Swift Boat Politics: the Dem's final "victim" argument

They've even given it a name.

Obama mentioned "Swift Boat Politics" this morning in his reactionary speech defending his usage of lipstick on a pig in the context of this election.

BTW, does this guy EVER say he's sorry? That's really all he had to do. But no, his arrogance and tin ear when it comes to women, won't allow his ego such a failure. He just defends no matter what he says...or changes his position without apology. Strange guy.

Anyway, I looked up the term in Wikipedia and found this.

Of course the left's reaction to the legitimate practice of character testimony for a candidate is puzzling to me. Are they saying that regardless, it is wrong for the candidate's acquaintances to say what they know...ad hominem?

I don't think so. I think people are just passing on information. What should the Swift Boaters have done...say Kerry was a great leader, when they knew he wasn't? That was not up for debate--the man failed as a leader.

The usage of Swift Boat Politics is an interesting tactic, although it's nothing new. It's basically the 21st Century version of using McCarthyism as an excuse for revelations of bad behavior in the past. It is also simply a victim hood response which is what these Dems are about anyway. When the going gets tough they cry Swift Boat Politics.

Nothing new.

Thanks for the read.

Fox's Juan Williams compares Palin choice to Affirmative Action

On Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Juan Williams could barely contain his anger as he flatly told the white people on the panel he didn't want to hear complaints about affirmative action ever again, now that this woman has been selected. This woman is Governor Sarah Palin.

Not only does Williams continue comparing apples and oranges (Obama for president, Palin for vice president), he arrogantly dismisses Governor Palin as a totally unqualified person to be where she is, as if her accomplishments were nothing.

It will be fun to watch the Governor take these media egos farther down as she continues to win the hearts and votes of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas, Indiana...

Gee. I'm amazed they can get up in the morning now that reality is hitting them--Obama may not win.

Thanks for the read.

You silly Europeans. Stop insulting me already.

Regarding Obama's trip to London:

Michelle Henery, reporter for Times of London, gushed with another black reporter on Fox News this morning that Europeans and the English could "...finally feel really, really good about themselves again..." after the past eight years of George Bush.

Excuse me? She had insulted an entire nation and didn't even realize it. Her arrogance and her youth had precluded any reality or judgment from seeping through that vast ego of hers down to whatever cortex she might happen to have inherited.

I want to scream at the arrogance of the media today. And so, with that said, I will continue my own blogosphere callout at those like Michelle Henery, Andrea Mitchell and all of them who pretend to send me their news.

Would Ms. Henery rather feel dead after the last eight years of terrorism caused by the unchecked build up of al Qaeda in the Middle East?

Would she like to experience a fear that she surely would have had to endure after eight years of unchecked corruption caused by her pals Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schroeder who basically kept the barbarous Saddam Hussein in business? Oh yes, unchecked corruption which brings more terrorism. Bush stopped that.

Would Michelle like to live in the land of unchecked nukes that would have come from not only Iran but from North Korea because of the business dealings from France and Germany, and those peaceful really, really "eastern" Europeans, the Russians? Iran's real close, you know, and oil's king. Bush stopped that.

After all, remember, the reason France and Germany weren't coalition supporters wasn't ideological; it was pure economics--and cover up for bad deeds. Good old Jacques and Gerhard had been breaking the rules for years with Saddam and thumbing their noses at the rest of the world. Their reason for not invading Iraq and allowing Saddam's reign of terror to continue was pure D money and personal aggrandizement and greed.

The French weren't fazed by their graft. Kiss our frog behinds and while you're at it, stay away, Americans; we've always thought you were tacky.

Thank God for Tony Blair, by the way, the only Brit since Margaret Thatcher who has a conscience plus the courage of a lion. He's paid for it in an existential way, but he will be seen favorably in history for what he's done, as will George Bush.

So, preach to me, dear old Europe about unity and peace at your own risk. However, since half of Europe's populations now seem to be Muslim and as far from my own Judeo-Christian value system, I can't imagine we'd have much to talk about anyway these days, Sharia Law being what it is.

I'm getting--to use the words I heard this morning--really, really tired of little girls and boys barely past puberty preaching to me about good times and good feelings while the rest of us grown ups looks like horse's rear ends for keeping theirs safe.

I'm almost as tired of watching the Prince make gaffe after gaffe and not be called on them by anyone.

Go tend your hair and your make up, Michelle. And when you're a big girl, like Andrea Mitchell you can have your lips done like hers and be on NBC and ask the really, really tough questions. Of course, you'll be talking with a veil over your face, so it won't matter what your lips look like.

Silly Europeans. Don't insult me anymore.

Thanks for the read.

McCain can choose anyone he wants for VP--as long as she's black ...

plays a mean, almost naughty Warsaw Concerto...

loves pro football as much as I do...

and can take Obama to the cleaners and back on foreign policy.

Oh my goodness, could you contain yourselves?

I have nothing more to say other than exhort the Republican males to look at the Obama juggernaut before them.

This is like it was in the JFK-crazy 60s. If they ignore it they do so into oblivion.

And then there's Hillary comin' round the mountain when she comes. The fat lady has yet to sing, if you know what I mean.

Thanks for the read.

Scott McClellan to O'Reilly "I wasn't quite born yet, I don't think."

That's the response to Bill O'Reilly when mentioning the title of an Elvis book as similar to Scott's: What Happened.

Just as Scottie said this I grabbed my remote and stopped the show. Suddenly I came to a realization. Is it all about age? Not war, not taxes, not culture. Age? A generation gap again? Has Hillary become what they all hated? After all, things really aren't that bad.

What is it the Dems have to say? What is it we're doing so wrong?

Obama
The black intellectual whose mother and father abandoned him. He's pure Alinsky.

Ironic. Saul Alinsky was Mrs. Clinton's mentor, a thought that almost caused me to jump at a possible debate point. Then I'm let down and nearly nauseated at how the Left always comes full circle. It's sickening to me. Their foundational philosophy doesn't seem to progress. Is it feeding on its own? Are the Democrats blaming Mrs. Clinton for Bill Clinton's excesses? Yes, they are. And yes. She deserved most of it.

So. Hillary's old and out of it. Hillary's not what Obama's voters want now that he's in the race. It's about age.

Obama thinks we've got a bad economy. And the war's bad. Plus other things. Unemployment is at 4.5%.

(smirk)

The surge is working and the Iraqis are starting to take hold of their country, slowing but surely.

(smirk)

The other things are, well, we're not sure yet what they're so upset about because they haven't told us yet.

(smirk)

Kos of www.dailykos.com
Typical of the youth vote?

The American/Latin revolutionary, the one who has lived in war. And yells at people about war. And forgets that George Bush the Elder saved his butt from war in El Savador, but he's so young I can forgive him. Nevermind. He can't forgive me. He must be heard at all costs. He's another dangerous one because he is entitled and obnoxious and doesn't respect his elders. Maybe his only exposure to elders is people who make war. But I doubt it.

