Vote for Fear '08

Everybody loves a good fight. (A good PianoFight, that's for sure! I'm hilarious.) I like to think I'm fighting the good fight, working for change and hoping for some truly necessary new leadership. I'm from Pennsylvania, though, where the "Good Fight" looks totally different depending on which side of Amishland you live on. In the east, there are democrats, raging for change, and in the west, there are cow fields and Penn State and some die-hard Republicans protecting the home and hearth from terrorism. Which could strike any moment in their cow fields.

Ah, that terrorism. So scary. Radical Islamists parachuting from the sky like dark, Godless aliens with nuclear warheads strapped to their chests, ready to lay waste to the American countryside. To be fair, I guess terrorists have dropped a plane before into a Pennsylvania field, which is not an easy thing to accept. I haven't. I'm terrified of planes. Of heights, and guns, and war, and a painful death. Poverty. Defunct health insurance. Cancer. That girl from "The Ring," too. There are plenty of things to be scared of in this world. And now we've got this big ol' election looming up next week, and what have we've got: a black man running against an old war hero with a lady sidekick who makes feminism comparable to...well, shit. (Seriously, have you ever been to a cow field? Her campaign is just like that.) Jesus Christ, everybody's scared!

Scared of Arab tendencies and illegal voting, dangerous acorns, or that bitch socialism: America is peeing in its collective pants. It's not just about abortion, or health care, or the economy, or the North Pole turning into a polar bear Slushee. We're scared of our neighbors, because they look different. (Still.) We're threatened by homosexuality, because we don't want our daughters being taught they can marry princesses if they want, or our sons getting AIDS and joining bands called "Queen." We're singularly proud of our democracy, especially when we get the chance to force it down foreignors throats, like a sort of reverse-regurgitated present. We want things to look like they did before, when we were children, and the United States still had a sort of gleaming honor about it. These days, we've grown into an awkward and ugly national adolescence, and we're kind of like the douchebag teenager huffing "Dust Off" in the bathroom and pretending we're not failing algebra. And, on top of it all, we've turned into a wicked little pyromaniac about to set the whole school on fire.

I'm sick of this terror shit. I'm tired of the fear-mongering, and the people who are still resistant to change out of cowardice. America is not always right, and our good fight is not always good. I don't doubt the ferocity of a voter who is passionate about the issues at hand, but I challenge the motives of a voter who is afraid. Don't vote for someone because he is- or isn't- black. Don't vote for a woman because she has boobs. (She is a cow field.) Don't be scared, and not do anything about it. That's lame. And it won't change anything. And isn't that what all this is about? Change?


"America this is quite serious.
America this is the impression I get from looking in the television set.
America is this correct?
I'd better get right down to the job.
It's true I don't want to join the Army or turn lathes in precision parts
factories, I'm nearsighted and psychopathic anyway.
America I'm putting my queer shoulder to the wheel."
Allen Ginsberg, America

PS Happy Halloween!!!! Oooooh spooky!

Depraved Indifference

To constitute depraved indifference, a group or individual person's conduct must be so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime. Depraved indifference focuses on the risk created by the group or individual person's conduct, not the injuries actually resulting.

That's right, I'm speaking to "those people" of the Republican party and supporters of John McCain who, amidst the ugliest and most dishonest campaign for the American Presidency in history, choose to keep their hearts and mouths shut regarding the blatant misrepresentation, false accusations, fear mongering, and out and out lies perpetrated by their candidate.

Let's call a spade a spade here. John McCain is a racist. That's right, I said it and I'll say it again. John McCain is a racist. For a man of 72 who has been a witness to and lived through the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights Movement, he shows an utter lack of sensitivity, understanding, and respect for his opponent and fellow Senate peer.

But the brunt of my ire is not directed toward John McRacist but rather to those who choose to turn a blind eye to his despicable tactics in order to win. You mutherfuckers (you don't mind if I call you mutherfuckers do you?) would rather put into the most powerful office in the world, a man who has proven thus far to be a liar and a cheat rather than a man who has spent his whole life in the service of the same people who would blurt out "Kill Him" or "Terrorist" at a republican presidential rally.

Where are the voices of dissent? Where is the righteous indignation for this breech of American's trust and the systematic dismantling of the American dream. Barack Obama is not a terrorist, or an Arab, or a baby killer, or any of the thousands of other lies and misrepresentations attributed to him by McRacist and you know it. So, in effect, your lack of dissent and continued support for this monster makes you as guilty of depraved indifference as he is guilty of douchbaggery.

The best definition of racism I've heard is "having a higher threshold for the suffering of one group of people over another". Simply put, if Barack Obama pulled the same low-life tactics against McOldFart and his constituency you would not only have run him out of Washington but out of the country all together.

Why do you accept this behavior? Why do you support his hate and fear mongering by turning a blind eye to these tactics? Personally, the answer, as far as I can tell, is that your threshold for the suffering of those who chose to support the Obama campaign is higher than your own. Moreover, I don't differentiate between the crime and the criminal, the tactic or the tactician so I hold you equally responsible for your candidates behavior and the subsequent deterioration of our country's moral fiber.

If you lose this election, don't blame John McCain for running a piss poor race, blame yourselves for electing a grumpy, 72 year old, out of touch, racist to be your candidate. Blame yourselves for not speaking up against a social and political terrorist who would attempt to destroy another man in order to keep from relinquishing power to a so called "outsider" that you claim not to know. Blame yourselves for subscribing to the notion that Obama is not "one of us" or supporting the even wilder rhetoric of "who is the real Obama" despite his complete personal history having been picked through like a left-over turkey the day after Thanksgiving. Quite frankly, blame yourselves for being scared!

Dan Rather to Media: Wimps!

Dan Rather is feisty and firing off complaints against the national press like a drunkenly indignant Howard Beale.

No one is fearless, but fear shouldn't be in the DNA of an American journalist.... American journalism stands for clear-eyed, well-researched, know the facts, look 'em in the eye, ask 'em the tough question, don't back down, don't back away, just keep coming. That's the kind of coverage the American public deserves.

Fuck yeah Dan! Go get 'em buddy!

"First of all. these aren't debates. Let's get that straight right from the beginning. They are a something, but they're not debates. These so-called debates are put on by the two major political parties, for the two major political parties and their candidates," he added. "These so-called debates are not by the people, for the people. They are by the parties, for the parties. That's what's wrong with them."

Hell yes.

And just for good measure: