Hoping that my vote matters this time

Like many of you, I voted early (I dropped my ballot off five days early). However, as many of you are aware, the Republican party is engaged in several insideous schemes to destroy our votes, like voter caging, vote flipping, disenrollment, long lines at polling places, even telling college students they can't vote because they no longer live at home, and telling people whose homes were forclosed that they can't vote because their address has changed. Republican operatives even tried telling democrats they should vote on the wrong day. And of course there's the Bush administration's typically backwards-named-to-conceal-it's-true-purpose "Help America Vote Act" which rules that your vital info has to match a notoriously flawed national database. No match means no vote for you.

Republicans have admitted that the fewer voters there are, the more successful the republican candidates are. With that as their strategic foundation, they have proceeded to turn the last two presidential elections into circuses of election fraud. And, as you've heard me say before, the biggest thing that stands between progressives and success is republican election- and voter-fraud.

I just hope it works the way it is supposed to this time. There is a difference: there is media attention focused on the activity, whereas before we were ridiculed as tinfoil-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists. But we're talking about thousands and thousands of voters whose eligibility has been challenged. Hopefully the ones that do get counted will accurately reflect the real vote. If it doesn't, again, then there will be hell to pay.

Re-Posted From 2006: For Halloween-Eve...

One of my favorite, most favorite, most favoritest-favorite artists in the whole world is the wonderful Edward Gorey. He was not only an illustrator, but a prolific author as well. So, for Halloween Eve, please enjoy one of my favorite Edward Gorey stories:

30 Minutes of Hope

I watched it. Did you watch it? I liked it. Did you like it?

It's amazing, the difference between a thoughtful, intelligent, articulate scholar & statesman like Obama, versus the inarticulate, dishonest, halfwitted dullard George W Bush.

Hope appears on the horizon.

By the way, here is a nostalgic Constantly Amazed History Moment: From 2004, one of my very first blog posts ever. Back before "change" became a political motto, I wrote "It's Never Too Late To Speak for Change," a post that sort of explains why I have been doing this for four years. I am saddened to say that it still rings true after all this time. Let's hope it's different this time around.

More About Socialism: It's the American Way

Tip 'o the hat to Windspike

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

I LOVE IT! Sarah Palin is a Socialist!!! And, she said so herself!!! Here is what Sarah Palin said:

And Alaska—we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs. … It’s to maximize benefits for Alaskans, not an individual company, not some multinational somewhere, but for Alaskans.

Now, here is the definition of Socialism:

A theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA *COUGH* HA HA HA HA A-HA A-HA *SPUTTER* *COUGH* HA HA HA *WHEEZE* HA HA A-HA A-HA HA HA...

IMPORTANT!

IMPORTANT!

The repukes have already enacted laws to steal your vote! I am not just spouting off here. I am serious. Electronic voting machines are already demonstrating malfunctions that are switching democrat votes to republican. The "Help America Vote Act" (so named in the opposite-speak parlance of the right wing) has and is purging millions of qualified voters from the rolls, voters who are most likely to vote democratic. And do you think your safe with a mail-in vote? Think again! Unless you are very, very careful, your vote will be stolen from you. Don't let it happen! Please click on the link above for more. I'll try to add updates.

I have said it a hundred times before: The republicans are planning to steal the election through vote tampering. AGAIN. Please don't let them succeed!

The Emperor's New Clothes

I find it amusing (or weird) that the mainstream media either hasn't noticed, or is ignoring the fact, that the republican nominee for president is running on a platform that is 180 degrees opposite of conservative. Weirder still, republicans (they used to call themselves conservative) don't seem to care, and democrats aren't taking the opportunity to point it out, either.

The definition of conservatism is to conserve the status quo. To maintain what is established and resist change. To employ tried-and-true methods and embrace traditional values. To surround ones self with the familiar. To stay the course. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If it is broke, fix it but for god’s sake don’t include any design improvements. If it stays fixed, don’t fix it. If it breaks again, fix it but for god’s sake don’t include any design improvements. If it…” you get the picture. Often, it involves a desire to return to an idealized version of the past.

Now, let’s look at the Republican party catchphrases for this election (in other words, their sales pitch):

"Change."
"Reform."
"Standing up against their own party."

Huh?! None of that has anything to do with conservatism. Not one bit. Yet those are the pillars of their campaign.

Change. They had to jump on this one after Obama used it and everyone liked it, a lot. Now the republican candidate says they’re the real party of change, the kind "you can believe in." The only change they're good for is changing their message to steal another candidate's thunder. Any way you slice it, "change" and "conservative" are incompatible. Together, they're an oxymoron. On the republican ticket, they say, "desperate enough to acknowledge the failure of conservative values and their rejection by most people."

Reform: Reform is the exact opposite of what conservatism is all about. Honestly – is there one member of the red team that has ever spent a moment in a political science class? Or did they learn all they needed to know about politics, and society from talk radio? It's so laughably ironic that the party that once elevated their pronoun-challenged mantra “stay the course” to the level of Gregorian chant now pins its hopes on candidates who sing the praises of “reform”. And the fact that McCain's first defense of Palin's credentials is always her supposed record as a "reformer" is so funny in it's idological perversity that it must have real conservatives sobbing with laughter. Or just sobbing.

