Can we? Are we?

In the wake of the tragic events in Tucson, AZ the most poignant words spoken were those by Rep. Gifford's brother in law, Commander Scott Kelly, commanding officer at the International Space Station:


"We have a unique vantage point here aboard the International Space Station. As I look out the window, I see a very beautiful planet that seems very inviting and peaceful. Unfortunately, it is not,  These days, we are constantly reminded of the unspeakable acts of violence and damage we can inflict upon one another, not just with our actions, but also with our irresponsible words. We're better than this. We must do better."

These words somehow resonated with me for some reason.  I am a passionate person, and while I have never advocated, condoned, joked about or in any way, shape or form encouraged or implied violence, I am still a man of strong passions and opinions and recent events have made me reflect a little more on my words. I think the first two questions that came to mind, after reading this statement, were the two in the title of this blog...Yes we must do better...but...Can we? and Are we better than this?

As you know, I am both an atheist and a liberal.  I am also a bit of cynic and a pessimist when it comes to the "good nature" of my fellow man.  I am a firm believer that we are, in essence, animals by nature.  Sure we can talk, have opposable thumbs, and some of us can think and spell (occasionally), but at our very core we are animals with all the instincts and capabilities that such a statement implies.  What ultimately makes us different is that we have social boundaries that make us behave different from animals.

For example, we would shudder at the thought of having a bowel movement (in an effort to avoid the profane and vulgar in order to not invalidate my entire argument) in the middle of the street like a dog.  But that is actually a more recent development in our human history as such a thing was not unheard of in earlier times of our social development.  We detest the thought of killing and, indeed, every society at some point has had some rule that made killing a detestable act, but consider this: if tomorrow the world was one post apocalyptic horror, would you hesitate to steal, and if need be, kill in order to feed your children?  See?  What makes us different is not our instincts, not what is in that deepest darkest place in our soul, but rather the environment we live in and operate in.

Here is another example for you to consider.  I was watching the movie, "The Pianist".  The movie is set in Nazi Germany during WWII.  This movie gave me much to think about.  I have always thought of the big names in the Third Reich and thought how evil these men were, how soulless and dark.  Names like Hitler and Himmler induce thoughts of the incredible evil and cruelty these men promoted, encouraged and enacted.  However, as I watched "The Pianist", what struck me was not the cruelty and horrors of Hitler and Himmler but rather of the average enlisted man, the average soldier, the average citizen.  Now mind you, I do not ignore the fact that there were acts of heroism and generosity.  I understand that many sacrificed their lives in order to assist and save the lives of the Jews that the cruel regime attempted to destroy.  So the argument may be made that these people embody the best traits of the human animal.  My reply as that these people show the strength of those social restraints when held firmly in a logical mind, the echoes of a fading society. But that is not the point of this argument.  What struck me was the casual cruelty of the average soldier.  The pleasure they took out of culling a few from the crowd and senselessly killing them with a casual shot in the head.  The casual manner in which a group of soldiers could take a cripple in a wheel chair and dump him off of a balcony.  These acts, that in any other environment would be reprehensible, were rewarded.  And while yes there were acts of kindness and heroism and sacrifice, the fact that these men nearly took over the entirety of Europe brought to mind the sheer cruel animal that we can be, given the right circumstances.

John Calvin, Reformer and founder of the Presbyterian church and the Calvinistic point of view, believed that man at his very core is evil and without hope.  Man, in and of himself, is incapable of helping himself or changing himself.  He may wear a facade, may be bound by the constraints of society, but at his core he is an animal and can never truly be changed into something better.  The answer, according to Calvin, was trust in God and that God chose some for a destiny of happiness and redemption and others for their just deserts as the animals they are.  As already mentioned, I am an atheist and therefore do not subscribe to the idea that a non existing being can change man.  I do, however, agree that at our core we are beasts that are held in constraint by the limitations of society, limitations that come, not from a divine being and his rules that apply to everybody other than himself, but rather from a sense of self preservation.  We do not want to be killed, so therefore we prohibit it.  We want to keep our things, therefore, stealing is not permitted.  These rules have surfaced over time, through every step of our development but are not inherent to our race.

When I was growing up I read a book called, Through Gates of Splendor.  This book was about a group of missionaries led by Jim Elliot, that went to South America, and were brutally murdered by the natives.  The process was unique though.  Among the Aucas, the tribe that killed them, it was considered a skill to befriend and lull to complacency an enemy before killing them.  Killing them was an art but it was considered an achievement to "fatten for the kill".  For these people, killing was not only a way of life, it was an expected behavior.  The Mayans were notorious for massive feasts that involved nothing more than butchering countless victims, ripping their hearts out and holding it up while the organ beat its last.  The point I am getting at is that when man is removed from the constraints of society, of "civilized" society, then the same patterns of violence and cruelty will emerge.  Even more pertinent to the tragedy in Tuscon, is the case of Nazi Germany that I already mentioned; when society adapts to allow for violence and even encourages cruelty, as a race we will, with a few exceptions, revert back to the basest instincts that exist in our genetic makeup.

