Giving Romney One Last Chance

I might be crazy, but tonight is the last time that Mitt Romney can persuade me to possibly vote for him.  I almost threw up after listening to Paul Ryan last night and all his factual inefficiencies.  I haven’t been impressed with either campaign for President, but it is almost time to choose and I am 95% sure that I will vote for President Obama.  Like I said, I am giving Mitt Romney a last chance.  But if I hear word one about Medicare and President Obama raiding it to pay for the Affordable Health care Act, it is over.  If I hear about the Auto bailout and how President Obama has messed that up, it is over.  I want to hear specifics about what Mitt Romney would do as President.  I want him to say that he will enforce all the words of the Constitution of the United States, including the Full Faith and Credit Clause.  I want to hear about what Mr. Romney would do in foreign affairs.  Don’t argue that you are better than President Obama, tell me what you would do.  Otherwise, I will vote for President Obama, and while it is only one vote in a Blood Red state, it is not only myself that is asking for what I have put down on this post.  There are millions of people out there that want to know what Mitt stands for because he twists in the wind for political gain.  And that is why he hasn’t been able to be the lead dog in this race.
UPDATE:  Well that one last chance didn’t last long.  And while I am not happy about it, I will be voting a straight Democratic ticket.  It will be the first time in my life that I have voted for a straight party ticket.

My votes:

President:  Barack Obama

Governor: Ryan Taylor

U.S. Senator:  Heidi Heitkamp

U.S. Representative:  Pam Gulleson

In a blood red state, I am trending bluer and bluer.

Staying Classy At The GOP National Convention

Well, at least the racial overtones that the Republican candidates for President and Vice-President have thrown out there have been picked up by some.

TPM:

An attendee at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Tuesday allegedly threw nuts at a black camerawoman working for CNN and said “This is how we feed animals” before being removed from the convention, a network official confirmed to TPM.

The CNN official declined to confirm specific details of the incident to TPM but generally confirmed an account posted on Twitter by former MSNBC and Current anchor David Shuster: “GOP attendee ejected for throwing nuts at African American CNN camera woman + saying ‘This is how we feed animals.’”

I would expect in a civilized and principled party that the Party would be out and doing damage control about how this person doesn’t represent the GOP and this is not what should be happening in 2012.  But it will be part of backslapping joke that the GOP members will be telling each other.  And that in 2012 is the real shame.  that there is a political party that is willing to use race to divide the country and then feign ignorance and disgust when they are called on it.

Welcome To Hell Or The Boomtown, Whichever You Prefer

Men’s Journal has put up a piece of journalism about Williston, North Dakota.  And before you decide to go to the Boomtown, read the article and see just how much the Boomtown might not be for you.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Picture a small town far off the interstate. Everyone knows your name. At red lights, you wave at folks. There are a couple of diners, some gas stations, and an Applebee’s for special occasions.

Now force-feed 10,000 to 15,000 new people into that town’s piehole. You’re in modern-day Williston. On my first day, I pop into the McDonald’s to order some McNuggets, and my number is 067. They’re up to 991. Outside, the drive-in traffic backs into the road. It is 4 pm on a Sunday. I look around, and it’s like Port Authority on Christmas Eve – families sit and wait patiently, their suitcases piled at their feet. I buy some supplies at the Wal-Mart, and it’s retail Thunderdome. Tattooed guys are snatching microwaves off pallets. The toddler in front of me hurls fruit cocktail at me for the 45 minutes I wait to check out.

A few weeks ago, the Wal-Mart parking lot was a transient town of campers and trailers, with dudes getting mail delivered to 45 Wal-Mart Parking Lot, Williston, ND 58801. But they were forced out amid rumors of depravity. Some of the trailers have migrated to the parking lot of the community center, an arena built for hockey games and the annual appearance of the Shriner Circus’ sadder-than-sad tigers. It was not built to serve as the only public shower facility for hundreds of filthy men fresh off oil rigs. The place smells like ass.

