Well I started writing about the debate but it kinda went off on it's own little rant lol. I'll publish this now and go back and write something a little more...succint...about the debate today. :)

Today the Bazooka crew and I attended the Paducah Chamber of Commerce Power in Partnership breakfast that featured a debate between Kentucky’s United States Senate candidates Jack Conway, the current Kentucky Attorney General and Democratic candidate, and Rand Paul, Teaparty candidate and son of former presidential hopeful Ron Paul.

Politics is a tough one. Even though the majority of the American public could really give a shit about it, since these days it seems all the players are dirty and we’re getting screwed more than Jenna Jameson, we still have the opportunity to vote on the men and women who ultimately affect nearly every aspect of our lives.

The age-old problem with politics is that the people (or companies) who have the money to influence elections through advertising and lobbying are usually the ones who are determined to stay rich by screwing over your average, middleclass worker bee.

As I’m sure you can tell from that last statement – I’m not a Republican. I’m a registered Democrat, but I see myself more as a democrat (little "d") with some libertarian leanings. I will never, EVER, vote Republican. They are, to put it simply, usually assholes.

I’m more of an issues kinda girl. I mean, most people can’t agree on a movie to see or where to go to dinner – you can’t get a large group of people to think the same way on every issue.

For example, a guy I dated said he was a conservative – in the sense that he wanted to conserve the good things. I think there is a way to keep morals and values in our lives but still be open to people’s differences and respectful of them, to be able to hold on to personal independence from the welfare state while still taking care of those who need it, and to appreciate our past but still be able to move into the future.

The things I’m a little more conservative on are things like guns. I like guns. I like guys who can use a gun. Because even though I think in theory you could zap a zombie with a taser (they do still have a nervous system) – it’s still better to blow their heads off with a shotgun. I think there need to be some controls on them (guns, not zombies), because that gun show shit can get crazy, and no, the hick back in the woods who talks to his boogers probably shouldn’t have an automatic weapon. I’m not even sure I’m all for felons not being able to buy guns if they were convicted of non-violent crimes, but then I’m probably biased considering I date my share of convicts.

And honestly the one time I felt like I needed a gun, I really didn’t want to have to wait a week to get it. No, it wasn’t to shoot a straying man (who probably totally deserved at least one in the kneecap) – it was because I had a stalker who had followed me around all day and even chased me into my house. So not all situations are black and white.

I think we should go easier on non-violent offenders, especially some 18-year-old kid busted for pot (or even something harder) – because once you send a kid like that to prison, you are at the very least going to make him a better criminal with better connections, and quite possibly turn him into a sociopath from all those late night visits from Bubba.

However, I think it is appalling that a child molester or rapist serves an average of six months and is released time and time to do it again. Most people like that DO NOT stop – they are compulsive offenders, and the only way to deal with them is to kill them. Seriously. In the old days, a community faced with a monster like that would take him out in the woods and he wouldn’t come back. So you certainly can’t call me a bleeding heart liberal if I say fry the bastards.

I believe in many of the social programs like WIC, welfare, and food stamps. I know a ton of people, including myself, who have worked most of their life and paid taxes but taken advantage of those programs when they needed it. I do agree that those programs are abused. Part of me has the very cruel and Orwellian notion that people who are crack heads and can’t take care of kids shouldn’t be having more of them. But I think that would be true of anyone not qualified to raise a kid, like drunk, rich, abusive assholes, too. The problem with that is that who’s to judge? Lots of people grow up poor as shit and still manage to make it in life. None of us are perfect parents, and a government that can’t organize a road system probably isn’t any more qualified to make those decisions than we are.

And even though I think we should take care of people who are very poor and disadvantaged, the very young and the elderly, at the same time I want us to be more self-reliant as a society. That can be applied in the sense that I’m saying to all people who buy food in grocery stores and spend their life on the computer. What happens when the infrastructure fails? I know I’m not exactly Linda Hamilton or Martha Stewart, but I would like to be. I think they should teach a survival course in schools – it would certainly come in handy for a hell of a lot more people than geometry.

I could never be libertarian because yes, there are some segments of the population that need help. My mom once asked, when I stated that I was going to become a libertarian, "What would you do if a man who CHOSE not to wear a helmet got in a motorcycle wreck, and didn’t have insurance? Would you just let his leak his brains all over the ground?" No, of course you can’t do that. But I guess it would make sense to make him responsible for at least part of his bill.

I am pro-choice, but that does not mean I’m pro-abortion. I don’t think anyone is. There aren’t feminists out there saying, "Yum, we need more fetuses for our Full Moon Baby Head Stew!" as much as Rush "Where’s my bottle of Lortab" Limbaugh would like you to believe. But for all the men (or women) out there who are so adamant about it – let them spend a week with a 6-month-old, a three-year-old, a seven-year-old, and a teenage girl and see if they don’t wish they had a freaking choice when an accident happens. Also if abortion was illegal, those same rich, Christian men who preach pro-life would be the first ones to send their 22-year-old mistresses to France if they knocked her up. I am not for abortion as birth control or even late term abortions unless the life of the mother is in danger. The ones that really piss me off are the self-righteous women who think that girls who are raped should have the baby because that’s what’s good for them. Ugh.

