The SoapBoxers

Commentary- Do you see that Paul supporters? Commentary. That means it is Commentary. NOT a news article. It’s like the Opinion section of the paper, not the front page. Then again, that doesn’t matter to Ron Paul supporters. If it isn’t something that praises St. Ron Paul, it’s trash. It’s stupid. It’s someone who should “kill themselves”.

Personal attacks by Ron Paul fans

Yes. In the comments in the last article I wrote, commentators told me everything from me needing to f-word myself to killing myself…and everything in between, including having my tubes tied so I didn’t have any more children. Nice. Mature.

I thought I was being a little rough when I referred to Ron Paul supporters as being “rabid”. They proved to me I was right on. Thanks for proving me right.

I believe in the 11th Commandment. “Thou shall not speak ill of fellow Republicans.” But I can still talk about Ron Paul. Because he’s not a Republican. He’s so far right, he’s wrong. He’s even been described as “left of Obama” by some of my friends who are Democrats.

The aforementioned article has almost 300 more COMMENTS than WORDS in the article. Looks like I hit a nerve. You’d think I said that Dr. Paul eats small kittens for breakfast…and I’m surprised I haven’t been accused of it.

I’m amused that the commentators took the time to check out my background. Yes, I do volunteer for a Paranormal Group. I think it is fun and interesting. I have also served as Co-Chair of the Polk County (Des Moines, Iowa) Republican Party, and like almost everyone else in Des Moines, I have worked for a large corporation (we have many in the area, Principal, Wells Fargo, Nationwide, ING). But I think that just makes my background diverse.

My husband served in the Iraq war, and after finding out about it, a Ron Paul supporter told me that I didn’t serve, only my husband did. ANYONE who is a spouse of a soldier also serves. Whomever says that the wife of a soldier doesn’t serve, has never been a soldier, or a wife of one. The same Paul supporter responded with, “if you somehow died while he was overseas, would you get a military burial?” Because only a military burial equates to serving? Some soldiers choose not to have a military burial. Moron.

As far as the articles I’ve written, they include more than just the barn and crayon stains. You can read about Why I support Santorum, Why I like him for the caucus, Iowa GOP Voter’s reaction to the national security debate…and more. If you did as much research into my articles as you did my personal background, you would have found them.

My concerns with Paul’s positions

Even though this is an opinion piece, the Ron Paul supporters seem to feel the need for me to back up my opinion with facts. Here’s why Ron Paul is dangerous, again, in MY opinion.

1. Ron Paul’s foreign policy is an epic fail. Example? Not taking Iran seriously. Dr. Paul’s lack of seriousness toward Iran shows a fundamental misunderstanding of international security. Iran is a country that doesn’t lend itself toward the kind of MAD balance of terror that gave balance in the Cold War. Iran, instead, upon getting nukes would be in a use’em or lose’em scenario. I can go through the game theory in more detail, but suffice it to say we either intervene in the Mid-East to stop Iran getting nukes, or you flip a coin to figure out if you have a major regional war in the Mid-East, potentially involving nukes.
2. Eliminating the Department of Energy. I don’t know if Dr. Paul knows, but the DOE runs our nuclear program (there’s a little facility out at Los Alamos he may want to familiarize himself with.) Sure, Solyndra is a scandal that is terribly embarrassing to the Democrats, but let’s not toss the baby out with the bathwater here.
3. Democrats may disagree with Republicans on appropriate military policy, but we all should honor our veterans. The way leftists treated vets post Vietnam is disgusting, and has no place in our political life. Soldiers and their families have a tough enough time without some idiot (or like I was subjected to, a Ron Paul supporter) undermining their sacrifice.

So there you go, Ron Paul supporters. Three talking points. As you know, I’m more than willing to have an open, yet mature dialogue. If you tell me to “kill myself”, it’s not going to happen. If you “plan to have your sister come and pound me in the ground”, it’s not going to happen. Maybe I’m the next Ann Coulter. And yes, I consider that a compliment.