I stop by the community center to run on the treadmill on my second day – a mistake I’ll never repeat after watching a bearded man wash out his underwear next to me in the showers. I dress quickly and overhear two young men talking about the place’s skeeviness.

Yep.  Pure heaven.  Williston when all is said and done will be between 50,000 to 100,000 people.  But is it worth it?  Not in my eyes.  The Bakken will make North Dakota worse, not better.  The oil industry will prosper, but at a cost to us normal everyday North Dakotans.

Another Stupid Sign In Caldwell, Idaho

I would have no problems with this except for two little issues.

#1)  This group of people, The Ralph Smeed Foundation, didn’t have issues with George W. Bush and his foreign policy which killed more Americans than the foreign policy of President Obama.

#2)  Saying that the President is worse than a killer of children and helpless people.
The Ralph Smeed Foundation does have a right to say what they want to say.  And here is my rebuttal:  Go take a fucking flying leap off the edge of a cliff.  The average IQ of the state of Idaho will increase.

It Is Nice To See That Domestic Terrorism Isn’t Limited To Abortion

Yes the snark is already out there.  I am tired of these social conservatives thinking that it is OK to harm people that don’t agree with them.  Think about this you rejects.  Liberalism has made large strides in the evolution of what America is.  Liberals caused the thinking that blacks and whites should be treated the same.  Liberalism has caused the thinking that women should have the same rights as men.  So when these people that don’t like the fact that liberalism continues to try and ensure that everybody is treated equally decide to become violent, well they need to go get a prescription of Valium and go sit in their houses and chill.

According to reports, a lesbian in Nebraska was attacked by 3 men in her home, tied and gagged, beaten and had anti-gay slurs carved into her arms and abdomen.  Video and the report from NBC News is here.

“My neighbor was standing there, and she had no clothes on,” Linda Rappl, 68, told NBC affiliate WOWT in Omaha, Neb. “Her hands had been tied with zip ties, and the first thing I saw was blood running down her face.”

Rappl said the sobbing woman had cuts all over her torso, arms and face. Rappl said she brought her neighbor inside and wrapped her in a blanket before calling 911.

Police officials said they wouldn’t offer many details concerning the investigation, citing the need to maintain the integrity of the case, but Lincoln police spokeswoman Katie Flood told the Lincoln Journal Star that investigators have no suspects.

Wow.  3 tough big guys were needed to keep 1 lady down and terrorize her and the entire gay communities in Nebraska.  And make no mistake about it, it was domestic terrorism.  If you are afraid that being public with your homosexuality might get you hurt or worse, then yes, it is terrorism.  It is worse than all those Catholics out there syaing that they are being persecuted by the American public.  Here, we have facts and video of people being persecuted.  We have people terrorizing and killing other Americans because the conservatives in America have decided to demonize beliefs that are different than their own.  And as for this being an isolated incident, let’s go down to Texas.

Dallas police are classifying a brutal attack that sent two gay men to the hospital as a hate crime.

The couple was attacked early Tuesday morning in northeast Dallas. Police said the victims were walking to a corner store at about 2 a.m. when five men in a car pulled up alongside them and shouted anti-gay slurs.

“The language used against the victims indicated they were motivated by the perception that they were gay,” said Cece Cox, CEO of the Resource Center of Dallas, one of the primary nonprofit GLBT organizations in North Texas.

Investigators said two of the attackers got out of the car with baseball bats, hitting one of the victims at least four times in the head and knocking him unconscious for a short time. The other victim tried to fight back and got caught in the car’s passenger side door as the attackers sped away.

“It makes me very sad, very sad,” said a friend of the victims, who asked not to be identified for all of their safety. “I hate it for my friends to be in so much pain.”

The friend, who is taking care of the victims, said one man had to get eight staples in his head. The other victim has bruises covering his face and scabs down his arms and legs.

“It was because they were gay,” the friend said.

“Hatred and discrimination still exist, and this is an example that unfortunately we live with that in our lives,” Cox said.

