I heard John McCain announced his VP choice the day after Obama gave his monumental acceptance speech at the DNC in Denver. Now is it just me, or is McCain not even trying anymore? It’s like he drew Sarah Palin’s name out of a hat or something. I’m trying to comprehend the logic behind his decision, but so far it’s completely escaping me. According to the bloggers’ analysis, McCain is trying to court the disgruntled Hillary voters into voting for him by having a woman as his VP. But this woman’s political experience doesn’t even hold a candle to Hillary Clinton, to say nothing of how she stands on the issues. Apparently she’s been governor of Alaska for a whopping two years and before that was mayor of Wasilla (where?). I don’t know about you, <sarcasm> but I think that just screams experienced veep potential </sarcasm>.

Not only is Palin the governor, but she’s shilled as the “hottest governor in America.” Wow. Color me totally not impressed. Then again, as a republican woman, she really doesn’t have much to go on but her looks.

For example, a while back Samantha Bee of the Daily Show reported on a phenomenon known as ‘NILFs‘ or “News I’d Like to Fuck.” It’s no secret that Fox News has an irritating tendency to objectify their on screen talent by hiring Hitler’s youth to read the news propaganda. Well, now we’ve got a bona-fide VPILF in the 2008 presidential election. But blatant sexuality is a really poor substitute for actual intelligence and knowledge of the issues of the day.

Get this: Sarah Palin doesn’t even know what the VP is supposed to do! Remember when McCain and the republicans claimed that Obama, as a one-term senator, wasn’t experienced enough to be the Commander in Chief? Well that argument just got clubbed to death like a baby seal. No, McCain’s strategy is to hope that an anti-choice beauty queen from one of the most politically corrupt states in the nation is going to turn things around for him.

Oh yeah? Did I mention that she’s also under police investigation? Nice.

So I’m going to post here what I posted on my Facebook page. “I am laughing -LAUGHING- at the entire Republican Party!” From Larry Craig to David Vitter, to John McCain, and to Sarah Palin i say, “HA!”

el jo

I found this the other day at Joe.My.God. and it made me chuckle:

Then today, I read this post and discovered how true that little cartoon was. Obama voted to pass FISA with the telecom immunity. I can understand Gordon Smith doing something like that, because Gordon is a twat who doesn't want to get re-elected. But Barack fucking Obama? What the hell?

I gather most presidential candidates at various points during their campaigns have to pander to some extent toward the opposite end of whatever platform they're running on. That's really to be expected. In the United States today we are about as divided as we were back in the 1860s. This time it's not between Northern and Southern states, but between "Red states" and "Blue states." (Check out this article over at io9.com. It's interesting and depressing at the same time.)

With a country as divided as ours, it's no wonder that presidential candidates start reaching across the aisle as it were. (Of course, the Dems tend to lean to the Right much farther than any Republican would ever lean toward the Left. I imagine that has something to do with the Right's general refusal to budge any more than a nanometer on pretty much anything.) But what pisses me off particularly about Obama's pandering to the Right is that he seems to be confirming to all the hard-core conservatives out there that the only correct way is the Right way, effectively negating the concerns of the other 49% of the country that call ourselves Progressive.

So I'm pissed off at Obama for giving his yea vote to such an invasive (and no doubt unconstitutional) bill. I'm sure he did this as some sort of PR stunt in order to get votes from the uneducated backwater bumpkins in those Red states. This is not the guy I gave my vote to, is it?

We're so fucked.

Holy shit! Can somebody please tell me just what the fuck is wrong with this woman? Apparently she’s staying in the race through June at the very least just in case something happens to Barack Obama. Like what? Well, since she referenced Bobby Kennedy’s assassination in June of 1968, I can only assume that she means Obama’s death.

She sounds like a mafioso. “Hey, eh, you know, things can happen to candidates, you know, when they don’t know I’m the one that’s supposed to be runnin’ the show, see? Bad things. I mean, hey, I don’t wanna give anybody any ideas or nothin’ but, eh, lookit what happened to Bobby Kennedy. You know, I’m just sayin’.”

I really feel that this woman is royally fucking up any future chances for women to run for president. I also really feel that with every single press conference, every time she opens her mouth, she’s destroying her own campaign, her credibility, and the trust of the American people. But when are people going to wake up and do something about it? Don’t the Dems have some say in who gets nominated? Or have the Dems become so cowed by the Republicans (and each other) that they’d rather wait, risking a loss to John McCain, than do something to deal with this petulant little candidate?