It’s not like a regular primary. You don’t go to your normal polling location. It’s not something you can do before or after work. It’s quite different.

I can speak for the Republican caucus because I’ve been the Chair for my location. As far as the Democrats go, well, I only have to go off of what I’ve been told from my dad. Yes, my parents were registered Democrats. I was raised a Democrat. I turned them.

From what I understand of the Democrat caucus (when it is contested), you go to your caucus location and break into groups of the candidate you support. There’s a percentage your candidate must reach in order to be considered “viable”. When there is a group that isn’t a “viable” group, the other groups try to coerce the “un-viable” candidates to their group. It all just sounds a little too shady to me.

As far as the Republicans go, you go to your caucus location, listen to speakers, either the actual candidates or those who’ve been chosen to speak on behalf of the candidate, pass the “buck bucket” as a fundraiser for the party and then vote. Each person gets one slip of paper (usually colored paper to prevent fraud) and you write your choice. The votes are tallied (usually as more people speak) and the winner is announced. One person, one vote. Sounds fair to me.

It can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, depending on the speakers, the size of the precinct, and the questions (usually from Dems who have switched sides).

It may sound complex but the GOP event really is straight forward. Have fun, good luck and enjoy the process and blessing that we, as Iowans, get.
 

 

It’s just three more days until Christmas. Where has the time gone? It seems just yesterday was Thanksgiving and my family packed up and moved to our new job in Tennessee.

On the political side of things. not a lot has changed in the horserace the last month. Newt is still enjoying his time as the anti-Romney frontrunner status anti good old Mitt still goes from every side of every view and stays at the Same levels he has for months.

However we are just moments away from the actual results part of the race starting to come through with the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. Are you ready? I know I am. If I could have one wish granted I wish we could just fast forward to the nomination to be over and the real debate over the stark differences between what whoever the Republican nominee will be and what they will wish to do as President and what the current would like to attempt to do if reelected. The same old “my conservative credentials are better than yours” pissing contest is just getting tiresome, even for a political junkie like me.

So who will win the first two contests? My money if I were to wager would be on a Ron Paul win in Iowa with Newt in second and Mitt in third. Then in new Hampshire I see Romney taking the win with Newt in second and Huntsman making a surprise finish in third before going back into the one prevent support zone when the race goes back to states that the Republican voting base is not as sane.

Until next time I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy new year. Next time we will have some actual results to dissect and discuss!

We’ve all seen it. And if you haven’t seen it, you’ve at least heard of it. Rick Perry released a new ad titled “Strong”. If you haven’t seen it, you can view it here.

The ad was posted a week ago. Why is that important? It already has over 600,000 dislikes. That makes it the most hated video on youtube….even more than Rebecca Black’s “Friday”. If you haven’t heard that song and you don’t enjoy good music, feel free to view it here.

And I knew it wouldn’t be long before “Bad Lip Reading” jumped on it. And they did.

So why is everyone so upset about Rick Perry’s ad? Well, I get his point. I understand what he’s saying. I do think it is wrong that our kids can’t say “Merry Christmas”…but I tell them to. We celebrate Christmas in our home and we say “Merry Christmas”. 

I need to address the “gays serving openly in the military” line. I think I come from a unique background. While my husband was serving in Iraq, I moved in with my sister-in-laws…who are now legally married. I asked my husband his feelings on gays in the military and he said it didn’t bother him “as long as they don’t make an issue out of it.” That’s the key. And that’s what makes me mad about this whole gay/straight issue.

I don’t walk up to people and say, “Hi, I’m Sarah and I’m straight,” because who I sleep with doesn’t define me. And honestly, it shouldn’t define anyone else either. Gay, Straight, whatever.  Those who choose to allow it to define them need to re-evaluate their life. WHY would you make your choice in a life partner the focus of your life?  It shouldn’t be.

My dad taught me I have to know who I am before I can share myself with anyone else. That’s one reason why I didn’t get married right out of high school (or even college). Because I was still learning who I was as a person. I don’t need someone to complete me. I can share myself with someone but I am complete in myself.