He's angry and young. Maybe he just needs a good woman. Oh, he's married? Maybe the Internet is his biggest problem...and another revolutionary who keeps handing him a bundles of cash, George Soros. Someone get him out of here, please.

Ditto on the war and the economy from even from Kos's POV. What's the beef, really? I still can't figure out what everyone's so mad about. It's gotta be about age.

Sorry. They just weren't that into you, Scott.
My vote for the most dangerous one of them all because he was so close, oh so close to power and pretty stupid.

And because he was so close to power he's been attributed more influence than he actually had as it turned out.

Scott really didn't know that much. He was likely on an unwritten Republican man's probation. Rove, et al thankfully knew early on he wasn't that great...and because they're Republicans (remember, I worked with them and am one so I know how we think--almost, because I'm a woman, so it's not a complete fit) they didn't want to hurt his parent's feelings. Besides, they were contributors, after all. And Republicans are gentlemen...

Poor Scott. He burned a bridge that he'll never, ever, ever, (how many evers are there in the Republican dictionary?) rebuild, poor boy. His major problem is he comes from the Republican mindset that because is white and middle to upper class he is also entitled, which he might be. However, since he turned on his own, it probably will not be a happy outcome for him and the Mrs. I certainly hope Mrs. McClellan has her china registered at Home Depot because that is where she will be able to afford her dinnerware from now on.

Captain Courageous says it's about age too. Those old guys actually "sold" a war. Can you imagine using "propaganda" in a war? What a concept. What an imbecile.

Of course the question is would any of them actually hold and also shoot a rifle if push comes to shove?

Thanks for the read.

Obama's 3/5ths of a man? Is that what the Florida and Michigan Primary voter count turned into?

What an embarrassing development for a bunch called The Democratic Party at a time when they're about to either nominate a woman named Hillary Clinton or a black man named Barack Obama.

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.

Media punishes Hillary for RFK gaffe; shows clear bias for Obama

They're punishing Mrs. Clinton for her factual and tactless remark about RFK which has brought the politically incorrect topics to about eight now, hasn't it, in the Democratic presidential campaign?

1. Barack Obama's background.
2. Jeremiah Wright.
3. Bill Ayres.
4. Surrender comments in Iraq he considers off limits.
5. Michelle Obama's officially not to dissed.
6. Barack Obama's grandmother.
7. The bitter and gun comments.
8. RFK assassination.

I'll keep a running tab of things we Americans cannot talk about in this land of the free, home of the brave.

For Pete's sake, and with due respect, let's move on.
Hillary's acknowledged it was tactless. What a bunch of dweebs. No wonder the immature media types can't function past their own navels.

I suggest this is why we do not enjoy meaningful and positive political discourse in this country. The playing upon people's emotions for political gain and money is the reason. This is a fairly new phenomenon in America. I say fairly new because the Hearsts and yellow journalists were always on the periphery.

Alas. The Fourth Estate has been bought. It's now just a matter of who is the highest bidder and if his politics happens to be on the side of freedom. There are just a few players, you know. Anyway, pray to God whoever wins this communications war is on the side of your freedom because that is the only thing that stands between us and tyranny.

So, now that's Hillary's screwed up with the RFK--in the old days, that wouldn't have got out of the newsroom until after her administration--she's in their crosshairs. I'm just amazed at the hysteria this morning at the mere mention of a name and an act that occurred how many years ago in a historic context? Forty. Forty years ago!

Not gods--not even demis
Amazing that the children of the people who were most affected by the Kennedy assassination could hang on to the Kennedy mythology so long. I told ya it would be wall-to-wall, somehow, one way or the other, didn't I, when the Ted Kennedy news hit last week?

I just don't want to go through this whole lie again with my country about the sacrifice and godliness of the Kennedys. Please. No more needles in my dilated irises at midday.

I've been aware of the Kennedys and their aura since I heard about them when I was a kid in 1958 while I was watching the Democratic Convention. I saw Jack Kennedy and Mrs. Kennedy and thought she was nifty and wished I looked like her. I dressed like her. That was about it. As far as the rest of them. Eh.

This is who the Kennedys are. They're people who wear really nice clothes and have lots and lots of money that their families made for them so they could wear those nice clothes, go to cool schools and look great so you could act like an idiot and go ooh and ah over them. After so much oohing and ahhing, they knew they would become powerful and great in the eyes of men.

Here's who they really are. Just like every other family who choose to do what they do and there are many in this country: They are politicians who signed up to be public servants...not gods. Just people. Not gods. No different than a guy who gives his life on the front lines of a war in Iraq. Not gods. Yes, he did give his life. But so did that guy in Iraq, remember? No different than a man who serves in a prisoner of war camp for 5 or so years and gets his bones broken. Not gods. They know what happens when they become public servants, that they may get killed because they're not gods.

I hate to seem provincial, but it also bothers me that none of the Kennedys have ever worked an honest day in their lives. They never had to. Philosophically, theoretically, practically, really. Even in the back of their minds, if they eschewed every penny, and took an oath of poverty, they knew they could get it back at any time because money was always, always there. In that sense, it is the closest thing to God that the Kennedys get.

That may mean nothing to a lot of you. But to me, it means a whole bunch. Not everything, but a lot. Unless a person knows what it means to work for a living and to care for other people, I can't imagine he can know what life's really about. I didn't get it till I had such an experience of the total responsibility of feeding my family by myself--alone. It's a view that would take a long, slow argument to talk me out of considering the pain I suffered in finally understanding and finding a decent role of breadwinner. It changed my world view.

Yes, Robert Kennedy was a brave warrior and we grieve for the loss of him (I cried like a baby at both assassinations) and the many other brave warriors who have given their lives for America on Iwo Jima, Omaha Beach.

I just can't help but think. Isn't singling RFK out somehow wrong and using his memory to inflate Mr. Obama's importance in this campaign hypocritical? What about the process?

I'm also wondering if it is also erroneous to tiptoe around a historical issue and if Senator Kennedy would approve of such pussyfooting considering that peppery nature of his!

Sorry to bring everyone back down to earth.

Get ready, kids, this is probably going to be a maudlin, Kennedy summer--kind of like the one I had in 1968. I'm not looking forward to it. In fact, a condo on Coronado is looking sweeter every day. It's something to work harder for. I'll have to with the new taxes I'll have to pay.

(sigh)

Thanks for the read.

Barack says Iran's just a tiny country. So was Germany; just ask Einstein.

One of the reasons FDR was so hot to trot on The Manhattan Project was because of the strategic interests of this tiny country--Germany--having a nuclear bomb. Einstein sent the famous letter that alerted F. Roosevelt of the urgency of an atomic bomb project to respond to the fascism that Adolf Hitler offered Europe, and that this little faction of Nazis would find a way to rule to world with their own bomb.

