Red, Blue and Write.

The reds are splintering. Man, that felt good to type. But it's more than just empty rhetoric. The recent rise of intolerant, social conservative, preacher turned candidate, mike huckabee in Iowa and else where, is evidence of the red's predicament. Somewhere pat robertson is blaming the ice storm in the central United States on the Midwesterners who are turning away from his boy rudy. But seriously, the reds don't have a candidate with both "the terrorists are coming, the terrorists are coming" fear rhetoric they respond so well to and the "pro-life" until birth, anti-gay, jesus is the only god, Christian extremism that is their "faith". Back when the one term governor/son of a failed president ran in 1999, he ran as a "family values" moral leader, because you know President Bill Clinton cheated on his wife, like Mayor Guiliani did (without the divorces). Lil' napolean did it to two wives and had tax payers pay for his second mistress's police escort to visit her family without him. The inexperienced, in everything but ruining Houston's air and daddy's friends' oil companies, would be president wasn't on his "security over liberty" kick yet. That didn't happen until after the largest attack on US soil occurred on his watch. In the 2003 campaign, george bush jr. was a "uniter", not among Americans nationally, but he enjoyed the full throated (insert red senator craig, red congressmen foley, or red fake press man jeff gannon joke here) support of his party. The fear mongering, rights are secondary wing nuts joined the mega churched, women came from a man's rib "religious right" fanatics. That's not the case this time around. Two of the front runners are (or were, depending on who you're talking to) social liberals from, of all places, Massachusetts and New York City. Mr. 9/11 and flip romney are/were pro-choice, pro-gay rights and pro-gun control elected officials from solid Blue "yankee" states. Hell, if they weren't flip flopping so much to pander to the wack job right, I'd be writing about how great it is to see the republican party moving left (a point I still LOVE to make with my red friends).

On the Democratic side of the aisle, the big news this week was Oprah... Obama.... Obama.... Oprah. The mighty "O", whose influence gave the meat industry reason enough to sue her for stating "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger!" is now, for the first time in her life, coming out and stumping for a candidate. In her terms, she was "compelled to stand up" for her "personal conviction" about Senator Barack Obama and his "new vision for America". Now, there are those who say "Why is she getting involved?" "Who cares what Hollywood has to say?" I agree with the latter when you are talking about lazy old fred thompson, but Oprah Winfrey is different than your average Dixie Chick. She mainstreams Obama in a way that only the most watched, richest female entertainer could. My Mother is a Democrat. My Mother is an Oprah fan. The doubts that she has about Senator Barack Obama's electability are now further assuaged by Oprah. Oprah believes he can/should be president, and Oprah is no dummy.

All that (and my man crush) aside, on a larger, full Democratic slate point of view, I look at the field of candidates and feel, for the first time in recent memory, like I could vote for any of them without having to completely hold my nose. Sure, Senator Clinton is too much of a Clintonian centrist/hawk for Israel/establishment for me, but it wouldn't even be the lesser of evils (see intellect, the environment and Health Care). The Democrats are smarter, more experienced, and better politicians then the contestants on the other side. It's just that simple. Picture a debate with anyone on the red team against any Democrat. It's not all "flowers and sweets" for the Democratic party. The "Get Us the Hell Out of Iraq Now" contingent of the growing left is pissed enough to start their own strike (on donations) to make the Democratically lead Congress stop funding the war and/or make their obstructionist red "colleagues" actually filibuster and not just threaten to. Why not make them tell the Country why they want us in Iraq, why they don't want to give more children health care, and why they don't want to join the international community and the American public on fighting global warming? And when they are done talking a Democrat can take the floor, right?

Speaking of strikes, the Broadway stage hands have agreed on the terms for a new contract, thus ending their strike. The Writers' Guild of America, however, is still striking for residuals from the internet (that Al Gore never said he invented). With studio executives saying revenues will "double with digital", you would think they would have enough profit to pay the just royalties to the folks who wrote the material they are displaying for Our entertainment. But don't take my word for it check out what Seth McFarlane and Tenacious D have to say. For more videos and information on the WGA strike go to unitedhollywood.blogspot.com or my favorite strike site www.speechlesswithoutwriters.com. The irony of free internet videos helping these workers get paid for internet viewed material is not lost on me. But let's face it, if they had to depend on the studio owned media to get their side of the story out to the people, they'd be in even worse shape. At least the screenplay for Harold and Kumar Escape from Guatanamo Bay made it out in time.

Some possible topics for the next rant:
Torture: The CIA destroying video of torturing prisoners that the bush White House was court ordered to preserve.
The Death Penalty: New Jersey senators voted 21-16 to get rid of capital punishment (the "death penalty") in favor of life without parole.
Jesus: His talking action figure sells out at walmart and was he really the devil's "brother".

"A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ."
-part of a full page ad preacher huckabee signed back in the day.