Last night, I played cards at Danielle’s house. She is a girl I used to work with at AAA, not to be confused with Danel. Although, I can see how one can get confused. Anywho, I didn’t think she was much of a card player, so I expected a small group of inexperienced players. Uhhhh, yeah, I was wrong there. I arrived right at 6 and there were already about 8 or 9 people there. They had a poker table along with what seemed to be an endless supply of poker chips. As I would learn thoughout the night, it was a rather diverse and interesting gathering of people. For example, one girl there has a sister who is currently on Survivor. Now I don’t watch the show, but for those of you that do, her name is…………..I forgot that. But, she is Asian, 36 and from Lake Forest. Another guy that was there quite possibly had the most interesting story of anybody that was at the party. Turns out that when he was 10 years old he got hit by a truck. He died 3 times and 2 out of those 3 times, they brought him back to life. Anywho, he was telling me that he had fractured skull and as a result, as no feelings in his nerves throughout his body. This served him well while we were playing some shock game (this was before cards) in which 4 people are given some sort of deal to hold on to and watch for when a light blinks. Anywho, if you press early or are the last one to press, you get shocked. This wasn’t a problem for him, as he could hold the thing forever and not feel a damn thing.

As for the diversity, white people were in the minority, which I was ok with, just not something I’m used to in a social setting. Danielle and her husband are both Mexican, but most of their friends at the party were actually Asian. There were a couple of blacks, and a few whites, but overall, it was a pretty diverse crowd.

We started playing cards late. Didn’t actually get started until about 7:45ish. We had a total of 18 people. I was sitting next to a floozie of a girl with blond hair and big, bouncy tits. They were bouncy because she was wearing a shirt that was only buttoned to her cleavage, exposing a good portion of her bazookas. Her loud, obnoxious and rather large Italian boyfriend was sitting 2 seats away from me. Now, here is where things get a little bit…………..er……………dicey. I was talking to his girlfriend about playing cards. Nothing too bad, I might have made a couple of jokes as I’m prone to do when I first meet somebody. All of a sudden, I feel somebody grab the back of my hair for some unknown reason. Now, I don’t remember what that loud motherfucker said to me about talking to his girlfriend, but I was just like “Dude, I talk to your girlfriend and you grab my hair? What the fuck!”. I wasn’t real loud or aggressive about it because mainly, I didn’t know if this guy was serious or not. He didn’t seem to be, as he was kidding around a lot to that point. But, needless to say, I was slighly pissed off about him grabbing my hair. As the game when on, his girlfriend asked a question about playing cards and I started to discuss it with her and he grabbed my hair again. I didn’t much respond that time, but I was pissed. He made some joke about something or another, so that point I could get the sense that he was not serious, but still, what a fucking dick. Dude, I have never met you before and you start with this shit? What, do you feel threaten by me? I’m weigh about as much as this guy’s left thigh, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. Of course, me being me, I decided that I would make snide, sarcastic remarks to him the rest of the night. For example, we were both the only 2 left in a hand and I said to him something like “So, if I raise here, are you going to pull my hair again?” He said yes and he did it again! Unfucking believable. This time, I didn’t laugh about it at all. I didn’t do anything because I didn’t want to cause a scene or get my ass totally kicked. Plus, we are playing cards and as far as I can see, I’ve got a good chance of finishing in the money. Which is, exactly what happened. I finished 3rd, but the loud fat fuck wound up winning. Turns out, he either plays online or with people in person every fucking day. It also helps to explain that he won the 2nd game we played. What a fuck!

Overall, though, I had a good time last night. I was there until about 1:30ish.

So, today was election day. I came up with an idea that is going to revolutionize voting. Are you ready for this one people? Its huge! Get on board with this: Naked voting. Wait. I mean, instead of voting on Tuesdays, we change it to Saturdays. I know this will take an act of congress to change, but it makes sense. I know that the law is that employers have to give employees time off to vote, but they don’t have to pay them while they are off voting. But, how many people can afford not to get paid for a couple of hours to go vote? Plus, a lot of people work far from their polling place, so that might present another problem. Look, voter turnout today is once again going to be at an embarrassingly low amount. Its probably going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 40%. We started democracy, damnit, we should be setting an example for all of the other democracies in the world. Yet, in these other countries, they have a far higher percentage of people that vote. And sure, there are a plethora of reasons why people don’t vote. And maybe we really should only have the informed voter voting. But still, as a country, we should be encouraging people to vote and make it as easy and as convenient as possible. And I would be willing to bet that if the elections were held on a Saturday, the turnout would be higher by about 10%. At least. How many people have got kids they have to get to daycare in the morning before work and of course, pick up kids after work. That can make it tough to find time to vote, especially since people are also working more and more hours at work. Sure, there are people that work on Saturdays, but the percentage of people that are off on Saturdays is A LOT higher. Another idea that somebody at work came up with, and this is an even better idea, is make election day a national holiday. That would ensure that even more people are off work and therefore, have more time to vote.

Holy shit, former NFL QB Heath Shuler just won a Democratic House Seat in North Carolina. I didn’t even know he was running. Shit, it seems like he was in the NFL like 53 minutes ago. Anywho, back to my pointless ramble.

Ok, where was I? Oh, that’s right, I was trying to convince you to give me all your money. See, what I would do with your money is take it to the off track betting facility right next to my work and…………….oh, wait, I’m being told I wasn’t talking about that at all.