That last statement is very true.  Hatred and discrimination still exist.  It exists in the town of 15,000 people that I live in.  Never mind the larger towns here in North Dakota.  Here is one thing that I cannot wrap my mind around from these conservative cowards that attack gay people.  You want limited government and limited intervention by others into your personal lives to live how you want, but you don’t practice that with others.  I am going to assume that you are God-fearing Christians based on that hypocrisy.  Personal experience.

All 3 of these stories are found on NBCNews.com.  Finally, I leave you with another story from Texas.

Two teenage girls in a relationship were found with gunshot wounds to the head in a south Texas park, with one of them dying from her injuries, media reports say. Police were searching for their assailants.

Mollie Judith Olgin, 19, and Mary Christine Chapa, 18, were found in knee-deep grass in a nature area in Portland by a couple Saturday, said Portland Police Chief Randy Wright, who confirmed to msnbc.com details first reported by the Corpus Christi Caller Times.

Mollie Olgin died due to the gunshot wounds.  Mary Chapa has lived and gave a detailed sketch to the Texas Rangers of the person that shot them.  I hope that this scumbag is found and given a death sentence.  Shooting people in cold blood is not acceptable in this country and I am sure that this person decided that the lives of 2 lesbians wasn’t worth much.  Well, they are worth more than what the shooter thought.  They were in the start of their adult life and possibly found true love.  We will never know and they won’t either.

It is past time that the country and officials at all levels of government decide to stop this sort of terrorism.  Gay people have every right to show their feelings to others.  They have the same rights as straight people to love, laugh, and show affection.  Until we, the American people, can get that through our thick heads, we will be held hostage by the social conservatives that are more than willing to give a pass to people that commit violence in the name of upholding social standards.  And that is the worst form of domestic terrorism.  Where Americans are willing to allow the terrorism to exist for their own political reasons.  It is past time to condemn these attacks from all sides of the political spectrum, but more often than not all I hear are crickets chirping.

States Voting Roll Purges Will Bring About National ID

One of the things that I can see happening from the Voter Id laws that Republicans are pushing through in order for Mitt Romney to have a chance for President is that the National government will decide that there is merit in having a national ID card for each and every American citizen.  Why?  Because of the way that conservatives are using voter ID laws as a way of having a poll tax to vote in elections.

I know that Republicans are wary of a National ID program.  Hell, I am with them.  But it is coming.  And it won’t be just a “liberal” position and “liberal” politicians that push it through.  Within the past year, 3 Republican House members, Lamar Smith (TX), Peter King (NY), and James Sensenbrenner (WI) have wanted the Obama Administration to push through the Real ID Act that would issue national ID cards and have a massive database kept in Washington regarding citizens of the United States.

The 2012 elections, I fear, will have given those in favor of a national ID program more ammo to use in order to argue for the program.  Imagine the argument that is going on in South Dakota, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and other states out there.  We need to purge our voter rolls because we are not exactly sure that we are eliminating the people not eligible to vote at the voting booth.  So you purge the voter rolls and disenfranchise people.  That goes against democratic principles because according to all the rhetoric out there it is supposed to be one man, one vote and if a person that is eligible to vote and is not allowed, then you have not given the entire experiment of democracy a chance to be put into affect.

After the 2012 elections, you will get stories out of the states where the voter rolls have been purged about how people were disenfranchised.  The GOP will call it minor, the Democrats will call it major.  And the subject about a national ID will come up again.  And this time, there will be arguments about voter’s rights and the normal stuff, but the Democrats will bring up illegal immigration.  And how a National ID system will help curb that plight.  They will bring up National Security and how the National ID will help law enforcement determine good and bad guys.  the will get at least the 3 House members listed above and Senator Lindsay Graham to help in this fight.  Graham wants a biometric card for immigrants and has worked with Democratic Senators on getting that bill through the congress.

19 states have passed laws on the national ID system.  All 19 reject them.  However, the Federal Government has the power to pass a law federally saying that the states must comply with the regulations or forfeit some sort of funding from Washington D.C.  The last big one was raising the drinking age from 18 to 21 or lose your federal funding for highways in your state.

