Don't be coy, Barack. "They'll say I've got a funny name"?

I think "hot" words are thrown around too easily by people who really don't know what they mean, especially people who shouldn't be using them.

For instance, I'll bet many people don't even know what xenophobia actually means. Correctly used it describes an irrational fear of foreigners.

So when Obama called our swing staters xenophobes, was he slipping, Freudian-wise? I'm just sayin...what with the birth certificate thing and all.

Relax, folks; it's a joke.

Then there's the word racist--one who practices discrimination or antagonism towards other races. That word's tossed around like a gamecock. What is a gamecock, anyway? (It's a male game bird, not a thing that flies over a badminton net, like I first thought. That's a, a...poppycock. No, that's foolish talk or a popular snack.)

And now for my personal favorite, the politically correct, irrationally coined noun racism: (how this reconciles intellectually with science and anthropology I'll never know; but we do live in the land of Lewis Carroll): the belief that there are characteristics, abilities or qualities specific to each race.

I was taken to the mat on that one by my ex-friends (I have many, hard as it is to believe) whose contentious and obnoxious nature argued such things, e.g., taking exception to the sun rising in the east. He refused to exhibit any sophistication as it related to DNA and tendencies to genotypes. It made me laugh to watch this idiotic liberal make his PC point to protect his ideology. Of course, his SOP was to attack me personally when he was losing his political point, which was all the time.

Words. Just words.

Mulatto. It's the new N word. Watch out. Don't use it. I found that out when I read an article in the Washington Post online magazine by a M word person who suddenly is self consciously--get ready--taupe! So he and the rest of the taupe people in this world have declared that in addition to Obama being the patron saint of taupe, there will be no more M word usage. Then he ranted militantly about Sally Hemmings and leaving her door unlocked for the president.

Exhausting, isn't it?

By the way, do you know or care what a Mulatto is? After all, that's all we've ever heard in this culture, Mulatto this, Mulatto that. A girl from Kansas hears Mulatto, oh probably ten times every one-thousand years or so.

Obama is a Mulatto, a black person's and a white person's offspring. But you can't say that anymore. It's on the Do Not Touch List in Obama's Do Not Touch Book.

Reminder to self: write a note to Barack and tell him that the big fat race cards he just played 3x yesterday? Risky strategy. They work with other Dems. Not with the opposition. And time for another memo to the minions to tell 'em to stop the payback thing, ala Ludacris--read Radio One Mayo's study on modern African-Americans. http://www.blackamericastudy.com/

Better lighten up in swing states with the race thing.

Update to memo: Barack, bad news about Bebe in Israel, huh? Your worst nightmare, kiddo, because he'll take Iran out before you can print up that meeting agenda with Khomeni or whatssiname.

Later update to memo: check with econ advisers on how to re-spin good econ news today about growth and lower unemployment rate...revise "economy in tank" remarks. Find other ways to scare people, etc. Read Clinton's class warfare playbook. Stick with old man remarks--they resonate with kids. You better hope and pray they sober up and vote.

Thanks for the read.

The NY Times didn't "agree" with McCain editorial, so they didn't run it.

And the newspapers wonder why they're going out of business.

Such arrogance is one reason.

"...the other (Obama's) editorial worked for me..."and "...I would have accepted it (McCain's) if the timelines were the same..."

Those are basically the words of David Shipley, a DEPUTY editor of the NY Times to Senator McCain as to why "he" would not use the Senator's editorial which come from an email.

At the outset, the words, "worked for me," that overused Hollywood writers and directors term indicates the man thinks about style more than substance.

The point here is clear: he, Mr. Shipley, a man I can only presume by virtue of his title has no real demonstrated knowledge of military things, has taken it upon himself to demand an entire change in strategy to reflect and "mirror" those of the Democratic front runner for president. Oh, all right, let's assume he passed this by an editorial board.

But then, all of our young people who have really no reason to carry all this angst about things military because after all we do have a volunteer military, seem to have these marvelous ideas about strategies nonetheless, kinda like those games they play on their computers. That's makes them real men, you know.

It causes me to wonder if they really, deep down, wish they were called up. So they can be heroes too.

Grow up, Boys. Worked for me, indeed.

Thanks for the read.

The Hagees, Hard Christian Right & Bad Boy Republicans are taking my party straight to hell. Then there's the spending.

This stinks.

Another Republican congressman, this time from New York, screws up with drugs and alcohol and gets picked up for a DUI. We'll probably find he has another wife and family somewhere.

In the meantime, the Republican Party pays for the privilege of counting the "Christian" vote again with the stupid Hagee and other questionable endorsements.

And the fiscal conservatives are rightly screaming about spending.

First of all, no one's ever heard of John Hagee and secondly, who cares? Hagee and now another Christian unknown has become the news of the day on Drudge and MSNBC and CNN that McCain supposedly is in a deep, right wing conspiracy with, something that could bring him problems. This is another exhausting example of how the lazy media tries tit for tat to ameliorate the devastating Jeremiah Wright connection to Barack Obama. The reports' object of course is to show how narrow minded the Republican Party is and we're all idiots.

Of course, the doctrine of these extreme right wing Christians plays right into the numbskull media's hands. If you have a minute, I'll try to explain it from a mainline Protestant's/Republican's point of view who comes from a Abolitionist Quaker, Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciple of Christ Church founders/builders/elders background. Maybe then my Roman Catholic and Jewish friends can understand why Republicans like me go crazy when things like Hagee happen to my party.

It depends on what the meaning of "it" is.
Hagee's extreme interpretation of the Book of Revelation and his equation of the Roman Catholic Church is with a certain frightening character in one of the chapters; however, he is in accordance with other born again Christians when it comes to "it." That is where the problem comes from when it comes to the rest of the human race and the Christian Right.

It. That one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless he goes through Christ.

Or as the folks on the panel last evening on MSNBC's Chris Matthews talking about it were doing so knowing full well what everyone really knows and don't want to flat say: the issue does point out a tendency toward this basic tenet in evangelical doctrine. It's a tough nut to crack. And evangelicals can't get around it.

It. Salvation through Christ. Period. The rest of the world are lost. No one wants to say it.

There are probably as many as a thousand groups with as many different beliefs. Hagee's tirade (using John's famous apocalyptic dreamscape scriptures in the Book of Revelation which he wrote while imprisoned on the Island of Patmos) describing Catholics is not representative of any one particular denomination in presentation. This view is not held in the body of mainstream evangelical thought from what I could see when I was belonged to an evangelical church for about six or so very, very long years. (I didn't pass the physical to go any further than a Sunday School teacher in their male hierarchy, not surprising to most readers.)

No, evangelicals, regardless of what they call themselves are equal opportunity believers that Christ told them that everyone who doesn't become saved through Him is lost, not just Roman Catholics. But most evangelicals regard Jews as their new best friends and don't talk about RCs above a whisper and certainly don't announce their ultimate damnation in Hagee's style. They talk around it in classes and in sermons but they don't spread it around. They tsk tsk about it privately. Evangelicals take the Great Commission very seriously, as they should, and go for the non churched, the unbeliever. They seem to be at the top of their list.

