But for real: What has happened to compassion and empathy in this country? Republicans are supposedly these uber-Christian, conservative, moral people … if that’s the case, why don’t they act like it? Don’t know what I’m talking about? Here:

Remember the last debate when Wolf Blitzer asked Gov. Perry about Texas’ extremely high execution rate under his leadership… and the audience cheered?

These people obviously don’t care about justice. I truly don’t understand their thinking… do they just want executions to occur because they don’t want to back down from “traditional” Republican views? You can be harsh on crime but still have compassion towards human nature. But this audience’s response was sickening. And acting that way makes the “Tea Party” and the conservative base look like complete idiots who blindly go along with anything.

And then do you remember when Wolf asked Ron Paul about health insurance? He asked Paul if he thought an uninsured man should die… and the audience (albeit not all of them) screamed “Yeah!”?

I don’t know if these Tea Party yahoos were never properly educated or if they skipped Public Relations 101, but here’s a lesson for you: acting that way makes you look like barbaric morons. You think you can shout that and not get butchered by the media the next day? And these “conservatives” that insist our culture is going in the wrong direction under liberal government, yada, yada… where have you been? Last time I checked the Bible taught love and acceptance. Are you just not paying attention or selectively reading certain portions or what? Please explain. You guys are just walking paradoxes.

Hopefully these “outbursts” will not occur tonight — otherwise I will absolutely not be giving the Tea Party the benefit of the doubt anymore. I cannot support a group of people that have lost their ability to help others, walk a mile in their shoes, and act in a morally acceptable way.

Republican presidential candidates at September 12 debates. Photo courtesy of Slate.com.

A moment at Monday night’s CNN/Tea Party debate brought the crowd to cheers, whoops and hollers after Wolf Blitzer asked Rep. Ron Paul if society should let a man die who was once healthy and able to afford insurance, but chose not to and suddenly needs intensive care.

The crowd’s emphatic reaction to a fellow citizen dying brings up many different, and valid, points of views.

First, the safety of ourselves is ultimately our responsibility. We live in a country where no matter what age or income we may be or have, there is a way to obtain healthcare and it would be our fault first and foremost if we chose not to buy insurance.

Bottom line: it is up to you to take care of you.

Yet secondly, our nation has never been one to sit and watch, furthermore cheer, a fellow citizen on as they die.

Bottom line: socialist society may take advantage of the government and believe they will always come to the rescue.

So thirdly, I believe, and hope, that this crowd’s reaction was not in fact in response to the idea of a man dying, but rather the options this country gives a man. And so, if we live in a country where a man is able to decide what to do with his money, i.e. whether to buy insurance or not to buy insurance, then isn’t it up to man whether to help pay for a fellow dying man who made an incredibly mistake but now needs our help?

Bottom line: I suppose this conversation can only end with the faith in mankind that we will support one another.

While there are some things that I don’t necessarily disagree with, I think that he is a shallow candidate, overall. Quite frankly, I don’t understand how his status in the race rose so quickly? Actually, I take that back, I do know–the mainstream media. I believe wholeheartedly that the media shapes elections. Is it some big conspiracy? Who knows. But they certainly pick their favorites. I would be willing to bet that Rick Perry would not be anywhere near where he is currently, without the help of the countless hours the media has paid to his campaign.

Eventually, I hope to engage enough readers to have these discussions via PPD. Until then, you can find the discussion, here.

I received the Gardasil vaccinations against the Human Papilloma Virus last year. It’s a total of three shots over 6 months. Under Merck’s prescription assistance plan at Planned Parenthood, the vaccines cost $31 each/$93 total. (Without insurance, they’re pretty pricey, between $100-180 depending on your pharmacy and whether your MD prescribes the vial or the pre-prepared syringe.)

Huntsman was impressive as the Democrat candidate for the Republican nomination.  I’m honestly so tired of seeing his face and hearing his ideas.  He definitely enjoys being in the limelight and it will be a welcome change to see him go back into the private sector. 