Who I chose to spend my life with does not define me. Don’t make it an issue and it won’t be an issue. If you love your Country enough to serve and possibly lay down your life for your Country, you should be defined as a solider, not as a gay soldier. Because who you choose to share your life with should have nothing to do with your ability to fire an M-16. And my husband agrees. And he’s been there.

Do I understand what Rick Perry is trying to say? Yes. Do I think he needs a new writer? Yes. Because I think his point could have been made in a totally different way. Maybe he was trying to snag the Christian voters with this move. But I think he alienated a lot more than he gained.

This ad was not “Strong” by any means.

Like Stan and Kyle from South Park I’ve learned a lot this year. Politically this is arguably the most partisan and divided the US has ever been, and ultimately that’s not good for anyone … except maybe the 24 hour news organizations.

• In January Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary stepped down. I actually liked Dana Perino more, simply because she could go more than 4 words without uttering “ummmm … ” followed by a long pause. It boggles the mind that a smart dude like Obama could pick a guy who has a problem speaking in public as his main public speaker.
• In January Gabrielle Giffords was shot by a mentally ill gunman. Rather than ponder where we went wrong in not only allowing the ill shooter to get a gun but slip through the cracks, treatment-wise, we immediately sought to assign blame. Mental health parity is still an unsung issue in this country, but I guess we’d rather spend billions on erection drugs rather than help the millions who are clinically depressed.
• In March Japan was struck by an earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. In what might still turn out to be the world’s worst nuclear disaster, a nuclear power plant suffered at least a partial meltdown. It’s amusing that the people most for nuclear power (Republicans) are also the people who claim that government is mistake-prone and inefficient. Because nothing spells “safe” like mistake-prone and nuclear power.
• At some point in the first half of 2011 at least a few Republicans argue about the Bush Tax cuts, saying they should be kept because “tax cuts pay for themselves.” They need to clarify this statement because apparently tax cuts pay for themselves only if they’re not presented by a Democratic president and only if they’re not mainly for the middle class.
• In June yet another politician ignores the rule that if you’re caught with your hand in the cookie jar, admit it up front and things won’t be as bad. Who doesn’t still giggle that a politician named Wiener had to resign for showing his wiener. The really amusing part to me is all the outrage over his online exhibitionism. It’s horrible for a guy to show his privates yet a guy who divorced his wife because she had cancer and he wanted to upgrade is the leading Republican presidential candidate right now. I don’t get it.
• In yet another curious bit of hypocrisy the Republicans show it’s ok to vote for a debt ceiling increase unless it’s a president you really don’t like. Yes, the debt is a problem, but we spent a month and 1/2 arguing over something that’s been done dozens of times before with hardly an eyelash batted while the unemployment rate continued to be unacceptably high. I know now why congress has to take so many recesses – they must strain their arms patting themselves on the back for doing mundane things.
• In another interesting bit of hypocrisy, I learned that if a right-wing movement against government (the Tea Party) protests it’s considered patriotic, but if a left-wing movement against government (Occupy movement) protests they’re considered lazy and rabble-rousing.
• Finally I learned that Republicans really are conflicted over who they want to run for president. The guy that makes most sense to the general public (Jon Huntsman) is polling at around 1% and isn’t even invited to some debates. The guy that most people think has the best chance to defeat President Obama (Mitt Romney) is apparently horribly distasteful to Republicans. Is it the Mormon thing? Is it the flip-flopper from Massachusetts thing? The guy that has the most effed-up financial plan that would actually raise taxes on the middle class and lower them drastically on the rich was only brought down because he apparently wants to get in the pants of every woman out there. After that little revelation hs 9-9-9 plan might as well have been “nein, nein, nein!”

This holiday season I’m praying for something new. I’m going to pray that we somehow learn to overcome the widening divide in our country. I still firmly believe that most political problems could be solved by getting money out of politics. Pouring money into the political process benefits only the richest of the rich, and America was not created to benefit .09% of the country while the other 99.9% struggle on with life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Happy holidays, everyone.
 