It.

Why'd I care? I just wanted to sing
I came from a strong, majorly strong Protestant background so I felt pretty secure in my salvation. I just couldn't accept IT. My ancestors were founders and builders of churches, so it was a sad thing for me to realize when in Southern California, in the back country I couldn't find my own comfortable denomination...where there are the fewest mainline churches, where there are mostly and nearly all nondenominational, community "Christ-centered"or "New Testament" ones, code for evangelical, code for no women allowed in leadership, code for sit down and shut up if your hair is longer than two inches.

Sometimes some of the churches were started up by lawyers, or businessmen or a couple who declared themselves visions. You never knew. It always was an interesting job to find a church home in California where most people stopped going to church once they came here, it felt like. One even had a box of Kleenex on the altar. I thought it was an interesting touch. There were two boxes come to think of it.

Well, I didn't have time anyway to get too involved in a church. I was single, had work and kids. I just wanted to sing in the choir. I closed my ears to the sermons and classes and knew better anyway. I didn't let it bother me until one day a man took me aside and said, "You know, Catholics don't stand a chance to get to Heaven."

Dang. I thought. There goes another perfectly good Sunday and another perfectly balanced Soprano section. They were going to miss me.

How can otherwise normal people turn into weird crazies on one day a week I'll never know. Of course, what I've discovered over the years that most people can't face is that they're being lied to. Lied to by a bunch of punks who have free money coming in the likes of which they've never seen in their lives! Wahoo! Wamu! Keep those lies goin and dollars keep comin in for the new building fund, namely the parson's 4000 square foot "parson-age."

Like my daddy says, "Follow the money, Sister. That's where the trouble always starts." Hard to swallow, but he was right. People do terrible things for money. They always have and always will. And it's taught me not to take God for granted and what I was doing was not for Him but for me and my own ego.

Hey, Newbies. There are other ways!
By the way, the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholics, the ones who have been around for two-thousand years or so and have somehow managed to spread the word of our Lord and believe the much same way, although evangelicals won't admit it--except that Protestants have women involved in leading, yes actual Head Ministers (EEEEEK!) and running churches just like we're actual people too.

RCs, believe it or don't, also have women running entire institutions and the men in them. Why do you think they call them Mothers Superior?

Ever met a woman Rabbi? They got them.

Evangelicals, bless their perfect hearts, refuse to acknowledge that Presbyterians, the Lutherans, the Christians, the Methodists, the Disciples of Christ and the rest of us have alter calls...they absolutely refuse. Every Sunday. It is part of the worship. Why? Most of them have never been in our churches. They say we're dead churches. Why? "They just don't feel it." Or they've heard something.

Also, they don't like it that some of our brotherhoods, like the Presbys believe that faith without works is dead. I'm not a Calvinist and I don't believe in predestination and that my salvation depends on it, but such ideas do get the Lord's jobs done. What's it to them? America's been built on such Calvinistic thought. They ought to get it straight. Either they believe in this Puritan, interest-bearing work ethic and live by it or they forgive all debts owed them and toss the whole theme out to live out their evangelical life style.

Seriously.

Besides, some mature Christians consider evangelical doctrine as Easy Christianity. Six Flags over Jesus, one of my best friends calls one the mega churches. Nothing hard...just show up, come as you are.

Do any of you people own suits and ties? Pantyhose? Heels? Just kidding.

Regardless of how these few people "feel," compared with the millions of martyrs over the centuries who have given for our Lord, our orphanages, schools and universities have been in operation for many years, maybe a bit longer than their stucco churches, their new ministries of mom's day out. Some have felt the need to love the Lord enough to work.

Yes, you cynical ones will point out the minuscule comparative numbers of abused children as if they're the norm. Go ahead. In that case, let's just stop all operations and let them all starve...a meretricious end to my article. I can't let that happen.

If indeed it hadn't been for those faithful "works" of the monks across the west during the dark ages, the knowledge of all of western civilization would have been lost. It ain't perfect, but it's the best we've got right now. Which is what I love to tell newcomers who've got all these grand ideas for how to better serve mankind...and there's nothing new under the sun, something else I learned from Mom and Dad.

There are the angry and cruel crusades that won back Jerusalem from the Muslims who took it in the first place. But then, we forget that part of the RCs, those dead Christians who gave everything. I wonder. Do you think they all went straight to Hell? Those who weren't born again the evangelical way? All those martyrs? Dead and gone for nothing. This would be an indictment for sure by a bunch of surfer dudes calling out centuries of serious Christian thought. Amazing if Paul Tillich isn't rolling in his grave. Guess some of us might never know.

I guess God just didn't think about the rest of creation until the likes of Billy Graham and Pat Robertson bumbled along. Two southern American white men who are so important that God waited to grant salvation to mankind until those two--southern--men could interpret the Word. Oh yes, and the late Jerry Falwell. What were these dead churches teaching before these young men came along?

Isn't it interesting? They're all, well, southern?

Evangelicals don't like the confession thing. I don't see a thing wrong with it myself. They think once you're saved, that's it. Well, I believe saved by grace is what's is happening, probably the best deal in town considering what's available. But confessing sure helps me to clean up once in a while.

Dang those purty education directors, anyway
However, I'm not about to get into a spitting match about saved by grace with an adulterous preacher. It's just real difficult for people to believe he doesn't have to work that one off. But he didn't. That's the good news. Other than losing his career and his family, he will not lose his salvation. Even a pastor on whom so many souls depend can screw up so badly and he is still forgiven if he asks sincerely for it.

Forgive? Christ forgives seven times seven times seven times... It wouldn't been so shocking had the pastor's wife not had arthritis. Life and people can be cruel, can they not? Confessing sometimes is the only alternative a person has. That's all there is left. Everyone knows. See what I mean about cleaning up? I hear the Ph.D pastor now sells encyclopedias, a hell on earth for learned man, and the beautiful choir director, also a Ph.D who had teen-aged children who witnessed this public disgrace is somewhere, probably not teaching too many high falutin places now maybe. Who knows?

Maybe enough time has gone by that they've paid their dues for hurting so many parisioners and family members. I've forgiven them, although it changed my view of everything evangelical and I'll never go back to an evangelical church as long as I live, nor will I trust another evangelical church again. Four experiences is enough.

Proposition
As as I said, Christ's forgiveness and salvation has always been an attraction, a proposition, and once accepted the best deal in town, as one can clearly see in this instance. I'm not being flippant, by the way. It is indeed the best deal in the universe. I've always said so.

We "others" too have just celebrated Pentecost Sunday. At least that's what I heard. We too are born again. But we don't roll on the floor. We don't raise our hands in the air. Neither did Martin Luther as far as I know, to whom you should send a thank you note. We don't all shout out Hallelujah. What do you care? Why do you take it so personally if we do not? It says more about you than about us. We don't run up to people and demand to know if they're saved. It's a matter of style, you know. We do it our way. Maybe this is my way. That's why we have denominations.

