Who I Want to See On the Obama Death Panel

My girl Sarah really has me thinking these days. When they create this Death Panel, who’s going to be on it? Who will we choose to pull the plug on grandma or Corky? So, I have compiled a list of who I think should boldly serve on Obama’s Death Panel.

1. Me—you’re god damned right me! It’s my list, and I want to have some power. Plus, I took some science classes in school, and am generally considered to be intelligent. You can trust me…..I promise ;)
2. Wilfred Brimley—this old bastard is on my television all of the time talking up the old people. I would trust that he would do the right thing. Who else would know better about pulling the plug on someone than a guy who has to make this decision on himself every week or so?
3. Alan Alda—he’s not a doctor, although he has played one on TV. I feel strongly that we need someone from the medical profession on this thing. He has all the credentials I need.
4. Sarah Palin—we need a “maverick” on this panel. Plus she could give us a personal opinion on how to handle the clinically insane.
5. Simon Cowell—he sounds smart because of that British accent, plus we can use someone with a no nonsense attitude that will tell it like it is.

I think this is one hell of a group, and perfectly capable of making the right decisions. I’m not saying we won’t pull the plug on the wrong people from time to time, I mean nobody is perfect. But it’s hard to put together the first ever death panel.

If any of you have better candidates or ideas, I’d like to hear them. Until then, I’m going to brush up on my Biology 101.

We're There

Short and sweet today.

One of my favorite comedic actors was Peter Sellers. Although I could talk for hours about his Pink Panther movies, one of his greatest movies in my opinions was "Being There". It was released in 1979, and tells the tale of Chance "the gardener" (or Chauncey Gardener as he is named later), a rather simple man whose sole source of knowledge seems to have been derived from television, and secondarily from his interactions with a rather limited number of humans. After being forced out on his own, a series of random events unfold that ultimately bring this well dressed and seemingly thoughtful man to the brink of the Presidency of the United States.

The movie is an adaptation of the book by Jerzy Kosinski. The film's title, "Being There", is a direct translation of the term Dasein used by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger to describe the essential nature of human beings. Chauncey invariably responds to people and phenomena as they present themselves at that moment in time, actually living and interacting "in the moment, or here and now". Of course, another more simplistic interpretation is that the pop culture of the moment is all that is needed to succeed in the American media driven culture.

That brings us to our current President, Barrack Obama. He, similar to Chauncey, has become the darling of the media. He has command of today's pop culture, and has used this knowledge to add to his mystique. Similar to Chauncey, there are lingering doubts about Obama's real intelligence when taken out of his comfort zone. Is he the next coming, or just a pretender?

I guess we'll know when he either walks on water, or drowns.

Its You...AND Me Forever.......Sarah!!!!

I love Sarah Palin. Not in the way some of you might. I don’t love her like all of the “Huckabees” out there love her; for being a maverick. I don’t love her like some of the “Rushublicans” love her; for artificially rejuvenating the GOP for 3 weeks last fall. Hell, I don’t even love her like a teenage boy loves her; for being the new “naughty librarian” on all of the magazines for awhile.
I love her; because she makes me laugh. I have never seen anyone step to a podium and talk for so long and say so little, and yet give one hell of a sound-bite. Okay, so maybe Dub-ya gave a few good ones, but he was around for so long, and said so many stupid things that I became numb to it. But Sarah…oh Sarah, she was new! We had no idea what we were getting with her. And I’m guessing neither did John McCain.

I thought that once she derailed McCain’s bid for president that would be “all she wrote” for Sarah. There would be no more chances to tell us that she reads every newspaper that is ever put in front of her or that she sleeps with one eye open keeping an eye on Russia for us. The ride was over for her and me. But no, she wouldn’t go away that easy, she had more to say. In fact she had a lot more to say.