Amazingly we face almost exactly the same scenario in the middle east while we again sit our kids down and answer questions like, "But, why do we have to actually hurt them...kill them, Daddy? Isn't that? Well...Jennie and all her friends says it's mean."

Obama and his followers are factually wrong and philosophically wrong. He's wrong, wrong, wrong. He knows nothing of life and nothing of the world. More importantly he has the wrong information. They're also weak.

Look at the correlation I've just placed before you and think. Things and people don't change.

Also, Cindy McCain: release all your tax returns immediately. Gotta do it, girl.

Thanks for the read.

I wrote this email to my subscribers today along with the above blog.

Subject: I had lunch at the Hotel del Coronado today

They say there's a ghost there, you know. I wonder. I certainly wouldn't be surprised.

Coronado Island is a turtle's throw off San Diego available via the famous Coronado Bridge. I had their fabulous cioppino while I watched the hotel guests ooh and aah over our gorgeous weather out here in sunny CA. We are blessed. Every time I'm there I feel almost like a tourist because when the tab comes I've spent as much as being on vacation.

At the table next to me were affluent Czechs and Russians also spending money like crazy. I had to laugh to myself that I would be seated next to a bunch who remind me of rather lugubrious time in my life when my ex-husband of three months, the Czech who married me for US citizenship (I didn't know).

It was during that courtship and strange marriage that he embellished our relationship with the horrors of communism--his father was a party leader. I also found out about how Eastern Europeans have a tendency to get anti Semitic after the fourth Vodka, in the morning.

Because of their high status, my hubby's family had a chauffeur and a phone, and a four room apartment, a pride over which this American couldn't quite show enough appreciation in his opinion. However, considering the basis of our union I don't think a little extra effort would've made any difference. I can say my heart overflowed when I first viewed the see-through coffin lid in his father's funeral pics. Top notch.

Absolutely top notch. I had to admit I'd NEVER seen something like that in my great American family. WE just went for average walnut, oak if we wanted to put on airs.

I couldn't top this one. That's for sure. No sir. I hope that I had finally shown enough respect for his Slovakian roots. Indeed. I could not top an ivory acrylic coffin lid that very closely resembled a canopy cover that was probably cut down from some fab 50s OC design manufactured at by one of our guys out here in sunny CA. It was just too ironic.

My ex had run off to Sweden in the 70s to a Beatles concert, then off to Canada and never returned. Then, lucky me, it was off to Orange County and the rest was...I guess we can say it was his bad. If it hadn't been for the inconvenience and the notching part, I suppose I could just forget it. But there is that notching part that everyone seems to have to do. "How many is this now, Honey?" This question usually came from my mother's most competitive sister. The one my mother hated.

Anyway. He never thought he'd see his mother and sister again.

Now, I was sitting next to an entire group of rich children of communists.With their parents, and my ex husband's parents, they didn't stand a chance. They wouldn't be having lunch here. They'd be in a one or two bedroom apartment working for the state.

Reagan saved their lives. I knew that as sure as I was sitting there because of what I heard happened there in each of their daily routines and lives under communist rule. I'm so, so happy for those eight people and their children. They were having the time of their lives.

I shake my head. I have to ask myself a lot of questions about what if? What if we hadn't listened? It's so tempting when you're tired.

So, then on the way home, I tuned into Huge Hewitt and thought more about appeasement. . We just can't give in to weakness.

It's about where Iran is now (strategically)...now. So I wrote this. Hoping I could still change a few minds.

www.Planetcalifornia2008.blogspot.com

Thanks for your support and pass it on if you like it, dump it if you don't.

Barack over reacts to Bush appeasement sentence in Israel speech.

Senator Obama: you've done exactly what your opponents thought you would do. You've over reacted and turned inside out over a statement that should have been left alone. Why? Because you're an amateur who belongs in the White House in Haiti.

Are you saying you don't agree with the president?

Are you saying you agree with the president?

What is your problem with the statement exactly?

Why are you so upset?

Did President Bush call you a name?

While we're on this subject of qualifications, since you're showing your lack of them, did you ever attend an international relations course?

My husband wants to know if you've ever watched a TV Western.

Were you ever taught in a practical way how to handle these set ups? This was a set up, you know, Barack. You bit, big time.

Why are you trying to frame this as your foreign policy? Aren't you and your people more organized than this? Didn't you want to roll out something a little more comprehensive?

You're going to fail because suddenly you've got Israel as your fulcrum. Wow! How'd that happen?! You didn't want that, did you? Now you've got a problem. Now what? How had you planned to defend Israel from Iran, those folks you plan to talk to, those who consider them corpses, dogs, pigs, human excrement?

That's the trash talk you choose to ignore; in addition you consciously choose to ignore that our soldiers are being killed by them with their insurgents and munitions. That doesn't seem to bother you at all, does it? That reeks that you would be so open about that. You can consider meeting with these people and talk, while our soldiers get killed by their rockets.

Talk. Talk. Talk. Talk your brains out, kid. As Senator Clinton mentioned, "I think he gave a speech once."

Why, Senator Obama, the Iranian regime you're so anxious to have a cigarette with and appease -- I don't know what else to call it--what are you going to use to appease them with other than the State of Israel--may even pull a latter day Khomeini and Iranian student kinda move and keep you there your entire presidency! Better watch it.

Stranger things have happened. Just ask Ahmadinejad. He was one of the captors at the Tehran Embassy, after all when they kept our people for, what, 400 plus days while Jimmy Carter stewed? Good Christian that he is, the great man predictably let all those folks sit.

Moreover, you'd best choose a hawkish Veep. I advise you to take along some good reading--may I recommend treatises on state crafting and war and peace keeping?

But enough of this fun and back to reality, this simply looks as if you've reached for this event to demonstrate that your new best friend is really Israel (covering your old statements) by distracting what you said about talking directly to Iran and now attacking the president.

It is an opportunistic attempt to show people how strong you are. You have failed because you have shown yourself to be weaker and reactive. You should have waited.

You and yours are immature, ego driven and disorganized.

You started this discussion by stating that you would have direct, unconditional talks with Ahmadinejad immediately.The number one problem is we don't negotiate from weakness. If you're going to president, I can't imagine you don't know that and acknowledge the reality of power and keeping power. Who's telling you otherwise? George McGovern? What losers are advising you? Even the bosses in Chicago know that.

The other problem is that you are using false facts to back you up. You seem impatient, not willing to do the work and research. Lazy. More likely, you and your friends are unwilling to listen to truth if you don't like the sounds of it.

The third problem is you're clueless about diplomacy and how things work in the bad world or you're lying to your supporters and you're just a damned politician like the rest of em. The south side of Chicago is different that the Middle East. You're not a statesman.

