For years, American politics has been in a state of disrepair. For one, the previously tacit youth had held a mask in front of their face, a mask of apathy which affected their successors more than their own phony selves (Note: the apathy WAS a mask, as our Gen-X elders elected Bill Clinton twice with record youth and black voter turn-outs). This mask said that the enormity of the electorate rendered any one vote meaningless. This little problem is old and outdated, and my man Freddy Nietzsche comes to mind, whereas me and all the cools have self-ascribed meaning as best we can for a while now, after all, "it's a super-man's world and the rest are fucking fads." The rest referring to the American non-voter. (Well, not exactly... their are some good reasons not to vote: if you just don't care, don't wanna, forgot, or got too high and spaced on the date, but not cause it doesn't matter, mattering is a personal matter - make it matter and it matters, get it? But don't let anyone make you vote if you personally don't want to!) The other reason to feign apathy is the real problem with America's flawed system. If the Electoral College is calling all the real shots, then maybe your vote really doesn't count, but again, your vote not counting is no reason not to vote. Last on this
triumvirate of
inadequacy is the feeling that everyone knows that the Republican Party in favor of George Bush tampered with not just the voters, but actual ballots in each of the elections that resulted in his presidencies. Intimidation, misinformation, and lying came to the front of the Republican Party during the last eight years, specifically in their campaign techniques and failing that, flat out
cheatin'. So, yes, your vote may never count or be counted, but we, the new generation have a new view. Insurmountable odds are nothing to us and we're too smart to be misdirected, right? Right. So please allow me to catch you up with what's been going down on the U.S. political scene for the last few decades, specifically the last few days.
A Brief History of the Republican Party
The crux of the matter lies at the heart of the Republican party and why no-one with any moral integrity, intelligence, or love of America should vote for them until they clean up their act. What did the Republican party stand for originally? The designation of a "republic" refers to a government response to dictatorship in which liberty and its protection are the primary goals. Liberty is protected in a republic by a rule of law which applies to all citizens and in fact would also govern the government. As John Adams put it, "They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men." In order
for a republic to be healthy, its citizens must actively oppose corruption and uphold civic virtue. So it is not surprising that Republicans were first and most importantly anti-slavery. The party was actually founded as a response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act which would have allowed the expansion of slavery into Kansas. They were opposed to the so-called "Slave Power" those old, old money southerners who wanted nationwide legal slavery. They were also the party of modernization, supporting higher education, banking, industry and farmers, arguing that free trade is morally and economically superior to slavery on the national level and in fact represents the basis of what American values must be "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men," as advocated by Thomas Jefferson. This ideology was cemented by the election of the first Republican President, their best, and probably the best president ever, Abe Lincoln. Sickeningly, Republicans still refer to themselves as the party of Lincoln while spitting on both civil rights and modernization. Through Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and U.S. Grant, the Republicans wrested political sway in the South away from old racist democrats, appealing to free blacks and northern
opportunists during the post Civil War reconstruction. Grant passed the Fourteenth Amendment,
guaranteeing Constitutional rights to free blacks and supported their eventual voting rights. But the experiment didn't hold. When Rutherford B. Hayes withdrew the last Yankee Troops from the South, racial inequality continued and ran rampant in the uneducated, ignorant areas, securing the Southern vote for the Democrats until 1964.
Following the Civil War, business was booming, due in large part to the modern ideas the Republicans had initiated in the previous two decades. They supported big business and small government, that is the idea that government regulations should play little part in the lives of their citizens, only to protect and serve and not interfere or nanny grown up citizens. Republicans also stood for high taxes, maintaining the gold standard, and taking great care of Union Veterans. They supported the annexation of Hawaii, which the Democrats opposed, and prohibition of the
manufacturing, sale, and consumption of alcohol. These were pretty unpopular decisions amongst U.S. citizens in general, and the party began changing its game-plan. Instead of running on what it could do, it ran on what the other party might do. "Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion" were used to scare the populace. Rum indicated the Democrats were pro-liquor,
Romanism meant they were all corrupt Catholics, and Rebellion reminded people that they were
secessionist racists. So cultural and religious issues were now subject to political scrutiny. Prohibition was their gay marriage or abortion issue, relying on people's religious views to get votes. Those who though drinking was immoral, a social ill, voted Republican. Those who thought it
wa a personal matter of choice voted Democrat, irregardless of civil rights issues, etc...
