Dick Cheney’s “Executive Assassination Ring”
Add comment March 11th, 2009
Curtain Call
Are we all actors, playing on a stage?
some days it rings more true than others
today I am acting
I am an entrepreneur
I want the coffee
I am a capitalist
I want market recovery
I am a suit
I want wealth
Today I act, if only to know why I must stop acting one day.
Someday, we must all stop consuming for consuming’s sake
packaging water in disposable plastic bottles
buying expensive clothes to look like the models
the latest cell phone technology every year
palatial homes with no one inside to rear
How would you feed yourself, if the grocery store didn’t?
How would you hydrate yourself, if the city pipes didn’t?
How would you heat your home, if the gas company didn’t?
How would you educate your children, if the television didn’t?
Wake up!
learn skills with impact
ponder questions of substance
read….write….learn…strive for true knowledge!
Plant a garden
Because someday we will not have the luxury of continuing to act
When the curtain closes, you had better know your way around backstage…
Add comment January 29th, 2009
Blago Gives “F#@* You!” to Fitz, Congress, and Obama
Milorad “Rod” R. Blagojevich. At first I thought he was clearly the runner-up (behind Sarah Palin) for most moronic Governor. He cursed like a sailor on the tapes, tried to extort money from a children’s hospital, then claimed to be the victim of political vengeance, and ended it all with a little poetry reading! All I could do was laugh. I still laugh about it, but I have since realized that Milorad is actually the definition of Machiavellian. He may still end up getting thrown out of the Governorship, but by staying in the job, still appointing a Senate replacement for Barack Obama, and a string of circus-like pressers, he has truly pushed Illinois politics to a whole new level. Like a pro. He gave the finger to Harry Reid, and dared him not to accept Roland Burris leaving a Senate with no African American representation. Knowing that Patrick Fitzgerald had already played his hand, Blago basically told the Illinois Legislature to get started on whatever little games they wanted to play and he’s still collecting that Governor’s paycheck that he apparently needs just to stave off lawyers hired as a result of scandals-gone-by. My favorite has to be the steaming pile of scat he dropped in the President-elect’s coffee by defying reason at every turn, and refusing to resign amid what seems to be an obvious case of abuse of power. What Blagojevich does not understand is that it doesn’t matter if he technically broke the law or not. His actions and statements are not acceptable behavior for someone who claims to truly be a servant of the public good. Resign as Governor you crooked bum!
And now I am going to leave you with a poem by Emily Dickinson:
Doom is the House without the Door –
‘Tis entered from the Sun –
And then the Ladder’s thrown away,
Because Escape — is done –
‘Tis varied by the Dream
Of what they do outside –
Where Squirrels play — and Berries die –
And Hemlocks — bow — to God –
Add comment January 12th, 2009
President-Elect Barack Obama
I can remember a little over 2 years ago hearing the first stirrings in the press about who were shaping up to be the 2008 Democratic Primary candidates. I remember being so proud of our party for the diversity I saw on stage at the first Democratic Primary debates. But especially I was surprised by Barack Obama. Everyone could tell that Barack should have a chance, but were not sure if it could really happen. At the time, I was in the middle of planning a road trip from my home in Indianapolis out to San Diego to visit friends and my partner’s family. When I realized that I could take a small detour and pass through Iowa the night before the caucuses, I knew I had to go and see Sen. Obama in person to get a feel for his character. It was cold that night before the first voting, and I remember we almost ran out of gas! We parked outside the High School gymnasium where he was to speak and headed inside. We were outsiders, not Iowans, obviously not eligible to vote in the Iowa Caucuses, but the room was warm and filling fast. Eventually Sen. Obama came out and really impressed all of us. I really believed that he actually cared, that he actually wanted to do the right thing for the right reasons.
