Veterans Day 2012

Veterans Day is always a day of reflection for me.

Note that I’m not a particularly reflective kind of guy and I don’t spend a hell of a lot of time dwelling on the past.

For me, as a veteran, every day is a day to remember those I served with, those who trained me and led me, and those I trained and led myself.  Those men and women – the good and the bad, the faithful and the faithless, the leaders and the followers, those who came before me and those who followed after, those that still live and serve and fight, those who like me who have hung up their swords, and always, always, those who have given the last full measure – I remember them, each and every one, every day. 

I don’t dwell on it, but they are always with me.

They are the people who made me what I am.

And on this day, I raise a glass to them.  Here’s to you, you magnificent bastards, one and all.  Here’s to us and all we shared.

 

If you’re an American, you owe your freedom to those who risked all in your name.

You don’t need to kiss our asses, you’re not required to shed tears, you don’t need to hunt down a veteran and prostrate yourself.

This day is not a wake. It’s a celebration.

In our country, in a free society, the warrior is no more revered than any other citizen – and that’s a good thing.

But do take a moment on this day to remember us, if only briefly. 

Raise a glass and remember those who served their country in peace and in war, those who came when called and those who came of their own free will to stand between home and war’s desolation. There is always more you could do, of course, but that is your choice. Yours and yours alone.

And then, go on about your lives. Live, be free, revel in it – because that, ultimately, is why they do what they do.

 

To all of my brothers and sisters in arms, those of you who have stood the watch, those of you who walked point into the unknown, and those of you who are even now out there in the dark and dangerous corners of the world, my message to you remains ever the same:

Respect is earned, each and every day, by every word, by every action. It can’t be bought, it can’t be bargained for. It can be lost with a single deed, a single careless gesture, a single failure to act. Men and women will lay down their lives at your command, but they won’t do it for freedom or democracy or because you’re bigger or tougher or the meanest son of bitch who ever lived or because you’re smarter or better educated or because they love you or because they hate you, they do it because they respect you. Respect is why Americans remember you today – or not.

Respect is the only authority you have, guard it well.

Be proud of who you are and the uniform you wear.

You are more than a simple Soldier, Sailor, Marine, Airman, or Guardsman, you are the very symbol of this nation and its people – for good or bad – and the first bulwark against the night.  When you put on that uniform, you are the United States of America, you represent us all. Never forget that, not for one single moment.

Hold your head high, hold your honor dear, be always true to your oath. 

Stand steadfast by your duty even when there is no one to see.

Follow those who lead and lead those who will follow.

Leave no one behind.

And remember the fallen. Always.

 

To all of you who have worn the uniform, thank you for your service and your sacrifice on this day, and every other.

//Jim Wright, Chief Warrant Officer, United States Navy (Retired).

Hemlock With A Small Side Of Schadenfreude

I didn’t think it would be this way.

I was expecting more.

 

I got up this morning, looked out the window and … it was a beautiful day.

I didn’t see that coming.

Winter is setting in, here in Alaska.  Beautiful days are few and far between and I just didn’t expect today, of all days, to be one of them.

I, well, to be honest, I just thought the end of the world would be, I dunno … different.

I’m not sure what I was expecting exactly, maybe a wine dark sky lit around the horizon with a hellish orange glow, blood soaked moon ten times its usual size filling the sky, sooty clouds of gritty choking ash, erupting volcanoes and shaking earth, agonized woeful shrieks of bereft men filling the air, rising seas and burning mountains, the smell of bitter acrid smoke and sulfurous brimstone. Vast undead hordes risen from their graves, shuffling across the countryside dripping gelatinous ichor and clods of wormy stinking soil, feasting ravenous upon the quaking flesh of the hopeless. Demons loose as a plague upon the blighted land, gleeful in savage mirth, horned and leathery, skins black as sin, wielding crackling fiery lashes in their flinty hands like brands made of hellfire and lightning as they drive the doomed and the remorseful damned down to their eternal torment in the bowels of the malignant Earth.

Also, Nazis.

You know, like that.

Instead, well, it’s a beautiful day here in the Alaskan Matsu.

Today it’s as only Alaska can be.  Diamond clear air, cold and invigorating beneath a cloudless cerulean sky.  The sun is a brilliant yellow fire upon the pristine white peaks of the Chugach. The still crisp air smells of winter and wood smoke, the wings of bald eagles slice through it without a sound as they soar and wheel majestic over the winter landscape. 

It’s a fantastic day to be alive.

There’s nary a Nazi horde in sight.

The sky is empty of invading Communist paratroopers.

The dead remain still and safely entombed within the frozen ground.

The landscape is absent any hint of biblical plague, there are no poison frogs falling from the sky, no foul cloud of biting flies, the seas are cold and blue instead of warm and red as blood.

Not a single shriek rends the still, peaceful air and I haven’t spotted a single shambling zombie or damned soul, even though I kept a careful lookout for impending Rapture on my way into Anchorage this morning and again on my way home.  And, heck, even the traffic was light today, making the commute painless and relatively free of myopic demons reeking of naturally produced, pesticide free organic hemp and blocking the fast lane with their Satanic hybrid electric cars of Hell.

As I said, I expected the end of the world, the end of America, to be different somehow. More biblical, I guess.

Frankly I’m a little disappointed.

I mean, that’s what today is, right?

The end of the world, the end of America, the beginning of the End Times, Rapture, Armageddon, Ragnarok, the Blue Light Special at the end of the universe. We’re in some real pretty shit now, aren’t we? Game over, Man, Game over!

That’s what they told us, isn’t it? 

If Barack Hussein Obama wins reelection, it’s lights out for America. Jesus will weep, God will rage, poison arrows will fall from the sky, the ground will shake, Nazis, demons, Communists, panic on the switchboard and industrial disease, immorality, sparkly gay atheist fascists running free in the streets.

I mean, come on, all those TV preachers couldn’t be wrong, could they? All of them? Why it’s like they were just making stuff up, scaring people for their own personal agenda – you know, instead of really speaking for God.

Karl Rove, one-eyed king in the land of blinders, now he couldn’t have been wrong last night, could he? Romney won Ohio after all, tell me he did. How could it be? How could it be that Karl Rove was wrong? Romney didn’t win the popular vote in a landslide? Romney didn’t win the electoral college? But, but, but, that would mean Karl Rove wasn’t any more accurate than those aforementioned TV preachers!

Ted Nugent, shocker, rocker, and draft dodger – he couldn’t have been wrong, could he? My God, no, not The Nuge! I mean, he’s always been so reliable. Monday before the election he tweeted, “Dear God in heaven America vote Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Republican and save America!” Last night, after the election results could no longer be denied, despite Karl Rove’s frantic last minute Hail Mary to Almighty God for divine intervention, the Motor City Madman announced the end of America: “Goodluk America, u just voted for economic & spiritual suicide. Soulless fools!”  and  then he said “I cry tears of blood for The Last Best Place & the warriors who died for this tragedy.” 

And yet – and yet –  here on this gloriously cold beautiful Wednesday, it appears as if America is still standing. 

Probably Ted can’t see it, what with his eyes full of bloody tears and all – and seriously, tears of blood? You’re crying tears of blood? Dude, that's not right. Visit a doctor. Vision is totally covered under Obamacare and now it looks like Michigan will have to implement it after all. Thanks to Obama, you’re covered, Ted, I’m just saying.

What?

Oh yes, that.  Warriors. Right. Ted Nugent, craven draft dodger, lamenting the dead warriors who died for our sins. Yeah. I’m just going to let that one go right on by.  I’m feeling good. The world didn’t end and the Rapture didn’t come and Angry Bearded Jesus didn’t call us all home and there’s a black man in the White House. I know you’re disappointed, Ted, that the rest of us didn’t get cornholed by Satan.  You ought to get a little something. So, as somebody who didn’t shit their pants in front of the entire country when called to arms under the American Flag, I’ll just let it go. Consider it a consolation prize. Speaking as a veteran who answered the call: you’re welcome, you gutless chicken-shit coward, you’re welcome. 

Ted Nugent wasn’t the only one to soil himself on Twitter last night, Donald Trump suffered a full on Britney Spears style social media meltdown.  By this morning, after the world didn’t, in fact, end after all, The Donald’s lawyers had deleted his sullen tweets calling America to treason and sedition.  Too bad one of his tech savvy apprentices didn’t tell him that on the internet nothing is ever really deleted. I have a complete list of Trump’s tweets right here.  Let’s review: "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"  Yes! That’s it, that’s freedom, that’s true America right there, override the Constitution with riot and violence and then install a leader handpicked by Real Estate moguls.  Wasn’t it Thomas Jefferson who insisted on the armed revolution clause in the Constitution? Trump continued to blurt out increasingly demented tweets like the social media version of Tourette's Syndrome, “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” Jeez, really? I wonder why the Framers put it in the Constitution then, they must have hated America.   

At the end of the night Trump proclaimed, “He [Obama] lost the popular vote by a lot and won the election. We should have a revolution in this country!"  

Later that tweet, like the others, was deleted. 

Interesting thing that, don’t you think?

I mean, it turns out that President Obama actually did win the popular vote by a comfortable margin and the electoral college by a landslide – winning every swing state but one. Yet, Trump initially claimed Obama lost the popular vote “by a lot.” Trump implied electoral chicanery on a scale large enough to warrant armed insurrection against the United States government. But, then, hours later he issued what is essentially a retraction by deleting the post.  Could this be an abject example of how information can be garbled and unreliable in the first moments of a big event? Could it be an example of how people can get things wrong because they don’t yet have all the facts, all the information, because the numbers aren’t yet crunched and the interviews aren’t complete and because there is chaos on the ground? Could Trump’s incorrect reporting of fact and a call for armed action be an example of why, maybe, you shouldn’t depend in the first moments on rumor and confused media reports and the fog of war because you’re likely to have it wrong?

You know, like the initial reports regarding the attack on our embassy in Benghazi, Libya?

But I digress.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member, professional bimbo, and rabid rightwing Uber Christian, Victoria Jackson, also managed to spectacularly lose her shit in public.  “I can't stop crying" she tweeted over and over. This morning she roused from her dirty tear-stained sheets to proclaim, "America died last night.”  She didn’t blame Obama for the demise of America though, instead she pointed her staggering intellect  elsewhere, "Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me.”  Yeah, disgust, that’s the word I was looking for. Disgust.

