Slow News Week

Did you ever wonder?

If there was a celebrity feud, or celebrity drunk driving arrest, or a celebrity murder going on this week, you never would have heard about the the guy with non-responsive Tuberculosis who crossed back into the US at the Lake Champlain – Canadian border.

What do you think?

Run, Fred, Run

Fred Thompson, is an older, smarter, balder, more intelligent, male version of Elisabeth Hasselbeck (the smarter part wasn’t tough to beat).   They are both one-track-mind, talking-point-memo-reading, blind-presidential-trust-giving, right-wing conservatives. (That’s a lot of dashes.)

I say, let him run.  America is, at its very core, so sick and tired of their kind.  It’s just a shame that he will spend so much money, which could go to feed the poor or cure aids or cure cancer, on a campaign for an office that he won’t win.  Good night and good luck.

By the way, the few times I have typed the word Hasselbeck on my blog, I get a spell-check error suggesting “Horseback” or just plain “hassle”.  Coincidence…..you be the judge.

Who among us will STOP the war?

Please view this amazing commentary from Keith Olbermann.

PORK

A lot of not-so-politically-savvy people like me don’t know that most bills sent to the president for signing include line items that have nothing to do with the bill itself.  I just found out about this in the last 5 years or so.  This is how the special interest groups get what they want by making deals with legislators.  I am usually not in favor of this practice and it usually pisses me off when I see what was added.

However, in a recent war spending bill – the one where the time-lines for withdrawal were removed – a line item in that bill called for an increase in the minimum wage (finally).   I guess I will have to rethink my position on these line item issues.

Don’t let the enemy know your plans?

George Bush vetoed a war spending bill that had withdrawal time-frames.  He said that letting your enemy know your plans would embolden them (talking point memo) if they know our plans – (FLIP)

He then had a press conference the other day where a reporter asked if he thought the recent “surge” was a success.  He said he would wait to comment on that until September when the report of progress would be released from those on the ground in Iraq.  He was then asked by a reporter if by stating “out loud” that the report would be released in September, that the insurgents would make sure that August would be a terrible month in terms of the number of military and civilian deaths.  Mr. Bush actually said that August could be a ”bloody” month.  He stopped himself half way through the word “bloody” and said “bad”. (FLOP).

Memorial Day

It’s not quite Memorial Day yet, it’s Sunday.  I can only hope that all of the flag encrusted paper cups and napkins being used this weekend bring about some sense of real patriotism.  There is nothing that bothers me more than people who use symbolic, commercial goods and yet have no intention of honoring their true meaning.  It’s like people who supposedly celebrate Christmas (the birth of Christ) and sing “Rudolph” – I don’t get the connection.  It’s like big box stores who have a Memorial Day sale on water pistols.  I don’t get it.

I’ve said it before, and will again:  I’ve never served in our armed forces and have no idea what that is really like especially in times of war.  But I am proud of our men an women in uniform who voluntarily server our country so that I have the right to say and type whatever I want on this blog.

 To my protectors of my freedom, please come home soon, be safe, and know that Americans love and support you.

Donald Trump is like George Bush because of Rosie O’Donnell

Donald Trump now reminds me of the Bush Administration.  Let me explain.

First I can’t believe that Nancy Grace on CNN let Donald Trump call in on her “hot line” and let him drone on forever (I don’t exactly know how long because I got sick of it but it went through a commercial break or two) about Rosie, as if he is the authoritative source, not her publicist, her agent, her lawyer, or even HER.  What really bugged me is that Trump started this diatribe about how unprofessional she is by leaving early when she only had 3 weeks left, then it was 2 weeks, then it was just “a few days left”.   And I thought “wait a minute!”.  How did we go from 3 weeks left to a few days left in a matter of a few minutes of conversation.

The whole experience of watching this seemed like a metaphor to me of the Bush administration and how the supposed facts get twisted, reduced, sliced and diced.  Then they are repeated over and over again until the brain dead television audience can recite it back word for word with blank, cold, zombie-like stares on their faces.  If you say it enough times, people will believe it.

Now, I don’t agree with absolutely 100% of everything Rosie says, but I must say that when I was home sick last fall with a back injury, it happened to be when she first started on “The View”.  She had a lot to say and maybe didn’t always say it right.  I know I don’t always say things 100% correctly.   But I knew what she meant and she opened up dialog about topics that were not being discussed elsewhere.  She has said, and hopefully will continue to say, things out loud that need to be said.

Viet Nam vets

I guess I am too young to remember this and I feel bad that I don’t know enough about it.  When the Viet Nam soldiers returned home, they were not treated well and I guess I don’t understand why.  Today when troops return home from Iraq or anywhere else for that matter, they are often greeted by crowds of people at the airport and at minimum treated as heroes when they come home.

 I live in Maine and it is a customary, or rather tradition, for a group of civilians to meet and cheer for troops coming home via Bangor International Airport, no matter what time of day or night.   On a recent trip to Atlanta I noticed the same thing when I came up the escalators to the baggage claim area.  I don’t understand the difference and I feel badly for the Viet Nam veterans.  For me, I want them, as well as our troops today, to know that I personally want to thank them for serving our country……..and me.  I am too shy to walk up to a soldier in uniform and shake their hand and say “Thank you”.  I think it is my lack of knowledge about war and being a soldier that makes me too self-conscious to say anything directly to them.  I love our troops and I am sure that most other people probably do too.  On behalf of those of us who, for whatever reason, don’t say anything directly, or out-loud, I want to say THANK YOU and if you need a hug we have one of those for you too.

Zap 2 It

If you don’t have digital cable and are tired of watching the TV schedule scroll by at a snails pace, check out www.zap2it.com. It’s free and you can find what’s on now and for the next several days very quickly and easily.

Oh, the politics

I am not affiliated with a politcal party.  I am however affiliated with the human race.

I think its safe to say there will be more on this subject later.