OJ Update

In my previous post, I wrote about the book OJ Simpson was writing and the TV special Fox was going to air about it.

Well, apparently a lot of people felt the same way as I did.  Local Fox stations got so many phone calls with complaints that they told Fox headquarters that they weren't going to air the special when it came on.  This went all the way to the top and Fox decided to pull the plug on the broadcast.

On top of that, production of the book was canceled also.

WOW!!  Talk about consumer pressure!  That is absolutely amazing!  Good job America!  Hopefully this will remove OJ from the spotlight for good.

A Special Kind of Evil

We all know there is a lot of evil in the world.  But today I want to talk about an evil act so despicable that it really should get it's own category.

Imagine this - a man murders two people.  His trial is turned into a circus that ends up centering around his skin color and the skin color of the cops who arrested him.  So he ends up being acquitted.

So that was pretty evil.  But now since the killer knows he can't get in trouble, he wants to confess.  Well, confess may be the wrong word.  He wants to rub it in.  It's been over ten years since he got away with murder and he wants to remind us.  What does he do?  He writes a fiction book called If I Did It.  The book contains his ideas on how he would have committed the murders if he committed them.

That's right.  I'm talking about OJ Simpson.  The book will be coming out at the end of the month and they will have a "special interview" with him on Fox next week I believe.

I'm in complete shock.  Absolutely amazing.  When you see OJ Simpson on the television during the time that this book is getting big press, just know that you are looking at a special kind of evil.

Citizens of Mississippi, Unite!!

Wow, apparently US Representative Charles Rangel thinks Mississippians can't find New York (the state he represents) or Washington.  Or that we can read.  From this story

Rangel, D-N.Y., was quoted in a Thursday article in The New York Times, saying: "Mississippi gets more than their fair share back in federal money, but who the hell wants to live in Mississippi?"

What??!!  OMG!!!  Dude, do you not remember a little thing called Hurricane Katrina that happened last year?  Not to mention the other hurricanes that happened in the weeks and months before that.  The article also makes mention that Mississippi "has one of the highest federal matching rates for Medicaid, getting back nearly $3 in federal money for every $1 of state money in the program that helps pay for health care for the needy, aged, blind and disabled, and for low-income families with children."  Well, maybe that's because we have a higher per-capita percentage of people in our state with those issues than other states do.

Here's something to think about - what if Mr. Rangel had said that about Louisiana?  All He** would break loose!!

Anyway, I'm not going to get all worked up over stuff like this.  It's just another reason why I'm glad I'm not a yankee though.  I couldn't stand being around people with that kind of "better than thou" attitude.  Sure, I joke about yankees all the time, but I would NEVER say something like that to a publication like the New York Times, which has worldwide distribution.  I'll just close with the last couple of paragraphs of the article.

[US House Rep from MS] Taylor laughed as he responded to Rangel's comments about Mississippi. Taylor was stationed in New York when he was a young man in the Coast Guard. He said some New Yorkers "are stuck up about their home."

"You can tell him I want to live in Mississippi and wild elephants and tigers and bears couldn't keep me from living in Mississippi," Taylor said. "Hurricane Katrina couldn't keep me from building back here."

Amen, Rep Taylor.  Amen.

Election thoughts

Well, most of the votes are in and it looks like the Republicans had a bit of a rough night.  More thoughts on that later.  First, some thoughts on some specific results.

Mississippi

I did decide to vote yesterday.  Sadly, the main reason was that I thought we were supposed to have some nice new electronic voting machines.  And sadly, we did not.  Just the old fill-in-the-bubble sheet we've had for years.

Only two races on my ballot even had competition.  And those two were landslide victories as I expected.  I think the Democrats kinda messed up by not trying to run a tough competitor against Trent Lott, although Hurricane Katrina changed the focus in our state so he probably would have pulled out the win regardless.

Tennessee

Bob Corker beat out Harold Ford Jr by a pretty decent margin - more than I expected anyway.  I expected recounts and lawsuits.  Glad they avoided that.  Also, they voted to ban gay marriage.  This is one of those cases where I'd say a social issue may have helped the candidate that won.

I fully expect Harold Ford Jr to run for Memphis mayor when Willie Herenton is up for re-election.  And you know what?  I think it would be great if he did it and won.  I'm just going to say it like it is here - if Memphis is determined to have a black Democrat as their mayor, there are plenty of them out there that are better than Willie Herenton.  Ford Jr would use the position to elevate himself back into the national spotlight and would probably move on to something else very quickly.  So it would be temporary and Herenton would be out.  That's a win in my book.

 

South Dakota

Man, they had a lot of social issues this year.  Sadly, they voted down the abortion ban.  Been a long fight for the pro-lifers in South Dakota and I know this was probably a big blow to them.  Keep up the good fight guys.  I really hope to see some more of these types of initiatives on ballots over the next few years.  Legalizing marijuana shot down and banning gay marriage approved.  Interesting.

 

Missouri

76% of the voters said they want to raise the minimum wage to $6.50 and have it increase with the cost of living.  The only good thing about this is it sets a precedent for other states to try similar measures instead of trying to get the US Congress to do it.  But I really can't figure out what the voters are thinking here.  For one, increase with the cost of living.  Um, how many people who have to worry about cost of living are making $6.50 or less right now?  Surely not very many.  I even have a hard time believing there are a lot of teenagers bagging groceries in Missouri that make less than that.  Anyway, this type of vote could affect their economy in new ways because businesses may be hesitant to move in somewhere that has a different wage requirement than other states.

Connecticut

Joe Lieberman gets tossed out by his own party in the primaries, runs as an independent, and wins!  Wow, what a story.  He's never been a liberal and I've always respected his support of our military and the War on Terror.  Really cool.

 

So those are the ones that caught my attention this morning anyway.  As for the overall picture, Republicans lost control of the House and may very well end up losing control of the Senate.

I've posted here before that they have only themselves to blame for this.  They've given their conservative base nothing to trust them on.  They've pandered to the middle and in doing so they pissed many of us off.  Let this be a lesson.  Do what the people who voted you in want you to do, not what the people who you might help re-elect you want you to do.  I know someone who voted for a Democrat for the first time in many years (possibly ever) because he was so mad at how the Republicans have disappointed him.  I don't condone that at all.  I'd rather not vote on a race instead of vote on someone who I know won't vote the way I want him to.  But I understand his frustration a little bit.  And I think it's been displayed that he's not the only one who feels this way.

The future?  Well, it isn't like the Democrats ran a bunch of liberals in this election so I don't expect a whole lot to change.  President Bush was already a bit of a lame duck anyway because of the spineless Republican Congress he had, so that's not going to change.  And I don't expect a whole lot to change in regards to the war in Iraq even though that was one of the primary reasons people voted Democrat.  Realistically, nothing drastic can happen there with a different group of people in Congress.  We aren't going to pull out right away.  We are still helping them rebuild.  What very well could happen is that the Democrats could take credit for the positives that happen over there from this point forward even though they had little or nothing to do with it.  I do fear what my taxes are going to look like in the coming years.  The only thing the current Republican Congress has guaranteed is that my tax burden has been a little bit lighter.  Of course, I'm not rich by any stretch and the Democrats claim they are going to try to help the "middle class".  Something tells me I'm still not included in their "middle class" though.

Moving into 2008, I hope to see more conservatives work their way up to contention for seats.  Since those will likely be Republicans, that is the only way I can see them taking control back.  Current Republican Congressmen need to take this as a warning.  You will lose more seats if you don't get your act together.