Wednesday, February 27, 2008
A Welcome Return
This conservative, for what it's worth, welcomes a win by Mr. Obama. Normally I might feel somewhat dirty after typing such a sentence, but in this case I have my reasons. Long story short, I see two primary benefits:
1) Too much of a good thing is bad, and for too long businesses in this country have lived the good life with respect to the US being an economic superpower. A return to liberal domination in the executive and legislative branches, while undoubtedly painful at the microeconomic level for many, should force many companies to adjust their perspective to focus on service/quality. We'll get killed in the international markets, but that's happening already, so there's only so much more damage that can be done. The upside will hopefully be that fewer people will be living their lives boiling over with rage, and I have to think that's a good thing.
2) An attack on the wealthy means that more money will be in the hands of those who are too stupid to hold onto it, offering an attractive opportunity for more of it to end up in my hands.
I would, however, issue the following challenge to those on this blog who are going on record with the predictable and tedious conservative bashing. I challenge you to now go on record with what scorecard you are going to use for Mr. Obama should he be elected President. You cannot measure "hope" or "good will", except perhaps via grossly subjective polls, so I want to know from you when, if ever, you might ever conclude that Mr. Obama is failing as President.
Long-timers on this blog know that despite my political allegiance I didn't vote for GWB in '04. Common sense clearly indicated that in no circumstance would GWB actually be able to accomplish anything in his second term, no matter how valid or viable his ideas might be, therefore a vote for him was a vote for nothingness. At the time I laid out that "accomplish" meant things like implementing tax reform, education improvement, health of economic indicators, and so on. As predicted, he has failed to accomplish almost anything of significance in the past four years.
So Markadelphia, et al....let's hear it. How and by when will we know that Mr. Obama (presumably with a continuing majority in the Senate and House) is proving to be the leader that we [conservatives] are told he will be?
NOTE: It goes without saying that Mr. Obama winning the White House will be accompanied by four years of the predictable and tedious blame game with respect to whose fault whatever the problem-du-jour truly is. Here's your chance to prove yourself more than just another liberal sycophant by holding up an objective measuring stick to your boy. (No, Markadelphia, not that boy....I meant Mr. Obama.) Are you as open-minded and visionary as you profess to be?
I think we will know, PL, what kind of a leader Senator Obama will be in the first 100 days. That is usually the barometer for seeing how effective a presidency can be. As far as how, I think you need to measure how he energizes the country. Will more people get involved to make our country a better place? Or will they expect government handouts? Will special interests put up a big fight? Another good test is to see how the good ol boys in the Democratic Party react once their playhouse is torn down. Will they go quietly into that good night?
I think I will be open minded for this main reason. Mr. Obama has a lot to live up to, in my eyes, and I will be just as critical with him, possibly more so, than I have been with President Bush. I predict that, if elected, Senator Obama will make mistakes, one or two of which will be enormous. The test for me will be how he learns from those mistakes. Will he self actualize or will he be an eight year old putz, as we have now?
Of course, I am not going to FIND things to fault him with if I think and feel there are none. As we learn more about Barack Obama, we can begin to see a level of maturity in him that is really going to be difficult for the eight year olds, on the right, to attack. So, I guess the final measure for me, in regards to Mr. Obama, is going to be how much he rises above that crap and even nullifies it.
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Language of Hope and Healing
Coming from the party that allegedly follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, it is even more perplexing.What is uncanny and terribly ironic about what the right is saying about Obama is that it sounds eerily familiar to what the "non believers" said about Christ during his time on earth. Let's take a look at some recent quotes.
