Obama on “This Week” said the words “my Muslim faith”

I’ll make this short.  Don’t even try to start a riot by misquoting, misinterpreting, or just plain relying on people’s stupidity for not checking the facts.

Barack Obama was on “This Week” (ABC) talking about how John McCain himself had not participated in spreading rumors of his Muslim faith.  It was comparable to talking about yourself in the third person.

So if the blogosphere starts getting ramped up about this, before you do anything, say anything, or write anything, go look at the tape yourself on You-tube and stop this insanity.

The McCain Legacy - What happens after the election?

Right now, McCain’s legacy is that of a relatively strong Senator who was a P.O.W.  But John McCain has a HUGE ego.  He lives in the shadow of his father and grandfather who were respected, four-star Admirals in the navy.  Imagine living in that shadow and then, in his father’s eyes, be so stupid as to get shot down in Vietnam.   I’m sure his father felt some guilt over the incident since there is no way that John McCain would have ever been allowed to be a navy pilot if it weren’t for the fact that his father was an Admiral.  He sucked at his job, had the lowest grades, and lost 5 aircraft (4 in “accidents” and 1 in combat).  Not exactly “Top Gun” material.

So John McCain returns from Vietnam a changed man.  A hero to some but a failure to himself.  For a man with an ego as big as John McCain’s, it had to be devastating.

The only way he could prove himself in his father’s and grandfather’s eyes, whether or not they were still living, was to become President of the United States.  That will show them.  And so the second half of his life story began. 

In this later part of John McCain’s life, he has but one goal.  President.  I do not believe for one minute that he cares what happens if he is elected.  He doesn’t care about the war, health care, taxes, the economy, the people of the United States or anything else.  Haven’t you wondered why there have been murmurs about John McCain being a one term President?  Haven’t you wondered why he himself has said he may only serve one term if he were elected?  Look at the facts.  One thing I have learned as I get older is that people are not all that different, deep down inside.  The same things make us tick, make us happy, and make us angry.  Everything else is just a representation of us trying to get the approval of somebody out there whom we feel did not give it to us before.  For John McCain, it is the approval of his father and grandfather.

Who is the person in your life whose approval you never received?  Who is the person in your life whose love you never obtained?  Think about it.  It is not such a stretch is it.  We all have someone, to varying degrees, who has that kind of influence on our lives.  John McCain is no different.

John McCain will do nothing to change this country.  He will do nothing to guide this country in a direction that is beneficial to all Americans.  He will do nothing to improve our standing as a country in the eyes of the world.  All John McCain cares about his having the word “President” after his name.  He wants to be on that list in the history books so he can say to himself “see Dad, see Grandpa, I told you I could be somebody”.  But, if you believe in heaven then dear old dad and grandpa will be watching.  And John McCain forgot about one minor detail.  Just being President isn’t enough.  There is a big difference, as we have found out in the last eight years, between being President and being a good President.  Simply adding it to your resume isn’t enough.

If elected, John McCain, statistically speaking, won’t be around for very much longer after his term.  So the aftermath of his Presidency is not something he will have to live with for long.  Barack Obama has more to consider.  Barack Obama has much more at stake if he were to be elected.  Whatever his Presidency brings about would be something he must live with for years and years.  And so his primary goal is to not just be a President, but be a good President.  He does care about the people in this country.  How could he face himself every day after his 4 years or 8 years if he never accomplished anything to make America better.  He could not live with himself if he let down the American people.  He has such an incentive to do the right things.  And even long after Barack Obama’s Presidency, he will be around, maybe in Washington D.C., maybe not, but one thing I am sure of is he will not stop giving service to this country.

You can look at the Presidency from many different angles and you can decide for whom to vote based on any number of factors.  One factor I choose to consider is what happens after the election and after the Presidency.  I also choose to look at human nature and what drives us as human beings.  What makes us tick?  What makes us get up everyday and face the world?   John McCain is in the twilight of his life and once he gets that badge of honor called the Presidency, he can sit back, take a deep breath, and let the time pass by as he sits in his rocking chair on the back porch of the White House.

Republican Strategy 2008 - Maybe they won’t notice we’re Republicans

Well this year, it’s not “strategery”, it’s a real strategy.

Did you watch any of the Republican Convention?  Did you really pay attention?  Did you notice anything about Republican political ads on TV or in print?  

Those are really trick questions because the real question is:  Did you notice something missing?