When she resigned as governor of Alaska, her resignation letter was printed in about every newspaper this side of Juneau (I’m sure she read all of them too). It was long, and incoherent, and had lots of exclamation points in it, and capitalized words for some reason. It was better suited for Twitter, than political office. The final word tally of her letter stretched 2,549 words and included 18 exclamation points. Sorry, let me try that again. The final word tally OF her letter stretched 2,549 words AND included 18 exclamation points!!! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist). 2,549 words just to say, “I quit.” Hell, I could have done it in one word. I’ll just throw my hands up and yell, “Done”. End of story. But not Sarah, she needed 2,549 words to quit as governor of a state that has roughly the same population as the city of Memphis, TN. Let me put this in some sort of historical perspective for you:

Palin’s resignation= 2,549 words and 18 exclamation points.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation= 719 words and not a single exclamation point.

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence= 1,322 words, and again nary a single exclamation point.

So, Lincoln freed the slaves, and Jefferson wrote the document that birthed our country with less words combined than Sarah used to quit her job.

I know it seems like I’m hard on Sarah, but really I do love her. I hope she runs for president in 2012. I want more of her on my television and homepages. And apparently so do most registered Rushublicans, because when polled almost 70% them stated they would vote for her in 2012. A friend of mine says often that “20% shall rule them all”, meaning that 80% of most people are shlubs just walking through life serving the ruling 20%. Upon hearing that 70% of these people would vote for her as President of The United States, it only makes me believe that proverb even more.

Obama v Bush, Different or Not?

We had Bush for a not so wonderful eight years, now we have seen Obama in action for the past six plus months. I think we can compare and contrast two of our more recent, interesting and polarizing Presidents.

While Bush did inherit a stumbling economy, the real crisis during his term occurred on September 11, 2001. ( an interesting aside is this is my anniversary date ) Bush seized the opportunity and was able to shepherd through Congress many items ( specifically the Patriot Act and all its onerous infringements on personal liberty), that would have never passed were it not for 9/11.

Obama inherited a deep recession, the actual depth of which we may not realize for some time. In a typically political reaction to any crisis, a stimulus package was rammed through which would never have even seen the light of day had the economy been even slightly better.

After 8 years in office, Bush was a known quantity and he held true to what we knew about him. Like them or not, he was comfortable with the decisions he made, even in the face of whithering fire from diverse critics including liberals, libertarians, much of the printed media and even those amongst his own party. Taken away from areas of expertise, Bush is somewhat capable, as his comfort level with his core values comes to the rescue and points the way through the maze of policy direction.

Obama, while not a fully known or vetted quantity seems to lean substantially left on domestic issues. His actions with respect to Cap and Trade, Health care, and union politics seem to be consistent with what speeches and history we have on Obama from his days of Chicago politics. Obama has a much clearer understanding of these types of issues and has demonstrated this by delivering powerful and convincing speeches capable of tipping many of the voting public in his direction. Without the crutch of these core beliefs, Obama has demonstrated his inexperience as a member of the executive branch giving fumbling and meandering answers.

Obama is clearly superior as a public relations tool, showing a polish and speaking presence not matched since Reagan.... if he has rehearsed. Bush was an adequate public speaker, but his strength (comfort with core belief structure) is his weakness here, as his delivery can easily be perceived as arrogance. Ironically, I personally believe that Obama is the more arrogant of the two, but this is splitting hairs, as ALL politicians at this level have that trait.

Of course Bush and Obama differ greatly in their leanings, but the liberal leaning Obama supports warrantless wiretaps and unmanned attacks in Pakistan, and the conservative leaning Bush supported the single largest expansion of Medicare and the federal bailout of the financial industry. So perhaps, the left/right thinking of most pundits is flawed and should be replaced with a deeper understanding of the actual President of the moment.

History will judge both Presidents. Current polls are notoriously fickle as the low approval numbers for Truman indicated upon his departure. Bush still polls poorly, and Obama polls well, but his numbers are sinking.

So in summary, how different are they? Both have deviated from the middle of the road political spectrum at times. Both have made decisions that I believe history will judge poorly. In my book they are just two sides of the same coin, namely the modern electable politician.

A dark time in American politics, my friend. Not so different after all.

Al Gore genius or drooling idiot?

Global warming, oh no I am sorry Global Climate change as it is now called.
Back when I was in school the textbooks and news stories were talking of an impending Ice Age. Yea that is right an Ice Age, Carl Sagan was on the local channels advocating that we release more greenhouse gases to prevent it. Pick a side greenies you can’t have it both ways.

So exactly how is global warming affecting us?

