Aversion to reality: congenital disorder, signs of early onset dementia, or product of faulty upbringing

I with that it could be as simple as any of those.

I have been thinking over and over again about the quote from the Suskind article where he describes being told about the short comings of the reality based community (I don't feel like linking to the article right now or searching out the exact quote, that is why you have google). It makes a creepy sense to me, but in a depressing-craven-bastardization-of-something-familiar kind of way.

I am happily the friend of willful delusion and imagination and life following art. I have often felt that the truth can be a brutal and unwieldy thing if not approached with consideration, but I have no great aversion to it. But those moves and shakers out there like mr. rove and co. who consider themselves free from the constraints of reality are no artists or visionaries. They are fat, lying little pigs rewriting the rules on the side of the barn at night, adding their "...but some are more equal than others," while we sleep.

But it is not that leaders can be selfish and greedy which is so disturbing; that is not new or special. It is also how complicit our populous can be. The feeling currently turning my stomach is not just that people believe this crap because they want to support our president and don't want to believe he could be as horrible as a clear view and analysis makes clear, but that people would rather know that horrible things are happening elsewhere in their name than see uncomfortable things up close.

In particular I am going back the gay crap that I have kind of been harping about lately. Actually, not just homosexuality, but any uncomfortable social issues which are used as political rallying cries (which currently seems to be homos and abortions). I hear people who use these as their starting points for judging any candidate and rarely get any sensible statement on either subject out of them. I understand that not everyone will feel the same way about these issues and I certainly don't see either in black and white, but when someone who has a rigid take on either usually doesn't have much of an understanding of it beyond their solid prejudice. They begin and end with not liking that the issue exists at all and are insanely drawn to whoever will reinforce this bigotry.

How can a person cling so dearly to hatred and ignorance? Again, I don't mind well thoughtout disagreement, but when a person begins and finishes arguements on subjects with "it's just not right" and refuses to try for any deeper understanding, I am left speechless and horrified, whether they are talking about homosexual, black people, immigrants, Muslims, whatever. I am beginning to get this sinking feeling in my stomach that part of the reason my parents and sister have considered voting for bush is that they are more comfortable with our country being mislead into a war and then bungling along with criminaly faulty leader ship than with having a gay son. Dead bodies on tv are less disturbing than gay couples, and the leader who will hem and haw the most and act the most condescending and uncomfortable with the subject draws their attention. Their discomfort is more dire than others' pain and deaths. This is my greatest fear. This is monstrous and I pray that I am wrong.

I hope that this does not describe my parents, but this does seem to put those who don't live in the reality based community in perspective. They live instead in the bigotry based community, the land where comfort is found in not being one of 'Them' and their are easy answers because there faith in a fast and easy way-things-are-supposed-to-be. I for one will take my difficult reality; you can have your easy bigotry, but try and make it reality and you are going to get a fucking fight. People are being patient right now and praying for the best, but not damn many people take too kindly to being pushed around any more. If you think fags can't fight or stand up for themselves, in the words of the much missed Wesley Willis, "Fuck with me and find out."

America's biggest problem...

...is people with their heads this far up their bigoted asses:

Eschaton

I wish I could find this funny. Right now I am trying to convince myself that I am wrong in my nagging suspicion that there are masses of people out there who prefer seeing war and violence on tv than reminders that there are homosexuals living happy lives.

Consequences: Bringing Them Home to Our Loved Ones

My brother and I were talking the other day about the conservative elements in our family (basically our older sister and at times our mother and father). He was commenting on trying to sort out memories of being raised in a democratic family and suddenly finding our parents leaning republican. This is not the normal southern flip into the republican party in an attempt to stay as bass-ackwards as possible, but my parents had thought Jimmy Carter was a great president and that reagan was completely untrustworthy and the big bush was a joke at best. They have always been pretty progressive and not terribly partisan. This is something that I have always deeply admired.

