McCain’s Veep Pick

I LOVE McCain’s pick for Vice! I love her! She’s beautiful!

Sarah Palin is going to help him lose!

At least I hope so. Obviously McCain is hoping to pick up the disaffected Hillary voters. I think disaffected Hillary voters are going to be too smart to fall for such a dumb trick.

For the amusement of liberals (or centrists or former liberals) Palin is in favor of drilling (her husband works part time for BP), not developing alternative energy. She’s a creationist of at least the “teach the controversy” stripe and she thinks the government has a right to regulate your uterus.

For the entertainment of the conservatives (and the fundies and bigots, which is what “conservative” has come to mean) she’s reported to be gay-friendly (or at least not as hard-core cruel as the fundies would like), smoked pot when young and named two of her daughters “Willow” and “Piper” after two tv witches.

More general:

1. My cat has more qualifications to be president than Sara Palin. McCain is 72 freekin’ years old. He could stroke out on January 21, 2009 and we’d have as our first female president someone who isn’t even a pale shadow of Hillary. Don’t tell me that Obama doesn’t have experience. McCain doesn’t have any experience being president either. She doesn’t have Obama’s intelligence or talent. She doesn’t even have McCain’s intelligence or talent. Palin was the utterly cynical choice of someone desperate to win at any and all costs.

2. I don’t care that she’s pro-gun. I don’t care of anybody is pro-gun. If she shoots someone she should go to prison. Otherwise have at.

3. She didn’t abort a Downs baby even though she knew in advance that she was going to have one. Good for her! It’s what I would have done. But I don’t suppose she wants to think about what it would have been like for the government to force her to have that child if she hadn’t wanted to.

4. The conservatives are trying to hang a good face on it, but they are terminally pissed and that always makes for a good day!

An aside:

James (Focus On Your Own Damn Family) Dobson asked his followers to pray for rain to spoil Obama’s acceptance speech. I watched that speech. The weather was perfect. However, the Republican convention may have to be postponed because of Hurricane Gustav. Maybe God doesn’t like people who ask him to behave like an asshole.

No Way, No How, No McCain!

We don’t need 4 more years of the last 8 years!

Ok, I suppose I should stop channeling Hillary Clinton.

I’ve been pretty pissed off at Hillary since the Bosnian sniper fire bullshit. It made me so mad, I almost couldn’t stand to listen to her. Before that I’d been telling people that I was for Obama, but I’d be ok if she won the nomination. After that I knew if she got into office, we’d be screwed. Almost as screwed as if it were McCain. She bought a little of it back last night at the convention.

If you thought I was exaggerating with my “Not because he’s black” post below, you should check out this incredibly racist piece of garbage:

Barack Obama, The hip-hop president by Craig R. Smith brought to you by none other than the WorldNutDaily which is so gifted at bringing out the crazies and morons.

The entire article has a quaint other-worldly feel about it. You know, that other world where blacks ride in the back of the bus, drink from separate water fountains and are required to be outside the city limits by sundown or go to jail (or be lynched).

Obama’s uppity. Obama thinks he’s equal. He thinks he’s smart enough and skilled enough to run the most powerful country on earth.

Smith needs to crawl back under the rock with his fellow slugs and slime and stay there. The world has passed him by.

Bush&Co. have put our constitutional democracy in the toilet and McCain has his hand on the flusher. If we don’t elect Barack Obama president we are committing cultural suicide.

It’s Not Because He’s Black

I read this this morning in the Wall Street Journal:
“Add to that the wear and tear of Jeremiah Wright, secret Muslim rumors, media darling and, this week, abortion.”

It’s a list of reasons people don’t want to vote for Obama. Yes, he’s brilliant, well educated, tough and smart, but . . . there’s that Muslim thing.

It’s not because he’s black.

His pastor was a creep . . . it’s not because he’s black.

It’s not because he’s black, um, I won’t vote for him because I heard his middle name is “Hussein.”

It’s not because he’s black. . . his wife once said she wasn’t proud of America from the moment of her birth. That means Obama may not be a True American(tm)

It’s ok that he’s black, he’s just not qualified, he doesn’t have enough experience to lead.

It’s not because he’s black, it’s because he’s a cynical politician.

The black thing is no problem and he gives a good speech. It’s just that his speeches are too good. And people in other countries like him–that can’t be good. I can’t vote for a president that’s going to be popular with foreigners. It’s not because he’s black.

It’s not because he’s black. He’s kind of a nerd. He reads books for cryin’ out loud. We can’t have the leader of the most powerful country in the world be better educated than we are. The leader of the free world needs to drink Coors and burp with the guys at the trailer park. How can we trust somebody who taught law at Harvard?

