Breathing space required

It is seven (7) days before the election, and I am going to make Sarah Palin mad at me. And I am probably going to disappoint DNC Chairman Dean. I am going to make Sarah Palin mad (not that I really care, much) because I am going to be anti-patriotic and un-American. This will mean that I cannot, for the next seven days, at least, live in northern VA, NYC, Portland, OR, Chicago, or, from what I read yesterday, Anchorage, AK. What I will do for the next seven days will ban me from small towns in America, prohibit me from wearing a blue collar, making an honest (but meager) living or believing that any core humanitarian values are more important than having the government lower my taxes. Chairman Dean will be disappointed because for the next seven days I will not watch the news, donate money or sit with my cell phone in someone’s house to make campaign calls. I will not canvass, I will not attend a rally and I will not read any more stories on the web about anybody running for any office, anywhere.

Here are a few reasons why:

Niether presidential candidate has said anything new in many days. Every surrogate is on replay. I have heard it all, most of it more than twice. They have wasted enough of my time without accomplishing anything.

The black and white sides of every issue have been exaggerated and lied about. And everything is turning the color of mud. I am weary of slime for breakfast, smear for lunch and innuendo for dinner. Where's the beef?

America has been polarized to the point of the paralysis of reason and logic and the total suspension of credibility. Whatever is gospel one day is blasphemy the next.

I have received no less than 12 requests for additional money for the Democrats since early morning, TODAY ALONE, when I know Obama raised $150M last month and still has $100M in the bank with only seven days to go.

I am sick of hearing that Muslims are about to take over the United States and that Obama will steal everyone’s IRA accounts.

I know that huge portions of the populations of KY have been brainwashed into thinking that Obama is not a Christian by white preachers. I can’t do anything about that. And Republicans are still talking about Rev, Wright, but everyone has forgotten Rev Hagee.

I am sick of my email box being filled all day with pleas to help People for the American Way, PDA, Moveon.org and so many assorted right wing groups I cannot name, with money or petitions or letter writing campaigns.

I am tired of hearing about the empress’ new clothes. If I were a Republican donor housewife on a budget, you’d be pulling me off the ceiling.

I am tired of hearing doctors rail about McCain’s cancers and populists rail about his real estate.

I am tired of getting phony evidence of Michelle Obama’s room service bills.

I am tired of hearing about change. There isn’t any: there is only tired repetition. Let’s see you get any of this change past the Congress, boys.

I am tired of Obama being called a socialist and a communist by people who don’t even know what those terms mean. And no, Karl was not one of the Marx brothers.

I am tired of Nancy Pfotenauer’s toothy grin. Her head is full of hot air.
I am tired of Chairman Dean’s toothy grin. His head is full of laughing gas.

I am tired of late night talk show political humor. It isn’t funny, it is sad.

I am tired of hearing Joe Lieberman talk. Period.

I am tired of people who don’t understand economics lecturing me on economics. Sen. Phil is “all hat and no cattle”.

I am tired of speeches and talk show appearances by illiterate people like Lindsey Graham. They are an insult to all of us. Someone said recently that "You don't have to pass an IQ test to become a congressman". That explains alot.

I am tired of old white men making speeches and telling me what I should think, including Joe Biden.

I am sick of being called one of “My Friends”, when I am not one and don’t want to be. And Sarah's shrill cacaphony doesn't make me feel any better about it. .

I am tired of Cindy McCain’s dress-up clothes and Obama’s ugly, dark suits.

I am tired of talk about old Chicago politics and troopergate scandals.

I don’t care how long John McCain spent in Viet Nam as a prisoner 4000 years ago.

I don’t care if community organizing offends elitists.

But I do care that we are about to get George W. Bush and Dick Cheney out of office, that we might get a real Secretary of State, and someone will perhaps slow down greed on Wall Street and that we do not wind up owing everything we have to a Chinese banker.

I do care that someone may pay attention to health care, mental health care and the fact that most children are being left behind.

I do care that we need to end these two stupid wars without starting a third and I care that if voting fraud happens again in OH, PA and FL, somebody gets hung up by their ankles for it.

I do care that the privatization of government has got to stop and that we had better act quickly to save peoples homes and savings.

I do care that “trickle down” has failed and so have the conservative values that have driven it and that 760,000 jobs have vanished in America in the last 10 months.

I do care about many endangered aspects of life in America but I don’t care to listen to any more hyperbole and hype and stretched or mangled truths and untruths for the next seven days. I am tired of being lied to.

I do care that most of us have better things to do with our time for the next seven days than listen to this same old stuff, over and over.

And in the time it has taken me to write this, I have gotten seven more political messages and pleas on my computer screen.

So, by Sarah Palin’s reckoning, I am going to be un-American and un-patriotic and bow out for the next seven days. And as for you, Chairman Dean, I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but rather than be dazzled by your overwhelming optimism, I have simply become frazzled by the freneticism.

Simply put, there are no more lies to be told by either side about the other, so be quiet, already!

Is it November 5, yet?