Category Archives: Voting

May 9, 2012 · 0:00

Git Along Little Doggies

One of my very favorite movie scenes of all time is one you may have forgotten. Have you seen The Italian Job with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland and Edward Norton? I love this movie, and not just because it is (partly) set in Venice, my favorite place on Earth. And not even because it also stars my beloved late (sniff) blue Mini-Cooper.

Remember the scene where Hansome Rob (Jason Statham) is stuck in traffic waiting to make a left turn behind an actor (played by Scott Adsit) rehearsing for an audition?

“Give me your badge. And your weapon.” Over and over until the light is just about to change. Then Rob honks the horn, the actor realizes he needs to go, and does, leaving Handsome Rob stuck at the light.

I love the scene because it’s such a true-life event. In fact, this sort of thing used to happen to me all the time. The result – I sit in

G-R-I-D-L-O-C-K

Damn, I hate that. It’s funny in a movie. In real life, when there are things that must be done — important, occasionally life changing things — well, it isn’t quite as funny, is it? Usually, I just need to get along to work, to home, to the bathroom, to wherever. So does everybody else.

You know, it seems that now, in real life, the absent-minded driver has been replaced by the intentionally jerky driver who doesn’t stop when he/she know there isn’t a snowball’s chance that he will make it across the intersection. So he/she gets stuck in the middle along with other, like-minded jerks, and folks like me who try to get along. Nobody gets anywhere. No work gets done. The only thing they raise is blood pressure.

I know these folks. I’ve seen them outside of their cars. They are the same jerks who used to throw temper tantrums on the playground if there wasn’t a swing available (whether they really wanted to swing or not). Who used to bully. Who have been jerks since before the egg and sperm that formed them ever hooked up.

We here in the Washington, DC area are way too familiar with these guys. And we don’t want any more. In fact, we are pretty damn tired of folks who stamp their feet, pound their fists, and spit in the face of one of the cornerstones of civilization: working together for the common good.

Now someday soon, I’ll tell you all about the truly wonderful work that was done as a direct result of bipartisanship in the United States Congress. Yes, it’s true. And it happened in my lifetime and yours. But that’s for another day.

But believing as I truly do in lawmakers working together, imagine my disgust when I saw this clip of the jerk, Richard Mourdock, who beat Senator Lugar to be the Republican Party’s candidate for Senate in Indiana.

Boys and girls, listen up. Nobody gets anywhere when everybody stands and stamps their feet. And if someone running for office says:

“To me, the highlight of politics, frankly, is to inflict my opinion on someone else”

Well, then, it’s time to work to keep him out of office. We have enough jerks pushing their way into the middle of the intersection and going nowhere.

Let’s see if we can find folks who might want to work together to solve problems. Because we have a whole mess of them. And to fix them, all of us need to get along.

55 Comments

Filed under Driving, Elections, Humor, Hypocrisy, Stupidity, Voting

Tagged as Assholes, GOP, Humor, Mini, Tea Party, Traffic, Washington

April 14, 2012 · 0:00

For the Little People

I’m rich. Didja know? Wildly, fabulously wealthy. Dripping in cash even. I own more homes than Mitt Romney and John McCain combined. And I will soon install a car elevator in each and every one of them.

Being so rich, I try to avoid taxes. Usually, I just make my team of accountants/tax avoiders do them and sign the form on the dotted line. Then I wash my hands thoroughly. Really, though, I don’t even like to think about taxes.

You see, I believe in the Leona Helmsley rule:

“Only the little people pay taxes“

With all that money, couldn't she afford a bag to put over her head? (Google image)

So I must say I was ticked off when the White House came up with this Widget that lets people know whether I might be paying a lower percentage of my income in taxes than they are. And just how many of my NASCAR-team-owner-buddies are too. [I was even more annoyed when, despite my best efforts and all the technological assistance I was willing to pay for, I could not embed it on my blog.]

But I learned something from this Widget, nevertheless. I learned that I am still paying a higher percentage of my money in taxes than other, lesser mortals.

Here, you try it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/economy/buffett-rule

Happy Tax Weekend to all the little people!

(Google Image)

Ummm. That gold is mine, by the way.

77 Comments

Filed under Conspicuous consumption, Elections, Humor, Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupidity, Voting

Tagged as GOP, Humor, Politics, Pushing Buttons

March 29, 2012 · 0:00

I Tried to Resist. Really I Did.

Really. I tried to resist posting this clip. I tried hard.

I wrestled with my sense of “oh I can’t subject my international readers to this” and my sense of humor. My tendency to show serious things in a funny way. My senses of humor won. My fundamental need to post about hypocrisy won. Because this is as close to the truth as I have seen in a long time.

Happily found on Dailykos.com at this link.

62 Comments

Filed under Elections, Family, Health and Medicine, Humor, Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupidity, Voting

Tagged as Assholes, Crap, Humor

March 13, 2012 · 0:00

Take Me Back

I’m a white woman of Irish descent, and so I am pretty sure that I can explain exactly why President Obama, and really, all African-American men and women, would do just about anything to return to the way life was before the Civil War. Life was so much better way back then, don’t cha think? Especially for people of color.

Shopping!

You gotta love Sarah Palin. You gotta pay attention to the former candidate for Vice President of the United States. Well, you gotta do something with her. Slapping would work for me.

