Best to write this without thinking about it too much. Election night went quickly and much as anticipated. Coverage on the major cable news networks was complete and results were delivered quickly and uniformly. As usual, if you wanted liberal punditry, MSNBC was the place to be. CNN came through with it's dazzling array of high tech bells and whistles and more experts than anybody could want. Surprisingly, Fox had the best, most coherent, controlled and watchable coverage. It was a little slanted but I didn't mind a bit. Fox's outstanding performance was due entirely to the masterful control of the coverage by their anchor, Britt Hume. I remember Hume as a young Washington correspondent on ABC 35 years ago. Of all of the television newsmen emerging at that time, I always thought he was the best. He has a quick mind, a self depreciating sense of humor and understands those things that he is reporting on. These assets left him standing virtually alone among the crowd of Brokaws, Rathers and Jennings of that era. Fox News will miss him if he leaves as is rumored.
John McCain made the best speech of his life tonight while conceding the election to Barack Obama, I believe he meant every word he said. There probably isn't a politician in America better prepared or more appropriate to have made such a speech. I mean no slight or disrespect of him in saying that. If the Republicans had had the wisdom to put him up for the Presidency eight years ago, we would not be at war today. The economy would not be in ruins. The Republican Party would not be wandering, barefoot and six toed, through a fundamentalist, Christian wilderness. He is a great American. He doesn't wear a little fucking flag on his lapel. He doesn't need one. The Republicans don't deserve him.
Barack Obama, during this campaign and in his acceptance speech tonight, understands the historical significance of his achievement. No matter what kind of President he is and I think he can be a very good one, much of that Presidency will not be about him at all but about the first Black President. He has sought, all along, to make sure the public acknowledgement of his achievements matches their historical significance. It does no credit to the first Black President of the United States to enter the White House through the back door with the hired help. I do not believe that he himself has a propensity for large crowds and elaborate staging. I think he understands that it is a necessarily formal wedding of State, that must be gotten through. If it was me, I wouldn't be able to do it. He's a smart guy, with a strong stomach. That will help him in the job he has to do.
Noblesse Oblige.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
On The Rogue Again
Sarah Palin arrived in Arizona later than expected, about 8 PM(EST) after returning to Alaska last night to vote in her hometown of Wasilla this morning. She will spend election night at Republican Headquarters with her running mate John McCain.
Her staff had difficulty getting her to make the long flight back to the lower 48, for the second time in 24 hours. She saw no need. She's a maverick and smarter than she looks. She doesn't want to endure any more hugs from the old perv, either.
Who can blame her. On either count.
Her staff had difficulty getting her to make the long flight back to the lower 48, for the second time in 24 hours. She saw no need. She's a maverick and smarter than she looks. She doesn't want to endure any more hugs from the old perv, either.
Who can blame her. On either count.
Memries, Like the Corners of My Mind
Fundo faggot whiners are complaining about two black militants dissing the Fox newsies at the door of a Philly polling place. One of them had a night stick. How terrible for them.
Perhaps they have forgotten Conservative dreamboat mayor, Frank Rizzo, who ran Philadelphia in the Seventies. He blockaded hundreds of Blacks into their tenements, set the buildings on fire and shot down women and children, who came out to avoid burning, like dogs, in the streets.
Misty watercolor memries, of the way we were.
Perhaps they have forgotten Conservative dreamboat mayor, Frank Rizzo, who ran Philadelphia in the Seventies. He blockaded hundreds of Blacks into their tenements, set the buildings on fire and shot down women and children, who came out to avoid burning, like dogs, in the streets.
Misty watercolor memries, of the way we were.
The Voting Experiance.
I went down to vote a little before 10. This has always proven to be a good time and it was today. The polls were a lot busier than usual but still only about ten minutes wait versus the usual no wait. The surprise was the number of non typical voters for my precinct. Usually there is nobody under fifty five to be seen. I'm fifty seven and still in the "young" demographic. There were a lot of young people there. People actually in their 20s as well as 30s. There were also some middle aged, scruffily casual, long hair types. Very unusual. Minorities in my precinct means Persians, South East Asians and illegal Hispanics. Didn't see any. Never do.
Lots of younger voters could be good for the only two other things on the ballot that I care about, besides the Presidency, this election. The first is the defeat of the California anti-gay marriage proposition and the second is the defeat of my long time Republican Congressman, who is a total scumbag.
I gotta say. If you can see a difference in voters in my almost totally Republican precinct, in the Reddest County in SoCal, there have got to be a lot of places where things will really rock and roll.
If you're excited about this election, get out and vote. If you're not, start drinking early. It's not a good day to be a Republican.
Lots of younger voters could be good for the only two other things on the ballot that I care about, besides the Presidency, this election. The first is the defeat of the California anti-gay marriage proposition and the second is the defeat of my long time Republican Congressman, who is a total scumbag.
