4 years in Louisiana

I went to Starbucks today, the same Starbucks I sat in 4 years ago with a borrowed laptop filling out applications for anything and everything. 4 years ago, I had nothing but a part-time job waiting tables at night and on the weekends. After 5 years in Florida, a divorce, a bad economy and being blacklisted from ever working for Sprint again, I arrived on a Greyhound bus in Louisiana with a couple of quarters in my pocket and no other assets to my name.

It was in those hours waiting for a ride to work that the urge to write again came back for the first time since my creative writing class in college when I was told by a professor that I would never be worth anything as a writer. Perhaps he was right, but people still read what I put together. Too bad I can't remember his name so I could send him a "how do you like me now?" email.

I do miss Florida, especially in the spring and fall when the fish migrations happen. To watch a school of mullet get blown up by tarpon, jacks, snook and sharks in the waist deep water just off the beach is just one of the many wonderful memories I have of that state. Maybe I'll go back one day, perhaps once again I'll paddle my kayak into the sunset over Panama City Beach. One more cast, just one more fish.

Maybe one day I'll win the lottery, or perhaps this writing thing will really take off. Maybe I can buy that house 4 blocks off the beach, just out of the Spring Break traffic and just 5 minutes from the pier. But for now, I'm here in Louisiana and the wanderlust has begun to stir again.

The writers who cried "wolf" and the race card

Lennon Lacy

In the wake of the Ferguson grand jury's decision not to indict Ofc. Darren Wilson for shooting Michael Brown, the media has been scrambling to find a new story to tie into the problem America has with race. Not because they want to address race in America, but because they want it to be about race in America. Not because they want to fix the problem of race in America, but because they want to profit off of it.

Some people in the media do a very good job of determining which stories are about racial politics, and which ones are not - and don't try to make a story into something more than what it is. The problem is, too many people do try to insert politics and race into sad stories such as that of Lennon Lacy. Most of us haven't heard of Lennon Lacy, and since most of the media decided that the story was tragic but not about race, you probably wouldn't have unless you happened to read some of the independent websites who have the journalistic standards of a weasel on speed.

Case in point: this article from Daily Kos which went all out to the point where it seemed like they were totally disappointed that the death was ruled a suicide - and they weren't the only ones. A large portion of that blog was then copy and pasted into another one by Leslie Sazillo who writes for DailyKos as well as Liberals Unite, part of a network of pages and websites owned by or affiliated with a Samuel Warde. In her story, despite that fact that death was ruled a suicide by the coroner, she basically laments the fact that it wasn't a lynching and instead a self-hanging by a young man who was likely depressed after the death of his uncle.

"Our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of Lennon Lacy, and we join them, and the NAACP, in demanding answers. This was clearly not a suicide, and hopefully the story will be picked up by other media and shared widely. More information will  be revealed, and we will keep you posted."

Sometimes bad, tragic events happen and they have nothing to do with racism. Yet, like the famous story of the little boy who cried "wolf" over and over again until nobody believed him, people in liberal media insist on jumping to the conclusion that racism was a factor before all the facts come out - or even after official reports. No wonder conservatives claim (with some validity) that liberals play the race card too much.

Addicting Info Caught In Yet Another Lie

Once again, the folks over at Addicting Info have decided to play fast and loose with the truth, and want you to like and share the hastily slapped together nonsense they're trying to pass off as news.

For those of you not familiar with the back story, these guys, and eventually others like them, first appeared on my radar back in 2010. In 2012, I confronted them on taking my creative content and passing it off as their own - and that's when the shit really hit the fan. You can read about it here, but don't bother trying to post that one to Facebook since they went on an all-out campaign of reporting it to Facebook and you can't post it now without a spam warning and filling out captcha.

Like myself, my friend John Henry has endured endless harassment from them - much worse than what I've dealt with actually. For what? For simply publicly fact-checking their blatantly false style of blogger journalism that they try to pass off as legitimate news through a number of Facebook pages, including the 1 million + likes Being Liberal.

What did they do this time? Just make the completely false claim that Mitt Romney called President Obama "uppity" and ran with it, for web traffic. Here's the link to the analysis and thorough debunking John Henry did of the false story.

For Facebook pages and a website that mock Fox News and its' viewers, Addicting Info is cementing their role as the Fox News of the left.

"If you have to lie to make a point, you are not qualified to make that point and you should shut up."