So I ask again...ARE we better than this?  The answer, in my opinion, is that at our core we are not, BUT thanks to the restraints of society we CAN be a part of the facade in order to promote self preservation.  In other words...We MUST do better.  But what happens when logic, self preservation and the general well being of our fellow man is superseded by a sick mind?  Well the tragedy that happened in Tucson is what happens.  The despicable irreverence of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas that plans on protesting at the funerals of the victims of this tragedy happens.  What separates us from animals is not only the restrictions of society, but our ability to understand why they are necessary and the capability of the human mind to understand the logic, and in the absence of logic, the emotional reasoning for adhering to those rules and restrictions.  When we lose the ability to understand we lose the ability to restrain ourselves from foolish and sometimes cruel acts.

Much has been made of Sarah Palin and the political rhetoric of our time.  It is no secret that I am no fan of Sarah Palin.  I have made that abundantly clear on this blog.  I will not go so far as to say that Palin is to blame for this violence, the perpetrator must be responsible for his own actions, and blaming Sarah Palin for it does nothing to solve the problem.  Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, Keith Olberman, Ed Harris, Rachel Maddow and the other extremists on both sides of the political spectrum have certainly not helped the environment but they are not to blame for this person's actions, he is.

I do not believe that either side is innocent in the extreme tension that has taken over the conversation in this country.  I do not, however, agree with those that say that both sides are equal and that the left is as violent as the right, but in the final analysis, pointing fingers does not fix the problem.  Neither does covering for people fix the problem.  Whether Sarah Palin likes it or not, whether the pundits from the right like it or not, Palin did post a map with cross hairs and then called for her followers to "not retreat but reload".  With all the respect I can muster for Limbaugh, Bortz, Hannity and the others rushing to Palin's defense, if she meant it as geological survey symbols she would have referred to "digging the opponents out" not reload to remove them.  Her intentions were clear and covering for her only excuses her.  I repeat that I am not blaming Palin for this act, but I do blame her and others like her for promoting an environment that removes those social restraints and provides an excuse in the mind of those whose mind is already disturbed.  No, the shooter was not a Tea Party member, and more than likely really lacked any real political identification or affiliation.  His politics is not what makes the connection to Palin and others like her, it is the fact that at our core we are violent animals and it is only the restraints of society that keeps that beast in check and when an environment promotes that violence, and excuses that violence, making it non consequential, then those restraints are removed and the weakest minds in our midst can, in the chaos of their own mind, excuse their behavior.

Conservative blogger, David Frum, said it best:
"Again: this talk did not cause this crime. But this crime should summon us to some reflection on this talk. Better: This crime should summon us to a quiet collective resolution to cease this kind of talk and to cease to indulge those who engage in it."

We, and I do mean we, have to realize that providing an excuse, making violence humorous or worse, patriotic, using extremes to describe and define our elected officials, only removes the restraints that bind us from the weakest minds amongst us resulting in the kind of tragedy we have seen in Arizona.  Are we better?  No, not really, but we MUST do better...there is no doubt about that...

November 2, 2010: A Rant about Bullshit, Chicken Shits, Bat Shit and Dumb Shits

Ok....so let me first start with acknowledging that it has been a while since I have blogged....I am aware of this and would apologize if it weren't because...life is good...and I don't have as much desire to blog as I used to.  There is also the fact that I am very frustrated with the current political situation and most of my blogs would be basically outrage and venting...and I am TRYING to avoid doing too much of that.  Having said that, I will start with a warning that this blog is a little off the cuff.  This blog is a little bit of a rant mixed with a lot of disillusion.  This blog is a dirge for what is coming and an ode to what might have been.  It is a disparaging look at the two primary parties in the upcoming election mixed with a barely disguised look of disgust at the poor alternative that we are being offered...namely the Tea Party.  This blog is equally a kick at the Democrats as the Republicans.  It is a kick in the ass and the elephant in the room....and a sincere hope that they all choke on their tea concoction.