So enough of that. We've established we don't agree on style. What do you expect? We're WASPs and we like it that way. We're not going to change for you.

Okay. I give up. So...where did you put my party? I've looked everywhere for it.
We're sorry if that bothers you Hagees out there. We're real sorry if that doesn't fit the template of the southern male (there I go again, one would think I hated men--I don't, you know--I adore them) dominated church that somehow took over the right wing of our party back then in response to a bunch of California and New York hippies.

We put up with those very odd ideas of yours then. We hoped you'd grow past the regional dullness of your politics. You haven't. In fact your fear factor has spawned more ignorance. We weren't thinking. We should've known. That was a Nixon deal.

But now it's beginning to make a real difference in what's happening in our country. We may lose this election because of how your intolerance has finally affected everyone else who do not believe as you do. It has to stop.

And. We haven't started on your obscene treatment of gay people.

I wouldn't be so hard on the Christian Right if they weren't so hard on everyone else. I really hate coming down on everyone so much lately, but things are way off kilter this year.

Apples and figs
Although the media's preoccupation with comparing Hagee and McCain with the Wright-Obama connection is downright laughable for lots of reasons not the least is John McCain is not an evangelical, they'll use it. He's he's a mainstream Protestant like me. With Cyndi's money, he's probably Episcopal, a Catholic who flunked his Latin.

Secondly, he didn't sit through 20 year's worth of "GD the Roman Catholics" from Hagee like Obama did "GD America" with Wright.

Thirdly, Wright married, baptized and did the family pastoral thing for the Obamas. Hagee sent a CD to the McCain campaign and offered to lend a hand. The relationship started and probably stopped there. It's really a stupid argument...kinda of like the 100 year war thing. But here we are. Again, we don't get the benefit of the doubt from a media waiting to pounce. That's what happens when people say they're perfect in the first place like these folks do.

Enough already.

Now the media is telling people the Republican Party is being pushed around by folks who say they don't "hate" Roman Catholics but say they're going to a bad, bad place if they don't get born again their way. Moreover, those people are disrespectful of the RC religion because it really isn't a religion at all? I don't want people thinking that of the Republican party.

They're going to have a good summer because of the Kennedy events. Get ready for an emotional one. I know how media people play on events.

And now I'm thinking...
We got an old guy running for president who's looking at a southern governor for a running mate. How depressing. I don't know where to go or what to do. I feel like I'm in a time warp and it's the year 19__, fill in the blank.

Speaking of the Trinity, we'd better start praying for a miracle in this election. We've got a terrible perception problem with independents and they are our target voters this time. We have to have them to win.

Most of them don't care about IT or Hagee or me or emotions. They do care about congresspeople getting DUIs on the public's dime. The closest thing they want to get to an afterlife is for everyone to leave them the hell alone and for their elected officials to do their jobs.

Thanks for the read.

Where are the Republican women at your Arizona barbeque, Mac? Why are you NOT considering a woman for Vice President?

I sent this back to the McCain campaign in response to their latest money raising email this morning. I doubt that they'll even read it:

Look, Senator McCain, I've been loyal for years now. I'm done.

Until you can start listening, I'm basically done supporting the party. They've ignored Republicans in California, they've ignored the women in this party, and now after twenty years I am finally done.

What more incentive do you people need? We have an African American and a woman on the opposition's ticket. Good grief! Are you people mad?

Yes, I'm afraid you really are. I've been afraid of that since I saw how George Bush couldn't even lead us through a war. Obviously any group who could let a man like Larry Craig keep his Senate seat is mad.

You're oblivious to public opinion. That showed nicely during Katrina. I was one Republican who wanted to scream. I was mortified at Bush's behavior. Jindal would be another similar disaster. Believe me when I say these things. He's just like the kid who took over FEMA. No experience. Why do you make these bad choices?

What Republican men have done to our party is ridiculous and only doormat Republican women would put up with it.

I am one Republican woman is is over it. Again, and hopefully for the last time.

I repeat. Why are there no women at this conclave in Arizona?

Of course, the next question is: what are you going to do when you lose people like me? Oh, that's right. You really don't give a damn.

Obviously you don't or you'd have a woman at that barbeque in Arizona! Pisses me off.

Oh, John. And if you need money get it from Cindy. She's got more money than God, from what I understand, if she'd release her tax records, we'd all know.

Thanks for the read.

Psst. Maybe a little shock treatment like this will work. God knows I've tried everything else except taking off my clothes.

Bush's appeasement laydown is Manna from heaven for Hillary and McCain

After all if Senator Clinton wants her inexperienced opponent to sit nice and tall in one gigantic pooh pooh he made back when repeated over and over again his insistence about meeting face to face with the murderous leader of Iran, he from the state who sponsors terrorism who is providing the ordnance that is killing our people in Iraq, she couldn't have asked for a better frame to surround the simp's picture.

The president's comments came today in a speech at Israel's 60th Anniversary which included a small piece about a US Senator who wished he had had the chance to talk with Hitler before he invaded Poland. So, the left went nuts because they were offended. As predicted, they over reacted instead of agreeing with the president that they also stand by Israel.

One has to wonder though if Dubya and Hillary had a nice talk one night, maybe over a cigar and bourbon--him a Coke, in which they decided they'd just put this kid through his paces when the chance came. Maybe Dubya owed Hillary a favor. Since they seem to be on the outside these days, they knew they'd have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. I bet they even let Mack in on it because Mack was quick on the uptake with his "What is Obama going to talk to Iran about?" when explaining this is the same head of state who called a fellow state a stinking corspe. That pretty much says it.

And we're all having an awful lot of fun tonight watching the Obama camp look like fools in response to the president saying something about some senator in the 1930s. I'll bet there are a lot of cranky old Dems tonight angry that they're in this position in the first place--mad at Obama for being so stupid...and angrier that somebody sold them a bill of goods early on about who this Obama was before the Wright fiasco came out. What a mess.

Why even Pad My Resume with Degrees I Never Earned Biden couldn't contain his expletives as he exploded with his usual BS answer. No. Seriously. His response was a learned "b---s---!"

It's makes my little Republican heart sing.

The point is? Even Republicans would rather have Hillary as president. At least we know she won't get us all killed!

And for Barack's information, until January 20 the president is still the president and he will continue make speeches about foreign policy, if that's okay.

Thanks for the read.

Obama attacks: "...McCain is losing his bearings..."

John McCain's campaign responded to Obama "... he used the words intentionally, not a particularly clever way of raising...the age issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning."

Obama then distorts
Obama's camp calls the response from McCain "a bizarre rant." That's a strange choice of words (like the crazy uncle in the attic?).

Euphemistically speaking, we will be looking up lots and lots of synonyms in the Thesaurus this summer, I'm sure. Shall we begin with old, decrepit, elderly, ancient, broken down, passe?

I've deleted a few of my own for the Obama crowd but they're not nearly as nice; nor are they euphemisms.

Obama then distracts
"It's clear that John McCain's campaign is saying this to distract people from the fact that he's just like George Bush and will carry on the same terrible policies as... (paraphrased)" Then ...

