Scarier Than A Fake Monster

You want to know something that scares me? Like worse than that damned Cloverfield movie did? (ask my husband… I think he still has a scar on his leg from when I latched on to him shortly after screaming like a 12-year girl).

Mike Huckabee. That man scares the living shit out of me.

What scares me more than Mike Huckabee? The idea that pundits are placing him as a legitimate candidate for the 2012 elections.

If you're not familiar with Huckabee, I'm sure you can check my back logs for some of the wonderful things he did/said during the 2008 race and since, but I can sum it up pretty concisely: He's a fundamentalist Christian former-pastor that believes in bringing religion "to the table" while governing. That's not the scary part though, mainly because that is not enough to get a guy elected. The scary part is that he's smart, he's funny, he's articulate and he's likable.

Essentially, he's Sarah Palin with intelligence.

He's scary because he supports anti-gay initiatives, up to and including punishing those who deign to rule for equality in cases involving LGBT folk. He's A-OK with the ouster of three Iowa Supreme Court judges simply because they ruled in favor of marriage equality. In fact, he thinks that is "a sign" and he's ready to harness that energy:

"The significance and historic nature of the judicial elections here in Iowa were far bigger than the borders of Iowa," he said. "It was a very important statement that voters made, a statement that resonated across the country and one that I think will give legs to a larger movement over the next few years."

So while he's scarier than Palin to me, I have to wonder what a Republican primary race would look like if you have two or three ultra-conservative candidates running? Would Palin and Huckabee try to out-conservative each other? What if someone like Mitt Romney jumped in on the fun? And would an election based on vitriol and religious fundamentalism really advance anything in this country, or would it only provide further fuel for the "us vs. them" crowd?

It seems to me that the right-wing of this country has decidedly co-opted fundamentalist Christianity. Or should that be the other way around? It doesn't matter really which way it happened, but it does matter that it is scary and cannot lead to anything good for this country.

YES WE DID!!!!

We fucking did it, Kittens!!! Barack Obama will be our next President!!

Everyone is projecting a practical landslide victory for Barack Obama. I won't write much else, because I'm too busy celebrating, drinking, and trying to avoid the coming partying in the streets here in Chicago.

However, I will leave you with this. This is what we call a mandate: nearly 300 electoral votes and 55% of the popular vote. THAT is a fucking mandate, Bush. THAT is a country screaming for change and looking for direction. THIS is our future.

Don't Pet The PUMAs, They Aren't As Cute And Cudly As They Appear

For those blissfully in the ignorant column, the PUMAs (Party Unity My Ass) are a group of dumb, jackass Hilary supporters that have decided that not voting or voting McCain is a better idea than voting for Obama. They formed shortly after Clinton suspended her campaign (read: lost) and have since made lots of noise about how the Democratic Party has completely derailed, rah, rah, rah...

Look, I like Hillary. She's just swell. I would have been happy to vote for her if she were the nominee and I would have supported her more in the primaries if it weren't for fears that she'd just as soon throw us gays under the bus as her husband did. But swearing off your party and supporting the anti-her for president simply because you didn't get your way? Well, that deserves a big old Fuck You!

Oh, but wait, there's more! They aren't quite done yet, no no. Today, resident jackass-in-chief Will Bower (the twit behind PUMA) spoke to the press. And the press, being the press, soaked it up and printed it as soon as the words were falling from his mouth. A few choice statements:

• "I see Barack Obama as essentially being the Democratic George Bush"
• "I didn't want to validate corruption or reward the campaign for what I thought was a fraudulent victory."
• "[McCain is] a bipartisan leader, and I think that's the kind of leadership we need right now."

Oh, and my favorite non-sensical circular argument:

• "I think [Sarah Palin] is essentially as qualified as Barack Obama. The benefit of Palin is that she is only second on the ticket, as opposed to first. I feel that Barack Obama is no more qualified than Sarah Palin."

