#WhyImNotVotingForRomney

I saw the hashtag on Twitter and just had to use it. But since I didn't want to issue a bunch of individual tweets, I decided to put it all on here...well, maybe not everything, but as much as I can think of right now.

I'm sick and tired of the Republican party in general.

I'm sick and tired of the extremist, racist segments which have taken firm control of the Republican party -- the Tea Party and the religious right (aka the American Taliban). Even if Mitt Romney is not in fact a racist or a religious extremist, he has encouraged and emboldened the racists and religious extremists with his words and actions, making him no better.

I'm sick and tired of the wealthy and the large corporations getting more and more tax breaks that they do not need, and reduced regulation in so many areas, while the rest of us find our lives becoming more and more of a struggle every day. Mitt Romney will continue the tax cuts for the wealthy. In fact, as it was reported yesterday, it seems that Mitt Romney may not have paid a single penny in taxes for the years 1996 through 2009. NOT A SINGLE FUCKING PENNY. FOURTEEN YEARS.

I'm sick and tired of not having the same rights as everyone else because of my sexual orientation, and of having a woman's right to control her own body being restricted or completely removed, and having Planned Parenthood and other agencies that provide quality health care services threatened, all due to the influence of the American Taliban. Romney has thrown in with the American Taliban on these issues.

I'm sick and tired of the lack of affordable quality health care for everyone. I'm sick and tired of the efforts to stop health care reform, when we've finally begun to make progress after decades of failure. Not only has Romney thrown in with the Tea Party extremists, he's going against the health care reforms he pushed for while Massachusetts governor. This is not leadership -- this is hypocrisy and gutlessness.

I'm sick and tired of hearing about how jobs aren't being created because taxes aren't low enough, and how Barack Obama didn't do anything to fix the economy. Taxes for the wealthy were cut during the execrable George W. Bush presidency and somehow we ended up with many fewer jobs and the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression. Why didn't the "job creators" create jobs with the windfall profits they received then? Why does anyone think they'll do it now? And while the economy is still in bad shape, all the indicators show it's beginning to recover. And it would have begun sooner had it not been for the Tea Party extremists in Congress who have spent the last four years doing nothing but blocking any legislation supported by Obama, because their ONLY goal for the last four years has been to do everything possible to make sure Obama wasn't reelected.

I'm sick and tired of the GOP still trying to paint Barack Obama as weak on foreign policy and terrorism. If the death of Osama bin Laden isn't enough evidence to the contrary, Mitt Romney proved with his blundering excursion to London during the Olympics that he has about as much expertise in foreign affairs as Paris Hilton.

I'm sick and tired of the Tea Party extremists and American Taliban's complete repudiation of science. Whether in fighting against stem-cell research or regulations to improve the environment and lessen the effects of climate change (unthinkable, especially after the unprecedented strength and path of Hurricane Sandy) or teaching "creationism" instead of evolution in schools, there's no excuse for this utter stupidity.

And, because it just seems to need to be said, I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired.

It's very simple: unless you're a wealthy, white, heterosexual male, or a racist, there is simply no reason to vote for Mitt Romney. He is NOT on your side. His policies will NOT make your life better. Only a complete moron would think otherwise.

2011 World Series

It's the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers this year.

Bleh. I don't want either team to win (although I suppose, if you held a gun to my head, I'd say I hate St. Louis and their phony fans and their slimy manager who supports the Tea Party nuts more than the team once co-owned by George W. Bush). I don't plan to watch very intently. It might be on in the background while I'm online or something but that's it. But since I've been making predictions for the playoffs, I guess I have to do it for this series as well, so...Rangers in 5.

Wake me up when pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater.

Sigh

WTF?

I can't bring myself to say more yet. I just want to throw up...

Some More Random Musings

Random funny picture.

A few randomly random items to hold you over while I gear up to write about those three movies I saw recently. Starting with some sports stuff...

• The World Series is over. Praise Jebus. So much for my prediction of Texas winning. The San Francisco Giants won in five games, in one of the least exciting Series I can remember. It got off to a decent start in Game 1 -- the Rangers scored single runs in the first two innings, and the Giants tied it with two in the third -- but after that it was virtually all Giants. They routed the Rangers in the first two games. The series shifted to Texas and the Rangers managed their only win, but the Giants then took the final two games. Except for that first game, there were no lead changes in the entire series. Once a team scored, they were ahead the rest of the way. The only interesting thing about tonight's game is that it was scoreless until the 7th. But at least George W. Bush's team lost.
• The Eagles had the week off. Just as well since the NFL is just bizarre. From week to week, you can't say for sure who's going to win a game, and the off-field stuff is mind-boggling. Just today, adding to the continuing Brett Favre drama in Minnesota is the Randy Moss drama -- the Vikings announced they would release Moss less than a month after giving up a 3rd-round draft pick to get him from New England, to the apparent consternation of the team's owner, who wanted Moss back.
  
  And remember all the drama over Donovan McNabb's being traded by the Eagles to Washington? Well, on Sunday, near the end of the game he was benched in favor of Rex Grossman with the Redskins trailing Detroit by 6. Rex freakin' Grossman! After the game Washington coach Mike Shanahan said that he benched McNabb because he felt Grossman was more comfortable running the two-minute offense. Today he said it was because...well, here's the quote: "The cardiovascular endurance that it takes to run a two-minute, going all the way down with no timeouts, calling plays, it's just not easy." So McNabb has gone from being a hero, the guy who would lead the Redskins back to glory, to a guy whose coach thinks he's not smart enough and/or out of shape! Wow.

Restore Sanity?

I'll try and write about the three movies I recently saw in the coming days. But first, a political rant, with Election Day almost here -- and, by the way, make sure you all vote. There's no excuse whatsoever not to vote.

I was amused by the flurry of Twitter activity today revolving around the "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" held in Washington. Co-hosted by Comedy Central stars Jon Stewart (pushing sanity) and Stephen Colbert (in character, representing fear), it seemed to be a response to the rally of right-wing nuts back in August, and a plea for kinder, gentler political discourse.

I didn't watch it. Perhaps it was entertaining. (Yes, there were entertainers there, from Sheryl Crow to Mavis Staples to Ozzy Osbourne and the former Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam.) Perhaps it was more than an unusual vehicle to promote "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report." But for my money, it was a waste. It's the same old "let's find common ground" message that has failed for the last 30 years, since Ronald Reagan took office and began his reign of terror. Democrats, liberals, progressives, whatever you want to call yourselves, you need to get this into your heads once and for all: THERE IS NO COMMON GROUND WITH THESE PEOPLE. They are out to defeat you and destroy you. They will never play nice. They'll pretend to do it, and then stab you in the back the first chance they get.

This is why the Republicans are likely to regain control of the House and, at the least, gain a number of seats in the Senate.

My 2010 World Series Thoughts

Okay, so I didn't think either team would get to this point. That doesn't mean anything except that postseason experience isn't always so important. That won't come into play here, because the Texas Rangers have never been to the World Series and the San Francisco Giants haven't been here since 2002, almost a lifetime ago in baseball years. If my guess is true I won't be too happy because while they're the Texas Rangers, it's basically a Dallas team, and we all know Dallas sucks. Plus, the Rangers are the team that used to be owned by George W. Bush, and who wants him to celebrate anything? Unfortunately, Texas will win. Unlike the Phillies, the Rangers have hit well all year and continued to do so in the playoffs. The Giants can't match the Rangers' hitting prowess, and while they have a strong pitching staff, they don't have Cliff Lee. Rangers in 5.

GOP Honcho: Yep, I'm Gay!

Good grief...

Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager in 2004 and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, has told family and associates that he is gay.

Well, yay for him. After doing damage for years to the cause of equality, he gets to benefit from the shifting tides that are leading to it. Maybe it'll help change some of the minds of his powerful Republican friends. Even one or two would be nice, though I won't hold my breath. Still, I'm not going to throw him a coming-out party.

Have to love the...diversity...in the comments by two of my friends who posted links on Facebook to the Towleroad story on this topic. Point-counterpoint! First up:

Oh for fuck sake...what, are we supposed to cheer and forget about how he used homophobia and gay marriage as wedge issue to win elections? Fuck this prick!

On the other hand:

(I'm) thrilled that Ken Mehlman has chosen to live openly.

Comic Book Flashback: Brokeback Before Brokeback

A while back, during a dark week where I had no comic books to buy, I mentioned that I was considering re-reading something old and writing a "flashback" post about it. At the time I had a vague thought of writing about "The Death of Superman," since it was that trade paperback collection that got me into this little obsession of mine. I never got around to it, though. Recently, I stumbled upon the news that Marvel Comics had released the first issue of "Rawhide Kid: The Sensational Seven," a four-issue follow-up of sorts to the 2003 miniseries, "Rawhide Kid: Slap Leather." And the seeds for this post were planted.

Now, normally a comic book about cowboys wouldn't be something I'm interested in. In fact, the resurgence of superhero comics in the 1950s led to fewer books featuring cowboys and other non-superhero characters. Marvel's book starring the Rawhide Kid, a creation of legendary Stan Lee, held on until 1979 and the Kid was only seen in a couple of miniseries after that. But in 2003, for the "Slap Leather" mini, the Kid was given a slight character revamp: now he was gay.

And not just gay, but gay. I mean, really gay. He's well-dressed, well-spoken, sophisticated and rather flamboyant. He makes no bones about what he likes. For example, here's what he says when some kids (small-k, as in youngsters) ask him about other famous gunfighters, including the Lone Ranger:

13 Years Too Late, Arlen

So Arlen Specter lost in his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate tonight. He switched from the Republican to the Democratic party in order to stay in office, and it didn't work. He lost the Democratic primary. It's a big political story nationwide, in part because he's been in the Senate for 30 years. It's an interesting story because I've always felt he should have switched parties long before he finally did.

On March 31, 1995, Specter announced that he was running for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1996 elections. According to Wikipedia:

He entered the race claiming his party needed a candidate who did not conform to the stereotypical religious conservative image. He was critical of Patrick J. Buchanan, Pat Robertson and Ralph E. Reed, Jr., saying all three were far too conservative. "Neither this nation nor this party can afford a Republican candidate so captive to the demands of the intolerant right that we end up re-electing a President of the incompetent left."

Before even one primary was held in 1996, Specter dropped out of the race. The Republican party, becoming increasingly controlled by the ultra-right, ultra-religious faction that now is more correctly referred to as the American Taliban, was never going to vote for Specter in the primaries, which tend to draw out the more hard-line voter than the general elections.