I want to emphasize that this is a little bit of a rant.  Take it for what it is worth...which isn't much.  I will start with a prophecy of doom.  We, as a nation, are headed for disaster.  Things are bad but they are about to get worse.  The Republicans have their sights set on the White House for 2012 and they do not have much to offer, so the only way they can be competitive is to drag down the current administration...and it is about to get dirty.  Mark my words, our government is headed for a two year shutdown, the economy will only worsen, the recession we are just pulling out of will come back and it will be worse than it has been.  Disagree all you like.  Call me a nay sayer.  Accuse me of being partisan all you like.  just mark my words, write them down...and remember I told you so.

As a country we have all played a part in this mess that we are in.  Politicians are more concerned in keeping their jobs instead of actually doing their jobs.  I am ranting against four groups in particular....

1. Bullshit...The Elephant in the room.

Now I make no bones about it.  I was raised Republican.  I was raised a devout Christian.  I was raised as right wing as you can possibly get.  I lived this way for most of my young adult life.  In my late twenties I began thinking for myself, re examining my beliefs.  I am now an atheist.  I am a liberal politically and align more with Democrats than I do Republicans.  By saying that I am acknowledging that this post, and almost every post I write leans left and towards the Democrats.  So you may freely disregard everything I am about to say...simply because you are as partisan to the right and the Republicans as I am to the left.

The GOP has raised the bar on the well developed art of bullshit.  They have run a campaign on lies, fears, hate, homophobia and xenophobia.  And they have done so successfully.  Some might argue that the ends justify the means and for the GOP (for any politician, regardless of affiliation, for that matter) winning is all that matters.  Let us look at the facts.  The economy, believe it or not, is actually on the rise.  True it is slowly but in actuality the numbers are improving.  Americans, this last year, paid the lowest taxes that they have paid in over a decade, despite the fact that Democrats, historically known for raising taxes, were in power.  Illegal immigration is at its lowest mark in over a decade...a decade in which Republicans were in power for the largest part of.

However, to hear the GOP, the economy is not recovering at all (as I heard on the radio a few weeks ago it is the Democrat's fault.)  Americans are paying more taxes than ever and the Obama Administration is not being tough on immigration and as a result the illegal immigration is at a high point and crimes committed by these "fererners" is also at a high point.

In short, republicans are winning the election and they are doing so running on out right lies and gross exaggeration.  The GOP has found a way to tap into the prejudices, the fears, the hate, the homophobia and xenophobia and the darkest, ugliest emotions of the human nature and as a result they are winning.   They have presented us with all the problems...and don't get me wrong, we have a ton of problems...yet they present no real solutions.  After two years of chomping at the bits, they are eager to take the reins again and just salivating at getting back to the same old policies that put us here in the first place.  I look at the GOP and its bastard child, the Tea Party, and I am afraid.  I am afraid because there is no voice of reason.  All I hear or the Boehners, Gingrich's, Palins, O'Donnells, Pauls, and a myriad of other fools and all I see are radicals.  All I see are right wing nut jobs that have no voice of reason, no sense of responsibility.  They only care about winning.  Don't worry...I will be getting to the DNC soon enough...

The Republican Party has allowed people like Bachmann be the face and voice of their party.  If these are the people that will be leading the country...then we have reason to be afraid.  Bachmann has made it clear that the top of their agenda is a series of Congressional Inquiries.  They will bog down the legislative branch for the next two years in a clear and intentional attempt at keeping the President so tied up that he will not be able to get one single thing done, thus opening the way for Republicans in 2012.  I know...I am just being Mr. Negativity.  I know, I need to have more faith in the system.  Well...bullshit.

2. Chicken Shit...The DNC...and ass without balls....

In the movie "Pure Country" the old guy looks at Dusty, played by George Strait (who notoriously will only wear a white cowboy hat), and says, "The funny thing about that little white speck on the top of chicken shit. That little white speck is chicken shit too. "  The Democrats may try to play innocent in this whole mess but frankly they are a large part of the reason they will lose control of Congress on November 2nd.  In my opinion, the biggest fault of the DNC is being chicken shit.  The Democrats have sat on the sidelines for two years and let the Republicans and their FOX News control the entire conversation.  Their cowardice has been almost criminal.  When the Republicans throw out their blatant lies and exaggeration the Democrats have failed to speak up.  They held a confidence in the American peoples ability to see change for themselves that was grossly unwarranted.  When change is slow you have to make it clear where the change is happening.  While the Republicans have played their homophobia and xenophobia cards the Democrats sat on their asses stuttering and stammering their useless, senseless and non committing replies.


When the controversy of the Islamic Cultural Center in NYC blew up nationwide the spineless chicken shits stared wide eyed into the cameras like bloated road kill and yammered the same bullshit rhetoric right along with the radical, fascist GOP.  What they SHOULD have said is, "It's the Constitution stupid! There are no ifs ands or buts about it.  There are no maybes.  There is no "no fly zone" for our Constitutional rights."  There is no excuse for the blatant fear mongering the GOP actively used in there campaign of Islamaphobia; just like there is no excuse for the piss yellow Democrats not standing up and saying firmly that there is a right and there is a wrong and singling out a group of people based on their religious affiliation and attempting to restrain and restrict their rights is wrong.


