Angel Perez's Blog
About the Author
How to define our agenda, and tactfully push it forward.
...but I thought it was worth posting anyway!
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher (whose hand
was caught in a gate while working with cattle), the doctor struck up a
conversation with the old man. Eventually, the topic got around to Sarah
Palin and her bid to to be a heartbeat away from being President.
The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is sort of like a post turtle."
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle
was. The old rancher said, "Well, when you're driving down a country road
and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a
post turtle."
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to
explain. "Well, you know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't
belong up there, she doesn't know what to do now that she is up there, and
you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with."
While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75-year old Texas rancher (whose hand
was caught in a gate while working with cattle), the doctor struck up a
conversation with the old man. Eventually, the topic got around to Sarah
Palin and her bid to to be a heartbeat away from being President.
The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is sort of like a post turtle."
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle
was. The old rancher said, "Well, when you're driving down a country road
and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a
post turtle."
The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to
explain. "Well, you know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't
belong up there, she doesn't know what to do now that she is up there, and
you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with."
Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric last night.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4476649n
Also, can we please call out John McCain on his trying to duck the debate this friday? I think that Republicans fear debates because it's one of the few times during an election that Americans really focus on issues. And let's face it - John McCain doesn't know what the hell he's doing these days. And this is after being chair of the very influential commerce committee.
What the hell has he been doing for the last 26 years???
Also, I loved the Colbert Report last night. Anyone else see that Cornell West interview last night?
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4476649n
Also, can we please call out John McCain on his trying to duck the debate this friday? I think that Republicans fear debates because it's one of the few times during an election that Americans really focus on issues. And let's face it - John McCain doesn't know what the hell he's doing these days. And this is after being chair of the very influential commerce committee.
What the hell has he been doing for the last 26 years???
Also, I loved the Colbert Report last night. Anyone else see that Cornell West interview last night?
I'm twenty-two years old. I'm a college student. My parents always told me that they wanted better things for me than they had, so they worked and scratched to become successful so that they could buoy my sister and me to become something greater than they. To compliment that, I studied hard and pay as much for my school as I can. I did my best to make them proud by participating in lots of extra curriculars and sports. I thought I was doing everything right.
I've always been described by my friends as a sure-footed guy. They tease me because I smirk cockily a lot, because I tend to talk smooth and fast, and because I don't seem to lack in confidence. I'm usually the one who can fast talk myself out of any trouble without even breaking a sweat. Some would even say I can even smack of arrogance sometimes - not abrasively, but close enough.
For the first time in my life, after seeing the events of the last ninety six hours, I'm scared. Literally.
After seeing so many bank bailouts, and still not having completed college, I'm wondering what the future will hold for me. I don't know what is going to happen to the loans that I took out, the job market once I'm out of school, and what will happen to my parents' livelihoods. In short, I don't know what is going to happen with my prospects for success in the future. Will I be relegated to the unemployment line despite all of my hard work? Despite all of my parents' hard work? Since when did I deserve to worry about being unemployed after working so hard? Did I do something wrong here? Somewhere along the way, all of these things that I've been working so hard for just stopped being mine...
There is so much I still want to do with my life. I've done my fair share of traveling, and look forward to working some fulfilling internships, but at the same time, I am seriously beginning to question whether or not I can really help myself to fulfill the American dream. I have NEVER even thought that I wouldn't be able to do it. It's bothering me to the point where I'm making every decision when it comes to money and career based out of hedging my bets against a depression, rather than shooting for the stars and continuing to pursue the dreams that I had when I was much younger.
This is the absolute opposite of what America is about. In fact, it is so absolutely not American, that I'm wondering how the American people could not have held the vigilance that was necessary to hold onto their dreams. Did we take them for granted? Or are we so petty as to reduce our elections to a nonsense "culture war"?
You know what? I'm American too. That means more than just waving a flag fervently and yelling at anyone who criticizes my country. That means I monitor who is in power, and fight to make sure that the totalitarianism of corporate authority doesn't consume our lives and our destinies.
I've always been described by my friends as a sure-footed guy. They tease me because I smirk cockily a lot, because I tend to talk smooth and fast, and because I don't seem to lack in confidence. I'm usually the one who can fast talk myself out of any trouble without even breaking a sweat. Some would even say I can even smack of arrogance sometimes - not abrasively, but close enough.
For the first time in my life, after seeing the events of the last ninety six hours, I'm scared. Literally.
After seeing so many bank bailouts, and still not having completed college, I'm wondering what the future will hold for me. I don't know what is going to happen to the loans that I took out, the job market once I'm out of school, and what will happen to my parents' livelihoods. In short, I don't know what is going to happen with my prospects for success in the future. Will I be relegated to the unemployment line despite all of my hard work? Despite all of my parents' hard work? Since when did I deserve to worry about being unemployed after working so hard? Did I do something wrong here? Somewhere along the way, all of these things that I've been working so hard for just stopped being mine...
