Pick Me! Pick Me!

I know it is late summer and people are hot and bored and just ready for something to break the monotony of the unrelenting heat. (Or am I alone in my quest for something that doesn't resemble living on the ass crack of the sun? And the new fall catalog from Boden ain't helping. Dang the English and their clever interplay of tweed and polka dots.)

So who Obama, and in lesser respect McCain, is going to pick as their VP is garnering a lot of attention and verbiage from the chattering classes. My old standby, Salon, has had some interesting things to say about it. Editor Joan Walsh isn't blown away by the short list that many people are proposing for Obama—Tim Kaine, governor of Virginia; Evan Bayh, senator from Indiana; Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas; and Joe Biden, senator from Delaware. Meanwhile many Clinton supporters are outraged Obama is considering another woman for the position.

While I had really hoped that Jim Webb, in particular, would keep his name in the running, I am not overly worried yet about what Obama is going to do in regards to this decision. So far his campaign has been pretty mistake free and I doubt that any less effort or attention to detail is going into picking a VP. And let's face it people, this is a VP we are talking about, aside from Darth Vader's Dick Cheney's current reign of terror, VP's haven't been know for being of that much import. [My husband joked that the VP should be someone the right REALLY doesn't want as president to insure that nothing tragic befalls Obama, not that I even like to utter that idea.]

McCain's decision has mostly been discussed as a way to bring his campaign some good news, now that the septegenarian has taken to attacking Obama with ads showcasing Britney Spears. Oh lordy. And then there are the tales of faithful water boy Mitt Romney doing all he can to secure the nod. Bless his pea-picking heart.

Any body you would like to see as the candidate's picks (realistic ones please!). I know my husband is jonesing bad for an Obama/Hagel ticket. He loves Chuck Hagel and thinks the party crossover thing would be a slam dunk.

God Fearing

I guess it isn't enough if you believe in God and attend a worship service for some people, now you can't be too liberal or you might end up on the wrong end of a shotgun.

Ok, that is a bit extreme, but still, this guy who went postal in Knoxville at a Unitarian Church yesterday supposedly targeted the church because their views were "too liberal" for his liking.

Gosh, people, can't we all just get along???? (She says with only minimum sarcasm.)

This just goes to show you how great the divide can be in our country when it comes to our viewpoints, although this is admittedly an extreme way of handling that divide.

Is it really so hard to agree to disagree? To live and let live? To do unto others?

I have several good friends in Kville and this occurred quite close to where a couple of them live. They know a church member there. It is just sad, sad that some people are so deranged or sick they think the only way to solve a difference of opinions is through violence.

Gun control anyone?

Double Damn

Well damn it all to hell.

Robert Novak (you know of Valerie Plame exposing, mowing down an old homeless man fame) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Why can't the people I think are bad simply make it easy for me to continue to think they are bad, rather than be real people who have calamities and bad things befall them???

No word on whether or not the tumor is malignant.

Love Child

A gentle reader (thanks Wes—although you know you are breaking my heart) pointed out the recent Enquirer story about John Edwards' affair and love child yesterday. I had heard this earlier this year I guess, just prior to Edwards dropping out of the election or right after, I can't recall exactly, but had not put a lot of stock in it b/c as you may remember I had a bit of a crush on John and just couldn't bear to think of him going down the Clinton adultery track.

Well the story is back. 

Salon even alludes to it today and the possible reasons why the main stream media isn't pouncing on it. Say it ain't so John . . .

Robert Novak Is An Ass

No sense sugar coating it dear readers. I don't know how many of you heard about it this week with all the hoopla around Obama's World Tour, but syndicated conservative columnist Robert Novak, of exposing Valerie Plame fame, hit a pedestrian this week in his black convertible Corvette. The Prince of Darkness mowed down an 86-year-old homeless man.

Jon Stewart said it best I believe:

Road Trip

As Obama wraps up his world tour he seems to have done a bang up job overall, not that the right hasn't been salivating for a faux pas on the candidate's behalf. He has avoided mispronouncing names, he hasn't oddly fondled another world leader and most importantly, perhaps, the rest of the world (with a nod to Sally Field) likes him, they really like him.

