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

In fact, I don’t want to be an American. I pride myself on having been born in a foreign country. Sadly though, I’m an Air Force brat, so my chances of retaining Portuguese citizenship are probably zilch. Nevertheless, the fact that I was born abroad has always given me some hope that I would one day return to Europe. Never more have I wanted to go back to the Old Country than with the reign of George III. Err, President Bush.

I do not want to be privy to the increasingly police state tactics of this nation. I had high hopes of traveling the world, but with the United States’ abysmal foreign policy, unwarranted wars, and overall self-centeredness, the world is becoming increasingly to not only Americans abroad, but Westerners in general. Not just Afghanistan, Iraq, or Iran, but nations much closer.

I just learned today of an inexcusable act of brutality at JFK airport. Erla Ósk Arnardóttir Lillendahl, an Icelandic woman, had just flown in to JFK airport traveling with some friends. When she passed through customs, the TSA pulled her aside saying something was up with her visa. What would follow could have been right out of the Twilight Zone. Erla recounts the experience on her blog. (It’s kindly translated into English for the painfully monoglot.)

She was shackled and isolated for two days, with very little food and no contact with her friends or family. What crime could he have committed to warrant such treatment? As it turns out, ten years earlier she had overstayed her travel visa by two weeks. That’s it. That’s all she did. The TSA and other American agency rent-a-cops decided that this harmless indiscretion of her youth made her a potential terrorist and she therefore no longer had rights.

These are tactics that belong only in the pages of history: Stalin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, not 21st Century America. But here we are, living in fear of our own shadow making friends into enemies. What English there was in the comments of her blog was telling:

“WARNING” “If you’re an American heading to Iceland soon tell people you’re Canadian, it’ll probably make your trip a lot more enjoyable”.

The United States has been getting really unpopular in the eyes of the world and antics like this are only going to exacerbate the already tenuous relations America has with its allies.

elle 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

Or, as I prefer to call it these days: Buy Nothing Day. Yes, the Xmas (pronounced ‘ex’-mas) season is upon us godless heathens once again. For me, the season begins when I see or hear any Xmas ad in the media, and these days that can happen up to a week before Halloween. It’s just like those ‘Back to School’ sales every summer that keep getting pushed from late August into mid July and it’s equally consumeristic. “Buy this shit so your friends and family will love you more!” Pfft! Whatever.

We monkeys just love buying things. And what better way to get us to buy even more shit we don’t need than to make us feel guilty for not buying it. “You’re not getting little Billy that Lego set he’s been eyeing? That’s not in the spirit of the season! Sweet Jesus have mercy on the soul who doesn’t buy buy buy so he can give give give!” I hate feeling obligated to get a gift for someone simply because the season somehow calls for it. In my opinion, the spirit of the gift giving is diminished when it is culturally mandated. I mean, isn’t a gift so much cooler when you’re not expecting it?

When I was but a wee youngin’, I thought Xmas was the greatest thing since birthdays. I got a bunch of cool toys and I got to eat a fabulous meal that was infinitely superior to birthday cake alone. But as I got older, I started to question this annual gift giving ritual, and to look beneath it’s paper-thin red and green façade. I started to see and understand how this annual ritual completely wiped out my mom’s bank account, which was already weakened from the Back to School sales four months earlier and the increased utility bills with the onset of winter. Each year, I saw how stupid toys were getting. Parents were buying their children huge chunks of pink plastic that did little more than the average television set: mindlessly entertain. Now I don’t remember whether or not I received similar toys in my early youth, but I do remember receiving toys like Lego sets, Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs and other such things. These were toys that engaged my imagination. I didn’t sit passively with these toys, in interacted with them. But as I got older and watched toys get dumber, it made me start to question Xmas.

I would also get frustrated with people and their choice of gifts. When I started drinking coffee in high school, subsequent Xmas gifts from the extended relatives took the form of mugs, coffee beans, and other assorted coffee paraphernalia. It was cool the first year, quaint the second year, and completely idiotic every year afterwards. It’s lazy, cliché gift giving that also got me to question the rituals of Xmas. So when I was in my early teens, I opted out of the Xmas gift giving and receiving tradition. I no longer got gifts for people (unless I was told to), and I no longer expected gifts. I decided that I was going to enjoy the gathering of family and the eating of a fabulous meal as the highlight of Xmas, and that the whole gift exchange thing was beneath me. Now if I wanted to make a gift, that was a different story. I’ve given gifts of art to folks on many occasions, including Xmas. (Although it doesn’t happen very often that I give gifts for Xmas.)

When I started researching Christianity in high school, I discovered that the traditions of Xmas are far more akin to a Northern European pagan barbarian than a first century Jew from Palestine. Xmas trees were stolen from pagan traditions in the north. December 25th was probably hijacked from the cult of Mithras in ancient Rome, and the gift giving ritual likely comes from the nativity story in the gospel of Matthew (which is probably a fictional account anyway). And Santa Claus?! Where the hell did Santa Claus come from? From my studies and my understanding of this Jesus critter, there is very little of Christ in Christmas these days. That’s why I call it Xmas.