The bottom line of this is that for the possibility of defeating Barack Obama by what most say are not above board voter ID laws, the GOP is on the verge of causing something worse than a second Obama Administration.  That is a national ID card.  And when that does come to fruition, and believe me it will come to pass, the conservatives and the GOP will have nobody to blame but themselves.  Because when you decide that naked power grabs are necessary and they are being done in the brightness of the day, there will be some push back.  This is one of the ways that Democrats can push back and have some GOP members on their side.  And while that makes for good politics, it makes for bad law.  But given the circumstances, you can see why the Democrats will do it.  They aren’t as ruthless about naked power grabs as the Republicans and will get the Republicans that aren’t as ruthless to side with them for long-term success.

When Will We Ever Get Past The Characteristic Of Race To Divide Us?

I am tired of the race-baiting and discrimination based on race here in the United States.  Be it a KKK rally down in Alabama or a New Panther Party gathering in Ohio.  The only reason that these groups are in existence is because racism is still alive in America.  And until we Americans do become color-blind in everyday life, racism will be a factor in the polarization of America.

A three-day whites-only religious conference — which will conclude with a flaming cross — in Lamar County, Alabama, has some residents upset at the racist implications while the minister complains that his freedom of speech is being violated.

“Yes, we believe that the Europeans and their descendants are the chosen people of God,” according to the website for Christian Identity Ministries, which is holding the event with Church of God’s Chosen. “We believe this, not because we think that the white race is superior, but because there is overwhelming proof in support of this belief. We do not back down from this belief, because we are certain.”

I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that there aren’t very many descendants from immigrants from Africa, South America, or Asia that are Christian in their religious beliefs that would agree with Christian Identity Ministries.  And here we go again with the fact that the Christian religion is used again by people hiding their racism in religion.

According to the flier, the three-day conference, being held in a rural area, will end with a “Sacred Christian Cross Lighting Ceremony.”

“Business people are upset. The city is upset,” Winfield Mayor Wayne Silas told the TV station. “The city of Winfield does not condone this.”

Christian Identity Ministries founder Mel Lewis, who spoke to a reporter from WAFF TV of Huntsville, charged that the Winfield mayor was violating his flock’s right to free speech.

“The mayor ordered our fliers to be taken down,” he said. “When did they start religious censorship?”

“We are not breaking any laws. We’re not violating any ordinances. We’re bringing the Word of God to people who want it, obviously, or they wouldn’t be here,” said Lewis at the rural venue, decorated with Confederate flags and KKK banners.

The city of Winfield is well within their rights to take down the fliers if they were put up illegally according to local laws.  It isn’t religious censorship because no action is being taken by a government entity to stop the worshiping of a religious deity that CIM believes in or the changing of religious practices that CIM uses in the worship of that deity.  Fuck, I wish that people would get that through their head.  And there isn’t any infringing on the Right to Free Speech here either.  I am tired of religious groups and special interest screaming bloody murder about their free speech rights when they in turn do not let the rest of us speak about what we believe without persecuting us about being against them.

Lewis said the “cross lighting” ceremony is a symbolic rite of purification that long predates the Klan’s inception, according to the report.

Some of the participants in the conference are Ku Klux Klan members, organizers said, though that was not a requirement.

“We don’t have the facilities to accommodate other races, and we have nothing, not one bit of animosity, no racism whatsoever,” Christian Identity Ministries Pastor William J. Collier told WIAT.

I only have one question for Pastor William J. Collier.  What special facilities do other races need that White people don’t need?  That statement from Pastor Collier is a bold-faced lie and should not be left out there and not challenged.  But the fact that most people will just look at it and say that this gathering is OK and that we shouldn’t rail against it, tells me that over the past 150 years, America hasn’t progressed as fast as the American people would want.  Also it speaks for Christianity that there are groups like this all over the United States using the religion of Christianity to spew their racism.  It speaks that Christianity as a religion is not a monolithic faith and that in and of itself could cause more problems in the future.