What Is Up With Politics Today?

I come back to see there is someone in the United States threatening to kill President Bush.  I’m shocked….really. 

Seriously though…napalm?  I mean if I was going to get everyone all riled up I’d at least come up with something that wouldn’t be next to impossible to do.  While we’re at how I’d threaten the president’s life…I wouldn’t.  I mean really.  If you are planning to kill someone are you really going to broadcast it to everyone you meet and then give the FBI all the dirty details?  Nope.  I’m gonna keep it to myself till I get my way.  When I tell my husband I’m going to kill him, do I mean it?  No.  Should the police question me for it? No.  Should I be detained? No.  Should I be on the front page of CNN, hell no.

Yeah…so CNN needs to go find real news to cover and leave the never gonna happen in a million years threats alone.

Ok…I get that airlines have to be careful and need to screen people like crazy so nothing like 9/11 ever happens again BUT wtf were they thinking?  If you read the news reports it is clearly (least it looks that way to me) a case of some passengers overreacting and then the company pandering to the majority. (if you haven’t read the story, Muslims were overheard making ‘suspicious’ remarks…yeah right, b/c terrorists are going to broadcast their intent) Even after the FBI is like, dudes y’all overreacted and they’re good to go the company still wouldn’t let them on the flight.  The family gets an apology from the company but it pretty much says we’re sorry your feelings were hurt but what we did was right. Uhm… no.  AirTran, y’all suck. 

What the hell does this have to do with politics? Yeah, not much but it irritated me and I wanted to share the stupidity.

I don’t know why but the fact that any group is denied basic civil rights over what kind of sex they like (I mean really, homosexuals are doing what most straight people I know do…and how would you like it if the government told you you couldn’t get married because of what you liked to do at home with you beloved? Hmm? tell me?)  just irks me no end so I was looking at the Constitution trying to figure out if I had a reason to be pissed.  I thought, hey, maybe I’m off base…so I’ll check it out. 

Amendment 10:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

Ok….I’ll give you that on the surface that makes it look like a state’s rights issue what with the reserved to the states bit BUT there is also that to the people bit…I know popular election puts it in the hands of the people.  Don’t worry I’m way ahead of you…

Amendment 9

“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Hmm…that pesky people bit again

Amendment 14 Section 1

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherin they reside.  No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United State; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Several things to notice here…the word privileges for one.  People talk about marriage being a privilege and not a right…I got your privileges ;)  The rest of it pretty much says to me you aren’t allowed to screw with privileges or rights….so no matter which side of the fence you go down on (privilege or right) marriage is covered.  Marriage is definitely one or the other and the government is definitely involved (otherwise we wouldn’t change tax status for married couples and we wouldn’t charge for marriage licenses or divorces or any of the other ways that the government screws with a ‘married’ couples money)

Now for the semantics bit.  Maybe we all just need to use different words…words are powerful and evoke powerful reactions in people.  I’ll even give you that various religions (see I’m not even going to nitpick that religion was used as government for the longest time) have a claim on the word marriage.  So let’s not regulate marriage…

Let’s regulate something called cohabitation….or a civil union… or some other term that won’t rile people up.  I think it is kind of how some women get pissed if they are called a whore or a bitch.  Neither word is (usually) accurate so they aren’t upset at the actual definition (she isn’t really a female dog) but more the emotion it evokes (I mean….logically if you aren’t taking money for sex and someone calls you a whore why would you be upset? …heck if you are taking money for sex and someone calls you a whore why would you be upset?) Being a bit random, sorry.

My point is…the government is regulating cohabitation at the moment and by making laws that prohibit consenting adults from enjoying the legal benefits of cohabitation they are denying said consenting adults of their Constitutional right of “equal protection of the laws”

Now if you still think people should be denied those Constitutional rights, please….lay it out for me and back it up with a legal reason.  I’m not interested in what your religion has to say about my sex life or anyone else’s sex life.  That concerns you…not my government….so legal defenses only.

I was going to title this Sex and Tobacco (Catchy title, huh?) but decided I wanted to talk about more than sex and tobacco and randomness ensued.   Technically this should probably go in my bitch blog but I don’t have many loyal fans over there yet and I need an answer to this question.

How do guys who use chewing tobacco get laid?

