Posts Tagged ‘McCain’

We have had our first frost.  I put the feather comforter on the bed.  Winter is coming, and I don’t think on tippy-toes this year.  The weather may be average, but nothing else about this winter will be ordinary.

We have a Presidential election in a few weeks and partizans for the Republicans openly post images of their opponent, Obama, with a noose alongside the photo.  They lie and call him a Muslim.  They say he hangs out with terrorists.  Gee, you know if anyone who knew a college radical in the 60’s “hangs out with terrorists”, it sure could go a long way to explaining the ever-longer no-fly list, couldn’t it?   I knew that if I looked hard enough, long enough and without my brain or glasses, that it would all make a twisty sort of sense!

We have two wars that are ruinously ongoing.  And in Afghanistan, people will be starving this winter while we get NATO troops to further make war on the opium farmers who are merely trying to stay alive and feed their families with the only cash crop they can find.  We are distrusted and hated around the world.

The financial markets of the world are tottering and bringing up mental images of the old train wreck posters produced in sepia tones with cheesy captions back when I was fresh out of high school.  Britain is so pissed that little Iceland went broke before Brit investors could get their payoff that they have invoked anti-terrorist legislation to seize assets!  So, now bigger nations will go strip whatever has worth in smaller debtor nations to make their “ends” look at each other?   Apparently, it really is impossible for nations to sit down and say “Well, we are ALL in the shit; how do we make the best of it and climb out of the crapper?”

And what are the average Americans doing?  The news around here finds it encouraging that they are going shopping for Halloween.  Are you kidding?  Yes, I went shopping for Halloween, too.  I spent $8 on colored hairspray.  I am paying off my bills as fast as I can, keeping even with repairs and maintenance and hoping we somehow make it through the shit that is coming down the pike.

Clue to America: You can’t SHOP your way out of this.  Pay off your damned debts, look up the word “stringent” in the dictionary and make it your watch word for financial matters  and general living for a while.  Keep your cabinets stocked, do your job, don’t act like a panicked racist prick, and pay some fucking ATTENTION to the world beyond your own petty damned needs for a change.

I love the fall, usually.  In spite of my apprehensions and fears of stupid people in large numbers, I WILL enjoy the season.  With simple pleasures…..a good home-cooked meal, a backyard bonfire, a glass of cheer from the long-ago stocked liquor cabinet.  It is time to keep on keeping on, but at a real level rather than on the fantastical level.  And yes, for all you whippersnappers, that is a reference to a black and white movie “The Night of the Iguana” ….because the American Stupid party is over.  It has needed to be over for good while.  Park your greed and ‘me me me” at the dumpster and join the rest of the planet.

I think he could march, too, if required.  Please, really, read this:

http://blog.badtux.net/2008/10/mccain-strategy.html

If obscenity is the last resort of the inarticulate, as I am often lectured, is violence and mayhem the last stand of the present Republican Party candidates?

Not to put too fine a point on it, regarding my constant swearing, but it GETS attention QUICKLY.  It is a crude tool, but an effective one that focuses a lot of people without them needing to resort to a dictionary to get my meaning.

Likewise, Sarah Palin and John McCain attacking relentlessly with old lies, and with phrases that seem to encode the worst things about America—evil nasty, not-spoken-of-openly racist things, for instance, seems to get and hold the attention of a lot of people who may or may not actually be the type to go to a voting booths.  I have to wonder whether the vote is what they are actually seeking from this particular crowd.

If a speech makes the listener shout “Kill him!” about Obama, and the speaker accepts that with her folksy little smile or a wink?  What does that say?  Do you win all the same if the opposing candidate is simply dead?  How do we know this isn’t exactly what the GOP wants?  A dead Obama would certainly send a message to America, wouldn’t it?

I know a lot of liberals/progressives who were Hillary Clinton supporters because they said they didn’t believe Obama could LIVE to do the job.  I found that a horrifying concept: that you elect someone based strictly on whether anyone wants them dead by assassination.  You see, in that kind of thinking, you build in victory for the other side.  All they need do is show a readiness to off ANY person likely to win, and wow, everyone steps back from the plate and supports a weaker candidate who at least may not be shot?

I am voting for “That One” as McCain so dismissingly referred to Obama.  And the Republicans, if they are counting on the dregs of their base to step up with gun and scope and end the problem?  Why, then I would say, they better think again.  Because if they thought there were riots and madness in the wake of the Rodney King incident,  they better bring more than a single U.S. Army Brigade to the pic-nic if Obama is murdered.