“Standing up against your own party.” OMG! Can you believe that nonconformism is now a preferred value of the establishment party!? The republican party!? The ones who spent the dawn of the 21st century striving to create a permanent republican majority, the ones who threatened to punish anyone who dared deal with a democrat, the ones who made it clear in no uncertain terms that party loyalty was more important than human life; you were with ‘em or against ‘em, and if you were against the republicans you were against god and country. Now the republicans' candidate for president is boasts about how he "stood up against his own party." He also chastises Obama for not "stand up" against the democratic party (as if that even matters: maybe, during his time in congress, Obama didn't need to oppose his party. Ever think of that, John McStupid?).

Anyway, is this the most backward logic or what: the republican party wants you to think that they are running the candidate who opposed the party who is running the candidate. In the words of Mickey Goldmill, "Shrewd."

Have you ever seen the movie Little Nicky? Remember Jon Lovitz’ character, who would do something evil, then be punished while screaming, “I deserve this! I deserve this!” There’s the new republican party mascot.

At least they're consistent

For quite a while, my blog posts, when I do produce one, are usually negative. That’s because I am one of those people who is more inspired to blog about the injustices of the world than about the niceties. My passions for social and political commentary are driven by my fury at those terrible things, those wrongs that must be righted before I can ever find peace.

When I described being overwhelmed in my last post, I neglected to describe one of the symptoms, which has a direct effect on blogging. That is, I find it difficult to focus and concentrate on a topic when my head is filled with the cacophony of badness that we are left with at the last days of the Bush administration. So as I return to blogging proper, I want to start throwing out random topics and try to weed the mental garden so that I may ultimately try to shine a positive light in here sometimes.

There are two things that are biggies with me, as far as blogging goes, and they are both interconnected as current reports come to light. They are:

1. Hypocrisy, my biggest pet peeve, which is something I truly believe is the glue that holds the republican party together. I can’t think of a single issue about which republicans and so-called “conservatives” are not hypocrites. I am open to being proven wrong about that, but so far it hasn’t happened.

2. Election fraud / voter fraud. I am passionate about this subject. It is the thing that really drove me to really get into political blogging. I maintain (as you probably know) that the republican party cannot win a fair election, and they are well aware of that. So, they must engage in completely unethical practices involving voter suppression, election fraud, and all manner of un-American acts which are such an insult to democracy and to our Constitution, that they are easily defined as treason.

Where does this leave us today? Well, there is a mountain of evidence of election and voter fraud that has been and is being perpetrated by the Republican party. They realized many years ago that they can't win if people vote, because more people vote for democrats.

Paul Weyrich — a principal architect of today's Republican Party — scolded evangelicals who believed in democracy. "They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote... As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." thanks nunya for that link

Voters say they were duped into registering as Republicans

Study Finds States Purging Millions of Voters in Secret

And check out Nunya's posts here and here.

At the same time, the repukes try to draw attention away from their insidious activities by pointing the finger of blame where no blame exists:

Despite the screaming wall-to-wall coverage of "Democratic voter fraud in 11 swing states" as seen on Fox News and even the once-respectable CNN, none of it's true. None of it.

And of course, there is my old post that is still important:

Restored: 20 Amazing Facts about Voting in the USA.

Again, the Republicans know full well that they cannot win an election unless they cheat. Oh, and did I forget to mention that Joe the plumber is a fake?!.

Here is what I believe, and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong: WHATEVER A REPUBLICAN SAYS IS THE OPPOSITE OF THE TRUTH.

UPDATE:
Other important resources concerning republican election tampering are here, and here.


Also, see the video below.



Now, I'd like to close with something a little more upbeat, thanks to a link via betmo:

No More Apologies

I have been so bad about posting in my blog that, quite frankly, my apologies are beginning to annoy even me. My few remaining loyal readers and blog buddies deserve better.

Do any of you remember when I was at my blogging peak (i.e., the good old days)? I used to get comments like, “Man, where do you find those amazing links?”, and, “Right on, well said!”, and, “You’re pathetic, you liberal socialist un-American unpatriotic unreligious worm… you’ll become one of us someday, you’ll see!”

Yeah, there was a time when I would stay up all night composing eloquent and complex rebuttals to right-wing bloggers and their insipid, asinine commentary. And man, there were some fire-on-the-fingertips moments, believe me.

I began this blog in September 2004, hoping to add my voice to the many who knew how bad the BushCheney regime was, long before it became hip to be aware of it. It was a real uphill battle back then, remember? We were regarded as the fringe. Weirdos, hollering out in the green park of conservative consumerist complacency. The curtains were drawn in the McMansions where the worshippers at the alter of St. Ronnie could practice chants to “support the troops” and protect against the war on Christmas.

Still, we were riding high, us “Bush-haters” (that term was once used to dismiss us as shallow and reactionary; now it is simply a description of about 90% of the world’s population). Even in the face of adversity, we were the elite practitioners of reason in a sea of madness. I, for one, am extremely proud to say that I opposed the war against Iraq from day one, and said so at the time, before I ever even started blogging.

Like many, I was posting every day. I felt driven to do so, first to proclaim the importance of voting out Bush in 2004; then in response to the stolen election and the Kerry betrayal (concede my ass, Mr. Skull-N-Bones). At my peak I was contributing to three different blogs, one of which is based in France and is still successful, while the other fell apart after I left due to a troll (remind me to tell you that story).

But something happened… not just to me, but other blog-buddies of mine. Posts became less frequent, and some blogs folded up altogether (others continue with a vengeance and to them I offer my heartfelt thanks and compliments to their strength and perseverance). I think what happened is this: we expected the badness of the BushCheney administration to plateau and maintain at some point, at which time, it stands to reason, they would either have to be brought to justice, or at least be made to not commit any further treasonous and vile acts against this country or the rest of the world. But instead, it just got worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, until it seemingly could not get any worse at all. Then, just to make matters, well, worse… it did.

