In all of this confusion and rhetoric about the economy, Iraq, and everything else, it is easy to get mixed up about what is actually going on.  One side is saying something and the other side is saying something completely different.  Both are saying they are right, but who knows?  Whenever I come to a difficult and confusing situation like this, I know I can always fall back on mathematics.  In Mathematics, you find a true constant and you can work your way to the answer based on the relationships between your variables and that constant.  Applying this principle, I have discovered two laws that will help you figure out our political situation.

This is not a FISA diary, it is a common sense diary.  This week has seen some disturbing things happening in our government and in our country overall.  The attack on our constitution and on our way of life continues, and the person who is our hope for the future seemed to jump on that bandwagon.  I question the logic of the decisions made by those congresspersons who voted for the new FISA bill, but I know that I do not have all of the pertinent information to make an educated judgment of the true reasons for their votes.  

It is early on July 4, 2008, and on this Independence Day I have taken a step back and pondered what it means to be an American and what America will be like in the future.  I wondered how my life and my actions would affect the future lives of my children and grandchildren.  It made me categorize some things and I have placed them in the Bad America, Good America, and Truth lists below.

The argument this week is once again about qualifications to be the Commander-In-Chief, with one side arguing that military experience may not have much weight towards that particular job.  The other side argues that any questioning of the qualifications of a "war hero" is a direct insult to all veterans and somehow degrades the service of that "war hero".  Below is my observation of the validity of the "war hero" President argument.

John McCain has been talking about his new energy policy, and how it is going to be different from the Bush energy policy, even as he agrees with Bush on expanded oil drilling.

My representative is one of the few that have not committed and I would like the DKos Texans to put some pressure on him to DO SOMETHING.

The Abraham Lincoln left its home port in Everett, Wash., in July 2002 for a six-month deployment to patrol the no-flight zone over Iraq. After 10 months underway, many weary sailors note off the top of their heads -- this 97,000-ton nuclear-powered carrier was weathering the longest deployment in more than a decade.

The ship's top officers estimated that by the time the Abraham Lincoln got home, it will have logged one of the longest deployments since the Vietnam War.

I got another "Obama is a Muslim", "The Bible says the Anti-Christ is a Muslim", "Obama is the Anti-Christ", e-mail today and it just really pissed me off.  It contained a list of offenses by Muslim males 18-47 (notice the arbitrary 47 because Obama is 46) over some period of history, and so we can't possibly vote someone who meets that demographic in as our President.    I have provided my response below.

Yesterday, I was given dirty looks and snide remarks in a restaurant for wearing a Barack Obama t-shirt.  Granted, I live in District 22, Texas, former home of Tom DeLay, but this is ridiculous.  To top it all off, this is the body of an e-mail that I received from a life-long friend after I sent her an Obama fundraising e-mail.  It was accompanied with "Over my dead body".

John McCain and Hillary Clinton think you are stupid.  They are proposing a ‘gas tax holiday’, which means about $0.20 a gallon federal tax relief for the three months of summer.  At first glance, this seems like a good deal.  Upon further review, it is only political grandstanding and means absolutely nothing to the average consumer.

Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye," was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps and, at the time of his death, the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.

During his 34 years of Marine Corps service, Butler was awarded numerous medals for heroism including the Marine Corps Brevet Medal (the highest Marine medal at its time for officers), and subsequently the Medal of Honor twice. Notably, he is one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Medal of Honor, and one of only three to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor, and the only person to be awarded a Marine Corps Brevet Medal and a Medal of Honor for two different actions.

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. – George Orwell

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. – George Orwell

These two quotes are so relevant in today’s political discourse because of a strange phenomenon I have noticed lately.  We have been conditioned over the last few years by the corporate owned media into believing things that are unbelievable.  We have been conditioned into accepting what is on the TV and on the radio as the truth.  We have been conditioned into this world of false statements and "misspeaking" for so long that when someone tells the truth, they seem to be crazy.

    John McCain was a Naval Aviator.  On his twenty-third bombing mission over North Vietnam later in 1967, he was shot down, badly injured, and captured as a prisoner of war by the North Vietnamese. He spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war, including periods of torture, before he was released in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords in 1973.

   He has been called a war hero because of these experiences.  It has shielded him from attack during his political career, and is a major contributor to his selection as the Republican presidential nominee this year.

My question is, how does being captured and held prisoner make you a hero?

He died June 11, 1979.  The legacy of John Wayne is dead as well.  The tough guy image and manly persona that has infected American politics and American society has finally run it's course.  

I have been skeptical of all of the attacks on Rev. Wright and the way people are acting so shocked about some of the things that he has said in his sermons.  It seemed very odd to me, so I did a little research into other preachers and found some "inflammatory, anti-American" comments they have said in the past.

I am waiting for the retraction of all good things ever said about these guys by anyone who is currently in office.   Still waiting...