Let me just say it now for all y’all to hear: “Hillary Rodham Clinton is pissing me the fuck off! She needs to get a goddamn clue and leave this race!”

el jo

Are progressives more sexist or racist? <urp> Hoo, I don’t feel so well all of a sudden. This is the question that has been kicking around ever since Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton decided they were going to run for president on the Democratic ticket. Here’s the (linear and absolute) thinking: If a voter opts for Hillary, then that voter is clearly a racist because they didn’t vote for Obama. Contrariwise, if a voter opts for Hillary, then that voter is obviously a sexist. What kind of nonsensical bullshit is this?! This seems like the kind of absolutist thinking that got Georgie-poo into office for the last seven years.

As a feminist, I gather I’m expected by other feminists to support Hillary Clinton. But suppose I’m not too keen on Hillary’s policies and promises and propaganda? Well then, as a progressive I should clearly cast my vote for Obama because what could be more progressive than a black president? (Except maybe a female president.)

But why are we so hung up on the adjective attached to the word ‘president?’ As if tacking an arbitrary modifier is going to make the stooge we put into the oval office any more or less palatable than the one that’s already there. This presidential race is only becoming obsessed with race and sex because Americans are lazy fuckers who want something “easy” to help them decide who to vote for.

“Well, I like Hillary because she’s a woman, and a woman is just what this country needs.” or “It’s high time a black man took the highest office in the nation because it’s the next step for African Americans.” These “reasons” are merely band-aids for a country that is fractured and hemorrhaging.

How about: “We need a president who isn’t a warmongering idiot. We need a president who will bring our weary troops home. We need a president who will strive to make the United States look better in the eyes of our world neighbors. We need a president who will address the social issues we have here at home. I don’t give a shit about their pigmentation. They can be blue, green, grey, orange, pink, purple, plaid, polka-dot, or whatever! And I don’t give a shit what that president has between their legs, just as long as they have something between their ears!”

Choosing not to support Hillary doesn’t make me sexist. Choosing not to support Obama doesn’t make me racist. I’m simply an exasperated progressive who isn’t impressed with the candidates I have to choose from. (Just like I have been since 1992 when I turned 18.)

el jo

I haven’t been writing much lately because I was so overwhelmed by school. But that didn’t mean that I wasn’t keeping tabs with what’s been going on in the world. Quite the contrary. I regularly check out the Google News page, the New York Times, and a number of blogs, and every day I find myself growing more weary and depressed for Americans and the Human Race in general. We really are a bunch of dumb fucking monkeys who are more concerned with smearing shit over each other than striving to evolve.

I happened across this article from The American Prospect that really captured what an exhausting struggle it can be to process all the stupid shit that’s going on in the world today. What do we do with all this information? How do we deal with all of the fucking morons out there who insist on making the world a darker place for everybody? Recently, presidential contender Mike Huckabee has said a number of asinine things that make me embarrassed for Baptists everywhere and scared for the future of this nation. I cannot understand how American culture and politics has come to this point: the asinine notion that becoming a Christian theocratic nation could possibly be a good thing for the United States. No! It can’t! Religious totalitarianism is bad!

Now I’ve just read that there was a resolution that made it to the floor of the House that “[recognizes] the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” Are you fucking shitting me?! What’s worse is that H.R. 847 passed today 371 to 9. Apparently only 9 Representatives remembered the words of the First Amendment:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The keywords here would be “no law respecting an establishment of religion….” How much more established could it get with H.R. 847 without explicitly saying “America is a Christian Nation.” No! It’s not, you fuckers! Read your goddamn history books! But no, they read the redacted ones, and the insanity continues.

And of course the insanity is not limited to our own American Taliban. Just recently there was a brouhaha in Sudan that made me smack my head and cry out “The Stupid! It burns!” Muslim extremists were demanding the execution of a British schoolteacher in Sudan for naming a class teddy bear ‘Muhammad.’ Thankfully the Sudanese government issued her a full pardon and she was able to return to England without further incident. But the escapade reminded me much of the fracas last year with the Danish cartoons of Muhammad. Religious extremists, Muslim, Christian, or whatever, just don’t know how to lighten up. It seems everything for them is a stark black or white issue. That’s not a very enlightened way to practice a religion.

We’re going to wind up killing ourselves in the name of religion, and that is so fucking stupid that it makes me hope it happens sooner than later.

But then, I’m a cynic.

elle jo

What’s the good news?

Well, a couple more chunks of the Patriot Act were ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. That’s good. (By the way, it was a federal judge here in Oregon who made the call.)

But what’s the stupid news?

Congress decided that it was more important to vote against dissent (read: free speech) with their complaint against MoveOn.org than spend that time and exert their grey matter working to get our troops out of Iraq.

