More than a dozen states file for secession from Union

… and in the whiny ass bitch category, we have residents in multiple states requesting secession from the Union.

Sore losers.

I’m sure my President will give them a fair price on all their federally funded roads and buildings.

G’bye, idiots.

Will Sandy Impact Voter Turnout and Election Results?

From Politico Now:

By ANNA PALMER |

10/28/12 9:39 AM EDT

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner predicted on Sunday that Hurricane Sandy will “throw a little bit of havoc” in the approaching elections.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has declared a state of emergency, and the Obama campaign has already canceled a Monday rally with former President Bill Clinton.

Still, the Democratic senator President Barack Obama is in a good position in the swing state.

“He looks quite good,” Warner said, noting that a Washington Post poll has Obama over the 50 percent mark. The poll has Obama up four points, 51 to 47 percent, among likely Virginia voters, over Republican rival Mitt Romney.

Bill Looman, Georgia Business Owner, Draws Fire For ‘Not Hiring Until Obama Is Gone’

We will not hire until Obama is gone

Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me that this business owner is unwilling to hire anyone while the President is still in office. He’s in good company, and the only thing that makes this particular man unique is his willingnes­s to be upfront about it.

There are many people on the right- including a lot of the elected politician­s- who do not want America to thrive in any way while President Obama is in office. If we, as a country, fail on his watch, they get to blame Obama without having to confront their personal racism against him.

Those same people will claim racism is dead in the US, pointing to our black Commander in Chief as proof, while simultaneo­usly hijacking our country to all-but guarantee his failure.

Herman Cain, Sinking Ships and the Tea Party Princess

… at the beginning of the day, I hadn’t recalled as much as by the end of the day.”

So said Herman Cain, during a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto while discussing the allegations of sexual harassment against him. Cain was referring to the fact that when first asked about the allegations, he conveniently remembered nothing- that is, until he realized that those pesky women were not going to disappear.

Suddenly, by his own admission, his memory improved. The more detailed the accusations, the more clear it became that this wasn’t going to go away, the better his recollection.

Convenient.

Since these allegations hit the news waves, Cain has been on a non-stop publicity tour, speaking to any number of media outlets. He says he wants to be as visible as possible, sharing with the world that he “doesn’t have anything to hide”.

Cain wants us to believe he is being upfront about these allegations, but in reality, he spends most of his time piling on slightly hysterical-sounding denials. On the rare occasion that he’s willing to talk about it (only to sympathetic conservative news outlets, ironically) he  peppers his denials with inconsistent statements.

First, he has no recollection of the incidents in question.

Next, he backs away from his assertion of amnesia, instead blaming his unwillingness to answer these accusations on the fact that the women in question were choosing to remain anonymous. How can he answer accusations from people who refuse to come forward and identify themselves?

So Politico provided him with the name of one of his accusers.

He still refused to answer.

Cain did eventually go on to confess that he had vague knowledge of the incidents in question, then later still admitted he was extremely familiar with the investigations and fully recalls them…

… Though he swore he had no idea about the financial settlements.

Some say we owe Cain the benefit of the doubt, as he’s found himself in a “he said, she said” situation in which no solid evidence of his lurid behavior has been brought to light.

Others claim that Cain is being attacked by left-wing liberals who simply hate the fact that a conservative black man is running for office (Cain himself has blamed Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and most recently, liberals). He wants America to believe the allegations against him are simply part of a vast Democrat conspiracy, liberals bent on sending him straight to hell.

Really?

Then how come the sole woman willing to come out and accuse Cain publicly is actually a conservative?

Wait- it gets even better- not only is she a conservative, but she’s a teabagger member of the Tea Party.

Ooh. There goes that whole Liberal-Left-Wing-Conspiracy theory.

That I do not trust nor believe Herman Cain has nothing to do with his politics, and it has nothing to do with the color of his skin. My views instead have everything to do with his own behavior, his tactics in choosing how to (or how not to) address the allegations laid at his feet.