Seriously, I have to know.  It is so incredibly disgusting.  I was at the store tonight and this man had so much of it in his mouth he actually couldn’t close his mouth all the way and he kept spitting it into this Mountain Dew bottle.  I thought I was going to have to tell him to get away from me (although apparently the look of complete disgust got the message across).  So really…if any of you use smokeless tobacco and are getting laid on a regular basis please explain to me what you attribute your good fortune to.  If any of you ladies are or ever have gotten it on with a man who used smokeless tobacco please explain to me how you got past the gross factor. 

Next question: (and I said I was gonna be random)

Why is it more socially acceptable for a dude with a wad of disgusting crap in his mouth to walk around spitting in used plastic bottles in public than for a woman to whip out a breast and feed her child in public? 

Tell me, please, because I really want to know.

When I first heard this I wanted to shoot myself but…I don’t know.  She’s kinda cute in that dumb blonde sort of way.  So I listened to it again and she actually has policy ideas that don’t suck.  Shocking I know.  I think she is a lot more intelligent than people give her credit for (probably as or more so than many in Washington) and I have money that says in the next ten years or so she’s going to be in politics…. while I’m making predictions I’ll say state level then in Washington.  Any takers?

Ok now for a little game I use to play called if you had to choose.  (this is for those tough decisions)  If you had to choose between McCain and Paris who would you pick?  You HAVE to pick one of them so don’t toss Obama in.  (pretend Paris is old enough) 

You know….I’ve been on a bit of a rant tonight.  It started brewing after reading a few blogs about ::shock:: the election/politicians and then I had an off class tonight which lead to my education rant and made me think.  Stupid people drive me completely nuts.  I’m not talking about people who are handicapped or have a learning disability but those people with ‘normal’ IQs that are just…teched as my grandma would say. 

So back to that education rant.  I was supposed to be a US History/civics/economics teacher.  Kids in Florida get my class and then maybe one or two more classes of some combination of the material I covered in high school.  They don’t have to actually pass any of these classes by more than the barest margin and we send them off to be voters. Heck…some voters don’t pass any of those classes or even graduate and they still get to vote.  How is this a good idea?

We make people take a test to drive because they could kill/maim/harm someone if they don’t know how to drive.  That makes sense.  Teachers have to pass tests before they are allowed to teach children so that (in theory anyway) the children get the correct information so they can go on to be productive adults.  That also makes sense.  Every profession that I know of has requirements and many of them have tests…but to vote you just have to be eighteen?  What is that? 

We, as a nation, are allowing people who have absolutely NO understanding of our government, our history, or our laws to elect officials who then feel the need to pander to these people with flashy commercials and bailouts to guarantee these uneducated voters vote for them. 

I know the history of people being refused the right to vote and why the law is in place so don’t give me a history lesson (I taught it, I promise).  I don’t think the test should be set up to discriminate against people unless the people it discriminates against are people who don’t have a basic understanding of our country/constitution/government (go on…ask someone the three branches of the government or how many congressmen are in their state….heck as someone how many senators are in their state…go on.   Call a few random people, I’ll wait.   You want a test now too, don’t you?)

So yeah.  I want people to have to take a test to be allowed to vote for MY government representatives.  What about you?  If not, please tell me why this is a bad idea.  If you agree what questions would be on your test?

If you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em.  Palin is going to be on Saturday Night Live this weekend after the show has repeatedly made fun of her (with great success and a boost to ratings).  McCain is on Letterman tonight groveling for ditching him a few weeks ago.  Ever since Letterman was stood up at the camera he’s been picking on McCain relentlessly.

Apparently the McCain advisors have decided to make the funny part of their campaign.  More power to them.  It’s almost always true that it’s harder for others to make fun of you if you are busy making fun of yourself. 

This isn’t a campaign it’s a circus …but that’s ok because I like the circus

Sometimes I think I am hopelessly naïve.  Apparently there is this “Bradley effect”.  The term is used to describe the phenomenon of polling not matching voting.  Why?  Because Bradley was black.  What?!  Apparently people would say they had voted for Bradley because they didn’t want to appear racist.

Michelle Obama says that times have changed and that people have grown and there is some question as to whether this would still be a concern because for the past fifteen years or so this hasn’t seemed to be a problem at local/state levels, but this is the first time the effect will be tested on a national stage.

So back to the naïve part.  I know that there have been rumblings about some Republicans piling on the hate and racist attitudes and I just attributed that to a small percentage of people who are stupid.  But this effect is talking about people who are verbally supporting a candidate then voting another way because of his race.  Why would someone do that?  I don’t understand why someone would dislike another person just because of the way he/she looks on the outside (I know it happens but the why confuses me) but I certainly don’t get why if you did feel that way you’d pretend not to.  That’s just…pathetic. 