The Democrats, as I have already mentioned, have been slow, timid and just plain chicken shit when it came to calling republicans out on their bullshit and proving them wrong with the numbers.  I will agree, change has been slow.  You cannot correct eight years of bad policy and reckless spending by a war mongering administration in two years.  Hell, you can't change a toilet in two years in DC.  The change has been slow, but it is the difference of a landscaper doing a work of change and a tornado carving a path of destruction.  Change takes time.  But in a day and time when people get married, have kids and live happily ever after in two hours we don't get that and we are angry that the President has not fixed this country in two years even thought the Party of NO has fought every step of change at every turn.


So the economy HAS been slow in recovering, but the greater point is simply this...it actually IS recovering.   new jobless claims are bouncing up and down as opposed to the consistent downward spiral we have been experiencing for a couple of years.  Reform has come to the reckless, out of control banks on Wall Street.  For those of us with liberal leanings we have seen some progress on the health care reform.  I know...you immediately bristle because I said for those of us of a liberal leaning...well shove it up your ass...this is our country too.  the debt is a real issue, one that began with the former administration and certainly has not been helped by this administration.  But the very people that want the deficit cut want other people's benefits cut, not their own.  In a recent poll people were very concerned with the deficit and wanted it cut...as long as they didn't lose their Medicaid, their SSI, their Social Security.  


Another area that highlights the DNC chicken shit, yellow livered, spineless tendency is the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy.  Because the radical religious right has managed to lay siege to this country, the politicians want to appease both sides.  But much like the Civil Rights movement, much like the woman's suffrage movement this is an area where there is no middle ground.  Somebody is  going to go home unhappy.  And if we are going to remain a free people that protects the rights of free people then without a doubt, the people that HAVE to go home unhappy are the biased, hate mongering, homophobic radicals that see it as their patriotic and god given duty to oppress a group of Americans and restrict their rights.  Our President claims to oppose the policy yet appeals the ruling of the court that states it is unconstitutional.  After the ruling he changed his underpants stained with the chicken shit he spewed out at the thought of the Dobsons, Limbaughs and Robertsons that were going to come for him in the middle of the night and like a true coward immediately filed an appeal.  Don't give me the bullshit that he HAD to.  He did not.  He could have let it stand.  But he chose not to.  Why? Because he wanted to appease the right wing nut jobs that hate him any way, irregardless of what he does.   When will this administration realize that these people hate him and will continue lying about him?  When will he realize that a great number of them would thank their God the very next Sunday morning if he were to meet an untimely demise?  When will he realize that there is nothing he can do to appease them, appeal to them, convince them that he is even an American, much less the duly elected President of the United States?  What will it take for him to realize this, take the gloves off and finally be the President some of us know he can be?


After the beating the DNC has taken during this election the President FINALLY came out swinging.  But it was too little too late and by then the candidates he was campaigning for were to chicken shit to even acknowledge it.  Instead many of them have distanced themselves from him and his message; a message that simply says, yes, change has been slow, yes we have made some mistakes.  But we are fighting for you and look what we have managed to accomplish in just two years despite all the partisan conflict and childish behavior and if you fire us now, in the midst of change then look at how little will be accomplished if you send these big business whores back to Washington.


3.  Bat shit...and as proof that fear trumps common sense...enter stage right...the Tea Party.


The Republicans created a monster.  Their bastard child has come back to bite them in the ass which would be amusing if it were not for the probability that we will all have to deal with these bat shit crazies.  The tea party claims to be a true grass roots movement, despite the big money that has been traced to big business, with no leaders.  This movement is long on bitching and short on solutions.  They are quite adept at pointing out the problems, and trust me, I am well aware we do have a lot of problems, but they are incredibly incompetent at offering real, sensible and tangible solutions.


And when they DO come up with solutions we come to realize how really bat shit crazy these people are.  Tea Party candidates' solutions have ranged from eliminating Social Security (as long as we don't take away their SSI or their own parent's Social Security as in the case of Sharon Angle in Nevada) to repealing Equal Opportunity (as in Rand Paul in Kentucky) to an outright armed uprising (as in the case of the again truly batty Sharon Angle.)


