I was so mortified by the reaction today to Senator John Kerry's botched Bush joke that I had to go to his site and post to his blog. The content of that post is blow.
God, will this country ever wake up? It's like a giant high school (OOH! John Kerry said soldiers are stupid!), where the leader of the clique (George W. Bush) is the biggest hipocrite of all. A liar who not only was a coward (who disappeared to avoid the National Guard), but who is, in fact, stupid...
Sadder still, is that from the next room, I just heard Wolf Blitzer on CNN comparing Bush and Kerry's SAT scores. Why is that what he's talking about? This is our country? It's not even high school. It's 7th grade.
I'm so angry I could scream... but really, I want to cry.
Senator Kerry,
I hope that you will take to EVERY single outlet you can with the context of your comments (including Fox News!). I also hope that members of the Democratic Party have the courage to stand with you and fight back at the twisting of these comments into campaign fodder. Isn't it sad that this is what Republicans want to talk about.... and even sadder that many Democrats stand for it?
I understand that this was a botched joke. But even with the mistake, let's look at the facts: the educated middle classes and those who rank above them on the economic scale are NOT those who are losing their lives in this war that was based on a lie. The working class and poor are losing people (and I speak as someone with working class roots whose father is a Vietnam Veteran)... This is not a commentary on intelligence, but rather on financial means.
So, in that regard, even the botched statement is true in a way: if you can (afford to) study, you won't wind up in Iraq... If you can (afford to study/go to college), you're less likely to be recruited in the first place. Does it mean no educated people serve? Of course not! But look at the averages... and consider who is suffering. By and large, it's not the Ivy Leaguers.
Of course I understand that this is not what you said... but wouldn't it be nice if people actually considered truths instead of twisting reality.
Please stand your ground and be heard no matter what. That is the sort of leader America needs.
Stephanie in California
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Sunday, October 29, 2006
The Virginia Senate Campaign (Sex is Scary Unless Lynn Cheney Writes About It)
On Saturday, as I embarked upon my usual reading for amusement (afterall, what else are the current political campaigns if not entertaining?), I was alerted to the following by CNN:
"The bitter Senate campaign in Virginia turned uglier Friday when the Republican incumbent pulled up sexual passages from novels written by his Democratic opponent..."
Is this really what the world is coming to? Someone wrote about sex and now he's unfit for government? Are we really this puritanical? Can voters seriously go into the voting booth, dismiss their own human nature, the viagra in their medicine chests and the fact that sex is probably the single most natural thing in all of creation (and legal between consensual adults... though I suspect the Republicans might like that to change) and determine that even writing about the very act that proliferates the human race makes someone a-moral and thereby a lesser candidate for Senate? Even though our own human, natural libidos have nothing to do with governing!
The fact is that Senator Allen knows that and this is nothing more than a dirty tactic to get elected.
How is it that this kind of campaigning continues? Who buys into this shit? Shouldn't people be talking about the issues? And by the issues, I don't mean whether or not two people who love each other are entitled to equal rights under our constitution (because for god's sake, of course they are)! What we should be hearing about are the candidates' plans for our government will take care of its citizens, what we will get for our tax dollars and how they help to ensure that our children and our children's children will actually have a planet on which they can live when we're all dead and gone...
In all fairness, part of the reason this has all become an issue, is that in one of his novels, the Democrat in question, Jim Webb, wrote two passages wherein a child was involved in a sexual act. This is part of the incumbent Senator's evidence that Webb is a bad man... Let me not venture into Mark Foley territory (where the writing in question-- coercive text messages and emails-- led to actual doing), and rather address this simple truth:
Child abuse happens in American homes every day... and for that matter, all over the world. Don't think so? Read the statistics. In addressing this problem, the worst thing we can do as responsible citizens (or writers) is to ignore reality (though these people seem to be getting increasingly good at doing just that). All the restrictions on sex offenders in the world do nothing compared to what a little cultural awareness and open dialogue would do for helping this problem. I could go on here, but I'll save that for another day. What I will conclude is that the only way Webb could have done better than just including what he saw in his novels, would have been to actually become an advocate on behalf of abused children. But then again, Mark Foley was an advocate... right?
Second (and perhaps more to the point), is the fact that thousands of soldiers are dying in Iraq for freedom, which, last I checked, includes freedom of speech. Then again, I suppose we're not really fighting for freedom are we? I mean, if we were, we'd be doing something about the massive slaughter in Darfur... But Darfur doesn't have oil or a leader who offended our President's daddy...
Alas, I'm getting ahead of myself (and in fact, like Allen's entire diatribe, quite off point). Let me stay the course.
