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That’s right, I’m announcing my candidate for President in 2012. If you vote for Slinky, at least you’ll know what you get. Here are Slinky’s slogans for 2012:
SLINKY IN 2012
Compromise you can believe in.
GOT HOPE?
(You do? What bank do you work at?)
YES WE CAN!
(This time he really means it!)
SLINKY 2012
Lesser of two evils.
SLINKY 2012
Will meet evil half-way.
Since 9-11 many have been warning about the death of civil liberties in the U.S. Unfortunately many Republicans only count Democratic infractions against the Constitution, and many Democrats blame Republicans everytime Obama oversteps. Whose ever fault it is, it is now possible for a President to arrest and kill an American citizen by claiming there is secret information that the person in question is linked to terrorism. Our nation’s Attorney General yesterday gave a speech that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. Eric Holder declared that the right to due process did not require a fair trial. This article is overstated I think, but the concern is valid even if the rhetoric goes too far.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/07-0
It is a relief that Republicans chose their only sane candidate, but the Democrats took a major swing to the right last night. Romney won “Super Tuesday,” but Dennis Kucinich lost in the Democratic primaries. A combination of redistricting and changing political climate has left our nation with one fewer voice of principle. Kucinich certainly had his frailties, but many times he stood as a bright contrast to the utilitarian politics of Clinton and Obama. The Democrats will now attempt to navigate with one less pole star. The poor of our nation, and indeed the world, have lost a friend in high places. Travelling mercies, Dennis Kucinich.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/07/marcy-kaptur-dennis-kucinich-ohio-primary_n_1325014.html?ref=politics&icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec3_lnk2%26pLid%3D141168
I believe speech writers and spin doctors should be kept away from some parts of a political campaign. We don’t allow students to plagarize other people’s ideas, so why do we allow the people seeking to hold some of our highest offices to recite soundbites crafted by someone else? We have no idea who we are voting for so long as smart speech writers are allowed to put words into dumb candidate’s mouths.
Peggy Noonan is a case in point. She is no doubt brilliant, but she is in the business of making Phillistines look thoughtful. Her latest attempt is to “spin” the words of Rush Limbaugh. This is her take at damage control: “But what he said was also destructive. It confused the issue. It played into this trope that the Republicans have a war on women. No, they don’t, but he made it look they that way.”
Really? This article by FAIR has some other attempts to distance Republicans from their own brutal policies toward women’s health care issues. We’re supposed to believe Republicans don’t hate women, just women who want to run their own lives. They respect women, they just don’t believe women’s bodies deserve the same protections as men’s guns.
This kind of spin goes on behind the scenes of every campaign in both parties and it is killing us. At some point, in every campaign, candidates should have to speak for themselves.
http://www.fair.org/blog/2012/03/06/sandra-fluke-controversy-distraction-or-revelation/
One of the biggest news items in the world may not get much coverage in the U.S. The U.N. has reached it’s Millennium Goal of providing clean water to 89% of the world’s population. In the past twenty years two billion people have gained access to clean water.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17270014
At the same time our leaders say they support democracy movements rising up against vicious dictators, they are allowing western firms to sell spying technology to allow those very dictators to hunt down pro-democracy activists like dogs. But, hey, it’s a free market, right?
Just for fun. Thanks to Ed Koppas. It looks like a church ad. I’m hoping there really is a church with this kind of humor.
In my experience, which is thirty years of ministry, I can tell you that people tend to leave other people alone when they they don’t have something kicking inside their own skin. And, as a heterosexual male, I can tell you my attraction to females is not threatened by gay marriage. You could put me in the Village People for fifty years and I would still dream about women. There’s only one type of man whose marriage would be threatened by gay marriage, and that’s the kind that can’t stop thinking about other men.
It’s hard to believe it, but global arms sales by the 100 largest defense contractors increased 60% in the last 10 years. Our economy is driven, in part, by war. One part of the job description of any President is to distract the public from the true cause of war, which is not religion or hatred, but greed. What follows is an excellent article on just who is benefitting from the insanity of worldwide violence.
But wait! You also get a song! When I read too much about U.S. foreign policy, whether led by Bush or Obama, I have to listen to Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” just to keep from getting a stomach ulcer.
To read the article, click here.
To listen to the song, click here.
Is anyone old enough to remember this great old anti-war song?
To listen, click here.