Visions Of Blasphemy, War And Peace, Screaming At You

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Sean Hannity Uses Glenn Beck's Protest Footage
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This week, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart called out Fox News on one of their many instances of altering reality to improve their stance.  In the video above, Stewart shows a segment from Sean Hannity where he is playing footage from a recent anti-healtcare rally in the capitol and during the discussion, the footage suddenly switches to Glenn Beck's 9/12 rally.  It is spliced together perfectly to make it appear that it is the same day; however, any savvy viewer can tell from the trees and weather that they are clearly different days. This footage was switched to make it appear as though there were more people at the rally than there really were.

Self-righteous Wealth. Stop Flattering Yourself.

Sarah Palin appeared on the national political scene over a year ago.  Just about a year ago, she and her running mate John McCain were defeated in their bid for the presidency.  Palin now has a new book that will be released next week.  The Huffington Post's Geoffrey Dunn recently posted an article about the "first ten lies" from the book.

"Excerpts from Sarah Palin's Going Rogue have been released by several news agencies and other sources who have received advanced copies. Here are the first ten lies from Palin's memoirs:

1. The Cover Byline: Palin didn't write the book by herself. Most books with known ghostwriters list their co-author's name on the cover. In this case it was Lynn Vincent. Going Rogue does not.
2. The Subtitle: An American Life. Aside from her infancy, Palin has really spent very little time outside of Alaska, and according to John McCain's campaign advisors, was shockingly unfamiliar with American geography and American history. "Alaska," as John McPhee noted in his resplendent Coming Into the Country, "is a foreign country...Its nature is its own."
3. Going Rogue features Palin's obsession with Katie Couric and characterizes the CBS anchor as "badgering." Palin refused to prep for the Couric interview because she was more concerned about her popularity in Alaska than about what was best for the campaign. Was it really badgering to ask what books or periodicals Palin read? Palin further claims that Couric suffered from low self-esteem. In fact, according to those close to Palin, it's the former governor who suffers from low self-esteem and frequently projects that onto other women"

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I think it's pretty clear that I'm very liberal when it comes to politics. This, however, does not mean that I am opposed to all Republicans.  I think there really are some out there that are doing what they think is best for the country and their constituency, no matter how few and far between those may be.  Then we have Sarah Palin.  I cannot comprehend how this women has become such an icon in U.S. politics or how she came within reach of the vice presidency.

You Are Your Own Worst Enemy

This is an image I found on Flickr.

It is one of many devastating

photos that demonstrate the effect

global warming has on our wildlife. Credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stijnvogels/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Today on The Huffington Post, Senator John Kerry posted a message to the next "generation of young Americans," my generation. It is a call to arms for help fighting global warming.

"Now, it's time for a new generation of Americans to get in motion -- because the very survival of our planet depends on them.

Now is the time for young people who learned to flex their political muscle last November to shift into high-gear and get Washington to take on our historic legislation to combat global climate change.

Starting today I am challenging young Americans throughout the country to make their voices heard on this urgent matter. I am doing this through the Organize to be Heard Challenge."
[Read Full Article Here]

I love the mention of his era and for what past generations have fought. There have been many causes throughout the decades from World War II to Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc. He is right, global warming is my generation's fight. This is our thing to rally behind. Something must be done and unfortunately most of Washington is too set in their ways. My generation is the people that can do something and have to do something about it. Unfortunately it is a situation where we are really fighting ourselves and it is a race against the clock. There isn't some big, bad force to come together against. It's really just about changing ourselves, which is so much harder than fighting an enemy.

I Can Hear The Sound Of A Beating Heart, That Bleeds Beyond A System That Is Falling Apart

Last night, the House of Represetatives passed Obama's healtcare reform bill, with a very small margin of 220-215. Thirty-nine Democrats voted against the bill, mostly due to the bill not being tough enough of health insurance companies. A lone Republican voted for the bill. Anh "Joseph" Cao stepped over party lines in support of the bill, which boasts a government-run public option, because, as he says, "I had to make a decision and I felt that last night's decision was the right decision for my district."

In an interview this morning with CNN's Betty Nguyen , Rep. Cao of Louisiana said that he had to
"make a decision of conscience based on the needs of the people in my district" despite the clear opposition of his party. Amidst accusations that he voted with the Democrats in a behind the scenes deal to get more help in the Katrina rebuild, Rep. Cao went on to add that he and the President Obamba have a good relationship and he is confident the president would have continued to help the people Louisiana no matter how he had voted. He reitterated, "Based on my own conscience, it was the right decision for my district."

Lay Down Your Arms, Give Up The Fight

By now we have all heard of the tragedy that occured at Fort Hood on Thursday. A soldier at the fort, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, opened fire in a military processing center, killing 13 people. CNN.com posted an article today focusing on the family of the only civilian to be killed in the attack, Michael Cahill, who was in his sixth year of working as a physician's assitant at the fort.