I can’t be the only one wondering why that political Rubicon was crossed, can I?  As the election nears, and McCain falters in dotage and vindictive spleen, Bush brings home a combat unit and it is announced it will be for policing the streets of America in violation of posse comitatus custom?   Now of all times?  Why now?  Why does a truck-load of Colorado rednecks with said scope & rifle get dismissed as a “not-credible threat” while mere letter writers to Bush can find themselve in jail if they aren’t very careful?

I really try to avoid the conspiracy theory trap, but I smell a rat.  And it is wearing the smiling flag-wrapped face of the Republican Party.  What do they expect that is so dire that only a combat hardened Army Brigade would answer the need?  Why do they expect it, if they are not trying to set it in motion?

The sound of women going “Hillareeeeee” is still ringing in my ears.  I sure hope it isn’t all sour grapes.  I read my way around the blogs this morning, and some on the other side of the Hillary argument dismisses her followers as bitter bull dykes.  Welllll, that is certainly….well, yeah, let’s not, ok? Over simplification solves nothing at all.

Every hard-core Hillary supporter is not a bull dyke.  Not even any kind of dyke.  But I know a few dykes and mind you, I will defend their right to be bitter.  But not about Hillary, ok?  On that score I am willing to smack a few hands and act rather Nunzilla with a rapping ruler. Grow the hell UP, ok?  I have heard that “It doesn’t matter who is elected, it will likely only be for four years.”  Really?

Look what George the Fool accomplished in four years, will you?   And McCain is crazier and more damaged than he was—you really want to submit America in her already screwed up fragile state to THAT?  Because you think Hillary was unfairly treated?  Let’s grant you that, because judging from her speech last night, the stuff the media chose to show all through her campaign was NOT her best moments.  But geez louise, take it out on the MEDIA, not on the American public by letting John McCain take the White House.

Let me assure you from the seat of a half-crazed Sybilline sort (admittedly not as infallible as the Pope, but less dogmatically motivated), that hard and rotten times are in the very near future for America.  Do you really want a man in the Oval Office whose response to this will almost certainly be to blame some country far away and start another war?  Because that IS the GOP answer to economic woes—cause it works for THEM and THEIR friends, they are all getting richer.  And because they still pump the ‘trickle down’ bullshit, because if McCain’s $270,000 a year “domestic help budget” is any example, they envision all of us dressed in French maid outfits.  (I admit, I want to see them try that withe the reputed “bull dykes”, ok? )

Another blogger did float an idea that I have discussed with friends—whether Obama might put Clinton on the Supreme Court bench.  Oh, my, Scalia might stroke out at the thought…and that makes me smile and drool a bit too much for mixed company.  And others bitch that, while , yes Scalia is a puke, it is wrong to prostitute the Court for political quid pro quo.  Nice sentiment, I agree with the ideal behind it.

However, I am of the camp that applauds the selection of Joe Biden because Biden will open his mouth and shoot poison arrows back at McCain.   The Democrats have been taking the supposedly high moral road in Congress and in public discourse for the last eight years and it has availed us NOT.  It has been the political version of advice I was given (and discarded) as a girl: In case of rape, it is inevitable, so lay back and enjoy it!

WE have not been enjoying it, but the Democrats HAVE been laying back.  It is time to do some punching, some stiletto heeling of foreheads  and that includes on the Supreme Court.  The pendulum needs a good damned shove to the opposite direction if we ever hope to put the country back in shape to be recognized on any moral map again.  If Obama  wins and puts Hillary on the Court, pray there are enough folks in Congress to ratify that choice!

If Hillary truly has enough disgruntled followers who will either fail to vote or vote for McCain, or any other candidate, just don’t let me hear any of you saying bad things about Ralph-Spoiler-Nader again, ok?  Because if this election is thrown to McCain , you will all surely learn a most unpleasant lesson in why it certainly does fucking matter who is elected. One blogger I read has one thing dead right—if McCain is at the Wheel of State when it goes down, it will be on the GOP neo-con slate as it deserves to be.  But the signatories at the bottom will include all those misguided, cult-of-personality Hillary-ites who can’t see the writing on the Babylonian wall.   Are you really all up to put your “John Hancock” to THAT?

Some days just reading headlines makes you want to hurry the weekend to a stage it never gets to anymore: the college frat-party-drunk-and-feeling-no-pain stage. I was never actually in that stage of life and now I sometimes miss it more than ever. If any of you want to read the stories, hey you can google for it, the headlines are entirely there. And the source in parens after my comments.