Tell me, what was that message voters sent to the President last November? You know, that message from the American public that we were tired of the yes-men bullshit? Somehow I get the feeling the message was either lost, or never heard.

elle jo

I found out through Facebook that Jeff Merkley, the Oregon candidate for U.S. Senate, was on a tour of Western Oregon announcing his intent to run for Gordon Smith’s seat in Congress. He was in Eugene this afternoon and I made it a point to go and listen to him speak.

While he did give the traditional politician’s speech, essentially telling us things we wanted to hear, the vibe I got from him was of a guy who is a doer, not merely a talker. Merkley is the son of a mill worker, and I definitely got a kind of blue-collar work ethic impression from him. He sounds like a guy who wants to not simply get the job done, but get the job done well.

I’m definitely sick of Gordon Smith’s so-called “moderate” antics, and I’m ready for a change. Given the (probably screamingly obvious) fact that I’m a progressive, I’m going to vote for a progressive candidate.

I rode my bike over to Skinner Butte Park not really knowing what to expect. I’ve never been to anything remotely political before. Fortunately there was a big “Jeff Merkley for U.S. Senate” banner hanging on a tree, so I knew right where to go. The gathering seemed kind of small to me, but I gather that’s largely due to most people’s general apathy toward politics. There were a number of 40+ people in the crowd. The only 30-somethings I saw were either journalists or volunteers of some sort. I only saw a handful of student-aged types in the crowd. Bummer.

When I arrived, I was immediately approached by an attractive woman. Her name is Julia and she works for the AP. So I imagine there’s a slight possibility that one of my asinine quotes might find its way into print somewhere. I was also approached by a guy who works for Blue Oregon. (I’ve got a link to the website in my links section.) I wound up doing a brief interview with him describing my general impression of Mr. Merkley. (So that’s possibly something to look for over at BlueOregon.com. Oy vey!)

Overall, I must say that I’m very happy to be living in Oregon. And I want this state to be well represented in Congress.

Oh yes, I also kind of met Eugene mayor Kitty Piercy. That was cool.

elle jo

Wow. I get back from three days of glorious fun in the sun on the Deschutes River to find this little gem all over the blogs:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Resigns

Oh happy day! I should go on river trips more often! (Except that logic is called post hoc ergo propter hoc, and it’s totally wrong.) It was a nice gift to come back to. Of course, it would have been even cooler if I had come home to see this instead:

A.G. Found Guilty of Firings

Ah well. At least, like Rove, just because he’s resigned doesn’t mean he’s off the hook. (Damn, he better not be off the hook!)

el jo

China Bans Reincarnation Without Government Permission

When I first read the headline, I thought it had to be an article from The Onion. As it turned out, it was from Newsweek, and no—they aren’t kidding.

China has an abysmal track record when it comes to Tibet and Buddhism. Like any good Communist nation, China wants nothing less than the complete eradication of religion. And like any good totalitarian regime, China knows how to manipulate the circumstances in their favor. By establishing this insane law, it effectively gives the Chinese Government control over who will become the next Dalai Lama.

Remember when there were not one, not two, but three Popes all serving simultaneously? It was called the Great Schism, and it was essentially a great power grab using religion as a veil. Well that’s what the Chinese Government is trying for by claiming authority over reincarnation: specifically the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.

Now I’m certainly no expert on Buddhism, but it seems like the line of Lamas over the centuries has been doing pretty well. And I definitely like this Dalai Lama. There’s no way the Chinese authorities could pick out and raise a Dalai Lama who is as cool as the one we have now. But it’s obviously not about religion. It’s about the conflict between China and Tibet, a conflict that the present Dalai Lama has spent his entire life working to resolve.

I don’t know what we here in the West can do to help the Tibetans, especially with something as esoteric as reincarnation. But the Dalai Lama is a well-traveled fellow and he’s said he will not reincarnate in China. Maybe he’ll reincarnate here. Wouldn’t that be interesting. We should have had a Latin American Pope (but the Vatican is racist). Maybe we’ll have a Latin American Dalai Lama. Or Black, or Arab, or Asian, or even (for some absolutely insane reason) white. Just as long as she’s not related to Richard Gere. (Buddha forbid!)

ellejohara

These are some of the blips on the radar that are currently pissing me off and need to be addressed in some form or another:
Karl Rove trying to sneak out the back door.
Supposed increased suicide risk for women with breast augmentation.
Putting the Draft back on the table.
Alberto Fucking Gonzales
Christian Boot Camps
Bigoted church pastors

And of course the ongoing insanity of:
Dubya (Tee Eff)
The Iraq War
Sexism
Racism
Homophobia
…

It’s too much outrage for five measly panels per week! Dammit!

el jo