Well Al Gore shows us pictures of Polar Bears dying and slipping into the ice. Really…what is the scientific name of that species…Ursa Maritimus. Hey Al! They fucking swim! Really well as a mater of fact and what he is not saying is that parts of the Arctic are cooling as well.

This isn’t about the environment people this is about greed and political gain and hysteria. If our society had grown up in an ice age and we started seeing the glaciers retreating from Ohio would we yell and scream and say something most be done!

We live on a planet that has changed wildly over millions of years and it will continue. CO2 is not the cause of Global Warming it is the result of changing temperatures over periods of time.

Holy crap people they want to label our exhalations as chemically dangerous. It is insanity. We have been fighting the environment for thousands of years. Countries that are wealthy and have a solid infrastructure fare far better than developing nations. The Kyoto protocol is a nightmare of legislation and government oversight it would give the left something they have always wanted an end to a capitalist state and one where the government grows unchecked.

But Al Gore won a Nobel Prize, right? Yea he did but not for science he won it for peace there is no science to it. Just for the record book, ol’ Yasser Arafat won one as well in retrospect maybe not such a good idea.

Here are quotes from two REAL scientists:

In May 2007, Dr. Reid Bryson, the founding chairman of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin dismissed fears of increased man-made CO2 in the atmosphere. He called the “global warming” argument “absurd.” As to any increase in the Earth’s temperature, he said, “Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting carbon dioxide in the air.”

On August 15, 2007, meteorologist Joseph D’Aleo, the first Director of Meteorology at The Weather Channel and former chairman of the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Weather Analysis and Forecasting, said, “If the atmosphere was a 100 story building, our annual anthropogenic (man-made) CO2 contribution today would be equivalent to the linoleum on the first floor.”


So why does the media refuse to believe real science and pander to Al?
Millions of dollars people actually 100’s of millions of dollars.

So Al Gore genius or drooling idiot, the answer is he is a genius because he has taken something with no basis in fact and turned it into a worldwide hysteria. He is making millions from all these suckers and has them lining up drooling hanging on every word.

You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. - Lincoln

Not me Al…not me

I Love the Smell of Books Burning In the Morning

It’s not something I thought I would ever see in my lifetime. The picture of rabid, religious zealots circling a bonfire chanting biblical verses as they burn works of literature they deemed “inappropriate” for public view. The sight of books fueling the fire, and their flames fueling the mob’s fury was something I thought was lost to history, or maybe “hoped” is the better term. But there is a book burning brewing in Wisconsin, not in 1952, but right now, in 2009, and it’s as frightening now as ever.
Religious groups have burned books for centuries. It seems every rival sect or religion has burned something of the other religions at one time or another. Muslims burned Jewish works, the Jewish burned Christian books, and Christians burned books that are simply non-Christian. Christians don’t have the monopoly of this practice, although they seemed to perfect it in the 20th century.
In this example of “Christians Gone Wild”, Jim and Ginny Maziarka objected to some of the content in the West Bend public library. They believed that there were books in the young-adult section that were sexually explicit (I think we can all agree that the term “sexually-explicit” is up to interpretation). The books evidently dealt with homosexual content and some inappropriate heterosexual content. They not only asked that the books be moved out of that section, but also asked the library to obtain books that affirmed heterosexuality from authors who consider themselves ex-gays. Yep, you read that right…”ex-gays”. They claimed that it’s the library’s obligation to strike a balance between homosexuality and heterosexuality in its content. I wonder if she would demand such balance if the library offered NO examples of homosexuality. Is it really balance she is seeking? I have my doubts.
It didn’t take long however for the real crazies to get involved. Some group from Milwaukee (called the Christian Civil Liberties Union) came down and began to demand they burn the books. They even suggested that the librarian be “tarred and feathered”. They also filed a lawsuit against the library asking for not only the books to be burned, but are also suing for financial damages because their “mental and emotional well-being was damaged by [the] books at the library”. Actually, I claim that the only book that could have screwed up their mental well-being like that has to be the Bible. That is where it all started to go wrong for these “Huckabees”.
It’s just another example of right-wing Christians that think they are doing you a favor by helping make decisions for you. They don’t think you have the mental capacity (or the proper moral fiber) to make the decisions for yourself, so they are going to make them for you. Are you going to sit back and let them? Tell me….what would you do if this was happening in your local library? How would you react?