Instead of all this hooplah over fiction (literally, Webb's book were novels, fiction, and they apparently sold quite well), why don't we discuss REAL morality. You know, a system of behavior (and governing) wherein people are treated equally, the poor are cared for in a fashion that helps them to change their station in life (with education and jobs) and the little guy has not only the things he needs to survive (and those he pays taxes for) but also a voice in the government he elects. How shall we address this?
Check out Senator Allen's voting record on the things that would make him a "moral" man who cares about the people he's representing (aside from the rich ones):
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=CNIP9093
A few highlights. He says:
NO to a plan that provides help for a Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (let the poor people freeze in December)!
NO to education funding that increases Title I grants and reduces debt by closing corporate tax loopholes (let the working and middle class people keep taking major loans if they want education, we need to keep the corporations safe!)
And, NO to teen pregnancy education (because clearly if we ignore it, the problem will go away...)
But god forbid Jim Webb write about sex.
Let me offer up my hypothesis (in addition to all of the above):
Perhaps the real problem is that Senator Allen's not getting any?
Check out Move On's Call for Change. It's time to take this country back!
"The bitter Senate campaign in Virginia turned uglier Friday when the Republican incumbent pulled up sexual passages from novels written by his Democratic opponent..."
Is this really what the world is coming to? Someone wrote about sex and now he's unfit for government? Are we really this puritanical? Can voters seriously go into the voting booth, dismiss their own human nature, the viagra in their medicine chests and the fact that sex is probably the single most natural thing in all of creation (and legal between consensual adults... though I suspect the Republicans might like that to change) and determine that even writing about the very act that proliferates the human race makes someone a-moral and thereby a lesser candidate for Senate? Even though our own human, natural libidos have nothing to do with governing!
The fact is that Senator Allen knows that and this is nothing more than a dirty tactic to get elected.
How is it that this kind of campaigning continues? Who buys into this shit? Shouldn't people be talking about the issues? And by the issues, I don't mean whether or not two people who love each other are entitled to equal rights under our constitution (because for god's sake, of course they are)! What we should be hearing about are the candidates' plans for our government will take care of its citizens, what we will get for our tax dollars and how they help to ensure that our children and our children's children will actually have a planet on which they can live when we're all dead and gone...
In all fairness, part of the reason this has all become an issue, is that in one of his novels, the Democrat in question, Jim Webb, wrote two passages wherein a child was involved in a sexual act. This is part of the incumbent Senator's evidence that Webb is a bad man... Let me not venture into Mark Foley territory (where the writing in question-- coercive text messages and emails-- led to actual doing), and rather address this simple truth:
Child abuse happens in American homes every day... and for that matter, all over the world. Don't think so? Read the statistics. In addressing this problem, the worst thing we can do as responsible citizens (or writers) is to ignore reality (though these people seem to be getting increasingly good at doing just that). All the restrictions on sex offenders in the world do nothing compared to what a little cultural awareness and open dialogue would do for helping this problem. I could go on here, but I'll save that for another day. What I will conclude is that the only way Webb could have done better than just including what he saw in his novels, would have been to actually become an advocate on behalf of abused children. But then again, Mark Foley was an advocate... right?
Second (and perhaps more to the point), is the fact that thousands of soldiers are dying in Iraq for freedom, which, last I checked, includes freedom of speech. Then again, I suppose we're not really fighting for freedom are we? I mean, if we were, we'd be doing something about the massive slaughter in Darfur... But Darfur doesn't have oil or a leader who offended our President's daddy...
Alas, I'm getting ahead of myself (and in fact, like Allen's entire diatribe, quite off point). Let me stay the course.
Instead of all this hooplah over fiction (literally, Webb's book were novels, fiction, and they apparently sold quite well), why don't we discuss REAL morality. You know, a system of behavior (and governing) wherein people are treated equally, the poor are cared for in a fashion that helps them to change their station in life (with education and jobs) and the little guy has not only the things he needs to survive (and those he pays taxes for) but also a voice in the government he elects. How shall we address this?
Check out Senator Allen's voting record on the things that would make him a "moral" man who cares about the people he's representing (aside from the rich ones):
http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=CNIP9093
A few highlights. He says:
NO to a plan that provides help for a Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (let the poor people freeze in December)!
NO to education funding that increases Title I grants and reduces debt by closing corporate tax loopholes (let the working and middle class people keep taking major loans if they want education, we need to keep the corporations safe!)
And, NO to teen pregnancy education (because clearly if we ignore it, the problem will go away...)
But god forbid Jim Webb write about sex.
Let me offer up my hypothesis (in addition to all of the above):
Perhaps the real problem is that Senator Allen's not getting any?
Check out Move On's Call for Change. It's time to take this country back!
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