These people have no official leader and no official message.  The fact that they have no leader means they are not accountable to anybody.  Allow me to explain.  When the Democrats make a mistake you will find that immediately it is President Obama, Pelosi and Reid that are called to the carpet.  When the Republicans make a mistake it is their leaders that are called to the floor, usually their favorite scape goat Michael Steele.  In the case of the Tea party, Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint and others can gain rock star popularity without suffering the repercussions of the idiots running under their name.  Nobody is held accountable for their actions.  This party runs from reporters out of incompetence.  They demonize the only means that the nation has of knowing what they are running on.  These cracked tea pots want to blame the questions without taking responsibility for their answers.  These candidates want the people to vote for them without even telling them why they should vote for them.  they fail to realize that harassing, demonizing and even arresting (as in the case of Joe miller in Alaska) just makes us all feel they have something to hide...in most cases their idiocy.


This movement is nothing more than an outlet for the angry white man.  It is a movement born in true frustration with a system that is truly not working for anybody except the actual politicians.  I will give them that much.  But rather than helping, they have become a part of the problem by becoming little more than a leaderless mob.


4. Dumbshits...the American voter of today is, in general, a product of an impatient, selfish and proudly ignorant fast food, soap opera morons.  They are, in short, a merging of Stewey and Bart Simpson.


Now allow me to clarify.  While that statement may seem to be a blanket diatribe, a stereotypical accusation of all voters, that is not my intention.  I am well aware of the fact that there are a lot of smart, savvy and intelligent voters.  People that vote after much study, research and thoughtful analysis.  I am privileged to be in a situation where I am surrounded by people that are smart, intelligent and much more restrained than me and my hot headed tendencies.  But let us face it...for every voter that truly prepares out there there are a dozen that vote (or don't vote for that matter) for Palin or Clinton just because they are women.  Likewise there weree an unbeliveable amount of voters that voted for or against Obama just because he was black.  American voters are lazy and ignorant.  These dumbshits will go to the polls November 2nd armed only with the quasi intelligence bestowed on them by Ed, Hannity, Olberman, Limbaugh, Maddow, O'Reilly or Matthews.  They did no research on their own, they did not spend one iota of effort or time.  They will go into that booth feeling proud of themselves as they enter and vote for who FOX News, MSNBC, CBS or CNN told them to vote for, information imparted to them as they listened in passing while stuck in traffic, cooking or eating dinner, yelling at their kids, screwing their wife or a half a million other things that were more important to them than the destiny and well being of this great country we call home.


When I speak of dumbshit voters I am referring to the idiots that think it is possible to correct in two years what took nearly a decade to screw up.  They fail to realize that the bullshitters that want to return to power were the ones in charge when all hell broke loose in the first place.  Not only did they steer us here in the first place but fought like crazy every step of the way in the progress that has been made the last two years. 


This country deserves what is coming.  The GOP will take control along with their bat shit crazy cousins in the Tea Party.  They will shut down government.  They will send bills to the President's desk that they know damn well he would never sign.  The Democrats will prove over the next two years that they are just as capable of childish behavior as the Republicans are by dragging the filibuster along painfully on every issue.  And when it is all said and done, like Rome of antiquity, it will be the politicians that we voted into office that damn us to our own self destruction.

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…

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!)

So how DO we fix the illegal immigration problem?

So I have done the ranting and raving at the new Arizona "show me your papers" Law. I have ranted at the racists and the bigots and neo nazis. I have cussed screamed and seethed. But the truth of the matter is....there really IS a problem that must be dealt with. It is a problem that must be dealt with at a Federal level because it is a security issue which clearly falls under the constitutional responsibility of the federal government. The reason, however, is not only constitutional but is also practical. If you have every state making its own laws you will have some that are more lenient and others that are hate filled racists.

Having said that, what SHOULD be done? The problem is not an easy one to solve. First, let's make clear what will NOT solve it. With respect to neo nazi republican J.T. Ready and his tea bagger friends...a mine field is not the answer neither is a division of marines. The marines are not the answer for two reasons. First, their president George W. Bush sent them off to defend his oil interests and OUR president lacks the nuts to pull them back. Of course at this point we are in so deep that just issuing orders cannot be done without leaving a bigger mess in its wake. The second reason is simple; do you KNOW any marines? My brother is a former marine and tact and gentleness and consciousness of political and civil right consequences is NOT in their play book or way of thinking. Can you IMAGINE thousands of these people with guns and hand grenades and missile launchers on our border? It would only be a matter of time before we have the Second Mexican War on our hands!!!