So here we are. And here I am: burned out somewhat and simply exhausted by the sheer enormity, the vastness, of the evil of the “right” and the harm the Bush administration has inflicted on our world. Every day I collect links to items about what they have done, and it is too much. I don’t mean that as a catchphrase, either. I mean there is so much horribleness to what they do, constantly and relentlessly, that it is too much to catalog and consume.

So, I guess I just need to simplify, rather than try to keep up with everything, and post more simply and more positively (WWTDLD*?) Early in the life of this blog, I promised I would carry it through at least until GWBush is removed from office. I can surely do that, and I hope to keep going and add my other artistic interests to the blog (I have said that before, but I always get overwhelmed by political issues and blog about those instead).

Please don’t sign me off just yet, blog buddies! (I wanted to say "my friends" but thanks to John McCain, I can never utter that phrase in good conscience again). I may be slow, but like Charley Brown’s Christmas tree, I have sincerity. Keep checking back!

*What Would the Dalai Lama Do?

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been? I haven't been blogging, that's obvious.

I don't know why I have gone for blogging breaks; I've written about it in the past as a way to make myself stop taking them, but I still do it. I'm back now, though, for a long time, I hope.

I started blogging in Oct 2004 and decided I wouldn't stop at least until the Bush regime was removed from power. It appears that day is on the horizon, but I am greatly disillusioned with the entire process. The democratic party has let us down so many times that I am back to considering them the lesser of two evils. What hopes I had following the 2006 congressional elections was dashed as the "democratic" congress refused to impeach the bush administration, approved mountains of money to continue their conquest of the middle east, and generally seemed to become the repukes' willing henchmen.

Who is worse: Dracula or Renfield? Dracula, obviously. Does that mean we admire Renfield so much that we want him to make all the rules and represent our interests in the world? Not for me, it doesn't. But our Dem leadership thinks we're satisfied with Renfield at the helm of the ship of state.

And you know what? They're right about that - most people seem to be satisfied with the lesser of two evils. Many are even more satisfied with the with the greater of two evils. Still more don't care much either way: a poll was taken decades ago that shows most Americans at the time actually opposed our own constitution, and I wouldn't be surprised if the situation has only gotten worse. If nothing else, we are most certainly all more controlled by corporate media than ever before.

So I become disillusioned and discouraged as things get worse and worse. This latest news about John Edwards, whom I previously endorsed as a good candidate (Kucinich will always be my #1 pick), is a deeply disappointing example. I thought he was worthy of my vote, and now I find out he's a philanderer and a liar. It's just another brick in the wall. And it's been like that for a while now.

So I become disillusioned and discouraged and remain so. Hopeful? Sure, there's always hope. The democrats, who in spite of being the sniveling lapdogs of the vile repukes, are still at least 1,000% less corrupt than the repukes are, could win. IF the repukes don't steal the election for a THIRD @#$%^ TIME.* Which they probably will. And if they don't, it won't matter much anyway; partly because the of damage they've done which won't be repaired in my lifetime, and partly because I predict they will wait until after the election, then go to war against Iran before January 2009, and leave the whole economic-political mess for the Democrats to repair/live with/be blamed for. And the Dems deserve it, because they didn't impeach the bastards and end the war in 2006 like we elected them to do.

* (Don't worry... this hasn't happened. Yet.)

Yay! A Site Appears on the 'Net Like Cool Water in the Desert: Republican Offenders

This is absolutely great! As some of you know, I have tied to compile links to sites and reports listing the many, many scandals of the republican right. Most of you are already aware of our old favorite, Armchairsubversive, which one of the most important sites on the 'net. But lately I have discovered a new site devoted to keeping track of all the rightwing depravity, hypocrisy, contempt for society, and sneering disregard for the rule of law that we have come to expect from the GOP (Grotesque Old Perverts).

The site is called (drumroll & fanfare, please) REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS, and it is absoluetly brilliant. It achieves the work that I have been lazily doing (okay, I've only been saving a folder of links), but on a grand and glorious scale that fits the importance of subject matter.

And why, some ask, do I consider this to be so important? Let's address that first. Many are convinced that all politicians are corrupt, and that the big two parties are equally guilty of transgression. Fair enough; I used to hold the same opinion. But since I began blogging in Oct 2004, my opinion has changed. I have done enough research online to be convinced (and I mean convinced, not swayed by passion or duped by unbalanced data) that the Republican party is far, far more corrupt than the Democratic party. When it comes down to the lesser of two evils, as it inevitably does for me every election, the Democrats win hands down.

This is largely due to the Republicans' constantly proclaiming themselves to be morally superior to all others (especially democrats). They insist that they are God's chosen political party and that they do no wrong, they are the source and protectors of "family vaues" and all things good and righteous, they are the only practitioners of sexual morality and socioeconomic fairness, and want nothing more than to spread freedom and democracy and to all, with the added bonus of leading all to heaven as they are the only ones who know where it is and how to get there.

HYPOCRITES! LIARS!

The reason Republicans are about 10,000 times worse than Democrats on the corruption scale is their hypocrisy. They lie cheat and steal without remorse, they commit the most disgusting acts of depravity, but worst of all, they do all that while piously proclaiming their moral & spiritual superiority. If they would just own up to their actions; if just one Republican pedophile or whoremonger or whatever would admit (especially after being proven guilty) what they did and accept responsibility like an adult and apologize for their actions, then I could accept them as, like I said, responsible adults who erred and are willing to accept the consequences of their actions.

