Tag Archives: president

Toward a Neo-Fuedal State

I’d just like to take a moment to thank the U.S. Congress and the White House for such careful, measured and sane deliberation over the debt ceiling, debt crisis and all that.

I must say that I love seeing a group of politicians act like terrorists and hold an entire nation hostage to their increasingly ridiculous demands as they do everything possible to thwart the president from…well, thwart him from doing ANYTHING at all, good or bad, because they want the uppity Negro out of office and want to jumpstart their Christian spin on Sharia law.

I also love watching a president in whom I had decent hopes (and sometimes high ones) continue to negotiate with crazy people as if they are level-headed and help not only create a pile of dogshit masquerading as responsible legislation and budgeting but also try to spin it as a victory for progressives.

But most of all, thank you, everyone in power in Washington, D.C. for forgetting that you were elected by common people, struggling people and working people…and thank you for having the wisdom to once again steal from those most in need to give to those who keep getting more and more and paying less and less ever since Ronald Reagan convinced the nation of the myth that is trickle-down economics.

Screw all y’all…

Obama, Christian Love & Teabag Insanity

First, as a fairly liberal/progressive Democrat, let me say one thing to everyone out there who’s losing his or her frickin’ sanity over President Barack Obama, healthcare reform, or anything else related to Democrats:

Shut up and deal with it.

I’m not saying you can’t disagree or debate, but enough with threatening to kill the sitting president, claiming that he’s instituting Socialism, and all that other bullshit.

Since I became a relatively politically aware human being, and as the son of a devout anti-abortion, Catholic, Union-card carrying electrician (who also votes Democrat like me), I have had to suffer through the depredations of Ronald Reagan, Bush #1 and Bush #2 (I was too young during the Ford and Carter years to really grasp enough politics to care).

That’s 20 damn years I’ve suffered Republicans. The best years for our nation economically happened under Clinton, who could have stood to be a little less moderate at times and a little more left leaning, but at least he mostly got things right in terms of being a human and treating the citizenry who weren’t rich with some kind of compassion.

That’s 20 years of Republican rule I’ve lived under, and 8 years of Democratic rule. It’s time for you right-wing, conservative, war-mongering, wealth-chasing, poor-bashing, bigoted asses who pine for the days of Ronnie and Dubya to sit down and take a long, deep breath.

You’ve had plenty of time, and mostly, all you’ve done is cut the legs out from under the poor and working class, cut loose the mentally ill on the public, raped the school system, sent American jobs overseas, and rewarded corporations for screwing over their employees.

You’ve had 20 years of my politically aware life. You owe me at least another 7 years, if not 11, to make up for it before you get your shot again.

I didn’t scream at Reagan or either Bush. I didn’t threaten them. I bided my time and suffered and sweated, and now it’s my damned time.

Get it?

The nation doesn’t belong to Republicans. It belongs to Americans. But too many Americans handed it over like it was the GOP’s playground alone.

Take a rest, calm down, and tend to your homes, and let the sitting administration do its job, just like I let three of the last four do theirs to my detriment.

Second thing I want to say:

When did we lose (or rather, YOU lose, and I’m still speaking to the rapid GOP supporters, especially those whom they most screw over…the working class Republicans, who must be the most masochistic group of people on Earth) the ability to have polite discourse? When did it become appropriate to call for militias to take D.C. back for the people? Or to put a bullet in Obama’s head? Had any Democrat, liberal or other left-leaning group or individual done that during the GOP administrations, you’d be calling for their blood and calling them un-American and unpatriotic.

Be patriotic, and respect your damn president. At least half the nation disagrees with you right now, probably more than that, and you need to sit your asses down until you can debate sensibly.

Especially you Bible thumpers (and I love me some Jesus too, mind you). Even if you think Obama is persecuting you, Jesus told us to love those who persecute us, and he never advocated armed rebellion against sitting governments. Nor did he call for killing anyone. Jesus would be ashamed of every damn Teabag Party/teabagger out there.

That is all.

Happy President’s Day

I didn’t feel much like having a Happy Valentine’s Day post since the only two valentine recipients I truly have any investment in are Mrs. Blue and Little Girl Blue. Both would rather have the Valentine’s sentiments straight from me rather than on my blog. (Plus, the latter of the two can’t read yet.)

But hey, on President’s Day, and me spouting off on religious stuff so often…

…Did you know that many of our Founding Fathers (whether they made it to the Oval Office or not) were either full-out Deists or had Deist tendencies. I find this interesting considering how often certain classes of folks insist this nation was founded as a Christian one.