The dialogue that needs to be started is how to prevent any unwanted pregnancy. You need to teach sex ed in schools, make 15-year-olds work in a school daycare for a week, and give incentive to the pharmaceutical companies to develop a cheap, effective, widely available birth control. There is more money spent on the research for freaking erection aids than for cancer. Thousands of women die each giving birth, especially in third world countries. No man has ever died from not getting a hard-on. He may have wanted to....but hell, that’s what Popsicle sticks and tape are for.

I think it’s insane that my parents have to give up almost half their salaries for taxes. The problem isn’t social programs and spending, it’s the huge rich companies having offshore accounts, good lawyers, and moving their businesses to freaking Siam to pay the locals 10 cents a day. With all the sneakiness going on, you could probably use just the money from the taxes the five biggest American companies should be paying and that would equal the income tax for every citizen! I know some people won’t do business if they aren’t making a 5000% profit off it, but seriously dude, if you’re going to get rich off Americans – do your part and being a decent human being and give back.

And yes, all the millions blown on babying our politicians with first class flights and steak dinners could probably come in handy, too. Or just the stupid shit. Like they said in that movie Dave – yes, it is useful to fund an ad campaign to make Americans glad they bought a domestic car, but should kids really be homeless or go hungry over that? You have to make hard (or sometimes easy) choices. Yes, research and recreation are important – but dude, people starving to death are a little more so.

That brings up another point, campaign finance reform. Thankfully – I think most of the American public is smart enough not to buy into a glossy five page brochure saying how dirty one guy is over another. But yes, that stuff, when you are inundated with it, has an impact. There does need to be a way that an average person has a chance to compete. This two-party shit just isn’t working. What we’re basically doing now is letting big business fund puppets with which to control the world. It’s actually almost humorous to watch these politicians (democrat and republican) do the dance of, "Hey people – I need your votes, but as soon as you elect me I’m going to always side with the people trying to suck you dry like vampires." But not that damn funny.

I’m cool with gay people, Muslims, and even Satanists as long as they’re not hurting anyone. Are there nice, peace-loving hippie Satanists out there? I’d like to meet one. But no, just because you’re different doesn’t mean you get to play in society. That whole NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) is fucked up – but honestly as long as those boys are 18 it’s none of my business. Do I think it’s right for 60-year-old man to exploit a teenager? Hell no. I think they’re probably bad people and if I ran things, I would probably not let that happen – but what happens between consensual adults is their business. I can’t stand hate spewing, racist assholes who encourage evil and torment in the name of Christianity either – but I still support their right to express that opinion, no matter how messed up it is.

That’s a hard one for me – free speech. Because hell yes, I take advantage of it. A lot of people don’t like what I have to say or how I say it. And honestly, if I were a warlord princess, I would probably make Glenn Beck clean my toilet. But that’s not the world we live in, so meh – you do the best you can, try to keep an open mind and be respectful of others, and raise your kids with enough sense not to get roped in to some crazy cult like the teabaggers.

No, it’s not easy. There are no easy answers. What is easy is to sit back and watch VH1 reality shows and leave all the hard stuff to someone else. But we can’t do that anymore. Things are really freaking hard right now, and I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Hell, a part of me thinks the world as we know it is going to end in 2025 – and you can damn well bet that I’ll have a fort built, guns stockpiled, and lots of Spam in the pantry.

But until then, we can at least start paying attention. You know, I’m just as guilty of it as everyone else. Hell, I blew off jury duty. And that’s bad on my part. If you’re going to live in a society, you have to man up and play a part in it. I feel like with the paper out now I’m doing a little bit of my part, even if it’s just starting a dialogue. And people give me shit about it. That’s the hard thing about stating your opinion – you have to back it up, or at least stand behind it. I don’t know everything, or am even very informed on local or national politics – but I’m trying to get better. Hell, I woke up at 5am to go hang out with the cream of Paducah to report on a kinda boring debate. We need new people, fresh faces in the political scene. Average Joe’s like us need to step up and tell political machine what we want and what we’re not going to put up with anymore. And that might mean some sacrifice, and running for office, and actually taking the time to see how these guys act and vote – not just what some douchey ad guy is putting on a brochure.

I might even get off my ass eventually and run for office. Of course, I’m sure there’ll be ten people lining up to give The Paducah Sun pictures of me topless riding a unicorn smoking crack back in ’98. And yes, I meant the unicorn smoking crack, not me. I was mainlining Drano.

So please, get out and vote on November 2^nd. Don’t be afraid to start conversations about politics. And I’ll be the first one to say don’t ever do it at a bar unless you want your shoes peed on – but still, that’s a small price to pay for freedom. :)