 

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving I was most thankful for my family and our move to our new job that we are about to embark on. Why I am not thrilled with the packing and process of actually moving there part, I am really excited about moving to middle Tennessee from east central Kansas.

The interesting part of the process is that the Angry Squirrel will now be a Republican Presidential Primary voter. Yes you read that right, REPUBLICAN primary voter. Now don’t laugh to hard, or start to think I have had some sort of epiphany that led me to change my entire political thinking the past month. The move itself has allowed this to happen.

I will be registering to vote as soon as I can in Tennessee, and as a registered independent in the open primary state I will be able to cast my ballot in the Republican primary if I choose to do so, and as there really is not a Democratic primary to vote in this cycle, I say why not. I have been following the candidates closer than the average Republican primary voter has even. So I feel I am well-informed to cast my vote for I feel most expresses what I think the Republican Party stands for.

It should be interesting to see how things develop as February 5th rolls around, which is the date of the Tennessee Primary. We should have a pretty narrowing field of who actually are the frontrunners by that point. We will likely have Mitt stagnating at the same percentage he has had all along, give or take a few. After that will Newt and his new-found compassion for immigrants and his payoffs from lobbying for the devil keep him in frontrunner status? Will Michelle Bachmann’s strong performances in the past couple roundtable/debates show a rise once again in her numbers? Will Rick Perry stop being a douche and just exit the primary process? Will Herman Cain continue to stay at the front of things? ONly time will tell.

I will be surprised if by that point there is not some sort of movement going to cast votes a particular way in these open primary states. That is not my motive, as I am just mainly doing it for the novelty of the process since I am not used to open primaries and I figure since there is no need to do so on the Democratic side this time around why not cast my ballot for who I feel most expresses the sentiment of the current Republican party. Like I said though, I would be surprised if there was not some sort of shenanigans going on to vote one way or the other in these open primaries by the time they roll around.

So who am I going to vote for? That is a good question, and the simple answer is who knows. While in the General Election I wouldn’t vote for any of them if you forced me to. That is not the issue here. I do know it won’t be for Mitt, but other than that I really don’t know which viable contender at that point I would lend my “support” to with my vote. It’s likely going to be a toss-up between Bachmann or Cain, but you all can feel free to make your point for whom the Angry Squirrel should vote for.

It’s election day today. I voted, as I almost always do. [Editor’s note: Zarberg wrote this article on Tuesday.]  This year my home town actually had mayor, 4 school board, and 5 town council slots up for grabs, as well as a referendum on a .25% sales tax – that’s 1/4 of a penny on every dollar. I voted for the tax increase. Groceries, gas, and a few other “necessary” items are exempt, so it shouldn’t really effect lower class people. In addition, the extra money will go to preventing layoffs in the public school system. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for raising taxes, but I do see them as something that’s necessary in a country where a lot of necessities are missing. In addition, it’s a county tax so it’s not like most of you will ever have to pay it (and if you do, stop by and say hi – I live on the northwest corner of Chapel Hill.) Regardless, I’ve heard statistics from the area that about 20% of registered voters actually voted today. Kind of depressing considering the polarization in politics – makes me think a lot of that polarization is media driven simply for the purpose of boosting revenue.

Anyway, being that it’s November and Thanksgiving is coming up, I started thinking about the holiday season and the infamous Black Friday. Your average shopper that day will go to a mall, spend hundreds – perhaps thousands – of dollars at a store that will give almost nothing back to the local economy and send its profits overseas. Those shoppers will head home after shopping and burning gas and essentially they’ll just have given a lot of money to a large, monolithic, corporatocracy. I got thinking about what people could do that day to not be part of the cattle drive but still be in the holiday spirit and/or get shopping done.