From then on I was an Obama supporter. I voted for Sen. Obama in the Indiana Primary that he narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton and in the general election just a week ago where Obama won Indiana. I am so proud of my State and of my Country for being able to look past the old divisions of right and left and providing President-Elect Obama with the Political Capitol that he will need to get this Country back on track. I am a gay man, and with the passage of Proposition 8 in California, I know there is much left to do, more struggle to come, and many more rights not yet won that must be wrested away from powerful interests and the backward thinking, but for today, I celebrate victory. This is a victory of higher ideals over greed and division. As a relatively young man of 25, I can now say that for the first time in my life, we all have a President that we can be truly proud of. Who was not picked, preened, and led to the halls of power, but started with almost nothing and truly scraped his way to the top.
I identify with that story because I personally am at a financial low, I am draining my savings trying to pay the bills while working 2 jobs. I even do odd jobs on the side to get money for groceries like clean out gutters. I will fight on, and live with less, and work physically demanding jobs, and pay 22 percent in taxes even though I earn only about $30,000 a year. I will go on because what else is there to do? All I ask is that if this system can really be re-balanced, and hope and dignity can be restored in this country to all people, we must all give Barack Obama the chance to implement his vision. For all of us out there with very little, we place all of our hope in President-Elect Barack Oabama. MAKE US PROUD !
Add comment November 10th, 2008
Hate Speech, Dog-Whistles Forshadow Chaotic, Dangerous 20 Days Remain
In 2004 President George W. Bush and GOP leadership moved a national ban on Same Sex Marriage to the top of the Republican platform. The desired effect was obviously to energize the Republican base consisting of conservative Christians. Unfortunately for us, this tactic worked and George W. Bush was given another 4 years to annihilate the middle class. By the time the “Federal Marriage Amendment” was introduced in Congress in 2006 the national political conversation had gotten truly ugly. Looking back on those few years we see another unfortunate, but less talked about result, was a marked increase in the number of “Hate Crimes” against GLBT people across the country.
A political Dog-Whistle is when a seemingly harmless phrase or word is used in place of something that would be considered obviously divisive or inappropriate that is directed at a specific audience that gets it. When they talk about “States Rights”, they are talking about abortion. When they talk about “big-government”, they are implying Socialism. When they harp on his political connections to 60’s radical Bill Ayers, they are implying that he does not love his country and may actually be a terrorist. When McCain and Palin are introduced to a crowd by someone who enunciates Barack Hussein Obama, they are complicit in implying that he is a foreigner, and maybe even a Muslim. What John McCain and Sarah Palin are doing right now is unconcionable.
This image is an example of the dog-whistle politics flushing out the bigots and unleashing a wave of division, fear, and hate. I am concerned that this could lead to enormous tension and possibly even violence. I know that John McCain is not responsible for every idiot in his audience carrying a stuffed monkey with an attached Obama ‘08 sticker, but he is responsible for his campaign and the tone it sets. McCain and Palin are so desperate to win, they will risk ripping this country apart.
Add comment October 14th, 2008
Random thoughts bouncing around my head…
I don’t know if any of you have played “Mario Cart” on any of the Nintendo consoles, but I am pretty sure that John McCain and Dry Bones share some ancestry.
Do you remember back when all the Republicans wanted to privatetize Social Security? Good thing we didn’t do that, huh? It is bad enough that our 401k accounts are being molested by the risky actions of big business, thank a Progressive for your guaranteed Social Security benefeits.
Is it me or does John McCain seem like he is trying to be “Obama-white”. What I mean is, it almost seems that while Obama has stayed center-left, McCain has rocketed to the political center almost in an effort to be a white version of Obama. The unfortunate part for McCain is that his base doesn’t like it and the independents see through it.
Can John McCain really argue his position on taxes? Can he really defend his position of giving more help to rich people and less help to poor people? It is as if he believes the dream and promise of America is: “America, a country where a small percentage of rich people build fortunes on the backs of middle-class workers”, when I think it really should be: “America, a country where the spoils of capitolism are shared in a way that everyone is able to work, live, and retire with dignity”.
It’s not Socialism, I’ll call it Sapitolism.
