My Take on the Election Day

Uh oh, politics become a bit more messy today? Although some idiot that Caribou Quitter Barbie endorsed probably won somewhere and Glenn Beck had another teargasm, I'm sure no one will lose more than the gays. That's because gay is the Black/Mexican/Asian/Italian/Irish/Muslim/Indian (pick your favorite ethnicity/religion) du jour. Since you can't pick on someone for basis of skin color/religion, then who they love and your personal hangups about it have to be the new substitute in America! This is the reason why aliens only abduct us, if they landed in peace we humans would totally treat them like we've treated every other group that has ever scared us. Time to wake up America! If you want to talk about individual liberty, then practice what you preach "teabaggers". Stay out of peoples' bedrooms and let them marry, most of them don't really care about your church ceremony, just a stable family life and security with the people they love.    

Republican, democrat, or independent no matter, we need to wake up America. Not in the way that pundits are telling you, in a way that enlightens your life and makes life better for you and others. Time to let the greediness go and start living up to some of those ideals the founders put down besides the ones that get you money or power. Get over it people, if you simply buy their line of bullshit all the time then they've won. You're thinking about what they want you to, whether you agree or not and that, my friends is control. Worse yet, it is lazy and that is ACTUALLY American.

Excellent video from YouTube

I miss Dr. Seuss...

This is what elections should be all about:

I want my kid to hang with these girls.

I've never understood where the Republican party gets off saying they're the "Military Party"

Even their nominee is a veteran, yet he gutted veteran rights bills and helped kill bills that would increase military pay, included the G.I. Bill, and gave funding to Veteran Hospitals. Just because Clinton closed bases, doesn't mean the Republicans are on the military's side. If they were, diplomacy would be exercised more and we would have NEVER gone to Iraq. Then you wouldn't be seeing ads like this one...



I too am humbled, this man is a testament to our military and the human spirit. Let's not overlook him and his like on election day for simple closemindedness. The Republicans love to invoke 9/11, yet here is an example of the human price of their botched attempt at revenge for it.

Maybe I've lost focus

Maybe I, like the rest of the country, have gotten too self-indulgent with the election and the economy going tits up. Have we all forgotten the war(s)? Sort of a redundant question as we forgot Afghanistan years ago and that's why we're losing. I know that self-interest drives politics, but we've gotten to a pretty ridiculous point of contradiction. Ignoring these problems doesn't make them go away. Every speech about how the surge in Iraq working distracts from the idea that we haven't won the "hearts and minds" of the Iraqis that we were told were crucial to lasting peace in the region. It also distracts us from the the point that we've reached a tipping point in Afghanistan. We've never even attempted the "nation building" that we tried in Iraq. That would constitute an actual focus on what many concieve to be the real "War on Terror". A focus that we've ignored.

The Bush Administration used to repeat the claim that if we don't support the troops then we weren't real Patriots. Yet, since the inception of these wars, there has never been a concerted effort to actually support the troops. We've sent sub-par supplies when we've actually sent them. This has no rational basis because we've spent an obscene amount of money on these wars, Iraq in particular, yet we hear horror stories from returning soldiers over and over about inadequate equipment. Aren't we the finest outfitted fighting force in the world?

Speaking of returning troops, when is the last time you saw one? I don't mean in person, but on television, and I mean a soldier, not a General? For all the claims of a liberally biased media, I've still yet to see the image of coffins coming home, the iconic, polarizing image from Vietnam. These wars have no human face and that's why it seems that no one cares. Who is to blame for that? Surely the liberal media? Or quite possibly, the administration which has continually used other issues as a red herring to draw the people happily away from an ugly war that has gone on longer than any in American History?

Active duty military are donating to Obama 6 to 1 according to a new study. In light of that, who is "Joe Six Pack" actually supporting? If these are the freedom fighters that we profess to admire and support, maybe we should follow their example. The questions I ask myself every time I watch the news bother me. I'm sure many people would love to accuse me of being un-American if I put my thoughts out there, but I'm not concerned about peoples' opinions. I'm more concerned about the direction of this nation. Therefore, here are a few of my questions:

When are we going to actually start supporting the troops in a meaningful way?

What's the status of the G.I. Bill?

What condition are the VA hospitals these days?

Are we supporting them in a meaningful way or is this business of yellow ribbon magnets and flag bins all just lip service?

Ask yourself if putting county first means going along with failed policies of the last four years or re-evaluating our policy and position in the new world. Then, vote your conscience, but don't blindly vote party lines without actually doing some soul-searching before pulling that lever.

I've decided on my vote, I just hope this new nastiness in the campaign does not render it useless again, like it did 8 and 4 years ago. Read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, and some of Thomas Jefferson's and John Adams' writings. Then come back and tell me if we're going in the right direction. I haven't met anyone in my 31 years who can read these objectively and say that the divisive, extreme viewpoint politics that have taken over this country are good for us.

