The American Dream Act of 2010

If the Democrats were thinking right now, they would reframe the Immigration Reform argument to The American Dream Act of 2010. It's so perfect I can't believe they haven't thought of it yet. First of all, how do you attack it? If you try all I'm going to do is call you un-American for attacking the American Dream. Plus it gets rid of the negative narrative that surrounds the debate. No more Anti-immigrant or racial profiling. Now the goal of reform is centered on helping everyone attain the American Dream. You could even attach Wall Street Reform underneath. All of this would be part of the broad new national strategy, or the Democratic Contract with the American Dream. Yes I know, somebody should be paying me. Sigh…

The Tea Party Statue of Liberty

As written on the Statue of Liberty:

 

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

 

If the Tea Party and the Republican Party could change it:

 

"Give me your healthy, your rich,

Your huddled few yearning for Theocracy,

The wealthy-white of your glowing elite.

Send these, the homeless, dark-skinned, away from me,

I lift my gun beside the exit sign!"

An E-mail to a Conservative Radio Host

(The bold lettering is what the radio host neglected to read over the air)


Dear (_______),
I hear may people frequently asking why liberals are obsessed with Sarah Palin. The obsession is the fact that so many conservatives actually believe the things she says, even though any person with a computer (or know American History) who spends 5 minutes fact checking her statements can clearly see she has no clue what she is talking about and often times is blatantly dishonest. We talk about her, because even liberals need a good laugh now and then and Sarah Palin provides and endless stream of punchlines without even having to change the words that come forth from her mouth. We're obsessed with the fact she hammered Obama on his "celebrity" then promptly left half way through her term as Governor of Alaska to become one. It's hilarious. We don't fear the fact she could run for President, we hope she does. I could care less how many millions she has made, but at the same time it is hard for her to paint herself as an everyday Hockey-mom when she makes more money than any Tea Party participant possibly will see in his/her lifetime. Why are so many conservatives obsessed with the liberal obsession to laugh impetuously at Sarah Palin? Why are we not allowed to laugh hysterically at the steady stream of millionaires like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and now Sarah Palin who claim to have the best interests of the common middle class working American at heart when they clearly are not one of them? Listening to Sarah Palin's diatribes against Elitism is like listening to Karl Rove or Newt Gingrich give marriage advice. But hey, love the show. Keep it up. If not for liberals like me, for the good of all those real Americans out there.





UPDATE: Within 5 minutes of sending the above e-mail, he read it over the air and selectively edited out about half of it. The cycle continues.

UPDATE: After he read my letter on the air, this is the e-mail I sent in response to his comments. He said he didn't believe that I honestly thought she was funny, and went on to compare Sarah Palin to VP Joe Biden and the things he says.


Subj: Thanks for my 15 minutes

Thanks for reading my e-mail on the air. I'd love for you to read the whole thing, especially the part when I said I could care less about how much money she makes. If you could read the whole thing, like the part where I said "We're obsessed with the fact she hammered Obama on his "celebrity" then promptly left half way through her term as Governor of Alaska to become one" without selectively editing my comments, that would be great. Also, I loved your comparison to Biden. It's nice to laugh isn't it? My apologies for not pointing out that I'm an Independent, and not a Democrat. I should have mentioned that. I do consider myself a liberal, and it seems that automatically makes me a Democrat these days. I'm sorry you don't buy my sentiments, I wasn't aware honesty was disingenuous. Don't let your lack of faith in me get in the way of framing your narrative. Take care.


P.S. He's your President too, not just mine. As a Veteran, I didn't agree with everything Bush did while I was overseas, but he was still my Commander in Chief, and my democratically elected President. It doesn't matter if you like Obama or not, the office must be respected.

Glenn Beck is an A-hole

On his radio show today, Glenn Beck said this about President Obama's still unnamed Supreme Court nominee:

"If he's smart, he will find a gay, handicapped, black woman who's an immigrant. That's what--because that way he could just say, when--she could be the devil, she could say I hate America, I want to destroy America, and that way they'll only be able to say, 'well, why do you hate gay, immigrant, black, handicapped women?'"

