Category: current events

Michele says it’s all the Left’s fault. The Left is violent, and we’re going to cause all sorts of violence in August. Yeah, some people probably will be violent. But, it won’t be because of their political point of view. It’ll be because they’re prone to violence. And to say there’s no violence on the Right is misleading. It’s not like everyone on the Right is peace loving. Let’s look… We have the whole militia movement, from the Right (Michele is dropping “far”, so I will too, just to keep the vocabulary the same) which spawned Tim McVeigh. He killed a lot of people. There are the followers of Fred Phelps, from the Religious Right, who probably count in their number the guys who killed Matthew Shepard. If not literally, at least figuratively. Fred wants to put up a monument to Matthew’s murder. We have Pat Robertson, who went so far as to ask the Almighty to kill off some Supreme Court Justices. We have Hitler. He’s the poster boy for the Right, right? Oh, and we have Stalin. Oh wait, he’s from the Left. He killed twenty million people, which means that the Right has a ways to go in catching up, right?

I’m not trying to make light of all the people who have died at the hands of maniacs from both ends of the political spectrum. I’m really not. But, if we’re going to play tit for tat for all the violence attributed to people registered to a political party, we’ll be here all night, tomorrow, the next day, and may never stop. We’ll end up hating not only each other, but ourselves in the end.

I’m on the Left. I used to be on the Right, drifted to the Center, and am now drifting Left. I am not prone to violence. Most people I know, and all the ones I hang out with on both sides, are not prone to violence. They come from both parties. They’re the vast sea of people in the middle, the people who vote quietly without fanfare or protest, and live their lives the best they know how.

What I feel happening is the silo-ization of our culture. We tend to hang out with people who think like us. It makes us comfortable. We can now consume all kinds of media now without ever having our reality challenged. On the Right, you have Fox News. The Left has CNN (well, according to the Right – I don’t really see it, but I’ll accept it for this analogy). On the web, you can read Daily Kos or InstaPundit and never leave your political comfort zone. This didn’t happen until very recently, and I think it’s causing all sorts of problems. When people who all agree get together, it forms an echo chamber. The dialogue escalates, because there’s no reason to think you’re going to hurt anyone’s feelings or offend anyone. Everyone agrees! We’re all pals here! We can speak freely! Then, the other side comes in, is shocked, and then goes back to their little corner of the world, and the force of language escalates again. It’s a death-spiral, that I fear will end in the complete death of political debate in this country.

I tried (and failed) to fix it over at nonDependant. I wanted a dialogue. It didn’t really develop, mostly because I wasn’t sure how to keep it going or develop it. I think someone with Michele’s personality and fire could start it. If we want to fix it and stop the violence before it starts, we need to stop yelling and start talking. We need to stop laying blame and start finding solutions.

I know this is getting long, but I want to confess something. I listened to a good part of Richard Clarke’s testimony before the 9/11 comission. I was good and fired up, angry at Bush, like the good Lefty that I am. Then, I read Reid’s post about the testimony, and the switch flipped. It doesn’t do anything positive to lay the blame for 9/11 at anyone’s feet. It doesn’t matter now. There were things missed all over. Everyone made mistakes, and it doesn’t do any good to second guess that now. It’s more important that we fix the problems that remain, together.

We need to stop preaching to our respective choirs. The preaching is turning into shrieking, and isn’t doing anything to fix things. We need to turn around, shake hands and talk to each other: about our problems, about our respective solutions, about our dreams, our lives, our families, and our communities. It’s time to get a little uncomfortable. Hi, my name is Kevin. I’m a Lefty. Nice to meet you.

People at Church keep bringing up gay marriage, and I keep quiet. The problem is that the it makes me angry. I don’t want to keep quiet, yet I do. These weren’t places I could pull out all the reasons it’s wrong to create a Constitutional ban (it sounds a lot like this and this).

Maybe I’m a bad Mormon. Maybe I should be against it. I don’t think so. I have yet to hear a good argument against it – and I’ve asked. They all come down to “homosexuality is wrong, therefore gay marriage should be outlawed.” This argument doesn’t hold water for lots of reasons. First, any argument that echoes old arguments about race makes me suspicious. Second, any argument that boils down to “it’s wrong because I say so” doesn’t work for me either. Thirdly, I have the feeling that the people I’ve heard say this, and people in general who are for the ban, don’t actually know any gay people. If they did, I don’t think they’d be so quick to judge.

I don’t know what to do. I feel bad for not speaking up. I feel like a coward. But, I’m not sure how polite I can be. I’m not known for pulling punches in debates, and I’m definitely no diplomat. I feel strongly about the issue, and everyone brings it up at Church, I want to scream, “We have separatation of Church and State for a reason!!! The only reasons you can give me why you’re against this are solely based on religion!!! So, you lose (but, that’s not the only reason, there are a dozen other reasons you lose this one)!!!” Of course, I can’t do that. OK, maybe it’s not that I can’t. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the backbone to do it.