This election (as usual) is comedy gold for SNL!

Nice to see them at least claw back to relativity... too bad Tina Fey actually had to write material for this one.

Don't have alot of time, but:

As a single father and a firm believer in the rights and importance of all human beings, my respect for Joe Biden has been very high since I learned of him. That being said, this was the most touching and poignant moment I have ever seen from anyone in a public office in my lifetime.



Ok, back to class.

Ding dong the bill is dead

The House of Representatives has defeated the bailout package 228-205. Apparently all that welfare reform they wanted for years jumped up and bit them. Too bad we never got to see if McCain was going to actually make it in to vote.

You have got to be kidding me.

Ok, I've been pretty much not on the Palin bandwagon since Jump Street, but this is just the most god damn ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Please read this excellent article by a man with a glorious first name and a fabulous nose for journalism. Copied from The Huffington Post:

Jacob Alperin-Sheriff

Posted September 11, 2008, 08:30 PM (EST)
New Evidence: Palin Had Direct Role In Charging Rape Victims For Exams

Despite denials by the Palin campaign, new evidence proves that as
mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin had a direct hand in imposing
fees to pay for post-sexual assault medical exams conducted by the city
to gather evidence.

Palin's role is now confirmed by Wasilla City budget documents available online.

Under Sarah Palin's administration, Wasilla cut funds that had
previously paid for the medical exams and began charging victims or
their health insurers the $500 to $1200 fees. Although Palin
spokeswoman Maria Comella wrote USA Today
earlier this week that the GOP vice presidential nominee "does not
believe, nor has she ever believed, that rape victims should have to
pay for an evidence-gathering test...To suggest otherwise is a
deliberate misrepresentation of her commitment to supporting victims
and bringing violent criminals to justice," Palin, as mayor, fired
police chief Irl Stambaugh and replaced him with Charlie Fannon, who
with Palin's knowledge, slashed the budget for the exams and began
charging the city's victims of sexual assault. The city budget
documents demonstrate Palin read and signed off on the new budget. A
year later, alarmed Alaska lawmakers passed legislation outlawing the
practice.

News of the controversial policy has leaked slowly into the press
this week as the presidential campaign has heated up and Palin's record
has been subject to increasing scrutiny. The practice of charging rape
victims has called into question Palin's stated commitment to women's
issues, her judgment as an executive and her honesty about her record.

The story of the Wasilla policy has made its way from comments on Daily Kos to the pages of USA Today.
But clear evidence suggesting Palin knew Wasilla was charging the
victims of sexual assault has been hard to find. Placing the city
budget records, however, alongside a timetable of Palin's firing Chief
Stambaugh and hiring Chief Fannon makes it clear the policy was put in
place as a direct result of Palin's leadership.

The mayor of Wasilla before Sarah Palin, John C. Stein, was also a
Republican, though the office was and continues to be non-partisan.
Mayor Stein was defeated by Sarah Palin in a campaign that brought in
the NRA, Republican partisans, and a whisper campaign that Mayor Stein was Jewish
(he is a Christian, but is "proud of such a reputation"). He now runs
the Sitka Sound Science Center, a marine research facility in Sitka,
Alaska.

Mayor Stein told OffTheBus that he didn't "think victims were billed
while [he] was mayor," but that he wasn't certain. He did mention that
"Wasilla participated in establishing a Sexual Assault Response Team to
set-up a one-stop forensic exam room for victims," evidence of a
pro-victim police department. In order to confirm his assertion about
the billing policy, he recommended I contact current police chief
Angella Long for confirmation. She did not return my request for
comment.

However, I was able to eventually track down Irl Stambaugh, police chief of Wasilla from the founding of the department until Sarah Palin fired him
for "not fully supporting her efforts to govern." Stambaugh sued for
breach of contract, but lost when a federal judge ruled that "police
chiefs serve at the behest of the mayor unless otherwise specified." He
later served as the executive director of the Alaska Police Standards Council.

It turns out that Wasilla did not bill sexual assault victims
for the cost of rape exams while Irl Stambaugh was chief of police. As
chief, he had included a line item in the budget to pay for the cost of
such exams. He had only just heard about the Mayor Palin/Chief Fannon
policy today, and was just as shocked to hear about it as I was.

Checking the budget confirmed former Chief Stambaugh's claim. He had
included a contingency of $15,000 in his budget for the department's
1st year of existence (1993-1994), $5,000 for 1994-1995 and 1995-1996,
and $13,000 for his final year as police chief in 1996-1997, spending
$11,625.