Another of Hollywood’s D-List, Stephen Baldwin, the last and least of the Baldwin brothers, he of woodenly acted bit parts and of low-budget SyFy and Lifetime Channel movies, didn’t get called up to heaven by Jesus.  So like crashing an Oscar party held by actual actors he raptured himself: "2nite Gods Spirit lifted within me&joy came over me, I will serve the Lord, my hope is in Jesus not Obama, Gods wrath is upon US. 2Thes2:11.” Funny, maybe it’s just me, but God’s wrath looks like a pretty fine day here in Alaska.  I understand things aren’t so bright on the East Coast at the moment, but God’s Wrath?  Really?  Where is this guy tweeting from? The 14^th Century?

Sarah Palin boggled that “Americans would support the president’s policies.” Boggled. Apparently her last minute appeal to America didn’t pay off as big as she expected.  “It’s a perplexing time for many of us right now,” she said.  Perplexed. I don’t often agree with Sarah Palin, but hey, she’s perplexed. I’m hip. 

You know, these people and their wealthy masters literally spent billions of dollars, billions, to defeat Obama.

All those dollars are now wasted.

They’ll never get anything back. Karl Rove basically took their money, bushels and bushels of it, and lit it on fire.  If this was anything but politics (or religion), Rove would be in jail next to Bernie Madoff for running a bogus investment scheme, he lost just about as much money.

The ironic part is that these folks are the ones who are screaming the loudest about having to pay a couple bucks more in taxes, hell they gave double that to Rove and other SuperPACs and got nothing back.  They could have saved themselves a shitload of money, garnered themselves a big fat tax break, saved thousands of small businesses, and kick started the economy right out from under President Obama by giving every out of work blue collar conservative a year’s wage – say $35K – to spend at the businesses of their choice.  And they would have created a self-sustaining cycle that would have eventually paid back the investment with interest.  Instead they poured their money down Karl Rove’s rat-hole. Savvy businessmen, my ass. 

But, again, I digress.

Conservatives lost.

And they lost big.

It was a landmark night for gay rights.  Same sex marriage will now be legal in a number of states, Maryland, Maine, and Washington.  Legal by popular vote for the first time in our history.  Staunchly conservative Wisconsin, Paul Ryan’s home state, not only fell to Obama, they elected themselves the first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin. Talk about kicking Ryan in the balls.

The Tea Party whimpered, clutched at its wrinkled gray sternum, and went into cardiac arrest.  It’s not dead quite yet, but it needs to fill out a living will and start thinking about where it wants its ashes scattered.  Democrats didn’t win back the House, but Allen West and Joe Walsh are out of a job – and that’s a major victory for sanity in America.  Michele Bachmann, damn the luck, held onto her seat by the skin of her flabby white ass, but her fangs have been pulled and her power base is dust and her state went to President Obama just like Paul Ryan’s did.  Just like Mitt Romney’s did.

Over in Washington State and up in Colorado, people are out today buying munchies.  Recreational pot is legal there, no more bullshit about “medicinal use.”  Legal, at least at the state level, the feds aren’t happy about it but again, just like gay marriage, the writing is on the wall.  

Everybody better just get used to Obamacare, because last night it became permanent.  Americans want universal coverage and they’re going to get it. States can now quit dragging their feet like petulant children and get busy seeing that all of their citizens have access to healthcare. Period.  The argument is now over – not that conservatives will stop arguing over it. Even if they take the White House in 2016, the ACA is now the law of the land. Better get onboard, fix the things that need fixing, and get used to the idea that even poor people are entitled to healthcare in America.

Latinos and African Americans sent an unequivocal message to the Old White Guy Party last night – if you want our vote, you’d better do some serious remodeling. You’d better get rid of the racists and the bigots and the xenophobes in your party. You’d better wake the hell up and realize that America is a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural nation and it always has been – the difference is that now minorities have real power at last. Either get onboard with this idea, or join the Whigs in the dustbin of history.  Women likewise slapped the GOP right upside the head.  The message was crystal clear, you want our votes? Then you need to dump the misogynists and the legitimate rapists and the Neanderthal religious lunatics.  Women are fifty-one percent of the population, why would you kowtow to those who keep trying to disenfranchise them? Are you stupid?  “Minorities” aren’t so minor any more, they’re as American as you are, they’re motivated, they believe in this country just like your ancestors did, and they want somebody in government who represents their interests.  You’re either that party, or you’re not. 

The problem is simply this:

Once upon a time the faces of the Republican Party were Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant, and, hell, Ronald Reagan. 

Today the public face of the GOP is Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, the Koch Brothers, Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, and a silly old man shouting at an empty chair. 

Once upon a time, the Republican Party stood for freedom, the end of slavery, the extension of rights to all Americans, the reasonable  regulation of business and monopolies and the protection of the little man from the same.  The first president to call for pluralism, i.e. multiculturalism, was a Republican, William McKinley.  The republican who followed, one of the greatest presidents this country has ever seen, Teddy Roosevelt, believed in science, in reason, in the conservation of nature and the husbanding of our natural resources, the protection of our lands, in equality for all, and in peace. Republicans once upon a time believed In freedom of religion and freedom from religion.

Today the GOP would make businesses into citizens and make citizens into property. They squint suspiciously at any non-Christian and seem hell bent on denying others their just and due rights as Americans based on those self-same religious beliefs. Science, natural resources, and the environment seem to share equal contempt among conservatives nowadays. They are the party of drill, Baby, drill and legitimate rape. They’ve got abortion on the brain and are obsessively concerned with what other people might be doing in the privacy of their own bedrooms. The GOP has become the very military-industrial complex  another great Republican once warned us about. The GOP has given up science and become the party of Birthers and creationists and conspiracy nuts – and rather than distance themselves from such crazies, the modern Republican Party embraced them. One has only to look at the 2012 GOP Platform to see just how far they’ve drifted from the once great party of Lincoln.

Once upon a time, there was room in the Republican party. Room for competing ideas, room for reasoned debate and differences of opinion, room for all Americans.

Today, the Republican Party has grown very small – small in mind, small in ideas, small in tolerance.  They’ve become the party of loyalty oaths, purity balls, and secret handshakes.

Once upon a time, the Grand Old Party faced the world with the courage of Roosevelt, of Eisenhower, of Lincoln.

Today, this morning, these last four years, the Republican Party is shrouded in the rank stench of hysteria and fear. They face the future with the false bravado of the coward and the blustering shallow patriotism epitomized by the likes of Ted Nugent.  They cower under their beds, clutching their guns and their bibles, deathly afraid of the future.

And that, more than anything is why Mitt Romney lost last night.

Sarah Palin was correct this morning. Perplexed is exactly the right word. 

The GOP is dying a slow death, poisoned by their own bitter tea. They are now firmly on the wrong side of history and unless something changes, they’ll wear that confused expression into oblivion without ever understanding why.

 

It was a beautiful day, here in Alaska.

You’d hardly know it was the end of the world and all.

There’s a long cold winter ahead, but that just makes spring all the sweeter.

2012 Election Night Open Thread

I hope all of you Americans went out and voted today.

If you haven’t, I hope you intend to do so while there’s still time (assuming there is still time in your state).

As citizens, voting is the only real power you have, miniscule as it may be.

It matters, for many reasons more than simple election results.

 

Polls are now closed in nine states and it’s still way too early to call this election one way or the other.  I’ll update this post as the night progresses, in the meantime you may consider this an open thread to discuss election day and election issues.  Please stick to election related subjects.

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Discussion Point:  Voter ID’s, I’m not ideologically opposed to making voters show photo identification at the polls per se, so long as the required ID is easily available to all and cannot be used to disenfranchise groups of people. I’m not opposed to using taxpayer dollars to ensure everybody gets an ID.  How about you? Vehemently opposed to ID requirements, enthusiastically for, or just Meh?

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Update: 17:30 Alaskan Time: Went to the store to get supplies for dinner. Random women stopped me and asked: Did you vote? First time that’s ever happened to me.

Election night dinner: Hot pastrami on toasted sourdough with melted Swiss and stoneground mustard. Au jus. Steak fries. Kosher Dills. And a New Castle Werewolf Blood Red Ale.

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Discussion Point: Electoral College vs Popular Vote. Time for a change, or do the Framers’ original concerns about the states and the electorate still hold water?

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Update: 18:30 Alaskan Time:  Looks like Grover Norquist will keep control of the House. No real surprises there.

On the other hand: I bet Mitt Romney could totally pay off his campaign debt by selling his binders full of women to Newt Gingrich on the low low.

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Discussion Point: I used to be foursquare against Congressional term limitations, reasoning that voters were the ultimate term limiter and that we’d end up throwing the baby out with the bathwater – i.e. good congressmen would be dumped right along with the bad ones.  Over the years I’ve come ‘round 180 degrees.  Nobody is that good. I’m of the opinion that voters are largely self-centered idiots who tend to keep a congressman or a Senator long after they should have been sent packing. Voters are all about getting rid of somebody else’s congresscritter, but tend to keep their own due to “Seniority”  even if the guy is senile or crooked as a West Virginia road.  Alaska’s own Don Young is a case in point.  I think a case can be made that the Republic would be improved by term limitations. We term limit the president, why not congress?

On a side note, I’d allow time served as representative, senator, and president to count towards a government retirement, but you’d still need twenty years to qualify for a pension. I.e. 4 years in the military, 8 years as representative or senator, 8 at the post office, you get 40% of your highest paid year’s salary. Seems fair to me. 

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Update: 18:45 Alaskan Time: Sucks to be Michele Bachmann, Minnesota just went to Obama. 

Looks like Ohio is his too.  And Maybe Florida. And Wisconsin.  It’s going to be a tight race no matter what, I predict this one ends up in court no matter how they call it tonight.

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Update: 18:50 Alaskan Time: Sucks to be Todd Akin.  Seriously, republican or democrat, nobody should be sorry to see this idiot go.

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Update: 19:00 Alaskan Time: They just called Colorado for Obama.  Things are getting interesting.

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Discussion Point: No line tonight at my polling place (the MatSu Valley College on Trunk, Sarah Palin’s alma mater). How were the lines where you’re at?  Any problems? Signs of chicanery? How about you people in the Sandy footprint? Were you able to vote with reasonable access, considering?

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Update: 19:15 Alaskan Time:  FUCKING A! It’s all over.  Barak Obama just won Ohio and 174 Electoral Votes!  He’s won a second term.

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Update: 19:30 Alaskan Time: Republicans claim Ohio isn’t won. Karl Rove is on Fox disputing Fox’s election call and crying like a spoiled little brat who just discovered that he isn’t going to get his way after all.

