The Day After

I didn't hear the trumpet.

I am not watching the Fox News channel today, (well, that is nothing new by itself), but from the headlines that I have seen in the local paper and on the internet, one might think that the apocalypse started yesterday, as evidenced by the fact that the Republicans won a couple of elections.

Whoa shit, where is my rosary..........

I started thinking about this last night as I drove home and saw a political ad, on election night, that was either a year old, or a year early. A guy (Republican) who got his ass whipped last year running for Congress on a platform of (1) he's white and (2) he's not the incumbent, (who is enormously popular in his district), appears to be making another run for the same office.

Already. (I might be wrong, but I haven't seen the sign for a while, and it looks brand new).

This is one of the things that is wrong with American politics. In two months time, this guy will have worn out his welcome in the psyche of the district, and will be a laughingstock. After that, he will be assisting the local economy by throwing money into a campaign that will only make him recognized as a local version of Lyndon LaRouche.

Election seasons, like Christmas, should be 6 weeks, no longer. If the people cannot make a decision in that time, then the people cannot make a decision. Funds spent outside that envelope ought to be taxed, heavily. Funds spent a year out ought to be taxed in the 10,000% range.

But that's not why I decided to break the blogging silence.

I missed you all. (I am reloading).

I am tired, the weight of things seems to be getting to me, my sense of the future is a lack of hope.

And finally:

I saw an article on the internet yesterday that highlighted a couple of issues that seem to be near and dear to Conservatives and Liberals alike, (note capitalization there).

The headline appeared in Google News and caught my eye, but the surface issues really had no impact on me, it was a sort of who-gives-a-damn thing.

The article was called "In Defense of Extreme Pornography" and concerned a couple that produced films for what might be called a "fringe" audience. I am not familiar with these works, so I am using only information presented in the article here. (I confess that I do occasionally admire the well turned ankle when I spot one on the street, in the mall, or at the pool, so I do have a hard time separating morality from this particular case). The material produced by the company operated by this couple depicts rape and murder in a sexual context, as well as the use of certain excrement in its productions. If you want the details, read the article.

The case was prosecuted by the federal government, and resulted in a plea bargain by the produced, that resulted in prison time, rightly or wrongly, (I have issues with the government going after porn, but it is what it is).

What captured my attention, was a statement in the second to last paragraph regarding why this is happening. An attorney for the defendants notes that the head of the federal task force, a Bush era appointee, was not asked to resign with the change in administration and that explains the whole thing.

Well, bust my buttons. The president has been there an entire ear and he hasn't fired everybody who was hired under the previous asshole.

Now, to my point.

We seem to have a collective expectation that when we change direction politically or economically or however, we are guaranteed that those perceived injustices or wrongs in the past will be immediately corrected or erased and justice meted out to our satisfaction.

Don't you wish it were so.

To this day, we have people running for office promising to restore the good old days, or to keep the other people from re-asserting the dark old days before the good old days, and as a result, there is much name calling and acrimony and money spent on this stuff and not much done on problems that exist today. We don't look forward, we look with nostalgia at the past. Too many candidates run against something rather than for something, and a lot of them are simply pandering to common fears long enough to get to the trough.

I would like to see a candidate get elected on a platform of pushing legislation on one idea, win or lose, then pledging to leave and get a real job. He or she would get laughed off the stage.

You are going to see a lot of bullshit in the coming year, some of it, no doubt, right here. Get your facts straight, take a breath, and debate it, stay away from the hyperbole, decide what the real issue, (the term is singular), is and go with what is best. Don't be deterred by the fact that the best choice may be a drinker or adulterer or lesbian, or whatever, you can vote against them later. If you can get one positive thing out of the next election, (and that does not mean the undoing of what somebody else did), we will all benefit.

Follow-up #1, 18:30, the same day:

I am not sure who is pushing this, the far right conservative media mongers or the dumb a**holes who have no grounding in reality, but the President is being blamed for the repeal of a gay marriage law in the state of Maine.

It's true you know. He should have been there, performing the ceremonies himself, and giving free condoms as party favors. The coattails of any politician are only so long, and influence only goes so far, and on an issue as contentious as this one, where the 'right to marry' was only narrowly squeaked out to begin with, c'mon. To blame the President for a loss on this issue?

The real problem that the President has with his coattails is who is riding them.