Instead, the scenario is usually more like this: A rightwng Republican (male in this case) spends his entire career condemning homsexuality as an unpardonable sin, and telling his voters to support him because he'll protect them from the Democrats' "gay agenda". Soon we discover that same rightwing Republican has been enthusiastically taking it up the poop chute from his harem of young gay male prostitutes for years. He'll sob and beg forgiveness and his followers forgive him, because their God embraces concealed repressed sexual deviance and hey, a little distraction helps conceal the action going on in their own pews, ya know?

If the guy had been a true liberal, he could have accepted his sexual preference and formed a healthy relationship with a consenting adult and perhaps even participated in legislation to allow them to form a legal monogomous union. Instead, he chooses the conservative approach: repress his sexuality out of guilt, shame, and fear for his reputation among his equally hypocritical but judgemental peers, until that repression expresses itself through twisted perversion and drug-addled back-alley boner buffing as often as he can for as long as he can get away with it.

The massive hypocrisy of the political "right" is what makes their corruption far worse than anything the left is guilty of. As long as they maintain their "holier than thou" platform, we will be there to point out how very wrong they are.

Please, please visit the following links of you haven't already:

Armchairsubversive

Republican Offenders (possibly my new favorite site...)

Republican Sex Scandals Dwarf Those of Democrats

In the interest of balance, here are rightwingers' lists of Democrat scandals. I leave it to you to decide which carries more weight in light of Republicans' claim of moral superiority versus progressive liberals' more realistic claim that we are all human and must take responsibility for our actions.

Democrat Scandals

Sex Scandal Lineup (mixed left & right)

Top 10 Democrat Sex Scandals

Rightwing Regret

Okay, so this weekend we had a little get-together with inlaws... specifically my wife's sister, brother, and his wife. I like 'em all and we all get along fine... and they're all republicans, of two different types.

My brother-in-law and his wife are the sort of suburban vote-against-their-own-interest republicans - the kind who condemn liberalism while spending their lives cashing in on liberal democrat policies. I mean, he works for the City, great salary and tons of benefits at taxpayer expense (and has used them a lot to the extent that they have saved his life and those of his children), bought his home through HUD, pro-union, etc., yet voted for Bush/Cheney right down the line. Whatever - like I said, I like them, and ignorance is a forgivable sin.

But my sister-in-law is more of a social conservative. Fundamentalist Christian, "pro-life" (I call it pro-birth), and pro-Bush. She believes what she's told by the right, and is so averse to conflict that, driven to practice avoidance as a coping mechanism, she would not be able to face the truth about the horrors that have been been committed in her name by the Bush/Cheney regime. I like her, too.

But here is the interesting part: at the end of the day, after the others had gone home and the sister-in-law lingered, the conversation got around to current quality of life. The price of groceries, etc. And my sister-in-law expressed great concern about how bad things are... "Why?" she would ask, "why are these food prices so high? What's going on!?" And so on, about gas prices, healthcare, etc. She's a nurse, by the way, and says the hospital she works for is losing money, etc. (and you know how much they charge).

It was really sad. I should have felt vindicated; that here was a "loyal Bushie" who is now reaping the bitter harvest of her support for the republican administration and it's eight years of insane and destructive policies, which have affected many different aspects of her life. I tried to explain to her that the food is expensive because the fuel used to produce it and transport it is so expensive, among other things. I tried to explain that a single payer healthcare system would be an improvement over the profit-first exploitation-medicince practiced in this country. I tried to explain that the "happiness level" in countries where people pay taxes to receive basic needs in return, such as healthcare and education, is higher than it is in America, where the corporate plutocracy is striving to revert to a Dickensian industrial age where the "middle class" no longer exists.

I explained my philosophy that the whole purpose of forming societies is so that the group can contribute to the common good; so that basic needs can be met by all. These include clean water, healthcare, and education. Those three things should be available, for free, to all, paid for by fair taxation.

To my surprise, she enthusiastically agreed. This Bush supporting, war supporting, anti-choice, fundamentalist, agreed with a philosophy of full-blown progressive liberalism. Of course, she didn't realize that's what she was agreeing to - if she did, it would be too much of a shock for her (and I mean that literally, not just as a figure of speech).

I imagine the conversation we had has been going on all over the country. Bush/Cheney supporters are suddenly confronted with the fruits of their actions. Whether they were innocent victims, "values voters" who were duped by the rhetoric, or foxophiles who knew what they were doing, some of them may now be realizing that their actions just may have been the cause of immense difficulty for millions of people all over the world (not to mention the agonizing death and maiming of so many others).

I know one, at least, who is shocked by the price-per-pound of bananas... one who may realize, too little too late, that she helped set the price herself.

Wow... constantly amazed, again.

Yes, amazingly, Randi Rhodes is outta there at Air America radio. And good for her, I say. The state of progressive radio in this country is pretty anemic, and in the Sacramento CA area, the capitol city of the so-called leftest state in the west, it is absolutely non-existant. Really - anyone who can find a lefty radio station around there, please let me know. And Air America, once the great hope of progressive radio, has done more harm than good to our cause.

Not too long ago, they booted one of my heroes, Mike Malloy. Why? Who knows. Maybe they have a death wish, or maybe they are rightwing wolves in sheeps clothing. Either way, the decision sucked. They were on thin ice, damnit.

Then, recently, they suspended Randi Rhodes for calling Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" at a live gig that, as far as I know, was not an Air America event. Air America suspended her - so much for free fucking speech. It's okay for Dick Cheney to tell a senator to "go fuck himself" on the floor of the senate, but it's not okay for Randi Rhodes to swear at a live gig. Ooo, swearing... how fucking sinful. What would Air America do if a stand up comic like Lenny Bruce or George Carlin was guesting on one of their shows? Censor them?