That shows you are provincial, not ready for prime time.

By the way, we are in multilateral talks with North Korea for one reason only. We refused to talk directly with NK directly six years ago. Okay? Madeline Albright and Kim Jong Il danced on a stage in the 90s while the North Koreans happily thumbed their noses and built their nuke capabilities anyway during "talks." It indeed set in motion the North Korean nuclear program ten to fifteen years sooner than it should've been. It was a monumental failure in judgment on William Clinton's part.

You Obamas need to get this right before you use it. That's why the NKs are at the table. Until the other nations pulled the NKs to the table, did the US agree to participate. Got it? Your supporters and surrogates are out there flapping their cheeks about all kinds of foreign policy stands about which they are stupid--and wrong and ignorant, which is worse. There also incorrect about other historical facts using Nixon's, Reagan's and Ike's names in vain, which is funny because all of these men were hawks and anti leftists of the first degree. They'd have Obama in parody by now.

Anyway, Barack, you don't just pick up a book and learn this stuff by reading it...you live it, you learn it, you hear it and you watch it. For years and years. Then you listen to people who have done just that and have participated successfully in the process.

Then there's that darned arrogance of yours again.

We negotiate from strength in the United States as a matter of policy and to suddenly stop because of some freak of nature election which somehow allows fate to drop an attractive, ambitious, angry but deeply pitted Chicago revolutionary and his ungrateful, equally angry wife and thugs into the seat of world power in the White House would probably change our national landscape so dramatically that none of us will ever be the same.

"And this is why, my darling child, God and Democrats invented Super Delegates." And free will.

Thanks for the read.

Clarified Change we can believe in just arrived at 11:17 am PDT from the horses's mouth: Obama will meet with anyone and demand that all the things he demands must be met and we will then go from there.

Obama to hard working whites: It's because I'm black, isn't it?

First
Although officially the Obama camp has not used race as an official reason for his dramatic recent losses most of his unofficial people, especially black supporters are saying otherwise. As the national numbers accumulate, it is evident that Mr. Obama has a problem with electability. However, his supporters will misinterpret the results. They will jump to the conclusion that these are mostly racist votes and events will develop from there.

They would be wrong to jump that shark
No, Barack. It's not because you're black. It's because you and Michelle come off as insufferably rude and arrogant and people don't seem to like either of you. Maybe if they liked one of you...but both of you? What's up with that?

People don't like your staff or your surrogates either. They remind them of people who live in San Francisco and drink coffee with funny things in it. They don't like people who come into their towns and ask where the closest Starbucks is and then crack on them about not having one and then huff off in a rented car that costs more than they make in a year. It hurts their sense of self worth. They don't like how it makes them feel about their towns and where they live.

And naturally, it is that arrogance, by definition that keeps all of you from acknowledging this and so you reinforce each other's behavior.

Darn that vicious circle. It happens in all YOUNG political circles. That is one of the reasons we can't let you run the country.

Evita Mode
I watched coverage last evening as Hillary Clinton moved from playing the hungry lioness in jungle green to regal Evita in yummy watermelon when she happily and gracefully accepted what she fought so hard for--the prize of West Virginia in a place that looked like a union hall--a people's place where you get a coffee with cream and sugar--Equal if they got it.

Call it what you want, Barack. Old politics, whatever. She stooped down, did it and she did it well. She didn't curl up her nose, Barack. Obviously, she is happy to have West Virginia's people behind her today and she'll never forget them.

Bill didn't. And they didn't forget Bill.

They can't handle the truth
Barack Obama's surrogates sat at the desks of their interviewers steaming, pointing out that these people and their votes didn't count for much--Obama would make up for it in other "more important" states--(good start) that people just don't understand the new math, new maps, on and on.

One of the younger ones on CNN (Tanya Someone who supports Obama and the woman who represents Huffington's Blog) even laughed out loud at Lannie Davis when he mentioned the George McGovern debacle the Democrats had experienced in the 70s. Patting him on the head?

Neither of those young women were around at the time. I was, of course. But then, I was at the Spanish Inquisition. The Huffington editor was younger than my oldest work suit and Tanya was inconceivable. Ed Schulz, someone nobody's ever, ever heard of until two months ago when CNN ran a want ad, let out a chortle or two. Lannie did what everyone does with twits--gave up.

Caught up in the moment and the zeal gets them crazy. That's why the Democrats invented Super Delegates: because of people like them. Democrats treat people like children, remember.

Maybe they need to try tough love next time.

Just the facts
Let's get the facts straight. Out of the 41% difference, approximately one of every five of those votes was considered an outright racist, anti-black vote. That leaves a huge number of people who might have voted for Mr. Obama had he been a nice guy or if Hillary hadn't been around. Swing.

Kentucky, a Dem state, will be another blowout for Hillary. She'll not take it for granted out of respect for the people of Kentucky. But I betcha Obama won't even try, just like he didn't in the other swing states. That tells you what he really thinks of people. Psychologically that translates, especially post West Virginia.

Mrs. Clinton may not think very much of people either deep down, but she's learned how to do it right and show up anyway. If you're president, you gotta do it right and show up anyway.

Mrs. Clinton's speech last night to the Super Delegates was an astounding presentation of leadership. If the Super Delegates fail to acknowledge the reality of her continuing success as well as her outstanding abilities that far outweigh any individual on the world stage in the Democratic Party, then one can only conclude the Democratic Party has become a permanent party of fools.

It's the personality, Stupid
Put up person of color people truly relate to and we'd see a stampede of white working class folks to the polls to vote for him/her--but don't go pulling the race card on people. Hard working Americans of all colors don't like that.

Obama talks about post race, but his problem is he's gone posted onto the moon. Most American's aren't sophisticates. We relate to guys like Bill Cosby, Dennis Haysbert, Colin Powell not hoity toity guys with wives who'd like to tear ours heads off and talk down to us.

While we're at it, there are a few other things he or she probably should have: a portfolio of longer than three years in public service; a background that denotes participation in mainstream America and a true demonstration of high regard for America and her institutions. That's not too much to ask.

We've got on both sides of the political fence hundreds, maybe a couple of thousand of young men and women who are capable of becoming president. Why would the Democrats choose this poseur? I'll be glad when we solve that mystery.

Too bad. Once again, because of style and wanting to sell us something that's not there, the Democrats blew it.

Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Indiana, Texas
As Senator Clinton clicked these states off last night in her speech, the goose flesh on my arms stood straight up and I realized this woman is headed not just for the nomination but probably for the White House if we Republicans don't get started on our own message.

Thanks for the read.

Mission accomplished, Barack? Hill sniffs blood in WV.

