I support Barack Hussein Obama – Updated

Update – President Obama is proving me wrong on this. He is following the same old line about how we have to be involved in everyone’s business. He has yet to condemn Israel’s vicious actions towards the Palestinians, his new Secretary of State is still saying Iran wants nukes, and he is sending more troops into Afghanistan. What a disappointment.

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That’s right. I do. I just re-posted all my Obama posts because I realized something; I may not agree with everything BHO says or does. I may not like that he voted for the FISA bill, or that he supported Israel bombing the crap out of Lebanon. But something last night reminded me of why I do support him.

I was out with some friends last night, and after a pint or three one of my friends asked me what I thought of the Army commercials where the kids talk to their parents about joining the military. I said it kills me because joining the military was a good thing for me, hell, it probably saved my ass from going to prison. Then it hit me. When I was in the world was just as shitty a place as it is now, but what was different was who was in the White House. My commander in chief never sent me to steal oil from anyone. My commander in chief didn’t use me for war profiteering.

I would not tell someone to join the military right now because of who is at the top. This is a horrible time to join; you will get sent to kill brown people for no good reason. But under Barack Obama, I think things would change. Now, I know he says he wants to intensify things in Afghanistan, but I think even that is coming to a close.

I support Obama because I think he would only send in our troops when needed, and only with international support. If McCain gets elected we will go into Iran, maybe even start a war with Russia. So that is a big part of why I initially started supporting Obama and why I stand by that today.

He ain’t perfect, but who is? I want to be able to recommend serving again one day because it helped make me the man I am today. Under President Obama I believe I could do that again.

Sovereignty is for losers

“The Bush administration on Wednesday warned of “real consequences” for Iraq if it rejects a newly negotiated security pact.

Without a deal, the United States could be forced to end its military operations.”

Good. Get our troops out of Iraq now. The Iraqi’s clearly want us out, we the people want us out, seems the only the neo-cons want us there.

I find it odd that one of the big rationals for going into Iraq was to “spread democracy”, but now that the Iraqi’s have a government of their own, we are fighting them over their sovereignty rights. Because, you know, if we leave then our defense industry won’t get that 10 billion dollar a month welfare check anymore.

I really love this line:

“”There will be no legal basis for us to continue operating there without that,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.”

Um, there never has been a legal reason for us being there in the first place asshole. For the record, we’ve been “there” since 1991 anyways. The latest colonial land grab was based on lies; lies told to the American people, lies told to the UN.

Get out of Iraq, leave those people alone. Haven’t they been trough enough?

War on Terror Report Card

Tom Engelhardt over at his site TomDispatch gives us a breakdown of the War on Terror waged by BushCo for the last 7 years. Short version, we get an F for failure. I highly recommend reading the whole thing, links and all. Tom’s site is one of the most informative out there, and his guest writers seem to always pretty much nail it, what ever the subject.

I would just add that we are at the end of America as the “Most Chosen Nation”. We are quickly becoming irrelevant, a joke, a sad caricature of greed and lust still clinging to the hope of an empire along the lines of Rome or Britain in its hay day. And maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe it’s time we as Americans except the fact that we have been riding the victory of WWII, when we were the only industrialized power left, and that the rest of the world is finally caught up with us. The idea of empire building in this day and age doesn’t work, people are too connected now. And as the financial mess shows us, and history as well, things too big to fail always do.

This country needs to get over the idea that we are somehow “Chosen” and except that we are only 1 out of every 20 people. Instead of forcing our views on them, it would be wiser to learn their views and trying sharing the planet and its resources. Humanity as a whole needs to learn that we are all there is out there, we are all in this together, and we have all we need right here on this little planet we call Earth. We can either continue to fight over it till there is nothing left to fight over or we can learn to appreciate each other for who we are and realize that we never left Eden, it’s all around us.

What this has to do with America is that our Republic could be a great model for others if we could get it to work like it’s supposed to. We are all supposed to have a voice, a vote, an interest in the system working. Instead we have countless laws, regulations and hurdles that keep most of us from even wanting to try and participate. What we end up with is an elite few gaming the system for themselves while the fringe elements work to divide the citizenry through the political parties and the media.

I read the other day that countries are no longer turning to our courts to learn about democracy because we have slipped so far away from our roots and into violating the very human rights we claim to promote. This doesn’t surprise me at all considering how we imprison millions of Americans for activities that our government has no business making illegal in the first place. We have created a prison system that needs mandatory sentencing to justify itself, turned our police departments into paramilitary units and have thrown out the notion of innocent until proven guilty. We seem to have no problem spending an ever larger percentage of our tax dollars on super-mega prisons but we balk at pay raises for teachers, after school programs, extracurricular activities; you know, the things that might give kids something to do so their not bored enough to get in trouble in the first place.

This attitude extends to our foreign policy. Both candidates for president want to expand our military, which we already spend a third of our budget on now. Why? Why do we need more bases overseas, more weapons systems, more wars? Wouldn’t it be wiser to tone down our bravado and try talking with the rest of the world? I know, that’s surrender monkey talk. Real men kill them all and let god sort them out. I guess George Washington wasn’t a real man then: “The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.” Yep, he sure hated America.

We have a president who said Saddam Hussein was evil because he had people tortured, and then we learn we are doing the same thing in the very same prison in Iraq. We all watched the twin towers fall in horror, killing thousands, yet our own military has killed tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and Afghanistan and do we feel the same horror and disgust? Even now we are bombing civilians in Pakistan with drone aircraft, robot warriors out of science fiction. What could be more terrifying then knowing that there are countless drones flying over head and at the whim of someone far away one of them will unleash death upon your home and you won’t even have the chance to flee for your life?

The worst part to me is that our push for ever more destructive weapons drives the rest of the world to develop something to counter them. Iran may very well want nukes, and why not since Israel got them from us and is an aggressor nation just like us. We are systematically arming countless dictatorships around the world all the while claiming to be spreading “Democracy”. That is, as long as your democracy is favorable to our business interests. Don’t dare want to help your own people or you will get a visit from our illustrious covert ops.

Our War on Terror would be better labeled a War of Terror. We are far better at terrorizing humanity then a bunch of guys in the desert waste lands. Our government has used this war as cover to spread across the globe, and anyone who dares to protest quickly gets labeled a terrorist, making it impossible for them to do business and putting a price on their head.

What a sad reality for a country that claims to be a beacon of hope and a bastion of liberty.

Electoral Blue Balls

I’m sitting here with MSNBC on mute in the background, and they keep showing a US map in different colors, with a chart about electoral college votes in the corner. Why the fuck do we still have the electoral college? Do you know anyone in it? It can after all elect the next president, regardless of what the people do, shouldn’t we get to know who’s in it? Why is it that 538 people, chosen by the parties, get to pick the person who then gets to pick the people who interpret our laws?

How is that democratic? Do you feel represented knowing that someone, picked by a political party machine, can vote for who ever they want regardless of who the people vote for? Why do we even bother voting?

Makes me wonder why we are seeing a billion dollars spent on an election that only 538 people get to vote in. The rest is a dog and pony show, another tax on you and me, a transfer of wealth.

I’m not buying the public funding crap either. McCain got 84 million bucks from the tax payer. Where did we get that kind of money when we are 10 trillion in the hole?

With all the money in politics, and with no idea who is in the electoral college, how can we the people know who’s electing our president for us and how much they got payed to do it?

Anti-American My Ass

I have to call the Republicans out on this new McCarthyism bullshit. I remember all too well being called anti-American in 2002 for protesting the fucking Patriot Act, a piece of fascist legislation if ever there was any. I remember being told I loved terrorists because I didn’t support the Iraq war, which had nothing to do with terror unless you mean the terror felt by the Iraqi people as our planes bombed their cities in our quest to steal their oil.

When I hear a US Rep calling for the media to start investigating anti-American activity in the other party, I can’t help but wonder when we the people will start doing the very same thing with both. The Patriot Act, voted in by Democrats and Republicans alike, goes against everything this country is supposed to stand for. The Iraq war is colonialism wrapped in “democracy building”, and a majority of both sides voted for it. This latest bailout bullshit is a money grab by the rich, a way to ensure a spoiled aristocrat class gets to keep living the good life while the rest of us suffer. What could be less American? No fuck that, what could be less humane?

Want to find un-American activity? Let’s start with the “free speech” zones at both major parties conventions. Or how about voting for the fucking FISA bill? How did that make America better?

