Tag: republican

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Why I Dislike Republicans

A good friend of mine Tim McGranahan posted a link to Facebook that really got me livid. Author Robert Draper has written a book that talks of how Republican members of the House of Representatives met on the day of President Obama inauguration to plot how hold back any progress President Obama was trying to make to his Presidency look bad. Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell has even been quoted as saying, The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

I had always though this. I had a very good job that paid me very well that I got through the JobNow! program created by President Obama to help unemployed parents get back to work. It was due to end September 30th, 2009 unless it was continued. The GOP set its foot down and refused to help it continue to keep people employed. I along with over 250,000 other Americans were put out of work and sent to the unemployment office [I actually dislike Libertarians more because they want to get rid of the EDD as well as Social Security].

It took me almost nine months before I could find another job. A country is supposed to take care of its people and so are its representatives. If they aren’t doing it then we aren’t a country. We are a group of puppets with people we’ve supposedly elected pulling our strings, remember while the word democracy is thrown around a lot we are not a democratic country, but a federal republic. This means that when you vote for President your representatives [electors] generally vote the way you do, but do not have to by law. There have been cases in the past where the vote of the people has not equaled the vote of the electoral college. Some of you might remember Bush v. Gore where Bush got the electoral votes, but Gore received the popular vote.

It makes me feel sometimes like We the people that starts the Constitution didn’t refer to you or I, but to the politicians. When many of the most vocal Republicans I see on T.V. are known for enormous wealth and little tax debt, I find it hard to believe that some of my friends are poor yet Republican. What the GOP that is running our nation is trying to do is more of a trickle up than down. They get richer and we get poorer. The middle class barely exists anymore and that’s a problem. My parents were Republican until Nixon’s watergate debacle, but the GOP was a lot different back then than it is today. Hell, even during Regan’s days it was different than it is today. It’s been said that Regan couldn’t earn a GOP nomination today. See the video below:

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Mitt Romney: Fortunate Son

Since it’s the weekend I decided to talk about Willard Mitt Romney. He’s the most likely GOP nominee for President to run against Barack Obama, but he’s also someone that very few people can relate to. He’s a Mormon which make up about 1.5% of the US population [roughly the same as Muslims]. He’s a multimillionaire with a net worth between $190-$250 million along with blind trusts in the children’s names worth $70-$100 million. Mitt is definitely in the 1% if not .5% of the nation. Few of us can relate to having that much money and he can’t really relate to people who don’t [remember his response, I don’t know anyone in NASCAR, but I know a lot of the team owners.]

On the good side being a Mormon means he doesn’t drink or smoke which means he won’t be showing up for any meetings drunk unlike my distant relative former President Ulysses S. Grant. He also did give President Obama the idea for Obamacare when he instituted Romneycare in Massachusetts when he was Governor, but I still can’t get behind a guy who can’t relate to the average American. I’m a somewhat progressive Democrat living in San Francisco, but I can still sit down with some of my die-hard Republican friends and have a beer [though I do prefer a good single malt scotch or small batch bourbon, but can’t get into wine even though I live in California]. Usually because we both share the same problems like, not having enough money.

This caused me to make a movie about Mitt. If you’re reading about this on your mobile device you won’t be able to see the movie because for some reason youtube is cool with you using other people’s music even though it’s considered copyright infringement they feel you shouldn’t show it on a mobile device. I have been in the process of getting in contact with John Fogerty to get something that gives me permission to be using his song Fortunate Son for the video. It was originally written supposedly about David Eisenhower who was married to Julie Nixon and because of his political connections between the Eisenhower and Nixon families they were completely shielded by the Vietnam War.

To me the song is appropriate because Mitt Romney is shielded by his family connections [his father was the former Governor of Michigan and also a multi-millionaire] and his families money that he can’t relate to the average person in America. Yes, it was a politically strategic move on President Obama’s part to pull over in Chinatown and run in to pick up some take out [pulling over in Chinatown pretty much means you just stop your car], but at least he made the effort.

So here is the video. I hope you like it and share it and maybe I’ll get my 15 minutes of fame and it’ll go viral and someone will ask me to be on their show. Doubtful, but I can dream. Oh and because I’m the kind of guy I am you can even watch it in HD.