I gotta say. If you can see a difference in voters in my almost totally Republican precinct, in the Reddest County in SoCal, there have got to be a lot of places where things will really rock and roll.
If you're excited about this election, get out and vote. If you're not, start drinking early. It's not a good day to be a Republican.
Never Silent, Not A Majority
It will be hours before we have an idea about the numbers on this election. I have a couple of predictions.
Obama will win. I don't know by how much. McCain, whether he loses big or small can take comfort in one thing. He and the Hivehead have mobilized the base. I believe when the dust settles it will be clear that more people voted Red than ever before. No matter how many, more will have voted Blue. There is a deep divide in this country and getting wider as well as deeper. Neither side will feel beaten and neither side will become complacent. The color of the rhetoric will become brighter and the volume louder. The distance between the sides has become too great for even the those with the longest reach and willing to lean the farthest over the gap to grasp hands in cooperation.
Obama will win two terms. Those that put Obama in the Presidency will not care if he is successful in terms of effectiveness. His Presidency will be not one of expediency or ideology but faith. A populist faith that the other side only pretends to have. A faith that this country can become something it has never been and will never be. A place of equal opportunity for all. No place has ever been that. No place ever will be but they will come out today and they will come out again in four years, no matter what. After eight years, they will see how wrong they were but they will have given it a shot. After that, your guess is as good as mine. One thing to remember though, is that once people establish a pattern of regular voting, they tend to keep to it. This bodes well for Democracy in America, if not for solution to the problems that beset us.
I read a lot on the Internet about Sarah Palin being the anti Obama. The transformational political figure in the future of the Republican party. The only thing transformational about her is her ability to make herself into the kind of gross, cartoonish, caricature that was needed to mobilize the lumpish, militantly ignorant, masses that the Republicans increasingly count on to buoy up their vote tallies. There may be a continuing place for her but not in the leadership. Never again.
Obama will win. I don't know by how much. McCain, whether he loses big or small can take comfort in one thing. He and the Hivehead have mobilized the base. I believe when the dust settles it will be clear that more people voted Red than ever before. No matter how many, more will have voted Blue. There is a deep divide in this country and getting wider as well as deeper. Neither side will feel beaten and neither side will become complacent. The color of the rhetoric will become brighter and the volume louder. The distance between the sides has become too great for even the those with the longest reach and willing to lean the farthest over the gap to grasp hands in cooperation.
Obama will win two terms. Those that put Obama in the Presidency will not care if he is successful in terms of effectiveness. His Presidency will be not one of expediency or ideology but faith. A populist faith that the other side only pretends to have. A faith that this country can become something it has never been and will never be. A place of equal opportunity for all. No place has ever been that. No place ever will be but they will come out today and they will come out again in four years, no matter what. After eight years, they will see how wrong they were but they will have given it a shot. After that, your guess is as good as mine. One thing to remember though, is that once people establish a pattern of regular voting, they tend to keep to it. This bodes well for Democracy in America, if not for solution to the problems that beset us.
I read a lot on the Internet about Sarah Palin being the anti Obama. The transformational political figure in the future of the Republican party. The only thing transformational about her is her ability to make herself into the kind of gross, cartoonish, caricature that was needed to mobilize the lumpish, militantly ignorant, masses that the Republicans increasingly count on to buoy up their vote tallies. There may be a continuing place for her but not in the leadership. Never again.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Sodomy and Witchcraft
We live in a country where we routinely invade foreign nations for reasons unrelated to anything that the invaded government or it's citizens are involved in. We live in a country where the government is trying to weasel out of providing a social or medical safety net for the old, sick, poor or young but is willing to shell out trillions to shore up corporations who have nothing but their own greed to blame for their current predicament and whose executive class is sitting on 90% of the personal wealth in this country, which has increased 400% in the last eight years. The government does all this on the cuff. They don't pay for any of it. Simply take out another loan and let the next guy pay.
I know a guy that sero converted positive for HIV a couple years ago. He's 52. He has a small business and works as a dinner house waiter on the side. No benefits, no 401 K, nothing saved. At least he doesn't owe anything.
I know a lady that is 67, with diabetes and several related health problems. She needs to retire. It shouldn't be a problem. She's worked for the same State Agency since 1967, full time, never missed a day. She has two adult sons. They had some problems with the law. They have some problems with drugs. They have some problems with employment. She never spends any money on herself. She owes 400 thousand on a condo she bought for almost nothing 20 years ago and is worth almost nothing again. She cashed out her retirement plan for what she had into it. She can get it back if she pays what she would have contributed over the last 40 years, with interest. Not a chance she can come up with that kind of money. There's even a kicker. Since she works for the State, she never paid into Social Security and isn't eligible.