By the time of William McKinley, big business and
lobbyism were in place in U.S. politics, with McKinley getting record contributions from business owners. McKinley
cow towed to these special interests, but his
assassination and my man Theodore Roosevelt's trust-
bustin' Republican presidency cause a rift in the party, allowing Democrat Woodrow Wilson to
interrupt this Republican era for eight years. But after that
TR's progressive ideas were now a real faction within the Republicans and social reform was something they actually did, not just
prattle off on endlessly with the truth being diametrically opposed to what comes out of their mouths like some Republican candidates today. They battled Tammany Hall and fought to strengthen urban areas and disallow labor unions from engaging in wasteful strikes. They opposed the League of Nations and higher taxes (now), and promoted business interests to benefit all of America.
TR's Republicans stood for regulation of business and citizens, not obstruction, federal control of interstate business, and the shifting of burdens from poor to rich, from employee to employer, etc... All this came to a head when the stock market crashed and America blamed the
Republican's sometimes lax business laws. For the first time, urban and black voters saw their interests better represented by the Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
FDR was anything but conservative, which literally means to attempt and change as little
legislation and day to day life as possible with government actions. He burned it down and built it up, legislating his ass off to fix his country. Republicans fought him tooth and nail and labeled his big government "socialist" in order to scare people off from voting for him. People back then realized the difference between social
conservatism and what politician's jobs are though, and actually voted for their economic interests, unlike middle-American dirt
farmin' Christies today, who vote with their religion, all the way to the poor house. During this time the Republicans split into two "wings." A left wing that supported what the New Deal legislation was doing right but wished to tweak it and run it more
efficiently, and a right wing which wished to overturn the New Deal and block FDR's legislation at all costs, even that of their country. This right wing cost the Republicans the 1948 election, with Harry Truman pointing out their
inability to pass any legislature that didn't pander to them, and the U.S. citizens, and especially the Electoral College, responded. Richard Nixon was the last liberal minded left-wing Republican President, and his corruption, which seems cute by today's standards, no worse than Bill
Belichick, doomed Republicans to the right, always to the right...
After America recovered from the shock of the Watergate scandal and Gerald Ford's seemingly implausible pardon of Nixon for his participation therein, they once again voted Republican in grand numbers, but by now, there was no real left wing to speak of within the party, liberals jumping ship after Nixon's muff-up. Historically, some Republicans were moderate or liberal on domestic and social policies. They favored New Deal programs, including regulation and welfare. They were very strong supporters of civil rights. They were strongly supported by big business on Wall Street (New York City). In fiscal policy they favored balanced budgets and relatively high tax levels to keep the budget balanced. They sought long-term economic growth through
entrepreneurships, not tax cuts. In state politics, they were strong supporters of state colleges and universities, low tuition, and large research budgets. They favored infrastructure improvements, such as highway projects. In foreign policy they were internationalists, and anti-Communists. They felt the best way to counter Communism was sponsoring economic growth (through foreign aid), maintaining a strong military, and keeping close ties to NATO. Ronald Reagan didn't give a fuck about any of this, and neither did his supporters, particularly a new breed of Southern Republicans. The Democratic lock on the South was decisively broken. The long-term