Recently in Political Rants Category

I got up this morning, went and voted with no wait and no trouble. Everyone else had such great stories about waiting in line and how fun the atmosphere was that I felt like I missed out on part of the experience. All I got was some crazy Bartlett (Roscoe, not Jed from the West Wing)/McCain/Palin guy with a massive sign and a wacky homemade flag.

I spent the day trying to focus on work, but restlessly checking the Internet for news. After work I hit the gym, where Becky and I compared notes on our nervousness about the outcome of the election. On the drive home, I listened to results on the radio and started getting nervous. Virginia was too close to call. Florida was too close to call. Pennsylvania and Ohio were too close to call. I was a wreck by the time I got to the house.

So I went in the kitchen and focused on dinner for a while. John fed me updates from the family room, and the tide started to turn. By 9:30 I was ensconced on the couch, flipping channels and cracking jokes. We watched Fox for a while, just to see what crazy claims they were making. I was hoping they’d declare McCain the winner of someplace completely inappropriate like France. Everyone showed the crowd growing in Grant Park, and even though I don’t like crowds, that looked like a fun place to be. By 10: 45 I was up and pacing, wishing Obama’s electoral college numbers would start moving again. I started demanding to know why they hadn’t finished counting the votes in Florida yet. Fox called Virginia for Obama, and I felt a little better. Over on NBC 4, Jim Vance referred to the RNC party in Richmond as “probably not as gay” as the DNC party in Tysons Corner as he introduced the guy in Richmond, sending me into hysterics. I know what he meant, but oh, the delicious irony. The poor reporter in Richmond was stuck trying to make about 30 very glum looking Republicans seem interesting. And then they went back to Jim and Doreen, who said they were sending us back to New York, and out of nowhere they put up a huge graphic saying Barack had been elected. It was unexpected at that moment and a wonderful surprise.

I’m so relieved. I’m so happy, for myself, my family, my country and the world. Here’s to a great next four years for us all. Congratulations, President Obama!

The first presidential election I ever voted in was in 1992. I was pleased to be old enough to vote, as I had missed the 1988 election by just a few months. But in '92 I was of age, and I voted for Bill Clinton. I was so excited when he won, and was convinced that all of the causes I believed in would be advanced and the world would be a better place. Well, I soon learned the error of my ways there. While I do believe our country was better off under Clinton, he also let me down on a number of policies I thought would be a shoo-in during his presidency. He disappointed me, and I grew cynical about politicians.

Then in 2000, the Republicans up and stole the election and I got even more cynical. I watched the blatant manipulation of everyone in the country after 9/11 and in the run up to the Iraq war - I could tell they were lying, why couldn't anyone else? - and just about gave up on the political system. Then when Bush got re-elected I was disgusted with Kerry for giving in when he should have questioned the result in Ohio, with the people who looked at the state our country was in even then and voted for him anyway, and with the whole darn system. And things got even worse in the U.S. Then the Democrats won the midterm elections, and I thought well, maybe we're getting somewhere. I will never forgive Nancy Pelosi for the crap job she has done as Speaker of the House. Her lousy leadership makes both women and Democrats look bad, and I truly hope Cindy Sheehan beats her in tomorrow's election. What a squandered opportunity!

So that was my state of mind back when they had the Maryland primary, and I wrote about how I didn't like either of the Democratic candidates still in the race. In the intervening time, I've been wholeheartedly convinced that Obama is the man who should be our next President. It's true, as I worried back in March, that he doesn't have a lot of experience. However, I've listened to him speak, and I watched the debates, and I did my research. George Bush got this country in to trouble because he was both inexperienced and a total moron. Barack Obama is a smart man, a prepared man, and I am positive that he is ready for the challenges that our next President will face.

And make no mistake, there will be challenges. This country is a mess. He'll need to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and bring our troops home. He'll need to fix the economy, which will be a huge undertaking. I believe in Barack's healthcare proposal. I like the idea of ending tax cuts for corporations who ship jobs overseas. I don't have a problem with people who have more money paying more in taxes. John McCain has no solutions to the problems we face - he only offers more of the same useless policies that haven't worked for the last eight years and have gotten us to where we are today. Barack Obama has new ideas, good ones, and truly is our country's best hope for a better next four years. And that's why he's getting my vote.

To the two people who are still reading after seeing that title: Hi!

This may surprise you, given my socialist pinko-hippie leanings, but I really don’t think this bailout is a good idea. That’s right, I’m against government intervention into private enterprise – in this instance.

