Ordinarily, like most people, whenever I see an ad on a website, my eyes just sort of skim right over it without ever really seeing it. But when I saw skimmed by this one today, it just grabbed my attention.



Ummmmm... hello, Irony Police?

Now somebody correct me if I'm wrong because I admit that my memory is sometimes a little wonky, but wasn't Dr. Rice a key figure in the administration that did nothing when Katrina hit the Gulf Coast? Didn't hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of people die because of the incompetence of the Bush administration before, during and after Katrina made landfall? Aren't tens of thousands of people displaced to this very day because the administration, which Dr. Rice was a key part of, did nothing to rebuild the Gulf Coast after the waters receded?

And yet now, she's speaking at an event to "remember" Hurricane Katrina with a theme titled "Remember, Rebuild and Restore?" That would be funny if it weren't so disgusting. It seems to sort of be like OJ Simpson speaking at an event for a battered woman's shelter.

I dunno... maybe it's just me.

Tags: hurricane katrina, irony
Current Location: casa de java
Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: virginia - tori amos

( Evil Comes in Small Packages )

This is my entry for therealljidol Season 6, Topic 7 "One Touch". Thank you so much for reading and don't forget to stop by and read some of the other fantastic entries!

Tags: lj idol season 6
Current Location: casa de java
Current Mood: peaceful
Current Music: martha's foolish ginger - tori amos

I have a confession to make and... it's not pretty and it's one I don't like having to admit to having. But I'm terrified. Absolutely terrified about something. And that something is... Sarah Palin. I know I spend a lot of time here and over on my Facebook mocking and trashing her but in the back of my noodle, I'm terrified that she could wind up as our new president in 2012. Is it likely? No. But it is possible. There is a scenario that's really not that far outside the realm of possibility that makes it possible. Granted, it would take a ginormous clusterf**k, a perfect storm of poo to bring it to fruition, but it could happen. And that thought is enough to give me cold sweats in the middle of the night.

I know, I know... I'm getting my knickers in a twist over nothing, right? I'm sure that's what most people say. But two things... I know a little bit about politics... and I've come to never underestimate the stupidity of the American people... I won't bang on "the people" too hard for the 2000 Supreme Court appointment of Dubya, but the man certainly got a lot of votes... but in 2004 after 4 years of insane policies, out-of-control spending, 2 disastrous wars he obviously had no real plans for and rampant corruption and incompetence... and he still gets re-elected? That's why I never underestimate the stupidity of the American people. We elected the man we'd "rather have a beer with" rather than the man that would have done a better job for this country.

So... leaving people's stupidity aside for a moment, there is a war raging within the Republican party these days. It's an absolute war of attrition in which the more moderate (read: sane) voices are being driven out of the party and the hard, hard right-wing... the religious fundamentalists, xenophobic/racist, warmongering, bigoted elements of the party are winning. This ain't your daddy's Republican party anymore. Ronald Reagan, the paragon of virtue and decency to Republicans everywhere would never be elected by this party and somebody like Barry Goldwater would be pilloried as a flaming, wild-eyed liberal. The GOP has taken about as extreme a right turn as they possibly could have with people like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck leading the charge. And it doesn't appear that it's going to get any better (read: sane) anytime soon. And this new "mainstream" of the Republican party makes up Palin's base. They LOVE her (if you ask me, they love her much in the way the Branch Davidians loved Koresh or how the People's Temple loved Jim Jones)... regardless of that though, these hard-right nuts, freaks and kooks totally heart Sarah Palin. She is a dynamic figure... the only dynamic figure in a party desperately searching for an identity and a leader and she absolutely energizes them.

During last year's campaign and election, the country was energized and motivated. Voters... especially new voters turned out in droves for Obama. Judging by recent polling I've seen, that energy, that motivation is flagging. It's possible that as the 2012 elections near, that energy will get ramped up again but I'm not so sure. I think a lot of people... typically apathetic when it comes to politics, got out there to be a part of history and nothing more. I'd hoped that the sudden awakening of the electorate last year was the start of something, that we were turning a corner where we'd see more involvement and activism but a recent poll I saw shows that nearly 40% of Democratic voters have no plans to turn out for the 2010 mid-term elections... an incredibly important election where we stand to lose a lot of seats if the people really don't turn out. And if we thought the Republican stall and obstructionist tactics were bad now, imagine what they'll be like if we don't have clear and convincing majorities. Or if we lose one or both houses of Congress altogether.

It's true that Obama's approval ratings have slipped since he first took office. He's still above 50% appproval, but that's a far cry from the 60% + that he enjoyed early on in his term. Add to that, the massive discontent over his recently announced strategy for Afghanistan as well as on various other issues and we start getting into dicey territory. I'm not thrilled with his Afghanistan strategy but I'm hardly surprised by it... and I'm honestly perplexed that so many others seem to be. But if things in Afghanistan go badly, if his strategy flops and things get even more unstable over there, his approval ratings will plummet and I foresee many people viciously turning on him.

And you can't ignore the Faux News factor... they didn't sling this much crap at Clinton. But they turn anything and everything they can, be it a legitimate story or not, into some massive breaking scandal. They are doing everything they can to dumb down the American people even further by feeding them a steady diet of lies, manipulations and distortions... and most people are either too busy or too apathetic to care about finding out the truth of things. Should sentiment in this country really sour on Obama, Faux News could certainly pump out enough garbage to inflame the people's anger even more. And what if there really were a scandal of some kind? Can you even begin to imagine what the fallout of that kind of sh*tstorm would look like?

So yeah... that's the path to a Palin presidency as I see (and fear it)... an energized and batsh*t crazy GOP, an apathetic and unmotivated Democratic base, massive anger over policy issues especially in regard to the conduct of the war, the specter of some scandal that rocks his administration, the ever present propaganda machine that is Faux News and of course, the stupidity of the American people. I realize that's a lot of things that have to come together all at one time. Like I said, it's not "likely" but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

I think it goes without saying that a Palin presidency would spell doom and disaster for this country. If we thought Dubya was an incompetent boob that was supremely unqualified for the post, Palin would make him look like Thomas freaking Jefferson by comparison. If by some off-the-wall chance she actually wins in 2012, I'm going to be hoping and praying that the Mayans were right and the world just implodes on December 21st. I think that would be far more preferable than enduring even a single minute of her reign.

Tags: 2012 elections, sarah palin
Current Location: casa de java
Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: criminal minds