Stop the World, I Want to Get Off...RIGHT F*ING NOW

You guys, I just don't get it.

There are so many things going on in the good ol' U.S. of A. right now that simply boggle my mind...so many issues being debated that are overwhelmingly pointless.

How can any senator (or other person) look at the results of the Pentagon study on the potential repeal of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' and say that there isn't enough information?!? How can someone possibly think that an act that discourages ANY person from doing something honorable (such as serving their country) isn't reprehensible? How can someone listen to the highest leaders in our military make their case against this disgusting law and then continue to argue FOR it?!?

I'm also stymied whenever I hear a blue-collar worker supporting the notion of extending the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy. Look, I get extending the cuts to all of us "norms" - the economy is suffering, unemployment isn't budging, the middle/lower class can use all the help it can get. But that's not the issue - evil socialist Obama and the democrats ARE in favor of extending those cuts. They simply want to eliminate the cuts for the rich folks, the ones making over $200K/year. And a lot of those people have come out in SUPPORT of this plan. Everyone likes to bitch that we need to save/make money somewhere, well, here's a dandy place for it. I don't get it. We're not even RAISING their taxes, per se - we're RETURNING them to where they were several years ago.

To all the people who use the "trickle down" argument (i.e. if we give more money to those in the higher income brackets, they will then spend that money and it will trickle down to the starving masses): I call B.S. All of our top economic minds have said time and again that the notion of a trickle down effect is, for the most part, false. And besides, we already gave the fat cats a chance to make trickle-down work, when we first put the tax cuts into play - and they didn't do a damn thing. Trickle down didn't happen. So why continue to keep the game the exact same if THE GAME DOESN'T WORK?!?

Another thing that's absolutely blowing my mind is this statement being made by the Republican party, that they will absolutely, without fail, deny any attempt at bipartisanship by the Democrats/Obama. That they will automatically, without fail, vote down any attempted legislation. I understand that everyone has their differences. But it behooves no one - NO ONE - to act like a bunch of pissy 6-year-olds saying, "well if I can't have the red balloon then I'm just gonna pop ALL the goddamn balloons so that NO ONE can have one."

I mean, seriously people?!? Is this how you teach your children to behave? Because if so, this country's headed straight down shit creek without a paddle - with a big fucking hole in bottom of the boat.

A certain senator said that his number one goal during his next two years in office was to prevent Obama from being reelected. Really? REALLY?!? Not fixing the economy, huh? That one too rough for ya? 'Cuz I'm fairly certain that if we don't continue to work on that son-of-a-bitch, we're not gonna have much country left by the 2012 elections.

There are plenty of other issues that I have a hard time believing are still being argued over in this day and age - gay marriage, right to choose, global warming - but for those I have at least heard some intelligent debate. There are people out there who have their reasons for arguing against those matters, and even if I don't agree with them, I have to allow that those reasons exist.

But the support of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'...the stand against bipartisanship, against working together for the good of the country...the determination to extend tax cuts to people who don't need them -

I just don't get it.

Times are starting to feel pretty fucking desperate, people. God (or whoever is out there) help us...

...because we certainly aren't helping ourselves.

'The View' of a bigot

Having been sick these past two weeks, I've found myself on the couch watching daytime television programming for the first time since my college roommate suckered me into "Days of Our Lives" the three months during which I didn't have a Tuesday 1pm class.

This time around, however, I'm not watching soap operas...or at least, not in the typical sense.  I watch morning talk shows, travel documentaries, oodles of CNN (Jack Cafferty is my favorite curmudgeon), and of course, the gab-rific 'The View.'

Being a left-minded gal, I tend to find Elisabeth Hasselbeck as grating as the time my next-door neighbor left town and forgot to turn her alarm clock off.  Being woken up at 5 in the morning by someone else's alarm is perhaps only slightly less annoying than having to hear it continuously for the next six hours until it finally reaches automatic shut-off.

What drives me bat-caca-crazy about this woman is not the fact that she's a staunch Republican.  I have many right wing friends, and lately we've been having a heck of a time getting into political scuffles via email forums, which we all find invigorating and thought provoking.  I enjoy hearing from people whose thoughts differ from my own.  I'll argue the issues all to hell, but that doesn't mean I don't want to hear the other side.

Elisabeth Hasselbeck takes it to a whole new level.  Well, the level isn't entirely new, seeing as how it was birthed by Fox News several years back...but it's a level which I find disturbing and absolutely disgusting.  It's bigotry.

Bigot: A person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.

---Merriam-Webster Dictionary

As Mrs. Hasselbeck stumps for McCain/Palin both on 'The View' and off, she makes one thing abundantly clear - she's dead set in her beliefs and she doesn't want to hear it any other way.  Are the other women on the show vocal in their thoughts?  Absolutely.  But they rarely let those thoughts sweep them up in an emotional tidal wave like Hasselbeck does on a regular basis.  There is a difference between passion and hysterics.  Each day I watch, Lizzie either goes on the attack - and I feel like she's on the verge of throwing a punch - or else she goes on the defensive - and I feel like she's on the verge of breaking into tears.

I totally believe that we should all fight for what we believe in.  But in a forum like this, a daytime television round-table discussion show, shouldn't we be talking before we start yelling?  There's no discussion with Hasselbeck. There is no debate.  There is her way or the highway.  

She refuses to listen.  Even when the other ladies are trying to be rational, trying to ask her calmly about her beliefs, or questioning the rationality behind them, she immediately jumps to her emotional cannons and begins to fire.

There have been rumors of late that Elisabeth Hasselbeck is considering leaving 'The View' in search of greener pastures over at - who could've guessed it? - Fox News.  An inside source claimed that she felt she was being 'picked on' at the View, and that she wasn't being allowed equal and fair time to express her side of the issues.

She may even be right. I do think the show tends to lean to the left.  But if her 'side' (meaning the right-wing policies she embraces) doesn't get equal time, there's no one to blame but Hasselbeck herself.  I firmly believe that another more level-headed, less prone to emotional outbursts, intelligent conservative female could hold Hasselbeck's position and get those opinions out in a reasonable fashion that the other hosts could tolerate.

During a recent show, Hasselbeck even went so far as to ask why they always had to talk about Sarah Palin.  Why?  Isn't it painfully obvious why we've ALL been talking about Sarah Palin?  Because before last month, none of us had a clue who the hell this woman WAS.  And she's unique!  She is the only woman on the big ticket, and only the second woman in U.S. history to run for the office of Vice President.  Isn't this enough reason for us to be talking about her?  How the hell else are we supposed to form any sort of opinion about her, and figure out if this is a person we'd like to see as the nation's number two?

In the interest of keeping this post from becoming a novella, I'll stop there.  But let me propose this peace treaty for the ladies of 'The View': Elisabeth, Lizzie dearest, please stop the emotional outbursts and keep it to rational conversation, and perhaps the other hens will see fit to stop pecking you so much and let you have your time.

Hearing both sides of an argument is important.  But if you're going to scream at me in my right ear until I'm deaf, all I'm gonna be able to hear is what's coming in from the left.