Of course, it’s not official but it sure looks like despite the republican state of denial that Obama has won a second term and that Democrats hold the Senate.  Sequestration, here we come.

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Update: 19:40 Alaskan Time: Donald Trumps calls election a “sham.”   I figure the first lawsuits disputing the election results will be filed tomorrow.

 

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Update: 20:20 Alaskan Time:  So to recap, it looks like Obama won both Romney’s birth state of Michigan and Massachusetts, the state where Romney was governor.  Also, Obama won Wisconsin, Paul Ryan’s home state.  Ouch. That’s got to smart.

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Update: 21:00 Alaskan Time: And that’s it. Romney conceded. He took the high road in his concession speech. He made a hell of a concession speech. I mean that sincerely. Too bad for him he didn’t take the high road six months ago, he’d be president tonight.  He obviously learned nothing from McCain – a guy who also gave a terrific concession speech.  Republicans need to do some serious soul searching after tonight, or they’d better get used to giving really good concession speeches.

 

Thanks for tuning in tonight.  Congratulations, President Obama. Congratulations, America.  Good night.

Glory Days and The Ghost of Tom Joad

Glory days, well they’ll pass you by
Glory days in the wink of a young girl’s eye
Glory days, glory days

Nothing like waiting until the last minute, eh?

We’ve got, what? Less than twenty-four hours, right?

It’s near 10PM as I write this, by this time tomorrow, we ought to have a pretty good idea of who the next president is going to be.

Naturally, it’s now that Sarah Palin decides to weigh in.

It’s only fair, I guess.

After all Bruce Springsteen waited until the last minute to throw his considerable weight behind President Obama, and Palin is at least as big a rock star as is Springsteen these days – or as big of has-been anyway. Both of them are far past their sell-by date but still rolling along on inertia and the glory of fading stardom.

What?

Oh stop it, you know it’s true. Look, I love the man, but Springsteen hasn’t been the gritty, Jersey working man’s troubadour since the 90’s. He’s as long in the tooth as Madonna even if he is better preserved. His voice these days sounds like a gravel truck in sexual congress with a cement mixer after an all nighter gargling kerosene and razor blades. Which is not to say that he doesn’t put on a hell of a show, or that back in the day he wasn’t The Boss, because he most certainly was, or that I wouldn’t drop everything and go see him should he be in town.  The guy rocks.

But I couldn’t help but think how ironic it was that Springsteen decided to jump into Obama’s campaign right about the same time Palin decided to endorse Romney – apparently, here in the harsh cold light of November 5^th, she’s finally come to the realization that Newt Gingrich isn’t going to be either President or the first Governor of Moonbase Reagan.  Both Springsteen and Palin are celebrities, for different reasons certainly and only time will tell which one leaves a greater impact on history (personally, I don’t think it’s much of a contest, but hey, what do I know?), however you’ve really got to wonder what it says about the state of our republic when a) there are still significant numbers of undecided voters less than twenty-four hours before the election, and b) it is implied in any serious fashion that they can be swayed one way or the other by either a sort of has-been rocker or a sure as hell has-been politician.

You know, on second thought, maybe ironic isn’t the right word, maybe a better word is appropriate. Yes, that’s it. Appropriate. It’s appropriate that The Boss and The Pit Bull should be on opposite sides of this contest.

Since Springsteen has ventured into politics, I suppose it’s completely appropriate for Palin to cut a Greatest Hits album.

Now I think I'm going down to the well tonight
and I'm going to drink till I get my fill
And I hope when I get old I don't sit around thinking about it
but I probably will
Yeah, just sitting back trying to recapture
a little of the glory of, well time slips away
and leaves you with nothing mister but
boring stories of glory days

And did I say endorse?  No, that’s wrong too. Endorse is the wrong word. This morning on Facebook, Palin didn’t actually endorse Mitt Romney, she just implied that in her opinion Romney doesn’t suck nearly as bad as Obama.  You’d think on the eve of the election, she’d come up with something new, instead in her Facebook screed, Palin – like the protagonist of Springsteen’s Glory Days – rehashes all the tired and debunked Fox News talking points:

This Tuesday our country’s future is in our hands.

I’m going to take the high road here and not start out with a joke about Palin jerking us off.

What’s past is prologue. We know what we will get from a second Obama term because we’ve all endured his first term. We know how well he kept his 2008 campaign promises. Do we really believe he’ll keep his 2012 promises?

We’ve all endured Obama’s first term? Endured. Like it was some arduous journey fraught with great peril and hardship and full of giant rats and hungry cannibals. This from a woman who quit her job during the height of the economic crisis, became a multimillionaire while doing pretty much nothing, and is now getting paid for basically being famous.  Great work if you can get it, I guess.

Somebody remind me again what exactly this women has had to “endure?” Seriously, what’s Sarah Palin got to bitch about? Because from where I sit, Barack Obama is the best damned thing that ever happened to Sarah Palin. She should be campaigning for him.

Do we believe the word of a man who promised he wouldn’t raise taxes on the middle class, but then slammed the middle class with a massive tax hike in the form of Obamacare (and don’t forget that his own lawyers argued before the Supreme Court that the individual mandate is a tax)?

Um. No. Actually, administration lawyers argued that the ACA wasn’t a tax. In fact, what they said was that the ACA, specifically the Individual Mandate, was authorized under the Interstate Commerce Clause.  It was the Supreme Court who decided that it was, in fact, a tax and thereby perfectly legal. The deciding vote, if you recall, was the bench’s bestest conservative.

As to the “raising taxes on the Middle Class,” I guess Palin missed the whole debate over the expiring Bush Era Tax Cuts and who was on each side. But I digress.

Do we really believe he won’t raise taxes even more on every American in order to pay for his wasteful spending and his crony capitalism?

Palin and her goofy followers believe a lot of things, many of which bear only a vague semblance of reality.  I don’t suppose this is any different.

Also, word of advice, when an Alaskan politician bemoans cronyism, well, you know it’s time to put your boots on.

Do we believe that the same president who increased the debt in his first term by more than all the first 41 presidents combined will suddenly decide to cut the deficit in his second term?

More than the first forty-one presidents combined? Now there’s some creative, and misleading, math.  Using the same logic and disregard for things like, oh, inflation over two hundred years, you could say that Mitt Romney has more money in the bank than the Gross Domestic Product of the entire United States under George Washington.  It’s true, but what relevance it has to the current situation is beyond me.

Do we believe that the president whose reckless spending led us to the first credit rating downgrade in our nation’s history will suddenly become a responsible fiscal manager if we reelect him?

Except, of course, that Standard & Poor’s cited partisan extremism in Congress as the primary reason for the downgrade, and specifically Congress’ use of the debt ceiling limit as a means of political blackmail.  As to “the president whose reckless spending” led us to the downgrade, Palin deftly manages to avoid mentioning who it was helming the House Budget committee at the time and why she thinks that guy will suddenly become a “responsible fiscal manager” if we make him Vice President.

Do we really believe that a president who promised us that job creation was his number one priority despite month after month of dismal job numbers now has a credible “plan” for the job growth that eluded him for the past four years?

I’m sorry, who was it again who torpedoed every jobs bill that’s come up for discussion over the last four years. Who was that again? 

Now, in spite of congressional obstructionism, the jobless rate has fallen steadily for the last four years. Imagine what Obama could have accomplished if Congress actually cooperated and did their jobs. But, again, I digress.

Do we believe that the same president who shut down the Keystone Pipeline and blocks domestic oil and natural gas development at every turn is somehow going to reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil and lead us to energy independence?

Reduce our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

Foreign oil.

Heh heh.

Say, here’s a funny question for you: If we build the Keystone Pipeline, where does the oil come from to fill it?

Last time I checked, Canada was a foreign country even if Palin can see it from her house. 

Also, here’s an annoying little fact: domestic oil and natural gas development is at an all time high.  So high in fact that Alaska’s vast supply of natural gas is virtually worthless at the moment.

Do we really believe that our country’s national security is safe in the hands of a president whose administration denied security and assistance to our consulate under attack on the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on America, and then blamed that consulate attack and the death of our ambassador on a “spontaneous” protest over an obscure YouTube video despite all the real time evidence to the contrary?

Yes, I do believe that our country’s national security is safe in Obama’s hands.

After all, he’s the guy that has authorized the killing of more terrorists and pirates than the first forty-one presidents combined – including the mastermind of the worst terrorist attack on America in US history. You know, the one that happened on the last conservative’s watch.

Do we believe that a president who was caught on a hot mic telling the Russian president that he would have “more flexibility” after his reelection is being honest about his plans for a second term?

I don’t think you really want to bring up the subject of hot mics.

Palin goes on for a few more paragraphs and surprisingly avoids mention of either birth certificates or Islam, eventually she fetches up here:

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have offered a credible alternative to Barack Obama’s failed policies. Governor Romney understands how the free market works. His pro-growth economic policies will benefit all Americans. He has promised to move us toward energy independence, deficit reduction, and responsible entitlement reform that honors our commitment to our seniors and keeps faith with future generations. Governor Romney deserves a chance to lead. President Obama had his chance. He’s failed, and we can’t afford to go backwards.

We can’t afford to go backwards?  Unless, of course, you support a candidate who promises a return to the very policies that got us into this mess in the first place. Romney certainly understands how the free market works, he’s spent his entire life using it to his benefit at the expense of many others – and that’s one promise I’d fully expect him to keep. 

The really enlightening part of Palin’s entire post was this: Governor Romney deserves a chance to lead.

Deserves.

Not Romney has earned a chance, no, see, Mitt deserves a chance.

Deserves.

That’s how people like Palin see the world, as their divine right. That’s why when the media and the polls don’t report what they want, well Sir, then it’s the media who must be lying.  When the weather makes the current incumbent look good, the super-storm must be sent by Satan.

That’s why they talk about talking back their country come tomorrow. Not our country, all of us together, no, theirs.

They don’t mind if the game is rigged, just so long as it’s rigged in their favor.

Palin’s recapping of her glory days is the perfect summation of everything that’s wrong with the GOP. 

Palin is right about one thing though, tomorrow the country’s future is in your hands.

Use the power wisely.

 

 

 

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I'll be there
Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin' hand
Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Guns and Butter. Also, Nazis!

Jim is currently lost somewhere in the Panhandle of Florida.  It’s 90 degrees and the sun is blazing. He has been repeatedly informed that it’s “winter” here and that his shorts and T-shirt and unending references to sweat-soaked heatstroke are offending the sensibilities of the shivering natives who shuffle about bundled up like Nepalese Sherpas  on the snowy flanks of Mount Everest.  