Either way, it’s eating at me, and it has sharp teeth and doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon.

I’d Leave the Country, but My Wife Won’t Let Me by Laura Conaway

This is one story. There are thousands more. Real people are affected by bigotry. They’re not just numbers, statistics, pictures in a book. They are real. Gay people exist. They love their partners. They want the same rights we, as straight people, have.

Women used to be their husbands’ property. It used to illegal for women to own land in this country. It was illegal for women to vote. It used to be illegal for interracial couples to marry. All of these problems were corrected. Women are no longer property. Women can vote. Heterosexual couples can marry anyone of any race, as long as their of legal age, and consent to the marriage. Why is it so hard to see that homosexual couples, who love each other, who are in committed relationships, should be allowed the same right?

The Constitution was never meant to limit rights. It was meant to guarantee them. It is our duty to “secure the Blessings of Liberty” and not stand in the way of couples who want to further strengthen society by forming the bonds of marriage – marriage as viewed by the State, not by whichever God you worship.

Just because you may think their love in invalid, or that maybe you just want them to go away – they won’t. Homosexuality exists. Homosexuals exist. They are real people, with feelings, families, and lives. All of the feelings they have are a valid as your own. Their desire to marry is as valid as your’s, and we shouldn’t be standing in the way of people willing to enter into a loving, committed relationship.

We’ve heard that the French hate us. That they don’t like America. It’s not true. Don’t believe it. I haven’t been here for very long, and was fully expecting to have to say I was Canadian to escape a hassle. I didn’t have to. I have had a great experience with everyone I’ve met here, both in Paris (apparently the hub of this anti-Americanism) and here in Cannes. Most people speak English, their TV is full of American shows, and no one has made that classic French face of disgust.

I think I also realize why most people here speak English. It’s not that they’ve got some superior education system or we’re just dumb for not all learning a foreign language to the point of comfortable conversation. It’s’ that they almost have to. English is, oddly enough, the common language not only of business, but of entertainment, and it seems of Europe. I was watching a German snowboarding show the other night, where snowboarders from four or five different countries were interviewed. The German interviewer spoke to the foreign athletes in English, and the athletes answered back.

In Paris, I went into a little boulangerie (bakery) near my hotel and stumbled through ordering a sandwich and some beignets. The young man behind the counter pegged me right away as American, and seemed really happy to be able to practice his English. I ordered in my crap French. He replied in his stilted English, and we had a laugh.

Here, in the hotel restaurant (which is unbelievably good), almost everyone speaks English. There’s one older man who doesn’t, and seems apologetic about it. I don’t get that. I should be the one apologizing. I came into his country, and I don’t speak the language. I’m embarrassed at how bad my French is, which I think has helped me get along with the people I’ve met so far here. I try French first, if that doesn’t work, I ask if they speak English (in French), and then thank them if they say they do (again in French). So far, I haven’t had any trouble with people refusing to speak English (I was warned by several people that Parisians will watch you struggle just for the fun of it). Now, I have had some funny experiences with us both speaking English and us still not understanding each other, but it’s not for lack of trying, and it usually ends in a laugh.

The French don’t hate us. There’s no reason for us to have “freedom fries” or dump French wine. Doing so doesn’t hurt the French government (which is who we may have a problem with), it makes us look silly.

With the President’s announcement yesterday supporting an amendment banning gay marriage (for my opinion, read this one more time with feeling), he’s opened a huge rift in the GOP. We now have a President siding with the ultra-right Christian Fundamentalists in the party and has just thrown mud in the eye of the small government conservatives.

I don’t think this does anything to the Democrats. It only adds fuel to an already raging fire. For the GOP, it’s going to cause all kinds of soul searching, all kinds of turmoil. Even in the first 24 hours, some of the Presidents staunchest supporters, Andrew Sullivan and even Tom DeLay have either revolted completely or are backing off of the President’s position.

At this point, does someone inside the GOP step in to run against Bush? John McCain? Anyone?

So, I kind of killed nonDependant today. I’m no longer going to actively add content or try to create a community there. I’m leaving it up because a LOT of people get to the site through search engines, looking for The Constitution, and I think that’s kind of cool.

I just don’t have time, and didn’t see it going anywhere. Oh well… maybe next time.

I just posted some thoughts about primaries over at nonDependant. Spurred by Wes Clark’s decision to drop out and my guilt at changing my vote at the last minute. I voted for Edwards. Why? Because I knew Clark was in freefall, and that the only way to provide a foil to Kerry was to vote for number two. Edwards and Clark were stealing each others votes, and I knew that if Edwards was going to make it to the “it’s down to two” race, I would have to go with him. I feel guilty for it on one level, and am still questioning my decision.