Miscellaneous Meanderings from the Spaz

Has anyone noticed the political headlines these days? Pelosi bashing Republicans, McCain bashing Democrats, etc, etc, etc. I'm sick and tired of all of them. We need to throw them all overboard and let the two or three that don't drown back on board. There's nothing like actually having to worry about survival to create a real sense of perspective.

Take healthcare as an example. Rulers around the world come to America to receive there treatment. Why? Because we have the best. I said the best, NOT the cheapest. Our system has created a climate where innovation and research have flourished (relative to other countries) at the expense of cost. Yes, it would be have been nice to have the minor surgical procedure I had last year for something south of $10,000. But at least I was able to get it when I wanted to, not when some bureaucrat said I could have it.

However, here in America where even our poorest segment is frequently obese we can worry about carbon emissions, spotted owls and baby seals. Heck, a couple of hundred years ago our forefathers probably dined on stewed spotted owl and used their feathers as quills. Let's face it Americans have become a bunch of namby pambies more concerned about how other countries feel about us than we are about protecting our actual interests. You don't see China or India worried about carbon emissions, as Hillary found out this week.

I think this all comes back to way our elected leaders now value their position in government more highly than what is right for the country. After all if the reformed healthcare system will be so great, shouldn't they have to use it as well? I say kick them all out!!! Both sides of the aisle!!! When have any of our elected officials actually suffered through job loss, or healthcare bills so crushing they just want to walk away from everything? Never, that's when!!!

So how do we cure it? Well for starters, how about incentive pay. When times are good they are paid well. When times are bad, they don't get paid at all. Also, no pension plans at all. Our system of government was designed so that actual people from main street would serve and then go back to main street. If they want to work in government all their life, fine, but they have to find their own retirement. I'm sure most reading this would agree that neither the Bush's or Clinton's have a f*****g clue about what life is like for the average Joe.

Anyway, those are my thoughts, take them or leave them.

When Did Jesus Become a Republican?

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for the kingdom of Heaven belongs to them”. What if I told you that quote belongs to former Vice-President Dick Cheney? You don’t believe me? You shouldn’t. The only blessed poor people Cheney knows are the ones who get to cut his lawn, or wash his Rolls Royce. The quote of course is from Matthew 5:3 of the New Testament and it is credited to Jesus Christ.

How ridiculous was the notion that the quote was Cheney’s? Could you even imagine those words coming out of the mouth of the de facto leader of the Republican Party? Of course not! You are as likely to see Cheney walk down the street hand in hand with another man, than hear him mutter those words. So why is it that the Christian Right, the folks who currently own and operate the GOP, gravitate to politicians like Cheney? Are the Republicans the party you associate with helping the poor and less fortunate? No, and that’s because the original messages of Christ don’t apply to these Evangelicals when it comes to politics. It’s about two things now; homosexuality, and abortion.

If you are a Christian Evangelical, homosexuality and abortion don’t even affect you. You aren’t going to be gay, and you won’t ever choose to have an abortion. So it really goes back to the fact they want the power to tell other people they can’t be gay, and they can’t have abortions. They are imposing their beliefs on those who don’t share their beliefs. Folks, that’s not democracy, that’s fascism.

Maybe what bothers me the most is the extraordinary effort and resources they commit to persecute such a minority of people. They are concerned about gays, which make up approximately 2.5% of the U.S population, and abortions which happen in about 13 of 1000 pregnancies in the U.S. You mean to tell me that out of all of these Evangelicals, not one person stepped up and said, “Uh, you guys do realize we are only talking about a handful of people here right?” We now have a party in this country that cares more about impeding the rights of 3% of the population than they do about tending to the needs and rights of the remaining 97% of the population. Well, when I put it that way; that does actually sound like something Dick Cheney would do.

I'll leave you with a quote from Thomas Jefferson:

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."

Holy crap you mean he gets to vote!

Well….I had intended to write about the eco babble coming from the left but I had an interesting conversation with a very misguided friend yesterday and being that the victors write history in their favor, I simply can’t resist.