There is so much I still want to do with my life. I've done my fair share of traveling, and look forward to working some fulfilling internships, but at the same time, I am seriously beginning to question whether or not I can really help myself to fulfill the American dream. I have NEVER even thought that I wouldn't be able to do it. It's bothering me to the point where I'm making every decision when it comes to money and career based out of hedging my bets against a depression, rather than shooting for the stars and continuing to pursue the dreams that I had when I was much younger.
This is the absolute opposite of what America is about. In fact, it is so absolutely not American, that I'm wondering how the American people could not have held the vigilance that was necessary to hold onto their dreams. Did we take them for granted? Or are we so petty as to reduce our elections to a nonsense "culture war"?
You know what? I'm American too. That means more than just waving a flag fervently and yelling at anyone who criticizes my country. That means I monitor who is in power, and fight to make sure that the totalitarianism of corporate authority doesn't consume our lives and our destinies.
Ignorance must really be bliss. How else, over so many years, could the G.O.P.
get away with ridiculing all things liberal?
Troglodytes on the right are no respecters of reality. They say the most absurd
things and hardly anyone calls them on it. Evolution? Don’t you believe it.
Global warming? A figment of the liberal imagination.
Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that
they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but
liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as
hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.
So there was Hillary Clinton, of all people, sponsoring legislation to ban
flag-burning; and Barack Obama, who once opposed the death penalty, morphing
into someone who not only supports it, but supports it in cases that don’t even
involve a homicide.
Anyway, the Republicans were back at it last week at their convention. Mitt
Romney wasn’t content to insist that he personally knows that “liberals don’t
have a clue.” He complained loudly that the federal government right now is too
liberal.
“We need change, all right,” he said. “Change from a liberal Washington to a
conservative Washington.”
Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the
extraordinary contribution of liberals " from the mightiest presidents to the
most unheralded protesters and organizers " the United States would be a much,
much worse place than it is today.
There would be absolutely no chance that a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or
Sarah Palin could make a credible run for the highest offices in the land.
Conservatives would never have allowed it.
Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again
against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever
proud.
The liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Social Security and unemployment
insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act.
Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling
Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full
throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.
“In the procedural motions that preceded final passage,” wrote historian Jean
Edward Smith in his biography, “FDR,” “House Republicans voted almost
unanimously against Social Security. But when the final up-or-down vote came on
April 19 [1935], fewer than half were prepared to go on record against.”
Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many
of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as
we speak. The idea that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare
as “the advance wave of socialism,” while Democrats are ashamed of Lyndon
Johnson, whose legislative genius made this wonderful, life-saving concept real,
is insane.
When Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in the presence of Harry Truman
in 1965, he said: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle
of modern medicine.”
Reagan, on the other hand, according to Johnson biographer Robert Dallek,
“predicted that Medicare would compel Americans to spend their ‘sunset years
telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America
when men were free.’ ”
Scary.
Without the many great and noble deeds of liberals over the past six or seven
decades, America would hardly be recognizable to today’s young people. Liberals
(including liberal Republicans, who have since been mostly drummed out of the
party) ended legalized racial segregation and gender discrimination.
Humiliation imposed by custom and enforced by government had been the order of
the day for blacks and women before men and women of good will and liberal
persuasion stepped up their long (and not yet ended) campaign to change things.
Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp
program. They fought for cleaner air (there was a time when you could barely see
Los Angeles) and cleaner water (there were rivers in America that actually
caught fire).
Liberals. Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s
clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your
children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier.
It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of
American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by
people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. It is a track record that
deserves to be celebrated, not ridiculed or scorned.
Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence
Thomas.
Liberals need to get over it.
get away with ridiculing all things liberal?
Troglodytes on the right are no respecters of reality. They say the most absurd
things and hardly anyone calls them on it. Evolution? Don’t you believe it.
Global warming? A figment of the liberal imagination.
Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that
they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but
liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as
hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.
So there was Hillary Clinton, of all people, sponsoring legislation to ban
flag-burning; and Barack Obama, who once opposed the death penalty, morphing
into someone who not only supports it, but supports it in cases that don’t even
involve a homicide.
Anyway, the Republicans were back at it last week at their convention. Mitt
Romney wasn’t content to insist that he personally knows that “liberals don’t
have a clue.” He complained loudly that the federal government right now is too
liberal.
“We need change, all right,” he said. “Change from a liberal Washington to a
conservative Washington.”
Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the
extraordinary contribution of liberals " from the mightiest presidents to the
most unheralded protesters and organizers " the United States would be a much,
much worse place than it is today.