---

 

I am indeed a stranger in a strange land.

As I mentioned previously here and on various social networking sites, I’m travelling for the next few weeks and observing the human condition from this altered perspective.

At the moment, I'm deep in the deepest of the Deep South, lost somewhere in the moldering alligator infested swamps of the Florida Panhandle, teetering on the line between feverish reality and Alabama.

This is a place where they grow cotton and peanuts and rich golden fields of raging xenophobic paranoia.  People hereabouts know Jesus personally and have him over for dinner on a regular basis.  Imminent invasion by Red Communists is entirely possible and could happen at any time, though I suspect that any such intrusion would be rapidly stymied by large loud women in very tight pants waving cigarettes around like florid Jedi slashing about with light-sabers, the preponderance of giant flying cockroaches (them’s palmetto bugs, Sugar!), and this area’s secret weapon, “bolled” peanuts – which, if I was forced to speculate on the flavor of Satan’s fromunda cheese, I would use as a reference taste note.

They don’t take to strangers or Yankees or Alaskans, whom they view with the same distrust and suspicion as the aforementioned red communist horde.

The people hereabouts don’t seem much bothered by the strange and perplexing cognitive dissonance of life in the Panhandle.

For example:

My wife sent me to the gas station to pick up a newspaper for my father in law.

The store was a tiny ramshackle affair slowly decaying beneath a massive load of moss and vines. It was surrounded by the jetsam of decades, not quite a junkyard and not quite anything else either. There was a snarling three-legged red-boned hound on the sagging porch and a woman of indeterminate age and pedigree behind the cluttered counter.  She looked at me, a stranger and obvious outsider, suspiciously but called me “sweetie” anyway – which as I learned later, means absolutely nothing, she calls everybody sweetie and would have addressed me as such even if she decided to put me down with the shotgun she keeps under the counter. 

On the customer side of the counter was, well, a cliché.

He was in his 70's or so, grizzled and worn and none too clean.  Rough woolen pants and a shirt the color of dirt and sweat that was likely made during the Eisenhower administration hung on him like wash on a line. He sported a pair of suspenders and knee-high well-worn leather boots. His ragged gray beard snaked below his waist and a shapeless floppy leather hat that looked like it might have been stitched together from various road-killed varmints perched forlornly on his head – least I be accused of stereotyping the prototypical Panhandle denizen, note that if you replaced the sun cured tobacco in his roll-your-own cigarette with greenhouse grown weed, he’d be indistinguishable from any of a dozen characters you’re liable to meet on the streets of my own Alaskan town. But I digress.

My entry had obviously interrupted a conversation – probably about the pending invasion by Red Communist Cannibal Death Nazis of Death.

They looked at me. I looked at them. Time passed. I began to suspect they thought I was the vanguard of the coming invasion.

Turns out that the newspapers were kept behind the counter and you have to ask for one.

I did – and then out of reflex, I pulled out my debit card.

Oops.

Now, I eventually paid cash, just to be sociable and to prove I really wasn’t a red communist death Nazi cannibal from the dark side of the moon.  And, funny thing, it turns out they did actually accept Visa, but only after the old guy who looked like a refugee from a ZZ Top concert explained how he doesn't hold with that credit card stuff because "y'all know them gobermin can foller y'all and that Obomer's CIA snoops thru y'all's bidness to fin out whatcher'all doin'."

Despite having travelled in these parts before and knowing better, I cracked wise and replied that if the CIA had nothing better to do than track my reading habits, well, I’d lead them on a merry chase.

I don’t think they were in a joking mood.

After explaining Obama's secret plan to read our minds via the CIA’s newspaper data mining, ZZ Top shuffled out on the porch while I got my change.

When I left, he smiled knowingly and waved like he was swatting at a fly. 

He was talking to somebody on a shiny brand new Android smart phone apparently oblivious to the astounding irony.

Despite the fact that this area is one of the poorest in the nation, awash in poverty and lack of opportunity, they are nearly one and all conservatives (of course, there are exceptions, but they are a lonely few), firmly convinced that their enduring misery would be lifted if there was only more Jesus in the government and the schools and less black people in the White House. 

The less they have, the more firmly they are convinced that the Obama is coming to take it away.

Fox News blares like an air raid siren from nearly every TV in the area, bleating red tinged panic twenty-four hours a day – seriously, I’ve been forced to listen to Fox for a week, the screen flashes continuously in the colors of panic with the word “alert” scrolling across the bottom in an endless loop, the talking heads scream about Obama in a unending flow of hysterical panic, punctuated only by commercials from equally crazed SuperPACs warning about the end of America.  When they don’t have anything else to show, they run footage from Benghazi on a continuous loop filling the screen with flames and smoke and terrorism. If you watch Fox News, you might think that the attack on our embassy in Libya was pretty much the only thing that’s happened in the entire world in the last month, hell, you might be given the impression that it’s happening right now.

I was walking out of the Pace Home Depot and a man in the parking lot was screaming angrily into his phone:

I don’t care if they come in an hour early and leave an hour early! I don’t care if they take a couple of breaks during the day! But you make sure they understand that just because I’m flexible with the work hours I ain’t running no damned liberal shop!

Local business owners complain bitterly about having to “pay for socialism,” i.e. Obamacare, and how they built their own business.

The advertising company behind this message specializes in this particular sign. They’re all over the area, each with a different local business owner. What those businesses spend on these signs in a month would pay the ACA tax for their employees’ healthcare insurance for a year (And yes, never mind the fact that President Obama didn’t actually say these people didn’t build their own business, which is readily obvious if you watch his speech in context. But truth means nothing in the face of hysteria and panic). 

They claim they’re going broke because of Obama, but they’ve got the money to waste on signs like this.

Yes, again with the irony.

Speaking of signs, there are plenty of signs filled with dire warnings about Angry Jesus and his imminent return, they sit in yards and church lots next to Romney/Ryan banners, warning of hell and damnation and homosexuals. 

The intersection leading to Whiting Field is papered with posters that say “Keep America Free, Fire Obama!”

On the other hand, the only Obama/Biden signs I saw were stacked in a pile behind the Florida Democratic Party tables at the state fair.  The table was hidden away behind rows of religious booths offering salvation and threatening damnation, behind people hawking insurance and storm windows. The lonely man behind the table seemed grateful for my attention – and the fact that I was from the far north and not a confrontational local come to make obnoxious comments and threats – which I gather happens frequently. When I asked him how business was, he sighed and said that he suspected that those who picked up an Obama sign were mostly putting them in the middle of their neighbor’s yard at night, just to piss people off.

I watched the debate at the Milton, Florida, VFW. 

Or rather I watched the patrons of the bar watching the debate.

Through clouds of cigarette smoke and the miasma of cheep light beer, one thing became apparent: patriotism depends on the size of your American flag lapel pin and the color of your tie.   The bar patrons spent long minutes on both, with some calling Romney’s much larger flag pin proof of his superior patriotism and others seeing it as the sin of Pride. Despite a profound disinterest in anything outside of their tiny little hamlet, the rednecks hollering from the end of the bar were one and all self-declared experts on embassy security, Syria, and how many 1960’s era ships it took to defend America from Vietnam (Answer, a lot, like maybe a bazillion, or a thousand, or five hundred or something).

Funny thing, they hated Obama – that was obvious right from moment I walked in, but they apparently hated Romney just as much.  From the comments, I’d guess they’ll spend election day clustered in same place they were during the debate, drinking and smoking and complaining bitterly about everything. 

See, if they don’t vote they can bitch about the government in equal measure no matter who wins the upcoming election.

What?

Why was I in the Milton VFW in the first place? Well, I’m a member of the National VFW organization and I was meeting some folks and that was a convenient location.

A day later I sat in a local restaurant, the two old gentlemen in the booth behind me were talking desultorily:

Guy 1: You watch the debate?
Guy 2: Naw. But I heard Romney sure put that spade in his place.
Guy 1: I didn’t watch it either, but y’all got to wonder about a president who hates the military like that.
Guy 2: Yaw, he sure hates the United States. They all do you know. They hate this country. They hate us. And I don’t know how we’re supposed to win all the wars without a navy.
Guy 1: I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard that. He’s getting’ rid of the navy. We’re gonna be down to maybe fifty ships if that Romney feller don’t win.
Guy 2: I heard Obama didn’t even know we still use bayonets.
Guy 1: And this guy is deciding how many ships we have? Sad. He’s got no respect.
Guy 2: Yay, the Russians will jus walk in here and take over without no navy to stop ‘em. Stupid damned Obama. He don’t know nutin’. 
Guy 1: Well, sir, I tell you, them Russian ain’t gonna take my land without a fight.
Guy 2: Amen to that, Brother…

I guess the fact that it’s Congress who decides how many ships the navy has escaped these two geniuses. 

The navy asks for a certain number of ships over a certain amount of time, Congress typically funds anywhere from half to two-thirds of that list, and adds in bunch of stuff the Navy neither needs nor wants but makes the voters happy.  It takes years, decades even, to design, purchase, and complete shipbuilding programs.

It’s the same with all large weapons programs, from ships to stealth bombers to tanks.

And as the President said, it’s not the numbers, it’s the capabilities.

A single B-2 bomber today equals hundreds, sometimes thousands, of World War Two B-29s.

A single Arleigh Burke class Aegis Destroyer is equal to an entire squadron of Vietnam era cruisers and destroyers, and then some.

A single platoon of M1A2 Abrams Main Battle tanks with OTHT drone support could have destroyed Patton’s entire 3rd Army before they even knew it was there.

A single soldier today is far, far more effective than an entire World War One platoon.

This isn’t a secret. Anybody who watches The Military Channel would know it. Anybody who paid attention over the last ten years would know.  Anybody with a decent grasp of military technology and knowledgeable advisors would know this.

But that’s the thing with these people. To them it’s not the lead in the pencil, it’s the size of the pencil itself.

If only it were that simple.

 

If it was up to me, I’d load the guns with grapeshot made from Panhandle boiled peanuts.

Traveling and Open Thread

Jim is currently lost somewhere in the Panhandle of Florida. Remember those classic 1950’s science fiction pulp stories from the likes of Heinlein and Bradbury that featured Venus as a sweltering fetid swamp filled with giant bugs, huge lizards, and hostile incomprehensible natives? Yeah, it’s a lot like that.

---

 

I’m currently traveling – despite the best efforts to the contrary by the airlines.

As such, posting here on Stonekettle Station will likely be even more sporadic than usual.

