DC UPDATE: I Am Personally Going to Assassinate Geoff Johns

This guy says it a lot better than I ever could. The video's an hour and a half long, but I'm sure you'll be amused.

http://www.booktv.org/Watch/13794/50+Things+Liberals+Love+to+Hate.aspx

(By the way, he was also pushing for Ron Paul to be allowed to speak at the RNC.)

>>You're really just going to blatantly ignore the way the conservatives trashed the Constitution during the previous administration?<<

The trashing of Constitutional freedoms is pretty much SOP during war time in the US. This goes back all the way to the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. Lincoln suspended Habeas corpus by executive order which is a direct violation of the Constitution. FDR interned people of Japanese descent. During the Vietnam War the Federal government and local law enforcement ran intelligence operations against anti war protesters. This was done by both democratic and republican administrations.

It should be noted that almost all the measures started by Bush have been continued by the Obama administration with the addition of targeted assassinations of American citizens on foreign soil. National Security abuses know no political party.

When it comes right down to it, I feel that *both* sides are pretty icky, but I find that I've got more ideologically in common with Conservatives than I do with Liberals. There are a number of Liberal concepts that I support, and a lot of Conservative concepts that repel me. But it's my opinion--and I stress that word, "opinion"--that Democrats are more frequently apt to be hypocrites than Republicans are.

We've already mentioned how the Democrats label any dissenting opinions to be "hate speech." Or how if you disagree with what the current President says or does, you're a "racist." I voted for Mr. Obama. I'd read his books and was very impressed with how well he strung his thoughts together. I'll go so far as to say I felt inspired by him, and hoped that he would bring, not so much "change," but unity.

Sadly, I have been terribly disappointed. The first black President has not united us, but has served to cause an even deeper rift between whites and blacks, a rift often exploited by his own party in order to grasp more control.
He's spent four years blaming the preceding Administration for the mess we're in, and using "obstructionism" as his excuse for not getting much of his agenda accomplished. While it's true that the financial meltdown has been global in scope, and while I personally believe that no President can really do much of anything about a market economy--good or bad, it's due to market forces, and it's stupid to credit the President when good things happen, just as it's stupid to blame him when bad things happen--I see him as a man who has made serious errors in just about every aspect of his job, and yet who is begging for four more years to try to do what he said he'd do four years ago.

I don't know whether a President Romney would do any better, but I do know that, for the sake of our country, we need to get Mr. Obama and his gang of idiot advisors the hell out of Washington.

The Democratic Party has long said it wants to do all sorts of things "for the children," but they also endorse gay marriage and the right of abortion-on-demand. Public schools have been dumbed down due to a lot of programs instigated by Democrat-controlled Congresses. Now, I think the "No Child Left Behind" act was incredibly stupid, and that was a Bush-era travesty. Got that one. And any woman who would consider, for even one second, killing her own child, would probably not make a very good parent, so perhaps it's best that she not become one; if you think she should instead be encouraged to bring the unwanted child to term and put it up for adoption, let me tell you that most people looking to adopt do not want to take a chance on a baby who might be drug-addicted or a victim of neglect or abuse. The Children's Aid Foundation of my state is actually taking out ads in the papers begging for foster and adoptive parents for the kids in foster care, and there are classes being given on teaching prospective foster parents how to manage kids who have been maltreated. A friend of mine's son and daughter-in-law adopted an infant who was in drug withdrawal and reported that that was the worst month of their lives as the poor kid could not stop crying.

So yeah, I'm a Conservative who believes abortion should be legal, safe, and RARE. It shouldn't be used as birth control, but since women who find themselves inconveniently pregnant will *always* find a way to get an abortion, I'd rather that they are able to receive proper medical care, than to get it done with a coathanger in a dirty back room, then go off to bleed to death on the street. Or have the baby and toss it in a Dumpster, or leave it on somebody's doorstep. All of these things regularly happened before Roe vs. Wade, and I for one would not want to see them come back. An unwanted child prevented from being born into a world that doesn't want him, is one less problem for the State to take care of in the long run.

I also would not want women who endure miscarriages to have to go to court to prove that they did NOT have an abortion. A woman who miscarries a child she desires is already under enough trauma when she loses it; she should not have to be looked upon as a criminal until she can prove it was an accident. As crazy as this sounds, I have a genuine fear that some on the far-Right would require this burden of proof, if Roe v Wade ever got repealed, just to ensure that nobody getting an illegal abortion would say she fell down the stairs or went horseback riding or something.

So you can see, I've got some issues with those on the Far Right, as well, who would like to wind the clock back to the 1950's. I can go along with a return to decorum, propriety, politeness, personal responsibility, and respect, but I really don't want to see women forced to go back to being second-class citizens whose primary function is to look pretty and be housewives and mothers.

Women have bountifully proven that they can equal or exceed men in many areas. I don't think women should be in forward combat positions in the armed forces, though, or really in any occupation that needs great physical strength and where lives are on the line. Years ago, I did, but not any more. As a woman who has worked mostly outdoors, as a landscaper and as a farmer, I know pretty well what the female physique can do, and there's a limit to how much physical strength the average woman possesses. I want my firemen, Marines, infantrymen, and large-animal veterinarians to be men!

I find it insane that a schoolkid doesn't need parental consent to get an abortion, but does need a permission slip to get an aspirin. Granted, some kids may have been raped or abused by a parent or guardian, but there's just a cockeyed illogic to this that makes my head hurt. I think I'll go get an aspirin...