These things represent the kind of problems that our country is facing at different ends of the spectrum. There are other problems. There are productivity problems. We are dependant on petroleum based power sources with rapidly decreasing access to petroleum. We have climate change related to petroleum use and no consensus on how to deal with it and large scale denial that it even constitutes a problem.
It's election time now. I don't know what the main issues people are basing their votes on where you are but here, two of the main concerns are gay marriage and abortion. What this boils down to, is sodomy and witchcraft. The three biggest contributors to political advertising in this State, this year, for these issues, are the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church and the Focus on the family organization. It doesn't seem to me that we have come as far as we need to have in the last six hundred years or so, in the areas of social and political awareness. Maybe these are the things people are really going to fixate on, no matter what else is happening.
I would like to move on.
I know a guy that sero converted positive for HIV a couple years ago. He's 52. He has a small business and works as a dinner house waiter on the side. No benefits, no 401 K, nothing saved. At least he doesn't owe anything.
I know a lady that is 67, with diabetes and several related health problems. She needs to retire. It shouldn't be a problem. She's worked for the same State Agency since 1967, full time, never missed a day. She has two adult sons. They had some problems with the law. They have some problems with drugs. They have some problems with employment. She never spends any money on herself. She owes 400 thousand on a condo she bought for almost nothing 20 years ago and is worth almost nothing again. She cashed out her retirement plan for what she had into it. She can get it back if she pays what she would have contributed over the last 40 years, with interest. Not a chance she can come up with that kind of money. There's even a kicker. Since she works for the State, she never paid into Social Security and isn't eligible.
These things represent the kind of problems that our country is facing at different ends of the spectrum. There are other problems. There are productivity problems. We are dependant on petroleum based power sources with rapidly decreasing access to petroleum. We have climate change related to petroleum use and no consensus on how to deal with it and large scale denial that it even constitutes a problem.
It's election time now. I don't know what the main issues people are basing their votes on where you are but here, two of the main concerns are gay marriage and abortion. What this boils down to, is sodomy and witchcraft. The three biggest contributors to political advertising in this State, this year, for these issues, are the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church and the Focus on the family organization. It doesn't seem to me that we have come as far as we need to have in the last six hundred years or so, in the areas of social and political awareness. Maybe these are the things people are really going to fixate on, no matter what else is happening.
I would like to move on.
Sunday, November 02, 2008
The Republican Party needs to be Destroyed
The real battle ground States are turning out to be Florida, North Carolina, Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota and Georgia. John McCain, statistically, could still win any of these states. He might even win the majority, if traditional voting patterns prevail and the Democrats strategy of increased voter registration proves to be a failure at the ballot box. He might win all of them if the undecideds turn out heavily and break strongly Republican. Winning all of these States will not give McCain the White House. Not nearly.
The real significance of this election is not whether the Republicans will keep the Presidency or the Democrats will increase their majorities in Congress. It is whether this will be a watershed election that signals a permanent change in American political party affiliation. I have mixed feelings about this. I would not want to see an extended period in which the Democrats control Government, with only a weakened Republican party in opposition. This wouldn't be any better than what we've had for the past decade and that has been a disaster. The Republican party needs to be beaten so badly that it either goes away or is forced into a period of Radical restructuring. I would frankly, prefer the former. I'm not convinced this is that election. I hope I'm wrong.
We need a party in this country that supports strict fiscal responsibility, in the personal, business and public sectors. We need a party that works to preserve and expand individual freedom and protects the rights of disenfranchised minorities, with the same vehemence that the current Republican party has suppressed them.
The real significance of this election is not whether the Republicans will keep the Presidency or the Democrats will increase their majorities in Congress. It is whether this will be a watershed election that signals a permanent change in American political party affiliation. I have mixed feelings about this. I would not want to see an extended period in which the Democrats control Government, with only a weakened Republican party in opposition. This wouldn't be any better than what we've had for the past decade and that has been a disaster. The Republican party needs to be beaten so badly that it either goes away or is forced into a period of Radical restructuring. I would frankly, prefer the former. I'm not convinced this is that election. I hope I'm wrong.
We need a party in this country that supports strict fiscal responsibility, in the personal, business and public sectors. We need a party that works to preserve and expand individual freedom and protects the rights of disenfranchised minorities, with the same vehemence that the current Republican party has suppressed them.
Poor John McCain, So far from God, so close to George W Bush
For the last week, Republican loyalists have been hanging onto the hope offered by Zogby's one day Presidential tracking polls. These statistically unreliable polls, with their small sample size and short duration, offered a ray of hope to them, as all other polls showed a widespread consolidation of Obama's support. Saturday, the Zogby one day indicator actually had McCain up one point on Obama, 47 to 46%, with a bullet. Alas, the bullet has ricocheted, striking Sheriff John in the heart. Today's latest Zogby one day wonder has Obama with 49.5% support, up almost seven percent on McCain. He's essentially a few undecided votes and a wake up, away from the Presidency.
