The color of infinity inside an empty glass

The more I read, the more centrist I get. I'm sorry but some of the people in Congress are idiots.

So, Sunday the health care bill passed WITH the bit about federal government not paying for abortions included. And then the huge furor including members of the house WHO HAVE ALREADY VOTED saying they won't vote for a bill with this attached (???)

I understand that the attachment makes it harder for women who can't afford an abortion to pay for one, but.. since when was the government involved in giving women money for abortions anyways? I thought this was settled back in '76 with the Hyde Amendment, but apparently not.

I'm not anti-abortion, but I think any liberal who wants to attach a rider saying that the federal government is going to pay for a woman's abortion should be taken in back by Obama and beaten until they get that to do so would undoubtedly mean the end of the Health Care Bill.

This is Liberal Idiocy. No more and no less.

What I want is for the Health Care Bill to pass. Bringing abortion into the debate is .. it's stupid! It's a great way to kill a much needed bill. And for that reason, that one reason, I reject it.

I'm not thrilled with the Health Care Bill. I'd be thrilled if they could include the public option, but include federally-funded abortion and I guarantee you, the Dems would once again be snatching failure out of victory.

Of all the things to get upset about, with all the balls he's juggling in the air, why is anyone really making a big deal out of the fact that Obama wants to invite a bunch of boys over to play basketball.

I mean, are you going to tell me that a Basketball game means that much more than the advisor's he's chosen, the staff he's hired, etc., or are you trying to maybe hold him to some impossible standard you've set for him?

The president wants to play basketball, a sport he clearly loves, with other men. Can't imagine why, except that I can count the number of women I know who even PLAY basketball on one hand. Well, say the whackos, it means unfair access to the President. Sure. It could. So ask the president for fair access. Invite him to do something else. Don't sit there and whine and complain and scream 'Oh my god! The president prefers spending time with men! It's not fair! It's not fair! it's not fair!'

I can't think of a single guy who doesn't just appreciate spending time with his own sex occasionally. Come to that, I can't think of a single woman who doesn't enjoy spending time with her own sex occasionally either. Why is this whole thing some big faux scandal?

Seriously, I think some people need to get over themselves.

So... as I'll assume everybody knows now, Jimmy Carter got on national TV two days ago and accused alot of the attacks on Obama personally (the birthists, the calling him the antichrist, the comparing him to hitler) as nothing more than racism.

It's... quite an attack on the republican party.

The republican party, as a whole (from RNC Chairman Michael Steele to the REAL Heart and Soul of the Republican Party, Rush Limbaugh) has denied this, but.. when a man who was actually alive and living in the South when the Jim Crow laws were reality speaks about racism, can we truly dismiss him so quickly?

The facts are... the attacks by many of the Far Right are indefensible. Questioning his Birth, believing him a Muslim Terrorist, Calling him the Antichrist? These are not opinions that even TOUCH reality. They're born of fear, hatred and the desperate need to illegitimize the president.

And there are many republicans that HAVE been racist towards him. I mean.. hello, Barack the Magic Negro? Pictures of Obama being lynched, or his head on a monkey? How are these anything BUT Racist?

What the Far Right hasn't answer is.. if it isn't racism, what is it? Do they really expect us to believe they're arguing about his POLICIES when they say they don't believe he was born in the U.S.? Nuh uh! Try again!

As far as I can see, the Republican Party isn't arguing policies, they're spreading fear. The man pals around with terrorists, says Attack Bull Palin at McCain's Behest, and people still believe it. The man's healthcare reform is just an excuse to kill off old people screams ex-governor Palin, and people believe that too. I'm not seeing ARGUMENTS, what I'm hearing is a wall of Bullshit. I've said it before and I'll keep saying it until it stops.

Was Joe Wilson a Racist? Signs point to yes. Is that the reason he screamed out "You Lie!" maybe. Whatever it is, at the heart of it, is the truth that Joe Wilson did not respect the president. That is the core of it. That's the core of all of this garbage about where he's from, whether he's a terrorist, etc., a basic lack of respect for a duly elected president.