cause was that the region was becoming more like the rest of the nation and could not long stand apart in terms of racial segregation. Modernization that brought factories, businesses, and cities, and millions of migrants from the North; far more people graduated from high school and college. Meanwhile the cotton and tobacco basis of the traditional South faded away, as former farmers moved to town or commuted to factory jobs. The immediate cause of the political transition involved civil rights. The civil rights movement caused enormous controversy in the white South with many attacking it as a violation of states' rights. When segregation was outlawed by court order and by the Civil Rights acts of 1964 and 1965, a die-hard element resisted integration. Republicans appealed to a less-educated, blue-collar electorate that on economic grounds favored the Democratic Party, but opposed segregation. After passage of the Civil Rights Act most Southerners accepted the integration of most institutions (except public schools). With the old barrier to becoming a Republican removed, traditional Southerners joined the new middle class and the Northern transplants in moving toward the Republican Party. Meanwhile the newly enfranchised black voters supported Democratic candidates at the 85-90% level. In addition to its white middle class base, Republicans attracted strong majorities from the evangelical Christian vote, which had been nonpolitical before 1980. The national Democratic Party's support for liberal social stances such as abortion drove many former Democrats into a Republican Party that was embracing the conservative views on these issues. Conversely, liberal Republicans in the northeast began to join the Democratic Party. Today, the South is again solid, but the reliable support is for Republican presidential candidates.
So Reagan won by a landslide with votes from "Reagan Democrats," Democratic voters who had voted for Reagan in 1980 and 1984 (and for George H.W. Bush in 1988), producing their victories. They were mostly white, blue-collar, and were attracted to Reagan's social conservatism on issues such as abortion, and to his hawkish foreign policy. Reagan Democrats no longer saw Democrats as champions of their middle class aspirations, but instead saw it as being a party working primarily for the benefit of others, especially blacks and social liberals. Reagan slashed taxes and got rid of the last of the New Deal policies, save for social security. Reagan's policies involved hard edged tactics against enemies of America and he is
credited with an economic resurgence in the U.S. and with ending the Cold War. Most
American's mistake these successes for
successes of conservatism, when the truth is a
conservative president also
accomplished these things.
Bill Clinton was a fucking outstanding president. Though he failed to legalise medical marijuana in California, otherwise his two terms were an unmitigated success. America was s
afe and prosperous and minorities, youth, and the middle class were well tended too. But unfortunately, the conservative media lambasted him
incessantly for engaging in human sexual behaviour, again blurring the line between personal morals and ability to govern. With this
inundation of conservative ideals, the right wing grasped control and for the first time began truly spreading their agenda. Huge government pushing conservative Christian ideals into legislature. We all know that Jerry
Fallwell was a
treasonous traitor, a fear monger and finger pointer. He blamed 9/11 on feminists and gays and noted America got what it deserved in light of our moral inferiority. These and the rest of his hate doctrine are 101 courses at his so-called Liberty University, the law school from which approximately 150 Bush staffers and cabinet members graduated. It's obvious what is happening. The
separation of church and state is not the proper way of things according to these conservative Republicans, and in fact George Bush has frequently admitted his decisions are based in his gut reaction and prayer, legitimate motivations for calling plays in school-yard football maybe, but certainly not politics.