These one day Zogby polls are not indicative of anything. All of the progressive tracking polls, including Zogby have Obama comfortably ahead, with no rapid trend changes indicated. A 3% lead in popular vote, nationwide, given current voter preference distribution, will give Obama close to or over 360 electoral votes, almost a hundred more than he needs. Every indication is that his margins of support will be greater than that. Maybe 5%. Maybe more. There are still a lot of variables, such as massive early voting and increased participation, that could send Obama's numbers sky high.
These one day Zogby polls are not indicative of anything. All of the progressive tracking polls, including Zogby have Obama comfortably ahead, with no rapid trend changes indicated. A 3% lead in popular vote, nationwide, given current voter preference distribution, will give Obama close to or over 360 electoral votes, almost a hundred more than he needs. Every indication is that his margins of support will be greater than that. Maybe 5%. Maybe more. There are still a lot of variables, such as massive early voting and increased participation, that could send Obama's numbers sky high.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
I'm Sorry
I used to really like and respect Ed, at the Captain's Quarters blog, before he shut down and went to work writing for Michelle Malkin over at Hot Air, with some guy named Allah Pundit. I don't go to Hot Air that often. It's not the same as Captain's Quarters and the tenor of the comments is way different.
Imagine my surprise when I went over there today and learned that all the pollsters are in the tank for Obama, as well as the media. John McCain is poised to win the election Tuesday by a landslide and the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress will be restored. I was surprised to learn that McCain will not only carry all of the former Red States but California and New Jersey as well. This news is being withheld from the American people because Obama is paying everyone that knows, not to tell. It will all come out next Tuesday, when McCain wins by the biggest margins in American electoral history.
Please disregard anything I have written here for the last several weeks. I have been misled by the mainstream media and the lying pollsters. I should have known better. I'm sorry.
Imagine my surprise when I went over there today and learned that all the pollsters are in the tank for Obama, as well as the media. John McCain is poised to win the election Tuesday by a landslide and the Republican majorities in both houses of Congress will be restored. I was surprised to learn that McCain will not only carry all of the former Red States but California and New Jersey as well. This news is being withheld from the American people because Obama is paying everyone that knows, not to tell. It will all come out next Tuesday, when McCain wins by the biggest margins in American electoral history.
Please disregard anything I have written here for the last several weeks. I have been misled by the mainstream media and the lying pollsters. I should have known better. I'm sorry.
I discovered Dinotopia today
Have you ever seen the TV series Dinotopia? I never had. I saw an episode today. It is based on a Hugo award winning series of illustrated novels, that I had never heard of. Maybe it's in the children's section of the library. I never go in there. The TV show is very colorful. Dinosaurs and humans live together in a joint society on a huge but uncharted island. There are also wooly mammoths, sabertoothed tigers and giant sloths. The dinosaurs talk and are just as smart and a lot more psychologically stable than humans. It's a little insipid.
Do you think Sarah Palin and her family think it is a docudrama? Would they kill and eat the talking dinosaurs?
Do you think Sarah Palin and her family think it is a docudrama? Would they kill and eat the talking dinosaurs?
Two Days and a Wake Up
John McCain really wants to win Pennsylvania. He's spending a disproportionate amount of time and money there. Winning there won't help him win the Presidency. Nothing he is capable of doing, will do that. It's out of his hands.
There are other States with races a lot closer than Pennsylvania. There are more strategically important races than in Pennsylvania. So what's the deal.
Pennsylvania is a Blue State. Barack Obama will win the Presidency by taking several Red States away from the Republicans. With the exception of West Virginia, John McCain has taken nothing from the Democrats. He wants to come away with something. Some symbol of fruition sprung from his hopes and efforts. Even if they came to naught. Like a fringed pillow, embroidered with the name of a city nobody goes to on purpose, carried home to her tawdry room by an old prostitute, after an ill fated trip. Proof that she got something out of it, besides sore and abused.
I kinda hope John wins Pennsylvania. Everybody needs to feel they came away with something.
There are other States with races a lot closer than Pennsylvania. There are more strategically important races than in Pennsylvania. So what's the deal.
Pennsylvania is a Blue State. Barack Obama will win the Presidency by taking several Red States away from the Republicans. With the exception of West Virginia, John McCain has taken nothing from the Democrats. He wants to come away with something. Some symbol of fruition sprung from his hopes and efforts. Even if they came to naught. Like a fringed pillow, embroidered with the name of a city nobody goes to on purpose, carried home to her tawdry room by an old prostitute, after an ill fated trip. Proof that she got something out of it, besides sore and abused.
I kinda hope John wins Pennsylvania. Everybody needs to feel they came away with something.