Be patient, this trip is chock a block with blogging material, from the almost unbelievable shittiness of American Airlines to the fact that I’ll be watching tonight’s presidential debate on Fox News from deep within enemy territory surrounded by frothy hardline patriotic Obama Haters.

In the meantime, you may consider this an open thread, talk among yourselves about whatever you like. Sing. Tell a funny story involving a monkey, a hooker, and a can of Crisco. Ask the questions closest to your hearts, I might even answer. Promote your favorite laxative. Boggle at the panicked red, white, and blue shenanigans of Fox News (speaking of a monkey, a hooker, and copious amounts of lard). 

Remember the rules, be polite, be civil, I may be stranded in redneck ‘country surrounded by hungry alligators and large toothless girls in very small pants, but I’m still able to access the internet via the miracle of alien space magic.

Behave or I’ll unleash the laser powered death badgers of death.

Promises, Promises

"...I think Governor Romney's going to have a busy first day..."

President Obama drew laughs from the audience with that quip during the first Obama/Romney presidential debate.

Unfortunately, the President then failed to aggressively follow up on the opportunity opened by that lead and didn’t press Romney for details while he had the audience laughing.

And Obama really should have.

Because it’s important.

President Obama was referring to the laundry list of items Mitt Romney has promised to achieve on the first day of his (as yet, theoretical) presidency. In particular the president was making light of the fact that Romney has said repeatedly that he will immediately repeal all of the things democrats have managed to achieve in the four years of the Obama Administration despite the active and vehement opposition of certain members of Congress

And then, on that same day, Mitt Romney will sit down and work hand in hand with those same democrats.

And conservatives made fun of Obama for daring to use the word “hope.” 

Repeal everything democrats worked for, then work with those same democrats?

You’ll excuse me if I maybe roll my eyes a little in disbelieving skepticism at this point.

I guess it could work though.

Depending on Romney’s approach I mean.  Presumably, when (if) President Romney sits down with Congress, it won’t be to seek common ground, rather it’ll be to dictate terms.

Because I don’t see Romney getting Democratic cooperation any other way.

Given his manner and the nature of the promises he’s made, I strongly suspect that Mitt Romney sees the Oval Office more as CEO of America Inc. and the election as some kind of stock buyout or hostile takeover, rather than as a democratically elected President whose power is constrained by reality.

Take Romney’s first-day-in-office promise to get started on fixing the economy and create jobs.

One of the first things Romney has promised to do is to submit a jobs package to Congress.

Romney’s proposed jobs package contains five bills: 1) Reduce the corporate income tax to twenty five percent, 2) reinstate Fast Track (sometimes called The President’s Trade Promotion Authority), 3) open more land for drilling, 4) end federal programs and return responsibility to the states, and 5) cut non-security discretionary spending in the federal budget by five percent.

Romney’s promised jobs bill comes with a command that Congress act on these ideas within thirty days.

Thirty days.

He will command Congress to act within a month on his bills.

Command.

Heh heh. Right.

Or what?

What will CEO Mitt do if Congress doesn’t take up those bills within a month?

Government isn’t like Wall Street, Mitt, what are you going to do? Fire ‘em?

Might want to check with the union, or the Constitution, first.

What will he do if Congress stonewalls and delays and filibusters and doesn’t cooperate? Say like how Congress did with Obama’s promise to close Gitmo on his first day in office. Will Conservatives then hold President Romney responsible for failing to live up to his promises? Like they did with Obama and Gitmo? Or Obama’s own proposed jobs bill? Or Obama and … well, you get the idea.

Or will Conservatives (and Liberals Goddamnit) put the blame where it belongs this time?

Yeah, I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Here’s the thing, President Obama was just talking about something simple, like a prison and a couple of neutered terrorists.

Romney wants to cut corporate taxes, i.e. federal revenues.

Do you really think congress will be able to complete an impact analysis for loss of revenue in a month?

We don’t even have a federal budget at the moment, and won’t until at least March. Think about how cutting corporate taxes might affect the already enormously complex and delinquent and gridlocked budget planning process – something Paul Ryan is supposed to be working on right now. And just for added fun, Romney says he’ll cut non-military discretionary spending too.

I’d be real interested in seeing all of this put to bed in thirty days.

Especially if we end up with sequestration too – you know, just because Congress hasn’t failed enough these last four years.

Hell, I’d be impressed if Romney could get congress to complete a draft budget in thirty days, because that would be some serious mojo indeed.

Next, Romney wants the president to have the power to negotiate treaties.

That’s what Fast Track is. Fast Track, also known as Trade Promotion Authority or TPA, allows the president to directly negotiate trade agreements with foreign powers, agreements that Congress can then approve or disapprove but cannot modify, delay, or filibuster – literally, by law there are very specific (and short!) limitations on the amount of time the bill can be in committee, the amount of time the bill can be debated on the floor, and when the final vote has to be returned. This isn’t a new idea, TPA was in effect from 1975 to 1994 and then between 2002 and 2007 – for some reason Congress didn’t want Bill Clinton to have this power, but felt fine with Reagan, Bush Senior, and Bush Junior making trade deals with Mexico and China and India, but I digress. Obama asked for renewal of the TPA in 2012 to complete the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) agreement. Predictably he was stonewalled.

Romney can’t just “reinstate” the TPA, he has to ask Congress for it, and the request would have to be placed on the agenda, debated by both House and Senate, and voted on.

Question, why would you give Romney TPA but not Obama? Unless it’s for strictly partisan reasons? But, again, I digress, since apparently the majority of Americans seem to be fine with this double standard.

But the real question is this: what does Romney want with TPA? Why make it an election item? Who is driving this and who is this promise for?

You might want to think about that. 

No, you all might want to really think about that.

Americans should maybe ask Romney about his intentions with regards to TPA.

Again, it’s important.

Did you ever wonder how you ended up with all those free trade agreements? The ones that shipped all of your jobs overseas and made it easy for companies to off-shore themselves and avoid paying certain taxes? Did you ever wonder how that business environment that so benefits strategic capital firms at the expense of domestic industry came about?

Did you ever wonder how come the shelves at Wal-Mart are filled with cheap goods made in other countries?

TPA, that’s how.

Now, you want to give a guy who pals around with corporate CEOs (to paraphrase a turn of phrase from the last election cycle) the power to negotiate treaties with countries who specialize in off-shoring American jobs?

Really?

As I said, you might want to think about that. You might want to think about who that benefits, because it damned sure isn’t you.

Americans would do well to start asking a few questions in this regard. I’m just saying. Of course, it won’t happen, we’re more interested in keeping gay people away from marriage and in other people’s reproductive systems. And yes, I’m cynically digressing.

Speaking of good paying American jobs, another promise Mitt Romney has made for his first day in office is to start the process of repealing the Davis-Bacon Act.

Now, surely you’re familiar with Davis-Bacon.

No?

Davis-Bacon (the DBA) is a federal law passed in 1931 that requires the payment of prevailing wages on any public works project. What does that mean? It means that the government must pay laborers on state and federal construction projects no less than the average wage and benefits that are standard for the locality.  In other words, the government can’t bring in cheap outside labor to build roads and bridges, national parks and monuments, federal buildings, military construction, and so on. This law came about because back during the Great Depression, Senator James Davis and Representative Robert Bacon watched state governments hire dirt cheap labor from the impoverished South to build public works projects in New York and other northern states, this was done so that the government didn’t have to pay local labor at the much more expensive prevailing wage for the area.

Now, it’s likely that the Davis-Bacon Act wasn’t passed out of any sense of fairness or actual concern for the working man, Davis and Bacon were concerned that the pork barrel spending they’d fought for wasn’t creating the promised jobs in their districts (Pennsylvania and New York respectively), and thereby translating into the corresponding votes those jobs would bring. Instead the project managers were importing cheap African-American labor from south of the Mason-Dixon Line (mostly from dirt poor Alabama) to the detriment of white New Yorkers.

Modern republican critics of the law cite the possible racist intent of the original act as a reason to abolish it. There’s more than a touch of irony in that both Davis and Bacon were Republicans.

Whatever their intent, Davis-Bacon protects fair wages and benefits for federal workers against predatory labor practices that would use cheap imported labor (of any ethnicity, including illegal immigrants) to underbid local businesses and contractors.

Repeal of Davis-Bacon might make public works projects cheaper, but it would be at the expense of local business and labor.

But then again, cheaper public works.

That’s a good thing, right?

Wrong. Repeal of Davis-Bacon would clear the way for creation of new national companies that specialize in public works using cheap migrant labor. Repeal of Davis-Bacon might create jobs, but they aren’t the kind of jobs you’d want or the kind that benefit the local community.

Repeal of Davis-Bacon could have the opposite effect as well, since the law prevents cronyism and the hiring of outsiders at the expense of local companies (at least on governmental projects), repeal might end up costing you more both in local jobs and in tax money.

We’ve got some experience with that here in Alaska, whenever Exxon talks about how they’ll create “Alaskan” jobs if we just give them another tax break, what they actually mean is jobs in Alaska for shitkickers from Texas and Oklahoma – now imagine if you coupled federal money to that. 

You might want to give that a little thought too.  Again, you might want to think about who a repeal would benefit, because again, it sure isn’t you – unless you’re the kind of person who has dinner with the Koch Brothers.

And, of course, Mitt Romney has promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

So, to recap, Mitt has promised to cut corporate taxes and taxes on the wealthy – and yet somehow reduce the deficit and debt. He wants the power to forge personal trade deals with the countries he outsourced your jobs to. He wants to repeal wage and benefit protection for workers on government projects and legalize the creation of cheap imported labor for public works. He’s also promised to approve the final two phases of the Keystone XL Pipeline without completed environmental impact studies and without validated emergency response measures (because, hey, how often does this stuff blow up anyway? Right? Hello?), more drilling (despite the fact that the Obama Administration has approved more drilling permits than any previous administration, that’s obviously not enough), repeal of environmental protections deemed “restrictive” (methane and fracking chemicals in your water supply is a small price to pay for increased profits folks. Bitching about it is unpatriotic. Besides, we can always buy water from China), and then cut discretionary funding for agencies that actually oversee the environment, safety, and public health – i.e. the things directly impacted by the other stuff. And to top it off, he’ll make sure that once you are sick and out of work, you can’t get affordable healthcare either (because people who don’t have health insurance don’t die in America. Right?).

The good news is that President Romney has also promised to reinstate the Mexico-City Policy on his first day, so you know, we won’t be funding abortions south of the border.

Still think having a CEO running the country is a good idea?