My sister has a good heart and feigns disinterest in politics, but she was always going to trend conservative. But I did expect her to make demands of those who claim to be conservative.

But lately they have all tended a little bit republican. We were speculating as to why, and our best guess is a combo of only wanting to really focus on the things closer than the tip of their noses and that they believe the republicans are made uncomfortable by issues that make them uncomfortable.

Namely: abortion and gay issues. My sister has long run with a crowd which gives audience to questionable characters with simpleminded takes on these and most other issues, so her having passionate and misinformed opions on the subjects is no suprise. My parents, though, have historically had a more nuanced take on most topics and kind of stayed away from these. But then their big gay son had to go and say "Hey, I'm not asexual and devoid of human emotion like I have pretended for so long, I'm gay." All things considered, they took it pretty well. They didn't really like it, but they have never stopped supporting and loving me.

But the dark side of their support is how they interact with this subject when not talking to me about it (which they fastidiously avoid). I haven't really pushed the issue much. I wasn't trying to get them to march on washington or to start waving rainbow flags; I just wanted to be able to act like a three-dimensional person and not get further distanced from my family. I knew it would take a while for them to be able to be casual about it and have been pretty respectful of this and tried to ease them into it. I didn't come out until I was completely comfortable with myself and my sexuality and had resolved a great many issues, but that took a long time for me and I know that it was never going to be a cakewalk for my parents.

That said, I didn't think it would drive them to being more conservative. In ways it hasn't, but in so many ways it has. They like whatever politician wants to try to just make the subject go away, or more accurately, who treats it like something to be ashamed of and which people SHOULD want to go away. The republicans bring it up over and over again, but they bring it up in such a way as to suggest they are really just trying to get all this out of the light once and for all. My sister has long been on this side of things, telling of friends for whom ex-gay programs have 'worked'. Yeah, they work all right, these are the ones that go on and get married and then have sex with strangers in public restrooms. Sorry, not the life I want and I have been propositioned by too many married christian family men to take any ex-gay ministry's claims seriously. You don't make anyone less gay, just more likely to kill themselves or they just end up shoved back into the closet.

Anyway, my point is that if my parents and sister and other conservative relatives are going to think that the republicans are the party that will make my sexuality go away as an public issue, then I am going to make damn sure that if they vote for that bastard and his asshole cronies and he wins, this is a subject that they will hear about in very proximate terms for the duration of his presidency. Allowed to live my life and treated with respect, I am happy to leave the whole gay thing as a no big deal kind of fact of life, but if it is going to drive my parents to making misguided political decisions which are out of character for them because the republicans like hiding gay people, then they need more exposure to the subject and I will make sure they get it.

My brother liked the idea of submitting threats like this; after all, isn't that really all the republican party does? Why should they get to lay down the terms of the 'gay threat'? I'm the homo in my parents' life and I'll do the gay threatening. I'll make certain that those slow simple gossipy members of my family who haven't caught on to the fact of my open gaity yet are very well informed around holiday get-togethers. We will discuss my boyfriend everytime I call home. I will force the hand on their agreement to go to a p-flag meeting after I went snarling and with stream shooting from my ears to that evil love-won-out convention (don't get me started). I figured they would find their way their in their own good time, but they haven't and now they want to vote republican, so it is becoming time to press the issue.

I never really wanted to be a big gay rights freak. I think there are bigger issues than gay marriage and just generally have a problem with simplified us/them dicotomies across the board and never really cared to limit my outspokeness to one catagory. But it is beginning to shape up that this is the issue which is standing flat in the way of many of my parents more progressive tendencies and the one which I need to focus on at home.