She's Hot
Cable news spends a lot of time covering Sarah Palin at campaign events. She always says the same thing, so I don't pay too much attention to that. She's a good lookin' girl, so I pay attention to that. Have you noticed, she's taking off weight. A lot of it. Her clothes hang better. Her legs have more contour. Her cheeks and jaw line have more definition. Her neck line is longer and thinner. She's doing more with her make up. I love it.
She's hot.
She's hot.
What's Happening Isn't Always What You Think. Are Gay Rights And Prolife Causes Linked?
I've written recently about Proposition 8, which would deny gay marriage, on the ballot in California and why it needs to be defeated. From all available polling, it looks like it will be defeated. Aside from the obvious fact that gay people will continue to marry if they choose in California. What does the defeat of this proposition mean?
The percentage of gay Americans, even in States like California, where many gays gravitate because of the tolerance of society here, is very small. I doubt it's even 5% and that has got to be one of the highest gay demographics, by State, in America. This means that more than 45% of the population must go out of their way to protect the rights of somebody else, to do something that they will never do and which many of them, undoubtedly, have mixed feelings about. You need to think about that for a moment.
It says that something is happening in the way people think about our country and what it means to live here, for everyone, not just themselves. Some of the people who should be the most encouraged by this aren't happy at all. The most obvious example of this are those who believe in the pro life philosophy. By affirming everyone the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we are expanding the definition of who everyone is. Fifty years ago, if you were homosexual in this country, you were a criminal, with no right to be what you were. Today gay Americans are on the verge of being fully vested with the same rights, as anybody else. Stigma against gay parenthood and single parenthood are also going away. Fetal rights cannot be far behind, in being addressed. It's going to happen and change will come. I guarantee it. That's the way society is moving.
Somehow, I feel that when change comes, the people least happy about it will be those currently active in the pro life movement. I wonder if it's true?
The percentage of gay Americans, even in States like California, where many gays gravitate because of the tolerance of society here, is very small. I doubt it's even 5% and that has got to be one of the highest gay demographics, by State, in America. This means that more than 45% of the population must go out of their way to protect the rights of somebody else, to do something that they will never do and which many of them, undoubtedly, have mixed feelings about. You need to think about that for a moment.
It says that something is happening in the way people think about our country and what it means to live here, for everyone, not just themselves. Some of the people who should be the most encouraged by this aren't happy at all. The most obvious example of this are those who believe in the pro life philosophy. By affirming everyone the right to LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we are expanding the definition of who everyone is. Fifty years ago, if you were homosexual in this country, you were a criminal, with no right to be what you were. Today gay Americans are on the verge of being fully vested with the same rights, as anybody else. Stigma against gay parenthood and single parenthood are also going away. Fetal rights cannot be far behind, in being addressed. It's going to happen and change will come. I guarantee it. That's the way society is moving.
Somehow, I feel that when change comes, the people least happy about it will be those currently active in the pro life movement. I wonder if it's true?
Friday, October 31, 2008
If you like Pat Boone, check this video out!
I got a robocall on behalf of Dana Rohrabacher my incumbent Congressman this afternoon. He got Pat Boone to record it for him. No Shit! Dana is well known as the least effective nemesis of illegal aliens in Congress. He tries to pass himself off as a closeted gay. The rumor is that he is a pedophile. It would be nice if he was defeated this year. I doubt it. My district is the most gerrymandered and Republican packed, in the country. The people here would vote for Jeffrey Dahmer if he had an (R) after his name on the ballot.
I'm 57 and I remember Pat on the radio when I was 5 or 6 years old. The big hit I remember and it must have been his last one, was "Love and Marriage". Ya'know, goes together like a horse and carriage. Even my Mom was too hip for Pat. She was more of a Mario Lanza kind of girl.
I wish I could tell you about the Robocall but I almost immediately screamed, "Fuck You, Pat", into the receiver and slammed it down. I guess I'm getting a little tense and irritable, with the election coming up and all, as you can probably tell by the irrational and obscene postings I'm putting up today. Sorry.
I don't have the heart to put up anything by Pat Boone. He's too fucked up. I got something much better for you. It's definitely in the Pat Boone tradition of Pop musical interpretation. CLICK on the title. Who doesn't like Larry Welk? Topical, hip, yet bizarrely, almost surrealistically, wholesome. Watch it all the way through. His comment at the end is the best part. He thinks it's a modern Spiritual. Well. who can really say it's not.
I'm 57 and I remember Pat on the radio when I was 5 or 6 years old. The big hit I remember and it must have been his last one, was "Love and Marriage". Ya'know, goes together like a horse and carriage. Even my Mom was too hip for Pat. She was more of a Mario Lanza kind of girl.
I wish I could tell you about the Robocall but I almost immediately screamed, "Fuck You, Pat", into the receiver and slammed it down. I guess I'm getting a little tense and irritable, with the election coming up and all, as you can probably tell by the irrational and obscene postings I'm putting up today. Sorry.