"I think Obama is a charlatan and I think his follows are brain dead zealots who either lack the education, intelligence or insight to see through his empty rhetoric. I think his followers are a cultish lot with some type of messiah complex and hope that he will fulfill whatever needs they're missing in their lives. Empty, sad, shells of people looking for someone else to make them whole. And when it's President Obama, the veil will be pulled back and the awakening will be very rude." (just Dave from comments)
"Barack Obama shares the same ideology as Hitler and Stalin: socialism" (Dennis from comments on The Smallest Minority)
Dave's comments are actually accurate...if you are describing certain conservatives who laughingly call themselves "Christians." Sadly, what Dave and others fail to see that what is really happening is that people are sick and tired of criminals running and ruining our country. They are energized because they think they can make a difference again and make out country strong and respected again, as opposed to weak and reviled. They see Barack Obama as a shining example of FINALLY having a leader with whom we can be proud. Michelle Obama said last week that she can "be proud of her country again." Right wingers went nuts. How dare she say America, in the recent past, is something that we shouldn't be proud of!!
Well, she's right. Deal with it. Stop trying to blame the media, our education system, or any of your other usual suspects that you point to when you hilariously shift the blame for the ills that befall our country. You sound like children, pointing to the guy next to you saying, "He did it! It's his fault."
I don't know about the rest of you, dear readers, but I can't be proud of a country that bemoans political prisoners in Cuba and yet has hundreds of its own. I can't be proud of a country that claims to stand for human rights and yet has people in it that think that water boarding is not torture AND want to fight for the right to water board (!). I can't be proud of a country that has millions of people who claim to be pro life and yet condone the murder of thousands of Iraqi children calling it "self defense."
Fellow blogger Kevin Baker asked me this question on his blog the other day: how will Obama heal our souls? The question reminded of another question that was asked in comments last week: how will Obama get able bodied men to work who are lazy and don't want to? The answer to both questions is the same.
Barack Obama is not the messiah. He will not heal our souls. What he can do is lead us to the beginning of the path and the rest of it is up to us. In effect, each one of us is a messiah to ourselves. Believe me when I tell you, we really NEED to start down that path or it's over for our country.
Each of us has that Christ power that inside of us. Every one of us has the capacity for love, hope, and peace. Everyone of us has the power to take these three fundamental traits and put them into action, not just in our communities but in our country at large. We can do this by picking an issue in our communities, getting involved and making it better. I think the reason why most conservatives don't grasp this concept is that they don't understand the difference between intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. They can't understand people who are motivated to do the things purely for the joy of doing them. Most conservatives believe the only way to motivate people is through money...and fear. It really doesn't have to be that way.
When you break out of that system, you gain power.
Believe me when I tell you that people like Dick Cheney, Grover Norquist, and James Dobson don't want us to get in touch with that power. They view Christ as a means to an end to control people. They believe in structure and steel enforced granite rules with a select few people in control. The reason why you see conservatives so upset right now and making comments like the ones above is that they are afraid of losing that control.
People are starting to realize how much power they have. Obama is telling them that they can break out of it. Many, many people are believing him and, thus, believing in themselves. And that's why people are worried about him getting shot. Not because of Steyn's death messiah fantasy talked about in comments. It's because people that understand these things know what has happened before...with JFK, Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy....these leaders who would have made things better for more people were killed because they represented a threat to those who want power for few and hate, misery, and fear for the rest of us.When you lose these three things, you lose control. It is starting to slip away and that's why we are starting to hear people say things like the above mentioned quotes.
I have to admit that I felt a lot of anger when I read some of these comments. I mean...seriously!....They take a message of restoring simple human dignity to Americans and becoming better ambassadors to the world then twist into a cynical distortion that would make Goebbels proud. Scary, huh? It's almost as if they have a filter in their brain that transforms all words said by anyone that doesn't think exactly the way they do into the foolishness we see above.
After a day or two...well....now I just feel pity, really. I think it is tremendously sad that there is such a large group of people in this country who see villains around every corner.....who constantly give into fear and fall into backwards thinking (e.g. Barack Obama is a communist)....who are so insecure with the word change that they demonize that which could be helpful....who are so trapped inside of an ideology that they will never realize their true potential as human beings.