They all know that something is about to happen. Super Delegates still sit on their hands

Feinstein knows something's up. Understanding the stakes, the Senator had coffee with the Hillster to determine if there's an October surprise, which she prays to God there is come May or June because she knows darn well Obama hasn't got a prayer in November and she doesn't want to do this the hard way.

God knows Dianne would rather be home with her puppies up listening to Chris Matthews get all happy and excited about patriotic liberals like JFK and guys like that. How she hates this dissension. All she wants to do sit down and be still for a while. These people. Where is Hillary, anyway?

The drumbeat against Obama's inevitability will begin soon. Small things. Everyone will run for cover then when the surprise hits, everyone will say, "Gee, who knew?"

I love politics. They're so real.

Why should Hillary Clinton drop out?
But the rank and file Dems who support Obama, the ones who don't know any better and aren't in the loop want Hillary to quit. There are still five or six states left and two others that won't be counted! If I were a Florida or Michigan Democrat I believe I'd find a way to sue.

Isn't this just typical of Democrats? They want her to leave the fight before it's even over. Sound familiar? Put their donkey logo next to the word "surrender" in the dictionary. Eee aww.

Like if they don't get their man in right now, they'll miss their chance. Why don't they let this race play out?

What has driven this (ahem) elephant-in-the-room mentality? I've watched most networks, including the public ones and they all seem to shy away from race and whisper it as if it's a dirty word...until just lately. It's really neurotic. For such open and liberal minded folks, they sure are reticent and shy, especially the usual suspects at MSNBC. CNN has been right out there, however. Fox is stepping up a bit, little by little.

The R word
If Obama is the person he claims to be this is an ideal time to talk openly about race--not after he's in the White House, after he's said for nearly two years he's never even given reparations and special empowerment to blacks a thought, or he never saw Reverend Wright in his life and Bill Ayres is a Chicago Bulls basketball player, isn't he, and then pull some big switcheroo with a Democratic controlled congress? Quick and dirty, but it would take care of a lot of the problems the Democrats think they have.

Bring up the truth about America and slavery again. That's what your new politics should be about. Why do just half truths? Let's get into the whole, dirty business. How can we get past something if we don't talk about it? Don't they tell us we have to recognize our problems to fix them?

Well, I don't see a whole lot of white guys running around patting black guys on the back saying, "God, I'm just real sorry what my kin did to you back 150 years ago..." or "...that Jim Crow thing sucked...what can I do as a white man to help you through it?"

Nor do I see black guys responding to the white guy by saying "Man. You know, you white folks sure were wrong, but sh+t happens. Hey, Man. I forgive ya."

That's the race talk we could be having, I suppose, backed up with lots of money.

The real R word? Reality.
Obama cannot win the national election. He is unelectable. Why? Because no one knows who he is. It's not like he's Condi Rice, Vernon Jordan, Colin Powell. What America will find out by November is he's a two-bit, Richard M. Daley Chicago Machine-spawned hack run by a bunch of hard ass pols. Once we do get to know this "organizer' (I've never known anything good that comes out of the word "organizer"), we'll see how far left this guy really is.

America is not a socialist country--we don't swing left; we swing center. Everyone is kidding everyone else because of the race issue. Perhaps it's the Bradley Effect compounded with other issues that we're not familiar with yet. This is all new.

Of course, it needn't to have been this way if we all just acted like Americans instead of hypenated people.

That was last week
Today is election day in West Virginia. The Obama people have had their week in the hard working white communities of the coal producing hoots and hollers of the state that gave us Senator Robert Byrd, the ex-KKK member, the so called "Conscience of the Senate."

A reported response to phone polling was "Hang the darkey from the closest tree," when asked what the caller thought of Senator Obama. Numerous such answers were said to trouble the out-of-town professionals who were part of the Obama campaign, according to a NY Times article this morning (find it on Drudge).

I feel compelled to add, however, that these hard working white West Virginian Democrats have shown tremendous social growth when a Hokey can now bring himself to refer to his African-American neighbor in the more politically correct form of "darkey."

This election is the result of a long, long laboratory experiment gone bad.
I've said and have written that the Democrats are reaping what they've sown for the past forty or fifty years in their insistence upon grouping and regrouping and subdividing of human beings in every aspect of life. Now they have one faction against a faction, sub against sub, who can no longer even communicate with basic human language: words that are simple and used in context like white, black, hard working. It's seems awfully hard to me.

Democrats. Look at yourselves. You can't even talk to each other without fear of offending one another. That's not real. And that's what you've always said you wanted. Your kids must be confused.

Thanks for the read.

You're against progress if you ask about my background, according to Obama

Obama lets Americans know that to ask questions about his past is standing in the way of America's progress and he won't put up with it. He issued this warning to his "opposition," whoever we might be. Fill in the blank; it might be the press, the Clintons, the Republicans, the man on the street after Obama's in office? After all, this is the new politics.

Will Barack then go deaf and mute if we can't ask about him? He might as well because so far he has yet to talk about any action, detailed items on his expansive, change-we-can-believe-in agenda we've been hearing so much about for fifteen months. Nor have we heard about sources of revenue for those long terms programs.

Deny. Distort. Distract. Attack.
Obama's ridiculous speech last night in North Carolina put all of us on notice that if we attempt to bring up any unpleasantries about his associations, e.g., Wright, Ayres, it is simply politics of association and destruction. And he's mad as hell and won't put up with it anymore.

Let me see. Whose play book did this oft used campaign tactic come out off? It's an old Leftie ploy used by Democrats for years. The Clintons used it hundreds of times.

Well, I've now finished polishing my opinion of Obama
I gave it three months.

In my opinion he's a Jimmy Carter-style disaster, but worse. I have yet to hear him make one substantive position which doesn't sound like a redo of the last forty years window dressed in green and 21st century style protectionism.

I printed and reviewed a few foreign policy opinions from his website which are of course neophyte, suicidal positions. I can't think of anything worse than an Obama foreign policy or lack of.

I already know that his voting record is pretty far south of Hillary's on the Liberal Meter, so I don't have to ask about abortion and judges. What else is there?

I've already stated he doesn't take national security seriously enough for me to even consider him as a candidate.

No, it's more than his policy positions, which should be enough for me not to vote for him---not to mention the fact I'm a Republican. More importantly, it's how he takes criticism. In fact, his whole campaign staff simply cannot take any criticism from anyone. Yet they claim to appeal to all.

It's his smugness and arrogance that says to the rest of America who doesn't see things their way, his way, Michelle's way, "Now, finally, you don't matter. How's that feel?"

It feels an awful lot like payback, Barack.

BTW, Barack, that kind of "don't ask don't tell" treatment you seem to require from everyone who speaks to you is relatively new in our Fourth Estate and our free and open society. Thank God some of America's journalists are still doing their jobs.

I don't like this man and I don't like the gang behind him. Neither does Hillary.

Thanks for the read.

