One of the things I like about writing a blog that covers Science Fiction, Fandom, and Politics is when I get to combine the elements into a single post. Thank you George R. R. Martin for making my day.

Martin, the author of A Game of Thorns, has dished out quite a bit of ignorance in regards to the issue of Voter ID laws that are slowly making their way through the country, and even plays the race card, insinuating that anyone who supports such laws is a racist. If that were not enough, his referring to those of us in the Tea Party movement with a euphemism for a crude sex act is more than enough to remove him from my reading list.

Skipping over the obscenity and race card, and other low-brow thoughts we get to this tidbit from his blog Not A Blog:

It is one thing to attempt to win elections. But trying to do so by denying the most basic and important right of any American citizen to hundreds and thousands of people, on entirely spurious grounds... that goes beyond reprehensible. That is despicable.

Now a reasonable person might think he is referring to recent attempts, attempts that have been going on for the better part of a decade, to disenfranchise military voters, especially those serving overseas. Nope, he is referring to Voter ID laws, those pesky initiatives that require voters to prove they are who they claim they are by showing a valid picture ID, like a driver's license or a passport, or some other form of, yes, government issued identification. You know, the same kind of documents you are required to show when you accept a job with a new employer, or get on an airplane, or enter some public buildings, cash a check, open a bank account, and so many other aspects of everyday life.

As for the claim that these laws are denying Americans their right to vote, Martin, and all the other zealots on the Left, are quite wrong about this. I can't say that this is true in all cases, but here in Minnesota the proposed law sets up a fund that will be used to provide identification cards to poor people for free (well, at taxpayer expense, and yes, I am okay with this expense). Now it may be denying some people the ability to vote using another person's name, like John Doe walking into a polling place and claiming to be Bruce Wayne and voting under that name, but that's why we need these laws. It will also prevent people from voting in more than one precinct, a problem we have here in Minnesota due to the nature of same day registration with no ID required, just someone willing to claim you are who you are and live where you claim you live.

An example of this abuse came in the after the 2004 election when a gal I met had discovered that there were 64 people who were registered to vote using her address, and yes, they all voted. Another more blatant example around the same time happened in the city of Coates, where the guy who ran a strip club there got a bunch of his friends to vote for him for mayor by registering to vote using the address of his club. Not sure if this clown is still in jail or not.

In the aftermath of the 2000 election, it came out that hundreds of people voted absentee in both New York and Florida, and yes, it is believed that there were votes on both sides of the political divide.

But the Left, instead of wanting to address the problems of voter fraud, they want to keep things as they are, because the Left knows that if they can't win in an honest election.

And those of us who man up and take this issue head on, we get called racist bigots, corruptocrats as well as other names involving crude sex acts.

Martin goes on with:

It would really be nice if there were still some Republicans of conscience out there who would stand up and loudly denounce these efforts, a few men of honor and integrity for whom "win the election" does not "win the election at any cost." There were once many Republicans I admired, even I disagreed with them: men like Everett Dirksen, Clifford Case, Henry Cabot Lodge, William Scranton... yes, even Barry Goldwater, conservative as he is. I do not believe for a moment that Goldwater would have approved of this, any more than Robert A. Heinlein would have. They were conservatives, but they were not bigots, nor racists, nor corrupt. The Vote Suppressors have far more in common with Lester Maddox, George Wallace, John Stennis, and their ilk than they do with their distinguished GOP forebears.

Martin doesn't believe Goldwater or Heinlein would approve of Voter ID laws? How omniscient of him. And, no, those of us who support Voter ID laws are not anything like Lester Maddox, or George Wallace, or John Stennis.

The people behind these efforts at disenfranchising large groups of voters (the young, the old, the black, the brown) are not Republicans, since clearly they have scant regard for our republic or its values. They are oligarchs and racists clad in the skins of dead elephants.

Um, no, we believe in free societies where elections are free of corruption, and as there are always people who are willing to follow the Leftist adage of "Vote early, vote often", we need to have Voter ID laws.
 

And don't tell me they are libertarians either. No true libertarians would ever support a culture where citizens must "show their papers" to vote or travel. That's a hallmark of a police state, not a free country.

I guess I am not a "true" Libertarian, but that isn't surprising as there are several key issues I disagree with the Libertarian Party on. But one has to ask, has Martin tried to get a regular job lately? (Papers, please!) Or board a plane? (Papers, please!), or open a bank account? (Papers, please!) And the list of everyday tasks people asked for identification goes on and on and on.

It is clear to me that Martin needs to stop living in Leftie-Fantasyland and learn the basic facts behind Voter ID laws, instead of screaming "Racist" at those who support these laws.

Oh, yeah, be sure to peruse the comments in the thread, as some of Martin's response to his critics are absolutely hilarious, and I don't mean that in a good way.

After that, click on the "politics" tag and see some his other rants, including his desire to strip Joe Lieberman of his citizenship. Can we say "totalitarian wannabe"?

Captain's Log, Stardate, oh, wait, that's Pajama Boy stuff.

It had been a while since the last time I had put into port at DS9, and was surprised to see how much things had changed, and not for the better. The Promenade had become some sort of tent city, which is an odd thing to see in the middle of a space station. Protestors most of whom hadn't showered in a month reeked to high Sto-Vo-Kor, carrying signs like "We are the 99%" and "Tax the 1%", then "Cardassia Supports Occupy Promenade", "If I had a job, I couldn't be here!", "Legalize Bloodhype" and "Down with Ferengi Billionaires". The windows at Tunok's Kill and Grill had been spray-painted with "One Percenter". Station security were present, as was Starbuck, the refuge from a battlestar; Starbuck was trying to hand out job applications and bars of soap to the protestors, but not finding any takers.

