Coversations with Conservative People

Actual conversation between me and my boss about an hour ago

My Boss: John Kerry's more liberal than Kennedy!

Me: Um. Actually, no. That statistic is inncorrect. He is actually more like 11th or something.

My Boss: Still! That's so liberal!

Me: What's wrong with being liberal? I don't think he should be embarassed by that at all.

My Boss: *gasp*

Me: I'm not ashamed to say I am a liberal.

My Boss: *boggle* I don't understand! How can you be a liberal? You work hard! You have two jobs! You should care more about keeping your money.

Me: Yes, because there is nothing more important than me being able to afford the new iPod.

Btw, my birthday is on Sunday. So if anyone would like to buy me one, so I can continue to worry about the plight of my fellow man instead of carrying around my music collection with me in a wicked little device, please feel free to buy me one.

The other war we haven't won

The War We Haven't Won by Anna Quindlen

But politicians are inclined to support those programs their most vocal constituents support, and part of the problem with a war on poverty today is that many Americans have decided that being poor is a character defect, not an economic condition. For those who think poor parents are hanging around the house watching the soaps and waiting for a government check, it's worth noting, says Weinstein, that 70 percent of our poorest kids live in households where someone works.

One teacher in a New York City school in which roughly half the kids qualify for free lunch says she can measure which of her first and second graders are poor by how many jobs their parents have. Two or three, and she knows they're probably really needy. She also says the poorest kids are terribly afraid of playing too hard and so messing up their clothes. "Maybe because they don't have very many," she said. "And probably it's pride."

My Republican friends (yes, I have a few) like to trot out "those lazy bums on welfare" as a major reason they vote the way they do. "I don't want my hard earned money going to pay for that crap! I see welfare mothers buying bon bons and steaks with foodstamps!" Because, really, if you are poor, you should never ever splurge on something nice for yourself. You only have the right to buy powdered milk and BrandX cereal, etc. And I'd give them a dollar if they could actually prove they saw it with their own eyes.

What really gets me, is that they don't seem to care about the billions being wasted in Iraq. I am sure that doesn't effect their bottom lines in the least. Why do we spend so much money and energy trying to "help" other countries when we still have so many problems at home? I just don't get it.

3 years and 2 days

I didn't post anything on Saturday. I usually link to Sars for her brilliant essay Thou Art With Us because it was, and still is, the most powerful thing I have read about that day. She still hasn't found Don yet and doubts she ever will. But the story is still as moving.

For the last year or so, however, the mere mention of that day has only caused me anger and frustration, trumping any sadness I might have felt. I get so tired of people bringing it out as an excuse for any fuck up by our government. Every time the truth finally seems to be getting out, another terror alert, another allusion to that horrible day. It's be warped and twisted in to a partisan battle cry, instead of a personal day of sorrow.

This makes me sad. I wish I could have grieved with everyone else on Saturday. But I couldn't help but be defiant. They will not manipulate me with their lies and their slight of hand. I will feel nothing, or they win. They've tried to hijack the flag, the National Anthem, patriotism and that September morning, and I am not going to let them. The best way I can honor the people who gave their lives that day is to remember what really happened and make sure that the people who exploit it for their own gain lose the ability to do so on November 2nd.

Kos quoted a NYT piece that really got to me and probably explained how I feel better than the ramble above.

The signals were mixed. What the politicians wanted, it finally seemed, was the right to revive 9/11 on command, whenever it served their own ambitious purposes. If they could, they'd implant a 9/11 chip deep in the limbic region of my brain and activate it by remote control.

Getting over the attacks is my way of refusing them access. Sure, I feel guilty about it, but so be it. Some emotions, some memories, some pictures are just too combustible to walk around with, especially when certain people are waiting to toss a match into my soul. That's why I've begun to bury that awful morning in a spot that only I can locate, under layers and layers of pop ephemera. I'll dig up those images if and when I choose to, but not before then. The passage of time has made them truly mine -- mine to bring out and mine to set aside.

Thankfully, Sars reminds us all what's important. We are Still Here.

Red Sox, White House

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand yet another reason to despise the Yankees and root for the Red Sox:

Baseball's owners go to bat for Bush

More than a dozen current and former owners and family members are among the president’s top re-election fund-raisers, an Associated Press review found. Seven are Bush “Rangers,” each raising at least $200,000, and six are “Pioneers” who have brought in $100,000 or more.

The Bush campaign has also received direct contributions from owners and executives of more than half of the sport’s 30 teams, the AP analysis of Federal Election Commission reports found.

Those include $2,000 contributions from owners George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees, Fred Wilpon of the New York Mets, Carl Pohlad of the Minnesota Twins, Peter Magowan of the San Francisco Giants and Michael Ilitch of the Detroit Tigers.

*kicks Mike Illitch in the teeth*

A rare Democratic Cardinal is co-owner Michael E. Pulitzer, who gave $2,000 to Kerry. The Democratic nominee has also received $2,000 contributions from Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner and San Diego Padres owner John Moores.

Let's do the time warp again and again and again

Are we still in the 21st century. It's still 2004, right? I am just checking. All of this talk about the Vietnam war has got me a little confused, as I could have sworn that happened before I was born. And flag burning amendments? Wasn't that an issue during the Bush1 presidency?

I mean, if we have the ability to take the whole country back in time, can we go to a time that was more fun? Or maybe go back and stop Hitler. Something positive for the world.

Last time I checked? There was a fucking war going on in there here and now where thousands of people are dying. People are unemployed and more get laid off every day.

Why the fuck are the people who are running our country wasting their fucking time and energy on amending the constitution to make discrimination an American value and to bring up the so-very-dead issue of flag burning?!?!

Oh. Right. I forgot. Because fuck the important shit, there's an election to be won!

For some Republicans it is the perfect political storm: a Senate vote on a constitutional amendment to protect the U.S. flag that would put Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, running mate John Edwards and Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle on the spot just a few weeks before the Nov. 2 elections.

The Senate GOP leadership has not scheduled a vote on the proposed amendment, but Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) noted last week that it is a high priority for veterans groups. Other Republicans say a vote is likely before the Senate's Oct. 8 target date for adjournment. ... Some Republicans believe the three Democrats' votes against the proposal -- or absence when the roll is called -- can be used against them effectively at a time of war, terrorism threats and heightened patriotism. If Kerry and Edwards vote against the amendment or fail to show up for the vote, "they're going to have to explain why," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), a key backer of the proposal.

Yes, that's the most important issue right now. Not keeping America safer, just the flags that represent it. Not preserving the lives of the soldiers, just the flags they wave. Not making sure that the children who pledge every day get education and health care, but that the flag that waves before them gets protected from the 3 people who might want to burn it in protest.

For crying out loud, can someone who is running this country PLEASE focus on the now?