Obama and Wright: why should America waste precious emotional energy on the latest civil rights flim flam men?

These two are not doing our nation any good. Some in the black community who trusted Senator Obama may not think too much of him this evening when they wrestle with his excuse-ridden, day late dollar short "explanation" for not responding to the Rev's traveling tent show over the weekend. Wright must have a Pope Benedict Complex.

Others might be shrugging their shoulders and some are thinking the media's out to get the black man and puffing up and getting angry. Who knows? We've never been this close before. That's why I was so insistent we did this "first black person for president" thing right. See what happens when you have phonies?

I wish the Obama/Wright language would not include things like "It's personal--Rev. Wright did this to me" in so many words and "Reverend Wright did this to my campaign." Sounds like a black man grudge. I don't think it plays well with the rest of the country and turns off voters to the point that they don't want the experience to happen again soon.

He's not ready for the job
I think Obama is a phony.

From the beginning I've thought he's been groomed by a bunch of behind-the-scenes people who thought he'd be the one no matter what. Some of the older, more impatient and blacker members of this bunch insisted that regardless of his problems he be sent to the front of the line despite promises made to Hillary and Bill during their first presidency. I knew he was inauthentic (not in their eyes). I've been writing about it for weeks.

Here's why I think people should not believe Obama
If Obama has not heard about Reverend Wright's sermons after having served 20 years in that congregation, then two things are going on:

1. He is not an active member of that congregation, active meaning attending the church more than two times a week in a service function, not including worship and choir. Anyone who has served in any church can tell you that if the pastor had said the U.S. Government started AIDS in his sermon, it would get talked about over Wednesday's potluck supper. It's just ridiculous to be asked to believe that he didn't know about this. Absolutely ridiculous.

2. He heard the sermons. How could he not? Barack is making a terrible mistake again in not admitting his first mistake then showing he still has lousy judgment and doesn't want people to know it.

I had lousy judgment and made lousy calls when I was a young person; I didn't want people to know it, but they do anyway. Thus, I'll never be anything more than a blog writer. Those is the breaks. Lots of better people than I and Barack Obama (he's not the Messiah, folks) have made major life changing life choices that have ruined their chances at becoming something special.

But then, if my entire life goal were to be president of the US, as we hear Obama's was since age twenty or so (some say five) things would have been vastly differently for me. I definitely would have been more careful. You can't hang around people who think the government kills its own people by flying airplanes into skyscrapers in its big cities.

Obama had seven long and calculating years to pull away from Reverend Wright and Trinity United Church of Christ when he heard of the infamous sermon about the chickens coming home to roost post 9/11.

Senator Obama, you're the real flim flam man here!
I take it back. Reverend Wright is just doing what he always does: preaching the Word of Jesus Christ as seen through the UCC doctrine, one the Senator and his wife signed onto twenty years ago.

Not only has he denied his church and his preacher, but he's denied his own faith. Let's hope his public denials finally end here. I hate waiting for the fourth crow of the cock like this. This is becoming too painful for everyone. I wouldn't want to be Barack Obama for anything in the world right now. Not because of the election, but for his insides and how he feels about himself. Why do you think Wright's being so hard on him? He teaching this kid a lesson.

BTW, Mrs. Clinton rented the movie, "Hoosiers" earlier this evening to relax for her interview with Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday. I have a hunch they'll get along quite well.

Thanks for the read.

Chris Matthews and his Sunday morning pals

(I feel guilty. I should be in church.)

Joe Klein, the brilliant writer with Time Magazine; Cynthia Tucker, editorial page editor of The Atlanta Journal Constitution; and Patrick Healy of The NY Times. They were all there. It was a Libs compadre moment. I was probably one of among ten or so to watch it. Here's a summary what they had to say.

"That Clinton woman is taking the presidency away from the black man and she is really a bad person to do it."

Those darn Dems. They just kill me. Like there's something wrong with talking about her opposition's electability.

What's on next?

All politics all morning
Okay. I know NBC's slant. Let's get another take. What do these Dems really want? And most importantly to this Republican, can they get it?

Of course, what I think they really want is nothing more than a total and complete change in our nation's psychology and approach to American life and politics. In other words politics--what we civilized people use to keep from killing each other--is bad and we need to change how we practice them.

I've been listening more than usual to a bunch of rich 40-year olds during this election season. They're the ones who seem to have the Democratic party by the you-know-whats these days--the ones who claim they can and must do politics their way lest the entire world fall into an abyss because of policies of this barbarian, George W. Bush and his predecessors, all of whom are bad inherently.

The "New School" people--the real radicals, the big money--are convinced (as is every generation) if they can just grab hold of the reins of power this time they can somehow use their own inimitable wisdom and superior intelligence and accompanying technology which those who have gone before them did not somehow possess because they, themselves are so very special this time. This time is different. This time. We all say that, by the way. This time.

Let's look at ABC.

Local Yokels
I tuned in just in time to watch a local city councilman, Democrat Richard Alarcon as he was insisting upon a surtax on the 270,000 millionaires in Los Angeles who live in homes over 5000 square feet. "They'll never miss it." That's the kind of change they believed in.

Next up came one of the Latino super delegates for the Dems, about 35 or 40, who announced he regards the use of "negative ads" as one of his guidelines for choosing the nominee. No, seriously. This is a man who is participating in grown-up American politics, no doubt his first time. His other criterion was "electability." I thought it was noteworthy that this imbecile listed it as second on his list and mentioned Mrs. Clinton as having "...stuck her toe into the negative ad category." He read that somewhere and decided to use it--the "toe" part.

I resisted the urge to commit Hari Kari out of frustration that people could actually be so idiotic, that critical thinking abilities could have not been fully developed in this individual, then I realized he was instructed in Los Angeles schools. I've thought of taking up a hobby which doesn't involve handling sharp things.

Next popped up another one of the Dem super delegates who is Nancy Pelosi's forty-year old or so daughter, a rather sandpapery person who evidently was rubbed the wrong way again when asked if her mother and Mrs. Clinton were still friends. Her response, "What a silly question," to a seasoned journalist took her appearance from important to twit in just four little words. Shrugging off a legit question may have seemed kewl to her Marin County buds, but it is simply impatient and stupid to non-California voters. Even Hillary Clinton learned that such a tin ear can get you tossed out on it if you're not careful, almost too late.

During these commercials, I have to include in my Sunday morning's assessment the opinions of the usual suspects, bad pennies and some retreads whom I heard over the week. They must keep turning up because we're living longer, we had no draft and we had great medical care and medicine in the last generation. These overgrown, professional students always wanted revolution and I guess they've settled for their organic one. Slow, ain't it, Dudes? Well, when you're comfortable in places like Santa Monica, the oppressor ain't so bad, especially when you make the kind of money most of them pull down. Shaking things up has been very good to them.

What's on CBS? Good. More Dems.

