I am stealing this from a friend of my wife, but I think it is very telling. Assuming the stats quoted are accurate (I haven’t fact-checked this so Snopes.com or FactCheck.com may differ with some of these), it makes me wonder what this mass of red occupying the middle of our great nation actually contributes to the bottom line. I don’t mean to completely disparage Wyoming, Nebraska, Texas, Louisiana and other red states, but seriously…aside from sparse populations of obese people with narrow-minded beliefs and arguably racist and/or xenophobic values, what do they do for us? Anyway, here is the letter

Dear Red States:

If you manage to steal this election too we’ve decided we’re leaving.
We intend to form our own country, and we’re taking the other Blue
States with us. In case you aren’t aware, that includes California,
Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois
and the entire Northeast. We believe this split will be beneficial to
the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New
California.

To sum up briefly: You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.
We get stem cell research and the best beaches. We get the Statue of
Liberty. You get Dollywood. We get Intel and Microsoft. You get
WorldCom. We get Harvard. You get Ole’ Miss. We get 85% of America’s
venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama. We get two-thirds
of the tax revenue, you get to make the red states pay their fair
share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian
Coalition’s, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of
single moms. Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice
and anti-war, and we’re going to want all our citizens back from Iraq
at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals. They have
kids they’re apparently willing to send to their deaths for no
purpose, and they don’t care if you don’t show pictures of their
children’s caskets coming home. We do wish you success in Iraq , and
hope that the WMDs turn up, but we’re not willing to spend our
resources in Bush’s Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80% of the
country’s fresh water, more than 90% of the pineapple and lettuce, 92%
of the nation’s fresh fruit, 95% of America’s quality wines, 90% of
all cheese, 90% of the high tech industry, 95% of the corn and
soybeans (thanks Iowa!), most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living
redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools
plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88%
of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92% of
all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100% of the tornadoes, 90% of the
hurricanes, 99% of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100% of all
televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the
University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you. Additionally, 38% of those
in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62%
believe life is sacred unless we’re discussing the war, the death
penalty or gun laws, 44% say that evolution is only a theory, 53% that
Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61% of you crazy bastards believe you
are people with higher morals then we lefties.

Peace out,
–Blue States

Both campaigns like to talk about what stalwart allies they are of Israel and the Mid-East peace process. I wonder what the people who actually live in and defend Israel on a day to day basis think?

New Video from www.JCER.info on Vimeo

Better yet- admit when the card is damaged and just open a whole new deck. Read Rolling Stone Magazine’s

Make-Believe Maverick

A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty

When it counted- McCain has been a Republican first and a ‘maverick’ second. Through the Republican primaries he campaigned on his real record of supporting Bush and toeing the conservative right-wing line. Now that he has the nomination he tries to straddle the fence between neo-con and populist- often declaring allegiance to both on the same day depending on which sound bite you listen to. His campaign strategy currently seems to be something to the effect of “let’s watch what Obama does, then steal his platform and try to paint him as if he is running on our platform”.

Watch these two videos, then go contribute to TruthandHope.org to help them get these commercials on the air in battleground states where (completely baffling to me) there are still people who can’t seem to make up their minds:

“Thank You John”

“Judgment”

Where does McCain stand on the economy? Who knows? I don’t think HE knows!! He has spent decades on Capital Hill as a champion of deregulation. He has held as his mantra that the government should get out of the way and let the market govern itself. He even wrote a recently published article declaring that healthcare should be deregulated so that the indstry could enjoy the same success and prosperity that our deregulated financial markets have experienced.

Suddenly, as a result of the economy blowing up as a result of deregulation he is campaigning on a platform of providing more regulation and government oversight of Wall Street. He has said that economics are not his strong suit. He has said that he doesn’t really understand economics. Yet, he had no qualms against running around campaigning - up until the day before the Wall Street meltdown - that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong”. I guess that just validates his earlier statements about his lack of knowledge and understanding.

Instead of pretending to suspend his campaign to ride his white horse into DC and save the economy (while remaining silent on the issue and actually ‘phoning in’ his contributions while campaigning from his nearby apartment), he should wake up everyday and watch this video to remind himself that he doesn’t actually understand economic issues.

That seems to have become the mantra of the Obama campaign (and rational, intelligent people everywhere). With each day that goes by the McCain-Palin campaign looks more and more like something from an episode of the Jerry Springer Show or the front page of The Enquirer (oh wait- SHE is the front page of the Enquirer).

This past week Palin did an interview with Katie Couric. It has been universally deemed the absolute worst, most pathetic interview ever done in the history of interviews for a candidate to the executive office of the United States. SNL brought Tina Fey back to play Palin for a skit. The thing is- Palin’s own interview was so funny that SNL quoted the vast majority of it verbatim rather than trying to write their own jokes. You can’t make this stuff up!

I am counting the seconds to the debates. Armed with nothing but lies and talking points (which are mostly lies), I don’t think McCain stands a chance against Obama. Armed with nothing but…..nothing, Palin will be facing Biden virtually unarmed. She can’t even remember the talking points long enough to do a softball interview with Charlie Gibson or Sean Hannity.