Is some of it Racism? Yes. Is all of it Racism? .. I'm not sure it's all of it, but...let's say maybe. Maybe, until the Birthers and the Deathers and the Antichristers give us a compelling reason to believe otherwise, we'll say it remains a possibility.

You all knew I was going to take a swing at this, right?

When I was at the July fourth party and blueslives (I think) mentioned Palin had quit I was shocked. I've had some chance to read up on it and get a little bit more information and I'm still.. OK not shocked, but confused.

The primary question is "Why?" Why would Sarah Palin quit? There's a great number of people trying to figure out the answer, and I won't get into most of the theories, but the short answer is.. nobody really knows. Because it came out of nowhere.

I'll say this.. you haven't heard the last of Sarah Palin. For one, I don't think she'd allow it. I think the limelight is far too important to her to truly give it up entirely.

But... let's take a moment to say our goodbyes to Sarah Palin's political career, because I would say it's over. I think she'll RUN for office a few times.. as I said, you haven't heard the last of Sarah Palin, but I doubt you'll ever see her in office again.

The problem with Sarah Palin.. is Sarah Palin.

She can dish out the criticism, but as far as taking it.. any perceived attacks on her or her family are immediately met with all guns blazing. This denotes a lack of a certain level of maturity. There are going to be some situations when you can go out with all guns blazing, but every perceived insult?

Palin also doesn't seem to be very good at understanding the consequences of certain actions. Without any doubt, she thrust her family into the spotlight. Sarah, when you bring your family up onto the stage so we can all sit there and see you in your "natural element" holding baby Trig and whatever.. this is thrusting your family into the spotlight. And the spotlight, as you've hopefully learned now, is a harsh mistress and shows your weaknesses as well as the politicized perceived strengths.

When you politicize your family, that means it's open season on your family. That it's OK to trot out Todd being a member of the AIP and make jokes at Bristol and Levi's expense (especially since you, yourself, guaranteed that actually made news at all by getting personally involved.)

Without a doubt, Sarah Palin has SOME minor political talents, but it's arguable that they're enough to seriously make her a good choice for any political role. What she did in Alaska, the Success she saw there was due to her going after her own party there and working hand in hand with the Democrats to take on Big Oil. Then after things fell apart in November and she'd been used for months to be McCain's attack dog, she came back to Alaska, having said things about Obama pal'ing around with terrorists and "Real Americans" and she found she'd lost her political friends. She's gotten very little done since coming back to office and has been swamped with ethics charges, which she feels were frankly silly.

In other words.. she didn't have the political know-how to go back to her old job and do it effectively after her run as VP. She didn't know how to soothe angry nerves and bring her coalition back and, as a result, she became a Lame Duck.

Palin prides herself as someone who is different from 'all those Washington insiders' and she prides herself on being a Susie Soccer Mom, which definitely works for some of her voters, but maybe doesn't work so well with her peers. Regardless of whatever she prides herself as, if she's unable to work with her peers.. whether that be the Alaska Legislature, the US congress, or the government as a whole (for when she does run for president), she won't be an effective leader.

That is, to some extent, you NEED to work like a Washington Insider to do the job effectively. If you can't, you become moot, useless, a lame duck, a dead fish. Whatever metaphor you want to use.

So we'll see where things go from here for Ms. Palin, but unless she learns a new more mature tune, I doubt you'll ever see Ms. "Quitters take the easy way out but I'm Quitting my job." in any sort office again.

PS I also hope Sarah Palin learns to grow out of this constant victimization of herself by everyone else too. How sad it must be to be Sarah Palin who is constantly misunderstand and mischaracterized by everyone else in Washington: Washington insiders, the main stream media, everyone. People who do the research into what she does, what she says and the consequences of her actions.. no one understands poor victimized Sarah.
Which is why she's going to sue you. :p
Seriously, Sarah, if you can't learn to work with other people, you can't be an effective politician. You simply can't.

Ensign - Had an affair, may have used position to help his affair's husband keep a job and to pay affair's son.
Sanford - Not only had an affair but abandoned post and lied to staff
Jindal - Had an opportunity to show how well thought and intelligent he is and blew it.
Palin - Appeals strongly to the base, but it's arguable that she could ever win anything but a primary election
Romney - Does not particularly appeal to the base, but has kept out of the headlines at least. Would Romney even get past the primaries, however?
Gingrich - Saddled with a great deal of baggage, most of his own making. May have some good relatively fresh ideas, but can't seem to keep his foot out of his mouth.

