What's been done has been done

This is going to be a bitchy post. I'm going to rant about things that annoy me. If you don't want to hear that, skip it. You won't be missing anything.

First off: politics. First off on the first topic, a disclaimer. I understand several things that usually happen in politics: politicians try to spin any and every occurrence to their own, and maybe their party's, benefit; they tend to stand by their party, keep to their talking points. I understand those things. But several things have happened lately to really, really annoy me:

First, Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary, 's reaction to John Kerry's offensive comment concerning education and the war in Iraq - something like "You can work hard and be smart, or **you can get stuck in Iraq**". The parts in **'s are direct quotes, the rest is a paraphrase. I don't condone his comment, just as an aside. However... during the press conference, which I watched live on Fox News, Snow referenced Kerry's comment that he left out the word "us". Snow said something along the lines of "I don't get it, I can't even see where you would insert the word 'us' in there - You us can get stuck in Iraq?" Now, he was mainly responding to reporters' questions, I understand that, but that one comment really, really pissed me off - it's obvious to anyone with half a brain where the word 'us' is inserted into that sentence to make sense; The Colbert Report ran that clip and mocked Snow for it.

Second, a republican pundit was talking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN, in regards to the Mark Foley incident. His assertion that the timing of the release of this information was very, very coincidental, something so damaging to a (the) republican(s) so close to some highly contested midterms. Now, I'll admit that it is a somewhat valid point, and the Democrats certainly shouldn't have sat on this information, if they had it, only to release it a highly fortuitous time. It's circumstantial, but I could understand a legitimate investigation being launched. However, the republican pundit wasn't saying it might have happened, he was saying that's what the Democrats did. Wolf asked him several times, quite directly, if he had any proof that that was the case. The pundit's response? "Do you have any proof that they didn't?" I mean, yeah! Fuck that whole "Innocent until proven guilty", "Burden of proof on the accuser" nonsense!

Third, voting. I take great umbrage at the oft-espoused idea that everyone should vote. I'm not even kidding. Now, to be clear, I certainly think everyone should be able to vote, after meeting a few basic qualifications - citizenship, age, that kind of thing. So yes, anyone can vote. However, I feel strongly that people should have at least some grasp of the issues before they vote. That's what bothers me about people who always vote along a certain party line. That, and people who impulse-vote - "Oh, I liked that guy's commercials!", that kind of thing. That's why I'm not voting in the midterms - I don't have any idea what's going on.

Finally, people assuming I'm a democrat for my constant ragging on Bush. I don't follow a party line - they're both essentially full of shit. Yes, I hate Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Snow, Rove... the whole lot of 'em. However, they're in charge, so they're the ones making the decisions, they're the obvious targets. The Daily Show went after Kerry for his comments concerning the troops and education. I mean, they didn't do the half-hour exposè about troops' education levels like Fox News did, but they did make a lot of fun of him, mocked him pretty thoroughly. So yeah.

Second topic: People at work.

Most of them are cool; well, that's not completely true - I don't interact with most of them, mainly just the ones that I stock grocery with. I also deal with the overnight GM and departmental folks during the pre-shift meeting, breaks, and various chatter.

Actually, I'm getting pretty tired, so I'm going to do the work rant later.

Also, new feature: Tags. There's a list on the right hand side, after the monthly archives, with links I've put on my posts. You can click on a link to see all posts with that link. Good stuff.

Amber G -- Why Can't You Just Be In Love With Me