The Republican Strategy for 2008 is: “Maybe they won’t notice that we are Republicans”

At the St. Paul Convention, did you see the word “Republican” anywhere?  It was there.  On the very tippy top of each State sign was the very small seal of the RNC on which the word “Republican” was included; in a very tiny typeface not even visible on television.

At the convention, the GOP distanced themselves from our current President, George W. Bush, by never mentioning his name other than the day they allowed him to give a remote speech that lasted about 7 and a half minutes.  Our Vice President?  He was sent overseas.  In Governor Palin’s speech, in John McCain’s speech, and all of the other blue blooded Republicans, never mention George Bush by name.  If forced to they would simply refer to him as “the President”; but never “George W. Bush” or the word “Republican”.  I know this will sound cynical but the Republicans lucked out with hurricane Gustav because it forced the President to stay away from their convention.

Now, next time you see a political advertisement on TV or in print, play “Where’s Waldo” and see if you can find the word “Republican”.  It’s just not there.  Listen for the word “Republican” and see if you can hear it.  Don’t strain yourself because you probably will never hear it anyway.

A large portion of the American electorate doesn’t really know who is a Republican and who is a Democrat.  It’s true.  Of course there are a large group of us that follow politics, but there are even more people out there who just don’t.  Believe it or not, many voters still enter that voting booth and perform the task of picking the next leaders of our country based on pure gut reaction.  The “heard” something, or they “saw something”, or they just like the sound of someone’s name, knowing very little, and sometimes nothing, about these people or the platforms on which they are running for office.

Don’t write to me and call me an elitist, and don’t write to me and say that I have no respect for Americans because I am insinuating that they are dumb.  I know what I am talking about because I talk to people all the time.  I am trying to get the word out; no, I am trying to get the truth out, to my family and friends and anybody who will listen.  I keep running into the same things.  People don’t really know anything about the candidates, don’t know their positions on issues, and some can’t remember who is in which party.

So it doesn’t surprise me that the Republican party has tried to distance themselves from George Bush and the word “Republican” because both have such a bad wrap.  And rightly so after the disastrous policies of Bush, the illegal activities of his administration, and all of the ethics issues that have arisen over the past eight years.  Do you remember that the Iraq War is illegal and based on fabricated (not misinterpreted) intelligence?  Do you remember that the Bush Administration has made it legal for them to do surveillance on Americans; out phones, our email, what we buy on our credit cards?  Don’t you remember Larry Craig, the anti-gay Senator caught soliciting sex at the airport?  Scooter Libby and the treasonous outing of a CIA agent at the direction of Dick Cheney?  Mark Foley and his sexually charged email exchanges with under age male pages?  Tom Delay resigning after being charged with financial ethics violations?  Do I need to go on?  I can’t even if I wanted to, it’s too sickening.

In John McCain’s speech at the Republican Convention, not one word was mentioned about the economy, jobs, oil, food prices, the middle class, taxes, the Iraq War; nothing of any substance whatsoever until, at the end, he started to use the word “Change”.  The one word that people associate with Barack Obama and his whole campaign started on the notion that real, substantial change must occur on a grass roots level from every struggling American right up to the highest office in the country.  And now the Republicans are trying to hijack that word to confuse people who are not following politics as closely as some others.

So for those of you who don’t follow politics, please do your homework.  For those of you that do and are for Obama, make sure you set the record straight and get the word out.  For those of you who follow politics and are Republican, I dare you to advertise that you are a Republican and then try to explain the illegal and immoral scandals of the last 4 years and why anyone should give Republicans another 4 years to create havoc.

What is going on in America?

Things are a real mess.

I need to go back and read “1984″ and “Animal Farm”.  There are themes developing in this country that sound familiar and the condition of America reminds me of those two books.  First of all, big business is trying to control how America thinks and how America votes.  Corporate America is trying to scare the public into voting Republicans saying that bad things will come, like the wrath of God, if you vote for a Democrat.  There is still a huge shift of wealth going on in this country from the poor to the rich and all under the guise of our own protection.  Our phones, emails, and Internet browsing is being monitored in secrecy by the government.  The Republicans truly believe they are superior.  They have made fun of Obama for over-using the word “Change” but  now the Republicans say that “Change” is coming.  That’s what McCain said last night in his speech.  As for what kind of change; I have no idea, he didn’t say.

