I Showed Up To The Tea Party With A Flask And Some Blow

Unfamiliar surroundings make some uncomfortable, not me. That's not to say I leap in head first, no no no. I keep to the back of the room, taking it all in. When it's time for me to take some action I straighten my jacket, clear my throat and get up on my soap box.

"If you think Barack Obama's destroying America, it's time to take a good like in the mirror"

Rotten vegetables fly forth from the retched refuse in front of me. I've angered they're sensibilities and they've turned hostile. Oh, they're seething now and about to prove my point.

"KIKE!"
"NIGGER LOVER"
"FAGGOT!"

Oh boy, who doesn't love a good Tea Party?

******

Obamacare has passed and Armageddon is all but certain now, or so the story goes. So now the dissenters are pulling in ranks and pulling out stops. I'm certainly not against a group of people organizing themselves around a cause they care about to make they're voice heard BUT when that collective voice comes out hurling racial epithets, it's time to take a hard look at where we're headed.

Of course what I described at the top never actually happened, but I decided to use my good old friend creative license to make a point. If only the fiction was far off from the truth. As everyone knows by now following the passage of the healthcare reform bill thousands of protesters descended on Washington to let the democrats know that they were none to happy about. That’s all fine and good, in fact it’s exactly what’s great about America, the fact that you can openly disagree with your government and make your voice heard in a public arena. But things went a little bit further then expressing outrage over what the government is doing.

As Rep. John Lewis passed through the crowd there were shouts of “nigger”. When Rep. Barney Frank passed it was “faggot”. Both of these congressmen are Democrats who voted for the healthcare bill, but that’s not what they were being called out for. They were being called out for being who they are. A black man and a gay man, things that have nothing to do with the bill they voted for.

I’m not really all that surprised. I would never put it past the Jesus&Guns loving, marginally educated rabble that make up the Tea Party movement to be anything but racist, homophobic assholes that’ve been whipped up into a frothing furor by the likes of so many Fox News pundits. But how could anyone defend that kind of behavior? There’s been plenty of condemnation from the left, but shouldn’t one of the Tea Party’s leaders come forward and say that that kind of behavior isn’t something they want to encourage? I mean that’s unless they don’t mind they’re movement to be associated with racism and homophobia.

The de facto methodology of the Tea Party movement has thus far been fear mongering, irrational outburst akin to a 2 year old’s temper tantrum. We’re so used to partisanship in American politics at this point it’s easy to just throw up your hands and say the two sides will never reach any kind of compromise, find any middle ground to move this country forward. If that’s really the case than our system is truly and irreparably broken. All we really need is a couple of major political figures on both sides of the aisle to say enough is enough and actually try to open up a rational dialogue. But that’s just never going to happen, is it? No one benefits politically by being rational, and all politics is about in America today is making sure you still have a job after the next election.

Maybe we really should just burn it all to the ground.

-Jon J

I'm Terrorfied!!! Or The Great American Facepalm

There's been a lot of recent criticism of the way that Obama has handled the Antiterrorism initiative since taking office last year. The right wing balked at the (as yet still pending) closing of Guantanamo Bay, the ending of interrogations by the CIA (now to be done by a new group led by the FBI) and the plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind behind 9/11, in a civilian court, granting him full protection under the Constitution (Egads!). The left has criticized the troop surge, and his extension of the Patriot Act. Oh yeah! And the fact that Guantanamo Bay is still open! So know some want a return to the old school two-fisted Cheney school of Antiterrorism; namely shoot 'em all and let (white man's) God sort 'em out.


Well, now that we have all that lovely background out of the way, let's move onto what's really important; WHAT I THINK!


I was 15 years old when 9/11 happened. I'm 24 now. Basically what that means is that there's hasn't been a time in my adolescence or young adult life when my country wasn't at war in the middle east. If I want to stretch further back I can remember watching the events of Desert Storm unfold on TV when I was but a wee little turd. So what I'm saying is that I've seen a lot of brown people get blown up on TV. A lot. Now, I understand that so far my exposure has largely been second hand; you know from newspapers, TV news, films, books and the stories from other kids my age who have had a tour, or several, of Iraq or Afghanistan. I'm not some big important politician who REALLY understands how the world works, so I understand that my solutions may be, oh shall we say, a bit naive (And by naive I mean no one really gets rich of it). But what the hell? I'll give it a shot.


As anyone who has devoted any real thought to the subject knows you can't fight terrorism. The British tried to do it and they got America.


Here's the real deal right here: we need to GET THE FUCK OUT of the Middle East as a whole. You can't fight these people. It's simply not possible; how do you win? They have an endless supply off soldier who are willing to sacrifice themselves and become martyrs for their cause. And really that's the key; the people doing this aren't career soldiers, they're fanatics. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals, and frankly America won't except the kind of casualties that a victory would require.