I also can’t wait for Katie Couric’s Palin interview. Hannity was a partisan joke with his head up Palin’s ass. Gibson was solid, but left a lot of meat on the table and let things go unanswered. In my opinion, Katie Couric will be vicious. Not in an unfair way. But, she has her own sexism and good ole boy network to overcome. She has something to prove. She is a woman, so it disarms any accusation that she is being sexist by asking tough questions. I think she is very qualified to give a tough but fair interview and I have faith she will deliver. To be clear though- Palin is still half moron / half nut-job. Any real interview with real questions will appear as an attack or smear campaign against her. The fact that Palin is a wacko idiot that isn’t qualified to make the fries at McDonald’s doesn’t mean that the interviewer is being partisan, sexist, or anything else. It just means Palin is an idiot.

Here is a fairly powerful speech that Obama delivered in Florida today:

The story of how John and Cindy McCain met has been retold throughout the RNC as some cute story of two souls that were just destined to be together. According to this story from NPR.org, the story goes something like this: 

“Cindy Hensley met John McCain more than 20 years earlier at a party in Hawaii. He was a 43-year-old naval officer, married at the time. She was 25. They married a year later — in 1980 — and they signed a prenuptial agreement, which was fairly rare at the time.” 

That story leaves out minor details about how she lied and said she was older than she was, he lied and said he was younger than he was, and doesn’t mention at what point he let Cindy know he was already married with three children. They got engaged and even applied for their marriage license before John was even divorced, and got married a month after the divorce was finalized. Those facts don’t fit well into the cute love story, nor do they reflect well on the conservative, small town, Christian values that McCain and his party preach.

It has been mentioned in numerous outlets that McCain first met Palin at the National Governors Association meeting in February of this year. I don’t have first hand knowledge of the meeting (or even second or third hand for that matter), but I imagine the story goes something like this:

“They met at a cocktail reception. John lied about his age- saying he was 4 years younger. Sarah lied about her…self- saying she was against earmarks, for ethics, and raving about her many months (it was early- she may have still been counting in weeks) of foreign policy experience being only 15 miles from Russia. Now they’re soulmates (John’s words- not mine).”

Sounds an awful lot like how John an Cindy met. D’oh!!! Watch out Trophy Wife and First Dude!

Wesley Clark had the courage to put John McCain’s service in perspective, and for that he was crucified. The Republicans attacked him. The Democrats abandoned him. The media roasted him. However, what he said is…shhhhh- we need to whisper…true.

Yes, John McCain served his country. By all accounts, other than being a stereotypical self-absorbed asshole pilot, he served honorably. Yes, he was tragically shot down over Hanoi and was mistreated for years as a POW at the ‘Hanoi Hilton’. He deserves a measure of respect for that, but it DOES NOT QUALIFY HIM TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!

Hundred of thousands of men and women (myself included) have served our country honorably (if by honorably we mean ’spent 16 out of any given 24 hours drunk- yet managed to stay out of jail and not kill myself’). Thousands of men and women have been held as POW’s. Thousands more have sustained injuries or been permanently maimed defending our country. Is the claim of the McCain campaign that they are all now qualified to lead the country?

People like to elect war heroes. It has gone on around the world for centuries. However, our past military hero presidents- George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower- were all military COMMANDERS in conflicts that WE WON. McCain was a bit player in a conflict that WE LOST. Not only did we lose, but he didn’t participate in most of it. He was sitting in Hanoi. Granted- he was being tortured, so I suppose we could argue that he was doing more than most. My point is that he did not make decisions- good, bad, or indifferent- that impacted our success or affected the outcome at all.

Now, he is on the campaign trail reciting his POW / war hero story like a broken record. He claims that *because* he has served and was a POW / war hero- he knows how to fight and win a war (specifically the War on ‘Terruh’). We should trust him to lead us to victory because of his POW / war hero story. I have a hard time understanding how playing a bit part in a losing conflict where you spent more time in prison than in battle and that we ultimately lost provides one with the experience, skills, and knowledge to lead our troops to victory.

• Q: How do you plan to improve the job market in the United States?
  A: “I served my country honorably”
• Q: What is your plan to fix our economy and make the dollar strong again?
  A: “I was a POW in Vietnam”
• Q: Can you explain your position on providing healthcare for all Americans?
  A: “We already have universal health care. Anybody can go to an ER and they HAVE to treat…..oh wait- I mean ‘I was in the Navy’”
• Q: How do you plan to fix our education system and ensure we have the knowledge to lead into the next generation?
  A: “Have I mentioned I was a POW?”
• Q: Well- you have all of that military experience and honorable service and such. What is your plan to fight the War on ‘Terruh’?
  A: “I will continue to keep as many troops in Iraq as long as I can just like my friend George Bush even though the American people and the Iraqi government have expressed a desire for us to leave. I will do so even though there is no connection between our attackers and the previous Iraq government, and even though Iraq has nothing to do with the War on ‘Terruh’, stretching our troops to the breaking point while ignoring the countries where our attackers are probably actually hiding……Dammit! I mean ‘I was a POW….and also - isn’t my VP pick hot?’”

No disrespect to his service, or that of any other man or woman who has served in our military. I have the utmost respect for them. I was one. I just agree with Wesley Clark and don’t consider that to be a qualification for leading our country.