Anyway, this is my threat: if my parents want to support republicans because they represent their best hope for supressing the visibility of gay issues (which just remind them of their own son's gayness), then I will work double time and tirelessly to make sure that they become comfortable with gay stuff through repeated exposure and prolonged discussion of the topic. I will no longer stear clear of the subject when I think it might be awkward and will no longer leave it to them to allow openings in the conversation for it. I will bring it home. People who refuse to see past the end of their nose SHOULD (and will) have things thrown in their face.

full of mineral water

I have just newly discovered William Gibson's blog, but damn it is the best thing I have found in a long time. Maybe I will finally pick up _Neuromancer_ and give it a read, but in the meantime, he has been added to my must read list. Here is just a little snippet from today which struck my fancy:

William Gibson: "In very much the sense that Bush is not actually a Christian, likewise is he nothing remotely conservative. Believing Bush is conservative in any traditional sense is like believing that a Formula One racer with the Perrier logo on its side is full of mineral water.

The RNC today is a party in the hands of dangerous political radicals. "

Amen. To be perfectly honest, I am not terribly devoted to either party outright. If I thought a sensible Republican were running, I would vote for him. In the last election, I would have voted for McCain over Gore in a heartbeat (I have more circumspect feelings about mccain these days considering the way he has been whoring himself out as bush's do-boy as of late, but that is another story). I am not completely opposed to conservative tendencies and when they are genuine and tempered with a sincere concern for others, I deeply respect them. In many ways I tend towards conservative. In others, of course, I tend towards radical, but point is it is not the label 'conservative' or 'liberal' that rallies me behind a politician or a cause.

But calling bush a conservative or a christian is at dramatic odds with his actions as president. He make get his backing from people who call themselves both, but he acts like neither.

"How many bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?"

"None. There’s nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn’t work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.

-- John Cleese"


There more goodies over at William Gibson's blog.

Jedi Mind Tricks

Being a fan of Boondocks and a child of the StarWars generation, this made me smile:


Yahoo! News - Boondocks

Pay no attention to the draft behind the curtain...

The head of the RNC sends a cease and desist letter to the head of Rock the Vote warning them to stop discussing the possiblility of a draft because the nekkid emperor, Mr. Burns, and Dumbsfeld say it won't happen. Didn't they also tell us that Saddam had stockpiles of chemical and nuclear weapons that he was planning on unleashing on our country with remote-controlled military drones? Yeah, their word still counts. Read the letter:

RNC shows its ass

and Rock The Vote fires back:

Rock The Vote tells them to grow up

Notice which sounds more coherent and well informed.

It is worth noting that when a particular party (in this case, the RNC) tells a non-partisan voter awareness group to stop discussing a topic (a creepy request any way you look at it) because it is a partisan subject, they are admitting that they are the side more likely to do what we are all afraid of: reinstate the draft. If they came out better on the issue, they wouldn't be crowing about it. Rock the Vote has also been tough on Kerry about assertions that the draft isn't coming back and isn't endorsing a candidate, rather has presented links to information about the issue, so if the RNC is asserting that RTV is being partisan it is an andmonition on their part that their policies lead us closer to that edge where the draft becomes a reality.

I guess this admin and their stooges have complained that the facts have been partisan all along.

She's a what !?!? Part 2:

After looking at other folks talking about the stink about Kerry talking about Mary Cheney being a big ole' lezzie, it is interesting how sexualized all this chatter about it is. People who are only grudgingly beginning to handle the word 'gay' or can handle gay people only if they are neutered and serving society (like the Queer Eyes or your local hairdresser or priest) still have trouble desexualizing all language associated with the lifestyle.

Just a snippet from the underrated and excellent Digby:

Hullabaloo: "Apparently, the kewl kidz in the press tent all 'gasped' when Kerry used the word 'lesbian' the other night. And like their emotional role models, Beavis and Butthead, the mere mention of any word they associate with sex excited them a little bit. Because it did, and the Bush campaign sensed it, it's become one of those faux outrage dances that the media and the Republicans perform so well together."

Worth reading all of it, but I pulled this because it was addresses the root of this stupidity: 'lesbian' as an inherently sexualized word.

When I hear that someone is gay or lesbian or whatever, them having sex is usally not one of the first things I think of. Same when I hear that someone is straight.