So you support McCain because he's got a nit-wit for a running mate? Great rationale there, buddy. Listen, when all you're rights have been stripped from you and Palin starts trying to push the nuclear button to further the Apocalypse, let me know how well that worked for you.

Yeah. PUMAs are ridiculous. I actually was forced to eat dinner with one the other day and I was as close to slapping a queen across the face in front of the entire bar as I think I've ever been. My friend and I spent the rest of the evening making him feel like the dumb-ass he is, and somehow he had a good time and said I was pleasant. Maybe I should be an asshole more often...

Voting Problems Starting To Surface

If there is one person in this country that you don't want to screw up their voter information, I'd say it's probably the out-spoken Tim Robbins. Just throwing it out there that he could be the worst person to have his name "accidentally" fall off his polling location's roster. Oh, and making him stroll downtown to find a judge who can certify that he's allowed to vote at the same location he's voted for the previous 10 years? Yeah, I'm guessing that wouldn't go over well.

The good news here is he's rich and can take the time to go see a judge to square things away. But if that happened to you or I, would we have the luxury of that? Well, no, because Election Day is just another day in the business world. Us peons should be at work, working on work things and such, instead of out voter for liberals! Yeah, yeah, tin hat blah blah blah….

Anyway, CNN is reporting other issues as well. Given that I was told that I had voted too much this morning (??) before I had the official examine my ballot and verify it, and that there were a couple cases at my polling station of ballets being filled out before voters had touched them, and that we still rely on people that are hanging on to their last facilities to run polling stations, I'm starting to get a bit worried. I don't think I can deal with a third election being held hostage by shady tactics.

Looks like we'll have to wait a few more hours to really start to get a feel of how things are flowing.

McCain's "Kind Of Sorry" He Sucks....

OK, ok, that's not really at all what he said, but it's such a better quote! Really, McCain went on Good Morning America this morning and had this to say:

"I'm kind of sorry that it's over because it's been exciting. I mean, it's been -- it's been one of the most incredible experiences that anybody can have."

He's talking about the presidential race, of course, but I think that's a bit of an odd way to look at things. I mean… he's spent his entire campaign trying to malign Barack Obama, and he's "kind of sorry" it's over? I put a lot of things in the "most incredible experience" category (probably more than I'm suppose to considering it's the most category, but hey, it works for me), but nearly two years of mud slinging, lieing, deceiving and drawing false conclusions about people that I had considered friends or at least work associates? Yeah, that would not be one of them.

I'm kind of sad too. I'm sad that, when McCain loses, we'll have to say goodbye to the conservative lap dog he has become and welcome back the McCain of the 90's. I'm kind of sad that we'll have to say goodbye to the tyranny and oppression of Bush. I'm kind of sad I won't have political ads to look up on You Tube for another few years.

Actually, come to think of it, my blood pressure is pretty damn excited about this race being over. I don't know how many more times I can open up a browser and almost shit from the ridiculousness of political campaigning, and I have a feeling my boyfriend is getting tired of cleaning it all up (Love you honey!).

As a side note, I earlier thought that my company had taken down it's web server because too many people were on line looking for exit poll info and such. Turns out that it was a regular old busted series of tubes. I was all ready with a new post ranting about it, but then the webs came back up and all was good again.

Source

Election Day Jitters

I am excited. I've been teeming with energy all morning, almost like a kid on Christmas. I'm not exactly sure what's in those boxes, but I can make an educated guess. I'm not 100% sure that today will be the happiest day this year, but I'm pretty positive. Going into this morning it looks like Obama will pull out a win and California will retain marriage rights for everyone, but there could be surprises on the way.

Because I am so excited, I'm finding it hard to concentrate on anything. I was attempting to study for my GMAT on the bus this morning, but that wasn't working out so well for me. Luckily, I have nothing sitting in my in box at work right now or I'm afraid I just wouldn't be able to get it done. So, instead, I've decided to write and provide some interesting links for you to check out.