Anyway, for a little on Deism and how it differs from Christianity (though some Deists maintained they were essentially Christian even if they denied things like miracles and revelation and prophecy in the Bible), click here.

Yeah, I know Wikipedia isn’t always the best source of information for a variety of reasons, but this article looks pretty solid.

And for some added fun, a Web page that maintains the Founding Fathers were Deists (here) and one that says that notion is a bunch of crap (here).

Yeah, I know, this is a lazy post today. I’ll try to get something cooler up later today or tonight if I can.

Two-fer Tuesday: Failure by Deacon Blue

george_w_bushFailure is often in the eye of the beholder. As George W. Bush and his friends and associates run out the clock on this lamest-of-lame-duck presidencies of modern memory, they are trying to figure out how to cast the legacy of Dubya. Apparently, how to put a good spin on an abyssmal eight years. I suppose they’ll manage something, because after all, even a pile of shit can be spun positively as potential fertilizer.

At the blog Margaret and Helen, where I like to visit but usually don’t leave comments, I was kind of verbose (three or four comments) in one of their recent posts. And at one point, someone asked if anyone really thought Bush did a good job and if so, how?

I couldn’t resist, and made a list of five “successes” of Dubya’s adminstration. I’ve added five more so that we can get a nice top ten list, though it’s in no particular order.

President George W. Bush’s Great Successes in Office

  1. He ran the country just as well as he handled most of his personal life (college education and recreational beverage use most notably) and as well as he ran most of the businesses ventures in which he was involved previously.
  2. He didn’t get involved in any sex scandals (no doubt he feared having a high-heeled shoe impale his skull courtesy of Laura…that might explain his skill at dodging shoes thrown by irate Iraqi journalists).
  3. He helped his staff, advisors and several world leaders get some exercise and fresh air at the “Texas White House” he spent so much time hiding…er, I mean working at.
  4. He helped keep the Al Quaeda Mobile Dialysis Services Company in business by NOT catching their best client.
  5. He helped get the Supreme Court more involved in politics…it was about time those apathetic bastards decided an election!
  6. He put the “tan” back in Guantanamo Bay by locking up dozens upon dozens of people with Arabic names/backgrounds even if they hadn’t done anything demonstrably wrong.
  7. He brought torture back in style, which put the “Gua!” “O!” and “Ay!” back in Guantanamo Bay as well as adding “Please…no more…mercy” and “Gyahhhhh!”
  8. He streamlined the workload for the office staff that handles Social Security by getting rid of that pesky surplus money and using it to wage a war for God, America and Big Oil.
  9. Through the “No School Left Behind Act,” he boosted the sales of number 2 pencils and Scan-Tron machines by making ill-advised standardized tests the barometer of success for our nation’s beleaguered schools.
  10. He helped sour the American public so much on the idea of electing “the person you’d most like to have a beer with” that we ended up not only with an intelligent man elected again, but also our first black president.

Election 2008: The Stakes – Christian Values

Yeah, yeah, I know. I just posted one of these Election 2008 items just yesterday. But since I’m still waiting on Miz Pink to post her Saturday post, and since I’ve gotten a bit worked up by the blind devotion to Sarah Palin that I’m seeing at some of the Christian blogs I frequent, I’m here again.

As I noted before, I try not to get too much into politics around here. But with this year’s presidential election and all that has been done wrong in the country for the past eight years, this is a pivotal time and we need to clear the air about some things.

See also:

Sept. 7 Post – Election 2008: The Stakes – Experience

Sept. 12 Post – Election 2008: The Stakes – Our Troops

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The headline for this post should probably have been “traditional conservative Christian values” and not simply “Christian values,” but I only have so much room up there. This is at least one area in which I will admit that a Barack Obama-Joe Biden win would be “bad.” It would move the conservative evangelicals backward politically speaking. Also, some baseline Christian value issues that crop up across various Chrisitian lines, like gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research—things many working class and conservative middle class and upper class Christians hate—will get support.

So what?

I don’t mean that to be dismissive of Christian values. I have Christian values. Many of them conservative, though I’m sure some of the Christians who visit here might not believe that from what I talk about and how I present things. But last I checked, we don’t have a theocracy here. Our government is not about religion. In fact, we say that we support religious freedom and freedom of expression, so having a government that is willing to cram Christian doctrine down our throats legislatively, as George W. Bush has done, as some politicians before him have done, and as I think a McCain-Palin presidency would do (along with the help of ultra-conservative justices that they would no doubt be in a position to put on the Supreme Court).

This is a representative democracy and as such, I am not ever going to vote for a candidate based on religious views or because he or she will uphold Christian values. This is a nation of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans and so many, many more. To uphold Christian values as the standard is just plain wrong.

