Political Violence

A few days ago Ashley Todd, a McCain volunteer in Pittsburgh told police she was robbed at an ATM and the assailant, a man of color, upon finding out she was a McCain supporter, beat her and carved a "B" on her cheek that stood for Barack Obama. Both candidates publicly deplored the act.

A few days later, Miss Todd confessed to the police that the "B" was self- inflicted as well as other parts to her story.

This story though rooted in politics and even used for a bit by the McCain campaign it is really about mental illness. As bad and as easy as it was to blame a man of color shows the racism this culture still possesses. However, I haven't read anywhere if the robbing was true or false and I'm not sure why no news source to the best of my knowledge has asked that question .

Some republican bloggers have said that even though the story was fabricated by Miss Todd, there has been a lot of Obama supporters using violence.

Obama Supporter Assaults Female McCain Volunteer in New York

Democrats Getting More Violent, Shoot Up House In Florida

There are plenty more.

These acts are deplorable, but no more than a recent plot to assassinate Obama. All of these perpetraters are mentally ill in some way and need care. When I first looked at the picture of one of the alleged conspirators, I was horrified. The image disgusted me, but now I see that it is the collective fault of every American that this man and the other assailants mentioned have come to this. There is no dialogue about race, gender, class and homosexuality in most of this country and without it these situations will continue to occur.

Plumbers

Ok if I’m wearing a certain pair of pants and I bend over you’ll see my happy valley forest- I admit it. But, I’m no plumber.

However, there are a lot of Joe Plumbers out there, a few:

http://www.joelaratheplumber.com/
http://joetheplumber.com/

But McCain's Joe doesn't quite exist. His real name is Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, an unlicensed plumber from Ohio.

So why did Samuel use his middle name instead of his first name? It may be due to his unlicensed vocation or perhaps to his back taxes or perhaps to protect his celebrity uncle.


seen here side by side as a now disheveled old man and his classic 2 dimensional self.

For the story behind Mr. Plumber, The Huffington Report does a nice job.

McCain keeps telling us that Joe the Plumber is an average working American. he is going to be making around $300,000. If 95% of Americans make less than $250,000 than how is Mr. Plumber an average middle class person?

Joe and McCain don't want to share. But, that's alright as sharing is not part of the "American Dream" just ask the Native Americans. They were told we could share. Lord Jeffrey Amherst (it has not been proved other than the letter writing that Amherst had anything else to do with the blankets) had an opinion on sharing with Native Americans, which was shared by many.

Since I have been talking about the Joe’s I know with the addition of Mr. Plumber I’d just like to introduce a Joe I have forgotten about to Senator McCain for consideration as the next Joe to occupy the Joe mascot position. Senator, I’d like you to meet Joe Mama.

This is real. It was included in a republican womens group newsletter. The woman who came up with it is Diane Fedele who doesn't believe it is racist to put a black man on a food stamp surrounded by what are considered to be stereotypical food item for people of color to eat. Fedele says that she only sees the fried chicken, ribs, kool-ade and watermelon as food. To Fedele, "it doesn't mean anything else." For a women from southern California it strikes me as odd to have included these particular foods with a man of color and on a food stamp. Are these really the only images of food she could find? Is the food part of a word association she did when she thought of Obama? Is she a moron as Keith Olbermann pointed out?




The above video is from the primaries. The video and the Fedele story show the different poles of racism, from affluent southern California woman to poor rural West Virginians. The women in yellow in the video is chicken shit to say she won't vote for Obama because he is a man of color. Really? your not going to vote for someone who is the presidential candidate for your party on the sole issue that he is a man of color?

There is too much invested in voting for morals than with what will help you economically and help yourself and others through social programs. Really this breaks my heart.

Women In the World

The recent rise of women in politics from Hilary Clinton's campaign to be the democratic nominee for president to Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the house to Sarah Palin as vice presidential candidate for the republicans is a gauge in how far women in this country have come. Still there is a long road ahead for true equality with gender and race, but for the most part women in america are treated astronomically better than in most other non european countries.

An example of how women in other countries are treated is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Women and girls are being brutally raped and used as fodder for a war that has been going on for 10 years. What has the US done for them? It is being asked if it has to do with the women being of color. Africa has long been considered a conglomerate of 3rd world nations whose conflicts generally have no effect on the rest of the world. Africa had been a continent for colonial powers to strip away natural resources until nations won their independence. The problem with these nations is they were made by europeans who drew boundaries that had different tribes and groups together. Now these differences have launched the 10 year war in Congo and women are paying for it.