Between their ears
Rebels are boring as hell because they all look alike, act alike and sound alike. I decided to switch the channel just in time for a new guest on another local LA political Sunday program that no one watches.

Did you know that there are black people and women among the Dems who want to forge some sort of a union? That's a good thing, I guess; however, they're almost beside themselves because they see the Barack-Hillary thing as a competition. I just didn't know there was that big of a schism. Who knew?

That's what Lizabeth Gant-Britton, Ph.D from UCLA said. Dr. Gant-Britton, a beautiful, about 45-year old tiny, blond, light skinned African-American who co-authored a few books about fascinating black women, one of whom was Frederick Douglas's wife, was most candid about her fears that the Dems will blow this whole thing. It was apparent that she had a real investment in this election as she patiently explained this historic opportunity for women and blacks. It seems as if the parties don't trust one other. I'm not sure what Dr. Gant-Britton will do because she's black, white, a woman and has two names. She's really in a bind.

Redux: Moyers and Wright on PBS
I had to watch that again. And again. I had other choices as Rev. Wright had been speaking nonstop to many groups the whole weekend. Who could miss him or Senator Obama?

It was Rev. Wright's appearances that reminded me about something else that's happening in this election. Suddenly, it's okay to be a Christian--if you're a Democrat--and the right kind of Christian, preferably black.

I don't recall ever seeing so many campaign speeches made in so many churches, namely Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party who have campaigned in church after church after church. Democrats keep a straight face and dare to talk any Christian about separation of church and state in our courts and in our schools? Their hypocrisy as they speak of state business behind pulpits is in direct conflict with the rest of what they say on Monday and is the biggest civic joke of the century which no one seems to get but me. Or I've missed the discussion.

Get me my epee, quick.

What's a dreary relativist to do?
There was very little subtlety as the Sunday am Dems spoke openly, resigned and wistfully of the immediacy of what's ahead because of what they've perceived as their party's odd locus--black man and white woman, religious folks and secular progressives, rich moguls and poor streets folk. How could god, if there is one, grace our beloved party with this embarrassment of riches? We want it both ways. We don't want to take a stand, to make a choice.

In the Democrats' world which values non competition, non judgment and complete separation of church and state, ideals they've grown up with their entire lives which is demonstrated by their own vague gray scale of life, their internal ambiguity and personal angst must be killing them as they are presented with these huge contrasts in real life. Watch how they choose. It will be dirty, desperate and ungodly as hell. Let me add here there ain't nothin democratic about any of it.

I hope there's enough Xanax to go around should things not work out--especially in Obama's favor. God knows I'm going to need it just to get through the fall out.

Or maybe I'll just go to church next Sunday and let those other nine viewers watch Matthews.

Thanks for the read.

Bill Clinton: The Old Lion puts Dems on notice

Former President Clinton was off his game back there for a while. It happens to in-between folks, as he calls himself, especially those who have had quad bypass surgeries. But that doesn't mean people go completely dumb or become someone else. Maybe he just wasn't motivated what with being on the sideline and all. Things were looking grim.

Today in PA though he seems re-energized. He's out there as the ex-President of the United States, Bill Clinton, who is out to get his wife what he promised her--a shot at the presidency.

Show me the votes
Watch the super delegates begin to lean toward Clinton after Hillary's Pennsylvania win. I think it will be a big win. Regardless, she won't quit. Things will go south for Obama and he won't last past May, June at the latest.

What Bill Clinton is doing right now is what I've been hoping for. Clinton, the powerful lion, yawning and cleaning his refined paws, has waited for the young and stupid, clumsy, falling-apart and inexperienced cub with too big feet, surrounded by a pride of minor lions to make his fatal mistake. Sure enough, Obama has come close. Oh so close. The next time he'll be mortally injurted when he slips again say, this time into something like a Russian bear's den. The Old Lion has seen plenty of lairs and dens, drank vodka with the head bear himself. He's laughing at Barack now. So am I, frankly.

Now that Bill can show that Obama's not ready for prime time, the Party's scared as hell. Not willing to give up the Party for anyone, the old pols like Kennedy, Dodd, all the Eastern libs, are going to swing back to Hillary, but not too obviously too fast. They don't want to be called racists, after all. Remember, this is about what looks right.

Then, they're going to get rid of Howard Dean, that idiot.

Meanwhile, the first black president, Bill Clinton is owed much more than just a pat on the back by that turncoat bunch of black bosses and self appointed reverends without churches. I predict even many of those chips will fall toward Hill long before the convention in Denver where it gets hotter than Hades that time of year. Hot and high.

By golly, I have to agree with the president on this one. Just who do these ingrates think they are? Why, by just moving his office to Harlem Bill managed to single handedly up their local economy by some $471 million. Bill and Hillary Clinton aren't about to forget what the national black community owes them and they shouldn't. Not by a long shot. Why, it's just good manners, if nothing else, to pay back what someone owes you.

The Obama people should have listened when Bill told them Obama wasn't ready. Even Gerry and Hillary gave Obama an out. He could have been veep and a contender for president. Now? Probably not. Not of America. He and Michelle have pissed off too many white people, but you've already heard about that from me in a tongue-in-cheek way in other posts.

It's such a cruel hoax. On that very basic issue, the amateurs running his campaign have made a stink over the fact that people want to know more about the man who will be running the world.

Psst. Kids. That's not a sleazy attack. As usual, newbies take things way too personally, another sign of their arrogance and inability to handle power. That is the precise reason I think Obama's over and now no one wants to face it and/or doesn't know how to handle it. With so much emotional investment, how are they going to report this?

I should feel sorry for Obama but I don't. I think his lack of sincerity and his hostile treatment of his grandmother was so out of line that I would rather ignore him. The black community was duped by this guy and that is something I can't forgive.

Another Lion in Winter
What's stunning is to watch the raw professional political power of Bill Clinton. His appearance on the campaign trail today was a big lay down for Hillary's win in Pennsylvania tomorrow. He's showing up now for himself and for the honor of his wife. Hard as it is for many to believe there is profound human dignity, love and grace in this dance.

It's the dignity of trying to regain and retain his dignity, I suppose; it supports the idea that hope (there's that word again) really does spring forth eternally. Such theater or displays have accompanied our world's politics for millennia. It's fascinating to witness these forces of nature who are willing to become the actors and dancers in our prosaic lives. The good ones and bad ones--I have to wonder what goes on in their psyches and hearts as they become the fulfillers of our destiny.

In the meantime, the rest of us are privy to a deeply personal moment for Bill and Hillary Clinton, like them or detest them. He has stepped up to rescue her honor after showing shocking neglect and dereliction to his loyal lioness mate. Historically, there is much more to this period in than a spoiled young woman from a forgettable place in California in a blue dress and beret. Neither you nor I will be around to editorialize on the margins.