So far, none of this has come up in the debates. Want to bet that any of it will come up in the final debate?

Yeah, me neither.

As I’ve said previously, debates are a lousy way to pick our leaders.

 

Oh the other hand, I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

After all, how often does somebody like Mitt Romney actually keep his promises to people like us?

I mean really?

Inertia

 

As I’ve said previously, I don’t have much use for political debates.

I think that debates are worse than useless.

I think that they’re dangerous.

I think that in general, the majority of the herd allows themselves to be easily manipulated and easily led and that they don’t give their own politics or ideology any actual thought whatsoever. Far too often their positions are based on inertia. Many people belong to a particular political party for the same reason they root for a particular sports team, or belong to a particular religion for that matter,  i.e. they were born into it and therefore it’s the best, it’s the only right way to believe, and everybody else is wrong. Period.

I know a number of folks who belong to religions that they completely disagree with.  I have variations of this conversation all of the time:

Me: You believe women have the right to choose?
Him: Yes.
Me: You believe that gay people should have the right to marry?
Him: Dude, WTF? I am gay. As you know, I’ve been in a committed relationship for twenty years, goddamn right I think I ought to be able to get hitched.
Me: You believe in evolution, right?
Him: Hello, biology teacher here.
Me: So why are you a Catholic again?
Him: Well, uh, see…
Me: You don’t agree with anything your religion preaches. Nothing.  You are emphatically not welcome in your own place of worship. You can’t even go to church on Sunday as yourself and sit in a pew and hold hands with the person you love for fear of being thrown out. Right?
Him: Ok, look, uh, see what you don’t understand is, um, well…  Ok, you know what? Fuck you.

I know a number of folks who belong to political parties that they completely disagree with. I have variations of this conversation all of the time:

Me: You believe women have the right to choose?
Her: Yes.  I don’t like abortion and I would never have one myself, but I believe women should choose for themselves.
Me: You believe gay people should have the right to marry?
Her: I don’t see what that has to do with me. I don’t care what they do.
Me: You believe in evolution? Global climate change?
Her: It’s pretty hard to ignore the evidence. Yes.
Me: You think we should go to war with Iran?
Her: I think we’ve had enough war. We should find a different solution.
Me: You still in the Union?
Her: What do you have against unions? Unions built America. As a woman, it’s the only way I’m getting a decent paycheck and retirement and maybe a promotion.
Me: So then you think you’re lesser than men? That you should be subordinate to men? That you should make less money than men for doing the same job? That you should be barefoot and pregnant and more ladylike?
Her: Fuck you, Buddy.
Me: And why are you a republican again?
Her: Because liberals are baby eating communists who hate America. Also, Nazis.

And so on.

I know folks who vehemently disagree with every single plank in the GOP platform, and yet they will only vote Republican. Period. They can’t even conceive of voting for somebody who isn’t a conservative. I don’t understand this.  It’s like Slaves Against the Cotton Gin or PETA for More Animal Experimentation or …well, Log Cabin Republicans.

For these folks, the labels are what matter. 

Even if it means voting repeatedly against their own interests.

It’s not the ideology. It’s not the beliefs. It’s not the messages. It’s the label.

They were born one thing or the other, their parents and grandparents were one thing or the other, and so that’s what they are.  Period. 

The labels are more important than the details.  It’s not an intellectual position, it’s an emotional one.  That’s why these people get so angry when the wrong labels are applied to them. That’s why they see labels as such an affront and why they hurl labels as insults.  Somebody calls you gay and you’re not – what the hell do you care? Really? So what? Somebody calls you a liberal or a conservative, and you’re not – again, what do you care?  Except, of course, a lot of people do care.  Furiously.  Check out any IMDB, 4-Chan, Wall Street Journal, or Yahoo! comments forum, hell, check out the troll who showed up on my previous post and called me a “socialist fuck.” I’ve been called everything here on Stonekettle Station, from “a Bush Republican” to gay to a Nazi.  I’m not insulted, I’m amused, because labels from anonymous haters that I don’t know just don’t mean shit to me.

But for a lot of people, labels are everything.

I suspect that debates primarily pander to the dumbed-down Reality TV mentality that has become so pervasive in recent American society. It is my considered opinion that debates pander to exactly this mentality. To the label makers and the label takers and the label throwers.

Political Debates are spectacle for the small minded.

And the problem with spectacle is that it’s designed to take the population’s focus off what really matters, it distracts from the real issues.

But it’s worse than that.

While spectacle can, and does, distract from the real issues, it can also cause the country as a whole to blunder off into completely new conflicts.  Conflicts that are not only utterly stupid and don’t make a damned bit of difference one way or the other, but also serve to further divide the country.  America is one of, if not the, strongest nation to ever exist.  No outside force can destroy it. But like Rome, like the British Empire, like the Soviet Union, it can crumble from the inside. Spectacle can distract the population from that course, but it can also add to it.

Take Thursday’s Vice Presidential debate.

Today there are the usual dog whistles and smoke screens.  Folks who loved Romney’s little smirk during last week’s debate, just couldn’t stand to see the same expression on Joe Biden’s face. Those that applauded Romney’s aggressiveness, denounced the same in Biden.  Those that chastised last week’s moderator for not interrupting and being more forceful, condemned Thursday’s moderator for interrupting and being forceful.  Bill O’Reilly said, “Joe Biden blew it!” Fox News said Biden’s parents might have taught him many things, but not manners – and yet when Obama was polite last week, both sides roundly condemned him for not being more blunt.  Fox’s website had a banner across their lead story on Friday that said, “Biden needs to grow up before he grows older” and Michelle Malkin called it “the return of Smirky Malarkey McSmirk.” – because that’s the kind of adult commentary conservatives like right there. 

These people couldn’t go after the substance of Biden’s message so they attacked his age and his parents and his expression. 

That’s about par for the course.

That’s the same rabble rousing and pandering to the stupid and the ignorant and the simpleminded haters we always see and by next week it’ll all be forgotten.

That’s bad enough, but what should concern you is this:  the theme that has emerged from the hair pulling and name calling and is now being considered with serious expressions by pundits and politicians across the nation is that the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya asked for more security, Obama and Biden were apparently oblivious and four Americans died including the Ambassador. Also, the White House lied about the situation – i.e. it was terrorism, not a riot.

That’s the message that emerged from Thursday night’s debate.

And that message is driving a wedge further into an already artificially divided country.

Show of hands, how many of you actually think that the President and Vice President personally review every request from every section under every department in the Executive Branch? C’mon, how many of you think that the president reviews each and every security plan, along with all the millions of other details necessary to run this nation and its interests here and abroad each and every day. Hell, how many of you think that even sounds like a good idea? Now don’t be shy, put your hands up if you think that.

Is that everybody?

You there, in the back with the drool on your chin and the confused look on your face, covered in cat hair and Pop Tart crumbs, you wanna put your hand up? Go ahead. It’s OK. Anybody else?

 

All of you with your hands in the air? Yeah, you people are fucking idiots.

 

Seriously. Put your hands down, you’re embarrassing yourselves and your stupidity is screwing up the country for the rest of us. Knock it off. People next to the people with their hands up? Smack your neighbor, hard, right in the ear.  Keep doing it until you’ve managed to pound some goddamned sense into these simpletons.

Let me explain a couple of things that should be obvious to everybody.

First, it is not possible for the president, no matter what his party or ability, to manage every detail of every unit of every division of every department of the United States of America.  It is just not possible.  Expecting him to do so is idiotic and demonstrates a bizarrely over simplified understanding of reality.  In fact, it is very likely that the United States has grown so large and so complicated that it is exceeding our ability to manage it in any useful fashion without some significant changes to the way we do things. But that’s a different essay.

The President doesn’t decide how many security guards an embassy has, he doesn’t review the watch schedule or the guard-post rotation or how many piss breaks the Marines are allotted in each shift. 

Who does that?

Well, typically it’s the Ambassador, delegated to his chief of security. They’re the people on the scene.  If the Ambassador thinks he needs a plus-up in the security force, he goes up the chain with it – to somewhere in the State Department.  It’s a process. It takes time. And it’s just one of many such requests working their way through the system And unless military intervention is indicated the President is very unlikely to see anything about it – other than maybe, maybe, as a minor bullet point buried in the dozens, if not hundreds, of reports he sees every single day.

Addendum:  something else I’d point out, increasing security isn’t free.  It costs money. A lot of money. Every additional security measure costs money. Every additional State Department guard, Marine, or local rent a cop requires a renegotiation of the host country agreement, approval by the State Department, and a dozen other clearances – most for very good reasons.  But mostly, it costs money, and that money is currently fixed, it’s tied up in a continuing resolution because our worthless shitty broken Congress has so far refused to do its goddamned job and pass a budget.  Even if Obama had personally authorized an increase in security, Congress would have to approve both the funding and the change in the Status of Forces and Embassy treaties.  You’ll note that neither party has mentioned this, in or out of the debate.

And security is only one of a thousand similar things that need attention, every single day.

Should somebody have done more to protect that embassy?

Well, yeah, obviously.

Should we have seen the threat coming?

Well, yeah, obviously, if only it was that easy.

Should the President have been briefed and made a command decision to bulk up security or withdraw the embassy staff?

Well, yeah, obviously, in a perfect world, of course he would have nothing to do but manage every detail personally.

In hindsight, sure, we should have done more.

Hindsight is like that – oh so blindingly obvious.

Which brings us to the second thing: military intelligence.

This is something I know a great deal about. I was a military intelligence specialist for more than twenty years and I worked in the Middle East and in and out of warzones all over the world.  I was a force protection officer. I know more than a little about threat assessment – and how in hindsight it’s just so, so obvious, especially to commenters on Yahoo and the Wall Street Journal and from the political party that doesn’t happen to be in the White House when the bubble goes up.

Everybody is an expert.

Everybody could have done better.

Except, of course, they aren’t and they didn’t.

Any idiot can predict the past, it’s the future that’s difficult.

If we had pulled out, these same “experts” would have seized on it as evidence of cowardice on the White House’s part, and don’t bother to tell me they wouldn’t have. Ditto if we hadn’t gone into Libya in the first place.  If we had put Marines on the ground, it would have been a waste of money, or an unauthorized invasion, or more heavy handed military action. Again, don’t bother to tell me otherwise, because that’s exactly what these same critics said. Go back and read the Fox News’ archives, you won’t have any trouble finding the criticism.

The simple unvarnished truth of the matter is that it’s goddamned difficult to predict the future.

