Today is a wonderful newsday. Usually I don’t write anything having to do with politics but several things in the political arena are interesting me today. There are other things that are *cough* interesting me today also, and we may touch upon them, but let’s first go with the politspeak.
First-Herman Cain is a liar, and an amateur. He doesn’t seem to remember what he’s said from one interview to the next. At least that’s the opinion one forms when watching/reading coverage of his unfolding sex scandal. It seems that he has twice (maybe thrice according to some reports) been sued for some variety of sexual harassment, and has settled in both cases, entering into confidentiality agreements during the settlements.
Once the cases broke, he outed himself and has been uttering his variety of doublespeak since. I don’t think I have to find any links for this-they’re everywhere. His camp is blaming the equally stupefying Rick Perry campaign group for putting this information out there.
Gee. Cain has become the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, and suddenly there’s some closet-raking going on. This is likely to be the least of the skeletons, the smallest hurdle he has to clear. The Dems haven’t even gotten into it yet.
It’s just laughable. The three top GOP candidates are engaging in nutcutting contests already, having reduced Michelle Bachman to the afterthought she should have always been and marginalizing the rest of the field. I find myself loving this circus just as much as I enjoyed the Dem circus five years ago. There’s just something about the Presidential race that exposes the essential charm in our national character.
Speaking of national characters, let’s talk about the Occupy people and their complete lack of any realistic political agenda. It’s fantastic that they want to get involved in the political process and vote with their asses. Sit-ins worked during the civil rights movement, and occupations did things during the Yippie times. Hard to remember anything lasting or really positive that came of it all, but I’d be happy to be reminded of such if indeed there was anything. The money people aren’t going anywhere, no matter how many places these people occupy and screech their objections in.
The other great stuff….well, I live in Arizona, which is presently under (and has been for quite a while) Republican rule. Here’s an example of how the legislature works-A bipartisan commission (2 Dems, 2 Pubs, an Indy) was appointed to redistrict the state so that no one party is able to zone things to their advantage.
Governor Jan Brewer liked the results so much that she engineered the dismissal of the chairwoman of the committee and did her level best to disqualify its results. This is SOP here in the land of McCain and Jon Kyl, who have bucked the system so much and so often that the state doesn’t receive most of the federal benefit money that it otherwise would be entitled to (as I’ve found out firsthand in the last couple of years).
I love the weather, but the political weatherman calls for persistent stupid occasionally punctuated by cynical manipulation.
I’m a voter. I feel powerless too. I think that most folks want the things I want, but they sure don’t vote for anyone who has the slightest idea of how to act for their constituency (in most cases). Reality never sets in.
Speaking of reality disconnects, I’ve joined this thing called NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month)-the idea is to make a blogpost every day during the month of November. I did this for two reasons-one, to see if I could (in 2009, I successfully finished NaNoWriMo and NaSoAlMo but didn’t finish NaBloPoMo…which has been moved to some place called Blogher. A cursory scan of the blog titles says that I’m completely in the wrong place. I should have figured that out from the blogHER addy (I googled and find that blogher is some kinda secondrate iVillage imitation). I’m still gonna do the posting, and am not going to withdraw, but I’m a bit hacked off at the folks that run the thing-today, when I tried to access the portal, I was told that my username and password were not recognized, even though I signed in three days in a row previously and am on the blogroll (#617). I won’t be back to claim my merit badge. There’s enough stupid on the front page (which claims it is about Life Well-Said and then goes on to belie that statement in the very first article) to put me off, before I get to the article about Kim Kardashian.
Then, back to the political side of things…I’m on the federal tit. I was stricken with pneumonia that got complicated (as some of you know), almost died. There’s an agency that coordinates/determines benefits. Their representative is upset that social security benefits of a certain dollar amount were conferred upon me (22$ over what they call their limit) and wants to examine my bank statements. If I don’t comply, then my supply of oxygen tanks and other such necessary things will be cut off. I don’t think I want to comply-I don’t believe they have a right to that information, but I don’t see how I can avoid it. It isn’t right, it isn’t fair, and I really have a problem with the rep’s attitude (she craps gold pieces that smell rosy) which is demanding as he’ll-she says I NEED rather than I’d like, which betrays her perspective-it isn’t about me, and what I need to conduct any semblance of a normal existence, it’s about HER.
Forgive me if some of this doesn’t make complete sense. I am a chronic insomniac and have slept maybe seventeen hours since last Monday. On the plus side, I’ve written 5280 mostly-coherent words of my nanowrimo novel in two days, am just about to finish two new songs, and am halfway through the complete Cowboy Bebop.
RetroGrade A 