Obama attacks again
"...but it's not the kind of campaign John McCain has promised the American people that he would run, which is so sad." I know the Senator and his people are simply sick with disappointment.

Let me get this straight, Senator Obama
I want to get your rules right this time. You and your "new" politics folks can call your opponent crazy and "off" because you're a person of color, right? You pick a fight with your opponent just like you've done twice now with John McCain, one which we must not, cannot leave alone like this age issue, because God knows the press won't look at it.

That so-called Fourth Estate of ours will just let whatever you say ride and your message that McCain's crazy and old will fly like a banner over Doheny Beach on the Fourth of July. Kinda like the staying in 100-year thing in Iraq. You got a lot mileage out of that one.

Yet if we defend Mr. McCain and call your campaign on it, you pull the-little-people-are-on-my side-thing and accuse us of going negative and then we get browbeaten by your thought police thugs. That anyone even challenges you on your policy differences is to be considered negative campaigning.

You basically said so in your NC speech a couple of times when you talked about the Middle East. It was almost like what you accused President Bush of saying to the rogue states who support terrorists: "You're either for us or against us."

Only you are saying that to me--your countryman--not to terrorists!

I don't like that, Barack. That gives me the willies and makes me wonder what's next if I don't do what you want me to do or say. Aren't you supposed to be the one I heard talking about bi-partisanship? Stop calling McCain an old guy and move on to the issues. If he drops dead, so what? What's it to you? It's real simple.

The American people had better wake up. Something smells here and the media's noses are stuffed up.

Thanks for the read.

Hillary runs away with O'Reilly and the fork runs away with the spoon

I sat all morning visualizing these two who--without their aides knowing--made arrangements to meet later in the evening to watch The O'Reilly Factor.

There they linger in their stolen moment, a quiet rendezvous over drinks in the booth in the corner in the back in the dark. He sips a Coke (he doesn't drink alcohol--a good thing) and she slams a double Tanq on the rocks with three olives--a great thing. Good taste, Hill.

They gaze into one another's eyes. He's smitten; she is too. She adores tall, lanky men called Bill. He likes that brain of hers especially since Pennsylvania. (That's why she needs the Tanq.) Who knew? After all her years of O'Reilly/Fox avoidance Hillary and those big publishing types like Murdoch must get each other now. Good. It's about time. There's hope for lower taxes yet.

If it weren't for all those children and the two spouses , not to mention the morals ...maybe in a different time and place these two may have been today's clean alternative Bill and Hillary.

When I finally snapped out of it I sat down to write this post and finally with that imagery in mind the long awaited Hillary-O'Reilly interview began.

Senator Clinton, NOW you've found your voice!
What have we here. Finally a substantive discussion that every mainstream news outlet can eat their hearts out over. She's one tough woman. Tough. Tough. Why. I'd love to talk to her. She reminds me of someone very close to me.

My non plussed husband demands, "Well, hell, Andrea. Why doncha' just vote for her!?"

"I would," I casually answered, "if she'd get on the Republican ticket with McCain as Veep and keep moving center. In fact, I started liking her when she started talking dirty about Iran last weekend."

(smirk)

My husband left the room in a huff. Poor dear. He hates these election years.

Congratulations, Mrs. Clinton. You've broken through to women like me: we who thought you thought we were beneath you.

Keep this up and maybe some of the rest of us who are trying to be ourselves can break through to the other side too and be honest about what we really think without a bunch of people pushing us this way and that to say this and that to make everyone on earth happy but ourselves. (Some of us do that, whether we admit it or not, you know.)

You obviously were enjoying being yourself today, Senator Clinton, and it was refreshing. I may not vote for you (the tax and abortion thing) but I sure have seen a side of you that is admirable and extremely likable. In another place and time we probably would have been friends.

Ironically, it may be women like me--older white women--who could put you in the White House. Women like me who never had an scintilla of power in our lives. Hmmm. I'm getting a headache from all the...well, headiness.

This Bill brings out the best in you.

Thanks for the read.

Jack Mack is back in a big way on The View

If you've got the time and stomach, click below to watch Whoopie, Joy and Baba interview Senator John McCain.

I sure wish everyone had listened to us moderates when it counted back in 2000 when Bush and McCain were running against each other for president. But then, the party had to do its anointing thing to Sir Bush...so sickening.

Gee. We'd have a whole different world, wouldn't we?

http://abc.go.com/daytime/theview/index

The leadership gap between Obama and John McCain will be painfully clear by the time the American people vote on November 5th. That is, if Democrats still have their big turn out.

By then the young senator from Illinois might look like an amateur and real Dems will either vote for Senator McCain or get real drunk.

Or both. Just like they did with Reagan.

Thanks for the read.

McCain-Obama Ticket

I had an MLK-style dream, America.

There they were: Ebony, Ivory posed with Chief Justice Roberts--or was that Thurgood Marshall--behind the great dais at the swearing in at the inauguration.

Michelle insisted upon holding the Bible for John McCain--not a good start, but a start. I remember feeling impressed at Michelle's raw power for as she grasped tightly that Bible with one hand, she was very casually holding Cindy McCain in a half-Nelson with her free arm. Admittedly this is not a dignified change, but it is change nonetheless.

I didn't see Barack. But I know he was there somewhere. Wait, on second thought, that might have been Barack in Michelle's deadly hold, not the new First Lady as I had first thought. By now she had switched to a amazingly tougher grip which utilized her jaw muscles. That way she could discipline her children with just a look and make sure the car got washed. Don't ask me how this wonderwoman does it. Oprah's wondered that too.

Wait a minute. Neither Mrs. McCain nor Barack wear pantsuits and I distinctly remember a gold pantsuit! Could that be Mrs. Clinton in the grip of the new Second Lady?

Well, you can't believe what happened next. I'll just take you along with me on this ultra American democratic magic carpet ride.

An orange-blond floozy-looking kind of woman in a blue dress with a half empty quart of Jim Beam dangling from her plastic alligator carryall that had horseshoes on it and a hoary eyed, red nosed Bill Clinton with long flying hair looking ironically like John Brown tore down the stairs waving a long pointy finger in the air.

As he rushed past the seated dignitaries, including ancients like Bob Dole, George McGoven, all the Bushes, all the Kennedys, even Billy Graham and Jeremiah Wright he ranted "I did not have sex with that woman, Monica Lewinsky." I remember thinking in my dream that I wished I had a camera. It was almost ethereal. But then it was a dream.

When he and the floozy in blue reached the podium, Bill removed his cashmere jacket and handed it to the bewildered, fluttery floozy (she thought it was vicuna), rolled up his sleeves and acted as if he was about to do something he'd regret. Again.

He leaned back, aimed, then took a swipe at Michelle, missed. Then he swung at Thurgood Marshall--or was is John Roberts--missed. Michelle dropped Hillary, never one to pass up a good fight with someone her own size, and took her best Queensberry stance. Make my day, she seemed to say.

