5/30/07

I want to write about something that has been on my mind for a little while, now. Last week, Democrats across the nation were incensed by the alleged "capitulation" by Congressional Dems to W regarding the War in Iraq. Keith Olberman even did one of his Special Comments on the subject.

The gist of the arguement that they make is this: The People elected the Democrats to end the War, and by bowing to W's will they are ignoring The Will of the People, and throwing away their Mandate.

The problem with this is twofold. One, the real losers in any game of chicken between the White House and the Congress would have been the troops in Iraq. The President showed the nation, by refusing to sign the original bill passed by the Democrats, that he was willing to play with the lives of the soldiers (in case the fact that they were over in Iraq in the first place wasn't proof enough of this fact). The Democrats, on the other hand, by ending the game by sending a much more relaxed bill, showed that they were not. If putting the lives of the soldiers before your own political gain is a sign of political weakness, then I for one am glad that my party is weak. It's called sympathy, and it's what seperates us from them.

Two - the American people had their opportunity to end the War. They knew exactly what they were doing when they re-elected Bush in 2004. They could have put an end to the whole madness right then, but they chose the path we are on, now. Another Bush term meant four more years of War - that fact was made crystal clear to everyone the whole election cycle. The mid-term elections may have put the breaks on the Republican War Machine, but they can not be expected to undo the '04 Presidential Campaign. Bush IS the Chief Executive, after all, and he IS Commander in Chief of the Armed Services. Those facts are no more easy for me to swallow than they are for the next guy, but they are the truth. And if the American People learn one thing from this whole experience, it is this: if you want the War over, you have another shot to end it next fall. Don't blow it again.

5/23/07

Well, I made my first donation of the campaign season yesterday. $25 to the campaign of (suprise!) Barack Obama. It was the first donation I have made to any political candidate since Howard Dean in 2004.

For me, the donation means that, unless something very drastic changes, I am firmly entrenched in the Obama camp. If I was penciled in to his campaign before, now I'm in there in pen. This should come as no suprise to anyone who has been reading my blog over these past few months - Obama has been my guy for some time now, and I had called him the "Big Winner" of the first Democratic debate just a couple of weeks ago. Ultimately, my decision to support Obama has come down to several factors:

- I feel that Barack Obama is the most electable candidate, Democrat or Republican, in this field right now. He has a charisma that at least approaches, and arguably exceeds, that of Bill Clinton. He gives well-thought out, intelligent answers to every question he is asked, whether by an interviewer or by a debate moderator. His speeches are impassioned yet substantive, informative yet exciting, motivational yet not preachy, and artfully constructed without being pretentious or bombastic. People just love this guy. And the race thing does not concern me one bit. Anyone who wouldn't vote for a guy because he isn't 100% white isn't going to vote for a woman, or probably any Democrat at all. And while the African-American voters aren't lining up behind this guy quite yet, when push comes to shove you had better believe they'll be there.

- The war. I know a lot of Democrats are tired of hearing about how Obama is the only candidate among the Big Three to have opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning, but you really cannot overstress the importance of this. Most Democrats, the ones on the street, not the ones in office, knew that going into Iraq was not a good idea. They knew that the intelligence that was being peddled to us and to the world by the Bush Administration as rock-solid evidence that Sadam Huessein had/was building weapons of mass destruction (and, even more ludicrously, a nuclear weapons program) was anything but, and that Huessein and Osama bin Laden were mortal enemies who would never cooperate on anything, even if they were bridge partners, and that the notion that we could march into a country full of people who did not like us to begin with, kill a slew of them in the invasion, and then start up a government in a western image, and they would just accept it all was complete fallacy. We KNEW this, and yet our elected officials in Congress, House and Senate, overwhelmingly rolled over and voted with the Republican majority to support the invasion. This whole business of "if I knew then what I know now" being spat at us by Edwards and Clinton is cynical, self-serving bullshit. WE knew then, so why the fuck didn't they? Why were they marginalizing us, calling us hopeless idealogues and saying that we didn't know the realities of the situation? Because they wanted to cover their political asses, that's why. We're trying to elect the President of the United States - the Leader of the Free World (or at least it used to be, back when the Free World still respected us). He or she should be concerned with doing what they know is right, not with doing that which is politically expedient. By the way, Edwards and Clinton both also voted for the Patriot Act. If only they knew then what they know now, eh?

- Every other issue. I can't tell you about all the diaries I've read on DailyKos that start off like this. "Well, I'm not very happy with the mainstream Democratic Candidates. When it comes to (issue here), they all look just like Republican Lite. Oh, all except for Barack Obama." Here's an example. From the war to health care to civil rights and right on down the line, Obama routinely finds himself on the correct side, and all the way over on the correct side, of every issue. This isn't about finding a candidate who is central enough to be "electable". This is about a candidate who is electable and for whom we do not have to sacrifice ANY of the virtues we look for in a President.