I don't have the heart to put up anything by Pat Boone. He's too fucked up. I got something much better for you. It's definitely in the Pat Boone tradition of Pop musical interpretation. CLICK on the title. Who doesn't like Larry Welk? Topical, hip, yet bizarrely, almost surrealistically, wholesome. Watch it all the way through. His comment at the end is the best part. He thinks it's a modern Spiritual. Well. who can really say it's not.
Let's pump our way to energy independence. Oh Baby!
I live in an old oil town, rapidly turning into a seaside paradise, populated by refugees from the Peacock Throne. There are still some oilfields on the South West side of town, with scattered pumps throughout the old downtown area. The South Coast oil deposits in California were once considered important. In those days consumption was a lot less and the deposits contained a lot more oil. Still, every little bit helps. The oil guys in town say those pumps will be producing long after we're all dead.
I noticed something yesterday. Last Summer, when oil was $140 a barrel, all the pumps were busily bobbing up and down. Yesterday, almost none of them were. Greedy fucks at Chevron Oil. Lookin' for a gusher to help solve our energy dependence problem, Sarey Paleface? Golly! Maybe you should bob up and down on my big throbbin' cock. That's a renewable resource you have the technology to tap into immediately.
I noticed something yesterday. Last Summer, when oil was $140 a barrel, all the pumps were busily bobbing up and down. Yesterday, almost none of them were. Greedy fucks at Chevron Oil. Lookin' for a gusher to help solve our energy dependence problem, Sarey Paleface? Golly! Maybe you should bob up and down on my big throbbin' cock. That's a renewable resource you have the technology to tap into immediately.
Warm Up the Colon Cams!
Brit Hume will be stepping down as head anchor and editor in chief of Faux News, after the election. He has, from the beginning, given legitimacy to an organization that sorely needs it.
Who will Roger Ailes get now to replace Brit? Shep Smith? Steve Doocy?
My pick? Katie Couric!
Any way you look at it, gaping colons are in Fox's future. They will likely be sore but will they fill your needs?
Who will Roger Ailes get now to replace Brit? Shep Smith? Steve Doocy?
My pick? Katie Couric!
Any way you look at it, gaping colons are in Fox's future. They will likely be sore but will they fill your needs?
Will a herd of RINOs save McCain? I guess he's not appealing to the base anymore.
Look who McCain is traveling with on his big, last weekend push, to save his candidacy. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tommy Ridge, Charlie Crist and Rudy Giuliani, these guys are all pro choice, urban, big government, RINOs. Maybe he's decided the hivehead isn't doing it for him.
Any port in a storm.
Any port in a storm.
Three more days and a wake up
There are several States where presidential polling is too close to call. They are Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota, Montana and Nevada. These are all Red States but it is unreasonable to assume that John McCain will win them all. It is my guess that Barry O will win less than half. Which States among these each candidate wins will have a big effect in their respective electoral college total.
The bottom line is that Barry can lose all these States and still win comfortably. Johnny McCrash needs to win them all and also take two out of three, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. There is some small hope that a miracle could happen and he could win Ohio. Close but no cigar.
If everything goes exactly right for John, he still loses. The threat posed by four more years of a Republican Presidency is still too great. Do not fall into complacency. Go out and vote. Call your parents, your siblings, your friends. Talk to your neighbors and the people you meet at church on Sunday. Talk to the guys at the soft ball game this afternoon, or at the tavern, playing pool. Influencing even one more person to vote for Obama doubles your power in the voting booth. In my State Obama already has a huge lead. It doesn't matter. Driving up the vote totals will send a message to Washington that we are tired of cynical Republican bullshit, corporate and agrarian welfare, unilateral foreign wars of petro hegemony and the encroaching theocracy of the fundamentalist, xenophobe, Luddites.
The bottom line is that Barry can lose all these States and still win comfortably. Johnny McCrash needs to win them all and also take two out of three, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. There is some small hope that a miracle could happen and he could win Ohio. Close but no cigar.