Why fight when you can run, Bill grabbed Hillary by her gold Cruilla collar, then took the floozy over his shoulder and carried them both up the stairs into oblivion. I do remember Mrs. Clinton yelling and screaming expletives and something like,"This was supposed to be my day, Bill, you idiot. Let me go! You want a see my blue dress? Who the hell are you? I'll show you a blue dress, Bill, you SOB! "

I love my dreams. Sometimes my dreams are the best entertainment I'll have all week.

This is what we're talkin' about!
It's so crazy it might just work. The McCain Obama ticket, I mean. I think Obama could grow into the job if he could be shown how real life works by a President McCain. He's not stupid, after all, and every man eventually reaches that point of no return no matter what his political affiliation.

Now if we could just pull him off that silly leftist agenda of his (or his supporters'). And that pesky preacher of his (or his supporters')...then there's that wife of his. You don't think they'd have Raul Castro or Hugo Chavez stay over in the Lincoln bedroom...or Jane Fonda!

Now, that's a nightmare.

Then I reread my own March 30Th entry about how Obama disgraced and betrayed his own grandmother to make his pals like him and I got over the "dream."

Nevermind.

(sigh)

Thanks for the read anyway.

Limbaugh: I wish we could kick him out of the GOP. Anyone?

(See also my piece dated February 8, 2008 in which I state my case against Limbaugh in more serious language.)

I think it's time for Rush Limbaugh to stop his assault on Senator McCain. Also, Limbaugh showed huge disrespect for our American system of government by asking Texas Republicans to basically cheat by voting in the primary for Hillary Clinton, which he shouldn't have done.

Get him out
Who does this guy really think he is?

The Republican leadership needs to shun him and his pals. Do we really want his influence, his humor, his ideas, his money? The GOP owes absolutely nothing to Limbaugh, contrary to what he says. They say our party is the Party of the Big Tent. Well, there ain't no tent big enough to hold Limbaugh, what with the head and the rest of it.

It's always an interesting part of human nature that pride follows the exact same route of delivery before you bust your butt on it.

One would think, wouldn't one, that Limbaugh's friends would at least see that he's gone a little too far this time and say, "Hey, Rush, dude...slow down. You're hittin hard on the Hillary thing in Texas. That's not right."

"Ah, screw 'em if they can't take a joke..." he replies as he has another grape peeled by a staff member.

No, instead, they're talking to each other, wondering how they're going to get back at the moderates like me for ignoring their excesses once again: "Hey, Annie, Laura. It's Rush. Yeah. Didya see Texas tonight? Yeah. I did it. Yeah. I. Did. It. Me. Yeah. I changed history. I'm puttin that Hillary broad in the White House. Me. Little ole Rusty from Cape Girardeau, MOE. The fat kid who couldn't get into Mizzou. Yeah, Thanks. I gotta admit it was fun. Aw, but McCain. What a downer. I really wanted to kill him...or somethin"

Guess Rush didn't really figure on how to play with a ex-POW guy. They're usually pretty tough opponents.

Meanwhile, I suppose when you get to certain levels of participation in the game of power, you'll switch sides just for the gamesmanship, especially if you consider yourself a loser at life.

It's the character, Stupid
Rush Limbaugh, the son of lawyers and judges is a spoiled brat who otherwise probably would have turned into a drunken, toothless, corpulent, petty criminal except by his accidental birth on the right side of the Missouri Pacific tracks.

It's time to cut Rusty loose from the GOP. Why? Because he's unrepentant. He won't stop. He just keeps doing it. Kinda like Bill Clinton.

The First Republican (my grandfather) will roll over in his grave if we don't.

Thanks for the read.

Texas Democrats will not allow an Obama win, IMHO

When I was a student at Texas Christian University I learned a little about Texas Democrat politics, and if I wanted to live, Texas football. Not a lot, but enough to know more than the media numbskulls who've never been there longer than two weeks.

Box 13, Jim Wells and Duval Counties, Texas
Easterners think they're so freakin' smart what with their Ivy League schools and their clubs and their ridiculous secret societies. Well, the rest of the country can be twits just like them, especially in Texas.

Power players like Jim Wright, former Democratic Speaker of the House, whose permanent office is located in the library at Texas Christian University, lavishly displays Texas individuality and influence on the rest of ya'll.

TCU,in Ft. Worth, Texas, is my brother's and my alma mater. This kid from Kansas City was considered a Yankee so I wasn't accepted very quickly. After a few lonely, bewidering days I was fortunate to have made some really close, quality Texas girlfriends, the ones whose mamas weren't sitting outside the soroity houses during Rush Week in their Cadillacs waiting for their Niemann-marcus card-carrying Honey Sues to pledge their fave soroities. But that's another article for my "Lucy" blog.

One girl, whose political leanings I won't mention, was another politics junkie like me. We had our own intellectual sorority. We clicked because we liked to believe we thought strategically, rather than with emotion. Of course, we were just kids and were probably just idiots. Don't get me wrong; we were also crazy about guys and getting away from our parents at all costs.

She was my new best friend (I was to be her maid-of-honor at her wedding) whose father was a well-known, major Texas pol from a huge south Texas city who gave me the skinny on dirty in-state politics. Maybe it was just girl talk; though later I read respectable historical pieces that substantiated her underground tales about "Landslide Lyndon" Johnson's rise in the senate, the dark side of the big bosses like George Parr, the political corruption of Jim Wells and Duval Counties, on and on. Of course, her information came from sitting around the Sunday dinner table.

This and other Lone Star State's political lore isn't new or hidden, but it does bear repeating: Texas Democrats have seen (and counted) dead people's votes in some southern Texas counties for decades now, a political fallback Senator Clinton may owe her gods for years to come.

Don't Mess with Texas
You read it as you enter, travel through and leave the state. It's probably important for outsiders to remember. Especially if you're new--and young--in politics.

Thanks for the read.

Temptation in the Garden of Barack Obama

(This is long. You may want to bring a book.)

I don't know what to think about Barack Obama. I want to like him. I do kind of like him in a respectful sort of way, except for his too-serious nature. I prefer my leaders to be spontaneous and given to fun: he is somber and dour. He has rather an economical sense of humor for my taste. I don't need zany, mind you, but a little Churchill would be nice or JFK or Reagan? Teddy and FDR are out of the question, I suppose.

Last night he seemed less bored, less bothered that he had to actually appear at the debate rather than phone it in.

He looks typical though of today's coming of age ruling class, 30 to 50 year olds, a blend of middle aged baby boomer power seekers and very, very rich gen x technocrats. All of them of course are auditioning for jobs in one power arena or another. They all think they're in charge. The me-first kids.

The more serious ones carry a hallmark: they are almost all short on manners--something I see when their mothers and wives are not around, mostly their mothers--and facts; when asked to support an outrageous statement, they typically change the subject and say something like, "but what's more important is..."

God bless them, they're like brand new religious converts, very zealous in their self-conscious, kiss-my-behind way, as-if-they-invented-it opinions and empty Armani styles. Some are shallow and intolerant of people they do not like. Actually, none of this is new, at least in politics. What is new is there's a woman in the room.