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Political Advertising in San Francisco

I was watching the Daily Show the other day because that’s where I turn when I want to see Fox News. They had an interesting piece on an ad being run by Rick Santorum called, Obamaville. We never get to see ads like this in San Francisco and it made start to think why and I think I’ve come up with an answer.

First off, San Francisco is so far to the left that people [except for Tony Hall] of the Republican kind call themselves Conservative or Moderate. The R word is something Tony Hall has the guts to utter in a public meeting place. It made me think about my parents who were Republicans until the Nixon impeachment. They were nothing like the Republicans of today such as Rick Santorum who called President Obama a snob for wanting kids to go to college. My parents would have given me a big old beat down if I said I didn’t want to go to college. Then there’s Mitt Romney who when asked if he knew any NASCAR racers said, no, but I know several of the team owners. That says rich snob to me.

You won’t see any ads for the re-election of Obama because he knows he’s got us in the bag. He did make a quick stop here for a fund raiser, but you won’t see any ads here because he knows he’s got us in his pocket. The Republicans on the other side don’t bother because they know they don’t have a chance in the Bay Area. Meg Whitman and Carli Fiorina tanked here. California while having a red section in the great white north and deep south is a dark blue state and the Bay Area is the darkest blue part of it. The only time we see political ads is when we have a Mayoral race or possibly a Governor’s race.

People who want to get into politics in San Francisco should know that using the R word won’t help you one bit. District 4’s former supervisor Ed Jew was a Republican who switched to the Democratic Party to get a chance on winning which he did, moved to Burlingame and now is serving 64 months in prison for bribery and extortion. I’m not saying Republicans are all corrupt. Whitman and Fiorino aren’t in jail. Oh wait, Meg had that undocumented housekeeper and Carli had the creepy demon sheep ad which turned against her. Not enough to imprison a person on, but not the way to run politics in the Bay Area.

For those who haven’t seen it I thought I’d give you a taste of Rick Santorum’s ad campaign tactics. Note that every person in the ad is a blue collar white person and that whenever Obama is referenced they’re actually showing pictures of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not Barack Obama. Rick Santorum’s ad has, well, Santorum all over it. While we may live in the bubble, if the Republican’s keep up their current tactics, in the next five years they’ll turn into a footnote of history like the Whig party.

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Getting My Irish up at the Mayoral Debate

Last night was the best free entertainment I’ve had in years. After living 48 years in the Sunset District I finally had a chance to step into the United Irish Cultural Center. I have to say it was a real treat and getting to meet most of the mayoral candidates and hear them talk was just icing on the cake.

The Irish American Democratic Club hosted a political debate that was pretty much a gloss over due to the fact that there were eight candidates they only had 2 minutes to introduce themselves and one minute to answer each question. The first humorous part was when they announced the order the candidates were going to speak. Saying they would start from the extreme right drew a roar of laughter. I thought we had passed a law against the extreme right in San Francisco. The second humorous part was the signal they used to notify each speaker that their time was coming to an end — a loud boinging sound. Boing meant wrap it up Boing Boing meant you time was up and Boing, Boing, Boing meant SHUT THE HELL UP AND SIT DOWN!

I suppose now would be a good time to summarize the opening statements. I’ll have to look back to the tweets I was sending out during the debate.