It is amazing to me that somehow, if you believe what polls say, that the race between Obama and McCain is about tied.  How can that be true?  For those of you out there voting for John McCain, I need to know why, exactly why, specifically why.  And don’t give me some Republican boiler plate response.  I want to know how voting for John McCain is going to make my life and your life better, and how he will improve our standing as a country around the world.  Palin is being sequestered from the media for fear she will make a huge mistake.  The problem is that she is combative and especially when backed into a corner, she will strike.  And not in a confident, sarcastic, clever way.  It will be more like a campaign-crushing, disastrous way.

We keep forgetting that the United States of America is an experiment.  We are a country that was formed based on freedom, liberty, and our individual rights to pursue happiness as long as we’re not hurting anybody else in doing it.  Our country has only been a country for 232 years.  I personally believe that we are at a crossroads that will prove whether or not our country will be successful as an ideology.  If John McCain is voted into office then America is like Europe in the 1930’s.  They allowed Hitler to change the dynamic of their world, right in front of their eyes, and with their blessing.  And all because they were too lazy to fight or too stupid to question authority.  And we know how that turned out.

I am backing Barack Obama; and it is not because he is a good orator.  What I have learned about Obama is that he is a methodical thinker.  He doesn’t pitch from his gut like McCain does and Bush does and Cheney and Rice and Rumsfeld and the whole lot do.  Obama was criticized for not coming out with an opinion on the Russia/Georgia conflict for a few days after it started.  Well, first of all, he’s not the President and is not the person, right now, who needs to react quickly to a situation.  But with that aside, Barack Obama is the kind of person who will look at ALL of the angles, all of the possible outcomes, all of the people affected,  and how they are affected, before he speaks.  

 

We’ve had how many years now of reactionary politics.  Think about the Terry Sciavo case.  Everyone had an opinion and they came to that opinion quickly based on gut emotion.  Nobody took the time to look at what was really going on from every angle.  Think about the war in Iraq.  

In many ways, Obama is like a good reporter, the kind of journalist that used to exist in this country.  He’s like a reporter who tells the story from all sides first, then forms and opinion; not form an opinion and then mold the facts to support your opinion.  That’s exactly how we got into the Iraq War.  Bush and Cheney wanted to go to war in Iraq since the evening of September 11, 2001.  They wanted to invade Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, and then gathered false intelligence to support their reasoning.  They really had a no case but when they say “9/11″ and “Saddam Hussein” in the same sentence enough times, Americans believe it.  I am continually amazed at what Americans will believe without ever questioning anything.  I don’t understand it.  Again, the same thing happened in Europe in the 1930’s and we know how that turned out.  Hitler’s new Germany was an experiment as well.

So now John McCain cancelled an appearance on CNN because the McCain camp doesn’t like the reporting CNN has been doing.  The McCain camp is trying to “punish” the media, any media, who crosses them.   Who the hell do these people think they are?  That’s not how it works.  The media is free to say or print anything they want.  It is probably the most important idea introduced by the founding fathers of this country.  If we don’t have freedom of the press, and freedom of speech, we have nothing.

McCain’s diatribe on the differences between him and Barack Obama was full of wide generalizations and lies.  Because of the mess created by the Bush Administration, any new Administration MUST raise taxes.  Americans are not stupid enough to think that taxes will not go up.  They know Obama will do it and they know McCain will do it.  There is no other way out.  Somebody has got to pay to get us out of the mess we are in.  Somebody has got to pay for the war and for all the money that Bush borrowed from China.  John McCain thinks that you are only rich in this country if you make more than $5 million dollars a year.  So those who are individually making between, for example, $125,000 a year and $4.9 million dollars a year still deserve a tax break.  The numbers don’t add up.  At least Obama is honest that he will raise taxes.  He wants to tax the wealthy.

America’s reputation around the world, and in some ways between ourselves, must be mended.  Who can you picture representing America to the world.  Is it really John McCain.  A smart man, I’ll give him that, but I’m sorry, he is old, doesn’t move very well, has beady little eyes, an awkward smile and just doesn’t emanate grace and good tidings.  He doesn’t even believe in diplomacy and I know why; he’s not good at it.  It’s the same reason I say I hate sports.  It’s because I’ve never been good at them so I denigrate their worth.

I want a Commander in Chief who CAN lift his hands above his shoulder.   With McCain, the only way he could pat a soldier on the back is if that soldier come back lying face down in a coffin.   He can’t lift his arms high enough to pat them on the back if they come home standing up.

If the natural resources in America belong to Americans then why don’t all companies that mine or extract natural resources share their profits with each and every American.  To me, that is a better idea than a “windfall profits tax”.  

That’s all I can muster for now.  Like I said, I had to do a brain dump and I apologize that this post was not cohesive from beginning to end.  But I think I got my point across as to the issues I’ve been thinking about.

Can McCain really pat a soldier on the back?

I want a Commander in Chief who CAN lift his arms above his shoulders.   If not, how will he ever be able to salute the troops.  And with McCain, the only way he could pat a soldier on the back is if that soldier came home lying face down in a coffin.   He can’t lift his arms high enough to pat them on the back if they come home standing up.

Sarah Palin can’t have it both ways

I’m going to make this short and sweet.

Sarah Palin can’t be the strong, independent, maverick yet feel unfairly treated by the press.  If you’re a strong, independent maverick, then you can handle it, or at least you should be able to.

You can’t be the belle of the ball and the wallflower at the same time. 

So which one is she?

I say she’s neither.  She is just like the press.  Demeaning, arrogant, opinionated, and usually wrong.

Gay gene convinces Palin to abort child

“In recently released medical records, Governor Sarah Palin had tests done while she was early along in one of her pregnancies.  Records indicate that one test, for the supposed “gay” gene, came back positive and Mrs. Palin decided to abort the fetus”

This story is fiction but one might imagine that it could be true. 

I haven’t written much lately about the Republicans, McCain, their convention, or Sarah Palin because, to be honest, I didn’t know what I wanted to say.  I did not feel like researching and quoting all the ridiculous lies that John McCain and his campaign are spouting, and I didn’t feel like researching the books that Sarah Palin wanted to ban from her local library when she was the mayor.  It was just too much work to substantiate fact when it really all comes down to my gut feeling.  

Let’s start with the fact that I finally made my first donation ever to a political candidate.  I sent money to Barack Obama.  No big deal to you, but it was to me.

Every time I hear a GOP candidate, a Republican Congressman or Senator,  a Republican “strategist”, or a run-of-the-mill, everyday republican, complain about what “pundits” say, they can’t quite seem to say the word correctly.  Maybe they have all been hanging around George W. Bush too long now to be able to speak English anymore, but if you notice, they say “pundints”.  What the hell is a pundint?  I have been bitching about this for weeks and finally last night, I saw Keith Olbermann mention it as well.  Thanks, Keith for also noticing how so-called educated people can’t speak properly.  The real issue here is that republicans just repeat what they hear from other republicans.  They don’t do their own research, have their own opinions, or have their own independent thoughts.  So when one starts saying “pundints”, they all do.  Just like when one say to “drill” they all do, and when one says McCain is a “maverick” they all do.  It only takes one republican to come up with an attack idea, or a talking point, and the rest follow.  How very efficient of them.  Only one person in the whole Republican party actually has to come up with an idea.

But anyway, the Republican party base and the republican “pundints” HATED John McCain and said horrible things about McCain during the primaries, right up until McCain was all they had left.  Now he’s their maverick messiah.  Their magical, irreverent, P.O.W., republican dragon-slayer.  (Insert retching and heaving here.)

We need to talk about the McCain camp and the press.  Let’s start with Tucker Bounds, a McCain spokesperson.  In typical Republican fashion he refused to answer a simple question from CNN’s Campbell Brown when asked directly:  “Can you give me one example of a foreign policy decision that Governor Palin made?”  It is a simple question, right?  Just give me one example.   As I sat there and watched this interchange, Bounds talked in circles, was rude, refused to answer the question, and acted like a 5 year old on the playground who was taking his ball and going home.  Bounds tried to say that Palin was the head of the Alaska National Guard, to which Campbell Brown said, “Well, the Pentagon would give orders to the Alaska National Guard if they were going to a war zone, I”m asking what direct foreign policy does Governor Palin have”.  Ms. Brown asked a simple question and got no answer.  Then, the McCain camp expressed their displeasure to CNN.  How dare CNN ask Tucker Bounds such questions and how dare they make him uncomfortable.  WHAT?  Since when does John McCain, or anyone else, control journalists and what questions they should ask.  The same thing happened on Tuesday when a CNN reporter in Alaska was chastised by a republican commentator, Republican Bill Bennett, for reporting about reaction to Palin’s daughter’s pregnancy.  It may have been tabloid reporting but it’s called “freedom of speech” and “freedom of the press”.  If the Republicans had it their way, they would control the media.  In fact, they think they should control the media. George Bush and his Administration tried it and in some ways, was successful.  I’m not going to cite the examples, again, too much trouble.  But if you consider the behavior of the Rep’s and wrap it up into a neat little package, it’s called Fascism.  If you watch carefully the Republicans are trying to control the media.  They are hooked in with big business and trying to control the media.  That is Fascism.