What has been labeled a "Culture War" by conservatives, the divergence of liberal/conservative ideals amongst Americans and the desire for them to vote based on them is a misnomer. It is actually a Holy War, a Civil Jihad declared by the right-wing in America. What's worse, it may not even be genuine. The Karl Rove method for winning an election: find a non-political wedge issue, an issue that splits America down the middle, politicise it, and side with the 51% side. In 2004 it was gay
marriage. Stone-age assholes love that my U.S. constitution defines
marriage as the union between one man and one woman. It should be something along the lines of "
marriage is the union between two people." You don't force 'em to love each other or stay married by law, why force 'em to be opposite sexes? Because there is a half a line in the so-called Bible about men not lying with men (or more likely they are intimidated by those different than them and justify it through the Bible or pseudo-naturalistic procreation-style arguments). First, why these people can pick out a random line and
ascribe American legislative reasoning to it is beyond me, manipulative and shady, and second, they don't even care! It was a trick to get those who want to go to Christian heaven to vote for them! Now, even more clearly
inappropriate is the issue of abortion. The only way, the only way one could say abortion should be illegal is if it is definitely "murder." That is that "life begins at conception" definitely and no other alternative. One, no fucking way life begins at conception. That worm you got in your womb CAN NOT survive without you, it can not live without you. It is not a human yet, it is still a parasite. If it survives it will become a human and at that point aborting it would be immoral. I hate abortion. I hate the idea of it, and I think it would be sick not to wish it could stop, but that is horribly unrealistic. No one comes to the decision to have an abortion easily, and the idea of unilaterally stripping Americans of this sensitively held, seldom understood right is a decision devoid of sense. The real sickening thing is this right to choose is just one they want to take away. The conservative right wing of the Republican party, which I am saying IS THE WHOLE PARTY NOW, mocks the right to privacy, equal rights, equal pay, and anything else they can whore your religion off on into tricking you to believe. Are you scared of Muslim terrorists? They hate us for our freedom? Well our freedom has eroded under this conservative America and they still hate us. They hate us for our occupation of their land and our interference in their Holy Land. Pushing Christianity on the world stage is the best way to lure suicide bombers towards Los
Alamos. So this is the
neo-conservative agenda, split the country, win the election, legislate from their Bible. The current nominees for the Republican ticket are a perfect example. Though, of course this is actually not a Democrat v. Republican battle, it is Democrats (political party) v. Conservatives (faith-based group).
Official Endorsement - Sen. Barack Obama (D) Illinois
Okay, I support
Barack Obama. Why? Because he obviously thinks. Americans are
intimidatable, more than any other country. They are of course intimidated by race. This is the most disgustingly racist country on god's Earth, but even more than that, Americans are intimidated by intelligence. So intimidated that they passed on Al Gore, telling themselves it was for any other reason than that he is smarter than them. So they voted for a dummy, someone comparable with their educational goals met. Not me, I want someone smarter, better than me (for the position) in charge. Issue wise, it's all important. Anybody who can read should know that there will be, for all intents and purposes, no oil within sixty or so years. Drilling off-shore in America will not change this, there simply is not enough, it is a NON-RENEWABLE resource. Drilling off-shore will not lower gas prices, and if fact, if legislature did pass to allow off-shore drilling, they would not even do it. Big Oil just wants the rights to do so, so in the future when gas will be ten dollars a gallon or more, they can sell it to the
remaining idiots. Long story short we need to change not to nuclear power, but to wind. America is custom made for wind farming, and if they had they technology in the 1700's Tommy Jefferson and
mc Ben Franklin would have been supporters. Of course this is pretty brand new, but America's natural gas resources could serve as a bridge over the next ten years until the technology is complete. Check it all out at www.pickensplan.com in which big oil dude and former G.W. Bush supporter T. Boone
Pickens gives us the straight dope on the situation. I am P.O.'d that
Obama must compromise on off-shore drilling in order to achieve bipartisan comprehensive energy plan, but that is politics, baby.
Economically, by the numbers,
Obama will raise your taxes if you make over 250,000 dollars a years, cut your taxes if you earn between 20,000 and 249,000 dollars a year, and big rebates and incentives for those who earn under 20,000 dollars a year. The average citizen under
Obama's plan will pocket 5% more in cash a year, around 2,000 dollars a person. McCain's plan is identical to Bush's making permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest one percent and big business, actually costing those who make under 250,000 dollars annually about 3% of their income. Amazingly, white middle class voters vote AGAINST their own economic interests, either buying the lies the Conservatives spit or caring more about religious issues that their own well being. The health of America is the health of the middle class, and only the Democratic ticket's plans favor the middle class.
