Political Blog—October 2010

October 15—I can't believe half the country is conservative. Do people calling themselves conservative even watch the news? And no, Fox doesn't count.

In today's news—though probably not on Fox—Rupert Murdoch gave 2.25 million dollars to benefit the Republican party. No, the shareholders didn't have a say in it.

What was on Fox today was one of their anchors, Brian Kilmeade, saying "Not every Muslim is an extremist, a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim." Way to go, Fox.

In real news, Rand Paul made an ass of himself (again) with homophobic remarks. Then again, that's hardly news; anything a Tea Party activist says is bound to be offensive and borderline crazy.

Speaking of borderline crazy, Christine O'Donnell aired a TV ad in which she denied being a witch. She referred to a clip from an episode of Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" which never aired. That is far from the worst thing she ever said. She said homosexuality is an identity disorder, that women in the military distract the men, that condoms don't work, that coedness in colleges was a radical agenda forced on students, and that reporters followed her (though with gold mines like these statements, there might be some truth to that one). And, most glorious of all, in 2007, she said, "American scientific companies are crossbreeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains." I cannot fucking believe she's doing as relatively well as she is. She belongs in a padded cell.

October 17—I hate tea parties.

Robert Gibbs appeared on Meet the Press today to discuss the upcoming election day. He said he believed the Democrats could retain control of both the House and Senate.

Then he moved on to discuss the "don't ask, don't tell" policy; he said he was confident that it would end under Obama. I hope so. More to the point, I hope it doesn't return under the next president.

Then Republican Ken Buck, another tea party crackpot, appeared—right on the tails of videotape with him proudly talking about how the shit on his boots was real, not Washington, D.C. bullshit. If that sounds random and kind of gross, it's because it was. In his interview, he said he thought the tea party was a legitimate political movement. Naturally; they're backing him. But the tea party is not a political movement; they want to turn this country into a near-theocracy. Tea partiers say it's a mainstream movement. The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights and the NAACP conducted a study that found different results, however: "The result of this study contravenes many of the Tea Parties' self-invented myths, particularly their sole concentration on budget deficits, taxes, and the power of the federal government. Instead, this report found Tea Party ranks to be permeated with concerns about race and national identity and other so-called social issues. . . . Tea party organizations have given platforms to anti-Semites, racists and bigots. Further, hard-core white nationalists have been attracted to these protests, looking for potential recruits and hoping to push these (white) protestors toward a more self-conscious and ideological white supremacy." Ouch. Buck denied the veracity of these comments, of course, saying he hadn't seen it in the meetings he'd been to. More likely he just ignored it; he has to do that a lot with his compadres. They call it Buckpedaling. Hee.

Buck's opponent, Michael Bennett, served up some welcome sanity. He pointed out that Buck "ran a primary election saying that he would privatize Social Security, that he would demolish the Department of Education, that the American people need to wean themselves off of student loans, that he supported the personhood amendment, [and is] pro-life in all cases including cases of rape and incest." Yikes. Also, Bennett observed, much of Buck's campaign financing came from groups outside Colorado—people who won't be affected by the outcome of the election.

There was more, but I won't go into it. I'm sick of tea parties. Fuck them, fuck their policies, and fuck them for ruining tea.

October 18—Early voting starts today!

I went to the library on the way home from work today and voted for Bill White. Today being the first day of early voting, the place was packed. I'm looking forward to the debate tomorrow, not that it matters much since I already voted.

Anyway, this is just a reminder to get out there and vote.

October 19—Texas Gubernatorial Debate

Tonight I watched a debate between gubernatorial candidates Bill White, Kathie Glass, and Deb Shafto. I got carried away cleaning and missed the first part of the debate, but I don't seem to have missed much. Kathie Glass made an ass of herself in calling Obama the worst president we'd ever had, and then she called the crowd delusional. Then she mentioned that she named her daughter after Ayn Rand. No shock there. Deb Shafto seemed quite nervous, and she didn't have answers for some questions, but at least she was more grounded than Glass.

Bill White rambled a bit, but I thought he nevertheless gave the best answers, or at least seemed the most prepared and the most tasteful, which is the most important aspect. He's obviously the more experienced politician: He knew how to address the crowd and not say anything crazy or extreme, and when he didn't have a full answer, he at least had an answer, and one of his own at that. I mean, like all of them, his responses were clearly rehearsed, but he didn't copy the others or repeat overt talking points. He by far had the strongest close of the three candidates, which I'm hoping is what people will go away remembering. It's what I remember best; that or Glass saying way too enthusiastically that Obama was the worst president we've ever had, which nobody applauded as I rather think she expected. Please for the love of God, people, get out there and vote for Bill White so we can get rid of that secessionist, bribe-accepting lunatic Perry.