Fight For Your Own Money, Please

Yesterday, I spent the evening watching talking heads speak about Tea Bagging. I watched Rachel Maddow giggle with glee as she marveled at the protestors ignorance of the colloquial meaning of Tea Bagging. I listened as Keith Olberman derided the Tea Baggers as puppets of the grand corporate marketing scheme. I even witnessed Anderson Cooper admit to not being able to effectively talk while being Tea Bagged. And it was all good stuff.

But with all the Liberal pundits spouting off about the hilarious double entendre of Tea Bagging, I had to stop and wonder exactly what they were protesting. Just like every protest, some random, non-related people showed up to join in the protesting fun. Racists freaks, anti-Government bums, Christian "Rights" groups, and even pro-war protesters (whatever the fuck that means) showed up to join in the fun. I swear, it's like a gay rights march in reverse. The problem I had though is that the talking heads tended to focus on those fringe characters to deride the protestors as Crazy or Insane when the fringe participants were hardly representatives of the majority there. They weren't shunned in most cases, mind you, but I hardly think one man carrying a racist, anti-Obama poster counts as the totality of the message the larger group was trying to convey.

I'm willing to set aside a few of the fallacies of this "grass-roots" movement to examine the concept. Sure, it wasn't a grass roots movement, it was backed by and supported by corporate lobbyist firms. And sure, many of the protestors were protesting Obama's bailout package… even though they supported Bush's less-stringent version just a few months ago. Putting that all aside, do these people have a point? Will the raising of taxes on the wealthiest Americans (which, by the by, would not affect the overwhelmingly vast majority of the protestors in the least) really do anything to save our country? And will these bailout packages make a difference?

In my opinion… well, I have no idea if the bailouts will save us. Finance is not my area, and it's obviously not the area of most of the talking heads on TV. Most of the experts seem to think they will help, but I've grown weary of partisan experts anyway, so it's hard to say. What I can say is that if you get a chance to watch last night's Daily Show, you should probably do so, as their guest did a great job at explaining why the past 10 years of deregulation have led us to this point, and how re-regulating industries rife with greed can only benefit us all. If we need to bail out all the financial institutions in this country in order to reign in their practices, than so be it.

What else I know is that I'm still amazed at how easily poor and middle class Americans can be manipulated to fighting for rich people. I did not hear of many wealthy people showing up at these Tea Parties, the people that are actually affected by Obama's tax increases. Instead I saw tons of middle-class white people crying. Why? I still have no idea. Just like yesterday's post about the fight for Marriage, I am baffled at why middle-class people that will NEVER be in that top 1% of the wealth curve insist on fighting for rich people's right to have, keep and make more money than them. It's as if they are still disillusioned into believing they'll be there some day, if only they buy enough lottery tickets…

I just don't understand is all. We've got A LOT to fight for in our lives, and these people choose to fight over some one else's money. Let the rich people complain about their money themselves! Stop fighting about what isn't yours in the first place and get back to working on things that will actually affect your quality of life.

World's Biggest Idiot To Tell Us "Decisions Is Hard"

Someone has given George W. Bush a book deal. Seriously, someone is giving him a ridiculous amount of money (most likely, although not confirmed) to pen his story. So what's he going to write about? Well, Bush has decided that since he is "The Decider," he should write about all the tough decisions he's had to make and why he made the absolute correct decision in every case. Because, you know, he's never wrong. He's got Jeebus on his side…

Oh, and it's currently titled Decision Points. God damn, that man is smert…

Honestly, I get why someone would offer him a book deal. The fundies will go ape shit for it when it comes out and the lefties (me included) will criticize it to hell and back, which will most likely just drive up sales for the middle-or-the-road peeps. But still, how can anyone with a conscience give this homicidal megalomaniac actual cash to talk about his crimes, like sending our troops to die in a war he actively deceived the American Public to get involved in. A war that has drained billions upon billions of dollars from our ailing economy. A war that has costs thousands of lives, American, Iraqi and otherwise.

Personally, I'd rather see the man tried for his crimes and read the book some reporter writes about that trial, but I highly doubt we'll ever see this man brought to justice. It seems the public just wants to sweep him into the closet and forget he ever happened.

Dear McCain: You Suck

Kucinich Shows His Balls On The House Floor

Oh, my dear, sweet, Dennis Kucinich! Let me count the ways I love you!

Two days ago, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment (PDF) against the tyrannical George W. Bush. Kucinich spent four hours at the podium reading off the charges (I would say allegations, but FFS, they are almost all accurate), knowing full well that Impeachment hearings would never happen. There seems to be mixed feelings on this among the blogosphere of late, some saying that it is a idiotic move that he knew was DOA, others hailing him as a brave soul finally standing up for the people's voice. Personally, I tend to agree with later.

Look, we all know that these aren't going to go anywhere, simply because we have pussyfooting leaders in the Democratic Party right now. Hugging and loving and "turning the other cheek" tactics with this incompetent, despicable faux-leader called Bush, however, does nothing other than prove your inability to enact change or willingness to pursue the right actions in this country. Let him slide merely reinforces his perception that he's doing the correct things in office, meanwhile thousand's of soldier's die on his watch, hundreds of thousands of people lose their jobs/livelihood/homes, and everyone of us feels the crunch of his gas policies (Anyone else think it's a bit odd that his family made their fortune in oil and has close ties to the royal family of Saudi Arabia... I'm just saying)

I've felt for awhile now that, even though Kucinich isn't my rep, he is one of the few the represent my ideals. He was also my choice for president in the primaries, even though I knew there was just no chance of him getting the ticket (and he had already dropped out by the time Illinois rolled around), but that's actually the entire point. We have to stand up for what we believe and call people out on their BS, or we will never see anything we want come to fruition. So count this as my "hat's off" to Dennis Kucinich for yet another job well done. And to the pussyfooting Dem leadership... wake up!