NEON GODS

Occupy DC

I still haven't had time to visit the Occupy DC site in McPherson Square, a couple of blocks NE of the White House.  They have had good write-ups in the Washington Post and it appears that they are well organized and prepared to spend the winter there.  They even have their own newspaper (scroll down to the newspaper's image and click on it to bring u a PDF copy).

I have to leave for West Virginia Sunday so don't know If I'll get to visit it, but if so I'll blog my impressions.

--Trakker

I could be the Republican nominee for President!

Yes, I could win these silly debates and I could blow Mitt, Merman, Newt and all the rest out of the water because I've found the key to what motivates today's Republicans: hatred of Obama, hatred of liberals, hatred of facts, and hatred of the urban dwelling, educated, racially mixed, life-enjoying people who live on the coasts.

Herman Cain has discovered this but doesn't seem to have the guts to go all out (however his "Princess Nancy" label for Pelosi last night was pretty impressive.  Expect him to get a big bump in the polls for that).  But he's made the mistake of actually proposing programs that he says he wants to implement as President.  Big mistake.  Programs like Cain's 9-9-9 can be fact checked and shown to be silly.

I would base my campain entirely on attack and insult.  The right doesn't give a fig about programs, they just want to hear someone spout the same hatred and bigotry they share and if you can go even more negative than they are, they will have an instant orgasm and send a huge check your way.

I find this very tempting.  I see so much upside: getting to insult and slime people in authority, no chance of ever having to actually take responsibility for anything I said or did - since there is no chance I could win the Presidency (OMG!), and a great gig on Fox News after I lose where I could get paid a huge salary for making stuff up!  This is the career I envisioned for myself after my junior year in high school (1.47 GPA), but I never thought I could get rich doing it!   Isn't this a great country?

--Trakker

Republican overreach has energized the left going into next year's elections.

Whoa!  Time flies.  Last week was a very busy week, then I got sick over the weekend but like a Phoenix I've risen from the ashes (aka wadded up nasty Kleenexes). 

Getting sick allows me to read long books without feeling guilty that I should be doing something more productive, like paying bills or cleaning the basement, and this time I finished The Six Wives of Henry the VIII. For those who insist that religion is good for society, read this book.  Religion drove almost everything back then, and lots and lots of heretics were tortured, beheaded, or burned alive (however, I learned that sometimes sympathetic executioners would tie bags of gunpowder around the neck of the condemned so they would get blasted into eternity instead of die a slower and more painful death.  I guess that's good.

But now that I'm back living in the real world I was greated this morning by the news that the voters in Ohio, Mississippi, and Maine flipped the bird (using their ballots of course) to the 18th century party (aka the GOP).

Democrats romped, as expected, in Kentucky, where Gov. Steve Beshear won a second term, and Dems carried all statewide races except agriculture commissioner (a Republican hold). ...

The good guys also won big on the three major ballot measures up last night: Ohio Issue 2 (repealing a bill that limited collective bargaining rights for public employees), Maine Question 1 (restoring same-day voter registration), and Mississippi Initiative 26 (turning back an amendment that would have defined personhood at the moment of fertilization). Not one of these three votes was even close, and the Ohio result in particular is a monstrous black eye for GOP Gov. John Kasich.

I bolded that one sentence above because that is the most important fact for Republicans: in all three cases where the people fought back, the vote wasn't even close and that is more significant than most pundits have admitted so far today. 

What it means is that while the Republicans won big in 2010, there is a lot of buyer's remorse now.  This seems to support my theory that the Republicans won big in 2010 not because America moved to the right but because Obama intentionally abandoned those who enthusiastically supported him in 2008 and therefore many stayed home on election day in 2010.  This all could have been avoided, but at least the Republican overreach has done what Obama hasn't been able to do, energize the left.

--Trakker

"Excuse me, Mr. Bad Guy, I need to get my gun out of my fanny pack so I can shoot you."

Good Morning, America.  Let's see what's in the news this morning.  Oh, this is nice:

A South Carolina sheriff is urging women to get concealed weapons permits and carry guns to protect themselves.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright made the suggestion Monday while discussing the arrest of a suspect in an attempted rape last weekend.

Wright suggests that women carry a .45-caliber weapon because he says they wouldn’t have to be accurate, just close to the target. He showed reporters at a news conference a fanny pack women could use to carry a handgun while jogging.

The sheriff encouraged women to walk in groups. And he said it’s better to carry a gun than mace.

Carry a gun in a fanny pack when you run?  For protection?  "Excuse me, bad guy who just tackled me from behind, would you stop pulling at my running shorts for about 20 seconds so I can get my .45 out of my fanny pack so I can point it at you and scare you off, or maybe shoot you?  Thank you, it'll just take a second...oh crap my hands are shaking so bad I can't open my pack."

Yes, gun owners tend to have trouble with reality.  In their make-believe world, guns magically find their way into their owner's hands when the owner is in danger, and those who threaten them are always easily shot or captured.  Earth to gun nuts: this only happens in movies, and movies are FICTION!

This is right wing America's wet dream, a populace fully armed and ready to shoot.  Instead of news of muggings in the newspapers every morning, we'll read more stories of angry fathers/husbands/boyfriends/ex-boyfriends/fired employees/angry paranoid people shooting the objects of their anger - and gobs of innocent people who happen to be nearby.

But in America, guns have become religious objects, and their owners, regardless of how many innocents they may shoot someday, are all considered American patriots.  "God, Guns, and Guts..." right? ... (though it's been my experience that those who worshi guns the loudest are also the ones with the fewest guts.).

Oh well, all we can do is bitch.  The gun nuts have the drop on us.

--Trakker