Now my friend pretends not to be communist but his thoughts on how society SHOULD run and I emphasize should as whenever you hear that…you should be wary. We SHOULD give everyone universal health care…awesome how are we going to pay for it?
We SHOULD go towards a greener economy…great so that will be cheaper right?
We SHOULD get rid of nuclear weapons…ok so once we do everyone else will follow suit right? Si vis pacem para bellum my friends. The left…no that is not fair…the FAR left lives in a utopian dream world and they are not thinking of how things really are and they have no concept of how other people act or think. They are elitist in the purest sense of the word. They know what is best and will help you live a happy and productive life. Don’t worry your pretty head about that child everything will be alright. Bullshit! No it won’t and stop feeding me that nonsense. But I digress..

Now my friend let us call him Travis “Pol Pot” Gillespie or PP for short. He started talking about our economy and how capitalism has failed. So I thought really? It has failed? So what countries have the highest GNP I asked him. PP stated, “I don’t know”. A quick look at wiki or cia.gov shows all the top economies follow a capitalist model and btw China is now following Hong Kong’s example and is rapidly growing where once they had been stagnant for 40 years. Why is that I asked? PP not to be outdone nimbly changes topic about what our government is not doing for us. Like health care for all and free college education. So I ask who is paying for that? PP stated, “Tax big business to death.” Really? If you do that they will simply leave and take their business overseas. “Right” PP said, “Don’t let them and if they do we simply do not buy goods from them!” The crazed expression on his face and the froth coming from his mouth let me know, Holy sheep shit he is serious! He was so far removed from reality that there was no sense arguing with him. I mean if we were in the same forest we might find a middle ground but he wasn’t on the same planet. Holy crap, I mean what do you say?

I call him Pol Pot because lets face it that is some of the crazy shit. I mean that is the kind of stuff the Khmer Rouge believed in, move all of the people out of the cities and make them dirt farmers. Really, how is what PP states different? The boy isn’t just fucking nuts he is bouncing off the walls crazy and he votes! BTW everyone, he is otherwise an intelligent individual with multiple college degrees but he lives in a fairy land of happy dreams and butterflies and puppies tickling your nose.

That is the far left people they are not living in our reality. They dwell on how things should work and what we should do not thinking about long term consequences or as my poor misguided friend Pol Pot trying to remake society from the ground up. So we tax big business to death they leave and foreign investment ends I mean why would Honda build a plant over here if they can get a better deal in Canada? So we force them to stay, investors pull money from the stock market since corporate profits drop and start investing in foreign stock markets. The dollar goes into free fall we can’t pay our debts inflation goes through the roof and unemployment soars. Yea that is a great idea Pelosi ah I mean Pol Pot, sign me up.

Wallstreet Executives Derail Obama Poll Numbers!!!

Yep, you read it correctly....according to our intellectual friends at the Daily Kos, the most recent poll numbers for Obama have fallen 13 points. The poll taken by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute between June 26th and July 7th, shows a voter approval rating of 49% versus a voter disapproval rating of 44%. While the spread is still positive (+5), it is down from the May poll numbers of an approval rating of 62% and a disapproval rating of 31% (+31).

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, attributed the new poll numbers to the economic climate, stating "The economy in Ohio is as bad as anywhere in America. These numbers indicate that for the first time voters have decided that President Barack Obama bears some responsibility for their problems." Until now, he said, voters largely have been "blaming former President George W. Bush." But now, voters "might be taking out their frustration on President Obama, possibly deciding that the change he promised has not come as quickly as they expected."

Of course this explanation cannot possibly be reality. The mighty three headed hydra (Obama, Pelosi and Reid) are protecting us all from the evils of the now destroyed Republican Party and any drop in poll numbers must be caused by the next right wing conspiracy. So to get to the bottom of this a poll was taken by the Daily Kos. And by more than 2 to 1, THE POLL SAYS:

DING: "Because he appointed wallstreet execs to run the economy"

Seriously, you guys must be delusional. No mention of the HUGE increase in debt. No mention of controversial policies such as universal health care or cap and trade. Regardless of where you fall on these issues, they are VERY controversial. Controversy leads to polarization, which in turn leads to tightening poll numbers. Or is it really that simple?