First and foremost, if at all possible, shop local. Take a few hours on the web and find out what non-chain stores are near you. Do NOT use shoplocal.com – that’s simply a listing of what massive corporate stores are near you. http://sustainableconnections.org/thinklocal/why is a good starting point. Gift certificates to local restaurants and venues make a great gift and give a lot more back to your community than something from Walmart or Target – same with gift certificates for local entertainment like mini-golf, ski centers, bowling alleys, and the like. Want to really stick it to big oil? Stay home that day. Have leftovers, watch football, and shop online. Sweatfree.org  is a great site for fair trade shopping. Remember, Walmart reduces employee healthcare simply to satisfy stockholders (generally the 1%) and their officers – we’re talking about a company that reported a 3.5 BILLION dollar profit in 2010, and they claim health care costs are squeezing them.

The whole point of “boycotting” is to show the companies that ship their profits and jobs offshore that we’re not going to spend our money on them any more. These are the same companies that are spending billions a year in lobbying to get government to give them more tax breaks and look the other way when they announce layoffs. These companies were built on the backs of Americans, using our roads, sewers, electricity, and now they’re putting their profit above all else. While you pure capitalist folks might be ok with that, I’m not, I call it greed by any other name.

Me? I plan to buy some bottled water, some hand warmers and drive them down to my local “Occupy” to give to the folks there. I work 40+ hours a week to support both myself and my spouse who has health issues, otherwise I’d be right there protesting with them. After that I’m coming home to eat some leftover turkey and watch some football.

Source: http://www.coloradodot.info/programs/alcohol-and-impaired-driving/druggeddriving/assets/MMJ_License_posterNoBleeds.pdf

I wrote about medical marijuana and why it was hurting our community in March 2010. Now I have to report that some people dislike it so much that it made it on our November 2011 ballot. We voted this week whether or not to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. The campaigning for and against medical marijuana has been heated.

Those for medical marijuana focus on the few patients that truly “need” the drug. They have told a few stories of users that say they can’t function on a daily basis without it. I realize that some of the patients benefit from marijuana, but the majority of people with medical marijuana cards do not need it. It’s sad that the recreational users abusing the system have ruined this for the truly sick.

The item that those in favor of keeping the dispensary model fail to mention is one important fact. Users with medical marijuana cards would still be able to obtain medical marijuana from a licensed care giver. They are just not able to run into one of the 21 stores that have popped up in our city selling nothing but marijuana, glass, zigzags, brownies, etc.

Those against medical marijuana were armed with some very staggering figures. Law Enforcement officials revealed that since the opening of marijuana dispensaries there had been a 40% increase in marijuana related incidents in Fort Collins and a 20% increase in marijuana related incidents in unincorporated areas around Fort Collins. The Colorado Department of Transportation recently released a study indicating that there has been nearly a 50% increase in driving under the influence of drugs during that same time period.

More disturbing is this report from The Colorado Department of Transportation showing the changes in marijuana use in fatal accidents. In those fatal accidents, there has been an increase in the number of drivers that had used marijuana.

• 2007 – 28%
• 2008 – 43%
• 2009 – 45%
• 2010 – 58%

The school district in Fort Collins is the Poudre Valley School District. The school board for our district indicates that there has been a 300% increase in student expulsions in the school district since the start of dispensaries in our city. The school board wisely voted 5-0 to back the ban on dispensaries in Fort Collins.

Those 21 marijuana dispensaries if the new law passed would have 90 days to either find another place to move their business (away from Fort Collins) or close the doors. One of the businesses I located when searching Google lists the following marijuana strains and more:

• Crimea Blue
• Bubblicious
• Red Cherry Berry
• Sweet Tooth
• Domina Haze

This really sounds like they are targeting patients dying of cancer, doesn’t it?

So, the question for Fort Collins voters came down to whether they would vote based on statistics that are very staggering or matters of emotion. Will the needs of the few patients that say they need medical marijuana outweigh the hundreds of thousands that have paid the $60 to someone that will rubberstamp their medical marijuana application? Well, votes are in and those recreational users that abused the system and all those statistics supplied by various areas of the government have won the voters over. Medical marijuana dispensaries are now banned in Fort Collins and medical marijuana will hopefully once again start moving back to something more like voters envisioned in 2000 when they passed the initial measure.

