I took this shot in a tourist trap type joint, full of fun crap, in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. It just looks so tropical.
So, if anyone has followed my various rants, they’ll be pretty darn sure I’m not a Republican. I am a registered voter, no party affiliation. I don’t want any political bloodsuckers to think they own me. It is much more likely that, in any given election, I’ll vote Demo and not GOP. I think human beings are more important than corporations and the military-industrial complex.
But the Democratic Party is such a bunch of screwed-up idiots. They put Howard Dean in charge, and, ordinarily, I’d let that factoid stand alone. But, today, since I own this computer and keyboard, and pay my ISP, I’ll rant on. Here in Florida we are not going to get to elect our delegates to the Democratic Convention. We really have no voice in which political hack, out of those contending, gets to be the Democratic Nominee for President of the United States of America. I guess the boys and girls in the “smoke filled room” will take care of this. This is because Florida moved up its primary (for reasons which I do not even care to explore, so don’t tell me), and the Party decided that didn’t make them happy, so they did the democratic thing–they disenfranchised us. That happened in Michigan, too, but nobody cares because it’s cold there (kidding! I was born in Michigan!). So, at this stage, it matters not if I have a favorite amongst the Democratic field (why do we call it “field”?), may as well just keep plunking my guitar. Florida is a big state, much voice nationally, hell, in 2000 we had enough clout here to steal the Presidency. Can’t let the “people” have any control of something as powerful as that. So, if you take the “super delegates” and the states where people’s (primary) votes don’t count, the Demo king (or queen) makers are in High Cotton. Maybe next time around the Party can just dispense with primaries and crocuses alike. It would save us from having to watch their stupid TV ads which tell us (intentionally) exactly nothing. I have adopted a policy this year: I won’t take calls from campaigns. If I have no say, they can’t talk to me.
Wait, it is I who are the idiot. It was not an accident that Michigan and Florida moved their primaries to a position where Party said they are meaningless. It was all done on purpose! The founders of our nation, and their followers up to and including the present, are actually terrified of democracy. (With good reason, look at all the people who voted for Bush the second time around!) They really think it is “mob rule.” Why do you think we have the anti-democratic “electoral college?” Every time true democracy rears its ugly head, they manipulate it back into submission. F*****g Democratic Party! And they say the GOP is autocratic (well, they are right).
Don’t worry, it still won’t get me to vote Republican. I’ll declare right here and now: IN NOVEMBER I WILL VOTE FOR ANY DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OVER ANY REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. Will a Demo prez do better than Bush? Who knows? Can they do worse? Anyway, who knows if my vote will be discounted by (pick one): crappy voting machines; hacked voting machines; venality at the counting house; some other chicanery I cannot presently imagine.
I’m not even sure yet the neo-con fascists who run this country are even going to let us have an election.
Sleep tight (I mean that figuratively, it’s daytime).