This is not a “he said, she said” situation.

It is a “he said, they said” scenario.

They.

As in plural.

This is not a situation in which some crazy lone-wolf of a woman has come out of the woodwork and made baseless allegations against a man of power. There are women, all of which are saying the exact same thing.

As Cain attempts to convince us that he is not, in fact, a boneheaded sexist pig (anybody see the most recent debate, by the way? Where he calls Rep. Nancy Pelosi “Princess Pelosi”? Oh Sorry. I digress), he puts himself in a situation that invites more questions than answers. His “recollection” of the events in question change and evolve as the women’s allegations become more clear and detailed.

In a single day he goes from having zero memory of these incidents to suddenly remembering them, albeit not clearly.

Next, by his own statements, we learn that actually, his recollection of the events are crystal clear- but only where the investigations are concerned.

Financial settlements?

What financial settlements?

Even on this point, his memory has inexplicably improved, and now remembers that the National Restaurant Association, while under his direction, did pay these women some money.

First he said it was $10,000.

Next, it was $45,000.

But, he says, those were separation agreements, not financial settlements, the funds were paid without his knowledge.

Riiight.

Cain expects people to simply swallow his contention that despite the fact that he was president of the National Restaurant Association during the time the allegations were made against him, he had no knowledge that the organization- people who worked for him- entered into financial settlements with the women who- it bears repeating- were making allegations against him.

Look- I know that was a monster of a run-on sentence, but it was necessary.

Read it again.

Cain simply refuses to give Americans credit for having a brain. He refuses to acknowledge that as individual people we are capable of forming our own opinions based on the evidence- yes, even circumstantial- laid before us. This despite the nonsense he continuously tries to force-feed us.

If it walks like a duck…

The story has completely fallen apart. Cain did that to himself. His own words, his own contradictions, his own back-pedaling has made him unbelievable in the eyes of the public. The Democrats didn’t do it to him, nor did his skin color.

He simply did it to himself.

*Poof!*

And that, my friends, is the sound of a sinking ship.

The Last Hurdle: Top Adviser Says Daniels ‘Would Like To’ Run: via HuffPost

Will he run or won’t he?

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels isn’t one of the more talked about GOP potential candidates for President, though he is definitely Obama’s biggest threat, should he choose to run.

Representative Wilson Falsely Claims Obama Lied… Will You Stand With Joe?

Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina sure did cause a stink Wednesday evening.

Wilson was the guy who famously hollered, “You lie!” in the middle of the President’s speech about health care reform to the Joint Sessions of Congress Wednesday night. Obama was in the process of addressing a pesky falsehood about the health care bill, one stating that should the legislation pass, illegal immigrants will be offered free, government-sponsored health insurance. Mr. Wilson decided he wasn’t going to let the facts deter him, even though this particular myth has already been debunked by just about everybody.

The current legislation, in each and every version that is being debated, states unequivocally that credits for coverage will not be extended to any persons who are not legally residing in this country. According to Politifact’s Bill Adair, the bill (H.R. 3200),  goes to great lengths to make sure that “illegal immigrants do not get the credits for the health care exchange that would allow them to get free care”.

How ironic that in the process of trying to tell the world that President Obama is a liar, Rep. Wilson was, himself, perpetuating one helluva whopper.

Ah, politics at its finest.

The only reason I stop short of calling Joe Wilson a liar is because I am unsure of his motives. Afterall, I have no way of knowing whether he really believes the nonsense he’s spewing. Nor do I know if he’s consciously spreading false claims, caring not the slightest about honesty and decency, all in an effort to simply keep the bill from passing.

I would argue, however, that it doesn’t matter.

The fact remains that one of South Carolina’s elected officials willfully and knowingly openly disrespected the President of the United States during a formal speech.