Obviously the law in Arizona, the infamous SB1070, is not the answer. Let's make this clear. There are two distinct problems in Arizona, and the REAL problem is NOT going to be solved by SB1070. The rancher that was killed that was used as the driving force to get this law passed turns out was killed by drug smugglers and the police actually believe it was a white man...not an illegal Mexican. The dirty truth that Arizona GOP do not want to realize or admit to is that the Drug Smuggling and the illegal immigrant problem are two separate problems that are not even related. Solving the illegal immigrant problem will not solve their REAL problem...the drug related crimes and the drug smuggling. The law in Arizona is merely a statement. And it is an ugly statement at that. There are states like Minnesota that do not even HAVE a real immigration problem, but in their racism and anti federal government attitude are wanting a similar law. They want to be part of the statement.

Before we can do anything that is truly effective in fixing this problem we need to fix our attitudes about it. Latinos AND whites. First, Latinos need to fix their attitude of entitlement. Just because you are a minority does not mean you are entitled to special treatment. The law is the law. It must be followed. I am against racism but I am also against people that defend the illegal actions of others. Forgery of papers, purchase of forged documents and other crimes committed can NOT be defended. Defending the actions of illegal activity is not right, regardless of race or color. There is a process, and that process must be followed. While I agree that the process needs to be fixed, that process still exists.

I will, however, repeat...I am against racism and hate. I am against constitutional rights being abrogated in any manner that includes race and color. I am against being stopped on the street and forced to show my birth certificate to some Texas Ranger wannabe that wouldn't know if my birth certificate is legit or not. Here is a scenario I have SEEN happen. I lost my birth certificate and order a new one. I get the new one. I am 33 years old so my birth certificate should show wear and tear because I am 33 years old. I get stopped and am required to show my brand new birth certificate that I just got in the mail from the State of California. Because it is new...it must be fake. I have seen this happen. The truth is that that kind of thing happens many times. The truth is undeniable....these same people that have made the illegal immigration their problem or their mission in life to fix are the same people or children of the same people that fifty years ago were seeing the black man as the menace to society and wanted to keep him segregated like an animal. The attitude has not changed. I have been on the other end of it. If you want legitimacy in this issue then people with level heads and honest concern, rather than hate, must be in charge and at the forefront leading the change.

Once the attitude is fixed there are some changes that must be made to fix it. And busing them all south of the border is not the answer. I know these neo nazi hate mongers think that that is the answer but our economy cannot afford for such a huge percentage of the people pumping money into it to be suddenly gone. The small town I live in would be a ghost town, would go under, if the dumb rednecks get their way. No change must come in a different way. Here is my opinion on how...

(1) Secure the Border.

Internal change cannot happen and last unless the valve is closed. This is not about more manpower, it is about being smarter. A fence is only a mild deterrent more like a snag in the crossing. They have to cut it, jump it...sure...but it does have some sense in slowing their entry. The other half of this is technology. You mean to tell me they can take a picture of you in your back yard from a satellite but cannot patrol our borders with that kind of technology and dispatch units check out movement? I don't know all the ins and outs of it but surely we have technology that we can use and not have to resort to explosives like J.T. and his buddies want to because any life that is not white is not really life is it? We have satellites for everything else...why not?

(2) Fix the current system

If you have never been involved in the system then you really don't understand how totally screwed up it is. The immigration system is too often run by incompetent, lazy and inconsistent personnel. I have seen one person that did not deserve approval sail through and a good, honest and hard working man with a family get rejected for no reason at all. I currently know a situation where a man and his wife and children live here. He went through the process and when his interview came up he was deported because the judge felt that there was no evidence that his wife and children would suffer from his absence. His family is already losing their home. Why should these people follow a system that is inconsistent and lets the dead beats stay and the hard working people that would be a positive addition to our community be deported?

Another problem is that states have different rules and enforce the rules with different levels of dedication. Even different counties in the same state have different rules and different levels of dedication. In one county an offender may be released to the street and then in the next deported. The immigration laws and system has to be made consistent across the country on a federal level.

(3) Zero Tolerance

Simply put we need to enact and enforce it. We have laws. You break the law you don't belong here. I don't know how many times I have seen somebody that has committed a misdemeanor or even in some cases a felony and is released on probation. Why? We are looking for people that will be an honest and positive addition to our community. People that drink ad drive, do drugs, steal, beat their wives and commit a myriad of other crimes should not be allowed to remain in this country. There is no bail. There is not parole. There is no probation. They are gone. If they commit a violent crime, or another crime (such as drug related) let them serve their time, pay their debt and have a nice bus trip (of the State conducted type) to the border, handed over to border officials and sent packing back to where they belong.

(4) Streamline the process for the current illegals here.