So... seriously.. am I missing anyone?

Oh, I know! Huckabee!
Huckabee will be the 2012 Republican Presidential Nominee!

This was going to be a snarky post about the RNC. When I last looked, the RNC was gearing up to vote on a resolution to rename the Democratic Party the Democratic Socialist Party. Which is, frankly, stupid and also factually wrong.

But they didn't pass that resolution.

Instead, they passed a resolution to call on Dems to stop pushing us towards Socialism.. which at least has a little more basis in fact, though I don't think is going to make an awful lot of difference in the political battle.

It also doesn't, as far as I can tell, help the Republican party make money or win elections. There's undoubtedly a core of far right republicans who buy that the Democrats are Socialists/Communists, etc.. but the bulk of the country, from what I saw, didn't buy it when the RNC said that a year ago, so I'm not sure what makes the RNC think they'll buy it now.

I get it for what it is, an attempt to brand the Democratic Party. Just as the Dems have branded the RNC 'the party of No' recently. But I'm not sure how effective this will be. Time will tell..

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Sims 3 is coming up in 12 days. My excitement, already on high, has gone to LUDICROUS (Spaceballs Reference). Seriously! I've been reading alot of articles, looking at a Sims 3 Board and, I am so freakin' excited, man.

... not much else to say. See some of you in Vegas, soon!

So, I'm as shocked as the next man (though, maybe not so much in retrospect, the polling looked really bad) that Arlen Specter defected to the Democratic Party. And honestly, I'm not certain what to think about it..

Arlen Specter, as far as I know, leans center right. At the very least, he's an independent. He's a hawk and voted for the Iraq War. He's still saying he won't vote for the EFCA.

There are all sorts of Democrats jumping up and down going "Woohoo! We got 60 Senators, more than enough to block filibusters." Except.. well, I don't think so. We have 60 Democratic Senators, it's true, but on what issues do they agree upon? Any?

This is, of course, assuming Norm Coleman finally loses (and that whole thing is.. it's a bad joke. I hope that not every hotly divided vote will end up spiraling into the madness this one Senate Seat has. I, for one, think Norm Coleman looks like a bad loser, one who won't admit he's lost.) and Senator Franken gets the seat.

I'm not sure anyone's "Won" this at all. I'm not even sure Specter really won this. He's just jumped ship on his party. Now, he'll need to convince people he hasn't jumped ship on his ideals or I'd say his chance to be reelected are next to nil.

Though, there is a clear loser here: The GOP.

What Arlen Specter's leaving has symbolized is that there's no place in the GOP for Moderates. So long as people believe that (and I think people DO believe that, that's how Obama won, because he seemed much more moderate than McCain), than the GOP will continue to be politically marginalized.

I'm not sure what it will take the GOP to get out of the wilderness. They need an image rework of some sort. They need to stop appearing to be the party of Old, White, Racist, Religious Right Nuts and come back as a party with a valid viewpoint that accounts for the fact that the world's CHANGED somewhat.

For the record, I'm not stating that the GOP itself truly stands for Racism, or Religious Fanaticism, but a number of the more vocal members of their party DO. So long as the GOP remains the party of Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Fixed News, they've got a serious Public Relations Problem.

I think.. having gotten as interested in the political stuff as I did for as long as I did.. and then finally having gotten the president I wanted.. yesterday I was euphoric.. today, I just feel wiped out.

I'm still happy my candidate won, but I'm done with arguing, done with trying to correct people. I see there's still a bunch of active threads in CC's Lounge about the election and I just.. don't have the stomach to be involved.

Tomorrow we'll be seeing the Capitol Steps, Musical Political Comedy. THIS I'm looking forward to. Whereas the stuff in the Lounge almost makes me cringe, I know I'll be busting a gut laughing tomorrow at the Capitol Steps' take on things. There's SO much for them to mock from this past election.
Hopefully this time we don't end up sitting next to the Conservative with no sense of humor who only laughs when they mock Barack but audibly mutters and gives us the fisheye when they mock McCain and we laugh.

