Barack Obama--A Glimmer Of Hope

Lately Politics has been a depressing obligation for me. I have serious differences with many of those running for office...and most of them are people I'm voting for. I have to hold my nose and vote for Maria Cantwell even though she blatantly panders to the military with her vote for the war in Iraq and a half-hearted bone of "it's Rumsfeld's fault" is tossed to the rest of us. No, Maria. It is your fault and the fault of a Congress who no longer listens to the people, but instead kisses the ass of every lobbyist promising campaign dollars. This is NOT representation. This is whoredom.


But the alternative is even worse...a lobbyist, a corporate clone, more of the same selfishness to enrich themselves at the expense of the working class. I'm appalled but no longer surprised that the employees of Safeco and its insurees had to take the financial hit so McGavick could get that multi-million dollar golden parachute. It's what happens when you put corporations in charge of the country. No one should be surprised. It's like getting mad at a predatory animal for ripping into a hunk of fresh meat. That's just corporate behavior. It won't change.

But my vote will go to Democrats no matter how offensive they are in their political pandering, because Bush and his warmongering religious whackos need to be reined in, they need to have some oversight, some accountability for their greed and psychotic visions...or they will get their damned Armaggedon over our dead bodies.

I turn off the news because it might as well be stamped "Made in the Pentagon" for all the objectivity it has. It makes me wonder what Bushco's illegal wiretaps uncovered in their surveillance of private citizens? Drugs? Closet Homosexuality? Bankruptcies? Mistresses? Boy Toys? What would make a Congress that once so elequently spoke against the mindless obedience of citizens in totalitarian regimes become that which they once opposed? What secrets keep them rubberstamping approval for torture, secret prisons, the destruction of the Constitution, unqualified stooges for positions that once required the best and the brightest, and the out and out thievery of their own grandchildren's natural resources? Are they even capable of feeling shame anymore?

The news is bad enough, but the constant assault of meanness, of outright lies and distortions, of attacks on character and race and sexual orientation that has become the new campaign themes of the GOP is a playground gone mad with no supervision. When I do turn the TV on, the sound is mostly muted to spare me the worst of the assault.

But something slipped through today. I saw a man speak with a kind of dignity that we haven't seen in this country for decades. I heard him talk about what would be good for America, what he would bring to us, what he would support and work to make happen for us. I was so stunned I stopped what I was doing and sat down and listened to him. I saw a man who would not bring his uncultured, savage version of diplomacy to other countries, but instead would restore our honor and dignity with his quiet intelligence and cultured demeanor. I saw a man I would be proud to have represent me and what I believe and what is good about America to the rest of the world. I saw what I've been hungry for: a dignified human being who spoke to others with respect and drew respect back for the words he spoke.

That man is Barack Obama. It is my most fervent hope that he runs for President in 2008. We need him. America needs him. The world needs him. Please, Senator Obama. Only you can give us back our dignity and respect. Please be our next President and help heal the wounds inflicted on us all by the current administration.

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Design from: Ursine LogicChanging hearts and minds one t-shirt at a time.

Barack Obama--A Glimmer Of Hope

GOP Sleaze

Before you vote for a Republican, click on these links and find out the sleaze and slime and unethical behavior they are hiding from you.
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Jon Kyl Rick Renzi J.D. Hayworth John Doolittle Richard Pombo Brian Bilbray Marilyn Musgrave Doug Lamborn Rick O'Donnell Christopher Shays Vernon Buchanan Joe Negron Clay Shaw Bill Sali Peter Roskam Mark Kirk Dennis Hastert Chris Chocola John Hostettler Mike Whalen Jim Ryun Anne Northup Geoff Davis Michael Steele Gil Gutknecht Michele Bachmann Jim Talent Conrad Burns Jon Porter Charlie Bass Mike Ferguson Heather Wilson Peter King John Sweeney Tom Reynolds Randy Kuhl Robin Hayes Charles Taylor Steve Chabot Jean Schmidt Deborah Pryce Joy Padgett Melissa Hart Curt Weldon Mike Fitzpatrick Don Sherwood Lincoln Chafee Bob Corker George Allen Frank Wolf Mike McGavick Dave Reichert

GOP Sleaze

Bush Has No Clothes

I've always had a friendly yet frustrating relationship with a member of my extended family who has been a life-long Republican. The only time she deviated from a straight ticket punching the Republican candidates in her long voting life was her vote against Nixon. She called him "creepy," which at the time, was the strongest language a lady of her culture and breeding could use in public and around children like myself.

But that same lady, now a dignified matriarch in her 90's, uses language far more descriptive when describing the current GOP. "These are not Republicans," she tells me. "These are damned thugs, piece of shit thieves and liars."

Her crumbling started with the out of control spending to reward corporate donors that she defined as "Halliburton bridges to nowhere." Every piece of pork in the budget was a gift to some big business abuser and she grumbled out loud that the small businesses the GOP once swore to protect were being taken out by Walmarts and other big box donors to the GOP. "This is NOT my Republican party," she complained every time another small business went under because it couldn't compete with its corporate-sponsored rivals.

She was also uncomfortable with the huge tax break given to the rich. As a wealthy woman this is significant because she always complained about how much she had to pay in taxes. But she also was angry that people like me had so much deducted from my paychecks. "I can afford the extra hit. People who are supporting families on your kind of salary cannot. That isn't right."

But what started the downward slide for her was Katrina. She believes in America, what it represents to the rest of the world, the whole concept of a Democracy, a country where all people are created equally, even if it doesn't always work out that way in real life. She believes in the idea that hard work is rewarded and we take care of our own. Katrina put a lie to all that. It exposed Bushco as an entity who could have done something but did not. The final straw was Bush playing guitar at a GOP fundraiser while bodies remained unclaimed in the devastation of New Orleans, especially the often played tragic sight of that poor woman who sat dead in a wheelchair outside the superdome for days. If anything began the dismantling of the Bushco compassionate conservatism myth, it was that dead woman in a wheelchair. "He's out there raising millions of dollars and there are people dying just a few miles away from his neglect."