Liberals Need To Stop Making Stupid Conservatives Famous

The provisional ballots haven't been counted yet, and I'm already seeing crap like "5 Things That Prove That Republicans Aren't The Winners" and other feel-good nonsense designed to soothe people in the aftermath of the 2014 midterms. Whether it's sourcing crap from Examiner.com, doing math that Democrats are doing to feel better about themselves, or telling folks that it's going to be OK - the blogosphere on the left is in a spin cycle right now that the folks over at Fox News would be proud of.

The plain and simple fact of the matter is that things aren't going to be OK. Sure, we might get Hillary Clinton to run in 2016 (something I am not overly thrilled about) and that will get some people out to the polls. But in the long run, if something isn't done soon, we're in for a repeat of 2010 and 2014 ad nauseam - and all of the whining about the Koch Brothers or how the GOP is racist isn't going to change that.

Headlines about the latest "SHOCKING" statement from some idiot snake handler preacher who claims President Obama is the Anti-Christ or the most recent bout of verbal diarrhea from Nugent or some other conservative celebrity do nothing except put ad revenue in the pockets of the people that are making a living making stupid people famous. Yes, you heard that right, there's a lot of "independent liberal media" that does little more than make obscure right wing nut jobs famous and extend the 15 minutes of fame for grifters like the Quitta from Wasilla.

As I have pointed out over and over again, scandalous news about Republican celebrities who don't even hold political office gets 10 or 20 times the amount of response from the left than things that actually matter. As much as we point to the now canceled Honey Boo Boo show as proof of the dumbing down of The Learning Channel, too much of the liberal media has turned into the TMZ of politics - because it sells.

If we are going to turn the tide against voter apathy and the resulting Republican control of American politics, we are also going to have to turn the tide against tabloid political clickbait journalism as well. It doesn't help the cause, it only dumbs it down, and it has to stop. The problem is that many of the people who are profiting from this care more about the monthly ad revenue checks from Google than they do about stopping apathy and educating voters, and that's why we're doomed unless it changes.

If You Didn't Vote, Fuck You - And Who Cares About The Koch Brothers?

Listen up, I'm tired of hearing about the Koch Brothers and the constant talk about how they're trying to take over the country. Just today, the grifters over at Being Liberal posted some image complaining about the Kochs, ignoring or oblivious to the fact that there are a number of billionaires out there including liberals like Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg who are dumping money into the political process.

In Florida, the medical marijuana legalization issue was a proxy battle between millionaire trial lawyer John Morgan and Sheldon Adelson over the control of the governor's mansion. Yet, I don't think I have heard a single person on the left raise one bit of opposition or mention of the money coming in when it's from Steyer, Bloomberg, Morgan or others.

The fact of the matter is that no matter how much money is poured into an election, at the end of the day, it's who gets off their ass and votes - and the numbers tell the story. Let's look at the Florida turnout by county.

Orange County 43.23%
Osceola County 41.27%
Miami-Dade 40.67%

These are probably the most liberal counties in Florida, and even on the issue of legalizing medical marijuana AND getting rid of Rick Scott, not even half of the voters showed up. Yet, across the country, older and more conservative voters did - but my generation and younger didn't.

Voters turned out in 2008 and 2012 to vote for President Obama, and then sat on their asses during the mid-terms either out of apathy, or because they don't have a fucking clue how the government works. Guess what, the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson poured a shit ton of money into those elections but they still couldn't keep President Obama from winning.

Nothing replaces voting, nothing. If you don't vote, you can't complain about voter suppression and other excuses for your fucking apathy and laziness. What's the use of early voting or mail in ballots if you don't use them? No wonder the older generation thinks we're stupid and lazy.

We're Back!

Hey everyone, this is the first entry in the Whiskey Blog in over a year. While we will not be bringing back the Facebook page for it, I do intend to start writing here on a more regular basis for the old time fans, and because I can use a lot more swear words here without pissing off the masses.

Moving on, today is Election Day and I hope each and every one of you made sure to vote. I've had some raging lunatics who got royally pissed off at me for my recent post over at Forward Progressives in which I ripped into Russell Brand for telling people not to vote. Let's get this straight, if you refuse to vote, that doesn't show any sort of protest and I can assure you the Republican Party is more than happy to see registered Democrats staying at home. The records of who voted and who didn't is open to the public. If you don't like your choices, write yourself in, write me in you want to - but vote.