And for the record, I'm not concerned with the supposed issues of specifics or experience. First, the specifics is a slander the media has been pumping out about the Obama campaign since its inception. If you have any questions as to the specifics about Obama's plan, please go to his website and check it out. It's all there. He doesn't go around listing them in all of his speeches because, well, that makes for boring speeches (see Gore, Al). But the plans are there, detailed and practical, and clear as day.

As for experience, well, the last President from Illinois was a one-term Representative who lost his only previous Senate bid. In terms of legislative experience, Obama has him trumped. And that other guy, named Lincoln, he turned out ok. And even if you want to comapre him to his rivals, he still comes out pretty solid. Hillary Clinton has only been in the Senate since 2000. John Edwards was a one-term Senator who hasn't even been in government since 2004. I don't see how one full-term means that either Clinton or Edwards is prepared to run the country while a half-term isn't enough out of Obama.

So, anyway, that's where I am right now. You'll see Obama's website linked on my page until something changes. Tomorrow I'm back to my personal log. Till then...

5/16/07

Jerry Fallwell died yesterday. I'm not sure how I feel about it.

I'm just kidding, of course. Jerry Fallwell was a disgusting, reprehensible piece of shit. Good fucking riddance.

It's pretty well taboo to be dancing with joy when a fellow human being passes away. I don't give a shit. This guy took the taco.

Of course, Fallwell is mostly remembered for blaming the 9/11 attacks on gays, lesbians, members of ACLU, the prochoice, and anyone else who he didn't like. But beyond that, though, he had his various Christian activities - like going around on Earth Day spraying aerosol cans into the air because, well, because Fuck Everyone, that's why. And what's a more Christian attitude than that?

My view on death is, it's a part of life. Specifically, it's a part that removes you from the rest of us, at least for now. And Jerry Fallwell was somebody who long needed to be removed from the rest of us. He was a cancer on society. His death is like a successful tumor removal.

And this isn't a liberal/conservative thing. I know Republicans and conservatives who are decent people at heart. I don't wish for the death of any of them, nor will I be happy when they're gone, should I outlive them. I took no great pleasure from Ronald Regan's demise, or Richard Nixon's. And if W kicks the bucket tomorrow, the party wouldn't be at my place (now, Dick Cheney, on the other hand...). But Fallwell is a special case. He was hatred personified. He was just a downright horrible person. And now that he's gone, a Green Day song comes to mind...

Ha ha you're dead
And I'm so happy
In loving memory
Of your demise
When your ship is going down
I'll go out and raid the town
Ha ha you're dead
Ha ha you're dead
Ha ha you're dead

Ha ha you're dead
The joke is over
You were an asshole
And now you're gone
As your ship is going down
I'll stop by to watch you drown
Ha ha you're dead
Ha ha you're dead
Ha ha you're dead



Keep a spot in Hell warm for me, Jerry!

5/2/07

Today is the big day...W is going to demolish what is left of his credibility and popularity by vetoing the bill that would fund the troops doing his work in Iraq. Why is he doing this? Because Congress had the gall to ask the President to begin to plan for the pull-out of the troops and the beginning of the end our involvement in a war that has lasted longer than the United States' involvement in World War II.

How do the American people feel about this? Well, the fact that the Democrats had the necessary majority to get the measure passed in the first place is testament to the fact that Americans have had enough of this deadly foolishness, and want no more part in it. It's true, the 2006 elections had a lot to do with the culture of corruption that made Jack Abramhoff, Duke Cunningham, Tom Foley, and Tom DeLay household names, and the Terry Schiavo thing really freaked everyone out, and people were probably wondering why the guy who was in charge of regulating the internet was saying things like, "the internet isn't a dump truck - it's a series of tubes", but the real reason the Repubs were removed from power on the Hill so forcefully was that the people had had enough of this war, and they wanted exactly the kind of legislation passed that W is going to veto tomorrow.

W is not only destroying his own legacy at this point, he is smothering his own Party's chances in 2008. Show the American people that the only way to get out of this mess is to have a Democratic President AND Congress, and I can promise you they'll do again exactly what they did this past election.

The American people have had it with your war, Mr. President. They've had it with your foreign policy, they've had it with your Party, they've had it with you. The Democrats have shown willingness to compromise and continue to fund this war - they just want to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Do the right thing and maybe you can hope to dig yourself and your Party out of this hole you have dug. Do the wrong thing, and everyone suffers - most of all the troops in harm's way. But, of course, if you gave a shit about them, I suppose they wouldn't be there.