Dad's birthday.

So today was Dad's birthday. Mariel and I weren't sure what to get him, sometimes he's a little tough to buy for. In the end, we ended up getting him a gift card to Lowe's and a funny card.

Last night Mariel and I took a late night Mcdonald's run, and wouldn't you know it, they're playing Fox Noise in the place. So I had to sit there and listen to Bill O'REALLY and Sean Hanniteabag. Lovely.

Good flick

So Mariel and I just finished watching "Bedtime Stories" with Adam Sandler. We rented on demand, which is a hell of a lot easier than going to the video store. Anyways, it was pretty cool. Some of the funniest Sandler Moments since AT LEAST "The Waterboy." The kids are cute and it has a cool premise. When I first saw the previews, I thought it looked like a movie where all the funny parts would be in the previews, but I was wrong. Great flick. I'd suggest it if you haven't seen it.

What else? Got a haircut today so I don't look much like some dirty redneck/hippy hybrid anymore. So that's a plus for sure. Was also able to wear a shirt that hasn't fit for awhile, which was cool, though I got chocolate on it. Oops.

Brad Paisley's coming to SLC in September, we hope to be able to see him.

A long week.

Well, if you follow my twitter at all you know it's been a long week. Inventory at work, and Mariel's been working all week too, so we're both pretty damn tired. Finally we both get a day off tomorrow. I think we're gonna sleep in!

Not much else going on. Mariel bought some stuff at work, some oven mitts, kitchen towels, and an apron. I'll tell you what, I couldn't have married a better cook, and maybe with the new apron she'll cook more!

Listening to soem new Bob Dylan. He had a free track on his website a couple weeks ago. Sounds pretty good. His voice certainly isn't what it used to be, but so far I like what I've hard songwise. Kind of bluesy.

Tea Bagging--Some Final Thoughts

"It's hard to talk when you're tea-bagging"--CNN's Anderson Cooper.

So yesterday, the United States of America was overwhelmed with the Tax Day Tea Party protests. Oh wait...maybe I should say underwhelmed. Just how underwhelmed, well over at FivethirtyEight.com, Nate Silver tabulates the number of protestors from most of the biggest rallies, he comes up with about 262,000 spread over 306 protests. That comes out to about an average of 856 people per gathering, however that is extremely skewed toward the larger gatherings, where a lot of the protests seemed to have been 500 or fewer. Hardly overwhelming. Compare that number from the entire nation and it doesn't even reach the 300,000-400,000 people that jammed 1st-3rd Avenues in New York City on Feb 16, 2003 to protest the war in Iraq, or the 500,000 immigrants that protested planned changes to US Immigration policy in LA on April 10, 2006. Some other numbers from those protests...Dallas, TX=350,000 and Chicago, IL=300,000. The most protestor friendly number of folks that watched Sean Hanniteabag bitch and moan in Atlanta Yesterday is 7,000, though the Fixed News people claimed they were going to get 8,000. In 2006, 50,000 showed up in Atlanta to protest (Pro Immigrants protests that is.)

In other words, after only getting 262,000 throughout the country yesterday I think we can say...Republicans=PROTEST FAIL. The Fizzle in The Drizzle.

So what problem do I have with the Teabaggers? Well, number one, be sure to be sanitary and wash up first, cause....oh wait....

(Actual sign seen in Philly yesterday--"Down With Sodomy, Up With Teabagging.")

Obviously our country is founded on the right of people to protest and freely assemble. So I don't have problem with that. My problem is in the pure douche-baggery and hypocrisy of it all.

For instance, if you're going to protest taxes, don't do it in a public park paid for by tax payer dollars and don't expect the local police force, paid for by tax dollars, to provide security for you.

Also, these people pull out their Colonial American Hats and "Don't Tread On Me" flags, saying they are doing the same thing that our founding fathers did and for the same reasons. Well, history FAIL. The cry of the American Revolution was "No Taxation Without Representation," not "No Taxation." The stamp tax wasn't bad because it was a tax, it was bad becasue the colonies had no representation in British Goverment to vote on it. Unless you are a resident of Washington D.C., you are represented by a congress person and two senators (except for Minnesota where the reputards are still trying to steal an election from United States Senator Al Franken). So you have representation, you just lost. Well, that's the way the cookie crumbles in a republic. As Jon Stewart said, "You LOST. It's supposed to taste like a Sh*t Taco!" Besides, I'd be much more impressed if the Repubs would have protested Bush's MASSIVE spending on an unneeded war, but war is good right, cause we get to kick some ass!