Well, she definitely has the last laugh now! She landed at the same radio home that landed Mike Malloy! Woo Hoo! She's now at Nova M radio, who run KPHX 1480 in Phoenix, of all places. I say that because as some know, I am from AZ and lived in Phoenix, including the early/mid 80's when talk radio as we know it was in its infancy and growing into the monster it would soon become. Talk radio in Phoenix started out with a healthy mix of right & left opinion, enthusiastic but not as hateful as it is now. Soon, however, Phoenix followed the national trend and became overwhelmed by rightwing radio. But now... Wow!

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I realized that Phoenix has become home to some badass progressive talk radio, far more than Sacramento has to offer. Is that sad or what!? Geez! And as icing on the cake, they also have Stephanie Miller and Rachel Maddow, more of my favorites... I swear, I am not a paid endorser. But this is a dream team for me.

Anyway, I am hoping Randi and Mike Malloy and all are met with huge sucess in the southwest. Rock on, truthseekers.

Shopping Day, Part 2

Okay, so after we're done grocery shopping, coming out of the store, there's a guy with a little table there with stacks of forms in clipboards.

"Sign a petition?" he asks.

"What is it for?" we reply.

He had several petitions for people to sign, and briefly explained each one. They were related to various local issues - redistricting, methamphetamine-related crime, etc. But one of them was to enact a law to define marriage as being only between a man and a woman. Yawn. We said what Amy Winehouse said when they tried to make her go to rehab.

Now, as progressive bloggers, we see this tired old chestnut dredged up over and over again. And each time, I ask myself, what are conservatives afraid of? And they are afraid. I mean, whenever they address the subject of 'gay marriage' they always use the language of fear: the "Defense of Marriage Act," and so on, always constructing their rhetoric and catchphrases in the language of defense in the face of imminent danger. They don't just proclaim a preference for heterosexual marriage, they proclaim it is under attack and threatened with extinction.

My suspicion is that they are not afraid, but they are aware that fear is the best tool to motivate the public, and so they use it to achieve their ends. But as for the people who are so concerned about gay marriage that they are willing to go to great expense to try to eradicate it, are more likely to be motivated by a reaction to their own repressed sexual identity issues. So, these reactionaries feel that if gay marriage gains acceptance, they will not be able to resist the feelings they labor so hard to suppress. It's their own marriages they're worried about, not ours.

Ironically, one of the reasons they cite as justification for their cause is their belief that the "homosexual lifestyle" involves a lot of promiscuity. Their solution to that is to enact legislation designed to prevent gays from forming monogomous relationships. So, they promote monogamy by denying people the right to be monogomous. Brilliant.

I think that any mentally competant adult who is legally able to enter into a contract agreement has the same right to enter into a civil marriage contract. If they want to hold different values for religious marriage, that's fine. If their church won't recognize their marriage, that's a separate matter from the legal contract that is civil marriage, which is the right of every consenting adult couple, despite the righty-tighties' rhetorical fear-mongering.

Still, as I have in past posts and other blogs' comment sections, I ask the same longstanding question and challenge any right-winger to answer: What are they afraid of? Why do they feel threatened? From what does heterosexual marriage need to be "defended"?

Shopping Day, Part 1

Well, Sunday was grocery shopping day for my wife and I, so why not share the mundanities of that activity in what was once a highly-charged political blog? After all, politics seems to have "trickled down" to the grocery store lately, for many of us. So, to begin, here is a nice little shopping list from an article at Organic Consumers dot org:

QUICK FACTS OF THE WEEK: A NATION BUILT ON UNSUSTAINABILITY - FUEL, FOOD, AND DEBT

With trucking diesel fuel prices now over $4 per gallon in many locations, food prices are reaching an all time high, since the average grocery store item has traveled 1500-3500 miles.

Over the past year, alone, consumers have been forced to pay significantly more for staples like eggs (25 percent), milk (17 percent), cheese (15 percent), bread (12 percent), and rice (13 percent). This is partially due to increased costs of transportation and partially due to massive amounts of cropland being converted to biofuel production. As a result, consumers are paying more for their food and paying $15 billion in increased taxes per year for biofuel subsidies.

Fuel prices have nearly doubled the expenses of commuters over the last year. Recent polls show a strong majority of U.S. citizens are in favor of allocating a larger portion of the federal budget for mass transportation.

In contrast, the amount of federal money earmarked for mass transit projects (example: rail and bus) has been reduced by nearly 70% since the Bush Administration took over in 2001.

A record number of consumers are using credit cards to pay for increased fuel costs. Although the recession has negatively impacted employment, the New York Times reports one of the few booming occupations in the current job market is as a Debt Collector.

Since 2001, the top five oil companies have increased their annual profits by an average of 500%.

Thank goodness I have a liberal supply of stored fat to get me through the lean times. Between that and not being able to afford gas, I'll soon be a lean, mean, coupon-clipping machine.

Codependent Quoterama

Earlier this month on my easter post I noted the following quotes:

George Washington:
"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine."

Adolph Hitler:
"The national government... will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.”

Well, I found a couple of others that are as heartwarming:

George W. Bush:
"I believe that God wants me to be president."

Adolph Hitler (again):
"I would like to thank Providence and the Almighty for choosing me of all people to be allowed to wage this battle for Germany."

Maybe we can find some codependent quotes for Cheney/Stalin!