So…headlines and thoughts, yes, I will try to keep it short:

(1)Farc rebels denounce ‘betrayal’ – Seriously, you are terrorist assholes who have held some hostages for YEARS. And you have the nerve to bitch because you were tricked into releasing some of them? Boo-fucking-hoo. (BBC)

(2)Who’s Right, McCain or Gramm? – This is a no-brainer folks. This obviously revolves around McCain flunky Phil Gramm trying to act like Phil McGraw as he says that there is no real economic slump in America, just a bunch of whiny less-rich-than-me serfs who don’t understand how to suck it up and shut up already. So the quick answer about who is right? NEITHER! Because even tho’ McCain says the economy is in “shambles” he really is just trying to sound sympathetic so the non-oil-business GOP members will vote for him, if they can afford gas to get to the polls. (US News & World Report)

(3) N. Korean soldier shoots S. Korean tourist dead – Tourism in a totalitarian country run by a nutcake, where the citizens somewhat routinely have to worry about starvation. Don’t even get me started on what a bad idea this was from the get-go. Touchy bastards shoot a woman for walking too far down the beach, and we are to note this with dismay and agree with Bush that there are bad evil empires out there? Clue to South Koreans: stay SOUTH of the DMZ! Do not get those crazy desperate bastards up north on their warhorses again, America is too busy and the UN has its hands full with Africa. (USA Today)

(4)Fallout Measured as Jackson Apologizes – Gee whiz, what was he thinking? He got all pissy because Obama wasn’t talking like an angry victim, and said bad things about Obama. Now he has to apologize, because you know, we can’t have McCain winning, can we Jesse? He only wants to see your sort of person in one place—-military peonage; so get with some damned priorities; win over Whitey and THEN tear your own people apart. Holy shit, you idiot, I have Celtic blood.
Where are the Celts as an identifiable “people” now? That’s right…NOWHERE, because they too couldn’t quit beating each others’ asses long enough to fight off worse assholes, and as a result they are diffused out over all of Europe. (NPR)

(5)Ansen: ‘Dark Knight’ Is Grim, But Impressive Epic – Ok, this is NOT news, but it is about the brightest spot on the current events map. In fact, all the Newsweek titles on the web page I do news from hit me as not news. Peculiar, maybe they should change the name of their magazine, eh? (not)Newsweek, obviously)

(6) Obama’s surveillance vote spurs backlash – Duh, really? Well, you know, before you climb too far up the man’s ass, you might ask how YOUR Senator voted. Mine voted no. Yes, he deserves to catch the shit he will catch for this; but hey, he is still a better bet than McCain. What cracked me up most tho’ in this story? The part explaining that telecom immunity is not automatic—but a judge can give them that if they have a note explaining that their compliance was legal. “Get a note from Uncle Georgie that it’s ok to spy on your brethren-citizens” Fuck! (CNN)

(7)Women at Lal Masjid vow babies for jihad – Wow. Now, you know that is the kind of fervor that would make Cheney soil his trousers with joy. Pity he isn’t in charge of that country instead of this one. And the right-to-lifers would love it, too, after all, these are not fetus-people being vowed to death before they are born.(Daily Times.com.pk)

(8) NC Senate Creates Loophole for Polluting Hog Farms – Umm, let me get back into the chair I fell from while laughing too hard. Yes, yes, I know this is serious, I just can’t believe the NC State House has senators who don’t ‘get’ that. Holy crap, all ya’ll….make the good senators move in next door to the hog farm and all this will be rapidly resolved! (press release about H 822)

(9)Pentagon to Rebid $40 Billion Air Force Contract – Ooooh, ya think? Cause giving the contract to a freaking foreign company (and no, I do not care if it is the AMERICAN division of AirBus, thank you) wasn’t your best ever bet. Course, what I expect is some scramble now to make it look like Northrup Grumman OWNS the applicable parts of AirBus. And it couldn’t be cause McCain wrote letters for his Northrup Grumman pals asking the Air Force to please, please, please buy THEIR airplane instead of nasty blue-state Boeing’s, could it?

