The RANT:
November 8th...Remember That?

Does anyone vote as part of a meaningful block and what the fuck is a "Perot Voter", anyway? Here's a new term that's getting bandied about, "Perot Voter". I asked two self described "Perot Voters" to define themselves. They came up with, "We vote the way Ross Perot tells us to vote." That got amended to, "The way he wants us to vote." I got the idea. They don't have one (15k .au). I asked how they knew how Mr. Perot "wanted" them to vote and they answered that it got "communicated" to them. Pressing them further, I asked how a Three-Billionaire, squeaky-voiced, megalomaniacal, big-eared, paranoid Texas businessman with a God Complex "communicated" his wishes to his (oh, how shall I put this?) his flock? Maybe they caught a bit of attitude, (or maybe they felt something akin to shame...nah.) because the tight-lipped answer came back, "He just does." I'm guessing they might be relying on some sort of mystical seance of Tarot card, Ouija Board, or Magic 8 Ball ("You May Rely On It") system. Perhaps they use the Perot Tarot deck, available at your finer crystal ball shops from Venice, California to New Hope, Pennsylvania.

And how did Mr. Perot want them to vote? Protest votes? Votes for Independents? For people who may join up with his threatened third party (17k .au)? The straight faced answer came back, "Republican." Well, I got news for you "Perot Voters" out there. They have a word for people who blindly vote Republican because (for whatever reason) they vote Republican. These people are called "Republicans". Look in the mirror, "Perot Voters", that's a Republican in there, looking back at you.

Now, what's wrong with that? That depends. How short is your memory? I can remember way back to two years ago when those Nazi's got together for their Nominate George Bush Rally in Nuremberg (Or was that Texas?). You know, The Republican National Hatred Convention. Remember? Kill all fags, Fuck people with AIDS, Screw the poor, "Homeless, what homeless?" and Pat Buchanan gets to speak for something called a Christian Coalition. This is the party of Jesse Helms (10k .au), Oliver North (7k .au), Dan Quayle (9k .au), Hell, let's just cut to the chase. I'll take "Presidential Scandals During My Lifetime", Alex. I'll start with Republicans for 500. Answer: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George Bush. Question: What is Watergate, the Nixon Pardon, Iran/Contra, Iran/Contra & Dan Quale? (Oops, sorry about that Danny Boy, wrong category. I should have waited for Presidential embarrassments for 100.) I admit, I may have been a little hard on Mr. Ford. The pardon job should have fallen to Spiro Agnew but Bonus Points: he was forced to resign in shame due to problems with his Income Tax. Wait a minute, a Republican evading Income Tax? How novel. He probably figured it would be wasted on something trivial like feeding orphaned blind children or counseling inner-city rape victims.

Okay, in the interest of fairness: "Democratic Presidential Scandals During My Lifetime" For 500. Answer: J.F.K., Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Question: Who did Marilyn, Pass (does his admission, "I have lusted in my heart count as a scandal?) and the unspeakably heinous Jennifer Flowers or Whitewater (take your pick)? What the hell is Whitewater, anyway?

What conclusions are we to draw from our little game of Jeopardy? Draw your own. But when we get bitter little panty-waste's like Al D'Amato clambering for a further investigations of Democratic Presidential "Scandals" the advice from here starts with, "People who live in glass houses..."

Democrats just lost Mario Cuomo to somebody named Pataki who promises to reinstitute the Death Penalty. Some day, Mr. Pataki will die. I wonder when he looks into the eyes of God, if God will say to him, "Hey, that Death Penalty thing, nice job. By the way, What The Fuck Were You THINKING! (21k .au)" Why is it that the Republican Party seems to be the party that would prohibit abortions in unwanted pregnancies calling it sacred human life from conception, forget about the actual born person while they're actually living and breathing sans umbilical cord, cutting aid programs and federal funding for their education, and then after failing to educate a child who turns to crime in order to feed himself (and let me take a minute right here to be one of the first to stand up and say I hope I'd have the GUTS to run crack in order to feed my family, if the choice is between that and a hopeless existence of flipping burgers at minimum wage with no prayer of advancement), why do those same Republicans then electrocute, lethal inject, hang, or gas chamber these grown up "Sacred" souls? A whole group of people think this way. Who are they? Why are they here? And how come there's more of them in congress, this year?

Texas lost Ann Richards to someone named Bush (here we go again) and in California, Republican Governor Pete Wilson swept back into office, supporting a proposition that denies health care to undocumented aliens and their Children! Good luck out there when you try to convince the next thousand migrant workers that no, this is not a trick, you're not going to deport them if they'll just come in for vaccinations because you're trying to stem the latest outbreak of bubonic plague (13k .au). You've already taught them that by coming in for healthcare or education they must be reported to immigration. When does this get repealed? I'm guessing, not until the first white kids start dying, like the hundreds of Hispanics before them, from health dangers that shouldn't exist in the first place. Let's place our faith in the courts to restore some sanity to the left coast.

Our new Republican Speaker (19k .au) wants to slash education, HeadStart, and Job Corps, while increasing military spending. Why do the Republicans insist on taking a book out of the hand of an inner city twelve year-old and putting a gun in it? Why, when they do it are they so shocked by crime figures that scare otherwise sane individuals into voting for people who propose to solve that crime problem by enacting a death penalty and killing more (oh, let's just admit it) (14k .au) black criminals? And why are there more of them in congress this year? Why do we have to deal with Jesse Helms, Orin Hatch, and Strom Thurmond who embarrass themselves and our democracy, but who rely on a votership that periodically loses it's memory?

Why are the Republicans so great at cutting taxes while rolling over the deficit time and time again? At running up the misery index in my city? At running the best negative campaigns? At lying to congress? How short is your memory? And why are there more of them in congress this year?

Too many people want the eighties back, where greed was the order of the day and the best way to save a man from drowning was to get your foot off his neck. The eighties gave us Donald Trump, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, another couple of million homeless, and young blacks dying at the hands of young blacks. But hey, taxes were lower and you could think about affording that BMW and a house in the country. Never got there, did you? Me? I want to live in harmony with my brothers and sisters. Radical thought, isn't it? Or, at least live in a world where that was at least possible. It's not, right now. It's dark. It's dark, and we're stuck in the dark for at least two more years. I got more bad news, it's getting darker.

I don't mean to suggest that the Democrats are under appreciated freedom fighters, vainly attempting to deliver enlightenment to the caustic, cynical masses controlled by the forces of evil and darkness called Republicans. I'm not saying that, at all. I have noticed one thing, however. If I boil everything down to a less political stance, removing partisanship from the considerations, I am left with the over-simplifications that:

1. Democrats want a government that requires more sacrifice, but which does more for the weaker members of it's society. They are more interested in solving social ills, believing that the chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. How civil of them.

2. Republicans would like to get what they can get when they can get it.

3. It's much easier to slash social programs than it ever was to create them in the first place. Years of Democratic social reform can be wiped out by the stroke of a Republican's pen.

4. If you vote with your heart, you vote Democratic.

5. Democrats take your money. They're still the good guys.

6. Republicans create more millionaires and widen the gulf between the haves and the have-nots, then have the temerity to instruct poor men and women who didn't have the occasion to be born white to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps" while having been born with their Hispanic nanny around to pull their little booties on in the first place.

7. Republicans are mean. Try to remember that. I will, while I try to figure out how more of them ended up in congress, this year.