Again, let's talk about my family for a minute. If my brother talks about his girlfriend or dating a girl, sex does not seem to flash straight into my parents head. They want to hear about her, what she does, how they met. If I talk about my boyfriend, there is this look of parental terror with the unspoken message of "We don't want to talk about your sex life!" Well, no shit; neither do I. This is the whole point in 'coming out': adding a social component to your associations with people to whom you are attracted. Having a boyfriend is not the same thing as having sex with the same person over and over. Just like being married isn't just about having sex with the same person over and over again.

Folks in our country really need to relax a little bit about sex. The funny thing is, that the people who rail against the moral decay of society and the dangers of the flesh are quite often the biggest perverts you will ever find. Not that they are running around getting laid left and right, but these are the people who immediately focus in on the sexual in anything. I have a boyfriend; their mind immediately goes to butt-sex. They use the word 'marriage' as code for 'sex'. Women are permanently objectified and sexualized in their mind and they perceive gay men as a threat for precisely the same reason: they imagine that they are being objectified and sexualized by us.

Mason, read this: Reservists refuse convoy mission in Iraq

Mason, look at where they are from-

MSNBC - Reservists refuse convoy mission in Iraq: "WASHINGTON - The Army is investigating reports that several members of a reservist supply unit in Iraq refused to go on a convoy mission, the military said Friday. Relatives of the soldiers said the troops considered the mission too dangerous.
advertisement

The reservists are from the 343rd Quartermaster Company, which is based in Rock Hill, S.C. The unit delivers food and water in combat zones.
According to The Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss., a platoon of 17 soldiers refused to go on a fuel supply mission Wednesday because their vehicles were in poor shape and they did not have a capable armed escort."

It also cites the paper my parents' local paper. Really, folks, if you are going to send our friends and family over there, give them the f'cking support they need or they SHOULD be sitting their happy asses down and refusing to move. (note: if you even think of commenting about Kerry being against that 87 billion pork package that the whitehouse demanded as being against our troops, you had better be well informed about the subject and have your facts straight because I am tired of hearing morons throw misinformed hissy-fits about it and won't take any half-assed idiots trying to pass the buck).

She's a what?!!?!!!

Juan Cole is a must read for anyone trying to keep honestly abreast of how things are going in Iraq, but his analysis of domestic issues is remarkably lucid. His take on the Cheneys' wig-out over their openly gay daughter being referred to as gay:

"Why are Lynne and Dick Cheney so angry that John Kerry mentioned their daughter Mary's lesbianism in the third presidential debate?

The difference of opinion on whether the mention was appropriate is rooted in two different worldviews, and on two different metaphors for gayness.

The behavior of the Cheneys demonstrates that they view being gay as like being disabled. Or rather it is like being disabled in the William F. Buckley conception of disabled people as not just different from ordinary persons but actually inferior in their enjoyment of life."

It is worth following the link and reading his full commentary.

I wonder at times if this is how my parents see my being gay: as a handicap. It is a difference, and it does require that I consider it in how I approach things, but not any more than being Southern or of limited wealth. There are limitations in life and I have accepted mine and have learned how to embrace them and use them to my advantage.

It is somewhat worth noting that actually becoming comfortable with being gay and not really treating it as anything to be ashamed of or to be troubled by has made my life much, much easier and made me much healthier and more able to deal with others. Growing up gay in rural AL is not the easiest thing on a kid, but strangely looking back, growing up in rural AL isn't really all that easy on anyone. And the more I go along, the more I am convinced that growing up isn't really easy anywhere. After you make peace with your own difficulties, you can begin to see that it is not the only kind of trouble. Sometimes the thorns in our sides are blessings.

So it makes me a little sad to see someone's parents treating their openly gay child as an embarassment or with pity. When I detect that in my parents it cuts pretty deep. But mostly I just get mad: like every child, I expect better from them.

Where we are from, I am sure everyone knows that I am gay, or damn near everyone, but gossip spreads in a funny quiet way that one doesn't often have to confront too directly and I am not back there very often so I wonder if they have been confronted with this publicly and if they were how would they react? I have seen them show amazing backbone when faced with ignorance and bigotry in times past, so I imagine them telling anyone who said something inappropriate to shove it, but I wonder if they are where they could hear about it being casually being mentioned like it were nothing remarkable and treat it as no big deal? It makes me sad to hear that other parents can't, but then again, I think my parents are much better people than the Cheneys.

Hey, don't ask, don't tell.

(but while we are talking about Mary Cheney, can't we take a minute to comment on her new hair do? Maybe she finally made friends with some of the log cabin boys and they took her to a hairdresser instead of a barbershop. It is still a bad republican haircut, but it doens't look like cornsilk taped to an orange anymore. But can someone tell Chris Matthews that her old haircut looks no better on him?)

Again, I wish I were suprised...

The nekkid emperor has some values for you:

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Block the Vote

Yes, George Soros is a drug dealer and georgie w. porgie is going to restore honor to the whitehouse and spread democracy abroad. WTF?

If Krugman's article is the first you have heard about this stuff, 2 things:

1) you should be angry with how the news is ignoring this and doesn't cover this like crazy.

2) you don't read enough and really should consider getting your news from more sources.

If Krugman's article doesn't piss you off and make you want to crack a few skulls for attacking what our nation is all about, you might want to re-examine your 'values'.

Meeting the neighbors part 2:

So Stacy over at tatooed heathen (see last post) seems like the kind of neighbor you would invite to a pot luck or trust around your kids. But alas, sometimes "next blog" leads you to whack jobs like this: Refiner's Crucible

WTF? Really, is this fellow stupid or depraved? Just because you want bush to win is no reason to lie through your teeth (to yourself or others). regardless of who you like or for whatever warped reasons, bush looked like a confused little man tonight. He was not relaxed and lashing out really doesn't count as being 'on the offense.' And really, 'a command of the issues'? Are you special, dude?

Love bush if you are just gonna love him anyway he goes, but don't break with reality over it. This fellow is a true member of bush's nation of retards.

I am getting tired, but on another day perhaps I will grab Mason and go over for a visit and see if he is up for a chat since he challenges liberals to hold their own in discussing the Middle East. Probably not really worth talking judging from this initial perusal of his page, but hey, why not?

We all pray for your daughters too.

I really have always thought that the nekkid emperor was really a little smarter than he let on. I kind of figured that he was just kind of selfish and mean and the whole idiot thing was to make him appear less culpable. To run things the way he has, something has to be seriously wrong with either your mind or your heart, and really I kind of thought it was his soul that was vacuous and empty rather than his head.

After watching these three debates I am not so sure. Maybe both are empty. Tonight I really got the feeling on occasion that he kind of believed some of the things he was saying. I almost thought he really believed that he had done a good job and that the way he had done things really was for the good of the middle class and such. God help that man.

But really, tonight's self-destruction was spectactular. And the sad thing is, I think his battery pack was actually working. There just wasn't anything they could whisper to help him. Really, his is not a record that any sane person can defend. Slogans only get you so far, and when you crunch the numbers and look at how schools are faring these days, squawking about how you are improving education by leaving no child behind seems a little silly. Especially if the question was about out-sourcing jobs. Or the gays. Or...did he manage to say "No child left behind!" in every answer?

Kerry did better this time at really addressing the questions at hand. All in all, he has impressed me in the debates. I started out at the beginning of the democratic primaries with the opinion that Kerry's main qualification for being president (other than the basic not-a-bush requirement) was that his face would look good on money. More and more I have been coming to the conclusion that he is actually a really good choice for president, not just less of an embarassment. He had better be if he is going to step up to clean up the mess this current turd is going to leave when he gets booted out of office.

Meet the neighbors...

I completely love the "next blog" button on Blogger blogs, but I have to say that I generally have rotten luck and get blogs that really don't draw me in. But snarky tattooed heathen is suprisingly entertaining. I really haven't found too many blogs which are so autobiographical which catch my eye, but anyone who refers to her children as Tater, Satan, and Fang is ok by me.

I depend on me...

A little bit of the lighter side of the bloggy lands for our sanity (I found it over at Copy, Right? ).

Kind of speaks for itself: Independent Woman - played by kittens - Joel Veitch rathergood.com, music by Elbow

Things to watch for in the debate tonight...

so there really is not point in linking to Gawker about this, except that I thought of it while perusing the beast while eating lunch at my desk. Seeing Mary-Kate's name for some reason jarred my memory and reminded me that in talking about the last debate, someone pointed out that bush was grinding his teeth the whole time and that apparently this is something which people do when they are on cocaine.

I know, I know. We all know he is born again and clean and all that, but really considering how badly he does when unmuzzled, being doped up would at least give him an excuse and the hope that maybe all he needs is rehab. Since he is all clean these days, I guess we have to go back to the he's-retarded theory.

I wish I could be suprised by this...

Over at the ever vigillant Daily Kos they have a tidbit on folks working for a firm which was doing voter registration in Nevada not playing nice. I really wish that I found it suprising that republi-tards would stoop this low, but of course it isn't. What really gets my goat about this is the same thing that has been getting me so f'ing riled about all the shit going around the last few years: it is so damn blatant and this still won't be on the national news. And it should be. People should be screaming in the streets, but we all know what good that does.

This is one of those things that is so in your face that I think, "ok, this has to be noticed and prosecuted and will open people's eyes to the nasty things being done," and then I think back on all the other times that I have thought that and remember that instead people will just shrug, "oh well," and shelf their outrage. Outrage is just a little tedious these days isn't it? There are bills to pay and tv to watch and someone else will handle this anyway. Right?

A few loose ends...

The last few weeks (months? years?) have been a little hectic so quite a few events have blasted past with little or no commentary.

First, I have been strangely silent about the debates. Not of course if you have been around me in person, but in text is how I try to sort out my ideas and on this issue I haven't really yet. And there have been a few things I have been wanting to say. I have to say I am a little boggled by the response to the debates from some of the other blogistanis with whom I usually find some comfortable solidarity on issues of political nature. Not that we disagreed tremendously or that we really usually look at things the same way, but the differences really struck me this time.

Overall, after the first debate, I thought the nekkid emperor did way better than I would have expected. I know there is all the expectation game bullshit and hoorah for everyone who helped spin this for Big K, but really, he always makes idiot faces and sounds like a moron even when speaking from a script. I thought he stood up better than you would have expected. Which is to say that he did terribly. Kerry did pretty good, but I felt like he really missed a few open opportunities to really drive some tough points home. By the end, my attention was lost. All in all an obvious victory for Kerry unless you are a very special kind of stupid (which, it appears, quite a few people are), but as my mother put it, "I wasn't really impressed with either of them."

One major note of contention I had with some bloggish leaders who I read damn near religiously after reading their coverage of the VP turd sling: Gwen Ifill was the best moderator that I have seen for a presidential debate in a long damn time. James Wolcott has been brightening my day since I discovered his blog a short while back, but on this we were at direct odds; Gwen Awful is not how I would have described the night. I would take her over Jim Lehrer any day and though I thought Charlie Gibson did a remarkable job with his turn at baby sitting, I would have loved to watch her interaction with our national embarassment. The impression that I got from her was that she didn't suffer fools gladly, which is where the apparent animosity towards edwards came in. Cheney by definition comes across as an ogre, but he is a well spoken and coherent ogre, even if he uses dishonest tactics and lies to make his points. His points may have been crafted deep in mordor, but they were delivered conversationally and he occasionally remembered the soul of wit. Edwards points, although harvested from fairer fields (except for all this "kill, kill, kill" bullshit), were recited. He is reasonable, he is pretty, he had no excuse for coming across like a ventriloquist doll.

