Yeah, well I'M mad as hell, too!

Posted by JHW22

I have been pissed for over a year now. I left sites I was once fairly active on, haven't even peeked at them, because I was so furious at the wasted energy at the sites and the energy they sucked out of me. The vitriol against Dems by Dems, the purity tests and new definitions of liberal or progressive to make "others" of people within our own party accomplished nothing but raised blood pressure and inner-party disgust. We have our own civil war -- our own "tea party" revolt -- in the Democratic party going on it's just that Dems are so f'ing lazy that we don't get special wall to wall coverage.

Or do we?

See, all the anti-administration crap from the left has created the talking points on the right. I am consistently hearing Republicans use the "change" argument in their explanation of Tea Party wins. They are saying that Americans aren't being heard in DC or that the change we got wasn't what we expected. It KILLS me that people who fought change are now saying they didn't get the change they wanted and that the only Americans worth listening to are the fringe right. But WE DID GET CHANGE! We ARE being listened to. We elected a person based on his agenda and he is checking things off that agenda by the day -- no, by the minute. Our President is working his ass off and what have SOME given him? Disrespect, moaning and groaning, bitching and blubbering, demands and irrational expectations and punishments.

Everything from "Kill the Bill" to gay members of the armed services outing themselves to make a point -- yet were not willing to make the point when we had a President who didn't commit to overturning DADT. No, they waited until the President who committed to ending DADT was in office and then held HIS feet to the fire. The President who will overturn DADT is the one not good enough because he didn't do it fast enough.

I have consistently rocked between being angrier at public Republicans like Palin and Boehner or at the private Republicans like my aunts and uncles. But every so often I remember to heap some of my anger on the countless Democrats who have wasted so much damn energy complaining about their own selfish agendas that they have ENABLED and ALLOWED the Republicans to go unchecked for over a year and to give Independents nothing to feel good about in regards to the last 20 months. Republicans run around creating hysteria as SOME Democrats say the President hasn't accomplished anything -- that this wasn't the change they voted for. So what do private Republicans hear? They hear: the President is worse than we thought. What do private Independents hear? They hear: The President isn't doing as much as I thought.

So thanks a lot to all the self-redefined liberal/progressive/Democrats who think you got screwed by the President. Guess what? You didn't. But if you don't get off your pissed asses and vote for Democrats this November then shut the fuck up as you watch the Obama administration face the wasteful scrutiny Clinton faced when Republicans ran the show in Congress. If you care more that we have a Congress that will be better for late night comedians than the American people, then don't vote but then shut the fuck up.

Whether or not you are pissed at Obama or Reid, staying home on election day is pathetic and goes against the very nature of a progressive. DO you want change? Really? What kind? Do you want this kind of change?

Bachmann
O'Donnell
Paladino
Paul
Angle

I was so relieved to hear Vice President Biden on Rachel Maddow last night. I loved hearing him tell Democrats to "Get in gear, man." We need to be fired up and ready to go. And if SOME people are looking to be fired up by someone else instead of getting there on their own [insert Christine O'Donnell joke here], then they are as lazy as the Republicans think they are.

I am going to vote. One reason is because I live in a red state and I don't take the opportunity for granted. I KNOW what it's like to have asshole Republicans not listening to the constituents who approve of Obama. I know what it's like to have a state wanting to repeal the health care law. I know what it's like to live in a state with failing education and hate toward immigrants. So believe me, I will PROUDLY vote and I will PROUDLY vote for the Democrats. In the above-linked interview with Rachel Maddow, Joe Biden quoted Truman:

"I'm not going to give them hell, I'll give them the truth and they'll think it's hell."

The truth is, if Dems stay home in November, we will have to deal will hell in Congress. That's just the way it is.

Enthusiam Gap Dummies

I was at a ball game the other day with a friend of mine and when you're in a space with a concentrated group of people, like a stadium or a bus or subway train, you can't help but hear their conversations. And then when I see or hear stupidity it triggers this underlying thought that I have every now and then.