The Candidates Part I

Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey who heads The United Vampyre World Organization, a nonprofit organized by himself is a self-proclaimed satanist running for president. In the photo he has a bit of that wall street slickness meets professional wrestling look, but make no mistakes he's a bloodsucker. The UVWO not to be confused with the United Vampyres of the World Organization (a conservative group) also has its own record label, Sang Vamp where he has recorded The album “A Vampyre Sings Elvis Love Songs” (not so secretly I really really need to get this album). If you do nothing else go on his myspace page and listen to "Teddy Bear."

The Impaler is also under investigation by the Secret Service for wanting to impale George W. and if King Sharkey is elected president that's just what he plans to do. There is also a documentary about the Impaler when he ran for Minnesota governor in 2006 called, "Impaler." It's now at the top of my Netflix queue. Sharkey does stand for equal rights for all, though especially Vampires, lycan, and witches. But from what I've seen they all seem harmless to me.





Vampires have filthy mouths.

where are you now Stiles and Boof?

This is a long clip, but worth it to find out if you should be sad that this show was actually on the air or that the Violent Femmes act and perform on it. I'm in a quandary about it myself.

Independent Candidates

Most of us think of the presidential election as only between two candidates, Obama and McCain. However there are over 60 candidates running for president. This includes 11 3rd party candidates, at least 7 independent candidates and enough write in candidates to invade Idaho. Of course this list excludes the witty name you've been thinking of writing in.

Still anyone can win. Never count out the long shot! America loves an underdog! If you keep your chin up and your nose clean you can accomplish so much! Four candidates who may pull off the impossible are Jonathan "The Impalor" Sharkey, King of the Vampyre, representing the Vampire-Witches and Pagan party of New Jersey, Thaddaus Hill of the oft forgotten Madisonian-Federalist party, Desmond Ravenstone a Massachusetts Independant and James Mote who has a great smile.

What follows is a look at these 4 individuals.

Marriage

With a 4-3 decision the Connecticut supreme court ruled this past week in favor of gay-marriage. Connecticut is the 3rd state to allow same sex couples to marry with New York recognizing marriages from other states.

However, there are many dissenters, among them Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut who quoted in the New York Times says, “This is about our right to govern ourselves,' he said. 'It is bigger than gay marriage.”

Wolfgang is right. We should have the right to govern ourselves and the ruling proves it. It's called equality. The majority does not have the right to govern the morality of a minority. It's Civil liberties. One of them is sexual freedom.

Why do all these sanctity of marriage freaks use names like the Family Institute of Connecticut? If MIT is the Massachusetts institute of Technology than the family institute must be teaching about Connecticut.


In Massachusetts there’s a group called pro-family. The only people that aren’t pro-family are dead beat dad’s, The TV show “Cheaters” and corporations. Pro-family has a website titled Mass Resistance. These people who have difficulty among others with the “Proposed Legal Definition of “Gender Identity or Expression” They say on their website, “Under H1722, who (or what) “identifies” a person’s “gender”? Not an objective outside observer, such as an M.D. or a psychiatric professional or biological fact, but the individual in question.”

That’s a ridiculous thing to say. We’re not talking about a referee (objective observer) in a boxing match between Kirk Cameron and a guy fully dressed in his Barney On Ice costume beating the hell out of each other on Pay Per-View to see who will get to be the center square on Hollywood Squares. We are talking about people who know themselves. If some asshole knows that they are against transgender identity than isn’t it logical someone who is transgender to be able to know their own identity. Gender is a social construct and who better than myself to say who I am.

My boss gave me a handout he received in church after the priest talked about marriage. The pamphlet concerned signing a petition to not allow the “gay marriage” issue into other states like it’s a disease. I would like to paper mache their cars with same-sex information.

The Family institutes website, is of course a .org. That's right they are a non-profit. It seems that anyone can start a non-profit. Even fake non-profits for political causes (I wonder if I could make myself a non-profit and be tax exempt perhaps I need to talk to a lawyer).

The family Institute motto is “At the Family Institute, our mission is to encourage and strengthen the family as the foundation of society and to promote sound, ethical and moral values in our culture and government.” If you’re going to strengthen the family as a foundation then why not allow more families? Moral values in our government? There have been more sex scandals and backroom deals in the government than on “Days of Our Lives” and most TV shows (excluding Jeopardy, that Alex Trebek loves a winner!).

