Dear Senator Boehner,

You ran on a platform of “Where are the jobs” promising to make sure American’s get back to work. You had a plan to do so, you said. You won, and now we’re all still waiting to see your plan to get people working again, only you still haven’t shared it. You don’t seem to have one. It’s strange, I was raised to believe if you knew how to help people you did it freely and with joy because “it’s the Christian thing to do” or as many Americans are taught in Sunday school “sharing is caring”. I don’t know how you were raised but I was always taught and believe even today that people are more important than money. Somehow the Republican party seems to have forgotten that.

Please explain why with the Bush tax cuts in effect since 2003 we’re still losing jobs and have been for months. Please explain how cutting the size of government will increase employment, it seems to me that will in fact add more to the rolls of the unemployed. Please explain the mathematical formula you used to calculate that the democrats are at fault for a recession that started 3 years before they took back the senate and house. The blame game really doesn’t work anymore now that we’re in a world where things like wikileaks, anonymous and others dedicated to a free transparent open government expect. The historical record has a habit of not being kind to people who cheat and push responsibility elsewhere. Do you want that to be your footnote in the history books? Stand up for what’s right and be a beacon of hope instead of delivering more fear and blame.

I understand party affiliation, I understand fighting for what you believe in. But how can you say that giving the extremely wealthy a tax cut while millions of Americans can’t get a job is a good idea? If more Americans are out of work they stop buying retail goods, they stop paying utilities which in turn causes those companies to let employees go which compounds the problem. The evidence of that is in front of you yet for some reason your party sides with the wealthy every time. That’s your right as a free American to choose to side with the wealthy, but wouldn’t that also compel you to stop using the conservative base that straddle the poverty line to get elected? If you want to represent the wealthy don’t do it in government, do it in the private sector because in government you’re only hurting all Americans to enrich a very few.

Please if you care about this country and all it’s myriad people you’ll stop putting the wealthy before ALL Americans.

TSA

to the tune of the Village People’s YMCA

Young man, there’s no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, ’cause you’re flying to town
There’s no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there’s a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you’ need to feel aglow.
You can stand there, and I’m sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.
It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.

They’ll grab everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the TSA boys …

It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.
It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.

You can get yourself xrayed, you can have a good meal
You can do whatever if you just let them feel …

Young man, are you listening to me?
I said, young man, what do you want it to be?
I said, young man, you can make real your dreams.
But you’ve got to choose this TSA groping!

No man does it all by himself.
I said, young man, put your keys on the shelf,
And just go get groped by the T.S.A.
I’m sure they will grope you today.

It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.
It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A..

They’ll grab everything that you need to enjoy,
You can groped by all the TSA boys …

It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.
It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.

You can get yourself xrayed, you can have a good meal,
Just so long as you let them feel …

Young man, I said take off your shoes.
I said, you look like you got the terrorist blues.
I felt him check if my bottom was tight.
I felt the whole world was so leaning right …

That’s when someone came up to me,
And said, young man, take a walk to your gate.
There’s a  place before there called the T.S.A.
Why not get hired since groping’s your way?

It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.
It’s fun to get groped by the T-S-A.

They have everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys …

T-S-A

It’s fun to stay at the T-S-A
Young man, young man there’s no need to feel down
Young man, young man take yourself to the T.S.A. ground

T-S-A

then just go to the T-S-A
young man, young man I was once in your shoes
young man, young man I said, I was down and out with the flying blues.
T-S-A.”

You know, I like flying. I really do. What I don’t like though is a system that hearkens back to the first time I played Half Life 2. We’re a free country so why do I have to stand in a line to be sexually assaulted or get inundated with xrays that even airlines are telling pilots not to use? Yeah the people who fly our planes are told to get sexually assaulted rather than get xrayed. That should tell you something. Our government officials heading up the TSA think that sexual assault is not a big deal for travelers.

We had eight years of
Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad!
You didn’t get mad when
the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a
President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted.

You didn’t get mad when
the Patriot Act got passed..

You didn’t get mad when
we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.

You didn’t get mad when
we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.

You didn’t get mad when
over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.

You didn’t get mad when
you found out we were torturing people.

You didn’t get mad when
the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.

You didn’t get mad when
we didn’t catch Bin Laden.

You didn’t get mad when
you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.

You didn’t get mad when
we let a major US city drown.

You didn’t get mad when
we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.

You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.