The best spin I could put on the VP debate was that it was something akin to Homer Simpson debating Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns is smarter and sounds better, but really deep down you know that Homer should prevail despite looking like a doofus in public.

Luckily, Marge is just hitting her stride and cleaned Krusty's clock in their debate on Friday. I seriously take task with everyone running around saying things like it was a draw or bush did better this time. No it wasn't, no he didn't. He came across like a buffoon at best and in reality as something closer to a horrible brat who had matured into a horrible asshole. Kerry looked better than ever, and despite still needing to really just address that question at hand simply and directly before turning to wallop the sitting presiduck, he came across as coherent and engaging.

Tomorrow night's plans for watching the further decline of the simian prince are hazy at the moment due to bf's purchase of tickets to see a band long ago when our minds weren't looking ahead to the debate, but if nothing else I guess I can resort the VCR (were is my knight with shining TIVO?) and hope to make my commentary in a more timely fashion. We shall see.

Awareness is a llama: the best thing ever.

screenhead.com puts too many diversions at your finger tips, but this one shines above all others:


Screenhead : The Llama Song

If this doens't make you smile, you are a bad person and shouldn't interact with polite society. Ever.

If you really can't bring yourself to vote for Kerry...

now you have a decent alternative:

Gay Penguin For America

Why not? Can't be any worse than bush.

Does Something Smell Bad to You? It's the Economy, Stupid!

This really speaks for itself:

MaxSpeak, You Listen!: BUSINESS SCHOOL
PROFESSORS TO BUSH:
YOUR POLICIES STINK

At least the title should be simple enough for the nekkid emperor to understand.

I want to be VP; I am good at scaring children and making stuff up.

just read it:

Daily Kos :: Political Analysis and other daily rants on the state of the nation.

What a lame thing to lie about. cheney is a total elree (from my juvenile deliquent wards a few years ago, short for 'el retardo').

But will you hear about it on the evening news?

This from Jim Hightower:

WorkingForChange-Common sense commentaries: October 4-8

'In 2000, Jeb used such crude tactics as illegally purging voter lists to help engineer his brother's 537-vote "victory" in that election -- and now, here he goes again. As one peer of Florida's GOP establishment candidly puts it: "A Democrat can't win a statewide election in Florida without a high turnout of African-Americans. It's no secret that the name of the game for Republicans is to restrain that turnout as much as possible."

The Orlando League of Voters can attest to that. This African-American civic group has played a big role in turning Orlando from a Republican stronghold into a city that increasingly votes Democratic. Their reward for getting involved in the democratic process is to have Jeb Bush's state police suddenly come knock-knock-knocking on the doors of some 50 of the League's grassroots leaders. These leaders, mostly elderly Black women, find it frightening to be confronted in their homes by armed troopers interrogating them about their electoral participation.

They are not charged with any crime. Instead, police say they're investigating vague allegations that some voter fraud might have occurred in this spring's mayoral election.'

Am I suprised that people in power abuse it? No, (if you would answer yes, you are very, very stupid) not when they think they can get away with it. What does piss me off is that this isn't on the nightly news. This is sad. Actually kind of pathetic. Now please excuse me, I need to go make an effigy of the fat bush (no, not barbara, jeb) and puke on it.

Reaping What You Sow: Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando

and so it begins:

News4Jax.com - Election 2004 - Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando

"We want to send a clear message to Bush, we want him to take his hands off our overtime pay," protestor Esmeralda Heuilar said.

Note to Bloomburg, RNC, the administration of retards, the new york times, etc. - when half a million people take to the streets to protest peacefully and you marginalize their complaints and consider their protest a non-story because they were peaceful, the next ones won't be so peaceful.