There would be absolutely no chance that a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or
Sarah Palin could make a credible run for the highest offices in the land.
Conservatives would never have allowed it.
Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again
against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever
proud.
The liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Social Security and unemployment
insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act.
Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling
Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full
throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.
“In the procedural motions that preceded final passage,” wrote historian Jean
Edward Smith in his biography, “FDR,” “House Republicans voted almost
unanimously against Social Security. But when the final up-or-down vote came on
April 19 [1935], fewer than half were prepared to go on record against.”
Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many
of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as
we speak. The idea that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare
as “the advance wave of socialism,” while Democrats are ashamed of Lyndon
Johnson, whose legislative genius made this wonderful, life-saving concept real,
is insane.
When Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in the presence of Harry Truman
in 1965, he said: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle
of modern medicine.”
Reagan, on the other hand, according to Johnson biographer Robert Dallek,
“predicted that Medicare would compel Americans to spend their ‘sunset years
telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America
when men were free.’ ”
Scary.
Without the many great and noble deeds of liberals over the past six or seven
decades, America would hardly be recognizable to today’s young people. Liberals
(including liberal Republicans, who have since been mostly drummed out of the
party) ended legalized racial segregation and gender discrimination.
Humiliation imposed by custom and enforced by government had been the order of
the day for blacks and women before men and women of good will and liberal
persuasion stepped up their long (and not yet ended) campaign to change things.
Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp
program. They fought for cleaner air (there was a time when you could barely see
Los Angeles) and cleaner water (there were rivers in America that actually
caught fire).
Liberals. Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s
clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your
children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier.
It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of
American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by
people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. It is a track record that
deserves to be celebrated, not ridiculed or scorned.
Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence
Thomas.
Liberals need to get over it.
Why has this woman not agreed to any interviews? Is it because she has all the qualifications of a PTA president and nothing more? Or that her past is so riddled with corruption it would only further embarass Republicans?
Can we all send emails to the networks to point out that she's ducking the interview circuit? If she's really as tough as she says she is, then she shouldn't be so scared.
Then again, Republicans are never as tough as they say.
Can we all send emails to the networks to point out that she's ducking the interview circuit? If she's really as tough as she says she is, then she shouldn't be so scared.
Then again, Republicans are never as tough as they say.
So today I was doing my Students for Barack Obama thing today by getting people sign on with college Democrats, registering them to vote, and handing out bumper stickers, t-shirts, etc. After a few hours I got bored, took off my campaign buttons, and decided to scout the Republican table. Read More »
I am putting out a call for opinions.
Does anyone else find it really odd and possibly offensive that Palin is a proprietor for Jews for Jesus, or had staunchly supported Hitler sympathizer Pat Buchanan in the year 2000?
I'm wondering how closed off of a world view this woman has. It's as if the only people that matter are those who are exactly like her.
Does anyone else find it really odd and possibly offensive that Palin is a proprietor for Jews for Jesus, or had staunchly supported Hitler sympathizer Pat Buchanan in the year 2000?
I'm wondering how closed off of a world view this woman has. It's as if the only people that matter are those who are exactly like her.
But the Republicans sure can give us a run for our money during their convention! Who cares that there is a huge tropical storm right now, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rni6G7RRFkk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rni6G7RRFkk
She had a really interesting Op-Ed in the NY Times today that caught my attention. I feel somewhat slighted by his pick of Palin, and I'm not even a woman. Does he really think that women will vote for an anti-women's rights candidate who asked when she was first offered the job "So what exactly does a Vice President do all day?"
Palin is to women what Clarence Thomas was to the black community, or what Alberto Gonzalez was to Mexicans.
Anyway, click on the extended for Dowd's piece. Read More »
Palin is to women what Clarence Thomas was to the black community, or what Alberto Gonzalez was to Mexicans.
Anyway, click on the extended for Dowd's piece. Read More »
So this is another "fake outrage" fueled by the media. Read More »
How are we still losing the foreign policy debate? Read More »
I am Italy now! The buildings and the women here are very beautiful. I almost got pickpocketed, but I gave the sucker a hard elbow to the chest and he went running. I am learning conflict resolution here. It is really much harder than it seems on the surface. Pictures soon! Ciao
But I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm going to Italy for my International Security internship today! I'll be sure to keep everyone posted with lots of pictures! Wish me luck. -Angel
...dancing in the end zone. There's no point. It's not going to: 1) Bring our troops home. 2) Prevent corporate greed from hijacking the American dream. 3) Slow Global Climate Change. 4) Stop a backwards conservative social agenda. 5) Help the American people get back on the right track. Besides, as I've said before, we have bigger fish to fry. 