And I also think it's unbelievable that kids can get in trouble for praying in school, but that wearing suggestive clothing or offensive slogan T-shirts is "protected free speech."

I think it's stupid that Democrats insinuate that Republicans are racist, yet they promote policies that basically say that black people can't achieve anything for themselves and need lots and lots of assistance from the government. And that any black Republicans are sell-outs to their race.

I think it's reprehensible that corporate CEOs make astronomical salaries while their companies are floundering, but I also think it's revolting to watch how celebrities flaunt *their* wealth. Or how politicians seem more interested in simply getting themselves re-elected and playing a game of Capture the Flag than they are of actually making sure this country runs efficiently. YET I believe that people should be free to work and earn a good living, and to keep what they earn and do with it as they please. It would be nice if the hardest working people in this country got a better cut of the pie than the professional talkers and the pencil-pushers and the Beautiful People, but that's the Free Market System for you. I just wish those three groups would stop talking about the One Percenters as if they were not in that group themselves!

I'm all for being sensitive to other people, trying not to intentionally give offense, and getting along with each other, but not to the point of laying down before those who would gladly kill us and exposing our vulnerable spots to them, thinking that if we just keep feeding meat to the tigers, they'll eventually turn vegetarian. It didn't work prior to 1939 and it sure ain't working now. The radical Muslims out there must be laughing their backsides off at how they've managed so easily to humiliate the formerly most-powerful nation on Earth, by forcing us to undergo the sort of security scans at airports which would be considered cruel and unusual punishment if we inflicted them on POW's. They have cultural and religious strictures against public nudity, physical contact, and even shoes, yet they've gotten us to submit to removing our shoes, to full-body scans, and pat-downs by strangers. And then THEY claim a cultural exemption, and get it! Why? Because we're "sensitive" to their cultural requirements.

I have nothing against paying taxes, it's what keeps the infrastructure going and aids those in need. I DO have a problem with a government that seems to think they've got a bottomless well to tap. We keep hearing them say that this program or that will run out of money, and they demand cutbacks in so many areas that, to me, are of vital importance--teachers, law enforcement, the military, roadwork, health services for poor senior citizens and veterans--and then they cut enormous checks to other countries, or to bail out corporations or banks that mismanaged their finances. I can understand supporting our allies, but when was the last time a foreign government ever cut an enormous check to the USA? I can almost see how the US Government is the only institution big enough to bail out a corporation, and that people are employed by corporations and when one fails, thousands will be out of work and on the dole...but I'd like a lot more responsibility and accountability to go along with those assistance packages! Giving the CEO a multimillion-dollar bonus--BONUS!--with borrowed cash is just WRONG!

And do not--do NOT--get me started about this "climate change" bamboozle! Or making it cost-effective to ship American manufacturing jobs overseas! Or driving entrepreneurs out of business with excessive regulations! Or of basically creating a country full of over-educated consumers without jobs, and then wondering why we're in such a terrible financial state!

Yes, politics is a very complicated mess. Most people don't understand it, they just either vote the party line, or go with the guy with the nicest smile, or the familiar name, or who talked a good speech down at the pizza parlor. It would be nice if more people took the time to learn enough about the system to really comprehend the sausage-mill that is Washington, but I doubt even the Congressmen really understand what's going on. Their jobs depend on them bamboozling us with rhetoric every two years so they can stay employed.

A friend of mine told me about a conversation he'd had with his oldest daughter a few years ago. She said, "Daddy, I think I'm going to join the Democratic Party." He said, "Let me ask you a few things, honey. Do you believe in abortion on demand?' "No," she said. "Do you believe a person has a right to keep what they work for?" "Yes," she said. "And do you think you should have to work hard and then have part of it taken away to give to somebody who doesn't work at all?" "No, dad," she said. He smiled. "Welcome to the Republican Party, darling!" he told her.

(Incidentally, that guy was my hard-working farrier.)

Ah, good--so I'm not the only one who's noticed that the liberals are a bunch of hypocrites!

Freedom of speech is good--unless people are saying stuff we don't want to hear, then it's hate speech, or racist, or libelous, or just stuff we want suppressed so we'll sue.

Everyone in America can achieve the American Dream: then the gummint will call you a "One Percenter" and take it away with punative taxes and hand it to people who don't work at all.

Freedom of expression is great, unless you're expressing yourself against someone from our support base, then you're bad.

People should be free to make whatever lifestyle choice they want, and we'll pass laws to force their employers to support those lifestyle choices, even when they conflict with the lifestyle choices of the employers.

There are more rich Democrats than rich Republicans. But somehow only rich Republicans are bad.

Ninety year old veteran of WW II with a walker? Still gotta take your shoes off and get groped in security, Gramps. Dude in the sheets yelling "Allahu akbar?" Grade him up to First Class.

I could go on and on and on, but 10000li should be showing up any second here to dispute with us, so I'll go back to my cave now and nurse my grudges in silence...

Boy, that really does sound horrible! I can't help but wonder who the "target audience" is supposed to be for such an anti-hero. Are the writers pandering, or do they have some other agenda, or is this actually supposed to be tongue-in-cheek commentary along the lines of "Oh, no--he's not a bad guy! Just because he stole a car and blew up a building, the Intergalactic Order-Keeping Powers That Be *still* think he's worthy to be a paladin of good on this planet!"

When you stop to think about how everybody today suffers the heightened security due to 9/11, but we're not supposed to "profile" anybody who is most likely to be actual terrorists...that could be the subtext of this story.

Or maybe the writer just drank the Kool-Aide and thinks this is a nice direction to go in...