This is specific story is just a little scuffle when a protest got out of hand, but you have to expect thing to only get crazier. When half a million people assemble and are damn near ignored by the press and treated punitively by the police and government, things aren't going to be nicer next time. If you suceed in ignoring the respectful, peaceful protests but have done nothing to address the reasons people are taking to the streets, they will take to the streets again, but the next time the mob appears it will be the tempered, calm voices which will be marginalized rather than the radical, violent voices.

The RNC-fuck-all-y'all isn't forgotten and will be answered. I just pray that our imbicile leaders pull their heads out of their self-satisfied asses and concider listening the next time folks take to the streets. And I hope they do this before it gets bloody. To all who sent the message that ignoring and punishing and suppressing peaceful protest was a success and a job well done, make no mistake: when protests turn bloody, when we have our next Oklahoma City bombing, our next domestic terrorist, the blood will also be on your hands. You may not plant the bomb or shoot the gun, but you made it clear that you won't listen to peaceful protest. So you will get you violence.

Be careful the crops you plant.

A little silver around the clouds...

If you don't know already, I am a Southern fellow on a northern jaunt who gets fairly riled when the powers that be in my beloved South feel the need to open their vacuous traps and reinforce some damn stereotype. You can imagine that I stay pissed off alot of the time given the quality of leadership these days (really MS, haley barbour? WTF?), but I want to give credit where credit is due (and I really want to be able to do this more often:

The State | 10/04/2004 | DeMint: Gays should not teach: "Bette Cox, a board member of the S.C. Christian Coalition, defended DeMint, saying she, too, abhors the homosexual lifestyle and that he must have spoken without thinking.
"I wouldn't have said that," said Cox, chairwoman of the Florence County Christian Coalition. "It's a civil rights issue with me. You can't cut off someone's civil rights.
DeMint is going to regret that he made that statement."

Ok, so where is the silver lining? Look, I don't care if some southern lady who is the mouthpiece of a "chistian coalition" says she "abhores the homosexual lifestyle." The southern church lady thing really kind of makes my skin crawl, but I wouldn't lock her up or say she shouldn't be around children (although, I bet if you took any child who had both a gay uncle and a southern church lady for teacher and asked who they would rather spend the weekend with, the gay man wins everytime. Watch 80's movies and gossip about popstars and go to 6-flags, or watch Murder She Wrote reruns and help an old lady cook? Duh.) and won't overlook her extending me the same courtesy. She can call me abhorent or whatever she wants if she still says that I have rights too and they should be protected.

In these cloudy days, I take whatever silver can be found.

Oh, the land of an uncloudy day...

How does Laura feel about all this lovin' on Missy?

Ok, so you should have been listening to the debate last night. This kind of wacky entertainment comes once every four years. Just think of it as reality tv mini-series. Can we get the Donald to moderate some of the debates? Or better yet, Janice Dickenson. But I guess Jim Leher is kind of fun with his crazy piercing ewok eyes.

so if you missed it, go listen to it here:

NPR : Bush, Kerry Debate Foreign Policy Goals

so can we all say "WTF?" to all bush's kill-her-man-then-go-lovin'-on-Missy-the-best-way-he-knows-how. Uh, yeah that and getting all the gynos to practice their loving on chicks and stuff. And am I the only person who thought it sounded like he wanted to hold Putin's hand when he talked about him? Hey, man, whatev'. That's your business yo. It is like watching a trained monkey who can talk (sort of). Kind of confused, but you can see the gleam in his eye when he knows that he has repeated one of the phrases that will get him a banana.

Kerry did pretty good and could have done better, but really, I think as long as he doesn't drop his pants and take a dump on stage he wins this thing. All the dems and such need to quit bitching about everything and put the ball back in bush's court: he has failed at everything he has done and as long as Kerry doesn't turn out to be a evil cyborg from the future or molest children, he can be super crummy and still be an obviously better choice.

A wooden kitchen spoon is an obviously better choice.

(one random side note, but can the daily show get Donald Trump to come on nov 2 -or whenever the counting is done- and say, "george bush, you're fired!"?)