Just Basking

So many things to comment about... so little time.

How about some quick takes?

Hillary. Good choice?
My take: Yes. She quick on the uptake, and she'll be surprisingly loyal. If Obama will give Bill ambassadorship of, say, Antarctica, he'll be all set.

Bill Richardson. Good pick?
Hell yes. We even got the beard-free version.

Detroit. Bail 'em out?

Yes. They are idiots, embracing failed models, too many brands, and they're far too slow to build good, reliable cars that aren't SUVs, but the loss of jobs would be devastating. I say we exact huge promises out of them before they see a cent. No more battles over increasing the millage of their cars.

Gotta run.
But in the meantime I'm going to bask in the presidential victory. Ahhh. Petty perhaps, but I sincerely hope that all the idiots that wrote into the newspapers crowing about Bush's supposed mandate and "political capital" back in 2004 put the election results in their collective pipe and take a good puff. Change has come. As usual, the other side has left us a horrendous mess to clean up, on more fronts than can be counted, a legacy of a obviously failed administration that embraced incompetence and tunnel vision when not swaggering with unearned bravado or buckling under its own misguided ideolology—but such is life. It's a new day.

A Letter to Aron

Great story. Great candidate.
Read all about it here.

Cutsie yeah, but I'm a sucker for the hype.

Hey There Sarah

I've spent weeks reeling in horror from the possibility that Sarah Palin could possibly be one position removed from being President of the United States. Yikes. These two videos say it better than I could, and honestly, this dingbat doesn't deserve my writing time. Enjoy the show.

"Hey Sarah Palin"

Jack Cafferty Speaks About Sarah

Lies

Events have been unfolding fast in this Presidential campaign, too fast for me to keep up it seems (I've also been very busy these days), but it does appear that a clear path of attack for Obama has opened up—one that even the continually and tragically befuddled Democrats can employ: The McCain camp has been lying like hell. Continually.

On TV and on the stump, whether it Palin's pathetically false "Thanks but no thanks" statement about the so-called bridge to nowhere that she ardently supported (before it became a public embarrassment to Alaska anyway) or the McCain ad claims that Obama "supported comprehensive sex education for minors" when Obama actually supports a program to help children recognize and avoid sexual predators, they've been playing beyond loose with the facts.

Both sides traditionally stretch the truth in negative ads and attacks, that is American politics, but as Joe Klein mentions in his most recent TIME op-ed, this time McCain has completely sailed beyond the edge of normal politics into Fantasyland, even repeating lies again and again that have been proved demonstratably false to anyone with an IQ above 50.

Even when the McCain camp complains about being called liars, they lie.

It's pathetic, and doubly so because McCain, whom I once admired, promised to run an 'honorable campaign" and supposedly holds personal integrity in great regard. Were is the honor in baseless allegations, lies, and smears?

Should He Stay or Should He Go Now?

Should I stay or
should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double

—The Clash

The McCain staff isn't giving Obama a break. So much for running a "respectful" campaign. The amusing part is the flip-flopping, "try whatever sticks" attacks (usually delivered by a lackey).

First they critized Obama for saying he would bomb in Pakistan. Then later they commented that Obama was wrong to consider terrorist actions a police matter (something he's never actually said) and eschewing military action. Well, what's the problem—not enough force or too little?

Now they're going on about Obama's travel plans. McCain wouldn't shut up about the fact that Obama hasn't been to Iraq in years (since 2006 actually, so say a year and a half). Now that Obama is heading over there, killing their favorite line of attack, they're calling his trip a campaign stunt and saying he should concentrate on issues here at home instead of "campaigning abroad" (their term). Sigh.

Aren't folks getting tired of these tired, it-worked-last-time attacks?

And now some guy in Florida—I think it's Florida but I really don't care enough to check—is putting up 9-11 billboards advertising a song about not voting for a Democrat.

A quote from the CNN story on this dipshit:

"I believe 9/11 could have been prevented if we'd had a Republican president at the time," Meehan said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."

Um ... hello? A Republican president at the time, eh? Who was in the White House at the time, Billboard Guy, Al Gore? Of course, perhaps he was playing that favorite of Republican games, blame the current mess on the last president (it's a favorite of theirs every time they screw up the economy yet again), but that too falls factually short since Clinton in 2000 authorized deadly force against a certain 9-11 terrorist mastermind the current Administration stopped mentioning a few years ago...

