We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Broadcast

This is completely off-topic, and if you only want to read about baseball here, that's fine. Feel free to scroll on down to the next post, and enjoy. I have something that I need to say, and since this is my forum (and Bob's), I'm going to say it here.

There is a midterm election coming up in this country in less than two weeks. I have a very strong interest in it, and if you don't, maybe you ought to think about it. The shameless people running this country today, in the White House and in Congress, have pushed this wonderful country to its' lowest point in history, and November 7 is our chance to take it back

I want you to understand, this is not an anti-Republican rant. I have Republican friends; my girlfriend is one. Unlike, say, George W. Bush, I have no problem in saying that all of my solutions and ideas may not be right, and that others have valid opinions on how to best run this country. The people that I am fed up to here with are the arrogant, the greedy, the liars who have hijacked the Republican party for their own selfish, ideological ends.

At the risk of sounding like a complete geek (which I probably do already anyway), I want to admit that one of my heroes is Captain America. Why? This is why: flying in a transport plane full of soldiers en route to take on an unknown menace, he was asked, after all you've been through, why do you keep doing this? What's left to fight for?" His answer:

"I...don't see that I have choice...I believe in something greater than myself, something bigger. At some point in life a man makes a decision...is he alone in this world, or are we all in this together? Those of us in this plane right now...have made that decision."

Are we alone in this world, or are we all in this together? Is it everyone grab what you can get, or are we here to pull together and help each other up? I've made my decision too. The people I speak of who are running this great country now, have made another:

A congressional candidate from California mails letters, purporting to be from an immigration reform group, to legally registered Latino voters telling them that "if... you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time."

A political party runs an ad against a candidate for the U.S. Senate in Tennessee, who is black, featuring a bimbo implying that she wants to have interracial sex with him. The party's own candidate claims to be appalled by this, then produces his own ad in which jungle drums beat in the background whenever his opponent's name is mentioned.

A well-known actor, who suffers from Parkinson's Disease, appears in a campaign ad for a Senate candidate in Missouri, talking about the promise of hope which stem cell research offers to those with afflictions like his. A right-wing blowhard with a national radio show claims that the actor is faking the symptoms of his illness.

A United States Senator, not born in the state he represents, tells the crowd at a campaign stop to "give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia." The young man he is pointing out to the crowd, a campaign worker for the Senator's opponent, is an Indian-American born in Virginia.

A Congresswoman from Wyoming threats to slap a wheelchair bound Libertarian Party opponent following a debate.

Another Congressman, this time from Indiana, about to lose his seat in Congress, runs a radio ad claiming that if he and his ilk are voted out, "Speaker Pelosi will then put in motion her radical plan to advance the homosexual agenda."

Moving over to Illinois, another congressional candidate says this his opponent wants to cut and run in Iraq. His opponent, a National Guard captain, left both of her legs in Iraq when her helicopter was shot down.

Back in Pennsylvania, during a debate a congressman asks his opponent, a retired Vice Admiral, “were you always in the admiral quarter drinking out of your wine goblets and being waited on by your sailor servants?”

The leadership of the House of Representatives covers up the inappropriate behavior of one of it's members towards underage congressional pages, even though evidence shows that they may have been aware of this behavior for as long as eleven years.

I could go on, but enough is enough. Enough of the smears, the lies, the fear campaign. Enough of people who say that bipartisan politics is "another term for date rape." Enough of the Swift Boaters. Enough of the people who could view an edited videotape of a woman with a liquified brain and pronounce that "she certainly seems to respond to visual stimuli." Enough, enough, enough!

Don't even think of this as a partisan issue. If you are a Republican and you really believe that your candidate is honest, is open, is really working to make this country as great as it can be and not to line his pockets and those of his friends, then by all means, vote for him (or her, of course). And there are some candidates like that.

But please, take a good hard, honest look at the candidate who wants to represent you. Then take a good, hard, honest look inside yourself, at what you really value, at what you really believe. Do you really believe in this, or this, or this, or this, or this?

Are we alone in this world, or are we all in this together? It's time to decide.

We now return to our coverage of the World Series.