Just got back from voting. We got there a little after 5, and there was almost no line (compared to the HUGE line we saw as we left.)

So, time to have the usual pep-talk. Vote! This is your chance, your big chance, to have your say in the way this country (as well as your local city or state or whatnot) is run! This is your big chance to have a say!

Many of you aren't happy with the way things have been run. Time to change that. Some fear what a certain politician might do in office! Time to stop that! Whatever your feelings, whoever you're voting for.. today is your day!

Um.. kinda rambly. I got like no sleep last night (so I'm staying home today to recuperate and get ready for tonight's election party.)

Um.. so.. K!

Part the First:

I don't want to think about how much money the wife and I spent yesterday. Nearly all of it was actually necessary, though.
List of things we got:
- K - updated winter wardrobe
- H and K - New Cell Phones (I messaged a bunch of you last night with my new 703 number (I figure.. if I'm staying in the DC area, it's time for a local number)
- H and K - New Knives (we registered for a 15 piece knife set for our wedding and decided to finally buy them. They're niiiice and they cut things GOOD (Yes I know that's not gramatically correct. Trust me, they cut GOOD not Well. OK? OK? OK!)
- PE Review Book ($160 for this, but it's necessary and, with luck, something I'll be using for a looooong time.)
- Plane Tickets to Buffalo for Thanksgiving

So... we've done OUR part to help bolster the economy ;p

The P.E. Review Book is big. It flags the beginning of yet another stage of my life. The exam I want to take is about 7 months away. That means I want to take the next six months reading all 1,088 pages of this book (and the last month doing practice exams) and make sure I actually understand stuff I learned years ago and, by and large, don't regularly use. The good news is I DID understand this stuff once upon a time and haven't entirely lost it (I was looking through the book online and I do at least VAGUELY remember alot of this stuff)

So.. this is Big. Big Big Big BIG!

Part the Second: Anti-American Repulican

First of all, let me preface by saying that I DO NOT think ALL Republicans are Anti-American, but let me tell you what I DO think is Anti-Americans, messing with the election system to make your candidate win. Voter Fraud. Laws meant to try to dissuade the poor from voting. THAT is Anti-American.

Some of the people McCain has hired are Anti-American. They want to win at ALL costs.. and if they can't convert you over to their side, they want to make sure you don't vote.

For the record, this has been an ongoing issue. It was a DEFINITE issue in 2006 (and thought to be connected with the U.S. Attorney Scandal of 2006. Some attorneys wouldn't 'play ball' with Bush/the RNC and thus Bush and Gonzales fired them.) Someone screams voter fraud and a stupid law appears on the book that would make it harder for Americans, especially those that are poor, to vote.

Don't believe it's happening? Read the Wall Street Journal. 200,000 new people in Ohio Registered 200,000. Worried about voter fraud in Ohio came up and a Republican Judge tried to put the Kabash on 200,000 new voters until the Supreme Court overruled them. This is UNACCEPTABLE.

THIS is UNAMERICAN. This is UNACCEPTABLE. This country was founded on the idea of all (free white) men getting a vote on how this country should be run, not just those that agree with a certain party.

And it's especially ironic in the face of Sarah Palin, who likes to visit "Pro-American" parts of the country (EXCUSE ME?!?! Listen, you stupid woman, but we love America in New York JUST as much as you love it in Alaska or Texas. Just because we don't agree about how the country should be run does NOT mean we're Anti-American. For God's sake.. is that how you see the world? There's "Us" (The Right-Wing Christians of the world) and everyone else, who's out to get you and everything you stand for? What a sad, pitiful life.)

And then.. and THEN Michelle Bachman (R) Minnesota who not only suggested that Obama is Anti-American, but a number of members of congress are as well. Excuse me? Is this the 1950s again? Are we really back to McCarthyism? That's just.. just.. I don't believe people still believe this shit.

I just hope and pray that the lies don't work, that the voter fraud scare doesn't work this time and that ALL Americans get a chance to vote (and knock those assholes out of government.)

And now.. some amusement, why politicians shouldn't roleplay online (MMPORG for those of you in the know)