Gerrymandering

My post today actually has something to do with my last one (continuity? Glee writers, take some notes).
When we last spoke, I had something to say about Joe Pitts. Being the silly person that I am, I neglected to refer to the redistricting lines drawn up after the 2011 Census-- Pennsylvania lost a seat in the House of Representatives, going down to 18. Due to this, in addition to movement of population, the congressional district lines needed to be re-drawn.
Oh, and re-drawn they were.
Today we're going to talk about gerrymandering. It's when district lines are altered to better suit political parties, by drawing them around pockets of voters to ensure they're getting the votes they need to stay in office.
I'm under the impression that it's one of the things ruining the political system of the United States. These lines are being moved around to suit the legislators, with absolutely no concern for the constituents. Before they were re-drawn, my district consisted of the entirety of my county, a very rural area, the lower half of Chester County, also fairly rural, and a tiny chunk of Berks County.
The district of which I am a part of now? It spans five counties. It includes a small chunk of Lancaster, areas outside of Reading, an hour and fifteen minutes northeast of where I live, and then sprawls over to the east to where my family lives, over an hour and a half away. I encourage you to play around with this website, because it shows you how freaking ludicrous the whole thing is.
The way its drawn up now, my representative will be the face of a pocket of Amish farmland, areas of the Main Line, one of the richest areas on the east coast, suburbs in Montgomery County, and some areas outside of Philadelphia that are full of lower-income families.
How the HELL is anyone supposed to come up with ideas to represent that kind of area? How do you choose what legislation to support? WHY IS THIS OKAY.

Short post is short. I'm too angry.

The Devil Inside

This post is not about the exorcism film that has an incredible 8% on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh, no, no, no. This is about a much more tangible evil, one that my peers come in contact with on a regular basis without a clue (this is also not about radon).
This, my friends, is about the Congressional Representative of the 16th district of Pennsylvania, representing Lancaster County, as well as a large chunk of Chester and a sliver of Berks (this was as of the 2000 Census). Luckily for Pitts and the rest of the Republicans in Pennsylvania, the district lines had the living shit gerrymeandered out of them once again, making six seats safer, and combining two Democratic districts into one! But don't tell the Republicans that they're being unfair, boys and girls. People who are party of the racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious majorities really don't like hearing about when they're stepping on other people's toes. They feel like they're being attacked! :(

His name is Joe Pitts. Good old Joe has a 100% approval rating from the Christian Coalition, the American Conservative Union, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Joe has a 0% approval rating from Public Citizens Congress Watch, the Human Rights Campaign, the Children's Health Fund, the National Breast Cancer Coalition, Planned Parenthood, The National Farmer's Union, the United Fresh Produce Association, Americans for the Arts Action Fund, Citizens for Tax Justice, The American Liberty Association... there's a comprehensive list of all his scores here.

"So what, Colleen? He doesn't feed into the godforsaken liberal agenda! blahblahblahblahblah"
Okay, you've got me there. Pitts is a conservative's conservative, his voting record speaks for itself.

It should be no surprise that he does so well in Lancaster County, a forsaken wasteland of Amish farms sprinkled with trailer parks and scores of pregnant high schoolers. Speaking from 13 years of experience, Jesus is pretty much the only thing going for this place.

Joe is a bad, bad man. He belongs to The Fellowship, who sponsor the annual National Prayer breakfast. They've been up to some pretty nasty shenanigans lately. Uganda has been throwing around the idea of giving homosexuality the death penalty (it's already illegal) and you will NEVER GUESS where this idea came from. You want a hint?

When Bush was in office he appropriated $15 billion for sex education in foreign countries. One of the lucky winners was Uganda. Joe decided to redirect a lot of the money that was supposed to go toward sex education and put it toward abstinence education. This led to an evangelical revival in the country, and, subsequently, condom burnings. 

And this is how a country whose number of HIV positive people went from declining to doubling in an incredibly short period of time. 

yes, I just used memegenerator. Judge me all you like.

Shortly thereafter, a man from one of those 'I CAN MAKE YOU UNGAY' camps went on a little book tour around Uganda, preaching all about the evils of homosexuality and how it ruins every aspect of everyone's life. Ever. (do you want to guess who sent him over there? Hm? Any ideas?)

And that was when the bill was introduced to give homosexuality the death penalty. Additionally, if you knew of homosexual conduct and the officials find out that you're not going to report it, you get slapped with several years in prison and a hefty fine.(I wrote a really crappy paper on this if you want to read more. Or, you know, you could google it).

If that's not enough for you, Joe Pitts "unwittingly" received thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the Pakistani military. Their agenda was to tilt U.S. policy against India's control of the Kashmir region (NY Times article here). Strangely enough, Pitts traveled to India shortly thereafter to broker peace talks between India and Pakistan, and introduced a resolution for Bush to create a "special envoy" to help negotiate peace.
...but he didn't have any idea where that money came from.
He has since donated an equivalent amount to charities.

So far, he is running unopposed in the 2012 election. If anyone who reads this happens to be a United States citizen who is over 25, please run against him. I'll give you my whole piggy bank. And write your campaign speeches. They'll be snarky and fantastic.