I haven't posted on here for some time, because I've been taking a "wait and see" attitude, wanting to give the new administration a chance to fix the sins of the previous administration, to accomplish something on their own. Anything.
What we've seen is Wall Street bailouts, and rampant spending with no plan on how to pay for it, the health care reform so badly needed gutted to something that has all of the costs and few of the benefits we hoped for, a plan for a surge in troops to Afghanistan with no real end in sight to Iraq, little progress in other areas where we'd hoped for change... Ugh. All my favorite comedy commentators on politics have seemingly turned on Obama - Jon Stewart, as usual, has been spot on. SNL has lampooned the lack of actual accomplishments. Colbert, Bill Maher... And my favorite bloggers and writers have also "turned" - Krugman, even Rolling Stone and the Huffington Post! (see bookmarks in the sidebar -->)
Yet I've hesitated to write anything because, you know, if you can't say anything nice...
And we can't blame it ALL on "the other side"...
Although, the lunatic fringe is still out there being crazy - Palin and her supporters, still provides fodder for comedians - love the SNL 2012 parody. But it also scares the HELL out of me, with the state of things currently - there is so much discontent from left, right and center she might just win, which would really be an apocalypse, as far as I'm concerned. The Birthers are still crazy, the jerkwad conservatives who are only out to stop ANYTHING from being accomplished, at the cost of the American public still at it. The fillibustering and dysfunctionality of our government at an all--time high. The stupidity of people...
Sometimes I feel like the internet, while a great source of information and learning for those with the critical thinking skills to sort out the nuggets of truth from the hogwash, has become a Pandora's box for the illiterate and stupid sheep who forward any dire warning to everyone on their email contacts - these same morons are the true believers that Obama is Kenyan, that "Death Panels" were ever a part of the health care bill, that Obama is a Socialist/Communist/Terrorist whatever. These people believe anything the Fox News and other conservative nutjobs like Glen Beck, Laura Ingraham, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or Ann Coulter tell them to believe. And they are a pack of liars. And inciters of violence and hatred and fear. I wish them all to just disappear from the face of the earth. But honestly? I don't like Olbermann much better. I hate the snide, sneering attitudes and name-calling that has become the norm for TV politics "reporting" - it's horrible and is hurting our country. Rachel Maddow is slightly better since she seems to focus a bit more on news, but her little smirks when she reports negative things about conservative just annoy me at this point and only serve to keep people in their respective corners. This is one of the reasons I love Jon Stewart. Yeah, he's a comedian, but sometimes his reporting on the issues is far superior than real news stations! AND he makes us laugh. When we laugh, we can gain perspective, on ourselves, and on each other, which helps us get past our differences and move FORWARD.
I want people to start thinking for themselves. I want people to stop hating other points of view. I want people to start actually listening to each other. I want politicians to focus on getting things done for America and Americans, NOT on political games.
I WANT MY DAMN COUNTRY BACK!!
We've got problems, people! We need to WORK TOGETHER to fix them!!! Pretty speeches alone won't do the trick. Sorry Obama. I agree with Bill Maher when he said you need to "stand up for the 70% of Americans who aren't crazy." I like to think I'm one of them.