Add comment October 9th, 2008
6 Reasons other than Experience to bash Gov. Palin
1. Palin was crowned “Miss Wasilla” in a 1984 beauty contest. (no one likes beauty queens, except Politicians and Celebrities)
2. She has a history of using wedge issues like abortion, religion, and gun control to win elections. (Karl Rove’s long lost Schwarzenegger to his Danny DeVito a la the movie “Twins”)
3. 8 months after Palin and her husband unexpectedly eloped, she gave birth to her first child. (this shot-gun wedding thing must be genetic)
4. Palin won an election by supporting the “Bridge to Nowhere”, before she was against it. (Palin and McCain really do have a lot in common)
5. Sarah Palin just got her first passport last year when she needed to visit Alaskan National Guard troops in Kuwait. (Maybe we should start with naming countries on a globe and work our way to the geo-political realities of China’s intervention in Sudanese politics and economy)
6. As Mayor of Wasilla, Palin fired the town librarian and was observed at a City Council meeting listing books that she wanted removed from the library because of “morally or socially objectionable” content. (Yay censorship!!! I hope she can implement those “memory holes” too!)
2 comments September 3rd, 2008
Let me tell you a little story about Willard Mitt Romney
I am going to ignore the fact that Willard Mitt Romney believes that a man named Joseph Smith, in 1827, discovered and deciphered a set of golden plates describing a visit by Jesus to the North American Indians some time around 34 AD. Oh, and in case you are wondering, the plates were never confirmed to exist, as Joseph Smith supposedly gave them back to the angel he had received them from.
Anyway, The point I’m really trying to make here is simple: Willard Mitt Romney is a ruthless businessman who has no problem shutting down a factory in the US, moving the profits to off-shore tax havens, and sending the jobs over-seas. I mean when your father names you “Willard” after his best friend “J. Willard Marriott“, I suppose you were just born to claw your way to the top never wondering if your blind ambition is costing Americans their jobs. This is a personal story for me, because I once worked for a private company named Guitar Center. I had been working there for almost 5 years and was thinking about making a career out of it. On October 9th, 2007 Bain Capital (founded by Romney) acquired Guitar Center for 1.9 billion dollars. The decision was made that opening any more new stores would not be cost-effective, and I was the Team Lead for Grand Opening at the national Distribution Center in Brownsburg, Indiana. I was denied any lateral movement and was effectively forced down, or out. I chose out. This action may have only affected 6 or 7 people in central Indiana, but it is a symptom of a sick set of values that people like Willard Mitt Romney call “good profit margins”.
If you want Old Money, blended with a ruthless business ethos, sprinkled with chameleon politics, and topped off with probably the most bizarre of all religious beliefs. Go for it. Vote Republican, but be prepared to reap what you have sewn.
Add comment August 27th, 2008
An Open Letter To John McCain:
*I respect John McCain’s honorable service to this country
Dear Senator McCain,
Or should I call you John,.. Johnnie?.. or maybe McNasty. Either way I want you to know that I once knew you as a common sense Republican with somewhat of a ‘maverick’ streak. Once upon a time you were against the tax cuts for wealthy Americans that the Bush administration has been pushing. Only a year ago you were FOR a bi-partisan bill to expressly ban all types of torture in our interrogations of enemy combatants. I don’t think I need to define ‘irony’ for you. I could go on and on about positions you have changed, national holidays you opposed, or list a myriad of reasons why you would be a terrible President at this time in history. But, instead I am going to concentrate on one core issue: THE INTERNET
Yes, the Internet. Apparently you have stated that you are… “aware of it”. And when it came to that new-fangled e-mail stuff, I believe you said that you have “never felt the particular need to e-mail” anyone. I don’t want to over-sell this to you, John, but the Internet is a pretty big deal. It has pretty much changed the world. I fear that if you don’t have at least a basic knowledge of technology in general, you are ill-suited to be the leader of the Free World. What if the fate of the world hung upon our president being able to open a PDF file? A PDF file? Well, it’s a….a…nevermind.
I fear that if you are elected our next President, our country will continue to stumble blindly through the 21st century like 1974 George Bush searching for a toilet at a frat party. Someone has to take the car keys from the Republicans.
1 comment August 22nd, 2008