I know. Amnesty pisses white people off. (not all so don't get on me Mandy lol) When you argue amnesty you get a whole bunch of people all up in arms cussing and swearing that that just rewards a bunch of *expletive* wetbacks and sets it up for a whole new crop of them to come in. And this is true if you do not fix the border and fix the system. But if you fix these two issues then it is a matter of sifting through this mess and getting the ones that are a good addition to our community legalized and move on. Simply put, the reality is this. Our economy cannot afford to send these people home. These people work and they spend their money here. If you bus them all home that will leave a huge void in our economy that we cannot recover from. So we sift through them, and the dead beats, the losers, the criminals (zero tolerance) we ship out. The rest? we get legal and move on.

In conclusion, let us remember one thing. We are all immigrants and descendants of immigrants. English, Welsh, Irish, Scottish, Russian, Asian, African, Spanish, Mexican, South American, Japanese, Middle Eastern, Indian....all of us. Unless you are Native American...TRULY Native American...not just some...well my granddaddy married a Native American...I mean true blue Native American...you are descendant of an immigrant. Mandy's ex, in defense of SB1070 said that he was ok with it...so what...HIS descendants are from here...sorry buddy...just not the case. My family is descended from Jews, fleeing the Inquisition in Spain. We are all from somewhere else. I am not saying we should let every sorry loser in. I am definitely in favor of making sure we are getting healthy people physically, mentally and morally (and by morally I am not referring to some form of forcing your moral values on somebody else I mean in legal matters, DUI, drugs, violence...etc.) I am not talking about carte blanche. Something needs to be done. Arizona's SB1070 is NOT the answer. Fix the border, fix the system and fix the current illegals. It is a simple formula and a simple plan for success that ALL Americans can live with...unless you are just some racist neo nazi pig...and in that case...I say we just give them their own little country...with it's Capitol in...shall we say..Tucson?

National Day of Prayer...easy as the First Amendment

So tomorrow (or today by the time you read this) is the National Day of Prayer. A day that has been recently ruled as un Constitutional by a court of law and will be appealed by the current Administration which is kind of disappointing considering that as a Constitutional Lawyer this President should know better. But in all fairness his Presidency has given rise to more kooks, nut cases, radical and hate groups than any President before him. The accusations of him not being a national born American by the birthers, a Muslim God hater by the right, a socialist Nazi Marxist Kenyan by the Tea Party and a N*&$^% by dumbass rednecks abound and fill our media, our internet, magazines and newspapers...oh and don't forget our radio waves. So given the political environment in which the President is operating I cant say I blame him...but am still disappointed in him.

First, this has NOTHING to do with me being an atheist. While I personally have no use for faith I do respect it and respect people's right to it. This goes way beyond personal beliefs and faith. This has to do with freedom and has to do with the Constitution and has to do with the fact that one law is for the whole nation. This is a nation based on equality and freedom of speech and freedom of religion. We have a wall of separation of church and state for a reason. Because our fore fathers came to this great nation from a world that was dominated by Catholicism in some places and Protestantism in others...the Church of England to be specific in their case. Religion dictated state affairs in these countries in Europe, and our fore fathers had the common sense to know that this could not be the case in this new nation they were founding.

I have several problems with the National Day of Prayer that have absolutely NOTHING to do with faith or with being an atheist. Consider these:

(1) The First Amendment

Simply put here are the facts. On April 17, 1952 President Harry S Truman signed a law that had been passed by Congress declaring that every President that followed MUST set aside an annual Day of Prayer. I want to emphasize the fact that it was a law passed by Congress.The First Amendment of the Constitution reads...

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;

Simply put...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...Congress made a law that establishes predominance to religion in general and a certain type of religion to be specific. Make no mistake this is a law that specifically singles out the Judeo-Christan system of belief and grants it a special place above others. So it boils down to the Constitution, Congress shall make no law...Congress has made a law...it is that straight forward.

(2) The fact that the very proponents of the National Day of Prayer are the very ones that PERSECUTE other faiths.

Consider this for a moment: The very ones that are attacking the President on the bogus charge that he is trying to do away with the National Day of Prayer are the very ones that are also attacking him because they claim he is a Muslim, though he has been Church of Christ for 20+ years. Why should this be a problem? If we are talking about Freedom of Religion that is. But we are not really talking about Freedom of Religion. We are talking about Freedom of THEIR Religion...and not just freedom; we are talking about a favored place for their religious views, a recognition that their religious views have priority. Would these same radical nut jobs be in favor of a National Day that recognizes Ramadan? These very people would be foaming at the mouth. Once again it proves the point...the Constitution is meaningless to these people, the Bill of Rights is merely parchment for them to wipe their ass with UNTIL THEY wants something....then it is all about freedom and law and rights.