The whole marriage inclusion debate comes down to definitions. The “sanctity” people say they just want to keep the definition of marriage to a woman and a man, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about equal rights. Rights that are not fully given in civil unions. Only marriage offers federal benefits and protections (over 1,100 rights and protections).

Really what’s the big deal? I was always told that marriage is about loving another person. That’s why I got married. Love is ultimately about the person not their body. Besides we as humans don’t always age well, but if I had a dangly double chin or had to lift my gut up to pee, I’m certain my wife would still love me.

McCain/Palin

My good friend Jeremy asked me to write my opinion on McCain/Palin. He only asked for a paragraph and I have given him the next several pages. enjoy. (or write hate mail). To quote another friend “ It’s all good.”
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As I sit and prepare to send two bean tacos down their fateful journey from grinding choppers to the depository that is my colon, I can’t help but think about McCain and Palin. Maybe it’s the low blood sugar from hunger or perhaps it’s like having a horrible song in your head that you can’t get out such as the chicken dance, which sends shivers up your spine at the remembrance of being 14 at Aunt Filomena’s wedding and being lifted up by your cousins, thrown out onto the dance floor while a bunch of inebriated overjoyed women say things like ”you have to flap your arms” all the while knowing the only thing worse would be to get a spontaneous erection. But, this is not about traumatized events from childhood or salivating with anticipation of bean tacos, it’s about McCain and Palin and how the possibility of their election is frightful.

Regardless of what some call her sexy librarian look and her resemblance at least in profile to Margaret Hamilton in her 1939 performance as the wicked witch of the west, she makes me feel like I have a cold starting. It’s the kind of cold that you know is going to end up with you sitting on the toilet while holding a waste basket in one hand and flipping a coin with the other to see which end is next. Although, to be fair Palin, as the wicked witch of the west, would have to be painted green and that would just confuse fossil fuel voters and environmentalists alike. In contrast McCain looks like he’s 5 minutes away from becoming a skeleton in a 9th grade biology class with a nametag that says “Maverick” pinned to his clavicle.

McCain’s advanced age makes Palin inexperience colossal. A president McCain sniffle will cause a major shift in Wall Street. Palin is only qualified as a mudslinger, a job she is continuously overachieving at, which any glancing of the news will show. She has slightly more experience as a leader than me. If I could have only gotten those precious two votes in high school, I would have been president of the schools coed dance team. Damn you, Gina Palahniuk and your perfectly executed “Running Man” and that dastardly diabolical “Churnin’ Butter” routine. Come to think of it Gina, you should run for vice president, you were also president of the foreign exchange program. The class of 1993 remembers your tactful diplomacy handling that argument about pancakes between Bernardita (pro-plate size) from Spain and Eva (pro-silver dollar) from Germany. That is as much foreign policy experience as being governor of a state that borders the ass end of Russia and the evil Canadian Empire. As foreign policy goes, Palin even makes Dan Quayle look like he spelled potato correctly.
The McCain campaign continuously tells us that the choice of Palin is another maverick decision. It goes on to say (both McCain and Palin have acknowledged the statement) that Palin is also a maverick and both are Washington outsiders.

First of all by Merriam-Webster definition a maverick is either:

1: an unbranded range animal; especially: a motherless calf
2: an independent individual who does not go along with a group or party

I’m thinking that neither of them are the 1st definition as if McCain was an unbranded range animal Palin would have to be restrained from shooting him being the hunter that she is. So I’ll put that one aside. Now if we use the only other definition, definition number two, then their entire tag line of maverick is a shit ton, of well, shit. Two mavericks tied together by a political campaign make for a duo or group (can you believe ''Makes Me Wonder,'' by Maroon 5 won the Grammy in that category this past year? Honestly, they suck).
Anyway two mavericks are not very independent or individual, the maverick thing for McCain to have done is to have declined to have a vice-president and perhaps write off the position as so unnecessary and irreverent that a cryogenically frozen Walt Disney could perform its duties. Oh wait, he kind of did do that by picking Palin as his vice-president. The only maverick thing McCain has done that quickly pops into mind is singing “Bomb Iran’ to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann.” That was very maverick, stupid, but nonetheless maverick (How do you think Iran feels about a possible McCain presidency?)
Washington outsiders? Really? Johnny, 26 years in congress doesn’t make you an outsider and getting caught up in the Keating Five scandal where you were accused of corruption doesn’t make you any different than most of the people you describe as Washington insiders. Truthfully McCain and Palin are not the only Washington outsiders. There are a few million of us. That’s right most of this country are Washington outsiders. I’m such an outsider I don’t even drive through the city. I use Rt. 495 and go around that ironic city filled with the predominately white elite governing class and the working poor people of color. Hmm… big white house surrounded by people of color reminds me of something, I just can’t put my finger on it right now.