All of this begs the question...do conservatives understand the language of hope and healing?
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Family Vacation-RUINED!!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Johnny....Johnny...Johnny.....(sigh)
beep....blurp...wham....boff....squirt
Ah, here it is. What he was really saying. "I am saying this to rally more of the conservative base to my cause who will mistakenly believe that the only reason why America hates Cuba is because Fidal Castro is a murderer, fornicator, and communist. I, of course, know that the main reason why our government doesn't like Cuba is because Castro, instead of American industry, is pillaging and financially raping his own people. Dang, it'd be great to get a crack at that cheap labor and make all that money that Castro is making instead of us. Fucker....!"
Perhaps ol' Johnny Boy should more worried about this.......
Friday, February 22, 2008
Are You FUCKING kidding me?
Folks, I can see this shit happening all over again. The people (and you know who the fuck I am talking about) who have the most to lose from an Obama presidency are going to try to take him out and blame some crazed racist.
Was this a test run?
Thursday, February 21, 2008
What is the Story?
This could be a unbelievably damaging story to the Republican Party, not so much from the standpoint of McCain having an affair, but from the fact that he did favors for Isemen when he was the head of the Commerce committee.
Before I render any judgment, the sources that are saying McCain did have an improper relationship need to go on record. The New York Times has a lot of explaining to do and I really need to hear all that from Bill Keller, executive editor of the Times, and not the writers of the story. And by improper, I mean from the lobbyist angle not the sexual angle. Can we please move past this crap in this country? I don't give shit if McCain had group sex with the entire east wing of the Shady Oaks retirement home. The fact that we are obsessed with our leader's sex lives means we have much growing up to do.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
It's Fundamental
One thing is certain, though. As I begin to delve deeper into the life of the conservative mind, my studies have brought me to several interesting pools of knowledge. The latest is a recent study of fundamental attribution error. Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) is the tendency for observers, when analyzing another's behavior, to underestimate the impact of the situation and over estimate the impact of personal disposition. When it comes to the issues of the economy and poverty, much talked about in our presidential campaign, we see many conservatives making this error time and again.
"People generally get what they deserve."
"Those who don't work are often freeloaders"
"People who take initiative can still get ahead"
"The free market offers everyone choice and it is the fault of the individual, not society, if they can't pull themselves by their own boot straps and make it!"
We have heard these tired lines over and over. They are, in fact, completely invalid. And science....SCIENCE!!!....has proven it to be true, time and again.
A typical FAE experiment involves a group of people...let's say 100. Each of these hundred will spend time talking, one on one, to a certain person, who would either act aloof and critical or warm and friendly. 50 of the 100 were told beforehand that the person they would be talking to was an actor, who was going to fake feelings, and the other 50 were told nothing. They were then asked what their impressions were of this person. Guess what happened?
Even though they knew this person was an actor, the 50 people "in the know" still regarded said person as warm or cold. There was virtually no difference between the blind group and the control group. They knew the person was behaving in certain ways due to a situation but they still saw it as being a personal disposition.
To be fair, this is a very human failing. We all suffer from it. We lack the width of vision and the clarity to correctly analyze the myriad of combination of factors that cause people to behave the way they do. At least liberals question themselves and self reflect enough to recognize FAE. 21st Century conservatives, though, are a breed in and of themselves.
Not only do they fall into the FAE trap more than your average bear, they are completely unwilling to widen their perspective. Self reflection? Well, that's for pussys! In addition, they fall into other traps as well like confirmation bias or self serving bias. In fact, this is their basis for foreign policy: we are good and they are bad. Our army is for defense and theirs is for aggression. When we attack it is to protect ourselves. When they do, it is because they are evil.
David Meyers, professor at
Information about each other's actions is then filtered, interpreted, and remembered through preconceived stereotypes. Group interaction among like minded policymakers may polarize these tendencies, leading to groupthink, whereby each sees its own group as more moral, thereby justifying retaliation.
