As the news was delivered Friday, what most expected to be a time to mourn the United States not getting the Olympic bid, turned out for the right wing to be a victory. A victory to the Republican party, a defeat to President Barack Obama. At the cost of hurting this country in a time of desperate economic instability, the right rejoiced. I've been amazed time and time again by the childish games played by the right. The double standard expected to be status-quo, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I witnessed the Republican Party claim victory over its own citizens. Rush Limbaugh said "The ego has landed folks, the world has rejected Barack Obama" as he laughed and teased at the loss to this country. Glenn Beck told listeners to his radio show "Let me be the first to tell you this news, it's so exciting." It's become evident that the Republican Party, regardless of how oxymoronic or hypocritical has been in the past, has reached a new level of shameful anti-American rhetoric. In the video below, you'll see a gathering of conservatives at the Americans For Prosperity,  one of the main organizing groups behind the tea party protests and a notorious Republican support system begin cheering at the news that the US had been eliminated in the first round in the bid for the 2016 Olympic games in Chicago.

 For a party that is willing to blindlessly throw billions upon billions of dollars into two wars, yet simultaneously negating the expanding deficit until a point of recession is reached? These people call themselves "patriots"? As I said in a blog a month ago "The Republican party would rather watch this country burn to the ground, so they can say HA! to Barack Obama, then help fix it in any way." That there has been talk of a "bloodless military coo" is beyond me. If anybody needs to stage a coo in this country, it's the conservatives who have had their party hi-jacked by the racist, bigoted, hate mongerers like Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, and Savage. Now I find more hang-ups and hypocricy in the conservative view point then most, but for a small minority of fringe extremist who sure like to bring attention to other peoples mistakes and failures, you'd expect them to acknowledge the insane deterioration of their own base. As a Progressive, I look to the Democratic Party to do what's right for the majority of the country I love. I see the errors in the ways of those I support as well as those I don't. What it comes down to for me is ironically values. Not Christian values, not conservative values, and not even so much as family values. The value of life. The value of your common wo/man. The value that stops at birth in the Republican party. The value of the less fortunate. Teddy Kennedy once said "We are giving assurance to the American families that help is on its way."

   To see a nation so torn, yet so united. So confused, yet so focused. It makes me wonder what will my children have to look forward to. Imagine, if you can. A country with Republican majority in the House, Republican majority in the Senate, and a Republican President in the White House. I don't mean now, I don't mean 10 years ago. Not 20 or 30 years ago but since the dawn of the 1960's. Now begin to shape in your mind, a world in 2009, an America. The war in Vietnam is still blazing, women can't vote or work for that matter. She's told her place is at home, in the kitchen. Blacks and Hispanics use separate restrooms and drinking fountains and are only allowed labor jobs. There's no such thing as a "minimum wage". Workers dream of organizing for rights, only to be shot down whenever they speak about it because the government listens to your calls and keys in on "agitator words" such as UNIONS and RIGHTS. The draft to Vietnam takes 30,000 young men every year, and only returns a fraction of them. Then denies them health care and psychological treatment when they return. Only the top 1% can afford to see a doctor, dentist, or optometrist. The list goes on and on and on. It's thoughts like these that keep me up late yet allow me to wake early. If we don't make a change, then who will? So I beg of you, Progressives and Liberals, now is our time. Now is the time to speak for every man, woman, and child. Every needy family. Every sick human who is no better or worse then you or I. The next time you're at work, or the grocery store, and you hear someone say something you KNOW is not true about our President, or our country, inform the dulled masses. Knowledge is our key. Facts are our weapons. Our sword IS our tongues. I've come to learn that the right wing hate machine has one great weakness. That's FACTS. The facts don't lie. You can argue idealism with them until your blue in the face but the truth, the truth is stronger then hate, fear, and lies combined.

                                                                             Aaron M. Norcia