Ron Paul was in rare form.  He always has an interesting showing at these debates.  But tonight Rick Santorum took him down on his recent blog post on the cause of 911.  He was visibly angry at the force with which Santorum delivered his rebuke.  It was a golden moment for Santorum; who had a great night, but not enough to score him any real gains in the polls.  And we all know that Paul has no chance at the nomination.

Herman Cain is a favorite of mine for his direct attacks on government and politicians run amok.  His explanation of his 9/9/9 plan was stellar.  It is a shame that he isn’t receiving a more serious consideration from the voting public.  Yet, considering the severity of the current economic situation and the enormity of the government in size and overreach, it’s just not his time.  My sincere hope is that he will be the VP on the ticket.

Newt Gingrich had an excellent showing as usual.  His intellect, knowledge of politics, foreign and domestic policy…  I could just go on and on.  Newt is a fabulous debater.  He will not win the nomination – but not to use him in a senior level cabinet position would be a travesty. 

Michele Bachmann brought her A game and had only a couple of slow answers.  She spoke of repatriating business taxes to draw companies back to the US.  She didn’t say much that was new, but the way she delivered her answers showed how much she wants to stay in the race.  And of course you can’t forget this moment:

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed&videoId=us/2011/09/12/tea-party-bachmann-perry-merck.cnn

Last but not least we come to Governor Perry.  He obviously needs a great deal more debate prep.  He must be fast and deadly on his defense of his weak points and go for the kill more easily than he did tonight. I appreciate how he has apologized for his mistake on the Gardasil mandate.  At least he can admit that he was in error.  Romney is still trying to justify his stance on government mandated healthcare. Perry should spend some time in thought about the in state tuition for illegal aliens.  His answer was not good for me.  But even those two negatives don’t change my mind about the good Governor from Texas (the state of my birth by the by…)  Perry did well considering he was everyones number one target, but in order to stop Mitt, he must be smoother and have a cleaner delivery.

Please join me every Wednesday at 7:48 am on Allman in the Morning on KFTK 97.1 FM Talk radio in St. Louis, or on live streaming at http://www.971talk.com/Other/s treaming.html 

Following watching and reading the “analyses” the Media coughed up I concluded that CNN pundits and reporters put little effort into moderating the debate and to this end the media is playing a distinctive role in deceiving voters as to who the front runners actually are.

Before watching the debate I had mentally prepared myself for the ridiculously conservative and unrestrained spewing of erroneous facts which characterize Republican debatest, but what I was not prepared for was Wolf Blitzer’s inability to moderate and steer the debate into an informative Q & A session for voters, followed by the delibarate focusing of the debate on the “front runners”.

At this point, all informed voters know that Rick Perry has branded social security a Ponzi Scheme, so with that said, if not to encourage drama between Romney and Perry, what was the purpose of this line of questioning?  While this was the most glaring example of incendiary and uninformative questions, as the moderator, Blitzer wasted lots of time on these types of questions.  Further as these types of questions were focused on the “front runners” the debate alienated the remaining panel of candidates and did not allow American voters a chance to get to know the other candidates.

The tendency to restate the obvious and fuel the drama between the perceived front runners further carried over into the analyses the media offered such that if anyone missed the debate and wanted to read an article on it, they would think only Perry, Romney, and Bachmann had been at the debate.  Further, most of the quotes in those articles were immediately televised after the debate so the analyses were not only minimal, but in addition to this, they were knee jerk reactions.

Initially I had planned to summarize each candidates speaking points but as candidates were not afforded equal time nor the same questions, it proved nearly impossible to create complete profiles of who the candidates are and their place on the spectrum of die-hard-tea-party-all star-to-moderate-centrist-republican.  While I failed at this task, with technologies and staff at their disposal, I expected the media to be able to accomplish this but perhaps the focus on the “front runners” proved impossible to overcome.

Today in his own blog Wolf Blitzer stated:

For a moderator, the natural inclination is to give the top-tier candidates most of the time. Top-tier status is always defined by their standing in the polls. But I knew that would not be fair, especially because there have been many occasions when the early front-runners simply collapse out there on the campaign trail. Think Rudy Giuliani.