Duwayne Charles Fannon, his replacement, halved the budget request
in 1997-1998, with a request of $7,298, spending $3,454. However, it
seems he began the "victim pays" policy in the 1998-1999 fiscal year.
That year, he requested $3,000 but spent only $205. This data can be
found in the Document Central section of Wasilla's website.

The Document for the 1998-1999 fiscal year begins with a message "To the Citizens of the City of Wasilla:"

The comprehensive annual financial report of the City of
Wasilla for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1999, is hereby submitted.
The City's Finance Department prepared the report. Responsibility for
both the accuracy of the data, and the completeness and fairness of the
presentation, including all disclosures, rests with the City. To the best of our knowledge and belief,
the enclosed data is accurate in all material respects and is reported
in a manner designed to fairly present the financial position and
results of operations of the various funds and account groups of the
City. All disclosures necessary to enable the reader to gain an
understanding of the City's financial activities have been included.
...

At the end of the letter, under the words "Respectfully
submitted," is the signature of Sarah Palin. Unless she made a false
claim about the data being accurate to the best of her knowledge, she
was aware of the change in billing policy orchestrated by Police Chief
Fannon. The McCain/Palin campaign did not respond to requests for
comment.

To see Palin's signature in Wasilla's 1999 Financial Report, download the full report here. [The
7-page letter written by Sarah Palin and the city's finance director as
an introduction to the 1998-1999 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
makes it clear that the City of Wasilla, and hence the mayor, is
responsible for oversight over the report. The letter discusses certain
minor city actions, such as an extension by the city of the East
Wasilla Water Main in order to serve the newly built Wal-Mart. The rest
of the letter is a summary of the information contained in the report.
However, it is notable that "the City of Wasilla is required to undergo
an annual single audit in conformity of the Federal and State Single
Audit Acts." Under the most recent amendments to that act at the time,
an entity had to expend $300,000
in federal funds to be subject to the Single Audit Act; a look at page
88 of the full financial report shows the federal share of Wasilla city
expenditures to have been $1,145,753, nearly $200/resident.]

Hopefully, I've covered my ass as far as plagiarism goes.

Straight from the horse's mouth...

Maybe that's offensive to horses though.

Great Commercial

Bravo Planned Parenthood!

Hey, what's the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom?

Pitbulls don't lie.

Obama '08.

Just when I thought I could rest...

This election just got retarded in the last 2 weeks, and I'm not talking about the obvious....Joe Lieberman. I'm so sick of that little turd riding McCain's coattails. Don't worry, the Sarah Palin bus hasn't missed this stop. I'm on my way, all I need is a little time to control my rage.

I'm annoyed

Ok, sorry to be the bleeding heart liberal, but....if this is such an issue, I don't think reverting to 19th century thinking as the gentleman from Texas has proposed. Oil? Natural gas? Really? The need for mini-flourescent lightbulbs arose from the fact that we have polluted our environment to the point that our grandchildren will be possibly be wearing gas masks to go to work. I'm so sick and god damn tired of the politics and policies of fear. Oh my dear lord! Mercury? Dear lord, no! Maybe if we accept the suggestions of this elected "representative", we can bring back asbestos and DDT! This is ridiculous, if being made in China is such a god damn problem, why don't we give an incentive to companies to stay in America? This argument is ridiculous and moot.

McCain Lies!

I know its a big shocker that a Republican politician isn't telling the truth, but this is just ridiculous. Only because the media keeps trumpeting that McCain is some kind of "Straight talking maverick", don't make me laugh. This guy is a worse double-talker than any candidate I've seen in years.

My personal soapbox

As anyone who has met my family knows, being intolerant or hateful towards gays or lesbians is really not an option if you are in any way shape or form planning on staying a part of said family. That being said, I applaud the California Supreme Court for their decision repealing the ban on same-sex marriage. And now, a person who I am continually more and more impressed with is using this opportunity to follow their heart and exercise their newly minted right to marry. I am speaking of Ellen DeGeneres, one of my favorite fellow Louisiana natives. She and her partner, Portia de Rossi, have announced plans to marry in June. Ellen, I applaud you and Portia, California, I applaud your progressive decision, Governor Terminator, I applaud your announcement that you will not support any amendment to override the Supreme Court's decision. To all who are opposed to same-sex marriage, I can only say that I sincerely hope that you can move past your bigotry and fear and embrace your fellow human beings. I fail to see any logic in your argument that this will destroy the sanctity of marriage, as a divorcee (albeit not a gay one), I watch marriages fail all over and wonder what institution it is that you are citing. I cite Greg Giraldo: "George Bush says that gay people getting married would violate the sanctity of marriage. Is anybody here married? Does it feel like a gift from God to you?".

The Real #1 Issue for Voters in 2008

Isn't this the main issue every time a politics enters a conversation?

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters