Rupert

Obama anger

So I have to vent...I'm really pissed about Obama taking votes from Hillary. No Hillary isn't perfect, but she's more qualified to be President than Obama is. She had an integral part in picking Bill Clinton's cabinet and his cabinet was filled with smart, insightful people who oversaw the rise of our economy from recession to the largest expansion of the middle class across all racial lines. For the first time home ownership and the rise from poverty of people of color was engineered by Reich, Clinton's secretary of Labor. And Hillary also supports universal health care, for god sakes she practically crucified for her work she did early on in the Clinton years and she's still pushing for a better health care plan than Obama. Also, I spent a year studying Hillary's senate bills--she has a comprehensive knowledge of the tax system and how to reform it to stimulate the economy--again across the board in terms of race, Obama does not. All Obama's bills are about starting programs for people--great but he has no plans on how to pay for them. Hillary will balance the budget, get us out of Iraq, fight for universal health care, and Obama has none of these plans and he's gathering support a) because he's a man and b) because Oprah likes him and c) because people find Hillary cold. And it is insane that now people are criticizing the Clinton years. Give me 8 years of Clinton/Gore over 8 years of Bush/Cheney any day. I pray that Obama isn't the only one on the ticket--it seems to me like Hillary wouldn't consider a vice-presidential spot and to be honest in terms of women's advancement we already had Geraldine Ferraro. I don't understand the Hillary backlash. It is all fueled by the right-wing. People who harp on her record and how she hasn't opposed going into Iraq initially well here's news neither did Obama! Do you think Obama has the knowledge to appoint someone like Madeline Albright to his cabinet? I don't see a wide ranging plan for anything and I think he's garnering votes on the cult of personality and it is killing me. Politicians aren't saints and they don't do what you always want them to do but you have to look at the bigger picture and in the bigger picture Obama is empty rhetoric. He would make a good vice-presidential candidate. Ultimately, is Hillary electable--perhaps and Rodham-Clinton/Obama ticket would work. What are the chances. Thank god Rudi Guliani dropped out. Just pray that Huckabee doesn't win. Enough with these conservative Evangelicals who are hijacking our culture and our political process. The right-wing is turning out more lawyers and more people aiming to take over the judiciary and political process and we'll all live in one big Evangelical Lala land and if that happens...I promised to move to France when Bush was elected but I didn't and then France turned conservative so here's the question--where do liberals go? The democratic party is catering to the center--everything is about the center. What about people who want to be extreme? Who believe in full participatory democracy (scary thing that the existence of the electoral college still to this day keeps us from realizing the ideals of the 60s). Did the 70s scare everyone away from the belief that a better society can be built? And for all of those saying Obama is another Kennedy--here's a wake up call Kennedy barely got anything through congress--if it weren't for Lyndon Johnson we wouldn't have the civil rights legislation we have and even that is being overturned. And do I think Obama is so informed as to have ideas about who to appoint to the Supreme court? no frankly, I don't. I don't think he has the experience to be president and I think it is a tragedy that all these people are endorsing him just cuz they don't like Hillary. I think they are scared of powerful women--I don't see her doing anything a male politician hasn't done.

There...I've vented.

Grown man acting like a second grader, aka Our President

One of the problems of being a really lazy blogger is that by the time I get around to posting about something, it's already all over the web. Which makes my posts to this blog irrelevant. In fact, in my day-to-day life, every person I've talked to about the aggravating film clip I've linked below has already seen it...

http://www.gayrightswatch.com/misc/bushbrokebackmountain.wmv

(Thanks to www.gayrightswatch.com.)

A lot of people, however, have only read about it without seeing the clip. If you're actually uninitiated and the link above doesn't work, President Bush was asked at the pro-wiretapping town hall meeting in Kansas whether or not, as a rancher, he'd seen Brokeback Mountain yet. He answers twice that he hasn't seen it but that he would want to talk about ranching. I've been told by people that there was nothing wrong with that answer. But it's not what he said it's how he said it...

Embarrased grimaces, eyes rolling, his jaw buckling around as if he can't get his tongue far enough into his cheek to imply how insane he thinks the idea of seeing a gay-romance movie would be. The build-up is so long that it's met with riotous laughter when he finally chokes out his answer.

Our President is ten years old.

Hell, our President is Eric Cartman. And that's what drives me insane. He's supposed to be every American's president, not just the straight Evangelical ones. And that's something he's never grasped. Hell, he can't grasp the basic tenets of the Constitution, sure, but even Reagan and his father realized that you're not supposed to summarily dismiss parts of the population. Bush 41 wouldn't have acted like Butthead when the subject of gay people came up.

It reminds me of the moment in the Bush/Kerry debates where George responded to an Kerry by saying a liberal from Massachusetts might feel the way Kerry did. As if he weren't also running to be the President of the citizens of Massachusetts. Dumbass.

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It turns out Krispy Kreme really is better

I've felt inclined this morning to write a long, witty post about the implications of Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins being bought out by the Carlyle Group.  No really, the Carlyle Group. I'm not kidding.

However renaissance grrrl at Daily Kos did such a good job, I really don't see a need to expound. Click here.

So, wonderful, it's freezing, there's a Dunkin Donuts in the lobby, I love their coffee, my family has a prior connection to Baskin Robbins, I love Pralines and Cream, and can't really find myself spending money there anymore. But luckily, my health will be saved by my return to oatmeal for breakfast.

21st Century, boy

I got a call from a telephone solicitor tonight or whatever you call someone who doesn't try to sell you something but rather just wants your money. He said he was from 21st Century Democrats. I said "not the DNC? 21st Century Democrats?" He said that was right, so since I have no life I zipped right to my keyboard and googled 21st Century Democrats even as he was telling me that they're an independent group dedicated to supporting and weening candidates that believed in taking a stand on the important progressive issues. I told him I wanted to read more about his group before I donated. And then I did.

21st Century Democrats supported Obama in the 2004 elections. Many of their organizers worked for the Wellstone campaign. While their mission statement still seems a bit watered down they have a focus on environmental issues, civil rights and fixing public education (rather than say bullying public education for funding or supporting the voucher program). I donated. While there are many other things you can put your money towards, if you do want to help in the 2006 elections - 110 seats! - and feel like the DNC has let you down: www.21stcenturydems.org