Finally, my 2 cents on the Obama church thing.

I'm late jumping on this bandwagon, but since it is still simmering, I just thought I would comment on this story-that-should-be-a-non-story about Obama and his church minister's provocative remarks.

First, an anology. I have a longtime friend who is also a blogger, and often reads this blog (howdy, dude!). He and I have known each other for many years. And, in that time, we have had many spirited debates about all kinds of subjects including politics, society, and culture. Each of us has made statements that the other disagreed with wholeheartedly. Sometimes those discussions were pretty dynamic. But in the end, we each were able to recognize that specific opinions are only fragments of the whole psychology, and our appreciation of the whole person superceded any problems we had with one opinion. And that, I think, would be the situation between Obama and this minister. Association does not mean absolute adherence to identical opinions. It just means you have a friend and you don't have to agree with every single word they utter.

Besides, there's really one hell of a double standard in the media attention here. For example, as described in this article:

Rudy Giuliani's priest has been accused in grand jury proceedings of molesting several children and covering up the molestation of others. Giuliani would not disavow him on the campaign trail and still works with him.

Mitt Romney was part of a church that did not view black Americans as equals and actively discriminated against them. He stayed with that church all the way into his early thirties, until they were finally forced to change their policies to come into compliance with civil rights legislation. Romney never disavowed his church back then or now. He said he was proud of the faith of his fathers.

Jerry Falwell said America had 9/11 coming because we tolerated gays, feminists and liberals. It was our fault. Our chickens had come home to roost, if you will. John McCain proudly received his support and even spoke at his university's commencement.

Reverend John Hagee has called the Catholic Church the "Great Whore." He has said that the Anti-Christ will rise out of the European Union (of course, the Anti-Christ will also be Jewish). He has said all Muslims are trained to kill and will be part of the devil's army when Armageddon comes (which he hopes is soon). John McCain continues to say he is proud of Reverend Hagee's endorsement.

Reverend Rod Parsley believes America was founded to destroy Islam. Since this is such an outlandish claim, I have to add for the record, that he is not kidding. Reverend Parsley says Islam is an "anti-Christ religion" brought down from a "demon spirit." Of course, we are in a war against all Muslims, including presumably Muslim-Americans. Buts since Parsley believes this is a Christian nation and that it should be run as a theocracy, he is not very concerned what Muslim-Americans think. John McCain says Reverend Rod Parsley is his "spiritual guide."

If a candidate's support of, or from, volatile religious leaders with big mouths and small brains is a reason to condemn, then let's be fair, shall we?

Better yet, just get religion the hell out of government.

I think religion sucks, and I approved this message.

Happy Oestre, Or, My Employer Wants Me To Be Wiccan!?

Here is my fourth annual reprint of tidbits from my original constantly amazing easter post. This one goes out in honor of my place of employment, who, in an apparent attempt to be inclusive and politically correct, sent out a flyer to inform us of a celebration of the "spring equanox [sic]". More on the irony of that below. For now: Happy Oestre, Pagans!

Easter's Pagan Origins

Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Cybele, the Phrygian fertility goddess, had a fictional consort who was believed to have been born via a virgin birth. He was Attis, who was believed to have died and been resurrected each year during the period March 22 to 25. "About 200 B.C. mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult centered on Vatican hill...Associated with the Cybele cult was that of her lover, Attis (the older Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, or Orpheus under a new name). He was a god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The festival began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection."

Wherever Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation."

Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Others suggest that many of the events in Jesus' life that were recorded in the gospels were lifted from the life of Krishna, the second person of the Hindu Trinity. Ancient Christians had an alternative explanation; they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity. Modern-day Christians generally regard the Attis legend as being a Pagan myth of little value. They regard Jesus' death and resurrection account as being true, and unrelated to the earlier tradition.

Wiccans and other modern-day Neopagans continue to celebrate the Spring Equinox as one of their 8 yearly Sabbats (holy days of celebration). Near the Mediterranean, this is a time of sprouting of the summer's crop; farther north, it is the time for seeding. Their rituals at the Spring Equinox are related primarily to the fertility of the crops and to the balance of the day and night times. Where Wiccans can safely celebrate the Sabbat out of doors without threat of religious persecution, they often incorporate a bonfire into their rituals, jumping over the dying embers is believed to assure fertility of people and crops.

Oh, cool! This means that my employer is encouraging us to celebrate one of the 8 Wiccan Sabbats! Ha ha ha!

More about Easter

In Norway, in addition to skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, it is tradition to solve murders at Easter. All the major television channels show crime and detective stories (such as Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out who did it, and many new books are published. Even the milk cartons change to have murder stories on their sides. Another tradition is Yahtzee games.

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, males whip females with a special handmade whip... [consisting] of eight, twelve or even twenty-four withies (willow rods) and is usually from half a meter to two meters long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. It must be mentioned that while whipping can be painful, the purpose is not to cause suffering. Rather, the purpose is for males to exhibit their attraction to females; unvisited females can even feel offended. The whipped female gives a coloured egg to the male as a sign of her thanks and forgiveness. A legend says that females should be whipped in order to keep their health and fertility during whole next year. In some regions the females can get revenge in the afternoon when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any male.

Call it Easter, Spring Solstice, Fertility, Jesus, Rabbits, or whatever... even the celebration of the marketing of hideous crap.

Finally, a constantly amazing blog post is nothing without my obligatory political section [link]

George Washington:
"The United States is in no sense founded upon the Christian doctrine."

Adolph Hitler:
"The national government... will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.”