I am all for stricter regulation of all Wall Street firms and banks and I certainly hope that comes out of all of this mess. Back when the completely useless and corporation-favoring Housing Rescue bill was passed at the end of July, lots of people spoke out against helping individuals who “recklessly borrowed more than they could afford” and were “irresponsible and deserved to lose their houses” which I found particularly offensive. When we bought our house, just before the peak of all the flexible loan craziness, the mortgage guy pushed us to get an interest-only 3/1 adjustable rate mortgage. And he pushed hard. The DC area housing market is an expensive one, so of course all that extra cash was tempting, but I did my research and ultimately decided that a traditional 30 year fixed loan was the way to go for us. We were lucky enough to have enough cash to put down 10% plus closing costs (which I still think are a total scam in many ways, but that’s a rant for another day) so we still benefited from the creative loan packaging in that we were able to finance 80% of our loan plus a second trust of another 10% to help us avoid PMI.

But let’s say that you are not a skeptical pain in the ass like I am. Let’s say you don’t have a job connected to the financial industry like I do. Let’s say you regard your mortgage broker as the expert who is supposed to help you, but what he does instead is steer you toward the option that will make him the most money instead of the option that is best for you. It happened over and over again. Sure, some people were greedy and intentionally overextended themselves, but most people who took those loans just wanted their piece of the American dream. Instead, they got screwed. But the people who fell for those loans are heaped with scorn and deemed deserving of their misfortune.

The so-called financial pros on Wall Street, however, made insane profits for years because of these loans and repackaging mortgage backed securities. They knew what they were doing. They knew what the risks were. They actively resisted attempts to provide relief to consumers who found themselves with loan payments that tripled when their mortgages adjusted up, to people who found themselves with houses worth less than what they owed on them as the real estate market crashed. But now, now when these giant corporations which made obscene amounts of money over the last few years while getting tax break after tax break from the Bush administration run in to trouble, we’re supposed to bail them out? Hey Republicans, your laissez-faire policies got us in to this mess, and now you're abandoning your principles and sticking the taxpayer with the bill! That's...awfully hypocritical of you.

I understand, to a certain extent, the thinking behind the bailout plan. Get the bad loans off of balance sheets and get banks and financial institutions loaning money again. That will theoretically help get home sales moving again, and will help businesses keep capital moving and will hopefully stave off trouble in the commercial real estate and retail sectors. I just don’t think that your proposed bailout is the way to go. Let the companies that need to fail, fail. Shore up the protections that you offer your tax paying citizens, like FDIC and SIPC and unemployment and allow foreclosure relief where the terms of a loan can be renegotiated. Find other ways to encourage the companies that are left to make loans. Instead of spending $700 billion on a bailout, ease restrictions and make it easier for companies on the brink to be acquired or to go through mergers. Any company that does get any sort of bailout should have to pay the government back once they are making profits again.

For once the House and Senate are pushing back instead of just rolling over and giving the Bush administration what it wants. I hope they stick to their guns on this one and actually come up with a plan that can help our economy and our stocks find their balance that makes sense.

Mostly out of spite, I think, because I’ve pretty much lost all faith in the American political system. I do still firmly believe that it is our responsibility to vote, and try to make things better in this country. I just don’t think it’s actually going to happen. Oh, and I really, really didn’t want Ehrlich to get re-elected or Steele to get elected to the Senate (that’s the spite part).

Someone who reads this site recently brought up the fact that I don’t talk about politics much anymore, and I realized that is true. Somewhere along the line I lost all confidence in politics and politicians. Of course, that “line” includes:

▪ the stolen 2000 election
▪ the way that Bush decided to govern as if he’d been elected by a landslide instead of not actually getting elected at all
▪ 9/11
▪ the crass exploitation of 9/11 to put all sorts of loathsome laws in to effect
▪ the lies leading up to the Iraq war
▪ my fury at the way the Democratic Party laid down and played dead
▪ the disaster that is the Iraq war
▪ the thousands of dead American soldiers and the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis
▪ the disintegration of the US efforts in Afghanistan
▪ the bizarre election of 2004, which I still can’t believe George Bush actually won
▪ the widening gap between rich and poor
▪ the way the Republicans seems to actively hate the environment
▪ the focus on bullshit “problems” like gay marriage, illegal immigration (yes, the people who care for our children, tend our gardens, clean our houses and offices, harvest the crops that we eat, and construct the buildings we live, work and shop in, boy are they a threat), and getting the Ten Commandments posted in court rooms to distract us from what a mess this country is.

Even worse? That’s only a partial list. I think it all culminated for me with the lack of response to Hurricane Katrina. However legion my government’s faults were, I thought we could count on it in times of crisis. Obviously, I was wrong.