This nation has a history of Christian Privilege. This nation has a history giving priority to those of faith treating people of a different faith or of no faith as second class citizens. The National Day of Prayer excludes every citizen that is not Judeo-Christian. It excludes pagans, Native Americans, Buddhists, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics and a whole slew of people from different walks of life and faiths and views. It violates our Constitution and it tears down the wall of separation of church and state.

Sarah Palin and her fellow wackos like James Dobson and Billy and Franklin Graham try to tell us that there should be no separation of church and state and that they are losing their rights (give me a fucking break and cry me a river of tears so I can piss in it!). And my response to them is that just as they like to scream socialism and how it has been tried and failed and we don't need that here, well theocracy has been tried in countries like Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Pakistan and others like it and you know what? It doesn't work and we don't want it or need it here.

The New Anti Latino Agenda of the Republican Party...GOP goes Anti-Brown

Much has been made of the new Arizona immigration bill. I for one have ranted plenty on the subject. There have been significant calls for boycotting the state for the clearly racist legislation. The calls mostly are coming from minorities and people that are on the "hippy tree hugging" liberal crowd. While FAUX Noise traipses a long parade of old white guys through Prime Time explaining why this racist law, ISN'T racist and why we should be THANKFUL for this law...the Republicans defend it by saying the Government (which they controlled for eight years)has ignored the problem for YEARS (years they were in control mind you) and how it is ALL the Obama Administration's fault. Well what did you expect?

Talk is already circulating how this will drive a wedge between the GOP and the rapidly growing Hispanic population. Of course, some in the GOP are already blaming the Democrat's for doing this because...well..it couldn't be their own damn fault right? (Read Article here) Or could it? Consider the following...FACTS...

(1) New Gallup Poll indicates that 51% of the country is in favor of the new Arizona Nazi "carry your documents" law. But if you go deeper into the numbers you will find an interesting fact...of those that said they had heard a great deal about the bill 75% Republicans were in favor of it as opposed to 34% Democrats. The Party of No is apparantly the Party of YES to racial profiling and oppression of people that are beneath them...basically that don't speak English and are not white...

(2) In Keeping with the "Say no to Brown" theme, Congressmen Duncan Hunter (R-CA) is now proposing and supporting deporting American citizens that are born to illegal immigrants. This may seem like a good idea on the surface but it would require a change to our Constitution, one that can lead to serious repercussions....



(3) GOP Candidate Pat Bertroche seems to think that if microchipping is good for his dogs then it should be good for illegal immigrants.

(4) When Congress voted this week to give Puerto Ricans the chance to vote on becoming a state, FAUX Noise had an interesting statement that has been mostly overlooked by most people..."Republicans attempted to add provisions to the legislation that would have made English the official language of a potential Puerto Rican state." Are you out of your MIND???? Now, let's get this straight...Puerto Rico is and always HAS been a bilingual territory, it is just bilingual in reverse of, let's say, Georgia. There Spanish is the primary language and English is secondary. That is the culture of the island and always has been. I lived in Puerto Rico for ten years and it was there I actually learned Spanish. There is a rich culture that makes it a beautiful place to visit and vacation. But to have the audacity to force cultural changes on them just so they can belong...it shows..at least in my book...how far these racist White supremecists will go...

(5) Republican candidate for Alabama (no surprise here for sure) Tim James is running on a platform that is actually against federal law. It sounds good to the people that will vote for him...but it is against federal law...and he is lying to his voting base..but that is ok...he is showing that he is right there with them and understands their fears...and it is not his fault the nasty ol' feds won't back him up...of course..what would you expect with a nazi-Socialist-Marxist-Kenyan in the White House right?



(5) There is a very clear neo nazi connection influencing the law in Arizona and self proclaimed Republicans like Jason J.T. Ready who are openly members of neo nazi racist group. Ol' J.T. apparantly is in favor of minefields on the border and Marines defending his xenophobic ideology. J.T. is actually listed on the Southern Poverty Law Center a watch group that reports and keeps an eye on hate groups around the country.

(6) GOP Candidates and lawmakers all around the country are watching Arizona and waiting to see how far this country will let them go with their racial profiling and hate environment. States like Texas, Ohio and South Carolina are anxious to follow.

I will give a nod of appreciation and recognition, however, to the Republican Governor of Texas Rick Perry, Former President George W. Bush and Former Republican Governor of Florida Jeb Bush in opposing these measures. The truth remains, however, that the Republican party is making it more and more clear that there is not a place for Latinos in a party that demographically would have a home naturally in their midst. I am a liberal, but a vast majority of Hispanics tend to be conservatives and would fit in the GOP...if the Rethuglicans would stop insisting this pursuit of a xenophobic, racist and intolerant agenda that makes it clear to us that the only way we belong is if we become just like them...which is impossible.