I’m suspending my blog to focus on the financial crisis

My friends, I need to focus on the worst financial crisis of our time, so I’m flying immediately to Washington the day after next to see how much I can mess things up.

Before I go though, I want you to know that I’m holding a pen. It’s old and dry, like me, but it will work enough for me to tell you their names and make them famous. Who? My vpilf herself, Sarah Palin, whose state is first in pork barrel spending. Ridiculous considering my state is last – kind of makes you why I picked her. Oh, that’s right, I didn’t – Karl Rove and Dick Cheney did. Fortunately for them (sorry for you) I battle a reoccurence of skin cancer, the deadliest form that has a life expectancy rate of 2 – 4 years should it return, daily and could potentially be leaving the country in their hands, I mean her hands. Yikes!

Seriously, the potential of John McCain becoming president scares the bejeebers out of me. Why?

1. His shoot first, ask later mentality demonstrated by his desire to rewrite the rules anytime he is down (picking Palin, suspending his campaign)

2. His continuance of the ‘fear’ factor that has been used for eight years to control us

3. His admitting that he would suspend all spending except military, veteran support and other programs, whatever that means; so, if you’re a teacher, in public service or on welfare, well – sorry

4. His refusal to talk about my class – and 95 percent of the the country – when discussing who will be dinged by the economic rebuilding

5. An apparent belief that $5k is an ample amount for healthcare – scary considering the average newborn is a  sweet $15k bundle of joy – who is this guy, rain man?

6. His selection of Sarah Palin, period. That should be enough for anyone not to vote for him – if he goes, she’s in. My God.

This is being written by a 32-year old near lifetime republican. I stayed up late to watch the 84 election results (I was 8). I wore Bush/Quayle buttons and tshirts in junior high – before I could vote. I made my government teacher take me to the town hall the day of my 18th birthday so I could be registered in time to vote straight ticket. I picketed abortion clinics with the republican church-going faithful. I got into a huge fight with my first girlfriend because she went to the RNC in 96 without me. I voted for Pat Buchanan in the 96 primary. I fought the entire staff of my college newspaper – including the editor – because we didn’t need four more years of a democrat. I played golf with republican-branded golfballs. I…….I was an idiot.

But now I can make up for it. I’m sick of being scared into letting the government act in our best interest. I’m tired of Wall Street getting the benefit of the doubt and paid to go away. I’m ready to stop reading about all the lives of National Guardsmen who have been ruined or put on hold because they haven’t been back to their jobs for four or five years. I’m terrified of what the world will be like for my kids when the rest of the world hates us. I have nightmares about 45 new nuclear powerplants in the next 20 years – before the appropriate equipment exists to process waste and reusable material.

I’m not telling you how to vote – I would never do that. Because if I was, we’d all be campaigning for Ron Paul. However, we can’t look at it that way. It’s not a question of who is better; it’s a question of who’s worse. Have we come to that? Yes, unfortunately – but only for now, I hope. Be careful. Read up. And think long and hard before punching your chad. I have been. And I don’t like what I’m finding.

Want to send fourth graders to war?

The anniversary of 9/11 passed last week with little fanfare. I always try to take some time on that day to remember how I felt as chaos unfolded around us. One thing that sticks out to me – and still does today – is how willing we were to part with our civil rights and personal freedoms to ensure safety. In one quick motion we were ready to undo what our forefathers had spent centuries trying to accomplish.

Here we are, seven years later, stuck with Homeland Security and The Patriot Act, giving the Government permission to monitor Web activity and redefine airport security. I’ve gotten use to these things, but as I was thinking this year I realized a new, unsettling fact: if someone had asked you in the young hours following the attack would you sacrifice personal freedoms AND your fourth grader (if you had one) would you have been as anxious to say yes?

See, some of the fourth graders who were witnesses to that attack are now in their senior year and being recruited for the military to fight the war resulting from 9/11. That kind of blows my mind. We entered a war that is now falling on the shoulders of the Tickle Me Elmo generation.

At least these kids still have a choice if they want to enter the military. That might not always be the case. Think about that as election day draws closer.

Breaking News – the Nun Pageant is Off!!!!

This just in from BBC – the Italian priest who was planning a beauty contest for nuns has called it off. He is claiming that he was misunderstood. For some reason people focused on the physical aspect of the contest – go figure – rather than the inner beauty he wanted people to recognize.

Hey fella, these ladies are NUNS! They have outstanding inner beauty and goodness – they became nuns! We didn’t need a beauty contest to see that! Dude, you held the contest because you wanted some pub and it backfired on you. And now all of us who wanted to see sisters answer questions like ‘how would you solve world hunger’ and ‘what nations need our support’ (suchas), juggle flaming batons and bowling pins and be judged on how they looked in a habit and swimsuit are SCREWED! Thanks a lot.