And this election season has done nothing to restore my faith. It’s been negative and nasty and while I voted the straight Democrat ticket, I’m pretty sure that even a complete Democratic majority will only make a marginal difference. They certainly haven’t said anything that leads me to believe that they have a real plan, that they are willing to stand up for what is right, really challenge the Republicans on policy and change the direction of this country. Are you going to fix the economy? Guarantee access to healthcare for all Americans? Get us out of Iraq? Do something about global warming? Prove me wrong, Democrats. Please.

P.S. Totally unrelated, but five miles, baby! Yep, today, I did it. It took me the full hour plus two minutes of the cool down period, but I got there.

There’s a local story I read about in the paper yesterday that’s just been bugging me. Some of the high schools around here offer a Peace Studies program. Two students at B-CC High School (that’s Bethesda-Chevy Chase, a.k.a. privileged rich kid central) who aren’t even taking the class, have decided that it should be discontinued because it only offers one point of view. The teacher has the nerve to make his views against war, violence and animal testing clear. In his Peace Studies class. How surprising. What should they cover in Peace Studies? How war is good? Why we should all be more intolerant of each other? How to achieve change through the domination and oppression of others? The teacher says he encourages open debate and opposing view points, and my guess is that he does. Of course, these kids wouldn’t know that since they haven’t even taken the class.

I worked for a very conservative magazine for five long years before I took my current job. Many of the people I knew there were really nice, well educated, and quite intelligent (with a couple of extremely mean-spirited exceptions). They all had this same weird blind spot though. They prided themselves on being contrarians, but when presented with an opposing or alternate view, they just wanted to shut it down. They would be in total agreement with these kids, I’m sure. The whole idea of peace studies is something they would have ridiculed. I don’t understand that. How could someone possibly object to the notion of learning about peace? How could they think that wishing for a world where we don’t have to resort to violence to solve our problems and trying to make that a reality is somehow laughable? Why is it crazy to be concerned about the suffering of animals and our fellow humans? If I were suffering, I would want someone to care about what was happening to me.

I can only conclude that these kids – and my former co-workers – find those sorts of ideas threatening for some reason. Perhaps because somewhere deep down inside, notions like that make them question what they’ve always believed, and that makes them uncomfortable? Because otherwise, I don’t see how anyone, anywhere could have a problem with kids learning about peace before they head out into the cold hard world.

That’s how many hours I worked last week – almost two extra days of work packed in to one week. Which means I haven’t had all that much to talk about, what with that being pretty much the only thing I’ve done. And we all know there’s no talking about work. In a general way, though, it has actually been quite interesting seeing what it takes to keep a whole group of people moving forward. Usually I just have to worry about myself, my two direct reports, and anyone with whom I am coordinating a project. But with my boss out and a massive deadline looming next week, it has been my job to keep everyone on my team and a couple of others on the right path, and I think I’ve done it. I’m also learning all sorts of new things, like what details you have to consider when arranging a video shoot.

So while it was a busy week, and certainly not easy, I would say it was a good one.

And then today I went downtown and joined in the anti-war rally for a bit, and then wandered over to the National Book Festival just in time to hear one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, speak. He was as interesting as I expected him to be, and quite funny as well. I’m so glad. It is always a letdown when you see someone whose work you admire and they turn out to be slow witted or surly or boring in person.

I have to admit, I felt oddly disconnected from the rest of the people at the peace march. I’m no sure why. It may be that John’s cynicism is rubbing off on me; while I was glad to stand up and be counted as someone who opposes the war in Iraq – and really, pretty much everything the Bush administration stands for or wants to achieve – I just don’t think the people running this country give a fuck about what the people want. I heard there were somewhere between 150,000 – 300,000 people there today, but there could have been a million, and it wouldn’t change a thing. They’ve got three years left and they are going to keep doing whatever they want. What are we going to do about it? We don’t have presidential recall elections or coups in the United States. And I don’t think they are all that worried about keeping people happy for the 2008 election. By then, the country will probably be in such bad shape that they’ll be glad to dump it in some Democrat’s lap.

Kanye, I don’t know much about you. I know that you are a musician and producer, but I couldn’t name one of your songs if someone offered me cold hard cash to do it. However, any man who can address media bias – I had noticed that whole “if they’re white they’re looking for food, if they’re black, they’re looters” portrayal myself – and who manages to get the sentence “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” aired on national television, well, that man gets my respect. You rambled a bit, but in the end, you got your message across. Plus, you get bonus points for freaking Mike Myers right the fuck out. Of course, he’s Canadian, and by all appearances the Canadian government actually cares about its people, so maybe he didn’t understand what was happening.

