, Fall in love, is like you tripped on your shoe laces or something!) Mandy and I have decided that our families are perfect together. Bethanie loves her to death and she loves Bethanie. Abby and Molly love me and Zach I think tolerates me, but I am growing on him. And I love them deeply and am looking forward to being a part of the family and helping raise these kids together.

So the goal is for us (that would be Bethanie and Myself) to move down there sometime this year, more than likely at the end of the summer. This is a dream come true. She really is all I ever wanted in a woman. She and I relate on so many levels. We have the same dreams, plans and goals in life. I really could not ask for anymore...plus..hell...she is a redhead! I mean seriously guys...it doesn't get any better than this! lol

In the middle of this dream come true, there is a single shadow of a nightmare...kind of a Dream within a Dream (or nightmare as the case may be). As I have made it clear in my blog I am a Progressive. For you sanctimonious conservative bitches that means I am a "librul". Yeah...exactly...one of those 'Merica Hating, Nazi, Communistatic, gay loving, baby killing, terrorist thingamagie type of people. So living in Georgia is one of those things where I usually feel like a sore thumb. In my little town of Chatsworth, GA I think I am the ONLY person that admits to voting for President Obama...and really? I may be the only one that actually did! I am pretty much in the same situation as vjack over at Athiest Revolution and Red State Progressive. A progressive in a conservative state.

So, having said all that, I am now finding myself in the position of jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. GA politics, while conservative...are not quite as nutty as SC. In SC the conservative Republicans are so in control that they even control who runs as a Democrat (i.e. Alvin Green). It is a heavy Tea Party state that is infatuated with *wink wink* Palin. So just to kind of take a view of SC Politics....lookie lookie at the Circus:

1. Jake Knotts.

Now here is a real idiot. As the primaries heated up for the South Carolina Governor's seat, Republicans, who have no need to attack the basically non existent presence of Democrats, were busy in fighting. And since they are all competing to be the most conservative, it left little to attack except on a personal level. So Nikki Haley, candidate for Governor, was attacked for her ethnicity...her parents are of Indian decent and Sikh. She was Sikh until just seven years ago. And the implied argument goes that she became Christian for political reasons and has become more and more "Christian" the more opportunities she had in politics. Obviously, as is the case with the right wings nut jobs, ONLY radical Christians are even QUALIFIED to govern. So Jake Knotts had the brilliant idea of going on a show and saying that we have already one raghead in the White House and we don't need another raghead in the Governor's Mansion. Nice. Seriously...I really could add so much to this but hell...that is another blog.



2. Nikki Haley (and the Tea Party)

OK. I will start off saying that if I had to choose a Republican in SC, Nikki Haley would be that Republican. Thankfully I do not have to pick a Republican because even she nauseates me. She is pure Tea Party. And I don't even have to go there. The fact that Sarah Palin endorses her is enough to make me say no to the Crack Pots! Sad thing is...since a Democrat doesn't have a prayer she more than likely will be the next Governor...of course...from what I can tell she is the lesser of 3? 4? evils.







3. Arizona Wannabes.


Talk in South Carolina is all the rage about the illegal immigration and the need to duplicate Arizona's infamous Immigration Law. I have already dealt with this subject so I won't go into it again here. Suffice it to say that it just adds another facet to the madhouse that is South Carolina politics. And they don't really care about boycotts since technically they have been under a boycott for years for flying the confederate flag on government property.





4. Alvin Green

Have you seen this guy? For those that are not familiar with him, this is the completely unelectable Democrat candidate for senator that will be running against wildly popular tea party Senator DeMint. This guy is facing criminal charges for showing pornographic pictures to a college student who he then allegedly attempted to seduce. He did not spend enough on his campaign to even have to register as a candidate...yet somehow he won an astounding 58% of the democratic primary. How? Well to hear him tell about it he did it with good old fashion hard work...but oddly enough nobody knows him. The Democratic Party in South Carolina has begged him to step down rather than sully their name and drag them to further depths then they have already sunk in South Carolina politics, but as expected, he refuses. As high up as the Democratic establishment in DC is saying that this guy is plant by Republicans, which when you look at the facts...makes perfectly good sense. The question is...why? I mean let's face it, DeMint is so wildly popular in this nutbag state that he would have trounced anybody that had run against him...so why? In a state where people can cross party lines to vote in the primaries, it is pretty obvious that the cruel streak is not a "leadership" issue...but rather the rank and file Rethugs.

So...here I am...a Progressive, Puerto Rican, Democrat atheist...jumping out of the frying pan into the fire...if my vote meant nothing in Georgia...it will mean less than nothing in South Carolina...but knowing me I will still get a kick out of watching people's faces turn 20 different shades of purple as they sputter how un American I am. I have a feeling we have an interesting life ahead of us Mandy, my Love, in so many ways and I look forward to every minute of it...all I have to say is if we ever move...we move to some place more...Progressive...like California...just think..beaches, Hollywood...*echo echo echo*

Oh...one more thing...since this all about SC and GA and all...Let me just say...

GO DAWGS!!!
(heheheh...Love you Mandy!)