Started writing this with wikileaks in mind; morphed into me lobbing tomatoes at a few political hypocrisi (?)

January 2011

Everybody take a deep breath with me ok?  Inhale, slowly exhale, let it out.  Now.  I’m about to say some things that are probably going to piss you off, because I’m me and you’re you.

To all the people who post Facebook messages counting down the days until Obama is out of office, or spew some garbage about how “the left/right wing nutjobs” are sending this country to hell in a handbasket, calm down (don’t you smell your hair burning?  But I digress).  You sound ridiculous.  If you’re going to be passionate about something, make it a cause or an idea rather than a person.  Gasp!  Shocking, I know.  But I’m gonna let you in on a little something just to show that I understand where you’re coming from: Sarah Palin pisses me off.  I don’t think she’s intelligent enough to run a Chuck E. Cheese much less a state or god forbid a country.  She has a reality TV show.  That puts her on a field playing powder puff football with Snookie, Paula Abdul and Kate Gosselin.  Isn’t that reason enough not to lend credence to a single statement she has ever made?  But let’s face facts here.  I’m a nobody.  I’m a poor redneck who doesn’t vote and lives in a trailer just outside Bum&#@! Nowhere, Mississippi.  So you know what I do?  Nothing.  That’s right I said it.  Nothing.  When I hear something about the latest speech Palin or Mike Huckabee or Jesse Ventura or Glen Beck or Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann gave somewhere, I do nothing.  And do you know why?  Because they are instigators.  Fire starters.  Talking heads.  They say and do things solely from the basis of one of these three motivations: 1) money (they’re getting paid to say the things they say), 2) money (the things they say get them more exposure > more ad revenue), or 3) money (the things they say polarize the public enough to swing more fence-sitters to their particular brand of democracy > more votes > more elections).  For example, Palin has a map on her website (I think it’s still there) targeting the remaining democrats in office with a banner touting something to the effect of “Only a few more to go!”  Seriously.  Do you (meaning you and her) really think things will change for the better if we have a single party government?  The founding fathers warned against the creation of a bipartisan system, much less a single party system.  You know what a single party government is called?  Totalitarianism.  Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Hitler, Franco, ring any bells?  My friend made the statement (slightly misquoted), “Democrats keep us sane, republicans keep us safe.”  I’m inclined to agree.  We’ve made our bed with this two party crap.  Time to roll around or stand up.

 I don’t vote on anything above the state level, because the popular vote amounts to a slick graphic of a hill of beans in anything higher.  The electoral college elects presidents, so whether you voted for Obama or not doesn’t matter.  Unless you live in a swing state, you don’t matter.  If you have an issue with whom the outcome of the electoral college vote decides to be president, take it up with your congressman, not your friends.  Or better yet, don’t take it up with your congressman at all, because that’s sort of the point.  People working themselves into a froth over OTHER PEOPLE.  You know what that makes you?  Manipulatable.  A mark.  Money in the bank.  I say die-hard followers of a brand have no power in a free market.  Hey, Black Hole fan section of Oakland Raiders fame, Al Davis says he’s gonna sell off your top five players because he wants a new yacht.  Where are you going to be on Sunday afternoons in October?  At the stadium.  Right where Big Al knows you’ll be.  The valuable commodities are the guys who can’t decide whether to go to the game or spend time with the kids.  This is who corporate execs, owners, and politicians gun for.  The undecided majority. 

Take Julian Assange, the public head of wikileaks.  Elected officials (Palin, Huckabee) have called for violence against the man.  A human being.  This isn’t Russia, is this Russia?  Did he leak your private cell number to the public?  Did he have a one-night stand with your daughter and not call her afterwards?  No.  Well maybe he did, but that’s irrelevant.  He started a company that sheds light on corruption, conspiracy and hypocrisy.  And ELECTED OFFICIALS are calling for violent action against him.  Everyone needs to take another deep breath and really think about whether or not what you’re saying has a positive effect.  Be passionate about providing real healthcare to the masses.  Be passionate about fixing our broken public education system.  Be passionate about putting America back in its place as a world leader.  And will someone shut Sarah Palin up please?