Christian values are something to be handled in our churches and our families, not on the national or even local political stage. Yet many people who support McCain now are doing so fervently because a very conservative Christian is now running with him, and she is a person whom many Americans relate to because she is an “Average Joe” (though why we would want an average Joe in charge of the entire nation potentially is beyond me). There are actually some Christians out there who are praying not only that McCain and Palin will be elected but that God will bring McCain home soon thereafter so that Palin can step up to the plate.

My dad is Catholic from all the way back, and devotedly so, and he hates abortion. But you know what, he is a working class man who realizes that by and large, the Democrats are the ones who have supported the needs of the working class more than the Republicans. We were talking politics and he noted that he hates the level of support the Dems put behind the pro-choice camp, to the extent they almost look like they support abortion (being pro-choice and pro-abortion really are two different things, by the way, and my dad realizes it and you should to if you don’t already). But he also told me that he is not going to vote against his own interests and the interests of the nation and vote an angry, confused man and an inexperienced, extremist woman into office. Making a decision about the presidency based on one or even a handful of religious issues is wrong, he told me.

And he’s right. It’s the financial, foreign relations, social, labor and infrasctructure issues that will define how economically viable and internationally relevant we will remain.

Countries that are run by religious leaders tend to be the ones that spawn terrorists, and the ones that we often most fear. Why would be want to emulate them by voting with our Bibles?

Election 2008: The Stakes – Experience

Normally, I try not to get too much into politics around here. But with this year’s presidential election and all that has been done wrong in the country for the past eight years, this is a pivotal time. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters, perhaps some of those who visit this blog, are angling for the Republicans because, after all, aren’t they the party that loves God best?

Don’t be fooled. I’m not saying Barack Obama is the be-all and end-all. He’s no savior and no messiah, figuratively or literally. But anyone who chooses to vote solely on religious values and picks the GOP because they spout off about God more often is quite possibly going to help plunge our country into more chaos. Remember, church and state are separate. Render unto Caesar’s what is his and unto God what is God’s. Keep them separate and try to remember that most of us in this nation are middle class or working class, and there has not been any time in my 40 years of life that I’ve ever seen a Republican president truly serve the interests of either class, and it seems like they hate the truly poor folks.

I am going to make my case, as much as possible from a spiritual perspective, but mostly practical ones, as to why you should not vote for the McCain-Palin ticket unless you are a wealthy sonovabitch who couldn’t care less what happens as long as you get all your tax breaks.

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There’s a funny little saying going around a lot these days since John McCain named Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Jesus was a community organizer; Pontius Pilate was a governor.

Palin herself, who is currently a first-term governor in Alaska (and formerly mayor of a town of 9,000 people…or was it 5,000 at the time? Not entirely sure), a state which—with less than 700,000 people in it, probably has more moose than people—helped birth this little ditty by making a snide comment in her speech at the Republican National Convention last week that went something like: Barack Obama was a community organizer and I was a mayor. Those two jobs are very similar, except that as a mayor, you actually get things done.

Very biting. Very snappy. Very clever. Very bold.

Also, very freaking wrong and deceitful.

First off, if you want to know about some community organizers who’ve gotten things done, check out this post at the blog Ephphatha. Barack Obama was a community organizer in one of the biggest cities in the nation. A city that has numerous neighborhoods with far more people in them than Palin had to deal with in her entire town as mayor.

Moreover, Obama has been a state senator and U.S. senator for more years than Palin has been a governor, and again, he has done so for a state that has lots of multinational ties and lots of trade and lots of issues and a big economy. He has had far more experience dealing with national policy and national issues and more experience in foreign relations. Sure, foreign relations isn’t his strong-suit, but would you say that McCain has got the makings of great foreign relations expertise with his massive hair-trigger temper and simmering bigotry and sexism? And Palin has zero foreign policy experience.

Look, fact is that that the Barack Obama-Joe Biden ticket buys you more experience in legislative, executive and social issues than the John McCain-Sarah Palin ticket does.

People want to talk about how plucky and cute and smart and go-getter Palin is. So the hell what?

If you are a person with money to invest in lots of stock, or you are a person with your 401K or other retirement funds invested partly or wholly in stocks, think about this:

Do you want the corporations your money is invested in to be run by people who are good looking and plucky and have wonderful families and seem so darn down to earth? (We’ll assume for the moment that all those things are true with Palin, though really, they aren’t all true.) Or do you want a good business person with a strong track record?

Fact is that given McCain’s age and past health problems, there is a pretty significant chance that Palin would end up having to step in as president.