This was not some informal townhall gathering in local Mayberry, USA. The yahoos who lack the common decency to respect the President when he is speaking were not supposed to be in attendance Wednesday night. That the people who do not know how to temporarily hold their tongues and allow the Leader of the Free World to speak, uninterrupted, have joined the ranks as politicians- Congressional representatives, for God’s sake- is disheartening. I expect them to behave better than this, even as they oppose the subject that is being spoken of.

Representative Wilson certainly has bad manners.

Politicians, pundits, and talk show hosts alike have ample opportunity twenty four hours a day, seven days a week to express their displeasure on anything and everything. Whether that displeasure stems from the recent actions of the President, fellow politicians, celebrities or just some Joe The Plumber type guy they happened to run into one day, there are plenty of appropriate venues in which to express oneself.

This is the age of technology, after all.

Wilson could have taken his grievance public by putting thinking cap on and writing a blog. He could have written an open letter, printed in any number of news publications, to the President to voice his displeasure. He could have called just about anyone over at Fox News and been welcomed on their airwaves and into our living rooms with open arms. He could have called a press conference to discuss his issues. He could have put a scathing statement expressing his displeasure on his website. Or he could have sent out a mass e-mail telling the thousands of folks who are no doubt on his mailing list exactly how he feels.

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, isn’t that what Twitter and Facebook are for? Those two websites have worked wonders for Sarah Palin, after all.

In fact,  not only could he have done all of these things, he could have done them all simultaneously.

Instead, our esteemed member of Congress, hailing from the great state of South Carolina, chose to make an ass out of himself on national television by rudely interrupting the President in a bizarre outburst that truly accomplished nothing more than making him look unhinged.

He has been forced to apologize- twice now- and while Democrats were predictably outraged by Wilson’s actions, even Republicans have soundly given him the ol’ smack upside the head for using such terrible judgment.

It doesn’t appear that his outburst had any sort of negative effect on the speech itself. In fact, early numbers show that after watching Obama speak Wednesday night, Americans are beginning to change their mind about the health care bill.

While health care support was inching up, the President’s approval ratings were doing the same- the President realized a double digit jump, even as Joe Wilson’s popularity plummeted.

In fact, Wilson’s likely opponent in 2010, Rob Miller, raised an astounding $350,000 for his campaign in less than 24 hours after Mr. Wilson’s unfortunate gaffe.

Stepping neatly into the role of victim, Joe Wilson is claiming that he is being punished for speaking out against the “critical issue of healthcare”. He is begging his supporters to send him money, and “Stand with Joe”.

How sad.

Representative Wilson is not in trouble for speaking his mind. He is in trouble for his appalling lack of manners and respect. He is in trouble for lacking the self-control to keep his temper in check while the President of the United States was speaking. Most importantly, it was his own actions, his own words, his own bad timing that got him into trouble. Had he kept his mouth shut for the short time Obama was speaking, it never would have been necessary for him to apologize, or answer calls for his censure to begin with.

Poor Joe.

Van Jones, Truthers, Birthers, and an Ugly Reality

We need to talk about Van Jones. We need to talk about his past, we need to talk about his resignation as the White House’s environmental advisor- and we really need to talk about whether or not he’s been victimized by the GOP.

Van Jones was made a household name by right-wing Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck. I’m not a regular Glenn Beck watcher- he’s way too emotionally unstable for me to be able to take seriously. Listening to him induces extreme anxiety, and I’m always afraid he’s this close to having a colossal meltdown. The net result is something akin to a child, trying to bravely sneak a horror movie that she has no business watching. She’s sitting in front of the TV, hands covering her face, peaking through her fingers at the screen…

… Should she watch?

But oh!

What if something happens!

Blah!

That’s me when Beck is on the air. He’s a trainwreck, and I find myself waiting for the whole show with him in tow to derail in front of my very eyes.

Quite stressful.