Health care wise, the Democratic congress has a terrific plan of conceivable, affordable, fair universalesque care that Bush wouldn't let through. McCain will push his own plan that further taxes the middle class, while Obama will pass congress's plan.
Nobody says what I think about immigration, which is this is fucking America and the Melting Pot is not just a restaraunt. Any and all immigrants, especially Arab and Hispanic should be welcomed with open arms, allowed to work legally no matter what, speak whatever language they damn well want *FREEDOM OF SPEECH* and given respect and love they deserve. No stupid fence at the border (Stay out of my yard, you damn kids!). I may be skewed a little on this one though. I live in Wilmington, DE, 54% black, 36% white, 6% Hispanic and growing. We actually live, work, and play with people of all races and can't be scared by what we don't know. Middle America and random racists should read or live outside their comfort zone for awhile before they vote against other humans who want the better life they deserve. Or better yet don't vote at all. That is key: most values these conservatives cherish are the oppisite of what America stands for: freedom, choice, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happines, free trips to the salad bar, etc... I am personally ready for any tax increase this takes.
On corruption, Obama has ran his campaign spitting in the face of lobbyists, while McCain and his bee-yotch give lip service to a clean and fair campaign while nested comfortably in the same pockets as the Bush administration (the military-industrio complex, Christian fundamentalists, etc...). The double talk of the right in general is a huge problem, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Now, let's say for the sake of arguement that Obama is a terrible dude who really would do all the lies and slander that the Conservatives thrust on him. Even if that was true there is one and only one issue in this election that is representative of the overall problem, and that is the pro-life/pro-choice debate. I'll make it as clear as possible. There must be a seperation of church and state for our leader to govern properly. The only reason abortion can plausibly be seen as a negative right is through a religious lens. It is a personal choice, not one came to lightly, and certainly not one that should be made for you by outside parties who do not allow for audibles, i.e. a prgnancy resulting from rape or incest or a pregancy that endangers the mother's life. Conservatives have tried to overturn Roe v. Wade, the ruling which garantees the right to abortion, but have been unseccuessful only because the Supreme Court has judges which have favored fairness and law over personal faith-based agendas. Two such upstanding judges, John Paul Stevens and the famous Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are now elderly and on the verge of retirement. It is extremely likely that the next president will chose up to two new justices in the next four years. McCain has made it abundently clear that he will choose judges who will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. He has made it clear that under his presidency this vital right will be taken away from American women. Nothing else is as important as a presidential nominee running on the platform of removing rights from American citizens, and noone who values freedom and has the intelligence to seperate fair legislation from internal moral questions should support him.
Lastly I will vote for Barack Obama becasue he is black. To me it is just a bonus that he is a qualified, caring, intelligent individual who loves America. One of the three biggest issues in modern Amrica is still racism and civil rights. America has long been under the shadow of slavery which built the country. Every civil rights triumph we've had has helped lessen this shadow and bring America closer to the ideals it represents. By hoisting this black man to the most powerful position in the world, we can not only prove the equality talk is not all lip service, we are also put into a position to really strive for that equality we dream of. Not the least of it, I also wanna dig into some sour-fucking-grapes and laugh and laugh at racist-ass America's conservative right wing, knowing they will die still thinking two plus two equals five while Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson look down on me and Barack like the end of fuckin' Jedi!!!!
The icing on this amazing cake is the addition of my main man and author of the Violence Against Women Act, Joey Biden as the V.P. candidate for Obama. The amount of times they've said Wilmington, Delaware on national news is awesome, and I seriously shed tears in my more emotional moments. I love Wilmington and Delaware so much it hurts me, and that this great man, this yellin', screamin' truth tellin' dude is representing us to the world is highly vindicating. His strident attacks against the bull-shit that was the "surge" and his extreme experience on the global stage are inspiring, and his ability to say, "No you are wrong, and here is the truth," is so rare and needed in Washington these days. He's an actual middle class Senator who has looked out for Delaware's best interests for his entire career and he will do the same for America.
