The day before tomorrow....

posted by The Vidiot @ 10:23 AM Permalink

Tomorrow is the big day. (Update: Surgery is scheduled for 8:30 am) Today is the last day I'll not have a scar on the back of my head for the rest of my time here on Earth.

I, of course, am FREAKING OUT. And it didn't help that one of my well-meaning girlfriends sent me one of those horrible chain emails that says "forward this to a gazillion people within the next 15 seconds or something HORRIBLE will happen to you."

I know she meant well but I really don't need the gris gris right now. (Of course I sent it out.)

In my absence, of course, as always, The Sailor will be manning the blog. Mr. Vidiot will also post updates, assuming a hospital as impressive as Columbia Presbyterian has wi-fi, which we assume it does.

I have to give Mr. Vidiot credit. He's managed to distract me from my obsessive thoughts about this surgery several times with his arguments regarding our political system. Several lively discussions have ensued and I can safely say, he's turning me into an anarchist. I'm sure I'll have several days to ponder such things, but I'm beginning to see my support of the democratic party as a complete waste of time. I'm beginning to think the "bipartisan effort" really means "in cahoots with." (Really. Mr. Vidiot should be a defense attorney. His arguments are flawless when he believes he's right.)

Hmmmmm.

But what's the solution, I wonder. Complete anarchy? Destroy the system? What would that look like exactly?

Honestly, I was sort of coming to this point on my own anyway. I recently read dKos' Crashing the Gate and though it's a decent read and all, from the outset of it I was annoyed that they so firmly embraced the myth of the elections. I whole-heartedly believe that the 2000, 2002 and 2004 elections are nothing but ginormous myths. Besides the fact that Gore, Kerry and Bush are all part of the same dysfunctional system (e.g. big-monied Politics), I don't believe that the elections are valid AT ALL.

First, let's examine what happened to Howard Dean in Iowa. He was leading the polls, he had a lot of grassroots support, he was against the war and said so. But what happened? The DEMOCRATS banded together because he was a threat to them and aired those ads, the MEDIA banded together and started labeling him as crazy and when it was all over, Kerry, who was way behind in the polls, miraculously pulled one out of his butt.

So what does all of that tell you? It proves that people aren't really in control of the discourse. Consultants control the discourse. Media controls the discourse. (Of course, that's common sense really.) But who are consultants and media? Well, they're not me and you, that's for sure. They don't have one thing in common with 99% of the population, yet they manipulate the discourse and swing elections to favor their own. But the case of Howard Dean in Iowa is interesting IFF you believe the votes are real and counted.

But I don't even believe THAT much.

I mean, look at what happened to Gore in Florida. The recount fiasco, the SCOTUS 5-4 decision. The will of the people was not represented no matter how you look at it. If you ask ANYBODY, ANYWHERE, should all votes be counted, you'd get an unabashed "YES!" Yet, somehow, using the law, they managed to not have all the votes counted. Using the law, they were able to disenfranchise voters, harass voters, place hurdles in front of voters and then even lose track of the votes that did manage to make through all of the difficulties.

And also, for the first time in the history of elections, in Florida, exit polls did not support election results. I believe that Florida 2000 was the grand experiment... and it worked.

Now, let's go forward a few more years to 2002. Now here we have not only conflicting exit polls/election results, but we have weird results on voting machines. I mean, two people in Texas getting the EXACT SAME NUMBER OF VOTES? Hullo?! Yet, at the end of that election, the GOP won control of the whole kit and caboodle.

Finally, in 2004, all hell broke lose. Report after report after report of anomalies and mistakes were percolating into our consciousness. And then came Ohio. That year's Florida. Multiple reports of manipulation and fraud were coming out of there as well. The exit polls? Still messed up in BOTH Florida and Ohio, as well as everywhere else. News of states with machines giving Bush an odd 5% advantage was revealed. I remember seeing the leaked exit polls and then seeing the results of the election. It was bizarre to say the least. My gut told me that this time, the great experiment was kicked up a notch and not only did they make sure their guy won, but that over all, they skimmed enough votes to make it look like he was the popular choice. Dotting their "i"s and crossing their "t"s I suppose.

[As an aside, the recent election in Italy, for the first time, had weird exit polls showing a Prodi win, but the actual election was too close to call. Gee, do you think Berlesconi is afraid that if he leaves office, he'll be indicted? Too bad he hasn't managed to rig his courts as well as the Bush family has.]

Now all of this vote manipulation may have been going on for a very long time. It's just that now, we have the blogs and instant media. The time between something happening, and something getting deconstructed has shrunk considerably. Knowing that all elections are false doesn't make the last 3 elections any less invalid though, does it?

So, in conclusion, if the elections are invalid, if they no longer represent the will of the people, and by logical extension, the government no longer represents the will of the people, I say

...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

So I, being the governed, do hereby cease giving my consent to this government. They do not merit my consent. We need to abolish this pack of liars, thieves and con men. We need to eradicate the judicial, the legislative and the executive branches as they exist today and reconstruct them sans money, sans overt power. Reinstate the checks and balances. As it is today, none of it works anymore. It's all been corrupted by money, greed, avarice, and perversion. We need to renegotiate all treaties and renege all corporations. The media must be destroyed as well. We need to take our country back from these people. It's not their country dammit. It's OUR country!

Is anyone with me? Tar? Feathers? Anyone? Anyone?

[Cue the crickets] <>

{sigh}

Wish me luck. The next time you hear from me, I'll be a zipper head.