If everything goes exactly right for John, he still loses. The threat posed by four more years of a Republican Presidency is still too great. Do not fall into complacency. Go out and vote. Call your parents, your siblings, your friends. Talk to your neighbors and the people you meet at church on Sunday. Talk to the guys at the soft ball game this afternoon, or at the tavern, playing pool. Influencing even one more person to vote for Obama doubles your power in the voting booth. In my State Obama already has a huge lead. It doesn't matter. Driving up the vote totals will send a message to Washington that we are tired of cynical Republican bullshit, corporate and agrarian welfare, unilateral foreign wars of petro hegemony and the encroaching theocracy of the fundamentalist, xenophobe, Luddites.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Catholic Church Hierarchy in America Goes For Broke
Catholics make up 25% of the American population. Everybody, everywhere in America, lives with, works with and knows Catholic Church members. I do. I am a Registered nurse. They are mostly women. Maybe you consider it a real profession or not. If it is a profession, it is a bootstrap one. Nurses don't usually come from families with money, status or influence. Lots of minorities. A lot of immigrants. A lot of people working their way up from poverty. Real people, not too sophisticated but plenty smart. People who want what they do to make a difference. I don't want to throw superlatives around but Registered nurses are pretty good people. If you want to use one word that best describes what they are, I would suggest the word focused. At any given time, they tend to be aware of their situation and the potential challenges and have a plan to deal with them. It's a good way to be, if you're a nurse and not bad, no matter who you are. I would have to say that all nurses, because of the nature of the work, give a lot of consideration to the spiritual aspects of life. How could they not. Some may be atheists, but not casual ones. Most are religious. A lot of them are Catholics. I grew up with Catholic kids. I knew a lot of Catholics before I became an RN but probably most of what I know about the nature of Catholicism comes from my interactions and friendships with Catholic nurses over the years. When you work with somebody in nursing, you get a pretty good idea of the kind of person that they are, by the way they practice and handle situations that come up. Nurses can be reserved and reticent when dealing with patients and families. That's because what they say in that role can affect people in major ways for the rest of their lives. Conversely, when communicating with each other, they are usually brutally and graphically honest, for the same reason. This spills over into conversations about friends, family, philosophy, politics, religion, sexual relationships, everything. It's not something that you turn off and on. Not all of the Catholic nurses I have known are devout but most of them go to mass and make sure their families do too. They take the sacraments. A lot of them send their kids to parochial schools. I think they are the kind of people who are the backbone of the Catholic Church in America.
The Catholic Church has now drawn a line in the sand over the issue of Abortion. Over the years they have seen their influence over the personal lives of the faithful diminish and fade away in many ways. Many traditional virtues that are core to Catholicism have been modified to fit the lifestyles of the faithful in America. Chastity has taken on some pretty elastic qualities. Divorce does not have the same definition it once had. I can honestly say that I have never met a Catholic woman, my contemporary or younger, who did not believe in and practice, some form of artificial birth control, who was not also completely celibate. I have not met one who wished their daughter to become a nun or who believed that priests should not marry. In traditional Catholicism, charity is emphasized over the acquisition of personal wealth. The Catholics I know believe that the welfare of the family is the most important concern of it's members and the acquisition of wealth is important to family welfare. You may be a Catholic but you are a Mendez or Reilly or Okuli, first. The sons or daughters of affluent parishioners who, well into adulthood, do not find constructive purpose in life or start a family of their own, will not now find censure from within the church. That is an issue for the parents to address. I could go on.
The Bishops of America have been mobilized by Rome to address their flocks directly on the subject of abortion. The Bishops have put pressure on the diocesan priests to do the same. American Catholics have been put on notice that they are to regard any politicians views, public or private, on abortion as the primary motivation to vote for or against them, overriding all others. All others.
Nurses talk about dead babies. Like soldiers talk about close combat. Like sailors talk about fire, flooding and collision at sea. It's one of those things that happens and you need to know about. Nobody likes dead babies but it happens. When the subject of dead babies comes up, so does abortion. Nurses don't much like abortion. Everybody dies. Sometimes it's a blessing. Abortion isn't like that. You'd think nurses and especially Catholic nurses would be uniformly opposed to abortion. You'd be wrong. One of the first things you learn in clinical practice is that your values, as obviously right as they may seem to you are not shared universally. People make their own life decisions. Then they live with the consequences. If you force your beliefs on others, it's you who live with the consequences.
If Catholics vote as a block against politicians on the pro choice side of the abortion issue, Barack Obama will not become President. The Democratic majority in Congress will be gone. State legislatures from coast to coast will be reconfigured. This is not conjecture or editorial comment. There are more than enough Catholics to make this happen. Seems like a pretty simple equation to me.
If we wake up on Wednesday morning and Barack Obama is elected President, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in America will have been dealt a cruel blow. It will be a rebuke by their parishioners to, once and for all, stay out of the secular life of the nation. I don't know why the Churchmen have chosen this particular place and time to make their stand but they have. Maybe they feel they have no choice. Maybe they see the end coming and want to pare the church down to the genuinely obedient. They will insist it was not their choice to make but God's will. Whichever. It's done.
The Church has bet much of what authority it has left, on this issue. Soon the American Church may be like Europe's. A place to go for baptisms, weddings, funerals and history class field trips. It's a shame. Religion has a place in the life of America and the American tradition but freedom of religion is even more important. Choosing to do God's will and being told what God's will is, are not the same thing. If the Catholic Church is to survive, the old poofter in the white mu mu and red slippers needs to learn that.
