So after watching the debates and the build-up to the coming election, I have been asking myself a fundamental question about McCain. And that is, is he just forgetful when it comes to things like voting records, VP candidate qualifications, and things of this nature, or is he just playing the same political games the Republicans have been playing for years now? You know, just say what ever sounds good, and hope the majority of people only hear that, and don’t see the proof that you’re wrong later. Either way, not fit for office, my friend.

You see, we are in, what you might call, tumultuous times. Everything is in an uproar where government is concerned. Unemployment’s at it’s highest in years. The deficit is at it’s highest in decades. The economy is in the worst shape it’s been in since the depression. Our foreign policy and credibility have both tanked since Bush’s arrogance has endangered us all. Taxpayers who can’t afford to feed their families with the rising consumer costs and low income wages are having to pay to bailout the banks who gambled with the taxpayers money, and whom the taxpayer can’t afford to pay their mortgage to anyway. The hypocrisy of nuclear arms remains openly flaunted as we proliferate and condemn others for the same. The energy crisis looming is threatening to collapse us, as we let corporate interests outweigh sustainability for the country. Global warming still hasn’t been acknowledged fully as being contributed to by human excess and consumerism, so time is running out on getting effective solutions proposed due to inconvenience. We continue to push for limited rights and freedoms through discriminatory legislation. The pressure for letting religion break through our secular foundation to further add pious biased legislation. Personal freedom is under attack from our government guised as a safety net. Just to name a few. Make no mistakes about it, this is the short list.

So we need someone on point. Sharp! Alert. And if McCain is that forgetful, as demonstrated once again with this example, then we don’t need him. Beginning of campaign, McCain attacks Obama’s experience and credentials. Sees, that’s not holding much weight, so he backs off it a bit. Selects a running mate with less qualifications than Obama. Backs off inexperience a bit more. Goes on another offensive. Doesn’t pan out. Goes back to proven ineffective plan of attacking experience, now with embarrassingly unqualified running mate for the aged, cancer survivor…..hmmm, me thinks me sees a flaw. Me thinks me sees someone, not so sharp.

Now if he’s just playing the same old GOP games of attack politics, wherein you launch smearing attacks based on distorted information knowing that the majority of people won’t catch the truth coming out days later, then fuck ‘em! That’s not what we need right now. Games aren’t going to solve that list above. Games aren’t going to get our country back on the track we’ve greedily strayed from. Games aren’t going to bring our allies back to the table, and our enemies to the table for talks. Games are simply going to keep that list expanding and getting worse. Games over. We’ve reached saturation and it’s time for a new direction.

Do I think Barack is that direction….I think he’s at least facing that way a bit more than our delusional friend from the right whose campaign has inspired more hate than hope from it’s followers. McCain’s all quaint and cute, but these are not times for quaint and cute.

Just been thinking lately…

Well the 2nd Edition of The Angry Hippie’s Comics has begun! I couldn’t wait any longer, so I’ve launched the first set of the new series. I’ve always been a bit on the impatient side, but I think I’ve waited long enough to bring them out and get the next edition started. The new comics offer up a look at more election coverage, and McCain building his cabinet. They are below and on the comics page! Enjoy…

“What we need to focus on is not seperation of church and state. What we need more than anything else is the seperation of private corporations and the government. This unholy union has taken the lives of millions upon millions of people just within the last couple of decades. Time for people to wake up and not be distracted by these types of overplayed non issues like ‘church and state’. That’s not the problem we’re faced with in 2008”

AH - “You’re right. The corporate buyout is something that needs to be stopped. Hence the march we have begun organizing to do so. However, in the meantime, since religion, namely christianity acts to oppress, mislead, and corrupt the masses, then we need the fucking separation. And it’s not overplayed if it’s still acting to legislate with it’s bigoted hypocrisy, so thanks. Some of us still can be active beyond our ADD and do a little something called multitasking.”

“It’s idiotic to clean dirty windows when the house is on fire. Maybe you should go get checked for ADD”

AH - “Ah, but if the windows were clean, folks could probably see in and notice the fire since they haven’t seem to catch on yet from all the smoke.

And that wouldn’t be ADD, it would OCD”

***************

This is a little exchange took place on youtube over a film I put together called, Separation of Church and State : Keep Your God’s Hands Off My Country (bit lengthy I know, but I’m a sucker for a good sub-title). I figured I’d blog about this because there are bound to be other people who agree with fucktard818 (that’s not really the users name, the name has been changed to avoid demeaning them). So I want to point out my point of view, with regards to this kind of logical denial that we need to be fighting multiple fronts at once, and that this kind of multi-layered attack is possible and necessary.

You see, we live in a dynamic society with multiple social hierarchies in place, all acting simultaneously to oppress and undercut different sections of our public. No one structure would act to undo them all, through it’s demise, therefore we as compassionate and activist-minded members of our masses have a responsibility to fight this kind of aggressive domination where ever we come across it. There is no order of importance, each kind of intolerant, discriminatory act of suppression needs to be combated. They all have a body count, and ignoring one until it’s unnecessary death toll is equal to some imagined standard by which we measure the compassion of our response, is ludicrous.

If we deem ourselves fighters for what’s right, how do we justify ignoring any wrongs being done? Especially when we all have access to the simplest and most powerful activists tool, information. Informing people of the truths of the terrible situations all around them, acts to open new eyes and minds to this struggle and bring in new fighters to the ranks. As I responded to fucktard818, some people’s eyes wouldn’t ever be open to one problem area, if they hadn’t first been exposed to something else. If I hadn’t had my eyes open to vegetarianism, I would never have seen the cruelty that further led to my veganism.

If you think this approach is flawed, then I think you are part of the problem! If you think that I am washing windows in a burning house, then I think you can’t see the forest for the trees. I think you are looking for a magical Deathstar solution that will destroy all of our societal ills with one Jedi, weak-spot luck-shot, and in doing so, you are missing the bigger picture. That all of these fronts need fighters or things will get worse, and by the time you are ready to address these problems, they will further be out of control, and more desperate situations than they should ever have been. Or maybe worse, you can see the forest, and the trees, but you just don’t give a fuck about them, because you’re too busy fighting off the aphids among the wild grass on the forest floor thinking you are somehow going to save us all.

Okay, so I’m not a bandwagon kind of guy, and I certainly don’t want to associate myself in anyway with the distasteful likes of Rush Limbaugh, but then, who in their right mind would? And I don’t want to agree with McCain’s addle-brained perspective on things either, cause well, then I’m afraid I’d have to voluntarily commit myself to psychiatric observation, and possibly electro-shock ‘therapy’. But as I was reading the build-up and the hype around Obama choosing his running mate, and seeing the frenzy that the media whipped up about it, I began to see some of what McCain was talking about with Obama’s ‘celebrity’ status. I will say right here and now, that I totally disagree with McCain’s insistence that Obama is on par with Britney or Paris, and he is not vapid or empty at all, this is a man of substance. It just so happens that within the ingredients of that substance, there’s a dash of ‘celebrity’.

It’s not his fault by any stretch, but it’s not like he hasn’t played into it…fully. And this whole VP hype, and the texting of his decision, and all of it, just seems well, less than substantial. It seems gimmicky and, yes, a bit vapid. It just feels like a distraction…already! And he’s not even president, yet. This is probably the most important election we’ve had, since the last one, but it just feels like we have a lot to be talking about, and moreover, that they should be talking about. Seems to me, if Obama was really about the issues and changing things, he wouldn’t play into the bullshit games that this three-ring political circus revisits each election cycle. All I’m saying, is that if he was truly wanting this election to be different, he would have just be all like, “That’s my healthcare plan. And by the way, after much consideration, Joe Biden’s going to be my running mate. Now about that conservative deficit.” or something like that.

But that’s not exactly how it played out. And again, it’s not entirely his fault. We have let this hype and hysteria take over and given rise to this celebrity state that he resides in. Be honest. He didn’t just come forward and proclaim himself a celebrity. That’s not exactly how it works. (Right? Robert Bowen is a celebrity!! ….nothing. Didn’t think so.) So the public wrote the check, it just sucks that he cashed it. Good to know he can resist the temptation of influence. You know, in case he’s ever in a position of, say, power. So shame on Obama, and shame on us.

Now I know, in this election, Obama is the most exciting thing going on. Let’s face it, with McCain running against him, Obama could be ten times less dynamic and charismatic than he is and he’d still be kicking that old man’s ass from coast to coast. And there’s no way McCain could pull off this kind of build up for his running mate. Who’s it gonna be? Who gives a fuck? No one. Not even conservatives are really talking about it. Could be Romney, could be Lieberman. Could be nobody really gives two shits, because Obama’s celebrity shine is far brighter than anyone else in the race. So he’s the only one that matters.

Poor Biden, actually. He’s in a huge shadow cast by Obama, and is going to have to really step it up if he wants to seem like a contributing factor to this ticket, and not merely window dressing for those who have been critical of Obama’s experience. Especially in regards to foreign policy issues. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a feisty one, but that’s not quite gonna cut it. Hell, McCain’s feisty. Batshit crazy and detrimental to the health and well being of the nation, but in a feisty way. So can Sen. Joe measure up to the celebrity standard set by his partner in this campaign for the white house?

Who the fuck cares!!??!! That’s not what matters! Let’s not give the media another distraction for the next month and a half, as they try to gage whether or not Obaden fits as the next celebrity couple of the year. Forget all those issues you wanted to know about. This is the era of sensationalist yellow journalism. We don’t really do the whole issues thing. If it bleeds it leads, and if it has import, they won’t report. But that’s the price we pay for living in this celebrity state.

What can I say, I’m a sucker for the sucker punch. And once again the Angry Hippie’s Comics comes out swinging and there’s no saved by the bell in this match. Volumes 12 and 13 are squaring off and taking aim on Oprah’s vegan fad and the puppets at Fox News, and they are linked below. Don’t forget you can also check out the rest of the Angry Hippie Comics on the comics page! Enjoy…