That thought is this: I consider myself of average to slightly above average intelligence, but when I'm in those group situations and look around me and hear what's going on around me, I feel like I'm probably in the top 10% in terms of intelligence. Try it sometime. Go to a ball game or a concert. I'll go to a Mets game and sit in my normal section and I'm probably Einstein compared to some of these neanderthals. How do I know? Because of news like this:

The Republican National Convention has given John McCain and his party a significant boost, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken over the weekend shows, as running mate Sarah Palin helps close an "enthusiasm gap" that has dogged the GOP all year.

McCain leads Democrat Barack Obama by 50%-46% among registered voters, the Republicans biggest advantage since January and a turnaround from the USA TODAY poll taken just before the convention opened in St. Paul. Then, he lagged by 7 percentage points.

An "enthusiasm gap"? Are you fucking kidding me? They can exaggerate, distort the truth, flat out lie and not explain any detailed policy proposals, but as long as you can chant "Drill, baby! Drill!" and "USA!" to raise the fucking "enthusiasm gap" within your party and appeal to the lowest common denominator - the uninformed and ignorant who flip out over a pig¹ in lipstick - you can make what should be an obvious choice, a coin flip.

Then you have these so called "pundits" to give their opinion who are nothing more than political operatives. Don't believe me? The next time you hear Pat Buchanan open his mouth, take a close listen. He's not there to give you his informed, objective opinion of both sides, he's there to repeat talking points he was told to repeat. Flip to any channel and you'll get the same exact wording. That is not a coincidence.

When you have Republican "strategists" like Mike Murphy and Peggy Noonan praising the Palin pick on camera, but calling it "political bullshit" and "cynical" off camera, what is the point of having them on? It's not to inform us, it's to dupe us - to pull the wool over our eyes - it's equivalent to a shill at the three-card monte game.

When that asshole Michael Steele, Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and chairman of GOPAC makes an appearance on Bill Maher (9/5 episode transcript not yet available) and says that McCain's acceptance speech was rife with details while Obama's lacked any substance, look out for the wolf that's sneaking up behind you and about to rip off your scrotum. Talk about through the looking glass! Guys like that really piss me off because here's a man who's definitely smarter than I am, but shows contempt for my intelligence by feeding us bullshit lines like that. That and the fact that he chanted "Drill, baby. Drill!" as well. Fucking asshole.

When pigs like Sarah Palin demean the work of community organizers in her comparison to Barack Obama (as if that's the only thing he's ever done), but while Obama was community organizing, Palin was running for Miss Alaska, someone has to call the bullshit out for what it is.

So go out there and spread the truth because we need to do everything we can this November to win the three-card monte game of voter suppression, electronic voting machines, absentee and mail-in ballots and caging lists. Did you get an e-mail from someone calling Obama a Muslim? Fact check it and send it back not only to the person that sent it to you, but to every person on the forwarded list. I've done it multiple times and have yet to get a argumentative response, mostly thanks for the information. Did you hear someone praising Palin at the local Starbucks? Ask them why they like her in an inquisitive, non-threatening way and let them know what she's said, debunk her lies (like the bridge to nowhere, pork, trooper-gate, Iraq War is a "task from God") and see what they have to say. Will they act surprised or blow you off because they're a wingnut? Either way, perhaps you've spread the seed of doubt to the uninformed and maybe stirred them to actually look up information on their own instead of watching Fox News.

We have to fight back, and fight back hard. (I'm loving Joe Biden's speeches and appearances, but it's time to start toning down the preemptive praise of McCain.) So the next time you're in a public place, look around. Do you think you're in the top 10% of those around you in pure brain cell count alone? You probably are. Then inform them.

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¹ - That's not a mistake. After her display at the RNC, I don't consider Sarah Palin a "pitbull in lipstick" I consider her a "pig."