You see, she couldn’t keep quiet knowing that the new movie GAME CHANGE might just imply that she was, well, not the brightest star in the GOP firmament. She couldn’t rest thinking that some people who once thought that she really did have a brain might see this movie and change their minds. Instead, she made sure that nobody will mistake her for someone who should be allowed out without a muzzle.

I’ve got to say, though, she is so dog-gone creative in her criticism of the President. You betcha!

[Sorry – this is an Obama fundraising ad – I’m not pushing you to give. But the full video, surprise, surprise, seems to have been taken off of Fox News.]

Now, Poor Sarah has contended that this video was edited to quote her out of context. So, here, you be the judge. The stuff between the italics is what was edited out.

He is bringing us back to days, you can hearken back to days before the Civil War, [when unfortunately too many Americans mistakenly believed that not all men were created equal. And it was the Civil War that began the codification of the truth that here in America, yes we are equal, and we all have equal opportunities, not based on the color of your skin, you have equal opportunity to work hard and to succeed and to embrace God-given opportunities to develop resources and work extremely hard and as I say, to succeed. Now, it has taken all these years for many Americans to understand the gravity of that mistake that took place before the Civil War and why the Civil War had to really start changing America.] What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back to before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin. Why are we allowing our country to move backwards? [instead of moving forward with that understanding that as our charters of liberty spell out for us, we are all created equally?]

Huh?

For my international readers, pre-Civil War America was not a nice place for blacks. Trust me on that one.

But you know, only Sarah Palin would say out loud, and in front of a television camera, that a black man would want to go back to the days of slavery, of being sold away from your family, of being whipped to death for the smallest reason, or for no reason at all. Only Freedom lovin’ Sarah Palin could even think that. Yup, those were the days. Who wouldn’t want to go back? Those dresses were amazing. And the lifestyle? Well, it was to die for” You betcha, especially if you were a slave.

Apparently, it was very hot that day.

In fact, I bet Barack is irritated as hell that there is no “Way Back Machine.” Because, although Sarah didn’t say it, I bet President Obama might also like to go back in time to the fifties, where being the biracial son of a white woman and a black man was the height of cool. I bet he’d love those fire hoses — so refreshing on a hot summer’s eve.

And the dogs that sometimes greeted blacks like this one in Birmingham.

Hey, aren't you Rin Tin Tin?

Hey, the President is a dog lover — maybe he could bring Bo with him!

Look! They already know how to play!

Perhaps we can even throw in a visit to South Africa, say, sometime between 1948 and 1994, you know, during Apartheid! He could hang with Nelson Mandela on Robben Island! Who hooo – wouldn’t that be a time.

Nelson Mandela in prison on Robben Island in 1966

Me, I’d like to use the Way Back Machine to find a time when I’d never heard of Sarah Palin.

* * *

There is really nothing funny about Sarah Palin. She is evil and dangerous. Oh, and stupid.

All photos via Google Images

69 Comments

Filed under Awards, Elections, Humor, Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupidity, Voting

Tagged as GOP, Humor, Hypocracy, Politics, Sarah Palin, Stupidity

March 10, 2012 · 0:00

Just Another Word

I just don’t get it. And I’m hoping someone can help me out here. You see, my parents left the Catholic Church when I was only 10. So there is a whole lot about religion that I just don’t get. (Yeah, it’s their fault.)

I got the basics. I don’t kill people or steal or do other bad things. I love my neighbor, but not too much. I’m involved with and engaged in my community, but just not in an organized religion sort of way. Lack of church membership doesn’t make me a bad person, although I realize that some people would argue with that. I can handle being on my own should “The Rapture” come to pass.

The thing is, a vocal minority of those folks are really getting all up in my face these days. They are bouncing up and down and crying “religious freedom” all day and night. And I don’t know about you, but I think the word “freedom” has been hijacked. Whenever someone tries to tell me that they are “protecting freedom,” well, it’s more likely that he or she is trying to take away some of my freedoms. And yours.

Yup. I’m getting the feeling that “Freedom” is becoming less and less free, right here at home. That noise is Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers rolling in their graves. You remember, those cool old guys who set up a government with a clear separation of Church and State? I’m pretty sure they’re ticked.

So here is my issue. My problem. My query. When God created man (and women), however that happened, He did it in His image right? Isn’t that what the bible says? I’m pretty sure that I got that part right.

These guys do look alike, don't they? But is beauty only skin deep? (Google Image)

Then here’s my question: Was that image complete? Whole hog? I mean, did that “image” include the brain? And if so, doesn’t that make using one’s brain “Godly” or “Godlike” or, at a minimum, “Good”? Doesn’t that mean that to NOT use one’s brain is ungodly? And shouldn’t we use our God-given brains to make things better for God’s creatures, including our fellow man?

You see why I’m confused. Maybe you are too.

I just can’t figure out why some folks apparently think that we were created in God’s image, but only on the outside. On the inside, well, I guess we’re just created in someone else’s image. I guess the only interior options would be the fish in the seas or the animals on the land. That just doesn’t seem Kosher, now, does it?

Spencer Tracy's Father Flanagan doesn't look at all like Rick Santorum -- Google Image

If we were created in God’s image, inside and out, shouldn’t that mean that the wonders created by mankind are God’s work, too? Isn’t that, well, logical?

So I just don’t understand the folks who hate science, who disdain learning, and who seem to want to go back to times when the folks organizing religion weren’t exactly like Father Flanagan.

Because it seems to me that Rick Santorum, the Virginia Legislature and the GOP in general look and act a lot like these guys: