Sarah Paylin. PAY-LIN! GET IT!?!?!

So it seems, no surprise, in a party of unbounded, unapologetic moral corruption, Sarah Palin was living on the graft gravy train like there was no tomorrow.

And you know what?

I honestly think this doesn’t surprise any one of the McCain/ GOP National Committee people who vetted her. I mean, to some degree they turned a blind eye to some of her flaws. They had to have.

But I think they very easily put two and two together. They saw that she was so readily and easily bought, and thought

A: We can handle her.

B: We can get dirt on her.

And Jindahl, Sanford, Gingrich, Bennet, one after another of the GOP’s leaders or speakers is revealed to be an amazing, amazing hypocrite.

AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY THE GOP IS LOSING GROUND NATIONALLY?

Right minded right wingers, wake up. If you are a values voter, you’re leaders don’t share your values and never have.

If you are a cold hearted, marketeer… these people have nothing but disdain for a free and fair market, political or economic.

I mean, you guys are making the Democrats look better and better.

Except for in the New York State Assembly. There, they look like the putzes they’ve always been.

I will not hug it out with you, Ari.

A while back, I recieved a stray email from some rightwing blog/’website/focus group/circle jerk- as opposed to my own leftwing b/w/fg/cj’s-, and sent them a really irritated letter telling them to take me off their mailing list. If I want exposure to more conservative thinking, I’ll read the Economist ( which I recommend to anyone regardless of political stripes), Fox News ( hey, I get to laugh, cry, and shriek in terror, better than Gremlins, better than ET), or one of the NYC tabloids.

Or the Wall Street Journal Editorial page. That is always a lot of scary rich people fun.

So while I can do more to read up on opposing view points, I really don’t want to go straight into their echo chamber, and I don’t want them adding the mountain of unread bits on various servers across the world on my behalf.

So out of the blue, I get an email from Ari Fleischer and “Freedom’s Watch”, thanking me for my support, and so forth. I’ve talked with other righties about this in the past. (https://cmss1971.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/thank-you-for-my-suppport-what-support/)

I’m not going to post the letter from Freedom’s Watch, but if you want to see what their about- freedomswatch.org. Only fair if I mock them, I give you a chance to see why they deserve it. Here’s the reply to Ari, error’s and all.

And why is it that if you name a man Ari, he’s likely a dick? Someone answer that for me.

***
Hi.

Uhm, I have no idea how you got my address, but I'm a lefty. A liberal. In
my mind, Ari Fleishcer is one of the people responsible for the most
damaging presidential administration in my life time, my parents lifetime,
and possibly our nations.

Why would I respond to his call?

So, as you can imagine, I'd be really, really happy if you remove my email
address from your mailing lists.

Thanks, and I hope the defeat of McCain/Palin will wake up American
Conservatives from their reactionary slumber to the need to be a healthy,
productive part of solving world issues.

Yours,
James Gerber

***
PS: ‘Re- Hey Elk’ Bunnies and Elk deseve their bridges, you heartless bastiches.

PBAP: POLAR BEARS AGAINST PALIN

And this just in…
King Iorek Byrnison, King of the Polar Bears, released the following statement at a press confrence.

“As a polar bear, I am loathe to interfere in the affairs of human kind. Unless you get me drunk and steal my sky-iron armor.

Then I will crush your tiny little heads.

But as my kingdom overlaps with human kingdoms,  at times I must comment and take action.

No, no crushing little human heads between my mighty jaws.

Yet.

No, I’m referring to the Republican Party’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin as their Vice-Presidential Candidate.

As you well know, my people have long suffered from environmental disruptions caused by your people… be it attempts to open a pathway to heaven, or loss of icecaps from global warming. Governor Palin sued that my people be taking off the United State’s listing of endangered species. She claimed that our listing threatened oil drilling and natural gas mining, and that the grounds for our listing was unreliable.

Unreliable? My people are drowning because the ice pack is getting so thin! We are wandering further into your so-called communities searching for food! The grounds for our listing is right before your eyes.

And so, I am forming Polar Bears Against Palin. She was disastrous for the relations of our two great peoples as Governor of one of your underpopulated provinces, and she would be more dangerous being one heartbeat away from your throne.

And while I am loathe to touch on spiritual matters, her particular zeal is a concern. As my own… involvement in the matters of the General Oblation Board and… police action against the Magesterium and their backers have shown, religious belief over rationality as the basis for public policy rarely leads to anything but bad government and apocalyptic wars involving small children, anthromorphised animals, and too many damn faries and their damn dragonflys flitting about.

Thank you for your time. Now no questions, or I will crush your tiny heads.”

What the Che?

A bit back i was given for my birthday a history of the Armenian genocide, a biography of Hitler, and The Portrait of Dorian Grey. Yes, i asked my family if they were trying to tell me something or really trying to depress me. I’ve gotten through 2 out of 3. Hitler will just have to wait.

I also recently finished Mao: The Untold Story, or Mao: All The Times He Should Have Been Shot. Hard,

The point is I’ve recently, and historically, read a lot of books about Important People who killed a lot of Less Important People. I’m a lapsed historian, after all. It’s to be expected.

So that’s why I’m hesitant about picking that big Che Guevera bio from a year or two back.  I’m not a big fan of Marxism, Marxist Philosophers , and most  Important Killers. The diff between imp. killers and leaders?

Eye of the beholder. Entirely subjective.

I saw The Motorcycle Diaries, ( Y Tu Mama… was a way better Latin American road trip. And it actually touched on many of the same themes. Just had less of that whole Star Wars Prequel before he was Darth Vader/Che Guevera vibe  ) and the countless t-shirts made by slave labor benefiting la Revolucion in no way what so ever. But I have no idea why I should hold Che higher than the rest of the murderous scumfucks who’ve wasted millions of lives for a philosophy so awful facism was considered an alternative.

Obviously, I’ll get around to it. There’s a Che sized hole in my reading on South American history, and true, I haven’t lived through the crushing poverty that inspires people to revelot for a better life, than follow other people who do everything to destroy everything worth living for.

Hey, I know I’m prejudiced on the subject matter. It’ll be worth seeing if anything shakes that prejudice.

DEMOCRATS SHOUTING “USA! USA!”. AND IT FEELS DAMN GOOD!

I caught about the last quarter of Obama’s acceptance speech, prompted by a friends twitter. And what I saw was a bit of a shock.

A welcome shock.

Democrats, lefties, pinko liberals shouting USA. Call outs to women.

Hell, a major political candidate speaking out about our gay brothers and sisters in his acceptance speech.

Obama has disappointed me with some backsliding, on off shore drilling, in particular. But if he keeps up an assertive, strong path, if he just keeps strong and not be the passive/aggressive candidate we have so gotten used, just maybe we can pull this off.

And yeah, unabashed patriotism from the Democrats, but an eyes open patriotism…

FEELS DAMN GOOD!

Religious Tryants and Warriors and Indian Rockstars, oh MY!!!

Yesterday was an interesting if stranger than usual day in NYC.

To start, as you probably know, the UN is in general session, and President Ahmadinejad of Iran raised a ruckus by trying to go to Ground Zero ( didn’t happen, thank goodness), and going to speak at Columbia University.(did happen, not sure if thanks are really necessary to anyone.)

Outside of showing the world again why you don’t want crazy national leaders get access to nuclear weapons, what else was achieved? Did Columbia’s President pull the best punk’d ever by inviting a world leader into an open forum and totally dissing him? Did Ahmadinejad’s yes man get around to spinning to him how he’s on his way to being the next Noam Chomsky?

Much ado, not much achieved.

On the way home from work, I took a long walk, and stumbled into the Best Buy on Madison. And a huge video crew. And craft services. And… G4TV?

Seems they were filming the Halo 3 launch countdown. And well, what did we learn?

Morgan Webb… pretty in person. Honestly. Sometimes media types just don’t look that good when you see them in the flesh. She does. Didn’t her hear through the noise, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Adam Sessler… tiny, but much healthier looking than you would expect. It was interesting watch him psyche himself up. While I’ve enjoyed the show, I actually gained a little more respect for him as a professional. He was in a small crowd, keeping a high focus and cooling without being rude to people around him.

I know X-Play is a show about video games, most of which I will never play, and G4 is the home of the worst repackaging of old Trek, EVER, but seeing these people work… they got work ethics, people.

The event was only moderately nuts. Some crowds outside, people milling about inside. ( Sorry… I didn’t try to grab anything and run. I’ve got my PS3 and I’m fine.) I’m just wondering why of all the Best Buy’s in New York, they picked this one.

It was an odd transition. From talk of a religious zealot to hype for a video game that features the destruction of religous zealots.

So from there, I wandered down to Bryant Park. And saw a minaret. And a Quatar Air buses. And pounding drums and a strange rap/rock sound coming forth.

This was worth a look.

Turns out there was a big Indian Culture event going on – http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/thisweek.php- and I was watching some kind of ‘fusion band.’

Honestly, I’ve heard some better Bollywood tunes, and the lead singer was way too into MC Hammer’s old clothes for his own good. But the crowd dug him. Sang along with him, feeling the beat…

The only time I felt so out of place at a concert was seeing the Barenaked Ladies after Billy Bragg opened for them at the Beacon Theater in NYC back around 1995, and watching hundreds of Canadian ex-pats go insane while a bunch of guys ran in place at keyboards

No… I was far more wierded out by the crowd at the Barenaked Ladies show.

So a combination of events even stranger than your usual day in NYC.

Gotta love this town.

Thank you for my suppport? What support?

  I just got home from watching “Easter Promises” ( great. loved it.We’ll talk more later.) and dinner ( great. loved it.We’ll talk more later.), when I found an email claiming I had signed a petition for “Victory Caucus for the Drudge Report.” Turns out it’s this pro-war website, which of course I’d never seen, much less signed on for.

Here’s the text of the email, see if you’ve gotten something similar:

—————————- Original Message —————————-
Subject: Thank you for your support!
From:    “Victory Caucus for Drudge Report” <noreply@victorycaucus.com>
Date:    Fri, September 21, 2007 8:23 pm
To:      “James Gerber” <james@jXXXXXXX)
————————————————————————–
Dear James,

Thank you for signing our Petition to stand by the American mission in Iraq.

We appreciate your support.

Please email your friends and encourage them to visit http://victorycaucus.com to sign the petition as well.

Thank you again for your support!

***

Sincerely,

Your friends at Victory Caucus for Drudge Report

***

I’ve asked my name to be removed from the list. Odds are, it was just someone pulling a prank. Not a funny one. Still, if some war supporters are looking to fluff the roster of the willing, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Folks, will someone please explain to the American far right that after all the lies and fraud the Administration committed to get us into Iraq, more lies and fraud won’t make anything better?

Us lefties can challenge our side to be more truthful and honest as well. Don’t get me wrong. But we aren’t the ones trying to spin a decades long occupation of a country that didn’t have weapons of mass destruction and wasn’t behind the 9/11 attacks.

If you agree with me on the need for more mutually assured truth, thank you for your support.