F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!

I couldn’t have said it any better than this particular blogger did. So I won’t even try. Enjoy!

I do not plan on speaking much on this election.  I hope to say what I have to now and not much after this.  Truth is, regardless of who won we have great challenges in our nation and we have a lot of work to do.  No need to recite all the details regarding the economy, jobs, education, the military and so forth.

Still, I don’t mind acknowledging that this election was different than any other I have been involved in. The first time Barack Obama was elected it was special.  It was unbelievable to me. I never thought I would see a person of color in the White House.  And for those thinking that’s all I’m about, you would be wrong.  In other words, I could have voted for a Colin Powell presidency, while Clarence Thomas’ supreme court appointment and Herman Cain’s candidacy can go kick rocks!  Most people who look like me can joyfully celebrate accomplishments by people of color from a historical perspective of where we’ve come from, but we are not hung up on color for the sake of color sake.  As the old folks used to say, “Everyone who’s my skin folk, ain’t necessarily my kin folk.”  I voted for The President the first time because I believed in his vision and what he stood for.  His skin color was a caveat, not even close to a deciding factor.

That being said it wasn’t hard at all to recognize and understand all of the racist vitriol surrounding the White House since Obama was elected four years ago.  From the beginning as surprised as I was that he was elected, for racist Caucasians, they were equally enraged.  Rush Limbaugh exclaimed, “I hope he fails!”  Joe Wilson went ballistic with his “You lie!” blast in a display of disrespect to the office never seen before.  Mitch McConnell let it be known that his #1 priority was making The President a one termer.

John Boehner stood opposite whatever President Obama stood for, even if Obama changed to Boehner’s position. 

The First Lady couldn’t even promote fighting childhood obesity without being attacked.

Jan Brewer put her finger in the face of The President as if she was ready to scrap!

I could go on.  But let me get to my points.  I’m exhausted.  The President, myself and a whole lot of black folks, progressives etc. have taken a lot of shit over the last four years.  We have heard it all.  Now it’s our turn.  Others can say what they need to, but I will speak for myself!  In my Cee Lo Green voice, I present “F#@! YOU” notices to the following:

Mitch McConnell: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!  Try working for the American people and not against the black guy for a change!

John Boehner: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years! Focus more on helping our nation and less on your tan!

Rush Limbaugh: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!  Looks like YOU failed! Send your Mexican nanny to the pharmacist for more drugs you fat assed blubbering dope fiend! 

Todd Akin: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years! Guess the women of Missouri “did that thing” to shut your ass down!

Tavis Smiley and Cornel West: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!  Yep I said it.  You have toured the nation perpetrating the fraud about a “Black Agenda” while you never asked Bush, Clinton or any other president to do the same. My president cares for all people… including black people.  It was insulting and ignorant that you tried to lay ever problem within the African-American community as his feet and expect him to focus on those and those alone.  You both are frauds!

Fox News: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!  Hey look at it this way, your ratings will remain steady with the racist who will tune in and hear you whine, lie and avoid the real issue which is that White male domination is blowing away with the wind.  Another generation and a half, and you may only have 7 viewers listeners using a CB radio!

Sara Palin: F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!  How’s that for “shuckin’ and jiving?”

Business Owners who threatened their employees: That what foul what you did trying to intimidate your workers.  Quite desperate too!  None of Obama’s policies hurt your businesses especially.  You get every tax break in the world!  If you fail, its more likely because of your shotty business decisions. F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!

People who said Colin Powell voted for Obama because he was black:  Yea, how many of you voted for McCain and Romney because they were white?  Yea that’s what I thought…. F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!

Republicans, those who tried to disenfranchise minority voters: Them days are over!  We aren’t allowing you to get away with that any longer!  Get a clue!  You lost in every court, including the Supreme Court!  And the only people who were caught attempting to commit voter fraud were REPUBLICANS!  F#@! YOU, 4 More Years! 

Mitt Romney: Oh yea I ain’t forgot about you geechie!  F#@! YOU, 4 More Years!… sincerely the 47%!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a 4:20 flight to catch to Denver. 

Holla!

Actions speak louder than words… and endorsements

After spending much of last week praising Barack Obama and FEMA in the wake of Sandy (much to the Republicans‘ dismay), we now get word that Chris Christie refused an invite to attend a Romney campaign rally Sunday night.

Initially, upon learning the rally was to be held in Pennsylvania, I figured Christie simply chose not to leave New Jersey. It’s been reported the state is still rationing gas, has 700,000 people without power, and tens of thousands homeless and displaced.

What changed my mind is this:

The Romney rally was held at a farm in Morrisville, Pa., not more than 20 minutes from Trenton, the New Jersey capital.