Unlike Palin, I don’t completely despise McCain. He’s had his hands on some decent legislation though he’s also helped to piss away others. Is he a harmless dreamer or Skeletor in disguise?

I don’t know. I just close my eyes when I hear his name and seem to always imagine him as a grandfather who tells tall tales and cheats at cards thinking you don’t notice , but you do. Yet, he’s old ,so you shrug it off as just due to advanced age and wait for crazy old Pop Pop to fall asleep head first into his Wheaties so you can go raid the candy jar and possibly squeeze a pack of Marlboro from the carton in the drawer above the cabinet with the cleaning agents.

Palin, on the other hand continues to upset me. Her choice as vice president scares me to the point of barely refraining from uncontrollably launching the two tacos now nestling in my colon onto my underwear to rest in an only Jackson Pollock would be proud design. Her guffaws, her down home knee slappers, and those Joe Sixpack references are seriously irritating my colon in a way that rivals my 6th grade school year.

That gets me wondering: Who the fuck is Joe Sixpack? Every politician keeps talking about him. Joe Sixpack seems to be nothing more than a filament made of tungsten surrounded by argon or some other inert gas and encased in glass. McCain and Palin believe their electricity (made from fossil fuels of course) will turn darkness into light and that light will glow them to the White House.

It is without saying that this election has Joe Sixpack finding out he’s quite the desirable guy. However, with popularity comes enemies and Joe Sixpack is not alone out there. Joe Sixpack’s sworn enemy? You probably guessed it. It’s Joe Blow, but honestly who the fuck cares about Joe Blow? After all, it’s just Joe Blow an anybody nobody in comparison with Joe Sixpack an anybody everybody.

Blow is no Joe Sixpack who is an all-american steel towed work book wearing, Ford Super Duty driving (what’s the big deal with built Ford tough? Not tough enough to compete with foreign car companies or a sagging profit. Maybe the problem with being built Ford tough is that it’s built by Ford.), a beer in one hand, tossing a football to Sixpack Jr. and making sure that Sally Sixpack is properly playing with her Barbie, everyman. Yet, if McCain and Palin win, Wednesday November 5, 2008 will find Joe Sixpack waking up to the realization that it was all a dream (think Victoria Principle’s Pamela Ewing in the 85 -86 Dallas season finale). Joe Sixpack will stand up out of bed, scratch the appropriate places and look into the mirror and whom will he see? With bug eyed bewilderment and gaping mouth Joe Blow will be staring back at him. Joe will try and piece together the night before just like a future bride waking up the day after her cringe worthy bachelorette party where she checked items off a list that included getting a strange mans underwear and is now still dressed in last nights clothes, a little bit of dried puke on her chin, and wearing a “penis-thru-the-head” novelty head gear (oh the metaphor!).

To end the story of “The Journey of Joe Sixpack Anybody Everyman” is simple. It ends in lies and a dejected populace who despite McCain’s rhetoric still distrusts it’s elected government. The 1980’s band Naked Eyes said it best in their song “Promises Promises:”

“You made me promises promises
Knowing I'd believe
Promises promises
You knew you'd never keep.”

If McCain and Palin lose Joe Sixpack’s vote they will inevitably blame the press. McCain and Palin have been relentlessly attacking the press and have called the way it is practicing journalism, “aggressive ‘gotcha’ journalism.” Isn’t that what the press ought to be? Especially in an election year where the candidates on all sides say so many things to so many people. The pabulum being puked out of all these politicians’ mouths has to be checked for substance. It is the job of a free press to inform the populace what is fact and what is untrue.

Palin’s hockey mom status has to be over the heads of most southern republicans. Hockey to them is hokey misspelled, which is one of the words they sing in the phrase proceeding, “ Put your right leg in and shake it all about.” But some of those red staters from all over the country (btw 50 or so years ago wouldn’t red state mean they were communists- I’m just saying) with their god, their sanctity of marriage, their anti-abortion, their guns, their desire to infiltrate the North with Nascar, and their self-resplendent shadowy oligarchy of racism, classism, heterosexism, etc… adore Palin. Do they really believe that god spoke to her? Come on, god wants a $30 billion natural pipeline, Iraq war, and is using Sarah Palin to influence what is affectionately called god’s will by the loving faithful? Maybe god wants CBS to cancel “Two and a Half Men” and give Tom Cruise a mental illness (now is it real or not Tommy?). Hey I’ll even pray for that. Probably, though, god wants Palin to take responsibility for her own actions.