But to be fair, I'd like to look farther into this, to see where these whippersnapper Obama people might take us. Could they be right? They're the ones I'm talking about--those who have figured out the values issues (money, status issues, gone beyond the shallow stuff and Armani, ). Where are they in all this? Are they guilt ridden whites, angry, black reactionaries, what? And what is Barack Obama really about? I'm still not sure because all I'm hearing is something very repetitive and meaningless in the long term.

Boomer Box Barack
It is not necessary for Senator Obama to use his outdoor James Earl Jones voice in the preacher tone to get through to my little white pea brain. In fact, it insults the crap out of me, especially coming from a politician. After all, Barack (Barry) Obama is half white, a fact that no one has mentioned anywhere but--ahem--here. Well, he might get some white votes that way. By preaching, I mean.

Okay. We're family. I have to admit. I have fantasies. I've actually thought about voting for Obama.

Maybe, I thought, just maybe he could put the brakes on this black versus white undercurrent we have going on in this country, and the sky would open up, and a celestial choir would sing, and then I wondered...

Who is this Obama guy, anyway?
Senator Obama didn't exactly come up from the hood. He grew up in Hawaii, the only black kid in his class in an expensive Hawaiian prep school and was raised by liberal white grandparents. He did his undergraduate work at University of Hawaii and Occidental College, an expensive church school, got his JDs at the Ivies, then hit the streets as an activist, i.e., organizer, (will someone tell me what that is and who pays for it?). Then he ran for office, lost; ran again and he won; ran for the U.S. Senate and won.

Senator Obama, Michelle and the kids live in a monstrosity in Chicago some obviously grateful Chicaaaagoan gave him between hambiggers and da Bears games. *

Senator Obama says his dad is from Kenya and was the son of a poor goat herder. Actually, his dad was from a family of goat herders; they have thousands of acres of land and thousand of goats and homes worth many, many goat hides. Goat herding has been very good to them. His dad, an economist who worked for the Kenyan government, abandoned him and his mother when Senator Obama was 2. Unfortunately, Obama, Sr. committed suicide later in Senator Obama's childhood. The senator bonded with his Kenyan kin in 2000.

There's not much out there about the white side of Senator Obama's family except his mother came from Kansas and met his father while at the University of Hawaii. It's interesting her background is so muted. As a politico, I have to assume there are problems with the black vote and it's being done to keep attention from his mulattoness. Too bad. As someone who is very liberal in the civil rights area, it's almost as disappointing to me as Michelle's revealing statements--kind of like a slap, a pitcher of cold water in my face as if none of America's white activists sacrificed enough or were good enough for her or him or had done enough to help the civil rights movement.

Such ambivalence, frankly, causes me to wonder if Senator Obama knows himself as much as he claims to. I don't want Obama as president if he can't give credit where credit is due.

Senator Obama's policy stands
Of course, in the debate last night, no one corrected the candidate as he cavalierly cited some phantom, made up stats and notions on the war or on anything for else that matter (NAFTA) so I was left screaming, "Will someone please challenge him?!"

I disagree completely with Senator Obama's stance on Iraq and for that reason alone I could not and would not vote for him. Besides, he's grinding the truth so much even my teeth hurt.

Mrs. Clinton, of course, is also lying through her own teeth and will stay in Iraq for as long as we need. I trust her take the Iraq War to its conclusion. She knows the stakes. I'm telling you, this woman is tough. Too bad she's not a Republican. She'd be a good moderate.

As far as the Senator's hindsight, it is laughable. He has actually minimized the middle east situation into a game of R isk (Tom Hayden is one of his advisers? I heard Dick Gregory's looking for a gig--he'll provide his own case of Ensure.) He speaks in terms of whether the world "likes" us, using it in the same sentence with the strategy word. I don't feel he has a sense of understanding threats to the country, from Muslim terrorist states and terrorists themselves.

Here's the thing. Can Senator Obama, who believes in Israel's right to exist, as he declared last evening with such ferocity, as well as plainly shunning Louis Farrakhan's endorsement, be so naive as to place Israel at risk as we abandon Iraq? Worse, is he that horribly stupid or is he actually lying?

In which case, what? We elect a face? A leader? An orator? A shill? A henpecked man? Take a chance?

Maybe the only differences among all three candidates are the domestic ones, in which case, what are the real differences? There is a national election in which there will be two distinct choices.

The temptation has passed.


Thanks for the read.

*Personally I am very proud that race relations in this country have reached the point where a black woman, Michelle Robinson Obama, was literally given funds and scholarships for entrance into Ivy League schools, while my kids schlepped through state schools, a fabulous house in Chicago and a bitchin' career in a big city--all during my adult lifetime. On top of it all, she may even get to be first lady, all by accident of birth, almost like an white European princess. Wow. What a country!

Hillary. Fly to Reno and divorce Bill. Tonight.

You could still win the primary next week!

Seriously.

Feminists are reaping what they sowed. They turned the other way while their gal got under a powerful man to get to the top--not a particularly feminist way of, well, making it.

Sure 'nuf. Here she is, almost at the busting-through place, and now she can't! Why? She has to play nicey-nice because all the little 30 and 40 year-old spoiled media boys and girls don't like older women who yell; and then call her names and comment on her looks. (Yeah, I did too. I was wrong.) Besides, they have much more fun with people their own age--like that nice Obama boy down the street. Too bad most of them can't read. Hillary should have come out mean and got meaner. She had nothing to lose.

The problem is she's not authentic and everyone knows it. That's why women run from her when the real thing came along. Too bad. They'd have stayed probably, but with Bill, that selfish SOB, who sidelined Hillary, and couldn't even let her have this, no way, especially when he embarrassed her so badly in the campaign. Bill has literally ruined her life. What a particularly bitter experience for this woman.

Jeez. What a crock. They're each other's trophies. Sad.

Regardless, I don't like how the press has treated Senator Clinton, even if she has deserved some of it. Some. After so much toughness this far in the campaign, she deserves much, much more respect. After all, she is an individual running for president, not a woman running for president and that's what's pissing me off.

Yeah, Hillary. If you divorce Bill, I'll vote for ya. And get every woman I know to do it too. This is the only way to avoid humiliation and come out on top by yourself.

More on Prince Barack tomorrow.

Thanks for the read.

Polishing my opinion of Barack Obama...

This will be ongoing with discoveries and my reactions as the campaign rolls along. I've a few already. I suspect there will be many, many more. Let's look at the candidate together for a change.


A Che Guevera poster hangs in his campaign offices.

He refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance early in his campaign for president.

He says he was not raised in a Muslim madrassa; there are indications that he was. Would this make the president of the US more Jihadist target?

This could or could not be a problem, depending upon your point of view. After all, as president he's a target anyway and might well be safer! That may be moot.

Those are three issues which need verification and debate. Frankly, until they hit the major news outlets, I'm not going to think about them yet. They do bother me a lot though if they are true.