I understand that Chris Christie will never endorse President Barack Obama. I further understand Christie was one of the party’s first to endorse Romney.

Equally important, however, is the fact that in the wake of huge, extremely vocal criticism of Christie’s complimentary behavior towards Obama, two days before the election, Governor Christie couldn’t be bothered to drive 20 minutes to a Romney rally.

His actions speak louder than any endorsement ever could.

Futility, Health Care Repeal and Symbolism

How fabulously productive Thursday was on Capitol Hill!

The House spent part of the day reading the Constitution aloud to one another, part of the day dickin’ around and not swearing in two of its new Republican members (Pete Sessions and Mike Fitzpatrick decided to skip the ceremony and were instead at a fund raiser), and the rest of the day taking test votes to see if they have enough support to symbolically repeal the health care bill.

Only in Republican-world can people manage to both read and violate the Constitution in a single day.

They must be tired!

I know the year is young, but if this is any indication of what’s to come, we’re in for a fun ride, folks.

The health care repeal, if passed in the House, truly would only be a symbolic victory for House Repubs.

In other words, it wouldn’t actually result in the repeal of anything at all.

The bill won’t go anywhere beyond the House, as it would never gain enough traction to make it to the Senate floor, where Democrats still hold control.

Even if Senate Republicans could jam the bill down Harry Reid’s throat (and the stars, moons and planets throughout the galaxy somehow find themselves aligned just right, while pigs simultaneously begin flying), and get it passed, Obama would bitch-slap that thing back into Boehner’s wet dreams veto it.

With a quickness.

I get that in an enforceable-law sort of way, this bill is harmless, but still, I find myself scratching my head.

Didn’t the GOP gain control of the House of Representatives in large part by promising to curb all that wasteful spending the Democrats seem to be so addicted to?

Yet they somehow think a symbolic repeal of the health care bill is a responsible thing to do…

… Even as we learn that the price tag for passing this worthless bit of drivel would actually raise the deficit by more than $230 billion over the next 10 years, and add another trillion in national debt in the 20 years following the first 10.

Now look.

I realize the Democrats aren’t exactly known for their sound fiscal policy…

… But last I checked, people were actually getting something out of the hugely expensive decisions the Dems have been making recently.

Yes, “Obamacare” (as the haters say) comes with a high price tag, but once fully implemented, more than 30 million Americans who currently have no health insurance will be covered. Insurance companies will no longer be able to deny people coverage based on pre-existing conditions, so on and so forth. The stimulus package, while not nearly as successful as Obama had hoped, did create jobs, and we are now seeing noticeable drops in unemployment numbers.

In what world does spending $230 billion on a symbolic bill actually make sense? Certainly not in the world I live in, where our nation’s deficit is already out of control, unemployment is still too high, and people can’t make their mortgage payments.

House Republicans say that the gesture is the first step in making good on a promise to the American people to repeal health care legislation.

I can’t help but wonder what happened to their promise of fiscal responsibility? Their promise to reign in the oh-so-rampant wasteful spending in Washington?

From my vantage point, the only promise being fulfilled is that of total futility.

O’Donnell, Whitman and Paladino- Oh My!

Now that Teabaggers Tea Party Members are contenders in recent elections, politics is becoming ever-more exciting.

Comical, too.

We have Christine O’Donnell, running for Senate in the state of Delaware, who “dabbled” in witchcraft, had a first date on a satanic alter, and lied about her educational background (her resume says she went to Oxford… really, she just studied at the Oxford campus of the Phoenix Institute).

Next we learn that California’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, Meg Whitman, knowingly employed an illegal immigrant as her housekeeper for nine years. Some people say she’s a hero for employing a poor migrant worker- illegal or not- for so many years at $23/hr. I would say that was very nice of her…

… if I wasn’t painfully aware of her public anti-immigration stance.

How arrogant of her, watching politicians much bigger, better and more powerful than she’s ever been, fall one by one, as they get caught in various scandals, and somehow believe that this time, things will be different. She thinks she’s the one that will get away with it?

Sigh.

My favorite, by far, however, would have to be the glorious (and sinfully delicious) battle for Governor in New York.

For the Democrats, we have Andrew Cuomo, and on the Republican ticket, Tea Party supported (and surprise candidate) Carl Paladino.

I’ve come to expect this sort of excitement on the Maury Povich show, but generally speaking, I don’t see it too often in the political arena.

Leave it to the New Yawkers to show us all how a dirty fight is really supposed to look!

Andrew Cuomo, it seems, is having a field day (actually this has been ongoing for several days now… but I digress) airing Carl Paladino’s dirty laundry for all to see.