So yeah Obama. Congrats on showing the people on this planet outside of our borders that Americans can be eloquent and rational and inspirational.

Perhaps my favorite part of the whole week requires another nod to Stephen Colbert who has been on a role this week (although The Daily Show's anchors' ode to the media's love of obama runs a close second). His commentary on the entire media accompanying Obama on his trip (except for Chris Wallace of FoxNews) is a riot.

Even Colbert doesn't want the world to think he is a FoxNews anchor. Now that is awesome.

Best Week EVER

Maybe McCain's goading of Obama to visit Iraq wasn't such a good idea. Now of course I don't begin to believe that Obama's trip was motivated solely by McCain's taunts. I would imagine a trip of this magnitude has been in the works for some time.

The highlights for McCain this week?

• Leaking when Obama was going to show up in Iraq, kinda a security no-no.
• Slamming Obama for his speech in Berlin—"I would rather speak at a rally or a political gathering anyplace outside of the country after I am president of the United States," McCain said during an interview with NBC that aired Thursday night. "But that's a judgment that Sen. Obama and the American people will make."—Well, McCain has also given speeches outside the country while running for president.
• And that speech Obama gave in Berlin? It attracted 200,000 people. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND. Something tells me that McCain would not garner that much attention overseas, and that has to sting.
• McCain did get to ride around in a golf cart with former President Bush. That had to be a thrill.
• McCain's Op-Ed piece got rejected by the NY Times.
• Finally, McCain's plans to give a presidential speech aboard an oil rig was nixed due to a "storm." It might have had a bit more to do with the oil spill that happened near the rig and would have been visible.

Maybe things will look up for Mac next week.

The Surreal Life

Pardon this brief foray into my personal life. 

When you marry someone who has been married before and has children, there are a lot of things you have to take into consideration. One of these is the ex, especially if there are children involved, because the ex is always going to be a part of your life. So you think about dealing with the ex at the big events, graduations, weddings, showers, births, that sort of thing. One thing I never really considered however, is what happens when the ex dies.

Due to cancer, this happened in an untimely manner to my husband's ex earlier this week. Today was the memorial service. (Dang you Catholics get up and down a lot, not even talking about the kneeling thing. Give me a Presbyterian service and a nice long 20 minute period on my ass any day.) Out of support and respect for the step spawn, we went to the service.

It was the most surreal experience of my entire life.

Admittedly I have not heard many good stories about the ex from the husband, so my viewpoint may be a bit skewed. But even the step spawn hasn't spun the most favorable tales. So to sit in a place of worship and hear the ex extolled as a loving individual with a zest for life, a love of her family and the graciousness to accept a death sentence was an unusual experience to say the least. (At least it makes me confident that, indeed, no one speaks ill of the dead.)

My point? Well I guess it is just that in life (and politics) there are really two sides to a story and generally I would dare to presume that in both sides there is some truth.

And now my question. Can someone, under the circumstances of knowing your time on earth is truly limited—and not in the uncertain way that any of us could be looking at the grille of a semi at any moment—change? Can imminent death make you more kind, more caring, more forgiving, more patient? Or is that just a wager people place in the hopes that there is a hereafter?

Nothing wrong with hedging your bets, I suppose.

I promise to get back on track with all things political asap.

The Truth is Out There

McCain has a new ad out, calling attention to Obama's poor attendance record for Afghanistan-related Senate hearings. In the past two years, Obama has only attended one of these meetings. Ok, so maybe that ain't so great. But wait for it . . . .

The kicker? McCain has attended NONE. Yep, zero, zilch, nada, niet, keine. All together now class—hypocrite!

Here's more about it from ABC News. 

And for some more fun with John McCain from last week's The Colbert Report. The last two are my faves. I wish I had some 3-D glasses. And I have to ask, does pizzazz make you gassy?

A Modest Proposal

(My apologies to Jonathan Swift.)

With the economy in the toilet, banks failing, soldiers dying in Afghanistan (remember the War on Terror front that  we were "winning?"), and Bush doing the happy dance toward war in Iran I try to operate under the assumption that it can't get any worse.