Watch this story as it unfolds. It is perfect and heartbreakingly beautiful if you love politics as much as I do. Or drama or Shakespeare or...

Thanks for the read.

Prince Barack of Indonesia and Hawaii speaks of Small Town, PA

Senator Barack Obama made these statements at a fundraiser in San Francisco when describing those pesky xenophobes in Pennsylvania.

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Town and towns between miles!
I was eighteen when I saw what was to me a phenomenon as I drove in the western part of that beautiful state. In other states, like eastern Kansas for instance where I grew up, a person could ride for fifteen, heck, probably even thirty miles before you got to another town. For a place to have a berg after every turn or hill in the road was just too strange. Pennsylvania, with its old towns and different sounding people and many cultures was a lovely new experience for me.

Though I didn't realize it then, I had Pennsylvania DNA all over me. Darn near all my American family began there many years ago. As I went through some genealogical research later in my life, I discovered many names of other families in census records who also had parents born in Pennsylvania. Lots and lots of them.

If individuals desired to get to Ohio and Indiana they had only a few "civilized" choices in 1812, such as they were: one had to go through Pennsylvania and many Indians to get to four or five traces (roads) if you lived in the Southern Atlantic area of the colonies, you could take the routes up through the Cumberland Gap out of North Carolina and across the Ohio River into Kentucky. Neither choice was exactly a super highway with a Motel 6 keepin' the light on for ya. The way through to the Northwest Territory from the Atlantic Coast was PA. There warn't no toher choice. If ya git ma drift.

Back to those cultural and elitist misspeaks from Obama, my American family's story is not very special or very unusual...by a long shot. I suppose that is why I'm so put off by this latest "missed" analysis by Obama.

There actually are American groups (black and white) who have kin who lived in PA for a century or so before they were able to come West. That, or they made it big and stayed; and others immigrated into PA for the reason of moving on. Amazing as it is, Pennsylvania has somehow handled it. These are data Senator Obama should know before he spews sociological opinions about the place, comparing them to the midwest.

It's a big old place and yes, somehow the state has survived, with guns and religion, from all the stress that strange and different looking people and cultures and immigrants have brought over and over and over again. It embarrasses me to see a presidential candidate make such a gigantic error in knowledge about a major force in our American history. It's astounding to me.

It would behoove Mr. Obama to pick up a few Pennsylvania history books plus 49 or so others, and actually read them. I have a few here in my own library, if he'd like to borrow them. Or he could ask his younger researchers to do it, if they could disconnect themselves from a rap song long enough.

The Keystone State
Back to my trip my first exposure to the bucolic part of beautiful PA was when I met and fell in love with my Aunt Jane's and Uncle William's beautiful four-story stone home built in the 1700s outside of Centerville. I had vowed to myself that I was to be married in that house someday. I'll never forget that lovely place and the feeling of "being at home." It sat on a working farm, above a lea with small lake, a spring house as I recall and among rolling hills. Washington, Pennsylvania, the home of a pretty fierce labor guy isn't far away.

And in the lowest depths of that same lovely home are hidden the secrets of the most compassionate, remarkable courage of some Pennsylvanians who carried out the Godly tasks of righting a few of the wrongs in our nation: a stop on the famed Underground Railroad--doubtlessly fortified with guns and religion. I don't even know their names. I think their clinging to guns and religions might have been a good thing.

It's on the other side of Pennsylvania that my Quaker grandfather was born on the Delaware River in 1670 in Chester, now Philadelphia, the birthplace of our Constitution. The Society of Friends members were abolitionists, and some even died for those unpopular beliefs. I guess that would be the "religion" Obama refers to so flippantly as part in his little offhanded remarks he made to elicit money from his supporters while they drank bad wine (and didn't know it).

I have to mention, if only to demonstrate the breadth of Pennsylvania's people and culture in their small towns, the Irish Protestants in my family who came to this country after losing their own ancestral homes to the British. They probably didn't have guns to cling to so they escaped with their lives and came to America to get away from the British.

They settled in the Parsippany area where many of my kin still live. One, my great grandfather many generations ago, lost a leg at the Battle of Yorktown. I can't imagine people like them being caught up in the bitterness this Mr. Obama speaks about. They've been through these downturns quite frequently in the past few hundred years.

I'm pretty sure sons and daughters of the Revolutionary war don't get bitter. They just go on with their lives and figure out other ways to get through. Cling to guns? I don't know about that. Maybe on a cold morning and if the deer haven't shown up yet.

Cling to religion? Yes, for sure. Admittedly, faith does mean quite a bit to families there or they probably would've quickly converted to keep the ole Irish barn.

There are millions of Americans like me whose roots are in Pennsylvania and like me, are spread across this country, a fact that is not lost on Mrs. Clinton. Nor on Senator McCain.

Guns and religion
Someone needs to tell Senator Obama that the steel industry's closings and rearranging of the state's economy probably has little to do with whether Pennsylvanians continue hang a gun over their doorways or go to church. When deer and other wild game become extinct and when God really is dead, we'll talk.

These new Democrats clamor they want someone who's been around, who's been somewhere. Well, Barack's been somewhere. He's grew up on an island that is predominantly Muslim for four years with his Mom and then went to be a Dude when he was ten in private schools in surfin' Hawaii on Waikiki. That's being somewhere. Then he was airlifted into Chicago to learn how to be black. That's being somewhere.

But he hasn't been to the places I've mentioned evidently for any quality time or anywhere else that does not have a vast ocean around it. In other words put this man on a Greyhound with a ticket across America and he's lost. He looks at a group and sees a labor union or a voting block or calls Reverend Wright or one of the over-the-hill NAACP pals in his fave fives in Atlanta and yells for help.

Back at the center of the universe in San Francisco
I could see him in my mind's eye as he's holding a nice Cuban cigar in one hand, highball in the other (he's learned from the con artists in Atlanta to expect good bourbon straight from a Waterford glass to get respect from the white man), speaking to a ring of sycophants; explaining these Pennsylvanian "natives," that he and Michelle actually lived among some quite like them in a place called Chicago, observed their mating habits, gathered and kept their "scat."

Mr. Obama's friends and he don't realize that others are listening while they ridicule the real people who have built this country, the very ones who have made them extremely rich.

"Damned xenophobes. Guess we'll just have to eliminate their guns and religion when we get our power. Good grief, what's next? Rain dancing? How charming. I'll have to tell my wife when she returns from freeing the Tibetans."

They (princes) talk like that, you know--the kind we Americans ran away from centuries ago.

Of course, what Mr. Obama hasn't got the experience or brains to know yet is this: big money goes away as fast as it seems to come in when you have these kinds of slips. I don't think he has another one in him. I heard Mrs. Clinton just gave the go ahead on that order of pastel pantsuits from the biggest department store in Pittsburgh.

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.