Squeaky…

The Electoral College was created in 1787.  It’s been around for 224 years, but nearly all the media coverage of the college centers on their role in elections.

But there’s more to the Electoral College than just 538 people who cast votes in presidential elections.  There’s an entire institution of higher learning.  There’s a football team, a marching band, a glee club … and of course, intramural luge!  EC boasts award-winning faculty and a student body boasting an average IQ of 172!

The college should do more to promote itself, instead of allowing itself to be portrayed as a one trick pony in the media.  Since the college has failed in its self-promotion duties, I have taken it upon myself to promote Electoral College.

As of today, you can buy apparel promoting the academic and extracurricular departments within the college!  Designs include:

• Electoral College History Department – Stuck in the 1700s
• Electoral College Admissions Office
• Electoral College Alumni
• Electoral College Glee Club
• Electoral College Rowing Club – Up A Creek Without A Paddle
• Electoral College Cheerleading

Am I joking?  I assure you that I am completely serious.  Waltz into a room with an Electoral College shirt and watch yourself become the center of attention.  With the presidential election looming in just a year, it has never been a better time to buy Electoral College themed merchandise.

To see a complete listing of designs, visit our store.  You can go directly to our Zazzle Store, or use the easy-to-remember URL ElectoralCollegeGear.com (which will bounce you to the Zazzle store).  Check back often for new designs and an expanding collection of merchandise.  Tell all your friends about Electoral College Gear!

On game days, remember to cheer for the Fightin’ Lecties!

Note: Profits from the sales of Electoral College merchandise will go directly to the writers of The Soap Boxers.  This is a fun way to support your favorite writers.  You can also edit the text (font and words) to whatever you want.  I’d prefer that you keep things tasteful, but I have no control over the text you put on the shirt.

Update: it turns out that someone has trademarked the use of the term Electoral College on shirts.  It seems odd that someone could trademark such a common term and exclude anyone else from putting it on a shirt, but it costs $300 to petition for cancellation of a mark, so I’ve changed the design a bit.  The shirts are now for Electoral STATE.

First we had Plum Nuts with Michelle Bachman, then there was Just Nuts with Rick Perry and now we have Black Walnut with Herman Cain. Now that his 9-9-9 plan gets more scrutiny and less simple by the minute. The current Flavor of the Month of Republican Presidential Primary voters may be on the way out soon.

Who will be the next flavor in the search to unseat The Great Divide known as Mitt Romney in the race for the nomination? Will it be an outsider not in the race right now? Chubby Hubby couldn’t become the new fave when Chris Christie said no, but is there anyone else out there to make their ideas pleasing to the palates of the voters? Very Unlikely.

With November nearing, meaning the first contest being just about two months away, it is pretty much too late to make much of a challenge for things. So there goes that notion. So that leaves us with what we currently have to find the next craving for the right. So who is it going to be? As I was watching some discussions a day or so ago on Cain being ahead of Romney in the latest poll, I noticed something else in that same poll – Classic Vanilla himself Newt Gingrich was in third place and double digits for the first time in pretty much forever at ten percent.

Is this old flavor, the new flavor of the near future? While he may start to see a continued bump as Cain goes down and Romney keeps his same numbers he has had, Newt will never win the nomination. He is not really conservative enough. Sure he did his best to shut down Washington before, but he has sat down and agreed with that down right dirty leftist socialist tramp Nancy Pelosi in the past. Shoot in the last debate he tried to be the voice of reason for the festival of kookiness this race is becoming.

Also don’t forget Newt is only running because it is time to change in his old wife with a new staffer model. So while it may become the new thing again, the voter will soon remember what cause them not to want this same old plain taste in the first place? So who will get that next bump after that? Rick Santorum’s Holy Gelato? Now that’s a flavor I would certainly like to see rise to the top, or I’ll take some more Plum Nuts, two scoops please.