But when it comes to Dubya's administration, never say never.

Yesterday I read about the White House's current proposal for recipients of aid under federal health programs. Needless to say this plan is not doing much to make me a latter-day convert to the Bush way. One part of it requires hospitals, etc. to certify that they won't refuse to hire someone (nurses, etc.) who object to abortion and even some kinds of birth control. WTF?

The reason for this? So federal money isn't “support[ing] morally coercive or discriminatory practices or policies in violation of federal law." Dear Barbara.

The New York Times has more on the whole shebang, but this part seems especially pertinent to me:

The proposal defines abortion as follows: “any of the various procedures — including the prescription, dispensing and administration of any drug or the performance of any procedure or any other action — that results in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation.”

Mary Jane Gallagher, president of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, which represents providers, said, “The proposed definition of abortion is so broad that it would cover many types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and emergency contraception.”

While I really am trying to control my "outrage" over things these days, this just seems like a last ditch effort at extremism when it comes to women and their bodies. One, which unfortunately, will have the most detrimental effect on low income women. You know, the ones that need assistance with birth control the most because they can least afford the expense of another child or a child period?

My question remains to all of these anti-abortion, anti-birth control people—What happens once the kids are born? Are you going to provide for them then, emotionally and financially? If you truly believe life is sacred, doesn't that extend to their life outside of the womb?

If someone could answer that one for me, I think one of the great mysteries of the universe would have been solved.

New York State of Mind

Ah, a little reference to Billy Joel. Not a bad way to start off the morning if I do say so. I've been thinking about this whole wooha over the cover of the latest issue of The New Yorker, where Obama is depicted as a muslim and his wife as some sort of Black Panther militant.

Everyone is all in a tizzy over it. Part of me gets why—the "smart" media is concerned that the average American won't get the point The New Yorker is making. Well some won't, that I don't doubt, but then again something tells me those people don't regularly come in contact with The New Yorker anyway. Hell! I don't read The New Yorker—not enough pictures;)—but don't use me as a litmus.

I kind of thought it was all a bit much, but then this morning I read something on Salon that made me really think that. Gary Kamiya wrote about the kerfuffle (!) and referenced Rush Limbaugh's old comment about liberal's losing their sense of humor. Sadly I am starting to think that may be the truth. There have been other things on Salon lately that illustrate that point as well. 

On the site's War Room, Alex Koppelman sites a quote from a writer for The Atlantic about our level of outrage over everything (God knows I am guilty of losing my mind over the littlest thing) being off the charts. But then several writers on the site, including editor Joan Walsh, took Obama and Bernie Mac to task. Obama for having Mac speak at an event and Mac for doing some sexist jokes.

A comedian is going to tell jokes. And today, most of what people find humor in is putting others down. Maybe that isn't right. But for now it is what amuses us. Perhaps one day mother-in-law jokes will come back in. Who knows. But I do wonder if our nation, liberals and conservatives, are having a hard time finding the punchline these days.

Words to Live by

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.

Henry David Thoreau

My Middle Name? Hussein

How about this for a bit of levity on a Friday afternoon?

Apparently some people on Facebook have created a group where everyone has taken the middle name Hussein in solidarity with Obama and the crap that he has been getting from the right and some of the media over his own middle name. It kinda amuses me, yet seems silly. Although giving the man a hard time because of his name is also silly. It's just a name people, it isn't like he had any say in it. Learn more from the links below.

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22236035533 (I can't link to this one b/c I don't have facebook page. Sorry.)

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2230697/Barack-Obama-supporters-declare-Hussein-is-my-middle-name.html

www.dailykos.com/story/2008/2/29/23632/8875/674/466123

Smoke and Mirrors

Rational minds are saying that Iran's recent missile launches (which apparently have been beefed up thanks to the magic of technology) were an effort to give the country more leverage should they decide to come to the table and talk about disassembling their nuclear program.

Meanwhile, equally rational minds such as Salon's Joe Conason are warning us that the Bush administration is laying on pressure about a potential military strike against the country. (I guess Dubya had enough "negotiating" with North Korea and doesn't want to appear soft??)