Here's something I don't think that a lot of people realize either; by staying in Afghanistan we're actually playing directly into Osama bin Laden's hands. No one can control Afghanistan, that's why it's been basically controlled by warlords throughout it's entire history. But that doesn't mean that bin Laden can't get the U.S. completely bogged down there, spending trillions of dollars, taking thousands of lives and cripple our economy. I mean he did the EXACT GODDAMN THING BEFORE TO RUSSIA! Come on! Are we really this fucking shortsighted? Yeah, I guess so.


For anyone who thinks that we need to have a hand in the Middle East I have only this to ask you; Why? For their oil? Well how about we try focusing on creating a green energy industry in this country so we can move past fossil fuels already? Shit, that might even create a few jobs and get this country back on the right track.


Fuck, it's not like anyone ever listens to me anyway. I don't even know why I try.


-Jon J

The Right Wing Needs To Get Clipped

You have to be retarded to be a conservative. I say this not because of any of their positions or beliefs or what not (although it does make them idiots) but it's their reaction to everything, actually it's more like their OVERREACTION to everything.

This time around it's the fact that Barack Obama plans on addressing the nation's school children. Next Tuesday the president plans on making a televised appearance to encourage kids to study hard and stay in school. Not unlike former president George H. Bush's address to school kids in 1991 to encourage kids to say no to drugs. But if you listen to all the backwards thinking, evolution denying neo-cons out their Obama plans to indoctrinate America's youth with his socialist agenda.

Alright, let's get one thing straight right here, right now. Barack Obama is NOT A SOCIALIST. If he was I would be a lot happier with the guy. He's in corporate America's back pocket just like every other politician. (Just check out his bailout for proof of that.) There by he's not going to push some socialist agenda, he doesn't have one. Let's examine a quote from one mom who's obviously full of shit:

"Thinking about my kids in school having to listen to that just really upsets me," a suburban Colorado mother, Shanneen Barron, told CNN affiliate KMGH-TV in Denver.

"I'm an American. They are Americans, and I don't feel that's OK. I feel very scared to be in this country with our leadership right now."

Yeah, it's scary to think about someone encouraging your children to stay in school and study, because then they might be able to think, which obviously is some kind of issue for you.

So your an American eh? And your kids are too? Well guess what? So is the president. Um, so you can shut the fuck up now. Read a goddamn book, something other than the bible, and then you can open your mouth again.

Fuck this country.

-Jon J

What happened to Change?

In November 2008 the American people elected Barack Obama to office on a platform of hope and change. It's now almost September of 2009 and little has changed and people are losing hope(at least they should be).

One of the key points of Obama's campaign was the issue of fixing America's broken health care system. The mixed public-private health care system that we use in this country is the single most expensive in the world, medical debt is the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. The cost of health care for a single person is higher than any other nation in the world.

When confronting the issues facing health care reform in the 2008 elections Barack Obama campaigned with a platform of Universal Health Care. If you were to believe the promises made during the campaign, Obama wanted to create a system in which, through the creation of the National Health Insurance Exchange, both private insurance plans and a government run option. People would have health care regardless of the status of their health, and premiums would not vary based on that health status. Adults would not be required to have health insurance, but parents would be required to provide health insurance for their children. Obama's proposal included implementing guaranteed eligibility for affordable health care for all Americans, paid for by insurance reform, reducing costs, and requiring employers to either furnish meaningful coverage or contribute to a new public plan. In July 2008 while campaigning Obama promised to "bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family." Sounds great, but is Obama doing what he promised?

Well, not really. As of August 2009 our President has seemed to totally forgotten about his earlier promises. The bill currently on the congressional floor, supported by President Obama, would require all employers and individuals to buy health insurance or pay a penalty as well as removing the option for a public health care system from insurance choices. This doesn't exactly sound like what Obama was talking about on the campaign trail.

Now, I may get jumped for saying this, but it's times like this that I wish Barack Obama was more like George W. Bush. Now hold on a second before storming out and never reading this blog again. There wasn't anyone who was more anti-Bush than me in those dark, dark years. The man was an imbecile, war mongering coke head who believed that he was on a mission from god. These are not the qualities that one should look for in a leader. Obama is pretty much the exact opposite of Bush in almost every way possible. Obama is intelligent, thoughtful and well spoken. He's someone who takes his time and ways his options carefully. But he's also kind of a pussy.

If George W. Bush had one quality that can be respected it's the fact that he stuck to his guns. He never wavered, always pushed his agenda (or Cheney's agenda, or whatever corporate agenda) forward without doubt that he was right. We could use a little more of that attitude from Obama right about now. The compromises that Obama has made in regards to health care reform are gigantic, from promising us all Universal Health Care while campaigning to now basically more of the same bullshit that we've always had in this country. It's times like these that require strong leadership, but instead we've been left with a weak-willed president who doesn't want to offend anyone.

Alright Barack, I see through you now. You're not the bastion of hope and change that you promised in the election. You're just another politician who's unwilling to take a strong stand when it's important. You've broken promises, you've waffled and flip-flopped and shown your true colors. I'm sick of politicians. At the very least George W. Bush never gave a fuck what anyone thought about him or his actions. Not congress, not the voters or the rest of the world. Take a page from his book and grow a pair.

That's all.

-Jon J