Make that Change

The political center of America has been moving decidedly to the right for decades.

Actual liberals have been all-but banished from the Democratic Party.

Ask yourself, do we have any heroes in America like Marek Edelman, who left us this past October? Uncompromising and fierce, even in the face of death, even in the face of the scorn of his countrymen and allies?

The Democrats will not get their shit together on issues like marriage equality or reproductive rights and they have caved on every economic issue there is.

The Clinton 90's heralded an era of Democratic Reaganomics.

The Democrats are now on the wrong side on the death penalty, the war on crime, the war on drugs, and more or less every other aspect of both our foreign and domestic policy.

Gains are small and usually immediately taken away. Resistance is met with either scorn, or muscle.

We, the left, caught a great deal of grief from the Democratic Party when we dared to refuse to support Gore and Lieberman who might as well be Republicans.

I’m sorry, but you can’t move that far to the right and then complain that the left has abandoned you.

And anyone who has spoken out in the last eight years, from Ward Churchill to Bill Maher to the Dixie Chicks can tell you what it’s like be responded to with simple, brutal, unmoving force.

And now, we are at a crossroads. Did we really mean what we said when we voted for change, or are we just jerking off?

Are we pissed off enough about this recession to demand that the people we just put into office reverse the past 28 years of systematic deregulation that led to this whole mess?
The hubris of the last eight years, the prioritizing of power over party, and party over country has imploded the Republican Party and we have been given a magnificent opportunity. It would be a crime to waste it. But the Democrats have indeed wasted the opportunity.

They could not get meaningful health care for all Americans even with a Super-majority in both houses. You know why? Because they didn't fucking try!

They talked of bi-partisanship as if it were the primary virtue for any politician. As if making friends with the enemy were more important than principle.

They've put Blackwater into Pakistan for Christ's sake!

No more. I've come to a crucial decision. When you choose between the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil.

Go ahead and tell me I'm throwing my vote away.

But from now on, every vote will go to a Socialist, Green or Independent candidate.

I used to think the Democrats' problem was weakness. Now I see that it's a lack of conviction.

And for the record, to you, the Democratic Party, you left us. Adieu.

Perspective

I have bitched and bitched about Obama's impotence and inaction. And for the record, I intend to keep doing so.

Anybody with a super majority who can't even keep the most basic of his promises is inept.

Any President who fucks around with Congress with something like Don't Ask, Don't Tell when he has the power to issue an executive order is disingenuous.

Our war in Afghanistan has escalated on his watch and bled over the border into Pakistan.

His health care reform is a joke. It's a bigger 'fuck you' to poor people than the shit system we have now.

His administration has put me squarely in the 'throwing-my-vote-away-on-third-party-candidate' category.

As a socialist, you have no idea how grating it is to hear conservatives call him a Socialist. Obama is squarely establishment.

Then, I saw this...

...and remembered that as unhappy as I am with our current President, we just came out of eight years of the worst, actually the single worst American President that history has seen so far.

It's true, Obama is as bad as Clinton.

But at least we're not where we were.

One Without The Other

Mr. President, I really want to support you.

I do.

But if you pass an individual mandate for everyone to carry Medical insurance, you have to accompany it with a public option and an employer mandate.

And please stop saying that this mandate is comparable to the requirement for every driver to carry auto insurance. That requirement is to offset liability for harm that you might accidentally cause somebody else.

Huge difference.

You don't have to compromise the way the Clinton administration did.

You have the majority.

You have the upper hand.

Is it so outrageous to ask you to put the single payer option back on the table?

Please don't give away so much that this reform turns into a payday for insurance companies and a screwing for the poor.

Actually, as long as I'm asking for things, is there any way I can talk you into having an intern break into Senator Baucus' office and take a shit on his desk?

Workers Unite!

And, in case anyone cares, I'm listening to:

Classism At Its Worst: Indulging My Inner-Childish-Name-Caller

Warning. If you read this, you're not going to find much if you're looking at coherent arguments. If that's what you want, look at my previous post.

I just wanted to take some time here to verbally abuse my new least favorite person, Senator Max Baucus. So you've been warned. This is going to get very immature very fast.

Dear Senator Baucus, you pompous, elitist shit-slurpee sipping, anal-licking, hollowed out shit of a man,
Go fuck a donkey, you bloated, disconnected, classist fuck.

Go play for the other team.

You're seriously proposing a mandate on individuals to carry health insurance without providing them with it?

Are you actually trying to make it worse for the working class or have you really not been paying attention enough to see that as you compromise, point by point, you're not just diluting reform, but subverting it?
Does the insurance industry have pictures of you jerking off a poodle and sucking a llama?

This is one fuck of a payday you're handing them and one fuck of a burden you're putting on the poor.

Does the insurance lobby maybe have its fist so far up your ass that it's using you as a ventriloquist dummy, you candy-ass corporate cunt? Does Aetna's arm smell like Max Baucus' shit from the elbow down? I'll bet it does, you fucktard of a walking abortion.

Not to say that I wish you had never been born, but if I could give any person any gift, I'd get your mother a gift card to Planned Parenthood and a time machine.

If only abortion was legal through the 280th trimester.

So come up with something we can use, you rusty tromboning motherfucker.

Because we need health care as soon as possible so we can deal with the nasty syphilis your mom has been spreading across the Midwest. It's getting to be more of a problem than H1N1, you goat-sucking Jesus-banger.

And, in case anybody cares, I'm listening to:

Reform?

Couple of quick points.

First, stop asking who's going to pay for health care. I get sodomized bi-weekly by Aetna to the tune of $160. That's more than Social Security, state, federal and city taxes combined. I'm already paying. Something tells me that if there were a public option, my family could be covered for less than $320 per month out of my pocket, not to mention co-pays and deductible.

Also, and this is very important, so pay attention, any mandate on citizens to carry health insurance MUST be accompanied by a public option. Otherwise, so-called reform is a win for insurance companies and a huge 'fuck you' to poor people.

Christ, we're compromising so much that not only is reform going to be meaningless, but under Baucus' new plan it's going to make things even worse for the uninsured.

Last point. Health Care isn't a privilege and shouldn't be treated as such. It is a basic human right. If the wealthiest country on earth refuses to provide every one living in the country with health care, this is the height of greed and gluttony.

That's two out of the seven deadly sins for those of who who are still holding onto the insane notion that conservative ideology is in line with Biblical teaching.

Because when you look past all the arguments and finances and logistics, we are faced with the simple fact that denying care for people who can't afford it is just sinful.

As a Socialist, I frequently vote for Democratic candidates, but in all seriousness, if the Democrats can't get Health Care passed, I'm out.

Tell me I'm throwing away my vote, but how can I support a party that is either so impotent or incompetent that they can't push through free health care for everybody even with the overwhelming majority they have?

So, we wait and see what happens.

Nobody is even talking about what ought to be done and that is expand Medicare and Medicaid to cover every American, period. Remember when Socialized Medicine was actually part of the Democratic platform?

Taking a single payer system off the table was bad enough, even though the Americans on Medicare & Medicaid are happier with their coverage than anyone else. If a Health Care bill passes through without a public option, I'm officially out.

Workers Unite!

And if any of you care, I'm listening to:

Hugo And Marx - Classist Warriors: A Continuation On My Series On Heroes

Two writers, Karl Marx and Victor Hugo, advanced the notion that economic force is force nevertheless and therefore violence.


They changed the way we looked at wealth and poverty.

In a time and country when we casually throw Christ's name around with our WWJD bracelets, here are two men who truly advanced the teachings of Jesus Christ.

It's the economy, fucknuts.

You can’t fix everything by throwing money at it.

I happen to agree with that sentiment.

However, money problems can be solved with money.

Also, this is your mess we’re cleaning up here, so enough whining.

We’ve undergone 28 years of systematic deregulation, resulting in a disproportionate slice of our economy made up by the banking and financing industry.

In other words, we’ve been pushing money around for so long that we’ve lost the art of basing our economy on actual goods and services.

When so much of our economy is solely financing, you get to the point where our wealth is, for lack of a better word, imaginary.

Still, Republicans had a lot to say this week about Obama’s gigantic package. (huh-huh.)

“There are billions and tens of billions of dollars in this bill which will have no effect within three, four, five or more years or never.” Sen. John McCain (R) Arizona

“This is a kind of sugar high. You put a lot of spending now. You’re going to crash. You’re going to be in recession.” Sen. Jon Kyl (R) Arizona

First, McCain, was that supposed to be funny? What, are you throwing in to be the next Don Rickles?

Second, we’re in a recession now, fucknuts.

Second, do you guys need a few minutes to get your stories straight?

We have McCain telling us the problem is that the stimulus package doesn’t focus enough on the short term and Kyl telling us the problem is that the stimulus package focuses too much on the short term.

Why don’t you pricks sit down, figure out what you need to say and get back to us.

I will say this. Watching these guys implode is entertaining and laughter is good for the soul.

And I just want to add that for years, we've heard that Marxism is a nice idea, but it only works on paper.

Maybe we should starting saying the same about unchecked capitalism?

I'm just saying.