The Catholic Church has now drawn a line in the sand over the issue of Abortion. Over the years they have seen their influence over the personal lives of the faithful diminish and fade away in many ways. Many traditional virtues that are core to Catholicism have been modified to fit the lifestyles of the faithful in America. Chastity has taken on some pretty elastic qualities. Divorce does not have the same definition it once had. I can honestly say that I have never met a Catholic woman, my contemporary or younger, who did not believe in and practice, some form of artificial birth control, who was not also completely celibate. I have not met one who wished their daughter to become a nun or who believed that priests should not marry. In traditional Catholicism, charity is emphasized over the acquisition of personal wealth. The Catholics I know believe that the welfare of the family is the most important concern of it's members and the acquisition of wealth is important to family welfare. You may be a Catholic but you are a Mendez or Reilly or Okuli, first. The sons or daughters of affluent parishioners who, well into adulthood, do not find constructive purpose in life or start a family of their own, will not now find censure from within the church. That is an issue for the parents to address. I could go on.
The Bishops of America have been mobilized by Rome to address their flocks directly on the subject of abortion. The Bishops have put pressure on the diocesan priests to do the same. American Catholics have been put on notice that they are to regard any politicians views, public or private, on abortion as the primary motivation to vote for or against them, overriding all others. All others.
Nurses talk about dead babies. Like soldiers talk about close combat. Like sailors talk about fire, flooding and collision at sea. It's one of those things that happens and you need to know about. Nobody likes dead babies but it happens. When the subject of dead babies comes up, so does abortion. Nurses don't much like abortion. Everybody dies. Sometimes it's a blessing. Abortion isn't like that. You'd think nurses and especially Catholic nurses would be uniformly opposed to abortion. You'd be wrong. One of the first things you learn in clinical practice is that your values, as obviously right as they may seem to you are not shared universally. People make their own life decisions. Then they live with the consequences. If you force your beliefs on others, it's you who live with the consequences.
If Catholics vote as a block against politicians on the pro choice side of the abortion issue, Barack Obama will not become President. The Democratic majority in Congress will be gone. State legislatures from coast to coast will be reconfigured. This is not conjecture or editorial comment. There are more than enough Catholics to make this happen. Seems like a pretty simple equation to me.
If we wake up on Wednesday morning and Barack Obama is elected President, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in America will have been dealt a cruel blow. It will be a rebuke by their parishioners to, once and for all, stay out of the secular life of the nation. I don't know why the Churchmen have chosen this particular place and time to make their stand but they have. Maybe they feel they have no choice. Maybe they see the end coming and want to pare the church down to the genuinely obedient. They will insist it was not their choice to make but God's will. Whichever. It's done.
The Church has bet much of what authority it has left, on this issue. Soon the American Church may be like Europe's. A place to go for baptisms, weddings, funerals and history class field trips. It's a shame. Religion has a place in the life of America and the American tradition but freedom of religion is even more important. Choosing to do God's will and being told what God's will is, are not the same thing. If the Catholic Church is to survive, the old poofter in the white mu mu and red slippers needs to learn that.
Should we trust the polls?
The polls have been pretty stable. The race is tightening up as undecideds make their decisions. Obama has leads in a lot of States that Republicans usually win and there are toss ups in States that Republicans always win. Electoral vote wise, it looks good for Obama. Popular vote wise it looks like it will be close in a lot of States.
I'm kind of expecting a surprise on election night, are you? Where I am, it feels like Obama is going to win, big. This is an area that always goes Republican. We always get a lot of Republican literature. We get phone calls from Republican phone banks. There are always a lot of Republican bumper stickers on cars. Brightly colored gardens of yard signs sprout on the street corners in the last week of elections. These things always happen. They didn't happen this year and there is less than a week to go. We even have a very hot, barometer like Right/Left proposition adding a ban on gay marriage to the State Constitution and I haven't really heard much about it. Some articles in the paper. A few TV ads. I've seen more excitement generated about school bonds.
How do pollsters get the phone numbers of the people they call? I've had the same phone number for a quarter century and no pollster has ever called me about politics during a National election. Are the polls missing something? I'm thinking maybe they are. The question is what are they missing?
We'll find out on election night.
I'm kind of expecting a surprise on election night, are you? Where I am, it feels like Obama is going to win, big. This is an area that always goes Republican. We always get a lot of Republican literature. We get phone calls from Republican phone banks. There are always a lot of Republican bumper stickers on cars. Brightly colored gardens of yard signs sprout on the street corners in the last week of elections. These things always happen. They didn't happen this year and there is less than a week to go. We even have a very hot, barometer like Right/Left proposition adding a ban on gay marriage to the State Constitution and I haven't really heard much about it. Some articles in the paper. A few TV ads. I've seen more excitement generated about school bonds.
How do pollsters get the phone numbers of the people they call? I've had the same phone number for a quarter century and no pollster has ever called me about politics during a National election. Are the polls missing something? I'm thinking maybe they are. The question is what are they missing?
We'll find out on election night.
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