Argument Against ConservatismSo, that is why you should vote Democrat, and here is why you shouldn't vote conservative. First I must say that I have absolutely zero respect for someone simply because they were a soldier. I understand the draw of the military for the poor and uneducated, and know that in extremely rare occasions the military has been used properly, effectively to maintain peace and secure America or the world. However, simply serving does not make you respectable or good or important. Some of the worst people I ever met were soldiers (and maybe a couple of the best). What's more, being a Prisoner of War certainly does not qualify one to lead. As John Simmons astutely commented all those years ago, being a P.O.W. just means you were a shitty soldier. And that's John McCain to a tee, a shitty soldier. Now, if the story is true, and McCain remained a P.O.W., letting his compadres go before himself, then hands down, that is heroic, and for that I respect him. However, it has ZERO bearing on the current election. It happened a long, long time ago in a war we shouldn't have been in and could not win. It is virtually identical to our inadequacies in Iraq. The American people were mislead into supporting that war, and McCain has proven his intentions to maintain that misdirection and keep us their, without telling us why or for how long. Again, it is our overtly Christian presence in a Muslim world that cause the 9/11 attacks and continue to infuriate America's enemies and make us new ones. Only through diplomacy and well thought out meaningful attack on terrorists in whatever area, even one that doesn't house U.S. owned oil, will eliminate or lessen any real foreign threat to America. I mean, what did 9/11 attack wanna accomplish? Best case scenario, destroy our economic infrastructure, and at least kill alot of Christians. What does the war in Iraq aim to accomplish? Alter Iraq's infrastructure to better mirror ours, and at least kill alot of Muslims. They are utter hypocrites, as highlighted by John McCain's consistent voting against benefits and health care bonuses for Iraq and Afghan War veterans. These people care about you as long as you are an embryo, once you're born the don't care if you are educated, healthy, or enjoy a good quality of life, then you're valuable again as cannon fodder until you get damaged, the you're fucked again, no benefits, no health care, and if they have their way, privatized social security that would be pretty much another inside joke for the right, and valuable once more when you are old and easily pandered to with your social conservative views. Stop buying it! Find out the truth! Vote for your actual pragmatic WORLDLY interests! So McCain wants to fight WWII in the Middle East, but he is old and out of it, probably not really that evil, just creepy, unqualified, and frightenly pro-war. Back in 2000, I supported McCain, I thought he was different, but the willingness with which he bent over for the right is startling, and the lies he tells are so frequent, people start to believe it. That's what they do, they mix non-consequential truths, half-truths, and lies until everything seems somewhat truthy. This truthiness took McCain away from his moderate turn of the century views and towards right wing agenda of Bush/Cheney's White House. It led him away from the vice presidential choices he though would be best for America and towards a choice that panders, tongue hangin' out, to the conservative right wing, a choice ready to take over as the leader of the free world if natural causes. god forbid, end up assasinating McCain.