(Amusingly, another fellow claims the song name was stolen from him, and he's responded by not only insulting the Billboard Guy but also by posting his receipt for a $250 donation to the Obama campaign. Love it.)

I'm getting too old for this. Is it November yet?

Cookie-Gate

Yeah, I know, I've got to move on to better things—like John McCain's ridiculous plan for "fixing" our economy—but I couldn't resist touching on smaller potatoes.

Evidently Cindy McCain has posted a few "family recipes" on the official McCain website. One can appreciate this rich lady wanting the American people to see her happy home-maker side. One problem: she lifted them from elsewhere. Don't believe me? Take a gander of a side-by-side of "her" recipe and one that was previously posted at the Food Network's site. I put them right next to each other for your viewing pleasure. Go ahead and click on that image to enlarge it a bit, be my guest.


Evidently Mrs. McCain has pilfered her recipes from a variety of sources. Back in the July 2008 edition of Family Circle she submitted a cookie receipe, only to have an eagle-eyed reader realize the recipe had been copied from Hershey's website. Oops.

See here and here. (I believe the blame was laid at the feet of an intern, who was fired.)

I guess she's back to her old tricks.

In the big scheme of things, this doesn't mean a whole lot perhaps. Rachel Ray is taking it in stride (and using it in an attempt to get Cindy on her show). For me, it's a good glimpse of how they operate—both the McCains and many Republican operatives in general, however. They assume we're not paying attention. They assume we're stupid. And they'll lie about things great and small, often with impunity. Let's all remember to pay attention between now and Election Day.

No More Sundays

Tim Russert died this afternoon, apparently of a heart attack (although details are still emerging). He had recently returned from Europe and was in his offices across from the White House preparing for his evening show when he collapsed. He was only 58 years old.

I am terribly, terribly saddened by this news. Tim’s face was a regular one in my household, and scarcely a Sunday passed without my watching Meet the Press. Tim took over the show in 1991 and molded into a powerful creation of his own making—if you wanted to be taken seriously in the world of politics, or indeed by the world at large, you went on Meet the Press. Period. His insidiously subtle style of grilling important people, even presidents, often confronting them with their own words or broken promises, was famous. Yet he did it in a respectful, gentle manner, and almost always the guests left laughing or smiling.

To this day, I have no idea what Tim’s political leanings were. He was fair, grilling both Democrats and Republicans with equal aplomb, wit, and style. His knowledge of politics was incredible, and he was tireless in doing what he so obviously loved. The image of the crazy 2000 election night for me is defined by Tim Russert scribbling furiously on a tiny whiteboard, once again making sense of this country’s political bedlam for us mere mortals.

This is truly a loss for the entire nation. I will mourn you Tim. Thank you for all the great Sundays and all the great words of wisdom over the years.

Scott Speaks

The latest in a long, long line of critical Administration "insider" books will be released next week, as former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan dishes out what looks to be a surprisingly harsh tome.
McClellan was known to be extremely loyal to Bush over many years, so it is shocking to see some of the tidbits contained in the book excerpts:

“The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”

and

“History appears poised to confirm what most Americans today have decided: that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder. No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.”

Whoa. I'm starting to think Scott may not be welcome at the next Crawford clambake.

Sounds like a good read by the fireplace.

Shedding the Knife

I'll keep this short. StoryCorps never fails to amaze and delight me, as people from all walks of life share their special stories. Often it is the most mundane, ordinary people that present the most courageous and inspiring tales. Enough of my chatter; check out the link. If possible, listen and don't just read it. But do check it out.

A risky thing to do. Probably. But such brave actions change our world for the better, one person at a time.

Welcome Spring

Spring is here!
Today I'll present a reading selection. Enjoy, gentle readers.

Some Thoughts on the Common Toad
By George Orwell

Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water. Something--some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature--has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year from time to time--at any rate, I have more than once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of the summer.

At this period, after his long fast, the toad has a very spiritual look, like a strict Anglo-Catholic towards the end of Lent. His movements are languid but purposeful, his body is shrunken, and by contrast his eyes look abnormally large. This allows one to notice, what one might not at another time, that a toad has about the most beautiful eye of any living creature. It is like gold, or more exactly it is like the golden-coloured semi-precious stone which one sometimes sees in signet-rings, and which I think is called a chrysoberyl.