It’s for this reason I wish I could say Glenn Beck has finally lost his marbles, and is oh-so-wrong about all things Van Jones. Unfortunately, in some ways, the guy (Beck, that is), nutty as he may be, actually made some good points about Mr. Jones.

Van Jones, as no one in their right (err… correct, that is) mind would argue, is a polarizing character. To say he’s controversial would be an understatement. His radical views have been well-documented in the past- he is a bona-fide Truther, among other things (I don’t care what he claims, people- evidence is evidence). He feels that the Bush Administration, along with other high-level government officials either knowingly instigated 9/11, or through purposeful gross negligence allowed it to happen, all to give Bush and cronies an excuse to start an oil war in Iraq.

Now please don’t misunderstand me. I think the current downturn this country is experiencing can be traced back to that cluster-fuck we like to call the Iraq War. Do I blame the Bush Administration? Yes I do. I also, however, blame Bush Sr.’s Administration for not toppling Saddam Hussein during Desert Storm, when he was all but handed to us on a silver platter… I blame the Clinton Administration as well, for not taking down Bin Laden when a similar opportunity presented itself… and above all, I blame each and every member of Congress- both Democrat and Republican- who voted to send our men and women into that country to begin with.

Need I remind any of you that we have lost more soldiers in the War on Terror than we lost on 9/11? For what? The answer, sadly, is that we lost them for nothing, other than the need of some politicians to settle a score that they, themselves, were responsible for creating at the start.

There is plenty of blame to go around. None of it, however, centers on a vast conspiracy, but instead was created by a bunch of short-sighted people who at the end of the day couldn’t tell their asses from a hole in the ground.

It is common knowledge today that Van Jones signed a petition in 2004 that asked for hearings to determine whether politicians had knowingly allowed the events on 9/11 to occur. Personally, I think politicians did allow the terror attacks to occur, but realize that they didn’t knowingly do so. They ignored a whole lot of signs that pointed to a colossal attack, instead preferring to believe that as the Good Ol’ U.S. of A, we were invincible.

Costly mistake, but an honest one nonetheless.

Van Jones has tried to back pedal on this petition he signed… claiming that while he allowed his name to be placed on the form, he does not subscribe to any conspiracy theories regarding 9/11 or our subsequent invasion of Iraq.

It was at this point that Jones became a liar.

You see, he didn’t just sign a Truther petition in 2004. A full two years prior to that,  in 2002 he organized a march for the Truther Movement.

Yet this college educated lawyer wants us to believe he had no idea what the hell he was signing when it came to this particular petition?

Doubtful.

With regards to the actual truth, here’s what we really know about Van Jones:

Jones was born in 1968. He is an environmental activist, a civil rights advocate, author and lawyer.

After graduating from Law School, rather than take an offered job in Washington, DC, Jones instead moved to San Fransisco. He joined a controversial organization called STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement). This organization was decidedly Marxist, sympathizing with Mao-ist peasants, and was in part created to combat the issue of police brutality.

He was famously arrested for his role in the Rodney King protests, though charges were later dropped. It was during this same time period, in 1995, that Jones began actively identifying himself as a Communist.

Jones is also responsible, after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, for starting Color of Change, a non-profit organization dedicated to giving a larger political voice to Black America. That year he also began actively advocating for a Green America, becoming an environmentalist, and starting an organization called “Green for All”. Green for All promotes environmentally-friendly jobs in poor communities.

In 2008 he found moderate success when his book, “The Green Collar Economy” hit the New York Times top 12 list.

In March of 2009, Van Jones joined the Obama Administration as the environmental czar.

I would argue that Mr. Jones has done some wonderful things in his life. He has advocated for a greener world, and has worked tirelessly to help minorities succeed in this country. The problem is that he does not have the gift of words. While doing great things for millions of people worldwide, he simultaneously suffers from a terminal case of foot in mouth disease, which has proven to be his downfall.

