What Good is a Democratic Majority in the Senate?

I'm certainly not alone when I say I thought there was going to be a difference in the Senate after the last election. But what good did it really do to have more Democrats at the helm than Republicans if the votes continue to sway to the right? I wrote the following to Senator Obama after seeing that he voted "Yes" to the half-assed FISA bill today:

I returned an email to you right after Hillary Clinton conceded the nomination to you in which I vowed to support you despite my support for Ms. Clinton. After that time, I read that you were not only planning to support the unconstitutional Office of Faith-based Initiatives, but intended to expand it. I justified your action by assuming that you would pretty much say anything to encourage votes. As such, I thought the prudent move would be to say nothing, knowing a Democrat in the White House would be worth biting my tongue. Today's vote granting immunity to the phone companies and allowing continued spying on Americans was the last straw. There is no justification for your vote. It tells me that having you in the White House would be no better than Bush. I will not only not support you, I will do everything in my power to change the minds of anyone who is planning to vote for you. I will blog, email, advertise, make phone calls, and write letters to people telling them to vote for anyone but you.

Well, Hillary is out and I won't vote for McCain, so who's left? Nader is back, but.... I wish Jesse Ventura would run.

Our Tax Dollars at Church

Silly me. I thought the United States would be a better place once Bush was out of office and either Hillary or Obama replaced him, but I see now that Obama is already making Bush-like promises to the religious right for the use of my tax dollars. Bush formed the Office of Faith Based Initiatives immediately upon his fraudulent first election success, giving our tax dollars to the clergy before anyone else whether we believe in god or not. I personally do not and while I understand that Obama is willing to say whatever is necessary to get into office, that affront to my constitutional rights should never have existed, let alone be extended beyond this administration and/or expanded to give them more money and greater power. Not only is it a slap in the face to the separation of church and state, it smacks of prejudice against atheists, agnostics, and others who do not wish to have other peoples' unwelcome beliefs forced upon them. It seems religious freedom is a one-way policy when the Constitution is ignored for so long by so many.

SPAM in Reverse

Did you think your email was private before you hit "send"? WRONG!!! You don't even have to hit the send button and your words are in the public domain.

Something I noticed recently is in my Google mail account. When a draft is saved in my Gmail, ads appear on the right margin, disturbingly topical to whatever the subject or subjects about which I'm currently writing. For instance, when I hit "save" right now, leaving the compose screen momentarily to access my drafts, upon my return, five advertisements appear under the heading "Sponsored Links" with titles such as "Writing Pad Tablet PC", "Write Articles Instantly", "Myself, Unfettered", "Press Release Writing", "Win $10K Writing Contest". Another article I was writing earlier regarding the congressional practice of writing their political constituents invited links like this: "Labels-for USPS Shipping", "Jay Footlik for Congress", "Hillary Clinton in 2008?", "Mark Warner Lied to Us". I guess I have to give whoever came up with this invasion of my privacy credit for having the get-up-and-go to sell their wares, their ideas, themselves with such conveniently accessible marketing savvy, despite their incredible audacity to do so. It is SPAM in reverse. How sneaky. I'm outraged and impressed at the same time, wondering who I have to contact to advertise my blog this way.