Be about what you are going to be about don’t say one thing and then do another.  I actually have more respect* for people who own their racism than for people who are two faced about it. 

*respect is being used in a relative term and should not be construed to mean I actually have respect for those views

I was listening to NPR today and they were interviewing people about who everyone was going to vote for and if the economic bailout had anything to do with their decision.  Surprisingly most of the people they talked to said they didn’t want the bailout and they were disappointed in the government for passing it.  A few folks said something to the effect that everyone who voted for it should be voted out (hell yeah) and the nice reporter pointed out that “both candidates” (b/c  Obama and McCain are the only people in the race apparently) voted for it and did that mean he wouldn’t be voting for either of them.  And he said yeah he thought he was going to sit this one out.

WTF is that about? You can’t be apathetic about our government.  How is that even an option for some people.  Even if you think the main choices suck there are other options out there.  Get behind one of the other candidates and work it.  OR decide which of the two big boys is the lesser of two evils and go that route.  I really don’t care who anyone else votes for but I do care if they don’t vote at all. 

Do people even realize how much hard work it took to make it where everyone in this country can vote?  The fact that more than white male land owners are allowed to vote didn’t just happen.  By turning your back and ‘sitting this one out’ you are saying you don’t care about this country, that you don’t care about the people that fought to make sure you had the right to vote, that you don’t care about your future or the future of your children. 

The way I look at it is even if you make the wrong decision (as in not the decision I make) at least you cared enough to make a decision.  Sitting back and not voting makes you a loser in my book and also means that you NEVER get to bitch about the outcome EVER around me.

On a separate note…I wouldn’t mind restricting voting to people who can pass a basic wee little history and constitution test ():o)

Purpose – to unscrew the financial system by giving more power to the Sec. of the Treasury. 

The act is supposed to: 

 ~          protect the value of homes, college funds, life savings, and retirement accounts (this is the Feds job how, again?)

~          “preserve homeownership and promote job and economic growth” (when did owning a home and having a job become a Constitutional right?_)

~          not totally screw taxpayers (yeah that’s not how they said it but that’s what they meant)

~          “provide public accountability for….(this) authority” (right b/c our government is so good at transparency)Damn, I hate it already and that’s the first page. 

Trap…uhm I mean TARP

Which is the acronym for Troubled Assets Relief Program

Let’s the Sec of Trea buy and fund bad debt on his own terms within the bounds of the Act.  – he also has to give us (the pubic) an explanation of how he’s purchasing, how he’s coming up with the pricing, how he’s selecting managers, and how he’s deciding what qualifies as ‘troubled assets’ 

OH and he can’t let companies make a killing at the expense of the taxpayers..but there are loop holes aplenty. (page 9 lines 11-22)

Pages 10, 11, and 12 detail how he must do his thing

Pages 13&14…talks some more about saving Americans from themselves and making sure all the lenders get a chance at the taxpayer money. 

Pages 14-17…talks about the oversight board (trying not to laugh, really)

Pages 18-21 …reports for and from the oversight board about the $ trail

Pages 21-22 …sales procedures pretty much says the Secretary can do whatever the hell he wants with what he buys.

Pages 25 Helping people whose homes are in foreclosure not lose their homes b/c heaven forbid that anyone live within their means. (going so far, mind you as reducing the PRINCIPAL of the loan page 28 line 17 if you don’t believe me)

Pages 30-32 talk about corporations and heads of those corporations (top 5 execs of a public company) not being able to make a killing off of the fed.

Pages 33-38 talks about minimizing the negative impact on the taxpayers who are having to bail out rich ass gamblers and people who bought more than they could afford.

Pages 39-57 blah blah

Page 57-  funding. Proceeds from sales of acquisitions…hmm but how about buying the acquisitions in the first place.  ::sigh::57-67 blah blah

Page 68  Here is the answer to that funding question  “Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt which is now a few billion over ELEVEN TRILLION dollars. 

The rest of it is mostly CYA bullshit that I can’t even care about.  FUBAR 

Yeah so in case you missed it I pretty much think the entire thing sucks and that feeling of dread I’ve had since they bailed out the insurance company is just getting worse.

There ya have my little summary if you want to read the entire thing it is here.  What are your thoughts?