Letters from the heartland

Letter from the heartland of America reflecting what more and more Americans feel.. *
One day, we will wish Bush was never elected

Ok..Ok...maybe Montana is hardly the Republican red-state in the heartland of America - the stereotype most people associate with the state is more of being a state with an anti-establishment streak - although there obviously are some conservative right-wingers in Montana too, like this other letter about 'declining morality' to the editor adequately proves!

The first letter reminds me of a sticker I recently saw at an airport. It said.. "Don't blame me. I voted for Kerry" (in the 2004 elections.)

Also, speaking of wingnuts, the heartland is not the only place you find them! Just this week, the mayor of the New Jersey city of Bogota got his panties in a bunch over a Spanish ad by Mcdonalds.

Mayor Steve Lonegan (R) of Bogota, New Jersey is ' calling for a McDonald's boycott if the fast-food chain does not take down a Spanish-language billboard advertising iced coffee.' Lonegan said the dvertisement is ' offensive' and 'divisive' because it sends a message that Hispanic immigrants do not need to learn English. ' The true things that bind us together as neighbors and community is our belief in the American flag and our common language.' - via ThingProgress.com

Does he hear himself? Its scary indeed if what he says makes logical sense to him! So much for those damn liberals from the blue states on the coast, huh! I say that tongue-in-cheek... in response to red-state rantings...er.. opinions and allegations about the Godless liberals and the immorality of the blue states (“the anti-God Left who have been using America’s courts to impose an anti-religion, anti-family agenda on America.” ) as contrasted against the morality of the Christian faith (Book review) & and the fundamentalism.. er.. conservatism of the red states. Anyone espousing such a holier-than-thou attitude is often times found to have more skeletons in their closet than the person they point their fingers at (whats the old saying about "When you point one finger at another, note that three point towards you!').

The hypocrisy of the so-deemed 'Red State' allegations aside, Red State/Blue State distinctions make no sense to me although some people have come up with very incriminating data showing the divide spills over to such topics as minimum wage too. However, if you choose a hundred factors across the different states, then I think it is inevitable that data for some variable will fall out across these lines, especially when for a country as big as the US. Also, there are many other social and economic reasons and other long existing differences in viewpoints of urban & rural communities that can explain the same data but then I suppose all political leaning can also be attributed to a number of social and economic factors! I'm going around in circles now... but all in all.. I like the idea of a purple America ;)

And speaking of holier-than-thou bastards... I was trying to find info about this mayor of some city in Washington who was embroiled in a sex-scandal last year... had meant to blog about him last year (maybe I did! Dont remember!) ...and lo..what a coincidence...found that he died over the weekend!!

The former mayor of Spokane, Washington, who was booted out of office last year after a sex scandal, died on Saturday of cancer, his family said in a statement released by a Seattle hospital. In December Spokane residents voted to recall the conservative politician following reports that he had offered city jobs to young men in hopes of having sex with them. The former Boy Scout leader had been a prominent Republican political figure and leading state legislator until 2003, when he resigned to run for mayor of Washington's second-largest city. While a legislator, West had co-sponsored a bill that would have made it a crime for unmarried teenagers to have sex, and often opposed gay rights proposals. The Spokesman-Review said West trawled gay Web sites, and the newspaper quoted three young men who said they had communicated over the Internet with West and had been offered city jobs or positions by him. (Also read: the Spokesman-Review editor Steve Smith's side of the story.)

In any case, rot in hell..hypocrite!

Mayor's in cities of Washington have historically been bigoted morons, I guess.... found this tidbit while google-searching the Spokane mayor story - In 1885 the then Tacoma mayor Jacob Robert Weisbach deemed the Chinese “a curse” and a “filthy horde.”)

Related: My rants against Religious Dogmas in a blog post compilation that I keep adding to from time to time!


* Also read another such rant against Bush... this one in an interview with Mike Wallace (of 60 Minutes fame):

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?
A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so fucked up?

Hard to believe Wallace used such language. Unfortunately I do not have the link to the above interview but I found it referenced at this blog post. Maybe the blogger just made that up in the midst of exam-week?


Meanwhile, Cheney is as popular as a rock-star in Wyoming.. but outside of Wyoming, you better not criticize the guy!

Steve Howards encountered Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek, Colorado and decided he would not pass up the opportunity to let him know he disapproves of the administration's Iraq policies. 10 minutes later he was arrested by Secret Service for "assaulting" the vice president.

Is this the Soviet Union or what? Sounds like a snippet out of a Milan Kundera novel or something!!!