So, happy easter, everyone... another ancient pagan ritual celebrating the natural order of things. Seasons change. New life appears, and old things pass away. Constantly Amazing, isn't it?

Remember When I Used to Blog about News Stuff?

Plan To Spray Toxic Biological Chemicals Over San Francisco Announced

"the US Government is planning to poison more than two million people in California"

And people call me a pessimist. Sure, the glass is half-full... of poison!

A Scandal... Maybe.

Okay, truthseekers, I am hoping this one is not true. Truth be told, it is based on hearsay. I don't want to slander anyone, but if the accusations are true, then a worldwide charity organization may be guilty of extortion and fraud. If it turns out that I am wrong, and this story is untrue, then I will gladly retract this.

The basic gist of it is, I've heard that the local Salvation Army homeless shelter is requiring homeless people who want to stay there to apply for food stamps, whereupon they must surrender 80% of those food stamps to the Salvation Army! And, they're also directing those homeless persons to apply for a small amount of cash assistance that is available to them for personal needs, so they can also hand over 30% of that assistance to the Salvation Army!

If this is true, it is infuriating. Besides the fact that the Salvation Army is a religious organization and is tax-exempt, and probably receives considerable tax breaks, federal grants, and other such perks thanks to the Bush/Cheney "faith based" free-for-all, how dare they exploit homeless people by using them as a tool by which they can suck money from taxpayers and funnel it into their proselytizing coffers under false pretenses. Besides, public assistance benefits are required to be used in specific ways. They are most definitely not intended to be bartered as rent, or worse yet, extorted by some christian authority figures who strong-arm the vulnerable homeless and shake them down for their public assistance like some schoolyard punk bullying a smaller and weaker kid out of their lunch money. It is also worth mentioning that I live in a small, economically disadvantged community where homeless peoples' options for finding shelter are limited.

I intend to follow-up on this until I know what is really going on. If the Salvation Army is doing this, it cannot be allowed to continue. It's unethical, and most likely illegal.

Again, I am operating on verbal hearsay, and my information has not yet been confirmed. Anyone reading this, who is of a mind to get in on the ground floor of a scandal that has not yet appeared in the media, might want to check out their local Salvation Army homeless shelter and see if this may be happening in their community.

Blog on, truthseekers, and power to the people.

There's Always Room for Another Conspiracy Theory

Okay, who has been reading my blog long enough to remember be saying (a lot) that Hillary is the repuke's fave pick as candidate for president '08? Anyone? (crickets chirping in background, but thanks to those five of you who do remember).

First of all, we have Rush Limbaugh imploring his listeners to cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton in the Texas Democratic Primary. Next, we have news reports that republicans are, in fact, doing just that: hordes of GOP dittohead zombies are voting in the democratic primary, which is open to anyone. And do you think they are simply disaffected conservatives who want "change"? Puh-leeze. They are the same repuke bastards who have turned their party into a cesspool of corruption, perversion, hypocrisy, and treason, and they are scared shitless that they might further lose their grip on power.

They know they can't beat Obama, and they shudder at the thought that regardless of whatever policies he decides to implement, his election symbolically represents wholesale rejection of fascist neocon republican values.

Republicans also know that they can never win an honest election - they had to cheat in order to "win" in 2000 and 2004. So, true to form, they once again must resort to dishonest trickery to secure the office of president. This is only a gnat's piss away from the type of criminal activity that Watergate was all about, by the way. Now, that's what I call true conservatism: bringing back the crime-culture that defined their party, and associated it forever with corruption (there's a reason why every political scandal has the "-gate" suffix).

If the repukes succeed in mucking up the election by deliberately sabotaging the electoral process (which has been their tactic for at least the last two presidential elections), there should be hell to pay. Seriously. Even though the press and the public will lie probably down and take it... how long must we tolerate this behavior?

Link Project (Phase One) complete, or, More About Me!

Okay, I have finally (after !@#$ months) sorted through my list of links. That's been on my to-do list for a long time, and yes, I evidentally like lists. But if you think that's the end of it, think again: I have a bunch of saved links to add now, not to mention all the great ones I find at other blogs like politickybitch or Azgoddess's "now for something completely different" links. Damn, this blogging stuff is a lot of work!

Okay, so...

...I've finshed some of the updates on the blog. I still have to revise my whole blog roll, because some of them are probably dead links by now, and I've also spotted a few embarrassing typos. I've been adding them since November 2004. It seems like an eternity sometimes... I began all this as a reaction to the awful Bush presidency, and now that presidency is winding to a close, and it feels as if we have been through political hell. Or, a hell of a political ride, at least.

I was a contributor to three different blogs at one point. One is defunct, one carries on, and mine sometimes feels, well... I mean, look at some of those links. 9/11 stuff, Bush stuff. Less and less relevant as time goes by, which is sad to say, because the events of the Bush administration represent some of the most significant crimes against this country, and the world, and they are fast slipping from public memory. Treason in the face of apathy and acceptance equals success for the plutocratic bastards of the neocon Bush/Cheney regime.

But I digress. As I think about blogging; the act of blogging, that is, one thing really stands out to me. That is the impact it has had on the establishment and the way some politicians have demonstrated such a fear of bloggers. Right-wingers in particular (well, it's true) tend to condemn bloggers with such enthusiasm that it is almost funny to watch, if it weren't so sad (how many times have I had to type that phrase over the last four years?). It's so painfully obvious how afraid the rightwing is of "common people" having such a powerful voice in current affairs. Even though they gain power by pandering to the masses, they never reliquish their power to those masses - they use them and toss them aside, and maintain their deathgrip on all of us who exist only to be used by them in their ongoing quest for more money and power.