By the time she understood that she's been lied to about the reasons for invading Iraq, the cover-up and protection of pedophiles, and especially the swiftboating of veterans who actually served by those who did not, she was already seeing a naked emperor every time Bush showed up in the news. But it took Cheney saying how great things were going in Iraq...as the news scroll beneath him showed over 60 Americans killed in Iraq so far this month, for her to say the words she hadn't spoken since the 1960's: "I'm voting for the Democrats." There was no joy in her voice. Just acceptance of something that had to be done for the sake of a greater good.

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This design available on t-shirts, stickers, magnets and many other products at Ursine LogicChanging hearts and minds one t-shirt at a time.

Bush Has No Clothes

Getting Scared Stupid

I've written a lot on fear and how Bushco uses it to keep the sheeple huddled in the pasture, but I have a difficult time accepting how people give themselves up so easily. Understanding is not the same as accepting. That's why I can see the manipulation of fearmongering when it appears as primary color terror alerts that make it simple to stay in the right stage of fear, and it's why I can take apart tactics and see that making people dump out their liquids in the airport line is training them to stand in stupid lines like herds of obedient cattle without asking too many questions or demanding too many rights. But it doesn't explain why people allow themselves to be subjected and manipulated in such a way.

Sure you say, and how do I get on a plane without being a stupid ass sheep? I don't. I haven't flown for three years. I drive everywhere. Yes, it takes me longer to drive than fly, but then I haven't really needed to go anywhere that I couldn't get to in two or three days of driving. It helps that I love traveling by car. I love stopping in small new places and going for walks and getting to know people. I don't know yet what I'll do when I have to fly somewhere because I won't have the required amount of time to drive. Maybe I'll take a train. Maybe I'll join up with one or more people who feel like I do and we can drive in shifts. I just don't know because I'm not in that situation yet. I used to fly two or three times a month for my job. I've managed to still do my job and turn the required traveling that I used to dread, into a series of mini-vacations. I feel a personal sense of victory in denying the airlines my cash for the last three years. They've lost thousands of my dollars and I've kept my sense of self intact.

I also know there are some especially distasteful reasons that people sell out and many times it is because they want something in return for that. I think of people in positions of power who could have come forward and said what they knew about Bush and his lies before all these people died. But they held their nose because it meant a promotion, an opportunity to make money, a chance to meet someone influential, an in to some situation of exclusivity they might otherwise be denied. These are the people with blood on their hands, and they will eventually wake in the night trying to wash it off and discovering that it is burned into their souls.

But the ones I pity are the poor fools who huddle in that pasture and live in such fear because they have no self to lose. They don't even know they have such a thing. And if they accidently stumble on it, if they suddenly against all odds wake up one day and discover they have a mind and it was meant to think for itself, well...I don't want to be around to see that. It's not pretty when someone realizes they've been played for a fool, especially when it's Bushco that took their religious faith and played it as it were nothing more than a shiny toy they would later discard when it outlived its usefulness. Just like Gays, any people of faith who vote for more of the same will have only themselves to blame when the door on the pasture slams shut and they can no longer leave it standing up.

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Design from Ursine Logic where getting scared for Halloween is a good thing.

Getting Scared Stupid

Pedophiles in Congress

I thought I was beyond being shocked by the actions of the GOP controlled congress after several years of being lied to about the reasons for going to war, the abuse of power, the cronyism that resulted in totally inept people occupying positions of responsibility, the outright theft of the taxpayers money and resources for their own personal enrichment and gain, the blatant "for sale" sign hung up in the halls of congress for lobbyists, and an endless list of crime, corruption, sleaze, manipulation, and total disregard for our country and its constitution.

But by covering up the actions of the child predator/pedophile Mark Foley, I am beyond shocked. This is exploiting children for personal gain and profit. This is covering up the actions of a sick and twisted individual in order to cover their own asses. Is this some more of what they mean by family values? Is this more of what they meant when they said they were going to restore the honor and integrity of congress? Is this more of what they meant when they vowed to protect the children of America from the evils that threatened them on a daily basis?

I am so disgusted that I can't even find words to describe how I feel, other than to say they have betrayed every child in America with this unforgivable conduct. Even if you think voting is stupid or worthless or that your vote won't count, please go to the polls on November 7th and vote these pedophile protectors out of office. Vote by absentee ballot if you are worried about your vote counting. Pick it up in person. Fill it out. Drop it off in person. The only way we will keep them from stealing another election is by voting in such overwhelming numbers that they can't steal it again. Just remember, a low turnout is a ticket for them to steal. Don't give it to them.

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This design available on t-shirts, stickers, magnets and many other products at Ursine LogicChanging hearts and minds one t-shirt at a time.

Pedophiles in Congress

Halloween Horror Stories

I was going to write something cheerful and informative about Halloween as it is one of my favorite holidays. But the events of the last few days with the GOP revealing themselves even more as the party of liars, cheats, warmongers, war profiteers, and now perverts, has left me disgusted with the state of our poor country. How did we let this country sink so low to put these creeps in charge of our lives? My heart aches for all of us. So instead of writing, I'm going to invite you to visit my Halloween store and try and remember what it was like to be a kid and not have to worry that your elected representatives were going to come after you for bad and evil things. Happy escaping. And please remember to vote. Voting these disgusting excuses for human beings out of office in November is our only hope to restoring dignity and honor to our country.

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My Halloween Shop

Halloween Horror Stories