She Wants Her Country Back!

by Pa Rock
Amused Observer

There is a video circulating on the Internet that is as funny as it is scary. It is a clip of Congressman Mike Castle's (R-Del) recent town hall meeting. One very angry (and bizarre) woman gets the floor, begins angrily waving a document that she says is her birth certificate, and explodes that President Obama is refusing to produce his birth certificate (not true) because he was actually born in Kenya (also not true). The elderly Republican congressman appeared to be mortified by the crazy woman, but a group of hillbillies whom she probably collected at the local tavern on her way to the town hall hooted and hollered and cheered her on.

The authenticity of the Presidential birth certificate has been has been verified by several sources - including factcheck.org - which is where I viewed it. The document says quite clearly that he was born at 7:24 p.m. on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii. But Nutbag Lady and her Hillbilly chorus were having none of that. She stated adamantly that he was born in Kenya. Where is the proof for that?

The most telling part of the scene occurred as she was winding down. She dropped her head, began rocking sadly from side to side, and said, "I just want my country back!"

Implied, but not stated: She just wants her "white" country back.

Sorry, Honey, but that ain't gonna happen. I spent eight long, miserable years "wanting" my country back from George Bush, Dick Cheney, and their gang of thieves, war mongers, and environmental rapists, but I had to sit politely and wait the bastards out. Many of us had serious doubts about whether Bush was actually elected either time, but we didn't go psycho over the issue because the government had to function.

A major difference between Obama and Bush (and there are many!) is that Obama was clearly and decisively elected.

This noise about the President's birth certificate is very reminiscent of the GOP's campaign against the Clinton's that lasted throughout Bill's eight years in office. It was a cheap and tawdry effort that succeeded only in keeping his popularity ratings unusually high. The Republicans spent eight years slinging crap, and the American people didn't like it. And now it's starting again!

The Republican's did manage to make a comeback, barely, in 2000 with the questionable election of George Bush. But they are so fragmented and self-marginalized now that a comeback in the foreseeable future is unlikely. The most viable Republican presidential candidate at this time is Mitt Romney, a Mormon. How's that gonna play with their hate-riddled Christian fundamentalist base?

The Republican Party appears to be hellbent on self-destruction - from the Palin's, to the Cheney's, to Joe the Plumber, to the religious right, to the loony birthers. I wish them God-speed in their race to become totally irrelevant!

A Nation's Shame Ten Years On

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Matthew Shepard had just barely reached adulthood when he was robbed, pistol whipped, tortured, tied to a wooden fence, and left to die in the lonely, cold Wyoming night a decade ago this week. When a bicyclist found him the next morning his first thought was that he had stumbled upon a scarecrow. Somehow young Matthew had managed to live through the night. He was removed to Ft. Collins, Colorado, where he died on October 12, 1998, without ever regaining consciousness.

Matthew Shepard was a gay man, slight-of-build and mild-of-manner, who was attending the University of Wyoming at Laramie, a backwater community steeped in cowboy tradition and homophobic pride. He undoubtedly had an awareness of the dangers of being openly gay in the middle of a shit-stomping cowboy culture, but on the night of October 6th he got careless. Matthew went to a local tavern for a drink. There he met two other young men, rough, cowboy types, who convinced him that they were also gay and lured him into a pickup truck.

The men, Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney, told Matthew to give them his money. He resisted, and they began to beat him as McKinney drove his pickup out of town, past the Wal-Mart, and into the crisp and clear prairie night. Evidence presented months later in court showed that they struck him in the head at least twenty times with enough force to fracture his skull in six places. As their night of savagery came to an end, they stretched Matthew's arms and tied him to a wooden fence, leaving an image eerily reminiscent of a crucifixion.

Henderson and McKinney initially tried to use a "gay panic" defense, claiming that they feared their young victim was going to make sexual advances toward them and perhaps even commit rape on their larger and tougher bodies. When the futility of that defense started to become apparent, they changed their tactic to stating that the torture and murder was the result of a robbery gone bad. The two had stolen Shepard's wallet containing a twenty dollar bill and his size seven patent leather shoes. Eventually both young men were found guilty and sentenced to two life terms each with no possibility of parole.

Sadly for Matthew's family and friends, the outrages committed against him did not end with his death. The "Reverend" Fred Phelps and his loyal band of Christian fascists from Topeka showed up at Matthew's funeral shouting homophobic epithets and holding signs that said "Got Hates Fags" and "Matthew Shepard is Burning in Hell!" The Phelps circus also came back to town for the trials of their heroes, Henderson and McKinney.

The United States government passed some limited hate crimes legislation in 1994, but the act never addressed crimes related to gender, sexual orientation, or disability discrimination. After the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard new, more comprehensive federal legislation was proposed. It didn't get to the President's desk during the Clinton administration, and Bush has stated an intent to veto the bill if he receives it. McCain has previously voted against the bill, and Obama said that he supports it. One can hope that the Matthew Shepard National Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act will be a priority during President Obama's first term.

The dark days of the Bush administration have witnessed states taking the lead in social legislation when the feds would not act. Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have passed some form of hate crimes legislation. Sadly, Wyoming remains one of five that have not. The others are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, and South Carolina.

It has been ten years since the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard. Some have chosen to learn and grow from the awful circumstances of his death, while others have determined not to let their homophobia and bigotry and rabid "Christianity" be tarnished by the light of reason. If this young man's brief life is to have a lasting meaning, our citizenry needs to recognize the awfulness of hate crimes and resolve to eradicate hate from our lives. That alone might be just recompense for the crucifixion that happened on that cold Wyoming prairie ten years ago this week.

What About Bubba?

by Pa Rock

The biggest problem facing the Obama campaign isn't choosing a running mate, deciding how to campaign against McBush, or even what to wear on Inauguration Day. The biggest problem that Team Obama faces is what to do about Bubba. The ex-President got his ass kicked by a rookie, and he ain't about to forget it.

Well, you Illinois giant-slayers can quit worrying because Pa Rock has a plan.

Big Bill wanted this election, and everything else for that matter, to be about him. So why not slice off a piece of the electoral map and give it to him. Tell Bubba that if he's as God-awful powerful as he thinks he is, he can just go out and prove it by placing Arkansas in the Democratic column. Then buy that sucker a bus ticket and put him on the road.

Stroke that big boy's ego, get him pumped up with a challenge that he can't refuse. Put it on the national news - Bill Clinton will deliver Arkansas to Obama! Paint him into a corner, and then set the building on fire and see what happens!

Tell him to sound off in Yellville, buzz around Bee Branch, and not to get too picky in Cotton Patch. He needs to leave his Oxford airs at home, and not use big words in Dumas. Bubba knows Arkansas. Tell him that he can do it, the future of the free world rests on his shoulders - just like it did in the good old days!

And if he doesn't get hooked by the nostalgia of the small towns of his youth, remind him of all of those nubile young hillbilly gals chasing their pet razorbacks through the hills and hollers of Arkansas! His little head will rise to the challenge!

Political Diarrhea

by Pa Rock

I've been busy elsewhere and have sadly neglected this blog as of late. During my hiatus, the political crap seems to have backlogged - but now I'm back and it's time to let 'er flow!

Whoops! Dear Leader has been telling us for years now that we will leave Iraq when and if the government there ever asks us to. John McBush even bought into that highly unlikely scenario and implied that his opponent was promoting unconditional surrender for even suggesting a time table for withdrawal. Then last week Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki up and declared that it was time for the US to start planning an exit from Iraq - or at least get a time table set up. Whoops! I guess he shot the Bush/McBush never-ending war rationale right in the ass! Has al-Malaki forgotten who his masters are? Who cut the strings on this once dependable puppet?

Hypocrisy Watch: Jesse Jackson was caught on a live microphone saying that Barack Obama should have his nuts cut off because he encouraged young black males to be responsible parents. Reverend Jesse felt that our future President was "talking down" to these men. Give it a break, Jesse! Someone should have bent your ear on that subject a few years ago before you fathered a child out of wedlock. You're not offended by Obama's advice - you're offended by the fact that you, like me, are quickly slipping into insignificance. Old age is a bitch, and so is irrelevance. Get over it - or get out and do some work in the community and make yourself relevant again. And quit worrying about Obama's nuts - yours seem to be much more problematic than his!

(For the record, I have a certain amount of respect for Reverend Jackson, and even voted for him in Missouri's 1988 Presidential primary. I feel sad that people like him and Bill Clinton, once formidable political figures, are letting unnecessary pettiness obscure their legacies.)

Cancel My Subscription: This week's much maligned cover of The New Yorker has certainly generated a lot of controversy. Personally, I thought it was funny. Of course, I also think Rush Limbaugh is funny. Unfortunately, both reinforce a portrait of the Obama family that is patently false and feeds into the fears of the underinformed masses. The New Yorker has handed Obama a lemon, and he needs to squeeze that sucker into lemonade. I think it would be a great lead-in to a speech on patriotism and faith - much like his earlier, highly praised, speech on race. Lay it on the table and serve it up!

Oh Those Girls! The conservative press let out a roar regarding the Obama girls' television interview. They seemed to feel that allowing the interview to take place was tantamount to bad parenting. What I saw was two very articulate young ladies who were very loved and quite comfortable talking about their daddy. And even though Daddy winced a few times (and a few times I winced for him), he was comfortable enough in his parenting experiences to let them meet the press. And they were great! You go girls!

The Biggest Losers

Three people on the periphery of this presidential election cycle have proven themselves to be world class losers.

#3: Obviously Bill Clinton (with all of his braying, bullying, and race-baiting) damaged not only his wife's camapign, but also slapped a heavy coat of slime on his legacy.

#2: Senator Joe Lieberman, once a respected member of Congress, now has his nose so far up John McBush's butt that he's little more than the human equivalent of a Depends adult diaper. Old Joe thinks he is going to be Secretary of State, or Defense, or even Vice-President. The trouble is, of course, McBush can't even remember where he parked the Straight Talk Express, much less manage a country - and President Obama probably won't even invite Lieberman to the inauguration. You're riding the wrong horse, Joe!

#1: And the biggest loser - yesterday, today, and for the forseeable future - is George Corley Bush. Yes, the W has slipped into total irrevalance as the nation focuses on the future. His war is being debated by the people who will ultimately have the responsibility of extricating our forces and rebuilding our reputation in the world, and nobody cares what the Prez thinks. He's all hat and no cattle - and the hat is just a beanie! What a wasted presidency!

Redirection

Every few decades America undergoes some basic realignments, usually under the direction of a President who understands, with uncommon clarity, the importance of leading with a vision. We have had three such leaders in my lifetime:

John Kennedy challenged us to make America and the world a better place by focusing on others instead of ourselves. We weren't about greed, we were about giving. Kennedy gave us the Peace Corps, which is still a force for good in the world nearly fifty years later. He also redirected our national focus toward the stars, or at least the moon, and began a serious effort to strengthen math and science education in our schools.

Lyndon Johnson was thrust into the Presidency early in what should have been the Kennedy period. LBJ used his unparalleled power with Congress to create a massive Civil Rights program and anti-poverty agenda. It was under Johnson that many of America's most disadvantaged first began to realize that they, too, could gain entry into the system. Some of the jewel's in LBJ's crown of accomplishments include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA - a domestic Peace Corps), Medicare, Medicaid, and Headstart - programs that radically changed America for the better.

Society is a pendulum. When Americans feel that government has gone too far to the left or to the right, they begin looking for someone who can bring the pendulum back in the other direction. There were American's in the sixties who resented what they saw as government's appropriation of their tax money for use with the people that demagogues assured them were too lazy to work. It was time for a shift, someone with a new vision.

Ronald Reagan came to the White House in 1980 with the vision of refocusing America from the "us" of Kennedy and Johnson, to the "me". Insteading of concentrating on what we could do for our country, Reagan asked us to focus on what we could do to make our own lives better, and let our poor neighbors fend for themselves.

And America has been on this "me" track now for almost thirty years. Even an eight-year democratic respite under the Clintons saw little done to enhance the lives of the poor and needy. The North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), in fact, proved to be a critical factor in increasing unemployment and poverty in the United States during the Clinton years and throughout the presidency of George Bush.

George Bush has taken the pendulum so far to the right that it appears to be stuck. Our treasury has been sacked by Bush and Cheney's cronies, otensibly to fight a war that has drug on for five years and that we have zero (ZERO!) hope of winning. Our national prestige is in the crapper thanks to our unwillingness to negotiate or even be civil with other nations. We let bin Laden escape so that the President could rush into Iraq and prove something to his father, and then have a moment of glory prancing around the deck of an aircraft carrier. George Bush has stood, like the proud little peacock that he is, snapping orders as America digs the biggest hole in the history of the world, and he won't let us stop digging!

It is time for a change. It is time to begin redirecting our national energies in a more positive, and world-friendly direction. It is time that we begin to care about every mother's son, or daughter, and not just what is good for the stockholders of Halliburton, Blackwell, and Raytheon. It's our America, and it's time to bring it home!

There are three candidates left in the race for the presidency of the United States. John McBush, who states that he does not understand economics and is willing to stay in Iraq one hundred more years. McBush is a cranky old man (with an eye for blondes) who wants to serve out George Bush's third term. Billary Clinton wants to take us back to the good old days of the 1990's when our factory jobs went to Mexico and the assets of the wealthy went to the Caymans. She clearly wants to serve Bill's third term. Barack Obama wants to focus on people, and to provide us with a hope of regaining our stature in the world through diplomacy and good deeds rather than with bombs and braggadocio. Of the three, Obama is the only one who offers any hope for change.

Obama '08! It is time for a change!

Johns, Hookers, and Bathroom Perverts

I thought that yesterday's news story about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer frequenting a high-priced whore house was very disappointing. Spitzer had earned a reputation as a tough law enforcement official during his eight years as New York's attorney general. His unwise and illegal behavior will probably cost him his job, and it is undoubtedly having a devastating impact on his family - a wife and three teenage daughters.

I have a friend at work, a republican, who observed that if the miscreaants have their wives with them when they admit or deny the misbehavior, it is a certain tell that they are guilty: Bill and Hillary, Congressman and Mrs. Vitter (in her faux leopard skin coat), wide-stance Senator Larry Craig and his Missus, and now Governor Spitzer and spouse. When I pointed out to him that McCain brought his plastic Barbie Doll wife out when he self-righteously denied a romantic involvement with a lobbyist, my friend decided that his theory might have an occasional exception.

Political power must be the most powerful aphrodisiac in existence. Why else would people who have been granted such enormous public trust behave so stupidly? Certainly their families, and ours, deserve better.

Of Fear and Lizard Brains

This past Tuesday, March 4, marked the 75th anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first inauguration as President. It was at the height of the Great Depression and times were bad. But on that day in Washington D.C. all those many years ago, FDR took the reins of power from Herbert Hoover and assured the country that government would, once again, be the servant of the people. In his inaugural address, he told America that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!"

What a difference seventy-five years makes! Now we have a President who uses fear as his prime motivator. Fear Iraqis, fear al-Quaida, fear Castro, fear Chavez, fear immigrants, fear your government, fear, fear, fear! Fortunately for the world, and America in particular, George W. Bush is quickly becoming irrelevant.

But fear works - and now Billary has picked up the banner. Seventy-five years to the day after FDR reassured us that fear was all we had to fear, Billary won the Texas primary by using her sleazy red phone commercial stressing the need for us to fear anyone but her answering the President's red phone at 3:00 a.m. Arianna Huffington of "The Huffington Post" referred to this red phone tactic as appealing to our lizard brains, the most primal part of the human brain - the one we employed when we were still in the caves - long before the advent of rational thought.

What's wrong with focusing on ideas? Why can't we be free to judge candidates on their vision for America, instead of on their ability to slime? Bill Clinton said (in 2004 while campaigning for John Kerry) that if one candidate offers you hope and the other offers you fear - go with the one offering hope. He was right. The only thing we have to fear is the politician who is trying to scare us from seeing the world as it could be.

No third term!

10 Things I Hate About Billary

1. Sense of Entitlement: Some commentators noted in 2000 that George W. Bush approached the Presidency as though it was something owed to him, a graduation gift perhaps. Billary approaches it in the same manner. She has waited patiently, caused a few potholes in New York to be fixed, and cast every Senate vote in a manner that would play well in a general election. Now, it’s her turn, and how dare anyone try to derail her destiny!

2. Manipulation: The National Democratic Party decided to boycott Michigan and Florida for their insistence on having primaries before Super Tuesday. Obama and Edwards had their names removed from the Michigan primary ballot in support of the national party. Billary did not, and, not surprisingly, “won” that primary because she was the only big name left on the ballot. Then she used that “victory” for bragging rights. As soon as Billary lost in South Carolina, Big Bill started talking about the next primary and how she would redeem herself there. The next primary was Florida, where all Democratic candidates had agreed not to campaign and where, like Michigan, no delegates were to be awarded. Billary had two fundraisers in Florida immediately preceding the election, and announced she would fly to Florida when the polls closed to thank her supporters. The whole circus was framed as a victory party. Now she is whining about the unfairness of not counting the Michigan and Florida delegates. Puh…leese!

3. Lobbyists: While Barack Obama and John Edwards were able to honestly claim that they did not accept contributions from lobbyists, Billary pointed out that “lobbyists are people, too.” She has single-handedly accepted more money from lobbyists than any other candidate from either party. What kind of health care plan can we expect from someone who is owned by the pharmaceutical and medical industries? K Street whores should ply their trade in the streets like their working class counterparts – not in the Oval Office.