The primaries are supposed to be about voting your heart. You use your head in the general, and swallow whatever pride you have and vote for the lesser of two evils (OK, I didn’t do that in 2000, which I also feel a little guilty about). I had to go with my head and vote for the “next best thing” yesterday morning.

I’m sorry, General Clark. I really like you, what you stand for, and hope you have a place in the next Administration. I hope you run for office again, and have better luck. You’re a national hero, and have my respect.

To the General’s supporters, I’m sorry. I feel bad for you. You stood for a dream that you could help create a “new standard of leadership”, bring an outsider to the White House and change the empty rhetoric, lies and vacuous promises of the Washington machine. I’m sorry it didn’t work. It’s a good dream. It’s a worthy goal.

Mr. Edwards, I hope you do something with my vote and take it somewhere important. You seem like a good man, a good father, and would make a good President. I hope your stump speech is as genuine as it sounds, because it’s damn good. It’s inspiring, and reaches for a better America for all of us. It embraces the best ideals of our country, and I can stand behind that.

Honestly, I want the primaries to keep going for a while. I like watching the attention paid to the process. I like watching the numbers, and seeing the refinement of the candidates’ message that comes from constant campaigning. I hope that the Democrats take all the attention their getting and turn it into a win in November. Anyone running (OK, anyone but Sharpton and Dennis) would be better than Bush.

Lies, Lies, and Damned Lies. This President is a liar, plain and simple. Spin it however you want, Republicans. The man is liar, habitual, and serious. He’s not lying about marital infidelities. His lies are ruining our economy, putting our soldiers in danger needlessly, and are directly related to the deaths of over 500 American soldiers, and over 3,000 innocent Iraqi civilians.

The man shouldn’t just lose the election. He should be impeached. His lies are dangerous, irresponsible, and are the basis for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” I would consider leading our country to war under false pretenses, spurious evidence and apparently deliberate deception qualifies. Of course, I’m no lawyer, but the man is corrupt. You can’t have that clear an appearance of evil, and that many lies in one hour without suspecting to the point of official enquiry that there is actual corruption and wrongdoing there.

Of course, it won’t happen. It should. If honestly, the President has nothing to hide and wants to know “the truth” or “the facts”, let’s get to them. Stop the deception. Stop the lies. Stop the evasion. Tell the truth, finally. Let the 9/11 commission do their job. Give them everything. Let the Iraqi Intelligence commission look into the use of the intelligence and not just the gathering. Give them subpoena power. If you’ve got nothing to hide, stop making it look like you’re trying.

I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats over this one. I’ve talked about it ad nauseam since September when I decided I didn’t have to decide who to vote for right then. Now, I do. The VA primary is Tuesday, and I’ve finally made up my mind. Right this minute, I’m comfortable with it, but I reserve the right to change my mind before then.

I’ve decided to vote for Wesley Clark. Why? Why not just vote for Kerry and be done with it? Because I don’t have to yet. I like Kerry, and I think he’ll make a fine President if/when he becomes the nominee. But, he’s an insider. He’s been in Washington for a very long time. He’s part of the machine. Honestly, I had a hard time not sticking with Dean. But, I’ve watched him as a candidate fall apart in the past week and a half. His stump speech doesn’t have the same spark it used to. He doesn’t have the passion I admired before, and I’ve realized that I really don’t agree with him as much as I do Clark or Kerry. I like Edwards too. He is one of the most engrossing speakers I’ve ever seen, and his stump speech is inspiring. But, there’s something about him I just don’t get yet, and until I figure it out, I can’t vote for him. I’m picking Clark because he’s a viable outsider. He’s a man outside of the Washington machine (as outside as anyone can get and still be viable as a Presidential candidate). He has military experience I respect, has sound economic plans (well, as far as I can tell – they make sense), and seems like a moderate who can get other moderates from both sides to work with him.

So, there you have it, who I’m voting for and why. And unrelated to any of them, I haven’t seen anything about any of the candidates coming to Virginia next week. That disappoints me. I’ve only seen Dean in person and that was way back in August. I learned a lot at that rally, and would love to see one or two of the others in person. I don’t see any yet, but if anyone in Northern VA hears of anything, please let me know.

Joe drops out. I’m happy. Lieberman came off as a whiner and a scold during the campaign, and honestly, during the debates, sounded like a Republican. He just didn’t click with me, or with anyone I know. I feel bad for the folks who support him, but I’m glad the field’s narrowing. Now that Joe’s out, I think it’s time for Dennis and Al to look at the facts and drop out as well.

Now if only we can get GW to drop out of the race too!