While this seems plausible I would like the reader to note that the polls from which this “top tier status” is being determined all include Sarah Palin on the ballot.  She is not a candidate, subsequently, the 12.3 percent she holds is equal to the entire margin of error associated with the polls.  As a voter you really have to ask yourself, which of the candidates really owns that percentage.  Are Romney and Perry really the front runners?  Are all the candidates not that electable?

The media won’t tell you these answers.  Their ineptitude is adding to the muck that is Washington.  With that said I urge you all to starting paying attention.  Dialogue with your friends and family.  Send letters to the candidates.  The Media doesn’t care about providing an objective truth.  If you care about voting in the right person next year, you’ll take this article seriously.

Plus, you got to tweet your questions to my BFF Wolf Blitzer. I wanted to do it and get on TV, but couldn’t come up with anything good. I asked my dad what I should ask and he said, “Ask: ‘Why do you hate poor people?’” I contemplated, but I don’t think that Wolf would put that one on the top of his list. So I just continued watching and talking to the TV screen by myself.

To summarize:

• Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are really good at fighting like little catty girls & making everyone feel awkward
• Jon Huntsman is really smart… but good Lord his jokes are terrible and he comes across like he’s in his own little world. He made me uncomfortable the whole time. Hearing his jokes and then crickets afterwards? Awkward.
• Michele Bachmann… not bad. Good at debating — I have to give her credit.
• Newt Gingrich… still hangin’ on somehow. Good at trying to insult Obama.
• Rick Santorum wasn’t bad… I just don’t think he ever comes off very smart. And I feel like he’s just an outsider that nobody really likes. He reminds me of the little neglected child that always wants to be included… but no one cares.
• Herman Cain. He basically just keeps demonstrating that people in business are generally a lot smarter than politicians. Good debater.
• Ron Paul looked just like the cute old man from the movie “UP”

Watercolor on paper. Copyright 2011 Totsymae

I can’t keep up with posting on other bloggers’ blogs lately. I’m sorry, I’m scattered and a pure slush  these days and my chosen beverage is Kool-Ade. I have to tell you though, I won’t be any better next week. Time will be upside down, as I’m transitioning and life is about to be very different for me. At this particular moment, I’m trying to stop myself from being pissed off at living in a small town, where on the menu, any and every day, is women folk talking outta turn but I don’t wanna go into that ’cause I don’t wanna give energy to venting. I mean, I know I do here sometimes but only when I feel that I could have good-natured  humor about it. So, let’s turn this to a more worthwhile topic and talk about the Tea Party Debate last night. Did you tune in?

I’m gonna tell you folks, I was impressed by that Michele Bachmann. She hit it dead on with that HPV ’cause it was how I felt when I heard it was a mandated vaccine a few years back. I hope you know that black folk and state-mandated injections don’t mix well and you’d have to read up on the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to fully understand the nature of my apprehension. I think there are a lot of great discoveries in medicine but you have to also understand that it’s a field of trial and error and that can be no more clearly defined in the fact that medicine is called a practice.

Well, I liked what Bachmann had to say on that ’cause no man really understands a woman’s body more fully than a woman herself. The most recent beau that I no longer see, once told me, “I’m gonna teach you how to be a woman.” I let him know with the full force of my tongue that he couldn’t teach me shit about being no woman. Then, I started to wonder if he had some bitch in him and some men folk do. You know, they menstruate in their own little way. I mean, I can come close to being the ideal woman if a man’s acting like the ideal man in my head. You feel me?

(Ahem. Sorry for that sister-having-a-flashback moment). Anyhow, I think Mitt Romney was impressed by Bachmann too. Then, I noticed how he was giving all the candidates who were responding that same I’m-the-King-Shit-Here look. Almost condescending, if you ask me. Like, he knew the game better than everybody ’cause this was his second go ’round and made him the biggest fish in the ocean. I kept imagining him with a big ass ‘S’ on his chest, with a cape blowing in the wind and wearing a Superman suit. Did ole dude look like Superman to you? Hair all slicked back for the wind and shit. Plus, he was taller than everybody. Oh, I was paying attention to what they were saying. Don’t get me wrong but I was trippin’ on Romney too. My sister brought up that nobody she could remember who’d ever run a second time was ever elected. Is that right, folks? I can’t recall anybody right now either.