But when blogging came along - Bam! All of a sudden, the rest of us had a voice that the establishment had not yet learned how to supress. And they still haven't, although they are learning, and they ultimately will shut us up one way or another. Until that time, we will have made a hell of a mark. Like the underground countercultures that have come before, and changed the world, bloggers have dealt a blow to the powermongers that was really felt. Ha. I'm glad. For a while, at least, we can say we had a positive effect on the world.

Because we can't win, you know? We can't. Progressive movements change the direction of society for a few miles on the highway of history, but ultimately the powerbroker class wins and crushes us until the next uprising. America itself is a good example. It began as a progressive revolutionary rebellion against the established ruling class, but soon corruption reared its ugly head and became an intrinsic part of American government, and once again the same old rich and powerful ruling class were in control. See, progressives are usually content to fix a hole in a boat, relax and sail on in the knowledge that the problem was a one-off and all is well from here on out. Optimism. The power-elite estabishment, on the other hand, conservatives will keep punching holes in that boat until they sink it, no matter how many holes the progessives fix, the conservatives will not rest until the boat has sunk. As they boasted in 2004, they are "resolute." We won't have to worry about what to do with our newly-won democracy and benevolent leadership anytime soon, I'll bet.

This is a rambling and depressing post, isn't it? At least there is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is minor regime change coming along, so that's something. I'm looking forward to seeng who corporate America selects to "lead" the country. In the meantime, I'll dream of a planet where domocratic leaders are elected through direct elections by a popular vote with verifyable results and runoff elections to ensure majority rule. In other words, more crazy rambling.

It's Darwin Day!

February 12 is Darwin Day!

Woo hoo! Rock on, those of you who eschew the literal interpretation of Genesis! Rock on, all you organisms in the ecosystem! Let's all hope we can evolve a little further this year. I've done my part, by providing a home for a six-toed cat. Surely, he represents the future.

Elect-ile Dysfunction

All my voting life, I have been very dissatisfied with the American process presidential elections. The electoral college is not only obsolete and ineffective, but the electors are not required to vote according to the will of the people, and occasionally they don't. The electoral college has it's defenders (or apologists), but the bottom line is that it was designed to oppose democratic elections and replace the results with election by a select elite. I don't know them and I don't trust them.

It is common knowledge that Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by approximately half a million votes. As far as democracy is concerned, he was elected president in 2000. In my opinion, that means Bush was not elected president, and if he wasn't president in 2000, he could not be "re-elected" in 2004, so he has been a phony pretender to the office for his entire administration. Imagine how much better off the world would be if the voter's actual votes had been respected, and the president had been elected by the citizens.

All this defines me as a tin-foil-hat-wearing-far-left-radical-conspiracy-theorist-blah-blah-etc in the eyes of the right, and even in the eyes of the mainstream, most of whom do not seem to give a monkey's buttcheek whether their most valuable right as citizens is just a cheap facade. They are so placated by the propaganda that is foisted upon them from cradle to grave, so that most of what they think they know is actually lies, that they just don't care. In our consumerist/celebrityist culture, they are more concerned with having stuff and being entertained that by the things that really matter (yes, I am inclined to be done with relative values: I say there are things that matter more than bigscreen TVs and SUVs and Britney Spears).

In 2004, I thought that the horror of the 2000 election fiasco would shock voters to demand changes to the electoral process: Direct elections with verifiable results. Is that so much to ask from the nation that defines itself as the world leader in democracy and technology? But, no change happened, and I am beginning to believe won't anytime soon. Those of us who question the status quo are laughed at and derided.

Meanwhile, in the primaries, by the time they come to my state (CA), half the choices have decided to quit and deprive us of the choice to vote for them. So a handful of states (swayed by corporate-controlled media selectivity) who are lucky enough to have earlier primaries get to choose who the rest of us are offered to vote for in the primaries... we don't even get to vote for our choice among the declared candidates! That is taken away from us even at this early stage! Do you want to vote for Edwards, or Kucinich? Tough luck, California, South Carolina or the pop media or whoever makes the call says that we are not allowed to have the same choices they had.

Some democracy. It's totally unfair and rigged from day one. I am completey disillusioned (again). My vote means nothing, and never has. And don't get me started about electronic election fraud and the inevitable republican victory it portends (unless the republicans are following their pattern of ruining the country and then leaving office for a term or two so a democrat can repair the damage and take the blame, thus paving the way for the next eight year plutocratic orgy).

I am back to where I was before 2004: part of a radical minority who will never be represented in American government; who must select candidates and positions based on other people's values; who is completly aware that he has no representation and no voice that matters; who's smartest option seems to be to simply try to make a life in a nation built of lies and deceit and treachery; where sharing democracy with the world means bringing death from the skies and the stormtrooopers who facilitate that carnage are regarded as heroes even by those who claim to oppose the never-ending war and invasion and occupation to lay seige to other countries' resources; where all power is transfered to the Halliban plutocracy and the christian-fundamentalist theocracy; where waging war for oil is more important that education and healthcare and the president is applauded for saying so.

Yeah, I'll vote. I'll participate in this broken corrupt system to save myself from having to listen to others tell me that if I don't vote, I have no right to complain. That's the rub that Americans always present us dissenters with, isn't it? Either vote for something against which you are morally and philisohically opposed, or else your fundamental right to freedom of speech doesn't exist. I'm not allowed to express my opinion unless I march in lockstep with the machinery of the corporate machine that is America.

Yeah, I'll vote. May the best tool win.

bonus vid :)