 

Gee Glenn, I was on the fence as the whether you were an insane, narcissistic, racist pig. Thanks for clearing that up. I have other opinions as to who is destroying America, and thankfully the majority of realistic thinking, clear headed Americans do too. Speaking of radio while I was waiting to pick my son up from school this afternoon, (ya know, that beacon of socialism we call public school) I flipped through the AM radio stations and found Hannity on no less than 5 different stations, with another 2 stations featuring other conservative hosts verbally defecating into the airwaves. I was unable to find anything that resembled a liberal or independent slant on political commentary.

Palin Once Again Clueless

I've about had it with Sarah Palin. As if her embarrassing VP run wasn't enough, she now has become a professional at ignorance. Conservatives love Ronald Reagan, and simply love to tell all of us how wonderful a President he was. It's amazing to me that a group of people that could be so in love with a former President could have no clue as to what Reagan stood for. So let's just take a quick glance at Reagan's stance on Nuclear weapons shall we? Here's a quote from the Gipper himself:

"There is only one way safely and legitimately to reduce the cost of national security, and that is to reduce the need for it. And this we are trying to do in negotiations with the Soviet Union. We are not just discussing limits on a further increase of nuclear weapons. We seek, instead, to reduce their number. We seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth."

Interestingly enough, the reduction of our nuclear arsenal by a 1/3 of present levels (that still leaves enough missiles to reduce the planet to glass a few times over) was exactly one of the realistic goals of Reagan. All this and more can be easily summed up by a brilliant and hilarious spot on the Daily Show. My favorite part is when they show the Gipper in front of a teleprompter. You mean good ol' Ronnie didn't write his talking points on his hand? Now consider all of this, with what the Gestapo Gidget said last night on Hannity.

Now on to all the conservatives who enjoy pointing out that perhaps liberals are obsessed with Palin. They're not obsessed with her; they are shocked that so many people believe this woman is actually good for the country. Somewhere Al Qaeda is hoping she gets more popular, and hopes even more she gets elected since they won't have to attack us anymore. They'll get to sit back and watch us destroy ourselves with an incompetent, grammatically challenged, hypocritical, gun toting, President Palin who couldn't even finish out her term as Governor of Alaska. Maybe Sarah is just a bit upset that she didn't have a chance to negotiate a treaty with Russia from her porch.

 

We can only hope that a Palin/Bachmann ticket becomes a reality for the GOP in 2012. Can you say Twisted Sisters? I'll get in to more about that later, but for now I'm going to put my head through a wall.

I Love Cartoons

This is an excellent video as to why we need at least a Public Option for Health Care in the United States. How can we be the only Western Industrialized country without a National Health Care system? How can we be so rich, and yet so dumb? I'm tired of people telling me they are tired of paying for lazy people, and supporting the poor of this country. News Flash: we all already do!

 

Here's the Fox News position on Health Care Reform (not really, but this is basically what they are telling people)

Political Cartoon of the Day

See Cartoons by Cartoon by David Fitzsimmons - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

An E-mail to President Obama

I've decided I'm going to write the President an e-mail on a weekly basis until the 2012 Presidential election. Though many might see this as an exercise in futility, I have a different viewpoint. I am determined to no longer sit on the sidelines while the poison of fear politics corrodes our democracy. It's not enough for me to simply maintain this blog, and I feel that I am in betrayal of my very being if I don't somehow get involved. I swore an oath at the onset of my 8 year naval career to defend this country, and although I am a civilian now I still hold true to this principle. Each week, I will be posting the e-mail I sent to President Obama.

 

Week 1:

Mr. President,

I made a commitment to write you an e-mail a week until the 2012 Presidential election. This is the first of what will be a long line of messages to you. Bravo on the announcement of your new policy in regards to the use of nuclear weapons. It is high time we return to our place as the beacon of peace in freedom; a place that had been eroded and contaminated by almost a decade of vicious and immoral war waged by the United States that has destroyed countless lives as well as our reputation on the global stage. Your new nuclear policy is the first step needed to usher in an unprecedented era of peace in the world. If we truly are the prime example of freedom and liberty in the world, this is an era which only the United States can insure. However, I urge you to now shift your focus back on the economy that features a tattered and disenchanted middle and lower classes that are on the brink of surrender to corporate greed that has fleeced the American people for decades. This nation was built upon the dedication and determination of people who simply just want to raise their families. Most of us are realistic in that we know we won't become rich. We just want stability and most of all the ability to live in a house we can afford, in a city that is relatively safe, in a state that genuinely cares about its citizens instead of politically influential corporations. Even now the storm clouds gather in opposition to financial reform. Recently, some Democratic lawmakers have shown displeasure at the timeline you have set for them in regards to the drafting of serious financial protections for the everyday consumer. With all due respect Mr. President, these same lawmakers have had two years to draft comprehensive change, yet they still serve others who serve themselves and desire obscene profits with no regard for the people that have constructed the vast interests they preside over. This must stop. If something is not done, and done soon, people will lose hope for a better day for good. Don't let that happen. Do what you were elected to do, and serve those who you have been elected to serve.

Trippin’ On Mushroom Clouds

President Obama is going to announce today that the United States is going to drastically change the way we use nuclear weapons. Basically, the President's plan takes a position that if we get into a war with a non-nuclear armed nation we won't reduce them to ashes. Wow, how realistic. He also leaves the back door open for nuclear weapons to be deployed against nut job countries like Iran and North Korea. Alright, that's a realistic approach to that too. What you will also see today is the right (especially the Tea Party), flip the mother flippin' flippidy flip out. They will accuse the President of making us look weak. They will accuse him of getting rid of all of our nuclear weapons (not true), and they will accuse him of making us vulnerable to another terrorist attack. What the right fails to understand is foreign policy means more than attacking a sovereign nation and bombing them into the Stone Age.

Foreign policy doesn't equal war, and it's about time we move away from that belief. It's also about time we stop equating our President's lack of fear and willingness to use diplomacy (gasp!) as weakness. It is anything but. The validation in the President's new nuclear policy lay in the fact that no less than 47 nations will be in attendance at a summit in Washington D.C. next week to discuss this very subject. 47 nations attending such an event is pretty much unheard of, and proves that the world indeed feels more comfortable with a U.S. President that uses his head rather than harbor a knee jerk reaction to go to war with everyone who doesn't like us. Cowboys don't make good Presidents anyway.

Majority Fools

Contrary to the claims of Sean Hannity on his radio show Monday that the Tea Party is a majority movement, an article on Politico highlights a new Gallup Poll released today showing that a mere 28% of those asked claimed to be "supporters" of the Tea Party. That's a little over a quarter of the 1,033 people questioned. Clearly this can hardly be considered a majority to those of us that live in the real world. Not that we should expect anything less from Hannity and all the other Fox News "celebrities".

Coming Soon:

Why I Left the Libertarian Party

Marxist, Socialists, and Liberals oh my!

The Dream Economic Stimulus

Political Cartoon of the Day

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Pat Bagley - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

The Sky Is Falling!

The recent earthquake that shook Southern California on Easter not only rattled the millions of people living there, it also seems to have shaken loose countless "Chicken Littles". Whilst perusing the Yahoo News story about the quake, I couldn't help but read some of the reader response comments at the bottom of the page. Some were rational, like one person who hoped nobody was hurt. Others were downright hilarious. I've put together a few of my favorites:

"People get ready KING JESUS IS COMMING (sic)"

"Hope the dam quakes roll the state of cali into the ocean, then maybe our country has a chance at surviving the dam commies. goodbye californicators"

"Definitely, these are the birth pains of the coming out of the Anti christ, mentioned in the Bible. When the son of perdition will proclaim himself as god in the holy place and the Gospel of the real Christ was preached to all creatures then the end times, has come"

 

So as always, there are some that think (and have trouble with basic grammar and spelling) that the earthquake in Baja on Sunday, along with the Chilean and Haitian quakes are sure signs of the "end of days". The hilarity in the whole thing is that if you spend two minutes on the website of the United States Geological Survey, you will find a page dedicated to earthquake myths that goes as far as to say that while the recent earthquakes have received a lot of attention, they are nothing new. In fact, according to the USGS "Although it may seem that we are having more earthquakes, earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater have remained fairly constant throughout this century and, according to our records, have actually seemed to decrease in recent years." Hold on, did I read that right? Decreasing? Of course, this is just science based on fact, and what good does that do right?