Do you want a self-proclaimed PTA/hockey mom with some family turmoil in charge? A person who ran a small town and now runs a sparsely populated state and has a track record of trying to ban books, get the ex-spouse of her sister fired and other controversies?

Or do you want someone whom other nations will take seriously and who has played in the big leagues?

Your choice.

I’ll take experience please. That would be Obama and Biden.

Shades of gray

obama.jpgMany Christian bloggers whom I respect greatly and read regularly will never vote for Barack Obama if he gets the nod to be the Democratic candidate for president of these semi-United States. Of course, they probably wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, either, but the point is that they see Obama as a liberal wingnut who will rabidly support abortions and wild social spending and who won’t support family and spiritual values. I respect their views because we all have it partly right and partly wrong. But for my part, I tend to look at the other side (read, the GOP) and see a bunch of folks who have no problem spending our money on pointless wars instead of rebuilding our infrastructure, systematically enriching the wealthiest at the expense of both the middle class and the poor, and claiming to want government to stay out of our personal lives while simultaneously trying to legislate our morality (OK, the democrats do that last one, too, I have to admit, plus they try to legislate healthy behaviors at the expense of personal freedoms).

Guess I just see it differently. I always did, because I’ve supported Obama from damn near day one and if I hadn’t, his speech yesterday on race in America would have won me over. (For a transcript and audio recording, click here…for a YouTube video of the speech, click here.) Because this wasn’t just a speech about race; it showed a real Christian who holds faith close and admits his imperfections. He represents spiritually a lot of what fills and drives me, except that unlike Obama, I don’t have a church home right now.

But from past experience, I know what it’s like to be deeply involved in a church and not agree with everything the pastor saysnor feel like I have to.

People have called Obama to the carpet to answer for why he’d go to a church where a pastor makes inflammatory statements and yet they’ve glossed over the multitude of white candidates over the years whose pastors or spiritual advisers or religious supporters have views and statements every bit as fierce and inflammatory, if not worse.

As the husband of a black woman and a father to two biracial children, I have an insight into black life that most white people don’t enjoy, so let me tap into that just a little bit to let any confused non-blacks in on why we shouldn’t give two shits about what Rev. Jeremiah Wright had to say when it comes to Obama’s presidential ambitions:

The black church ain’t like the white church.

Stop expecting that a black pastor would refrain from incendiary political talk from the pulpit at times. Especially if that black pastor is old enough to have experienced institutionalized racismgovernment sanctioned abuse of the black race long after constitutional amendments and various laws should have settled once and for all that blacks were every bit as entitled to things as whites were.

I’ll say it again. The black church ain’t like the white church.

Argue all you will that blacks are social services leeches, despite all the numbers that show whites use way more social services dollarsbut long before before the government was willing to give blacks shit for help, the black church had to serve as the social service center for blacks. And because whites were so terrified of blacks gathering together in groups it had to be a political gathering place as well as being the religious gathering place. It even had to be the fucking health clinic in many communities.

So if you wonder why passions run high in black churches and why politics are ingrained in themand even why a black Christian church like Obama’s church, Trinity, might recognize Louis Farrakhan for good works in a communityremember it’s because for too long, America hadn’t been willing to give shit to black folks…and when it finally did, it gave it out sloppily, made blacks feel bad about it, structured it to help continue to destroy family stability, and then f-ing expected it to make up for centuries of mistreatment.

We’ve come a long way in this country, and that’s good. But we have a long ways to go, no matter how much white America just wants to have the race issue just go away.

Obama made clear why it isn’t going away, and why we need to face it together for once. This is a man who is black…because that’s the way the people of America see him for the most part. But let’s not forget he is also half white.

This is a man who can tell it like it is, who can stand up for himself and others, and take what is so often presented in black and white and show how much gray there still isand how we can make the gray into something more dazzling. He ain’t perfect by a long shot. He might not even be an earth-shattering president.

But he’s our best chance right now for a fresh start racially and a chance to get a real Christian in the White House who wears his faith proudly but also won’t hide behind it (you hear me, Dubya?). He can question his pastor’s views without having to cast him aside; he makes his faith part of his life without blindly following some script handed to him from some religious body.

Yesterday, Obama told it like it was, and I’m proud of him. He’s my brother in Christ, and by God, I hope he’ll be my president.

(There’s a lot more that one could say about Obama, but if you want some of that, visit some of the sites in my blogroll that are related to African-American topics and check out the posts from March 18 in particular. And if you cannot figure out which blogs are the black ones by looking at the names, you need serious help 😉 )