Would’ve been fitting to stick a painting of Romney on this post in super hero fashion or at least slicking his hair back like Elvis did when he was rockin’ and rollin’. I can’t quite picture him dancing to Elvis though. Hmmm…

shortformblog:

Ladies and gentlemen, the best tweet of the night. Brilliant—and dead-on.

Allowing a fringe group to set the terms of discussion will do that to ya.

-Joe

I may have been unduly influenced to have some expectation of sanity due to a conversation that I had this past weekend with some one who I would consider a true conservative.  I met Justin at a wedding and for whatever reason politics became a topic…I think it was in response to a comment about President Obama as he was shown on a TV in the bar…whatever the reason what followed was the most refreshing discourse that I have had with someone outside of my ideology in a long time.

There were of course things that we disagreed on but instead of pulling out talking points we just talked.  And what we found was more common ground than most people would think exists based on the rhetoric flying about.

• I agreed that raising taxes on those who make over 250,000 was not wise, especially in these times.   He agreed that raising for those who make over $1 million, something championed by Senator Schumer (D) would be a wise move.  I could not believe someone who considers themselves a Republican in 2011 would feel this way.  Perhaps I was painting all the GOP supporters with too broad a brush.
• I conceded to Justin that Jon Huntsman has some great ideas, especially in foreign policy.  He does scare me with his tax plan, but what can I expect from the GOP?  I love that he does not run from science…which of course means he has no place in the modern tea party/hyperbole driven GOP.  So my kudos look to be moot.  No being a VP to any of the other frontrunners would not tilt me to vote GOP for the first time.
• Maybe if they ran Zombie Ike…I think given the Zombie love in our society now he might have a puncher’s chance.  Zombie Ike certainly would have a better shot than Perry to get independents…who are widely know to be the most intelligent of voters.*  I may be biased on that front.oJustin admitted that Barack Obama is not a socialist but a centrist and also copped to the fact that Fox News is full of shit.  The US would be a better place if more Republicans could see this.  In order to be reasonable I decried MSNBC for being too biased.(which they are).  But I would not say they were as bad as Fox News, especially in regards to building their own bent truths (they aren’t).
• We both agreed that President Obama has been a disappointment, from different ends of things…but it was nice to admit.  I also confessed that I am voting for him for two reasons: a hope that in a second term he will find his inner FDR/LBJ and let his freak flag fly and we cannot afford more GOP justices on the Court.

This was one big point that we both saw as a worrisome issue. Citizens United is a disastrous decision for democracy. There is no basis in reality or law for the way the Court decided it (and it is the definition of legislating from the bench as it stepped all over the McCain-Feingold Act, something conservatives cry out against on the floor when vetting a Supreme Court nominee).

Citizens United was all for the benefit of the Koch brothers and people of their ilk.  Justices Scalia, Thomas and Roberts (who all see corporations as people through Citizens United) are regulars on conservative banquet tour, often canoodling with NeoCon media members and major contributors to the party (who are often the people who run those companies that were just granted personal rights).

My new GOP friend and I both agreed this is not the way the Court is supposed to operate.  The Justices are supposed to be apolitical, at least in their public lives. They certainly should not be hanging with lobbyist and money men at political fundraisers.

So I left the weekend feeling hope.  Maybe there are more people like him who can take back the GOP and move them back to the center of things….and then I saw this:

The most offensive part coming at 1:02, when people in the audience cheer for the death of a (theoretical) uninsured man.  My first thought was:

Just like Jesus would have done…oh wait that is what happened to Him, the cheering for His death. Who gets to be Barabbas?

I know that everyone does not have to think like me. But having just had a great experience with someone who has more differences in their ideologies than similarities it really bothered me. My new refreshing reality was already smashed.

Conversations with the people in the audience who cheered that thought, or with those you can hear laughing about it just afterward is impossible to consider. The shame is that there seem to be more of the latter than there are of Justin’s on the Right.

* Not supported by any independent data other than my own biases.