Sarah Palin is a walkin' talkin' characature of everything that is Anti-America. She is absolutely perfect for winning the race as well. John McCain knew he couldn't win without the Republican bread and butter babies, the neo-conservatives. McCain's previously independent leanings scared the easily scared and he knew he had to bolster the base. So he picked Dick Cheney in granny panties. This choice was a slap in the face of American women, assuming that they would vote for any given broad. That's what they thought and they for a part were right. I mean, what exempts women from American stupidity? They are as easily bamboozled as men, concerned only with chromosomes, the Y chrome she doesn't have and the extra chromosome crammed in her baby. Yeah, that is the best thing she has going for her for America as a whole, her ill-named Down Syndrome infant. (Fuckin' baby-boomers and ther cutsie-wootzy baby names. The baby is named Trig, short for Trigger I assume, not trigonometry, which the Governer may or may not think exists). One of the most glaring lies told in her acceptance speech was that "special needs" children and families would have a voice in Washington. Of course a little fact check will show that she slashed Alaska's special needs family budget from 8 million annually to 3 million. So actually, they wouldn't have a voice, just a V.P. with a fifth retarded kid. Another non-political issue, her 17 daughter is pregnant out of wedlock. I'm way cool with that. Shit happens, almost happened to me alot! (Praise Allah it never did and I never had to make a CHOICE.) Does it make her a bad V.P.? No, but here's the thing. She knew she was pregnant, she knew the world would find out and judge her, right or wrong for it. My mom would not do that to me. Any good mother would not do that to their kids. A good mother would at some point start practicing birth control so they don't have over-forty year old pregnancies that frequently result in Down Syndrome babies. And, one would assume that a good mother would not cut funding for young at-risk pregnant women like Palin did as governer of Alsaka. Do you have to be a good mom to be a good V.P.? Clearly not, but whether you are a politician or a line cook, if you're a hypocrite, your oppinion is devalued, and someone who harps about what a family woman she is while exposing her daughter to negative world-wide scrutiny is not a good family woman, and a hypocrite, and a lier. The U.S. doesn't know much about Palin. I've been watching her old gubernatorial debates on C-Span and I can not understand how she got elected at all. She sits wedged between two men who are eloquent, kind, and people-minded and she gets eaten alive by the moderators, every question coming down to hunting and fishing rights, no gay marraige, no abortion, no stem cell research. She looked fucking bush league (no pun intended), yet somehow won. It must be the tits. Yeah, I'm not sexist, I got my eyes open and know how people are. (That is that most American men have no taste in women and this busty moron is right up their alley. Seriously, you can get a hot girl that is also smart, funny, and well-rounded, but you sell yourselves short, boys.) It's those same neo-con values and tits that she brought into her only interaction with the American people, if you can call them that, her Vice Presidential acceptance speech. I have never witnessed someone so belittling of American ideals in my life, and I am a punk rocker. Without details, the speech went, "Greeting, lies, sarcasm, lies, horrible joke, lies, sarcasm, condescention, lies, lies, lies, lies, God Bless America!" A few specific lies? That Obama would raise American's taxes... nope, just those making over 250,000 anually. That Republican's want to explore alternative energy sources... nope, she is previously quoted as saying "I disagree with any candidate who says we can't drill our way out of our problem." Genius! That Iran will cut off twenty percent of our energy supply... nope, not unless Iran wants to go bankrupt. That she will reform and join McCain in his anti-earmark platform... nope, she's the opposite of reform, leading the earmarked money per-populace race in America. She lied about her lame-ass luxury jet on e-bay joke. What really happened was she tried and couldn't sell it on e-bay so she ended up selling the 37 million dollar jet for 31 million to a private elite Alaska/Russia hunting company, costing Alaska six million for no reason to fly wealthy dowagers over to Russia to hunt endangered species. Yup, she also wants to remove Kodiak Bears from the endangered species list to please her hunting lobbyists. On Iraq she pleads ignorance, yes ignorance, except for the fact that she knows that it is a mission from God. Ms. Palin, I know Joliet Jake, I sang with Joliet Jake, and Ms. Palin, you are no Joliet Jake. Need more? She does not believe that global warming is man made. Do you? You better or you are an idiot. Read something, anything... I'm from Wilmington, I can show you the creek where global warming started! She is tied in with a pro-secession Alaskan movement, just like the party of Lincoln should do, wishes to ban books from libraries and fired the head librarian who wouldn't play ball. Abusing power like her corporate masters, firing the Chief of Police for not firing her ex-brother in law, voting against her mother-in-law for her mayoral position, these are all Simon Greely-esque actions of a cartoonish corporate villian, not an American Vice President... well maybe a lot like one American Vice President. Worse perhaps than the lies was the condescention. With a perfect "I know better than you do, sweetie" sarcasm she belittled Obama, volunteer social civil work, and America. She snarked, "Well, I guess a small town mayor is kind of like a community organizer, except they have actual responsibilities." This was the second most disgusting part of the speech. She single handedly, single sentencedly belittled every grass roots activist accomplishment that American has ever known, including the work of my man Dr. Martin Luthor King Jr. and all of his ilk which have worked within and without the government if nesacary to achieve positive change in our country, and what's more, she did not state a single responsibility she had as a small town mayor. If you aren't disgusted enough, she went on to spit in the face of habeas corpus, one of the most essential rights dealing with due process in U.S. law, claiming that Obama is more worried that someone won't get their rights read to them than national security. The neo-com crowd rallied around these anti-American sentiments, cementing the image of people who are more concerned with personal bluster and agenda than American law and order.