Hope you all voted today, because you can’t do it on Saturday. And most of all, if you did vote, I hope you voted smart and voted Democratic. Sure, they are pussies, stupid and full of shit a lot of times, but the Democrats are NOT Republicans, and as we know, Republicans are heartless, evil and are doing their best to ruin the country and the world. Oh, and the Republicans are full of so much more shit than the Democrats, so much more in fact that they are swimming in vast pools of shit and attempting to turn that shit into gold and the best they can do with that shit is turn it into more shit. In short, right now, there is nothing even remotely good about the Republican party.

I’m fucking stunned. I can not believe the Bears lost to Miami. Who would have thought that the Bulls would beat Miami by 42 on Tuesday and then the undefeated Bears lose to the one win fucking Dolphins. Maybe this is good for the Bears, I mean, they were going to lose at some point. Now, they have to get back on track and not turn the ball over 6 times a game.

Last night I played cards at Scott’s house. There was this cute younger guy named Tom there. He seemed to laugh at all my jokes and seemed like a cool guy. After the first game, I got a chance to talk to him more and get to know him a little. When we play cards, we all seem to talk politics a lot, and this time was no different, especially with the election being on Tuesday. Anywho, he explained to me that he was Italian and of course, raised Catholic but is a recovering Catholic now and is actually agnostic. I told him I was, for the most part, an atheist. We started to talk politics and I made a comment that led him to believe that I was a democrat. I explained to him that I was not a democrat as much as I was a liberal. This upset him, because as it turns out, he is a hardcore Republican. He even said he is very homophobic (he doesn’t know I’m gay, this was the first time I met him). He sternly asked me what the biggest issue in this election is for me. I said the fact that we have not caught Bin Laden. We had to get started playing cards before we were able to finish the conversation, but he seem very pissed at my views. As most Republicans are, he can not handle a dissenting voice against Bush. 3 hands into the game, I had a full house and went all in. He went all in too and lost and he was done. A few minutes later he said that the only reason he went all in was because of my political beliefs. He was sulking the rest of the night and kept saying “I can’t believe I lost.” He was obviously EXTREMELY bothered that he lost to a liberal. See, this is why I talk politics when I play cards, sometimes, it gets in the heads of Republicans and then its kinda like when guys play girls: it kills them to lose. I felt so gratified to not only beat a Republican, but a homophobe as well. Count that a win for us. Now, hopefully we can win a lot more on Tuesday.

As for the card game, it was long, but in the end, I split the first place prize with another guy, who was beating me. But, it was 2:30 in the morning and the guy was there with his kids. I played very well, I bought a lot of pots and bluffed my way to winning a few others. This was one of the bigger games we have had, with 14 people.

Many of you will probably want to skip this post, mainly because you might be sick of hearing about politics. But, the election is a few short days away and I have yet to write anything about it. Its high time we take back congress. Corruption and fear have ruled congress for too long. The first step of putting the country back on the right direction is to dump as many Republicans as possible on Tuesday. The conservative Christians and the Republicans have become way to powerful, so powerful its scary. They have both the house and senate, they have the presidency and they have the supreme court. This is not god people. If Republicans continue in the majority of congress, this means more of the president’s bullshit. If they win, Bush will continue to have a blank check for all sorts of illegitimate mayhem and destruction around the world. At home, it means more scandals and more shady dealings such as wiretapping, torture, more of the Patriot Act, and more attempts to limit the freedoms or ordinary Americans. Enough is enough. We can not let them win. Its my opinion that it is your duty as an American to get out and vote. Don’t have the time, than make the time. By law, companies have to give you time off to vote, even if they don’t pay you for it. This is too important not to exercise your right to vote. People have died to give us the right to vote. Females have only had the right to vote since 1920. Blacks have only had the guaranteed right since the 1960s. This is too soon to forget that several generations ago, normal, everyday people did not have the very same right that non voters take for granted and not vote. Find a way. That’s all that matters. And while you are there, do not vote for Republicans. Sure, the Democrats are pussies. Yes, they are sometimes stupid (John Kerry, I’m looking square at you), but they are not evil. And they will not fuck up the country in the same manner in which the Republicans have done since they had control of both congress and the White House. Just look at what they have fucked up:
9/11
The Iraq war
Hurricane Katrina

These are just a few things that pop out. Now, look at the scandals they have been involved in:
The Mark Foley scandal
The Jack Abramoff scandal
The wiretappping scandal
The Abu Ghraib prison cover up

Vote Republican and you get more of the same, except that it will continue to get worse and worse. Need proof? Here is an article that a friend of mine in the Air Force sent:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0611/S00036.htm

Anybody who disagrees with this article is fooling themselves and has their head in the sand. This article makes perfect sense, the longer we are in Iraq, the better it is for Al-Qaeda. Think about it. They thrive on chaos and love upheaval. It gives them a chance to create more mayhem and also recruit people. Just imagine if your house was destroyed and family members killed because of the war in Iraq. You would be very vulnerable and influenced to join a group that is fighting the people that have invaded your country. Also, for years Bin Laden has said evil things about America. He has said that we want to rule the world and that we hate Muslims. In the eyes of some Muslims and of Bin Laden and his followers, this is true. You and I know it is not true. But, forget about us and the truth. Sometimes, perception is what matters and image is everything. To jaded Iraqi citizens, we are everything that Bin Laden is selling them. Being in Iraq only helps them reconfirm that misguided belief. That is why we as citizens with the right to vote have to make a statement and that statement is ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!