"Michael Cahill, 62, had worked for six years at Fort Hood as a physician's assistant, helping soldiers deploying and returning from overseas, after working as a rural doctor and serving in the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserves.

He loved his job so much that he drove 60 miles in each direction to get to work each day...

...The family chose to remember those memories, rather than focus on Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the shooting.

'He's not the person I'm thinking about,' Keely Vanacker said. 'I'm thinking about my dad. He was a great person and it's going to be a great loss.'

Family members stressed, however, they hope there isn't a backlash against Muslims because of the attack. It was one man's decision to unload his weapons, they said, and a larger group certainly shouldn't be held responsible.

'Being so angry at one group of people -- that's not going to bring my dad back,' Keely Vanacker said."
[Read Full Article Here]

This is a very sad story, one of many you can find on this topic right now; however, what surprised me really was their attitude toward the attacker. I think what the family has to say about it being one man, not an entire group, that did this is an important message for people to hear right now. The fact that the shooter was Muslim seems to be the lead to many stories on the news right now. I think it creates a false sense of panic that this man was a domestic terrorist. While what he did is absolutely reprehensible, there is no evidence to say that he had planned this out as a terrorist attack. It's not as if he joined the United States Army in order to infiltrate a fort and kill soldiers. He was a disgruntled soldier, who didn't want to be deployed to Iraq, and the Army wouldn't let him leave. The fact that he is a Muslim is really second to that information.

It just scares me in these times, that are still so sensitive even eight years after the attacks on 9/11, that we would be putting more fear out there about Muslims. We have enough hate happening against Muslims because of the current political climate and by making his religion a frontrunner in the information coming out of this story just adds to the danger people of this religion face in the United States.

This tragedy should be an opportunity to look at the psychological effects being a soldier can have on people. It should perhaps be a lesson in warning signs and how to spot a soldier on the edge. Hopefully this will help us to avoid or stop this problem in the future. This should not be an attack on a religion. I, for one, am happy to see that even the family of a victim can see that and are making sure they let everyone else see it as well.

No One Ever Died For My Sins in Hell As Far As I Can Tell

Last night I finally sat down to watch the HBO documentary Outrage. I was interested in watching it and have had it recorded since early October, but for some reason, it was just one of those things that I never seemed to get myself to do. However, I must say I am very happy I finally did.

It's a documentary about secretly gay politicians and their anti-gay voting records. It brings up many issues in American politics that seem to be representative of the nation as a whole. We are a country where you are condemned for being a racist (although many still exist) and yet it is still within bounds to hate gay people. It's something that I just can't seem to wrap my mind around and it made me, again, reflect on my feelings about gay marriage in particular.

I bring up gay marriage because it focuses on a more particular problem than just whether or not one believes it is okay to be gay; its a human rights issue. People say that if you allow men to marry men or women to marry women, where will it end? Will people be able to marry their animals? The same thing was said a few decades ago about blacks marrying whites, and it would be ridiculous for someone today to say that is not okay.

The Time Has Come And It's Going Nowhere

Bill Maher is never one to keep his mouth shut, on any topic. However, in recent years, I have come to find that on Friday nights, when I sit down to watch HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, I hear my thoughts from the entire week being conveyed much more eloquently by a comdedian than I could ever manage. In his blog this week, Maher tackled his feelings on the Obama administration so far.

"It's still to early to lose hope in a guy as smart and talented as Barack Obama. But I would counsel him to remember: If you're going undercover to infiltrate how Washington works, so you become one of them for a while, to gain their confidence, well, it can be just like all those movies where a cop goes deep, deep, DEEP undercover with drug people and -- he's a drug addict, too!

Logic tells me that really smart guys like Obama and Rahm Emanuel know better what they're doing than I do. They certainly know things I don't know. I think we have the same general goals and beliefs. And this is what they do for a living -- I wouldn't even try it. But I will never stop having this doubt: that maybe if they had really charged in there riding the forceful energy of the historic election, and acted like it was an emergency moment -- which it was -- they could have gotten some big victories right up front, and there really could have been an historic "first hundred days" for this administration and the country. Instead of what happened, which is the Obamas got a dog. It could have worked -- the country had given its endorsement to '...and now for something completely different.' There might have been a way to knock the Republicans back on their heels right away, with the argument that 'The American people demanded we make these changes, and you are unpatriotic to stand in their way.'"
[Read the full entry here]

As usual, I'm inclined to agree with Maher. I was (and still am) a supporter of Obama, but sometimes I can't help but feel like all the things I was promised were just talk. It would not, undoubtedly, be the first time a politician had lied to get elected, but for some reason I still believe in Obama. I believe he meant all of those promises and still wants them. What makes me nervous is that he seems to be allowing his desire for bipartisanship win over his desire to get things done. At this point, Republicans have made it clear that they are not interested in helping pass any legislation that Obama wants, so its time for him to give up his dream of political harmony and get down to business.