Why am I Disgusted Beyond Belief?

I'm sick as a dog right now, and if I talk it sounds like a cross between a heavy-breather phone call and Darth Vader hitting puberty, so I'm not all that up to doing much today. As is often the case, I'm sick via my daughter via day care. Gotta love the way the kids "spread the love" when it comes to bugs.

I thought I'd just do a short post on why I picked this name and then named this blog after the name. It is really not all that interesting. I have read blogs and other things online for years. I remember looking at the web when it was only a bunch of nerdy engineering students who even knew about it. Not that I did much with it back then. I did post on Usenet News then. Lots of interesting discussions. Not that this has anything to do with my handle now.

One of the blogs I read religiously (or as religious as an atheist gets...) is Glenn Greenwald. He is great for many many reasons. I eventually would put my own two cents there. Around the time I really started to do that there was a vote coming up in the Senate for what I call the "pro-torture" bill. Unfortunately, that bill passed. Even more unfortunately, one of my Michigan Senators, Senator Debbie Stabenow, voted FOR the pro-torture bill. It was a clear pander attempt right before her re-election in 2006. It disgusted me. So when I wrote my response to a thread on Glenn's site, I signed "Disgusted Beyond Belief" because that was how I felt. To remain consistent, I kept using that name thereafter, and then to remain consistent with my comment posts and my blog, I named the Blog after it. Because of the vote, even though I did not want the GOP to remain control of congress, I decided I could not, in good conscience, vote for Stabenow. So I did not. I sent her an email to that effect.

I know that a GOP Senator would probably have voted the same. Which was the point. If a Senator is going to vote with the GOP anyway, what's the difference? But more to the point, I wanted to let her know that she in no way can count on my vote just because I might dislike the GOP more than the Democratic party. Actions have consequences. If I and others like me don't hold her accountable for her actions, then who will? She already knows the GOP isn't voting for her. So I did it to send a message and to stand on principles. It always disgusts me to see people support someone just because of the 'R' or 'D' in front of the name, regardless of the bad things that candidate has done.

It turned out she did win re-election, which was good, because then the Democratic party took over Congress and can finally do some real oversight and put the 'checks and balances' back into checks and balances. But even so, I will NEVER just hold my nose and vote for someone I don't like. I will vote for the candidate that I think will best represent my interests. I don't have to agree with everything they do. I do also consider such things as who I'd want to control Congress. But I also consider voting for a "pro-toture" bill to be so repugnant to everything this nation is supposed to stand for that I cannot, in good conscience, vote for a candidate who would support such a bill. And I did not.

So that's where the name came from. I now return to my previously scheduled hacking coughs.