Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

ER says: "God! Deliver us!"
What has God got to do with it?

You want deliverance, do it your own self. Don't put it on God to do it. Are we ready to reinstate the draft and draft our daughters as well as sons? Are we ready to tax ourselves to pay for what we are spending? Are we ready to charge, try, and convict those who are public criminals though they be the President him/herself? Are we ready to impeach Supreme Court Justices that break their Constitutional oath? Are we ready to open our borders and try to solve this malignant problem that we have hidden from for a 100 years? God doesn't need to be in on any of this. We do. These are things we have to do. Yes we can! then get your ass in gear and start.

If we aren't ready to do this on our own then we sure as hell better not pray to God to do it for us. God sometimes has a sense of humor and time lines we might not agree with.
 

Without sounding too much like him, I really do want to echo drlobojo here. Obama isn't Jesus, nor was he ordained by God - he's just a politician, albeit one with a gift for inspiration. Let's not put too much on him.

The hope he inspires, at least for me, isn't in him, but his hope for us, for America. I want him to be President not because I believe in Obama, but because Obama believes in us.
 

Oh, hush. You can tell an exasperated vent from a serious plea. Give me a break, please.
 

Both of y'all!

JESUS!
 

Grrrr-grumble-grumble-GRRRR.

The point of this post was to spark some discussion of what, exactly, needs changed about this country. Yes, there are a gozillion things. But think fundamentals. I listed one.

I think we want An america that is GREAT because of its ASPIRATIONS and its LIBERTY, not because of its hard POWER and its WEALTH.

Here's another:

UNCHECKED CYNICISM that rarely examines itself. It's poison.

Now, y'all.
 

I think blogger chewed up and spit out my last comment. On my way out the door right now, so will try again later.

BTW, point taken, ER.
 

The most basic thing that needs to change is what Obama gives his supporters - the chance to believe that we are better than our current politics and social climate would seem to indicate. We are better than those who would abandon a great American city in its hour of need. We are better than those who would illegally invade a sovereign nation on trumped up excuses and faked evidence. We are better than those who would excuse torture. We are better than those who insist that the poor are just the losers in the great game of life, and deserve whatever fate the receive.

We are better than those who promote hate, division, and a narrow definition of what it means to be American. All of us, of whatever race, gender, sexual orientation - we are America. Before specific problems can be dealt with, we need to remember that. We are not just united and strong in the face of adversity and attack. We can also be strong and united in the face of those who would seek to divide in order to conquer for their own narrow ends.

I think I just cracked my soapbox.
 

Then get a new soapboax, and PREACH ON, BROTHER!

I am sick and tired of the collective down-in-the-mouth malaise this country has been afflicted with since -- NOT 9/11! Since George W. Bush went off half-cocked in Iraq! And the Congress let him! And the people let him!

We have to get our shit together, or we will be so left behind as the rest of the world speed along to the future that the rest of the world will be saying, "WHO S.A?"

For god's sake, let's hunt down and kill or jail every real terrorist we can! Let's quit seeing a terrorist inside every person with a Middle Eastern accent who hates U.S. policy! Let's put the Islamo-fascist myth to bed! There is no such umbrella that this country's enemies can be put under, and we will waste our treasure, our standing and our very Grace as a nation if we keep being so stupid.

I see your cracked soapbox and raise you a lowered tailgate!

Huff, puff!

Gotta go read a couple of chapters of a manuscript that's before university press, for a guy in Texas. ... The THINGS I will do to get a mention in the acknowledgements! :-)
 

The day after Super Tuesday, as I was driving to school I heard the 2 Dem candidates talking about the night's results. One spoke optimistically and encouraged supporters to pull together for the work that was yet to come; the other warned against "swiftboating" tactics the GOP was sure to employ. Guess which was which? I'm tired of being against something; Obama is giving something to be for, a dream of something better that we'll all be a part of, something worth rolling up our sleeves and doing the work.

And of course, the media are being utterly stupid about it. "X number of African Americans voted for Obama." Screw it, I'm not for Obama because of his color, but that he cares about my color, about the problems that arise in a diverse, multicultural, multifaceted, multiclass society and is calling for solutions that require compromise, respect and care.

Is it outlandish? Is it foolish? Is it unrealistic? What the hell, what we've been doin' isn't working anymore, if it ever did.
 

OK, here's what we should do.

There are going to be a chorus of people who will begin to say, "It is a new day. Let's move on to tomorrow. Make America a better place. Forgive and forget what has happened but do it right this next time."