Honestly, I don’t even care that the man once identified himself as a communist. I wish my biggest college-era transgession was to pick the wrong political party to align myself with. People change, and with age, we mature. That’s the general idea, anyway. I don’t even have a huge problem with the fact that Jones once famously claimed that white people and white corporations were purposely dumping their waste and polluting communities that predominantly consisted of people of color. Personally, given some of our nation’s history, that isn’t difficult for me to believe.

I applaud the fact that at some point, realizing that his more extreme views were not affecting the change he desired within the U.S., he decided to work within the system as it’s designed… no longer calling for revolution, no longer trying to make waves on the outer fringes of society.

It doesn’t even bother me that he recently referred to Republicans as assholes.

I live in a country where it isn’t supposed to phase me that people are calling my President a terrorist, a communist, a Marxist, a socialist… and are bringing guns to townhall meetings in hopes of shooting our Commander in Cheif like he’s a wild animal, and it’s deer season. I live in a nation where outright calls for our leader’s death, and pastoral prayers hoping he’ll keel over from brain cancer are the norm. Someone calling the GOP a bunch of assholes honestly doesn’t get me too excited.

What I cannot reconcile are the similarities between The Truthers and The Birthers. Van Jones’ affiliation with the Truther movement is exactly why he needed to resign. And every jerk Birther needs to do the same.

These two groups- they are both extreme, they are both radical, they both promote dangerously false claims, and they have no place in our government.

The problem in Van Jones’ case is that he did not convincingly leave radicalism, nor did he wholeheartedly embrace a more follow-the-rules, mainstream approach to getting the job done.

If he was honestly appalled that his name was attached to a petition espousing nonsensical conspiracy theories about our nation’s largest tragedy, he should have made those views known before he got caught by the likes of Glenn Beck.

Unfortunately for us, Jones certainly isn’t the only whacko we have our hands full dealing with.

There are Republicans in Congress (Representative Bill Posey, Florida) today that subscribe to the dangerous vitriol being spewed by the Birthers… and there are (former) Democrats in Congress (Cynthia McKinney) who subscribe to the nastiness being put forth by the Truthers.

For every lame-brained Truther petition out there, an equally ridiculous Birther petition, claiming Barack Obama is really the son of Al Qaeda, in cahoots with every terrorist known to man is in existence as well.

Prominent people are buying into both brands of idiocy.

Every last one of them needs to go.

If they won’t go willingly, we need to boot them- all of them- out the door.

We are living in terrifying times… polarizing times… where political discord is no longer an opportunity for open, honest, intelligent conversation, but is instead giving rise to left-and-right-wing maniacal idiots. It is only a matter of time before real violence erupts, and the regular people of America… you and I… need to be getting pissed off about it.

Van Jones is nobody’s victim… the only regret I have is that we aren’t kicking more radicals just like him- on both sides of the political spectrum- to the curb.

Obama, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Lame Excuses

Oh, Obama, you’re breakin’ my heart!

To say the least, I am extremely disappointed in Obama’s recent flip-flop on gay rights- most specifically, the military’s discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.

If he keeps this up, he’s gonna become nothing more than just a regular ol’ politician in my eyes.

That’s a heartbreaking thought.

Back in January Obama’s Communications Chief, Robert Gibbs, held a question and answer sessionon YouTube. One of the questions asked was whether or not the President intended to repeal the current policy regarding gays in the military.

Gibbs’ response?

A resounding yes.

Yes, yes and hell yes.

Now, however, we’re hearing something a li’l different, and it’s coming straight from the horse’s mouth.

Obama, it seems, doesn’t think the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is something he can do on his own… he says the legislative branch really needs to tackle this one, not him.

Sigh.

I believe I’m both getting whiplash and smelling some really rank B.S. all at once.

Yuck.

This guy can introduce a health care bill, a huge climate control bill, stimulus packages and everything else…

… But Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is too big a challenge?

Sorry, Mr. Prez.

I’m not buying it.