After this speech, Palin refused to talk with the media. This is a new neo-con tactic. Say the media is out of line in bringing up questions of credibility for the position because they also discuss her daughter's pregnancy. Palin is clearly anti-free speech, anti-informed voters, but why? John McCain refused to appear on moderate CNN's Larry King Live because he claimed King was too hard on Republican dude Tucker Bounds. Bounds says King and CNN were fair and not at all out of line, but that is McCain's story and he's sticking to it. Traditionally presidential and vice presidential candidates appear on weekly Sunday morning talk shows to be grilled and get their platforms discussed. Palin is disallowed with her campaign saying they will only do what is in the best interests of their winning. They admit that Palin discussing her position, history, etc... will be detrimental to a Republican victory, so they won't do it, and the right is cool with that, because they know all they need to know: anti-abortion, wedge driven, let's vote. NO!! If she doesn't talk, she doesn't get anything. Don't let them trick you into a vote. She is not a woman, she is a neo-conservative. She is not a mother, she is a neo-conservative. She is not an American, she is a neo-conservative. What is the difference between George Bush and Sarah Palin? The lipstick.
So what role does the media play? A huge one. A well educated populace is key to a healthy republic. There a several ways to break down reporting styles. There is conservative media, liberal media, and genuine moderate media. Moderate media is largely useless, reporting on talking points of both sides and whatever scandals are mainstream enough to go with. My local paper, the News Journal is pretty moderate, but ran by idiots who can't seem to do anything right, giving semi-hashed stories and not accomplishing anything at all. Conservative media would like to tell the truth, but in being conservative and supporting that agenda they are predisposed towards lying. Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingrahm are the two biggest traitors to America within the media, proporting lies and slander as fact, hiding in plain sight, screaming fair and balanced while practicing skewed and one-sided. By the way this in NOT my oppinion, this is fact, I checked it out, so can you. Mainstream liberal media is wholly represented by MSNBC which is unashamedly anti-neo-con in Republican clothing. You get a great version of the truth from Keith Olbermann, but his humorous style and truth telln' make him a target for the right. One of the best places for real news is in fact www.huffingtonpost.com, in which the so-called liberal side, i.e. the truth, facts and fact checks, uninterupted by right wing spin. Of course, you must examine what there is in the way of on-line right wing news as well, that is those who honestly, innocently hold the religion near and dear and believe what they believe, but will not be spoon-fed lies by people with agendas, those who dispise abortion yet realize the government's proper role in the debate, that of man's law, not god's.
Please remember this, as an American citizen and voter, these reportings of the truth (which one could see as attacks) are not against you. You are not the ones doing the manipulating, and you can always chose to not be manipulated. The conservative wing in America houses master manipulators, philosophers gone bad, people who know how to make information appear in a way that said information makes you think a certain way about seemingly unconnected ideas. They exploit your beliefs and values in a way that co-opts American legislation. They are taking advantage of the fact that you don't know the truth, don't know how the system works, don't think your vote counts. Think hard, cast off ideas that bind you, be free, make a well-informed decision, and then please do what Steve Rogers would do.
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