Gee, doesn't that sound all too fucking familiar!!!
Hey, how about this classic?
"Society is not to blame for crime, criminals are"
That was Bob Dole from 1996 and I always crack up when I hear that one. In fact, I laugh so hard I pretty much throw up and need oxygen.....ESPECIALLY when I hear the red states of our fair land talk about crime. A study done in the 1990s showed how white males from southern states deal with problems that arise in everyday life. It's no wonder that our current president enjoys most of his support from this area of the country. Homicide rates and violent crime are nearly triple the rates in these states because of cultural heritage, not a person's disposition.
So when it comes to issues of poverty, the economy, and even crime, we all need to learn to shuck our innate tendency to blame the person and look at the situation as a whole. What is this person's background? What kind of an environment did they come from? What is their cultural heritage?
Change the way people think and things will never be the same.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Cheeseheads Vote
Polls say he is now tied in Texas with Hillary...basically within the margin of error and about 15 pts behind in Ohio. If he wins Texas, as in gets the most delegates, it's over.
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Map
Look at all the red states that have gone for Obama. True, this is only Democrats voting but if they are as energized in the general elections as they are now, we could see some states turn blue.
I really hope that the bigwigs in the Democratic party get the message.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Bile For McCain
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Three Great Wins
Here is a link from CNN about how well Senator Obama matches up against McCain.
Make sure you get out and vote if you live in Wisconsin. The primary is in six days.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Notice The Cheese Has Slipped Completely Off Their Cracker
2. Economy. The free market is filled with nothing but goodness and all corporate leaders should be worshiped for all the money they have. Any government interference will result in the deaths of millions of Americans and we will eventually all end up communists. (keyword to beat incessantly into the ground: TRIAL LAWYERS aka those sub human satanists who take money from the deeply wholesome and eternally benevolent corporations of America)
5. Torture. We must maim or murder anyone who stands in our way...quickly...the clocks is ticking....ahhhhh...hurry......ohhhh....ahhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
12. The Media is all liberal and against us at all times. In fact anyone who doesn't completely agree with us is, in fact, a minion of Lucifer.
Apparently, the conservatives have their own little rating system (how cute) for how conservative a person actually is. They use the above points and then average the score to get a rating. Bill Bennett, conservative talk show host and former Secretary of Education, stated last week on CNN that John McCain scores an 82 out of 100.
Could it be that sane people are trying to take back the Republican party, returning it to less infantile run organization? Are we heading back to the time of when I had polite disagreements with conservatives, who were mostly sane and intelligent as opposed to insane and imbecillic? Will the CMDBs ruin this one chance to restore the Republican Party to honor and dignity?
It looks as though they might not because the people are speaking-in a very loud tone-and they like John McCain. I like John McCain. I disagree with him on a number of issues, chiefly Iraq and health care, and would probably vote for Hillary over him but at least if he won we would have a person, unlike now, who is fucking qualified for the job. President McCain would be an intelligent, passionate, empathetic, and strong leader. He is a real patriot, not a faux one invented by the pea size intellect of the Rush Limbaughs of the world. Come to think of it, those four traits that I just listed above describe everything the CMDBs completely and utterly lack. No wonder they don't like him!
There has been a lot of talk lately about how the Democrats might implode due to the tight race between Obama and Hillary. If you ask me, it is the Republicans who should be worried. They have allowed people with the emotional and mental maturity of an 8 year old boy run their party and look how undeniably fucked up our country is as a result of their moronic ideology. Now, decent conservatives, both in the party and across the country, are trying to make up for the colossal fuck up that is Bush- Co. They are trying to do the right thing and the CMDBs won't let them.
Rush says that a McCain ticket will destroy the Republican Party. In reality, it will destroy the CMDB part of the party and that's what he and others are afraid of. They hate John McCain because he is a living representation of the loss of control they have over Americans that is slipping every day. They can see it in their lower ratings and they hear it from the people that call in to their shows. At the end of the day, they hate John McCain because, as with all of the rest of the people that they slime, he is better than them and they know their time is just about over. (*Sigh) Such a shame......