Paladino had an extramarital affair several years ago that resulted in a daughter. His wife has forgiven him and accepted the child after their own son was killed in a car accident.

Mr. Paladino, who obviously doesn’t deny the affair, has hit back with some accusations of his own, claiming Cuomo has had plenty of his own “paramours” throughout the years.

Cuomo was married for 13 years to Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy.

Paladino goes further, wondering aloud why no one has inquired as to why Mrs. Kennedy ultimately threw Cuomo out of their home, and why they eventually divorced.

Cuomo’s divorce from Kennedy was quite the scandal in 2003 when it occured, but the only thing we know for sure is that then-Mrs. Cuomo had a well-publicized affair with Bruce Colley, who I guess is some social muckety-muck in New York.  At the time there were whispers, but no public allegations, involving Mr. Cuomo and any other women.

Unfortunately for Paladino, we know he cheated on his wifey, as he has both admitted to the affair and to fathering another woman’s baby. Doubly unfortunate, Mr. Paladino has yet to offer any evidence of his claims against Cuomo, though he says he will, eventually.

I’m going to raise a doubtful eyebrow here. If his wife couldn’t find such evidence with an entire army of high priced attorneys (and therefore the entire arsenal those attorneys had at their disposal), I’m thinking Paladino is just talkin’ more sh*t, and has nothing to back any of it up with.

Seems to me Mr. Cuomo may have gently reminded the state of New York about Paladino’s past indiscretion(s), and then sat back quietly to watch it all unfold…

… And unfold it did!

The press is going wild over the whole ordeal, and Paladino is adding fuel to fire.

The problem, it seems, is that he’s fanning the flames onto himself, and not his opponent.

He is beginning to be better known for his crazed outbursts in the media and his wacko campaign ads than he is for his policy.

Here’s an example, straight from Paladino’s camp:

Andrew Cuomo claims he’ll clean up Albany – his hometown where he has played the Albany insiders game for decades… First, as the brutal campaign manager for Mario Sr.’s governors election where he denigrated the Gay community. Later, as an advisor to his father in the Capitol where he bullied opponents daily with threats and hollow promises. Now, as Attorney General, he takes campaign contributions from those he regulates and gives Democrat fat-cats a pass when they violate the law. Clean up Albany? Start with Cuomo

The press release was accompanied by the following image:

I don’t know that this ad makes me question Cuomo’s ethics…

… But I sure do miss my Nintendo 64 and Super Mario Brothers! 

Strippers, Lesbians and the RNC

RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay has resigned as a result of the political earthquake and subsequent tsunami warning that is “Bondage-Gate”. For those of you who don’t already know, the RNC has been under fire of late because of thousands of dollars in “meals” that were spent on fellow Repugs at a bondage-type, lesbian-themed strip club.

Cool.

McKay bites the dust…

… Can someone please get rid of Steele now?

Joe Wilson Supports Medical Treatment of Illegal Immigrants At Taxpayer Expense

People often ask me why I am so interested in politics. The answer I most often give is that it’s because politicians can be so much fun!

I decided, after Joe Wilson’s now-infamous outburst during President Obama’s address to the joint sessions of Congress, to do a little research on Rep. Wilson himself…

… More specifically, I wanted to learn more about his voting record.

As I’m sure no one will be shocked to read, I have found that Joe Wilson is a complete hypocrite.

I know, I know- who isnt these days?

Wilson’s hypocrisy, however, is in direct relation to his supposed views against those who are not legally in this country receiving government-funded medical treatment.

Given this information, I was surprised to learn a very different bit of data about the South Carolina Representative.

Joe, it seems, actually supports the idea of federal tax dollars being used to pay for the medical treatment of illegal immigrants.

You see, there’s this law called the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 that contains a provision requiring an annual amount of $250,000 be set aside for the sole purpose of reimbursing hospitals who treat illegal immigrants. The legislation was initially to run from 2003 through 2008, but was recently extended into 2009, with talk of making it permanent.

When this Act came up for a vote in Congress, Joe Wilson voted “Yay”, as in, yes, to pass it.

So… let me get this straight:

Joe Wilson, who is an opponent of the Health Care Legislation in large part due to the fact that he believes the vicious rumors claiming that illegal immigrants will receive free, government-funded health insurance, decides to lose his freakin’ mind, jumping up and shouting “You Lie!” during the portion of Obama’s speech in which Obama is very truthfully debunking that particular myth…

… This same Joe Wilson who, while claiming he is being victimized by the left for his adamant opposition to government-funded health care for those who are not legally in this country…

Voted in support of the use of federal tax dollars to pay for the medical treatment of those very same illegal immigrants.