For a few days after getting into the water the toad concentrates on building up his strength by eating small insects. Presently he has swollen to his normal size again, and then he hoes through a phase of intense sexiness. All he knows, at least if he is a male toad, is that he wants to get his arms round something, and if you offer him a stick, or even your finger, he will cling to it with surprising strength and take a long time to discover that it is not a female toad. Frequently one comes upon shapeless masses of ten or twenty toads rolling over and over in the water, one clinging to another without distinction of sex. By degrees, however, they sort themselves out into couples, with the male duly sitting on the female's back. You can now distinguish males from females, because the male is smaller, darker and sits on top, with his arms tightly clasped round the female's neck. After a day or two the spawn is laid in long strings which wind themselves in and out of the reeds and soon become invisible. A few more weeks, and the water is alive with masses of tiny tadpoles which rapidly grow larger, sprout hind-legs, then forelegs, then shed their tails: and finally, about the middle of the summer, the new generation of toads, smaller than one's thumb-nail but perfect in every particular, crawl out of the water to begin the game anew.

I mention the spawning of the toads because it is one of the phenomena of spring which most deeply appeal to me, and because the toad, unlike the skylark and the primrose, has never had much of a boost from poets. But I am aware that many people do not like reptiles or amphibians, and I am not suggesting that in order to enjoy the spring you have to take an interest in toads. There are also the crocus, the missel-thrush, the cuckoo, the blackthorn, etc. The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site. Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road. There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.

The Hip Boots Requirement

Whilst riding home from work today, I caught a great mini-interview on NPR. Robert Siegel was speaking with Bill Cunningham, host of the Cincinnati radio program The Big Show with Bill Cunningham on WLW. They were of course discussing Cunningham’s recent flap with John McCain, and some of the things Cunningham said regarding Barack Obama. When warming up a crowd for McCain, the radio host repeatedly referred to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as Barack HUSSEIN Obama (emphasis his).

Robert Siegel asked why the emphasis on the middle name. Bill Cunningham rattled off a number of famous presidents that used their middle names and said he merely did it to present Obama is a more respectful light.

Siegel, rather incredulously, asked if, as widely reported, Cunningham was trying to link Obama via his last name to Muslimism and he noted that Cunningham had incorrectly added other, false middle names to Obama’s on his radio show. Cunningham stated that 98% of the time he was right, but on his radio show he had been wrong (he blamed it on Internet sources that misstated Obama’s full name), but anyway, he was just using Barack’s full name as a sign of respect and not to stir up trouble.

Listen here.
Or read here.

Riiiight.

Cunningham also said he had been invited to “throw red meat to the crowd” and that now, given McCain’s apology for his commentary, he would “sleep easier” seeing Hillary in the White House. Obviously a loyal guy. And a popular show host for the Radical Right. Let’s see: you distort and fear-monger onstage, then lie about it, then smear your host. I can see why the Republican crowd loves him.

His commentary, what little I’ve heard, was typical rants about how—woe is us!—the press gives Obama and company a pass but picks on Bush and Cheney, and how they should criticize everyone. Well, Mr. Cunningham, perhaps if Obama cherry-picks intelligence to engineer an expensive war that costs us nearly 4,000 lives (and counting), lies about secret CIA prisons and torture, or jerry-rigs an election, perhaps I’ll agree it’s time The New York Times got on his case too.

Until then, you and your adoring crowd can just hold your breath.

Thus ends today’s sermon. Thanks for your indulgence.

And now a word from our contestants...

Mitt Romney: I'm in. No, I'm out. No, I'm in, I've had a change of heart.

Rudy Giuliani: Not 9-11 worried 9-11 because 9-11 we'll 9-11 get 9-11 them 9-11 in 9-11 Florida ...

Mike Huckabee: I'm coming in third in New Hampshire? Praise the Lord. And you over there, straighten that bookshelf.

John McCain: !!$#@!!! whippersnappers.

Fred Thompson: Zzzzz.

Hillary Clinton: Shit. Bill? Shit. Do I cry yet, or is that scheduled for tomorrow?

Barack Obama: You'll get no details from me, but don't I look great saying that? Yeaah!

John Edwards: Grrr!

Joe Biden: Hey, I was right about Rudy at least.

Ron Paul to Dennis Kucinich: Had enough? Good, Deep Space Nine is on, and I've got some beer in the fridge.