The fight over Proposition 8 is so fucked up. I won't reiterate my standing on the issue, because frankly, I've stated it enough in this blog. I will add something to the fire, however. When I scroll through my RSS feeds and stumble upon an article referring to the fight over Proposition 8 as the Gay Gettysburg, I'm at once appalled and amused, but I find it oddly appropriate. At the Battle of Gettysburg, the forces of the North and South fight for what they believed in with all their passion, similar to the fight in California. At Gettysburg, one side was fighting for justice and the other side was fighting for oppression (oversimplification, I'm well aware, but it's the root and that's the point), in California we have people fighting to oppress us and us fighting for our freedoms. What's appalling is that this fight isn't about liberating, it's about retracting freedoms. In the Civil War, people were fighting to liberate a repressed population of people. Even the oppressors weren't fighting to oppress further (can there be worse oppression than slavery?), but to maintain the "right" to do so. Now, we're looking at a situation where people want to take away freedoms from a group of people and that group fighting to maintain their basic freedoms. Imagine fighting the Civil War to gain the right to enslave a free, honest and respectable people. Imagine the South saying "we want to enslave all Irishman" and fighting several bloody battles to do so. That seems utterly ridiculous, doesn't it? So does taking away people's rights, simply because of a capricious whim.

Rachel Maddow made some interesting comments concerning Election Poll Stations and the lines that form simply so people can vote. Her stance is that these lines are simply another form of voter discrimination. When I first read that line, I thought it was a bit extreme, but upon further thought, it may have some validity. People that work hourly jobs, who also tend to pull in a lower salary, probably cannot afford to sacrifice a few hours pay to wait in line to cast a vote. Those people are more likely to vote Democrat. Repressing the vote of an entire class of people due to their inclination to vote a certain way = voter discrimination. But here's the other side. Many (read most) places have Early Voting nowadays. If you don't have early voting, you can usually request an absentee ballet so you can vote by mail. There are options. Even those options aren't the best though, as there are far fewer early voting stations than election day stations and there are usually some restrictions on who can and cannot cast absentee ballots.

I'm not sure how we could reduce lines though. More polling stations? Here in Chicago, I have a polling station in my building which is 5701. The next polling station is literally across the street at 5700. The next is around the corner, half a block West. From my perspective, that seems to be plenty of polling stations. You know what holds up polling stations? Illogically elderly people working them who either don't understand the process or are far passed the point of being able to read but are charged with verifying voter registration. Yeah, I said it. Why Election day isn't a national half-holiday or something to the effect is beyond me. Wouldn't it make sense to guarantee EVERYONE has a right to vote and ensure that people of better abilities are running the polls?

I believe that's all my ranting for the moment. I'm sure I'll have more as the day plods along and I hit refresh on the CNN homepage approximately 270,056,066.32 times today.

Tired, But Not Done

I've been in a funk the past few days. Nothing like I was a few weeks ago, this is a new funk. More of a burn out, actually. I'm think I'm just over it, you know? I only have so much energy, and I have some serious health issues related to my stomach so I can't get too worked up too often…. I think I'm over this political race to the White House.

I really don't like McCain. And I absolutely hate Sarah Palin and her fundamentalist, Scare Bear roots. I really think Obama will usher in a new era of social awareness, of societal benefit over individual benefit (individual meaning, of course, rich white people… does anyone else matter to the Republicans?). I think Biden is solid and qualified, as well as passionate, and even though I don't really like his restrictive stance on tech issues, I can generally agree with him more often than not.

And that's about it.

There are plenty of things to scream about. Like the other guy from another burb of my home town that "hanged" and Obama ghost in his front yard. Or the next fine McCain supporter specimen that believes in destroying someone else's property who supports Obama (did you know that Obama is black? I was completely unaware until she told me in the video…). Or the abysmal view the McCain/Palin ticket holds of our future as a country. But I just can't do it right now.

Of course, that likely won't last long. I'm sure by the end of the week, there will be something that sparks me to a new rage, some stupid comment from a right-wing jerk. Hell, that'll probably happen by the end of today! Maybe I'll try some positive posts about my favorite candidate instead of constantly pointing and yelling about the other guy…

Oh yeah, McCain, you suck!