  • Dennis Herrera: Fast out of the gate trying to get as much in as possible in two minutes that I didn’t really understand what he was saying other than vote for me.
  • David Chiu: Like many San Franciscans he attended private school as a Chinese kid surrounded by many Irish Catholics. I guess he forgot to mention the Roman Catholics that were there as well, but first play of the Irish race card. I guess I’m also not like many San Franciscans because I attended public school and I’m not Chinese. I have been surround by Irish Catholics a few times, but I won’t go into that here.
  • Joanna Rees: Speaks about diversity [always a word you have to use in politics] and entrepreneurial interests. She uses lots of adjectives and not many nouns, so I’m not sure what she was advocating.
  • John Avalos:  Speaks about families and how to keep them in San Francisco as well as bringing businesses to San Francisco. Safe, but smart move.
  • Tony Hall: I’m a Republican talks about corruption in politics, jobs, cutting parking fees. I didn’t get much past the I’m a Republican part. Chances are slim with an opening statement like that.
  • Leland Yee: Gives a nod to Tony Hall and how he grew up poor in a one room dwelling. Pretty good to grow up poor and have the most money invested in this election. Pretty bad that he gives a nod to the Republican in San Francisco.
  • Phil Ting: In his years as assessor, we’ve brought in more money than we’ve been spending. OK, why then is the city in the red?
  • Bevan Dufty: Tells us we have three choices, we know that. Tells us things aren’t working, we know that.
  • Michaela Alioto-Pier: Plays the Irish card heavy telling everyone that she’s fifth generation Irish and even tells us which county in Ireland her family is from.
And there you have it. Now the questions start:
  1. Ranked choice voting: Everyone pretty much glossed over it to cover points on their agenda. The people with the better chance of winning were against it, the underdogs were in favor of it.
  2. Your thoughts on reunification of Ireland: WTF?!? What could the Mayor of SF do to influence the reunification of Ireland? Everyone of course said yes, because you don’t come into the U.I.C.C. and repay their hospitality with insult. The Irish race card was played heavily here to the point that David Chiu answered, I David O’Chiu say YAY! I had to step outside the box this morning and talk with a friend of mine in Dublin, Ireland. When asked the same question he said, Probably not. I would like to think that as members of the European Union we can celebrate nationalism without borders. Besides, violence would increase 10 fold with Irish unification. Sure England are our biggest exporters, actually they are pretty much carrying Ireland lol. OK ’nuff said.
  3. Keeping our neighborhoods safe: OK, would you really expect one of the candidates to say no to this?

I realized that I had been standing for well over an hour after the introductions and three questions were asked so I got a bit distracted and noticed that the rest of the questions were like question three in that you’d be an idiot to say no to them. The Irish card was played very heavy last night forcing @BethSpotswood to tweet: I’m just waiting for one of the candidate to be like, “And another thing. I love potatoes! And U2. And nuns.”

It was fun to hang out with the local bloggers and discover as we were tweeting our impressions from the back that I was standing next to C. W. Nevius of the Chronicle. I have yet to read his take on last nights proceedings though.

Overal, I didn’t get much indication of who TO vote for than I did get more who NOT to vote for. At least that helped me narrow down the playing field.

 

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You might be a sunset redneck if…

"The half of me that ain't yore sister wants to have sex with you!"

The Sunset District is a place I’ve called home for 40+ years. It’s an odd place that’s enveloped by fog which then will switch to hot sunny day. This is the secret of the Sunset that’s been kept from the rest of San Francisco and with global warming it only gets better as there’s less fog and more sun. Now the oddest part is that beachfront property in any other city carries a high price, but in the Sunset, it’s where we have all the low income, section 8 housing.

My guess is that came from the pre-global warming days when down at the beach there were two kinds of weather, raining, and gonna rain. There were cars up on blocks in people’s front yards or if they weren’t, they were rusting from all the salt air out at the beach. Now, thanks to C. W. Nevius of the SF Chronicle it has brought the Sunset Redneck to the forefront in an article I read today. Now I don’t remember meth labs and whorehouses in the Sunset when I was growing up, but I do remember the working class people who were trying to get ahead by saving money every way they could. I’ve decided to expand on C.W.’s article [what the hell does the C. W. stand for that it sounds so horrible he has to use C.W. anyway? It just reminds me of the actress S. Epatha Merkelson. How bad is that S if Epatha Merkelson is ok?] by creating a list of things common to the Sunset Redneck. See if you qualify even if you aren’t in the Sunset.

1. You have a car up on blocks in your front yard. [bonus if it’s an olive green 1967 Cougar]
2. The last minute and a half of Freebird is the ringtone on your cellphone
3. Girls: you put your makeup on after getting on the L-Taraval or N-Judah and are finished by Sunset boulevard
4. You’ve got a freezer in your basement
5. You’ve got an electric guitar in your basement, but you don’t play guitar
6. Someone says, “The Riptide”, “Kelly’s bar and no grill” or “Club Scirrocco” and you know the bartenders.
7. A sunny weekend means you pull 2 chaise lounges onto your driveway with a cooler of Budweiser.
8. Your lawn is what gardeners refer to as “weeds.”
9. Your mama still doesn’t know ’bout that tattoo you got.

Yep, I’m a Sunset Redneck and wees good peoples.