Not only would this be disastrous in terms of world order, it certainly wouldn't solve anything. Attacking Iran isn't going to stop terrorism and extremism. More than likely it would increase it. Nor will military measures against the country make gas prices better. I am certain the opposite would happen, as the Middle East would be thrown in even greater turmoil. And it won't improve the situation in Iraq, which might actually be getting better through the support of Iran, its neighbor. Go figure.

The Bush administration assures us that they would use force as a last resort. Well we have heard that bedtime story before and more than 4,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died because of it. What further atrocities will our country and the rest of the world have to endure due to the irrationality of this administration? Their flagrant disregard for reality continues to astound me, just when I think they have reached their limit.

Every day I am left questioning if we can just make it until the end of Bush's term. 193 days and counting . . .

Careful What You Say

The media today seems to be paying some attention to Jesse Jackson's supposed "gaffe" on Fox News earlier in the week. In case you missed it, Jackson whispered to UnitedHealth Group executive Dr. Reed V. Tuckson Sunday morning, thinking that his mic was off (presumably), "See, Barack's been talking down to black people ... I want to cut his nuts off."  

The former civil rights leader seems determined to flush any legitimacy he has remaining down the tubes. What is with him and Al Sharpton? Are they both such media whores now that they don't care what kind of attention they are getting as long as someone, ANYONE is listening to them? They both seem to crawl out of the woodwork at the most inopportune times and do whatever they can to diminish other African Americans in the spotlight.

Meanwhile, the GOP side is having its own diarrhea of the mouth. Yet the media isn't really saying much about this. Does McCain have naked pictures of Wolf Blitzer in some sexual act with Sean Hannity??? Responding to a question about a survey that shows increased exports to Iran, mainly from cigarettes, McCain said, "Maybe that's a way of killing them."

Well nice one Mac. Right up there with your Beach Boys rendition of Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran. You really are a kind and gentle-hearted soul.

Taking a Stand

Well God bless him for his strength of conviction—NC state employee L.F. Eason III resigned his job rather than obey NC Governor Mike Easley's directive to lower the flags to half mast in honor of the late Senator Jesse Helms.

As my post about Helms death on July 4th indicates, I am not a fan of the late senator, but I think I will have to add my name to Mr. Eason's list of admirers. I hope he finds new, more favorable employ quickly.

Humming a Happy Tune

My buddy in the blog-o-sphere, Creative Kerfuffle, recently requested her friends to send her their fave tunes for her to download. This of course set me off on a musical journey that harkens back to my days as a dj at my beloved alma mater.

My mind has been like a hyper juke box the past several days, thinking of songs and bands that I love. Meanwhile, the CD player in my kitchen has had the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album on repeat. Listening to it while cooking or eating made me realize just how perfect an album it is. Each song flows into the next and even the songs that you may not think are on the same par (such as "Getting Better" or "Lovely Rita" although I defy you to get either one our of your head once you start humming them) truly stack up and hold their own with the openly brilliant tunes (i.e. "A Day in the Life").

Me being me, I tried to think of other albums that had the same flow and consistency and level of greatness. The first one that popped into my head was U2's The Joshua Tree. Like Sgt. Pepper, in my opinion, it doesn't have a weak link. Separately the songs are great, but put together they are nothing short of mind blowing.

Anyone got other suggestions?

The Magic of Myths

It is hard to know what exactly to post about on the day that the Senate gave the Bush administration and the telecom industry free reign to shit about the 4th amendment. But who am I to complain? I wasn't using my civil liberties anyway—Ma Bell feel free to listen in! Interject a comment even, maybe you will have some luck convincing the step-spawn that she might need to get a job in order to pay her bills. (Unless of course she has discovered the mythical money tree, in which case, can I have a graft to grow my own . . .)

I guess it is obvious that I am not pleased with this decision, but neither the Democrats or the Republicans are interested in what you or I think about this issue. The Dems are trying to stave off criticism going into the elections this fall and the GOP is in full CYA mode because they know what Dubya and his cronies have done is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I need to go lie somewhere peaceful now and think of happy thoughts, moonbeams and unicorns and the 4th amendment, and that damn money tree, that would make everything better . . . 