America has been very good to you, Michelle
How disappointing to hear Michelle Obama, Barack's accomplished wife, confess this is the first time in her adult life she is really proud of her country.

Really, Michelle? That same country that sent you to an Ivy League school? The same one who just freed 78 million people in Iraq, 28 million in Afghanistan, millions more in the twentieth century? Really, Michelle?

You mean the country that admits the horrors of what it has done to some of your ancestors and has actually ameliorated itself to the point of finding ways for you, the great granddaughter of wronged people, to become a first lady of that country that you're just now proud of? Wow.

Just wow.

Thanks for the read.

Time for much needed R & R

But I'll be back in a few weeks or so, rough and ready with reasons why no one should vote for the Democrat come November.

Thanks for the read.

Limbaugh: "I don't wanna feel it" or "There ain't no Oxycontin at the Hanoi Hilton."

I've always held regular, good Dems to the task of taking on their own extremists. The most respectable Dem of all, Senator Joseph Lieberman, and others took their crazy left on. Not many others had the cajones; as I recall, their presidential candidates jumped through hoops at the Moveon.Org’s “convention.” Isn’t it interesting how the extremes on either side end up looking like one another?

I wanna be the leader! No, I wanna be the leader!
The embittered, power-hungry, wannabe neo-establishment of the Republican Party came out of their clubhouse this week, e.g., Dobson, who finally gets his excuse to vote for a fellow preacher, which what he's wanted all the time...not that's there's anything wrong with that. I wish he could be less abrasive about announcing his choice. Dobson's still a Republican, isn't he

And Limbaugh? Well, it's clear what little Rushie does when he gets mad. He lashes out. Then when one of the greater generation, Bob Dole, asks him respectfully to knock it off, he disses the Senator as if he has nothing more to say.

It’s show time!
This is about power, mostly. These small-souled boys and girls (Ingraham, Coulter) from Hodunk, Wherever, have hit the mother lode and if they make more noise, they achieve more of a sense of power and control. It probably feels good to have millions of people think you're the smartest person in the room, if you're totally out of touch with reality and you haven't landed emotionally. None of these people seemed to have done so, except for Dobson, perhaps. Maybe. Otherwise, why the meaness?

I feel that at the bottom of this unfortunate internicine war being waged against Senator McCain, our presumptive candidate, their fellow Republican, POW, and war hero is human jealousy. Why else would you put the country, the party and the McCains through this if not for your respective inconoclastic, selfish, prurient reasons, Mr. Limbaugh, Dr. Dobson. Mss. Coulter, Ingraham? Has he not won fair and square so far? Has he run a corrupt campaign? Why this outrage?

It's my party, too
Moreover, for the right's information, Senator McCain has taken on many of the questionable items on the right's agenda in order to represent me, some the rest of us, another Republican, who hardly ever is allowed so much as a "Uh, gee, maybe we need to rethink some of this." McCain knew Rumsfeld was a problem; he said so. McCain knew our troop levels were inadequate; he said so. The examples go on.

What the right wing doesn't want to accept is that they have not won the Republican Party's heart and soul. They're sore losers and bad sports, which is interesting considering they loved their greatest generation mythology (the greatness of their own people, their ancestors) so much they're standing in sand trying not to be real. They're on another planet now.

Yeah, we liked Reagan too. He wasn't, however, St. Ronald. As you recall, he had some differences within the party that looked suspiciously like betrayal to the right. He also had two families, like John McCain.

Yeah, we moderates understand what the principles of conservatism are and mostly agree. My favorite insult, by the way, from Rush Limbaugh is I have no values if I'm a moderate. Do you love it? It is precisely my values of compromise, fair play and common ground shared by most Republicans, which save us from the inflexibility, the intolerance of other's ideas, the egos, the hubris, the reationary mistakes made that comes with too much power on either side. I hired myself for the job as a moderate Republican to keep my eye on people like Limbaugh to make sure he's not speaking for me.

I bought this microphone, Mr. Limbaugh
These silly, ridiculous talking heads couldn't even endure one day of the torture and abuse from primary elections, let alone what John McCain took for years; after all, Oxycontin wasn't usually approved for pain at the Hanoi Hilton.

Thanks for the read

Call to Mr. Blackwell: Talk to Hillary about those awful suits, please!

Someone at Menopause Central needs to slip a call to Mr. Blackwell. Maybe then Hillary would get the hint. Good grief. You're a woman; dress like one. She has lovely hair, skin, jewelry and her coloring is beautiful so there's no reason for her to look like her staff, the Huns, just hijacked a Salvation Army truck.

Gold is definitely not her color
She must associate gold with royalty. I noticed she's worn it three times in one week: one was a wide lapelled, ugly, ugly pantsuit (does this woman have legs or do we have to wait for her own memorial to find out?). She wore that one twice. Then the second one, a more understated number, plain as Jane, but gold. The only difference in most of her get-ups is the color, usually dark.

Then there was another attempt--the gray and black Nehru suit top--which she's thrown on three or four times. Of course, that power jacket got its share of laughs.

She has worn her wardrobe out, I'd say. If she's going to president of the United States, I would appreciate her trying to become more fashionable. She ought to look at Andrea Mitchell, for instance. She has fabulous taste and knows what looks good on camera. You'll have to forgive my insensitivity to the old gal, but really, she's trying to tell young women they gotta look ugly too to become president? No wonder older white men do not like her. The fact that she refuses to act the part bothers me.

Just find something more refined, Mrs. Clinton. Clothes don't only make the man, they also make the woman regardless of size.

Thanks for the read.

Californians to Mitt Romney: Yeah, but can you type?

I'm of the generation who actually remembers his late dad, George Romney's, try for the White House. He was a good man as I recall, but then America would never have elected an LDS member as president. He gave the party establishment a run for their money, but it was always a long shot for George Romney. So it is for his son, Mitt.

In this all-war-is-bad atmosphere, even if the war is in self-defense, the idea of another businessman, like George Bush, taking over the country scares the beakers out of me. How many Mulligans do we get with this Pentagon/CIA/FBI thing, especially if the Dems get the White House?

During my corporate career I worked for high-level executives (two CEOs of international corporations, a major ad agency owner, and some other very interesting people up and down the line) as a secretary/legal assistant to corporate counsel/technical and copywriter. Almost every one of my successful bosses had this is common: they knew how to choose the right person to get the job done. Sometimes, they failed, but not often. Ninety-five percent of them probably got where they were because they broke the code early in their careers, knew how to beat out problems, found the secret to success: find and pay the right people, get existing deadwood out of the system, present and explain the project with passion, get buy in, then delegate. How simple is that? Why, it is pure MBA syllabus material.

Speaking of MBAs, George Bush, the manager, stayed with Donald Rumsfeld because, frankly, Dubya, a businessman, didn't have the experience to run this or any other war. That's another managerial trait I observed: if don't know what you're doing, fake it, then find someone to do it for you...just buy your way out of trouble. The second one is delaying the inevitable action because your fellow managers are also your dad's personal friends.