So what are we really fighting about? Obama wants to change the tax rate for 2% of Americans. Oh and FYI, that new rate, which doesn't take effect until 2011, is still ten percent LESS FEDERAL INCOME TAX than the rich folks paid under Conservative Icon/Idol Ronald Reagan. Then Obama wants to take that money and spend it on helping people here in America as opposed to using it to kill people who don't agree with us or look like us. Is that really what Governor Perry of Texas wants to secede from the union over?

Sorry, Governor, you claim Texas has the right to leave the union, well you tried that once in 1861, and it didn't work out so well for you. Besides if Texas were to get a free pass, I know some people down south who probably feel like they got jipped a little bit. So anyway, if you wanna go Texas...go. However it is kind of ironic that while the Governor of Texas bitches about federal spending and says Texas can do ok on it's own, he still has taken federal money and resources over last few months to fight wildfires, put troops on the Mexican border, and help the continuing clean up from Hurricane Ike. Do as I say, not as I do, right Texas? There's plenty of room in hell for liars and hypocrites. I guess everything is bigger in Texas, including the stupidity.

Folks, next time you look at your tax withholding, remember what it pays for. Teachers, Police, fire fighters, social security, roads, bridges, electric grids, military to defend us. We have a patriotic duty to do our part and pay our fair share, not to let some rich old white men teabag us until we throw up.

Check out Lincoln Mitchells piece on Huffington Post here for a great opinion.

One final question:

Who would Jesus teabag?

Some interesting developments....

Well I don't think anyone can say it hasn't been INTERESTING since President Obama kicked off his term. Did anybody really not think it was gonna be a bumpy ride? I'd like to drop a comment on a couple of things.

First off, Obama has lifted some of the travel restrictions to and from Cuba. Now, you still aren't legally able to take a tourist jaunt to Havana, but this order will allow relatives and people of Cuban descent to travel to and from the island, as well as allow more information flow. This represents a thaw of historically frozen relations between the USA and Cuba, and will hopefully make things easier for those of Cuban descent to be in touch with their families.

Second off, I'd like to comment on the Conservative hysteria that is starting to grip people in this country. The Tea Party movement? What the hell? Okay, so you folks think Washington is spending too much money. Alright. How much did George W. Bush rack up on the national debt? Quite a bit. This entire economic mess is the result of conservative, non-regulatory policy, and now I'm supposed to believe that Republicans have a single SHRED of credibility on the issue? I don't think so. Not to mention, under Obama's tax plan, the only people seeing a tax increase are the top 2 percent of Americans, this is essentially rolling back the huge tax cuts given to these folks by President Bush to the levels they were paying under President Clinton. Gee I think we all did pretty well under Bill Clinton, right?

But regardless, this is all feeding into a collective hysteria that is being fed by the right wing components of the media, particularly Talk Radio and Fixed News (Fox News). This is getting scary. At a "tea party" rally organized by Glenn Beck and his "9-12" project, certain members of the crowd voiced some interesting opinions. Among these opinions: TV Converter boxes are brain wash devices, colleges and universities are "brain washing" kids to the liberal point of view, and of course the good old stand by....lets burn books! Wow I seem to remember another group of people that liked to burn books...oh I think they were around in the 1930's and 40's. Are we really getting to that point in this country where the only viable solution for the radical right wing is to burn books? In the video the woman in question says we should burn...the college books, you know, the evolution crap.

So how far is it to jump from the current right wing position of "The non-Christians and liberals don't think like we do, and they're going to take our guns and our country away" to the position of "They're going to take our country and our guns away unless we get them first?" Well does that sound like anti-semitic Nazi propoganda to anyone else?

Guess what! I have a faith and I vote democrat, I believe in Evolution, and I'm pro-choice. God hasn't struck me down yet, I can darken the door of a church without being destroyed. I just wonder if the religious right is going to wake up and see that they're being used by the uber-rich, or if they really are going to push this as far as they can. Hell, even Rush Limbaugh says Joseph McCarthy was right to round up up communists in the 50's. Heaven help us if they come back into power, we'll be the Christian version of Saudi Arabia. You can't argue with someone who thinks God is on their side.

I'll leave you with the wit and wisdom of Family Guy:



Also an interesting read from Daily Kos on the Subject.