Huh.

It’s a mouthful, but it’s all true, I can assure you.

Never a dull moment on Capitol Hill!

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.

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.

Abortion Docs, Jew Haters, Extremism and the GOP

Let’s just jump right in, cuz I really do have a lot to say.

Today I have right-wing extremism on my mind… something I’ve been mulling over lately… and something that truly makes my blood run cold.

It’s terrifying.

… And it’s escalating quickly.

Since Barack Obama descended on the scene with his eye turned to the presidency, we have seen this country’s lunatics come out in full force.

During the campaign we heard about assassination plots, accusations of Obama’s false ties to Muslim terror groups, chants and rants at Republican rallies calling for his death and accusations of treason.

Talk about foreshadowing… we all saw it unfolding. Most of us understood, upon witnessing the GOP presidential candidate and his running mate’s unwillingness to condemn the behavior (until it was much too late, that is), that the worst was yet to come.

We were right.

Now, within the past couple of weeks, we have learned of the brutal murders of Dr. George Tiller, an American abortion doctor and of another fellow American- a security guard named Steven T. Johns– at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Both men were murdered by right-wing extremists- Tiller was killed by a well known pro-life advocate, Johns died at the hands of an 88 year old white supremacist and anti-semite.

The killers have been charged with murder, but inexplicably, neither men have been charged with any counts of terrorism. If these terrible acts of violence against Americans do not qualify as domestic terrorism, nothing does.

Perhaps as terrifying as the crazy people perpetrating this violence are the powerful “main stream” conservatives behind them, the people who in essence stir the pot… and then sit back, showing false horror, as it all comes to a boil. These are people you’ve all heard of… many of you even support their political and religious beliefs…

… Millions of you voted for at least two of them to become your next president and vice president, and you allow the others into your homes and cars by way of television and radio each and every day.

You know exactly who I am referring to.

John McCain, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and friends did not single-handedly cause the recent bloodshed on American soil by right-wing extremists.

They did, however, incite much of the ugliness we see today, and those that didn’t incite it, stood back and did nothing to cause the boiling pot to simmer, or cool off.

As a result, it has boiled over.

Now that these so-called leaders have stirred and heated up what I’ll call the “Crazy Pot”- essentially giving psychotic people a free pass- morally, at least- to terrorize and kill, they sit back, feigning shock and confusion… doing their very best to distract us from the facts- the fact that they are contributing to a violently divided nation.

It’s almost as if in realizing that their own party is falling apart, they have made the decision to fight- not to save the GOP or our very nation- but to take every last one of us down with them.

I do not understand the lack of outrage.

Where is the anger from my fellow Americans, both Conservative and Liberal alike?

I posted a piece on this site yesterday about David Letterman’s inappropriate comments regarding Willow Palin, Sarah Palin’s 14 year old daughter. I received hundreds of hits on that particular post alone, and the moral outrage seen in my comments section was mind-boggling.

Letterman’s joke was idiotic, and it wasn’t funny… but he didn’t kill anyone.

Why are people more enraged that he, a late night talk show host who makes his living by telling off-color jokes, made a stupid comment, than they are about the fact that two Americans were brutally murdered by politically motivated right-wing nutjobs, mere days apart?

It appears that certain conservatives in this country are so busy being pissed off at those who do not share their same beliefs, that they have missed the forest for the trees.

People are being murdered, and last time I checked, regardless of political or religious affiliation, Americans generally agree that murder is reprehensible. So many of these same people would willingly lynch David Letterman for telling his stupid jokes… while simultaneously looking the other way when members of their own party are killing others.

Prior to Dr. Tiller’s death, for example, Bill O’Reilly was igniting viewers’ anger by referring to him repeatedly as a “mass murderer”, “Tiller the Baby Killer”, and claiming that his abortion clinic was a “death mill”. After Tiller’s murder, O’Reilly mostly toned back his hateful rhetoric- even acknowledging that Dr. Tiller was breaking no laws, but did not address- not a single time- all the right wingers out there that dared celebrate the horrific death of a fellow American.

He showed no real outrage at this violent act of terrorism.

He simply did a lot of back-pedaling, hoping that in doing so, America would not see his (inadvertant) role in this tragedy.

O’Reilly did not shoot Dr. Tiller, but he helped incite the violence and hatred that ultimately led to his death.

This is a disturbingly common trend, and it is downright horrifying.

If half of the people who expressed such outrage at, say, Letterman’s dumb jokes, showed that sort of contempt over the events that led to these two dead Americans, our country would perhaps be in slightly less dire straits.

How disgustingly terrifying.