I say bullshit. Total stupid bullshit.
That's the hogwash I heard after the Vietnam War and after Nixon's resignation. We are STILL PAYING for that Stupid Optimism, Naivete, and wish washy crap right now, this very day.

What we need is some blood sacrifices. I mean real sacrifices and real blood, but not ours.

Otherwise the Irans, and the Saudis, and the Halliburton's and the Enron's will simply do it again. We need to indite and bring to open trial (no plea bargains allowed) all those who have criminally started, perpetuated, and profited from this war.

We need to place G.W. Bush under close protective house arrest on his ranch with restricted access, because he is a known colaborator with the enemy (Saudia Arabia for example) and an intellegence security risk.

We need to demand that Saudi Arabia give us a formal and direct apology for what its citizens did to us and pay us reparations in excess of 500 billion dollars or we will f..ken Nuke their oil fields up so much that they will be using ox carts for a thousand years.

We need open our borders and then to tell Mexico exactly how their economic problems are going to be solved and how they are going to kiss our ass in the mean time.

We need to take that Saudi $500 Billion, add an excise tax on everyone making over $5,000,000 a year, take back half the profits of the oil companies and use that money to double the size of our Naval forces, double the size of our Marine forces and put them on permanent disaster relief duties around the world until we need them to kill for us.

We need to move all our overseas military bases to ocean based floating cities/deployment platforms that we can move to where ever we want to.

We need to tell Cuba to come around to our way of thinking or we will simply take the land away from them.

We need to tell the Palestinians and the Israelis they have 12 months to create a lasting peace to help stabilize the middle east or we will dig a nuclear ditch around both of them and let them starve to death.

We need to tell China that this one way trade shit is over.

We need to plant multiple nukes onto few places around the world that are nuclear threats to let people know that we really are crazy and we do mean to harm them if they don't cooperate with us.

We need to tell Putin if he wants to stay alive, to cool what he is doing, or better yet just kill off the KGB S.O.B. and dare the next guy to try to follow in his footsteps.

We need to send Bill Clinton to the UN as Ambassador with the message of getting their ass in gear or going out of business. Tell them to go whole hog after the international terroist and kill them. Give them 6 months to comply.

Let the CIA rendition all those dumb mothers that blew the cover on our CIA agents and operatives. They just need to disappear.

One last thing, package that dumb f..king traitor Henry Kissinger up in a WalMart sack and air drop him into the Hague to stand trial for his war crimes.

Oh yes, and FOX news....well I'm keeping that one secret.

Now did I forget antything?

Now I feel much better.
 

I'm for most of that.

Scary.

Yes, we can.
 

Re: We need open our borders and then to tell Mexico exactly how their economic problems are going to be solved and how they are going to kiss our ass in the mean time.

Er ... actually, we need to get out of Mexico's business and let them run their own country. They'd do a lot better if certain folks didn't keep trying to manage their economy so that it benefits the U.S. at their expense. Change happens when people do it themselves, not when someone does it for them. Isn't that what we're talking about here? Yes WE can, not Yes, someone can do it for us.
 

This is the only one I can't accept:

"We need to plant multiple nukes onto few places around the world that are nuclear threats to let people know that we really are crazy and we do mean to harm them if they don't cooperate with us."

I say we offer to pay those countries for those weapons, and that technology, with the proviso that we will will absolutely put them back ih the stone age if they pick them up again. If they won't sell them to us, then its MOABs away.

Then we serve notice to the rest of the world that we will do likwise at the first hint of such R&D.
 

Re, "actually, we need to get out of Mexico's business and let them run their own country."

Isn't it too late for that? Isn't Mexico aleady a virtual vassal? The biggest Latin American country is the United States now. It boggles that candidates for office in Mexico campaign in the United States, raise money int he United States, and have constituencies who votre for them -- in the United States.

It's too late to turn back.

An actual open border would be more honest than what we have now. With such, we all should have a say in how the two countries, already intertwined, then formally acknowledged, go forward.

Up next: Los Estados de Norte Americano Unido. (Minus Canada. At first.)
 

I hear Jessica Rabbit!

Later.
 

ER said:
"I say we offer to pay those countries for those weapons, and that technology, with the proviso that we will will absolutely put them back ih the stone age if they pick them up again. If they won't sell them to us, then its MOABs away."

I could go for that.
 

It seems slightly more olive-branchish.

Kind of like the urban gun buy-back efforts, on a grand scale, only with teeth meant to change behavior and not simply disarm.