Robocop and Subversive Social Criticism

Okay, yesterday I watched and had my mind a little blown by Robocop.

First, I love this movie and always have. The first time I saw it, I was 13 or 14 and it remains one of the most violent and funny action films ever.


Also, Kurtwood Smith as Clarence Boddicker might just be my favorite movie villain ever.

But what really stuck with me when I watched it yesterday was just how accurate the prophecies of this film turned out to be.

Slyly Marxist both in tone and philosophy, this film is essentially about greed and the privatization of the government.

It’s a world where police forces and the military are run, not by the government, but by corporations.

And there is a sharp warning in here about what happens when those running public services as enterprises find themselves on top with one motivation: making money.


I kept thinking about the last eight years and how much of Verhoeven’s twisted premonition has actually come true.

It might sound odd, but Robocop is kind of a continuation of Eisenhower’s cautionary farewell address.

It’s cheering when you find some of the smartest social criticism in the least expected places, like an ultra violent action film like Robocop or in the political commentary disguised as lowest-common-denominator potty humor of South Park.

Seriously, go watch Robocop and think about Blackwater & Halliburton and get back to me.

I promise you’ll be just a little freaked out.

Mission Statement

The political center of America has been moving decidedly to the right for decades now. True liberals have been all-but banished from the Democratic Party.

The Democrats will not get their shit together on issues like marriage equality or reproductive rights and they have caved on every economic issue there is.

The Clinton 90's heralded an era of Democratic Reaganomics. The Democrats are now on the wrong side on the death penalty, the war on crime, the war on drugs, and more or less every other aspect of both our foreign and domestic policy.

Gains are small and usually immediately taken away. Resistance is met with either scorn, or muscle.

We caught a great deal of grief from the Democratic Party when we dared to refuse to support Gore and Lieberman who might as well be Republicans.

I’m sorry, but you can’t move that far to the right and then complain that the left has abandoned you.

And anyone who has spoken out in the last eight years, from Ward Churchill to Bill Maher to the Dixie Chicks can tell you what it’s like be responded to with simple, brutal, unmoving force.

And now, we are at a crossroads. Did we really mean what we said when we voted for change, or are we just jerking off?

Are we pissed off enough about this recession to demand that the people we just put into office reverse the past 28 years of systematic deregulation that led to this whole mess?

The hubris of the last eight years, the prioritizing of power over party, and party over country has imploded the Republican Party and we have been given a magnificent opportunity. It would be a crime to waste it. But the Democrats have indeed wasted the opportunity.

They could not get meaningful health care for all Americans even with a Super-majority in both houses. You know why? Because they didn't fucking try! They talked of bi-partisanship as if it were the primary virtue for any politician. As if making friends with the enemy were more important than principle.

No more. I've come to a crucial decision. When you choose between the lesser of two evils, you are still choosing evil.

Go ahead and tell me I'm throwing my vote away.

But from now on, every vote will go to a Socialist, Green or Independent candidate.

I used to think the Democrats' problem was weakness. Now I see that it's a lack of conviction.

And for the record, you left us. Adieu.

My last pre-election rant - 11-03-08

The following is a list of things I refuse to accept.

1) Patriotism being defined as refusing to hold to account our leaders no matter what they do. I’ve been hearing ever since 9/11 that opposing Bush is the same as opposing America. Please. If I had told you ten years ago that to criticize Clinton was tantamount to treason, you would’ve punched me in the sack and you’d have been right to do it. Refusing to accept the actions of leaders we deem as reckless in no way detracts from the love we have for our country.

2) Support for our troops being defined as assent with the actions we have taken in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would say that demanding that we not get our people killed unless we have no other choice is the best kind of support I can offer. There is a lot of talk about honoring our men and women in uniform. I choose to honor them by being furious that more than four thousand of them are dead when they shouldn’t be.

3) Pro-Life being defined solely as the belief that abortion should not be legal. I have so many problems with this, I don’t know where to start. It might be easier to swallow if those talking about the sanctity of life have such a flippant attitude to our actions around the world that costs people their lives, particularly in the Middle East and in South and Central America. If these people fought for the rights of the born as well as the unborn, I would be more willing to listen. I do not accept the implication that the belief that abortion should not be allowed is somehow ‘anti-life.’ When doctors can no longer perform abortions, women bleed to death. Pro-Choice is Pro-Life.

4) Words like liberal, socialist, Marxist among others are something to run from. Everyone who accuses Obama or anyone for that matter of being a Marxist really should read something that Marx has written. That way, you won’t look quite as douchey.

So there, I’m back down off my soapbox and I’m going to play some incarnation of Resident Evil. Everyone have fun tomorrow.