(10) Artificial kidney enables “dialysis-on-the-go” – Ok, I was wrong. This is a brighter spot than a non-real-news movie review. This makes me hopeful, cause someone I know loves someone who might unfortunately need to benefit from this research. (engadget.com)

I am an amateur history buff, and an amateur philosopher. I am really not in a class with so many of my favorite bloggers, but I am bitchy and big-mouthed and will harangue away with the best of my betters, all the same. Right now, from my lower middle class, no retirement savings, no liquid assets, gonna-be-screwed-if-the-economy-really-tanks vantage point I look at the coming election and my beloved country and it seems like a coin toss devised in a bad B-movie. You know the type, where the hero is in a rigged game, but he is the sort who will always try to get between the rock and the hard place un-smashed?

America isn’t really looking much like James T. Kirk or even Indy Jones, though. I worry about the “tails” in that toss…that side of the coin seems terribly weighted to me:

~ The Democrats are tearing themselves to bits. And that is bad enough of itself, but the WAY they do it bothers me even more. Clinton’s past, we are told by her supporters, is just that—in the past. So, her work for Walmart and the union busting law firm don’t mean she doesn’t love the common working stiffs of America. But Obama’s past, well, now here is some good smearing, not only is he panned for being black and accused of being a secret Muslim (wtf is this, the American freaking Inquisition??), but he is called an elite sort who doesn’t care about the common man? Wow, how does anyone DO that, hit both sides of it?  This is what kills me, you are sexist if you bring up Clinton’s past; but you are not racist if you bring up a largely fabricated past and glue it to Obama?  This is a big weight heading for tails, folks. If you can build in a nice secretive, never shows its face racism, accuse the guy of lack of experience; and likewise claim a woman who worked against the interests of the very voters she wants most never did so and not get called on bullshit….well, hey, war is peace, dudes.

~Another tails weight I see is that it HAS come down to whether it is about racism or sexism. Wouldn’t it be nice if all candidates were unmarked boxes on the political shelf, with their IMPORTANT “ingredients” truthfully listed—stuff like voting records, job resume, maybe a polygraph on where they stand on this, that, and the other? Of course, all that “stuff” is available if one looks deeper than media sound-bites. Americans seem sadly unready for the rigors of researching out the truth—even in the age of the internet when it is so much easier to do.

~Another tail thing is Americans make lousy existentialists. What do I mean by that? We like to jolly ourselves along in completely unrealistic ways; the GOP talks about trickle down economics and a lot of very poor folks believe it. Come on, everyone, ANYbody knows that the only thing that reliably rolls downhill is more shit, different day. The GOP sells the “American Dream” but they don’t mention that only about 5% of the population can afford the price. WAKE UP, stop believing the folks that tell you it will all work out. Nothing works out without blood, sweat, and tears. Stop protecting yourselves from the real horrors facing America with statements like “Well, whoever wins in November won’t get much done, so it doesn’t matter who it is; the candidate in 2012 is the one to watch!” How long do you really think economic disaster can be deferred? Get real!

~We like fish too well. This is logic 101, folks. An awful lot of Americans, when faced with a problem will accept anything as the cause of the problem. So when the economy is doing lousy because corporations have shipped jobs overseas, and the government is pumping every tax dime into a war that really only benefits big companies and undertakers, there are lots of asshats out there saying that isn’t really the problem. No, it is those pesky immigrants…legal and un! THEY are taking your jobs, by gawd. Really? You worked in a restaurant kitchen for minimum wage or below and now you are out of work? This is a red herring dragged across the trail of American rhetoric, and because it stinks and is ripe with hidden racism, too many folks follow this trail instead of watching where the money goes.

~ We progressive/liberal sorts are too good hearted. Yes, this is a tails leaning factor right now. In fear that the Democrats are eating their own, we fear McCain will win. So, some of us tell ourselves he will be “reasonable.” You know, even I, back in 2000 said of George Bush, “Well, maybe he will rise to the task at hand—I mean, my Gods, they can’t let him fail, can they?” Boy oh boyoboy—what that a statement of pure shit. And yes, it rapidly rolled down hill!  Stop giving the fuckers the benefit of the doubt!!

I could go on all day. But can’t bore everyone to death; so are there any signs the beautiful American coin might come up heads? Some. And let me say, even if it does, it doesn’t mean things are rosy, ok? It just means we get another chance to pull our spoiled heads out of our own asses!

+ People are sick of the war. A very paltry number still think our “freedom” is what it is about. So the GOP has its own little splitsville brewing as some of their tried and true members look to Libertarian candidates.