If it makes you feel any better, Kanye, George Bush doesn’t care all that much about most white people either. I’d say the list of people he does care about is limited to his family, other rich people he knows, and his cronies in the defense and oil industries. The rest of us are insignificant little worms. Insignificant little worms who are all extra-screwed now that Rehnquist has died and Bush will get to appoint two conservatives to the Supreme Court.

And that, I think, is enough political cynicism for one day. We’re in the middle of a long weekend, the weather is gorgeous, and I need some relaxation. I think I’m going to go wake my husband up and see if I can’t convince him we should go hiking along the C&O canal.

Well, suddenly I feel like I don’t belong in my own country. 58 million Americans looked at George W. Bush and the Republicans and said, “Yes, I’m happy with the state of this country. I want to continue going down this path. Here, have some more power.” I’ve been reading all day that people knew in their hearts that Kerry would lose. Or that another four years won’t be that bad. Well, I was dumb enough to think Kerry would win. And I am afraid for the future of this country. And even more bothered by the fact that so many of my fellow Americans think we’re going in the right direction.

Apparently, people voted for George W. Bush because they are concerned about terrorism and morality. Yes, George W. Bush will keep us safe from terrorists. Because…um, who was president on 9/11? Oh right, George W. Bush. But he caught Osama bin Laden, so we’re safe. Oh, wait. No, he didn’t. But we are safe because he invaded Iraq and captured Saddam Hussein. Except that Saddam Hussein didn’t have anything to do with 9/11. Nor did he have any weapons of mass destruction to attack us with. But you know who does want to attack us now? All of the people al Queda was able to recruit after our “pre-emptive” war in Iraq. As far as I can tell, George W. Bush doesn’t have a plan to stop them. He’s too busy getting John Ashcroft to look at which library books I’ve checked out recently.

And then morality. You’d think the good people of this country would be concerned about the fact that the economy sucks. The job losses. How difficult and expensive it is to get insurance. The environment and global warming. Skyrocketing energy costs. The vast deficit we now have as a direct result of George W. Bush’s policies. Or perhaps their immoral government which went to war on false pretenses and got thousands of soldiers wounded or killed. And then gave no-bid sweetheart deals to their own cronies.

But no, what they apparently chose to focus on is gay marriage. 11 states were so worried about gay marriage that they passed “defense of marriage” referendums. I really, really want to know how the average straight person in, let’s say Kansas, or Oklahoma, how they are affected, threatened or harmed in any way by gay marriage. Seriously, I want to know. Even if you think homosexuality is wrong, how does it hurt you or make your own marriage any less valid? Why is that your issue, and not something that directly affects you like losing your job, not having access to healthcare, or the fact that your President and the people in his administration lied to you, over and over?

So now it begins. George W. Bush acted like he had a mandate when all he had was a stolen election. Now that he’s actually won the popular vote I shudder to think what lies ahead. The Ten Commandments in every courthouse? School prayer? The end of Roe V. Wade? An endless stream of pre-emptive wars? The return of the draft? An ever-widening gap between rich and poor, I’m sure. Continued efforts to undercut all environmental protections. So long, ANWR. Hello, drilling and clear cutting and arsenic in our water and polluted air to breathe.

God, I’m depressed. Am going to go eat vast quantities of cheese fries and watch Lost.

Many other people have said it way more eloquently than I have, and I'm damn tired tonight. But here goes.

I'm voting for John Kerry tomorrow. I think you should too.

He won't be able to solve all of this country's problems, but I don't think anyone can. I do think he will do a better job than George W. Bush.

Just take a minute to look at the state of our country today. George Bush's reckless economic policies have left the economy in shambles. His administration has systematically undermined environmental protections, chipped away at civil liberties, and consistently favored big business over the needs of US citizens. His No Child Left Beind Act actually leaves the poorest children more vulnerable to being left behind. The rich get enormous tax cuts while the poor and middle classes get $300 and see their social and community services steadily eroded. American healthcare is a joke, and the Medicare reform bill Bush passed was not what they promised it would be.

But the worst offense of all is the Iraq war. Bush lied to get the American people to go along with his war. The people in his administration lied. They continue to lie. All of their evidence for going to war was FALSE. Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. He did not have anything to do with 9/11. And as of today, 1,120 soldiers have died because of those lies. Lies that Bush told. Lies that Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rice told. The troops in Iraq are not properly equipped, lacking such basics as bullets, body armor, and properly armored transportation, putting their lives at even greater risk. And the ones who come home injured face a VA that is totally unprepared to help them. That is the biggest disgrace -- to send soldiers off to war and then cut the funding for their healthcare and disability benefits.

I want a leader who will do better than that -- for me and for my country. And I think John Kerry is that man.