It happens.  I don’t want to sound cavalier about it, but it happens.  We lose people. The world is a dangerous place. We in the intelligence community do everything we can to prevent it. If we’re successful, you never hear about it. You only see our failures.  And it happens, those failures. The world is just too complicated, there’s just too many moving parts, too much information and too many threats and it’s goddamned difficult.  And it happens. We lose people.  It happened to Jimmy Carter in Iran. It happened to Ronald Reagan in Beirut. It happened to George H. W. Bush right in front of CIA headquarters.  It happened to Bill Clinton a month after he took office in the first World Trade Center attack. It happened to George W. Bush on September 11th, 2001.  And it will happen to whoever comes after Barack Obama. That’s how it is.

Could we have done more?

Sure, but I don’t think you’re really willing to do what it takes, because you won’t like the society you end up living in – and it will still happen.

I find it ironic that the folks who are perfectly willing to accept a theater full of dead kids as just the price you pay for the right to bear arms and thus Freeeeedom! are the very same people who don’t seem to think that our kind of foreign policy is something that can be executed without human casualties. 

Of course, the argument today is that the White House lied about the attack that killed Ambassador Stevens, that the White House keeps changing its story and that Joe Biden and the State Department are advancing fundamentally different versions of the events.

Again, welcome to intelligence work.

Again, it’s complicated.

Again, It takes time to figure out what actually went down and when. 

There are dozens of conflicting reports and the people who were there are dead.  Hell, even in something as simple and common as a car accident, there are differing reports and differing interpretations and that’s the reason police investigators (and intelligence experts) hate eyewitnesses – because human beings are just about the most unreliable sources of information there is.  Throw politics into the mix and you might as well not even bother.

In the event that killed Ambassador Stevens, there were multiple assaults going on, against multiple American interests,  in multiple locations, all at the same time.  There appeared to be a common triggering event.  It’s human nature to string these things together.  Later it turned out that those events were unrelated.  But was several weeks of hard work on the Intel Community’s part before that became more than just a guess, before there was enough hard intelligence to prove it.

Again, I find it ironic that the people who reject climate change and evolution because they feel those things are “just theories,” are the very same people who were willing to immediately and wholeheartedly decide that the attack on our embassy was a terrorist event before there was any hard evidence whatsoever. As long as the event makes Obama look bad, well, we don’t need proof, right?  Then again… well, you know, creationism. But I digress.

There was enormous pressure to get the word out.  The same people who are condemning the White House now for initially reporting bad information seem to forget that they were the same people who were demanding immediate information during the attack, who condemned the White House for not speaking up sooner. 

Look, you can’t have it both ways, if you want instant answers, most of those answers are going to be wrong. 

If you want accurate information, you’re going to have to wait.

That’s just how it is. 

And when it turns out that you’re wrong, you can either man up and correct yourself or you can stand pat on bad information – say like continuing to insist on the existence of yellow cake uranium purchases by a certain dictator that never happened or his involvement in 911 that never happened or his vast stores of Weapons of Mass Destruction that didn’t exist. 

Again, you can’t have it both ways, either you want people in charge who are willing to admit error and provide correct information when it becomes available even if it contradicts previous information … or you want smoke blown up your ass.  Make up your goddamned mind.

The problem today is that the Vice Presidential debate did more than just distract us from the real issues.

The problem is that the debates set us to arguing over things that we cannot change.

The problem is that the debates continue to set us against each other and widen a divide that already cripples America.

The problem is this: debates are a piss poor way to choose our leaders.

But just like people who cling to a religion that they’ve long outgrown, I suspect that we’ll continue this farce for a long, long time to come.

 

Today people are arguing over who “lost” the debate.

The answer to that is easy: we did.

Also Nazis, Part 3

 

I know what you’re thinking.

What? Nazis again?

Oh Goddamn, Jim, not more stinkin’ Nazis. Haven’t we had enough Nazis around here?

Welcome to this week’s installment of when political lunacy puts on a Speedo and a leather jacket, straps on a pair of water-wings, and attempts a rocket powered jump over a tank full of great white sharks.

I’m thinking that Also Nazis will become a regular feature, at least for the duration of the election season. Or until actual cannibal death Nazis from the dark side of the moon show up in flying saucers shooting killer bees from giant laser cannons mounted on atomic powered velociraptors and led by the Robot Uber-Fuehrer with Adolf Hitler’s electrified zombie head in a jar of pickle juice mounted on top of its massive armored shoulders.  Whichever comes first.

Looking at the political divisions in America, I kept getting this weird sense of déjà vu.

It reminded me of something.

But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

Red faced hatred. Incoherent screaming. Obscene hand gestures. Bizarre irrational behavior. Brother against brother, American against American.

Hmmm.

And then, earlier this week it hit me.

In fact, it almost literally hit me.

I was on the Glenn Highway, headed home from Anchorage towards The Valley when a PT Cruiser blew past me – this is noteworthy in and of itself, since I generally drive a tad, just a tad mind you, above the speed limit myself.  This guy was moving like Rush Limbaugh headed towards a free all-donut buffet, swerving back and forth between lanes faster than Mitt Romney changes his position on abortion, and zig-zagging around other cars like Paul Ryan dodging questions on his budget plan.  As the little car zoomed up the slow lane at ninety plus miles an hour he closed in on an enormous Dodge RAM pick-up in the left lane. Predictably, the truck sped up in an effort to stay ahead of the little PT Cruiser.  The Cruiser wasn’t having any of that, and in a reckless suicidal maneuver the tiny car dove under the truck’s front bumper like a shiny midget kamikaze, missing the bigger vehicle by scant millimeters … and then slamming on its brakes to avoid collision with the minivan in front of the truck. 

Remember that scene in A Fish Called Wanda? When that giant granite block fell from ten stories up and landed smack on top of that little tiny dog (at the 3:19 mark)? Wump! Splosh! I was expecting something exactly like that. By rights, that PT Cruiser should have been flattened into road-kill beneath the giant truck. Honestly, each of the truck’s tires weighed more than that little bitty car.  But, somehow, in a cloud of blue smoke and squealing rubber, the truck driver managed to avoid smashing the car into a greasy bugsplat, and the vehicles behind him (Me, Goddamnit!) somehow also managed to avoid messy death by chain-reaction. 

It didn’t take the giant pair of dangling “Truck-Nutz” swinging from the RAM’s trailer-hitch to figure out what was going to happen next. 

Clouds of black diesel smoke erupted from the truck’s twin stacks as the driver slammed the gas pedal to the floor.  The truck driver’s massive rage was palpable – despite the fact that he’d also been acting like an idiot in attempting to cut the other guy off.  He swerved onto the highway’s shoulder roaring past the PT Cruiser in a cloud of gravel and you could hear the howl of his monstrous off-road tires singing over the rumble-strip, it sounded like the thundering wings of avenging angels. The Cruiser actually sped up in an effort to prevent the truck from getting ahead but the RAM had the advantage of wrathful indignation and not only passed the Cruiser but he roared around the blocking minivan and triumphantly reassumed his position in the lead.

Then the truck slammed on his brakes.

I have no direct evidence, but I would assume that this was the point where the minivan driver began to regret his failure to plan ahead in the “Bring an extra pair of undershorts for the commute” department  (Me? I came prepared, I never wear skivvies during an election year. I like to be ready just in case I need to tell a politician to kiss my shiny metal ass).

After teaching those behind him not to screw with giant trucks, the RAM sped back up and pulled head of the minivan, who was likely distracted by the fact that in addition to his soiled panties he was probably also having a heart attack. Because, you know, Jesus H. Christ!

With complete disregard for the safety of anybody else on the road, the Cruiser dodged nimbly to the right, zipped around the minivan, and swerved back into the left lane inches ahead of the truck, cutting off the RAM yet again in an astounding display of testosterone fueled assholery. 

Those in the vicinity of these two homicidal jackasses (Me, Goddamnit!) variously braked or accelerated onto the shoulders out of the way like townsfolk scurrying for safety on the streets of Dodge City as two booze fueled gunslingers stumbled drunkenly from the saloon and set to cockfighting in the middle of Mainstreet.

I watched in horrified fascination as the huge truck and the tiny car jockeyed madly for position, it was like an enraged rhinoceros under attack by a blood maddened Chihuahua. They were swerving and braking and speeding around each other, you could see the drivers gesturing obscenely and screaming insults at each other oblivious to the danger, oblivious to the collateral damage, as they vied to prove who had the biggest willie like incensed mountain goats slamming their heads together over and over. Other drivers got involved, and the ripples of outrage spread like an infectious disease with a dozen cars ducking and dodging and weaving and screaming and blowing horns. They roared down the highway in a blood engorged mass at well over a hundred miles an hour and I lost sight of them as they sped across the Hay Flats headed towards Wasilla.  Once I no longer needed both hands on the wheel and traffic had settled down, I phoned the State Police.  Or tried to anyway, I couldn’t get a signal – the Hay Flats are kind of a desert when it comes to cell phone reception.  I got off at my exit and I’ve got no idea how it all worked out – doubtless the idiots got away with their insanity, going their own ways smug in their indignant manhood and seething righteousness, home to tell their wives about how some asshole did them wrong on the highway but by God they sure showed that fucker, yes they did, you bet.

And, as I said up above, that’s when it hit me.

That, right there, is exactly how most Americans approach politics.

Mindless red eyed Road Rage.

That’s exactly what it is, rage.

This mindset, this Political Rage, that seems to have infected much of America lately is exactly the same as the unthinking reflexive fury that far too many people display on the highways. For a lot of Americans, the only thing that matters is who has the biggest dick and damn the consequences, to hell with the danger, screw the utter stupidity of it all. 

In recent stump speeches Mitt Romney has been telling a story about how he once met Glen Doherty, the former US Navy SEAL turned State Department employee, who was killed along with Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya. 

Seems, Romney was apparently invited to a party that Doherty also attended, the two met, and Romney has mentioned it several times on the stump.

Big deal.

I see nothing particularly egregious about this, one way or the other.  Politicians (and bloggers for that matter, hello) use chance encounters and conversations and personal events to illustrate their viewpoints all of the time.  I’ve done it myself. In this essay.

However, Doherty’s mother, Barbara Doherty, an Obama supporter, asked that Romney stop using her son’s name. So Romney’s campaign immediately acquiesced and Mitt has since stopped using the anecdote. 

Again, despite the minor media furor, big deal.