The people are speaking and they love John McCain.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Great Quotes!
"She is a smart person, she is a capable person, she would be a vast improvement over the incumbent. What is also true is, I think it's very hard for Senator Clinton to break out of the politics of the last 15 years. I will create a working majority because I won't demonize my opponents and I already attract independent and conservative voters." -Barack Obama Feb 10, 2008
And this one...which leads into tomorrow's column.
"I think we are seeing the twilight of the loud mouth radio host."- P J O'Rourke, on the Bill Maher show February 7, 2008, in response to some conservatives dislike of John McCain.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Stinking Liberal
I wonder what the neo conservative douche bag machine will think of this one....
Feeling The Strain
Let's make sure that we don't cut and run, though, because that would put us at more of a risk. NOT! The question is...how many MORE things can conservatives be wrong about before people start getting the message?
Monday, February 04, 2008
The New Frontier
As some of you may know, Jim Ramstead, the current rep for the 3rd is retiring. He has had enough of going back and forth to Washington for almost 20 years. Jim was a perfect fit for this district-center right-which is what most people are out here in the western suburbs. It is very likely that Erik Paulsen will get the Republican nod. He says he is center-right just like Ramstead but he is completely full of shit. On the Democratic side, the choice has basically come down to two people: Terri Bonoff and Ashwin Madia.
Terri is about as old guard Democrat as you can get, which in my opinion means fucking clueless. If she is nominated you can pretty much bank on Paulsen winning the district. If that happens, we are going to see more of the same, tired ideology that will result in colossal amounts of bullshit. In order to win this district, Democrats are going to have to get people to cross party lines, get more people out to vote, and snag some independents. The person that can do all that is Ashwin Madia.
Ashwin Madia's parents moved to America from Mumbai, India. They had only $19 in cash when they first arrived. Madia's family settled in Plymouth, Minnesota, where he went to Osseo Senior High School. He attended the University of Minnesota where he became student body president. While in this position, he worked to cap tuition increases and fees. He then attended New York University School of Law. He was in New York on Sept 11, 2001. After that day, he decided to join the marines. Ash completed basic training in Quantico, Virginia. His first duty station was Okinawa, Japan, where he served as a prosecutor, defense counsel, and legal advisor to a Marine Corps commander.
Madia later served in Iraq from September 2005 to March 2006. While there, he worked to strengthen Iraq's criminal justice system. This job included working with Iraqi judicial officers, U.S. military and civilian officials, and representatives of the European Union and United Nations, as well as briefing top U.S. generals on the status of the rule of law in the country.
I think this is the guy that can beat Paulsen. If you are a Democrat supporting Bonoff, ask yourself this question: do you honestly think she can beat him? She'll roll out the same old crap and look like a female Skip Humphrey and Republicans will be laughing to another election win in the 3rd. If you are an independent, don't waste your vote. This guy is about as progressive as they come. If you are a moderate Republican that is sick to death of Bushit, Ash will talk your ear off about fiscal responsibility and making America strong again economically.I had the pleasure of meeting Ash yesterday and I urge all of you to caucus for him tomorrow when you vote. Visit his campaign site and learn more about him. Read where he stands on the issues. This page will tell you exactly how to caucus for him. He is the exact person we need representing our district. His youthfulness (29 years old) reminds of another person running around the country these days:) His energy reminds of my own when it comes to the politics of hope. His intelligence is something that we desperately need in Washington right now. He understands, on a very deep level, that this election is about the future.
It's about the New Frontier.
Friday, February 01, 2008
Coulter Endorses Hillary
Could this be the end of the conservative douche bag pundit machine? Well, at least it proves what I have said all along-Coulter just has to say something insane once every two months or so to stay in the limelight.
Thank you John McCain!