Presidential Trivia

I was reading the latest Vanity Fair last night. (Yes the one with Angelina Jolie on the cover looking like sex on a stick. That woman is enough to make you want to switch teams, but that is another post altogether!) Anyway, there was an article about Bill Clinton and it mentioned how he was one of only three democrats to be elected to two terms in the White House in the 20th century and to serve the full eight years. 

For some reason this sparked my curiosity. Of course I figured FDR was one of the three, but I couldn't come up with the third. So I called my go-to-source for all things presidential trivia related, my father. His answer—Woodrow Wilson. Mystery solved.

Of course then I wanted to know the comparable facts about Republicans. So I asked that and was supplied with the correct information as well: Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.

This has no real point or reason, it just intrigued me.

Grasping for the Right Words

Political analyst Paul Begala yesterday on CNN's The Situation Room:

"Part of presidential leadership is stagecraft and inspirational leadership.

Ronald Reagan had that in spades. I think my old boss Bill Clinton gave a pretty good talk. And so does Senator Obama. I think it is a big part. The ability to move the nation with words from whichever side of the aisle you happen to be on is very important.

I think after—look, we have had George W. Bush for almost eight years, seven-and-a-half years, and watching that poor man try to finish a sentence is like watching a fat drunk guy trying to cross an icy street."

I think Begala might have nailed it with that last sentence. I know I was laughing my ass off when I heard it. And it certainly goes a long way in explaining quotes like this one:

"It's very interesting when you think about it, the slaves who left here to go to America, because of their steadfast and their religion and their belief in freedom, helped change America."
George W. Bush in Dakar, Senegal, July 8, 2003

Nice one Dubya! 196 days . . .

RIP

Maybe it is somehow fitting that in the year where America has come its closest to electing a black man as our leader, and will, I hope, actually do so this November, that Jesse Helms must pass from this world.

Helms spent his 86 years on this earth doing mostly things that I didn't agree with. My first two memories of the man centered around anger and embarrassment. Anger that I didn't turn eighteen in time to vote against him in his 1990 re-election bid and embarrassment that when I went to Europe in the summer of the same year people might associate me with the man if I told them what state I was from.

Helms was racist, bigoted, backward and best forgotten. I just hope that as his kind passes from this earth we can come together in a better place with more tolerance for all kinds of people.

Weinnie, Anyone?

"The passion is raw, but the hot dogs are cooked."

That was the sign off I just heard to the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Only in America.

Irony, Anyone?

Today's news is all about the freeing of Ingrid Betancourt in Columbia, along with several American hostages, all of whom have been held for years by the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, a terrorist group. This is great news. Betancourt was a candidate for president in Columbia when she was abducted six year ago. For me, the most poignant moment was the mother of two embracing her 19 year old son and 22 year old daughter. Just think, these young adults were 13 and 16 when their mother was kidnapped, still children.

Anyway, apparently McCain is big buddies with the president of Columbia. And while this daring rescue attempt has been in the works for a long while—the Columbian defense department had people infiltrating the terrorist group to pull this off for years now—it seems singularly ironic that McCain, and his lapdogs Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, were on hand in Columbia the day the rescue was completed. Fox News, of course, tried to spin it like McCain had some hand in freeing these people, which makes the network seem like an even bigger farce than they usually appear to be.

Meanwhile, McCain has shaken up his campaign staff and seems to be leaning even more in the direction of Bush-land by having Karl Rove's top disciple, Steve Schmidt, leading the campaign and two of Rove's other former advisors have also been named as a part of McCain's camp. WTF? If McCain doesn't want to come off as the second coming of Dubya, this is SO not the way to go. Any idiot can see that. But what puzzles me even more is why Mac would think that Bush still has the winning ticket for the presidency. His approval ratings continue to inch southward and today the latest figures came out on jobs and we have lost even more jobs than they initially believed for the months of April and May. So far this year, the country has lost 438,000 jobs, an average of 73,000 a month. DAMN. The Mac camp's response? We need to stick with the economic agenda of the last eight years. Why you may ask? Because "The American people cannot afford an economic agenda that will take our country in the wrong direction and cost jobs." Hello! Are they even paying attention???