You didn’t get mad when
the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.

You finally got mad
when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans… oh hell no.

AND NOW YOU’RE MAD?!

When you can actually act like grownups instead of screaming harpies that just protest without offering a balanced opinion then and only then will you be worthy of hearing out. Until then though you’re just more cacophony hindering progress towards a sustainable profitable tomorrow.

This is what you’ve come to Republican party: hysterical demagogues with no respect for the law, the constitution, or their fellow Americans.

Below is the text of my letter to Congressman Joe Wilson:

Rep. Wilson

You should be ashamed of yourself and apologize to the men and women of the great state of South Carolina, & the duly elected President of the United States for your abhorrent behavior during the President’s speech. During the past 8 years the democratically elected Congress was respectful throughout any appearance by the former President. It is surprisingly unshocking to see the Republican party unable to maintain, honesty, integrity, decorum or basic respect for the office of the President. It’s behavior like yours that made me leave the Republican party. The adherence to fearmongering, stalling and every underhanded tactic the party could use to amass more power. Power for what? amassing more power. What need have we of that? Does it help me ensure a better future for my sons? No. It serves only to feed more power to those who have shown over the last 10 years their inability to govern on behalf of their constituents but instead to govern on behalf of fear and profiteering.

It saddens me to see a party that once was a noble and inspiring group fall so far. Make an effort to truly do what is best for America and not the bottom line of a corporation. Your voting block is struggling financially, overwhelmed by medical bills and all you and your party can do is “stall” and say it’s fine. Last I checked you receive medical coverage from the government. What makes you more special than any other American? The elected representatives are supposed to be our brightest people, not our greediest.

Sincerely,

Chris O’Rourke
Father, Husband, American.

Not opressed you say? Really? So not being able to visit your partner in a hospital without lengthy paperwork ahead of time? Not being able to have all of the same rights as any other couple in love? Seems like oppression to me.

Exactly when did the government have the right to determine who someone loves if they’re both of consenting age? Why is this still an issue in this day an age at all? Doesn’t case law from the 60s establish that discrimination is illegal? Meh it’ll take more than facts, truth and logic to sway the minds of blind stupidity, ignorance and fear.

I strongly endorse the idea of everyone on twitter, facebook, myspace wherever it is that you spend your online social time and be gay for the day, the week, the month. However long it takes for people to wake up and end the all too common standard of discrimination we live in.

Fuck oppression

Fuck discrimination

Fuck religious ideology being forced upon the masses.

The above is how I feel, apparently the courts think otherwise.

I’ll be hashtagging on twitter using #gayfortheday

Not too much to report at the moment on that but expect:

Drumcorps talk (Did you know that the last time a democrat won the election that the Phantom Regiment won DCI? 1996 and 2008. Very cool).

Drinking (yay!) (he’s not hefe he’s my bitter)

Doctor Who (Nooo David Tennant can’t quit the show Nooooo!)

and even that thing that just happe (holy crap Obama is our next President!!)

Plus maybe a semi secret surprise announcement from yours truly. (I let it out in a few tweets over on twitter)

Alrighty tune in tonight at 10pm on http://strangelovelive.com to hear my thoughts and conversations with the awesome hosts. It’ll be stupendifying!

President Elect Barack Obama

The turnout nationwide was massive. Early voters, and those brave noble souls who stood in line for hours in rain and sleet together did something historic. No matter if your candidates won or not, America proved the worthy nation that she is to everyone across the world. We may not be perfect, we may be unbloodied but we spoke together united as one, united in our abilities to speak our minds, our hearts and to exercise that right that makes us the grand democracy that we are.

To those many thousands that volunteered, working phone banks, fundraising, and working the polling locations across this great nation, I say on behalf of my wife, my two sons and myself: Thank you.

In more partisan news: My entire family is stoked beyond belief that the candidate who has the mix of qualities that will return our nation to that of respect throughout this whole world once more emerged the victor in a historic race.

The first black President, the first democrat to win both the popular vote and electoral college since Jimmy Carter. Now that the color barrier has fallen in the highest level position you can hold in the free world, the last black President. This election has proven that it’s not about the color of your skin anymore. It’s about your ability to do the job of governing the greatest country the world has ever seen, and guiding her through triumph and adversity in a way befitting her stature.

President Elect Obama, the people have spoken. We believe in you, we trust in you and we’ve got your back to give you all the help you need to untarnish our country, don’t let us down.