Both candidates talk about war with Iran, continuing war in Afghanistan and most likely Pakistan. Both want to EXPAND our monster war machine! How is that helping America? These are the things that make the rest of humanity hate us more.

I hold both parties responsible for this fucking mess, but more importantly I hold us all responsible for letting them do it. We the people are supposed to hold our elected officials accountable. And as human beings we should never feel it’s OK to murder other humans for make believe ideologies, nationalistic rhetoric or profit margins.

But today my rage is aimed specifically at the Republicans. How dare you sons of bitches start calling anyone who doesn’t support your views anti-American when you know full well what that really means is less then human. It’s the first step towards opening the door for genocide. It’s stirring up desperate people, giving them a target for their rage. It gets people killed. It’s how you start civil wars.

And don’t even try to tell me I am making too much of this. We have been very lucky in this country in that we haven’t had anymore major internal wars. But this kind of shit, this turning us against each other at a time when things are at their worst is not just un-American, it’s down right evil. Humanity as a whole needs each other to survive, but down to a nation based level if the very notion of a republic is going to exist, we the people need to realize that unity is far more powerful in overcoming the hard times then division.

But hey, if we want to start looking for anti-American activity, let’s take a good long look at Congress and Executive branch. Like it says in the Declaration of Independance, “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” Maybe its time to throw the whole fucking lot of them out and start anew. After all, are any of them really making your life better?

Watch These Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Phs6CwnutoY

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Thanks goes to my one reader for the links.

Two Quick Points on McCain’s Comments

Being a veteran doesn’t mean you can’t also be a big fat fucking racist piece of shit. Don’t give me that respect all veterans shit traitor. I served with some of the most ignorant, racist, sexist, homophobic assholes I’ve ever know. And most of them were great soldiers, but they were still pieces of shit.

Second, ACORN is a red hearing. Their the Mexicans of 2008 that are tryig to steal our democracy instead of our jobs. ACORN is not a bad group. The Republicans are spreading this vote stealing meme to stir up controversy and change the subject from the economy to anything else.

Ok, three comments. Vouchers are another way for white people to get their kids out of schools with “others” and put them in religious schools. Period.

Tonite’s Circle Jerk

Ok kids, here goes another exercise in futility. What are the chances that anything substantial will be discussed tonite? My guess is not much.

Will Ayers finally be mentioned? What about Liddy? Hell, for that matter what about Rezko and Simmons? Who knows. Will anyone care? My guess is not much.

Will we hear about how both men plan on saving the universe with their super amazing plans? Probably. How much of anything they promise will actually come to fruition? My guess is still not much.

What do you think? (I know no one reads this, but it makes me feel better to pretend.) Here’s my guess for what will be said about the debate tomorrow that wasn’t said about the last two: not much.

Holy Racist, Glen “I am god” Beck

My oh my. While driving earlier today I thought, “Let’s see what the Right is saying about the debate tonite” and flipped my radio over to our local hate radio station. The Glen “I’m the savior” Beck show was on. Wow.

I came in right at the end of Glen “I’m the messiah” Beck talking to an “Obama supporter”. Right, I’m sure that’s true. Anyhow, Glen “I will save you all” Beck went into a rant about how Obama wants to be our slave master and will put us to the whip and more I can’t remember but it followed along those lines. Then He “who is apparently the chosen one” Beck went into a rant about how we are all about to become socialists because of Obama.

Now, funny thing is I went to His “Holiness” Beck’s site to find a transcript and I can find the “Obama supporter” gag call and the socialist rant, but the interlude is no where to be found. Funny that. I guess even Glen “The Chosen One” Beck won’t put his racism on ine for the world to see.

And in case you don’t get the messiah shit, just listen to Glen “I am god” Beck once. He thinks he is the lone voice trying to “save” us all. In reality he is a sad, angry little man who could use a kick or two to the head. I’d like to volunteer for that job.

One More Time

Tomorrow is the last Presidential debate. Let’s see if McCain brings up anything from Obama’s past. What would be better is for Obama to bring up McCain’s past, from his friendship with the right-wing extremist, enemy of our Republic and convicted felon G. Gordon Liddy to William Timmons, who used to lobby for Saddam Fucking Hussein.

Game on McCain, you fucking traitor.