It’s not because he’s black, it’s because he’s overconfident.

It’s not because he’s black it’s because he’s unsure of himself.

It’s not because he’s black. He likes arugula. What the hell is arugula? Who eats that? He’s an elitist. He’s out of touch with ordinary people. He’s not from a poor family who had to struggle to make a living, who made every dime they own from their own hard work–like George W. Bush and John McCain.

It’s not that he’s black. Heck, he’s not black enough. He’s from Hawaii. We can’t have a president from Hawaii.

——————–

Obama is the best thing to come down the pike in more than 40 years. If America doesn’t accept this gift, then this country deserves all it is going to get. I know there are some people who really don’t care that he’s black. They hate him because he’s a liberal. They hate him because he IS smarter and better educated than they are. But dammit, I WANT a president who’s smarter and better educated than I am. I couldn’t run this country. I don’t want someone just like me in the White House.

We need someone who will end the Imperial Presidency and restore the constitution. McCain has no plans to do that. He will capitalize on the power-grab of the Bush-Cheney years and our freedoms will continue to evaporate. That’s more important than arugula.

And it’s a hell of a lot more important than skin color.

The Drug War II

I’ve been thinking about the drug “war” a lot lately. I have a lot of questions and would be open to suggestions and thoughts. How can we end at least the grossest stupidities of the drug “war” and restore our lost civil liberties?

One of the worst things is the illegal seizure of people’s money, euphemistically called “forfeiture.” If you are caught with any amount of cash much over $100 the police can seize it without even suspicion of wrongdoing. No warrant necessary. If the money tests positive for drugs–and most American money will–then you can be charged. You’ll never see that money again, the police can have it. Most often it goes into the police department bank account, though it varies from place to place. Furthermore they can and will keep it even if you are found innocent.

Check this out. It’s the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution.

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

Politicians are extremely reluctant to restore anyone’s rights once they have been removed–especially if the the rights have to do with anything that gives people pleasure (sex, drugs, rock n roll, whatever). Pleasure is something you get from sitting in church listening to someone else read excerpts from Deuteronomy. It’s not something you get from stimulating your body in various ways. That’s just pure evil and should be illegal in all cases without exception.

Ok, maybe I exaggerate just a tad.

Nevertheless, the illegal seizure laws can be softened through clever political manipulation until someone gets the balls the challenge the forfeiture laws all the way to the Supreme Court where I am 95% certain it will be declared unconstitutional. The reason I’m not 100% certain is because Scalia will probably assert that “seizure” meant something different 200 years ago, and therefore it’s constitutional now. He’s an originalist, don’t you know.

What I am proposing for the time being is a limit on what can be seized. I’m thinking anything under $100,000 in cash is off limits. There are too many stories of someone being suspected of some petty crime who happens to have $500 in cash in their wallet. It gets seized and becomes $500 that poor person will never see again. In fact, if they decide to test it for drugs, that poor person may never see the light of day again.

The forfeiture laws constitute unreasonable seizure and are blatantly unconstitutional. Politicians don’t care about that but putting a limit on seizure might be politically viable. Find out who your congress people are and write to them. I am. Meanwhile I’ll be extra careful not to have more than $20 cash in my purse at any given time.

That Damn Drug War

I was listening to NPR this morning and the topic happened to be women in prison. One of the little human interest features was about a woman who clearly was stopped Driving While Black and got caught with a couple of baggies of marijuana in her possession. She was arrested and convicted of trafficking (the fact it was individual bags was enough for a charge greater than simple possession). She was pregnant at the time of her arrest and now she and her infant are in prison. Her husband is in prison for marijuana possession. Her two older children are living with relatives.

This is a story of traumatized children and two ruined families all to “protect” us against a harmless drug.

Yes, marijuana is utterly harmless. If you smoke it a lot, you’ll have the same hacking cough a cigarette smoker will have. You’ll probably gain weight. That’s it. There is no known toxic dose.

We already have lots of laws in place to deal with people who abuse alcohol and cause harm to others in the process. There is no reason the same laws and institutions cannot be applied to marijuana and other harmless drugs. If you drive under the influence you should get a DUI. If you commit a crime under the influence you should be charged with a crime and public intoxication.

If a civil liberty is defined as a behavior or action that causes no harm to anyone (including yourself), then criminalizing harmless drugs is a violation of civil liberties.

Here is a list of criminalized drugs and their relative harmfulness. You will notice that there is no known lethal dose for marijuana.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/03/drugs_and_toxic.html

So a woman and her baby–her entire family–have been harmed by the Drug War, not the drugs.