As a Republican, I hate that precious political capital was wasted by this president because of this hands-off attitude. This tendency to misplace loyalty, by the way, has been a wall over which mavericks, independents and outsiders to the party know they'll never scale. Republicans tend to give the nomination to those who "deserve" it. Like George Bush, because, aw shucks, his dad was such a good guy and good Republican. It's just how it is. Republicans have done this forever and I hate it. Every time I bring it up, inevitably, a young, buttoned-down kid tries to placate me in the most condescending, patronizing languge one would ever hear if he were below the age of 40. It's is what it is. Nothing is new under the sun, thank God.

Meanwhile, Romney got his money from his pop and is a businessman who performed well when he ran the Olympics. He became governor of Massachusetts. As far as I know, he may be just another zillionaire running for president who hasn't been any closer to "knowing" about war--in the biblical sense--or what war really is. He thinks he does.

Am I saying a president should have a nodding acquaintance with things military? Right now, at this time in our history?

Probably. Maybe just a little bit?

Romney's empty suitedness bothers me more than anything. Besides, Governor Romney has broken my cardinal rule: never trust a man whose fingernails and hair look better than your your own (if you're a girl).

Nice manicure, Mitt.

Thanks for the read.

It's time for Conservatives to forgive Senator John McCain

Good heavens. It's like the right wing of the Republican party is finally getting their wish: achieving martydom by pretending they're on the cross for Christ rather than support anyone but their own inflexible, polarizing--did I say unelectable-- phonies like Huckabee of the swift tongue and Romney of the $40 million dollar open checkbook.

He's George's kid, after all
They (the ancients in the GOP) did it before in the 2000 presidential primary and they're doing it again (they never learn). George W. Bush had no business becoming president and most of us knew it, especially those of us who were so bitterly disappointed in the SC campaign. It was George W. Bush and the establishment machine who destroyed John McCain's chances then, not a very proud moment for my party because of some misplaced values.

I was always a McCain fan even before he ran for the senate and quite by accident. For years, in the late sixties, I wore an ugly gray metal POW bracelet on which was brazenly stamped his name and date of capture. Naturally, I was delighted to work for Senator McCain's presidential campaign later in my life. So, I'll admit that it took me a while to forgive such treatment by my party of a true American hero.

That's politicians and politics for you; you can't take it personally. Maybe so, but the SC shenanigans against Senator McCain were personal and obscene and it was the establishment that allowed the Bush people to get away with it. But, as my grandfather, the original Republican, said about entrenched party politicians, "Once you buy these guys, they're yours for life."

He was right. I'm reminded that power trumps money sometimes.

So the right wing kids are taking their balls and going home?
Limbaugh, et al. won't support John McCain. Pity.

I guess that's just about 17 million more registered Independents and disaffected Dems we regular Republican folks need to win over to Senator McCain's side (Limbaugh's alleged number of chronic listeners).

The popular spokespeople for the religious Right and the religious Left have shown they're simple, intractable and stunningly willing to expose their own life ignorance--which they must consider the antithesis of pride and ego--doing all that good and all, standing up for what is "right" (don't we all, BTW?).

By answering the call from their "gods," they view themselves as actually putting themselves on the line in taking the "risk" for their cause (and ego), on and on, whatever keeps them in the limelight. Most of these well-knowns are natural iconoclasts who became entertainers by uttering interesting, usually rehashed concepts in a new way. Political cartoonists have been doing it for years. So have satirical cartoon/graphic novels and periodicals.

I wanted to hear what Limbaugh would say about McCain, so I tuned in. Some woman with a cobra for a tongue stated how she hated John McCain and how he hates we (sic) Conservatives. She sounded to be around 35 or so, who knows? But her viciousness toward Senator McCain was telling as to her lack of grace; her delivery was hostileand she was practically screaming at her host in the most self-righteous language. Then, when her diatribe was finally done, the following (paraphrase) was Limbaugh's response;

Rush Limbaugh: (after great sighing, pausing) Now you see, Ladies and Gentlemen, how real people out there feel about John McCain. They see him as a traitor to the Repubican Party and to Conservatives causes. I just don't see how we can possibly ignore his liberal tendencies, he will turn against us again and again, he'll raise taxes, his best friends are Democrats, blah, blah, blah.

Wait a minute, Rush. You certainly went a long way when you ignored George Bush Sr's and Jr's liberal tendencies. Have you forgotten New World Order, Read My Lips, and my personal favorite, "It's not really amnesty." among others? Oh, I forgot. Rush is pretty star struck and got an invite to the Lincoln bedroom from the Bush Srs. That changed everything in his very, very small world.

It's the heroics, Stupid
Who'd have thought the Republican Party would get a do-over? Other men would have walked away, but McCain stuck out his gimpy leg and limped forward anyway. We are watching a great man rising to greater glory. What a time to be alive.

John McCain is a national hero and deserves every American's respect. That is a challenge I will issue to anyone who comes back at me about McCain's so-called disloyalty to the party. God help us all if we can't listen to our mavericks and the ones who make us recall what could happen, what might happen and what should happen. The ones who are right are seen as statesmen, charismatic leaders and heroes.These great men and women overcome odds just by becoming forces of nature.

Our country needs great men again. Our boys need them.

John McCain has walked it, he's talked it. He's earned it and he deserves it. Now, it's time for Conservatives to get over it.


Thanks for the read.

Obama's missed opportunity

In reviewing the South Carolina primary game films, I hope someone in the Obama camp points out the missed opportunity during the last Dem debates.

He thrust with his remark about Hillary's service on the board of directors at WalMart. Most people in the audience didn't connect the dots or know to do so. Here's how he might have successfully and in a gentlemanly way dissed Big Girl.

Immediately, Barack should have parried, then outshouted her with, "Mrs. Clinton, WalMart alone is responsible for the closings of thousands of mom and pop general merchandise, grocery and drug store all over America. How did they beat these home town businessmen? How do you think, Senator Clinton? The cost of their goods was so low because those goods which flow into the stores in whose name you sit on a board of directors are made by Chinese labor that is cheap and easy, sometimes even enslaved Christians. Because WalMart ordered huge numbers of goods, they could make and ship them at a fraction of the costs for other merchandisers."



That would have opened up the Chinagate issue and she would have been doubly offended. Good attack, great results. It's easy but you gotta know everything there is to know about the world ala Clinton. Here is the psychology of man versus woman that has yet to pay out. Just a step forward would have taken away any advantage he had because of cultural bias and fear. Just a step back would have indicated he was talkin with the massa's wife and invite what he got.

Instead, his lack of experience let her pull the slumlord counterattack. She never should have got that far. He would've taken her out in the second sentence if someone on his staff had had more sense. He now needs major players, mainstream, black, white, Asian, polka dot people to help the campaign. May be he can remember to connect the populist dot next time.

In the meantime, tonight Obama has won the SC primary by a humongous margin. Watch for a new Bill Clinton charm campaign sprinkled with a little nugget of fear here and there about Obama's background. We'll see how long they wait. Go for it, Barack. Just get smart, will ya?

Thanks for the read.