swinging politics

Admittedly, i have never been one to follow politics. however, the older i get, the more i feel a sense of urgency to help bring about change. maybe i never paid much attention because i was always worried about getting myself through school, finding a good job, buying a house, getting married....you know, getting from A to B and feeling steady, stable, comfortable.

all of a sudden there are all these blaring, damaging wrongs being fried up all around me. maybe it took georgeW and all his fucking up to bring these things to my attention, maybe i didn't realize how well old billy clinton was doing running the country despite who he was doing in his office, maybe i've over-ridden my innate sense of skepticism with hope and a passion to make a difference, maybe i can see myself as part of the problem and i want to cross that line over to the doers, the solution-comer-uppers, the activists, the organizers.... the people that make a difference. i don't know, but i'm taking baby steps to help be a part of the solution.

THE POINT:
things are getting crazy. georgeW is infecting the american people, he's pulling the wool over all of our eyes and he's screwing us, our children and grand-children. now is the time to pay attention to politics! more specifically the retirement of supreme court justice sandra day o'connor; this vacancy is leaving an opening to georgeW that could resemble a dodge ball game between the republicans and democrats. if you can imagine, georgeW as captain with the following two choices: a) a big tall 8th grade student, not the brightest but he can follow orders and throw the ball really hard! or b) a first grader.

if the 8th grader gets in we as a society, a body of developed thinkers, an organized democratic static entity will take giant leaps backwards. i cannot begin to demonstrate how monumental this shift in the supreme court could and undoubtedly will be. although sandra day o'connor was considered conservative, she has long been an important ally for political pragmatics, often lefty and democratic to boot. she must be the swingy-est swing voter in the history of swing votes! out of something like 198 supreme court judicial votes, she was the deciding factor in 143 cases. holy doody!

what does this mean to us? georgeW's crap is gonna slide on through a lot easier. the environment is going to suffer, glbt folks will suffer, non-oil based everything will suffer, basically anyone who is not a white anglo saxon protestant (WASP), republican, right-wing, conservative, narrow-minded, money-grubber is going to suffer.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
i don't know. i haven't had enough time to do research, but i'm working on it. for now, work to stay informed, support organizations that lobby against georgeW and the oil companies, spread the word! here are some links and some good articles to get you started.

this explains more clearly what this whole post is yammering about
here is some more information about judicial nominations with an environmental slant
email or call your senators and let them know we aren't happy with the way the government is lumbering backwards
put your money to good use by supporting groups like this one that have the organization and numbers to lobby towards change