4. Experience: Billary loves to rattle on about her thirty-five years of experience. She does have a lot of experience, but it is certainly not all laudable. How about her experience in the White Water land shenanigans? Or her experience in the White House with Travel Gate? Maybe she would like to spotlight her experience in maiming the working class as a Wal-Mart Corporate Board Member. And let’s not forget her experience in the 1993 health care fiasco. A big part of Billary’s “experience” can be more accurately looked at as “baggage.”

5. Race-Baiting: Billary's main political tactic in the South Carolina Primary seemed to be reminding everyone that Obama is black. Unfortunately for her, she offended a big part of what should have been her natural constituency. This is America in the 21st century, not Arkansas in the 1980’s. Billary should be ashamed, and Big Bill should be caned!

6. Truthfulness: Billary met Sir Edmund Hillary in Nepal several years ago. She told him that her mother had named her after him in order to inspire greatness in her daughter. Big Bill even recounted the meeting and that statement in his autobiography. The problem with that story is that Sir Edmund Hillary was a virtual unknown before he climbed Mt. Everest in 1953. Billary was born in 1947. Whoops! When that inconsistency was pointed out to her, Billary blamed the whole mix-up on her poor, old mother. What a piece of work!

7. Dramatic Ability: A few tears and a breaking voice bought her New Hampshire. Will the same tactic work at a heated conference with world leaders? Will it make a crisis go away?

8. Testosterone Level: In an effort to prove that she has cajones the size of coconuts, Billary voted to allow Bush to use force against Iraq for its involvement in 9/11, or its on-going manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction, or any other fiction that caught the President’s fancy. General election voters needed to know that she was as tough (and as dumb) as any man!

9. Refusal to Admit Mistakes: Billary moans and groans about the awfulness of the war in Iraq, but she just can’t bring herself to admit that her vote enabling the President to take our troops into this foolish misadventure was a mistake.

10. Tendency to Polarize: Rightly or wrongly, Billary is a lightening rod. People love her or hate her – there is no middle ground. She is the one person capable of coalescing this year’s Republican mess into an effective political organization. They all hate Billary!

First Friday

Downtown Phoenix hosts a large street fair on the first Friday evening of each month. Local artisans set up tables along the streets for several blocks and sell their wares: paintings, t-shirts, jewelry, food, and lots of novelties. I have some friends from work who have been First Friday vendors for the past several months. Tonight I joined them there and had a very nice time ambling along the streets and checking out the fun and merchandise. There were also several street musicians performing, petitions being passed to get the Green Party on the ballot, and some die-hard Ron Paul supporters promoting their candidate. It was a very neighborly affair.

The Met-Life blimp floated over the First Friday event. I assume that it is in town for the Super Bowl. There has been a marked uptick in traffic over the past few days.

Speaking of big bags of hot air, former President Clinton was in town last night pandering for his Missus. (I was so tempted to say "pimping," but I didn't want to get tacky!) The local newspaper reported that 2,400 turned out to see him. That same newspaper, The Arizona Republic, put the total for the Obama event the night before at 13,000. But, hey, who's counting!

No Third Term!

While it may be sometime before the dust settles in either party's race to the White House, Bill Clinton is already emerging as perhaps the most significant loser of this election cycle. The once God-like icon of the disadvantaged and down-trodden has left Olympus and returned to his Arkansas persona of Bubba the ruthless campaigner. No matter what the candidates may be doing or saying, it's Bill who's soaking up the spotlight with his whining, blustering, and thundering threats. Hillary may or not make it to the White House, but this much is certain - Bubba's legacy is heading for the crapper!

Can America possibly get it's collective head around eight more years of Bill and Hillary? Are we ready to crawl out from under the Bush administration and back into the Clinton drama? Michael Bloomberg is starting to look better and better!

I got a nice letter from Hillary today asking for a contribution. I will be sending her postage-paid envelope back, without a donation, and with these words neatly penned on the outside: "No Third Term!"

Of course, politicians have no pride. She'll write again!

Obama, Oh My!

I am enjoying the Obama victory in Iowa this evening. Barack Obama, a son of Kenya and Kansas, is on his way to the White House! It is truly the dawn of a new day in America!

Other observations:

 Hillary’s concession speech was more gracious than the one given by Edwards.
 Fred Thompson did better than I thought he would. I hope that somebody woke him up and told him that he is still in the race!
 The Democratic turnout was tremendous – which portends very well for November.
 Chuck Norris’s teeth are unnaturally white!
 Ron Paul’s people have been deluding themselves.
 Bill Clinton is looking really old!
 Mike Huckabee may be a gasbag, but he has a good sense of humor.
 Joe Biden is a class act.
 Barack Obama is the most powerful public speaker in America!

On to New Hampshire!