When at last I had made my way to Quark's, I noticed that several windows had been broken, and the same spray-paint job of "One Percenter" across the doors. Quark's place was not overly busy, which was surprising as Happy Hour was in full swing. Morn was at his usual spot at the bar; the Doctor had moved his Police Call Box into one corner of the bar; a few other regulars sat about drinking something other than their usual libations.

When I reached the bar, Quark greeted me with what appeared to be the same drink everyone else was having. It was a tall glass filled with a dark brown liquid over ice and topped with a slice of lemon.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Long Island Ice Tea," Quark responded. "On the house."

"That's pretty uncharacteristic of you. What's the occasion?"

"You've seen the Promenade?" Quark asked. It sounded like a dodge of my question.

"Yeah, it was a real stink to get through there to your place."

"And that's the reason. I figure anyone willing to get through that mess of stinky hippies to my bar deserves something on the house. Besides, the local Tea Party gave me the money to do it as a counter-protest event. I'm also serving up Alaska Ice Tea, Texas Tea as well as Ferenginar Ice Tea. That last one is a Quark original. I substituted root beer instead of cola. It's Garak's favorite.

I took a sip of the drink. The alcohol was present in abundant quantities. I paused, drank a bit more, then said to Quark, "How about a Qo'noS Ice Tea?"

"Okay, I'll bite. What would that one be?" Quark asked.

"Substitute the cola with blood wine."

"Of course. I should have thought of that," Quark said as he slapped his forehead with his right hand in the Intergalactic Sign Language for "Like Duh!" Quark went down the bar and began mixing a new drink, starting with a large amount of blood wine. He looked up at me and asked, "Tribble Sweat instead of Triple Sec?"

"Absolutely. This one is just a tad too sweet."

"You should try the Ferenginar Ice Tea. The Root Beer makes it all happy and cheerful. Like the Federation."

"That's insidious," I responded.

"I know," Quark said. He finished mixing the drink, sidled back up to me, and proffered the new drink, sans straw. After all, Klingons don't use straws.

I took the drink and took a good long pull on it, then quickly drained it.

"Good?" Quark asked.

"majQa'," I responded. "How about another one?"

"Coming up," Quark said. As he went to work mixing up a second round for me, Quark asked, "Did you hear what those Fleabaggers did to Morn?"

Being off station for a surfing event, I had no clue, so I signaled Quark to tell me more.

"Well, when Morn was trying to make his way up here after putting into port, he had to get through that Occupy protest. One of those Fleabaggers attached a sign on his back. Then these Fleabaggers began kicking him in the behind and laughing at him all the way here."

"What did the sign say?" I asked.

"Kick me, I'm a One Percenter," Quark said.

"These people have no honor," I said.

"No kidding. When Morn got in here, he looked both relieved and perplexed by what happened. Until I had him turn around so I could remove the sign from his back. When I showed him the sign, Blessed Exchequer, was he livid!"

"I'm surprised they didn't try that with me."

Quark looked at me and said, "They wouldn't have the ears to do it. You'd probably hospitalize the first one that tried to kick you. They'd be better off beating a Wookie at holochess."

Kahuna out.

Courtesy of the Patriot Caucus.

Now that the Republicans have gained a significant majority in the House of Representatives, will they deliver on promises, or go back to being Democrat-lite? The Tea Party movement had a lot to do with getting them their, as well as millions of Americans mad about having ObamaCare rammed down their throats and $5 TRILLION added to the national debt since the Democrats gained full control of Congress in 2007.

What Republicans need to do in order to maintain and add to the majority, as well as gain a majority in the Senate and when the Presidency in 2012 goes beyond repealing ObamaCare and cutting spending.

What Americans want is responsible, and Constitutionally limited government; the kind of government that the Founding Fathers envisioned and embraced. Yes, we want spending and tax cuts, and we want them now, but we also want the government to be accountable to the People. We want our borders secured so that the Mexican drug cartels will no longer consider the border as a speed bump o billions of dollars. We want to see Rule of Law be the order of the day.

Eric Canter, from what I hear, has some interesting plans for the 112th Congress, including every spending bill having attached to it the details on how it will be paid for and where the Constitutional authority lies that empowers Congress to act laws. This is a good step towards making our government responsible and accountable. After all, it is our money that they are spending. If they can't do it responsibly and within the strict bounds of Article 1, Section 8, then there may be yet another reckoning come 2012.

Getting America back on a Constitutional diet is the kind of Hope and Change most Americans want. Not endless war (and yeah, the ongoing military operations, risking our young for an unappreciative people, is getting old), not bigger government with more beuracracies, no more Wall Street bailouts, we don't want ObamaCare, and keep the government out of running private businesses, not taking it over as Obama did with General Motors.

Now there are some people that will say "hey, they can't cut spending on these entitlement programs as they help people like me!" (I know, I have a friend who has said as much.) here's the deal: These government programs are not helping you, but hurting you, making you dependent on government handouts. Is that what you want? Further, the money to fund those programs are drained out of the economy, reducing businesses ability to expand and create jobs that would really help you as well as draining money off from families, forcing them to cut their household budgets in order to "help" you, moving them closer to having to become dependent on government handouts. Bottom line, the more money you suck out of the People's pockets, the less they have to spend and/or save; the less they spend, the less businesses sell, which lowers corporate revenues, which reduces their ability to expand their business and create jobs; the less people save, the less capital there is avialble for people, and businesses, to borrow to pay for big ticket items (cars, houses for individuals, manufacturing plants, equipments, buildings, for businesses).

Come January 2011, Republicans will be able to block Obama, Reid, and the Democrats Leftist agenda. Will they do it, or will they buckle and compromise by just slowing down the march down the road to surfdom?