Holy Racist Frakin' BS, Batman!

I am FLOORED by this! Even as a sick joke by some jerk, this would be bad, but as part of local GOP newsletter?!?!

I'm really not sure why in the world I expect better. There are just too many people that are so scared of the image of a powerful black man that they will do anything to try and derail him.

The local GOP Pres. (PS, this was in California... still think they're all liberal, progressive hippies out there?) swears that she only meant to poke fun at a statement Obama made about not looking like the other presidents on the bills... yeah. So to parody that statement, she tosses in every possible racist image plus puts it on a food stamp?!

These are your supporters John McCain. Are you still proud?

Is This... Familiar? ... At All?

A friend emailed this to me today, and I think that it is eerily similar to the debates we've been watching lately.  See if you can guess who's who!

People I Know Still Support Him?

I don't get it. I'm really not understanding it. In fact, I am completely confounded.

Today, yet again, I opened my Facebook account to find that another one of my friends from Cincinnati had added some sort of "I support McCain," or "Palin PWNS U!," or "I'm Scared Of That Black Guy" thing to their account, publicly stating that they support The Anger Ball and The Idiot for the White House. Sure, it's only Facebook, but you know that means that they'll actually vote for the douchebag. Luckily for the rest of us, most of the people that I know in Cincinnati don't actually live in Ohio, rather they live in Northern Kentucky. Why do I say luckily? Because no matter what happens, Kentucky is a tried and true Red State, so it's not like we're planning on those 5 Electoral College votes anyway.

Why does it amaze me? Well, for one, I know many of them have absolutely no clue why they support McCain, or are simply single-issue voters. They heard somewhere that McCain will not eat as many babies as Obama, or they perceive that a crazy-ass Christian Extremist Scare Bear will somehow benefit the world. To them, politics is really menial. They have been convinced that the President doesn't really have much power, sway or authority, so the idea of actually understanding the totality of who they are voting for isn't important.

A few others though do understand who they are supporting and choose to support McCain nonetheless. These people simultaneously make me happy and scare the shit out of me! They make me happy because they have taken time to invest in the political process and own their beliefs. They may not agree with everything that McCain/Palin are, but they believe that they would perform a better job than Obama/Biden. However flawed a decision that is, it is still more admirable than being these guys. But they scare the shit out of me because, even after researching and listening and understanding who exactly they are voting for, they are still choosing to vote for McCain.

It's usually a combination of a few issues. Usually, they support what the Republican party stands for: Lower taxes for the exceedingly wealthy (so that the middle class and poor can keep caviar on the wealthy's plate), lowered market place regulation (example: look at our current national economy and banking industry), and decentralized government (a.k.a., no socialized programs designed to raise the bar of society, instead allowing the bottom rung to fest and rot America from the inside out). Usually, they agree with a foreign policy stance or a few choice issues. Usually, they don't agree with a few other issues, but to them, when they balance that all out, they still think McCain is a solid choice.

Never mind that Obama soundly believes in balancing the burden of society off of them, because I assure you, none of my friends are in the wealthy elite. Never mind that Obama has a real plan that could lead us to real, actual healthcare in this country, because a few of them don't even get health care at their jobs. Never mind that Obama supports equal rights and protections for their gay friend(s), because marriage rights do not directly affect them. Never mind all of that. They still think that McCain and Palin are a better choice for this country, just as McCain and Palin both believe that my sexuality is a choice. That, my friends, is scary as hell.

Hey McCain! These Are Your Supporters... You Proud?

Luvs It: Paris Still Running For Prez

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Not quite as good as the her original video proclaiming her candidacy, but still funny!

I Know You've Seen It, But Here It Is Anyway Because It Rocks

Good Luck To Ya...

Look, I get that you want to defend your poor choice of a nitwit, extremist fundamentalist, newbie governor, but you mean to tell me that when someone doesn't agree with you, your stance is to simply disregard their opinion?!