 I still don’t buy gifts for Xmas, though I will make them if I choose. There is something magical about creating a custom, hand-crafted, personalized gift for another human being. It tells the recipient of the gift that they mean more to you than a few clicks of the mouse at Amazon.com. Save the pink plastic toys for some random Thursday. Spend Xmas with family and friends without all the mass consumption. Your wallet will thank you for it, your planet will thank you for it.

When classes are in session, I have this tendency to completely disappear from online life. Granted, I’m not much for making regular updates. But there’s a difference between not posting in five days and not posting in practically a month.

In addition to going to school, I’m also working not one, but two jobs. At the top of the term, when things were still reasonably mellow, I was still able to make periodic updates not only to this blog, but to my website as well. But as time lurched forward, the inevitable crunch time hit and I found myself scrambling to keep everything together. These last three weeks were particularly insane with mid-terms, essays, and a presentation in my Arabic class. Trying to balance that with two jobs, I once again found myself neglecting my website updates. (Having my computer stolen out of my living room while I was away on an outdoor trip didn’t help matters much.)

The other day, I got an email from Lambda Legal telling me to expect the Life Without Fair Courts comic collection which has my comic printed in it. (I’m in last place!) I read the bio that I wrote for the collection, and (re)discovered that I’d written about my weekly “Akhbaar al Johara” updates.

Shit! I actually haven’t drawn a political comic since mid-September or so. Two months of absolutely nothing new on my website other than a button begging for money. (I really need to take that offline. It says little, does less, and means nothing.) But I just haven’t had any time to do fun, creative things like draw comics or illustrations. I forgot that working 30 hours a week at the same time as going to school completely annihilates spare time.

So basically what I’m saying is to please be patient with me. I’ve got winter break coming up and I’m hoping to get that illustration of Judith done. (I started it in September.) And now that I have a nice, new, sleek, fast computer, I might be able to get some comics drawn as well.

Carpe (every fucking moment of the) Diem,
elle jo

I’m happy to hear that the Matthew Shepard Act managed to pass the cloture vote (just barely) 60-39 (with John-Boy McCain not voting). This bill is attached to a defense spending bill (clever), so if Bush vetoes, he doesn’t get money for his war. Dubya hasn’t said anything about vetoing a defense spending bill, just a hate crimes bill.

So that was happy news to hear. (Even though hearing the word ‘cloture’ means the Republicans must have threatened another filibuster. Fuckers.)

And in the world of the stupid: Democrats are freaking out over T. Specifically the T in LBGT, meaning ‘transgender.’ Apparently the Jesus freaks are convincing the Dems that passing ENDA with trans-inclusion would mean, well, let me just point you to this graphic over at Pam’s House Blend:

If this is what the fundies are freaking out about, they have some serious growing up to do. What’s particularly annoying is that transfolk have been snubbed for a long time in queer circles. Back in the day, thanks to tomes like Janice Raymond’s “The Transsexual Empire,” transfolk, specifically MTFs, were seen as a threat to the second wave feminism of the 1970s. Thankfully things have changed since then and the queer community is considerably more open to transfolk, although there are still a few second wave feminist holdouts (such as at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival), and recent books like J. Michael Bailey’s “The Man Who Would Be Queen” certainly aren’t helping.

It’s tough enough to be fighting an uphill battle in Congress, but it will be even more frustrating if transfolk get booted from ENDA in the same way we get booted from the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. We’re prepared to go that extra mile if we have to, because as human beings, we are deserving of the same rights as those white Christian fuckers that get to take them so much for granted.

elle jo

Really. Can somebody please explain them to me? How have these senes insani gone so completely off the deep end that they can only see in black and white? Jim Webb’s amendment to ensure troops get ample recuperation time between deployments failed 56-44 because of a Republican filibuster. The same happened with the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act. It failed with a vote of 56-43 with Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss apparently out to lunch on the issue. Suspicious numbers, no? There are 44 dipshit motherfuckers in Congress whose heads are so far up their asses that they’ve deluded themselves into believing that soldiers don’t need rest, that prisoners don’t need judges, and that the Earth is flatter than their collective frontal lobes.

It makes me want to take them and smack some common sense back into their feeble little heads. I could call each one of those 44 senes insani and tell them just what I think of them, but honestly, what would that accomplish? These Republicans just seem to be hardwired to be bullheaded, bureaucratic bastards that simply vote the way the Big Red Elephant tells them. It’s like they are ideological lemmings all collectively running toward the same cliff Bush is already teetering on. Unfortunately they’re dragging this country behind them kicking and screaming.

Do we have to wait until the 2008 elections before we can see positive change? I really want to believe that something can be done before then but unfortunately I don’t think it’s going to happen. Hundreds more of our troops are going to die, thousands more Iraqis are going to die, and Clueless Leader genuinely believes that he’s going to simply slide out the back door in 2009 leaving this insane mess to whatever unfortunate soul gets elected next November.

How do we hold these motherfuckers accountable? How do we make them see that their obstinacy is getting good men and women killed? Do we have to send these 44 senes insani to Iraq with only the same cardboard armor issued to the troops? Do they need to see firsthand the horrors of war to open their eyes? Probably. Is that going to happen? Nope. They’re safely ensconced in their own little reality bubbles where Jesus is the President of the Earth and there are no more people of color.

I don’t think there will ever be a way to get through to them. For the Republican Party we’re looking at a total loss. Fuck Reagan. What would Lincoln think?

elle jo