THE VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM |
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The blog for those just a lottery win away from wealth 
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Wednesday, September 22, 2004
RALPH NADER, CLOSET REPUBLICAN?
A while back one of my "INDEPENDENT WRITER " website readers emailed me suggesting that I write about Ralph Nader. Well I finally have, but I decided that the piece was better suited for my blog. I doubt that this is what she had in mind, but this is what I think of him. ************************************************************************************* What the hell is wrong with this guy? He has to realize that he has less chance of being elected President than a fart has of surviving a hurricane. Yet, he persists in meddling, and at this point that's all this ego maniacal political dilettante is doing. He's just meddling in politics now; no one takes him seriously. Nader had the chance to retire and be treated kindly by historians as a respected consumer advocate responsible for some much needed improvements in product safety. Instead he has allowed his ego to get in the way of his common sense, and if he tips the election in favor of the Republicans, he will be remembered as nothing more than a spoiled brat. At this point Nader doesn't even have a point to make. No one listens to him, and the Green Party, which solidly backed him in the past, has abandoned him. There isn't much of a difference between the Republicans and the Democrats these days but certainly the Democrats espouse more of Nader's views than do the Republicans. Nader still has intelligence, so he has to know that by staying in the race he is going to draw votes from Kerry and therefore help Bush. So, he helps Bush, which means that he could be a closet Republican. In the end though it's the voters who decide. Those who support Nader's policies will vote for him as a form of protest or to make a useless symbolic statement. Rather than kneeling down in front of Nader and begging him to withdraw from the race, as Michael Moore and Bill Maher recently did on Maher's HBO show, they should have appealed to the Nader supporters to vote for Kerry. The Republicans will say that they could care less about Nader's bid but that’s bullshit. The RNC knows that a vote for Nader is a vote against Kerry and a vote for Bush. If they didn't, the RNC would not have been so active in helping to get Nader on the ballot in several states. Florida's Governor Jeb Bush saw to it that Nader was put on the ballot despite the fact that the "party" Nader is listed under isn't recognized as a National party, and he wasn't nominated by delegates to a National convention. The "Reform Party" in Florida has a total of $18.18 on deposit. Should this be taken as a sign of that party's viability as a National force? It does according to Florida's Republicans. The last Presidential election was decided by a combination of Florida's election officials, court system, State politicians, and The Supreme Court Of The United States, which essentially appointed Bush as President. Of course the Florida debacle was facilitated by my favorite Floridian, the Emmett Kelly School of Beauty Culture graduate, Katherine Harris. She was Florida's Secretary Of State and took just enough time off from applying her daily allotment of a cement truck size load of makeup to manipulate Florida's laws to ensure that Bush would be elected, and her own political career advanced. This time around it won't be Katherine, or Jeb, or any number of Chads that interfere with Florida's election, it will be Ralph.  Visit "The Independent Writer" and have a good laugh on Jim Ippolito Wednesday, September 15, 2004
GOD SAYS "ENOUGH!" TO BIBLE BELTERS Hurricane Ivan is currently bearing down on the Deep South. This storm arrives hard on the heels of 2 other horrendous hurricanes from which Bible Belters have not yet recovered. I do feel sorry for the people affected by these disasters and my best wishes go out to them, but I have to wonder why God has chosen to bitch slap this area yet again? Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia are part of the "Bible Belt," meaning that many of these State's Christian residents consider themselves to be quite religious by virtue of whatever standards are in place at the moment. Along with the defense of their "right" to display the Confederate flag these people tend to treasure their other self appointed "right," that of vociferously denouncing anything or anyone which does not measure up to their definition of morality. The area is rife with over the top Right-Wing Christian loonies who, in addition to their usual criticism of anything that runs counter to their own current beliefs, are quite quick to point out that as faithful followers of their various religions they are "right" thinking people. When catastrophe strikes a place such as New York, an area considered by Bible Belters to be a den of iniquity inhabited by the much-hated "Liberals," you can count on one or another of their religious leaders to proclaim that God is punishing the non-believers for their evil ways. Pat Robertson, the euphoric, holier than everyone, businessman/preacher comes to mind. On the other hand, when something goes amiss in the Bible Belters world, such as a flat tire, or a lost bible bookmark, it is considered to be "God's will," and not a form of punishment for a transgression. So why is this area which contains the bulk of the Bible Belt's populace being butt-slammed a-la "Deliverance," yet again? One would think that the combined bible thumping of the faithful would have sent these storms elsewhere, to, let's say Minnesota, where there are some freethinking people. Well, the naysayers might point out that Minnesotans receive an abundance of snowstorms as their punishment, but hey, one can ski there, and build snow people, whereas all one can do in a hurricane or tornado is croak. So what does all this mean? Well to me it means that the weather is no more controlled by God than it is by meteorologists, or shoeshine parlor attendants. If there is a God I'm sure that he or she could control the weather but I believe it's left to chance, like most things. The true believers however are victims of their own devices, and unless they are liars, are stuck with the stark reality that according to their own doctrines, they are being punished by their God. Therefore, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" seems like a good motto for the Bible Belters to adopt. Of course the Muslims are saying that their entry into the God competition, Allah, has sent the storms to conquer the infidels. But that's a whole other story. Visit "The Independent Writer" and have a good laugh on Jim Ippolito Wednesday, September 08, 2004
SEPARATION OF CHURCH & STATE Yesterday I saw a brief bit of Dick Cheney warning people that not electing Bush would result in terrible terror attacks on the United States. Does that mean that he and Bush will contract for these attacks if they are not elected? With the Presidential election less than 2 months away it's impossible to turn on a TV news channel without encountering one or another of the candidates, or their proxies, babbling away about the merits of his or her party. Meanwhile the President was performing for a bunch of awe struck gawkers in Missouri. That's the State referred to as "Mizz-oor-ah," by its inhabitants and others of their ilk. President Bush dwelled for a while on the plight of our country's druggies and drunks, a subject all too familiar to him. It was fitting that the speech was delivered in Missouri, home to the Anheuser-Busch Beer Corporation, whose bottles, cans and other debris of their drug delivery systems, litter the sides of America's roads in greater abundance than all other brands combined. He said that these people are in need of help. OK, so far so good. Then he said that the help should be provided by "faith based organizations," funded by the Federal Government. Uh-oh, and he was doing so well. The President makes no bones about his own faith and religious beliefs, and he often hints about being guided by a higher power, although he stops short of naming Dick Cheney, or any particular Corporation. I have no problem with a belief in God but I do have a problem with organized religion being involved in any way, shape, or form, with government. I'm sick of hearing people spout off about how many States have the word God in their constitutions. I'm sick of hearing people yap about how this country was founded by "men of faith." And, I'm especially sick of hearing people say that they're religious, in a way that implies that they are better than those who aren't. They're not. Last week President Bush was preaching in Oregon and some yokel yelled out to him that he should pray for Oregon because it's the most "unchurched" State in the Union. What the hell does "unchurched" mean anyway, and who gives a shit? I don't want my President wasting time praying that Oregon become more "churched." I want him to do something tangible, for the good of the entire populace. Apparently he didn't pray hard enough for Oregon since the Oregon State football team missed 3 extra point attempts and lost to LSU, by one point, last Saturday. This concept of using federally funded "faith based" organizations to care for the country's addicts is nothing more than government sponsorship of, and worse yet, the subsidizing of organized religion, and it's wrong. Visit "The Independent Writer" and have a good laugh on Jim Ippolito |
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