Lowell and the GOP: Zealotry on Parade

Consider Meredith Marie Lowell/Anne Lowery, an animal rights activist from Ohio with a desire to kill for her cause:

Woman tries to hire hit man to kill fur-wearer: FBI

(Reuters) - An Ohio woman who likened freeing lab animals to liberating Holocaust survivors was being held in custody Wednesday on charges she used Facebook to try to hire a hit man to kill a person at random for wearing fur, prosecutors said.

The details of the story just sink further into the morass of "why weren't you thinking" that the first paragraph revealed. Lowell was so poor at covering her tracks, she used library computers near her house to post to Facebook. She must've had the idea that using an assumed name would be enough. She was taken in by an FBI agent who she talked to about liberating lab animals, claiming it was akin to saving Holocaust victims.

And to add insult to injury, she only wanted to pay the "hit man" $850 to pick a random fur-wearing person and kill them. Which she didn't think would be at all illegal. Did she only watch the first half of Mafia movies and assume everyone got away with it? And since when does a hit man work for that small a fee? I've never priced the market, but I daresay buying a murder must be more expensive than that. There are escorts who charge more than that for a date. Even if you're opposed to all animal testing and fur-wearing, it should be obvious that Lowell/Lowery went way too far.

She's a small example of the larger problem with zealotry that Rick Santorum has been demonstrating as of late, not to mention the GOP's concerted attempt to force women to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds before they have an abortion. Over-the-top pronouncements, a clear disconnect with how the world works, and sloppy attempts to force their will onto undeserving people they'll never meet.

Even if you don't wholly agree with the analogy, what point is there in forcing people to go through that kind of procedure or claiming that sending people to college is an attempt to turn them into atheists? And why do something to help that party stay in power? They're clearly working toward making the USA a theocracy, something our Founding Fathers would have protested had anyone proposed it over 230 years ago.

The FBI exists to stop people like Lowery. Since the Republican Party is dependent on the will of the voters, it's the people who get to decide whether they can wreak their havoc and work to stop them. That is why, now more than ever, I want Obama and the Democrats to win and win big in 2012. I'm not sure what I can do, considering my disabilities. But I can at least speak up on occasion.

Republican Field Shrinks By Who?

The other day, I summarized the GOP Presidential field as it stood then. I left a name or two out and added someone who hasn't declared yet but keeps being brought up because she won't shut up.

One of the names I left out dropped out today. Tim "Polenta" Pawlenty is gone. His increasingly blatant irrelevance to the base was capped by a poor showing in the mostly irrelevant Iowa straw poll.

His departure both fails to change the field and points out how hard it is for someone with real experience to separate himself from the pack. Pawlenty was a terrible governor, but so was GW Bush. Looks like Perry's the one who gets to carry that label in more ways than one.

Killing to Save

Shorter Rick Perry: I want to run this country in order to kill it.

His call is oddly familiar to me. I live in the jurisdiction of the Sequoia Healthcare District, which had been county-run until it was sold to Catholic Healthcare West. The District board has existed ever since the sale, using funds collected for other healthcare projects as well as maintaining oversight of the hospital on a joint basis with CHW.

We have one board member by the name of Jack Hickey. He resents the heck out of the board's existence. He ran on the platform of "get me there and I'll help eliminate it because you don't need to pay for this any more." I grant you, I voted for Hickey. Partially because I hadn't been aware that the board still has oversight of the hospital and thus maintains contact with its original reason for being, and partially because at the local level, he has the oddball factor I find charming when the issue won't hurt a lot of people very badly.

While I realize Perry's not a strong contender due to how badly he just dissed Iowa, I can't help but think of Hickey when I see Perry now. Policies that only sort of work on the local level are deadly on the national.

And even Hickey's wrong about killing the board. This is why his cronies never get the nod to help fill the slots and give him the means to do what he wants.

So if Perry even winds up with a VP slot on the GOP ticket, remember what he said. He wants to end this country. Turn it into 50 fiefdoms of unpredictable laws and battling concepts, never mind what happens to Puerto Rico, Guam, and our protectorates.

Photo credit: gladtobeout from morguefile.com

Rick Perry and Marx's Sanest Statement

The saying goes, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce." I realize quoting Karl Marx will be used against me by random conservatives. I support Obama. Being called a Marxist for it is unavoidable.

But that's also a digression. Rick Perry announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination for President of the United States today. Already dubbed the Texas governor you want if George W. Bush was too cerebral for you, he's yet another piece of evidence in favor of Marx's dictum.

In the 11 years he's spent what I will loosely call leading the former Republic of Texas, he's denied the evidence of human influence on global climate change, championed creationism as science, run the state's economy even deeper into the ground than Bush managed, and supported the idea of his state seceding from the Union again. Moreover, his college transcript reveals he was worse in school than GWB at a lesser university.

So we have GWB 2: The Farce running for President. Want to see the eight years under GW look like a walk in the park? Let the Tea Party and pseudo-left win the "Obama caves" war. Attack Obama on cosmetics like which order he says things  instead of engaging its content. The more you accept the idea he's weak, the weaker he looks.

And yes, you're wrong about his "weakness" and "inability to get anything done." VERY wrong. If you can read this list and still claim he's Bush III, you are far too addicted to refusing to think.

A Brief Summary of the Republican Field, Aug 2011

A moment of perspective on the upcoming Presidential race, if I may, complete with admittedly biased nicknames.

So we have Rick “Jesus Loves Me Best” Perry, Michele “Crazy Eyes” Bachmann, Mitt “Flip-Flopping’s for Amateurs” Romney, Newt “Who?” Gingrich, Herman “Pizza Token” Cain and Rick “Don’t Google” Santorum keeping ahead of Sarah “Half-Term” Palin for the chance to face Barack "Did ANYONE Notice My Campaign Promises Besides Me?" Obama in the elections next year.

Sweet Jesus, even the average pre-neo-con Republican has to see sticking to the current lead horse is better than voting for any of those southbound ends. Why the "Primary Obama" movement even exists is one for its members to reflect on. I'm siding with the folks who see the soft racism in it. They sure as hell weren't this bent on primarying Clinton when he was really being a Republican in Democrat's clothing.