Happy 4th

I have been thinking about patriotism as Broad Minded prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July. Admittedly I am not your typical flag-waving, Uncle Sam hugging, proclaimer of all things American. That is not to say that I don't love my country—I would point towards my deep fascination with all things political as my way of expressing my love of country and what it means to me to be an American.

For me, being American is about having the right to speak my mind without fear of retribution; it is about the right to make the choices, within the law, that are right for my life; it is about having dominion over my own body and my home; it is about making the world a better place when I leave it from when I arrived; it is about being passionately committed to upholding the beliefs our country was founded on—life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness—and the law that codifies these beliefs and rights—the US Constitution; it is about the duty I have to uphold all of these rights for myself, my fellow citizens and future generations.

So I may protest what our politicians do; I may rail against the loss of liberties and freedoms even when they are for our suppossed good; I may welcome someone's choice to not wear a flag pin or to even burn the flag in protest, but I do all these things from a place of love and commitment and pride. I want this country to be everything it can be, to truly BE the greatest democracy on the planet. And I believe this is only possible by constantly questioning the decisions of those in power.

That is what I will be celebrating tomorrow, as I eat my burnt weinnie. How about you?

Nailed It

I don't know how ya''ll feel about Garrison Keillor, but I have a bit of a soft spot for the man. I don't know if it is the odd grate of his yet-still soothing voice, or his white knuckled grip on things that many of us no longer even realize we miss, such as radio shows. Maybe it is that I was granted the oh-so-coveted (in my mind) spot of attending a local college football game with my favorite teacher the year after I was in his class and he listened to NPR and Prairie Home Companion on the drive back that evening. No matter, Keillor's  quiet observations often wow me.

As did this column he wrote for Salon today:

www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/2008/07/02/little_league/

Odds 'N' Ends

• John McCain has missed more Senate votes than Senator Tim Johnson, who you may have forgotten, was felled by a stroke and out of work for 10 months.
• Apparently, gentle readers, you have saved me the cost of therapy.  A recent Newsweek article says that many mental health experts consider blogging to be therapeutic for their patients.  But please, don't send me a bill.
• Only 202 days left of the Dubya presidency, so as we head into this patriotic holiday weekend, reflect on this, one of my all-time favorite quotes from our fearless leader: "There's an old saying in Tennessee—I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, fool me once—shame on—shame on you. You fool me, you can't get fooled again." Au contraire, Georgie-boy, if 2004 showed us anything it is that we are most definitely capable of being fooled twice.

Stick to Your Guns

Three days later and the media (both right and the rest) are still freaking out about Retired General Wesley Clark's comments on McCain from Sunday's Face the Nation. (I bet Bob Schieffer is giggling with glee still).

Not interested in taking whatever points they may have scored from misconstruing Clark's remarks, McCain's campaign has roped Senator Jim Webb into the whole thing because he said McCain should calm down and that politics should not be mixed with the military. Dear Barbara.

For those who may have missed it, Clark simply said this:

With the nut-nut being, he praised McCain's service, but said that he had not had executive responsibility or served as a wartime squadron leader. Both true. Clark added that riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down are not qualifications for being president. Again, true.

But the best part? Clark isn't backing down. Last night he issued a press release, as well as appearing on MSNBC to defend what he said. Here's a snippet from the press release:

John McCain is running his campaign on his experience and how his experience would benefit him and our nation as President. That experience shows courage and commitment to our country - but it doesn't include executive experience wrestling with national policy or go-to-war decisions. And in this area his judgment has been flawed - he not only supported going into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq, but has time and again undervalued other, non-military elements of national power that must be used effectively to protect America. But as an American and former military officer I will not back down if I believe someone doesn't have sound judgment when it comes to our nation's most critical issues.

And here is the comment from MSNBC (and yes I am enjoying that someone finally helped me figure out to inbed video - thanks Chad! - I am techno illiterate!)

And what, you may ask, do I wish McCain and the media had been focusing on the past three days? How about the 29 US soldiers killed during the month of June?