A Convention of Olympic Proportions

The First Rule of Holes

Apply this one to Iraq: In a recent column Tom Friedman, author of “The World is Flat” and a NY Times columnist reminds us of The First Rule of Holes, “When you’re in one stop digging.” Our country has gone far beyond drawing a line in the sand we have been digging holes in the sand for seven years. And we have been digging holes in the ground, more than 4,000 of them for our brave troops who have perished during Bush’s bungle. Let’s do a quick review: our country was attacked under the direction of a terrorist. Bush/Cheney used the euphoria of the moment to send troops to invade a sovereign country that had nothing to do with the bombing, ignored the country in which the terrorists trained, and spent 7 years and more than 4,000 lives supposedly looking for one man whom they still can’t find. The hole continues to deepen and Bush and his bunglers continue to dig.

Name That Word: Pundits. You’ve gotta love ‘em. They play with words and when they find one that seems to capture the public’s ear, it spreads like a computer virus from pundit to pundit. Remember “Détente?” How about “Hit the ground running?” Or “Bottom line.” The two current pundit prattle winners are “Attack Dog,” and “Red Meat.” College frat boys often play a game. They buy several pitchers of beer and each time a designated pundit prattle word is used they drink up. After this week at the convention I hope the frat boys have designated drivers.

First Peek at VEEP Joe Bee: The democrats have named their vice presidential candidate. They kept it quiet for a while but CNN broke the story by reporting that Sen. Biden was running around D.C. looking for an undisclosed location. Some issues have been raised about Biden’s health since he had a brain aneurism a few years ago. Many were expecting a VP candidate with no health issues like the one “W” chose eight years ago, Dick Cheney. While some on the Repub side might say Hillary’s speech was given through clenched teeth and while biting her tongue, even we were expecting her to start, “Remember all those nasty things I said about Obama? Not.” Joe’s speech, however was given with both six-guns blasting. Senator Obama will speak tonight on the 45th anniversary of the Martin Luther King “Dream” speech. It will also mark the 25th anniversary of John McCain refusing to sign the Martin Luther King Holiday bill. The speech will be given in the Denver Bronco’s Mile High Stadium. The other team no doubt will criticize the ostentatious nature of the setting but you can bet your cowboy boots that even as I write this the Repubs are putting down a deposit on Yankee Stadium for their 2012 convention.

One TV Spectacle after Another: The Olympics just ended in the host city of Beijing. All who watched would agree that the Chinese did a fantastic job particularly with the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the venues. The spectacle did not happen overnight. Let’s look at history again as noted by Thomas Friedman. China was awarded the Olympic Games shortly before the 9/11 tragedy. In the seven years since China has spent $ 43 billion developing their infrastructure, upgrading their airports, subways, stadiums, parks, and roads. We have no information on any fatalities during the buildup. Since the Iraq invasion the Bush Bungle has cost our country over $ 500 billion, more than 10 times what China spent. In FY2007 alone the US spent about $ 5000 per Iraqi, more than triple their “per person” GNP. That money has gone to destroy roads, airports, stadiums and parks. We have depleted the ranks of our National Guard and their equipment and money for our own infrastructure has been redirected leaving the majority of our bridges in dire need of repair, our airlines failing, our trains in disrepair, our housing market in the tank, and our economic structure on the brink of collapse. To add insult to injury, we are in debt to China up to our eyeballs thanks to the fiscal mismanagement of the Bush Blunder team.

Will McCain be a Pain Tonight? The vice presidential selection has been made on the Democratic ticket. Some say that the selection method used was “Barack, paper, scissors,” others say it was to save ink my making bumper stickers read “OBiden.” Regardless, the Republican VEEP is yet to be named although pundits say McCain has already decided. That leaves the question of strategy. Will he name his running mate during tonight’s Democratic gala, or even during Sen. Obama’s speech? Stay tuned for more politics, humor, and satire.

A little blogging music Maestro... Bruce Springsteen singing “.”

Dr. Forgot

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