Republicans believe some bizarre things. I don’t necessarily believe they are, well I was going to say bad people, but lets just go with horrible instead. I find that the fundamental problem with Republicans is that they say they are against “big government,” but they always want to legislate morality or what they believe is morality. If you don’t like what I do especially in my bedroom (with or without the lights on) and you find abortion appalling amongst other issues, I have no problem with you speaking up about how you feel and what you would or wouldn’t do because of this, that, or the other thing. That’s fine, as long as it is intelligent I say go on your TV shows, speak about it to one another at your roadside alligator farms, call up that fat guy on the radio with the pain killer addiction, and whisper it into the sheep’s ear at the edge of a cliff. Go ahead tell me your god hates me and I’m going to burn in hell. I believe in god as much as I believe in a majority telling a minority what their morals should be. A McCain/Palin White House would do just that.

I am not at peace with a McCain/Palin presidency. It won’t just be an old man with antique ideas and his mudslinging marionette, we as the voting populace need to realize that our vote only counts for the President/Vice President and not their cabinets and advisors. Bush was bad enough and then you factor in Rumsfeld, Rice, and Ashcroft? How we’re not all part of somegiant chain gang is beyond me.
Who will either candidate choose as to fill the important cabinet positions of energy, health and human services, treasury, and housing and urban development? These are the people who are going to be extremely busy with the economic crisis at hand.
To say I will not be voting for McCain/Palin is redundant. I couldn’t possibly betray myself, my friends, my wife, a big boned cat named Marvin and everyone in this country who truly tries to help another in some way. Perhaps it would have been easier to be Punk Rock about it and to have just printed up a few bumper stickers that said “Republican Punks Fuck Off,” which may very well be what this says if you were to condensed this what ever you want to call it into a 4 word tweaked version of a Dead Kennedys song title, but obviously there has been a lot to say. So vote with confidence on that Tuesday in November because I think we’re going to win this one, but if in the slight possibility we don’t, give Joe Sixpack, err I mean Joe Blow a hug if you see him or if you can afford to buy him a bean taco. He’ll already be feeling pretty bad about things.

Is There a Difference in 10 Years?

Today is the anniversary of a horrific hate crime on a member of the LGBTQ community. Mathew Shepherd died in 1998 bound to a fence Laramie, Wyoming. Shepherd had been beaten by two men just because he was gay. Many news stories today are asking if anything has changed since Shepherd’s murder.

Have they?

“I think if you ask the average American, they think Matthew Shepherd was the last person killed in this country for being gay,” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a national group that focuses on gay issues in schools. “Unfortunately, that’s not the case,” reports Ryan Lee on the Washington Blade website.

Since Mathew Shepherds murder there have been over 50 confirmed deaths caused by anti-gay hate crimes. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it’s senseless to use violence to object to someone’s lifestyle and morality. In my opinion it is senseless to have a majority legislate a minority’s morality when that minority is adult and doing nothing to harm a person in the majority.
I’d like to share an extreme notion of hate, which purports to adhere to the Bible and God’s word.Here is hate:

The anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas, led by Fred Phelps, picketed Shepherd's funeral as well as the trial of his assailants displaying signs with slogans such as "Matt Shepherd rots in Hell", "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" and "God Hates Fags.” When the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that it was legal to display any sort of religious message on city property if it was legal for Casper's Ten Commandments display to remain, Phelps attempted and failed to gain city permits in Cheyenne and Casper to build a monument "of marble or granite 5 or 6 feet (1.8 m) in height on which will be a bronze plaque bearing Shepherd's picture and the words: "MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, in Defiance of God's Warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."

- I got this from wikipedia and verified it on CNN

I know this is an extreme case, but I think it is fair to share and to show what was happening 10 years ago. Still, the LGBT community is still harassed, victimized, beaten, and sometimes murdered for being themselves.

In better news, Michelle Bruce who identifies as a transgender woman in Georgia won a case against her brought forth by two politicians who said she misrepresented herself as a woman.
“Gay rights groups said the lawsuit appears to be a first in the country.” quoted in an AP article By Greg Bluestein.
"I still have a dream to serve my community,” She is quoted in the article.

Why not let her?