In fairness to Obama, he makes no bones about the fact that he still supports a change in the law- and that he’d like to see the change sooner, rather than later- but one kinda’ gets the impression that this isn’t the type of hot-button issue he wants to get behind right now…

… And is therefore deciding, not so gracefully, to pass the buck.

I wonder specifically, what “change” he’d like to see take place?

Beyond that, the whole thing just sounds disingenuous.

He certainly didn’t just wait for congress to decide it was time to act when he’s wanted to address other things that have been important to him during his short time in office.

He’s much more of a go-getter than that.

At least when the issue at hand is an important one- to him, at least.

I don’t know…

… Just doesn’t sit right.

Sarah Palin, Resignation and Basketball

I just finished listening to Sarah Palin’s resignation speech, from start to finish.

Wowsers.

After almost 7 full minutes of rambling… and not a whole lot of sense-making, we learn that she is stepping down as Governor of Alaska.

It was quite disjointed, from strange basketball analogies to promises to affect political change for Alaska outside of politics, to my personal favorite, how she put her political future to her kids for a vote.

When asking them if she should resign, she got “4 yeahs and a resounding HELL YEAH”, and apparently it was the hell yeah that sealed the deal.

Man oh man.

Later, after spending the entire speech knocking politics, and complaining about how horrible mainstream media has been to her family and how this experience has basically ruined her life and the lives of her children, she  says, “I don’t want to discourage anyone from entering politics”.

Oh ok.

As long as she’s encouraging others not to give up their dreams to follow in her footsteps so that they, too, can live in their own personal hell as a result, I’m cool. (Read: Sarcasm)

The entire ordeal is bizarre, and despite the fact that Sarah Palin has never been one to make a whole lot of sense while speaking, I am still a bit shocked.

Some insiders say Palin is resigning to begin preparing for either a 2010 U.S. Senate race or is gearing up for the top-dog position of POTUS, come 2012.

I say if she truly wanted either of those, the last thing she should have done is step down as governor, having not even completed her first term.

Palin is addressing a nation, a nation in which members of her own party refused to vote for the ticket on which she was listed, because of her lack of political experience.

I don’t think “Resigned as Governor prior to completion of first term” is really a bullet she should want to have placed on her resume, should national politics be her ultimate goal.

What party would she run under?

The Party of “When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going”?

Call me cynical, but considering that she was unable to complete a single term as governor of a state in which there are fewer residents than New York City, I find it hard to imagine her next stop will be Leader of the Free World.

Even Republicans are scratching their heads, with one Senator, Lisa Murkowski, releasing a statement regarding her “disappointment” that Governor Palin has chosen to “abandon” Alaska.

There are other rumors, of course. The media has gone berserk, speculating on the various reasons why Palin really chose to step down. Right now they’re running the gambit from an unexpected pregnancy, to speculation that she has a new book deal- the financial numbers of which she would have to disclose to the state, to rumors of a very damaging criminal investigation against her.

I’m not surprised, given the reasons she stated during her press conference really amounted to nothing more than rambling. The effect was the impression of a woman trying to pull a fast one, having no intention of explaining the real motivation for her decision, instead choosing to fill dead air with a bunch of nonsense that made little, if any, sense at all.

Personally, I don’t know that the reasons for Palin’s resignation really matter too much.

The bottom line is that had she truly planned to descend on the scene, making her mark in national politics, she has just shot herself in the foot.

Abandoning ship prior to reaching the agreed-upon destination (the end of her term) was political suicide.

For her own sake, I hope the rumblings of her various insiders are true- and that Palin is leaving politics for good. Not because I’m not a fan of Palin’s, but because I believe her choosing to step down as Governor, regardless of what her ultimate designs were, has spelled the end of her political career.

I’m sure as the days develop we’ll get more clarification about this most unconenventional development.

Until then, looks like things are gettin’ kinda deep up there in Alaska.