For fuck's sake people, this is the asshole that is asking to be our next president?!  That is pathetic.  I could care less what your life experiences have been, but if you can't seem to understand the basics of an interview and how to handle "tough" questions, then you get no sympathy from me.

I cannot stand for another term of secretive, bully politics from our President.  And neither should you.

How Reliable Is Palin?

Palin And The Preggers Perdicament...

Oh, how I adore hypocritical idiots, and I particularly enjoy them when they are poorly chosen VP candidates. Like, oh, I don't know, Sarah Palin, who doesn't believe in safer sex education in schools, and also doesn't believe in telling her daughter to not have sex before marriage, because her 17-year-old daughter is now five months pregnant! Yep. Her underage child is preggers, most likely because Mommy Palin chose to not support real-life based sex education, instead pushing an abstinence only agenda, which leaves out the notion that if you make the decision to go ahead an have sex anyway, you should probably use a condom. And her daughter obviously didn't use a condom.

Now "adult" Palin is telling Palin Jr. that she will marry the boy that knocked her up. No joke. All old school and shit. It's like the 50's or something, except the only reason they are being forced to marry is because all the sudden Grandma is on the National Stage as the Conservative Arm of the Republican ticket. Mabye G-ma is a bit worried about McCain's support of measures to screw over teen mothers, so she want to betroth her daughter with the quickness.

And I'm sure the husband to be, a self-described "fucking redneck," will be just as classy a husband and father as Poppa Palin, the fisherman and snowmobiler. On a side note, this article over at the NY Daily News is a little bit creepy in tone. I mean, the new dad is kind of cute, for a Podunk hockey player, but honestly, he's still in high school, and these ladies are talking about him like he's McSteamy or something!

I'll be honest, when I first heard the news about Palin, I was a tiny bit concerned, because the immediate perception of her is that of a do-good, morally superior, hard-working all-american woman, but the more I learn about her, the more I realize that, even if some of those qualities are true, she doesn't even know what the Vice President does (video clip below)! Maybe she should have campaigned for a bit more school funding, because I learned about that back in, what, middle school? High school at the latest…

Is Biden A Good VP Choice?

Yeah, I think he's up to the task

A Game Of Tug-Of-War, And I'm The Knot

I'm not sure if this is just me, or if any of the other gay people out and about in this world are starting to feel it, but I'm kind of feeling like I am now right in the middle of a political battle.  On one side you have the Democrats and Barack promising wonderful things to us GBLT's, and on the other you have McCain and the Republicans Haterades telling everyone that we are the worst piece of moral scum to ever exist (nothing new there).

It's interesting, because for the first time I don't feel like I'm in this fight.  I'm the weapon.  Barack has made no small matter of his support of the LGBT community, and McCain has made his lack of support for us equally well known.  This is unique, because in the previous two elections, us gays had to choose between an evil bastard and a candidate that either didn't give a shit about us or had actively worked to get DOMA and DADT into law. 

Now that it appears we have a hero, of sorts, it also appears clear that we are no longer being catered to.  The assumption is we'll vote Democratic (and lets be honest, it's a pretty solid assumption), but we also have to realize that same assumption is what the Repubs will use to try and paint the Dems as heathenistic, baby-eating hippies.

Does anyone else feel this?  We've moved forward in as much as we are at least acknowledged now, but we've got sooooo much further to go...

Clinton Gives Speech, Sounds Bitter And Old School

 "I am so proud we stayed the course together."

Well, I'm glad George Bush came out to support the Democratic Primary process... oh.  That wasn't Bush talking about "staying the course?"  It was... Hillary?  .... man....

I can't imagine why people looking for change in Washington didn't flock to her banner this time around...

But wait, there's more! 

"I'm not making any decisions tonight.... I'll be meeting with leaders of the Democratic committee over the next few days..."

GTFO!  We. Are. So. Over. It. Now.

KTHXBAI!!!!!