Not long ago, I was asked to remove a post from Stonekettle Station about a Navy airplane crash I once witnessed, because those close to some of the men killed in that crash didn’t want the event used to illustrate the point I was attempting to make with the essay. Out of respect for their wishes, and because of some mistakes I’d made about the actual facts of the crash (I’m not an aviation guy, I got some things wrong. I should have known better than report as fact things I’d heard through the rumor mill), I agreed immediately and removed the post – even though I think it’s still one of the best things I’ve ever written.

For Mitt Romney to use his encounter with Glen Doherty to illustrate a political point does not make him an opportunistic asshole, it just makes him a guy who was trying to connect with people and events on a personal level, it makes him a politician just like every other politician that has ever lived.

Likewise, for Mrs. Doherty to ask that her son’s memory not be used to further a political agenda also doesn’t make her an asshole, even if she is an Obama supporter. Mrs. Doherty by any account has the right to ask for a little respect, she’s earned that courtesy. Her son bought her that right, and paid in full.

It’s a minor, very minor, news item that has zero impact on anybody other than the friends and family of Glen Doherty.

But, see, then there’s the Political Rage.

When the story appeared yesterday on ABC news, the comments under the article were bizarrely overblown. People, left and right, just plain lost their minds:

- What a disgusting human being Mitt Romney is. He will do or say ANYTHING to get elected.

- The Leftstream media is sure trying to take the heat off Ovomit.

- It is heartwarming to see that the trust placed in the administration that is indirectly responsible for the murder of her son is unwavering. I doubt she’ll get a form letter now.

- Sounds like the mother is the one using her son’s death for her political reasons—sour grapes –so to speak–she need to look at the fact –that extra security was requested and denied by the administration–which could have contributed to her son’s death–before defendind OObama –with what he knows about foreign policy –it could fit in a timble

- She needs to watch the hearings. It’s gut wrenching. They failed to protect her son and she says Romney is politicizing??? Wow!

- Apparently she is part of the 47%

- too many stupid comments from too many stupid romney fans, who will evidently say anything out there butt & think it’s whistling dixie.

- So the Obama hacks get snotty, HOW DARE Mitt USE HIS DEATH…Like OBAMA DID when he left those men, without backup there to die, when he crawled into bed, since he was so DAMNED CONCERNED .. MOM? Obama has LOST the military vote by 40 points… and the miserable;e low life democrat party hacks like that Heroes mom, can’t even let his name be mentioned, or his story told, because she hates republicans?.. Mitt did not put himself into the story… he simply told that he MET the man….and that drives the democrat hacks crazy..She’d have a point, if he did what Obama does… and put HIMSELF in the picture as the hero.. but apparently.. being a democrat, means party first……. country dead last..I’m a vet, and having left wing family ain’t unusual for a service member,.. but seriously… we know from his friends,.. and brother SEALS… he didn’t like Obama.. so his mom is twisting the fact he didn’t support Obama, according to his SEAL friends, told in other news articles..so she had to be nasty…… typical.. when she had to know her son was no fan of Obama.. check other news sources.. Obama lost the SEAL vote a while back.. and this young man’s friends say he had no love for Obama…

- I am sorry for your loss Mrs Doherty. But you are bias and a hypocrite.

- hey romney people….READ THE ARTICLE!!!!! IT SAYS DOHERTY DIDN’T LIKE THE MEETING WITH ROMNEY….THOUGHT HE WAS GOOFY. So stop yelling at his mother saying that she’s biased….Dang Y”ALL ARE BIASEd!!!!! DUH! ….here let me help you with that LOG in your eye.

The comments run on for another two hundred entries becoming more and more insane and incoherent, if these people were on the highway they’d be exchanging gunfire by now. Eventually, if you read down far enough, you’ll get to the Nazis. Because, of course, there’s going to be Nazis. 

I just don’t understand how can you call a grieving mother a Nazi because she doesn’t want her dead son’s name used to further the political agenda of a politician she doesn’t agree with. 

I’m mean, shit, how do you get there? How do you become so furious, so enraged, about a subject that really has nothing whatsoever to do with you that you’d call the mother of a man who died in the service of his country a traitor and unAmerican?

I boggle at the comments like this one:

- What a shame! A Great hero story, but because the mother (which I’m sure her son wouldn’t agree with) made it political, not Romney. She clearly is in the bag for Obama. Can we remind ourselves of Cindy Sheehan!!!

Really? I mean, really? The commenter is sure that he knows Barbara Doherty’s son better than she does.

Honestly, how far is too far? When do you stop, take your fingers off the keyboard, take your foot off the gas pedal, and say to yourself, “Wait a minute. Just wait a fucking minute here. Holy hell, I’m about to waterski straight to a tank of great white ridiculous. I need to stop right now. Right now.”  Look here, if you’ve arrived at point where you’re calling Barbara Doherty a Nazi, it’s time that you got yourself some professional help because you’ve really got nowhere else to go that doesn’t eventually lead to a roof, a high powered rifle, and a copy of Catcher in the Rye. I’m just saying.

Now, while Americans are fighting it out in the media over a minor anecdote that really doesn’t matter, down in Arkansas a guy named Charlie Fuqua is running for a republican seat on the state legislature (Yes, Fuqua, that’s his name. Let’s not be all fourteen years old about it. Fuqua). Charlie is a fine upstanding Christian man who would like to see Arkansas run in accordance with Biblical law. Literally.  He wrote a book about it, here’s a interesting passage:

The maintenance of civil order in society rests on the foundation of family discipline. Therefore, a child who disrespects his parents must be permanently removed from society in a way that gives an example to all other children of the importance of respect for parents. The death penalty for rebellious children is not something to be taken lightly. The guidelines for administering the death penalty to rebellious children are given in Deut 21:18-21.

The fuck?

The death penalty for your children?

Parents should put children to death so that other children will respect their parents?

What. The. Fuck?

OK, obviously he didn’t actually say parents should be allowed to kill their kids.

Or did he?

Why yes, actually he did.

Charlie Fuqua wrote a book, published this year, wherein he clearly says that while the Bible doesn’t give “blanket authority” for parents to kill their children, it does specify that parents are allowed to kill their kids so long as they “follow proper procedure to have the death penalty executed against their children.”  And though Charlie feels it should be “rarely used,” he does specifically say that the ability of parents to put their children to death would “be a tremendous incentive for children to give proper respect to their parents.”

I don’t know about you, but I think a license to kill your kids would be  less likely to result in increased respect and more likely to result in children resorting to preemptive strikes against their murderous parents.  I’m also not clear how killing your kids squares with the “Thou shalt not commit fucking murder” or the whole Christian Right to Life idea. But then again, I’m not a Christian so the details of this bronze age idiocy escape me.  And yes, I checked, Charlie Fuqua is not a creation of The Onion. He’s a real live republican who calls himself a Christian and you know, never mind, go right ahead and pronounce Charlie’s last name the way it looks.  I know I will, because seriously, Charlie, fuck you.

One more thing, if you’re Charlie Fuqua’s kids, I’d get the hell out now, right now, and I’d never look back.  Because, wow. Just, wow.

Now, least you think it’s just Charlie Respect My Authoritee! Fuqhead gone round the bend down there in Arkansas, meet State Representative Loy Mauch.  He’s another Christian republican (Not to beat a dead horse or anything).  Representative Mauch also wrote a book.  He didn’t suggest killing your kids, instead he announced that slavery “was a blessing in disguise” for black people. 

Yep.

In letters to the Democrat-Gazette, Mauch strongly defended slavery and said a number of times that Jesus condoned it:

If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861? The South has always stood by the Constitution and limited government. When one attacks the Confederate Battle Flag, he is certainly denouncing these principles of government as well as Christianity.

How’s that a “blessing” for black people? Easy, see slavery turned them into Christians. Doh.

In other letters, Representative Mauch wrote that Abraham Lincoln, the founder of Mauch’s own republican party, was a Marxist.

I guess once you go down the “Slavery is okay with God and it’s okay with me!” road, calling Abraham Lincoln a communist is pretty much small potatoes.  Mauch organized a 2004 conference praising John Wilkes Booth and calling for removal of Lincoln’s statue from the monument on the Washington Mall. He also proudly waves the Confederate Battle Flag and calls it “a symbol of Christian liberty versus the New World Order.”

New World Order, and you thought I’d forgotten about the Nazis.

How in the hell does somebody who openly hates the United States stay in office?

Seriously, how does a guy who openly supports slavery and a political organization that tried to destroy, literally destroy, the United States of America through armed rebellion, stay in office?

Easy, he’s supported by the Republican Party and his fellow Arkansas conservatives who apparently can’t seem to see the astounding irony – probably because they’re too busy assaulting President Obama for not being American enough.

Okay. I admit it. I’m with Fuqua on this one, maybe Mauch should have been drowned at birth.

Seriously man, welcome to Arkansas, land of the free, home of the brave, kill your kids, and let’s refer to black people as “farm equipment” all the doodah day!

Meanwhile, next door in Missouri, Representative Todd Akin still doesn’t quite comprehend the fact that women are actual citizens now.  He remains confused about female biology and upset that Clare McCaskill isn’t behaving in a more ladylike manner.  Poor Todd, he longs for a simpler time, when men were men … and women were livestock.

If Todd Akin is ever lonely, he’s got a soulmate up in Wisconsin.  State Rep Roger Rivard (Republican again, surprise surprise!) says that “some girls rape easy.”  His dad taught him that. Some girls, son, they just rape easy, hell you don’t even need to use roofies!  Roger’s dad told him:

“…If you do have premarital sex, just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry.” Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, “Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.” All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, “Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls, they rape so easy.” What the whole genesis of it was, it was advice to me, telling me, If you’re going to go down that road, you may have consensual sex that night and then the next morning it may be rape. So the way he said it was, Just remember, Roger, some girls, they rape so easy. It may be rape the next morning.

Roger feels his comments might have been taken out of context.

I’m not really sure what context his comment should be put in, unless by “context” he means “Arkansas.”

By the way, Paul Ryan? The guy who wants to be vice president, he’s a big fan of Roger Rivard.  Ryan said, “Roger needs to be reaffirmed to get this job done and fix the State of Wisconsin.”

Somebody needs to be “fixed” all right, that’s for sure.

You know, at this point I’m starting to wonder if maybe actual cannibal death Nazis from the dark side of the moon might not be such a bad thing after all.

Comparatively speaking, I mean.

And I’d sure like an atomic powered killer bee laser, I know just who I’d point it at.

But I digress.

 

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got another commute into Anchorage tomorrow and I need to go mount some flamethrowers on my front bumper.

 

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More Nazis can be found here: Also Nazis, Part 2