Palin’s speech last night she took shots at the media for being biased against her.  Yes, all of her poor judgement calls and abuses of power are the fault of the media.  Didn’t you know that?  Didn’t you know you’re not supposed to question the Republicans, their viewpoints, their talking points, or their deicsions?  Didn’t you know that republicans don’t have to be accountable for their actions?

McCain picks another Bigot - Sarah Palin

While she was praised for her veto of a bill that would deny same-sex benefits to State employees, don’t send up the rainbow flag too quickly just yet.

Palin vetoed Alaska Sate Bill HB 4001.  Her advisers had told her that HB 4001 was unconstitutional.  So rather than go through the court costs, she vetoed the bill.   But, she signed HB 4002 - to put these benefits up to a non-binding vote of the people.

To summarize, Palin doesn’t believe in same-sex benefits but the bill as written was unconstitutional so she vetoed it to avoid any court costs that would come about as a result of the law.  Then, she signed a second bill asking the Alaskan electorate to choose in a NONBINDING resolution.

The Alaska court ruled about a year before that the state had to provide those benefits to same-sex partners of state employees, but instead of just giving those benefits, Palin pushed for a nonbinding referendum on those benefits.

Alaska is a small place.  The cost of the benefits to tax payers would have been about $313,000.  The cost of the referendum was about $1.2 million.  So she spent $1.2 million to save $313,000.  Hmm, doesn’t sound too fiscally conservative to me.  But then again, gay rights were at stake, and you just can’t put a price on defeating those.

In the course of all of this Palin used the words, and I am paraphrasing here, “Some of my best friends are gay people”.  Yeah, I know.

Well, it’s nice to know that you can trust that some things will never change.

McCain chooses Tina Fey as running mate

It was one of Saturday Night Live’s funniest sketches I’ve seen in years.  The scene takes place at a press conference where John McCain introduces his choice for Vice President.

Tina Fey played the part of some Alaskan woman who was a Governor who has a husband who races snow mobiles, and has children with names like Track and Trig.  Oh and Ms. Fey parodied Rudy Guliani by saying “September 11th” several times in her acceptance speech. 

John McCain, in his introduction to, said he “found” someone from a hard-working middle class family.  He actually had to go out and “find” one.  He didn’t choose one or pick one, he “found” one.  And that is because in John McCain’s circle, hard-working, middle-class people are hard to find.  When you live a life of privilege and luxury, he must have gone out and used “the google” to search for one of the middle class people.  I wasn’t really a joke but Saturday Night Live  likes to be “topical” sometimes.

Tina Fey even parodied George Bush himself by pronouncing “nukyaler” just like George.  Hysterical!!!

And then, get this, she used the title of John F. Kennedy’s book “Profiles in Courage” as a comparison to John McCain.  I could go on about how this character eats moose-burgers and is a member of the NRA but I don’t want to ruin it for you when you see it on You-Tube.

Oh that Tina Fey, she is so damned funny.  But I still miss Jimmy Fallon.

Pelosi starts new PAC called “My-Face-won’t-MoveOn.Org”

I don’t like taking pot shots atpeople just for the fun of it.  I’ll do it if somebody said or did something blatantly stupid, or if somebody takes pot shots at people who don’t deserve it (payback is a bitch), but I don’t do it just for the sport.

However, every time I see Nancy Pelosi on TV, only parts of her face move.  He forehead is so full of Botox that if she got bitten by a mosquito there, it would die of food poisoning.  The odd part is that other parts of her face do move and she has very deep wrinkles around her eyes.  She was on Meet the Press last Sunday and it was quite comical to watch.  She was fired up at times, other times angry, and still other times she was smiling which was accompanied by squinting eyes.  These squints revealed some not-so-flattering cavernous lines around her eyes.  But her forehead?  That looked like the plastic wrap pulled tightly over the leftover ambrosia salad.  It was so tight and unmovable it made you wonder if her mouth woud open if she crossed her logs.

I honestly don’t know if she is open about the work she’s had done.  Maybe she is.  But sometimes, and it is true with her, people get a little too much Botox, which creates a face that seems unreal, unsymmetrical, and a bit scary.

OK, that’s my catty little remark for today.  Sorry about that.