+ Even though a lot of our Congress critters vote in ways generally guaranteed to fill their financial portfolios, some are waking up to realize that money might not be enough if the house of cards falls down. And a few of them might be afraid to live abroad after the crash—after all, we aren’t real popular overseas just now. So, this would be a good time to tell them exactly how you feel, and to my mind, with as many expletives UNdeleted as possible. (Example: Senator Venal-ass? Yes, I just am calling to remind you that you are supposed to be working for ME, you fucktard, NOT for Exxon-Mobil. So goddamn you, find out why even Mexico has cheaper gasoline, and BEFORE the cost of heating this dump I live in puts me on the street!)

+McCain keeps talking how good a veteran he is, what a brave POW he was. But he votes nastily for other vets, and some of them are catching on and being quite noisy about it. The Webb GI Bill PASSED (break out the GOOD beer!), and now Bush and McCain are all on about how the volunteers shouldn’t get it because they haven’t been …what…..drafted? Like WWII troops often were? Because they haven’t stayed military serfs in substandard quarters for enough years?  The GOP is not really the party of that supports the military, they just play that party on television. And badly. They are the party of the contractors, undertakers, and oilmen. And there are more and more veterans catching on to this fact.
+I see some signs that ordinary day to day Americans might be getting the clue that the Religious Right is not necessarily right about many things—they may have screwed the pooch and shown their nasty controlling, lets show those Spanish Papist bastards how to do a REAL Inquisition hand a bit too plainly. This is the only place where Americans being spoiled into thinking they CAN TOO always have their way might prove beneficial—cause the Religious Right absolutely wants it done THEIR way or not at all. Them losing some political power can only be a good thing.

+Nobody likes being scared all the time. The constant fear-mongering is losing its grip. It is like the health alerts we get, where after a while EVERYdamnedTHING you put in your mouth causes cancer (grapefruit, for Gods’sake??!): you finally decide to say “Fuck it” and eat like a normal person instead of obsessing. So, finally, Americans are getting sick of looking over their shoulders for “terr’ists” all the time, and they will be tired soon of the restrictions on their civil rights. (I am a bit afraid this heads-weight might be counter balanced by the government having gotten so accustomed to having their way that it could take a while to roll back the power to squash. But I am supposed to be positive here, right?)

+ And last, but I hope not least, Americans really CAN be tough and reasonable at the same time. If this war really WAS like WWII, as Bush keeps falsely telling us, we could cut a lot of shit out of our lives to focus on what really counts. We could stop living like spoiled brats and focus on security of home and job harder. And when things get bad enough, as I fear they will, then we will have to do this. We won a Revolution, against all odds. We need a new internal revolution in thinking now, and I am sure we are capable of it, although we are less well educated (over all) than our Founding Fathers and a bit too certain of our country’s place on the world stage. This IS the existential crisis of America at the end of her period of hegemony. We WILL find a new place of balance and survival in the world because we must. But it won’t be comfortable and we may not like much of it.

Brace yourselves, that coin is spinning. It is up to all of us to see which side gets the most weight.

I was going to leave this alone.

Really, truly, I was going to ignore the goat-fuck press dust-up over Obama saying small town Americans are bitter and worried and clinging to religion and guns.   But I do get sick of it going on and on and on and can’t keep my mouth shut any more.  Cause every time SOMEone in America says something America rather needs to hear, everyone else screams like raped apes.  And gloss is applied to cover up all the cracks in the foundation.
Hillary?  Shut up….you are too condescending to convincingly administer the sunshine enema you are attempting to use on America.  McCain?  You, you, YOU are calling Obama “elitist”??  Oh man, that’s pretty damned rich coming from you.  Both of you just have a long tall drink of STFU, for the love of sanity.  And you media hacks, talking about Obama being “in a political pickle”?  Honestly, find some balls and feed us some REAL news, will you?  Do your fricking job!  You are not supposed to be gossip columnists and cheerleaders, damn it.

And America?  If you are buying that Obama is talking down to you?  Wake the hell up.  I LIVE in a small town, ok?  And since this crap-shoot began when Obama said what apparently just can NEVER be said, I have looked around my small town when out doing errands.  Particularly, I have looked at cars and their bumper stickers and kept a running tally.

Seven out of ten vehicles with bumper stickers and decals have at least one related to religion.  At least five out of ten have one related to guns(pro-gun, not anti), and if you count NRA  stickers that number goes up to six or seven.  And in about five out of ten cases, both applicable stickers or decals were on the same car.  So, there you go, American small towns (at least this one) DO cling to religion and guns.  And while this is the more “redneck” county of the area, it is not the most redneck; and baby…..I live on the BLUE side of the state!